1 Mala et impia consuetudo est contra Deos disputandi, sive ex animo id fit, sive simulatÈ. De Nat. D. l. ii. c. 67.

2 Genus hoc sermonum, positum in hominum veterum auctoritate, et eorum illustrium, plus nescio quo pacto videtur habere gravitatis. Itaque ipse mea legens, sic afficior interdum, ut Catonem, non me loqui existÍmem. Cic. De Amic. c. 1.

3 Omnem sermonem tribuimus non Tithono, ut Aristo Chius; parum enim esset auctoritatis in fabulÂ. De Senect. c. 1.

4 See the Dialogue intituled, ???? t?? e?p??ta, ?????T??S e? ?? ??????.

5 ?pa??e? ?a sp??d????· Xen. Mem. l. i. c. 3.

6 G???ta ?????? ?p? se??t?t? f???s?f?. ?????. c. 7.

7 Difficillimam illam societatem Gravitatis cum Humanitate. Leg. l. iii. c. 1.

8 ?t???sae? ?e?? t? ??t?? ????ta ???? ?????a ???a?a?e?? ?a? ???a??sa?, ?? ???? ?e???e?a, ??d? e?a??? ??e??e?a t?? ???????a?. ?????. c. 7.

9 ?????. c. 7. to the end. ??? ?at??????e???. c. 33. and ?e????.

10 ——quo in genere orationis utrumque Oratorem cognoveramus, id ipsum sumus in eorum sermone adumbrare conati. De Orat. iii. 4.

11 A curious passage, or two, in his Letters to Atticus, will serve to illustrate this observation. The academic questions were drawn up, and finished, when a doubt occurred to him, whether he should not change one of the speakers in that Dialogue, and, instead of Varro, introduce Brutus; who would suit his purpose, he said, just as well, because his philosophic principles were the same with those of Varro—si addubitas, says he to Atticus, ad Brutum transeamus. Est enim is quoque Antiochius. l. xiii. 25. Was this a change to be easily made, if it were necessary, in this kind of writing, to suit the style and manner of expression to the character of the speakers? Yet, hear how negligently he treats this matter—Opinor igitur consideremus, etsi nomina jam facta sunt. Sed VEL INDUCI, VEL MUTARI POSSUNT. l. xiii. 14.—In other words, provided the cast of the several parts was the same, the language of the Dialogue would require no alteration. It was indifferent, in this respect, who were the speakers.

12 Scripsit enim et Dialogos quos non magis philosophiÆ annumerare possis, quam HistoriÆ. Seneca, Ep. c.

13 Lord Shaftesbury’s Moralists, P. 1. S. I.

14 Adv. to an Author, P. 1. S. III.

15 Adv. to an Author, P. 1. towards the end.

16 The scene of Dr. More’s Divine Dialogues, printed in 1668.

17 At Beaconsfield in Bucks, the supposed scene of the Dialogue.

18 See his works, where are some pieces of a very early date; though Lord Clarendon tells us, he was near thirty years of age, before he was much taken notice of as a Poet. Contin. of his Life, P. I. p. 25.

19 Dr. Andrews, bishop of Winchester, and Dr. Neal, bishop of Durham. The story is well known.

20 Dr. George Morley.

21 This alludes to the impeachment of Mr. Justice Crawley, July 6, 1641, for his extra-judicial opinion in the affair of Ship-money. Mr. Waller’s speech on this occasion is extant amongst his works.

22 The famous Mr. Hampden was his uncle.

23 That of Secretary of State. The Lord Clarendon tells us it was with the utmost difficulty he persuaded him to accept it. “There were two considerations (says the historian) that made most impression on him; the one, lest the world should believe that his own ambition had procured this promotion, and that he had therefore appeared signally in the house to oppose those proceedings, that he might thereby render himself gracious to the court: The other, lest the king should expect such a submission and resignation of himself and his own reason and judgment to his commands as he should never give or pretend to give; for he was so severe an adorer of truth, that he would as easily have given himself leave to steal as to dissemble,” &c. B. iv.

24 The noble historian, before cited, gives us two instances of Lord Falkland’s scrupulosity. The one was, “That he could never bring himself to employ spies, or give any countenance or entertainment to them:” The other, “That he could never allow himself the liberty of opening letters, upon a suspicion that they might contain matter of dangerous consequence.” B. viii.

25 To this purpose my Lord Clarendon. “He [Mr. W.] spoke, upon all occasions, with great sharpness and freedom: which (now there were so few that used it, and there was no danger of being over-voted) was not restrained; and therefore used as an argument against those, who were gone upon pretence, that they were not suffered to declare their opinion freely in the house; which could not be believed, when all men knew what liberty Mr. Waller took, and spoke every day with impunity, against the sense and proceedings of the house.” B. vii.

26 See Lord Clarendon’s History.

27 ?p??s?? sea?t??, lib. iv. § 26, which Dr. More, in l. ii. c. 3. of his Enchiridion Ethicum, translates, simplifica teipsum.

28 In the year 1654.

29 Lord Clarendon died in 1674.

30 The character of Mr. Waller is given at large in the Life of Lord Clarendon, P. I. p. 25.—As for Dr. More, Bishop Burnet tells us, in one word, “That he was an open-hearted and sincere Christian philosopher.” Hist. of his own Time, vol. p. 273. 12^mo, Edinb. 1753.

31 This Dialogue is founded on a short passage in Mr. Sprat’s Life of Mr. Cowley, in which he observes, “That in his long dependence on my Lord St. Albans, there never happened any manner of difference between them; except a little at LAST, because he would leave his service.”

