Introduction 



classical attainments and his knowledge of French and Italian, 

 combined with the usual polite accomplishments of his time, 

 appear to have been considerable ; and he seems to have written 

 poetry from his youth, though little of it was published till 

 after the Restoration. He boasted two poets among his family 

 connections Colonel Richard Lovelace, a friend of his father's, 

 and Sir Aston Cockayne, a cousin of his mother's. Lovelace, 

 who had written an elegy on his aunt Cassandra Cotton, and had 

 likewise addressed an ode on " The Grasshopper " to his father, 

 later on inscribed "The Triumphs of Philamore and Amoret, to the 

 noblest of our youth and best of friends, Charles Cotton, Esquire, 

 being at Beresford, at his house in Staffordshire, from London." 

 Cotton is supposed to have befriended him in his poverty, and he 

 wrote an elegy to his memory, which was printed at the end of 

 Lucasta and Posthume Poems in 1659. 



Sir Aston Cockayne, if but a very minor poet, had a pretty 

 gift for flattering his friends. He seems from the first to have 

 taken the praise of Cotton for his mission in life, and his poem, "To 

 my most honoured cousin, Mr. Charles Cotton the Younger, upon 

 his excellent Poems," is a by no means despicable piece of hyperbole. 

 J quote the greater part of it for its references to Cotton's beauty 

 and accomplishments, but also for its own intrinsic curiosity : 



To my Most Honoured Cousin, Mr. Charles Cotton, the 

 Tounger, upon his Excellent Poems. 



Bear back, you crowd of wits, that have so long 

 Been the prime glory of the English tongue, 

 And room for our arch-poet make, and follow 

 His steps, as you would do your great Apollo. 

 Nor is he his inferior, for see 

 His picture, and you'll say that this is he ; 

 So young and handsome both, so tress'd alike, 

 That curious Lilly, or most skilfd Vandyke, 

 Would prefer neither, only here's the odds, 

 This gives us better verse, than that the Gods. 

 Beware, you poets, that (at distance) you 

 The reverence afford him that is due 



Ixxvi 



