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If gold or wealth of most eftcemed deare,
If jewels rich, thou diddeft hold in prife,
Such ftore thereof, fuch plentie haue I feen,
As to a greedíe minde might well fuffice:
With that downe trickled many a filuer teare,
Two chriftall treames fell from her watrie eles
Part of her fad misfortunes than fhe told,
And wept, and with her wept that thepherd old.

With speeches kinde; he gan the virgin deare
Towards his cottage gently home to guide;
His aged wife there made her homely cheare,
Yet welcomde her, and plast her by her fide..
The Princeffe dond a poore paftoraes geare,
A kerchiefe course vpon her head fhe tide

But yet her geftures and her lookes (I geffe)
Were fuch, as ill befeem'd a fhepherdeffe.

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Not thofe rude garments could obfcure, and hide
The heau'nly beautie of her angels face,
Nor was her princely ofspring damnifide,
Or ought difparag'de, by those labours bace ;'
Her little flocks to pasture would she guide,
And milk her goates, and in their folds them place,
Both cheese and butter could fhe make, and frame
Her felfe to please the fhepherd and his dame.

POMFRET.

1

POM FRETS!

OF Mr. JOHN POMFRET nothing is known but from a flight and confufed account prefixed to his poems by a nameless friend; who relates, that he was the fon of the Rev. Mr. Pomfret, rector of Luton, in Bedfordshire; that he was bred at Cambridge; entered into orders, and was rector of Malden in Bedfordshire, and might have rifen in the Church; but that, when he applied to Dr. Compton, bishop of London, for inftitution to a living of confiderable value, to which he had been prefented, he found a troublesome obstruction raised by a malicious interpretation of fome paffage in his Choice; from which it was inferred, that he confidered happiness as more likely to be found in the company of a miftrefs than of a wife.

This reproach was eafily obliterated: for it had happened to Pomfret as to almost all other men who plan schemes of life; he had departed from his purpofe, and was then married.

* He was of Queen's College there, and, by the Universityregister, appears to have taken his Bachelor's degree in 1684, and his Mafter's 1698. H.-His father was of Trinity. C.

The

The malice of his enemies had however a very fatal confequence: the delay constrained his attendance in London, where he caught the fmall-pox, and died in 1703, in the thirty-fixth year of his

age.

He published his poems in 1699; and has been always the favourite of that clafs of readers, who, without vanity or criticism, seek only their own amufement.

His Choice exhibits a fyftem of life adapted to common notions, and equal to common expectations; such a state as affords plenty and tranquillity, without exclufion of intellectual pleasures. Perhaps no compofition in our language has been oftener perused than Pomfret's Choice.

In his other poems there is an eafy volubility; the pleasure of smooth metre is afforded to the ear, and the mind is not oppreffed with ponderous or entangled with intricate fentiment. He pleases many; and he who pleases many must have fome species of merit.

DORSET

DORSE T.

OF the Earl of Dorfet the character has been drawn fo largely and fo elegantly by Prior, to whom he was familiarly known, that nothing can be added by a cafual hand; and, as its author is fo generally read, it would be ufelefs officiousness to transcribe it.

CHARLES SACKVILLE was born January 24, 1637. Having been educated under a private tutor, he travelled into Italy, and returned a little before the Restoration. He was chofen into the firft parliament that was called, for East Grinstead in Suffex, and foon became a favourite of Charles the Second; but undertook no publick employment, being too eager of the riotous and licentious pleasures which young men of high rank, who afpired to be thought Wits, at that time imagined themfelves intitled to indulge.

One of these frolicks has, by the induftry of Wood, come down to pofterity. Sackville, who was then Lord Buckhurft, with Sir Charles Sedley and Sir Thomas Ogle, got drunk at the Cock in

Bow-ftreet by Covent-garden, and, going into the balcony, expofed themfelves to the populace in very indecent poftures. At laft, as they grew warmer, Sedley food forth naked, and harangued the populace in fuch profane language, that the publick indignation was awakened; the crowd attempted to force the door, and, being repulfed, drove in the performers with ftones, and broke the windows of the house.

For this misdemeanour they were indicted, and Sedley was fined five hundred pounds: what was the fentence of the others is not known. Sedley employed Killigrew and another to procure a remiffion from the King; but (mark the friendship of the diffolute!) they begged the fine for themselves, and exacted it to the last groat.

In 1665, Lord Buckhurft attended the Duke of York as a volunteer in the Dutch war; and was in the battle of June 3, when eighteen great Dutch fhips were taken, fourteen others were deftroyed, and Opdam the admiral, who engaged the Duke, was blown up befide him, with all his crew.

On the day before the battle, he is faid to have compofed the celebrated fong, To all you Ladies now at land, with equal tranquillity of mind and promp titude of wit. Seldom any fplendid ftory is wholly true. I have heard, from the late Earl of Orrery, who was likely to have good hereditary intelligence, that Lord Buckhurst had been a week employed upon it, and only retouched or finished it on the memorable evening. But even this, whatever it may fubtract from his facility, leaves him his courage.

He