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Let these, and only these, thus plague themselves.
For though they fear what neither shall nor can be,
'Tis punishment enough it makes them live,
Live, to endure the dreadful apprehension
Of death, to them so dreadful; but why dreadful,
At least to virtuous minds ?- To be at rest,
To sleep, and never hear of trouble more,
Say, is this dreadful? Heart, wouldst thou be at
quiet?

Dost thou,thus beat for rest, and long for ease,
And not command thy friendly hand to help thee?
What hand can be so easy as thy own,

To apply the medicine that cures all diseases?

AN EPISTLE1

TO MR. OTWAY.

DEAR Tom, how melancholy I am grown
Since thou hast left this learned dirty town &
To thee by this dull letter be it known.
Whilst all my comfort, under all this care,
Are duns, and puns, and logic, and small beer.
Thou seest I'm dull as Shadwell's men of wit,
Or the top scene that Settle ever writ:
The sprightly court that wander up and down
From gudgeons to a race, from town to town,
All, all are fled; but them I well can spare,
For I'm so dull I have no business there.
I have forgot whatever there I knew,
Why men one stocking tye with ribbon blue:
Why others medals wear, a fine gilt thing,
That at their breasts hang dangling by a string;
(Yet stay, I think that I to mind recal,
For once3 a squirt was rais'd by Windsor wall).
1 know no officer of court; nay more,
No dog of court, their favourite before.
Should Veny fawn, I should not understand her,
Nor who committed incest for Legander.
Unpolish'd thus, an arrant scholar grown,
What should I do but sit and coo alone,
And thee, my absent mate, for ever moan.
Thus 'tis sometimes, and sorrow plays its part,
Till other thoughts of thee revive my heart.
For, whilst with wit, with women, and with wine,
Thy glad heart beats, and noble face does shine,
Thy joys we at this distance feel and know;
Thou kindly wishest it with us were so.

Then thee we name; this heard, cries James, " For

him,

Leap up, thou sparkling wine, and kiss the brim:
Crosses attend the man who dares to flinch,
Great as that man deserves who drinks not Finch."
But these are empty joys, without you two,
We drink your names, alas! but where are you?
My dear, whom I more cherish in my breast
Than by thy own soft Muse can be exprest;
True to thy word, afford one visit more,
Else I shall grow, from him thou lov'dst before,
A greasy blockhead fellow in a gown,
(Such as is, sir, a cousin of your own)
With my own hair, a band, and ten long nails,
And wit that at a quibble never fails.

In answer to one in Otway's Poems. Mr. Duke was then at Cambridge. DUKE.

3 Sir Samuel Moreland.

AD THOMAM OTWAY.

MUSARUM nostrumque decus, charissime Thoma,
O animæ melior pars, Otoæe, meæ;
Accipe quæ sacri tristes ad littora Cami
Avulsi vestro flevimus à gremio.

Quot mihi tunc gemitus ex imo pectore ducti,
Perque meas lacrymæ quot cecidere genas,
Et salices testes, & plurima testis arundo,
Et Camus pigro tristior amne fluens.
Audiit ipse etenim Deus, & miserata dolores
Lubrica paulisper constitit unda meos.
Tunc ego; vos nymphæ viridi circumlita musco
Atria quæ colitis, tuque, verende Deus,
Audite O qualem absentem ploramus amicum,
Audite ut lacrymis auctior amnis eat.
Pectoris is candore nives, constantibus arcti
Stellam animis, certâ fata vel ipsa fide;
Ille & Amore columbas, ille & Marte leones
Vincit, Pierías ingenioque Deas,
Sive vocat jocus, & charites, & libera vini
Gaudia, cunque suâ matre sonandus Amor.
Ille potest etiam numeros æquare canendo

Sive tuos, Ovidi, sive, Catulle, tuos.
Sive admirantis moderatur fræna theatri,
Itque cothurnato Musa superba pede,
Fulmina vel Sophoclis Lycophrontæasve tene-
bras,

Carminis aut fastus, Æschyle magne, tui, Vincit munditiis & majestate decorâ,

Tam bene naturam pingere docta manus, Hæc ego, cum spectans labentia flumina, versus Venere in mentem, magne poeta tui.

"Who for preferments," &c.

-[See Otway's Poems.]

"Premia quis meritis ingratâ expectet ab Aulâ, Omnis ubi exiguam captat simul Aulicus escam Gobio? quis piscis sapientior illa vadosa Fulminis angusti coleret loca, pisciculorum Esurientem inter, trepidantemque inter acervum, Qui dum quisque micat, medicatam ut glutiat offam,

Trudunt, impellunt, truduntur, & impelluntur; Nec potius, latum gremio quâ flumen aperto Invitat, totis pinnarum remigat alis,

Et requiem, & muscos virides, pulchramque vớ•

catus

Ad libertatem prono delabitur alveo ?"
Quos tibi pro tali persolvam carmine grates,

O animi interpres, magne Poeta, mei!
Nos neque solicita Natura effinxit ad urbis
Officia, aut fraudes, Aula dolosa, tuas :
Nos procul à cœno, & strepitu, fumoque re-
motos,

Cum Venere & Musis myrtea scena tegat! Nos paribus cantare animis permittat Apollo Flammas meque tuas, teque, Otoæe, meas. Ergone me penitus vestris hærere medullis, Ergone sincerus me tibi junxit Amor? Tu quoque, tu nostris habitas, mea vita, medullis,

Teque meo æternus pectore figit Amor.

