John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby

John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby

John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, KG, PC (7 April 1648 – 24 February 1721), English statesman and poet, was the son of Edmund Sheffield, 2nd Earl of Mulgrave, and succeeded to that title on his father’s death in 1658.

Quotes

• Of all those arts in which the wise excel,
  Nature’s chief masterpiece is writing well.
  • Essay on Poetry (published 1723).

• There's no such thing in Nature; and you'll draw
  A faultless monster which the world ne’er saw.
  • Essay on Poetry (published 1723).
    Compare:
    "'High characters,' cries one, and he would see/ Things that ne’er were, nor are, nor e’er will be", John Suckling, The Goblins, Epilogue.
    "Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see,/ Thinks what ne’er was, nor is, nor e’er shall be", Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1711), Part II, line 53.

• Read Homer once, and you can read no more;
  For all books else appear so mean, so poor,
  Verse will seem prose; but still persist to read,
  And Homer will be all the books you need.
  • Essay on Poetry (published 1723).