Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III) - Samuel Johnson (classic books to read txt) 📗

Humane Knowledge: 2. Of The Soule Of Man

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.]