Ordinary Accesses at Court And to come frequeâ—tly into the Queens Eye who would often grace him with private and free Communication Not onely about Matters of his Profession or Businesse in Law But also about the Arduous Affairs of Estate From whom she received from time to time great Satisfaction Neverthelesse though she cheered him much with the Bounty of her Countenance yet she never cheered him with the Bounty of her Hand Having never conferred upon him any Ordinary Place or Means of Honour or Profit Save onely one dry Reversion of the Registers Office in the Star-Chamber worth about 1600 l. per Annum For which he waited in Expectation either fully or near 20. years Of which his Lordship would say in Queen Elizabeths Time That it was like another Mans Ground buttalling upon his House which might mend his Prospect but it did not fill his Barn Neverthelesse in the time of King James it fell unto him Which might be imputed Not so much to her Majesties Aversenesse or Disaffection towards him As to the Arts and Policy of a Great Statesman â—hen who laboured by all Industrious and secret Means to suppresse and keep him down Lest if he had riseâ— he might have obscured his Glory But though he stood long at a stay in the Dayes of his Mistresse Queen Elizabeth Yet after the change and Comming in of his New Master King James he made a great Progresse By whom he was much comforted in Places of Trust Honour and Revenue I have seen a Letter of his Lordships to King James wherein he makes Acknowledgement That He was that Master to him that had raysed and advanced him nine times Thrice in Dignity and Sixe times in Office His Offices as I conceive were Counsell Learned Extraordinary to his Majesty as he had been to Queen Elizabeth Kings Solliciter Generall His Majesties Atturney Generall Counseller of Estate being yet but Atturney Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England Lastly Lord Chanceller Which two last Places though they be the same in Auâ—hority and Power yet they differ in Patent Heigth and Favour of the Prince Since whose time none of his Successours did ever bear the Title of Lord Chanceller His Dignities were first Knight Then Baron of Verulam Lastly Viscount Saint Alban Besides other good Gifts and Bounties of the Hand which his Majesty gave him Both out of the Broad Seal And out of the Alienation Office Towards his Rising years not before he entred into a married Estate And took to Wife Alice one of the Daughters and Co-Heires of Benedict Barnham Esquire and Alderman of London with whom He received a sufficiently ample and liberall Portion in Marriage Children he had none which though they be the Means to perpetuate our Names after our Deaths yet he had other Issues to perpetuate his Name The Issues of his Brain In which he was ever happy and admired As Jupiter was in the production of Pallas Neither did the want of Children detract from his good usage of his Consort during the Intermarriage whom he prosecuted with much Conjugall Love and Respect with many Rich Gifts and Enâ—owments Besides a Roab of Honour which he invested her withall which she wore untill her Dying Day Being twenty years and more after his Death The last five years of his Life being with-drawn from Civill Affaires and from an Active Life he employed wholy in Contemplation and Studies A Thing whereof his Lordshâ—p would often speak during his Active Life As if he affected to dye in the Shadow and not in the Light which also may be found in severall Passages of his Works In which time he composed the greatest Part of his Books and Writings Both in English and Latin Which I will enumerate as near as I can in the just Order wherein they were written The History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh Abecedarium Naturae or A Metaphysicall Piece which is lost Historia Ventorum Historia vitae Mortis Historia Densi Rari not yet Printed Historia Gravis Levis which is also lost A Discourse of a War with Spain A Dialogue touching an Holy War The Fable of the New Atlantis A Preface to a Digest of the Lawes of England The Beginning of the History of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth De Augmentis Scientiarum Or the Advanccment of Learning put into Latin with severall Enrichments and Enlargements Counsells Civill and Morall Or his Book of Essayes likewise Enriched and enlarged The Conversion of certain Psalms into English Verse The Translation into Latin of the History of King Henry the Seventh of the Counsells Civill and Morall of the Dialogue of the Holy War of the Fable of the New Atlantis For the Benefit of other Nations His Revising of his Book De Sapientià Veterum Inquisitio de Magnete Topica Inquisitionis de Luce Lumine Both these not yet Printed Lastly Sylva Sylvarum or the Naturall History These were the â—ruits and Productions of his last five years His Lordship also designed upon the Motion and Invitation of his late Majesty To have written the Reign of King Henry the Eighth But that Work Perished in the Designationâ— meerly God not lending him Life to proceed further upon it then onely in one Mornings Work Whereof there is Extant An Ex Ungue Leonem already Printed in his Lordships Miscellany Works There is a Commemoration due As well to his Abilities and Vertues as to the Course of his Life Those Abilities which commonly goe single in other Men though of prime and Observable Parts were all conjoyned and met in Him Those are Sharpnesâ— of Wit Memory Judgement and Elocution For the Former Three his Books doe abundantly speak them which with what Sufficiency he wrote let the World judge But with what Celerity he wrote them I can best testifie But for the Fourth his Elocution I will onely set down what I heard Sir Walter Rauleigh once speak of him by way of Comparison whose Iudgement may well be trusted That the Earl of Salisbury was an excellent Speaker but no good Pen-man That the Earl of Northampton the Lord Henry Howard was an excellent Pen-man but no good Speaker But that Sir Francis Bacon was Eminent in Both. I have been enduced to think That if there were a Beame of Knowledge derived from God upon any Man in these Modern Times it was upon Him For though he was a great Reader of Books yet he had not his Knowledge from Books But from some Grounds and Notions from within Himself Which notwithstanding he vented with great Caution and Circumspection His Book of Instauratio Magna which in his own Account was the chiefest of his works was no Slight Imagination or Fancy of his Brain But a Setled and Concocted Notion The Production of many years Labour and Travell I my Self have seen at the least Twelve Coppies of the Instauration Revised year by year one after another And every year altred and amended in the Frame thereof Till
