', contains a stanza so good that Gibbon
worked it into his character of Brutus:--
What tho' the good, the brave, the wise,
With adverse force undaunted rise,
To break th' eternal doom!
Tho' CATO liv'd, tho' TULLY spoke,
Tho' BRUTUS dealt the godlike stroke,
Yet perish'd fated ROME.
Detraction, however, has insinuated that Mallet, his step-son's tutor,
was Nugent's penholder in this instance. 'Mr. Nugent sure did not write
his own Ode,' says Gray to Walpole (Gray's 'Works', by Gosse, 1884, ii.
220). Earl Nugent died in Dublin in October, 1788, and was buried at
Gosfield in Essex, a property he had acquired with his second wife. A
'Memoir' of him was written in 1898 by Mr. Claud Nugent. He is described
by Cunningham as 'a big, jovial, voluptuous Irishman, with a loud voice,
a strong Irish accent, and a ready though coarse wit.' According to
Percy ('Memoir', 1801, p. 66), he had been attracted to Goldsmith by the
publication of 'The Traveller' in 1764, and he mentioned him favourably
to the Earl of Northumberland, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
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