The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume IV Part 8

Ex Equestri Familia STEPNEIORUM, De PENDEGRAST, in Comitatu PEMBROCHIENSI ORIENDUS, WESTMONASTERII natus est, A.D. 1663.

Electus in Collegium Sancti PETRI WESTMONAST. A, 1676.

Sanctae TRINITATIS CANTAB. 1682.

Consiliariorum quibus Commercii Cura commissa est 1697.

CHELSEIae mortuus, & Comitante Magna Procerum Frequentia huc elatus, 1707.

On the right hand is a particular account of all his employments abroad.

As a specimen of Mr. Stepney's poetry, we shall quote the following lines on the Nature of Dreams,

At dead of night imperial reason sleeps, And fancy with her train loose revels keeps: Then airy phantoms a mixt scene display, Of what we heard, or saw, or wish'd by day; For memory those images retains Which pa.s.sion form'd, and still the strongest reigns, Huntsmen renew the chase they lately run; And generals fight again their battles won.

Spectres and furies haunt the murth'rers dreams; Grants, or disgraces, are the courtiers themes.

The miser spies a thief, or some new h.o.a.rd, The cit's a knight, the sycophant a lord.

Thus fancy's in the wild distraction lost With what we most abhor, or covet most.

But of all pa.s.sions that our dreams controul, Love prints the deepest image in the soul; For vigorous fancy, and warm blood dispense Pleasures so lively, that they rival sense.

Such are the transports of a willing maid, Not yet by time and place to act betray'd.

Whom spies, or some faint virtue force to fly That scene of joy, which yet she dies to try.

'Till fancy bawds, and by mysterious charms Brings the dear object to her longing arms; Unguarded then she melts, acts fierce delight, And curses the returns of envious light.

In such bless'd dreams Biblis enjoys a flame; Which waking she detests, and dares not name.

Ixion gives a loose to his wild love, And in his airy visions cuckolds Jove.

Honours and state before this phantom fall; For sleep, like death its image, equals all.

Our author likewise wrote some political pieces in prose, particularly an Essay on the present Interest of England, 1701. To which are added, The Proceedings of the House of Commons in 1677, upon the French King's Progress in Flanders. This piece is reprinted in Cogan's Collection of Tracts, called Lord Somers's Collection.

[Footnote A: And likewise of another work of the same kind, in two volumes also, published by one Cogan.]

Major RICHARDSON PACK,

This gentleman was the son of John Pack, of Stocke-Ash in Suffolk, esq; who in the year 1697 was high sheriff of that county. He had his early education at a private country school, and was removed from thence to Merchant Taylor's, where he received his first taste of letters; for he always reckoned that time which he spent at the former school as lost, since he had only contracted bad habits, and was obliged to unlearn what had been taught him there.

At the age of sixteen he was removed to St. John's College in Oxford.

About eighteen his father entered him of the Middle Temple, designing him for the profession of the Law; and by the peculiar indulgence of the treasurer, and benchers of that honourable society, he was at eight Terms standing admitted barrister, when he had not much exceeded the age of 20. But a sedentary studious life agreeing as ill with his health, as a formal one with his inclinations, he did not long pursue those studies. After some wavering in his thoughts, he at last determined his views to the army, as being better suited to the gaiety of his temper, and the sprightliness of his genius, and where he hoped to meet with more freedom, as well as more action. His first command was that of a company of foot in March 1705. In November 1710 the regiment in which he served was one of those two of English foot, that were with the marshal Staremberg at the battle of Villa Viciosa, the day after general Stanhope, and the troops under his command were taken at Brighuega[A], where the major being killed, and our author's behaviour being equal to the occasion on which he acted, his grace the duke of Argyle confirmed his pretensions to that vacancy, by giving him the commission of the deceased major, immediately on his arrival in Spain. It was this accident which first introduced our gallant soldier to the acquaintance of that truly n.o.ble and excellent person, with whose protection and patronage he was honoured during the remaining part of his life.

