Set making baskets, his three sonnes among,
That learn'd their fathers art, and learn'd his song.

7.

'Beholding one in shining armes appeare
The seelie man and his were sore dismaid;
But sweet Erminia comforted their feare,
Her ventall vp, her visage open laid,

You happie folke, of heau'n beloued deare,

Work on (quoth she) vpon your harmlesse traid,
These dreadfull armes I beare no warfare bring

To your sweet toile, nor those sweet tunes you sing.

8.

'But father, since this land, these townes and towres,
Destroied are with sword, with fire and spoile,
How may it be vnhurt, that you and yours
In safetie thus, applie your harmlesse toile?
My sonne (quoth he) this poore estate of ours
Is euer safe from storme of warlike broile ;
This wildernesse doth vs in safetie keepe,

No thundring drum, no trumpet breakes our sleepe.

9.

'Haply just heau'ns defence and shield of right,
Doth loue the innocence of simple swaines,
The thunderbolts on highest mountaines light,
And seld or neuer strike the lower plaines :
So kings haue cause to feare Bellonaes might,
Not they whose sweat and toile their dinner gaines,
Nor euer greedie soldier was entised

By pouertie, neglected and despised.

IO.

'O pouertie, chefe of the heau'nly brood,
Dearer to me than wealth or kingly crowne!
No wish for honour, thirst of others good,
Can moue my hart, contented with mine owne:
We quench our thirst with water of this flood,
Nor fear we poison should therein be throwne:
These little flocks of sheepe and tender goates
Giue milke for food, and wooll to make us coates.

II.

'We little wish, we need but little wealth,

From cold and hunger vs to cloath and feed;

These are my sonnes, their care preserues from stealth
Their fathers flocks, nor servants moe I need:
Amid these groues I walke oft for my health,
And to the fishes, birds and beastes giue heed,
How they are fed, in forrest, spring and lake,
And their contentment for ensample take.

12.

'Time was (for each one hath his doting time,
These siluer locks were golden tresses than)
That countrie life I hated as a crime,
And from the forrests sweet contentment ran,
To Memphis stately pallace would I clime,
And there became the mightie Caliphes man,
And though I but a simple gardner weare,
Yet could I marke abuses, see and heare.

13.

'Entised on with hope of future gaine,

I suffred long what did my soule displease;

But when my youth was spent, my hope was vaine, I felt my natiue strength at last decrease;

I gan my losse of lustie yeeres complaine,

And wisht I had enioy'd the countries peace;
I bod the court farewell, and with content
My later age here haue I quiet spent.

14.

'While thus he spake, Erminia husht and still
His wise discourses heard, with great attention,
His speeches graue those idle fancies kill,
Which in her troubled soule bred such dissention;
After much thought reformed was her will,
Within those woods to dwell was her intention,
Till fortune should occasion new afford,
To turne her home to her desired Lord.

15.

'She said therefore, O shepherd fortunate!

That troubles some didst whilom feele and proue,
Yet liuest now in this contented state,

Let my mishap thy thoughts to pitie moue,

To entertaine me as a willing mate

In shepherds life, which I admire and loue;

Within these pleasant groues perchance my hart,
Of her discomforts, may vnload some part.

16.

'If gold or wealth of most esteemed deare,
If iewels rich, thou diddest hold in prise,
Such store thereof, such plentie haue I here,
As to a greedie minde might well suffice:
With that downe trickled many a siluer teare,
Two christall streames fell from her watrie eies;
Part of her sad misfortunes than she told,
And wept, and with her wept that shepherd old.

17.

'With speeches 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 side.
The Princesse dond a poore pastoraes geare,
A kerchiefe course vpon her head she tide;

But yet her gestures and her lookes (I gesse)
Were such, as ill beseem'd a shepherdesse.

18.

'Not those rude garments could obscure, and hide,
The heau'nly beautie of her angels face,
Nor was her princely ofspring damnifide,
Or ought disparag'de, by those labours bace;
Her little flocks to pasture would she guide,
And milke her goates, and in their folds them place,
Both cheese and butter could she make, and frame
Her selfe to please the shepherd and his dame.'

OFF

POMFRET'

F Mr. JOHN POMFRET nothing is known but from 1 a slight and confused account prefixed to his poems by a nameless friend, who relates that he was the son 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 risen in the Church, but that when he applied to Dr. Compton, bishop of London 3, for institution to a living of considerable value, to which he had been presented *, he found a troublesome obstruction raised by a malicious interpretation of some passage in his Choice, from which it was inferred that he considered happiness as more likely to be found in the company of a mistress than of a wife 5.

This reproach was easily obliterated; for it had happened to 2

* Pomfret was one of the four poets inserted in the collection on Johnson's recommendation. Post, WATTS, I. Among the poets passed over who belong to the period included in the Lives are Crashaw, Lovelace, Herrick, Marvell, Churchill, and Chatterton. The omission of Goldsmith was due to a bookseller, who, owning the copyright of one of his works, refused to come into the project. Boswell's Johnson, iii. 100 n.

* In the edition of 1736 it is at the end of the volume. Mr. Seccombe in the Dict. of Nat. Biog. states that Pomfret was born in 1667; took his B.A. degree in 1684; on Dec. 12, 1695, was made rector of Maulden, and on June 2, 1702, rector of Milbrook, both in Bedfordshire. His father was vicar of Luton. See also N. & 2. 8 S. ii. 27;

3 Burnet describes Compton as 'a generous and good-natured man, but easy and weak and much in the power of others.' History, iv. 333. ✦ He had already two livings.

3

Pomfret as to almost all other men who plan schemes of life: he had departed from his purpose, and was then married 1.

The malice of his enemies had however a very fatal consequence; the delay constrained his attendance in London, where he caught the small-pox, and died in 1703, in the thirty-sixth year of his age 2

4 He published his poems in 1699; and has been always the favourite of that class of readers, who without vanity or criticism seek only their own amusement.

5

6

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 exclusion of intellectual pleasures. Perhaps no composition in our language has been oftener perused than Pomfret's Choice 3.

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

And what would cheer the spirits
in distress

Ruins our health, when taken to

excess.

If Heaven a date of many years
would give,

Thus I'd in pleasure, ease and
plenty live.

And as I near approach'd the
verge of life,

Some kind relation (for I'd have
no wife)

Should take upon him all my
worldly care,

Whilst I did for a better state
prepare.'

Eng. Poets, xvii. 8, 9, 10. 'The parenthesis was SO maliciously represented to the Bishop, that his Lordship was given to understand it could bear no other construction than that Mr. Pomfret preferred a mistress before a wife.' Life, p. 5.

He married in 1692. N. & 2. 8 S. ii. 27.

2 He was buried on Dec. I, 1702. Ib.

3

Eng. Poets, xvii. 5. Swift wrote in 1726:-'At a bookseller's shop some time ago I saw a book with this title-Poems by the Author of the Choice. Not enduring to read a dozen lines, I asked the company whether they had ever seen the book, or heard of the poem. They were all as ignorant as I.' Works, ix. 231.

Southey wrote in 1807:-'Why is Pomfret the most popular of the English Poets? The fact is certain, and the solution would be useful.' Southey's Specimens, i. 91. In 1819 Campbell thus criticized this statement:-'It might have been demanded with equal propriety, why London Bridge is built of Parian marble.' British Poets, p. 314.

In 1736 Pomfret's Poems reached their tenth edition. The Choice, no doubt, was reprinted in many_collections as well as separately. Four quarto editions of it appeared during 1701.' Dict. Nat. Biog.