ibidem patria jura interpretantur frequentavit c. About the Latter end of King Richard the Seconds dayes he flourished in France and got himself into high esteem there by his diligent exercise in learning After his return home he frequented the Court at London and the Colledges of the Lawyers which there interpretted the Laws of the Land and among them he had a familiar Friend called John Gower a Yorkshire man born a Knight as Bale writeth of him This Gower in a Book of his entituled Confessio Amantis tearmeth Chaucer a worthy Poet and maketh him as it were the judge of his works He married a Knights Daughter of Henault called Paon de Ruel King of Arms by whom he had issue his Son Thomas to whom King Edward the Third in recompense of his Fathers services in France gave him in marriage the Daughter and Heire of Sir John Burgershe Knight This Thomas Chaucer had onely one Daughter named Alice married thrice first to Sir John Philip Knight then to Thomas Montacute Earl of Salisbury and the third time to William de la Pole Earl and after Duke of Suffolk who for love of his Wife and the convenient seat of her estate he removed into Oxfordshire and Barkshire where his Wives Lands lay This Alice had a Daughter by her second Husband Thomas Montacute Earl of Salisbury named after her Mother Alice married to Richard Nevill Son to Ralph Earl of Westmerland by whom she had Richard John and George Richard espoused Anne sister and sole heir to the Lord Beauchamp and after Duke of Warwick in whose right he was created Earl of Warwick But to return to our ancient Poet Geffery Chaucer he had alwayes an earnest desire to inrich and beautifie our English Tongue which in those dayes was very rude and barren and this he did following the example of Dante 's and Petrarch who had done the same for the Italian Tongue Alanus for the French and Johannes Mena for the Spanish neither was Chaucer inferiour to any of them in the performance hereof and England in this respect is much beholding to him as Leland well noteth Anglia Chaucerum veneratur nostra Poetam Cui veneres debet patria lingua suos Our England honoureth Chaucer Poet as principal To whom her Countrey tongue doth owe her beauties all He departed out of this world the 25. day of October 1400. after he had lived about 72. years Thus writeth Bale out of Leland Chaucerus ad canos devenit sensitque senectutem morbum esse dum causas suas Londini curaret c. Chaucer lived till he was an old man and found old age to be grievous and whilest he followed his causes at London he died and was buried at Westminster The old Verses which were written on his Grave at the first were these Galfridus Chaucer vates famae poesis Maternae haec sacra sum tumulatus humo But since Mr. Nicholas Brigham did at his own cost and charges erect a Monument for him with these Verses Qui fuit Anglorum vates ter maximus olim Gaufredus Chaucer conditur hoc tumulo Annum si quaeras Domini si tempora vitae Ecce notae subsunt quae tibi cuncta notant Anno Domini 1400. die mensis Octob. 25. It will not be amiss to these Epitaphs to adde the judgements and reports of some learned men of this worthy and famous Poet. And first of all Thomas Occleve who lived in his dayes writeth thus of him in his Book De regimine Principis But welaway is mine hart woe That the honour of English Tongue is dead Of which I wont was confaile have and réed O maister dere and fadre reverent My maister Chaucer floure of Eloquence Mirror of fructuous entendement O universal fadre of science Alas that thou thine excellent prudence In thy bed mortal mightest not bequeath What eyld death alas why would she thée fie O death thou didst not harm tingler in slaughter of him But all the Land it smerteth But natheless yet hast thou no power his name sle Hâ—â— hie vertue asterteth Vnslain fro thee which ay us lifely herteth With Books of his ornat enditing That is to all this land enlumining John Lidgaete likewise in his Prologue of Bocchas of the fall of Princes by him translated saith thus in his commendation My Master Chaucer with his fresh comedies Is dead alas chief Poet of Brittain That Whilom made full pitteous Tragedies The faule also of Princes he did complain As he that was of making sovereign Whom all this Land should of right prefer Sith of our language he was the Loadsterr Also in his Book which he writeth of the Birth of the Virgin Mary he hath these verses And eke my Maister Chaucer now is in Grave The noble Rethore Poet of Britaine That worthy was the laurel to have Of Poetry and the Palm attaine That made first to distill and raine The Gold dew drops of speech and eloquence Into our Tongue through his eloquence And as for men of latter time Mr. Ascham and Mr. Spenser have delivered most worthy testimonies of their approving of him Mr. Ascham in one place calleth him English Homer and makes no doubt to say that he valueth his Authority of as high estimation as ever he did either Sophocles or Euripides in Greek And in another place where he declareth his opinion of English versifying he useth these words Chaucer and Petrark those two worthy wits deserve just praise And last of all in his discourse of Germany he putteth him nothing behinde either Thucidides or Homer for his lively descriptions of site of places and nature of persons both in outward shape of body and inward disposition of minde adding this withall that not the proudest that hath written in any Tongue whatsoever for his time have outstript him Mr. Spenser in his first Eglogue of his Shepards Kallender calleth him Tityrus the god of Shepards comparing him to the worthiness of the Roman Tityrus Virgil in his Faerie Queene in his Discourse of Friendship as thinking himself most worthy to be Chaucers friend for his like natural disposition that Chaucer had he writes that none that lived with him nor none that came after him durst presume to revive Chaucers lost Labours in that unperfect tale of the Squire but onely himself which he had not done had he not felt as he saith the infusion of Chaucers own sweet spirit surviving within him And a little before he calls him the most renowned and Heroicall Poet and his writings the works of heavenly wit concluding his commendation in this manner Dan Chaucer well of English undefiled On fames eternal Bead-roll worthy to be filed I follow here the footing of thy feet That with thy meaning so I may the rather meet Mr. Cambden reaching one hand to Mr. Ascham and the other to Mr. Spenser and so drawing them together uttereth of him these words De Homero nostro Anglico illud verè asseram quod de
