fatearis. Subito ad Batavos proficiscor, lauro ab illis donandus. Prius vero Pembrochienses voco ad certamen Poeticum. Vale. Illustrissima tua deosculor crura, E. Smith.23 23 In 1751 appeared in 4to., from the shop of F. Newbery, 'Thales, a Monody, sacred to the memory of Dr. Pococke. In imitation of Spenser. From an authentic Manuscript of Mr. Edmund Smith, formerly of Christ Church, Oxon.' In the advertisement prefixed, the editor states that he “has several other very valuable pieces of Mr. Smith in his possession, which be intends shortly to communicate to the public.” There is something of Smith's train of think. ing in the poem: it is in the Spenserian stanza. DUKE. 1668 ?–1710-11. Born at Westminster-Educated at Cambridge—His Friendship with Otway-Contributes to Dryden's Ovid' and 'Juvenal'—Enters the Church-Made Vicar of Witney_Death. . OF MR. RICHARD DUKE I can find few memorials. He was bred at Westminster and Cambridge ;' and Jacob relateso that he was some time tutor to the Duke of Richmond.' He appears from his writings to have been not ill qualified for poetical compositions; and being conscious of his powers, when he S left the university he enlisted himself among the wits. He was the familiar friend of Otway ; and was engaged, akery other popular names, in the translation of Ovid (1680) and Juvenal (1693). In his ‘Review,' though unfinished,' are some vigorous lines. His poems are not below mediocrity, nor have I found much in them to be praised. With the wit he seems to have shared the dissoluteness of the for some of his compositions are such as he must have reviewed with detestation in his later days, when he published those Sermons which Felton has commended. Perhaps, like some other foolish young men, he rather talked than lived viciously, in an age when he that would be thought a wit was times ; 1 He was admitted to Westminster in 1670; elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1675; and took his Master's degree in 1682. Jacob's 'Lives,' ii. 50. Jacob says that he was “the son of an eminent citizen of Lon don.” 8 Charles II.'s son, by the Duchess of Portsmouth. 4 The beginning of the poem called the 'Review' he wrote a little after the publishing of Mr. Dryden's 'Absalom and Achitophel:' he was persuaded to undertake it by Mr. Sheridan, then secretary to the Duke of York; but Mr. Duke, finding Mr. Sheridan designed to make use of his pen to vent his spleen against several persons at Court that were of another party than that he was engaged in, broke off proceeding in it, and left it as it is now printed. — Tonson "To the Reader,' before Roscommon and Duke's Poems, 1717, 8vo. (The best edition of both poets.) |