CVLCOR ET CLAVDI W·Dolle·F Reliquiae Wottonianae OR A COLLECTION Of LIVES LETTERS POEMS WITH CHARACTERS OF Sundry PERSONAGES And other Incomparable PIECES of LANGUAGE and ART Also Additional Letters to several Persons not before Printed BY THE Curious Pencil of the Ever Memorable Sir HENRY WOTTON K t. Late Provost of Eaton Colledge The Third Edition with large Additions LONDON Printed by T. Roycroft for R. Marriott F. Tyton T. Collins and I. Ford 1672. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE PHILIP EARL of Chesterfield Lord Stanhop of Shelford My Lord I HAVE conceived many Reasons why I ought in Iustice to Dedicate these Reliques of Your Great Uncle Sir Henry Wotton to Your Lordship some of which are that both Your Grand-mother and Mother had a double Right to them by a Dedication when first made Publick as also for their assisting me then and since with many Material Informations for the Writing his Life and for giving me many of the Letters that have fallen from his curious Pen so that they being now dead these Reliques descend to Youâ—… as Heir to â—…hem and the Inheritor of the mâ—…orable Bocton Palace the Place of his Birth where so many of the Ancient and Prudent and Valiant Family of the Wottons lie now-Barâ—…ed whose remarkable Monuments You have lately Beautified and to them added so many of so great Worth as hath made it appear that at the Erecting and Adâ—…ging them You were above the thought of Charge that they might if possible for 't was no casie undertaking boldsome proporâ—…â—…mith the Merits of Your Ancestors My Lord These are a part of many more Pensoâ—… that have inclin'd me to this Dedication and these with the Example of a Liberty that is not given but now too usually taken by many Scriblers to make trifling Dedications might have begot a boldness in some Men of as mean as my mean Abilities to have undertaken this But indeed my Lord though I was ambitious enough of undertaking it yet as Sir Henry Wotton hath said in a Piece of his own Character That he was condemn'd by Nature to a bashfulness in making Requests so I find my self pardon the Parallel so like him in this that if I had not had more Reasons then I have yet exprest these alone had not been powerful enough to have created a Confidence in me to have attempted it Two of my unexprest Reasons are give me leave to tell them to Your Lordship and the World that Sir Henry Wotton whose many Merits made him an Ornament even to Your Family was yet so humble as to acknowledge me to be his Friend and died in a belief that I was so since which time I have made him the best return of my Gratitude for his Condescention that I have been able to express or he capable of receiving and am pleased with my self for so doing My other Reason of this boldness is an incouragement very like a command from Your worthy Cousin and my Friend Mr. Charles Cotton who hath assared me that You are such a Lover of the Memory of Your Generous Unkle Sir Henry Wotton that if there were no other Reason then my endeavors to preserve it yet that that alone would secure this Dedication from being unacceptable I wish that nor he nor I be mistaken and that I were able to make You a more Worthy Present My Lord I am and will be Your Humble and most Affectionate Servant Iziak Walton Feb. 27. 1672. AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER YOu may be pleas'd to take notice that in this last Relation of Sir Henry Wotton's Life 't is both inlarg'd and some small errors rectified so that I may now be confident there is no material mistakes in it There is in this Impression an Addition of many Letters in which the spirit with which they were writ will assure them to be Sir Henry Wotton's For his Merits they are above my expressions and for that reason the Reader is requested to take to what I have said of him in his Life these following Testimonies I. That his Work of Architecture is Translated into Latin Printed with the Great Vitruvius and this Elogy prefixed HENRICUS WOTTONIUS Anglo Cantianus Thomae Optimi Viri Filius natu minimus à Serenissimo Jacobo Io MAGNAE BRITTANIAE c. Rege in Equestreâ—… Titulum ascitus ejusdémque ter ad Remp. VENETAM Legatus Ordinarius semel ad Confoederatarum Provinciarum Ordines in Juliacensi negotio bis ad Carolum Emmanuelem Sabaudiae Ducem semel ad unitos Superioris Germaniae Principes in Conventu Heilbrunnensi postremò ad Archiducem Leopoldum Ducem Wirtenbergensem civitates Imperiales Argentinam Ulmámque ipsum Romanorum Imperatorem Ferdinandum II. Legatus extraordinarius Tandem hoc didicit ANIMAS SAPIENTIORES FIERI QUIESCENDO II. The second testimony is that of the great Secretary of Nature the Lord Chancellor Bacon who thought it not beneath Him to collect some of the Apothegms and sayings of this Author III. Sir Richard Baker in his Chronicle of England sets to his Seal also in a passage thus speaking of men of Note in King Iames his time Sir Henry Wotton was sent Ambassador into Italy and indeed the Kingdome yielded not a fitter man to match the Capriciousness of the Italian wits A man of so able dexterity with his Pen that he hath done himself much wrong and the Kingdom a great deal more in leaving no more of his Writings behind him AN ACCOUNT Of the WORK NOw of the Work it self Thou shalt find in it many curious things about Architecture Fountains Picture Groves Sculpture Aviaries Landskip Conservatories of rare beasts Magnetical experiments  Gardens Fish-ponds And also many Observations of the Mysteries and Labyrinths in Courts and States delivered in Lives Letters to and Characters of sundry Personages As Observations and Characters which He took in his Imployments abroad of these Dukes of Venice Giovanni Bembo Nani Priuli Donato Giustiniano Ferdin Gr. Duke of Tuscany An Account of Foscarini Of the Arch-Duke Leopold Of Count Tampire Artists and Famous men mentioned Tyco-brahe Count Bevilacqua Kepler Leon Alberti Aldrovandus Philip D'Orme Albert Durer Anto. Labaca censured Palladio Michael Angelo B.  Sir Henry Fanshaw Observations at home of the Courts of Queen Elizabeth King Iames and King Charls with Lives and Characters of Earl of Essex Duke of Buckingham  Of K. Charles I. Characters and Observations of Queen Elizabeth Q. of Bohemia E. of Essex Father Duke of Buckingham E. of Leicester Spanish Journey E. of Essex Imployments L. Bacon Arch. B. Whitgift L. Treasurer Weston M. Anthony Bacon L. Treasurer Iuxton Sir Robert Cecil Bp. Bedel The Cecillians Isle of Rheez Walter Devereux Of the Dukes Ominous presages Sir Philip Sidney  Sir Walter Raleigh Countess of Denbigh Secretary Cuff. Arch. Bishop Of K. Iames. B. of Ely K. Charles Part of the Authors own Character Q Mary  Censures of Felton Stamford D. Egglesham Scioppius THE LIFE OF Sir HENRY WOTTON SIR
of this would not the Duke suffer any answer to be made on his behalf so constant he was to his own principles In their Military Services the Characters of the Earls imployments were these viz. His forwardest was that of Portugal before mentioned The saddest that of Roan where he lost his brave Brother His fortunatest piece I esteem the taking of Cadiz Malez and no less modest for there he wrote with his own hands a censure of his Omissions His jealousest imployment was to the relief of Calais besieged by the Cardinal Arch-duke about which there passed then between the Queen and the French King much Art His Voyage to the Azores was the best for the discovery of the Spanish weakness and otherwise almost a saving Voyage His blackest was that to Ireland ordained to be the Sepulchre of his Father and the Gulph of his own Fortunes But the first in 88 at Tilbury Camp was in my judgement the very poyson of all that followed for there whilest the Queen stood in some doubt of a Spanish invasion though it proved but a Morrice-dance upon our Waves she made him in Field Commander of the Cavalry as he was before in Court and much graced him openly in view of the Souldiers and people even above my Lord of Lâ—…icester the truth is from thenceforth he fed too fast The Dukes imployment abroad in this nature was only in the Action of the Isle of Reez of which I must note somewhat for the honour of our Countrey and of His Majesties times and of them that perished and survived and to redeem it generally from mis-understanding Therefore after enquiry amongst the wisest and most indifferent men of that Action I dare pronounce that all Circumstances pondered A tumultuary landing on our part with about 1000 in the whole On theirs ready to receive us some 200 Horse with near 2000 Foot and watching their best time of advantage none of their Foot discovered by us before nor so much as suspected and only some of their Horse descryed stragling but not in any bulk or body their Cavalry not a Troop of Biscoigners mounted in hast but the greater part Gentlemen of Family and of pickt Resolution and such as charged home both in Front and on both Flanks into the very sea about sixscore of their 200 Horse strewed upon the Sand and none of them but one killed with a great shot and after this their Foot likewise coming on to charge till not liking the business they fell to flinging of stones and so walked away I say these things considered and laid together we have great reason to repute it a great impression upon an unknown place and a noble argument that upon occasion we have not lost our Ancient vigour Only I could wish that the Duke who then in the animating of the Souldiers shewed them very eminent assurance of his valour had afterwards remembred that rule of Apelles Manum de Tabula But he was greedy of honour and hot upon the publick ends and too confident in the prosperity of beginnings as somewhere Polybius that great Critique of war observeth of young Leaders whom fortune hath not before deceived In this their Military care and dispensation of reward and punishment there was very few remarkable occasions under the Duke saving his continual vigilancy and voluntary hazard of his person and kindnesses to the Souldiers both from his own table and purse for there could be few disorders within an Island where the Troops had no scope to disband and the inferiour Commanders were still in sight In the Earl we have two examples of his severity the one in the Island Voyage where he threw a Souldier with his own hand out of a Ship the other in Ireland where he decimated certain Troops that ran away renewing a piece of the Roman Discipline On the other side we have many of his Lenity and one of his Facility when he did connive at the bold Trespass of Sir Walter Raleigh who before his own arrival at Fayall had landed there against his precise Commandment at which time he let fall a Noble word being pressed by one whose name I need not remember