hath this worthy Princes fame been blasted by malicious traducers who like Shakespear in his Play of him render him dreadfully black in his actions a monster of nature rather then a man of admirable parts whose slanders having been examined by wise and moderate men they have onely found malice and ignorance to have been his greatest accusers persons who can onely lay suspition to his charge and suspition in Law is no more guilt then imagination as the divine Father Chrysostom faith A good man hardly suspecteth another to be evill but an evill man scarcely supposeth any to be good King Richard had three great Favourites as Princes are seldome without some and those according to the constant custom of the World must be envied Catesby Ratcliffe and Lovel King Richards own Arms being the Bore upon which one Collingborne of the West fancied this Libel which in those times was received for excellent Wit The Cat the Rat and Lovel the Dog Rule all England under a Hog But leaving such trifles to return to King Richard Henry Earl of Richmond ambitious of Sovereignty envying his prosperity practises with forreign Princes and confederates with the English Nobles for Assistance and Forces against King Richard The chief abettor in England he had on his side was the Duke of Buckingham one who had formerly constantly adhered to King Richards side but being by him denyed the Earldome of Hereford and Constableship of England grew discontented took up Arms was defeated and afterwards by Marshall Law put to death Yet did not this break the neck of Henries design but having by his fair deportment gained Force from the Duke of Brittain and some other Princes envious of the prosperity of the House of York Richmond puts forth to Sea and lands at Milford-Haven in Wales after some refreshing he marches to a Town called Haverford-West where the people who flocked to him in great number welcomed him as a Prince descended from their ancient Princes of Wales the people generally being very noble and loving to their Brittish Kindred Hither came to him with great Forces the Earl of Salop Sir Rice ap Thomas Sir Walter Herbert Sir John Savage Sir Gilbert Talbot and many others His Army thus strong and united he passes the Severne and marches to Leichfield King Richard hearing of his arrivall prepareth against him but though he thought the Nobility generally cemented to his side yet found he a general defluxion from them to the other side the Earl of Surrey the Earl of Westmerland Viscount Lovel and John Duke of Norfolk being the principall that stuck to him which last was much importuned to have fallen off from him the night before the Battel one writing this Rime upon his Gate Jack of Norfolk be not too bold For Dicken thy master is bought and sold But he regarding more his fidelity then any danger that could befall him doubles his care and diligence on the behalf of his Sovereign The Earl of Northumberland who had received great favours from the King and who had in his Name raised vaste Forces being sent for by him refused to come pretending for his disobedience certain dreams wherein he was forewarned by his Father for to fight on King Richards side But the greatest defection was in the Lord Stanley who notwithstanding he had left his Sonne George Stanley as a Pledge of his faith with the King yet revolted to the other side King Richard notwithstanding all these disadvantages having encouraged his Army gives Richmond a Battle where valiantly fighting after he had with his own hands slain Sir Charls Brandon the Earls Standard-bearer and unhorsed Sir John Cheny and shewed himself a most Heroick Person being over-powered with multitude he was slain on the place With him died the Duke of Norfolk the Earl of Surrey was taken Prisoner and the whole Army quite defeated This Battle was fought at a Village called Bosworth near to Leicester The Victor was crowned in the Field by Sir VVilliam Stanley with King Richards Crown which he as a valiant and confident Master of his right had worn that day King Richards dead body after it was most barbarously mangled and wounded was thrown behinde one upon a lean Jade and so conveyed to Leicester where at last it obtained a bed of earth honourably appointed by the order of King Henry the Seventh in the chief Church of Leicester called Saint Maries belonging to the Order and Society of Grey Friers the King in short time after causing a fair Tomb of mingled colour'd Marble adorned with his Statue to be erected thereupon And notwithstanding the times were such when this great Prince lived that he had scarcely time to sheath his sword yet left he behinde him many Monuments of his Piety He founded a Collegiate Church of Priests in Middleham in Yorkshire another Colledge of Priests in London in Tower-street near to the Church called our Lady Barking he built a Church or Chappel in Towton in Glocestershire he founded a Colledge in York convenient for the entertainment of an hundred Priests he built the high stone Tower at Westminster and when he had repaired and fortified the Castle of Carlile he founded and built the Castle of Perrith in Cumberland He began many other good Works which his