and support them in it together with the former recited particulars howsoever improperly dispersed or bundled up together yet are in their natures of so rare a wisdome as I beleeve they will still be more and more admired and justly in that excellent Princesse even many Ages after her death Thus have I by the Readers patience given that Aegyptian and Roman Tragedy a much more honourable sepulture then it could ever have deserved especially in making their memories to attend upon my Soveraignes herse without any other hope of being then to wait upon her life and death as their Maker did who hath ever since been dying to all those glories of Life which he formerly enjoyed under the blessed and blessing presence of this unmatchable Queen and woman Now if any man shall demand why I did not rather leave unto the world a complete history of her Life then this short memoriall in such scatter'd and undisgested minutes let him receive this answer from a dead man because I am confident no flesh breathing by seeing what is done shall have occasion of asking that question whilest I am living Presently after the death of my most gracious Queen and Mistress the false spirits and apparitions of idle griefe haunted me exceedingly and made all things seeme either greater or lesse then they were so that the farther I went the more discomfortable I found those new resolutions of time to my decayed and disproportioned abilities yet fearing to be cursed with the Figg-tree if I bore no fruit I rouzed up my thoughts upon an ancient axiome of Wise men Si quicquid offendit relinquimus citò inerti otio torpebit vita and upon a second review of the world called to mind the many duties I ought to that matchlesse Soveraigne of mine with a resolution to write her life in this manner First seriously to have begun with the uniting of the Red and White Roses in the marriage of Hen the seventh In the like manner to have run over Henry the eighths time untill his severall rents in the Church with a purpose to have demurr'd more seriously upon the sudden change in his Sonne Edward the sixth from superstition to the establishment of Gods Ancient Catholique and Primitive Church those cobwebs of re-conversion in Queen Maryes dayes I had no intent to meddle with but only by pre-occupation to shew that Princes captived in Nature can seldome keep any thing free in their Governments but as soyles manured to bring forth ill weeds apace must live to see Schisme arise in the Church wearing out the reall branches of immortall truth to weave in the thin leaves of mortall superstition and to behold in the State all their fairest industries spring and fade together like Ferne-seed Lastly I intended with such spirits as Age had left me to revive my self in her memory under whom I was bred Now in this course because I knew that as the liberality of Kings did help to cover many errours so truth in a story would make good many other defects in the writer I adventured to move the Secretary that I might have his favour to peruse all obsolete Records of the Councell chest from those times downe as near to these as he in his wisdome should think fit hee first friendly required my end in it which I as freely delivered him as I have now done to you Against her memory he of all men had no reason to keep a strict hand and where to bestow a Queen Elizabeths servant with lesse disadvantage to himselfe it seems readily appeared not so that my abrupt motion tooke hold of his present Counsell For he liberally granted my request and appointed me that day three weeks to come for his warrant which I did and then found in shew a more familiar and gracefull aspect then before he descending to question me why I would dreame out my time in writing a story being as like to rise in this time as any man he knew Then in a more serious and friendly manner examining me how I could cleerly deliver many things done in that time which might perchance be construed to the prejudice of this I shortly made answer that I conceived an Historian was bound to tell nothing but the truth but to tell all truths were both justly to wrong and offend not only Princes and States but to blemish and stir up against himselfe the frailty and tendernesse not only of particular men but of many Families with the spirit of an Athenian Timon And therefore shewed my selfe so far from being discouraged with that objection as I took upon me freely to adventure all my own goods in this Ship which was to be of my owne building Immediately this Noble Secretary as it seems moved but not removed with those selfenesse of my opinion seriously assured me that upon second thoughts he durst not presume to let the Councell-chest lie open to any man living without his Majesties knowledge and approbation With this supersedeas I humbly took my leave at the first sight assuring my selfe this last project of his would necessarily require sheet after sheet to be viewed which I had no confidence in my own powers to abide the hazard of and herein it may please the Reader to beleeve me the rather by these Pamphlets which having slept out my own time if they happen to be seene hereafter shall at their own perill rise upon the stage when I am not Besides in the same proposition I further saw that the many Judgements which those Embryoes of mine must probably have past through would have brought forth such a world of alterations as in the end the worke it selfe would have proved a story of other mens writing wity my name only to put to it and so a worship of time not a voluntary homage of duty Farther I cannot justifie these little sparkes unworthy of her and unfit for me so that I must conclude with this ingenuous Confession that it grieves me to know I shall as far as this abrupt Apology extends live and dye upon equall tearmes with a Queene and Creature so many waies unequall nay infinitely superiour to me both in Nature and Fortune CAP. XVIII NOw to return to the Tragedies remaining my purpose in them was not with the Ancient to exemplifie the disastrous miseries of mans life where Order Lawes Doctrine and Authority are unable to protect Innocency from the exorbitant wickednesse of power and so out of that melancholike Vision stir horrour or murmur against Divine Providence nor yet with the Moderne to point out Gods revenging aspect upon every particular sin to the despaire or confusion of mortality but rather to trace out the high waies of ambitious Governours and to shew in the practice that the more audacity advantage and good successe such Soveraignties have the more they hasten to their owne desolation and ruine So that to this abstract end finding all little instruments in discovery of great bodies to be seldome without errours I
