ignominy to have his allegiance exalted with blasphemy as for attending the Prince out of Spain he was called our Redeemer or to have his mis-fortunes mistaken into disloyalty when his Enterprizes succeeded not according to the impossible expectation of the people certain it is that all his later time he wholly neglected all compliance with them 'T is not unlikely he might wonder that in all the scrutinous enquiry for Reformation there was never the least blemish of dislike towards any great man but such as were in the immediate regard and estimation of the King As if all misdemeanours had been committed within the Verge of his Majesties own Chamber I shall not confer any of these particulars with the Earl When the noise of the people had disquieted him into action from Court which was his Orb though he could not put off the place or rather the Title of Command he committed himself a most willing Pupil to the directions of such as were generally thought fit to manage affairs of that nature and here it cannot be deny'd but as he was a vigilant and observant Student in the contemplative part so he improved the courage of the whole Army by his example And surely there is no cause to doubt he would in short time have made so glorious a progress in his profession however he seemed shaped for easier skirmishes as the world should have seen that promptness and alacrity in his nature that could happily have travelled in any path he could direct it had he not been cut off by that exâ—…crable Treason as makes all good men tremble and Posterity shall start at it and had he not been marvellously secured in the tranquillity of his own soul from any of that guilt the Rabble had conferred on him it had been no hard matter to have fortified himself against the knife of a Villain though it were sharpened in the lewdest forge of revenge the great Patron of Murther hath countenanced since the spilling of the first bloud But he that was unsafe only in the greatness of his own spirit could not be perswaded to wear any privy-coat but which he never put off of a good conscience And the same Providence that conveyed him into grace with so different marks from other men would not suffer him to fall but by such a fate as may determine all the Monarchies of the world and which had been seldome acted but upon the most Eminent and Honourable Persons of their times And here again he may be said to meet with the Earl that they both died by the people though by very different affections which continued so preposterous as Iustice upon the One for Iustice is the execution of the Law was interpreted a Conspiracy And Treason upon the Other conceived Religion And yet one had the Royal Sacrifice of his Soveraigns sorrow which the other wanted In contriving and contracting his Friendships he was provident and circumspect enough as may appear by those Marriages in which he linked his House and in the observation of them he was so severe and real as he wanted some of that which is usually the poyson of Noble minds Suspicion looking no further into the affections of those he chose then the Testimony of their own hearts though this Confidence sometimes was like to prove dangerous to him And here the Earl had the day too For his friends were Skreens between him and envy and his own infirmities taken from him and imposed on them when the Duke was so far from that ease or being discharged of the burthen that belonged to them that he was traduced with all the mistakes of all his friends kindred and dependants as if he were the mischievous Agent they only improvident and surprized Instruments 'T is true they were neither of them much skilled in that Paradox of charity loving their enemies and yet the Dukes easiness to reconcilement and too soon forgetting the circumstances of Grudges betrayed him often to the injuries of such as had not the same spirit Concerning the parts and endowments of his Mind if the consideration of Learning extend it self not further then drudgery in Books the Dukes imployments forbids to suspect him for any great Scholar but if a nimble and fluent expression and delivery of his Mind and his discourse was of all Subjects in a natural and proper dialect be considered he was well letter'd but if he had that Eloquence of Nature or Art I am sure he wanted that other accident which the best Iudge attributed to the Earl as an Eloquence that passed the other two the pity and benevolence of his hearers insomuch that his words and speeches were never entertained with that candour or common charity of Interpretation as civilly belongs to all Delinquents witness that speech in the fulness of his joy he let fall to his Majesty in the behalf of his people which was immediately perverted and carpt at as an aggravation of his other imaginary and fantastick offences He was besides not only of an eminent affection to learning in conferring dignities and rewards upon the most learned men either of which is seldome without judgement and he was the Governour in a Province of Learning which was an Argument he confuted the people by when he suffered himself to be chosen Chancellour of the University of Cambridge even at the time when they had concluded his destruction as a man odious to all Subjects In his Liberalities and rewards of those he fancied he was so chearfully magnificent and so much at the mercy of his Dependants that if they proved improvident or immodest in their Suits the inconveniency and mischief was surely his insomuch as he seemed wholly possest from himself and to be only great for their use and he had then so happy a bravery in deriving of his Favours and conferred them with so many noble circumstances as the manner was as obliging as the matter and mens understandings oft-times as much puzled as their gratitude If the Earl sided him here his bounty fell upon more unthrifty men for there are many Families owe their large possessions only to the openness of the Dukes hand though much be lost too in the ingratitudes of the Receivers But that which shined with most lustre in him and which indeed flowed in his nature much above its proportion in other men was an admirable affability and gentleness to all men And this was the pomp and glory of all his Titles Insomuch as though his Memory were a place so taken up with high thoughts and unlikely to have any room for matters of so small importance he was ever known to entertain his younger acquaintance with that familiarity as if they had been stairs by which he ascended to his greatness He had besides such a tenderness and compassion in his nature that such as think the Laws dead if they are not severely executed censured him for being too merciful but his charity was grounded upon a wiser Maxime of Stâ—…te Non
prepare for that great day wherein all flesh must make an account of their actions And after a kind of tempestuous life I now have the like advantage from him that makes the out goings of the morning to praise him even from my God whom I daily magnifie for this particular mercy of an exemption from business a quiet mind and a liberal maintenance even in this part of my life when my age and infirmities seem to found me a retâ—…eat from the pleasures of this world and invite me to contemplation in which I have ever taken the greatest felicity And now to speak a little of the imployment of his time in the Colledge After his customary publick Devotions his use was to retire into his Study and there to spend some hours in reading the Bible and Authors in Divinity closing up his meditations with private prayer this was for the most part his imployment in the Forenoon But when he was once sate to Dinner then nothing but chearfull thoughts possess'd his mind and those still increased by constant company at his Table of such persons as brought thither additions both of Learning and Pleasure but some part of most dayes was usually spent in Philosophical Conclusions Nor did he forget his innate pleasure of Angling which he would usually call his idle time not idly spent saying often he would rather live five May moneths then forty Decembers He was a great lover of his Neighbours and a bountifull entertainer of them very often at his Table where his meat was choice and his discourse better He was a constant Cherisher of all those youths in that School in whom he found either a constant diligence or a Genius that prompted them to Learning for whose encouragement he was beside many other things of necessity and beauty at the charge of setting up in it two rowes of Pillars on which he caused to be choicely drawn the pictures of divers of the most famous Greek and Latin Historians Poets and Orators perswading them not to neglect Rhetorick because Almighty God has left Mankind affections to be wrought upon And he would often say That none despised Eloquence but such dull souls as were not capable of it He would also often make choice of some Observations out of those Historians and Poets and would never leave the School without dropping some choice Greek or Latin Apothegm or sentence that might be worthy of a room in the memory of a growing Scholar He was pleased constantly to breed up one or more hopefull Youths which he picked out of the School and took into his