the other I apprehend this year a great poverty of Venison with us for I came too late to exchange your warrant and my Lady Throckmortons will not serve my turn Since my coming Mr. Turvil a French practical man of good erudition hath passed a day or two with me from whom I hear a shrewd point That the oath of peace which should have been taken between the two neighbouring Kings upon the same day is put off for a moneth I believe the stop be in France to gain time to disturb our Treaty with Spain Mr. Pim a man whose ears are open told me likewise yesterday a strange thing that the Queen of Bohemia hath newly being hunting been chased away her self with some affrightment from Rhenen by certain Troops of the enemy that have passed the Isel With whom it was feared the Count Henry Venden Berge would joyn and ravage the Velow Yet withall were come tidings that the Prince of Orenge at the Busse had had parly offered him But my intelligences are Cistern waters you are nearer the Fountain And not only Dulcius ex ipso Fonte bibuntur aquae but verius too For both will stand in the verse Before I end let me beseech you to remember my humble and hearty devotion in the very stile of Seneca to his Lucilius and I shall need to say no more Optimo Virorum I envy your enjoyments and conversations and most when they are privatest for then they are freest I hope the Noble Lady will return quickly again to her Hesperian Garden To whom I pray likewise let my humble service be remembred And so I rest Excepâ—…o quod non simul esses caetera laetus HENRY WOTTON From the Colledge this Wednesday night 1629. May it please Your Majesty THis Bearer is that Lad by name Frank Bacon for whom your Majesties intercession with the Prince of Orenge hath bound so many unto you here It is your goodness that hath done it and therefore he is addressed by his friends and by me who am the meanest of them first thorow your gracious Hands and laid down at your Royal Feet There is in him I believe metal enough to be cast into good form And I hope it is of the hoblest sort which is ever the most malleable and plyant Only one thing I fear that coming from a Country life into the lustre of Courts he will be more troubled with it then with the hissing of Bullets Now when I consider as I do at the present that besides your Majesties antienter favours towards me and to them that have been and are so dear unto me some gone and some remaining you have lately received the childe of my very worthy friend M. Griffith about the Prince your son and honoured this other with your especial recommendation in such a forcible and express manner as you were pleased to do it I say when I consider all this I cannot but fall into some passionate questions with mine own heart Shall I die without seeing again my Royal Mistress my self Shall I not rather bring her my most humble thanks then let them thus drop out of a dull Pen Shall such a contemptible distance as between Eton and the Hague divide me from beholding how her vertues overshine the darkness of her fortune I could spend much paper in this passion but let it sleep for the present And God bless your Majesty As I am Yours Aug. 16. 1629. After this humble and just acknowledgement of my obligations unto Your Maj. it were a miserable thing for me to tell you that at our late Election I have remembred Your Commandment in the first place I should indeed rather ask what Your Majesty will have next done My noble Nephew I Am sorry that your Cast of Bucknames cannot be served at this Election For to choose one of them and that must have been in a low place had been discomfortable they will flie best at ease together Yet I have thought of a way the next year in all event not to fail which is to divide them between Westminster and Eton. Their Election precedeth ours some three weeks and truly upon my late observation there I must needs say that school mouldeth good Scholars and of certainer preferment to either of the Universities for some go to Oxford and some to Cambridge then this out of which the issue is alwayes hard and the entrance not alwayes easie Glad I am to hear by your Letter that you have gotten so good a School-Master that they may be well mued in the mean while Betwixt this and the next turn I shall lay you down an infallible course for them And this must content their good father at the present If your Masons Brother who was here on Sunday had stayed till the next morning there was some practicable hope to have sped the Boy this year to Cambr. but some unfortunate haste and despair of so many places as fell open carried him away If you had not intimated your own coming to London you might perchance have been troubled with me in the Countrey But I will now languish for the hour you promise this place of seeing you here where your Venison which we enjoy by exchange from Mr Vice-Chamberlain hath given us all occasion to remember you thankfully as a Benefactor to this Board I will entertain you with no home-novelties but let me tell you a fresh piece of no small noise from abroad The King of Sweden hath landed with 200 ships a great Army of some 40000 in Germany with intention if the Party of our Religion be not all drowsie to redress the common Cause or at least to redintegrate his near Kinsman in Meckleburge confiscated you know by the Emperor And the opportunity is fair while the Austrian power is diverted for the help of Spain into Italy God bless it and cherish it as his own business and in his dear love I leave you Ever