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).