by what accident) are very many, and some of them very considerable; yet I dare pronounce it one of the best things I have seen in that language, I do not mean for the excellency, or harmony of the style which in the original itself, though the words there be very significant, elegant, and admirably well chosen, is notwithstanding none of the smoothest I have read but for the importance of the subject, wherein you will find much of the policy of that time, not only of France itself, but moreover of the courts of England. Rome, Spain, Savoy, Germany, Sweden, and the States of the United Provinces, together with a narrative of all the most cele brated battles, skirmishes, rencounters, combats, sieges, assaults and stratagems, for above threescore years, together with the descriptions of the strengths, situations, and distances of cities, towns, castles, citadels, forts, rivers, countries, seignories, jurisdictions and provinces, and all this collected and delivered by a judicious and impartial hand, an extraordinary effect of a French pen, that nation (especially in records that immediately concern their own honor) having been commonly observed to be very civil to themselves; so that methinks the dignity of the subject, and the ingenuity of the author considered, a work how unhappily soever performed by me, undertaken nevertheless merely for the common benefit and delight, ought not to be discountenanced, nor very ill received. Yet do I not (though in the foregoing paragraph I have discovered something of the charlatan in the behalf of my bookseller) hereby intend to beg any favour for myself, or by these large promises to bribe my reader into milder censures, neither do I think it fit to provoke him by a defiance; for that were to be an ill man as well as an ill writer. I therefore frankly, and without condition expose myself to every man's judgment, of which such as appear civil to me are my friends, and I shall owe them the same respect when it shall be my turn to judge, as it is now to be censured. Those who will not be so, I shall threaten no further, than to put them in mind, that if ever they attempt anything of the same nature, they will then lie under the same disadvantage I now do, and consequently may meet with the same injustice."

Between 1670 and 1674, Cotton translated "The Commentaries of De Montluc, Marshal of France;" which was published in 1674. He dedicated that volume to his distant relation the Earl of Chesterfield, to whom he expressed much gratitude for " many and great obligations; " and he said, "I confess I have a desire both to be more universally known your servant, and that the world at the same time should take notice, that though you may in my person have placed your favours upon an unworthy, yet they have nevertheless been conferred upon a grateful man.”

In his preface he again mentions the little success which had attended his literary efforts, and explains the reason of his continuing nevertheless to write :—

"A man that has had no better luck in printing books than I, and received

7 See the accompanying pedigree.

from the world so little thanks for his labour, should, one would have thought, have taken some reasonable warning, and in some moderate time have given over scribbling; but notwithstanding these discouragements, I have hitherto, and do yet continue incorrigible, as whoever will take the pains to read them, will see by the following Commentaries; and seeing I acknowledge this to be a fault, and that every fault requires some excuse, I think fit to give the reader some account why I still persist so obstinately to pester the world with my writings. It is not then out of any illnatured desire I have to be troublesome, or any great ambition I have to be laughed at; but being by a perpetual confinement to the solitude of my own house, put eternally upon reading, that reading, when I meet with anything that pleases my own fancy, inspires me with a desire to communicate such things as I conceive are worth knowing, and are out of the common road of ordinary readers, to their observation, and to dedicate those hours which I myself have spent with some delight in such translations, to their vacancy and diversion."

Cotton prefixed some verses to the volume "On the brave Marshal de Montluc, and his Commentaries writ by his own hand;" and Flatman and Newcourt wrote several lines "On the worthy Translator," but none of these pieces merit further notice. A work was published in the same year, called "The Complete Gamester," which has been confidently attributed to Cotton; but there is nothing to prove that it was written by him. He likewise published a small volume in 1674, entitled "The Fair One of Tunis; or, The Generous Mistress: a new piece of gallantry out of French," which has been considered a mere translation; but it would appear from the curious "Advertisement to the Reader," that it was almost, if not entirely, an original work:

Or "Instructions how to play at Billiards, Trucks, Bowls, and Chess; together with all manner of usual and most gentele Games, either on Cards or Dice, to which is added, the Art and Mysteries of Riding, Racing, Archery and Cock-fighting." London, printed by A. M. for R. Cullen, and to be sold by Henry Brome, at the Gun, at the west end of St Pauls, 8vo, 1674.

