ing I will be here again, and follow on the same | hath gone so near me, as it hath almost overcourse, stirring a discontentment in her, &c. And so wish you all happiness, and rest Your most assured friend, Endorsed, March 28, 1594. ESSEX. THE EARL OF ESSEX TO MR. FRANCIS BACON.* SIR-I have now spoken with the queen, and I see no stay from obtaining a full resolution of that we desire. But the passion she is in by reason of the tales that have been told her against Nicholas Clifford, with whom she is in such rage, for a matter, which I think you have heard of, doth put her infinitely out of quiet; and her passionate humour is nourished by some foolish women. Else I find nothing to distaste us, for she doth not contradict confidently; which they that know the minds of women, say is a sign of yielding. I will to-morrow take more time to deal with her, and will sweeten her with all the art I have to make benevolum auditorem. I have already spoken with Mr. Vice-Chamberlain, and will to-morrow speak with the rest. Of Mr. Vice-Chamberlain you may assure yourself; for so much he hath faithfully promised me. The exceptions against the competitors I will use tomorrow; for then I do resolve to have a full and large discourse, having prepared the queen tonight to assign me a time under colour of some such business, as I have pretended. In the mean time I must tell you, that I do not respect either my absence, or my showing a discontentment in going away, for I was received at my return, and I think I shall not be the worse. And for that I am oppressed with multitude of letters that are come, of which I must give the queen some account to-morrow morning, I therefore desire to be excused for writing no more to-night: tomorrow you shall hear from me again. I wish you what you wish yourself in this and all things else, and rest Your most affectionate friend, thrown my health; for when I revolved the good memory of my father, the near degree of alliance I stand in to my lord treasurer, your lordship's so signalled and declared favour, the honourable testimony of so many counsellors, the commendations unlaboured, and in sort offered by my lords the judges and the master of the rolls elect ;* that I was voiced with great expectation, and, though I say it myself, with the wishes of most men, to the higher place; that I am a man, that the queen hath already done for; and that princes, especially her majesty, love to make an end where they begin; and then add hereunto the obscureness and many exceptions to my competitors: when I say I revolve all this, I cannot but conclude with myself, that no man ever read a more exquisite disgrace; and, therefore, truly, my lord, I was determined, if her majesty reject me, this, to do. My nature can take no evil ply; but I will, by God's assistance, with this disgrace of, my fortune, and yet with that comfort of the good opinion of so many honourable and worthy persons, retire myself with a couple of men to Cambridge, and there spend my life in my studies and contemplations without looking back. I humbly pray your lordship to pardon me for troubling you with my melancholy. For the matter itself, I commend it to your love; only I pray you communicate afresh this day with my lord treasurer and Sir Robert Cecil; and if you esteem my fortune, remember the point of precedency. The objections to my competitors your lordship knoweth partly. I pray spare them not, not over the queen, but to the great ones, to show your confidence, and to work their distrust. Thus, longing exceedingly to exchange troubling your lordship with serving you, I rest Your lordship's, in most entire and faithful service, FRANCIS BACON. March 30, 1594. I humbly pray your lordship I may hear from you some time this day. ESSEX. This Friday at night. Endorsed, March 29, 1594. MR. FRANCIS BACON TO SIR ROBERT CECIL.‡ MY MOST HONOURABLE GOOD COUSIN, Your honour in your wisdom doth well per MR. FRANCIS BACON TO THE EARL OF ESSEX.‡ceive, that my access at this time is grown despe rate in regard of the hard terms, that as well the Earl of Essex as Mr. Vice-Chamberlain, who were to have been the means thereof, stand in with her majesty, according to their occasions. And, therefore, I am only to stay upon that point of delaying and preserving the matter entire till a better constellation; which, as it is not hard, as I conceive, considering the French business and the instant progress, &c., so I commend in special to you the care, who in sort assured me thereof, and upon whom now, in my Lord of Essex's absence, I have only to rely; and, if it be needful, I humbly pray you to move my lord your father to lay his hand to the same delay. And so I wish you all increase of honour. Your honour's poor kinsman, From Gray's Inn, this 1st of May 1594. SIR ROBERT CECIL'S ANSWER.