The ambition he had to celebrate his grace's heroic virtues (at a time when there subsisted a jealousy between him and the duke of Marlborough, and it was fas.h.i.+onable by a certain party to traduce him) gave birth to some of the best of his performances.

What other pieces the major has written in verse, are, for the most part, the unlaboured result of friends.h.i.+p, or love; and the amus.e.m.e.nt of those few solitary intervals in a life that seldom wanted either serious business, or social pleasures, of one kind or other, entirely to fill up the circle. They are all published in one volume, together with a translation of the Life of Miltiades and Cymon, from Cornelius Nepos; the first edition was in 1725.

The most considerable of them are the following,

1. The Muse's Choice, or the Progress of Wit.

2. On Friends.h.i.+p. To Colonel Stanhope.

3. To Mr. Addison, occasioned by the news of the victory obtained over the Rebels in Scotland, by his Grace the Duke of Argyle.

4. To Lady Catherine Manners.

5. The Lovers Parting.

6. The Retreat.

7. An Epistle from a Half-pay Officer in the Country, to his Friend in Town.

8. Upon Religious Solitude; occasioned by reading the Inscription on the Tomb of Casimir King of Poland, who abdicated his Crown, and spent the remainder of his life in the Abbey of St. Germains, near Paris, where he lies interred.

9. A Pastoral in Imitation of Virgil's Second Eclogue.

10. The 2d, 3d, and 4th Elegies of the Fourth Book of Tibullus.

11. Elegy. Sylvia to Amintor, in Imitation of Ovid. After Sylvia is enjoyed, she gives this Advice to her s.e.x.

Trust not the slight defence of female pride.

Nor in your boasted honour much confide; So still the motion, and so smooth the dart, It steals unfelt into the heedless heart.

A Prologue to the Tragedy of Sir Walter Raleigh, and an Epilogue to Mr. Southern's Spartan Dame. In the former he has the following beautiful lines on Ambition;

Ambition is a mistress few enjoy!

False to our hopes, and to our wishes coy; The bold she bafflles, and defeats the strong; And all are ruined who pursue her long; Yet so bewitching are her fatal charms, We think it heav'n to die within her arms.

Major Pack obliged the world with some Memoirs of the Life of Mr.

Wycherley, which are prefixed to Theobald's edition of that author.

Mr. Jacob mentions a piece of his which he saw in MS. ent.i.tled Religion and Philosophy, which, says he, with his other works, demonstrate the author to be a polite writer, and a man of wit and gallantry.

This amiable gentleman died at Aberdeen in Scotland, in the month of September 1728, colonel Montague's regiment, in which he was then a major, being quartered there.

[Footnote A: Vide Jacob's Lives.]

Sir WILLIAM DAWES, Baronet (Archbishop of YORK,)

This revd. prelate was descended from an ancient, and honourable family in the county of Ess.e.x; he was educated at Merchant-Taylor's school, London, and from thence elected to St. John's College in Oxford, of which he was afterwards fellow.

He was the youngest of four brothers, three of whom dying young, the t.i.tle, and estate of the family fell to him. As soon as he had taken his first degree in arts, and upon the family estate devolving to him, he resigned his fellows.h.i.+p, and left Oxford. For some time he gave his attention to the affairs of his estate, but finding his inclination lead him more to study, than rural affairs, he entered into holy orders. Sir William did not long remain in the church without preferment; his fortune, and family a.s.sisted him to rise; for it often happens that these advantages will do much more for a man, as well in the ecclesiastical, as in other cla.s.ses of life, than the brightest parts without them. Before he was promoted to the mitre, he was made master of Catherine Hall in Cambridge, chaplain to Queen Anne, and dean of Bocking.

In the year 1708 he was consecrated bishop of Chester, and in 1713 was translated to the archbishopric of York. While he was at the university, before he went into orders, he wrote the Anatomy of Atheism, a Poem, dedicated to Sir George Darcy Bart. printed in the year 1701, 8vo.