LETTERS OF Sir Henry Wotton TO Sir Edmund Bacon LONDON Printed by R. W. for F. T. at the three Daggers in Fleet-street 1661. THE PRINTER TO THE READER TO remove all suspicion that may arise concerning these Letters published so long after the Authors death these are to assure you that they are printed from the Originals written with his own hand though without this assurance the spirit of them will sufficiently discover their Author Farewell Letters SIR IT is very just since I cannot Personally accompany this Gentleman yet that I do it with my Letter wherein if I could transport the Image of mine own minde unto you as lively as we have often represented you unto our selves abroad then I should not think us asunder while you read it But of my longing to see you I am a better feeler then a describer as likewise of my Obligations towards you whereof it is not the least that I have been by your mediation and judgement and love furnished with so excellent a Comforter of my absence and so loving and discreet a divider and easer of my Travels after whose separation from me I am ready to say that which I remember the younger Pliny doth utter with much feeling after the loss of his venerable and dearest friend Corollius Rufus Vereor saith he ne posthac negligentius vivam But herein my case is better then his for I cannot but hope that some good occasion will bring him again nearer me And I must confess unto you I should be glad to see him planted for a while about the King or Prince that so if his own fortune be not mended by the Court yet the Court may be bettered by him in that which it doth more desperately want Now Sir Besides himself there cometh unto you with him an Italian Doctor of physick by name Gaspero Despotini a man well practised in his own faculty and very Philosophical and sound in his discourses By birth a Venetian which though it be not Urbs ignobilis as St. Paul said of his own Mother-City yet is his second birth the more excellent I mean his illumination in Gods saving Truth which was the only cause of his remove and I was glad to be the conductor of him where his conscience may be free though his condition otherwise till he shall be known will be the poorer This stranger I was desirous to present unto you as my friend in his company whose testimony may more value him then mine own And so committing them both to your love and your self with all that family to Gods blessing hand I rest Your poor friend and Servant HENRY WOTTON From my Lodging in King-street this 2d. Apr. 1611. Sir IT is late at night and I am but newly come to the knowledge that my Lord is to send a Messenger unto you to morrow morning yet howsoever I have resolved not to be left out of this dispatch though in truth I had rather be the footman my self then one of the Writers But here I am tyed about mine own business which I have told you like a true Courtier for Right-Courtiers indeed have no other business but themselves Our Lord Jesus bless you all as you are now together and wheresoever you shall be Your Uncle by your own Election and your servant by mine HENRY WOTTON From Greenwich the 27. May 1611. March the last 1613. Sir I Returned from Cambridge to London some two hours after the King The next day was celebrated with 20 Tilters wherein there entred four fraternities the Earls Pembrock and Mongommery my Lord Walden Thomas and Henry Hawards the two Riches and the two Alexanders as they are called though falsly like many things else in a Court The rest were Lenox Arundel Rutland Dorcet Shandowes North Hey Dingwel Clifford Sir Thomas Sommerset and Sir John Harrington The day fell out wet to the disgrace of many fine Plumes Some Caparisons seen before adventured to appear again on the Stage with a little disguisement even on the back of one of the most curious So frugal are the times or so indigent The two Riches only made a speech to the King the rest were contented with bare Imprese whereof some were so dark that their meaning is not yet understood unless perchance that were their meaning not to be understood The two best to my fancy were those of the two Earls Brothers The first a small exceeding white Pearl and the word Solo candore valco The other a Sun casting a glance on the side of a Pillar and the Beams reflecting with this Motto Splendente refulget In which devices there seemed an agreement the elder brother to allude to his own nature and the younger to his fortune The day was signalized with no extraordinary accident save only between Sr Thomas Haward and Sr Thomas Sommerset who with a counter-buff had almost set himself out of the saddle and made the others Horse sink under him but they both came fairly off without any further disgrace Of the merits of the rest I will say nothing my Pen being very unfit to speak of Launces To this solemnity of the publick Ambassadors only the Arch-Dukes was invited for the healing of the distaste he had taken for the preference of the Venetian at the marriage But