FALCONER. WILLIAM, was born about 1730, being one of a large family, all of whom, except himself, were deaf and dumb. When very young, ho served his apprenticeship on board a merchantman, and was afterwards eecond-mate of a vessel in the Levant trade, which was shipwrecked on the coast of Attica, himself with two others being the only survivors. This event laid the foundation of fame, by forming the groundwork of 'The Shipwreck,' which poem he published in 1762. Tho notice which the poem received enabled him to enter the navy, during the ensuing year, as midshipman in the 'Royal George.' After some other appointments, he became purser to the 'Aurora' frigate, and was lost in her somewhere in the Mozam bique Channel, during the outward voyage to India, in the winter of 1769.
Falconer was the author of a ' Nautical Dictionary' of considerable merit, as well as of some minor poems; but his chief claim to repu tation consists in ' The Shipwreck,' the merit of which Is owing to the vividness and power of description which pervade the work, and to the facility the author has shown in introducing nautical language.
His style is formed on that of Pope; and the mixture of phrases, ouch as ' weather bank-stays," parrele, lifts, and clew-lines,' with the affecta tions of ' nymph," swain, "Paphian graces,' &c., form rather a ludi crous contrast. To call 'The Shipwreck' a first-rate poem, or to com pare it with the sEneld of Virgil, would not now enter into many men's thoughts, although this was done at the time when it first appeared ; but after making every abatement, it must be allowed that Falconer has done what no one else has attempted, and we must give him a high place among the writers of didactic poems.