knew him from a child yet I never knew him other than a man with such staiednesse of mind lovely and familiar gravity as carried grace and reverence above greater years His talk ever of knowledge and his very play tending to enrich his mind So as even his teachers found something in him to observe and learn above that which they had usually read or taught Which eminence by nature and industry made his worthy Father stile Sir Philip in my hearing though I unseen Lumen familiae suae But why doe I mention this relative harmony of worth between Father and Son Did not his Country soon after take knowledge of him as a Light or leading Star to every degree within her Are not the Arts and Languages which enabled him to Travail at fourteen years old and in his Travail to win reverence amongst the chief Learned men abroad Witnesses beyond exception that there was great inequality of worth and goodnesse in him Instance that reverend Languet mentioned for honours sake in Sir Philip's Arcadia learned usque ad miraculum wise by the conjunction of practice in the world with that well-grounded Theory of Books much valued at home till this great Worth even in a Gentlemans fortune being discovered for a dangerous instrument against Rome and Spain by some sparkles got light enough rather to seek employment elswhere than to tarry and be driven out of his own Country with disparagement In Franckford he settles is entertained Agent for the Duke of Saxony and an under-hand Minister for his own King Lodged he was in Wechels house the Printer of Franckford where Sir Philip in travail chancing likewise to become a guest this ingenious old mans fulnesse of knowledge travailing as much to be delivered from abundance by teaching as Sir Philip's rich nature and industry thirsted to be taught and manured this harmony of an humble Hearer to an excellent Teacher so equally fitted them both as out of a naturall descent both in love and plenty the elder grew taken with a net of his own thread and the younger taught to lift up himself by a thread of the same spinning so as this reverend Languet orderly sequestred from his severall Functions under a mighty King and Saxonie the greatest Prince of Germany became a Nurse of knowledge to this hopefull young Gentleman and without any other hire or motive than this sympathy of affections accompanyed him in the whole course of his three years travail By which example the judicious Reader may see that Worth in every Nation finds her Country Parents Neighbours and Friends yea and often with more honour dearnesse and advancement in knowledges than any pedigree of fleshly kindred will or can at home raise or enlarge them unto Nay to goe yet farther in this private instance It may please the Reader to observe how the same parallel of worth in what age or estate soever as it hath power to win so hath it likewise absolute power to keep Far unlike those creations of chance which hath other birds egges and by advancing men out of chance or complement lose them again as fast by neglect Contrary to which even when diversity of years courses of life and fortunes enforced these dear Friends to divide there yet passed such a continuall course of intelligence by Letters from one of them to another as in their losse if they be lost there be buried many delicate images and differences between the reall and large complexions of those active times and the narrow salves of this effeminate age Because in this excellent mould of their friendship the greatest businesses of Estate were so mixed with the sweet remissions of ingenuous good will as men might easily discern in them as unflattering glasses that wisdome and love in good spirits have great affinity together For a farther demonstration behold even the same Languet after he was sixty six years of age fashioning himself a journey into England with the Duke Casimire onely to see that excellent Plant of his own polishing In which loving and unexpected meeting I dare confidently affirm neither side became loser At the sea they parted and made many mutuall tears omnious propheciers of their never meeting again These little sparks of two large natures I make bold the longer to insist upon because the youth life and fortune of this Gentleman were indeed but sparkes of extraordinary greatnesse in him which for want of clear vent lay concealed and in a maner smothered up And again to bring the children of favor and change into an equall ballance of comparison with birth worth and education and therein abruptly to conclude that God creates those in his certain and eternall mouldes out of which he elects for himself where Kings choose creatures out of Pandoras Tun and so raise up worth and no worth friends or enemies at adventure Therefore what marvail can it be if these Iacobs and Esaus strive ambitiously one with another as well before as after they come out of such erring and unperfect wombes Now from these particular testimonies to goe on with Sir Philips life though he purposed no monuments of books to the world out of this great harvest of knowledge yet doe not his Arcadian Romanties live after him admired by our foureeyd Criticks who howsoever their common end upon common arts be to affect reputation by depraving censure yet where nature placeth excellencie above envy there it seemeth she subjecteth these carping eyes to wander and shewes the judicious reader how he may be nourished in the delicacy of his own judgement For instance may not the most refined spirits in the scope of these dead images even as they are now finde that when Soveraign Princes to play with their own visions will put off publique action which is the splendor of Majestie and unactively charge the managing of their greatest affaires upon the second-hand faith and diligence of Deputies may they not I say understand that even then they bury themselves and their Estates in a cloud of contempt and under it both encourage and shaddow the the conspiracies of ambitious subalternes to their false endes I mean the ruine of States and Princes Again where Kingly Parents will suffer or rather force their wives and daughters to descend from the inequality and reservednesse of Princely education into the contemptible familiarity and popular freedome of Shepherds may we not discern that even therein they give those Royall birthes warrant or opportunity to break over all circles of honor safe-guards to the modesty of that sex and withall make them fraily apt to change the commanding manners of Princely Birth into the degrading images of servile basenesse Lastly where humor takes away this pomp and apparatus from King Crown and Scepter to make fear a Counsellor and obscurity a wisdom be that King at home what the current or credit of his former Government for a a while may keep him yet he is sure among forrain Princes to be justly censured as a
