" More
of my Lord Rochester and his poems anon.
Thomas Killigrew, another courtier, was a poet, dramatist, and
man of excellent wit. He had been page in the service of his
late majesty, and had shared exile with the present monarch, to
whose pleasures abroad and at home he was ever ready to pander.
At the restoration he was appointed a groom of the bedchamber,
and, moreover, was made master of the revels--an office eminently
suited to his tastes, and well fitted to exercise his capacities.
His ready wit amused the king so much, that he was occasionally
led to freedoms of speech which taxed his majesty's good-nature.
His escapades diverted the court to such an extent, that he
frequently took the liberty of affording it entertainment at the
expense of its reputation. The "beau Sidney," a man "of sweet
and caressing temper," handsome appearance, and amorous
disposition; Sir George Etherege, a wit and a playwright; and
Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset, a poet and man of sprightly
speech, were likewise courtiers of note.
Among such congenial companions the merry monarch abandoned
himself wholly to the pursuit of pleasure, and openly carried on
his intrigue with Barbara Palmer. According to the testimony of
her contemporaries, she was a woman of surpassing loveliness and
violent passions. Gilbert Burnet, whilst admitting her beauty,
proclaims her defects. She was, he relates, "most enormously
vicious and ravenous, foolish but imperious, very uneasy to the
king, and always carrying on intrigues with other men, while she
yet pretended she was jealous of him.
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