Chapter X: Front Matter (10)

These were generally of _Cambridge_, formed under some divines, the chief of whom were Drs. _Whitchcot_, _Cudworth_, _Wilkins_, _More_, and _Worthington_. _Whitchcot_ was a man of a rare temper, very mild and obliging. He had great credit with some that had been eminent in the late times; but made all the use he could of it to protect good men of all persuasions. He was much for liberty of conscience: And being disgusted with the dry systematical way of those times, he studied to raise those who conversed with him to a nobler set of thoughts, and to consider religion as a seed of a deiform nature, (to use one of his own phrases.) In order to this, he set young students much on reading the ancient Philosophers, chiefly _Plato_, _Tully_, and _Plotin_, and on considering the Christian religion as a doctrine sent from God, both to elevate and sweeten humane nature, in which he was a great example, as well as a wise and kind instructer. _Cudworth_ carried this on with a great strength of genius, and a vast compass of learning. He was a man of great conduct and prudence: Upon which his enemies did very falsly accuse him of craft and dissimulation. _Wilkins_ was of _Oxford_, but removed to _Cambridge_. His first rise was in the Elector Palatine's family, when he was in _England_. Afterwards he married _Cromwell_'s sister; but made no other use of that alliance, but to do good offices, and to cover the University from the sourness of _Owen_ and _Goodwin_. At _Cambridge_ he joined with those who studied to propagate better thoughts, to take men off from being in parties, or from narrow notions, from superstitious conceits, and a fierceness about opinions. He was also a great observer and a promoter of experimental philosophy, which was then a new thing, and much looked after. He was naturally ambitious, but was the wisest Clergy-man I ever knew. He was a lover of mankind, and had a delight in doing good. _More_ was an open hearted, and sincere Christian philosopher, who studied to establish men in the great principles of religion against atheism, that was then beginning to gain ground, chiefly by reason of the hypocrisy of some, and the fantastical conceits of the more sincere enthusiasts.

_Hobbs_, who had long followed the Court, and passed there for a mathematical man, tho' he really knew little that way, being disgusted by the Court, came into _England_ in _Cromwell_'s time, and published a very wicked book, with a very strange title, _The Leviathan_. His main principles were, that all men acted under an absolute necessity, in which he seemed protected by the then received doctrine of absolute decrees. He seemed to think that the universe was God, and that souls were material, Thought being only subtil and unperceptible motion. He thought interest and fear were the chief principles of society: And he put all morality in the following that which was our own private will or advantage. He thought religion had no other foundation than the laws of the land. And he put all the law in the will of the Prince, or of the people: For he writ his book at first in favour of absolute monarchy, but turned it afterwards to gratify the republican party. These were his true principles, tho' he had disguised them, for deceiving unwary readers. And this set of notions came to spread much. The novelty and boldness of them set many on reading them. The impiety of them was acceptable to men of corrupt minds, which were but too much prepared to receive them by the extravagancies of the late times. So this set of men at _Cambridge_ studied to assert, and examine the principles of religion and morality on clear grounds, and in a philosophical method. In this _More_ led the way to many that came after him. _Worihington_ was a man of eminent piety and great humility, and practised a most sublime way of self-denial and devotion. All these, and those who were formed under them, studied to examine farther into the nature of things than had been done formerly. They declared against superstition on the one hand, and enthusiasm on the other. They loved the constitution of the Church, and the Liturgy, and could well live under them: But they did not think it unlawful to live under another form. They wished that things might have been carried with more moderation. And they continued to keep a good correspondence with those who had differed from them in opinion, and allowed a great freedom both in philosophy and in divinity: From whence they were called men of Latitude. And upon this men of narrower thoughts and fiercer tempers fastened upon them the name of Latitudinarians. They read _Episcopius_ much. And the making out the reasons of things being a main part of their studies, their enemies called them Socinians. They were all very zealous against popery. And so, they becoming soon very considerable, the Papists set themselves against them to decry them as Atheists, Deists, or at best Socinians. And now that the main principle of religion was struck at by _Hobbs_ and his followers, the Papists acted upon this a very strange part. They went in so far even into the argument for Atheism, as to publish many books, in which they affirmed, that there was no certain proofs of the Christian religion, unless we took it from the authority of the Church as infallible. This was such a delivering up of the cause to them, that it raised in all good men a very high indignation at Popery; that party shewing, that they chose to make men, who would not turn Papists, become Atheists, rather than believe Christianity upon any other ground than infallibility.