I doubt the Plaister be too narrow for the sore which he seemed not much discontented that men should note in his whole countenance that day Towards the Evening a challenge passed between Archie and a famous Knight called Sr Thomas Parsons the one a fool by election and the other by necessity which was accordingly performed some two or three dayes after at Tylt Tornie and on foot both compleatly armed and solemnly brought in before their Majesties and almost as many other meaner eyes as were at the former Which bred much sport for the present and afterwards upon cooler consideration much censure and discourse as the manner is The departure of the Count Palatine and my Lady Elizabeth is put off from the Thursday in the Easter-week till the Tuesday following which day I think will hold The Commissioners that accompany her have the titles of Ambassadors to give them precedency before Sir Ralph Winwood at the Hague and likewise in any encounters with Almaigne Princes Sir Edward Cecil goeth as Treasurer to keep up that Office in the name though it be otherwise perhaps from a General rather a fall then an ascent Before this journey there is a conceit that the Duke of Lenox will be naturalized a Peer of our Parliament and my Lord of Rochester be created Earl of Devonshire The forraign matter is little increased since my last unto you from Cambridge The Savoy Ambassador not yet arrived The Turks designs hitherto unknown and marching slowly according to the nature of huge Armies In which suspence the Venetians have augmented their guard in the Gulf enough to confirm unto the world that States must be conserved even with ridiculous fears This is all that
called honest liberty so as upon the whole matter No excesses want pretious names You shall have it in Pliny's language which I like better then mine own translation Nullis vitiis desunt pretiosa nomina The third is a silly and simple creature God himself knows and though his Father was by Queen Elizabeth at the time of a Parliament likewise put into the place where the son now is yet hath he rather inherited his fortune then his understanding His fault was the application of certain Texts in Ezekiel and Daniel to the matter of impositions and saying that the French King was kill'd like a Calf with such like poor stuff Against which the French Ambassador having gotten knowledge of it hath formed a complaint with some danger of his wisdom The last is a young Gentleman fresh from the School who having gathered together divers Latin sentences against Kings bound them up in a long speech and interlarded them with certain Ciceronian exclamations as O Tempora O Mores Thus I have a little run over these accidents unto you enough only to break out of that silence which I will not call a symptome of my sickness but a sickness it self How soever I will keep it from being hectical and hereafter give you a better account of mine own observations This week I have seen from a most dear Neece a Letter that hath much comforted one Uncle and a Postscript the other Long may that hand move which is so full of kindeness As for my particular Take heed of such invitations if you either love or pity your selves For I think there was never Needle toucht with a Load-stone that did more incline to the North then I do to Redgrave In the mean time we are all here well and so our Lord Jesus preserve you there Your faithfullest poor Friend and Servant HENRY WOTTON Sir I pray remember my hearty affection to my Cosin Nicolas Bacon and all joy to the new conjoyned I shall propound unto you the next week a very possible Probleme unto which if you can devise how to attain Non scriveremo al Papa fratello London June 16. 1614. Sir THe Earl of Northampton having after a lingring feaver spent more spirits than a younger body could well have born by the incision of a wennish tumor grown on his thigh yesternight between eleven and twelve of the clock departed out of this world where as he had proved much variety and vicissitude of fortune in the course of his life so peradventure he hath prevented another change thereof by the opportunity of his end For there went a general voyce through the Court on Sunday last upon the commitment of Doctor Sharp and Sir Charles Cornwallis to the Tower that he was somewhat implicated in that business whereof I will give you a little accompt at the present as far as I have been hitherto able to penetrate John Hoskins of whose imprisonment I wrote unto you by the last Carrier having at a reexamination been questioned whether he well understood the consequence of that Sicilian vesper whereunto he had made some desperate allusion in the House of Parliament made answer and I think very truly that he had no more then a general information thereof being but little conversant in those Histories that lay out of the way of his profession whereupon being pressed to discover whence he then had recieved this information since it lay not within his own reading he