T H E 
 
 WORKS 
 
 O F 
 
 HORATIO WALPOLE, 
 
 EARL OF ORFORD. 
 
 V O L. I. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/worksofhoratiowa01walp 
 
v 
 
THE 
 
 WORKS 
 
 OF 
 
 HORATIO WALPOL 
 
 EARL OF ORFORD. 
 
 IN FIVE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 L OND ON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR G. G. AND J. ROBINSON, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
 AND J. EDWARDS, PALL-MALL. 
 MDCCXCVIII. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 BY THE 
 
 EDITOR. 
 
 THE edition now offered to the public of the works of' 
 the late earl of Orford includes not only the manu- 
 scripts bequeathed by his lordfhip for publication, but 
 much new matter communicated by himfelf during his life- 
 time to the editor. It has been {till further enriched by 
 the contributions of his executors and others of his friends, 
 who, admiring his epiflolary talents, had preferved every 
 line of his writing; and who thought that, by enlarging the 
 collection of his letters, they were adding to a valuable and 
 entertaining prefent to the public. 
 
 Lord Orford fo early as the year 1768 had formed the 
 intention of printing, and foon after actually began, a 
 Vol. I. a quarto 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 quarto edition of his works, to which he purpofed to add 
 ieverai pieces, both in profe and yerfe, w Inch he had either 
 not before publifhed or never acknowledged as his own. 
 A firfh and part of a fecond volume printed under his own 
 eye at Strawberry-hill were already in a ftate of great for- 
 wardnefs. But his frequent indirpofitioris, and the unimport- 
 ant light in which, notwithstanding the very flattering recep- 
 tion they had met with from the world, he always perfifted 
 in confidering his own works, feem to have combined in 
 deterring him from carrying this defign into execution. 
 
 The completion of this work he entrufted to the editor, 
 to whom he alfo bequeathed all the notes, additions, and 
 alterations which he had himfelf collected and arranged. 
 Lord Orford may therefore ftill be confidered as his own 
 editor : every thing that he had felecled is faithfully given 
 to the public ; and his arrangement, as far as it had gone, is 
 in every refpect flriclly adhered to. Fidelity to the au- 
 thor's intentions and wifhes is indeed the principal merit 
 of an editor;- and as no further appeal can now 7 be made to the 
 judgement and tafte of the author, the friend to whom he 
 has entrufled the care of his poflhumous works has thought 
 proper implicitly to follow the track which he found al- 
 ready prefcribed for him. 
 
 In the Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors confider- 
 able additions are made under the refpe&ive divifions of the 
 original work \ notices of feveral pieces omitted in the for- 
 mer 
 
by the EDITOR. vii 
 
 mer editions are here inferted, and a poftfcript and an ap- 
 pendix are fubjoined. 
 
 The Hiftoric Doubts upon the life and reign of king 
 Richard III. are followed by a large fupplement, by two 
 replies to attacks made on the original work, and by apoft-. 
 fcfipt occafioned by the late revolution in France. 
 
 The whole contents of the fecond volume fubfequent to 
 the JEdes Walpoliance (the Eflay on Gardening and the Coun- 
 ter Addrefs on the late Difmiflal of a General Officer ex- 
 cepted) are new to the public. 
 
 The dramatic piece, though reprefented with confiderable 
 applaufe at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket in June 
 1778, was never acknowledged by lord Orford, or with 
 certainty known to be his. 
 
 The detection of a forged account of his father, publifhed 
 in Holland under the title of Tejlament politique du che- 
 valier Robert Walpoole, completely expofes its falfehood ; but 
 as the original work was never tranflated into Englifh, nor 
 ever emerged from the obfcurity which it deferved. lord Or- 
 ford thought it unneceflary to publifh his vindication at 
 the time, but left it behind him as a laft proof of filial 
 anxiety for the character and fame of a father. 
 
 The advertifement which he had himfelf defigned for 
 the quarto edition of his works, marks with what fatisfaction 
 
 a 2 he 
 
on 
 
 via 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 he reflected on being able to refer to all the letters which 
 had paffed between him and various minifters on the fub- 
 je£t of the places which he had held under government, 
 and of the whole of his intercourfe with fucceflive admi- 
 niftrations. A laudable anxiety that his motives might not 
 be mifreprefented, nor his opinions relative to thofe places 
 confounded with a venal oppofition to public economy, 
 fuggefted the faithful and accurate account of himfelf and his 
 conduct, which he has prefixed to the Letters to and from 
 Minifters. 
 
 The Catalogue and Defcription of Strawberry-hill has 
 been hitherto in the hands of thofe only to whom lord 
 Orford bequeathed the few copies which he had himfelf 
 printed there. The principal reafon which he gives in his 
 preface to this Catalogue for having compofed it, that of 
 its ferving hereafter as a well-attefted genealogy of the ob- 
 jects of virtu contained in the collection, is a ftill ftronger 
 argument for its more general difperfion. — But, in truth, in 
 defcribing Strawberry -hill lord Orford muft be confidered 
 with indulgence as a fond and partial parent dwelling with 
 delight on the merits of a favourite child — of a creation of 
 his own — of a place which has acquired a fort of claffic 
 celebrity, perhaps ftill more from its author and its prefs 
 than from any part of the collection it contains — but which, 
 after all the prepofTeffions of fafhion and prejudice are 
 paffed away, will be juftly dear to the Englifh antiquary, 
 the artift, and the man of tafte, and remembered with 
 
 pleafure 
 
BY THE EDITOR, ix 
 
 pleafure by thofe who have ever partaken of the lively, 
 interefting and polifhed fociety of its late owner. 
 
 The remaining contents of this volume, it is prefumed, 
 require no comment. — They are the laft, and certainly not 
 the leafl interefting tra&s in criticifm and biography of an 
 author whofe excellence on both thofe fubje&s the public 
 has long acknowledged. 
 
 The Letter to the Editor of the Mifcellanies of Thomas 
 Chatterton, now firft publifhed in the fourth volume, was 
 printed at Strawberry-hill in the year 1779. Immediately 
 following it will be found an advertifement from lord 
 Orford, relative to the additional papers which he has left 
 for publication on that fubjecl;. To thefe the editor is for- 
 tunately enabled to add a third and laft letter from Chat- 
 terton, repeatedly alluded to by lord Orford in the above- 
 mentioned pamphlet. This letter, which his lordlhip had 
 not been able to find, with the others, was recovered by his 
 executors from amongft a quantity of wafte paper. It ex- 
 acllv anfwers the account which lord Orford had given of it, . 
 and forms, together with his laft Declaration on the fubjecl: 
 of Chatterton, dated 1792, and his Remarks on the Letter 
 of Scrutator of the fame year, fuch a body of evidence, fuch 
 a complete dernonftration that his conducl towards that 
 marvellous and ill-fated youth was in every refpecl unim- 
 peachable, as muft afTure all who are not wilfully preju- 
 diced (if indeed any prejudice can yet remain on the fub- 
 
 je a) 
 
x PREFACE 
 
 jefir) how perfectly guiltlefs he was of haftening a cataftro- 
 phe, which none of the greater! dupes to Chatterton's for- 
 geries, nor of the greater! admirers of Chatterton's real 
 genius, could more regret, or, perhaps, would have done fo 
 much to prevent as himfelf. 
 
 We fee by lord Orford's laft declaration upon the occa- 
 fion of one of his letters to Chatterton appearing in a 
 periodical work 1 , how earneftly defirous he was that thofe 
 perfons who were in pofltflion of any other letters of his to 
 Chatterton mould publifh them during his life, and how 
 forcibly he deprecates the idea of being confidered as the 
 author of counterfeited letters which might be brought for- 
 ward and imputed to him when he fhould no longer be 
 alive to difprove them. 
 
 Nor can we wonder that he felt anxious upon the fubject, 
 Or that the unwarrantable manner in which his name and 
 conducl had been involved in the hiftory of the unfortunate 
 
 Chatterton had given him real concern That a man en- 
 
 dowed with judgement to difcriminate, tafte to relifh, a 
 heart to feel for and a fortune to encourage genius, mould 
 be accufed, not only of reprefling its early efforts by his- 
 chilling reception, but of having treated its further applica- 
 tions with the arrogant neglecl of a little mind in a fuperior 
 Itation, and the jealous coldnefs of a little genius towards 
 
 * The European Magazine for February i 752. 
 
 fuperior 
 
by the EDITOR. xi 
 
 fupcrior abilities — accufed of having been thus inftrumental 
 in hurrying it to the lafl act of clefpair, at an age brightened 
 
 to others by the dawn of a thoufand hopes To a warm 
 
 heart, to lively feelings— in ihort, to lord Orford, could 
 there be a more painful, a more cruel accufation ? 
 
 Its complete refutation is now before the public. In fact., 
 lord Orford never faw, never had any intercourfe, except 
 by two or three fhort unimportant letters, with the perfon 
 who addreffed him, and consequently was totally ■ ignorant 
 of all the favourable or interefting circumflances that dif- 
 tinguifhed poor Chatterton from any other young man tired 
 of his bufincfs, and defirous of more liberty and more 
 money ; — and to Mr. Walpole's praclifed and penetrating 
 eye on the fubjecl: of Englifh antiquities this young man 
 had unfortunately placed himfelf in no other light than that 
 of a daring but unexperienced impoftor 
 
 Happy had it been for himfelf and the world, if he had 
 addrefled himfelf to lord Orford's heart, inftead of endea- 
 
 1 Mr. Walpole thus exprefles himfelf 
 r ii the fubjefl in a letter to Dr. Lort, of 
 Anguft 1789 : 
 
 " my accufers never confidered 
 
 " that it was utterly impoffible for me to 
 " conceive, from his fending me fome 
 " verfes which he pretended were very 
 " ancient, and which he re-demanded as 
 " not being his own property, but to be. 
 
 " reftored to the lender, that he woulJ 
 " prove, if he fhould live, a miracle of 
 " poetic genius. He did not even men- 
 " tion his ever having written a verfe.— 
 " I muft have been infpired, to have fup- 
 " pofed that my correfpondent, in the 
 " guifc of an attorney's clerk, was a Mil* 
 " ton in embryo." 
 
 vourino 
 
xii PREFACE 
 
 vouring to impofe upon his underftanding ; and had been 
 aware that, by producing himfelf as he really was, by dif- 
 covering his own native character, he would have exhibited 
 a more wonderful, a more interefting rarity than any of his 
 pretended difcoveries of the works of others. 
 
 The Narrative relating to Hume and Rouffeau, and the 
 letters which immediately follow it, will chiefly intereft 
 thofe who were perfonally acquainted with either of the 
 characters in queftion, and who mud have regretted that 
 Hume's affectionate well-meaning heart, and cool unro- 
 mantic head, fhould ever have come in contact with the 
 eccentricities of a Being formed to captivate and intereft 
 mankind, but not to live with them. 
 
 The Reminifcences were written for and given to the two 
 perfons to whom they are addreffed; but they cannot fup- 
 pofe that their friend intended fo interefting and original a 
 felection of anecdotes to be always confined to themfelves 
 alone ; and it is prefumed that the curiofity of the public 
 to fee fuch a work in the exact words and form given to it 
 by its witty and well-informed author, will excufe the ap- 
 parent vanity which has retained thofe paffages that parti- 
 cularly indicate how and for whom it was compofed. 
 
 To the Hieroglyphic Tales, as lord Orford always in- 
 tended them for publication after his death, he has himfelf 
 left a preface, not lefs lively, original and whim fically fati- 
 
 ric 
 
by the EDITOR. xiii 
 
 ric than the Tales themfelves, and alfo a poftfcript, which 
 to the graver order of readers (if they fhould appear to re- 
 quire it) will furely beft plead their apology. 
 
 The Mifcellaneous Pieces, both in profe and verfe, are 
 almoR entirely of lord Orford's own fele&ion. It is how- 
 ever impoiTible that the public can confider the latter in a 
 more trifling light than their author avows confidering 
 them himfelf. 
 
 The Correfpondence with Mr. Weft confifts of the unr 
 ftudied letters of very young men; but thefe letters indicate 
 fuch ingenuous minds, devoted to fuch elegant purfuits, and 
 exhibit fuch a love of letters and of poetry as it is to be wifh- 
 ed were more frequently afibciated with that age at whicta 
 the cultivation or neglect of the growing powers of the 
 mind, and of the impreflions received in early education, 
 generally ftamp 
 
 . " All the colour of fucceeding life." 
 
 Mr. Weft has been already introduced to the notice and 
 acquaintance of the public by his letters publifhed in Gray's 
 Correfpondence, by his elegant Latin verfes, and by his ten- 
 der and afTecling poetical epiftle to his friends at Cambridge. 
 Few perfons fo early loft have given fuch promife of dif- 
 tinguifhed worth, difplayed fuch marks of fuperior genius, or 
 left behind them fuch interefting remembrances. The early 
 Vol. I. b intimacy 
 
xiv PREFACE 
 
 intimacy formed between Walpole, Weft, Gray and Afheton 
 at Eton, and called by Walpole their Quadruple Alliance, we 
 fee remembered with fond and enthufiaftic pleafure by poor 
 Weft during the fhort remainder of his fickly, fuffering life. 
 The correfpondence here given commences from their firft 
 feparation on leaving fchool and removing to different uni- 
 verfities; 
 
 Mr. Walpole's fubfequent letters to Mr. Weft, from 
 abroad, are marked by that fmgular livelinefs of thought and 
 cxpreflion, which through life diftinguilhed both his writ- 
 ings and his converfation. 
 
 In this correfpondence there may poffibly be found fome 
 circumftances which are repeated afterwards in other letters of 
 the fame period ; but as the language is always varied, and 
 the obfervations are often new, it has been thought beft not 
 to withhold anv of them merely on that account. 
 
 The letters to field-marfhal Conway contain the unin- 
 terrupted intercourfe of two friends for the fingularly long 
 period of fifty-five years ; from the year i 740, when the two 
 coufins, who liad gone abroad together with Mr. Gray, 
 parted at Geneva, to the death of marfhal Conway in the 
 fummer of 1795* 
 
 Thefe letters are the carelefs effufions of unbounded con- 
 fidence on all fubjecls, between two perfons, both emi- 
 nent 
 
BY THE EDITOR. XV 
 
 nent for their abilities, during the unbroken duration of a 
 friend (hip which almoft began, and only ended with their 
 lives. Such letters were certainly never originally intended 
 for publication; but as from that very reafon they become 
 doubly interefting, affording indubitable proofs, not only of 
 the livelieft wit and the happieft cxprelTion, but of the mod 
 difinterefted attachment, the foundeft integrity and the mo ft 
 anxious affeclion, to fupprefs them would be to fupprefs one 
 of the beft eulogies on both their characters, and would de- 
 prive the world at once of a bright example, and of a con- 
 foling inftance of real, rare, uninterrupted friendfhip. 
 
 Indeed, fo arbitrary is the distribution even of pofthumous 
 fame, that it may, perhaps, be chiefly from thefe letters, and 
 other works of his friend, that the character of marlhal Con - 
 way will be beft known to pofterity. The pure, tried, un- 
 fhaken integrity of his foul, his cool determined valour, the 
 mild domeftic virtues of his heart, his unwearied fearch 
 after knowledge, his admirable tafte and various accom- 
 plifhments, were accompanied by fuch modeft, fuch philo- 
 fophic diffidence of his own opinion and acquirements, and 
 were exalted by fuch noble and extraordinary fimplicity of 
 character, as rendered him inattentive to the acquifition of 
 popular applaufe, while fatisfied with the confeioufnefs of 
 deferving it. 
 
 To his public conduct on many great oceafions the poli- 
 tical and military hiftory of his country will bear honour- 
 
 b 2 able 
 
XVI 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 able teftimony. His opinions and conduct with refpect to 
 America have already received that fanclion of applaufe 
 from all parties, which the founder! policy, as well as the 
 molt perfect probity, often obtain only from diftant pofterity. 
 The part he took on the memorable repeal of the flamp a£l, 
 when confidered as the efficient minifter in the houfe of 
 commons, is happily not intruded to the indifcriminate 
 relation of fome future half-informed hiftorian, but is cir- 
 cumstantially recorded in the glowing, fublime and immor- 
 tal eloquence of a contemporary ; and the editor, confcious 
 of his inability to do juftice to the excellence fo ftrongly im- 
 prelfed on his mind, turns with delight to borrow words 
 equally worthy of their fubjecl and of their author 1 . 
 
 <4 I remember, fir, with a melancholy pleafure the fitua- 
 tion of the honourable gentleman who made the motion for 
 the repeal ; in that crifis, when the whole trading interelt. of 
 this empire crammed into your lobbies, with a trembling and 
 anxious expectation, waited almoft to a winter's return of 
 light, their fate from your refolutions. 
 
 " When at length you had determined in their favour, 
 and your doors thrown open {hewed them the figure of their 
 deliverer in the well-earned triumph of his important vic- 
 tory, from the whole of that grave multitude there arofe an 
 involuntary burft of gratitude and tranfport. They jumped 
 
 1 Sec Mr. Burke's fpeecb on American taxation , 19th April, 1774. 
 
 upon 
 
by the EDITOR. xvii 
 
 upon him like children on a long-abfent father. They clung 
 about him as captives about their redeemer. 
 
 u All England, all America joined in his applaufe. — Nor 
 did he feem infenfible to the beft of all earthly rewards, the 
 love and admiration of his fellow-citizens — Hope elevated and 
 joy brightened his crejl. — I flood near him ; and his face, to ufe 
 the expreffion of the fcripture of the firft martyr, < his face 
 was as if it had been the face of an angel.' — I do not know 
 what others feel ; but if I had flood in that fituation, I never 
 would have exchanged it for ail that kings in their profufion 
 could beftow." 
 
 The reputation of marfhal Conway as a public man may 
 be fafely refted upon fuch evidence ; but it is only thofe who, 
 like the editor, have had the opportunity of penetrating into 
 the mod fecret motives of his public conduct,, and the in- 
 moft recelfes of his private life, that can do real juflice to the 
 unfullied purity of his character — who like the editor faw 
 and knew him in the evening of his days, retired from the 
 honourable activity of a foldier and a ftatefman to the calm 
 enjoyments of private life, happy in the refources of his own 
 mind, and in the cultivation of ufeful fcience in the bofom of 
 domellic peace — unenriched by penfions or places, undi- 
 fl inguifhed by titles or ribbons, unfophifticated by public life 
 and unwearied by retirement. 
 
 The letters to Mr. Gray are interfperfed with feveral of 
 
 their 
 
xviii 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 their anfwers, and followed by fifteen original letters from Mr. 
 Gray, which, though forming no part of a regular correfpond- 
 ence, will be received with pleafure by all thofe who are ca- 
 pable of appreciating the merits of that exquifite 'writer — by 
 all thofe who, while they admire the refined tafle and accu- 
 rate judgement which forbade his rHking from his pen that 
 which would have charmed every one but himfelf, mull la- 
 ment his having left fo fmall a fample of the perfection he 
 had attained in every department which he cultivated. For 
 perhaps his odes are not more perfect models of true, pure, 
 unalloyed poetry of the higher order, than his letters are of 
 a corre£tly-elegant epiftolary ftyle, enlivened by eafy unex- 
 pected wit. The friends of genius will fee too with pleafure, 
 from the date of thefe letters, how fhort the duration was of 
 that cooinefs between him and Mr. Walpole, which feparated 
 them when abroad, but which arifing only from cafual cir- 
 cumftances and different habits of life, and not from any 
 ferious quarrel or ill-ufage, vanifhed on the firfi overtures of 
 reconciliation, and never for a moment prevented them from 
 doing mutual and ample juftice to each other's merits. 
 
 The different feries of letters are fo arranged in chronolo- 
 gical order as to form a fort of hiftory of the character, pur- 
 fuits and fentiments of the author, from his almoft boyifh 
 days at college to a period within fix months of his death. 
 — This, it is conceived, was the belt and moft fatisfaclory ar- 
 rangement of letters, many of which might be thought trifling, 
 if they were not confidered as links of a chain intended to 
 
 make 
 
by the EDITOR. xix 
 
 make the author's amufements, occupations, and correfpond- 
 ents fo intimately known to the reader, as to allow him, 
 -in fome degree, to adopt them for his own; and will, it is 
 prefumed, give them an intereft far beyond that infpired by 
 the mere matter of facl which it is their purpofe to record. 
 
 Any further comment upon the remaining contents of the 
 fifth volume is deemed unneceffary. — Letters of eminent per- 
 fons not written for publication have always been fought for 
 with eagernefs by the intelligent public, who juftly conceive 
 that by their means the moft intimate and mod fatisfa&ory 
 acquaintance both with the author and his contemporaries is 
 often acquired. To no letters can this apply fo perfectly as 
 to thofe of lord Orford. None can more truly be con- 
 fidered as the effufions of an informed and benevolent mind, 
 a lively and whimfical imagination, and a friendly heart. As 
 fucb, and as appearing to do honour both to himfelf and his 
 correfpondents, they are fubmitted to the public. 
 
 In the arrangement of the two laft volumes, in the notes 
 to the letters and in the elucidation of many paffages con- 
 tained in them, the editor has been materially affifted by a 
 daughter, to whofe retentive memory moft of the names, dates 
 and circumftances alluded to in the correfpondence were 
 configned by the author himfelf, during the courfe of that 
 intimate friendfhip, and almoft parental regard, with which 
 for feveral years before his death he had honoured both her 
 and her fifter, 
 
 The 
 
XX 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The reader, it is hoped, will pardon from the heart of a 
 father overflowing with affe&ion for a child, who from her 
 infancy to the prefent moment has rendered his retired life a 
 fcene of domeftic comfort, this public acknowledgment of the 
 affiftance he has received from her on the prefent occafion, 
 
 ADVER- 
 
C xxi 3 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 As I have been an author in various ways and in various 
 forms, fomebody or other might think of collecting my 
 works. To prevent this, and at the fame time to avoid 
 having pieces attributed to me which I never wrote, and to 
 condemn, by fuppretling as far as I can, fome which do not 
 deferve publication, I have determined to leave this collec- 
 tion behind me. The approbation bellowed on fome part, 
 authorifes me to think they are not unworthy of being pre- 
 ferved in this manner. The few pieces which have never 
 appeared before, were either kept back from reafons which 
 exift no longer, or were at the time in their own nature 
 private. I mean, particularly, the Letters addreifed to Mini- 
 fters, or written on political occafions. They are not produced 
 now from any merit in the compofition, but as evidences of my 
 own conduct: ; and, as fuch, they give me greater fatisfa£tion 
 at this late period than any other part of my writings. 
 
 HOR. WALPOLE. 
 
 Vol. I. c 
 
CON TENTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FIRST VOLUME 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 Page 
 
 Verses in Memory of King Henry the Sixth — . — i 
 
 Epijlle from Florence to Thomas Afoton, Efq. — — 4 
 
 Infcription for the neglecled Column in the Place of St. Mark — . 1 7 
 
 The Beauties : an Epiflle to Mr. Eckardt the Painter — 1 y 
 
 Epilogue to Tamerlane — — — 25 
 
 The Entail^ a Fable — . — — 28 
 
 Epigram on Admiral Vernon — — — 30 
 
 Portrait of John Earl Granville • — — 3 Y 
 
 Portrait de Jean Comte dc Granville — ^2 
 
 Verfes prefixed to the Poems of Anna Chamber Countefs Temple 33 
 
 The Magpye and her Brood, a Fable — — ^ 
 
 The Myferious Mother ', a Tragedy — oy 
 
 Epitaph on the Cenotaph of Lady Walpole — — . 131 
 
 Scheme for raifing a large Sum of Money by Meffuge Cards and Notes 132 
 
 Advertifement to the Hi/lory of Good Breeding — — 141 
 
 The 
 
xxiv CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 Page 
 
 The World, No. VI. — — — 146 
 
 No. VIII — — —151 
 
 No. X. — — — 159 
 
 No. XIV. — — — 164 
 
 No.XXVIlI. — — — 169 
 
 No. CIIL — — —174 
 
 • No. CLX. — — — 179 
 
 . No. CXCV. — — — 185 
 
 A Wodd Extraordinary — — — 190 
 
 The World \ not published in the original Work — — 199 
 
 Ditto — — — — 1 — 200 
 
 Letter from Xo Ho to his Friend Lien Chi — — 205 
 
 Inquiry into the Per/on and Age of the long-lived Conntefs of Defmond 210 
 
 Infcription on a Picture of the late Pope — — 218 
 
 Advertifement to Paul Hentzners Account of England — 220 
 
 to Lord Whitwortlj s Account of Ruffia — 223 
 
 • to the MifakeSy a Comedy — — 228 
 
 ■ to the Life of Edward Lord Herbert of Cher bury — 230 
 
 ■ to a Catalogue and Defcription of King Charles Vs Collection 234 
 
 ■ to a Catalogue of the Collection of King James II. — 238 
 
 to a Catalogue of the Collection of G. Villiers 7 Duke oj 
 
 Buckingham — — 240 
 
 Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England 
 Supplement to ditto — — 
 
 Peerejfes 
 
 Scots Authors — 
 
 Iri/h Peers — 
 
 Pieces omitted in the foregoing Catalogue 
 Noble Authors omitted in former Editions 
 Index — 
 
 — 243 
 
 — 463 
 
 — 477 
 
 — 492 
 
 — 513 
 526 
 
 ~ 534 
 
 — 5% 
 
DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER 
 
 FOR PLACING THE PLATES. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 Page 
 
 lEAD of Lord Orford to front the Title 
 Frontifpiece of Royal and Noble Authors 243 
 Reafon, Rt£titude and Juftice appearing to 
 Chriftina de Pifa — — 288 
 
 H, 
 
 vol. n. 
 
 Cattle of Otranto — — 
 
 King Richard III. — — 
 
 King Richard III. and Queen Anne 
 Edward Earl of Warwick, Mary Countefs 
 of Saliftmry, Queen Anne, Richard III 
 Edward Prince of Wales 
 Henry Duke of Warwick, Anne Countefs 
 of Warwick, Richard Neville Earl of 
 Warwick, Ifabel Duchefs of Clarence, 
 George Duke of Clarence — 
 Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford 
 Catherine Lady Walpole — 
 Weft Front of Houghton-Hall, Eaft Front 
 of ditto, and two Ground Plans 
 
 Plates of Straweerry-Hill. 
 
 Frontifpiece — — — 
 
 North Front of Strawberry-Hill 
 Entrance of Strawberry-Hill 
 View of the Prior's Garden 
 Chimney in the Great Parlour 
 
 I 
 
 103 
 1 1 1 
 
 — 167 
 
 167 
 225 
 225 
 
 237 
 
 393 
 399 
 400 
 400 
 401 
 
 Chimney in the China Room — 
 Chimney in the Yellow Bedchamber 
 Chimney in the Blue Bedchamber — 
 
 Staircafe at Strawberry-Hill 
 
 Library at Strawberry-Hill — 
 Chimney-piece of the Holbein Chamber 
 Screen of the Holbein Chamber — 
 The Gallery — — — 
 
 Chimney in the Round Room — 
 The Cabinet — — — 
 
 View from the Great Bedchamber 
 View of the Chapel in the Garden 
 Garden Gate — — 
 
 The Shell Bench — — 
 
 View from the Terrace — 
 Eaft View of the Cottage Garden — 
 South Front of Strawberry-Hill, PI. I. 
 Eaft Front of Strawberry-Hill, PI. II. 
 Ground Plan of do. PI. III. 
 Principal Floor of do. PI. IV. 
 Offices, PI. V. — 
 Plan of the principal Floor, and Ground 
 Plan of the Offices, Pi. VI. 
 
 VOL. III. 
 
 N. B. None of thefe Plates have the Volume 
 marked. 
 
 Frontifpiece, Queen Eleanor, Henry III. 
 Henry V. his Queen and Family — 36 
 Marriage of Henry VI. — — 37 
 
 JohnMabufe — — — 47 
 
 Page 
 405 
 418 
 435 
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 442 
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 494 
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 5°9 
 
 512' 
 
 Marriage 
 
DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER. 
 
 Page 
 
 Marriage of Henry VII. ■ — — 50 
 
 Hans Holbein — — 58 
 
 Sir Antonio More — — 106 
 
 Joas Van Cleeve — — 109 
 
 Edward Courtney, Earl of Devonfhire 1 1 1 
 
 Cornelius Ketel — — 117 
 
 Frederic Zucchero — — 120 
 
 Marc Garrard — — 122 
 
 Henry Cornelius Vroom — 
 
 Nicholas Hilliard — 1 — 
 
 Ifaac Oliver — — • 
 
 Sir Nathaniel Bacon — 
 
 Paul Vanfomer — — 
 
 Cornelius Janfen — — 
 
 Daniel Mytens — — 
 
 Peter Oliver — — 
 
 Henry Gyles — • — 
 
 Nicholas Stone fen. and jun. — 
 
 Henry Stone — — 
 
 Abraham Vanderdort — 
 
 Sir Balthazar Gerbier — 
 
 Sir P. P. Rubens - — 
 
 Antony Vandyck — 
 
 Cornelius Polenburg — — 
 
 Henry Steenwyck — 
 
 George Jamefone — — 
 
 Dobfon — — — 
 
 Gerard Honthorft — — 
 
 John V an Belcamp and Geldorp — 
 Horatio Gentilefchi and Edward Mafcall 
 
 Nicholas Laniere — — 
 
 Francis Wouters — — 
 
 Adrian Hanneman — 
 
 Francefco Cleyn — — 
 
 Petitot, Sir Toby Matthews, Torrentius 
 
 Edward Pierce fen. and jun. — 
 
 Le Soeur — — 
 
 Inigo Jones — — 
 
 Major General Lambert — 
 
 Robert Walker — — 
 
 Ifaac Fuller — — 
 
 Robert Streater — — 
 
 Vanfon — — 
 
 Abraham Hondius — 
 
 Sir Peter Lely — — 
 
 Sir John Greenhill and J. Bap. Gafpari 
 
 Mrs. Ann Killigrew — ■— 
 
 Thomas Flatman — — 
 
 Claude Le Fevre, Mr. John Hay Is — 
 
 Verrio — — — 
 
 Peter Roeftraten — 
 
 123 
 j 27 
 
 130 
 140 
 
 J 47 
 
 149 
 
 T 55 
 158 
 165 
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 189 
 209 
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 23 1 
 
 2 35 
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 255 
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 282 
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 3°4 
 311 
 
 Gerard Zouft, Griffiere and Edema — 
 
 William Vandevelde jun. — 
 
 William Wiffing — — 
 
 Samuel Cooper — — 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Gibfon — — 
 
 Mrs. Beale and her Son Charles — - 
 
 Cibber — — 
 
 Grinling Gibbons — — 
 
 Sir Chriftopher Wren, and Hugh Howard 
 
 Efq. — — 
 
 Charles de la Fofle — — 
 
 Plenry Tilfon — — - 
 
 John Sybrecht — — 
 
 Sir Godfrey Kneller, and John Zachary 
 
 Kneller — — 
 
 John Baptift Monoyer — — 
 
 Simon Dubois and Cooke — — 
 John Riley and Egbert Hemflcirk 
 
 Peter Vander Meulen — — 
 
 Sevonyans and Herbert Tuer — 
 
 Sir John Medina — — 
 
 Godfrey Schalcken ~ — 
 
 Vandieit and Le Piper — — 
 
 John Wyck, Thomas Wyck — 
 
 Sebaftian Ricci — — 
 Marco Ricci, Talman, and Sir Ralph Cole 
 
 Murray — — 
 
 Boit and Baker — ■— 
 
 Sir John Vanbrugh — — 
 
 Louis Laguerre, C. Jervas, and B. Lens 
 
 Michael Dahl — — 
 
 Jonathan Richardfon — — 
 
 Sir James Thornhill — — 
 
 P. Monamy — — 
 
 Peter Tillemans — — 
 
 Enoch Zeeman — — 
 
 Watteau — — 
 
 James Anthony Arlaud — — 
 
 James Gibbs — — 
 
 Charles Chriftian Reifen — — 
 
 Philip Mercier — — 
 
 George Lambert — — 
 
 Thomas Worlidge — — 
 
 William Hogarth — — 
 
 Frederick Zincke and Liotard — 
 
 Michael Ryfbrach — — 
 
 Lewis Francis Roubilliac — — 
 
 Laurence Delvaux — — 
 
 Henry Herbert Earl of Pembroke — 
 
 Richard Boyle Earl of Burlington — 
 
 William Kent — — 
 
 Page 
 
 3ii 
 
 321 
 
 322 
 3 2 5 
 3 2 7 
 33° 
 339 
 346 
 
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 35°" 
 356 
 
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 485 
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 Hoefnagte 
 
DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER. 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 Page 
 
 Hoefnagle — — 10 
 
 Robert Van Voerft — — 34 
 
 William Faithorne — — 49 
 
 Prince Rupert — — 6 3 
 
 John Evelyn, Efq. — 67 
 N. B. The Volume is not marked on 
 this Plate. 
 Warner Vaillant, Vandrebanc, Francis 
 
 Place, William Lodge — — 67 
 
 Robert White, Vanfomer, Becket, Sturt, 
 
 Elder — — 83 
 
 Hamlet Winftanley and Dorigny — 95 
 
 George Vertue — — > 119 
 
 VOL. V. 
 
 Page 
 
 N. B. The Volume is not marked on 
 thefe Heads. 
 
 Field Marfhal Conway — I 
 Col. John Campbell, afterwards Duke of 
 
 Argyle — — — 5 1 
 The Hon. Mary Bellenden, afterwards 
 
 Mrs. Campbell — — 51 
 The Hon. Mrs. Howard, afterwards 
 
 Countefs of Suffolk — — 74. 
 
 Mrs. Selwyn — — 155 
 
 Richard Bentley — — 259 
 
 Thomas Gray — — 351 
 
 John Chute — — — - 405 
 
 William Wentworth Earl of Strafford 429 
 
 Mary Lepel, afterwards Lady Hervey 513 
 
 Hannah More — — — 577 
 
f 
 
 C * ] 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 VERSES 
 
 In MEMORY of 
 
 King HENRY the Sixth, 
 
 Founder of King's College, Cambridge, 
 
 [Written February 2, 1738.] 
 
 WHILE fuperftition teaches to revere 
 The fainted calendar and letter'd year; 
 While bigots joy in canonizing fhades, 
 Fictitious martyrs, vifionary maids; 
 Hafte, Gratitude, and hail this better day; 
 At Henry's fhrine prefent thy votive lay; 
 If this peculiarly for His be known, 
 Whofe charity made every day his own. 
 But fay, what lhrine ? — my eyes in * vain require 
 Th' engraven brafs and monumental fpire. 
 Henry knows none of thefe — above! around! 
 Behold where e'er this peniile quarry's found, 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 * King Henry is buried obfcurely at Windfor 
 
 B 
 
 Or 
 
2 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 Or (Veiling into vaulted roofs its weight, 
 Or fhooting columns into gothic itate, 
 Where e'er this fane extends its lofty frame, 
 * Behold the monument to Henry's name! 
 
 When Henry bade this pompous temple rife, 
 Nor with prefumption emulate the ikies, 
 Art and Palladio had not reach'd the land, 
 Nor methodiz'd the Vandal builder's hand: 
 Wonders, unknown to rule, thefe piles difclofe; 
 The walls, as if by infpiration, rofe. 
 The edifice'}', continued by his care, 
 With equal pride had form'd the fumptuous fquare, 
 Had not th' affaffm difappointed part, 
 And ftab'd the growing fabric in his heart. 
 More humble hands, but grateful to the mind 
 That firft the royal benefit defign'd, 
 Renew the labour J, re-aiTume the ftone, 
 And George's aufpices the ltruclure crown. 
 No lifelefs pride the riling walls contain, 
 Neat without art, and regularly plain. 
 What tho' with pomp unequal finks the pile 
 Beneath the grandeur of the gothic ifle; 
 What tho' the modern matter's weaker hand 
 Unexecuted drops what Henry plann'd ; 
 This for the fons of men is an abode, 
 But that the temple of the living God! 
 
 Afcend the temple ! join the vocal choir, 
 Let harmony your raptur'd fouls infpire. 
 Hark how the tuneful folemn organs blow, 
 Awfully ftrong, elaborately flow ; 
 
 * This thought is copied from the infcription 
 over fir Chriftopher Wren, who is buried under 
 the dome of St. Paul, of which he was the archi- 
 tect. " — fi quceras monumentum, fufpice!" 
 
 f The original plan is extant in the library 
 
 of the college. 
 
 % The new building was raifed at the expence 
 of the college, and by contributions of the minif- 
 ters, nobility and others. 
 
 Now 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 3 
 
 Now to yon empyrean feats above 
 
 Raife meditation on the wings of love; 
 
 Now falling, finking, dying to the moan 
 
 Once warbled fad by Jeffe's contrite fon, 
 
 Breathe in each note a conference thro' the fenfe, 
 
 And call forth tears from foft-ey'd penitence. 
 
 Alone the vaulted roof fweet {trains decay, 
 
 And liquid Hallelujahs melt away; 
 
 The floating accents lefs'ning as they flow, 
 
 Like diflant arches gradually low. 
 
 Tafte has not vitiated our purer ear, 
 
 Perverting founds to merriment of pray'r. 
 
 Here mild devotion bends her pious knee, 
 
 Calm and unruffled as a fummer fea ; 
 
 Avoids each wild enthufiaiKc tone, 
 
 Nor borrows utt'rance from a tongue unknown. 
 
 O Henry! from thy lucid orb regard 
 How purer hands thy pious cares reward ; 
 Now Heav'n illuminates thy godlike mind 
 From fuperfHtion's papal gloom rerin'd : 
 Behold thy fons with that religion blefl, 
 Which thou wou'dft own and Caroline profefs'd — 
 Great*, mournful name — ftruck with the well-known found, 
 Their patronefs ! the mufes droop around, 
 Unftrung their lyres, inanimate their lays, 
 Forget to celebrate e'en Henry's praife — 
 I ceafe, ye mufes, to implore your fong; 
 I ceafe your tunelefs filent grief to wrong; 
 And Henry's praife refer to that great day, 
 Which f, what he was, mall, when it comes, difplay. 
 
 * Queen Caroline died in the preceding No- mentioned in the Spectator : "Hie fituseftN.N. 
 
 vember. Qualis eram, Dies iftic cum venerit, fcies 
 
 f The thought of the laft line alludes to an which being a monkifh verfe, Mr. Addifon has 
 
 epitaph in the chapel of King's college, which is changed the laft word fcies for indicabit. 
 
 A N 
 
4 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 A N 
 
 EPISTLE from FLORENCE. 
 
 To* THOMAS ASHTON, Efq. 
 
 TUTOR to the EARL of PLIMOUTH. 
 
 [ Written in the Year 1 740.] 
 
 JHEN flouriih'd with their ftate th' Athenian name, 
 And learning and politenefs were the fame, 
 Philofophy with gentle arts refin'd 
 The honeft roughnefs of th' unpractis'd mind : 
 She call'd the latent beams of nature forth, 
 Guided their ardor and infur'd their worth. 
 She pois'd th' impetuous warrior's vengeful fteel, 
 Mark'd true ambition from deftructive zeal, 
 Pointed what luftre on that laurel blows, 
 Which virtue only on her fons bellows. 
 Hence clement Cimon, of unfpotted fame, 
 Hence Aristides' ever-fav'rite name; 
 Heroes, who knew to wield the righteous fpear, 
 And guard their native tow'rs from foreign fear; 
 Or in firm bands of focial peace to bind 
 Their country's good, and benefit mankind. 
 
 * He afterwards went into orders, was fellow London, and preacher to the fociety of L»n- 
 of Eton college and minifter of faint Botolph's, coln's-inn. 
 
 She 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES 
 
 She trim'd the thoughtful ftatcfman's niohtiv oil, 
 Confirm'd his mind beneath an empire's toil, 
 Or with him to his filent villa ftole, 
 Gilded his ev'ning hours, and harmoniz'd his foul. 
 
 To woods and caves fhe never bade retreat, 
 Nor fix'd in cloifter'd monkeries her ieat : 
 No lonely precepts to her fons enjoin'd, 
 Nor taught them to be men, to fhun mankind. 
 Cynics there were, an uncouth felfim race, 
 Of manners foul, and boaflful of difgrace : 
 Brutes, whom no mufe has ever lov'd to name, 
 Whofe ignominy was their only fame. 
 No hoftile trophies grace their honour'd urn, 
 Around their tomb no fculptur'd virtues mourn ; 
 Nor tells the marble into emblems grav'd 
 An art difcover'd or a city fav'd. 
 
 Be this the goal to which the Briton-peer 
 Exalt his hope, and prefs his young career ! 
 Be this the goal to which, my friend, may you 
 With gentle Ikill direel his early view ! 
 Artful the various ftudies to difpenfe, 
 And melt the fchoolman's jargon down to fenfc* 
 
 See the pedantic teacher, winking, dull, 
 The letter'd tyrant of a trembling fchool ; 
 Teaching by force, and proving by a frown, 
 His lifted fafces ram the leffon down. 
 From tortur'd ftrains of eloquence he draws 
 Barbaric precepts and unmeaning laws, 
 By his own fenfe would Tully's word expound^ 
 And a new Vandal tramples claffic ground. 
 
 Perhaps a bigot to the learned page, 
 No modern cuftom can his thoughts engage, 
 
6 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 I lis little farm by * Georgic rules he ploughs, 
 And prunes by metre the luxuriant boughs : 
 Still from Aratus' fphere or Maro's figns 
 The future calm or tempeff. he divines : 
 And fears if the prognostic raven's found 
 Expatiating alone along the dreary round. 
 
 What fcanty precepts ! ftudies how confin'd ! 
 Too mean to fill your comprehenfrve mind ; 
 Unfatisfy'd with knowing when or where 
 Some Roman bigot rais'd a fane to Fear ; 
 On what green medal Virtue ftands exprefs'd, 
 How Concord's pictur'd, Liberty how drefs'd ; 
 Or with wife ken judicioufly define, 
 When Pius marks the honorary coin 
 Of Caracalla, or of Antonine. 
 
 Thirfting for knowledge, but to know the right, 
 Thro' judgment's optic guide th' illufive fight ; 
 To let in rays on Reafon's darkling cell, 
 And lagging miffs of prejudice difpel; 
 For this you turn the Greek and Roman page, 
 W'eigh the contemplative and acrive fage, 
 And cull fome ufeful flow'r from each hiftoric age. 
 
 Thence teach the youth the necelTary art, 
 To know the judge's from the critic's part ; 
 Show how ignoble is the paflion, Fear, 
 And place fome patriot Roman's model near ; 
 Their bright examples to his foul inftil, 
 Who knew no fear, but that of doing ill. 
 Tell him, 'tis all a cant, a trifle all, 
 To know the folds that from the Toga fall, 
 
 * This was literally the cafe of Dr. Wefton, of bifhop Wefton, gives this inftance of the cha- 
 
 bifhop of Exeter, who, when fchool-mafter of rafter of a pedant, " He gives directions for huf- 
 
 Eton, loft a confiderable fum by the experiment, bandry from Virgil's Georgics, for cattle from 
 
 It is very remarkable, that Sir Thomas Over- his Bucolics, &c." 
 
 bury, who wrote fo many years before the time -J- Et fola in ficca fecum fpatiatur arena. Virg. 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 The 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES 
 
 The Clavus' breadth, the Bulla's golden round, 
 And ev'ry leaf that ev'ry Virtue crown'd : 
 But (how how brighter in each honeft breaft, 
 Than o'er her fhnne, the goddefs flood confefs'd. 
 
 Tell him, it is not the fantaftic boy, 
 Elate with pow'r, and fwell'd with frantic joy, 
 'Tis not a flavim fenate, fawning, bafe, 
 Can ftamp with honeft fame a worthlefs race : 
 Tho' the falfe coin proclaim him great and wife, 
 The tyrant's life fhall tell that coin, it lyes. 
 
 But when your early care mail have defign'd 
 To plan the foul and mould the waxen mind ; 
 When you fhall pour upon his tender breaft 
 Ideas that muft ftand an age's teft, 
 Oh ! there imprint with ftrongeft deepeft dye 
 The lovely form of goddefs Liberty ! 
 For her in fenates be he train'd to plead, 
 For her in battles be he taught to bleed. 
 Lead him where Dover's rugged cliff* refounds 
 
 DO 
 
 With darning feas, fair Freedom's honeft bounds ; 
 Point to yon azure Carr bedrop'd with gold, 
 Whofe weight the necks of Gallia's fons uphold ; 
 Where proudly fits an iron-fcepter'd queen, 
 And fondly triumphs o'er the proftrate fcene ; 
 Cry, That is empire ! fhun her baleful path, 
 Her words are flavery, her touch is death ! 
 Thro' wounds and blood the fury drives her way, 
 And murthers half to make the reft her prey. 
 
 Thus fpoke each Spartan matron, as me drefs'd 
 With the bright cuirafs her young foldier's breaft ; 
 On the new warrior's tender-fine w'd thigh, 
 Girt fear of fhame and love of liberty. 
 
8 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES, 
 
 Steel'd with fuch precepts, for a caufe fo good, 
 What fcanty bands the Perfian hoft withftood! 
 Before the ions of Greece let Alia tell 
 How fled her* Monarch, how her millions fell! 
 When arm'd for Liberty, a few how brave! 
 How weak a multitude, where each a Have! 
 No welcome falchion fill'd their fainting hand, 
 No voice infpir'd of favourite command: 
 No peafant fought for wealthy lands poffefs'd, 
 No fond remembrance warm'd the parent's breaft: 
 They faw their lands for royal riot groan, 
 And toil'd in vain for banquets, not their own; 
 They faw their infant race to bondage rife, 
 And frequent heard the ravifh'd virgin's cries, 
 Difhonour'd but to cool a transient gull 
 Of fome luxurious Satrap's barb'rous luft. 
 
 The greater!: curfes any age has known 
 Have ifTued from the temple or the throne. 
 Extent of ill from kings at firft begins, 
 But priefts muft aid and confecrate their fins. 
 The tortur'd fubject might be heard complain, 
 When finking under a new weight of chain, 
 Or more rebellious might perhaps repine, 
 When tax'd to dow'r a titled concubine, 
 But the prieft chriilens all a right divine. 
 
 When at the altar a new monarch kneels, 
 What conjur'd awe upon the people fteals! 
 The chofen he adores the precious oil, 
 Meekly receives the folemn charm, and while 
 The prieft fome blefled nothings mutters o'er, 
 Sucks in the facred greafe at every pore: 
 He feems at once to fhed his mortal Ikin, 
 And feels divinity transfus'd within. 
 
 * Xerxes. 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES, 
 
 9 
 
 The trembling vulgar dread the royal nod, 
 And worfhip God's anointed more than God. 
 
 Such fan<5Hon gives the prelate to fuch kings ! 
 So mifchief from thofe hallow'd fountains fprings. 
 But bend your eye to yonder harafs'd plains, 
 Where king and prieft in one united reigns ; 
 See fair Italia mourn her holy frate, 
 And droop opprefs'd beneath a papal weight : 
 Where fat celibacy ufurps the foil, 
 And facred floth confumes the peafant's toil ; 
 The holy drones monopolize the fky, 
 And plunder by a vow of poverty. 
 The Chriftian caufe their lewd profeflion taints, 
 Unlearn'd, unchafte, uncharitable faints. 
 
 Oppreflion takes religion's hallow'd name, 
 And prieftcraft knows to play the fpecious game. 
 Behold how each enthufiafKc fool 
 Of ductile piety becomes their tool : 
 Obferve with how much art, what fine pretence 
 They hallow foppery and combat fenfe. 
 
 Some hoary hypocrite, grown old in fin, 
 Whofe thoughts of heav'n with his laft hours begin, 
 Counting a chaplet with a bigot care, 
 And mumbling fomewhat 'twixt a charm and prayV, 
 Hugs a dawb'd image of his injur'd lord, 
 And fqueezes out on the dull idol-board 
 A fore-ey'd gum of tears ; the flannel crew 
 With cunning joy the fond repentance view, 
 Pronounce him blefs'd, his miracles proclaim, 
 Teach the flight crowd t' adore his hallow'd name-, 
 Exalt his praife above the faints of old, 
 And coin his finking confeience into gold. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 C 
 
 Or 
 
io 
 
 FUGITIVE 
 
 PIECES, 
 
 Or when Tome pontiff with imperious hand 
 Sends forth his edict to excife the land, 
 The tortur'd hind unwillingly obeys, 
 And mutters curfes as his mite he pays ! 
 The fubtle prieft. th' invidious name forbears, 
 Afks it for holy ufe or venal pray'rs ; 
 Exhibits all their trumpery to fale,' 
 A bone, a mouldy morfel, or a nail : 
 Th' idolatrous devout adore the mow, 
 And in full ftreams the molten ofF'rings flow. 
 
 No pagan object, nothing too profane 
 To aid the Romifh zeal for chriftian gain. 
 Each temple with new weight of idols nods, 
 And borrow'd altars fmoke to other gods. 
 Prometheus' vulture Matthew's eagle proves, 
 And heav'nly cherubs fprout from heathen loves ; 
 Young Ganymede a winged angel ftands 
 By holy Luke, and dictates God's commands : 
 Apollo *, tho' degraded, itill can blefs, 
 Rewarded with a fainthood, and an S. 
 Each convert godhead is apoftoliz'd, 
 And Jove himfelf by f Peter's name baptiz'd ; 
 Astarte mines in Jewifh Mary's fame, 
 Still queen of heav'n, another and the fame. 
 
 While the proud prieft the facred tyrant reigns 
 Of empty cities and difpeopled plains, 
 Where fetter'd nature is forbid to rove 
 In the free commerce of productive love, 
 Behold imprifon'd with her barren kind, 
 In gloomy cells the votive maid confin'd; 
 Faint ftreams of blood, by long ftagnation weak 5 
 Scarce tinge the fading damalk of her cheek ; 
 
 * St. Apollos. 
 
 f At faint Peter's an old ftatue of Jupiter is turned into one of faint Peter. 
 
 In 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES 
 
 11 
 
 In vain me pines, the holy faith withftands 
 What nature dictates and what God commands. 
 But if lbme fanguine he, fome lu,'y prieft 
 Of jollier morals tafte the tempting teaft, 
 From the ftrong graip if fome poor babe arife, 
 Unwelcome, unindear'd, it inftant dies, 
 Or poifons blafring foon the hafty joy, 
 Th' imperfect feeds of infant life deitroy. 
 
 Fair modefty, thou virgin tender-ey'd, 
 From thee the mufe the groifer acts mud hide, 
 Nor the dark cloifter's myftic rites difplay, 
 Whence num'rous brawny monkhoods wafte away, 
 And unprolific, tho' forfworn, decay. 
 
 Britannia fmiling views her golden plains 
 From mitred bondage free and papal chains. 
 Her jocund fons pais each unburthen'd day 
 Securely quiet, innocently gay : 
 Lords of themfelves the happy nifties (ing, 
 Each of his little tenement the king. 
 Twice did ufurping Rome extend her hand, 
 To re-inflave the new-deliver'd land : 
 Twice were her fable bands to battle warm'd, 
 With pardons, bulls, and texts, and murthers arm'd : 
 
 * With Peter's fword and Michael's lance were fent, 
 And whate'er ftores fupply'd the church's armament. 
 Twice did the gallant Albion race repel 
 The jefuit legions to the gates of hell ; 
 Or whate'er angel, friend to Britain, took 
 Or William's or Eliza's guardian look. 
 
 Arife, young peer ! mine forth in fuch a caufe ! 
 Who draws the fword for freedom, juilly draws. 
 
 * Addit & Herculeos Arcus Haftamque Minervse, Quicquid habent telorum armamentaria Cseli. 
 
 Juv. 
 
 Reflea 
 
12 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES 
 
 Reflect hew dearly was that freedom bought ; 
 
 For that, how oft your anceftors have fought 5 
 
 Thro' the long feries of our princes down, 
 
 How wrench' d fome right from each too potent crown. 
 
 See abject John, that vafTal monarch, fee! 
 Bow down the royal neck, and crouch the lupple knee i 
 Oh ! proftitution of imperial ftate ! 
 To a vile Romifh prieft's vile * delegate ! 
 Him the bold barons fcorning to obey, 
 And be the fubjecis of a fubjecl: fway ; 
 Heroes, whole names to lateft fame mall mine, 
 Aw'd by no virions of a right divine, 
 That bond by eaftern politicians wrought, 
 Which ours have learnt, and rabbi doftors taught, 
 To ftraiter banks reftrain'd the royal will, 
 That great prerogative of doing ill. 
 
 To late example and experience dead, 
 See f Henry in his father's footfteps tread. 
 Too young to govern, immature to pow'r, 
 His early follies haunt his lateft hour. 
 His nobles injur'd, and his realms opprefs'd, 
 No violated fenate's wrongs redrefs'd, 
 His hoary age finks in the feeble wane 
 Of an inglorious, flighted, tedious reign. 
 
 The mufe too long with idle glories fed, 
 And train'd to trumpet o'er the warlike dead, 
 The wanton fain on giddy plumes would foar 
 To Gallic Loire and Jordan's humbled more ; 
 Again would teach the Saracen and Gaul 
 At % Edward's and at § Henry's name to fall ; 
 Romantic heroes ! prodigal of blood ; 
 What numbers ftain'd each ill-difputed flood ! 
 
 * The pope's nuncio, 
 f Henry III. 
 
 5 
 
 J Edward I. and III. 
 § Henry V. 
 
 Tools 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 Tools to a clergy ! warring but to feaft 
 With fpoils of provinces each pamper'd prieft. 
 Be dumb, fond maid ! thy facred ink nor fpill 
 On fpccious tyrants, popularly ill : 
 Nor be thy comely locks with rofes dight 
 Of either victor colour, red or white. 
 
 Foil'd the aflaflin * king, in union blow 
 The blended flowers on leventh Henry's brow. 
 Peace 'lights again on the forfaken ftrand, 
 And banifh'd plenty re-aflumes the land. 
 No nodding creft: the crouching infant frights, 
 No clarion rudely breaks the bride's delights ; 
 Repofing fabres leek their ancient place 
 To briitle round a gaping -j~ Gorgon's face. 
 The weary'd arms grotefquely deck the wall, 
 And tatter'd trophies fret the royal | hall. 
 But peace in vain on the blood-fatten'd plains 
 From a redundant horn her treafure rains ! 
 She deals her gifts ; but in a ufelefs hour, 
 To glut the iron hand of griping pow'r: 
 Such Lancaster, whom harafs'd Britain faw, 
 Mafk'd in the garb of antiquated law : 
 More politic than wife, more wife than great; 
 A legiflator to enflave the ftate; 
 Coolly malicious; by defign a knave; 
 More mean than falfe, ambitious more than brave - r 
 Attach'd to interefl's more than honour's call ; 
 More ftricl than juft, more covetous than all. 
 
 Not {o the reveller profufe, his § ion, 
 His contraft courfe of tyranny begun ; 
 Robuft of limb, and flunYd with florid grace, 
 Strength nerv'd his youth, and iquar'd his jovial face. 
 
 * Richard III. J Weftmbaer-hall. 
 
 f Medufa's head in the armory at thcJIWer. § Henry VIII. 
 
14 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES 
 
 To feats of arms and carpet-combats prone, 
 
 In either field the vig'rous monarch (hone : 
 
 Mark'd out for riot each luxurious day 
 
 In tournaments and banquets danc'd away. 
 
 But fhift the fcene, and view what (laughters ftain 
 
 Each frantic period of his barb'rous reign; 
 
 A tyrant to the people whom he rul'd, 
 
 By ev'ry potentate he dealt with, fool'd; 
 
 Sold by one * minifter, to all unjufr.; 
 
 Sway'd by each dictate of diftemper'd luft; 
 
 Changing each worlhip that controul'd the bent 
 
 Of his adult'rous will, and lewd intent; 
 
 Big in unwieldy majefty and pride, 
 
 And fmear'd with queens' and martyrs' blood, he dy'd. 
 
 Pafs we the pious j* youth too (lightly feen ; 
 The murd'rous zeal of a weak Romim J queen: 
 Nor with faint pencil, impotently vain, 
 Shadow the glories of Eliza's reign, 
 Who (till too great, tho' fome few faults (he had, 
 To catalogue with all thofe royal bad. 
 
 Arife, great James! thy courfe of wifdom run! 
 Image of David's philoiophic fon! 
 He comes! on either hand in feemly (late, 
 Knowledge and Peace his fondled handmaids wait: 
 
 o 
 
 Obfcurely learn'd, elaborately dull* 
 Of quibbling cant and grace fanatic full, 
 Thron'd in full fenates, on his pedant tongue, 
 Thefe for fix hours each weighty morning hung. 
 For thefe each firing of royal pow'r he firain'd, 
 For thefe he fold whate'er Eliza gain'd; 
 For thefe he fquander'd ev'ry prudent (lore 
 The frugal princefs had referv'd before, 
 On penfion'd fycophants and garter'd boys, 
 Tools of his will, and minions of his joys. 
 
 * Cardinal Wolfey. 
 
 f Edward VI. 
 
 % Mary. 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 For thefe he let his beggar'd * daughter roam ; 
 Bubbled for thefe by Spanifh art at home; 
 For thefe, to fum the bleffings of his reign, 
 Poifon'd one foil f, and t'other fent to Spain. 
 
 Retire, itric"r. mufe, and thy impartial verfe 
 In pity fpare on Charles's bleeding herfe ; 
 Or all his faults in blackeft note, tranllate 
 To tombs where rot the authors of his fate ; 
 To luftful Henrietta's Romifli made 
 Let all his acls of lawlefs pow'r be laid ; 
 Or to the f prieft more Romifh ftill than her ; 
 And whoe'er made his gentle virtues err. 
 
 On the next § prince expell'd his native land 
 In vain affliction laid her iron hand ; 
 Fortune, or fair or frowning, on his foul 
 Could ltamp no virtue, and no vice controul ; 
 Honour, or morals, gratitude, or truth, 
 Nor learn'd his ripen'd age, nor knew his youth ; 
 The care of nations left to whores or chance, 
 Plund'rer of Britain, penlioner of France ; 
 Free to Buffoons, to Minifters deny'd, 
 He liv'd an atheifr, and a bigot dy'd. 
 
 The reins of empire, or refign'd or ftole. 
 Are trufted next to James's weak controuL 
 Him, meditating to fubvert the laws, 
 His hero || fon in freedom's beauteous caufe 
 Rofe to chaftife : ** unhappy itill ! howe'er 
 Po fieri ty the gallant action bear. 
 
 * Queen of Bohemia. 
 
 •]• Prince Henry and Charles I. 
 
 % Archbifhop Laud. 
 
 6 
 
 § Charles II. 
 || William nr. 
 
 ** Infelix utcumque ferent ea fa&a minores! Vine™ 
 
 Thus 
 
16 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 Thus have I try'd of kings and priefts to fing, 
 And all the woes that from their vices fpring ; 
 While viclor George thunders o'er either Spain, 
 Revenges Britain and afferts the main ; 
 To * willing Indians deals our equal laws, 
 And from his country's voice affects applaufe ; 
 f What time fair Florence on her peaceful more, 
 Free from the din of war and battle's roar, 
 Has lap'd me trifler in inglorious eafe, 
 Modelling precepts that may ferve and pleafe ; 
 Yours is the tafk — and glorious is the plan, 
 To build the free, the fenfible, good man, 
 
 * ■ — Volentes + Illo Vlrgilium me tempore dulcis alebat 
 
 Per populos dat jura, viamque affeflat Olympo, Parthenope, ihidiis Florentem ignobilis oti. 
 
 VlRG. VlBG. 
 
 INSCRIPTION 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 17 
 
 INSCRIPTION 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 NEGLECTED COLUMN 
 
 In the PLACE of 
 
 St. MARK at FLORENCE. 
 
 [Written in the Year 1740.3 
 
 ESCx^P'D a * race, whofe vanity ne'er rais'd 
 A monument, but when themfelves it prais'd, 
 Sacred to truth O ! let this column rife, 
 Pure from falfe trophies and infcriptive lies ! 
 Let no enflavers of their country here 
 In impudent relievo dare appear : 
 No pontiff by a ruin'd nation's blood 
 Lufting to aggrandize his baftard brood : 
 Be here no f Clement, $ Alexander feen, 
 No pois'ning § cardinal, or pois'ning || queen : 
 
 * The family of Medici. § Ferdinand the Great was firft cardinal and 
 
 f Cardinal Julio de' Medici, afterwards Cle- then became Great duke, by poifoning his elder 
 
 ment VII. brother Francis I . and his wife Hianca Capello. 
 
 % Alexander, the fir ft duke of Florence, || Catherine of Medici, wife of ilenry II. king 
 
 killed by Lorenzino de' Medici. of France. 
 
 Vol. I. D No 
 
FUGITIVE' PIECES. 
 
 No Cofmo, or the bigot * duke, or f he 
 Great from the wounds of dyins; libertv. 
 
 No X Lorrainer one lying arch § fuffice 
 
 To tell his virtues- and his victories : 
 
 Beneath his . foll'ring eye how || commerce thriv'd, 
 
 Beneath his fmile how drooping arts reviv'd : 
 
 Let it relate, e'er fince his rule begun, 
 
 Not what he has, but what he mould have done. 
 
 Level with freedom, let this pillar mourn, 
 Nor rife, before the radiant blifs return ; 
 Then tow'ring boldly to the ikies proclaim 
 Whate'er fhall be the patriot hero's name, 
 Who, a new Brutus, mall his country free, 
 And, like a GOD, mall fay, Let there be Liberty ! 
 
 * Cofmo III. the porta San Gallo. 
 
 f Cofmo the Great enflaved the republics of || Two infcriptions over the letter arches call 
 
 Florence and Siena. him " Reftitutor Commercii, and Propagator 
 
 i Francis II. duke of Lorrain, which he gave Bonarum Artium," as his equeftrian ftatue tram- 
 up to France, againfl: the command of his mo- pling on Turks, on the fummit,reprefentsthe vic- 
 ther, and the petitions of all his fubjects, and tories that he was defigned to gain over that peo- 
 had Tufcany in exchange. pie, when he received the command of the em- 
 
 $ The triumphal arch erected to him without peror's armies, but was prevented by fome fevers. 
 
 THE 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 rg 
 
 THE 
 
 BEAUTIES. 
 
 A N 
 
 EPISTLE to Mr. ECKARDT the Painter. 
 
 [Written in the Year 1746.] 
 
 DESPONDING artift, talk no more 
 Of beauties in the days of yore, 
 Of goddeflfes renown'd in Greece, 
 And Zeuxis' compofition-piece, 
 Where every nymph that could at mofl 
 Some flngle grace or feature boaft, 
 Contributed her favourite charm 
 To perfecl the ideal form. 
 'Twas Cynthia's brow, 'twas Lesbia's eye, 
 *Twas Cloe's cheek's vermilion dye ; 
 Roxana lent the noble air, 
 Diflievell'd flow'd Aspasia's hair, 
 And Cupid much too fondly prefs'd 
 His mimic mother Thais'" breaft. 
 
 Antiquity, how poor thy ufe ! 
 A fingle Venus to produce ! 
 Friend Eckardt, ancient ftory quit, 
 Nor mind whatever Pliny writ ; 
 
 D 2 Felibien 
 
2o FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 Felibien and Frefnoy difclaim, 
 Who talk of Raphael's matchlefs fame, 
 Of Titian's tints, Corregio's grace, 
 And Carlo's each Madonna face, 
 As if no beauties now were made, 
 But Nature had forgot her trade. 
 'Twas beauty guided Raphael's line, 
 From heavenly women fly I'd divine. 
 They warm'd old Titian's fancy too, 
 And what he could not tafte, he drew. 
 Think you devotion warm'd his breaft, 
 When Carlo with fuch looks exprefs'd 
 His virgins, that her vot'ries feel 
 Emotions not, I'm fure, of zeal ? 
 
 In Britain's ifle obferve the fair, 
 And curious choofe your models there ; 
 Such patterns as mail raife your name 
 To rival fweet Corregio's fame. 
 Each fingle piece mall be a ten 1 , 
 And Zeuxis' patchwork but a jeft ; 
 Who ranfack'd Greece, and cull'd the age 
 To bring; one goddefs on the ftag-e. 
 On your each canvafs we'll admire 
 The charms of the whole heav'nly choir.. 
 
 Majeftic Juno mall be feen 
 In * Hervey's glorious awful mien. 
 Where j* Fitzroy moves, refplendent fair ; 
 So warm her bloom, fublime her air ; 
 Her ebon trefles, form'd to grace, 
 And heighten while they made her face ; 
 Such troops of martial youth around, 
 Who court the hand that gives the wound ; 
 
 * Mifs Lepelle Hervey, now lady Mulgrave, f Lady Caroline Fitzroy, eldeft daughter of 
 eldeft daughter of John lord Hervey. Charles fecond duke of Grafton. 
 
 'Tis 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 21 
 
 'Tis Pallas, Pallas {lands confcfs'd, 
 
 Tho' * Stanhope's more than Paris blefs'd. 
 
 So t Cleveland (hone in warlike pride, 
 
 By Lely's pencil deify 'd: 
 
 So £ Grafton, matchlefs dame, commands; 
 
 The faired work of Kneller's hands. 
 
 The blood that warm'd each amorous court, 
 
 In veins as rich dill loves to fport: 
 
 And George's age beholds redor'd 
 
 What William boaded, Charles ador'd. 
 
 For Venuses, the Trojan ne'er 
 Was half lo puzzled to declare : 
 Ten queens of beauty, fure I fee ! 
 Yet fure the true is § Emily. 
 Such majefty of youth and air,. 
 Yet moded as the village fair : 
 Attracting all, indulging none, 
 Her beautv, like the glorious fun. 
 Thron'd eminently bright above,. 
 Impartial warms the world to love.. 
 
 In fmiling [| Capel's bounteous look 
 Rich autumn's goddefs is midook. 
 With poppies and with fpiky corn, 
 Eckardt, her nut-brown curls adorn ; 
 And by her fide, in decent line, 
 Place charming ** Berkeley, Proferpine, 
 Mild as a dimmer lea, ferene, 
 In dimpled beauty next be feen 
 f \ Aylesb'ry, like hoary Neptune's queen. 
 
 * Lord Peterlham, fince earl of Harring- 
 ton . 
 
 f The duchefs of Cleveland like Pallas among 
 the beauties at Windfor 
 
 % The duchefs of Grafton among the beauties 
 at Hampton-court. 
 
 § Lady Emily Lenox, now duchefs of Lein- 
 fter. 
 
 || Lady Mary Capel, fince married to admiral 
 Forbes. 
 
 ** Elizabeth Drax countefs of Berkeley, fince 
 married to Robert Nugent, efq. 
 
 +f Caroline Campbell countefs of Aylefbury, 
 fince married to general Henry Seymour Conway; 
 flie was only daughter of John fourth duke of. 
 Argyle. 
 
 With: 
 
22 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 With her the light-difpenfing fair, 
 Whofe beauty gilds the morning air, 
 And bright as her attendant fun, 
 The new Aurora, * Lyttelton. 
 Such f Guido's pencil beauty-tip'd, 
 And in ethereal colours dip'd, 
 In meafur'd dance to tuneful long 
 Drew the fweet goddefs, as along 
 Heaven's azure 'neath their light feet fpread, 
 The buxom hours me fairefl led. 
 
 The crefcent on her brow difplay'd, 
 In curls of lovelieft brown inlaid, 
 With every charm to rule the night, 
 Like Dian, ij: Strafford woos the fight. 
 The graceful fhape, the piercing eye, 
 The fhowy bofom's purity, 
 The unaffected gentle phrafe 
 Of native wit in all fhe favs : 
 Eckardt, for thefe thy art's too faint. 
 You may admire, but cannot paint. 
 
 How Hebe fmil'd, what bloom divine 
 On the young goddefs lov'd to fhine, 
 From § Carpenter we guefs, or fee, 
 All-beauteous || Manners ! beam from thee. 
 
 How pretty Flora, wanton maid, 
 By Zephyr woo'd in noon-tide made, 
 With roly hand coquetly throwing 
 Panfies beneath her fweet touch blowing; 
 
 * Mifs Lucy Fortefcue, firft wife of George § Almeria Carpenter, fince countefs of Eg re » 
 
 now lord Lyttelton. mont. 
 
 t Guide's Aurora in the Rofpigliofi palace at || Mifs Maimers (fince married to captain Hall), 
 
 Rome, daughter of lord William Manners. 
 
 J Lady Anne Campbell countefs of Strafford. 
 
 1 
 
 How 
 
FUGITIVE 
 
 PIEC E S. 
 
 23 
 
 How blithe (he look'd, let * Fanny tell ; 
 Let Zephyr own if half fo well. 
 
 Another f goddefs of the year, 
 Fair queen of fummer, fee appear ! 
 Her auburn locks with fruitage crown'd, 
 Her panting bofom loofcly bound, 
 Ethereal beauty in her face, 
 Rather the beauties of her race, 
 Whence ev'ry goddefs, envy-fmit, 
 Muft own each Stonehoufe meets in J Pitt. 
 
 Exhaufted all the heav'nly train, 
 How many mortals yet remain, 
 Whofe eyes mail try your pencil's art, 
 And in my numbers claim a part? 
 Our fifter mufes mult defcribe 
 § Chudleigh, or name her of the tribe: 
 And || Juliana with the nine 
 Shall aid the melancholy line, 
 To weep her dear ** refemblance gone, 
 Where all thefe beauties meet in one. 
 Sad fate of beauty ! more I fee, 
 Afflicted, lovely family! 
 
 Two beauteous nymphs here, painter, place, 
 Lamenting o'er their f f lifler grace, 
 
 One, matron -like, with fober grief,. 
 Scarce gives her pious fighs relief ; 
 While §§ t'other lovely maid appears 
 In all the melting povv'r of tears : 
 
 * Mifs Fanny Maccartney, married to Mr. 
 Greville. 
 f Pomona. 
 
 % Mifs Atkins, now Mrs. Pitt. Lady Atkins, 
 htr mother, was a Stonehoufe. 
 
 § Mifs Chudleigh, maid of honour. 
 
 |j LadyJulianaFarmor,fince married toMr.Pen. 
 * * LadySophia Farmor, countefs of Granville, 
 ft Mifs Mary Evelyn. 
 %i Mrs. Boone. 
 
 §§ Mifs Elizabeth Evelyn, fince married to 
 Peter Bathurft, efq. 
 
 The 
 
N 
 
 24 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 The fofteft form, the gentleft grace, 
 The fweeteft harmony of face ; 
 Her fnowy limbs and artlefs move 
 Contending with the queen of love, 
 While bafhful beauty fhuns the prize, 
 Which Emily might yield to Evelyn's eyes. 
 
 EPILOGUE 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES, 
 
 25 
 
 EPILOGUE to TAMERLANE, 
 
 On the Suppreffion of the Rebellion.. 
 
 Spoken by Mrs.. Pritchard, in the Character of the Comic Mu.se,, 
 
 November 4, 1 746. 
 
 BRITONS, once more in annual joy we meet 
 This genial night in freedom's fav'rite feat : 
 And o'er the * two great empires ftill I reign 
 Of Covent-garden, and of Drury-lane. 
 But ah ! what clouds o'er all our realms impended !. 
 Our ruin artlefs prodigies portended. 
 Chains, real chains, our heroes had in view, 
 And fcenes of mimic dungeons chang'd to true. 
 An equal fate the Stage and Britain dreaded, 
 Had Rome's young miffionary fpark fucceeded. 
 But laws and liberties are trifling treafures ; 
 He threaten'd that grave property, your pleafure.v. 
 
 For me, an idle mufe, I ne'er diffembled 
 My fears; but e'en my tragic filler trembled. 
 O'er all her fons Ihe caft her mournful eyes, 
 And heav'd her breaft more than dramatic figrhs: 
 
 a 
 
 To eyes well-tutor'd in the trade of grief 
 She rais'd a fmall and well-lac'd handkerchief; 
 
 * The two great empires of the world I know, This of Peru, and that of Mexico. 
 
 INDIA-N Em.F-F.R03>.:. 
 
 Vol. I. E Aid 
 
26 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 And then with decent paufe — and accent broke, 
 
 Her bulkin'd progeny the dame befpoke: 
 
 " Ah ! forts, * our dawn is over-caft, and all 
 
 " Theatric glories nodding; to their fall. 
 
 " From foreign realms a bloody chief is come, 
 
 *' Big with the work of ilav'ry and of Rome. 
 
 *' A general ruin on his fword he wears, 
 
 " Fatal alike to audience and to play'rs. 
 
 %i For ah! my fons, what freedom for the ftage, 
 
 " When bigotry with fenfe mall battle wage ? 
 
 " When monkifh laureats only wear the bays, 
 
 u f Inquifitors lord chamberlains of plays? 
 
 " Plays mail be damn'd that 'fcap'd the critic's rage, 
 
 *' For pr iefts are ftill worfe tyrants to the ftage. 
 
 " Cato, receiv'd by audiences fo gracious, 
 
 *' Shall find ten Ca?iars in one St. Ignatius : 
 
 " And godlike Brutus here mall meet again 
 
 " His evil genius in a capuchin. 
 
 " For herefy the fav'rites of the pit 
 
 " Mull burn, and excommunicated wit; 
 
 " And at one ftake we fliall behold expire 
 
 " My Anna Bullen, and the Spanifh Fryar. 
 
 " Ev'n J Tamerlane, whofe fainted name appears 
 " Red-letter'd in the calendar of play'rs, 
 " Oft as thefe feftal rites attend the morn 
 " Of liberty reftor'd, and William born — 
 *' But at that name what tranfports flood my eyes ! 
 " What golden vifion's this I fee arife ! 
 " W T hat § youth is he with comelieft conqueft crown'd, 
 44 His warlike brow with full-blown laurels bound? 
 " What wreaths are thefe that vicl'ry dares to join, 
 " And blend with trophies of my fav'rite Boyne? 
 
 * The dawn is over-caft, the morning lours, 
 And heavily in clouds brings on the day, 
 1 he great, th' important day, big with the fate 
 Of Cato and of Rome. Cato. 
 
 | Cibber prefide lord chancellor of plays. Pope. 
 4 
 
 $ Tamerlane is always acted on the 4th and 
 5th of November, the annivcrfaries of king Wil- 
 liam's birth and landing. 
 
 § William duke of Cumberland. 
 
 44 Oh ! 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES 27 
 
 M Oh ! if the mufe can happy aught prefage, 
 
 " Of new deliv'rance to the ftate and ftage ; 
 
 " If not untaught the c\. afters to fpell 
 
 " Of all who bravely fight or conquer well ; 
 
 " * Thou malt be William — like the laft defign'd 
 
 ** The tyrant's fcourge, and bleffing of mankind ; 
 
 " Born civil tumult and blind zeal to quell, 
 
 " That teaches happy fubjecls to rebel. 
 
 ** Naftau himfelf but half our vows mail mare, 
 
 u Divide our incenfe and divide our pray'r: 
 
 ** And oft as Tamerlane mall lend his fame "\ 
 " To madow his, thy rival ftar mall claim V 
 " f Th' ambiguous laurel and the doubtful name." * 
 
 * Tu Marcellus eris. Virgil. f Conditor Iliados cantabitur, atque Maronis 
 
 Altifoni dubiam facientia carmina palmam. Jut. 
 
 THE 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 THE 
 
 ENTAIL*, 
 
 A 
 
 FABLE. 
 
 IN a fair fummer's radiant morn 
 A butterfly, divinely born, 
 Whofe lineage dated from the mud 
 Of Noah's or Deucalion's flood, 
 Long hov'ring round a perfum'd lawn, 
 By various gufts of odour drawn, 
 At laft eitablim'd his repofe 
 On the rich bofom of a rofe. 
 The palace pleas'd the lordly gueft: 
 What infect own'd a prouder neft ? 
 The dewy leaves luxurious flied 
 Their balmy efTence o'er his head, 
 And with their filken tap'itry fold 
 His limbs enthron'd on central gold. 
 He thinks the thorns embattled round 
 To guard his cattle's lovely mound, 
 And all the bum's wide domain 
 Subfervient to his fancied reign. 
 
 * This piece was occafioned by the author traits and arms of his anceftors] if he did not 
 being afked [after he had finifhed the little caftle defign to entail it on his family ? 
 at Strawberry-hill and adorned it with the por- 
 
 Such 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 Such ample bleflings fwclFd the fly ! 
 Yet in his mind's capacious eye 
 He roll'd the change of mortal things, 
 The common fate of flies and kings. 
 With grief he faw how lands and honours 
 Are apt to Aide to various owner-; ; 
 Where Mowbrays dwelt how grocers dwell, 
 And how cits buy what barons fell. 
 " Great Phoebus, patriarch of my line, 
 
 Avert fuch fhame from fons of thine ! 
 " To them confirm thefe roofs," he faid ; 
 And then he fwore an oath fo dread, 
 The ftouteft wafp that wears a fword, 
 Had trembled to have heard the word ! 
 " If law can rivet down entails, 
 " Thefe manours ne'er fhall pafs to mails. 
 " I fwear" — and then he fmote his ermine — 
 " Thefe tow'rs were never built for vcrmine." 
 
 A caterpillar grovel'd near, 
 A fubtle flow conveyancer, 
 Who fummon'd, waddles with his quill 
 To draw the haughty infect's will. 
 None but his heirs muft own the fpot, 
 Begotten, or to be begot : 
 Each leaf he binds, each bud he ties 
 To eggs of eggs of butterflies. 
 
 When lo ! how Fortune loves to teafe 
 Thofe who would diclate her decrees ! 
 A wanton boy was pafling by ; 
 The wanton child beheld the fly, 
 And eager ran to feize the prey ; 
 But, too impetuous in his play, 
 Crufh'd the proud tenant of an hour, 
 And fwept away the mansion-flow'r. 
 
3° 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 EPIGRAM 
 
 On Admiral VERNON 
 
 Prefiding over the Herring-Fifhery, mdccl. 
 
 LONG in the fenate had brave Vernon railM, 
 And all mankind with bitter tongue aflail'd : 
 Sick of his noife, we wearied heav'n with pray'r 
 In his own element to place the tar. 
 The gods at length have yielded to our wifh, 
 And bade him rule o'er Billingfgate and fim, 
 
 PORTRAIT 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 PORTRAIT 
 
 O F 
 
 JOHN EARL GRANVILLE. 
 
 r, **" 
 
 Written immediately after his Death in 1763. 
 
 COMMANDING beauty, fmooth'd by cheerful grace, 
 Sat on each open feature of his face. 
 Bold was his language, rapid, glowing, ftrong ; 
 And fcience flow'd fpontaneous from his tongue. 
 A genius, feizing fyftems, flighting rules ; 
 And void of gall, with boundlefs fcorn of fools. 
 Ambition dealt her flambeau to his hand, 
 And Bacchus fprinkled fuel on the brand. 
 His wifh to counfel monarchs, or controul ; 
 His means — th' impetuous ardour of his foul ; 
 For while his views out-ftrip'd a mortal's fpan, 
 Nor prudence drew, nor craft purfued the plan. 
 Swift fell the fcaffbld of his airy pride, 
 But, (lightly built, difFus'd no ruin wide. 
 Unhurt, undaunted, undifturb'd he fell ; 
 Could laugh the fame, and the fame ftories tell : 
 And more a fage than * he, who bade await 
 His revels, till his conquefrs were complete, 
 Our jovial flatefman either fail unfurl'd, 
 And drank his bottle, tho' he mifs'd the world. 
 
 * Pyrrhus. 
 
 PORTRAIT 
 
32 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 PORTRAIT 
 
 D E 
 
 JEAN COM TE de GRANVILLE. 
 
 Traduit de FAnglois de Monfieur Walfole, 
 Par Monfieur le Colonel Drumgold. 
 
 LA frauchife, la grace, & l'aimable gayete 
 AdouchToient l'eclat de fa male beaute. 
 Tout s'embrafoit au feu de fa vive eloquence ; 
 Tout cedoit au torrent de fa vafte fcience. 
 Laiflant la regie & Tart aux plats manoeuvriers, 
 D'un coup d'oeil il percoit des fyftemes entiers. 
 Son ame etoit fans fiel ; mais un mepris fupreme 
 Le vengeoit mieux des fots que la vengeance meme. 
 La fiere ambition luy remit fon flambeau, 
 Et Bacchus l'arrofa des feux de fon tonneau. 
 Tout fon but, fi jamais il en eut un, fut d'etre 
 Tour a tour la terreur, ou Fappui, de fon m ait re. 
 Son plan, de n'ecouter que la fougueufe voix 
 Do grand coeur de qui feul il recevoit des loix. 
 Mais tandis que ce plan franchiffoit les limites 
 Qu'aux projets des mortels la nature a prefcrites, 
 La prudence jamais n'en traea le delfein, 
 Et 1' intrigue jamais n'en pourfuivit la fin. 
 De fes projets legers la trop frcle colonne 
 Fendit deifous fes pieds, mais fans blefler perfonne. 
 Sans accident, fans crainte, il tomba tout entier, 
 Et de fa propre chute il rit tout le premier. 
 Plus fage que celuy, qui, trop yvre de gloire, 
 Sufpendit fes plaifirs, pour hater fa vidoire, 
 II vuida fon flaccon, exemt de tout chagrin, 
 A la fante du monde echappe de fa main. 
 
 VERSE 
 
FUGITIVE 
 
 V E R 
 
 PIECE S. 
 
 S E S 
 
 33 
 
 Prefixed to an Edition printed at Strawberry-Hill in 1764, of the 
 Poems of Anna Chamber Countefs Temple, 
 
 LONG had been loft enchanting Sappho's lyre, 
 Its graceful warblings, and its tender fire •: 
 No more the guardians of the Aonian well 
 To wanton hands would trull: their facred fhell : 
 When wand'ring thoughtlefs o'er the tuneful hill, 
 When wand'ring thoughtlefs of th' infpiring rill, 
 Chance guided Temple to the fecret made, 
 Where the lhy filters had the mufic laid. 
 Its form unufual caught her curious eye ; 
 She touch'd it, and it murmur'd melody. 
 Acrofs the chords an artlefs fweep me flings ; 
 Airs, vernal airs, return the vocal firings. 
 Again her fingers o'er the lines me throws ; 
 Spontaneous numbers from her touch arofe. 
 Surpris'd fhe hears th r unmeditated lay ; 
 Pleas'd and furpris'd, repeats th' harmonious play. 
 ** Whence flow thefe numbers undefign'd ?" me cries. 
 
 Thofe numbers are your own :" the lyre replies. 
 *' The feeds of genuine poefy, tho' unknown, 
 
 By parent Phoebus in your foul were fown : 
 *' Too modefr. to expect the growth you fee, 
 *' To wake them into life you wanted me." 
 
 Vol. L 
 
 F 
 
 THE 
 
34 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 THE 
 
 MAGPIE and her BROOD, 
 
 A FABLE, 
 
 From the Tales of Bonaventure des Periers, Valet de Chambre 
 
 to the Queen of Navarre ; 
 
 Addressed to Mifs * HOTHAM. 
 
 M D C C L X I V. 
 
 HOW anxious is the penfive parent's thought I 
 How bleft the fav'rite fondling's early lot ! 
 Joy fixings her hours on pleafure's golden twine, 
 And fancy forms it to an endlefs line. 
 But ah ! the charm muft ceafe or foon or late, 
 When chicks and milTes rife to woman's 'ftate^. 
 The little tyrant grows in turn a flave, 
 And feels the foft anxiety me gave. 
 This truth, my pretty friend, an ancient wit, 
 Who many a jocund tale and legend writ, 
 Couch'd in that age's unaffected guife, 
 When fables were the wifdom of the wife. 
 To carelefs notes I've tun'd his gothic ftyle ; 
 Content, if you approve, and Suffolk fmile. 
 
 * Henrietta, only daughter of colonel Charles Henrietta countefs dowager of Suffolk, mifs 
 Hotham, by lady Dorothy Hobart, daughter of Hotham, then ten years old, lived at Marble- 
 John earl of Buckinghamlhire, with whofe filter, hill, Twickenham. 
 
 3 
 
 ONCE 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES 
 
 ONCE on a time a magpie led 
 
 Her little family from home, 
 
 To teach them how to earn their bread, 
 When me in queft of a new mate mould roam. 
 
 She pointed to each worm and fly, 
 
 That crept on earth or wing'd the Iky, 
 
 Or where the beetle buzz'd, me call'd. 
 But all her documents were vain ; 
 They would not budge, the urchin train, 
 
 But caw'd, and cry'd, and fquall'd. 
 They wanted to be back at neft, 
 Clole nuzzled to mamma's warm breaft ; 
 And thought that lhe, poor foul ! muft fweat 
 Day after day to find them meat : 
 
 But Madge knew better things. 
 My loves, faid flie, behold the plains, 
 Where ftore of food and plenty reigns ! 
 I was not half fo big as you, 
 When me my honoured mother drew 
 
 Forth to the groves and fprings. 
 She flew away ; God reft her fprite ! 
 Tho' I could neither read nor write, 
 
 I made a mift to live. 
 So muft you too : come, hop away : 
 Get what you can ; fteal what you may . 
 
 Th' induftrious always thrive. 
 Lord blefs us ! cried the peevifti chits, 
 Can babes like us live by their wits ? 
 With perils compafs'd round, can we 
 Preferve our lives or liberty ? 
 How mall we 'fcape the fowler's fnare, 
 Or gard'ner's tube erecl in air ? 
 
 If we but pilfer plums or nut*, 
 
 The leaden ball will pierce our guts : 
 And then, mamma, your tender heart will bleed 
 
 To fee your little pies lie dead. 
 
 Fa 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES, 
 
 My dears, faid me, and bufs'd their callow bills, 
 The wife by forelight intercept their ills : 
 
 .And you of no dull lineage came. 
 To fire a gun it takes fome time ; 
 The man mult load, the man muft prime, 
 
 And after that, take aim. 
 He lifts his piece, he winks his eye ; 
 'Twill then be time enough to fly : 
 You out of reach may laugh and chatter ; 
 To bilk a man is no great matter. 
 Aye ! but — But what ? — Why, if the clown 
 Should reach a ftone to knock us down — 
 
 Why, if he does, ye brats, 
 Muft not he ftoop to reach the ftone ? 
 His pofture warns you to be gone : 
 
 Birds are not kill'd like cats. 
 Still, good mamma, our cafe is hard : 
 The rogue, you know, may come prepar'd, 
 
 A huge ftone in his fift ! 
 Indeed ! my youngfters, Madge replies, 
 If you already are fo wife, 
 
 Go cater where you lift,. 
 
THE 
 
 MYSTERIOUS MOTHER 
 
 A 
 
 TRAGEDY. 
 
 Sit mihi fas audita loqui ! Virgil, 
 
PERSON 
 
 COUNTESS of Narbonne, 
 Count EDMUND, her Son. 
 FLORIAN, his Friend. 
 ADELIZA, an Orphan. 
 
 BENEDICT, 1 
 
 C Friars. 
 MARTIN, ] 
 
 PETER, Porter of the Cattle. 
 
 MARIA, 1 
 
 > Damfels attending the Countefs* Mutes. 
 ELINOR,] 
 
 Chorus of Orphans. 
 
 Chorus of Friars. 
 
 The Scene lies at the Cajlle of Narbonne ; partly on a Platform before the 
 ■Gate, partly in a Garden within tlie Walls* 
 
THE 
 
 MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 A 
 
 TRAGEDY. 
 
 ACT the FIRST. 
 
 S C E N E I. 
 
 A Platform before the Cajlle. 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 WHAT awful filence! How thefe antique towers 
 And vacant courts chill the fufpended foul, 
 Till expectation wears the call: of fear; 
 And fear, half-ready to become devotion, 
 Mumbles a kind of mental orifon, 
 It knows not wherefore. What a kind of bein£ 
 Is circumftance ! 
 
 I am a foldier ; and were yonder battlements 
 Garnifh'd with combatants, and cannon-mounted, 
 My daring breaft would bound with exultation, 
 And glorious hopes enliven this drear fcene. 
 Now dare not I fcarce tread to my own hearing, 
 Left echo borrow fuperftition's tongue, 
 And feem to anfwer me, like one departed. 
 
 I met 
 
4 o THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 1 met a peafant, and enquir'd my way : 
 
 The -carle, not rude -of fpeech, but like the tenant 
 
 Of lome night-haunted ruin, bore an afpedr. 
 
 Of horror, worn to habitude. He bade 
 
 God blefs me ; and pafs'd on. I urg'd him farther : 
 
 Good matter, cried he, go not to the cattle ; 
 
 There forrow ever dwells and moping mifery. 
 
 I prefs'd him yet — None there, {aid he, are welcome, 
 
 But now and then a mafs-prieft, and the poor ; 
 
 To whom the pious Countefs deals her alms, 
 
 On covenant, that each revolving night 
 
 They beg of heav'n the health of her fon's foul 
 
 And of her own : but often as returns 
 
 The twentieth of September, they are bound 
 
 Faft from the midnight watch to pray till morn. — 
 
 More would he not difclofe, or knew not more. 
 
 - — What precious mummery! Her fon in exile, 
 
 She wattes on monks and beggars his inheritance, 
 
 For his foul's health ! I never knew a woman 
 
 But lov'd our bodies or our fouls too well. 
 
 Each matter whim maintains its hour of empire ; 
 
 And obftinately faithful to its dictates, 
 
 With equal ardour, equal importunity, 
 
 They teafe us to be damned or to be fav'd. 
 
 J hate to love or pray too long. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 PORTER of the Caftle, FLORIAN. 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Methought 
 
 I heard a frranger's voice — What lack you, fir? 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 Good fellow, who inhabits here ? 
 
 PORTER. 
 
A TRAGEDY. 41 
 
 PORTER. 
 I do. 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 Belike this cattle is not thine. 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Belike fo : 
 
 But be it whofe it may, this is no haunt 
 For revellers and gallants — Pafs your way. 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 Thou churl ! Is this your Gallic hofpitality ? 
 Thy lady, on my life, would not thus rudely 
 Chide from her prefence a bewilder' d knight. 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Thou know'lr. my lady then? — Thou know'ir. her not. 
 Canft thou in hair-cloths vex thofe dainty limbs? 
 Camt thou, on reeking pavements and cold marble, 
 In meditation pafs the livelong night ? 
 Canft mortify that flem, my rofy minion, 
 And bid thy rebel appetite refrain 
 From goblets foaming wine, and coftly viands ? 
 Thefe are the deeds, my youngfter, mufr. draw down 
 My lady's ever-heav'n-direcled eve. 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 In iooth, good friend, my knighthood is not fchool'd 
 
 In voluntary rigours — I can fail:, 
 
 March fupperlefs, and make cold earth mv pillow, 
 
 When my companions know no choicer fare; 
 
 But Icldom rooft in churches, or reject 
 
 The ready banquet, or a willing fair one. 
 
 Vol. I, 
 
 G 
 
 PORTER, 
 
42 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Angels defend us ! what a reprobate ! 
 Yon mould'ring porch for fixteen years and more 
 Has not been ftruck with fuch unhallow'd founds. 
 Hence to thy lewd companions ! 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 Father greybeard, 
 I cry you mercy ; nor wast my intention 
 To wound your reverence's faint-like organs. 
 But come, thou haft known other days — canft tell 
 Of banquetings and dancings — 'Twas not always thus, 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 No, no — time was — my lord, the count of Narbonne, 
 
 A profp'rous gentleman, were he alive, 
 
 We mould not know thefe moping melancholies. 
 
 Heav'n reft his foul ! I marvel not my lady 
 
 Cherifhes his remembrance, for he was 
 
 Comely to fight, and wondrous goodly built. 
 
 They fay his fon count Edmund's mainly like him*. 
 
 Would thefe old arms, that ferv'd his grandfather^ 
 
 Could once enfold him ! I fhould part in peace.- 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 What, if I bring thee tidings of count Edmund ? 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Mercy befall me ! — now my dream is out. 
 
 Laft night the raven croak'd, and from the bars 
 
 Of our lodge-fire flitted a meffenger — 
 
 I knew no good would follow — Bring you ill tidings,. 
 
 Sir gentleman ? 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 (This is a folemn fool, 
 Or folemn knave) — Shouldft thou indeed rejoice 
 
 5 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 43 
 
 To fee count Edmund ? Would thy noble miftrefs 
 Spring with a mother's joy to clafp her Ton ? 
 
 PORTER. 
 Oh! no, no, no. — He mull not here — alas! 
 He rauft not here fet foot — But tell me, flranger, 
 I prithee fay, does my old mailer's heir 
 Still breathe this vital air? Is he in France? 
 Is he within fome ten, or twenty leagues, 
 Or fifty ? I am hearty yet, have all my limbs, 
 And I would make a weary pilgrimage 
 To kifs his gracious hand, and at his feet 
 
 Lay my old bones — for here I ne'er muft fee him. [Weejis. 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 Thou good old man, forgive a foldier's mirth. 
 But fay, why Narbonne's heir from Narbonne's lands 
 Is banifh'd, driven by a ruthlefs mother ? 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Ah! fir, 'tis hard indeed — but fpare his mother; 
 Such virtue never dwelt in female form. 
 Count Edmund — but he was indeed a ftripling, 
 A very lad — it was the trick of youth, 
 And we have all our fins, or we have had ; 
 Yet Hill no pardon — Think'ft thou not my lord, 
 My late kind mailer, ere he knew my lady, 
 Will: not what woman was? — I warrant him — 
 But fo — count Edmund being not lixteen, 
 A lufty youth, his father's very image — 
 Oh ! he has play'd me many a trick — Good fir, 
 Does my young mailer ever name old Peter ? 
 Well ! — but I prate — you mull forgive my age ; 
 I come to th' point — Her name was Beatrice ; 
 A roguilh eye— fhe ne'er would look on me, 
 -Or we had fav'd full many a woeful day ! 
 Mark you me well? 
 
 G2 FLORIAN. 
 
44 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 , I do. 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 This Beatrice — 
 But hark! my lady comes — Retire a while 
 Beyond thofe yews — anon I'll tell you more. 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 May I not greet her r 
 
 P O R T E R. 
 
 For my office, no : 
 'Twere forfeit of my badge to hold a parley 
 
 With one of near thy years. [Florian withdraw?. 
 
 [The Countess, in weeds, with a crucifix in her hand, ijfues from the 
 cajile, accompanied by two maidens, and Jiajfes over the Jiage. When 
 Jlie is gone Florian returns.] 
 
 'Tis ever thus. 
 At break of morn lhe hies to yonder abbey, 
 And, proftrate o'er fome monumental flone, 
 Seems more to wait her doom, than aik to fhun it. 
 The day is pafs'd in minift'ring to wants 
 Of health or means ; the clofmg eve beholds 
 New tears, new pray'rs, or haggard meditation. 
 But if cold moonfliine, deep'ning every frown 
 Of thefe impending towers, invite her fteps, 
 She hTues forth. — Befhrevv me, but I tremble, 
 When my own keys difcharge the drawbridge chains 3 
 And rattle thro' the cattle's farmoft vaults. 
 Then have I feen this fad, this fober mourner^ 
 With frantic gefture and diforder'd ftep — 
 But hum — who moves up yonder avenue ? 
 It is — no — ftay — i'faith ! but it is he, 
 My lady's confeflbr, with friar Martin — 
 
 6 Quick 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 45 
 
 Quick hie thee hence — Should that fame meddling monk 
 Obfervc our conf'rence, there were fine work toward, 
 
 F I/O R I A N. 
 You will not leave your tale unfinimcd ? 
 
 PORTER. 
 Mafs ! but I will — A tale will pay no ftipend. 
 Thefe fifty winters have I borne this ftafF, 
 And will not lofe my porridge for my prating. 
 
 FLORIA N. 
 
 Well ! but count Edmund — wo't not hear of him ? 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Aye, blefs his name ! at any leifure hour. 
 This ev'ning, ere the ihutting of the gates, 
 Loiter about yon grange ; I'll come to thee. 
 So now, begone—away. 
 
 SCENE HI. 
 BENEDICT, MARTIN. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Ay ! fift her, fift her — 
 As if I had not prob'd her very foul, 
 And wound me round her heart — I tell thee, brother, 
 This woman was not caft in human mould. 
 Ten fuch would foil a council, would unbuild 
 Our Roman church — In her devotion's real. 
 Our beads, our hymns, our faints, amufe her not : 
 Nay, not confeffion, not repeating o'er 
 Her darling fins, has any charms for her. 
 I have mark'd her pravincr ; not one wand'rino; thought 
 Seems to freal meaning from her words. — She prays 
 Becaufe fihe feels, and feels, becaufe a finner. 
 
 MARTIN, 
 
 [Exeunt fever ally. 
 
4 6 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 What is this fecret lin ; this untold tale, 
 
 That art cannot extract, nor penance clean fc ? 
 
 Lofs of a hufband, iixteen years enjoy'd, 
 
 And dead as many, could not ftamp fuch farrow. 
 
 Nor could (he be his death's artificer, 
 
 And now affect to weep it 1 have heard, 
 
 That chafing, as he homeward rode, a flag, 
 Chaf'd by the hounds, with ludden onfet flew 
 Th' adventurous count. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 'Twas lo ; and yet, my brother, 
 My mind has more than once imputed blood 
 To this inceffant mourner. Beatrice, 
 The damfel for whofe lake me holds in exile 
 Her only fon, has never, fince the night 
 Of his incontinence, been feen or heard of. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 'Tis clear, 'tis clear ; nor will her prudent tongue 
 Accufe its owner. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Judge not raihly, brother. 
 I oft have fhifted my difcourfe to murder : 
 She notes it not. Her mufcles hold their place, 
 Nor difcompos'd, nor firm'd to fteadinefs. 
 No fudden fluming, and no falt'ring lip : 
 Nor, tho' me pities, lifts me to her eyes 
 Her handkerchief, to palliate her diforder. 
 There the wound rankles not. — I fix'd on love, 
 The failure of the fex, and apteft caufe 
 Of each attendant crime — 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Ay, brother, there 
 We matter all their craft. Touch but that firing— 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Still, brother, do you err. She own'd to me, 
 
 That, tho' of nature warm, the paffion love 
 
 Did ne'er anticipate her choice. The count, 
 
 Her hufband, fo ador'd and fo lamented, 
 
 Won not her fancy, till the nuptial rites 
 
 Had with the fting of pleafure taught her parTion. 
 
 This, with fuch modeft truth, and that truth heighten'd 
 
 By confeious fenfe, that holds deceit a weaknefs, 
 
 She utter'd, I would pawn my order's credit 
 
 On her veracity. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Then whither turn 
 To worm her fee ret out ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 I know not that. 
 She will be filent, but me fcorns a falfehood. 
 And thus while frank on all things, but her fecret, 
 I know, I know it not. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 Till me difclofe it, 
 
 Deny her abfolution, 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 She will take none 
 OfFer'd, me feoffs it ; and, withheld, demands not : 
 Nay, vows fhe will not load her finking foul 
 With incantations. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 This is herefy ; 
 Rank herefy ; and holy church mould note it. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 Be patient, brother — Tho' of adamant 
 Her reafon, charity difTolves that rock, 
 — And furely we have tafted of the ftream, 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 Nay, one unguarded moment may difclofe 
 This myftic tale — Then, brother, what a harveft, 
 When mafters of her bofom-guilt ! — Age too 
 May numb her faculties. — Or foon, or late, 
 A praying woman muft become our ipoil. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Her zeal may falter. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 Not in folitude. 
 I nurfe her in new horrors ; form her tenants 
 To fancy vifions, phantoms-; and report them. 
 She mocks their fond credulity — but trufr. me, 
 Her memory retains the colouring. 
 Oft times it paints her dreams ; and ebon night 
 Is no logician. I have known her call 
 For lights, ere ihe could combat its imprefiions. 
 I too, tho' often fcorn'd, relate my dreams, 
 And wondrous voices heard ; that fhe may think me 
 At leaft an honeft bigot ; nor remember 
 I tried to pra£Hfe on her fears, and foil'd 
 Give o'er my purpofe. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 This is mafterly. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 Poor maftery ! when I am more in awe 
 Of my own penitent, than fhe of me. 
 My genius is command ; art, but a tool 
 My groveling fortune forces me to ufe. 
 Oh ! were I feated high as my ambition, 
 I'd place this naked foot on necks of monarchs, 
 And make them bow to creeds myfelf would laugh at *. 
 
 * Alluding to Sixtus quintus. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 49 
 
 MARTIN. 
 By humbler arts our mighty fabric rofe. 
 Win pow'r by craft ; wear it with oftentation ; 
 For confidence is half-fecurity. 
 Deluded men think boldnefs, confcious ftrength ; 
 And grow the Haves of their own want of doubt. 
 Gain to the holy fee this fair domain ; 
 A crimfon bonnet may reward your toils, 
 And the rich harvest prove at lafl your own. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Never, while Edmund lives. This fteady woman 
 
 Can ne'er be pious with fo many virtues. 
 
 Juftice is interwoven in her frame ; 
 
 Nor will fhe wrong the fon me will not fee. 
 
 She loves him not ; yet miftrefs of his fortunes, 
 
 His ample exhibition fpeaks her bounty. 
 
 She deftines him whate'er his father's love 
 
 Gave blindly to her will. Her alms, her charities, 
 
 Ulurp'd from her own wants, fhe fets apart 
 
 A fcanty portion only for her ward, 
 
 Young Adeliza. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Say her fon were dead, 
 And Adeliza veil'd — 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 I prefs the latter 
 With fruitlefs ardour. Often as I urge it, 
 She pleads the maiden's flufhing cheek, and nature, 
 That fpeaks in characters of glowing rofe 
 Its modeft appetites and timid wifhes. 
 Her fex, me fays, when gratified, are frail ; 
 When check'd, a hurricane of boundlefs paffions. 
 Then, with fweet irony and lad, fhe wills me 
 Alk my own breaft, if cowls and fcapularies 
 Are charms all powerful to fubdue deli re? 
 
 Voi.L H MARTIN. 
 
5 o THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 'Twere wifer fchool the maiden : lead the train 
 Of young ideas to a fancied object. 
 A mental fpoufe may fill her hov'ring thoughts, 
 And bar their fixing on fome earthly lover. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 This is already done — but Edmund's death 
 Were hopes more lolid — 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Firft report him dead : 
 
 His letters intercepted — 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Greatly thought, 
 Thou true fon of the church! — And lo ! where comes 
 Our patronefs — Leave me ; I will not lofe 
 An inftant. I will found her inmoft. foul, 
 
 And mould it to the moment of projection. [Exit Martin* 
 
 [Benedict retires within the cajlle, 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 COUNTESS, Two Maidens. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Hafte thee, Maria, to the weftern tower, 
 And learn if th' aged pilgrim dozes yet. 
 . You, Elinor, attend my little orphans, 
 And when their talk is done, prepare their breakfaft. 
 But fcant th' allowance of the red-hair'd urchin, 
 
 That maim'd the poor man's cur — Ah! happy me! [The damfels go in. 
 
 If fentiment, untutor'd by affliction, 
 
 Had taught my temperate blood to feel for others, 
 
 Ere pity, perching on my mangled bofom, 
 
 6 Like 
 
« 
 
 A TRAGEDY. 
 
 Like flies on wounded flefh, had made me fhrink 
 More with compunction than with fympathy ! 
 Alas ! muft guilt then ground our very virtues ? 
 Grow they on fin alone, and not on grace ? 
 While Narbonne liv'd, my fully -fated loul 
 Thought none unhappy — for it did not think ! 
 In pleafures roll'd whole fummer funs away; 
 And if a penfive vifage crofs'd my path, 
 I deem'd the wearer envious or ill-natur'd. 
 What anguifh had I bleffedly redrefs'd, 
 But that I was too blcfs'd ! — Well ! peace is fled, 
 Ne'er to return ! nor dare I fnap the thread 
 Of life, while mifery may want a friend. 
 Defpair and hell muft wait, while pity needs 
 My miniftry— Eternity has fcope 
 Enough to punifli me, tho' I mould borrow 
 A few (hort hours to facrifice to charity. 
 
 SCENE V. 
 BENEDICT, COUNTESS. 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 I fought you, lady. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Happily I'm found. 
 Who needs the widow's mite ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 None alk your aid. 
 Your gracious forefight ftill prevents occafion : 
 And your poor beadfman joys to meet your prefence, 
 I'ncumber'd with a fuit. It pains my foul, 
 Oft as I tax your bounty, left I feem 
 A craving or immodeft almoner. 
 
 COUNTESS, 
 
<2 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 No more of this, good father. I fufpecl: not 
 
 One of your holy order of difTembling : 
 
 Siifpect not me of loving flattery. 
 
 Pals a few years, and I fhall be a corple — 
 
 Will flattery then new clothe my fkeleton, 
 
 Fill out thefe hollow jaws ? Will't give me virtues I 
 
 Or at the folemu audit pafs for truth, 
 
 And varnifh o'er my ftains ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 The church could feal 
 Your pardon — but you fcorn it. In your pride 
 Confifts your danger. Yours are Pagan virtues : 
 As fuch I praife them — but as fuch condemn them. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Father, my crimes are Pagan ; my belief 
 Too orthodox to truir. to erring man. 
 What ! fhall I, foul with guilt, and felf-condemn'd,. 
 Prefume to kneel, where angels kneel appal'd, 
 And plead a prierVs certificate for pardon ? 
 While he, perchance, before my blafted eyes 
 Shall fink to woes, endlefs, unutterable, 
 For having fool'd me into that prefumption. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Is he to blame, trufting to what he grants ? 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Am I to blame, not trufting what he grants? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Yet faith — 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 I have it not — Why fhakes my foul 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 53 
 
 With nightly terrors? Courage fuch as mine 
 Would ftart at nought but guilt. 'Tis from within 
 I tremble. Death would be felicity, 
 Were there no retrofpecl. What joys have I? 
 What pleafure foftcns, or what friendfhip foothes 
 My aching bofom? — I tave loft my hufband: 
 My own decree has banifh'd my own fon. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 Laft night I dreamt your fon was with the blefled.. 
 
 COUNT E S S. 
 
 Would heav'n he were I 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Do you then wifh his death? 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Should I not wlfli him bleft ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Belike he is : 
 I never knew my Friday's dreams erroneous. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Nor I knew fuperftition in the right. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 Madam, I muffc no longer hear this language* 
 You do abufe my patience. I have borne, 
 For your foul's health, and hoping your converfion, 
 Opinions moft deprav'd. It ill befeems 
 My holy function to give countenance, 
 By lending ear, to fuch pernicious tenets. 
 The judgments hanging o'er your deftin'd head 
 May reach ev'n me. — I fee it ! I am rapt 
 Beyond my bearing! My prophetic foul 
 Views the red falchion of eternal juftice 
 Cut off your fentenc'd race — Your fon is deadf 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
54 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Father, we no prophetic daemon bear 
 
 Within our breaft, but confcience. That has fpokeu 
 
 Words more tremendous than this acted zeal, 
 
 This poetry of fond enthufiafm 
 
 Can conjure up. It is the {till fmall voice 
 
 That breathes conviction. 'Tis that voice has told me, 
 
 'Twas my fon's birth, not his mortality*, 
 
 Muft drown my foul in woe. — Thofe tears are med. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Unjuft, uncharitable as your words, 
 I pardon them. Illy of me you deem ; 
 I know it, lady. 'Tis humiliation: 
 . As fuch I bow to it — yet dear I tender 
 
 Your peace of mind. Difmifs your worthlefs fervant: 
 His pray'rs fhall ftill be yours. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Forgive me, father: 
 Difcretion does not guide my words. I meant 
 No infult on your holy character. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 No, lady ; choofe fome other monitor, 
 Whofe virtues may command your eftimation. 
 Your ufelefs beadfman mall behold with joy 
 A worthier man mediate your peace with heav'n. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Alas ! till reconcil'd with my own breaft, 
 What peace is there for me? 
 
 * On the death of the comte de Vermandois, Muft I weep for his death before I have done 
 Siis mother, the duchefs de la Valiere faid, weeping for his birth ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 55 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 In th' neighboring diftricl: 
 There lives a holy man, whofe fanclity 
 Is mark'd with wondrous gifts. Grace fmiles upon him : 
 Conversion tracks his footfteps : miracles 
 Spring from his touch : his facred cafuiflry 
 Pours balm into dcfpair. Confult with him. 
 Unfold th' impenetrable myftery, 
 That fets your foul and you at endlefs difcord. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Confult a holy man ! Inquire of him ! 
 — Good father, wherefore? What mould I inquire*? 
 Mull I be taught of him, that guilt is woe ? 
 That innocence alone is happinefs ? 
 That martyrdom itielf lhall leave the villain 
 The villain that it found him? Mull I learn 
 That minutes ftamp'd with crimes are pair, recall ? 
 That joys are momentary ; and remorfe 
 Eternal ? Shall he teach me charms and fpells, 
 To make my fenfe believe againft my fenfe ? 
 Shall I think practices and penances 
 Will, if he fay fo, give the health of virtue 
 To gnawing felf-reproach ? — I know they cannot- 
 Nor could one rifen from the dead proclaim 
 This truth in deeper founds to my conviction. 
 We want no preacher to diflinguifh vice 
 From virtue. At our birth the god reveal'd 
 All conicience needs to know. No codicil 
 To duty's rubric here and there was plac'd 
 In fome faint's cafual cuftody. Weak minds 
 Want their foul's fortune told by oracles 
 
 * Imitated from Cato's fpeech in Lucan,, beginning, Quid quseri, Labiene, jubes ? 
 
 And 
 
 ■i 
 
56 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 And holy jugglers. Me, nor oracles, 
 
 Nor prophets, death alone can certify, 
 
 Whether, when juftice's full due's exacled, 
 
 Mercy mall grant one drop to flake my torment. 
 
 - — Here, father, break we off ; you to your calling ; 
 
 I to my tears and mournful occupation. [Exeunt. 
 
 End of the firji 
 
 A C T 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 ACT the SECOND. 
 
 The SCENE continues. 
 Count EDMUND, FLORIAN. 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 DOUBT not, my friend ; Time's pencil, hardlliips, war. 
 Some tafte of pleafure too, have chas'd the bloom 
 Of ruddy comelinefs, and ftamp'd this face 
 With harmer lineaments, that well may mock 
 The prying of a mother's eye ; — a mother, 
 Thro' whofe firm nerves tumultuous inftinct's flood 
 Ne'er gufh'd with eager eloquence, to tell her, 
 This is your fon! your heart's own voice proclaims him. 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 If not her love, my lord, fufpeel her hatred. 
 Thofe jarring paflions fpring from the fame fource: 
 Hate is diftemper'd lore. 
 
 EDMUND. 
 Why mould me hate mc ? 
 For that my opening paffion's fwelling ardour 
 Prompted congenial neceffary joy, 
 Was that a caufe ? — Nor was me then fo rigid. 
 No fan&ified diffembler had pofTefs'd 
 Her fcar'd imagination, teaching her, 
 That holinefs begins where nature ends. 
 No, Florian, me herfelf was woman then ; 
 A fenfual woman. Nor fatiety, 
 Sicknefs and age and virtue's frowardnefs, 
 Had fo obliterated pleafure's reliih — 
 She might have pardon' d what (he felt fo well. 
 
 Vol. I. I FLORIAN. 
 
< 
 
 5 8 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 Forgive me, Edmund ; nay, nor think I preach, 
 
 If I, God wot, of morals loofe enough, 
 
 Seem to condemn you. You have often told me, 
 
 The night, the very night that to your arms 
 
 Gave pretty Beatrice's melting beauties, 
 
 Was the fame night on which your father died. 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 'Tis true — And thou, fage monitor, doft thou 
 
 Hold love a crime fo irremiffible ? 
 
 Wouldft thou have turn'd thee from a willing girl,. 
 
 To ling a requiem to thy father's foul ? 
 
 I thought my mother bufied with her tears, 
 
 Her faintings, and her mafTes, while I ftole 
 
 To Beatrice's chamber. — How my mother 
 
 Became appriz'd, I know not : but her heart, 
 
 Never too partial to me, grew eftrang'd. 
 
 Eftrang'd! — Averfion in its felleft mood 
 
 Scowl'd from her eye, and drove me -from her fight* 
 
 She call'd me impious; nam'd my honefr. lewdnefs, 
 
 A prophanation of my father's afhes. 
 
 I knelt and wept, and, like a puling boy, 
 
 For now my blood was cool, believ'd, confefs'd 
 
 My father's hov'ring fpirit incens'd againft me. 
 
 This weak confeffion but inflam'd her wrath ; 
 
 And when I would have bath'd her hand with tears, 
 
 She fnatch'd it back with horror. 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 'Twas the trick 
 Of over-a&ed for row. Grief fatigues ; 
 And each collateral circumftance is feiz'd 
 To cheat th' uneafy feeling. Sable chambers, 
 The winking lamp, and pomp of midnight woe. 
 Are but a ipecious theatre, on which 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 TV inconftant mind with decency forgets 
 Its inward tribute. Who can doubt the love 
 Which to a father's made devotes the fon? 
 
 EDMUND. 
 Still muft I doubt; ftill deem fome myftery, 
 Beyond a widow's pious artifice, 
 Lies hid beneath averfion fo relentlefs. 
 All my inheritance, my lordfhips, caflles, 
 My father's lavifh love bequeath'd my mother. 
 Chofe me fome fecond partner of her bed, 
 Or did me wafte her wealth on begging faints, 
 And rogues that acl contrition, it were proof 
 Of her hypocrily, or luft of fame 
 In monkifh annals. But to me her hand 
 Is bounteous, as her heart is cold. I tell thee, 
 Bating enjoyment of my native foil, 
 Narbonne's revenues are as fully mine, 
 As if I held them by the ftrength of charters. 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 Why fet them on the hazard then, when me 
 Who deals them may revoke ? Your abfence hence 
 The fole condition. 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 I am weary, Florian, 
 Of fuch a vagrant life. Befits it me, 
 Sprung from a race of heroes, Narbonne's prince, 
 To lend my cafual arm's approved valour 
 To quarrels, nor my country's nor my own? 
 To ftain my fword with random blood ? — I fought 
 At Buda 'gainft the Turk — a holy war, 
 So was it deem'd — I fmote the turban'd race: 
 Did zeal, or did ambition nerve my blow ? 
 Or matter'd it to me, on Buda's domes 
 Whether the crefcent or the crofs prevail'd ? 
 Mean time on alien climes I diffipated 
 
 I 2 
 
6o 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER : 
 
 Wealth from my fubjecls wrung, the peafant's tribute, 
 
 Earn'd by his toil. Mean time in ruin laid 
 
 My mould'ring caftles — Yes, ye mofs-grown walls ! 
 
 Ye tow'rs defencelefs ! — I revifit ye 
 
 Shame-ftricken. — Where are all your trophies now ? 
 
 Your thronged courts, the revelry, the tumult, 
 
 That fpoke the grandeur of my houfe, the homage 
 
 Of neighb'ring barons? Thus did Thibalt, Raoul, 
 
 Or Clodomir, my brave progenitors, 
 
 Creep like a fpy, and watch to thrid your gates 
 
 Unnotic'd? No; with martial attributes, 
 
 With waving banners and enlivening fifes, 
 
 They bade your portal wide unfold its jaws,. 
 
 And welcome them and triumph. 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 True, my lord : 
 
 They reign'd the monarchs of a fcore of miles ; 
 
 Imperial lords of ev'ry trembling cottage 
 
 Within their cannon's mandate. Deadly feuds 
 
 For obfolete offences, now array 'd 
 
 Their livery'd banditti, prompt to deal 
 
 On open valleys and unguarded herds, 
 
 On helplefs virgins and unweapon'd boors, 
 
 The vengeance of their tribe. Sometimes they dar'd 
 
 To fcowl defiance to the diftant throne, 
 
 Imprifon'd, canton'd inacceffibly 
 
 In their own rock-built dungeons — Are thefe glories 
 My Edmund's foul ambitions to revive ? 
 Thus would he blefs his vaffals ? 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 Thy reproof, 
 My friend, is juft. But had I not a caufe, 
 A tender caufe, that prompted my return ? 
 This cruel parent, whom I blame, and mourn, 
 Whofe harfhnefs I refent > whofe. woes I pity, 
 
 Has 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 Has won my love, by winning my refpecl. 
 
 Her letters ! Florian ; fueh unftudied drains 
 
 Of virtuous eloquence ! She bids me, yes, 
 
 This praying Magdalen enjoins my courage 
 
 To emulate my great forefather's deeds ; 
 
 Tells me, that lhame and guilt alone are mortal ; 
 
 That death but bars the poffibility 
 
 Of frailty, and embalms untainted honour. 
 
 Then blots and tears efface fome half-told woe 
 
 Lab'ring in her full bofom. I decypher'd 
 
 In one her blefTing granted, and eras'd. 
 
 And yet what follow'd, mark'd anxiety 
 
 For my foul's welfare. 1 mufl know this riddle. 
 
 I mull, will comfort her. She cannot furely, 
 
 After fuch perils, wounds by her command 
 
 Encounter'd, after fixteen exil'd years 
 
 Spurn me, when kneeling — Think'ft thou 'tis poffible 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 I would not think it ; but a hoft of priefts 
 
 Surround her. They, good men, are feldom found 
 
 To plead the caufe of pity. Self-denial, 
 
 Whofe diflbnance from nature's kindeft laws 
 
 By contradicting wins on our perverfenefs, 
 
 Is rank fanaticifm's belov'd machine. 
 
 Oh ! 'twill be heroifm, a facrifice, 
 
 To curb the torrent of maternal fondnefs ! 
 
 You (hall be beggar'd, that the faint your mother 
 
 May, by cowl'd fycophants and canting jugglers, 
 
 Be hail'd, be canoniz'd a new Tereia. 
 
 Pray be not feen here : let's again to th' wars,. 
 
 E D M U N D. 
 
 No, Florian : my dull'd foul is fick of riot ; 
 Sick of the thoughtlefs jollity of camps, 
 Where revelry fiabfifts on defolauon, 
 And fliouts of joy contend with dying groans* . 
 
62 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 Our fports are fleeting ; fnatch'd, perhaps, not granted. 
 'Tis time to bid adieu to vagrant pleafure, 
 And fix the wanderer love. Domeitic blifs — 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 Yes, your fair penfioner, young Adeliza, 
 Has fober'd your inconftancy. Her lmiles 
 
 Were exquifite — to rule a family ! \lronicaUy- 
 So matron-like an air — She muft be fruitful. 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 Pafs we this levity — 'Tis true, the maiden 
 Is beauty's type renew'd. Like blooming Eve 
 In nature's young limplicity, and blufhing 
 With wonder at creation's opening glow, 
 She charms, unknowing what it is to charm. 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 This is a lover's language — Is (he kind ? 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 Cold as the metal bars that part her from me ; 
 She liftens, but replies not to my purpofe. 
 
 FLO RIA N. 
 
 How gain'd you then admittance ? 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 This whole month, 
 While waiting your arrival, I have haunted 
 Her convent's parlour. 'Tis my mother's wifh 
 To match her nobly. Hence her guardian abbefs 
 Admits fiich vifitors as claim her notice 
 By worthy bearing, and convenient Iplendor. 
 O Florian, union with that favour'd maiden 
 
 Might reconcile my mother — Hark ! what found-— \_A chapel bell rings* 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
A TRAGEDY 
 
 63 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 A fummons to fome office of devotion. 
 
 My lord, weigh well what you project — [Singing within. 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 I hear 
 
 Voices that feem approaching — Hufh ! they fing. 
 Liften ! 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 No ; let us hence : you will be known. 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 They cannot know me — See ! 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 FLORIAN, EDMUND, MARTIN, Orphans. 
 
 [A procejjion of children of both fexes, neatly clothed in a white and blue 
 uniform, ijfue from the caflle, followed by friar Martin, and advance 
 towards the Jlage door. They fop, and the children repeat the following 
 hymn, part of which they Jliould have fung within the cajlle.\ 
 
 I. 
 
 Throne of juftice ! lo ! we bend. 
 Thither dare our hopes afcend, 
 Where feraphs, wrapt in light ning rays, 
 Diffolve in mercy's tender blaze ? 
 
 II. 
 
 Hear us ! harmlefs orphans hear ! 
 For her who dries our falling tear. 
 Hum her forrows ; calm her breafr. : 
 Give her, what me gives us, reft. 
 
 III. Guard 
 
6 4 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 HI. 
 
 Guard our fpotlefs fouls from fin ! 
 <jrant us virtue's palm to win ! 
 Clothe the penitent with grace ; 
 And guilt's foul lpots efface ! efface ! 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 I'll fpeak to them, 
 Sweet children — or, thou fanclified conductor, 
 Give me to know what folemn pilgrimage, 
 What expiation of offences paft, 
 Thus fadly ye perform ? In whofe behoof 
 To win a bleffing, raife thefe little fuppliants 
 Their artlefs hands to heav'n ? Pray pardon too 
 A foldier's curiofity. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 The dew 
 
 Of grace and peace attend your fteps ! You feem 
 
 A flranger, or you could but know, fir knight, 
 
 That Narbonne's pious countefs dwells within : 
 
 A lady moll difconfolate. Her lord, 
 
 Her beft-beloved, by untimely fate 
 
 Was fnatch'd away in lufty life's full 'vantage — 
 
 But no account made up ! no abfolution ! 
 
 Hence fcant the diftance of a mile he fell. i 
 
 His weeping relict o'er his fpot of doom 
 
 A goodly crofs erected. Thither we, 
 
 At his year's mind, in fad and folemn guife, 
 
 Proceed to chant our holy dirge, and offer 
 
 Due interceffion for his foul's repofe. 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 'Tis fitly done. And dar'd a voice profane 
 Join in the chorus of your holy office, 
 Myfelf would kneel for Narbonne's peace. 
 
 MARTI N. 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Young fir, 
 
 It glads my foul to hear fuch pious breathings 
 From one, whofe occupation rarely leans 
 The diftance 'twixt enjoyment and the tomb. 
 Say, didft thou know the count? 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 I knew his fon. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Count Edmund? Where fojourns he? 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 In the grave. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Is Edmund dead ? Say, how ? 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 He fell at Buda : 
 
 And not to his diihonour. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 (Welcome founds ! 
 I muft know more of this) — Proceed, my children ; 
 Short of the crofs I'll overtake your fteps. 
 
 ORPHAN GIRL. 
 
 Oh ! father, but I dare not pafs without you 
 Bv the church-porch. They fay the count fits there, 
 W'th clotted locks, and eves like burning; ftars. 
 Indeed 1 dare not go. 
 
 Other CHILDREN. 
 Nor I. Nor L 
 
 Vol. L K 
 
66 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 My loves, he will not harm fuch innocents. 
 
 But wait me at the bridge : I'll ftraight be with ye. 
 
 [Children go out reluctantly* 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 I marvel, father, gravity like yours 
 
 Should yield affent to tales of fuch complexion ; 
 
 Permitting them in baby fantafy 
 
 To ftrike their dangerous root. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 I marvel not, 
 That levity like yours, unhallow'd boy, 
 Should fpend its idle (haft on ferious things. 
 Your comrade's bearing warrants no fuch licence. 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 Think'H: thou, becaufe my friend with humble fervour 
 
 Kneels to Omnipotence, each goffip's dream, 
 
 Each village-fable, domineers in turn 
 
 His brain's diftemper'd nerves ? Think'ft thou a foldier 
 
 Muft by his calling be an impious braggart ? 
 
 Or, being not, a fuperflitious Have ? 
 
 True valour, owning no preheminence 
 
 In equals, dares not wag prefumption's tongue 
 
 Againfl high heav'n. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 In us refpecl heav'n's fervants. 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 Monks may reach heav'n, but never came from thence. 
 
 \Violent Jlorm of thunder and lightning* 
 
 MARTIN. 
 Will this convince thee ? Where's the goffip's dream, 
 The village-fable, now ? Hear heav'n's own voice 
 Condemn impiety ! 
 
 FLORIAN, 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 67 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 Hear heavVs own voice 
 Condemn impofture ! 
 
 EDMUND. 
 Here end your difpute. 
 The ftorm comes on. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Yes, ypu do well to check 
 Your comrade's profanation, left fwift juftice 
 O'ertake his guilt, and ftamp his doom in thunder. 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 Father, art thou fo read in languages 
 
 Thou canft interpret th' inarticulate 
 
 And quarreling elements ? What fays the ftorm ? 
 
 Pronounces it for thee or me ? Do none 
 
 Difpute within the compafs of its bolt 
 
 But we ? Is the fame loud-voie'd oracle 
 
 Definitive for fifty various brawls ? 
 
 Or but a fhock of clouds to all but us ? 
 
 " What if two drunkards at this inftant hour 
 
 " Contend for preference of tafte, one ranking 
 
 " The vines of Burgundy before the juice 
 
 " That dances in a foam of brilliant bubbles 
 
 * 4 From Champagne's berries, think'ft thou thunder fpeaks 
 
 "In favour of the white or ruby grape?" 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 What mockery ! I refign thee to thy fate. [Going. 
 
 [The Orphan-Children run in terrified.} 
 
 Firft ORPHAN. 
 O father, fave us ! fave us, holy father ! 
 
 K2 MARTIN. 
 
68 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS 
 
 MOTHER^ 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 What means this, panic ? 
 
 Firit ORPHAN. 
 Oh !. a ftorm fo dreadful ! 
 Some demon rides in th' air. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Undoubtedly. 
 
 Could ye diftinguifh aught ? 
 
 Firft ORPHAN. 
 I fell to earth, 
 And faid the pray'r you taught me againft fpeclres- 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 'Twas well — But none of you, had none the courage 
 To face the fiend ? 
 
 Second ORPHAN. 
 I wink'd, and faw the lightning. 
 Burft on the monument. The fhield of arms 
 Shiver'd to fplinters. Ere I could repeat 
 An Ave-Mary, down with hideous crafh 
 The crofs came tumbling — Then I fled — 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Retire ; 
 
 This is unholy ground. Acquaint the Countefs. 
 
 I will not tarry long. [Ex. children^. Thou mouth accurft, [To Flobianu 
 
 Repent, and tremble ! Wherefore haft thou drawn 
 
 On Narbonne's plains, already vifited 
 
 By long calamity, new ftorms of horror ? 
 
 The feafons change their courfe ; th' afflicted hind 
 
 Bewails his blafted harveft. Meteors ride 
 
 The troubled fky, and chafe the darken'd fun. 
 
 Heav'n vindicates its altars : tongues licentious 
 
 Have 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 69 
 
 Have fcofFd our holy rites, and hidden fins 
 Have forc'd th' offended elements to borrow 
 Tremendous organs ! Sixteen fatal years 
 Has Narbonne's province groan'd beneath the hand 
 Of defolation — for what crimes we know not! 
 To edge fufpended vengeance art thou come ? 
 
 EDMUND, preventing Flori an. 
 My friend, reply not. — Father, I lament 
 This cafiial jarring — let us crave your pardon. 
 I feel your country's woes : I lov'd count Edmund 
 Revere his father's afhes. I will vifit 
 The ruin'd monument — and at your leifure 
 Could wilh fome conf'rence with you. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 (This is well: 
 I almoft had forgotten) — Be it fo. 
 Where is your haunt ? 
 
 EDMUND. 
 A mile without the town ; 
 Hard by St. Bridget's nunnery. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 There expect me. 
 
 Afidc?\ (I muft to Benedict) — Heav'n's peace be with you ! [Exeunt* 
 
 SCENE III. 
 COUNTESS, PORTER. 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Return, my gracious lady. Tho' the ftorm 
 
 Abates its clamours, yonder angry clouds 
 
 Are big with fpouting fires — Do not go forth* 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
7 o THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Wretches like me, good Peter, dread no ftorms. 
 
 'Tis delicate felicity that fhrinks, 
 
 When rocking winds are loud, and wraps itfelf 
 
 Infultingly in comfortable furs, 
 
 Thinking how many naked objedls want 
 
 Like fhelter and fecurity. Do thou 
 
 Return ; I'll feek the monument alone. 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 No, my good lady ; never be it faid 
 That faithful Peter his dear miftrefs left 
 Expos'd to tempefts. Thefe thin-fprinkled hairs 
 Cannot hold long. If in your fervice (lied, 
 'Twere a juft debt — Harki fure I heard a groan i 
 Pray let us in again. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 My honefr. fervant, 
 Thy fear o'er-pow'rs thy love. I heard no groan; 
 Nor could it 'lcape a fenfe fo quick as mine 
 At catching mifery's expreffive note : 
 'Tis my foul's proper language. — Injur' d made I 
 Shade of my Narbonne! if thy fcornful fpirit 
 Rode in yon whirlwind, and impell'd its bolt 
 Implacable ! indignant ! 'gainft the crofs 
 Rais'd by thv wretched wife — behold me comes . 
 A voluntary viclim ! Re-affemble 
 Thy lightnings, and accept her deftin'd head. 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 For pity ! gracious dame, what words are thefe I 
 
 In any mouth lefs holy they would feem 
 
 A mao-ic incantation. Goblins rife 
 
 At founds lefs pow'rfuL Laft year's 'clipfe fell out, 
 
 Becaufe your maidens crofs'd a gipfy's palm 
 
 To- know what was become of Beatrice. 
 
 6 COUNTESS. 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 7* 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 And didft thou dare inform them where (he dwells? 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 No, on my duty — True, they think I know ; 
 
 And fo thinks Benedict, your confeflbr. 
 
 He lays, (he could not pafs the caftle-gates 
 
 Without my privity. — Well! I had a talk 
 
 To fay him nay. The honour of my keys, 
 
 My office was at ftake. No, father, faid I, 
 
 None pafs the drawbridge without Peter's knowledge. 
 
 How then to beat him from his point ? — I had it — 
 
 Who knows, quoth I, but fudden malady 
 
 Took off" the damfel? She might, or might not, 
 
 Have fepulture within the caftle-walls. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Peace, fool ! — And thus thy fhrewd equivocation 
 Has ftain'd my name with murder's foul fufpicion. 
 — O peace of virtue ! thy true votaries 
 Quail not with ev'ry ' blaft ! I cloak my guilt! 
 Things foreign rife and load me with their blacknefs. 
 Erroneous imputation muft be borne ; 
 Left, while unravelling the knotty web, 
 I lend a clue may vibrate to my heart. 
 
 —But who comes here ? — Retire we and obferve. [They withdraw. 
 
 S C E N E IV. 
 FLORIAN, COUNTESS, PORTER. 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 'Tis not far olf* the time the porter will'd me 
 
 Expecl him here. My friend, indulging grief, 
 
 Chofe no companion of his penfive walk. 
 
 Yes, I muft ferve thee. May my profp'rous care 
 
 Reftore thee to thy ftate, and aid thy love 
 
 To make the blooming Adeliza thine! 
 
 COUNTESS, 
 
72 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER 
 
 COUNTESS, apart to the Porter. 
 Methought he fpoke of love and Adeliza. 
 Who may it be? 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 I never heard his name. 
 
 COUNTESS, approaching. 
 Stranger, did chance or purpofe guide thy fteps 
 To this lone dwelling ? 
 
 [Porter makes Jlgns to Florian not to dif cover their former interview, 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 Pardon, gentle lady, 
 If, curious to behold the pious matron 
 Whom Narbonne's plains obey, I fought this caftle, 
 And deem my wifli indulg'd in viewing thee. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Me ! ftranger ? Is affliction then fo rare 
 It occupies the babbler Fame ? — Oh ! no. 
 My forrows are not new. Aufterities 
 And rigid penance tempt no curious eyes. 
 Nor fpeaks your air dehre of fearching out 
 The houfe of mourning. Rather mould you feek 
 Some unfunn'd beauty, fome unpraclis'd fair one, 
 Who thinks the frft foft founds me hears, are love. 
 There may be fuch at Narbonne: none dwell here. 
 But melancholy, forrow, and contrition. 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 •Pleafure has charms; but fo has virtue too. 
 
 One Ikims the furface, like the fwallow's win?, 
 
 And feuds away unnotie'd. T'other nymph, 
 
 Like fpotlefs fwans in folemn majelfy, 
 
 Breafts the full furge, and leaves long light behind. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 73 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Your courtly phrafe, young knight, befpeaks a birth 
 Above the vulgar. May I alk, how old 
 Your refidence in Narbonne ? whence your race ? 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 In Brabant was I born : my father's name, 
 The baron of St. Orme. I wait at Narbonne 
 My letters of exchange, while pafling homewards 
 To gather my late fire's no mean fucceffion. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Dead is your father, and unwet your cheek ? 
 Truft me, young fir, a father's guardian arm 
 Were well worth all the treafures it withheld. 
 A mother might be fpar'd. 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 Mothers like thee 
 
 Were bleffings. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Curfes ! 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Lady, 'tis the hour 
 Of pray'r. Shall I ring out the chapel-bell ? 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Stranger, I'm fummon'd hence. Within thefe walls 
 
 I may not fpeak with thee : my folemn purpofe 
 
 Admits no converfe with unfteady youth. 
 
 But at St. Bridget's nunnery, to-morrow, 
 
 If you can fpare fome moments from your paftime, 
 
 In prefence of the abbefs, I would talk with thee. 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 Madam, I (hall not fail. 
 
 Vol. I. L COUNTESS, 
 
THE 
 
 MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 COUNTESS, 
 Good angels guard thee ! 
 
 [Exeunt Countess and Porter, 
 
 • S C E N E. V. Jjj 
 
 F L O R I A N, alone. 
 So, this is well. My introduction made, 
 It follows that I move her for her Ion. 
 She feems of gentler mould than fame befpoke her ; 
 Nor wears her eye the laucy fuperiority 
 Of bigot pride. Who knows but fhe may wifh 
 To make the trammels of enthufiafm off, 
 And reconcile herfelf to eafier paths 
 Of fimple goodnefs ? Women oft wear the rnalk 
 Of piety to draw refpecl, or hide 
 The lofs of it. When age difpells the train 
 That waits on beauty, then religion blows 
 Her trumpet, and invites another circle ; 
 Who, full as falfe as the preceding crew, 
 Flatter her problematic mental charms : 
 While muffing incenfe, and devoutly wanton, 
 The Pagan goddefs grows a Chriftian faint, 
 And keeps her patent of divinity- 
 Well ! Edmund, whatfoe'er thy mother be, 
 I'll put her virtue or hypocriiy 
 
 To the fevereffc teft. — Countefs, expect me ! [ Exit. 
 
 End of the fecond Act. 
 
 ACT 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 75 
 
 ACT the THIRD. 
 
 SCENE I. 
 
 A fmall Garden within the Cajlle, terminated by a long Cloi/ler, 
 beyond which appear fome Towers, 
 
 COUNTESS, alone. 
 
 THE monument deftroy'd !— Well ! what of that? 
 Were ev'ry thunderbolt addrefs'd to me, 
 Not one would mils me. Fate's unerring hand 
 Darts not at random. Nor, as fractious children 
 Are chid by proxy, does it deal its wrath 
 On ftocks and ftones to frighten, not chaftife us. 
 Omens and prodigies are but begotten 
 By guilt on pride. We know the doom w r e merit ; 
 And felf-importance makes us think all nature 
 Bulied to warn us when that doom approaches. 
 Fie ! fie ! I blufh to recollecl: my weaknefs. 
 My Edmund may be dead : the houfe of Narbonnc 
 May perim from this earth : poor Adeliza 
 May tafte the cup of woe that I have drug'd : 
 But lightnings play not to announce our fate: 
 No whirlwinds rife to prophefy to mites : 
 Nor, like inquifitors, does heav n drefs up 
 In flames the victims it intends to punifli ; 
 Making a holiday for greater fmners. 
 • — Greater ! oh ! impious ! Were the faggots plac'd 
 Around me, and the fatal torch applied, 
 What wretch could view the dreadful apparatus, 
 And be a blaeker criminal than I am ? 
 - — Perhaps my virtues but enhance my guilt. 
 
 L, 2 Penance 
 
76 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 Fen?. nee attracts refpe<5t, and not reproach. 
 
 How dare I be efteem'd ? Be known my crimes ! 
 
 Let fhame anticipate the woes to come ! 
 
 — Hah ! monfter ! wouldft. difclofe the frightful fcene ? 
 
 Wouldft. teach the vicious world unheard-of fins, 
 
 And be a new apoftle of perdition ? 
 
 ■ — My Edmund too ! has not a mother's hand 
 
 Afflicted him enough ? Shall this curs'd tongue 
 
 Brand him with fhame indelible, and fling 
 
 His honeft bofom with his mother's fcorpions ? 
 
 Shall Adeliza hear the laft of horrors, 
 
 Ere her pure breaft, that fighs for fins it knows not, 
 
 Has learn'd the rudiments of human frailty ? 
 
 No, haplefs maid— 
 
 Enter a Servant... 
 Madam, young Adeliza 
 Entreats to fpeak with you. The lady abbefs 
 Sickens to death. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Admit her.-— Now, my foul, [Ex. Servant. 
 
 Recall thy calm ; fupport. alone thy torments ; 
 And envy not the peace thou ne'er muft know. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 COUNTESS, ADELIZA, 
 
 Approach, fweet maid. Thy melancholy mien. 
 Speaks thy compaffionate and feeling heart. 
 'Tis a grave leffon for thy blooming years,. 
 A fcene of diffolution ! But when Death, 
 Expands his pinions o'er a bed fo holy, 
 Sure he's a welcome guefl. 
 
 ADELIZA. 
 Oh ! do not. doubt it. 
 The pious matron meets him like a friend 
 
 9 
 
 Expected 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 77 
 
 Expected long. And if a tender tear, 
 
 At leaving your poor ward, melts in her eye, 
 
 And downward finks its fervent ecftacy; 
 
 Still does impatience to be gone, betray 
 
 Her inward fatisfacrion. Yefternight, 
 
 As weeping, praying, by her couch I knelt, 
 
 Behold, my Adeliza, mark, me faid, 
 
 How happy the death-bed of innocence * ! 
 
 Oh ! lady, how thofe founds affedted me ! 
 
 I wifh'd to die with her — and oh! forgive me,. 
 
 If in that moment I forgot my patronefs ! 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 It was a with devout. Can that want pardon ? 
 But to confefs it, fpeaks thy native candour. 
 Thy virtuous, thy ingenuous truth difdains 
 To hide a thought — 
 
 A D E L I Z A, falling at her feet. 
 Oh! can I hear this praife, 
 And not expire in blufhes at thy feet ? 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 What means this paffion? 
 
 ADELIZA. 
 Ah ! recall thy words \, 
 Thy Adeliza merits no encomium.. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Thou art too modeft. Praife. is due to truth. 
 Thou fhouldft not feek it; nor mould I withhold it„. 
 
 ADELIZA. 
 
 For pity, fpare me. — No, my honour' d miftrefs, 
 I merit not — oh ! no, my guilty heart 
 Deferves thy frowns — I cannot fpeak — 
 
 * Dr. Young relates that Mr. Addifon, on his death-bed, fpoke in this manner to his pupil lord 
 Warwick. 
 