sudden fatt prevented as Polidor Virgil witnesseth which Works and Monuments of Piety shew not the Acts of a Tyrant I shall end all with this Eulogy which a learned Writer gives him King Richard was a stout valiant person ever indulgent to his People careful to have their Laws duly observed his making so many good ones if they signified not some goodness in himself were evident arguments of his more then ordinary love to Law and Justice The Life of THOMAS HOWARD Earl of SURREY THomas Howard Earl of Surrey in his time the Ornament of Mars and the Muses was Son to Sir John Howard Knight first made Barron by King Edward the Fourth and afterwards Duke of Norfolk by King Richard the Third in whose quarrel he was slain This noble Earl his Son having been well educated and afterwards trained up in Court his Martial minde hating those silken pleasures admired of Courtiers he with divers other young Gentlemen went over to Charles Duke of Burgundy who then had Wars with Lewis King of France in whose quarrel he behaved himself so gallantly that he won the honour and reputation of a most expert Commander At his return King Edward for his valour bestowed on him the Order of Knighthood to whose side he constantly adhered in that great difference betwixt him and the House of Lancaster That quarrel being ended by the overthrow of VVarwick he afterwards did excellent service in the Wars betwixt him and Lewis the French King King Edward being dead and the Crown by joynt consent both of Peers and People placed on King Richards head and after confirmed by Act of Parliament he with his Father the Duke of Norfolk held firm to his side notwithstanding the many
that he was his Crafts-master in forreign intelligence and for domestique affairs as he was one of those that sat at the sterne to the last of the Queen so was he none of the least in skill and in the true use of the Compass And so I shall onely vindicate the scandal of his death and conclude him for he departed in the moneth of May 1612. at Saint Margrets near Marlborough in his retun home from the Bathe as my Lord Viscount Cranborne my Lord Clifford his Son and Son-in-law and many more can witness But that the day before he swounded in the way was taken out of the Litter and laid into his Coach was a truth out of which that falshood concerning the manner of his death had its derivation though nothing to the purpose or to the prejudice of his worth He was from his greatest enemies acknowledged to be a compleat Statesman a support of the Protestant Faction a discloser of Treasons the Mercury of his time His body lies buried at Macfield He was famous for his buildings more especially that called Brittains Burse with this and other rare edifices to his extraordinary cost with which he adorned his Countrey The Life of Sir THOMAS OVERBURY A mans best Fortune or his worst's a Wife Yet I that knew nor Marriage Peace nor Strife Live by a good one by a bad one lost my life A Wife like her I write scarce man can wed Of a false Friend like mine there 's none hath read THis Witty but unfortunate Knight Sir Thomas Overbury was the son of Sir Nicholas Overbury of Burton in Glocestershire who to his natural propension of Ingenuity had the addition of good Education He having been a while Student of the Law in the Middle Temple soon after he cast Anchor at Court the then Haven of hope for all aspiring spirits Yet upon some discontent he descended from those lofty Pinacles and travelled into France where having been some time he returned again and was entertained into the respects of Sir Robert Carre one who was newly initiated a Favorite to King James who put him in trust with his most secret employments in which he behaved himself honestly and discreetly purchasing by his wise carriage in that place good affection and respect not onely from Sir Robert Carre but of other eminent Persons In process of time this favour procured profit profit indulged honour honour large employments and in him expert execution for where diligence and humility are associate in great affairs there favour is accompanied with both So that many Courtiers perceiving great hopes grew into familiarity with him the Knights expectations are performed and his businesses accomplished beyond his expectation to his wishes so that his diligence and parts gained him extraordinary resentments from the Viscount to his uniting him into friendship with himself insomuch that to the shew of all the world this bond was indissolvable neither could there be more friendship used since there was nothing so secret or private but the Knight imparted it to Master Overbury After some continuance of time Sir Robert Carre is made Viscount and Master Overbury had the honour of Knighthood conferred on him who grew still more and more into the affections of the people so that now his worth and his wealth were so much taken notice of that he was likely to taper at Court These Eminencies as they are not unvaluable so in their spectatours they raise scruples and cause doubts especially in the Viscount for Sovereignty and Love can abide no Rivals And indeed what State on earth is so firm that is not changeable or what friendship so constant that is not dissolvable Who would imagine this Viscount should become instrumental to his death who had done him so faithful service and to whom he had embosomed his most secret thoughts We shall therefore in the next place lay down the grounds of this revolt of friendship on the Viscounts part for we finde no breach in Sir Thomas but that rather his constant affection and free delivery of his opinion scorning to temporize occasioned his death There had lately past a Divorce betwixt the Earl of Essex and the Lady Frances Howard so that she being now free a motion of Marriage was propounded betwixt Viscount Carre and this Lady Sir Thomas Overbury who had written a witty Poem