The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (333 page)
Read The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 Online
Authors: David Hume
Online Library of Liberty: The History of England, vol. 4
[o]D’Ewes, p. 460, 469. Townsend, p. 37.
[p]D’Ewes, p. 470. Townsend, p. 54.
[r]D’Ewes, p. 474. Townsend, p. 60.
[s]D’Ewes, p. 474, 478. Townsend, p. 68.
[t]Heylin’s History of the Presbyterians, p. 320.
[w]After enacting this statute, the clergy, in order to remove the odium from
themselves, often took care that recusants should be tried by the civil judges at the assizes, rather than by the ecclesiastical commissioners. Strype’s Ann. vol. iv. p. 264.
[x]D’Ewes, p. 483, 487, 488. Townsend, p. 66.
[y]D’Ewes, p. 466. Townsend, p. 47.
[z]D’Ewes, p. 466. Townsend, p. 48.
[a]Spotswood, p. 391. Rymer, tom. xvi. p. 190.
[b]Spotswood, p. 393. Rymer, tom. xvi. p. 235.
[d]Camden, p. 577. Birch’s Negot. p. 15. Bacon, vol. iv. p. 381.
[m]Birch’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 97.
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[n]Birch’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 121.
[p]Sidney Papers, vol. ii. p. 77.
[NOTE [EE]]
It is usual for the speaker to disqualify himself for the office; but the reasons employed by this speaker are so singular, that they may be worth transcribing.
“My estate,” said he, “is nothing correspondent for the maintenance of this dignity: For my father dying left me a younger brother; and nothing to me but my bare annuity. Then growing to man’s estate and some small practice of the law, I took a wife, by whom I have had many children; the keeping of us all being a great impoverishing to my estate, and the daily living of us all nothing but my daily industry. Neither from my person nor my nature doth this choice arise: For he that supplieth this place ought to be a man big and comely, stately and well-spoken, his voice great, his carriage majestical, his nature haughty, and his purse plentiful and heavy: But contrarily, the stature of my body is small, myself not so well-spoken, my voice low, my carriage lawyer-like, and of the common fashion, my nature soft and bashful, my purse thin, light, and never yet plentiful.——If
Demosthenes,
being so learned and eloquent as he was, one whom none surpassed, trembled to speak before
Phocion
at
Athens;
how much more shall I, being unlearned and unskilful to supply the place of dignity, charge, and trouble, to speak before so many
Phocions
as here be? Yea, which is the greatest, before the unspeakable majesty and sacred personage of our dread and dear sovereign: The terror of whose countenance will appal and abase even the stoutest hearts; yea, whose very name will pull down the greatest courage. For how mightily do the estate and name of a prince deject the haughtiest stomach even of their greatest subjects?” D’Ewes, p. 459.
[t]D’Ewes, p. 525, 527. Townsend, p. 79.
[u]D’Ewes, p. 539, 540, 580, 585. Townsend, p. 93, 94, 95.
