EDWARD HOWARD,

EIGHTH EARL OF SUFFOLK,

A 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. He published two separate volumes, the first entitled

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

⚫ 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 66 Elegancies."

[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 4, in 1731.

3

["London: Printed for S. Billingsley, at the Judge's Head, in Chancery Lane, 1728. Price 38. 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."

66 Eclogues." "Satyrs."

"Ideas 5, &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."

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

"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."

• 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."

annex'd, Elegancies, taken out of Milton's Paradise Lost. By a Person of Quality." Lond. 1725, 8vo. This is the transplantation adverted to by lord Orford in page 134.

Perhaps the following picture of a beau of that period may be as amusing an extract as can be selected from his lordship's olio:

"UPON A BEAU.

"Adorn'd with silks, and a huge flaunting wig, He proudly tramps, and looks most vastly big, Struts like an actor on the Gallic stage,

And boasts himself-example of the age!

Though, by his leave, there should a diff'rence be
Between rude fops and those of high degree.

A lord in rich embroidery may shine,

Which for a ninny will be much too fine;
Yet let the saucy fop gold laces wear,
On him they will but tinsel-like appear:
And as the learn'd Erasmus says-an ape
An ape will be, though tissue cloathe his shape;
So Hewet for the beau may garments frame,
The fabrick of his mind is still the same.

With cane most nicely at a button hung,
And empty head upon his shoulders slung,
Humming a tune the flutt'ring beau you'll meet
At ev'ry turn in laudable Fleet Street;
A vain, a flutt'ring, and a chatt'ring thing,.

To whom an Indian parrot is a king:

And that to you his person may be known,
Of various marks I need not hint but one;
His hat he like a ballad-singer wears,
Preserving from the wind his Midas' ears.

Thus reason, sense, and breeding, by this fool
Are metamorphos'd into ridicule :

But Fulvia is delighted with his charms,

We'll therefore leave the coxcomb in her arms"."

An advertisement prefixed to Musarum Deliciæ, announces that " speedily will be published Alcander, or the Prince of Arcadia 8. By the same author."]

' Satyrs, p. 85.

8 It is uncertain whether this Arcadian tale ever made its public appearance; nor can that uncertainty be regretted, when we find in the writer's pastoral poetry such affected terms as "nefandous wiles," "truculent hearts,” and “immarcescible beauties."