favour me with, you had best send them directed for me of Lord George Beauclerke's Regiment, at this place, to Mr. Adair, and he will forward them in the Regimental Packet. Let me beg of you to let me hear from you soon; indeed, there is not a man in the world I esteem more, or so much, as yourself; so once more, dear friend, adieu.

APPENDIX.

THE

POEMS

OF

SIR BENJAMIN RUDYERD, KNIGHT:

WITH THOSE WHICH WERE WRITTEN IN CONJUNCTION WITH HIM

BY

WILLIAM, THIRD EARL OF PEMBROKE.

a

INTRODUCTION

TO THE

POEMS OF SIR B. RUDYERD.

IN introducing the reprint of Rudyerd's Poems, together with such of Lord Pembroke's as were written in conjunction with him, the object the Editor had in view was merely to bring within one compass all he could find, either in print or manuscript, relative to the same individual; and not with any idea of establishing our author's name as one of the bright luminaries of Parnassus. The opinions expressed by Ben Jonson and his contemporaries upon the poetical merits of Sir Benjamin, however complimentary, will probably meet with but little accord from the present generation. The Editor's ideas upon this subject he has taken the liberty to commit to paper towards the commencement of these Memoirs, p. 21, where he has probably hazarded opinions upon a subject of which his inexperience must render him very incompetent to form a judgment, although he has twice presumptuously invaded the territory of the Muses. He cannot, how

ever, withhold the just meed of praise due to our author Rudyerd, for many beautiful ideas which are to be found in his poems; and in answer to the opinions of those who consider them unworthy the gravity and statesmanlike character of his parliamentary career, the Editor begs to remind them that almost all Rudyerd's poems were the effusions of his younger days, his speeches the efforts of maturer years. The lines upon seeing the Countess of Pembroke's picture are very neat, and the idea extremely pleasing. As an impromptu, they are equal to any thing in the nature of complimentary verse of the period. Donne, the son of the learned Dr. John Donne, dean of St. Paul's, the intimate friend and companion of Rudyerd, Ben Jonson, Walter Raleigh, and all the great men of his day, published Pembroke's and Rudyerd's Poems under the following title:-" Poems written by the Right Honourable William, Earl of Pembroke, Lord Steward of His Majesties Household; whereof many of which are answered by way of Repartee, by Sir Benjamin Ruddier, Knight: with several distinct Poems, written by them occasionally and apart. London Printed by Matthew Monan, and are to be sold by James Magnes in Russel Street, near the Piazza in Covent Garden. 1660." But Sir Egerton Brydges has expressed an opinion that the lines beginning "Oh! faithless world," &c. attributed by Donne to Rudyerd, were written mostly by Sir Henry Wotton; and he gives as a reason the fact of their having been published in the "Reliquiæ Wottonianæ," 1651. He admits, however, that several lines may have been added by Rudyerd, as they do not appear either in that work or Davison's "Rhapsody." Sir Egerton Brydges alludes particularly to