fatire knew no bounds, his invention was lively, and his execution sharp.

He is fuppofed to have contrived with one of Charles's miftrefs's the following ftratagem to cure that monarch of the nocturnal rambles to which he addicted himself. He agreed to go out one night with him to vifit a celebrated houfe of intrigue, where he told his majesty the finest women in England were to be found. The king made no fcruple to affume his ufual difguife and accompany him; and, while he was engaged with one of the ladies of pleafure, being before inftructed by Rochester how to behave, fhe picked his pocket of all his money and watch; which the king did not immediately mifs. Neither the people of the house, nor the girl herself, was made acquainted with the quality of their vifiter, nor had the leaft fufpicion who he was.

When the intrigue was ended, the king enquired for Rochester, but was told he had quitted the houfe without taking leave. But into what embarraffment was he thrown when, upon fearching his pockets, in order to dif charge the reckoning, he found his money gone. He was then reduced to afk the favour of the jezebel to give him credit till to-morrow, as the gentleman who came in with him had not returned, who was to have payed for both.

The confequence of this request was, he was abused and laughed at; and the old woman told

told him, that fhe had often been ferved fuch dirty tricks, and would not permit him to ftir till the reckoning was paid, and then called one of her bullies to take care of him. In this ridiculous diftrefs ftood the British monarch, the prisoner of a bawd, and the life upon whom the nation's hopes were fixed, put in the power of a ruffian.

After many altercations, the king at last propofed, that fhe fhould accept a ring which he then took off his finger, in pledge for her money; which the likewife refused; and told him, that, as fhe was no judge of the value of the ring, he did not chufe to accept fuch. pledges The king then defired that a jeweller might be called to give his opinion of the value. of it; but he was anfwered, that the expedient was impracticable, as no jew eller could then be fuppofed to be out of bed.

After much entreaty, his majefty, at laft, prevailed upon the fellow to knock up a jeweller and fhew him the ring; which, as foon as he had infpected, he food amazed, and enquired, with eyes fixed upon the fellow, who he had got in his house? To which he anfwered, A black-looking ugly fon of a w--e who had no money in his pocket, and was obliged to pawn his ring. The ring," fays the jeweller, "is fo immenfely rich, that bat one man in the nation could afford to wear it and that one is the king."

I

The jeweller, being aftonished at this acci dent, went out with the bully, in order to be fully fatisfied of fo extraordinary an affair ; and, as foon as he entered the room, he fell on his knees, and, with the utmost respect, prefented the ring to his majesty. The old jezebel and the bully, finding the extraordinary quality of their gueft, were now confounded, and afked pardon moft fubmiffively on their knees. The king, in the best natured manner, forgave them; and, laughing, afked them, whether the ring would not bear another bottle.

Thus ended this adventure, in which the king learned how dangerous it was to risk his perfon in night-frolics; and could not but feverely reprove Rochefter for acting fuch a part towards him; however he fincerely refolved never again to be guilty of the like indifcretion.

Thefe are the moft material of the adventures, and libertine courfes of the lord Rochef ter, which hiftorians and biographers have tranfmitted to pofterity; we shall now confider him as an author.

He feems to have been too strongly tinctured with that vice which belongs more to literary people, than to any other profeffion under the fun; viz. envy. That lord Rochester was envious, and jealous of the reputation of other men of eminence, appears abundantly clear from his behaviour to Dryden, which could

proceed

proceed from no other principle; as his malice towards him had never difcovered itfelf till the tragedies of that great poet met with fuch general applaufe, and his poems were univerfally esteemed.

Such was the inveteracy he fhewed to Mr. Dryden, that he fet up John Crown, an obfcure man, in oppofition to him, and recommended him to the king to compofe a mafque for the court, which was really the bufinefs of the poet-laureat; but, when Crown's Conqueft of Jerufalem met with as extravagant fuccefs as Dryden's Almanzor's, his lordship then withdrew his favour from Crown, as if he would be still in contradiction to the public.

His malice to Dryden is faid to have still further discovered itself in hiring ruffians to cudgel him for a fatire he was fuppofed to be the author of; which was at once, malicious, cowardly, and cruel.

Mr. Wolfey, in his preface to Valentinian, a tragedy, altered by lord Rochester from Fletcher, has given a character of his lordship and his writings, by no means confiftent with that idea which other writers, and common tradition difpofe us to form of him.

"He was a wonderful man," fays he, "whether we confider the conftant good fenfe, and agreeable mirth, of his ordinary converfation, or the waft reach and compafs of his inventions, and the amazing depth of his I 5 retired:

retired thoughts; the uncommon graces of his fashion, or the inimitable turns of his wit, the becoming gentleness, the bewitching foftnefs of his civility, or the force and fitness of his fatire; for, as he was both the delight, the love, and the dotage of the women, fo was he a continued curb to impertinence, and the public cenfure of folly never did man ftay in his company unentertained, or leave it uninftructed; never was his understanding biaffed, or his pleasantness forced; never did he laugh in the wrong place, or prostitute his fense to serve his luxury; never did he stab into the wounds of fallen virtue, with a base and a cowardly infult, or fmooth the face of profperous villainy with the paint and washes of a mercenary wit; never did he spare a fop for being rich, or flatter a knave for being great.

"He had a wit that was accompanied with an unaffected greatness of mind, and a natural love to juftice and truth; a wit that was in perpetual war with knavery, and ever attacking thofe kind of vices moft whofe malignity was like to be the moft diffufive, fuch as tended more immediately to the prejudice of public bodies, and were a common nufance to the happiness of human kind.

"Never was his pen drawn but on the fide of good fenfe, and ufually employed like the arms of the ancient heroes, to stop the progress of arbitrary oppreffion, and beat down the brutishness