own Domestick care and to attend him at his Meals out of whose Discourse and Behaviour he gathered observations for the better compleating of his intended work of Education of which by his still striving to make the whole better he lived to leave but part to Posterity He was a great Enemy to wrangling Disputes of Religion concerning which I shall say a little both to testifie that and to shew the readiness of his Wit Having at his being in Rome made acquaintance with a pleasant Priest who invited him one Evening to hear their Vesper Musick at Church the Priest seeing Sir Henry stand obscurely in a corner sends to him by a Boy of the Quire this Question writ in a small piece of Paper Where was your Religion to be found before Luther To which Question Sir Henry presently under-writ My Religion was to be found then where yours is not to be found now in the written Word of God The next Vesper Sir Henry went purposely to the same Church and sent one of the Quire-boyes with this Question to his honest pleasant friend the Priest Do you believe all those many Thousands of poor Christians were damn'd that were Excommunicated because the Pope and the Duke of Venice could not agree about their temporal power Speak your Conscience To which he under-writ in French Monsieur excusay moy To one that asked him Whether a Papist may 〈◊〉 saved he replyed You may be saved without knowing that Look to your self To another whose earnestness exceeded his knowledge and was still railing against the Papists he gave this advice Pray Sir forbear till you haâ—… studied the Points better for the wise Italians have thâ—… Proverb He that understands amiss concludes worse And take heed of thinking The farther you go from the Church of Rome the nearer you are to God And to another that spake indiscreet and bitter words against Arminius I heard him reply to this purpose In my travel towards Venice as I past through Germany I rested almost a year at Leyden where I entred into an acquaintance with Arminius then the Professor of Divinity in that University a man much talk'd of in this Age which is made up of opposition and Controversie Andindeed if I mistake not Arminius in his expressions as so weak a brain as mine is may easily do then I know I differ from him in some points yet I profess my judgement of him to be that he was a â—…an of most rare Learning and I knew him to be of a most strict â—…fe and of a most meek spirit And that he was so mild appears by his Proposals to our Master Perkins of Cambridge from whose Book of the Order and Causes of Salvation which was first writ in Latin Arminius took the occasion of writing some Queries to him concerning the consequents of his Doctrine intending them 't is said to come privately to Mr. Perkins own hands and to receive from him a like private and a like loving Answer But Mr. Perkins died before those Queries came to him and 't is thought Arminius meant them to die with him for though he lived long after I have heard he forbore to publish them but â—…nce his death his Sons did not And 〈◊〉 pity if God had been so pleased that Mr. Perkins did not live to see consider and answer those proposals himself for he was also of a most meek spirit and of great and sanctified Learning And though since their deaths many of â—…igh parts and piâ—…ty have undertaken to clear the Controversie yet for the most part they have rather satisfied themselves then convinced the dissenting party And doubtless many middle-witted men which yet may mean well many Scholars that are not in the bigbest Form for Learning which yet may preach weâ—… men that are but Preachers and shall never know till they come to Heaven where the Queâ—…tions stick betwixt Arminius and the Church of England if there be any will yet in this world be tampering with and thereby perplexing the Controversie and do therefore justly fall under the reproof of St. Jude for being Busie-bodies and for medling with things they understand not And here it offers it self I think not unfitly to tell the Reader that a friend of Sir Henry Wottons being designed for the imployment of an Ambassador came to Eaton and requested from him some experimental Rules for his prudent and safe
good men may retain their esteem and Princes their Dignity that your Marts may not be pester'd with the prostituted Pens of Parasites nor the Press the brave Invention of the Germans be so miserably tormented and lastly that as much as in our weakness lyes the happy quiet of Kingdomes and Churches may ensue which the highest Teacher and example of peace hath commended to us But if he cannot leave off that impudent scurrility which from his base extraction he has very suitably contracted 〈◊〉 without great inconvenience to his Belly surely he deserves at least to have his Commons shortned for that execrable subtilty whereby he seems to himself quicker-sighted then the Council of Trent for they first of any that I know of decreed that Traditions and holy Scripture were with equal affection only of piety and reverence to be received But this new Ecclesiastick not in the Album of Friends but in the 485th Page of his fine Syntagma pronounces with a blasphemous and shameless mouth that the Authority of Tradition is above the written Word of God I could produce six hundred such Scioppieties but that were to rake a Dunghill Wherefore farewel most Noble Sir and again farewel From London Decemb. 2. after the Julian Accompt in the Year of our onely Mediatour 1612. TO THE Right Worthy Provost AND PROFESSOR REGIUS OF DIVINITY IN CAMBRIDGE SIR THough my feet cannot perform that Counsel which I remember from some Translation in Syracides Teras limen sensati viri yet I should at least have often visited you with my poor lines But on the other side while I durst not trust mine own conceit in the power of my present infirmity and therefore have seldome written to any I find my self in the mean time overcharged with dâ—…vers Letters from you of singular kindness and one of them accompanied with a dainty Peacefull Piece which truly I had not seen before so as besides the weight of the Subject it was welcome even for the grace of Newneâ—… Yet let me tell you I could not but somewhat wonder to find our spiritual Seneca you know whom I mean among these Reconcilers having read a former Treatise of his if my memory fail me not of a contrary complexion Howsoever now let him have his due praise with the rest for shewing his Christian VVisdome and Charity But I fear as it was anciently said by a Roman General that Bellum sese alit so it will prove though in somewhat a different fense likevvise as true of this Church-warfare That the very pleasure of Contending will foment Contention till the end of all Flesh. But let me leave that Sacred business to our well-meaning Fathers And now Sir having a fit Messenger and not long after the time when Love-tokens use to pass between Friends let me be bold to send you for a New years gift a certain Memorial not altogether unworthy of some entertainment under your roof namely a true Picture of Padre Paolo the Servita vvhich vvas first taken by a Painter vvhom I sent unto him from my House then neighbouring his Monastery I have newly added thereunto a Title of mine own Conception Conciâ—… Tridentini Eviscerator and had sent the Frame vvithal if it vvere portable vvhich is but of plain Deale coloured Black like the Habit of his Order You have a luminous Parlour vvhich I have good cause to remember not only by delicate Fare and Freedom the Prince of Dishes but above all by your own Learned Discourse for to dine with you is to dine with many good Authors In that Room I beseech you to allovv it a favourable place for my sake And that you may have somewhat to tell of him more then a bare Image if any shall ask as in the Table of Cebes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am desirous to characterize a little unto you such part of his Nature Customes and Abilities as I had occasion to know by sight or by enquiry He vvas one of the humblest things that could be seen vvithin the bounds of Humanity the very Pattern of that Precept Quanto doctior Tanto submissior And enough alone to demonstrate That Knowledge well digested non instat Excellent in Positive excellent in Scholastical and Polemical Divinity A rare Mathematician even in the most abstruse parts thereof as in Algebra and the Theoriques and yet vvithall so expert in the History of Plants as if he had never perused any Book but Nature Lastly a great Canonist vvhich vvas the title of his ordinary service vvith the State And certainly in the time of the Popes Interdict they had their principal light from him When he vvas either reading or vvriting alone his manner vvas to sit fensed vvith a Castle of Paper about his Chair and over head for he vvas of our Lord of St. Albons opinion That all Air is praedatory and especially hurtfull vvhen the spirits are most employed You vvill find a Scar in his Face that vvas from a Roman Assassinate that vvould have killed him as he vvas turned to a vvall near to his Covent And if there vvere not a greater Providence about us it might often have been easily done especially upon such a weak and wearyish Body He was of a quiet and settled Temper vvhich