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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13751-0.txt b/13751-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6089463 --- /dev/null +++ b/13751-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12448 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13751 *** + +CHARACTERS + +FROM THE + +HISTORIES & MEMOIRS + +OF THE + +SEVENTEENTH CENTURY + + +With an Essay on THE CHARACTER + +and Historical Notes + +By DAVID NICHOL SMITH + + +OXFORD + + + +1918 + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +ESSAY ON THE CHARACTER + + I. The Beginnings + II. The Literary Models + III. Clarendon + IV. Other Character Writers + + +CHARACTERS + + 1. JAMES I. By Arthur Wilson + 2. " By Sir Anthony Weldon + 3. THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM (George Villiers, first Duke). By Clarendon + 4. SIR THOMAS COVENTRY. By Clarendon + 5. SIR RICHARD WESTON. By Clarendon + 6. THE EARL OF ARUNDEL (Thomas Howard, fourteenth Earl). By Clarendon + 7. THE EARL OF PEMBROKE (William Herbert, third Earl). By Clarendon + 8. SIR FRANCIS BACON. By Ben Jonson + 9. " " " By Arthur Wilson + 10. " " " By Thomas Fuller + 11. " " " By William Rawley + 12. BEN JONSON. By Clarendon + 13. " " By James Howell + 14. HENRY HASTINGS. By Shaftesbury + 15. CHARLES I. By Clarendon + 16. " By Sir Philip Warwick + 17. THE EARL OF STRAFFORD (Thomas Wentworth, first Earl). By Clarendon + 18. THE EARL OF STRAFFORD (Thomas Wentworth, first Earl). By Sir Philip + Warwick + 19. THE EARL OF NORTHAMPTON (Spencer Compton, second Earl). By Clarendon + 20. THE EARL OF CARNARVON (Robert Dormer, first Earl). By Clarendon + 21. LORD FALKLAND (Lucius Cary, second Viscount). By Clarendon + 22. LORD FALKLAND (Lucius Cary, second Viscount). By Clarendon + 23. SIDNEY GODOLPHIN. By Clarendon + 24. WILLIAM LAUD. By Clarendon + 25. " " By Thomas Fuller + 26. " " By Sir Philip Warwick + 27. WILLIAM JUXON. By Sir Philip Warwick + 28. THE MARQUIS OF HERTFORD (William Seymour, first Marquis). By Clarendon + 29. THE MARQUIS OF NEWCASTLE (William Cavendish, first Marquis, and Duke). + By Clarendon + 30. THE LORD DIGBY (George Digby, second Earl of Bristol). By Clarendon + 31. THE LORD CAPEL (Arthur Capel, first Baron). By Clarendon + 32. ROYALIST GENERALS: PATRICK RETHVEN, EARL OF BRENTFORD; PRINCE RUPERT; + GEORGE, LORD GORING; HENRY WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER. By Clarendon + 33. JOHN HAMPDEN. By Clarendon + 34. JOHN PYM. By Clarendon + 35. OLIVER CROMWELL. By Clarendon + 36. OLIVER CROMWELL. By Clarendon + 37. " " By Sir Philip Warwick + 38. " " By John Maidston + 39. " " By Richard Baxter + 40. SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX. By Richard Baxter + 41. SIR HENRY VANE, the younger. By Clarendon + 42. " " " " " By Clarendon + 43. COLONEL JOHN HUTCHINSON. By Lucy Hutchinson + 44. THE EARL OF ESSEX (Robert Devereux, third Earl). By Clarendon + 45. THE EARL OF SALISBURY (William Cecil, second Earl). By Clarendon + 46. THE EARL OF WARWICK (Robert Rich, second Earl). By Clarendon + 47. THE EARL OF MANCHESTER (Edward Montagu, second Earl). By Clarendon + 48. THE LORD SAY (William Fiennes, first Viscount Say and Sele). By + Clarendon + 49. JOHN SELDEN. By Clarendon + 50. JOHN EARLE. By Clarendon + 51. JOHN HALES. By Clarendon + 52. WILLIAM CHILLINGWORTH. By Clarendon + 53. EDMUND WALLER. By Clarendon + 54. THOMAS HOBBES. By Clarendon + 55. " " Notes by John Aubrey + 56. THOMAS FULLER. Anonymous + 57. JOHN MILTON. Notes by John Aubrey + 58. " " Note by Edward Phillips + 59. " " Notes by Jonathan Richardson + 60. ABRAHAM COWLEY. By himself + 61. " " By Thomas Sprat + 62. CHARLES II. By Halifax + 63. CHARLES II. By Burnet + 64. CHARLES II. By Burnet + 65. THE EARL OF CLARENDON (Edward Hyde, first Earl), By Burnet + 66. THE EARL OF LAUDERDALE (John Maitland, second Earl, created + Duke 1672). By Clarendon. + 67. THE EARL OF LAUDERDALE (John Maitland, second Earl, created + Duke 1672). By Burnet + 68. THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY (Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl). + By Burnet + 69. THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY (Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl). + By Dryden + 70. THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM (George Villiers, second Duke). By Burnet + 71. THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM (George Villiers, second Duke). By Dryden + 72. THE MARQUIS OF HALIFAX (George Savile, first Marquis). By Burnet + 73. SIR EDMUND SAUNDERS. By Roger North + 74. TWO GROUPS OF DIVINES: (1. Benjamin Whitchcot, Ralph Cudworth, John + Wilkins, Henry More, John Worthington; 2. John Tillotson, Edward + Stillingfleet, Simon Patrick, William Lloyd, Thomas Tenison). By + Burnet + 75. JAMES II. By Burnet + 76. JAMES II. By Burnet + + + + +THE CHARACTER + + +The seventeenth century is rich in short studies or characters of its +great men. Its rulers and statesmen, its soldiers and politicians, +its lawyers and divines, all who played a prominent part in the public +life, have with few notable exceptions been described for us by their +contemporaries. There are earlier characters in English literature; +but as a definite and established form of literary composition +the character dates from the seventeenth century. Even Sir Robert +Naunton's _Fragmenta Regalia, or Observations on the late Queen +Elizabeth her Times and Favourites_, a series of studies of the great +men of Elizabeth's court, and the first book of its kind, is an old +man's recollection of his early life, and belongs to the Stuart period +in everything but its theme. Nor at any later period is there the same +wealth of material for such a collection as is given in this volume. +The eighteenth century devoted itself rather to biography. When the +facts of a man's life, his works, and his opinions claimed detailed +treatment, the fashion of the short character had passed. + +Yet the seventeenth century did not know its richness. None of its +best characters were then printed. The writers themselves could not +have suspected how many others were similarly engaged, so far were +they from belonging to a school. The characters in Clarendon's +_History of the Rebellion_ were too intimate and searching to be +published at once, and they remained in manuscript till about +thirty years after his death. In the interval Burnet was drawing the +characters in his _History of His Own Time_. He, like Clarendon, +was not aware of being indebted to any English model. Throughout the +period which they cover there are the characters by Fuller, Sir Philip +Warwick, Baxter, Halifax, Shaftesbury, and many others, the Latin +characters by Milton, and the verse characters by Dryden. There is no +sign that any of these writers copied another or tried to emulate +him. Together, but with no sense of their community, they made the +seventeenth century the great age of the character in England. + + + + +I. The Beginnings. + + +The art of literary portraiture in the seventeenth century developed +with the effort to improve the writing of history. Its first and at +all times its chief purpose in England was to show to later ages what +kind of men had directed the affairs and shaped the fortunes of +the nation. In France it was to be practised as a mere pastime; to +sketch well-known figures in society, or to sketch oneself, was for +some years the fashionable occupation of the salons. In England the +character never wholly lost the qualities of its origin. It might be +used on occasion as a record of affection, or as a weapon of political +satire; but our chief character writers are our historians. At the +beginning of the seventeenth century England was recognized to be +deficient in historical writings. Poetry looked back to Chaucer as its +father, was proud of its long tradition, and had proved its right to +sing the glories of Elizabeth's reign. The drama, in the full vigour +of its youth, challenged comparison with the drama of Greece and Rome. +Prose was conscious of its power in exposition and controversy. But in +every review of our literature's great achievement and greater promise +there was one cause of serious misgivings. England could not yet rank +with other countries in its histories. Many large volumes had been +printed, some of them containing matter that is invaluable to the +modern student, but there was no single work that was thought to +be worthy of England's greatness. The prevailing type was still the +chronicle. Even Camden, 'the glory and light of the kingdom', as Ben +Jonson called him, was an antiquary, a collector, and an annalist. +History had yet to be practised as one of the great literary arts. + +Bacon pointed out the 'unworthiness' and 'deficiences' of English +history in his _Advancement of Learning_.[1] 'Some few very worthy, +but the greater part beneath mediocrity' was his verdict on modern +histories in general. He was not the first to express these views. +Sir Henry Savile had been more emphatic in his dedication to Queen +Elizabeth of his collection of early chronicles, _Rerum Anglicarum +Scriptores post Bedam_, published in 1596.[2] And after Bacon, +somewhere about 1618, these views were again expressed by Edmund +Bolton in his _Hypercritica, or a Rule of Judgement for writing or +reading our Histories_.[3] 'The vast vulgar Tomes', he said, 'procured +for the most part by the husbandry of Printers, and not by appointment +of the Prince or Authority of the Common-weal, in their tumultuary and +centonical Writings do seem to resemble some huge disproportionable +Temple, whose Architect was not his Arts Master'. He repeated what he +calls the common wish 'that the majesty of handling our history might +once equal the majesty of the argument'. England had had all other +honours, but only wanted a history. + +But the most valuable statement on the conditions of English history +at this time and the obstacles that hindered its progress was made by +Sir John Hayward at the beginning of his _Lives of the III Normans, +Kings of England_, published in 1613. Leaving aside the methods of the +chroniclers, he had taken the classical historians as his model in +his _First Part of the Life and raigne of King Henrie the IIII_. The +interest of this work to the modern reader lies in its structure, its +attempt at artistic unity, its recognition that English history must +be written on a different plan, rather than in its historical matter. +But it was no sooner published than Hayward was committed to the +Tower because the account of the deposition of Richard II was held +to be treasonable, the offence being aggravated by the dedication, +in perfectly innocent terms, to the Earl of Essex. His work was thus +checked till he met with encouragement from Henry, Prince of Wales, +a patron of literature, of whom, though a mere youth, such men as +Jonson, Chapman, and Raleigh, spoke with an enthusiasm that cannot be +mistaken for flattery. Prince Henry saw the need of a worthy history +of England. He therefore sent for Hayward to discuss the reasons with +him: + + Prince Henry ... sent for mee, a few monethes before his + death. And at my second comming to his presence, among some + other speeches, hee complained much of our Histories of + England; and that the English Nation, which is inferiour to + none in Honourable actions, should be surpassed by all, in + leauing the memorie of them to posteritie.... + + I answered, that I conceiued these causes hereof; One, + that men of sufficiencie were otherwise employed; either + in publicke affaires, or in wrestling with the world, for + maintenance or encrease of their private estates. Another is, + for that men might safely write of others in maner of a tale, + but in maner of a History, safely they could not: because, + albeit they should write of men long since dead, and whose + posteritie is cleane worne out; yet some aliue, finding + themselues foule in those vices, which they see obserued, + reproued, condemned in others; their guiltinesse maketh them + apt to conceiue, that whatsoeuer the words are, the finger + pointeth onely at them. The last is, for that the Argument of + our _English_ historie hath been so foiled heretofore by some + unworthie writers, that men of qualitie may esteeme themselues + discredited by dealing in it.... + + Then he questioned, whether I had wrote any part of our + _English_ Historie, other then that which had been published; + which at that time he had in his hands. I answered, that I + had wrote of certaine of our _English_ Kings, by way of a + briefe description of their liues: but for historie, I did + principally bend, and binde my selfe to the times wherein + I should liue; in which my owne obseruations might somewhat + direct me: but as well in the one as in the other I had at + that time perfected nothing. + +The result of the interview was that Hayward proceeded to 'perfect +somewhat of both sorts'. The brief description of the lives of the +three Norman kings was in due course ordered to be published, and +would have been dedicated to its real patron but for his untimely +death; in dedicating it instead to Prince Charles, Hayward fortunately +took the opportunity to relate his conversation with Prince Henry. +How far he carried the other work is not certain; it survives in the +fragment called _The Beginning of the Raigne of Queene Elizabeth_,[4] +published after his death with _The Life and Raigne of King Edward +the Sixt_. He might have brought it down to the reign of James. Had he +been at liberty to follow his own wishes, he would have been the first +Englishman to write a 'History of his own time'. But when an author +incurred imprisonment for writing about the deposition of a sovereign, +and when modern applications were read into accounts of what had +happened long ago, the complexity of his own time was a dangerous if +not a forbidden subject. + +There is a passage to the same effect in the preface to _The Historie +of the World_ by Sir Walter Raleigh, who, unlike Hayward, willingly +chose to be silent on what he knew best: + + I know that it will bee said by many, That I might have beene + more pleasing to the Reader, if I had written the Story of + mine owne times; having been permitted to draw water as neare + the Well-head as another. To this I answer, that who-so-ever + in writing a moderne Historie, shall follow truth too neare + the heeles, it may happily strike out his teeth. There is no + Mistresse or Guide, that hath led her followers and servants + into greater miseries.... It is enough for me (being in that + state I am) to write of the eldest times: wherein also why may + it not be said, that in speaking of the past, I point at the + present, and taxe the vices of those that are yet lyving, in + their persons that are long since dead; and have it laid to my + charge? But this I cannot helpe, though innocent. + +He wrote of remote ages, and contributed nothing to historical +knowledge. But he enriched English literature with a 'just history', +as distinct from annals and chronicles.