The most eminent of those, who were formed under those great men I have mention'd, were _Tillotson_, _Stillingfleet_, and _Patrick_. The first of these was a man of a clear head, and a sweet temper. He had the brightest thoughts, and the most correct style of all our divines; and was esteemed the best preacher of the age. He was a very prudent man; and had such a management with it, that I never knew any Clergy-man so universally esteemed and beloved, as he was for above twenty years. He was eminent for his opposition to Popery. He was no friend to persecution, and stood up much against Atheism. Nor did any man contribute more to bring the City to love our worship, than he did. But there was so little superstition, and so much reason and gentleness in his way of explaining things, that malice was long levelled at him, and in conclusion broke out fiercely on him. _Stillingfleet_ was a man of much more learning, but of a more reserved, and a haughtier temper. He in his youth writ an _Irenicum_ for healing our divisions, with so much learning and moderation, that it was esteemed a masterpiece. His notion was, that the Apostles had settled the Church in a constitution of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, but had made no perpetual law about it, having only taken it in, as they did many other things, from the customs and practice of the synagogue; from which he inferred, that certainly the constitution was lawful since authorised by them, but not necessary, since they had made no settled law about it. This took with many; but was cried out upon by others as an attempt against the Church. Yet the argument was managed with so much learning and skill, that none of either side ever undertook to answer it. After that, he wrote against infidelity, beyond any that had gone before him. And then he engaged to write against Popery, which he did with such an exactness and liveliness, that no books of controversy were so much read and valued, as his were. He was a great man in many respects. He knew the world well, and was esteemed a very wise man. The writing of his _Irenicum_ was a great snare to him: For, to avoid the imputations which that brought upon him, he not only retracted the book, but he went into the humours of that high sort of people beyond what became him, perhaps beyond his own sense of things. He applied himself much to the study of the law and records, and the original of our constitution, and was a very extraordinary man. _Patrick_ was a great preacher. He wrote much, and well, and chiefly on the Scriptures. He was a laborious man in his function, of great strictness of life, but a little too severe against those who differed from him. But that was, when he thought their doctrines struck at the fundamentals of religion. He became afterwards more moderate. To these I shall add another divine, who, tho' of _Oxford_, yet as he was formed by Bishop _Wilkins_, so he went into most of their principles; but went far beyond them in learning. _Lloyd_ was a great critick in the _Greek_ and _Latin_ authors, but chiefly in the Scriptures; of the words and phrases of which he carried the most perfect concordance in his memory, and had it the readiest about him, of all men that ever I knew. He was an exact historian, and the most punctual in chronology of all our divines. He had read the most books, and with the best judgment, and had made the most copious abstracts out of them, of any in this age: So that _Wilkins_ used to say, he had the most learning in ready cash of any he ever knew. He was so exact in every thing he set about, that he never gave over any part of study, till he had quite mastered it. But when that was done, he went to another subject, and did not lay out his learning with the diligence with which he laid it in. He had many volumes of materials upon all subjects laid together in so distinct a method, that he could with very little labour write on any of them. He had more life in his imagination, and a truer judgment, than may seem consistent with such a laborious course of study. Yet, as much as he was set on learning, he had never neglected his pastoral care. For several years he had the greatest cure in _England_, St. _Martins_, which he took care of with an application and diligence beyond any about him; to whom he was an example, or rather a reproach, so few following his example. He was a holy, humble, and patient man, ever ready to do good when he saw a proper opportunity: Even his love of study did not divert him from that. He did upon his promotion find a very worthy successor in his cure, _Tenison_, who carried on and advanced all those good methods that he had begun in the management of that great cure. He endowed schools, set up a publick library, and kept many Curates to assist him in his indefatigable labours among them. He was a very learned man, and took much pains to state the notions and practices of heathenish idolatry, and so to fasten that charge on the Church of _Rome_. And, _Whitehall_ lying within that parish, he stood as in the front of the battel all King _James's_ reign; and maintained, as well as managed, that dangerous post with great courage and much judgment, and was held in very high esteem for his whole deportment, which was ever grave and moderate. These have been the greatest divines we have had these forty years: And may we ever have a succession of such men to fill the room of those who have already gone off the stage, and of those who, being now very old, cannot hold their posts long. Of these I have writ the more fully, because I knew them well, and have lived long in great friendship with them; but most particularly with _Tillotson_ and _Lloyd_. And, as I am sensible I owe a great deal of the consideration that has been had for me to my being known to be their friend, so I have really learned the best part of what I know from them. But I owed them much more on the account of those excellent principles and notions, of which they were in a particular manner communicative to me. This set of men contributed more than can be well imagined to reform the way of preaching; which among the divines of _England_ before them was over-run with pedantry, a great mixture of quotations from fathers and ancient writers, a long opening of a text with the concordance of every word in it, and a giving all the different expositions with the grounds of them, and the entring into some parts of controversy, and all concluding in some, but very short, practical applications, according to the subject or the occasion. This was both long and heavy, when all was pye-balled, full of many sayings of different languages. The common style of sermons was either very flat and low, or swelled up with rhetorick to a false pitch of a wrong sublime. The King had little or no literature, but true and good sense; and had got a right notion of style; for he was in _France_ at a time when they were much set on reforming their language. It soon appear'd that he had a true taste. So this help'd to raise the value of these men, when the King approved of the style their discourses generally ran in; which was clear, plain, and short. They gave a short paraphrase of their text, unless where great difficulties required a more copious enlargement: But even then they cut off unnecessary shews of learning, and applied themselves to the matter, in which they opened the nature and reasons of things so fully, and with that simplicity, that their hearers felt an instruction of another sort than had commonly been observed before. So they became very much followed: And a set of these men brought off the City in a great measure from the prejudices they had formerly to the Church.

75.

JAMES II.

_Born 1633. Created Duke of York. Succeeded Charles II 1685. Fled to France 1688. Died 1701._

By BURNET.

