DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51519#0019
EDITORS INTRODUCTION.
V
almost entirely by his influence; for the King’s favour was bestowed
secretly on men of a very different character and reputation.
Charles had become gradually more and more the slave of Lady
Castlemaine; and left his ministers to follow their own counsels
whilst he spent his time with buffoons and debauchees ; and his
courtiers, who were preparing under female influence to stand at
the head of the government; thought of nothing but fine clothes
and petty intrigues. The want of personal security which every
body felt under the Restoration; drove even the best men to con-
sider only of making their profit of the present moment. Who
can help smiling at the fears of Pepys; which he avows with so
much naivete in the November of 1660; on the occasion of a din-
ner at Sir William Batten’s?—“Here dined with us two or three
more country gentlemen among the rest Mr. Christmas; my old
school-fellow; with whom I had much talk. He did remember
that I was a great Roundhead when I was a boy; and I was much
afraid that he would have remembered the words that I said the
day the King’ was beheaded; (that; were I to preach upon him;
my text should be; f The memory of the wicked shall rot;’) but I
found afterwards that he did go away from school before that
time!”
In the August following; Pepys; who had hailed with so much
satisfaction the blessings which at its outset; little more than a year
before; the Restoration seemed to promise; observes of the state of
thing’s,—“ At court things are in a very ill condition, there being so
much emulacioii; poverty; and the vices of drinking; swearing; and
loose amours; that I know not what will be the end of it; but con-
fusion. And the clergy so high; that all people that I meet with
do protest against their practice. In short; I see no content or
satisfaction any where; in any one sort of people.”
In the October of 1062; when the Chancellor (Clarendon) had
lost not a little of what popularity he had; by the marriage of his
daughter with the Duke of York; and by the part he had taken in
the marriage of the King and in the reconciliation of the Queen
V
almost entirely by his influence; for the King’s favour was bestowed
secretly on men of a very different character and reputation.
Charles had become gradually more and more the slave of Lady
Castlemaine; and left his ministers to follow their own counsels
whilst he spent his time with buffoons and debauchees ; and his
courtiers, who were preparing under female influence to stand at
the head of the government; thought of nothing but fine clothes
and petty intrigues. The want of personal security which every
body felt under the Restoration; drove even the best men to con-
sider only of making their profit of the present moment. Who
can help smiling at the fears of Pepys; which he avows with so
much naivete in the November of 1660; on the occasion of a din-
ner at Sir William Batten’s?—“Here dined with us two or three
more country gentlemen among the rest Mr. Christmas; my old
school-fellow; with whom I had much talk. He did remember
that I was a great Roundhead when I was a boy; and I was much
afraid that he would have remembered the words that I said the
day the King’ was beheaded; (that; were I to preach upon him;
my text should be; f The memory of the wicked shall rot;’) but I
found afterwards that he did go away from school before that
time!”
In the August following; Pepys; who had hailed with so much
satisfaction the blessings which at its outset; little more than a year
before; the Restoration seemed to promise; observes of the state of
thing’s,—“ At court things are in a very ill condition, there being so
much emulacioii; poverty; and the vices of drinking; swearing; and
loose amours; that I know not what will be the end of it; but con-
fusion. And the clergy so high; that all people that I meet with
do protest against their practice. In short; I see no content or
satisfaction any where; in any one sort of people.”
In the October of 1062; when the Chancellor (Clarendon) had
lost not a little of what popularity he had; by the marriage of his
daughter with the Duke of York; and by the part he had taken in
the marriage of the King and in the reconciliation of the Queen