[5] 'I am not altogether +ignorant', he said, 'in the Lawes of Historie, and of the Kindes.' +When we read his lives and commendations of the great men of antiquity +as he pictured them, we cannot but regret that the same talents, the +same overmastering interest in the eternal human problems, had not +been employed in depicting men whom he had actually known. The other +Elizabethan work that ranks with Raleigh's in its conception of the +historian's office and in its literary excellence, deals with another +country. It is the _History of the Turks_ by Richard Knolles. + +The character was definitely introduced into English literature when +the historians took as their subjects contemporary or recent events +at home, and, abandoning the methods of the chronicle, fashioned their +work on classical models. Its introduction had been further prepared +to some extent by the growing interest in lives, which, unlike +chronicles that recorded events, recognized the part played by men +in the control of events. In his _Advancement of Learning_ Bacon +regretted that Englishmen gave so little thought to describing the +deeds and characters of their great countrymen. 'I do find strange', +he said, 'that these times have so little esteemed the virtues of the +times, as that the writing of lives should be no more frequent.' He +and Hayward both wrote lives with the consciousness that their methods +were new in English, though largely borrowed from the classics.[6] +Hayward tried to produce a picture of the period he dealt with, +and his means for procuring harmoniousness of design was to centre +attention on the person of the sovereign. It is a conception of +history not as a register of facts but as a representation of the +national drama. His _Henry IV_ gives the impression, especially by its +speeches, that he looked upon history as resolving itself ultimately +into a study of men; and it thus explains how he wished to be free +to describe the times wherein he lived. He is on the whole earlier +than Bacon, who wrote his _Historie of the Reigne of King Henry the +Seventh_ late in life, during the leisure that was forced on him +by his removal from all public offices. Written to display the +controlling policy in days that were 'rough, and full of mutations, +and rare accidents', it is a study of the statecraft and character of +a king who had few personal gifts and small capacity for a brilliant +part, yet won by his ready wisdom the best of all praises that 'what +he minded he compassed'. How he compassed it, is what interested +Bacon. 'I have not flattered him,' he says, 'but took him to the life +as well as I could, sitting so far off, and having no better light.' +Would that Bacon had felt at liberty to choose those who sat near at +hand. Who better than the writer of the _Essays_ could have painted a +series of miniatures of the courts of Elizabeth and James? + +When at last the political upheaval of this century compelled men to +leave, whether in histories, or memoirs, or biographies, a record of +what they had themselves experienced, the character attained to its +full importance and excellence. 'That posterity may not be deceaved +by the prosperous wickednesse of these tymes, into an opinyon, that +lesse then a generall combination and universall apostacy in the whole +Nacion from their religion and allegiaunce could in so shorte a tyme +have produced such a totall and prodigious alteration and confusion +over the whole kingdome, and so the memory of those few who out of +duty and conscience have opposed and resisted that Torrent which hath +overwhelmed them, may loose the recompence dew to ther virtue, and +havinge undergone the injuryes and reproches of this, may not finde +a vindication in a better Age'--in these words Clarendon began his +_History of the Rebellion_. But he could not vindicate the memory +of his political friends without describing the men who had overcome +them. The history of these confused and difficult years would not be +properly understood if the characters of all the chief actors in the +tragic drama were not known. For to Clarendon history was the record +of the struggle of personalities. When we are in the midst of a +crisis, or view it from too near a distance, it is natural for us +to think of it as a fight between the opposing leaders, and the +historians of their own time are always liable to attribute to the +personal force of a statesman what is due to general causes of which +he is only the instrument. Of these general causes Clarendon took +little account. 'Motives which influenced masses of men', it has been +said, 'escape his appreciation, and the _History of the Rebellion_ +is accordingly an account of the Puritan Revolution which is +unintelligible because the part played by Puritanism is misunderstood +or omitted altogether'.[7] But the _History of the Rebellion_ is a +Stuart portrait gallery, and the greatest portrait gallery in the +English language. + +[Footnote 1: Book II, ed. Aldis Wright, pp. 92-5.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Historæ nostræ particulam quidam non male: sed qui totum +corpus ea fide, eaque dignitate scriptis complexus sit, quam suscepti +operis magnitudo postularet, hactenus plane neminem extitisse +constat.... Nostri ex fæce plebis historici, dum maiestatem tanti +operis ornare studuerunt, putidissimis ineptiis contaminarunt. Ita +factum est nescio qua huiusce insulæ infoelicitate, ut maiores tui, +(serenissima Regina) viri maximi, qui magnam huius orbis nostri partem +imperio complexi, omnes sui temporis reges rerum gestarum gloria +facile superarunt, magnorum ingeniorum quasi lumine destituti, iaceant +ignoti, & delitescant.'] + +[Footnote 3: _Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century_, ed. +Spingarn, vol. i, pp. 82-115.] + +[Footnote 4: See also Camden Society Publications, No. 7, 1840.] + +[Footnote 5: Roger Ascham in his _Scholemaster_ divides History into +'Diaria', 'Annales', 'Commentaries', and 'Iustam Historiam'.] + +[Footnote 6: Bacon told Queen Elizabeth that there was no treason in +Hayward's _Henry IV_, but 'very much felony', because Hayward 'had +stolen many of his sentences and conceits out of Cornelius Tacitus' +(_Apophthegms_, 58). Hayward and Bacon had a precursor in the author +of _The History of King Richard the Thirde_, generally attributed to +Sir Thomas More, and printed in the collection of his works published +in 1557. It was known to the chroniclers, but it did not affect the +writing of history. Nor did George Cavendish's _Life and Death of +Thomas Wolsey_, which they likewise used for its facts.] + +[Footnote 7: C.H. Firth, 'Burnet as a Historian', in Clarke and +Foxcroft's _Life of Gilbert Burnet_, 1907, pp. xliv, xlv.] + + + + +II. The Literary Models. + + +The authentic models for historical composition were in Greek and +Latin. Much as our literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries owed to the classics, the debt was nowhere more obvious, +and more fully acknowledged, than in our histories. The number of +translations is in itself remarkable. Many of them, and notably +the greatest of all, North's Plutarch, belong to the early part of +Elizabeth's reign, but they became more frequent at the very time when +the inferiority of our native works was engaging attention.[1] By the +middle of the seventeenth century the great classical historians could +all be read in English. It was not through translation, however, that +their influence was chiefly exercised. + +The classical historians who were best known were Thucydides, +Polybius, and Plutarch among the Greeks, and Sallust, Livy, Tacitus, +and Suetonius among the Latins; and the former group were not so well +known as the latter. It was recognized that in Thucydides, to use +Hobbes's words, 'the faculty of writing history is at the highest.'[2] +But Thucydides was a difficult author, and neither he nor Polybius +exerted the same direct influence as the Latin historians who had +imitated them, or learned from them. Most of what can be traced +ultimately to the Greeks came to England in the seventeenth century +through Latin channels. Every educated man had been trained in Latin, +and was as familiar with it for literary purposes as with his native +tongue. Further, the main types of history--the history of a long +period of years, the history of recent events, and the biographical +history--were all so admirably represented in Latin that it was not +necessary to go to Greek for a model. In one respect Latin could claim +pre-eminence. It might possess no single passage greater than the +character study of Pericles or of the Athenians by Thucydides, but it +developed the character study into a recognized and clearly defined +element in historical narrative. Livy provided a pattern of narrative +on a grand scale. For 'exquisite eloquence' he was held not to +have his equal.[3] But of all the Latin historians, Tacitus had the +greatest influence. 'There is no learning so proper for the direction +of the life of man as Historie; there is no historie so well worth the +reading as Tacitus. Hee hath written the most matter with best conceit +in fewest words of any Historiographer ancient or moderne.'[4] This +had been said at the beginning of the first English translation of +Tacitus, and it was the view generally held when he came to be better +known. He appealed to Englishmen of the seventeenth century like no +other historian. They felt the human interest of a narrative based +on what the writer had experienced for himself; and they found +that its political wisdom could be applied, or even applied itself +spontaneously, to their own circumstances. They were widely read in +the classics. They knew how Plutarch depicted character in his Lives, +and Cicero in his Speeches. They knew all the Latin historians. But +when they wrote their own characters their chief master was Tacitus. + + * * * * * + +Continental historians provided the incentive of rivalry. They too +were the pupils of the Ancients, and taught nothing that might not be +learned equally well or better from their masters, but they invited +the question why England should be behind Italy, France, or the Low +Countries in worthy records of its achievements. In their own century, +Thuanus, Davila, Bentivoglio, Strada, and Grotius set the standard for +modern historical composition. Jacques Auguste de Thou, or Thuanus, +wrote in Latin a history of his own time in 138 books. He intended to +complete it in 143 books with the assassination of Henri IV in 1610, +but his labours were interrupted by his death in 1617. The collected +edition of his monumental work was issued in 1620 under the title +_Iacobi Augusti Thuani Historiarum sui temporis ab anno 1543 usque +ad annum 1607 Libri CXXXVIII_. Enrico Caterino Davila dealt with the +affairs of France from Francis II to Henri IV in his _Historia +delle guerre civili di Francia_, published in 1630. Cardinal Guido +Bentivoglio described the troubles in the Low Countries in his _Della +Guerra di Fiandra_, published from 1632 to 1639. Famianus Strada +wrote on the same subject in Latin; the first part of his _De Bella +Belgico_, which was meant to cover the period from 1555 to 1590 but +was not completed, appeared in 1632, and the second in 1647. Hugo +Grotius, the great Dutch scholar, had long been engaged on his +_Annales et Historiæ de Rebus Belgicis_ when he died in 1640; it was +brought out by his sons in 1657, and contained five books of Annals +from 1566 to 1588, and eighteen books of Histories to 1609. These +five historians were well known in England, and were studied for their +method as well as their matter. Burnet took Thuanus as his model. 'I +have made him ', he says, 'my pattern in writing.'[5] The others are +discussed by Clarendon in a long passage of his essay 'On an Active +and on a Contemplative Life'.[6] He there develops the view, not +without reference to his own history, that 'there was never yet a good +History written but by men conversant in business, and of the best +and most liberal education'; and he illustrates it by comparing the +histories of his four contemporaries: + + Two of these are by so much preferable before the other Two, + that the first may worthily stand by the Sides of the best + of the Ancients, whilst both the others must be placed under + them; and a Man, without knowing more of them, may by reading + their Books find the Difference between their Extractions, + their Educations, their Conversations, and their Judgment. The + first Two are _Henry D'Avila_ and Cardinal _Bentivoglio_, both + _Italians_ of illustrious Birth; ... they often set forth and + describe the same Actions with very pleasant and delightful + Variety; and commonly the greatest Persons they have occasion + to mention were very well known to them both, which makes + their Characters always very lively. Both their Histories are + excellent, and will instruct the ablest and wisest Men how to + write, and terrify them from writing. The other Two were _Hugo + Grotius_ and _Famianus Strada_, who both wrote in _Latin_ + upon the same Argument, and of the same Time, of the Wars of + _Flanders_, and of the _Low-Countries_. + +He proceeds to show that Grotius, with all his learning and abilities, +and with all his careful revisions, had not been able to give his +narrative enough life and spirit; it was deficient in 'a lively +Representation of Persons and Actions, which makes the Reader present +at all they say or do'. The whole passage, which is too long to +be quoted in full, is not more valuable as a criticism than as an +indication of his own aims, and of his equipment to realize them. Some +years earlier, when he was still thinking 'with much agony' about the +method he was to employ in his own history, he had cited the methods +of Davila, 'who', he added, 'I think hath written as ours should be +written.'