 COUNT E S.S.. 
 
7 8 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Be calm : 
 
 Thou knowTc no guilt. Unfold thy lab'ring breaft. 
 Say, am not I thy friend ? Me canft thou fear ? 
 
 ADELIZA. 
 
 Can I fear audit befide ? fear aught but goodnefs? 
 Has not thy lavifh bounty cloth'd me, fed me? 
 Haft thou not taught me virtue ? Whom on earth 
 But fuch a benefaclrefs, fuch a friend, 
 Can Adeliza fear ? Alas ! fhe knows 
 No other friend! and chriftian fortitude 
 Dreads not a foe. — Methinks I would have faid 
 That chriftian innocence — but fhame reftrain'd 
 My confcious tongue — I am not innocent. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Thou deareft orphan, to my bofom come, 
 And vent thy little forrows. Purity 
 Like thine affrights itfelf with fancied guilt. 
 I'll be thy confefibr ; and truft me, love, 
 Thy penance will be light. 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 In vain you cheer me. 
 Say, what is guilt, but to have known a thought 
 I blufh'd to tell thee ? to have lent mine ear, 
 For three long weeks, to founds I did not with 
 My patronefs mould hear ! Ah ! when till now 
 Have 1 not hoped thy prefence, thought it long, 
 If two whole days detain'd thee from our mafs ? 
 When have I wept, but when thou haft refus'd 
 To let thy Adeiiza call thee mother ? 
 I know I was not worthy of fuch honour, 
 Too fplendid for a child of charity. 
 I now am moft unworrbv ! I, undone, 
 
A TRAGEDY, 
 
 79 
 
 Have not denVd thy prefence ; have not thought it 
 Long, if two days thou haft declin'd our mafs. 
 Other difcourfe than thine has charm'd mine ear ; 
 Nor dare I now prefume to call thee mother! 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 My lovely innocence, reftrain thy tears. 
 
 I know thy fecret ; know, why beats and throbs 
 
 Thy little heart with unaccuftom'd tumult. 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 Impoflible.— Oh ! let me tell thee all — 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 No ; I will tell it thee. Thou haft convers'd 
 With a young knight — 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 Amazement ! Who inform'd thee ? 
 Pent in her chamber, ficknefs has detain'd 
 Our abbefs from the parlour. There I faw him, 
 Oft as he came alone. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 He talk'd of love ; 
 And woo'd thee for his bride. 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 He did. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 (Wis well: \Afide, 
 This is the ftranger I beheld this morning.) 
 His father dead, he haftes to take poffeffion 
 Of his paternal fortunes — Is't not fo ? 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 He forrows for a father — fomething too 
 
 He utter'd of a large inheritance 
 
 That fhould be his — In truth I mark'd it not. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
8o 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 But when he fpoke of love, thy very fou] 
 
 Hung on his lips. Say, canft thou not repeat 
 
 Each word, each fyllable ? His accent too 
 
 Thou notedft: ftill it rings upon thine ear. 
 
 And then his eyes — they look'd fuch wondrous truth; 
 
 Art thou not fure he cannot have deceiv'd thee? 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 Alas! my noble miftrefs, thou doft mock 
 Poor Adeliza — What can I reply ? 
 
 COUNTESS, 
 The truth. Thy words have ever held its language. 
 Say, doft thou love this ftranger ? Haft thou pledg'd 
 Thy faith to him ? 
 
 ADELIZA. 
 
 Angels forbid ! What faith have I to give ? 
 Can I difpofe of aught without thy leave ? 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Infinuating foftnefs! — ftill thou turneft 
 Afide my queftion. Thou doft love this ftranger. 
 
 ADELIZA. 
 
 Yes, with fuch love as that I feel for thee. 
 His virtues I revere : his earneft words 
 Sound like the precepts of a tender parent : 
 And, next to thee, methinks I could obey him. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Ay, as his wife. 
 
 ADELIZA. 
 Oh ! never. What, to lofe him, 
 As thou thy Narbonne ? 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Check not, Adeliza, 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 81 
 
 Thy undevclop'd paffion. Should this ftranger 
 
 Prove what my wifh has form'd, and what his words 
 
 Report him, it Mould blefs my woeful days 
 
 To fee thee plac'd above the reach of want, 
 
 And diftant from this refidence of forrow. 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 What! wouldft thou fend me from thee? Oh! for pity! 
 
 I cannot, will not leave thee. If thy goodnefs 
 
 Withdraw its bounty, at thy caftle-gate 
 
 I'll wait, and beg thofe alms thy gracious hand 
 
 To none refufes. I Ihall fee thee pals, 
 
 And, pafs'd, will kifs thy footfteps — Wilt thou fpurn me ? 
 Well then, I'll die and blefs thee. — Oh ! this ftranger ! 
 'Tis he has done this ; he has drawn thy anger 
 On thy poor ward ! — I'll never fee him more. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Be calm, my lovely orphan ! hum thy fears. 
 Hea\ 'n knows how fondly, anxioufly I love thee ! 
 The Granger's not to blame. Myfelf will talk him, 
 And know if he deferves thee. Now retire, 
 Nor flack thy duty to th' expiring faint. 
 
 A lover mure, not weigh againfr. a friend. [Ex. Adeliza. 
 
 And lo ! where comes the friar. 'Twere not fit 
 He knew my purpofe. Benedicr, I fear, 
 Has views on this fide heav'n. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 COUNTESS, BENEDICT. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 The dew of grace 
 
 Reft on this dwelling ! 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Thanks, my ghoftly friend. 
 Vol. I. M But 
 
82 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER:-. 
 
 But fiire, or J miftake, in your fad eye 
 I foell affliction's fisrnature.. What woes 
 Call for the fcanty balm this hand can pour ?' 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 You, lady, and you only, need that balm. 
 
 C O U N T E S Si. 
 To tutor my unapt and ill-fchool'd nature 
 You come then — Good my confelTor, a truce 
 With doctrines and authority. If aught 
 Can medicate a foul unfound like mine, 
 Good deeds mull: operate the healthful, change, 
 And penance cieanfe it to receive the bleffing. 
 Shall I for faith, mall I, for but believing 
 What 'tis my int'reft to believe, efface 
 The {tains, which, tho' believing, I contracted ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Lady, your fubtle wit, like daring infants, 
 Sports with a weight will crum it — But no more- 
 It is not mine to argue, but pronounce. 
 The church, on rock of adamant eltablinVd, 
 Now inch by inch difputes not its domain. 
 Heav'n's law promulg'd, it refts obedience follow.. 
 And when iupreme It taxes that obedience,. 
 Not at impracticable, vain perfection,. 
 But rates its prodigality of bleffings 
 At the (light credence of its pow'r to grant them ; 
 Shall man with Itoic pride reject the boon, 
 And cry, We will do more, we will deferve it * ? 
 
 COUNTESS.. 
 Deferve it ! — Oh 1 have all your fainted holts, 
 Your choirs of martyrs, or your clouds of cherubim, 
 
 * We will do more, Sempronius, we'll deferve it. Portius in Cato. 
 
 DefervM 
 
 \ 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 Defcrv'd to feci the tranfport but of hope ? 
 
 Away ; nor tell me of this holy juggle 
 
 'Twixt faith and confcience. Shall the latter roam. 
 
 Wafting and fpoiling with a ruffian hand, 
 
 While her accomplice faith, wrapt up at home 
 
 In proud fecurity of felf-exiftence, 
 
 Thinks that exigence (hall abfolve them both ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 'Tv/as not to war with words, lb heav'n's my judge, 
 That your poor rated fervant fought your preience- 
 1 came with charitable friendly purpofe 
 To ioothe — But wherefore mitigate your griefs ? 
 You mock my friendfhip, and mifcall my zeal. 
 Since then to counfel, comfort, and reproof 
 Obdurate — learn the meafure of your woes : 
 Learn, if the mother's fortitude can brave 
 The bolt the woman's arrogance defied. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 The mother ! faidft thou ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Yes, imperious dame : 
 Yes, 'twas no virion rais'd by dreams and fumes, 
 Begot 'twixt nightly fear and indigeftion : 
 Nor was it artifice and pious fraud, 
 When but this morning I announe'd thy Edmund 
 W r as number'd with the dead. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Prieft, mock me not J 
 Nor dally with a mother's apprehenfion. 
 Lives, or lives not, my fon ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Woman, heav'n mocks thee 
 M 2 
 
84 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 On Buda's plain thy flaughter'd Edmund lies. 
 An unbeliever's weapon cleft his heart ; 
 But 'twas thy unbelief that pois'd the fhaft. 
 And fped its aim. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 To heav'n's high will I bow me. 
 Oh! may its joys be open to his foul, 
 Tho' clos'd to mine for ever ! 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Then you lov'd him ! 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Lov'd him! — Oh! nature, bleeding at my heart, 
 Heareft thou this ? Lov'd him ! — Ha ! whither ! — rage, 
 Be dumb — Now liften, monk, nor dare reply 
 Beyond my purpofe. In the grave, thou fay'ft, 
 My Edmund fleeps — How didft thou learn his fate ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 No angel whifper'd it ; no daemon fpoke it. 
 
 Thou, by the felf-fame means I learn'd, mayft learn it. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Be brief. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 Then — But what boots his life or death 
 To a poor taunted friar ? — Benedict, 
 Leave this proud miftrefs of the fleeting hour, 
 Ere the deftroying angel's kindling brand 
 Smokes in the tow'rs of Narbonne. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Hold ! prefumptuous I 
 I am thy miftrefs yet : nor will I brook 
 Such infolent reproof. Produce thy warrant, 
 A dure my Edmund's death — or dread his vengeance ! 
 
 Severely 
 
A TRAGEDY, 
 
 85 
 
 Severely mall he queftion ev'ry throb 
 ilis agonizing; mother now endures. 
 
 o o 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 My warrant is at hand. [Goes out, and returns with Edmund, 
 
 S C E N E IV. 
 
 COUNTESS, BENEDICT, EDMUND. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 This gentleman 
 Beheld thy Edmund breathleis on the ground. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Hah ! is this forcery ? or is't my hufband ? [Swoons, 
 
 EDMUND. 
 Stand off, and let me clafp her in my arms ! 
 The flame of filial fondnefs mail revive 
 The lamp of life, repay the breath fhe gave, 
 And waken all the mother in her foul. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 Hah ! who art thou then ? 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 Do not mv fears tell thee ? 
 Look up ! O ever dear ! behold thy fon ! 
 It is thy Edmund's voice ; bleft, if thy eyes 
 Awake to blefs him. — Soft ! her pulfe returns ; 
 She breathes ! — Oh ! fpeak. Dear parent, mother, hear ! 
 'Tis Edmund. — Friar, wherefore is this horror ? 
 Am I then deadly to her eyes? — Dumb frill! 
 Speak, tho' it be to curfe me. — I have kill'd her! 
 My brain grows hot — 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 My lord, reftrain your pafiion ; 
 
 See ! fhe revives— 
 
 EDMUND, 
 
36 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 EDMUND. 
 Oh ! if thefe lips, that quiver 
 With dread of thy difdain, have force to move thee 
 With nature's, duty's, or affection's voice, 
 Feel how I print thy hand with burning zeal, 
 Tho' tortur'd at this awful interval ! 
 Art thou, or not, a mother ? 
 
 COUNTESS, 
 Hah ! where am I ? 
 Why do you hold me? Was it not my Narbonne? 
 I faw him — on my foul I did. 
 
 EDMUND. 
 Alas ! 
 
 She raves — Recall thy wand'ring apprehenfion — 
 It was no phantom : at thy feet behold — 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Hah! whom? quick, anfwer — Narbonne, doft thou live? 
 Or comefT: to .tranfport me to perdition ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Madam, behold your fon : he kneels for pardon. 
 And I, I innocent, I ignorant 
 Of what he was, implore it too. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Diftra&ion ! 
 
 What means this complicated fcene of horrors? 
 Why thus affail my fplitting brain ? — Be quick — - 
 Art thou my hufband wing'd from other orbs 
 To taunt my foul ? What is this dubious form, 
 Imprefs'd with ev'ry feature I adore, 
 And ev'ry lineament I dread to look on? 
 Art thou my dead or living fon? 
 
 £ D M U N D, 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 EDMUND. 
 I am 
 
 Thy living Edmund. Let thefe fcalding tears 
 Atteft th' exiftence of thy furFring fon. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Ah ! touch me not. 
 
 EDMUND. 
 How ? — In that cruel breafc 
 Revive then all feiifations, but affection ? 
 Why fo ador'd the memory of the father, 
 And fo abhor'd the prefence of the fon ? 
 But now, and to thy eyes I feem'd my father — 
 At leaft for that refemblance-fake embrace me. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Horror on horror ! Blafted be thy tongue I 
 What founds are thofe ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Lady, tho' I excufe not 
 This young lord's difobedience, his contrition 
 Befpeaks no rebel principle. I doubt not, 
 Your bleffmg firft obtain'd and gracious pardon. 
 But foon as morning ftreaks the ruddy Eaft, 
 He will obey your pleafure, and return 
 To ftranger climes. 
 
 EDMUND. 
 'Tis falfe ; I will not hence. 
 I have been fool'd too long, too long been patient. 
 Nor are my years fo green as to endure 
 The manacles of priefts and nurferies. 
 Am I not Narbonne's prince ? Who mail rule here 
 But Narbonne ? Have I lapp'd my country's laws, 
 Or play'd the tyrant ? Who mall banim me ? 
 Am I a recreant knight ? Has cowardice 
 Difgrac'd the line of heroes I am fprung from ? 
 Shall I then fkulk, hide my inglorious head ? 
 
 6 
 
88 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 Or does it pleafe your worfhip's gravity 
 Difpatch me on fome fleevelefs pilgrimage, 
 Like other noble fools, to win you empires ; 
 While you at home mock our credulity, 
 The matters of our wealth, our ftates, and wives ? 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Afide.~\ (Brave youth ! there fpoke his fire. How my foul yearns 
 
 To own its genuine offspring I) — Edmund? hear me ! 
 
 Thou art my fon, and I will prove a mother. 
 
 But I'm thy fovereign too. This ftate is mine. 
 
 Learn to command, by learning to obey. 
 
 Tho' frail my fex, I have a foul as mafculine 
 
 As any of thy race. This very monk, 
 
 Lord as thou thinkett of my ductile confcience, 
 
 Quails — look if 'tis not true — when I command. 
 
 Retire thee to the village. 'Tis not ripe 
 
 As yet my purpofe — Benedict, attend me. 
 
 To-morrow, Edmund, malt thou learn my pleafure. 
 
 [Ex. Countess and Benedict. 
 
 EDMUND, alone. 
 Why, this is majetty. Sounds of fuch accent 
 Ne'er ttruck mine ear till now. Commanding fex ! 
 Strength, courage, all our boafted attributes, 
 Want ettimation ; ev'n the preheminence 
 We vaunt in wifdom, feems a borrow'd ray, 
 When virtue deigns to fpeak with female organs. 
 Yes, O my mother, I will learn t'obey : 
 I will believe, that, harfh as thy decrees, 
 They wear the warrant of benign intention. 
 Make but the blooming Adeliza mine, 
 And bear, of me unqueftion'd, Narbonne's fceptre ; 
 Till life's expiring lamp by intervals 
 Throws but a fainter and a fainter flam, 
 
 And then relumes its wafted oil no more. [Exit. 
 
 End of the third Aft. 
 
 ACT 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 A C T the FOUR T H. 
 
 The SCENE continues. 
 
 BENEDICT, MARTIN. 
 
 M A R T I N. 
 T KNOW thy fpirit well; know how it labours, 
 JL When curb'd, and driv'n to wear the maik of art. 
 But till this hour I have not feen thy paffions 
 Boil o'er the bounds of prudence. So impetuous, 
 And fo referv'd! 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Miftake me not, good brother: 
 I want no confidence: I know thy faith. 
 But can I to thy naked eye unfold 
 What I dare fcarce reveal to my own bofom? 
 I would not know one half that I fufpecr, 
 Till I have acled as if not fufpecting. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 How, brother ! thou a cafuift ! and apply 
 To thy own breaft thofe damning fubtleties, 
 Which cowards with half-winking coufciences 
 Purehafe of us, when they would fin fecure, 
 And hope the penalty will all be ours! 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 Brother, this moment is too big with action 
 To wafte on bootlefs curiofity. 
 When I try fins upon the touchftone confeience, 
 It is for others' ufe, not for my own. 
 Vol. I. N 
 
go THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 'Tis time enough to make up our account, 
 When we confefs, and kneel for abfolution. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Still does thy genius foar above mankind! 
 How many fathers of our holy church 
 In Benedict I view ! 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 No flattery, brother. 
 'Tis true the church owes Benedict fome thanks. 
 For her, I have forgot I am a man. 
 For her, each virtue from my breaft I banifh. 
 No laws I know but her profperity ; 
 No country, but her boundlefs acquilitions. 
 Who dares be true to country, king or friend, 
 If enemies to Rome, are Benedict's foes. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Has it then gone fo far? Does me fpeak out? 
 Is Edmund too infected with like errors ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Both, brother, both are thinking heretics. 
 I could forgive them, did fome upftart feet 
 With fharper rigours charm their headlong zeaL 
 But they, in footh, mult. r^7/o#— Curfes light 
 On the proud talent ! 'twill at laffc undo us. 
 When men are gorged with each abfurdity 
 Their fubtle wits can frame, or we adopt ; 
 For very novelty they will fly to fenfe, 
 And we mail fall before that idol, fafhion. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Fear not a reign fo tranfient. Statefmen toa 
 Will join to flem the torrent : or new follies 
 Replace the old. Each chieftain that attacks us 
 Muft grow the pope of his own herefy. . 
 E'en ftern philofophy, if once triumphant 
 
 Shall 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 Shall frame fome jargon, and exact obedience 
 
 To metaphyfic nonfenfe worfe than ours. 
 
 The church is but a fpecious name for empire, 
 
 And will exift wherever fools have fears. 
 
 Rome is no city ; 'tis the human heart ; 
 
 And there fuffice it if we plant our banners. 
 
 Each prieft cannot command — and thence come feci 
 
 Obdurate Zeno and our great Auguftine 
 
 Are of one faith, and differ but for power. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 So be it — Therefore intereft bids us crufh 
 This cockatrice and her ess : or we fhall fee 
 The fmorinor faints of Savov's neighb'ring vale 
 Fly to the covert of her lhadowy wings, 
 And foil us at our own dexterity. 
 Already to thofe vagrants fhe inclines ; 
 As if the rogues, that preach reform to others, 
 Like idiots, minded to reform themfelves. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Be cautious, brother : you may lofe the lady. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 She is already loft — or ne'er was ours. 
 I cannot dupe, and therefore muft deftroy her : 
 Involve her houfe in ruin fo prodigious, 
 That neither fhe nor Edmund may furvive it. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 How may this be accomplifh'd ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Afk me not. 
 
 From hints long treafur'd up, from broken phrafe 
 In phrenfy dropp'd, but vibrating from truth: 
 Nay, from her caution to explain away 
 
 N 2 
 
92 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 What the late tempeft of her foul had utter'd, 
 
 I guefs her fatal fecret — Or, no matter — 
 
 Say, I do not — by what fhe has forbidden, 
 
 I know what mould be done. — Then hafte thee, brother; 
 
 Facilitate count Edmund's interview 
 
 With Adeliza ; nourim their young pafflon — 
 
 Curfe them — and if you can — why — join their hands. 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 I tremble ! 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Daftard, tremble, if we fail. 
 What can we fear, when we have ruin'd them ? 
 
 (A deep-toned voice is heard.) 
 
 Forbear ! 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 Ha ! whence that found ? 
 
 (Voice again.) Forbear! 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Comes it from heav'n or hell ? 
 
 (Voice again.) Forbear ! 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Good angels, 
 Proted: me !— Benedict, thy unholy purpofe — 
 
 Again ! 
 
 SCENE 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 93 
 
 SCENE II. 
 BENEDICT, MARTIN, ADELIZA, Friars. 
 
 procefjion of friars chanting a funeral anthem, and followed by 
 Adeliza, advance Jlowly from a clolfler at the end of the fage.~\ 
 
 The ANTHEM. 
 
 Forbear ! forbear ! forbear ! 
 
 The pious are heav'n's care. 
 
 Lamentations ill become us, 
 
 When the good are ravifh'd from us. 
 
 The pangs of death but fmooth the way 
 
 To virions of eternal day. 
 
 BENEDICT. [Jfide to Martin. 
 
 Now, man of afpin confcience ! lo ! the gods, 
 That fentence Benedict's unholy purpofe ! 
 Art thou a pried: ? Waft thou initiated 
 In each fond mummery that fubdues the vulgar, 
 And ftandeft thou appall'd at our own thunders ? 
 
 MARTIN. 
 
 Who trembled firft ? It was thy guilty confcience 
 That gave th' alarm to mine. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Peace, dotard, peace ! 
 Nor when the lamb is nigh, muft eagles wrangle. 
 
 Fair faint, give us to know why flow thefe tears; [To Adeliza, 
 Why fighs that gentle bofom ; and why chant ye 
 That heav'n-invoking fbul-dilTolving dirge ? 
 
 ADELIZA. 
 Ah ! holy father, art thou then to learn 
 The pious abbefs is at peace ? We go 
 To bear her parting bleffing to the Countefs, 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
I 
 
 94 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 It mu ft not be. Occafions of much import 
 Engross her faculties. By me fhe wills you 
 Reftrain your fteps within the cloifter's pale, 
 Nor grant accefs but to one ftranger knight. 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 Is't poffible ? Can my dear miftrefs bar 
 Her faithful handmaid from her gracious prefence ? 
 Shall I not pour my forrows in her bofom, 
 And moiften it with grief and gratitude ? 
 Two friends were all poor Adeliza's wealth. 
 Lo ! one is gone to plead the orphan's caufe. 
 My patronefs, like Tobit's guardian fpirit*, 
 Confirms my fteps, and points to realms of glory. 
 She will not quit me in this vale of bondage ; 
 She muft be good, who teaches what is goodnefs. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 (Indeed ! my pretty prattler ! — Then am I 
 As found a faint as e'er the rubric boafted. 
 — Ha ! 'tis the Countefs — now for my obedience.) 
 Young lady, much I marvel at thefe murmurs. 
 Juft fenfe and fober piety ftill dictate 
 The Countefs's commands. With truth I fay it, 
 My fins diminifti, as I copy her. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 COUNTESS, ADELIZA, BENEDICT, MARTIN. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 What voices heard I ? Does my rebel fon 
 Attempt againft my peace ? — Hah ! Adeliza ! 
 
 * Alluding to a picture of Salvator Rofa, in which the flory is thus told. 
 
 I charg'd 
 
 \To Adeliza. 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 95 
 
 I charg'd thee guard thy convent — wherefore then 
 This diiobedience ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Madam, I was urging 
 The fitnefs of your orders ; but vain youth 
 ScofF'd my importunate rebuke. 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 Oh! no. 
 
 I am the thing you made me. Crufh me, fpurn me, 
 I will not murmur. Should you bid me die, 
 I know 'twere meant in kindnefs. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Bid thee die ! 
 My own detefted life but lingers round thee ! 
 Ha ! what a glance was there ! It fpoke refemblance 
 
 To all I hate, adore My child, retire : 
 
 I am much difcompos'd — the good old abbefs 
 Claims thy attendance. 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 Mercy crown her foul ! 
 She needs no duty we can pay her now. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 How ! art thou defolate ? not a friend left 
 To guard thy innocence ? — Oh ! wretched maid ! 
 Muft thou be left to fpoilers ? or worfe, worfe. 
 To the fierce onfet of thy own dire paffions ? 
 Oh ! is it come to this ? 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 My noble miftrefs, 
 Can Adeliza want a miniftring angel, 
 When (helter'd by thy wing ? — Yet Benedict 
 Says, I muft lhun this holpitable roof. 
 Indeed I thought it hard. 
 
 3 
 
 COUNTESS 
 
96 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Did Benedict, 
 Did he audacious dare forbid my child, 
 
 My little orphan, to embrace her Curfes 
 
 Swell in my throat Hence — or they fall on thee. 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 Alas ! for pity ! how have I offended ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Madam, it is the pupil of your care, 
 Your favour'd child — 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Who told thee fo ? Be dumb 
 For ever — What, art thou combin'd with Edmund, 
 To dam me down the precipice ? Churchman, I tell thee, 
 I view it with impatience. I could leap 
 And meet the furies — but muft J/ie fall with me ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Afide."] (Yes, and thy Edmund too) — Be patient, lady : 
 This fair domain, thou know'ft, acknowledges 
 The fovereignty of the church. Thy rebel fon 
 Dares not attempt — 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Again I bid thee peace. 
 There is no queftion of lord Edmund. Leave us : 
 I have to talk with her alone. 
 
 BENEDICT. [A/tde to Martin. 
 
 (Now tremble 
 At voices fupernatural ; and forfeit 
 The fpoils the tempefr. throws into our lap.) 
 
 \Ex. Benedict and Martin. 
 
 1 
 
 SCENE 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 97 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 COUNTESS, ADELIZA. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Now, Adeliza, fummon all thy courage. 
 Retrace my precepts paft : nor let a tear 
 Profane a moment that's worth martyrdom. 
 Remember, patience is the chriftian's courage. 
 Stoics have bled, and demigods have died. 
 A chriftian's talk is harder — 'tis to fuffer. 
 
 ADELIZA. 
 
 Alas ! have I not learnt the bitter lefTon ? 
 Have I not borne thy woes ? What is to come 
 Can tax my patience with a ruder trial ? 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Oh ! yes, thou muft do more. Adverfity 
 
 Has various arrows. When the foul is fteel'd 
 
 By meditation to encounter forrow, 
 
 The foe of man mifts his artillery, 
 
 And drowns in luxury and carelefs foftnefs 
 
 The breaft he could not ftorm. Canft thou bear wealth, 
 
 And pleasure's melting couch ? Thou haft known virtue 
 
 But at a fcanty board. She has awak'd thee 
 
 To chilling vapours in the midnight vault, 
 
 And beckon'd thee to hardfhips, tears, and penance. 
 
 Wilt thou acknowledge the divine inftructrefs, 
 
 When fyren pleafures lap thee in delights ? 
 
 ADELIZA. 
 
 If fuch the witchery that waits on guilt, 
 Why mould I feek th' enchantrefs and her wiles ? 
 The virgin veil (hall guard my fpotlefs hours, 
 Aflure my peace, and faint me for hereafter. 
 
 Vol.I. O COUNTESS. 
 
Qb THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 It cannot be — 
 
 To Narbonne thou muir. bid a laft adieu, 
 And with the ftranger knight depart a bride. 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 Unhappy me ! too fure I have o'erburthen'd 
 
 Thy charity, if thou wouldft drive me from thee, 
 
 Reffcrain thy alms, dear lady. I have learnt 
 
 From our kind fifter-hood the needle's art. 
 
 My needle and thy fmiles will life fupport. 
 
 Pray let me bring my laft embroidery ; 
 
 'Tis all by my own hand. Indeed I meant it 
 
 For my kind lady's feftival. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Great juftice ! 
 
 Does this ftroke pierce not deep enough ? Thefe tears> 
 Wrung from my vital fondnefs, fcald they not 
 Worfe than the living coal that fears the limbs ? 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 Alas ! thou heareft not ! What grief o'erwhelms thee ? 
 
 Why darts thy eye into my inmofr. foul ; 
 
 Then vacant, motionlefs, arrefts its courfe, 
 
 And feems not to perceive what it reads there ? 
 
 My much-lov'd patronefs ! 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 O Adeliza, 
 
 Thy words now flake, and now augment my fever I 
 But oh ! ere reafon quits this lab'ring frame, 
 While I dare weep thefe tears of anguifh o'er ihee > 
 Unutterable, petrifying anguifh ! 
 
 Hear my laft breath. Avoid the fcorpion pleafure. 
 Death lurks beneath the velvet of his lip, 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 99 
 
 And but to think him over, is perdition ! 
 
 * — O retrofpec~t of horror ! -To the altar ! 
 
 Hafte, Adcliza, — vow thou wilt be wretched ! 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 Doft thou then doom me to eternal forrows ? 
 Haft thou deceiv'd me ? Is not virtue, happinefs ? 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 I know not that. I know that guilt is torture. 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 Sure peftilence has flapp'd his baleful wing, 
 And med its poifon o'er thy faintlike reafon ! 
 When thou fo patient, holy, fo refign'd, 
 Doubteft of virtue's health, of virtue's peace. 
 — But 'tis to try me — Look upon this relic : 
 'Twas the good abbefs's bequeft. 'Twill chafe 
 The fiend that walks at twilight. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 How {he melts me ! 
 What have I faid ? — My lovely innocence, 
 Thou art my only thought — Oh ! waft thou form'd 
 The child of fin ? — and dare I not embrace thee ? 
 Muft I with eager ecftacy gaze on thee, 
 Yet curfe the hour that ftamp'd thee with a being ? 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 Alas ! was I then born the child of fin ? 
 Who were my parents ? I will pray for them. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Oh ! if the bolt muft come, here let it ftrike me ! 
 
 [Flinging h erf elf on the ground. 
 Nature ! thefe feelings were thy gift. Thou knoweft 
 How ill I can refill: thy forceful impulfe. 
 
 O 2 If 
 
ioo THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER:. 
 
 If thefe emotions are imputed to me, 
 I have one lin I cannot yet repent of ! 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 Oh ! raife thee from the earth. Shall I behold thee 
 Proftrate, embracing; an unfriended beggar ? 
 
 » O DO 
 
 Or doft thou mock me ftill ? What is my lot ? 
 Wilt thou yet cherifli me ? Or do the great 
 Exalt us but in fport, lend us a tafte, 
 A virion of enjoyment, and then dam us 
 To poverty, more poignant by comparifon ? 
 Sure / could never wanton with affliction ! 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Ah ! canft thou doubt this conflict of the foul ? 
 Mock thee ! — Oh ! yes, there are fuch favage natures, 
 That will deride thy woes — and thou muft bear it — 
 With foul reproach will gall thy fpotlefs foul, 
 And taunt thee with a crime paft thy conceiving. 
 Oh ! 'tis to fhield thee from this world of forrows, 
 That thou muft fly, muft wed, muft never view 
 The tow'rs of Narbonne more ; muft never know 
 The doom referv'd for thy fad patronefs ! 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 Who threatens thy dear life ? Recall thy fon. 
 His valiant arm will ftem a hoft of foes, 
 Replace thy lord, and woo thee to be happy* 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Hah ! little imp of darknefs ! doft thou wear 
 That angel form to gird me with upbraidings r* 
 Fly, ere my rage forget diftinclion, nature, 
 And make a medley of unheard-of crimes. 
 Fly, ere it be too late — 
 
 ADELIZA. 
 For pity ! 
 
 COUNTESS, 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 I 01 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Hence ! 
 
 Pity would bid me ftab thee, while the charm 
 Of ignorance locks thee in its happy (lumbers. 
 
 ADELIZA. 
 
 Alas ! me raves — I will call help. [Exit, 
 
 COUNTESS, alone. 
 [After a long Jiaufe^ in which fie looks tenderly after Adeliza* 
 
 She's gone. 
 
 —That pang, great God, was my laft facrifice ! — 
 Now recollect thyfelf, my foul! confummate 
 The pomp of horror with tremendous coolnefs. 
 'Tis fit that reafon punifh paffion's crime. 
 — Reafon ! — alas ! 'tis one of my convulfions ! 
 Now it empow'rs me paft myfelf ; now leaves me 
 Exhaufted, fpiritlefs, eyeing with defpair 
 The heights I cannot reach. Then madnefs comes, 
 Imperial fool ! and promifes to waft me 
 
 Beyond the grin of fcorn But who fits there, 
 
 Supereminent ? — 'Tis confcience ! Phrenfy fhield mel 
 
 I know the foe — See ! fee ! he points his lance ! 
 He plunges it all flaming in my foul, 
 
 And down 1 fink, loft in eternal anguifh! [Runs out, 
 
 SCENE V. 
 BENEDICT, ADELIZA. 
 
 ADELIZA. 
 
 She is not here. Shall we not follow her? 
 Such agonies of paffion \ Sure fome daemon 
 Affaults her. Thou malt pray by her. Indeed 
 I tremble for her life* 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
1 o z. 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 Thou know'ft her not. 
 Her tranfpprt is fictitious. 'Tis the coinage 
 Of avarice and caprice. Doft thou not lee 
 Her bounty wearies ? While thy babbling years 
 Wore the trick of novelty, thou waft her plaything. 
 The charity of the great muft be amus'd. 
 Mere merit furfeits it ; affliction kills it. 
 The lick muft jeft and gambol to attract 
 Their pitv. — Come, I'll warrant, thou haft wept, 
 And told her heav'n would regifter each ducat 
 Her piety had fpar'd to clothe and feed thee. 
 Go to ; thou haft eftrang'd her ; and me means 
 To drive thee hence, left thou upbraid her change. 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 Upbraid my patronefs ! I ! I upbraid her, 
 Who fee her now the angel that fhe will be \ 
 How knew I virtue, goodnefs, but from her ? 
 Her leffons taught me heav n ; her life reveat'd it. 
 The wings of gratitude muft bear me thither, 
 Or I deferve not Paradife. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Thou art young. 
 Thy novice ear imbibes each filver found, 
 And deems the mufic warbled all by truth. 
 Grey hairs are not fool'd thus. I know this Counteis : 
 An errant heretic. She feoffs the church. 
 When did her piety adorn our altars ? 
 What holy garments gliften with her gifts ? 
 The fabric of our convent threatens ruin — 
 Does (he repair it ? — No. On lazy lepers, 
 On foldiers maim'd and fwearing from the wars 
 
 She lavifhes her wealth But note it, young one ; 
 
 Her days are number'd ; and thou fhalt do wifely 
 To quit her ere the meafure is complete. 
 
 4 ADELIZA. 
 
A TRAGEDY, 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 Alas ! fhc bids me go. She bids me wed 
 
 The ftranger knight that woo'd me at our parlour. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 And thou malt take her at her word. Myfelf 
 
 Will join your hands And lo ! in happy hour 
 
 Who comes to meet her boon. 
 
 SCENE VI. 
 
 EDMUND, BENEDICT, ADELIZA. 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 In tears ! — That cowl 
 Shall not protect th' injurious tongue, that dares 
 Infult thy innocence — for fure, thou dear one, 
 Thou haft no fins to weep. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 My gracious lord, 
 Yourfelf and virgin coynefs mull be chidden, 
 If my fair fcholar wears the mien of fadnefs. 
 'Tis but a blufh that melts in modeft. mowers. 
 
 EDMUND. 
 Unriddle, prieft. My foul is too impatient, 
 To wait th' impertinence of flow'ry dialect. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 Then briefly thus. The Countefs wills me join 
 Your hand with this fair maiden's — Now, my lord, 
 Is my poor language naufeous? 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 Is it po/Tible ? 
 
io4 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 Doft thou confent, fweet paffion of my foul ? 
 May I then clafp thee to my heart ? 
 
 ADELIZA. 
 
 Forhear ! 
 
 It mnft not be — Thou malt not wed a beggar. 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 A beggar! Thou art riches, opulence. 
 The naming ruby and the dazzling di'mond, 
 Set in the world's firfr. diadem, could not add 
 A ray to thy leaft charm — For pity, grant me 
 To breathe my warmth into this marble hand. 
 
 ADELIZA. 
 
 Never! — This orphan, this abandon'd wanderer, 
 Taunted with poverty, with fhameful origin, 
 Dower'd with no lot but fcorn, mall ne'er beflow 
 That, her fole portion, on a lordly hufband. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 My lord, the Countefs is my gracious miftrefs : 
 
 My duty bade me to report her words. 
 
 It feems her charities circumfcribe her wifhes. 
 
 This goodly maiden has full long experienc'd 
 
 Her ampleft bounty. Other piteous objects 
 
 Call for her largefs. Lovely Adeliza 
 
 Plac'd in your arms can never feel affliction. 
 
 This the good Countefs knows — 
 
 E D M U N D. 
 
 By my fire's foul 
 f will not thank her. Has fhe dar'd to fcorn thee, 
 Thou beauteous excellence ? — Then from this hour 
 Thou art her equal. In her very prefence 
 I will efpoufe thee. Let us feek the proud one ! 
 —Nay, r,o refinance, love ! 
 
 3 BENEDICT, 
 
A TRAGEDY, 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 (By heav'n all's loft, [Ajide. 
 Should they meet now) — My lord, a word. The maiden \_AJide to Edmund. 
 Is tutor'd to fiich awe, me ne'er will yield 
 Confent, mould but a frown dart from the Countefs. 
 But now, and me enjoin'd your marriage. Better 
 Profit of that behefl: — 
 
 EDMUND. 
 I tell thee, monk, 
 My haughty foul will not — 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Pray be advis'd. 
 Heav'n knows how dear I tender your felicity. 
 The chapel is few paces hence — Nay, lead her 
 With gentle wooing, nor alarm her fears. 
 Arriv'd there, I will fpeedily pronounce 
 The folemn words — 
 
 EDMUND. 
 Well, be it fo. My fair one, 
 This holy man advifes well. To heaven 
 We will addrefs our vows, and alk its pleafure. 
 Come, come; I will not be refus'd — 
 
 A D E L I Z A. 
 
 Yes, heav'n ! 
 
 To thee I fly ; thou art my only refuge. [Exeunt. 
 
 End of the fourth Aft. 
 
 Vol, U P 
 
 ACT 
 
io6 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 ACT the FIFTH. 
 
 The SCENE continues. 
 
 Enter BENEDICT, 
 rip H E bufmefs is difpatch'd. Their hands are joiu'd. 
 
 \ The puling moppet ftruggled with her wimes ; 
 Invok'd each faint to witnefs her refufal : 
 Nor heeded, tho' I fwore their golden harps 
 Were tun'd to greet her hymeneal hour. 
 Th' impetuous count, fir'd with th' impure fuggeftion, 
 As if defcending clouds had fpread their pillows 
 To meet the preffure of his eager tranfports, 
 Would have forerun the rites. The maid, affrighted 
 At fuch tumultuous unaccuftom'd onfet, 
 Sunk lifelefs on the pavement. Haftily 
 I mumbled o'er the fpell that binds them fan 1 , 
 Like an invenom'd robe, to fcorch each other 
 
 With mutual ruin —Thus am I reveng'd. 
 
 Proud dame of Narbonne, lo ! a bare-foot monk 
 Thus pays thy fcorn, thus vindicates his altars. 
 Nor, while this woollen Frock mall wrap our order, 
 Shall e'en the lilied monarchs of our realm 
 Be plac'd fo high, but a poor friar's knife* 
 Shall fell their tow'ring grandeur to the earth, 
 Oft as they fcant obedience to the church. 
 
 * Alluding to the aflaflinations of Henry III. and IV. 
 
 SCENE 
 
A TRAGEDY 
 
 SCENE n. 
 
 BENEDICT, PORTER. 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Ah ! woe of woes ! Good father, hafte thee in, 
 
 And fpeak fweet words of comfort to our miftrefs. 
 
 Her brain is much diihirb'd — I fear fome fpell, 
 
 Or naughty bev'rage — W ill you not in and pray by her ? 
 
 lu footh me needs your pray'rs. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 She fcorns my pray'rs. [Coldly. 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Oh ! no ; but now me call'd for you. Pray feek her. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 I can adminifter no comfort to her. 
 
 PORTER. 
 Yes, yes, you can. They fay the foul fiend dreads 
 A fcholar. — Tut, your holy wit can pofe him, 
 Or bind him to the red waves of the ocean. 
 Oh ! he afflicts her gentle fpirit, and vomits 
 Strange menaces and terrible from her mouth ! 
 Then he is fullen ; gags her lab'ring lips, 
 And (he replies not — 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Goodman exorcift, 
 Thy pains are unavailing. Pier fins prefs her. 
 Guilt has unhing'd her reafon. 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Belhrew thy heart, 
 Thou dorr, afperfe her. I know thofe are paid 
 For being faints that — 
 
 Pa BENEDICT. 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Stop that tongue profane : 
 Thou art infected with her herefies. 
 " Judgments already have o'erta'en thy mittrefs. 
 " Thou at thy peril leave her to her fate." 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 " Father, belike there is a different heaven 
 " For learned clerks and fuch poor men as I am. 
 " Me it behoves to. have fuch humble virtues 
 " As fuit my fimple calling. To my matters 
 " For raiment, food, for falary, and protection 
 " My honeft heart owes gratitude. They took me 
 " From drudgery to guard their honour 'd perfons* 
 " Why am I call'd a man of worfhip ? Why, 
 "As up the chancel I precede my lady, 
 " Do th' vattals of the cattle, rang'd in rows, 
 " Bow e'en to Peter ? — Why ? but, by the rood, 
 " Becaufe fhe plac'd this ttlver-garnifh'd ttafF 
 " In Peter's hand. Why, but becaufe this robe, 
 " Floating with feemly tufts, was her gift too. 
 " For honours of fuch note owe I not thanks ? 
 " Were my life much to facrifice for hers ?" 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 " Peace with thy faucy lecture, or harangue 
 
 " Thy maudling fellows o'er the hall's dull embers 
 
 " With this thy gottiping morality." — 
 
 Now anfwer — Mentions Ihe her fon. ? 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Ah me ! 
 
 I had forgotten — this old brain — 'Tis true, 
 'Tis very true — fhe raves upon her fon, 
 And thinks he came in vifion. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
A TRAGEDY. 109 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 'Twas no vifion. 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 How ! — heav'nly fathers ! 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 He has fpoken with her. 
 
 PORTER. 
 And I not fee him ! — Go to ; it could not be. 
 How did he pafs the gate ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 I tell thee, Edmund, 
 Thy quondam matter's fon has feen his mother ; 
 Is but few paces hence. 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Oh! joyous founds I 
 
 Where is my noble lord ? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Here — and undone* 
 
 SCENE III. 
 FLORIAN, BENEDICT, PORTER. 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 Sure the foul fogs, that hang in lazy clouds 
 
 O'er yonder moat, infect the moping air, 
 
 And fteam with phrenfy's melancholy fumes.. 
 
 But now and I met Edmund — With a voice 
 
 Appall'd and hollow like a parricide's* 
 
 He told me he was wedded- When I alked 
 
 To fee his bride, he groau'd, and faid his joys 
 
 Were blafted e'er accompliuYd. As he urg'd 
 
 His fuit, the maiden's tears and fhrieks had ftruck 
 
 9 On 
 
no 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 On his Tick fancy like his mother's cries ! 
 Th' idea writhing from his brain, had won 
 His eye-balls, and he thought he faw his mother ! 
 — This ague of contagious bigotry 
 Has gain'd almoft on me. Methinks yon monk 
 Might fell me with a chaplet. — Edmund left me 
 Abruptly — I muft learn this myftery. 
 
 [7b Benedict.] [7o Peter.] 
 
 Health to your rev'rence — Hah ! my new acquaintance ! 
 In tears, my good old friend ! What, has the cricket 
 Chirp'd ominoufly ? — Gome, away with forrow : 
 Joy marks this day its own. 
 
 PORTER, 
 
 A joyful day ! 
 The twentieth of September ! — Note it, fir, 
 Note it for th' uglieft of the calendar. 
 'Twas on this day — ay, this day fixteen years 
 The noble count came to his death ! 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 No matter, 
 Th' arrival of a nobler younger count 
 Shall mock prognofrics paft, and paint the year 
 With fmiling white, fair fortune's fav'rite livery. 
 But tell me, father, tell me, has the Countefs 
 Pardon'd her foil's return ? Has (he receiv'd him 
 With th' overflowings of a mother's joy ? 
 Smiles (lie upon his wifhes ? — As I enter'd 
 Methought I heard an hymeneal accent. 
 And yet, it feems, the favour of your countenance 
 Wears not the benediction of rejoicing. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 The Countefs muft unfold her book of fate. 
 I am not ikiU'd to read fo dark a volume. 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 Oracular as the Delphic god ! — Good Peter, 
 
 Thy 
 
 [To Benedict. 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 Thy wit and mine are more upon a level. 
 Refolve me, has the Countefs feen lord Edmund ? 
 Say, did (he frown and chide ? or bathe his cheek 
 With tears as warm as leaping blood ? 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Ah ! mafter, 
 You feem too good to mock our mifery. 
 A foldier caufcs woe, but feldom jeers it. 
 Or know'ft thou not — (And fure 'twill pity thee !) 
 The gracious Countefs, our kind lady — (Indeed 
 I trufl they will return) — is ftrangely chang'd ! 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 By my good fword, thou malt unriddle, prieft. 
 What means this tale ? What mintage is at work 
 To coin delufion, that this fair domain 
 May become holy patrimony ? Thus 
 Teach you our matrons to defraud their iffue 
 By artificial fits and acled ravings ? 
 I have beheld your juggles, heard your dreams. 
 Th' impofture fhall be known. Thefe fixteen years 
 Has my friend Edmund pin'd in banifhment : 
 While maifes, mummings, goblins and proceffions 
 Ufurp'd his heritage, and made of Narbonne 
 A theatre of holy interludes 
 
 And fainted frauds. But day darts on your fpells. 
 Th' enlighten'd age efchews your vile deceits, 
 And truth fhall do mankind and Edmund jufHce. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Unhallowed boy, I fcorn thy contumely. 
 
 In camps and trenches vent thy lewd reproaches, 
 
 Blafpheming while ye tremble. Heav'n's true foldiers, 
 
 Endu'd with more than mortal courage, defy 
 
 Hofts numerous as the Pagan chivalry 
 
 Pour'd forth to crufh the church's riling glories. 
 
112 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER 
 
 — But this is an enlighten'd age ! — Behold 
 The triumphs of your feci: ! to yonder plains 
 Bend thy illumin'd eye ! The Vaudois there, 
 Writhing in flames, and quiv'ring at th' approach 
 Of Rome's impending knife, atteff. the bleffings 
 Conferr'd on their inifrucled ignorance 1 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 Monftrous ! unparalkrd ! Are cries and groans , 
 
 Of butcher'd confcientious men the hymns 
 
 With which you chant the victories of the church ? 
 
 Do you afflict and laugh ? ftab and huzza ? 
 
 — But I am dallying with my own impatience— 
 
 Where is this mother ? I will tent her foul ; 
 
 And warn thee, if I find fuggefKon's whifper 
 
 Has praclis'd to the detriment of my friend, 
 
 Thy caitiff life fhall anlwer to my fword, 
 
 Tho' lhrin'd within the pillars of the Vatican. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Judge heaven betwixt us I 
 
 If, ere the dews of night fhall fall, thou feeft not 
 The cup of wrath pour'd out, and triple woes 
 O'ertake unheard-of crimes ; call me falfe prophet, 
 Renounce my gods, and join thee to the impious ! 
 Thou in thy turn, if truth lives on my lips, 
 Tremble I repent ! — behold ! the hour approaches ! 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 COUNTESS, FLORIAN, BENEDICT, PORTER. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 I dare not moot the gulf — Ha ! Benedict ! 
 Thou art a prieft, thy miffion mould be holy, 
 If thou belief!: not heav 'n — Quick, do thy work ! 
 If there is pow'r in pray'r, teach me fome founds 
 
 To 
 
A T R A G E D Y. 113 
 
 To charm my fenfes, left my coward flem 
 Recoil, and win the maftery o'er my will. 
 — 'Tis not the wound ; it is the confequence ! 
 See ! fee ! my Narbonne ftands upon the brink, 
 And matches from the readieft fury there 
 A blazing torch ! he whirls it round my head, 
 And alks where are my children ! 
 
 PORTER. 
 
 Split, my heart, 
 
 At this fad fight! 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 Stand off! thou'rt an accomplice* 
 Madam, it was your morning's gracious pleafure 
 I mould attend you. May I hope your pardon, 
 If I anticipate— 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Ha ! Who art thou ? 
 
 FLORIAN, 
 
 Have you forgot me, lady ? 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Memory 
 
 Is full. A head diftracl: as mine can hold 
 Two only objects, guilt and eternity ! 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 No more of this. Time has abundant hours 
 For holy meditation. Nor have years 
 Trac'd fuch deep admonition on your cheek, 
 As call for Hidden preparation. 
 
 COUNTESS. [Wildly. 
 Prayer 
 
 Can do no more : its efficacy loft — 
 
 What muft be, muft be loon — He will return. 
 
 Vol. I. Q FLORIAN. 
 
H4 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTH 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 He is return'd, your fon — have you not feen him ? 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Would I had never ! 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 Come,, this is too much. 
 This villainous monk has ftep'd 'twixt you and nature ;■. 
 And mifreported of the nobleft gentleman 
 That treads on chrifUan ground. — Are you a mother ? 
 Are legends dearer to you than your fon ? 
 Think you 'tis piety to gorge thefe mifcreants, 
 And drive, your child from your embrace ? 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Ye faints ! 
 
 This was the daemon prompted it — A vaunt I 
 
 He beckons me— I will not — Lies my lord 
 
 Not bleeding in the porch ? I'll tear my hair 
 
 And bathe his wounds.— Where's Beatrice! — monfter ! monfter ! 
 
 She leads the daemon — See ! they fpread the couch! 
 
 No, I will perifh with my Narbonne Oh ! 
 
 My ftrength, my reafon faint — darknefs furrounds me ! . 
 To-morrow ? — Never will to-morrow come ! 
 
 Let me die here ! [Sinks -on a bench 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 This is too muclr for art. 
 Chill damps fit on her brow: her pulfe replies not,. 
 
 BENEDIG T. 
 No ; 'tis fictitious all — 'twas I infpir'd 
 The horrors Die has been fo kind to utter 
 At my fuggcflion. 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 That infulting fneer 
 Speaks more the devil: than: if ' thy words were fenGus, 
 
 Be 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 Be her diffraction counterfeit or real, 
 Her fex demands compaflion or affiftance. 
 But me revives ! 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Is death then paft ? My brain 
 Beats not its wonted tempeft — In the grave 
 There is peace then ! 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 Her agony abates. 
 Look up and view your friends. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Alas ! I fear me, 
 This is life ftill ! — Am I not in my caftle ? 
 
 Sure I mould know this garden Good old Peter 
 
 My honeft fervant, thou I fee wilt never 
 
 Quit thy poor miftrefs ! — Kind old man, Tie weeps I 
 
 PORTER. 
 Indeed it is for joy — How fares my lady ? 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Exhaufted, Peter, that I have not Itrength 
 
 To be diffracted Hah ! your looks betray 
 
 Tremendous innuendoes ! Gracious heaven! 
 
 liave I faid aught— has wildnefs Truft me, firs, 
 
 In thefe fad fits my unhing'd fancy wanders 
 
 Beyond the compafs of things pofiible. 
 
 Sometimes an angel of excelling; brig-htnefs 
 
 I feem to whirl the orbs and lanch the comet. 
 
 Then hideous wings with forked points array me, 
 
 And I fuo-o-eft. ffrange crimes to fhuddering matrons 
 
 Sick fancy mud: be pardon'd. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 (Artful woman ! 
 Thou fubtle emblem of thy fex, compos'd 
 
 Q2 
 
n6 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 Of madnefs and deceit — But fince thy brain 
 
 Has loft its poize, I will fend thofe fhall fhake it 
 
 Beyond recovery of its reeling bias.) [Exit. 
 
 [Countess makes a Jlgn to Peter to retire. 
 
 S C E N E V. 
 
 COUNTESS, FLORIAN. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 This interval is well — 'tis thy laft boon, 
 Tremendous Providence ! and I will ufe it 
 As 'twere th' elixir of defcending mercy : 
 Not a drop fhall be wafte — accept my thanks \ 
 Preferve my reafon ! and preferve my child ! 
 — Stranger, thy years are green ; perhaps may mock 
 A woman's words, a mother's woe ! — but honour, 
 If I believe this garb, is thy profeffion. 
 Haft thou not dealt in blood ? — Then thou haft heard 
 The dying groan, and fin's defpairing accent. 
 Struck it not on thy foul ? Recall it, fir ! 
 What then was thy fenfation, feel for me ! 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 I fhudder ! liften, pity, and refpeft thee ! 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Refolve my anxious heart. Tho' vagrant pleafure, 
 Th' ebriety of youth, and worfe than paffion, 
 Example, lead thee to the ftrumpet vice; 
 Say, if, beneath the waves of diffipation, 
 The germ of virtue bloflbms in thy foul. 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 A foldier's honour is his virtue. Gownmen 
 Wear it for fhow, and barter it for gold, 
 And have it ftill. A foldier and his honour 
 Exift together, and together perifh. 
 
 3 COUNTESS. 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 117 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 I do believe thee. Thus my Narbonne thought. 
 Then hear me, child of honour ! Canft thou cherifll 
 UnblemhVd innocence ? Wilt thou protect it ? 
 Wilt thou obferve its wand'rings ? call it back, 
 Confine it to the path that leads to happinefs ? 
 Haft thou that genuine heroifm of foul 
 To hug the little fondling fufferer, 
 When nettling in thy bofom, drown'd in blufhes, 
 Nor cart her from thee, while a grinning world 
 Reviles her with a mother's foul mifdeeds ? 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 My arm is fworn to innocence diirreft : 
 Point out the lovely mourner. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 'Tis enough. 
 
 Nor fuffer th' ebbing moments more enquiry. 
 
 My orphan mall be thine — Nay, ftart not, fir, 
 
 Your loves are known to me. Wealth pair, th' ambition 
 
 Of Gallia's proudeft baron mall endow her. 
 
 Within this cafket is a monarch's ranfom. 
 
 Ten thoufand ducats more are lodg'd within. 
 
 All this is thine with Adeliza's hand. 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 With Adeliza ! 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Ha ! doft thou recoil ? 
 Don: thou not love her ? 
 
 FLORIAN, 
 I love Adeliza ! 
 Lady, recall thy wand'ring memory. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Don: thou reject her ? and has hope beguil'd me 
 
 In 
 
ii8 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 Tn this fad only moment ? Haft thou dar'd 
 With ruffian infolence gaze on her fweetnefs, 
 And mark it for an hour of wanton dalliance ? 
 Oh ! I will guard my child, tho' gaping daemons 
 -Howl with impatience ! 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 Moil: rever'd of matrons, 
 Tho' youth and rofy joy flulh on my cheek, 
 Tho' the licentious camp and rapine's holiday 
 Have been my fchool ; deem not fo reprobate 
 My morals, that my eye would note no diftance 
 Between the harlot's glance and my friend's bride. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Thy friend ! what friend ? 
 
 F L O R I A N. 
 
 Lord Edmund — 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 What of him ? 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 Is Adeliza's lord— her wedded bridegroom. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 •Confufion ! phrenfy ! Biafh me, all ye furies ! 
 
 Edmund and Adeliza ! when ? where? how ? 
 
 Edmund wed Adeliza ! Quick, unlay 
 
 The monllrous tale — Oh ! prodigy of ruin ! 
 
 Does my own fon then ooil with fiercer fires 
 
 Than fcorch'd his impious mother's madding veins ? 
 
 Did reafon realTume its Ihatter'd throne, 
 
 But as fpeclatrefs of this laft of horrors ? 
 
 Oh ! let my dagger drink my heart's black blood, 
 
 And then prefent my hell-born progeny 
 
 With drops of kindred lin ! : — that were a torch 
 
 Fit to light up fuch loves! and fit to quench them! 
 
 FLORIA N, 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 119 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 What means this agony ? Didft thou not grant 
 The maiden to his wifhes I 
 
 COUNTESS, 
 Did I not couple 
 Diftinclions horrible ? plan unnatural rites 
 To grace my funeral pile, and meet the furies 
 More innocent than thofe I leave behind me ? 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 Amazement! — I will haften Grant, ye pow'rs I 
 
 My fpeed be not too late ! 
 
 COUNTESS, 
 Globe of the world, 
 If thy frame fplit not with fuch crimes as thefe, 
 It is immortal !. 
 
 SCENE VI. 
 
 COUNTESS, EDMUND, ADELIZA. 
 
 [Edmund and Adeliza enter at the oppojite door from which \ 
 Florian went out. They kneel to the Countess,] 
 
 EDMUND. 
 Dear parent,, look on us, and blefs your children I 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 . My children ! Horror ! horror ! Yes, too fure 
 Ye are my children ! — Edmund, loofe that hand ; . 
 J Tis poifon to thy foul ! — Hell has no venom 
 Like a child's touch ! — Oh ! agonizing thought ! 
 —Who made this marriage ? whofe unhallow'd breath. 
 Rronounc'd the inceftuous founds h 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 \Extti 
 
I 20 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 Inceft ! good heavens ! 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Yes, thou devoted victim ! let thy blood 
 
 Curdle to ftone ! perdition circumvents thee ! 
 
 Lo ! where this monfter {lands ! thy mother ! miflrefs ! 
 
 The mother of thy daughter, fitter, wife ! 
 
 The pillar of accumulated horrors ! 
 
 Hear ! tremble ! — and then marry, if thou dareft ! 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 Yes, I do tremble, tho' thy words are phrenfy. 
 So black rauft be the paffions that infpir'd it, 
 I fhudder for thee ! pitying duty fhudders ! 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 For me ! — O Edmund, I have burit the bond 
 Of every tie. — When thou malt know the crimes, 
 In which this fury did involve thy youth, 
 It will feem piety to curfe me, Edmund ! 
 
 Oh ! impious night ! Hah ! is not that my lord ? 
 
 He makes the curtains of the nuptial couch, \Wtldly« 
 And ftarts to find a ion there ! 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 Gracious heaven ! 
 Grant that thefe mocking images be ravine ! 
 
 ADELIZA. 
 
 Sweet lady, be compos'd — Indeed I thought 
 This marriage was thy will — But we will break it- 
 Benedict ihall difcharge us from our vows. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Thou gentle lamb, from a fell tyger fprung, 
 Unknowing half the miferies that await thee! 
 
 —Oh! 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 121 
 
 — Oh ! they are innocent Almighty pow'r ! — 
 
 \Kneels t but rifes again haftily. 
 
 Ha ! dare I pray ? for others intercede ? 
 
 / pray for them, the caufe of all their woe ! 
 
 — But for a moment give me leave, defpair ! 
 
 For a fJiort interval lend me that realbn 
 
 Thou gaveft, hcav'n, in vain ! — It muft be known 
 
 The fullnefs of my crime ; or innocent thefe 
 
 May plunge them in new horrors. Not a word 
 
 Can 'icane me, but will do the work of thunder, 
 
 And blaft thole moments I regain from madnels ! 
 
 Ye know how fondly my luxurious fancy 
 Doted upon my "lord. For eighteen months 
 An embafly detain'd him from my bed. 
 A harbinocr announe'd his near return. 
 L,o\e drefs'd his image to my longing thoughts 
 In all its warmeft colours — but the morn, 
 In which impatience grew almoft to ficknefs, 
 Prefented him a bloody corfe before me. 
 I rav'd — The florin of difappointed paffions 
 Afliiil'd my reafon, fever'd all my blood. 
 Whether too warmly prefs'd, or too officious 
 To turn the torrent of my grief afide, 
 A damfel, that attended me, difclos'd 
 Thy fuit, unhappy boy ! 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 What is to come ? 
 Shield me, ye gracious pow'rs, from my own thoughts ! 
 My dreadful apprehenfion ! 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Give it fcope ! 
 Thou canft. not harbour a foreboding: thought 
 More dire, than I conceiv'd, I executed. 
 Guilt rufli'd into my foul — my fancy law thee 
 Thv father's imag-e — 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 R 
 
 E D M U N D. 
 
i22 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER? 
 
 EDMUND. 
 Swallow th' accurfed found ! 
 
 Nor dare to fay — 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Yes, thou polluted fon ! 
 Grief, difappointment, opportunity, 
 Rais'd fuch a tumult in my madding blood, 
 I took the damfel's place ; and while thy arms 
 Twin'd, to thy thinking, round another's waift, 
 Hear, hell, and tremble ! — thou didft clafp thy mother I 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 Oh ! execrable ! [Adeliza faints* 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Be that fwoon eternal I 
 
 Nor let her know the reft She is thy daughter. 
 
 Fruit of that monftrous night ! 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 Infernal woman \ 
 My dagger muft repay a tale like this ! 
 
 Blood lb diftemper'd No — I muft not ftrike- 
 
 I dare not puniih what you dar'd commit. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Give me the fteel — my arm will not recoiL 
 Thus, Edmund, I revenge thee ! 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 Help! hoa! help!' 
 For both I tremble, dare not fuccour either ! 
 
 [Draws his dagger* 
 
 [Seizing his dagger* 
 [Stabs herfelf* 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Peace ! and conceal our mame— Quick, frame fome legend. 
 They come ! 
 
 SCENE 
 
A TRAGEDY. 
 
 123 
 
 SCENE VII. 
 
 COUNTESS, EDMUND, ADELIZA, FLORIAN, 
 BENEDICT, Attendants. 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Affift the maid An accident — \They bear off Adeliza. 
 
 By my own hand Ha ! Benedict ! But no ! 
 
 / muft not turn accufcr ! 
 
 Who did this deed? 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Mercy, heaven ! 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Myfdf. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 What was the caufe ? 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 Follow me to yon gulph, and thou wilt know. 
 I anfwer not to man. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 
 Bethink thee, lady — 
 
 COUNTESS. 
 
 Thought ebbs apace O Edmund, could a blefling 
 
 Part from my lips, and not become a curfe, 
 
 I would Poor Adeliza — 'tis accomplifh'd ! [Dies. 
 
 BENEDICT. 
 My lord, explain thefe horrors. Wherefore fell 
 Your mother ? and why faints your wife ? 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 My wife ! 
 
 Thou damning prieft ! I have no wife — thou know'ft it — - 
 
 Thou gaveft me indeed No — rot my tongue 
 
 R 2 Ere 
 
1 24 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER: 
 
 Ere the dread found efcape it ! Bear away 
 
 That hateful monk — 
 
 BENEDICT. [As he goes out, to Florian. 
 Who was the prophet now ? 
 
 Remember me ! 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 O Florian, we mufr. hafte 
 To where fell war afTumes its uglieft form : 
 I burn to rum cn death ! 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 I dare not alk ; 
 But ftirFen'd with amazement I deplore — 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 tender friend ! I muft not violate 
 
 Thy guiltlefs ear Ha ! 'tis my father calls I [Wildly-, 
 
 1 dare not fee him ! 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 
 Be compos'd, my lord, 
 We are all your friends — 
 
 EDMUND. 
 Have I no kindred here ? 
 They will confound all friendfhip ! interweave 
 Such monftrous union — 
 
 FLORIAN. 
 Good my lord, refume 
 Your wonted reafon. Let us in and comfort 
 Your gentle bride — 
 
 EDMUND. 
 
 Forbid it, all ye pow'rs ! 
 
 Florian, bear her to the holy fillers. 
 
 Say, 'twas my mother*s will fhe take the veih 
 
 1 never muft behold her ! — never more 
 Review this theatre of monftrous guilt ! 
 No ; to th' embattled foe I will prefent 
 This hated form — and welcome be the fabre 
 That leaves no atom of it undefac'd ! 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 FROM the time that I firft undertook the foregoing fcenes, I never flat- 
 tered myfelf that they would be. proper to appear on the ftage. The 
 iiibjcct is fo horrid, that I thought it would fhock rather than give fatisfac- 
 tion to an audience. Still I found it fo truly tragic in the two effential 
 fprings of terror and pity, that I could not refill the impulfe of adapting it to 
 the fcene, though it mould never be practicable to produce it there. I faw 
 too that it would admit of great fituations, of lofty characters, and of thofe 
 fudden and unforefeen ftrokes, which have lingular effect in operating a re- 
 volution in the paffions, and in interefting the fpectator. It was capable of 
 furniihing, not only a contrail of characters, but a contrail of vice and virtue 
 in the fame character : and by laying the fcene in what age and country I 
 pteafed, pictures of ancient manners might be drawn, and many alluvions to 
 hiftoric events introduced to bring the action nearer to the imagination of the 
 fpectator. The moral refulting from the calamities attendant on an unbound- 
 ed paffion, even to the deftruction of the criminal perlon's race, was oh- 
 vioufly fuited to the purpofe and object of tragedy. 
 
 The fubject is more truly horrid than even that of Oedipus : and yet I do 
 not doubt but a Grecian poet would have made no fcruple of exhibiting it on 
 the theatre. Revolting as it is, a fon affamnating his mother, as Orelles does, 
 exceeds the guilt that appears in the foregoing fcenes. As murder is the 
 higher! crime that a man can commit againft his fellow beings, parricide is 
 the deepeft degree of murder. No age but has fuffered fuch guilt to be re- 
 prefented on the ftage. And yet I feel the difgufl that mult arife at the 
 cataflrophe of this piece ; fo much is our delicacy more apt to be mocked 
 than our good-nature. Nor will it be an excule that I thought the (lory 
 founded on an event in real life. 
 
 I had heard, when very young,, that a gentlewoman, under uncommon 
 agonies of mind, had waited on archbifliop Tillotfon, and befought his 
 counfel. Many years before, a damfel that ferved her, had acquainted her 
 6 that 
 
126 
 
 POSTSCRIPT, 
 
 that me was importuned by the gentlewoman's fon to grant him a private 
 meeting. The mother ordered the maiden to make the affignation, when, 
 {he faid, fhe would difcover herfelf, and reprimand him for his criminal 
 paffion : but being hurried away by a much more criminal paffion herfelf, 
 fhe kept the affignation without difcovering herfelf. The fruit of this horrid 
 artifice was a daughter, whom the gentlewoman caufed to be educated very 
 privately in the country : but proving very lovely, and being accidentally 
 met by her father-brother, who had never had the flighteft fufpicion of the 
 truth, he had fallen in love with and actually married her. The wretched 
 guilty mother, learning what had happened, and diftracled with the confe- 
 quence of her crime, had now reforted to the archbifhop to know in what 
 manner fhe mould acl. The prelate charged her never to let her fon and 
 daughter know what had paded, as they were innocent of any criminal in> 
 tention. For herfelf, he bade her almoft. defpair. 
 
 Some time after I had finimed the play on this ground-work, a gentleman 
 to whom I had communicated it, accidentally difcovered the origin of the 
 tradition in the novels of the queen of Navarre, vol. I. nov. 30. and to my 
 great furprife I found a frxange concurrence of circumftances between the 
 llory as there related, and as I had adapted it to my piece : for though I be- 
 lieved it to have happened in the reign of king William, I bad, for a pur- 
 pofe mentioned below, thrown it back to the eve of the reformation ; and 
 the queen, it appears, dates the event in the reign of Louis XII. I had 
 chofen Narbonne for the fcene ; the queen places it in Languedoc. Thefe 
 rencounters are of little importance ; and perhaps curious to nobody but 
 the author. 
 
 In order to make ufe of a canvafs fo mocking, it was necefTary as much as 
 poffible to palliate the crime, and raife the character of the criminal. To 
 attain the former end, I imagined the moment in which fhe had loft a be- 
 loved hufband, when grief, difappointment, and a conflict of paffions might 
 be fuppofed to have thrown her reafon off its guard, and expofed her to the 
 danger under which fhe fell. Strange as the moment may feem for vice to 
 have feized her, ftill it makes her lefs hateful, than if fhe had coolly meditated 
 fo foul a crime. I have endeavoured to make her very fondnefs for lier 
 hufband in fomc meafure the caufe of her guilt. 
 
 9 
 
 But 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 But as that guilt could not be leflened without defrroying the fubject itfelf, 
 I thought that her immediate horror and confcquential repentance were ef- 
 fential towards effectuating her being fuffered on the frage. Still more was 
 neceffary : the audience muft be prejudiced in her favour ; or an uniform 
 fentiment of difguft would have been raifed againft the whole piece. For 
 this reafon I fupprefied the ftory till the lafl icene ; and beftowed every orna- 
 ment of fenfe, unbigoted piety, and interefting contrition, on the charadter 
 that was at laft to raife univerfal indignation ; in hopes that fome degree of 
 pity would linger in the breafts of the audience ; and that a whole life of 
 virtue and penance might in fome meafure atone for a moment, though a 
 moft odious moment, of a depraved imagination. 
 
 Some of my friends have thought that I have puflied the fublimity of fenfe 
 and reafon, in the character of the Countefs, to too great a height, confider- 
 ing the dark and fuperftitious age in which fhe lived. They are of opinion 
 that the excefs of her repentance would have been more likely to have 
 thrown her into the arms of enthufiafm. Perhaps it might — but I was wil- 
 ling to infinuate that virtue could and ought to leave more lafting (tings in a 
 mind confcious of having fallen ; and that weak minds alone believe or feel 
 that confcience is to be lulled afleep by the incantations of bigotry. However, 
 to reconcile even the feeming inconfiftence objected to, I have placed my fable 
 at the dawn of the reformation ; confequently the ftrength of mind in the 
 Countefs may be fuppofed to have borrowed aid from other fources, befides 
 thofe me found in her own uiideritanding. 
 
 Her character is certainly new, and the cad: of the whole play unlike any 
 other that I am acquainted with. The incidents feem to me to flow natu- 
 rally from the fituation ; and with all the defects in the writing, of many 
 of which I am confcious, and many more no doubt will be difcovered, 
 ftill I think, as a tragedy, its greatelt fault is the horror which it muft oc- 
 cafion in the audience ; particularly in the fairer, more tender, and lefs 
 criminal part of it. 
 
 It will be obferved that, after the difcovery of her fon, the Countefs is for 
 fome moments in every fcene difordered in her underftanding by the violent 
 
 impreffion 
 
i2S POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 imprefilon of that interview, and from the guilt that is ever uppermost in her 
 mind. Yet me is never quite mad — ftill lefs does me talk like Belvidera of 
 
 " Lutes, laurels, feas of milk, and mips of amber 
 
 which is not being mad, but light-headed. When madnefs has taken pof- 
 feffion of a perfon,. fuch character ceafes to be fit for the ftage ; or at leaff. 
 mould appear there but for a fhort time ; it being the bufinefs of the theatre 
 to exhibit pafhons, not diftempers. The fineft picture ever drawn of a head 
 difcompofed by misfortune is that of king Lear. His thoughts dwell on the 
 ingratitude of his daughters, and every fentence that falls from his wildnefs 
 excites reflection and pity. Had phrenfy entirely feized him, our compaf- 
 fion would abate: we mould conclude that he no longer felt unhappinefs. 
 Shakefpeare wrote as a philofopher, Otway as a poet. 
 
 The villainy of Benedict was planned to divide the indignation of the au- 
 dience, and to intercept fome of it from the Countefs. Nor will the black- 
 nefs of his character appear extravagant, if we call to mind the crimes com- 
 mitted by catholic churchmen, when the reformation not only provoked 
 their rage, but threatened them with total ruin. 
 
 I have faid that terror and pity naturally arofe from the fubjecl, and that 
 the moral is juft. Thefe are the merits of the ftory, not of the author. It 
 is true alfo, that the rules laid down by the critics are ftridtly inherent in the 
 piece — remark, I do not fay, obferved ; for I had written above three ads 
 before I had thought of, or fet myfelf to obferve thofe rules ; and confe- 
 quently it is no vanity to fay that the three unities reign throughout the whole 
 play. The time neceffary is not above two or three hours longer than that 
 of the reprefentation ; and at moft does not require half of the four-and- 
 twenty hours granted to poets by thofe their matters. The unity of place is 
 but once fhifted, and that merely from the platform without the caftle to 
 the garden within it, fo that a fingle wall is the fole infringement of the 
 fecond law — and for the third, unity of a&ion, it is fo entire, that not the 
 imalleft epifode intervenes. Every fcene tends to bring on the cataftrophe, 
 and the ftory is never interrupted or diverted from its courfe. The return of 
 Edmund and his marriage neceffarily produce the denouement. 
 
 If 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 129 
 
 If the critics are plcafed with this conformity to their laws, I mall be glad 
 they have that fatisfadHon. For my own part, 1 fet little value on fuch 
 merit, which was accidental, and is at heft mechanic, and of a fubordinate 
 kind; and more apt to produce improbable lituations than to remove them. 
 
 I wifh I had no more to anfwer for in the faults of the piece, than I have 
 merit to boaft in the mechaniim. I was defirous of ftriking a little out of 
 the common road, and to introduce fome novelty on our ftage. Our genius 
 and caff: of thinking are very different from the French ; and yet our theatre, 
 which mould reprelent maimers, depends almoft entirely at prefent on tranf- 
 lations and copies from our neighbours. Enflaved as they are to rules and 
 modes, frill I do not doubt, but many both of their tragic and comic authors 
 would be glad they dared to ufe the liberties that are fecured to our (rage. 
 They are fo cramped by the rigorous forms of compofition, that they would 
 think themfelves greatly indemnified by an ampler latitude of thought. I 
 have chalked out fome paths that may be happily improved by better poets 
 and men of more genius than I poffefs ; and which may be introduced in 
 fubjedts better calculated for action than the ftory I have chofen. 
 
 The excellence of our dramatic writers is by no means equal in number to 
 the great men we have produced in other walks. Theatric genius lay dor- 
 mant after Shakefpeare ; waked with fome bold and glorious, but irregular 
 and often ridiculous flights in Dryden ; revived in Otway ; maintained a 
 placid pleafing kind of dignity in Rowe, and even (hone in his Jane Shore, 
 It trod in fublime and clafiic fetters in Cato, but void of nature, or the 
 .power of affecting the paffions. In Southern it feemed a genuine ray of na- 
 ture and Shakefpeare ; but falling on an age {till more Hottentot, was ftifled 
 in thofe grofs and barbarous productions, tragicomedies. It turned to tune- 
 ful nonfenfe in the Mourning Bride ; grew ltark mad in Lee ; whole cloak, 
 a little the worfe for wear, fell on Young; vet in both was frill a poet's 
 •cloak. It recovered its fenfes in Hughes and Fenton, who were afraid it 
 Should relapfe, and accordingly kept it down with a timid; but amiable 
 hand — and then it languished. We have not mounted again above the 
 two laft. 
 
 Vol, I, 
 
 S 
 
 FUGITIVE 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 EPITAPH 
 
 On the Cenotaph of Lady Walpole, ereBcd in the Chapel of Henry VII, 
 in Weftminftcr- Abbey, in July-, 1 754. 
 
 To the Memory 
 o F 
 
 Catherine Lady Walpole, 
 
 Elded Daughter of John Shorter, Efq. of Bybrook in Kent, 
 
 AND 
 
 Firft Wife of Sir Robert Walpole, afterwards Earl of Orford, 
 
 Horace, 
 
 Her youngefl Son, 
 Confccrates this Monument. 
 
 She had beauty and wit 
 
 Without vice or vanity, 
 And cultivated the arts 
 Without affectation. 
 She was devout, 
 Though without bis-otrv to anv feci ; 
 And was without prejudice to any party, 
 Though the Wife of a Minifter, 
 Whofe power She efteemed 
 But when She could employ it to benefit the miferable, 
 Or to reward the meritorious. 
 She loved a private life, 
 Though born to mine in public ; . 
 And was an ornament to Courts, 
 * Untainted by them. 
 She died August ao, 1737. 
 
 * Mr. Pope faid, " She was untainted by a Court." 
 
 S 2 / A SCHEME 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 A 
 
 SCHEME 
 
 FOR RAISING A 
 
 Large Sum of Money for the Ufe of the Government , 
 
 By laying a TAX on 
 
 MESSAGE-CARDS and NOTES. 
 
 Firji printed in N° II. of the Mufeum, April, 1 746. 
 To the Keeper of the Museum. 
 
 S I R, 
 
 AS you have opened a Mufeum for literary Curiojities, I think the follow- 
 ing paper may merit a place in your repository, which I a(k it for up- 
 on the genuine foot of a rarity. The notion I have of a Mufeum, is an hos- 
 pital for every thing that is f.ngular ; whether the thing have acquired Angu- 
 larity, from having efcaped the rage of Time ; from any natural oddnefs in 
 itfelf ; or from being fo infignificant, that nobody ever thought it worth their 
 while to produce any more of the fame fort. Intriniic value has little or na 
 property in the merit of curiojities. Mifers, though the moil intenfe of all 
 collectors, are never allowed to be virtuofoes, becaufe guineas, dollars, ducats, 
 &c. are too common to deferve the title of rarities ; and unlefs one man 
 could attain to the poffemon of the whole fpecie, he would never be faid to 
 have a fine colletlion of money. Neither * fir Gilded Heathen, nor the late 
 -j~ princefs of Mildenheim, were ever e {teemed virtuofo.es. A + phyfician 
 
 * Sir Gilbert Heathcote. 
 f Duchefs of Marlborough* 
 
 % Dr. Kennedy,^ who wrote on the coins- 
 of CarauGus. 
 
 who- 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 133 
 
 who lives in a garret, and does not get a guinea in a week, is more re- 
 nowned for the poffeffion of an illegible Caraufius, than doctor Mithridate, 
 who unloads his pocket every night of twenty or thirty new Lima guineas. 
 
 To inftance in two forts of things, which I faid had pretentions to places 
 in a Mufeum. If the learned world could be fo happy as to difcover a 
 Romans old fhoe (provided that the Literati were agreed it were a fhoe, and 
 not a leathern cafque, a drinking veffel, a balloting box, or an emprefs's 
 head-attire), fuch fhoe would immediately have the entree into any collection, 
 in Europe ; even though it appeared to be the fhoe of the mofl vulgar artifan 
 in Rome, and not to have belonged to any beau of claffic memory. And the 
 reafon is plain ; not that there is any intrinfic value in an old fhoe, but be- 
 caufe an old Roman fhoe would be a Unique ; a term which you, fir, who 
 have erected a Mufeum, know perfectly well is a patent of Antiquity. Natu- 
 ral oddity is another kind of merit which 1 mentioned- Monftrous births, 
 hermaphrodites, petrifactions, &c. are all true members of a collection. A 
 man perfectly virtuous might be laid up in a Mufeum, not for any intrinfic 
 worth, but for being a rarity ; and a dealer might honeftly demand five 
 hundred pounds for fuch a man of fir Hans Sloane or doctor Meade. A third 
 fort (and I will not run into any more defcriptions) are things become rare 
 from their infignificance. Of this fpecies was that noble collection of foolifh 
 tracts in the Harleian library, puritanical fermons, party pamphlets, voyages, 
 &c. which being too ftupid to be ever re-printed, grew valuable, as they 
 grew fcarce. So modern a thing as a queen Anne's farthing has rifen to the 
 dignity of a curiofity, merely becaufe there were but a few of them ftruck.. 
 Some induftrious artifts, who would have the greateff. fcruple of counterfeit- 
 ing the current coin of the kingdom, have been fo blinded by the love of 
 virtu, as to imitate thefe rare farthings, looking upon them folely as curioji- 
 ties. I juft mention this for the fake of thofe laborious medallifts j becaufe 
 the prefent honourable attorney-general, though a very learned man, is nc* 
 antiquarian, and might poffibly be of an opinion, that thofe admirable copies 
 would come under the penalties of the ftatute againfr. clipping and coining* 
 
 But to come to my point. It is under this Iaft denomination, fir, that I 
 apply to you for a place in your Mufeum. A fcheme for raifing money may 
 (as I fear the age is too obftinate in their luxury to fuffer their follies: to be 
 taxed^ be admitted into a colkEtion r as well as fame, of thofe pieces which I 
 
 mentioned 
 
134- FUGITIVE PIECES, 
 
 mentioned to have filled the Harleian lheives ; efpecially as it will have a 
 double title to a rarity. Firft, from never having been thought of by any 
 other perfon ; and fecondlv, as it will give pofterity fome light into the 
 cuftoms of the prefent age. It is this merit that has preferved the works of 
 the elder Pliny, an author who in his own time, I fuppofie, was upon a 
 little better foot than the editors of the Daily Advertifers, the Vade-Mecums, 
 and the Magazines. We are glad to know now how much a luxurious 
 Roman laid out on a fupper, a {lave or a villa, a miftrefs or a tame carp ; 
 how much Pompey expended on a public (how ; or to read the order of a 
 proceffion. But though this author now elbows Virgil and Horace, and 
 equally employs the fpeclacles of the Gronoviuses and the Hardouins, I am 
 perfuaded bis works at Rome were never advanced above being read in the 
 Reward's parlour. But hereafter I expect, that Mr. * Salmon, f Sylvanus 
 Urban, and myfelf, mall be as good clafftcs a-s Mr. Pope and Mr. Prior. 
 
 One of the lateft. and mod accepted fafhions is the fending Cards and Notes: 
 a cuffcom that might perhaps efcape the knowledge of pofterity, if you and I, 
 fir, did not jointly tranfmit an account of it down to them. No bufinefs, 
 that is no bufinefs, is now carried on in this great city, but by this expe- 
 dient. How Congreve, Farquhar, and the comic writers of the iaft age 
 would be chagrined, to find that half the wit of their plays is already obfo- 
 lete ! ^ Foible and Archer are grown dull characters by the difufe of verbal 
 naefTages. But thank heaven ! the age has made great progrefs in literature, 
 and all thofe fatal miftakes and irreparable quarrels that formerly happened 
 in the polite world, by ladies truiting long meffages to the faithlefs memory 
 of fervants, are now remedied by their giving themfelves the trouble to tranf- 
 mit their commands to cards and paper ; at once improving themfelves in 
 fpelliug, and adjuffing the whole ceremonial of engagements, without the 
 poffibility of errors. Not to mention the great encouragement given to the 
 Uationary trade, by the large demands for crow-quills, paper, wafers, &c. 
 commodities that are all the natural produce of this country. 
 
 I know a celebrated § legifiator and reformer of manners, who not being 
 ib deeply read in the fafhions as he is in the vices pf the ago, was unhappily 
 
 * Author of A Modern Hiftory, The Chro- % Characters in The Way of the World, and 
 
 nological Diary, &c. Beaux Stratagem. 
 
 f The name affiimed by the editor of The § Mr. T. Carew. 
 
 Gentleman's Magazine. , 
 
 drawn 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 i35 
 
 drawn into a miftake by his ignorance of this cuftom. About two years ago, 
 this gentleman had thoughts of enforcing and letting out the laws againft 
 gaming ; and being very nice and exact, in his method of proceeding, he was 
 determined to lay before parliament, a calculation of the numbers of game- 
 fters, games, and circulation of money played for in the cities of London 
 and Weftrniniter, In order to this, he firft went to an eminent card-maker, 
 and enquired into the ebb and flow of his bufinefs ; and with great fecret 
 fatisfa&ion was informed, that the tradefman fold, upon a moderate com- 
 putation, twenty dozen packs of cards in a week, more than he ufed to do a 
 few years ago. The honeft reformer was exceffively pleafed with his difco- 
 very ; for a real zealot is never fo happy as when he finds vice grown to fo 
 monftrous a height, that every body will allow it neceffary to be regulated. 
 But he was terribly puzzled when the card-maker told him, that at leair. 
 two thirds of the number were blank cards, or cards without pips. To 
 fatisfy his furprife, he even ventured himfelf into a celebrated gaming-houfe 
 at this end of the town ; to find out in what game the libertines of this age 
 had fo far refined upon their anceftors, as to be able to pra£tife with piplels 
 cards. In fhort, it was not till fome time after, that he difcovered that thefe 
 blank cards were on purpofe to write meffages. He then exclaimed againfr. 
 the extravagance of our women, who would not condefcend to ufe their old. 
 cards to write upon, but were at the expence of clean ones ;. but it was 
 proved to him, that a woman of moderate fafhion could not poflibly have 
 cards enough ufed at her houfe to ferve her for meffages, and that therefore 
 it was cheaper to purchafe blank cards, becaufe, not being ftamped, they pay 
 no duty, and are confequently half in half cheaper to the confumer. For 
 example ; fuppofing a lady has but one affembly a month, to which me in- 
 vites four hundred perfons ; many difappointing her, fix perfons belonging to 
 each table, two or three fets playing with the fame cards, and feveral not 
 playing at all, we may reckon that me never has above ten tables, to which 
 allowing two packs, me, at that rate, can ufe but twenty packs a month : 
 now I mail eafily make it appear, that that number cannot mpply her with, 
 decent materials for meffages. For inftance, 
 
 20 packs at 52 cards per pack - 1-040.. 
 
 Now file muft fend cards to invite all thefe people, which will employ four 
 hundred of the thoufand and odd ; and allowing her to fend but twenty pri- 
 vate meffages every morning, in howd'ye's, appointments, difappointments,, 
 6 &c* 
 
136 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 &c. and to make out ten vifits every night before fhe fettles for the evening, 
 at each of which me muft. leave her name on a card, the account will ftand 
 
 thus : 
 
 MefTages to 400 people - 400 
 20 MefTages a day, will be per month - - 560 
 10 Vifits a night, will be per month - - 280 
 
 Total 1240 
 
 Which, without including extraordinary occafions, as a quarrel, with all its 
 train of conlequences, explanations, ceffation of hoftilities, renewal of civi- 
 lities, &c. makes her debtor to two hundred cards more than fhe is creditor 
 for. I know it may be objected, that a good ceconomift, will cut one card 
 into three names ; but if fhe lives in a good part of the town, and choofes to 
 infert the place of her abode under her name, that will be impofTible. Be- 
 fore I quit this article of leaving one's name, I muft mention a ftory of a 
 Frenchman, from whofe nation we are faid to borrow this cuftom, who 
 being very devout and very well bred, went to hear mafs at the church of a 
 particular faint in Paris ; but fome reparations being making to the church, 
 which prevented the celebration of divine fervice, the gentleman, to mow 
 he had not been wanting in his duty, left his name on a card for the faint 
 on his altar, 
 
 I mall now proceed to acquaint" you with my fbheme, which is, to lay a 
 tax on cards and notes ; the latter of which are only a more voluminous kind 
 of cards, and more facred ; becaufe a footman is allowed to read the former, 
 but is depended upon for never opening the latter. Indeed, if the parti-co- 
 loured gentry's honour were not to be trufted, what fatal accidents might 
 arife ! for there is not a young lady in London under five-and- twenty, who 
 does not tranfact all her moft important concerns in this way. She does not 
 fall in love, fhe does not change her lover or her fan, her party or her ftay- 
 maker, but ihe notifies it to twenty particular friends by a note ; nay, me 
 even enquires or trufts by note where the only good lavender-water in town is 
 to be fold. I cannot help mentioning to the honour of thefe fair virgins, 
 that after the fatal day of Fontenoy, they all wrote their notes on Indian paper, 
 which being red, when infcribed with Japan ink, made a melancholy mili- 
 tary kind of elegy on the brave youths who occafioned the fa-fhion, and weie 
 often the honourable fubjecl of the epiftle. 
 
 3 Z think 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 *37 
 
 I think the loweff. computations make the inhabitants of this great metro- 
 polis to be eight hundred thoufand. 1 will be fo very moderate as to fuppofe 
 that not above twenty thoufand of thefe are obliged to fend cards, becaufe I 
 really have not yet heard that this fafhion has Ipread much among the lower 
 fort of people ; at leaft I know, that my own fimmonger's wife was extremely 
 furprifed laff week at receiving an invitation to an aflembly at Billingfgate, 
 written on a very dirty queen of clubs. Therefore, as it is the indifpenfable 
 duty of a legiflature to impofe taxes where they will fall the lighten 1 , nobody 
 will difpute the gentlenefs of this duty, which I would not have exceed one 
 penny per card. I fhall recur to my former computation of a lady's fending 
 1240 cards per month, or 16,120 per annum, which multiplied by 20,000, 
 and reduced to pounds fterling, fixes the produce of the duty at £. 1,343,333 
 6s. 8d. a year for the cities of London and Weif.minff.er only. But mould 
 this appear too enormous a fum to be thrown into the fcale of minifterial in- 
 fluence, I beg it may be confidered that for near four months in the year this 
 tax will produce little or nothing, by the difperfion of the nobility and gentry, 
 and the difufe of vifits and affemblies ; and I cannot think that what may be 
 railed by this tax in all the reft of the kingdom, will replace the deficiency 
 pf one third which may fail in the capital. 
 
 I have not reckoned notes, becaufe it will be time enough to confider 
 them when the bill is brought in, as well as to what province of the great 
 officers of the crown this duty fhall belong. Whether the fum of a penny 
 may bring it under the infpection of the tribunal in Lombard-ffreet, or whe- 
 ther the bufinefs negotiated may not lubject. it to the lord chamberlain's of- 
 fice : for as to the groom-porter, the claim which I forefee he will put in 
 under the notion of tranfactions with cards, I think it will be of no weight. 
 A friend of mine, to whom I communicated my fcheme, was of opinion, 
 that wherever the duty was collected, the office would be a court of record ; 
 becaufe, as I propofe that all engagements mould be regiftered, it would be an 
 ealy matter to compile a diary of a lady of quality's whole life. One caveat 
 I muff, put in, which is, that the tax being to be laid chiefly on people of 
 fafhion, it may not be allowed to members of either houfe to frank their 
 v/ives' cards, which would almoii entirely annihilate this fupply for the fer- 
 -vice of the erovernmer.t. 
 
 o 
 
 Vol. I. T 1 propofe 
 
i 3 8 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 I propofe too, that printed cards (a late improvement) mould be liable to 
 the ftamp-duties ; for though this practice has not hitherto made great pro- 
 grefs, yet fuch induftry is ufed to evade acts of parliament, that I am per- 
 fuaded we mould no longer hear of written cards, though the greater part of 
 the card muft necelfarily be left blank to infert the name and quality of the 
 perfon invited, the day appointed, and the bufinefs to be performed. 
 
 The moft of a meffage card that ever I have feen printed was as follows : 
 
 " Lady M. M. or N. N'j to and- -Jlie 
 
 of company on to ." 
 
 I mail add two other cards with thefe blanks filled up, to mew that the 
 reft of the meffage cannot be certain enough to be left to the printer. 
 
 " Lady M. M. or N. N'j humble fervice to her grace the duchefs ofT, 
 and begs the honour of her company on Monday jive weeks to drink tea" 
 
 " Lady M. M. or N. N'i compliments to Mrs. B. and dejires the favour 
 of her company to-morrow to play at whifk." 
 
 I have a fecret fatisfaction in thinking how popular I mall be with the gen- 
 tlemen of the upper gallery, who, by this eftablimment of ports for cards and 
 notes, will get all their mornings to themfelves, and have time to drefs 
 themfelves for the play, or even to read the play on which they are to pafs 
 their judgment in the evening. Indeed this toil of theirs has already been 
 fomewhat abridged by the indefatigable care and generality of that learned 
 and exact lady, the lady Northriding, who introduced the ufe of vifiting maps: 
 every lady has now a particular map of her own vifits, accurately engraved for 
 a trifling expence, and can fend her cards, or bid her coachman drive metho- 
 dically to all her acquaintance, who, by this invention, are distributed into 
 fquares, parimes, hundreds, &c. 
 
 I do not know how far it may be neceffary to licenfe the cards of foreign 
 minifters ; but as thofe illuftrious perfonages pretty fteadily adhere to the 
 dignity of their character, and do not frequently let themfelves down to 
 I divert 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 139 
 
 divert the natives of the country, if my poor affiftance mould be required by 
 the legiflature in drawing up the bill, I mould not be againft granting this 
 immunity to the reprefentatives of fo many great monarchs and princes. But 
 I am entirely againft any other exceptions, unlefs of fome fair and noble 
 ladies, who I hear intend to give balls on the approaching birth-day of the 
 * Royal Youth, who has fo glorioufly delivered his country and beauteous 
 countrywomen from their apprehenfions of a race of barbarous mountaineers ; 
 and who is now extirpating rebellion in the very heart of thofe inhofpitable 
 mountains. 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 
 Your humble Servant, 
 
 DESCARTES. 
 
 * The duke of Cumberland. 
 
 ADVER 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT*. 
 
 This Day is publi/Iiedy in Ten Volumes in Folio, 
 
 THE 
 
 HISTORY of GOOD-BREEDING, 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 CREATION of the WORLD, 
 
 TO THE 
 
 PRESENT TIMES: 
 
 As fet forth in 
 
 FORMS and CEREMONIES. 
 
 And appointed to be nied in 
 CHURCHES, VISITS, CORONATIONS, &c. 
 
 Collected from the bed: Authors; 
 As Baker s Chronicle, the Compleat Dancing-Majier, the Laiv of Nations, the 
 Margrave 's Monitor ,\\\tConjl able* s Guide, Pic art 's Religious Ceremonies, &c. 
 
 The Whole adapted to the meaneft Capacities, 
 
 Whether Peeresses, Lords, Chamberlains, Embassadors, Bishops, Justices 
 op the Peace, Gentlemen Ushers, Barbers, or Chamber-Malds. 
 
 In this Great Print, 
 
 Pray let us. 
 
 By the Author of the Whole Duty of Man. 
 
 N. B. The Eight Wift Volumes, which relate to Germany, may be had feparate. 
 At her Feet he bowed. Judges, chap. v. ver. 27. 
 
 DUBLIN, Printed; LONDON, Re-printed; 
 For -^Clement Quoteherald, at the Sign of Champion Dimock, in Ave-Maria-Lane. 
 
 * Publifhed in number V. of the Mufeum, f Sir Clement Cotterel was mailer of the 
 Mayi 1746. ceremonies. 
 
\ 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 143 
 
 TABLE of the CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 ^ C H A P. I. 
 
 VSF Good Breeding in general. Its Ufe and Abufe. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Of Ceremonies : Why fome are abolijlied, and fome retained. 
 
 CHAP, lit 
 
 Of their Origin and Antiquity. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Of Brutality : Why fometimes taken for Wit. Some Endeavours to prove, that 
 Bluntnefs and Beaflinefs are no Marks of Courage. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 A critical Enquiry, whether the Black Prince difc our aged all Good Breeding, 
 except -when in aclual War with France. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Origin of Curtf.es : Eve'j to her Shadow in a Fountain. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 Injlitution of Duchejfes ; the Serpent calling Eve, Your Grace, 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 A Digrefjion on illegitimate Princes; and why they contrail all the Dignity of 
 the Father, and none of the Bafenefs of the Mother. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 Enquiry whether Adam called Eve, Madam, or My Dear, before Company : 
 The latter Opinion condemned by the Council of Nice. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
i44 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 C H A P. X. 
 
 Which went Jirjl out of the Door of Paradife, Adam or Eve. 
 
 BOOK IL 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 A Defcription of NoahV living en Famille in the Ark. Some Reflections on 
 his Wife for not wajliing her Face and Hands, though they had fuch Plenty 
 of Water. A fevere Cenfure on married Folks, who break Wind before one 
 another. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Origin of Vifits. The Queen of ShebaV to Solomon. Quaere, If ever he 
 
 \ returned it. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 77/i? Invention of Bows afcribed to Semiramis, by Herodotus. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 On Duels. The Practice defended: Highly commendable to take away a Man's 
 Life for treading on your Toe, even by Accident. Challenges may be rcfufed 
 by Crowned Heads ; or from any Inferior. More honourable to be beat by 
 one that is no Gentleman, than to fight him. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Rules when to take or give the Wall; and when to give or take a Box on the Ear* 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Com/iliments no Lies. Whether it is lawful to be denied ; St. AufHn thinks 
 not. Porters excommunicated by Pope Pius. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 On the Folly of being zuell-bred to Perfons in JVant or AJ/Jiclion. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Nothing fo ill-bred, as to perfiji in any thing that is out of fajliion. Tafle and 
 Fafliion fynonymous Terms. 
 
 4 CHAP, 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES, 
 
 i45 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 Good Breeding different in different Ages : For injlance, Formality and Puncti- 
 lio the Height of Good Breeding in Queen AancV Reign ; a Diffolution oj all 
 Civility in King George' s. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 The Nature and End of Dancing. The Duty of it /trove d from the Example of 
 King David, and others. What Perfons are qualified to give Balls. 
 
 CHAP. II, III, IV, V, and VI. 
 
 Rules to be obferved at Balls : and in general, at all public Meet'mgs. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 Differtation on. School- Mijlreffes. By whom firjl incorporated. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Whether Superiors, or Inferiors, are to bow and curtfey firjl. WJiether a 
 Knight's Wife may take any thing ill of a Duchefs ; and how impertinent any 
 Peerefs may be. At what Age a handfome Woman Ihould grow civil', and 
 at what Age they have been known to grow fo.. 
 
 C H A P. IX.. 
 
 On what Occafons it may be civil to be rude io Women : When well-bred to talk 
 Bawdy : Whether Bijhops fiiould at Chrificnings. With many other curious 
 Particulars, on Marriages, Maidenheads,. Widows, Hoops, Fans, Wigs, 
 Snuff-boxes, Entertainments, &c As alfo Directions for forgetting one's 
 Friends, &c. &c. To which is annexed, a curious Sermon of Bijliop Lati- 
 mer againfi Jelling Bargain: i . 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 17 
 
 The 
 
i 4 6 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 The WORLD*. 
 
 By ADAM FITZ-ADAM. 
 
 Numb. VI. Thurfday^ February 8, 1753. 
 
 To Mr. FIT Z-A DAM. 
 
 j- Totum mundum agit hijlno, 
 
 S I R, 
 
 AS you have chofen the whole world for your province, one may reafon- 
 ably fuppofe, that you will not neglect that epitome of it, the theatre. 
 Molt of your predeceffors have bellowed their favourite pains upon it : the 
 learned and the critics (generally two very diftinct denominations of men) 
 have employed many hours and much paper in comparing the ancient and 
 modern ftage. I mall not undertake to decide a queftion which feems to me 
 To impoffible to be determined, as which have molt merit, plays written in 
 a dead language, and which we can only read ; or luch as we every day fee 
 acled inimitably, in a tongue familiar to us, and adapted to our common 
 ideas and cuftoms. The only preference that I fhall pretend to give to the 
 modern fhige over Greece and Rome, relates to the fubjecl: of the prefent 
 letter*. I mean the daily progrefs we make towards nature. This will ftartle 
 any bigot to Euripides, who perhaps will immediately demand, whether 
 ^ Juliet's nurfe be a more natural goffip than Eleclra's or Medea's. But I 
 did not hint at the reprefentation of either perfons or characters. The im- 
 provement of nature, which 1 had in view, alluded to thofe excellent exhi- 
 bitions of the animal or inanimate parts of the creation, which are furnifhed 
 
 * A periodical paper, undertaken by Mr. E. f The play-houfe motto reverfed : ** Totus 
 Moore, author of feveral plays and poems. The mundus agit hiftrionem." 
 World has been re-printed in fix volumes, 1 2mo. t In Shakefpeare's Romeo and Juliet. 
 
 by 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 i47 
 
 by the worthy philofophers Rich and Garrick ; the latter of whom has re- 
 fined on his competitor ; and having perceived that art w as become fo perfect 
 that it was neceffary to mimic it by nature, he has happily introduced a 
 cafcade of real water *. 
 
 I know there are perfons of a fvftematic turn, who affirm that the audience 
 
 are not delighted with this beautiful water-fall, from the reality of the ele- 
 ct 
 
 ment, but merely becaufe they arepleafed with the novelty of any thing that 
 is out of its proper place. Thus they tell you, that the town is charmed 
 with a genuine cafcade upon the itage, and were in raptures lalf. year with 
 one of tin at Vauxhall. But this is certainly prejudice : the world, Mr. 
 Fitz-Adam, though never fated with (how, is lick of fiction. I forefee the 
 time approaching, when delufion will not be fuffered in any part of the 
 drama : the inimitable ferpent in Orpheus and Eurydice, and the amorous 
 oftrich in the Sorcerer, mall be replaced by real monfters from Afric. It is 
 well known that the pantomime of the Genii narrowly efcaped being damned, 
 on my lady Maxim's obferving very judiciouflv, That the brick-kiln was hor- 
 ridly executed, and did not f me 1 1 at all like one. 
 
 When this entire caftigation of improprieties is brought about, the age , 
 will do juftice to one of the firft reformers of the ftage, Mr. Cibbcr, who 
 effayed to introduce a tafte for real nature in his Caefar in Egypt, and treated 
 the audience with real — not fwans indeed, for that would have been too 
 bold an attempt in the dawn of truth, but very perfonable geefe. The in- 
 ventor, like other original geniuses, was treated ill by a barbarous age : yet 
 I can venture to affirm, that a ftricter adherence to reality would have laved 
 even thofe times from being mocked by abfurdities, always incidental to iic- 
 tion. I myfelf remember, how, much about that aera, the great Senerino, 
 reprefenting Alexander at the fiege of Oxydraca?, fo far forgot himfelf in the 
 heat of conquer, as to ftick his fword into one of the pafteboard ftones of the 
 wall of the town, and bore it in triumph before him as he entered the breach; 
 a puerility fo renov/ned a general could never have committed, if the ramparts 
 had been built, as in this enlightened age they would be, of actual brick 
 and ftone. 
 
 * In the pantomime of the Genii. 
 
 U 2 Will 
 
148 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 Will you forgive an elderly man, Mr. Fitz-Adam, if he cannot heip rs- 
 collecting another paffage that happened in his youth, and to the fame ex- 
 cellent performer ? He was ftepping into Armida's enchanted bark ; bur. 
 treading fhort, as he was more attentive to the accompaniment of the or- 
 cheftra than to the breadth of the more, he fell proftrate, and lay for fome time 
 in great pain, with the edge of a wave running into his fide. In the prefent 
 ftate of things, the worfh that could have happened to him, would have been 
 drowning ; a fate far more becoming Rinaldo, efpecially in the fight of a 
 Britim audience i 
 
 If you will allow me to wander a little from the ftage, I mail obferve that 
 this purfuit of nature is not confined to the theatre, but operates where one 
 mould lead expect to meet it, in our fafhions. The fair part of the creation 
 are fhedding all covering of the head, difplay their unveiled charming trefTes, 
 and, if I may fay fo, are daily moulting the reft of their clothes. What 
 lovely fall of moulders, what ivory necks, what fnowy breads in all the 
 pride of nature, are continually diverted of art and ornament I 
 
 In gardening, the fame love of nature prevails. Clipt hedges, avenues, 
 regular platforms, ftraight canals, have been for fome time very pi operly ' ex- 
 ploded. There is not a citizen who does not take more pains to torture his 
 acre and half into irregularities, than he formerly would have employed to 
 make it as formal as his cravat. Kent *, the friend of nature, was the Cal- 
 vin of this reformation ; but, like the other champion of truth, after having 
 routed tinfel and trumpery, with the true zeal of a founder of a feet he pufhed 
 his difcipline to the deformity of holinefs : not content with baniming fym- 
 metry and regularity, he imitated nature even in her blemifhes, and planted 
 *j" dead trees and mole-hills, in oppofkion to -parterres and quincunxes. 
 
 The lan 1 branch of our fafhions into which the clofe obfervation of nature 
 has been introduced, is our defferts ;— - a fubject I have not room now to treat 
 at If rge, but which yet demands a few words, and not improperly in this 
 
 * Where Kent and nature vie for Pelham's love. Pope. 
 f In Kenfmgton garden, and Carlton garden. 
 
 paper, 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 149 
 
 paper, as I fee them a little in the light of a pantomime. Jellies, bifcuits, 
 lii gar- plums and creams have long given way to harlequins, gondoliers, 
 Turks, Chinefe, and fhcpherdeffes of Saxon china. But thefe, uncon- 
 nected, and only feeming to wander among groves of curled paper and filk 
 flowers, were foon difcovered to be too innpid and unmeaning. By degrees 
 whole meadows of cattle, of the fame brittle materials, fpread themfelves 
 over the whole table ; cottages rofe in fugar, and temples in barley-fugar ; 
 pigmy Neptunes in cars of cockle-mells triumphed over oceans of looking- 
 glafs, or * feas of filver tiffue; and at length the whole fyftem of Ovid's 
 metamorphofis fucceeded to all the transformations which f Chloe and other 
 great profeffors had introduced into the fcience of hieroglyphic eating. 
 Confectioners found their trade moulder away, while toymen and china- 
 mops were the only fafhionable purveyors of the laft ftage of polite enter- 
 tainments. Women of the firft quality came home from Chenevix's laden 
 with dolls and babies, not for their children, but their houfe-keeper. 
 At laft even thefe puerile puppet-ihows are finking into difufe, and more 
 manly ways of concluding our repafts are eftabliihed. Gigantic figures fuc- 
 ceed to pigmies; and if the prefent tafte continues, Ryibrack and other 
 neglected ftatuaries, who might have adorned Grecian falons, though not 
 Grecian defferts, may come into vogue. It is known that a celebrated 
 £ confectioner (fo the architects of our defferts ftill humbly call themfelves) 
 complained, that after having prepared a middle dim of gods and goddeffes 
 eighteen feet high, his lord would not caufe the ceiling of his parlour to be 
 demolifhed to facilitate their entree : " Imaginez-vous, faid he, que milord 
 ria pas voulu faire oter le plafond J" 
 
 I mail mention but two inftances of glorious magnificence and tafte in 
 defferts, in which foreigners have furpaffed any thing yet performed in this 
 Sumptuous ifland. The former was a duke of Wirtemberg, who, fo long 
 ago as the year thirty-four, gave a deffert, in which was a reprefentation of 
 mount yEtna, which vomited out real fireworks over the heads of the com- 
 
 * The French ambaflador, the duke de Mire- f A famous French cook, who lived with the 
 poix, gave a detfert in which was the ftory of duke of Newcaftle. 
 Perfeus and Andromeda ; the fea was filver tif- % Lord Albemarle's, 
 fue covered with barley-fugar. 
 
 pany 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 pany during the whole entertainment. The other was the intendant of 
 Gafcony, who on the late birth of the duke of Burgundy, among many 
 other magnificent feftivities, treated the nobleffe of the province with a 
 dinner and a deffert, the latter of which concluded with a reprefentation, by 
 wax figures moving by clockwork, of the whole labour of the dauphinefs 
 - and the happy birth of an heir to the monarchy. 
 
 T am, Sir, 
 
 Your humble fervant, 
 
 JULIO. 
 
 The 
 
FUGITIVE 
 
 PIECES. 
 
 The WORLD. 
 
 By ADAM FITZ-ADAM. 
 
 Numb. VIII. Thurfday, February 22, 1753. 
 
 Date obolum Belifario. 
 
 APhilofopher, as I am, who contemplates the world with ferious re- 
 flection, will be {truck with nothing in it more than its viciffitudes. 
 If he has lived any time, he mutt have had ample opportunities of exercifing 
 his meditation on the vanity of all fublunary conditions. The change of 
 empires, the fall of minifters, the exaltation of obfcure perfons, are the con- 
 tinual incidents of human comedy. I remember that one of the firft paflages 
 in hiftory which made an impreffion upon me in my youth, was the fate of 
 Dionyfius, who, from being monarch of Sicily, was reduced to teach fchool 
 at Corinth. Though his tyranny was the caufe of his ruin (if it can be 
 called ruin to be deprived of the power of oppreffion, and to be taught to 
 know one's felf), I could not help feeling that fort of fuperftitious pity which 
 attends royalty in diftrefs. Who ever perufed the ftories of Edward the fe- 
 cond, Richard the fecond, or Charles the nrft, but forgot their excefTes, 
 and fighed for their cataftrophe ? In this free-fpirited ifland there are not 
 more hands ready to puniih tyrants, than eyes to weep their fall. It is a 
 common cafe: we are Romans in refilling oppreffion, very women in la- 
 menting oppreffors ! 
 
r 5 2 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 If (and I think it cannot be contefted) there is generofity in thefe fenfa- 
 tions, ought we not doubly to feel fuch emotions, in cafes where regal virtue 
 is become the fport of fortune ? This ifland ought to be- as much the 
 harbour of afflicted majefty, as it has been the fcourge of offending majefty. 
 And while every throne of arbitrary power is an afylum for the martyrs of 
 fo bad a caufe, Britain ought to fhelter fuch princes as have been victims for 
 liberty — whenever fo great a curiofity is feen, as a prince contending on the 
 honeil lide. 
 
 How muft I blum then for my countrymen, when I mention a monarch, 
 an unhappy monarch ! now actually fuffered to languilh for debt in one of 
 the common prifons of this city !•— a monarch, whofe courage raifed him to 
 a throne, not by a fucceffion of ambitious bloody acts, but by the voluntary 
 election of an injured people, who had the common right of mankind to free- 
 dom, and the uncommon refolution of determining to be free! This prince 
 is Theodore king of Corfica! a man, whofe claim to royalty is as indis- 
 putable as the moft ancient titles to any monarchy can pretend to be ; that 
 is, the choice of his fubjects : the only kind of title allowed in the excel- 
 lent got/iic conftitutions, from whence we derive our own ; the fame kind of 
 title which endears the prefent royal family to Englishmen ; and the only 
 kind of title againft which, perhaps, no objection can lie. 
 
 This prince (on whofe hiftory I mail not at prefent enlarge), after having 1 
 bravely expofed his life and crown in defence of the rights of his fubjects, 
 mifcarried, as Cato and other patriot heroes did before him. For many 
 years he ftruggled with fortune, and left no means untried, which indefati- 
 gable policy or folicitation of fuccours could attempt, to recover his crown, 
 At laft, when he had difcharged his duty to his fubjects and himfelf, he 
 chofe this country for his retirement — not to indulge a voluptuous inglorious 
 eafe, but to enjoy the participation of thofe blefimgs which he had fo vainly 
 endeavoured to fix to his Corflcans. Here for fome months he bore with 
 more philofophic dignity the lofs of his crown, than Charles the fifth, 
 Cafimir of Poland, or any of thofe vifionaries, who wantonly refigned theirs 
 to partake the lluggifh indolence, and at length the difquiets, of a cloifter. 
 Theodore, though refigned to his fortunes, had none of that contemptible 
 apathy, which almolt lifted our James the fecond to the fupreme honour of 
 monkilh fainthood. It is recorded of that prince, that talking to his 
 
 I courtiers 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 courtiers at St. Germain, he wifhed for a fpeedy peace between France and 
 Great Britain ; " for then," faid he, " we fhall get Englim hories ealily." 
 
 The veracity of an hiftorian obliges me not to difguife the bad fituation of 
 his Corfican majefty's revenue, which has reduced him to be a prifoner for 
 debt in the King's-Bench : and fo cruelly has Fortune exercifed her rigours 
 upon him, that lair, feffion of parliament he was examined before a commit- 
 tee of the houfe of commons, on the hardfhips to which the prifoners in that 
 gaol had been fubject. Yet let not ill-nature make fport with thefe misfor- 
 tunes ! His majefty had nothing to blufh at, nothing to palliate, in the reca- 
 pitulation of his diftreffes. The debts on his civil lilt were owing to no 
 mifapplication, no improvidence of his own, no corruption of his ministers, 
 no indulgence to favourites or miftreffes. His diet was philofophic, his 
 palace humble, his robes decent: yet his butcher, his landlady, and his 
 taylor could not continue to fupply an eftabliihment, which had no demefnes 
 to fupport it, no taxes to maintain it, no excifes, no lotteries to provide 
 funds for its deficiencies and emergencies* 
 
 A nation fo generous, fo renowned for the efforts it has always made in 
 the common caufe of liberty, can only want to be reminded of this diftreffed 
 king, to grant him its protection and companion. If political reafons forbid 
 the open efpoufal of his caufe, pity commands the afiiftance which private 
 fortunes can lend him. I do not mean at prefent that our gallant youth 
 lhould offer themfelves as volunteers in his fervice, nor do I expect to have 
 a fmall fleet fitted out at the expence of particular perfons to convey him and 
 his hopes to Corfica. The intention of this paper is merely to warm the be- 
 nevolence of my countrymen in behalf of this royal captive. I cannot think 
 it would be beneath the dignity of majefty to accept fuch a fupply as might 
 be offered to him by that honorary (and to this country peculiar) method of 
 railing a free gift, a benefit play. The method is worthy of the Grecian age, 
 nor would Afiatic monarchs have blufhed to receive a tribute from the iinited 
 efforts of genius and art. Let it be faid, that the fame humane and polite 
 age rai£ed a monument to Shakefpeare, a fortune for Milton's * grand-daugh- 
 ter, and a fubfidy for a captive king, by dramatic performances ! I have no 
 doubt but the munificent managers of our theatres will gladly contribute 
 
 * Comus was a£led at Drury-lane, April 5, 1750, for the benefit of Mrs. Foftcr, Milton 5 
 only furviving defcendant. 
 
 Vol. I, X their 
 
i 5 4 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 their parts. The incomparable actor who fo exquifitely touches the paflions 
 and diftreffes of felf-dethroned Lear (a play which from fome limilitude of 
 circumftances I mould recommend for the benefit) will, I dare to fay, wil- 
 lingly exert his irrefiftible talents in behalf of fallen majeity, and be a com- 
 petitor with Louis le Grand for the fame which refults from the protection 
 of exiled kings. How glorious will it be for him to have the King's-Bench 
 as renowned for Garrick's generofity to king Theodore, as the Savoy is for 
 Edward the third's treatment of king John of France ! 
 
 In the mean time, not to confine this opportunity of benevolence to fo 
 narrow a fphere as the theatre, I muft acquaint my readers, that a fubfcrip- 
 tion for a fubfidy for the ufe of his Corfican majefty is opened at Tully's head 
 in Pall-mall, where all the generous and the fair are defired to pay their 
 contributions to Robert Dodfley, who is appointed high-treafurer and grand- 
 librarian of the ifland of Corfica for life — pofts, which, give me leave to 
 fay, Mr. Dodfley would have difdained to accept under any monarch of arbi- 
 trary principles : 
 
 A bookfeller of Rome, while Rome furviv'd, 
 Would not have been lord treas'rer to a king. 
 
 I am under fome apprehenfions that the intended fubfcription will not be 
 fo univerfal as for the honour of my country I wifli it. I forefee that the 
 partifans of indefeafible hereditary right will withhold their contributions. 
 The number of them is indeed fmall and inconfiderable; yet as it becomes 
 my character, as a citizen of the world, to neglect nothing for the amend- 
 ment of the principles and morals of my fellow-creatures, I mall recommend 
 one fhort argument to their confideration ; I think I may fay, to their con- 
 viction. Let them but confider, that though Theodore had fuch a flaw 
 (in their estimation) in his title, as to have been elected by the whole body 
 of the people, who had thrown off the yoke of their old tyrants; yet as the 
 Genoefe had been the fovereigns of Corfica, thefe gentlemen of monarchic 
 principles will be obliged, if they condemn king Theodore's caufe, to allow 
 divine hereditary right in a republic; a problem in politics which I leave to 
 be folved by the difciples of the exploded * fir Robert Filmer : — at the fame 
 
 • Author of the Patriarchal Scheme, refuted by Mr. Locke. 
 
 9 
 
 time 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 155 
 
 time declaring by my cenforial authority all perfons Jacobites, who negleft 
 to bring in their free gift for the ufe of his majefty of Corlica: and I parti- 
 cularly charge and command all lovers of the glorious and immortal memory 
 of king William to fee my orders duly executed ; and I recommend to them 
 to fet an example of liberality in behalf of the popular monarch whofe 
 caufe I have efpoufed, and whofe deliverance, I hope, I have not attempted 
 in vain. 
 
 N. B.. Two pieces of king Theodore's coin*, ftruck during his reign, are 
 in the hands of the high-treafurer aforefaid, and will be lhown by the proper 
 officer of the exchequer of Corfica, during the time the fubfcription conti- 
 nues open at Tully's head above mentioned. They are very great curiofities„ 
 and not to be met with in the moil celebrated collections in this kingdom. 
 
 * Thefe coins are rudely executed on copper, been, re per il bono publico. The other 
 The legend, round the reverfe feems to have piece is the half of this.- 
 
 X2 
 
i 5 6 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 As ^Supplement to the foregoing Paper, the following Particulars 
 
 will not be improper. 
 
 THEODORE ANTONY BARON NEWHOFF, more remarkable 
 for being the only one of his profeffion [of adventurers] who ever 
 obtained a crown, than for acquiring that of Corfica, was born at Metz 
 about the year 1696, and after a variety of intrigues, fcrapes, and efcapes, 
 in many parts of Europe, and after having attained and loft a throne, re- 
 turned in 1748-9 to England, where he had been before about the year 
 1737. I faw him foon after his laft arrival: he was a comely middle-fized 
 man, very referved, and affecting much dignity, which he acted in the loweft 
 ebb of his fortunes, and coupled with the loweft mifts of his induftry : 
 an inftance of the former appeared during his laft refidence at Florence, 
 where being reduced to extreme poverty, fome Englifti gentlemen made a 
 collection for and carried to him. Being apprifed of their coming, and 
 having only one chamber in a little miferable lodging, he fqueezed his bed 
 to one fide, and placed a chair under the canopy, where he fat to receive 
 the charity. 
 
 Being involved here in former and new debts, he for fome time received 
 benefactions from the earl of Granville, the countefs of Yarmouth, and 
 others, and after being arrefted, fome merchants in the city promoted a fub- 
 fcription for him; but he played fo many tricks, and counterfeited fo many 
 bonds and debts, that they withdrew their money. He behaved with little 
 more honour when the preceding paper was publifhed for his benefit. Fifty 
 pounds were raifed by it and fent to his prifon : he pretended to be much 
 difappointed at not receiving more: his debts, he faid, amounted to £.1500. 
 He fent in a few days to Mr. Dodfley, the publifher of The World, to de- 
 fire the fubfeription might be opened again ; which being denied, he fent a 
 lawyer to Mr. Dodfley to threaten to profecute him for the paper, which he 
 pretended had done him great hurt, and prevented feveral contributions. — ■ 
 
 * Precibufque minas Regaliter addit." Ovid. 
 
 Iti 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. i 57 
 
 In May 1756, this extraordinary event happened: Theodore, a man 
 who had a£rually reigned, was reduced to take the benefit of the act of in- 
 folvency, and printed the following petition in the Public Advertifer: 
 
 u An Addrefs to the Nobility and Gentry of Great -Britain, m the Behalf of 
 Theodore Baron de Newhoff : 
 
 THE baron through a long imprifonment being reduced to very great 
 extremities, his cafe is earnestly recommended for a contribution to be 
 raifed, to enable him to return to his own country, having obtained his 
 liberty by the late a6l of parliament. In the late war in Italy the baron gave 
 manifeft proofs of his affection for England ; and as the motives of his com- 
 ing here are fo well known, it is hoped all true friends to freedom will be 
 excited to aflift a brave though unfortunate man, who wifhes to have an op- 
 portunity of testifying his gratitude to the Britifh nation. 
 
 Thofe who are pleafed to contribute on this occafion, are defired to depo- 
 fit their benefactions in the hands of fir Charles Afgyll, alderman, and com- 
 pany, bankers in Lombard-Street, or with meffieurs Campbell and Coutts, 
 bankers in the Strand." 
 
 Theodore however remained in the liberties of the Fleet till December 
 1756, when taking a chair, for which he had not money to pay, he went to 
 the Portuguefe minifter's in Audley-ltreet ; but not finding him at home, the 
 baron prevailed on the chairmen to carry him to a taylor's in Chapel-ftreet, 
 Soho, who having formerly known him, and pitying his diftrefs, harboured 
 him in his houfe. Theodore fell ill there the next day, and, dying in a 
 few days, was buried in the church-yard of faint Anne in that parifh. 
 
 A ftrong peculiarity of circumftances accompanied him to the laft : his 
 manner of obtaining his liberty was not fo extraordinary as what attended it. 
 Going to Guild-hall to demand the benefit of the act, he was alked, " What 
 •effects he had?" He anfwered, " Nothing but the kingdom of Corfica." It 
 was accordingly regiftered for the benefit of his creditors. 
 
 So fingular a deftiny was thought worthy of a memorial, that might point 
 out the chief adventures and even the place of interment of this remarkable 
 
 perfbnage. 
 
158 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 perfonage. The author of this memoir erected a marble near his grave, with, 
 a crown, taken from one of his coins, and with this infcription : 
 
 Near this Place is interred 
 
 Theodore King of Corfica, 
 
 Who died in this Parish, December it, 1756,. 
 Immediately after leaving the King's -Bench-Prifon 
 By the Benefit of the Acl: of Infolvency 
 In Confequence of which he Regiftered 
 
 His Kingdom of Corfica 
 
 For the Use. of his Creditors. 
 
 The Grave, great Teacher, to a Level brings 
 Heroes and Beggars, GaHey-ftaves- and Kings.. i 
 But Theodore this Moral learn-'d, ere dead \ 
 Fate pour'd its Leffons on his living Head, 
 Beftow'd a Kingdom, and deny'd him Breajd*. 
 
 The 
 
FUGITIVE 
 
 PIECES. 
 
 The WORLD. 
 
 By ADAM FITZ-ADAM. 
 
 Numb. X. Thursday, March 8, 1753. 
 
 THE great men, who introduced the reformation into thefe kingdoms, 
 were fo fenfible of the necerTity of maintaining devotion in the minds 
 of the vulgar by fome external objects, by fomevvhat of ceremony and form, 
 that they refrained from entirely ripping off all ornament from the drapery of 
 religion. When they were purging the calendar of legions of vifionary faints, 
 they took due care to defend the niches of real martyrs from profanation. 
 They preferved the holy festivals, which had been confecrated for many ages 
 to the great luminaries of the church, and at once paid obfervance to the 
 memory of the good, and fell in with the popular humour, which loves to 
 rejoice and mourn at the difcretion of the almanack. 
 
 The Fanatics in the reign of Charles the firft loudly condemned the reten- 
 tion of this practice, and were fuch fuccefsful preachers, as to procure obe- 
 dience to the doctrines they taught; that is, they infufed greater bigotry 
 into their congregations againft rules, than the warmeft enthufiafts of former 
 times had been able to propagate for the obfervation of times and feafons. 
 But as molt contradictions run into extremes, it muft be allowed that the 
 Prefbyterians foon grew as fuperftitious as the moft high-flown zealots of the 
 Ertablifhed Church. King James the firlt had endeavoured to turn Sunday 
 into a weekly wake by the book of Sports: the Prefbyterians ufed it often for 
 a fall-day *. In the court of king Charles, Chriltmas was a feafon of 
 
 * One of Dr. Calamy's faft-fermons was preached on Chriflmas-day, 1644, before the houfe of 
 lords. 
 
 mafques 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 mafques and revels : under the Covenant it was ftill a mafquerading time ; 
 for devotion may be as much difguifed by hypocritic forrow and fackcloth,.. 
 as by painted vizors and harlequin jackets. 
 
 In fo enlightened an age as the prefent, I mail perhaps be ridiculed if I 
 hint, as my opinion, that the oblervation of certain feftivals is fomething. 
 more than a mere political inftitution. I cannot however help thinking that 
 even nature itfelf concurs to confirm my fentiment. Philolbphers and free- 
 thinkers tell us that a general fyftem was laid down at firft, and that no de- 
 viations have been made to accommodate it to any fubfequent events, or to 
 favour and authorize any human inftitutions. When the reformation of the 
 calendar was in agitation, to the great difguft of many worthy perfons who 
 urged how great the harmony was in the old eftablifhment between the holi- 
 days and their attributes (if I may call them fo), and what a confufion would 
 follow if Michaelmas-day, for inftance, was not to be celebrated when 
 Hubble geefe are in their higheft perfection ; it was replied, that fuch a pro- 
 priety was merely imaginary, and would be loft of itfelf, even without any 
 alteration of the calendar by authority: for if the errors in it were fuffbred to 
 go on, they would in a certain number of years produce fuch a variation, 
 that we fhould be mourning for good king Charles on a falfe thirtieth of 
 January, at a time of year when our anceftors \ifed to be tumbling over head 
 and heels in Greenwich-park in honour of Whitfuntide ; and at length be 
 choofing king and queen for twelfth-night, when we ought to be admiring 
 the London Prentice at Bartholomew-fair,, 
 
 Cogent as thefe reafons may feem, yet I think I can confute them from 
 the teftimony of a (landing miracle, which, not having fubmitted to the falli- 
 ble authority of an act of parliament, may well be faid to put a fupernatural 
 negative on the wifdom of this world. My readers no doubt are already aware 
 that I have in my eye the wonderful thorn of Glaftonbury*, which, though 
 nitherto regarded as a trunk of popi£h impofture, has notably exerted itfelf 
 as the moft proteftant plant in the univerfe. It is well known that the cor- 
 rection of the calendar was ena£ted by pope Gregory the thirteenth, and that 
 the reformed churches have with a proper fpirit of oppofition adhered to the 
 
 * A very fenfible fermon was publlfhed on the old Chriftmas. Several advertifements were 
 this occafion, without a name ; it having been printed pro & com 
 pretended that the Glaftonbury thorn blew on 
 
 3. old 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 161 
 
 old calculation of the emperor Julius Caefar, who was by no means a papift. 
 * Near two years ago the popifti calendar was brought in ; ( I hope by per- 
 fons well-affected I) certain it is that the Glaftonbury thorn has prcferved its 
 *f inflexibility, and obferved its old anniverfary. Many thoufand fpeclators 
 vilited it on the parliamentary Chriftmas-day — Not a bud was to be feen ! — 
 On the true Nativity it was covered with bloffoms. One mull be an infidel 
 indeed to fpum at fuch authority. Had I been conlulted (and mathematical 
 ftudies have not been the moil: inconfiderable of my fpeculations), inftead of 
 turning the calendar topfy-turvy by fantaftic calculations, I fliould have pro- 
 pofed to regulate the year by the infallible Somerfetfhire thorn, and to have 
 reckoned the months from Chriftmas-day, which fliould always have been 
 •kept as the Glaftonbury thorn fliould blow. 
 
 Many inconveniencies, to be Hire, would follow from this fyftem ; but as 
 holy things ought to be the firft consideration of a religious nation, the in- 
 conveniencies fliould be overlooked. The thorn can never blow but on the 
 true Chriftmas-day : and confequently the apprehenfion of the year's be- 
 coming inverted by fticking to the Julian account can never hold. If the 
 courfe of the fun varies, aftronomers may find out fome way to adjuft that : 
 but it is prepofterous, not to fay prefumptuous, to be celebrating Chriftmas- 
 day, when the Glaftonbury thorn, which certainly muft know times and fea- 
 fons better than an almanack-maker, declares it to be herefy. 
 
 Nor is Chriftmas-day the only jubilee which will be morally difturbed by 
 this innovation. There is another anniverfary of no lefs celebrity among 
 Englifhmen, equally marked by a marvellous concomitance of circumftances, 
 and which I venture to prognofticate will not attend the erroneous calculation 
 of the prefent fyftem. The day I mean is the firft of April. The oldeft 
 tradition affirms, that fuch an infatuation attends the firft day of that month, 
 as no forefight can efcape, no vigilance can defeat. Deceit is fuccefsful on 
 that day out of the mouths of babes and fucklings. Grave citizens have been 
 bit upon it ; ufurers have lent their money on bad fecurity ; experienced 
 matrons have married very difappointing young fellows ; mathematicians 
 have Sniffed the longitude ; alchemifts the philofopher's ftone ; and politicians 
 preferment, on that day. 
 
 * This bill was brought in by lord Chefter- dictate for Weftminfter, who advertifed this year, 
 field and lord Macclesfield, the latter of whom That he would perfift inflexibly in the part he had 
 publifhed his fpeech on that occafion. taken, but in two days gave up the election. 
 
 \ This alludes to fir George Vandeput, can- 
 
 Vol. I. Y What 
 
l6>2 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES 
 
 What confufion will not follow, if the great body of the nation are difap- 
 pointed of their peculiar holiday ! The country was formerly difturbed with- 
 very fatal quarrels about the celebration of Eafter : and no wife man will 
 tell me, that it is not as reafonable to fall out for the obfervance of April-fool- 
 day. Can any benefits ariiing from a regulated calendar make amends for an 
 occafion of new feels ? How many warm men may relent an attempt to play 
 them off on a falfe firft of April, who would have lubmitted to the cuftom of 
 being made fools on the old computation ! If our clergy come to be divided 
 about folly's anniverfary, we may well expect all the mifchiefs attendant on. 
 religious wars ; and we mall have reafon to wifh that the Glaftonbury thorn 
 would declare as remarkably in favour of the true April-fool-day, as it has in 
 behalf of the genuine Chriftmas. 
 
 Prudentius * was fo great a zealot for the obfervation of certain feftivals, 
 as to believe that the very damned have a holiday, or remiffion from their tor- 
 ments, on the anniverfary of the Refurrection. I will not fay that we ought to 
 follow their reckoning, nor fhall I defend the orthodoxy of the tenet. I 
 only mention it to fhow how many interefts may be affected by this regula- 
 tion, and how impofTible it is to make adequate provifions againft all the 
 unforefeen mifchiefs that may enfue from diffurbing the eftablifhed com- 
 putation. 
 
 There are many other inconveniencies, which I might lament very em- 
 phatically, but none of weight enough to be compared with thofe I have 
 mentioned. I fhall only hint at a whole fyftem overturned by this revolu- 
 tion in the calendar, and no provinon, that I have heard of, made by the 
 legiflature to remedy it. Yet in a nation which beflows fuch ample rewards 
 on new-year and birth-day odes, it is aftonifhing that the late act of parlia- 
 ment mould have overlooked that ufeful branch of our poetry, which confifts 
 in couplets, faws, and proverbs, peculiar to certain days and feafons. Why 
 was not a new fet of diftichs provided by the late reformers ? or at leaff. a 
 claufe inferted in the act, enjoining the poet-laureat, or fome beneficed genius, 
 to prepare and new-caff, the eftablifhed rhymes for public ufe ? Were our 
 aftronomers fo ignorant as to think that the old proverbs would ferve for their 
 new-fangled calendar ? Could they imagine that -J- faint Swithin would ac- 
 
 * A chriftian poet. faint Swithin's-day O. S. it will rain for forty 
 
 \ There is a vulgar notion, that if it rains on fubfequent days. 
 
 commodate 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 163 
 
 commodate his rainy planet to the convenience of their calculations ? Who 
 that hears the following verfes, but muft grieve for the mepherd and huf- 
 bandman, who may have all their prognoftics confounded, and be at a lofs 
 to know beforehand the fate of their markets ? Ancient fages fung, 
 
 " If faint Paul be fair and clear, 
 
 " Then will betide a happy year ; 
 
 * 6 But if it either fnow or rain, 
 
 ** Then will be dear all kinds of grain : 
 
 14 And if the wind doth blow aloft, 
 
 " Then wars will vex the realm full oft.'* 
 
 I have declared againft meddling with politics, and therefore fhall fay 
 nothing of the important hints contained in the laft lines : yet if * certain 
 ill-boding appearances abroad mould have an ugly end, I cannot help faying 
 that I fhall afcribe their evil tendency to our having been lulled alleep by 
 refting our faith on the calm weather on the pretended converfion of faint 
 Paul ; whereas it was very bluftering on that feftival, according to the good 
 old account, as I honeftly, though vainly, endeavoured to convince a great 
 minifter of ftate, whom I do not think proper to mention. 
 
 But to refurn to April-fool-day: I mud: entreat my readers and admirers to 
 be very particular in their obfervations on that holiday, both according to 
 the new and old reckoning. And I beg that they will tranfmit to me, or my 
 fecretary Mr. Dodfley, a faithful and attefted account of the hap that betides 
 them or their acquaintance on each of thofe days ; how often and in what 
 manner they make or are made fools ; how they mifcarry in attempts to 
 furprife, or baffle any mares laid for them. I do not doubt but it will be 
 found that the balance of folly lies greatly on the fide of the old firft of 
 April ; nay, I much quefKon whether infatuation will have any force on 
 what I call the falfe April-fool-day. I mould take it very kind, if any of 
 my friends who may happen to be fharpers, would try their luccefs on the 
 fictitious feftival ; % and if they make fewer dupes than ordinary, I flatter 
 myfelf that they will unite their endeavours with mine in decrying and ex- 
 ploding a reformation, which only tends to difcountenance good old practices 
 and venerable fuperftitions. 
 
 * Alludes to the ftoppage of the payment on the Silefian loan, by the king of Pruflia. 
 
 Y 2 The 
 
164 
 
 FUGITIVE 
 
 PIECES. 
 
 The W O R L D 
 
 By ADAM FITZ.-ADA1 
 
 Numb. XIV*. Thurfday, April 5, 1753... 
 
 I DO not doubt hut it Ls already abferved- that I write fewer letters to my- 
 felf than any of my predeeeffors. It is not from being lefs- acquainted, 
 with my own merit, but I really look upon myfelf as fuperior to fuch little 
 arts of fame. Compliments, which I mould be obliged to fhroud under the 
 name of a third perfon, have very little relifh for me. If I am not considera- 
 ble enough to pronounce ex cathedra that I Adam Fitz-Adam know how to 
 rally the follies and decide upon the cuftoms of the world with more wit, 
 humour, learning and tafte, than any man living, I have in vain undertaken 
 the fcheme of this paper. Who would be regulated by the judgment of a, 
 man who is not the moft felf-fufficient perfon alive ? Why did all the pretty 
 women in England, in- the reign of queen Anne, fubmit the government of their, 
 fans, hoods, hoops and patches to the Spectator, but becaufe he pronounced, 
 himfelf the beft critic in fafhions ? Why did half the nation imbibe their, 
 politics from the Craftfman, but becaufe Caleb d'Anvers allured them that, 
 he underftood the maxims of government and the conftitution of his country 
 better than any minifter or patriot of the time ? Throned as I am in a perfect 
 good opinion of my own abilities, I fcorn to tafte the fatisfaction of praiie 
 from my own pen — and (to be humble for once) I own, if there is any fpecies 
 of writing of which 1 am not perfect matter, it is the epiftolary. My defi- 
 cience in this particular is happily common to me with the greater!: men : I 
 can even go farther, and declare that it is the fair part of the creation which 
 excells in that province. Eafe without affectation, the politeft expreffion, 
 the happieft art of telling news or trifles, the moft engaging turns of fenti- 
 
 9 ment 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 165 
 
 fnent or pafTion, are frequently found in letters from women who have lived 
 in a fphere at all above the vulgar ; while, on the other fide, orators write af- 
 fectedly, minifters obfcurely, poets floridly, learned men pedantically, and 
 foldiers tolerably, when they can fpell. One would not have one's daughter 
 write like Eloila, becaufe one would not have one's daughter feel what fhe 
 felt; yet who ever wrote fo movingly, fo to the heart? The amiable ma- 
 dame de Sevigne is the ftandard of eafy engaging writing: to call her the 
 pattern of eloquent writing will not be thought an exaggeration, when I 
 refer my readers to her accounts of the death of marfhal Turenne: fome lit- 
 tle fragments of her letters, in the appendix to Ramfay's life of that hero, 
 give a ftronger picture of him than the hiftorian was able to do in his volu- 
 minous work. If this fair one's epiftles are liable to any cenfure, it is for a 
 fault in which (he is not- likely to be often imitated,, the excels* of tendernefs 
 for her daughter... 
 
 The Italians are as proud of a perfon of the fame fex: Lucretia Gonzaga * 
 was fo celebrated for the eloquence of her letters and the purity of their ftyle, 
 that the very notes to her fervants were collected and publifhed. I have 
 never read the collection : one or two billets that I have met with, have not 
 entirely all the delicacy of madame de Sevigne. In one to her footman the 
 fignora Gonzaga reprehends him for not readily obeying dame Lucy her 
 houfekeeper; and in another addreffed to the fame Mrs. Lucy, me fays, " If 
 Livia will not be obedient,. turn up her coats and whip her till her flem be 
 black and blue, and. the blood run down to her heels." To be fure, this 
 founds a little oddly to Englifti ears, but may be very elegant when modu- 
 lated by the harmony of Italian, liquids. 
 
 Several worthy perfons-have laid down rules for the composition of letters>, 
 but I fear it is an art which only nature can teach. I remember in one of 
 thofe books (it was written by a German) there was a ftrict injunction not to 
 mention yourfelf before you had introduced the perfon of your correfpondent ; 
 that is, you mufl never ufe the monofyllable I before the pronoun You. The 
 Italians have ftated expreffions to be ufed to different ranks of men, and know 
 exactly when to fubfcribe themfelves the devoted or the mod devoted Have of 
 the illuftrious or molt, eminent perfon to whom they have the honour to write. 
 
 * See her article in the General Di&ionary. 
 
 It 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 It is true, in that country they have fo clogged correfpondence with forms 
 and civilities, that they ieldom make ufe of their own language, but gene- 
 rally write to one another in French. 
 
 Among many inftances of "beautiful letters from ladies, and of the contrary 
 from our fex, I mall ielect two, which are very lingular in their kind. The 
 companion, to be lure, is not entirely fairs but when I mention fome parti- 
 culars of the male author, one might expect a little more elegance, a little 
 better orthography, a little more decorum, and a good deal lefs abfurdity, 
 than feem to have met in one head, which had feen fo much of the world, 
 which pretended fo much to literature, and which had worn fo long one of 
 the iirft crowns in Europe. This perfonage was the emperor Maximilian, 
 grandfather of Charles the fifth. His reign was long, lometimes mining, 
 often unprofperous, very often ignominious. His ficklenefs, prodigality and 
 indigence were notorious. The Italians called him Pochi-danari, or the 
 Penny lefs ; a quality not more habitual to him than his propenfity to repair 
 his mattered fortunes by the moft unbecoming means. He ferved under our 
 Henry the eighth, as a common foldier, at the liege of Terouenne for an 
 hundred crowns a day : he was bribed to the attempt againft Pifa, and 
 bribed to give it over. In Ihort, no potentate ever undertook to engage him 
 in a treaty without firif. offering him money. Yet this vagabond monarch, as 
 if the annals of his reign were too glorious to be defcribed by a plebeian pen, 
 or as if they were worthy to be defcribed at all, took the pains to write his own 
 life in Dutch verfe. There was another book of his compofition in a dif- 
 ferent way, which does not reflect much more luftre upon his memory than 
 his own Dutch epic ; this was what he called his Livre rouge, and was a re- 
 gifter of feventeen mortifications which he had received from Louis the 
 twelfth of France, and which he intended to revenge on the firft opportunity. 
 After a variety of fhifts, breach of promifes, alliances and treaties, he almoft 
 duped his vain cotemporary Henry the eighth, with a propofal of religning 
 the empire to him, while himfelf was meditating, what he thought, an ac- 
 celhon of dignity even to the imperial diadem : in fhort, Ln the latter part of 
 his life Maximilian took it into his head to canvafs for the papal Tiara. Se- 
 veral methods were agitated to compafs this object of his ambition : one, 
 and not the leaff. ridiculous, was to pretend that the patriarchal dignity was 
 included in the imperial ; and by virtue o.f that definition he really aflumed 
 
 4 the 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 167 
 
 the title of Pontifex Maximus, copying the pagan lords of Rome on his way 
 to the iovereio-nty of the Chriftian Church.. Money he knew was the fureft 
 method, but the leaft at his command : it was to procure a fupply of that 
 neccfTary ingredient that he wrote the following letter to his daughter Mar- 
 garet*, duchefs dowager of Savoy, and governels of the Netherlands- 
 
 * ■ ''RES chiere & tres amee fylle, je entendu l'avis que vous m'avez 
 donne par Guyllain Pingun notre garderobes. dont avons encore 
 mieux pense. Et ne trouvons point pour nulle refun bon que nous nous 
 devons franchement marier, macs avons plus avant mys notre deliberation &: 
 volonte de james plus hanter faem nue. Et envoyons demain Monfr. de 
 Gnrce Evefque a Rome devers le pape pour trouver fachon que nous puyfTuns 
 accorder avec ly de nous prendre pour ung coadjuteur, affin que apres fa 
 mort pouruns eftre allure de avoer le papat, & devenir prefter, & apres eftre 
 faint, & que yl vous fera de neceffite que apres ma mort vous feres contraint 
 de me adorer, dont je me trovere bien glorioes. Je envoye fur ce ung pofte 
 devers le roy d'Arogon pour ly prier qu'y nous voulle ayder pour a. ce par- 
 venir, dont il eft aufly content, moynant que je refigne l'empir a. noftre 
 comun fyls Charles, de fela aufly je me luvs contente. Je commance aufly 
 pracliker les Cardinaulx, dont ii C. ou iii C. mylle ducats me ferunt ung 
 grand fervice, aveque la partialite qui eft deja entre eos. Le roy d'Arogon a. 
 mande a fon ambaxadeur que yl veulent favouryfer le papat a nous. Je vous 
 prie, tenes cette materre empu fecret, ofti bien en brieff jours je creins que 
 yl faut que tout le monde le fache, car bien mal efti polfible de pratiker 
 ung tel (y grand matere fecretement, pour laquell yl faut avoer de tant de 
 gens & de argent, fuccurs & pratike, & a Diu, faet de la main de votre bon 
 pere Maximilianus futur pape,. Ie xviii jour de Setembre.. Le papa a encor 
 les vyevers dubls, & ne peult longement fyvre." 
 