confessed to have had it from Doctor Sharp who had infused these things into him and had solicited him to impress them in the Parliament And further that Hoskins hereupon demanding what protection he might hope for if afterwards he were called into question the said Doctor should nominate unto him besides others whose names I will spare that Earl who hath now made an end of all his reckonings assuring him of his assistance by the means of Sir Charles Cornwallis with whom the Doctor was conjoyned in this practice Thus came Sir Charles into discovery who being afterward confronted with the Doctor himself though he could not as they say justifie his own person yet did he clear my Lord of Northampton from any manner of understanding with him therein upon his Salvation which yet is not enough as I percieve among the people to sweep the dust from his Grave Thus you see Sir the natural end of a great man and the accidental ruine of others which I had rather you should see in a letter then as I did on Sunday at Greenwich where it grieved my soul to behold a grave and learned Divine and a Gentleman of good hopes and merits carried away in the face of the whole Court with most dejected countenances and such a greediness at all windows to gaze at unfortunate spectacles The Earl of Northampton hath made three of his servants his Executors with a very vast power as I hear and for Overseers of his will my Lord of Suffolk my Lord of Worcester and my Lord William Haward to the Earl of Arundel he hath left all his land which will amount to some 3000. of yearly revenue besides three or four hundred to Mr. Henry Haward whereof he had before assured him at the time of his marriage but neither of them to enjoy a penny thereof as yet this eight year all which time he intendeth the fruits of his estate shall be collected and distributed in legacies and pious uses according to his will which hath not yet been seen but thus much as I have told you was understood before his expiration To my Lord of Suffolk he hath left his house but hath disposed of all the moveables and furniture from him And it is concieved that he dyed in some distastful impression which he had taken against him upon the voyces that ran of my Lord of Suffolcks likelihood to be Lord Treasurer which place will now assuredly fall upon him and the world doth contemplate my Lord of Rochester for Lord Privy Seal and Lord Warden of the five Ports As for the Lord Chamberlainship it is somewhat more questionable between my Lord of Pembroke the Duke of Lenox and my Lord Knowels A few daies will determine these ambitions In the mean time I commit you who have better objects to the contemplation of them and to the mercy of our loving God in all your waies Your faithfullest poor friend and Servant HENRY WOTTON Sir I have I know not how mislayed the character which I left you therefore I pray send me in your very next a copy Therefore I have deferred the matter which I am to propound unto you till the next week because I must send you some oar of lead and iron withall which I have not yet gotten Is there no room left for the remembrance of that dear Neece God forbid And I pray Sir tell her besides that a certain Uncle here whom yet I will not suffer to love her better then my self doth greedily expect some news from her The 7. of
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
where he surprized three Towns with the Petarde the first time as one writeth from Venice that ever that pestilent invention had been put in practice beyond the Alpes The cause of this attempt was for that the Cardinal Gonzaga now Duke of Mantua had yielded to send home the Dowager Infanta to the Duke of Savoy her Father but would retain her only child a daughter of two years in whose right the said Duke of Savoy pretendeth colourably enough to the foresaid whole Marquisat and clearly to all the moveables left by the late Duke of Mantua her Father who died intestat Into which point of Law there entered besides some jealousie of State being unfit for respects that would have falln easily into the apprehension of duller Princes than the Italian to leave a childe out of the custody of her Mother in his that was to gain by the death of it yet am I of opinion who have a little contemplated the Duke of Savoys complexion that nothing moved him more in this business than the threatnings of the French Queen who had before commanded Didiguires to fall into the said Dukes estates by way of diversion if he should meddle with the least Village in the Monserrato which feminine menacement did no doubt incite him to do it out of the impatience of scorn And withall he built silently upon a ground which could not well fail him That the King of Spain would never suffer the French Souldiers to taste any more of the Grapes and Melons of Lombardie because L'apetit vient en mangeant which the issue of the businesses hath proved true for the Governor of Milan having raised a tumultuary army of horse and foot