[7] + +One of Clarendon's tests of a good history, it will be noted, is +the 'lively representation of persons'; the better writers are +distinguished by making 'their characters always very lively'. In +his own hands, and in Burnet's, the character assumes even greater +importance than the continental historians had given it. At every +opportunity Clarendon leaves off his narrative of events to describe +the actors in the great drama, and Burnet introduces his main subject +with what is in effect an account of his _dramatis personæ_. They +excel in the range and variety of their characters. But they had +studied the continental historians, and the encouragement of example +must not be forgotten. + + * * * * * + +The debt to French literature can easily be overstated. No French +influence is discoverable in the origin and rise of the English +character, nor in its form or manner; but its later development may +have been hastened by French example, especially during the third +quarter of the seventeenth century. + +France was the home of the _mémoire_, the personal record in which +the individual portrays himself as the centre of his world, and +describes events and persons in the light of his own experience. It +was established as a characteristic form of French literature in the +sixteenth century,[8] and it reached its full vigour and variety +in the century of Sully, Rohan, Richelieu, Tallemant des Réaux, +Bassompierre, Madame de Motteville, Mlle de Montpensier, La +Rochefoucauld, Villars, Cardinal de Retz, Bussy-Rabutin--to name but +a few. This was the age of the _mémoire_, always interesting, often +admirably written; and, as might be expected, sometimes exhibiting the +art of portraiture at perfection. The English memoir is comparatively +late. The word, in the sense of a narrative of personal recollections, +was borrowed at the Restoration. The thing itself, under other names, +is older. It is a branch of history that flourishes in stirring +and difficult times when men believe themselves to have special +information about hidden forces that directed the main current of +events, and we date it in this country from the period of the Civil +Wars. It is significant that when Shaftesbury in his old age composed +his short and fragmentary autobiography he began by saying, 'I in this +follow the French fashion, and write my own memoirs.' Even Swift, when +publishing Temple's _Memoirs_, said that ''tis to the French (if I +mistake not) we chiefly owe that manner of writing; and Sir William +Temple is not only the first, but I think the only Englishman (at +least of any consequence) who ever attempted it.' Few English memoirs +were then in print, whereas French memoirs were to be numbered by +dozens. But the French fashion is not to be regarded as an importation +into English literature, supplying what had hitherto been lacking. At +most it stimulated what already existed. + +The _mémoire_ was not the only setting for French portraits at this +time. There were the French romances, and notably the _Artamène ou +le Grand Cyrus_ and the _Clélie_ of Madeleine de Scudéry. The full +significance of the _Grand Cyrus_ has been recovered for modern +readers by Victor Cousin, with great skill and charm, in his _Société +française au XVIIe siècle_, where he has shown it to be, 'properly +speaking, a history in portraits'. The characters were drawn from +familiar figures in French society. 'Ainsi s'explique', says Cousin, +'l'immense succès du _Cyrus_ dans le temps où il parut. C'était une +galerie des portraits vrais et frappants, mais un peu embellis, +où tout ce qu'il y avait de plus illustre en tout genre--princes, +courtisans, militaires, beaux-esprits, et surtout jolies +femmes--allaient se chercher et se reconnaissaient avec un plaisir +inexprimable.'[9] It was easy to attack these romances. Boileau made +fun of them because the classical names borne by the characters +were so absurdly at variance with the matter of the stories.[10] But +instead of giving, as he said, a French air and spirit to Greece and +Rome, Madeleine de Scudéry only gave Greek and Roman names to France +as she knew it. The names were a transparent disguise that was not +meant to conceal the picture of fashionable society. + +The next stage was the portrait by itself, without any setting. At the +height of the popularity of the romances, Mlle de Montpensier hit upon +a new kind of entertainment for the talented circle of which she was +the brilliant centre. It was nothing more nor less than a paper game. +They drew each other, or persons whom they knew, or themselves, and +under their real names. And they played the game so well that what was +written for amusement was worth printing. _Divers Portraits, Imprimés +en l'année M DC LIX_ was the simple title of the first collection, +which was intended only for the contributors.[11] When it reached its +final form in 1663, it contained over a hundred and fifty portraits, +and was offered to the public as _La Galerie des Peintures, ou Recueil +des portraits et éloges en vers et en prose, contenant les portraits +du Roy, de la Reyne, des princes, princesses, duchesses, marquises, +comtesses, et autres seigneurs et dames les plus illustres de France; +la plupart composés par eux-mêmes_.[12] The introductory defence of +the portrait cites Suetonius and Plutarch, and Horace and Montaigne, +but also states frankly the true original of the new fashion--'il faut +avouer que nous sommes très redevables au _Cyrus_ et à la _Clélie_ +qui nous en ont fourni les modèles.' About the same time Antoine +Baudeau, sieur de Somaize, brought out his _Grand Dictionnaire des +Précieuses_,[13] in which there are many portraits in the accepted +manner. The portrait was more than a fashion at this time in France; +it was the rage. It therefore invited the satirists. Molière has a +passing jest at them in his _Précieuses Ridicules_;[14] Charles Sorel +published his _Description de I'isle de la Portraiture et de la ville +des Portraits_; and Boileau wrote his _Héros de Roman_. + +The effects of all this in England are certainly not obvious. It is +quite a tenable view that the English characters would have been +no less numerous, nor in any way different in quality, had every +Englishman been ignorant of French. But the _mémoires_ and romances +were well known, and it was after 1660 that the art of the character +attained its fullest excellence. The literary career of Clarendon +poses the question in a simple form. Most of his characters, and the +best as a whole, were written at Montpelier towards the close of +his life. Did he find in French literature an incentive to indulge +and perfect his natural bent? Yet there can be no conclusive answer +to those who find a sufficient explanation in the leisure of these +unhappy years, and in the solace that comes to chiefs out of war +and statesmen out of place in ruminating on their experiences and +impressions. + + * * * * * + +Something may have been learned also from the other kind of character +that is found at its best in modern literature in the seventeenth +century, the character derived from Theophrastus, and depicting not +the individual but the type. In France, the one kind led on to the +other. The romances of Scudéry prepared the way for the _Caractères ou +les Moeurs de ce Siècle_ of La Bruyère. When the fashionable portrait +of particular persons fell out of favour, there arose in its place the +description of dispositions and temperaments; and in the hands of La +Bruyère 'the manners of the century' were the habits and varieties +of human nature. In England the two kinds existed side by side. They +correspond to the two methods of the drama. Begin with the individual, +but draw him in such a way that we recognize in him our own or others' +qualities; or begin with the qualities shared by classes of people, +embody these in a person who stands for the greatest common measure of +the class, and finally--and only then--let him take on his distinctive +traits: these are methods which are not confined to the drama, and +at all stages of our literature have lived in helpful rivalry. Long +before France had her La Bruyère, England had her Hall, Overbury, and +Earle.[15] The Theophrastan character was at its best in this country +at the beginning of the seventeenth century when the historical +character was still in its early stages; and it was declining when +the historical character had attained its full excellence. They cannot +always be clearly distinguished, and they are sometimes purposely +blended, as in Butler's character of 'A Duke of Bucks,' where +the satire on a man of pronounced individuality is heightened by +describing his eccentricities as if they belonged to a recognized +class. + +The great lesson that the Theophrastan type of character could teach +was the value of balance and unity. A haphazard statement of +features and habits and peculiarities might suffice for a sketch, +but perspective and harmony were necessary to a finished portrait. +It taught that the surest method in depicting character was first +to conceive the character as a whole, and then to introduce detail +incidentally and in proper subordination. But the same lesson could +have been learned elsewhere. It might have been learned from the +English drama. + +[Footnote 1: North's Plutarch went into five editions between 1579 +and 1631; Thucydides was translated by Hobbes in 1629, and Polybius +by Edward Grimeston in 1633; Xenophon's _Anabasis_ was translated +by John Bingham in 1623, and the _Cyropædia_ by Philemon Holland in +1632; Arthur Golding's version of Cæsar's _Gallic War_ was several +times reprinted between 1565 and 1609; Philemon Holland, the +translator-general of the age, as Fuller called him, brought out +his Livy in 1600, and his Suetonius in 1606; Sallust was translated +by Thomas Heywood in 1608, and by William Crosse in 1629; Velleius +Paterculus was 'rendred English by Sir Robert Le Grys' in 1632; and by +1640 there had been six editions of Sir Henry Savile's _Histories_ and +_Agricola_ of Tacitus, first published in 1591, and five editions of +Richard Grenewey's _Annals_ and _Germany_, first published in 1598. +See H.R. Palmer's _English Editions and Translations of Greek and +Latin Classics printed before 1641_, Bibliographical Society, 1911.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Thucydides ... in whom (I beleeve with many others) the +Faculty of writing History is at the Highest.' Thucydides, 1629, 'To +the Readers.'] + +[Footnote 3: Philemon Holland's Livy, 1600, 'Dedication to +Elizabeth.'] + +[Footnote 4: Sir Henry Savile's Tacitus, 1591, 'A.B. To the Reader.'] + +[Footnote 5: _Supplement to Burnet's History_, ed. H.C. Foxcroft, p. +451.] + +[Footnote 6: In 'Reflections upon Several Christian Duties, Divine and +Moral, by Way of Essays', printed in _A Collection of several Tracts +of Edward Earl of Clarendon_, 1727, pp. 80-1.] + +[Footnote 7: Letter to the Earl of Bristol, February 1, 1646 +(_State Papers_, vol. ii, p. 334). Davila was very well known in +England--better, it would appear, than the other three--and was +credited with being more than a mere literary model. Clarendon says +that from his account of the civil wars of France 'no question our +Gamesters learned much of their play'. Sir Philip Warwick, after +remarking that Hampden was well read in history, tells us that the +first time he ever saw Davila's book it was lent to him 'under the +title of Mr. Hambden's _Vade Mecum_' (_Mémoires_, 1701, p. 240). +A translation was published by the authority of the Parliament in +1647-8. Translations of Strada, Bentivoglio, and Grotius followed in +1650, 1654, and 1665. Only parts of Thuanus were translated. The size +of his history was against a complete version.] + +[Footnote 8: See the _Mémoires_ of Monluc, Brantôme, La Noue, &c. The +fifty-two volumes in Petitot's incomplete series entitled _Collection +des Mémoires relatifs à l'histoire de France jusqu'au commencement +du dix-septième siècle_ show at a glance the remarkable richness of +French literature in the _mémoire_ at an early date.] + +[Footnote 9: _La SocÃété française au XVIIe siècle_, 1858 vol. i, p. +7. The 'key' drawn up in 1657 is printed as an appendix.] + +[Footnote 10: _Art poétique_, iii. 115-18.] + +[Footnote 11: Cousin, _Madame de Sablé_, 1854, pp. 42-8.] + +[Footnote 12: Edited by Edouard de Barthélemy in 1860 under the title +_La Galerie des Portraits de Mademoiselle de Montpensier_.] + +[Footnote 13: Edited by Ch. Livet, 1856 (Bibliothèque Elzevirienne. 2 +vols.).] + +[Footnote 14: Sc. x, where Madelon says 'Je vous avoue que je suis +furieusement pour les portraits: je ne vois rien de si galant que +cela', and Mascarille replies, 'Les portraits sont difficiles, et +demandent un esprit profond: vous en verrez de ma manière qui ne vous +déplairont pas.'] + +[Footnote 15: Joseph Hall's _Characters of Vertues and Vices_ appeared +in 1608 Overbury's _Characters_ 1614-22. For Earle, see pp. 168-70.] + + + + +III. Clarendon. + + +Clarendon's _History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England_ +is made up of two works composed with different purposes and at +a distance of twenty years. The first, which may be called the +'Manuscript History', belongs to 1646-8; the second, the 'Manuscript +Life', to 1668-70. They were combined to form the _History_ as we +now read it in 1671, when new sections were added to give continuity +and to complete the narrative. On Clarendon's death in 1674 the +manuscripts passed to his two sons, Henry Hyde, second Earl of +Clarendon, and Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester; and under the +supervision of the latter a transcript of the _History_ was made for +the printers. The work was published at Oxford in three handsome +folio volumes in 1702, 1703, and 1704, and became the property of the +University. The portions of the 'Manuscript Life' which Clarendon +had not incorporated in the _History_ as being too personal, were +published by the University in 1759, under the title _The Life +of Edward Earl of Clarendon_, and were likewise printed from a +transcript.[1] + +The original manuscripts, now also in the possession of the University +of which Clarendon's family were such generous benefactors, enable +us to fix the dates of composition. We know whether a part belongs +originally to the 'Manuscript History' or the 'Manuscript Life', or +whether it was pieced in later. More than this, Clarendon every now +and again inserts the month and the day on which he began or ended +a section. We can thus trace the stages by which his great work was +built up, and learn how his art developed. We can also judge how +closely the printed texts represent what Clarendon had written. The +old controversy on the authenticity of the first edition has long been +settled.[2] The original editors did their work faithfully according +to the editorial standards of their day; and they were well within the +latitude allowed them by the terms of Clarendon's instructions when +they occasionally omitted a passage, or when they exercised their +somewhat prim and cautious taste in altering and polishing phrases +that Clarendon had dashed down as quickly as his pen could move.[3] +Later editors have restored the omitted passages and scrupulously +reproduced Clarendon's own words. But no edition has yet reproduced +his spelling. In the characters printed in this volume the attempt +is made, for the first time it is believed, to represent the original +manuscripts accurately to the letter.