[314] Published in 1781. Compare Lord Byron’s English Bards and Scotch Reviewers:—
Behold!—ye Tarts!—one moment spare the text,
Hayley’s last work, and worst—until his next;
Whether he spin poor couplets into plays,
Or damn the dead with purgatorial praise,
His style in youth or age is still the same,
For ever feeble and for ever tame.
Triumphant first see ‘Temper’s Triumphs’ shine!
At least I’m sure they triumphed over mine.
[315] Charles Francis Sheridan (1750–1806), son of Thomas Sheridan and elder brother of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. He went to Sweden in 1772 as secretary to the British Envoy, and remained until 1775. He entered the Irish Parliament the following year, and was Secretary at War in Dublin from 1782 till 1789, when he obtained a pension and retired from politics. He occupied the remaining years of his life with chemical experiments and fruitless attempts to discover the secret of perpetual motion. He married, in 1783, Letitia, daughter of Theophilus Bolton.