THE LIFE Of the Renowned Sr PHILIP SIDNEY WITH The true Interest of England as it then stood in relation to all Forrain Princes And particularly for suppressing the power of Spain Stated by Him His principall Actions Counsels Designes and Death Together with a short Account of the Maximes and Policies used by Queen Elizabeth in her Government Written by Sir FULKE GREVIL Knight Lord BROOK a Servant to Queen Elizabeth and his Companion Friend LONDON Printed for Henry Seile over against St Dunstans Church in Fleet-street MDCLII Most humbly To the Right Honorable THE COUNTESSE OF SVNDERLAND Since Madam BOth your Bloud and Vertues do so strongly Intitle you to this well-limb'd Piece it would be a stain upon the Publisher to enshrine it to any other Name but yours Who can protect the story of a Sidney but a Sidney's Name Thus his Matchless Poem seem'd providentially by him impatronag'd unto his Peerless Sister And this Madam being another of his meaner Monuments disdains Address to any other Alliance but his own Here at your feet by no despicable Pen the History of our Nations Wonder lies Whose large spread Fame your noble Meene improves and convinces the World of this Truth That not only the Endowments of Nature but even the Enoblements of the Mind and Genius are many times inherent in the Bloud and Linage Some Families are privileg'd from Heaven in Excellencies which now and then in particular Branches like new Stars appear and beautifie the sphere they shine in And doubtless if the departed into Happiness have any knowledge of our humane Vicissitudes his gallant Soul looks down with Contentment to see the Honour of his House continued in your unblemisht Merit Which taking all may excuse the presumption that I can be charged with who not pretending to the Authorage have thought I could not doe more right either to him or the subject of the discourse than to inscribe it to Her who like day in this Ecclipse of Honour enlightning our Western Orb hath ambition'd me to make this offering from Madam The meanest of your most obedient Servants P. B. THE Life of the Renowned Sr PHILIP SIDNEY CHAP. I. THe difference which I have found between times and consequently the changes of life into which their naturall vicissitudes doe violently carry men as they have made deep furrowes of impressions into my heart so the same heavy wheeles cause me to retire my thoughts from free traffique with the world and rather seek comfortable ease or imployment in the safe memory of dead men than disquiet in a doubtfull conversation amongst the living Which I ingenuously confesse to be one chief motive of dedicating these exercises of my youth to that Worthy Sir Philip Sidney so long since departed For had I grounded my ends upon active Wisedomes of the present or sought Patronage out of hope or fear in the future Who knowes not that there are some Noble friends of mine and many Honourable Magistrates yet living unto whom both my Fortune and Reputation were and are far more subject But besides this self-respect of Dedication the debt I acknowledge to that Gentleman is farre greater as with whom I shall ever account it honour to have been brought up and in whom the life it self of true worth did by way of example far exceed the pictures of it in any moral Precepts So that if my creation had been equal it would have proved as easie for me to have followed his patern in the practice of reall vertue as to engage my self into this Characteristicall kind of Poesie in defence whereof he hath written so much as I shall not need to say any thing For that this representing of vertues vices humours counsells and actions of men unfeigned and unscandalous Images is an inabling of free-born spirits to the greatest affaires of States he himself hath left such an instance in the too short scene of his life as I fear many Ages will not draw a line out of any other mans sphere to parallel with it For my own part I observed honoured and loved him so much as with what caution soever I have passed through my dayes hitherto aamong the living yet in him I challenge a kind of freedome even among the dead So that although with Socrates I professe to know nothing for the present yet with Nestor I am delighted in repeating old newes of the ages past and will therefore stir up my drooping memory touching this mans worth powers wayes and designes to the end that in the tribute I owe him our nation may see a Sea-mark rais'd upon their native coast above the levell of any private Pharos abroad and so by a right Meridian line of their own learn to sayl through the straits of true vertue into a calm and spacious Ocean of humane honour It is ordinary among men to observe the races of horses and breeds of other cattle But few consider that as divers humors mixt in mens bodies make different complexions so every Family hath as it were divers predominant qualities in it which as they are tempered together in Marriage give a certain tincture to all the descent In my time I have observed it in many houses especially in this Sir Henry Sidney his Father was a man of excellent naturall wit large heart sweet conversation and such a Governour as sought not to make an end of the State in himself but to plant his own ends in the prosperity of his Countrey Witnes his sound establishments both in Wales and Ireland where his Memory is worthily grateful unto this day how unequall bitter soever the censure of Provincialls is usually against sincere Monarchall Governours especially such as though in worth and place superior are yet in their own degrees of heraldry inferior to them On the other side his Mother as she was a woman by descent of great Nobility so was she by nature of a large ingenuous spirit Whence as it were even racked with native strengths shee chose rather to hide her self from the curious eyes of a delicate time than come up on the stage of the world with any manner of disparagement the mischance of sicknesse having cast such a kind of veile over her excellent beauty as the modesty of that sex doth many times upon their native and heroicall spirits So that it may probably be gathetherd that this clearnesse of his Fathers judgement and ingenious sensiblenesse of his Mothers brought forth so happy a temper in this well-mixt Ofspring of theirs as without envy be it spoken Sir Philip deserves to be accompted amongst those eminent Plants of our soyl which blast or bite not but rather stâ—tuminate and refresh the Vines Corn Fruits or whatsoever groweth under their shaddows And as he was their First-born so was he not the contraction but the extension of their strength and the very aim and perfect type of it Of whose Youth I will report no other wonder but this That though I lived with him and
