Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

could reach them. With the first I have renewed acquaintance, and it was like a bill of revivor, by way of cross-suits; for he was as ready to have begun with me. The second did this day arrive, and took acquaintance with me instantly in the council-chamber, and was willing to entertain me with farther demonstrations of confidence, than I was willing at that time to admit. But I have had no serious speech with him, nor do I yet know whether any of the doubles of my letter have been delivered to the king. It may perhaps have proved your luck to be the first.

Things are here in good quiet. The king acts excellently well; for he puts in clauses of reservation to every proviso. He saith, he would be sorry to have just cause to remove any. . He saith, he will displace none who hath served the queen and state sincerely, etc. The truth is, here be two extremes; some few would have no change, no not reformation: some many would have much change even with perturbation. God, I hope, will direct this wise king to hold a mean between reputation enough and no terrors. In my particular I have many comforts and assurances; but in my own opinion the chief is, that the canvassing world is gone, and the deserving world is come. And withal I find myself as one awaked out of sleep; which I have not been this long time, nor could, I think, have been now without

[ocr errors]

4 Upon this occasion it may not be amiss to remember what cardinal d'Ossat writ from Rome to M. de Villeroy upon the accession of king James to the crown of England, part of which I wish no prince would ever forget.

66

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"C'est l'ordinaire des hommes de regarder plus au soleil orient "qu'à l'occident, & des Princes bien avisez qui sont appellez à un nouvel estat, d'y entrer doucement, sans irriter ni mécontenter personne ni dedans ni dehors. Si ce Prince continue guidé par la vertu & accompagné de bonheur, comme jusques icy, il sera très-grand, & fera bon l'avoir pour amy; & nous, qui depuis quelques années en ça n'avions eu l'œil quasi qu'en un lieu, faudra que l'ayons cy-après en deux; comme fau"dra bien aussi que fassent encore d'autres. Et en fin de compte, Celui de tous qui regnera le mieux & le plus justement "à l'honneur & gloire de Dieu, & ru soulagement, profit & felicité "de ses sujets; sera le plus asseuré, le plus fort, & le plus aimé, loué " & beni de Dieu & des hommes; en quoy consiste la vraye & per. "durable grandeur & puissance des Roys, & l'asseurance de leur "posterité." Stephens.

[ocr errors]

such a great noise as this, which yet is in aura leni. I have written this to you in haste, my end being no more than to write, and thereby to make you know that I will ever continue the same, and still be sure to wish you as heartily well as to myself. 1603.

Rawley's LXXIII. To the Earl of NORTHUMBERLAND.

Resuscita

tio.

It may please your good Lordship,

I WOULD not have lost this journey, and yet I have not that I went for; for I have had no private conference to purpose with the king; no more hath almost any other English: for the speech his majesty admitteth with some noblemen, is rather matter of grace, than matter of business. With the attorney he spake, urged by the treasurer of Scotland, but no more than needs must. After I had received his majesty's first welcome, and was promised private access; yet not knowing what matter of service your lordship's letter carried, for I saw it not, and well knowing that primeness in advertisement is much; I chose rather to deliver it to Sir Thomas Erskine, than to cool it in my own hands, upon expectation of access. Your lordship shall find a prince the farthest from vain-glory that may be; and rather like a prince of the ancient form, than of the latter time. His speech is swift and cursory, and in the full dialect of his country; and in speech of business, short; in speech of discourse, large. He affecteth popularity by gracing such as he hath heard to be popular, and not by any fashions of his own: he is thought somewhat general in his favours; and his virtue of access is rather, because he is much abroad, and in press, than that he giveth easy audiHe hasteneth to a mixture of both kingdoms and occasions, faster perhaps than policy will well bear. I told your lordship once before, that, methought, his majesty rather asked counsel of the time past, than of the time to come: but it is yet early to ground any settled opinion. For the particulars, I refer to conference, having in these generals gone farther in so tender an argument than I would have done, were not the bearer hereof so assured. So I continue, etc. 1603.

ence.

LXXIV. A Letter to Mr. MURRAY,' of the king's bed-chamber.

Mr. Murray,

6

It is very true, that his majesty, most graciously at my humble request, knighted the last Sunday my brother-in-law, a towardly young gentleman; for which favour I think myself more bound to his majesty, than for the benefit of ten knights: and to tell you truly, my meaning was not, that the suit of this other gentleman Mr. Temple' should have been moved in my name. For I should have been unwilling to have moved his majesty for more than one at once, though many times in his majesty's courts of justice, if we move once for our friends, we are allowed to move again for our fee.

But indeed my purpose was, that you might have been pleased to have moved it as for myself.