I will digress a little to give an account of the Duke's character, whom I knew for some years so particularly, that I can say much upon my own knowledge. He was very brave in his youth, and so much magnified by Monsieur _Turenne_, that, till his marriage lessened him he really clouded the King, and pass'd for the superior genius. He was naturally candid and sincere, and a firm friend, till affairs and his religion wore out all his first principles and inclinations. He had a great desire to understand affairs: And in order to that he kept a constant journal of all that pass'd, of which he shewed me a great deal. The Duke of _Buckingham_ gave me once a short but severe character of the two brothers. It was the more severe, because it was-true: The King (he said) could see things if he would, and the Duke would see things if he could. He had no true judgment, and was soon determined by those whom he trusted: But he was obstinate against all other advices. He was bred with high notions of the Kingly authority, and laid it down for a maxim, that all who opposed the King were rebels in their hearts. He was perpetually in one amour or other, without being very nice in his choice: Upon which the King said once, he believed his brother had his mistresses given him by his Priests for penance. He gave me this account of his changing his religion: When he escaped out of the hands of the Earl of _Northumberland_, who had the charge of his education trusted to him by the Parliament, and had used him with great respect, all due care was taken, as soon as he got beyond sea, to form him to a strict adherence to the Church of _England_: Among other things much was said of the authority of the Church, and of the tradition from the Apostles in support of Episcopacy: So that, when he came to observe that there was more reason to submit to the Catholick Church than to one particular Church, and that other traditions might be taken on her word, as well as Episcopacy was received among us, he thought the step was not great, but that it was very reasonable to go over to the Church of _Rome_: And Doctor _Steward_ having taught him to believe a real but unconceivable presence of _Christ_ in the Sacrament, he thought this went more than half way to transubstantiation. He said, that a Nun's advice to him to pray every day, that, if he was not in the right way, God would set him right, did make a great impression on him. But he never told me when or where he was reconciled. He suffered me to say a great deal to him on all these heads. I shewed the difference between submission and obedience in matters of order and indifferent things, and an implicite submission from the belief of infallibility. I also shewed him the difference between a speculation of a mode of _Christ's_ presence, when it rested in an opinion, and an adoration founded on it: Tho' the opinion of such a presence was wrong, there was no great harm in that alone: But the adoration of an undue object was idolatry. He suffered me to talk much and often to him on these heads. But I plainly saw, it made no impression: And all that he seemed to intend by it was, to make use of me as an instrument to soften the aversion that people began to be possessed with to him. He was naturally eager and revengeful: And was against the taking off any that set up in an opposition to the measures of the Court, and who by that means grew popular in the House of Commons. He was for rougher methods. He continued for many years dissembling his religion, and seemed zealous for the Church of _England_: But it was chiefly on design to hinder all propositions that tended to unite us among our selves. He was a frugal Prince, and brought his Court into method and magnificence: For he had 100000_l_. a year allowed him. He was made High Admiral: And he came to understand all the concerns of the sea very particularly. He had a very able Secretary about him, Sir _William Coventry_; a man of great notions and eminent vertues, the best Speaker in the House of Commons, and capable of bearing the chief ministry, as it was once thought he was very near it. The Duke found, all the great seamen had a deep tincture from their education: They both hated Popery, and loved liberty: They were men of severe tempers, and kept good discipline. But in order to the putting the fleet into more confident hands, the Duke began a method of sending pages of honour, and other young persons of quality, to be bred to the sea. And these were put in command, as soon as they were capable of it, if not sooner. This discouraged many of the old seamen, when they saw in what a channel advancement was like to go; who upon that left the service, and went and commanded merchantmen. By this means the vertue and discipline of the navy is much lost. It is true, we have a breed of many gallant men, who do distinguish themselves in action. But it is thought, the Nation has suffered much by the vices and disorders of those Captains, who have risen by their quality, more than by merit or service.

76.

By BURNET.

He was a Prince that seemed made for greater things, than will be found in the course of his Life, more particularly of his Reign: He was esteemed in the former parts of his Life, a Man of great Courage, as he was quite thro' it a man of great application to business: He had no vivacity of thought, invention or expression: But he had a good judgment, where his Religion or his Education gave him not a biass, which it did very often: He was bred with strange Notions of the Obedience due to Princes, and came to take up as strange ones, of the Submission due to Priests: He was naturally a man of truth, fidelity, and justice: But his Religion was so infused in him, and he was so managed in it by his Priests, that the Principles which Nature had laid in him, had little power over him, when the concerns of his Church stood in the way: He was a gentle Master, and was very easy to all who came near him: yet he was not so apt to pardon, as one ought to be, that is the Vicegerent of that God, who is slow to anger, and ready to forgive: He had no personal Vices but of one sort: He was still wandring from one Amour to another, yet he had a real sense of Sin, and was ashamed of it: But Priests know how to engage Princes more entirely into their interests, by making them compound for their Sins, by a great zeal for Holy Church, as they call it. In a word, if it had not been for his Popery, he would have been, if not a great yet a good Prince. By what I once knew of him, and by what I saw him afterwards carried to, I grew more confirmed in the very bad opinion, which I was always apt to have, of the Intrigues of the Popish Clergy, and of the Confessors of Kings: He was undone by them, and was their Martyr, so that they ought to bear the chief load of all the errors of his inglorious Reign, and of its fatal Catastrophe. He had the Funeral which he himself had desired, private, and without any sort of Ceremony.

NOTES

1.

The History of Great Britain, Being the Life and Reign of King James The First, Relating To what passed from his first Accesse to the Crown, till his Death. By Arthur Wilson, Esq. London, 1653. (pp. 289-90.)

Arthur Wilson (1595-1652) was a gentleman-in-waiting to Robert Devereux, third Earl of Essex, during James's reign, and was afterwards in the service of Robert Rich, second Earl of Essex. The _History_ was written towards the end of his life, and published the year after his death. He was the author also of an autobiography, _Observations of God's Providence in the Tract of my Life_ (first printed in Francis Peck's _Desiderata Curiosa_, 1735, Lib. XII, pp. 6-34), and of three plays, _The Swisser_ (performed at Blackfriars, 1633, first printed in 1904, ed. Albert Feuillerat, from the MS. in the British Museum), _The Corporall_ (performed, 1633, but not extant), and _The Inconstant Lady_ (first printed in 1814, ed. Philip Bliss, from the MS. in the Bodleian Library). The three plays were entered in the Registers of the Stationers' Company, September 4, 1646, and September 9, 1653. But nothing he wrote appears to have been published during his life.