reservedness to ths ingenuous Reader that he may see with what diverse Characters Princes please and Govern Cities Townes and Peoples His uppermost garment was a gown yet such as I dare confidently affirm a mean-born student in our Innes of Court would not have been well-pleased to walk the streets in Unbuttoned his doubled was and of like precious matter and form to the other His wast-coat which shewed it self under it not unlike the best sort of those wollen knit ones which our ordinary watermen row us in His Company about him the Burgesses of that beerbrewing Town and he so fellow-like encompassed with them as had I not known his face no exterior signe of degree or deservedness could have discovered the inequality of his worth or Estate from that multitude Not withstanding I no sooner came to his presence but it pleased him to take knowledge of me And even upon that as if it had been a signall to make a change his respect of a stranger instantly begat respect to himself in all about him An outward passage of inward greatness which in a popular Estate I thought worth the observing Because there no pedigree but worth could possibly make a man Prince and no Prince in a moment at his own pleasure The businesses which he then vouchsafed to impart with me were the dangerous fate which the Crown of England States of Germany and the Low Countries did stand threatned with under an ambitious and conquering Monarch's hand The main instance a short descripon of the Spaniards curious affecting to keep the Romans waies and ends in all his actions On the other side the clear symptomes of the Hectique feaver universally then reigning among the Princes of Christendome ordain'd as he thought to behold this undermining disease without fear till it should prove dangerous nay incurable to them This active King of Spain having put on a mask of conscience to cover an invisible conjunction between the temporal and spiritual ambitions of these two sometimes creeping sometimes commanding Romish and Spanish Conquerors The particulars were many both excellent and enlightning As first the fatall neutrality of France jealous of the Spanish greatness as already both wrong'd and threatned by it and yet their Kings so full of pleasures and consequently so easily satisfied with the complements of words treaties or alliances and since the fall of the Sorbonists their own exempted Church so absolutely possest and govern'd by the Jesuits as through the bewithing liberties and bondages of Auricular confession they were rather wrought to rest upon a vain security of reputed strength than really to hazzard loss and help themselves by diversion or assailing Againe on the Queens part by the way of question he supposed a little neglect in her Princely mildness while she did suffer a Protestant party rais'd by God in that great Kingdome of France to be a ballance or counterpease to that dangerous Heptarchy of Spain then scarce visible but since multiplyed by an unresistable greatnesse I say for suffering this strong and faithfull party through want of imployment to sink into it self and so unactively like a Meteor to vanish or smother out in vain and idle apparitions Withall reverently hee demurr'd whether it were an omission in that excellent Ladies Government or no by a remisse looking on whilst the Austrian aspiring family framed occasion to gain by begging peace or buying war from the Grand Signior and both exceeding much to their own ends In respect that once in few years this Emperor made himself Generall by it over all the forces of Christendome and thereby gained the fame of action trained up his owne Instruments Martially and got credit with his fellow-bordering Princes through the common Councell or participation of fear Besides that in the conclusions of peace he ever saved a mass of riches gather'd by Diets Contributions Devotions and Levies for common defence which out of the ill-accompting hand of war became in his Exchequer Treasure to terrifie even those Christian neighbours that did contribute to it And the more especially he insisted upon this because all those crafty Pageants of her enemies were disguisedly acted even whilst her Majesty had an Agent of extraordinary diligence worth and credit with that vast Estate of Turkie into whose absolute and imperious spirit without any further charge than infusing the jealousies of competition these practises among those Austrian usurpers might easily have been interrupted Lastly it pleased him to question yet a greater over-sight in both these Kingdoms England and France Because while their Princes stood at gaze as upon things far off they still gave way for the Popish and Spanish invisible Arts and Counsels to undermine the greatness and freedom both of Secular and Ecclesiasticall Princes a mortall sickness in that vast body of Germany and by their insensible fall a raising up of the house of Austria many steps towards her long affected Monarchy over the West The ground of which opinion was as he thought in respect that even the Catholique Princes and Bishops themselves had their eyes bin well wakened would never have endured any cloud or colour of Religion to hape changed their Princely Soveraignties into such a kind of low and Chaplaine tenure as since they have sleepily fallen into but would rather have stirred them with many hands to binde this Miter-superstition with the reall cords of truth And to that end perchance have set Spain on work with her new and ill digested Conquests her dangerous enemie Fess her native Moors and Iews since craftily transported and so probably have troubled the usurpations both of the Pope and Spain over that well-tempered though over-zealous and superstitions Region of It a'y These and such other particulars as I had in charge and did faithfully deliver from him to her Majesty are since performed or perished with time or occasion The last branch was his free expressing of himselfe in the honour of Sir Philip Sidney after this manner That I would first commend his own humble service with those fore-mentioned Ideas to the Queen and after crave leave of her freely to open his knowledge and opinion of a Fellow-servant of his that as he heard lived unimployed under her With himselfe he began ab ovo as having been of Charles the fift's Privie Counsell before he was one and twenty years of age and since as the world knew either an Actor or at least acquainted with the greatest actions and affairs of Europe and likewise with her greatest men and ministers of Estate In all which series of time multitude of things and persons he protested unto mee and for her service that if he could judge her Majesty had one of the ripest and greatest Counsellors of Estate in Sir Philip Sidney that at this day lived in Europe to the triall of which hee was pleased to leave his owne credit engaged untill her Majesty might please to employ this Gentleman either amongst her friends or enemies At my return into England I
