Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III), Samuel Johnson [good summer reads .TXT] 📗
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And The Immortalitie Thereof, 1599. R.]
[Footnote 87: It Has Been Conjectured that Our Poet Was Either Son Or
Grandson Of Charles, Third Son Of Sir John Stepney, The First Baronet Of
That Family. See Granger'S History, Vol. Ii. P. 396. Edit. 8Vo. 1775. Mr.
Cole Says, The Poet'S Father Was A Grocer. Cole'S Manuscripts, In brit.
Mus. C.]
Pomfret.Of Mr. John Pomfret Nothing is Known But From 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[87], 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, 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.
This Reproach Was Easily Obliterated; For It Had Happened to Pomfret, As
To Almost All Other Men Who Plan Schemes Of Life; He Had Departed from
His Purpose, And Was Then Married.
The Malice Of His Enemies Had, However, A Very Fatal Consequence: The
Delay Constrained his Attendance In london, Where He Caught The Smallpox,
And Died in 1703, In the Thirty-Sixth Year Of His Age.
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.
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.
[Footnote 87: He Was Of Queen'S College There, And, By The University
Register, Took His Bachelor'S Degree In 1684, And Master'S In 1698. His
Father Was Of Trinity.]
Dorset.Of The Earl Of Dorset The Character Has Been Drawn So Largely And So
Elegantly By Prior, To Whom He Was Familiarly Known, That Nothing can Be
Added by A Casual Hand; And, As Its Author Is So Generally Read, It Would
Be Useless Officiousness 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 Chosen Into The First Parliament That Was Called, For
East Grimstead, In sussex, And Soon Became A Favourite Of Charles The
Second; 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 Entitled to
Indulge.
One Of These Frolicks Has, By The Industry Of Wood, Come Down To
Posterity. Sackville, Who Was Then Lord Buckhurst, With Sir Charles
Sedley And Sir Thomas Ogle, Got Drunk At 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.
For This Misdemeanour They Were Indicted, 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. 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.
On The Day Before The Battle, He Is Said To Have Composed the 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 Subtract From His Facility, Leaves Him His
Courage.
He Was Soon After Made A Gentleman Of The Bedchamber, And Sent On Short
Embassies To France.
In 1674, The Estate Of His Uncle, James Cranfield, Earl Of 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, 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 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.
As Enormities Grew Every Day Less Supportable, He Found It Necessary To
Concur In the Revolution. He Was One Of Those Lords Who Sat Every Day In
Council To Preserve The Publick Peace, After The King'S Departure; And,
What Is Not The Most Illustrious Action Of His Life, Was Employed to
Conduct The Princess Anne To Nottingham With A Guard, Such As Might Alarm
The Populace, As They Passed, With False Apprehensions Of Her Danger.
Whatever End May Be Designed, There Is Always Something despicable In a
Trick.
He Became, As May Be Easily Supposed, A Favourite Of King william, Who,
The Day After His Accession, Made Him Lord Chamberlain Of The Household,
And Gave Him Afterwards The Garter. He Happened to Be Among Those That
Were Tossed with The King in an Open Boat Sixteen Hours, In very Rough
And Cold Weather, On The Coast Of Holland. His Health Afterwards
Declined; And, On Jan. 19, 1705-6, He Died at Bath.
He Was A Man Whose Elegance And Judgment Were Universally Confessed,
And Whose Bounty To The Learned and Witty Was Generally Known. To The
Indulgent Affection Of The Publick, Lord Rochester Bore Ample Testimony
In This Remark: "I Know Not How It Is, But Lord Buckhurst May Do What He
Will, Yet Is Never In the Wrong."
If Such A Man Attempted poetry, We Cannot Wonder That His Works Were
Praised. Dryden, Whom, If Prior Tells Truth, He Distinguished by His
Beneficence, And Who Lavished his Blandishments On Those Who Are Not
Known To Have So Well Deserved them, Undertaking to Produce Authors Of
Our Own Country Superiour To Those Of Antiquity, Says, "I Would Instance
Your Lordship In satire, And Shakespeare In tragedy." Would It Be
Imagined that, Of This Rival To Antiquity, All The Satires Were Little
Personal Invectives, And That His Longest Composition Was A Song Of
Eleven Stanzas?