made him prompt in his Counsels and Answers and the same in Consultation vvhich Themistocles vvas in Action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as vvill appear unto you in a passage between him and the Prince of Condeâ—… The said Prince in a voluntary journey to Rome came by Venice vvhere to give some vent to his own humours he vvould often devest himself of his Greatness and after other less laudable Curiosities not long before his departure a desire tooâ—… him to visit the Famous obscure Servita To vvhose Cloyster coming twice he vvas the first time denied to be vvithin at the second it vvas intimated that by reason of his daily admission to their deliberation in the Palace he could not receive the Visit of so illustrious a Personage vvithout leave from the Senate vvhich he vvould seek to procure This set a greater edge on the Prince vvhen he savv he should confer vvith one participant of more then Monkish Speculations so after leave gotten he came the third time and then besideâ—… other voluntary Discourse vvhich it vvere a Tyranny over you to repeat he assail'd him vvith a Question enough to have troubled any man but himself and him too if a precedent Accident had not cased him The Question vvas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this He desired to be told by him before his going Who vvas the true unmasked Author of the late Tridentine History You must knovv this that but newly Advertisement vvas come from Rome that the Arch-bishop of Spalato being then re arrived from England in an interview between him and the Cardinal Ludovisio Nephevv to Gregory the XV. the said Cardinal after a complemental welcoming him into the Lap of the Church told him by order from the
or the Placing of the Parts whereof the first sort howsoever usually set down by Architects as a piece of their Profession yet are in truth borrowed from other Learnings there being between Arts and Sciences as well as between Men a kind of good fellowship and communication of their Principles For you shall finde some of them to be meerly Physical touching the quality and temper of the Aire which being a perpetual ambient and ingredient and the defects thereof incorrigible in single Habitations which I most intend doth in those respects require the more exquisite caution That it be not too gross nor too penetrative Not subject to any foggy noisomness from Pens or Marshes neer adjoyning nor to Mineral Exhalations from the Soil it self Not indigested for want of Sun Not unexercised for want of Wind which were to live as it were in a Lake or standing Pool of Aire as Alberti the Florentine Architect doth ingeniously compare it Some do rather seem a little Astrological as when they warn us from places of malign Influence where Earth-quakes Contagions Prodigious births or the like are frequent without any evident cause whereof the Consideration is peredventure not altogether vain Some are plainly Oeconomical as that the Seat be well watered and well fuelled that it be not of too steep and incommodious Access to the trouble both of Friends and Family that it lye not too far from some Navigable River or Arm of the Sea for more ease of provision and such other Domestic notes Some again may be said to be Optical Such I mean as concern the Properties of a well chosen Prospect which I will call the Royalty of Sight For as there is a Lordship as it were of the Fee wherein the Master doth much joy when he walketh about the Line of his own Possessions So there is a Lordship likewise of the Eye which being a Ranging and Imperious and I might say an Usurping Sense can indure no narrow Circumscription but must be fed both with extent and variety Yet on the other side I find vast and indifinite views which drown all apprehension of the uttermost Objects condemned by good Authors as if thereby some part of the pleasure whereof we speak did perish Lastly I remember a private Caution which I know not well how to sort unless I should call it Political By no means to build too neer a great Neighbour which were in truth to be as unfortunately seated on the Earth as Mercury is in the Heavens for the most part ever in combustion or obscurity under brighter beams then his own From these several Knowledges as I have said and perhaps from some other do Architects derive their Doctrine about Election of Seats wherein I have not been so severe as a great Scholer of our time who precisely restraineth a perfect Situation at least for the maine point of health Ad locum contra quem Sol radios suos fundit cum sub Ariete oritur That is in a word he would have the first Salutation of the Spring But such Notes as these wheresoever we find them in grave or slight Authours are to my conceit rather Wishes then Precepts and in that quality I will pass them over Yet I must withal say That in the seating of our selves which is a kind of Marriage to a Place Builders should be as circumspect as Wooers lest when all is done that Doom befall us which our Master doth lay upon Mytelene A Town in truth saith he finely built but foolishly planted And so much touching that which I termed the Total Posture The next in Order is the placing of the Parts About which to leave as little as I may in my present labour unto Fancie which is wild and irregular I will propound a Rule of mine own Collection upon which I fell in this manner I had noted that all Art was then in truest perfection when it might be reduced to some natural Principle For what are the most judicious Artisans but the Mimiques of Nature This led me to contemplate the Fabrick of our own bodies wherein the High Architect of the World had displayed such skill as did stupifie all humane Reason There I found the Heart as the Fountain of Life placed about the Middle for the more equal communication of the vital spirits The Eyes seated aloft that they might describe the greater Circle within their view The Arms projected on each side for ease of reaching Briefly not to lose our selves in this speculation it plainly appeareth as a Maxime drawn from the Divine Light That the Place of every part is to be determined by the Use. So then from Natural Structure to proceed to Artificial and in the rudest things to preserve some Image of the excellentest Let all the principal Chambers of Delight all Studies and Libraries be toward the East For the Morning is a Friend to the Muses All Offices that require heat as Kitchins Stillatories Stoves rooms for baking brewing washing or the like would be Meridional All that need a cool and fresh temper as Cellers Pantries Butteries Granaries to the North. To the same side likewise all that are appointed for gentle Motion as Galleries especially in warme Climes or that otherwise require a steady and unvariable light as Pinacothecia saith Vitruvius by which he intendeth if I might guess at his Greek as we must do often even at his Latin certain Repositories for works of Rarity in Picture or other Arts by the Italians called Studioli which at any other Quarter where the course of the Sun doth diversifie the Shadows would lose much of their grace And by this Rule having alwayes regard to the Use any other Part may be fitly accommodated I must here not omit to note That the Ancient Grecians and the Romans by their example in their Buildings abroad where the Seat was free did almost Religiously situate the Front of their Houses towards the South perhaps that the Masters Eye when he came home might not be dazled or that being illustrated by the Sun it might yield the more graceful Aspect or some such reason But from this the Modern Italians do vary whereof I shall speak more in another place Let thus much suffice at the present for the Position of the several Members wherein must be had as our Authour doth often insinuate and especially lib. 6. cap. 10. a singular regard to the nature of the Region Every Nation being tyed above all Rules whatsoever to a discretion of providing against their own Inconveniences And therefore a good Parlour in Aegypt would perchance make a good Cellar in England There now followeth the second Branch of the general Section touching the Work In the Work I will first consider the principal parts and afterwards the Accessory or Ornaments And in the Principal first the Preparation of the Materials and then the Disposition which is the Form Now concerning the Material Part Although surely it cannot disgrace an Architect which doth so well