entituled The Wife thinking her not agreeable to his intentions of Matrimony disswaded the Viscount from it with words reflecting much on the Countesses reputation This counsel though it proceeded from an unfeigned love in Sir Thomas yet where beauty commands all discretion being sequestred created in the Viscount a hatred towards him and in the Countess the fury of a woman a desire of revenge who perswaded the Viscount That it was not possible that ever she should endure those injuries or hope for any prosperity so long as he lived That she wondred how he could be so familiar so much affected to this man Overbury that without him he could do nothing as it were making him his right hand seeing he being newly grown into the Kings favor and depending wholly upon his greatness must expect to be clouded if not ruined when his servant that knew his secrets should come to preferment The Viscount apt enough of his own inclination to revenge further exasperated by the Countesse resolves upon his death and soon he found an occasion to act it The Councel finding Overburies diligence and sufficiency nominates him as a fit man to be Ambassadour into the Low Countreys to the Arch Duke as thinking they could not serve him up to preferments worthy of his deserts Before he had given in his answer the Viscount comes to him acting his fatal part against Sir Thomas disswades him from undertaking it using this argument That his preferment and expectations depended not on Forreign Nations You are now said he in credit at home and have already made triall of the dangers of travel why then should you hazard all upon uncertainties being already in possession of that you can probably expect by these means Overbury not doubting the Viscounts fidelity towards him was perswaded by him forgetting the counsel of the Poet. Ne cuiquam crede haud credere quisquam Nam fronte politi Astutam vapido celant sub pectore vulpem Believe thou not scarce any man For oft a Phrygian face Is smoothly covered with a smile Within seeks thy disgrace King James deeply incensed with the refusal of his tendred honours for his contempt commits him to the Tower the Viscount aggravated his offence to the King but privately promised Sir Thomas by his intimacy with the King to bring him off from any troubles that might arise but whatsoever he pretended he practised the contrary And now having him in the place they desired their next study to secure their revenge was closely to make him away which they concluded to be by poyson To this end they consult with one Mrs. Turner the first inventor of
is man to expostulate the Intents Of his high Will or judge of strange Events The rising Sun to mortal sight reveals This earthly Globe but yet the stars conceals So may the sense discover Natural things Divine above the reach of humane wings Then not the Fate but Fates bad instrument Do I accuse in each sad accident Good men must fall rapes incests murthers come But woe and curses follow them by whom God Authors all mens actions not their sin For that proceeds from dev'lish lust within Thou then that suffer'dst by those forms so vile From whom those wicked Instruments did file Thy drossy part to make thy fame shine clear And shrine thy soul in Heavens all glorious Sphere Who being good nought less to thee befell Though it appear'd disguis'd i' th shape of Hell Vanish thy bloud and nerves true life alone In Vertue lives and true Religion In both which thou art deadless O behold If thou canst look so low as earths base mold How dreadful Justice late with lingring foot Now comes like whirlewind how it shakes the root Of lofty Cedars make the stately Brow Bend to the foot how all men see that now The breath of Infamy doth move their sails Whiles thy dear name by loves more hearty gales Shall still keep wing until thy Fames extent Fill ev'ry part of this vast Continent Then you the Syre of their murther'd Son Repine not at his fate since he hath won More honour in his sufferance and his death Succeeded by his vertues endless breath For him and to his Life and deaths example Love might erect a Statue Zeal a Temple On his true worth the Muses might be slain To die his honours web in purest Grain Though for his worth the Muses were all slain His honour'd Works would raise them up again An Elegy upon the untimely Death of Sir Thomas Overbury poisoned in the Tower 'T Would ease our sorrow 't would release our tears Could we but hear those high Celestial Spheres Once tune their motions to a doleful strain In sympathy of what we Mortalls plain Or see their fair Intelligences change Or face or habit when black deeds so strange As might force pitty from the heart of Hell Are hatcht by Monsters which among us dwell The Stars methinks like men inclin'd to sleep Should through their Chrystal Casements scarcely peep Or at least view us but with half an eye For fear their chaster Influence might descry Some murthering hand embrew'd in guiltless blood Blending vile juices to destroy the good The Sun should wed his beams to endless Night And in dull darkness canopy his Light When from the rank stews of adultrous Breasts Where every base unhallowed project rests Is belcht as in defiance of his shine A stream might make even Death it self to pine But those things happen still but ne're more clear Nor with more lustre did these Lamps appear Mercury capers with a winged heel As if he did no touch of sorrow feel And yet he sees a true Mercurian kill'd Whose birth his Mansion with much honour fill'd But let me not mistake those pow'rs above Nor tax injuriously those Courts of Jove Surely they joy to see these Acts reveal'd Which in blinde silence have been long conceal'd And Vertue now triumphant whilest we mourn To think that e're she was foul Vices scorn Or that poor Overburies blood was made A Sacrifice to malice and dark shade Weston thy hand that Couvre-feu Bell