did with it only keep things in stay from farther progress on both sides till the agreement was made between the Duke of Mantua himself in person and the Prince of Piedmont within the Town of Milan The accord is advertised the King from Venice and Paris The conditions will be better known at the arrival of Gabaleoni and then likewise we shall see the bottom of this errand which hath been hitherto nothing but a general proposition of a match between the same Lady that was formerly offered and our Prince now living which the Ambassador hath touched so tenderly as if he went to manage his Masters credit Upon the whole matter I cannot conceive though he seemeth to let fall some phrases of haste that he will be gone yet this fortnight or three weeks till when I languish And so let me end all my letters ever resting Your faithfullest poor friend and servant HENRY WOTTON May 21 1613. Sir IN my last I told you that the Ambassador of Savoy was to meet the Queen at Windsor which pains she hath spared him by her own coming yesternight to Greenwich where I think she will settle her self a day or two before she admit him Now seeing the time of the Commencement at Cambridge so near as it is being able to determine of this Ambassadors departure within that space I have resolved to take those Philosophical exercises in my way to you hoping in the mean time to see Albertus admitted by oath to a Clarkship of the Council or at least to the next vacancy for he is now strong enough again to swear Sir Robert Mansfeld and Mr. Whitlock were on Saturday last called to a very honourable hearing in the Queens Presence Chamber at White-Hall before the Lords of the Council with intervention of my Lord Cook the Lord chief Baron of the Exchequer and Master of the Roles the Lord chief Justice being kept at home with some infirmitie There the Attorny and Sollicitor first undertook Mr. Whitlock and the Recorder as the Kings Sergeant Sir Robert Mansfeld charging the one as a Counsellor the other as a questioner in matter of the Kings prerogative and Soveraignty upon occasion of a Commission intended for a research into the administration of the Admiralty against which the said Sir Robert Mansfeld being himself so principal an officer therein had sought some provision of advice and This was the sum of the charge which was diversly amplified Whitlock in his answer spake more confusedly than was expected from a Lawyer and the Knight more temperately than waâ—… expected from a Souldier There was likewise some difference noted not only in the manner but in the substance between them For Whitlock ended his speech with an absolute confession of his own offence and with a promise of employing himself hereafter in defence of the Kings prerogative Sir Robert Mansfeld on the other side laboured to distinguish between the error of his acts and the integrity of his zeal and affection towards the King his Master protesting he should hold it the greatest glory under Heaven to die at his feet and that no man living should go before him if there were occasion to advance his dominions with some other such Martial strains which became him well The conclusion of his speech had somewhat of the Courtier beseeching the Lords if the restraint he had indured were not in their judgements a sufficient punishment of his error that then they would continue it as long as it should please them and add unto it any other affliction of pain or shame whatsoever provided that afterwards he might be restored again into his Majesties favour and their good opinions To tell you what they all severally said that day were to rob from the liberty of our discourse when we shall meet In this they generally agreed both Counsellors and Judges to represent the humiliation of both the Prisoners unto the King in lieu of innocency and to intercede for his gratious pardon Which was done and accordingly the next day they were inlarged upon a submission under writing This is the end of that business at which were present as many as the room could contain and men of the best quality whom the King was desirous to satisfie not only about the point in hand but in some other things that were occasionally awaked which I likewise reserve to our private freedom The Kings Officers are returned from my Lady Elizabeth whom they left at Goltzheime the last of May where His Majesties expence did cease This place was chosen for her consignment in stead of Bacherach suspected of contagion She was at Andernach feasted by the Elector of Cullen at Confluence or Cobolentz as they call it by the other of Trier and at Mentz by the third of those Ecclesiastick Potentates very Royally and kindly and which was less expected very handsomly The Count Maurice and his Brother with troops of Horse and a guard of Foot accompanyed her to Cullen and entred themselves into that City with her I need not tell you that though themselves were within the Horse and most of the Foot were without the walls Which is here by the wiser sort of Interpreters thought as hazardous an act as either of them both had done in the heat of War and indeed no way
