p. [350] A Pastoral Pindarick. On the Marriage of the Right Hon. the Earle of Dorset and Middlesex to the Lady Mary Compton. Charles Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, sixth Earl of Dorset and Earl of Middlesex (1638-1706), wit, courtier, poet, debauchee, married his second wife Mary, daughter of James Compton, third Earl of Northampton, in 1685. Lady Mary Compton, who became lady of the bedchamber to Queen Mary II, was celebrated for her beauty and understanding. She died 6 August 1691. Walpole says of Sackville that he was the finest gentleman of the voluptuous court of Charles II. It has been well observed that after 1668 we hear little of his debaucheries, much of his munificence to and patronage of men of letters.
p. [359] Calenture. A tropical fever and delirium, especially incidental to sailors in torrid climes. Hence used very widely for any glow, passion, ardour, cf. Donne, Poems: 'Knowledge kindles Calenture in some.' Jeremy Taylor speaks of 'Calentures of primitive devotion'.
p. [360] To Amintas. To Amintas, upon reading the Lives of some of the Romans. The Muses Mercury reprints this poem, April, 1707, as 'To Mr. H——le, being belov'd by both Sexes. Upon Reading the Lives of the Romans. By Mrs. A. Behn.' In the British Museum copy of this number an old hand has supplied the omitted letters 'oy' and we have Mr. Hoyle.
p. [361] On the first discovery. This poem appeared in the Muses Mercury, March, 1707, with the following note: 'If it were proper to make publick what we have learnt of the Story of the Author of the following Verses, 'twould be an unquestionable Proof of their being genuine. For they are all Writ with her own Hand in a Person's Book who was very much her Friend; and from thence are now transcrib'd for the Mercury. There are Fifteen or Sixteen Copies of Verse more, which will in due time be printed in this Collection. There's no Man who knows any thing of Mrs. Behn's way of Writing, but will presently see, that this Poem was written by her Self; and the rest are of the same Character.' The Muses Mercury, as a fact, gave eleven other poems beside the present verses. Eight of these had already been printed: On the first discovery of falseness in Amintas (p. 361) appears March, 1707, as The Disoblig'd Love. To Amintas (p. 360) appears April, 1707, as To Mr. H——le, being belov'd by both Sexes. Upon reading the Lives of the Romans. The Dream (p. 183) appears May, 1707, as Cupid in Chains. Of The Return (p. 173) the first two stanzas appear August, 1707, as 'To J. Hoyle, Esq.' Song (When Jemmy first) (p. 165) appears September, 1707, as On Capt. —— going to the War in Flanders. To the Honourable Edward Howard (p. 204) appears October, 1707, as To the Author of a new Eutopia, A Pindarick. The Willing Mistriss (p. 163) appears December, 1707, as A Song for J. H. Mr. E. B. and Mrs. F. M. (p. 159) appears January, 1708, as The Loves of Mirtillo and Phillis. From their notice and the reprinting of so many pieces it would seem that the editors of the Muses Mercury were not very well acquainted with Mrs. Behn's published Poems.
p. [364] Westminster Drollery. This song has been here included from Westminster Drollery (1671), on the authority of Ebsworth. It cannot, however, originally be Mrs. Behn's since it appears in a fuller form as To his Whore who askt money of him (Wit and Drollery, 1656). There are other variants. It will be remembered that in The Rover, II, v, 1 (Vol. I, p. 195), Willmore jestingly sings the fifth verse to La Nuche.
Miscellany, 1685.
p. [365]. Sir William Clifton. Sir William Clifton, Bart., of Clifton, Notts, the only surviving son of Sir Clifford Clifton, Knight, and Frances his wife, daughter of Sir Heneage Finch, Knight, Recorder of London, succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his uncle Sir Gervase Clifton, 14 January, 1675. Sir William Clifton died unmarried, leaving two sisters, coheirs.
p. [368] On the Death of the late Earl of Rochester. John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester, libertine, poet, wit, died from a complication of ailments due to his profligacies on 26 July, 1680, at the High Lodge, Woodstock Park, whither he had journeyed in the preceding April. During the last three months of his life he shewed signs of a sincere penitence. He was much comforted by the ministrations of his chaplain, Robert Parsons, and on 25 June he wrote to Gilbert Burnet to come and receive his death-bed repentance. Burnet arrived 20 July, and stayed four days, spending the time in consolatory exhortations and prayer. Parsons' funeral sermon giving an account of Rochester's death and penitence is well known, but Burnet's book, Some Passages of the Life and Death of John, Earl of Rochester (1680, 8vo), has been even more constantly re-issued. The Earl was buried in the north aisle of Spelsbury church, Oxfordshire, but without any inscription or monument to mark the grave.
p. [369] Cyprus. A fine transparent stuff now called crape, cf. Winter's Tale, iv, iv (first folio):—