did sway Which did his life to endless sleep convay But rest thou where thou art I le seek no glory By the relation of so sad a story If any more were privy to the deed And for the crime should be adjudg'd to bleed To Heaven I pray with rear'd up hands and eyes That as their bodies fall their souls may rise And as those equally turn to one dust So these alike may shine among the just And there make up one glorious constellation Who suffered here in such a differing fashion The Life of Sir VVALTER RALEIGH SIR Walter Rawleigh the Learned Apollo and Oracle of our Nation was one that it seems Fortune had pickt out of purpose to make an example of her mutability or tennis-ball thereby to shew what she could do for she tost him up of nothing and too and fro to greatness and from thence down to little more then to that wherein she found him a mean Gentleman not that he was less for he was well descended and of good Alliance but poor in his beginnings And for my Lord of Oxfords Jeast of him the Jack and an upstart we all know it savours more of emulation and his humour then of truth and it is a certain note of the times that Queen Elizabeth in her choice never took into her favour a meer new man or a Mechanick as Comines observes of Lewis the Eleventh of France who did serve himself with persons of unknown parents such as was Oliver the Barber whom he created Earl of Dunoyes and made him ex secretis consiliis and alone in his favour and familiarity His approaches to the University and Inns of Court were the grounds of his improvement but they were rather excursions then sieges or settings down for he stayed not long in a place and being the youngest brother and the house diminished in patrimony he foresaw his own destiny that he was first to rowl thorow want and disability to subsist other wayes before he could come to a repose and as the stone doth by long lying gather moss he first exposed himself to the Land Service in Ireland a Militia which then did not yield him food and rayment for it was ever very poor nor had he patience to stay there though shortly after he came thither again under the command of the Lord Grey but with his own colours flying in the field having in the interim cast a new chance both in the Low Countries and in a voyage to Sea And if ever man drew vertue out of necessity it was he therewith was he the great example of industery and though he might then have taken that of the merchant to himself per mare per terras currit mercator ad Indos he might also have said and truly with the Philosopher Omnia mea mecum porto for it was a long time before he could brag of more then he carried at his back and when he got on the winning side it was his commedations that he took the pains for it and underwent many various adventures for his after perfection And before he came into the publique note of the world and that it may appear how he came up per ardua per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum not pulled up by chance or by any gentle admittance of Fortune I will briefly describe his native parts and those of his own acquiring which was the hopes of his rising He had in the outward man a good presence in a handsome and well compacted person a strong
for the fafety of my life I am forced to print an Apology and because you are named in it I judge it but man-like to send you a Copy of it And if I had not been travelling last post-day I had sent to you then And I have also by this post sent to a friend three sheets of paper in writing to communicate to your Lordship The which if you please to read them you will finde that you are deeply concerned in them I have no more to say to your Honour but to desire God for you if it be his pleasure to make you speedily as righteous in actions as you were some years ago in declarations and to take leave to say I am yet as much honest John Lilburne as ever I was in my life that neither loves flattery nor fears greatness or threatnings His Wife also sollicites the General for a pass which though not granted yet over he comes so confident he was that at Canterbury in his way to London he presently begins to boast of his own interest in England saying He had no need of a pass being as good a man as Cromwel and that he did not fear what he could do unto him Yet notwithstanding his monstrous confidence he was committed to prison and by order of Parliament tryed for his life at the Sessions House in the Old-Bailey August the 20. 1653. where he pleaded that the Act whereupon he was Indicted was a lie a falshood that it had no Law nor Reason in it That the Parliament could not make any Act of Parliament since the Kings head was cut off that by the same Law they voted him to death they might vote his honest twelve Jury men calling Jehovah to witness and protesting before God Angels and Men that he was not the John Lilburne intended in the Act whereupon this Jury following the example of the former satisfied with his answers and not questioning the validity of the Act found him not guilty Thus you see what endeavours were used to rid the Nation of him by tryals banishment and what not though in vain when as many a more heroick spirit and gallant heart far transcending him in birth and parts have fallen by the Sword of Justice in the twinkling of an eye truth it is he was a man of a restless and invincible spirit that could never be deterred with threats nor won with favours though as it is reported 3000. pounds was given out of the sale of Theobalds as a sop to stop his mouth he was questionless of a most implacable spirit working and restless as the Sea not to be appeased but with the blood of his adversaries nor can I deny but some of those things he aimed at were honest and useful for the people but he steered not the right course to attain those ends It may be admired at by some how such an illiterate person as Lilburne