32 A small village on the Thames, which was Mr. Cowley’s first retreat, before he removed to Chertsea.

33 Meaning an estate he had obtained by means of this lord. This particular is several times referred to in the course of the Dialogue.

34 The writer of the Dialogue has thought fit to soften the misanthropy of Mr. Cowley in this instance. In one of his Essays he talks strangely. “It is the great boast,” says he, “of eloquence and philosophy, that they first congregated men dispersed, united them into cities, and built up the houses and the walls of cities. I wish they could unravel all they had woven, that we might have our woods and our innocence again, instead of our castles and our policies.”

35 These verses are inserted in one of his Essays, and in some editions of his works.

36 “Perhaps, says he (speaking of the poets), it was the immature and immoderate love of them, which stampt first, or rather engraved, the characters in me: they were like letters cut in the bark of a young tree, which with the tree, still grow proportionably.” [Essay on himself.]

37 “When the civil war broke out, his [Mr. Cowley’s] affection to the king’s cause drew him to Oxford, as soon as it began to be the chief seat of the royal party.” [Dr. Sprat’s life of him.]

38 Dr. Sprat tells us in his Life, “That, during his residence at Oxford, he had the entire friendship of my Lord Falkland, one of the principal secretaries of state. That affection was contracted by the agreement of their learning and manners. For you may remember, Sir, [addressing himself to Mr. M. Clifford] we have often heard Mr. Cowley admire him, not only for the profoundness of his knowledge, which was applauded by all the world, but more especially for those qualities which he himself more regarded, for his generosity of mind, and his neglect of the vain pomp of human greatness.”

39 The Cutter of Coleman-street; the occasion and purpose of which was this: At the Restoration, there was not a set of men more troublesome to the ministry than the cavalier officers; amongst whom had crept in all the profligate of broken fortunes, to share in the merits and rewards of that name. Cowley writ this comedy to unmask these wretches, and might reasonably pretend to some thanks for it. But, contrary to expectation, this very attempt raised a storm against him even at court, which beat violently upon him. See his preface to that play in the later editions in 8vo.

40 Shakespear. As you like it. Act II. S. 1.—There is a quaintness in these lines of the great poet, which however are not unlike some of Mr. Cowley’s addressed to J. Evelyne, Esq.

41 In the PREFACE to his Proposition for the advancement of experimental philosophy, first printed in 1661. See the edition in 24^to, Lond. for H. Herringham.

42 Dr. Sprat tells us, “That he had obtained a plentiful estate by the favour of my Lord St. Albans, and the bounty of my lord duke of Buckingham.” [See his Life.]

43 Meaning The true history of Don Quixote; in which poor Sancho Panca is drawn into all adventures, by the promise of his knight, to reward him in due time with the government of an island.

44 Lord Bacon gives another account of this matter.—“As for the privateness of life of contemplative men, it is a theme so common to extol a private life, not taxed with sensuality and sloth, in comparison, and to the disadvantage of a civil life, for safety, liberty, pleasure, and dignity, as no man handleth it, but handleth it well: such a consonancy it hath to men’s conceits in the expressing, and to men’s consents in the allowing.” [Adv. of Learning, Book 1.]

45 The justness of this encomium on Lord Clarendon will hardly be disputed by any man, whose opinion is worth regarding.—What pity, that Mr. Cowley’s connexions with some persons, indevoted to the excellent Chancellor, kept him at a distance from a man, so congenial to himself, and for whom he could not but entertain the highest esteem! The Chancellor, though he could not be expected to take him out of the hands of his old patrons, seems, yet, to have been generous enough to Mr. Cowley, not to resent those connexions: as may be gathered from the handsome testimony paid to his merit, in the Continuation of the History of his own Life. Speaking of B. Jonson, he says—“He [Ben Jonson] was the best judge of, and fittest to prescribe rules to, poetry and poets, of any man who had lived with, or before him, or since; If Mr. Cowley had not made a flight beyond all men; with that modesty yet, to ascribe much of this, to the example and learning of Ben Jonson.”—Among the other infelicities of men of genius, ONE is, and not the least, that it rarely happens to them to have the choosing of the persons, to whom they would most wish to be obliged. The sensibility of their gratitude being equal to their other parts and virtues, the man, whose favour they chance first to experience, is sure of their constant services and attachment through life, how strongly soever their interest, and even their judgment, may draw another way.

46 The reader is not to forget, that Mr. Sprat is writing to the Lord St. Albans, and was, at this time, chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham.

47 “Ingenium illustre altioribus studiis juvenis admodum dedit: non, ut PLERIQUE, UT NOMINE MAGNIFICO SEGNE OTIUM VELARET, sed quo firmior adversus fortuita rempublicam capesseret.” [Hist. IV. 5.]—Part of the fine character given us of Helvidius Priscus.

48 The royal society; not yet instituted, but much talked of at this time.

49 We have in this remonstrance that follows, the usual language of those we call our friends; which may sometimes be the cause, but is oftner the pretence, of ambition. Hear how gravely Sir Dudley Carlton, who loved business, and drudged on in it all his life, is pleased, in an evil hour, to express himself: “The best is, I was never better, and were it not more for a necessity that is imposed by the EXPECTATION OF FRIENDS, not to stand at a stay and SENESCERE, whilst a man is young, than for ambition, I would not complain myself of my misfortune.” [Sir Ralph Winwood’s Memorials, vol. II. p. 45.]

