from the balcony when he ventured to address them.-GREEN, JOHN RICHARD, 1874, A Short History of the English People. GENERAL

Sedley has that prevailing, gentle art That can with a resistless charm impart The loosest wishes to the chastest heart. -ROCHESTER, JOHN WILMOT, EARL, 1678, An Allusion to the Tenth Satire of the First Book of Horace.

Heard him speak more Wit at a Supper, than all his Adversaries, with their Heads joyn'd together, could write in a Year. That his Writings are not unequal to any Man's of this Age, (not to speak of Abundance of Excellent Copies of Verses). That he has in the "Mulberry Garden, shown the true Wit, Humour, and Satyr of a Comedy; and in "Anthony and Cleopatra," the true Spirit of a Tragedy. SHADWELL, THOMAS, 1679, A True Widow, Epistle Dedicatory.

A Gentleman whose Name speaks a greater Panegyrick, than I am able to express; and whose Wit is so well known to this Age, that I should but tarnish its Lustre, by my Endeavouring to deliver it over to the next: His Wit is too Noble a Subject to need any Herald to proclaim its Titles and Pedigree; or if it did, my Voice and Skill are too weak, to sound out his Praises in their due measures. I shall therefore only content my self, as the Vallys, that have no Voice of their own, to eccho out his Merits at the Second-hand.-LANGBAINE, GERARD, 1691, An Account of the English Dramatick Poets, p. 485.

Sedley is a very insipid writer; except in some few of his little love-verses. POPE, ALEXANDER, 1734-36, Spence's Anecdotes, ed. Singer, p. 103.

Sedley's poems, however amorously tender and delicate, yet have not much strength; nor do they afford great marks of genius. The softness of his verses is denominated by the Duke of Buckingham, Sedley's Witchcraft. It was an art too successful in those days to propagate the immoralities of the times, but it must be owned that in point of chastity he excels Dorset, and Rochester; who as they conceived lewdly, wrote in plain English, and did not give themselves any trouble to wrap up their ribbaldry in a dress tollerably decent.. But if Sedley was the more

chaste, I know not if he was the less pernicious writer: for that pill which is gilded will be swallowed more readily, and with less reluctance, than if tendered in its own disgustful colours. Sedley insinuates gently into the heart, without giving any alarm, but is no less fraught with poison, than are. those whose deformity bespeaks their mischief.-CIBBER, THEOPHILUS, 1753, Lives of the Poets. vol. III, p. 99.

Sir Charles Sedley was distinguished for writing poems of considerable impurity of idea and considerable purity of language. His biographer therefore is careful to inform us that though the sentiments of Sir Charles were as foul as those of Rochester, they were not so immodest, because they were arrayed in clean linen. -WHIPPLE, EDWIN P., 1845, Words, American Review, Feb.; Essays and Re

views.

As a lyrical writer Sedley's merit was his demerit. There was poison in his love poems; but it was a poison that enchanted the wits of the day, and Buckingham called it Sedley's "Witchcraft."-THOMPSON, KATHERINE (GRACE WHARTON), 1862, The Literature of Society, vol. I, p. 275.

Sir Charles Sedley ruins and pollutes himself, but Charles II. calls him "the viceroy of Apollo." Buckingham extols "the magic of his style." He is the most charming, the most sought after of talkers; he makes puns and verses, always agreeable, sometimes refined; he handles dexterously the pretty jargon of mythology; he insinuates into his airy, flowing verses all the dainty and somewhat affected prettinesses of the drawing-room.

There is no love whatever in these pretty things; they are received as they are presented, with a smile; they form part of the conventional language, the polite attentions due from gentlemen to ladies. I suppose they would send them in the morning with a nosegay, or a box of preserved fruits.-TAINE, H. A., 1871, History of English Literature, tr. Van Laun, vol. 1, p. 497.

Sedley, as it is needless to adduce evidence to prove, was commonly accounted one of the most notorious profligates of the most dissolute period of Charles II's reign; but he was a capable politician of moderate views, and gained distinction in

GENERAL

This Gentleman's works are held in very great esteem by the common readers of poetry; it is thought as unfashionable amongst people of inferior life, not to be possessed of the poems of Pomfret, as amongst persons of taste not to have the works of Pope in their libraries. The subjects upon which Pomfret wrote were popular, his versification is far from being unmusical, and as there is little force of thinking in his writings, they are level to the capacities of those who admire them.-CIBBER, THEOPHILUS, 1753, Lives of the Poets, vol. III, p. 218.

His "Choice" exhibits a system of life adapted to common notions, and equal to common expectations; such a state as affords plenty and tranquility, 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.—JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1779-81, Pomfret, Lives of the English Poets, p. 191.

Why is Pomfret the most popular of the English Poets? the fact is certain, and the solution would be useful.SOUTHEY, ROBERT, 1807, Specimens of the Later English Poets, vol. I, p. 91.

It is asked, in Mr. Southey's "Specimens of English Poetry," why Pomfret's "Choice" is the most popular poem in the English language: it might have been demanded with equal propriety, why London bridge is built of Parian marble.-CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 1819, Specimens of the British Poets.

William's reign, always excepting Dryden, is our nadir in works of imagination. Then came Blackmore with his epic poems of Prince Arthur and King Arthur, and Pomfret with his Choice, both popular in their own age, and both intolerable, by their frigid and tame monotony, in the next. HALLAM, HENRY, 1837-39, Introduction to the Literature of Europe, pt. iv. The concentrate essence of namby-pambyism.-BROWNING, ELIZABETH BARRETT, 1842-63, The Book of the Poets.

