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A67124
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A panegyrick of King Charles being observations upon the inclination, life, and government of our Soveraign Lord the King / written by Sir Henry Wotton ...
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Wotton, Henry, Sir, 1568-1639.
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1649
(1649)
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Wing W3645; ESTC R34764
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12,099
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132
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CAROLUS D. G. Anglia Scotia Francia et Hibernia Rex Fidei Defensor A PANEGYRICK of King CHARLES Being Observations upon the Inclination Life and Government of our Soveraign Lord the KING WRITTEN BY Sir Henry Wotton Knight Provost of EATON Colledg A little before his death And Printed for Richard Marriot London TO OUR Young CHARLES Duke of Cornwall And Earle of CHESTER Henry Wotton Wisheth late dayes THese following Vowes and Acclamations wherewith Your Father the best of Kings was wellcomed at his return from Scotland I dedicate to Your Highnesse not unadvisedly that when you shal bee indued with erudition the ornament long since of your ancestors you may draw from this smal memorial whatsoever it bee a more glorious treasure then a triple Crown namely an hereditary image of vertue To the Reader Reader KNOW that this piece was by the deceased Author writ originally in Latin and was received generally with applause and satisfaction then And by a person highly and deservedly valuing the Authors Memory taught to speak our English tongue which ought not to blush even in these times for owning the thoughts of this much renowned Patriot and true servant to his Royall Master yet in beeing Whose vertuous and happy reign was no less the admiration of his neighbors then the just subject of this learned pen to transmit the true lights therof to after ages And if it fail of an effect suitable now upon the Readers of these dayes in generall the Publisher doubts not of one in thee whom he hopes art neither byassed by desperate Interest nor dazled with false Illumination Farewell TO THE KING at His return from SCOTLAND Sir Henry Wottons VOTES and ACCLAMATIONS Imperiall CHARLES my Soveraign King and Master I. IT was an ancient custom among the civill nations so oft as they were blessed with a just and a gracious King lest their felicity should bee mutely smother'd and moulder in their brests to pour sorth their affections and joyes in elogies in hearty wishes and in applauses especially when any occasion did excite their acclamations By emulation of which sacred custom being rapt and my very bowells in this my frozen age being warmed therewith I have taken a flagrant confidence to celebrate this day which hath restored your Majesty to us and us unto our selves being so little daunted with the weaknesse of mine own elocution that almost I am ready to esteem my self thereby the fitter to perform it For what need is there here of any rhetoricall stuff or why should I too curiously ballance words by weight it will be enough this day simply to rejoice Sincerity is a plain and impolite thing by how much the lesse tricked so much the more joying in her owne naturall alacrity and fine speech while it adorneth corrupteth our gladness Neither do I fear that this duty shall appear a flattering blandishment or to proceed from one ambitiously projected at the feet of fortune which intruth were unworthy of that ingenuity that I have received from my parents and likewise of that blessed contentment which liberall studies have taught me Yet one thing I confesseâ—d oh involve my thoughts at the very entrance in a kind of Solicitude namely lest I should with true praises offend that verecundious modesty wherewith Your Majesty doth so sweetly season all your other vertues for although your fortitude bee great against any thing that requires either Constancie of spirit or validity of body yet I cast some doubt lest you should bear these applauses the more tenderly by how much they are the more justly due II. We read that Germanicus and yet what a man somewhat before the battel against the Catti went disguised with a beasts skin about his shoulders to listen behind the souldiers tents what opinion they had of him So as they seem the weakest receivers of their own commendations that are the worthyest to receive them Whence I easily foresee that I must prepare a way for your Sacred Eares by more severe arguments then I can borrow from the shop of light Rhetoritians I will therefore roundly affirm that neither the fair nor the deformed lives of Princes should be suppressed under ignoble silence but that both the good and bad should bee delivered to posterity with the same liberty in writing which themselves used in living and with no less reverence of truth then of majesty the good lest by subducting the examples of vertue from our knowledge vertue it self by little and little should decay the bad that being exempt while they live from all danger of laws they might at least be attempered with some awe of future records This I dare speak to your self most excellent Soveraign and even that I dare say so much as this I owe only to your self who have now so lived 33 and reigned almost nine yeers that you are not afraid of truth III. Most famous it was of old and wil eternally live that answer of Virginius Rufus to Cluvius You know Virginius saith hee what credit is due to history wherefore if you read any thing in my books otherwaies then you would have it I pray pardon me To whom replies Virginius Cluvius knows this that I have done those that I have done that it might be free for you writers to write what you list Which was the security I must confess of a brave gentleman indeed but of a private personage How much more may this day rejoice at the reception of a King of whose life and whole deportment wee may speak both openly and safely Yea let me add this boldly that if nature her self the first Architectres had according to Vitruvius his conceit windowed your brest if Your Majesty should admit all mens eyes not only within the walls of your priviest chamber but into the inward'st closet of your heart nothing would there appear but the splendor of goodness and an untroubled serenity of vertues What said I if you would admit why can they whom the supreme power hath set in a high and lucent throne bee secluded from the eyes of men or the course of your life and government be hidden in a mist certainly in this point obscurity of degree and solitude it self is more vailed then Majesty Doth that Emperor of Abyssine who they say is seen but once a yeer abroad think that it is lesse known what he doth with in Doe wee not know even at this day that Domitian even in his secret retied room whither hee dayly in private resorted did nothing but stick flies with a bodkin Lay Tiberius hid in his recesse to the Islands of Capreae when among so many wounds and tortures of his conscience with which he was vexed like so many furies many tokens of a distracted mind did daily break forth Surely no Your Majesty hath taught the Princes both of your own future times the only and most wholsome way of concealing your self in this that you indeavour nothing that is to bee concealed There are certain creatures of
