Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

POMFRET'

F Mr. JOHN POMFRET nothing is known but from 1 a 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.

[ocr errors]

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

1 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. & Q. 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.

5 Would bounteous Heaven once more indulge, I'd choose

(For who would so much satisfaction lose

As witty nymphs in conversation give)

Near some obliging modest fair to live.

To this fair creature I'd sometimes retire,

Her conversation would new joys inspire,

Give life an edge so keen, no surly care

Would venture to assault my soul, or dare,

Near my retreat, to hide one

secret snare.

But so divine, so noble a repast

I'd seldom, and with moderation taste;

For highest cordials all their virtue lose

By a too frequent and too bold a use;

3

4

5

6

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.

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.

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.

OF

DORSET

I

F the Earl of Dorset the character has been drawn so 1 largely and so elegantly by Prior, to whom he was familiarly known, that nothing can be added by a casual hand; and, as its authour is so generally read, it would be useless officiousness to transcribe it.

Charles Sackville was born January 24, 1637 3. Having been 2 educated under a private tutor he travelled into Italy, and returned a little before the Restoration. He was chosen into the first parliament that was called, for East Grinstead in Sussex, and soon became a favourite of Charles the Second 5; but undertook no publick employment, being too eager of the riotous and licentious pleasures which young men of high rank, who aspired to be thought wits, at that time imagined themselves intitled to indulge 6.

One of these frolicks has, by the industry of Wood', come 3 down to posterity. Sackville, who was then Lord Buckhurst, with Sir Charles Sedley and Sir Thomas Ogle, got drunk at

The sixth Earl of Dorset.

8

[blocks in formation]

* It met on May 8, 1661, and was not dissolved till Jan. 24, 1678-9. Parl. Hist. iv. 192, 1074.

5 Till he was a little heated with wine he scarce ever spoke; but he was upon that exaltation a very lively man.' BURNET, History, i. 294. Swift, finding him described as 'one of the pleasantest companions in the world, when he likes his company,' wrote in the margin :-'Not of late years, but a very dull one.' Works, xii. 226.

The wits of Charles found easier
ways to fame,

Nor wished for Jonson's art or
Shakespeare's flame:

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

the Cock in Bow-street by Covent-garden, and, going into the balcony, exposed themselves to the populace in very indecent postures. At last, as they grew warmer, Sedley stood forth naked', and harangued the populace in such profane language, that the publick indignation was awakened; the crowd attempted to force the door, and, being repulsed, drove in the performers with stones, and broke the windows of the house".

4 For this misdemeanour they were indicted3, and Sedley was fined five hundred pounds*: what was the sentence of the others is not known. Sedley employed Killigrew and another to procure a remission from the king; but (mark the friendship of the dissolute!) they begged the fine for themselves, and exacted it to the last groat 5.

5

In 1665, Lord Buckhurst attended the Duke of York as a volunteer in the Dutch war; and was in the battle of June 3, when eighteen great Dutch ships were taken, fourteen others were destroyed, and Opdam, the admiral who engaged the Duke, was blown up beside him, with all his crew 6.

four speakers in the dialogue in Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy. Dryden's Works, xv. 273. Burnet reckons him one of the most eminent wits of that time,' the other two being Dorset and Rochester. History, i. 294.

Rochester told Burnet that he and his friends 'in their frolics would have chosen sometimes to have gone naked, if they had not feared the people.' Burnet's Rochester, 1829, p. 203.

The fire of his [Dorset's] youth carried him to some excesses, but they were accompanied with a most lively invention and true humour.... His faults brought their excuse with them, and his very failings had their beauties.' PRIOR, Eng. Poets, xxxii. 133.