performed all his other cōmandments this that concerned Sir Philip thinking to make the fine-spun threads of Friendship more firm between them I acquainted Sir Philip with not as questioning but fully resolved to doe it Unto which he at the first sight opposing discharged my faith impawn'd to the Prince of Orange for the delivery of it as an act only entending his good and so to be perform'd or dispens'd with at his pleasure yet for my satisfaction freely added these words first that the Qu. had the life it self daily attending her and if she either did not or would not value it so highly the commendation of that worthy Prince could be no more at the best than a lively picture of that life and so of far lesse credit and estimation with her His next reason was because Princes love not that forrain Powers should have extraordinary in their Subjects much lesse to be taught by them how they should place their own as arguments either upbraiding ignorance or lack of large rewarding goodness in them This Narration I adventure of to shew the clearness and readiness of this Gentlemans judgement in all degrees and offices of life with this farther testimony of him that after mature deliberation being once resolved he never brought any question of change to afflict himself with or perplex the business but left the success to his will that governs the blinde prosperities and unprosperities of Chance and so works out his own ends by the erring frailties of humane reason and affection Lastly to manifest that these were not complements self-ends or use of each other according to our modern fashion but meer ingenuities of spirit to which the ancient greatness of hearts ever frankly engaged their Fortunes let Actions the lawfully begotten children equall in spirit shape and complexion to their parents be testimonies ever sufficient My second instance comes from the Earle of Leicester his unckle who told me after Sir Philips and not long before his own death that when he undertook the government of the Low Countries he carryed his Nephew over with him as one amongst the rest not only despising his youth for a Counsellor but withall bearing a hand over him as a forward young man Notwithstanding in short time he saw this Sun so risen above his Horizon that both he and all his Stars were glad to fetch light from him And in the end acknowleged that he held up the honor of his casual authority by him whilst he lived found reasō to withdraw himself from that burthen after his death My third record is Sir Francis Walsingham his Father-in-law that wise and active Secretarie This man as the world knows upheld both Religion and State by using a policy wisely mixt with reflexions of either He had influence in all Countries a hand upon all affairs Yet even this man hath often confessed to my self that his Philip did so far over-shoot him in his own Bow as those friends which at first were Sir Philip's for this Secretaries sake within a while became so fully owned and possest by Sir Philip as now he held them at the second hand by his Sonin-laws native courtesie This is that true remission of mind whereof I would gladly have the world take notice from these dead mens ashes to the end that we might once again see that ingenuity amongst men which by liberall bearing witnesse to the merits of others shews they have some true worth of their own and are not meerly lovers of themselves without rivals CHAP. III. TO continue this passage a little further I must lift him above the censure of Subjects and give you an account what respect and honour his worth wanne him amongst the most eminent Monarchs of that time As first with that chief and best of Princes his most excellent Majesty then King of Scotland to whom his service was affectionately devoted and from whom he received many pledges of love and favour In like manner with the late renowned Henry of France then of Navarre who having measured and mastered all the spirits in his own Nation found out this Master-spirit among us and used him like an equall in nature and so fit for friendship with a King Again that gallant Prince Don John de Austria Vice-Roy in the Low Countries for Spain when this Gentleman in his Embassage to the Emperor came to kiss his hand though at the first in his Spanish haughture he gave him access as by descent to a youth of grace as to a stranger and in particular competition as he conceived to an enemy yet after a while that he had taken his just altitude he found himself so stricken with this extraordinary Planet that the beholders wondered to see what ingenuous tribute that brave and high minded Prince paid to his worth giving more honour and respect to this hopefull young Gentleman than to the Embassadors of mighty Priuces But to climb yet a degree higher In what due estimation his extraordinary Worth was even amongst enemies will appear by his death When Mendoza a Secretary of many Treasons against us acknowledged openly That howsoever he was glad King Philip his Master had lost in a private Gentleman a dangerous Enemy to his Estate yet he could not but lament to see Christendome depriv'd of so rare a Light in these cloudy times and bewail poor Widdow England so he term'd her that having been many years in breeding one eminent spirit was in a moment bereaved of him by the hands of a villain Indeed he was a true modell of Worth A man fit for Conquest Plantation Reformation or what Action soever is greatest and hardest amongst men Withall such a lover of Mankind and Goodnesse that whosoever had any reall parts in him found comfort participation and protection to the uttermost of his power like Zephyrus he giving life where he blew The Universities abroad and at home accompted him a generall Mecaenas of Learning Dedicated their Books to him and communicated every Invention or Improvement of Knowledge with him Souldiers honoured him and were so honoured by him as no man thought he marched under the true Banner of Mars that had not obtained Sir Philip Sidney's approbation Men of Affairs in most parts of Christendome entertained correspondency with him But what speak I of these with whom his own waies and ends did concur since to descend his heart and capacity were so large that there was not a cunning Painter a skilfull Engenier an excellent Musician or any other Artificer of extraordinary fame that made not himself known to this famous Spirit and found him his true friend without hire and the common Reude-vous of Worth in his time Now let Princes vouchsafe to consider of what importance it is to the honour of themselves and their Estates to have one man of such eminence not onely as a nourisher of vertue in their Courts or service but besides for a reformed Standard by which even the most humorous persons could not but