* COUSIN, I do think nothing cut the throat more of your present access than the earl's being somewhat troubled at this time. For the delaying I think it not hard, neither shall there want my best endeavour to make it easy, of which I hope you shall not need to doubt by the judgment, which I gather of divers circumstances confirming my opinion. I protest I suffer with you in mind, that you are thus gravelled; but time will founder all your competitors, and set you on your feet, or else I have little understanding. EARL OF ESSEX TO MR. FRANCIS BACON.+ SIR,-I wrote not to you till I had had a second conference with the queen, because the first was spent only in compliments: she in the beginning excepted all business: this day she hath seen me again. After I had followed her humour in talking of those things, which she would entertain me with, I told her, in my absence I had written to Sir Robert Cecil, to solicit her to call you to that place, to which all the world had named you; and being now here, I must follow it myself; for I know what service I should do her in procuring you the place; and she knew not how great a comfort I should take in it. Her answer in playing just was, that she came not to me for that, I should talk of those things when I came to her, not when she came to me; the term was coming, and she would advise. I would have replied, but she stopped my mouth. To-morrow or the next day I will go to her, and then this excuse will be taken away. When I know more, you shall hear more; and so I end full of pain in my head, which makes me write thus confusedly. Your most affectionate friend. Among the papers of Antony Bacon, Esq., vol. iv. fol. (22, in the Lambeth Library. + Thid. fol. 122. EARL OF ESSEX TO MR. FRANCIS BACON well as SIR,-I went yesterday to the queen through the galleries in the morning, afternoon, and at night. I had long speech with her of you, wherein I urged both the point of your extraordinary sufficiency proved to me not only by your last argument, but by the opinion of all men I spake withal, and the point of mine own satisfaction, which, 1 protested, should be exceeding great, if, for all her unkindness and discomforts past, she should do this one thing for my sake. To the first she answered, that the greatness of your friends, as of my lord treasurer and myself, did make men give a more favourable testimony than else they would do, thinking thereby they pleased us. And that she did acknowledge you had a great wit, and an excellent gift of speech, and much other good learning. But in law she rather thought you could make show to the uttermost of your knowledge, than that you were deep. To the second she said, she showed her mislike to the suit, as there were a yielding, it was fitter to be of my I had done my affection in it; and that if side. I then added, that this was an answer, with which she might deny me all things, if she did not grant them at the first, which was not her manner to do. But her majesty had made me suffer and give way in many things else; which all I should bear, not only with patience, but with great contentment, if she would but grant my humble suit in this one. And for the pretence of the approbation given you upon partiality, that all the world, lawyers, judges, and all, could not be partial to you; for somewhat you were crossed for their own interest, and some for their friends; but yet all did yield to your merit. She did in this as she useth in all, went from a denial to a delay, and said, when the council were all here, she would think of it; and there was no haste in determining of the place. To which I answered, that my sad heart had need of hasty comfort; and, therefore, her majesty must pardon me, if I were hasty and importunate in it. When they come we shall see what will be done; and I wish you all happiness, and rest Your most affectionate friend ESSEX. FOULKE GREVILL, ESQ. TO MR. FRANCIS BACON.† MR. FRANCIS BACON, Saturday was my first coming to the court, from whence I departed again as soon as I had kissed her majesty's hands, because I had no lodging nearer than my uncle's, which is four Among the papers of Antony Bacon, Esq., vol. iv. fol. 123, in the Lambeth Library. + Ibid. fol. 132. lord which may import the same, as I made my keeper acquainted before my going. So, leaving it to God to make a good end of a hard beginning, and most humbly craving your majesty's pardon for presuming to trouble you, I recommend your sacred majesty to God's tenderest preservation. Your sacred majesty's, in most humble obedience and devotion, FR. BACON. From Huntingdon, this 20th of July, 1594. MR. FRANCIS BACON TO HIS BROTHER ANTONY.. uniles off. This day I came thither to dinner, and waiting for to speak with the queen, took occasion to tell how I met you, as I passed through London; and among other speeches, how you lamented your misfortune to me, that remained as a withered branch of her roots, which she had cherished and made to flourish in her