Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 1.djvu/298

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ROCHESTER.
Leaving him to be murder'd in the street,
Then put it off with some buffoon conceit:
Him, thus dishonour'd, for a wit you own,
And court him as top fidler of the town.

This was meant of Rochester, whose buffoon conceit was, I suppose, a saying often mentioned, that every Man would be a coward if he durst; and drew from him those furious verses; to which Scroop made in reply an epigram, ending with these lines:

Thou canst hurt no man's fame with thy ill word;
Thy pen is full as harmless as thy sword.

Of the satire against Man, Rochester can only claim what remains when all Boileau's part is taken away.

In all his works there is spriteliness and vigour, and every where may be found tokens of a mind which study might have carried to excellence. What more can be expected from a life spent in ostentatious contempt of regularity, and ended before the abilities of many other men began to be displayed?

Poema