that at the least he would put him upon a Martial Court That I would do said he if he were my friend And now I am drawing towards the last act which was written in the Book of necessity At the Earls end I was abroad but when I came home though little was left for Writers to glean after Judges yet I spent some curiosity to search what it might be that could precipitate him into such a prodigious Catastrophe and I must according to my professed freedome deliver a circumstance or two of some weight in the truth of that story which was neither discovered at his arraignment nor after in any of his private confessions There was amongst his nearest attendants one Henry Cuffe a man of secret ambitious ends of his own and of proportionate Counsels smothered under the habit of a Scholar and slubbered over with a certain rude and clownish fashion that had the semblance of integrity This Person not above five or six weeks before my Lords fatal irruption into the City was by the Earls Special Command suddenly discharged from all further attendance or access unto him out of an inward displeasure then taken against his sharp and importune infusions and out of a glimmering oversight that he would prove the very Instrument of his ruine I must adde hereunto that about the same time my Lord had received from the Countess of Warwick a Lady powerful in the Court and indeed a vertuous user of her power the best advice that I think was ever given from either Sex That when he was free from Restraint he should closely take any out-lodging at Greenwich and sometimes when the Queen went abroad in a good humour whereof she would give him notice he should come forth and humble himself before Her in the Field This Counsel sunk much into him and for some dayes he resolved it but in the mean time through the intercession of the Earl of Southampton whom Cuffe had gained he was restored to my Lords ear and so working advantage upon his disgraces and upon the vain foundation of vulgar breath which hurts many good men spun out the final destruction of his Master and himself and almost of his Restorer if his pardon had not been won by inches True it is that the Earl in Westminster-hall did in general disclose the evil perswasions of this man but the particulars which I have related of his dismission and restitution he buried in his own brest for some reasons apparent enough indeed as I conjecture not to exasperate the Case of my Lord of Southampton though he might therewith a little peradventure have mollified his own The whole and true Report I had by infallible means from the person himself that both brought the advice from the aforesaid excellent Lady and carried the discharge to Cuffâ—… who
H. WOTTON 1612 13. SIR I Must now acknowledge it true which our Navigators tell us that there be indeed certain variations of the Compass for I think there was never point of a needle better touched then you have touched me having ever since I parted from you been looking towards you and yet still by something or another I am put out of my course I will therefore hereafter not promise you any more to come unto you but I will promise my self it because indeed I have no other means to be at peace with my self for I must lay this heavy note upon your conversation that I am the unquieter for it a good while after This is the first part of what I meant to say After which I would fain tell you That I send this Foot man expresly unto you to redeem some part of my fault for not answering your late kind Letter by the Messenger that brought it But the truth is I had some special occasion to send to Berry and therefore I will set no more upon your account then his steps from thence to Redgrave where perhaps you now are See what a real Courtier I am and whether I be likely to prosper Well howsoever let me entertain you a little by this opportunity with some of our discourses The King departed yesterday from hence towards you having as yet notwithstanding much voice and some wagering on the other side determined nothing of the vacant places Whereupon the Court is now divided into two opinions the one that all is reserved for the greater honour of the marriage the other that nothing will be done till a Parliament or to speak more precisely till after a Parliament which latter conceit though it be spread without either Author or ground yet as many things else of no more validity it hath gotten faith enough on a sudden I will leave this to the judicial Astrologers of the Court and tell you a tale about a subject somewhat nearer my capacity On Sunday last at night and no longer some sixteen Apprentices of what sort you shall guess by the rest of the Story having secretly learnt a new Play without 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 Iohn 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 H. 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 Cambridge Sunday at Night SIR TO divert you from thinking on my faults I will entertain you with some News out of a Letter which I have here received from Venice of much consequence divers wayes The Bishop of Bamberge a Practical Almain Prelate of which kind there be enough of that Coat though not in that Countrey was treating in Rome a League against the Protestant Princes of Germany with whom His Majesty you know was first by Articles and is now by alliance more nearly confederate His Commission he had from the Emperour Sâ—…tto parole tacite as they call it Now while this matter was there moulding a Chiaus arrives at the Emperours Court with a Letter from the Turk importing a denuntiation of VVar grounded upon a heap of complaints easily found out between Princes that do not intend to agree And accordingly the Turk is departed in Person from Constantinople into Hungary with great Forces as my Friend writeth on a morning quando nevicava a furia by which appeareth the sharpness of the humour having made a leavy before his going of 5000 youths out of the Seragli a thing never seen before He hath left behind him Nasuf Bassa as President of his affairs who told the Batolo of Verice there resident that his Master was but gone to hunt and seemeth to have held the same language with the other Ambassadors whether out of meet wantonness of conceit or as esteeming a war with Christians but a sport in respect of that which he had newly concluded with the Persian I know not howsoever this is likely to quash the Bishops business and I fear it will fall heavy upon Germany which first in it self was never more dis-united and besides the Emperour in small good will with thâ—…se that should help him It will likewise in my conjecture hasten the departure of the Count Palatine or at least if it so please him it may well serve his turn for that purpose This is all that I have for your entertainment To morrow morning I depart hence towards London whence I determine to write by every Carrier to you till I bring my self In your last you mentioned a certain Courtier that seemeth to have spoken somewhat harshly of me I have a guess at the man and though for him to speak of such as I am in any kind whatsoever was a favour yet I wonder how I am fallen out of his estimation for it is not long since he offered me a fair Match within his own Tribe and much addition to her Fortune out of his private bounty When we meet all the world to nothing we shall laugh and in truth Sir this world is worthy of nothing else In the mean time and ever our sweet Saviour keep us in his love Your poor faithfull Friend and Servant H. WOTTON March the last 1613. SIR I Returned from Cambridge to London some two hours after the King The next day was celebrated with twenty Tilters wherein there entred four fraternities the Earls Pembroke 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 Dorset Chandowes North Hey Dingwel Clifford Sir Thomas Sommerset and Sir Iohn 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 wherof some were so dark that their
tell you then lead you back into any particularities of that which is passed It pleased His Majesty the very next morning to call to examination before the Lords of His Council divers Members of the House of Commons for some Speeches better becoming a Senate of Venice where the Treaters are perpetual Princes then where those that speak so irreverently are so soon to return which they should remember to the natural capacity of Subjects Of these Examinants four are committed close Prisoners to the Tower 1. Sir Walter Chute 2. John Hoskins 3. One Wentworth a Lawyer And 4. Mr. Christopher Nevil second Son to my Lord of Abergaveny The first made great shift to come thither For having taken in our House some disgrace in the matter of the Undertakers of whom he would fain have been thought one to get the opinion of a bold man after he had lost that of a wise he fell one morning into a declamation against the times so insipid and so unseasonable as if he had been put but out of his place for it of Carver into which one of my Lord Admirals Nephews is sworn I should not much have pitied him though he be my Country-man The second is in for more wit and for licentiousness baptized freedom For I have noted in our House that a false or faint Patriot did cover himself with the shadow of equal moderation and on the other side irreverent discourse was called honest liberty so as upon the whole matter No excesses want precious 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 Latine 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 Howsoever I will keep it from being hectical and hereafter give you a better account of mine own observations This vveek I have seen from a most dear Niece a Letter that hath much comforted one Uncle and a Postscript the other Long may that hand move which is so full of kindness 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 Loadstone 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 H. WOTTON Sir I pray remember my hearty affection to my Cousin Nicolas Bacon and all joy to the new conjoyned I shall propound unto you the next vveek a very possible Probleme unto vvhich 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 then a younger body could well have born by the incision of a wennish tumour 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 vvent a general voice through the Court on Sunday last upon the commitment of Doctor Sharp and Sir Charles Cornwallis to the Tower that he vvas somevvhat implicated in that business vvhereof I vvill give you a little account at the present as far as I have been hitherto able to penetrate John Hoskins of vvhose imprisonment I vvrote unto you by the last Carrier having at a re-examination been questioned vvhether he vvell understood the consequence of that Sicilian vesper vvhereunto 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 vvay of his profession vvhereupon being pressed to discover vvhence he then had received this information since it lay not vvithin his own reading he confessed to have had it from Doctor Sharp vvho had infused these things into him and had solicited him to impress them in the Parliament And further that Hoskins hereupon demanding vvhat protection he might hope for if afterwards he vvere called into question the said Doctor should nominate unto him besides others vvhose names I vvill spare that Earl vvho hath novv made an end of all his reckonings assuring him of his assistance by the means of Sir Charles Cornwallis vvith vvhom the Doctor vvas conjoyned in this practice Thus came Sir Charles into discovery vvho being afterward confronted vvith 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 vvith him therein upon his Salvation vvhich yet is not enough as I perceive 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 vvhich I had rather you should see in a Letter then as I did on Sunday at Greenwich vvhere 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 vvhole Court vvith most dejected countenances and such a greediness at all vvindows 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 L. of Suffolk my L. of Worcester and my L. William Haward To the Earl of Arundel he left all his Land which will amount to some 3000 l. 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