remaining Your faithfull Servant HENRY WOTTON As intricate as a Flea in a bottom of Flax. From your Colledge this 27. July 1630. Sir I will write to you at large after our Election when my Brains are settled Noble Sir and my most dear Nephew VVE were for three weeks together so besieged at your Eton first with an overflow of water from the West and then with a deep snow out of the East contrary quarters conspiring against us that our ordinary boats which usually go and return twice a week could not pass under the Bridges whereby such a Letter from you as never man received lay silent at my Chamber in St Martins-lane till mine own coming to London to the utter condemnation of my unthankfulness in the mean time Which truly I should fear but that it is the natural property of the same heart to be a gentle Interpreter which is so noble an Obliger Now Sir After I had received and read your Letter I took some dayes to deliberate what I should do and to let my judgement settle
the Week yieldeth My Lord and Lady have received those letters and loving salutations which my Foot-man brought And so with mine own hearty prayers to God for you and for that most good Neece I commit you both to his blessing and love Your faithfullest of unprofitable friends HENRY WOTTON I pray Sir remember me very particularly to my Cosin Nicholas your worthy Brother for whose health our good God be thanked Sir James Cromer is this week dead of an Aposteme in his stomack and in him the name unless his Lady as she seemeth to have intention shall revive it with matching one of her four Daughters with a Cromer of obscure fortune which they say is latent in your shire Sir I Have newly received your last of the 25th of April and acquainted my Lord with the Postscript thereof touching your Fathers sickness of which he had heard somewhat before by Sir R. Drurie who at the same time told him the like of my Lady your Mother but we hope now that the one was never true and that the other which you confirm will be light and sufferable even at heâ—…vy years The long-expected Ambassador from Savoy arrived yesternight at Dover so as now I begin by the vertue of a greedy desire to anticipate before-hand and to devour already some part of that contentment which I shall shortly more really enjoy in your sight and conversation Sir Thomas Overbury is still in the Tower and the King hath since his imprisonment been twice here and is twice departed without any alteration in that matter or in other greater My L. of Rochester partly by some relapse into his late infirmity and partly as it is interpreted through the grief of his minde is also this second time not gone with the King some argue upon it that disassiduity in a Favorite is a degree of declination but of this there is no appearance Only I have set it down to shew you the hasty Logick of Courtiers The Queen is on her journey towards Bathe My Lady Elizabeth and the Count Palatine having lyen long in our poor Province of Kent languishing for a Winde which she sees though it be but a vapour Princes cannot command at length on Sunday last towards evening did put to Sea Some 8 dayes after a Book had been Printed and published in London of her entertainment at Heidelberge so nimble an age it is And because I cannot end in a better jest I will bid you farewell for this week committing you and that most beloved Neece to Gods dearest blessings Your own in faithfullest love HENRY WOTTON London this Thursday the 29th of April 1613. Sir YOur Kinsman and friend Sir Robert Killigrew was in the Fleet from Wednesday of the last week till the Sunday following and no longer which I reckon but an Ephemeral fit in respect of his in firmity who was the cause of it which to my judgement doth every day appear more and more hectical Yesterday his father petitioned the King as he came from the Chappel that his son might have a Physician and a servant allowed him as being much damaged in his health by close imprisonment which for my part I believe for the diseases of fortune have a kinde of transfusion into the body and strong-working spirits wanting their usual objects revert upon themselves because the nature of the minde being ever in motion must either do or suffer I take pleasure speaking to a Philosopher to reduce as near as I can the irregularities of Court to constant principles Now to return to the matter The King hath granted the Physician but denyed the servant By which you may guess at the issue for when graces are managed so narrowly by a King otherwise of so gratious nature it doth in my opinion very clearly demonstrate the asperity of the offence Sir Gervis Elvis before one of the Pensioners is now sworn Lieutenant of the Tower by the mediation of the House of Suffolk notwithstanding that my Lord of Rochester was the commender of Sir Iohn Keyes to that charge which the said Keyes had for a good while and this maketh the case the more strange alwayes supplyed even by Patent in the absence of Sir William Wade Upon which circumstances though they seem to bend another way the Logicians of the Court do make this conclusion That His Majesty satisfying the Suffolcians with petty things intendeth to repair the Vicount Rochester in the main and gross And therefore all men contemplate Sir Henry Nevil for the future Secretary some saying that it is but deferred till the return of the Queen that she may be allowed a hand in his Introduction Which likewise will quiet the voyces on the other side though surely that point be little necessary