service. I added what I thought of your worth, and the expectation for all this, that the world had of her princely goodness towards you: which it pleased her majesty to confess, that indeed you began to frame very well, insomuch as she saw an amends in those little supposed errors, avowing the respect she carried to the dead, with very exceeding gracious inclination towards you. Some comparisons there fell out besides, which I leave till we meet, which I hope shall be this week. It pleased her withal to tell of the jewel you offered her by Mr. Vice-ness collecteth the mind, as shutting the eye doth Chamberlain, which she had refused, yet with exceeding praise. I marvel, that as a prince she should refuse those havings of her poor subjects, because it did include a small sentence of despair; but either I deceive myself, or she was resolved to take it; and the conclusion was very kind and gracious. Sure as I will one hundred pounds to fifty pounds that you shall be her solicitor, and my friend; in which mind and for which mind I commend you to God. From the court, this Monday in haste, Your true friend to be commanded by you, We cannot tell whether she comes to or stay here. I am much absent for want of lodging; wherein my own man hath only been to blame. Endorsed, 17th of June, 1594. MR. FRANCIS BACON TO THE QUEEN.* MOST GRACIOUS AND ADMIRABLE SOVEREIGN, As I do acknowledge a providence of God towards me, that findeth it expedient for me tolerare jugum in juventute meâ; so this present arrest of mine by his divine majesty from your majesty's service is not the least affliction, that I have proved; and I hope your majesty doth conceive, that nothing under mere impossibility could have detained me from earning so gracious a veil, as it pleased your majesty to give me. But your majesty's service by the grace of God shall take no lack thereby; and, thanks to God, it hath lighted upon him that may be the best spared. Only the discomfort is mine, who nevertheless have the private comfort, that in the time I have been made acquainted with this service, it hath been my hap to stumble upon somewhat unseen, Among the papers of Antony Bacon, Esq., vol. iv. fol. 141, and 156, in the Lambeth Library. One day draweth on another; and I am well pleased in my being here; for methinks solitari the sight. I pray you, therefore, advertise me what you find, by my Lord of Essex, (who, I am sure, hath been with you,) was done last Sunday; and what he conceiveth of the matter. I hold in one secret, and therefore you may trust your servant. I would be glad to receive my parsonage rent as soon as it cometh. So leave I you to God's good preservation. Your ever loving brother, FR. BACON. From Twickenham Park, this Tuesday morning, 1594. Endorsed, 16 Oct. 1594. EARL OF ESSEX TO MR. FRANCIS BACON. SIR-I will be to-morrow night at London. I purpose to hear your argument the next day. I pray you send me word by this bearer of the hour and place where it is. Of your own cause I shall give better account when I see you, than I can do now; for that which will be done, will be this afternoon or to-morrow. I am fast unto you, as you can be to yourself, Endorsed, 23 Oct. 1594. MR. FRANCIS BACON TO IIIS BROTHER ANTONY.‡ Since I saw you this hath passed. Tuesday, though sent for, I saw not the queen. Her majesty alleged she was then to resolve with the council upon her places of law. But this resolution was ut supra; and note the rest of the counsellors were persuaded she came rather forwards than otherwise; for against me she is never pe Among the papers of Antony Bacon, Esq., vol. iv. fol 197 in the Lambeth Library. Ibid. fol. 195. Ibid. fol. 28. S remptory but to my lord of Essex. I missed a line of my Lord Keeper's; but thus much I hear otherwise. The queen seemeth to apprehend my travel. Whereupon I was sent for by Sir Robert Cecil in sort as from her majesty; himself having of purpose immediately gone to London to speak with me; and not finding me there, he wrote to me. Whereupon I came to the court, and upon his relation to me of her majesty's speeches, I desired leave to answer it in writing; not, I said, that I mistrusted his report, but mine own wit; the copy of which answer I send. We parted in kindness, secundum exterius. This copy you must needs return, for I have no other; and I wrote this by memory after the original was sent away. The queen's speech is after this sort. Why? I have made no solicitor. Hath any body carried a solicitor with him in his pocket? But he must have it in his own time, (as if it were but yesterday's nomination,) or else I must be thought to cast him away. Then her majesty sweareth thus: “ If I continue this manner, she will seek all England for a solicitor rather than take me. Yea, she will send for Heuston and Coventry* to-morrow next," as if she would swear them both. Again she entereth into it, that "she never deals so with