In another place.

Qualia tu scribis, vel qualia Carolus ille

Noster, amor Phœbi, Pieridumque decus.

THE

POEMS

OF

WİLLIAM KING.. S. 166 3 £1712

B.

THE

LIFE OF KING.

BY DR. JOHNSON.

WILLIAM KING was born in London in 1663; the son of Ezekiel King, a gentleman. He was allied to the family of Clarendon.

From Westminster-school, where he was a scholar on the foundation under the care of Dr. Busby, he was at eighteen elected to Christ Church, in 1681; where he is said to have prosecuted his studies with so much intenseness and activity, that before he was eight years standing he had read over, and made remarks upon, twenty-two thousand odd hundred books and manuscripts'. The books were certainly not very long, the manuscripts not very difficult, nor the remarks very large; for the calculator will find, that he dispatched seven a day for every day of his eight years, with a remnant that more than satisfies most other students. He took his degree in the most expensive manner, as a grand compounder; whence it is inferred, that he inherited a considerable fortune.

In 1688, the same year in which he was made master of arts, he published a confutation of Varilla's account of Wickliffe; and, engaging in the study of the civil law, became doctor in 1692, and was admitted advocate at Doctors Commons.

He had already made some translations from the French, and written some humorous and satirical pieces; when, in 1694, Molesworth published his Account of Denmark, in which he treats the Danes and their monarch with great contempt; and takes the opportunity of insinuating those wild principles, by which he supposes liberty to be established, and by which his adversaries suspect that all subordination and government is endangered.

This book offended prince George; and the Danish minister presented a memorial against it. The principles of its author did not please Dr. King; and therefore he undertook to confute part, and laugh at the rest. The controversy is now forgotten: and books of this kind seldom live long, when interest and resentment have ceased.

In 1697, he mingled in the controversy between Boyle and Bentley; and was one of those who tried what wit could perform in opposition to learning, on a question which learning only could decide.

* This appears by his Adversaría, printed in his works, edit. 1776, 3 vols. C.

In 1699, was published by him A Journey to London, after the method of Dr. Martin Lister, who had published A Journey to Paris. And, in 1700, he satirised the Royal Society, at least sir Hans Sloane their president, in two dialogues, entituled The Transactioner.

Though he was a regular advocate in the courts of civil and canon law, he did not love his profession, nor indeed any kind of business which interrupted his voluptuary dreams, or forced him to rouse from that indulgence in which only he could find delight. His reputation as a civilian was yet maintained by his judgements in the courts of delegates, and raised very high by the address and knowledge which he discovered in 1700, when he defended the earl of Anglesea against his lady, afterwards dutchess of Buckinghamshire, who sued for a divorce, and obtained it.

The expense of his pleasures, and neglect of business, had now lessened his revenues; and he was willing to accept of a settlement in Ireland, where, about 1702, he was made judge of the admiralty, commissioner of the prizes, keeper of the records in Birmingham's tower, and vicar-general to Dr. Marsh, the primate.

But it is vain to put wealth within the reach of him who will not stretch out his hand to take it. King soon found a friend, as idle and thoughtless as himself, in Upton, one of the judges, who had a pleasant house called Mountown, near Dublin, to which King frequently retired; delighting to neglect his interest, forget his cares, and desert his duty.

Here he wrote Mully of Mountown, a poem; by which, though fanciful readers in the pride of sagacity have given it a political interpretation, was meant originally no more than it expressed, as it was dictated only by the author's delight in the quiet of Mountown.

In 1708, when lord. Wharton was sent to govern Ireland, King returned to London, with his poverty, his idleness, and his wit; and published some essays, called Useful Transactions. His voyage to the Island of Cajamai is particularly commended. He then wrote The Art of Love, a poem remarkable, notwithstanding its title, for purity of sentiment; and in 1709 imitated Horace in an Art of Cookery, which he published, with some letters to Dr. Lister.

In 1710, he appeared as a lover of the church, on the side of Sacheverell; and was supposed to have concurred at least in the projection of The Examiner. His eyes were open to all the operations of whiggism; and he bestowed some strictures upon Dr. Kennett's adulatory sermon at the funeral of the duke of Devonshire.

The History of the Heathen Gods, a book composed for schools, was written by him in 1710. The work is useful; but might have been produced without the powers of King. The next year, he published Rufinus, an historical essay; and a poem, intended to dispose the nation to think as he thought of the duke of Marlborough and his adherents.

In 1711, competence, if not plenty, was again put into his power. He was, without the trouble of attendance, or the mortification of a request, made gazetteer. Swift, Freind, Prior, and other men of the same party, brought him the key of the gazetteer's office. He was now again placed in a profitable employment, and again threw the benefit away. An act of insolvency made his business at that time particularly troublesome; and he would not wait till hurry should be at an end, but impatiently resigned it, and returned to his wonted indigence and amusements.

One of his amusements at Lambeth, where he resided, was to mortify Dr. Tenison,

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