in a private Chamber was strucken therewith into a swoun almost dead to the earth as if he had fallen from some high Steeple such Turrets of hope he had built in his own Fancy Touching the Dukes sudden period how others have represented it unto their Fancies I cannot determine for my part I must confess from my soul that I never recall it to mind without a deep and double astonishment of my discourse and reason First of the very horror and atrocity of the Fact in a Christian Court under so moderate a Government but much more at the impudency of the pretence whereby a desperate discontented Assassinate would after the perpetration have honested a meer private revenge as by precedent circumstances is evident enough with I know not what publick respects and would fain have given it a Parliamentary cover Howsoever thus these two great Peers were dis-robed of their Glory the one by judgement the other by violence which was the small distinction Now after this short contemplation of their diversities for much more might have been spoken but that I was fitter for Rapsody then Commentary I am lastly desirous to take a summary view of their Conformities which I verily believe will be found as many though perchance heeded by few as are extant in any of the ancient Parallel They both slept long in the arms of Fortune They were both of ancient blood and of Forraign extraction They were both of straight and goodly stature and of able and active bodies They were both industrious and assiduous and attentive to their ends They were both early Privy-Councellors and imployed at home in the secretest and weightiest affairs in Court and State They were both likewise Commanders abroad in Chief as well by Sea as by Land both Masters of the Horse at home both chosen Chancellours of the same University namely Cambridge They were both indubitable strong and high-minded men yet of sweet and accostable Nature almost equally delighting in the press and affluence of Dependants and Suiters which are alwayes the Burres and sometimes the Briers of Favourites They were both married to very vertuous Ladies and sole Heirs and left issue of their Sex and both their Wives converted to contrary Religions They were both in themselves rare and excellent examples of Temperance and Sobriety but neither of them of Continency Lastly after they had been both subject as all Greatness and Splendor is to certain obloquies of their actions They both concluded their earthly felicity in unnatural ends and with no great distance of time in the space either of life or favour And so having discharged this poor Exercise of my Pen according to my Knowledge and Reality let us commit those two noble Peers to their Eternal rest with their memorable abilities remaining in few and their compassionate infirmities common to all THE DIFFERENCE AND DISPARITY Between the Estates and Conditions OF GEORGE Duke of BUCKINGHAM AND ROBERT Earl of ESSEX Written by the Earl of Clarendon in his younger dayes THough it shall appear an unseasonable itch of Wit to say ought in this Subject and an unskilful one if invention reach not what is already said with all the swelling Elogies that shall attend all that fall from that Pen yet I shall presume disavowing only the vanities to think that in the severest considerations of their Persons in their Educations in their Insinuations into favour in managing that Favour in their whole Education but that they were both glorious in the eyes of their Princes they were as distant as unfit as impossible for Parallels as any two vertuous and great persons for so they were both we can direct our discourse to Their ingagements incumbrances and disadvantages being so different that it was the just wonder and yet continues of the world that the Earl could everfall his whole fate being in the discretion of his own soul and the Duke who all his life of favour stood the mark shot at by the most petulant and malicious spirits this Climate ever nourished could stand so long He that shall walk in a short survey of both their times actions and dependancies shall find them these Though the first approach of the Earl to Court was under the shadow of the Great Earl of Leicester yet he owned him rather for his invitation thither then his preferment there For no question he found advantage from the stock of his Fathers Reputation the people looking on his quality with reverence for I do not find that any young Nobleman had yet surprized their hopes or drawn their eyes and on his youth with pity for they were nothing satisfied concerning his Fathers death who had been advanced to honourable dangers by the mediation of such as delighted not in his company as it was the mysterious wisdome of those times to poyson with oyl homines per honores ferire And if there were not any such compassion in the Queen yet surely she beheld him as the son of an excellent man that died in her service and had left a precious fame surviving In the Court he stayed not above a year but undertook that journey into the Low Countreys with his Father-in-law and went General of the Horse in a great Army though he was not full nineteen years of age there being then no such Criticismes as interpreted the acceptance or pursuit even of the greatest dignity and command a conspiracy against the State but all men were glad to see him set himself so brave a task by undertaking such an Imployment From this first action he took a Charter of the peoples hearts which was never cancell'd but as if they had looked only on the boldness not the success of his enterprises he was sure to return with triumph though the Voyage miscarried for amongst all his forraign undertakings if they be weighed in the peoples usual Scale the Cost though there was not above one or two prosperous returns and as many that had sad and calamitous issues yet he never suffered the least publick imputation or murmure but was received with that joy as if the Fleet or Army were sent out to bring him home not any spoil or conquest to which he had wholly dedicated his faculties He moved only in his proper Orb out of it he was extra sphaeram activitatis and rather of much business as a man towards whom the Queen had directed some rayes of affection then of much dexterity above other men Surely I by no means imagine him built or furnished for a Courtier For however the Arts and mysteries of a Court are undefinable yet as in the reformation and improvement of all Sciences there are certain principles and maximes unalterable and unquestionable so there is a certain comparity conformity and complacency in the manners and a discreet subtilty in the composition without which as with those principles no man in any Age or Court shall be eminent in the Aulical function Now how ill the Earl was read in this
Philosophy his servant Cuffe whose observations were sharp enough whatever Stoicismes raved in his nature well discerned when he said Amorem odium semper in fronte gessit nec celare novit And I shall not impute it to his want of will though that would be but an ill argument for his Courtship nor of power for he did many greater things but only of skil to contrive conveniences of honours and preferments at Court for such friends as might have been good out-works to have fortifi'd and secur'd his own condition except all his dependants were of another complexion then could have lived in that Air. And indeed I do not find that the Earl much inclined to or desired the reputation of a Courtier besides the preservation of himself and the Queens affection which yet he endeavoured rather to master then to win but he seemed though he had such places of honour and attendance as be the most significant badges of a Courtier but in pace belli gerere negotium and retired only from the War to prevent Peace Then if we visit his correspondencies abroad which he rather maintained out of state then contrived out of skil we shall see they were alwayes with an eye upon actions and his Intelligences had ever some hint of Tumult and Commotion as if the King of Spain was loud or frantick at his devotions as when he vowed at Mass that he would be reveng'd of England though he sold all those Candlesticks upon the Altar This Information was given by the Earl But it was observed then that if there were ought intended against the Life or Person of the Queen though it were in the Court of Spain where the Earl had especially his Leigiers the first notice came over by my Lord Cecil for whom indeed it seemed as necessary there should be treasons as for the State that they should be prevented Insomuch as it was then how unjustly soever conceived that though he created none yet he fomented some conspiracies that he might give frequent evidences of his loyalty having no other advantage as the Earl and others had in person to justifie him in an ordinary estimation but by eminent services And those he knew must be best relished that concerned her own preservation and therefore in the least vacations from Treasons he was ever busie to set on foot some vigilant and tender Law as there was scarce any Parliament without some such that had a peculiar eye to the Queens safety Which however they are by such as cannot apprehend the danger of those times looked upon without much reverence could not but make singular impression in the Queens heart of his fidelity The Incumbrances that the Earl had to wrestle withal for I shall only look over his life without particular enquiry into his actions which had all glorious ends or glorious intentions were fewer then ever any great man ever met withal and his advantages more in number and in weight 'T is true he was rivall'd by a strong and subtile faction which cared and consulted for his ruine as a foundation they must build upon and were intent to betray him abroad and mis-interpret him at home yet the danger was thus allay'd that they were all his publique and professed enemies and so known unto the Queen that they durst never impertinently urge ought against him since they were sure their malice was