Countrey and in his own House Concerning which I will give you a Tast onely out of a Letter â—ritten from Italy The Store-House of Refined Witts to the late Earle of Devonshire Then the Lord Candish I will expect the New Essayes of my Lord Chancellâ—r Bacon As also his History with a great deal of Desire And whatsoever else he shall compose But in Particular of his History I promise my Self a Thing perfect and Singular especially in Henry the Seventh Where he may exercise the Talent of his Divine Understanding This Lord is more and more known And his Books here more and more delighted in And those Men that have more than ordinary Knowledge in Humane Affaires esteem him one of the most capable Spirits of this Age And he is truly such Now his Fame doth not decrease with Dayes since but rather encrease Divers of his Works have been anciently and yet lately translated into other Tongues both Learned and Modern by Forraign Pens Severall Persons of Quality during his Lordships Life crossed the Seas on purpose to gain an Opportunity of Seeing him and Discoursing with himâ— whereof one carried his Lordships Picture from Head to Foot over with Him into France As a Thing which he foresaw would be much desired there That so they might enjoy the Image of his Person As well as the Images of his Brain his Books Amongst the rest Marquis Fiat A French Nobleman who came Ambassadour into England in the Beginning of Queen Mary Wife to Charlesâ— was taken with an extraordinary Desire of Seeing him For which he made way by a Friend And when he came to him being then through weaknesse confined to his Bed The Marquis saluted him with this High Expression That his Lordship had been ever to Him like the Angels of whom he had often heard And read much of them in Books But he never saw them After which they contracted an intimate Acquaintance And the Marquis did so much revere him That besides his Frequent visits They wrote Letters one to the other under the Titles and Appellations of Father and Son As for his many Salutations by Letters from Forraign Worthies devoted to Learning I forbear to mention them Because that is a Thing common to other Men of Learning or Note together with him But yet in this Matter of his Fame I speak in the Comparative onely and not in the Exclusive For his Reputation is great in his own Nation also Especially amongst those that are of a more Acute and sharper Iudgement Which I will exemplifie but with two Testimonies and no more The Former When his History of King Henry the Seventh was to come forth It was delivered to the old Lord Brooke to be perused by him who when he had dispatched it returned it to the Authour with this Eulogy Commend me to my Lord And bid him take care to get good Paper Inke For the Work is Incomparable The other shall be that of Doctor Samuel Collins late Provost of Kings Colledge in Cambridge A Man of no vulgar Wit who affirmed unto me That when he had read the Book of the Advancement of Learning He found Himself in a case to begin his Studies a new And that he had lost all the Time of his â—tudying before It hath been desired That something should be signified touching his Diet And the Regiment of his Health Of which in regard of his Universall Insight into Nature he may perhaps be to some an Example For his Diet It was rather a plentifull and liberall Diet as his Stomack would bear it then a Restrained Which he also commended in his Book of the History of Life and Death In his younger years he was much given to the Finer and Lighter sort of Meats As of Fowles and such like But afterward when he grew more Iudicious He preferred the stronger Meats such as the Shambles afforded As those Meats which bred the more firm and substantiall Juyces of the Body And lesse Dissipable upon whiâ—h he would often make his Meal Though he had other Meats upon the Table You may be sure He would not neglect that Himself which He so much extolled in his Writings And that was the Vse of Nitre Whereof he took in the Quantity of about three Grains in thin warm Broath every Morning for thirty years together next before his Death And for Physick he did indeed live Physically but not miserably For he took onely a Maceration of Rhubarb Infused into a Draught of White Wine and Beer mingled together for the Space of half an Hour Once in six or seven Dayes Immediately before his Meal whether Dinner or Supper that it might dry the Body lesse which as he said did carry away frequently the Grosser Humours of the Body And not diminish or carry away any of the Spirits As Sweating doth And this was no Grievous Thing to take As for other Physick in an ordinary way whatsoever hath been vulgarly spoken he took not His Receit for the Gout which did constantly ease him of his Pain within two Hours Is already set down in the End of the Naturall History It may seem the Moon had some Principall Place in the Figure of his Nativity For the Moon was never in her Passion or Eclipsed but he was surprized with a sudden Fit of Fainting And that though he observed not nor took any previous Knowledge of the Eclipse thereof And assoon as the Eclipse ceased he was restored to his former strength again He died on the 9th Day of Aprill in the year 1626â— In the early Morning of the Day then celebrated for our Saviours Resurrection In the 66th year of his Age At the Earle of Arundells House in High-gate near London To which Place he casually repaired about a week before God so ordaining that he should dye there Of a Gentle Feaver accidentally accompanied with a great Cold whereby the Defluxion of Rheume fell so plentifully upon his Breast that he died by Suffocation And was buried in Saint Michaels Church at Saint Albans Being the Place designed for his Buriall by his last Will and Testament Both because the Body of his Mother was interred there And because it was the onely Church then remaining within the Precincts of old Verulam Where he hath a Monument erected for him of White Marble By the Care and Gratitude of Sir Thomas Meautys Knight formerly his Lordships Secretary Afterwards Clark of the Kings Honourable Privy Counsell under two Kings Representing his full Pourtraiture in the Posture of studying with an Inscription composed by that Accomplisht Gentleman and Rare Wit Sir Henry Wotton But howsoever his Body was Mortall yet no doubt his Memory and Works will live And will in all probability last as long as the World lasteth In order to which I have endeavoured after my poor Ability to do this Honour to his Lordship by way of conducing to the same SPEECHES IN Parliament STAR-CHAMBER Kings Bench CHANCERY AND OTHER-WHERE Of the Right Honourable FRANCIS BACON
