Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 611-3.)
Burnet's two characters of Charles II are in striking agreement with the more elaborate study by Halifax.
Page 221, ll. 1 ff. Compare Halifax, p. 216, ll. 10 ff.
l. 14. his Chancellor, Clarendon.
Page 222, l. 16. he became cruel. This statement was attacked by Roger North, Lives of the Norths, ed. 1890, vol. i, p. 330: 'whereas some of our barbarous writers call this awaking of the king's genius to a sedulity in his affairs, a growing cruel, because some suffered for notorious treasons, I must interpret their meaning; which is a distaste, because his majesty was not pleased to be undone as his father was; and accordingly, since they failed to wound his person and authority, they fell to wounding his honour.' Buckingham says, 'He was an Illustrious Exception to all the Common Rules of Phisiognomy; for with a most Saturnine harsh sort of Countenance, he was both of a Merry and a Merciful Disposition' (ed. 1705, p. 159); with which compare Welwood, ed. 1700, p. 149. The judicial verdict had already been pronounced by Halifax: see p. 216, ll. 23 ff.
ll. 21-3. See Burnet, ed. Osmund Airy, vol. i, p. 539, for the particular reference. The scandal was widespread, but groundless.
Page 223, l. 9. the war of Paris, the Fronde. See Clarendon, vol. v, pp. 243-5.
ll. 11 ff. Compare Buckingham, ed. 1705, p. 157: 'Witty in all sorts of Conversation; and telling a Story so well, that, not out of Flattery, but the Pleasure of hearing it, we seem'd Ignorant of what he had repeated to us Ten Times before; as a good Comedy will bear the being often seen.' Also Halifax, p. 208, ll. 7-14.
l. 17. John Wilmot (1647-80), second Earl of Rochester, son of Henry Wilmot, first Earl (No. 32). Burnet knew him well and wrote his life, Some Passages of the Life and Death Of the Right Honourable John Earl of Rochester, 1680; 'which', says Johnson, 'the critick ought to read for its elegance, the philosopher for its arguments, and the saint for its piety' (Lives of the Poets, ed. G.B. Hill, vol. i, p. 222).
ll. 25 ff. The resemblance to Tiberius was first pointed out in print in Welwood's Memoirs, p. 152, which appeared twenty-four years before Burnet's History. But Welwood was indebted to Burnet. He writes as if they had talked about it; or he might have seen Burnet's early manuscript.