15.

She faid therefore, O fhepherd fortunate!

That troubles fome didft whilom feele and proue,
Yet liueft now in this contented state,

Let my mishap thy thoughts to pitie moue,

To entertaine me as a willing mate

In fhepherd's life, which I admire and loue;
Within these pleafant groues perchance my hart,
Of her discomforts, may vnload fome part.

16.

If gold or wealth of moft efteemed deare,
If iewels rich, thou diddeft hold in praise,
Such ftore thereof, fuch plentie haue I feen,
As to a greedie minde might well fuffice:
With that downe trickled many a filuer teare,
Two christall ftreames fell from her watrie eies
Part of her fad misfortunes than fhe told,
And wept, and with her wept that shepherd old.

17.

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 poor paftoraes geare,
A kerchiefe course upon her head fhe tide;

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

18.

Not thofe rude garments could obfcure, and hide
The heauenly beautie of her angels face,
Nor was her princely ofspring damnifide,
Or ought difparag'de, by thofe labours bace ;
Her little flocks to pafture would the guide,

And milke her goates, and in their folds them place,
Both cheese and butter could the make, and frame
Her felfe to please the shepherd and his dame.

POMFRET.

OF Mr. JOHN POMFRET nothing is

known but from a flight and confused account prefixed to his poems by a namieless 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 obftruction 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 mistress than of 2 wife.

This reproach was easily obliterated: for it had happened to Pomfret as to almoft all other men who plan fchemes of life; he had departed from his purpose, and was then married.

*He was of Queen's College there, and, by the University regifter, appears to have taken his Bachelor's degree in 1684, and his Mafter's in 1698. H.

The

The malice of his enemies had however a very fatal confequence; the delay conftrained his attendance in London, where he caught the smallpox, 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 criticifm, feek only their own. amufement.

His Choice exhibits a fyftem of life adapted to common notions, and equal to common expectations; fuch a ftate as affords plenty and tranquillity, without exclufion of intellectual pleafures. 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 fmooth metre is afforded to the car, and the mind is not oppreffed with ponderous or entangled with intricate fentiment. He pleases many, and he who pleafes many muft have fome fpecies of merit.

DORSET.

OF

F 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 officioufness 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 first parliament that was called, for Eaft Grinftead 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 themselves intitled to indulge.

One of these frolicks has, by the industry 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 ftood 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 houfe.

For this misdemeanor 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 themfelves, 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 foug, 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 Buckhurft 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 was foon after made a gentleman of the bedchamber, and fent on fhort embaffies to France.