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DUK E.

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F Mr. RICHARD DUKE I can find few memorials. He was bred at Westmiufter and Cambridge*; and Jacob relates, that he was fome time tutor to the duke of Richmond.

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He appears from his writings to have been not ill qualified for poetical compositions; 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 some

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* He was admitted there in 1670; was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1675; and took his Master's degree in 1682. N.

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vigorous lines. His poems are not below me. diocrity; nor have I found much in them to be praised*.

With the Wit he feems to have fhared the diffolutenefs of the times: for fome of his compofitions are fuch as he must have reviewed with deteftation in his later days, when he publifhed thofe Sermons which Felton has commended.

men,

Perhaps, like fome other foolish young 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 his life, was furely condemned and reformed by his better judgement.

of

In 1683, being then mafter of arts, and fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, he wrote

They make part of a volume published by Tonfon in 8vo. 1717, containing the poems of the earl of Rofcommon, and the duke of Buckingham's effay on poetry; but were first published in Dryden's mifcellany, as were most, if not all, of the poems in that collection. H.

a poem

a poem on the marriage of the Lady Anne with George Prince of Denmark.

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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.

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KING.

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KIN G.

WILLIAM KING was born in London

in 1663; the fou of Ezekiel King, a gentleman. He was allied to the family of Clarendon.

From Weftminfter-fchool, where he was a fcholar on the foundation under the care of Dr. Busby, he was at eighteen elected to Chrift-church, in 1681; where he is to have profecuted his ftudies with fo much. intenfenefs and activity, that before he was eight years standing he had read over, and made remarks upon, twenty-two thousand 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 dispatched feven a day for every day of his eight years; with a remnant that more than fatisfies moft other ftudents. He took his

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degree in the most expenfive manner, as a grand compounder; whence it is inferred that he inherited a confiderable fortune.

In 1688, the fame year in which he was made mafter of arts, he publifhed a Confutation of Varillas's account of Wicliffe; and, engaging in the ftudy of the Civil Law, became doctor in 1692, and was admitted advocate at Doctors Commons.

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He had already made fome tranflations from the French, and written fome humorous and fatirical pieces; when, in 694, Molefworth published his Account of Denmark, in which he treats the Danes and their monarch with great contempt; and takes the opportunity of infinuating those wild principles, by which he fuppofes liberty to be eftablifhed, and by which his adverfaries fufpect that all fubordination and government is endangered.

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This book offended Prince George; and the Danish minifter prefented a memorial against it. The principles of its author did not please Dr, King; and therefore he under

took

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