June stile of the place 1615. Sir I Hear a little voyce that you are come to London which to me is the voyce of a Nightingal for since I cannot enjoy your presence I make my self happy with your nearness And yet now methinks I have a kinde of rebellion against it that we should be separated with such a contemptible distance For how much I love you mine own heart doth know and God knoweth my heart But let me fall into a passion for what sin in the name of Christ was I sent hither among souldiers being by my profession Academical and by my charge Pacifical I am within a day or two to send Cuthberd my servant home by whom I shall tell you divers things In the mean while I have adventured these few lines to break the ice of silence for in truth it is a cold fault Our sweet Saviour bless you Servidore ANIGO WOTTONI My hot love to the best Neece of the World Right Honourable and my very good Lord. HAving here lately seen the deaths of two and the elections of two other Dukes within the compass of six weeks I have been bold to entertain your Lordship with a little story of these changes and competitions though with small presumption that you can take any pleasure in my simple report thereof unless it win some favour by the freshness or the freedom For the rest The whole town is here at the present in horror and confusion upon the discovering of a foul and fearfull conspiracy of the French against this State whereof no less then thirty have already suffered very condign punishment between men strangled in prison drowned in the silence of the night and hanged in publick view and yet the bottom is invisible If Gods mercy had not prevented it I think I might for mine own patticular have spared my late supplication to the King about my return home towards next Winter For I cannot hope that in the common Massacre publick Ministers would have been distinguished from other men Nay rather we might perchance have had the honour to have our houses thought worthiest the rifling I shall give your Lordship a better account of this in my next Having now troubled you beyond excuse with my poor Papers Our blessed God keep your Lordship in his love Your Lordships with all true devotion HENRY WOTTON Venice this 25. May 1618. Sir AMong those that have deep interest in whatsoever can befall you I am the freshest witness of your unexpressible affections to my most dear Neece whom God hath taken from us into his eternal Light and rest where we must leave her â—…ll we come unto her I should think my self unworthy for ever of that love she bare me if in this case I were fit to comfort you But it is that only God who can reconsolate us both Who when he hath called now one and then another of his own creatures unto himself will unclasp the final Book of his Decrees and dissolve the whole For which I hope he will rather teach us to thirst and languish then to repine at particular dissolutions I had in a peculiar affliction of mine own all within the compass of little time much consolation from you which cannot but be now present with your self for I am well acquainted with the strength of your Christian minde Therefore being kindely invited by the good Master of the Rolles to write by his express Messenger unto you let me without further discourse of our griess only joyn in this with him to wish your company divided between him and me We will contemplate together when we meet our future blessedness and our present uncertainties And I am afraid we shall finde too much argument to drown our private feelings in the publick sollicitude Gods love wherein is all joy be with us Your ever true and hearty servant HENRY WOTTON From Westminst this 16. Apr. 1626. From the Colledge the 14. of Decemb. 1628. Sir I Have received from London the favourable lines wherewith you honoured me then near your departure which you have somewhat allayed with the promise of your return at the beginning of the next Term which consorteth well with a change of my purpose to Christmas in Kent born in me as I was reading your Letter For what should I do there in such haste after the Nuptials when I shall come so as well in Lent Much ado there hath been towards the point of conclusion like that Aphorism of Hyppocrates Nox ante Chrisin est molestissima Loves being in this like Feavers as well as in the rest for one definition will serve them both Cordis accensio Jack Dinely is not yet arrived but we expect him daily as Messenger from the Queen his Mistress of her late happy delivery after a foul report that had been maliciously thrown abroad of her miscarriage by a fall The Doctor likewise as yet hath given me no answer but I will quicken him and put life I hope into the business Now let me tell you That the noble Sir Gervase Clifton as in good faith he is in ipsis visceribus hath been lately here with us at a time when he hath