[NOTE [FF]]
Cabbala, p. 234. Birch’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 386. Speed, p. 877. The whole letter of Essex is so curious and so spirited, that the reader may not be displeased to read it. “My very good lord; Though there is not that man this day living, whom I would sooner make judge of any question that might concern me than yourself, yet you must give me leave to tell you, that in some cases I must appeal PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)
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from all earthly judges: And if any, then surely in this, when the highest judge on earth has imposed on me the heaviest punishment without trial or hearing. Since then I must either answer your lordship’s argument, or else forsake mine own just defence, I will force mine aching head to do me service for an hour. I must first deny my discontent, which was forced, to be an humorous discontent; and that it was unseasonable or is of so long continuing, your lordship should rather condole with me than expostulate: Natural seasons are expected here below; but violent and unreasonable storms come from above: There is no tempest equal to the passionate indignation of a prince; nor yet at any time so unseasonable as when it lighteth on those that might expect a harvest of their careful and painful labours. He that is once wounded, must needs feel smart, till his hurt is cured, or the part hurt become senseless: But cure I expect none, her majesty’s heart being obdurate against me; and be without sense I cannot, being of flesh and blood. But, say you, I may aim at the end: I do more than aim; for I see an end of all my fortunes, I have set an end to all my desires. In this course do I any thing for my enemies? When I was at court, I found them absolute; and, therefore, I had rather they should triumph alone, than have me attendant upon their chariots. Or do I leave my friends? When I was a courtier, I could yield them no fruit of my love unto them; and now, that I am a hermit, they shall bear no envy, for their love towards me. Or do I forsake myself, because I do enjoy myself? Or do I overthrow my fortunes, because I build not a fortune of paper walls, which every puff of wind bloweth down? Or do I ruinate mine honour, because I leave following the pursuit, or wearing the false badge or mark of the shadow of honour? Do I give courage or comfort to the foreign foe, because I reserve myself to encounter with him? Or because I keep my heart from business, though I cannot keep my fortune from declining? No, no, my good lord, I give every one of these considerations its due weight; and the more I weigh them, the more I find myself justified from offending in any of them. As for the two last objections, that I forsake my country, when it hath most need of me, and fail in that indissoluble duty which I owe to my sovereign; I answer, that if my country had at this time any need of my public service, her majesty that governeth it, would not have driven me to a private life. I am tied to my country by two bonds; one public, to discharge carefully and industriously that trust which is committed to me; the other private, to sacrifice for it my life and carcase, which hath been nourished in it. Of the first I am free, being dismissed, discharged, and disabled by her majesty: Of the other, nothing can free me but death; and therefore no occasion of my performance shall sooner offer itself but I shall meet it half way. The indissoluble duty which 1 owe unto her majesty, is only the duty of allegiance, which I never have, nor never can fail in: The duty of attendance, is no indissoluble duty. 1 owe her majesty the duty of an earl and of lord marshal of England. I have been content to do her majesty the service of a clerk; but I can never serve her as a villain or slave. But yet you say I must give way unto the time. So I do; for now that I see the storm come, I have put myself into the harbour.
Seneca
saieth, we must give way to Fortune: I know that Fortune is both blind and strong, and therefore I go as far as I can out of her way. You say the remedy is not to strive: I neither strive nor seek for remedy. But, you say, I must yield and submit: I can neither yield myself to be guilty, nor allow the imputation laid upon me to be just: I owe so much to the Author of all truth, as I can never yield truth to be falsehood, nor falsehood to be truth. Have I given cause, you ask; and yet take a scandal when I have done? No: I gave no cause, not so much as
Fimbria
’s complaint against me; for I did PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)
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totum telum corpore recipere:
Receive the whole sword into my body. I patiently bear all, and sensibly feel all that I then received, when this scandal was given me. Nay more, when the vilest of all indignities are done unto me,” &c. This noble letter, Bacon afterwards, in pleading against Essex, called bold and presumptuous, and derogatory to her majesty. Birch’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 388.
[c]Sir J. Davies, p. 5, 6, 7, &c.
[d]Sir J. Davies, p. 102, 103, &c.
[e]Sir J. Davies, p. 133, 134, &c.
[f]See Spencer’s account of Ireland, throughout.
[h]Memoirs of the Sidneys, vol. i. p. 86.
[i]Cox, p. 342. Sidney, vol. i. p. 85, 200.
[k]Camden, p. 542. Sidney, vol. i. p. 65, 109, 183, 184.
[u]Nanton’s Fragmenta Regalia, p. 203.
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[b]Birch’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 421, 451.
[c]Ibid. p. 431. Bacon, vol. iv. p. 512.
[d]Birch’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 448.
[g]Birch’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 430. Cox, p. 421.
[h]Sydney’s Letters, vol. ii. p. 112, 113.
