[46] The reader is not to forget, that Mr. SPRAT is writing to the Lord ST. ALBANS, and was, at this time, chaplain to the Duke of BUCKINGHAM.
[47] “Ingenium illustre altioribus studiis juvenis admodum dedit: non, ut PLERIQUE, UT NOMINE MAGNIFICO SEGNE OTIUM VELARET, sed quo firmior adversus fortuita rempublicam capesseret.” [_Hist._ IV. 5.]—Part of the fine character given us of HELVIDIUS PRISCUS.
[48] THE ROYAL SOCIETY; not yet instituted, but much talked of at this time.
[49] We have in this remonstrance that follows, the usual language of those we call our _friends_; which may sometimes be the _cause_, but is oftner the _pretence_, of ambition. Hear how gravely Sir DUDLEY CARLTON, who loved business, and drudged on in it all his life, is pleased, in an evil hour, to express himself: “The best is, I was never better, and were it not more for a necessity that is imposed by the EXPECTATION OF FRIENDS, not to stand at a stay and SENESCERE, whilst a man is young, than for ambition, I would not complain myself of my misfortune.” [Sir RALPH WINWOOD’S _Memorials_, vol. II. p. 45.]
[50] That Mr. COWLEY _had_ his prince’s grace appears from what the king said of him, on the news of his death: “_That he had not left a_ BETTER _man behind him in_ England.” And this with _grace_ enough, in reason, from SUCH a prince.—How it came to pass that he _wanted_ the grace of his peers (if, indeed, he _did_ want it), hath been explained in a note, p. 140.
[51] The application of this line is the affair of the _Mastership of the_ Savoy; “which though granted, says Mr. Wood, to his highest merit by both the CHARLESES I. and II. yet by certain persons, enemies to the Muses, he lost that place.” But this was not the worst. For, such is the hard lot of unsuccessful men, the _Savoy-missing_ COWLEY became the object of ridicule, instead of pity, even to the wits themselves; as may be seen in “_The session of the poets_, amongst _the miscellaneous poems_ published by Mr. DRYDEN.”
Quid DOMINI facient, audent si talia FURES?
[52] Printed among his works, under the name of THE COMPLAINT. The relation it has to the subject debated, made me think it not amiss to print it at the end of this Dialogue—It must raise one’s indignation to find that so just, so delicate, and so manly a _complaint_ should be scoffed at, as it was by the wits before mentioned, under the name of THE PITIFUL MELANCHOLY.