predatory I have forgotten for memoria primò 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 find it dried 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 vvas on Saturday last the day after your Posts departure very solemnly restored at Council Table the King present from a kind of Eclipse wherein he had stood since the Thursday fortnight before All considered the obscuration vvas long and bred both various and doubtfull discourse but it ended vvell All the cause yet known vvas 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 vvhich he had opened in Paris and he did expect it at such a time even in the Spring garden close under his Fathers Window vvith 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 vvhom and the said Lord Weston had in the late journey as it seems been contracted such friendship as overcame the memory that he vvas Cousin-German to my Lord of Holland a very fair and discreet answer That if he could challenge him for any injury done him before or after his Embassage he vvould meet him as a Gentleman vvith his Sword by his side vvhere he should appoint But for any thing that had been done in the time of his Embassage he had already given the King an account thereof and thought himself not accountable to any other This published on Thursday vvas fortnight the Earl of Holland vvas confined to his Chamber in Court and the next day morning to his House at Kensington vvhere he remained vvithout any further circumstance of restraint or displeasure Saturday and Sunday on vvhich dayes being much visited it vvas thought fit on Munday to appoint Mr. Dickenson one of the Clerks of the Council to be his Guardian thus far that none vvithout his presence should accost him This made the vulgar judgements run high or rather indeed run low That he vvas a lost and discarded man judging as of Patients in Feavers by the exasperation of the fits But the Queen vvho vvas a little obliquely interested in this business for in my Lord of Holland's Letter vvhich vvas opened she had one that vvas not opened nor so much as they say as superscribed and both the Queen's and my Lord of Holland's vvere inclosed in one from Mr. Walter Mountague vvhereof 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 vvas only in favour if it might be obtained of Monsieur de Chateau Neuf and the Chevalier de Jarr vvho had both been here but vvritten vvith caution and surely not vvithout the Kings knowledge to be delivered if there vvere hope of any good effect and perchance not vvithout Order from His Majesty to my Lord Weston afterwards to stop the said Letters upon advertisement that both Chateau Neuf and de Jarr vvere already in the Bastille But this I leave at large as not knowing the depth of the business Upon Munday vvas seven-night fell out another quarrel nobly carried branching from the former between my Lord Fielding and Mr. Goring Son and Heir to the Lord of that Name They had been the night before at Supper I know not vvhere together vvhere Mr. Goring spake something in diminution of my Lord Weston vvhich my Lord 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 vvhere they might be parted too soon and turn into a Lane by Knights-bridge vvhere having tyed up their Horses at a Hedge or Gate they got over into a Close there stripped into their Shirts vvith single Rapiers they fell to an eager Duel till they vvere severed by the Host and his servants of the Inne of the Prince of Orange vvho by meer chance had taken some notice of them In this noble encounter vvhere in blood vvas 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 vvord may have room in this place Sayes my Lord Fielding Mr. 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 vvay but one to answer this courtesie I have here by chance in my Pocket a Warrant to pass the Ports out of England vvithout 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 vvhich 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 vvere fairly reconciled and forgiven by the King vvith shaking of hands and such Symbols of agreement And likewise Sir Maurice Dromand vvho had before upon an uncivil ture 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 foreign matter there is so little and so doubtfull as it were a misery to trouble you with it The States confuted Treaty is put to the stock and the Prince of Orenge by account gone to the Field two days since having broken the business
Sylla but of Pompey in your gestures nothing of affectation in your vvhole aspect no swelling nothing boysterous but an alluring and vvell becoming suavity your alacrity and vigour the celerity of your motions discovers otherwise your affections are temperate and demeanour vvell setled most firm to your purposes and promises Loving Truth hating Vice Just Constant Couragious and not simply so but knowingly Good Such you are and being such vvith vvhat applause shall vve receive you Me thinks I see vvhen sometimes I compare together horrid and quiet Times as often as Rich. the Third return'd perchance from his York or further off to London and assembled his Peers about him how the heads of Noblemen did hang how pale their cheeks vvhat solicitous suspicions and murmurs they conferred together as if suddenly some dismal Comet or inauspicious Star had risen above the Horizon But contrariwise the return of a just and a good Prince is in truth nothing else but the very approach of the Sun vvhen vvith his vernal beams he doth expel the deformed Winter and vvith a gentle heat doth comfort and exhilarate all things about us Live therefore O King to all that are good most grateful But in vvhat vvishes shall I end After Trajans times there vvas among the ancients vvith vvhose example smitten I have too boldly undertaken this small labour under every renowned Emperour a form of acclamation in this kind Long maist thou live Antoninus Long maist thou reign Theodosius happier then Augustus better then Trajan but let this be the concluding Character of Your Majesties time That the things we can wish are fewer then those we praise Wherefore vvhen I have out of an ardent zeal only vvished this that Charles our excellent King and Master may reign and live like himself alone and long Be this the Conclusion In what transcendent happiness were we If know we would how fortunate we be Robert Deuereux Earle of Essex w. Dolle F. OF ROBERT DEVEREUX Earl of ESSEX AND GEORGE VILLIARS Duke of BVCKINGHAM Some Observations by way of PARALLEL in the time of their estates of Favour AMongst those Historical Imployments vvhereunto I have devoted my later years for I read that old men live more by memory then by hope vve thought it vvould be a little time not ill spent to confer the Fortunes and the Natures of these two great Personages of so late knowledge Wherein I intend to do them right vvith the truth thereof and my self vvith the freedome The beginning of the Earl of Essex I must attribute vvholly or in great part to my Lord of Leicester but yet as an Introducer or supporter not as a Teacher for as I go along it vvill easily appear that he neither lived nor died by his discipline Alwayes certain it is that he drew him first into the fatal Circle from a kind of resolved privateness at his house at Lampsie in South-wales vvhere after the Academical life he had taken such a taste of the Rural as I have heard him say and not upon any flashes or fumes of Melancholly or traverses of discontent but in a serene and quiet mood that he could vvell have bent his mind to a retired course About which time the said Earl of Leicester bewrayed a meaning to plant him in the Queens favour vvhich vvas diversly interpreted by such as thought that great Artizan of Court to do nothing by chance nor much by affection Some therefore vvere of opinion that feeling more and more in himself the vveight of time and being almost tyred if there be a satiety in Power vvith that assiduous attendance and intensive circumspection vvhich a long indulgent fortune did require he vvas grown not unwilling for his own ease to bestow handsomly upon another some part of the pains and perhaps of the envy Others conceived rather that having before for the same ends brought in or let in Sir Walter Raleigh and having found him such an apprentice as knew vvell enough how to set up for himself he now meant to allie him vvith this young Earl vvho had yet taken no strong impressions For though the said Sir Walter Raleigh vvas a little before this vvhereof I now speak by occasion much fallen from his former splendour in Court yet he still continued in some lustre of a favoured man like billowes that sink by degrees even vvhen the vvind is down that first stirred them Thus runs the discourse of that time at pleasure Yet I am not ignorant that there vvas some good vvhile a very stiff aversation in my Lord of Essex from applying himself to the Earl of Leicester for vvhat secret conceit I know not but howsoever that humour vvas mollified by time and by his Mother and to the Court he came under his lee The Duke of Buckingham had another kind of Germination and surely had he been a Plant he vvould have been reckoned among the Sponte nascentes for he sprung vvithout any help by a kind of congenial composure as vve may term it to the likeness of our