Censure of the Rota, printed at Cambridge.  Thus assailed by the
   grave and the learned, censured for the irregularities of his gay
   patrons, which he countenanced although he did not partake, and
   stigmatized as a detractor of his predecessors, and a defamer of
   classical learning, it was natural for Dryden to appeal to the most
   accomplished of those amongst whom he lived, and to whose taste he
   was but too strongly compelled to adapt his productions.  Sedley,
   therefore, as a man of wit and gallantry, is called upon to support
   our author against the censures of pedantic severity.  Whatever may
   be thought of the subject, the appeal is made with all Dryden’s
   spirit and elegance, and his description of the attic evenings
   spent with Sedley and his gay associates, glosses over, and almost
   justifies, their occasional irregularities.  We have but too often
   occasion to notice, with censure, the licentious manners of the
   giddy court of Charles; let us not omit its merited commendation. 
   If the talents of the men of parts of that period were often
   ill-directed, and ill-rewarded, let not us, from whom that
   gratitude is justly due, forget that they were called forth and
   stimulated to exertion, by the countenance and applause of the
   great.  We, at least, who enjoy the fruit of these exertions, ought
   to rejoice, that the courtiers of Charles possessed the taste to
   countenance and applaud the genius which was too often perverted
   by the profligacy of their example, and left unrewarded amid their
   selfish prodigality.

2.  At this period, seconds in a duel fought, as well as principals.

3.  The second Dutch war, then raging.

4.  To whom the tragedy of “Amboyna” is dedicated.

5.  It is impossible to avoid contrasting this beautiful account of
   elegant dissipation with the noted freak of Sir Charles Sedley, to
   whom it is addressed.  In June 1663, being in company with Lord
   Buckhurst and Sir Thomas Ogle, in a tavern in Bowstreet, and having
   become furious with intoxication, they not only exposed themselves,
   by committing the grossest indecencies in the balcony, in the sight
   of the passengers; but, a mob being thus collected, Sedley stripped
   himself naked, and proceeded to harangue them in the grossest and
   most impious language.  The indignation of the populace being
   excited, they attempted to burst into the house, and a desperate
   riot ensued, in which the orator and his companions had nearly paid
   for their frolic with their lives.  For this riot they were indicted
   in the Court of Common Pleas, and heavily fined; Sedley in the sum
   of L. 500.  When the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Robert Hyde, to repress
   his insolence, asked him if he had ever read the “Complete
   Gentleman?” Sedley answered,