 * This princefs had been efpoufeel in her non- great tranquillity compofed and faftened with 
 
 age to Charles the eighth, but before confum- them the following diftich : 
 
 mation was fent back to her father. She was „ „ .„ , ., .... 
 
 n . , . r o • 1 1 " v_y gilt Margole, noble Demoifelle, 
 
 next contracted to the prince of bpain : but be- „ ' , . Q „ 
 
 n r • 1 m t. Deux fois manee, & morte Pucelle. 
 
 ing in a great ltorm at fea in her paflage to her 
 
 bridegroom, fhe, according to the cuftom of However, (he efcaped, and lived to have two real 
 that age, tied her chief jewels to her arm, that hufbands, the prince above mentioned, and the 
 'her body, if found, might be known and with duke of Savoy. 
 
 This 
 
1 66 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 This curious piece, which it is impoftible to tranflate (for what language 
 can give an adequate idea of very bad old German French ?) is to be found 
 in the fourth volume of Letters of Louis the twelfth, printed at BrufTels by 
 Fr. Foppens in 171 2. It will be fufficient to inform luch of my readers as 
 do not underftand French, that his imperial majefty acquaints his beloved 
 daughter that he defigns never to frequent naked women any more, but to 
 ufe all his endeavours to procure the papacy, and then to turn prieft, and at 
 length become a faint, that his dear daughter may be obliged to pray to him, 
 which he mall reckon matter of exceeding glory. He expreffes great want 
 of two or three hundred thoufand ducats to facilitate the bufmefs, which he 
 defires may be kept very fecret, though he does not doubt but all the world 
 will know it in two or three days ; and concludes with figning himfelf 
 future Pope, 
 
 As a contraft. to this fcrap of imperial folly, I mall prefent my readers 
 with the other letter I mentioned. It was written by the lady Anne, widow 
 of the earls of Dorfet and Pembroke (the life of the former of whom me 
 wrote) and heirefs of the great houfe of Clifford-Cumberland, from which, 
 among many noble reversions, fhe enjoyed the borough of Appleby. Sir 
 Jofeph Williamfon, fecretary of itate to Charles the fecond, wrote to name 
 .a candidate to her for that borough : the brave countefs, with all the fpirit 
 of her anceftors, and with all the eloquence of independent Greece, returned 
 this laconic anfwer. 
 
 " T Have been bullied by an Ufurper, I have been neglected by a Court, 
 but I will not be dictated to by a Subject ; your man fha'n't ftand. 
 
 ANNE DORSET, 
 PEMBROKE and MONTGOMERY." 
 
 The 
 
FUGITIVE 
 
 PIECES. 
 
 169 
 
 The WORLD. 
 
 By ADAM FITZ-ADAM. 
 
 Numb. XXVIII. Thurfday, July 12, 1753. 
 
 Pauci dignofcere jiojjunt 
 
 Vera bona, atque illis multum diver/a. — Juv. 
 
 IT is a common obfervation, that though happinefs is every man's aim, 
 and though it is generally purfued by a gratification of the predominant 
 paflion, yet few have acutenefs enough to difcover the points which would 
 effectually procure the long-fought end. One cannot but wonder that fuch 
 intenfe application as moft of us beftow on the cultivation of our favourite 
 dentes, mould yet leave us ignorant of the moft effential objects of our ftudy. 
 For my part, I was fo early convinced of the truth of what I have afferted, 
 that inftead of fearching for what would contribute moft to my own hap- 
 pinefs, I have fpent great part of my life in the ftudy of what may extend 
 the enjoyment of others. That knowledge I flatter myfelf I have diicovered, 
 and fhall now difclofe to the world. I beg to be attended to : I beg man- 
 kind will believe that I know better than any of them what will afcertain the 
 felicity of their lives. I am not going to impart fo great (though fo often 
 revealed) a fecret, as that it is religion or virtue : few would believe me * 
 fewer would try the recipe. In fpite of the philofophy of the age, in 
 ipite of the gravity of my character, and of the decency which I hope I have 
 hitherto moft fanctimonioufly obferved, I muft avow my perfuafion, that the 
 ienfual pleafure of love is the great cordial of life, and the only fpecific for 
 removing the anxieties of our own paffions, or for fupporting the injuries 
 xmd iniquities which we fuffer from thofe of other men. 
 
 Vol. L Z « Well ! 
 
1 70 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 " Well ! (mail I be told) and is this yonr admirable difcovery ? Is this 
 the arcanum that has efcaped the penetration of all enquirers in all ages? 
 What other doctrine has been taught by the mod fenfible philofophers? Was 
 not this the text of the fermons of Epicurus ? Was not this the theory, 
 and pradHce too, of the experienced Alcibiades ? What other were the 
 tenets of- the fage lord Rochester, or of the mifiionary Saint Evremont ?" 
 ■ — It is very true ; and a thoufand other founders of feels, nay of religious 
 orders, have taught — or at lead practifed — the fame doctrines. But 1 pre- 
 tend to introduce fuch refinements into the fyftem of fenfuality, as fhali 
 vindicate the difcovery to myfelf, and throw at a didance the minute 
 philofophers, who (if they were my forerunners) only ferved to lead the 
 world adray. 
 
 Hear then in one word the myderious precept ! " Young women are not 
 the proper objects of fenfual love : it is the matron, the hoary fair, 
 who can give, communicate, infure happinels." I might enumerate a thou- 
 fand reafons to enforce my doctrine, as the ficklenefs of youth, the caprices 
 of beauty and its tranhent date, the jealoufy from rivals, the didraclion from 
 having children, the important avocations of drefs, and the infinite occupa- 
 tions of a pretty woman, which endanger or divide her fentiments from be- 
 ing always fixed on the faithful lover ; and none of which combat the affec- 
 tions of the grateful, tender, attentive matron. But as one example is 
 worth a thoufand reafons, I fhall recommend my plan by pointing out the 
 extreme happinefs which has attended fuch difcreet heroes as are commemo- 
 rated in the annals of love for having offered up their hearts at ancient mrines; 
 and I fhall clearly demondrate by precedents, that feveral ladies in the bloom 
 of their wrinkles have infpired more lading and more fervent paffions, than 
 the greated beauties who had fcarce lod fight of their teens. The fair young 
 creatures of the prefent hour will forgive a preference which is the refult of 
 deep meditation, great reading, and dric~l impartiality, when they reflect, 
 that they can fcarce contrive to be young above a dozen years, and may be 
 old for fifty or fixty ; and they may believe me, that after forty they will 
 value one lover more, than they do twenty now ; a fenfation of happinefs, 
 which they will find increafe as they advance in years. I cannot but obferve 
 with pleafure that the legiflature itfelf feems to coincide * with my way of 
 
 * This alludes to the marriage-act palTed at the conclufion of the preceding feffion. 
 
 thinking. 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 thinking, and has very prudently enacted that young ladies fhall not enter fo 
 early into the bonds of love, when they are incapable of reflection, and of 
 all the ferious duties which belong to an union of hearts : — a fentiment, 
 which indeed our laws feem always to have had in view ; for, unlefs there 
 was implanted in our natures a ftrong temptation towards the love of 
 elderly women, why fhould the very firft prohibition in the table of con- 
 ianguinity forbid a man to marry his grand-mother ? 
 
 The firft heroine we read of, whofe charms were proof againft the injuries 
 of time, was the accomplifhed Sarah : I think the moft moderate compu- 
 tations make her to be ninety when that wanton monarch Abimelech would 
 have undermined her virtue. But as doubtlefs the obfervance of that virtue 
 had been the great foundation of the continuance of her beauty, and as the 
 ngidnefs of it rather exempts her from, than expofes her as an object of my 
 doctrine, I mail fay no more of that lady : efpecially, as her being obliged to 
 wear a lack to hide a big-belly at a very unfeafonable age, claflies with one 
 of my ftanding arguments for the love of elderly women. 
 
 Helen, the beautiful Helen, if there is any trufting to claftic parifti- 
 regifters, was fourfcore when Paris ftole her ; and though the war lafted 
 ten years after that on her account, monfieur Homer, who wrote their ro- 
 mance, does not give any hint of the gallant young prince having mowed 
 the leaft decay of paffion or fymptom of inconftancy : a fidelity, which in 
 all probability was at leaft as much owing to the experience of the dame, 
 and to her knowledge in the refinements of plealure, as to her bright eyes, 
 unfaded complexion, or the everlafting lilies and rofes of her cheeks. 
 
 I am not clear that length of years, efpecially in heroic minds, does not 
 increaie rather than abate the fentimental flame. The great Elizabeth, 
 whole paffion for the unfortunate earl of EfTex is juftly a favourite topic with 
 all who delight in romantic hiftory, was full fixtv-eight when fhe condemned 
 her lover to death for flighting her endearments. And, if I mi^ht inftance 
 in our own fex, the charming, the meritorious Antony was not far from 
 feventy before he had fo much talte as to lacrifice the meaner paftion of am- 
 bition, nay the world itfelf, to love. 
 
 But it is France, that kingdom fo exquifitely judicious in the affairs of 
 love, from whence we may copy the arts of happinefs, as well as their other 
 
 Z 2 difcoveries 
 
172 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 difcoveries in pleafure. The monarchs of that nation have more than once 
 taught the world by their example, that a fine woman, though pair, her* 
 grand climacteric, maybe butjult touching the meridian of her charms- 
 Henry the fecond and Louis the fourteenth will be for ever memorable for 
 the paffions they fo long felt for the duchefs of Valentinois and madame 
 de Maintenon. The former, in the heat of youth and profpecl of empire, 
 became a (lave to the refpectable attractions of Diana de Poitiers, many 
 years after his injudicious * father had quitted the polTeffion of her, on the 
 filly apprehenfion that fhe was growing old : and to the laft moment of his 
 life and reign, Henry was a conftant, jealous adorer of her ftill' ripening 
 charms. When the age was over-run with aftroiogy, fuperftition, bigotry, 
 and notions of necromancy, king Henry ftill idolized a woman, who had. 
 not only married her f grand-daughter, then a celebrated beauty, but who, 
 if any other prince had reigned, was ancient enough to have come within 
 the defcription of forcery : fo little do the vulgar diilinguifh between the 
 ideas of an old witch and a fine woman. The paffion of the other monarch 
 was no lcfs remarkable. That hero, who had gained fo many battles by 
 proxy, had prelided in perfon at fo many tournaments, had raifed fuch 
 water-works, and fhed fuch ftreams of heretic blood, and, which was ftill 
 more glorious, had enjoyed fo many of the fineft. women in Europe, was at 
 laft captivated by an old governante, and fighed away whole years at the 
 feet of his venerable miftrefs as fhe worked at her tent with fpeclacles. If 
 Louis le Grand was not a judge of pleafure, who can pretend to be ? If 
 he was, in favour of what age did he give the golden apple ? 
 
 I mall clofe my catalogue of ancient miftrefTes with the renowned Ninon 
 L'enclos, a lady whofe life alone is fufficient to inculcate my doctrine in its 
 ntmofl force. I mall fay nothing of her numerous conquefts for the nrft 
 half of her life : fhe had wit, youth, and beauty, three ingredients which 
 will always attract filly admirers. It was not till her fifty-fixth year that her 
 fuperior merit diftinguifhed itfelf ; and from that to her ninetieth fhe went 
 on improving in the real arts and charms of love. How unfortunate am I, 
 that fhe did not live a few years longer, that I might have had the opportu- 
 nity of wearing her chains ! — It was in her fifty-fixth year that the chevalier 
 
 * Francis the firft. It is faid that the father the afFe&ion of that prince. However, he quit- 
 of Diana de Poitiers being condemned to death, ted her for the duchefle d' Eftampes. 
 bis daughter obtained not only his pardon, but f Madernoifelle de la Mark, 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 de Villiers, a natural Ton whom me had had by the comte deGerze, arrived 
 at Paris from the provinces, where he had been educated without any know- 
 ledge of his real parents. He faw his mother ; he fell in love with her. 
 The increafe, the vehemence of his paffion gave the greater!: difquiets to the 
 affectionate matron. At laft, when nothing but a difcovery of the truth could 
 put a ftop, as me thought, to the impetuofity of his attempts, fhe carried 
 him into her bed-chamber. — Here my readers will cafdy conceive the tranf-% 
 ports of a young lover, juft on the brink of happinefs with a charming mif- 
 trefs of near three-fcore ! — As the adventurous youth would have pulhed his 
 enterprifes, fhe checked him, and, pointing to a clock, faid, " Raih boy, 
 look there ! At that hour, two-and-twenty years ago, I was delivered of you 
 in this very bed !" It is a certain fact, that the unfortunate, abafhed young 
 man flew into the garden and fell upon his fword. This cataftrophe had like 
 to have deprived the age of the moft accomplifhed miftrefs that ever adorned 
 the Cytherean annals. It was above twenty years before the afflicted mother 
 would liften to any addreffes of a tender nature. At length the polite abbe 
 de Gedoyn prefled and obtained an affignation. He came and found the 
 enchanting Ninon lying on a couch, like the grandmother of the Loves, in 
 the moft gallant difhabille ; and, what was ftill more delightful, difpofed to 
 indulge his utmoft wiihes. After the moft charming endearments, he afked 
 her — but with the greateft refpect — Why me had fo long deferred the com- 
 pletion of his happinefs ? " Why," replied fhe, " I muft confefs it pro- 
 ceeded from a remain of vanity : I did pique myfelf upon having a lover at 
 paft fourscore, and it was but yefterday that I was eighty complete," 
 
 The 
 
17+ 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 The WORLD. 
 
 By ADAM FITZ-ADAM. 
 
 Numb. CIII. TJiurfday, December 19, 1754. 
 
 I AM never better pleafed than when I can vindicate the honour of my na- 
 tive country: at the fame time, I would not endeavour to defend it pre- 
 pofteroufly, nor to contradict, the eyes, the fenfes of mankind, out of ftark good 
 patriotifm. The fluctuating condition of the things of this world neceffarily 
 produces a change in manners and morals, as well as in the face of countries 
 and cities. Climates cannot operate fo powerfully on constitutions, as to 
 preferve the fame character perpetually to the fame nations. I do not doubt 
 but in fome age of the world the Boeotians will be a very lively whimfical 
 people, and famous for their repartees; and that our neighbour iflanders 
 will be remarkable for the truth of their ideas, and for the precifion with 
 which they will deliver their conceptions. Some men are fo bigoted to an- 
 tiquated notions, that if they were, even in this age, to write a panegyric on 
 old England, they would cram their compofition with encomiums to our 
 good-nature, our bravery, and our hofpitality. This indeed might be a 
 panegyric on old England, but would have very little refemblance to the 
 modern characteriftics of the nation. Our good-nature was neceffarily foured 
 by the fpirit of party; our courage has been a little cramped by the act of par- 
 liament that retrained prize-fighting; and hofpitality is totally impracticable, 
 fince a much more laudable cuftom has been introduced, and prevailed uni- 
 verfally, of paying the fervants of other people much more than their mas- 
 ter's dinner coft. Yet we mall always have virtues fufficient to countenance 
 very exalted panegyrics : and if fome of our more heroic qualities are grown 
 obfolete, others of a gentler' caft, and better calculated for the happinefs 
 
 of 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 175 
 
 of fociety, have grown up and diffufed thcmfelves in their room. While we 
 were rough and bold, we could not be polite : while we feafted half a dozen 
 wapentakes with furloins of beef, and jfheep roafted whole, we could not 
 attend to the mechanifm of a plate, no bigger than a crown piece, loaded 
 with the legs of canary birds drcfled a la Pompadour. 
 
 Let nobody ftart at my calling this a polite nation. It fhall be the bufinefs 
 of this paper to prove that we are the moil: polite nation in Europe ; and that 
 France muft yield to us in the extreme delicacy of our refinements. I might 
 urge, as a glaring inftance in which that nation has forfeited her title to po- 
 litenefs, the impertinent fpirit of their parliaments, which, though couched 
 in very civilly-worded remonftrances, is certainly at bottom very ill-bred. 
 They have contradicted their monarch, and croffed his clergy in a manner 
 not to be defended by a people who pique themfelves upon complaifance and 
 attentions. — But'I abominate politics, and, when I am writing in defence of 
 politenefs, mail certainly not blend fo coarfe a fubject with ib civil a theme. 
 
 It is not virtue that conftitutes the politenefs of a nation, but the art of 
 reducing vice to a fyftem that does not mock fociety. " Politeness (as 
 I understand the word) is an univerfal delire of pleafing others (that are not 
 too much below one) in trifles, for a little time ; and of making one's in- 
 tercourfe with them agreeable to both parties, by civility without ceremony, 
 by eafe without brutality, by complaifance without flattery, by acquiefcence 
 without fincerity." A clergyman who puts his patron into a fweat by driving 
 him round the room till he has found the cooleft place for him, is not polite. 
 When Bubbamira changes her handkerchief before you, and wipes her neck, 
 rather than leave you alone while me mould perform the refreming office in 
 next room ; I mould think me is not polite. When Boncoeur fhivers on 
 your dreary hill, where for twenty years you have been vainly endeavouring" 
 to raife reluclant plantations, and yet profeffes that only fome of the trees 
 have been a little kept back by the late dry feafon ; he is not polite : he is 
 more — he is kind. When Sophia is really pleafed with the ftench of a ken- 
 nel, becaufe her hufband likes that fhe mould go and look at a favourite 
 litter ; fhe muft not pretend to politenefs — fhe is only a good wife. If this 
 definition and tbefe inftances are allowed me, it will be difficult to maintain 
 that the nations who have had the moft extenfive renown for politenefs, had 
 any pretenlions to it. The Greeks called all the reft of the world barbarians : 
 
 the 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 the Romans went ftill farther, and treated them as fuch. Alexander, the 
 beft-bred hero among the former, I muft own, was polite, and mowed 
 great attentions for Darius's family; but I queftion, if he had not ex- 
 tended his attentions a little farther to the princefs Statira, whether he 
 -could be pronounced quite well-bred. For the Romans; fo far from having 
 had any notion of treating foreigners with regard, there is not one claffic au- 
 thor that mentions a fingle ball or mafquerade given to any ftranger of dii- 
 tinetion. Nay, it was a common practice with them to tie kings, queens, 
 and women of the firft fafhion of other countries, in couples, like hounds, 
 and drag them along their via Piccadillia in triumph, for the entertainment 
 of their fhopkeepers and 'prentices : — a practice that we mould look upon 
 with horror ! What would The Examiner have faid, if the duke of Marlbo- 
 rough had hauled marfhal Tallard to Saint Paul's or the Royal Exchange be- 
 hind his chariot? How defervedly would the French have called us savages, 
 if we had made marfhal Belleifle pace along the kennel in Fleet-ftreet, or up 
 Holborn, while fome of our minifters or generals called it an ovation ! 
 
 The French, who attempt to fucceed the Romans in empire, and who 
 affect to have fucceeded them in politenefs, have adopted the fame way of 
 thinking, though fo contrary to true good-breeding. They have no idea that 
 an Englimman or a German ever fees a fuit of clothes till he arrives at Paris. 
 They wonder, if you talk of a coach at Vienna, or of a foupe at London : and 
 are fo confident of having monopolized all the arts of civilized life, that, with 
 the greateft complaifance in the world, they affirm to you, That they fup- 
 pofe your dukes and duchefTes live in caves, with only the property of wider 
 forefts than ordinary; and that.A\f milords Anghis, with a great deal of mo- 
 ney, live upon raw flefh, and ride races without breeches or faddles. At 
 their houfes, they receive you with wonder that mocks you, or with indif- 
 ference that mortifies you ; and if they put themfelves to the torture of con- 
 verting with you, after you have taken infinite pains to acquire their lan- 
 guage, it is merely to inform you, that you neither know how to drefs like 
 a fenlible man, nor to eat, drink, game, or divert yourfelf like a chriftian. 
 How different are our attentions to foreigners ! How open our houfes to 
 their nobility, our purfes to their tradefmen! But without drawing antithefes 
 between our politenefs and their ill-breeding, 1 mall produce an inftance in 
 which we have puflied our refinements on the duties of fociety, beyond what 
 the moil civilized nations ever imagined. We are not only well-bred in 
 
 3 common 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 177 
 
 common intercourfe, but our very crimes are tranfaclcd with fuch a foftnefs 
 of manners, that though they may injure, they are fure never to affront your 
 neighbour. The inftance I mean, is the extreme good-breeding which has 
 been introduced into the fcience of robbery, which (coniidering how very 
 frequent it is become) would really grow a nuifance to fociety, if the profef- 
 fora of it had not taken all imaginable precautions to make it as civil a com- 
 merce, as gaming, conveyancing, toad-eating, pimping, or any of the mo- 
 ney-inveigling arts, which had already got an eftablHhed footing in the 
 world. A highwayman would be reckoned a brute, a monster, if he 
 had not all manner of attention not to frighten the ladies ; and none of the 
 great Mr. * Nam's laws are more facred, than that of reftoring any favourite 
 bawble to which a robbed lady has a particular partiality. Now turn your 
 eyes to France. No people upon earth have lefs of the fcavoir vivre than 
 their banditti. No Tartar has lefs douceur in his manner than a French 
 highwayman. They take your money without making you a bow, and your 
 life without making you an apology. This obliges their government to keep 
 up a numerous guet, a fevere police, racks, gibbets, and twenty trouble- 
 fome things, which might all be avoided, if they would only reckon and 
 breed up their thieves to be good company. I know that fome of our lateft 
 imported young gentlemen affirm that the fieur Mandrill f, the terror of the 
 eaftern provinces, learned to dance of Marfeille himfelf, and has frequently 
 lupped with the incomparable Jelliot^. But till 1 hear whether he dies like 
 a gentleman, I mall forbear to rank him with the petit-maitres of our own 
 Tyburn. How extreme is the politeffe of the latter ! Mrs. § Chenevix has 
 not more infinuation when me lells a muff- box of papier-mache, or a berga- 
 mot toothpick-cafe, than a highwayman when he bigs to know if you have 
 no rings nor bank-bills. 
 
 An || acquaintance of mine was robbed a few years ago, and very near 
 fhot through the head by the going off of the piftol of the accomplished 
 M'Lean; vet the whole arlair was conducted with the greateft good-breeding 
 on both fides. The robber, who had only taken a purfe this way, becaufe 
 he had that morning been difappointed of marrying a great fortune, no 
 
 * A remarkable perfon, who for a great num. J A finger in the opera at Paris, 
 ber of years prefixed as mailer of the ceremonies § A fafhionable toy woman, 
 at Bath and Tunbridge. || The author himfelf. 
 
 f A famous French fmuggler. 
 
 Vol. L A a fooner 
 
178 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 fooner returned to his lodgings, than he fent the gentleman two letters of 
 excufes, which, with lefs wit than the epiftles of Voiture, had ten time? 
 more natural and eafy politenefs in the turn of their expreffion. In the poft- 
 fcript, he appointed a meeting at Tyburn at twelve at night, where the gen- 
 tleman might purchafe again any trifles he had lort ; and my friend has been 
 blamed for not accepting the rendezvous, as it feemed liable to be conftrued 
 by ill-natured people into a doubt of the honour of a man, who had given him 
 all the fatisfaction in his power, for having unluckily been near mooting him 
 through the head. 
 
 The Lacedaemonians were the only people,, except the Englifh,. who feem 
 to have put robbery on a right foot ; and I have wondered how a nation that 
 had delicacy enough to underftand robbing on the highway, mould at the- 
 fame time have been fo barbarous, as to efkeem poverty, black-broth and 
 virtue ! We had no highwaymen,, that were men of faihion, tiM we had 
 exploded plum-porridge 
 
 But of all the gentlemen of the road, who have conformed to the manners 
 of the great world--, none feem to me to have carried true politeness- 
 fo far as a late adventurer, whom I beg leave to introduce to my readers 
 under the name of the visiting highwayman* This refined perfon made 
 it a rule to rob none but people he vifited; and whenever he defigned an im- 
 promptu of that kind, dreffed himfelf in a rich fuit, went to the * lady's 
 houfe, aiked for her,, and, not finding her at home, left his name with her 
 porter, after enquiring which way fhe was gone.. He then followed, or met 
 her, on her way home ; propofed his demands, which were generally for 
 fome favourite ring or muff- box that he had feen her wear, and* which he had 
 a mind to wear for her fake ; and then letting her know that he had been to 
 wait on her, took his leave with a cool bow, and without fcampering away ? 
 as other men of fafhion do from a vifit with really the appearance of having 
 ftolen fomethiag. 
 
 As I do not doubt but fuch of my fair readers, as propofe being at home 
 this winter, will be impatient to fend this charming fmuggler (Charles 
 Fleming by name ) a card for their affemblies, I amforry to tell them that he 
 was banged laft week. 
 
 * This happened to Mrs. Cavendilh at Thiftleworth. 
 
 The 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 The WORLD. 
 
 By ADAM FITZ-ADAM. 
 
 Numb. CLX. Thurfday y January 22, 1756. 
 
 To Mr. FIT Z-A D A M. 
 
 I THINK, fir, more than three years are pail: fince you began to beffow 
 your labours on the reformation of the follies of the age. You have 
 more than once hinted at the great fuccefs that has attended your endeavours; 
 but furely, Mr. Fitz-Adam, you deceive yourfelf. Which of your papers 
 has effectuated any real amendment ? Have fewer fools gone to or returned 
 from France fince you commenced author ? Or have fewer French follies 
 been purchafed or propagated by thofe who never were in France ? Do not 
 women, drefTed French, ftill iffue from houfes drefTed Chinefe, to theatres 
 drefTed Italian, in fpite of your grave admonitions ? Do the young men wear 
 lefs claret, or the beauties lefs rouge, in obedience to your lectures ? Do 
 men of faihion, who ufed to fling for a thoufand pounds a throw, now caff, 
 only for five hundred ? Or if they fhould, do you impute it to Your credit 
 with Them, or to Their want of credit? I do not mean, fir, to depreciate 
 the merit of your lucubrations : in point of effect, I believe they have ope- 
 rated as great reformation as the difcourfes of the divine Socrates, or the 
 fermons of the affecting Tillotfon. I really believe you would have corrected 
 that young Athenian marquis, Alcibiades, as foon as his philofophic precep- 
 tor. What I would urge is, that all the preachers in the world, whether 
 jocofe, fatiric, fevere, or damnatory, will never be able to bring about a 
 reformation of manners, by the mere charms of their eloquence or exhorta- 
 tion. You cannot Imagine, Mr. Fitz-Adam, how much edge it would 
 
 A a 2 give 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 give to your wit to be backed by a little temporal authority. We may in 
 vain regret the (implicity of manners of our anceftors, while there are no 
 fumptuary laws to reftrain luxury, no ecclefiaftic cenfures to caftigate vice. 
 I mall offer to your readers an infiance or two, to elucidate the monftrous 
 disproportion between our riches and extravagance, and the frugality of for- 
 mer times; and then produce fome of the wholefome cenfures and penalties, 
 which the elders of the church were empowered to impofe on perfons of the 
 jfirft rank, who contravened the efiablifhed rules of fobriety and decorum. 
 
 How would our progenitors have been aftonimed at reading the very firft 
 article in the late will of a * grocer ! * Imprimis, I give to my ^dear wife 
 one hundred thoufand pounds" A liim exceeding a benevolence, or two fiib- 
 lidies, fome ages ago. Nor was this enormous legacy half the perfonal eftate 
 of the above-mentioned tradesman, on whom I am far from deligning to re- 
 flect : he railed his fortune honeftly and induftrioufly : but I hope fome 
 future antiquarian, (truck with the prodigality of the times, will compute 
 how much lugar and plums muft have been wafted weekly in one incon- 
 liderable parifh in London, or even in one or two ftreets of that parilh, be- 
 fore a fingle fhopkeeper could have raifed four hundred thoufand pounds by 
 retailing thofe and fuch-like commodities. Now let us turn our eyes back 
 to the year 1385, and we fhall find no lefs a perfon than the incomparable 
 and virtuous lady Joan, princefs dowager of Wales, by her laft will and 
 teftament bequeathing the following fimple moveables ; and we may well 
 believe they were the moft valuable of her poffeffions, as fhe divided them 
 between her fon the king, and her other children. To her fon, king Ri- 
 chard, me gave her new bed of red velvet, embroidered with oftrich feathers 
 of nlver, and heads of leopards of gold, with boughs and leaves proceeding 
 from their mouths. Alfo to her fon Thomas, earl of Kent, her bed of red 
 camak, paled with red, and rays of gold ; and to John Holland, her other 
 fon, one bed of red camak. Thefe particulars are faithfully copied from 
 Dugdale -f: an initance of fimplicity and moderation in fo great and illuftrious 
 a princefs, which I fear I mould in vain recommend to my cotemporaries, 
 and which is only likely to be imitated, as all her other virtues are, by 
 the true reprefentative of her fortune and excellence^. 
 
 * One Crafleyn. f Vol. ii. p. 94. X The prefent princefs dowager of Wales. 
 
 I come 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. i8r 
 
 I come now, fir, to thofe proper checks upon licentioufnefs, which, 
 though calculated to ferve the views of a popifh clergy, were undoubtedly 
 great restraints upon immorality and indecency ; and we may lament that 
 iu ch fobcr inftitutions were abolimed with the real abufes of popery. Our 
 ecclefiaftic fupcriors had power to lay fuch fines and mulcts upon wantonnefs, 
 as might raife a revenue to the church and poor, and at the fame time leave 
 the lordly tranfgreffors at liberty to enjoy their darling foibles, if they would 
 but pay for them. Adultery, fornication, drunkennefs, and the other 
 amufements of people of faihion, it would have been in vain to fubje£t to 
 corporal punilhmcnts. To ridicule thofe vices, and laugh them out of date 
 by Tatlers, Spectators and Worlds, was not the talent of monks and confef- 
 fors, who at befr. only knew how to wrap up very coarfe terms in very bald 
 Latin, and jingling verfes. The clergy fleered a third courfe, andafl'umed a 
 province, which I could wifli, Mr. Fitz-Adam, was a little connected with 
 your cenforial authority. If you had power to oblige your fair readers and 
 offenders to do penance in clean linen, for almofr. wearing no linen at all,. I 
 believe it would be an excellent fupplement to your paper of May the 24th, 
 1753. The wifeft exercife that I find recorded of this power of inflicting 
 penance, is mentioned by the fame grave author, from whom I copied the 
 will above mentioned: it happened in the year 1360, in the cafe of a very 
 exalted perfonage, and mows how little the higheft birth could exempt from 
 the fevere infpeclion of thofe judges of manners. The lady Elizabeth, 
 daughter of the marquis of Juliers, and widow of John Plantagenet earl of 
 Kent, uncle of the princefs Joan, before mentioned, having on the death of 
 the earl her hufband retired to the monaflery of Waverly, did (I fuppofe 
 immediately) make a vow of chafiity, and was folemnly veiled a nun there 
 by William de Edendon, bifhop of Winchefter. Somehow or other it hap- 
 pened, that about eight years afterwards, fitter Elizabeth of Waverly became 
 enamoured of a goodly knight, called fir Euflace Drawbridgcourt % fmitten 
 (as tradition fays me affirmed) by his extreme refemblance to her late lord ; 
 
 * FroifTart, fpeaking of this knight, whom he 
 calls d'Auberticourt, and who had made conG- 
 derable conquefts in Champagne and held a do- 
 zen fortrefles there, fays, " II aima done par 
 amours, & depuis epoufa madame Yfabella de 
 Jolliers, fille jadis au comte de Julliers. Cette 
 dame avoit aufli en amour monfeigneurEuftache 
 
 pour les grandes appertifles d'armes quelle en 
 oyoit recorder, & luy envoya la dite, haquenies 
 courfiers & lettres amoureufes, parquoi le dit 
 meflire Euftace en eftoit plus hardi, k faifoit 
 tant de chevaleries & faits d'armes, que chacun 
 gaignoit avec luy." 
 
 though, 
 
I 82 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 though, as other creditable writers affirm, he was confiderably younger : 
 and notwithstanding her vows of continence, which could not bind her con- 
 fidence, and in fpite of her confinement, which was not ftrong enough to 
 detain a lady of her great quality, me was clandestinely married to her para- 
 mour, in a certain chapel of the manfion-houfe of Robert de Brome, a canon 
 of the collegiate church of Wyngham, without any licence from the arch- 
 bifhop of Canterbury, by one fir John Ireland, a prieft, before the funrifing, 
 upon Michaelmas-day, in the thirty-fourth of Edward the third. 
 
 Notwithstanding the great fcandal fuch an indecorum muft have given, it 
 is evident from the fubfervience of two priefts to her defires, that her rank of 
 princefs of the blood fet her above all apprehenfion of punifhment for the 
 breach of her monaftic vows ; yet it is as evident from the fequel of the ftory, 
 that her dignity could not exempt her from fuch proper cenfures and penal- 
 ties, as might deter others from commiffion of the like offences ; as might 
 daily and frequently expofe the lady herfelf to brumes for her mifcarriage; 
 and as might draw comfort to the poor, from taxing the inordinate gratifica- 
 tion of the appetites of their Superiors : a fort of comfort, which, to do them 
 juftice, the poor are apt to take as kindly, as the relief of their own wants. 
 
 My author fays *, that the lady dowager and her young hufband "being 
 perfonally convented before the archbifhop of Canterbury for the faid tranf- 
 greffion, at his manor-houfe of Haghfeld, upon the feventh ides of April, 
 the archbifhop for their penance enjoined them to find a prieft to celebrate 
 divine fervice daily for them, the faid fir Euftace and Elizabeth, and for him, 
 the archbifhop; befides a large quantify of penitential pfalms, paternofters 
 and aves, which were to be daily repeated by the priefts and the tranfgref- 
 fors. His grace moreover ordered the lady Elizabeth, whom for fome rea- 
 fons beft known to himfelf I fuppofe he regarded as the feducer, to go once 
 a year on foot in pilgrimage to the tomb of that glorious martyr, St. Thomas 
 of Canterbury; and once every week during her life to fall on bread and 
 drink, and a mefs of pottage, wearing no fmock, efpecially in the abfence of 
 her hufband; a penance that mufl; appear whimfical to us, and not a little 
 partial to fir Euftace, whom the archbifhop feems in more refpecls than one 
 to have confidered rather as difobedient to the canons, than guilty of much 
 
 * Vol. ii. page 95. 
 
 voluptuoufnefs 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 183 
 
 voluptuoufnef, by his wedlock. But the mod remarkable articles of the 
 penance were the two following. The archbiihop appointed the faid fir 
 Euftace and the lady Elizabeth, that the next day after any repetition of their 
 tranfgreffion had pafTed between them, they Ihould competently relieve fix 
 poor people, and both of them that day to abftain from fome difh of flefh or 
 fifh, whereof they did moll defire to eat. 
 
 Such was the (implicity of our anceftors. Such were the wholcfome fe- 
 verities to which the greateft dames and moil licentious young lords were 
 fubjecl in thofe well-meaning times. But though I approve the morality of 
 fuch corrections, and perhaps think that a degree of iuch power might be 
 fafely lodged in the hands of our great and good prelates ; yet I am not fo 
 bigoted to antiquity as to approve either the articles of the penance, or to 
 think that they could be reconciled to the difference of modern times and 
 cuftoms. Paternofters and aves might be fupplied by prayers and litanies of 
 a more proteftant complexion. Inftead of a pilgrimage on foot to Canterbury, 
 if an inordinate matron were compelled to walk to Ranelagh, I believe 
 the penance might be fevere enough for the delicacy of modern confti- 
 tutions. For the article of leaving off a fhift, confidering that the upper 
 half is already laid afide, perhaps to oblige a lady-offender to wear a whole 
 Ihift, might be thought a lufficient punifhment; for wife legiflators will al- 
 low a latitude of interpretation to their laws, to be varied according, to the 
 fluctuating condition of times and feafons. What moft offends me, as by 
 no means proper for modern imitation, is the article that prefcribes charitv 
 to the poor, and a reftridtion from eating of a favourite dim, after the per- 
 formance of certain myfteries. If the right reverend father was determined 
 to make the lady Elizabeth aihamed of her incontinence, in truth he lighted 
 upon a very adequate expedient, though not a very wife one; for as devotion 
 and charity are obferved to increafe with increafe of years, the bifhop's in- 
 junction tended to nothing but to leffen the benefactions of the offenders as 
 they grew older, by the conditions to which he limited their largeis. 
 
 One can fcarce reflect without a fmile on the troops of beggars waiting 
 every morning at fir Euftace's gate, till he and his lady arofe, to know whe- 
 ther their wants were to be relieved. One muft not word, but one cannot 
 help imagining, the ftyle of a modern footman, when ordered at breakfait 
 by his mafter and lady to go and fend away the beggars, for they were to 
 
 4 have 
 
184 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 have nothing that morning. One might even fuppofe the good lady pouting 
 a little as me gave him the meffage. But were fiich a penance really en- 
 joined now, what a fund of humour and wit would it open to people of fa- 
 lhion, invited to dine with two iliufirious penitents under this circumftance ! 
 As their wit is never indelicate ; as the lubjecl is inexhauftible ; and as the 
 ideas on fuch an occafion mufr. be a little corporeal, what bans mots, wrapped 
 up indeed, but ftill intelligible enough, would attend the arrival of every 
 new French dim, which fir Euftace or my lady would be concluded to like, 
 and would decline to tafle ! — But I am afraid I have tranfo-reffed the bounds 
 of a letter. You, Mr. Fitz-i\dam, who fway the cenforial rod with the 
 greatest lenity, and who would blulh to put your fair penitents to the blufh, 
 might be fafely trufted with the powers I recommend. Human weakneffes, 
 and human follies, are very different : continue to attack the latter ; conti- 
 nue to pity the former. An ancient lady might refill wearing pink ; a ma- 
 tron who cannot refift the prowefs of a fir Euftace Drawbridgcourt, is not a 
 topic for fatire, but compaffion ; as you, who are the befl-natured writer of 
 the age, will, I am lure, agree to think with, fir, 
 
 Your conflant reader 
 
 and humble fervant, 
 
 THOMAS HEARNE, Jun. 
 
 The 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 185 
 
 The WORLD. 
 
 By ADAM FITZ-ADAM. 
 
 * Numb. CXCV. Thurfday, September 23, 1756. 
 
 — — Generojtus 
 
 Perire quczrens, nec midiebrher 
 
 Exjiavit en/em. Hor. 
 
 To Mr. FITZ-ADAM. 
 
 S I R, 
 
 TO a well-difpofed mind there can be no greater fatisfaction than the 
 knowledge that one's labours for the good of the public have been 
 crowned with fuccefs. This, fir, is remarkably the cafe of your paper of 
 September the 9th, on fuicide; a faihionable rage, which I hope you will 
 proceed to expofe ; and I do not doubt but you will be as famous for rooting 
 •out what, may I be allowed to cz\\, Jingle combat, or the humour of fighting 
 with one's felf, as your predeceifor The Tatler was for exploding the ridicu- 
 lous cuftom of duels. The pleafantry of your efTay on the reigning mode of 
 voluntary deaths has preferved to a little neighbourhood a very hofpitable 
 gentleman, to the poor a good friend, to a very deferving fon and daughter 
 a tender parent, and has laved the perfon himfelf from a very foolifh exit. 
 This character, fir, which perhaps from a natural partiality I may have drawn 
 a little too amiably, 1 take to be my own; and not to trouble you with the 
 hiftory of a man who has nothing remarkable belonging to him, I will only 
 let you into what is fo far neceflary, as that I am a gentleman of about fifty, 
 
 * This paper is a fequel to N° 193, written by James Tilfon, elq. 
 WtXL* L B b have 
 
i86 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 have a moderate eftate in very good condition, have feen a great deal of the 
 world, and, without being weary of it, live chiefly in the country with chil- 
 dren whom I love. You will be curious to know what could drive my 
 thoughts to fo defperate a refolution, when I tell you farther, that I hate 
 gaming, have buried my wife, and have no illnefs. But alas ! fir, I am 
 extremely well-born : pedigree is my diftemper ; and having obferved how 
 much the mode of felf-murder prevails among people of rank, I grew to 
 think that there was no living without killing one's felf. I reflected how 
 many of my great anceflors had fallen in battle, by the axe, or in duels, ac- 
 cording as the turn of the feveral ages in which they lived difpofed of the 
 nobility ; and I thought the defcendant of io many heroes mull contrive to 
 perilh by means as violent and illuftrious. What a dilgrace, thought I, for 
 the great grandlbn of Mowbrays, Veres and Beauchamps to die in a good old 
 age of a fever ! I blufhed whenever I caft my eyes on our genealogy in the 
 little parlour — — I determined to (hoot myfelf. It is true, no man ever had 
 more reluctance to leave the world ; and when I went to clean my piftols, 
 every drop of Mowbray blood in my veins ran as cold as ice. As my confti- 
 tution is good and hearty, I thought it would be time enough to die Juddenly 
 twenty or thirty years hence ; but happening about a month ago to be near 
 choked by a fihh-bone, I was alarmed for the honour of my family, and 
 have been ever fince preparing for death. The letter to be left on my table 
 (which indeed coft me fome trouble to compofe, as I had no reafon to give 
 for my fudden refolution) was written out fair, when I read your paper; and 
 from that minute 1 have changed my mind ; and though it fhould be, ever f& 
 great a difgrace to my family, I am relolved to live as long and as happily 
 as I can. 
 
 You will no doubt, good fir, be encouraged from this example to purfue 
 the reformation of this contagious crime. Even in the fmali diftrict where \ 
 live, I am not the only inftance of a propenfity to fuch a cataflrophe. The 
 lord of the manor, whole fortune indeed is much fuperior to mine, though 
 there is no comparifon in the antiquity of our families, has had the very fame 
 thought. He is turned of fixty-feven, and is devoured by the {tone and 
 gout. In a dreadful fit of the former, as his phyfician was fitting by his bed- 
 fide, on a fudden his lordfhip ceafed roaring, and commanded 'his relations 
 and chaplain to withdraw, with a compofure unufuai to him even in his beft 
 health ; and putting on the greateft appearance of philofophy, or what, if 
 
 3 *he 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 187 
 
 the chaplain had ftaid, would have been called refignation, he commanded 
 the docior to tell him, if his cafe was really delperate. The phyfician, with 
 a flow profufion of latinized evafions, endeavoured to elude the queftion, and 
 to give him lbme glimmerings of hope, " That there might be a chance 
 that the extremity of the pain would occafion a degree of fever, that might 
 not be mortal in itfelf, but which, if things did not come to a criiis foon, 
 might help to carry his lordlhip off." — " I undcrftand you, by G-d," fays 
 his lordfhip, with great tranquillity and a few moretiaths ; " Yes, d — n you, 
 you want to kill me with ibme of your confounded diflempers ; but I'll tell 
 you what, I only aiked you, becaufe, if I can't poffibly live, I'm determined 
 to kill myfelf; for rot me! if it mall ever be faid that a man of my quality 
 died of a curfed natural death. There, tell * Bowman to give you your 
 fee, and bid him bring me my piftols." However, the fit abated, and the 
 neighbourhood is ftill waiting with great impatience to be furprifed with an 
 account of his lordfhip's having (hot himfelf. 
 
 However, Mr. Fitz-Adam, extenfive as the fervice is which you may ren- 
 der to the community by aboliming this heathenilh practice, I think in fome 
 refpecls it is to be treated with tendernefs; in one cafe always to be tolerated. 
 National courage is certainly not at high-water mark : what if the notion of 
 the dignity of felf-murder mould be indulged till the end of the war ? A 
 man who has refolution enough to kill himfelf, will certainly never dread 
 being killed by any body elfe. It is the privilege of a free-dying EngliJJitnan^ 
 to choofe his death : if any of our high-fpirited notions are cramped, it may 
 leaven our whole fund of valour ; and while we are likely to have occafion 
 for all we can exert, I mould humbly be of opinion, that you permitted 
 felf-murder till the peace, upon this condition, that it mould be dishonour- 
 able for any man to kill himfelf, till he had found that no Frenchman was 
 brave enough to perform that fervice for him. 
 
 Indeed the very celebration of this myftery has been tranfacled hitherto in 
 a manner fomewhat mean, and unworthy people of fafhion. No tradefman 
 could hang himfelf more felonioufly than our very nobles do. There is none 
 of that open defiance of the laws of their country, none of that contempt for 
 wliat the world may think of them, which they fo properly wear on other 
 
 * The name of lord Chalkftone's gentleman in Lethe. 
 
 Bb 2 
 
 occafions. 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 occafions. They fteal out of the world from their own clofets, or before 
 their fervants are up in a morning. They leave a miferable apology behind 
 them, inftead of fitting up all night drinking, till the morning comes for 
 difpatching themfelves : unlike their great originals, the Romans, who had 
 reduced felf-murder to a fyftem of good-breeding, and ufed to fend cards to 
 their acquaintance to notify their intention. Part of the duty of the week 
 in Rome * was to leave one 's name at the doors of fuch as were ftarvins 
 themfelves. Particular friends were let in ; and if very intimate, it was 
 even expected that they Ihould ufe fome common-place phrafes of diffuafiom 
 I can conceive no foundation for our fhabby way of bolting into t'other 
 world, but that obfolete law which inflicts a crofs-road and a ftake on felf- 
 executioners : a mo ft abfurd ftatute ; nor can I imagine any penalty that 
 would be effectual, unlefs one could condemn a man who had killed him- 
 felf, to be brought to life again. Somewhere indeed I have read of a fuo 
 cefsful law for reftraining this crime. In fome of the Grecian ftates the wo- 
 men of fafhion incurred the anger of Venus — I quite forget upon what oc- 
 cation — perhaps for little or none ; goddeffes in thofe days were fcarce lefs 
 whimiical than their fair votaries — Whatever the caufe was, (he infpired 
 them with a fury of felf-murder. The legiflature of the country, it feems, 
 thought the refentment of the deity a little arbitrary ; and, to put a ftop to 
 the practice, devifed an expedient, which one fhould have thought would 
 have been very inadequate to the evil. They ordered the beauteous bodies 
 of the lovely delinquents to be hung Up naked by one foot in the public 
 fquares. How the fair offenders came to think this attitude unbecoming, 
 or why they imagined any pofition that difcovered all their charms could be 
 ib, is not mentioned by hiftorians ; nor, at this diftance of time, is it pofli- 
 ble for us moderns to guefs : certain it is, that the penalty put a ftop to the 
 barbarous cuftom. 
 
 But what fhall one fay to thofe countries, which not only allow this crime* 
 tout encourage it even in that part of the fpecies, whofe foftnefs demands all 1 
 protection, and feems moft abhorrent from every thing fanguinary and fierce ? 
 We know there are nations, where the magiftrate gravely gives permiffion to 
 the ladies to accompany their hufbands into the other world, and where it is 
 reckoned the greateft profligacy for a widow not to demand leave to burn her* 
 
 * Vide Pliny's Epiftles. 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. i8g 
 
 felf alive. Were this fafhion once to take here, I tremble to think what ha- 
 vock it would occaiion. Between the natural propeniity to filicide, and the 
 violence of conjugal engagements, one mould not fee fuch a thing as a lo- 
 zenge, or a widow. Adieu, jointures ! adieu, thofe foft refources of the 
 brave and neceflitous! What unfortunate relict but would prefer being buried 
 alive to the odious embraces of a fecond paffion ? Indeed, Mr. Fitz-Adam, 
 you mud keep a Ariel: eye on your fair country-women. I know one or two, 
 who already wear pocket-piftols ; which, considering the tendernefs of their 
 natures, can only be intended againft their own perfons. And this article 
 leads me naturally to the only cafe, in which, as I hinted above, I think felf- 
 murder always to be allowed. The moft admirable death in hiftory is that 
 of the incomparable Lucretia, the pattern of her fex, and the eventual 
 foundrefs of Roman liberty. As there has never been a lady fince that time, 
 in her circumftances, but what has imitated her example, I think, fir, I 
 may pronounce the cafe immutably to be excepted : and when Mr. Fitz- 
 Adam, with that fuccefs and glory which always has and rnufl attend his la- 
 bours, has decried the favage practice in vogue, I am perfuaded he will 
 declare that fhe is not only excufable, but that it is impoffible any woman 
 Should live after having been ravifhed. 
 
 I am, fir, 
 
 Your truly obliged 
 
 humble fervant, 
 
 and admirer, 
 
 E M, 
 
 A WORLD 
 
i 9 o FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 A 
 
 WORLD 
 
 r 
 
 EXTRAORDINARY. 
 
 * The following Paper having been tranfmitted to Mr. Fitz- 
 Adam's Bookfeller on the very Day of that Gentleman's Mif~ 
 fortune, he takes the Liberty to offer it to the Public juft as it 
 came to his Hand. 
 
 To Mr. FITZ-ADAM. 
 
 S I R, 
 
 AS the contagion of politics has been fo prevalent of late, that it has 
 even (I won't fay, infected, but at leaft) infufed itfelf into the f pa- 
 pers of the impartial Mr. Fitz-Adam, perhaps I may not make him an un- 
 acceptable prefent in the following piece, which will humour the bent of 
 his diforder (for I muft confider political writings as a diftemper), and at the 
 fame time will cool, not increafe, any iharpnefs in his blood. 
 
 Though the author of this little effay is retired from the bufier fcenes of 
 life, he has not buried himfelf in fuch indifference to his country, as to 
 •defpife, or not attend to, what is pafling even in thofe fcenes he has quitted; 
 and having withdrawn from inclination, not from difguft, he preferves the 
 fame attachments that he formerly made, though contracted even then from 
 
 * It was publifhed after The World had ccafed, rowed characters defcribes a revolution in the 
 . on the fuppofed death of the imaginary author. miniftry, very favourably to the duke of New- 
 f This alludes to N° 207, which under bor- caftle } and not at all fo to Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt. 
 
 efleem, 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 191 
 
 efteem, not from intereft. He fees with a feeling concern the diflrefTes and 
 diffractions of his country ; he forefees with anxiety the confequences of 
 both, lie laments the difcord that divides thole * men of iuperior genius, 
 whofe union, with all their abilities, were perhaps inadequate to the crifis of 
 cur affairs,. He does not prefume to difcufs the grounds of their dilTenfions, 
 which he wifhes themfelves to overlook ; and he would be one of the lair, 
 men in England to foment divifion, where his intereft. as a Briton, and his 
 private u>:linations as a man, bid him hope for coalition. Yet he would 
 not be a man, he might be a ftoic, if even thefe inclinations were equally 
 balanced: his admiration may be fufpended, his heart will be partial. From 
 thefe fenfations he has been naturally led to lament and condemn the late' tor- 
 rent of perlbnalities : he fees with grief the greateft characters treated with 
 the greateit licentioufnefs : his friendfhip has been touched at finding one of 
 the moft refpectable afperfed in the moft injurious manner. He holds That 
 perfon's fame as much fuperior to reproach, as he thinks himfelf inferior to 
 That perfon's defence; and yet he cannot help giving his teftimony to the 
 reputation of a man, with whofe friendfhip he has long been honoured. 
 This ambition, lir, has occafioned my troubling you with the following por- 
 trait, written eight years ago; defigned then as private incenfe to an honoured 
 name ; and ever fince prelerved by the author only, and in the fair hands to 
 which it was originally addrelTed. I will detain you no longer than to fay, 
 that if this little piece fhould be accufed of flattery, let it be remembered, 
 that it was written when the fubjecf of it was no minifter of ftate, and that 
 it is publifhed now (and fhould not elfe have been publifhed) when he is 
 no minifter at all. 
 
 I am, fir, 
 
 Your humble fervant, 
 
 IT. M. 
 
 * Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt, 
 
 To 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 To the Right Honourable 
 
 Lady CAROLINE FOX. 
 
 MAD A M, 
 
 J HAVE been attempting to draw a picture of one of your friends, and I 
 think I have in fome degree fucceeded ; but as I fear natural partiality 
 may make me flatter myfelf, I choofe to fubmit to your ladymip's judgment, 
 whofe prepolTeffion for the perfon reprefented is likely to balance what fond- 
 nefs I may have for my own performance. As I believe you love the perfon 
 in quefHon, as much as ever other people loved themfelves, the medium be- 
 tween the faults you mall find, and the juit refemblance that I fee in the fol- 
 lowing portrait, is likely to be an exact image. 
 
 The gentleman I am drawing is about * three-and-forty : as you fee all 
 the fondnefs and delicacy and attention of a lover in him, perhaps your lady- 
 mip may take him to be but three-and-twenty : but I, whofe talent is not 
 flattery, and who from his judgment and experience and authority mould at 
 ■firft fet him down for threefcore, upon the fhicleft. enquiry can only allow 
 him to be in the vigour of his age and underftanding. His perfon decides 
 rather on my fide ; for though he has all the eafe and amiablenefs of youth, 
 yet your ladyihip muft allow that it has a dignity, which youth might aim 
 at in vain, and for which it will fcarce ever be exchanged. ^ ^ were like 
 common painters, I fhould give him a ruddy healthful complexion, and light 
 up his countenance with infipid fmiles and unmeaning benignity: but this 
 would not be a faithful portrait : a florid bloom would no more give an idea 
 of him, than his bended brow at firft lets one into the vafl humanity of his 
 temper ; or than an undiftinguifhing fmile would fupply the place of his 
 manly curiofity and penetration. To paint him with a cheerful open coun- 
 tenance would be a poor return of compliment for the flattery that his appro- 
 bation beftows, which, by not being promifed, doubly fatisfies one's felf- 
 love. The merit of others is degrading to their friends; the gentleman I 
 mean makes his worth open upon you, by perfuading you that he difcovers 
 ibme in you, 
 
 * This was written in the year 174&, 
 
 He 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 *93 
 
 He has that true chara&eriftic of a great man, that lie is fuperior to others 
 in his private, focial, unbended hours. I am far from meaning by this fu- 
 periority, that he exerts the force of his genius unnecefTarily : on the con- 
 trary, you only perceive his preheminence in thofe moments by his being 
 more agreeably good-natured, and idle with more eafe, than other people. 
 He fecms inquifitive, as if his only bufinefs were to learn ; and is unreferved, 
 as if he were only to inform; and is equally incapable of myftery in pretend- 
 ing to know what he does not, or in concealing what he does. 
 
 In the houfe of commons he was for fome time an ungraceful and unpopu- 
 lar fpeaker, the abundance of his matter overflowing his elocution: but the 
 force of his reafoning has prevailed both over his own defects and thofe of 
 his audience. He fpeaks with a ftrength and perfpicuity of argument that 
 commands the admiration of an age apt to be more cheaply pleafed. But 
 his vanity cannot fatisfy itfelf on the terms it could fatisfy others; nor would 
 he thank any man for his approbation, unlefs he was confeious of deferving 
 it. But he carries this delicacy ftill farther, and has been at the idle labour 
 of making himfelf fame and honours by purfuing a regular and fteady plan, 
 when art and eloquence would have carried him to an equal height, and 
 made thofe fear him, who now only love him — if a party can love a man 
 who they fee is only connected with them by principles, not by prejudices. 
 
 In another light one may difcover another littlenefs in his conduct : in the 
 affairs of his office * he is as minute and as full of application as if he were 
 always to remain in the fame poll; and as exact and knowing as if he always 
 had been in it. He is as attentive to the folicitation and interefts of others 
 in his province, as if he were making their fortune, not his own ; and, to 
 the great detriment of the miniflry, has turned one of the bell: finecures un- 
 der the government into one of the moil laborious employments, at the fame 
 time imagining that the eafe with which he executes it will prevent a dis- 
 covery of the innovation. He receives all officers who addrefs to him, with 
 as little pride as if he were fecure of innate nobility; yet this defect of illus- 
 trious birth is a blemilh, which fome of the greater}, men have wanted to 
 make them completely great : Tully had it ; had the happinefs and glory of 
 railing himfelf from a private condition ; but boafting of it, might as well 
 
 * Secretary of war. 
 
 Vol. I. C c have 
 
i 9 4 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 have been noble : he degraded himfelf by ufurping that prerogative of nobi« 
 lity, pride of what one can neither caufe nor prevent. 
 
 I fay nothing of his integrity, becaufe I know nothing of it, but that it 
 has never been breathed upon even by fufpicion : it will be time enough to 
 vindicate it, when it has been impeached. He is as well-bred as thofe who 
 colour over timidity with gentlenefs of manners, and as bravely fincere as 
 thofe who take, or would have brutality taken for honefty : but though his 
 greateft freedom is polite, his greater!: condefcenfion is dignified with fpirit ; 
 and he can no more court his enemies, than relax in kindnefs to his friends. 
 Yet though he has more fpirit than almoft any man living, it is never looked 
 upon as flowing from his paffions, by the intimate connection that it always 
 preferves with his underftanding. Yet his pamons are very ftrong: he loves 
 play, women more, and one woman more than all. The amiablenefs of his 
 behaviour to her, is only equalled by hers to him. — But as your ladyfhip 
 would not know a pi&ure of this charming woman, when drawn with all 
 her proper graceful virtues ; and as that engaging ignorance might lead you 
 even into an uncertainty about the portrait of the gentleman, I fhall lay 
 down my pencil, and am, 
 
 Madam, 
 
 Your Ladyship's 
 
 molt obedient 
 
 humble fervant, 
 
 VANDYKE, 
 
 The 
 
FUGITIVE 
 
 The W O 
 
 By ADAM FITZ-ADAM. 
 
 " / cannot but think we Jhould have more learning, if we had fewer books** 
 
 Preface to Baker's Refle&ions. 
 
 THE lovers of literature, whofe pafiion for books is at leaft as great as 
 it is laudable, lament the lofs of the Alexandrian library, which is 
 faid to have contained feven hundred thoufand volumes. Immeafurable as 
 this lofs was, time and induftry have prodigioufly repaired it ; and if I might 
 efcape being thought an abfolute Goth, I mould humbly be of opinion, that 
 the deitruction of that library was rather a bleffing than a detriment to the 
 common-wealth of letters. What may we fuppofe thofe fo many thoufand 
 volumes contained ? Were feven hundred thoufand volumes all worth read- 
 ing ? If they were, who would have leifure to read them ? If they were not, 
 at leafr. as many as were good for nothing have happily met with a proper 
 fate. Thefe books, we may fuppofe, contained great treafures of philo- 
 sophy, aftronomy, geography, hiftory, poetry, oratory, mathematics, Sec. 
 mighty entertaining novels, and a wonderful mafs of knowledge relating to, 
 and explanatory of, or perhaps more beautifully perplexing, the theory of 
 Egyptian divinity and hieroglyphics. One can hardly believe, though it 
 contained greater quantities of ancient fcience and eloquence than what have 
 reached our days, that this library was replenifhed with authors of fuperior 
 knowledge, or with greater difcoveries than we have received from our 
 other venerable predecefTors. And do we wifh for more fabulous hiftory, for 
 more fantaftic philofophy, for more imperfeel aftronomy, for more blunder- 
 
 PIECES. 
 
 R L D*. 
 
 * The two following papers were not publifhed, the plan not having been completed. 
 
 C c 2 ing 
 
196 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 ing geography, than we already poffefs under ancient names r 1 fpeak not in 
 derogation of the ancients ; but as their difcoveries were very incomplete,, 
 and their traditions very inaccurate, why do we wiih they were multiplied r 
 When we reflect that half our preient knowledge has fprung from difcover- 
 ing the errors of what had formerly been called by that name, we may com- 
 fort ourfelves that the inveftigation of truth is at leaft as eafy without fo 
 many falfe lights to mifguide us, as if we knew how many more wrong con- 
 jectures had been made by our forefathers. 
 
 Not to mention how enormoufly this library would have procreated other 
 libraries ! What tranflations,. commentaries,, explanations, fcholias, various 
 readings, paraphrafes — nay, what controverfies would have been engendered 
 by almoft every volume in this capacious repofitory ! Ariftotle alone, whole- 
 works, or at leaft fuch as are called his, are happily extant, was in fo great 
 repute about two centuries ago, that no lefs than twelve thoufand authors are 
 computed to have commented or written upon his works: and though the 
 Alexandrian authors might none of them have founded fuch numerous feels, 
 yet confidering the veneration paid to whatever is ancient, or to whatever is 
 called learning, there can be no doubt but the exiftence of that departed 
 library would have multiplied books to a degree, which even the hardeft 
 ftudents might have beheld with regret ; as few are maflers of fuch ftrength 
 of eyes and constitution, or of fuch extended lives, as to be able to fatiate 
 their curiofity in fuch an ocean of literature, let in upon the already im- 
 menfe deluge of fcience. Some men indeed have been fuch giants in ftudy, 
 as to conquer Greece, Rome, Arabia, Perfia, and even thofe impracticable 
 ft rangers, the Cophti : fome are renowned for reading fixteen or eighteen 
 hours a day ; and one great * hero of the republic of letters boafted that he 
 had fo entirely exhaufted all knowledge, that he was now reduced to read 
 the Hiltory of the Highwaymen. But few are there now, alas, of fuch 
 vigour ! Few refemble the great Accurfius, who boafted that he had cor- 
 rected feven hundred errors in CLsudian as he rode poft through Germany. 
 
 To fay the truth, we have not only enough of ancient books, but are far 
 overftocked with both ancient and modern, confidering either how little is 
 read, or how impoffible it is to read all that has already been written. In 
 
 * Dt. Bentley, 
 
 the 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 197 
 
 fhe latter refpect, modern authors are far more excufable than, modern 
 readers. The authors write for the prefent hour, becaufe they are not fure 
 that to-morrow they mall be read: but as to readers, who are continually 
 demanding new books, I mould humbly fuggeft, that all books, however 
 long ago they were written, are, to all intents and purpofes, new books to 
 fuch as never read them. People do not generally know what refervoirs of 
 knowledge and pleafure are actually in being: there is no fubjecl, on which 
 there are not already extant books enough to employ all the idle hours of 
 thofe idle people who are in daily want of fomething new : perhaps it may 
 not be exaggeration to fay, that the only old books are fuch as are pub- 
 limed every day. The mere catalogue of the Bodleian library compofes four 
 volumes in folio: the Vatican is ftill larger. The fmgle Bangorian contro- 
 vedy, at one, two millings, or half a crown a pamphlet, coll upwards of 
 thirty pounds : but thefe pieces, with others of the like nature, have I be- 
 lieve long ago been gathered to their forefathers, the Alexandrians. The 
 journals of the war between the mo ft ferene princefs Canning, and the 
 Egyptian fultana, Mary Squires, make no inconfiderable figure in modern 
 libraries ; and the important point of the reftoration of Judaifm added con- 
 iiderable recruits to the claffes of hiftory and polemic divinity. One Ferri 
 wrote eleven hundred fermons on the epiftle to the Hebrews. Other labo- 
 rious authors have been fo puzzled to find out new fubjecls, or at leaft fo 
 determined to write new books, that they have compofed catalogues of the 
 different denominations of authors, or of fuch as have written under parti- 
 cular circumftances*. Baillet not only publifhed an account of Anti' 's, that 
 is, of fuch books as were written againft others, but he undertook a work, 
 in which he propofed to give a defcription of fuch books as had been in- 
 tended to be written. Naude colle6ted a lift of authors who had difguifed- 
 their names ; and another of great men who had been accufed of magic, 
 Decker compofed an account of anonymous writings : Pierius Valerianus. 
 gave one catalogue of unfortunate learned men, and another of phyficians 
 who were poets : Kortholt, of bifhops who had been poets; and Menage, 
 of eccleliaftics who had written bawdy poems. Ancillon was ftill more cu- 
 rious, for he made a catalogue of learned men who had written nothing at all. 
 Hottinger, another grave trifler, has two whole pages filled only with names 
 of thofe who correfponded with him ; and fome years ago there was a 
 
 * The lateft work of this kind is the Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors. 
 
 4. French 
 
198 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 French* abbe who commenced author upon a very new flock; by writing 
 an account of fuch authors as had prefented him with their writings. The 
 greateft wonder is, that none of thefe laborious compilers mould have pre- 
 tended Co give a relation of fuch books as have long fince perimed, though 
 their authors had. like Horace and Ovid, affured the world and themfelves, 
 that their works would be immortal. But it is not neceffary to go an hun- 
 dred years back to give inftances of the exceffive increafe of authors. The 
 gazettes, novels, lives, dying fpeeches, magazines, dictionaries of our own days, 
 are flagrant proofs of my afTertion. Indeed if the rage of publication con- 
 tinues in the fame proportion, I do not fee but all the world mull be books ; 
 and that it will become as necelTary to burn a field of books, as a field of 
 furze or ftubble. The very means employed to lefTen the abufe, is an in- 
 creafe of it : I mean, all fciences are fo over-written, that the very abridg- 
 ments are an additional evil. 
 
 I can eafily conceive that a Chinefe or Indian, hereafter vifiting Europe, 
 may acquaint one of his correfpondents, in the hyperbolic ftyle of the Eaft, 
 " That it is exceeding difficult to travel in thefe countries, by reafon of vafr. 
 waffe tracts of land, which they call libraries, which being very little fre- 
 quented, and lying uncultivated, occafion a ftagnation of bad and un whole - 
 fbme air ; that neverthelefs, the inhabitants, fo far from deftroying or root- 
 ing out what they fo little either ufe or efteem, are continually extending 
 thefe deferts ; that even fome of the natives, who have waded farther than 
 ordinary into thefe forefts, are fond and proud of transplanting out of one 
 part into another ; and though they are fure that their own labours will be 
 choked up the next day by fome of their neighbours, they go on in their 
 idle toil, and flatter themfelves with the hopes of immortality for having 
 contributed to extend a wildernefs, into which nobody thinks it worth his 
 while to penetrate. There are indeed fome, who, for fear of lofing their way 
 in the vaff. foreft of learning, where it is pretended that every tree is a tree 
 of knowledge, have endeavoured to perfuade their countrymen to pluck up 
 all, root and branch, except one or two favourite trunks, from which they 
 pretend all knowledge may be gathered, in which all arts and fciences are 
 included. Indeed they do not totally agree upon which are the authors who 
 thus contain all erudition. One party pretend it is their Alcoran ; the other, 
 
 2 
 
 * Abb"- de Marolles. 
 
 an 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 199 
 
 an ancient poet called Homer : the former feem to fludy their religion with 
 a poetic imagination; the latter are as ready to fight for their opinion, as if 
 
 it was a religious enthufiafm." But not to dwell too long in the perfon 
 
 of an imaginary future fatirift, 1 mail revert to my firft proportion, that 
 there are already books enough, if the world is really difpofed to read ; and 
 that both regret for old perifhed authors, which we do not know whether 
 they were good or bad, and appetite for new books, which we do not care 
 whether they are good or bad, are equally marks of a falfe and vitiated tafte. 
 The former lamentations were agreeable to the pedantry of the laft age,, 
 when, provided a man did but write pure claffic Latin, it mattered not how 
 trifling and ridiculous were the topics. Scaliger and Cardan, two great po- 
 tentates in the empire of learning, had a profound difpute whether parrots 
 were ugly creatures or not ; and both ufed in great abundance thofe annoying 
 weapons of abufe, which were fo much in vogue with the literati of that 
 age. I may perhaps have occafion in another paper to give fome account of 
 the fcurrilous wars which were formerly waged by the gravelt profefTors in 
 moft of the univerfities and fchools from Siena to Leyden. The fondnefs of 
 the moderns for books, books, new books, puts me in mind of certain country 
 gentlemen, neighbours of Balzac, who made him a vifit, and, after a thou- 
 fand fpeeches, allured him that it was incredible how great a veneration they 
 bad for him and Mejfieurs fes Livres* 
 
 The 
 
200 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 The WORLD. 
 
 By ADAM FITZ-ADAM. 
 
 IN my laft paper I hinted at fame of the inconveniences attending the 
 prefent inundation of books, and I have the fatisfaclion of hearing from 
 all hands that a reformation of this abufe would be univerfally acceptable. 
 Some of the greater! devourers of books, from whom I expected moll: oppo- 
 fition, have exhorted me to proceed in the fcheme I have conceived of leffen- 
 ing the number, alluring me that they have laid in a fuch a flock of icience, 
 as will enable them to furnifh the world with complete bodies of all ufeful 
 knowledge, in a far lefs compafs than in what it lies at prefent. The illite- 
 rate part of my difciples p rot eft that it is nothing but the prodigious number 
 of books which deters them from fetting about to ftudy in earneft ; and they 
 offer me, if I will reduce all literature to a few plays, poems, and novels, to 
 make themfelves perfect mafters of all the knowledge that is requilite for gen- 
 tlemen. I have long been fenfible how great a difcouragement the very fight 
 of a large library muft be to a young beginner. The universities recommend 
 to me to abolifh what is called polite learning: they obferve, that the jefuits, 
 who, among many pernicious arts, have fometimes been ferviceable to the 
 world, have already, as far as in them lay, annihilated one Roman author, 
 Lucan, by omitting him, when they illuftrated all the other dailies for the 
 life of the dauphin ; but I believe the objection lay not againft his poetry, 
 but his principles, the freedom of which I am fure muft be very agreeable 
 to each good lady Alma Mater. One of them, who formerly placed Mr. 
 Locke's ESTay on Human Underftanding in her Index Expurgatorius, has 
 very prudently recognized the merit of that treatife — and, I am perfuaded, 
 has fuch a veneration for the author, that me would highly condemn me if 
 I was even to attempt deftoying his Effay on Government, wherein he ex- 
 pofes the monkifh doctrine of hereditary right. 
 
 Armed 
 
FUGITIVE 
 
 PIECES 
 
 201 
 
 Armed with all the above-mentioned authority, I declare myfelf invefled 
 with a new dignitv, namely, Inqnijitor of the World of Books ; and in imita- 
 tion of other great potentates, who, after eitablilhing their dominion by force, 
 have endeavoured to fatisfy the world in the legality of their title by fome, 
 however far-fetched, deicent, I declare myfelf iffucd in a right line from the 
 two peculiar monarchs, who of all mankind could derive to me the beft title 
 to the province I have undei taken of pronouncing upon all books and fci- 
 ences, and, in confequence of that, of proceeding to burn and deftroy fuch 
 as I mall difapprove. The firft of thefe princes was the very patriarch of 
 my genealogy, even Adam, who, as Pinedo, a very competent judge, affures 
 us, underftood all fciences, but politics — and his deficience in this particular 
 branch of human learning was not to be afcribed to any imperfection in the 
 univerfality of his genius, but merely becauie in his time there were no 
 princes, no embaiTadors, no Ratiihon. The other prince from whom 1 have 
 the honour of being defcended, was Chi Hoang Ti, emperor of China, a 
 much-injured name, of whom Pere du Halde in particular, forgetting the 
 refpecl due to crowned heads, is fo grofs as to fay, that a certain ordinance of 
 his, which I am going to mention, rendit fon ?iom & fa memoir e execrable ci 
 la poferite. The venerable decree which this impertinent jefuit anathema- 
 tizes, was — not, as one mould think by his ftyle, an order like Herod's 
 for the murder of the innocents — no, it was only a decree for burning all the 
 books in China. But before I enter upon the difcuffion of this decree, I 
 f-hall in few words recapitulate the chief events of my anceftor's reign, 
 which will vindicate his memory, and prove him to have been as well-quali- 
 fied to fway a fceptre as any prince that ever fat on a throne. If unavoida- 
 ble misfortunes have reduced us to a lefs fhining, lefs exalted rank, we flatter 
 ourfelves that the prudence and juftice of our adminiftration in the univerfal 
 monarchy which we have aifumed over follies and books, will mow that we 
 have not degenerated from our great predecelTor. 
 
 Chi Hoang Ti lived about two hundred and thirty-feven years before 
 Chrift, and according to the genius of that age committed great conquefts, 
 and rounded his dominions, at the expence of his neighbours, with as much 
 prudence as if he had ftudied politics in a French fchool. The only flip he 
 feems to have made, was in liftening to the project of a lea-captain, the 
 Columbus of his time, who adviled his Chinefe majefty to fend out a colony 
 
 Vol. L D d to 
 
202 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 to fome of the iflands of Japan, not indeed to difcover new worlds, but on a 
 more important fcent, a remedy for long life ; a noftrum treafured up in one 
 of thole little iflands. The emperor, my great grandfather, had, as it ap- 
 pears by other circumftances, a particular partiality for medicines, and rea- 
 dily gave ear to a icheme that was at once to prolong the bleffings of his 
 reign over his fubjects, and to add fo great a jewel to his difpenfatory. He 
 entrufted the captain with one or more mips, and three hundred perfons of 
 each fex, with whom the adventurer founded a little kingdom in one of the 
 iflands, and was fo ungrateful as never to fend his fovereign a fingle phial 
 of the precious elixir. The emperor, whofe mind was always filled with 
 great projects, foon turned his thoughts to eftablifh the duration, if not of 
 his reign, at leaf! of his empire ; and with a fpirit, which has feemed pro- 
 phetic, apprehending incurfions of the Tartars, he fet about building that 
 immenfe wall to divide the two nations, which was fmifhed in five years, 
 which exiffs to our days, and which did not however anfwer the purpofe for 
 which it was projected. The next great action of his reign was publishing 
 the celebrated decree for burning all the books in China, excepting- only 
 fuch volumes as treated of architecture or phyfic, the two fcicnces, which, 
 the affair of the fea-captain and the erection of the great wall prove to have 
 been the predominant paffions of his imperial majefty. 
 
 Some malevolent hiftorians afcribe this fentence to his jealoufy of the 
 glory of his predeceffors ; a motive unworthy of the heroic virtue of a prince, 
 who had out-conquered, out-built, and taken more phyfic than, any of bis 
 ancestors. Such petty envy may rage in little fouls : we read that Juffin 
 burnt all the authors from whom he compiled his hiftory ; and that Trebo- 
 nian, the lawyer, commifiioned by Juftinian to reduce the civil law to a 
 practicability, that is, to a fize capable of being ftudied by the profelTors, 
 and underflood by the fufferers, laid wafte and demolifhed the volumes, 
 tracts, charters, decrees, pleadings, reports, &c. from whence he extracted 
 the body of civil law as it now flands. But the reafons which our great an- 
 ceftor himfelf vcuchfafed to give, are, I do not doubt, the trueft, as they 
 certainly are the nobleft precedent to juffify a parallel proceeding. He re- 
 duces them to thefe (for it mult be obferved that the Chinefe are as laconic 
 as the Lacedemonians themfelves) : Books, faid Chi Hoang Ti, encourage idle- 
 ncfs, caufe ntglecl of agriculture, lay foundations of faclions. Thefe golden 
 rules I fhall keep in my eye to regulate my future conduct. I mall not allow 
 
 people 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. , 203 
 
 people to think they are bufy becaufe they are reading; I mall not allow- 
 that there is any merit in having read a vail number of books ; it is indif- 
 ferent to me whether a man's feet have travelled over fo many miles of 
 ground, or his eyes over fo many acres of paper : I (hall recommend it to 
 leveral grave dignitaries to lay afide all fuch reading as was never read, and 
 to buy a plough and a team, and cultivate a piece of land, inftead of labour- 
 ing fuch barren foil as their own brains, or the works of obfolete authors ; 
 and I mall be for entirely abolilhing all books whatever that treat of any 
 kind of government ; as to be fare no nation ought to know that there is any 
 form preferable to what is eftablifhed among themfelves: a Ruffian that was 
 to read Algernon Sidney, might grow to fancy that there are milder fy Items 
 than living under the jurildiclion of the Knut ! 
 
 The lalt inltance I mall produce of the Chincfe monarch's wifdom, was 
 his refnfing to quarter out his dominions among his fons. He died in peace, 
 and matter of immenfe treafures, having lived to fee large crops of rice, 
 from valt. tra6ts of land, which before his time had borne nothing but 
 libraries. 
 
 In the havoc I meditate, I fhall confine myfelf to whole bodies of Itience, 
 not piddle with {ingle authors or feparate treatifes. As I have perufed very 
 few books myfelf, it would be an endlefs talk were I to fet about the exami- 
 nation of what tracts do or do not deferve to be condemned to the flames ; 
 and I have too little of the modern critic in me, to condemn any private work 
 becaufe 1 happen to diflike the name, perfon, or country of the author. 
 However, not to proceed too ralhlv, I mall accept the alfiltance of a friend 
 of mine, who is a prodigy of erudition, not only from the quantity he has 
 read, but from his franknefs in owning that he has read an infinite deal of 
 tralh. He is a near relation by the mother of the celebrated librarian Mag- 
 liabechi, who being afked to lend a certain book (that mull be namelefs) 
 out of the great duke's library, replied, " That book ! there is no fuch book 
 in our library ; indeed I know but of one copy of it, and that is in the grand 
 feignor's collection ; it ftands the fixth book on the fourth Ihelf on the left 
 hand near the window." 
 
 My friend's name is Christopher Polyglot ; a man of extreme bene- 
 volence, and very ufeful to all that confult him, though, to fay the truth, his 
 
 D d 2 knowledge 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 knowledge is of little fervice to himfelf ; for, when he attempts to compofe 
 any work, the ideas of what he has read, tranfmitted through a very faithful 
 memory, flow in fo fail upon him, that he blends every icience and every 
 language, and does not even diitinguifh in what tongue he defigns to write. 
 He but two or three years ago, intending to compofe a pamphlet againft the 
 jew bill, began in thefe words, 41 J osephus Jays, that Ui lovfaioi everfd urbe 
 irz^ioontoknt leurs «nDtt"tt," and I faw him one morning extremely puz- 
 zled with not being able to underhand a Greek author, whom he did not 
 perceive that he was reading backwards. He is very fenfible of his misfor- 
 tune, and fays, he believes he might have made fome figure in the republic 
 of letters, if he had never read above twenty thoufand books, and underftood 
 but fix or feven languages. One great merit of my friend is, that he has a 
 thorough contempt for conjectural antiquities ; nobody honours more than 
 he does, the elegance of the Greek arts, the fumptuoufnefs of Roman build- 
 ings, the valour and wifdom of our Gothic anceftors, and confequently no- 
 body admires more any remnant of each nation, which is entire enough to- 
 difclofe their tafte, their magnificence, the ftrength of their fortifications, 
 or the folemnity of their devotion. But Mr. Polyglot defpifes a platform^ 
 nay a Stonehenge, if it is uncertain whether its pedigree be Roman, Druid, 
 or Saxon ; whether hi its ftate of exiftence it was an intrenchment, a temple, 
 or a tomb. In his youth he was a tormentor of Tom Hearne, and, before 
 his own mind was bewildered in fcience, had a pretty turn for poetry, as 
 appeared by his adding two lines to the known diftich on that antiquary, 
 and which really gave the whole the effence of an epigram. I fhall conclude 
 the prefent paper with them, as I do not know that they were ever printed. 
 
 " Pox on't, quoth Time to Thomas Hearne, 
 44 Whatever I forget, You learn." 
 
 Anfwer by Mr. Polyglot. 
 * 4 * Damn it, quoth Hearne, in furious fret, 
 44 Whate'er 1 learn, You foon forget.'* 
 
 * It was written at Chrift-church, Oxford, fix. He was fon of Mr. Weft, lord chancellor 
 by Richard Weft, efq. a young gentleman of of Ireland, by Elizabeth, daughter of bifliop 
 great genius, who died at the age of twenty- Burnet. 
 
 A LETTER 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 205 
 
 A 
 
 LETTER 
 
 FROM 
 
 XO HO, a Chinese Philofopher at London*, 
 
 To his FRIEND 
 
 LIEN CHI, at Peking. 
 
 I HAVE told thee, thefe people are incomprehenfible ; not only they differ 
 from us; they are unlike the reft of the weftern world: a Frenchman 
 has prejudices, has caprices ; but they are the prejudices of his nation, they 
 are the caprices of his age. A Frenchman has fettled ideas, though built on 
 falfe foundations ; an Englishman has no fixed ideas : his prejudices are not 
 of his country, but againft fome particular parts or maxims of his country : 
 his caprices are his own ; they are the effential proofs of his liberty. In 
 France they have a high notion of their king ; they will Jiab him, but they 
 will not hate him. An Englifhman loves or hates his king once or twice in 
 a winter, and that for no reafon, but becaufe he loves or hates the mininry 
 in being. They do not oppofe their king from a diflike of royal power, 
 but to avail themfelves of his power; they try to level it till they can mount 
 upon it. They are as little in earneft about liberty. To have the nation 
 
 * This piece was written May 12, 1 757, was fent to the prefs next day, and went through 
 five editions in a fortnight* 
 
 free ! 
 
2o6 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 free ! nobody means it. To have the country enflaved ; they defire it not : 
 were there vafTals, they would be the vaffals of the crown, or of the nobles 5 
 while all are free to fell their liberty, the richefr. or craftieft may purchafe it, 
 
 I have faid, that they have no general ideas : they have not ; but they 
 have general names. Formerly they had two parties; now they have three 
 fa6rions, and each of thofe factions has fomething of the name, or fome- 
 thing of the principles, of each of thofe parties. In my laft I told thee, that 
 the fecond faction in magnitude had difplaced the leaft faction, and that a 
 new miniftry would immediately be appointed. I deceived thee; I was 
 deceived. I did not believe fo becaufe I was told lb : here one is told fome- 
 thing every day : the people demand to be told fomething, no matter what : 
 if a politician, a minifter, a member of their aflembly, was myfterious, and 
 refufed to impart fomething to an enquirer, he would make an enemy : if 
 he tells a lie, it is no offence ; he is communicative ; that is fufficient to a 
 free people : all they alk is news ; a falfehood is as much news as truth* 
 Why 1 believed a miniftry would foon be named, was ; I thought that in a 
 country where the whole real bufinefs of their general affembly was to choofe 
 minifters, they could never be without: I was deceived. I thought that 
 when a prince difmiffed one minifter he would take another : I was de- 
 ceived. 1 thought when a nation was engaged in a great war with a fupe- 
 rior power, that they muft have council ; I was deceived : reafon in China 
 is not realon in England. An * officer of the treamry may be difplaced, 
 and a judge can execute his office. Their + high-pried died lately; I wait- 
 ed to fee from what profefiion> which had nothing to do with religion, his 
 fuccelfor would be chofem 
 
 When a day or two had paffed, I afked when a new miniftry would be 
 named? I heard feveral alk the fame queftion. I was told, When \ the 
 enquiries were over. 1 found this fatisfied every body but me. I afked what 
 the enquiries were ? By the fcanty knowledge 1 have of their language, I 
 concluded it fignified, an enquiry who was to be minifter---No fuch thing — 
 they never enquire before-hand. Sometimes, as in the prefent cafe, they 
 
 * On the re.moval of Mr. Legge, the chief 
 jutlice was appointed chancellor of the exche- 
 quer, as the bufinefs of that court requires it to 
 ■be conftantly filled. 
 
 I 
 
 f Archbifhop Herring. 
 
 \ Into the caufes of the lofs of Minorca. 
 
 enquire 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 207 
 
 enquire whether a former minifter had been fit to be fo. Know, that laft 
 year the Englifh loft a valuable ifland : the people were enraged ; they 
 blamed the * admiral who commanded their fleet ; the ■jf admiral who 
 directed their fleet ; their J chief judge ; their § chief treasurer ; their 
 j| chief fecretary. The firft admiral was imprifoned ; the reft quarrelled, and 
 gave up their employments. The H chief man of the little faction was made 
 minifter, and his friends got places ; yet the friends of the other two factions 
 retained theirs. An enquiry or trial of the late minifters was determined : 
 the imprifoned admiral was tried, acquitted, condemned and put to death. 
 The trials of the others were delayed. At laft they were tried — not as I 
 expected, whether they were guilty, but whether they fhould be minifters 
 again or not. If the executed admiral had lived, he too might be a minifter. 
 Juft as this trial began, the ** new head of the admiralty forgot to make a 
 bow to the king — upon which he and all his friends were diiplaced. I un~ 
 derftood this : as the Englifh. are more free than we are, I conceived that 
 this was a punifhment proportioned to their ideas of offended majefty, and 
 reflected how feverely one of our countrymen would be dealt with who fhould 
 affront the dignity of our auguft emperor. I was again deceived ; this man- 
 darin is likelv to be again a minifter. As his friends have great weight in 
 the general affembly where the trials are held, I concluded they would per- 
 fecute their antagonists, and I deplored the fate of thofe unhappy men who 
 would be at the mercy of their bittereft enemies.- There is no rule forjudg- 
 ing of this people. The third faction, who were in the nature of judges,, 
 would only try facts and not perfons ; and even if they could have punifhed. 
 facts, they mowed they were not unmerciful.- I do not underftand this 
 nation. 
 
 What will furprife thee more, the chief men of the capital have beftowed.' 
 f f high honours on the third faction for being difmiiTed from the govern- 
 ment : and the honours they have beftowed are a permiflion to exercife a 
 irade, which the perfons fo diftinguifhed would think it exceedingly beneath 
 them to follow. Doft thou comprehend this r But the enquiries are finiih-i 
 ed. — Thou wilt alk me, how ? I know not — only I have been told that 
 
 * Admiral Byng. % Mr. Pitt. 
 
 f Lord Anfon. ** Lord Temple. 
 
 % Lord Hardwicke. +f The freedom of the city prefented to Mr. 
 
 § Duke of Newcailk. Pitt and Mr. Legge. 
 I Mr. Fox. 
 
20S 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 the general afTembly affirmed that certain things, which all the land knew 
 before, did or did not happen. Thou wilt attribute this ridiculous account 
 to my ignorance of the language or manners of the country : in truth, I am 
 not maiter of either ; but I know the language of the French ; thefe very 
 relations that I fend thee, are tranflated into French, and the Englifh fcruple 
 not to fend them all over Europe, where the French language is underftood. 
 
 Now thou wilt fay, my friend Xo Ho, leave thefe things which thou doft 
 not underfland, or canft. not explain ; and pals on to facts : tell me, thou 
 wilt fay, now the trials are rinhhed, who are the new minifters ? From 
 which faction are they chofen ? — By Cong-fou-tfee *, thou wilt believe as 
 little what I mall tell thee, as what I have already delivered. Their king,- 
 who difmified a whole miniftry becaufe one of them did not humble him- 
 felf enough before the throne, is gone into the country, without knowing 
 who are to be his minifters. — How ! how ! thou wilt cry ; their monarch 
 left his capital, without appointing a miniftry ! For what is he gone into 
 the country? To vifit his provinces ? To diftribute juftice? To mufter his 
 army? — Alas! alas! dear Lien Chi; England is not China. — Hear, and I 
 will tell thee briefly. The Englim have no fun, no fummer as we have, at 
 leaft their fun does not fcorch like ours. They content themfelves with 
 names : at a certain time of the year they leave their capital, and that makes 
 fummer ; they go out of the city, and that makes the country. Their f mo- 
 narch, when he goes into the country, pafles in his calafh by a row of high 
 trees, goes along a gravel walk, croffes one of the chief ftreets, is driven by 
 the fide of a canal between two rows of lamps, at the end of which he has a 
 fmall houfe, and then he is fuppofed to be in the country. I faw this cere- 
 mony yefterday ; as foon as he was gone, the men put on under veftments of 
 white linen, and the women left off thofe vaft draperies, which they call 
 hoops, and which I have defcribed to thee ; and then all the men and all the 
 women laid it was hot. If thou wilt believe me, I am now writing to thee 
 before a fire. 
 
 At the top of the gravel walk, as their king pafTed, was a large % company 
 of youths and boys, newly clad as mariners, who are clothed by private 
 contributions ; for private perfons are rich, the public is poor ; and nothing 
 
 * Confucius. f The king going to Kenfington. % The boys clothed by the marine fociety. 
 
 5 » 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 is well done, but by thefe ftarts and devices. The king has given a thoufand 
 pieces of gold to this institution, not as king, but in his private capacity, 
 which here they diftinguifh. If he had given them a thouland pieces of his 
 public money, not one half would have come to the youths, but would have 
 been embezzled by the officers of the revenue. Thefe youths were com- 
 manded by no officer in the fea-fervice, but by the only civil * magiftrate 
 they have; and he is totally blind. He commands their charities, iiiftead of 
 being the object of them. Every thing here is reverted. 
 
 Thou wilt be impatient to hear why the king has appointed no miniftry. 
 If I may believe a man who has always hitherto told me truth, the king has 
 no more to do with the choice of his miniftry, than thou with that of our 
 ferene emperor. Thou wilt reply, But can the king of England unmake 
 his minilters, and not make them ? Truly I know not how that is. He 
 has left the town, and when a miniftry is formed he is to be made ac- 
 quainted with it. The three factions are dealing with each other to come to 
 lome agreement, and to whatever they agree, the king mujl. Thou wilt 
 fay, Then he is no king. 1 anfwer, Not according to thy ideas : the Englifh 
 think differently. Well ! wilt thou fay, but in thy other letters thou haft 
 defcribed the people of England as not fo eafily fatisfied : will they fuffer 
 three factions of different merits and principles to lord it over both king and 
 people? Will thofe who value royal authority, not regret the annihilation of 
 it ? Will thofe who think the ancient minifters guilty, not be offended if 
 they are again employed ? Will thofe who rewarded the leaft faction for be- 
 ing difmifTed, not refent their uniting with thofe who contributed to their 
 expulfion? My friend Lien Chi, I tell thee things as they are ; I pretend not 
 to account for the conduct of Englishmen ; I told thee before, they are incom- 
 prehenjibk. It is but lately that a f man entered into the king's fervice, and 
 vacated his {eat in the general affembly by it : the king punimed him for it, 
 and would not let him be re-admitted into the general afTembly — yet the 
 man who bowed not to the king may be rewarded for it. Farewell. 
 
 * Juftice Fielding, f Dr. Hay, who vacated his feat on being appointed a lord of the admiralty. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 Ee 
 
 AN 
 
2IO 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES, 
 
 A N 
 
 INQUIRY 
 
 INTO THE 
 
 PERSON and AGE 
 
 OF THE LONG-LIVED 
 
 COUNTESS of DESMOND. 
 
 HAVING a few years ago had a curiofity to inform myfelf of the parti- 
 culars of the life of the very aged countefs of Defmond, I was much 
 furprifed to find no certain account of fo extraordinary a perfon ; neither ex- 
 actly how long me lived, nor even who me was ; the few circumftances 
 related of her depending on mere tradition. At laft I was infoxmed that 
 me was buried at Sligo in Ireland, and a gentleman of that place was fo kind 
 as to procure for me the following infcriptions on the monument there ; 
 which however foon convinced me of that fuppofition being a miftake, as 
 will appear by the obfervations in my letter, in confequence of this which 
 contained the epitaph. 
 
 To C. O. Efq, 
 
 Nympftsfield, Auguft. 23, 1757. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 T HAVE made I think as accurate an extract of all the infcriptions on 
 O'Connor's monument as can be, even to copy the faults of the carver : I 
 was many hours on a high ladder, and it coft much time to clear the letters. 
 
 2 The 
 
» 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES 211 
 
 The loweft infcription is this ; but you are to obferve, all the letters in the 
 original are capitals, and could not come in compafs to give it to you in that 
 manner, as you will perceive. 
 
 " Hie jacet famofiffimus miles Donatus * Cornelianus comitatus Sligiae 
 dominus cum fua. uxore illuftriffima. dna Eliuora Butler comitifla Defmoniae 
 que me fieri fecit A 1624 poft morte fui mariti qui obiit 1 1 Aug. A Q 1609. 
 Itm ejus filia & primi mariti vizt comitis Defmoniae f noie Elizabetha 
 valde virtuofiflima dna fepulta fuit hoc in tumulo 31° Novem. anno Do- 
 mini 1623." 
 
 Juft above this is O'Connor in armour kneeling, and his hands raifed up 
 and joined as at prayer, his helmet on the ground behind him : a tree in 
 an efcutcheon, which is the arms of O'Connor, and a trophy on one fide, 
 and over his head this infcription : 
 
 ** Sic praeter caelum quia nil durabile fiftit, 
 J Luccat ambobus lux diuturna Dei. 
 Donato Connor Defmond Elinora marito *' 
 
 On the weft fide is the countefs with a coronet and her beads, kneeling, 
 and over her head this continuation of the preceding lines : 
 
 " Hunc fieri tumulum fecit amena fuo. 
 
 Cum domino faxis Elinorae filia cumbit, 
 Et comitis Defmond Elizabetha virens." 
 
 Between the two tablets, which contain the inferiptions, is a boar, and a 
 coronet over it of five balls, which I fuppofe belonged to Defmond. 
 
 On the fide of the countefs is an efcutcheon with the arms of Butler, and 
 under them a book open and a rofe on it, crofled by a fpade and flambeau, 
 and an urn at bottom. 
 
 * Cornelianus is the defcendant of Cornelius, f Abbreviated for nomine, 
 
 which in Irilh is Conagber, or, in the fhort way, $ Luccat. 
 Connor* 
 
 E e 2 Above 
 
212 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 Above there is a table with this infcription that runs from each end and 
 over both the former, and ornamented with an angel's head at eaqh end. It 
 does not pay any reipect to the poet's arrangement, as you will perceive, 
 
 " Siccine Conatiae per quod florebat eburna 
 
 Urna tegit vivax corpora bina decus ! 
 Siccine Donati tumulo conduntur in alto 
 
 Offa, que Momoniae ficcine cura jacet! 
 Martia qua? bello, mitis quae pace micabat, 
 
 Verfa eft in cineres ficcine veftra manus ! 
 Siccine Penelope iaxis Elinora fepulta eft, 
 
 Siccine marmoreis altera cafta Judith ! 
 Mater Ierna genis humidis quae brachia tenda*, 
 
 Mortis ero veftris, luclibus aucla, memor." 
 
 Over this is O'Connor's arms, viz. a tree ; and creft, a lion crowned. 
 The motto is, quo vinci, vincor. On one fide of thefe is a figure with 
 a key lying on the breaft, and a fword in the le r t. On the other is a figure 
 with a fword in the right, and a book in the left lying on the breaft ; and 
 the whole is furmounted by a crucifix. 
 
 I am, fir,. 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 This letter having been communicated to me by the gentleman who was 
 fb obliging as to make the enquiry, occafioned my fending him the following : 
 
 To C. O. Efq. 
 
 Strawberry-hill, Sept. 17, 1757. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 J Should have thanked you the inftant I received the honour of your obliging 
 letter, if you had not told me that you was fetting out for Ireland : I am 
 now in pain left this fhould not come to your hands, as you gave me no 
 direction, and I mould be extremely forry that you mould think me capable," 
 
 s * tendo. 
 
 ! 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 213 
 
 fir, of neglecting to fhow my gratitude for the trouble you have given your- 
 felf. I cannot think of taking the liberty to give you any more, though I 
 own the infcriptions you have fent me have not cleared away the difficulties 
 relating to the countefs of Defmond. — On the contrary, they make me 
 doubt whether the lady interred at Sligo was the perfon reported to have 
 lived to fuch an immenle age. If you will excufe me, I will flate my 
 objections. 
 
 I have often heard that the aged lady Defmond lived to one hundred and 
 fixty-two or fixty-three years. In the * account of her picture at Windfor, 
 they give her but one hundred and fifty years. Sir William Temple +, from 
 the relation of lord Leicefter, reduces it to one hundred and forty ; adding, 
 " That fhe had been married out of England in the reign of Edward the 
 fourth, and, being reduced to great poverty by the ruin of the Iriih family 
 into which me had married, came from Briftol to London towards the end of 
 the reign of James the ruff to beg relief from court." 
 
 This account by no means correfponds either with the monument at Sligo, 
 or the new Irifh Peerage by Lodge. The great particular (bdides that of 
 her wonderful age) which interefted me in this enquiry, was the tradition 
 which fays, that the long-lived lady Defmond had danced with Richard the 
 third, and always affirmed that he was a very well-made man. It is fup- 
 pofed that this was the fame lady with whom the old lady Dacre had con- 
 verfed, and from whole teftimony fhe gave the fame account. 
 
 In the catalogue of the ancient earls of Defmond, inferted in the pedigree 
 of Kildare, I can find no one who married an Englishwoman near the period 
 in queftion : but that we will wave ; it might have been a miftake of fir 
 William, or his authority, the earl of Leicefter. Her poverty might be as 
 erroneous, if Lodge's account be true:}:, that me left three hundred pounds 
 to the chapel at Sligo, the tomb in which, as the infeription fays, (he erected 
 in 1624. But here is the greateft difficulty: if me was one hundred and 
 forty in 1636, according to Lodge the a?ra of her death (which by the way 
 was in king Charles's and not in king James's reign), the was born in 1496. 
 
 * See Pote's Account of Windfor-cafUe, p. 418. X Vol. i. page 19. 
 f See his Eflay on Health and long Life. 
 
 5 Gerald 
 
2i4 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 Gerald earl of Defmond, her firft hufband, died according to the Peerage in 
 1583. She was therefore eighty-feven when fhe married O'Connor of Sligo 
 — That is poffible — If fhe lived to one hundred and forty, (he might be 
 in the vigour of her age (at leaft not diflike the vigour of his) at eighty- 
 feven. The earl of Defmond's firft wife, fays Lodge (for our lady Eleanor 
 was his fecond), died in 1564 : if he re-married the next day, his bride muft 
 have been fixty-eigbt, and yet fhe had a fon and five daughters by him. I 
 fear, with all her juvenile powers, fhe muft have been paft breeding at 
 fixty-eight. 
 
 Thefe accounts tally as little with her dancing with Richard the third : 
 he died in 1485, and by my computation fhe was not born till 1496. If we 
 fuppofe that fhe died twelve years fooner, viz. in 1624, at which time the 
 tomb was erected, and which would coincide with fir William Temple's 
 date of her death in the reign of James; and if we give her one hundred and* 
 fifty years, according to the Windfor account, fhe would then have been 
 born in 1474, and confequently was eleven years old at the death of king 
 Richard : but this fuppofition labours with as many difficulties. She could 
 not have beeti married in the reign of Edward the fourth, fcarcely have 
 danced with his brother ; and it is as little probable that fhe had much re- 
 membrance of his perfon — the point, I own, in which I am moft interefted — 
 not at all crediting the accounts of his deformity, from which Buck has fo 
 well defended him, both by the filence of Comines, who mentions the 
 beauty of king Edward, and was too fincere to have pafted over fuch remark- 
 able uglinefs in a foreigner, and from doctor Shaw's appeal to the people be- 
 fore the Protector's face, whether his highnefs was not a comely prince and 
 the exact image of his father. The power that could enflave them, could 
 not have kept them from laughing at fuch an apoftrophe, had the Protector 
 been as ill-fhapen as the Lancaftrian hiftorians reprefent him. Lady DeC- 
 mond's teftimony adds great weight to this defence. 
 
 But the more we accommodate her age to that of Richard the third, the lefs 
 it will fuit with that of her firft hufband. If fhe was born in 1474, her 
 having children by him (Gerald earl of Defmond) becomes vaftly more 
 improbable. 
 
 It 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 215 
 
 It is very remarkable, fir, that neither her tomb, nor Lodge, mould take 
 notice of this extraordinary perfon's age ; and I own, if I knew how to com- 
 mit him without trefpaffing on your goodnature and civility, I mould be 
 very glad to ftate the foregoing difficulties to him. But I fear I have already 
 taken too great freedom with your indulgence, and am, &c. 
 
 H. W. 
 
 P. S. Since I finifhed my letter, a new idea has ftartcd, for difcovering 
 who this very old lady Defmond was, at leaft whole wife (he was, fuppoling 
 the perfon buried at Sligo not to be her. Thomas the fixth earl of Defmond 
 was forced to give up the earldom : but it is not improbable that his de- 
 fendants might ufe the title, as he certainly left iffue. His fon died, fays 
 Lodge *, in 1452, leaving two fons, John and Maurice. John, being born 
 at leaft in 1451, would be above thirty at the end of Edward the fourth. If 
 his wife was feventeen in the laft year of that king, fhe would have been 
 born in 1466. If therefore me died about 1625, Hie would be one hundred 
 and fifty-nine. This approaches to the common notion of her age, as the 
 ruin of the branch of the family into which (he married does to fir William 
 Temple's. A few years more or lefs in certain parts of this hypothecs, 
 would but adjuft it ftill better to the accounts of her. Her hufband being 
 only a titular earl folves the difficulty of the filence of genealogifts 011 fo ex- 
 traordinary a perfon. 
 
 Still we Ihould be to learn of what family me herfelf was : and I find a 
 new evidence, which agreeing with fir William Temple's account, feems to 
 clam a little with my laft iuppofition. This authority is no lefs than fir 
 Walter Raleigh's, who in the fifth chapter of the firft book of his Hiftory of 
 the World, fays expreflly, that he himfelf ^ knew the old countefs of Def- 
 mond of Inchiquin, who lived in the year 1589, and many years fince, 
 who was married in Edward the fourth's time, and held her jointure from all 
 the earls of Defmond fince then ; and that this is true, all the noblemen and 
 gentlemen of Munfter can witnefs." Her holding a jointure from all the 
 earls of Defmond would imply that her hufband was not of the titular line, 
 but of that in pofleffion : yet that difficulty is not fo great, as no fuch lady 
 
 * Vol. i. page 14. 
 
 being 
 
2l6 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 being mentioned in the pedigree. By fir Walter's words it is probable that 
 me was dead when he wrote that account of her. His Hiftory was printed 
 in 1 614 ; this makes the asra of her death much earlier than I had fuppofed ; 
 but having allowed her near one hundred and fixty years, taking away ten or 
 twelve will make my hypothecs agree better with fir William Temple's ac- 
 count, and does not at all deftroy the affumption of her being the wife of 
 only a titular earl. However, all thefe are conjectures, which I mould be 
 glad to have afcertained or confuted by any curious perfon who could pro- 
 duce authentic testimonies of the birth, death and family of this very re- 
 markable lady ; and to excite or aflift w 7 hich was the only purpofe of this 
 difquilition. 
 
 Having communicated thefe obfervations to the reverend doctor Charles 
 Lyttelton, bifhop of Carlifle, he foon afterwards found and gave me the fol- 
 lowing extract from p. 36 of Smith's Natural and Civil Hiftory of the 
 County of Corke, printed at Dublin 1750, 8vo. 
 
 " * Thomas the thirteenth earl of Defmond, brother to Maurice the 
 eleventh earl, died this year (1534) at Rathkeile, being of a very great age, 
 and was buried at Youghall. He married, firft, f Ellen, daughter of 
 M c Carty of Mulkerry, by whom he had a fon, Maurice, who died vitapatris. 
 — The earl's fecond wife was Catherine Fitzgerald, daughter of the Fitz- 
 geralds of the houfe of Drumana in the county of Waterford. This Cathe- 
 rine was the countefs that lived fo long, of whom fir Walter Raleigh makes 
 mention in his Hiitory of the World, and was reputed to live to one hun- 
 dred and forty years of age." 
 
 This is the moft pofitive evidence we have ; the author quotes RufTel's 
 MS. If me was of the Fitzgeralds of Waterford, it will not in ftrictnefs 
 agree with fir William Temple's relation of her being married out of Eng- 
 land ; by which we mould naturally fuppofe that me was born of Englim 
 blood. — Yet his account is fo vague, that it ought not to be fet againft ab- 
 folute aflertion, fuppofing the RufTel MS. to be of good authority enough to 
 fupport what it is quoted to fupport in 1 750. 
 
 * His name was James, and he was the twelfth earl. f See Lodge's Peerage, vol. i.p. 16. 
 
 Upon 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES, 
 
 217 
 
 Upon the whole, and to reduce this lady's age as low as poffible, making 
 it at the fame time coincide with the mofl probable accounts, we will fup- 
 pofe that me was married at fifteen in 1483, the laft year of Edward the 
 fourth, and that fhe died ill 161 2, two years before the publication of fir 
 Walter Raleigh's Hiftory, ihe will then have been no lefs than * one hun- 
 dred and forty-five years of age, a particularity lingular enough to excite, 
 and, I hope, to excufe this enquiry f. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 HAVING, by pcrmiflion of his grace the lord chamberlain, obtained 
 a copy of the picture at Windfor, called The countefs of Defmond, I dif- 
 covered that it is not her portrait. On the back is written in an old hand, 
 The Mother of Rembrandt, given by Sir Robert Carr. In the Catalogue of 
 King Charles's Collection of Pictures, p. 150, N° 10 1, is defcribed the por- 
 trait of an old woman with a great fcarf upon her head, by Rembrandt, in a 
 black frame ; given to the king by my lord Ankrom. This was the very 
 fir Robert Kerr, earl of Ancram, mentioned above, and the meafures anfwer 
 exacllv. 
 
 * Lord Bacon, fays Fuller, computed her age 
 to be one hundred and forty at leaft; and added, 
 that (he three times had a new fet of teeth ; for fo 
 I underfland ter vices dentiffe, not that (he re- 
 covered them three times after calling them, as 
 Fuller tranflates it, which is giving her four fets 
 of teeth. Worthies in Northumb. p. 310. 
 
 \ I cannot omit an anecdote, though too ex- 
 traordinary to be given as authentic, relating to 
 this lady. In an original MS written by Robert 
 the fecond earl of Leiceiter, (from whom fir W. 
 Temple fays he received the account of lady Def- 
 
 mond) and containing memorandums of remark- 
 able fncls, it is faid that that old countefs came 
 to England to folicit a penfion at the end of 
 queen Elizabeth's reign, and was fo poor that: 
 fhe walked from Briitol to London ; her daughter 
 being too decrepit to go on foot, was carried in 
 a cart. " 1 he countefs, adds lord Leiceiter, 
 might have lived much longer had fhe not met 
 with a kind of violent death; for fhe would needs 
 climb a nut-tree to gather nuts; fo falling down, 
 flic hurt her thigh, which brought a fever, and 
 that fever brought death." Lord Leiceiter fixes 
 her death to the end of thai reign. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 INSCRIPTION 
 
218 
 
 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES, 
 
 INSCRIPTION 
 
 ON A 
 
 PICTURE of the late POPE. 
 Profpero Lambertini 
 
 Bishop of Rome 
 
 by the Name of BENEDICT XIV. 
 
 Who, though an abfolute Prince, 
 reigned as harmlefsly 
 as a Doge of Venice : 
 He reftored the Luftre of the Tiara 
 by thofe Arts alone, 
 by which alone he obtained it, 
 his Virtues. 
 Beloved by Papists, 
 Efteemed by Protestants : 
 A Prieft, without Infolence or Intereftednefs ; 
 A Prince, without Favourites ; 
 
 A Pope, without Nepotifm ; 
 An Author, without Vanity ; 
 
 In fhort, a Man, 
 Whom neither Wit nor Power 
 could fpoil. 
 The Son of a favourite Minister, 
 But One who never courted a Prince, 
 
 Nor worfliipped a Churchman, 
 Offers in a free Protestant Country 
 
 This deferved Incenfe 
 To the best of the Roman Pontifs. 
 mdcclvii. 
 
 .4 This 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 219 
 
 This infcription having been fent to fir Horace Mann at Florence, and by 
 bim mown to the abbate Niccolini, the latter tranflated and fent it to cardinal 
 Archinto, who gave it to the pope. The good old man was fo pleafed with 
 this tcftimony borne to his virtues, that he gave copies to all that came near 
 him, and wrote it in a letter to one of his particular friends at Bologna, 
 concluding with this expreffion of amiable humility; " Noi mandiamo tutto 
 al noftro Canonico Peggi, accio conofca che fiamo come le ftatue della fac- 
 ciata di San Pietro in Vaticano, che, a chi c nella piazza e cofi lontano, 
 fanno una bella comparfa, ma a chi poi viene vicino, fanno figure di orridi 
 Mafcheroni." 
 
 Ff 2 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO 
 
 PAUL HENTZNER's 
 ♦ACCOUNT of ENGLAND, 
 
 Iii the Year i 598. 
 
 DOCTOR BIRCH, in his Summary of fir Thomas Edmondes's State- 
 papers, has publifhed a mort extracl: from the following obfolete au- 
 thor, which, for the elegance of the Latin, and the remarkable delcription 
 of queen Elizabeth, has been defervedly admired : her belt portraits fcarcely 
 exhibit a more lively image. 
 
 The original work, of which perhaps there are not above four or five co- 
 pies in England, is an Itinerary through Germany, England, France, and 
 Italy, performed by Hentzner, a travelling tutor to a young German noble- 
 man. That doclor Birch has extrafled the moft interefting paffage in the 
 whole book, is certain : yet it records fome circumftances and cuftoms not 
 unworthy the notice of an Englim antiquarian, and which are mentioned no 
 where elfe. For thefe reafons, I flatter myfelf, that a publication of the 
 part relating to our own country might not be an unacceptable prefent to 
 perfons of curiofity. The tranflation was the production of the idle hours of 
 another gentleman f . 
 
 * Printed at Mr. "Walpole's private prefs at Strawberry-hill. f Mr. R. Bentley. 
 
 The 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 2 2 1 
 
 The author fcems to have had that laborious and indifcriminate paflion for 
 seeing, which is remarked in his countrymen ; and, as his translator ob- 
 ferved, enjoyed as much the doubtful head of a more doubtful feint in 
 pickle, as any upon the moulders of the beft Grecian Itatuc. Fortunately fo 
 memorable a perfonage as queen Elizabeth happened to fall under his no- 
 tice. Ten years later, he would have been as accurate in painting Ann? 
 
 of Denmark ! 
 
 The excefs of refpeclful ceremonial ufed at decking her majefty's tab t le, 
 though not in her prefence, and the kind of adoration and genuflection paid 
 to her perfon, approach to eaftern homage. When we obferve fuch worfhip 
 offered to an old woman, with bare neck, black teeth, and falfe red hair, 
 it makes one fmile ; but makes one reflect what maiculine fenfe was couched 
 under thole weakneffes, and which could command fuch awe from a nation 
 like England ! 
 
 Not to anticipate the entertainment of the reader, I mall make but one 
 more reflection. We are apt to think that fir William Temple and king- 
 William were in a manner the introducers of o-ardenins: into England : bv 
 the defcription of lord Burleigh's gardens at Theobalds, and of thofe at 
 Nonfueh, we find that the magnificent, though falfe tafte, was known here 
 as early as the reigns of Henry VIII. and his daughter. There is fcarce an 
 unnatural and fumptuous impropriety at Verfailles, which we do not find in 
 Hentzner's defcription of the gardens above mentioned. 
 
 With regard to the orthography of proper names, though corrected in the 
 tranflation, I have left them in the original as I found them. — Accuracy in 
 that particular was not the author's merit : it is a merit peculiar to Eng- 
 lifhmcn : the French are negligent of it to an affectation ; yet the author of 
 Les Melanges HiJJoriques complains that other nations corrupt French names ! 
 He himfelf gives fome Englifh ones in page 247, 248, which it is impoilible 
 to decvpher. BalTompicrre calls York-houfe, Jorchaux, and Keivfington, 
 Jnli 'nntJiort As a ioldier and embafTador, he was not obliged to know the 
 names of houfes ; when he turned author, there was no excufe for not 
 being- intelligible. Even Voltaire, who writes the lan<niao-e fo well, is care- 
 lefs in our titles. In England, it is the defect of a fervant to blunder in pro- 
 . .. per 
 
222 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 per names, it is one of thofe iilly pretentions to politenefs, which nations 
 that affecl a fuperiority have always cultivated — for, in all affectations, de- 
 fects are merits. The readers of hiftory love certainty: it is pity the writers 
 do not. What confufion would it have laved, if it had not been the cuftom 
 of the Jews to call every Darius and Artaxerxes, Ahafuerus 1 It were to be 
 wifhed, that all nations would be content to ufe the appellations which peo- 
 ple or relpective countries have chofen for themlelves. Proper names 
 ought never to be tortured to any particular idiom. What a ridiculous 
 composition is Aulugell Who can conceive that Meylandt fignifies Milan ; or 
 Leghorn, Livorno ? When one. is milled by a proper name, the only ufe of 
 which is to direcf, one feels like the countryman, who complained, That 
 the houfes hindered him from feeing Paris. — -The thing becomes an obftruclion 
 to itfelf. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 22< 
 
 T O 
 
 LORD WHITWORTH's 
 •ACCOUNT of RUSSIA, 
 
 As it was in the Year 1710. 
 
 THE following ftiort but curious account of the Ruffian Empire, as it 
 began to emerge from barbarifm in the year 1710, cannot but be ac- 
 ceptable to the public from the curiofity of the fubjecl:, and from the merit 
 of the performance. Lord Molefworth's Account of the Revolution in Den- 
 mark, which totally overturned the constitution of that country, is one of 
 our Standard books. Lord Whitworth's little treatife will throw considerable 
 lights upon the formation of the Mufcovite power, and upon the plans of 
 that extraordinary genius, Peter the Great. Each author mows what kiting 
 benefits embaffadors and foreign ministers might confer on mankind, beyond 
 the temporary utility of negotiating and fending intelligence. 
 
 Our author, Charles lord Whitworth, was fon of Richard Whitworth, efq. 
 of Blowerpipe in Staffordshire, who, about the time of the revolution, had 
 iettled at Adbaiton.. He married Anne Mofely, niece of fir Olwald Mofely 
 of Chefhire, by whom he had fix fons and a daughter. Charles ; Richard, 
 lieutenant-colonel of the queen's own royal regiment of horfe ; Edward, 
 captain of a man of war ; Gerard, one of the chaplains to king George the 
 
 * Printed at Strawberry-hill. 
 
 firSt; 
 
224 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 firft; John, captain of dragoons; Francis, furveyor-general of his majefty's 
 woods, and fecretary to the ifland of Barbadoes, father of Charles Whit- 
 worth, efq. member in the prefent parliament for Minehead in Staffordmire ; 
 and Anne, married to Tracey Pauncefort, efq. of Lincolnfhire. 
 
 Charles, the eldeft fon, was bred under that accompiimed minifter and 
 pcet, Mr. Stepney, and having attended him through feveral courts of Ger- 
 many, was in the year 1702 appointed refident at the diet of Ratifbon. In 
 1704 he was named envoy extraordinary to the court of Peterfburgh, as he 
 was fent ambaftador extraordinary thither on a more folemn and extraordi- 
 nary occafion in 1710. M. de Matueof, the czar's minifter at London, had 
 been arrefted in the public ftreet by two bailiffs, at the fu.it of fome tradei- 
 iv.cn to whom he was in debt. This affront had like to have been attended 
 with very ferious confequences. The czar, who had been ablolute enough 
 to civilize favages, had no idea, could conceive none, of the privileges of a 
 nation civilized in the only rational manner, by laws and liberties. He 
 demanded immediate and fevere punifhment of the offenders : he demanded 
 it of a princefs, whom he thought interested to affert the facrednefs of the 
 perfons of monarchs, even in their reprefentatives ; and he demanded it with 
 threats of wreaking his vengeance on all Englifh merchants and fu ejects 
 eftablimed in his dominions. In this light the menace was formidable — 
 Gtherwife, happily the rights of a whole people were more facred here than 
 the perfons of foreign minifters. The czar's memorials urged the queen 
 with the latisfaction which me had extorted herfelf, when only the boat and 
 fervants of the earl of Manchester had been infulted at Venice. That ftate 
 had broken through their fundamental laws to content the queen of Great 
 Britain. How noble a picture of government, when a monarch that can 
 force another nation to infringe its constitution, dares not violate his own ! 
 One may- imagine with what difficulties our lecretaries of mate mud have la- 
 boured through all the ambages of phrafe in Englifh, French, German, and 
 Rufs, to explain to Mulcovite ears and Mufcovite understandings, the mean- 
 ing of indictments, pleadings, precedents, juries, and verdicts * ; and how 
 impatiently Peter mint have listened to promifes of a hearing next term ! 
 
 * Mr. Dayrolles in his letter to the Ruffian ticular account of the trial before the lord chief 
 embaffador, March 10, iycc, gives him a par- juftice Holt. 
 
 Vide Matt ley's Life of Peter I. vol ii. p. 57. 
 
 With 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 225 
 
 "With what aftonifhment mud he have beheld a great queen engaging to 
 endeavour to prevail on her parliament to pais an act to prevent any jfuch 
 outrage for the future ! What honour does it refledl on the memorv of that 
 princefs, to lee her not blufh to own to an arbitrary emperor, that even to 
 appeale him (he dared not put the meaneft of her lubjects to death uncon- 
 demnned by law ! " There are," fays fhe*, in one of her difpatcbes to him, 
 " infuperable difficulties with refpect to the ancient and fundamental laws 
 of the government of our people, which we fear do not permit lb ievere and 
 rigorous a ientence to be given, as your Imperial Majefty at firft ieemed to 
 expect in this cafe : and we perfuade our Self, that your Imperial Majeftv, 
 who are a prince famous for clemency and for exact juftice, will not require 
 us, zv/w are the guard! an and proteftrefs of the laws, to inflict a puniihment 
 upon our fubjects, which the law does not empower us to do." Words lb 
 venerable and heroic, that this broil ought to become hiftory, and be ex- 
 empted from the oblivion due to the filly lquabbles of embaffadors and their 
 privileges. If Anne deferved praife for her conduct on this occalion, it re- 
 flects frill greater glory on Peter, that this ferocious man had patience to 
 liften to thefe details, and had moderation and juitice enough to be perfuaded 
 bv the reafon of them. 
 
 Mr. Whitworth had the honour of terminating this quarrel. In 17 14 he 
 was appointed plenipotentiary to the diet of Aulbourg and Ratifbon ; in 
 I 71 6, envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the king of Pruffia ; in 
 1 71 7, envoy extraordinary to the Hague. In 1712 he returned in his for- 
 mer character to Berlin ; and in 1721 king George I. rewarded his lone, 
 ierviees and fatigues, by creating him baron Whitworth of Galwav in the 
 kingdom of Ireland, the preamble of his patent, enumerating many of his 
 virtues and labours, being as follows : 
 
 S^t U M alii homines re alia clari inclytique fefe Nobis commendaverint, hand 
 minorem tamen vel Jibimet gloriam acquirere, vel Regnis nojlris utilitatem 
 conferre eos exijlimafnus, qui res nojlras apud pnncipes Jlatufque exteros pru~ 
 denter feliciterque admmijlrant. Inter hofce quid em eminet plurimum turn 
 longinquo ufu atque exercitatione, turn folertid quadam fingulari f delis & dilecJus 
 nobis Caro/us Whitworth Armiger. Variis in au/is externis herfundiis fmtmrU 
 
 * Mottley's Life of Peter I. vol. ii. p. 67. 
 
 Vol. I. G g hm 
 
FUGITIVE 
 
 PIECES. 
 
 bus ft'fc antecejforibits no/Iris gloriofle memoriae, Gufielmo Tertio Reg/\ Regi- 
 naque Anna perjpeclurn imprimis comprobatumque reddidit. In Comitiis Ra- 
 tijbonen/ibus, in Auld Ccefareo-Germanlca, alque apud Czarum Mufcovia 
 temporibus Sffictlltmh res maximi momcnii Jemper cum laude tracJavit, ac men- 
 tis fuis eximiis fummos honorcs renim exterarum curatonbus tribui folitos, legati 
 fcilicet extraor dinar ii et plenijwtentiarii characler em confe cuius ejl. Ita orna* 
 turn, ita commendatum nos Eum acce/iimus, ac jiroinde ejus opera in arduis com- 
 pluribus negotiis tanto cum nojlro commodo tantoque omnium plaufu ujifumus, ut 
 iejlimonio all quo illujlri ejus virtutes, intemeratam pircecijiue jidem et conjlan- 
 tia?n, remunerandas e[je cetifuerimus ; et cum Majejlatem imperii nojlri deceat, 
 turn rebus tratlandis jiondus aliquod adjiciat nobilitatis fplendor atque amph- 
 tudo, nos prcediclum Carolum Whitworth, quern legati nojlri extraordinarii ac 
 Jilenijiotentiarii titulis injlgnivimus ad tratlatus jiacis in congrejju Brunfvicenji 
 proximo celebrandos, qui in Auld Berolinenji, atque apud Ordines Generales- 
 Uniii Belgii, plena potentid res nojlras procurat, ad dignitatem gradumque 
 Baronis in Regno nojlro HiberniiS promovendum ejfe Jlatuimus : Sciatis 
 igitur, &c. 
 
 The next year his lordfhip was entrufted with the affairs of Great Britain 
 at the congrefs of Cambray, in the characler of embaffador extraordinary and 
 plenipotentiary. He returned home in i 724, and died the next year at his 
 houfe in Gerard-ftreet, London. His body was interred in Weftminfter- 
 abbey. 
 
 Thefe fhort memorials, communicated to me by his family without any 
 oftentation, are all I have been able to recover of a man fo ufeful to his 
 country ; who befides the following little piece, which muft retrieve and 
 preferve his characler from oblivion, has left many volumes of ftate-letters 
 and papers in the poifeflion of his relations. One little anecdote of him I 
 was told by the late fir Luke Schaub, who had it from himfelf : Lord Whit- 
 worth had had a perfonal intimacy with the famous czarina Catherine, at a 
 time when her favours were not purchafed nor rewarded at fo extravagant a 
 rate as that of a diadem. When he had compromifed the rupture between 
 the court of England and the czar, he was invited to a ball at court, and 
 taken out to dance by the czarina. As they began the minuet, me fqueezed 
 him by the hand, and faid in a whifper, Have you forgot little Kate f 
 
 It 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 227 
 
 It is to be lamented that fo agreeable a writer as lord Whitworth has not 
 left us more ample accounts of this memorable woman. Even his portrait 
 of her lord is not detailed enough to fatisfy our curiofity. How ftriking a 
 picture might an author of genius form from the contrail exhibited to Europe 
 by four extraordinary men at the fame period ! Peter recalled that image 
 of the founders of empires, of whom we read with much fatisfaclion and 
 much incredulity in ancient ftory : — Charles the twelfth, of thofe frantic 
 heroes of pocfy, of whom we read with perhaps more fatisfaclion and no 
 credulity at all. Romulus and Achilles filled half our gazettes, while Lewis 
 the fourteenth was treading to univerfal monarchy with all the pomp and 
 policy of thefe latter ages. William the third was oppoiing this modern 
 Xerxes with the fame arts; and (with perhaps a little of Charles's jealoufy) 
 had the good fortune to have his quarrel confounded with that of Europe. 
 While Peter tamed his favages, raifed cities, invited arts, converted forefls 
 into fleets, Charles was trying to recall the improvements of war to its firfr. 
 principle, brutal ftrength ; fancying that the weight of the Turkim empire 
 was to be overturned by a fingle arm, and that heroic obftinacy might be a 
 counterpoife to gunpowder. 
 
 A philofopher in thefe four men faw at once the great outlines of what 
 the world had been, and what it is. 
 
 Lord Whitworth's MS. was communicated to me by Richard Owen Cam- 
 bridge, efq. having been purchafed by him in a very curious fet of books, 
 collected by monfieur Zolman, fecretary to the late Stephen Poyntz, efq. 
 This little library relates fblely to Ruffian hiftory and affairs, and contains in 
 many languages every thing that perhaps has been written on that country. 
 Mr. Cambridge's known benevolence, and his difpofkion to encourage every 
 wfeful undertaking, has made him willing to throw open this magazine of 
 curiofity to whoever is inclined to compile a hiftory or elucidate the trans- 
 actions of an empire, almoft unknown even to its cotemporaries. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
228 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 T O 
 
 THE MISTAKES; 
 
 O R, 
 
 The Happy Refentment. 
 
 A C O . M E D Y, 
 By Henry Lord * Hyde and Cornbury. 
 
 THE following fcenes were written many years ago by a noble lord, 
 and given at that time to Mrs. Porter to difpofe of for her benefit. 
 Several realons, unneceflary to mention, prevented the reprefentation of 
 them : but it would be ingratitude to the memory of the iiluftrious author 
 not to acquaint the world, that they were a very juvenile production ; and 
 this notice is given, lefs with an intention of avowing blemifhes, than of 
 calling for approbation on fuch early talents, and on virtues fo mature in an 
 age in which wit is too apt to want judgment, and is fo feldom attentive to 
 the beauties of morality. The plan of the comedy was to contraft the cele- 
 brated Provoked Hufband, and to vindicate the fofter fex from the afperfion 
 of being the weaker in their peculiar province, domeftic life; a good-natured 
 and a difmterefted defign. His l ; ordfhip's abilities have been too much dif- 
 tinguifhed fince to want the flattery of our comparing his performance with 
 one of the befl comedies in the Englifh language : the enfuing piece is evi- 
 dently inferior to the Provoked Hufband, in every thing but what ought to 
 be the foundation of all comedy, the. moral lefibns it inculcates : no wonder 
 
 * Only fon of Henrv Hyde the hft earl of Clarendon. Lord Hyde died at Paris before his father. 
 
 4 his 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 229 
 
 his lordfhip's writings excelled in what he himfelf excelled fo eminently ! 
 They were the emanations of one of the beft hearts that ever warmed a hu- 
 man breaft. He was upright, calm, fteady ; his virtues were of the gentled: 
 complexion, yet of the firmeft texture : vice could not bend him, nor party 
 warp him ; even his own talents could not miflead him. Though a matter 
 of eloquence, he preferred juftice and the love of his country, to all the ap- 
 plaufe w hich the violence of the times in which he lived, was fo prodigal of 
 beftowing upon orators who diftinguifh themfelves in any faction ; but the 
 tinfel of popularity, and the intrinlic of corruption, were equally his con- 
 tempt. He fpoke, nor wrote, nor acted for fame. — As goodnefs was the 
 object and end of all his actions, can that life be obfcure ? Can thole writ- 
 ings which breathe his foul not be valuable, when we are allured by the 
 greatefr. * authority, and that too of one who knew him well, that it is a teft 
 of virtue to difdain whatever he difdained? 
 
 Let it not be thought prefumption in an old and once favoured fervant of 
 the public, if fhe avows herfelf more proud than interested in publifhing the 
 beneficence of fo illuftrious and honoured a patron ; and if fhe flatters herfelf, 
 when her powers of contributing to the amufement of the public are no 
 more, that me at leaft makes it no unacceptable offering. 
 
 She begs leave to embrace this opportunity of acknowledging and returning 
 her mod humble thanks for the great and uncommon o-enerolity lhe has ex- 
 perienced on this occafion, and for the patronage of fo many noble perfons ; 
 and fhe defires to repeat her gratitude for fuch a feries of favours from the 
 kind indulgence of the public, who have had the goodnefs to accept her in- 
 clination and endeavours to pleafe, as real merit. 
 
 Her grateful fenfe of their benevolence can never expire but with her life. 
 
 * Difdain whatever Cornbury difdains. Pope. 
 
 ft D V E R TI SEMEN! 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO THE 
 
 I F E 
 
 O F 
 
 EDWARD Lord HERBERT 
 
 Of CHERBURY, 
 Written by himfelf. 
 
 SOME years ago the following pages would have been reckoned one of 
 the greater! prefents which the learned world could have received. 
 The Life of the famous Lord Herbert of Cherbury, written by himfelf, 
 would have excited the curiofity of the whole republic of letters. Perhaps 
 a lefs proportion of expectation may attend this its late appearance. Not 
 that the abilities of the noble writer have fallen into difefteem. His reign 
 of Henry VIII. is allowed to be a mafterpiece of hiftoric biography. But 
 they were his fpeculative works, which, raifmg a multitude of admirers or 
 cenfors from their acutenefs and Angularity, made lord Herbert's a name of 
 the firft importance. The many great men, who illuftrated the fucceeding 
 period, have taken off fome of the public attention ; for it is only a genius 
 of the firft force, whofe fame dilates with ages, and can buoy itfelf up above 
 the indifference which fleals upon mankind, as an author becomes lefs and 
 lefs the fubjecl: of conve rfatioiio Speculative writers, however penetrating, 
 however fublime their tal ents, feldom attain the feal of univerfal approbation ; 
 becaufe, of all the various abilities which Providence has beftowed on man, 
 reafoning is not the power which has been brought to ftandard perfection. 
 
 * Printed at Strawberry-hill. 
 
 Poetry 
 
 * 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 231 
 
 Poetry and eloquence have been fo far perfected, that the great mailers in 
 thofc branches jftill remain unequalled. But where is that book of human 
 argumentation, where that fyftem of human opinions, which has not been 
 partly confuted or exploded ? Novelty itfelf in matters of metaphyseal en- 
 quiry often proves, in effect, a confutation of antecedent novelties. Oppo- 
 nents raife the celebrity of the doctrine they attack : newer doctrines ftifle 
 that celebrity. This is a truth, which the bigots of lord Herbert's age would 
 not have liked to hear ; but what has happened to many other great men, 
 has been his fate too : they who meancd to wound his fame, extended it : 
 when the cry of enthufiafts was drawn off to frefher game, his renown grew' 
 fainter. His moral character recovered its luftre, but has fewer Spectators to 
 gaze at it. 
 
 This Introduction to his Life may not be improper, though at fir ft it may 
 miflead the reader, who will hence perhaps expect from his own pen fome 
 account of a perfon's creed, whom a few ibttifh zealots once reprefented as 
 having none at all. His lordflnp's thorough belief and awful veneration of 
 the Deity will clearly appear in thefe pages; but neither the unbeliever nor the 
 monk will have farther latisfaftion. This life of a philofopher is neither a 
 deduction of his opinions, " nor a table of philofophy — I will anticipate the 
 reader's furprife, though it fhall be but in a word : to his aftonifhment he 
 will find, that the hiftory of don Quixote was the- life of Plato. 
 
 The noble family, which gives thefe meets to the world, is above the lit- 
 tle prejudices which make many a race defraud the public of what was de- 
 signed for it by thole who alone had a right to give or withhold. It is above 
 fuppreffing what lord Herbert dared to tell. Foibles, paffions, perhaps fome 
 vanity, fu rely fome wrongheadednels ; thefe he fcorned to conceal, for he 
 fought truth, wrote on truth, was truth : he honeftly told when he had 
 milled or miftaken it. His defcendants, not blind to his faults, but through 
 them conducting the reader to his virtues, deiire the world to make this 
 candid obfervation with them, " That there muft have been a wonderful 
 fund of internal virtue, of ftrong refolution and manly philofophy, which in 
 an age of fuch miftaken and barbarous gallantry, of fuch abftird ufages and 
 falfe glory, could enable lord Herbert to feek fame better founded, and could 
 make him reflect that there might be a more defirable kind of glory than 
 that of a romantic duellifV None fhut their eyes fo obftinately againit fee- 
 
: 3 2 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 ink wh&t is ridiculous, as thev who have attained a mattery in it : but that 
 was not the cafe of lord Herbert. His valour made him a hero, be the 
 heroifni in vogue what it would : his found parts made him a philosopher. 
 Few men in truth have figured lo confpieuoufly in lights lo various; and his 
 defcendants, though thev cannot approve him in every walk of glory, would 
 perhaps injure his memory, if thev fuffered the world to be ignorant, that he 
 was formed to mine in everv fphere, into which his impetuous temperament 
 or predominant reaion conducted him. 
 
 As a foldier, he won the efteem of thofe great captains the prince of 
 Orange and the conftable de Montmorency ; as a knight, his chivalry was 
 drawn from the pureft founts of the Fairy Queen. Had he been ambitious, 
 the beauty of his perfon would have carried him as far as any gentle knight 
 can afpire to go. As a public minitter, he lupported the dignity of his 
 country, even when its prince difgraced it ; and that he was qualified to 
 write its annals as well as to ennoble them, the hiftorv I have mentioned 
 proves, and muft make us lament that he did not complete, or that we have 
 loll, the account he purpofed to give of his embafly. Thefe bufy fcene3 
 were blended with, and terminated by, meditation and philofophic enquiries. 
 Strip each period of its excefTes and errors, and it will not be eafy to trace 
 out, or difpofe the lite of a man of quality into a fucceffion of employments 
 which would better become him. Valour and military activity in youth ; 
 buiinefs of ftate in the middle age ; contemplation and labours for the in- 
 formation of pofteritv in the calmer fcenes of clofmg life : this was lord 
 Herbert : the deduction he will give himfelf. 
 
 The IMS, was in great danger of being loft to the world. Henry lord 
 Herbert, grandfon of the author, died in 1691 without iffue, and by his 
 Will left his eftate to Francis Herbert of Oakly-park, (father of the prefent 
 earl of Powis), his fitter's fon. At Lymore in Montgomeryfhire (the chief 
 feat of the family after Cromwell had demolifhed Montgomerv-caftle) was 
 preferved the original manufcript. Upon the marriage of Henry lord Her- 
 bert with a daughter of Francis earl of Bradford, Lymore, with a confider- 
 able part of the eftate thereabouts, was allotted for her jointure. After his 
 deceafe, lady Herbert ufually reiided there ; me died in 1714. The MS. 
 could not then be found; yet while me lived there it was known to have 
 heen in her hands. Some years afterwards it was difcovered at Lymore 
 
 a mon? 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 233 
 
 among ibme old papers, in very bad condition, fevcral leaves being torn out, 
 and others ftained to fuch a decree as to make it fcarcclv legible. Under 
 thefe circumfhmces, enquiry was made of the Herberts of Ribbisford (de- 
 fcended from fir Henry Herbert, a younger brother of the author-lord) in 
 relation to a duplicate of the memoirs, which was confidently faid to be in 
 their cuftody. It was allowed that fuch a duplicate had exifted ; but no one 
 could recollect what was become of it. At laft, about the year 1737, this 
 book was fent to the earl of Powis, by a gentleman whofe father had pur- 
 chafed an eftate of Henry Herbert of Ribbisford (fon of fir Henry Herbert 
 above mentioned), in whom was revived in 1694. the title of Chirbury, 
 which had extinguifhed in 1691. By him (after the fale of the eftate) fomc 
 few books, pictures, and other things were left in the houfe, and remained 
 there to 1737. This manufcript was amongft them ; which not only by the 
 contents (as far as it was pofiible to collate it with the original) but by the 
 limilitude of the writing, appeared to be the duplicate fo much fought after. 
 
 Being written when lord Herbert was pa ft: lixty, the work was probably 
 never completed. The fpelling is in general given as in the MS. but fome 
 obvious miftakes it was neceflary to correct, and a few notes have been 
 added, to point out the moft remarkable perfons mentioned in the text. The 
 ftyle is remarkably good for that age, which coming between the nervous 
 and expreflive manlinefs of the preceding century, and the purity of the pre- 
 lent ftandard, partook of neither. His lordfhip's obfervations are new and 
 acute; fome very ihrewd, as that to the due de Guife, p. 148 ; his difcourfe 
 on the reformation, very wife. To the French confeffor his reply, p. 168. 
 was fpirited ; indeed his behaviour to Luynes, and all his conduct gave ample 
 evidence of his conftitutional fire. But nothing; is more marked than the air 
 of veracity or periualion which runs through the whole narrative. If he 
 makes us wonder, and wonder makes us doubt, the charm of his ingenuous 
 integrity difpels our hehtation. The whole relation throws Angular light on 
 the manners of the age, though the gleams are traniient. In thofe manners 
 nothing is more ftriking than the ftrange want of police in this country : I 
 will not point out inftances, as I have already perhaps too much opened the 
 contents of a book, which, if it gives other readers half the pleafure it af- 
 forded me, they will own themfelves extraordinarily indebted to the noble 
 perfon, by whofe favour I am permitted to communicate to them fo great 
 a curiofity. 
 
 Vol. I. H h ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 i 
 
234 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO A 
 
 CATALOGUE and DESCRIPTION 
 
 Of King CHARLES the First's 
 
 CAPITAL COLLECTION of 
 
 Pictures, Statues, Bronzes, Medals, &c* 
 
 THE catalogue, $o\v offered to the public, cf the collection of pic- 
 tures belonging to king Charles the firtt, was tranfcribed by the late 
 curious and induftrious Mr. Vertue, from a MS. in the Afhmolean mu- 
 fasum, and was by him prepared for the prefs, part of it being actually printed 
 off before his death. The catalogue appears, from pages 57 and 63, to 
 have been taken by one * Vanderdoort, keeper of the king's cabinet, pi£tures y 
 jewels, &C. who had before ferved prince Henry in the fame employment : 
 and indeed, from every page, it appears not to have been compiled by an 
 Englifhman, the language in many places being barely intelligible ; in none, 
 
 * In Saunderfon's Graphice is this account of reftored it. As it is not mentioned in this cata- 
 
 this Abraham Vanderdoort's death. The king logue, probably it was newly purchafed. 
 had recommended to him to take particular care Vide Saunderfon, p. 14. 
 
 of an excellent miniature by Gibfon, the parable There is a fine head of Vanderdoort in lord 
 
 of the loft (heep : he laid it up fo carefully, that Oxford's collection, by Dobfon, whom king 
 
 when the king aiked for it, Vanderdoort could Charles called the Englifh Tintoret,and yet there 
 
 not find it : in defpair he went and hanged him- is not one picture by him in the following ca- 
 
 felf. After his death, his executors found and talogue. 
 
 5 tolerably 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 235 
 
 tolerably pure *. Yet it was apprehended, that putting it into a new drefs 
 might have deftroycd much of the fidelity of the defcriptions, which feem 
 very accurately taken; and as elegance of diction is by no means a necelTary 
 ingredient to a catalogue, it is hoped that the curious will prefer the rude 
 original, in its native truth, to a more poliihed, but perhaps lefs faithful 
 narrative. 
 