late Soveraign and Master of ever blessed memory vvho taking him into his regard taught him more and more to please himself and moulded him as it vvere Platonically to his own Idea delighting first in the choice of the Materials because he found him susceptible of good form and afterward by degrees as great Architects use to do in the vvorkmanship of his Regal hand nor staying here after he had hardned and polished him about ten years in the School of observance for so a Court is and in the furnace of tryal about himself for he vvas a King could peruse men as vvell as books he made him the associate of his Heir apparent together vvith the now Lord Cottington as an adjunct of singular experience and trust in forraign travels and in a business of Love and of no equal hazard if the tenderness of our zeal did not then deceive us enough the vvorld must confess to kindle affection even betwixt the distantest conditions so as by the various and inward conversation abroad besides that before and after at home vvith the most constant and best natured Prince Bona si sua nôrint as ever England enjoyed this Duke becomes now secondly seized of favour as it vvere by descent though the condition of that estate be commonly no more then a Tenancy at vvill or at most for the life of the first Lord and rarely transmitted vvhich I have briefly set down vvithout looking beyond the vail of the Temple I mean into the secret of high inclinations since even Satyrical Poets vvho are otherwise of so licentious fancy are in this point modest enough to confess their ignorance Nescio quid certè est quod me tibi temperet Astrum And these vvere both their springings and Imprimings as I may call them In the profluence or proceedings of their fortunes I observe likewise not only much difference between them but in the Earl not a little from himself First all his hopes
of advancement had like to be strangled almost in the very Cradle by throwing himself into the Portugal Voyage vvithout the Queens consent or so much as her knowledge vvhereby he left his friends and dependants near six moneths in desperate suspense vvhat vvould become of him And to speak truth not vvithout good reason For first they might vvell consider That he vvas himself not vvell plumed in favour for such a flight Besides That now he vvanted a Lord of Leicester at home for he vvas dead the year before to smooth his absence and to quench the practises at Court But above all it lay open to every mans discourse that though the bare offence to his Soveraign and Mistriss vvas too great an adventure yet much more vvhen she might as in this case have fairly discharged her displeasure upon her Laws Notwithstanding a noble report coming home before him at his return all vvas clear and this excursion vvas esteemed but a Sally of youth Nay he grew every day more and more in her gracious conceit vvhether such intermissions as these do sometimes foment affection or that having committed a fault he became the more obsequious and plyant to redeem it Or that she yet had not received into her Royal brest any shadows of his popularity There vvas another time long after vvhen Sir Fulke Grevill late Lord Brook a man in appearance intrinsecal vvith him or at the least admitted to his Melancholly hours either belike espying some vveariness in the Queen or perhaps vvith little change of the vvord though more in the danger some vvariness towards him and vvorking upon the present matter as he vvas dexterous and close had almost super-induced into favour the Earl of Southampton vvhich yet being timely discovered my Lord of Essex chose to evaporate his thoughts in a Sonnet being his common vvay to be sung before the Queen as it vvas by one Hales in vvhose voice she took some pleasure vvhereof the complot me thinks had as much of the Hermit as of the poet And if thou should'st by her be now forsaken She made thy Heart too strong for to be shaken As if he had been casting one eye back at the least to his former retiredness But all this likewise quickly vanished and there vvas a good vvhile after fair vveather over-head Yet still I know not how like a gathering of Clouds till towards his latter time vvhen his humours grew Tart as being now in the Lees of favour it brake forth into certain sudden recesses sometimes from the Court to Wansteed otherwhiles unto Greenwich often to his own Chamber Doors shut Visits forbidden and vvhich vvas vvorse divers Contestations between even vvith the Queen her self all preambles of ruine vvherewith though now and then he did vvring out of her Majesty some petty contentments as a man vvould press sowr Grapes yet in the mean time vvas forgotten the Counsel of a Wise and then a Prophetical Friend vvho told him that such courses as those vvere like hot Waters vvhich help at a pang but if they be too often used vvill spoil the stomack On the Dukes part vve have no such abrupt strayns and precipees as these but a fair fluent and uniform course under both Kings And surely as there vvas in his natural Constitution a marvellous equality vvhereof I shall speak more afterwards so there vvas an image of it in his Fortune running if I may borrow an ancient comparison as smoothly as a numerous Verse till it met vvith certain Rubs in Parliament vvhereof I am induced by the very Subject vvhich I handle to say somewhat so far as shall concern the difference between their times When my Lord of Essex stood in favour the Parliaments vvere calm Nay I find it a true observation that there vvas no Impeachment of any Nobleman by the Commons from the Reign of King Henry the sixth until the eighteenth of King James nor any intervenient precedent of that Nature not that something or other could be vvanting to be said vvhile men are men For not to go higher vve are taught easily so much by the very Ballads and Libels of the Leicestrian time But about the aforesaid Year many young ones being chosen into the House of Commons more then had been usual in great Councels vvho though of the vveakest vvings yet are the highest Flyers there arose a certain unfortunate and unfruitful Spirit in some places not sowing but picking at every stone in the Field rather then tending to the general Harvest And thus far the consideration of the Nature of the Time hath transported me and the occasion of the Subject Now on the other side I must vvith the like liberty observe two vveighty and vvatchful Solicitudes as I may call them vvhich kept the Earl in extreme and continual Caution like a Bow still bent vvhereof the Dukes thoughts vvere absolutely free First he vvas to vvrastle vvith a Queens declining or rather vvith her very setting Age as vve may term it vvhich besides other respects is commonly even of it self the more umbratious and apprehensive as for the most part all Horizons are charged vvith certain Vapours towards their Evening The other vvas a matter of more Circumstance standing thus viz. All Princes especially those vvhom God hath not blessed vvith natural issue are by vvisdome of State somewhat shye of their Successors and to speak vvith doe Reverence there may be reasonably supposed in Queens Regnant a little proportion of tenderness that vvay more then in Kings Now there vvere in Court two names of Power and almost of Faction the Essexian and the Cecilian vvith their adherents both vvell enough enjoying the present and yet both looking to the future and therefore both holding correspondency vvith some of the principal in Scotland and had received advertisements and instructions either from them or immediately from the King as indubiate Heir of this Imperial Crown But lest they might detect one another this vvas Mysteriously carried by several instruments and conducts and on the Essexian side in truth vvith infinite hazard for Sir Robert Cecil vvho as Secretary of State did dispose the publick Addresses had prompter and safer conveyance vvhereupon I cannot but relate a memorable passage on either part as the story following shall declare The Earl of Essex had accommodated Master Anthony Bacon in partition of his House and had assigned him a noble entertainment This vvas a Gentleman of impotent feet but a nimble head and through his hand ran all the intelligences vvith Scotland vvho being of a provident nature contrary to his Brother the Lord Viscount St. Albons and vvell knowing the advantage of a dangerous Secret vvould many times cunningly let fall some vvords as if he could much amend his Fortunes under the Cecilians to vvhom he vvas near of alliance and in bloud also and vvho had made as he was not unwilling should be believed some great proffers to win him away which once or twice he pressed so far and with
such tokens and signs of apparent discontent to my Lord Henry Howard afterwards Earl of Northampton who was of the party and stood himself inmuch Umbrage with the Queen that he flyes presently to my Lord of Essex with whom he was commonly primae admissionis by his bed side in the morning and tells him that unless that Gentleman were presently satisfied with some round summe all would be vented This took the Earl at that time ill provided as indeed oftentimes his Coffers were low whereupon he was fain suddenly to give him Essex-House which the good old Lady Walsingham did afterwards dis-ingage out of her own store with 2500 pound and before he had distilled 1500 pound at another time by the same skil So as we may rate this one Secret as it was finely carried at 4000 pounds in present money besides at the least 1000 pound of annual pension to a private and bed-rid Gentleman What would he have gotten if he could have gone about his own business There was another accident of the same nature on the Cecilian side much more pleasant but less chargeable for it cost nothing but wit The Queen having for a good while not heard any thing from Scotland and being thirsty of news it fell out that her Majesty going to take the air towards the Heath the Court being then at Greenwich and Master Secretary Cecill then attending her a Post came crossing by and blew his Horn The Queen out of curiosity asked him from whence the Dispatch came and being answered From Scotland she stops the Coach and calleth for the Packet The Secretary though he knew there were iâ—… it some Letters from his Correspondents which to discover were as so many Serpents yet made more shew of diligence then of doubt to obey and asks some that stood by forsooth in great hast for a knife to cut up the Packet for otherwise he might perhaps have awaked a little apprehension but in the mean time approaching with the Packet in his hand at a pretty distance from the Queen he telleth her it looked and smelt ill-favouredly coming out of a filthy budget and that it should be fit first