Page 2, l. 24. _Peace begot Plenty_. An adaptation of the wellknown saying which Puttenham in his _Arte of English Poesie_ (ed. Arber, p. 217) attributes to Jean de Meung. Puttenham gives it thus:

Peace makes plentie, plentie makes pride,
Pride breeds quarrell, and quarrell brings warre:
Warre brings spoile, and spoile pouertie,
Pouertie pacience, and pacience peace:
So peace brings warre, and warre brings peace.

It is found also in Italian and Latin. Allusions to it are frequent in the seventeenth century. Compare the beginning of Swift's _Battle of the Books_, and see the correspondence in _The Times Literary Supplement_, February 17-March 30, 1916.

2.

The Court and Character of King James. Written and taken by Sir A.W. being an eye, and eare witnesse. Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit regnare. Published by Authority. London, MDCL.

'The Character of King James' forms a section by itself at the conclusion of the volume, pp. 177-89. The volume was reprinted in the following year, when there were added to it 'The Court of King Charles' and 'Observations (instead of a Character) upon this King, from his Childe-hood'. Both editions are carelessly printed. The second, which corrects some of the errors of the first but introduces others, has been used for the present text.

Weldon was clerk of the kitchen to James I and afterwards clerk of the Green Cloth. He was knighted in 1617, and accompanied James to Scotland in that year, but was dismissed from his place at court for his satire on the Scots. He took the side of the parliament in the Civil War. The dedication to Lady Elizabeth Sidley (first printed in the second edition) states that the work 'treads too near the heeles of truth, and these Times, to appear in publick'. According to Anthony à Wood she had suppressed the manuscript, which was stolen from her. Weldon had died before it was printed. The answer to it called _Aulicus Coquinariæ_ describes it as 'Pretended to be penned by Sir A.W. and published since his death, 1650'.

Other works of the same kind, though of inferior value, are Sir Edward Peyton's _The Divine Catastrophe of The Kingly Family Of the House of Stuarts_, 1652, and Francis Osborne's _Traditionall Memoyres on The Raigne of King James_, 1658. They were printed together by Sir Walter Scott in 1811 under the title _The Secret History of the Court of James the First_, a collection which contains the historical material employed in _The Fortunes of Nigel_.

Though carelessly written, and as carelessly printed, Weldon's character of James is in parts remarkably vivid. It was reprinted by itself in Morgan's _Pboenix Britannicus_, 1732, pp. 54-6; and it was incorporated in the edition of Defoe's _Memoirs of a Cavalier_ published in 1792: see _The Retrospective Review_, 1821, vol. iii, pt. ii, pp. 378-9.

There is a valuable article on Weldon's book as a whole in _The Retrospective Review_, 1823, vol. vii, pt. I.

PAGE 4, l. 6. _before he was born_, probably an allusion to the murder of Rizzio in Mary's presence.

l. 11. The syntax is faulty: delete 'and'?

On James's capacity for strong drinks, compare Roger Coke's _Detection of the Court and State of England_ (1694), ed. 1719, vol. i, p. 78.

l. 27. _that foul poysoning busines_, the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, the great scandal of the reign. Robert Ker, or Carr, created Viscount Rochester 1611 and Earl of Somerset 1613, had cast his eye on the Countess of Essex, and, after a decree of nullity of marriage with Essex had been procured, married her in December 1613. Overbury, who had been Somerset's friend, opposed the projected marriage. On a trumped up charge of disobedience to the king he was in April 1613 committed to the Tower, where he was slowly poisoned, and died in September. Somerset and the Countess were both found guilty in 1616, but ultimately pardoned; four of the accomplices were hanged. Weldon deals with the scandal at some length in the main part of his work, pp. 61 ff.

l. 30. _Mountgomery_, Philip Herbert, created Earl of Montgomery 1605, succeeded his brother, William Herbert, as fourth Earl of Pembroke in 1630 (see No. 7). To this 'most noble and incomparable paire of brethren' Heminge and Condell dedicated the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, 1623. Montgomery's character is given by Clarendon, _History_, ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 74-5; and, as fourth Earl of Pembroke, vol. ii, pp. 539-41.

Page 5, l. 22. _unfortunate in the marriage of his Daughter_. James's daughter Elizabeth married the Elector Palatine, Frederick V, in 1613. His election as King of Bohemia led to the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) in which James long hesitated to become involved and played at best an ineffectual part. The opinion here expressed is explained by an earlier passage in Weldon's book, pp. 82-4: 'In this Favourites (Somerset's) flourishing time, came over the _Palsgrave_ to marry our Kings daughter, which for the present, gave much content, and with the generall applause, yet it proved a most infortunate match to him and his Posterity, and all Christendome, for all his Alliance with so many great Princes, which put on him aspiring thoughts, and was so ambitious as not to content himselfe with his hereditary patrimony of one of the greatest Princes in _Germany_; but must aspire to a Kingdome, beleeving that his great allyance would carry him through any enterprise, or bring him off with honour, in both which he failed; being cast out of his own Country with shame, and he and his, ever after, living upon the devotion of other Princes; but had his Father in Law spent halfe the mony in Swords he did in words, for which he was but scorned, it had kept him in his own inheritance, and saved much Christian bloud since shed; but whiles he, being wholly addicted to peace, spent much treasure, in sending stately Embassadours to treat, his Enemies (which he esteemed friends) sent Armies with a lesse charge to conquer, so that it may be concluded, that this then thought the most happy match in Christendome, was the greatest unhappinesse to Christendome, themselves, and posterity.'

l. 27. _Sir Robert Mansell_ (1573-1656), Vice-Admiral of England under Charles I. Clarendon, writing of the year 1642, says that 'his courage and integrity were unquestionable' (ed. Macray, vol. ii, p. 219). 'Argiers' or 'Argier' was the common old form of 'Algiers': cf. _The Tempest_, I. ii. 261, 265.