The Blame, However, Of This Exaggerated praise Falls On The Encomiast,
Not Upon The Author; Whose Performances Are, What They Pretend To Be, The
Effusions Of A Man Of Wit; Gay, Vigorous, And Airy. His Verses To Howard
Show Great Fertility Of Mind; And His Dorinda Has Been Imitated by Pope.
Stepney.
George Stepney, Descended from The Stepneys Of Pendegrast, In
Pembrokeshire, Was Born At Westminster, In 1663. Of His Father'S
Condition Or Fortune I Have No Account[88]. Having received the First
Part Of His Education At Westminster, Where He Passed six Years In the
College, He Went, At Nineteen, To Cambridge[P], Where He Continued a
Friendship Begun At School With Mr. Montague, Afterwards Earl Of Halifax.
They Came To London Together, And Are Said To Have Been Invited into
Publick Life By The Duke Of Dorset[89].
His Qualifications Recommended him To Many Foreign Employments, So That
His Time Seems To Have Been Spent In negotiations. In 1692, He Was Sent
Envoy To The Elector Of Brandenburgh; In 1693, To The Imperial Court; In
1694, To The Elector Of Saxony; In 1696, To The Electors Of Mentz And
Cologne, And The Congress At Frankfort; In 1698, A Second Time To
Brandenburgh; In 1699, To The King of Poland; In 1701, Again To The
Emperour; And, In 1706, To The States General. In 1697, He Was Made One
Of The Commissioners Of Trade. His Life Was Busy And Not Long. He Died in
1707, And Is Buried in westminster Abbey, With This Epitaph, Which Jacob
Transcribed:
H. S. E.
Georgius Stepneius, Armiger,
Vir,
Ob Ingenii Acumen,
Literarum Scientiam,
Morum Suavitatem,
Rerum Usum,
Virorum Amplissimorum Consuetudinem,
Linguae, Styli, Ac Vitae Elegantiam,
Praeclara Officia Cum Britanniae Tum Europae Praestita,
Sua Aetate Multum Celebratus,
Apud Posteros Semper Celebrandus;
Plurimas Legationes Obijt
Ea Fide, Diligentia, Ac Felicitate,
Ut Augustissimorum Principum
Gulielmi Et Annae
Spem In illo Repositam
Numquam Fefellerit,
Haud Raro Superaverit.
Post Longum Honorum Cursum
Brevi Temporis Spatio Confectum,
Cum Naturae Parum, Famae Satis Vixerat,
Animam Ad Altiora Aspirantem Placide Efflavit.
On The Left Hand,
G. S.
Ex Equestri Familia Stepneiorum,
De Pendegrast, In comitatu
Pembrochiensi Oriundus,
Westmonasterii Natus Est, A. D. 1663,
Electus In collegium
Sancti Petri Westmonast. A. 1676,
Sancti Trinitatis Cantab. 1682.
Consiliariorum Quibus Commercii
Cura Commissa Est 1697.
Chelseiae Mortuus, Et, Comitante
Magna Procerum
Frequentia, Hue Elatus, 1707.
It Is Reported that The Juvenile Compositions Of Stepney "Made Grey
Authors Blush." I Know Not Whether His Poems Will Appear Such Wonders To
The Present Age. One Cannot Always Easily Find The Reason For Which The
World Has Sometimes Conspired to Squander Praise. It Is Not Very Unlikely
That He Wrote Very Early As Well As He Ever Wrote; And The Performances
Of Youth Have Many Favourers, Because The Authors Yet Lay No Claim To
Publick Honours, And Are, Therefore, Not Considered as Rivals By The
Distributors Of Fame.
He Apparently Professed himself A Poet, And Added his Name To Those Of
The Other Wits In the Version Of Juvenal; But He Is A Very Licentious
Translator, And Does Not Recompense His Neglect Of The Author By Beauties
Of His Own. In his Original Poems, Now And Then, A Happy Line May,
Perhaps, Be Found, And, Now And Then, A Short Composition May Give
Pleasure. But There Is, In the Whole, Little Either Of The Grace Of Wit,
Or The Vigour Of Nature.
[Footnote 88: He Was Entered of Trinity College, And Took His Master'S
Degree In 1689. H.]
[Footnote 89: Earl Of Dorset.]
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