not fear to suffer any thing there which would not prove a kind of Trophy to him So that howsoever he seemed to stand alone yet he stood upright kept his access to her Majesty as before a liberall conversation with the French reverenced amongst the worthiest of them for himselfe and born in too strong a fortification of nature for the less worthy to abbord either with question familiarity or scorn In this freedome even while the greatest spirits and Estates seemed hood-winkt or blind and the inferior sort of men made captive by hope fear ignorance did he enjoy the freedome of his thoughts with all recreations worthy of them And in this freedome of heart being one day at Tennis a Peer of this Realm born great greater by alliance and superlative in the Princes favour abruptly came into the Tennis-Court and speaking out of these three paramount authorities he forgot to entreat that which he could not legally command When by the encounter of a steady object finding unrespectiveness in himself though a great Lord not respected by this Princely spirit he grew to expostulate more roughly The returns of which stile comming still from an understanding heart that knew what was due to it self and what it ought to others seemed through the mists of my Lords passions swoln with the winde of his faction then reigning to provoke in yeelding Whereby the lesse amazement or confusion of thoughts he stirred up in Sir Philip the more shadowes this great Lords own mind was possessed with till at last with rage which is ever ill-disciplin'd he commands them to depart the Court To this Sir Philip temperately answers that if his Lordship had been pleased to express desire in milder Characters perchance he might have led out those that he should now find would not be driven out with any scourge of fury This answer like a Bellows blowing up the sparks of excess already kindled made my Lord scornfully call Sir Philip by the name of Puppy In which progress of heat as the tempest grew more and more vehement within so did their hearts breath out their perturbations in a more loud and shrill accent The French Commissioners unfortunately had that day audience in those private Galleries whose windows looked into the Tennis-Court They instantly drew all to this tumult every sort of quarrels sorting well with their humors especially this Which Sir Philip perceiving and rising with inward strength by the prospect of a mighty faction against him asked my Lord with a loud voice that which he heard clearly enough before Who like an Echo that still multiplies by reflexions repeated this Epithet of Puppy the second time Sir Philip resolving in one answer to conclude both the attentive hearers and passionate actor gave my Lord a Lie impossible as he averred to be retorted in respect all the world knows Puppies are gotten by Dogs and Children by men Hereupon those glorious inequalities of Fortune in his Lordship were put to a kinde of pause by a precious inequality of nature in this Gentleman So that they both stood silent a while like a dumb shew in a Tragedy till Sir Philip sensible of his own wrong the forrain and factious spirits that attended and yet even in this question between him and his superior tender to his Countries honour with some words of sharp accent led the way abruptly out of the Tennis-Court as if so unexpected an accident were not fit to be decided any farther in that place Whereof the great Lord making another sense continues his play without any advantage of reputation as by the standard of humours in those times it was conceived A day Sr Philip remains in suspense when hearing nothing of or from the Lord he sends a Gentleman of worth to awake him out of his trance wherein the French would assuredly think any pause if not death yet a lethargy of true honour in both This stirred a resolution in his Lordship to send Sir Philip a Challenge Notwithstanding these thoughts in the great Lord wandred so long between glory anger and inequality of state as the Lords of her Majesties Counsell took notice of the differences commanded peace and laboured a reconciliation between them But needlesly in one respect and bootlesly in another The great Lord being as it should seem either not hasty to adventure many inequalities against one or inwardly satisfied with the progress of his own Acts Sir Philip on the other side confident he neither had nor would lose or let fall any thing of his right Which her Majesties Counsell quickly perceiving recommended this work to her self The Queen who saw that by the loss or disgrace of either she could gain nothing presently undertakes Sir Philip and like an excellent Monarch lays before him the difference in degree between Earls and Gentlemen the respect inferiors ought to their superiors and the necessity in Princes to maintain their own creations as degrees descending between the peoples licentiousness and the anoynted Soveraignty of Crowns how the Gentlemans neglect of the Nobility taught the Peasant to insult upon both Whereunto Sir Philip with such reverence as became him replyed First that place was never intended for privilege to wrong witness her self who how Soveraign soever she were by Throne Birth Education and Nature yet was she content to cast her own affections into the same moulds her Subjects did and govern all her rights by their Laws Again he besought her Majesty to consider that although he were a great Lord by birth alliance and grace yet hee was no Lord over him and therfore the difference of degrees between free men could not challenge any other homage than precedency And by her Fathers Act to make a Princely wisdom become the more familiar he did instance the Government of K. Henry the eighth who gave the Gentry free and safe appeal to his feet against the oppression of the Grandees and found it wisdome by the stronger corporation in number to keep down the greater in power inferring else that if they should unite the over-grown might be tempted by still coveting more to fall as the Angels did by affecting equality with their Maker This constant tenor of truth he took upon him which as a chief duty in all creatures both to themselves the soveraignty above them protected this Gentleman though he obeyed not from the displeasure of his Soveraign Wherein he left an authentical president to after ages that howsoever tyrants allow of no scope stamp or standard but their own will yet wth Princes there is a latitude for subjects to reserve native legall freedom by paying hūble tribute in manner though not in matter to them CHAP. VII THE next step which he intendded into the world was an expedition of his own projecting wherein he fashioned the whole body with purpose to become head of it himself I mean the last employment but one of Sir Francis Drake to the West Indies Which journey as the scope of it was