 King Charles's collection was one of the moft celebrated in Europe : he 
 loved, he underlfood, he patronized the arts. Not having the fortune to 
 find great geniufes in painting among his own lubjects, he "f called over fome 
 of the ablcit mailers of other nations — a commendable partiality to foreign- 
 ers, as it tended to enrich and inftruct his own country. Nor did he confine 
 his expence to artiits : befides feparate pieces, he purchafed the celebrated 
 collection of the duke of Mantua ; having firlt laid a foundation of what he 
 inherited from his brother the amiable prince Henry, who, as appears from 
 this catalogue, had, amongft his other qualifications, a tafte for pictures, and 
 a noble zeal for encouraging the arts. 
 
 It is recorded of king Charles, that at one time he made a prefent of ultra- 
 marine to the value of five hundred pounds to Vandyke and Mrs. Carlifle, a 
 celebrated paintrefs; and the immenfe price of eighty thoufand pounds, 
 which his majeity is faid to have agreed to pay to the fame great mafter, for 
 illuitrating the banqueting-houfe with the ceremonies of the garter, is rather 
 a comment on the magnificence of the prince, and the genius of the painter, 
 than probably a matter of fact. — That noble chamber was foon deftined to 
 a more melancholy folemnity ! 
 
 The flroke that laid royalty fo low, difmilTed the painter, and difperfed 
 the royal virtuofo's collection : the fir It cabinets in Europe mine with its 
 fpoils J. The few fine pieces thinly fcattered through the royal palaces at 
 
 Tom Hearne, who was going to print it, iflued out to examine Hugh Peters concerning 
 -oolc it for German, and dropped the defign. the dilpofal of the pictures, jewels, &c. belong- 
 ing to the royal family, but foon came to no- 
 f He invited Albano into England, by a letter thing, by the obftinacy or ignorance of Peters, 
 Written with his own hand. Acad. PiJ. p. 282. who would not or could not give the defired 
 
 fatisfaclion. 
 
 : After the refloration a commiiTion was Vide Gen. Did. vol. ii. p. 384. 
 
 H h 2 home, 
 
236 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 home, are chiefly what were faved or re-aflembled of king Charles's fplendid 
 gallery : the Dutch are reported to have purchafed and reftored fome * to 
 his fon : the befb part are buried in the gloom or perifhing in the vaults of 
 the E feudal. The late prince of Wales, who had begun to affemble a fine 
 collection, propofed to acquire as many as pofiible of king Charles's pic- 
 tures — but painting has. ft ill been unfortunate in Britain I 
 
 The fire of Whitehall contributed to dcfrroy what rebellion and rapine had 
 fpared. Many portraits of royal per tons, of whom no image is left, perilhed 
 in thole flames. The fairelt works of the natural Holbein, and the exquifite 
 Ifaac Oliver, were probably loft there : works fo valuable, that the memory 
 of them, preferved in this rude tranfeript, m-uft recommend it to the judi- 
 cious and curious reader. 
 
 A ftill farther view is aimed at. Catalogues of this fort are defervedly 
 grown into efteem : while a collection remains entire, the ufe of the cata- 
 logue is obvious ; when difperled, it often ferves to authenticate a picture, 
 adds to its imaginary value, and beitows a fort of hiftory on it. It is to be 
 wifhed, that the practice of compofmg catalogues of confpicuous collections 
 was univerfal : and perhaps this, fo coarfely executed, may tend to incite 
 more elegant imitations. Hitherto, this Vanderdoort, and one or two- 
 foreigners fcarce better qualified, have been the chief illuftrators of Brkifli 
 mulkums f . One Gambarini began with lord Pembroke's collection, and 
 made pompous promiies of proceeding with what he was incapable of execut- 
 ing well. There is another account of the pictures and ftatues at Wilton J: 
 the coins and medals have been published in a fair edition. Many of the- 
 duke of Devonfhire's and doctor Mead's appear in Haym's Teforo Britannico. 
 Thefe, and the JEdes Walfioliancv, are, I think, the only defcriptions of the 
 riches of a country, which for fome years has been alfembling the arts and 
 works of the politeft nations and greateft matters* 
 
 * They are publifhed in Gerard Reyntz's ctofet for that'purpofe. He made the catalogue 
 
 •Gallery, of whofe widow they were bought. accordingly-, but I do not find that it was ever 
 
 printed. 
 
 f It feema that king Charles's medals were Vide Memoirs of El JJbmo/e, prefixed to his 
 
 faved, or that his fon made a collection; for the Bcrkjhire, p. 10, 24. 
 latter ordered Afhmole to make a description of 
 
 his medals, and afiigned Henry the eighth's % By Cowdrey. Another fince by Kennedy. 
 
 The 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 237 
 
 The eftablifhment of the Britifh mufasum feems a charter for incorporating 
 the arts, a new aera of virtu. It is to be hoped that collections, wont to 
 ftraggle through auctions into obfcurity, will there find a centre ! Who that 
 fhould deftine his collection to the Britifh mufaeum, would not purchafe 
 curiofities with redoubled lpirit and pleafure, whenever he reflected, that he 
 was collecting for his country, and would have his name recorded as a bene- 
 factor to its arts and improvements ? And when fo fair a foundation is laid, 
 if pictures and ftatues flow in to books and medals, and curiofities of every 
 kind, may we not flatter ourfelves, that a Britifh academy of arts will arife ? 
 at leaf!:, that we fhall not want great matters of our own, when models are 
 prepared, and our artifts can ftudy Greece and Rome, Praxiteles and Ra- 
 phael, without ftirring from their own metropolis I 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
238 FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 T O A 
 
 CATALOGUE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Collection of Pictures, &c. 
 
 BELONGING TO 
 
 King JAMES the Second. 
 
 THE following catalogues, as well as that of king Charles's collection 
 publifhed laft mmmer, were purchafed by the * editor at the fale of 
 Mr. Vertue. The firft [that of king James's collection] was tranfcribed 
 from a book in the pofTeffion of the late earl of Oxford, with the king's 
 arms on the covers, which probably was for his majefty's own ufe. There 
 are fhort defcriptions of each picture, but no meafures. In one leaf it is 
 faid, that the Mantuan collection, which by the former catalogue feems to 
 have been greatly damaged, coft king Charles fourfcore thouland pounds. 
 It adds, that part of the collection was purchafed of one Mr. Frofely ; ano- 
 ther part, prefented to the fame king by the lord abbot Montagu, almoner 
 to queen Henrietta-Maria; and a handibme number, the gift of the States 
 to Charles II. They had belonged to his father, were bought during the 
 rebellion by mynheer Reyntz, a virtuofo, [whofe collection was engraved, 
 with prints of thefe very pictures] and on his death were purchafed and re- 
 
 * William Bathoe, Bookfeller. 
 
 ftored 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 239 
 
 ftored by the States. The catalogue is figned by Mr. Chiffinch, of the 
 king's bed chamber; and in the laft leaf are fomc memorandums of furniture 
 in the cuftody of different wardrobe-keepers, and quantities of royal plate, 
 all which feem to have been fpecified in lord Oxford's manufcript. 
 
 The catalogue of queen Caroline's clofet was taken by Mr. Vertue himfelf 
 in 1 743, and contains an account of a very valuable cabinet ; particularly of 
 that curious parcel of original drawings of Holbein, the Iketches for his por- 
 traits in oil. They are not only fome of his moft maiferly performances, 
 but preferve reprefentations of many illultrious perfons of the court of Henry 
 VIII. and of whom no other pictures are known. There are portraits of the 
 accomplifhed earl of Surrey at different ftages of his life ; of an admired poet 
 at the fame time, lord Vaux ; of two or three of the queens, and other 
 beauties. It is pity that fo valuable a treafure mould not be eniured to the 
 public by engravings *. They feem to have compofed that book mentioned 
 in king Charles's collection, page 4, which his majefty exchanged with the 
 lord chamberlain Pembroke for a Saint George by Raphael, and which his 
 lordfhip gave to that great collector the earl of Arundel. A few of the fame 
 fet are in the poffeffion of the lady Elizabeth Germain. I do not doubt but 
 it is the fame book mentioned with fuch encomiums, and fo defervedly, by 
 Saunderfon, in his Graphice, page 79. There are many other curious pieces 
 in this cabinet, affembled by her late majefty, who had great pleafure in 
 collecting and preferring the dilperfed remains of the collection belonging to 
 the crown, who formed the gallery of royal portraits at Kenfmgton, and was 
 the gracious patronefs of every art- 
 
 * We cannot help lamenting, that the por- wife remain {hut up from the public, and 
 traits [at Windfor] of an age fo celebrated for be liable to be totally loft, by not being en- 
 beauty as the reign of Charles II. fhould like- graved* 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO A 
 
 CATALOGUE 
 
 OF THE CURIOUS 
 
 COLLECTION of PICTURES 
 
 O F 
 
 GEORGE VILLIERS, Duke of Buckingham. 
 
 WE proceed to gratify the curiofity of the public with fome other lifts 
 of valuable collections : the principal one belonged to that magnifi- 
 cent favourite, George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, and v/as only fuch 
 part of his mufeura as was preferved by an old fervant of the family, Mr. 
 Travlman, and by him fent to Antwerp to the young duke, to be fold for 
 his fubiiftence ; great part having been embezzled when the eftate was fe- 
 queftered by the parliament. Some of the pictures, on the affaffination of 
 the firft duke, had been purchafed by the king, the earl of Northumberland, 
 and abbot Montagu. The collection was kept at York-houfe in the Strand, 
 and had been bought by the duke at great prices. He gave io,oool. for 
 what had been collected by fir Peter Paul Rubens ; and fir Henry Wootton, 
 when embaffador at Venice, purchafed * many other capital ones for his 
 
 * Particularly a Madona and child (probably and Abifhag brought to David, by old Palma, in 
 one of thofe hereafter mentioned) by Titian ; page 9. Vide Cabala, p. 399. 
 
 N 4 grace. 
 
FUGITIVE PIECES, 
 
 241 
 
 grace. One may judge a little how valuable the entire collection muft have 
 been, by this lift of what remained, where we find no fewer than nineteen 
 by Titian, feventccn by Tintoret, twenty-one by Baflan, two by Julio Ro- 
 mano, two by Giorgione, thirteen by Paul Veronefe, eight by Palma, three 
 by Guido, thirteen by Rubens, three by Leonardo da Vinci, two by Cor- 
 regio, and three by Raphael ; befides other eftcemed and fcarce mafters. 
 
 Mr. Duart of Antwerp bought fome of them ; but the greater part were 
 purchafed by the archduke Leopold, and added to his noble collection in 
 the caftle of Prague. Me bought the chief picture, the Ecce Homo bv 
 Titian, in which were introduced the portraits of the pope, the emperor 
 Charles the fifth, and Solvman the magnificent. It appears by a note of 
 Mr. Vertue, in the original manufcript, that Thomas earl of Arundel offered 
 the firft duke the value of 7000 /. in money or land for that Imgle piece. 
 There is a copy of it at Northumberland-houfe. 
 
 It may not be improper to mention in this place, that Villiers, when lent 
 with the earl of Holland to the States, to negotiate the restoration of the 
 Palatinate, purchafed a curious collection of Arabic manufcripts, collected 
 by Erpinius, a famous linguiit; which, according to the duke's deiignation 
 of them, were, after his death, beftowed on the univerfity of Cambridge, 
 of which his grace had been chancellor. 
 
 Vol. L 
 
 I i 
 
 A CATALOGUE 
 
1 
 
A 
 
 CATALOGUE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ROYAL and NOBLE AUTHORS 
 
 O F 
 
 ENGLAND, 
 
 With LISTS of their WORKS. 
 
 Dove, diavolo ! Meffer Ludovico, avetc pigliato tante coglioncrie ? 
 
 Card. d'Este to Ariosto. 
 
 Enlarged with many new Articles, with feveral Paffages reftored 
 from the original MS, and with many other Additions. 
 
[ *45 ] 
 
 To the Molt Noble 
 
 FRANCIS SEYMOUR CONWAY, 
 
 EARL of HERTFORD, 
 
 VISCOUNT BEAUCHAMP, 
 BARON CONWAY and KILLULTA, 
 Knight of the Mod Noble Order of the Garter, 
 
 LORD CHAMBERLAIN of his MAJESTY'S Houshold, 
 
 AND 
 
 Lord Lieutenant of the County of Warwick. 
 
 My dear Lord, 
 
 I SHOULD be afraid to offer you the following work, if it 
 was not written with the utmoft impartiality towards all 
 perfons and parties: it would be unpardonable to have a bias in 
 a mere literary narrative. Yet fome may think that I ought to 
 be apprehen{ive of offering it to you from this very impartiality ; 
 I mean, from the freedom with which I fpeak of your great 
 anceftor, the protector Somerfet. But whoever fufpects you ol 
 unwillingnefs to hear truth, is little acquainted with you — and 
 indeed, when you need not fear what truth can fay of yourfelf, it 
 would be too nice to feel for a remote progenitor ; efpecially as 
 your virtues reflect back more honour to him, than his fplendour 
 lias tranfmitted to you. Whatever blemiihes he had, he amply 
 
 atoned, 
 
246 DEDICATION. 
 
 atoned, not only by his unhappy death, but by that beautiful 
 humanity, which prompted him to erect a court of requejls in his 
 own houfe to hear the fuits, the complaints of the poor. 
 
 If there were no other evident propriety, my lord, in my 
 prefenting you with any thing that I mould wifh were valuable, 
 the poor would bear teftimony that an encomium on the pro- 
 tector's benevolence can be no where fo properly addreffed as to 
 the heir of his goodnefs. 
 
 I am, my Lord, 
 
 your Lordship's 
 moft affectionate 
 humble fervant, 
 HORACE WALPOLE. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT, 
 
C «47 ] 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 TH E compiler of the following lift flatters himfclf that he offers to the 
 public a prefent of lbme curiofity, though perhaps of no great value. 
 This lingular catalogue contains an account of no fewer than ten Englim 
 princes, and of above fourfcore peers, who at different periods have thrown 
 their mite into the treafury of literature. The number much exceeds what 
 is generally known. — Perhaps the obfcurity of fome will not at firft fight 
 make a favourable impreflion on the mind of the reader, nor incline him to 
 think that it was worth while to preferve the names of authors, whofe 
 works have not feemed worth preferving. But when it is obferved that it 
 has been impoffible to recover even the titles of many pieces written by fo 
 mafterly a genius as lord Somers, it may not be too favourable a judgment to 
 prefume that other able authors have met as unmerited a fate. As lord 
 Somers's pieces were anonymous, we no longer know what to afcribe to 
 him ; and one cannot help making an inference a little fevere ; that the 
 world is apt to efteem works more from the reputation of the author, than 
 from their intrinfic merit. Another caufe that has drawn oblivion over 
 fome of our catalogue, was the unfortunate age in which they appeared, 
 when learnino; was but in its dawn, when our Ian2"iia2;e was barbarous. 
 How brightly would earl Rivers have mined, had he flourifhed in the poliihed 
 aera of queen Anne ! How would the thoughts of Bolingbroke twinkle, 
 had he written during the wars of York and Lancafter I 
 
 Be this as it may ; yet are there fuch great names to be found in this 
 catalogue, as will excufe erecting a particular clafs for them : Bacon, Cla- 
 rendon, Villiers duke of Buckingham, the latter lord Shaftfbury, lord Her- 
 bert, lord Dorfet, and others, are fufficient founders of a new order. Some 
 years ago nothing was more common than fuch divifions of writers. How 
 many German, Dutch, and other heralds have marthalled authors in this 
 manner ! Balthazar Bonifacius made a collection of fuch as had been in 
 6 lover 
 
243 ADVERTISE M E N T. 
 
 love with ftatues*: Ravifius Textor, of fuch as have died laughing f : Vof- 
 fiu's, of chronologers : Bartholimis, of phyficians who have been poets. 
 There are catalogues of modern Greek poets ; of illuftrious baftards ; of 
 tranflators ; of Frenchmen who have ftudied Hebrew |; of all the authors 
 bred at Oxford, by Antony Wood ; and of all Britifh writers in general by 
 Bale, Pitts, and bilhop Tanner. But if this collection, fortified with fuch 
 grave authorities, mould (till be reckoned trifling by the generality ; it can- 
 not, I would hope, but be acceptable to the noble families defcended from 
 thefe authors. Considering what tram is thought worthy to be hoarded by 
 genealogies, the following lift may not be a defpicable addition to thofe re- 
 pofitorjes. Of one ufe it certainly may be ; to aftift future editors in pub- 
 lifhing the works of any of thefe illuftrious personages. 
 
 In compiling this catalogue, I have not inferted perfous as authors, of 
 whom there is nothing extant but letters or fpeeches. Such pieces mow no 
 intention in the writers to have been authors, and would fwell this treatife to 
 an immenfe magnitude. Bifhop Tanner has ere6ted many kings and queens 
 into authors on thefe and ftill flenderer pretentions, in which he furpaffes 
 even his bountiful predeceffor Bale. According to the former, even queen 
 Eleanor M as an author for letters which (lie is /aid to have written ; and 
 Edward the third for his writs and precepts to fheriffs. But this is ridiculous. 
 
 I have chofen to begin no higher than the Conqueft, though the venerable 
 name of Alfred did tempt me to add fo great an ornament to my work : but 
 as I mould not then have known on what aera to fix ; and being, terrified at 
 finding I muft have to do with another Alfred king of Northumberland, 
 with Arviragus, Canute ; nay, with that virago Boadicia, and king Bladud, 
 a magician, who difcovered the Bath waters, and the art of flying §, to all 
 whom the bifhop very gravely allots their niches, I contented myfelf with a 
 later period, whofe commencement however, as the reader will find, is un- 
 certain enough to fatisfy any admirer of hiftoric paradoxes and fables. 
 
 * Gen. Diet. vol. x. p. 360. 
 
 f Theatr. Hid. lib- 2. chap. 87. 
 
 X In a book called Gallia Qrientalis. 
 
 $ It Teems he had a mind to pafs for a god : in- 
 ning his people to the capital to fee a proof of 
 
 his divinity, after a few evolutions in the air, his 
 wings failed him, and he tumbled upon the 
 temple of Apollo and broke his neck ; which 
 Leland mentions as a judgment; allowing an 
 impoffibility, in order to get at a miracle 5 vol. i. 
 page 1 1. 
 
 4 One 
 
j 
 
 A P VERTISE M E N T 249 
 
 One liberty I have taken, which is calling uji by wrtt t if I may fay fo; 
 fome eldeft fons of peers, who never attained the title ; as the earl of Surrey, 
 and the lord Rochford, &c. In ranging the whole leries, I have generally 
 gone by the years of their deaths, except where they long out-lived their 
 lignificance, or the period in which they chiefly fhone. 
 
 I will not detain the reader any longer from what little entertainment he 
 may find in the work itfelf, but to make an apology for freedoms I have 
 taken of two forts ; the one, with lome historic names, whofe defcendents 
 ftill exift. There are families mentioned in this work, whofe firft honours 
 were the wages of fervility ; their latter, the rewards or ornaments of the 
 mo ft amiable virtues. It were an affront to the latter, to fjppofe that one is 
 not at liberty to treat the former as they deferved. No man who is confeious 
 of the one, can be folicitous about the other. Another fort of licence I 
 have allowed myfelf is in fcrutinizing fome favourite characters ; yet I never 
 mean to offer my opinion but with lubmhTion to better judgments, which I 
 choofe to fay here, rather than repeat it tirefomely on every occafion. This 
 freedom of difcufTion on the dead of any rank, or however confecrated by 
 the authority of great names, or even by the efteem of ages, every man 
 ought to be at liberty to exercife. The greateft men certainly may be mil- 
 taken ; fo may even the judgment of ages, which often takes opinions upon 
 truft. No authority, under divine, is too great to be called in queftion ; 
 and however venerable monarchy may be in a ftate, no man ever wifhed to 
 fee the government of letters under any form but that of a republic. As a 
 citizen of that commonwealth, I propofe my fentiments for the revifion of 
 any decree, of any honorary fentence, as I think fit : my fellow-citizens, 
 equally free, will vote according to their opinions. 
 
 Thus much with regard to great names : as to any other notions which 
 may clafh with thofe commonly received or better eftablifhed, let it be un- 
 derftood that I propofe my own with the fame deference and diffidence, and 
 by no means expecting they mould be adopted, unlefs they are found agree- 
 able to good fenfe : ftill lefs intending to wrangle for them, if they are con- 
 certed. This work was calculated to amufe : if it offends any man, or is 
 taken too ferioufly, the author will be concerned ; but it will never make 
 him fo ferious as to defend it. 
 
 Vol. I. Kk . ROYAL 
 
ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 RICHARD the First. 
 
 THOUGH Henry the firfl obtained the fair appellation of Beauclerc, 
 or the Learned, yet has no author, I think, aicribed any * competi- 
 tion to him. Confidering the ftate of literature in that age, one may con- 
 jecture what was the erudition of a prince to whom the monks [the doctors 
 of his time !] imparted a title lb confined to their own brotherhood. One 
 is more furprifed to be obliged to attribute the ilrft place in this catalogue to 
 his fierce great-grandfon, Coeur de Lion ! It is afferted, that towards the 
 end of his father's reign, which his rebel temper difturbed, he lived much 
 in the courts of the princes of Provence, learned their language, and prac- 
 tiled their poetry, then called Hie gay Science, and the ftandard of politenefs 
 in that age. The Englifh, who had a turn to numbers, are particularly faid 
 to have cultivated that dialect, rinding their own tongue too ftubborn and in- 
 flexible. 
 
 Mr. Rymer, in his fliort view of tragedy, is earned to affert the preten- 
 tions of this monarch as a poet, againfi Roger Hoveden the monk, who, he 
 fuppofes, was angry at the king's patronizing the provencal bards, reckoned 
 of the party of the Albigenfes. then warring on the pope and France. 
 •Hoveden fays pofitively, that Richard, to raiic himiclf a name, bought and 
 begged veries and flattering rhymes, and drew over lingers and jeilers from 
 •France to chant panegyrics on him about the llreets, and it was every where 
 
 * Bifliop Tanner, in his Bibliorheca Britan- in St. Auflin's church at Canterbury a book com- 
 
 nica, has ranked Henry among his authors \ but pofed from lawsor deevtes elucidated andenacted 
 
 I cannot fo lightly call him one, as the bifliop by that king, vide p. 95, nor is it fufheient that 
 
 does after Ldand, on the latter having difcovered bifhop Bale fays he wrote epillles to Anfelm. 
 
 K k 2 faid, 
 
252 ROYAL AUTHORS, 
 
 faid, That the world contained nothing like him. This account feems 
 more agreeable to the character of that ambitions reftlefs monarch, whofe 
 vagrant paffion for fame let him, in a reign of ten years, refide but eight 
 months in his own kingdom, than Mr. Rymer's who would metamorphofe 
 him into the foft lute-loving hero of poeiy, and at the fame time afcribes to 
 him connections with a faction at variance with the king of France, his ally 
 againir. his father 
 
 However, fmce this article was written, I have found great reafon to be- 
 lieve that Richard was actually an author. Crefcimbeni, in his Commentary 
 on the lives of the provencal poets, fays, that Richard, being {truck with 
 the flveetnefs of that tongue, fet himfelf to compofe a fonnet in it, which 
 he fent to the princefs Stephanetta, wife of Hugh de Baux, and daughter of 
 Gilbert, the fecond count of Provence J. He fays afterwards in a chapter 
 expreffly written on this king, that refiding in the court of Raimond Berling- 
 hieri, count of Provence, he fell in love with the princefs Leonora, one of 
 that prince's four daughters, whom Richard afterwards married : that he 
 employed himfelf in rhyming in that language, and, when he was prifoner, 
 compofed fome fonnets, which he fent to Beatrix, countefs of Provence, fifter 
 of Leonora, and in which he complains of his barons for letting him lie in 
 captivity. Crefcimbeni quotes four lines, which are nearly the lame with a 
 part of the fonnet itfelf, as it ftill exifts ; and which is fo poor a compofi- 
 tion, as far as I can decypher it, that it weighs with me more than Crefcim- 
 beni's authority or Rymer's arguments, to believe it of his majefrv's own 
 fabric. Otherwife, Crefcimbeni's account is a heap of blunders. Richard 
 married Berengaria daughter of Sancho king of Navarre ; and no princefs of 
 Provence. In the Life of the very Raimond here mentioned, p. 76, Cre- 
 fcimbeni makes the fame Eleanor, wife of Edward III, and Sanchia, the 
 third daughter, wife of Richard. I. to whom this author had before allotted 
 her fifler Eleanor, and which king was great great uncle of Edward III. 
 whom this miferable hiftorian miftakes for Edward I. as he certainly does 
 Richard I. for his nephew Richard king of the Romans. Crefcimbeni in- 
 forms us that there are poems of our king Richard in the library of faint 
 Lorenzo at Florence, in utio de codici Provenzali ; and others nel N° 3204 
 
 * Not to mention how much nearer to the + Gen. Di£t. vol. Ii. page 293, 
 time the monk lived than Mr. Rvmer. % Vol. ii. page 8, 
 
 delta 
 
ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 253 
 
 della Vaticana. I have had both repertories carefully fearched. The re- 
 ference to the Vatican proves a new inaccuracy of this author: there is 1 
 work of king Richard. In page 71 of N° 3204 there is a poem of Richauts 
 de Terafcon ; with fhort accounts of each author prefixed to their fonnets, 
 but without the lealt mention of any royalty belonging to them. 
 
 In the Laurcntine library is the king's fonnet mentioned above, which I 
 have twice had tranferibed with the greater!: exaclnefs ; and as it has never 
 been printed, fo ancient and lingular a curiofity will probably be acceptable 
 to the reader. 1 do not pretend to give him my interpretation, as I am fen- 
 fible it is very imperfect. ; and yet I think I underftand the drift of every 
 lfanza but the laft, which has proved totally unintelligible to every perfon 
 that has hitherto feen it. 
 
 " * Biblioth. I, aura. Plut. XLI. cod. 42. Membran. in folio p. 184. 
 ben confervato ; fino alia paga 72 fono poeli Provenzali." 
 
 REIS RIZARD. 
 
 Ja nus horn pris non dira fa raifon 
 Adreitament fe com horn dolent non 
 Mas per conort pot il faire chanfon 
 Pro adamis, mas povre fon li don 
 Onta j avron, fe por ma reezon 
 Soi fai dos yver pris. 
 
 ■f Or Sachon ben mi horn e mi baron 
 Engles, Norman, Pettavih et Guafcon 
 Qe ge navoie fi povre compagnon 
 Qeu lailfaffe por aver en preifon. 
 Ge nol di pas, por nulla retraifon 
 Mas anquar foige pris. 
 
 * This note was fent from Florence with the fonnet. f This is the ftanza quoted by Crefcimbeni. 
 
 Jan 
 
254 
 
 ROYAL AUTHORS- 
 
 Jan fai eu de ver certanament 
 Com mort ne pris na amie ne parent 
 Quant il me lanTent por or ni por argent 
 Mai mes de mi, mas, perz mes por ma gent 
 Qapres ma mort n auron reperzhament 
 Tan longament foi pris. 
 
 Norn merveill feu ai le cor dolent 
 Qe^ melTen her met ma terra en torment 
 No li menbra del noftre fegrament 
 Qe^ nos feimes an dos comunelment 
 Bern lai de ver qe gaire longament 
 Non ferai eu fa pris. 
 
 Mi compagnon cui j amoi e cui j am 
 Cil de Chaill e cil de Perfarian 
 De lor chanzon qil non font pas certain 
 Uncha vers els non oi cor fals ni vain 
 Sil me guertoient il fcron qe vilain 
 Tan com ge foie pris. 
 
 Or fachent ben Enjevin e Torain 
 E il bachaliers qi fon legier e fain 
 Qeii gombre foie pris en autrui main 
 II ma juvafTen mais il no ve un grain 
 De belles armes font era voit li plain 
 Per zo qe ge foi pris. 
 
 ContelTa Ibit votre prez fobrain 
 Sal deus e garde eel per cui me clam 
 Et per cui ge foi pris : 
 Ge nol di pas por cela de ccrtrain 
 La mere Loys. 
 
 " Quefta 
 
ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 2 55 
 
 " Qv. ema canzone e ftata ricorretta e riconfrontata con 1' originale, e ritro- 
 vata eflere in tutto fedele, fecondo il parcre anco del canonico Bandini biblio- 
 tecario." 
 
 Befides this fonnet, there is published by Rymer a letter written by king 
 Richard himfelf to the abbot of Clairvaux, giving an account of his wars 
 in the Holy Land. 
 
 EDWARD the Second. 
 
 T) ISHOP Tanner fays *, that in the herald's-office is extant in MS. 
 
 a Latin poem written by this unhappy prince, while a prifoner, the title 
 of which is 
 
 u Lamentatio gloriofi regis Edwardi de Karnarvan quam edidit tempore 
 fuae incarcerationis." 
 
 J Fabian mentions the fame verfes, and has given us fix lines as a fpecimen ; 
 they are in Latin and in rhyme ; and yet as this king never mowed any 
 lymptoms of affection to literature, as one never heard of his having the leaft 
 turn to poetry, I mould believe that this melody of a dying monarch is about 
 as authentic as that of the old poetic warbler the fwan, and no better founded 
 than the title of Gloriofi. His majefty fcarcely beftowed this epithet on 
 himfelf in his affliction ; and whoever conferred it, probably made him a 
 prefent of the verfes too|. 
 
 * Page 253. 
 
 f See his Chronicle and the Pari. Hift. of 
 Eng. vol. i. p. 188. 
 
 X Among the letters to archbiftiop Ufher is one 
 from fir Robert Cotton, defiring his grace to pro- 
 cure for him a poem of Richard the fecond, of 
 which that prelate had told him. As this is the 
 fingle paflage in which I find any mention of fuch 
 a poem, and as fo great an antiquarian appears 
 to have no other knowledge of it, I fufpedt that 
 I 
 
 Richard II. was miftaken for Richard T. 
 
 Vide U/ber's Letters, p. 79. 
 In a trifling book called The Lady's Diction- 
 ary, written by one N. H. in 1694, it is faid 
 that king Henry V. wrote certain Latin verfes on 
 Ethelfletda, filter of Edwin, a Saxon king before 
 the Conquefl-, and wife of Ethelred duke of Mer- 
 cia, a heroine who overthrew the Welfli. If 
 there is any truth in this afTertion, they were 
 probably an exercife compofed while he was at 
 Oxford, where Ethelfletda might be fome colle- 
 giate faint. 
 
 HENRY 
 
2 5 6 
 
 ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 HENRY the Eighth. 
 
 /V S all the fucceflbrs of this prince owe their unchangeable title of De- 
 fender of the Faith to his piety and learning, we do not pre- 
 fume to quefKon his pretentions to a place in this catalogue. Otherwife, a 
 little fcepticifm on his majefty's talents for fuch a performance, mean as it is, 
 might make us queflion whether he did not write the defence of the facra- 
 ments againft Luther, as * one of his fucceflbrs is fuppofed to have written 
 the Eikuv E cccri Aiw ; that is, with the pen of fome f court-prelate. It hap- 
 pened unfortunately, that the champion of the church neither convinced his 
 antagonift nor himfelf : Luther died a heretic ; his majefty would have been 
 one, if he had not erected himfelf into the head of that very church, which 
 he had received fo glorious a compliment for oppoling. But by a lingular 
 felicity in the wording of the title, it fuited Henry equally well, when he 
 burned papifts or proteftants ; it fuited each of his daughters, Mary and 
 Elizabeth ; it fitted the martyr Charles, and the profligate Charles : the 
 Romifli James, and the Calvimft William ; and at laft feemed peculiarly 
 adapted to the weak head of high-church Anne. 
 
 The work I have mentioned was printed in quarto by Richard Pinion, 
 with this title, 
 
 " AfTertio feptem facramentorum adverfus Marty n Luther, edita ab in- 
 vicliffimo Angliae & Francia? rege & d°. Hybernia? Henrico ejus nominis 
 oclavo." It ends, " apud inclytam urbem Londinum, in aedibus Pinfonianis, 
 anno m.dxxi. quarto idus Julii. Cum privileged a rege indulto. Editio 
 prima \" 
 
 Luther not only treated this piece of royal theology in a very cavalier man- 
 ner, but [which feems to have given the moft offence] afcribed it to others. 
 The king in the year 1525 replied in a feeond piece, entitled, 
 
 * Charles the firfl:. Timer, others to fir Thomas More. 
 
 Vide lord Herbert's Life of Hen. VIII. p. 240. 
 Saunders and Bellarmine afcribed it tobifliop J Ames's Typogr. Antiq. page 122. 
 
 w Litterarum, 
 
ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 257 
 
 " Litterarum, quibus invictifTimus princeps Henry VIII. &c. refpondit 
 ad quandam epiftolam Martini Luthen ad fe miffam, & ipfius Lutherans 
 quoque epiftolas exemplum *." It is remarkable that the emperor's arm c 
 were affixed to the title page. 
 
 In the Sylloge epiftolarum at the end of Hearne's edition of T. Livius's 
 hiftory of Henry the fifth, is a wretched controverfial letter written by this 
 king to the bifhop of Durham, on auricular confeflion, in which he pro- 
 fcffes not being apt to confult learned men for his writings. 
 
 Critics have ways of difcovering the genuinenefs of a book by comparing 
 it with other works of the fame author : we have \ little of his majefry's 
 compofition to help us to judge whether the tracts againft Luther be really 
 his, but his love-letters to Anne Boleyn : the ftyle of them has certainly no 
 analogy to his polemic divinity. Strype \ gives an account of a book which 
 the king wrote and fent to Rome during the proceedings on his firft divorce, 
 in which he had fet down the reafons for diffolving his marriage, and the 
 fcruples of his confcience : but I cannot find that it exifts, or was ever 
 printed : it was probably nothing more than a memorial, as many pieces in 
 bifhop Tanner's lifts were only ftate-papers. What may be properly rec- 
 koned his works [for it is abfurd to call inftrufHons and proclamations fo] 
 are the following §, though not exifting as I can find : 
 
 " An introduction to grammar.'* 
 iC A book of prayers.'* 
 
 . •* Ames, p. 130, and Strype's Memorials) 
 page 59. 
 
 f Strype, upon the authority of Beutherus, 
 afcribes to king Henry a book on the tyranny and 
 ufurpation of the bifhop of Rome ; but I am of 
 opinion with lord Herbert, that it was a miftake 
 for one written by Fox, bifhop of Hereford, 
 which was tranilated by lord Stafford, and of 
 
 which an account will be given hereafter. 
 Strype's Memorials, vol. i. p. 149. 
 
 \ Pages 92, 93 : and in the appendix to the 
 firft volume are fome notes written by himfelf on 
 purgatory and the marriage of priefts-, pp. 262, 
 264, 265. 
 
 $ Page 393' 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 LI 
 
 " Preface 
 
2 5 8 
 
 ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 *' Preface by the kin<^ to his primer." 
 
 Befides many of his fpeeches and letters % and the following, mentioned' 
 too by Holland f : 
 
 " De poteftate regia contra papam." 
 
 " De chriftiani hominis inftitutione, lib. I. 4V*" 
 
 " De inflituenda pube, lib. i." 
 
 " Sententiam de Mantuano confiliq^ lib. 
 
 " De juito in Scotos bello.'* 
 
 And fome § moft eloquent epiftles to the dukes of Saxony, to Erafmus,, 
 
 * Some of which are in the library of C. C. C. 
 Cambridge., Two others in the mufeum •, fee 
 Had. cat. N° 296, art. 1 1, and N° 297, art. 12. 
 
 f Heroologia, p. 5. 
 
 % This work is actually extant, but fcarce 
 correfponds with its title, not containing direc- 
 tions for the practice but for the faith of a chrif- 
 tian, and fuch chriftianity as Henry chofe to com- 
 pound out of his old religion and his new, when 
 he found that his people did not flop at throwing 
 off obedience to the pope, but were difpofed to 
 receive a more real reformation than his ma- 
 jefly's revenge had prompted* or his fuperftition 
 or his power could digeft. The work in queftion 
 is probably not of his own compofition, being, 
 as the preface aflerts, drawn up with the advice 
 of his clergy, and the approbation of his parlia- 
 ment. It is an expofition of the creed, as he 
 chofe it mould be believed ; of the feven facra- 
 rnents (all which he was pleafed to retain) ; of 
 the ten commandments ; of the paternofterj 
 of the angel's falutacion to. Mary j and of the 
 
 doctrines of free-will* j unification and good 
 works; and concludes with an authorized prayer 
 for departed fouls. I think the contents of this 
 medley juftify the curiofity I had expreffed in the 
 text to fee the inftitution of fuch a reformer. See' 
 Mr. Hume's account of this book and the occa- 
 fion of it, in the reign of Hen. VIII. chap. 6, 
 p. 250. In the year 1740 Dr. Salmon mowed to 
 the fociety of antiquaries an edition of this book 
 corrected by the king himfelf ; in which was re- 
 markable that in the Lord's prayer his majefty had 
 blotted out the words, Lead us not into tempta- 
 tion, and inferted, Suffer us not to be led into temp- 
 tation-— 1 propriety of veneration not much to 
 have been expected, from fuch a man as Henry ! 
 
 § A fpecimenof his majefty's eloquence may be 
 feen in his laft fpeech to parliament, the chief 
 flower of which is couched in thefe words: M I 
 hear daily that you. of the clergy preach one 
 againft another without charity or discretion ; 
 fome be too ftiff in their old mumpfimus, others 
 be too bufy and curious in their new fumpfimus." 
 Id, Herbert's Life of 'Hen. VIII. p. 598. 
 
 and- 
 
ROYAL AUTHORS. 259 
 
 .mi] other famous men *» But in that age, when the feverity of criticifm did 
 "not lay fuch reftraint on the invention of authors as it does at prefent, it was 
 common for them to multiply titles of treatifes at the expence of their ac- 
 curacy. It is notorious how Bale fplits the performances of his authors into 
 diftinct books. Holland feems to have been as little exact. Hiftorians tell 
 us, that Henry, during the life of prince Arthur, was defigned by his father 
 for archbifhop of Canterbury. How far his education was carried with that 
 view, I know not : the catholics have reafon to lament that the defoliation 
 did not take place : a man, whofe .paffions made him overturn a church, 
 was likely to have carried its interefts high, if his own had coincided with 
 them. 
 
 If the pieces above mentioned ever exiftcd, it would be curious to fee 
 what rules for the education of youth, or for the inititution of a chriitian, 
 were laid down by a man who confounded every idea of government and 
 religion ; who burned martyrs of oppofite feels at the fame flake ; baftardized 
 his own children, and then entailed his crown on them ; and who feems to 
 have provided for nothing but a fucceffion of civil wars by the unwarrantable 
 difpofition he made of his dominions f . 
 
 Queen CATHERINE PARR, 
 
 \\ 7TIOSE beauty raifed her to a throne, and whofe merit deferved a better 
 fate than to be linked to two men, one of whom was near putting 
 her to death for her attachment to a religion which he himfelf had intro- 
 duced ; and the latter of whom is fufpecled of removing her to promote his 
 marriage with the lady Elizabeth. The king indeed was fo bounteous as to 
 leave her a legacy of about 4000I. befides her jointure ! Each of his children, 
 
 * One of thefe I take to have been the follow- 
 ing : " An epiftle of Henry the eighth, fupreme 
 head of the churchc of England, to the emperor, 
 to all chriftian princes, and to all thofe who truly 
 and fyncerely profeffe Chrifte's religion." iimo. 
 black letter, Lond. in aedibus T. Bcrtheleti impr. 
 teg. 1538. Vide Harl. Catal.\o\. i. p. 136; and 
 Ames, p. 171. 
 
 f Befides his literary talents, he was well 
 
 LI 
 
 {killed in mufic, could fing his part, and ufed to 
 compofe fervices for his own chapel. Vide Eng. 
 Worthies^. 12. A fcrvice compofed by this king 
 is ftill performed in fome cathedrals. In the 
 Britifh mufcum is preferved a miflal, which be- 
 longed to his majeliy after his breach with the fee 
 of Rome •, in the calendar he has blotted out all 
 the faints that had been popes. 
 
 2 even 
 
26o 
 
 ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 even after his death, mowed her the greatefr. refpecl:, as is evident from their 
 letters to her, ftill extant. She was not only learned, but a patronefs of 
 learning, interceding for and laving the imiverfity of Cambridge, when an 
 act had paffed to throw all colleges, &c. into the king's difpolal *. 
 
 Nicholas Udal, matter of Eton fchool (whom Bale calls the mofl elegant 
 majier of all good letters), and who was employed by this princefs in tranflat- 
 ing and publifhing Erafmus's paraphrafe on the four gofpels, gives this fun- 
 pie and natural account of the learning of the women of quality in that age. 
 In his dedication to her majefly he obferves "• the great number of noble 
 women at that time in England, given to the lludie of human jfciences, and 
 of ftrange tongues." i\nd he adds, " It was a common thyng to fee young 
 virgins fb nouzled and trained in the ftudy of letters, that thei willyngly fet. 
 all other vain paftymes at naught for learnynges fake. It was now no news 
 at all to fee queens and ladies of molr. high eftate and progenie, inftede of 
 courtly daliaunce to embrace vertuous exercifes, readyng and writyng, and 
 with mofte earnefte Ikidie both erlye and late, to apply themfelves to the 
 acquiryng of knowledge as well in all other liberal arts and difciplines, as 
 alfo moft fpecially of God and his moft holy word. And in this behalf, 
 fays he, lyke as to your highnefle, as well for compofyng and fettyng forth, 
 many godly pfalmes and diverfe other contemplative meditations, as alfo for 
 caufyng thefe paraphrafes to be tranflated into our vulgare language, England 
 can never be able to render thanks fufficient f." 
 
 Her majefly wrote 
 
 " Queen Catherine Parr's lamentation of a finner, bewailing the igno- 
 rance of her blind life." 
 
 This was a contrite meditation on the years me had paffed in popery, in 
 fafts and pilgrimages ; and being found among her papers after her death, 
 was publifhed with a preface by fecretary Cecil [afterwards lord Burleigh], 
 8vo. 1548 and 1 563 J, 
 
 * Vide Ballard's Memoirs of celebrated ladies, Bible, pp. 159, 163, 164. 
 page 88. 
 
 % Bale de fcript. Britan. p. 106. 
 
 r Vide Lewis's HUt. of the tranflations of the 
 
 111 
 
ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 261 
 
 In her life-time fhe publilhed many pfalms, prayers and pious difcourfcs, 
 of which this was the title, 
 
 " Prayers or meditations, wherein the mynd is ftirrecT patiently to fuffre 
 all afflictions here, to fet at nought the vain proipcritee of this worlde, and 
 always to long for the everlaftynge felicitee. Collected out of holy workes, 
 by the moft vertuous and gracious princeffe Katherine queene of Englande, 
 France and Irclande. Printed by John Wavland, i2mo. 1545* J' 
 
 To this was fometimes prefixed a fet of fifteen pfalms, which fhe com- 
 pofed in imitation of David's : the titles of them may be feen in Strype f. 
 To them were fubjoined, " The xxi pialm, another of thankfgiving, and 
 two prayers, for the king, and for men to fay entring into battail." 
 
 w A godly exposition, after the manner of a contemplation, upon the li 
 pfalm, which Hierom of Ferrary made at the latter end of his days. Trans- 
 lated by the queen, with other meditations, and a prayer 
 
 " A pious prayer in mort ejaculations 
 
 <l A Latin epiftle to the lady Mary, entreating her to let the tranflation 
 of Erafmus's paraphrafe on the New Testament [which her majefty had pro- 
 cured] be publifhed in her highnefs's name ||." 
 
 Several of her letters are extant, viz- 
 
 M To king Henry, then on an expedition againft France 
 
 " To the univerfity of Cambridge," on the occafion above mentioned. 
 It is a piece of artful duty to the king ***.. 
 
 ]\ Ballard, p. 91. 
 5[ Strype, vol. ii. H. 
 * * Ibid. K. 
 
 " A letter 
 
 * Ames, page 21 1. 
 t Vol. ii. p. r 3*r . 
 } lb. 132. 
 
 § lb. in Append, p. 82. 
 
262 ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 iC A letter to the lady Wriothefly, on the death of her only fon," Front 
 the orthography of this letter appears the ancient manner of pronouncing the 
 name Wriothefly ', which her majefty writes Wrefely*. 
 
 " To the college of Stoke, that Edward Waldgrave may have a leafe of 
 their manour of Chipley in Suffolk f 
 
 *' To her hufband, the lord admiral |." 
 
 " Two letters to ditto 
 
 " Another curious one to ditto, before their marriage was owned 
 
 Voffius, in his treatife de philologia afcribes by miftake to Katherine of 
 Arragon the lamentations of a firmer, and the meditations on the pfalms. 
 
 EDWARD the Sixth, 
 
 AT ANY authors have preferved accounts of this prince's writings-. Cardan 
 talks much of his parts and learning: his own diary gave the ftill better 
 hopes of his proving a good king, as in fo green an age he teemed refolved to 
 be acquainted with his fuhjecls and his kingdom-. -Holland affirms ** that 
 he not -only wrote notes from the lectures or fermons he heard, but compofed 
 a molt, elegant comedy, the title of which was, ** The whore of Babylon." 
 Precious as fuch a relique would be in the eyes of zealots or antiquarians, I 
 cannot much lament that it is periihed, or never exifted. — What an educa- 
 tion for a great prince, to be taught to fcribble controversial ribaldry ! As 
 elegant as it is faid to have been, I queftion whether it fiirpaffed the other 
 buffooneries, which engrofTed the theatres of Europe in that and the pre- 
 ceding century : all the fubjeets were religious; all the condudt, farcical. 
 
 * Strype, vol. ii. L. || Ballard, p. 94, from the Afhrnolean col- 
 
 + In the library of C. C. C. Cambridge. le&ion. 
 
 X In Hearne's Sylloge epift. p. 209. f Page 36. 
 
 § In the colleilion of ftate-papers publiftied ** Page 27* 
 by Haynes. 
 
 7 teiihop 
 
ROYAL AUTHORS, 
 
 Bifhop Bale, whom I have mentioned, compofed above twenty of thefe ridi- 
 culous interludes. 
 
 King Edward wrote befides, 
 
 " The fum of a conference with the lord admiral," written with his own 
 hand, and extant among the Afhmolean manufcripts*. 
 
 " A method for the proceedings in the council." In his own hand, in 
 the Cotton library 
 
 " King Edward'the fixth's own arguments againft the pope's fupremacy, 
 &c." tranflated out of the original, written with the king's own hand in 
 French, and ftill preferved. To which are fubjoined fome remarks upon 
 his life and reign, in vindication of his memory from doctor Heylin's fevere 
 and unjufr. cenfure. Lond.. 1682... 
 
 He drew himfelf the rough draught of a fumptuary law, which is pre- 
 ferved by Strype ; and an account of a progrefs he made, which he fent to 
 one of his particular favourites called Barnaby Fitzpatrick, then in France J. 
 The fame author has given fome fpecimens of his Latin epiftles and orations, 
 and an account of two books written by him ; the firft before he was twelve 
 years of age,, called 
 
 " L'encontre les abus du monde ;." a tract of thirty-feven leaves in French, 
 againft the abufes of popery : it is dedicated to the protector his uncle, is 
 corrected by his French tutor, and attefted by him to be of the king's own 
 compofition. The other, preferved in the library of Trinity college, Cam- 
 bridge, is 
 
 " A tranflation into French of Te vera! paffages of fcripture§." 
 
 * Tanner, page 253. to the fea-coafts. The remarks fliow grearaf>- 
 
 f Ibid. tention to the defence and improvement of his - 
 
 J Vol. ii. p. 319. The earl of Oflbrvj im- kingdom; and one of them betrays much infen- 
 
 mediate defcendant of this Fitzpatrick, has thefe fibility to.the death of his uncle the protector. 
 
 letters to his anceftor, written during a progrefs § ib. p. 436. 
 
 st A treatife- 
 
264 ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 ** A treatife de fide, addreffed to the duke of Somerfet." I find this men- 
 tioned no where but in the preface to the works of king James I. It is pro- 
 bably the fame with the foregoing. In the fame place it is faid that king 
 Edward wrote feveral epiftles and orations, in^Greek and Latin. In 1552, 
 when it was thought neceffary to reform the fuperlHtious ceremonies ufed at 
 the inftallation of knights of the gaiter, a new fervice was drawn up, which 
 his majefty himfelf tranflated from Englim into Latin. Vide Burnet's Hift. 
 of the reform, vol. ii. pp. 205, 206. The king's performance is printed in 
 the appendix to that book, p, 73 of the -firft edition. 
 
 In Tanner may be feen a lift of what letters of this king are extant*. One 
 other, not mentioned there, is in the Harleian coll. N° 353, art. 23. It is 
 to the lords of the council, perfuading them to moderate councils againn: his 
 uncle the protector ; and two more, N° 6986. 
 
 Queen MARY. 
 
 A FEW devout pieces of her compofition are preferved. At the defire of 
 queen Catherine Parr ~\- fhe began to tranflate Erafmus's paraphrafe 
 on faint John ; but being cajl into fchnefs, [tartly by overmuch jludy in this 
 work, after jhe had made fome jirogrefs therein, flie left the doing of the rejl to 
 Dr. Mallet her chaplain %. This was in the reign of her brother. The 
 good queen dowager was at the expence of procuring a tranflation and edition 
 of Erafmus's Paraphrafe upon the four gofpels and the adts, for the helping 
 of the ignorant multitude towards more knowledge of the holy fcriptures ; 
 and probably had an eye to the converfion of the princefs Mary. Suffi- 
 cient reafon for § her to relinquish it. She would not fo eafily have been cajl 
 into ficknefs, had me been employed on the legends of faint Terefa, or faint 
 Catherine of Sienna. 
 
 Strype has preferved three prayers or meditations of hers : the firfr, 
 " Againil the ailaults of vice ;" at the end of which (lie wrote thefe words, 
 
 * Page 253. - § Soon after her accefiion, a proclamation 
 
 f Vide Lewis's Hid. of the tranflations of the was iflued for calling in, and fupprefling, thi9 
 
 Bible, p. 164. very book. 
 
 I Strype, vol. ii. p. 28. Vide Foec' 's Afts and Monum. pp. 1450, M5 r « 
 
 " Good 
 
ROYAL AUTHORS. 265 
 
 If. Good Francis [meaning probably her chaplain doctor Francis Mallet], 
 pray that I may have grace to obtain the petitions contained in this prayer 
 before written : your allured loving millreis during my life, Marie." The 
 fecond, " A meditation touching adverfity," made by her in the year 1549 : 
 at the end are thefe words, " Good coulin Cape], I pray yon, as often as 
 you be difpofed to read this former writing, to remember me, and to pray 
 for me, your loving friend, Marie." Who this coufin Capel was docs not 
 appear, but probably fir Henry Capel, or his wife Catherine, daughter of 
 Thomas Manners lord Roos, whole mother Anne was daughter of the 
 duchefs of Exeter, fitter of Edward the fourth. The third, " A prayer to 
 be read at the hour of death," is doubtful whether of her compofition *. 
 
 Erafmus fays f, that fhe " fcripfit bene Latinas epiftolas." Whatever her 
 Latin letters were, her French ones are miferable. Strype has printed one 
 from the Cotton library in anfwer to a haughty mandate from her hufband, 
 when he had a mind to marry the lady Elizabeth to the duke of Savoy, 
 againft the queen's and princefs's inclination, in which he bids the former 
 examine her confeience, whether her repugnance does not proceed from ob- 
 flinacy ; and infolently tells her, that if any parliament went contrary to this 
 requefr. of his, he fhould lay the fault on her. The mortified queen, in a 
 molt abject manner and wretched ftyle, fubmitting entirely to his will, pro- 
 fefles to be more bounden to him than any other wife to a hufband, notwith- 
 standing his ill-ufage of her, " dont, fays fhe, j'ay commencee desja d'en 
 talter trop a. mon grand regret ;" and mentions fome fryars whom he had 
 fent to make her conformable, but who propofed to her " queftions fi ob- 
 fcures, que mon fanple entendement ne les pourroit comprehendre 
 
 In Foxe's Acts and Monuments are printed 
 
 Eight of her letters to king Edward and the lords of the council, on her 
 non-conformity, and on the imprifonment of her chaplain doctor Mallet. 
 
 In the Sylloge epiftolaram are feveral more of her letters, extremely cu- 
 rious ; one of her delicacy in never having written but to three men ; one of 
 
 * Strype, vol. iii. p. 468. X lb. vol. iii. p. 318 ; and Append. 190. 
 
 Lib. 19, ep. 3=i. 
 
 Vol. L M m affection 
 
266 
 
 ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 afFeclion for her filler ; one after the death of Anne Boleyn ; and one very 
 remarkable of Cromwell to her. 
 
 In Havnes's ftate-papers are two in Spanifh to the emperor Charles the 
 fifth. 
 
 In the Harleian coll. one to her father * ; another to her fitter f . 
 
 In the Bodleian library is a curious miflal, which, by a paffage in her own 
 hand at the beginning of the pfalms, feems to have been a prefent to one of 
 her ladies. 
 
 Biihop Tanner is fo abfurd as to afcribe to her, " A hiftory of her own 
 life and death, and an account of martyrs in her reign j:." 
 
 Queen ELIZABETH. 
 
 TN the earlier part of her life, when her fituation was precarious, and ad- 
 verfity her lot or her profpect ; in the days when, as Camden fays §, 
 king Edward was wont to call her his fweet ftjler Temperance, this great 
 princefs applied much to literature, and under the celebrated Roger Afcham 
 made great progrefs in feveral languages. Her ready refponfes in Latin to 
 the compliments of the univerfity of Cambridge, many years after me had 
 ceafed to have learned leifure, are well known ; and her ingenious evafion of 
 a captious theologic queftion is flill more and defervedly applauded ; 
 
 " Christ was the word that fpake it ; 
 He took the bread and brake it ; 
 And what that word did make it, 
 That I believe and take it ||." 
 
 This 
 
 * 283, 58. II She excelled even in things of a much more 
 
 ^ o trifling nature : there cannot be a fillier fpecies 
 
 t 7°47> 3- G f poetry than rebufes ; yet of that kind there 
 
 t Page 510. are few better than the following, which queen 
 
 % In the preface to his Hiftory. Elizabeth made on Mr. Noel: 
 
 The 
 
ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 267 
 
 This is the lift of her writings : 
 " A comment on Plato." 
 
 " Two of the orations of Ifocratcs, tranflated into Latin." 
 " A play of Euripides, likewife tranflated into Latin." 
 " A tranflation of Boethius de confolatione*." 
 
 " A tranflation of the meditations of the queen of Navarre." The latter 
 work was printed at London in 1548 f." 
 
 " One of her orations at Cambridge" is preferved in the king's library J. 
 
 " Another at Oxford 
 
 " Another, on a fecond vifit to that univerfity ||." 
 
 " The word of denial and letter of fifty, Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall : 
 
 Is that gentleman's name that will never be She i mme diately wrote under it, 
 thrifty." Collins in Gain/borough* Tr , , . ., , . , 
 
 , , . ; . r 1 i r " th Y beart fail thee, climb not at all. 
 
 1 he lame author, in his account of the houle W tl' 
 
 of Stanhope, mentions this diftich, in which her ort us *" ^ evon ' P* 2 ^ x * 
 
 majeRy gave the charafters of four knights of * vide Ballard's Memoirs, p. 233. 
 Nottingham fhire, 
 
 Gervafe the gentle, Stanhope the ftOut, t Vicle Strype, vol. ii. p. 146 ; and Ames. 
 
 Markham the lion, and Sutton the lout. . n a , n . , , „ ,,. - „ 
 
 ir-j nr a £ ,, * Cafley s Catal. p. 199; and Holhngfhed's 
 
 V,de Chejterfield. Chron. p. 1206. 
 fuller records an Englifh hexameter, com- 
 
 pofed by this queen, in imitation of fir Philip § Wood's Hift. & Antiq. Univ. Ox. vol. i. 
 
 Sidney : coming into a grammar-fchool, fne thus P- 2 %9- This oration was to exprefs her fatif- 
 
 exprefied her opinion of three clafiic authors : faction at her entertainment : on the fame occa- 
 
 Perfius, a crab-ftafFe ; bawdy Martial ; Ovid, fi° n fheanfwered a Greek oration in Greek. Her 
 
 a fine wag. Worthies in J'/orw. 126. orations are printed too in Peck's Defid. Cur. 
 
 The faiwe author relates, that fir Walter Ra- v0 *" 1! " 
 
 kigh having written on a window, obvious to i! ib. p. 306. 
 the queen's eye, 
 
 M m 2 « A tranflation 
 
268 
 
 ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 " A tranflation of a dialogue out of Xenophon in Greek, between Hiero.,. 
 a king, yet fome tyme a private perfon, and Simonides a poet, as touching 
 the life of the prince and private man." This was firft printed in the year 
 1 743, in N° II. of mifcellaneous correfpondence. A fpecimen of her hand- 
 writing was engraved with it : me fometimes took the pains to write ex- 
 ceedingly fair. 
 
 Her fpeech to her la ft parliament 
 " A prayer compofed by her 
 
 " Another, for the ufe of her fleet in the great expedition in 1596 
 
 In the king's library is a volume of prayers in French, Italian, and Spaniih,. 
 written with her own hand. Hentznerus mentions fuch an one only in 
 French, written on vellum, and dedicated to her father, in thefe words : 
 " A tres haut & tres puiffant & redoubte prince Henry VIII. de ce nom, 
 roy d'Angleterre, de France & d'Irelande, defenfeur de la foy 
 
 Camden fays, that fhe either read or wrote fomething every day ; that me 
 tranflated " Salluft de bello Jugurthino ;" and, as late as the year 1598, 
 turned into Englifh the greater part of " Horace de arte poetica," and a lit- 
 tle treatife of " Plutarch de curiohtate |[." 
 
 " A godly meditation of the foule, concerning a love towards Chrifte our 
 Lorde, tranflated out of French into Englifh by the right highe and moft 
 
 * In lord Somers's Coll. of tracts, publiflied by Francis being in difgrace with her on having op- 
 Cogan, vol. iv. p. 130. pofed three fubfidies in the lafl parliament, and 
 
 the earl, as he conftantly did, endeavouring to 
 
 I In Ant. Bacon's Papers, vol. ii. p. 18. recommend him again to favour, artfully told the 
 
 queen that his fuit was not fo much for the good 
 
 £ Ibid. of Bacon, as for her own honour, that thofe ex- 
 
 cellent tranflations of hers might be known to 
 
 § Eng. edit. p. 30. them who could beft judge of them. Here we 
 
 fee this great woman with all her weaknefTes 
 
 || It appears by a letter from the earl of Effex about her, and in the hands of 2 man who knew 
 to fir Francis Bacon, that her majefty was not how to humour them. 
 
 quite indifferent to fame even as an author. Sir Ant. Bacon's Papers^ vol. i. p. T21. 
 
 3 vertuous 
 
ROYAL AUTHORS. 269 
 
 vertuous princefTe, Elizabeth queen of England." Black letter, printed by 
 H. Denham *. This is only a various edition of the Meditations of the 
 queen of Navarre. 
 
 In the preface to the works of king James I. it is faid that queen Eliza- 
 beth tranflated the prayers of queen Catherine into Latin, French, and Italian; 
 that me wrote 
 
 " A century of fentences, dedicated to her father ;" and that me made 
 " A translation of Salluft." 
 
 In the Sylloge epiftolarum are feveral of her Latin letters, one in Italian, 
 and one in Englifh to the queen dowager, fending her a profe tranflation from 
 a French poem, which me calls " The mirrour, or the glafs of the finfull 
 foul." This letter is followed by her preface to the fame book, and that by 
 a prayer compofed by her 
 
 " A curious letter to lord Burleigh," in Strvpe's Annals J. 
 
 " Another of humour, to divert him from retiring from bufinefs 
 
 " A very genteel letter written by her when princefs to king Edward, on 
 his deliring her picture JL" 
 
 M Another to him upon his recovery from ficknefs H." 
 
 u Six letters to different perfons." Printed in Peck's Defid. curiofa **. 
 
 A letter to Peregrine lord Willoughby f f . 
 
 * Vide Had. Cat. vol. i. p. 115. |[ Printed in Strype's Memorials, vol. ii. p. 234. 
 
 t Page 161. % Bickerton's Coll. of letters, p. 53. 
 
 % Vol. iii. p. 166. ** Vol. i. and ii. 
 
 § Vol. iv. p. 77. It is reprinted in the Life of ft Printed in Fuller's Worthies of Lincoln- 
 Burleigh in the Biographia. (hire, p. 163.. 
 
 Hei 
 
270 
 
 ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 Her letter to the king of Scots, difavowing her knowledge of the death 
 of his mother *. 
 
 A letter to lady Norris on the death of her fon. It begins, " My owne 
 crowe," a term of familiarity which her majefty ufed to this lady, whofe 
 father fufFered with Anne Boleyn *j\ 
 
 A (hort letter to Henry lord Hunfdon, added by way of poftfcript to a fo- 
 lcmn letter of thanks fent to his lordfhip by the fecretary of ftate on the fup- 
 prefiion of fome difturbances in the north J. 
 
 A letter to George Carew, afterwards earl of Totnefs, thanking him for 
 his lervices in Ireland §. 
 
 A letter to lady Paget on the death of her daughter, lady Crompton. MS. 
 in the pofieffion of doctor Ch. Lyttelton, dean of Exeter. 
 
 Two letters among the Burleigh-papers publifhed by Murdin in 1759. 
 
 Nine, of which one is entirely written with her own hand, are in Fynes 
 Morryfon's Travels. 
 
 A bullying letter to Heaton, bilhop of Ely ; printed in the Annual Regifter 
 for 1 76 1. 
 
 A few more of her letters are preferved in the library of C. C. C. Camb* 
 
 Several of her letters of ftate are among the Harleian MSS. but mufr. not 
 be looked upon as indited by herfelf, except three to her brother in N° 6986. 
 
 But fhe did not only mine in profe ; the author || of a very fcarce book, 
 entitled, " The art of Englifh poefy," fays, " but laft in recital and flrft in 
 
 * Preferved in the Cotton library, and printed + Fuller's Worthies in Hertfordfhire, p. 24. 
 in different books, particularly in Howard's coll. § Prince's Worthies in Devon, p. 205. 
 '246. (1 Puttenhanv; printed at London, J 5 89, 4 . 
 
 f Fuller's Worthies in Oxfordfliire, p. 336. 
 
 degree 
 
ROYAL AUTHORS 
 
 271 
 
 degree is the queen, our fovereign lady, whole learned, delicate, noble mufe 
 eafily furmountcth all the reft that have written before her time or lince, 
 for fenfe, fweetnefs or fubtilty, be it in ode, elegy, epigram, m or any other 
 kind of poem, wherein it (hall pleafe her majefty to employ her pen, even 
 by as much odds, as her own excellent eftate and degree exceedeth all the 
 reft of her moft humble vafTals." In that collection is one little poem of 
 hers, (befides fome fcattered lines, as in page 197 ; and, I believe, two in 
 page 177) as there is another in Hentznerus*. A greater inftance of genius, 
 and that too in Latin, was her extempore reply to an infolent prohibition 
 delivered to her from Philip the fecond, by his embafTador, in this tetraftic : 
 
 " Te Veto ne pergas bello defendere Belgas : 
 Qua? Dracus eripuit, nunc reftituantur oportet : 
 Quas Pater evertit, jubeo te condere cellas : 
 Religio Papae fac reftituatur ad unguem." 
 
 She inftantly anfwered, with as much fpirit as fhe ufed to return his in- 
 vafions +, 
 
 " Ad Grxcas, bone Rex, fient mandata Calendas." 
 
 An inftance of the fame fpirit, and proof that her compofitions even in the 
 learned tongues were her own, is that rapid piece of eloquence with which 
 Ihe interrupted an infolent embafTador from Poland. " Having ended her 
 oration, me | lion-like rifing," faith Speed, " daunted the malapert orator 
 no lefs with her ftately port and majeftic departure, than with the tartnefs of 
 her princely checks ; and turning to the train of her attendants, faid, God's 
 death ! my lords, I have been forced to fcour up my old Latin that hath long 
 lain rujling §." Another time being alked if me preferred the learning of 
 Buchanan or of Walter Haddon ? me replied, " Buchananum omnibus 
 antepono, Haddonum nemini poftpono ||." 
 
 * Englifh edition, p. 66. « A lion-port, an awe-commanding face, 
 
 Attemper'd fweet to virgin grace." 
 
 f Ballard, p. 
 
 22 7« Gray's Odes. 
 
 § Vide Speed and Ballard. 
 
 J This draught has been lately worked up 
 into a noble piQure : 1| G. S. Worthies of England, p. 77. 
 
 I It 
 
2 7 2 ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 It is known that fcarce a church in London but had an epitaph on this 
 illuftrious woman, of which many are ftill extant ; but * Camden has pre- 
 ferved one which he calls doleful, but with which, as a moft perfect exam- 
 ple of the Bathos, I mall conclude this article : 
 
 " The queen was brought by water to Whitehall ; 
 At every frroake the oars did tears let fall : 
 More clung about the barge ; fifh under water 
 Wept out their eyes of pearl, and fwome blind after. 
 1 think the bargemen might with ealier thighs 
 Have rowed her thither in her people's eyes. 
 For how fo-ere, thus much my thoughts have lcan'd, 
 Sh'ad come by water, had me come by land." 
 
 JAMES the First. 
 
 YF there are doubts on the genuinenefs of the works of thofe two champions 
 of the church, Henry the eighth, and Charles the firft ; if fome critics 
 have difcovered that the latter royal author ftole a prayer from the Arcadia ; 
 and if the very exiftence of king Richard's fonnets have been queftioned ; 
 yet there is not the leaft fufpicion that the folio under the refpeclable name 
 of James the firft is not of his own compofition. 
 
 Roger Afcham may have corrected or affifted periods of his illuftrious pu- 
 pil ; but nobody can imagine that Buchanan dictated a word of the " Da?mo- 
 nologia," or of the polite treatife entitled Xi A counterblaft to tobacco." 
 Quotations, puns, fcripture, witticifms, fuperftition, oaths, vanity, prero- 
 gative and pedantry, the ingredients of all his facred majefty's performances, 
 were the pure produce of his own capacity, and deferving all the incenfe 
 v offered to fuch immenfe erudition by the divines of his age, and the flatterers 
 of his court. One remark I cannot avoid making : the king's fpeech is al- 
 ways fuppofed by parliament to be the fpeech of the minifter : how cruel 
 
 * Remains, page 388. 
 
 would 
 
ROYAL AUTHORS. 273 
 
 would it have been on king James's minifters, if that interpretation had 
 prevailed in his reign * ! 
 
 Befides his majefty's profe works printed in folio f , we have a fmall col- 
 lection of his poetry, under this title, " His majefty's poetical exercifes at 
 vacant hours.. Edinb." In the preface he condefcends to make an excufe 
 for their incorrectnefs, as having been written in his youth, and from his 
 having no time to revife them afterwards, fo that " when his ingvne and age 
 could, his affaires and fafcherie would not permit him to correct them, 
 (bardie but at ftolen moments he having the leafure to blenk upon any pa- 
 per." However, he bribes the reader's approbation, by promifing, if thefe are 
 well received^, to prefent him with his apocalyps and pfalms. This little 
 tract contains, " The furies and the Lepanto." His majefty wrote other 
 poetical pieces, particularly " An encomium upon fir Philip Sidney:}:," 
 
 And two fonnets §.. 
 
 * It is obfervable, that notwithstanding his 
 beaded learning, he was fo ignorant of a country 
 which had had fuch flrong connections with his 
 own, that when queen Elizabeth wanted to hin- 
 der him from matching with a daughter of Den- 
 mark, Wootton her embafiador perfuaded him 
 that the king of Denmark was defcended but of 
 merchants,.and.t!iat few made account of him or 
 his country but fuchasfpoke the Dutch tongue**. 
 Hiftorians feem little more acquainted with the 
 character of his queen, than his majefty was with 
 her country, Her gallantries are flightly men- 
 tioned ; yet it is recorded that James,being jealous 
 of her partiality to the carl of Murray, then 
 efteemed the handfomeft man in Scotland, per- 
 fuaded his great enemy the marquis of Huntley 
 to murder him, and by a writing under his own 
 hand promifed to fave him harmlefs ff. Queen 
 Anne's ambitious intrigues are developed in the 
 Bacon-papers, among which is one moft. extraor- 
 
 dinary paflage, entirely overlooked, and yet of 
 great confequence toexplainthe misfortunes into 
 which her defcendents afterwards fell. The pope 
 fends her beads and reliques, and thanks her for 
 not communicating with heretics at her coronation 
 
 And this evidence of her being a papift is con- 
 firmed by a letter from fir Ch. Cornwallis to the 
 earl of Salifbury, in which he tells him, " that 
 the Spanifh embaflador hath advertized that the 
 queen fhould fay unto him, he might one day 
 peradventure fee ihe prince on a pilgrimage at 
 faint Jago || » 
 
 f The Bafilicon dbron was turned into Latin 
 verfe by Peacham, who prefented it, richly illu- 
 minated, to the.prince^ 
 
 % Printed inHarris's Lifeof king James, p. 1 38. 
 
 $ Printed .in his works, pp. 89, 137. 
 
 ** Harris's Life of king James, p. 31, quoted $% Vol. ii. pp. 503, 504. 
 from Melvil. |||| Harris's Life of James, p. 33 3 ,*«0 quotation 
 
 ft lb. p. 14, taken from Burnet. from Winwood. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 Nn. 
 
 Verfes 
 
274 
 
 ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 Verfes on the death of his queen, preferved in the Britifh mufeum, and 
 published in Letters on that collection 1767. 
 
 Some verfes prefixed to Tycho Brahe's works * ; and he began a tranfla- 
 tion of the pfalms -f, which was printed at Edinburgh, 1637, by Robert 
 Young, printer to Charles L 
 
 Another of his poems is preferved in Drummond of Hawthornden's works; 
 and a poem by lord Stirling upon that poem. The original of the king's 
 fonnet is in the advocate's library at Edinburgh. By this {ketch king James 
 appears to have been a pains-taking writer, for there are alterations and 
 amendments in every line. It is followed by a fair copy in the hand- 
 writing of lord Stirling ; in fo worthy an office did his majefty employ hk 
 fecretary of ftate ! 
 
 In the Reliques of ancient Englifh poetry publifhed by Mr. Percy, is a 
 copy of verfes, or rather a fixing of puns rhymed by this monarch, on a fub- 
 jecl: very fuitable both to his difpofition and poetical talents, an acl in the 
 fchools at Stirling : the whole piece quibbles on the names of the dif- 
 putants J. 
 
 Many of his letters are extant ; leveral in the Cabala ; others MS. in the 
 Britifh mufeum; others in Howard's collection § : one among the Burleigh- 
 papers publifhed by Murdin || ; and many among the Harleian MSS. par- 
 ticularly in volumes 291, 292, 787, 601 1, 6987, 6999, of which 
 N° 6987 contains fuch a picture as an hiftorian would fcruple to draw, and a 
 full anfwer to whatever has been laid in defence of him. 
 
 Two other pieces I find afcribed to him, but I doubt if they are genuine:; 
 they are called, 
 
 The prince's cabala, or myfteries of ftate, written by king James I. 
 printed in 1 71 5. 
 
 * Vide Biograph Brit. vol. iv. p. 2506. 
 f Harris, p. 137. 
 
 * Pages 241, 523. 
 
 § Vol. ii. page 308. 
 P, Page 812. 
 
 'The 
 
ROYAL AUTHORS. 275 
 
 The duty of a king in his royal office *. 
 
 Bifhop Montagu tranllated all his majelty's works into Latin : a man of 
 lb much patience was well worthy of favour. 
 
 CHARLES the First. 
 
 HP H E works of this prince were foon after his death collected and pub- 
 liihed together in a volume, entitled, " Reliquiae facra? Carolina?, or 
 the works of that great monarch and glorious martyr king Charles the firft,. 
 both civil and lacred," printed by Sam. Brown at the Hague ; without date. 
 After the reftoration a fine edition was publiflied in folio, containing, befides 
 the famous E/xso? Bao-iAooj t, feveral of his fpeeches, letters, declarations, 
 and meflages for peace ; his anfwer to a declaration of the commons ; the 
 papers which palled between his majefty and Mr. Henderfon of Newcaftle, 
 concerning the alteration of church-government; the papers on the fame 
 fubject. exchanged between the king and the minifters at Newport ; and the 
 prayers which he ufed in his fufferings, and delivered immediately before his 
 death to bifhop Juxon p 
 
 I mall not enter into the controverfy, whether the Encuv Ea<r/A/Kw was com- 
 pofed by king Charles or not ; a full account of that difpute may be found in 
 the General Dictionary §. For the reft of the papers mentioned above, there 
 is no doubt but the greater part were of his own inditing. His ftyle was 
 peculiar and the fame : it was formed between a certain portion of fenfe, 
 adverfity, dignity, and perhaps a little infincerity. He had ftudied the 
 points difputed between the protectants, papifts, and fectaries ; and the trou- 
 
 * Somers's Tracts, 2d coll. p. 188. thofe taken in liis cabinet at Nafeby. Harris, 
 
 pp. 98, 1 17. Surely it was at lead as allowable 
 f Which has gone through 47 impreffions : for his friends to fink what did not tend to his 
 the number of copies are faid to have been 48000. glory, and what were never intended for publi- 
 Harris's Life of Charles the Firfl, p. 115. cation, as it was for his enemies to print his moft 
 
 private correfpondences with his wife ! 
 
 % Some letters and inftru&ions, not much to 
 his honour, were omitted in thistollection, par- § Vol. iii. p. 359, and vol. x. p. 76. 
 ticularly his letters to two popes, and fome of 
 
 N-n 2. bles 
 
276 ROYAL AUTHORS 
 
 bles of his reign dipped him fo deep in thofe difcuftions, that between leifure 
 and neceffity he may well be believed to have thrown together the chief pa- 
 pers included in this volume ; to which may be added, that his enemies did 
 not often indulge him in the affiftance of many or able clergymen of his own. 
 
 Belides thefe pieces we have " His majefty's reafons againft. the pretended 
 jurifdiclion of the high court of juftice, which he intended to deliver in writ- 
 ing on Monday, Jan. 226, 1648. Faithfully tranfcribed out of the original 
 copy under the king's own hand *." 
 
 A letter to his queen *f.. 
 
 " A letter to the marquis of Newcaftle ;{:." 
 
 Several of his letters in MS. are extant in private hands ; and fome among 
 the Harleian MSS. § 
 
 This prince, like his father, did not confine himfelfto profe : bifhop Bur- 
 net (and from him Mr. Harris, p. 125) has given us a pathetic elegy faid 
 to be written by Charles in CariuSrook-caftle. The poetry is molt uncouth 
 and unharmonious ; but there are ftrong thoughts in it, fome good fenfe, and 
 a {train of majeftic piety. 
 
 His majefty likewife tranflated || " Bimop Saunderfon's lectures de jura- 
 menti promifforii obligatione," which he defired bifhop Juxon, doctor Ham- 
 mond, and Mr. Thomas Herbert to compare with the original. This tranf- 
 lation was printed in 8vo. at London, 1655. A man who ftudies cafes of 
 confcience fo intimately, is probably an honeft man ; but at leaft he ftudies 
 them in hopes of finding that he need not be fo very honeft as he thought. 
 Oliver Cromwell, who was not quite fo fcrupulous, knew, that cafuiftry is 
 never wanted for the obfervance of an oath ; it may to the breach of it : had 
 he trufred the king, his majefty would probably not have contented himfelf 
 with doctor Saunderfon, but would have fought fome cafuift who teaches, 
 that faith is not to he kept with rebels- 
 
 * General Dictionary, vol. ix. p. 62. % Vide Somers's Trails, vol. iv. p. 168. 
 
 .-j- Printed in the appendix to Carte's Life of § See N° 296, 305, 6986, 6988. 
 the duke of Ormond. || Peck's Defid. Curiof. vol. ii. lib. 8, p. 1. 
 
 JAMES 
 
ROYAL AUTHORS. 277 
 
 JAMES the Second. 
 
 HPHE only genius of the line of Stuart, CHARLES the Second, 
 was no author ; unlefs we allow him to have compofed the two fimple 
 papers found in his ftrong box after his death : but they are univerfally fup- 
 poled to have been given to him as a compendious excufe for his embracing 
 doctrines, which he was too idle to examine, too thoughtlefs to remember, 
 and too fenfible to have believed on reflection. His brother James wrote 
 " Memoirs of his own life and campaigns to the reftoration the original 
 in Engl iih is preferved in the Scotch college at Paris ; but the king himfelf, 
 in 1696, to oblige the cardinal de Bouillon, made an extract of it in two 
 books in French, chiefly with a view to what related to marfhal Turenne. 
 This piece is printed at the end of Ramfay's Life of that hero. 
 
 We have befides under the name of this prince the following works : 
 
 * The royal fufFerer king James II. confifting of meditations, foliloquies, 
 vows, &c. one of the latter is, to rife every morning at feven : the whole, 
 faid to be compofed by his majefty at St. Germains, is written in bad Englifli, 
 and was publiflied at Paris by father Bretonneau, a jefuit. The frontifpiece 
 reprefents the king fitting in a chair in a penfive manner, and crowned with 
 thorns. 
 
 Memoirs of the Englifli affairs, chiefly naval, from the year 1660 to 1673, 
 written by his royal highnefs James duke of York, under his adminiftration 
 of lord high admiral, &c. publifhed from his original letters, and other 
 royal authorities, Lond. 1729, 8vo. Though this work is afcribed to king- 
 James, I believe it was drawn up by fecretary Pepys. 
 
 Three letters from king James were publiflied by William Fuller, gent, 
 in 1 702, with other papers relating to the court of faint Germains ; and 
 
 * In another edition it is called, Royal trafts. letters, &c. The fecond part is entitled, Imago 
 This is evidently an imitation of his father's regis, or the facred image of his majefty in his 
 works, containing his fpeeches, orders, meffages, folitudes and fufferings, &c. Paris, 1092. 1 6°. 
 
 5 
 
 are 
 
278 
 
 ROYAL AUTHORS 
 
 are faid in. the title-page to be printed by command. He was voted by the 
 houfe of commons to be a notorious cheat, was profecuted by the attorney- 
 general, and was whipped and pilloried* I think, for this very book. 
 
 FREDERIC Prince of Wales 
 
 TT7"ROTE French fongs, in imitation of the regent*, and did not mifcarry 
 folely by writing in a language not his own. 
 
 * Philip duke of Orleans. 
 
 K OBLE 
 
[ 279 ] 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 Sir JOHN OLDCASTLE, Lord COBHAM. 
 
 THE abolition of tafte and literature was not the flighteit abufe pro- 
 ceeding from popery ; the revival of letters was one of the principal 
 fervices effected by the reformation. The Romifh clergy feared, that if men 
 read, they would think: — it is no lefs true, that the moment they thought, 
 they wrote. The firft author, as well as the fir ft martyr among our nobility, 
 was fir John Oldcaftle, called the good lord Cobham : a man whofe virtues 
 made him a reformer, whofe valour a martyr, whofe martyrdom an enthu- 
 iiaft. He was much efteemed by Henry the fifth, and had ferved him with 
 great zeal, at a time when the church was lighting its holy fires for Lollards, 
 or the difciples of Wicliff. Henry at firft with fenfe and goodnefs relifted 
 infinuations againft the lord Cobham, whom he tried to fave by gentle ex- 
 hortations : but as the peer was firm, it naturally made the prince weak, 
 and he delivered the hero over to the inquilitors. Lord Cobham was im- 
 prifoned, but efcaped. The clergy, however, with great zeal for the royal 
 perfon, informed the king, then lying at Eltham, that 20,000 Lollards 
 were affembled at faint Giles's for the deftruclion of him and his brothers. 
 The brave young monarch immediately headed a troop, and, arriving at ten 
 at night at the fign of the Axe without Bilhopfgate, took the man of the 
 houfe and feven others prifoners ; which clofed his firft campaign. Four- 
 fcore more were feized about faint Giles's .; and fome of them being induced 
 fas Rapin gueffes] to confefs a defign of murdering the royal family, and 
 making the lord Cobham protector, the king no longer doubted of the con- 
 fpiracy, but ordered about half of them to be executed, and ifTued a pro- 
 clamation for apprehending Cobham, who was all this time concealed in 
 
 3 Wales. 
 
28o 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 Wales. The king, who was Lollard enough himfelf to call: a rapacious 
 eye on the revenues of the clergy, was diverted by a free gift, and by a per- 
 fuafion to undertake the conqueft of France, to which kingdom they aflured 
 him he had an undoubted right : when he thought he had any to- the crown 
 of England, the other followed of courfe. In luch reciprocal intercourfe of 
 a<5ts of amity, heretics were naturally abandoned to their perfecutors. The 
 conqueft of France foon followed, and the furprifal of lord Cobham, after a 
 very valiant refiftance*, in which he was wounded^ Being examined be- 
 fore the duke of Bedford, he would have expatiated' on his faith ; but the 
 chief juftice moved, " That they mould not ftiffer him to ipend the time fo 
 vainly in molefting of the nobles of the realm." Not being indulged to< 
 fpeak on what he was accufed, and naturally provoked by the ingratitude 
 and weaknefs of Henry, the ftout lord avowed allegiance to king Richard f : 
 his fentence and execution foon. followed.. He died entreating fir Thomas . 
 Erpingham, that if he faw him rife from death to life the third day, he 
 would procure that his feci:, might be in. peace, and quiet t # 
 
 He wrote 
 
 " Twelve conclufions, addreffed to the parliament of England." At the 
 end of the firft book, he wrote fome monkifh rhymes in Latin, which Bale 
 has preferved, and which he fays were " copyed out by dyverfe men and 
 fet upon theyr wyndowes, gates and dores, which were then knowen for 
 obftynate hypocrytes and flemlye livers, which made, the prelates madde §." 
 
 M The complaints of the countryman [[,'* 
 
 * He was feized by the lord Powis. The pro- 
 clamation for apprehending him offered iooo 
 marks of gold and 20/. a year for life, and a dif- 
 charge from all taxes to any city, borough or 
 town, that fhould deliver him up. Vide appendix 
 to Bale's brefe chronycle concernynge the exa- 
 mynacyon and death of the bleffed martyr of 
 Chrift fyr Johan Oldcaftell the lorde Cobham. 
 Reprinted in 1729. His ready wit and brave 
 fpirit appear to great advantage in this account 
 of his trial. 
 
 f King Richard had long been dead : I fuppofe 
 it is only meant that lord Cobham difclaimed 
 obedience to the houfe of Lancafter, who had 
 ufurped the throne of king Richard and his right 
 heirs. 
 
 J Stowe, p. 356. 
 
 § Bale's brefe chronycle, p. 99. 
 
 li Tanner, p. 561. 
 
 " His 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 281 
 
 " His confeflion and abjuration ;" but this piece is believed to be, and 
 certainly was, a forgery. 
 
 JOHN TIP TO FT, Earl of WORCESTER. 
 
 N thofe rude ages when valour and ignorance were the attributes of nobi- 
 
 I 
 
 lity, when metaphylical fopniftrics and jingling rhymes in barbarous La- 
 tin were the higheft endowments and prerogatives of the clergy ; and when 
 " it was enough for noblemen's fons to wind their horn, and carry their 
 hawke fair, and leave ftudy and learning to the children of mean people *; " it 
 is no wonder that our old peers produced no larger nor more elegant com- 
 pofitions than the infcription on the fword of the brave earl of Shrewfbury, 
 
 " Sum Talboti pro occidere inimicos 
 
 It is furpriling that the turbulent times of Henry the fixth and Edward 
 the fourth ihould have given to the learned world fo accomplimed a lord as 
 the earl of Worcefter. He early tailed of the mules' fountain, difpenfed in 
 more copious ftreams over Europe by the difcovery of printing in 1450. Pope 
 Nicholas the fifth patronized the new art ; and the torrent of learned men 
 that was poured upon Italy by the taking of Conftantinople in 1453, by 
 Mahomet the fecond, revived the arts and the purity of the almoft- forgotten 
 tongues. The celebrated iEneas Sylvius, then on the throne by the name 
 of Pius the fecond, encouraged learning by his munificence and example. 
 One of his brighteft imitators and cotemporaries was John Tiptoft earl of 
 Worcefter, who was born at Everton in Cambridgeshire, and educated at 
 J Baliol college in Oxford. He was fon of the lord Tibetot, or Tiptoft and 
 
 * A nobleman's fpeech to Rich. Pace, in the a peafant, who found it in the Dordogne. The- 
 reign of Henry the eighth. vet has given a print of it, and of a curious head 
 
 Biographia, vol. ii. p. 1 236. of John Talbot, copied from a ftatue erected in 
 
 his life at Paris, in a place called La Porte aux 
 f Others give it, " Sum Talboti pro vincere Anglois. 
 inimico m.eo." Camden's Remains. And thus it 
 
 is written on the fword, preferved as the genuine X Leland de Script. Brit. vol. ii. p. 475. The 
 one in the treafury of faint Denis in France. It earl is not mentioned by Ant. Wood, whofe ac- 
 was bought by an armourer of Bourdeaux from count does not commence before the year 1500. 
 Vol. I. O o Powys, 
 
282 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 Powys, and was created a vifcount and earl of Worcefter by king Henry the 
 lixth, and appointed lord deputy of Ireland. By king Edward the fourth he 
 was made knight of the garter, and conftituted juflice of North- Wales for 
 life. Dugdale, who is more fparing of titles to him than our other writers, 
 fays he was foon after made conflable of the Tower for life, and twice trea- 
 surer of the king's exchequer : but other hiftorians * fay he was lord high 
 conflable, and twice lord treafurer, the firil time, according to Lud. Carbo,. 
 at twenty-five years old ; and again deputy of Ireland for the duke of Cla- 
 rence. But whatever difpute there may be about his titles in the ftate,. there 
 is no doubt but he was eminently at the head of literature, and fo mafterly 
 an orator, that he drew tears from the eyes of the before-mentioned pope 
 Pius, by an oration which he pronounced before him when he vifited Rome 
 through a curiofity of feeing the Vatican library, after he had refided at 
 Padua and Venice, and made great purchafes of books j" : this was on his 
 return from a J pilgrimage to Jerufalem ; which holy expedition is attri- 
 buted by a modern writer § to the fufpenfe of his lordmip's mind between 
 gratitude to king Henry and loyalty to king Edward. — But he feems not to 
 have been much embarraffed with the former, confidering how greatly he 
 had profited of king Edward's favour. It is certain that the rapid Richard 
 Nevil earl of Warwick did not afcribe much gratitude to the earl of Wor- 
 cester, and that the earl did not confide much in any merit of that fort ; for, 
 abfconding during the thort reftoration of Henry, and being taken concealed 
 in a tree in Weybridge-forefl in Huntingdonmire, he was brought to London, 
 accufed of cruelty in his adminift.ra.tion of Ireland |], particularly towards 
 
 * Ames. Britifh Librarian. Bale, &c. 
 
 -j- He is faid to have given MSS. to the value 
 of 500 marks to the univerfity of Oxford. 
 
 Tanner s Bibiioth. Brit. p. 715. 
 
 1 He had before this ciiftinguifhed himfelf by 
 clearing the feas from pirates. Vide Leland. 
 
 § G. S. Worthies of England, p. 88. 
 
 |[ Leland owns that he had exerted himfelf too 
 feverely againft fome Lancaftrians, which drew 
 clown the vengeance of that party on him, p. 497. 
 In fir Richard Cox's Hiftory of Ireland it is faid, 
 ** That the earl of Worcefter was fent over in 
 
 1467, and held a parliament at Drogheda, in 
 which the earls of Defmond and Kildare were at- 
 tainted, on accufation of having affifted the king's 
 enemies in that country; but that the Irifli affirm 
 itwas in revenge for Defmond's undervaluing his 
 majefty's match with Elizabeth Gray, and that as 
 foon as Defmond, the great earl, was beheaded, 
 Kildare was pardoned and left deputy byTiptofr, 
 who returned to England." Pages 169, 170, 171. 
 Campion fays that the queen caufed the earl of 
 Defmond's trade of life to be fifted after the Irifh 
 manner (contrary to fundry old ftatutes) by his 
 fuccefTor the earl of Worcefter; in confequence 
 of which Defmond was attainted and put to 
 death. Jrliji. of Irelandy p. 10 1. 
 
 two 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 283 
 
 two infant fons of the earl of Defmond, and condemned and beheaded at the 
 Tower, 1470. Hall and Hollingmead fpeak of his tyranny as not quite 
 equivocal, though more favourable writers afcribe his imputed crimes to the 
 malice of his enemies. Indeed it was an unwonted {train of tendernefs in a 
 man lb little fcrupulous of blood as Warwick, to put to death fib great a peer 
 for fome inhumanity to the children of an Irifh lord* ; nor does one conceive 
 why he foughc for lb remote a crime — he wasn ot often lb delicate. Tiptoft 
 feems to have been punifhed by Warwick for leaving Henry for Edward, 
 when Warwick had. thought fit to quit Edward for Henry -j\ 
 
 This earl of Worcefter J, " which," as Caxtcn his printer, who w^s 
 much enamoured of him, fays, " in his tyme flowred in vcrtue and cun- 
 nyng, and to whom he knew none lyke emong the lordes of the temporalitie 
 in fcience and moral vertue," tranflated " Cicero de amicitia," and " Two 
 declarations made by Publius Cornelius Scipio, and Gayus Flamvneus, rivals 
 for the love of Lajcrece," which he dedicated to Edward the fourth, and 
 wrote fome other orations and epiftles ; and englifhed " Caefar's commenta- 
 ries," as touching Britiih affairs ; which verfion was publifhed without name 
 of printer, place, or date, but was fuppofed to be printed by John Raftell, 
 who lived in the reign of Henry the eighth. 
 
 In the (ixth of Edward the fourth, he drew up " Orders for the placing 
 of the nobility in all proceedings §." And " Orders and ftatutes for jufls 
 and triumphs ||." In the Ammolean collection H are the following " Ordi- 
 
 * In The mirrour of magiflrates, a poem, and f What made this more remarkable was, that 
 confequcntly not the belt, authority, it is faid, Tiptoft had actually to his firft wife married 
 that Tiptoft actually put them to death, but by Warwick's own filler, Cecily, widow of the 
 the abfolute command of king Edward, whofe young duke of Warwick, who by Henry VI. had 
 butcher he was called. In the fame piece is re- been crowned king of the ifle of Wight, 
 corded a remarkable circumftance, mentioned no 
 
 where elfe ; that the people detefted the earl of f Ames on Printing, in his account of Cax~ 
 Worcefter fo much, that they were on the point ton, p. 26, & feq. 
 of tearing him to pieces as he went to execution, 
 
 and that he was fayed by the flic riff hurrying him § MS. Cotton Tiber. E. v 1 1 1 . 35. 
 to the Fleet. The next day the people behaved 
 with great tranquillity, left they fbouid again hin- ]| Ibid. 40. 
 ler his execution. If he meriied thefe outrages 
 and this fate, let it be remembered that I com- *j| MS. 763. 
 mendhamas a patron of learning, not as aminifter. 
 
 O o 2 nances, 
 
284 
 
 NOBLE 
 
 A U T H O R S. 
 
 nances, flatutes and rules, made by John Tiptoft earle of Worcefter and 
 conftable of England, bv the king's commandment at Windfore*, to be 
 obferved in all manner of juftes of peirs within the realm of England, &c." 
 He is alio laid to have written " A petition againit the Lollards f ;" and 
 " An oration to the citizens of Padua 
 
 Among the manufcripts belonging to the cathedral of Lincoln is a volume 
 of fome twenty epiftles, oi which four are written by our earl, and the reft 
 addreffed to him §. 
 
 " O good blefTed Lord God V* faith Caxton, " what grete loffe was it of 
 that noble, vertuous and well-difpofed lord ! &c. and what worfhip had he 
 at Rome in the prefence of our fader the pope ! And fo in all other places 
 unto his deth ; at which deth every man that was there might lern to dye, 
 and take his deth pacientlye." — " The axe then did at one blow cut off more 
 learning than was left in the heads of ail the furviving nobility |]." 
 
 ' ANTONY WIDVILLE, Earl RIVERS. 
 
 r JP HOUGH Caxton knew " none like to the erle of Worcefter," and 
 ■*■ though the author laft quoted thinks that all learning in the nobility 
 perifhed with Tiptoft, yet there flourifhed.at the fame period a noble gentle- 
 man, by no means inferior to him in learning and politenefs, in birth his 
 equal, by alliance his fuperior, greater in feats of arms, and in pilgrimages 
 more abundant : this was Antony Widville earl Rivers, lord Scales and New- 
 fells, lord of the ifle of Wight, " defenfeur and direcleur of the caufes apofto- 
 lique for our holy fader the pope in this royame of Englond, and uncle and 
 governour to my lord prince of Wales ^[." 
 
 He was fon of fir Richard Widville by Jaqueline of Luxemburghduchefs-' 
 dowager of Bedford, and brother of the fair lady Gray, who captivated that 
 
 * 29 Mail, 6th Edward the fourth. There % Tanner, p. 716. 
 
 are two or three copies of them among the Har- § lb. p. 717. 
 
 leian MSS. in the Britifli mufeum. || Fuller's Worthies in Camb. p. 155. 
 
 \ Fuller's Ch. Hift. iv. p. 162. 5f Caxton in Ames's Catal. p. 14. 
 
 5 monarch 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 285 
 
 monarch of pleafure Edward the fourth. When about feventeen years of 
 age he was taken by force from Sandwich with his father, and carried to 
 Calais by fome of the oppolite faction*. The credit of his lifter, the coun- 
 tenance and example of his prince, the boifteroufnefs of the times, nothing 
 loftened, nothing roughened the mind of this amiable lord, who was as gal- 
 lant as his luxurious brother-in-law, without his weakneifes ; as brave as the 
 heroes of either rofe, without their favagenefs ; ftudious in the intervals of 
 bufinefs, and devout after the manner of thofe whimfical times, when men 
 challenged others whom they never faw, and went barefoot to vifit fhrines 
 in countries of which they had fcarce a map. In fhort, lord Antony was, 
 as fir Thomas More fays f, " Vir, haud facile difcernas, manuve aut con- 
 filio promptior." 
 
 He diftinguilhed himfelf ^ both as a warrior and a ftatefman : the Lan- 
 caftrians making an infurreclion in Northumberland, he attended the king 
 into thofe parts, and was a chief commander at the fiege of Alnwick-caltle ; 
 loon after which he was elected into the order of the garter. In the tenth of 
 the fame reism he defeated the dukes of Clarence and Warwick in a fkirmifh 
 near Southampton, and prevented their feizing a great fhip called the Trinity, 
 belonging to the latter. He attended the king into Holland on the change of 
 the fcene, returned with him, and had a great mare in his viftories, and 
 was conftituted governor of Calais, and captain-general of all the king's 
 forces by fea and land. He had before been fent embaffador to negotiate a 
 marriage between the king's filter and the duke of Burgundy ; and in the 
 fame character concluded a treaty between king Edward and the duke of Bre- 
 tagne. On prince Edward being created prince of Wales, he was appointed 
 his governor, and had a grant of the office of chief butler of England; and 
 was even on the point of attaining the high honour of efpouhng the Scottifh 
 princefs, fifter of king James the third ; the bifliop of Rochester, lord privy- 
 feal, and fir Edward Widville, being difpatched into Scotland to perfect that 
 marriage 
 
 * In the reign of Henry VI. thefe lords were J. Vide Dugdale's Baronage, vol. ii. p. 23 1. 
 Lancaftrians : the father was employed by queen 
 
 Margaret to equip a fquadron in order to deprive § The queen had before projected to marry 
 the earl of Warwick of the government of Ca- him to that great heirefs, Mary of Burgundy, 
 lais; but was furprifed by the earl and taken pr> who at the fame time was fought by Clarence ; 
 foner with his fon, as mentioned in the text. a circumflance that muft have heightened that 
 f In Vita Rich. III. prince's averfionto the queen and her family. 
 
 A re- 
 
286 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 A remarkable event * of this earl's life was a perfonal victory he gained in 
 a tournament over Antony count de la Roche, called the Ballard of Bur- 
 gundy, natural foil of duke Philip the Good. This illuftrious encounter 
 was performed in a folemn and mod magnificent tilt held for that purpofe in 
 Smithfield : our earl was the challenger ; and from the date of the year and 
 the affinity of the perfon challenged, this ceremony was probably in honour 
 of the afore-mentioned marriage of the lady Margaret the king's lifter, 
 with Charles the Hardy, laft duke of Burgundy "j\ Nothing could be better 
 adapted to the humour of the age, and to the union of that hero and virago, 
 than a fingle combat between two of their near relations. In the Biographia 
 Britannica is a long account extracted from a curious manufcript of this 
 tournament, for which letters of fafe conduct were granted by the king, as 
 appears from Rymer's Fcedera ; the title of which are, " Pro Baftardo Bur- 
 gundias fuper punctis armorum perficiendis." At thefe jufts the earl of 
 Worcefter (before mentioned) prefided as lord high conftable, and attefted 
 the queen's giving The flower of Souvenance to the lord Scales, as a charge 
 to undertake the enterprife, and his delivery of it to Chefter-herald, that he 
 might carry it over to be touched by the Baftard, in token of his accepting 
 the challenge. This prize was a collar of gold with the rich flower of Sou- 
 venance enamelled, and was faftened above the earl's knee bv fome of the 
 queen's ladies on the Wednefday after the feaft of the refurrection. The 
 Baftard, attended by four hundred lords, knights, fquires and heralds, landed 
 at Gravefend ; and at Blackwall he was met by the lord high conftable 
 with feven barges and a galley full of attendants, richly covered with cloth 
 -of gold and arras. The king proceeded to London ; in Fleet-ftreet the 
 champions folemnly met in his prefence ; and the palaces of the bifhops of 
 Salifbury and Ely were appointed to lodge thefe brave fons of holy church ; 
 as faint Paul's cathedral was for holding a chapter for the folution of certain 
 doubts upon the articles of combat. The timber and workmanfhip of the 
 lifts coft above 200 marks. The pavilions, trappings, &c. were fumptuous 
 in proportion. Yet however weighty the expence, the queen could not but 
 think it well beftowed, when me had the fatisfaclion of beholding her bro- 
 
 * Dugdaleubi fupra, and Biogr. Brit. p. 1231. 
 
 f That it was fo, is confirmed by Hall, who has given a particular account of the combat in 
 his Chronicle- 
 
 ther 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 287 
 
 Cher victorious in fo fturdy an encounter ; the fpike in the front of the lord 
 Scales's horfe having run into the noftril of the Baftard's horfe, fo that he 
 reared an end and threw his rider to the ground. The generous conqueror 
 difdained the advantage, and would have renewed the combat, but the Baf- 
 tard refufed to fight any more on horfeback. The next day they fought on 
 foot ; when Widville again prevailing, and the fport waxing warm, the king 
 gave the fignal to part them. 
 
 Earl Rivers had his mare of his filler's afflictions as weU as of her tri- 
 umphs ; but making a right ufe of adveriity, and underftanding that there 
 was to be a jubilee and pardon at St. James's in Spain in 1473, he failed 
 from Southampton, and for fome time was " full vertuoufly occupied in 
 goyng of pilgrimagis to St. James in Galice, to Rome, and to feint Nicholas 
 de Bar in Fuyle, and other diverfe holy places. Alfo he procured and got 
 of our holy fader the pope a greet and large indulgence and grace unto the 
 chapel of our Lady of the piewe by St. Stephen's at Weftmenitre*." 
 
 The difmal cataftrophe of this accomplished lord, in the forty-firft year 
 of his age, is well known : 
 
 " Rivers, Vaughan and Gray f , 
 
 Ere this lie fhorter by the heads at Pomfret." 
 
 The works of this gallant and learned perfon were : 
 
 I. " The dictes and fayinges of the philofophers ; tranflated out of Latyn 
 into Frenfhe by a worfhipful man called Mefiire Jehan de Teonville, provoft 
 of Paris ;" and from thence rendered into Englim by our lord Rivers, who 
 (ailing to the Spanifh jubilee, ** and lackyng fyght of all londes, the wynde 
 being good and the weder fayr, thenne for a recreacyon and pafTyng of time, 
 
 * Ames, p. 14. the death of our earl Rivers is always mentioned, 
 
 though a man inverted with fuch high offices of 
 
 f Queen Elizabeth Cray is defervedly pitied' truft and dignity ; and how much we dwell on 
 for lofmg her two fons; but the royalty of their the execution of the lord chamberlain Haftings, 
 birth has fo engrofled the attention of hiftorians, a man in every light his inferior. In truth, the 
 that they never reckon into the number of her generality draw their ideas of Englifh ftory from 
 misfortunes the murder of this her fecond fon fir the tragic rather than the hiftoric authors. 
 Richard Gray. It is as remarkable how flightly 
 
 had 
 
288 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS 
 
 had delyte and axed to rede fome good hiftorye. A worfhipfull gentylman 
 called Lowys de Bretaylles" lent him the above-mentioned treatife, which 
 when he had " heided and looked upon, as he had tyme and fpace, he gaaf 
 thereto a veray affection ; and in Ipecial by caule of the holfom and fwete 
 faynges of the Paynems, which is a glorious fair myrrour to all good chriften 
 people to behold and underitonde." And afterwards being appointed go- 
 vernor to the prince, he undertook this tranflation for the ufe and inftruction 
 of his royal pupil. The book is fuppofed to be the fecond ever printed in 
 England by * Caxton ; at leaff. the firft which he printed at Weftminiter, 
 being dated November 18, 1477. A fair manufcript of this tranflation, 
 with an illumination reprefenting the earl introducing Caxton to Edward the 
 fourth, his queen and the prince, is preferved in the archbimop's library at 
 Lambeth 
 
 The moft remarkable circumftance attending this book is the gallantrv of 
 the earl, who omitted to tranflate part of it, becaufe it contained farcafms of 
 Socrates againir. the fair fex : and it is no lefs remarkable that his printer 
 ventured to tranflate the fatire, and add it to his lordfhip's performance ; yet 
 with an apology for his prefumption \. 
 
 II. " The moral proverbs of Chriftian of Pyfe;" another tranflation §. 
 The authorefs Chriftina was daughter of Thomas of Pifa, otherwife called 
 of Boulogne, whither her father removed ; and though ihe ftyled herfelf a 
 woman Ytalien, yet me wrote in French, and flourifhed about the year 
 1 400 1| . In this tranflation the earl difcovered new talents, turning the 
 
 work 
 
 * Ames, p. 9. § Ames, p. 12. 
 
 ■f- There is another old verfion of this book, || She wrote La vie du roi Charles le Sage. 
 " Sythe now tranflatyd out of Frenfhe tung into It is preferved in MS. in the library of the king of 
 Englyfhe, the yere of our Lorde I450.(dedicated) France. Another of her works is in the Harleian 
 to John Foftalfe knyghte for his contemplation collection of MSS. entitled Epiftre d'Othea 
 and folas, by Stevyn Scrope fqyer, fonne in law deefle de Prudence a Hector, exhortant a les 
 to the feide Foftalfe. Deo grarias." V. Catal. of chofes neceflaires a vaillance, & contraires a 1' 
 tlarl. MSS. N° 2266. Though this tranflation opofite de prouefle. Mis en vers Francois & de- 
 was made for the ufe of fo confiderable a perfon- die a CharlesV. roy de France, parChrifline fille 
 age, yet, through the deficience of printing, it is de Thomas de Pizan de Buloin le grafle & con- 
 plain that our earl had never heard of it. feiller de meme roy. Harl. Cat. N° 219, art. 5. 
 
 She alio wrote fongs and ballads: See Memoire 
 
 t Ames; and the Britifli Librarian. hiftoricjue 5 
 
I 
 
 w./ P. ise. 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 289 
 
 work into a poem of two hundred and three lines, the grcatcfr. part of which 
 he contrived to make conclude with the letter E : an inftance at once of his 
 •lordfhip's application, and of the bad tafte of an age, which had witticifms 
 and whims to ftruggle with as well as ignorance. It concludes with two 
 . ftanzas of feven lines each, beginning thus : 
 
 " The grete vertus of our elders notable 
 Ofte to remembre is thing profitable ; 
 An happy hous is, where dwelleth Prudence, 
 For where fhe is, Raifon is in prefence, &c." 
 
 EXPLICIT. 
 
 "Of thefe fayynges Criftyne was the aucturefTc, 
 Which in n:akyn had fuch intelligence, 
 That thereof me was mireur and maiftrefle ; 
 Her werkes teflifie thexperience ; 
 In Frensfh languaige was written this fentence ; 
 And thus englifhed doth hit reherfe 
 Antoin Widevylle therle Ryvers." 
 
 Caxton, infpired by his patron's mufe, concludes the work thus ; 
 
 " Go thou li til quayer and recommaund me 
 Unto the good grace of my fpecial lorde 
 Therle Ryveris, for I have emprinted the 
 At his commandement, following evry worde 
 His copye, as his fecretarie can recorde ; 
 At Weftmeftre, of Feverer the xx daye, 
 And of kyng Edward the xvii yere vraye. 
 
 Emprinted by CAXTON 
 In Feverer the colde feafom" 
 
 hiftorique, p. 31, prefixed to the firft volume of loger whom Charles V. had fent for from Italy, 
 
 the Anthologie Francoife. For a farther account for in that age Fiance was fo ignorant that it 
 
 of her fee Memoires de l'academie des belles let- could not i'urnifh an impoftor, 
 trcs, torn. ii. p. 762. Her father was an aftro- 
 
 Vol.. I. Pp HI. The 
 
*9° 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 III. The book named " Cordial, or memorare novifiima * a third 
 tranflation from the French ; the original author not named : begun to be 
 printed by Caxton " the morn after the purification of our bliffid lady in the 
 yere 1478, which was the daye of feint Blafe, bifhop and martir ; and 
 fmifhed on the even of thannunciation of our faid bliffid lady in the xix yere 
 of ky ng Edward the fourth, 1480." By which it feems that Caxton was 
 above two years in printing this book. It does not appear that he publifhed 
 any other work in that period ; yet he was generally more expeditious ; but 
 the new art did not, or could not,, multiply its productions, as it does now 
 in its maturity. 
 
 IV. A little elegy compofed the night before his execution, preferved by- 
 Rofs of Warwick, who calls it, unum Ralet in Anglicis ; and reports that the 
 earl had for fome time worn out of devotion a haircloth, which was long- 
 preferved by the Carmelite friars of Doncafter, and hung up before an image 
 of the virgin Mary j\ It is printed among Mr. Percy's Reliques of ancient 
 Englifh poetry, vol. ii. p. 44. 
 
 Thefe are all the remains of this illuftrious lord, though, as Caxton fays, 
 " notwithftonding the greet labours and charges he had in the fervice of the 
 kyng and of my laid lord prince, which hath be to him no little thought and 
 biiinefs, yet over that, tenrich his vertuous difpofition, he put him in devoyr 
 at all tymes, when he might have a leyfer, which was but ftarte mete, to 
 tranflate diverfe bookes out of Frenfh into Englim." He then mentions- 
 thofe I have recited, and adds, 
 
 V. " Over that hath made divers balade ayenft: the feven dedely fynnesj.'* 
 
 It is obfervable with what timidity and lowlinefs young Learning ventured 
 to unfold her recent pinions, how little me dared to raife herfelf above the 
 ground. We have feen that earl Tiptoft and earl Rivers, the reftorers and 
 patrons of fcience in this country, contented themfelves with tranfiating the 
 works of others ; the latter condefcending even to tranflate a tranflation. But 
 "We rauft remember how fcarce books were ; how few of the claffic ftandards 
 
 * Ames; page 1 3, 
 
 I Page ai4» 
 
 % Ames, page 14. 
 
 were 
 
I 
 
 NOBLE A TJ T H O R. S. 291 
 
 were known, and how much lefs underftood. Whoever confiders the ac- 
 count which Caxton gives of his meeting " with the lytyle book in Frenfhe, 
 tranflated out of Latyn by that noble poete and gretc cierke Virgyle," will 
 not wonder that invention did not exert itfelf. Whatever was tranflated, 
 was new and a real prefent to the age. Invention operates only where there 
 is no pattern, or where all patterns are exhaufted. He, who in the dawn of 
 fcience made a verfion of ChriiHna of Pifa, in its vigorous maturity would 
 tranflate Montefquieu— and, 1 truft, not in metre S 
 
 I have dwelled the longer on the articles of thefe two lords, as they are very 
 flightly known, and as I think their country in a great meafure indebted 
 to them for the reftoration of learning. The countenance, the example of 
 men in their fituation muft have operated more fhongly than the attempts of 
 an hundred profeffors, Benedictines, and commentators. The fimilitude of 
 •their ftudies was terminated by too fatal a refemblance in their cataftrophe 1 
 
 NICHOLAS Lord VAUX 
 
 CEEMS to have been a great ornament * to the reign of Henry the feventh, 
 and to the court of Henry the eighth in its more joyous days, before 
 queens, minifters, peers, and martyrs* embrued fo many fcaffolds with their 
 blood. William Vaux his father had forfeited his fortunes in the caufe of 
 Henry the fixth : they were reftored to the fon with the honour of knight- 
 hood on his fighting ftoutly at the battle of Stoke againft the earl of Lincoln, 
 on the fide of Henry the feventh. In the feventeenth of that reign, at the 
 marriage of prince Arthur, the brave young Vaux appeared in a gown of 
 purple velvet, adorned with pieces of gold fo thick and mafiive, that exckifive 
 of the filk and furs it was valued at a thoufand pounds : about his neck he 
 wore a collar of S S. weighing eight hundred pounds in nobles. In thofe 
 days, it not only required great bodily ftrength to fupport the weight of their 
 
 * The rev. and judicious Mr. Percy, editor fucceeding lord Surrey and fir Thomas Wyat : 
 
 of the Reliques of ancient poetry, has, on very and in truth, as Mr. Percy obferves, lord Vaux's 
 
 good reafons (which fee at the end of the third poetry is too elegant for the age of Henry VII. 
 
 volume), furmifed, that Nicholas lord Vaux was This criticifm therefore is fubmitted to the 
 
 not the poet, but his fon Thomas. Puttenham reader, till more certain evidence can be difco- 
 
 calls the poet Nicholas ; yet mentions him as vered. 
 
 P p z cumberfome 
 
292 
 
 NOBLE A U T H O R S. 
 
 cumberfome armour ; their very luxury of apparel for the drawing- r 00 rty 
 would opprels a fjftem of modern muicles ! In the firft of Henry the eighth, 
 Vaux was made lieutenant of the cattle of Guifnes in Picardy ; and in the 
 fifth of that reign was at the fiege of Therouenne. In the tenth year he. was. 
 one of the embaffadors for confirming the peace between Henry and the 
 French king ; and foon after in commifiion for preparing the famous inter- 
 view between thofe monarchs near Guifnes. Thefe martial and feftival 
 talents were the direct road to Henry's heart, who in his fifteenth year 
 created fir Nicholas a baron at the palace of Bridewell: but he lived not long 
 to enjoy the fplendour of this favour. Departing this life in 1 523, he founded 
 chantries for the fouls of his anceftors ; portioned his three daughters with 
 five hundred pounds a- piece for their marriages ; and to his fons Thomas and 
 William bequeathed all his- wearing gere, except cloth of gold, cloth of fil- 
 ver, and tiffue*. A battle, a pageant, an embalfy, a fuperftitious will, 
 compofe the hiftory of moft of the great men of that age : but our peer did 
 not flop there : he had been bred at Oxford, and had a happy genius for 
 poetry, of which fome famples are extant in The Paradife of dainty de- 
 vices j*. An author t, who wrote nearer to thofe times, fays* " that his 
 lordfhip's fancy lay chiefly in the facility of his metre, and the aptnefs of his 
 defcriptions, fuch as he takes upon him to make ; namely, in fundry of his 
 fongs, wherein he fheweth the counterfeit-action very lively and pleafantly." 
 And he quotes a fonnet printed among thofe of the earl of Surrey, beginning 
 " When Cupid fcaled firf!: the fort, &c. In Antony Wood j| may be 
 feen the titles of fome of his fonnets ; and the fame author fays that there 
 goes a doleful ditty alfo under his name, beginning thus, " I loath that I did 
 love, &c." which was thought by fome to be made upon his death-bed. It 
 is printed among lord Surrey's poems, p. 157, and contains the ftanza funs 
 by the grave-digger in Hamlet, " A pickaxe and a fpade." 
 
 * "Wood, vol. i. p. 19. Dugdalc, vol. ii. J Art of Englifli poefy. 
 p. 304. Tanner, p. 731. 
 
 § lb. p. 201. 
 
 f Written by Richard Edwards. Vide Wood, 
 toI. i. p. 152, II Vol. i. p. ig«. 
 
 JOHN 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 29 
 
 JOHN BOURCHIER, Lord BERNERS, 
 
 ^j.RANDSON and heir of a lord of the fame name, who was defcended. 
 
 from Thomas of Woodftock duke of Glocefter, and had been knight of 
 the garter and conftable of Windfor-caltle under Edward the fourth *. Our 
 lord John was created a knight of the bath at the marriage of the duke of 
 York, fecond fon of Edward the fourth, and was fir ft known by quelling an 
 infurrcction in Cornwall and Devonfhire under the conduct of Michael Jofeph 
 a blackfmith in 1495 f, which recommended him to the favour of Henry the 
 feventh. He was captain of the pioneers at the liege of Therouenne under 
 Henry the eighth, by whom he was made chancellor of the exchequer for 
 life, lieutenant of Calais and the marches J, appointed to conduct, the lady 
 Mary, the king's fifter, into France on her marriage with Louis the twelfth, 
 and with whom [Henr. viii.l he had the rare felicity of continuing in favour 
 eighteen years. He died in 1532, leaving his gown of damalk-tawney 
 furred with jennets to his natural fon Humphrey Bourchier; and certain le- 
 gacies to two other illegitimate fons, having had only two daughters by hia 
 wife Catherine, daughter of John duke of Norfolk ; from one of which la- 
 dies is defcended the prefent lady baronels Berners, whofe right to that title* 
 which had long lain in obfeurity, was clearly made out and recovered by the 
 late. Peter Leneve, efq. Norroy. 
 
 Lord Berners, by the command of king Henry §, translated " Froiftart's- 
 Chronicle," which was printed in 1523, by Richard Pinfon, the fifth on the 
 lift of Englifh printers, and fcholar of Caxton. 
 
 Others of his works were a whimfical medley of tranflations from French, 
 Italian and Spanifh novels, which feem to have been the mode then, as they 
 were afterwards in the reign of Charles the fecond, 
 
 " When ev'ry flow'ry courtier wrote romance.' 9 
 
 * Blomfield's Hid. of Norf. vol. iii. p. IOO. t Dugd. Baron, vol. ii. p. 133. 
 
 f Ant. Wood, vol. i. p. 34. § Ames in Pinfon, p. 125. 
 
 2 Thefe 
 
-94 NOBLE AUTHO R S. 
 
 Thefe were, " The Life of fir Arthur, an Armorican knight*; The fa- 
 mous exploits of fir Hugh of Bourdeaux -f; Marcus Aurelius J ; and The 
 cattle of Love §." He compofed alfo a book " Of the duties of the inha- 
 bitants of Calais and a comedy, entitled " Ite in Vineam {)," which is men- 
 tioned in none of our catalogues of Englifh plays : Antony Wood *| fays it 
 was ufually acted at Calais after vefpers **. 
 
 Some of his letters of negotiation are preferved in the Britifh mufeum. 
 yf By thefe letters it appears that he was embafifador to the emperor Charles 
 the fifth; a circumftance unknown to, or overlooked by, all the writers who 
 mention him. 
 
 Lord Berners died at Calais, 1532, aged 63. 
 
 GEORGE BOLETN, Viscount ROCIIFORD, 
 
 HHHE unfortunate brother of Anne Boleyn ; raifed by her greatnefs, in- 
 volved in her fall, and more cruelly in her difgrace. He was accufed 
 of too intimate familiarity with his fitter, by a moft infamous woman his 
 wife, who continued a lady of the bed-chamber to the three fucceeding 
 
 * Lord Oxford had one of thefe, with this 
 title, " The hiftory of the moft noble and va- 
 iyaunt knight, Arthur of Lytell Brytaine, tranf- 
 lated out of Frenche by John Bourgcher, knyght, 
 lord Barners." Black letter. 
 
 V. Harleian catal. vol. iii p. 32, and Ames, p-151. 
 
 f Done at the defire of the earl of Huntingdon; 
 it pafTed through three editions, lamer , p. 1 j 6. 
 
 J Ames, p. 169. This was undertaken at 
 the defire of his nephew fir Francis Bryan. 
 
 Tanner, ib. and Ames, p. 169. 
 
 § Dedicated to the lady of fir Nicholas Carew, 
 
 at whofe defire he tranfiated it from the Spanifh. 
 
 Tanner, ib. and Ames, p. 158. 
 
 (] Bale, cent. 9, p. 706. 
 
 1f Vol. i. p. 33. 
 
 ** Fuller [in his Worthies of Hertfordftiire, 
 p. 27] fays, " I behold his [lord Berners's] as 
 the fecond, accounting the lord Tiptoft the^fr/?, 
 noble hand, which, fince the decay of learning, 
 took a pen therein to be author of a book." But 
 I have fhown that lord Berners was but the fifth 
 writer among the nobility in order of time. 
 
 ft See Catal. of Harleian MSS. N° 295, art. 
 41 and 66. 
 
 'queens, 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 295 
 
 queens, till her adminiftering * to the pleafures of the laft of them, Cathe- 
 rine Howard, brought that fentence on her, which her malice or jealoufy 
 had drawn on her lord and her fifter-in-law. The weightiest proof againft 
 them was his having been feen to whifper the queen one morning as flie was 
 in bed f . But that could make inceft, where a jealous or fickle tyrant could 
 make laws at his will ! — Little is recorded of this nobleman, but two or three 
 embaffies to France, his being made governor of Dover and the cinque ports, 
 and his fubfcribing the famous declaration to Clement the feventh. .Like earl- 
 Rivers, he rofe by the exaltation of his lifter ; like him, was innocently 
 facrificed on her account ; and, like him, mowed that the luftre of his fitua- 
 tion did not make him neglect to add accomplifliments of his own. 
 
 Antony Wood fays he was much adored at court, efpecially by the female 
 fax, for his admirable difcourfe and fymmetry of body ; which one may well 
 believe : the king and the lady Rochford would fcarce have fufpecled the 
 queen of inceft, unlefs her brother had had uncommon allurements in his 
 perfon. 
 
 Wood afcribes to him 
 
 Several poems, fongs and fbnnets,. with other things of the like nature. 
 
 Bale calls them " Rythmos elegantiffimos," lib. t. But none of his 
 works are come down to us, unlefs any of the anonymous pieces, publilhed 
 along with the earl of Surrey's poems, be of his compofition. 
 
 * Honeft .Stowe has preferved a converfation 
 between Anne of Cleves and this lady Rochford, 
 in which the arch fimplicity of the former and 
 the petulant curiofity of the latter are very re- 
 markable. The lady Eleanor Rutland, the lady 
 Catherine Edgcumbe, and lady Rochford, were 
 lifting to- know whether her majefty was breed- 
 ing : the queen fairly owned, " That the king, 
 when they went to bed, took her by the hand, 
 killed her, and bid her Good- night, fiueet heart ; 
 and in the morning, kiffed her, and bid her Fare- 
 well, darling : and is not this enough ?" qucth her 
 jsujefty. Stoive's Annals, p. 578. 
 
 I Ths poor queen had fo little idea of gttiltj 
 
 2 
 
 or of what {he w?.s accufed, that, on her firft. 
 commitment to the Tower, fhe exclaimed ten- 
 derly, "Oh! where is my fweet brother ?" The 
 lieutenant, willing to fpare her a new fhock, re- 
 plied, without telling her that the lord Rochford 
 was committed too, " That he left him at York- 
 place." Strype, vol. i. p. 280. The author of 
 Englifh Worthies tells a ftory which is related too 
 by Fuller in his Worthies of Wiltfhire, p. 146. 
 That on Jane Seymour's fir ft coming to court, 
 queen Anne fnatched at a jewel pendent about 
 this Jane's neck, and hurt her own hand with 
 the violence (he ufed. — She was ftruck with find- 
 ing it the king's picture, Page 848. 
 
 J O H N 
 
zq6 NOBLE AUTHOR S. 
 
 J II N Lord LU M LEY, 
 
 ^ON of Richard lord Lumley *, was the feyexith baron of that family, 
 and an eminent warrior in the reign of Henry the eighth. Being about 
 the age of twenty-one in the fifth of that king, he carried a considerable 
 force to the earl of Surrey at York, and was a principal commander at Flcd- 
 den-field, where he diftinguimed himfelf with great bravery. He was pre- 
 fent at mod of the interviews between his mafter and foreign monarchs, which 
 lb much delighted that prince and his hiftorians ; and again ferved again ft 
 the Scots in the -fifteenth of that kins;. He was one of the barons who nVned 
 the memorable letter to Clement the feventh, threatening him with the lofs of 
 his lupremacy in England, unlefs he proceeded to difpatch the king's divorce: 
 but notwithstanding this, we find him deeply engaged in the rebellion, which 
 our old writers call The pilgrimage of grace. The duke of Norfolk, general 
 of the royalifts, offered them a free pardon ; lord Lumley was commiffioned 
 to treat on the part of the revolters, and with great dexterity extricated him- 
 felf and his followers. Yet foon after he loft his only fon George, who, be- 
 ing taken in another infurrecYion with the lord Darcy, was beheaded. Of 
 the father we find no more mention, but that in the year 1550 he tranflated 
 Erafmus's inftitution of a chriftian prince," which is preferved in manu- 
 fcript in the king's library f . 
 
 HENRY PARKER, Lord MORLEY, 
 
 TX7 AS fon of fir William Parker by Alice fifter of Lovel lord Morley, 
 by which title this Henry was fummoned to parliament in the twenty- 
 firft of Henry the eighth. Except being a pretty voluminous author, we 
 find nothing remarkable of him, but that he too figned the before-mentioned 
 letter to pope Clement ; and, having a quarrel for precedence with the lord 
 Dacre of Gillefland, had his preteniions confirmed by parliament. § Antony 
 
 * Vide Dugdale's and Coilins's Peerages, 
 f Vide Cafley's Catalogue, p. 262. 
 
 % Dugdale, vol. ii. p. 307. 
 § Vol. i p. 53. 
 
 Wood 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 297 
 
 Wood fays, he was living an ancient man and in efteem among the nobility 
 in the latter end of the reign of Henry the eighth *; and in the catalogue of 
 king Charles's collection -f , a portrait is mentioned of a lord Parker, who 
 probably was the fame perfon. 
 
 He wrote 
 
 *' A declaration of the xciv pfalm," printed by T. Berthelet, 1539^* 
 " The lives of feftaries." 
 
 " An epitaph on Thomas Weft, lord Delawar §." 
 
 Several tragedies and comedies, whofe very titles are loft j|. 
 
 And, according to Bale and Baker certain rhimes. 
 
 Befides thefe pieces, there are in the ** king's library the following ma- 
 nufcripts tranflated by him, ftyling himfelf Henry Parker, knight, lord 
 Morley. 
 
 " Seneca's xvni and xcn cpiftles." 
 
 *< Erafmus's praife to the virgin Mary ;" dedicated to the princefs Mary. 
 
 " St. Athanafius's prologue to the pfalter." 
 
 " Thomas Aquinas of the angelical falutation." 
 
 " Anfelme, of the ftature, form and life of the virgin Mary and our 
 Saviour." 
 
 * It is plain, by the laft article in the lift of f Page 3. 
 
 his works, that he outlived king Henry and king j Ames, p. 171. 
 
 Edward VI ; and in the Hiftory and Antiquities ^ Collins's Peerage in Delawar. 
 
 of Eflex, p. 93, I find that fir Henry Parker, ^ Theatr Recor[ j Sj p . $t 
 
 lord Morley, died in icc6 (which was the _ TT . . - j tr ».t--!-i.*v 
 
 , „ }> . 2 ? v , . , 1 tt 1 If Vide Men of note under Henry the eighth* 
 
 fourth of queen Mary), and was buned at Wal- 
 
 bury in that county. ** Vitle Cafiey's Catalogue, 
 
 Vol. I. Q^q « The 
 
298 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " The Ecclefiaftes of Solomon, with a long paraphrafe." 
 " Tranflation of the Somnium Scipionis." 
 " The hiftory of Paulus Jovius." 
 
 " Hiftory of the pope's ill-treatment of the emperor Frederick, tran{laf.ecl 
 from the Latin of Maffuetius Salcrnitanus *." 
 
 . " Plutarch's life of Thefeus ;" dedicated to Henry the eighth. 
 
 " Plutarch's lives of Scipio and Hannibal/' 
 
 " Plutarch's life of Paulus ^Emilius f." 
 
 " John de Turre cremata, his expofition of the xxxiv pfalm." 
 
 And there is in the fame collection a book entitled " Expofitio in pfal- 
 terium," in which is written " Henricus Parker, eques, baro Morley, hunc 
 codicem dono dedit dominie Maria?, regis Henrici VIII. filial." 
 
 In an old catalogue of a fale of books I found this article : 
 
 " LyfFof the good kyng Agefilaus, wretten by the famous clerke Plu- 
 tarche in the Greke tounge, and traunflated out of the Greke into Latyn by 
 Antony Tudartyn, and drawen out off Latyn into Englifhe by me Henry lord 
 Morley, and dedycated unto the right honorable baron the lorde Cromwell,, 
 lord privy-feal ; with a comparifon adjoyned of the life and actions of our 
 late famous king Henrie the eighth, MS. wrote in his lordfhip's own hand- 
 writing, as appears by letter to the lord Zouch, prefident of the queene's 
 counfaill in the marches of Wales, wrote by William Henrick, one of the 
 clerkes of that court in 1 602. Price ten millings and fix-pence. " 
 
 * Tanner, p* 573. f MS. in the Bodl. library. Vide Tanner, ib. 
 
 HENR Y 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 2 99 
 
 HENRT HOWARD, Earl of SURREY. 
 
 TX 7E now emerge from the twilight of learning to an almofl claffic author, 
 that ornament of a boifterous, yet not unpolifhed court, the earl of 
 Surrey, celebrated by Drayton, Uryden, Fenton and Pope, illuflrated by 
 his own mufe, and lamented for his unhappy and unmerited death : " A 
 man," as fir Walter Raleigh fays*, no lefs valiant than learned, and of ex- 
 cellent hopes." 
 
 He was fon and grand'fon of two lord treafurers, dukes of Norfolk, and 
 feemed to have a promife of fortune as illuftrious, by being the friend, and 
 at length the brother-in-law, of the duke of Richmond, Henry's natural fon — 
 But the cement of that union proved the bane of her brother! He (hone in all 
 the accomplifhments of that martial age ; his name is renowned in its tourna- 
 ments and in his father's battles : in an expedition of his own he was unfor- 
 tunate, being defeated endeavouring to cut off a convoy to Boulogne ; a dif- 
 grace he foon repaired, though he never recovered the king's favour, in 
 whofe eyes a moment could cancel an age of fervices! 
 
 The unwieldy king, growing diftempered and froward, and apprehenfive 
 for the tranquillity of his boy fuccelTor, eafily conceived or admitted jealoufies 
 infufed into him by the earl of Hertford and the proteftant party, though 
 one of the laft acts of his fickle life was to found a convent-j~ ! Rapin fays, 
 he apprehended, if the popifh party mould prevail, that his marriage with 
 Catherine of Arragon would be declared good, and by confequence his fon 
 Edward baftardized. — A moft inaccurate conclulion ! It would have affected 
 the legitimacy of Elizabeth, whofe mother was married during the life of 
 Catherine ; but the latter was dead before the king married Jane Seymour. 
 An odd circumftance is recorded, that Anne Boleyn wore yellow for mourn- 
 ing for her predeceffor \. 
 
 * In the preface to his Hiftory. faftiion flie had brought from France. Du Tillet 
 
 ■\ Lord Herbert's Life of Henry the eighth. fays, " Le pourpre eft le deuil des rois, et le 
 % Notes to Tindal's Rapin: fol. It was a jaune celui des reines." Recherches, liv. ii. p.196. 
 
 <i5 2 It 
 
3°° 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 It feems that the family of Howard were greatly at variance * ; the duke 
 and his Ton had been but lately reconciled : the duchefs was frantic witlx 
 jealoufy, had been parted four years from her hufband, and now turned his 
 accuier ; as her daughter the duchefs of Richmond, who inclined to the pro- 
 teftants, and hated her brother, depofed againft him. The duke's miftrefs 
 too, one Mrs. Holland, took care to provide for her own fafety, by telling 
 all ihe knew : that was little, yet equal to the charge, and coincided with it. 
 The chief accufation againft the earl was his quartering the arms of Edward 
 the ConfefTor -f: the duke had forborne them, but left a blank quarter. Mrs. 
 Holland depofed, that the duke difapproved his foil's bearing them, and for- 
 bad her to work them on the furniture for his houfe. The duchefs of Rich- 
 mond's teftimony was fo trivial, that fhe depofed her brother's giving a coro- 
 net|, which to her judgment feemed a clofe crown, and a cypher which me 
 took to be the king's : and that he dhTuaded her from p-oino- too far in read- 
 ins the lcripture. Some fwore that he loved to converfe with foreigners ; 
 and, as if ridiculous charges, when multiplied, would amount to one real 
 crime, fir Richard Southwell affirmed, without fpecifying what, that he 
 knew certain things which touched the earl's fidelity to the king. The 
 brave young lord vehemently affirmed himfelf a true man, and offered to fight 
 his accufer in his fhirt; and with great fpirit and a ready wit defended him- 
 felf againft all the witnelfes — to little purpofe ! When fuch accufations could 
 be alleged, they were fure of being thought to be proved. Lord Herbert 
 infinuates that the earl would not have been condemned, if he had not been 
 a commoner and tried by a jury. On what could he ground this favourable 
 
 * Lord Herbert. 
 
 | Yet in the 1 3th of Edward IV. it was de- 
 cided in a chapter of the office of arms, that 
 where a nobleman is defcended lineally heredita- 
 ble to three or four coats, and afterwards is af- 
 cended to a coat near to the king, and of his 
 royal blood, he may for his mod honour bear the 
 fame coat alone, and no lower coat of dignity to 
 be quartered therewith, &c. Sanaford, p. 232, 
 book iii. c. 1 5. And it appears by a deed in the 
 pofieffion of James Weft, efq. that the duke ac- 
 tually did fo for fome time ; his feal to this deed 
 containing only the arms of England with a labe* 
 
 of three points within the garter and his name 
 over it. This deed was fhewn to the Society of 
 Antiquaries, March 11,1735, as appears by their 
 minutes. 
 
 } This (hews that at that time there were no 
 eftablifhed rules for coronets. I cannot find when 
 thofe of dukes, marquiffes and earls were fettled: 
 fir Robert Cecil, earl of Salifbury, when vif- 
 count Cranborn, was the firft of that degree that 
 bore a coronet. Barons received theirs from 
 Charles the fecond : the original warrant is pre- 
 ferved among the Harleian MSS. N° 1073, 
 art, 8. 
 
 opinion 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 301 
 
 opinion of the peers? What twelve trade fmen could be found more fervile 
 than almoft every court of peers during that reign ? Was the duke of Buck- 
 ingham, was Anne Boleyn condemned by a jury, or by great lords * ? 
 
 The duke, better acquainted with the humour of his matter, or fonder of 
 life as it grew nearer the dregs, made a mod abject confcffion, in which 
 however the o-rcatcit crime he avowed was having; concealed the manner ill 
 which his fon bore his coat-armour — an offence, by the way, to which the 
 king himfelf and all the court mud long have been privy. As this is in- 
 tended as a trcatife of curtojity, it may not be amifs to mention, that the duke 
 prefented a petition to the lords, dcfiring to have fome books from Lambeth, 
 without which he had not been able to recompofe himfelf to deep for a dozen 
 years. He defired leave too to buy faint Auftin, Jofephus, and Sabellicus f ; 
 and he begged for fome meets. — So hardly was treated a man, who had 
 married a daughter of Edward the fourth who had enjoyed fuch dignities, 
 and, what was (till more, hadg ained fuch victories for his maltcr ! 
 
 The noble earl perifhed ; the father efcaped by the death of the tyrant, 
 
 * The parliaments of that reign were not lefs 
 obfequious than the peers diltincTively : " The 
 countefs of Salifbury," fays Stowe in his Annals, 
 p. 581, " was condemned by parliament, though 
 fhe was never arraigned nor tried before. Ca- 
 therine Howard was attainted by parliament, and 
 fuffered without trial. Cromwell, earl of EfTex, 
 though a lord of parliament, was attainted with- 
 out being heard." The power granted to the 
 king of regulating the fucceffion by his will was 
 an unheard-of abufe. If we pafs from the peers 
 to the houfe of commons, and from thence to the 
 convocation, we fhall find that juries by no 
 means deferred to be ftigmatized for peculiar 
 fervility. The commons befought the king to 
 let his marriage with Anne of Cleves be enquired 
 into. The difTolution of that marriage for fuch 
 abfurd reafons as his majefty vouchfafed to give, 
 
 [| In the cafe of his next wife it proved how bad 
 o judge he was of thofe matters ; nay, fo humble did 
 he grow on that head, and confequently fo uncertain 
 did his conforming parliament immediately think that 
 
 as her being no virgin, which it feems he disco- 
 vered by a peculiar fecrct of his own, without 
 ufing the common method of knowing || ; and 
 his whimfical inability, which he pretended to 
 have in vain attempted to remove by taking phy- 
 fic the more to enable him ; that difTolution, I 
 fay, was an inftance of the grofL'ft complaifance; 
 as Cranmer's having before pronounced the di- 
 vorce from Anne Boleyn was an effect, of the 
 moft wretched timidity. 
 
 f The artful duke, though a ftrong papift, 
 pretended to afk for Sabellicus as the moft vehe- 
 ment detector of the ufurpations of the bifliop of 
 Rome. Lord Herbert, p. 629. 
 
 % His firft wife was the lady Anne, who left 
 no iffue. His fecond was daughter of the duke 
 of Buckingham. 
 
 difquifition, that an at~i was paffed to oblige any 
 Woman y before Jlje Jhould efpoufe a king, To de- 
 clare whether fhe was a virgin or not. 
 
 We 
 
302 N O B L E A U T H O R S. 
 
 We have a fmall volume of elegant and tender fonnets compofed by Surrey ; 
 and with them lome others of that age *, particularly of fir Thomas Wyat 
 the elder, a very accomplifhed gentleman, father of him who fell in a rebel- 
 lion againft queen Mary. Francis the firft had given a new air to literature, 
 which he encouraged by mixing gallantry with it, and by producing the la- 
 dies at his court along with the learned. Henry, who had at leaft as much 
 tafte for women as letters, and was fond of fplendour and feats of arms, con- 
 tributed to give a romantic turn to compofition ; and Petrarch, the poet of 
 the fair, was naturally a pattern to a court of that complexion. In imitation 
 of Laura, our earl had his Geraldine. Who me was, we are not told di- 
 rectly ; himfelf mentions feveral particulars relating to her, but not her name. 
 The author of the laft edition of his poems fays, in fome fliort notes on his 
 life, that me was the greateft beauty of her time, and maid of honour to 
 queen Catherine ; to which of the three queens of that name he does not 
 ipecify. I think I have very nearly dilcovered who this fair perfon was : 
 here is the earl's defcription : 
 
 " From Tufcane came my ladies worthy race, 
 
 Fair Florence was fometyme her j" auncient feate ; 
 The weftern yle whole pleafant more doth face 
 Wild Camber's cliffs, did geve her lyvely heate : 
 Foftered me was with milke of Irifh breft : 
 Her fire, an earl ; her dame, of princes blood ; 
 From tender yeres in Britaine fhe doth reft 
 With kinges childe, where me tafteth coftly foode. 
 Honfdon did firft prefent her to myne >ien : 
 Bright is her hewe, and Geraldine me hight, 
 Hampton me taught to wime her firft for mine, 
 And Windfor alas ! doth chafe me from her fight. 
 Her beauty of kinde, her vertue from above, 
 Happy is he, that can obtain her love." 
 
 * The earl was intimate too with fir Thomas near Norwich. See note to verfe 152, of Drayton's 
 More and Erafmus ; and built a magnificent epijllefrom Geraldine to the earl. 
 houfe, called Mount-Surrey, on Lennard's hill f 1 would read, their. 
 
 I am 
 
I 
 
 NOBLE A U T H O R S. 303 
 
 I am inclined to think that her poetical appellation was her real name, as 
 every one of the circumftances tallies. Gerald Fitzgerald, earl of Kildare r in 
 the reign of Henrv the eighth, married to his iecond wife Margaret, dauirh- 
 ter of Thomas Gray, marquis of Doriet ; by whom he had three daughters, 
 lady Margaret, who was born deaf and dumb (probably not the fair Geral- 
 dine); Elizabeth, third wife of Edward Clinton, carl of Lincoln; and the 
 lady Cicely. 
 
 Our genealogifts fay, that the family of Fitzgerald derives its origin from 
 Otho, defcended from the dukes of Tufcanv, who in the reign of king 
 Alfred fettled in England, and from thence tranlplanted themlelves into 
 Ireland. Thus 
 
 " From Tufcane came his lady's noble race."" 
 
 Her fire an earl, and her being foftered with milk of Irifh breaft, follow of 
 courfe. Her dame being of prince's blood is as exact ; Thomas marquis of 
 Dorfet being fon of queen Elizabeth Gray, daughter of the duchefs of Bed- 
 ford, of the princely houfe of .Luxemburg. The only queftion is, whether 
 the lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, or her lifter lady Cicely, was the fair 
 Geraldine : I fhould think the former, as it is evident me was fettled 
 in England. 
 
 The circumftance of his firft feeing her at Hunfdon, indifferent as it feems, 
 leads to a ftrong confirmation of this conjecture : fir Henry Chauncy fays *, 
 that Hunfdon-houfe in Hertfordfhire was built by Henry the eighth, and" 
 deftined to the education of his children. The lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald 
 was fecond coufin to the princeUes Mary and Elizabeth, and it was very na- 
 tural for her to be educated with them, as the fonnet expreffly fays the fair 
 Geraldine was. The earl of Surrey was in like manner brought up with 
 the duke of Richmond at Windfor j- : here the two circumstances clearly 
 
 * In his Hertfordfhire, p. 197. when a prifoner at Windfor, lamenting the hap- 
 
 pier days he formerly pafled there. His punifli^ 
 f One of the moll beautiful of lord Surrey's ment was for eating flefh in Lent, 
 compofitions is a very tender elegy written by him J food, vol. i. p. 58.. 
 
 correfpond' 
 
3°4 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS 
 
 corrcfpond to the earl's account of his fir ft feeing his miftrefs at Hunfdon*, 
 and being deprived of her by Windier : when he attended the young duke 
 to vifit the princeffes, he got fight of their companion ; when he followed 
 him to Windfor he loft that opportunity. If this afiumption wanted any cor- 
 roborating incidents, here is a ftrong one : the lord Leonard Gray, uncle of 
 the Fitzgeralds, was deputy of Ireland for the duke of Richmond ; and that 
 connection alone would eafily account for the earl's acquaintance with a 
 young lady, bred up with the royal family. 
 