50 That Mr. Cowley had his prince’s grace appears from what the king said of him, on the news of his death: “That he had not left a BETTER man behind him in England.” And this with grace enough, in reason, from SUCH a prince.—How it came to pass that he wanted the grace of his peers (if, indeed, he did want it), hath been explained in a note, p. 140.

51 The application of this line is the affair of the Mastership of the Savoy; “which though granted, says Mr. Wood, to his highest merit by both the Charleses I. and II. yet by certain persons, enemies to the Muses, he lost that place.” But this was not the worst. For, such is the hard lot of unsuccessful men, the Savoy-missing Cowley became the object of ridicule, instead of pity, even to the wits themselves; as may be seen in “The session of the poets, amongst the miscellaneous poems published by Mr. Dryden.”

52 Printed among his works, under the name of THE COMPLAINT. The relation it has to the subject debated, made me think it not amiss to print it at the end of this Dialogue—It must raise one’s indignation to find that so just, so delicate, and so manly a complaint should be scoffed at, as it was by the wits before mentioned, under the name of THE PITIFUL MELANCHOLY.

53 Juvenal, Sat. i. ver. 112.

54 Whether it were owing to his other occupations, or that he had no great confidence in the success of this attempt, these Essays, which were to give entire satisfaction to his court-friend in the affair of his retirement, went on very slowly. They were even left imperfect at his death, “a little before which (says Dr. Sprat) he communicated to me his resolution, to have dedicated them all to my Lord St. Albans, as a testimony of his entire respects to him; and a kind of apology for having left human affairs in the strength of his age, while he might have been serviceable to his country.”——However, if this apology had not the intended effect, it had a much better. Lords and wits may decide of the qualities of Mr. Cowley’s head as they please; but, so long as these Essays remain, they will oblige all honest men to love the language of his heart.

55 Alas! he was mistaken.

56 A citation from one of his own poems.

57 Mr. Sprat himself tells us, speaking of Mr. Cowley’s retreat, that “some few friends and books, a chearful heart, and innocent conscience, were his constant companions.” Life.

58 This is one of the prettiest of Mr. Cowley’s smaller Poems. The plan of it is highly poetical: and, though the numbers be not the most pleasing, the expression is almost every where natural and beautiful. But its principal charm is that air of melancholy, thrown over the whole, so expressive of the poet’s character.

The address of the writer is seen in conveying his just reproaches on the Court, under a pretended vindication of it against the Muse.

59 An execrable line.

60 For the account of these Monuments, and of Kenelworth-Castle, see the plans and descriptions of Dugdale.

61 The speaker’s idea of Lord Leicester’s porter agrees with the character he sustained on the queen’s reception at Kenelworth; as we find it described in a paper of good authority written at that time. “Here a PORTER, tall of person, big of limbs, stark of countenance—with club and keys of quantity according; in a rough speech, full of passion in metre, while the queen came within his ward, burst out in a great pang of impatience to see such uncouth trudging to and fro, such riding in and out, with such din and noise of talk, within his charge; whereof he never saw the like, nor had any warning once, ne yet could make to himself any cause of the matter. At last, upon better view and advertisement, he proclaims open gates and free passage to all; yields over his club, his keys, his office and all, and on his knees humbly prays pardon of his ignorance and impatience. Which her highness graciously granting, &c.”—

A letter from an attendant in court to his friend a citizen and merchant of London. From the court at Worcester, 20 August 1575.

62 In the first volume of the Spectator.

63 The factious use, that was afterwards made of this humour of magnifying the character of Elizabeth, may be seen in the Craftsman and Remarks on the History of England.

64 What the political character of Mr. Addison was, may be seen from his Whig-examiner. This amiable man was keen and even caustic on subjects, where his party, that is, civil liberty, was concerned. Nor let it be any objection to the character I make him sustain in this Dialogue, that he treats Elizabeth’s government with respect in the Freeholder. He had then the people to cajole, who were taught to reverence her memory. He is, here, addressing himself, in private, to his friends.

65 Lucian expresses this use of the Table prettily—F????S ??S???? ????????, ???te?, c. 27.

66 Besides this sort of hospitality, there was another still more noble and disinterested, which distinguished the early times, especially the purer ages of chivalry. It was customary, it seems, for the great lords to fix up HELMETS on the roofs and battlements of their castles as a signal of hospitality to all adventurers and noble passengers. “Adoncques etoit une coustume en la Grant Bretagne (says the author of the old romance, called Perceforest) et fut tant que charitÉ regna illecque, tous gentils hommes et nobles dames faisoient mettre au plus hault de leur hostel ung heaulme, en SIGNE que tous gentils hommes et gentilles femmes trespassans les chemins, entrassent hardyement en leur hostel comme en leur propre; car leurs biens estoient davantage À tous nobles hommes et femmes trespassans le royaulme.” Vol. iii. fol. 103.

67 This is not said without authority: “Give me leave, says one, to hold this paradox, that the English were never more idle, never more ignorant in manual arts, never more factious in following the parties of princes or their landlords, never more base (as I may say) trencher slaves, than in that age, wherein great men kept open houses for all comers and goers: and that in our age, wherein we have better learned each man to live of his own, and great men keep not such troops of idle servants, not only the English are become very industrious and skilful in manual arts, but also the tyranny of lords and gentlemen is abated, whereby they nourished private dissensions and civil wars, with the destruction of the common people.” Fynes Moryson’s Itinerary, Part III. Ch. v.