Page 6, l. 2. _Cottington_, Francis Cottington (1578-1652), baronet 1623, Baron Cottington, 1631. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1629 to 1642.

Page 7, l. 5. The first edition reads 'In sending Embassadours, which were'. The printer's substitution of 'His' for 'In' and omission of 'which' do not wholly mend the syntax.

l. 10. _peace with honour_. An early instance of the phrase made famous by Lord Beaconsfield in his speech of July 16, 1878, after the Congress of Berlin, 'Lord Salisbury and myself have brought you back peace, but a peace I hope with honour.' Cf. _Notes and Queries_, 1887, Seventh Series, vol. iii, p. 96.

l. 14. _Nullum tempus, &c._, the law maxim _Nullum tempus occurrit regi_, lapse of time does not bar the crown. The Parliament which met in February 1624 passed 'An Act for the generall quiett of the Subject agaynst all pretences of Concealement' (21° Jac. I, c. 2) which declared sixty years' possession of Lands, &c., to be a good title against the Crown.

l. 18. _his Tuesday Sermons_, likewise explained by an earlier passage in Weldon's book, pp. 8, 9: 'the chiefe of those secrets, was that of _Gowries_ Conspiracy, though that Nation [the Scots] gave little credit to the Story, but would speak sleightly and despitefully of it, and those of the wisest of that Nation; yet there was a weekly commemoration by the Tuesday Sermon, and an anniversary Feast, as great as it was possible, for the Kings preservation, ever on the fifth of August.' James attempted to force the Tuesday sermon on the University of Oxford; it was to be preached by members of each college in rotation. See Brodrick's _Memorials of Merton College_, 1885, p. 70.

Page 8, l. 1. _a very wise man_. Compare _The Fortunes of Nigel_, chap. v: 'the character bestowed upon him by Sully--that he was the wisest fool in Christendom'. Two volumes of the _Mémoires_ of Maximilien de Béthune, Duc de Sully (1560-1641), appeared in 1638; the others after 1650. There is much about James in the second volume, but this description of him does not appear to be there.

ll. 10-12. _two Treasurers_, see p. 21, ll. 15-22: _three Secretaries_, Sir Thomas Lake; Sir Robert Naunton; Sir George Calvert, Baron Baltimore; Sir Edward Conway, Viscount Conway: _two Lord Keepers_, Sir Francis Bacon; John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln (see p. 18, l. 5): _two Admiralls_, Charles Howard of Effingham, Earl of Nottingham; the Duke of Buckingham: _three Lord chief Justices_, Sir Edward Coke; Henry Montagu, Earl of Manchester; James Ley, Earl of Marlborough.

Weldon's statement is true of the year 1623; he might have said '_three_ Treasurers' and '_four_ Secretaries'.

3.

Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 7-9, 18-20; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, pp. 9-11, 26-9; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 10-13, 38-43.

This is the first of the portraits in Clarendon's great gallery, and it is drawn with great care. Clarendon was only a youth of twenty when Buckingham was assassinated, and he had therefore not the personal knowledge and contact to which the later portraits owe so much of their value. But he had throughout all his life been interested in the remarkable career of this 'very extraordinary person'. Sir Henry Wotton's 'Observations by Way of Parallel' on the Earl of Essex and Buckingham had suggested to him his first character study, 'The Difference and Disparity' between them. (It is printed after the 'Parallel' in _Reliquiæ Wottonianæ_, and described in the third edition, 1672, as 'written by the Earl of Clarendon in his younger dayes'.) His two studies offer an interesting comparison. Many of the ideas are the same, but there is a marked difference in the precision of drawing and the ease of style. The character here reprinted was written when Clarendon had mastered his art.

Page 11, l. 5. See p. 4, l. 27.

Page 13, l. 25. The passage here omitted deals with Buckingham's unsuccessful journey to Spain with Prince Charles, and with his assassination.

Page 16, l. 28. _touched upon before_, ed. Macray, vol. i, p. 38; here omitted.

4.

Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 27, 28; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, pp. 36-8; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 56-9.

Page 18, l. 5. _the Bishopp of Lincolne_, John Williams (1582-1650), afterwards Archbishop of York. He succeeded Bacon as Lord Keeper. He is sketched in Wilson's _History of Great Britain_, pp. 196-7, and Fuller's _Church-History of Britain_, 1655, Bk. XI, pp. 225-8. His life by John Hacket, _Scrinia Reserata_, 1693, is notorious for the 'embellishments' of its style; a shorter life, based on Hacket's, was an early work of Ambrose Philips.

l. 22. _the Earle of Portlande_, Sir Richard Weston: see No. 5.

l. 24. _Hambleton_, Clarendon's usual spelling of 'Hamilton'.

5.

Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 28-32; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, pp. 31-43; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 59-67.

Another and more favourable character of Weston is the matter of an undated letter which Sir Henry Wotton sent to him as 'a strange New years Gift' about 1635. 'In short, it is only an Image of your Self, drawn by memory from such discourse as I have taken up here and there of your Lordship, among the most intelligent and unmalignant men; which to pourtrait before you I thought no servile office, but ingenuous and real'. See _Reliquiæ Wottonianæ_, ed. 1672, pp. 333-6.

Page 21, l. 7. _the white staffe_. 'The Third _Great Officer_ of the Crown, is the _Lord High Treasurer of England_, who receives this High Office by delivery of a _White Staffe_ to him by the _King_, and holds it _durante bene placito Regis_' (Edward Chamberlayne, _Angliæ Notitia_, 1674, p. 152).