 The following fhort genealogy will at once explain what I have faid, and 
 mow that in every light my opinion feems well grounded. 
 
 Q. ELIZABETH GRAY. 
 
 , — ^ > 
 
 Elizabeth, Thomas Marq. of Dorfet. 
 
 Henry VII. | 
 
 ' | < -A ^ 
 
 Henry VIII. Margaret, Leonard, 
 
 E. of Kildare. Dep. to the D. of Richmd. 
 
 < ^ . . I 
 
 Mary. Eliza. Henry. Elizabeth, 
 
 D. of Richmd. The fair Geraldine. 
 
 Since I made the above difcovery, I find that Michael Drayton, in his 
 heroical epiftiles, among which are two between this earl and Geraldine j", 
 
 guefles 
 
 * Strype has preferved a curious letter, relating 
 to the maintenance of the lady Elizabeth after the 
 death of her mother: it is written from Hunfdon 
 by Margaret lady Bryan, governefs to the prin- 
 cefs, and who, as fhe fays herfelf, had been 
 made a baronefs on her former preferment to the 
 fame poft about the lady Mary, a creation which 
 feems to have efcaped all our writers on the peer- 
 age. The letter mentions the toivardly and gentle 
 conditions of her grace. Vol. i. N° lxxi. In 
 the fame collection are letters of prince Edward 
 from Hunfdon. 
 
 f Antony Wood was ft i II more miftaken, for 
 he thinks lhe was born at Florence : he fays that 
 Surrey, travelling to the emperor's court, grew 
 4 
 
 acquainted with Cornelius Agrippa, famous for 
 natural magic, who fhowed him the image of his 
 Geraldine in a glafs, fick, weeping on her bed, 
 and refolved ail into devout religion for the ab- 
 fence of her lord ; that from thence he went to 
 Florence, her native city, where he publifhed an 
 univerfal challenge, in honour of her beauty, and. 
 was victorious in the tournament on that occa- 
 fion. The challenge and tournament are true ; 
 the fhield prefented to the earl by the great duke 
 for that purpofe is reprefented in Vertue's print 
 of the Arundel family, and was in the poffeffion 
 of the laft earl of Stafford Wood, vol. i. p. 68. 
 It is now in the collection of the duke of Norfolk; 
 and being not only a curiofity, but having intrin- 
 
 £c 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 305 
 
 gueffes that me was of the family of Fitzgerald, though he does not fpecify 
 any particular perfonage *. 
 
 f Bale and Tanner afcribe likewife to lord Surrey the following tranflations 
 and poems : 
 
 " Ecclefiaftes and fome pfalms." 
 
 <; One book of Virgil : in blank verfe." Wood fays £ he tranflated two, 
 
 " Poems, addrefTed to the duke of Richmond." 
 
 " Satires on the citizens of London," in one book. 
 
 " Juvenile poems," 
 
 And a tranflation of " Boccace's confolation to Pinus on his exile." 
 Five of his letters are preferved among the Harleian MSS. § 
 In Philip Labbe's Biblioth. nummar. Jefuit. part 2d. p. 11, is this note; 
 " Henricus Houvedde, Suria? in Anglia comes, de ponderibus & menfuris 
 
 fic merit, the reader may not be forry to hive a 
 defcription of it. It is l-ound, and painted on 
 leather within and without: the handles of green 
 velvet. On the outfide is the ftory of Codes 
 defending the bridge, the horfes and figures paint- 
 ed black and white ; the helmets and armour in 
 gold. The infule is divided into two hiftories, 
 reprefented in like manner. One exhibits the 
 ftory of Mulhis Scievola, the other of Curtius. 
 All three are finely drawn and highly finifhed, in 
 the good antique tafte, and little inferior to Poly- 
 dore. The rims of the fhield are worn ; the 
 outfide damaged, but inconfiderably. The in- 
 iide has fcarcely fuftered at all, either by time or 
 accident. 
 
 * Since the above was written I was informed, 
 that in the new edition of the Peerage, in the earl 
 of Kildare's pedigree, it is hinted that this lady 
 Elizabeth Fitzgerald was the fair Geraldine ; but 
 as no reafons nor authority are quoted to prove it, 
 thefc conjectures before mentioned may ferve to 
 fupply their place. Since the firft edition I have 
 been told that Hollinflied confirms my fuppofition. 
 
 f Page 104. 
 
 I Vol. i. p. 57. 
 
 § See the Catal. N° 78, 12 ; and N* 284, 
 art, 183, 190, 197, 199. 
 
 Vol. I 
 
 Rr 
 
 li bros 
 
3 o6 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 libros duos confeeifle perhibctur a quibufdam: verum Simlerus ex Joanne Bu- 
 kco eorum non meminit, docetque decollatum Londini 1547.'* 
 
 In Lambeth church was formerly an affectionate epitaph in verfe, written 
 by this lord on one Clere, who had been his retainer, and caught his death 
 by attending him in his wars. It is preferved in Aubrey's Survey of Surrey *, 
 and ought to be printed with the earl's poems. 
 
 His daughter Jane, countefs of Weftmorehmd, was a great miftrefs of the 
 Greek and Latin languages t. 
 
 EDMUND Lord SHEFFIELD. 
 
 this lord little is recorded. He was made a baron by Edward the 
 fixth, and had his brains knocked out by a butcher at an infurreclicn in 
 Norfolk, to quell which he attended the marquis of Northampton. Falling 
 into a ditch near Norwich, and railing his helmet to mow the rebels who he 
 was, he was difpatched. 
 
 To this little, Bale £ has added (what obliges us to give him a place in 
 this catalogue), that he wrote 
 
 " A book of fonnets, in the Italian manner." 
 
 EDWARD SEYMOUR, Duke of SOMERSET. 
 
 HP HE rife, the valour, ambition, weaknefs, and fall of this great lord are 
 fo univerfally known, that it would be transcribing whole pages of our 
 moft common hiflories, to give a detail of his life. His contributing to the 
 ruin of the Howards hurt him much in the eyes of the nation : his leverity 
 to his own brother, though a vain and worthlefs man, was ftill lefs excufa- 
 ble ; his injuftice to his own iflue by his firfr. wife was monftrous ; and both 
 
 * Vol. v. p. 247. t Fox's Atts and Monuments. % Page iq6\ 
 
 4 the 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 307 
 
 the latter crimes were impofed on him by his fecond duchefs, a haughty bad 
 woman. I have mentioned the complaifance of the parliaments and of the 
 nobility under Henry the eighth : their fervility is flill more ftriking, when 
 we fee them crouch under a protector, and fcandaloufly fuffer him to deprive 
 his elded fon of his inheritance and titles to humour a domineeriuo- wife. 
 Yet having the misfortune to fall by the policy of a man more artful, more 
 ambitious, much lefs virtuous than himfelf [for with all his faults he had 
 many good * qualities], he died lamented by the people, and even his unjuft 
 difpofition of his fortunes and honours was fuffered to take place, when his 
 family was reftored. At laft the true line has recovered their birthright. 
 
 He had been educated at Oxford, and was chancellor of Cambridge ; and, 
 as Antony Wood obferves, there is no foundation for what one Paribus has 
 afferted, that he could fcarce write or read. On the contrary, he appears to 
 have been an author : while he was lord protector there went under his name 
 
 " Epiftola J f exhortatoria mhTa ad nobilitatem ac plebem univerfumquc 
 populum regni Scotia?." Printed in 4to at London, 1548. This might 
 poffiblv be compofed by fome dependent : his other works were penned dur- 
 ing his troubles, when he does not appear to have had many flatterers. Dur- 
 ing his fir ft imprifonment he wrote 
 
 " A fpiritual and moft precious pearl, teaching all men to love and 
 
 * I choofe to throw Into a note a particularity 
 on this head, that it may be the more remarked. 
 Great clamour was raifed againft him for a merit 
 of the moft beautiful nature : this was, his fet- 
 ting up a court of rcquefts within his own houfe, 
 " to hear the petitions and fuits of poor men ; and 
 upon the compaffion he took of their oppreffions, 
 if he ended not their bufinefTes, he would fend 
 his letters to chancery in their favour," Strype, 
 vol. ii. p. 183. In times when almoft every aft 
 of ftate was an aft of tyranny, how amiable does 
 this illegal jurifdiftion appear ! If princes, who 
 affeft an arbitrary power, would exert it in this 
 manner, defpotifm would become the only eligi- 
 ble fpecies of government. To the difgrace of 
 
 hiftory, while there are volumes on the deflrcyers 
 of mankind, not ten lines are written on the life 
 of Mahomet Galadin, emperor of Mogul, who 
 gave audience twice a day to his fubjefts, and 
 who had a bell which reached from his own cham- 
 ber to the ftreet,at which the poor might ring for 
 juftice : at the found of the bell he always went 
 to, or fent for the perfon who rung. The Bene- 
 diftine who records this fays, it is not known of 
 what feft he was. The wretched monk did not 
 perceive that this emperor was above all fefts : 
 That he was of that divine remgio\\ 
 HUMANITY. Vide Gen. Did. vol. vii 
 
 f Ant. Wood, vol. i. p. 87. 
 
 Rr 2 
 
 errirJrace 
 
3 c8 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 embrace the crofs, as a moft fvveet and neceflary thing, &ci" London, 
 1550. 16 . 
 
 About that time he had great refpeci: paid to him by the celebrated re- 
 formers, Calvin and Peter Martyr *. The former wrote to him an epiftle 
 of godly confolation, compoied before the time and know ledge of his dif- 
 o-race : but being delivered to him in the Tower, his grace tranflated it from 
 French into Englifh. It was printed in 1550, by Edw ard Whitchurch, 
 and is entitled 
 
 " An epiftle f both of godly confolation, and alfo of advertifement, writ- 
 ten by John Calvin, the paftour and preacher of Geneva, to the right noble 
 prince Edward, duke of Somerfet, and fo tranflated out of French by the 
 fame duke." 
 
 Martyr wrote an epiftle to him in Latin about the fame time, which 
 pleafed the duke fo much, that at his defire it was tranflated into Englifh by 
 Thomas Norton %, and printed in 1550. 8vo. 
 
 In Strype § is a prayer of the duke " for God's affiflance in the high 
 office of protector and governor now committed to him." 
 
 Some of his letters are preferved in the library of C. C. C. Camb. 
 
 Eighteen more are in the Harleian collection j[. 
 
 HENRY Lord STAFFORD, 
 
 Q ON and heir of Edward laft duke of Buckingham, was reftored in blood' 
 and to part of his lands, but neither to the title of duke, nor to the dig- 
 
 * Among the Harleian MSS. is a difpenfation 
 to the duke of Somerfet from wearing doole or 
 mourning, on occafion of the death of lady Sey- 
 mour, his mother, as a thing ferving rather to 
 pomp than to any edifying. N° 6195, art. 14. 
 
 I Vide Ames, p. 207, 208. Bale, p. 109, 
 
 J The fame who affifted Sternhold and Hop- 
 kins in their verfion of the pfalms. 
 
 § Vol. ii. app. B. 
 
 H See the Catal. N° 284, and 523. 
 
 tuty 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 309 
 
 nity of lord high confhible. Nothing is related of him but one incident, 
 which difcovers that he was proud, without feeling pride equal to his birth ; 
 for, having loft fuch exalted honours, he ftooped to difpute precedence with 
 the lord Clinton, in the reign of Philip and Mary — and loft it*. 
 
 We have of his writing a treatife called 
 
 " The true difference between regal and ecclefiaftical power, tranflated 
 from the Latin of Edward Fox, bilhop of Hereford, and dedicated to the 
 protector Somerfet." Printed by William Copland. In the dedication he 
 exceedingly praifes Henry the eighth for eftablifhing the reformation ; and 
 with the fimplicity of that age tells the duke, " that reflecting on the ufurpa- 
 tions of the Roman clergy, he bethought him of this book, which was lent 
 him by his friend mafter Morifon. 
 
 In the next reign, he returned to the old religion, and, I fuppofe to make 
 his peace, tranflated 
 
 " Two epiftles of Erafmus, wherein," as Strype fays f , " was undertaken 
 to be (hewn the brain-rick headinefs of the Lutherans." They were printed 
 by William Riddel J, in 16 . 
 
 In Lambeth church § was a wretched rhyming epitaph, written by this 
 lord on his fifter the duchefs of Norfolk, mother of the earl of Surrey, who, 
 it mould feem, did not inherit from his uncle his poetic talents. 
 
 FRANCIS HASTINGS, Earl of 
 HUNTINGDON, 
 
 TX7" A S the fecond earl of this illuftrious blood, to which he added new 
 dignity, not only by marrying one of the princefTes of the line of Cla- 
 rence, but by his own fervices and accomplifhments. At the coronation of 
 
 * Dugdale in Stafford. % Ames, p. 286. 
 
 f Vol. iii. p. 115, j Aubrey's Survey of Surrey, vol. v. p. 236. 
 
 3 Anne 
 
3io NOBLE A U T H O R S 
 
 Anne Boleyn he Was made knight of the Bath, and of the Garter by Edward 
 the fixth; from whom he obtained licence to retain an hundred gentlemen 
 and yeomen over and above thole of his family*'. He was fent the fame 
 year with considerable forces to diflodge the French who had planted them- 
 felves between Boulogne and Calais, when in the poffeffion of the Englifh. 
 He fat on the trial of the protector ; and in the firft of queen Mary, being 
 lord lieutenant of Leiceftermire, raifed forces againft the infurrection of the 
 duke of Suffolk, and brought him prifoner from Coventry to the Tower. 
 At the requeft of cardinal Pole, his uncle-iu-law, bo tranflated 
 
 " Oforius de nobilitate ;" and 
 
 " de gloria." 
 
 Sir Francis, fifth fon of this earl, was very learned, and author of feveral 
 controverfial tracts. — But not coming under the defcription to which I have 
 confined myfelf, I fhall fay no more of him *f*. 
 
 HE NET Lord PAGET. 
 
 T CANNOT direct the reader to any work of this peer; though he mould not 
 be omitted, being exprefsly mentioned by Puttenham, in his lift of poets 
 in the reign of queen Elizabeth J. Peacham too, whofe book was printed 
 in 1636, names him §, but feems to have copied Puttenham. Lord Henry 
 was fon of William lord Paget, a ftatefman of much note in that age, and 
 whom Tanner has conftituted an author too on the idle foundation of having 
 written many letters. 
 
 * Dugdale, vol. i. p. 588. J Page 49. 
 
 f Vide Ant. Wood, vol. i. p. 363. $ See The Compleat Gentleman, p. 95. 
 
 WILLIAM 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 311 
 
 WILLIAM P OW LETT, Marquis of 
 WINCHESTER, 
 
 G 
 
 RANDSON of the lord treafurer, is memorable for nothins: but beino: 
 the author of a book ftyled by Antony Wood *, 
 
 " ElTays, or fome things called his idlenefs," printed at London in qu°. 
 1586, which was two years before his death. The whole title, as I find it 
 in Ames's Typographical Antiquities "|~, runs thus : 
 
 " The lord marquefs [his] idlenefs, conteining manifold matters of ac- 
 ceptable device ; as fage fentences, prudent precepts, moral examples, fweet 
 fimilitudes, proper companions, and other remembrances of fpecial choife. 
 No lefTe pleafant to perufe, than, profitable to pracfiie. Compiled by the 
 right honourable William marquefs of Winchefter, that now is-" Ninety- 
 four pages in qu°. printed by Ninian Newton. 
 
 Dugdale fays that by one miftrefs Lambert, his concubine, he left four 
 natural fons, all knights, called fir William, fir Hercules, fir John, and fn 
 Hector, to whom he granted leafes of lands for the term of one hundred 
 years, of little lefs than 4000 /. per aim. value ; and that thofe lands retained 
 the name of the Baftards' lands. 
 
 • I have been told that he left curious memoirs of his own life, extant in 
 MS. ill the poffeffion of Thomas Jervoife, efq. of Herrierd in Hampmire. 
 
 WILLIAM CECIL, Lord BURLEIGH. 
 
 ANE of thofe great names, better known in the annals of his country than 
 in thofe of the republic of letters. In the latter light only it is the 
 bufinefs of this work to record him. 
 
 * Vol, ii. p. 525, 
 
 f Page 402. 
 
 t Vol. ii. p. 377. 
 
 He 
 
3 i2 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 He wrote 
 
 " La complainte de Tame pecherefTe, par Guillaume Cicil in French 
 verfe ; extant in the king's library*. 
 
 " Carmina duo Latina in obitum Margaretae Nevillae, regina? Catherine 
 a cubiculis." The famous fir Thomas Chaloner wrote an epitaph on the 
 fame lady -f. 
 
 " Carmen Latinum in memoriam Tho. Chaloneri equ. aur. prasfixurn 
 cjufdem libro de reftaur. republ." 
 
 " A preface to queen Cath. Parr's lamentation of a finnerf." 
 
 Being by the prote&or Somerfet made mailer of the requefts, the firil 
 who bore that title in England §, he attended his grace on the expedition to 
 Scotland, and furnifhed materials for an account of that war, which was 
 publimed by William Patten, under the title of " Diarium exped. Scoticae." 
 Lond. 1541, izmo. It is on this account, I fuppofe, that his lordfhip is 
 reckoned by Holliugihed among the Englifh hiftorians. 
 
 " The firft paper or memorial of fir William Cecil, &c. anno primo 
 Eliz." from a MS. in the Cotton library ; printed among Somers's tracls \\. 
 It is only a paper of memorandums. 
 
 *' Slanders and lies, malicioufly, grofly and impudently vomited out in 
 certain traiterous books and pamphlets, concerning two counfellers, fir Ni- 
 cholas Bacon lord keeper of the great feal, and fir William Cecil principal 
 fecretary of ftate to her majeftylf." 
 
 A fpeech in parliament, 1592 
 
 * Tanner, p. 216. 
 f Ibid. 
 i Ibid. 
 
 $ Camden, 
 
 II Vol. i. p. 758. 
 
 «ft Biogr. p. 1 26 1. 
 
 ■ f * Strype's Annals, vol. iv. p. 107. 
 
 "* Inductions 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 3 J 3 
 
 kt Inftructions for the fpeaker's fpeech ; drawn up in feveral articles by the 
 lord treafurer Burleigh *." 
 
 " Lord Burleigh's precepts, or directions for the well-ordering and car- 
 riage of a man's life." 1637 f. 
 
 " Lord treafurer Burleigh's advice to queen Elizabeth in matters of reli- 
 gion and ftate*." 
 
 " His inftruclions to his fon, T» earl of Exeter, going to travel §." 
 
 " Difcourfe about queen Elizabeth's matching with the arch-duke of 
 Auftria 
 
 " Meditations on the death of his lady ^[." 
 
 " A meditation of the flate of England during the reign of queen Eliza- 
 beth, by the lord treafurer of England, the lord Burleigh **." 
 
 He wrote anfwers to many libels againft the queen and government, the 
 titles of many of which are now loft ; fome are laid to be extant in print, 
 more in manufcript ff. He was fuppofed too to be author of a thin pam- 
 phlet in defence of the punifhments inflicted on the Roman catholics in the 
 reign of queen Elizabeth ; it is called 
 
 " The execution of juftice in England for maintenance of public and 
 chriftian peace, againft certain ftirrers of feditions and adherents to the 
 traytors and enemies of the realm, without any perfecution of them for quef- 
 tions of religion, as is falfly reported, &c." Loiid. 1 583, fecond edit. |t 
 
 * Strype's Annals, p. 124. f Ballard's Memoirs, p. 184. 
 
 f Harleian Catal. vol. ii. p. 755. ** Biogr. p. 1257. 
 
 ± Somers's Pap. 4th. coll. vol. i. p. lor. . T , . 
 
 r T r ft lb. 1261. 
 
 § Cata!. of Harl. MSS. N° 3638, art. U, 
 
 tX Ant. Wood, vol. i. p. 271. 
 
 il lb. N° 4228, art. 14. 
 
 Vol. I, S f Other 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 Other political pieces were afcribed to him, and even the celebrated libel 
 called " Leicefter's Common- wealth :" it was pretended that he at leaft fur- 
 nimed the hints for that composition to Parfons the jeluit. This aflertioa 
 was never proved : it ought to be, before it deferves any credit. Leicefter 
 was a bad man ; but would that juftify Cecil in employing one of his mil- 
 trefs's bittereft enemies to write againlr. one of her minifters r 
 
 Great numbers of his letters are preferved, a lift of which may be leen in 
 bifhop Tanner. Thirty-three more are printed in Peck's Deiiderata curiofa. 
 
 Three others in Howard's collections *. 
 
 ** Six more, with draughts of inftructions, publiihed in the collection of 
 his papers by Murdin, 1759." 
 
 " His diary is printed at the end of the fame collection. " 
 
 4t Near one hundred more of his letters are extant in MS. in the Harleian 
 collection." 
 
 His lordfhip alio drew up a great number of pedigrees, fome of which arc 
 preferved in the library of the archbifhop of Canterbury at Lambeth, particu- 
 larly the genealogies of the kings of England from William the Conqueror to 
 Edward the fourth ; of queen Anne Boleyn ; and of feveral princely houfes 
 in Germany. MS. libr. Lambeth, N° 299, N 13 747. 
 
 ROBERT DEVEREUX, Earl of ESSEX. 
 
 r T y O enter into all the particulars of this remarkable perfon's life, would be 
 writing a hiftory of the fixteen or eighteen laft years of the reign of 
 queen Elizabeth : yet I ihall touch many paifages of his ftory, and enter into 
 a larger difcufTion of -fome circumftances relating; to him than may be asreea- 
 ble to perfons who are not curious about fuch minute facts as do not compre- 
 
 * Pages 202, 314. 
 
 he v.d 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 315 
 
 Bend the hiftory of illuftrious men, though they in a great meafure compofe 
 their character. It is cffential to the plan of this work to examine many par- 
 ticulars-of this lord's ftory, becaufe it was not choice or private amufement, 
 but the caft of his public life that converted him into an author. Having 
 confulted a great variety of writers who defcribe or mention him, I may per- 
 haps be able to unfold Ibme of the darker parts of his hiftory ; at leait fome 
 anecdotes, though of a trifling fort, will appear in a ftronger light than I 
 think they have hitherto done. Thefc meets are calculated for the clofets 
 of the idle and inquijttive : they do not look up to the hhelves of what Voltaire 
 fo happily calls " la bibliotheque du monde." 
 
 " The elegant perfpicuity the concifenefs, the quick ftrong reafon- 
 ina's. and the engaging good breeding of his letters, carry great marks of 
 genius. — Yet his youth gave no promife of parts ; his father died with a 
 mean opinion of him. The malicious fubtleties of an able court were an 
 overmatch for his impetuous fpirit : yet he was far from wanting art ; but 
 was fo confident of the queen's partiality, that he did not bend to her as his 
 enemies did, who had not the fame hold on her tender paffions : he trufted 
 to being always able to matter her by abfenting himfelf : his enemies em- 
 braced thofe moments to ruin him. I am aware that it is become a mode 
 to treat the queen's pa/lion for him as a romance. Voltaire laughs at it, and 
 obferves, that when her ftruggle about him mult have been the greateft [the 
 time of his death] me was hxty-eight — had he been fixty-eight, it is proba- 
 ble me would not have been in love with him. As a great deal turns upon 
 this point, and as there are the ftrongeft preemptions of the reality of her 
 majeffy's inclination for him, I fhall take leave to enter into the difcufnon. 
 
 I do not date this paflion from her firffc fight of him, nor impute his im- 
 mediate rife to it, as fome have done, who did not obferve how nearly he 
 was related to the queen, as appears by the following fhort table ; 
 
 •■ Biographia Britannica, 
 
 fj, /, Hf JriA _ 1 1 1 >}on 3,1? mi .tool .0 .ino t%.o: ♦ 
 
 Sf z 
 
 Thomas 
 
316 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 Thomas Boleyn Earl of Wiltfhire. 
 
 Anne, Mary, 
 Henry VIII. William Lord Hunfdon. 
 
 I I 
 
 Q, Elizabeth. Katherine, 
 
 Sir Francis Knolles. 
 I. 
 
 Lettice, 
 Walter Earl of Effex. 
 Robert Earl of Leicefter. 
 i 
 
 Robert Earl of Effex. 
 
 His mother being coufin to the queen, and wife of her great favourite Lei- 
 cefter, eafily accounted for young Effex's fudden promotion : it went on 
 rapidly without thofe fupports. At twenty he was made mafter of the horfe; 
 the next year general of the horfe at the camp at Tilbury, and knight of the 
 garter. On thefe dignities were afterwards heaped the great ports of mafter 
 of the ordnance, earl marmal, chancellor of Cambridge, and lord lieutenant 
 of Ireland. — Lofty diftinctions from a princels fo fparing of her favours — 
 of what (he was ftili more fparing, he obtained to the value of 300,000!. * 
 In one of her letters me reproached him with her great favours bellowed 
 without his defert : in every infhmce but in his and Leicefter's, fhe was not 
 wont to over-pay fervices t. 
 
 His early marriage with the widow of fir Philip Sidney did not look as if 
 he himfelf had any idea of her majefty's inclination for him : perhaps he had 
 learned from the example of his father-in-law, that her majefly's paffions 
 iiever extended to matrimony. Yet before this he had infulted fir Charles 
 Blount, on a jealoufy ^ of the queen's partiality. Inftead of fentimental foft- 
 
 * So lord treafurer Buckhurlt computed. Vi.de a chefs-queen of gold enamelled, which he tied 
 
 fir Henry Wottons Parallel? p. J 75- upon his arm with a crimfon ribband. Effex per- 
 
 _ . , . , ceiving it, faid with affected fcorn, " Now I per- 
 
 1 niogr. Bnt. p. 1 60 1, in the notes. • c 1 n. u r i»» r\ 
 
 " r » ceive every tool mult have a favour ! On this 
 
 X Sir Charles Blount, afterwards earl of De- fir Charles challenged, fought him in Marybone- 
 
 vonfhire, a very comely young man, having dif- park, difarmcd and wounded him in the thigh. 
 
 Jsnguiflied himfelf at a tilt, her majefly fent him Bacon Papers , vol. ii. p. 191. 
 
NOBLE AUT II O R8, 317 
 
 nefs, the fpirit of her father broke out on that occafion ; {he fwore a round 
 oath, " That unlefs fome one or other took him down, there would be no 
 rulino; him." 
 
 Lord Clarendon, in his fenfible anfwer to fir Harry Wotton's Parallel of 
 the earl of Effex and the duke of Buckingham, obferves, that the former en- 
 deavoured rather to matter the queen's affection than to win it : if he was 
 croffed in a fuit, he abfented himfelf from court, and made her purchafc his 
 return. A fond woman may be moulded thus ; it is not the method pra6Hfcd 
 on princes by mere favourites. When Charles the firft on fome jealoufy re- 
 {trained the carl of Holland to his houfe, the queen would not cohabit with 
 the kino- till the rcttraint was taken off. Whenever Effex adled a fit of lick-, 
 nefs, not a day puffed without the queen's lending often to lee him; and once 
 went fo far as to lit long by him, and order his broths and things *. It is re- 
 corded bv a diligent t obfervcr of that court, that in one of his fick moods 
 he took the liberty of going up to the queen in his night-gown. In the 
 height of thefe fretful fooleries, there was a $ malk at Black-Friars on the 
 marriage of lord Herbert and Mrs. Ruffel. Eight lady-mafkers chofe eight 
 more to dance the meafures. Airs. Fitton, who led them, went to the queen 
 and wooed her to dance. Her majeity alked what the was ? — Affection — 
 
 ihe laid. Affection ! — laid the queen ; — Affection is false. . 
 
 Were not thefe the murmurs of a heart ill at eafe ? — Yet her majefty rofe 
 and daivnccd. — She was then lixty-eight :— lure it was as natural for her to 
 be in love ! 
 
 That her court and cotemporaries had an uniform opinion of her pafiion 
 is evident from many paffages. Sir Francis Bacon, in a § letter of mcft fenfi- 
 ble advice to the earl, in which he diffuades him from popular courfes, which 
 the queen could not brook in her greatelt favourites, fays to him, " Win the 
 queen ; I will not now fpeak of tavour or affection, but of other corre- 
 fpondence and agreeablenefs." — That is, do not be content with her prepof- 
 feffion in your favour, but humour and make yourlelf agreeable to her. " How 
 dangerous," adds he, " to have her think you a man not to be ruled, that 
 has her affedlion and knows it ; that feeks a popular reputation and a military 
 
 * Bacon Papers, vol. i. p. 312. % Sidney Papers, vol. ii. p. 203. 
 
 f Rowland White, in the Sidney Paper? 
 
 5 
 
 % Bacon Papers, voL ii. p. 159, 
 
 dependence ! 
 
318 NOBLE A U T II O R S. 
 
 dependence I" He advifes the earl not to play or ftratagem with too long 
 journies from her ; and bids him confult her tafte in his very apparel and 
 geflures. He concludes remarkably with advifing the earl even to give way 
 to any other inclination me may have ; " for whofoever mail tell me that you 
 may not have lingular ufe of a favourite at your devotion, 1 will fay he un- 
 derftandeth not the queen's affeclion nor your lordfhip's condition." The 
 queen herfelf iir Francis advifed, as knowing her inclination, to keep the 
 earl about her for fociety *. Ofhorne f afcribes Effex's prefumption to the 
 fond opinion which he entertained that the queen would not rob her eyes of 
 the dear delight me took in his perfon- But the mofr. marked expreffion is 
 one of Henry the fourth of France to the queen's own embaffador fir Antony 
 Mildmay, " Que fa majeite ne laifferoit jamais- fon coufin d'Effex s'efloigner 
 de fon cotillon 4:". Sir Antony reporting this to the queen, fhe wrote four 
 lines with her own hand to the king;, which one mav well believe were 
 fharp enough ; for he was near ftriking fir Antony, and drove him out of his 
 chamber. 
 
 When the earl had offended the queen lb much by his abrupt return from 
 Ireland, he was treated with a whimfical fond mixture of tendernefs and fe- 
 verity. Though he burfl into her bed-chamber as fhe was rifmg y me talked 
 to him long with coolnefs and kindnefs : when her other counfellors had re- 
 prefented his boldnefs, fhe refented it too. She fufpended him from all his 
 offices but the mafterfhip of the horfe ; fhe gave him a keeper, but who was 
 foon withdrawn. On hearing Effex was ill, fhe fent him word, with tears 
 in her eyes, ** That if me might with her honour,, fhe would vifit him §." — 
 Thefe are more than fymptoms of favour ; royal favour is not romantic ; it 
 is extravagant, not gallant*. 
 
 If thefe infrances are problematic, are the following fo ? In one of the cu- 
 rious letters of Rowland White, he fays, " The queen hath of late ufed the 
 fair Mrs. Bridges with words and blows of anger ||." In a fubfequent letter 
 he fays, i '~ The earl is again fallen in love with his fairejf B. it cannot chufe^ 
 but come to the queen's ears, and then he is undone. The countefs hears 
 ©f it, or rather fufpects it, and is greatly unquiet If." I think there can be. 
 
 * Bacon Papers, vol. ii, p. 432. § Sidney Papers, vol. ii. p. 151. 
 
 ■f Ofborne's Deduction, p. t>©8. tl' lb. vol. ii. p. 3.8.. 
 
 % Bacon Papers, p. 305, ^ Page 90. 
 
 HQ 
 
NOBLE A U T H O R K 319 
 
 no doubt but that the fairejl B. and the fair Mrs. Bridges were the fame : 
 if fo, it is evident why ihe felt the weight of her majefty's difpleafure 
 
 It is indeed a very trifling matter for what reafon a prince choofcs a favourite; 
 nor is it meant as any reproach to this great woman, that fhe could not divefl 
 herfelf of all fenfibility : her feeling and majlering her paffion adds to her cha- 
 racter. The favourites of other princes never fail to infufe into them their 
 own prejudices againit their enemies : that was not the cafe with Elizabeth : 
 /he was more jealous of the greatnefs Ihe beftowed, than her fubjects could 
 be. How did fhe mortify Leicefter, when the fhites heaped unulual honours 
 on him ! For Effex, it is evident, from multiplied iuflances, that his very 
 folicitation was prejudicial. Bacon + fays to his brother Antony, " Againfl 
 me fhe is never peremptory but to my lord of Effex." Amongft the papers 
 of the Bacons is a molt extraordinary :jl letter from lord treafurer Burleigh to 
 lord Effex, recounting unmeafured abule that he had received from the qneen T 
 on her fufpecting Burleigh of favouring the earl. — So quick was her nature 
 to apprehend union where fhe loved to difunite, and with fuch refinement 
 olid old Cecil colour his inveteracy §. Her majefty was wont to accufe the 
 -earl of ojiiniajlrete', and that he would not be ruled, but jhe would bridle and fay 
 him\. On another occafion fhe fa id, 44 fhe obferved fuch as followed her, 
 and thofe which accompanied fuch as were in her difpleafure ; and that they 
 mould know as much before it were longH." No wonder the earl com- 
 plained " that he was as much diftafted with the glorious greatnefs of a fa- 
 vourite, as he was before with the fuppofed happinefs of a courtier**." No 
 wonder his mind was fo toft with contradictory paffions, when her foul, on 
 whom he depended, was a compofition of tendernefs and haughtinefs ! — nay, 
 when even ©economy combated her affection ! He profeffes, 11 that her fond 
 
 * In the old houfe of fir Nicholas Carew, at 
 'Beddington, was extant on a pane of glafs this 
 kind of rebus, ICSXOQPU. 
 
 -f Bacon Papers, vol. i. p. 196. 
 
 J lb. p. 146. 
 
 § It may be worth while to dire£l the reader 
 to another curious letter, in which -that wife man 
 
 forgot himfelf moft indecently,fpeahing of Henry 
 the fourth to his embaffador in moft illiberal 
 terms, and wkh the greateft contempt for the 
 perfon of the embaffador himfelf. Ib. p. 328. 
 
 11 lb. p. 5. 
 
 If lb. p. 389. 
 
 ** Ib. p. 1 16. 
 
 parting 
 
32G 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 parting with him, when he let out for Ireland, pierced his very foul*." — 
 In a few weeks me quarrelled with him for demanding a poor fupply of one 
 thoufund foot and three hundred horfe -f. 
 
 Having pretty clearly afcertained the exigence of the fentiment, it feems 
 that the earl's ruin was in great meafure owing to the little homage he paid 
 to a fovereign, jealous of his perfon and of her own, and not accultomed ta 
 pardon the want of a proper degree of awe and adoration ! Before his voyage 
 to Ireland, me had treated him as me did the fair Mrs. Bridges— in fhort, had 
 given him a box on the ear for turning his hack on- her in contempt. What 
 mull: me have felt on hearing he had laid " That me grew old and cankered, 
 and that her mind was become as crooked as her carcafe J!" What provoca- 
 tion to a woman fo difpofed to believe all the flattery of her court!. How di-d 
 me torture § Melville to make him prefer her beauty to his charming queen's 1 
 Elizabeth's foible about her perfon was fo well known, that, when me w r aS' 
 lixty-feven, Veriken, the Dutch embaffador, told her at his audience, " That 
 he had longed to undertake that voyage to fee her majefty, who for beauty 
 and wifdom excelled all other princes of the world ||." The next year lord 
 Effex's filter, lady Rich, interceding for him, tells her majefty, " Early did. 
 I hope this morning to have had mine eyes blefTed with your majefly's 
 beauty — That her brother's life, his love, his fervice to her beauties did not 
 deferve fo hard a punifhment — That he would be difabled from ever ferving 
 again his facred goddefs ! whofe excellent beauties and perfections ought to 
 feel more compaffion 11." Whenever the weather would permit, me gave 
 audience in the garden ; her lines were ftrong, and in open day-light the 
 ihades had lefs force. Vertue, the engraver, had a pocket-book of Ifaac 
 Oliver, in which the latter had made a memorandum that the queen would 
 not let him give any made to her features, telling; him, " That made was an 
 accident, and not naturally exifting in a face." Her portraits are generally 
 
 * Bacon Papers, vol. 1. p. 425. queen and EiTex thus : 
 
 f Camden and Bacon. She even mortified 
 him fo bitterly, as to oblige him to difpoflefs his 
 dear friend the earl of Southampton of thegene- 
 ralfhip of horfe, which the earl had conferred on 
 him. Page 423. 
 
 % Dr. Donne, in his 6th fatire, fpeaks of the % Bacon Papers, p-442, 443. 
 
 without 
 
 "He fa id fhe flunk; and men might not have fai4 
 That fhe was old before that fhe was dead."' 
 
 § Vide his Memoirs. 
 
 || Sidney Papers, vol. ii. p. 171. 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 321 
 
 without any madow. I have in my poffeflion another ftrongly prefumptivc 
 proof of this weaknefs ; it is a fragment of one of her laft broad pieces, re- 
 prcfenting her horridly old and deformed: an entire coin with this image is 
 not known : it is nniverfally * fuppofed that the die was broken by her com- 
 mand, and that fome workman of the mint cut out this morfel, which con- 
 tains barely the face. As it has never been engraved, fo lingular a euriofity 
 may have its merit, in a work which has no other kind of merit. 
 
 On whatever her favour was founded, it was by no means placed unde* 
 fervedly : the earl's courage was impetuous and heroic : to this were added, 
 great talents for the ftate, great affection for literature and protection of 
 learned men, and the greateft zeal for the fervice and fafcty of his miftrefs. 
 At nineteen he diftinguifhed himfelf at the battle of Zutphen, where fir Phi- 
 lip Sidney fell. At twenty-two he undertook as a volunteer to promote the 
 restoration of don Antonio to the throne of Portugal, ufurped by the queen's 
 black enemy, Philip ; and by found of trumpet challenged the governor of 
 Corunna, or any of equal quality, to fingle combat. He treated Villars f, 
 the governor of Rouen, in the fame ftyle. In the expedition to Cadiz he 
 threw his hat into the fea for joy, that the lord admiral confented to attack 
 the Spanifh fleet. Few royal favourites are fo prodigal of life ! His indigna- 
 tion againft Philip rofe to the dignity of a perfonal averfion : in his letters he 
 ufed to fay, " I will teach that proud king to know." As much reafon as 
 me had to hate Philip, the queen could not endure the earl's affuming fuch 
 arrogance againft a crowned head. So formidable an J enemy he was, that 
 when the greateft offers could not bribe him from his duty, the court of 
 
 * This piece was purchafed from the cabinet eft plus jufte que celle de la ligue; que je fuis 
 of the late earl of Oxford. meilleur que vous ; & que ma mahrejje eft plus 
 
 belle que la votre, &c." 
 
 f In his letter to Villars the earl faid, " Si vous EJfais Hijl.fur Paris, par Saintfoix, vol. ii. p. 82. 
 voulez combattre vous-meme a cheval ou a pied, 
 
 je maintiendrai que la querelle du roi (Henry iv.) ± Bacon Papers, vol. ii. p. 307. 
 
 Vol. I. T t Spain 
 
3 22 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 Spain attempted to have him poifoned : — luckily they addreffed their poifort 
 to the arms of his great chair, which no more than the pummel * of a faddle 
 are a mortal part. And as he fupported the enemies of the Spaniard, he en- 
 deavoured to difpoffefs the pope of the duchy of Ferrara, fending the famous 
 fir Antony Shirley f thither, to promote the interefts of a baftard of the 
 houfe of Efte. There was as much policy and activity of enterprife in this, 
 as in his holinefs fending a X phime of phoenix-feathers to Tir Oen. While 
 the one ifland flou rimed with Cecils, Waliinghams, Bacons, the other was 
 fo buried in barbarifm, that Rome ventured to reward its martyrs with the 
 fpoils of an imaginary fowl ! The earl's intelligences, his fpies, his penfioners 
 in foreign courts were as numerous as the boailed informations of Walling- 
 ham §. His munificence was unbounded. — What fums did the perjured 
 houfe of Bacon obtain or extort from him || ! He buried Spenfer ; and, which 
 was more remarkable, was heir to fir Roger Williams % a brave foldier, 
 
 whom 
 
 him ; aflaulted afterwards the prince of Parma's 
 camp near Venlo, and penetrated to his very tent; 
 and made a brave defence of Sluys. Fuller in 
 Monmouth, p. 52. There is a ftory of fir Roger 
 Williams, in fir Robert Dallington's " Method 
 of travel, fhewed,by taking the view of France, 
 
 as it floode in the year of our Lord 1598." 
 
 " Their [the French] march, it fhould feeme, is 
 fomewhat more (harp than outs: for I remember 
 I have heard fay, that upon a time the olde mar- 
 fhall Biron fhould bid fir Roger Williams bring 
 up his companies fafter, taxing the How march of 
 the Englifh. Sir, fayth he, with this march our 
 forefathers conquered your country of France, 
 and I meane not to alter it. A memorable an- 
 fwere of an honourable fouldier." D'Aubigne 
 mentions his behaviour at the fiege of Rouen with 
 great encomiums, and calls him " un des plus 
 vaillans hommes du monde." Hljl. Univ. liv. iii. 
 chap. 13. He died in 1595, and was buried in 
 faint Paul's. King James lamented his death fa 
 much, that he wiftied rather to have loft five thou- 
 fand of his own fubjedts; and intended to write 
 his epitaph. Bacon Papers, vol. i. pp. 296,355. 
 A letter of fir Roger, complaining of the queen's 
 difplcafure and exprefting a defire of going into 
 the fervice of fome foreign prince, is extant 
 
 among 
 
 * Walpole, a jefuit, was hanged for attempt- 
 ing to poifon the queen's faddle. Camden, p. 56 1. 
 
 f Wood's Athen. vol. i. p. 551. 
 
 % Bacon Papers. 
 
 § lb. vol. ii. p. 429, &c. 
 
 II lb. vol. ii. p. 371 ; and fir Henry Wotton's 
 Parallel. 
 
 f Son of T. Williams, of Penrofs, Mon- 
 mouthfhire, by Eleanor, daughter of fir William 
 Vaughan, knight, educated at Oxford in the 
 reign of queen Mary; but being more inclined to 
 a military than a ftudious life, he became a fol- 
 dier of fortune, and in 1586 was knighted by 
 queen Elizabeth, and was one of the Handing 
 council of nine, appointed to provide for defence 
 of the realm againft the Spa-nilh armada. Biogra. 
 vol. iv. p. 2287. He wrote a valuable hiftory of 
 the wars in the Low-countries, in which he had 
 ferved with great reputation, and where he was 
 one of the introducers of a new military difcipline, 
 and a brief difcourfe of war 1590. Catnd. Epift. 
 p. 350. A Spanifh captain having challenged 
 the general, fir John Ncrris } fir Roger fought 
 
NOBLE A U T II O R S. 323 
 
 whom he brought to a religious and penitent death. But what deferved 
 molt, and mult have drawn the queen's affection to him, was his extreme 
 attention to the fecurity of her perfon ; he alone perfiftcd in unravelling the 
 myiterious treafons of her phyfician Lopez, who was fcreened and protected 
 by the Cecils — not merely by the fon, whole bale nature was capable of any 
 ingratitude. — It is melancholy that faction could make even Burleigh care- 
 lels of the lafety of his queen, when detection of the treafon would reflect 
 honour on the profecutor ! Yet this zealous Eflex did me fuffer her council 
 to keep kneeling for eleven hours at his examination ; for this man's liberty 
 did me accept prefents from his mother and filter, yet without vouchfafing 
 to fee them, or grant their fuit. — Indeed flic did permit him to celebrate 
 iaint George's day alone * : one mould like to know how he played at this 
 ceremony by himfelf.. In fhort, this gallant though ram man me de- 
 livered over to the executioner, becaufe his bittereff enemies had told her he 
 had declared, That his life was inconfiftent with her fafetv — A tale fo ridi- 
 culous that it is amazing how molt of our hifforians can give credit to it !— 
 How was he dangerous, or could he be ? — His wild attempt on the city had 
 demonftrated his impotence. So far from this declaration, on receiving fen- 
 tence he befought the lords, " not to tell the queen that he neglected or 
 flighted her mercy." He died with devotion, yet undaunted. Marfhal 
 Biron derided his death, and died himfelf like a frantic coward. Raleigh 
 imitated his death more worthily than he beheld it f ! 
 
 The queen at firfr. carried her refentment fo far, as to have a fermon 
 preached at Paul's crofs to blacken his memory %. Belides the ridicule 
 thrown on her perfon, many pafFages in his behaviour had mocked her haugh- 
 
 among the Harlelan MSS, N° 6995, art. 30: but it was to clear himfeif if the earl fhould tax him 
 though he complained of her difpleafure, it is cer- with any indirect dealings. One of their firft 
 tain he did not fear it ; for once when he wanted quarrels was the earl's braving fir Walter at a tilt, 
 pay from her for himfelf and his foldiers, he faid, and appearing there in defiance of him with two 
 Madam, I tell you true, we will be without thoufand orange tawney feathers ; an affront not 
 money for no man's pleafure. This is related in very intelligible at prefent. Vide lord Clarendon's 
 Peacham's Worth of a penny, p. 34. Difparity, p. 190. However, it is certain that fir 
 
 Walter bore great malice to the earl, and fell fick 
 
 * Vide Sidney and Bacon Papers. on the apprehenfion of his being reftored to the 
 
 queen's favour. Baron Papers, vol. ii. p. 438 ; 
 
 f Sir Walter Raleigh was known to bear per- anc l Sidney Papers, vol. ii. p. 139. 
 fonal enmity to the earl, and endeavoured to ex- 
 
 cufe his appearing at the execution, by pretending J Clarendon's Difparity, p. 192. 
 
 T t 2 tinefs 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 tinefs and combated her affection. His pretending to be head of the Puritans, 
 and to diflike monarchy, in order to flatter the Dutch ; his fpeaking of the 
 king of Spain in terms too familiar ; his prefuming to create knights in fome 
 of his Spaniih expeditions ; his blaming the queen's parhmony in the affairs 
 of Ireland, which fhe had once near loft for the trifling fum of two thou- 
 iancl pounds * ; his treating with Tir Oen f. to abridge his own flay in that 
 ifland ; his threatening that he would make the earth tremble under him ; his 
 boaf:ing of one hundred and twenty lords devoted to him ; his popularity ; 
 his importunity for his friends ; and his paying court to her fuccelfor, proba- 
 bly exaggerated to her by iir Robert Cecil, who was ten times more guilty in 
 that reipeel, all this had alienated her tendernefs, and imprinted an afperity 
 which- it leems even his death could not foften* 
 
 On a review of his character it appears, that if the queen's partiality had 
 not inflated him, he woul-d have made one of the braveft generals, one of the 
 molt active itatefmen, and the brighteit £ Maecenas of that accomplifhed age. 
 With the zeal though without the discretion of Burleigh, he had nothing of 
 the dark foul of Leicelter. Raleigh excelled him in abilities, but came not 
 near him in generofity. It was n-o fmall merit to have infiited on giving 
 Bacon to that orb, from which one of Bacon's firfr. employments was to con- 
 tribute to expell his benefactor. The earl had a folemn tincture of religion, 
 of which his enemies availed themfelves to work him to the greatefr. blemifh 
 
 * Sidney Paper3. 
 
 f The earl's treaty with Tir Oen is a great 
 blemifh on his memory. Though the Irifh ge- 
 neral had an army of five thoufand foot and five 
 hundred horfe, and EfTex but two thoufand five 
 hundred foot and three hundred horfe, yet Tir 
 Oen had difcovered evident marks of dreading the 
 Englifh ; and as the earl had received fuch unu- 
 fual powers in his commiffion, it behoved him to 
 do a little more than patch up a treaty with the 
 Irifh. There even appeared on his trial fome 
 fymptoms of too ambitious defigns in his union 
 with Tir Oen. Sir Chriftopher Blount, father- 
 in-raw of EfTex, confeffed that there had been 
 fome mention of tranfporting part of the Irifh 
 army into England, that they meditated no hurt. 
 
 to the queen, yet rather than mifcarry, they would 
 have drawn Wood even fromherfelf. Bacon Papery 
 vol. ii. p. 493. I fear no practices of his enemies 
 could juflify Effex in fuch views! If it is true that 
 fir Robert Cecil, to draw him into an unwarrant- 
 able and hafty journey to England, flopped all 
 veflels but one, which was to fpread a falfe report 
 of the queen's death, Cecil's art was equal to his 
 iniquity. The paltry account he gives of EfTex's 
 infurreclion, in a letter to fir G. Carew, is by no 
 means of a piece with fuch capacity. Ib. p. 46H. 
 
 $ As an inftance of his affection for learning, 
 he gave to the univerfity of Oxford his fhare of 
 the library of the celebrated bifhop Oforius, which 
 his lordOiip got at the plunder of Faro. 
 
 Bacon Papers, vol. ii. p. 58. 
 
 of 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 325 
 
 of his life, the d Mb o very of the abettors of his laft ram defign. He had fearce 
 a fault beiides which did not flow from the noblcnefs of his nature. Sir Harry 
 Wotton fays he was delicate in his baths. It w as a flight luxury, and pro- 
 ceeded fo little from any effeminacy in his perfon, that he read letters and 
 attended to fuitors the whole time he was dreffing. Brutality of manners is. 
 not e/Tentially neceffary to courage : Leonatus, one of Alexander's generals, 
 no unmanly fchool, in all the marches of the army was followed by camels 
 loaded with fand, which he got from Egypt, to rub his body for his gym- 
 naftic exercifes. Effex was gallant, romantic and oftentatious ; his fhooting- 
 matches in the eye of the city gained him great popularity ; the ladies and 
 the people never ccafed to adore him. His genius for mows, and thofe plea- 
 lures that carry an image of war, was as remarkable as his fpirit in the pro- 
 feffion itfelf. His impreffes * and inventions of entertainment were much 
 admired. One of his malks is defcribed by a cotemporary j" ; I mall give a 
 little extract of it, to prefent an idea of the amufemcnts of that age, and as. 
 it coincides with what I have already remarked of the queen's oaffion. 
 
 My lord of EfTex's devife, fays Rowland White, is much commended in 
 thefe late triumphs. Some pretty while before he came in himfelf to the 
 tilt, he fent his page with fomc fpeech to the queen, who returned with her 
 majefty's glove. And when he came himfelf, he was met by an old hermit,, 
 a fecretary of (rate, a brave foldier, and an efquirc. The firft prefented him 
 with a book of meditations ; the fecond with political difcourfes ; the third 
 with orations of brave fought battles ; the fourth was but his own follower* 
 to whom the other three imparted much of their purpofe before the earl's 
 entry. In fhort, each of them endeavoured to win him over to their profef- 
 jfion, and to perfuade him to leave his vain following of love, and to betake 
 him to heavenly meditation. But the efquire anfwered them all, and fcrildi 
 them plainly, " That this knight would never forfake his miftrefs's love,, 
 whofe virtue made all his thoughts divine, whofe wifdom taught him all true 
 policy, whofe beauty \ and worth were at all times able to make him fit to 
 command armies. He pointed out all the defects of their feveral purfuits^ 
 and therefore thouo-ht his own courle of life to be bed: in ferving; his miftrefs." 
 
 * Sir II. Wotton, p. 174. His device was a f R.owland White, in the Sidney Papers, vol. i. 
 diamond with this motto, diui formas minuis. p. 362. 
 
 Camden's Rtniaiiis.. % The queen was then fixty-ihree. 
 
 —The 
 
326 NOBLE AUTH'ORS. 
 
 — The queen faid, " That if (he had thought there would have been fo 
 much laid of her fhe would not have been there that night." The part of 
 the efquire was played by fir Toby Matthews, who lived to be an admired 
 wit in the court of Charles the firft, and wrote an affected panegyric on that 
 affected beauty the countefs of Carlifle. 
 
 The works of this lord were, 
 
 " A memorial drawn up on the apprehenfion of an invafion. from Spain*.'* 
 " A narrative of the expedition to Cadiz." 
 
 " To Mr. Antony Bacon, an apology of the earl of EfTex, againft thofe 
 which falfely and malicioufly take him to be the only hindrance of the peace 
 and quiet of his country." Reprinted in 1729, under the title of " The 
 earl of Effex's vindication of the war with Spain." Both thefe pieces were 
 juftifications of himlelf from the afperiions of his enemies. A t very good 
 judge commends both pieces much, and fays of the latter particularly, " that 
 the earl refolved to deliver his own arguments with all the advantages that 
 
 CD O 
 
 his own pathetic eloquence could give them, and which frill remains a me- 
 morial of his great virtues and admirable abilities." • 
 
 " Advice to the earl of Rutland for his Travels;" publifhed at London in 
 1633, Svo. in a book entitled " Profitable inftruclions, defcribing what 
 ipecial obfervations are to be taken by travellers in all nations J." 
 
 " Directions both general and particular, drawen by the lord general 
 Eflex, for the better inftruclinge and government of the army, in anno 
 
 I59 6 §•" , 
 
 " Verfes in his trouble," likewife " Meditations," both preferved in the 
 king's library. 
 
 " A letter of great energy, with a fonnet to the queen jf." 
 
 * Bacon Papers, vol i. p. 292. § Catai. of Harl. MSS. N° 703, art. 23. 
 
 •|- Biograph. Brit, pages 1665, 1669. J| Printed in the Biographia, p. 1670. 
 t Bacon Papers, vol. ii. p. 487. 
 
 4 " Another 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 3 2 7 
 
 " Another fonnet," fung before the queen by one Hales, in whofe voice 
 flic took fome pleafurc. It was occalioned by a diicovery that fir Fulke 
 Greville, his feeming friend, had projected to plant the lord Southampton in 
 the queen's favour in EfTex's room, during one of his eclipfes. " This fon- 
 net, methinks," fays fir Harry Wotton *J " had as much of the hermit as of 
 the poet :" it concluded thus, 
 
 " And if thou fliouldft by her be now forfaken, 
 She made thv heart too {Irons: for to be fhaken." 
 
 The fame author mentions another of the carl's compofitions, but unfortu- 
 nately does not give any account what it was; he calls it f 
 
 " His darling-piece of love and felf-love." 
 
 " A pretious and molt divine letter, from that famous and ever to be re- 
 nowned earl of Effex [father to the now lord general his excellence] to the 
 earl of Southampton in the latter end of queen Elizabeth's reign." Printed 
 in 1643. Re-printed in Cogan's collection of tracts from lord Somers's 
 library, vol. iv. p. 132. 
 
 A letter to the lord chamberlain |. 
 
 Some of his letters in beautiful Latin to the celebrated Antonio Perez are 
 publiihed among the Bacon Papers §. But of all his compofitions the rnoir. 
 excellent, and in many refpects equal to the performances of the greateft 
 
 tin, and another, p. 650, very pathetic and re- 
 markable. Eighty-eight more are preferved in 
 different volumes of the Harleian MSS. and as a 
 proof of his humane and friendly nature, in two 
 volumes only of that number there are fixty-four, 
 of which all but three contain fuits and appli- 
 cations in behalf of others. See Catal. of Harleian 
 MSS, No. 6996, 6997. 
 
 * Page 165. 
 t Page 174. 
 
 I Vide Howard's Collection, p. 232. 
 
 § Pages 296, 367, 399. There are nine 
 more among the Burleigh Papers publifhed by 
 Murdin, of which one to lord Burleigh is in La- 
 
 geniufcSj 
 
328 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 geniufes, is a long letter to the queen from Ireland, Stating the Situation of 
 that country in a moft mafterly manner, both as a general and ltatefman, 
 and concluding with {trains of the tenderer! eloquence on finding himfelf fo 
 unhappily expoied to the artifices of his enemies daring his abfence*. It can- 
 not fail to excite admiration, that a man ravifhed from all improvement and 
 reflection at the age of feventeen, to be nurfed, perverted, fondled, dazzled 
 in a court, mould notwithstanding have matched fuch opportunities of culti- 
 vating his mind and understanding ! In another letter from Ireland he fays 
 movingly, " I provided for this lervice a breaSt-plate but not acuirafs; that 
 is, I am armed on the breafr, but not on the back f ." Dr. Birch has a vo- 
 lume of letters in manufcript, containing fome from the earl, and others ad- 
 dreffed to him. Befides thefe, we have a great variety in the Cabala and 
 among Bacon's Papers of the earl's occasional letters written in a Style as 
 nervous as the belt compositions of that age, and as eafy and flowing as thofe 
 of the prefent. The vehement friend, the bold injured enemy, the ltatef- 
 man, and the fine gentleman, are confpicuous in them. — He ceafed to be 
 all thefe by the age of thirty-four §. 
 
 * It fliould be mentioned here, that formerly 
 his difpatches were attributed to Bacon -, of late, to 
 liis fecretary Cuffe. The latter might have fome 
 hand in collecting the materials relative to bufi- 
 nefs; but there runs through all the earl's letters 
 a peculiarity of ftyle, fo adapted to his fituation 
 and feelings, as could not have been felt for him 
 or dictated by any body elfe. See the letter mention- 
 ed in the text in the Bacon Paper vol. ii. p. 4 1 5. 
 
 f Bacon Papers, vol. ii. p. 420. 
 
 J Two little notes of his are in the Introduc- 
 tion to the Sidney Papers, vol. i. p. 115. 
 
 § I {hall not dwell on the now almofl: authen- 
 ticated flory of lady Nottingham, though that too 
 long pafled for part of the romantic hiftory of this 
 
 lord. I mention it but to obferve that the earl 
 had given provocation to her hufband — though 
 no provocation is an excufe for murder. How 
 much to be lamented that fo black an act: was 
 committed by one of our greateft heroes, to whom 
 Britain has fignal obligations ! This was Charles 
 earl of Nottingham, the lord high admiral, and 
 deflroyer of the Spanifh armada. It feems, Eflex 
 had highly refented its being exprefied in the earl 
 of Nottingham's patent, that the latter had equal 
 fliare with himfelf in the taking of Cadiz. He 
 was fo unreaibnable as to propofe to have the pa- 
 tent cancelled, or offered to fight Nottingham or 
 any of his fons. Bacon Papers, p. 365. Alas ! 
 that revenge, interefl and ingratitude, fliould 
 have flained fuch fervices and abilities as thofe of 
 Nottingham, Raleigh, and Bacon ! 
 
 EDWARD 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS, 329 
 
 EDWARD VERE, Earl of OXFORD, 
 
 TX/A S the feventeenth earl of that ancient family, and by no means the 
 leaft illuftrious. His youth was diftinguifhed by his wit, by adroitnefs 
 in .his exercifes, by valour and zeal for his country. Having travelled into 
 Italy, he is * recorded to have been the firft that brought into England em- 
 broidered gloves and perfumes ; and prefenting the queen with a pair of the 
 former, me was fo pleafed with them as to be drawn with them in one of 
 her portraits. The earl of Oxford lhone in the tournaments of that reign, 
 in two of which he was honoured with a prize from her majefty's own hand., 
 being led armed by two ladies into her prefence-chamber -|\ 
 
 In the year 1585, he was at the head of the nobility that embarked with 
 the earl of Leicefter for the relief of the ftates of Holland ; and in eighty- 
 eight joined the fleet with mips hired at his own expence to repel the Spaniih 
 armada. 
 
 He was knight of the garter, and fat on the celebrated trials of the queen 
 of Scots, of the earls of Arundel, of ElTex and Southampton : but another 
 remarkable trial in that reign proved the [voluntary] ruin of this peer. 
 He was an intimate friend of the duke of Norfolk that was condemned on 
 account of the Scottifh queen : lord Oxford earneftly folicited his father-in- 
 law the treasurer Burleigh to fave the duke's life; but not fucceeding, he was 
 fo incenfed againft the minifter, that in moft abfurd and unjuit revenge 
 [though the caufe was amiable] he fwore he would do all he could to ruin 
 his daughter^, and accordingly not only forfook her bed, but fold and con- 
 fumed great part of the vail: inheritance defcended to him from his anceftors. 
 
 He lived to be a very aged man, and died in the fecond year of James the firft. 
 
 * Stowe. of a book by one Southern, who feems to have 
 
 been as vain of moft wretched poetry as any of 
 if Collins' s Hiftorical collections, p. 264. the firft princes of Parnaffus might have been, 
 
 and as able to confer crowns of immortality. 
 X Tliat lady aimed at poetry as well as her This ftrange account is to be found in the Eu- 
 hmb'and •, at leaft there is a curious account of ropean Magazine for June 1788, and for which 
 verfes faid to be written by her in the fragment the editor muft be accountable. 
 
 Vol. L U u He 
 
33 o NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 He was an admired poet *, and reckoned the belt writer of comedy in his 
 time : the very names of all his plays are loft : a few of bis poems are extant 
 in a mifcellany called " The Paradife of dainty devices." Lond. 1578, qu°. 
 The chief part of the collection was written by Richard Edwards, another 
 comic writer f. And Puttenham quotes part of another copy of verfes writ- 
 ten by the earl There are fome few of his lines too in another curious 
 and fcarce book, called " England's Parnaflus, or the choiceft flowers of our 
 Englim poets :" publifhed by R. A. 1600. See pp. 21, 172, 209. 
 
 An epiftle in profe, addrefTed to Thomas Bedingfeld, efq. one of her 
 majefty's gentlemen penfioners, and another in verfe, to the reader, both 
 written by this earl, are prefixed to the above-mentioned Bedingfeld's tranfla- 
 tion of Cardan's comfort, who dedicated it to the earl, and publifhed it, as 
 he fays in the title-page, at his commaundement.. l S73' 
 
 Three letters to his father-in-law, lord Burleigh, are extant among the 
 Harleian MSS.§ 
 
 A Latin letter of this earl of Oxford is prefixed to doctor Bartholomew 
 Gierke's Latin tranflation of Balthazar Caftilio de curiali Jive aulico^ flrft 
 printed at London about 1 5 7 1 . 
 
 THOMAS SACKVILLE, Lord BUCKHURST. 
 
 T T is not my bufinefs to enter into the life of this peer, as a ftatefman : it is 
 fufficient to fay that few firft minifters have left fo fair a character. His 
 family difdained the offer of an apology for it againft fome little cavils, which 
 * fpreta exolefcunt ; fi irafcare, agnita videntur ||." It is almoft as needlefs 
 to fay that he was the patriarch of a race of genius and wit. He early quitted 
 
 * Spenfer prefented his Fairy Queen to him 
 with a copy of verfes celebrating the earl's turn 
 to poetry. 
 
 f "Wood's Athens?, voL i. p. 152 ; and Fafti, 
 p. 99, 
 
 % P. 172. It is publifhed at length in Mr. 
 Percy's fecond volume of theReliquesof ancient 
 Englifh poetry. 
 
 § N° 699 , art. 5: N» 6996, 22, and 117. 
 U. Lloyd's Worthies, p. 680, 
 
 the 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 331 
 
 the ftudy of the law for the flowery paths of poetry, and fhone both in Latin 
 and Englifh compofition. In his graver years the brilliancy of his imagina- 
 tion grew more correct, not lefs abundant. He was called, fays Lloyd, The 
 Jim -chamber bell, [a comparifon that does not convey much idea at prefent, 
 but he explains it by adding] fo very flowing was his invention *. " His 
 fecretaries," fays fir Robert Naunton, " had difficulty to pleafe him, he was 
 fo facete and choice in his ftyle." 
 
 He was author of the celebrated tragedv called " Gorboduc ;" the fir ft 
 dramatic piece of any confideration in the Englifti language, written many 
 years before Shakefpeare fet forth his plays f . He was aftifted in it by Nor- 
 ton, a fellow-labourer of Sternhold and Hopkins. This tragedy was acted 
 before the queen at Whitehall, by the gentlemen of the inner Temple, 1561. 
 It originally had the title of " Ferrex and Porrex," was printed incorrectly 
 and lurreptitioufly in 1 565 ; more completely in 1570 : in 1590, by the title 
 of" Gorboduc." It was re-publifhed by Dodfley in 1736, with a preface 
 by Mr. Spence, by the procuration of Mr. Pope, " who wondered J that 
 the propriety and natural eafe of it had not been better imitated by the dra- 
 matic authors of the fucceedin^ as;e." It is to be found at the head of the 
 fecond volume of the Collection of old plays, publifhed by Dodfley. Sir 
 Philip Sidney in his Apology for poetry gives this lofty character of it : " It 
 is full of ftately fpeeches and well-founding phrafes, climbing to the height 
 of Seneca's ftyle, and as full of notable morality, which it doth moft de- 
 lightfully teach, and fo obtain the very end of poeiy." Puttenham fays, " I 
 think that for tragedy the lord of Buckhurfl: and maifter Edward Ferreys for 
 fuch doings as I have feen of theirs, do deferve the higheft price : the earl of 
 Oxford and maifter Edwards of her majefty's chappel for comedy and inter- 
 lude §." 
 
 His lordfhip wrote befides, 
 
 " A preface and the life of the unfortunate duke of Buckingham in the 
 reign of Richard the third, in verfe," in a work entitled 
 
 * Lloyd's Worthies, p. 678. % Vide Preface. 
 
 f Antony Wood. 
 
 § Art of poetry, 
 
 U u 2 
 
 <f A mirrour 
 
S3 2 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " A mirrour for magistrates, being a true chronicle hiftory of the untimely 
 falls of fuch unfortunate princes and men of note, as have happened fince 
 the firft entrance of Brute into this ifland until this latter age." This work 
 was publifhed * in 1610, by Richard Niccols of Magdalen college in Ox- 
 ford, but was the joint-produce of lord Buckhurft, Mr. Baldwine, Mr. Hig- 
 gons, Mr. Ferrers, and Mr. Churchyard, men of the greater!: wit in that 
 age -f*. The original thought was his lordfhip's, as we learn from the editor, 
 who fays, " That the penmen [of the chronicle] being many and diverfe, 
 all diverfly affected in the method of this their mirrour, he followed the in- 
 tended Icope of that moil honourable perfonage, who, by how much he did 
 furpafs the reft in the eminence of his noble condition, by fo much he hath 
 exceeded them all in the excellency of his ffyle, which with a golden pen he 
 limned out to pofterity in that worthy object of his mind, the tragedy of the 
 duke of Buckingham, and in his preface then intituled, Matter Sackville's 
 induction. This worthy prefident of learning intending to perfect all this 
 ftory him fe If from the conqueit, being called to a more ferious expence in 
 the great itate-affairs of his moh 1 royal lady and lovereign, left the difpofar" 
 thereof to Mr. Baldwine, &c." X 
 
 Several letters in the Cabala. 
 
 Others among the Harleian MSS. § 
 
 Tiptoft and Rivers fet the example of borrowing light from other coun- 
 tries, and patronized the importer of printing, Caxton. The earls of Ox- 
 ford and || Dorfet (truck out new lights for the dramas, without making the 
 multitude laugh or weep at ridiculous reprefentations of fcripture. To the 
 two former we owe printing, to the two latter, taste — what do we not 
 
 * It was begun and part of it was printed in 
 the reign of queen Mary, but was flopped by au- 
 thority ; yet by the intereft of Henry lord Staf- 
 ford, whofe writings and love of letters have been 
 mentioned, the firft part was licenfed. Fide the 
 frefaiory epijlle to the edition of 157 1. 
 
 f Life of Drayton before his works, p. 5. 
 
 % Collins's Peerage in Dorfet, p. 714. 
 
 § See vols. 703, 699$) 6997. 
 
 || Lord Buckhurft was created earl of Derfet. 
 There is a letter from him to the earl of Suflex, 
 printed in Howard's coll. p. 297. Lord Dorfet 
 wrote too a Latin letter to do&or Barth. Clerke 
 prefixed to his tranflation mentioned in the pre- 
 ceding article. 
 
 owe 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 333 
 
 owe perhaps to the laft of the four ! Our hiftoric plays are allowed to have 
 been founded on the heroic narratives in The mirrour for magistrates; to that 
 plan, and to the boldnefs of lord BuckhurfVs new fcenes, perhaps we owe 
 Siiakespear. Such debts to thefe four lords, the probability of the laft ob- 
 ligation, are fufficient to juftify a catalogue of noble authors. 
 
 x 
 
 Sir ROBERT CECIL, Earl of SALISBURY. 
 
 'TPHIS man, who had the fortune to pleafe both queen Elizabeth and king 
 James the firft ; who, like the fon of the duke of Lerma, had the un- 
 common fate of fucceeding * his own father as prime-minifter, and who, un- 
 like that fon of Lerma, did not, though treacherous to every body elfe, flip- 
 plant his own father, this man is fufficiently known ; his public ftorymay be 
 found in all our hiftories, his particular in the Biographia ; and if any body's 
 curiofity is ftill unfatisfied about him, they may fee a tedious account of his 
 laft ficknefs in Peck's Defiderata curiofa. 
 
 He wrote 
 
 ** Adverfus perduelles ;** an anfwer to fome popifh libels. 
 
 ** The ftate of a fecretary's place and the peril thereof -(-." 
 
 *' Some notes, offered to king James for the neceflity of calling a par- 
 liament 
 
 " Mr. fecretary Cecil his negotiation into France, with the infr.ru<5Kons 
 for his guydance therein from queen Elizabeth, in the year of our Lord 1 597." 
 
 " The hermit's oration at Theobald's, 1594." It was in MS» in Mr. 
 Ames's collection, and, I believe, never printed. 
 
 * After a fliort interval. It were fufficient to See Robertforis Hijl. of Scot/and, vol. ii. p. 246.. 
 folaft this man's memory, that on the accefs of 
 
 James I. when there was a propofal for obtaining t Vlde Catal - of Harl - M SS. N° 305, art. 44 ; 
 a capitulation or charter of" liberties from him, and 35 4» 7* 
 
 the fcheme was defeated by fir Robert Cecil. — % lb. 737, 4 $ and among the Conway Papers. 
 
 " Several 
 
33+ 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " Several fpeeches m parliament ;" and 
 Many letters #. 
 
 M One among the Burleigh Papers published by Murdin in i 759," p. 588* 
 
 Near forty letters, preferved in different volumes in the Harleian collec- 
 tion of MSS. now in the Britifh mufeum. One of them in particular gives a 
 more exacl relation of the gunpowder-plot than is to be found in our hifkH 
 ries, and contradicts the common report of king James himfelf being the 
 perfon who firft gueffed the meaning of the myfterious letter to lord Mont- 
 eagle; lord Salifbury, in this letter, afcribing to himfelf and lord Suffolk the 
 unriddling of the hint of gunpowder. See Catal. of Harl. MSS. No. 1 8 75, 88. 
 
 " Three, in Fynes Morryfon's travels.'* 
 
 " Fourteen in the fecret correfpondence of fir Robert Cecil with king 
 James," by which it appears that Northampton was the agent in that inter- 
 courfe. Publimed by fir David Dairy mple, Edinb. 1766. 
 
 " One in the Cabala to his father.'* 
 
 " Another to fir Francis Segar f ." 
 
 " Some notes on Dr. Dee's difcourfe on the reformation of the calendar." 
 
 HENRY HOWARD, Earl of 
 NORTHAMPTON, 
 
 X7"OUNGER fon of the famous earl of Surrey, was faid to be the learn- 
 edeft among the nobility, and the moil noble among the learned. To 
 thefe advantages of birth and education were added the dignities of earl, 
 
 * Vide Sawyer's Memorials, in three vols, folio. f Vide Howard's Collection, p. 196. 
 
 knight 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 335 
 
 knight of the garter, lord warden of the cinque ports, governor of Dover- 
 caflle [where he was buried *] one of the commiffioners for the office of earl- 
 marfhal, lord privy-feal, high-fteward of Oxford, and chancellor of Cam- 
 bridge. He added himfelf the ftill nobler title of founder of three hofpitals, 
 at Greenwich in Kent, at Clien in Shropfliire, and at Caftle-rifmg in Nor- 
 folk f. Thefe topics of panegyric were fure not to be over-looked by our 
 writers of genealogies, who winnow the characters of all mankind, and take 
 due care not to lay up any of the chaff. — But what have our hiftorians to 
 fay of this man ! What a tale to tell of murder ! — But it is necelTary to take 
 up his character a little higher. On his father's death he appears to have 
 been left in very fcanty circum fiances ; and though there is no doubt of his 
 having parts, and very flexile ones too, they carried him no great lengths 
 during the long reign of Elizabeth : in her fuccelfor's they produced ten- 
 fold. Antony Bacon, giving an account of a conference he had with his aunt 
 about the Cecils, wimes for the genius of the lord Henry Howard, or that 
 of fignor Perez, to affift him with the facility and grace which they had in 
 relating their own actions Lady Bacon, the fevere and froward, but up- 
 right mother of Antony and fir Francis, had no fuch favourable impreffions 
 of lord Henry, againft whom, as he was an intimate of Antony and the earl of 
 ElTex, me often warns her fon, calling Howard a dangerous intelligencing man, 
 and no doubt a fubtle jiajiiji imvardly, a very injlrument of the Sjianifli jiajiijls\. 
 No miftaken judgment : he had been bred a papiit ; and though at this time 
 he feems to have acted proteltantifm he openly reverted to popery in the 
 next reign, which at the king's requelt he again abandoned, and yet at his 
 
 * He died at the palace lie had built at Char- § Bacon Papers, vol. ii. p. 132. 
 ing-crofs, now Northumberland-houfe : fuppofed 
 
 to be raifed with Spanilh gold. Harris's Life &f || On the treaty with France, the king afking 
 
 James the firft, p. 145. He gave the defign for him, how it happened that he had been prefented 
 
 Audley-inn. Lloyd's Worthies^ p. 780. with no jewel like other lords, he anfwered, "Quia 
 
 non fum Galltis." Vide lord Bacon 's Atothegms. 
 
 \ Dugdale's Baronage, vol. ii. p. 275. His 
 
 will, and many papers, of ftatutes, grants, &c. H He had even been a competitor with Grindal 
 
 relating to thefe hofpitals, are preferved in the for the archbifhoprick of York, but mifcarried 
 
 Mufeum among the Harleian MSS. from the doubtfulnefs of his religion. Vide Life of 
 
 Grindal in the Biograph. p. 2432. The king afk- 
 
 % From a letter of one of the agents of the ing him why he wifhed to go to Rome, he replied, 
 
 queen of Scots to her, it appears that lord Henry " To fee him, who can forgive fins, confeffing 
 
 was one of her inftruments too. Vide Burleigh his own ; and Antichrift faying his creed." Vide 
 
 Papers, by Murdin, pages 488, 489. lord Bacon's Apothegms. 
 
 3 death 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS 
 
 death avowed himfelf a catholic *. The fame lady apprehends his betraying 
 his brother Norfolk, whom he was ftill foliciting to his ruin : " For he 
 [lord Henry] pretending courtefy, worketh mifchief perilouily. 1 have loner 
 [lays me] known him, and obferved him. His workings have been ftark 
 naught ftV Her ladylhip had learning, and was profufe of it ; in another 
 place | fhe calls him " Subtiliter fubdolus, and a fubtle ferpent." Rowland 
 White, of a nature lefs acrimonious, only fays, " That the lord Henry 
 Howard was held for a ranter §." Sir Antony Weldon fpeaks of him as one 
 of the grofTeft. flatterers alive. — But it is the mode to reject his testimony as 
 too fevere a writer. — Yet on what times was he bitter ? What character that 
 he has cenfured, has whitened by examination ? To inftance in this lord 
 Northampton : I mall not content myfelf with obferving that fir Fulke Gre- 
 vile fays ||, " He was famous for fecret infinuation and for cunning flatteries, 
 and by reafon of thefe flatteries a fit man for the conditions of thole times :" 
 nor that monfieur de Beaumont, the French embaffador at that time, calls 
 him one of the greateft flatterers and calumniators that ever lived f :" let him 
 fpeak for himfelf. He firft founded his hopes of preferment on the earl of 
 EfTex, to whom he feems to have made unbounded court. In one of his let- 
 ters he tells that favourite, " So God deal with me in die Mo, as I would 
 lofe of my own blood to fave yours ; and hold all thofe given over utterly in 
 fenfum rejirobijfunum, whole malice can diftinguifh at this day between the 
 fafe-guard of your worthy perfon and the life of your country **." In ano- 
 ther, " When I fee you not, yet I think of you, and with the moh: divine 
 philolophers will ever fettle my beatitude in contemplation of that mining 
 object, unto which hypocrify or flattery can add no grace, becaufe the rare 
 worth of itfelf hath made it very truly and lingularly fuper-excellent ff ." 
 And as excefs of flattery to the creature is not content till it has dared to en- 
 gage even the Creator in its hyperboles, he tells EfTex, " My hope of your 
 fafe return is anchored in heaven. I believe that God himfelf is not only 
 •plea-fed with his own workmanfhip in you, as he was when vtdit omnia quce 
 creavit, ei erant valde bona ; but withal that he is purpofed to protect that 
 
 * Lord Brook's Five years of king James, p. 57. |] In his Five years of king James, p. 5. 
 + Bacon Papers, vol. i. p. 227. *H Bacon Papers, vol. ii. p. 501. 
 
 i lb. p. 309. ** lb. p. 246. 
 
 § Sidney Papers, p. 129. . ft lb, p. 363, 
 
 worthy 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 337 
 
 worthy perfon of your lordfhip's under the wings of his cherubim *." What 
 could fir Antony Weldon lay too bad of the flattery of a man, who paints 
 the great God of heaven Imittcn, like an old doting queen, with a frail 
 phantom of his own creation ! 
 
 But though Northampton could flatter, honefr. Abbot could not : the earl 
 profecuting fome perfons in the Star-chamber for defamation, as his infamy 
 began to grow public, when the lords were ready to pafs fentence, the arch- 
 bifhop rofe and to the earl's face told him, " Thofe things laid of him vjerc 
 grounded upon reafon, and for which men of upright confeiences had fome 
 reafon to fpeak — and that his lordlhip's own letters made evident that he had 
 done fome things againft his own confeience, merely to attain unto honour 
 and fovereignty and to pleafe the king" — And then pulled out a letter from 
 Northampton to cardinal Bellarmine, in which the earl profefled to the lat- 
 ter, " That howfoever the condition of the times compelled him, and his 
 majefty urged him to turn proteftant, yet nevertheleffe his heart flood with 
 the papifts, and that he would be ready to further them in any attempt j" ." — 
 But to have done with this topic, which 1 fhould gladly quit, if it were not 
 to pafs to that of blood. Howard, who always kept terms with the Cecils, 
 and, when he had prefented one of his compositions to Effex, fent another to 
 Burleigh, at the fame time with a true iycophant's art confeffing it to his 
 friend, fkirmifhed himfelf out of EfTex's misfortunes, and became the inftru- 
 ment of fir Robert Cecil's correfpondence with king James J, which Cecil 
 pretended was for the fervice of his miftrefs, as the confidence of her mini- 
 fters would afTure that prince of his peaceful fucceffion, and prevent his giv- 
 
 * Bacon Papers, vol. ii. p. 429. neceflary finefle to circumvent men fo ready for 
 
 any infamy as many of the order were at that 
 
 f Northampton was fo abaflied with this re- time. It feems ftrange that an author who re- 
 proof, that as foon as the court broke up he went fined fo much, fhould have reafoned fo little, as 
 to Greenwich, made his will, confeffing himfelf to believe in witches and incantations. The 
 a papift, and died foon after. Sir Fulke Grevi/e's Biographia rejects this work as not lord Brooke's, 
 Five years of king James, p. 57. This fmall book for no better reafon than his not having men- 
 contains little more than the ftory of the earl and tioned it in his other writings. A clergyman 
 eountefs of Somerfet and of Northampton, to might as well refufe to baptize a child, becaufe 
 whom fir Fulke would not only afcribe almoft the father at a former chriftening did not tell him 
 every thing done at that period, but refolves all that he intended to beget it. 
 into malicious defignsof mifchief, as Northamp- 
 ton's drawing the bifhops into decla-'mg for the % Bacon Papers, vol. ii. p. 5T4. 
 divorce, in order to expofe that bench ; an un • 
 
 Vol. I. X x ing 
 
33§ 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 ing her any dilturbanee,. This negotiation * was immediately rewarded By 
 James, on his acceffion, with his favour and with the honours I have men- 
 tioned ; but, as every riling favourite was the object of Northampton's bafe- 
 nefs, he addicted his fervices to the earl of Somerfet, and became a chief and 
 mocking infrrument in that lord's match with Northampton's kinfwoman the 
 countefs of Elfex, and of the fucceeding murder of fir Thomas Overbury, 
 Northampton, the pious endower of hofpitals, died luckily before the plot 
 came to light ; but his letters were read in court — not all, for there was 
 fuch a horrid mixture of obfcenity and blood in them, that the chief juftice. 
 could not go through them in common decency. — It is- time to come to- 
 this lord's works. 
 
 He wrote 
 
 " A defenfative againfc the poifon of fuppofed prophecies," dedicated to 
 fir Francis Walfingham, and printed in qu°. at London, in 1583, and re- 
 printed there in folio in 1620, by J. Charlwood, printer to the earl's great 
 nephew, the earl of Arundel. There is a long account of this work in The 
 Britiih librarian, p. 331. 
 
 " An apology for the government of women,** never publifhed, but ex- 
 tant in MS. in the Bodleian library, and in my pofTeffion. 
 
 " An anfwer to the copy of a railing invective againft. the regiment of 
 women in general, with certain malapert exceptions to divers and fundry 
 matters of ftate, written unto queen Elizabeth." Perhaps this is the fame 
 as the former, with only a different title f . 
 
 " An abftract of the frauds of the officers of the navy," addreflfed to king- 
 James ; MS. in the king's library J. 
 
 *' A devotional piece, with the judgments of primitive interpreters," 
 
 * Lloyd fays that Northampton was no flat- t Harl. MSS. N° 7021, art. II. 
 terer, nor ambitious! page 781. Thole who 
 
 condemn fir Antony Weldon's impartiality, may } Cafley's Catal. p. 273. 
 perhaps admire Lloyd's veracity. 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 339 
 
 This is ail we know of this piece, only mentioned by his lordmip in a letter 
 to lord Burleigh, to whom he fent it *. 
 
 " Another treatife of devotion," that feems to have been different from the 
 laft, and rather, " forms of prayer," fent to the archbifhop of Canterbury 
 in March 1596-7, with a letter in which this hypocrite tells the bifhop, 
 " That he had tafted, by experience of private exercifes for the fpace of many 
 years, what comfort thefe proportions work in a faithful foul ; and defiring 
 his grace to refer the book to doctor Andrews or doctor Bancroft ; and if no 
 objection was found with it, he humbly craves his grace's favour that the 
 prefs might eafe him of fo great a charge and fatigue as it had been to him 
 to copy it out, and caufe it to be copied for his importunate friends f." In 
 this letter, as in all his lordlhip's compofitions, is a great mixture of affecta- 
 tion and pedantry. 
 
 " Defence of the French monfieur's defiring queen Elizabeth in marriage." 
 This piece was in anfwer to Stubb's Gaping gulph, and is preferved among 
 the Harleian MSS. in the Britifh mufeum J. 
 
 " A fpefyall prayere to God the father, the fyrfte perfone in Trynetye ; 
 made and practyfed by the lord Henrye Howard earle of Northamptone." 
 Perhaps this is one of the prayers mentioned above §. 
 
 " His fpeech againfr. the confpirators in the gunpowder-plot ;" printed in 
 The true and perfect relation of the whole proceedings, &c. 
 
 " A copie of the laft enftructions which the emperour Charles the fifth 
 gave to his fonne Philippe the fecond king of Spain, before his death. Trans- 
 lated out of Spanifh by the lord Henry Howard, being (as it feems) as then 
 fomewhat under queen Elizabeth's difpleafure ; and by him dedicated in a 
 long epiftle to her majefty." Among the Harleian MSS. N° 836 ; and 
 again, N° 1506, art. 3. 
 
 * Bacon Papers, vol. ii. p. 247, $ See Catal. of Harleian MSS. N° 1 80, art. 3. 
 
 t lb. p. 325. § lb. 252, 24. 
 
 X x 2 There 
 
34° 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 There are nine of his letters in various volumes of the Harleian MSSv 
 befides others from him or relating to him in N° 7031, 14. 
 
 Four others are printed among fir Ralph Winwood's papers. 
 
 In the fecret correfpondence of fecretary Cecil with king James, publifhed 
 by fir David Dalrymple, are fourteen letters of Northampton, who was the 
 chief agent in that intercourfe ; but they are lb tedious, obfcure and pedantic, : 
 that even James was difgufted with them. 
 
 Two more letters, amongft the memorials and letters of ftate, publifhed by 
 the fame gentleman. 
 
 Among fir Ralph Winwood's papers are four letters from Northampton ; 
 the fir ft, very long and full of invectives on his coufin the lord admiral Not- 
 tingham : the fecond, as profufe of flattery on king James. The two laft are 
 addreffed to fir Jervafe Elways, lieutenant of the Tower, containing moft 
 importunate and peremptory directions for haftening the burial of Overbury's 
 body, and fully explanatory of Northampton's fhare in that black bufinefs *. 
 
 By a letter of the earl of EfTex to him, it looks as if one of Northamp- 
 ton's arts of flattery to the former was drawing up his pedigree f. And to 
 raife and afcertain EfTex's authority as earl-marihal, Northampton appears 
 to have undertaken a treatife on that office, but not to have completed it 4"= 
 
 Lord Chancellor ELESMERE, 
 
 nPH E founder of the houfe of Egerton, publiflied nothing during his life 
 but a " Speech in the Exchequer-chamber touching the poftnati," 
 printed at London, in qu°. in 1609. After his death there appeared in his 
 
 name 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 91 ; vol. iiLpp. 54, 481, 482. f lb. p. 342, % lb. 365. 
 
 Certain. 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 341 
 
 " Certain obfervatious concerning the office of lord chancellor." London, 
 1 65 1, octavo. 
 
 " The conference held February 25th, 1606, betwene the lords committees 
 and the commons touching the naturalizing of the Scots, &c.*" 
 
 " Obfervatious on lord Coke's reports, publifhed by doctor Paul of the 
 commons." 
 
 His " Obfervatious on the ltatute of magna charta" is preferved in the 
 Harleian collection, N° 42652, 2; as alfo 
 
 " Cafes wherein there is no remedy in Chancery." 2809, 22. 
 
 " Speech in the Star-chamber, touching the contempt of Robert earl of 
 Effex." And 
 
 " Some letters, in the Harl. MSS. in N° 286, 159: N° 444, 13, 14, 
 Three between him and EPiex,- N° 677, 33, 34, 35 : N° 2084, 22 : 
 N° 6995, 116 : N° 6996, 30, 1 16 : N° 6997, 36, 66 : N° 7042. 
 
 " Four letters in the Cabala." 
 
 He left to his chaplain, Mr. Williams, afterwards the celebrated lord- 
 keeper and bifhop of Lincoln, four manufcript collections concerning " The 
 prerogative royal, privileges of parliament, proceedings in Chancery, and 
 the power of the Star-chamber f ." Of which I find printed " Elefmere's 
 " privileges and prerogatives of the high court of Chancery, 16144V 
 
 Sir FRANCIS BACON, Viscount St. ALBANS, 
 
 HPH E prophet of arts, which Newton was fent afterwards to reveal. 
 
 It would be impertinent to the reader to enter into any account of this 
 amazing genius or his works : both will be univerfally admired as long as 
 
 * Printed in Somers's TraQs, 4th coll. vol. i. t Ib - vol> »« P- 479- 
 p. 372, from the Cotton library. t Harl. Catal. vol. ii. p. 651. 
 
 fcience 
 
34-2 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 fcience exifts. — As long as ingratitude and adulation are defpicable, fo long 
 fhall we lament the depravity of this great man's heart /—Alas ! that he, 
 who could command immortal fame, mould have ftooped to the little ambition 
 
 of Jioiver! 
 
 Sir FULKE G REVILE, Lord BROOKE, 
 
 A MAN of much note in his time, but one of thofe admired wits who have 
 loft much of their reputation in the eyes of pofterity. A thoufand acci- 
 dents of birth, court-favour or popularity, concur fometimes to gild a (lender 
 proportion of merit. Succeeding ages, who look when thofe beams are with- 
 drawn, wonder what attracted the eyes of the multitude. No man feems to 
 me fo aftonifhing an object of temporary admiration as the celebrated friend 
 of the lord Brooke, the famous fir Philip Sidney. The learned of Europe 
 dedicated their works to him ; the republic of Poland thought him at leaft 
 worthy to be in the nomination for their crown. All the ramies of England 
 wept his death. When we at this diftance of time enquire what prodigious 
 merits excited fuch admiration, what do we find ? — Great valour ? — But it 
 was an age of heroes. — In full of all other talents we have a tedious, la- 
 mentable, pedantic, paftoral romance, which the patience of a young virgin 
 in love cannot now wade through ; and fome abfurd attempts to fetter Eng- 
 lifh verfe in Roman chains ; a proof that this applauded author underftood 
 little of the genius of his own language. The few of his letters extant are 
 poor matters ; one * to a fteward of his father, an inftance of unwarrantable 
 violence. By far the t beft prefumption of his abilities [to us who can 
 judge only by what we fee] is a pamphlet % published among the Sidney 
 Papers, being an anfwer to the famous libel called Leicejler 's Commonwealth. 
 It defends his uncle with great fpirit : what had been faid in derogation to 
 
 * Sidney Papers, vol. i. p. 256. 
 
 f I have been blamed for not mentioning fir 
 Philip's Defence of poetry, which fome think his 
 beft work. I had indeed forgot it when I wrote 
 this article ; a proof that I at leaft did not think 
 it fufiicient foundation for fo high a character as 
 he acquired. This was all my criticifm pretend- 
 ed to fay, that I could not conceive how a man 
 
 who in fome refpecls had written dully and weak- 
 ly, and who at moft was far inferior to our beft 
 authors, had obtained fuch immenfe reputation. 
 Let his merits and his fame be weighed together, 
 and then let it be determined whether the world 
 has overvalued, or I undervalued fir PhilipSidney. 
 
 % lb. in the Introduction, p. 62. 
 
 their 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 343 
 
 their blood feems to have touched fir Philip moft. He died with the rafhnefs 
 of a volunteer *, after having lived to write with the fang froid and prolixity 
 of mademoifelle Scuderi. 
 
 Let not this examination of a favourite character be taken in an ill light. 
 There can be no motive but juji criticifm for calling in question the fame of 
 another man at this diltance of time. Were pofterity to allow all the patents 
 beftovved by cotcmporarics, the temple of Fame would be crowded by worth- 
 J c is dignitaries. How many princes would be prefling in, the weakert or 
 wickedeft of mankind, becaufe courtiers or medals called them great ! One 
 man ftill appears there by a yet more admiffible title, Philip the Good duke 
 of Burgundy — one (hudders to read what mafTacres he made of his Flemifh 
 fubjecls. Louis the thirteenth claims under the title of the fufl : there can 
 fcarce be a more abominable fact than one in Voltaire's Univerfal Hiftory. 
 Monfieur de Cinqmars, the king's favourite, had with his majefty's fecret 
 approbation endeavoured to deftroy Richlieu — and failed. The king was 
 glad to appeafe the cardinal by facrificing his friend, whom he ufed to call 
 cher ami. When the hour of execution arrived, Louis pulled out his watch, 
 and with a villainous fmile faid, " Je crois qu'a cette heure cher ami fait un 
 vilaine mine." Voltaire commending him fays, that this king's character is 
 not fufficiently known. — It was not indeed, while fuch an anecdote remained 
 unftained with the blackeft colours of hiftory ! 
 
 I am fenfible that I have wandered from my fubjeft by touching on fir 
 Philip Sidney ; but writing his life is writing fir Fulke Grevile's, who piqued 
 himfelf moil:, and it was his chief merit, on being, as he ftyled himfelf on 
 his tomb, the friend oe sir Philip Sidney. — It is well he did not 
 make the fame parade of his friendfhip with the earl of EfTex : an anecdote 
 I have mentioned before t feems to mow that he was not lb ftrict in all his 
 friendmips. He had more merit in being the patron of Camden. 
 
 This lord's works were, 
 
 " A very fhort fpeech in parliament," recorded by lord Bacon \. 
 
 * Queen Elizabeth faid of lord EfTex, " We f Vide p. 327. 
 {hall have him knocked o' the head like that ralh 
 
 fellow Sidney." % Apothegms, p. 221 ; and Biograph. p. 2395. 
 
 6 " The 
 
344 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " The life of the renowned fir Philip Sidney." 
 
 " Sir Fulke Grevile's Five years of king James, or the condition of the 
 flate of England, and the relation it had to other provinces." A very thin 
 quarto, 1643. 
 
 We are told * that he propofed to write the life of queen Elizabeth, a 
 work not much to be regretted, as he himfelf acquainted the earl of SalifiSury, 
 " that though he intended to deliver nothing but the truth, yet he did not 
 hold himfelf bound to tell all the truth :" a difpenfation which of all ranks of 
 men an hiftorian perhaps is the laft that has a right to give himfelf. What 
 he conceals is probably the part that would afford raoft information. It is 
 worth the reader's while to have recourfe to the original paffage, where he 
 will find the grofs fhifts ufed by Salifbury to render fir Fulke's meditated hif- 
 tory abortive, which however he feemed to have little reafon to dread, after 
 the declaration I have mentioned. 
 
 " A letter to an honourable lady, with advice how to behave herfelf to a 
 hufband of whom fhe was jealous." 
 
 " A letter of travel :" it contains directions to his coufin Grevile Verney 
 then in France. 
 
 A letter among the Harleian MSS. N° 286, art. 32 ; another, N° 1581, 
 art. 64. 
 
 " Cadica," a collection of cix. fongs. 
 
 u A treatife of human learning," in cl. ftanzas. 
 
 " An inquifition upon fame and honour," in lxxxvi. ftanzas. 
 
 " A treatife of wars," in lxviii. ftanzas. 
 
 His " remains," confining of political and philofophical poems. 
 
 * Vide Biograph. p. 2396. 
 
 4 
 
 " M. Tullius 
 
i 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 345 
 
 " M. Tullius Cicero, a tragedy ;" but this is difputed* 
 " Alaham, a tragedy/* 
 " Muftapha, a tragedy.'* 
 
 The two laft plays have the chorus after the manner of the ancients; a pe- 
 dantry as injudicious as fir Philip's Englifh hexameters. After all the at- 
 tempts to revive that mob of confidents, after all the laborious Pere Brumoy's 
 differtations * to juftify them, do they ceafe to appear unnatural excrefceiicies 
 of a drama, whofe faults are admired as much as its excellencies ? With all 
 the difference of Grecian, and French or EnglifK manners, it is impoffible to 
 conceive that Phaedra trufled her inceftuous paffion, or Medea her murderous 
 revenge, to a whole troop of attendants. If Metaflafio's operas furvive for fo 
 much time as conftitutes certain and unlimited admiration in lovers of anti- 
 quity, it will be in vain for future pedants to tell men of fenfe two thoufand 
 years hence, that our manners were different from theirs ; they will never 
 bear to hear every fcene concluded with a fong, whether the aclor who is go- 
 ing off the ftage be in love or in rage, be going- to a wedding or an execu- 
 tion. In facf, the ancients no more trufted their fecrets, efpecially of a cri- 
 minal fort, to all their domeftics, than we fing upon every occafion : the 
 manners of no country affecf the great out-lines of human life, of human 
 paffions. Befides, if they did, whenever the manners of an age are ridicu- 
 lous, it is not the bufmefs of tragedy to adopt, but of comedy to expofe 
 them. They who defend abfurdities, can have little tafte for real beauties. 
 There is nothing fo unlike fenfe as nonfenfe, yet in how many authors is the 
 latter admired for the lake of the former I 
 
 JAMES LEY, Earl of MARLBOROUGH, 
 
 N E t)f that crowd of high-trcaturers, whom the corruption of the coun- 
 teis of Buckingham or the caprice of her fon raifed and depreffed with 
 fuch intemperate rapidity, that, as lord Clarendon fays f, five noble perfons 
 
 * Theatre de Grecs. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 t Vol. i. p. 47. 
 
 were 
 
346 NOBLE AUTHOR S. 
 
 were at that time alive, who had all fucceeded one another immediately 
 in that unfteady office, without any other perfon intervening. 
 
 Ley railed himfelf by his knowledge of the law to be chief-juftice of the 
 King's-bench ; and in the 2 2d of James I. was made lord high-treaiurer,. 
 from whence he was removed (fays the fame noble hiftorian) under pretence 
 of his age and difability for the work, which had been a better reafon againft 
 his promotion. After his death were published his 
 
 " Reports of divers cafes in law tried in the time of king James and fome 
 part of the reign of king Charles I." Printed in 1659 f, 
 
 " A treatife of wards and liveries j- ." And he made " collections relating 
 to Ireland + " 
 
 GEORGE CARE IF, Earl of TOTNESS, 
 
 r 3 A H E younger fon of a dean of Exeter, raifed himfelf by his merit to great: 
 honours. Though his titles were conferred by the kings James and 
 Charles, his fervices were performed under Elizabeth, in whole reign he was 
 matter of the ordnance in Ireland, treafurer of the army there, prefident of 
 Mu niter, and one of the lords julHces. With lefs than 4000 men he reduced 
 many caftles and forts to the queen's obedience, took the earl of Defmond pri- 
 soner, and brought the Bourks, O'Briens, and other rebels to fubmiffion. 
 He baffled all attempts of the Spaniards on his province, and eitabliihed it in 
 perfect peace. He died in an honourable old age at the Savoy in 1629 
 and is buried under a goodly monument at Stratford upon Avon. He was a 
 great patron of learning and lover of antiquities. 
 
 He wrote 
 
 " Pacata Hibernia, or the hiftory of the wars in Ireland, efpecially within, 
 trie province of Mouufter, 1599, 1600, 1601, and 1602 ;" which after his 
 
 * Dugdale's Baronage, vol. ii. p. 452. j Vide Ufher's Letters, p. 403. 
 
 f Ibid. § lb. pages 403, 405. 
 
 death 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 347 
 
 death was printed in folio at London in 1633, with feventeen maps, being 
 publimed by his natural fon Thomas Stafford *'. 
 
 It is certain that his lordmip propofed to write the reign of Henry the fifth, 
 and had made colle6tions and extracts for that purpofe. The author of the 
 Life of Michael Drayton lays f, that Speed's Reign of that prince was written 
 by our earl : others $ only fay, that his lordmip's collections were inferted 
 in it. 
 
 Others of his collections in four volumes folio, relating to Ireland, are in 
 the Bodleian library at Oxford. Others were fold by his executors to fir 
 Robert Shirley §. And feveral are in the library at Lambeth. 
 
 Sir James Ware fays, that this earl tranflated into Englifh a hiftory of the 
 affairs of Ireland, written by Maurice Regan, fervant and interpreter to Der- 
 mot, fon of Murchard king of Leinfter, in 1 171, and which had been turned 
 into French verfe by a friend of Regan ||. 
 
 A letter among the Harleian MSS. N° 1581, 76. 
 
 WILLIAM HERBERT, Earl of PEMBROKE. 
 
 T TIS character is not only one of the moll amiable in lord Clarendon's Hif- 
 tory, but is one of the belt % drawn: not being marked with any ftrong 
 lines, it diftinguifhes the delicacy of that happy pencil, to which the real 
 
 * Vide Ant. Wood, and Dugdale's Baronage. Regan. The fecond is a great curioGty; an ac- 
 count of Richard 2d, his laft journey to Ireland: 
 
 f Page 15. written by a French gentleman who accompa- 
 
 nied that king thither in 1399, and tranflated in- 
 
 X Gen. Diet. vol. ix. p. 324; Biogr. p. 1171. to Englifh by lord Totnefs. In the preface to 
 
 the fame book it is faid, that 42 volumes of col- 
 
 § Dugdale, vol. ii. p. 423. lections relating to the affairs of Ireland, with 
 
 maps of the whole country, are in the library at 
 
 || Vide Hid. of Irifh writers, p. 2o; and Hiber- Lambeth, and four more in the Cottonian. The 
 nica, a thin folio, publifhed at Dublin, 1747, by Frenchman's whole account is in the Mufeum. 
 Walter Harris. It contains eleven tracts, of which 
 
 the Grfl. is the hiftory above mentioned of Maurice ^ Hilt, of the Rebellion, vol. i. p. 57. 
 
 Y y 2 pencil 
 
34* NOBLE' AUTHOR S. 
 
 pencil rauft yield of the renowned portrait-painter of that age. — Vandyke 
 little thought, when he drew fir Edward Hyde, that a greater matter than 
 himfelf was fitting to him. They had indeed great refemblance in their man- 
 ners ; each copied nature faithfully.. Vandyke's men are not all of exact 
 height and fymmetry,.of equal corpulence; his women are not Madonnas or 
 Venuses : the likenefs feems to have been ftudied. in all, the character in 
 many: his dreffes are thofe of the times.. The hiftorian's fidelity is as re- 
 markable ; he reprefents the folds and plaits, the windings and turnings of 
 each character he draws; and though he varies the lights and (hades as would 
 beft produce the effect he defigns, yet his colours are never thofe of imagina- 
 tion, nor difpofed without a lingular propriety. Hampden is not painted iir 
 the armour of Brutus, nor would Cromwell's mafk fit either Julius or 
 Tiberius. 
 
 4 ' The earl of Pembroke," fays another writer *, " was- not only a great 
 favourer of learned and ingenious men, but was himfelf learned, and endowed 
 to admiration with a poetical geny,. as by thofe amorous and not inelegant' 
 aires and poems of his compofition doth evidently appear; fome of which had 
 mufical notes fet to them- by Henry L,awes and Nicholas Laneare." All that 
 he hath extant were publilhed with this title, 
 
 " Poems written, by William, earl: of Pembroke, &c. many of which are 
 anfwered by way of repartee by fir Benjamin Rudyard ; with other poems 
 written by them occafionally and apart." Lond. 1660, 8vo. They were 
 publiihed by doctor Donne, and dedicated by him to Chriftiana countefs dow- 
 ager of Devonfhire in. whole praife many of the pieces in- that collection 
 were written. 
 
 Among the Conway Papers is a pretty letter from this earl to the duke of 
 Buckingham on the mifcarriage at the ifle of Rhee. 
 
 Others among the Harleian MSS. N° 1581, no; N° 7002.. 
 
 * Wood's Athena, vol. i. p. 546. fir William Temple in 1667, tells him, that the 
 
 f She was the patronefs of men of genius, par- old countefs of Devonfhire's houfe was Mr. Wal- 
 ticularly of Waller: the lord Lille, in a letter to ler's chief theatre. Fentoris notes on WaVer^ p.xlv* 
 
 And 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 349 
 
 A )ul one of humour, publimed with fome papers of ftatc by fir David 
 Dalrymple, 1762. 
 
 Sir DUDLEY CAR LET ON, Viscount 
 DORCHESTER, 
 
 TS little known but in his capacity of minifter to foreign courts, for which 
 he feems to have been well qualified; but by his lubfervience to his maf- 
 ters and to his patron the duke of Buckingham one fhould have thought he 
 had imbibed his prerogative-notions , as embaffadors are a little apt to do, 
 in other fchools than Holland and Venice where he was chiefly refident. His 
 negotiations have been lately prefented to the public \ a munificence it might 
 oftener, but never mould without gratitude receive. It was not the fault of 
 the minifter or of the editor that thefe tranfactions turned chiefly on the lynod 
 of Dort. It is always curious to know what wars a great monarch waged ; 
 fir Dudley would probably have been glad to negotiate in earneft the interefts 
 of the Palatinate ; but the king had other bufinefs to think of than the pre- 
 fervation or ruin of his children — while there was a chance that the dyer's 
 fon Vorftius might be profeffor of divinity at Leyden, inftead of being burnt, 
 as his majefty hinted to the chriflian prudence \ of the Dutch that he deferved 
 to be, our embaffadors could not receive inftruclions, and confequently could 
 not treat, on any other bufinefs. The king, who did not refent the maffacre 
 at Amboyna, was on the point of breaking with the States for fupporting a 
 man who profeffed the herefies of Enjedinus, Oftodorus, &c. points of ex- 
 treme confequence to Great Britain ! Sir Dudley Carleton was forced to 
 threaten the Dutch, not only with the hatred of king James, but alfo with 
 his pen. 
 
 This lord's writings are J, 
 
 * Vide hiftor. preface to the new edition of to the article VoRstius in the General Dii1ionary r 
 his Letters, p. 20. vol. x. p. 36, where may be feen a fummary of this 
 
 •whole affair. 
 
 f They are the king's own words from his let- 
 ter in the Mexcure Francois. Vide marginal note \ Ant. Wood, vol. i. p. 563^ 
 
 " Balance 
 
35° 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " Balance pour pefer en toute equite & droicture la harangue faite n'agueres 
 en rafTemblee des illuftres et puiffans feignoures meffeigneurs les Eftats 
 Generaux des Provinces Unies du Pais Bas, &c." 1618, qu°. 
 
 " Harangue faite au counfeile de mefs. les Effats Generaux des Provinces 
 Unies, touchant le difcord & les troubles de Teglife & la police, caufes par la 
 doctrine d'Arminius." 6 Oct. 161 7, ftil. nov. Printed with the former. 
 
 " Various letters in the Cabala." 
 
 " Others in the Harleian collection. " 
 
 " Several French and Latin letters to Voffius," printed with Voffius*.; 
 epiftles. Lond. 1690, fol. 
 
 li Speeches in parliament," printed in Rum worth's colledrions* 
 
 *' Explanation of a fpeech *.'* 
 
 " Memoirs for difpatches of political affairs relating to Holland and Eng- 
 land, 1 61 8, with feveral proportions made to the States." MS. 
 
 " Particular obfervations of the military affairs in the Palatinate and the 
 Low-countries, annis 1621 & 1622." MS. 
 
 " Letters relating to ftate -affairs written to the king and vifcount Ro- 
 chefter from Venice, ann. 16 13." MS. 
 
 " Letters from and to fir Dudley Carleton, knt. during his embaffy in 
 Holland from January 161 5-16, to December 1620, with a judicious hiftori- 
 cal preface." Lond. 1757, qu°. This is the collection mentioned above, 
 
 '* A letter to the earl of Salifbury f." 
 Cowley wrote an elegy on his death. 
 
 * Harleian Colle&ion, 160, 12. f Howard's Coll. p. 513. 
 
 6 EDWARD 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 35I 
 
 EDWARD CECIL, Viscount WIMBLETON, 
 
 /t MARTIAL lord in the reigns of king James and king Charles, followed 
 the wars in the Netherlands for the fpace of thirty-five years, and was 
 a general of great reputation till his mifcarriage in the expedition to Cales. 
 He was fecond fon of the earl of Exeter, and erandfon of Burleieh. Kino- 
 Charles made him of his privy-council, governor of Portfmouth, and a peer. 
 He has barely a title to this Catalogue, and yet too much to be omitted : in 
 the king's library are two tracts in manufcript drawn up by his lordmip *, 
 one entitled 
 
 " The lord vifcount Wimbleton his method how the coafts of the kino;dom 
 may be defended againft any enemy, in cafe the royal navye fhould be other- 
 wife employed or impeached, 1628." 
 
 As I am unwilling to multiply authors unneceffarily, it will be fufficient 
 to mention, that in the fame place is another paper on the fame fubject with 
 a noble name to it, and called 
 
 " f The opinion of the lord Gray, fir John Norris, &c. for the de- 
 fence of the realm againfl invafion, 1588." 
 
 Our peer's other piece is entitled 
 
 " Lord vifcount Wimbledon's demonftration of divers parts of war ; efpe- 
 cially of cavallerye 
 
 Among the Harleian MSS. are the following : 
 
 " Letter to the king, 30 Ocl. 1635, that the navy and army are in rea- 
 dinefs for the attempt on the coaft of Spain. Alfo his journal. And his an- 
 
 * Cafley's Catalogue, p. 276, % lb. 283. There is a letter from Camden to 
 
 this lord, who had ccnfulted him upon fome pre- 
 -j- lb. 281. cedent of difcipline. Camdeni, isfc. Etiji. p. 3^1. 
 
 fwer 
 
352 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 • fwer to the colonel's objections : together with a lift of the mips fent with 
 him. And alfo his inftructions V 
 
 " Others to prince Henry f ." 
 
 " Speech made by fir E. Cecil in the lower houfe of parliament, 1 620, con- 
 cerning the necefTary meafures to be taken againft the defigns of Spain J." 
 
 " A letter to fir Simonds Dewes 
 
 Among the Conway Papers is a fcheme " For the freeing the Palatinat by 
 armes, &c." 
 
 There is extant befides in print, 
 
 " The anfwer of the vifcount Wimbledon to the charge fj of the earl of 
 EfTex and nine other colonels at the council-table, relating to the expedition 
 againft Cales f 
 
 " Some letters in the Cabala," 
 
 " A letter to the mayor of Portsmouth, reprehending him for the towns- 
 men not pulling off their hats to a ftatue of king Charles which his lordfliip 
 had erected there ; and taking notice that the figns of their inns obfcured 
 and outfaced his majefty's image**," 
 
 * Vide Catal. N° 3638, art. 12, 
 
 f lb. N° 7007. 
 
 t lb. N c 6799, 2. 
 
 5 lb. N° 287, art. 136. - 
 
 j| The charge itfelf is in the fame p]ace, 
 N* 6807, 16. 
 
 51 It is printed at the end of lord Lanfdown's 
 works, lord "Wimbledon being fuppofed to be af- 
 fifted in it by fir Richard Greenvile. Vide the 
 Life of the latter in the Biogr. Brit. vol. iv. The 
 journal of this voyage, with all the in(lru£tions, 
 letters, &c is among the Harh MSS. N° 354, 
 art. 34. 
 
 ** Printed among the Stafford Papers, vol. i» 
 p. 491. 
 
 As 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 353 
 
 As we have few memoirs of this lord, I mall be excufed for inferring a 
 curious piece in which he was concerned. It is a warrant of Charles the 
 firft, directing the revival of the old Englifh march; as it is frill in ufe with 
 the foot. The MS. was found by the prefent earl of Huntingdon in an old 
 cheft; and as the parchment has at one corner the arms of his lordfhip's pre- 
 deceffor, then living, the order was probably lent to all lords lieutenants of 
 counties. 
 
 Signed, Charles Rex. 
 
 " Whereas the ancient cuftome of nations hath ever bene to ufe one cer- 
 taine and conftant forme of march in the warres, wherebv to be diftinguhhed 
 one from another. And the march of this our Englifh nation, fo famous in 
 all the honourable atchievements and glorious warres of this our kingdome 
 in forraigne parts [being by the approbation of Grangers themfelves confeft 
 and acknowledged the beft of all marches] was thorough the negligence 
 and carelefnefs of drummers, and by long difcontinuance fo altered and 
 changed from the ancient gravitie and majeftie thereof, as it was in danger 
 utterly to have bene loft and forgotten. It pleafed our late deare brother 
 prince Henry to revive and recline the fame, by ordayning an eftablilhrnent 
 of one certaine meafure which was beaten in his prefence at Greenwich anno 
 1610. In confirmation whereof, wee are gracioufly pleafed at the inftance 
 and humble fute of our right trufty and right well beloved coufin and coun- 
 fellor Edward vifcount Wimbledon, to fet down and ordaine this prefent 
 eftablimment hereunder expreffed. Willing and commanding all drummers 
 within our kingdome of England and principalitie of Wales exactly and pre- 
 eifely to obferve the fame, as well in this our kingdome, as abroad in the 
 fervice of any forraigne prince or ftate, without any addition or alteration 
 whatfoever. To the end that fo ancient, famous and commendable a cuf- 
 tome may be preferved as a patterne and precedent to all pofteritie. Given 
 at our palace of Weftminfter the feventh day of February in the feventh, 
 yeare of our raigne of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland." 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 The 
 
 \ 
 
354 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 The Voluntary before the March 
 
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 Pou tou pou tou Jiou R Jiou tou Jiou Jiou tou Jiou R Jioung 
 
 THE MARCH 
 
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 Pou 
 
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 Jioung 
 
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 R R R Jiou R R Jwu tou Jiou R tou Jiou R Jioung Jiotang 
 
 Subfcribed Arundcll & Surrey 
 
 This is a true Cojiie of the Original! Signed by his Maj ri . e 
 
 Ed Norgatc Windfor 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 355 
 ROBERT CAREY, Earl of MONMOUTH, 
 
 \X7AS a near relation of queen Elizabeth, but appears to have owed his 
 preferment to the difpatch he uled in informing her iucceffor of her 
 death. Her majefty feems to have been as little fond of advancing her re- 
 lations by the mother, as (lie was folicitous to keep down thole who partook 
 of her blood-royal*. The former could not well complain, when me was 
 fo indifferent even about vindicating her mother's fame. This will excule 
 our earl Robert's ariiduity about her heir, which indeed he relates himfelf 
 with great limplicity. The queen treated him with much familiarity: yifit* 
 ing her in her lad illnefs, and praying that her health might continue, fhe 
 took him by the hand and wrung it hard and laid, " No, Robin, I am not 
 well," and fetched not fo few as forty or fifty great fighs, which he profelTes he 
 never knew her to do in all his life-time, but for the death of the queen of 
 
 Scots. He found lhe would die. " I could not, fays he, but think in 
 
 what a wretched eftate I Ihould be left, molt of my lively hood depending on 
 her life. And hereupon I bethought myfelf with what grace and favour I 
 was ever received of the king of Scots, whenfoever I was lent to him. I did 
 allure myfelf it was neither unjult nor unhoneft for me to do for myfelf, if 
 God at that time Ihould call her to his mercy." Thefe words are taken from 
 an account of that princefs's death, publilhed by doctor Birch among fir 
 Thomas Edmonds's papers, and are extracted from the only work of this 
 earl, viz. 
 
 " Memoirs of his own life;" publilhed in 1759, by John earl of Cork and 
 Orrery j\ 
 
 * Yet the gallantry of his behaviour, particu- mouth's defcendents. One day that Charles I. 
 larly againft the Spaniards when their famous was gone to hunt, Harry Jermyn was in private 
 armada was defeated, would have warranted her with the queen. The king returned unexpeft- 
 in being lefs fparing of her favours to him. His edly, and went to the queen's apartment: lord 
 portrait is preferved in one of the borders of the Monmouth, who knew who was there, pretended 
 tapeftry hangings which record that great event, to fall up flairs, as he lighted the king, and by 
 
 putting out the candles, and by the noife of his 
 
 f Dr. Birch told me a renarkable anecdote, fall, gave Jermyn notice to efcape. If this anec- 
 not mentioned in thefe memoirs (which do not dote is genuine, it is plain that the earl of Mon- 
 go down fo late in time), but which he learned mouth had not in his old age loft his prefence of 
 from a tradition preferved by the earl of Mon- mind in making his court. 
 
 Z z 2 A letter 
 
356 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 A letter to his father, in which he relates the queen's anger againft the 
 latter, expreffed in a full oath, is preferved in the Harl. coll. N° 6993, 
 art. 36. 
 
 HENRT MONTAGU, Earl of 
 MANCHESTER, . 
 
 TTTAS grandfon of fir Edward Montagu, lord chief juftice of the King's- 
 bench in the reign of Edward the lixth, and was father of the lord 
 Kimbolton, who with five members of the houfe of commons was fo remark- 
 ably accufed by king Charles the firfr. Earl Henry was bred a lawyer, and 
 rofe fwiftly through moft of the ranks of that profemon to fome of the great- 
 eft honours of the flate and peerage : his preferments are thus enumerated by 
 Lloyd in his State-worthies*; ferjeant at law, knight, recorder of London, 
 lord chief juftice of the King's-bench, lord treafurer of England +, baron of 
 Kimbolton, vifcount Mandeville, prefident of the council, earl of Manches- 
 ter, lord privy- feal. Lord Clarendon has drawn his character J. He lived 
 to a very great age, and wrote a book called 
 
 " Manchefter al mondo, or meditations on life and death." 
 
 A letter of his, much commended, to his fon abbot Walter Montagu, oh 
 the latter's changing his religion, is preferved among the Harleian MSS. § 
 and another in N° 7001. 
 
 ROBERT GREVILE, Lord BROOKE, 
 
 TlyTADE a figure at the beginning of the civil war, and probably was a 
 man of great virtue ; for the royalifr, writers condefcend to fay, that if 
 
 * Page 1027. ceivedthe white flick. Howell's Letters^ feci. 3. 
 
 p. 116. 
 
 ■j- He bought his ftaff of the countefs of Buck- 
 ingham for 2o,oool. yet was removed within $ Vol. i. pp. 54, 55. 
 the year. He was aflced, on his return to Lon- 
 don, " Whether he did not find wood extremely § £J° 1506, art. 8. 
 ,dear at Newmarket ?" It was there he had re- 
 
 -he 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS 
 
 357 
 
 he had lived a little longer, he would probably have fecn through the defigns 
 of his party and deferted them. This filly fort of apology has been made for 
 other patriots, and by higher writers than mere gcnealogifts, as if nothing 
 but the probability of a converlion could excufe thofe heroes who withflood 
 the arbitrary proceedings of Charles and his miniftcrs, and to whofe fpirit we 
 owe fo much of our liberty. Our antiquaries weep over the deftruction of 
 convents, and our hiftorians ligh for Charles and Laud ! But there is not the 
 leaf! reafon to fuppofe that this lord Brooke would have abandoned his prin- 
 ciples : lord Clarendon reprefents him as one of the moft determined of the 
 party ; and it is not probable that a man who was on the point of feeking 
 liberty in the forefts of America, would have deferted her banners when vic- 
 torious in her own Britain. He and the lord Say and Seal had actually 
 pitched upon a fpot in New England, whither they propofed to tranfport 
 themfelves, when the excefTes of the court threatened deftruclion to the free- 
 dom of their country. In 1635, the two lords fent over Mr. George Fen- 
 wicke to prepare a retreat for them and their friends ; in confequence of 
 which a little town was built, and called by their joint names Saybrook. 
 But a nobler fpirit arifing, the two lords refufed to the king's face to enter 
 into the engagement, which he propofed to the peers at York, of profeffions 
 of loyalty, and abhorrence of thofe he called rebels. Their lordfhips were 
 active in all the patriot meafures in the houfe of lords ; and the lord Brooke 
 exerted the utmoft fpirit and gallantry in the war that followed, though he 
 was one of the firft victims in the caufe of his country, being (hot in the eye 
 in 1643, as he was ltorming the church-clofe at Litchfield. It is lamentable 
 that my lord Clarendon fhould relate * gravely many remarks of the popu- 
 lace on his death, in their language called judgments. Lord Brooke it feems 
 had prayed aloud that very morning, " That if the caufe he was engaged in 
 were not juft and right, he might inftantly be cut off." — Had lord Clarendon 
 mentioned this as an inftance of lord Brooke's fincerity, it had been com- 
 mendable : but did the noble hiftorian fuppofe that the Ruler of the univerfe 
 inflicts hidden destruction as the way to fet right a confeientious man ? Alas ! 
 the hiftorian was not thinking of the Ruler of Heaven, but of thofe trumpery 
 vicegerents, who would indeed be more proper avengers of a royal caufe ! 
 He fays, " It was obferved that the day of lord Brooke's death was faint 
 Chadd's day. to whom Litchfield cathedral was formerly dedicated." My 
 
 * Vol. Hi. p. 149. 
 
 lord 
 
358 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 lord Clarendon with the majefty of Livy was not without his fu perfla- 
 tion. — The Roman had his holy chickens, and lord Clarendon his faint 
 Chadd * ! 
 
 Lord Brooke's works are, 
 
 " The nature of truth, its union and unity with the foul, which is one in 
 its efTence, faculties, acts, one with truth." Lond. 1640, 1 zmo. This was 
 addreiTed in a letter to his friend J. S. who published it with a preface. It 
 was anfwered in 1643 by John Wallis, a minifler in London, afterwards, 
 profeffor of geometry at Oxford. 
 
 " A difcourfe opening the nature of epifcopacy, which is exercifed in 
 England." Lond. 1641. Antony Wood fays his lordfhip was affiftecl there- 
 in by feme puritanical minifters. Milton, a better judge, commends it for 
 breathing the fpirit of toleration — which was not the fpirit of the puritans. 
 
 " Two fpeeches fpoken in the Guildhall, London, concerning his majef- 
 ly's refufal of a treaty of peace." Lond. 1642. 
 
 " Anfwer to the fpeech of Philip earl of Pembroke, concerning accom- 
 modation, in the houfe of lords, December 19, 1642." In one meet, quarto, 
 printed by order of the houfe ; re-printed in the collection of lord Somers's 
 tracts j\ 
 
 As the utmoft impartiality is intended in this treatife, it is right to ac- 
 quaint the reader, that this lord Brooke, with Roman principles, was not 
 without Roman prejudices, and grofs ones too. In this fpeech he declared 
 his approbation of fuch men in the parliament's army as would pioufly 
 have facrifced their own fathers to the commands of both houfes. Was a 
 
 * There are many of thefe ominous reflections one of his fermons ; though decently avoiding all 
 
 in the Athenas Oxonienfes : party could lower mention of lord Brooke, and paying that refpe& 
 
 my lord Clarendon's understanding to a level with to a noble family which he did not pay to his own 
 
 Antony Wood's. Vide Athen. vol. i. p. 523. common fenfe. 
 God's vengeance againft the profaners of faint 
 
 Chadd' s day is largely treated of by Dr. South in f Vol. i. page 16. 
 
 man 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 359 
 
 man pofTefXcd with fuch horrid enthufiafm on the point of changing his 
 party * ? 
 
 " Speech at the election of his captains and commanders at Warwick- 
 caftle." Lond. 1643. 
 
 Lord Keeper LITTLETON 
 
 T S fo fully defcribed by my lord Clarendon, and there are fo few f addi- 
 tional circumftances related of him eliewhere, that it would be an ufelef. 
 recapitulation to mention more than the lift of his compoiitions, which are, 
 
 " Several fpeeches J.*' 
 
 <l Several arguments and difcourfes." 
 
 " Reports in the Common-pleas and Exchequer." 
 
 " His humble fubmiflion and fupplication to the houfe of lords, Septem- 
 ber 28, 1642." Uncertain if genuine §. And 
 
 " Two letters ||." 
 
 * I leave this paflage as it flood in the former 
 editions, becaufe the juftice due to the character 
 of this patriot lord will appear in the ftronger co- 
 lours, when the cenfure extorted from me by the 
 appearance of truth is contrafted with the real 
 truth. In fact, his lordfhip never made the 
 fpeech in queflion. From the private hiftory of 
 the earl of Clarendon it at laft comes out, that 
 that fpeech was coined by the chancellor, who 
 feems ftruck with his own art, not with the 
 lengths to which party carried men in order to 
 blacken their antagonifts. One might excufe 
 what he did in the turbulence of factions ; one 
 wonders that he could coolly recollect fuch an 
 impofition fo many years afterwards, without 
 paying one repentant fy liable of apology to an in- 
 jured foe! — At Ieaft let it be my part to obferve, 
 
 that this fpeech, which he did not make, is the 
 worfl aft I can find recorded of lord Brooke. 
 See Life of lord Clarendon, fol. part ii. p. 70, 1 759. 
 
 f That good man bifhop Hall infinuates in his 
 HardMeajitre, p. 48, &c. that the keeper attempt- 
 ed to make his peace with the prevailing party, by 
 an untimely facrifice of the proteflation of the 
 bifhops. Vide Biogr. Brit.y. 2492. And who- 
 ever will examine vol. xi. pp. 46, 123, 199, of 
 that curious and ufeful work the Parliamentary 
 Hiftory, will find inftances of even more than 
 time-ferving or prevarication in the keeper. 
 
 % Wood, vol. ii. p. 83 ; and Harleian Collec- 
 tion, 161, 72. 
 
 § Wood, vol. ii. p. 83. 
 
 || Harl.Catal N° 286, art. 180; and 374,97. 
 
 AR THUR 
 
3 6o 
 
 NOBLE 
 
 AUTHORS. 
 
 ARTHUR Lord CAPEL 
 
 J T was a remarkable fcene exhibited on the fcaffold on which lord Cape! 
 
 fell : at the fame time was executed the once gay, beautiful, gallant earl 
 of Holland, whom neither the honours fhowered on him by his prince, nor 
 his former more tender connections with the queen, could preferve from be- 
 traying, and engaging againfr. both. He now appeared funk beneath the in- 
 dignities and cruelty he received from men, to whom and from whom he 
 had deferted — while the brave Capel, who, having fhunned the fplendour of 
 Charles's fortunes, had flood forth to guard them on their decline, trod the 
 fatal flage with all the dignity of valour and confcious integrity. 
 
 He wrote 
 
 " A book of meditations*," published after his death ; to which are added 
 a few of his letters f. Mr. Lort, of Trinity-college, Cambridge, has a copy 
 of this book, given by the duchefs dowager of Beaufort (lord Capel's daugh- 
 ter) to Francis Lowthorp in 1710 ; in which all the names are marked of 
 the perfons to whom they were addreffed. It is remarkable that the fpirited 
 remonftrance in behalf of the king, p. 109, was written to Oliver Cromwell, 
 and is fubfcribed, " Your moft affectionate friend." The firfr. edition, under 
 the title of " Daily obfervations or meditations divine and moral, written by 
 a perfon of honour and piety," was publifhed in 1654, without his name. 
 It was reprinted in 1685 with his life, and then entitled, " Excellent con- 
 templations divine and moral, written by the magnanimous and truly loyal 
 Arthur lord Capel, &c." 
 
 " Stanzas, written while he was prifoner in the Tower," publimed in the 
 Gentleman's magazine for February, 1757, p» 82.. 
 
 * Fuller in Herrfordfhire, p. 28. bernatio. Vide Catal. of Coronet-devices hi the 
 
 civil war, at the end of a thin pamphlet, called 
 His device was a fceptre and crown, or, on The Art of making Devices^ done into Englijh by. 
 a field azure, with this motto, Perfecliflima Gu- T. Blount ', 1648. 
 
 EDWARD 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 361 
 
 EDWARD Lord HERBERT of CHERBURY, 
 
 r\NE of the greateft ornaments of the learned peerage, was a man of a 
 martial fpirit and a profound underftanding. Pie was made knight of 
 the Bath when prince Henry was inftalled for the Garter ; and being fent em- 
 baffador to France to interpofe in behalf of the proteftants of that kingdom, 
 he returned the infolence of the great conftable Luynes with the fpirit * of a 
 gentleman, without committing his dignity of embaflador. It occafioned a 
 coolnefs between the courts, but the blame fell wholly on the conftable. In 
 1625 fir Edward was made a baron of Ireland, in 1631 of England, but in 
 the caufe of his country fided with its reprefentatives \. He died in 1648, 
 having written 
 
 " De veritate, prout diftinguitur a revelatione, a verifimili, a pofTibili, 
 a falfo. Cui operi additi funt duo alii traclatus ; primus, de caufis errorum ; 
 alter, de religione laici. Una. cum appendice ad facerdotes de religione 
 laici ; & quibufdam poematibus." It was tranflated into French, and printed 
 at Paris in quarto, in 1639. In this book tl author afferts the doctrine 
 of innate ideas. Mr. Locke, who has taken notice of this work, allows his 
 lordfhip to be a man of great parts. GafTendi anfwered it at the requefi of 
 Peirefc and Diodati, but the anlwer was not publifhed till after Gaffendi's 
 death. Baxter made remarks on the treatife De veritate, in his " More rea- 
 fons for the chriftian religion;" and one Kortholt, a foolifh German zealot, 
 took fuch offence at it, that he wrote a treatife entitled, ** De tribus impof- 
 toribus magnis, Edvardo Herbert, Thoma Hobbes, & Benediclo Spinofa, 
 liber %r 
 
 " De 
 
 * Dr. Donne wrote a poem to him when he % Gen. Did. vol. vi. p. 122; Wood, vol. ii. 
 was at the fiege of Juliers. Donne's worhs, p. 1 59. p. 1 18. In Leland's View of deiftical writers,vol.i. 
 
 f In the Parliamentary Hiftory it is faid, that p. 24, it is faid that there exifts a MS. life of this 
 lord Herbert offended the houfe of lords by a lord, drawn up from memorials penned by himfelf, 
 fpeech in behalf of the king, and that he attended in which is a molt extraordinary account of his 
 his majefty at York. Yet the very next year, lordfhip putting up a folemn prayer for a fign to 
 on a clofer infight into the fpirit of that party, he dire£t him whether he fhould publifh his treatife 
 quitted them, and was a great fufferer in his for- De veritate or not j and that he interpreted a fud- 
 tune from their vengeance. Vide Parliamentary den noife as an imprimatur. There is no ftronger 
 Hi/lory, vol. xi. pages 3, 87. character! ft ic of human nature than its being open 
 
 Vol. I. A a a to 
 
362 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " De religione gentilium, errorumque apud eos caufis." The firft part 
 was printed at London 1645, 8vo. and the whole in 1663, qu°. and re- 
 printed in 1700, 8vo. It was translated into Englifh by Mr. W. Lewis, 
 1705, 8vo. 
 
 " Expeditio Buckinghami ducis in Ream mfulam." Publimed by Tim. 
 Baldwin, LL. D. 1656, Lond. 8vo. 
 
 " Life and reign of Henry the eighth." Lond. 1649, I ^7 2 » an( ^ 1682, 
 Re-printed in Rennet's Compleat hiftory of England. The original MS. was 
 depofited by the author, in 1 643, in the archives of the Bodleian library. It 
 was undertaken by command of king James the firft, and is much efteemed : 
 yet one cannot help regretting that a man who found it neceffary to take up 
 arms againfr. Charles the firft, mould have palliated the enormities of Henry 
 the eighth, in companion of whom king Charles was an excellent prince. 
 It is flrange that writing a man's life mould generally make the biographer 
 become enamoured of his fubjecl ; whereas one mould think that the nicer 
 difquifition one makes into the life of any man, the lefs reafon one mould 
 find to love or admire him *. 
 
 " Occasional 
 
 t) the groflefl contradictions : one of lord Her- 
 bert's chief arguments againft revealed religion 
 is, the improbability that Heaven {hould re- 
 veal its will to only a portion of the earth, 
 which he terms particular religion. How could 
 a man who doubted of partial, believe indi- 
 vidual revelation ? What vanity to think his 
 book of fuch importance to the caufe of truth, 
 that it could extort a declaration of the Divine 
 will, when the intercils of half mankind could 
 not ! 
 
 * It appears from a letter to archbifhop Uflier, 
 from fir Henry Bourgchier, [afterwards earl of 
 Bath] that in 1629 he was gathering materials for 
 writing the hillory of Henry VIII. but there being 
 no traces of any fuch work extant, it is not im- 
 probable that he gave his collections to lord Her- 
 bert. This earl of Bath was a very fludious per- 
 fon and a great promoter of learning, as is evident 
 
 from feveral of his letters to the prelate above 
 mentioned 5 to whom he made an offer of pub- 
 lishing Dionyfius exiguus for him ; and he actu- 
 ally tranferibed for the prefs the Lives of David, 
 and Patrick by Giraldus Cambrenfis, of whofe 
 works he intended to give a complete edition. 
 We learn from the fame fource that he bought 
 Camden's library, and that he was in fome pub- 
 lic commifiion; but our biographers and genealo- 
 gifts are very defective in their accounts of him, 
 though both Dugdale and Sandford fpeak of him 
 with great encomiums. The latter fays he was 
 privy-feal to Charles I. and gives a draught of his 
 monument. Lord Clarendon mentions him three 
 or four times, but either (lightly or with ill-hu- 
 mour. In vol. i. p. 240, lord Bath is faid to 
 have no excellent or graceful elocution, for which 
 reafon a report drawn up by Mr. Hyde was read 
 to the lords by another perfon ; and in vol. iii. 
 
 p. 21, 
 
NOBLE 
 
 A U T H () R S. 
 
 3 6 
 
 *' Occafional poems." Lond. 1665, octavo. Publiihed by H. Herbert, 
 Iils younger ion, and by him dedicated to Edward lord Herbert, grandfon of 
 the author. 
 
 Others of his poems are difperfed among the works of other authors, par- 
 ticularly in Jomua Sylvefter's " Lacrym;e lacrymarum, or the fpirit of tear.- 
 diflilled for the untimely death of prince Henry." Lond. 161 3, quarto. 
 
 " His own life ;" mentioned in a preceding note: this fingulaf work was 
 printed from the original MS. in 1764, at Strawberry-hill, and is perhaps 
 the moft extraordinary account that ever was given ferioufly by a wife man of 
 himfelf. One knows not which is the more furprifing, that a man who had 
 lived in a duel mould write the book De veritate, or that, having written 
 that book, he mould record the former part of his life with fatisfaction and 
 lelf-applaufe. 
 
 In the library of Jefus college, Oxford, aqe preferved his lordlhip's hilto- 
 rical collections *» 
 
 In the Harlcian collection a letter, N° 286, art. 177 ; and four more in 
 N° 1581. 
 
 p. 21, lord Clarendon fays that the parliamenta- 
 rians took lord Bath prifoner, and treated him 
 with great hufhnefs and ignominy, " though he 
 neither had nor ever meant to do the king the lenjl 
 fcrvice ; but only out of the morofity of his own 
 nature had before exprefied himfelf not of their 
 minds" Some few circumftances, collected 
 chiefly from his lordfhip's own words, will evince 
 that there was fome private acrimony in thefe 
 reflections: for, not to mention the great friend- 
 linefs and modefty that appear in lord Bath's 
 letters to the archbifhop, I mult obferve, that 
 lord Clarendon himfelf names the earl among 
 the peers who bore tcftimony to the king's de- 
 claration of not defignirig to make war on the 
 parliament [a declaration fo irreconcileable with 
 
 their credit, that at leaft they muft be fuppofed to 
 have defigned to do the king feme fervice\ And in 
 another place lord Clarendon fays, the marquis 
 of Hertford was accompanied into the Weft by 
 the earl of Bath, " thought then to be in notabie 
 power and intereft in Devonshire;" — words, 
 which, though fpoken invidioufly, muft be meant 
 to undervalue the earl's influence, not his zeal. 
 There is another letter of this lord Bath, in 
 which he offers to ferve fir Simonds Dewes in 
 his induftrious fearch of antiquities. See Catal. 
 ofHarl. MSS. No. 374, art. 72. 
 
 * Vide Account of the antiquities and curiofi- 
 ties of Oxford, 1749, p. 100. 
 
 A a a 2 
 
 " A dialogue 
 
3^4 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " A dialogue on education, (fuppofed to be) written by lord Herbert,.^ 
 was publifhed by Bathoe, in quarto, May 19, 1768. 
 
 He is buried at faint Giles's in the Fields, but had erected an alleo-orical 
 monument for himfelf in the church of Montgomery, a defcription of which 
 is given by Lloyd *. His lordlhip had been indemnified by the parliament 
 for his caftle of Montgomery, which they thought proper to demolifh. 
 
 JAMES STANLEY, Earl of DERBY, 
 
 A MONG the fufFerers for king Charles the firft none caft greater luitre on 
 the caufe than this heroic lord, who feems to have been actuated by a ; 
 true fpirit of honour and dilintereftednefs. Some contracted great merit from 
 their behaviour in that quarrel; the conduct, and brave death of this lord were 
 but the conclufion of a life of virtue, accomplishments and humanity. 
 
 He wrote 
 
 " The hiftory and antiquities of the ifle of Man, [his own little kingdom] 
 with an account of his own proceedings and lolfes in the civil war : inter- 
 fperfed with fundry advices to his fon." It was not completed as he intend- 
 ed it, but is publifhed as he left it in Peck's Defiderata curiofaf. 
 
 But what did him greater honour was the fpirited anfwer he fent to Ireton, 
 who made him large offers if he would deliver up the ifland to him. Though 
 that letter has been % printed more than once, fuch a model of brave natural 
 eloquence cannot be thought tedious : 
 
 * Eng. Wort'nies, p. 1018. erton, 1745, p. 10; and in another In two vo- 
 
 lumes by Dodfley, 1755, vol. i. p. 1 90. There 
 
 f Vol. ii. lib. 1 1. are fome flight variations in the two copies, and 
 
 the former by miftake fuppofes the letter fent to 
 
 $ In a collection of letters printed by Bick- Cromwell inftead of Ireton. 
 
 " I received 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 365 
 
 w T Received your letter with indignation, and with fcorn return you 
 this anfwer ; that I cannot but wonder whence you fhould gather any 
 hopes that I mould prove like you, treacherous to my fovcreign ; fmce you 
 cannot he ignorant of my former actings in his late majefly's fervice, from 
 which principles of loyalty I am no whit departed.- I fcorn your proffers ; 
 I difdain your favour ; I abhor your treafon ; and am fo far from delivering 
 tip this ifland to your advantage, that I (hall keep it to the utmoft of my power 
 to your deftruclion. Take this for your final anfwer, and forbear any farther 
 folicitations; for, if you trouble me with any more meffages of this nature, 
 I will burn the paper and hang up the bearer. This is the immutable refolu- 
 tion, and ihall be the undoubted practice, of him who accounts it his cliiefe/l 
 glory to be his majefty's moil loyal and obedient fubject 
 
 DERBY." 
 
 M From Caftle-town this 
 1 2th of July, 1649." 
 
 JOHN DIGBT, Earl of BRISTOL, 
 
 TX7AS father of the celebrated lord Digby, and by no means inconfiderable 
 himfelf, though checked by the circumftances of the times from mak- 
 ing; fo great a fig-ure in various lig-hts, as fortune and his own talents feemed 
 to promife. Marked for a feafon as a favourite by king James, he was eclipfed 
 by the predominant luitre of the duke of Buckingham, and traverfed by the 
 fame impetuofity in his Spanifh negotiations, to which his grave and {lately 
 temper had adapted him. Being attacked by that over-bearing man, he re- 
 pelled and worried him; and fhone greatly among the difcontented in parlia- 
 ment : but the violences of that affembly foon difgufted his folemn difpofi- 
 tion; for he that was not fupple enough for a court, was by far too haughty 
 for popularity. He would have been a fuitable minifter for Auftrian phlegm, 
 or a proper patriot in a diet, which would have been content to proceed by 
 remonftrance and memorial. A mercurial favourite, and a military fenate,. 
 overfet him *. 
 
 In his youth he was a poet, and wrote 
 
 * Vide Clarendon, and Antony "Wood, vol. ii. p. 163. 
 
 a " Verfes 
 
366 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS, 
 
 " Verfes on the death of fir Henry Unton of Wadley, Berks." 
 
