315 ([return])
[ 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.]
316 ([return])
[ 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.]
317 ([return])
[ 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.">[
318 ([return])
[ Barillon, Jan. 9/19 1688; Citters, Jan 31/Feb 10]
319 ([return])
[ Adda, Feb. 3/13 10/20 1688.]