DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51519#0163
LADY DENHAM.
139
friends, at the age of eighteen, to Sir John Denham,* then a
widower, and old enough to be her father, or her grandfather;
and who seemed determined to avenge, in his own person, all the
satirical tirades and the poignant ridicule with which he had
formerly visited faithless wives and betrayed husbands. Denham
had led a dissipated life, and his age was neither pleasing nor
respectable: although hardly more than fifty, he is described, at
the period of his marriage, as “ ancient and limping,and was ill
calculated either to captivate or to rule a young and wilful beauty.
This disproportioned union covered him with ridicule : his beautiful
wife became at once the object of open assiduities, and himself
almost frantic with jealousy. The Duke of York, who had rather
neglected Miss Brooke before her marriage, renewed his attentions.
The lady was not disposed to be absolutely cruel, but she was in
disposition haughty, and inclined to coquetry; she gave herself
airs accordingly, and the duke, who was the most stupid and
ungainly of lovers, contrived to render himself on the present
occasion, supereminently ridiculous: Pepys describes him as
following her up and down the presence-chamber, “ like a dog.”
It is consistent with the character of James and his family, his-
torically branded with the reproach of systematic ingratitude, that
no remorseful or generous feeling seems to have restrained him in
this pursuit, although he was under particular personal obligations
to Denham, which nothing could cancel: during the civil wars,
when the prince was a mere boy, and in imminent danger of his
liberty or his life, Denham had conveyed him out of England at
* Sir John Denham was born in Dublin, (where his father held the high office
of Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland,) in 1615. He attached himself
devotedly to the royal cause, and was on the Restoration knighted, and appointed
Surveyor of the Buildings to the King,—Sir Christopher Wren as his deputy.
This was the more necessary, as, according to Evelyn, Sir John was a better poet
than an architect. A great part of the family estates, situated at Egham and its
neighbourhood, were wasted by Denham at the gaming-table; the rest were con-
fiscated during the civil wars. His reputation as a poet rests upon his “ Cooper’s
Hill.'’ Sir John left three children by his first wife, who was a Miss Cotton.
t Aubrey’s Letters. De Grammont says he was seventy-nine when he married
Miss Brooke ; he probably looked much older than he really was.
139
friends, at the age of eighteen, to Sir John Denham,* then a
widower, and old enough to be her father, or her grandfather;
and who seemed determined to avenge, in his own person, all the
satirical tirades and the poignant ridicule with which he had
formerly visited faithless wives and betrayed husbands. Denham
had led a dissipated life, and his age was neither pleasing nor
respectable: although hardly more than fifty, he is described, at
the period of his marriage, as “ ancient and limping,and was ill
calculated either to captivate or to rule a young and wilful beauty.
This disproportioned union covered him with ridicule : his beautiful
wife became at once the object of open assiduities, and himself
almost frantic with jealousy. The Duke of York, who had rather
neglected Miss Brooke before her marriage, renewed his attentions.
The lady was not disposed to be absolutely cruel, but she was in
disposition haughty, and inclined to coquetry; she gave herself
airs accordingly, and the duke, who was the most stupid and
ungainly of lovers, contrived to render himself on the present
occasion, supereminently ridiculous: Pepys describes him as
following her up and down the presence-chamber, “ like a dog.”
It is consistent with the character of James and his family, his-
torically branded with the reproach of systematic ingratitude, that
no remorseful or generous feeling seems to have restrained him in
this pursuit, although he was under particular personal obligations
to Denham, which nothing could cancel: during the civil wars,
when the prince was a mere boy, and in imminent danger of his
liberty or his life, Denham had conveyed him out of England at
* Sir John Denham was born in Dublin, (where his father held the high office
of Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland,) in 1615. He attached himself
devotedly to the royal cause, and was on the Restoration knighted, and appointed
Surveyor of the Buildings to the King,—Sir Christopher Wren as his deputy.
This was the more necessary, as, according to Evelyn, Sir John was a better poet
than an architect. A great part of the family estates, situated at Egham and its
neighbourhood, were wasted by Denham at the gaming-table; the rest were con-
fiscated during the civil wars. His reputation as a poet rests upon his “ Cooper’s
Hill.'’ Sir John left three children by his first wife, who was a Miss Cotton.
t Aubrey’s Letters. De Grammont says he was seventy-nine when he married
Miss Brooke ; he probably looked much older than he really was.