It is difficult in the present day to conceive that the Choice" could ever have been a very popular poem. It is tame and commonplace. The idea, however, of a country retirement, a private seat, with a wood, garden, and stream, a clear and competent estate, and the enjoyment of lettered ease and happiness, is so grateful and agreeable to the mind. of man, especially in large cities, that we can hardly forbear liking a poem that recalls so beloved an image to our recollection.-CHAMBERS, ROBERT, 1876, Cyclopædia of English Literature, ed. Carruthers.

Our grandfathers or our great-grandfathers might with some fair show of reason have maintained that it was impossible to believe that a poem which had so well stood the test of time would ever sink into forgetfulness. Let me suggest to you that if any one in your hearing foretells immortality for some writer for whom you have no relish, you should ask him at once whether he has read Pomfret's Choice."--HILL, GEORGE BIRKBECK, 1892, Writers and Readers, p. 28.

He dabbled in verse at least as early as 1694, when he wrote an elegy upon the death of Queen Mary. This was published in 1699, with other pieces in heroic couplets, remarkable chiefly for their correctness, under the title of "Poems on Several Occasions." One of the longer poems, called "Cruelty and Lust," commemorates an act of barbarity said to have been perpetrated by Colonel Kirke during the western rebellion. Pomfret's treatment of the situation is prosaically tame. When the scheme for the "Lives of the Poets" was submitted by the booksellers to Dr. Johnson, the name of Pomfret (together with three others) was added by his advice; Johnson remarks that "perhaps no poem in our language has been so often perused" as "The Choice." It is an admirable exposition in neatly turned verse of the everyday epicureanism of a cultivated man. Pomfret is said to have drawn some hints from the study of the character of Sir William Temple.

The exclusion of Pomfret from more recent literary manuals and anthologies sufficiently indicates that Johnson's strange verdict finds few supporters at the present day.-SECCOMBE, THOMAS, 1896, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XLVI, pp. 74, 75.

had been for neere 40 yeaers so much my particular friend, that Mr. Jackson sent me complet mourning, desiring me to be one to hold up the pall at his magnificent obsequies, but my indisposition hinder'd me from doing him this last office.-EVELYN, JOHN, 1703, Diary, May 26.

The administration of the Admiralty under Pepys is still regarded as a model for order and economy.-HUME, David, 1854-62, History of England, James II., ch. lxxi.

It is well known that the naval history of Charles II. is the most shining part of the annals of his reign; and that the business of the navy was conducted with the utmost regularity and prudence, under Charles and James, by this worthy and judicious person. He first reduced the He first reduced the affairs of the admiralty to order and method; and that method was so just, as to have been a standing model to his successors in his important office. His "Memoirs," relating to the navy, is a well written piece; and his copious collection of manuscripts, now remaining, with the rest of his library, at Magdalen College, in Cambridge, is an invaluable treasure of naval knowledge. He was far from being a mere man of business; his conversation and address had been greatly refined by travel. He thoroughly understood and practised music; was a judge of painting, sculpture, and architecture; and had more than a superficial knowledge in history and philosophy. His fame among the virtuosi was such, that he was thought a very proper person to be placed at the head of the Royal Society, of which he was some time president.-GRANGER, JAMES, 1769-1824, Biographical History of England, vol. VI, p. 132.

Though we laugh at Pepys with his cockney revels, and his beatitudes of lace and velvet, and his delight at having his head patted by Lord Clarendon, and his honest uproariness, and his not knowing; "what to think," between his transport with the court beauties, and the harm he is afraid they will do the state-we feel that he ends in being a thoroughly honest man, and even a very clever one, and that we could have grown serious in his behalf, had his comfort or good name been put in jeopardy.-HUNT, LEIGH, 1841, Men, Women and Books.

The pronunciation of Pepys's name has

long been a disputed point, but although the most usual form at the present day is Peps, there can be little doubt that in his own time the name was pronounced as if written Peeps. The reasons for this opinion are: (1) that the name was sometimes so spelt phonetically by some of his contemporaries, as in the Coffee-house paper quoted in the "Diary" (ed. Mynors Bright, vol. vi. p. 292): "On Tuesday last Mr. Peeps went to Windsor," &c.; (2) that this pronunciation is still the received one at Magdalene College, Cambridge; and (3) that the present bearers of the name so pronounce it.—WHEATLEY, HENRY B., 1880, Samuel Pepys and the World he Lived in, Preface, p. vii.

He must always be doing something agreeable, and, by preference, two agreeable things at once. In his house he had a box of carpenter's tools, two dogs, an eagle, a canary, and a blackbird that whistled tunes, lest, even in that full life, he should chance upon an empty moment. If he had to wait for a dish of poached eggs, he must put in the time by playing on the flageolet; if a sermon were dull, he must read in the book of Tobit or divert his mind with sly advances on the nearest women. When he walked, it must be with a book in his pocket to beguile the way in case the nightingales were silent; and even along the streets of London, with so many pretty faces to be spied for and dignitaries to be saluted, his trail was marked by little debts "for wine, pictures, etc., wine, pictures, etc.," the true headmark of a life intolerant of any joyless passage. He had a kind of idealism in pleasure; like the princess in the fairy story, he was conscious of a rose-leaf out of place. Dearly as he loved to talk, he could not enjoy nor shine in a conversation when he thought himself unsuitably dressed. Dearly as he loved eating, he "knew not how to eat alone;" pleasure for him must heighten pleasure; and the eye and ear must be flattered like the palate ere he avow himself content.-STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS, 1882, Samuel Pepys, Familiar Studies of Men and Books.

In truth, Elizabeth had reason for the display of temper. Mr. Pepys, now a great man, in enlarging his scheme of pleasure gradually expands in a forbidden. direction. Always sufficiently appreciative of a pretty woman, his interest in a