to open and air it because he knew she was a verse from ill sents And so being dismissed home he got leasure by this seasonable shift to sever what he would not have seen These two accidents precisely true and known to few I have reported as not altogether extravagant from my purpose to shew how the Earl stood in certain perplexities wherewith the Dukes dayes were not distracted And this hath been the Historical part as it were touching the difference between them in the rising and flowing of their fortunes I will now consider their several indowments both of Person and Mind and then a little of their Actions and Ends. The Earl was a pretty deal the taller and much the stronger and of the abler body But the Duke had the neater limbs and freer delivery he was also the uprighter and of the more comely motions for the Earl did bend a little in the neck though rather forwards then downwards and he was so far from being a good Dancer that he was no graceful goer If we touch particulars the Duke exceeded in the daintiness of his leg and foot and the Earl in the incomparable fairness and fine shape of his hands which though it be but feminine praise he took from his Father For the general Air the Earl had the closer and more reserved Countenance being by nature somewhat more cogitative and which was strange never more then at meals when others are least Insomuch as he was wont to make his observation of himself that to solve any knotty business which cumbred his mind his ablest hours were when he had checked his first appetite with two or three morsels after which he sate usually for a good while silent yet he would play well and willingly at some games of greatest attention which shewed that when he listed he could licence his thoughts The Duke on the other side even in the midst of so many diversions had continually a very pleasant and vacant face as I may well call it proceeding no doubt from a singular assurance in his temper And yet I must here give him a rarer Elogy which the malignest eye cannot deny him That certainly never man in his place and power did entertain greatness more familiarly nor whose looks were less tainted with his felicity wherein I insist the rather because this in my judgement was one of his greatest vertues and victories of himself But to proceed in the attiring and ornament of their bodies the Duke had a fine and unaffected politeness and upon occasion costly as in his Legations The Earl as he grew more and more attentive to business and matters so less and less curious of cloathing Insomuch as I do remember those about him had a conceit that possibly sometimes when he went up to the Queen he might scant know what he had on for this was his manner His Chamber being commonly stived with Friends or Suiters of one kind or other when he was up he gave his legs arms and brest to his ordinary servants to button and dress him with little heed his head and face to his Barber his eyes to his letters and ears to Petitioners and many times all at once then the Gentleman of his Robes throwing a cloak over his shoulders he would make a step into his Closet and after a short prayer he was gone only in his Baths he was somewhat delicate For point of diet and luxury they were both very inordinate in their appetites especially the Earl who was by nature of so indifferent a taste that I must tell a rare thing of him though it be but a homely note that he would stop in the midst of any physical Potion and after he had licked his lips he would drink off the rest but I am weary of such slight Animadversions To come therefore to the inward furniture of their Minds I will thus much declare The Earl was of good Erudition having been placed at study in Cambridge very young by the Lord Burleigh his Guardian with affectionate and deliberate care under the oversight of Doctor Whitgift then Master of Trinity Colledge and after Archbishop of Canterbury A man by the way surely of most Reverend and Sacred memory and as I may well say even of the Primitive temper when the Church by lowliness of spirit did flourish in high examples which I have inserted as a due recordation of his vertues having been much obliged to him for many favours in my younger time About sixteen years of his age for thither he came at twelve he took the formality of Master of Arts and kept his publick Acts. And here I must not smother what I have received by constant Information That his own Father died with a very cold conceit of him some say through the affection to his second son Walter Devereux who
was indeed a diamond of the time and both of an hardy and delicate temper and mixture But it seems this Earl like certain vegetables did bud and open slowly Nature sometimes delighting to play an afrer-game as well as Fortune which had both their turns and tides in course The Duke was Illiterate yet had learned at Court first to sift and question well and to supply his own defects by the drawing or flowing unto him of the best Instruments of experience and knowledge from whom he had a sweet and attractive manner to suck what might be for the publick or his own proper use so as the less he was favoured by the Muses he was the more by the Graces To consider them in their pure Naturals I conceive the Earls Intellectual faculties to have been his stronger part and in the Duke his Practical Yet all know that he likewise at the first was much under the expectation of his after-proof such a Solar influence there is in the Soveraign aspect For their Abilities of discourse or pen the Earl was a very acute and sound speaker when he would intend it and for his writings they are beyond example especially in his familiar Letters and things of delight at Court when he would admit his serious habits as may be yet seen in his Impresses and Inventions of entertainment and above all in his darling piece of love and self love his Stile was an elegant perspicuity rich of phrase but seldome any bold Metaphors and so far from Tumour that it rather wanted a little Elevation The Dukes delivery of his mind I conceive not to be so sharp as solid and grave not so solid and deep as pertinent and apposite to the times and occasions The Earl I account the more liberal and the Duke the more magnificent for I do not remember that my Lord of Essex in all his life time did build or adorn any house the Queen perchance spending his time and himself his means or otherwise inclining to popular wayes for we know the people are apter to applaud house-keepers then house-raisers They were both great cherishers of Scholars and Divines but it seems the Earl had obtained of himself one singular point that he could depart his affection between two extreams for though he bare alwayes a kind of filial reverence towards Dr. Whitgift both before and after he was Archbishop yet on the other side he did not a little love and tender Mr. Cartwright though I think truly with large distinction between the Persons and the Causes however he was taxed with other ends in respecting that party They were both fair-spoken Gentlemen not prone and eager to detract openly from any man and in this the Earl hath been most falsly blemished in our vulgar Story only against one man he had forsworn all patience namely Henry Lord Cobham and would call him per Excellentiam the Sycophant as if it had been an Embleme of his name even to the Queen her self though of no small insinuation with her and one Lady likewise that I may civilly spare to nominate for her sex sake whom he used to term the Spider of the Court yet generally in the sensitive part of their Natures the Earl was the worst Philosopher being a great Resenter and a weak Dissembler of the least disgrace And herein likewise as in the rest no good Pupil to my Lord of Leicester who was wont to put all his passions in his pocket In the growth of their Fortunes the Duke was a little the swifter and much the greater for from a younger Brothers mean estate he rose to the highest degree whereof a Subject was capable either in Title or Trust. Therein I must confess much more consortable to Charles Brandon under Henry the Eight who was equal to him in both For matter of Donative and addition of substance I do not believe that the Duke did much exceed him all considered under both Kings For that which the Earl of Essex had received from her Majesty besides the Fees of his Offices and the disposition of great Summes of money in her Armies was about the time of his Arraignment when faults use to be aggravated with precedent benefits valued at three hundred thousand pounds sterling in pure gift for his only use by the Earl of Dorset then Lord Treasurer who was a wise man and a strict Computist and not well affected towards him And yet it is worthy of note in the Margent of both Times that the one was prosecuted with silence and the other with murmure So undoing a measure is popular judgement I cannot here omit between them a great difference in establishing of both their Fortunes and Fames For the first the Duke had a care to introduce into near place at the Court divers of his confident Servants and into high places very sound and grave Personages Whereas except a Pensioner or two we can scant name any one man advanced of the Earls breeding but Sir Thomas Smith having been his Secretary who yet came never further though married into a noble House then to the Clerk of the Councel and Register of the Parliament not that the Earl meant to stand alone like a Substantive for he was not so ill a Grammarian in Court but the Truth is in this point the Cecilians kept him back as very well knowing that upon every little absence or disassiduity he should be subject to take cold at his back For the other in the managing of their Fames I note between them a direct contrary wisdome For the Earl proceeded by way of Apology which he wrote and dispersed with his own hands at large though till his going to Ireland they were but aiery objections But of the Duke this I know that one aâ—…ing offered for his ease to do him that kind of Service He refused it with a pretty kind of thankful scorn saying that he would trust his own good intentions which God knew and leave to him the pardoning of his Errours and that he saw no fruit of Apologies but the multiplying of discourse which surely was a well setled Maxime And for my own particular though I am not obnoxious to his memory in the expression of Tacitus Neque injuria neque beneficio saving that he shewed me an ordinary good Countenance And if I were yet I would distinguish between Gratitude and Truth I must bear him this Testimony that in a Commission laid upon me by Soveraign Command to examine a Lady about a certain filthy accusation grounded upon nothing but a few single names taken up by a Foot-man in a kennel and straight baptized A list of such as the Duke had appointed to be poysoned at home himself being then in Spain I found it to be the most malicious and frantick surmize and the most contrary to his nature that I think had ever been brewed from the beginning of the World how soever countenanced by a Libellous Pamphlet of a fugitive Physician even in Print and yet
