There is in the British Museum a letter of Dryden to
Etherege, dated Feb. 1688. I do not remember to have seen it in print.
"Oh," says Dryden, "that our monarch would encourage noble idleness by
his own example, as he of blessed memory did before him. For my mind
misgives me that he will not much advance his affairs by stirring."]

[Footnote 309: Barillon, Aug 29/Sep 8 1687.]

[Footnote 310: Told by Lord Bradford, who was present, to Dartmouth;
note on Burnet, i. 755.]

[Footnote 311: London Gazette, Dec. 12. 1687.]

[Footnote 312: Bonrepaux to Seignelay, Nov. 14/24.; Citters, Nov.
15/25.; Lords' Journals, Dec. 20. 1689.]

[Footnote 313: Citters, Oct 28/Nov 7 1687.]

[Footnote 314: Halstead's Succinct Genealogy of the Family of Vere,
1685; Collins's Historical Collections. See in the Lords' Journals, and
in Jones's Reports, the proceedings respecting the earldom of Oxford, in
March and April 1625/6. The exordium of the speech of Lord Chief Justice
Crew is among the finest specimens of the ancient English eloquence.
Citters, Feb. 7/17 1688.]

[Footnote 315: Coxe's Shrewsbury Correspondence; Mackay's Memoirs; Life
of Charles Duke of Shrewsbury, 1718; Burnet, i. 762.; Birch's Life
of Tillotson, where the reader will find a letter from Tillotson
to Shrewsbury, which seems to me a model of serious, friendly, and
gentlemanlike reproof.]

[Footnote 316: The King was only Nell's Charles III. Whether Dorset
or Major Hart had the honour of being her Charles I is a point open to
dispute. But the evidence in favour of Dorset's claim seems to me to
preponderate. See the suppressed passage of Burnet, i. 263.; and Pepys's
Diary, Oct. 26. 1667.]

[Footnote 317: Pepys's Diary; Prior's dedication of his poems to the
Duke of Dorset; Johnson's Life of Dorset; Dryden's Essay on Satire, and
Dedication of the Essay on Dramatic Poesy. The affection of Dorset
for his wife and his strict fidelity to her are mentioned with great
contempt by that profligate coxcomb Sir George Etherege in his
letters from Ratisbon, Dec. 9/19 1687, and Jan. 16/26 1688; Shadwell's
Dedication of the Squire of Alsatia; Burnet, i. 264.; Mackay's
Characters. Some parts of Dorset's character are well touched in his
epitaph, written by Pope:

"Yet soft his nature, though severe his lay"

and again:

"Blest courtier, who could king and country please,
Yet sacred keep his friendships and his ease."]

[Footnote 318: Barillon, Jan. 9/19 168