68 Dr. Arbuthnot, too, has his authority. A famous politician of the last century expresseth himself to much the same purpose, after his manner: “Henceforth, says he, [that is, after the statutes against retainers in Hen. VII’s reign] the country lives, and great tables of the nobility, which no longer nourished veins that would bleed for them, were fruitless and loathsome till they changed the air, and of princes became courtiers; where their revenues, never to have been exhausted by beef and mutton, were found narrow; whence followed racking of rents, and, at length, sale of lands.” Sir James Harrington’s Oceana, p. 40. Lond. 1656.

69 True it is, that this divertisement of bear-baiting was not altogether unknown in the age of Elizabeth, and, as it seemeth, not much misliked of master Stow himself, who hath very graphically described it. He is speaking of the Danish embassador’s reception and entertainment at Greenwich in 1586. “As the better sort, saith he, had their convenient disports, so were not the ordinary people excluded from competent pleasure. For, upon a green, very spacious and large, where thousands might stand and behold with good contentment, their BEAR-BAITING and bull-baiting (tempered with other merry disports) were exhibited; whereat it cannot be spoken of what pleasure the people took.

For it was a sport alone, of these beasts, continueth the historian, to see the bear with his pink-eyes leering after his enemies; the nimbleness and wait of the dog to take his advantage; and the force and experience of the bear again to avoid the assaults; if he were bitten in one place, how he would pinch in another to get free; and if he were once taken, then what shift with biting, clawing, roaring, tugging, grasping, tumbling, and tossing, he would work to wind himself away; and, when he was loose, to shake his ears with the blood and slaver about his phisnomy, was a pittance of good relief. The like pastime also of the bull.—And now the day being far spent, and the sun in his declination, the embassador withdrew to his lodging by barge to Crosby’s place; where, no doubt, THIS DAY’S SOLEMNITY WAS THOUGHT UPON AND TALKED OF.”—p. 1562.

70 See the Anarcharsis of Lucian.

71 If the reader be complaisant enough to admit the fact, it may be accounted for, on the ideas of chivalry, in the following manner. The knight forfeited all pretensions to the favour of the ladies, if he failed, in any degree, in the point of valour. And, reciprocally, the claim which the ladies had to protection and courtesy from the order of knights, was founded singly in the reputation of chastity, which was the female point of honour. “Ce droit que les dames avoient sur la chevalerie (says M. de la Curne de Ste Palaye) devoit Étre conditionel; il supposoit que leur conduite et leur reputation ne les rendoient point indignes de l’espece d’association qui les unissoit À cet ordre uniquement fondÉ sur l’honneur.

Par celle voye (says an old French writer, the chevalier de la Tour, about the year 1371) les bonnes se craignoient et se tenoient plus fermes de faire chose dont elles peussent perdre leur honneur et leur etat. Si vouldroye que celÛi temps fust revenu, car je pense qu’il n’en seroit pas tant de blasmÉes comme il est À present.”

72 Sir Philip Sydney.

73 What is hinted, here, of the reality of these representations, hath been lately shewn at large in a learned memoir on this subject, which the reader will find in the XX^th Tom. of Hist. de l’Acad. des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres.

74 This representation of things in the ages of chivalry agrees with what we are told by the author of the memoir just quoted: “Les premiÈres leÇons,” (says he, speaking of the manner in which the youth were educated in the houses of the Great, which were properly the schools of those times) “qu’on leur donnoit, regardoient principalement l’amour de Dieu, et des dames, c’est-À-dire, la religion, et la galanterie. Mais autant la dÉvotion qu’on leur inspiroit Étoit accompagnÉe de puerilitÉs et de superstitions, autant l’amour des dames, qu’on leur recommandoit, Étoit il rempli de RAFFINEMENT et de FANATISME. Il semble qu’on ne pouvoit, dans ces siÉcles ignorans et grossiers, prÉsenter aux hommes la religion sous une forme assez materielle pour la mettre À leur portÉe; ni leur donner, en mÊme tems, une idÉe de l’amour assez pure, assez metaphysique, pour prevenir les desordres et les excÈs, dont etoit capable une nation qui conservoit par-tout le caractere impetueux qu’elle montroit À la guerre.” Tom. xx. p. 600.

One sees then the origin of that furious gallantry which runs through the old romances. And so long as the refinement and fanaticism, which the writer speaks of, were kept in full vigour by the force of institution and the fashion of the times, the morals of these enamoured knights might, for any thing I know, be as pure as their apologist represents them. At the same time it must be confessed that this discipline was of a nature very likely to relax itself under another state of things, and certainly to be misconstrued by those who should come to look upon these pictures of a refined and spiritual passion, as incredible and fantastic. And hence, no doubt, we are to account for that censure which a famous writer, and one of the ornaments of Elizabeth’s own age, passeth on the old books of chivalry. His expression is downright, and somewhat coarse. “In our fathers time nothing was read but books of chivalry, wherein a man by reading should be led to none other end, but only to manslaughter and baudrye. If any man suppose they were good enough to pass the time withall, he is deceived. For surely vain words do work no small thing in vain, ignorant, and young minds, especially if they be given any thing thereunto of their own nature.” He adds, like a good Protestant, “These books, as I have heard say, were made the most part in abbayes and monasteries; a very likely and fit fruit of such an idle and blind kind of living.” PrÆf. to Ascham’s Toxophilus, 1571.