he mean it because the Turk seemeth to affect us for the Abolishing of Images Let him consider then what a Scandall the Matter of Images hath been in the Church As having been one of the principall Branches whereby Mahumetisme entred Page 65. he saith Cardinall Allen was of late very near to have been elected Pope Whereby he would put the Catholicks here in some hope that once within Five or Six years For a Pope commonly sitteth no longer he may obtaâ—n that which he mâ—ssed narrowly This is a direct Abuse For it is certain in all the Conclaves since Sixtus Quintus who gave him his Hat he was never in possibility Nay the King of Spain that hath patronized the Church of Rome so long as he is become a right Patron of it In that he seeketh to present to that See whom he liketh yet never durst strain his Credit to so desperate a Point as once to make a Canvass for him No he never nominated him in his Inclusive Narration And those that know any Thing of the Respects of Conclaves know that he is not Papable First because he is an Vltramontane of which sort there hath been none these Fifty years Next because he is a Cardinall of Almes of Spain and wholly at the Devotion of that King Thirdly because he is like to employ the Treasure and Favours of the Popedom upon the Enterprises of England And the Relief and Advancement of English Fugitives his Necessitous Countryâ—men So as he presumed much upon the Simplicity of the Reader in this point as in many more Page 55. and again Page 70. he saith His Lordship Meaning the Lord Burleigh Intendeth to match his Grandchild Mr. William Cecill with the Lady Arbella Which being a meer Imagination without any Circumstance at all to enduce it More then that they are both unmarried And that their years agree well Needeth no Answer It is true that his Lordship being no Stoicall Vnnaturall Man but loving towards his Children For Charitas Reip. incipit à Familiâ Hath been glad to match them into Honourable and Good Bloud And yet not so but that a private Gentleman of Northampton shire that lived altogether in the Country was able to bestow his Daughters higher then his Lord. hath done But yet it is not seen by any Thing past that his Lordship ever thought or affected to match his Children in the Bloud Royall His Lordships Wisedom which hath been so long of Gathering teacheth him to leave to his Posterity rather Surety then Danger And I marvaile where be the Combinations which have been with Great Men And the Popular and Plausible Courses which ever accompany such designes as the Libeller speaketh of And therefore this Match is but like unto that which the same Fellow concluded between the same Lady Arbella and the Earl of Leicesters Son when he was but a Twelve-Moneth old Pag. 70 he saith He laboureth incessantly with the Queen to make his Eldest Son Deputy of Ireland As if that were such a Catch Considering all the Deputiâ—â— since her Majesties times except the Earl of Sussex and the Lord Grey have been persons of meaner Degree then Sir Thomas Cecillis And the most that is gotten by that place is but the Saving and putting up of a Man 's own Revenue's during those years that he serveth their And this perhaps to be saved with some Displeasure at his Return Pag. eadem he saith He hath brought in his Second Son Sir Robert Cecill to be of the Counsell who hath neither Wit nor Experience Which Speech is as notorious an untruth as is in all the Libell For it is confessed by all Men that know the Gentleman that he hath one of the Rarest and most Excellent Wits of England with a singular Delivery and Application 〈◊〉 the same whether it be to use a Continued Speech Or to Negotiate Or to touch in Writing or to make Report Or discreetly to consider of the Circumstances And aptly to draw Things to a Point And all this joyned with a very good Nature and a great Respect to all Men as is daily more and more revealed And for his Experience it is easie to think that his Trayning and Helps hath made it already such as many that have served long prentishood for it have not attained the like So as if that be true Qui Beneficium Digno dat omnes obligat Not his Father onely but the State is bound unto her Majesty for the choice and Employment of so sufficient and worthy a Gentleman There be many other Follies and Absurdities in the Book which if an Eloquent Scholler had it in Hand he would take Advantage thereof and justly make the Authour not onely Odious but Ridiculous and Contemptible to the World But I passe them over and even this which hath been said hath been vouchsafed to the vallue and Worth of the Matter and not the worth of the Writer who hath handled a Theam above his Compasse 8. Of the Height of Impudency that these Men are grown unto in publishing and Avouching untruths with a particular Recitall of some of them for an Assay THese Men are grown to a singular Spirit and Faculty in Lying and Abusing the world such as it seemeth although they are to purchase a particular Dispensation for all other Sins yet they have a Dispensation Dormant to lie for the Catholique Cause which moveth me to give the Reader a Tast of their Vntruths such as are written and are not meerly grosse and palpable Desiring him out of their own Writings when any shall fall into his Hands to encrease the Rowle at least in his own Memory We retain in our Calenders no other Holy-dayes but such as have their Memorials in the Scriptures And therefore in the Honour of the Blessed Virgin we onely receive the Feasts of the Annunciation and the Purification Omitting the other of the Conception and the Nativity Which Nativity was used to be celebrated upon the 8th of Septemb the Vigill whereof hapned to be the Nativity of our Queen which though we keep not Holy yet we use therein certain Civill Customes of Ioy and Gratulation As Ringing of Bells Bonfires and such like And likewise make a Memoriall of the same Day in our Calender whereupon they have published That we have expunged the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin and put in stead thereof the Nativity of our Queen And further that we sing certain Hymnes unto her used to be sung unto our Lady It hapned that upon some Bloud-shed in the Church of Paules according to the Canon Law yet with us in force the said Church was interdicted and so the Gates shut up for some few Dayes whereupon they published that because the same Church is a place where People use to meet to walk and confer the Queens Majestie after the manner of the Ancient Tyrants had forbidden all Assemblies and Meetings of People together And for that Reason upon extreme Jealousie did cause Paules Gates to be shut up The