 " Other poems ;" one of which, an air for three voices, was fet by 
 H. Lawes, and published in his " Ayres and dialogues." Lond. 1653, foh 
 
 " A tracl wherein is fet down thofe motives and ties of religion, oaths, 
 laws, loyalty and gratitude, which obliged him to adhere unto the king in 
 the late unhappy wars in England." 
 
 " A tracl wherein he vindicates his honour and innocency from having in 
 any kind deferved that injurious and mercilefs cenfure of being excepted from 
 pardon or mercy either in life or fortunes." Thefe two pieces have the ge- 
 neral title of his Apology. 
 
 " An appendix to the firft tracl:," and printed together with both pieces, 
 and " Two of his fpeeches, at Caen, 1647:" thin folio. Reprinted 1656 : 
 quarto. 
 
 " Trad on the intended marriage of prince Henry." MS.'* 
 
 " Anfwer to the declaration of the houfe of commons, Feb. il, 1647, 
 againft making any more addreffes to the king." Caen, 1648, quarto. 
 
 <k An addition to the above." MS. 
 
 " Narrative of his embaffy to the emperor." MS. Had. Coll. 160. 
 
 " Several letters in the Cabala, and in the Harl. Collection, in vols. 160, 
 1580, 6799; and one in fir David Dalrymple's Memorials and letters of 
 fhite, fecond edit. 1766." 
 
 Tranflation of Peter du Moulin' s book, entitled " A defence of the 
 catholic faith, contained in the book of king James againft the anfwer of 
 N. Coeffeteau, &c." Lond. 1610. The dedication to the king is in the 
 name of J. Sandford, his chaplain. 
 
 " Speeches." MSS. Harl. Coll. 1579, 6799. 
 
 * Harl. Coll. N° 852, 5. 
 
 i ULICK 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 3 6 7 
 
 ULICK DE BURG II, Marquis of 
 CLANRICKARDE, and Earl of St. ALBANS. 
 
 TLX E was foil of the great earl of Clanrickarde by that remarkable woman 
 the lady Frances, fole daughter and hcirefs of fir Francis Walfinffham, 
 widow of fir Philip Sidney and of Robert earl of EfTex, and mother of the 
 generals of the parliament's army in England and of the king's army in Ire- 
 land, Robert the fecond earl of EfTex, and this lord Ulick, who is repre- 
 fented as a man of great honour, and, though a (ready Roman catholic *, was 
 a zealous fervant of the king againft the Irifli rebels, fucceeding the marquis 
 of Ormdnd in his lieutenancy and ill fuccefs. He loft an immenfe eftate-in 
 that kingdom ; and being obliged to fubmit to the fuperior arms of the par- 
 liament, he retired to England in 1657, and died within the year at his 
 houfe called Summer-hill, in Kent. He has left a large collection of papers 
 relating to the affairs of the Irifh rebellion : they were publithed imperfectly 
 at London in 1722, in ocravo, under the title of 
 
 " Memoirs of the right honourable the marquis of Clanrickarde, lord de- 
 puty of Ireland, containing feveral original papers and letters of king Charles 
 the fecond, the queen mother, the duke of York, the duke of Lorrain, the 
 marquis of Ormond, archbilhop of Tuam, lord vifcount TaafTe, &c. relat- 
 ing to the treaty between the duke of Lorrain and the Irifh commiffioners 
 from February 1650, to Auguft 1653. [^id to De ] Publifhed from his lord- 
 mip's original manufcript. To which is prefixed a dhTertation containing 
 feveral curious obfervations concerning the antiquities of Ireland." 
 
 But a complete edition has been lately given in folio, by the prefent earl, 
 called 
 
 " The memoirs and letters of Ulick marquis of Clanrickarde and earl of 
 St. Albans,, lord lieutenant of Ireland, and commander in chief of the forces; 
 
 * His mother turned papift after lord Effex's death. 
 
 of 
 
3 68 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 of king Charles the firft in that kingdom during the rebellion, governor of 
 the county and town of Galway, lord lieutenant of the county of Kent, and 
 privy counfellor in England and Ireland. Printed from an authentic matin- 
 icript, and now firft publifhed by the preterit earl of Clanrickarde. Lond. 
 1.757. With a dedication to the king, and an account of the family of 
 JDe Burgh." 
 
 The title of the new edition is more proper than the former, as it is in 
 reality little more than a collection of letters ft rung together to preferve the 
 
 connection. 
 
 HENRY CARET, Earl of MONMOUTH. 
 
 r FHE depreffion of the nobility after the death of Charles the firft threw 
 many of them into ftudious retirement ; of which number this fecond 
 earl of Monmouth * appears to have been the moft laborious. He feems to 
 have diftrufted his own abilities, and to have made the fruits of his ftudies 
 his amufement, rather than his method of fame. Though there are feveral 
 large volumes tranflated by him, we have fcarce any thing of his own com- 
 pofition ; and are as little acquainted with his character as with his genius. 
 Antony Wood -f, who lived fo near his time, and who tells us that the earl 
 was made a knight of the Bath at the creation of Charles prince of Wales in 
 1 61 6, profefles that he knows nothing more of him but the catalogue of his 
 works, and that he died in 1661. In fir Henry Chauncy's Hertfordfhire is 
 the infeription on his monument in the church at Rickmanfworth, which 
 mentions his living forty-one years in marriage with his counteis, Martha, 
 dau enter of the lord treafurer Middlefex. 
 
 There are extant of his lordfhip's no lefs than feven folios, two octavos, 
 and a duodecimo, befides the following 
 
 " Speech in the houfe of peers, Jan. 30, 1641, upon occafion of the pre- 
 fent diftractions, and of his majefty's removal from Whitehall." Lond. 1641. 
 
 * He had been excluded from fitting in par- prevailing party, as early as July 1642. 
 liament, and committed to the Tower, by the f Vol. ii. p. 257. 
 
 " Romulus 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 369 
 
 " Romulus and Tarquin, or, De principe et tyranno." Load. 1637, i2mo. 
 A tranflation from Marq. Virg. Malvezzi. Sir John Suckling has written a 
 copy of verfes in praife of this tranflation, printed in his Fragmenta aurea. 
 Lond. 1648. 
 
 " Hiftorical relations of the united provinces of Flanders." Lond. 1652, 
 folio. Tranflated from cardinal Bentivoglio. 
 
 " Hiftory of the wars in Flanders." Lond. 1654, folio. From the fame 
 author. Before this tranflation is the earl of Monmouth's picture ; and a 
 commendatory copy of verfes in Latin by Waller. 
 
 " Advertifements from Parnaflus in two centuries; with the politic touch- 
 ftone." Lond. 1656, folio. From Boccalini. 
 
 " Politic difcourfes, in three books." Lond. 1657, folio. The original 
 by Paul Paruta, a noble Venetian. To which is added, " A fliort dif- 
 courfe," in which Paruta examines the whole courfe of his life. 
 
 " Hiftory of Venice, in two parts ;" from the fame author. Lond. 1 658, 
 folio. ** With the wars of Cyprus," wherein the famous fieges of Nicofia 
 and Famagofta, and the battle of Lepanto are contained. 
 
 The ufe of the paffions." Lond. 1649, ^vo. With a long dedication 
 to Jefus Chrift by the original author, and a copy of verfes by the tranflator ; 
 and 
 
 " Man become guilty, or the corruption of his nature by fin." London. 
 Both written in French by J. Francis Senault. Before the latter is a buft of 
 the earl, engraved by Faithorne, who, when he took pains, was an admira- 
 ble engraver. 
 
 " The hiftory of the late wars of Chriflendom." 1 641, folio. I believe 
 ibis, which Wood fays he never faw, is the fame work with his tranflation 
 Vol. I. B b b of 
 
37Q 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 of " Sir Francis Biondi's hiftory of the civil wars of England, between the 
 
 houfes of York and Lancafter 
 
 His lordfhip began alfo to tranflate from the Italian, " Priorato's hiftory of 
 France," but died before he could finifh it. It was completed by William 
 Brent, efq. and printed at London, 1677. 
 
 MILD MAY FANE, Earl of 
 WESTMORLAND. 
 
 All I can fay of this lord is, that he wrote 
 
 " A very fmall book of poems," which he gave to, and is ftiil preferved 
 in, the library of Emanuel-college, Cambridge -f . 
 
 DUDLEY Lord NORTH, 
 
 T I ''HE third baron of this accomplifhed family, was one of the imeft gen- 
 tlemcti in the court of king James, but in fupporting that chara&er diffi- 
 pated and gamed away the greateft part of his fortune. In 1 645 he appears 
 to have acted with the parliament, and was nominated by them to the ad- 
 miniftration of the admiralty in conjunction with the great earls of Northum- 
 berland, EfTex, Warwick and others. He lived to the age of eighty-five, 
 the latter part of which he pafied in retirement, having written a fmall folio 
 of mifcellanies in profe and verfe, under this title, 
 
 " A foreft promifcuous of feveral feafons productions. In four parts." 
 1659. The profe, which is affected and obfeure, with many quotations and 
 allulions to fcripture and the claffics, confifts of effays, letters, characters in 
 the manner of fir Thomas Overbury, and devout meditations on his misfor- 
 
 ♦ Vide Biogr. Brit, page 2146-. printed in 1648, is one addrefled to this lord., 
 
 t Among the poems of Robert Herrick, efq. defiring him to print his. verfes. Page 200. 
 
 2 
 
 tunes* 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 37I 
 
 {vines. The verfe, though not very poetic, is more natural, and written 
 with the genteel eafe of a man of quality: a fpecimen of which, being very 
 fhort, I (hall produce *. 
 
 A I R. 
 
 " So full of courtly reverence, 
 
 So full of formal fair refpect, 
 Carries a pretty double fenfe, 
 
 Little more pleafing than neglect. 
 It is not friendly, 'tis not free ; 
 
 It holds a diftance half unkind : 
 Such diftance between you and me 
 
 May luit with yours, but not my mind. 
 Oblige me in a more obliging way ; 
 Or know, fuch over-acting fpoils the play." 
 
 There is one fet of a fort of fonnets, each of which begins with a fuccef- 
 five letter of the alphabet. 
 
 EDWARD SOMERSET, Marquis of 
 WORCESTER, 
 
 A PPEARS in a very different light in his public character, and in that of 
 author : in the former he was an active zealot; in the latter, a fantaftic 
 projector and mechanic — in both very credulous. Though literary charac- 
 ter be the intention of this catalogue, it is impoffible to give any idea of this 
 lord merely from the fole work that he has published, it being nothing more 
 than, fcarce lb much as heads of chapters. His political character is fo re- 
 markable, that it opens and makes even his whimficalnefs as a writer leis 
 extraordinary. In Ihort, this was the famous earl of Glamorgan, fo created 
 bv Charles the firft, while heir apparent to the maquis of Worcelter. He 
 was a bigoted catholic, but in times when that was no dif-recommendation 
 at court, and when it grew a merit. 33eing of a nature extremely enterprif- 
 ing, and u warm rovalifr, he was difpatched into Ireland by the king, — — 
 
 * Page 98. 
 
 B b b 2 
 
 Hera 
 
372 NOBLE AUTHOR S. 
 
 Here hiftory lays its finger, at leaft is interrupted by controverfy. The cen- 
 Curers of king Charles charge that prince with fending this lord to negotiate 
 with the Irifh rebel catholics, and to bring over a great body of them for the 
 king's fervice. The devotees of Charles would difculpate him, and accuie 
 the lord Glamorgan of forging powers from the king for that purpoie. The 
 fact ftands thus : the treaty was dilcovered * ; the earl was imprifoned by the 
 king's fervants in Ireland f , was difmiffed by them unpunifhed before the 
 king's pleafure was known. The parliament complained; the king difavow- 
 ed the earl, yet wrote to have any fentence againft him fufpended, renewed 
 his confidence in him ; nor did the earl ever leem to relent the king's difa- 
 vovval, which with much good-nature he imputed to the neceffity of his 
 majefry's affairs. This myfterious bufinefs has been treated at large in a book 
 publilhed in 1747; and again with an appendix, in 1756, called, "An 
 inquiry into the mare which king Charles the fir ft had in the tranfaclions of 
 the earl of Glamorgan, &c." It is there ftrenuoufly afferted againft Mr. 
 Carte that the king was privy to the negotiation. Seven years elapfed with- 
 out Mr. Carte's reply. Two months before he died, he was fuppofed to be 
 the author of an advertifement promifing an anfwer. From the treatife juft 
 mentioned it appears plainly that the king was at leaft far from difapproving 
 the attempt for his fervice ; that the oftener he difavowed it, the more faint- 
 ly he denied it ; and that his beft friends cannot but confefs that he had de- 
 livered blank warrants or powers to the earl ; and his majefty's own letters feem 
 to allow every latitude which the earl took, or could take, in filling them up. 
 Thus ftands the difpute. — 1 cannot help forming an opinion, which, with- 
 out reconciling, will comprehend what may be the ftrongeft fentiments on 
 either fide. With the king's enemies, I cannot but believe he commiffioned 
 the earl to fetch Irifh forces — with his favourers, I cannot think him fo 
 much to blame if he did. It requires very primitive refignation in a monarch 
 to facrifice his crown and his life, when perfecuted by fubjecls of his own feci, 
 rather than preferve both by the affiftance of others of his fubjecls, who dif- 
 fered from him in ceremonials or articles of belief |. The dreadful IriJJi pa- 
 
 * By the parliament of England. port, would but have a&ed as a pious princefs has 
 
 done fince, whom nobody will fufpe£l of tender- 
 \ See lord Digby's and Glamorgan's letters on nefs for heretics. — In the laft war the emprefs 
 this affair in the Pari. Hift. vol. xiv. p. 224. queen excufed herfelf to the pope, for making ufe 
 
 of the affiftance of England, with this remarkable 
 % Hismajefty, at leaft, in accepting their fup- expreffion, " Ces font des braves impies." 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 <-» n n 
 
 fitjfr t [and they certainly were horrid men] founded very pathetically in a 
 party rcmonftrance of the parliament : but when he was dipped in a civil 
 war, can we in this age leriouflyfmpute it to him as a crime that he endea- 
 voured to raife an army wherever he could r His fault was not in propoiing to 
 bring over the Irifh, but in having made them neceffary to his affairs. Every 
 body knew that he wanted to do without them, all that he could have don2 
 with them. He had found the crown in pofTeffion of greater power than is 
 fit to be milted in a fingle hand : he had exerted it to the utmofL Could a 
 man, who had ftretched every ftring of prerogative, content with a good 
 grace to let it be curtailed ? — I argue for the man, not for the particular 
 man. I think Charles to be pitied, becaufe few men in his fituation would 
 have acted better *. — I am fure if he had acted with more wildom it had been 
 worfe for us ! It required a noblenefs of foul and an effort of underfhmding 
 united, neither of which he polfefTed, to prefer the happinefs of mankind to 
 his own will. He had been bred in a palace ; what idea could that give him 
 of the wretchednefs of a cottage ? Befides, Charles did not delire to opprefs 
 the poor : he wanted to humble, perhaps to enflave fome free fpeakers in the 
 houfe of commons, who poffibly, by the bye, he knew were ambitious, in- 
 terefted, worthlefs men. He did not know, or did not reflect, that by en- 
 flaving or filencing twp or three hundred bad men, he would entail flavery 
 on millions of poor honeft men and on their pofterity. He did not confider, 
 that if he might fend a member to the Tower, an hundred of his fubaltern 
 minifters would, without his knowledge, fend a thoufand poor men to jail. 
 He did not know, that by his becoming king of the parliament, his lords, 
 nay, his very cuftom-houfe officers, would become the tyrants of the reft of 
 his fubjecls. How feldom does a crifis happen like that under Henry the 
 feventh, when the infolence of the little tyrants the nobility is grown to fuch 
 a pitch that it becomes neceffary for the great tyrant the king to truft liberty 
 in the hands of the commons, as a balance between him and his lords ! — It 
 is more ferioufly objected to Charles, that, to obtain their affifbmce, he grant- 
 ed terms to his catholic fubjecls very unfuitable to the character of a pro- 
 teftant martyr king, as he has been reprefented. Yet they are his friends 
 who give weight to this objection : if they would allow what was true, and 
 what appeared clearly from his majefty's letter, when prince, to pope Gre- 
 
 * Since this was publifhed Mrs. Macaulay has age in their religion, that not only his proteftant 
 proved fuch double-dealing on the king, and fuch piety becomes very equivocal, but I am obliged 
 conceflions to the catholics, even to confenting to own, that I hope few men would have acted fo 
 that his children fhould be educated to a certain ill in his fituation. 
 
 gory 
 
3 74 
 
 NOBLE A U T H*<3 R SL 
 
 gory v vth, that Charles had been originally not only not averfe to the Romifh 
 religion, but had thought the union of the two profeflions very practicable 
 and confident, it would ceafc to appear extraordinary, that he mould very 
 Feadily make concefftons to a party whom he believed his friends, in order to 
 prevent being forced to make conceflions to his enemies. With his princi- 
 ples, could Charles avoid thinking that it was better to grant great indul- 
 gences to catholic bilhops, than to be obliged to confent to the depreflion or 
 even mppreffion of epilcopacy in England ? The convocation itfelf perhaps 
 would -not have thought Charles much in the wrong. Yet it is certain that 
 the king fent orders to the marquis of Ormond to endeavour to difunite the 
 papills and turn their arms on one another, rather than grant them more in- 
 dulgences -*. In my opinion, a toleration to papifts is preferable to intrigues 
 for making them cut one another's throats- — But to return to Glamorgan. — 
 
 The king, with all his afFeclion for the earl, in f one or two letters to 
 . others mentions his want of judgment. — Perhaps his majefty was glad to 
 truil to his indifcretion. With that his lord/hip feems greatly furnilhed.. 
 We find him taking oaths upon oaths to the pope's nuntio, with promifes of 
 unlimited obedience both to his holincfs and his delegate ; and £ begging five 
 hundred pounds of the Irifh clergy to enable him to embark and fetch fifty 
 thou land pounds, like an alchemift, who demands a trifle of money for the 
 fecret of making gold. In another letter he promifes two hundred thoufand 
 crowns, ten thoufand arms for foot, two thoufand cafes of piftols, eight hun- 
 dred barrels of powder, and thirty or forty mips well provided I It is certain 
 that he and his father wafted an immenfe fum in the king's caufe; of all 
 which merits and zeal his majefty was fo fenfible, that he gave the earl the 
 moll: extraordinary patent that perhaps was ever granted §, the chief powers 
 of which were to make him generaliflimo of three armies, and admiral, with 
 nomination of his officers, to enable him to raife money by felling his ma- 
 jefty's woods, wardlhips, cuftoms, and prerogatives, and to create by blank 
 patents J|, to be filled up at Glamorgan's pleafure, from the rank of marquis 
 to baronet. If any thing could juftjfy the delegation of fuch authority, be- 
 
 * Pad. Hift.,vol. xiv. p. 05. 
 ■{• Birch's Inquiry, p. 124, 
 % lb. 219. 
 
 ^ Vide Collins's {Peerage in Beaufort. 
 
 || If the earl had abufed the king'9 power be- 
 fore, how came his majefty to truft him again i 
 to truft him with blank powers ? and of a na- 
 ture fo unknown ? The houfe of lords did cot 
 queftion the reality of the fecond commifiion, 
 which yet was more, incredible than the former ; 
 efpecially if the former had been forged. 
 
 fides 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 375 
 
 fides his majefty having loft all authority when he conferred it, it was the 
 promife with which the king concluded of beftowing the princefs Elizabeth 
 on Glamorgan's fon. It was time to adopt him into his family when he 
 had into his fovereignty *. This patent the marquis after the reftoration 
 gave up to the houfe of peers f. He did not long furvive that a^ra, dying in 
 1667, a ft er ne had publilhed the following amazing piece of folly : 
 
 " A century of the names and (bantlings of fuch inventions as at prefent I 
 can call to mind to have tried and perfected [my former notes being loft], 
 &c." Firft printed in the year 1663, and re-printed in 1746. It is a very- 
 lmall piece, containing a dedication to Charles the fecond ; another to both 
 houles of parliament, in which he affirms having, in the prefence of Charles 
 the firft, performed many of the feats mentioned in his book ; a table of con- 
 tents, and the work itfelf, which is but a table of contents neither, being a 
 lift of an hundred projects, moft of them impoffibilities, but all of which he 
 affirms having difcovered the art of performing. Some of the eafieft feem to 
 be, how to write with a lingle line ; with a point ; how to ufe all the fenfes 
 indifferently for each other, as, to talk by colours, and to read by the tafte ; 
 to make an unfinkable fhip ; how to do and prevent the fame thing ; how to 
 fail againft wind and tide ; how to form an univerfal character ; how to con- 
 verfe by jangling bells out of tune ; how to take towns, or prevent their be- 
 ing taken ; how to write in the dark ; how to cheat with dice ; and, in 
 fhort, how to fly. Of all thefe wonderful inventions the laft but one feems 
 the only one of which his lordfhip has left the fecret : and by two J of the 
 others, it appears that the renowned bifhop Wilkins was but the marquis's 
 difciple. — But perhaps too much has been laid on lb fantaftic a man. No- 
 
 * Among the Harl. MSS. N° 1470, art. 38, 
 is a copy of a Latin inftrument by this lord grant- 
 ing to L. Morgan, efq. of Gray's inn, the liberty 
 of bearing the portcullis, the creft of the houfe of 
 Somerfet, under the coronet of a marquis in an 
 inefcutcheon : and another fimilar, to Thomas 
 Bayly, efq. N° 1470, art. 145. This mark of 
 grandeur was common among our ancient nobi- 
 lity; the retainers of great families often bore the 
 arms of their patron, but with fome variation. 
 In the fame collection are inftances of even pri- 
 vate perfons who communicated their arms to 
 others. See No. 1178,41, 
 
 t In the New Peerage by Guthrie, under the 
 article of Somerfet duke of Beaufort, is inferted a 
 curious letter from the marquis, which looks as 
 if he had had a mind to retrieve his own for- 
 tunes, when he found his mafter's were defperate. 
 The author of the Peerage fufpe&s that the con- 
 fcioufnefs of this time-ferving weighed with the 
 marquis to fuiTender his patent. It might : but 
 without having forfeited his loyalty, can any man 
 fuppofe that he would have been permitted to 
 enjoy fuch extravagant powett ? ■ 
 
 % The univerfal chara&er, and the art of fly- 
 ing.. 
 
376 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 wonder he believed tranfubftantiation, when he believed that himfelf could 
 
 work iinpoffibilities ! 
 
 He publifhed befides, what he called, 
 
 " An exact and true definition of the moft ttupendious water-commanding 
 engine, invented by the right honourable (and defervedly to be praifed and 
 admired) Edward Somerfet lord marquis of Worcefter, and by his lordfhip 
 himfelf prefented to his moft excellent majefty Charles the fecond, our mod 
 gracious fovereign." It is a thin pamphlet in fmall quarto, of only 22 pages, 
 and fo far from a definition, it does not even contain a defcription of the en- 
 gine. There are indeed fome wonderful properties of it barely mentioned, 
 like thofe in his century. The remainder of the pamphlet is filled up with 
 an act of parliament, allowing him the monopoly of fuch an engine, and 
 referving the tenth of the profits to the king, though, as the act expreffes it, 
 on the marquis's limple affirmation of the diicovery he had made ; with four 
 wretched verfes of his own in commendation of his invention, with the Exegi 
 monumentum of Horace, and the Barbara pyramidum fileat of Martial, and 
 with fome Latin and Englifh verfes panegyricizing the noble inventor, by 
 James Rollock, an old dependent on his lordfhip. 
 
 As I would by no means fwell this catalogue unnecefTarily, I lhall under 
 the article of this marquis of Worcefter fay a little of his father, in whofe 
 name two or three pieces are publifhed, and yet without conffituting him an 
 author. 
 
 He appears to have been a worthy and difinterefted man living with 
 credit and character at his caftle of Ragland during the peaceable part of king 
 Charles's reign, and defending it for him at his own expence till the very 
 conclufion of the war, it being the laft garrifon that furrendered. The mar- 
 quis, the richeft of the peers, fpent his fortune in the caufe, and died a pri- 
 foner foon after the demolition of his caftle, the articles of the capitulation 
 having been violated. One doctor Thomas Bayly, fon of the author of The 
 practice of piety, had found his lordfhip in the Welfh mountains, had given 
 him ferviceable information of the approach of the enemy; and having been 
 witnefs to fome converfations on religion between the king, who was twice 
 
 Antony Wood, vol. ii. pages 98, 99, 100. 
 
 4 
 
 fheltered 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 377 
 
 iheltcred at Ragland, and the marquis, who had early embraced the catholic 
 religion, doctor Bayly, as preparatory to his own fubfequent change, pub- 
 lifhed, in the year 1649, a book called 
 
 " Certamen religiofum *, or a conference between king Charles the firft, 
 and Henry late marquis of Worcefter, concerning religion, in Ragland-caf- 
 tle, 1646." This piece gave great offence, and was anfwered by Hamon 
 L'Eftrangc, by Chriftopher Cartwright of York, and by an adver'rifement of 
 doctor Heylin, the editor of king Charles's works, wherein they afferted that 
 the conference was the fi&ion of Bayly, and had nothing refembling his 
 majefty's ftyle. Bayly returned abufe on Heylin in another book, called 
 " Herba parietis ;" and to afcertain the capacity of the marquis for fuch a 
 controverfy, which had been called in queftion, he publifhed 
 
 " The f golden apothegms ,of king Charles the firft, and Henry marquis 
 of Worcefter, &c." Lond. 1660, in one meet in quarto. In another place 
 Wood I calls this little piece 
 
 " Worcester's apothegms, or witty fayings of the right honourable Henry 
 late marquis and earl of Worcefter, &c." In both places Wood fays this 
 was borrowed from the work of an anonymous author, called 
 
 " Witty apothegms delivered at feveral times, and upon feveral occafions, 
 by king James the firft, king Charles the firft, the marquis of Worcefter, 
 Francis lord Bacon, and fir Thomas More." Lond. 1650, 8vo. 
 
 What wit there was in king James's bon-mots we pretty well know : 
 having never feen the collection in queftion, I can only judge of the mar- 
 quis's wit from a faying recorded by Antony Wood. His lordfhip being 
 made prifoner was committed to the cuftody of the black-rod, who then 
 lived in Covent-garden : the noble marquis, fays his hiftoriographer §, de- 
 manded of doctor Bayly and others in his company, What tkey thought of 
 
 * Ant. Wood, vol. i. p. 568. % Vol. ii. p. 99. 
 
 f lb. p. 569. § Ibid. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 C c c 
 
 fortune- 
 
37§ 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 fortune-telkrs? It was anfwered, That fome of them /poke Jlirewdly. Where- 
 upon the marquis faid, " It was told me by fome of them, before ever I was 
 a catholic, that I mould die in a convent ; but I never believed them before 
 now ; yet I hope they will not bury me in a garden !" — I am not eager to fee 
 
 more proofs of his capacity ! 
 
 GEORGE MONCKE, Duke of ALBERMARLE. 
 
 r JTHIS memorable man, who raifed himfelf by his perfonal merit within 
 reach of a crown, which he had the prudence or the virtue to wave, 
 whole being able to place it on the head of the heir is imputed to aftonifhing 
 art or fecrecy, when in reality he only furnimed a hand to the heart of a 
 nation ; and who, after the greateft fervices that a fubjecl could perform, 
 either wanted the fenfe*, or had the fenfe to diftinguifh himfelf no farther;, 
 [for perhaps he was Angularly fortunate in always embracing the moment of 
 propriety] this man was an author ; a light in which he is by no means 
 known, and yet in which he did not want merit. After his death was pub- 
 lished by authority a treatife in his own profeffion, which he compofed while 
 a prifoner in the Tower : it is called 
 
 " Obfervations upon military and political affairs, written by the molt 
 honourable George duke of Albermarle, &c." A fmall folio, Lond. 1671. 
 Befides a dedication to Charles the fecond, figned John Heath, the editor * r 
 it contains thirty chapters of martial rules interfperfed with political obferva- 
 tions, and is in reality a kind of military grammar. Of the fcience I am no 
 judge : the remarks are fhort, fenfible and pointed. Armour was not yet in 
 difufe : he tells his young galants f, " That men wear not arms becaufe they 
 
 * The foolifh author of a life of Mo'ncke, in 
 the Bicgraphia Britannica, mentions three accu- 
 fations brought againfl him by Burnet, which, 
 fays that writer, is alrnofl fnfTicient to overthrow 
 them. The fame perfon, defending the abilities 
 of the general againfl: the bifhop, urges, that as 
 Moncke pafied through London after the fire, the 
 mob cried out, that if his grace had been there 
 the city had not been burned; and produces this 
 
 as a proof of their opinion of his capacity. Un- 
 doubtedly the opinion of the mob, efpecially 
 when delivered in fo egregious an abfurdity, is 
 excellent authority ! One cannot wonder that a 
 man who quotes the mob and their nonfenfe, 
 fliould undervalue the veracity and good fenfe of 
 the prelate. 
 
 f Page 23. 
 
 are 
 
/ 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 379 
 
 arc afraid of danger, but becaufe they would not fear it." I mention this to 
 mow his manner. He gives an odd reafon for the life of pikes, preferable to 
 fwords; " that if you arm your men with the latter, half the fwords amongft 
 the common men will on the firft march be broken with cutting boughs *•." 
 
 We have befides 
 
 " The fpeech of general Moncke in the houfe of commons concerning the 
 fettling the conduct of the armies of the three nations for the fafety thereof f 
 
 " Speech and declaration of his excellency the lord general Moncke, de- 
 livered at Whitehall, February 21, 1659, to the members of parliament at 
 their meeting,"before the re-admimon of the formerly fecluded members 
 
 " Letter to Jervafe Pigot §." 
 
 " Letters written by general Moncke relating to the reftoration ||." Lon- 
 don, 1 714-15. 
 
 CHARLES STANLEY, Earl of DERBY, 
 
 A PEER of whom extremely little is known. His father loft his head, and 
 he his liberty, for Charles the fecond. The grateful king rewarded the 
 fon with the lord-lieutenancies of two counties. He has written a piece of 
 controverfy, the title of which is 
 
 " The proteftant religion is a fure foundation of a true chriftian and a 
 good fubje£t, a great friend to human fociety, and a grand promoter of all 
 virtues, both chriftian and moral. By Charles earl of Derby, lord of Man 
 and the ifles." Lond. 1671, the fecond edition ; a very thin quarto. 
 
 This piece contains a dedication " To all fupreme powers, by what titles 
 foever dignified or diftinguimed, /. e. to emperors, kings, fovereign princes, 
 
 * Page 27. § Peck's Defid. Curi. vol. i. lib. vi. p. 16. 
 
 f Vide Buckingham's Works, vol. i. p. 344. || Harl. Catal. vol. iv. p. 585. 
 % Somers's Traces, third coll. vol. ii. p. 155. 
 
 x ' C c c 2 republics, 
 
3 8c NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 republics, <Scc." An epiftle to the reader ; another longer on the fecond edi- 
 tion ; and the work itfelf, which is a dialogue between Orthodox, a royalifr, 
 and Cacodremon, one popifhly affected. His lordmip is warm againft the 
 church of Rome, their cafuifts, and the jefuits ; and feems well- read in tife 
 fathers and in polemic divinity, from both which his ftyle has adopted much 
 acrimony. At the end of this tract, is another, called " Truth triumphant, 
 in a dialogue between a papift and a quaker, wherein (I fuppofe) is made 
 manifeft that quaking is the offspring of popery ; at the lealt, the papifb and 
 the quaker are [fratres uterini] both of one venter." This lord died in 1672. 
 His father, as has been laid, was the brave James earl of Derby ; his mother, 
 the heroine who defended Latham-houfe, grand-daughter of the great prince 
 of Orange : a compound of proteftant heroifm that evaporated in controverfy. 
 
 EDWARD MONTAGU, Earl of SANDWICH, 
 
 A WELL known-character in our hifbory, and one of the molr beautiful in 
 any hiftory. He ihone from the age of nineteen, and united the quali- 
 fications of general, admiral and ftatefman. All parties, at a time when 
 there was- nothing but parties, have agreed that his virtues were equal to his 
 valour and abilities. His few blemifhes are not mentioned here, but as a 
 proof that this elogium is not a phantom of the imagination. His advifing 
 the Dutch war was a fatal error to himfelf, and might have been fo to his 
 country and to the liberty of Europe. His perfuading Cromwell to take the 
 crown was an unaccountable infatuation, cfpecially as his lordmip was fo 
 zealous afterwards for the reftoration. It feems he had a fond and inexplica- 
 ble pafiion for. royalty, though he had early acted againft Charles the firit. 
 The earl admired Cromwell ; yet could he imagine that in any light a diadem 
 would raife the protector's chara£ter ? Or how could a man who thought 
 Cromwell deferved a crown,, think that Charles the. fecond deferved one ? 
 If his lordfhip fuppofed Englim minds fo framed to monarchy, that they 
 mint recoil to it, was Cromwell a man to be tender of a conftitution, which 
 Charles the firir. had handled too roughly * ? The earl's zeal for reftoring 
 
 Charles 
 
 * It is often urged with great empliafis, 'chat that form of government may be changed for a 
 when a nation has been accultomed for ages to time] always revert to it. No argument feems to 
 iciue particular form of government, it will [tho' me to have lefs folidity ; for unlcfs the climate, , 
 
 the 
 
/ 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 381 
 
 Charles the fecond could not flow from any principle of hereditary right; for 
 he had contributed to dethrone the father, and had offered the fon's crown to- 
 the ufurper. Lord Sandwich was facrificed by another man having as weak 
 a partiality for royal blood : his vice-admiral, fir Jofeph Jordan, thought the 
 duke of York's life better worth preferving, and abandoned the earl to the 
 Dutch firefhips ! 
 
 It is remarkable that admiral Montagu was the Iaft commoner who was 
 honoured with the garter, except one man, to whofe virtues and merit may 
 fome impartial pen do as much juftice, as I have fatisfaction in rendering to 
 this great perfon ! 
 
 We have of his lordfhip's writing, 
 
 " A letter to fecretary Thurloe*." 
 
 " Several letters during his embafTy to Spain ;" published with Arlington's 
 letters. A great character of thefe di-fpatches is given in the Lives of the 
 admirals 
 
 " Original letters and negotiations of fir Richard Fanfhaw, the earl of 
 Sandwich, the earl of Sunderland, and fir William Godolphin, wherein di- 
 vers matters between the three crowns of England, Spain and Portugal, from 
 the year 1663 to 1678, are fet in a clear light." Two vols. 8vo- 
 
 * Others among the Harleian MSS. N° 7010." 
 
 And a lingular tranflation called 
 
 " The art of metals, in which is declared the manner of their generation, 
 and the concomitants of them. In two books. Written in Spaniih by 
 
 the air, and the foil of a country can imbibe ha- 
 bits of government or infufe them, no country- 
 can in reality have been accuftomed to any fort of 
 government but during the lives of its adual in- 
 habitants. Were men, born late in the reign of 
 Chafes the firft, bred to entertain irradicable 
 prejudices in favour of royalty ? It is fuppofed 
 that no country is fo naturally propenfe to liberty 
 
 as England. — —Is it naturally propenfe to mo- 
 
 narchy. too ? Is monarchy the natural vehicle 
 
 of liberty ? 
 
 * Vide Thurloe's State Papers, vol. i. p. 725. 
 f Vol. ii. p. 402. 
 
 Albany 
 
382 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 Albaro Alonzo Barba, M. A. curate of faint Bernard's parifli ttt the imperial 
 city of Potofi in the kingdom of Peru in the Weft Indies, in the year 1640. 
 Tranflated in the year 1669, by the right honourable Edward earl of Sand- 
 wich." Lond. 1674, a fmall oclavo. A fhort preface of the editor fays, 
 " The original was regarded in Spain and the Weft Indies as an ineftimable 
 jewel ; but that falling into the earl's hands, he enriched our language with 
 it, being content that all our lord the kings Jieojile jliould be hhilofojihers" 
 
 The prefent earl of Sandwich has thirteen large MSS. written by his an- 
 ceflor, containing his diary, relations of his voyages, embaffies, journeys, ne- 
 gotiations, correlpondences, and obfervations ; and accompanied v/ith plans, 
 draughts, views, &c. 'I here are feveral curious paffages, and a moft minute 
 and fcrupulous exactnefs. 
 
 JOHN P OWLET T, Marq.uis of 
 WINCHESTER, 
 
 ^.RANDSON of the marquis mentioned above ; an imitator of the earl of 
 Monmouth, whom I may call the tranflator; like the preceding lord, a 
 prodigious fufferer for the royal caufe, and not more bountifully rewarded. 
 Indeed one does not know how to believe what our hiftories record, that his 
 houfe at Bafing, which he defended for two years together, and which the 
 parliamentarians burned in revenge, contained money, jewels, and furniture, 
 to the value of two hundred thoufand pounds. Of what was compofed the 
 bed valued at fourteen thoufand pounds ? In every window the marquis wrote 
 with a diamond, Airnez loyaute. His epitaph was the compofition of Dryden. 
 
 His lordfhip tranflated from French into Englifh 
 
 " The gallery of heroic women." Lond. 1652. Howell wrote a fonnet 
 in praife of this work*. 
 
 " Talon's holy hiftory." Lond. 1653, qu°. 
 
 * Vide his Letters, book iv. letter 49. 
 
 And 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 383 
 
 And other books, which, fays Antony Wood, I have not yetfeen*. 
 
 WILLIAM CAVENDISH, Duke of 
 NEWCASTLE; 
 
 \ MAN extremely known from the conrfe of life into which he was forced, 
 and who would foon have been forgotten in the walk of fame which he 
 chofe for himfelf. Yet as an author he is familiar to thofe who fcarce know 
 any other author — from his book of horfemanfhip. Though amorous in 
 poetry and mufic, as my lord Clarendon faysf, he was fitter to break Pegafus 
 for a manage, than to mount him on the deeps of Parnaffus. Of all the ri- 
 ders of that fteed perhaps there have not been a more fantaftic couple than his 
 grace and his faithful duchefs, who was never off her pillion. One of the 
 noble hiftorian's fined: portraits is of this duke : the duchefs has left another ; 
 more diffufe indeed, but not lefs entertaining. It is equally amufing to hear 
 her fometimes compare her lord to Julius Casfar, and oftener to acquaint you 
 with fuch anecdotes, as in what fort of coach he went to Amfterdam. The 
 touches on her own character are inimitable : (he fays " That it pleafed 
 God to command his fervant Nature to indue her with a poetical and philofo- 
 phical genius even from her birth, for fhe did write fome books even in that 
 kind before fhe was twelve years of age." But though fhe had written phi- 
 lofophy, it feems me had read none; for at near forty fhe informs us that flic 
 applied to the reading of philofophic authors — " in order to learn the terms 
 of art But what gives one the befr. idea of her unbounded parlion for 
 fcribbling, was her feldom revifmg the copies of her works, left it ftionld 
 dijlurb her following conception^. What a picture of foolifh nobility was this 
 ftately poetic couple, retired to their own little domain, and intoxicating one 
 another with circumftantial flattery on what was of conference to no mor- 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 525. 
 T Vol. ii. p. 507. 
 % Dedication. 
 
 S ibid. 
 
 |[ She had a fervant on purpofe who lay in a 
 truckle-bed within her bed-chamber, and when- 
 ever in the night fhe felt infpiration {he called 
 cut, M John, I conceive i" on which fummons he 
 rofe, and wrote down the fruits of her reveries. 
 
 ta.l 
 
3«4 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 tal but themfelves ! In that repofitory of curious portraits at Welbeck is a 
 whole length of the duchefs in a theatric habit, which tradition fays {he ge- 
 nerally wore. Betides lord Clarendon's defcription, and his own duchefs's 
 life of this nobleman, there is a full account of him in the Biographia Britan- 
 nica*, where the ample encomiums would endure fome abatement. He 
 feems to have been a man in whofe character ridicule would find more ma- 
 terials than fatire. 
 
 *' La methode nouvelle de drefTer les chevaux ; avec figures ; or the new 
 method of managing horfes ; with cuts." Antwerp, 1658, folio. This 
 was firft written in Englifh, and tranflated into French by a Walloon.. 
 
 " A new method and extraordinary invention to drefs horfes, and work 
 them according to -nature by the fubtlety of art." Lond. 1667, folio. This 
 fecond piece, as the duke informs his reader, " is neither a tranflation of the 
 firfr, nor an abfolute neceffary addition to it ; and may be of ufe without the 
 other, as the other hath been hitherto, and ftill is, without this. But both 
 together will queftionlefs do beft." A noble edition of this work has been 
 printed of late years in this kingdom. 
 
 " The exile, a comedy^." 
 
 " The country captain, a comedy written during Ills banifhment, and 
 printed at Antwerp, 1649: afterwards prefented by his majeity's fervants at 
 Black-fryars, and very much commended by Mr, Leigh. 
 
 " Variety, a comedy;" prefented by his majefty's fervants at Black-fryars: 
 firil printed in 1649, and generally bound with The country captain. It was 
 alio highly commended in a copy of verfes by Mr. Alexander Brome. 
 
 " The humorous lovers, a comedy ;" acted by his royal highnefs's fer- 
 vants. Lond, 1677, qu°. This was received with great applaufe, and 
 eireemed one of the beft plays at that time. 
 
 u The triumphant widow, or the medley of humours, a comedy ;" acred 
 by his royal highnefs's fervants. Lond. 1677, qu°. This piece pleafed Mr. 
 
 * Page 1 2 14. 
 
 6 
 
 + Vide Theatr. Records, p. 57. 
 
 Shadwell 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 385 
 
 Shad well fo much that he tranfcribed part of it into his Bury-fair, one of 
 the moft fuccefsful plays of that laureate. His biographer fays, " That his 
 grace wrote in the manner of Ben Jonfon, and is allowed by the beft judges 
 not to have been inferior to his mailer." I cannot think thefe panegyrics very 
 advantageous : What compofitions, that imitated Jonfon's pedantry, and 
 mixed well with Shadwell's poverty ! Jonfon, Shadwell, and fir William 
 Davenant, were all patronized by the duke. 
 
 His poems are fcattcred among thofe of his duchefs, in whofe plays too he 
 wrote many fcenes. 
 
 There is a letter of inftruclions from him to his pupil prince Charles, 
 among the Harleian MSS. N° 6988, 60. 
 
 One does not know whether to admire the philofophy or fmile at the 
 triflingnefs of this and the laft-mentioned peer, who after facrificing fuch 
 fortunes* for their mafter, and during fuch calamities of their country, 
 could accommodate their minds to the utmoft idleneifes of literature. 
 
 EDWARD HYDE, Earl of CLARENDON, 
 
 O R his comprehenfive knowledge of mankind ftyled f The chancellor of 
 Jiwnan nature. His character at this diftance of time may, ought to be 
 impartially confidered. His defigning or blinded cotemporaries heaped the 
 moft unjuft abufe upon him: the fubfequent age, when the partifans of pre- 
 rogative were at leaft the loudeft, if not the moft numerous, fmit with a 
 work that deified their martyr, have been unbounded in their encomiums. 
 We mail fteer a middle courfe, and feparate his great virtues, which have 
 not been the foundation of his fame, from his faults as an hiftorian, the real 
 fources of it. 
 
 * It is computed by the duchefs of Newcaflle, f Vide Critical and philofophicai inquiry into 
 that the lofs fuftained by the duke from the civil the caufes of prodigies and miracles as relatedby 
 wars, rather furpafTed than fell (hort of 733*579 L hiftorians, quoted in the Gen. Diet. vol. vi.p. 341. 
 
 Vide the Life. 
 
 Vol. L 
 
 Ddd 
 
 Of 
 
3 86 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 Of all modern virtues patriotifm has flood the tell the worn 1 . The great 
 Strafford, with the eloquence of Tully and the heroifm of Epaminondas, had 
 none of the lleadinefs of the latter. Hampden, lefs ftained, cannot but be 
 fufpected of covering ambitious thoughts with the mantle of popular virtue. — • 
 In the partition of employments on a treaty with the king, his contenting 
 himfelf with afking the poll of governor to the prince feems to me to have 
 had at leaft as deep a tincture of felf-intereftednefs as my lord Strafford had, 
 who ftrode at once from demagogue to prime-minifter. Sir Edward Hvde, 
 who oppofed an arbitrary court,, and embraced the party of an afflicted one, 
 mull be allowed to have acted confcientioufly. A better proof was his beha- 
 viour on the reitoration, when the torrent of an infatuated nation entreated 
 the kins; and his minifter to be abfolute. Had Clarendon fought nothing but 
 
 o o o 
 
 power, his power had never ceafed. A corrupted court and a blinded popu- 
 lace were lefs the caufes of the chancellor's fall, than an ungrateful king ? . 
 who could not pardon his lordfhip's having refufed to accept for him the fla~ 
 Very of his country *. In this light my lord Clarendon was more The chan- 
 cellor of human nature, than from his knowledge of it. Like juftice itfelf, he 
 held the balance between the neceffary power of the fupreme magiftrate and 
 the interefts of the people. This never-dying obligation his cotemporaries 
 were taught to overlook and to clamour againfl +, till they removed the only 
 
 man, 
 
 * This lingular fervice to his country is afcrib- 
 ed to lord Clarendon, yet it is remarkable that 
 neither in his Life nor in the Continuation of his 
 Hiftory, though written fo carefully for his own juf- 
 tification and for the fatisfaclion of his family, he 
 any where pleads this higheft merit. If from ten- 
 dernefs to the king, the compliment, the facrifice 
 was fingular indeed ! From fome paffages one 
 would almoft fufpe£t the fact, yet fuch fervices 
 are feldom imputed to fallen niinifters without 
 foundation. In one place the chancellor fays, 
 that the parliament granted all that the king didor 
 could expect from them : p. 163 J. And he once 
 alked his majefty, if in three years any thing had 
 fallen out fiort of his expectation: p. 187 §. In- 
 deed the king owned that the chancellor always 
 
 infifted too much upon the law: p. 446 ||. I can 
 only reconcile thefe circumftances by fuppofing, 
 what will add to his character the virtue of mo- 
 deft ignorance, that he prevented from innate up- 
 rightnefs an illegal ftretch of the prerogative, 
 without perceiving the obligation he laid on his 
 country, or the offence it imprinted on the mind: 
 of his mafter. 
 
 f Burnet infifts much on this merit and of- 
 fence : but then he fays it was a crime imputed: 
 to him by his enemies to enrage the king. Yet as 
 the bifhop fets out with declaring that he drew 
 many of his materials from a fon of lord Claren- 
 don, and as he couples to this account a ftory of 
 the death of the chancellor's father, who with his ■ 
 laft words enjoined him to be tender of the laws 
 
 of 
 
 \ Vide Continuation of his Hiftory. 
 
 § Ibid. 
 
 || Ibid. 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 387 
 
 man, who, if he could, would have corrected his matter's evil government. 
 One reads with indignation that buffooneries too low and infipid for Bartholo- 
 mew-fair were practifed in a court called polite, to make a filly man of wit 
 laugh himfclf into difgracing the only honelr miniitcr he had*. Buckingham, 
 Shaftefbury, Lauderdale, Arlington, and fuch abominable, men were the ex- 
 change which the nation made for my lord Clarendon ! It mould not be for- 
 gotten that fir Edward Seymour carried up the charge againit him, and that 
 the earl of Briitol had before attempted his ruin, by accufing him of being at 
 once an enemy and a friend to the papilts. His fon-in-law f did not think 
 him the latter, or he would have interpofed more effectually in his behalf. 
 
 Thefe I have mentioned and almoit every virtue of a minifter make his 
 character venerable. As an hiftorian he feems more exceptionable. His 
 majefty and eloquence, his power of painting characters, his knowledge of 
 his fubjecr, rank him in the firft clafs of writers — yet he has both great and 
 little faults. Of the latter, his ftories of gholts and omens are not to be de- 
 fended by fuppofing he did not believe them himfelf : there can be no other 
 reafon for inferting them, nor is there any medium between believing and 
 laughing at them. Perhaps even his favourite character of lord Falkland 
 takes too confiderable a mare in the hiltory : one loves indeed the heart that 
 believed till he made his friend the hero of his epic. His capital fault is, 
 his whole work being a laboured j unification of king Charles. No man ever 
 delivered fo much truth with fo little fmcerity. If he relates faults, fome 
 palliating epithet always Hides in ; and he has the art of breaking his darken: 
 ihades with gleams of light that take off all impreffion of horror. — One may 
 
 of his country, the whole account feems to come 
 from good authority. As we know too from 
 Burnet that lord Clarendon often took upon him- 
 felf the blame of what the king had done contrary 
 to his advice, I am ftill inclined to afcribe this 
 merit to the chancellor, and his filence upon it, 
 to his unwillingnefs to load a worthlefs mafter. 
 
 * The conduct of Charles ftrikes one naturally 
 ■with this obfervation : He and his grandfather 
 Henry IV. had many refembling points in their 
 characters; both, fond of women, and profufe to 
 them ; both, men of wit, of cheerfulnefs, and 
 
 eafy fociety ; neither, ftrict in morals or religious 
 principles; for, if either believed, it was vice verfa 
 the very contrary of what they profciled. Their 
 minifters were ftill more alike. Clarendon and 
 Sully were both, faithful, honeft, able,ceconomic, 
 overbearing, fevere and four; and each had and 
 did eflentially ferve their mafters. Henry had the 
 good fenfe to bear with a difagreeable minifter, 
 who was neceflary to him ; Charles, who neither 
 cared for his people's intereffc or his own, dif - 
 graced the chancellor. 
 
 f The duke of York. 
 
 Dddz 
 
 pronounce 
 
388 NOBLE AUTHORS 
 
 pronounce on my lord Clarendon in his double capacity of ftatefman and 
 hiflorian, that he acted for liberty, but wrote for prerogative* 
 
 There have been published of his lordfhip's writing 
 
 " An elegy on doctor Donne; printed at the end of the doctor's poems," 
 
 " His epitaph on his firil wife, in Afhmole's Berkfhire." 
 
 " Some Englifh commendatory verfes prefixed to fir W. Davenant's tra* 
 gedy of Albovine, printed in. 1629." 
 
 " Many letters to promote the rertoration*."" 
 
 " Several fpeeches in parliament during his chancellorihipj. from the re- 
 ftoration to 1667 at leaft ten of them. 
 
 " A full anfwer to an infamous and traitorous pamphlet, entitled, A de* 
 claration of the commons of England in parliament afTembled, expreffing ths 
 grounds and reafons of paffing their late refolutions touching no farther ad"? 
 drefs or application to be made to the king.'* Lond.- 1648, quV 
 
 " The difference and difparity between the eftates and conditions of 
 George duke of Buckingham and Robert earl of Effex. Printed in the Re- 
 liquiae Wottoniae." Lond. 1672, octavo. It is a kind of anfwer to fir 
 Henry Wotton's parallel of thole two favourites, and, though written, when 
 Mr. Hyde was very young,, is much preferable to the affected author it 
 anfwers. 
 
 " Animadverfions on a book called, Fanaticifm fanatically imputed to the 
 catholic church by doctor Stillingfleet, and the imputation refuted and re- 
 torted by J. C. By a perfon of honour." Lond. 1674,. octavo. Twice 
 printed that year* 
 
 * Printed in Vita Johannis Barwick. Vide General Diftiottary, vol. vi. p. 336 ; and Biographia 
 Britannica, vol. iv. p. 2332. 
 
 5 "A letter 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 389 
 
 " A letter to the duke of York, and another to his daughter the duchefs, 
 on her embracing the Roman catholic religion*." 
 
 " A brief view and furvey of the dangerous and pernicious errors to the 
 church and ftate, in Mr. Hobbes's book entitled Leviathan." Oxf. 1676, 
 quarto. The dedication to the king is dated at Moulins, May 10,. 1673. 
 
 " A collection of feveral tracts of the right honourable Edward earl of 
 Clarendon, &c. publifhed from his lordfhip's original manufcripts." Lond. 
 1727, folio.. 
 
 He made likewife alterations and additions to a book entitled, 
 
 " A collection of the orders heretofore ufed in chancery.'* Lond. 1661, 
 octavo. His lordfhip was afiifted in this work by fir Harbottle Grimftone, 
 matter of the Rolls.. 
 
 u Hiftory of the rebellion and civil wars in Ireland," printed at London in 
 octavo, 1 726* 
 
 " Hiftory of the rebellion." The firft volume was printed at Oxford in 
 folio, 1702; the fecond in 1703; the third in 1704. It has been feveral 
 times re-printed lince in fix volumes octavo. A French tranflation was print- 
 ed at the Hague in 1 704, and 1 709, twelves f. 
 
 His lordfhip left befides in manufcript a fecond part of his Hiftory; a per- 
 formance long detained from, though eagerly defired by, and at laft be- 
 queathed to the public by his lordfhip's amiable defcendent and heir of his 
 integrity, the late lord Hyde and Cornbury J. It was publifhed, with his 
 
 life 
 
 * Two other letters on remarkable occafiorts 
 are preferved among the Harl. MSS. N°'7COi. 
 
 f In the defence of the authenticity of lord 
 Clarendon's Hiftory publifhed in Hooker's weekly 
 mifcellany, Laurence Hyde earl of Rochefter is, 
 from feveral circumftantial proofs, aflerted to be 
 a 1 thor of the preface to his father's Hiftory, 
 though it is generally attributed to Atterbury, 
 Aldridge, and Smalridge. 
 
 X It is not of confequence enough to form a 
 feparate article; and therefore I fhall only mention 
 here, that Henry earl of Clarendon, ekieft fon of 
 the chancellor, drew up an account of the monu- 
 ments in the cathedral at Winchefter in 1683, 
 which was continued, and was printed with the 
 hiftory of that church by Samuel Gale, 1 7 1 5. In 
 1763 were publifhed two large quarto volumes, 
 containing the letters of this earl Henry during 
 
 his 
 
39° 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS 
 
 life written by himfelf, in folio, 1759 ; and if inferior in fome parts to his 
 Iliftory of the rebellion, the lingular anecdotes, and noble reafonings, place 
 it, notwithftanding its inaccuracies, on a level with the befl works of the 
 kind. On Monday April 9, and Tuefday 10, 1764, were fold by auftion 
 at Baker's the bookfeller in York-ftreet, the remains of lord Clarendon's 
 Mod. containing originallketch.es of fome of his works, and letters to and 
 from his lordlhip, with other Hate-papers. /■ 
 
 GEORGE DIGBT, Earl of BRISTOL; 
 
 A SINGULAR perfon, whofe life was one contradiction. He wrote againft 
 popery * and embraced it : he was a zealous oppofer of the court, and 
 a facrifice for it ; was confeientioufly converted in the midlt of his profe- 
 cution of lord Strafford, and was moll unconfeientioufly a profecutor of lord 
 Clarendon. With great parts, he always hurt himfelf and his friends ; with 
 romantic bravery, he was always an unfuccefsful commander. He fpoke 
 for the teit-acl though a Roman-catholic, and addicted himfelf to aftrology 
 on the birth-day of true philofophy. 
 
 We have of his writing, 
 
 " Letters between the lord George Digby and fir Kenelm Digby knight, 
 concerning religion." Lond. 1651. This was a controverly on popery, in 
 which lord Digby Ihews that the Roman-catholic religion has no foundation 
 on tradition, or on the authority of the fathers, &c. Sir Kenelm was not 
 
 his government of Ireland ; and his diary. The 
 •latter relates fome curious anecdotes ; but the 
 writer appears to have been a weak man, who 
 knew not how to fteer his confeience between 
 zealous proteftantifm and almoft boundlefs de- 
 votion to king James. 
 
 * Lord Clarendon, in the Continuation of his 
 Hiftory, afcribes this lord's converfion to his de- 
 fpair of the king's affairs after the battle of Wor- 
 •cefter, and to a defign of pufhing his fortune in 
 Spain, which country he immediately abandoned 
 
 6 
 
 on the reftoration — yet did not revert to his old 
 religion — probably, becaufe he was apprifed that 
 the king had left it too. This is the more likely, 
 as his majefty's converfion is dated from the jour- 
 ney to Fontarabia ; and it is remarkable that lord 
 Clarendon fays, (p. 84.) that the dilatorinefs 
 thrown into that progrefs was not the leaji mifchief 
 done then by lord Briftol. .As the chancellor is 
 filent on what was the greatejl mifchief occafioned 
 by Briftol, is it not probable that he alludes to 
 the king's converfion ? 
 
 only 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 391 
 
 only a papift, but an occult philofopher : if lord Digby had happened to* 
 laugh at that nonfenfe too, he would 'probably have died in fearch of the 
 grand elixir, 
 
 " Several fpeeches*. ,r 
 " Several letters -|\" 
 
 " A letter to Charles the fecond, on being banifhed from his prefence 
 
 " Elvira, or the worfl not always true ; a comedy." For this he was 
 brought into fir John Suckling's Seflion of poets. 
 
 " Excepta e diverfis operibus patrum Latinorum." MS. § 
 
 " The three firft books of Caflandra ;" tranflated from the French, 8vo, 
 
 He is faid to be author of 
 
 " A true and impartial relation of the battle between his majefty's army 
 and that of the rebels near Ailefbury, Bucks, September 20, 1643." ^ n 
 lord Digby's library at Sherburn-caftle, is a piece entitled An anfwer to 
 the lord George Digby's apology for himfelf, publifhed in January 1642, by 
 Theophilus Philanax Geruliphilus Philalethes Decius. 
 
 And I find under his name, though probably not of his writing, the fol- 
 lowing piece : 
 
 " Lord Digby's Arcana aulica, or Walfingham's manual of prudential, 
 maxims for the ftatefman and the courtier." 1655 |[. 
 
 * Ant. Wood, vol. ii. p. 579; and Harleian | Collection of Letters, vol. ii. p. 
 MSS. 8 3 o 5 1327, 1579, 6801. § Wood} ib< 
 
 -)• Ibid, and Had. MSS. 6016, 13, H Harl. Catal. vol. ii. p. 755. 
 
 DENZFL 
 
392 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 DENZIL Lord HOLLES: 
 
 CHARACTER very unlike the earl of Briitol's : the one embraced a 
 party with levity, and purfued it with paffion ; the other took his part 
 on reflection, and yet could wave it, though his paflions were concerned. 
 The courage of Digby blazed by choice ; that of Holies * burned by ne- 
 ceffity. Through their life, the former acted from the impulfe of great 
 parts; the latter, of common fenfe ; and in both the event was what in thofe 
 cafes it generally is, Digby was unfortunate and admired ; Holies was fuc- 
 cefsful and lefs renowned. 
 
 On a ftrict difquifition into the conduct of the latter, he feems to have 
 been, a patriot both by principle and behaviour, and to have thoroughly un- 
 derstood the flate of his country, and its relations with Europe, its dangers 
 from royal power, from ufurpation, from anarchy, from popery, from the 
 increafe of the French empire : on every crifis I have mentioned he acted an 
 honeft and uniform part. He early oppofed the enormous exertion of the 
 prerogative by Charles the firft and his minifters, carrying up the impeach- 
 ment againif Laud, fuffering a fevere imprifonment for his free fpirit, and 
 being marked by the king in that wild attempt of accufing the five members. 
 Yet he feems to have been one of the firft alarmed at the defigns of thofe who 
 propofed to chalHfe as well as to correct ; and who meaned to retain the 
 power as well as the office of punifhment. At the treaty at Oxford, where 
 he was one of the commiflioners from the parliament, he ventured, in hopes 
 of healing the diffractions, to advife the king what to anfwer: an employ- 
 ment that clafhed a little with his truff, and in which his fagacity did not 
 mine ; for, though the king followed his advice, it had no effect. However, 
 the intention feemed upright ; and his fo eafily forgetting the perfonal in- 
 juries he had received, reflects great honour on his memory. He refufed to 
 act in the profecution of lord Strafford, who was his brother-in-law, and 
 
 P A remarkable inftance of his fpirit was his him, " That if his confidence would not let him 
 challenging general Ireton, who pleading, " That give redrefs, it ought to prevent him from offer- 
 his confcience would not permit him to fight a ing injuries." 
 4uel," Holies pulled, him by the nofe, telling 
 
 againfl 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 393 
 
 againit the bifliops ; yet he was eftcemed the head of the preuVyterian party; 
 and in the ifle of Wight advifed his majcfty to give up epifcopacy. The de- 
 feels of his character feem to have been, that his principles were * ariftocra- 
 tic, [demonstrated by all experience to be the mod: tyrannous fpecies of go- 
 vernment, and never imbibed but by proud and felf-interellicd men] that his 
 opposition to the army was too much founded on a perfonai enmity to Crom- 
 well ; and that he fat on the trial of the regicides, who at worfr. but chaftifed 
 the faults which his lordfhip had pointed out. Lord Holies acted zealoufly 
 for the reftoration, and, while the dawn of the king's reign was unclouded, 
 accepted employments and embaffies from the crown, confident with his 
 honour and duty to his country. As foon as the catholic rudder was unco- 
 vered, he again reverted to patriot opposition. When lir William Temple's 
 privy-council was efhiblimed, lord Holies, though eighty-two, yet never 
 thinking himfelf pad ferving his country, accepted a place in it; but died 
 foon after. 
 
 While he was an exile in France he wrote 
 
 " Memoirs of Denzil lord Holies, baron of Isfle?J in SufTex, from tkc 
 year 1 641 to 1648." Publimed in 1699. They are little more than the 
 apology for his own conduct, and a virulent fatire on his adverfaries. The 
 extraordinary wording of the dedication takes off all hopes of impartiality: it 
 is addreffed " To the unparalleled couple, Mr. Oliver St. John, his majehVs 
 fblicitor-general, and Mr. Oliver Cromwell, the parliament's lieutenant- 
 general, the two grand defisrners of the ruin of three kingdoms." Much 
 temper was not to be expelled from an exile in a religious and civil war : 
 from the extreme good fenfe of his lordfhip's fpeeches and letters, one mould 
 not have expected that weak attempt to blaft Cromwell for a coward. How 
 a judicatory in the temple of Fame would laugh at fuch witneftes a3 a major- 
 general Crawford, and a colonel Dalbierf ! Casfar and Cromwell are not 
 amenable to a commimon of oyer and terminer. 
 
 * It has been objected to me, that JordHolI.s's to pretend to democratic principles, who prefers 
 
 writings feem to argue for democracy; but it is monarchy to the conftant, natural and neceflary 
 
 certain that the tenor of his conducl: and of his confequcnccs of a democracy, 
 memoirs was to oppofc and revile the low-born 
 
 and popular leaders, as foon as they had deprived f Two obfeure men wjiom lord Holies quotes 
 
 his lordfliip and his aflbciates of their afcendant to prove inilances of Cromwell's want of fpirit. 
 in the commonwealth. It is in vain for a man 
 
 Vol. I. E e e There 
 
394 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS, 
 
 There are publimed befides, 
 
 " Two letters to the earl of Strafford*;' 1 published among the Strafford 
 Papers. 
 
 " A fpeech in behalf of fir Randal Carew-j->" who had been chief-juftice 
 of the King's-bench, but was removed for delivering his opinion againft 
 loan-money. 
 
 " Another very good. 
 
 " Speech in parliament, January 31, 1642, upon the poor tradefmen*s 
 petition §." 
 
 " Speech at the lords' bar, January 31, 1642, upon the impeachment of 
 the earls of Northampton, Devonshire, Monmouth, &c. ||" 
 
 " Speech in the GuildhalW." 
 
 " His fpeech as chairman of the committee on the reftoration **.'* 
 
 " A fine letter to monfieur Van Benninghen, [who had been embaffador 
 in England from Holland] to promote an union againft France ff." 
 
 " A letter from Paris to fir William Morrice, fecretary of ftate 
 
 " His remains," being a fecond letter to a friend concerning the judica- 
 ture of the bifhops in parliament, 1682 §§. 
 
 * Vide that Collection, and Collins's Hiftori- || Ibid. p. 491. 
 cal account of the families of Cavendifti, Holies, 
 
 &c page 100. 
 
 f Ibid. p. 493, 
 
 f Printed in the Diurnal Occurrences, p. 261 j 
 and in Collins, p. 111. 
 
 ** Commons' Journal, vol. x. p. 49. 
 
 f f Printed originally in quarto, and in Collins 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
 ubi fupra, p. 152. 
 
 $ Catalogue of the Middle Temple Library, 
 page 492. 
 
 £f Ibid. p. 159. 
 
 $§ Biogr. vol. iv. p. 2651. 
 
 « Grand 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 395 
 
 M Grand queftion concerning the judicature of the houfe of peers ftated*." 
 
 " A pamphlet, in vindication of fome French gentlemen falfely accufed 
 of a robbery f." 
 
 Some of his letters and a fpeech in MS. may be found in the Harl. Coll, 
 N° 7010, and 2305, 120. 
 
 DUD L ET Lord NORTH+, 
 
 CO N of the lord North before mentioned, was made a knight of the Bath 
 in 1 61 6, at the creation of Charles prince of Wales, and fat in many 
 parliaments, till fecluded by the prevailing party in that which condemned 
 the king. From that period lord North lived privately in the country, and, 
 as the biographer § of the family informs us, towards the latter end of his 
 life entertained himfelf with juftice-bufinefs, books, and (as a very nume- 
 rous iffue required) oeconomy ; on which fubjecl, befides the enfuing pieces, 
 he wrote a little tracl: called 
 
 ** Obfervations and advices ceconomical." i2mo. 
 
 " PafTages relating to the long parliament," with an apologetic, or rather 
 recantation-preface. He had, it feems, at firft been active againft the king. 
 
 •* Hiftory of -the life of the lord Edward North, the firft baron of the 
 family." Addreffed to his eldeft fon. Written fenfibly and in a very good 
 ftyie, yet in vain attempting to give a favourable impreflion of his anceftor, 
 who appears to have been a very time-ferving perfon : though chancellor of 
 the augmentation-office on the fuppreffion of convents, and though he had 
 
 * I have met with this title no where but in others have received benefit. Vide HiJIory of 
 
 the Harl. Catal. vol. iv. p. 771. Ttinbridge-nvells^ in ivbich there is a circumjlantial 
 
 . n* , • , account of ihnt event. 
 
 f Jbiogr. vol. iv. p. 2649. 
 
 t This lord difcovered the medicinal fprings at § Vide Roger North's Life of lord-keeper 
 Tunbridge, from which himfelf and fo many Guildford, in the preface. 
 
 E e e 2 married 
 
39 6 IjOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 married his fori to the duke of Northumberland's daughter-in-law, he was 
 immediately in favour with queen Mary, and made a baron by her ! 
 
 " Eflkys*.** Printed in 1682. The fubjecrs are, " I. Light in the way 
 to Paradife. II. Of truth.. III. Of goodnefs. IV. Of eternity. V. Of 
 original fin." 
 
 'JAMES TOUCHET, 
 Earl of CASTLEHAVEN and Baron AUDLEY. 
 
 T F this lord, who led a very martial life, had not taken the pains to record 
 his own actions (which however he has done with great franknefs and 
 ingenuity), we mould know little of his ftory, our hiftorians fcarce mention- 
 ing him ; and even our writers of anecdotes, as Burnet, or of tales and cir- 
 cumftances, as Roger North, not giving any account of a court-quarrel occa- 
 sioned by his lordfhip's memoirs. Antony Wood alone has preferved this 
 event, but has not made it intelligible. The earl was a catholic ; far from a 
 bigoted one, having ltiffly oppofed the pope's nuntio in Ireland J r, and treat- 
 ing the monks with very little ceremony when he found them dabbling in fe- 
 dition He himfelf had been a commander in the Irifh rebellion for the 
 confederate catholics, but afterwards made all the amends he could to the 
 king's caufe, ferving under the marquifes of Ormond and Clanrickarde. A 
 little before the ruin of the latter, lord Caftlehaven was difpatched by him 
 to the young king at Paris, whofe fervice when he found defperate, he en- 
 gaged with the great prince of Conde then in rebellion ; attended that hero 
 in mod: of his celebrated actions ; returned to England on the reftoration ; 
 entered into the Spanifh fervice in Flanders ; was witnefs to the unfuccefsful 
 dawn of king William's glory ; and died in 1684. He wrote 
 
 " The earl of Cafilehaven's review, or his memoirs of his eno-asement and 
 carriage m the Irifh wars." Enlarged and corrected with an appendix and 
 poftfcript. Lond. 1684. This I fuppofe was the fecond edition. The earl 
 
 * Collins's Peerage, vol iv. p. 260, laft edit. f Vide his Memoirs, p. 121. J lb. p. 142. 
 I had 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 397 
 
 had been much cenfured for his mare in the Irifh rebellion, ana wrote thofe 
 memoirs to explain his conduct rather than to exculc it ; for he freely con- 
 fefles his faults, and imputes them to provocations from the government of 
 that kingdom, to vvhofe rafhnefs and cruelty, conjointly with the votes and 
 relblutions of the Englifh parliament, he afcribes the malTacre. There are 
 no dates, little method, and lefs ftyle in thefe memoirs ; defects atoned in 
 fome meafure by a martial honefty. Soon after their publication the earl of 
 Anglefey, lord privy-feal, wrote to a(k a copy. Lord Caftlehaven fent huu 
 one, but denying the work as his. Anglefey, who had been a commiffioner 
 ill Ireland for the parliament, thinking himfelf affected by this narrative, 
 publifhed Caftlehaven's letter, with obfervations and reflections very abufive 
 on the duke of Ormond, which occalioned, firft a printed controverfy, and 
 , then a trial before the privy-council ; the event of which was, that Angle- 
 fey 's firh 1 letter was voted a fcandalous libel, and himfelf removed from the 
 cuftody of the privy-feal ; and that the earl of Caftlehaven's memoirs, on 
 which he was feveral times examined, and which he owned, were declared a 
 fcandalous libel on the government : a cenfure that feems very little founded ; 
 there is not a word that can authorize that fentence from the council of 
 Charles the fecond, but the imputation on the lords-juftices of Charles the 
 firft ; for I fuppofe the privy-council did not pique themfelves on vindicating 
 the honour of the republican parliament ! Bifhop Morley wrote " A true ac- 
 count of the whole proceedings betwixt James duke of Ormond. and Arthur 
 earl of Anglefey Folio. More of this affair will be found in the article 
 of Anglefey. 
 
 A pompous edition of the earl*s memoirs has been publifhed in folio by 
 his defcendent the pr.efent earl. Edmund Borlafe wrote " Brief reflections'* 
 on the original publication. Vide Anecdotes of Brit, tojiogr. p. 233. 
 
 HENRY PIER POINT, Marquis of 
 DORCHESTER, 
 
 ^^PPEARED but little in the character of an author, though he feems to 
 have had as good foundation for being fo as any on the lift. He ftudied 
 
 * Wood, vol. ii. p. 774. 
 
 ten 
 
398 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 ten or twelve hours a day for many years * ; was admitted a bencher of 
 Gray's-inn for his knowledge of the law, and fellow of the college of phyfi- 
 cians for his proficience in medicine and anatomy. 
 
 He publifhed 
 
 « A fpeech, fpoken in the houle of lords, concerning the right of bifhops 
 to fit in parliament, May 21, 1641." 
 
 " Another, concerning the lawfulnefs and conveniency of their intermed- 
 dling in temporal affairs, May 24, 1641." 
 
 " Speech to the trained-bands of Nottinghammire at Newark, July 13, 
 1641." 
 
 ** Letter to John lord Roos, February 25, 1659." This lord was fon-in- 
 law of the marquis, and was then profecuting a divorce from his wife for 
 adultery *f. Wood fays, that this lord Roos, [afterwards duke of Rutland] 
 affifted by Samuel Butler, returned a buffoon anfwer, to which the marquis 
 replied with another paper entitled 
 
 " The reafons why the marquis of Dorchefler printed his letter, together 
 with his anfwer to a printed paper called A true and perfect copy of the lord 
 Roos his anfwer to the marquis of Dorchefter's letter." The three letters are 
 full of the grofTeft. ribaldry; but notwithstanding the affiflance of Butler, 
 there is better repartee in the marquis's piece than in that of lord Roos. 
 
 " A Latin letter from the marquis to doctor Duck, author of the treatife 
 De ufu et authoritate juris civilis," is prefixed to that work. 
 
 Wood adds, " He, the faid marquis, hath, as it is probable, other things 
 extant, or at leaft fit to be printed, which I have not yet feen." 
 
 * See Wood's Fafti, vol. Li. p. 22; and fir Ro- f See an account of the marquis's noble beha- 
 
 bert Stapylton's dedication of his Juvenal to him, viour on this occafion in lord Clarendon's Conti- 
 
 vhich was tranflated at the requeft of the mar- nuation of his Hiftory, folio, p. 388. 1759. 
 quis: and HcrricU's poems, p. 356. Lond. 1648. 
 
 JOHN 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 JOHN WILMOT, Earl of ROCHESTER; 
 
 A MAN, whom the mufes were fond to infpire and afhamed to avow, and 
 who praclifed without the leaft referve that fecret which can make verfes 
 more read for their defects than for their merits : the art is neither com- 
 mendable nor difficult. Moralifts proclaim loudly that there is no wit in 
 indecency : it is very true : indecency is far from conferring wit ; but it 
 does not deftroy it neither. Lord Rochefter's poems have much more ob- 
 fcenity than wit, more wit than poetry, more poetry than politenefs. One 
 is amazed at hearing the age of Charles the fecond called polite : becaufe the 
 prefbyterians and religionifts had affecled to call every thing by a fcriptu re- 
 name, the new court affected to call every thing by its own name. That 
 court had no pretentions to politenefs but by its refemblance to another age, 
 which called its own groflhefs polite, the age of Ariftophanes. Would a 
 Scythian have been civilized by the Athenian ftage, or a Hottentot by the 
 drawing-room of Charles the fecond ? The characters and anecdotes beins: 
 forgot, the ftate-poems of that time are a heap of fenfelefs ribaldry, fcarcely 
 in rhime, and more feldom in metre. When fatyrs were brought to court, 
 no wonder the graces would not trull: themfelves there. 
 
 The writings of this noble and beautiful count, as Antony Wood* calls him, 
 [for his. lordfhip's vices were among the fruits of the restoration, and confe- 
 quently not unlovely in that biographer's eyes] in the order they were pub- 
 limed, at leaft as they are ranged by that author, were, 
 
 " A fatire againfr. mankind," printed in one meet in folio, June 1679, 
 It is more than an imitation of Boileau. One Griffith a minifter wrote againft 
 it. We are told that Andrew Marvel ufed to fay, " That Rochefter was the 
 only man in England that had the true vein of fatire." A very wrong judg- 
 ment : indelicacy does not fpoil flattery more than it does fatire. 
 
 " On nothing, a poem." Printed on one fide of a fheet of paper in two 
 columns. 
 
 * Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 655. 
 
 3 M Poems 
 
400 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " Poems on feveral occafions." Antwerp, [Lond.] 1680, octavo. Among 
 his poems are fome by other hands, falfely imputed to him. " The ramble 
 in Taint James's park" was claimed by one Alexander Ratcliffe of Gray's-inn. 
 It feems his lordmip, when dying, had ordered all his immoral writings to 
 be burned. — But the age was not without its Curls to preferve fuch trea- 
 fures ! 
 
 " A letter on his death-bed to Dr. Burnet." "Lond. 1680, one meet folio. 
 
 " Valentin ian, a tragedy of John Fletcher, as it is altered by the late earl 
 of Rochefter," and acted at the theatre-royal in Drury-lane. Lond. 1685, 
 quarto. There is a large preface and encomium on the author and his 
 writings, by Mr. Wolfely. 
 
 " Poems, &c. on feveral occafions, with Valentinian, a tragedy." Lond. 
 1 69 1, 8vo. To this edition are prefixed poems on the death of the earl, &c. 
 
 Under the earl's name are printed feveral pieces in " A collection of poems 
 by feveral hands, &c." Lond. 1693, 8vo. As alfo 
 
 " A tranflation from Horace, in examen poeticum; the third part of mif^ 
 cellany poems, &c." Lond. 1693*. 
 
 *' A fong in imitation of fir John Eaton's fongf." 
 
 And in the " Annual mifcellany for the year 1694, being the fourth part 
 of mifcellany poems, &c." Lond. 8vo. are afcribed to lord Rochefter, " A 
 lyric, imitated from Cornelius Gallus; Apollo's grief for haying killed Hya- 
 cinth by accident, in imitation of Ovid ; and a fong." 
 
 " A lampoon on the. lord Mulgrave," faid to be in Mr. Sheldon's library, 
 manufcript. 
 
 " On the fuppofed author of a late poem in defence of fatire, with Ro- 
 chefter's anfwer." MS. 
 
 * Page 262. 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 401 
 
 " The works of the earls of Rochefter, Rofcommon, Dorfet, &c." Two 
 volumes in one. Lond. 1718 ; without any name of printer *. 
 
 " Fifty-four letters to Henry Saville and others -f-." 
 
 <« Seven more to his wife and fon^." 
 
 " Another in the Literary Magazine for January, 1758." 
 
 " Two in the Harl. Collc&ion 
 
 He left befides, with feveral other papers (as the late lord Bolingbroke 
 has faid), A hiftory of the intrigues of the court of Charles the fecond, in a 
 feries of letters to his friend Henry Saville ; but, upon the earl's death, his 
 mother, a very devout lady of the family of St. John, ordered all his papers 
 to be burned. 
 
 ANTONT ASHLEY COOPER, 
 Earl of SHAFTSBURY. 
 
 A S lord Rochefter was immerfed only in the vices of that reign, he was an 
 innocent character compared to thofe who were plunged in its crimes. 
 A great weight of the latter fell to the fhare of the lord in queftion, who had 
 canted tyranny under Cromwell, practifed it under Charles the fecond, and 
 who difgraced the caufe of liberty by being the bufieft inftrument for it, when 
 every other party had rejected him. It was the weakeft vanity in him to brag 
 that Cromwell would have made him king : the beft he could hope for was 
 not to be believed ; if true, it only proved that Cromwell took him for a fool. 
 That he mould have acted in the trials of the regicides was but agreeable to 
 his character — or to his want of it ! Let us haften to his works: he was ra- 
 
 * It was printed by Curl. % Whartoniana, vol. ii. p. 161. 
 
 f Vide Colle£tion of Letters, vol. ii. publiflied 
 by Dodfley, 1755. § N° 7003. 
 
 Vol. I, Fff ther 
 
4 02 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 ther a copious writer for faction than an author, for in no light can one ima- 
 gine that he wifhed to be remembered. 
 
 " A letter from fir Antony Afhley Cooper, Thomas Scot, J. Berners, and 
 J. Weaver, efquires, delivered to the lord Fleetwood, owning their late 
 actions in endeavouring to fecure the tower of London, and expoftulating 
 his lordmip's defection from his engagements unto the parliament," printed 
 in 1659, and mentioned in no catalogue of lord Shaftfbury's works. 
 
 " The fundamental constitutions of Carolina." London, feven meets 
 folio ; dated March 1, 1669*. 
 
 " A feafonable fpeech made by fir A. Afhley Cooper in the houfe of com- 
 mons 1659, againfr. the new peers and power of the houfe of lords t." 
 
 " Speech on the lord treafurer Clifford taking his oath in the Exchequer, 
 December 5, 1672." 
 
 " Several fpeeches to both houfes at the opening of the parliament, Febru- 
 ary 4 and 5, 1672." 
 
 " Speech to ferjeant Edward Thurland in the Exchequer-chamber, when 
 he was made one of the barons of the Exchequer, January 24, 1 672." Re- 
 printed in 1 68 1, to mow the author's mutability, it containing zealous argu- 
 ments for the prerogative, and a molt favourable character of the duke of 
 York. 
 
 " Speech on the lord treafurer Ofborn taking his oath in the Exchequer, 
 June 26, 1673." 
 
 «' Speech to both houfes of parliament, October 27, 1673." 
 
 " Speech in the houfe of lords, October 20, 1675," upon the debate for 
 appointing a day to hear doctor T. Shirley's cafe. 
 
 * For the following lift of his works, vide + Buckingham's Works, vol. i. p. 324. 
 Wood, vol. ii. p. 725. 
 
 " Speech' 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 4°3 
 
 x ' Speech in the houfe of lords, March 25, 1679," upon occalion of the 
 houfe refolving itfelf into a grand committee to confider the ftate of England. 
 
 " Speech lately made by a noble peer of the realm, Novemb. 1 680." 
 This was never fpoken, and was by order of the lords burnt by the hands of 
 the hangman. It flattered the Scots; and was anfwered anonymoufly in a 
 pamphlet called " A letter from Scotland, written occafionally upon the 
 fpeech made by a noble peer of this realm." 
 
 " Two feafonable difcourfes concerning this prefent parliament." Oxon. 
 [Lond.] 1675, quarto. The firft difcourfe is entitled " The debate or ar- 
 guments for difTolving this prefent parliament, and the calling frequent and 
 new parliaments." The fecond, " A letter from a parliament-man to his. 
 friend, concerning the proceedings of the houfe of commons this laft feffioc, 
 begun October 13, 1675." Both were anfwered in a book called " A pac- 
 ket of advices. Part I." 
 
 " A letter from a perfon of quality to his friend in the country, 1675.'* 
 Quarto. Publiflied after the prorogation of parliament in November that 
 year. It was written againft the teft*; and was anfwered by Marchmont 
 Needham in his " Packet of advices to the men of Shaftibury." It is remark- 
 able that this Needham, ivho, it is /aid, Jirfl wrote an abujive journal called 
 Mercurius Jiragmaticus, againjl the parliament, had afterwards been retained by 
 the regicides to write againjl the royal family ; and was now hired by the court 
 to write againjl one who had been almojl as deeply engaged againjl the king, 
 
 " His cafe at the King's-bench on his confinement in the Tower." Lon- 
 don, 1679. 
 
 " Expedient for fettling the nation, difcourfed with his majefty in the 
 houfe of peers at Oxford, March 24, 1680." Lond. 1681 ; one meet qu°„ 
 The expedient was the fettling of the crown on the duke of Monmouth. 
 
 *' No proteftant plot, or the prefent pretended confpiracy of proteftants 
 againft the king's government, difcovered to be a confpiracy of the papifts 
 
 Not what is now called the teft, but one in favour of pafllve obedience. 
 
 Ff f 2 
 
 a2;ain0. 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 againft the king and his proteftant fubjects." Lond. 1 68 1. Of this, lord 
 Shaftfbury was not the avowed but reputed author. His fervant, who car- 
 ried it to the prefs, is laid to have been committed to prifbn. Being partly 
 anfwered in a pamphlet entitled " A plea for fuccemon in oppofition to 
 popular exclufion," there was published 
 
 44 The fecond part of No protectant plot." Lond. 1682- 
 
 " A third part," faid to be written by one Robert Fergufbn under ths 
 direction of Shaftfbury : all the three parts were a vindication of him. The 
 laft was anfwered under the title of " A letter to a friend, containing certain 
 obfervations upon fome paffages in a late libel entitled A third, part, &c." 
 
 44 A modefr. account of the p relent pofhire of affairs in England, with a 
 particular reference to the earl of Shaftfbury's cafe ; and a vindication of 
 him from two pretended letters of a noble peer [marquis of Halifax]." 
 This was not owned : but was imputed to the earl by fir Roger L'Eftrange 
 in his Obfervator, a gazette of the oppofite faction- 
 
 44 The earl of Eflex's fpeech at the delivery of the petition to the king,. 
 January 25, 1680." The petition was for a parliament. 
 
 Wood imputes to Shaftfbury too 
 
 44 A vindication of the affociation ;" but at the fame time fays, that the 
 earl's fervant being feized as he was carrying it to the prefs, owned it to be 
 Fergufon's. The fame author mentions the earl's publifhing an apology in< 
 Holland, but does not give the title of it. 
 
 44 Three letters* written during his imprifonment in the Tower, to the 
 duke of York, and to a lord not named/'' 
 
 44 The character of the honourable Henry Haftings of Woodlands in 
 Hampfhire, fecond fon of Francis earl of Huntingdon," printed originally in 
 Peck's Defiderata curiofa, and lately in the ConnoifTeur, vol. iii. It is a 
 curious and well-drawn portrait of our ancient Englifh gentry. 
 
 Printed in Collins's Peerage. Vide Shaft/bury. 
 
 5 
 
 Wood 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 405 
 
 Wood fays that among his lordfhip's papers were found, but uncertain if 
 written by him, 
 
 " Some obfervations * concerning the regulating elections for parliament." 
 
 One cannot but obferve with concern, w hat I have before remarked, that 
 writing the life of a man is too apt to inftill partiality for the fubject. The 
 hiftory of lord Shaftibury in the Biographia is almofl: a panegyric ; whereas a 
 bon-mot of the earl himfelf was his trueft character : Charles the fecond faid 
 to him one day, " Shaftibury, I believe thou art the wickedeft fellow in. my 
 dominions." He bowed, and replied, " Of a fubject, fir, I believe I am f J* 
 
 HEN E AGE FINCH, Earl of 
 NOTTINGHAM. 
 
 J^EW families have produced fo many considerable men as the houfe of 
 Finch has in late reigns ; men, who have owed their preferments to 
 themfelves, not to favour. The lord in queftion rofe through the great fteps 
 of the law, from Solicitor to attorney-general, to lord-keeper, to lord-chan- 
 cellor, to an earldom. Though employed in the mofl difficult part of the 
 reign of Charles the fecond, his character remained untainted. Antony Wood 
 reprefents him as a great temporizer. He certainly neither offended the 
 court nor the patriots. Had he mown great partiality to the latter, there is 
 no doubt but the king would have difmhTed. him, being by no means £0 
 dangerous a man as his predeceffor Shaftfbury- That his complaifance for 
 the prerogative was not unbounded, was manifeft by the king being obliged 
 to fet the feal himfelf to the earl of Danby's pardon. The truth is, the earl 
 of Nottingham was neither violent nor timid. When he pronounced fen- 
 tence on the lord vifcount Stafford, he did not fcruple to lay, " Who can 
 doubt now that London was burned by the papifts ?." Burnet calls this de- 
 claration indecent : if it was fo to the unhappy convict, it was certainly no. 
 flattery to the predominant faction at court. This fpeech was reckoned the 
 
 * They are printed among Somers's Tra£s, vol. i. t North's Examen. 
 
 mailer- 
 
406 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 rnafter-piece of his eloquence ; and his eloquence was much celebrated. Bur- 
 net fays * it was arre&ed, laboured, and too conftant on all occafions ; and 
 that his lordfhip lived to find it much defpiled. The bimop allows his pro- 
 bity ; and in another place *j* fpeaks of him with the greater! encomiums. 
 There is a beautiful character of him in Abfalom and Achitophel under the 
 name of Amri. Others]: have called him the Englijk Cicero, ihe TLngliJIt 
 Rofcius. 
 
 Pieces of his publifhed are, 
 
 " Several fpeeches and difcourfes on the trials of the regicides.*' He was 
 then folicitor-general. 
 
 " Speeches to both houfes of parliament," while lord-keeper and lord- 
 chancellor. 
 
 " Speech at pronouncing fentence on William lord vifcount Stafford, De- 
 cember 7, 1680." Printed with the trial. 
 
 " Speech againft the bill of exclufion 
 
 " Anfwers by his majefty's command to feveral addrelTes prefented to his 
 majefty at Hampton-court, May 19, 1681." Lond. one meet folio. 
 
 " His arguments upon a decree in a caufe in the Howard family; wherein 
 the feveral ways and methods of limiting a trurc. for a term of ten years are 
 fully debated." Lond. 1685 ; nine meets folio. 
 
 His lordlTiip left in manufcript 
 
 " Chancery reports." 
 
 * Vol. i. p. 365. % Wood, vol. ii. p. 719; where fee the fol 
 
 lowing account of his works. 
 
 f Preface to the fecond volume of his Hiftory 
 of the Reformation. & Vide Buckingham's "Works, vol. ii. 
 
 3 
 
 Lori> 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 407 
 
 Lord-Keeper GUILDFORD*. 
 
 TF it is true, as the great prince of Conde obferved, that a hero is feldom fb 
 in the eyes of his valet de chambre, it is as true, that many confiderable 
 men are only great in the opinion of their own familiars. To this devotion 
 of a dependent we owe a large quarto life of Francis lord North, keeper of 
 the great fcal to Charles and James II. — a man whofe infignificance having 
 configned him to quick oblivion, provoked his brother to record every trifle 
 relating to him. This author, Roger North, complains grievoufly, that the 
 folemn writers of Englifh affairs afrecled to fupprels all memory of his lord- 
 fhip's name and worth ; and afcribes this filence to partiality and malice. 
 But that filence might have pointed out the truth to this author : the charac- 
 ter of a great flatefman may be defamed, it cannot be omitted. It is comical 
 to hear the lamentation itfelf. " Had his lordfhip printed his collections in 
 the law, or other tracts which he [had not written but] had in his mind ; or 
 done any thing elfe, which ordinarily great men do for fame or honour, he 
 might have left a name behind him as great as he delired'f." To fupply thefe 
 deficiencies, we have 330 pages fluffed with the molt, minute domeftic de- 
 tails, and fuch narratives as ancient fervants live to fatigue all their acquaint- 
 ance with. However, as I would not fupprefs any thing which in the au- 
 thor's opinion might contribute to raife the idea of his hero, I will recapitu- 
 late fome of the rnoft mining paiTages ; as how upon the increafe of fir Fran- 
 cis's bufinefs he left off fkull-caps, and deflined them to lie in a drawer to 
 receive the money that came in by fees %. One had the gold, another the 
 crowns and half-crowns, and another the fmaller money — a circumflance, by 
 the bye, which ferves to (how what improvements have been fince made in 
 the fees of lawyers. How he was called Slyboots §. How he went privately 
 to fee a rhinoceros, and how my lord Sunderland reported that his lordfhip 
 
 * It is remarkable that two peers of this race fhown himfelf an artful and elegant hiftorian ; 
 have fuffered by apologies written for them by two Roger North, a miferable biographer, 
 of their own relations; but with this difference f Page 8. 
 naturally attending the performances of a fenfible % Page go. 
 man and a weak one : Dudley lord North has $ Page 281. 
 
 had 
 
408 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 had rid upon it to his great vexation *. How he liked one particular chair 
 when he was ill ; and when he was out of humour, how my lady ufed to fay 
 to him, " Come, fir Francis, you lhall not think ; we muff, talk and be 
 merry ; and you fhall not look upon the fire as you do +." How a friend 
 udvifed him to keep a whore ; and how, though he difdained the advice, his 
 lordfhip did think, after the death of his lady, that in the night human heat 
 
 was friendly. It would indeed be hard upon the folemn writers of EngUft/ 
 
 affairs, if they were obliged to celebrate all lord-keepers or chancellors, of 
 whom there may be parallel anecdotes. , 
 
 To be ferious : This lord North was one of thofe perfonages, who enter 
 upon the fcene, pafs over and quit it, and their place knows them no more. 
 The very reafon that his predeceffor lord Nottingham gave for making him 
 attorney-general, mowed that there was no other reafon for making him fo : 
 when the kins alked whom he would have to fucceed him, lord Nottingham 
 anfwered, " Who mould fucceed the captain but the lieutenant ?" North, 
 though devoted to the court, was by no means acceptable there : he was 
 willing to make the king abfolute by the law, not difcovering that his ma- 
 jetty chofe to be fo without it. He had all the demerit with his country of 
 iupporting prerogative, without having any merit with his matter. His real 
 attachment was to the law : the law-books were his gofpel, and he thought 
 their errors facred. Jefferies, a lefs fcrupulous inftrument of tyranny, foon 
 annihilated fuch feeble tools. Jefferies was an aclive myrmidon ; North a 
 fpeculative tory : one admired a fyttem of arbitrary power ; the other prac- 
 tiled it. 
 
 This lord Guildford wrote 
 
 " An alphabetical index of verbs neuter/' printed with Lilly's grammar ; 
 compiled while he was at Bury-fcho,ol %. 
 
 '* Argument in a cafe between Soams and Bernardifton §." 
 
 " His argument on a trial between Charles Howard and the duke of Nor- 
 folk ;" printed with that cafe. 
 
 * Page 280. f Page 318. % Vide Life, p. 12. $ lb. p. 159. 
 
 " The 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS 
 
 " The king's declaration on the popifh plot ;" compofed chiefly by his 
 lordfhip *. 
 
 " A paper on the gravitation of fluids, confidercd in the bladders of 
 fiflies f»" 
 
 u An anfvvcr to a paper of fir Samuel Moreland on his ftatic barometer/* 
 This was never printed 
 
 " A philofophical efTay on mufic ;" printed by Martin, printer to the 
 Royal Society, 1677. 
 
 " Lord chief-juflice North's narrative to the houfe of commons, of what 
 Bedloe had fworn before him at Briftol." 
 
 " Speech to fir Robert Sawyer, on the king's approbation of the choice 
 made of him for fpeaker of the commons §." 
 
 " A narrative of fome paffages in or relating to the long parliament, by fir 
 Francis North, afterwards lord keeper of the great feal"||." 
 
 " Many notes of cafes, fragments of tranfactions at court," and other pa- 
 pers publifhed whole or in part, in various parts of his Life by Roger North, 
 and in the Examen, another performance of equal bulk and folly. If thofe 
 pieces had nothing elfe ridiculous in them, it would be fufficient to blaft 
 their reputation, that they aim at decrying that excellent magiftrate the lord 
 chief-juftice Hale; and that Charles II. and that wretch the duke of Lauder- 
 dale, the king's taking money from France, and the feizure of the charter 
 of London, are fome of the men and fome of the meafures the author 
 defends ! 
 
 * Vide Life, p. 259. § Harl. MSS. N c 6284, art. 14. 
 
 f Printed in the Philofophical Tranfaclions, || Somcrs's Tracts, vol. i. This is certainly a 
 vol. ii. p. 845. miftake, and is the piece written by Dudley lord 
 
 North, mentioned above 3 p. 395. 
 
 $ Life, p. 293. 
 
 Vol. I. Ggg JOHN 
 
4 io NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 JOHN ROBARTES, Earl of RADNOR, 
 
 " W7~ a man °^ a moro ^ e an d cynical temper, juit in his administration, 
 but vicious under the appearances of virtue; learned beyond any man 
 of his quality, but intractable, itifF and obltinate, proud and jealous." Thefe 
 are Burnet's words *. Wood fays f , he was a colonel for the parliament, 
 that he fought defperately at Edgehill, and afterwards at Newberry, where he 
 was field-marfhal ; but grew to diflike the violences of his party, and retired 
 till the reftoration, when he was made lord privy-feal ; " but giving not that 
 content was expected, he was fent into Ireland to be lord-lieutenant there ; 
 and his government being difliked, he was recalled and made lord president.'* 
 We are not told how he difappointed the king's expectations ; probably not 
 by too great complaifance ; nor why his administration, which Burnet calls 
 
 juji, was difliked. If it, is true, that he was a good governor, the prefump- 
 tion will be, that his rule was not difliked by thofe to whom, but from 
 whom, he was fent|. However, not to judge too. hardly of Charles the fe- 
 cond, we may not depend too much upon the bifhop's account of tne earl's 
 government, if the fruits of it were no better than thofe of his great learning; 
 all that is recorded of his writing bearing this canting title, 
 
 " A difcourfe of the vanity of the creature, grounded on Ecclef. i. 2." 
 Lond. 1673, octavo. 
 
 Wood fays that he left one or two more treatifes fitted for the prefix 
 
 Some volumes of his collections and notes on parliamentary and Itate-afFairs 
 
 * Vol. i. p. 98. king had refolved to recall him, and that he him- 
 
 felf, tired out with continual checks and counter- 
 + Vol. ii. p. 778. mands hence, in matters which he thought were 
 
 agreed to him before he went, wrote a fliort let- 
 it Since the firft edition I find this conjecture ter to the king, defiring to be difmifled from all 
 confirmed by a letter of Andrew Marvel, who employments whatever, which mould be his laft 
 fays, " that his friends were daily reprefenting requeil." Marvel's Works } vol. ii. 51. 
 him to the king in. the worft character, that the 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 411 
 
 are preferred in the mufeum, with two tracts relating to the quell ion whe- 
 ther bihhops may vote in cafes of blood *. 
 
 ARTHUR ANNESLEY, Earl of ANGLESEY, 
 
 TX7TIILE a private young man, was engaged on the fide of Charles the firfl, 
 * whofe party he quitted early to embrace that of the parliament : by 
 them he was entrufted as commiffioner of Ulfter, where he performed good 
 fervice to the proteftant caufe. Wood fays he took both the covenant 
 and engagement ; but the latter is contradicted f. It is certain that he feems 
 to have lain by during the reign of Cromwell, and that he was not trufted 
 either by the rump or the army. When the fecluded members were reftor- 
 ed, he returned to parliament, and was chofen prefident of the council of 
 flate ; in which capacity he was active for the reftoration, and was diiiin- 
 guifhed amongli thofe who coming in at the eleventh hour received greater 
 wages than men who had loft their all in defending the vineyard. He was 
 made a baron, an earl, treafurer of the navy, commifnoner for re-fettling 
 Ireland, lord privy-feal, and might, we are told:]:, have been prime-mini- 
 fter, if he had not declined it to avoid envy. As he declined no other power 
 under no kind of government, this anecdote is fufpicious; and I mould much 
 queftion whether ever any man declined being prime-minifter for that reafon. 
 Engaging in a controverfy with the earl of Caillehaven, as has been mention- 
 ed, and that drawing on another with the duke of Ormond, he was difgraced ; 
 though the author of his life in the Biographia afcribes the caufe of his fall to 
 a remonftrance which he had prefented to the king, in which he took much 
 liberty with his majeily, and greater with the religion of the duke of York. 
 This piece being refented, though it was not thought proper, fays the bio- 
 grapher, to exprefs fo much, the duke of Ormond was perfuaded to exhibit 
 a charge againft the earl, which was made the pretence for removing him ; 
 but for this fecret hiftory no authority is quoted. The duke's letter, taxing 
 the earl with breach of friendfhip, is preferved §, is written with great fpirit, 
 
 * See Harleian Catal. N° 2224, 2237, 2238, % Happy future ftate of England, p. 5. 
 2243, 2294, 2325, 4091. 
 
 § Life, ubi fupra. 
 
 f Vide his life in the Biograph. Brit. 
 
 .Ggg 2 ami 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 and has this remarkable period : " I was not willing to believe that book to 
 be of your lordfTiip's compofing, and hoped fome of the fuborned libellers of 
 the age had endeavoured to imitate your lordfhip, and not you them." The 
 earl's anfwer, though inferior, does not want firmnefs. He palled the reft 
 of his time in retirement, and died, juft as fome thought he would have been 
 appointed lord chancellor to James the fecond, in 1686. A fuppofition raoft 
 improbable : I do not think fo ill of this lord as to believe he could have fup- 
 planted Jefferies, who was then in pofTefiion of the feals, and who, without 
 derogation from the fubfervience of any judge that ever was, excelled in 
 moulding the law to the purpofes of a court. 
 
 Of this lord we have three characters by very different hands. Antony 
 Wood, the high-church fatirift, reprefents him as an artful time-ferver ; by 
 principle a Calvinift, by policy a favourer of the papifts. Bifhop Burnet, as 
 ungentle on the other fide, paints him as a tedious and ungraceful orator, as a 
 grave, abandoned and corrupt man, whom no party would trufr. The be- 
 nign author of the Biographia Britannica [a work which I cannot help call- 
 ing Vindicatio Britannica, or a defence * of every body] humanely applies 
 his foftening pencil, is fuccefsful in blotting out fome fpots + , and attempts 
 to varnifh every one. Wood had feverely animadverted on the earl's fitting 
 in judgment on the regicides : the biographer extols it as an act of the great- 
 eft loyalty and honour : — but under favour, it not only appears a fervile com- 
 plaifance, but glaring injuftice The earl had gone moft lengths with thofe 
 men ; in fihort, had acted with them in open rebellion to his fovereign : the 
 putting to death that fovereign could by no means be the guilty part of their 
 oppofition. If a king deferves to be oppofed by force of arms, he deferves 
 death : if he reduces his fubjects to that extremity, the blood fpilt in the 
 quarrel lies on him — the executing him afterwards is mere formality. 
 
 * See particularly the lives of Dudley, afTbciate done in this paffage. In the firft lines of the New 
 of Empfonj of the duke of Northumberland; of Continuation of his Hiftory he has thefe words, 
 ■Shaftfbury ; and of Arlington. fpeaking of the principal prefbyterians who con- 
 
 tributed to the reftoration of Charles the fecond : 
 | As his not taking the engagement ; and the " The reft, who had been enough criminal, 
 accufation of corruption. JJjoiuhig more an'imofily towards the fevere ptitrifiment 
 
 of thofe, who having more power in the late 
 % It is fome fatisfaclion to me to find that my times had exceeded them in mifchief, than care 
 lord Clarendon himfelf thought a little as I have for their own indemnity." 
 
 That 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 413 
 
 That his lordfhip failed with the times, remains notorious : thofe princi- 
 ples muft be of an accommodating temper*, which could fufFer the fame 
 man to be prefident of a republican council of ftate, and recommend him for 
 chancellor to an arbitrary and popifh king. Once when the earl of E/Tex 
 charged him in the houfe of lords with being prayed for by the papifls, An- 
 glefey faid, " He believed it was not fo ; but if Jews in their fynagogues, or 
 Turks in their mofques, would pray for him unafked, he mould be glad to be 
 the better for their devotion." Had he really been nominated to the chancel- 
 lorfhip by James the fecond, probably he would have pleaded, that it was not 
 of his fecking, but owing to the prayers of the catholics, and he was glad to 
 be the better for them. 
 
 In anfwer to the bimop's accufation of no party's trufting him, the biogra- 
 pher pleads that his lordmip enjoyed for tvvo-and-twenty years the confidence 
 of Charles the fecond. The facl f does not appear to be true ; and, were it 
 true, would be no juftification : it is well known what qualifications could 
 recommend a man to the confidence of Charles. When lord Clarendon loft 
 it in feven years by his merit, it were ignominy to have preferved it two- 
 and-twenty. 
 
 This earl of Anglefey wrote 
 
 " A letter to William Lenthall, fpeaker to the rump, from Mr. Annefley, 
 expoftulating with him on account of his being excluded the houfe for not 
 taking the engagement ;" printed in a pamphlet called " England's con- 
 fufionj./' 
 
 " The truth unveiled, in behalf of the church of England^:, &c." Be- 
 ing a vindication of Mr. John StandifiYs fermon before the king, 1676. 
 This being an anfwer to Mr. Robert Grove's vindication of the conforming 
 clergy from the unjuft afperfion of herefy, was replied to by Grove ; and by a 
 
 * He was twice commiflioner for fettling Ire- confidence, nor is it any where faid that the earl 
 land; once under the parliament, the other time had any particular (hare of the king's favour, 
 under Charles the fecond. ^ j3j g r> p. 151. 
 
 f The office of lord privy-feal is no place of § Athenae, vol. ii. p. 790. 
 
 1 letter 
 
414 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 letter to the author of the vindication of Mr. Standifh's fermon. With Truth 
 unveiled was publifhed a piece on tranfubftantiation, entitled 
 
 " Reflections on that difcourfe which a matter of arts [once] of the uni- 
 verfity of Cambridge calls rational, prefented in print to a perfon of honour, 
 1676." 
 
 This was anfwered in a tract called " Roman tradition examined.'* 
 
 <£ A letter from a perfon of honour in the country written to the earl of 
 CafUehaven, being obfervations and reflections on his lordfhip's Memoirs 
 concerning the wars of Ireland." Lond. 1681, octavo. Befides this letter, 
 which occasioned the difpute before mentioned, was another book publifhed, 
 entitled " Brief reflections on the earl of CafHehaven's memoirs, written by 
 doctor Edmund Borlafe, author of the hiftory of the Irifh rebellion." 
 
 " A true account of the whole proceedings between James duke of Or- 
 mond, and Arthur earl of Anglefey, before the king and council, &c." Lond. 
 1682, folio *. 
 
 <£ A letter in anfwer to the duke of Ormond's t." 
 
 s< A letter of remarks upon Jovian." Lond. 1683. 
 
 " The hiftory of the late commotions and troubles in Ireland, from the 
 rebellion in 1641, till the reftoration in 1660." This hiftory is loft, and is 
 fufpected to have been purpofely deftroyed by perfons who were interefled to 
 fupprefs it %. 
 
 " The king's right of indulgence in fpiritual matters, with the equity 
 • thereof afTerted." Printed by Men. Care, in 1687. Of this piece [which 
 was calculated to attack the teft and penal laws againft papifts] it is remark- 
 able, that the noble author had been a republican, and paffed for a prefby- 
 terian ; and that the jirinter was the fame perfon who in the foregoing reign 
 
 * This is faid to have been drawn up by bi- f Biogr. p. 154. 
 ihop Morley. See p- 397. % ColHns's Peerage in Anglefey. 
 
 had 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 4.1 5 
 
 had been profecuted for publishing The weekly packet of advices from Rome : 
 one of the political piece:; that railed moft clamour againft the papifts *. 
 
 " Memoirs, intermixed with moral, political, and hiftorical obfervations, 
 by way of difcourfe in a letter [to fir Peter Pett]; to which is prefixed a let- 
 ter written by his lordlhip during his retirement from court in the year 
 1683." Lond. 1693, odavo. Published by fir Peter Pett, knight, advo- 
 cate-general for the kingdom of Ireland, and author of " The happy future 
 ftate of England." The title, memoirs, has no kind of relation to the work, 
 which is a fort of a rambling eflay, attempting at once to defend a popifh 
 king and the proteftant religion. The genuinenefs of thefe memoirs was 
 difputed by his fon-in-law lord Haverfham f . • 
 
 <e The earl of Anglefey's ftate of the government and kingdom, prepared 
 and intended for his majefty king Charles the fecond, in the year 1682 ; but 
 the ftorm impending growiug fo high prevented it then. With a fhort vindi- 
 cation of his lordfhip from feveral alperfions caft on him, in a pretended let- 
 ter that carries the title of his memoirs. By fir John Thompfon, bart. after- 
 wards lord Havermam t." This was the remonftrance hinted at above, 
 and was dated April 27, 1682 V 
 
 " The privileges of the houfe of lords and commons argued and ftated in 
 two conferences between both houfes, April 19 and 22, 1671. To which 
 is added a difcourfe wherein the rights of the houfe of lords are truly afTerted. 
 With learned remarks on the feeming arguments and pretended precedents, 
 offered at that time againft their lordfhips." Written by the right honourable 
 Arthur earl of Anglefey, lord privy-feal. Thefe conferences were managed 
 by the earl, and concerned a bill for impofitions on merchandize, which had 
 occafioned a difpute between the two houfes on. the old fubjecl of the fole 
 right of taxing, claimed by the commons. • 
 
 Befides thefe, we are told § that fome valuable pieces of this earl have been 
 loft, and that he wrote a certain large and learned difcourfe on the errors of 
 popery in his younger years, which fome of his friends would have peifuaded 
 
 * Antony- Wood. % Somers's Tracts, vol. i. p. 186. 
 
 f See the next article, 
 
 § North's Life, p. 30. 
 
 him 
 
4 i6 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 him to publim at the time of the popifh-plot. Probably he would not the 
 lefs have written his piece againft the teft. 
 
 His diary * is faid to have been in the poffeffion of one Mr. Ryley, in 1693. 
 And his lordfhip is fuppofed to have digefted Whitlocke's Memoirs, 
 
 GEORGE VILLIERS, Duke of 
 BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 "TT7HEN this extraordinary man, with the figure and genius of Alcibiades, 
 could equally charm the prefbyterian Fairfax, and the diflblute Charles ; 
 when he alike ridiculed that witty king and his folemn chancellor ; when he 
 plotted the ruin of his country with a cabal of bad minifters, or, equally un- 
 principled, fupported its caufe with bad patriots ; one laments that fuch parts 
 ihould have been devoid of every virtue. But when Alcibiades turns chy- 
 mift, when he is a real bubble, and a vifionary mifer ; when ambition is but 
 a frolic ; when the worft deiigns are for the foolifhefr. ends ; contempt extin- 
 ^uifhes all reflections on his character. 
 
 The portrait of this duke has been drawn by four mafterly hands : Burnet 
 has hewn it out with his rough chifel ; count Hamilton \ touched it with 
 that flight delicacy, that flnifhes while it feems but to Iketch ; Dryden % 
 catched the living likenefs ; Pope § completed the hiftorical refemblance. 
 Yet the abilities of this lord appear in no inftance more amazing, than that-, 
 being expofed by two, of the greatefr poets, he has expofed one of them ten 
 times more feverely. Zimri is an admirable portrait ; but Bayes an original 
 creation. Dryden fatirifed Buckingham ; but Villiers made Dryden iati- 
 rife himfelf. 
 
 An inftance of aftonifhing quicknefs is related of this duke : being prefent 
 at the firft rcprefentation of one of Dryden's pieces of heroic nonfenfe, where 
 a lover fays, 
 
 * Biogr. p. 157, marg. note. % Zimri in Abfalom and Achitophel. 
 
 f Vide Memoiresde Grammont. § In the Epiftle to lord Batlmrft. 
 
 " My 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 4i7 
 
 " My wound is great, becaufe it is fo {"mail." 
 
 The duke cried out, 
 
 " Then 'twou'd be greater, were it none at all." 
 The play was inftantly damned. 
 His grace wrote 
 
 44 The rchearfal," 1 671. 
 
 9r1 tit] 'Sir $0£"rg tin oj vd Jau n { ZvLM lut 10 83£K»33q» uiJh ffffl " »q rfiwrr 
 
 " The chances, a comedy," altered from Fletcher. 
 " Reflections upon Abfalom and Achitophel *." 
 
 " A fpeech in the houfe of lords, November 16, 1675, for leave to 
 bring in a bill of indulgence to all proteftant diffenters ;" printed with lord 
 Shaftfbury's fpeech [above-mentioned] for appointing a day to hear doctor 
 Shirley's cafe -f . 
 
 " A fhort difcourfe upon the reafonablenefs of men's having a religion or 
 worfhip of God." Lond. 1685. It patted through three editions. Soon 
 after the firft edition, came out, " A fliort anfwer to his grace the duke of 
 Buckingham's paper concerning religion, toleration, and liberty of con- 
 fcience to which the duke made a ludicrous and very good anfwer, called, 
 
 " The duke of Buckingham his grace's letter to the unknown author of 
 -a paper intituled, A fhort anfwer &c." Lond. 1685. This occasioned 
 feveral more pamphlets. 
 
 " A demonftration of the deity ;" published a little before his grace's death. 
 
 " Verfes on two lines of Mr. Edward Howard ;" printed in the third part 
 of mifcellany poems, 1693. 
 
 * Athene, vol. ii. p. S06. f lb. p. 725. % Somers's Tracts, vol. i. p. 367. 
 
 Vol. I. H h h 44 A tranflation 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " A tranflation of Horace's ode beginning, Fortuna faevo." In the 
 fourth part. 
 
 " A letter to fir Thomas Ofborn." 
 
 Befides the above, a few pieces by this duke are fcattered through two 
 volumes, called 
 
 " The works of his grace George Villiers, late duke of Buckingham.'* 
 Lond. 1 715. Thefe volumes are a bookfeller's mifcellany, containing va- 
 rious poems and fpeeches of all times ; what belong to his grace are [in the 
 firft volume] 
 
 " The reftoration, or right will take place, a tragi-comedy." 
 
 " The battle of Sedgmoor, a fatirical and political farce." 
 
 " The militant couple, or the hulband may thank himfelf. A fragment.'* 
 
 " Pindaric on the death of lord Fairfax." . 
 
 " To his miftrefs." 
 
 " A defcription of Fortune." 
 
 " Epitaph on Felton," who murdered his grace's father. The editor pre- 
 tends that this could not be written by the duke, but I know no principles 
 he had to prevent his being the author. Indeed it is more bombaft than 
 offenfive. 
 
 u A confolatory epiftle to captain Julian, &c." 
 
 " A character of an ugly woman, or a hue and cry after beauty," in profe, 
 written in 1678. 
 
 " The loft miftrefs, a complaint againft the countefs of * * * * * *," 1675. 
 
 This 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 419 
 
 This was probably the countefs of Shrewfbury, whofe lord he killed in a 
 duel on her account, and who is faid to have held the duke's horfe, difguifed 
 like a page, during the combat ; to reward his prowefs in which, me went 
 to bed to him in the fhirt ftained with her hufband's blood. The loves of 
 this tender pair are recorded by Pope, 
 
 u Gallant and gay in Cliefden's proud alcove, 
 The bow'r of wanton Shrewfbury and love." 
 
 " Four poems by the. duke and lord Rochefter : upon nothing ; a feffion 
 of the poets ; a fatire on the follies of the men of the age ; and Timon, a 
 fatire on fome new plays." 
 
 " Three letters to lord Arlington and lord Berkeley." 
 
 " His examination by the houfe of commons, in which he confeffed 
 fome part of his own bad adminiftration, and betrayed more of his affociatc 
 Arlington." 
 
 " Speech in the houfe of lords, November 16." Vide above, p. 417. 
 " Speech at a conference," 1675. 
 
 " Speech in the houfe of lords to prove the parliament diflblved :" for 
 this fpeech he, with Shaftfbury, Salifbury, and the real whig, Wharton, was 
 fent to the Tower. 
 
 In the fecond volume, 
 " A key to the rehearfal." 
 
 M An account of a conference between the duke and father Fitzgerald, 
 whom king James fent to convert his grace in his ficknefs." This has 
 humour. 
 
 " Ef% upon reafon and religion," in a letter to Neville Pain, efq. 
 
 H h h 2 « On 
 
42o NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " On human reafon," addrelTed to Martin Clifford, efq. 
 
 " Five letters on election affairs, &c." 
 
 " Ten little burlefque and: fatirical poems." 
 
 HENEAGE FINCH, Earl of 
 W I N C II ELSEA, 
 
 pi R ST coufm of the chancellor Nottingham, made a figure at the fame 
 period. He was intimate with Moncke, and concerned in the reifora- 
 tion ; foon after which he was fent embaffador to Mahomet the fourth. 
 Moncke had given the earl the government of Dover-caftle, which was con- 
 tinued to him ; and when king James was flopped at Feverfham he fent for 
 the earl of Winchelfea, who prevailed on the king to return to London. The 
 earl voted for giving the crown to king William, by whom he was continued 
 lord lieutenant of Kent. He died foon after in 1689. On his return from 
 Conftantinople^ vifiting Sicily, he was witnefs to a terrible convulfion of 
 mount vEtna, an account of which he fent to the king, and which was foon 
 after publimed by authority, in a very thin quarto, with this title : 
 
 " A true and exa£t relation of the late prodigious earthquake, and eruption 
 of mount y£tna, or monte Gibello, &c. together with a more particular 
 narrative of the fame, as it is collected out of feveral relations fent from Ca- 
 tania, 1669. With a view of the mountain and conflagration." 
 
 GEORGE SAVILLE, Marquis of HALIFAX, 
 
 A MAN more remarkable for his wit than his fteadinefs, and whom an in- 
 genious modern * hiftorian has erected into a principal character in the 
 
 * Mr Hume; who obferves that the marquis's rather than of his ambition. They might ; but 
 variations might be the efFetts of his integrity, it is doubtful. 
 
 reign 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 421 
 
 reign of Charles the fecond. But when old hiftories are re-written, it is nc- 
 cefTary to fet perfons and facts in new lights from what they were feen by 
 cotemporaries *. Voltaire, fpeaking of Dupleix, fays t, that he was the 
 firft who introduced the cuitom of quoting his authorities in the margin ; 
 " precaution abfolument neceflaire, quand on n'ecrit pas 1'hiftoire de foil 
 terns/' However, the dictator of this fentence, and author of that beautiful 
 effay on univerfal hiftory, has totally forgot his own rule, and has indeed left 
 that work a moil: charming bird's-eye landfcape, where one views the whole 
 in picturefque confufion, and imagines the objects more delightful than they 
 are in reality, and when examined feparately. The marquis wrote 
 
 v " The anatomy of an equivalent J." 
 
 A letter to a diffenter, upon occafion of his majelty's late gracious de- 
 claration of indulgence," 1687 §. 
 
 61 An efTay upon taxes, calculated for the prefent juncture of affairs in 
 England," 1693 ||. 
 
 " Advice to a daughter." 
 
 " The character of a trimmer." 
 
 " Maxims of ftate applicable to all times <[[." 
 
 « Chara&er of bifhop Burnet **." 
 
 " A feafonable addrefs to both houfes of parliament, concerning the fuc- 
 ceffion, the fears of popery and arbitrary government," 1681 ff. 
 
 * In order to which, it is bed to omit referring 
 even to thofe authors that are ufed in the compi- 
 lation. 
 
 f Ecrivains du fiecle de Louis XIV. 
 
 % Printed in the Collection of State Tracts, 
 vol. ii. p. 300. 
 
 § Printed amongSomers'sTi'a£ts ; vol.ii.p. 364. 
 
 || Somers's Tracts, vol. iv. p. 63. 
 
 f Printed among the "Works of Villiers duke 
 of Buckingham, vol. ii. p- 137. 
 
 ** Printed at the end of the Bifhop's Hiftory 
 of his own Times. 
 
 ff Somers's Tracts, fecond collection, vol. Hi. 
 p. 346. 
 
 " Cautions 
 
422 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " Cautions for choice of parlkment-men." 
 w A rough draught of a new model at fea." 
 
 " Lord Halifax's Hiftorical obfervations upon the reigns of Edward I. II. 
 III. and Richard II. with remarks upon their faithful counfellors and falfe 
 favourites," 1689*. 
 
 Seven of thefe pieces were printed together in o6tavo, 1 704, under the 
 title of " Mifcellanies by the late marquis of Halifax." 
 
 " Character of Charles the fecond, and political, moral and mifcellaneous 
 thoughts and reflections ;" publifhed by his grand-daughter, the countefs of 
 Burlington. 
 
 GEORGE Earl of BERKELEY, 
 
 r pHE firft earl of that ancient line, diftinguifhed his piety by beftowing on > 
 the public library of Sion-college, for the ufe of the city-clergy f, a 
 valuable library collected by fir Robert Coke ; and by the following religious 
 tract : 
 
 " Hiftorical applications and occafional meditations upon feveral fubjecls. 
 Written by a perfon of honour, 1670." A fmall duodecimo. 
 
 This uncommon little book came out of the library of John Vaughan earl 
 of Carberry, who had written in the title-page the name of the author: it 
 was purchafed by Mr. Whifton, to whom I am obliged for it, and who was 
 allured by one of the family that it was certainly lord Berkeley's, of which 
 the piece itfelf contains fome flight collateral proofs. The dedication figned 
 Conftans, is addreffed to the lady Harmonia ^, in whofe name there is an 
 cpiftle to the author, which concludes the book, and in which me calls him 
 
 * Harl. Catal. vol. i. p. 438. % Mary countefs of Warwick. See the ao 
 
 j- Vide Collins in Berkeley. count of her hereafter among the peerefles. 
 
 My 
 
/ 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 423 
 
 My lord. A copy of verfes by Waller * is prefixed, calls the author's a noble 
 pen, and fays, he drew his well-known pedigree from kings. Robert Fitzhard- 
 ing, the direct anceftor of the earl of Berkeley, was of the royal houfe of 
 Denmark. , 
 
 THOMAS OSBORNE, Duke of LEEDS. 
 
 TT is by no means neceffary to fay any thing of this lord ; he appears m 
 every page of the reign of Charles the fecond. Burnet f treats him fe- 
 verely : the Peerage vindicates him by a dedication of Dryden ; which one 
 mn ft allow is authority to fuch a book, for nothing can exceed the flattery of 
 a genealogift, but that of a dedicator. If the earl of Danby was far inferior 
 in integrity to Clarendon and Southampton, he wa9 as much fuperior to 
 Shaftfbury and Lauderdale. Leeds was one of thofe fecondary characters, 
 who, having been firft-minifter, fubmitted afterwards to act a fubordinate part 
 in an adminiftration. 
 
 His grace publifhed 
 
 " Memoirs relating to the impeachment of Thomas earl of Danby [now 
 duke of Leeds] in the year 1678, wherein fome affairs of thofe times are re- 
 prefented in a jufter light than has hitherto appeared. With an appendix." 
 Lond. 1 710. 
 
 " The earl of Danby's letters in the years 1676, 77, and 78 ; with par- 
 ticular remarks upon fome of them," 1710. 
 
 " Another letter MS. is in the Harl. Coll. N° 7001. 
 
 * Fenton in his notes on this poem (p. 78) his character into that of lord Plaufible in the 
 fays that lord Berkeley was " of fuch an undiftin- Plain Dealer." 
 guifhing affability to men of all ranks and parties, 
 
 that he had been told, Mr. Wycherley ftrained f Vol. i. p. 351. 
 
 3 
 
 HE NR Y 
 
424 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 HENRY BOOTH, Lord DELAMER, 
 and Earl of WARRINGTON. 
 
 TT is remarkable how many of the faireft names in our flory have contr.i- 
 buted to grace our memoirs of literature. The lord in queftion was an 
 author, and, like his father, an active inftrument in a revolution of govern- 
 ment. Lord Henry, who was thrice imprifoned for his noble love of liberty, 
 and who narrowly efcaped the fury of James and JefFeries, lived to be com- 
 miffioned by the prince of Orange to order that king to remove from White- 
 hall ; a meffage which he delivered with a generous decency. He was foon 
 difmifled by king William to gratify the tories ; and died in the forty-fecond 
 year of his age ; having written a vindication of his dear friend, under this 
 title, 
 
 " The late lord Ruffel's cafe, with obfervations upon it." 
 
 " Speech of the honourable Henry Booth at Chefter, on his being elected 
 knight of the mire for that county, March, 1 680-81 *." 
 
 44 Another fpeech," which feems to have been an addrefs to his county, to 
 perfuade them to join the prince of Orange p 
 
 " Charges to the grand jury in 1691, 92, and 93." 
 
 " The works of the right honourable Henry late lord Delamer and earl of 
 Warrington, containing his lordfhip's advice to his children, feveral fpeeches 
 in parliament, &c. with many other occafional difcourfes on the affairs of 
 the two lait. reigns : being original manufcripts, written with his lordfhip's 
 own hand." Lond. 1694, octavo. Dedicated to his fon and fucceffor by 
 the publifher I. de la Heuze. At the end is an elegy on the death of his lady. 
 
 * State Trails, vol. ii. p. 147. f lb. p. 434. 
 
 CHARLES 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 425 
 
 CHARLES SACKVILLE, Eaul of DORSET*. 
 
 T F one turns to the authors of the laft age for the character of this lord, one 
 meets with nothing but encomiums on his wit and good-nature. He was 
 the fineir gentleman in the voluptuous court of Charles the fecond, and in the 
 gloomy one of king William : he had as much wit as his firft mailer, or his 
 cotemporaries Buckingham and Rochefter, without the royal want of feeling, 
 the duke's want of principles, or the earl's want of thought. The latter faid 
 with aftonimment, " That he did not know how it was, but lord Dorfet 
 
 might do any thing, and yet was never to blame." It was not that he was 
 
 free from the failings of humanity, but he had the tendernefs of it too ; which 
 made every body excufe whom every body loved ; for even the afperity of his 
 verfes feems to have been forgiven to 
 
 *' The beif. good man with the worn 1 natured mufe." 
 
 This line is not more familiar than lord Dorfefs own poems to all who have 
 a tafte for the genteeleff. beauties of natural and eafy verfe, or than his lord- 
 Ihip's own bon-mots, of which I cannot help repeating one of fingular hu- 
 mour. Lord Craven was a proverb for officious whifpers to men in power. 
 On lord Dorfet's promotion, king Charles having feen lord Craven pay his 
 ufual tribute to him, afked the former what the latter had been faying : the 
 earl replied gravely, " Sir, my lord Craven did me the honour to whifper, 
 but I did not think it good manners to liften." When he was dying, Con- 
 greve, who had been to vifit him, being afked how he had left him, replied, 
 •** 'Faith, he flabbers more wit than other people have in their beff. health." 
 His lordfhip wrote nGthing but fmall copies of verfes, moft of which have 
 been collected in the late editions of our minor-poets ; and with the duke of 
 
 * Having omitted him in his place, as being tions feveral fpeeches and letters of ftate of this 
 
 the author only of fpeeches and letters, I (hall re- lord in print ; and whofe own manly and fpirited 
 
 fer my readers for an account of another orna- account of his duel with the lord Bruce is fuffi- 
 
 ment of this family, Edward earl of Dos set, ciently known, 
 to Antony Wood, who, vol. ii. page 155, men- 
 
 Yol. I. I i i Buckingham's 
 
426 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 Buckingham's works are printed * two of lord Dorfet's poems ; as in Prior's 
 
 pofthumous works -j~ is one called 
 
 " The antiquated coquet.'* 
 
 His lordmip and Waller are faid to have amfted Mrs. Catherine Philips in 
 her tranflation of Corneille's Pompey. 
 
 U L L LI AM CAVENDISH, Duke of 
 DEVON S-HIR E: 
 
 A PATRIOT among^ the men, a Corydon among the ladies %. His 
 friendship with lord Ruffel, his free fpirit, his bravery, duels, honours, 
 amours, are well known, and his epitaph will never be forgotten : 
 
 WILLIELMUS DUX DEVONI^, 
 BONORUM PR1NCIPUM SUBDITUS FIDEL IS ? 
 IN1MICUS ET INVISUS TYRANNIS. 
 
 Of his compofitions we have 
 
 " Two fpeeches 
 
 u A true copy of a paper delivered By the lord Devonfhire to the mayor 
 of Derby, where he quartered, November 21, 1688 {J." 
 
 " An allufion to the bifhop of Cambray's fupplement to Homer, sf poem," 
 of which one or two extracts are to be found in the Peerage 51 . The whole 
 piece is published at length in fome editions of the Englifh Telemachus ; and 
 at the end of lord Rochester's poems. 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 14 and 56. § Printed in Collins's Peerage, p. 325, 327. 
 
 + Vol. i. p. 170. _ ^ « 
 
 . II State Trads, vol. ii. p. 438. 
 
 % He is drawn by Shippen in Fa&ion dis- 
 played under the character of Narciflb. Vide % TJbi fupra, p. 336* 
 Cclleftign of Stat? Poems y vol. XV. p. 91. 
 
 5 " Sony 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS, 
 
 427 
 
 Some fragments," m the Peerage. 
 " An ode on the death of queen Mary *.'* 
 
 u A Latin infcription on the tomb of mifs Campion, an actrefs, his mif- 
 trefs." 
 
 JOHN THOMPSON, Lord HAVERSHAM. 
 
 r JpHIS lord, whom Burnet often mentions curforily, but without thinking 
 him of confequence enough to draw his character, is little known. Be- 
 ing of a republican family, which recommended him f, fays the author of 
 his Life, to the earl of Anglefey, the patron of the dhTenters, he married the 
 daughter of that earl, who recommended him to the good graces of Charles 
 the fecond. The king made him a baronet, and offered him the treafurerfhip 
 of the chambers, which he declined ; his principles being as yet of a more 
 ftubborn temper than thofe of his father-in-law. The young baronet was 
 active againft the meafures of the court during the popifh reigns, and joined 
 the prince of Orange, by whom he was made a baron and lord of the admi- 
 ralty. He X offended the tory houfe of commons who impeached the whig 
 lords in 1 70 1 ; and the tory adminiftration were eager to remove him. How- 
 ever, being difgufted, as his biographer fays §, at the promotion of the earl 
 of Pembroke, " he took all opportunities of oppofing almoft every thing 
 that was advauced by the court ; and finding no notice taken of him by the 
 court, he went on with his refentment, and was a great obftacle to the occa- 
 lional conformity-bill, which at that time was voted for by all who had 
 places of truft." From this time his lordfhip feems entirely to have aban- 
 doned his fir ft principles, and to have given himfelf up to the high-church 
 party, though he continued to go fometimes to meetings. His hiftorian 
 afcribes this change to the violent meafures of the wnigs ; but after fo candid 
 a confefTion as he had made above of his lordfhip's difgufts, the reader will 
 
 * P 3 S e 337 j S>»d in Rochefter's Works. % Burnet, vol. ii. p. 278. 
 
 + Memoirs of the late right honourable John § Page 3. 
 lord Hayerfham, &c. 171 1 ; a {mall pamphlet. 
 
 I i i 2 be 
 
4 28 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 be apt to think that the meafures of the whigs were not the fole ftumbling- 
 block. Be that as it may, in 1 705 we find * lord Haverfham opening the 
 debate againft the duke of Marlborough; and in the year 1707 he f was 
 one of the lords that attacked the conduct of the admiralty. In 1708 " My 
 lord Haverfham, a great fpeech-maker and publifher of his fpeeches J, fays 
 the duchefs of Marlborough, and who was become the mouth of the party for 
 any extraordinary alarm, was fent privately by the tories to the queen to ac- 
 quaint her with the difcovery, they pretended to have made, of a terrible de- 
 lign formed by the whigs, to bring over one of the houfe of Hanover, and to 
 force this upon her whether fhe would or not." Unluckily this very lord 
 " had been the man, who had moved for the princefs Sophia's coming over,- 
 as a thing neceffary for the prefervation of the protellant religion." 
 
 The lift of his lordfhip's performances is as follows : 
 
 " Obfervations upon feveral occurrencies from the beginning of her ma- 
 jefty's reign [to the day of his death] by way of memoranda." It contains^ 
 only three pages, tending to palliate his change of principles, in which his 
 lordfhip is not quite fo ingenuous as his biographer §0. 
 
 " A vindication of the earl of Anglefey, from being the author of the 
 memoirs under his name." It is contained in a dedication to king William: 
 and queen Mary, and in a preface to the earl of Anglefey's State of the go- 
 vernment and kingdom, &c. [| 
 
 " Speech on the bill to prevent occafional conformity," 1703^. 
 
 " Another fpeech, November 20, 1704**." 
 
 " Speech upon the ftate of the nation," 1 705 -j-K 
 
 '* A vindication of that fpeech %\" 
 
 * Burnet, p. 429. 
 f lb. p. 491. 
 
 % Conduct of the dowager duchefs of Marl 
 borough, p. 163. 
 
 $ Printed in the Memoirs of his life, p. 22. 
 
 H See before in the article of Anglefey, 
 f Vide Memoirs of his life. 
 ** Ibid, 
 ft Ibid. 
 X% lb. p. 10. 
 
 " Speech 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 429 
 
 " Speech againft the bill for recruiting her majefty's land forces 
 " Several other fpeeches -f-." 
 
 " Account of the proceedings relating to the charge of the houfe of com- 
 mons againft John lord Haverfham moft probably written by himfelf 
 
 ANTONY ASHLEY COOPER, 
 Earl of SHAFTSBURY, 
 
 /GRANDSON of the chancellor, and a man whofe morals were as amiable 
 as the life of the former was hateful. The firft was an author only to ferve 
 the purpofes of the factions in which he was engaged ; the writings of the 
 latter breathe the virtues of his mind, for which they are much more eftima- 
 ble than for their ftyle and manner. He delivers his do6trines in ecftatic 
 diclion, like one of the magi inculcating philofophic virions to an eaftern 
 auditory I 
 
 His principal works are publimed in three volumes, well known by the 
 title of the 
 
 " Chara&eriftics of men, manners, opinions, times*'* 
 We have befldes a fmall collection of his 
 
 " Letters to Robert Molefworth, efq. [now the lord vifcount of that 
 name] with a large introdu6tion," giving an account of the earl's public prin- 
 ciples, which were juft what became an Englishman and a philofopber. One 
 anecdote, not mentioned there, but an inftance of his modeft ingenuity, 
 ought to be recorded. Attempting to fpeak on the bill for granting -counfel 
 to prifoners in cafes of high-treafon, he was confounded, and for fome time 
 
 * Memoirs of his life, p. 5. f Ibid* % Somers's Trails, fecond collect, vol. iv. p. 384^ 
 
 could 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 could not proceed ; but recovering himfelf he faid, " What now happened to 
 him, M ould ferve to fortify the arguments for the bill — if he, innocent and 
 pleading for others, was daunted at the auguftnefs of fuch an affembly, what 
 muft a man be, who mould plead before them for his life ?" 
 
 " A letter concerning defign 
 
 " Advice to a young clergyman.'* 
 
 " Preface to dodor Whichcot's felecl difcourfes," which his lordfliip pub- 
 lifhed. Octavo. 
 
 JOHN Lord S M E R S, 
 
 ^~JNE of ihofe divine men, who, like a chapel in a palace, remain unpro- 
 faned, while all the reft is tyranny, corruption and folly. All the tra- 
 ditional accounts of him, the hiftorians of the laft age, and its beft authors, 
 reprefent him as the moft incorrupt lawyer and the honefteft ftatefman, as 
 a mafter orator, a genius of the fineft tafte, and as a patriot of the noblell 
 and moft extenfive views ; as a man, who difpenfed bleflings by his life, and 
 planned them for pofterity. He was at once the model of Addifon, and the 
 touchftone of Swift ; the one wrote from him, the other for him -f. The 
 
 former, 
 
 * Printed in Bjckerton's collection, p. 75. 
 
 f Since this work was firfl printed, we have 
 feen doctor Swift's Four lajl years of the queen, 
 where is a character of lord Somers very different 
 from what is here given, and from the picture 
 drawn of him in the dedication to the Tale of a 
 tub. Yet, dillorted as the features are in this 
 new hiftory, it is a pleafure to find that party- 
 malice attempted to difcolour rather than to alter 
 them. How lovely does a character burft forth, 
 when the greater! objections to k are, that it was 
 fteady to its principles, of univerfal civility, con- 
 fcious of an humble birth, of no avarice, of fatif- 
 fied ambition, that the p'erfon fo accufed did vio- 
 lence to himfelf to govern his paffions, and [one 
 
 can fcarce repeat ferioufly fuch a charge !] pre- 
 ferred reading and thinking to the pleafures of 
 converfation. How black a ftatefman, not to be 
 fickle ! How poor a philofopher, to mafter his 
 paffions, when he could not eradicate them! How 
 bad a man, to endeavour to improve his mind and 
 underftanding ! — Can one wonder that lord Bo- 
 lingbroke and Pope always tried to prevent Swift 
 from expofing himfelf by publifhing this wretched 
 ignorant libel ? And could it avoid falling, as it 
 has, into immediate contempt and oblivion?— 
 However, as the greateft characters cannot be 
 clear of all alloy, Swift might have known that 
 lord Somers was not entirely juftifiable in obtain- 
 ing fome grants of crown lands, which, though in 
 
 no 
 
NOBLE' AUTHORS. 431 
 
 former, however, has drawn a laboured, but difFufe and feeble character of 
 him in the Freeholder *, neither worthy of the author nor his fubjecr. It is 
 known that my lord Somers furvived the powers of his underftanding : Mr. 
 Addifon fays, " His life indeed feems to have been prolonged beyond its na- 
 tural term, under thofe indifpofitions which hung upon the latter part of it, 
 that he might have the fatisfa£tion of feeing the happy fettlement take place 
 which he had propofed to himfelf as the principal end of all his public la- 
 bours." — A very wife way indeed of interpreting the will of Providence ! 
 As if a man was preferved by Heaven in a ftate of dotage, till an event mould 
 arrive which would make him happy if he retained his fenfes ! Equally inju- 
 dicious is another paffage, intended for encomium, where we are told, " That 
 he gained great efteem with queen Anne, who had conceived many unreafon- 
 able prejudices againft him !" Mr. Addifon might as well have faid, that the 
 queen at firft dilbelieved, and was afterwards converted to fir Ifaac Newton's 
 jfyftem of comets : her majefty was full as good a judge of aftronomy, as of 
 lord Somcrs's merits. In truth, Mr. Addifon was fometimes as weak a wri- 
 ter, when he wrote ferioufly, as he was admirable in touching the delicacies 
 of natural humour. He fays, that my lord Somers was often compared with 
 fir Francis Bacon, and gives the preference to the former, " becaufe he, all 
 integrity, did not behave as meanly, when profecuted by the houfe of com- 
 mons, as the other under conviction of guilt." This argument is as poor as 
 the panegyric. To argue from their behaviour, they mould have been in 
 fimilar circumlrances. If they are to be compared, the fuperior penetration 
 of genius cannot be denied to Bacon ; the virtue will all be Somers's.' If he 
 mult be compared with another chancellor, it muft not be with Clarendon, 
 who was more morofe and fevere, had lefs capacity, and a thouiand more 
 prejudices : the great chancellor de l'Hofpital leems to referable Somers moft 
 in the dignity of his foul and the elegance of his underftanding. 
 
 The momentous times in which he lived, gave lord Somers opportunities 
 of difplaying the extent of his capacity and the patriotifm of his heart ; op- 
 portunities as little fought for the former, as they were honeftly courted and 
 
 no proportion to other gains in that reign, it tion difplaycd has, in the character of Sigillo, 
 would have become him to refift, not to counte- drawn a picture of lord Somers that is more like 
 nance by his example. Shippen, who could not a minifter of Tiberius or Caracalla. Vide CoIUft, 
 fee one virtue in a minifter of king William, has of State Poems, vol. iv. p. 89. 
 Jiad lefcmodefty even than Swift, and in his Fac- * Of May 14, 17 16. 
 
 purfued 
 
432 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 purfued for the latter. The excellent balance of our constitution never ap- 
 peared in a clearer light than with relation to this lord, who, though im- 
 peached by a mifguided houfe of commons with all the intemperate folly that 
 at times difgraced the free flates of Greece, yet had full liberty to vindicate 
 his innocence and manifeft an integrity, which could never have fhone fo 
 bright unlefs it had been juridically afperfed. In our conflitution Ariilides 
 may be traduced, clamoured againft, and, when matter is wanting, fummary 
 addrefTes may be propofed or voted * for removing him for ever from the fer- 
 vice of the government ; but happily the factious and the envious have not a 
 power of condemning by a fhell, which many of them cannot fign. 
 
 It was no inglorious part of this great chancellor's life, that, when removed 
 from the adminiftration, his labours were frill dedicated to the fervice of the 
 government and of his country. In this lituation, above all the little preju- 
 dices of a profeffioa, for he had no profeffion but that of Solon and Lycurgus, 
 he fet himfelf to correct the grievances of the law, and to amend the vocation 
 lie had adorned f . The union of the kingdoms was projected too by him ; 
 and it was not to his difgrace, that the princefs, whofe prejudices he had con- 
 quered, and whofe efteem he had gained, offered him up as one of the firjft 
 iacrifices on the altar of Utrecht, 
 
 Such deathlefs monuments of his abilities and virtue diminifh the regret 
 we mould otherwife feel, that though lord Somers wrote feveral pieces, we 
 are ignorant even of the titles of many of them ; fo little was fame his object! 
 This modeity is mentioned particularly in the Freeholder I have quoted. 
 What little I have been able to difcover of his writings are thefe, 
 
 " Dryden's fatire to his mufe J." This, I think, has been difputed ; and 
 indeed the grofs ribaldry of it cannot be believed to have flowed from fo hu,* 
 rcane and poHfhed a nature as lord Somers's. 
 
