CHARLES COTTON. cxcix 



those lighter and objectionable effusions by which he is principally 

 known to posterity, ought not to be considered as indications of 

 his true character or sentiments. Genius, as if to show its versa- 

 tility, has often delighted in fantastic exhibitions ; and when Cotton 

 lived, a fashion for burlesque humour and obscenity prevailed, 

 \vhich he is censurable for having followed ; but the fault 

 belonged as much to the age as to the individual. 



His first marriage may be supposed, from the following lines 

 in his satirical poem, called " The Joys of Marriage," to have 

 increased his happiness : 



"Yet with me 'tis out of season 

 To complain thus without reason, 

 Since the best and sweetest fair 

 Is allotted to my share : 

 But alas ! I love her so 

 That my love creates my woe ; 

 For if she be out of humour, 

 Straight displeas'd I do presume her, 

 And would give the world to know 

 What it is offends her so ; 

 Or if she be discontented, 

 Lord, how am I then tormented ! 

 And am ready to persuade her 

 That I have unhappy made her: 

 But if sick I then am dying, 

 Meat and med'cine both defying." 



Nor is there any reason to doubt that his second alliance with the 

 Countess of Ardglass was equally fortunate. He addressed one 

 of his poems, in very affectionate terms, to his sister Anne, 3 who 

 married John King, the son of Walton's friend, Henry, Bishop of 

 Chichester ; and secondly, Sir Thomas Millington, M.D. 



Cotton's person seems, from one of Sir Aston Cokayne's verses, 

 to have been graceful and handsome. 4 His portrait, painted by 

 his friend Sir Peter Lely, is now in the possession of John 

 Beresford, Esq., of Ashbourn, and the engraving in this work 

 is taken from a copy of the original recently painted by Mr 

 Inskipp. 



Of his children little is known. Beresford Cotton, the only 

 son who survived him, entered the army, and served in Ireland, 

 lie was a captain in Colonel George Villier's Regiment of Foot, 

 and his name occurs among the other officers of the ten regiments 

 which were disbanded in Ireland in 1698, and to whom a reduced 

 allowance, or, as it was termed, " subsistence," of three shillings a 

 day was granted. 5 The date of his death has not been discovered ; 



" La Illustrissima. On my fair and dear sister Mrs Anne King," p. 61. 



4 Vide pa^e clxvi. antea. 



5 Vide Sir Robert Southwell's papers in the Additional MS. No. 9762, in the British 

 Museum. 