Garment as unworthy the Wearing as his service that sends it But the Approach to your Excellent Person may give Worth to both which is all the Happinesse I aspire unto A Letter of Advice to thâ— Earl of Essex to take upon him the Care of Irish Causes when Mr. Secretary Cecill was in Fraunce My singular good Lord I Doe write because I had no time fully to expresse my Conceit to your Lordship touching Irish Affairs considering them as they may concern your Lordship Knowing that you will consider them as they may concern the State That it is one of the aptest particulars that hath come or can come upon the Stage for your Lordship to purchase Honour upon I am moved to think for 3. Reasons Because it is ingenerate in your House in respect of my Lord your Fathers Noble Attempts Because of all the Actions of State on foot at this time the Labour resteth most in that particular And because the World â—ill make a kinde of Comparison between those that set it out of Frame and those that bring it into Frame which kind of Honour giveth the quickest kind of Reflection The Transferring this Honour upon your self consisteth in 2. points The one if the Principal Persons employ'd come in by you and depend upon you The other if your Lordship declare your self and profess to undertake a Care of that Kingdom For the Persons it falleth out well that your Lordship hath had no Interest in the Persons of Imputation For neithâ—r Sir William Fitz-Williams nor Sir Iohn Norrice was yours Sir William Russell was conceived yours but was curbed Sir Coniers Clifford as I conceive it dependeth on you who is said to do well And if my Lord of Ormond in this Intâ—rim doth accommodate things well as it is said he doth I take it hâ— hath alwayes had good Understanding with your Lordship So as all Things hitherto are not only whole and entire but of favourable Aspect towards your Lordship if hereafter you choose well Concerning the Care of Businesse the general and popular Conceit hath been that Irish Causes have been much neglected wâ—ereby the Reputation of better Care will put Life into them But for a Beginning and Key to that which shall follow It were good your Lordship would have some large and serious Conference with Sir William Russell Sir Richard Bingham the Earl of Toumond and Mr. Wilbraham To know their Relation of the past Their Opinion of the present and Their Advise for the future For the Points of Apposing them I am too much a Stranger to the Businesse to deduce them But in a general Topique methinks the pertinent Interrogations must be Either of the Possibility and Means of Accord or of the Nature of the Warre or of the Reformation of Abuses Or of the joyning of Practice with Force in the Disunion of the Rebells If your Lordship doubt to put your Sickle into anothers Harvest First Time brings it to you in Mr. Secretaries Absence Next being mixt with matter of Warre it is fittest for you And lastly I know your Lordship will carry it with that Modesty and Respect towards Aged Dignity And that good Correspondence towards my dear Kinsman and your good Friend now abroad as no Inconvenience may grow that way Thus have I played the Ignorant Statesman Which I doe to No Body but your Lordship except to the Queen sometimes when she traine's me on But your Lordship will accept my Duty and good Meaning And secure me touching the privatenesse of that I write A Letter of Advice to the Earl of Essex upon the first Treaty with Tyrone 1598 before the Earl was nominated for the Charge of Ireland My very good Lord COncerning the Advertisements which your Lordship imparted to me touching the State of Ireland for willing Duties sake I will set down to your Lordship what Opinion sprang in my Minde upon that I read The Letter from the Counsel there leaning to mistrust and disswade the Treaty I do not much rely on for 3. Causes First because it is alwayes the Grace and the Safety of such a Counsell to erre in Caution whereunto add that it may be they or some of them are not without Envy towards the Person who is used in treating the Accord Next because the Time of this Treaty hath no shew of Dissimulation For that Tyrone is now in no straights but he is more like a Gamester that will give over because he is a Winner than because he hath no more Money in his Purse Lastly I do not see but those Articles whereupon they ground their Suspicion may as well proceed out of Fear as out of Falsehood For the Retaining the Dependance of the Vriâ—ghts The protracting the Admission of a Sheriff The Refusing to give his Sonne for an Hostage The Holding off from present Repair to Dublin The Refusing to goe presently to Accord without including Odonnell and other his Associates May very well come of an Apprehension in case he should receive hard measure And not out of Treachery So as if the great Person you write of be faithfull And that you have not heard some present Intelligence of present Succours from Spain For the Expectation whereof Tyrone would win time I see no deep Cause of Distrusting this Course of Treaty if the main Conditions may be good For her Majesty seemeth to me to be a Winner thereby 3. wayes First her Purse shall have some Rest Next it will divert the Forein Designes upon the Place Thirdly though her Majesty be like for a time to govern but precariò in the North And be not as to a true Command in better state there than before yet besides the two respects of Ease of Charge and Advantage of Opinion abroad before mentioned she shall have a time to use her Princely policy in 2. points to weaken them The one by Division and Disunion of the Heads The other by Recovering and Winning the People from them by Iustice which of all other Courses is the best Now for the Athenian Question you discourse well Quid igitur agendum est I will shoot my Fools Bolt since you will have it so The Earl of Ormond to be incouraged and comforted Above all Things the Garrisons to be instantly provided for For Opportunity maketh a Theef And if he should mean never so well now yet such an Advantage as the Breaking of her Majesties Garrisons might tempt a true Man And because he may as well waver upon his own Inconstancy as upon Occasion And wanton Variablenesse is never restrained but by Fear I hold it necessary he be menaced with a strong Warr Not by Words but by Musters and preparations of Forces here in case the Accord proceed not But none to be sent over lest it disturb the Treaty and make him look to be over-run as soon as he hath laid away Arms. And but that your Lordship is too easie to passe in such Cases from Dissimulation to Verity I think if your Lordship