Philosophy his servant Cuffe whose observations were sharp enough whatever Stoicismes raved in his nature well discerned when he said Amorem odium semper in fronte gessit nec celare novit And I shall not impute it to his want of will though that would be but an ill argument for his Courtship nor of power for he did many greater things but only of skil to contrive conveniences of honours and preferments at Court for such friends as might have been good out-works to have fortifi'd and secur'd his own condition except all his dependants were of another complexion then could have lived in that Air. And indeed I do not find that the Earl much inclined to or desired the reputation of a Courtier besides the preservation of himself and the Queens affection which yet he endeavoured rather to master then to win but he seemed though he had such places of honour and attendance as be the most significant badges of a Courtier but in pace belli gerere negotium and retired only from the War to prevent Peace Then if we visit his correspondencies abroad which he rather maintained out of state then contrived out of skil we shall see they were alwayes with an eye upon actions and his Intelligences had ever some hint of Tumult and Commotion as if the King of Spain was loud or frantick at his devotions as when he vowed at Mass that he would be reveng'd of England though he sold all those Candlesticks upon the Altar This Information was given by the Earl But it was observed then that if there were ought intended against the Life or Person of the Queen though it were in the Court of Spain where the Earl had especially his Leigiers the first notice came over by my Lord Cecil for whom indeed it seemed as necessary there should be treasons as for the State that they should be prevented Insomuch as it was then how unjustly soever conceived that though he created none yet he fomented some conspiracies that he might give frequent evidences of his loyalty having no other advantage as the Earl and others had in person to justifie him in an ordinary estimation but by eminent services And those he knew must be best relished that concerned her own preservation and therefore in the least vacations from Treasons he was ever busie to set on foot some vigilant and tender Law as there was scarce any Parliament without some such that had a peculiar eye to the Queens safety Which however they are by such as cannot apprehend the danger of those times looked upon without much reverence could not but make singular impression in the Queens heart of his fidelity The Incumbrances that the Earl had to wrestle withal for I shall only look over his life without particular enquiry into his actions which had all glorious ends or glorious intentions were fewer then ever any great man ever met withal and his advantages more in number and in weight 'T is true he was rivall'd by a strong and subtile faction which cared and consulted for his ruine as a foundation they must build upon and were intent to betray him abroad and mis-interpret him at home yet the danger was thus allay'd that they were all his publique and professed enemies and so known unto the Queen that they durst never impertinently urge ought against him since they were sure their malice was concluded when the reason of their objection happily might not be considered And indeed that trick of countenancing and protecting factions as that Queen almost her whole Reign did with singular and equal demonstration of grace look upon several persons of most distinct wishes one towards another was not the least ground of much of her quiet and success And she never doubted but that men that were never so opposite in their good will each to others nor never so dishonest in their projectments for each others confusion might yet be reconciled into their Allegiance towards her Insomuch that during her whole Reign she never endeavoured to reconcile any personal differences in the Court though the unlawful emulations of persons of nearest trust about her were even like to overthrow some of her chiefest designs A Policy seldome entertained by Princes especially if they have issues to survive them Among the advantages the Earl had and he had many that will distinguish him from any man that hath or is likely to succeed him I shall rank the nature and the spirit of that time in the first place For I shall not mention his Interest in the Queens favour till the last which shall appear greatest by the circumstances that lost it 'T was an ingenuous un-inquisitive time when all the passions and affections of the people were lapped up in such an innocent and humble obedience that there was never the least contestations nor capitulations with the Queen nor though she very frequently consulted with her Subjects any further reasons urged of her actions then her own will When there were any grievances they but reverently conveyed them to her notice and left the time and order of the rest to her Princely discretion Once they were more importunate and formal in pursuing the complaints of the Purveyers for provision which without question was a crying and an heavy oppression The Queen sent them worâ—… they all thought themselves wise enough to reform the misdemeanours of their own families and wish't that they had so good opinion of her as to trust her with her servants too I do not find that the Secretary who delivered this Message received any reproach or check or that they proceeded any further in their inquisition In this excellent time the Queens remarkable Grace indeared the Earl to the regard of the people which he quickly improved to a more tender estimation neither was this affection of theirs ever an objection against him till himself took too much notice of it for the Queen had ever loved her people without the least scruple of jealousie nor was ever offended if he was the darling of their eyes till she suspected he inclined to be the darling of their hearts In his Friendships he was so fortunate that though he contracted with ancient enemies and such as he had undeserved by some unkindness as grievous as injurious it is not known that ever he was betrayed in his trust or had ever his secrets derived unhandsomly to any ears that they were not intended to and this if he had not planted himself upon such whose zeal to his service was more remarkable then their other abilities would have preserved him from so prodigious a fate Lastly he had so strong an harbour in the Queens brest that notwithstanding these dangerous indiscretions of committing himself in his recreations and shooting-matches to the publique view of so many thousand Citizens which usually flocked to see him and made within the reach of his own ears large acclamations in his praise notwithstanding his receiving into his troop of attendance and
praises and Elogies according to the contrary motions of popular waves And now to summe up the fruit of the Journey discourses ran thus among the clearest Observers It was said that the Prince himself without any imaginable stain of his Religion had by the sight of Forraign Courts and observations of the different Natures of people and Rules of Government much excited and awaked his spirits and corroborated his judgement And as for the Marquess there was note taken of two great additions which he had gained First he was returned with encrease of Title having there been made Duke by Patent sent him which was the highest degree whereof an English Subject could be capable But the other was far greater though closer for by so long and so private and so various consociation with a Prince of such excellent nature he had now gotten as it were two lives in his own Fortune and Greatness whereas otherwise the estate of a Favourite is at the best but a Tenant at will and rarely transmitted But concerning the Spanish Commission which in publick conceit was the main scope of the Journey that was left in great suspence and after some time utterly laid aside which threw the Duke amongst free Wits whereof we have a rank Soil under divers Censures The most part were apt to believe that he had brought down some deep distaste from Spain which exasperated his Councels Neither was there wanting some other that thought him not altogether void of a little Ambition to shew his power either to knit or dissolve Howsoever the whole Scene of affairs was changed from Spain to France there now lay the prospective Which alteration being generally liked and all alterations of State being ever attributed to the powerfullest under Princes as the manner is where the eminency of one obscureth the rest the Duke became suddenly and strangely Gracious among the multitude and was even in Parliament highly exalted so as he did seem for a time to have overcome that natural Incompatibility which in the experience of all Ages hath been noted between the Vulgar and the Soveraign Favour But this was no more then a meer bubble or blast and like an Ephemeral fit of applause as estsoon will appear in the sequel and train of his life I had almost forgotten that after his return from Spain he was made Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports which is as it were a second Admiralty and Steward likewise of the Mannour of Hampton-Court Dignities and Offices still growing of trust or profit And the King now giving not only out of a beneficent disposition but a very habitual and confirmed custome One year six moneths two dayes after the joyful reception of the Prince his Son from Spain King James of immortal memory among all the lovers and admirers of Divine and Humane Sapience accomplished at Theobalds his own dayes on Earth Under whom the Duke had run a long Course of calm and smooth prosperity I mean long for the ordinary life of favour and the more notable because it had been without any visible Eclipse or Wave in himself amidst divers variations in others The most important and pressing care of a new and Vigorous King was his Marriage for mediate establishment of the Royal Line Wherein the Duke having had an especial hand he was sent to conduce hither the most Lovely and Vertuous Princess Henrietta Maria youngest Daughter to the Great Henry of Bourbon of whom his Majesty as hath been said had an ambulatory view in his Travels like a stolen taste of something that provoketh appetite He was