I thought it but just to set down this censure of Mr. Ascham over-against the candid representation of the French memorialist.—However, what is said of the influence, which this ancient institution had on the character of his countrymen, is not to be disputed. “Les preceptes d’amour repandoient dans le commerce des dames ces considerations et ces egards respectueux, qui, n’ayant jamais ÉtÉ effacÉs de l’esprit des FranÇois, ont toujours fait un des caractÈres distinctifs de nÔtre nation.”

75 Of Scriblerus. See the VI^th chapter of that learned work, On the ancient Gymnastics.

76 Masques, p. 181. Whaley’s edition.

77 This romantic spirit of the Queen may be seen as well in her amours, as military achievements. “Ambiri, coli ob formam, et AMORIBUS, etiam inclinat jam Ætate, videri voluit; de FABULOSIS INSULIS per illam relaxationem renovat quasi memori in quibus EQUITES AC STRENUI HOMINES ERRABANT, et AMORES, foeditate omni prohibitÂ, generosÈ per VIRTUTEM exercebant.”

Thuani Hist. tom. vi. p. 172.

The observation of the great historian is confirmed by Francis Osborne, Esq., who, speaking of a contrivance of the Cecilian party to ruin the earl of Essex, by giving him a rival in the good graces of the queen, observes—“But the whole result concluding in a duel, did rather inflame than abate the former account she made of him: the opinion of a CHAMPION being more splendid (in the weak and romantic sense of women, that admit of nothing fit to be made the object of a quarrel but themselves) and far above that of a captain or general. So as Sir Edmund Cary, brother to the Lord Hunsdon, then chamberlain and near kinsman to the Queen, told me, that though she chid them both, nothing pleased her better than a conceit she had, that her beauty was the subject of this quarrel, when, God knows, it grew from the stock of honour, of which then they were very tender.”—Mem. of Q. Elizabeth, p. 456.

But nothing shews the romantic disposition of the Queen, and indeed of her times, more evidently than the TRIUMPH, as it was called; devised and performed with great solemnity, in honour of the French commissioners in 1581. The contrivance was for four of her principal courtiers, under the quaint appellation of “four foster-children of DESIRE,” to besiege and carry, by dint of arms, “the fortress of Beauty;” intending, by this courtly Ænigma, nothing less than the queen’s majesty’s own person.—The actors in this famous triumph were, the Earl of Arundel, the Lord Windsor, Master Philip Sidney, and Master Fulk Grevil. And the whole was conducted so entirely in the spirit and language of knight errantry, that nothing in the Arcadia itself is more romantic. See the account at large in Stow’s continuation of Holinshed’s Chronicles, p. 1316-1321.

To see the drift and propriety of this triumph, it is to be observed that the business which brought the French commissioners into England was, the great affair of the queen’s marriage with the duke of AlanÇon.

78 Speeches at Prince Henry’s barriers.

79 There was an instance of this kind, and perhaps the latest upon record in our history, in the 13th year of the queen, when “a combat was appointed to have been fought for a certain manor, and demain lands belonging thereto, in Kent.” The matter was compromised in the end. But not till after the usual forms had been observed, by the two parties: of which we have a curious and circumstantial detail in Holinshed’s Chronicles, p. 1225.

80 Alluding to a tract, so called, by Gascoigne, an attendant on the court, and poet of that time, who hath given us a narrative of the entertainments that passed on this occasion at Kenelworth.

81 Hence then it is that a celebrated dramatic writer of those days represents the entertainment of MASKS and SHOWS, as the highest indulgence that could be provided for a luxurious and happy monarch. His words are these;

And how exactly this dramatist painted the humour of the times, we may see from the entertainment provided, not many years after, for the reception of King James at Althorp in Northamptonshire; where this very design of Sylvan Nymphs, Satyrs, and ActÆon, was executed in a masque by B. Jonson.

82 Whom his friend Mr. Selden characterizeth in this manner,

83 Sacrifices, says Plutarch, without chorusses and without music, we have known: but for poetry, without fable and without fiction, we know of no such thing. T?s?a? ?? ??????? ?a? ??a????? ?se?? ??? ?se? d? ????? ??d? ??e?d? ????s??. De aud. poËt. vol. i. p. 16.

84 This will be admitted, if a calculation said to have been made by themselves of their number at that time may be relied on—“They make reasoning (saith Sir Edwin Sandys in his Speculum EuropÆ, written in 1699) forty hundred sure catholics in England, with four hundred English Roman priests to maintain that militia,” p. 157.

85 Mr. Camden owns that the Irish rebellion, which in the end became so dangerous, had been “encouraged by a slighting of it, and a gripple-handedness of England.” [Hist. of Eliz. B. iv.]—To the same purpose another eminent writer of that time—“Before the transmitting of the last great army, the forces sent over by Q. Elizabeth were NOT of sufficient power to break and subdue all the Irishry.” At last, however, “The extreme peril of losing the kingdom; the dishonour and danger that might thereby grow to the crown of England; together with a just disdain conceived by that great-minded queen, that so wicked and ungrateful a rebel should prevail against her, who had ever been victorious against all her enemies; did move and almost ENFORCE her to send over that mighty army.” [Sir. J. Davies, Discovery of the State of Ireland, p. 97. Lond. 1613.]

86 Sir Robert Naunton tells us, “The queen was never profuse in delivering out of her treasure; but paid her servants part in money, and the rest with GRACE; which, as the case stood, was then taken for good payment.” [Fragm. Reg. p. 89.] And Nat. Bacon to the same purpose. “A wise man, that was an eye-witness of HER actions, and those that succeeded to her, many times hath said, That a courtier might make a better meal of one good LOOK from her, than of a gift from some other.” [Disc. P. ii. p. 266. Lond. 1651.]