Page 23, l. 4. _L'd Brooke_, Sir Fulke Greville (1554-1628) the friend and biographer of Sir Philip Sidney. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1614 to 1621.

Page 28, l. 18. _eclarcicement_, introduced into English about this time, and in frequent use till the beginning of the nineteenth century.

l. 28. _a younge, beautifull Lady_, Frances, daughter of Esmé, third Duke of Lennox, married to Jerome Weston, afterwards second Earl of Portland, in 1632.

6.

Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 33, 34; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, p. 44; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 69-71.

This is one of Clarendon's most unfriendly portraits. It was seriously edited when first printed. The whole passage about the coldness and selfishness of Arundel's nature on p. 31, ll. 12-30, was omitted, as likewise the allusion to his ignorance on p. 30, ll. 25-7, 'wheras in truth he was only able to buy them, never to understande them.' Minor alterations are the new reading 'thought no part of History _so_ considerable, _as_ what related to his own Family' p. 30, ll. 28, 29, and the omission of 'vulgar' p. 31, l. 11. The purpose of these changes is obvious. They are extreme examples of the methods of Clarendon's first editors. In no other character did they take so great liberties with his text.

Arundel's great collection of ancient marbles is now in the Ashmolean Museum in the University of Oxford. The inscriptions were presented to the University in 1667 by Lord Henry Howard, Arundel's grandson, afterwards sixth Duke of Norfolk, and the statues were reunited to them in 1755 by the gift of Henrietta Countess of Pomfret. As Clarendon's _History_ was an official publication of the University, it is probable that the prospect of receiving the statues induced the editors to remove or alter the passages that might be thought offensive.

As a whole this character does not show Clarendon's usual detachment. Arundel was Earl Marshal, and Clarendon in the Short Parliament of 1640 and again at the beginning of the Long Parliament had attacked the jurisdiction of the Earl Marshal's Court, which, as he says, 'never presumed to sit afterwards'. The account given in Clarendon's _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 37-9, explains much in this character. Clarendon there says that Arundel 'did him the honour to detest and hate him perfectly'. There was resentment on both sides. The character was written in Clarendon's later years, but he still remembered with feeling the days when as Mr. Edward Hyde he was at cross purposes with this Earl of ancient lineage.

A different character of Arundel is given in the 'Short View' of his life written by Sir Edward Walker (1612-77), Garter King of Arms and Secretary of War to Charles I:

'He was tall of Stature, and of Shape and proportion rather goodly than neat; his Countenance was Majestical and grave, his Visage long, his Eyes large black and piercing; he had a hooked Nose, and some Warts or Moles on his Cheeks; his Countenance was brown, his Hair thin both on his Head and Beard; he was of a stately Presence and Gate, so that any Man that saw him, though in never so ordinary Habit, could not but conclude him to be a great Person, his Garb and Fashion drawing more Observation than did the rich Apparel of others; so that it was a common Saying of the late Earl of _Carlisle_, Here comes the Earl of _Arundel_ in his plain Stuff and trunk Hose, and his Beard in his Teeth, that looks more like a Noble Man than any of us. He was more learned in Men and Manners than in Books, yet understood the _Latin_ Tongue very well, and was Master of the _Italian_; besides he was a great Favourer of learned Men, such as Sir _Robert Cotton_, Sir _Henry Spelman_, Mr. _Camden_, Mr. _Selden_, and the like. He was a great Master of Order and Ceremony, and knew and kept greater Distance towards his Sovereign than any Person I ever observed, and expected no less from his inferiours; often complaining that the too great Affability of the King, and the _French_ Garb of the Court would bring MAJESTY into Contempt.... He was the greatest Favourer of Arts, especially Painting, Sculpture, Designs, Carving, Building and the like, that this Age hath produced; his Collection of Designs being more than of any Person living, and his Statues equal in Number, Value and Antiquity to those in the Houses of most Princes; to gain which, he had Persons many Years employed both in _Italy_, _Greece_, and so generally in any part of _Europe_ where Rarities were to be had. His Paintings likewise were numerous and of the most excellent Masters, having more of that exquisite Painter _Hans Holben_ than are in the World besides.... He was a Person of great and universal Civility, but yet with that Restriction as that it forbad any to be bold or sawcy with him; though with those whom he affected, which were Lovers of State, Nobility and curious Arts, he was very free and conversible; but they being but few, the Stream of the times being otherwise, he had not many Confidents or Dependents; neither did he much affect to have them, they being unto great Persons both burthensome and dangerous. He was not popular at all, nor cared for it, as loving better by a just Hand than Flattery to let the common People to know their Distance and due Observance. Neither was he of any Faction in Court or Council, especially not of the _French_ or Puritan.... He was in Religion no Bigot or Puritan, and professed more to affect moral Vertues than nice Questions and Controversies.... If he were defective in any thing, it was that he could not bring his Mind to his Fortune; which though great, was far too little for the Vastness of his noble Designs.'

Walker's character was written before Clarendon's. It is dated 'Iselsteyne the 7th of June 1651'. It was first published in 1705 in his _Historical Discourses upon Several Occasions_, pp. 221-3.

Page 30, l. 15. _his wife_, 'the Lady Alithea Talbot, third Daughter and Coheir of _Gilbert Talbot_ Earl of _Shrewsbury_, Grandchild of _George Talbot_ Earl of _Shrewsbury_ and Earl Marshal of _England_' (Walker, _Historical Discourses_, p. 211).

7.

Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 34, 35; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, pp. 44-6; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 71-3.

This pleasing portrait of Pembroke, one of the great patrons of literature of James's reign, follows immediately after the unfriendly portrait of Arundel, the art collector. Clarendon knew the value of contrast in the arrangement of his gallery.