accompanied with none of our Peers but the Earl of Mountgomery now Lord Chamberlain a Noble Gentleman of trusty free and open nature and truly no unsuitable Associate for that he himself likewise at the beginning of King James had run his Circle in the wheeling vicissitude of Favour And here I must crave leave in such of high quality or other of particular note as shall fall under my pen whereof this is the first not to let them pass without their due Character being part of my professed ingenuity Now this Ambassy though it had a private shew being charged with more formality then matter for all the essential Conditions were before concluded could howsoever want no Ornaments or bravery to adorn it Among which I am near thinking it worthy of a little remembrance that the Duke one solemn day Gorgeously clad in a suit all over-spread with Diamonds and having lost one of them of good value perchance as he might be dancing after his manner with lofty motion it was strangely recovered again the next morning in a Court full of Pages Such a diligent attendant was Fortune every where both abroad and at home After this fair discharge all Civil Honours having showred on him before there now fell out great occasions to draw forth his spirits into action a breach first with Spain and not longafter with France it self notwithstanding so streight an affinity so lately treated with the one and actually accomplished with the other As if indeed according to that pleasant Maxime of State Kingdoms were never married This must of necessity involve the Duke in business enough to have over-set a lesser Vessel being the next Commander under the Crown of Ports and Ships But he was noted willingly to embrace those Overtures of publick employment For at the Parliament at Oxford his Youth and want of Experience in Maritime service had somewhat been shrewdly touched even before the sluces and flood-gates of popular liberty were yet set open So as to wipe out that objection he did now mainly attend his charge by his Majesties untroubled and serene Commands even in a tempestuous time Now the men fell a rubbing of Armour which a great while had layn oyled The Magazines of Munition are viewed The Officers of Remains called to account frequent Councels of War as many private conferences with expert Sea-men a Fleet in preparation for some attempt upon Spain The Duke himself personally imployed to the States General and with him joyned in full Commission the Earl of Holland a Peer both of singular grace and solidity and of all sweet and serviceable virtue for publick use These two Nobles after a dangerous passage from Harwich wherein three of their Ships were foundred arrived the fifth day at the Hague in Holland Here they were to enter a treaty both with the States themselves and with the Ministers of divers allied and confederate Princes about a common diversion for the recovery of the Palatinate where the King 's only Sisters Dowry had been ravished by the German Eagle mixed with Spanish Feathers A Princess resplendent in darkness and whose virtues were born within the chance but without the power of Fortune Here it were injurious to over-slip a Noble act in the Duke during this Imployment which I must for my part celebrate above all his Expences There was a Collection of certain rare Manuscripts exquisitely written in Arabick and sought
to yield some releasment to certain restrained Persons of the Roman Faith I have taken a conceit upon it that in exchange of his Clemency therein the great Duke would be easily moved by the Kings gracious request to interceed with the Pope for Master Mole 's delivery To which purpose if it shall please his Majesty to grant his Royal Letters I will see the business duely pursued And so needing no arguments to commend this proposition to his Majesties goodness but his goodness it self I leave it as I began in your Noble hand Now touching your Lordships familiar service as I may term it I have sent the Complement of your bargain upon the best provided and best manned Ship that hath been here in long time called the Phoenix And indeed the cause of their long stay hath been for some such Vessel as I might trust About which since I wrote last to your Lordship I resolved to fall back to my first choice so as now the one Piece is the work of Titian wherein the least Figure viz. the Child in the Virgins lap playing with a Bird is alone worth the price of your expence for all four being so round that I know not whether I shall call it a Piece of Sculpture or Picture and so lively that a man would be tempted to doubt whether Nature or Art had made it The other is of Palma and this I call the speaking Piece as your Lordship will say it may well be termed for except the Damsel brought to David whom a silent modesty did best become all the other Figures are in discourse and action They come both distended in their Frames for I durst not hazard them in Rowls the youngest being 25 years old and therefore no longer supple and pliant With them I have been bold to send a Dish of Grapes to your Noble Sister the Countess of Denbigh presenting them first to your Lordships view that you may be pleased to pass your censure whether Italians can make Fruits as well as Flemings which is the common glory of their Pensils By this Gentleman I have sent the choicest Molon seeds of all kinds which his Majesty doth expect as I had Order both from my Lord of Holderness and from Mr. Secretary Calvert And although in my Letter to his Majesty which I hope by your Lordships favour himself shall have the honour to deliver together with the said Seeds I have done him right in his due Attributes yet let me say of him farther as Architects use to speak of a well chosen foundation that your Lordship may boldly build what Fortune you please upon him for surely he will bear it vertuously I have committed to him for the last place a private Memorial touching my self wherein I shall humbly beg your Lordships intercession upon a necessary Motive And so with my heartiest prayers to Heaven for your continual health and happiness I most humbly rest Venice Dec. 2 12 1622. Your Lordships ever obliged devoted Servant H. W. POSTSCRIPT My Noble Lord It is one of my duties to tell your Lordship that I have sent a servant of mine by Profession a Painter to make a search in the best Towns through Italy for some principal Pieces which I hope may produce somewhat for yourâ— Lord ships contentment and service To the Earl of Holderness 1622 3 Right Honourable and my very good Lord IN a late Letter from your Lordship by my Servant I have besides your own Favours the Honour of Imployment from the King in a piece of his Delight which doth so consort with the opportunity of my Charge here that it hath given me acquaintance with some excellent Florists as they are styled and likewise with mine own disposition who have ever thought the greatest pleasure to consist in the simplest Ornaments and Elegancies of Nature as nothing could fall upon me more happily Therefore your Lordship shall see how I will endeavour to satisfie this Command I had before Order by Mr. Secretary Calvert to send his Majesty some of the best Melon-seeds of all kinds which I have done some Weeks since by other occasion of an express Messenger and sent withall a very particular Instruction in the Culture of that Plant. By the present Bearer I do direct unto your Lordship through the hands either of my Nephew or Mr. Nicholas Pey as either of them shall be readiest at London for some beginning in this kind of Service the Stem of a double Yellow Rose of no ordinary nature For it flowereth every moneth unless change of the Clime do change the property from May till almost Christmas There hath gone such care in the manner of the Conveyance as if at the receiving it be presently put into the earth I hope it will prosper By the next commodity I shall send his Majesty some of the rarest Seeds Now for mine own Obligations unto your Lordship whereof I have from some Friends at home very abundant knowledge What shall I say It was in truth my Lord an argument of your noble Nature to take my fortune into your Care who never yet made it any great part of mine own business I am a poor Student in Philosophy which hath redeemed me not only from the envying of others but even from much solicitude about my self It is true that my most Gracious Master hath put me into civil practice and now after long Service I grow into a little danger of wishing I were worth somewhat But in this likewise I do quiet my thoughts For I see by your Lordships so free and so undeserved estimation of me that like the Criple who had lain long in the Pool of Bethesda I shall find some body that will throw me into the water when iâ—… moveth I will end with my humble and hearty thanks for your Favour and Love To the PRINCE May it please Your Highness BEside that which I have now represented unto your Highness by my 〈◊〉 to your worthy Secretary I must 〈◊〉 crave leave herein to be delivered oâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherewith my Pen is in travel I have observed in your Highness among other noble Endowments of your Mind a quick and delightfull apprehension of the fundamental Causes of all Secrets both natural and artificial that have been brought to your View which surely is the highest pleasure of a discoursive Soul Now of this part of your Highness's delectation I am serious to take hold For having been a long Lover of Philosophy and from the contemplative Part being slid into the practical I shall hope for pardon if I take so much freedome from the ingenuity of mine own Nature and Studies as to entertain your Highness now and then with some Experiments especially such as do not end in wonder but reach to publick Useâ—… For meer Speculations have ever seemed to my conceit as if Reason were given us like an half Moon in a Coat of Arms only for a Logical Difference from inferiour Creatures and not for any active power
