DIGBY, GEORGE, EARL OF BRISTOL, was born in 1612 at Madrid, where his father John, earl of Bristol, was then ambassador. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, travelled in France, and in 1640 entered public life as one Of the knights of the shire for Dersetshire. From this time his career was marked by that uninter rupted series of clever inconsistencies which make his life like a novel and his character a riddle. Neither his character nor the incidents of his history can be adequately understood, unless from a full collection of particulars. Such a collection will be found in the very long memoir of him given in the 'Biographia Britannica.' After dietin guishIng himself in the House of Commons as a member of the opposition, he suddenly joined the court in the middle of Strafford's trial ; afterwards ho advised the seizure of the six members, and was one of the moat violent of the king's imprudent advisers. Compelled to leave England, lie served in the French wars of the Fronds, where be gained high reputation, but behaved so intriguingly as to be cashiered ; and next, seeking service with the king of Spain, he embraced the Roman Catholic religion, against which he had formerly written a treatise. After the restoration he returned to England, and
sat in the House of Lords, where he, a Roman Catholic, spoke and voted in favour of the Teat Act. Another of his most prominent public appearances was his impeachment of Lord Clarendon in 1663. This able but eccentric and useless man died at Chelsea on the 20th of March 1677. His literary character is not more than respectable. His principal works are several speeches, a good many letters, a trans lation of the first three books of the French romance of 'Cassandra,' and a lively play called Elvira, or the Worst not always True, a Comedy, written by a Person of Quality,' which was licensed and printed in 1667, and is reprinted in Dodeley's Old Plays.'