Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 1.djvu/406

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[396]

Of Mr. JOHN POMFRET nothing is known but from a slight and confused account prefixed to his poems by a nameless friend; who relates, that he was the son of the Rev. Mr. Pomfret, rector of Luton in Bedfordshire; that he was bred at Cambridge[1]; entered into orders, and was the rector of Malden in Bedfordshire, and might have risen in the church; but that when he applied to Dr. Compton, bishop of London, for institution to a living of considerable value, to which he had been presented, he found a troublesome obstruction raised by a malicious interpretation of some passage in his Choice; from which it was inferred, that he considered happiness as more likely to be found in the company of a mistress than of a wife.

  1. He was of Queen's College there, and, by the University register, appears to have taken his Bachelor's degree in 1584, and his Master's in 1698.H.
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