In the preface to "The Compleat Gamester, written for the use of the young Princesses, by Richard Seymour, Esq.," the fifth edition of which was printed in 1734, it is said that "the second and third parts of this treatise were originally written by Charles Cotton, Esq., some years since."

"The Fair One of Tunis; or, The Generous Mistres: a new piece of gallantry. Out of French.

Tibul. Eleg. 2, l. 1.

'Fortes adjuvat ipsa Venus,

Quisquis amore tenetur, eat tutusq: sacerq:
Qualibet, insidias non timuisse decet.'

London: Printed for Henry Brome, at the Gun in St Paul's Churchyard, 1674." 8vo,

PP. 312.

It has a frontispiece, representing a knight in armour on horseback receiving a spear entwined with laurel from Mars, and a chaplet from Venus. Above, on a scroll, is written "The Fayre One of Tvnis; or the Generovs Mistriss." In the catalogue of Brome's publications, at the end of "The Planter's Manual," in 1675, it is thus advertised: "The Fair One of Tunis, a new piece of gallantry, by C. Cot. Esq. in oct.

25. 6d."

"COURTEOUS READER,-Without regarding after what manner the world shall please to receive it, and at the hazard of increasing the number of ill authors, I have undertaken to write a book; which I have been the rather encouraged to do, by reason that so many nowadays take upon them that employment. The booksellers pay no excise that I know of: our masters (blest be God) have not yet unbethought them of imposing a gable upon that sort of commodity. I cannot, however, but confess it would bring in a great revenue; and 'tis pity the officers of excise should lose so fair an opportunity of filling his majesty's coffers (or rather their own). For the number of ill writers is much greater than any man would imagine, and certainly a penny a quire for all the trumpery the press sends out in a year, would amount to a pretty matter. But possibly they are afraid these pretenders to wit should rise in rebellion, and nobody is willing to draw upon himself a whole library of invectives. But be it how it will, I found myself in the humour, and at leisure to play the fool a little as well as others; I had nothing else to do, and thought it was better to spoil a little paper at home in my chamber, than to wear out my shoes in walking the streets to no purpose.

"In this, my first and principal design was to divert myself; my next (dear Reader) to please thee, in saying here and there some things, that I thought were pleasant and rational enough. If thou likest it, I have my end, and demand nothing of thee in return, but that thou wilt confess it; which I shall hear of by somebody or another: only I think fit to give thee this Advertisement, that it is really a true history, excepting that part of the Sultaness her escape, with that of Don Pedro and Isabella Albirond only getting off clear in the truth of the story; and therefore do not look upon it as a mere piece of invention, for it is no such thing.

Fu quel ch' io dico, e non v'aggiungo un pelo;
Io 'I vidi, Io'l so.'

"It is not so long since this happened neither, that we can reckon by anything but the months; and therefore has at least the grace of novelty, which no one can deny it. If I would have taken the liberty of the romance writers, who make what adventures they please, and carry them on at the extravagant rate of their own fancy, I could peradventure have made this more modish, and much fuller of affairs and intrigues. A few hours' meditation would have done that, but for once I paint by the life, and not by invention. The aforesaid gentlemen raise their fabulous stories to such a degree of surprise, or impossibility indeed, that they seem sometimes to drop out of the clouds: but in the meantime, truth is doubtless that which best pleases in a narrative. If thou art of this opinion, thou wilt take more pleasure in reading such a piece of gallantry as this, which has really come to pass, than one of those celebrated fables, that has hardly ever entered into more than one man's imagination.

"What there is more of rare in this is, that never any bagatelle of love came out of Barbary till now. The pirates of Tunis and Algier do not much intrigue themselves in gallantry; but another sort of pirate is here come under the standard of love, to carry away from these barbarians the greatest beauty their nation ever had whether or no it be lawful prize, do thou (friendly Reader) judge; and if it prove otherwise, arraign him rather than me. I have followed the Mesmoires that were delivered to me, to

which I have only given words, and wherein the workmanship has nothing defaced the natural truth of the story. Farewell."

