[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 hoped to see the day when there should not be a peer in England.

His understanding, at the best, is of the middling size; neither hath he much improved it, either in reality, or, which is very unfortunate, even in the opinion of the world, by an overgrown library.[31] It is hard to decide, whether he learned that rough way of treating his sovereign from the lady he is allied to,[32] or whether it be the result of his own nature.

The sense of the injuries he hath done, renders him (as it is very natural) implacable towards those to whom he hath given greatest cause to complain; for which reason he will never forgive either the Queen or the present treasurer.
[Footnote 27: See note in vol.v., pp.