been content to be entertained with the pastimes of children a Latine and a Greek Hyppolitus How often you were remembred between us is harder for me to tell you then I hope for you to believe Among other discourse he shewed me a little excrescence that he hath beginning upon the uttermost ball of his eyes a filmie matter like the rudiment of a Pinn and Webb as they call it Whereupon fell into my memory a secret that Mr Bohan had told me his Mother knew How to take away that evil in growth and perchance much more in the infancy with a Medicine applyed only to the Wrists And I have heard your self likewise speak of a rare thing for that part I beseech you Sir be pleased with all possible speed to intreat that receipt from M. Bohan to whom we shall both be much beholden for it And Sir Gervase Clifton is already so possessed that he both sayes and thinks that nothing will cure him better then that which any way shall come through your hand unto him No peace as yet with either of the Kings The more wished I think with France the likelier perchance with Spain No Offices disposed in Court No Favorite but the Lord Treasurer More news in my next For the present God keep you in his dear love Servidore H. WOTTON On the 6. of March 1628. Sir I Beseech you let these lines with as much affection though with less civility conveigh my good wishes after you which I should my self have brought before your departure You seem to have left the Town somewhat Prophetically not to be near the noise of a very unhappy morning on Munday last at which time the Parliament assembling again which you know had been silenced till that day was then re-adjourned by the Kings especial Command till Tuesday next Whereupon
again which was distracted with so kinde a surprisal should I use a feathered quill to write unto you or fly my self to Redgrave for you had given me wings At last I resolved upon both First to make this true protestation by writing from my very bowels where it is engraven That though your bounty considered in all the circumstances as well the form as the matter and the very opportunity of the time wherein it came and especially without any imaginable pretence of desert in my self hath been such as never befell me before nor can ever befall me again yet have you therewith not enriched but stripped and despised me for ever Nothing that was before either in my power or possession being after this mine own for it is all yours if it were both the Indies So as your kindness howsoever flowing from a tender affection yet is with me like hard wax dropped and sealed together The next after this shall be to follow it my self but therein after the Spanish phrase I will take language at the Roles where I shall understand more punctually about what time you purpose to be here For I aym at the convoying of you up to your Eton. About which I will write more by the next Carrier and prepare your self Sir with patience while we live to be troubled weekly with my letters wheresoever I am even when I shall have no more to say then this which is the least that can be spoken that I am Yours HENRY WOTTON Feb. 13. 1632. May the 27. Sir I Do as unwillingly put my pen to tell you as I am sure you will be to hear what hath befaln my Nephew Albertus this week He was going on Friday last towards evening in a Coach alone whose driver alighting I know not upon what occasion hard by Charing-Cross the horses being young took some affrightment and running away so furiously that one of them tore all his belly open upon the corner of a Beer Cart my Nephew who in this mean while adventured to leap out seemeth to have hung upon one of the pins of the boot from whence strugling to get loose he brake the wast-band of his hose behind and so fell with the greater violence on the ground hurting only the hindermost part of his head by what possibility we cannot conceive unless the motion of the Coach did turn him round in the fall The force of the concussion took from him for some hour or thereabouts the use of his voice and sense which are now well restored only there yet remaineth in his left arm a kinde of Paralitical stupefaction and his right eye-lid is all black with some knock that he took in the agitation of the Coach which peradventure may have been the motive to make him leap out But these external evils do not so much trouble us as an inward pungent and pulsatory ache within the skull somewhat lower then the place of his hurt which hath continued more or less since his fall notwithstanding twice letting blood and some nights of good rest and shaving of his head for the better transpiration which we doubt the more because it cometh sine ratione his hurt being only in the fleshy part and very sleight without fracture of the skull without inflammation without any fever and all the principal faculties as memory discourse imagination untainted The King hath in this time much consolated us both with sending unto him and with expressing publikely