[4] + +On the defeat of the last Royalist army in Cornwall in February 1646 +it was necessary to provide for the safety of Prince Charles, and +Clarendon, in these days Sir Edward Hyde, accompanied him when on the +night of March 2 he set sail for Scilly. They arrived in Scilly on +March 4, and there they remained till April 16, when the danger of +capture by the Parliamentary fleet compelled them to make good their +escape to Jersey. It is a remarkable testimony to the vigour of +Clarendon's mind that even in the midst of this crisis he should +have been able to begin his _History_. He began it in Scilly on March +18, 1646--the date is at the head of his manuscript; and once he +was settled in Jersey he immediately resumed it. But in writing his +_History_ he did not, in these days, think of himself only as an +historian. He was a trusted adviser of the defeated party, and he +planned his faithful narrative of what he knew so well not solely to +vindicate the character and conduct of the King, but also with the +immediate purpose of showing how the disasters had been brought out, +and, by implication, how further disaster might be avoided. The proof +of this is to be found not in the _History_ itself, where he seems +to have his eye only on 'posterity' and 'a better age', but in his +correspondence. In a letter written to Sir Edward Nicholas, the King's +secretary, on November 15, 1646, Clarendon spoke of his _History_ at +some length: + + As soon as I found myself alone, I thought the best way to + provide myself for new business against the time I should be + called to it (for, Mr. Secretary, you and I must once again + to business) was to look over the faults of the old; and so + I resolved (which you know I threatned you with long ago) to + write the history of these evil times, and of this most lovely + Rebellion. Well; without any other help than a few diurnals + I have wrote of longer paper than this, and in the same fine + small hand, above threescore sheets of paper.... I write with + all fidelity and freedom of all I know, of persons and things, + and the oversights and omissions on both sides, in order to + what they desired; so that you will believe it will make mad + work among friends and foes, if it were published; but out + of it enough may be chosen to make a perfect story, and the + original kept for their perusal, who may be the wiser for + knowing the most secret truths; and you know it will be an + easier matter to blot out two sheets, than to write half an + one. If I live to finish it (as on my conscience I shall, for + I write apace), I intend to seal it up, and have it always + with me. If I die, I appoint it to be delivered to you, to + whose care (with a couple of good fellows more) I shall leave + it; that either of you dying, you may so preserve it, that + in due time somewhat by your care may be published, and the + original be delivered to the King, who will not find himself + flattered in it, nor irreverently handled: though, the truth + will better suit a dead than a living man. Three hours a + day I assign to this writing task; the rest to other study + and books; so I doubt not after seven years time in this + retirement, you will find me a pretty fellow.[5] + +From this, as from other passages in his letters, Clarendon's +first intentions are clear. The _History_ was to be a repository of +authentic information on 'this most lovely Rebellion', constructed +with the specifically didactic purpose of showing the King and his +advisers what lessons were to be learned from their errors; they would +be 'the wiser for knowing the most secret truths'. At first he looked +on his work as containing the materials of a 'perfect story', but as +he proceeded his ambitions grew. He had begun to introduce characters; +and when in the spring of 1647 he was about to write his first +character of Lord Falkland, he had come to the view that 'the +preservation of the fame and merit of persons, and deriving the same +to posterity, is no less the business of history than the truth of +things'.[6] He gave much thought to the character of Falkland, 'whom +the next age shall be taught', he was determined, 'to value more than +the present did.'[7] Concurrently with the introduction of characters +he paid more attention to the literary, as distinct from the +didactic, merits of his work. We find him comparing himself with other +historians, and considering what Livy and Tacitus would have done +in like circumstances. By the spring of 1648 he had brought down his +narrative to the opening of the campaign of 1644. Earlier in the +year he had been commanded by the King to be ready to rejoin Prince +Charles, and shortly afterwards he received definite instructions from +the Queen to attend on her and the Prince at Paris. He left Jersey +in June, and with his re-entry into active politics his _History_ was +abruptly ended. The seven years of retirement which he had anticipated +were cut down by the outbreak of the Second Civil War to two; and +within a year the King for whose benefit he had begun this _History_ +was led to the scaffold. Not for twenty years was Clarendon again to +have the leisure to be an historian. When in 1668 he once more took +up his pen, it was not a continuation of the first work, but an +entirely new work, that came in steady flow from the abundance of his +knowledge. + +Clarendon returned to England as Lord Chancellor in 1660, and for +seven years enjoyed the power which he had earned by ceaseless +devotion to his two royal masters. The ill success of the war with the +Dutch, jealousy of his place and influence, the spiteful opposition +of the King's chief mistress, and the King's own resentment at an +attitude that showed too little deference and imprudently suggested +the old relations of tutor and pupil, all combined to bring about his +fall. He fled from England on November 30, 1667, and was never to set +foot in England again. Broken in health and spirit, he sought in vain +for many months a resting-place in France, and not till July 1668 did +he find a new home at Montpelier. Here his health improved, and here +he remained till June 1671. These were busy years of writing, and +by far the greater portion of his published work, if his letters +and state papers be excluded, belongs to this time. First of all he +answered the charge of high treason brought against him by the House +of Commons in _A Discourse, by Way of Vindication of my self_, begun +on July 24, 1668; he wrote most of his _Reflections upon Several +Christian Duties, Divine and Moral_, a collection of twenty-five +essays, some of considerable length, on subjects largely suggested +by his own circumstances; and he completed between December 1668 and +February 1671 his _Contemplations and Reflections upon the Psalms of +David_, an elaborate exposition extending to well over four hundred +folio pages of print, which he had begun at Jersey in 1647. But his +great work at this time was his _Life_, begun on July 23, 1668, +and brought down to 1660 by August 1, 1670. It is by far the most +elaborate autobiography that had yet been attempted in English. The +manuscript consists of over six hundred pages, and each page contains +on an average about a thousand words. He wrote with perfect freedom, +for this work, unlike the earlier _History_, was not intended for the +eyes of the King, and the didactic days were over. He wrote too with +remarkable ease. The very appearance of the manuscript, where page +follows page with hardly an erasure, and the 'fine hand' becomes finer +and finer, conveys even a sense of relief and pleasure. His pen seems +to move of itself and the long and elaborate sentences to evolve of +their own free will. The story of his life became a loose framework +into which he could fit all that he wished to tell of his own times; +and the more he told, his vindication would be the more complete. +'Even unawares', he admitted, 'many things are inserted not so +immediately applicable to his own person, which possibly may +hereafter, in some other method, be communicated to the world.'[8] He +welcomed the opportunity to tell all that he knew. There was no reason +for reticence. He wrote of men as of things frankly as he knew them. +More than a history of the Rebellion, his _Life_ is also a picture of +the society in which he had moved. It is the work which contains most +of his characters.[9] + +His early _History_ had been left behind in England on his sudden +flight. For about four years he was debarred from all intercourse with +his family, but in 1671 the royal displeasure so far relaxed that his +second son, Laurence, was granted a pass to visit him, and he brought +the manuscript that had been left untouched for twenty years. They met +in June at Moulins, which was to be Clarendon's home till April 1674. +Once the old and the new work were both in his hands, he cast his +great _History of the Rebellion_ in its final form, and thus 'finished +the work which his heart was most set upon'. In June 1672 he turned +to the 'Continuation of his Life', which deals with his Chancellorship +and his fall, and was not intended 'ever for a public view, or for +more than the information of his children'. As its conclusion shows, +it was his last work to be completed, but while engaged on it he found +time to write much else, including his reply to Hobbes's _Leviathan_. +'In all this retirement', he could well say, in a passage which reads +like his obituary, 'he was very seldom vacant, and then only when he +was under some sharp visitation of the gout, from reading excellent +books, or writing some animadversions and exercitations of his own, +as appears by the papers and notes which he left.' The activity of +these years of banishment is remarkable in a man who had turned sixty +and had passed through about thirty years of continuous storm. His +intellectual vitality was unimpaired. The old English jollity that +Evelyn had remarked in him in happier if more difficult days had gone, +but the even temper from which it had sprung still remained. He was at +his best as a writer then; writing was never an effort to him, but in +his exile it was an exercise and recreation. He could have said with +Dryden that 'what judgment I had increases rather than diminishes; and +thoughts, such as they are, come crowding in so fast upon me, that my +only difficulty is to choose or to reject'. + +He was still in hopes that he would be allowed to return to England, +to die in his own country and among his children. 'Seven years', +he said, 'was a time prescribed and limited by God himself for the +expiration of some of his greatest judgements.'[10] In the seventh +year of his banishment he left Moulins for Rouen, so as to be nearer +home. His hopes were vain. He died at Rouen on December 9, 1674.[11] +His body was brought to England for burial in Westminster. + + * * * * * + +Clarendon had been interested in the study of character all his +life. His earliest work was 'The Difference and Disparity between the +Estates and Conditions of George Duke of Buckingham and Robert Earl of +Essex'. Sir Henry Wotton had written observations on these statesmen +'by way of parallel', and Clarendon pointed out as a sequel wherein +they differed. It is a somewhat laboured composition in comparison +with his later work, a young man's careful essay that lacks the +confidence that comes with experience, but it shows at an early stage +the talents which knowledge and practice were to develop into mastery. +The school in which he learned most was the circle of his friends. Few +men can have owed more to their friends than he did, or have been more +generous in acknowledging the debt. He tells us he was often heard to +say that 'next the immediate blessing and providence of God Almighty, +which had preserved him throughout the whole course of his life +(less strict than it ought to have been) from many dangers and +disadvantages, in which many other young men were lost, he owed +all the little he knew, and the little good that was in him, to the +friendships and conversation he had still been used to, of the most +excellent men in their several kinds that lived in that age; by whose +learning, and information, and instruction, he formed his studies, +and mended his understanding, and by whose gentleness and sweetness +of behaviour, and justice, and virtue, and example, he formed his +manners, subdued that pride and suppressed that heat and passion he +was naturally inclined to be transported with.' He used often to say, +he continues, that 'he never was so proud, or thought himself so good +a man, as when he was the worst man in the company'. He cultivated +his friendships, it is true, with an eye to his advancement; but it +is equally true that he had a nature which invited friendships. He +enjoyed to the full the pleasure of living and seeing others live, +and a great part of his pleasure consisted in observing how men +differed in their habits and foibles. He tells how Ben Jonson did +not understand why young Mr. Hyde should neglect the delights of his +company at the call of business; how Selden, with all his stupendous +learning, was never more studious of anything than his ease; how +Earle gave a wrong impression by the negligence of his dress and +mien, whereas no man was more wary and cultivated in his behaviour and +discourse; how Chillingworth argued for the pleasure of arguing and +thereby irritated his friends and at last grew confident of nothing; +how Hales, great in scholarship but diminutive in stature, liked to be +by himself but had a very open and pleasant conversation in congenial +company; how Waller nursed his reputation for ready wit by seeming +to speak on the sudden what he had thoroughly considered. In all his +accounts of the friends of his youth Clarendon is in the background, +but we picture him moving among them at ease, conscious of his +inferiority in learning and brilliance and the gentler virtues, +yet trusting to his own judgement, and convinced that every man +worth knowing has a pronounced individuality. In these happy and +irresponsible days, when he numbered poets among his friends, he +himself wrote poetry. Little of it is preserved. He contributed +introductory verses to Davenant's _Albovine_, and composed verses on +the death of Donne. His poetry was well enough known for Dryden to +allude to it during his Lord Chancellorship, in the address presented +to him at the height of his power in 1662: + + The _Muses_, who your early Courtship boast, + Though now your Flames are with their Beauty lost, + Yet watch their Time, that if you have forgot + They were your Mistresses, the world may not. + +But first the law claimed him, and then politics, and then came the +Civil War. As Privy Councillor and Chancellor of the Exchequer he was +in the thick of the conflict. The men whom he had now to study were +men of affairs. He had the clear and unimpassioned vision which often +goes with a warm temperament, and could scrutinize his friends without +endangering his affection for them. However deeply his feelings might +be engaged, he had taken a pleasure in trying to see them exactly as +they were. When he came to judge his political enemies he continued +the same attitude of detachment, and studiously cultivated it. 