Richard Duke

Richard Duke (1658–1711) was an English clergyman and poet, associated with the Tory writers of the Restoration era.

He was born in London, son of Richard Duke, and was admitted to Westminster School in 1670. He was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1675, and proceeded B.A. in 1678, M.A. in 1682. He mingled with courtiers, playwrights and actors, was a general favourite.

Before the accession of James II he entered into holy orders, and was in 1687 presented to the rectory of Blaby in Leicestershire. In 1688 he was made a prebendary of Gloucester Cathedral, and soon afterwards became Gloucester proctor in convocation and also chaplain to Queen Anne.

Jonathan Trelawney, bishop of Winchester, in June 1707 made Duke his chaplain, and in July 1710 presented him to the living of Witney, Oxfordshire. Having returned from an entertainment on Saturday night, 10 February 1711, he was found dead in his bed next morning.

Francis Atterbury and Matthew Prior had been among his close friends, and on 16 February Jonathan Swift recorded Duke's death in his Journal to Stella, describing him as a wit.

He probably wrote much satirical verse, which can only be identified occasionally by internal evidence. Among works by Duke was the caustic satire on Titus Oates, printed by Nathanael Thompson, ‘A Panegyrick upon Oates,’ which is referred to in Duke's acknowledged companion poem, ‘An Epithalamium upon the Marriage of Captain William Bedloe,’ issued at Christmas 1679, and this was followed, near the end of August 1680, by ‘Funeral Tears upon the Death of Captain William Bedloe.’

He complimented the queen at Cambridge, September 1681. With Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon, Duke wrote several lampoons on the Duke of Monmouth during his so-called progresses in the west. He wrote in 1683, while a fellow of Trinity, an ‘Ode on the Marriage of Prince George of Denmark and the Lady Anne.’ On the death of Charles II he produced a poem beginning ‘If the indulgent Muse,’ &c.

...
Wikipedia