which shall be done as soon as I have sealed this and sent it to the Carriers I thought now to have said no more but lest it lose the grace of freshness I pray let me tell you that yesterday morning the Viscount Rochester was very solemnly in the Banqueting hall in the sight of many great ones and small ones created Earl of Somerset and in the afternoon for a farther honouring and signalizing of the day my Lord Cook brought in by the said Earl was sworn a Privy Counsellor to counterpoise the difference of the profit between the Common-pleas and the Kings Bench. I will turn over the leaf though I die for it to remember the heartiest love of my soul to that good Niece to that sweet Niece to whom I have much to say by the next opportunity Our dear Saviour keep you both in his continual love Your faithful Servant H. WOTTON Touching the project of our House believe it Sir I boyl in it and am ready to begin again that I may tell you how busie I have been in the matter but let this also be put over till the following week which is likely to fall heavy upon you Written on the day of our great Preservation for which our God be ever glorified On Tuesday the 16th of November SIR AN express Messenger will ease us both of the trouble of a cypher but I was in pain whether I should send another or be that Messenger my self being now as near you as Royston and scant able to obtain pardon of mine own severity for not passing farther yet this may be said for me that the present occasion required little noise and besides I am newly ingaged into some business whereof I will give you a particular account when I shall first have discharged that part which belongeth to your self My Lord my Brother having been acquainted with the matter inclosed in your last to me dispatched the very next day Mr. Pen down to Boughton for such writings as had passed at your marriage which having consulted with his Lawyers he found those things to stand in several natures according to the annexed Schedule For the point of your coming up he referreth that to your own heart and I have only charge from him to tell you that without any such occasion as this which seemeth to imply your affectionate respect of his Daughter your own Person and conversation shall be ever most welcome and dear unto him As for my Lady through whose knowledge and myself through whose hands you have passed this point of confidence if you could behold us and compare us with my Lord you should see though no difference in the reality yet some in the fashion For to him you must allow the sober forms of his age and place but we on the other side are mad with gladness at the hope we have now taken by this occasion of enjoying both you and my Niece this Winter at London and we are contented to profess it as profusely as it is possible for a better Pen to set it down Nay for my part who in this case have somewhat single I flatter my self yet farther that the Term whereof not much now remaineth will accelerate your coming vvhich if you resolve I pray then let me only by this Bearer know it that I may provide you some fit Lodgings at a good distance from White-Hall for the preservation of blessed liberty and avoidance of the comber of kindness vvhich in troth as vve have privately discoursed is no small one Novv touching my self It may please you Sir to understand That the King vvhen he vvas last at Hampton called me to him and there acquainted me vvith a general purpose that he had to put me again into some use Since vvhich time the French Ambassador and very lately having at an Audience of good length besought His Majesty I knovv not vvhether voluntarily or set on by some of our own to disincumber himself of frequent accesses by the choice of some confident Servant to vvhom the said Ambassador might address himself in such occurrences as did not require the Kings immediate ear It pleased him to nominate me for that charge vvith more gracious commendation then it can beseem me to repeat though I vvrite to a Friend in vvhose breast I dare depose even my vanities But lest you should mistake as some others have been apt to do here in the present constitution of the Court vvhich is very ombragious the Kings end in this application of me I must tell you that it is only for the better preparing of my insufficiency and vveakness for the succeeding of Sir Thomas Edmunds in France towards which His Majesty hath thought meet first to indue me vvith some knowledge of the French businesses vvhich are in motu And I think my going thither vvill be about Easter Thus you see Sir both my next remove and the exercise of my thoughts till then vvherewith there is joyned this comfort besides the redemption from expence and debt at home vvhich are the Gulfs that vvould swallovv me that His Majesty hath promised to do something for me before I go I should novv according to the promise of my last tell you many things vvherewith my Pen is swoln but I vvill beg leave to defer them till the next opportunity after my coming to London And they shall all give place novv to this one question Whether there be any thing in this intended journey that you vvill command Which having said I vvill end ever resting Your faithfullest poor Friend and Servant H. WOTTON June 8. 1614. SIR IT is both morally and naturally true that I have never been in perfect health and chearfulness since we parted but I have entertained my mind when my body would give me leave with the contemplation of the strangest thing that ever I beheld commonly called in our Language as I take it a Parliament which hath produced nothing but inexplicable Riddles in the place of Laws For first it is aborted before it was born and nullified after it had a being insomuch as the Count Palatine whose Naturalization was the only thing that passed in both Houses is now again an Alien And whereas all other Parliaments have had some one eminent quality that hath created a denomination some being called in our Records mad Parliaments some merciless and the like This I think from two properties almost insociable or seldom meeting may be termed the Parliament of greatest diligence and of least resolution that ever was or ever will be For our Committies were as well attended commonly as full Houses in former Sessions and yet we did nothing neither in the forenoon nor after whereof I can yield you no reason but this one that our diversions were more then our main purposes and some of so sensible nature as took up all our reason and all our passion in the pursuit of them Now Sir what hath followed since the dissolution of this Civil Body let me rather
To my Lord of Suffolk he hath left his House but hath disposed of all the moveables and furniture from him And it is conceived that he died in some distastfull impression which he had taken against him upon the voices that ran of my Lord of Suffolk's 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 Knowls A few dayes 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 wayes Your faithfullest poor Friend and Servant H. 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 Ore of Lead and Iron withall which I have â—…ot yet gotten Is there no room left for the remembrance of that â—…ar Neice God forbid And I pray Sir tell â—…r besides that a certain Uncle here whom yet I â—…ill not suffer to love her better then my self doth greedily expect some news from her On Midsummer Morning 1614. SIR LIke a Woman great with Child I have threatned you almost every week with a proposition of profit in which kind of breedings methinks I am of hard birth but I hope to be brought to bed by the next Carrier This week hath yet yielded â—…n the publick small effects to entertain you withall â—…nly some change of opinion about the future great Officers which are now thus discoursed The Earl of Suffolk is still beheld as a Lord Treasurer and that conjecture hath never fainted â—…nce the very first rising of it But it is thought that the dignity of Privy Seal shall lye vacant as it did in the Cecilian times and that the execution thereof with the title of Lord Chamberlain shall be laid on my Lord of Sommerset for if my Lord of Suffolk should remove from the Kings Privacy to a place of much distraction and cumber without leaving a friend in his room he might peradventure take cold at his back which is a dangerous thing in a Court as Ruygomezde silva was wont to say that great Artisan of Humours Of the Office of Five Ports I dare yet pronounce nothing My Lord my Brother will none of it as I heard him seriously say though it were offered him for reasons which he reserveth in his own brest yet the late Northampton did either so much esteem it or thought himself to receive so much estimation from it as he hath willed his Body to be laid in the Castle of Dover Chute Hoskins Sharp and Sir Charles Cornwallis are still in the Tower and I like not the complexion of the place Out of France we have the death of Dr. Carrier whose great imaginations abroad have had but a short period And so Sir commending you and that dearest Neice to Gods continual blessings and love I rest Your own in faithfullest affection H. WOTTON The 7. of June Style of the place 1615. SIR I Hear a little voice that you are come to London which to me is the voice 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 kind 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 withâ—… a day or two to send Cisthbert my Servant home â—…y whom I shall tell you divers things In the â—…ean while I have adventured these few lines â—…o break the Ice of silence for in truth it is a â—…old fault Our sweet Saviour bless you Servidore Arrigo Wottoni My hot love to the best Neice of the World SIR AMong those that have deep interest in whatsoever can befall you I am the freshest witâ—…ss of your unexpressible affections to my most â—…ar Neice whom God hath taken from us into â—…s eternal Light and rest where we must leave 〈◊〉 till we come unto her I should think my â—…lf unworthy for ever of that love she bare me â—…in this case I were fit to comfort you But it is â—…t only God who can reconsolate us both VVho when he hath called now one and then â—…other of his own Creatures unto himself will â—…clasp the final Book of his Decrees and disâ—…lve the whole For which I hope he will raâ—…er teach us to thirst and languish then to reâ—…ne at particular dissolutions I had in a peâ—…liar affliction of mine own all within the â—…pass of little time much consolation from 〈◊〉 which cannot but be now present with â—…our self for I am well acquainted with the â—…ength of your Christian mind Therefore being kindly invited by the good Master of the Rolls to write by his express Messengeâ—… unto you let me without further discourse oâ—… our griefs only joyn in this with him to wisâ—… your company divided between him and me We will contemplate together when we meet ouâ—… future blessedness and our present uncertainties 〈◊〉 And I am afraid we shall find too much argument tâ—… drown our private feelings in the publick sollicitude Gods love wherein is all joy be with us From Westminst this 16. April 1626. Your ever true and hearty Servant H. WOTTON 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 hast 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 Chrisâ—… est molestissima Loves being in this like Feavers as well as in the rest for one definition will serve them both Cordis accensio Iack 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 Gerâ—…se Clifton as in good faith he is in