"Thy mighty ruin to effect

What plots have been devis'd;
What arts, what perjuries been us'd;

What laws and rites despis'd:

How many fools and knaves by bribes allur'd,
And witnesses by hopes and threats secur❜d!

"And yet they act their dark deceit
Veil'd with a nice disguise,
And form a specious show of right
From treachery and lies:

With arbitrary power the people awe,
And coin unjust oppression into law !"

In Harl. MS. 6933, is a satirical poem called the "Duke of Wharton's Whens, part 2," which contains the following among other supposed impossibilities:

"When Wharton's just, and learns to pay his debts,
And reputation dwells at Mother Brett's:
When Molly How shall dare commence a saint,
And Harvey cease to wear such loads of paint:
When maids of honour think of reputation,
And pass for real maids throughout the nation:
When poet Young for judgment we admire,
And her fat Highness shall excite desire:
When the smooth sycophant shall fail in Carey,
And Clio be as light as lady Mary:
When Bolton is for wit and courage fam'd,
Or Rutland for extravagance is blam'd:
When Dalkeith's lady unaffected grows,
Or humble Essex wit and honour shows:
When Harcourt's honest, Atterbury's meek,
And Pope translates the Odyssee from Greek:

When Halifax shall gain his unkle's fame,
Or any other merit, but his name :
When South-Sea schemes in England are forgot,
Or Barkley has one tender, gracefull thought:
Then, Celia, shall my constant passion cease,
And my poor suff'ring heart shall be at peace."

"3

An edition of the duke's professed works was printed in 2 vols. 8vo., but with much intermingled by other writers. The late Mr. Ritson had, with the same diligence he bestowed on all his publications, collected the duke of Wharton's poetical works, and prepared a memoir of his grace's life for the press. At his book-sale in Dec. 1805, the MS. was purchased by Mr. John Nichols, and will therefore probably in due time, if found deserving the distinction, be placed before the public. But it may be doubted whether his literary relics would endure modern criticism. The late ingenious Dr. Langhorne hinted an intention of writing the life of this nobleman, from materials in his possession. See Effusions of Friendship and Fancy, vol. i. p. 25. Mr. Reed pointed out a poem called "The Landskip on the Banks of Eden," in No. 645. of the Spectator, as ascribable to the duke of Wharton.

A

EDWARD HOWARD,

EIGHTH EARL OF SUFFOLK,

LORD, who, with great inclination to versify, and some derangement of his intellects, was so unlucky as not to have his furor of the true poetic sort. 2 He published two separate volumes, the first entitled

"Miscellanies in Prose and Verse; by a Person of Quality." Lond. 1725, 8vo.

2 I was told the following story by a gentleman well known in the literary world, who, when he first appeared as an author, was sent for by this lord to his house. His lordship told him that he employed many of his idle hours in poetry; but that having the misfortune to be of the same name with the honourable Edward Howard, so much ridiculed in the last age, no printer would meddle with his works, which therefore he desired the gentleman to recommend to some of the profession of his acquaintance. The gentleman excused himself as well as he could. The earl then began to read some of his verses; but coming to the description of a beautiful woman, he suddenly stopped, and said, "Sir, I am not like most poets; I do not draw from ideal mistresses: I always have my subject before me;" and ringing the bell, he said to a footman, "Call up Fine Eyes." A woman of the town appeared -" Fine Eyes," said the Earl, "look full on this gentleman." She did, and retired. Two or three others of the seraglio were summoned in their turns, and displayed their respective charms for which they had been distinguished by his lordship's pencil.

The other, which contains many pieces printed in the former (both being ushered by recommendatory verses), is called

Musarum Delicia: containing Essays upon Pastoral; Ideas, suppos'd to be written above two Thousand Years ago, by an Asiatick Poet [who, it seems, wrote in prose], and who flourished under the Reign of the Grand Cyrus: Sapphick Verse, &c. By a Nobleman."3 Printed, as appears by a date in the middle of the book, in 1728. The executors of this lord conferred some value on his works, by burning a great number of the copies after his death. Indeed, the first volume is not without merit; for his lordship has transplanted whole pages of Milton into it, under the title of Elegancies."

66

[This lord was the son of Henry, earl of Suffolk, and uncle to Charles-William, whom he succeeded in 1722; and dying unmarried, the title and estate devolved on his only brother Charles, ninth earl of Suffolk, in 1731.

3 ["London: Printed for S. Billingsley, at the Judge's Head, in Chancery Lane, 1728. Price 5s, sticht. 3s. 6d. bound."] + Collins's Peerage, vol. iii. p. 94.

His lordship's scarce and fanciful volume, entitled "Musarum Delicia,"

has the following contents:

"Essays upon Pastoral, and Reflections on pastoral Verse."

"Ideas", &c. (see p. 134.) At first deposited in the Archives belonging to a Temple of Venus; and since carefully preserv'd by several Persian Magi. Faithfully translated from the most authentick Copies." (Prose.)

"Sapphick Verse ", or Poems on several Occasions." "Heroick Verse."

"Epilogue," in prose.

The above volume is chiefly a reprint of the Miscellanies in 1725; but the following appears to be omitted:

"Dialogues between Alcibiades and Stilpho."

To Mr. Bindley's copy of the Miscellanies is subjoined "The Shepherdess's golden Manual: to which is

5

"The design of these Ideas," says his lordship," is to give a lively representation of the fine address and pleasing humour of a beautiful young virgin; in a word, of one that has nothing of the idle coquet in her, but is altogether unacquainted with the loose intrigues of the town, and whose sublime and vestal thought is equally as unmixt, as the most pure water in a diamond of the rock."

6 A note from the bookseller to the reader, acquaints him that "the author has given the title of Sapphick verse to these poems, not because they are written in the numbers which Sappho made use of, but merely upon account of the fineness and delicacy of the subjects."