'I am +careful', he said in a private letter,[12] 'to do justice to every +man who hath fallen in the quarrel, on which side soever.' 'I know +myself', he said in the _History_,[13] 'to be very free from any of +those passions which naturally transport men with prejudice towards +the persons whom they are obliged to mention, and whose actions they +are at liberty to censure.' It was beyond human nature for a man who +had lived through what he did to be completely unprejudiced. He did +not always scrupulously weigh what he knew would be to the discredit +of the Parliamentary leaders, nor did he ignore mere Royalist rumour, +as in the character of Pym. But his characters of them are often more +favourable than might have been expected. He may show his personal +dislike, or even his sense of their crime, but behind this he permits +us to see the qualities which contributed to their success. There can +be no reasonable objection to his characters of Hampden and Cromwell. +Political partisans find them disappointing, and they are certainly +not the final verdict. The worst that can be said of them is that +they are drawn from a wrong point of view; but from that point of view +their honesty is unquestionable. He does not distinguish men by their +party. The folly of his own side is exhibited as relentlessly as the +knavery of his opponents. Of no one did he write a more unfavourable +character than the Earl of Arundel. He explains the failure of Laud, +and he does not conceal the weakness of Charles. + +There is a broad distinction between his earlier and later characters. +While he was still in the midst of the conflict and hoped to influence +it by stating what he knew, he depicted the individual in relation +to events. When the conflict was over and he was at leisure to draw +on his recollections, he made the individual to a greater degree the +representative of the type. But the distinction is not clearly marked, +and Clarendon may not have suspected it. His habitual detachment was +assisted by his exile. The displeasure of his ungrateful master, from +whom he had never been separated during seventeen difficult years, had +proved the vanity of the little things of life. He looked at men from +a distance that obscures what is insignificant, and shows only the +essential. + +All his characters are clearly defined. We never confound them; we +never have any doubt of how he understood them. He sees men as a whole +before he begins to describe them, and then his only difficulty, as +his manuscripts show, is to make his pen move fast enough. He does not +build up his characters. He does not, as many others do, start with +the external features in the hope of arriving at the central facts. He +starts from the centre and works outwards. This is the reason of the +convincingness of his characters, their dramatic truth. The dramatic +sense in him is stronger than the pictorial. + +He troubles little about personal appearance, or any of the traits +which would enable us to visualize his men. We understand them rather +than see them. Hampden, he tells us, was 'of a most civil and affable +deportment' and had 'a flowing courtesy to all men', a 'rare temper +and modesty'; it is Sir Philip Warwick who speaks of the 'scurf +commonly on his face'.[14] He says that the younger Vane 'had an +unusual aspect', and leaves us wondering what was unusual. His +Falkland is an exception, but he adopted a different scale when +describing his greatest friend and only hero. Each of his two accounts +of Falkland is in fact a brief biography rather than a character; +the earliest of them, written shortly after Falkland's death, he once +thought of making into a volume by itself. In his characters proper +he confines himself more strictly than any other writer to matters of +character. They are characters rather than portraits. + +But portraiture was one of his passions, though he left its practice +to the painters. He adorned his houses with the likenesses of his +friends. It was fitting that our greatest character writer should +have formed one of the great collections of pictures of 'wits, poets, +philosophers, famous and learned Englishmen'.[15] To describe them +on paper, and to contrive that they should look down on him from his +walls, were different ways of indulging the same keen and tireless +interest in the life amid which he moved. + +[Footnote 1: For a detailed examination of the composition and value +of Clarendon's _History_ see the three articles by Professor C.H. +Firth in _The English Historical Review_ for 1904. No student of +Clarendon can ever afford to neglect them.] + +[Footnote 2: See No. 33, introductory note.] + +[Footnote 3: See No. 6, introductory note, and No. 36, p. 140, II. +17-22 note.] + +[Footnote 4: Contractions have been expanded. The punctuation of the +original is slight, and it has been found desirable occasionally to +insert commas, where seventeenth century printers would have inserted +them; but the run of the sentences has not been disturbed. In +modernized versions Clarendon's long sentences are sometimes +needlessly subdivided.] + +[Footnote 5: _State Papers_, 1773, vol. ii, pp. 288-9.] + +[Footnote 6: Letter of March 16, 1647; _infra_ p. 275.] + +[Footnote 7: Letter of January 8, 1647; T.H. Lister, _Life of +Clarendon_, 1837, vol. iii, p. 43.] + +[Footnote 8: Ed. 1857, part 1, § 85; omitted in the edition of 1759.] + +[Footnote 9: Of the thirty-seven characters by Clarendon in this +volume, twenty-seven are from the 'Manuscript Life'.] + +[Footnote 10: _State Papers_, 1786, vol. iii, supp., p. xlv.] + +[Footnote 11: Clarendon's lifetime coincided almost exactly with +Milton's. He was two months younger than Milton, and died one month +later.] + +[Footnote 12: December 14, 1647; _infra_ p. 275.] + +[Footnote 13: Book ix, _ad init._; ed. Macray, vol. iv, p. 3.] + +[Footnote 14: See note, p. 129, ll. 22 ff.] + +[Footnote 15: Evelyn's _Diary_, December 20, 1668. See the account of +'The Clarendon Gallery' in Lady Theresa Lewis's _Lives of the friends +of Clarendon_, 1852, vol. i, pp. 15* ff., and vol. iii, pp. 241 ff.] + + + + +IV. Other Character Writers. + + +When Clarendon's _History_ was at last made public, no part of it +was more frequently discussed, or more highly praised, than its +characters--'so just', said Evelyn, 'and tempered without the least +ingredient of passion or tincture of revenge, yet with such natural +and lively touches as show his lordship well knew not only the +persons' outsides, but their very interiors.'[1] About the same time, +and probably as a consequence of the publication of Clarendon's work, +Bishop Burnet proceeded to put into its final form the _History_ on +which he had been engaged since 1683. He gave special attention to his +characters, some of which he entirely rewrote. They at once invited +comparison with Clarendon's, and first impressions, then as now, were +not in their favour. 'His characters are miserably wrought,' said +Swift.[2] + +Burnet was in close touch with the political movements of his time. +'For above thirty years,' he wrote, 'I have lived in such intimacy +with all who have had the chief conduct of affairs, and have been so +much trusted, and on so many important occasions employed by them, +that I have been able to penetrate far into the true secrets of +counsels and designs.'[3] He had a retentive memory, and a full share +of worldly wisdom. But he was not an artist like Clarendon. His style +has none of the sustained dignity, the leisurely evolution, which in +Clarendon is so strangely at variance with the speed of composition. +All is stated, nothing suggested. There is a succession of short +sentences, each perfectly clear in itself, often unlinked to what +precedes or follows, and always without any of the finer shades of +meaning. It is rough work, and on the face of it hasty, and so it +would have remained, no matter how often it had been revised. Again, +Burnet does not always have perfect control of the impression he +wishes to convey. It is as if he did not have the whole character in +his mind before he began to write, but collected his thoughts from +the stores of his memory in the process of composition. We are often +uncertain how to understand a character before we have read it all. In +some cases he seems to be content to present us with the material from +which, once we have pieced it together ourselves, we can form our own +judgement. But what he tells us has been vividly felt by him, and is +vividly presented. The great merit of his characters lies in their +realism. Of the Earl of Lauderdale he says that 'He made a very ill +appearance: He was very big: His hair red, hanging oddly about him: +His tongue was too big for his mouth, which made him bedew all that +he talked to.' There is no hint of this in Clarendon's character of +Lauderdale, nor could Clarendon have spoken with the same directness. +Burnet has no circumlocutions, just as in private life he was +not known to indulge in them. When he reports what was said in +conversation he gives the very words. Lauderdale 'was a man, as the +Duke of Buckingham called him to me, of a blundering understanding'. +Halifax 'hoped that God would not lay it to his charge, if he could +not digest iron, as an ostrich did, nor take into his belief things +that must burst him'. It is the directness and actuality of such +things as these, and above all his habit of describing men in relation +to himself, that make his best characters so vivid. Burnet is seldom +in the background. He allows us to suspect that it is not the man +himself whom he presents to us but the man as he knew him, though +he would not have admitted the distinction. He could not imitate the +detachment of Clarendon, who is always deliberately impersonal, and +writes as if he were pronouncing the impartial judgement of history +from which there can be no appeal. Burnet views his men from a much +nearer distance. His perspective may sometimes be at fault, but he +gets the detail. + +With all his shrewd observation, it must be admitted that his range of +comprehension was limited. There were no types of character too subtle +for Clarendon to understand. There were some which eluded Burnet's +grasp. He is at his best in describing such a man as Lauderdale, where +the roughness of the style is in perfect keeping with the subject. +His character of Shaftesbury, whom he says he knew for many years in a +very particular manner, is a valuable study and a remarkable companion +piece to Dryden's _Achitophel_. But he did not understand Halifax. The +surface levity misled him. He tells us unsuspectingly as much about +himself as about Halifax. He tells us that the Trimmer could never be +quite serious in the good bishop's company. + +We learn more about Halifax from his own elaborate study of Charles +II. It is a prolonged analysis by a man of clear vision, and perfect +balance of judgement, and no prepossessions; who was, moreover, master +of the easy pellucid style that tends to maxim and epigram. A more +impartial and convincing estimate of any king need never be expected. +In method and purpose, it stands by itself. It is indeed not so +much a character in the accepted sense of the word as a scientific +investigation of a personality. Others try to make us see and +understand their men; Halifax anatomizes. Yet he occasionally permits +us to discover his own feelings. Nothing disappointed him more in the +merry monarch than the company he kept, and his comprehensive taste in +wit. 'Of all men that ever _liked_ those who _had wit_, he could the +best _endure_ those who had _none_': there is more here than is on the +surface; we see at once Charles, and his court, and Halifax himself. + +As a class, the statesmen and politicians more than hold their +own with the other character writers of the seventeenth century. +Shaftesbury's picture of Henry Hastings, a country gentleman of the +old school, who carried well into the Stuart period the habits and +life of Tudor times, shows a side of his varied accomplishments which +has not won the general recognition that it deserves. It is a sketch +exactly in the style of the eighteenth century essayists. It makes us +regret that the fragmentary autobiography in which it is found did not +come down to a time when it could have included sketches of his famous +contemporaries. The literary skill of his grandson, the author of the +_Characteristicks_, was evidently inherited. + +Sir Philip Warwick has the misfortune to be overshadowed by Clarendon. +As secretary to Charles I in the year before his execution, and as +a minor government official under Charles II, he was well acquainted +with men and affairs. Burnet describes him as 'an honest but a weak +man', and adds that 'though he pretended to wit and politics, he was +not cut out for that, and least of all for writing of history'. He +could at least write characters. They do not bear the impress of a +strong personality, but they have the fairmindedness and the calm +outlook that spring from a gentle and unassertive nature. His Cromwell +and his Laud are alike greatly to his credit; and the private view +that he gives us of Charles has unmistakable value. His _Mémoires_ +remained in manuscript till 1701, the year before the publication of +Clarendon's _History_. It was the first book to appear with notable +characters of the men of the Civil Wars and the Protectorate. + +The Histories and Memoirs of the seventeenth century contain by far +the greatest number of its characters; but they are to be found also +in scattered Lives, and in the collections of material that mark the +rise of modern English biography. There are disappointingly few by +Fuller. In his _Worthies of England_ he is mainly concerned with the +facts of a man's life, and though, in his own word, he fleshes the +bare skeleton of time, place, and person with pleasant passages, +and interlaces many delightful stories by way of illustrations, and +everywhere holds us by the quaint turns of his fertile fancy, yet the +scheme of the book did not involve the depicting of character, nor did +it allow him to deal with many contemporaries whom he had known. In +the present volume it has therefore been found best to represent him +by the studies of Bacon and Laud in his _Church-History_. Bacon he +must have described largely from hearsay, but what he says of Laud is +an admirable specimen of his manner, and leaves us wishing that he had +devoted himself in larger measure to the worthies of his own time. + +There are no characters in Aubrey's _Brief Lives_, which are only a +series of rough jottings by a prince of gossips, who collected what +he could and put it all on paper 'tumultuarily'. But the extracts from +what he says of Hobbes and Milton may be considered as notes for a +character, details that awaited a greater artist than Aubrey was to +work them into a