By letting him know the Laureat did write
That damnable Farce, ‘The House to be Let.’
Intelligence was brought, the Court being set
That a Play Tripartite was very near made;
Where malicious Matt. Clifford, and spirituall Spratt,
Were join’d with their Duke, a Peer of the Trade,” &c.
The author did not avow himself. It must have been written, we hold, in 1664-5. The second is variously attributed to John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, and to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, being printed in the works of both. It begins:—
“Since the Sons of the Muses grew num’rous and loud,
For th’ appeasing so factious and clam’rous a crowd,