From Pepys's record on July 1, 1663, Buckhurst does not seem to have been indicted. 'It being told that my Lord Buckhurst was there, my Lord [Chief Justice Foster] asked whether it was that Buckhurst that was lately tried for robbery; and when answered "Yes," he asked whether he had so soon forgot his deliverance at that time, and that it

would have more become him to have been at his prayers, begging God's forgiveness, than now running into such courses again.' Diary, ii. 184. For this trial for robbery see ib. i. 328, and for Buckhurst and Sedley, five years later, 'running up and down all the night, almost naked, through the streets,' see ib. v. 29.

The Chief Justice told Sedley 'that it was for him, and such wicked wretches as he was, that God's anger and judgment hung over us, calling him sirrah many times.' Ib. ii. 184. Dryden, in 1673, dedicating to him Assignation, wrote:-This Dedication is only an occasion I have taken to do myself the greatest honour imaginable with posterity.' Works, iv. 371. 'Sir Charles Sedley was everything that an English gentleman could be.' JACOB, Poetical Register, i. 242. For his daughter see post, SHEFFIELD, 20.

5 Ath. Oxon. iv. 732. 'Old courtiers will tell you twenty stories of Harry Killigrew, Fleetwood, Sheppard and others, who would often sell places that were never in being.' SWIFT, Works, v. 407.

6

June 3, 1665. All this day by

On the day before the battle he is said to have composed the 6 celebrated song, To all you Ladies now at land', with equal tranquillity of mind and promptitude of wit. Seldom any splendid story is wholly true. I have heard from the late Earl of Orrery, who was likely to have good hereditary intelligence, that Lord Buckhurst had been a week employed upon it, and only retouched or finished it on the memorable evening. But even this, whatever it may substract from his facility, leaves him his courage.

He was soon after made a gentleman of the bedchamber, and 7 sent on short embassies to France 3.

In 1674 the estate of his uncle James Cranfield, Earl of 8 Middlesex, came to him by its owner's death, and the title was conferred on him the year after. In 1677 he became, by the death of his father, Earl of Dorset, and inherited the estate of his family.

In 1684, having buried his first wife, of the family of Bagot 5, 9 who left him no child, he married a daughter of the Earl of Northampton, celebrated both for beauty and understanding ".

He received some favourable notice from King James'; but 10 soon found it necessary to oppose the violence of his innovations, and with some other Lords appeared in Westminster-hall, to countenance the Bishops at their trial 8.

all people upon the River, and almost everywhere else hereabout, were heard the guns, our two fleets being engaged.' PEPYS, Diary, iii. 21. 'June 8. We have taken and sunk, as is believed, about twenty-four of their best ships.' Ib. p. 25. Hume puts the number at nineteen. History, vii. 403.

I

Eng. Poets, xvii. 155. Prior said he composed it the night before the battle. Ib. xxxii. 130.

"The family name of the Earls of Orrery was Boyle. Richard Boyle, second son of the Earl of Burlington, was killed in the battle. Pepys's Diary, iii. 24. 'The late Earl' was the fifth Earl. Post, SWIFT, in.; Boswell's Johnson, v. 238.

3 Eng. Poets, xxxii. 130. In July, 1667, Nell Gwynne became his mistress. Pepys's Diary, iv. 116. 'About Michaelmas, 1668, she became the King's mistress. He was sent to

[blocks in formation]

Dict.

France on a complimentary mission
to get him out of the way.'
Nat. Biog. 1. 87.

'Dorset hated the Court, and despised the King, when he saw that he was neither generous nor tenderhearted.' BURNET, History, i. 294.

[This uncle was Lionel, the third Earl, on whose death the title became extinct; not James, the second Earl, also an uncle, who died in 1651. Hist. Peerage (Courthope).]

5 Daughter of Hervey Bagot, of Pipe Hall in Warwickshire, and widow of the Earl of Falmouth. Collins's Peerage, i. 775.

'Famed for her beauty and admirable endowments of mind.' Ib. 'He was made Custos Rotulorum of Sussex and Lord Lieutenant. Ib. i. 775.

8 lb. p. 776. 'On this great day the unjust Judge was overawed. He often cast a side glance towards the

« AnteriorContinuar »