This is greatly to his praise, as he was at
one time so poor that he was arrested for debt and committed to prison. As
his reputation increased, his fortunes were ameliorated. In 1745 his play
_Tancred and Sigismunda_ was performed. It was founded upon a story
universally popular,--the same which appears in the episode of _The Fatal
Marriage_ in Gil Bias, and in one of the stories of Boccaccio. He enjoyed
for a short time a pension from the Prince of Wales, of which, however, he
was deprived without apparent cause; but he received the office of
Surveyor-General of the Leeward Islands, the duties of which he could
perform by deputy; after that he lived a lazy life at his cottage near
Richmond, which, if otherwise reprehensible, at least gave him the power
to write his most beautiful poem, _The Castle of Indolence_. It appeared
in 1748, and was universally admired; it has a rhetorical harmony similar
and quite equal to that of the _Lotos Eaters_ of Tennyson. The poet, who
had become quite plethoric, was heated by a walk from London, and, from a
check of perspiration, was thrown into a high fever, a relapse of which
caused his death on the 27th of August, 1748.
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