87 This reverence of authority, one of the characteristics of that time, and which Mr. Addison presently accounts for, a great writer celebrates in these words—“It was an ingenuous uninquisitive 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 contestation nor capitulation with the queen, nor (though she very frequently consulted with her subjects) any further reasons urged of her actions than HER OWN WILL.” See a tract intitled The Disparity, in Sir H. Wotton’s Remains, p. 46, supposed to have been written by the earl of Clarendon.

88 Paulus Hentznerus, a learned German, who was in England in 1598, goes still further in his encomium on the queen’s skill in languages. He tells us, that, “prÆterquam quÒd GrÆcÈ et LatinÈ eleganter est docta, tenet, ultra jam memorata idiomata, etiam Hispanicum, Scoticum, et Belgicum.” See his Itinerarium.

But this was the general character of the great in that reign: at least, if we may credit Master William Harrison, who discourseth on the subject before us in the following manner: “This further is not to be omitted, to the singular commendation of both sorts and sexes of our courtiers here in England, that there are very few of them, which have not the use and skill of sundry speeches, beside an excellent vein of writing, before time not regarded. Truly it is a rare thing with us now, to hear of a courtier which hath but his own language. And to say how many gentlewomen and ladies there are, that, beside sound knowledge of the Greek and Latin tongues, are thereto no less skilful in the Spanish, Italian, and French, or in some one of them, it resteth not in me; sith I am persuaded, that as the noblemen and gentlemen do surmount in this behalf, so these come very little or nothing behind them for their parts; which industry God continue, and accomplish that which otherwise is wanting.” Descript. of England, p. 196.

89 One of these ties was the prejudice of education; and some uncommon methods used to bind it fast on the minds of the people.—A book, called ??????????, sive Elizabeth, was written in Latin verse by one Ockland, containing the highest panegyrics on the queen’s character and government, and setting forth the transcendant virtues of her ministers. This book was enjoined by authority to be taught, as a classic author, in Grammar-schools, and was of course to be gotten by heart by the young scholars throughout the kingdom.

This was a matchless contrivance to imprint a sense of loyalty on the minds of the people. And, though it flowed, as we are to suppose, from a tender regard, in the advisers of it, for the interests of Protestantism in that reign; yet its uses are so apparent in any reign, and under any administration, that nothing but the moderation of her successors, and the reasonable assurance of their ministers that their own acknowledged virtues were a sufficient support to them, could have hindered the expedient from being followed.

But, though the stamp of public authority was wanting, private men have attempted, in several ways, to supply this defect. To instance only in one. The Protestant queen was to pass for a mirror of good government: hence the ?????????a. Her successor would needs be thought a mirror of eloquence: and hence the noble enterprise I am about to celebrate. “Mr. George Herbert (I give it in the grave historian’s own words) being prelector in the rhetorique school in Cambridge, in 1618, passed by those fluent orators, that domineered in the pulpits of Athens and Rome, and insisted to read upon an oration of K. James, which he analysed; shewed the concinnity of the parts; the propriety of the phrase; the height and power of it to move the affections; the style, UTTERLY UNKNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS, who could not conceive what kingly eloquence was, in respect of which those noted demigogi were but hirelings and tribolary rhetoricians.” Bishop Hacket’s Life of Archbishop Williams, p. 175.

90 A learned foreigner gives this character of the English at that time: “Angli, ut ADDICTE SERVIUNT, itÀ evecti ad dignitates priorem humilitatem INSOLENTIA rependunt.” H. Grotii Ann. L. v. p. 95. Amst. 1657. Hence the propriety of those complaints, in our great poet, of,

complaints so frequent, and so forcibly expressed by him, that we may believe he painted from his own observation, and perhaps experience, of this insolent misuse of authority. Measure for Measure, A. II. S. vii.

91 Yet it may seem probable, from this poet’s conduct in Ireland, and his View of the state of that country, that his talents for business (such as Cecil himself must have approved) were no less considerable than for poetry. But he had served a disgraced man; and had drawn upon himself the admiration of the generous earl of Essex. So that, as the historian expresseth it, “by a fate which still follows poets, he always wrestled with poverty, though he had been secretary to the lord Gray, lord deputy of Ireland.” All that remained for him was, “to be interred at Westminster, near to Chaucer, at the charge of the earl of Essex; his hearse being attended by poets, and mournful elegies and poems, with the pens that wrote them, thrown into his grave.” Camden, lib. iv.

92 As to Sir Francis Bacon, the queen herself gave a very plausible reason, and doubtless much approved by the grave lawyers and other judicious persons of that time, for her neglect of this gentleman. “She did acknowledge (says the earl of Essex in a letter to Mr. Francis Bacon) 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 shew, to the utmost of your knowledge, than, that you were deep.” Mem. of Q. Elizabeth by Dr. Birch; to whom the public is exceedingly indebted for abundance of curious information concerning the history of those times.

If it be asked, how the queen came to form this conclusion, the answer is plain. It was from Mr. Bacon’s having a GREAT WIT, an excellent GIFT OF SPEECH, and much other GOOD LEARNING.

