Margaret Cavendish and the Romance of Contract*

All things by war are in a Chaos hurl'dBut love alone first made,And still preserves the world.— Alexander BromeI have heard [William Cavendish] say several times, that his love to his gracious master King Charles the Second was above the love he bore to his wife, children, and all his posterity, nay, to his own life: and when, since his return into England, I answered him that I observed his gracious master did not love him so well as he loved him; he replied, that he cared not whether his Majesty loved him again or not; for he was resolved to love him.— The Life of William, Duke of Newcastle