concluded when the reason of their objection happily might not be considered And indeed that trick of countenancing and protecting factions as that Queen almost her whole Reign did with singular and equal demonstration of grace look upon several persons of most distinct wishes one towards another was not the least ground of much of her quiet and success And she never doubted but that men that were never so opposite in their good will each to others nor never so dishonest in their projectments for each others confusion might yet be reconciled into their Allegiance towards her Insomuch that during her whole Reign she never endeavoured to reconcile any personal differences in the Court though the unlawful emulations of persons of nearest trust about her were even like to overthrow some of her chiefest designs A Policy seldome entertained by Princes especially if they have issues to survive them Among the advantages the Earl had and he had many that will distinguish him from any man that hath or is likely to succeed him I shall rank the nature and the spirit of that time in the first place For I shall not mention his Interest in the Queens favour till the last which shall appear greatest by the circumstances that lost it 'T was an ingenuous un-inquisitive time when all the passions and affections of the people were lapped up in such an innocent and humble obedience that there was never the least contestations nor capitulations with the Queen nor though she very frequently consulted with her Subjects any further reasons urged of her actions then her own will When there were any grievances they but reverently conveyed them to her notice and left the time and order of the rest to her Princely discretion Once they were more importunate and formal in pursuing the complaints of the Purveyers for provision which without question was a crying and an heavy oppression The Queen sent them worâ—… they all thought themselves wise enough to reform the misdemeanours of their own families and wish't that they had so good opinion of her as to trust her with her servants too I do not find that the Secretary who delivered this Message received any reproach or check or that they proceeded any further in their inquisition In this excellent time the Queens remarkable Grace indeared the Earl to the regard of the people which he quickly improved to a more tender estimation neither was this affection of theirs ever an objection against him till himself took too much notice of it for the Queen had ever loved her people without the least scruple of jealousie nor was ever offended if he was the darling of their eyes till she suspected he inclined to be the darling of their hearts In his Friendships he was so fortunate that though he contracted with ancient enemies and such as he had undeserved by some unkindness as grievous as injurious it is not known that ever he was betrayed in his trust or had ever his secrets derived unhandsomly to any ears that they were not intended to and this if he had not planted himself upon such whose zeal to his service was more remarkable then their other abilities would have preserved him from so prodigious a fate Lastly he had so strong an harbour in the Queens brest that notwithstanding these dangerous indiscretions of committing himself in his recreations and shooting-matches to the publique view of so many thousand Citizens which usually flocked to see him and made within the reach of his own ears large acclamations in his praise notwithstanding his receiving into his troop of attendance and
under that shadow bringing into the Court divers persons not liked by the Queen and some that had been in prison for suspicion of Treason as Captain Wainman and then his glorious feather-triumph when he caused two thousand Orange-tawny Feathers in despight of Sir Walter Raleigh to be worn in the Tilt-yard even before Her Majesties own face all which would have found regret in the stomacks of most Princes yet neither these nor any whispers that were distill'd into the Queens ears for ought appears ever lessened him in her Highness's regard till he committed such strange mistakes as ever have been prosecuted with most exemplary punishments by the Lawes themselves which though in jealousie of Princes they oft compound Treasons out of circumstances and possibilities yet are as tender of the reputation of great men as in any Commonwealth whatsoever If toward his period the Queen grew a less merciful interpreter of his failings and successes 't was when she believed he grew too familiar and in love with his passions and had a mind not to be satisfied but upon his conditions and too insensible of his own errors And truly that would not be unfitly applyed to him that was once said of the terrible Mountford Earl of Leicester in the reign of Henry the Third though nothing be more horrible to me then the petulancy of that wit which for an unhandsome jest would accuse him of a purpose to be King for doubtless in his solemn purposes he was of a firm and unshaken allegiance that he had a spirit too great for a Subject For besides that he look'd from above and with a displeasure that had a mixture of scorn more then anger upon such as courted not his protection his talk was in an high and unusual dialect he took much delight to discover an hatred like a contempt of the King of Spain and would often mention his person as familiarly as Luther did our Henry the Eighth and as Fox begins his Book against the Pope with the first lines of Tullies Oration against Cataline Quousque tandem c. and so he would write in his ordinary Letters and publish in his Apology I will teach that proud King to know c. Which sounded possibly not so acceptable to the Queen her self who though she were perfect enough in her dislike to that King thought that the greatest Subject ought not to approach the infirnities or the mention of any King without some reverence And the Earl in his zeal to the Hollanders when the great design was to mediate a Truce between Spain and them and almost the whole Councel-board inclin'd that way would not only in the violence of his opposition shew a dislike to the insolency and tyranny of the Spaniards but of the very Government of a Monarchy Then his carriage towards the Queen her self was very strange and his usual converse upon too bold terms which proceeded not from any distemper but his passions though natural choler be but an unruly excuse for roughness with Princes but 't was a way of traffick I know not upon what unlucky success he had from the beginning fancied and lasted even to his end Insomuch as upon his first restraint which was not many moneths before his conclusion he did somewhat neglect the Queens pardon because it came not accompanied with a new grant of his Lease of the farm of sweet Wines which was then near expired though she intimated to him that she only deferred that Grace upon the Physicians Maximes Corpora impura quo magis pascas laeseris Lastly If ever that uncouth speech fell from him to the Queen which is delivered to us by one that was much conversant then in the secrets of the Court That she was as crooked in her disposition as in her carcass when haply there was a little unevenness in her shoulders all my wonder at his destruction is taken from me and I must needs confess I am nothing satisfied with that loose report which hath crept into our discourse that shortly after his miserable end which indeed deserved compassion from all hearts I know not upon what unseasonable delivery of a Ring or Iewel by some Lady of the Court the Queen expressed much reluctancy for his death I am sure no discovery no expression either to his Memory Friends or Dependants can weigh down the indignity of the Sermon at Pauls Cross and set out by Command or that Discourse that was so carefully commended abroad of his Treasons which were two of the most pestilent Libels against his Fame that any Age hath seen published against any Malefactour and could not with that deliberation have been contrived and justified by Authority had not there been some sparks of indignation in the Queen that were unquenched even with his blood 'T is time to call my self homewards to the view of those considerations in which will clearly appear the in-quality of the Dukes condition to what hath been said of the Earl and it may be I have been at my distance too bold an undertaker of these actions which were performed so many years before my cradle I shall not much insist on the Dukes Morning being so different from that of the Earls as would discountenance all purposes of bringing them into one circle he had no satisfaction in his friendships or pretence in his quality but was his own Harbinger at Court For though the Herauld may walk in as large a Field of his Pedegree as shall concern any Subject yet that being no in-let to his advancements or occasion of his favour I shall leave to such as shall have the preferment to write his Life 'T is true that soon after his approach was found to be acceptable and that he was like enough to be entertained by Him that had most power to bid him welcome he received pretty conveniences from the respects of some great men which at most being as much out of disaffection to others as tenderness to him yielded him rather assistance then support so that indeed he was if ever any Faber fortunae suae and all such as will not be impudent strangers to the discerning spirit of that King who first cherished him cannot but impute it to a certain innate wisdome and vertue that was in him with which he surprized and even fascinated all the faculties of his incomparable Master Hee was noe sooner admitted to stand there in his owne right but the eyes of all such as either look'd out of judgement or gazed out of curiosity were quickly directed towards him as a man in the delicacy and beauty of his colour decency and grace of his motion the most rarely accomplished they had ever beheld whilest some that found inconveniences in his nearness intended by some affront to discountenance his effeminacy till they perceived he had masked under it so terrible a courage as would safely protect all his sweetnesses And now he quickly shewed the most glorious Star that ever shined in any Court insomuch