It is true, Sir Francis Bacon himself gives another account of this matter. In a letter of advice to Sir. George Villiers, he says, “In this dedication of yourself to the public, I recommend unto you principally that which I think was never done since I was born—that you countenance and encourage and advance ABLE MEN, in all kinds, degrees, and professions. For in the time of the Cecils, father and son, ABLE MEN WERE BY DESIGN AND OF PURPOSE SUPPRESSED.” Cabala, p. 57, ed. 1691.—But either way, indeed, the queen’s character is equally saved.

93 The lord Mountjoy [then Sir Charles Blount], being of a military turn, had stolen over into France, without the queen’s knowledge, in order to serve in Bretagne, under one of her generals. Upon his return, which was hastened too by her express command, “Serve me so again, said the queen, once more, and I will lay you fast enough for running. You will never leave, till you are knocked o’ the head, as that inconsiderate fellow Sidney was. You shall go when I send you. In the mean time see that you lodge in the Court, where you may FOLLOW YOUR BOOKS, HEAD, AND DISCOURSE OF THE WARS.” Sir Robert Naunton’s Fr. Reg. in L. Burleigh.

94 So good a judge of military matters, as Sir Walter Raleigh, was of this opinion with regard to the conduct of the Spanish war. “If the late queen would have believed her men of war, as she did her scribes, we had, in her time, beaten that great empire in pieces, and made their kings, kings of figs and oranges, as in old times. But her majesty did all by halves, and, by petty invasions, taught the Spaniard how to defend himself, and to see his own weakness; which, till our attempts taught him, was hardly known to himself.” See his Works, vol. i. 273.—Raleigh, it may be said, was of the Cecil faction. But the men of war, of the Essex faction, talked exactly in the same strain; which shews that this might probably be the truth.

95 See Sir Henry Wotton’s Parallel of the earl of Essex and duke of Buckingham. The words are these: “He [the earl of Essex] was to wrestle with a queen’s declining, or rather with her very setting age, as we may term it; which, besides other respects, is commonly even of itself the more umbratious and apprehensive; as for the most part all horizons are charged with certain vapours towards their evening.” Remains, p. 11.

96 The Disparity, p. 43

97 This account of her policy is confirmed by what we read in the Disparity, before cited. “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 distant 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 other, or never so dishonest in their projectments for each other’s confusion, might yet be reconciled in 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 ever like to overthrow some of her chiefest designs: A policy, seldom entertained by princes, especially if they have issues to survive them,” p. 46. Her own historian, it is true, seems a little shy of acknowledging this conduct of the queen, with regard to her nobility and ministers. But he owns, “She now and then took a pleasure (and not unprofitably) in the emulation and privy grudges of her women.” Camden’s Elizabeth, p. 79. fol. Lond. 1688.

98 We find an intimation to this purpose, in a writer of credit, at least with respect to the Dutch and Ireland—“Jam et divulsam Hiberniam, et in Batavis Angli militis seditiones, velut JUSSAS, erant qui exprobrarent.” Grotii Annal. l. xii. p. 432.

99 Something like this was observed of her disposition by Sir James Melvil. After having related to his mistress, the queen of Scots, the strong professions of friendship which the queen of England had made to him, “She [the queen of Scots] inquired, says he, whether I thought that queen meant truly towards her inwardly in her heart, as she appeared to do outwardly in her speech. I answered freely, that, in my judgment, there was neither plain dealing, nor upright meaning; but great dissimulation, emulation, and FEAR, lest her princely qualities should over-soon chace her from her kingdom,” &c. Memoirs, p. 53.

100 Secretary Walsingham, in a letter to the queen, Sept. 2, 1581, amongst other things to the same purpose, has the following words—“Remember, I humbly beseech your majesty, the respect of charges hath lost Scotland: and I would to God I had no cause to think, that it might put your highness in peril of the loss of England.”—“And even the Lord Treasurer himself (we are told) in a letter still extant in the paper-office, written in the critical year 1588, while the Spanish armada was expected against England, excuses himself to sir Edward Stafford, then embassador in France, for not writing to him oftener, on account of her majesty’s unwillingness to be at the expence of messengers.” Sir T. Edmondes’ State-papers, by Dr. Birch, p. 21.

101 One of these complaisant observers was the writer of the Description of England, who, speaking of the variety of the queen’s houses, checks himself with saying, “But what shall I need to take upon me to repeat all, and tell what houses the queen’s majesty hath? Sith ALL IS HIRS; and when it pleaseth hir in the summer season to recreate hirself abroad, and view the state of the countrie, and hear the complaints of hir unjust officers or substitutes, every nobleman’s house is hir palace, where she continueth during pleasure, and till she returne again to some of hir owne; in which she remaineth as long as pleaseth hir.” p. 196.

102 Perhaps they had no need of such favours: It seems as if they had provided for themselves another way. One of her ladies, the Lady Edmondes, had been applied to for her interest with the queen in a certain affair of no great moment, then depending in the Court of Chancery. The person, commissioned to transact this matter with her ladyship, had offered her 100l. which she treated as too small a sum. The relater of this fact adds—“This ruffianry of causes I am daily more and more acquainted with, and see the manner of dealing, which cometh of the queen’s straitness to give these women, whereby they presume thus to grange and truck causes.” See a letter in Mem. of Q. Elizabeth, by Dr. Birch, vol. i. p. 354. But this 100l. as the virtuous Lady Edmondes says, was a small sum. It appears, that bishop Fletcher, on his translation to London, “bestowed in allowances and gratifications to divers attendants [indeed we are not expressly told, they were female] about her majesty, the sum of 3100l. which money was given by him, for the most part of it, by her majesty’s direction and special appointment.” Mem. vol. ii. p. 113. And the curiosity is, to find this minute of episcopal gratifications in a petition presented to the queen herself, “To move her majesty in commiseration towards the orphans of this bishop.”—However, to do the ladies justice, the contagion of bribery was so general in that reign, that the greatest men in the court were infected by it. The lord-keeper Puckering, it seems, had a finger in the affair of the 100l.; nay, himself speaks to the lady to get him commanded by the queen to favour the suit. And we are told, that Sir W. Raleigh had no less than 10,000l. for his interest with the queen on a certain occasion, after having been invited to this service by the finest letter that ever was written.—Indeed it is not said how much of this secret service money went in allowances and gratifications to the attendants about the queen’s majesty, vol. ii. p. 497.