any as with me (in hoc erratum non est) she hath pulled me over the bar (note the words, for they cannot be her then, as to the proper opportunity; so now that I see such delay in mine own placing, I wish cz animo it should not expect. I pray you let me know what mine uncle Killigrew will do ;* for I must be more careful of my credit than ever, since I receive so little thence where I deserved best. And, to be plain with you, I mean even to make the best of those small things I have with as much expedition, as may be without loss; and so sing a mass of requiem, I hope, abroad. For I know her majesty's nature, that she neither careth though the whole surname of Bacons travelled, nor of the Cecils neither. I have here an idle pen or two, specially one, that was cozened, thinking to have got some money this term. I pray send me somewhat else for them to write out besides your Irish collection, which is almost done. There is a collection of King James, of foreign states, largeliest of Flan ders; which, though it be no great matter, yet ] would be glad to have it. Thus I commend you to God's good protection. Your entire loving brother, From my lodging, at Twickenham Park, FR. BACON. CECIL; A COPY OF WHICH WAS SENT WITH own) she hath used me in her greatest causes. LETTER OF MR. FRANCIS BACON TO SIR robert But this is Essex, and she is more angry with him than with me." And such like speeches, so strange, as I should lose myself in it, but that I have cast off the care of it. My conceit is, that I am the least part of mine own matter. But her majesty would have a delay, and yet would not bear it herself. Therefore she giveth no way to and she perceiveth her council giveth no way to others; and so it sticketh as she would have it. But what the secret of it is, oculus aquila non penetravit. My lord† continueth on kindly and wisely a course worthy to obtain a better effect than a delay, which to me is the most unwelcome condition. me, Now, to return to you the part of a brother, and to render you the like kindness, advise you, whether it were not a good time to set in strongly with the queen to draw her to honour your travels. For in the course I am like to take, it will be a great and necessary stay to me, besides the natural comfort I shall receive. And if you will have me deal with my Lord of Essex, or otherwise break it by mean to the queen, as that, which shall give me full contentment, I will do it as effectually, and with as much good discretion as I can. Wherein if you aid me with your direction, I shall observe it. This, as I did ever account it sure and certain to be accomplished, in case myself had been placed, and therefore deferred it till 4 Thomas Coventry, afterwards one of the justices of the Common P'eas, and father of the Lord Keeper Coventry. + Essex SIR-Your honour may remember, that upon relation of her majesty's speech concerning my travel, I asked leave to make answer in writing; not but I knew then what was true, but because I was careful to express it without doing myself wrong. And it is true, I had then opinion to have written to her majesty: but, since weighing with myself, that her majesty gave no ear to the motion made by yourself, that I might answer by mine own attendance, I began to doubt the second degree, whether it might not be taken for presumption in me to write to her majesty; and so resolved, that it was best for me to follow her majesty's own way in committing it to your report. It may please your honour to deliver to her majesty, first, that it is an exceeding grief to me, that any not motion (for it was not a motion) but mention, that should come from me, should offend her majesty, whom for these one-and-twenty years (for so long it is, that I kissed her majesty's hands upon my journey into France) I have used the best of my wits to please. Next, mine answer standing upon two points. the one, that this mention of travel to my lord of Essex was no present motion, suit, or request; Mr. Antony Bacon had written to Sir Henry Killigrew on the 14th of January, 1591-5, to desire the loan of two hundred pounds for six months. Vol. iv. fol. 4. Among the papers of Antony Bacon, Esq., vol. iv. fol. 31. ble friendships I esteem so much [in so great sort] as your countenance and favour in my practice, which are somewhat to my poverty; yet 1 count them not the best [greatest] part of the obligation wherein I stand bound to you. And now, my lord, I pray you right humbly, that you will vouchsafe your honourable license and patience, that I may express to you, what in a doubtful liberty I have thought fit, partly by way of praying your help, and partly by way of offering my good will; partly again by way of preoccupating your conceit, lest you may in some things mistake. but casting the worst of my fortune with an ho- | lordship best knows. Which your two honouranourable friend, that had long used me privately, I