Note 65 — Part I (continued 4)

James Ralph (d. 1762); see Dictionary of National Biography, XLVII, 221-4. His Night: A Poem (London, 1728), dedicated to the Earl of Chesterfield, is a jejune imitation of Thomson's Seasons. He professes himself "a bigotted Admirer of the Antients, and all their Performances" (p. 197) in The Touch-Stone ... (London, 1728): "My Design was, to animadvert upon the Standard Entertainments of the present Age, in Comparison with those of Antiquity" (p. 237). He aided Fielding in bringing out The Champion (1741 ff.). Hallam characterized his History of England (1744-1746) as one of the best accounts of the time of Charles II. Succinct survey of Ralph in M. K. Jackson's Outlines of the Literary History of Colonial Pennsylvania, 37-42.