tatesman, seem to have been unquestioned; but for
his poetical reputation, he was probably much indebted to the
assistance of those wits whom he relieved and patronized. As,
however, it has been allowed a sufficient proof of wisdom in a
monarch, that he could chuse able ministers, so it is no slight
commendation to the taste of this rhyming peer, that in youth he
selected Dryden to supply his own poetical deficiencies, and in age
became the friend and the eulogist of Pope. We may observe,
however, a melancholy difference betwixt the manner in which an
independent man of letters is treated by the great, and that in
which they think themselves entitled to use one to whom their
countenance is of consequence. In addressing Pope, Sheffield
contents himself with launching out into boundless panegyric, while
his praise of Dryden, in his "Essay on Poetry," is qualified by a
gentle sneer at the "Hind and Panther," our bard's most laboured
production. His lordship is treating of satire:

The laureat here may justly claim our praise,
Crowned by Mack Flecnoe with immortal bays;
Yet once his Pegasus has borne dead weight,
Rid by some lumpish minister of state.

Lord Mulgrave, to distinguish him by his earliest title, certainly
received considerable assistance from Dryden in "The Essay on
Satire," which occasioned Rochester's base revenge; and was
distinguished by the name of the _Rose-Alley Satire_, from the
place in which Dryden was way-laid and beaten by the hired bravoes
of that worthless profligate. It is probable, that the patronage
which Dryden received from Mulgrave, was not entirely of an empty
and fruitless nature. It is at least certain, that their friendship
continued uninterrupted till the death of our poet. The "Discourse
upon Epic Poetry" is dedicated to Lord Mulgrave, then duke of
Buckingham, and in high favour with Queen Anne, for whom he is
supposed to have long cherished a youthful passion. After the grave
of Dryden had remained twenty years without a memorial, this
nobleman had the honour to raise the present monument at his own
expence; being the latest, and certainly one of the most honourable
acts of his life.

Mr Malone, from Macky's "Secret Services," gives the following
character of Sheffield, duke of Buckingham:--"He is a nobleman of
learning and good natural parts, but of no princip