told his lordship of this purpose of mine to travel, accompanying it with these very words, that upon her majesty's rejecting me with such circumstance, though my heart might be good, yet mine eyes would be sore, that I should take no pleasure to look upon my friends; for that I was not an impudent man, that could face out a disgrace; and that I hoped her majesty would not be offended, that, not able to endure the sun, I fled into the shade. The other, that it was more than this; for I did expressly and particularly, (for so much wit God then lent me,) by way of caveat, restrain my lord's good affection, that he should in no wise utter or mention this matter till her majesty had made a solicitor; wherewith (now since my looking upon your letter) I did in a dutiful manner challenge my lord, who very honourably acknowledged it, seeing he did it for the best; and therefore I leave his lordship to answer for himself. All this my Lord of Essex can testify to be true and I report me to yourself, whether at the first, when I desired deliberation to answer, yet nevertheless said, I would to you privately declare what had passed, I said not in effect so much. The conclusion shall be, that wheresoever God and her majesty shall appoint me to live, I shall truly pray for her majesty's preservation and felicity. And so I humbly commend me to you. Your poor kinsman to do you service, I MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HONOURABLE GOOD LORDSHIP, Of your lordship's honourable disposition, both generally and to me, I have that belief, as what think, I am not afraid to speak; and what I would speak, I am not afraid to write. And therefore I have thought to commit to letter some matter, whereunto [which] I have been [conceived] led [into the same] by two motives: the one, the consideration of my own estate; the other, the appetite which I have to give your lordship some evidence of the thoughtful and voluntary desire, which is in me, to merit well of your most honourable lordship: which desire in me hath been bred chiefly by the consent I have to your great virtue come in good time to do this state pleasure; and next by your loving courses held towards me, especially in your nomination and enablement of me long since to the solicitor's place, as your From the original draught in the library of Queen's College, Oxford, Arch. D. 2, the copy of which was communicated to me by Thomas Tyrwhitt, Esq., clerk of the honourable House of Commons. Sir William Dugdale, in his Baronage of England, vol. ii. p. 438, has given two short passages of this letter, transcribed by him from the unpublished original. My estate, to confess a truth to your lordship, is weak and indebted, and needeth comfort; for both my father, though I think I had greatest part in his love to all his children, yet in his wisdom served me in as a last comer; and myself, in mine own industry, have rather referred and aspired to virtue than to gain: whereof, I am not yet wise enough to repent me. But the while, whereas, Solomon speaketh that "want cometh first like a wayfaring man," and after like "an armed u an," I must acknowledge to your lordship myself to [be] in primo gradu; for it stealeth upon me. But, for the second, that it should not be able to be resisted, I hope in God I am not in that case; for the preventing whereof, as I do depend upon God's providence all in all, so in the same his providence I see opened unto me three not unlikely expectations of help: the one my practice, the other some proceeding in the queen's service, the third [the] place I have in reversion; which, as it standeth now unto me, is but like another man's ground reaching upon my house, which may mend my prospect, but it doth not fill my barn. For my practice, it presupposeth my health, which, if I should judge of as a man that judgeth of a fair morrow by a fair evening, I might have reason to value well. But, myself having this error of mind, that I am apter to conclude in every thing of change from the present tense than of a continuance, do make no such appointment. Besides, I am not so far deceived in myself but that I know very well, and I think your lordship is major corde, and in your wisdom you note it more deeply than I can in myself, that in practising the law, I play not all my best game, which maketh me accept it with a nisi quod potius, as the best of my fortune, and a thing agreeable to better gifts than mine, but not to mine. For my placing, your lordship best knows, that when I was much dejected with her majesty's strange dealing towards me, it pleased you, of your singular favour, so far to comfort and encourage me, as to hold me worthy to be excited to think of succeeding your lordship in your second place ;* signifying in your plainness, that The mastership of the rolls; which office the lord keeper held till the Lord Bruce was advanced to it, May 18, 1603 |