a gracious feeling of his case but we must fetch our true comforts from him who is Lord of the whole And so I leave it Since my last unto you I am sure you hear how Sir Robert Mansfield hath been twice or thrice convented before the Lords and committed to the Marshalsie partly for having consulted with M. Whitlock the Lawyer about the validity of a Commission drawn for a re-search into the Office of the Admiralty whereof himself is an Accomptant and partly for denying to reveal the name of the said Lawyer his Friend who before had been committed to the Fleet for another case much of the same nature The point toucheth a limb of the Kings Prerogative and immediate Authority Sir Robert Mansfields Answers by report had as much of the Philosopher or of the Hermite as of the Souldier or Courtier professing openly his little care of this World or of his own fortunes in it and divers other phrases of that complexion Sir Thomas Overbury is still where he was and as he was without any alteration The Viscount Rochester yet no way sinking in the point of favour which are two strange consistents Sir R. Drury runneth at the Ring corbeteth his horse before the Kings window haunteth my L. of Rochesters chamber even when himself is not there in secret divideth his observances between him the House of Suffolk And all this they say to be Ambassador at Bruxels So as super tota materia I see appetites are not all of a kinde Some go to the Tower for the avoiding of that which another doth languish to obtain I will end with my Paper and by the next Carrier either tell you precisely when I shall see you or prevent the telling of it And so our sweet Saviour bless you and my deer Neece From St. Martins by the Fields this 18. of Apr. 1633. HENRY WOTTON To my Noble Nephew long and cheerfull Years Sir From St. Martins by the Fields this 18. of Apr. 1633. BY beginning first with Philosophie I will discover the Method of my nature preferring it before the speculations of State Take any Vegetable whatsoever none excepted in the effect though some difference in the degree express the juyce put that in any vessel of Wood or Stone with a narrow neck and mouth not closed at the top but covered with any thing so as it may work out above Set it afterwards in some cold hole in a Cellar let it stand there some three weeks or a moneth till by fermentation it have both purged it self upwards and by sediment downwards Then decant from it the clear juyce and put that in a Limbeck in Balneo Maris or in Balneo Roris The first that riseth will be Aqua ardens useful perchance according to the quality of the Plant as of Wormwood for the stomack of Succory or any of those Incubae for the Liver And on the sides of the Limbeck will hang a salt this is the extracting of salt without calcination which otherwise certainly must needs consume all the active powers of any Vegetable and leave nothing but a plastick and passive vertue For the point of preserving that salt afterwards from resolution by ayr into water I hold it impossible notwithstanding the proper examples that you alledge which yet must of necessity yield to it For as your excellent Uncle sayes and sayes well in not the least of his works though born after him of his experiments Ayr is predatory I have forgotten for memoria primo senescit whether I
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
Mr. Christopher Goad and lately deposed with severe commandment as it should seem from above whereupon the women especially by way of of revenge for that restraint do flock to St. Maries in such troops and so early that the Masters of Art have no room to sit so as the Vice-Chancellor and Heads of houses were in deliberation to repress their shoaling thither Methinks it is a good thing when zeal in a land grows so thick and so warm But soft if I lanch any farther I may perchance run which yet were a great mistake into the name of a Puritan For that very Lecturer which is now deposed did live heretofore with me at my table upon especial choice being in truth a man of sweet conversation and of sober solidity Now for other things Nicolas Oudard brought me the Friday after his departure from you the glad tidings of your Agues discharge as you then conceived it would be at the twentieth Access according as you seem to have told him to a common observation with you there so as in Suffolk I see you count Quartan fits as you do your sheep by the score I could heartily wish you would take for some time after it Alternis Diebus my preparation of the Lignum Sanctum with addition likewise of the roots of China Enula Campana and a sprig of Tamarisque all in the decoction of Barley-water and quickned with a little sprinkling of a Lemmon a rare Receipt to corroborat the Viscera and to keep the Stomack in Tono My said Nicolas tells me likewise that you began to chirp upon being in London the next Term. I should be glad with your favour to know that point precisely for having a purpose by Gods dear