103 Lord Bacon made the same excuse for his bribery; as he had learnt, perhaps, the trade itself from his royal mistress. It was a rule with this great chancellor, “Not to sell injustice, but never to let justice go scot-free.”

104 See Hist. Collections, by H. Townshend, Esq.; p. 268. Lond. 1680.—The lord-keeper too, in a speech in the star-chamber, confirms this charge on the country justices. “The thirst, says he, after this authority, proceedeth from nothing but an ambitious humour of gaining of reputation amongst their neighbours; that still, when they come home, they may be presented with presents.” Ibid. p. 355.

105 When the queen declared to Sir James Melvil her resolution of virginity, “I know the truth of that, madam, (said he); you need not tell it me. Your majesty thinks, if you were married, you would be but queen of England; and now you are both king and queen. I know your spirit cannot endure a commander.” Mem. p. 49. This was frank. But Sir James Melvil was too well seen in courts to have used this language, if he had not understood it would be welcome. Accordingly, the queen’s highness did not seem displeased with the imputation.

106 This was a common topick of complaint against the queen; or at least her ministers, and gave occasion to that reproof of the poet Spenser, which the persons concerned could hardly look upon as very decent,

But a bishop of that time carries the charge still further. In one of his sermons at court before the queen, “Parsonages and vicarages, says he, seldom pass now-a-days from the patron, but either for the lease, or the present money. Such merchants are broken into the church of God, a great deal more intolerable than were they whom Christ whipped out of the temple.”—This language is very harsh, and surely not deserved by the Protestant patrons of those days, who were only, as we may suppose, for reducing the church of Christ to its pure and primitive state of indigence and suffering. How edifying is it to hear St. Paul speak of his being—In hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness! And how perfectly reformed would our church be, if its ministers were but once more in this blessed apostolical condition!

107 It was this circumstance that seemed to weigh most with the Lord Chancellor Bacon; who, in his short tract, In felicem memoriam ElizabethÆ, saith, “Illud cogitandum censeo, in quali populo imperium tenuerit: si enim in Palmyrenis, aut Asi imbelli et molli regnum sortita esset, minÙs mirandum fuisset—verÙm in Anglia, natione ferocissim et bellicosissimÂ, omnia ex nutu foeminÆ moveri et cohiberi potuisse, SUMMAM MERITO ADMIRATIONEM HABET.”

108 The subject of these Dialogues, on the English Constitution, is the most important in English politics.—To cite all the passages from our best antiquaries and historians, out of which this work was formed, and which lay before the writer in composing it, would swell this volume to an immoderate size. It is enough to say, that nothing material is advanced in the course of the argument, but on the best authority.

109 That is, of the feudal law: which was one of the subjects explained by the bishop to his royal pupil the duke of Gloucester. “I acquainted him, says he, with all the great revolutions that had been in the world, and gave him a copious account of the Greek and Roman histories, and of Plutarch’s Lives: the last thing I explained to him was the Gothic constitution, and the BENEFICIARY AND FEUDAL LAWS.” [Hist. of his own Times, vol. iv. p. 357. Edinb. 1753.]

110 On April 11, 1689.

111 Of the great seal—The other lawyers in commission were Keck and Rawlinson.

112 This was a favourite subject with our good bishop; and how qualified he was to discuss it, even in its minutest particularities, may be learnt from his history at large.

113 It was not thus left to itself, but was nursed and fostered with great care by the preachers of divine indefeasible hereditary right, in this and the following reign.

114 This casual remark seems to determine a famous dispute among the Antiquaries on the subject before us. Bishop Nicolson attended so little to this tralatitious use of words, in which all languages abound, that finding Laga in several places signified a country, he would needs have it that Camden, Lambarde, Spelman, Cowell, Selden, and all our best Antiquaries, were mistaken, when they supposed Laga ever signified, in the compositions here mentioned, a law. However, his adversaries among the Antiquaries were even with him; and finding that Laga, in these compositions, did signify a law in several places of our ancient laws, historians, and lawyers, deny that it ever signifies a country. Each indeed had a considerable object in view; the one was bent on overthrowing a system; the other on supporting it; namely, that famous threefold body of laws, the Danish, Mercian, and West-Saxon. It must be owned, the bishop could not overthrow the common system, without running into his extreme: it seems, his opponents might have supported it without running into theirs.

115 See Historical Law-Tracts, vol. i. p. 294.

116 Milton did not forget to observe, in his Tenure of kings and magistrates, That William the Norman, though a Conqueror, and not unsworn at his Coronation, was compelled a second time to take oath at St. Albans, ere the people would be brought to yield obedience. Vol. i. of his Prose works, 4^to, 1753. p. 345.

117 Henry VII.

118 Henry VIII.

119 Elizabeth.

120