[k]
Winwood, vol. i. p. 307. State Trials. Bacon, vol. iv. p. 514, 535, 537.
[l]Birch’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 453.
[n]Sydney’s Letters, vol. ii. p. 127.
[o]Birch’s Memoirs, p. 444, 445. Sydney’s Letters, vol. ii. p. 196.
[p]Sydney’s Letters, vol. ii. p. 151.
[r]Sydney’s Letters, vol. ii. p. 153.
[w]Birch’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 449.
[x]Sydney’s Letters, vol. ii. p. 200.
[y]Sydney’s Letters, vol. ii. p. 200, 201.
[z]Birch’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 454. Camden, p. 626, 627.
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[d]Birch’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 462.
[f]Birch’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 472.
[i]Birch’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 463. Camden, p. 630.
[k]Camden, p. 629. Osborne, p. 397. Sir Walter Raleigh’s Prerogative of parliament,
p. 43.
[l]Birch’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 442, 443.
[m]Sydney’s Letters, vol. ii. p. 171.
[NOTE [GG]]
Most of queen Elizabeth’s courtiers feigned love and desire towards her, and addressed themselves to her in the stile of passion and gallantry. Sir Walter Raleigh, having fallen into disgrace, wrote the following letter to his friend Sir Robert Cecil, with a view, no doubt, of having it shewn to the queen. “My heart was never broke till this day, that I hear the queen goes away so far off, whom I have followed so many years, with so great love and desire, in so many journeys, and am now left behind her in a dark prison all alone. While she was yet near at hand, that I might hear of her once in two or three days, my sorrows were the less; but even now my heart is cast into the depth of all misery. I, that was wont to behold her riding like
Alexander,
hunting like
Diana,
walking like
Venus,
the gentle wind blowing her fair hair about her pure cheeks, like a nymph, sometimes sitting in the shade like a Goddess, sometimes singing like an Angel, sometimes playing like
Orpheus;
behold the sorrow of this world! once amiss hath bereaved me of all. O glory that only shineth in misfortune, what is become of thy assurance? All wounds have scars but that of fantasie: All affections their relenting but that of womankind. Who is the judge of friendship but adversity, or when is grace witnessed but in offences? There were no divinity but by reason of compassion: For revenges are brutish and mortal. All those times past, the loves, the sighs, the sorrows, the desires, cannot they weigh down one frail misfortune? Cannot one drop of gall be hid in so great heaps of sweetness? I may then conclude,
Spes & fortuna, valete.
She is gone in whom I trusted; and of me hath not one thought of mercy, nor any respect of that which was. Do with me now therefore what you list. I am more weary of life than they are desirous I should perish; which, if it had been for her, as it is by her, I had been too happily born.”
Murden,
657.
It is to be remarked, that this Nymph, Venus, Goddess, Angel, was then about PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)
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sixty. Yet five or six years after, she allowed the same language to be held to her. Sir Henry Unton, her ambassador in France, relates to her a conversation which he had with Henry IV. The monarch, after having introduced Unton to his mistress, the fair Gabrielle, asked him how he liked her. “I answered sparingly in her praise,” said the minister, “and told him, that if, without offence, I might speak it, I had the picture of a far more excellent mistress, and yet did her picture come far short of her perfection of beauty. As you love me, said he, shew it me, if you have it about you. I made some difficulties; yet upon his importunity offered it to his view very secretly, holding it still in my hand: He beheld it with passion and admiration, saying, that I had reason,
Je me rends,
protesting, that he had never seen the like; so, with great reverence, he kissed it twice or thrice, I detaining it still in my hand. In the end, with some kind of contention, he took it from me, vowing, that I might take my leave of it: For he would not forego it for any treasure: And that to possess the favour of the lively picture, he would forsake all the world, and hold himself most happy; with many other most passionate speeches.”
Murden,
p. 718. For farther particulars on this head, see the ingenious author of the Catalogue of royal and noble Authors, article
Essex.