one whose breeding promised him more skill in his last trade of Sope then in Cook or to have had better judgement in rusticity in a Plow then in Plowden who from this low rise mounted no higher then to inferiour employments until in the late Wars he somewhat advantaged and preferred himself by his Sword I say it may seem strange to some how this person thus qualified should come to have so much knowledge and understanding in the Law for answer to which it is to be understood that Mr. Lilburne had formerly turned over some Statute Books in which he had made a small progress and that afterwards at such time as he was committed in the Tower there remained a prisoner there though for a different Cause that heart of Oak and a pillar of the Law Judge Jenkins who finding Lilburne of an accute Wit and one who dared to speak what some pusilanimous spirits were afraid to entrust their thoughts with he selected him as fit person to bandy against the present Government and by weakening their power to advance his Masters interest hereupon he helps him with tools wherewith to let up his trade so that in short space Magna Charta and Cooks Institutions were made his familiars by which means he quickly grew so cunning a gamester that like unto a cat throw him never so high he would be sure to pitch upon his feet Thus the old Judge and another reverend Divine in his learned volume of prophecying publisht to hook in the Independant party so strangely mistook themselves as that they could not have done their own cause a greater mischief But the Squib is now almost run to the end of the Rope we shall in the last place present our Proteus in the shape of a Quaker the person that converted him was a single-hearted Shoe-maker as he terms him in his Letter to his Wife which he writ to her from Dover Castle whither he was committed by the Parliament part whereof for your further satisfaction I have transcribed though curtail'd you have Mr. Johns own words to his Wife It is not much material what part of it I begin with such Quaking Cantings being to be read backwards like the Hebrew The contents follow And so in much mercy and endeared loving kindness as God did in my great straits in the Bishops time provide and send unto me a poor despised yet understanding Priscilla to instruct me in or expound unto me his wayes more fully and perfectly whom I am compelled now to tell thee I shall love and respect therefore the longest day I live upon the earth let her continue by whomsoever to be judged never so rigid or contemptible so here at this place he hath also provided for me an Aquila being a contemptible yet understanding spiritually knowing and single-hearted Shoe-maker to do the same now to my spiritual and no small advantage refreshment and benefit by means of all which I am at present become dead to my former bustling actings in the world and now stand ready with the devout Centurion spoken of Acts 10. To hear and obey all things that the lively voice of God speaking in my soul shall require of me upon the further manifestation of whose glorious presence my heart with a watching fear and care desires to wait and to walk faithfully and tenderly and humbly in that measure of light already received c. In another place he thus insinuates with his Wife to gain her to his opinion And now my dear love for whom my soul travels with God for thy eternal good with the same sincere heartedness as for my own hoping that thy late out-fall and mine was but for a set season that so as Divine Paul in another sense speaks Philem. 15. thy reconciliation and mine again might now remain firme in love for ever And a little after I therefore earnestly entreat thee not to cumber thy self in thy many turmoylings and journeyings for my outward liberty but sit down a little and behold the great salvation of the Lord. Subscribing his Letter thus Thine in the strength of
renewedness of true love John Lilburne From Dover Castle the place of the present injoyed delightful dispensations of the eternal everlasting love of God unto my soul the 4th day of the 10th moneth 1655. Tempora Mutantur Thus the Protector first made him tremble and the single-soul'd Shoe maker afterwards made him quake and now he resolves never hereafter to be an user of a temporal Sword more nor a Joyner with those that so do And accordingly he made good his resolutions living in his strict way of opinion to the day of his death which happened not long after whilest he remained a prisoner in Dover Castle His body was seized upon by the Quakers and conveyed from thence to London and at the Bull and Mouth in Saint Martins their meeting-place was put into a plain Coffin without any covering and from thence with his head forwards that his burying might be as preposterous as his actions carryed through Moor Fields where formerly he had received a hurt on his eye to the new Church-yard in Bedlam where it was put into the earth that as his turbulent life came near to madness so the place of his burial was near to the distracted crew I shall conclude this relation of our Wonderful Impetuous Magna Charta Petition of Right Lieu. Collonel John with these merry verses which a choice Wit bestowed on him Vntimely cause so late and late because To save much mifchief it no sooner was Is John departed and is Lilburne gone Farewel to both to Lilburne and to John Yet being dead take this advice from me Let them not both in one Grave buried be Lay John here lay Lilburne there about For if they both should meet they would fall out There are many Anagrams upon him but being they are too abusive remembring the old Saw de mortuis nil nisi bonum though to John Lilburne himself I thought in more civil to omit them The Life of OLIVER CROMWEL late Lord Protector THe sweet-lipt Poet Ovid sings of Icarus and of a Phaeton that would ride in the Chariot of the Sun to whom his displeased