[Footnote 22:  See the “Account of the Conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough, in a Letter from Herself, to Lord ——­,” 8vo, 1742, passim. [N.] See also “Memoirs Relating to that Change,” etc., in vol. v. of present edition. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 23:  P. Fitzgerald adds “(to which, however, she hath been thought not entirely a stranger).” [W.S.J.]]

[Footnote 24:  See note in vol. v., p. 368, of present edition. [T.S.]]

The next in order to be mentioned is the Earl of Godolphin.[25] It is said, he was originally intended for a trade, before his friends preferred him to be a page at court; which some have very unjustly objected as a reproach.  He hath risen gradually in four reigns, and was much more constant to his second master King James than some others, who had received much greater obligations; for he attended the abdicated King to the sea-side, and kept constant correspondence with him till the day of his death.  He always professed a sort of passion for the Queen at St. Germain’s; and his letters were to her in the style of what the French call double entendre.  In a mixture of love and respect, he used frequently to send her from hence little presents of those things which are agreeable to ladies, for which he always asked King William’s leave, as if without her privity; because, if she had known that circumstance, it was to be supposed she would not accept them.  Physiognomists would hardly discover, by consulting the aspect of this lord, that his predominant passions were love and play; that he could sometimes scratch out a song in praise of his mistress, with a pencil and card; or that he hath tears at command, like a woman, to be used either in an intrigue of gallantry or politics.  His alliance with the Marlborough family, and his passion for the Duchess, were the cords which dragged him into a party, whose principles he naturally disliked, and whose leaders he personally hated, as they did him.  He became a thorough convert by a perfect trifle; taking fire at a nickname[26] delivered by Dr. Sacheverell, with great indiscretion, from the pulpit, which he applied to himself:  and this is one among many instances given by his enemies, that magnanimity is none of his virtues.

[Footnote 25:  See note in vol. v., p. 68, of present edition. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 26:  Volpone. [ORIGINAL NOTE.]]

The Earl of Sunderland[27] is another of that alliance.  It seems to have been this gentleman’s fortune, to have learned his divinity from his uncle,[28] and his politics from his tutor.[29] It may be thought a blemish in his character, that he hath much fallen from the height of those republican[30] principles with which he began; for in his father’s lifetime, while he was a Member of the House of Commons, he would often, among his familiar friends, refuse the title of Lord (as he hath done to myself), swear he would never be called otherwise than Charles Spencer, and