write being but Representations unto your Lordship of the Honour and Appearance of Successe of the Enterprisâ— Be not much to the purpose of any Advice yet it is that which is left to me being no Man of Warr and ignorant in the particulars of Estate For a Man may by the Eye set up the VVhite in the midst of the But though he be no Archer Therefore I will onely add this VVish according to the English Phrase which termeth a well-willing Advice a Wish That your Lordship in this whole Action looking forward would set down this Position That Merit is worthier than Fame And looking back hither would remember this Text That Obedience is better than Sacrifice For Designing to Fame and Glory may make your Lordship in the Adventure of your Person to be valiant as a private Souldier rather than as a General It may make you in your Commandements rather to be Gracious than Disciplinary It may make you presse Action in respect of the great Expectation conceived rather hastily than seasonably and safely It may make you seek rather to atchieve the war by force than by Intermixture of Practice It may make you if God shall send prosperous Beginnings rather seek the Fruition of that Honour than the Perfection of the work in hand And for the other point that is the Proceeding like a good Protestant upon expresse warrant and not upon good Intention your Lordship knoweth in your wisdom That as it is most fit for you to desire convenient Liberty of Instructions so it is no lesse fit for you to observe the due Limits of them Remembring that the Exceeding of them may not onely procure in case of adverse Accident a dangerous Disavow But also in case of prosperous Successe be subject to Interpretation as if all were not referred to the right End Thus have I presumed to write these few Lines to your Lordship in Methodo Ignorantiae which is when a Man speaketh of a Subject not according to the Matter but according to the Model of his own Knowledgeâ— And most humbly desire your Lordship that the weaknesse thereof may be supplyed in your Lordship by a benign Acceptation as it is in me by my best VVishing A Letter to the Earl of Essex in offer of his Service when he was first enlarged to Essex House My Lord NO Man can expound my Doings better than your Lordship which makes me need to say the lesse Onely I humbly pray you to beleeve that I aspire to the Conscience and Commendation of Bonus Civis and Bonus Vir And that though I love some Things better I confesse than I love your Lordship yet I love few Persons better Both for Gratitudes sake and for your Vertues which cannot hurt but by Accident Of which my good Affection it may please your Lordship to assure your self And of all the true Effects and Offices I can yield For as I was ever sorry your Lordship should fly with waxen Wings doubting Icarus Fortune So for the growing up of your own Feathers be they Estridges or other kinde no man shall be more glad And this is the Axill-Tree whereon I have turned and shall turn Which having already signified to you by some near mean having so fit a Messenger for mine own Letter I thought good also to redouble by Writing And so I commend you to Gods Protection From Graies Inn this 9th of Iuly 1600. An Answer of my Lord of Essex to the immediately preceding Letter of Mr. Bacons Mr. Bacon I Can neither Expound nor Censure your late Actions Being ignorant of all of them save one And having directed my Sight inward onely to examine my Self You doe pray me to believe that you only aspire to the Conscience and Commendation of Bonus Civis and Bonus Vir And I doe faithfully assure you that while that is your Ambition though your Course be Active and Mind Contemplative yet we shall both Convenire in eodem Tertio And Convenire inter Nosipsos Your Profession of Affection and Offer of good Offices are welcom to me For answer to them I will say but this That you have believed I have been kind to you And you may beleeve that I cannot be other either upon Humour or mine own Election I am a stranger to all Poetical Conceits or else I should say somewhat of your Poetical Example But this I must say That I never flew with other Wings than Desire to merit And Confidence in my Soveraigns Favour And when one of these Wings failed me I would light no where but at my Soveraigns Feet though she suffered me to be bruised with my fall And till her Majesty that knows I was never Bird of Prey finds it to agree with her will and her Service that my Wings should be imped again I have committed my Self to the Mue No power but my Gods and my Soveraigns can alter this Resolution of Your Retired Friend ESSEX Two Letters framed the one as from Mr. Anthony Bacon to the Earl of Essex The other as the Earls Answer thereunto delivered to Sir Francis Bacon with the Advice of Mr. Anthony Bacon his Brother to be shewed to the Queen upon some fit occasion As a Mean to work her Majesty to receive the Earl again to Favour and Attendance at Court They were devised whilsâ— my Lord remained Prisoner in his own House My singular good Lord THis standing at a stay in your Lordships Fortunes doth make me in my Love towards your Lordship jealous lest you doe somewhat or omit somewhat that amounteth to a new Error For I suppose of all former Matters there is a full Expiation wherein for any thing that your Lordship doth I for my part who am remote cannot cast nor devise wherein any Errour should be except in one point which I dare not censure nor disswade which is that as the Prophet saith In this Affliction you look up ad Manum Percutientem and so make your peace with God And yet I heard it noted that my Lord of Leicester who could never get to be taken for a Saint neverthelesse in the Queens Disfavour waxed seeming Religious which may be thought by some and used by others as a Case resembling yours If Men do not see or will not see the difference between your two Dispositions But to be plain with your Lordship my Fear rather is because I hear how some of your good and wise Friends not unpractised in the Court and supposing themselves not to be unseen in that deep and unscrutable Center of the Court which is her Majesties Minde doe not onely toll the Bell but even ring out Peals as if your Fortune were dead and buried And as if there were no possibility of recovering her Majesties Favour And as if the best of your Condition were to live a private and retired Life out of Want out of Peril and out of manifest disgrace And so in this perswasion of theirs include a perswasion to your Lordship to frame and
