(39) DUKE: OF Mr. RICHARD DUKE I can find few memorials. He was bred at Westminster * and Cambridge; and Jacob relates, that he was fome time tutor to the Duke of Richmond.. He appears from his writings to have been not ill qualified for poetical compofitions; and being conscious of his powers, when he left the univerfity, he enlifted himself among the wits. He was the familiar friend of Otway; and was engaged, among other popular names, in the tranflations of Ovid and Juvenal. In his Review, though unfinished, are fome vigorous lines. His poems are not below mediocrity; nor have I found much in them to be praised. *He was admitted there in 1670; was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1675; and took his master's degree in 1682. N. †They make a part of a volume published by Tonson in 8vo, 1717, containing the poems of the Earl of Roscommon, and the Duke of Buckingham's Effay on Poetry; but were first published in Dryden's Mifcellany, as were moft, if not all, of the poems in that collection. H. With the wit he feems to have shared the diffoluteness of the times; for fome of his compofitions are fuch as he muft have reviewed with deteftation in his later days, when he published those Sermons which Felton has commended. Perhaps, like fome other foolish young men, he rather talked than lived viciously, in an age when he that would be thought a Wit was afraid to fay his prayers; and, whatever might have been bad in the first part of his life, was furely condemned and reformed by his better judgement. In 1683, being then Mafter of Arts, and Fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, he wrote a poem on the marriage of the Lady Anne with George Prince of Denmark. He then took orders *; and, being made prebendary of Gloucefter, became a proctor in convocation for that church, and chaplain to Queen Anne. In 1710, he was prefented by the Bishop of Winchester to the wealthy living of Witney in Oxfordshire, which he enjoyed but a few months. On February 10, 1710-11, having returned from an entertainment, he was found dead the next morning. His death is mentioned in Swift's Journal. *He was prefented to the rectory of Blaby in Leicefterfhire in 1687-8; and obtained a prebend at Gloucester in 1688. N. KING. WILLIAM KING was born in London in 1663; the fon of Ezekiel King, a gentleman. a gentleman. allied to the family of Clarendon. He was From Westminster-school, where he was a fcholar on the foundation under the care of Dr. Bufby, he was at eighteen elected to Chrift-church, in 1681; where he is faid to have profecuted his ftudies with fo much intenseness and activity, that before he was eight years ftanding he had read over, and made remarks upon, twenty-two thoufand odd hundred books and manufcripts *. The books were certainly not very long, the manufcripts not very difficult, nor the remarks very large; for the calculator will find that he difpatched feven a day for every day of his eight years; with a remnant that more thar fatisfies moft other ftudents. He took his degree in the most expenfive manner, as a grand compounder ; whence it is inferred that he inherited a confiderable fortune. This appears by his " Adverfaria," printed in his works edit. 1776, 3 vols. C. In 1688, the fame year in which he was thade mafter of arts, he published a confutation of Varillas's account of Wickliffe; and, engaging in the ftudy of the Civil Law, became doctor in 1692, and was admitted advocate at Doctors Commons. He had already made fome tranflations from the French, and written fome humorous and fatirical pieces; when, in 1694, Molefworth published his Account of Denmark, in which he treats the Danes and their monarch with great contempt; and takes the opportunity of infinuating thofe wild principles, by which he supposes liberty to be established, and by which his adversaries suspect that all fubordination and government is endangered. This book offended Prince George; and the Danish minifter presented a memorial against it. The principles of its author did not please Dr. King; and therefore he undertook to confute part, and laugh at the reft. The controversy is now forgotten and books of this kind feldom live long, when intereft and refentment have ceased. In 1697, he mingled in the controverfy between Boyle and Bentley; and was one of those who tried what Wit could perform in oppofition to Learning, on a question which Learning only could decide. In 1699, was published by him A Journey to London, after the method of Dr. Martin Lifter, who had published A Journey to Paris. And, in 1700, he fatirised the Royal Society, at least Sir Hans Sloane their prefident, in two dialogues, intituled The Tranfaclioner. Though he was a regular advocate in the courts of civil and canon law, he did not love his pro feffion, feffion, nor indeed any kind of bufinefs which interrupted his voluptuary dreams, or forced him to rouse from that indulgence in which only he could find delight. His reputation as a civilian was yet maintained by his judgements in the courts of Delegates, and raised very high. by the addrefs and knowledge which he difcovered in 1700, when he de fended the earl of Anglesea againft his lady, afterwards dutchess of Buckinghamshire, who fued for a divorce, and obtained it. The expence of his pleasures, and neglect of bufinefs, had now leffened his revenues; and he was willing to accept of a fettlement in Ireland, where, about 1702, he was made judge of the admiralty, commiffioner of the prizes, keeper of the records in Birmingham's tower, and vicar-general to Dr. Marsh, the primate. But it is vain to put wealth within the reach of him who will not ftretch out his hand to take it. King foon found a friend, as idle and thoughtless as himself, in Upton, one of the judges, who had a pleafant house called Mountown, near Dublin, to which King frequently retired; delighting to neglect his intereft, forget his cares, and defert his duty. Here he wrote Mully of Mountown, a poem; by which, though fanciful readers in the pride of fagacity have given it a poetical interpretation, was meant originally no more than it expreffed, as it was dictated only by the author's delight in the quiet of Mountown. In 1708, when lord Wharton was fent to govern Ireland, King returned to London, with his D VOL. II. poverty, his |