 " Tranflation of the epiftle of Dido to iEneas 
 
 * As happened in the cafe of lord Sorners ; % Printed in the third volume of Cogan's edi- 
 vtdf Burnet, vol. ii. p. 267 : and of fir Robert tion of the minor poets. 
 Walpde. 
 
 § Printed in Tonfon'seditio-n. Vide Gen. Dift. 
 f lb. p. 439. vol. ix. p. 283. 
 
 6 « Tranf- 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 433 
 
 ** Tranflation of Ariadne to Thefeus *." 
 
 ■ 
 
 " Tranflation of Plutarch's Life of Alcibiades f ." 
 
 " A juft and modcfl: vindication of the proceedings of the two lafl: parlia- 
 ments." 1 68 1, qu°. Firft written by Algernon Sidney, but new drawn 
 by Somers. Published in Baldwin's collection of pamphlets in the reign of 
 Charles the fecond 
 
 " Other pieces at that time,'^ not fpecified 
 
 " A fpeech at a conference on the word abdicated 
 
 " Another on the fame occafion.'* 
 
 " Speeches at the trial of lord Prefton U.'* 
 
 ** His letter to king William on the partition treaty**.** 
 
 *' His anfwer to his impeachment.'* 
 
 " Extracts from two of his letters to lord Wharton f-f 
 
 " Addreffes of the lords in anfwer to addreifes of the commons ^.** 
 
 * Vide Life of lord Somers. A fmall ill- writ- of England, explained according to the funda- 
 ten pamphlet. mentals of the Englifti government, &c." 
 
 f Gen. Di&. ubi fupra. H Ibid. 
 
 % Burnet, vol. i. % Life, p. 26. 
 
 § Gen. Di£L p. 284. I have met with a fmall ** Gen. Diet. p. 286. 
 piece, faid to be written by lord Somers, which 
 perhaps was one of the tracts hinted at here ; it is ff lb. p. 290. 
 entitled, M The fecurity of Englifhmen's lives, 
 
 or, the truft, power and duty of the grand juries %\ Burnet, vol. ii. p. 378. 
 
 Vol. I. Kkk « The 
 
434 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " The argument of the lord-keeper Somers on his giving judgment in the 
 banker's cafe, delivered in the Exchequer-chamber, June 23, 1696*." 
 
 He was fuppofed too, but on what foundation I know not, to write " The 
 preface to- doctor TindaFs Rights of the chriftian church." 
 
 " A brief hiftory of the fuccefTion collected out of the records, written for 
 the fatisfaction of the E. of Hi" In the origmaicopy were feveral additions 
 in lord Somers's hand, from whence the editor afcribes it to his lordmip f . 
 
 In 1702 was publimed a tranfiation of Demaithenes's Olynthian and Phi- 
 lippic orations by feveral hands, under the direction, it was faid, of lord 
 Somers, who was alfo fuppofed to have translated the hiftoric preface of. 
 Tourreil, prefixed to them.. 
 
 CHARLES MONTAGU, Earl of HALIFAX", 
 
 "O AISED himfelf by his abilities and eloquence in the houfeof commons, 
 where he had the honour of being attacked in conjunction with lord 
 Somers, and the fatisfaction of eftabliming his innocence as clearly. Addifon 
 has celebrated this lord in his account of the greatefl Englifh poets : Steele 
 has drawn his character in the dedication of the fecond volume of the Specta- 
 tor, and of the fourth of the Tatler ; but Pope in the portrait of Bufo in the 
 epiftle to Arbuthnot, and Shippen in that of Bathillo have returned the 
 ridicule, which his lordmip^ in conjunction with Prior, had heaped on Dry- 
 den's Hind and panther. Befides this admirable travefty, lord Halifax wrote 
 
 " An anfwer to Mr. Bromley's fpeech in relation to the occafional con- 
 formity bill 
 
 "* Harl. Catal. vol. ii. p. 651. collection of original papers and letters, was very 
 
 lately loft by a fire in the chambers of Mr. Yorke, 
 f Vide Somers's Tracls, fourth coll. vol. iv. his ™jefty's folicitor-general, 
 
 P ' ^J'^^ ^^^^^^ JlnFaaiondifplayed. Vide ColUaion of Stat* 
 a collection or fcarce pieces in four fets of four n , . 
 
 1 u • , 1 r> Poems, vol. iv. p. 92. 
 
 volumes each in quarto, publifhed by Cogan,. 
 
 from pamphlets chiefly collected by lord Somers. $ Publilhed in the Memoirs of lord Halifax's 
 A mu«h more valuable treafure, his lordfhip's life. 
 
 5 " Seafonable 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 435 
 
 " Seafonable queries concerning a new parliament." 1710. 
 " A poem on the death of Charles the fecond." 
 " The man of honour. A poem.'* 
 
 " Ode on the marriage of her royal highnefs the princefs Anne and prince 
 George of Denmark." 
 
 " Epiftle to Charles earl of Dorfet and Middlefex, occafioned by king 
 William's victory in Ireland." 
 
 All which, except the queries, with feveral of his fpeeches, have been 
 publifhed together in an odtavo volume, with " Memoirs of his lordfhip's 
 life." 1716. 
 
 " Verfes written at Althrop in a blank leaf of a Waller, on feeing A^an- 
 dyck's pi&ure of lady Sunderland *." 
 
 " Verfes written for the toafting-glafTes of the kit-cat club," 1 703. His 
 .lordfhip's are the beft of this fet. 
 
 He drew all the protefts, except the laft, on a queftion in the houie of 
 lords for thanking the earl of Peterborough f. 
 
 JOHN SHEFFIELD, Duke of 
 BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 r T"*HE life of this peer takes up fourteen pages and a half in folio in the 
 General Dictionary, where it has little pretenfions to occupy a couple : — 
 but his pious relict was always purchafing places for him, herfelf, and their 
 fon, in every fuburb of the temple of Fame a tenure, againft which of all 
 
 * State Poema, vol. iii. p. 356. t Vide Biogr. Brit. vol. v. p. 3155. 
 
 K k k 2 others 
 
436 NOBLE AUTHORS, 
 
 others quo-warrantos are fure to take place. The author of the article in the 
 Dictionary calls the duke one of the mofr beautiful profe- writers and greateft 
 poets of this age ; which is alfo, he fays, proved by the finefl: writers, his 
 cotemporaries — certificates that have little weight, where the merit is not 
 proved by the author's own works. It is certain that his grace's compofttions 
 in profe have nothing extraordinary in them; his poetry is moft indifferent, 
 and the greatefr. part .of both. is already fallen into total neglect. It is faid 
 that he wrote in hopes of being confounded with his predeceffor in the title ; 
 but he would more eafily have been miftaken with the other Buckingham, if 
 he had never written at all. He was defcended from lord Sheffield, the au- 
 thor mentioned above, had a great deal of bravery, and understood a court. 
 Queen Anne, who undoubtedly had no turn to gallantry, yet fo far refembled 
 her predecefibr. Elizabeth, as, not to diflike a little homage to her perfon. — 
 d Like was immediately rewarded on her acceflion, for having made love 
 to her before her marriage. Though attached to the houfe of Stuart and 
 their principles, he maintained a dignity of honour in fome points, independ- 
 ent of all connections ; for he ridiculed * king James's religion, though he 
 attended him to his chapel ; and warmly took the part of the Catalans againil 
 the tory ministry, whom he had helped to introduce to the queen. His works 
 are publifhed in two large volumes in quarto. In Prior's posthumous j- works 
 is a little poem to Mrs. Manley on her first play, not printed with the reft 
 of the duke's compofitions. 
 
 to iiuod fait m noifbup' c Co »«sl ttj^axa ^JlSj^iq apt ii*^v/3ib pr£ 
 
 ROBERT HARLET, Earl of OXFORD. 
 
 'THE history of this lord is too frefh in every body's memory to make it 
 requisite to expatiate upon his character. What blemifhes it had, have 
 been fo feverely cenfured by the J affociate of his councils and politics, that 
 a more distant obferver has no pretence to enlarge on them. Befides, as the 
 public conduct of this earl, to which alone I know any objections, was called 
 to fuch strict account by perfons of my name, it would be an ungrateful talk 
 in me to renew any disturbance to his allies* He is only mentioned here as 
 author of the following tracts : 
 
 Burnet, vol. i. p. 683. 
 
 t Vol. i. p. 150. 
 
 % Lord Bolingbrokc 
 
 * An 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 437 
 
 " An cffay upon public credit, by Robert Harley, efq." 1710*. 
 
 " An clay upon loans, by the author of the eflay on public credit f. 
 
 " A vindication of the rights of the commons of England faid to be by 
 him, but figned Humphrey Mackworth^:. 
 
 " Some familiar verfes," publifned in Swift's letters, 1766, vol. i. 
 
 EDWARD HOWARD, Earl of SUFFOLK. 
 
 A LORD, who with great inclination to verfify, and fome derangement of 
 his intellects, was fo unlucky as not to have his furor of the true poetic 
 fort. He publimed two feparate volumes, the firft entitled 
 
 " Mifcellanies in profe and verfe by a perfon of quality." 1725, octavo. 
 
 The other, which contains many pieces printed in the former (both being 
 ufhered by recommendatory verfes), is called 
 
 " Mufarum delicia?, containing efTays upon paftoral ; ideas fuppofed to be 
 written above two thouiand years ago by an Afiatic poet [who, it feems, 
 wrote in profe, and] who flourifhed under the reign of the grand Cyrus ; 
 and Sapphic verfe ; by a nobleman." Printed, as appears by a date in the 
 middle of the book, in 1728. The executors of this lord conferred fome 
 value on his works, by burning a great number of the copies after his death. 
 Indeed the firft volume is not without merit ; for his lordfhip has tranfplan'ted 
 whole pages of Milton into it, under the title of Elegancies. 
 
 * Somers's Trails, vol. ii, p. 1. f lb. p. 10. 1 lb. fecond coll. vol. iv. p. 313* 
 
 DJNIEL 
 
43« 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 DANIEL FINCH, Earl of NOTTINGHAM, 
 
 TTyTAS much afperfed during his life, and does not appear to have wiftied 
 particularly well to thofe who profeffed themfelves the party of liberty ; 
 but this was in times on which poiterity will judge better than we who live 
 fo near them. Befides his fpeeches, many of which are printed in a book en- 
 titled " An exact collection of the debates of the houfe of commons held at 
 Weftminfter, October 21, 1680," his lordfhip wrote 
 
 " Obfervations upon the ftate of the nation in January 171 2-13*." 
 
 " A letter to doctor Waterland printed at the end of doctor Newton's 
 Treatife on pluralities. 
 
 " The anfwer of the earl of Nottingham to Mr. Whifton's letter to him 
 concerning the eternity of the fon of God, and of the holy gholt,'' 1721. 
 The univerfity of Oxford, in full convocation, returned his lordfhip foletnn 
 thanks for his moft noble defence of the chriftian faith, &c. f" Mr. Whifton 
 publimed : a reply, which ended the controverly. 
 
 u Tract on the earl of Danby's pardon, MS." I bought it at the fale of 
 Nich. Hardinge, efq. who had it from the earl of Winchelfea. 
 
 CHARLES MO RD AUNT, Earl of 
 PETERBOROUGH, 
 
 f"\N E of thofe men of carelefs wit and negligent grace, who fcatter a thou- 
 fand bon-mots and idle verfes, which we painful compilers gather and 
 hoard, till the owners ftare to find themfelves authors. Such was this lord : 
 
 * This piece, which *s always afcribed to his thority, was not written by him. 
 lordfliip, I have been afiured from very good au- t Vide Peerage in Winchelfea. 
 
 Of 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 439 
 
 of an advantageous figure, and enterprifing fpirit ; as gallant as Amadis and 
 as brave, but a little more expeditious in his journeys, for he is faid " to 
 have feen more kings and more poftillions than any man in Europe." His 
 enmity to the duke of Marlborough and his friendfhip with Pope will pre- 
 ferve his name, when his genius, too romantic to have laid a folid foundation 
 for fame, and his politics, too difinterefted for his age and country, fhall be 
 equally forgotten. He was a man, as his poet* faid, " who would neither 
 live nor die like any other mortal." Yet even particularities were becoming 
 in him, as he had a natural eafe that immediately adopted and faved them 
 from the air of affectation. He wrote 
 
 " La mufe de cavalier, or an apology for fuch gentlemen as make poetry 
 their-diverfion, not their bufinefs. In a letter from a fcholar of Mars to one 
 of Apollo." Printed in The public regifter or weekly magazine, N° 3, p. 88, 
 publimed by Dodfley, 1741. 
 
 " A fevere copy of verfes on the duchefs of Marlborough; addreffed to 
 Mr. Harley after his removal from court." 
 
 " A ballad, beginning, I faid to my heart between fleeping and wak- 
 ing, &c." 
 
 He was author too of thofe well-known lines which conclude 
 
 " Who'd have thought Mrs. Howard ne'er dreamt it was (he !" 
 
 " Some lines paraphrafed from Horace, in Swift's letters, 1766, vol. i.'* 
 
 Four very genteel letters of his are printed among Pope's ; and a few 
 more among Swift's. 
 
 The firft Olynthian of Demofthenes in the edition mentioned before, page 
 434, was faid to be tranflated by lord Peterborough ; as the fecond was 
 afcribed to the following peer.. 
 
 The account of the earl's conducl in Spain, taken from his original letters 
 and papers, was drawn up by doctor Freind, and publimed in 1707, 8vo. 
 
 * See Pope's Letters to Swift, letter 76, 
 
 And 
 
442 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 And there are curious .anecdotes of his campaigns in the hiftorv of the two 
 lafr. wars againfi France and Spain, by captain George Carleton, o&avo, 
 published in i 74. i . But it is certain that the earl himfelf wrote memoirs of 
 his own life : three volumes he communicated to the late countefs dowager 
 of Suffolk, as fhe allured me herfelf. — It is not known what became of 
 them. What lights would they throw on hiltory ! He entered the world 
 in the reign of Charles II. and by eighteen was deeply engaged with lord 
 RuiTel and Algernon Sidney, the latter of whom he attended to the fcaf- 
 fold. A genius fo enterpriiing could not be inactive or uninformed, in 
 the memorable times of James II. and William : as general for Anne he 
 conquered Spain : under George I. his fire was not extinguifhed ; and dur- 
 ing part of the fon's reign, he lived in intimacy and correipondenceiwith 
 Pope and Swift, mowing by his letters that he was as much formed to 
 adorn a polite age, as to raife the glory of a martial one. He lived a ro- 
 mance, and was capable of making it hiftorv. The earl is ■ accufe d of being 
 author of another book, which would not be much to his glory ; and though 
 it is far from being proved that he wrote it, the fhare he had in the .tranf- 
 action to which it related, was of a nature to mow that his paffions were not 
 always under the governance of ftrict honour. In the life of the duke of 
 Shrewfbury, in the hxth volume of the Biographia Britannica [note C] it is 
 faid that the earl was fuppofed to be the author of a book called Memoirs of 
 fecret fervice* in which he was affifted by doctor Davenant, and which was 
 published under the name of one Smith, tending to accufe the duke of Shrews- 
 bury and the earl of Orford as concerned in the allaffination-plot : and it is 
 added, that lord Peterborough, then earl of Monmouth, promifed fir John 
 Fenwicke his life if he would accufe thofe lords : that the houfe of commons 
 voted this a fcandalous defign to make a difference between the king and his 
 belt, friends ; and that the houfe of peers ordered the book to be burnt. The 
 affair is a little intricate, and not without contradictions. Tindal, in his 
 continuation of Rapin, vol. iii. book 25, p. 347, edit, of 1744, fol. tells us, 
 that Smith's book was afTerted by Mr. R. Kingfton, in his anfwer to it, to 
 have been. written by Tom Brown, the buffoon poetafter; and bifhop Burnet 
 has given the depolition of the famous divorced duchefs of Norfolk, lord 
 Peterborough's coulin, who declared that lord Peterborough had dictated Se- 
 veral papers to her, tending to perfuade fir J. Fenwicke to accufe the duke 
 of Shrewfbury ; but that fit John would not be guided by the earl, and de- 
 clared he would not meddle with contrived difcoveries. That thereupon the 
 
 4 earl 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 441 
 
 ear' was highly provoked, and threatened, if Fenwicke would not be guided 
 by him, that he, the earl, would get the bill (of attainder) to pals. The 
 bifhop adds, that when the matter was depending, his lordfhip fpokc two 
 full hours in the houfc of lords with a peculiar vehemence in favour of the 
 bill. Vol. ii. p. 192. The cruelty and injuftice of this behaviour are not only 
 glaring but incomprehenfible ; fince it is evident by the Journals of the Com- 
 mons, vol. xi. pp. 577 and 579, that fir John Fenwicke did not only ac- 
 cufe the duke of Shrewfbury, but that that accufation was voted icandalous, 
 as is alTerted in the Biogr. And it appears farther from Burnet, that the earl of 
 Peterborough was removed from all his places, and committed to the Tower, 
 for his conduct on that occafion — though kin"; William had fuch {Irons: irrt- 
 preflions of his fervices at the Revolution, of his abilities, or perhaps of his 
 zeal, that he did all he could to fave him. I lay zeal ; for the only fhadow 
 of excufe that can be made for lord Peterborough is, that Smith, who was a 
 mercenary evidence and infignificant fpy, having been neglected by the duke 
 of Shrewlbury, had gone to the earl and poffeffed him with an opinion that 
 the duke had not only been cold to his, Smith's, difcoveries, but had retired 
 out of the way when the king mould be affaffinated. Smith indeed, the bifhop 
 tells us, found the earl inclined to liften to his infinuations ; and the prelate, 
 who was commanded by the king to foften the cenfure on the earl, drops a 
 very remarkable expreffion, which lets us far into the wild impetuofitv of the 
 earl's character. " I did not know, fays the reverend hiftorian, what new 
 fcheme of confufion might have been opened by him, in his own excufe." — 
 Amadis, it feems, was no confeientious politician. 
 
 GEORGE GRANVILLE, Lord LANSDOWN, 
 
 YM1TATED Waller ; but as that poet has been much excelled fince, a 
 faint copy of a faint malter muft ftrike frill lefs. It was fortunate for his 
 lordfhip, that in an age when perfecution raged fo fiercely againfl luke-warm 
 authors, he had an intimacy with the inquifitor-general ; how elfe would 
 fuch lines as this have efcaped the bathos ? 
 
 " when thy gods 
 
 Tlnlightan thee to fpeak their dark decrees 
 
 * Heroic love, fcene 1. 
 
 Vol. I. LIT A fine 
 
442 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 A fine edition of his works has been published in two volumes quarto ; 
 befides which we find 
 
 " A letter from a nobleman abroad to his friend in England." 1722*. 
 
 " Anfwer to a copy of verfes from Mrs. Higgins f 
 
 Lord Lanfdown being confined in the Tower in the fame room in which 
 fir Robert Walpole had been prifoner, and had left his name On the window 3 
 wrote thefe lines under it, 
 
 " Good unexpected, evil unforefeen, 
 Appear by turns, as fortune fhifts the fcene : 
 Some rais'd aloft, come tumbling down amain, 
 And fall fo hard, they bound and rife again." 
 
 CHARLES BOYLE, Earl of ORRERY, 
 
 C\ F one of the moft accomplished houfes in Europe, but the firfr. Englifh 
 peer of this line that was an author, wrote 
 
 " A tranflation of the Life of Lyfander from Plutarch," publifhed in the 
 Englifh edition of that author. 
 
 " As you find it, a comedy." 
 
 " Some copies of verfes J." 
 
 " A Latin tranflation of the epiftles of Phalaris, and notes to that author." 
 This work occasioned the famous controverfy with doctor Bentley, a full ac- 
 count of which is given in the life of that great man §, who alone, and un- 
 
 * Somers's Trails, fourth collection, vol. iv. % Vide Peerage in Boyle, p. 291 } and Biogr. 
 page 416. vol. ii. p. 936. 
 
 f V. Gibber's Lives of the poets, vol. iv. p. 243. § Biogr. vol. ii. p. 737. 
 
 worfled, 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 443 
 
 worfted, fuftained the attacks of the brighteft geniufcs in the learned world, 
 and whofe fame has not fuffered by the wit to which it gave occafion. 
 
 " Doctor Bentley's diflcrtations on the epiftles of Phalaris and the fables of 
 jEfop examined by the honourable Charles Boyle, efq." a book more com- 
 monly known by the title of " Boyle againft Bentley." 
 
 " An epilogue to his predecefTor's Altemira, and feveral fbngs in it." 
 
 PHILIP Duke of WHARTON, 
 
 T IKE Buckingham and Rochefter, comforted all the grave and dull by 
 throwing away the brightest profufion of parts on witty fooleries, de- 
 baucheries and fcrapes, which may mix graces with a great character, but 
 never can compofe one. If Julius Caefar had only noted with Catiline, he 
 had never been emperor of the world. Indeed the duke of Wharton was not 
 made for conqueft ; he was not equally formed for a round-houie and Phar- 
 falia : in one of his ballads he has bantered his own want of heroifm ; it was 
 in a fong he made on being feized by the guard in faint James's park, for" 
 fmging the Jacobite air, The king JJiall have his own again, 
 
 " The duke he drew out half his fword. 
 the guard drew out the reft." 
 
 His levities, wit, and w r ant of principles, his eloquence and adventures are too 
 well known to be recapitulated. With attachment to no party, though 
 with talents to govern any party, this lively man changed the free air of 
 Weftminfter for the gloom of the E feu rial, the profpeel of king George's 
 garter for the pretender's ; and with indifference to all religion, the frolic 
 lord who had written the ballad on the archbifhop of Canterbury, died in the 
 habit of a capuchin. 
 
 It is difficult to give an account of the works of fo mercurial a man, whofe 
 iibrary was a tavern, and women of pleafure his mufes. A thoufand fallies 
 of his imagination may be loft ; he no more wrote for fame than he acted for 
 
 Llla it. 
 
444 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 it. There are two volumes in octavo called his life and writings, but con- 
 taining- of the latter nothing; but 
 
 " Seventv-four numbers of a periodical paper called The true Briton," and 
 
 his celebrated 
 
 " Speech in the houfe of lords, on the third reading of the bill to inflict 
 pains and penalties on Francis lord bifhop of Rochefter, May 15, 1723." 
 It is a remarkable anecdote relating to this fpeech, that his grace, then in 
 oppofition to the court, went to Chellea the day before the laft debate on 
 that prelate's- affair, where, acting contrition, he profeffed being determined 
 to work out his pardon at court by fpeaking agarnfr. the bifhop ; rn order to> 
 which he begged fome hints. The minifter was deceived, and went through 
 the whole caufe with him, pointing out where the ftrength of the argument 
 lay and where its weaknefs. The duke was very thankful, returned to town, 
 palled the night in drinking, and, without going to bed, went to the houfe 
 of lords, where he fpoke for the bifliop, recapitulating in the moft mafterly. 
 manner, and anfwering all that had been urged againft him. His fpeech 
 againft the miniftry two years before, 011 the affair of the South-fea com- 
 pany, had a fatal effect ; earl Stanhope anfwering it with fo much warmth, 
 that he burft a blood-veflel and died. 
 
 What little I have found befides written by the duke, are 
 
 " The ballads above mentioned*" 
 
 " Hiitory of Mirevais and fultan EzrefF," printed in Miff's journal *. 
 
 " The drinking-match at Eden-hall, in imitation of Chevy-chafe." It is 
 printed in the firft volume of a bookfeller's mifcellany called Whartoniana 
 
 44 Parody of a fong fun-g at the opera-houfe by Mrs. Tofts, on her leaving 
 the Englifh ftage and returning to Italy J." 
 
 * See Life of the duke of "Wharton in Cib-- Poems, page 5^5. 
 bei's Lives of the poets, vol. iv. p. 277. 
 
 % Ralph's Poems, page 131. 
 
 j- Page 19; and in R.alph's Mifcellaneous 
 
 His 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 445 
 
 I lis grace began a play on the ftory of Mary queen of Scots, of which I 
 believe nothing remains but thefe four lines, preferved in the fecond volume 
 of the fame collection : 
 
 " Sure were I free, and Norfolk were a prifoner, 
 I'd fly with more impatience to his arms, 
 Than the poor Ifraelite gaz'd on the ferpent, 
 When life was the reward of every look." 
 
 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu wrote an epilogue for this play, which is 
 printed in Dodfley's Mifcellanies. 
 
 " A letter in Bickerton's Collection," 1745*. 
 
 ROBERT Lord RAYMOND: 
 
 /~\ N E of thofe many eminent men who have rifen to the peerage from the 
 profeffion of the law. He was Iblicitor-general to queen Anne, attor- 
 ney-general to George I. by whom he was appointed one of the commiffion- 
 ers of the great feal and chief-juftice of the King's -bench; in which ftation he 
 died, having publiflied 
 
 " Two volumes of reports." Folio, 
 
 Lord Chancellor KING, 
 
 "111 7"AS related to Mr. Locke, who f on feeing his treatife on the primitive 
 
 * * church, perfuaded him to apply himfelf to the law> to the higheft 
 dignity of which he rofe. 
 
 * Page 29. In the Whartoniana, vol. ii- p. 63, vol. x. where are two of her letters in a very 
 is a little poem afcribed to the duke's mother, lady pleafing ftyle, and fome of bifhop Burnet in a 
 Wharton, a woman famous for her wit, and fe- very wretched one, and remarkable for the pains 
 cond wife of the marquis. His firft wife was re- he takes to clear himfelf from the fufpicion of 
 lated to the earl of Rochefter, and was a poetefs. being a Whig. 
 
 She has an article in the General Dictionary, t Vide Collins's Peerage in King. 
 
 We 
 
i 
 
 446 NOBLE AUTHORS, 
 
 We have of his writing 
 
 " Enquiry into the conftitution, difcipline, unity and vvorfhip of the pri- 
 mitive church." 1691. 
 
 " Hiftory of the apoflles creed, with critical obfervations on its feveral 
 articles." 
 
 " Two fpeeches on the trial of doctor Sacheverel." 
 
 " The fpeech of fir Peter King, knight, recorder of the city of London, 
 at faint Margaret's-hill, to the king's molt excellent majefty upon his royal 
 entry, September 20, 1714." 
 
 THOMAS Lord PAGET, 
 
 S 
 
 Yjf LDEST fon of the late earl of Uxbridge, who furvived him, publifhed 
 fome pieces, particularly 
 
 ** An eflay on human life," in verfe. 1734, quarto. 
 
 u Some reflections upon the adminiftration of government." A pamphlet, 
 1740. 
 
 In both thefe pieces there is much good fenfe : the former is written in 
 imitation of Pope's ethic epiftles, and has good lines, but not much poetry. 
 
 He wrote other poems and eflays, all which he collected into one volume 
 octavo, of which only a few copies were printed to give away. 
 
 Sir 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 Sir ROBERT WALPOLE, Earl of ORFORD, 
 
 JS only mentioned in this place in his quality of author : it is not proper 
 nor neceiTary for me to touch his character here — fixteen unfortunate and 
 inglorious years fince his removal have already written his elogium ! 
 
 About the end of queen Anne's reign, and the beginning of George the 
 firft, he wrote the following pamphlets : 
 
 u The fovereigiv's anfwer to the Gloceftermire addrefs." The fovereign 
 mcaned Charles duke of Somerfet, fo called by the whigs. Some paragraphs 
 in this piece were inferted by the marquis of Wharton.. 
 
 " Anfwer to the reprefentation of the houfe of lords on the Hate of the 
 navy." 1709. 
 
 " The debts of the nation (rated and considered, in four papers." 17 rev 
 " The thirty-five millions accounted for." 1710.. 
 
 " A letter from a foreign minifter in England to Monf. Pettecum 1 710- 
 
 " Four letters to a friend in Scotland upon Sacheverel's trial." Falfely at- 
 tributed in the General Dictionary to Mr. Maynwaring, who did not write 
 them, though he fometimes revifed Mr. Walpole's pamphlets f . 
 
 " A pamphlet % upon the vote of the. houfe of commons with relation to 
 die allies not furniming their quotas," 
 
 * See a full account of this perfon, who was a the ludicrous notes on fpeaker Bromley's travels 
 volunteer negotiator about the time of the treaty were afcribed, but falfely, to fir R. W. 
 of Utrecht, in the Me moires de Tore 1 /. 
 
 % Lord O. forgot the title, and I have not 
 f I have feen a catalogue of books in which been able to recover it. 
 
 4 
 
 8C A nhort 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS 
 
 " A fhort hiftory of the parliament." It is an account of the laft feffion 
 of the queen. It was undertaken by defire of lord Somers and the whig 
 lords, on a Thurfday, and printed on the Tuefday following. The dedica- 
 tion was written by Mr. Pulteney, afterwards earl of Bath. 
 
 " The South-fea fcheme confidered." 
 
 " A pamphlet againft the peerage-bill." Lord Orford could not remember 
 the title. I have lbme reafon to think it was, " The thoughts of a member 
 of the lower houfe in relation to a project for reftraining and limiting the 
 power of the crown in the future creation of peers." 1719. 
 
 " The report of the fecret committee, June 9, 1715." 
 
 " A private letter to general Churchill after lord Orford's retirement," was 
 handed about till it got into print *. 
 
 HENRT St. JOHN, Viscount 
 BOLINBROKE, 
 
 TX7 ITH the moft agreeable talents in the world and with great parts, was 
 neither happy nor fuccefsful. He wrote againft the late king, who 
 had forgiven him ; againft fir Robert Walpole, who did forgive him ; againft 
 the pretender and the clergy, who never will forgive him f. He is one of 
 our beft writers ; though his attacks on all governments and all religion [nei- 
 ther of which views he cared directly to own] have necefTarily involved his 
 ftyle in a want of perfpicuity. One muft know the man before one can often 
 
 • It is in Bickerton's Collection, p. 6. 
 
 f Towards the end of do£tor Middleton's life, 
 when great endeavours were ufed to obtain fome 
 preferment in the church for him, he went to 
 archbifhop Potter to give fuch an account of his 
 religious opinions as might take off the pro- 
 
 scription againft him. But when he found that 
 his former writings had left ftronger impreffions 
 than his new declarations could efface, he faid, 
 " What then, my lord, am I never to be for- 
 given ?" The prelate replied, " God, I hope, will 
 forgive you, but you muft never expect to be 
 forgiven here." 
 
 gnefs 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 449 
 
 guefs his meaning. He has two other faults which one mould not expect in 
 the fame writer, much tautology and great want of connection. Befides his 
 general works, publifhed together fince his death in five volumes quarto, feve- 
 ral of his letters are preferved with Pope's and Swift's, and a few little pieces 
 of his poetry are extant, for which he had a natural and eafy turn. 
 
 " To Clara;" publifhed in feveral mifcellanies. 
 " Almahide, a poem"*.** 
 
 " An epilogue to lord Orrery's Altemiraf." 
 " Prologue to lord Lanfdown's Heroic love." 
 
 " An ironical copy of verfes in praife of the chef d'oeuvre d'un inconnu, 
 prefixed to that book." The initial letters fubjoined ftand for his lordihip's 
 name, titles, and employment in Latin. 
 
 " Three ftanzas of an ode in -the lafl fcene of the mafque of Alfred, by 
 Mallet J." 
 
 The following political pieces are not republished in his works : 
 " A letter to the examiner." 1710. 
 
 It was anfwered by earl Cowper [of whom I find no other work except his 
 fpeeches] under this title, " A letter to Ifaac BickerftafFe, efq. occafioned by 
 the letter to the Examiner * 
 
 " The true copy of a letter from the right honourable the lord vifcount 
 Bolinbroke." Printed in the year 1 7 1 5 [| . 
 
 * Printed in the Whartoniana, vol. ii. p. 116. are diftinguifhed by afterifks. 
 
 f Biograph. vol. ii. 219. § Somers's Tra£ls, fourth coll. vol. iy. p. 5. 
 
 % Vide the new edition of Mallet's works, || lb. p. 253. 
 ] 759, vol. iii. p. 67: lord Bolinbroke's ilanzas 
 
 Vol. I. M m m The 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS, 
 
 " The reprefentation of the right honourable the lord vifcount Boliii- 
 broke." Printed in the year 1715*. 
 
 There has alfo been publifhed in his lordfliip's name, but I do not know 
 on what authority, a piece called 
 
 " Reflections concerning innate moral principles, written in French by 
 the late lord Bolinbroke, and tranflated into Englifh. London, printed for 
 S. Bladon, 1715-" 
 
 JOHN Lord H E RVEY, 
 
 TTTROTE many pieces of various kinds : his pamphlets are equal to any 
 that ever were written. Publifhed by himfelf were, 
 
 " Anfwer to The occasional writer." 1 727. 
 
 " The occafional writer, N° IV. to his imperial majefty." 
 
 " Obfervations on the writings of the Craftfman." 
 
 " Sequel of the obfervations on the writings of the Craftfman." 1 730. 
 
 " Sedition and defamation difplayed, with a dedication to the patrons of 
 the Craftfman." 
 
 " A fummary account of the ftate of Dunkirk and the negotiations relating 
 thereto ; in a letter from a member of parliament to the mayor of the bo- 
 rough for which he ferves." 1 733. 
 
 " A letter to the Craftfman on the game of chefs." 1 733. 
 
 " The conduit of oppofition and tendency of modern patriotifm." 1734. 
 * Somers's Tra&s, fourth colle&ion, vol. iv. p. 260. 
 
 " Speech 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 45i 
 
 " Speech on the bill to prevent the fettling more lands in mortmain.'* 
 
 " Speech for the army." 1 737. 
 
 " A proteft againft protefting with reafons." 
 
 A paper entitled " The lords' proteft." 
 
 " Letter to a country gentleman on the revival of the fait duty." 
 " Account of queen Anne's bounty." 
 
 " Letter to the bifhop of Bangor on his late fermon upon horfes and affes." 
 " On the pyramids, to Mrs. * * *." 
 
 " The quaker's reply to a country parfon's plea againft the quaker's bill 
 for tythes." 
 
 " Letter to the author of Common fenfe, or the Englishman's journal, of 
 Saturday April 16, 1737." 
 
 " Ancient and modern liberty ftated and compared.'* 
 
 " A letter from a country gentleman to his friend in London, concerning 
 two colledions of letters and meffages lately publiflied between the K. Q^Pr. 
 and Prfs." 
 
 '* An examination of the facts and reafonings contained in a pamphlet en- 
 titled A letter from a member of parliament to his friend in the country, 
 upon the motion to addrefs his majefty to fettle 100,000 I. per annum on 
 his royal highnefs the prince of Wales." 1 739. 
 
 " Some remarks on The minute philofopher." 
 
 " Epitaph on queen Caroline in Latin and Englilh," 
 
 M m m 2 " Mifcel- 
 
452 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " Mifcellaneous thoughts on the prefent pofture of affairs." 1 742. 
 " Three fpeeches on the gin-a£L" 
 
 " The queftion ftated in regard to the army in Flanders.'* 
 " A letter to Mr. Cibber on his letter to Mr. Pope." 
 
 IN VERSE. 
 
 * e An epiftle from a nobleman to a doctor of divinity." [Dr. Sherwin] 1733. 
 
 " To the imitator of the fatire of the fecond book of Horace." 
 
 " Bolinbroke's addrefs to ambition, in imitation of the firft ode of the 
 fourth book of Horace." 1737. 
 
 " The difference between verbal and practical virtue ; with a prefatory 
 epiftle from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope." 1 742. 
 
 " A fevere defcription of Italy," of which only the tranflation by Voltaire 
 has been publifhed in the latter's Melanges de litterature, vol. ii. p. ro8. 
 
 " Some genteel lines on the duchefs of Richmond going to fupper at Mr, 
 Pulteney's." 
 
 " Lines under the mezzotinto of Mrs. Oldfield..'" 
 
 " Receipt to make an epigram." Printed in a collection called The 
 fports of the mufeSj voL ii. p. 192, 
 
 " A dialogue between the king and lord Carteret." It is a fatirical ballad' 
 v/ritten in the year 1742, and printed in feveral mifcellanies. 
 
 Since his lordfhip's deceafe, there have been printed in Dodfley's collection 
 of poems the following by lord Hervey,. 
 
 " To 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " To Mr. Fox [now earl of Ilchefter], written at Florence, in imitation 
 of Horace, ode iv. book 2.*" 
 
 " To the fame, from Hampton-court," 1731 -f. 
 
 " Anfwer to Mr. Hammond's elegy to Mifs Dafhwood J." 
 
 " Four epiflles in the manner of Ovid §." That from Roxana to Philocles 
 is a miftake, and fhould be Roxana to Ulbeck. That from Monimia to Phi- 
 locles is the beft of his lordmip's poems ; it was defigned for mifs Sophia 
 Howe, maid of honour, to the honourable Antony Lowther. 
 
 " Epilogue defigned for Sophonifba ||." 
 
 " An imitation of Horace, addreffed to lord Ilchefler 
 
 " A love-letter **. " 
 
 " A fatire in the manner of Perfius ff." 
 
 " Verfes on health," printed in the third part of Almon's Foundling-hofpi- 
 tal for wit, 1769. 
 
 Lord Hervey left feveral other works in profe and verfe in manufcript, 
 particularly. 
 
 " Agrippina, a tragedy in rhyme." 
 
 " Letters to doctor Middleton on the method of filling up the Roman 
 fenate." The dodtor formed his own fliare in this controverfy into a treatife 
 pnblifhed in his works. 
 
 " Memoirs from his firfl coming to court to the death of the queen." 
 
 * Vol. in. p. 181. || Vol. iv. p. 107. 
 
 + lb. p. 183. f lb. p. 109. 
 
 I Vol. iv. p. 79. ** lb. p. 110. 
 
 j lb. p. 82, &c. ft Vol. v. p. 147. 
 
 6 HENRY 
 
454 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 HEN JIT Lord HYDE, and CORN BURY. 
 
 HP HIS amiable and dihnterefted lord was author of a few pamphlets, pub- 
 limed without his name ; of fome tragedies, ftill in manufcript ; of a 
 comedy called 
 
 " The miftakes, or the happy refentment." Given to Mrs. Porter for her 
 benefit, and printed in 1758 by fubfcription, with a little preface by the au- 
 thor of this work ; and of 
 
 " Common fenfe, or the Englimman's journal, of Feb. 12, 1737." 
 
 " Letter to David Mallet, efq. on the intended publication of lord Bolin- 
 broke's MSS." published in the fecond volume of the quarto edition of Swift's 
 correfpondence, 1766. 
 
 In fome of the editions of Pope's works, prefixed to the EfTay on man is a 
 copy of verfes iigned C. which I believe were written by lord Cornbury. 
 
 HORATIO Lord WALPOLE, 
 
 TT7ROTE many political pieces with knowledge, but in a bad ftyle, yet 
 better than his fpeeches : among others were the following : 
 
 " The cafe of the Heffian troops in the pay of Great Britain." 
 
 fc< The intereft of Great Britain fteadily purfued. Part I. In anfwer to a 
 pamphlet, entitled, The cafe of the Hanover forces." 1 743. 
 
 " A letter to a certain diftinguifhed patriot and applauded orator, on the 
 publication of his celebrated fpeech on the Seaford petition, in the maga- 
 zines, &c." 1748. 
 
 2 " Com- 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 455 
 
 " Complaints of the manufacturers, relating to the abufes in marking the 
 fheep, and winding the wool, &c." 1752. 
 
 " Anfwer to the latter part of lord Bolinbroke's letters on the ftudy of 
 hiftory." MS. It was left imperfect ; but feveral copies of the two nrft 
 parts were printed and given away in May 1762, under this title, " An 
 anfwer to the latter part of lord Bolinbroke's letters on the ltudy of hiftory^ 
 by the late lord Walpole of Woolterton, in a feries of letters to a noble lord, 
 part I. and II." 1762, qu°. Afterwards publifhed. 
 
 " A letter to a perfon in Holland, written in 1745, and publifhed in the 
 London chronicle, June 8, 1762. 
 
 GEORGE BOOTH, Earl of WARRINGTON. 
 
 TTAVING been obliged to remove from this catalogue the firft peer * of 
 this family, I am enabled to replace him by his grandlbn the late earl; 
 who fome years ago wrote a tract [though concealing himfelf for the author], 
 entitled, 
 
 " Confederations upon the inftitution of marriage, with fome thoughts 
 concerning the force and obligation of the marriage contract; wherein is con- 
 fidered, how far divorces may or ought to be allowed. By a gentleman. 
 Humbly fubmitted to the judgment of the impartial." Lond. printed for 
 John Whifton, 1 739. It is an argument for divorce on difagreement of tem- 
 per. In the introduction his lordfhip obferves, that in the office of the 
 church before matrimony we are enjoined to conjider it as a myjlical union be- 
 tween Chrijl and his church, and as fuch forbidden to take it in hand unad- 
 vifedly or lightly ; with an exprefs interdict of the defign of fatisfying man s 
 carnal appetites. But that the moment the marriage is completed, the fame 
 authority declares that nothing can diffolve it, but a deficiency of carnality. 
 
 * Inferred by miftake in the firft edition. 
 
 ADDITIONS. 
 
+5 6 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 ADDITIONS. 
 
 WILLIAM PULTENET, Earl of BATH, 
 
 A N author, whofe writings will be better known by his name, than his 
 name will be by his writings, though his profe had much effect, and 
 his verfes were eafy and graceful. Both were occafional, and not dedicated 
 to the love of fame. Good-humour and the fpirit of fociety dictated his 
 poetry ; ambition and acrimony his political writings. The latter made Pope 
 fay, 
 
 " How many Martials were in Pult'ney loft !" 
 
 That lofs however was amply compenfated to the world by the odes to which 
 lord Bath's political conduct gave birth. The pen of fir Charles Hanbury 
 Williams inflicted deeper wounds in three months on this lord, than a feries 
 of Craftfmen, aided by lord Bolinbroke for feveral years, could imprint on 
 fir Robert Walpole. The latter loft his power, but lived to fee juftice done 
 to his character. His rival acquired no power, but — died very rich. 
 
 I cannot fpecify the particular papers or pamphlets written by lord Bath 
 .during his long opposition to f.r Robert Walpole, but he was fuppofed to 
 have the principal hand in Mift's and Fogg's journals and the Craftfman. 
 Such of his poems as are come to my knowledge are, 
 
 " Verfes on lady Effex Howard," printed in the Annual regifter for 1768. 
 
 " Riddle on the eye," Well known. Lord Bath's wit was not of the 
 delicate kind. 
 
 " Epiftle from mother Lodge to fir Paul Methuen." 
 
 Ballad on the maids of honour lofmg their fhifts." 
 
 " On 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 457 
 
 u On the various claims to the baronies of Stitch and Knocking." 
 " Ode to Thomas Coke, earl of Leicefter." 
 
 " Paul Foley to Nicholas Fazakerley," imitated from ode xi. book ii» 
 of Horace. 
 
 « Verfes to mifs Pelham." 
 
 " Oh the pump-girl at Bath." 
 
 " Ballad on Strawberry-hilL" 
 
 ** Some indecent lines on a lady who aimed at too high a marriage." 
 The works in profe certainly written by lord Bath were, 
 w Dedication to the hiftory of the parliament*." 
 
 " A proper reply to a late fcurrilous libel, entitled, Sedition and defama- 
 tion difplayed." The latter was written by lord Hervey, The reply occa- 
 lioned the duel between thofe two lords. 
 
 " Seafonable hints from an honeft man on the prefent crifis." 1761, 
 
 " N° XVII. of the periodical paper called The World." 
 
 A few of his letters are printed with Swift's correfpondence, 
 
 * See page 448, 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 N n n 
 
 GEORGE 
 
458 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 GEORGE BUB B DO D D ING TO N, 
 Lord MELCOMB. 
 
 ^MAN of more wit and more unfteadinefs than the preceding ; as ambi- 
 tious, but lefs acrimonious ; no formidable enemy ; no fure political, 
 but an agreeable friend. Lord Melcomb's fpeeches were as dainty and pointed, 
 as lord Bath's were copious and wandering from the fubject. Oftentatious in 
 his perfon, houfes and furniture, he wanted in his expence the tafte he never 
 wanted in his converfation. Pope and Churchill treated him more feverely 
 than he deferved ; a fate that may attend a man of the greateft wit, when his 
 parts are more fuited to fociety than to compofition. The verfe remains, the 
 bons mots and fallies are forgotten. To lord Melcomb doctor Young in- 
 fcribed his third fatire, and lord Lyttelton the fecond of his eclogues. He 
 himfelf, befides other pieces, wrote 
 
 " An epiftle to fir Robert Walpole," printed in Dodfley's collection, in 
 which is the celebrated line quoted by Pope, 
 
 " In pow'r a fervant, out of pow'r a friend." 
 
 " An epiftle from John More, apothecary in Abchurch-lane, to lord 
 Carteret, upon the treaty of worms." 
 
 " Verfes in his eating-room at Hammerfmith printed in the Annual re- 
 gifter, 1761. 
 
 " Verfes, written a little before his death, to doctor Young." Printed in 
 the London chronicle for Augurt 24, 1 762 ; and in the Supplement to Dodf- 
 ley's milcellany, 
 
 " A pamphlet on the expedition to Rochfort ; againft Mr. Pitt." 
 
 JOHN 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 459 
 
 JOHN Earl POULETT, 
 
 TpHE fecond earl of that line, published a motion he made in the houfe of 
 lords ; and feveral papers on the militia in 1758, 
 
 CHARLES Lord Viscount TOWNSHEND, 
 
 CON of Charles, and father of George the prefent vifcount, publimed. a 
 pamphlet againii the bounty on corn- 
 
 JOHN BOYLE, Earl of CORKE and 
 
 ORRERY. 
 
 °^"0 family perhaps ever produced in fo fhort a time fo many diftinguiihed 
 perfons, as the houfe of Boyle. The great earl of Corke; the lord 
 Broghill ; that excellent philofopher and man, Mr. Boyle ; the lord Carleton; 
 Charles earl of Orrery ; lord vifcount Shannon, the general ; the earl of 
 Shannon, fo long fpeaker of the houfe of commons in Ireland ; and the re- 
 florer of tafte in architecture, the late earl of Burlington ; were not the only 
 ornaments of the fame illuftrious line. The late earl of Corke, though not 
 the briehtefr. of his race, was ambitious of not deo-enemting • and united to 
 the virtues of his family their love of fcience and literature. It was a valua- 
 ble prefent his Jordihip made to the world in writing 
 
 " The life of doctor Swift." Lord Corke wrote befides, 
 
 " A poem on the young duke of Buckingham," printed under the article of 
 Sheffield in the General Dictionary.. 
 
 Nnn 2' 
 
 " Some 
 
4 6o NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " Some lines on the death of his father,*' printed in BudgelTs life of that 
 peer. 
 
 " Prologue to Mallet's mafque of king Alfred." 
 
 « N° XLVII. LXVIII. CLXI. CLXXXV. of The World. 4 ' 
 
 " Tranflation of Pliny's epiftles." 
 
 " Preface and notes to the Memoirs of Robert Carey, earl of Monmouth," 
 publimed by his lordfhip. 
 
 " Preface to Mrs. Lenox's tranflation of Pere Brumoy's Greek theatre." 
 
 " Two letters to doctor Swift," printed with the dean's correfpondence. 
 
 CHARLES SACKVILLE, Duke of DORSET, 
 
 "POSSESSED the hereditary talent of his family ; and though a poet of no 
 eminence, had a genteel ftyle in his verfes, that fpoke the man of qua- 
 lity, without fubjecting him to the ridicule that has been fo juftly lavifhed 
 on what were formerly called poems by a perfon of honour. This duke wrote 
 
 66 Verfes on the beauties." 
 
 " A poem," printed in Dodfley's Mufeum. 
 
 " Arno's vale," a fong on the death of John Gafton, great duke of Tuf- 
 cany, written at Florence. 
 
 " Anacreontic on the death of fir Henry Bellendine," in April, 1764. 
 " A treatife on the militia." 
 
 RICHARD 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 461 
 
 RICHARD Lord EDGECUMBE, 
 
 HP HE fecond peer of a family long diftinguifhed by talents, integrity and 
 honour, muft be added to the foregoing lift, though with a flenderer 
 portion of fame than his genius deferved and promifed, as very few of his 
 compofitions have been printed, as the beft of them were too ftrongly marked 
 by the warmth of his age and imagination to be fit for the public eye, and as 
 all of them were the productions of his moft carelels hours. He was a poet 
 from fancy, not from meditation; yet he pofifefled thole graces which ftudy 
 cannot give, eafe and harmony, the fruits of tafte and a good ear. What 
 elegance might he not have attained, had application been added to ftrong 
 parts, to humour that was the refult of truth, and to wit that never was the 
 offspring of ill-nature ! Thefe encomiums hereafter will found like flattery. 
 No ; friendfhip feels, but juftice dictates ; and very many who knew lord 
 Edgecumbe, know they are not exaggerated. As he has left fo little to fpeak 
 for him, the fame friendihip muft be indulged in expatiating a moment 
 longer on fo lingular and amiable a character : and if, when I am reprinting 
 my own works, I am perhaps but burying the dead, let me pleafe myfelf in 
 placing a tablet in the fame cemetery to the memory of my friend ! 
 
 I may with propriety mention him here, or in my Anecdotes of painting. 
 In the latter art he had the genius of a mafter, before he could write man. 
 His drawings were at once correctly true and great. He could deliver his 
 ideas with his pencil as precifely as with language, and no man ever was more, 
 exact in feizing the point of truth, or in rendering it with perfpicuity. His 
 eye never faw falfely ; his tongue knew not how to be falfe. It was this 
 impreffion of truth that conftituted the reigning peculiarity of his character. 
 He felt it to minutenefs; and had no more notion of affecting a virtue he did 
 not polfefs, than he was capable of concealing a fault of which he was fenfi- 
 ble. He fpoke his own thoughts, and mentioned his own actions, with as 
 much indifference as if he had no property in them. His manner and ftyle 
 were very particular ; and not the lefs fo, for not being affected. Nature 
 made him what affectation makes others, lingular ; but with the advantage 
 
 5 that 
 
462 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 that nature always has over art, his Angularity was pleafing. To be agreeable 
 is the molt, difficult talk that art finds in copying nature. 
 
 With the moft. excellent talent for imitating whatever he faw, no entreaties 
 could engage him to exaggerate. A heart without gall checked a hand that 
 was mafter of caricatura. 
 
 That he had defects, it would be unworthy a friend of his to deny : if I 
 Aide over them it is pardonable. It was becoming in him alone, not to con- 
 ceal them. Yet it is ftri6t juftice to his memory to aver, that he never had a 
 fault but to himfelf '> he never had an enemy but himfelf. 
 
 He left feveral copies of verfes ; one of the worft, a letter to his miftrefs 
 on a journey, was printed in 1 752. The well-known print of Mary Squires,, 
 the gipfy, falfely accufed by Elizabeth Canning, was taken from lord Edge*- 
 cumbe's drawing. 
 
 F I N I S. 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 463 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 TJfA VING found fome fcattered Jiafages relating to fome other lords, which 
 fcarcely entitle them to places in this catalogue, and which yet make me 
 doubtful whether they fliould not be inferted ; / choofe to range them here : and if 
 hereafter more evidence relating to them Jfiall be difcovered, they may be dijlri- 
 buted in their proper order. 
 
 ANTONT BROWN, Viscount MONTACUTE. 
 
 TT is againfr. my rule to reckon peers as authors, of whom nothing is extant 
 but fpeeches or letters. Indeed where there is a prefumption that either 
 were publifhed by the perfons themfelves, it makes a difference. I fhould 
 not record this lord at all, but from his being mentioned as a writer by 
 bifhop Tanner for his 
 
 " Speech in the houfe of lords againfr. the alteration of religion 
 
 " One of his letters is preferved among the Harleian MSS. N° 283, 100 : 
 another, ib. 703, 14." 
 
 Of his grandfon, Antony, the next vifcount, is extant in MS. " A book 
 of orders and rules, eftablifhed for the better direction and government of his 
 houfhold and family, together with the feveral duties and charges appertain- 
 ing to his officers and other fervants, 1595." It is rather a colleclion of 
 forms and ceremonies to be ufed about his perfon and in his houfe, than any 
 thing elfe, and is a ridiculous piece of mimicry of royal grandeur ; an in- 
 ftance of ancient pride, the more remarkable, as the peer who drew it up 
 was then barely 24 years of age. There are no fewer than 36 different ranks 
 
 * Page 13!. 
 
 of 
 
464 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 of fervants whom he calls his officers ; and yet it is obfervable, though the 
 whole line were rigid catholics, that no mention is made of his chaplains or 
 priefts. His only ecclefiaftic is his almoner, and his bufinefs it feems was 
 to light the fires in the hall. 
 
 HENRY CLIFFORD, Earl of 
 CUMBERLAND, 
 
 f rHE fecond of that title, has but little claim to a place in this lift, unleis 
 
 any farther difcoveries are made of his writinsf than 
 
 " Some verfes which he compofed on his father's prefenting a treatife of 
 natural philofophy in old French to the priory of Bolton, and which with the. 
 book itlelf were preferved in Mr. Thorefby's mufeum at Leeds *. 
 
 Lord Chancellor H ATT ON. 
 
 TTTOOD fays f, " He wrote,, as it is faid, feveral things pertaining to the 
 law ; but none of them are extant, only this, if I may fay it is his, and 
 not his name fet to it for fale-fake," 
 
 " A treatife concerning ftatutes or a6ts of parliament, and the expofition. 
 thereof." Lond. 1677, o&avo. 
 
 " Speeches fpoken during the time of his chancellorfhip." MS.- 
 
 " Two letters among the Burleigh Papers publimed by Murdin." 
 
 " Two more among the Harleian MSS. N° 6993, 21 ; and 6994, 79." 
 
 Chriftopher lord Hatton, his kinfman and fuccefTor, publimed 
 
 * Vide Ducat. Leod. p. 538. f Athene, vol. i. p. 253. 
 
 " The 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 465 
 
 " The pfalms of David, with titles and collects according to the matter 
 of each pfalm." Printed at Oxford, 1644, octavo ; afterwards enlarged and 
 publifhed feveral times. Wood fays*, that they were compiled by doctor 
 Jer. Taylor, though they go under the name of the lord Hatton. 
 
 I have been told that there is extant a manufcript written by the fecond 
 lord Hatton, entitled 
 
 " A brief ftate of Guernfey, by the right hon. Chriftopher lord Hatton, 
 prefent governor of the faid ifland." 
 
 LIONEL CR AN FIELD, Earl of MIDDLESEX. 
 
 T3REFIXED to Coryat's Crudities (a book not more foolifh than the com- 
 mendatory verfes of the wits of the age, who meaned to turn the author 
 into ridicule) is a copy by Lionel Cranfield, then a merchant of London, af- 
 terwards earl of Middlefex and lord high treafurer ; a man, whofe fupplenefs 
 and parts carried him to the greatefr. height, and whofe ingratitude and want 
 of judgment made his fall more precipitate than his elevation. He rofe by 
 flattering the duke of Buckingham ; but deceiving himfelf in the imagination 
 that king James was grown weary of his favourite and meaned to deprive 
 him of his power, " he had the courage, fays lord Clarendon f, the bafe- 
 nefs, fays truth, to withdraw from his abfolute dependence on the duke, and 
 make fome other efTays, which proved to his ruin." Had the earl withftood 
 the arbitrary directions of the favourite, while in the zenith of his power, 
 and mowed him that even gratitude could not biafs him to be a lawlefs tool, 
 he had acted bravely and honeftly. — With the noble hiftorian's leave, I do 
 not fee the courage of a creature propofing to trample on a falling minion, to 
 whom he owed his fortune. W T hen it erects paraiites into patriots, what is 
 hiltory ? It is remarkable that this city-born grandee lived to be committed 
 to the Compter by an alderman J. I have met with no other of his lordftiip's 
 compofitions. 
 
 * Athense, vol. i. p. 254. f Vol. i. p. 11. \ Vol. ii. p. 105. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 O o 
 
 JOHN 
 
466 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 JOHN HOLLES, Earl of CLARE, 
 
 A MAN too remarkable to be omitted, while there was the leaf! founda- 
 tion for infc.ribing him in this catalogue ; yet was that foundation too 
 flight to range him in form as an author. 
 
 His * perfon was lofty and noble, his courage daring, his eloquence ufe- 
 ful, his virtues often at war with his interefr, as often accommodating them- 
 felves to it. A volunteer in the Netherlands under fir Francis Vere ; a fea- 
 man in one of the greateit fcenes on which his country ever acled, the naval 
 war of 1588; at which time his active itrength was fo extraordinary, that he 
 could climb the tailed fhip, though locked in the unwieldy armour of thofe 
 days. He diitinguifhed himfelf in Hungary ; in Ireland he was knighted for 
 his public valour ; his private was fuccefsful in duels. He encountered little 
 lefs danger in provoking the refentment of thofe mighty minifters, Burleigh 
 and Buckingham, the one for his miftrefs, the other for his friend — the 
 caufe of the latter he never deferted : he praifed Raleigh, when dead ; ftuck 
 to Somerfet, when fallen ; defended the earl of Oxford, when opprelTed by 
 the power of Villiers. Yet with this bold fpirit of ancient times, he had 
 much of the character of far more modern patriots. He often oppofed the 
 court from perfonal difgufta, often returned to it for private views ; loudly 
 fligmatized the traffic of peerages, yet bought both his barony and his earl- 
 dom ; and, approaching his refemblance to very modern patriots, offended the 
 king by acculing him "f of a defign to introduce a body of German horfe. He 
 had originally been of the band of pensioners to queen Elizabeth, when the 
 pooreft gentleman of the troop had 4000 /. per annum : his next preferment 
 at court was comptroller to prince Henry. Soon after his death, Holies was 
 difgraced and imprifoned $ for a caufe, which, though called trivial by his 
 relation and biographer, leaves no favourable impreffion of his memory. Jt 
 
 * See his Life written by Gervafe Holies, his f Charles the firft. 
 kinfman, in Collins's Hiftor. collections of the % He was alfo profecuted in the Star-chamber, 
 ncble families of Cavendiflie, Holies, &c. and " for living in town without leave. Strafford 
 in the Biogniphia. Papers, vol. i. p. 337. 
 
 was 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 467 
 
 was for having a private conference with Garnet and another jefuit at their 
 execution. That brutal and corrupt man, fir Edward Coke, pleading with 
 his accuftomed acrimony in the Star-chamber againft Holies, alked him this 
 elegant queftion : 
 
 " Et qua; tanta fait Tyburn tibi caufa videndi ?" 
 
 What was ftill more memorable, the politic criminal bought himfelf out of 
 prifon into a peerage, by a prefent of 10,000/. to Buckingham; and for 
 5000/. more obtained from the fame market the earldom of Clare, which 
 had juft been refilled to the earl of Warwick, on a folemn declaration of the 
 court-lawyers, that it was a title peculiar to the blood-royal, and not to be 
 allowed to a meaner fubjecl. 
 
 Indeed, audacious as the profligacy of that court was, it is to be fufpecled 
 that the earl of Clare had another private key to the gate of his prifon. He 
 had been of the houfehold to prince Henry ; and was a bold fpeaker : a man 
 whofe refentments had carried him to vifit condemned jefuits, was a dan- 
 gerous perfon if poffelfed of a couft-fecret — and that he was, fome myfte- 
 rious lines written in his pocket-book feem ftrongly to intimate : they begin 
 thus : 
 
 ." Afteon once Diana naked fpied 
 
 At unawares, yet by his dogs he died, &c." 
 
 The writer of his Life fays indeed that the earl did not believe prince 
 Henry poifoned ; but he mentions an if, which adds much more weight to the 
 fufpicion, than the negation could take from it : nor is his fuppofal, that the 
 earl would have hated Somerfet if he had known him guilty, of any force : 
 the morals of Clare were not always rigid. 
 
 Perhaps I have been too diffufe on a man who fcarcely comes within my 
 plan; but the fingularity of his life and fortunes has drawn me beyond a 
 juft length. I will conclude with mentioning, that towards the end of his 
 life he was on the point of being declared lord treafurer [as his friend So- 
 merfet was of being reftored to favour] ; that he once more offended the 
 court by refuting the order of the Bath for his two fons, from refentment of 
 the difgrace of another friend, archbifhop Williams ; and that he was father 
 
 O o o 2 of 
 
4 68 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 of the famous patriot lord Holies ; and father-in-law of the more famous 
 minifter, lord Strafford. He wrote 
 
 u An anfwer to fbme pafTages of fir Francis Bacon's eflay on empire.'* 
 
 " Epitaph on his fbn Francis, in Weftminller-abbey the tomb is re- 
 markable for its fimplicity and good tafte. 
 
 " Epitaph on fir Walter Raleigh.."' 
 
 " The verfes in his pocket-book, mentioned above." 
 
 " A fpeech in behalf of the earl of Oxford." The bifhops having uni- 
 formly voted againft. the earl, to pay their court to Buckingham who oppofed 
 him, lord Clare paffing. by their bench the next day, faid to them, " My 
 lords, I obferved yefterday you went all one way, and yet you fhall not all 
 be bimops of Canterbury *." 
 
 " A fenfible and cautious letter of advice to his fon-in-law Strafford." 
 Lord Clare was admired for his letters and Howel in two of his bears tefU* 
 mony to the earFs learning and fkill in languages* 
 
 " A letter to lord Burleigh on his fpeech in the Star-chamber in. deroga<» 
 tion of fir John and his anceftors f." 
 
 THOMAS W E NTW RT H, Earl of 
 STRAFFOR D, 
 
 T S not recorded here for his fpeeches and letters, thofe chef-d'oeuvres of 
 fenfe, of nervous and pathetic eloquence ; but on occafion of an elegy 
 with fome arFecling lines, faid to have been compofed by him the night be- 
 
 * In lord Clarendon's Continuation of his hif- on a worfe occafion ; and from His lordfliip's 
 
 tory it is faid that the king [Charles 1 10 fent^/j- filence it is probable that they never obeyed it 
 
 commands to the bench by the archbifhop to vote Iefs to their honour. 
 
 againft their beft friend the falling chancellor. f MS. in the HarleianColle&ion in the Britifh 
 
 They never received fo unparliamentary an order Mufeum, N° 36, 59. 
 
 5 fore 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 469 
 
 fore his execution. It has been re-publiflied in the collection * of tracts 
 called lord Somers's ; but in a fubfequent f volume we are told that it was a 
 fiction, avowed afterwards by another perfon. Moft probably it was not 
 genuine : that hero had other ways of venting his fcorn than in fonnets and 
 madrigals. When the lieutenant of the Tower offered him a coach, left he 
 mould be torn to pieces by the mob in paffing to execution ; he replied, " I 
 die to pleafe the people, and I will die in their own way." With fuch ftern 
 indifference to his fate, he was not likely to debafe his dignity by puerile 
 expreffions of it. 
 
 His own notes taken at his trial, and a remarkable letter in apology for his 
 ambition, are extant in the Harl. MSS. N° 2233 ; and 7000, 34. 
 
 WILLIAM FIENNES, Viscount SAY 
 
 and SEALE, 
 
 T S faid to be author of a tract extant in the Sunderland library at Blenheim,. 
 1 called 
 
 " The Scotch defign difcovered." Quarto, 1654. 
 
 Lord-Keeper COVENTRY. 
 
 TDESIDES recapitulating feveral of his fpeeehes in print, Wood faysj 
 he hath extant 
 
 " An anfwer to the petition againft recufants." 
 
 And that there goes under his name another piece, called 
 
 " Perfect and exact directions to all thofe that denre to know the true and 
 juft fees of all the offices belonging to the court of Common-pleas, Chancery, 
 &c." Lond. octavo* 
 
 * Second coll. vol. ii. p. 9. f Fourth coll. vol. i. p. 83. % Vol. i. p. (J27. 
 
 Among 
 
47© 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 Among^the Harl. MSS. is the following piece, 
 
 " Ordinances made by the lord-keeper Coventry (with the aidinge and 
 afliftance of fir J. Caefar, &c.) for the redrefs of fundry errors, defaults and 
 abufes in the high court of Chancery And " A paraphrafe on the king's 
 fpeech f ." 
 
 EDWARD Lord MONTAGU, 
 
 PATHER of the firffc duke of Montagu, made, when a young man, a 
 good tranflation into Latin, of Michael Drayton's epiftle from Henry II. 
 to Rofamond. It is printed at the end of a wretched collection of poems, 
 called Amanda, by one N. Hookes, printed in 1653. The "volume is dedi- 
 cated to lord Montagu. It is remarkable that, though the Latin is in gene- 
 ral pure and Ovidian, his lordfhip has in one place Latinized a word entirely 
 Englifh, lu Habit. 
 
 JOHN Lord LUCAS. 
 
 A S it was burnt by the hands of the hangman |, his lordfhip himfelf pro- 
 bably publifhed his 
 
 " Speech in the houfe of peers, February 22, i6yi, upon the reading the 
 fubfidy-bill the fecond time in the prefence of his majefly §." In the State 
 Poems I find one ||, alluding to this fpeech, called " Lord Lucas's ghoft." 
 
 * N° 2207, art. 10. not. Vol. ii. p. 59. 
 
 f N° 2305, art. 8. § State Tracts, vol. i. p. 454. 
 
 % Marvel fays he owned part was his, part H Vol. i. p. 173. 
 
 2 HENRY 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 471 
 
 HENRT* Lord ARUNDEL 
 of WARD OUR, 
 
 S~\ N E of the lords imprifoned for the popifh plot, had behaved with dif- 
 tinguilhed bravery in the quarrel of Charles the firft ; but the merits of 
 his religion and furTerings were ftronger recommendations to James the fe- 
 cond, in whofe fhort reign lord Arundel was lord privy-feal and much trufted. 
 In a paltry collection, called Loyal poems, printed in 1685, by one of the 
 loweft tools of the Roman catholic faction, I find 
 
 " Five little meditations in verfe," afcribed to this lord, and faid to be 
 written whilft he was prifoner in the Tower. 
 
 In another poem in this collection, p. 227, it is laid that Arundel was to 
 have been chancellor. Another, on the death of Charles the fecond, is fo 
 ridiculoufly bad that I cannot help quoting the two firft lines of it, 
 
 " Hans; all the ftreets with fable fad ; and call 
 The royal palace, Black, and not Whitehall." 
 
 The moft remarkable piece in this mifcellany, in which there are a few of 
 a better ftyle, is the elegy of Charles the flrft, which I have mentioned be- 
 fore, and which being printed and afcribed to him in the Life of his fon, is 
 a frrong prefumption of its authenticity. 
 
 * His anceftor Thomas, the fir ft lord Arun- to the queen, which were extant MSS. in Thoref- 
 
 del, having for his valiant behaviour in Hungary by's mufeum, p. 532. What is remarkable in 
 
 been created by the emperor Rodolph a count of this piece is,that he mentions an earl of Somerfet, 
 
 the empire, and being imprifoned by queen Eliza- created by a pope (and who was called the ape- 
 
 beth for receiving that honour without her per- Jlol'ic earl), and an earl of Winchefter, by a king 
 
 million, wrote an apology for himfelf in a letter of France. In a few pages it will be feen that 
 
 to lord Burleigh, which is printed in Peck's De- one of the emperors made a duke of Northum- 
 
 fiderata curiofa, book vii. p. 5 1 : and fome letters berland. 
 
 FORD 
 
472 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS, 
 
 FORD Lord GREY, 
 
 A MAN, converted into an author, as any malefactor might be, if his crimes 
 foared high enough to make him of confequence to hiftory. The con- 
 feffion of his fhare in a plot and in a rebellion happening to be preferved, has 
 been lately given to the public : where found, or by whom publilhed, is not 
 known ; but univerfally believed genuine : if genuine, authenticating remark- 
 ably the Rye-houfe con {piracy, which, exploded at the time of its exiftence, 
 feems to have taken its place in credit, in the room of the popifli plot, fo 
 firmly the belief of all good whigs in the reign of Charles II. I fhall fay no 
 more of this worthlefs man, but that he is the hero of thofe love-letters, 
 which the tender heart of Mrs. Manley or Mrs. Haywood lamented the lofs 
 of, and fupplied, between him and his fifter-in-law ; and that he was made 
 earl of Tankerville by king William. His book is called 
 
 " The fecret hiftory of the Rye-houfe plot and of Monmouth's rebellion, 
 written by Ford lord Grey in 1685. Now firft publilhed from a MS. figned 
 by himfelf before the earl of Sunderland. 1754." 
 
 ROBERT SPENCER, Earl of 
 SUNDERLAND, 
 
 TTAVING been loaded with variety of accufations for the lengths he had 
 A gone in countenancing popery to flatter king James, and with betraying 
 him afterwards to the prince of Orange, publi/hed a vindication of his con- 
 duel, called 
 
 " The earl of Sunderland's letter to a friend in the country, &c. March 
 23, 1689 * " 
 
 * Somers's Tra£ts, vol. i. p. 602. 
 
 THOMAS 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 473 
 
 THOMAS GREY, Earl of STAMFORD, 
 
 "PUBLISHED his fpeech at the general quarter-feffions held for the county 
 of Leicefter at Michaelmas 1690 ; his lordfhip being made dittos rotu- 
 lorum for the faid county by the late lords commiffioners of the great feal. 
 Loud. 1692, quarto, with a preface. 
 
 JOHN Lord JE FFERIES, 
 
 J^ON of the noted chancellor. I find two little pieces afcribed to this lord 
 in the collection of ftate-poems in four volumes quarto. One is called 
 
 " A fable*." The other f, 
 
 ** A burlefque tranflation of an elegy on the duke of Gloucefter." 
 
 JOHN LOWTHER, Viscount LONSDALE, 
 
 npHE firft peer and father of the laft peer of that line, was inftrumental to 
 the Revolution, and fo much efteemed by king William, who made him 
 lord privy-feal, that when through ill health he was obliged to retire from 
 buiinefs, the king would not fufFer him to reiign the feal, but ordered him to 
 take it into the country with him. He wrote 
 
 " A treatife on oeconomics," addreffed to his fon, MS. in the hands of fir 
 James Lowther. Another copy was in the poffeffion of fir John Ramfden, his 
 lordmip's grandfon. 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 241. t Vol. iii. p. 342. 
 
 Vol. I.- 
 
 P PP 
 
 GEORGE 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 GEORGE VERNE Y, Lord WILLOUGHBY 
 
 DE BROKE 
 
 A ND dean of Windibr, publifhed a few fermons on public occafions. His 
 fon, Richard lord Willoughby, was mad, and wrote verfes, fome of 
 which he printed, particularly a copy on the wedding of the princefs royal 
 Anne and the prince of Orange, in 1 732. There is no fenfe, no poetry, no 
 metre, no numbers in them : though defigned for heroics, fome of the lines 
 have only eight feet, and others fifteen and fixteen. On the Dutch drinking, 
 port on the marriage, his lordfhip fays, 
 
 " The gaudy ftreets are dyed with crimfon ftream, 
 And Portugal throughout the Hague does feerm" 
 
 A little farther, 
 
 " At Helvoetfluys fee pleafure all on float, 
 See no laborious men, no careful boat : 
 Could fillies know how they're employ'd in merry fchemes, 
 Thus to efcape, they'd blefs themfelves in quiet ftreams." 
 
 ROBERT DUDLEY, Duke of 
 NORTHUMBERLAND, 
 
 ^JALLED the natural fon, probably the legitimate fon, of the great earl of 
 Leicefter, having been deprived of his birth-right, and never acknow- 
 ledged as a peer of England, could not with propriety be clafTed among that 
 order : yet he was too great an honour to his country to be omitted ; and it is 
 the duty of the meanefc hhtorian, and his felicity to have in his. power, to 
 do juftice to the memory of the deferving, which falls not within the compafs 
 of particulars to procure to the living. The author of thbfe curious lives of 
 
 6 the 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 475 
 
 the Dudleys in the Biographia has already retrieved the fame of this extraor- 
 dinary perfon from oblivion ; and therefore I fhall touch but very few par- 
 ticulars of his ftory. He * was educated under fir Thomas Chaloner, the ac- 
 complished governor of prince Henry, and diftinguifhed his youth by martial 
 achievements, and by ufeful difcoveries in the Weft Indies. But it was the 
 houfe of Medici, thofe patrons of learning and talents, who foftered this en- 
 terprifing fpirit, and who were amply rewarded for their munificence by his 
 projecting the free port of Leghorn. He flourifhed in their court f , and in 
 that of the emperor, who declared him duke of Northumberland ; a duke- 
 dom remarkably confirmed to his widow, whom Charles the firft created 
 duchefs Dudley. Antony Wood fays J, " The duke was a complete gentle- 
 man in all fuitable employments, an exact feaman, an excellent architect, ma- 
 thematician, phyfician, chymift, and what not r He was a handfome perfona- 
 ble man, tall of ftature, red-haired, and of admirable comport, and above all 
 noted for riding the great horfe, for tilting, and for his being the firft of all 
 that taught a dog to fit in order to catch partridges." The fame author gives 
 this lift of his works : 
 
 * Voyage to the ifland of Trinidada and the coaft of Paria, 1594, 1595 
 
 " Del arcano del mare, &c." Firenze, 1630, 1646; in two volumes 
 folio ; full of mathematical cuts, fea-charts, fortifications, &c. 
 
 " A difconrfe to correct the exorbitances of parliaments, and to enlarge 
 the king's revenue ||. Written in the year 1 61 3." This is the only uncom- 
 mendable performance of our author's life ; and as it was attended by an 
 extraordinary anecdote, the reader is delired to take a little notice of it, one 
 very particular circumftance having never, as I know, been remarked. This 
 paper, by which Dudley had fought to ingratiate himielf with James the 
 iirft, concluding no method fo eafy or fure for recovering his own right as to 
 
 * Wood, vol. ii. p. 126. See a full account prince of Wales. Sec Brrch, p. 321. 
 of fir Thomas Chaloner and his family in the 
 
 ji'ldes Walpolianse, and in Birch's Life of prince ^ P' 2 ?' 
 
 Heni 7- § See Hakluyt's third volume of Englifh voy- 
 ages, p. 574. 
 
 f Where he endeavoured to bring about a 
 
 match between the great duke's fifter and Henry || Rufhworth, vol. i. in the appendix, p. 12. 
 
 P p p 2 inftrucl 
 
4?6 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 inftruc"t the king how to ufurp upon the rights of his fubjecT:s, this paper had 
 long lain neglected; but in the year 1628,. an information was filed by fir 
 Robert Heath, attorney-general,, in the Star-chamber, againft the earls of 
 Bedford, Somerfet, and Clare, fir Robert Cotton, John Selden and Oliver 
 St. John *, for difperfing this fhamelefs. libel. Foulis f would afcribe this 
 publication to the patriots, who meaned to make the king odious ; a moft 
 improbable charge, and not at all confirmed by what really happened after- 
 wards, when it was re-publimed under the title of " Strafford's plot." There 
 is great reafon to prefume that this attack on parliaments was not made with- 
 out the connivance of the court, at leafl was not difagreeable to it ; the attor- 
 ney-general receiving orders, in the middle of the profecution, to difmifs the 
 caufe, on pretence that his majefty was willing to extend his royal lenity to 
 his fubjecls on the birth of a prince, of whom the queen was juft delivered. 
 The remarkable incident unnoticed, was the earl of Somerfet being involved 
 in this trial ;. that haughty and fallen favourite, generally fuppofed to have 
 dragged out the remainder of his life in infamy and obfcurity, but who here 
 appears engaged in ftate-intrigues with fome of the greateit. lords at that 
 period.. 
 
 w Catholicon." A phyfical book. He alfo difcovered a purging powder, 
 which paffes under the name of a phyfician who wrote a book on the virtues 
 of it, and dedicated it to the duke. Confidering how enterprifing and dan- 
 gerous a minifter he might have made, and what variety of talents were 
 called forth by his misfortunes,, it feems to have been happy both for the 
 duke and his country, that he was unjuflly deprived of the honours to which 
 his birth gave him pretentions. 
 
 * It is not the lead particularity of this aneo natural confequence of a temper that had dipped 
 dote to find the names of two fuch eminent pa- into the contrary extreme to make his court. — 
 triots as Selden and Oliver St. John among men Selden was a more temperate man and of fairet 
 who propagated a plan for the reduction of par- repute. See alfo U/ber's Letters, pp. 414, 418. 
 liaments. The lengths which St. John went af- 
 terwards with the parliament were perhaps noun- f Hift. of Plots, book i. p. 68* 
 
 PEERESSES-* 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 477 
 
 PEERESSES. 
 
 S a thick quarto * volume has been jiublijlied within thcfe few years of fucfc 
 Uluflrious women as have contributed to the republic of letters, I Jliall be 
 very brief on this head, having little to add to what that author has f aid. 
 
 MARGARET, Countess of RICHMOND 
 
 and DERBY, 
 
 HPHE mother of Henry the feventh, to whom fhe feems to have willingly 
 ceded her no right to the crown, while fhe employed herfelf in founding 
 colleges, and in ads of more real devotion and goodnefs than generally attend 
 fo much fuperftition. While me was yet young and a rich heirefs, the great 
 duke of Suffolk, minifter to Henry the fixth, or rather to queen Margaret, 
 iblicited her in marriage for his fon, though the king himfelf wooed her for 
 his half-brother Edmund. On fo nice a point the good young lady advifed 
 with an elderly gentlewoman, who thinking it too great a decifion to take 
 upon herfelf, recommended her to faint Nicholas, who, whipping on fome 
 epifcopal robes,, appeared to her and. declared in favour of Edmund. The 
 old gentlewoman, I fuppofe, was dead, and faint Nicholas out of the way ; 
 for we hear nothing; of the ladv Margaret consulting; either of them on the 
 choice of two other husbands after the death of earl Edmund, by whom fhe 
 had king Henry. Sir Henry Stafford, the fecond, bequeathed to his fon-in- 
 law a trappur of four new horfe harnifh of velvet ; and his mother the du- 
 chefs of Buckingham, in confideration of the lady Margaret's great affection 
 for literature, gave her the following legacy by her will : " To my daughter 
 
 * Memoirs of feveral ladies of Great Britain who have been celebrated for their writings, Sec." 
 by George Ballard, 175*. 
 
 4 Richmond 
 
47 8 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 Richmond a book of Engliln, being a legend of faints ; a book of French, 
 called Lucun ; another book of French of the epiftles and gofpels ; and a 
 primmer with clafps of filver gilt, covered with purple velvet*." 
 
 Her virtues are exceedingly celebrated : " her humility was fuch that me 
 would often fay, on condition that the princes of Chriftendom would com- 
 bine themlelves and march againft. their common enemy the Turks, me 
 would moft willingly attend them and be their laundrefs in the camp-j-." And 
 for her chaftity, the reverend Mr. Baker, who re-publimed bifhop Fifher's 
 funeral fermon on her, informs us, " that in her laft hufband's days me ob- 
 tained a licence of him to live chafte, whereupon the took upon her the vow 
 of celibacy." — A boon as feldom requefted, I believe, of a third hufband, as 
 it probably would be eafily granted. 
 
 This princefs published 
 
 " The mirroure of golde for the finfull foule, tranflated from a French 
 tranflation of a book called Speculum aureum peccatorum. Emprynted at 
 London, in Fletftrete, at the figne of St. George, by Richard Pynfon." Quar- 
 to, with cuts on vellum j. 
 
 " Tranflation of the fourth book of doctor J. Gerfon's treatife of the imi- 
 tation and following the blefled life of our molt merciful faviour ChrifL" 
 Printed at the end of doctor William Atkinfon's Englifh tranflation of the 
 three firfr. books, 1504. 
 
 V A letter to her fon is printed in Howard's collection of letters §." 
 
 She alfo, by her fon's command and authority, " made the orders [yet ex- 
 tant] for great eftates of ladies and noble women, for their precedence, at- 
 tires, and wearing of barbes at funerals over the chin and under the fame ||." 
 They are extant among the Harleian MSS. H 
 
 * Dugdale. § Page 155. 
 
 f Camden's Remains, p. 271, edit. 1651. || Ballard and Sandford. 
 
 X Ballard, p. 16, f N° 1107, art. 100. 
 
 JOANNA 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 479 
 
 JOANNA Lady BERGAVENNT. 
 
 In lord Oxford's library was the following book* : 
 
 " The monument of matrons, containing feven feveral lamps of virginitie 
 or diftindt treatifes, compiled by Thomas Bently," black letter, no date. In 
 the beginning was a note written by the reverend Mr. Baker, faying that this 
 book contained feveral valuable pieces or prayers, by queen Katherine, queen 
 Elizabeth, the lady Abergavenny and others. If I guefs right, this lady 
 Abergavenny was Joanna, daughter of Thomas Fitz-Alan earl of Arundel, 
 wife of George lord Bergavenny, who died in the twenty-feventh of Henry 
 the eighth, and niece of that bright reftorer of literature, Antony earl Rivers. 
 If my conjecture is juft, Ihe was probably the foundrefs of that noble fchool 
 of female learning, of which [with herfelf ] there were no lefs than four au- 
 thorefles in three defcents, as will appear by this fhort table, and by the fub- 
 fequent account of thofe illuftrious ladies : 
 
 Thomas Fitz-Alan Earl of Arundel, 
 
 Margaret Widville, 
 r * , 
 
 William, Joanna, 
 
 George lord Bergavenny, 
 
 f Henry — i Mary Arundel, 
 2 Catherine Grev, 
 
 1 — * ^ 
 
 Joanna, Mary, 
 Lord Lumley, T. duke of Norfolk. 
 
 * Harl. Catal. vol. i. p. 100. 
 
 f This lord had a valuable library, in which 
 were many MSS. faved out of convents at the 
 difFolution,and which defcended to hisfon-in-law 
 
 the lord Lumley, after whofe death it was pur- 
 chafed by James I. for prince Henry, and is now 
 in the Mufeum, feveral of the books having the 
 names of Arundel and Lumley in them. 
 
 Vide Birch's Life of Pr. Henry, pp. 161, 163. 
 
 Lady 
 
480 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 Lady JANE GRAY. 
 
 r J^HIS admirable young heroine fliould perhaps be inferted in the Royal 
 Catalogue, rather than here, as me was no peerefs ; but having omitted 
 her there, as me is never ranked in the lift of kings and queens, it is im- 
 pofiible entirely to leave out the faireft ornament of her fex. It is remarkable 
 that her mother [like the countefs of Richmond before mentioned] not only 
 waved her * lmall pretenfions in favour of her daughter, but bore her train 
 when flie made her public entry into the Tower f. 
 
 Of this lovely Icholar's writing we have 
 
 " Four Latin epiftles," three to Bullinger, and one to her fifter the lady 
 Catherine ; printed in a book called " Epiftolae ab ecclefia? Helvetica? re- 
 formatoribus, vel ad eos fcriptas, &c." Tiguri, 1 742, octavo. The fourth 
 was written the night before her death in a Greek teftament in which me had 
 been reading, and which me lent to her lifter. 
 
 * It is very obfervable how many defeats con- 
 curred in the title of this princefs to the crown. 
 I. Her defcent was from the younger fifter of 
 Henry the eighth, and there were defcendents of 
 the elder living, whofe claim indeed had been fet 
 afide by the power given by parliament to king 
 Henry to regulate the fucceffion : a power which, 
 not being founded on national expedience, could 
 be of no force ; and additionally invalidated by 
 that king having by the fame authority fettled the 
 crown preferablyon his own daughters, who were 
 both living. II. Her mother, from whom alone 
 Jane could derive any right, was alive. III. 
 That mother was young enough to have other 
 children [not being paft thirty-one % at tne death 
 of king Edward]; and if fhe had borne a fon, his 
 
 right, prior to that of his fifter, was inconteftable. 
 IV. Charles Brandon, father of the duchefs of 
 Suffolk, had married one woman while contracted 
 to another; but was divorced to fulfil his pro- 
 mife : the repudiated wife was living when he 
 married Mary queen of France, by whom he had 
 the duchefs. V. If however Charles Brandon's 
 firft marriage fhould be deemed null, there is no 
 fuch plea to be made in favour of the duchefs 
 Frances herfelf; Henry duke of Suffolk, father of 
 Jane, being actually married to the fifter of the earl 
 of Arundel, whom he divorced without the leaft 
 grounds, to make room for his marriage with 
 Frances. 
 
 f Strype's Memorials, vol. iii. p. 2. 
 
 X See Verti^s print of this duchefs and her fecond hujband, where her age is /aid to be thirty-Jix, in 1559. 
 
 " Her 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 481 
 
 " Her conference with Feckenham abbot of Weftminfter, who was fent 
 to convert her to popery*." 
 
 " A letter to doclor Harding, her father's chaplain, who had apoftatizedt." 
 
 " A prayer for her own ufe during her imprifonment £." 
 
 " Four Latin verfes written in prifon with a pin§." 
 
 " Her fpeech on the fcaffold |j." 
 
 Hollinfhed and fir Richard Baker fay me wrote divers other things, but 
 not where they are to be found. Bale H adds to the above-mentioned 
 
 " The complaint of a finner." 
 
 " The duty of a chriitian." 
 
 Fox ** mentions 
 
 " A letter to her father." I fuppofe it is the fame that is preferved among 
 the Harl. MSS. N° 2194, art. 13. 
 
 There are befides in a manual of prayers, which has been fuppofed to be 
 the composition of the protector Somerfet, two notes written by lady Jane 
 Gray, and another by her hufband, which have efcaped all the authors that 
 mention hen They are preferved among the Harl. MSS. in the Mufeum, 
 N° 2342, art. 35. 
 
 * Ballard, p. 195. |] Ballard, p. 114. 
 
 f Printed in the Phoenix, vol. ii. p. 28. ^ p a g C n 0t 
 t Vide Fox's A£b and Monuments. 
 j Ballard, p. 116. 
 
 Fox, p. 1420. 
 
 Vol. I. Q qq MARY 
 
482 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 MART Countess of A R UND E L, 
 
 T^AUGHTER of fir John Arundel, married firft to Robert RatclifF earl of 
 SufTex, and afterwards to Henry Fitz-Alan earl of Arundel, as may be 
 feen in the preceding table. She tranflated from Englifh into Latin 
 
 " Sententias & prasclara facia Alexandri Severi imperatoris ;" and dedi- 
 cated it to her father. Extant in manufcript in the king's library *. 
 
 " De ftirpe & familia Alexandri Stveri, & de fignis quae ei portendebant 
 imperium." 
 
 From Greek into Latin, 
 
 <{ Seleclas fententias feptem fapientum Grascorum." 
 
 " Similitudines ex Platonis, Ariftotelis, Senecas & aliorum philofophorum 
 libris colledtas." Dedicated to her father f . 
 
 Learning had now taken a confiderable flight fince the days of Edward the 
 fourth . fir Thomas More mentions it as very extraordinary that Jane Shore 
 could read and write. 
 
 JOANNA Lady L U M L E Y, 
 
 jQAUGHTER-in-law of the lady laft mentioned, tranflated from the 
 original into Latin 
 
 " Ifocrates's oration called Archidamus." Manufcript in the king's library. 
 " The fecond and third orations to Nicocles." Dedicated to her father f. 
 
 * Vide Cafley's Catal. p. 169. f Vide Tanner's Biblioth. Brit. p. 50, and Cafley ubi fupra. J Ibid. 
 
 " A fourth, 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 483 
 
 " A fourth, entitled Evagoras." Dedicated to the fame, in the fame place. 
 From Greek into Englifh, 
 
 " The Iphigenia of Euripides." Extant in the fame place. 
 
 MART Duchess of NORFOLK*, 
 
 X7" OUNGER f iuter of lad y Lumlev > M wife of " Thomas duke of Nor- 
 folk, who was beheaded on account of the queen of Scots, tranflated 
 from Greek 
 
 " Certain ingenious fentences collected out of various authors." Dedi- 
 cated to her father f. 
 
 MART Countess of PEMBROKE, 
 
 T H E celebrated fifler of fir Philip Sidney, wrote 
 
 " Poems and tranflations in verfe of feveral pfalms," faid to be preferved 
 in the library at Wilton %. There are a few printed with Francis Davifon's 
 poems §. 
 
 " A difcourfe of life and death, written in French by Philip Mornay, 
 done into Englifli by the countefs of Pembroke, dated May 13, 1590, at 
 Wilton." Printed at London for H. Ponfonby, 1600, i2mo. 
 
 * She died in 1557. § Vide Percy's Reliques of ancient Englifli 
 
 •f In the king's library. poetry, vol. i. p. 293. 
 
 % Ballard, p. 260. 
 
 Q qq 2 " The 
 
484 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " The tragedie of Antonie, done into Englifh by the countefs of Pem- 
 broke." Lond. 1595, i2mo. 
 
 " Three of her letters are printed in fir Toby Matthews's colle&ion." 
 
 ELIZABETH, Lady RUSSEL, 
 
 a family as learned as the Fitz- Alans, was third daughter of fir An- 
 thony Cooke, and rifter of the ladies Burleigh and Bacon, whofe erudi- 
 tion is fufficiently known. She was married, firft to fir Thomas Hobby, em- 
 baffador from queen Elizabeth at Paris, where he died 1566 ; and fecondly 
 to John lord Ruffel, fbn of Francis, the fecond earl of Bedford. She fur- 
 vived both her huftands, and wrote Greek, Latin and Englifh epitaphs in 
 verfe for them and others of her relations. It is her daughter by her fecond 
 hufband, whofe effigy is foolifhly mown in Weftminfter-abbey, as killed by 
 the prick of a needle. 
 
 Lady Ruffel tranflated out of French into Englifh. 
 
 " A way of reconciliation of a good and learned man, touching the true 
 nature and fubftance of the body and blood of Chrift in the facrament." 
 Printed 1605; and dedicated to her daughter Anne Ruffel, wife of lord 
 Henry^Somerfet*, heir of Edward earl of Worcefter ; with Latin and Englifh 
 verfes. 
 
 Ballard has printed f 
 
 '* A letter to lord Burleigh about the extravagance of her youngeft. fon." 
 
 * Dugdale, in the pedigree of Ruffel, calls him wards marquis of Worcefter, married this Anne 
 
 Henry Herbert ; but there never was a Herbert Ruffel. 
 earl of Worcefter. In the pedigree of the Somer- 
 
 fets he fays rightly, that Henry Somerfet, after- f Ballard, page 195. 
 
 ELIZABETH 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS 
 
 485 
 
 ELIZABETH Countess of LINCOLN, 
 
 TT\ AUGHTER and coheirefs of fir Henry Knevet, and wife of Thomas 
 earl of Lincoln, wrote 
 
 " The countefs of Lincoln's nurferie*." Oxford, 1621, 4 . AddrelTed 
 to her daughter-in-law Bridget countefs of Lincoln. She fpeaks of it as the 
 firfr. of her printed works, but 1 can find no account of any other. 
 
 ANNE Countess of DORSET and 
 PEMBROKE. 
 
 TPHIS high-born and high-fpirited lady was heirefs of the Cliffords earls 
 of Cumberland, and was firft married to Richard earl of Dorfet, whofe 
 life and actions fhe celebrated. Her fecond match was not fo happy, being 
 foon parted from her lord, that memorable fimpleton f Philip earl of Pem- 
 boke and Montgomery, with whom Butler has fo much diverted himfeif. 
 Anne the countefs was remarkably religious, magnificent, and difpofed to 
 letters. She ere&ed a pillar in the county of Weftmorland on the fpot where 
 me took the laft leave of her mother, a monument to her tutor Samuel Da- 
 niel, the poetic hiftorian, another to Spenfer, founded two hofpitals, and 
 repaired or built feven churches and fix carries J. She wrote 
 
 * Ballard, p. 267. Wood afcribes this piece 
 to one doctor Lodge, vol. ii. p. 497. 
 
 ■f The firft wife of this earl was Sufan, daugh- 
 ter of the earl of Oxford. I find a book fet forth 
 in her name, called w The countefs of Montgo- 
 mery's Eufebia, expreffing briefly the foul's pray- 
 ing robes, by Newton, 1620." Vide Harl. Catal* 
 vol. i. p. 100. There is another work with a 
 limilar title, called " The countefs of Montgo- 
 mery's Urania, written by the right hon. the lady 
 
 Mary Wroath, daughter of the right noble Robert 
 earl of Leicester, and niece to the ever-famous 
 and renowned fir Philip Sidney, knight, and to 
 the moft excellent lady Mary countefs of Pem- 
 broke, lately deceafed." It is a tedious rhapfody, 
 concluded by a fet of verfes, not better poetry for 
 not being better fenfe. 
 
 % Vide Ballard, and Memorials of worthy per- 
 fons, p. 92 and 94, 
 
 " Memoirs- 
 
486 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " Memoirs of her hufband Richard earl of Dorfet:" never printed. 
 
 " Sundry memorials of herfelf and her progenitors." Extant in the Bri- 
 tifh Mufeum. 
 
 And the following letter to fir Jofeph Williamfon fecretary of Itate to 
 Charles the fecond, who having fent to nominate to her a member for the 
 borough of Appleby, fhe returned this refolute anfwer, which though print- 
 ed in another place *, is moft proper to be inferted here : 
 
 " T HAVE been bullied by an ufurper, I have been neglected by a court, but 
 I will not be dictated to by a fubjecl : your man fha'n't ftand. 
 
 ANNE DORSET, 
 PEMBROKE and MONTGOMERY." 
 
 MARGARET Duchess of NEWCASTLE. 
 
 TTAVING already taken notice of her grace in the courfe of this work, I 
 mall here only give a lilt of her works, which fill many folios. 
 
 " The world's olio." 
 
 " Nature's picture drawn by fancy's pencil to the life." " In this volume 
 (fays the title) are feveral feigned ftories of natural defcriptions, as comical, 
 tragical and tragi-comical, poetical, romantical, philofophical, and hiftori- 
 cal, &c. &c." Lond. 1656, folio. One may guefs how like this portrait of 
 nature is, by the fantaftic bill of the features. 
 
 " Orations of divers forts, accommodated to divers places." Lond. 1 662, fol. 
 " Plays." Lond. 1662. 
 
 " Philofophical and phyfical opinions." Lond. 1663, fol. 
 
 « The World, vol, i. N° XIV. 
 
 a " Obferva- 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 487 
 
 " Obfervations upon experimental philofophy. To which is added the 
 defcription of a new world." Lond. 1668, folio. One Mr. James Briftow 
 began to tranflate fome part of thefe philofophic difcourfes into Latin. 
 
 " Philofophical letters." Lond. 1664, fol. 
 
 " Poems and phancies." Lond. 1664, fol. 
 
 " Sociable letters." Lond. 1664, fol. 
 
 " The life of the duke her hufband, &c," Lond. 1667, fol. It was 
 tranflated into Latin. 
 
 " Plays, never before printed." Lond. 1668, fol. 
 
 Her plays alone are nineteen in number, and fome of them in two parts. 
 One of them, " The blazing world," is unfiniihed, her grace [which feems 
 never elfe to have happened to her] " rinding her genius not tend to the pro- 
 fecution of it." To another, called " The prefence," are nine-and-twenty 
 fupernumerary fcenes. In another, " The unnatural tragedy," is a whole 
 fcene written againfr. Camden's Britannia : her grace thought, I fuppofe, that 
 a geographic fatire in the middle of a play was mixing the utile with the 
 dulci. Three volumes more in folio of her poems are preferved in manufcript. 
 Whoever has a mind to know more of this fertile pedant, will find a detail of 
 her works in Ballard's Memoirs, from whence I have taken this account* 
 
 ANNE HTDE, Duchess of YORK. 
 
 "D URNET fays *, that me not only wrote well, but actually drew up an 
 account of her hufband's life, of which me mowed the bifhop one vo- 
 lume finimed. As fhe compofed it from the duke's own journal, perhaps it 
 is the very work which I have mentioned in the article of James II. She alfo 
 
 * Vol. i. page 170* 
 
 wrote 
 
488 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 wrote the portrait of Mary princefs of Orange, mother of king William, while 
 fne was her maid of honour, on which occafion Waller addreffed a poem to 
 the princefs. 
 
 MART Countess of WARWICK, 
 
 "F\AUGHTER of Richard Boyle the great earl of Corke, and wife of 
 Charles Rich earl of Warwick ; a lady of great virtues and qualifica- 
 tions, which were defcribed among the lives of fundry eminent perfons by 
 Samuel Clark. Her charities were fo extenfive after me came into poffeffion 
 for her life of her hufband's great eftate, that it was faid, the earl of War- 
 wick had left all his eftate to pious ufes *. This lady, under the title of the 
 lady Harmonia, wrote an epiftle to George earl of Berkeley, affixed to his 
 book ; fee above p. 422 : as another copy of it was printed with her funeral 
 fermon in 1678, by doctor A. Walker, who, after a laboured panegyric on 
 her virtues, owns me had two faults, excefs of charity and defect of anger. 
 She wrote befides, 
 
 " Occafional meditations upon feveral fubjects, with pious reflections upon 
 feveral fcriptures." Lond. 1678. They are much in the ftyle and ftrain of 
 her brother, the famous Ml Robert Boyle. 
 
 Dr. Walker fays that me intended to have written the life of her father, 
 for which me had amafTed confiderable materials and collections. 
 
 ANNE Countess of WIN CHELSEA, 
 
 A N efteemed poetefs, is recorded, with fome of her poems, in the 
 General Dictionary. Her 
 
 " Poem on the fpleen" was printed in Gildon's mifcellany, 1701, octavo. 
 Rowe addreffed one to her on the fisrht of it. 
 
 o 
 
 * See Collins's Peerage., vol. v. 253, in lord Boyle, 
 
 Her 
 
I 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 489 
 
 Her poems were printed at London, 1 7 1 3, octavo ; with a tragedy never 
 acted, called " Ariftomenes." 
 
 A copy of her verfes to Mr. Pope are printed before the old edition of his 
 works ; and two others of his and hers are in the General Dictionary.. 
 
 Another little poem in Prior's pofthumous works *. 
 
 She wrote too f, 
 
 u An epilogue to Jane Shore.'* 
 
 " To the counted of Hertford," with her poems. 
 
 " The prodigy, a poem." Written at Tunbridge, 1 706. 
 
 A great number of her poems are faid to be extant in manufcript %, 
 
 SARAH Duchess of MARLBOROUGH. 
 
 TT is feldom the public receives information on princes and favourites from 
 the fountain-head : flattery or invective is apt to pervert the relations of 
 others. It is from their own pens alone, whenever they are fo gracious, like 
 the lady in queftion, as to have a pajfion for fame and approbation §, that we 
 learn exactly, how trifling and foohih and ridiculous their views- and actions 
 were, and how often the mifchief they did proceeded from the mo it inade- 
 quate caufes. We happen to know indeed, though he was no author, that 
 the duke of Buckingham's repulfes in very impertinent amours, involved king 
 
 * Vol. i. p. 20. to a ladt Sandwich. This (hould be the lady 
 
 lately deceafed at Paris, daughter of the cele- 
 f Vide Cibber's Lives of the poets, vol. iii. 325. brated earl of R oc hefter : but (he inherited too 
 
 much wit to have writen fo ill. 
 
 \ General Diet. vol. x. Ballard, page 431. 
 In the mifcellany [vol. ii.] called " Bucking- § Vide her Apology, p. 5. 
 ham's Works," I find a very filly poem afcrrbed 
 
 Vol. I. R r r James 
 
490 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 James and king Charles in national quarrels with Spain and France. From 
 her grace of Marlborough we may collect, that queen Anne was driven to 
 change her miniftry, and in confequence the fate of Europe, becaufe fhe 
 dared to affect one bed-chamber-woman, as fhe had done another. The 
 duchefs could not comprehend how the coufins * Sarah Jennings and Abigail 
 Hill could ever enter into competition, though the one did but kneel to ga- 
 ther up the clue of favour, which the other had haughtily toffed away ; and 
 which flie could not recover by putting The whole duty of man into the 
 queen's hands to teach her friendmip f. 
 
 This favourite duchefs, who, like the proud duke of Efpernon, lived to 
 brave the fucceffors in a court where (he had domineered, wound up her ca- 
 pricious life, where it feems fhe had begun it, with an apology for her con- 
 duct. This piece, though weakened by the prudence of thofe who were to 
 correct it, though maimed by her grace's own corrections, and though great 
 part of it is rather the annals of a wardrobe than of a reign, yet has ftill cu- 
 rious anecdotes, and a few of thofe fallies of wit which fourfcore years of 
 arrogance could not fail to produce in fo fantaftic an underftanding. And yet 
 by altering her memoirs as often as her will, fhe difappointed the public as 
 much as her own family. However, the chief objects remain; and one fees 
 exactly how Europe and the back flairs took their places in her imagination 
 and in her narrative. The revolution left no impreffion on her mind but of 
 queen Mary turning up bed-clothes ; and the proteftant hero, but of a felfiih 
 glutton, who devoured a dim of peas from his fifter-in-law. In fact, events 
 paffing through the medium of our paflions muff, ftrike different beholders in 
 very different lights : had Marlborough himfelf written his own hiftory from 
 his heart, as the partner of his fortunes did, he would probably have dwelt 
 on the diamond fword which the emperor gave him, and have fcrupuloufly 
 told us how many carats each diamond weighed. 1 fay not this in detraction 
 from his merits and fervices ; it is from our paflions and foibles that Pro- 
 vidence calls forth its greateft purpofes. If the duke could have been content 
 
 * In the notes to Dryden's Poems, edit 1760, maid of honour, and afterwards duchefs of Tir- 
 
 vol. ii. p. 44, it is faid, that the duchefs a£led connel 5 fo much celebrated in Grammont. 
 Mercuryin the mafque ofCaliftho,atcourt,i675. 
 
 I ihould rather think it was her fifter, who was f Vide her Apology, p. 268. 
 
 5 
 
 with 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 491 
 
 with an hundred thoufand pounds, he might probably have flopped at the 
 taking of Liege : as he thirfted for a million, he penetrated to Hockftet. 
 
 Mrs. Abigail Hill is not the only perfon tranfmitted to pofterity with marks 
 of the duchefs's refentment. Lord Oxford, honeji Jack Hi//, the ragged boy, 
 the Quebec genera/, and others, make the fame figure in her hiftory that they 
 did in her mind. — Sallies of paffion not to be wondered at in one who has 
 facrificed even the private letters of her miftrefs and benefactrefs ! 
 
 We have nothing; of her grace's writing: but the 
 
 DO O 
 
 " Apology for the conduct of the dowager duchefs of Marlborough from 
 her firft coming to court to the year 1710, in a letter from herfelf to my 
 lord * * * *. M Lond. 1 742. 
 
 FRANCES Duchess of SOMERSET 
 
 Had as much tafle for the writings of others,, as modefty about her own. 
 
 R r i" 2 
 
 SCOTS 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 SCOTS AUTHORS. 
 
 T T is not my Jiurjiofc to give an exacJ account of the royal and noble authors of 
 Scotland : I am not enough verfed in them to do jufiice to writers of the mojl 
 accomplijlied nation in Europe ; the nation to which, if any one country is en- 
 dowed with a fuperior partition of fenfe, Ijliould be inclined to give the prefer- 
 ence in that particular. The little IJliall fay both of Scotch and Irijli writers is 
 what has occurred to me accidentally, or has Jince been communicated to me by a 
 gentleman of dijlinguifiied knowledge and tajle. Many natives of each kingdom 
 are far better qualified to complete the catalogue, to which I only mean to con- 
 tribute fome hints. Even in the Englijli lijl I Jiretend to no merit but in the 
 pains I have taken. 
 
 J A ME $ the First* 
 
 Wrote 
 
 " A panegyric on his queen (Joan daughter of the duchefs of Clarence) 
 before fhe was married to him." 
 
 " Scotch fonnets," one book. One of them, " A lamentation while in 
 England," is in manufcript in the Bodleian library, and praifes Gower and 
 Chaucer exceedingly. 
 
 * £ Rythmos Latinos." Lib. i. 
 
 " On mufic ." 
 
 * For this account of the Scotch kings, fee omitted the fecond James, whom the bifhop makes 
 (do&or George Mackenzie's Lives and chara&ers an author becaufe edidit ediclum pacific atorium : 
 of the moft eminent writers of the Scots nation, a conrtable that reads the riot-aft is as much en- 
 voi, i. p. 3 18 i and Tanner, p. 426. I have titled to that denomination. 
 
 JAMES 
 
i 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 493 
 
 JAMES the Fourth 
 
 Wr OTE " On the Apocalypfe." 
 
 JAMES the Fifth 
 
 Wr OTE the celebrated ballad called 
 
 " Chrift's kirk on the green," and other little poems, which at leafl tra- 
 dition reports to be of his composition. They have a character of eafe and 
 libertinifm, which makes the tradition the more probable ; and are to be 
 found in a collection of Scottish poems called The ever-green. The Gaber- 
 luinzie man is reckoned the beft. There is fomething very ludicrous in the 
 young woman's diftreis when (he thought that her firfl: favour had been 
 thrown away on a beggar. He alfo tranflated Valerius Maximus *. 
 
 M A R Y. 
 
 TT would be idle to dwell on the ftory of this princefs, too well known 
 from having the misfortune to be born in the fame age, in the fame ifland 
 with, and to be handfomer than Elizabeth. Mary had the weaknefs to fet 
 up a claim to a greater kingdom than her own without an army ; and was at 
 laft reduced by her crimes to be a -f faint in a religion, which was oppofite 
 to what her rival profeffed out of policy. Their different talents for a crown 
 appeared even in their paffions as women : Mary deftroyed her hufband for 
 
 * Vide Preface to the works of king James I. faid on the tomb of Francis the fecond, " That 
 
 it is proof enough of his beatitude, that he had 
 f In the church of the Celeftines at Paris it is the martyr Mary Stuart to his wife." 
 
 killing 
 
494 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 killing a mufifJian that was. her gallant ; and then married her hufband's aflkf- 
 fin. Elizabeth difdained to marry her lovers, and put one of them to death 
 for p?efuming too much on her affection. The miftrefs of David Rizio could 
 not but mifcarry in a conteft with the queen of Eflex. As handfome as me 
 was, Sixtus the fifth never wiftied to pafs a night with Mary. — She was no 
 mould to call: Alexanders ! 
 
 Hiftorians agree in the variety of her accomplimments. She altered a 
 Latin diftich which me found in the fragments of Caefer, and wrote on a 
 pane of glafs at Buxton- wells *, 
 
 " Buxtona, quae calidse celebraris nomine lymphs, 
 Forte mihi pofthac non adeunda, vale !" 
 
 As me did this diftich in a window at Fotheringay, 
 
 " From the top of all my truft 
 Mifhap has laid me in the dun: jC* 1 
 
 She is reported to have written f 
 
 " Poems on various oceafions," in the Latin, Italian, French, and Scotch 
 languages. 
 
 One of her poems is printed among thofe of A. Blackwood §. Another 
 is in Brantome's Dames illuftres, written on the death of her hufband king 
 Francis {J. 
 
 it 
 
 Royal advice to her fon," in two books,- 
 
 Among the Latin U poems of fir Thomas Chaloner is a copy of verfes faid 
 to be tranflated from fome French ones written by this queen, and fent with 
 a diamond curioufly fet, to queen Elizabeth **. 
 
 * Ballard. f Page 353, at the end of his book De repub* 
 
 f Ibid. Anglor. inftaur. 
 
 ^ Tanner. ** In Heywood's poems, printed in 1637, 
 
 $ Doctor George Mackenzie's account of her, p. 272, is an Englifh tranflation of thefe lines; 
 
 yol. iii. p. 360. and another tranflation of them by Buchanan is 
 
 S Dix. iii. p. 117. mentioned in the fame place. 
 
 " The 
 
I 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 495 
 
 " The inftitution of a prince, in French verfe (he tranfcribed it with 
 her own hand, and embroidered the cover *. 
 
 A French fong by queen Mary, tranfcribed from a MS. in the king of 
 France's library, and which is faid to have belonged to the duke of Buck- 
 ingham, is printed in the firft volume of the Anthologie Francoife, p. 19, 
 edit. 1765. 
 
 A great number of her original letters are preferved in the king of France's 
 library, in the Royal, Cottonian, and Alhmolean libraries here : as many 
 others are in print, viz. 
 
 " Eleven to earl Bothwell," tranflated from the French by Edward Sim- 
 mons, of Chrifl-church, Oxford; and printed at Wefr.minft.er, 1726. A 
 late author [Mr. Goodall] has publifhed two volumes to endeavour to prove 
 that thefe letters were a forgery ; but a plea of that length, when the detec- 
 tion is not manifeft, ferves rather to confirm than weaken the evidence for the 
 fact. ; and the world and Mr. Goodall will, I fear, be ftill far from agreeing 
 in their opinion of Mary, while he thinks it does not aji/iear that Jhe had any 
 faults, unlefs the want of omnife'tence and omnijiotence may be termed faults. 
 
 ** Ten more with her anfvvers to the articles againft her." 
 
 " Six more," in Anderfon's collections. 
 
 il Another," in the appendix to her Life by do6lor Jebb. 
 
 " An apology for her conduct.," in a letter to the countefs of Lenox, her 
 mother-in-law %. 
 
 And fome others difperfed among the works of Pius the fifth, Buchanan, 
 Camden, Udal, and Sanderfon. 
 
 * Vide Preface to the works of king James I. % Robertfon's Hift. of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 19, 
 f In Haynes'* State Papers. of the diflertation on king Henry's murder. 
 
 Among 
 
4 g6 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 Among the papers publifhed by Murclin, from lord Burleigh's collection, 
 are 1 4 original letters and pieces of this queen : of which one is the bond of 
 afibeiation that fhe took (to the affront of her fpirit and to the little advan- 
 tage of her iituation) againjl thofe who mould confpire the death of Eliza- 
 beth, and with thofe who meaned it againft herfelf. Another is that mar- 
 vellous piece of folly and revenge the letter to queen Elizabeth, in which fhe 
 vents all the calumnies that fhe had heard of her. If this letter is genuine, 
 for I have doubted whether it were not forged and never ufed, one cannot 
 well wonder that a woman of Elizabeth's temper and power facrificed the 
 writer. That it is genuine is probable from other letters in the fame col- 
 lection : in one lord Shrewfbury fays that the queen of Scots had threatened 
 to write againft him ; and in one of her own fhe expreffes hatred againft. a 
 girl of her retinue for refembling the countefs of Shre wfbury in humour. But 
 that that cunning old countefs fhould have ventured to drop fuch tales of 
 Elizabeth is not credible, unlefs one fuppofes that fhe had been authorized, 
 in order to draw the Scottifh queen into a confidence. That Elizabeth was 
 abandoned to the degree that Mary infrnuates, is not to be believed : confix 
 dering what enemies fhe had, thofe amours would have been better authenti- 
 cated. Some of the lovers charged on her feem entirely fictitious. In fhort, 
 the partifans of Mary muft give up her good fenfe and judgment, if they will 
 brand her rival on the authority of this libel* 
 
 Among the Harleian MSS. are feveral of her letters, particularly in N° 290,. 
 tvith many other papers relating to her affairs ; and one letter more in* 
 N° 4249, 12. 
 
 PA TRICK Lord RUTHVEN, 
 
 A CONSIDERABLE actor in fome of the tragic fcenes of the reign of 
 Mary, is faid to have written 
 
 " A difcourfe of the late troubles that happened in Scotland between the 
 noble and mighty princefs Mary, by the grace of God queen of Scotland, 
 and her hufband Henry the king, with others, earls, lords, barons, gentle- 
 men, freeholders, merchants, and craftfmen." 
 
 This 
 
/ 
 
 NOBLE A U T H O R S. 
 
 497 
 
 This piece is a narrative of the murder of David Rizio, the contrivance of 
 vvhich lord Ruthven attributes to himfelf. 
 
 Three MS. copies^of this work are extant : two in the Cottonian library, 
 and one which doctor Mackenzie fays * he received from doctor Burnet by 
 miftake, when the bifliop intended to have given him a libel on the queen of 
 Scots. • Keith has given an account of this piece in his Hiftory + of the affairs 
 of the church and ftate of Scotland. Mackenzie has given another, and ob- 
 ferves that " perhaps no age has produced the inftance of one who acknow- 
 ledged himfelf to be guilty of a fact which all mankind muft acknowledge to 
 be murder." However, left fo extraordinary a circumftance mould not be 
 fufficient to make the credit of the narrative, Mackenzie has been abfurd 
 enough to falfify it in his own abridgement ; and, to vindicate the honour of 
 the queen, makes lord Ruthven affirm that Rizio was old, lean, and extremely 
 deformed. As if it was likely that Ruthven, apologizing for that afTafTi nation, 
 would affectedly have thrown in circumftances, which, belides being falfe, 
 would deftroy the only fhadow of excufe for it %. 
 
 Lord-Chancellor M AITL AND, 
 
 /CREATED lord Maitland by James the fixth, to whom he had been 
 fecretary of ftate, was famous for his 
 
 " Latin epigrams §." 
 
 .„ f,,,r,-„. ■ • ; • : S«J^« ««« I 
 
 He tranflated too fome verfes of James 1. publimed with the king's works. 
 His majefty in return wrote an epitaph for the chancellor, which in that age 
 of adulation was no doubt efteemed a peculiar mark of honour. It is printed 
 in doctor Mackenzie's account of lord Maitland. 
 
 * Vol. iii. p. 75. ther lord Ruthven, in 1667, by whom thofe fe- 
 
 crets were faid to be collected and praclifed ; but 
 
 f Append, pp. 119, 129. t T ie publifher was one M. B. It is a mere book 
 
 for a houickceper. 
 
 \ There is a little book of receipts and experi- 
 ments, called " The lady's cabinet enlarged and „ § Vide Bacon Papers, vol, 1. p. 295 ; and 
 opened, &c." pubhlhed under the name of ano- doctor Mackenzie, vol. iii. p. 423. 
 
 Vol. I. Sff . WILLIAM 
 
498 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 WILLIAM DOUGLAS, Earl of ANGUS, 
 
 Wh O fucceeded to that title on the death of his father, 1591, wrote- 
 " A chronicle of the houfe of Douglas.'* 
 
 WILLIAM ALEXANDER, Earl of 
 
 STIRLING, 
 
 \j\T AS a very celebrated poet, and greatly fuperior to the ftyle of his age. 
 
 His works are printed in folio : the chief of which are four tragedies in 
 alternate rhyme.. The firit. grant of Nova Scotia was made to this lord. 
 
 Sir ROBERT KERR, Earl of ANCRAM*, 
 
 T FIND a fhort but very pretty copy of verfes from him to Drummond of 
 Hawthornden f, one of the befr. modern hiftorians, and no mean imitator 
 of Livy. 
 
 A letter from him to prince Henry is in the Mufeum J- 
 
 * He was gentleman of the bed-chamber to % N° 7008. It is printed in Birch's Life of 
 Charles I. when prince. prince Henry, p. 249. 
 
 t Vide at the end of Drummond's works. 
 
 THOMAS 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 499 
 
 THOMAS HAMILTON, Earl of 
 HADDINGTON, 
 
 HP HE founder of a new branch of that illuftrious houfe, raifed himfelf to 
 great eminence, and to the firft ports in his country, by his abilities as 
 a lawyer and a ftatefman. He compofed 
 
 u Practics, or cafes adjudged in the court of fefiion. And he made very 
 copious collections concerning Scottifh antiquities," Thefe works are in 
 manufcript, and much efteemed. 
 
 JAMES Duke HAMILTON. 
 
 HP HIS nobleman, fo well known by his politics and tragic end, is feldom. 
 
 confidered in the light of an author, yet * Antony Wood mentions the 
 following pieces : 
 
 Preface to a book entitled " General demands concerning the late cove- 
 nant, &c." 1638, quarto* 
 
 " Various letters," 
 
 " Conferences, advices, anfwers, &c." publiflied in Burnet's Lives of the 
 dukes of Hamilton. 
 
 " Another letter is in the Harleian Collection, N° 7001." 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 121. 
 
 Sff 2 
 
 HENR Y 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 HEN R T CART, Lord FALKLAND. 
 
 C GOTLAND and England have each pretentions to this confpicuous line, 
 of which four fucceffivel y were authors' *. England gave them origin, 
 Scotland their title. Henry is faid by the Scotch Peerage to have been made 
 comptroller of the houlehold and a peer by king James, for being the firfl who 
 carried him the news of the death of queen Elizabeth ; but that is a blun- 
 der : Robert Carey earl of Monmouth -was that meflenger. Lord Falkland 
 was mailer of the jewel-office to Elizabeth, and was made knight of the Bath 
 at the creation of prince Henry, and lord deputy of Ireland, from which he 
 was removed with difgrace by the intrigues of the papifts f ; yet his honour 
 was afterwards entirely vindicated J. Lord Clarendon mentions his fortunes 
 being in a ruinous condition, and that he never would forgive his fon for 
 marrying againft his confent§. He is remarkable for an invention to prevent 
 his name being counterfeited, by artfully concealing in it the fucceffive year 
 of his age, and by that means detecting a man who had not obferved fo nice 
 a particularity ||. He had. an excellent character ; and is faid to haVe written 
 many things which never were publimed, except 
 
 " The hiftory of the moft unfortunate prince, king Edward the fecond ; 
 with choice political obfervations on him and his unhappy favourites, &c." 
 Found among his papers, and printed in 1680, folio and octavo. Wood, 
 afcribes it to Mr. Henry Gary, vol. i. p. 586. 
 
 * It is to preferve this chain entire, that I have 
 chofen to place thefe lords together, though they 
 ought to have been intermixed with the reft in this 
 lift, according to the periods in which they lived. 
 
 f His wife was converted by them. Vide U/Jjer's 
 Letters, p. 406. 
 
 X Biographia, vol. ii. 
 
 § Life of Clarendon, p. 20. 
 
 I 
 
 || Lloyd's State Worthies, p. 938. Fuller in 
 Hertfordfhire, p. 23. This little circumftance 
 was thought not unworthy of repetition at a time 
 when the unfufpecling careleffhefs of a great pre- 
 late in this particular has involved him info much 
 
 trouble A trouble however to which we owe 
 
 a beautiful picture of the moft virtuous mind and 
 admirable abilities, triumphing over the impof- 
 ture of others and the infirmities of his own great 
 age. See the bijloop of Winchrjier s Letter to Mr. 
 Chevalier. 
 
 " A letter 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 501 
 
 " A letter to James the firftV 
 
 " Two of his letters to archbifhop Ufher are printed with that prelate's 
 correfpondence." Pages 379, 407. 
 
 " Two petitions from him when lord deputy, are among the Harl. MSS. 
 N° 5877, 10." 
 
 " Two letters. Ib. 1581." 
 
 w A letter in fir Toby Matthews's Collection. Page 176." 
 
 u An epitaph [not bad] on Elizabeth countefs of Huntingdon'^." 
 
 LUCIUS CART, Lord FALKLAND. 
 
 HPHERE never was a ftronger inftance of what the magic of words and the 
 art of an hiftorian can effect, than in the character of this lord, who 
 feems to have been a virtuous well-meaning man with a moderate under- 
 standing who got knocked on the head early in the civil war, becaufe it 
 boded ill : and yet by the happy folemnity of my lord Clarendon's diction, 
 lord Falkland is the favourite perfonage of that noble work. We admire 
 the pious /Eneas, who, with all his unjuft and ufurping pretentions, we are 
 taught to believe was the fent of Heaven ; but it is the, amiable Pallas we 
 regret, though he was killed before he had performed any action of con- 
 fequence. 
 
 That lord Falkland was a weak man, to me appears indubitable. We are 
 told he acted with Hampden and the patriots, till he grew better informed 
 what was § law. It is certain that the ingenious Mr. Hume has fhewn that 
 
 * Biographia, vol. ii. p. 1 182. § It is evident from his fpeech againft the 
 
 t tar . • 1 ji,o c • , judges that this could not be entirely the cafe; for 
 
 + Memorials and characters of eminent and ■{ , ; ' 
 
 r r , T „ • .1 ,. he there aliens that thofe men had not only acted 
 
 worthy perlons, rol. 1 74 1 ; in the appendix, p. ir. ■> 
 
 contrary to ancient laws and cuftoms, but even 
 t See his Speeches, which by no means mow to fome made in that very reign, 
 great parts. 
 
 both 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 both king James and king Charles acted upon precedents of prerogative which 
 they found eftablifhed. Yet will this neither jufUfy them nor lord Falk- 
 land. If it would, wherever tyranny is eftablimed by law, it ought to be 
 facred and perpetual. Thofe patriots did not attack king Charles fo much 
 for violation of the law, as to oblige him to fubmit to the amendment of it : 
 and I rnuft repeat, that it was great weaknefs to oppofe a prince for breaking 
 the law, and yet fcruple to oppofe him when he obftructed the correction of 
 it. My lord Falkland was a lincere proteftant; would he have taken up arms 
 againft Henry the eighth for adding new nonfenfe to eftablifhed popery, and 
 
 would he not have fought to obtain the reformation ? Again : when he 
 
 abandoned Hampden and that party, becaufe he miftrulted the extent of their 
 defigns, did it juftify his going over to the king? With what — I will not 
 fay, confcience — but with what reafon could he, who had been fo fenfible 
 of grievances *, lend his hand to reftore the authority from whence thofe 
 grievances flowed? Did the ufurpation of Cromwell prove that Laud had been 
 a meek paftor ? If Hampden and Pym were bad men and ambitious, could 
 not lord Falkland have done more fervice to the ftate by remaining with them 
 and checking their attempts and moderating their councils, than by offering 
 his fword and abilities to the king ? His lordfhip had felt the tyranny ; did 
 not he know that, if authorized by victory, neither the king's temper nor 
 government were likely to become more gentle ? Did he think that lofs of 
 liberty or lofs of property are not evils but when the law of the land allows 
 them to be fo ? Not to defcant too long ; it is evident to me that this lord 
 had much debility of mind and a kind of fuperftitious fcruples, that might 
 flow from an excellent heart, but by no means from a folid underftanding. 
 His refilling to entertain fpies or to open letters, when fecretary of ftate, 
 were the punctilios of the former, not of the latter ; and his putting on a 
 clean fhirt to be killed in, is no proof of fenfe either in his lordfhip, or in 
 the j" hiftorian who thought it worth relating. Falkland's figning the de- 
 claration that he did not believe the king intended to make war on the par- 
 liament, and at the fame time fubfcribing to levy twenty horfe for his ma- 
 jefty's fervice, comes under a defcription, which, for the fake of the reft of 
 his character, I am willing to call great infatuation. He wrote 
 
 " A fpeech, on ill counfellers about the king," 1 640. 
 
 * Sec his Speech againft the bifhops. 
 
 4 
 
 f Whitlocke. 
 
 " A fpeech 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 503 
 
 " A fpeech againft the lord-keeper Finch and the judges-'* 
 " A fpeech againft the bifhops, February 9, 1640.'* 
 
 " A draught of a fpeech concerning epifcopacv," found among his papers., 
 printed at Oxford, 1644. 
 
 w A difcourfe concerning epifcopacy." 
 
 M A difcourfe of the infallibility of the church of Rome." One Georo-e 
 ..... o 
 Holland, a popifh prieft, replying to this, his Lordfhip publifhed the follow- 
 ing anfwer : 
 
 " A view of fome exceptions made againft the difcourfe of the infallibility 
 of the church of Rome." 
 
 « A letter to Mr. F. M." Printed at the end of Mr. Charles Gataker's- 
 anfvver to five captious queftions. Lond. 1673, quarto.. 
 
 " A letter to doctor Beale, matter of faint John's college, Cambridge 
 
 He is faid too- to have affifted Chillingworth in his book called " The re- 
 ligion of proteftants +." In his youth he wrote fome verfes, particularly 
 
 " On the death of Ben Jonfon," publimed in the colle&ion called " Jon- 
 fonius Virbius J." 
 
 " To Grotius," on his tragedy called " Chriftus patiens," tranflated by.- 
 Mr.. Sandys 
 
 • BiographTa, vol. ii. p. 1182. $ Biographia, vol. ii. p. 2788. 
 
 T lb. p.. 1 186. § V. Cibber's Lives of the Poets, vok i. p. 29 ^ 
 
 HENRY 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 HENRY CART, Lord FALKLAND, 
 
 T"\IED young, having given inftances of wit and parts. Being brought 
 early into the houfe of commons, and a grave fenator objecting to his 
 youth, " and to his not looking as if he had fowed his wild oats," he re- 
 plied with great quicknefs, " Then I am come to the propereft place, where 
 are fo many geefe to pick them up." He wrote 
 
 " The marriage-night, a comedy ;" abfurdly afcribed by Antony Wood to 
 the laft lord. His fon, 
 
 ANTONY GARY, Lord FALKLAND, 
 
 Wrote 
 
 " A prologue intended for The old bachelor*," but it feems to have had 
 too little delicacy even for that play and that age. 
 
 " A prologue to Otway's Soldier's fortune." 
 
 Lord Lanfdown has infcribed a copy of verfes to this lord's fon, Lucius 
 Henry, the fifth lord Falkland, who ferved in Spain. 
 
 THOMAS Lord FAIRFAX, 
 
 ' pHE parliamentary general. One can eafily believe his having been the 
 tool of Cromwell, when one fees by his own memoirs how little idea 
 he had of what he had been about. He left 
 
 * Printed before that play in Congreve's works. 
 
 " Short 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " Short memorials of Thomas lord Fairfax, written by himfelf." Lon- 
 don, 1699. 
 
 Among the Harl. MSS. are two tracts, pretty much to the fame tenour y 
 but with different titles. See the Catal. No. 1 786, art. 1, and 2 : and 
 
 A letter, N° 7001. 
 
 But his lordfliip was not only an hiflorian, but a poet : in Mr. Thoreflby's 
 mufeum were preferved in manufcript the following pieces * : 
 
 " The pfalms of David, the fong of Solomon, the canticles and fongs of 
 Mofes, Exod. xv. and Deut. xxxii. and other parts of fcripture verfined." 
 
 " Poem on folitude." 
 
 Befides which, in the fame collection were preferved 
 
 " Notes of fermons by his lordfhip, by his lady, daughter of Horace lord 
 Vere, and by their daughter Mary, wife of George fecond duke of Buck- 
 ingham ;" and 
 
 " A treatife on the ftiortnefs of life-*" 
 
 Lord Fairfax had made an immenfe collection of MSS. many of which he 
 took: as plunder in Scotland. 
 
 But of all lord Fairfax's works by far the moil: remarkable were fome 
 verfes which he wrote on the horfe on which Charles the fecond rode to his 
 coronation, and which had been bred and prefented to the king by his lord- 
 fhip"f\ How muft that merry monarch, not apt to keep his countenance on 
 more ferious occafions, have fmiled at this awkward homage from the old 
 victorious hero of republicanifm and the covenant ! He gave a collection of 
 
 * Vide Thorefby's Ducat. Leod. pages 511, Ferd. lord Fairfax and his lady by the ladies Cary 
 541, 548. In page 543 it is faid, that in the and Widdrington, 1665. 
 fame collection are fome verfes on the deaths of f lb. page 548. 
 
 Vol. I, Ttt manufcripts 
 
 \ 
 
5o6 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 manufcripts to the Bodleian library. Prefixed to Herbert's Travels into the 
 eaft is a copy of verfes by Fairfax lord Cameron. This perfon 1 luppofe was 
 Thomas lord Fairfax, fon of Henry, who Succeeded the general in the title. 
 
 ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, Marquis 
 
 of ARGYLE. 
 
 T T will not appear .extraordinary that this illuftrious blood, which has pro-* 
 duced fo many eminent perfons, mould have added to the catalogue of noble 
 authors from its own lift of ftatefmen and heroes. It is totally unneceflary 
 for me to enter into their characters, that talk having been fo fully performed 
 by one * who wears the honour of their name, and who, it is no compliment 
 to fay, is one of the ableft and moft beautiful writers of this country. 
 
 In the Catalogue of the Harleian library, I find thefe f pieces : 
 
 " Marquis of Argyle his inftructlons to a fon." 1661. It is obfervable 
 that this lord quarrelled both with his father and his fon. 
 
 " His defences againft the grand indictment of high-treafon." 1661. 
 
 ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, Earl of 
 
 ARGYLE. 
 
 TTAVING feen nothing of this lord's compofition but his own epitaph in 
 A verfe, written the night before his execution, he can fcarce with pro- 
 priety be called an author, no more than the marquis of Montrofe, whom I 
 have omitted, notwithstanding his well-known little elegy on king Charles 
 
 * Vide the lives of the earls of Argyle, Biogr. J In Wellwood's Memoirs is the abftracl: of a 
 Brit. vol. ii. pages 1142, 1155. remarkable letter from Montrofe to Charles I. 
 
 which is faid to have prevented the king from 
 
 f Vol. iv. p. 817 ; and in the Had. MSS. is making peace with the parliament at the treaty 
 one of his letters, N° 158 1, 78, of Uxbridge. 
 
 5 ™& 
 
/ 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 507 
 
 and though he is faid to have been the author of feveral poems publifhed in 
 a dull mifcellany at Edinburgh. Yet Argyle's epitaph, though not very 
 poetic, has energy enough to make one conclude that it was not his firit 
 efiay. At leaft there is an heroic fatisfaction of conference exprelTed in it, 
 worthy of the caufe in which he fell. 
 
 His fpeech at his execution is printed in Howard's collection of letters, 
 page 399. 
 
 RICHARD MA IT LA ND, Earl of 
 LAUDERDALE, 
 
 *HPRAN SLATED Virgil ; it was printed in two volumes. The manu- 
 fcript was communicated to Mr. Dryden, who adopted many of the 
 lines into his own tranflation. 
 
 COLIN LINDSAY, Earl of BALCARRAS; 
 
 TP HE third earl of that name, was of the privy-council and treafury to 
 James the fecond, to whom his loyalty was unfliaken *, as his character 
 was unblemifhed. He was a man of plain ienfe and fmall fortune, and left 
 a little volume of memoirs much e {teemed, entitled 
 
 " An account of the affairs of Scotland relating to the revolution in 1688, 
 as fent to the late king James the fecond, when in France." Lond. 1714, 
 a thin octavo. 
 
 * I have fince heard that at laft he took the oaths to die eftabliftied government. 
 
 Ttt 2 
 
 GEORGE 
 
5 o8 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 GEORGE MACKENZIE, Earl of 
 CROMERTY, 
 
 A PERSON eminent for his learning, and for his abilities as a ftatefman 
 and general, of which laft profeffion he was reckoned at his death in 
 i 7 1 4 one of the oldeft in Europe. He contributed to the reftoration of 
 Charles the fecond, by whom he was made one of the fenators of the college 
 of juftice, clerk regifter of the privy-council, and juftice-general. James 
 ..the fecond made him a baron and vifcount ; queen Anne, fecretary of ftate, 
 .and an earl. Of his lordfhip's writing I have 
 
 " A vindication of Robert the third king of Scotland from the imputation 
 of baftardy, by the clear proof of Elizabeth Mure (daughter to fir Adam 
 Mure of Rowallan) her being the iirft lawful wife of Robert the fecond then 
 fteward of Scotland^and earl of Strathern. By George vifcount Tarbat, &c. 
 clerk to his majefty's councils, regifters and rolls, 1695." In the dedication 
 to the king (who by the date mould be king William, but whom, by his lord- 
 fhip's telling him that he had prefented his proofs to him many years before 
 in writing, I mould lufpecT: to be king James) he fays that all the crowned 
 heads in Europe are concerned in this vindication. The point indeed has 
 been much litigated, but is of little confequence except to thofe who are zea- 
 lous about a point of fo little confequence as hereditary right; yet as diffi- 
 cult to be afcertained as another obfeure topic on which his lordfhip em- 
 ployed his labours in the following 
 
 " Synopfis Apocalyptica, or a mort and plain explication and application 
 of Daniel's prophecy, ant] of faint John's revelation, in confent with it, and 
 confequential to it. By G. E. of C. tracing in the fteps of the admirable 
 lord Napier of Merchifloun. Edinburgh, 1708." It is dedicated to his 
 daughter Margaret Weems countefs of Northelk and Ethie*, by her ladyfhip's 
 moil: obedient fervant and moil: affectionate father, Cromerty. 
 
 " Hiftorical 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 509 
 
 ** Hiftorical account of the confpiracy by the earl of Gowrie and Robert 
 Logan of Reftalrig againft king James VI. 1713*." 
 
 Bifhop Nicholfon \ mentions having feen a defcription of the ifles Hirta 
 and Roua, two of the Hebrides, but does not fay if it was ever printed. 
 
 In The philofophical tranfaclions are three papers on natural curiofities, 
 written by this lord J. 
 
 JAMES DALRYMPLE, Viscount STAIR, 
 
 "p\RE W up " An inftitute of the law of Scotland," which was publimed 
 in 1693, and was received with univerfal approbation He alfo 
 publimed 
 
 " Decifions of the court of fefTion from 1661 to 1681." 2 vol. fol. 
 
 " Philofophia experimentalis," publimed in Holland during his exile, and 
 much commended by Bayle in his journal. 
 
 46 A vindication of the divine attributes." Octavo. 
 
 " An apology for his own conduct." Quarto. This lair, is but a pamphlet, 
 nor is it known on what occafion he publifhed it. The only copy of it 
 extant is in the advocates' library at Edinburgh. 
 
 RICHARD GRAHAM, Viscount PRESTON, 
 
 C ECRETARY to James the fecond, and by him created an Englifli peer, 
 but the patent was not patted. Being feized for high treafon, he pleaded 
 
 * Robertfon's Hift. of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 230. 637. In the fame work is mentioned an account 
 
 of Buchan by a countefs of Errol ; but with no 
 7 Scotch Hiftor. libr. p. 56. - date of the time when flie lived : p. 639. 
 
 % Vide Anecdotes of Britifh Topography, page § Biogr, Brit. 2257. 
 
 2 his 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 his peerage, which the houfe of lords would not admit. He pleaded it again 
 at the Old-Bailey ; but lord chief-jufHce Holt over-ruled his plea, and he 
 was condemned, but refpited and kept a prifoner in the Tower, where, from 
 a fimilarity of circumftances between him and that author, he tranflated and 
 publifhed Anicius Manlius Severinus Boetius, of the confolation of philofo- 
 phy, in five books. Lond. 1 7 1 2, the fecond edition corrected, with a preface* 
 
 GEORGE DOUGLAS, Lord MORDINGTON, 
 
 F this peer I can learn nothing, but that he publifhed a pamphlet in 00 
 tavo (now in my pofTeffion) entitled 
 
 " The great bleffing of a monarchical government, when fenced about 
 with, and bounded by the laws, and thofe laws fecured, defended and ob- 
 ferved by the monarch : alfo, that as a popifh government is inconfiftent with 
 the true happinefs of thefe kingdoms, fo great alfo are the miferies and con- 
 fufion of anarchy." Dedicated to king George L Lond. printed for T. 
 Warner, 1724. In the preface his lordfhip fays that three years before he 
 had publifhed 
 
 " Two pieces againft a weekly paper called The independent Whig ;" 
 but does not fpecify their titles. 
 
 DAVID MURRAY, Viscount STORMONT, 
 
 TpATHER of the prefent lord, and elder brother of the lord chief-juftice 
 Mansfield, wrote 
 
 " A poem facred to the memory of John earl of Strathmore, who was 
 killed in 1 71 5 ;" but I do not know that it was ever printed. 
 
 CHARLES 
 
/ 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS 
 
 CHARLES HAMILTON, Lord BINNING, 
 
 J^|ON of the laft, and father of the prefent earl of Haddington, wrote feveral 
 little pieces of poetry, two of which were publifhed : 
 
 " The duke of Argyle's levee printed in The gentleman's magazine of 
 February 1740. 
 
 M A paftoral ballad;" ib. of March 1741. 
 
 M A collection of very loofe tales in verfe," fuid to be written by this lord's 
 father, were publifhed in 1758-9. 
 
 » 
 
 JAMES HAMILTON, Earl of ABERCORN, 
 Wr o t e 
 
 " Calculations and tables relating to the attractive virtue of loadflones." 
 1729. 
 
 ALEXANDER FORBES, Lord PITSLIGO, 
 
 HP HE fourth of that chriftian name, was attainted for the rebellion in 
 1 745, being then an elderly man. He wrote " Effays moral and phi- 
 lofophical on feveral fubjecls," which were printed in 1 734, and again in 
 1763. 
 
 ANNE 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 ANNE Countess of MORTON. 
 
 HP HERE goes under the name of this lady a fmall book of devotions, in 
 which fhe alks God this meek queftion, " O Lord, wilt thou humble 
 thyfelf to hunt after a flea ?" But it appears by the preface that it was com- 
 pofed by one M. G, 
 
 r 
 
 ANNE Viscountess IRWIN, 
 
 C ECOND daughter of Charles Howard earl of Carlifle, married firfl to 
 Richard Ingram vifcount Irwin, and fecondly to colonel Douglas, wrote 
 many things, of which fome are in MSS. in the library at Cattle Howard. 
 I know none in print but 
 
 " A character of the princefs Elizabeth," pubtimed in Sept. 1759; and 
 
 " An ode on king George III." 1 761. 
 
 IRISH 
 
NOBLE 
 
 AUTHORS. 
 
 5i3 
 
 IRISH PEERS 
 
 GERALD FITZGERALD, Earl of 
 
 DESMOND; 
 
 *TP H E fourth earl of that line, was called the poet, and for his ikill in the 
 
 X 
 
 mathematics was thought a magician ; three characters feidom united. 
 
 This was about the year 1370*. 
 
 GEORGE CALVERT, Lord BALTIMORE. 
 
 TXTAS brought up under fir Robert Cecil, and in 161 9 attained the office 
 of fecretary of ftate, which however he refigned confcientioufly f in 
 1624, on having embraced the Roman catholic religion. He remained privy- 
 counfellor, and was made a baron. He had the grant of Avalon, the firft 
 chrifrian lettiement in Newfoundland, whither he went, and defended it 
 bravely againft the French ; and on its being afterwards yielded to them, he 
 obtained the grant of Maryland, of which his family are frill proprietors. 
 
 * Lodge's Irifli Peerage, vol. i. p. 10. 
 
 f Archbifhop Abbot, in a letter to firT. Roe, 
 gives a different account of this affair. " Mr. 
 fecretary Calvert," faith the prelate, " hath never 
 looked merrily fince the prince his coming out of 
 Spain : it was thought that he was much inter- 
 efted in the Spanifh affaires : a courfe was taken 
 to rid him of all employments and negotiations. 
 This made him difcontented ; and as the faying 
 is, Defperatio facit monachum, fo he apparently 
 
 Vol. h U 
 
 did turn papift, which he now profefTeth, this be- 
 ing the third time that he hath been to blame that 
 way. His majefty, to difmifs him, fuflered him 
 to refign his fecretary's place to (irAlbertus Mor- 
 ton, who paid him 3000/. for the fame ; and the 
 king hath made him baron of Baltimore in Ire- 
 land : fo he is withdrawn from us; and having 
 bought a {hip of 400 tons, he is going to New- 
 England or Newfoundland, where he hath a co- 
 lony." Roe's Letters, p. 372. 
 
 u u 
 
 We 
 
5H NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 We have this lift of his works * : 
 
 u Carmen funebre in dom. Hen. Untonum, ad Gallos bis legatum, ibiquc 
 nuper fato funclum." 1 596, quarto. The earl of Briftol wrote an elegy 
 on the fame occafion *}*. 
 