Nevertheless, since it is so far gone, and that the gentleman's friends are in some expectation of success, I leave it to your kind regard what is farther to be done, as willing to give satisfaction to those which have put me in trust, and loth on the other side to press above good manners. And so with my loving

commendations I remain

1603.

Yours, etc.

LXXV. To Mr. PIERCE, secretary to the lord Rawley's deputy of Ireland.

Mr. Pierce,

I AM glad to hear of you, as I do; and for my part, you shall find me ready to take any occasion to

5 John Murray, Esq.

To this Sir John Constable, Sir Francis Bacon dedicated the second edition of his Essays, published at London in 1613, in

octavo.

7 Probably Mr. William Temple, who had been educated in King's College, Cambridge, then master of the free-school at Lincoln, next successively secretary to Sir Philip Sidney, secretary Davison, and the earl of Essex, made provost of Dublin College in 1609, and at last knighted, and appointed one of the masters in chancery in Ireland. He died about 1626, at the age of 72.

Resuscitatio.

Resuscita

further your credit and preferment. And I dare assure you, though I am no undertaker, to prepare your way with my lord of Salisbury, for any good fortune which

may befal you. You teach me to complain of business, whereby I write the more briefly; and yet I am so unjust, as that which I alledge for mine own excuse, I cannot admit for yours: for I must, by expecting, exact your letters, with this fruit of your sufficiency, as to understand how things pass in that kingdom. And therefore having begun, I pray you continue. This is not merely curiosity, for I have ever, I know not by what instinct, wished well to that impolished part of this crown. And so, with my very loving

commendations, I remain.

Rawley's LXXVI. To the Earl of NORTHAMPTON, desiring him to present the Advancement of Learning to the king.

tio.

It may please your good Lordship,

HAVING finished a work touching the advancement of learning, and dedicated the same to his sacred majesty, whom I dare avouch, if the records of time err not, to be the learnedest king that hath reigned; I was desirous, in a kind of congruity, to present it by the

$ The earl of Northampton was the second son, and bore the name of that accomplished gentleman Henry Howard, earl of Surry, son and heir to the duke of Norfolk, who suffered under the severity of king Henry VIII's latter days; the one by death, the other by imprisonment. During great part of the reign of queen Elizabeth, while his family lay under the cloud, he apply'd himself to learning; and to what a degree he arrived, appears by a book he published in 1583, against the poison of supposed prophecies, dedicated to Sir Francis Walsingham; and from the eulogy that was generally given him, that he was the most learned among the noble, and the most noble among the learned. But in the king's reign his advancement was speedy both in honours and riches. The services he performed as a commissioner in making the peace between England and Spain, gave birth to a saying in those times, but with what truth I know not, that his house in the Strand, now called Northumberland house, was built by Spanish gold. He died in 1614, leaving behind him the memory of some real good works, and of some supposed ill ones; being suspected of concealing his religion for many years, and of being privy to the untimely death of Sir Thomas Overbury. Stephens.

learnedest counsellor in this kingdom; to the end that so good an argument, lighting upon so bad an author, might receive some reputation by the hands into which, and by which, it shall be delivered. And therefore, I make it my humble suit to your lordship, to present this mean but well-meant writing to his majesty, and with it my humble and zealous duty; and also, my like humble request of pardon, if I have too often taken his name in vain, not only in the dedication, but in the voucher of the authority of his speeches and writings. And so I remain. 1605.

9

LXXVII. To Sir THOMAS BODLEY, upon send-Rawley's ing his book of Advancement of Learning.

Sir,

I THINK no man may more truly say with the psalm, Multum incola fuit anima mea, than myself; for, I do confess, since I was of any understanding, my mind hath in effect been absent from that I have done; and in absence are many errors, which I do willingly acknowledge; and, amongst the rest, this great one that led the rest; that knowing myself by inward calling to be fitter to hold a book, than to play a part, I have led my life in civil causes; for which I was not very fit by nature, and more unfit by the preoccupation of my mind. Therefore calling myself home, I have now for a time enjoyed myself, whereof likewise I desire to make the world partaker. My labours, if I may so term that which was the comfort of my other labours, I have dedicated to the king; desirous, if there be any good in them, it may be as the fat of a sacrifice, incensed to his honour: and the second copy I have sent unto you, not only in good affection, but in a kind of congruity, in regard of your great and rare desert of learning. For books are the

9 Sir Thomas Bodley restored the public library in Oxford, begun in the times of king Henry VI. by Humphry duke of Gloucester; or was rather the founder of a new one, which now bears his name, and which hath placed him among the chief benefactors to that university, and to the commonwealth of learning. He died in the entrance of the year 1613. Stephens.

Resuscitatio.

« AnteriorContinuar »