In 1675 Cotton printed another work in the style of "Virgil Travestie," entitled "Burlesque upon Burlesque, or the Scoffer Scoft, being some of Lucian's Dialogues, newly put into English Fustian." His name is not placed in the title-page, and the same objections apply to this production as to his "Virgil Travestie." In a prologue he alludes to the Duchess of Newcastle's plays, and says of his Burlesque, that

"For a fine piece 'twas not intended,

Since in a month 'twas both begun and ended."

There was perhaps much truth in the reason which he assigns in the Epilogue for writing "such trumpery a dog would tire," namely, that

"In the precious age we live in,
Most people are so lewdly given,
Coarse hempen trash is sooner read,
Than poems of a finer thread."

This, he says, made him

He adds,

"Wisely choose

To dizen up his dirty muse,
In such an odd fantastic weed,
As every one he knew would read."

"Yet is he wise enough to know,
His muse however sings too low
(Though warbling in the newest fashion),
To work a work of reformation:
And so writ this (to tell you true),
To please himself as well as you."

If the public gave the work as favourable a reception as "others much of the same fashion," he promised to travesty Lucian's Dialogues of the dead in a similar manner,3 but which he never performed.

Another of Cotton's works, "The Planter's Manual," also appeared in 1675, wherein he displayed considerable knowledge

"For the consideration of those who had rather laugh and be merry, than be merry and wise." Printed by Henry Brome, 8vo, 1675.

3 "He'll do what ne'er was done by any,

And raise the dead* to entertain ye."

4 "The Planter's Manual, being instructions for the raising, planting, and cultivating all sorts of Fruit-Trees, whether stone-fruits or pepin-fruits, with their natures and seasons. Very useful for such as are curious in planting and grafting. By Charles Cotton, Esq. London, printed for Henry Brome, in St Paul's Church-Yard, 1675, 8vo.

"Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead."

of the subject of which he treats. In the Address to the Reader he says it "was only written for the private satisfaction of a very worthy gentleman, who is exceedingly curious in the choice of his fruits, and has great judgment in planting;" but as that person had expressed a strong opinion of its utility, Cotton thought proper to publish it. The following passage, in which he recommends that fruit-trees should be imported from France, is remarkable: "Seeing that (for aught I ever heard) fruit-trees are no contraband commodity betwixt the nations, I cannot conceive but that it is worth the curiosity, pains, and cost, to furnish ourselves from thence with those of the greatest excellency, both for beauty and flavour; nor why we should not as well better ourselves by them this way, as altogether be debauched by their effeminate manners, luxurious kickshaws, and fantastic fashions, by which we are already sufficiently Frenchified, and more than in the opinion of the wiser sort of men, is consistent either with the constitution, or indeed the honour of the English nation.”

Cotton had the misfortune to lose his wife about the year 1670. He had by her three sons, Beresford, Wingfield," and Charles Cotton, and five daughters, Olive, Katherine, Isabella, Jane, and Mary. Of these children, Charles, Wingfield, Isabella, Jane, and Mary were born after 1664; but only five of them were living in 1675. It is uncertain how long he continued a widower; but probably only a short time, as before 1675 he had married Mary, the eldest daughter of Sir William Russell, of Strensham, in Worcestershire, Bart.; and widow of Wingfield, fifth Baron Cromwell, and second Earl of Ardglass, who died in 1668. That lady is said to have had a jointure of £1500 per annum; but this increase to his income did not prevent the necessity of his again applying to Parliament in the 27th Car. II. 1675, for authority to sell part of his estates, for the payment of his debts; and an Act was passed in that year which affords much information about his affairs. After reciting the settlement of his estates in July 1656, which has been already mentioned, the Act states that his wife Isabella was then dead; that she had left one son and four daughters, who were prevented by their father's mortgages, and other incumbrances, from enjoying the advantages to which they were entitled under that settlement; and that he therefore was willing to divest him

6

This son was probably so called after Wingfield Cromwell, Earl of Ardglass, whose widow Cotton married. As Sir Aston Cokayne calls the Earl of Ardglass "his nob.e kinsman," that nobleman must have been also distantly related to Cotton.

6 Vide page clxxi. antea.