For yet did I never in the Country and much less in the Court see any thing done of this kinde that was not afterwards approved by those that had most opposed it such vicissitudes there are here below as well as of the rest even of judgement and affection I would say more but I am suddenly surprized by the Secretary of the Savoy Ambassador who I think will depart about the end of the Whitson Holy-dayes for which I languish With his businesses I can acquaint you nothing till the next week by reason of this surprizâ—…l And besides it hath disturbed my Muses so I must remain still in debt to my sweet Neece for that Poeticâ—…l Postscript that dropped out of her pen. I do weekly receive your Letters which in truth are more comfort then I could hope to purchase by mine so as whereas before I had determined to continue this my troubling of you but till I should see you next I have now made a resolution to plant a Staple and whensoever we shall be separated to venture my whole poor stock in traffique with you finding the return so gainful unto me And so committing you to Gods dearest blessings I ever rest Your faithfullest poor friend and servant HENRY WOTTON The 14 of May 1613. Sir I Have not yet presented to my Lord that Box which came with your Letter of this week for he removed on Wednesday with the King and houshold to Greenwich And I still remain here to shew you that the Court doth like a Load-stone draw only those that are intra orbem virtutis suae I mean within the compass and circle of profit The Savoy Ambassador seemeth in his second audience to have discharged all his Commission or otherwise he wanteth authority to proceed further then to a general overture till the arrival of the Cavalr Battista Gabaleoni who is hourly expected and is here to remain as Resident for the said Duke With him likewise come certain other Gentlemen of title who should from the beginning have dignified the Ambassadors Train but the cause of this stragling was a sudden attempt which the Duke immediately after the Ambassadors departure who appointed those Gentlemen to follow him made upon the Marquisat of Monserrato
told you in my last a pretty late experiment in Arthritical pains It is cheap enough Take a rosted Turnip for if you boyl it it will open the pores and draw too much apply that in a Poultice to the part affected with change once in an hour or two as you finde it dryed by the heat of the flesh and it will in little time allay the pain Thus much in our private way wherein I dare swear if our Medicines were as strong as our wishes they would work extreamly Now for the Publick where peradventure now and then there are distempers as well as in natural bodies The Earl of Holland was on Saturday last the day after your Posts departure very solemnly restored at Council-Table the King present from a kinde of Eclipse wherein he had stood since the Thursday fortnight before All considered the obscuration was long and bred both various and doubtful discourse but it ended well All the cause yet known was a verbal challenge sent from him by Mr Henry Germain in this form To the now Lord Weston newly returned from his forraign imployments That since he had already given the King an account of his Embassage he did now expect from him an account of a Letter of his which he had opened in Paris and he did expect it at such a time even in the Spring-garden close under his fathers Window with his sword by his side It is said I go no farther in such tender points that my Lord Weston sent him by Mr Henry Percy between whom and the said L. Weston had in the late journey as it seems been contracted such friendship as overcame the memory that he was Cosin-German to my L. of Holland a very fair and discreet answer That if he could challenge him for any injury done him before or after his Ambassage he would meet him as a Gentleman with his sword by his side where he should appoint But for any thing that had been done in the time of his Ambassage he had already given the King an account thereof and thought himself not accountable to any other This published on Thursday was fortnight the Earl of Holland was confined to his Chamber in Court and the next day morning to his house at Kensington where he remained without any further circumstance of restraint or displeasure Saturday and Sunday on which dayes being much visited it was thought fit on Munday to appoint M. Dickenson one of the Clerks of the Council to be his Guardian thus far that none without his presence should accost him This made the vulgar judgements run high or rather indeed run low That he was a lost and discarded man judgeing as of Patients in Feavers by the exasperation of the fits But the Queen who was a little obliquely interrested in this business for in my Lord of Hollands Letter which was opened she had one that was not opened nor so much as they say as superscribed and both the Queens and my L. of Hollands were inclosed in one from M. Walter Mountague whereof I shall tell you more hereafter The Queen I say stood nobly by him and as it seems pressed her own affront It is too intricately involved for me so much as to guess at any particulars I hear generally discoursed that the opened dispatch was only in favour if it might be obtained of Mons r de Chateau Neuf and the Cheval r de Jarr who had both been here but written with caution and surely not without the Kings knowledge to be delivered if there were hope of any good effect and perchance not without order from His Majesty to my Lord