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having drunk to intoxication, was proceeding, with lights in his hands, to show his guests from his apartments, when he lost his balance, and, tumbling headlong down stairs, broke his neck in the fall. He died at Ratisbon, according to Dennis, either in 1693 or 1694. The year 1688, however, seems to be the last in which any evidence of his existence can be traced in the records of his native country.

By his wife, Etherege is believed to have left no children. By the beautiful actress, Mrs. Barry, to whom poor Otway addresses his six well-known pathetic letters, he left one daughter, on whom he contrived to settle six or seven thousand pounds. The child, however, did not long live to benefit by the provision.*

In the words of Oldys, Sir George Etherege was a man of much courtesy and delicate address." Profligacy, sprightliness, and good humour, seem to have been his principal characteristics. In person he is described as a “fair, slender, and genteel man," and his face is said to have been handsome. In later times, however, his comeliness is reported to have been spoiled by the effect of intemperance and the exceeding irregularity of his career.

* Oldys, MS. Notes to Langbaine, p. 136, Biog. Brit. on the authority of John Bowman, the actor, who was acquainted with Etherege.

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SIR CHARLES SEDLEY.

Parentage of Sir Charles-Waller's Epitaph on his Mother-Sedley's first Appearance at Court-His Reception among the WitsInsidious Libertinism of his Poetry-His Dramatic Writings— Narrowly escapes being Crushed to Death-His famous Frolic in Covent Garden-Kynaston the Actor-Sedley reforms his Conduct -His Daughter the Countess of Dorchester-Witty Speech of Sir Charles-His Death.

SIR CHARLES SEDLEY was another of those gifted profligates of whom the Court of Charles was so prolific. Like Etherege, he was no less distinguished by his wit and vivacity in social life, than by his reckless pursuit of pleasure. Their poetry, moreover, is characterised by the same insinuating and poisonous sweetness. It was to this fraternity of libertinism that Evelyn alludes in his imitation of one of Ovid's Elegies,

"While fathers are severe, and servants cheat,
Sedley and easy Etherege will be great."

Again, in a couplet already quoted, we find,

"Here gentle Etherege and Sedley's Muse

Warm the coy maid, and melting love infuse."

-

Sir Charles Sedley was born at Aylesford in Kent, about the year 1639. He was the grandson of Sir William Sedley, Baronet, who founded the Sedleian Lecture of Natural Philosophy at Oxford, and son of Sir John Sedley, also a Kentish Baronet. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Saville, the learned Provost of Eton, whose fortune and talents she seems to

have inherited. Waller wrote her epitaph in beautiful verse, though the ideas are apparently borrowed from Grotius:

"Here lies the learned Saville's heir,

So early wise, and lasting fair,

That none, except her years they told,

Thought her a child, or thought her old."

According to Anthony Wood, her promising son was entered, at the age of seventeen, a Fellow Commoner of Wadham College, Oxford. After remaining a due time at the University, he retired to his father's house, where he continued till the Restoration.

The poet first appeared at Court about the year 1667. In the brilliant assemblage of wit and humour which Charles assembled round his person, there was no one who was more courted for his society, or admired for his talents. The King, who especially delighted in his convivial qualities, observed of his favourite, that "Nature had given him a patent to be Apollo's Viceroy." +

Sedley's poetry has at least the merit of being free from these obscene expressions, which sully, if they do not entirely degrade, the pages of Suckling, Rochester, and other libertine versifyers of the age. In that more dangerous art, which, while it offends not the taste, insensibly kindles the imagination, he was certainly a pernicious adept. The Duke of Buckingham called it Sedley's witchcraft," and Lord Rochester writes on the subject,―

"For songs and verses, mannerly obscene,

That can stir nature up by springs unseen;
And, without forcing blushes, warm the quean-

* Unica lux sæcli, genitoris gloria, nemo

Quem puerum, nemo credidit esse senem.

"Criterions of Plagiarism." (Rambler, No. 143.)

+ Scott's Dryden, vol. iv. p. 438.

Sedley has that prevailing, gentle art,
That can, with a resistless charm, impart
The loosest wishes to the chastest heart;
Raise such a conflict, kindle such a fire,
Betwixt declining virtue and desire ;

Till the poor vanquish'd maid dissolves away,

In dreams all night, and sighs and tears all day."

Langhorne, in his "Effusions of Fancy," considers that these verses rather allude to Sedley's "personal address" than to the witchery of his writings. The critic, however, could scarcely have paid any attention to the commencing line.

Sedley appears to have been no less popular with his brother poets, than with the fashionable and high-born hangers-on of the Court. Dryden dedicated to him his "Assignation," and Shadwell grows warm when he speaks of his brilliant conversational powers. "I have heard him," he says, "speak more wit at a supper, than all his adversaries could have written in a year.'

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Sir Charles, in addition to his agreeable lyrics, was the author of several plays. The latter, indeed, have little merit, but, as they suited the taste of the age, they obtained an ephemeral popularity. His tragedy of " Anthony and Cleopatra" was first acted at the Duke's Theatre in 1667; his "Mulberry Garden," a comedy, was brought out at Drury Lane in 1668, and his "Bellamira, or the Mistress," in 1687. It was during the performance of the latter play at the King's House, that an unfortunate accident happened. The roof of the theatre suddenly fell in, and, singularly enough, Sedley himself was one of those who had the narrowest escape from destruction. Sir Fleetwood Shepherd* told him, that there was so

* Sir Fleetwood Shepherd was the friend and patron of Prior,—who has inscribed two of his smaller poems to him, -and one of the gay companions of Charles II. He was the son of William Shepherd of

much fire in the piece, that it blew up the poet, house, audience and all. "No," replied Sedley, "it was so heavy that it broke the house down, and buried the poet in his own rubbish."* Sir Charles was also the author of "Beauty the Conqueror," a tragedy; and, apparently, of two other dramatic pieces which have occasionally been attributed to him.

Profligate and debauched Sedley certainly was. His disgraceful frolic at the Cock Tavern, in Bow Street, Covent Garden, on which his genius has conferred an unfortunate notoriety, is not only too indecent to bear repetition, but was an insult even to the age in which he lived. The mob attempted to break open the doors, and, in the riot which ensued, Sedley, Sir Thomas Ogle, and Lord Buckhurst, "the best good man," nearly lost their lives. They were taken before the Court of Common Pleas, where a heavy fine was inflicted upon them, the penalty imposed on Sedley being no less than five hundred pounds. When placed at the bar, Sir Robert Hyde, the Lord Chief Justice, in commenting on the offence, inquired sarcastically of Sedley if he had ever read the Complete Gentleman ?" The reply of the culprit was impudent enough;-" I believe," he said, "I have read more books than your Lordship." + Sedley and his fellow criminals, it seems, employed Killegrew, and another courtier, to intercede with the King for a mitigation of Great Rowlright in Oxfordshire; was entered a Commoner of Magdalen Hall, and soon after became a Student at Christ Church. At the Restoration he contrived to introduce himself to the wits, and, becoming Steward to Nell Gwynn, was thence admitted to the society of Charles. He was afterwards received into favour by King William, in whose household he held the appointments of Gentleman Usher, Daily Waiter, and afterwards Usher of the Black Rod.

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* Life of Sedley. Attached to his Works, London, 1778.

Anthony Wood, Life of Himself, p. 187.

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