picture; and if Hobbes and Milton are to be given a +place, as somehow or other they must be, in a collection of the kind +that this volume offers, there is no option but to be content with +such notes, for there is no set character of either of them. The value +of the facts which Aubrey has preserved is shown by the use made of +them by all subsequent biographers, and notably by Anthony à Wood, +whose _Athenæ Oxonienses_ is our first great biographical dictionary. + +Lives of English men of letters begin in the seventeenth century, +and from Rawley's _Life of Bacon_, Sprat's _Life of Cowley_, and the +anonymous _Life of Fuller_ it is possible to extract passages which +are in effect characters. But Walton's _Lives_, the best of all +seventeenth century Lives, refuse to yield any section, for each of +them is all of a piece; they are from beginning to end continuous +character studies, revealing qualities of head and heart in their +affectionate record of fact and circumstance. There is therefore +nothing in this volume from his _Life of Donne_ or his _Life of +Herbert_. As a rule the characters that can be extracted from Lives +are much inferior to the clearly defined characters that are inserted +in Histories. The focus is not the same. When an author after dealing +with a man's career sums up his mental and moral qualities in a +section by itself, he does not trust to it alone to convey the total +impression. He is too liable also to panegyric, like Rawley, who could +see no fault in his master Bacon, or Sprat who, in Johnson's words, +produced a funeral oration on Cowley. There are no characters +of scholars or poets so good as Clarendon's Hales, or Earle, or +Chillingworth, or Waller; and for this reason, that Clarendon +envisages them, not as scholars or poets but as men, and gains a +definite and complete effect within small compass. + +Roger North made his life of his brother Lord Keeper Guilford an +account of the bench and bar under Charles II and James II. Of its +many sketches of lawyers whom he or his brother had known, none is +so perfect in every way as the character of Chief Justice Saunders, a +remarkable man in real life who still lives in North's pages with +all his eccentricities. North writes at length about his brother, +yet nowhere do we see and understand him so clearly as we see and +understand Saunders. The truth is that a life and a character have +different objects and methods and do not readily combine. It is only +a small admixture of biography that a character will endure. And with +the steady development of biography the character declined. + +A character must be short; and it must be entire, the complete +expression of a clear judgement. The perfect model is provided +by Clarendon. He has more than formal excellence. 'Motives', said +Johnson, 'are generally unknown. We cannot trust to the characters +we find in history, unless when they are drawn by those who knew the +persons; as those, for instance, by Sallust and by Lord Clarendon.'[4] + + +[Footnote 1: Letter to Pepys, January 20, 1703; Pepys's _Diary_, ed. +Braybrooke, 1825, vol. ii, p. 290.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Short Remarks on Bishop Burnet's _History_,' _ad init._] + +[Footnote 3: _History_, preface] + +[Footnote 4: Boswell, 1769, ed. G.B. Hill, vol. ii, p. 79.] + + * * * * * + +Sooner or later every one who deals with the history or literature +of the seventeenth century has to own his obligations to Professor +C.H. Firth. My debt is not confined to his writings, references to +which will be found continually in the notes. At every stage of +the preparation of this volume I have had the advantage of his most +generous interest. And with his name it is a pleasure to associate in +one compendious acknowledgement the names of Dr. Henry Bradley and Mr. +Percy Simpson. + +Oxford, +September 16, 1918. +D.N.S. + + + + +1. + +JAMES I. + +_James VI of Scotland 1567. James I 1603._ + +_Born 1566. Died 1625._ + +By ARTHUR WILSON. + + +He was born a King, and from that height, the less fitted to look +into inferiour things; yet few escaped his knowledge, being, as it +were, a _Magazine_ to retain them. His _Stature_ was of the _Middle +Size_; rather tall than low, well set and somewhat plump, of a ruddy +Complexion, his hair of a light brown, in his full perfection, had +at last a Tincture of white. If he had any predominant _Humor_ to +Ballance his _Choler_, it was Sanguine, which made his _Mirth Witty_. +His Beard was scattering on the Chin, and very thin; and though his +Clothes were seldome fashioned to the _Vulgar_ garb, yet in the whole +man he was not uncomely. He was a King in understanding, and was +content to have his Subjects ignorant in many things; As in curing the +_Kings Evil_, which he knew a _Device_, to ingrandize the _Vertue_ of +Kings, when _Miracles_ were in fashion; but he let the World believe +it, though he smiled at it, in his own _Reason_, finding the strength +of the _Imagination_ a more powerfull _Agent_ in the _Cure_, than +the _Plaisters his Chirurgions_ prescribed for the _Sore_. It was a +hard _Question_, whether his Wisedome, and knowledge, exceeded his +_Choler_, and _Fear_; certainly the last couple drew him with most +violence, because they were not acquisititious, but _Naturall_; If he +had not had that _Allay_, his high touring, and mastering _Reason_, +had been of a _Rare_, and sublimed _Excellency_; but these earthy +_Dregs_ kept it down, making his _Passions_ extend him as farre +as _Prophaness_, that I may not say _Blasphemy_, and _Policy_ +superintendent of all his _Actions_; which will not last long (like +the _Violence_ of that _Humor_) for it often makes those that know +well, to do ill, and not be able to prevent it. + +He had pure _Notions_ in _Conception_, but could bring few of them +into _Action_, though they tended to his own _Preservation_: For this +was one of his _Apothegms_, which he made no timely use of. _Let that +Prince, that would beware of Conspiracies, be rather jealous of such, +whom his extraordinary favours have advanced, than of those whom +his displeasure hath discontented. These want means to execute their +Pleasures, but they have means at pleasure to execute their desires_. +Ambition to rule is more vehement than Malice to revenge. Though the +last part of this _Aphorism_, he was thought to practice too soon, +where there was no cause for prevention, and neglect too late, when +time was full ripe to produce the effect. + +Some _Parallel'd_ him to _Tiberius_ for _Dissimulation_, yet _Peace_ +was maintained by him as in the Time of _Augustus_; And _Peace_ begot +_Plenty_, and _Plenty_ begot _Ease_ and _Wantonness_, and _Ease_ and +_Wantonnesse_ begot _Poetry_, and _Poetry_ swelled to that _bulk_ +in his time, that it begot strange _Monstrous Satyrs_, against the +King[s] own person, that haunted both _Court_, and _Country_, which +exprest would be too bitter to leave a sweet perfume behind him. +And though bitter ingredients are good to imbalm and preserve dead +_bodies_, yet these were such as might indanger to kill a living name, +if _Malice_ be not brought in with an _Antidote_. And the tongues +of those times, more fluent than my _Pen_, made every little +_miscarriage_ (being not able to discover their true operations, like +smal _seeds_ hid in earthy _Darknesse_) grow up, and spread into such +exuberant _branches_, that evil _Report_ did often pearch upon them. +So dangerous it is for _Princes_, by a _Remisse Comportment_, to give +growth to the least _Error_; for it often proves as _fruitful_ as +_Malice_ can make it. + + + + +2. + +By SIR ANTHONY WELDON. + + +This Kings Character is much easier to take then his Picture, for he +could never be brought to sit for the taking of that, which is the +reason of so few good peeces of him; but his Character was obvious to +every eye. + +He was of a middle stature, more corpulent through his cloathes then +in his body, yet fat enough, his cloathes ever being made large and +easie, the Doublets quilted for steletto proofe, his Breeches in great +pleites and full stuffed: Hee was naturally of a timorous disposition, +which was the reason of his quilted Doublets: His eyes large, ever +rowling after any stranger came in his presence, insomuch, as many +for shame have left the roome, as being out of countenance: His Beard +was very thin: His Tongue too large for his mouth, which ever made +him speak full in the mouth, and made him drink very uncomely, as if +eating his drink, which came out into the cup of each side of his +mouth: His skin was as soft as Taffeta Sarsnet, which felt so, because +hee never washt his hands, onely rubb'd his fingers ends slightly with +the wet end of a Naptkin: His Legs were very weake, having had (as was +thought) some foul play in his youth, or rather before he was born, +that he was not able to stand at seven years of age, that weaknesse +made him ever leaning on other mens shoulders, his walke was ever +circular ... He was very temperate in his exercises, and in his dyet, +and not intemperate in his drinking; however in his old age, and +_Buckinghams_ joviall Suppers, when he had any turne to doe with +him, made him sometimes overtaken, which he would the very next day +remember, and repent with teares; it is true, he dranke very often, +which was rather out of a custom then any delight, and his drinks were +of that kind for strength, as Frontiniack, Canary, High Country wine, +Tent Wine, and Scottish Ale, that had he not had a very strong brain, +might have daily been overtaken, although he seldom drank at any +one time above four spoonfulls, many times not above one or two; He +was very constant in all things, his Favourites excepted, in which +he loved change, yet never cast down any (he once raised) from +the height of greatnesse, though from their wonted nearnesse, and +privacy; unlesse by their own default, by opposing his change, as in +_Somersets_ case: yet had he not been in that foul poysoning busines, +and so cast down himself, I do verily beleeve not him neither; for al +his other Favorites he left great in Honour, great in Fortune; and did +much love _Mountgomery_, and trusted him more at the very last gaspe, +then at the first minute of his Favoriteship: In his Dyet, Apparrell, +and Journeys, he was very constant; in his Apparrell so constant, as +by his good wil he would never change his cloathes untill worn out to +very ragges: His Fashion never: Insomuch as one bringing to him a Hat +of a _Spanish_ Block, he cast it from him, swearing he neither loved +them nor their fashions. Another time, bringing him Roses on his +Shooes, he asked, if they would make him a ruffe-footed-Dove? one yard +of six penny Ribbond served that turne: His Dyet and Journies were +so constant, that the best observing Courtier of our time was wont +to say, were he asleep seven yeares, and then awakened, he would tell +where the King every day had been, and every dish he had had at his +Table. + +Hee was not very uxorious, (though he had a very brave Queen that +never crossed his designes, nor intermedled with State affaires, +but ever complyed with him (even against the nature of any, but of +a milde spirit) in the change of Favourites;) for he was ever best, +when furthest from the Queene, and that was thought to be the first +grounds of his often removes, which afterwards proved habituall. +He was unfortunate in the marriage of his Daughter, and so was all +Christendome besides; but sure the Daughter was more unfortunate in +a Father, then he in a Daughter: He naturally loved not the sight of +a Souldier, nor of any Valiant man; and it was an observation that +Sir _Robert Mansell_ was the only valiant man he ever loved, and him +he loved so intirely, that for all _Buckinghams_ greatnesse with +the King, and his hatred of Sir _Robert Mansell_, yet could not +that alienate the Kings affections from him; insomuch as when by +the instigation of _Cottington_ (then Embassadour in _Spaine_) by +_Buckinghams_ procurement, the _Spanish_ Embassadour came with a +great complaint against _Sir Robert Mansell_, then at _Argiers_, to +suppresse the Pirats, That he did support them; having never a friend +there, (though many) that durst speake in his defence, the King +himselfe defended him in these words: _My Lord Embassadour, I cannot +beleeve this, for I made choyce my selfe of him, out of these reasons; +I know him to be valiant, honest, and Nobly descended as most in my +Kingdome, and will never beleeve a man thus qualified will doe so base +an act_. He naturally loved honest men, that were not over active, +yet never loved any man heartily untill he had bound him unto him by +giving him some suite, which he thought bound the others love to him +againe; but that argued a poore disposition in him, to beleeve that +any thing but a Noble minde, seasoned with vertue, could make any +firme love or union, for mercinary mindes are carried away with a +greater prize, but Noble mindes, alienated with nothing but publick +disgraces. + +He was very witty, and had as many ready witty jests as any man +living, at which he would not smile himselfe, but deliver them in a +grave and serious manner: He was very liberall, of what he had not in +his owne gripe, and would rather part with 100._li._ hee never had in +his keeping, then one twenty shillings peece within his owne custody: +He spent much, and had much use of his Subjects purses, which bred +some clashings with them in Parliament, yet would alwayes come off, +and end with a sweet and plausible close; and truly his bounty was not +discommendable, for his raising Favourites was the worst: Rewarding +old servants, and releiving his Native Country-men, was infinitely +more to be commended in him, then condemned. His sending Embassadours, +were no lesse chargeable then dishonourable and unprofitable to him +and his whole Kingdome; for he was ever abused in all Negotiations, +yet hee had rather spend 100000._li._ on Embassies, to keep or procure +peace with dishonour, then 10000._li._ on an Army that would have +forced peace with honour: He loved good Lawes, and had many made in +his time, and in his last Parliament, for the good of his Subjects, +and suppressing Promoters, and progging fellowes, gave way to that +_Nullum tempus, &c._ to be confined to 60. yeares, which was more +beneficiall to the Subjects in respect of their quiets, then all the +Parliaments had given him during his whole Reign. By his frequenting +Sermons he appeared Religious; yet his Tuesday Sermons (if you will +beleeve his owne Country men, that lived in those times when they +were erected, and well understood the cause of erecting them) were +dedicated for a strange peece of devotion. + +He would make a great deale too bold with God in his passion, both in +cursing and swearing, and one straine higher vergeing on blasphemie; +But would in his better temper say, he hoped God would not impute +them as sins, and