Weston afterwards to stop the said Letters upon advertisement that both Cateau Neuf de Jarr were already in the Bastille But this I leave at large as not knowing the depth of the business Upon Munday was seven-night fell out another quarrel nobly carried branching from the former between my L. Fielding and M. Goring son and heir to the Lord of that name They had been the night before at supper I know not where together where M. Goring spake something in diminution of my L. Weston which my L. Fielding told him it could not become him to suffer lying by the side of his sister Thereupon these hot hearts appoint a meeting next day Morning themselves alone each upon his Horse they pass by Hide-Park as a place where they might be parted too soon and turn into a lane by Knights-bridge where having tyed up their Horses at a hedge or gate they got over into a Close there stripped into their shirts with single Rapiers they fell to an eager Duel till they were severed by the Host and his servants of the Inn of the Prince of Orange who by meer chance had taken some notice of them In this noble encounter wherein blood was spent though by Gods providence not much on either side there passed between them a very memorable interchange of a piece of courtesie if that word may have room in this place Sayes my Lord Fielding M. Goring If you leave me here let me advise you not to go back by Piccadillia-hall lest if mischance befall me and be suddenly noised as it falleth out in these occasions now between us you might receive some harm by some of my friends that lodge thereabouts My Lord replyes Goring I have no way but one to answer this courtesie I have here by chance in my pocket a Warrant to pass the Ports out of England without a name gotten I suppose upon some other occasion before If you leave me here take it for your use and put in your own name This is a passage much commended between them as proceeding both from sweetness and stoutness of spirit which are very compatible On the solemn day of Saturday last both this difference and the Original between the Earl of Holland and the Lord Weston were fairly reconciled and forgiven by the King with shaking of hands and such Symbols of agreement And likewise Sir Maurice Dromand who had before upon an uncivil rupture on his part between him and my Lord of Carlile been committed to the Tower was then delivered at the same time and so it all ended as a merry fellow said in a Maurice But whether these be perfect cures or but skinnings over and Palliations of Court will appear hereafter Nay some say very quickly for my Lord Westons Lady being since brought to bed of a daughter men stand in a kind of suspence whether the Queen will be the Godmother after so crude a reconcilement which by the Kings inestimable goodness I think may pass in this forgiving week For forraign matter there is so little and so doubtful as it were a misery to trouble you with it The States confuted Treaty is put to the stock and the Prince of Orange by account gone to the field two dayes since having broken the business as they say by three demands the resignment of Breda and Guelder the dismantling
book intituled The Hog hath lost his Pearl took up the White-Fryers for their Theatre and having invited thither as it should seem rather their Mistresses then their Masters who were all to enter per buletini for a note of distinction from ordinary Comedians towards the end of the Play the Sheriffs who by chance had heard of it came in as they say and carried some six or seven of them to perform the last act at Bridewel the rest are fled Now it is strange to hear how sharp-witted the City is for they will needs have Sir John Swinerton the Lord Maior be meant by the Hog and the late Lord Treasurer by the Pearl And now let me bid you good night from my Chamber in King-street this Tuesday at Eleven of the night Your faithfullest to serve you HENRY WOTTON Francesco hath made a proof of that green which you sent me against which he taketh this exception That being tryed upon glass which he esteemeth the best of tryals it is not translucent arguing as he saith too much density of the matter and consequently less quickness and spirit then in colours of more tenuity Sir BY the next Carrier for yet I must say so again you shall hear when this Ambassador will be gone The mean while let me entertain you with the inclosed Paper which the Duke of Savoy hath published in his own defence joyning together the Sword and Reason Sir Robert Mansfeld is still in restraint Sir Thomas Overbury not only out of liberty as he was but almost now out of Discourse We have lately started at a dispatch from Ireland importing a variance there about the choice of a Speaker in the summoned Parliament which came to so sharp a point that the Deputy was fain to fetch wisdom from hence Sure it is that the humors of that Kingdom are very hovering and much awaked with an apprehension taken that we mean to fetter them with Laws of their own making which in truth were an ingenious strain of State My Lord and Lady are stollen down into Kent for a few dayes to take in some fresh ayr They go not this next Progress if my Brother can get leave of the King to see his Grand-children where he intends to spend some fortnight and the rest of the time between Boughton and Canterbury A match treated and managed to a fair probability between my Lord Cooks heir and the second Daughter of Sir Arthur Throckmorton is suddainly broken the said Lord Cook having underhand entertained