them a single and zealous minde to bestow their duties therein He will see them accordingly appointed of Sufficiency convenient for the Rank and Standing where they shall be employed So as under this her Majesties Blessing I trust to receive a larger allowance of Gods Graces And as I may hope for this so I can assure and promise for my Endeavour that it shall not be in fault But what Diligence can entitle me unto that I doubt not to recover And now seeing it hath pleased her Majesty to take knowledge of this my Mind and to vouchsafe to appropriate me unto her Service preventing any desert of mine with her Princely liberality First I am humbly to beseech your Lordship to present to her Majesty my more than humble Thanks for the same And withall having regard to mine own unworthiness to receive such Favour And to the small possibility in me to satisfie and answer what her Majesty conceiveth I am moved to become a most humble Suter to her Majesty that this Benefit also may be aâ—fixed unto the other which is That if there appear in me no such Towardness of Service as it may be her Majesty doth benignly value and assess me at by reason of my sundry wants and the disadvantage of my Nature being unapt to lay forth the Simple Store of those inferiour Gifts which God hath allotted unto me most to view yet that it would please her Excellent Majesty not to account my Thankfulness the less for that my Disability is great to shew it But to sustain me in her Majesties gracious opinion whereupon I onely rest and not upon any expectation of Desert to proceed from my Self towards the Contentment thereof But if it shall please God to send forth an occasion whereby my faithfull Affection may be tryed I trust it shall save me labour for ever making more protestation of it hereafter In the mean time howsoever it be not made known to her Majesty yet God knoweth it through the daily sollicitations wherewith I address my self unto him in unfeigned prayer for the Multiplying of her Majesties prosperities To your Lordship also whose Recommendation I know right well hath been material to advance her Majesties good opinion of me I can be but a bounden Servant So much may I safely premise and purpose to be seeing publick and private Bonds vary not but that my Service to her Majesty and your Lordship draw in a Line I wish therefore to shew it with as good proof as I can say it in good faith c. Your Lordships c. To Sir Robert Cecil It may please your good Honour I Am apt enough to contemn Mendacia Famae yet it is with this Distinction As Fame walks among Inferiours and not as it hath Entrance into some Ears And yet nevertheless in that kinde also I intend to avoid a suspicious silence but not to make any base Apology It is blown about the Town that I should give opinion touching my Lord of Essex Cause First that it was a Praemunire And now last that it reached to High Treason And this Opinion should be given in opposition to the Opinion of the Lord Chief Iustice and of Mr. Atturney General Sir I thank God whatsoever Opinion my Head serveth me to deliver to her Majesty being asked My Heart serveth me to maintain the same honest Duty directing me and assisting me But the utter untruth of this Report God and the Queen can witness And the Improbability of it every Man that hath Wit more or lesse can conceive The Root of this I discern to beâ— not so much a light and humorous Envy at my Accesses to her Majesty which of her Majesties grace being begun in my first years I would be sorry she should estraunge in my last years For so I account them reckoning by Health not by Age As a deep Malice to your Honourable Self upon whom by me through nearness they think to make some Aspersion But as I know no Remedy against Libels and Lies So I hope it shall make no manner of Disseverance of your Honourable good Conceits and Affection towards me which is the Thing I confesse to fear For as for any violence to be offered to me wherewith my Friends tell me to no small terrour that I am threatned I thank God I have the privy Coat of a good Conscience And have a good while since put off any fearfull care of Life or the Accidents of Life So desiring to be preserved in your gooâ— Opinion I remain To the Queen It may please your most excellent Majesty I Presume according to the Ceremony and good manner of the Time and my accustomed Duty in all Humblenesse to present your Majesty with a simple Gift Almost as farre from answering my Mind as sorting with your Greatnesse And therewith wish that we may continue to reckon on and ever your Majesties happy yeares of Reign And they that reckon upon any other Hopes I would they mought reckon short and to their Cost And so craving pardon most humbly I commend your Majesty to the preservation of the Divine Goodnesse To the Queen It may please your most excellent Majesty I Most humbly entreat your Majesty not to impute my absence to any weaknesse of mind or unworthinesse But I assure your Majesty I do find Envy beating so strongly upon me standing as I do if this be to stand as it were not Strength of Mind but Stupidity if I should not decline the Occasions Except I could doe your Majesty more Service than I can any wayes discern that I am able to doe My Course towards your Majesty God is my witnesse hath been pure and unleavened And never poor Gentleman as I am perswaded had a deeper and truer desire and care of your glory your safety your Repose of Mind your service VVherein if I have exceeded my outward vocation I most humbly crave your Majesties pardon for my presumption On the other side if I have come short of my inward vocation I most humbly crave Gods pardon for quenching the Spirit But in this mind I find such solitude and want of comfort which I judge to be because I take Duty too exactly and not according to the Dreggs of this Age wherein the old Antheme mought never be more truly sung Totus mundus in maligno positus est My Life hath been threatned and my Name libelled which I count an Honor. But these are the practices of those whose despairs are dangerous But yet not so dangerous as their Hopes Or else the Devices of some that would put out all your Majesties lights and fall on reckoning how many years you have reigned which I beseech our blessed Saviour may be doubled And that I may never live to see any Eclipse of your glory Interruption of safety or Indisposition of your person which I commend to the Divine Majesty who keep you and fortifie you To my Lord Hen. Howard My Lord THere be very few besides your self to whom