blessing to visit you at Redgrave which will be the best Cordial I took in long time I would shape my course circularly either from Suffolk to Kent or from Kent to Suffolk as I shall hear of your motions towards the beginning of next Lent For novelties of Court and State all mens minds at the present with us seem magnetical looking towards the North. Order is come down this day to the Justices of this Shire about a general muster at Alisbury the next week and for especial watch at the Beacons so as any burning of a bush by chance near one of them would set the whole Province in an alarm but notwithstanding these good providences we hope well of the issue and the rather for that a pretty strong conceit runneth that the Deanery of Durham is reserved for Doctor Belkanquel as a reward of his travails to and fro in this great business While we are uniting our ceremonious breaches The Kings of France and Spain abroad treat hard this Winter about a peace as one writeth and I believe very truly without consideration of any other Prince or State but themselves If this be so and take effect in that manner then is Charles de Loraine Exutus Lepidus stript to his shirt the Count Palatine lest at large and the Swede must stand upon his own feet But Brevibus Moment is summa vertuntur all depends upon the taking or not taking of Brisach the Helena of Germany and though a Town indeed of great strength and advantage yet a poor price for so much blood as hath been lost about it While I am talking of war let me tell you what I hear that your Sir Jacob Ashley is grown a great man at Court in private introducements to the King together with the Earl Marshall our good Soveraign will feel a sufficient man quickly The States lie still and close oppressed with the adversities of the last year and with nothing more then the late ruine of fourty well laden ships by the Texel wherein with deploration of the whole Province were lost one thousand Mariners Touching the subject whereof I sent you an account by Nicolas I have heard nothing since to increase my hope and much less my faith You shall have more the next week Till when and ever our sweet Jesus have you in his love Your servant alla suiscerata HENRY WOTTON From your Colledge Decem. 5. 1638. Sir Since I concluded this Mr. Hales our Bibliotheca Ambulans as I use to call him came to me by chance and told me that the Book of Controtroversies issued under the name of Baconus hath this addition to the said name Alias Southwel As those of that society shift their names as often as their shirts And he sayes it is a very poor thing only graced with a little method Sir YOur friend Sir Robert Killigrew hath been committed to the Fleet for conferring with a close prisoner in a strange language which were as I hear the two circumstances that did aggravate his error Of his case whose love drew him into it I can yet make no judgement The humour seemeth to be sharp and there is wisdom enough in those that have the handling of the patient to manage the matter so that at length his banishment from the Court may be granted as a point of grace The nature of his alteration was as you rightly judge it in the first access somewhat apoplectical but yet mingled in my opinion with divers properties of a lethargy whereof we shall discourse more particularly when we meet which I now long for besides other respects that we may lay aside these Metaphors This very morning shall be heard at the Star-chamber the case of Sir Peter Buck an inhabitant at Rochester an officer as I take it of the Navy who hath lain some good while in prison for having written to a friend of his at Dover a letter containing this news that some of the Lords had kneeled down to the King for a toleration in Religion besides some particular aspersion in the said letter of my Lord privy Seal whom likewise of late a Preacher or two have disquieted whereby he hath been moved besides his own nature and as some think also besides his wisdome to call these things into publick discourse quae spreta exolescunt if antient grave sentences do not deceive us My Lady of Shrewsbury my Lord Gray and the Lady Arabella remain still close prisoners since their last restraint which I signified unto you in a little ticquet Sir William Wade was yesternight put from the Lieutenancy of the Tower I set down these accidents barely as you see without their causes which in truth is a double fault writing both to a friend and to a Philosopher but my lodging is so near the Star-chamber that my pens shake in my hand I hope therefore the Ambassador of Savoy who hath already had two audiences will quickly be gone that I may fly to you and ease my heart By the next Carrier I shall tell you all his business In the mean while and ever our dear Saviour bless you Your faithful poor friend to serve you HENRY WOTTON This Friday morning May 7. in such haste that I must leave my dear Neece unanswered till I can
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