xvi Editor's Preface 



to conferre meditations for a good time together, which will 

 be not only honor to me, but that happiness which I and all 

 that are in love with knowledge, use to fancy to themselves 

 for the true happiness in this life.' Both men were ' in love 

 with knowledge ' but with the one it was the passion of a life- 

 time, with the other little more than a passing fancy. 



In October 1636 Newcastle apparently invited Hobbes 

 to leave the household of the Earl of Devonshire, and establish 

 himself permanently at Welbeck. Reluctant though he was to 

 part with the Earl and Countess, Hobbes was very nearly 

 accepting the invitation. ' Though my Lady and my Lord 

 do both accept so wel of my service as I could almost engage 

 myself to serve them as a domestique all my life, yet the 

 extreame pleasure I take in study overcomes in me all other 

 appetites. I am not willing to leave my Lord, so as not to 

 do him any service that he thinkes may not so well be done 

 by another ; but I must not deny myselfe the content to 

 study in the way I have begun, and that I cannot conceave I 

 shall do any where so well as at Welbecke, and therefore I 

 mean if your lordship forbid me not, to come thither as 

 soone as I can, and stay as long as I can without inconvenience 

 to your Lordship.' 



It is doubtful whether the long visit ever took place. One 

 year the plague prevented Hobbes from coming to Welbeck, 

 another year Newcastle's appointment as governor of Prince 

 Charles called him to London, and then came the Scottish 

 troubles and the Civil War. Doubtless the two met again in 

 London, but their next recorded meeting is that mentioned 

 by Waller when Gassendi, Descartes, Hobbes and himself 

 dined at Newcastle's table at Paris about 1648. 



Newcastle's chief interest however was not in philosophy 

 but in the drama. He was not only - a dramatic author 

 himself, but the friend and protector of most of the dramatic 

 authors of his time. ' Since the time of Augustus ', says 

 Langbaine, ' no person better understood dramatic poetry, 

 nor more generously encouraged poets ; so that we may truly 

 call him our English Maecenas.' l Jonson dedicated to him 

 elegies on his riding and fencing, wrote the epitaphs of his 

 father, mother, and other members of his family, composed 

 an interlude for the christening of his son Charles, and the two 



l Dramatic Poets, p. 386. 



