64

Will Davenant, twenty pounds; To Mr. Mart Clifford," twenty pounds; To Mr. Thomas Sprat, twenty pounds; To Mr. Thomas Cook, twenty pounds; To Dr. Charles Scarburgh, twenty pounds; To Dr. Thomas Croyden, twenty pounds; To my mayd, Mary (besides what I ow her, and all my wearing linen), twenty pounds; To my servant, Thomas Waldron, ten pounds and most of my wearing clothes at my brother's choise; To Mary, my brother's mayd, five pounds; To the poore of the town of Chertsea, twenty pounds.

65

"I doe farther leave to the Honourable John Hervey, of Ickworth, Esquire, my share and interest in his Highnes the Duke of York's Theater."" And to ye Right Honble the Earl of St Albans, my Lord, and once kind Master, a Ring of ten pounds, onely in memory of my duty and affection to him, not being able to give anything worthy his acceptance, nor hee (God bee praised) in need of any gifts from such persons as I.

"If anything bee due to mee from Trinity College [Cambridge], I leave it to bee bestowed in books upon yt library; and I leave besides to Doctor Robert Crane, Fellowe of ye said College, a Ring of five pounds valew, as a small token of or freindship.

"I desire my dear friend, Mr Thomas Sprat, to trouble himselfe wth ye collection and revision of all such writings of mine (whether printed before or not) as hee shall thinke fit to be published, Beseeching him not to let any passe which hee shall judge unworthy of the name of his friend, and most especially nothing (if anything of yt kind have escaped my pen) wch may give the least offence in point of religion or good manners. And in consideration of this unpleasant task, I desire him to accept of my Study of Books."7

63 Of Martin Clifford, usually called Mat Clifford, little is known. Wood mentions, in his manuscript additions to his own copy of the Athenæ Oxonienses, that he was a lieutenant in Thomas Earl of Osorry's regiment, in 1660; for which he quotes Merc. Pub., p. 510. He was elected from Westminster to Trinity College, Cambridge, made Master of the Charter House 17th Nov., 1671, and died 10th Dec., 1677.-MALONE's Life of Dryden.

He is said to have had a hand in 'The Rehearsal,' performed for the first time on the 7th Dec. 1671; and to have been the author of 'Four Letters' on Dryden's Poems, printed in 4to., 1687, ten years after his death. The last letter is dated Charter House, July 1, 1672.

44 He (Mr. Cowley) told me the last time that ever I saw him. of which his friend Mr. Cook is a witness.-SPRAT's Life of Cowley.

65 John Hervey, of Ickworth, Treasurer of the Household to Catherine, queen of Charles II. ob. 18th Jan., 1679-80. "The first occasion of his entering into business was the elegy that he wrote on Mr. Hervey's death. This brought him into the acquaintance of Mr. John Hervey, the brother of his deceased friend; from whom he received many offices of kindness through the whole course of his life, and principally this, that by his means he came into the service of my Lord St. Alban's."-SPRAT's Life of Cowley.

Mr. Hervey's mother was Susan Jermyn, daughter of Sir Robert Jermyn, of Rushbrook, grandfather to Henry Jermyn. Earl of St. Alban's. Ickworth and Rushbrook are in Suffolk, near Bury St. Edmunds. In a damp gallery at Ickworth I saw in 1852 a highly interesting but sadly neglected portrait of Cowley's friend Hervey.

66 Cowley's comedy, 'Cutter of Coleman Street,' was first acted at the Duke's theatre. Sir William Davenant was the patentee of the theatre.

67 Mr. Cowley in his will recommended to my care the revising of all his works that were

"This I declare to bee my last Will and Testament. Lord have mercy upon my soul. Written by my own hand, signed and sealed, at Chertsea, this 28th day of September, 1665.

formerly printed, and the collecting of those papers which he had designed for the press. And he did it with this particular obligation, That I should be sure to let nothing pass that might seem the least offence to religion or good manners. A caution which you [Martin Clifford] will judge to have been altogether needless. For certainly, in all ancient and modern times, there can scarce any author be found that has handled so many different matters in such various sorts of style, who less wants the correction of his friends, or has less reason to fear the severity of strangers.-SPRAT's Life of Cowley, 1669.

68 The poet's man-servant. See the body of the will.

Let me add here that Cowley did not excel in conversation, and that only one of his sayings has been preserved. "Pray, Mr. Howard, if you did read your grammar, what harm would N do you?" This was to Ned Howard. (See Pope's 'Letter to a Noble Lord.")

DENHA M.

1615-1668.

Born at Dublin-Educated at Oxford and Lincoln's Inn-Addicted to Gaming-Becomes unexpectedly a Poet-Sides with Charles I.-Writes 'Cooper's Hill '-Employed by Charles I.— Made Knight of the Bath and Surveyor of the Works-His two Wives-Becomes InsaneDeath and Burial in Westminster Abbey-Character and Works.

OF SIR JOHN DENHAM very little is known but what is related of him by Wood, or by himself.

He was born at Dublin in 1615; the only son of Sir John Denham, of Little Horsely in Essex, then chief baron of the Exchequer in Ireland, and of Eleanor, daughter of Sir Garret More, baron of Mellefont.'

Two years afterwards, his father, being made [July, 1617] one of the barons of the Exchequer in England, brought him away from his native country, and educated him in London.

In 1631, he was sent to [Trinity College] Oxford, where he was considered " as a dreaming young man, given more to cards and dice than study," and therefore gave no prognostics of his future eminence-nor was suspected to conceal, under sluggishness and laxity, a genius born to improve the literature of his country.

When he was, three years afterwards, removed to Lincoln's Inn, he prosecuted the common law with sufficient appearance of application, yet did not lose his propensity to cards and dice; but was very often plundered by gamesters.

Being severely reproved for this folly, he professed, and perhaps believed, himself reclaimed; and, to testify the sincerity of his repentance, wrote and published 'An Essay upon Gaming.”

1 She was his second wife. His first wife was the widow of Richard Kellefet of Egham, chief groom in Queen Elizabeth's 'removing gardrobe of beddes' and 'yeoman of Her Majesty's standing gardrobe at Richmond.'

2 The Anatomy of Play, written by a worthy and learned Gent. Dedicated to his father to show his detestation of it. London, 1645, sm. 8vo.