11.

We little, wifh, we need but little wealth,
From cold and hunger vs to cloath and feed;
These are my fonnes, their care perferues from
ftealth

Their fathers flocks, nor fervants moe I need:
A:nid these groues I walke oft for my health,
And to the fishes, birds and beaftes giue heed,
How they are fed, in forrest, spring and lake,
And their contentment for enfample take.

Time was (for each one hath his doting time,
These filuer locks were golden treffes than).
That countrie life I hated as a crime,
And from the forrefts fweet contentment ran,
To Memphis stately pallace would I clime,
And there became the mightie Caliphes man,
And though I but a fimple gardner weare,
Yer could I marke abuses, fee and heare,

13.

Entifed on with hope of future gaine,
I fuffred long what did my foule displease ;
But when my youth was fpent, my hope was vaine,

I felt my native strength at last decrease;

I gan my loffe of luftie yeeres complaine,
And wifht I had enjoy'd the countries peace;

I bod the court farewell, and with content
My later age here have I quiet fpent.

14. While

14.

While thus he fpake, Erminia hufht and still
His wife difcourfes heard, with great attention,
His fpeeches graue thofe idle fancies kill,
Which in her troubled foule bred fuch diffention;
After much thought reformed was her will,
Within those woods to dwell was her intention,
Till fortune fhould occafion new afford,

To turne her home to her defired Lord.

15.

She faid therefore, O fhepherd fortunate!
That troubles fome didit whilom feele and proue,
Yet liueft now in this contented ftate,

Let my mishap thy thoughts to pitie moue,
To entertaine me as a willing mate

In fhepherds life, which I admire and loue;
Within thefe pleasant groues perchance my hart,
Of her discomforts, may vnload fome part.

16.

If gold or wealth of most esteemed deare,
If iewels rich, thou diddeft hold in prife,
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 streames fell from her watrie eies;
Part of her fad misfortunes than she told,
And wept, and with her wept that shepherd old.
17. With

5

17.

With fpeeches 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 the tide ;

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

18,

Not those 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 thofe labours bace;
Her little flocks to pafture would fhe guide,
And milke 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.

POM

POMFRET.

F Mr. JOHN POMFRET nothing is known but from a flight and confused 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 institution 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 a wife.

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

The

The malice of his enemies had however a very fatal confequence: the delay conftrained 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 class of readers, who, without vanity or criticism, feek only their own amufement.

His Choice exhibits a system 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 composition in our language has been oftener perused than Pomfret's Choice.

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

DORSET.