you have added temperance her nearest Companion which vertues among miserable and impotent men who would not pass by with silenceâ— but in a King so young in the vigour of his age in such a promptness of satisfying all appetites know not whether we should more commend or admire Now after these Elogies which partly beget love and partly beget wonder to doubt once of the justness of your times were most unjust It wil not yet repent me to repeat a little at large a thing of illustrious example in a man of obscure condition There fell out at London I know not what tumult for one rescued out of a Serjeants hands who for debt was carried to prison where in the midst of those confusions one or two as for the most part it falleth out did perish of sodain hurts wherupon one Iohn Stamford a stout and lusty fellow who had fatally run into the throng was apprehended as guilty oâ— murther he watched not with Your Majesty intercessors of great name and there was a certain hope of his pardon already in vulgar imagination conceived because he waited on the Duke of Buckingham in his Chamber and among attendants of his own condition was many times very acceptable to his Lord for a mighty ability of body skil in wrestling whereof the memory as then was yet fresh which perchance made the poor man the more audacious but neither the intercessions of the living nor the mans own wel known valour nor finally the remembrance of so wel known a Patron whom he served could prevaile with Your Majesty above Justice but which is much to be said after these circumstances he suffered the ordinary death Fresher is the execution which a Baron of most ancient linage suffred for a fact unworthy of his ancestors But if an old observation of a witty author may yet have place that some examples are more illustrious and some greater I should think the Barons the more illustrious and Stamfords the greater XII But whither am I ravisht while I revolve these things with no unpleasing meditation Your Majesty hath in your Tribunals of strict Justice proper Judges whose Sentences are rigid you have also a most sage Chancellour of right and equity not inferior to the ancient Pretors who for the peoples relief mollifieth the former severity but those doe sit apart in severall Bars if one should ask by chance why they sit not together which might seem the more expedite way I wil deliver my opinion our Ancestors out of a most grave providence that Justice and lenity wch in the inferiour Magistrate sit divided might be consociated in the only brest of the Soveraign And truly so it is for composed in your self as it were of the very desire of your ancestors hath so tempered them together that none have presumption to be evill nor grieve to be good Hitherto I desire to bee understood that I have only spoken of the restraint of common vices which every where swarm for of more haiâ—nous transgressions by Gods goodness wee have not a word no not so much as a dream wee are in labour of an excellent ignorance we know not what insurrection is what plotter is against the Common-weal or that is which Gramarians cal the offence of Majesty the very words are vanisht with the thingâ— and in truth no marvail for what wretch unless hee were of all mortall men the most stupid and felonious and both equally a fool and a villain would violate the quiet of so just and pious a Governor XIII Now as you maintain your lustice which I would call the health of your Kingdom in an even Ballance without too much stretching or slackning the stringsâ—punc so you are not careless of the security for so the same would fal to Empires which falleth out in natural bodies which subsist dangerously if nothing but meer health sustain them wherefore after a war wth two mighty Kings together with various event as it falleth out in humane affairs concluded by new Confederations on either side your principall care at home was to provide for the Maritine strength as it became the Tutor of Insular Kingdoms where the Navy Royal was yearly more increased and furnished likewise more coÌ„modious roads chosen for the Ships and of readyer issue upon sodain occasion Your Majesty not only commanding but with your own Eyes peâ—using the places as if in a matter of that moment you had scarce trusted another mans view Then a more exact survey of Arms and the general Musters at due time better executed XIV Amongst these things it were uncivill to pass over silently that which wise men oft time have noted namely that Your Majesty doth more frequent the Counsel of State then any of your Predecessors unless perchance wee should reflect our eyes upon Edward the Sixth whom they say even in his childhood to have been seldome absent XIV In that Session of your privy Counsell the highest Prelates add reverence the Nobles of both Kingdoms dignity Some there are whom forraign experience some whom the knowledg of our Laws do adorn among whom the learned and faithfull Sagacity of your Secretaries watch over all accidents but above these the very presence of the Soveraign hath alwaies I know not how a certain blessed inspiâ—ation it is a smal matter which I have said your Presence only yea those which participate of your Counsells not altogether I must confess incurious for wch I beg pardon I have many times heard how attentvely as often as you are pleased to be present you resolve things propounded how patiently you hear with how sharp judgment you ponder the particulars how stiff you are for I will use no milder word in good resolutions and how stout in great Finally in secret affairs what taciturnity you impose and how severely you exact an account therof in this also your own example leading your Commandement For besides other there are two things which Your Majesty hath most blessedly bound together namely there was never Prince since the Constitution of Empires a safer preserver of a secret and yet none whose secrecie and silence wee less fear which wee read antiently noted of that excellent man Iulius Agricola who was the first Roman that invaded the skirts of your Calydonia for Your Majesty doth not suffer secretly in your bosom tyrannous and crafty thoughts nor hatch the sparkles of offence til they flame but if any bee contrived you doe vent it and as I may say exhale it with a high noblecanâ—or Truly I confess I do not more willingly insist in the reverence of any of your vertues then in this very attribute of your heroicall ingenuity for as the supreame Character of the most high power is Verity so what can more become or more magnificently invest his Representants on earth then veracity it self hitherto we have seen your obsequlousness towards your parents constancy towards your friends fidelity towards your Consort and towards the Common-wealth not only the affection