I would perform this Respect For I contemn Mendacia Famae as it walkes among Inferiours Though I neglect it not as it may have entrance into some Eare. For your Lordships Love rooted upon good opinion I esteem it highly because I have tasted of the Fruits of it And we both have tasted of the best waters in my accompt to knit minds together There is shaped a Tale in Londons Forge that beateth apace at this time That I should deliver opinion to the Queeâ— in my Lord of Essex cause First that it was premunire And now last that it was High Treason And this opinion to be in opposition and Encounter of the Lord chief Iustices Opinion and the Atturney Generalls My Lord I thank God my wit serveth me not to deliver any Opinion to the Qeen which my Stomach serveth me not to maintain One and the same Conscience of Duty guiding me and fortifying me But the untruth oâ— this Fable God and my Soveraign can witnesse And there I leave it Knowing no more Remedy against lies than others doe against libells The Root no question of it is partly some light-headed Envy at my Accesses to her Majesty Which being begun and continued since my childhood as long as her Majesty shall think me worthy of them I scorn those that shall think the contrary And another Reason is the Aspersion of this Tale And the Envy thereof upon some greatâ—r Man in regard of my Nearnesse And therefore my Lord I pray you answâ—r for me to any person that you think worthy your own Reply and my defence For my Lord of Essex I am not servile to him having regard to my â—uperiours Duty I have been much bound unto him And on the other side I have spent more time and more thoughts about his well-doing than I ever did about mine own I pray God you his Friends amongst you be in the right Nulla Remedia tam faciunt dolorem quam quae sunt salutaria For my part I have deserved better than to have my Name objected to Envy or my Life to a Ruffians violence But I have the privy Coat of a good Conscience I am sure these Courses and Bruits hurt my Lord more than all So having written to your Lordship I desire exceedingly to be preferred in your good Opinion and Love And so leave you to Gods Goodnesse The Earl of Essex Letter to the Councill at his Embarquing for Spain Iune 1596. My very good Lords HAving taken order for all things that belong to our Land-Forces And staying onely till the Shipps be ready to take in our Souldiers I am come aboard as well to draw other Men by my example to leave the shore As to have time and leasure to ask account of my self what other duty I have to do besides the Governing of those Troups And the using of them to good purpose In which Meditation as I first study to please my most gracious Soveraign as well as to serve her So my next care is to leave your Lordships well satisfied of my passed Carriage since I was nominated to this Service And apt to make favourable Construction of what I shall do hereafter In my past Carriage I will neither plead Merit nor Excuse Imperfections For whatsoever I shall be able to do I know is lesse than I owe And besides my Faults my very Faith and Zeal which are the best things in me do make me commit Errours But I would fain approve the Matter it self of undertaking this service to have been good howsoever my former have been erroneous Or at least my Intent and Ends unblameable though my Judgement were faulty Your Lordships know it hath been the Wisedome of all Times rather to attempt and do something in another Countrey than to attend an Enemy and be in danger much in our own And if this Rule among the Ancients was generally held true it might be better allowed of us in particular cases where a State little in Territory not extraordinarily rich and defended onely with it self shall have to doe with another State that hath Many and ample Dominions the Treasure of the Indies and all the Mercenaries of Christendome to serve it For we have as the Athenians had with the auncient usurping Philip Praelium Facile Bellum Difficile Therefore it is our Disadvantage to draw the Warr into Length And if any Man in this Kingdom should be allowed to perswade to prevention he might be one that saw the Spaniard at home apprehend an Invasion with greater Terrour than he makes it abroad And that was a Witness how an Handfull of Men neither armed victualled nor ordered as they should be landed marched and had done what they listed if either the Ships had come up or they had had any provisions to make a Hole in a Wall or to break open a Gate But though the Counsel be good for some States and for ours at some times yet the Opportunities ought to be watched and it must appear that this it is which is now taken The Opportunity for such Service I take to be when either the Enemy May receive the most hurt Or when he is likeliest to attempt against us if he be not empeached The Hurt that our Estate should seek to doe him is To intercept his Treasure whereby we shall cut his Sinnews and make Warr upon him with his own Money And to beat or at least discontinew him from the Sea whereby her Majesty shall be both secured from his Invasions and become Mistris of the Sea which is the Greatness that the Queen of an Island should most aspire unto In matter of Profit we may this Journey most hurt him and benefit our Selves Since he hath as is agreed on by all Men more Caracks to come home now than ever any year before Besides many good Advantages which will be offered if we command the Coast. And to give him a Blow and discountenance him by Sea now is the Time when he hath declared his Ambition to command the Seas And yet so divided his Fleets Some appointed to be set out and yet scant in readiness others upon point of Comming home and not fit to defend themselves if either they be met at Sea or found in Harbour And all so dispersed in several places as if at any time we might doe good that way it is now And whether he will make Warr upon us if we let him alone Let his Sollicitations Offers and Gifts to the Rebells of Ireland His besieging and winning of Calais and those parts of France that front upon us And his strengthening himself by Sea by so many means Let these things I say tell us So as if we will at any time allow the Counsel of prevention to be reasonable we must now confess it to be opportune But whatsoever the Counsel were I am not to be charged with it For as I was not the Contriver nor Offerer of the Project so if I had refused to joyn with him that did
