344 LIFE OF COTTON. 



subsisting a family, he married a distant relation, Isabella, 

 daughter of Sir Thomas Hutchinson, of Owthorp, in the county of 

 Nottingham, Knt. The distress in which this step might have 

 involved him, was averted by the death of his father, in 1658, an 

 event that put him into the possession of the family estate : but, 

 from the character of his father, as given by Lord Clarendon, it 

 cannot be supposed but that it was struggling with law-suits, and 

 laden with incumbrances. 



The great Lord Falkland was wont to say, that he "pitied 

 unlearned gentlemen in rainy weather: " Mr. Cotton might possibly 

 entertain the same sentiment ; for, in this situation, we find that 

 his employments were study, for his delight and improvement, 

 and fishing, for his recreation and health; for each of which 

 several employments, we may suppose he chose the fittest times 

 and seasons. 



In 1663, he published the "Moral Philosophy of the Stoics ; " 

 translated from the French of Monsieur de Vaix, President of the 

 Parliament of Provence in obedience, as the Preface informs 

 us, to a command of his father, doubtless with a view to his im- 

 provement in the science of morality ; and this, notwithstanding 

 the book had been translated by Dr. James, the first keeper of the 

 Bodleian Library, above three score years before. 



His next publication was " Scarronides, or Yirgil Travestie," 

 being the first book of Virgil's " ^neis," in English bur- 

 lesque; 8vo, 1664. Concerning which, and also the fourth 

 book, translated by him, and afterwards published : it may be 

 sufficient to say, that, for degrading sublime poetry into dog- 

 grel, Scarron's example is no authority; and that, were the 

 merit of this practice greater than many men think it, those 

 wlio admire the wit, the humour, and the learning of " Hudibras," 

 cannot but be disgusted at the low buffoonery, the forced wit, 

 and the coarseness of " Yirgil Travestie," and yet the poem 

 has its admirers, is commended by Sir John Suckling, in his 

 " Session of the Poets," and has passed fourteen editions. 



Soon after, he engaged in a more commendable employment ; a 

 translation of the " History of the Life of the Duke d'Espernon," 

 from 1598, where D'Avila's history ends, to 1642 in twelve 

 books : in which undertaking he was interrupted by an appoint- 

 ment to some place or post, which he hints at in the Preface, 

 but did not hold long ; as also by a sickness that delayed the 

 publication until 1670, when the book came out in a folio volume, 

 with a handsome Dedication to Dr. Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop 

 of Canterbury. 



In the same year, being the fortieth of his age, and, having 

 been honoured with a captain's commission in the army, he was 

 sent to Ireland : which event he has recorded, with some parti- 



