OFF

F Mr. RICHARD DUKE
I can find few memorials. He

was bred at Westminster and Cambridge; and Jacob relates, that he was

fome time tutor to the duke of Rich

mond.

from his writings to have

He appears from t

been not ill qualified for poetical

compofitions; and being confcious 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 vigorous lines. His poems are not below mediocrity; 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 published those Sermons which Felton has commended.

Perhaps, like fome other foolish young men, he rather talked than

lived vicioufly, in an age when he that would be thought a wit was afraid to fay his prayers; and whatever might have been the first part of his life, it was furely condemned and reformed by his better judgement.

In 1683, being then mafter of arts, and fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, he wrote a poem on the mar riage of the Lady Anne with George Prince of Denmark.

He took orders; and being made prebendary of Gloucester, 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

he enjoyed but a few months. On Fe bruary 10, 1710-11, having returned from an entertainment, he was found dead the next morning. His death is mentioned in Swift's Journal.

D

་་

OR SET.

F the Earl of Derfet the charac ter 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 it will appear in the fubfequent volumes of this collection, it would be ufelefs officiousness to transcribe it.

Charles Sackville was born January 24, 1637. Having been educated under a private tutor, he travelled into