 " Speeches in parliament." 
 
 " Various letters of ftate J." 
 
 " The anfwer of Tom Telltroth." 
 
 " The practice of princes, and lamentation of the kirk," 1642, quarto. 
 <f Something about Maryland." Not printed. 
 
 ROGER BOYLE, Earl of ORRERY, 
 
 A MAN who never made a bad figure but as an author. As a foldier his 
 bravery was diftinguifhed, his ftratagems remarkable §. As a ftatef- 
 man, it is fufficient to fay that he had the confidence of Cromwell : as a 
 man, he was grateful, and would have fupported the fon of his friend : like 
 Cicero and Richelieu, he could not be content without being a poet. The 
 feniible author of a very curious life of this lord in the Biographia feems to 
 be as bad a judge of poetry as his lordmip or Cicero, when he fays that his 
 writings are never flat and trivial. — What does he think of an hundred fuch 
 lines as thefe, 
 
 " When to the wars of Aquitaine I went, 
 I made a friendship with the earl of Kent 
 
 * Biogr. Brit. vol. ii. p. 11 17 : Wood, vol. i. nufcripts, N° 1580. 
 p. 505. 
 
 § See his Life in the Biogr. Brit. 
 
 f See p. 366 of this Work. 
 
 || The black prince,, act v. 
 
 | Fifteen more are among the Harlcian ma- 
 One 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 515 
 
 One might as foon find the fublime, or the modefr, or the harmonious, in 
 t his Jine, 
 
 " O fortunatam natam me confule Romam !" 
 Lord Orrery wrote 
 
 " The Irifh colours difplayed ; in a reply of an Englim proteftant to a 
 Letter of an Irifh Roman catholic." Lond. 1662. 
 
 " An anfwer to a fcandalous letter lately printed, and fubfcribed by Peter 
 Walfh, &c." Dublin, 1662, quarto, and Lond. 
 
 " A poem on his majefty's happy restoration." MS. 
 
 " A poem on the death of the celebrated Mr. Abraham Cowley *." Lond„ 
 1667, fol. 
 
 " The hiftory of Henry the fifth, a tragedy." 
 
 " Muftapha, a tragedy." 
 
 " The black prince, a tragedy." 
 
 " Tryphon, a tragedy." 
 
 " Partheniffa," a romance in three parts, 1 vol. fol. His biographer fays, 
 three volumes folio j* , and feems to think that this performance is not read, 
 becaufe it was never completed ; as if three volumes in folio would not 
 content the mofr. heroic appetite that ever exifted ! 
 
 4 A dream, a poem." 
 
 * Cowley had commended his lordfliip's poe- f There is another edition in fix volumes, 
 try in a copy of verfes. Vide vol. hi. p. 544. 
 
 U u u 2 <; Verfes 
 
5 i6 NOBLE AUTHOR S. 
 
 " Verfes to the hon. Edward Howard on his poem called The Britim 
 princes ;" prefixed to that poem*. 
 
 " The art of war." Lond. 1677, fol. Said to have been much ridiculed^ 
 but is applauded by the Biographia. 
 
 " Poems on the fafts and feftivals of the church." Printed, but never 
 fmifhed. I fliould acl with regard to thefe, as I fhould about theromance,, 
 not read them ; not becaufe they were never finished, but becaufe they were 
 ever begun. We are told his lordfhip always wrote when he had a fit. of 
 the gout, which it feems was a very impotent mufe. 
 
 The reft of his works were pofthumous., 
 
 '** Mr. Antony, a comedy." 
 
 ** Mr. Guzman, a comedy." 
 
 " Herod the Great, a tragedy." 
 
 " Altemira, a tragedy." All his dramatic pieces, bu.t Mr. Antony, have 
 been publifhed together in two volumes oclavo. Lond. 1 739. 
 
 " His State-letters." Lond. 1 742, fol. f 
 
 HENRY HARE, Lord COLERANE.. 
 
 In the library of Trinity-college,. Cambridge, is a book with this title: 
 
 * Lady Mary Wortley Montagu told me, that was that Vaughan lord Carberry. 
 Vaughan lord Carberry publifhed in mifcellanies f Richard, called the great earl of Corke, ■ 
 
 feveral little poems profane and fatiric. In the father of this earl of Orrery, wrote memoirs of 
 
 third volume of Dryden's Mifcellanies, p. 165, his own life and times, which he called True 
 
 there is one by the lord V. addrelfed to a perfon remembrances. They have been publifhed in 
 
 of honour, Edw. Howard. Perhaps the author doctor Birch's Life of the hon. Robert Boyle. 
 
 J 
 
 " The 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 5i7 
 
 <; The afcents of the foul of David's mount towards God's houfe, beino- 
 paraphrafes on the 15 pfalms of degrees. Written in Italian by the illuf- 
 trious Gio. Franc. Loredano, a noble Venetian, 1656 : rendered into Englidi 
 anno Dom. 1665." L,ond. 1681, fol. In one of the blank pages is this MS. 
 infcription : Pnenobilis dominus Coleranae librum hunc a feipfo, cum in Italia 
 peregre vixit, Anglice redditum, coll. Sstae & individ. Trinitatis Cantab, hu- 
 millime offert. There is a fecond part> called 
 
 " La fcala fanta,or A fcalc of devotions mufical and gradual, being defcants 
 on the 15 pfalms of degrees in metre, with contemplations and collects upon 
 them in profe, 1670." This part is dedicated to the moft illuftrious and 
 fereneft Stella ; and has a copy of Englifh and another of Latin verfes prefixed 
 to the right hon. the learned author. The firft part is dedicated to the moft 
 honoured Lucinda. They have each an emblematic frontifpiece, as unintel- 
 ligible as the books themfelves, deiigned by the author, having his cypher [£, 
 delign. and baron's coronet. The firft is engraved by Faithorne. 
 
 All I can learn more of this lord is, that he was, according to the Irifh 
 Peerage, p. 317, edit of 1727, a very great medallift and antiquarian ; and 
 that his eldeft fon Hugh, who died before him, was author of a charge to 
 the quarter-feflions for Surrey ; and tranflated The.hiftory of the confpiracy 
 of count Fiefchi at Genoa. 
 
 WILLIAM Viscount BROUNKER, 
 
 PRESIDENT of the Royal Society, hath extant, fays A. Wood * 
 
 " Experiments of the recoiling of guns, and feveral letters to archbifhop 
 Umer." 
 
 * Fafti, vol. ii. col. 57. 
 
 WENT IVOR TH 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 WE NtWOR T H DILLON, Earl of 
 ROSCOMMON, 
 
 ANE of the moft renowned writers in the reign of Charles the fecond, 
 but one of the moft carelefs too. His Effay on tranflated verfe, and his 
 translation of Horace's Art of poetry, have great merit ; in the reft of his 
 poems are fcarce above four lines that are ftriking, as thefe, 
 
 " The law appear'd with Maynard at their head, 
 In legal murder none fo deeply read." 
 
 And thefe in the apparition of Tom Rofs to his pupil the duke of Mon- 
 mouth, 
 
 " Like Samuel, at thy necromantic call, 
 I rife to tell thee, God has left thee, Saul P* 
 
 His poems are printed together in the firft volume of The works of the 
 minor poets. At the defife of the duke of Ormond he tranflated into French 
 doctor Sherlock's dilcourfe on paifive obedience, entitled 
 
 " The cafe of refiftance of the fupreme powers*." And we are told + 
 that his lordmip in conjunction with Dryden projected a fociety for refining 
 and fixing the ftandard of our language. It never wanted this care more than 
 at that period ; nor could two men have been found more proper to execute 
 moft parts of that plan than Dryden, the greateft mafter of the powers of 
 language, and Rofcommon, whofe judgment was fufficient to correct the exu- 
 berances of his aftbeiate. Since them, chafter writers have by degrees refined 
 our tongue. It flowed pure from Addifon ; was kept within fevere bounds 
 by Swift ; was ennobled and harmonized by Bolinbroke ; was raifed to claffic 
 elegance and force by doctor Middleton. Such authors fix a ftandard by their 
 
 * See his Life prefixed to his poems in the fe- the earls of Rochefter, Rofcommon, Dorfet, &c- 
 cond volume of a mifcellany called The works of f See his Life in the Gen. Di£r. 
 
 writings, 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 519 
 
 writings. Grammarians regulate niceties, and try carelefs beauties in works, 
 where careleflhefs often is a beauty, by the fame rigorous laws that they have 
 enacted againft graver offenders. Such jury-men, no doubt, write their own 
 letters with as much circumfpeclion as their wills ; and are ignorant that it is 
 eafier to obferve fome laws, than to violate them with grace. But when an 
 age departs from exact models, it marks the period in which a language was 
 at its point of perfection, as the height of a fpring-tide is meafured from the 
 line from which the waves beerin to ebb. Academies and dictionaries are 
 
 o 
 
 impotent authorities : who, that thinks Machiavel an incompetent guide, 
 would obey the Crufca ? 
 
 ROGER PALMER, Earl of CASTLEMAIX, 
 
 A UTHOR of feveral pieces; but better known by having been the hufband 
 of the duchefs of Cleveland, and by being fent embaflador from James 
 the fecond to the Pope, who treated him with as little ceremony as his wife 
 had done. While her grace was producing dukes for the ftate, the earl was 
 buried in controversial divinity, and in defending the religion of a prince who 
 was fo gracious to his ladv. 
 
 Of this lord's compofition I have found, 
 
 " An account of the prefent war between the Venetians and the Turks, 
 with the ftate of Candie ; in a letter to the kins; from Venice." Lond. 1666 ; 
 fmall twelves, with a print of the earl before it. In the dedication he dilco- 
 vers that the Turk is the great Leviathan, and that renegades lofe their 
 talent for fea affairs. 
 
 " A fhort and true account of the material paffages in the late war be- 
 tween the Englifh and Dutch. Written by the right honourable the earl of 
 Cafrlemain ; and now publifhed by Thomas Price, gent." In the Savoy, 
 1 671. The editor, as wife as his author, obferves that the earl had viiited 
 Paleftine, to which he had a particular relation by his name Palmer or Pil- 
 grim : and he acquaints the world, that the earl's great-grandfather had three 
 fons born for three Sundays fucceffively ; and that another of his ancellors 
 4 with 
 
520 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 with the fame wife kept fixty open Chriftmases in one houfe, without ever 
 breaking up houfe. 
 
 " The earl of Caftlemain's manifefto." 1689. This is a defence of hirn- 
 felf from being concerned in the popifh plot, of which he was accufed by 
 Turberville. 
 
 " An apology in behalf of the papifts." This piece has not his name. It 
 was anfwered by Lloyd, bifhop of Saint Afaph, in 1667, and was re-printed 
 with the anfwer in 1 746. Lord Caftlemain, and Robert Pugh a fecular 
 prieft, his afiiftant, publimqd a reply to the bifhop, entitled 
 
 " A reply to The anfwer of the catholic apology, or a clear vindication of 
 the catholics of England from all matters of fact charged againft them by their 
 enemies. Lond. 1668. Both the pamphlets of the earl were feized by or- 
 der of the houfe of commons*." Bifhop Lloyd in 1673 publishing another 
 tracl againft popery, called A feafonable difcourfe, &c. lord Caftlemain an- 
 fwered that too in a piece entitled 
 
 " A full anfwer and confutation of a fcandalous pamphlet, called A fea- 
 fonable difcourfe, &c. Antwerp, alias Lond. quarto." Doctor Lloyd re- 
 plied in another piece, which he ftyled A reafonable defence of The feafonable 
 difcourfe, &c. and the earl wrote obfervations on itf. His lordfhip pub- 
 li ilied befides 
 
 " The Englifh globe, being a ftabil and immobil one, performing what 
 the ordinary globes do, and much more. Invented and defcribed by the right 
 honourable the earl of Caftlemain." 1679, thin quarto. 
 
 " The compendium, or a fhort view of the trials in relation to the prefent 
 plot, &c." Lond. 1679. This piece is likewife anonymous, is afcribed to 
 him, but I cannot affirm it to be of his writing. I believe he wrote other 
 .things, but I have not met with them. 
 
 A fplendid book of 'his embaffy, with cuts, was publifhed in folio, both in 
 Endifh and Italian. 
 
 * Vide Biogr. Brit. vol. v. 2987. 
 
 f Ibid. 
 
 JOHN 
 
/ 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 521 
 
 JOHN Lord C U T T S, 
 
 A SOLDIER of mod hardy bravery * in king William's wars, was fon of 
 Richard Cutts, efq. of Matching in EfTex, where the family was fettled 
 about the time of Henry the lixth, and had a great eftate f. Our author was 
 made baron of Gowran in Ireland, one of the lords juftices general, general 
 of the forces in that kingdom, and governor of the ifle of Wight. He died 
 at Dublin in January 1 706, and is buried there in the cathedral of Chrift- 
 church J. 
 
 I have "been favoured by a near relation of his lordfhip with the fight of a 
 very fcarce volume of poems of his writing, entitled 
 
 " Poetical exercifes written upon feveral occafions, and dedicated to her 
 royal highnefs mary princefs of Orange ; licenfed March 23, 1686-7, Roger 
 JL'Eftrange. Lond. printed for R. Bentley and S. Magnes, in RufTel-ftreet in 
 Covent-garden, 1687." It contains, befides the dedication, figned J. Cutts, 
 verfes to that princefs ; a poem on Wifdom ; another to Mr. Waller on his 
 commending it ; feven more copies of verfes and eleven fongs. The whole 
 compofmg but a very thin volume. The author fpeaks of having more pieces 
 by him : one I have found in vol. i. part 2d, of State-poems, p. 199 ; it is 
 on the death of queen Mary. 
 
 ROBERT Viscount MOLES WORTH, 
 
 A 
 
 UTHOR of that fenfible and free-fpirited work 
 
 * Swift's epigram on a falamander alludes to As brave andbrainkfs as the /word he wears. 
 
 this lord, who was called by the duke of Marlbo- T . 
 
 rough the falamander, on his always being in the ** IS motto was, With labour and blood. For a 
 
 *hickeft of the fire. The conclufion of the epi- ^ her aCC0Unt °/ him fee Mem0US for the cu * 
 
 gram alludes to his marrying a widow who fuf- nous > I 7°8> P- 4 • 
 
 fered by the confequences of his former amours ; + vide Hift. and antiq. of Eflex, p. 79. 
 and in fonie of the State-poems of that time was 
 
 this line upon him: \ Leneve's Monum. Anglicana, vol. iv. p. 1 20. 
 
 Vol. I. Xxx - "An 
 
5 22 NOBLE AUTHORS, 
 
 " An account of Denmark/* 
 And of thefe pieces, 
 
 " An addrefs to the houfe of commons for the encouragement of agri- 
 culture.** 
 
 * Tranflation of Hottoman's Franco-Gallia,'* 
 
 " A dedication to the princefs of Wales, of Marinda,** a collection of 
 poems and tranflations by his lordftiip's daughter, Mrs, Monk *. 
 
 And he is reported to have written other tratls in defence of liberty, of his 
 country, of mankind. I have heard that the laft lord Molefworth drew up 
 rules for the army, which have been published, 
 
 MURROUGH BOTLE, Viscount 
 BLESSINGTON, 
 
 WROTE a play called " The loft princefs f." 
 
 CHARLES Lord WHITWORTH, 
 
 Embassador to feveral courts, was author of a very ingenious 
 «' Account of Ruflia, as it was in the year 1710J.'* 
 
 * See Ballard's Memoirs, p. 418. % This piece, with an account of the author, 
 f Vide Companion to the playhoufe, vol. ii. was printed at Strawberry-hill in 1758. 
 
 JOHN 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 S23 
 
 JOHN SHUTE, Viscount BARRINGTON, 
 
 TTTA S reckoned the head of the preuSyterian party, in whofe behalf he 
 wrote feveral pamphlets ; and was author of fome other pieces, called 
 
 " The rights of the proteftant dhTenters, in anfwer to fir Humphrey 
 Mackworth two parts, quarto, J 704, 1705. 
 
 " An effay on the feveral difpenfations of God to mankind 
 
 " Mifcellanea facra;" two volumes oclavo, 1725. 
 
 " An account of the late proceedings of the dhTenting miiiiHers at Salter's- 
 hall, &c. in a letter to the reverend doclor Gale ; with a poftfcript to Mr. 
 Bradbury ;'* 171 9. There were feveral controverfial pamphlets on this oc- 
 cafion. 
 
 JOHN Lord FORTES CUE, 
 
 QNE of the judges of the Common-pleas in England, wrote remarks on 
 the works of his anceftor Fortefcue, entitled 
 
 " The difference between an abfolute and limited monarchy." Printed in 
 1714, reprinted fince with additions. 
 
 JOHN PERCEVAL, Earl of EGMONT, 
 
 "^^ROTE feveral pieces on various fubje&s, chiefly religious and moral, 
 feveral of which ftill remain in manufcript. Among others publinhed, 
 though to all his works his lordfliip modeftly declined prefixing his name, were 
 
 * Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 276. 
 X X X 2 
 
 « The 
 
524 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " The great importance of a religious life." It has gone through feveral 
 editions *. 
 
 " A dialogue between a member of the church of England and a proteffc 
 ant diffenter concerning a repeal of the tefl-act." 1732. 
 
 " The queftion of the precedency of the peers, of Ireland in England," 
 1739. Part only of this book was written by the late earl, which was in 
 confequence of a memorial prefented by his lordfhip to his majefry, Novem- 
 ber the sd, 1733, upon occafion of the folemnity of the marriage of the 
 princefs royal with the prince of Orange. 
 
 " Remarks upon a fcandalous piece, entitled, A brief account of the 
 caufes that have retarded the progrefs of the colony of Georgia in Ame- 
 rica :" 1743. His lordmip publimed feveral other tracls about that time 
 relating to that colony^ , 
 
 " Many letters and eflays upon moral fubjecls in a paper called The weekly 
 mifcellany." 
 
 He wrote a confiderable part of a genealogical hiftory of his own family,, 
 which was afterwards enlarged and methodized by Anderfon, author of 
 The royal genealogies, and by Mr. Whifton of the Tally-court f ^ 
 
 His lordfhip compofed' too a very great collection of 
 
 " Lives and characters of eminent men in England from very ancient to 
 very modern times," in which work he was indefatigably employed till dif- 
 abled by the paralytic diforder of which he died.. 
 
 * This lift was communicated to me by his Yvery, of which his fon and fucceflbr was fup- 
 
 fon the pr.efent earl ; but the firft piece has been pofed to write a large part. It confifts of two 
 
 afcribed to Mr. Melmoth, father of the tranf- thick volumes A oclavo, and was fupprefTed as 
 
 iator. far as poflible foon after its publication. 
 
 1 This was the famous hiftory of the houfe of 
 
 IV I L LI AM 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 525 
 
 WILLIAM Viscount GRIMSTON 
 
 T S only mentioned here to vindicate him from being an author. Having 
 **■ when a boy written a play called 
 
 " The lawyer's fortune, or Love in a hollow tree," to be acled with his 
 fchool-fellows, the duchefs of Marlborough many years afterwards procured 
 a copy, and printed it, at a time that Ante had a difpute with him about the 
 borough of faint Albans. Lord Grimfton buying up the impreftion, the 
 duchefs fent the copy to Holland' to be reprinted. She made his lordfhip 
 ample reparation afterwards by printing her own Memoirs, not written in 
 her childhood* 
 
 GERALD DE COURCY, 
 Twenty-fourth Lord KINGSA1E, 
 
 TX7"A S never publicly known to have attempted poetry, till after his- 
 death. His library being fold by auclion in 1762, there appeared 
 among his common-place books, a thin MS. containing fome Jacobite ballads 
 againft the houfe of Hanover, panegyrics to and upon doctor Swift, fome 
 gallant rebuses and odes, and a few other things, all in very plebeian num- 
 bers ; and an epiftle on redeeming our precious time, addreffed to his father- 
 in-law John Effington, efq. But if his lordfhip had loft his time before, he 
 by no means employed it better on this effay. 
 
 PIECES 
 
[ 5^6 ] 
 
 PIECES OMITTED 
 
 IN THE FOREGOING 
 CATALOGUE of ROYAL and NOBLE AUTHORS, 
 And difcovered fince the Volume was printed. 
 
 "^"OTE to the laft line of the fonnet of Richard the nrft, page 254, 
 "La mere Loys*." 
 
 * In the new hiftory of the Troubadors, col- The fecond is a fpirited invitation-totwoFrench 
 
 letted from the MSS. of monf. de Sainte Pal?ye, petty fovereigns to join him againft Philip Au- 
 
 isan article of Richard ift, and tranflations of his guftus, with a mixture of irony that does not 
 
 two poems. In the firft, there is no attempt at want tafte. 
 explaining the two laft lines in this fonnet above. 
 
 Between the articles of Edward the fecond and Henry the eighth this 
 paragraph muft be inferted : 
 
 There is ftill better authority for adding to this lift a defcendant of the 
 laft-mentioned prince ; one equally unworthy of the crown and the lyre, lefs 
 blameable, and, if poffible, more unfortunate. In that very curious col- 
 lection of papers given to the public under the too modeft title of Nugas 
 antiquse by doctor Harrington, from the MSS. of his ingenious anceftor, 
 the tranflator of Ariofto, is a little piece f of three ftanzas, which is afTerted 
 to have been the compofition of Henry the {ixth. The lines are melancholy 
 and fimple as we mould expect, and not better than a faint might compofe : 
 yet there is one expreffion which the prefent age, being more refined and 
 delicate than a faint, will not allow me to repeat ; and which intimates, 
 that if the good prince was very pious ^, it was not, as fome have fuppofed, 
 from an infenfibility to pleafure. 
 
 f Nugx antiquse, vol. ii. p. 145, 2d edit. Henry's mind early, that he was even admitted 
 In that very curious repofitory are particularly into holy orders almofl in his childhood. As fuch 
 threeletters, which exhibit more faithful portraits a ftep could not be taken even by priefls without 
 of queen Elizabeth and James ift than are to be authority, I mould fufpecl the meafure was die- 
 found in our moft voluminous hiftorians. Vide tated by his ambitious uncle cardinal Beaufort, 
 vol. ii. pp. 116, 132, 271, 2d edit. 1779. in hopes of retaining greater influence over the 
 
 young monarch. 
 
 J Such pains were taken to imprefs religion on 
 
 6 It 
 
ROYAL AUTHORS. 527 
 
 It is not worth making an article on purpofe, as the authority is fo vague, 
 but Strutt in his third volume of The manners and cuftoms of the Englifh, 
 has from a MS. in his own pofleflion, written as early as in the reign of 
 Henry 5th, given part of a poem compofed by a duke of York, who muft 
 have been Edward, eldeft fon of Edmond of Langley, there being no other 
 duke of York in the reign of Henry 5th. Yet as the verfes feem to be ad- 
 dreffed to a queen, they mult have been written in the preceding reign, duke 
 Edward having fallen in the battle of Agincourt, before the marriage of 
 Henry 5th. If the poem is authentic, it was probably addreffed to Joan, 
 fecond wife of Henry 4th, Strutt only faying that the hand-writing feems to 
 be as old as the time of Henry 5th. It might be a few years older, or 
 written foon after me became queen dowager. 
 
 Add to the article of Henry the eighth, after " De jufto in Scotos bello." 
 Page 258, 
 
 A ftanza long known, and beginning " The eagle's force," fir John 
 Harrington afTerts * was compofed by his majefty, and addrefTed to Anne 
 Boleyn. Though it has no great merit, it raifes our opinion of his majefty 
 as an author. 
 
 Add to queen Elizabeth's works, p. 269, in notes after " Salluftf." 
 
 f Tranflation from Seneca, in the Nugse an- Tranflation of one of Cicero's Epiflles, ib. 
 tiqux, vol. ii. p. 309, 2d edit. vol. iii. p. 93. 
 
 Add, in note to James the fecond, p. 277, after " Charles the fecond:}:." 
 
 % Yet fir John Hawkins, in the appendix- to There is certainly nothing in the compofition to 
 his Hiftory of mufic, has from an old copy pro- contradicT. the report: the exprefiion is eafy and 
 duced a fong faid to be written by king Charles, genteel, and the thoughts amorous. 
 
 Add to George Boleyn vifcount Rochford, p. 295, 
 
 Having mentioned a fufpicion that fome of this lord's poetry may exift 
 among the unafcertained poems in the collection of thofe of lord Surrey and 
 
 * Nug?e antique, vol. ii. o. 248, 
 
 fir 
 
528 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 fir Thomas Wyat, I am the more confirmed in that opinion, by having been 
 ib fortunate as to find one * piece of lord Rochford's identified amidft fome 
 verfes of thofe noble friends, which have been printed of late years from the 
 valuable MSS. of fir John Harrington in the Nugae antiquae ; though by a 
 trifling miftake lord Rochford is there called ear/, inftead of vifcount. The 
 MS. was dated in 1564, but 28 years after the death of the compofer, and 
 may therefore be -depended upon. There is a melancholy fimplicity and 
 harmony in the lines, that rank them with the beft compofitions of the above- 
 mentioned poets ; and though the variation of accents and pronunciation have 
 rendered fome of the lines not quite melodious to modern ears, yet the mea- 
 sure and general expreffion are fo elegant, that I am tempted to mow, that 
 without much alteration it might eafily pafs for the production of a more 
 refined age, 
 
 I. 
 
 Awake, my lute, perform the laft 
 And only fervice we will wafte ; 
 
 Repeat the ftrain in fighs begun ; 
 And when the vocal moment's pait, 
 
 Be ftill, my lute, for I have done, 
 
 II. 
 
 Is mufic heard, where ear is none ? 
 Can crayons grave on marble flone ? 
 
 My notes may pierce her heart as foon ! 
 Should we then figh, or fing, or moan — 
 
 No, no, my lute, we mult have done, 
 
 III. 
 
 The rock unmov'd when ocean raves 
 As focu fhall yield to darning waves, 
 
 As Juliet by my fuit be won : 
 My vows (he fcorns, thy foothing braves ; 
 
 Then, my fweet lute, let us have done, 
 
 * Nugoe antiquse, vol. ii. p. 252. In the fame they deferve no further notice. The mufes fel- 
 
 colle&ion, vol. i. p. 86, are fome miferable verfes dom vifit a man at his death, whom they had 
 
 faid to be written by T. Seymour lord Sudley, neglected till that crjfis. 
 lord admiral, the night before his .execution, but 
 
 6 Yet 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 529 
 
 IV. 
 
 Yet Venus mail afTert her reign. 
 Proud nymph, and puniih thy difdain ; 
 
 Thro' that cold breaft a flame mail run, 
 And me revenge fome other fvvain, 
 
 Altho' my lute and I have done. 
 
 V. 
 
 Sad in thy turn, the live-long hour 
 Of folemn night fhall hear thee pour 
 
 Thy plaintive defcant to the moon ; 
 While thy fair face's fading flow'r 
 
 Shall touch not me, for I have done. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Then Juliet mail perhaps repent 
 Of youth unprofitably fpent, 
 
 And figh in vain o'er moments gone ; 
 And, finding beauty was but lent, x 
 
 Shall weep its fcorn as I have done. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Then ceafe, my lute ; be this the laft 
 And only fervice we will wafte ; 
 
 Here end my love as it begun: 
 Be from my heart her name eras'd, 
 
 As from thy firings, when thou haft done ! 
 
 Add to lord Clarendon, after " with other flate-papers," p. 390, 
 
 Of thefe and of his letters three volumes in folio have been published at 
 different times ; the laft fo recently as in 1786, containing, befides nume- 
 rous letters, three feveral additional characters of his lordmip's bitter anta- 
 gonift lord Digby [earl of Briftol] extended to above 23 pages in folio, and 
 of fir John Berkeley, and fir Henry Bennet earl of Arlington. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 But 
 
53° 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS 
 
 But thole arc not the moft remarkable contents of the third volume. A 
 letter from the marquis of Ormond to Charles 2d, expreffing fuch provoca- 
 tions from the duke of York as a gentleman could not endure, and hinting 
 at revenging himfelf unlefs redrefled, gives, confidering the loyalty and tem- 
 per of the marquis, very unfavourable ideas of James ; and the publication 
 proves that the univerfity of ^Oxford have furmounted their tendernefs for 
 that unfortunate family. 
 
 In good truth, the univcrfity has not been delicate towards their favourite 
 Clarendon. His tranfaclions with father Talbot, a Romifh monk, for the 
 affaffination of Cromwell, on which black bufinefs Talbot writes to the king 
 himfelf ; and the following horrid expreffion in a letter from fir Edward 
 Hyde to fecretary Nicholas, " But it is a worfe and bafer thing that any 
 man fhould appear in any part beyond fea under the character of an agent for 
 the rebels and not have his throat cut;" v. p. 144: fuch tranfaclions, fuch 
 fentiments, muft. make one lament that the fury of civil war and party rage 
 could fo tranfmute the foul of a good and wife man, and reconcile him to 
 the worft practices of Borgia and Machiavel. Even the hypocrite ufurper 
 Cromwell fcorned to ftoop to fuch fhameful warfare ; and we can but admire 
 the contrail:, when in the fame volume we fee his playful policy (for fo we 
 may call it when compared with affaffination) employed in fowing feuds 
 between the brothers Charles and James, and the latter falling into the fnare 
 which Lockhart laid for him, and breaking with his brother on the difmiflioii 
 of his favourite fir John Berkeley, againft whom Cromwell for that purpofe 
 had contrived to inftill prejudices into the king. 
 
 Lord Clarendon alio wrote " Verfes to fir William Davenant," 011 the 
 latter's Albovine ; printed in fir William's Works. 
 
 Add to page 426, after " The antiquated coquet,''* 
 
 " A fong," [by the earl of Dorfet] publifhed in the firfr. volume of a col- 
 lection called The fports of the Mufes, printed in 1752, p. 46. 
 
 Add 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 Add to page 441, 
 
 Charles Mordaunt earl of Peterborough is faid to have written a pamphlet, 
 called " Remarks oft a pamphlet entitled The thoughts of a member of 
 the lower houfe, in relation to a project for retraining and limiting the 
 power of the crown in the future creation of peers : London, printed for 
 J. Roberts, 1 7 1 9, third edition." 
 
 Add to page 453, after " A tragedy in rhyme," 
 
 " A fatire in the manner of Perilus," printed in the 5th vol. of Dodfley's 
 Mifcellanies. 
 
 a Verfes to Mr. Poyntz," with doctor Seeker's fermon on education ; 
 publifhed in The new foundling-hofpital for wit, part 4th, p. 119 ; 1771. 
 
 " Two epigrams on Chifwick." Ib. 
 
 Add to the account of lord Melcomb, p. 458, after " fallies are forgotten," 
 
 It had been well for lord Melcomb's memory, if his fame had been fuf- 
 fered to reft on the tradition of his wit and the evidence of his poetry. The 
 pofthumous publication of his own Diary has not enlarged the flock of his 
 reputation, nor reflected more credit on his judgment than on his fteadinefs. 
 Very fparingly ftrewed with his brighter! talent, wit, the book ftrangely 
 betrays a complacency in his own verfatility, and feems to look back with 
 triumph on the fcorn and derifion with which his political levity was treated 
 by all to whom he attached or attempted to attach himfelf. He records con- 
 verfations in which he alone did not perceive, what every reader muft dis- 
 cover, that he was always a dupe ; and fo blind was his felf-love, that he 
 appears to be fatisfied with himfelf, though he relates little but what tended 
 to his difgrace ; as if he thought the world would forgive his inconfiftencies 
 as eafily as he forgave himfelf. Had he adopted the French title, confej/tons^ 
 it would have feemed to imply fome kind of penitence ; but vain-glory en- 
 groffed lord Melcomb ; he was determined to raife an altar to himfelf, and 
 
 Y y y 2 for 
 
532 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 for want of burnt-offerings, lighted the pyre, like a greater author (Roufieau), 
 with his own character. 
 
 However, with all its faults and curtailments, the book is valuable. They 
 who have feen much of courts, and are faithful, as lord Melcomb was, in 
 relating facts (whether they mean to palliate or over-charge), ftill leave much 
 undifguifed, which it did not anfwer their purpofe to conceal. Many traces 
 of truth remain in his Diary ; and the characters of the actors may be dis- 
 cerned (not much to their advantage), though the book was mangled, in 
 compliment, before it was imparted to the public. 
 
 Other pieces by lord Melcomb are, 
 
 " Verfes on the birth-day of fir Robert Walpole;" in Dodfley's Mifcel- 
 lanies, vol. iv. p. 227. 
 
 " Verfes to Mr. Stubbs;" in The European magazine for July 1 784, p. 53. 
 Add to Charles Sackville duke of Dorfet, p. 460, 
 
 In the two additional volumes to The works of Alexander Pope, printed 
 for R. Baldwin, 1776, octavo, are thefe four poems by Charles duke of 
 Dorfet when lord Middlefex : 
 
 " Verfes to Mr. Pope on reading Mr. Addifon's Account of the Englifh 
 poets ;" vol. i. p. 151. 
 
 " Tranflation of the 2 lit ode of the 3d book of Horace." 
 
 " Verfes upon a goofe." 
 
 " Verfes on lady Abergavenny." 
 
 " Song on the death of Frederic prince of Wales," in The gentleman's 
 magazine for May 1751, p. 227. 
 
 Add 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 533 
 
 Add to Joanna lady Bergavenny, p. 479, 
 
 Since the la ft edition of this work I have been inclined to think that the 
 lady Bergavenny of the text was not Joanna Fitz-Alan, but her daughter- 
 Ln law the lady Frances Manners, daughter of Thomas earl of Rutland, and 
 wife of Henry lord Bergavenny, as I find that lady Frances was an authorefs; 
 for Hugh Jackfon, in 1580, printed a piece called Precious pedes of perfect 
 godlinefs, &c. begun by lady Frances Abergavenny, and finifhed by John 
 Philips. Vide Typogr. antiq. by Herbert, vol. ii. p. 11 34, quarto. 
 
 Add to Mary countefs of Pembroke, p. 483, to the laft note, 
 
 And fome of her verfions of pfalms are printed in The nugje antiqux, vol. i. p. 277, 2d edit. 
 
 Add to Anne vilcountefs Irwin, p. 512, 
 
 Her " Anfwer to fome verfes of lady Mary Wortley," is printed in vol. i. 
 of The additions to Pope's works. 
 
 Add to Henry Hare lord Colerane, p. 517, after " Faithorne," 
 
 " A lyric poem" by him is mentioned in Nichols's Life of Bowyer the 
 printer, p. 106. 
 
 Add to p. 519, note, after *' obey the Crufca* y " 
 
 * " A fong," by lord Rofcommon, in The fports of the Mufes, vol. i. p. 28. 
 
 Add to Robert vifcount Molefworth, p. 522, after " have been publiihed," 
 
 To that John lord Molefworth is afcribed u A fong" in The gentleman's - 
 magazine for Auguft 1740, p. 408. 
 
 NOBL E 
 
C 534 ] 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS OMITTED 
 
 IN FORMER EDITIONS. 
 
 FERDINANDO Earl of DERBY, 
 
 [To follow Edward Vere Earl of Oxford, p. 330.3 
 
 \ PPEARS to have been one of our early bards, and not an unpromifing 
 one ; but he died young, not without fufpicion of having been poifoned. 
 Sir John Hawkins, from a MS. in his own pofTeffion, communicated to The 
 antiquarian repertory a paftoral poem by this earl, the commencement of 
 which feems wanting. Vide Antiq. repert. vol. iii. p. 137. 
 
 GREY BRIDGES, Lord CHANDOS, 
 
 |^ALLED, for his 'magnificence, the king of Cotfwold, died in the 19th 
 year of James the firft. I mention him as an author with great diffi- 
 dence, having no other grounds for it than the pofTeffion of a volume of 
 difcourfes, publifhed by the printer Edward Blount in 1620, entitled " Horse 
 fubfeciva?, obfervations and difcourfes ;" and in the firft. leaf of which 
 is written By Lord Chandois. It confifts of effays, one of which, on a coun- 
 try life, certainly has the air of being written by a man of quality fpeaking 
 of himfelf, and agrees well with what little we are told of this peer. 
 
 CHARLES HOWARD, Third Earl of 
 
 CARLISLE, 
 
 AFTER filling the poft. of nrfl commiffioner of the treafury, and other 
 considerable offices, retired into Yorkfhire and built the magnificent feat 
 at Caftle-Howard. His lefTons of experience and virtue he bequeathed in 
 verfe *, compofed few hours before his death, to his fon and fucceflbr ; and 
 
 * Vide Gentleman's magazine for Auguft 1739. 
 
 it 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS 
 
 535 
 
 it is pity that fuch wholefome precepts were not couched in more harmo- 
 nious numbers — It was not from his lordfhip that his grandfon inherited a 
 genuine talent for poetry. 
 
 PEREGRINE OSBORNE, Second Duke of 
 
 LEEDS. 
 
 TVTOTHING can be (lighter than my authority for mentioning this peer as 
 an author. In a catalogue of a fale of books was " An account of the 
 Breft expedition, by lord Carmarthen;" but having never feen the book, I 
 know not whether the name of the author was fpecified ; or if not, on what 
 ground it was fo afcribed. 
 
 PHILIP STANHOPE, Earl of 
 CHESTERFIELD. 
 
 jp'EW men have been born with a brighter mow of parts r few men have 
 bellowed more cultivation on their natural endowments ; and the world 
 has feldom been more juft in its admiration both of genuine and improved 
 talents. A model yet more rarely beheld, was that of a prince of wits who 
 employed more application on forming a fucceffor, than to perpetuate his 
 own renown — yet, though the peer in queitioii not only laboured by daily 
 precepts to educate his heir, but drew up for his life a code of inititution, in 
 which no fecret of his doctrine was withheld, he was not only fo unfortunate 
 as to behold a total mifcarriage of his lectures, but the fyftem itfelf appeared 
 fo fuperficial, fo trifling, and fo illaudable, that mankind began to wonder 
 at what they had admired in the preceptor, and to queition whether the 
 dictator of fuch tinfel injunctions had really pofTefTed thofe brilliant qualifica- 
 tions which had fo long; maintained him unrivalled on the throne of wit and 
 fafhion. Still will the impartial examiner do juftice, and diitinguifh be- 
 tween the legiflator of that little fantafKc ariftocracy which calls itfelf the 
 great world, and the intrinfic genius of a nobleman who was an ornament to 
 his order, an elegant orator, an ufeful ftatefman, a perfect but no fervile 
 courtier, and an author whofe writings, when feparated from his impertinent 
 2 infHtutes 
 
53 6 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 inftitutes of education, deferve, for the delicacy of their wit and Horatian 
 irony, to be ranged with the pureft daffies of the courts of Auguftus and 
 Louis quatorze. His papers in Common Senfe and The World might have 
 given jealoufy to the fenlitive Addiibn ; and though they do not rival that 
 original writer's fund of natural humour, they muft be allowed to touch with 
 confummate knowledge the affected manners of high life. They are ihort 
 fcenes of genteel comedy, which, when perfect, is the mod rare of all pro- 
 ductions- 
 
 His papers in recommendation of Johnfon's Dictionary were models of that 
 polifhed elegance which the pedagogue was pretending to afcertain, and 
 which his own ftyle was always heaving to overload with tautology and the 
 moft barbarous confufion of tongues. The friendly patronage was returned 
 with ungrateful rudenefs by the proud pedant ; and men fmiled, without 
 being furprifed, at feeing a bear worry his dancing-mafter. 
 
 Even lord Chefterfield's poetical trifles, of which a few fpecimens remain 
 in fome longs and epigrams, were marked by his idolized graces, and with 
 his acknowledged wit. His fpeeches courted the former, and the latter 
 never forfook him to his lateft hours. His entrance into the world was an- 
 nounced by his bon-mots, and his clofni7 lips dropped repartees that fparkled 
 with his juvenile fire. 
 
 Such native parts deferved higher application. Lord Chefterfield took no 
 lefs pains to be the phoenix of line gentlemen, than Tully did to qualify 
 himfelf for mining as the firft orator, magiftrate, and philolopher of Rome. 
 Both fucceeded : Tully immortalized his name ; lord Chelterfield's reign 
 killed a little longer than that of a famionable beauty. His fon, like Crom- 
 well's, was content to return to the plough, without authority, and without 
 fame. 
 
 Befides his works collected and published by doctor Maty, his lordfhip 
 had begun " ivlemoirs of his own time." — How far he proceeded on fuch a 
 work 1 cannot lav ; nor whether farther than a few characters of fome eminent 
 perfons, which have mice been printed, and which are no mining proof that 
 lord Chefterfield was an excellent hiftoric painter. From his private familiar 
 letters one mould expect much entertainment, if moft of thole publifhed by 
 i Mat 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 537 
 
 Maty did not damp fuch hopes. Some few at the end of his correfpondence 
 with his fon juftly deferve admiration. 
 
 Lord Chcfterfield's writings that are known, were, 
 
 " Mifcellaneous works, with memoirs of his life, by M. Maty, M. D." 
 publiflied in two large volumes in quarto, 1777. In thofe volumes are 
 omitted the following journals, which may be found in the feveral original 
 publications : " Common fenfe, for May 21, and 28 ; October 1 5 ; Nov. 5; 
 1737: and January 21; 1738." The laft was probably omitted in the 
 edition of his lordftiip's works for its indecency. Lady Hervey, an intimate 
 friend of lord Chefterfield, allowed me to mark lord Chefterfield's papers 
 from her copy of Common fenfe. 
 
 " His Letters to his natural fon Philip Stanhope ;" publiflied in two 
 large volumes in quarto, 1774. 
 
 " A Supplement" of fome letters that were wanting to that correfpond- 
 ence, was publiflied in quarto, by Dodfley, 1787. 
 
 " The art of pleafmg ;" being letters to his fucceffor in the title ; pub- 
 liflied in The Edinburgh magazine, 1774, N° 4, 5, 6, 7. 
 
 " Letters from lord Chefterfield to alderman George Faulkener, doctor 
 Madden, Mr. Sexton, Mr. Derrick, and the earl of Arran." London, 
 quarto, 1777. 
 
 Other works of lord Chefterfield, not included in Maty's edition : 
 
 " Characters of eminent perfonages of his own time." Duod. printed by 
 W. Flexney, 1777. 
 
 " A petition of humour to the king for a penfion ;" 1757* reprinted with 
 his letters. 
 
 « Letter to marfhal Belleifle, on his letter to marflial Contades ordering 
 him to lay wafte the electorate of Hanover;" 1759: publiflied in Englifh 
 and French. 
 
 Vol. I. Z zz " A letter 
 
538 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " A letter ligned Bayes, on the marriage of the king and queen pub- 
 lifhed in The London chronicle, Auguft 25, 1761. 
 
 Poetry. 
 
 In Dodfley's Collection of mifcellaneous poems, 2d edition, " the five lafl 
 poems" in vol. L are by lord Chefterheld. 
 
 Epigrams, " on Efau and Jacob," publilhed in The fports of the Mufes ;" 
 " on lord Hervey, As nature Hervejfs clay, £sV." " on ladv Thanet, Phyjic 
 mid cards, £sV." in The foundling-hofpital for wit, and other milcellanies : 
 and in the third part of The foundling-hofpital, " Verfes on Sarah duchefs 
 0/ Richmond going to fupper ■;" commonly, but wrongly,, entitled, On the- 
 duchefs of Rutland. 
 
 " Truth at court," in the name of a dean, publilhed in The London 
 chronicle for April 1761, and in The annual regifter for the fame year. 
 
 " Some lines, to be placed in the parlour of his brother fir William Stan- 
 hope, in the houfe that was Mr. Pope's at Twickenham. 
 
 " A dialogue, in profe, on his own going to court, 1 762 MS. 
 
 BAPTIST NOEL, Earl of GAINSBOROUGH, 
 
 TXTHO died in 1751, had "Along" afcribed to him in The morning 
 herald for November 15, 1786. In Collins's Peerage his lordfhip's 
 chaplain, in his funeral fermon, fpeaks of his tafte for painting,, mufie, and 
 poetry. 
 
 HENRT FOX, Lord HOLLAND, 
 
 TVTE VER attempted poetry, I believe, till towards the end of his life, when 
 a few copies of verfes mewed that he neither wanted the talent, nor 
 that that talent had wanted an edge. 
 
 " One poem" by him is in The annual regiiter for 1 779- 
 
 Lord 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 539 
 
 Lord Holland's rival, 
 
 WILLIAM PITT, Earl of CHATHAM, 
 
 TS known to have dropped Tome complimentary if Lines to mils Margaret 
 Banks" [afterwards married to his brother-in-law Henry Grenville], and 
 " to David Garrick ;" and is faid to have written other " fmall pieces :" but 
 as Rome was more fortunate in Cicero's eloquence than in his poetry, fo was 
 England in Mr. Pitt's ; but the latter's verfes were not ridiculous like the 
 conful's ; nor did Mr. Pitt fport them but as accidental trifles. He had a 
 more important advantage over the Roman : he left a fon of whom he 
 would not have been aihamed. That he had the fame fuperiority over his 
 Englifh rival in a brighter fon, will not be fo eafily accorded. 
 
 To lord Chatham were alfo afcribed, in The univerfal mufeum for De- 
 cember 1766, " Verfes on the death of lady Abergavenny," which in the 
 Additions to Pope's works are given to Charles duke of Dorfet. 
 
 GEORGE Lord LYTTE LTO N. 
 
 J ^EARNING, eloquence, and gravity, diftinguimed this peer above raoft 
 of his rank, and breathe in all his profe. His " Epiftle to Mr. Pope" 
 is the beft of his poetry, which was more elegant than finking. Originality 
 feems never to have been his aim; his moft known pieces, his '* Perfian 
 letters," and " Dialogues of the dead," being copies of Montefquieu and Fon- 
 tenelle ; and his " Henry the fecond," formed on the model of the ancients, 
 was not adapted to the vivacity that is admitted into modern hiftory. He 
 publiihed the latter himfelf, in live volumes in quarto ; and the reft of his 
 works, collected by his nephew Mr. Ayfcough, were printed in one large 
 volume in quarto., in the fummer of 1774. 
 
 There have alio been published of his lordlhip's writing, though not re- 
 printed in the collection of his works, 
 
 ** An epiftle to William Pitt," (afterwards earl of Chatham) occafioned by 
 an epiftle to the latter rrom the honourable Thomas Hervey. 
 
 Z z z 2 u Some 
 
54 o NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 " Some papers in Common fenfe," but I do not know which ; and fome 
 " political pamphlets," without his name. 
 
 " Prologue to Thomfon's Coriolanus." 
 
 " Hymen to Eliza," (his fecond wife) on their marriage ; printed in 
 The St. James's magazine for March 1763. 
 
 " Letter to Mr. Bofwell," in The London chronicle, May 11, 1769. 
 
 He wrote moft: of the " infcriptions" in the gardens at Stowe ; " an epi- 
 taph on captain Henry Grenville ;" " another on captain Cornwall," in 
 Weftminfter-abbey ; and " poems to general Conway and the countefs of 
 Ailelbury, after their marriage," MSS. 
 
 THOMAS Lord LYTTE LT ON 
 
 TT7AS a meteor, whofe rapid extinction could not be regretted. His 
 dazzling eloquence had no folidity, and his poetry no graces that 
 could atone for its indelicacy. 
 
 " One of his fpeeches in the houfe of lords," and " a' volume of his verfes," 
 have been printed; and " fome lines he wrote to his wife" were publifhed 
 in The Weft.minlT.er magazine, N° 5, 1773. 
 
 JOHN WEST, Earl of DEL A WAR, 
 
 HP HE fecond earl of that ancient race, wrote feveral occafional " copies of 
 verfes" with genuine humour and eafe, but with neither affectation nor 
 thirft of fame ; and fcarce any of them have been printed. 
 
 " One, on quitting his place of vice-chamberlain to the queen, on the death 
 ©f his father, is in The gentleman's magazine for April 1776 : it is alfo in 
 Almon's third part of The foundling-hofpital for wit, 1769, under the title 
 of " A farewell to the maids of-honour." 
 
 « A ballad/' 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 541 
 
 " A ballad," publiflied in The gazetteer for March 1 761. 
 
 In a catalogue of books I found mention of a lord Delawar's " Relation of 
 
 o , 
 
 Virginia," printed in 161 1. Thomas lord Delawar was captain-general of 
 that province ; but I never faw the book* nor have any other evidence of his 
 lordihip being the author of it. 
 
 Sir CHARLES WINDHAM, Firfl Earl of 
 
 EGREMONT, 
 
 TS only mentioned here, as a copy of verfes called " The fair thief" was 
 printed in The European magazine for January 1785, and afcribed to 
 his lordfhip ; but I much queftion if on any authority. 
 
 CHARLES HOWARD, Duke of NORFOLK, 
 
 Was author * of 
 
 " Confederations on the penal laws againfl Roman catholics in England, and 
 the new-acquired colonies in America. In a letter to a noble lord." 8vo. 1 764. 
 
 " Thoughts, eiTays and maxims, chiefly religious and political." 8vo. 1 768. 
 
 " Hiftorical anecdotes of fome of the Howard family." 8vo. 1769. 
 
 PEERESS. 
 
 ANNA CHAMBER, Countess TEMPLE, 
 
 TT7A S forty years old before me difcovered in herfelf a turn for genteel 
 verification, which fhe executed with facility, and decked with the 
 amiable graces of her own benevolent mind. A few copies of her fele6l 
 " Poems" were printed at Strawberry-hill, in 1 764. 
 
 European magazine for O&ober 1786. 
 
 SCOTS 
 
54 2 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 SCOTS AUTHORS. 
 
 PATRICK MURRAY, Lord ELI BANK, 
 
 w ROTE and publifhed fome tracts ; among others thefe : 
 
 " Thoughts on money, circulation and paper-currency:" Edinb. 1758. 
 " Inquiry into the origine and confequence of the public debts." 
 " A pamphlet on the Scottim peerage/* 
 
 THOMAS HAMILTON, Earl of 
 HADDINGTON, 
 
 T^ATHER of Charles lord Binning, mentioned above, p. 511, befides the 
 Tales which I have mentioned under his fon's article, wrote 44 A treatife 
 
 on foreft trees, in a letter from the right honourable the earl of to 
 
 his grandfon ;" publifhed at Edinburgh in 1761. 
 
 ANNE DOUGLAS, Countess of ARGYLE, 
 
 TXT" AS daughter of William earl of Morton, firft wife of Archibald Camp- 
 bell 7th earl of Argyle, and mother of Archibald marquis of Argyle. 
 who was beheaded. She was rather a publisher than an author, having col- 
 lected and publifhed in Spanifh a fet of fentences from the works of faint 
 Auguftine. It is entitled, 44 El alma del incomparable facada del cuerpo 
 de fus confefiiones, colegida por la illuftriffima fenora dona Anna condefle 
 de Argyl, dirigida a la fereni/fima fenora dona Ifabel Clara Eugenia, infante 
 d'Efpagna. En Ambres por Geraldo Woifchaten^." The copy in my pof- 
 feffion, the only one I ever faw, appears by the arms on the cover to have 
 belonged to Catherine of Braganza, queen of Charles 2d. I bought it at the 
 fale of Philip Carteret Webbe in 1771,. 
 
 IRISH 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 543 
 
 IRISH PEERS. 
 
 LODOWICK Lord BARRY 
 
 J^/JUST be mentioned, as Antony Wood, vol. i. p. 629, and Coxeter, in 
 his MS. afcribe a comedy called " Ram alley, or merry tricks," to a 
 
 perfon by that title in the reign of James ift. but no fuch lord is to be 
 
 found in the Irim Peerage ; and Langbaine, Jacob, Gildon, and Whincop, 
 call him only Lodowic Barry, efq. and the laft pohtively denies his being a 
 lord, as he probably was not. Vide Victor's Comp. to the playhoufe, vol. ii. 
 
 The following article jTiould Jland in the place of the account, in fiage 523, of 
 JOHN SHUTE, Viscount BARR1NGTON. 
 
 JOHN S HWTE BARRINGTON, 
 Viscount BARRINGTON, 
 
 TIT AS an eminent chieftain of the diffenters, and by his credit with that 
 feet, by his learning and addreis, raifed himfelf at an early age to much 
 diftinction, and afterwards to employment and honours, which he fullied, 
 as well as his pretentions to piety, by engaging in a fcandalous job, the Har- 
 burgh lottery ; a tranfacrion for which he was expelled' from the houfe of 
 commons. I mould not relieve that difgrace, had not a public writer al- 
 lowed a partifan of the family to make ufe of his pen in transferring the 
 odium of the punifhment, above fifty years after the infliction, to an inno- 
 cent perfon on the moft vague of all foundations, and with no lefs virulent 
 afperfion of that augufl affembly which ejected fo unworthy a member. 
 
 In the new edition of the Biographia BHtannica, published in 1778, it is 
 faid that one Dobfon tranferibed from a MS. paper of his uncle John Fofter 
 an account of that tranfacrion, which concludes with afferting, " that lord 
 Barrington having been firmly attached to lord Sunderland, the enemy and 
 predeceflbr of fir Robert Walpole in the admin iftration, it was fufpetled that 
 
 5 lord 
 
 r 
 
544- NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 lord Barrington had taken fome fteps very difagreeable to fir Robert, which 
 the latter not forgetting, took occahon of the Harburgh lottery to obtain 
 that fevere [and, as the text fays, unmerited] cenfure on his lordmip. 
 
 It is remarkable, that during an adminiftration of twenty years, and an 
 ^oppofition as virulent as ever perfecuted a prime-minifter, fir Robert mould 
 never have been charged in general with a vindictive temper, nor reproached 
 with that vengeance againft lord Barrington in particular. Lenity, good- 
 humour, good- nature, and forgivenefs, have been allowed the characteristic 
 virtues in fir Robert Walpole's compofition : but if a difmterefted public have 
 fubfcribed to that character, frill the piety of a fon would no doubt have felt 
 and endeavoured to remove the opprobrium from an injured parent to a re- 
 vengeful arbitrary minifter, whenever an opportunity prefented itfelf. The 
 fbn and heir of the ftigmatized lord was chofen into parliament before the 
 fall of that minifter, and was even a fpeaker againft him. That fon and heir 
 voted twice for a fecret committee to examine into the conduct of that mi- 
 nifter ; yet who ever heard of the fon's imputing the difgrace of his father to 
 fir Robert Walpole ? Was fuch arbitrary influence a crime of no magnitude ? 
 Would it not have figured in a report of the committee, in which the 
 higheft crime alleged againft a minifter fo long mifreprefented as the enemy 
 of his country, was profufion to hireling fcribblers ? The committee, I 
 know, was authorifed to enquire but into the laft ten years of fir Robert's 
 adminiftration ; but the firft motion went to twenty years ; and had the 
 imputed vengeance been true, lord Barrington's fon would indubitably have 
 jpecified it as an argument for extending the enquiry to twenty years. 
 
 But was ever charge laid before the public on more frivolous grounds, on 
 worfe authority ? Mr. Dobfon fays he copied the account from a fcrap of 
 
 paper of his uncle's writing and what does that paper fay ? That it 
 
 was fufjie&ed lord Barrington had acted difagreeably to fir Robert Walpole. 
 This mews that judge Fofter knew nothing more than a vague whifper. 
 Would that judge, fitting in his own court, have fufTered fuch random fuf- 
 
 picions to have been offered in evidence on a trial ? Certainly not yet on 
 
 fuch futile calumny does a grave judge [if the paper was really written by 
 him] condemn a folemn examination of the houfe of commons, and pro- 
 nounce it unmerited [unlefs the word unmerited may have been kindly 
 
 tacked to the fufpicion by pofthumous piety] — nay, though it does not appear 
 3 that 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 545 
 
 that for fifty years together either the criminal or his family pretended to 
 plead that the fentence was unjuft. 
 
 But it is difficult to think that judge Fofter could ferioufly believe [even if 
 he fufpe&ed, contrary to the whole tenor of fir Robert's life, that he had acled 
 revengefully] that lord Barrington was condemned unjuftly. In the zenith 
 of his power was fir Robert Walpole poffefTed of influence lufficient to induce 
 the houfe of commons to expel one of their own members, after a folemn 
 enquiry, for a crime not proved ? If the crime was proved, what would not 
 have been faid of fir Robert if he had fcreened the culprit ? And if the crime 
 was proved, would lord Barrington's character be whitened, though the re- 
 venge of a moft un revenge ful minifter had contributed to drag his guilt into 
 the eye of day ? Nor will it eafily be credited that a houfe of commons, who 
 in the worft times have ever been tender to their own body, would have 
 complimented a minifter [and one fcarce fettled in his power, nor then very 
 welcome to his * fovereign] with the facrifice of a member, unlefs the proofs 
 of his guilt had been flagrant. Nor were lord Barrington's abilities of that 
 magnitude, that fir Robert Walpole, who never attempted the fmalleft ven- 
 geance againft far more formidable and more bitter antagonifts, mould have 
 fmgled out for punifhment fo puny an adverfary as lord Barrington, who had 
 at moft been the tool of a capital rival. Sir Robert Walpole, againft the 
 earneft remonftrances of his neareft friends, recalled lord Bolingbroke from 
 
 exile compare the two antagonifts. Perhaps too even lord Barrington's 
 
 family may be perfuaded to think with the majority of mankind, that bribery 
 was an engine more familiar to fir Robert than perfecution, and that he 
 would rather have attempted to purchafe lord Barrington's attachment than 
 to profecute him. I have heard that lord Barrington was fufpecled of having 
 
 twice fold the preuSyterians to the court but when I condemn judge Fof- 
 
 ter's random whifpers and fufpicions [if they were judge Fofter's] I will not 
 defire more credit to be given to mine. If lord Barrington was innocent in 
 the affair of the Harburgh lottery, I will believe he_was incorruptible. 
 
 Lord Chefterfield, one of his warmeft opponents and fatirifts, who knew 
 him better than judge Fofter or Mr. Dobfon could, has faid in his character 
 
 * George the firft. Sir Robert Walpole had father and fon, and had been the principal op- 
 adhered to the prince of Wales (afterwards poler of the intended peerage bill, the favourite 
 Georg« the fecond) on a quarrel between the meafure of the court. 
 
 Vol. I. 4 A of 
 
54-6 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 of fir Robert Walpolc, that he was not vindiclive, but on the contrary placa- 
 ble to thofe who had injured him moft. Could lord Chefterfield have been ig- 
 norant of it, if fir Robert Walpole had influenced the houfe of commons to 
 expel a member for a crime of which that member was innocent? Lord 
 Chefterfield was twenty-nine when lord Barrington was expelled; and was 
 himfelf at that time a member of the houfe of commons, and probably voted 
 for that expulfion. If it mould be fuppofed that he was one of the in- 
 fluenced, he had but the more reafon for knowing the fad; and, though' a- 
 „ courtier then, he became fo unaltered an enemy to fir Robert Walpole to the 
 end of the latter's life, that it is not credible he mould officioufly and coolly 
 
 have affirmed that fir Robert was very placable to his worft enemies yet 
 
 the pretended paper of judge Fofter fays at moft that it was fufpecled lord 
 Barrington had taken fome fteps very difagreeable to fir Robert Walpole, and 
 that thofe fteps had been influencing the diffenters to remain in lord Sunder- 
 land's intereft. The vengeance, if lord Barrington was innocent, would 
 
 have been above meafure inadequate to the offence Thank God, it refts 
 
 only on the hearfay evidence of an unauthenticated paper, written down pro- 
 bably [if written by judge Fofter, then a young man] from the converfation 
 of a Temple coffee-houfe ; and feems to have been as great a fecret to his 
 lordfhip' s fon the bifhop, as to the reft of the world i for could the prelate,, 
 who fu mimed other lights to the editor, have been able to corroborate it. 
 with a fafe confcience by any teftimony of his own, by any documents or 
 vindication left by his father, no doubt his lordfhip's filial piety would not 
 have trufted the defence of his parent's memory to fo ridiculous a fide-gale as 
 judge Fofter's fuppofed narrative of a fuppofed revenge for a fuppofed offence. 
 Indeed a family is to be pitied, when reduced to have recourfe to an exculpa- 
 tion that is not a jot preferable to a confeftion of the guilt. 
 
 Perhaps one collateral facl may be as full confutation of this idle tale, as ■* 
 the arguments I have ufed. After the firft edition of this work was pub- 
 lifhed, I was told that I had omitted one noble author,, lord Barrington. As 
 I intended a fecond edition, I applied to the fon and heir of that lord for a 
 lift of his father's writings. The anfvver I received was, that his lordfhip 
 would be obliged to me if I would continue to omit all mention of his father 
 
 and to oblige his lordfhip I did, though it left my work, which I had 
 
 enlarged with other former omiffions, ftill imperfect. I had not then, nor 
 till I faw the account in the new Biographia, ever heard of the affair of the 
 
 5 Harburgh 
 

 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 547 
 
 Harburgh lottery; which, as I was in parliament when my father quitted 
 his employments, proves that 1 had never heard of his being taxed with un- 
 juft pcrfecntion of lord Barrington ; as, if I had, I could not have been fo 
 abfurd or fo indelicate as to touch on fo tender a fubje6t to his own fon. It 
 is as plain that his eldeft fon did not think the merit of his father's writings 
 would efface the demerit of his conduct, but wifhed to have them both for- 
 gotten together. Officious and mifguided zeal has forced this difcuffion from 
 me ; and if the pious prelate of the church of England, who furnifhed a lift 
 of his father's heterodox writings to the authors of the Biographia, and who, 
 however, could have no high efteem for thofe writings, or his zeal for his 
 mother the church would not have pointed out to her enemies weapons 
 forged by the hand of his father ; if that pious prelate, I fay, has had lefs 
 difcretion than his elder brother, he muft excufe a fon who feels no lefs for 
 a traduced parent, and who feels veneration for his memory with more rea- 
 fon, if he refutes the improbable charge. Nor perhaps was it worth the 
 bifhop's while, for the fake of railing from oblivion a lift of his father's writ- 
 ings, to revive the memory of the Harburgh lottery. Here follows that lift : 
 
 " A Latin oration fpoken at Utrecht." Publifhed 1698. 
 
 " Eflay on the intereft of England in refpect \o proteftants diffenting from 
 the eftablifhed church." Quarto, 1701. Reprinted two years afterwards 
 with confiderable alterations and enlargements. 
 
 " The rights of proteftant diffenters ;" in two parts. Second edit. 1705. 
 
 " Mifcellanea facra ;V in two vols, octavo, 1 725. *' Or, a new method 
 of confidering the hiftory of the apoftles, &c." Second edition, in 3 vols, 
 in 1770 ; by his fon the bifhop of LandafF, much improved by his father : 
 with a diftertation on the 1 2th chapter of the Hebrews, not publifhed before. 
 
 " An efTay on the feveral difpenfations of God to mankind." Octavo, 1725. 
 
 '* A difluafive from Jacobitifm." Octavo ; the 4th edition was printed 
 in 1725. 
 
 *' A letter from a layman to a bifhop, on the bill for preventing the 
 growth of fchifm." Quarto, 2d edit. 1714. 
 
 4 A 2 " The 
 
548 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS, 
 
 44 The layman's letter to the bifliop of Bangor." Second edit. 1716*. 
 
 " An account of the late proceedings of the diffenting minifters at Salter's* 
 hall, w a letter to do<51or Gale." 1 7 1 9. 
 
 " A difcourle of natural and revealed religion." Octavo, 1732. 
 
 " Reflections on the 1 2th query in a paper, entitled, Reafons offered 
 againft pufhing for the repeal of the corporation and tell acts." Octavo, 1 733* 
 
 JOHN PERCEVAL, Second Earl of 
 
 EG MO NT, 
 
 TX7AS a frequent writer of political papers and pamphlets, a profound 
 genealogift — if that is not a contradiction in terms ; and an admirer 
 and ftrenuous advocate for the reftoration of that barbarous and obfolete fyf- 
 tem of government, feudal tenures, which he wifhed to revive in the ifland 
 of St. John, and wrote a book to recommend it, copies of which he dil- 
 tributed to minifters and fome members of both houfes. Againft that happy 
 period mould revive, and the ufe of gunpowder mould be loft, he built, 
 moated, and fortified his caftle of Enmore, for the refidence of the future 
 old barons his defcendants, as in the Hiftory of the houfe of Yvery he gave. 
 \ iews of the ancient caftles that had belonged to any of his race ; nor dif- 
 dained, as having had the honour of being hired by himfelf, to add a print 
 of his lodging-houfe on Mount Pleafant at Tunbridge. With thefe eccen- 
 tricities he had ftrong parts, great knowledge of the hiftory of this country, 
 and was a very able, though not an agreeable orator. His domeftic virtues 
 more than compenfated for fome Angularities that were very innocent ; and 
 had he lived in the age whofe manners he emulated, his fpirit would have 
 maintained the character of an ancient peer with as much dignity, as his 
 knowledge would have effaced that of others of his order.. His molt known- 
 works were, 
 
 " Factian detected a pamphlet that made a great noife, 1 744. 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 549 
 
 " An examination of the principles, and an enquiry into the conduct of 
 the two brothers [duke of Newcaftle and Mr. Peiham] 1749. 
 
 " A fecond feries of facls and arguments ;" on the fame fubject : 1749. 
 
 " An occafional letter from a gentleman in the country to his friend in 
 town, concerning the treaty negotiated at Hanau in the year 1743. Printed 
 for A. Briton, near Temple Bar, 1749." 
 
 To all thefe pamphlets many anfwers were publifhed. What other poli- 
 tical letters in journals, or other pieces, his lordfhip wrote, I do not know. 
 
 FRANCIS BOTLE, Third Lord SHANNON, 
 
 TT7ROTE and publifhed a volume of " Difcourfes and eflays, ufeful for 
 the vain and modifh ladies and their galants, and alio upon feveral 
 fubjects moral and divine, in two parts." Dedicated to Elizabeth countefs 
 of Northumberland. Octavo, 2d edit. London, 1696. 
 
 FREDERIC CALVERT, Lord BALTIMORE, 
 
 TXTROTE and publifhed what he called his " Travels." They contain 
 * little more than a journal of his route. His bills on the road for poft- 
 horfes would deferve as much to be printed. His book proves a well-known 
 truth, that a man may travel without obfervation, and be an author without 
 ideas. 
 
 NICHOLAS Lord TAAFFE 
 
 WROTE " Obfervations on affairs of Ireland." His lordfhip was aged 
 Q 1 !>-> t -tAA 
 
 CONST ANTINE 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 CONSTANTINE PHIPPS, Fir ft Lord 
 MUL GRAVE, 
 
 a modeft poet, who wrote many verfes, but publiftied none ; nor. 
 though much applauded by thole who have feen them, have they yet 
 appeared in print. 
 
 ROBERT Lord C LIVE. 
 
 rpHIS lord, who was ftyled by policy a heaven-born hero, and whom 
 policy alone would canonize, would never have been an author, if he 
 could have filenced oppofition as completely, as he removed opponents in 
 India. Yet was he qualified, like Caefar, either to write or conquer. Still 
 one, who neither .reverences Roman ufurpations in Gaul, nor Spanifh maf- 
 facres in Mexico, will never allow his pen to applaud the invasions and 
 depredations of his countrymen in India. Suffered to traffic as merchants, 
 we have butchered, ftarved, plundered and enflaved, the fubjecls and pro- 
 vinces of lawful princes ; and all the imported diamonds of the Eafc cannot 
 ?QUt-blaze the crimfon that ought to ftain our cheeks, or the indignation that 
 ought to have fired them, when more recent Machiavels have called for 
 applaufe on their de vacations. But as Caefar's conquefts lifted the yoke on 
 .the neck of Rome, Indian gold has undermined the EnglihS constitution; 
 for, when heaven inflicls heroes on mankind, it generally accompanies them 
 with their confequences, the lofs of liberty — to the vanquimed, certainly ; 
 to the victorious, often ! 
 
 Lord Clive printed " A letter to the India company," in February 1 764. 
 •" Another letter," in the public papers in April 1764. 
 
 IRISH 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 549* 
 
 ROBERT NUGENT, Viscount CLARE and 
 
 Earl of NUGENT, 
 
 \ XT' AS one of thofc men of parts, vvhofe dawn was the brightefr. moment 
 of a long life ; and who, though polTeiTed of different talents, employed 
 them in depreciating his own fame,aod deftroying all opinion of his judgment, 
 except in the point of railing himfelf to honours. He was nrft known by 
 the noble ode on his own converfion from popery : yet, ftrong as was the 
 "energy and realoning in it, his arguments operated but temporary convic- 
 tion on himlelf, for he died a member of the church he had expofed fo 
 feverely. The fpirit of his firft ode was as little difcovered in his fublequent 
 poetry, as it was in his final relapfe to his original creed ; and though he 
 had eloquence and knowledge, they were rarely difplayed, though often 
 with delerved applaule, without being accompanied by bombaft and ex- 
 travagant vociferation. Who does not lament that Lucan, after fheddinp- 
 through his Pharfalia various fentences worthy of being cited by Longinus, 
 has wrapped thofe luminous effufiohs in a mantle of turgid declamation? 
 But Lucan had boiling youth to plead ; lord Nugent had no fobriety of 
 judgment, but in his earlieft compofition. 
 
 It mould be mentioned, that lord Nugent's ode being the production of a 
 young Irifh adventurer, unknown by any marks of genius, occaiioned fo 
 much furprife, that, when it was obferved he was patronifed by men of the 
 belt abilities in the then oppofition to the court, it was generally believed 
 that his poem had been afhfied and much improved by them : but, belides 
 that there are feveral marks of fimilarity in lord Nugent's other poems that 
 mow their being by the lame hand with the ode, however inferior, it is not 
 at all probable that he was indebted to the three men named as his co- 
 adjutors. Pope was not likely to have lent his aid towards decrying the 
 catholic religion ; nor does the * doggrel he produced for St. Cecilia's day, 
 
 in 
 
 * Tho' fate had fail bound her with Styx nine Though Cato died, though Tully fpoke, 
 times round her, Though Brutus dealt the godlike ftroke, 
 
 Yet mufic and love were victorious. Yet perifli'd fated Rome. 
 
 Did Pope referve thefe burlefque lines for him- May I be allowed to remark, that men of the 
 felf, arid lend the following to Mr. Nugent ? fir ft abilities fometim.es over-rate their own 
 Vol. I. powers, 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 in rivalry of Dryden, furnifli any reafon for believing that he could have 
 afcended to the majeftic march of the ode. Of the other two fuppofed 
 contributors, lord Chefterfield had not energy enough for auftere and digni- 
 fied compofition ; and lord Bath never rofe above an epigram, or fome eaiy 
 verfes produced occafionally in fociety. 
 
 powers, and think themfelves capable of fhinlng le£ted and happily ridiculed the abfurdityof the 
 in other walks than in thofe for which nature Italian opera, Mr. Addifon had the weaknefs to 
 formed them? Pope's ode is one inftance; produce Rofamond ; which, without any of the 
 Addifon gave another ftill more injudicious in fuperficial merits of Italian operas, is degraded 
 his opera of Rofamond. Natural humour was below the buffoonery of Sadler's Wells by the 
 the primary talent of Addifon. His character of ftupid and falfe pleafantry in the perfonages of 
 fir R. de Coverley, though far inferior, is only fir Trufty and Grideline. 
 -inferior to Shakefpear's Falftaffe. Having fe- 
 
 IRISH 
 
NOBLE 
 
 AUTHORS. 
 
 55* 
 
 IRISH PEERESS. 
 
 HENRIETTA S T. J H N, Lady 
 LUXBOROUGH, 
 
 TXTAS daughter of Henry vifcount St. John, half filter of the famous lord 
 Bolingbroke, and firft wife of Robert Knight, lord Luxborough, who 
 after her death was created earl of Catherlough. She wrote " foar copies of 
 verfes," printed in Dodfley's Mifcellanies, vol. iv. p. 313, & fequent. and 
 was a friend of Shenftone, who alio addrefTed verfes to her, and often men- 
 tions her in the letters publilhed with his works. 
 
 TKe two following POEMS by EDWARD VERE, Earl of 
 OXFORD, mentioned in page 329, were communicated to 
 me from an ancient MS. Mifcellany, and I believe have never - 
 been printed.. 
 
 EARE I a kinge, I mighte comande contente,. 
 Weare I obfcure, unknowne mould be my cares, 
 And weare I deade, noe thoughtes could me torment, 
 
 Nor woordesj nor wronges, nor love, nor hate, nor feares- 
 A doubtfull choyfe for me of three things one to crave,. 
 A kingdome, or a cottage, or a grave. 
 
 Wearte thou a kinge, yet not comande contente, 
 
 Wher empire none thy mind could yet fuffice, 
 Wearte thou obfcure, ftiil cares would thee torment, 
 But wearte thou dead,, all care and forrow dyes. 
 An eafy choyfe of three things one to crave, 
 Noe kingdome, nor a cottage, but a grave. 
 
 YE RE, finis. 
 
 WHEN 
 
2 
 
 NOBLE A UTHORS 
 
 TX7TIEN I was fairc and younge then favourc graced me, 
 
 Of many was 1 fought e their miftrefle for to be, 
 But I did fcorne them all and anfwered them therefore, 
 Goe, goe, goe, feeke fome other-wher, importune me no more. 
 
 Howe many weeping eyes I made to pyne in woe, 
 
 Howe many fighinge hartes I have not Ikill to fhowe, 
 
 But I the prouder grewe and ftill thus fpake therefore, 
 
 Goe, goe, goe, leeke fome other-wher, importune me no more. 
 
 Then fpake brave Venus fonne that brave victorious boy, 
 
 Sayinge, You dayntye dame, for y c you be fo coye, 
 
 I will foe pull your plumes, as you fhall fay no more 
 
 Goe, goe, goe, feeke fome other-wher, importune me no more. 
 
 As foone as he had faide, fuch care grewe in my breaft 
 That nether nighte nor daye I could take any refte, 
 Wherfore I did repente that I had faide before 
 Goe, goe, goe, feeke fome other-wher, importune me no more. 
 
 E. of OXFORDE, 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
t 553 ] 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 AS I mould be unwilling to defraud my country of any fparkle of genius 
 that glimmered in our ages of darknefs, efpecially when a claim has been 
 made by foreigners for one of our ancient peers, it is neceffary to examine 
 the pretentions, and allow them, if I can with a good confcience. The 
 perfon in whofe favour a title to the laurel has been fet up is JOHN 
 MONTACUTE, Earl of SALISBURY, who flourimed in the reign of 
 Richard the fecond. The advocate is the editor of that voluminous col- 
 lection the Bibliotheque des romans, who in the firft tome, for October of 
 the year 1779? P« I2 8, afferts, on the authority of Chriftina of Pifan, an 
 authorefs whom I have mentioned in the firft part of this work, that the earl 
 not only delighted in dicliez, but was himfelf a dele&able ditleur ; and the 
 editor explains the term di&iez in p. 126, by faying, that they were Jietiies 
 pieces de poefie Jegere, idles que les ballades, les lays, les virelays, et les rondeaux. 
 
 Neither Chriftina nor the editor has gratified our curiofity with a (ingle 
 ftanza of lord Salifbury's compofition ; yet the following amorous declaration, 
 which the lady has preferved, may fairly be prefumed a tranflation of a lay, 
 which at leaft me feems to intend we fhould fuppofe was the purport of one 
 of his poetical addrefTes to her: " O la perle des plus beaux efprits, repondit- 
 il, comme la fleur des plus belles: vous avez chante; il ne me refte plus dc 
 fons. O defir de mon coeur, plaifance de mes yeux, tourment de ma pen- 
 fee, vous avez attire a vous mon entendement & ma liibftance entiere ; vous 
 avez lie ma langue : tout ce que jo puis faire a cette heure, c'eft de vous voir 
 & de vous entendre." 
 
 This declaration was gallant and tender enough for a fwain on the banks 
 of the Lignon ; and if Chriftina did not lend her lover both fentiment and 
 expreffion, we muft allow that the inftitutions of chivalry had rendered our 
 heroes as polite as they were valiant. 
 
 V.OL. I. 4B But 
 
554- NOBLE AUTHORS 
 
 But before I can entirely admit the earl of Salifbury into the choir of our 
 earlieft bards, it will be requifite to examine both his character and that of 
 his fair voucher ; and that difcuflion may perhaps make fome flight amends 
 for the lofs of the earl's ditties. I mall begin with the hiftory of the lady 
 from the anecdotes of her life in the work I have cited. 
 
 Chriftina was daughter of Thomas de Pifan, and was born at Bologna, the 
 moll: flourhlung fchool of literature, next to Florence, of that age. The 
 reputation of Thomas for fcience fpread fo diffufely, that, having married the 
 daughter of Dr. Forti, a member of the great council of Venice, the kings 
 of France and Hungary were jealous of Venice pofTeffing luch a treafure,, 
 and invited Thomas of Pifan to adorn their refpe&ive courts. The perfonal 
 merit of Charles the fifth, furnamed the Wife, la preponderance, fays my 
 author, du nom Francois, and the defire of vifiting the univerfity of Paris,. 
 tres brillante alors, determined the illuftrious ftranger. Charles fhowered 
 honours and wealth on Thomas of Pifan ; the Wife monarch appointed him 
 his aftrologer, and fixed him in France, whither he fent for his wife and 
 daughter, who were received at the Louvre, whither the people, enchante de 
 leurs magnijiques habillemens a la Lombarde, followed them with admiration 
 and applaufe. 
 
 This happened in 1368, when Chriftina was but five years' old. She was 
 born with her father's avidity for knowledge, and was early inftrucred in the 
 Latin tongue. At fifteen me had made fuch a progrefs in the fciences, and 
 her perfonal charms ripened fo fa ft, that fhe was fought in marriage par 
 filufieurs chevaliers, autres nobles & riclles clercs — yet fhe adds, modeftly, 
 quon ne regarde pas ceci comme vcntence ; la grande amour que le Roi demon- 
 trcit a mon pere en etoit la caufe, & non ma valeur. 
 
 The king had beftowed on Thomas a penfion of an hundred livres, pay- 
 able every month, and equivalent to eight thoufand four hundred livres at 
 prefent, befides annual' gratifications of livrees & autres bagatelles : and that 
 this bounty might not be thought extravagant in fo ceconomic a monarch, 
 Chriftina, to prove the folidity of her father's knowledge, informs us that he 
 died on the very hour that he himielf had predicted, and that Charles owed 
 
 much 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS 
 
 555 
 
 much of the profperity of his arms, and of the great effects of his government, 
 to the fage councils of Thomas of Pifan. 
 
 It is not, in fact, extraordinary, that the full rays of learning fhould have 
 made rtrong impreffons on a rude and illiterate age. A funbeam admitted 
 through the fmallcft aperture of a dark chamber, appears more vivid by the 
 contraft than the diffufed fplendour of the whole luminary ; which, though 
 ■every thing is made vifible by its emanations, imparts fuch general light that 
 nothing fecms to be particularly illuftrated. Legiflators, poets, philofophers, 
 inrtitutors of new religions, have owed a large portion of their fuccefs to the 
 darknefs of the periods in which they have appeared : and with all the merit 
 of their feveral inftitutions, productions, leffons, doctrines, they might have 
 miffed the eclat that has confecrated their names, had they fallen on lefs 
 favourable, that is, better doffrinated asras. With what difficulty does a 
 genius emerge in times like the prefent, when poets and fages are to be 
 found in every county, and in every magazine ! 
 
 Stephen Cartel, a young gentleman of Picardy, was the fortunate fuitor 
 that obtained the hand of the favourite aftrologer's daughter ; and the ibve- 
 reign who made the marriage appointed the bridegroom one of his notaries 
 and fecretaries. Chriftina adored her hufband, whofe character (he has 
 painted in the moft favourable colours, and by whom fhe had three children. 
 ■ — But this brilliant horizon was foon overcaft ! The king died : the uncles 
 of the young fucceffor thought of nothing but plundering the kingdom, and 
 probably were not fond of predictions. Thomas's penfions were flopped, 
 his fon-in-law was deprived of his offices. Thomas, who, his daughter con- 
 feffes, had been too liberal, fell into dirtrefs, grew melancholy, and foon 
 followed his royal marter. Cartel, by his good conduct, for fome time fuC- 
 tained the family, but was alfo taken off by a contagious dirtemper at the 
 age of thirty-four. 
 
 The widowed Chriftina was deeply afflicted for the lofs of her confort, and 
 had injuftice and poverty to rtruggle with, as well as with her grief. Still 
 (he funk not under her misfortunes, but with true philofophy dedicated her 
 melancholy hours to the care of her children and the improvement of her 
 mind, though but twenty-five at the death of her hufband. She gave her- 
 ielf up to ftudy, and then to composition. Poetry was a cordial that natu- 
 
 4 B 2 rally 
 
556 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 rally prefented itfelf to her tender heart, and coloured delicioufly the fighs 
 that fhe vented for her beloved but loft turtle. Yet whilft unfortunate love 
 was her theme, the wound was rather mitigated than cured, and proved that 
 a heart fo fenfible was far from being callous againft a new impreffion. 
 
 In a word, ere her tears were dried for Cartel, the earl of Salifbury arrived 
 at Paris, as embaifador from his mafter to demand the young princefs Ifabel 
 in marriage. The beautv and talents of Chriftina outihone in the eyes of the 
 earl all the beauties of the court of France, and the fplendour and accom- 
 plishments of the perfonage were too impofing not to make his homage 
 agreeable to the difconfolate, philofophic reli6L Yet fo refpecfful were the 
 Paladins of thofe days, or fo auftere were the manners of Chriftina, that 
 though they communicated their compohtions to each other, in which as we 
 have feen Salilbury by no means fpoke myfterioufly on his pafiion, yet the 
 fage Chriftina affected to take the declaration for the fimple compliment of a 
 gallant knight ; and the earl, blufhing at having gone too far, vowed for the 
 future to be more circumfpecl. 
 
 Chriftina's eldeft fon was about the age of thirteen. The difcreet earl, to 
 prove at once his penitence and efteem, propofed to her to take the youth 
 with him to England, declaring that he bade adieu to love, renounced mar- 
 riage, and would build his future happinefs on educating and making the 
 fortune of her fon. Far from being offended at fo extraordinary an alterna- 
 tive, the tender mother refigned her child to that mirror of knighthood, and 
 the too generous Salifbury departed with the pledge of his miftrefs's favour, - 
 which his unaccountable delicacy had preferred to one which it had been 
 more natural to afk, and which fome indirect, queries which Chriftina con- 
 feffes me put to him, induce us to think fhe would not have received too 
 haughtilv, if confiftent with the laws of honour. 
 
 I will abridge my author's narrative, and haften to the deplorable and 
 rapid conclufion of fo exalted a ftory. King Richard was depofed, and the 
 ufurper Henry of Lancafter immediately imprifoned his faithful fervants, 
 and ftruck off the head of his favourite Salifbury — a cataftrophe which my 
 zeal for romance would incline me to wifh had been lefs precipitate, had not 
 the auftere dignity of hiftory too clearly authenticated the event. 
 
 The 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 557 
 
 The ferocity of contending factions was no doubt a cruel drawback on- the 
 gallantry and courtefy of that age, and many a gentle knight loft his head on 
 a fcafFold, who had encountered giants and dragons (fuch giants and dragons 
 as exifted in the degeneracy of later times) and had even out-lived the frowns 
 of his miftrefs. But though I am impatient to examine the title of lord 
 Saliibury to the rank of Noble Author, I will not deprive the reader of a 
 fhort fummary of what farther relates to the intereiting Chriftina. 
 
 The favage Bolinbroke, who me fays found her lays in the portefeuille of 
 her murdered lover, was yet fo ftruck with the delicacy and purity of her 
 fentiments, that he formed the defign of drawing her to his court, and 
 
 actually wrote to invite her She ! me at the court of the affafiin of her 
 
 lover ! — Horrible thought ! impoffible ! However, the decorum due to a 
 
 crowned head, and who had taken into his cuftody and treated kindly her 
 fon, impofed on her the hard neceffity of making a gentle but firm excufe ; 
 and though the monarch twice ditpatched a herald to renew the invitation, 
 me declined it — and nevertheless obtained the recovery of her fon. 
 
 Vifconti duke of Milan, and Philip the Hardy duke of Burgundy, were 
 no lefs preffing to obtain her refidence at their courts. The firft was pofi- 
 tively refufed, though her fortunes in France were far from being re-efta- 
 blifhed. The latter had taken her fon into his protection, and had tempted 
 her by an employment mod congenial to her fentiments, a propofal of writ- 
 ing the reign of her patron Charles the fifth. — She had even commenced the 
 agreeable charge, when death deprived her of that laft protector likewife. 
 
 DefHtute of every thing, with a fon, an aged mother, and three poor fe- 
 male relations to maintain, her courage, her piety and the mule fupported 
 her under fuch repeated calamities, the greatefr. of all feeming to her that of 
 being reduced to borrow money — a confeffion perhaps never made by any 
 other lady of fo romantic a complexion. Beau Jlre Dieu ! comme elle rou- 
 gijfoit alors ! Demander, lui caufoit toujours un acces de f.evre-, are her owii 
 words. Her latter days were more tranquil ; and her ingenious and moral 
 writings are favourable indications of her amiable mind, and juftify the at- 
 tention paid to her by fo many puiflant princes, 
 
 V, 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 If, in diicuffing the validity of lord Salifbury's pretentions, I fhali feem to 
 call them in queftion, though founded on the teftimony of fo competent a 
 witnefs and cotemporary, I will not ffcart a cavil beyond where hiftory will 
 bear me out. 
 
 John Montacute earl of Salifibury appears by no means, from Dugdale's 
 account, in fo amiable a light as in his portrait drawn by Chriftina. The 
 Sfenealocnft does not even mention his commiftion to treat of kino; Richard's 
 marriage with the princefs Ifabel — only faying that he had-a licence to travel 
 into France. But perhaps his inftru&ions were fecret, and he might be fent 
 to found the inclinations of the French court before any formal demand was 
 made*. Dugdale allows that he was employed with the bifhop of St. Afaph 
 to negotiate a peace with Scotland. 
 
 But that he was a very confidential initrument of his royal matter, appeared 
 from an a6l of ftate, which proved fatal to the monarch, and was extremely 
 unpopular in the eyes of the nation. He was fubomed, fays my author, to 
 impeach the duke of Gloucefter, his majefty's uncle, and the earls of War- 
 wick and Arundel in parliament, the conclufion of which tragedy was tranf- 
 acled at Calais in the perfon of the duke. 
 
 Another circumftanee in the earl's life could not but tend to decrv him 
 with the majority in that age. " He was a chief of the Lollards, and the 
 greatefl fanatic of them all, fays Thomas of Walfingham, being fo tranf- 
 ported with zeal, that he caufed all the images which were in the chapel at 
 Schenele, there fet up by John Aubrey and fir Adam Buxhall (his wife's 
 former hufbands), to be taken down and thrown into an obfcure place ; only 
 the image of faint Catherine (in regard that many did affecl: it) he gave leave 
 that it fhould fland in his bakehoufe." 
 
 * This is the more probable, as the princefs and was afterwards married to his nephew the 
 Ifabel was but feven years old when {he came duke of Orleans-, as her youngeft filter Catherine 
 over to be queen of Richard ; and as he was de- was to our Henry the fifth, fon of him who had 
 pofed three years after, the marriage was never dethroned her filler's hufband. 
 confummated. Ifabel was reftoxed to her father, 
 
 The 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 559 
 
 The earl attended his matter into Ireland, but, on the news of the duke of 
 Hereford's landing in England, was difpatched thence with a great power, 
 and landed at Conway — but foon was deferted by his forces, as the king 
 himfelf was alfo, and was left almoft alone. 
 
 On Richard's depofal, the earl is faid to have had fair refpect from the 
 fortunate ufurper, and not to have had his life called in queftion. Never- 
 theless he confpired with the earls of Huntingdon and Kent to take away the 
 new monarch's life, and for that purpofe went to Windfor under the difguife 
 of Chriftmas players — but finding that the plot was difcovered, they fled by- 
 night to Cirencefler. The townfmen affrighted at their coming in fuch 
 numbers — Here we may paufe a little, and fulpecl the accuracy of the hif- 
 torian. It does not feem very probable that three great peers, who had dif- 
 guifed themfelves like (trolling players to furprife and murder a king, and 
 who on the difcovery of their defign had fled to Gloucefterfhire, mould have 
 been attended by a body of troops \ yet troops there muft have been, for the 
 citizens of Cirencefter were fo affrighted, that, blocking them up and their 
 forces within the town, fo fharp a fight enfued that it lafted from midnight 
 till three of the clock in the morning, when the earls, being overpowered, 
 furrendered themfelves, and were beheaded about break of day *. 
 
 I do not queftion the veracity of the earl's cataftrophe ; yet fo vague, de- 
 fultory, and unfatisfaclory in general are the narratives of our ancient hifto- 
 rians, that whoever has occafion to examine their relations ciitically, muff, 
 be convinced that, except fome capital outlines, the relators fet down any- 
 random accounts they heard of events, and took no pains, employed no • 
 judgment, to reconcile the mofr. abfurd and contradictory. 
 
 Thus, though Chriftina is not warranted by our hiflorians, they on the 
 other hand are not fupported by common fenfe. The elegance of her mind 
 and learning certainly has drawn a portrait of her lover that gives us little . 
 
 * Some hiflorians do fay, that the confpirators ter, where the townfmen riling againft them, the 
 
 not finding the king at Windfor, the plot being earls of Salilbury and Kent were flain, and their 
 
 difcovered, and hearing that he was marching heads being cut off" were fent to London, 
 againft them with an army, retired to Circncef- 
 
 3. i^ ea 
 
560 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 idea of a turbulent baron of that boifterous age : and it is unfortunate that 
 the refined phantom which is commonly conjured up by the pen of a roman- 
 tic lady, mould feldom exhibit the picture of the manners of any age that 
 has yet exifted. Montacute, if we believe Wallingham, whom Dugdale 
 tranfcribed, was a court-tool, who accufed the king's uncle, was an accom- 
 plice in his murder, was a hot-brained heretic, was ungrateful to the prince 
 who had fpared him, and even was fo bafe as to plot his afTafmiation. This 
 is not exactly the bafhful, felf-denying, generous lover, who forfwore mar- 
 riage, becaufe he had not courage to declare his paffion but in a ditty, which 
 too he acknowledged for a prefumptuous offence. How far the fublimated 
 notions of chivalry might impofe reipect on a true knight, I cannot tell — 
 but unluckily there is a coarfe evidence, who, devoid of fentiment, and re- 
 garding nothing but who begat whom, depofes againft ChrifKna's teiKmony, 
 and that witnefs is genealogy. Far from forfwearing matrimony, the earl 
 was not only married, as we have feen, but his widow furvived him, and 
 had a grant of part of his forfeited lands for her fubfiftence. She had a fbn 
 too, of age fo mature, that, ten years after his father's death, he, being then 
 married, received the purparty of his wife's lands on the divifion of her eftate 
 with her fitters. 
 
 In other refpecls I mould be inclined to think that the earl of Salifbury's 
 crimes might admit of alleviation. Suborned is a ftio-matizing word — but 
 that Thomas duke of Gloucefter was by no means the patriot martyr that he 
 was reprefented, has been judicioufly obferved by Mr. Hume. Though the 
 youngeft of the fons of Edward the third, he probably aimed at the crown, 
 and affected with that view to cenfure, and perhaps to aggravate, the inca- 
 pacity and worthleffnefs of his nephew ; refembling furprifingly both in his 
 manoeuvres and cataftrophe the duke of Guife, who, with frill worfe or in- 
 deed no pretenfions, afpired to depofe Henry the third, and fet himfelf on 
 the throne of France. Both Richard and Henry felt the predominant afcend- 
 aht of their rivals ; and, too weak to counteract by policy, or to ftem by 
 manly hardihood, their infolent competitors, they ftooped to the infamy of 
 alTaffination — and precipitated by the odium of that act the deftruclion they 
 had hoped to ward orF. The duke of Hereford, whofe nearer title would 
 have been obftrudted by Gloucefter's ambition, lamented his uncle's fall, at 
 which he mutt have rejoiced, and reaped ibe harveft that Gloucefter had 
 fown for himfelf. 
 
 The 
 
NOBLE AUTHORS. 5 6i 
 
 The earl of Salisbury, as a faithful fubjecl, might have abhorred and 
 dreaded the duke's machinations, and, for aught we know to the contrary, 
 might have obtained proofs of his guilt. The fame fidelity to his legal maf- 
 ter muft have infpired him with deteftation of the ufurper Henry ; nor, as 
 the latter, after Salifbury's death, called to fevere account fome of Richard's 
 minifters, who had dipped their hands in the death of Gloucefter, muft we 
 rely too raihly on Henry's mercy to him, which might amount to no more 
 than not having yet punifhed him. If Henry's indulgence is problematic, 
 the crime of ingratitude vanimes — and if Salifbury, Huntingdon and Kent 
 retired to Cirencefter with armed forces, I mould believe that they had made 
 an attempt to dethrone the ufurper by arms, and found him prepared, rather 
 than that they meditated to affaflinate him at a mummery. 
 
 In a word, though I cannot on fuch doubtful characleriftics admit the earl 
 into the choir of Engliih poets, I muft as a good proteftant fufpect that his 
 zeal as a Lollard occafioned our monkim annalifts to blacken his actions ; 
 and I muft admire the fervor of the amiable Chriftina's love, which could 
 counterbalance the prejudice of education and of the times, and aid her to 
 difcover virtues and innate worth even in a heretic, who had treated faint 
 Catherine with fo little politenefs and decorum as to banim her into a bake- 
 houfe. 
 
 Vol. I 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
[ 562 3 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 T O 
 
 ROYAL and NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 nPO a work of no intrinfic merit, that afpires neither to difcovery nor in- 
 
 ftruclion, that aims at none of the higher ranks which are of dignity 
 enough to be confined by rules and regularity, a little eccentric addition may 
 be allowed. I have clafTed together a band of authors, the lead of whom 
 certainly wifhed to be numbered with better writers than thofe of his own 
 order ; and yet, as perhaps their perfonal titles preferved many who would 
 have been forgotten had they been born or died in an humbler fphere, they 
 will not be difparaged if I introduce among them a prince, who after four 
 hundred years has emerged into notice on the merit of poetry which till 
 within thefe three years had never obtained that very common honour of 
 being tranfmitted to the prefs. 
 
 The prince in queftion, I confefs, was not of Englifh blood royal ; yet as 
 he paid us the Angular compliment of attempting to verfify in our language, 
 fuch a purfuivant of poetic royal perfonages as I am, feels a fort of duty 
 to enroll him in the college of arms on our mount ParnafTus. The 
 gentle prince, it is true, is indebted for the afTertion of his claim to a fair 
 lady, who, zealous to record and illuftrate the writers of her own fex and 
 country, delivered by the bye from the dungeon of a library a royal knight., 
 who had long lain in durance among the manufcripts of the crown of 
 France. The generofity of this fair champion is the greater reproach to the: 
 biographers of that nation, as me alferts, and feemingly with reafon, that 
 the royal prifoner whom fhe has fet free, was the firft purifier of French 
 poetry ; an honour hitherto unjuftly afcribed to Villon* 
 
 The 
 
APPENDIX, Sec; 
 
 563 
 
 The authorefs I quote is mademoifelle Keralio, who is publiming a work 
 called Collection des meilleurs ouvrages Francois comjiofes par des femrnes, 
 to be comprifed in thirty volumes of corpulent octavo — a treafure that 
 would throw our ifland below all competition, did not the prefent period 
 prove that the Mufes have at laft recollected that their favours have too long 
 and too partially been fhowcred on a fex that it was lefs decent for maiden 
 goddeffes to countenance. 
 
 The prince, then, whom I mall venture to range with our royal authors, is 
 Charles duke of Orleans, nephew of Charles the fixth, and fon of that amo- 
 rous, prefumptuous, and probably agreeable duke of Orleans fo audacioufly 
 afTaflinated in the ftreets of Paris in open day, by the order of John duke of 
 Burgundy, who lived to commit fo many more atrocious crimes, that it was 
 not one of his leafr. demerits to have forced his fovereign *, in other refpecls 
 almoft entitled to be univerfally beloved, to violate his oath and honour by 
 caufing that odious duke to be afTaflinated before his eyes while treating of 
 peace with him. 
 
 Charles duke of Orleans was taken prifoner at the battle of Azincourt, 
 was brought to England, and kept prifoner here for twenty-five years ; a ri- 
 gour no doubt occasioned by our political connection with Burgundy, who 
 could but dread the return of the fon, when he had murdered the father. 
 
 Burning with juft vengeance, Orleans frill appears to have been a prince 
 of amiable qualities, and to have been endued with talents and tafte very 
 difiimilar to the ferocious complexion of that age, when civil animolity had 
 embittered even the predominant barbarilm, and when Ifabel of Bavaria, the 
 prototype of Catherine of Medici, had leagued with John of Burgundy to 
 dethrone her own fon, and maffacre his fubjects. 
 
 The duke of Orleans, happily retrained from dipping in or from retorting 
 thofe horrors, foothed the hours of wearifome captivity by the folace of 
 poetry ; nor was fo far exafperated by involuntary confinement amongft us, 
 as to difdain to cultivate the language of his jailors— a fymptom itfelf of li- 
 beral and noble fentiments. 
 
 * Charles the feventh. 
 4C 2 
 
 Chaucer 
 
564 APPENDIX to 
 
 Chaucer had enriched rather than purified our language ; but if the duke 
 of Orleans improved the poetry of his own country, he certainly contributed 
 no graces to ours : nor are his numbers or images more poetic than thofe I 
 have formerly fpecified of Richard I. ; as a counterpart to whofe compo- 
 fition I will tranfcribe the two little poems printed by mademoifelle Keralio 
 from a MS. in the royal library at Paris. She owns that fome words are 
 grown antiquated and others ill-fpelt, and me has been fo kind as to give a 
 verfion of them, which I believe conveys their general meaning ; though I 
 confefs I mould not have fo eafily decyphered them, and have more faith 
 than conviction of her having interpreted the whole juftly* 
 
 I. 
 
 Myn hert (heart) hath fend glad hope thys meiTage 
 Unto comfort pleafant joye and fpeed : 
 I pray to God that grace may inleed, 
 Without clenching or danger of paffage.. 
 
 II, 
 
 In tryft to fynd prouffit and advantage, 
 Within fhort tyme, to the help of his need» 
 
 Myn hert, &c. 
 
 Unto comfort, &c. 
 
 IIL 
 
 All yat he come, myn hert yn hermitage 
 
 Of thoght mall dwell alone; God gyve him med's 
 
 And of wiming of tymis mall him fed, 
 
 Glad hope follyw, and fped wel this viage. 
 
 Myn hert, &c. 
 
 Unto comfort, &c. 
 
 INTERPRETATION OF THE ABOVE* 
 
 Mon cceur a envoye avec ce mefTage la joyeufe efperance pour encoir- 
 rager le pl'aifir & l'heureux fucces. Je prie Dieu que la grace puhTe le con- 
 duire, fans qu'il trouve danger ou empechement. 
 
 Dans 
 
ROYAL and NOBLE AUTHORS. 565 
 
 Dans Tefpoir de trouver bientot quelque bien & quelque avantage pour 
 fou lager fon ennui, 
 
 Mon coeur a envoye, &c 
 
 Jufqu'a ce qu'elle revienne (efperance) mon coeur habitera dans la foli- 
 tude de fa penfee ; que Dieu le foutienne & le nourrifle du defir d'un terns 
 heureux. Vole, joyeufe efperance, &c reuffis dans ce voyage, 
 
 Mon cceur a envoye, &c. 
 The next is called 
 
 RONDEAU EN ANGLOIS. 
 I. 
 
 When mail thows come, glad Hope, y viage ? 
 Thows haft taryd fo long many a day ; 
 For all comfort is put fro my away, 
 Till that y her tything of my mefTage.. 
 
 II. 
 
 Us hat that had letting of thy pafTage,. 
 Or tariyn ? Alas, y cannot fay* 
 
 When mail, &c. 
 
 Thows haft, &c 
 
 III. 
 
 Thows knows full well yat y have gret damage, 
 In abyding of the that is no nay ; 
 And thof y fyng an dance, or lagh and play, 
 In black mourning clothid my corage* 
 
 When mall, &c. 
 
 Thows haft, &c. 
 
 INTERPRETATION^ 
 
 Quand reviendras tu, joyeufe Efperance ? Tu as tarde trop long terns. 
 Tout foulagement eft loin de moi, jufqu'a ce que je recueille les fruits de 
 mon mefTage. 
 
 6 A t'on 
 
5 66 APPENDIX to 
 
 A t'on laifse libre ton pafiage : l'a t'on retarde ? Helas ! je ne puis le dire. 
 Quand reviendras tu, &c. 
 
 Tu le fais bien quelle eft ma peine a fupporter ce qui eft refus ; tu fais 
 qu'au milieu des chants, des danfes, des ris, et des jeux, un vetement noir 
 c-ouvre mon courage. 
 
 Quand reviendras tu, &c. 
 
 It grieves me a little to mention, that the fair editor is of opinion that 
 the duke's Engliih poetry is not inferior to his French, which does not in- 
 fpire a very advantageous opinion of the latter — though indeed fuch is the, 
 poverty and want of harmony of the French tongue, that one knows how 
 very meagre thoufands of couplets are that pafs for poetry in France. It 
 is fufficient that the rhymes are legal ; and if fung to any of their numerous 
 ftatutable tunes, nobody fufpecls that the compofition is as errant profe as 
 ever walked abroad without ftepping in cadence. 
 
 It is owing to the unmufical nature of their language, probably, that the 
 poets of France adhere to tragedies in rhyme, as rhyme conftitutes the 
 principal difference between their profe and their verfe. Yet how ftrange, 
 when their language is allowed to excell in dialogue and fhort narration, 
 that they mould tie down comedy to the fame unfonorous metre ! Nay, 
 fuch is their prejudice, that Moliere, who in a manner created their comedy, 
 and who has never been equalled by any of his fuccefTors, has had his come- 
 dies in profe turned into rhyme ! The confequence of this obftinacy, and 
 of the fetters with which they have cramped their poetry, and of the refine- 
 ments with which they have hampered their ftage, is, that they icarce ever 
 of late produce either a paffable tragedy or comedy, and are obliged for 
 their chief theatric pleafures to the introduction of Italian mufic into their 
 operas, and into the mufical pieces of the theatre Italien. Yet that, like other 
 reformations, was fcarce achieved without a civil war. The fenfes are par- 
 tial to their habitudes, and are apt to take up arms againft common fenfe, 
 and ufually find the multitude on their fide. Slaves are offended at the offer 
 of liberty; ignorance is affronted at the pretentions of knowledge ; and tafte 
 has ftill greater difficulties to combat, for who thinks himfelf void of it ? 
 and who that is void of it, conceives what it is ? Who therefore can make 
 4 converts 
 
ROYAL and NOBLE AUTHORS, 567 
 
 converts in a language not intelligible to his auditors ? — But I beg pardon 
 for a digreflion into which the duke of Orleans's poetry mifled me ; and I 
 afk more pardon of the lady, whofe talents and induftry have done juftice to 
 a long-negle6ted prince, and furnifhed me with an opportunity of tranf- 
 planting a curiofity from her learned volumes into a trifling work of my own, 
 which cannot pretend to a quarter of her refearches. 
 
 N. B. This addition was written before the revolution in France ia 
 1789; fincc when the follies of that nation have foured and plunged into 
 the moll: execrable barbarity, immorality, injustice, usurpation, and tyranny ; 
 have rejected God himfelf and deified human monfters, and have dared to 
 call this mafs of unheard of crimes " giving liberty to mankind'* — by 
 atheifm and maifacres ! 
 
 INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 TO THE 
 
 ROYAL and NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 N. B. Tliofe marked with a * were not in the former Editions, 
 
 ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 
 T. 
 
 
 Page 
 
 "p ICHARD the Firft 
 -IV. Edward the Second 
 
 251 
 
 H. 
 
 255 
 
 III. 
 
 Henry the Eighth 
 
 256 
 
 IV. 
 
 Queen Catherine Parr 
 
 2.59 
 
 V. 
 
 Edward the Sixth 
 
 262 
 
 VI. 
 
 Queen Mary- 
 
 264 
 
 VII. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth 
 
 266 
 
 VIII. Tames the Firft 
 
 272 
 
 IX. 
 
 Charles the Firft 
 
 275 
 
 X. 
 
 James the Second 
 
 277 
 
 XI. 
 
 •Frederic Prince of Wales 
 
 278 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS. 
 
 Died'. Page 
 
 1 CIR John Oldcaftle Lord Cobham 1417 279 
 
 2 John Tiptoft Earl of Worcefter 1470 281 
 
 3 Antony Widvillc Earl Rivers 1483 284 
 
 4 Nicholas Lord Vaux 1523 291 
 
 5 John Bourchier Lord Berners 1532 293 
 
 6 George Boleyn Vifcount Rochford 1536 294 
 
 7 John Lord Lumley 15—296 
 
 8 Henry Parker Lord Morley J 556 ib. 
 
 9 Henry Howard Earl of Surrey 1547 299 
 10 Edmund Lord Sheffield 1548 3° 6 
 I I Edward Seymour Duke of Somerfet 1 552 ib. 
 
 12 Henry Lord Stafford ISS 8 3° 8 
 
 13 Francis Haftings Earl of Huntingdon 1 561 309 
 ,4 *Henry Lord Paget IS 6 9 3 10 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 ib. 
 3 T 4 
 
 V9 
 33° 
 333 
 
 Died. Page 
 
 1 5 Will. Powlett Marq. of Winchefter 1 598 311 
 
 16 William Cecil Lord Burleigh 1598 
 
 17 Robert Devereux Earl of Eflex 1601 
 
 18 Edward Vere Earl of Oxford 1603 
 
 19 Thomas Sackville Lord Buckhurft 1608 
 
 20 Sir Robert Cecil Earl of Salifbury 1612 
 
 21 Henry HowardEarl of Northampton 1614 334 
 
 22 Lord Chancellor Elefmere 1617 340 
 
 23 Sir Francis Bacon Vifc St. Albans 1626 341 
 
 24 Sir Fulke Grevile Lord Brooke 1628 342 
 
 25 *James Ley Earl of Marlborough 1628 345 
 
 26 George Carew Earl of Totnefs 1629 346 
 
 27 William Flerbert Earl of Pembroke 1630 347 
 
 28 SirDudley CarletonVifc.Dorchefteri63r 349 
 
 29 Edward Cecil Vifcount Wimbledon 1638 351 
 
 30 Robert Carey Earl of Monmouth 1639 35? 
 
 31 Henry Montagu Earl of Manchefter 1642 356 
 
 32 Robert Grevile Lord Brooke 1643 ib. 
 
 33 Lord Keeper Littleton 1645 3S9 
 
 34 Arthur Lord Capel 1648 360 
 
 35 Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury 1648 361 
 
 36 James Stanley Earl of Derby 1651 364 
 
 37 John Digby Earl of Briftol 1652 365 
 
 38 Ulick de Burgh Marquis of Clanrick- 
 
 arde, and Earl of St. Albans 1657 367 
 
 39 Henry Carey Earl of Monmouth 1661 368 
 
 40 MildmayFaneEarlof Weftrnorland 1665 370 
 
 41 Dudley Lord North 1666 ib. 
 
 42 Edw. Somerfet Marq. of Worcefter 1667 37 t 
 4 D 43 George 
 
I N D 
 
 E X. 
 
 Died. Page 
 
 43 George Moncke Duke of Albemarle 
 
 44 Charles Stanley Earl of Derby 
 
 45 Eil ward Montagu Earl of Sandwich 
 
 46 John Powlett Marq. of Winchefter 
 
 47 Will. Cavendifh Duke of Newcaftle 
 
 48 Edward Hyde Earl of Clarendon 
 
 49 George Digby Earl of Briftol 
 
 50 Denzil Lord Holies 
 
 51 Dudley Lord North 
 
 c • James Touchet Earl of Csftlehaven 
 
 and Baron Audley 
 5 3 Henry PierpointMarq.of Dorchefter 
 £-4 John Wilmot Earl of Rochefter 
 
 55 Ant.AfhleyCooperEarlofShaftfbury 
 
 56 Heneage Finch Earl of Nottingham 
 5 7 Francis North, Ld. Keeper Guildford 
 
 58 John Robartes Earl of Radnor 
 
 59 Arthur AnnefleyEarl of Anglefey 
 to George Villiers Duke of Buckingham 
 61 Heneage Finch Earl of Winchelfea 
 •62 George Saville Marquis of Halifax 
 63 George Earl of Berkeley 
 
 ■6\ Thomas Ofborne Duke of Leeds 
 
 65 Henry Booth Lord Delamer and 
 
 Earl of Warrington 
 
 66 Charles Sackville Earl of Dorfet 
 
 67 W m. Cavendifh Duke of Pevonfhire 
 
 68 JohnThompfon Lord Havcrfiiam 
 
 69 Ant. Afliley Cooper Earl of Shaftlbury 
 
 70 John Lord Somers 
 
 7 1 Charles Montagu Earl of Halifax 
 
 72 John Sheffield Duke of Buckingham 
 
 73 Robert Harley Earl of Oxford 
 
 74 Edward Howard Earl of Suffolk 
 
 75 Daniel Finch Earl of Nottingham 
 70 Ch. Mordaunt Earl of Peterborough 
 
 77 George Granville Lord Lanfdown 
 
 78 Charles Boyle Earl of Orrery 
 
 79 Philip Duke of Wharton 
 
 80 Robert Lord Raymond 
 
 •8 1 I eter Lord Chancellor King 
 
 82 Thomas Lord Paget 
 
 83 Sir Robert Walpole Earl of Orford 
 •$4 Henry St. John Vifcount Bolinbroke 
 £5 John Lord Hervey 
 
 669 378 
 
 672 379 
 
 672 380 
 
 674 382 
 
 676 383 
 
 674 3 8 5 
 
 676 390 
 
 679 392 
 
 677 395 
 
 684 396 
 
 680 397 
 680 399 
 
 683 401 
 682 405 
 
 685 407 
 
 684 410 
 
 686 41 i 
 
 687 416 
 689 420 
 695 ib. 
 698 422 
 
 712 423 
 
 693 424 
 
 706 425 
 
 707 426 
 710 427 
 
 713 429 
 716 430 
 
 7*5 434 
 
 720 435 
 
 724 436 
 73 1 437 
 73° 438 
 735 ib. 
 
 735 44i 
 731 442 
 
 73 1 443 
 
 73 2 445 
 734 ib- 
 
 742 446 
 
 745 447 
 751 448 
 
 743 45° 
 
 Died. Page 
 
 86 Henry Lord Hyde and Cornbury 1753 454 
 
 87 Horatio Lord Walpole 175*5 ib. 
 
 88 George Booth Earl of Warrington 1758 453 
 
 ADDITIONS. 
 
 *^7TLLIAM Pukeney Earl of Bath 456 
 * G. Bubb Doddington Lord Melcomb 458 
 
 *John Earl Poulett 459 
 
 ^Charles Lord Vifcount Townfhend ib. 
 
 *John Boyle Earl of Corke and Orrery ib. 
 
 *Charles Sackville Duke of Dorfet 460 
 
 *Richard Lord Edgecumbe 461 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 ^NTONY Brown Vifcount Montacute 
 
 Henry Clifford Earl of Cumberland 
 Lord Chancellor Hatton 
 
 463 
 
 464 
 ib. 
 
 'Lionel Cranfield Earl of Middlefex 465 
 John Holies Earl of Clare 466 
 Thomas Wentworth Earl of Strafford 468 
 * William Fiennes Vifcount Say and Seale 469 
 Lord Keeper Coventry ib. 
 "Edward Lord Montagu 470 
 John Lord Lucas ib. 
 Henry Lord Arundel of Wardour 47 r 
 
 *Ford Lord Grey 472 
 Robert Spencer Earl of Sunderland ib. 
 Thomas Grey Earl of Stamford 473 
 John Lord Jefferies ib. 
 *John Lowther Vifcount Lonfdale ib. 
 *George Verney Lord Willoughby de Broke 474 
 Robert Dudley Duke of Northumberland ib. 
 
 PEERESSES. 
 
 TV/TArgaret Countefs of Richmond and Derby 477 
 Joanna Lady Bergavenny 479 
 Lady Jane Gray 480 
 Mary Countefs of Arundel 482 
 Joanna Lady Lumley ib. 
 Mary Duchefs of Norfolk 483 
 Mary Countefs of Pembroke ib. 
 Elizabeth Lady Ruflel 484 
 
 Elizabetb 
 
 7 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Elizabeth Countcfs of Lincoln 
 Anne Countefs of Dorfet and Pembroke 
 Margaret Duchefs of Newcaftle 
 *Anne Hyde Duchefs of York 
 *Mary Countefs of "Warwick 
 Anne Countefs of Winchclfea 
 Sarah Duchefs of Marlborough 
 Frances Duchefs of Somcrfet 
 
 SCOTS AUTHORS. 
 
 JAMES the Firft 
 James the Fourth 
 James the Fifth 
 Queen Mary 
 Patrick Lord Ruthven 
 Lord Chancellor Maitland 
 •William Douglas Earl of Angus 
 William Alexander Earl of Stirling 
 Sir Robert Kerr Earl of Ancram 
 Thomas Hamilton Earl of Haddington 
 James Duke Hamilton 
 Henry Cary Lord Falkland 
 Lucius Lord Falkland 
 Henry Lord Falkland 
 Antony Lord Falkland 
 Thomas Lord Fairfax 
 Archibald Campbell Marquis of Argylc 
 Archibald Campbell Earl of Argyle 
 Richard Maitland Earl of Lauderdale 
 Colin Lindfay Earl of Balcarras 
 George Mackenzie Earl of Cromerty 
 John Dalrymple Vifcount Stair 
 Richard Graham Vifcount Prefton 
 *George Douglas Lord Mordington 
 *David Murray Vifcount Stormont 
 *Charles Hamilton Lord Binning 
 James Hamilton Earl of Abercorn 
 •Alexander Forbes Lord Pitfligo 
 Anne Countefs of Morton 
 •Anne Vifcountefs Irwin 
 
 IRISH PEERS. 
 QERALD Fitzgerald Earl of Defmond 
 George Calvert Lord Baltimore 
 
 Page 
 485 
 ib. 
 
 486 
 487 
 488 
 ib. 
 480 
 
 49 1 
 
 492 
 
 493 
 ib. 
 ib. 
 
 496 
 
 497 
 498 
 
 ib. 
 
 ib. 
 
 499 
 ib. 
 
 500 
 
 501 
 
 5°4 
 ' ib. 
 
 ib. 
 506 
 
 ib. 
 
 5°7 
 ib. 
 508 
 
 5°9 
 ib. 
 
 510 
 ib. 
 
 5 11 
 ib. 
 
 ib. 
 
 512 
 
 ib. 
 
 5*3 
 ib. 
 
 Roger Boyle Earl of Orrery 
 *Henry Hare Lord Colerane 
 •William Vifcount Brounker 
 Wcntworth Dillon Earl of Rofcommon 
 Roger Palmer Earl of Caftlemain 
 John Lord Cutts 
 Robert Vifcount Molefworth 
 *Murrough Boyle Vifcount Bleffington 
 Charles Lord Whitworth 
 *John Shute Vifcount Barrington 
 John Lord Fortefcue 
 John Perceval Earl of Egmont 
 William Vifcount Grimfton 
 *Gerald de Courcy Lord Kingfale 
 
 piECES OMITTED in the foregoing Ca- 
 talogue 
 
 NOBLE AUTHORS 
 
 OMITTED IN FORMER EDITIONS. 
 
 *pERDlNANDO Earl of Derby 
 *Grey Bridges Lord Chandos 
 •Charles Howard third Earl of Carlifle 
 *Peregrine Ofborne fecond Duke of Leeds 
 *Philip Stanhope Earl of Chefterfieki 
 *BaptiftNoel Earl of Gainfborough 
 *Henry Fox Lord Holland 
 *William Pitt Earl of Chatham 
 *George Lord Lyttelton 
 *Thomas Lord Lyttelton 
 *John Weft Earl of Delawar 
 
 571 
 
 Page 
 
 5 T 4 
 516 
 
 5*7 
 5t8 
 5'9 
 521 
 ib. 
 
 ib. 
 
 5 2 3 
 ib. 
 
 ib. 
 
 525 
 ib. 
 
 526 
 
 534 
 
 ib. 
 ib. 
 
 535 
 ib. 
 
 538 
 ib. 
 
 539 
 ib. 
 
 540 
 ib. 
 
 ib. 
 
 *Sir Charles Windham firft E. of Egremont 541 
 *Charles Howard Duke of Norfolk 
 
 PEERESS. 
 *Anna Chamber Countefs Temple 
 
 SCOTS AUTHORS. 
 
 PATRICK Murray Lord Elibank 
 *Thomas Hamilton Earl of Haddington 
 *Anne Douglas Countefs of Argyle 
 
 541 
 
 542 
 ib. 
 ib. 
 
 IRISH 
 
N D E X. 
 
 572 I 
 
 IRISH PEERS. 
 
 Page 
 
 ' JLODOWICK Lord Barry 543 
 *John Shute Barrington Vifcount Barrlngton ib. 
 *john Perceval fecond Earl of Egmont 548 
 ^Francis Boyle third Lord Shannon 549 
 ^Frederick Calvert Lord Baltimore ib. 
 ^Nicholas Lord Taaffe ib. 
 ^'Conftantine Phipps fir ft Lord Mulgrave 550 
 ^Robert Lord Clive ib. 
 *' Robert Nugent Vifcount Clare, and Earl of 
 Nugent *549 
 
 IRISH PEERESS. 
 
 Page 
 
 *£JENRIETTA St. John Lady Luxbo- 
 
 rough 551 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 John Montacute Earl of Salifbury 55? 
 
 APPENDIX to ROYAL AUTHORS. 
 " CHARLES Duke of Orleans 563 
 
 - 
 
 INDEX 
 
N 1) 
 
 E X 
 
 TO THE 
 
 ROYAL and NOBLE AUTHORS, 
 
 Alphabetically arranged. 
 
 A. 
 
 
 -t\.BERCORN. Tames. Earl of 
 
 Page 
 
 CI I 
 
 St. Albans, Earl 
 
 3^7 
 
 St. Albans, Vifcount 
 
 34i 
 
 Albemarle, Duke of 
 
 378 
 
 Alexander, William, Earl of Stirling 
 
 498 
 
 Anglefey, Earl of 
 
 411 
 
 Ancram, Earl of 
 
 498 
 
 Angus, Earl of 
 
 ib. 
 
 Annefley, Arthur, Earl of Anglefey 
 
 411 
 
 Argyle, Anne, countefs of 
 
 542 
 
 Argyle, Arch. Earl of 
 
 506 
 
 Argyle, Arch. Marquis of 
 
 ib. 
 
 Arundel of Wardour, Henry, Lord 
 
 47 r 
 
 Arundel, Mary, Countefs of 
 
 482 
 
 Audley, Baron 
 
 30 
 
 B. 
 
 
 Bacon, Francis, Vifcount St. Albans 
 Balcarras, Colin, Lord 
 Baltimore, George, Lord 
 Baltimore, Frederic, Lord 
 Barrington, John, Vifcount 
 Barry, Ludowick, Lord 
 Bath, William, Earl of 
 Bergavenny, Joanna, Lady- 
 Berkeley, George, Earl of 
 Berners, Lord 
 Binning, Charles, Lord 
 BlefTington, Vifcount 
 Boleyn, George, Vifcount Rochford 
 Bolingbroke, Henry, Vifcount 
 Booth, George, Earl of Warrington 
 Booth, Henry, Lord Delamer and Earl 
 
 Warrington 
 Bourchier, John, Lord Berners 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 34i 
 5°7 
 5i3 
 S49 
 543 
 543 
 45 6 
 533 
 422 
 
 293 
 
 522 
 
 294> 5 2 7 
 448 
 
 455 
 
 523» 
 
 479> 
 
 of 
 
 ib. 
 
 Boyle, Charles, Farl of Orrery 
 Boyle, John, Earl of Corke and Orrery 
 Boyle, Francis, third Lord Shannon 
 Boyle, Murrough, Vifcount Blcflmgton 
 Boyle, Roger, Earl of 
 Bridges, Grey, Lord Chandos 
 Briftol, George, Earl of 
 Briftol, John, Earl of 
 Brooke, Sir Fulke Grevile, Lord 
 Brooke, Robert, Lord 
 Brounker, William, Vifcount 
 Brown, Antony, Vifcount Montacute 
 Buckhurft, Lord 
 Buckingham, George, Duke of 
 Buckingham, John, Duke of 
 Burleigh, Lord 
 
 c. 
 
 Calvert, Frederick, Lord Baltimore 
 Calvert, George, Lord Baltimore 
 Campbell, Arch. Earl of Argyle 
 Campbell, Arch. Marquis of Argyle 
 Capel, Lord 
 
 Carew, George, Earl of Totnefs 
 Carey, Henry, Earl of Monmouth 
 Carey, Robert, Earl of Monmouth 
 Cary, Henry, Lord Falkland 
 Cary, Henry, Lord Falkland 
 Cary, Antony, Lord Falkland 
 Cary Lucius, Lord Falkland 
 Carleton, Sir Dudley, Vifc. Dorchefter 
 Carlifle, Charles, third Earl of 
 Caftlehaven, Earl of 
 Caftlemain, Roger, Earl of 
 Catherine Farr, Queen 
 Cavendifh, William, Duke of Newcaftle 
 4 E Cav^i 
 
 Page 
 
 442 
 
 459 
 
 549 
 522 
 
 ?14 
 
 534 
 
 39^ 
 3 6 S 
 342 
 35° 
 5'7 
 463 
 
 33* 
 416 
 
 435 
 
 3" 
 
 542 
 
 5»3 
 506 
 'ib. 
 360 
 
 34& 
 368 
 
 3 55 
 
 500 
 
 504 
 ib. 
 5 or 
 
 349 
 534 
 
 39<i 
 
 259 
 
 383 
 dUh, 
 
574 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Cavendifh, "William, Duke of Devonfhire 426 
 
 Cecil, "William, Lord Burleigh 31 1 
 
 Cecil, Sir Robert, Earl of Salifbury 333 
 
 Cecil, Edward, Vifcount Wimbledon 351 
 
 Chandos, Grey, Lord 534 
 
 Charles I. King 273 
 
 Chatham, William, Earl of 539 
 
 Chefterfield, Philip, Earl of 535 
 
 Clanrickarde, Marquis of 367 
 
 Clare, John, Earl of 467 
 
 Clarendon, Earl of 385 
 
 Clifford, Henry, Earl of Cumberland 464 
 
 Give, Robert, Lord 550 
 
 Cobham, Lord 279 
 
 Coleraine, Henry, Earl of 506, 533 
 Cooper, Ant. Afhley, Earl of Shaftefbury 401 
 Cooper, Ant. Afhley, Earl of Shaftefbury 429 
 
 Corke, John, Earl of 459 
 
 Cornbury, Henry, Lord 454 
 
 Coventry, Lord Keeper 469 
 
 Cranfield, Lionel, Earl of Middlefex 465 
 
 Cromarty, George, Earl of 508 
 
 Cumberland, Henry, Earl of 464 
 
 Cutts, John, Lord 521 
 
 D. 
 
 Dalrymple, James, Vifcount Stair 509 
 Delamer, Henry, Lord 424 
 Delawar, John, Earl of 540 
 Denzill, Lord Holies 392 
 Derby, James, Earl of 364 
 Derby, Charles, Earl of 379 
 Derby, Ferdinando, Earl of 5 34 
 Defmond, Gerald, Earl of 513 
 Devereux, Robert, Earl of Effex 314 
 Devonfhire, William, Duke of 426 
 Digby, John, Earl of Briftol 365 
 Digby, George, Ealrl of Briftol 390 
 Dillon, Wentworth, Earl of Rofcommon 518 
 Doddington, George Bubb, Lord Mel- 
 combe 458, 531 
 Dovchefter, Henry, Marquis of 397 
 Dorchefter, Vifcount 351 
 Dorfet, Charles, Earl of 425, 530 
 Dorfet, Charles, Duke of 460, 532 
 Dorfefcand Pembroke, Anne, Countefs 485 
 
 Douglas, William, Earl of Angus 
 Douglas, George, Lord Mordington 
 Dudley, Lord North 
 Dudley, Lord North 
 
 Dudley, Robert, Duke of Northumberland 
 
 Page 
 498 
 510 
 
 395 
 474 
 
 Edgecumbe, Richard, Lord 
 
 461 
 
 Edmund, Lord Sheffield 
 
 3 c6 
 
 Edward II. King 
 
 255> 5?6 
 
 Edward VI. King 
 
 262 
 
 Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury 
 
 36 X 
 
 Egmont, John, Earl of 
 
 5 2 3 
 
 Egmont, John, fecond Earl of 
 
 548 
 
 Egremont, Charles, Earl of 
 
 54i 
 
 Elefmere, Lord Chancellor 
 
 340 
 
 Elibank, Patrick, Lord 
 
 542 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen 
 
 266, 527 
 
 Effex, Robert,. Earl of 
 
 3i4 
 
 F. 
 
 
 Fairfax, Thomas, Lord 404, 
 
 Falkland, Antony, Lord 504 
 
 Falkland, Henry, Lord 500 
 
 Falkland, Henry, Lord 504 
 
 Falkland, Lucius, Lord 501 
 
 Fane, Mildmay, Earl of "Weftmorland 370 
 Fiennes, William Vifcount Say andSeale 469. 
 
 Finch, Daniel, Earl of Nottingham 438. 
 
 Finch, Heneage, Earl of Nottingham 404 
 
 Finch, Heneage, Earl of Winchelfea 420 
 
 Fitzgerald, Gerald, Earl of Defmond 513 
 
 Forbes, Alexander, Lord Pitlligo 5.1 1 
 
 Fortefcue, John, Lord 523 
 
 Fox, Heary, Lord Holland 538 
 
 Frederic, Prince of Wales 278. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gainfborough, Baptift, Earl of 5 3$ 
 
 Graham, Richard, Vifcount Prefton 509 
 
 Granville, George, Lord Lanfdown 441 
 
 Gray, Lady Jane 480 
 
 Greville, Sir Fulke, Lord Brooke 342 
 
 Greville, Robert, Lord Brooke 356 
 
 Grey, Ford, Lord 473 
 
 Grey, Thomas, Earl of Stamford 473 
 
 Grimfton, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 575 
 
 Grimfton, William Vifcount 
 Guildford, Lord Keeper 
 
 H. 
 
 Haddington, Thomas, Earl of 
 Haddington, Thomas, Earl of 
 Halifax, George, Marquis of 
 Halifax, Charles, Earl of 
 Hamilton, Thomas, Earl of Haddington 
 Hamilton, Thomas, Earl of Haddington 
 Hamilton, James, Duke 
 Hamilton, Charles, Lord Binning 
 Hamilton, James, Earl of Abercorn 
 Hare, Henry, Earl of Colerane 
 Harley, Robert, Earl of Oxford 
 Flattings, Francis, Earl of Huntingdon 
 Hatton, Lord Chancellor 
 Haverfham, John, Lord 
 Henry VIII. King 
 Herbert, William, Earl of Pembroke 
 Herbert, Lord, of Cherbury 
 Hervey, John, Lord 
 Holland, Henry, Lord 
 Holies, Lord 
 
 Holies, John, Earl of Clare 
 Howard, Henry, Earl of Surrey 
 Howard, Henry, Earl of Northampton 
 Howard, Edward, Earl of Suffolk 
 Howard, Charles, Earl of Carlifle 
 Howard, Charles, Duke of Norfolk 
 Huntingdon, Francis, Earl of 
 Hyde, Edward, Earl of Clarendon 
 Hyde, Henry, Lord a 
 
 Page 
 
 525 
 
 407 
 
 499 
 542 
 420 
 
 434 
 499 
 542 
 499 
 
 5" 
 ib. 
 
 5i6, 533 
 
 43 6 
 309 
 464 
 
 427 
 256 
 
 347 
 361 
 
 53i 
 
 538 
 392 
 466 
 
 299 
 334 
 437 
 534 
 54' 
 309 
 
 529 
 454 
 
 45°: 
 
 3^5: 
 
 J. 
 
 James I. King of England 272 
 
 James II. King 277, 527 
 
 James I. King of Scotland 492 
 
 James IV. King 493 
 
 James V. ib. 
 
 JerTeries, John, Lord | 473 
 St. John, Henry, Vifcount Bolingbroke 448 
 
 Irwin, Anrie, Vifcountefs 512, 533 
 
 K. 
 
 Kerr, Robert, Earl of Ancram 49S 
 
 Page 
 
 King, Lord Chancellor 445 
 Kingfale, Lord, the twenty-fourth 525 
 
 L. 
 
 Lanfdown, George, Lord 441 
 Lauderdale, Richard, Earl of 507 
 Leeds, Thomas, Duke of 422 
 Leeds, Peregrine, Duke of 535 
 Ley, James, Earl of Marlborough 345 
 Lincoln, Elizabeth, Countefs of 485 
 Lindfey, Colin, Lord Balcarras cot 
 Littleton, Lord Keeper 35^ 
 Lonfdale, John, Vifcount 473 
 Lowther, John, Vifcount Lonfdale ib. 
 Lucas, John, Lord 4-0 
 Lumley, Lord 296 
 Lumlcy, Joanna, Lady 482 
 Luxborough, Henrietta, Lady 551 
 Lyttelton, George, Lord 
 
 Lyttelton, Thomas, Lord ib. 
 M. 
 
 Mackenzie, George, Earl of Cromarty 
 Maitland, Richard, Earl of Lauderdale 
 Maitland, Lord Chancellor 
 Manchefter, Earl of 
 Marlborough, Earl of 
 Marlborough, Sarah, Duchefs of 
 Mary, Queen of England 
 Mary, Queen of Scotland 
 Melcombe, George, Lord 
 Middlefex, Lionel, Earl of 
 Molefworth, Robert, Vifcount 52;, 
 Moncke, George, Duke of Albemarle 
 Monmouth, Earl of 
 Monmouth, Henry, Earl of 
 Montacute, Antony, Vifcount 
 Montacute, John, Earl of Salifbury 
 Montague, Henry, Karl of Manchefter 
 Montague, Edward, Earl of Sandwich 
 Montague, Charles, Earl of Halifax 
 Montague, Edward, Lord 
 Mordaunt, Charles, Earl of Peter- 
 borough 438, 53 r 
 Mordington, George, Lord 500 
 Morley, Lord 2q6 
 4 E 2 Morton, 
 
 508 
 507 
 
 497 
 
 356 
 
 3-45 
 489 
 
 264 
 
 493 
 458, 531 
 
 465 
 
 533 
 378 
 
 355 
 368 
 
 4^3 
 553 
 35<> 
 380 
 
 434 
 
 470 
 
S7u 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Morton, Anne, Countefs of 
 Mulgrave, Conftantine, Lord 
 Murray, David, Vifcount Stormont 
 Murray, Patrick, Lord Elibank 
 
 N. 
 
 Newcaflle, Margaret, Duchefsof 
 Newcaftle, Duke of 
 Noel, Baptift, Earl of Gain (borough 
 Norfolk, Charles, Duke of 
 Norfolk, Mary, Duchefs of 
 North, Lord 
 North, Lord 
 Northampton, Earl of 
 Northumberland, Robert, Duke of 
 Nottingham, Heneage, Earl of 
 Nottingham, Daniel, Earl of 
 Nugent, Robert, Earl of Clare and 
 Vifcount Nugent 
 
 o. 
 
 Oldcaftle, Sir John, Lord Cobham 
 Orford, Robert, Earl of 
 Orleans, Charles, Duke of 
 Orrery, Charles, Earl of 
 Orrery, John, Earl of 
 Orrery, Roger, Earl of 
 Ofborne, Thomas, Duke of Leeds 
 Ofborne, Peregrine, fecond Dukg of 
 Leeds 
 
 Oxford, Edward, Earl of 
 Oxford, Robert,. Earl of 
 
 P. 
 
 Paget, Lord 
 Paget, Thomas, Lord 
 Palmer, Roger, Earl of Caftlemain- 
 Parker, Henry, Lord Morley 
 Pembroke, Earl of 
 Pembroke, Mary, Countefs of 
 Perceval, John, Earl of Egmont 
 Perceval, John, fecond Earl of Egmont 
 Peterborough, Charles, Earl of 
 
 Page 
 512 
 
 55° 
 510 
 
 54 2 
 
 486 
 383 
 538 
 54i 
 
 483 
 3^7° 
 395 
 334 
 474 
 405 
 438 
 
 549* 
 
 279 
 
 447 
 562 
 
 442 
 
 459 
 
 5H 
 
 423 
 
 535 
 3 2 9> 55 1 
 437 
 
 310 
 446 
 
 5i9 
 
 296 
 
 347 
 483> 533 
 5^3 
 548 
 
 43 8 > 53i 
 
 Phipps, Conftantine, Lord Mulgrave 550 
 
 Pierpoint, Henry, Marquis of Dorchefter 397 
 
 Pitfligo, Alexander, Lord 511 
 
 Pitt, Wiiliam j. East of Chatham 539 
 
 Poulett, John, Earl 
 
 Powlett, William, Marquis of Winchefter 
 Powlett, John, Marquis of Winchefter 
 Prefton, Richard, Vifcount 
 Pulteney, William, Earl of Bath 
 
 Page 
 459 
 
 3" 
 
 382 
 
 509 
 456 
 
 R. 
 
 Radnor,. Earl of 410 
 
 Raymond, Robert, Lord 445 
 
 Richard I. King 251,526 
 Richmond and Derby, Margaret, 
 
 Countefs of 477 
 
 Rivers, Earl 284 
 
 Robartes, John, Earl of Radnor 410 
 
 Rochefter, Earl of 399 
 
 Rochford, Lord 294 
 
 Rofcommon, Dillon, Earl of 518 
 
 Ruffel, Elizabeth, Lady 484 
 
 Ruthven,. Patrick, Lord 496 
 
 s. 
 
 Sackville, Thomas,. Lord Buckhurff. 330 
 
 Sackville, Charles, Earl of Dorfet 425, 531 
 
 Sackville, Charles, Duke of Dorfet 460, 532 
 
 Salifbury, Earl of 333, 
 
 Sandwich, Earl of 380 
 
 Saville, George, Marquis of Halifax 420 
 
 Say and Seale, William, Vifcount 469 
 
 Seymour, Edward, Duke of Somerfet 306 
 
 Shaftefbury, Antony Afhley, Earl of * 401 
 
 Shaftefbury, Antony Afhley, Earl of 429, 
 
 Shannon, Francis, third Lord 549 
 
 Sheffield, John, Duke of Buckingham 435 
 
 Sheffield, Lord 306 
 
 Shute,John, Vifcount Barrington 523, 543. 
 
 Somers, John, Lord 43 O 
 
 Somerfet, Duke of 306 
 Somerfet,. Edward, Marquis of Worcefter 371 
 
 Somerfet, Frances, Duchefs of 491 
 
 Spencer, Robert, Earl of Sundjerland 472 
 
 Stafford, Lord 308 
 
 Stair, James, Vifcount 509 
 
 Stamford, Thomas, Earl of 473 
 
 Stanhope, Philip, Earl of Chefterfie^d: 525 
 
 Stanley, James, Earl of Derby 364 
 
 Stanley, Charles, Earl of Derby 379 
 
 Stirling, William, Earl of 498 
 
 Stormont, 
 
INDEX, 
 
 Page 
 
 Stormont, David, Vifcount 510 
 
 Strafford, Thomas, Earl of 468 
 
 Suffolk, Edward, Earl of 437 
 
 •Sunderland, Earl of 472 
 
 Surrey, Earl of 299 
 
 T. 
 
 Taaffc, Nicholas, Lord 549 
 
 Temple, Anna, Countefs 541 
 
 Thomfon, John, Lord Haverfham 427 
 
 Tiptoft, John, Earl of Worcefter 28 1 
 
 Totnefs, Earl of 346 
 Touchet, James, Earl of Caftlehavcn 
 
 and Baron Audley 396 
 
 Townfhend, Charles, Lord Vifcount 459 
 
 V. 
 
 VauV, Lord 291 
 Vere, Edward, Earl of Oxford, 329, 551 
 Verney, George, Lord Willoughby de 
 
 Broke 474 
 
 Villiers, George, Duke of Buckingham 416 
 
 U. 
 
 Ulick de Burgh, Marquis of Clanrickard 
 and Earl of St. Alban's 
 
 367 
 
 W. 
 
 Walpole, Robert, Earl of Orford 
 Walpole, Horatio, Lord 
 Warrington, Earl of 
 Warrington, George, Earl of 
 Warwick, Mary, Countefs of 
 Wentworth, Thomas, Earl of Strafford 
 Weft, John, Earl of Delawar 
 Weftmorland, Earl of 
 Wharton, Philip, Duke of 
 Whitworth, Charles, Lord 
 Widville, Antony, Earl Rivers 
 Willoughby de Broke, George, Lord. 
 Wilmot, John, Earl of Rochefter 
 Wimbledon, Vifcount 
 Winchelfea, Heneage, Earl of 
 Winchelfea, Anne, Countefs of 
 Winchefter William, Marquis of 
 Winchefter, John, Marquis of 
 Windham, Charles, Earl of Egremont 
 Worcefter, Earl of 
 Worcefter, Edward, Marquis of 
 
 Yorke, Anne Hyde, Duchefs of 
 
 577 
 
 Page 
 
 447 
 454 
 
 424 
 
 ASS 
 488 
 468 
 
 540 
 370 
 
 443- 
 522 
 
 284 
 
 474- 
 
 399 
 
 35i 
 420 
 
 488 
 
 3H 
 382 
 
 541 
 281 
 
 37« 
 
 487 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME*. 
 
IN N \ > 
 V H \ n 
 N \ \ \ 
 N N N \ \ 
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 \ \ v\\\\ V > > > A * * V y 
 
 * * S \ \ \ \ \ \ 
 
 V i\N V N N * * ^ \Vn \ 
 
 N " ' * \ > \ % \ i \ \ 
 
 \ N .\ \ \ > ' . , , . ., x 
 
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 ' > - k > > > > 'i \ \ 
 
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