Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/374

 his ruined estate. Those of his lands which had been confiscated by the parliament or the Commonwealth were restored to him by a private act. Those purchased by the regicides had been given by the king to the Duke of York, who graciously restored them to their lawful owner (Egerton MS. No. 2551). But those which had been alienated by his sons or by feoffees in trust, even when they had acted without his sanction, he could not recover. The duchess computes that he lost in this way lands worth 50,000/., and he was obliged to sell others, to the value of 60,000/., to pay debts contracted during the war and exile. His woods had been cut down, his houses and farms plundered, and he had lost sixteen years' rents. The total of his losses is estimated by the duchess to be about 940,000/.

Charles II rewarded his sufferings and services by restoring him to the offices which he had held before the rebellion. He was, in addition, made chief justice in eyre, Trent north (10 July 1661, ), and created Duke of Newcastle (16 March 1665,, 43). He was also invested with the order of the Garter (15 April 1661), which had been conferred on him during his exile (12 Jan. 1650, ib. 38, 42). During the remainder of his life he took no part in public affairs. The restoration of his estate occupied most of his time; his leisure he employed in literature and horsemanship. Soon after his return he established a racecourse near Welbeck, drawing up himself rules for the races which were to be run every month during six months of the year, which have been preserved by the care of Anthony à Wood (broadside in the Bodleian). In 1667 he published a second book on his favourite subject, ‘A New Method and Extraordinary Invention to Dress Horses, and Work them, according to Nature; as also to Perfect Nature by the Subtlety of Art; which was never found out but by the thrice noble, high, and puissant Prince, William Cavendish,’ &c. In the preface he explains that this work is ‘neither a translation of the first, nor an absolutely necessary addition to it,’ which ‘may be of use by itself without the other, as the other without this; but both together will questionless do best.’ Other editions of this second book were published in 1677 (London, folio), in 1740 (Dublin), and a French translation in 1671.

Although Newcastle is chiefly remembered by his two works on horsemanship, he was also the author of numerous plays and poems. ‘His comedies,’ says the duchess, ‘do sufficiently show his great observation and judgment; for they are composed of these three ingredients, viz. wit, humour, and satire; and his chief design in them is to divulge and laugh at the follies of mankind, to persecute vice and to encourage virtue.’ The following is a list of the duke's comedies: 1. ‘The Country Captain,’ 12mo, 1649, said in the title to have been acted with applause at Blackfriars, and printed at the Hague and London. Pepys terms it ‘so silly a play as in all my life I never saw’ (Diary, 26 Oct. 1661). 2. ‘The Variety,’ printed with the ‘Country Captain.’ 3. ‘The Humorous Lovers,’ acted at the Duke's Theatre, 4to, 1677. Pepys, who attributes this to the duchess, calls it ‘the most silly thing that ever came upon the stage’ (30 March 1667). 4. ‘The Triumphant Widow, or the Medley of Humours,’ acted at the Duke's Theatre, 4to, 1677. The plays are certainly not good plays, yet they contain amusing scenes. Shadwell incorporated a large part of the ‘Triumphant Widow’ in ‘Bury Fair,’ and a droll, entitled the ‘French Dancing Master,’ was made out of the ‘Variety,’ and is printed in ‘Sport upon Sport’ (1671). The duke also translated Molière's ‘L'Etourdi,’ which Dryden converted into ‘Sir Martin Mar-All.’ This play, printed in 1668, did not appear with Dryden's name until 1697, and is entered in the ‘Stationers' Register’ under that of the duke; but, according to Pepys, every one knew at the time that Dryden had assisted his patron (ib. 16 Aug. 1667; Scott, Dryden, i.).

In the plays of the duchess occasional scenes are the contribution of the duke. His poems consist of some tales in verse, published in his wife's book entitled ‘Nature's Pictures by Fancie's Pencil,’ adulatory verses prefixed to her various publications, and songs interspersed in her plays and his own. But he deserves praise rather as a patron than a producer of poetry. ‘Since the time of Augustus,’ writes Langbaine, ‘no person better understood dramatic poetry, nor more generously encouraged poets; so that we may truly call him our English Mæcenas.’ Jonson wrote, besides the two masques already mentioned for his entertainments, elegies to celebrate the duke's riding and fencing, epitaphs for his father and mother, and an interlude for the christening of his eldest son (Jonson, ed. Cunningham, i. cxxxix). Shirley dedicated to Newcastle his own play of the ‘Traitor,’ and assisted his patron in the composition of his plays (, Athenæ, iii. 739; Dyce, Shirley, i. xliii). Wood also states that Newcastle invited Shirley ‘to take his fortune with him in the wars,’ and Davenant certainly held the post of lieutenant-general of the ordnance under him. ‘Such kind of witty society,’ says Warwick, ‘diverted many counsels and lost many opportunities’ (Memoirs, p. 235).