lay them to his charge, seeing they proceeded from +passion: He had need of great assurance, rather then hopes, that would +make daily so bold with God. + +He was so crafty and cunning in petty things, as the circumventing any +great man, the change of a Favourite, &c. insomuch as a very wise man +was wont to say, he beleeved him the wisest foole in Christendome, +meaning him wise in small things, but a foole in weighty affaires. + +He ever desired to prefer meane men in great places, that when he +turned them out again, they should have no friend to bandy with them: +And besides, they were so hated by being raised from a meane estate, +to over-top all men, that every one held it a pretty recreation to +have them often turned out: There were living in this Kings time, at +one instant, two Treasurers, three Secretaries, two Lord Keepers, two +Admiralls, three Lord chief Justices, yet but one in play, therefore +this King had a pretty faculty in putting out and in: By this you +may perceive in what his wisdome consisted, but in great and weighty +affaires even at his wits end. + +He had a trick to cousen himselfe with bargains under hand, by taking +1000._li._ or 10000._li._ as a bribe, when his Counsell was treating +with his Customers to raise them to so much more yearly, this went +into his Privy purse, wherein hee thought hee had over-reached the +Lords, but cousened himselfe; but would as easily breake the bargaine +upon the next offer, saying, he was mistaken and deceived, and +therefore no reason he should keep the bargaine; this was often the +case with the Farmers of the Customes; He was infinitely inclined +to peace, but more out of feare then conscience, and this was the +greatest blemish this King had through all his Reign, otherwise might +have been ranked with the very best of our Kings, yet sometimes would +hee shew pretty flashes of valour which might easily be discerned to +be forced, not naturall; and being forced, could have wished, rather, +it would have recoiled backe into himselfe, then carryed to that +King it had concerned, least he might have been put to the tryall, to +maintaine his seeming valour. + +In a word, he was (take him altogether and not in peeces) such a King, +I wish this Kingdom have never any worse, on the condition, not +any better; for he lived in peace, dyed in peace, and left all his +Kingdomes in a peaceable condition, with his owne Motto: + +_Beati Pacifici_. + + + + +3. + +THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. + +_George Villiers, created Viscount Villiers 1616, Earl of Buckingham +1617, Marquis 1618, and Duke 1623. Born 1592. Assassinated 1628_. + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Duke was indeede a very extraordinary person, and never any man in +any age, nor I believe in any country or nation, rose in so shorte a +tyme to so much greatenesse of honour fame and fortune upon no other +advantage or recommendation, then of the beauty and gracefulnesse +and becommingnesse of his person; and I have not the least purpose of +undervale[w]inge his good partes and qualityes (of which ther will be +occasion shortly to give some testimony) when I say, that his first +introduction into favour was purely from the handsomnesse of his +person: He was the younger Sunn of S'r George Villyers of Brookesby in +the County of Leicester, a family of an auncient extraction, even from +the tyme of the conquest, and transported then with the conqueror out +of Normandy, wher the family hath still remayned and still continues +with lustre: After S'r Georges first marriage, in which he had 2 or +3 Sunnes and some daughters, who shared an ample inheritance from +him, by a secounde marriage with a younge lady of the family of the +Beaumonts, he had this gentleman, and two other Sunns, and a daughter, +who all came afterwards to be raysed to greate titles and dignityes. +George, the eldest Sunn of this secounde bedd, was after the death +of his father, by the singular affection and care of his Mother, who +injoyed a good joynture in the accounte of that age, well brought up, +and for the improvment of his education, and givinge an ornament to +his hopefull person, he was by her sent into France, wher he spent +2. or 3. yeeres in attayninge the language, and in learninge the +exercises of rydinge and dauncinge, in the last of which he excelled +most men; and returned into Englande by the tyme he was 21. yeeres +old. + +Kinge James raingned at that tyme, and though he was a Prince of +more learninge and knowledge then any other of that age, and really +delighted more in bookes, and in the conversation of learned men, +yett of all wise men livinge, he was the most delighted and taken with +handsome persons, and with fyne clothes; He begann to be weary of his +Favorite the Earle of Somersett, who was the only Favorite who kept +that post so longe without any publique reproch from the people, and +by the instigation and wickednesse of his wife, he became at least +privy to a horrible murther, that exposed him to the utmost severity +of the law (the poysoninge of S'r Thomas Overbury) upon which both he +and his wife were condemned to dy, after a tryall by ther Peeres, and +many persons of quality were executed for the same: Whilst this was +in agitation, and before the utmost discovery was made, Mr. Villiers +appeared in Courte, and drew the Kings eyes upon him: Ther were enough +in the Courte enough angry and incensed against Somersett, for beinge +what themselves desyred to be, and especially for beinge a Scotchman, +and ascendinge in so shorte a tyme from beinge a page, to the height +he was then at, to contribute all they coulde, to promote the one, +that they might throw out the other; which beinge easily brought to +passe, by the proceedinge of the law upon his cryme aforesayd, the +other founde very little difficulty in rendringe himselfe gracious to +the Kinge, whose nature and disposition was very flowinge in affection +towards persons so adorned, insomuch that in few dayes after his first +appearance in Courte he was made Cup-bearer to the Kinge, by which +he was naturally to be much in his presence, and so admitted to that +conversation and discource, with which that Prince alwayes abounded +at his meales; and his inclination to his new Cuppbearer disposed him +to administer frequent occasions of discourcinge of the Courte of +France, and the transactions ther, with which he had bene so lately +acquainted, that he could pertinently inlarge upon that subjecte, +to the Kings greate delight, and to the reconcilinge the esteeme and +valew of all the Standers by likewise to him, which was a thinge +the Kinge was well pleased with: He acted very few weekes upon this +Stage, when he mounted higher, and beinge knighted, without any other +qualification he was at the same tyme made Gentleman of the Bedd +chamber, and Knight of the Order of the Gartar; and in a shorte tyme +(very shorte for such a prodigious ascent,) he was made a Barron, +a Viscount, an Earle, a Marquisse, and became L'd High Admirall of +Englande, L'd Warden of the Cinque Ports, Master of the Horse, and +intirely disposed of all the graces of the Kinge, in conferringe +all the Honours and all the Offices of the three kingdomes without +a ryvall; in dispencinge wherof, he was guyded more by the rules of +appetite then of judgement, and so exalted almost all of his owne +numerous family and dependants, who had no other virtue or meritt then +ther allyance to him, which æqually offended the auncient nobility and +the people of all conditions, who saw the Flowres of the Crowne every +day fadinge and withered, whilst the Demeasnes and revennue therof +was sacrificed to the inrichinge a private family (how well soever +originally extracted) not heard of before ever to the nation, and +the exspences of the Courte so vast, unlimited by the old good rules +of Oeconomy, that they had a sadd prospecte of that poverty and +necessity, which afterwards befell the Crowne, almost to the ruine of +it. + +Many were of opinion, that Kinge James before his death, grew weary of +his Favorite, and that if he had lyved, he would have deprived him at +least of his large and unlimited power; and this imagination prævayled +with some men, as the L'd Keeper Lincolne, the Earle of Middlesex, L'd +High Treasurer of England, and other gentlemen of name, though not +in so high stations, that they had the courage, to withdraw from ther +absolute dependance upon the Duke, and to make some other assayes, +which prooved to the ruine of every on of them, ther appearinge no +markes or evidence, that the Kinge did really lessen his affection +to him, to the houre of his death; on the contrary, as he created him +Duke of Buckingham, in his absence, whilst he was with the Prince +in Spayne, so after his returne, he exequted the same authority in +conferringe all favours and graces, and revenginge himselfe upon +those who had manifested any unkindnesse towards him: And yett +notwithstandinge all this, if that Kings nature had æqually disposed +him, to pull downe, as to builde and erecte, and if his courage and +severity in punishinge and reforminge had bene as greate, as his +generosity and inclination was to obliege, it is not to be doubted, +but that he would have withdrawne his affection from the Duke intirely +before his death, which those persons who were admitted to any privacy +with [him], and were not in the confidence of the other (for before +those he knew well how to dissemble) had reason enough to exspecte.... + + * * * * * + +This greate man was a person of a noble nature and generous +disposition, and of such other indowments, as made him very capable +of beinge a greate favorite to a greate Kinge; he understoode the Arts +and artifices of a Courte, and all the learninge that is professed +ther, exactly well; by longe practice in businesse, under a Master +that discourced excellently, and surely knew all things wounderfully, +and tooke much delight in indoctrinatinge his younge unexsperienced +Favorite, who he knew would be alwayes looked upon as the +workemanshipp of his owne handes, he had obtayned a quicke conception +and apprehension of businesse, and had the habitt of speakinge very +gracefully, and pertinently. He was of a most flowinge courtesy and +affability to all men, who made any addresse to him, and so desyrous +to obliege them, that he did not enough consider the valew of the +obligation, or the meritt of the person he chose to obliege, from +which much of his misfortune resulted. He was of a courage not to be +daunted, which was manifested in all his actions, and his contests +with particular persons of the greatest reputation, and especially +in his whole demeanour at the Isle of Rees, both at the landinge and +upon the retriete, in both which no man was more fearelesse, or more +ready to expose himselfe to the brightest daungers. His kindnesse +and affection to his frends was so vehement, that it was so many +marriages, for better and worse, and so many leagues offensive and +defensive, as if he thought himselfe oblieged to love all his frends, +and to make warr upon all they were angry with, let the cause be what +it would. And it cannot be denyed, that he was an enimy in the same +excesse, and prosequted those he looked upon as his enimyes, with +the utmost rigour and animosity, and was not easily induced to a +reconciliation; and yett ther were some examples of his receadinge in +that particular; and in highest passyon, he was so farr from stoopinge +to any dissimulation, wherby his displeasure might be concealed and +covered, till he had attayned his revenge, the low methode of Courts, +that he never indeavoured to do any man an ill office, before he first +told him what he was to exspecte from him, and reproched him with the +injures he had done, with so much generosity, that the person found +it in his pouer, to receave farther satisfaction in the way he would +chuse for himselfe.... + +His single misfortune was (which indeede was productive of many +greater) that he never made a noble and a worthy frendshipp with a man +so neere his æquall, that he would frankely advize him, for his honour +and true interest, against the current, or rather the torrent of his +impetuous passyons: which was partly the vice of the tyme, when the +Courte was not replenished with greate choyce of excellent men, and +partly the vice of the persons, who were most worthy to be applyed +to, and looked upon his youth, and his obscurity, as obligations upon +him, to gayne ther frendshipps by extraordinary application; then his +ascent was so quicke, that it seemed rather a flight, then a growth, +and he was such a darlinge of fortune, that he was at the topp, before +he was seene at the bottome, for the gradation of his titles, was the +effecte, not cause of his first promotion, and as if he had bene borne +a favorite, he was supreme the first moneth he came to courte, and +it was wante of confidence, not of creditt, that he had not all at +first, which he obtayned afterwards, never meetinge with the least +obstruction, from his settinge out, till he was as greate as he could +be, so that he wanted dependants, before he thought he could wante +coadjutors; nor was he very fortunate in the election of those +dependants, very few of his servants havinge bene ever qualifyed +enough to assiste or advize him, and were intente only upon growinge +rich under [him], not upon ther masters growinge good as well as +greate, insomuch as he was throughout his fortune, a much wiser man, +then any servant or frende he had: Lett the faulte or misfortune be +what and whence it will, it may very reasonably be believed that if +he had bene blessed with one faythfull frende, who had bene qualifyed +with wisdome and integrity, that greate person would have committed +as few faults, and done as transcendant worthy actions, as any man +who shyned in such a sphere in that age, in Europe, for he was of +an excellent nature, and of a capacity very capable of advice and +councell; he was in his nature just and candid, liberall, generous, +and bountifull, nor was it ever knowne that the temptation of money +swayed him to do an unjust, or unkinde thinge, and though he left a +very greate inheritance to his heyres, consideringe the vast fortune +he inherited by his wife (the sole daughter and Heyre of Francis +Earle of Rutlande,) he owed no parte of it to his owne industry or +sollicitation, but to the impatient humour of two kings his masters, +who would make his fortune æquall to his titles, and the one above +other men, as the other was, and he considered it no otherwise then +as thers, and left it at his death ingaged for the crowne, almost to +the valew of it, as is touched upon before. If he had an immoderate +ambition, with which he was charged, and is a weede (if it be a weede) +apt to grow in the best soyles, it does not appeare that it was in +his nature, or that he brought it with him