Pembroke is sometimes supposed to have been the patron of Shakespeare. It cannot, however, be proved that there were any personal relations, though the First Folio was dedicated to him and his brother, the Earl of Montgomery, afterwards fourth Earl of Pembroke. See note, p. 4, l. 30. He was the patron of Ben Jonson, who dedicated to him his _Catiline_, his favourite play, and his _Epigrams_, 'the ripest of my studies'; also of Samuel Daniel, Chapman, and William Browne. See _Shakespeare's England_, vol. ii, pp. 202-3.

Clarendon has also given a character of the fourth Earl, 'the poor Earl of Pembroke', _History_, ed. Macray, vol. ii, pp. 539-41.

8.

Timber: or, Discoveries; Made Vpon Men and Matter. By Ben: Iohnson. London, Printed M.DC.XLI. (pp. 101-2.)

This character is a remarkable testimony to the impression which Bacon's restrained eloquence made on his contemporaries. Yet it is little more than an exercise in free translation. Jonson has pieced together two passages in the _Controversies_ of Marcus Seneca, and placed the name of 'Dominus Verulanus' in the margin. The two passages are these:

'Non est unus, quamvis præcipuus sit, imitandus: quia nunquam par fit imitator auctori. Hæc natura est rei. Semper citra veritatem est similitudo.' Lib. I, Præfatio (ed. Paris, 1607, p. 58).

'Oratio eius erat valens cultu, ingentibus plena sententiis. Nemo minus passus est aliquid in actione sua otiosi esse. Nulla pars erat, quæ non sua virtute staret. Nihil, in quo auditor sine damno aliud ageret. Omnia intenta aliquo, petentia. Nemo magis in sua potestate habuit audientium affectus. Verum est quod de illo dicit Gallio noster. Cum diceret, rerum potiebatur, adeo omnes imperata faciebant. Cum ille voluerat, irascebantur. Nemo non illo dicente timebat, ne desineret.' Epit. Declamat. Lib. III (p. 231).

From the continuation of the first passage Jonson took the words 'insolent Greece' ('insolenti Græciæ') in his verses 'To the memory of Shakespeare'.

Jonson has left a more vivid picture of Bacon as a speaker in a short sentence of his Conversations with Drummond of Hawthornden: 'My Lord Chancelor of England wringeth his speeches from the strings of his band.'

9.

Reign of King James the First, 1653, pp. 158-60.

Page 36, l. 18. _which the King hinted at_, in the King's Speech to the Lords, 1621: 'But because the World at this time talks so much of _Bribes_, I have just cause to fear the whole _Body_ of this _House_ hath _bribed_ him [Prince Charles] to be a good _Instrument_ for you upon all occasions: He doth so good Offices in all his _Reports_ to me, both for the _House_ in _generall_, and every one of you in _particular_.' The speech is given in full by Wilson before the passage on Bacon.

Page 37, l. 25. The passage here omitted is 'The humble Submission and Supplication of the Lord Chancellour'.

Page 38, l. 10. _a good Passeover_, a good passage back to Spain. Gondomar was Spanish ambassador.

10.

The Church-History of Britain; From the Birth of Jesus Christ, Untill the Year M.DC.XLVIII. Endeavoured By Thomas Fuller. London, 1655. (Bk. x, p. 89.)

11.

Resuscitatio, Or, Bringing into Publick Light Severall Pieces, of the Works, Civil, Historical, Philosophical, & Theological, Hitherto Sleeping; Of the Right Honourable Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam, Viscount Saint Alban. According to the best Corrected Coppies. Together, With his Lordships Life. By William Rawley, Doctor in Divinity, His Lordships First, and Last, Chapleine. Afterwards, Chapleine, to His late Maiesty. London, 1657.

'The Life of the Honourable Author' serves as introduction to this volume of Bacon's literary remains. It runs to fourteen pages, unnumbered. The passage quoted from this life (_c1v-c2v_) is of the nature of a character.

Rawley's work is disfigured by pedantically heavy punctuation. He carried to absurd excess the methods which his Master adopted in the 1625 edition of his _Essays_. It has not been thought necessary to retain all his commas.

Page 41, l. 4. _Et quod tentabam_, &c. Ovid, _Tristia_, IV. x. 26.

12.

Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 48; _Life_, ed. 1759, p. 16.

Page 42, l. 23. _M'r Cowly_, an indication of Cowley's fame among his contemporaries. This was written in 1668, after the publication of _Paradise Lost_, but Clarendon ignores Milton.

l. 25. _to own much of his_, 'to ascribe much of this' _Life_ 1759.

Page 43, l. 2. _M'r Hyde_, Clarendon himself.

13.

A New Volume of Familiar Letters, Partly Philosophicall, Politicall, Historicall. The second Edition, with Additions. By James Howell, Esq. London, 1650. (Letter XIII, pp. 25-6.)

This is the second volume of _Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ_, first published 1645 (vol. 1) and 1647 (vol. 2). The text is here printed from the copy of the second edition which Howell presented to Selden with an autograph dedication: 'Ex dono Authoris ... Opusculum hoc honoris ergô mittitur, Archiuis suis reponendum. 3° non: Maij 1652.' The volume now reposes in the Selden collection in the Bodleian library. The second edition of this letter differs from the first in the insertion of the bracketed words, ll. 22, 23, and the date.

The authenticity of the letters as a whole is discussed in Joseph Jacob's edition, 1890, pp. lxxi ff. This was probably not a real letter written to his correspondent at the given date. But whenever, and in whatever circumstances, Howell wrote it, the value of the picture it gives us of Ben Jonson is not impaired.