discourse about the Daughter of the late Sir Thomas Bartlet who in defect of her Brother shall be heir of that name I have nothing more to say and therefore God keep you and my sweet Neece in his continual love Your poor Uncle faithfull Friend and Willing Servant HENRY WOTTON Albertus God be thanked groweth better and better And in the midst of his own pains hath remembred those in Suffolk whom we both so much honour From my Chamber this Thursday St. George his Eve Sir THe last week by reason of my being in Kent was a week of silence and this I think will appear unto you a week of wonder The Court was full of discourse and expectation that the King being now disincumbred of the care of his Daughter would towards this Feast of St. George fill up either all or some at least of those places that had lien vacant so long and had been in this time of their emptiness a subject of notorious opposition between our great Vicount and the House of Suffolk Thus I say ran the opinion When yesterday about six of the Clock at Evening Sir Thomas Overbury was from the Council-Chamber conveighed by a Clerk of the Council and two of the Guard to the Tower and there by Warrant consigned to the Lieutenant as close Prisoner Which both by the suddainness like a stroak of thunder and more by the quality and relation of the person breeding in the Beholders whereof by chance I was one very much amazement and being likely in some proportion to breed the like in the Hearers I will adventure for the satisfying of your thoughts about it to set down the fore-running and leading Causes of this accident as far as in so short a time I have been able to wade in so deep a water It is conceived that the King hath a good while been much distasted with the said Gentleman even in his own nature for too stiff a carriage of his fortune besides that scandalous offence of the Queen at Greenwich which was never but a palliated cure Upon which considerations His Majesty resolving to sever him from my Lord of Rochester and to do it not disgracefully or violently but in some honourable fashion He commanded not long since the Arch-Bishop by way of familiar discourse to propound unto him the Ambassage of France or of the Arch-Dukes Court whereof the one was shortly to be changed and the other at the present vacant In which proposition it seemeth though shadowed under the Arch-Bishops good will that the King was also contented some little light should be given him of His Majesties inclination unto it grounded upon his merit At this the Fish did not bite whereupon the King took a rounder way commanding my Lord Chancellor and the Earl of Pembrock to propound joyntly the same unto him which the Arch-Bishop had before moved as immediately from the King and to sweeten it the more he had as I hear an offer made him of assurance before his going off the place of Treasurer of the Chamber which he expecteth after the death of the Lord Stanhop whom belike the King would have drawn to some reasonable composition Notwithstanding all which Motives and impulsives Sir Thomas Overbury refused to be sent abroad with such terms as were by the Council interpreted pregnant of contemptin a case where the King had opened his will which refusal of his I should for my part esteem an eternal disgrace to our occupation if withall I did not consider how hard it is to pull one from the bosom of a Favorite Thus you see the point upon which one hath been committed standing in the second degree of power in the Court and conceiving as himself told me but two hours before never better then at that present of his own fortunes ends Now in this whole matter there is one main and principal doubt which doth travail all understandings that is Whether this were done without the participation of my Lord of Rochester A point necessarily infolding two different consequences for if it were done without his knowledge we must expect of himself either a decadence or a ruine if not we must then expect a reparation by some other great publick satisfaction whereof the world may take as much notice These clouds a few dayes will clear In the mean while I dare pronounce of Sir Thomas Overbury that he shall return no more to this Stage unless Courts be governed every year by a new Philosophy for our old Principles will not bear it I have shewed my Lord and Ladies Sister your Letter of the 18. of April who return unto you their affectionate remembrances and I many thanks for it The King hath altered his journey to Thetford and determineth to entertain himself till the progress nearer London The Queen beginneth her journey upon Saturday towards Bathe Neither the Marquess di villa who cometh from Savoy nor Don Pedro disarmiento who shall reside here in the room of the present Spanish Ambassador are yet either arrived or near our Coast though both on the way So as I can yet but cast towards you a longing and in truth an envious look from this place of such servility in the getting and such uncertainty in the holding of fortunes where me-thinks we are all over-clouded with that sleep of Jacob when he saw some ascending and some descending but that those were Angels and these are men For in both what is it but a Dream And so Sir wishing this Paper in your hands to whom I dare communicate the freest of my thoughts I commit you to Gods continual Love and Blessings Your faithfull poor Friend and Servant HENRY WOTTON I pray Sir let me in some corner of every Letter tell my sweet Neece that I love her extreamly as God judge me FINIS