POMFRET.
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f Mr. John Pomfret nothing is known but from a slight and confusedaccount, prefixed to his poems by a nameless friend; who relates, that hewas 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 ofMalden, in Bedfordshire, and might have risen in the church; but that,when he applied to Dr. Compton, bishop of London, for institution to aliving of considerable value, to which he had been presented, he founda troublesome obstruction raised by a malicious interpretation of somepassage in his Choice; from which it was inferred, that he consideredhappiness as more likely to be found in the company of a mistress than ofa wife. This reproach was easily obliterated; for it had happened to Pomfret, asto almost all other men who plan schemes of life; he had departed fromhis purpose, and was then married. The malice of his enemies had, however, a very fatal consequence: thedelay 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 thatclass of readers, who, without vanity or criticism, seek only their ownamusement. His Choice exhibits a system of life adapted to common notions, and equalto common expectations; such a state as affords plenty and tranquillity,without exclusion of intellectual pleasures. Perhaps no composition inour language has been oftener perused than Pomfret's Choice. In his other poems there is an easy volubility; the pleasure of smoothmetre is afforded to the ear, and the mind is not oppressed withponderous, or entangled with intricate, sentiment. He pleases many; andhe who pleases many must have some species of merit. [Footnote 87: He was of Queen's college there, and, by the UniversityRegister, took his bachelor's degree in 1684, and master's in 1698. Hisfather was of Trinity.]
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