When they returned to him at night and
told him of its fate, "he received the news of its ill success,"
says Sprat, "not with so much firmness as might have been
expected from so great a man." Of all intent to satirize the
king he was entirely innocent--a fact he set before the public in
the preface to his play on its publication. Having, he argues,
followed the fallen fortunes of the royal family so long, it was
unlikely he would select the time of their restoration to quarrel
with them.
Feeling his grievances acutely, he now published a poem called
"The Complaint," which met with but little success; whereon,
depressed by ill-fortune and disgusted by ingratitude, he sought
consolation in the peace of a country life. Through the
influence of his old friend, Lord St. Albans, and the Duke of
Buckingham, he obtained a lease of the queen's lands at Chertsey,
which produced him an income of about three hundred pounds a
year--a sum sufficient for his few wants and moderate desires.
He resided here but two years, when he died, on the 28th of July,
1667. Milton, on hearing of his death, was troubled. The three
greatest English poets, he declared, were Spenser, Shakespeare,
and Cowley.
The ungrateful neglect with which he was treated in life was
sought to be atoned for by useless honours paid him after death.
His remains were first conveyed to Wallingford House, then a
residence of the Duke of Buckingham, from whence they were
carried in a coach drawn by six horses, and followed by all the
men of letters and wits of the town, divers stately bishops,
courtiers, and men of quality, whose carriages exceeded one
hundred in number, to Westminster Abbey.
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