father gave this advice Non est tua tuta voluntas Magna petis Phaeton quae non viribus istis Munera conveniunt nec tam puerilibus annis Plus etiam quam superis contingere fas est Which the incomparable Translatour Mr. Sandyes renders thus What 's so desir'd by thee Can neither with thy strength nor youth agree Too great intentions set thy thoughts on fire Thou Mortal dost no mortal thing desire Through ignorance affecting more then they Can undertake that should Olympus sway In our Modern Histories we read of some men otherwise Wall-flowers for their growth that have had the luck to be strangely active in Political Affairs such as have boldly adventured to cut down all trees of State that have hindred their own prospect taking the Reins of the horses of the Sun into their own hands which in their managements of they have either been too slack or else pulling them too hard in by over-winding the strings of Authority have rendred themselves unfortunate slowly perceiving the errours of their ambitions till at last too late they were forced to pluck down those stairs by which they intended to ascend to their own greatness so dangerous is an unlimitted power a sail too great for a vessel of Mortality to bear though it were never so well ballasted with Justice Moderation and Piety It shall be my enterprise void of all partiality neither inclining to the right hand or left scorning so much as to reflect on the flatteries much less as they are under my feet to take up any of the dispersed Libels the one party by their adulations as the Papists and Puritans did Mary Queen of Scotland making him to be more then a Saint the other desperately malicious as we have taken it up on Tradition from some Writers rendering him to posterity more deformed then Richard the Third it shall be my care to wave these petty factions the flies that guilded themselves in his sun-shine as also those other mice which whilest this Martial Lion seemed to them to sleep yet without their large distance they dursts not approach him I am resolved though in this Epitome to search the Cabulla of our late Affairs to keep close to the unbyassed truth though I shall be forced to take up that old unavoidable excuse Bernardus non vidit omnia He was born at Huntington descended of the ancient Family of the Williams's of the County of Glamorgan and by adoption into that of the Cromwels the more noble Family as descended of Thomas Cromwel Earl of Essex the axe that hew'd down the Abbeys in the time of King Henry the Eighth His education in his youth was for a time at the University of Cambridge where though he attained to no great perfection in learning yet with his other additionals the Foxes tail with the Lions skin his strength of reason with the sharp edge of his sword stood him in great stead in his after Transactions and which together with his indefatigable industry rendred him so fortunate that he never fell short of what he undertook After his return from the University without any extraordinary respects from the Muses whose unkindeness he afterwards most severely retaliated he resolved for the future upon the first advantage to try the fortune of Mars but long it was ere the blinde goddess provided him any action during which time he married a Gentlewoman of the ancient Family of the Bourchiers whence the Earls of Essex were descended by whom he had two sons which survived him Richard and Henry and three daughters Bridget Mary and Frances For his private fortunes they were competent a mediocrity betwixt riches and poverty the one blunting the edge of wit and industry the other by its hardship whetting it quite away But what was wanting in his Estate was supplied in the greatness of his minde which put him upon high attempts which proved so successful that at last they placed him at the Helm of Government He took his first rise from the long Parliament whereof he was a Member being chosen Burgess for the University of Cambridge in this Parliament that fire burst forth which had been long before in kindling that fatal division betwixt King and Parliament with which last he wholly sided what motives induced him thereunto I know not nor will I determine of the integrity of his choice this I am sure of he took the more fortunate or by his man-hood made it so When he delivered his minde in the House it was with a strong and masculine eloquence more able to perswade then to be perswaded his expressions were hardy opinions resolute asseverations grave and vehement alwayes intermixt Andronicus-like with Sentences of Scripture to give them the greater weight and the better to insinuate into the affections of the people he expressed himself with some kinde of passion but with such a
live or dye and the time when Recovery or Death is to be expected according to the judgement of Hypocrates and Hermes Trismegistus to which is added Mr. Culpepers censure of Urines 54. Culpeper's last Legacy left to his Wife for the publick good being the choicest and most profitable of those secrets in Physick and Chyrurgery which whilest he lived were lockt up in his brest and resolved never to be published till after his death 55. The Yorkshire Spaw or the vertue and use of that Water in curing of desperate Diseases with directions and Rules necessary to be considered by all that repair thither 56. Most approved Medicines and Remedies for the diseases in the body of man by A. Read Doctour in Physick 57. The Art of simpling an Introduction to the knowledge of gathering of Plants wherein the definitions divisions places descriptions differences names vertues times of gathering temperatures of them are compendiously discoursed of also a discovery of the lesser World by W. Coles 58. Adam in Eden or Natures Paradise the History of Plants Hearbs and Flowers with their several originall names the places where they grow their descriptions and kindes