FULL OF GOOD RESOLUTIONS.

261

marks, 'that the name of Aubrey will not much recommend it to credit.' The fact is however related, as he adds, 'by a man who had no interest to deceive, and who could not be deceived himself:' he quotes, therefore, what Osborne says of supernatural appearances, as a dictum to be applied to such presentiments as these:

'Do not wholly slight them, because they may be true: but do not wholly trust them, because they may be false.' An injunction about as decisive as Sir Roger de Coverley's reply when a case was put to him, 'that there was much to be said on both sides of the question,'

Roscommon, after leaving Caen, travelled into Italy, and amused himself with the study of medals and other antiquities. He returned, like Rochester, full of good impulses as well as of talent, to the court of Charles the Second. Like Rochester he fell into excesses; but, unlike Rochester, he emerged from a dissolute life into one of study, of peace, and of repentance. He was made Captain of the Band of Pensioners; and in that dangerous post, hovering about the court, Roscommon contracted a passion for gaming. Still the generosity of his nature was not obliterated-still he was fit for greater and better things than to assist in the dissolute revels of Whitehall.

His affairs, however, became embarrassed: and being obliged to go to Ireland, the Duke of Ormond made him Captain of the Guards in Dublin. One evening, whilst in that city, the young Earl was returning from a gaming-house to his own lodgings, when three ruffians attacked him in the dark, with an intention of murdering him. Roscommon was brave and skilful: he killed one of his assailants; a gentleman coming by disarmed a second; the third assassin took flight. Who, then, Roscommon inquired, was his deliverer?' It proved that he was a disbanded officer, of an honourable character, but so poor that he could not, for want of a good suit of plain clothes, pay his respects to my Lord Deputy at the Castle. Roscommon not only presented him to the Duke,

262

MARRIES LADY FRANCES COURTENEY.

but begged that this meritorious and neglected man might have his commission in the Guards. The Duke consented; and, during three years, the officer enjoyed that post: at his death the commission was returned to Roscommon.

The Earl now settled down into a studious man: he married, choosing the Lady Frances Courteney, the daughter of the Earl of Burlington, as his wife.

He now showed that his foreign travels had not been without benefit; and formed a plan, in conjunction with Dryden, of establishing a society in order to refine our language, and fix a standard of purity. The design, though an excellent one, was rendered impracticable by the disturbed state of the nation whilst James the Second reigned, and it was, therefore, relinquished. Italy and France had, to a certain extent, succeeded in a similar effort. But in this country, a wiser head than Roscommon's had decided that an academy established on that plan would be inefficient. If an academician's place were paid for,' says Johnson, it would be given by interest; if attendance were gratuitous, it would be rarely paid, and no man would endure the least disgust.'

Alarmed at the aspect of affairs at home, Lord Roscommon was preparing to withdraw to Rome, when an attack of the gout ended his life. Impatient of suffering, he had employed a French quack doctor to relieve him, and the disorder became vital. As he expired, the Earl repeated, with deep devotion, these lines:

'My God, my Father, and my Friend,
Do not forsake me in my end.'

They were taken from his version of 'Dies Iræ,' one of the best of this poet's few works; for much greater credit is due to Roscommon for his endeavours to purify our language, than for his poems taken individually. Severe in judgment, he shone chiefly in the didactic style. He was considered as the most correct writer in verse before Addison's time; but

EXCELLENT LINES OF HIS.

263

the almost total indifference of our own and of recently past times, both to Addison's poems and to those of Lord Roscommon, proves that correctness is one of the merits least appreciated by lovers of poetry. He had, however, a far higher merit; his verses were free from the licentiousness of his times. Even Pope thus refers to him:

'Unhappy Dryden! in all Charles's days,
Roscommon only boasts unspotted rays.'

And again, in his Essay on Criticism,' he says—

'Yet some there were, among the sounder few
Of those who less presum'd, and better knew,
Who durst assert the juster ancient cause,
And here restored wit's fundamental laws:
Such was the muse, whose rules and practice tell,
"Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well."
Such was Roscommon, not more learn'd than good,
With manners gen'rous as his noble blood :
To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known,
And every author's merit, but his own.'

CHAPTER XII.

STATE OF THE TIMES AT THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES II.

LIGHT LITERATURE.

FAVOURABLE TO QUOTATIONS FROM PEPYS. -DE GRAMMONT AT THE CORONATION OF CHARLES II. -THE EARL OF ROCHESTER. -SOME ANECDOTES OF HIM. HIS POEM UPON 'NOTHING."' HIS LINES ON SIR CAR SCROOP.SIR CAR'S ANSWER.- ROCHESTER'S DEATH.-SIR CHARLES SEDLEY.—ETHEREGE. DE GRAMMONT.-ST. EVREMOND'S EPITAPH ON HIM. THE COURT AT WHITEHALL. -THE PLAGUE.-CONDUCT OF PEPYS AND OF EVELYN AT THAT CRISIS. EFFECTS OF THE PLAGUE ON LIGHT LITERATURE.