The Third Book 109 



of this age 1 . His Comedies do sufficiently show his great 

 observation and judgment, for they are composed of these 

 three ingredients, viz. wit, humour, and satire ; and his 

 chief design in them is to divulge and laugh at the follies of 

 mankind ; to persecute vice, and to encourage virtue. 2 



10. Of his Natural Humour and Disposition 



My Lord may justly be compared to Titus the deliciae of 

 mankind, by reason of his sweet, gentle, and obliging nature ; 

 for though his wisdom and experience found it impossible 

 to please all men, because of their different humours and 

 dispositions ; yet his nature is such, that he will be sorry 

 when he seeth that men are displeased with him out of their 

 own ill natures, without any cause ; for he loves all that are 

 his friends, and hates none that are his enemies 3 . He is a 



1 The Duke's poems are represented by songs in his own plays and in those of the 

 Duchess, by dedicatory verses to her different books, and by several pieces in her Nature's 

 Pictures (pp. 65, 79, 94, 97). A book containing songs and sketches of plays in the hand- 

 writing of the Duke is preserved at Welbeck. (Strong, Catalogue of the Letters, etc. 

 exhibited in the Library at Welbeck, p. 57). At the end of her volume of Poems the Duch- 

 ess says : 



A Poet I am neither born nor bred, 



But to a witty poet married, 



Whose brain is fresh, and pleasant, as the Spring, 



Where fancies grow, and where the Muses sing ; 



There oft I lean my head, and listening hark, 



T' observe his words, and all his fancies mark ; 



And from that garden flowers of fancies take, 



Whereof a posy up in verse I make : 



Thus I that have no garden of my own 



There gather flowers, that are newly blown. 



2 The Duke was the author of four Comedies : (1) The Country Captain, i2mo, 1649, 

 said to have been acted with applause at Black Friars and printed at the Hague and 

 at London. On October 26, i66r, Pepys notes seeing this play : ' the first time it hath 

 been acted this twenty-five years . . . but so silly a play as in all my life I never saw.' 



(2) The Variety, printed with The Country Captain, i2mo, 1649, London and the 

 Hague. A droll called The French-Dancing Master, was made out of this play, and 

 is printed in The Wits, or Sport upon Sport, 1671. 



(3) The Humorous Lovers, acted at the Duke's Theatre. 4to, 1677. Pepys, who 

 attributes it to the Duchess, saw it on March 30, 1667, and calls it ' the most silly thing 

 that ever came upon a stage.' 



(4) The Triumphant Widow, or the Medley of Humours, acted at the Duke's Theatre. 

 4to, 1577. Shad well incorporated the greater part of this play in Bury Fair. 



The Duke also wrote five scenes of The Lady Contemplation, a play by the Duchess. 



He also translated Moliere's L'Etourdi, which Dryden converted into Sir Martin 

 Mar-All. Though printed in 1668, this play did not appear with Dryden's name till 

 1697, and was entered in the Stationers' Register under the Duke's name. Pepys saw 

 it on August 16, 1667, and calls it ' a play made by my Lord Duke of Newcastle, but, 

 as everybody says, corrected by Dryden. It is the most entire piece of mirth, a com- 

 plete farce from one end to the other, that was ever writ. I never laughed so in all my 

 life, and at very good wit therein, not fooling.' 



3 The Duke's generosity to his political opponents was shown in his treatment of 

 those accused of sharing in the Yorkshire plot of 1663. He treated Colonel Hutchin- 

 son ' very honourably ', and ' dismissed him without a guard to his own house, only 

 engaging him to stay there one week, till he gave account to the Council* — Memoirs, ii, 

 290. Mr. John Cromwell, another sufferer on the same occasion, found a powerful 

 protector in the Duke, who finally secured his release. Kennet's Register, p. 890. 



