y heart: yet was he
either so careless in his temper, or so little endowed with the virtue
of liberality, or, more properly speaking, of gratitude, that he allowed
the author, a man of virtue and probity, to live in obscurity, and die
in want.[*]

* Butler died in 1680, aged sixty-eight.

Dryden is an instance of a negligence of the same kind. His Absalom
sensibly contributed to the victory which the tories obtained over the
whigs, after the exclusion parliaments; yet could not this merit, aided
by his great genius, procure him an establishment which might exempt
him from the necessity of writing for bread. Otway, though a professed
royalist, could not even procure bread by his writings; and he had the
singular fate of dying literally of hunger. These incidents throw a
great stain on the memory of Charles; who had discernment, loved genius,
was liberal of money, but attained not the praise of true generosity.

NOTES.

[Footnote 1: NOTE A, p. 58. The articles were, that he had advised
the king to govern by military power, without parliaments; that he had
affirmed the king to be a papist, or popishly affected; that he had
received great sums of money, for procuring the Canary patent, and
other illegal patents; that he had advised and procured divers of his
majesty's subjects to be imprisoned against law, in remote islands and
garrisons, thereby to prevent their having the benefit of the law; that
he had procured the customs to be farmed at under rates; that he had
received great sums from the vintners' company, for allowing them to
enhance the price of wines; that he had in a short time gained a greater
estate than could have been supposed to arise from the profits of
his offices; that he had introduced an arbitrary government into
his majesty's plantations; that he had rejected a proposal for the
preservation of Nevis and St. Christopher's, which was the occasion of
great losses in those parts; that when he was in his majesty's service
beyond sea, he held a correspondence with Cromwell and his accomplices;
that he advised the sale of Dunkirk; that he had unduly altered letters
patent under the king's seal; that he had unduly decided causes in
council, which should have been brought before chancery; that he
had issued quo warrantos against corporations, with an intention of
squeezing money from them; that he had taken money for passing the bill
of settlement in Ireland; that he betrayed the nation in all