withall to make the barrenness of Spain more fertile how he had improved that idle Castilian by imployments in activeness wealth and authority over those vanquished creatures suffering the poor native Americans to be supprest with heavy impositions discouraging idleness bondage of laws sheering of the humble sheep to cloath the proud devouring Wolves finally under these such like quintessences of tyranny striving as I said even besides nature to make barren Spain the Monarchy that every way more fertile America to be the Province All which affections of power to be wiser stronger than the truth this Gentleman concluded would in fulnes of time make manifest that the heavy can no more be forced to ascend and rest fixed there than the light to goe downward as to their proper center Notwithstanding the state of Tyrants is so sublime and their errors founded upon such precipitate steps as this growing Spaniard both did doth and ever will travell with his forefathers in Paradise to be equall or above his Maker and so to imprison divine laws within the narrownes of will and humane wisdome with the fettred selfsnesses of cowardly or other confident Tyranny In which preposterous courses to prevent all possibility of commotion let the Reader be pleased to observe how that continually he forceth his own subjects free-denized in America to fetch weapons of defence conquest invasion as well as ornament wealth necessity and delicacy out of Spain meerly to retain want supply price weight fashion and measure still contrary to nature in that barren Crown of Castile with an absolute power resting in himself to rock or ease both peoples according to the waving ends of an unsteddy and sharp pointed Pyramis of power Nay to rise yet a step higher in this bloudy pride Sir Philip our unbelieved Cassandra observed this limitless ambition of the Spaniard to have chosen that uttermost Citadell of bondage I mean the Inquisition of Spain for her instrument Not as in former Masks to prune or govern but in a confidence rising out of the old age of superstitious fantasms utterly to root out all seeds of humane freedom and as Sr Philip conceived with fatal dissolution to it self In respect that these types of extremity would soon publish to the world what little difference Tyrants strive to leave between the creation use and honor of men and beasts valuing them indifferently but as Counters to sum up the divers nay contrary uses and Audits of sublime and wandring supremacy which true glass would in this Gentlemans opinion shew the most dull cowardly eye that Tyrants be not nursing Fathers but step-fathers and so no anointed deputies of God but rather lively Images of the dark Prince that sole author of dis-creation and disorder who ever ruines his ends with over-building Lastly where his reason ended there many divine Precepts and Examples did assure him that the vengeance of God must necessarily hang over those hypocriticall cruelties which under colour of converting souls to him sent millions of better than their own they cared not whither And in stead of spreading Christian religion by good life committed such terrible inhumanities as gave those that lived under nature manifest occasion to abhor the devily characters of so tyrannical a deity Now though this justice of the Almighty be many times slow therefore neglected here on earth yet I say under the only conduct of this star did Sir Philip intend to revive this hazardous enterprize of Planting upon the Main of America projected nay undertaken long before as I shewed you but ill executed in the absence of Sir Philip with a designe to possess Nombre de Dios or some other haven near unto it as places in respect of the little distance between the two seas esteemed the fittest Rendez-vouz for supply or retreat of an Army upon all occasions And besides by that means to circle in his wealth and freedome with a joynt fore-running Fleet to the end that if the fortune of Conquest prospered not with them yet he should infallibly pay the charge of both Navies with infinite loss and dis-reputation to the Spaniard And in this project Sir Philip proceeded so far with the united Provinces as they yeelded to assist and second the ships of his Soveraign under his charge with a fleet of their own Which besides a present addition of strength he knew would lead in others by example Again for supply of these Armies he had out of that naturall tribute which all free spirits acknowledge to superior worth won 30 Gentlemen of great bloud and state here in England every man to sell one hundred pounds land to second and countenance this first Fleet with a stronger Now when these beginnings were by his own credit and industrie thus well setled then to give an excellent form to a reall work hee contrived this new intended Plantation not like an Assylum for fugitives a Bellum Piraticum for Banditi or any such base Ramas of people but as an Emporium for the confluence of all Nations that love or profess any kinde of vertue or Commerce Wherein to incite those that tarried at home to adventure he propounded the hope of a sure and rich return To Martiall men he opened wide the door of sea and land for fame and conquest To the nobly ambitious the far stage of America to win honour in To the Religious divines besides a new Apostolicall calling of the last heathen to the Christian faith a large field of reducing poor Christians mis-led by the Idolatry of Rome to their mother Primitive Church To the ingenuously industrious variety of natural richesses for new mysteries and manufactures to work upon To the Merchant with a simple people a fertile and unexhausted earth To the fortunebound liberty To the curious a fruitfull womb of innovation Generally the word gold was an attractive Adamant to make men venture that which they have in hope to grow rich by that which they have not What the expectation of this voyage was the time past can best witnes but what the success should have been till it be revived by some such generous undertakers lies hid in Gods secret judgements who did at once cut off this Gentlemans life and so much of our hope Upon these enterprises of his I have presumed to stand the longer because from the ashes of this first propounded voyage to America that fatall Low Country action sprang up in which this worthy Gentleman lost his life Besides I do ingenuously confess that it delights me to keep company with him even after death esteeming his actions words and conversation the daintiest treasure my mind could then lay up or can at this day impart with our posteritie CHAP. XI THerefore to come at the last to that diverting imployment promised to him under his Uncle in the Low-Countries he was upon his return to the Court instantly made for Garrison Governor of Flushing and for the Field General of the Horse in both which
