THE LIFE OF JOHN CUNNINGHAM. THE only account we have of Mr. Cunningham appeared originally in the London Magazine for 1773, from which it has been repeatedly copied without acknowledgment. He was born in 1729, in Dublin, where his father and mother, both descendants of Scotch parents, then resided. His father was a wine-cooper, and becoming enriched by a prize in the lottery, commenced wine-merchant, and failed. The little education our author received was from a Mr. Clarke, who was master of the grammar-school of the city of Drogheda; and when his father's affairs became embarrassed, he was recalled to Dublin, where he produced many of his minor poems at a very early age. At seventeen, he wrote a farce, entitled Love in a Mist, which was acted for several nights at Dublin in the year 1747. Garrick is Isaid to have been indebted to this farce for the fable or plot of his Lying Valet. The success of his little drama procured him the freedom of the theatre, to which he became immediately attached, and, mistaking inclination for ability, commenced actor without one essential qualification, either natural or acquired, if we except a knack at personating the mock French character, in which he is said to have been tolerable. His passion for the stage, however, predominated so strongly, that, without any intimation of his intentions, he left his family and embarked for England, where he obtained a precarious and unprofitable employment in various companies of strolling comedians. Frequent want at length made him sensible of his imprudence, but pride prevented his return to his friends, and the death of his father, in circumstances of distress, probably reconciled him to a way of life which he could not then exchange for a better. About the year 1761, we find him a performer at Edinburgh, under the direction of Mr. Love, and here he published his Elegy on a Pile of Ruins, which, although obviously an imitation of Gray's Elegy, contains many passages conceived in the true spirit of poetry. It obtained considerable reputation. During his theatrical engagement at Edinburgh, although insignificant as an actor, he was of some value to the manager, by furnishing prologues and other occasional addresses, which were much applauded. About this time he received an invitation from certain booksellers in London, who proposed to engage him in such works of literature as might procure him a more easy and honourable employ. ment than he had hitherto followed. He repaired accordingly to the metropolis, but was disappointed in his promised undertaking by the bankruptcy of the principal person concerned in it, and after a short stay, was glad to return to his friends in the north. This was the only effort he ever made to emerge from the abject situation in which youthful impru dence had originally placed him. But with this state, says his biographer, he appeared by no means dissatisfied. Competence and obscurity were all he desired. He had no views of ambition: and indolence possessed him so entirely, that he never made a second attempt. In a letter to a friend, |