praises and Elogies according to the contrary motions of popular waves And now to summe up the fruit of the Journey discourses ran thus among the clearest Observers It was said that the Prince himself without any imaginable stain of his Religion had by the sight of Forraign Courts and observations of the different Natures of people and Rules of Government much excited and awaked his spirits and corroborated his judgement And as for the Marquess there was note taken of two great additions which he had gained First he was returned with encrease of Title having there been made Duke by Patent sent him which was the highest degree whereof an English Subject could be capable But the other was far greater though closer for by so long and so private and so various consociation with a Prince of such excellent nature he had now gotten as it were two lives in his own Fortune and Greatness whereas otherwise the estate of a Favourite is at the best but a Tenant at will and rarely transmitted But concerning the Spanish Commission which in publick conceit was the main scope of the Journey that was left in great suspence and after some time utterly laid aside which threw the Duke amongst free Wits whereof we have a rank Soil under divers Censures The most part were apt to believe that he had brought down some deep distaste from Spain which exasperated his Councels Neither was there wanting some other that thought him not altogether void of a little Ambition to shew his power either to knit or dissolve Howsoever the whole Scene of affairs was changed from Spain to France there now lay the prospective Which alteration being generally liked and all alterations of State being ever attributed to the powerfullest under Princes as the manner is where the eminency of one obscureth the rest the Duke became suddenly and strangely Gracious among the multitude and was even in Parliament highly exalted so as he did seem for a time to have overcome that natural Incompatibility which in the experience of all Ages hath been noted between the Vulgar and the Soveraign Favour But this was no more then a meer bubble or blast and like an Ephemeral fit of applause as estsoon will appear in the sequel and train of his life I had almost forgotten that after his return from Spain he was made Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports which is as it were a second Admiralty and Steward likewise of the Mannour of Hampton-Court Dignities and Offices still growing of trust or profit And the King now giving not only out of a beneficent disposition but a very habitual and confirmed custome One year six moneths two dayes after the joyful reception of the Prince his Son from Spain King James of immortal memory among all the lovers and admirers of Divine and Humane Sapience accomplished at Theobalds his own dayes on Earth Under whom the Duke had run a long Course of calm and smooth prosperity I mean long for the ordinary life of favour and the more notable because it had been without any visible Eclipse or Wave in himself amidst divers variations in others The most important and pressing care of a new and Vigorous King was his Marriage for mediate establishment of the Royal Line Wherein the Duke having had an especial hand he was sent to conduce hither the most Lovely and Vertuous Princess Henrietta Maria youngest Daughter to the Great Henry of Bourbon of whom his Majesty as hath been said had an ambulatory view in his Travels like a stolen taste of something that provoketh appetite He was accompanied with none of our Peers but the Earl of Mountgomery now Lord Chamberlain a Noble Gentleman of trusty free and open nature and truly no unsuitable Associate for that he himself likewise at the beginning of King James had run his Circle in the wheeling vicissitude of Favour And here I must crave leave in such of high quality or other of particular note as shall fall under my pen whereof this is the first not to let them pass without their due Character being part of my professed ingenuity Now this Ambassy though it had a private shew being charged with more formality then matter for all the essential Conditions were before concluded could howsoever want no Ornaments or bravery to adorn it Among which I am near thinking it worthy of a little remembrance that the Duke one solemn day Gorgeously clad in a suit all over-spread with Diamonds and having lost one of them of good value perchance as he might be dancing after his manner with lofty motion it was strangely recovered again the next morning in a Court full of Pages Such a diligent attendant was Fortune every where both abroad and at home After this fair discharge all Civil Honours having showred on him before there now fell out great occasions to draw forth his spirits into action a breach first with Spain and not longafter with France it self notwithstanding so streight an affinity so lately treated with the one and actually accomplished with the other As if indeed according to that pleasant Maxime of State Kingdoms were never married This must of necessity involve the Duke in business enough to have over-set a lesser Vessel being the next Commander under the Crown of Ports and Ships But he was noted willingly to embrace those Overtures of publick employment For at the Parliament at Oxford his Youth and want of Experience in Maritime service had somewhat been shrewdly touched even before the sluces and flood-gates of popular liberty were yet set open So as to wipe out that objection he did now mainly attend his charge by his Majesties untroubled and serene Commands even in a tempestuous time Now the men fell a rubbing of Armour which a great while had layn oyled The Magazines of Munition are viewed The Officers of Remains called to account frequent Councels of War as many private conferences with expert Sea-men a Fleet in preparation for some attempt upon Spain The Duke himself personally imployed to the States General and with him joyned in full Commission the Earl of Holland a Peer both of singular grace and solidity and of all sweet and serviceable virtue for publick use These two Nobles after a dangerous passage from Harwich wherein three of their Ships were foundred arrived the fifth day at the Hague in Holland Here they were to enter a treaty both with the States themselves and with the Ministers of divers allied and confederate Princes about a common diversion for the recovery of the Palatinate where the King 's only Sisters Dowry had been ravished by the German Eagle mixed with Spanish Feathers A Princess resplendent in darkness and whose virtues were born within the chance but without the power of Fortune Here it were injurious to over-slip a Noble act in the Duke during this Imployment which I must for my part celebrate above all his Expences There was a Collection of certain rare Manuscripts exquisitely written in Arabick and sought