the freedome of other Soveraignties is bounded by Religion Justice and well-waigh'd commerce amongst Neighbor-Princes she foresaw the least thought of multiplying self-Prerogatives there would instantly be discredited and reflected back to stir up discouragement in the softest hearts of her most humble and dutifull subjects Therefore contrary to all these captived and captiving apparances this experienced Governesse of ours published to the world by a constant Series in her actions that she never was nor ever would be overloaden with any such excesses in her Person or defects in her Government as might constraine her to support or be supported by a Monopolous use of Favourites as if she would make any greater then her selfe to governe Tyrannically by them Nay more so far off was she from any lukewarmnesse in Religion as if a single testimony may have credit that blessed Queens many and free discourses with my selfe ingeniously bare record that the unexpected conversion of Henry the Fourth fell fatally upon him by the weaknesses of his Predecessor Henry the Third and the dissolute miscarriage of his Favourites Who like Lapwings with the shels of authority about their necks were let loose to runne over all the branches of his Kingdome misleading Governors Nobility and People from the steady and mutuall rest of Lawes Customes and other ancient wisdomes of government into the wildernesses of ignorance and violence of will Amongst which defects all fundamentall changes especially of Religion in Princes would be found as she conceived the true discipline of Atheisme amongst their Subjects all sacrifices obedience excepted being but deare-bought knowledges of the Serpent to expulse Kings and People once againe out of Mediocrity that reciprocall Paradise of mutuall humane duties Prophetically concluding that whosoever will sell God to purchase earth by making that eternall unity of many shapes must in the end make him of none and so bee forced with losse contempt and danger to traffique not for an heires place but a younger biothers in that Church at whose wide gates he had with shame enough already turned in And under conditions of a Servant rather then of a Sonne be constrained for his first step to set up the Jesuits faction providently suppressed by himselfe before and therein to shake the Sorbonists faithfull supporters in all times of Crowne-Soveraignty against these slave-making conjunctions betweene the Spaniard and his Chaplaine Nay yet with a greater shew of ingratitude his next step must be to suppresse those humble soules who had long supported him whilest he was King of Navarre against that murthering Holy-water of Spanish Rome Lastly to shew that no power can rest upon a steep hee must precipitately be forced to send Embassadors to Rome with his Sword in his scabbard servily begging mercy and grace of such reconciled enemies whose endlesse ends of spirituall and temporall Supremacy this Princesse knew would never forgive any heavenly Truth or earthly power that should oppose their Combination Finally she concluded that hollow Church of Rome to be of such a Bucephalus nature as no Monarch shall be ever able to bestride it except onely the stirring Alexanders of time present wherein the world is passing finely overshot in her own bow Wherefore to end as I began with the case of Essex was not this excellent Princesse therein a witnesse to herselfe that she never chose or cherished-Favourite how worthy soever to Monopolize over all the spirits and businesse of her Kingdome or to imprison the universall counsels of nature and State within the narrownesse of a young fraile mans lustfull or unexperienced affections Not thinking any one especially a Subject better able to doe all then her selfe Where like a worthy head of a great body she left the Offices and Officers of the Crowne free to governe in their owne Predicaments according to her trust Reserving appeales to her selfe as a Sea mark to warn all Creatures under her that shee had still a creating or defacing power inherent in her Crown and Person above those subalterne places by which shee did minister universall justice And though her wisdom was too deep to nurse or suffer faction amongst those great Commanders and distributers of Publique Rights yet was shee as carefull not to permit any Aristocraticall cloud or pillar to shew or shadow forth any superstitious or false lights between her and her people CAP. XVI AGaine in her houshold affaires she kept the like equall hands ballancing the sloth or sumptuousnesse of her great Stewards and white staves with the providence and reservednesse of a Lord Treasurer kept up the Tables for Servants Sutors and for honors sake in her owne house not suffering publike places to be made particular farmes of private men or the honor of her houshold to be carried into theirs And withall by the same reverend Auditor shee watched over the nimble Spirits selfe-seeking or large-handednesse of her active Secretaries examining their Intelligence money Packets Bils of transportation Propositions of State which they offer'd up by their places together with Sutes of other Natures in her wisdome still severing the deep businesse from the specious but narrow selfnesse of inferior Officers Besides all these were examined by reverend Magistrates who having bin formerly issuers of her Majesties Treasure in the Secretaries places did now worthily become Governours of her Finances as best able to judge between the selfnesse of place or person and the reall necessities of her State and Kingdome A fine art of Government by well chosen Ministers successively to wall in her Exchequer from the vast expence of many things especially upon Forraigne Ambassadors which she knèw could neither bring reverence nor thankfulnesse to their Soveraigne Under which head of Forraigne and Domestique Ambassadors the answer wherewith that Majesticall Lady entertained the Polarke expected a treating Ambassador but proving as she told him a defying Herald is never to be forgotten among Princes as an instance how sensible they ought to be of indignity and how ready to put off such sudden affronts without a prompting of Councellors againe worthily memorable among her Subjects as a demonstrative argument that she would still reserve Moses place entire to her selfe amongst all the distributions of Iethro And to go on with her Domestique affaires how provident was she out of the like caution and to the same end that even hee who oversaw the rest might have his owne greatnesse overseen and limited too Whereupon she forgot not to allay that vast power and jurisdiction of her Treasurers Office with inferior Officers of her Finances and perchance under an active Favourits eyes kept her owne Besides she watched and checked him in his marriage made with Paulet his Predecessor reserved that mans accounts and arrears as a rod over his Grandchilds alliance qualified and brought the fines of his many and great Copyholds to easie rates would never suffer any proposition to take hold of uniting the Dutchy of Lancaster to her Exchequer what narrow reasons soever were alleaged of