their times of flourishing and decreasing as also their several signatures anatomical appropriations and particular physical vertues with necessary Observations on the Seasons of planting and gathering of our English Plants A Work admirable useful for Apothecaries Chyrurgeons and other Ingenuous Persons who may in this Herbal finde comprized all the English Physical Simples that Gerard or Parkinson in their two voluminous Herbals have discoursed of even so as to be on emergent occasions their own Physicians the Ingredients being to be had in their own Fields and Gardens Published for the general good by W. Coles M. D. 59. The Compleat Midwives Practice in the high and weighty concernments of the body of Mankinde the second Edition corrected and enlarged with a full supply of such most useful and admirable secrets which Master Nicholas Culpeper in his brief Treatise and other English Writers in the Art of Midwifry have hitherto wilfully passed by kept close to themselves or wholly omitted by T. Chamberlaine M. P. illustrated with Copper Figures 60. The Queens Closet opened incomparable Secrets in Physick Chyrurgery Preserving Candying and Cookery as they were presented to the Queen by the most experienced persons of our times many whereof were honoured with her own practice Elegant Treatises in Humanity History Romances and Poetry 61. Times Treasury or Academy for the accomplishment of the English Gentry in Arguments of Discourse Habit Fashion Behaviour c. all summed up in Characters of Honour by R. Brathwait Esq 62. Oedipus or the Resolver of the Secrets of Love and other natural Problems by way of Question and Answer 63. The admirable and most impartial History of New England of the first Plantation there in the Year 1628. brought down to these times all the material passages performed there exactly related 64. The tears of the Indians the History of the bloody and most cruel proceedings of the Spaniards in the Island of Hispaniola Cuba Jamaica Mexico Peru and other places of the West-Indies in which to the life are discovered the tyrannies of the Spaniards as also the justness of our War so successfully managed against them 65. The Illustrious Shepherdess The Imperious Brother written originally in Spanish by that Incomparable Wit Don John Perez de Montalbans translated at the requests of the Marchioness of Dorchester and the Countess of Stafford by E. P. 66. The History of the golden Ass as also the Loves of Cupid and his Mistress Psiche by L. Apuleius translated into English 67. The Unfortunate Mother a Tragedy by T. N. 68. The Rebellion a Comedy by T. Rawlins 69. The Tragedy of Messalina the insatiate Roman Empress by N. Richards 70. The Floating Island a Trage-Comedy acted before the King by the Students of Christs Church in Oxon by that Renowned Wit W. Strode the songs were set by Mr. Henry Lawes 71. Harvey's Divine Poems the History of Balaam of Jonah and of St. John the Evangelist 72. Fons Lachrymarum or a Fountain of tears the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah in Verse with an Elegy on Sir Charles Lucas by J Quarles 73. Nocturnal Lucubrations with other witty Epigrams and Epitaphs by R. Chamberlain 74. The Admirable ingenuous Satyr against Hipocrites Poetical with several other accurately ingenuous Treatises lately Printed 75. Wits Interpreter the English Parnassus or a sure Guide to those admirable Accomplishments that compleat the English Gentry in the most acceptable Qualifications of Discourse or Writing An Art of Logick accurate Complements Fancies Devices and Experiments Poems Poetical Fictions and A la mode Letters by J. C. 76. Wit and Drollery with other Jovial Poems by Sir J. M. M. L. M. S. W. D. 77. Sportive Wit the Muses Merriment a new Spring of Drollery Jovial Fancies c. 78. The Conveyancer of Light or the Compleat Clerk and Scriveners Guide being an exact draught of all Presidents and Assurances now in use as they were penned and perfected by diverse Learned Judges Eminent Lawyers and great Coveyancers both Ancient and Modern whereunto is added a Concordance from King Richard the Third to this present 79. Themis Aurea The Laws of the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross in which the occult Secrets of their Philosophical Notions are brought to light written by Count Mayerus and now Englisht by T. H. 80. The Iron Rod put into the Lord Protectors hand a Prophetical Treatise 81. Medicina Magica tamen Physica Magical but Natural Physick containing the general Cures of Infirmities and Diseases belonging to the Bodies of Men as also to other animals and domestick Creatures by way of Transplantation with a Description of the most excellent Cordial out of Gold by Sam. Boulton of Salop. 82. J. Tradiscan's Rarities publisht by himself 83. The Proceedings of the High Court of Justice against the late King Charles with his Speech upon the Scaffold and other proceedings Jan. 30. 1648. 84. The perfect Cook a right Method in the Art of Cookery whether for Pastry or all other manner of Al a Mode Kick-shaws with the most refined wayes of dressing flesh fowl or making of the most poinant Sawces whether after the French or English manner with fifty five wayes of dressing of Eggs by M. M. Admirable Vseful Treatises newly Printed 85. The Expert Doctors Dispensatory the whole Art of Physick restored to practice the Apothecaries shop and Chyrurgions Closet opened with a Survey as also a correction of most Dispensatories now extant with a Judicious Censure of their defects and a supply of what they are deficient in together with a learned account of the vertues and quantities and uses of Simples and Compounds with the Symptomes of Diseases as also prescriptions for their several cures by that renowned P. Morellus Physician to the King of France a Work for the order usefulness and plainness of the Method not to be parallel'd by any