most affectionate poor Friend to serve you HENRY WOTTON Feb. 1613. SIR ONe Reason of my writing now unto you is because it seemeth a great while unto me since I did so Another to give you many thanks which upon the casting up of my reckonings I find I have not yet done for that Gelding wherewith you so much honoured me which in truth either for goodness or beauty runneth for one of the very best about this place And I have had a great deal of love made unto me for him by no small ones After this I must plainly tell you that I mean to perswade you I am sorry I cannot say to invite you for my Mind would bear that word better then my Fortune to bestow your self and your whole Family upon us this Shrovetide if it be but for three dayes at the conjunction of the Thames and the Rhene as our ravished Spirits begin to call it The occasion is rare the expence of time but little of money inconsiderable You shall see divers Princes a great confluence of Strangers sundry entertainments to shorten your patience and to reward your travel Finally nothing spared even in a necessitous time I will adde unto these Arguments that out of your own Store at home â—…ou may much encrease the beauty of this Assembly â—…nd your Daughters shall not need to provide any great splendour of Cloathing because they can â—…pply that with a better contribution as hath been â—…ell authenticated even by the Kings own testimony of them For though I am no longer an Ambassador yet am I not so bank-rupt of Intelligence but that I have heard of those rural passages Now let me therefore with this hobling Pen again and again pray you to resolve upon your coming if not with all the fair Train yet your self and my Lady and my Nephew and his Wife or at the least of leasts the Masculine We begin to lay off our mourning habits and the Court will shortly I think be as merry as if it were not sick The King will be here to morrow The Friday following he goeth to Windsor with the Count Palatine about the Ceremony of his Instalment In the mean time there is expected the Count Henry of Nassaw to be at the said Solemnity as the Representant of his Brother Yesternight the Count Palatino invited all the Counsel to a solemn Supper which was well ordered He is a Gentleman of very sweet hope and hath rather gained upon us then lost any thing after the first Impression And so Sir having ended my Paper I will end my Letter with my hearty prayers for the prosperity of your self and yours ever resting Your faithfull poor Friend to serve you HENRY WOTTON To the King 1615. May it please Your Sacred Majesty I Beseech your Majesty to pardon me a little short repetition how I have spent my time since my departure from your Royal sight because I glory in your goodness I have been imployed by your favour in four several Treaties differing in the Matter in the Instruments and in the Affections The first was for the sequestration of Juliers wherein I was joyned with the French The second for the provisional possession of the two Pretendents wherein contrary to the complaint of the Gospel the Labourers were more then the Harvest The third was for a defensive League between the united Provinces and the united Princes Who though they be separate Bodies of State do now by your onely Mediation make one Body of Strength The fourth was for the composing of some differences between your own and this People in matter of Commerce which hath exceeded the other Three both in length and in difficulty for two Reasons as I conceive it First Through the sensibleness of the Subject which is private Utility next because it had a secret commixture of publick respects and those of no light consequence For surely it importeth more to let the King of Spain dispense alone the Commodities of the East then for either of us to want them Now of the three former Treaties I have given your Majesty an accompt in divers Dispatches according to my poor apprehensions As for this last they that have eased my weakness in the conduct thereof I mean my good Associates by whose light and leadings I have walked will ease me likewise by your gracious leave in the Relation By them it may please your Majesty to understand in what fair terms we have left it somewhat resembling to my fancy those Women of Nombre de Dios who they say are never brought to bed in the place where they conceive but bring forth their children in a better Air And so I hope that our travels and unformed conceptions will take life in your own Kingdome which will be more honour to their Birth For our parts I dare affirm of these your Commissioners that now return unto the comfort of your gracious Aspect That they have discharged their Duties and their Consciences with all faithfull care of your Majesties Commandments I am confident likewise that they will give me their honest Testimony And we are bound joyntly to profess unto your Majesty from whom we receive our estimation the respects and kindnesses that have been here done us as your Vassals And so with my continual prayers to God for your blessed Being I here remain till your Majesty shall vouchsafe me again the grace of your eyes Your Majesties long devoted poor Servant HENRY WOTTON To the Marquess of Buckingham January 25. 1619. My most Noble Lord I Will be bold by this opportunity to give His Majesty through your Lordships hands an account of a Command which I had from him at Theobalds about sounding how the Venetian Ambassador stood satisfied with the late determination touching his predecessor Donato I did visit the said Ambassador immediately at my return from the King and saluted him as by express Commandment interjecting some words of mine own gladness that he had received contentment in this tender point which would signalize his beginnings This I said because in truth I had found him always before the more passionate in it by some reflection upon himself His answer after due thanks for His Majesties gracious remembrance of him from abroad was that for his own part he was Contentissimo and had represented things home in the best manner He hoped likewise it would be well tasted there also though with some doubt because the State out of their own devotion towards His Majesty might form a confidence of expecting more I replied that the King upon the matter if we consider disgrace had done more then themselves for he was but once banished at Venice and twice here viz. once from the verge of the Court and secondly from London which was as much as could be done with preservation of rational immunities and more then would have been done at the suit of of any other Ambassador here resident or perhaps of any of their own hereafter if the like
were in Lavender without an Answer save this only The pleasure I have taken in your Style and Conceptions together with a Meditation of the Subject you propound may seem to have cast me into a gentle slumber But being now awaked I do herein return you most hearty thanks for the kind prosecution of your first motion touching a just Office due to the memory of our ever memorable Friend To whose good fame though it be needless to add any thing and my age considered almost hopeless from my Pen yet I will endeavor to perform my promise if it were but even for this cause that in saying somewhat of the Life of so deserving a man I may perchance over-live mine own That which you add of Doctor King now made Dean of Rochester and by that translated into my native soil is a great spur unto me with whom I hope shortly to confer about it in my passage towards Boughton Malherb which was my genial Air and invite him to a friendship with that Family where his Predecessor was familiarly acquainted I shall write to you at large by the next Messenger being at present a little in business and then I shall set down certain general heads wherein I desire information by your loving diligence hoping shortly to enjoy your own ever welcome company in this approaching time of the Fly and the Cork And so I rest Your very hearty poor Friend to serve you H. WOTTON To the same My worthy Friend SInce I last saw you I have been confined to my Chamber by a quotidian Feaver I thank God of more contumacy then malignity It had once left me as I thought but it was only to fetch more company returning with a surcrew of those splenetick vapours that are called Hypocondriacal of which most say the cure is good company and I desire no better Phisician then your self I have in one of those fits endeavoured to make it more easie by composing a short Hymn and since I have apparelled my best thoughts so lightly as in Verse I hope I shall be pardoned a second vanity if I communicate it with such a Friend as your self to whom I wish a chearful spirit and a thankful heart to value it as one of the greatest blessings of our good God in whose dear love I leave you remaining Your poor Friend to serve you H. WOTTON A Hymn to my God in a Night of my late Sickness OH thou great Power in whom I move For whom I live to whom I die Behold me through thy beams of love Whilst on this couch of tears I lie And cleanse my sordid soul within By thy Christs Blood the Bath of Sin No hallowed Oyls no grains I need No rags of Saints no purging fire One rosie drop from David's Seed Was worlds of Seas to quench thine Ire O precious Ransome which once paid That Consummatum est was said And said by him that said no more But seal'd it with his sacred Breath Thou then that hast dispung'd my Score And dying wast the death of Death Be to me now on thee I call My Life my Strength my Joy my All. H. WOTTON To Doctor C. Worthy Sir I Cannot according to the Italian phrase at which I have been often ready to laugh among a Nation otherwise of so civil language accuse the receit of any Letter from you since your remove from these parts save of two by this Bearer my Servant and yours as all mine shall be Neither can I satisfie my imagination so far I am from quieting my desire where a third which you intimate in your last may yet lie smothered in some pocket for which I should have made a great research if that were not the diligentest way to miss it The truth is as I do highly estimate every line from your Pen so on the other side I am as jealous that any of them should stray For when a Friend of mine that was lately going towards your City fell casually into some discourse with me how he should cloath himself there I made some sport to tell him for a little beguiling of my Melancholy Fumes that in my opinion the cheapest stuff in London was Silence But this concerneth neither of us both for we know how to speak and write safely that