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Not thofe rude garments could obfcure, and hide The heau'nly beautie of her angels face, fouil be Y Nor was her princely ofspring damnifide, em 19 Or ought difparag'de, by thofe labours bace; off Her little flocks to pafture would the guide, al 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.

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F Mr. JOHN POMFRET nothing is know out from a flight and confufed known but from a flight and confufed 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 inftitution to a living of confiderable value, to which he had been prefented, he

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

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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 miftrefs than of a wife.

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

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The malice of his enemies had however a very fatal confequence: the delay constrained his attendance in London, where he caught the fmall-pox, and died in thirty-fixth year of his age.

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and died in 1793,
n 1793, in the
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doud? sdrai 65] He published his poems in 1699; and has been always the favourite of that clafs of readers, who, without vanity or criticism, feek only their own amufement.

His Choice exhibits a fyftem of life adapted to common notions, and equal to common expectations; fuch a state as affords plenty E e 4

and

and tranquillity, without exclufion of intellectual pleasures. Perhaps no compofition in our language has been oftener perused than Pomfret's Choice.

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

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F the Earl of Dorfet the character has dnem do egment sagol over tlum vORDL

been drawn fo largely and fo elegantly by Prior, to whom he was familiarly known, that nothing can be added by a casual hand; and, as its author is fo generally read, it would be uselefs officioufnefs 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 Reftoration. He was chofen into the firft parliament that was called, for Eaft Grinstead in Suffex, and foon became a favourite of Charles the Second; but undertook no publick employment, being too eager of the riotous and licentious pleafures which young men of high rank, who afpired

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