TWO FAMOUS DIGBYS.*
THERE are few more interesting figures in the story of seventeenth-century England than the two cousins with whom this unpretentious volume is concerned. There was indeed a close kinship in more than blood between the reckless, brilliant, unstable, almost farcical characters of the two men, but the present volume, which consists merely of a short memoir of each of them, does not attempt any very close comparison. Of the two, Kenelm Digby's was undoubtedly the more dominating and attractive character. Clarendon describes his winning voice, his flowing courtesy, and the volubility of language which surprised and delighted all who met him, while Wood says of him that "his peraen was hand- some and gigantic . . while he had so graceful elocution and noble addiese that had he dropped from the clouds into any part of the world he would have made himself respected." Wood adds, it is true, that the Jesuits, who cared not for him, said this was true, "but then he must not stay there • Sir Sonsisn Digloy and George Digbv, Bari of Bristol. By H. K. Digby. London: Digby and Loug. [7. 6d. net.]
above three weeks "; but against the Jesuits' view we may set the evidence of one who affirmed that his conversa- tion made the prison in which they were incarcerated together "a place of delight." And, indeed, the life of this strange man contained adventure and interest enough to make a dozen reputations. We have from his own hand a curious description of his romantic courtship of the beautiful Venetia Stanley, of whose prenuptial reputation the memoir makes rather an ineffectual defence, and an account of his highly successful buccaneering expedition in the Mediterranean in 1627. The greater part of the present memoir consists of an abridgment of these two works, and the consequence is that the remainder of Sir Kenelm's life is rather scantily treated. In particular his reputation as a scientist hardly receives the
recognition it deserves. His intimacy with Descartes is barely mentioned ; that with Hobbes is not mentioned at all. Again,
there is no recognition of his discoveries in regard to the vegetation of plants, the value of which has been recognized by scientists. Poor Sir Kendal was, of course, something of a charlatan. We hear of his "infirmity of lying" in connexion with his chemical experiments, and one writer calls him the "Pliny of his age" in that respect ; but under all the bombast and quackery of this "errant mountebank" (the compliment is Evelyn's) there seems to have been hidden a genuine enthusiasm for philosophy and science.
George Digby's was a less romantic character. Throughout his sixty-five years he figured almost continually in public life, from the day when at the age of twelve he came before the bar of the House of Commons with a petition on behalf of his father, then lying in the Tower, and won all hearts by his boyish fluency and self-possession. Unfortunately he was almost universally unsuccessful. Walpole well described the instability which was the cause of his failure.
"He wrote against Popery and embraced it; he was a zealous opposer of the Court and a sacrifice to it, was conscientiously converted MI the midst of his prosecution of Strafford, and was most unconscientiously a prosecutor of Lord Clarendon. With great parts he always hurt himself and his friends; with romantic bravery he was always an unsuccessful commander. He spoke for the Test Act though a Roman Catholic, and addicted himself to astrology on the birthday of true philosophy."
Mr. Digby's memoir follows accepted lines. It shows by some useful quotations from the Test Act speech Bristol's extra- ordinary levity and lack of balance; shows, too, how honest was the anxiously premeditated conversion to Rome which ruined his political prospects. One would have liked to see some treatment of his successful connexion with the stage and some reference to his position as a poet, but except in this respect the memoir is very complete and can be recom- mended to all who are interested in the curiosities of history.
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