is honestly Always if we touch any tender matter let us remember his Motto that wrote upon the Mantle of his Chimney where he used to keep a good fire OptimusSecretariorum I owe you abundant thanks for the Advertisements in your last so clearly and judiciously delivered you cannot do me a greater favour for though I am a Cloystered Man in the Condition of my present Life besides my Confinement by Infirmity yet having spent so much of mine Age among Noise abroad and seven Years thereof in the Court at home there doth still hang upon me I know not how a certain Concupiscence of Novelties I am sorry I have nothing in that kind at the present to interchange with you In mine own sickness I had of late for one half night and a whole day following a perfect intermission like a Truce from all Symptoms but some of them are returned again and I am afraid it will be hard to throw out altogether this same Saturnine Enemy being now lodged in me almost a full year In your way of applying the Leeches I have found sensible benefit If I could get a lodging near Paul's Church I would fain pass a week there yet before the great Festival Pardon me Good Sir this Communication with you of my Domestick purposes and pardon me likewise the use of another mans hand in this Letter for a little ease of mine own Head and Eyes And so I rest Your hearty Friend and Servant in all occasions H. WOTTON Sir Your subscription of Aldrovandus putteth me in mind of a mishap which befel me in the time of my private Travels I had been in a long pursuit of a much commended Author namely Johannes Britanicus de re Metallica and could never see him but in the Library of the brave Monks of Mont d'Oliveto in the Contaà o di Siena where while I had taken order to have him transcribed Aldrovando passing that way borrowed him from the Monastery and I sending not long after unto him in Bologna my Friend found him newly dead And this was the period of my fruitless curiosity To Doctor C. Worthy Sir I See by your Letters by your discourses and by your whole conversation that you are a Friend of great Learning and which are commonly consociated of as great humanity which shall make me study by any means within the narrowness of my fortune and judgement to deserve your love The rest I leave to this Bearer my Servant As I am Yours H. WOTTON To Doctor C. Worthy Sir HEnceforward no Complemental forms between us Let others repute them according to the Latine denomination Fine civil filling of speech and Letters For my part in good faith ex Diametro I
distillations in my brest makes me resolvs to enter anew into a little course of Physick And so having discharged this duty according to my Conscience and capacity I humbly leave your Grace in Gods blessed love remaining Your Graces ever devoted and professed Servant HENRY WOTTON 1626. The Copy of my Letter to the Queen of Bohemia Most Resplendent Queen even is the darkness of Fortune I Most humbly salute Your Majesty again after the longest silence that I have ever held with You since I first took into my heart an image of Your excellent Vertues My thoughts indeed have from the exercise of outward duties been confined within my self and deeply wounded with mine own private griefs and losles which I was afraid if I had written sooner to Your Majesty before time had dryed them up would have freshly bled again And with what shall I now entertain Your sweet Spirits It becomes not my weakness to speak of deep and weighty Counsels nor my privateness of great Personages Yet because I know Your Majesty cannot but expect I should say somewhat of the Duke of Buckingham whom all contemplate I will begin there and end in such comforts as I can suggest to Your present Estate which shall be ever the Subject both of my Letters and of my prayers But before I deliver my conceit of the said Duke I must use a little Preface I am two wayes tyed unto him First for his singular love to my never forgotten Albertus therein likewise concurring with Your Majesties inestimable affection Next for mine own particular I hold by his mediation this poor place as indeed for the benefit I may well call it though not for the contentment But if it were worth Millions or Worlds I protest unto Your Majesty to whom I owe the bottome of my heart I would not speak otherwise of him then I conceive Therefore setting aside both fears of Parliament and hopes of Court I will spend my opinion which is all my freehold And truly my most gracious and Royal Mistress I cannot weigh his Case without much wonder being one of the strangest all considered that I ever yet took into my fancy Not that the Commons assembled should sift and winnow the actions even of the highest of the Nobility Not that an obscure Physician then among them ambitious of some glory out of his own profession should dare to give the first onset on so eminent a Personage Not that such a popular pursuit once begun by one and seconded by a few other should quickly kindle a greater Party These are in their nature no marvels nor Novelties Neither can I greatly muse that in a young Gentleman during thirteen years of such prosperity and power the heighth of his place exposing him to much observation and curiosity the Lower House lâ—…kewise opening the way to all kind of complaints as they did and examining nothing upon Oath as they never do there should be matter enough gleaned to make up thirteen Objections and none of heinous degree For after such boltings to the quick even among men of far meaner managements I think there would be found every where some Bran. Therefore I can pass all this over with easie belief But there is a consideration or two which do much confound my judgement First for the matter it self That this very Noble man who at the Parliament of 1623. was so universally applauded and celebrated in every corner as a great Instrument of the Publick good in so much as for my part I conceived him then to be that which few or none had been before in all ages No less Favorite I mean to the People then to the King should now be persued with these dislikes when for the most part the very same Objectors were in the foresaid Parliament and the very same Objections except one or two might as well then have been alledged This is I must confess to my understanding a Labyrinth Again When from the matter turning to the Person I view the fairness and equality of his temper and carriage I can in truth descry in his own nature no original excitement of such distaste which commonly ariseth not so much from high fortune as from high looks For I most ingeniously avow unto your Majesty that among all the Favorites which mine eyes have beheld in divers Courts and times I never saw before a strong heart and eminent condition so clearly void of all pride and swelling arrogancy either in his face or in his fashion These are partly the Reasons that make me vvonder hovv such offence should grovv like a mushrome in a night But there is one thing above all other that hath strucken deepest into my mind and made me see hovv the greatest men have this unfortunate adjunct in their felicity to be sometimes obnoxious to the foulest and falsest reports vvhereof in the person of this very Duke himself I shall lay a monstrous example before your Majesty out of mine own particular knowledge and employment It pleased my Sovereign novv being to direct unto me hither a Commission to examine my Lord of Oldebares Daughter by name Mistress Anne Lion I think sometimes not unknown unto your Majesty then resident at Windsor about an abominable Pamphlet published and printed towards the time of the last Parliament in divers Languages by one Doctor Eglisham a Scottish Physitian vvho therein chargeth the Duke of Buckingham vvith such trifles as these The death of the Marquess Hamilton his near Friend and Ally the death of our late King of ever blessed memory his most dear Master the intended deaths of divers Counsellors of Estate his Associates painting in effect a nature far beyond that of Richard the Third vvhen he vvas Duke of Glocester And for a Witness hereof he traduceth the foresaid Gentlewoman or rather as the main ground of his vvhole Book vvhich occasioned her examination at the Dukes pursuit against himself whereof I send your Majesty a Copy herewith as I took it from her own free delivery vvherein you shall see a bare Note of a few Counsellors Names found at first not in the Dukes Cabinet but in the very kennel of King-street by a Car-man Servant to a Woodmonger Secondly by him brought to a Foot-man by which honourable degrees it came to the Gentlewoman all dirty And at last it is turned by this Doctor into Bill of Personages to be poysoned out of a very charitable interpretation then reigning in him I am doubtful what passion it will most stir in your Majesty when you read the Circumstances whether meer laughter at such a ridiculous slander or a noble indignation at so desperate impudency And so not to stay any longer upon this Cobweb I will end with such comforts as I propound to my self in contemplation of your present being The first shall be a general impression which we have taken of his Majesties Nature And it is this That he is not only to consider him absolutely in his own composition of