the case with this Plainness and Liberty represented to youâ— will finde out better Expedients and Remedies I wish a Cure applied to every of the five former Impressions which I will take not in order but as I think they are of weight For the removing the Impression of your Nature to be Opiniastre and not Rulable First and above all things I wish that all Matters past which cannot be revoked your Lordship would turn altogether upon Insatisfaction and not upon your Nature or proper Disposition This String you cannot upon every apt occasion harp upon too much Next whereas I have noted you to fly and avoid in some respect justly the Resemblance or Imitation of my Lord of Leicester and my Lord Chanceller Hatton yet I am perswaded howsoever I wish your Lordship as distant as you are from them in Points of Favour Integrity Magnanimity and Merit That it will doe you much good between the Queen and you to allege them as oft as you finde occasion for Authours and Patterns For I doe not know a readier mean to make her Majesty think you are in your right way Thirdly when at any time your Lordship upon occasion happen in Speeches to doe her Majesty right for there is no such Matter as Flattery amongst you all I fear you handle it Magis in speciem adornatis verbis quam ut sentire videaris So that a Man may read Formality in your Countenance Whereas your Lordship should doe it familiarly Et oratione fidà Fourthly your Lordship should never be without some Particulars afoot which you should seem to pursue with Earnestness and Affection And then let them fall upon taking Knowledge of her Majesties Opposition and Dislike Of which the weightiest Sort may be if your Lordship offer to labour in the behalf of some that you favour for some of the Places now voyd Chusing such a Subject as you think hâ—r Majesty is like to oppose unto And if you will say that this is Conjunctum cum alienâ Injurià I will not answer Haec non aliter constabunt But I say Commendation from so good a Mouth doth not hurt a Man though you prevail not A less weighty Sort of Particulars may be the Pretence of some Iourneys which at her Majesties request your Lordship mought relinquish As if you would pretend a Iourney to see your Living and Estate towards Wales or the like For as for great Forein Iourneys of Employment and Service it standeth not with your Gravity to play or Stratageme with them And the lightest sort of particulars which yet are not to be neglected are in your Habits Apparel Wearings Gestures and the like The Impression of greatest prejudice next is that of a Militar Dependance VVherein I cannot sufficiently wonder at your Lordships course That you say the Warrs are your Occupation And goe on in that course Whereas if I mought have advised your Lordship you should have left that Person at Plimmouth More than when in Counsell or in commending fit persons for service for Warrs it had been in season And here my Lord I pray mistake me not I am not to play now the Part of a Gown-man that would frame you best to mine own turn I know what I owe you I am infinitely glad of this last Iourney now it is past The rather because you may make so Honourable a full Point for a time You have Property good enough in that Greatness There is none can of many years ascend near you in competition Besides the Disposing of the Places and Affairs both concerning the Warrs you encreasing in other Greatness will of themselves flow to you which will preserve that Dependance in full measure It is a Thing that of all Things I would have you retain the Times considered And the Necessity of the Service for other reason I know none But I say Keep it in Substance but abolish it in shewes to the Queen For her Maiesty loveth Peace Next she loveth not Charge Thirdly that kinde of Dependance maketh a Suspected Greatness Therefore Quod instat agamus Let that be a sleeping Honour a while And cure the Queens mind in that point Therefore again whereas I heard your Lordships designing to your self the Earl Marshals place or the place of Master of the Ordnance I did not in my mind so well like of either Because of their Affinity with a Martiall Greatnesse But of the Places now void in my Judgement and discretion I would name you to the place of Lord Privy Seal For first it is the Third Person of the great Officers of the Crown Next it hath a kind of Super-Intendence over the Secretary It hath also an Affinity with the Court of Wards in regard of the Fees from the Liveries And it is a fine Honour quiet place and worth a Thousand pounds by year And my Lord Admiralls Father had it who was a Martiall Man And it fits a Favourite to carry her Majesties Image in Seal who beareth it best expressed in Heart But my chief Reason is that which I first alleged to divert her Majesty from this Impression of a Martiall Greatnesse In concurrence whereof If your Lordship shall remit any thing of your former diligence at the Starr-chamber If you shall continue such Intelligences as are worth the cherishing If you shall pretend to be as Bookish and Contemplative as ever you were All these Courses have both their Advantages and uses in themselves otherwise and serve exceeding aptly to this purpose Whereunto I add one Expedient more stronger than all the rest And for mine own confident Opinion void of any prejudice or danger of Diminution of your Greatnesse And that is the Bringing in of some Martiall Man to be of the Councill Dealing directly with her Majesty in it as for her Service and your better assistance Chusing neverthelesse some Person that may be known not to come in against you by any former Division I judge the fittest to be my Lord Mount-joy or my Lord Willoughby And if your Lordship see deeplier into it than I do that you would not have it done in effect Yet in my Opinion you may serve your turn by the pretence of it and stay it neverthelesse The Third Impression is of a Popular Reputation which because it is a Thing good in it self being obtained as your Lordship obtaineth it that is Bonis artibus And besides Well governed is one of the best Flowers of your Greatnesse both present and to come It would be handled tenderly The onely way is to quench it Verbis and not Rebus And therefore to take all Occasions to the Queen to speak against Popularity and Popular Courses vehemently And to taxe it in all others But neverthelesse to go on in your Honourable Common-wealth Courses as you do And therefore I will not advise you to cure this by dealing in Monopolies or any Oppressions Onely if in Parliament your Lordship be forward for Treasure in respect of the Warrs it becommeth your