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 plaft her by her fide.
The Princeffe dond a poore paftoraes geare,
A kerchiefe course vpon her head she tide ;
But yet her gestures 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 those 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

2

POMFRE T. fe

F Mr. JOHN POMFRET nothing is known but from a flight and cou

is 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 risen in the Church; but that, when he applied to Dr. Compton, bifhop of London, for inftitution to a living of confiderable value, to which he had been presented, he found á 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 almost all other men who plan schemes of life; he had departed from his purpofe, and was then married.

The

i

The malice of his enemies had however à very fatal confequence: the delay conftrained his attendance in London, where he caught the small 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 clafs of readers, who, without wanity or criticism, feek only their own amusement.

1

His Choice exhibits a fyftem of life adapted to common notions, and equal to commen expectations; such a state as affords plenty and tranquillity, without exclusion of intel lectual pleasures. Perhaps no compofition in our language has been oftener perufed than Pomfret's Choice.

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

F the Earl of Dorfet the character has been drawn fo largely and fo elegantly by Prior, to whom he was familiarly known, that nothing can be added by a cafual hand; and, as its authour is fo generally read, it would be ufelefs 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 Restoration. He was chofen into the first 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 pleasures

19

which young men of high rank, who aspired to be thought wits, at that time imagined themselves intitled to indulge.

One of thefe Frolicks has, by the induftry of Wood, come down to pofterity. Sackville, who was then Lord Buckhurst, with Sir Charles Sedley and Sir Thomas Ogle, got drunk at the Cock in Bow-street by Coventgarden, and, going into the balcony, exposed themselves to the populace in very indecent postures. At last, as they grew warmer, Sedley flood forth naked, and harangued the populace in fuch profane language, that the publick indignation was awakened; the crowd attempted to force the door, and, being repulfed, drove in the performers with stones, and broke the windows of the house.

.

3

For this misdemeanour they were indicted, and Sedley was fined five hundred pounds : what was the fentence of the others is not known. Sedley employed Killigrew and another to procure a remiffion from the king; but (mark the friendfhip of the diffolute !) they begged the fine for themselves, and exacted it to the laft groat.