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was the author of several plays; but falling
under the lash of Mr. Dryden, was satirized
by him under the character of Ogg, in the
second part of his Absalom and Achitophel.
12. The monument of Matthew Prior,
is adorned with great expence. On one
side of the pedestal stands the figure of
Thalia, one of the Muses, with a flute in
her hand; and on the other History, with
her book shut; between these statues is
Prior's bust upon a raised altar, and over it is
a handsome pediment, on the ascending sides
of which are two boys, one with an hour-
glass in his hand run out; the other holding
a torch reversed. On the apex of the pedi-
ment is an urn, and on the base of the
monument is a long inscription in Latin,
mentioning the public posts and employ-
ments with which he had been intrusted;
and above we are informed, that while he was
writing the history of his own times, death
interposed, and broke both the thread of
his discourse and of his life, on the 18th
of September 1721, in the fifty-seventh year
of his age.
13. The monument of St. Evremond is
a very plain one, adorned with a bust. The
inscription observes, that he was of a noble
family in Normandy, and was employed in
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the army of France, in which he rose to
the rank of a Marshal; but returning to
Holland, was from thence invited by King
Charles II. into England, where he lived
in the greatest intimacy with the King and
principal nobility; more particularly with
the Duchess of Mazarine. He was of a very
sprightly turn of humour, as well in his
conversation as writings, and lived to the
age of ninety, when he was carried off by
a fit of the strangury, on the 9th of Sep-
tember 1703.
14. The monument erected to the me-
mory of the immortal Shakespear, a print
of which we have here given, is worthy of
that great dramatic writer, and both the
design and execution are extremely elegant.
Upon a handsome pedestal stands his statue
in white marble in the habit of the time
in which he lived, with one elbow leaning
upon some books, and his head reclined
upon his hand, in a posture of medita-
tion. The attitude, the dress, the shape,
the genteel air, and fine composure ob-
servable in this figure of Shakespear,
cannot be sufficiently admired, and the
beautiful lines of his upon the scroll are
happily chosen.
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