seminarist | Смерть поэта

(еще из "Жизнеописаний английских поэтов" Самуэля Джонсона, про несчастного Эдмунда Смита)

The simile, by which an old man, retaining the fire of his youth, is compared to Aetna flaming through the snow, which Smith has used with great pomp, is stolen from Cowley, however little worth the labour of conveyance.

и вот драма приближается к развязке. Смит, чья предыдущая трагедия понравилась критикам, но оставила равнодушной публику, выбирает на этот раз сюжет из английской, и при том недавней, истории: леди Джейн Грей.

...That he might pursue his work with less frequent avocations, he was, in June 1710, invited, by Mr. George Ducket to his house, at Gartham, in Wiltshire. Here he found such opportunities of indulgence as did not much forward his studies, and particularly some strong ale, too delicious to be resisted. He ate and drank till he found himself plethorick; and then, resolving to ease himself by evacuation, he wrote to an apothecary in the neighbourhood a prescription of a purge so forcible, that the apothecary thought it his duty to delay it, till he had given notice of its danger. Smith, not pleased with the contradiction of a shopman, and boastful of his own knowledge, treated the notice with rude contempt, and swallowed his own medicine, which, in July, 1710, brought him to the grave. He was buried at Gartham.