Sedley (Sidley), Sir Charles

(?1639-1701)

   Born at Aylesford in Kent, he was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, but did not graduate. After the Restoration he entered Parliament as one of the members (barons) for New Romney, Kent. He, with Lord Buckhurst (afterwards Earl of Dorset), and Sir Thomas Ogle soon gained a reputation of notoriety which brought them into disfavor with the Puritans and the authorities of the city of London. By his wit and conversational skill, however, Sedley gained the favor of Charles II. His one daughter became the favorite mistress of James, Duke of York, and was by him created Countess of Dorchester. The dramatists John Dryden and Thomas Shadwell were among his friends, and Dryden dedicated to Sedley "The Assignation" in an Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1673). Some of his verse publications: Antony and Cleopatra, 1677 (tragedy). The Mulberry-garden, 1668 (comedy). Bellamira, or the Mistress, 1687 (comedy). Some of his poems: "Advice to the Old Beaux," "Get You Gone," "On a Cock at Rochester," "Song to Celia," "The Happy Pair," "Thyrsis, unjustly you complain," "To Nysus."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Lyric Poems, 1500-1900. C. Day Lewis, ed. AppletonCentury-Crofts, 1961. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language. Francis Turner Palgrave, ed. Oxford University Press, 1964, Sixth edition, updated by John Press, 1994. SeventeenthCentury Verse and Prose, Vol. II: 1660-1700. Helen C. White, et al, ed. Macmillan. 1951, 1952. Songs from the British Drama. Edward Bliss Reed, ed. Yale University Press, 1925. Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (http://library.stanford.edu). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Court Poets (Great Books Online, www.bartleby.com). The New Oxford Book of Seventeenth Century Verse. Alastair Fowler, ed. Oxford University Press, 1991.