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PAganus Piscator, vulgarly Fisher, was a no∣table Undertaker in Latin Verse, and had well deserved of his Country, had not lucre of Gain and private Ambition over-swayed his Pen, to favour successful Rebellion. He wrote in Latin his Marston-Moor; A Gratulatory Ode of Peace;
Englished afterwards by Thomas Manley, and other Latin pieces, besides English ones, not a few, which (as we said) might have been meriting, had not those worldly Considerations over-swayed the Dictates of his own Conscience. But this his tem∣porizing with the Times, preferred him to be Poet Laureat (if that were any Preferment) to that notorious Traytor Oliver Cromwell; to whom be∣ing Usurper, if his Muse did homag••, it must be considered (saith Mr. Phillips) that Poets in all times have been inclinable to ingratiate them∣selves with the highest in Power, by what Title so ever.
However it was, I have heard him often con∣fess his Unhappiness therein: and imparted to me a design he had, of committing to memory the Monuments of the several Churches in London and Westminster; not only those mentioned by Stow and Weaver, but also those who have been erected since, which might have been of great use to Posterity, had it been done before the great Conflagration of the Fire, thereby preserving ma∣ny Monuments, endangered since to be lost, but Death interposing hindred him of his De∣sign.