Page:Diary of the times of Charles II Vol. I.djvu/20

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viii

INTRODUCTION.

popular poet of his day,^[1] it is not a little creditable to her head and heart that she does not appear to have been at all spoilt by it. There never was a mother more anxious to settle her daughter in life than Lady Leicester, and many and most amusing are the passages in which, writing to her absent Lord, who was the Ambassador at Paris, she communicates her speculations, hopes, and disappointments on this subject:^[2] and happy indeed

↑ She was the Sacharissa of Waller.
↑ Many a mother will enter into Lady Leicester's feelings when she thus wrote, in 1636, to her husband at Paris. "It would joy me much to receive some hope of that Lord's addresses to Doll, which once you wrote to me of, for next to what concerns you, I confess she is considered by me above any thing of this world." And again: "Holland professes to my sister, that he desires the parties here might have an absolute refusal; but I am confident that if he had showed himself real to my Lord Devonshire's marrying Doll, which he professed, they would never have employed him in making a marriage for another, which makes me conclude that either his lady commands him to hinder Doll, or else he is so weak and so unfaithful as his friendship is not worthy the least." And on the breaking off her daughter's marriage with Lord Lovelace, on account of his loose character, she says, "My dear heart, let not these cross accidents trouble you, for we do not know what God has provided for her; and howsoever let us submit to his will, and confess that his benefits are far beyond our deserts, and his punishments much less than we have reason to expect."—Collins's Sidney State Papers, ii., 495.

[1] She was the Sacharissa of Waller.

[2] Many a mother will enter into Lady Leicester's feelings when she thus wrote, in 1636, to her husband at Paris. "It would joy me much to receive some hope of that Lord's addresses to Doll, which once you wrote to me of, for next to what concerns you, I confess she is considered by me above any thing of this world." And again: "Holland professes to my sister, that he desires the parties here might have an absolute refusal; but I am confident that if he had showed himself real to my Lord Devonshire's marrying Doll, which he professed, they would never have employed him in making a marriage for another, which makes me conclude that either his lady commands him to hinder Doll, or else he is so weak and so unfaithful as his friendship is not worthy the least." And on the breaking off her daughter's marriage with Lord Lovelace, on account of his loose character, she says, "My dear heart, let not these cross accidents trouble you, for we do not know what God has provided for her; and howsoever let us submit to his will, and confess that his benefits are far beyond our deserts, and his punishments much less than we have reason to expect."—Collins's Sidney State Papers, ii., 495.

[1]

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