PAGE 43, l. 9. _Sir Tho. Hawk_. Sir Thomas Hawkins, translator of Horace's _Odes and Epodes_, 1625; hence 'your' Horace, p. 44, l. 4.

l. 17. _T. Ca._ Thomas Carew, the poet, one of the 'Tribe of Ben'.

PAGE 44, l. 6. _Iamque opus_, Ovid, _Metam._ xv. 871; cf. p. 202, l. 13. l. 8. _Exegi monumentum_, Horace, _Od._ iii. 30. i. l. 10. _O fortunatam_, preserved in Quintilian, _Inst. Orat._ ix. 4. 41 and xi. I. 24, and in Juvenal, _Sat._ x. 122.

14.

This remarkable portrait of a country gentleman of the old school is from the 'Fragment of Autobiography', written by the first Earl of Shaftesbury (see Nos. 68, 69) towards the end of his life. The manuscript is among the Shaftesbury papers in the Public Record Office, but at present (1918) has been temporarily withdrawn for greater safety, and is not available for reference. The text is therefore taken from the modernized version in W.D. Christie's _Memoirs of Shaftesbury_, 1859, pp. 22-5, and _Life of Shaftesbury_, 1871, vol. i, appendix i, pp. xv-xvii.

The character was published in Leonard Howard's _Collection of Letters, from the Original Manuscripts_, 1753, pp. 152-5, and was reprinted in _The Gentleman's Magazine_ for April 1754, pp. 160-1, and again in _The Connoisseur_, No. 81, August 14, 1755. _The Gentleman's Magazine_ (1754, p. 215) is responsible for the error that it is to be found in Peck's _Desiderata Curiosa_.

Hastings was Shaftesbury's neighbour in Dorsetshire. A full-length portrait of him in his old age, clad in green cloth and holding a pike-staff in his right hand, is at St. Giles, the seat of the Shaftesbury family. It is reproduced in Hutchins's _History of Dorset_, ed. 1868, vol. iii, p. 152.

PAGE 44, ll. 24-26. He was the second son of George fourth Earl of Huntingdon. Shaftesbury is describing his early associates after his marriage in 1639: 'The eastern part of Dorsetshire had a bowling-green at Hanley, where the gentlemen went constantly once a week, though neither the green nor accommodation was inviting, yet it was well placed for to continue the correspondence of the gentry of those parts. Thither resorted Mr. Hastings of Woodland,' &c.

Page 47, l. 12. '_my part lies therein-a_.' As was pointed out by E.F. Rimbault in _Notes and Queries_, 1859, Second Series, vol. vii, p. 323, this is part of an old catch printed with the music in _Pammelia. Musicks Miscellanie. Or, Mixed Varietie of Pleasant Roundelayes, and delightfull Catches_, 1609:

There lies a pudding in the fire,
and my parte lies therein a:
whome should I call in,
O thy good fellowes and mine a.

_Pammelia_, 'the earliest collection of rounds, catches, and canons printed in England', was brought out by Thomas Ravenscroft. Another edition appeared in 1618.

15.

Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 383-4; _History_, Bk. XI, ed. 1704, vol. iii, pp. 197-9; ed. Macray, vol. iv, pp. 488-92.

The sense of Fate overhangs the portrait in which Clarendon paints for posterity the private virtues of his unhappy master. The easy dignity of the style adapts itself to the grave subject. This is one of Clarendon's greatest passages. It was written twenty years after Charles's death, but Time had not dulled his feelings. 'But ther shall be only incerted the shorte character of his person, as it was found in the papers of that person whose life is heare described, who was so nerely trusted by him, and who had the greatest love for his person, and the greatest reverence for his memory, that any faythfull servant could exspresse.' So he wrote at first in the account of his own life. On transferring the passage to the _History_ he substituted the more impersonal sentence (p. 48, l. 27--p. 49, l. 5) which the general character of the _History_ demanded.

Page 48, l. 15. _our blessed Savyour_. Compare 'The Martyrdom of King Charls I. or His Conformity with Christ in his Sufferings. In a Sermon preached at Bredah, Before his Sacred Majesty King Charls The Second, And the Princess of Orange. By the Bishop of Downe. Printed at the Hage 1649, and reprinted at London ... 1660'. Clarendon probably heard this sermon.

l. 21. _have bene so much_, substituted in MS. for 'fitt to be more'.

_treatises_. E.g. _Elenchus Motuum Nuperorum in Anglia_ (part 1), 1649, by George Bate or Bates, principal physician to Charles I and II; _England's black Tribunall. Set forth in the Triall of K. Charles I_, 1660; and the sermon mentioned above.

Page 51, l. 20. _educated by that people_. His tutor was Sir Peter Young (1544-1628), the tutor of James. Patrick Young (1584-1652), Sir Peter's son, was Royal Librarian.

l. 26. _Hambleton_. Cf. p. 18, l. 24.

16.

Mémoires Of the reigne of King Charles I. With a Continuation to the Happy Restauration of King Charles II. By Sir Philip Warwick, Knight. Published from the Original Manuscript. With An Alphabetical Table. London, 1701. (pp. 64-75.)

Warwick (1609-83) was Secretary to Charles in 1647-8. 'When I think of dying', he wrote, adapting a saying of Cicero, 'it is one of my comforts, that when I part from the dunghill of this world, I shall meet King Charles, and all those faithfull spirits, that had virtue enough to be true to him, the Church, and the Laws unto the last.' (_Mémoires_, p. 331.) Passages in the _Mémoires_ show that they were begun after the summer of 1676 (p. 37), and completed shortly after May 18, 1677 (p. 403).

Page 55, l. 13. _Sir Henry Vane_, the elder.

l. 14. _dyet_, allowance for expenses of living.