to the Courte, but rather +founde it ther, and was a garment necessary for that ayre; nor was +it more in his power to be without promotion, and titles, and wealth, +then for a healthy man to sitt in the sunn, in the brightest dogge +dayes, and remayne without any warmth: he needed no ambition who was +so seated in the hartes of two such masters. + + + + +4. + +SIR THOMAS COVENTRY. + +_Solicitor-General 1617. Attorney-General 1621. Lord Keeper 1625. +Created Baron Coventry 1628. Born 1578. Died 1640_. + +By CLARENDON. + + +S'r Thomas Coventry was then L'd Keeper of the Greate Seale of +England, and newly made a Barron. He was a Sunn of the Robe, his +father havinge bene a Judge in the courte of the Common pleas, who +tooke greate care to breede his Sunn, though his first borne, in +the Study of the common law, by which himselfe had bene promoted to +that degree, and in which, in the society of the Inner Temple, his +Sunn made a notable progresse, by an early eminence in practice and +learninge, insomuch as he was Recorder of London, Sollicitor generall, +and Kings Atturny before he was forty yeeres of age, a rare ascent, +all which offices he discharged, with greate abilityes, and singular +reputation of integrity: In the first yeere after the death of Kinge +James, he was advanced to be Keeper of the Greate Scale of Englande, +the naturall advancement from, the office of Atturny Generall, upon +the remoovall of the Bishopp of Lincolne, who though a man of greate +witt, and good scholastique learninge, was generally thought so very +unæquall to the place that his remoove was the only recompence and +satisfaction that could be made for his promotion, and yett it was +enough knowne, that the disgrace proceeded only from the pri[v]ate +displeasure of the Duke of Buckingham[1]: The L'd Coventry injoyed +this place with a universall reputation (and sure justice was never +better administred) for the space of aboute sixteen yeeres, even to +his death, some months before he was sixty yeeres of age, which was +another importante circumstance of his felicity: that greate office +beinge so slippery, that no man had dyed in it before, for neere the +space of forty yeeres, nor had his successors for some tyme after him +much better fortune: and he himselfe had use of all his strenght and +skill (as he was an excellent wrastler) to præserve himselfe from +fallinge, in two shockes, the one given him by the Earle of Portlande, +L'd High Treasurer of Englande, the other by the Marq's of Hambleton, +who had the greatest power over the affections of the Kinge, of any +man of that tyme. + +He was a man of wounderfull gravity and wisdome, and understood not +only the whole science and mistery of the Law, at least æqually with +any man who had ever sate in that place, but had a cleere conception +of the whole policy of the government both of Church and State, which +by the unskilfulnesse of some well meaninge men, justled each the +other to much. He knew the temper, and disposition and genius of the +kingdome most exactly, saw ther spiritts grow every day more sturdy, +and inquisitive, and impatient, and therfore naturally abhorred all +innovations, which he foresaw would produce ruinous effects: yett many +who stoode at a distance thought that he was not active and stoute +enough in the opposinge those innovations, for though by his place he +præsided in all publique councells, and was most sharpe sighted in the +consequence of things, yett he was seldome knowne to speake in matters +of state, which he well knew were for the most parte concluded, before +they were brought to that publique agitation, never in forrainge +affayres, which the vigour of his judgement could well comprehende, +nor indeede freely in any thinge, but what immediately and playnely +concerned the justice of the kingdome, and in that as much as he +could, he procured references to the Judges. Though in his nature he +had not only a firme gravity, but a severity, and even some morosity +(which his children and domestiques had evidence enough of) [yet][2] +it was so happily tempred, that his courtesy and affability towards +all men was so transcended, so much without affectation, that it +marvellously reconciled [him] to all men of all degrees, and he was +looked upon as an excellent courtyer, without receadinge from the +native simplicity of his owne manner. He had in the playne way of +speakinge and delivery (without much ornament of eloqution) a strange +power of makinge himselfe believed (the only justifiable designe of +eloquence) so that though he used very frankely to deny, and would +never suffer any man to departe from him, with an opinion that he +was inclined to gratify when in truth he was not, (holdinge that +dissimulation to be the worst of lyinge) yett the manner of it was +so gentle and oblieginge, and his condescension such, to informe the +persons, who[m] he could not satisfy, that few departed from him, +with ill will and ill wishes; but then this happy temper, and these +good facultyes, rather præserved him from havinge many enimyes, and +supplyed him with some well-wishers, then furnished him with any +fast and unshaken frends, who are alwayes procured in courtes by more +ardour, and more vehement professions and applications, then he would +suffer himselfe to be entangled with; so that he was a man rather +exceedingly liked, then passionately loved, insomuch that it never +appeared, that he had any one frende in the Courte, of quality enough +to prævent or diverte any disadvantage he mighte be exposed to, and +therfore it is no wonder, nor to be imputed to him, that he retyred +within himselfe as much as he could, and stood upon his defence, +without makinge desperate sallyes against growinge mischieves, which +he knew well he had no power to hinder, and which might probably begin +in his owne ruine: to conclude, his security consisted very much, in +the little creditt he had with the Kinge, and he dyed in a season most +opportune, and in which a wise man would have prayed to have finished +his cource, and which in truth crowned his other signall prosperity in +this worlde. + +[Footnote 1: 'Buckinghman', MS.] + +[Footnote 2: 'but', MS.] + + + + +5. + +SIR RICHARD WESTON. + +_Chancellor of the Exchequer 1621. Lord Treasurer 1628. Baron Weston +1628, and Earl of Portland 1633._ + +_Born 1577. Died 1635._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +S'r Richard Weston had bene advanced to the white staffe, to the +office of L'd High Treasurer of England, some moneths before the +death of the Duke of Buckingham, and had in that shorte tyme so much +disoblieged him, at least disappointed his exspectation, that many who +were privy to the Dukes most secrett purposes, did believe that if +he had outlived that voyage, in which he was ingaged, he would have +remooved him, and made another Treasurer: and it is very true that +greate office to had bene very slippery, and not fast to those who +had trusted themselves in it, insomuch as there were at that tyme +five noble persons alive, who had all succeded on another immediately +in that unsteady charge, without any other person interveninge, the +Earle of Suffolke, the L'd Viscount Mandevill, afterwards Earle of +Manchester, the Earle of Middlesex, and the Earle of Marleborough, who +was remooved under prætence of his age, and disability for the work +(which had bene a better reason against his promotion, so few yeeres +before, that his infirmityes were very little increased) to make roome +for the present Officer, who though advanced by the Duke, may properly +be sayd to be establish'd by his death. + +He was a gentleman of a very good and auncient extraction, by father +and mother; his education had bene very good, amongst bookes and +men. After some yeeres study of the law in the Middle temple, and at +an age fitt to make observations and reflexions, out of which that +which is commonly called exsperience is constituted, he travelled +into forrainge partes, and was acquainted in forrainge partes;[1] he +betooke himselfe to the courte, and lyved ther some yeeres at that +distance, and with that awe, as[2] was agreable to the modesty of that +age, when men were seene some tyme, before they were knowne, and well +knowne before they were præferred, or durst prætende to be præferred. +He spent the best parte of his fortune, a fayre on, that he inherited +from his father, in his attendance at courte, and involved his +frends in securityes with him, who were willinge to runn his hopefull +fortune, before he receaved the least fruite from it, but the +countenance of greate men, and those in authority, the most naturall, +and most certayne stayres to ascende by: He was then sent Ambassadour +to the Arch-Dukes Alberte and Isabella into Flanders, and to the Diett +in Germany, to treate aboute the restitution of the Palatinat, in +which negotiation he behaved himselfe with greate prudence, and with +the concurrent testimony of a wise man, from all those with whome he +treated, Princes and Ambassadours: and upon his returne was made a +Privy Councellour, and Chauncelour of the Exchequer, in the place of +the L'd Brooke, who was ether perswaded, or putt out of the place, +which beinge an office of honour and trust, is likewise an excellent +stage for men of parts to tread, and expose themselfes upon, and +wher they have occasion of all natures to lay out and spredd all +ther facultyes and qualifications most for ther advantage; He behaved +himselfe very well in this function, and appeared æquall to it, and +carryed himselfe so luckily in Parliament, that he did his master much +service, and præserved himselfe in the good opinion and acceptation +of the house, which is a blessinge not indulged to many by those high +powers: He did swimme in those troubled and boysterous waters, in +which the Duke of Buckingham rode as Admirall, with a good grace, when +very many who were aboute him, were drowned or forced on shore, with +shrewde hurtes and bruises, which shewed he knew well how and when to +use his limbes and strenght to the best advantage, sometimes only to +avoyde sinkinge, and sometymes to advance and gett grounde; and by +this dexterity he kept his creditt with those who could do him good, +and lost it not with others, who desyred the destruction of those upon +whome he most depended. + +He was made L'd Treasurer in the manner, and at the tyme mentioned +before, upon the remoovall of the Earle of Marleborough, and few +moneths before the death of the Duke; the former circumstance, which +is often attended by compassion towards the degraded, and præjudice +toward the promoted, brought him no disadvantage, for besydes the +delight that season had in changes, there was little reverence towards +the person remooved, and the extreme, visible poverty of the Exchequer +sheltered that Provence from the envy it had frequently created, +and opened a doore for much applause to be the portion of a wise and +provident Minister: For the other of the Dukes death, though some who +knew the Dukes passyons and præjudice (which often produced rather +suddayne indisposition, then obstinate resolution) believed he would +have bene shortly cashiered, as so many had lately bene, and so that +the death of his founder, was a greater confirmation of him in the +office, then the delivery of the white staffe had bene, many other +wise men, who knew the Treasurers talent, in remoovinge præjudice and +reconcilinge himselfe to waveringe and doubtfull affections, believed +that the losse of the Duke was very unseasonable, and that the awe or +apprehension of his power and displeasure, was a very necessary allay +for the impetuosity of the new officers nature, which needed some +restrainte and checque for some tyme to his immoderate prætences and +appetite of power. He did indeede appeare on the suddayne wounderfully +elated, and so farr threw off his olde affectation to please some very +much, and to displease none, in which arte he had excelled, that in +few moneths after the Dukes death, he founde himselfe to succeede him +in the publique displeasure, and in the malice of his enimyes, without +succeedinge him in his creditt at courte, or in the affection of any +considerable dependants; and yett, though he was not superiour to all +other men, in the affection, or rather resignation of the Kinge, so +that he might dispence favours and disfavours accordinge to his owne +election, he had a full share in his masters esteeme, who looked upon +him as a wise and able servant and worthy of the trust he reposed +in him, and receaved no other advice in the large businesse of his +revennue, nor was any man so much his superiour, as to be able to +lessen him in the Kings affection, by his power; so that he was in a +post in which he might have founde much ease and delight, if he could +have contayned himselfe within the verge of his owne Provence, which +was large enough, and of such an extente, that he might at the same +tyme have drawne a greate dependance upon him of very considerable +men, and appeared a very usefull and profitable Minister to the Kinge, +whose revennue had bene very loosely managed duringe the late yeeres, +and might by industry and order have bene easily improoved, and no +man better understoode what methode was necessary towards that good +husbandry then he. But I know not by what frowardnesse in his starres, +he tooke more paynes in examininge and enquiringe into other mens +offices, then in the discharge of his owne, and not so much joy in +what he had, as trouble and agony for what he had not. The truth is, +he had so vehement a desyre to be the sole favorite, that he had +no relish of the power he had, and in that contention he had many +ryvalls, who had creditt enough to do him ill offices, though not +enough to satisfy ther owne ambition, the Kinge himselfe beinge +resolved to hold the raynes in his owne handes, and to putt no further +trust in others, then was necessary for the capacity they served +in: which resolution in his Majesty was no sooner believed, and the +Treasurers prsetence taken notice,[3] then he founde the number of +his enimyes exceedingly increased, and others to be lesse eager in the +pursuite of his frendshipp; and every day discovered some infirmityes +in him, which beinge before knowne to few, and not taken notice,[3] +did now expose him both to publique reproch, and to private +animosityes, and even his vices admitted those contradictions in them, +that he could hardly injoy the pleasante fruite of any of them. That +which first exposed him to the publique jealosy, which is alwayes +attended with publique reproch, was the concurrent suspicion of +his religion. His wife and all his daughters were declared of the +Roman religion, and though himselfe and his Sunns sometimes went to +church, he was never thought to have zeale for it, and his domestique +conversation and dependants, with whome only he used intire freedome, +were all knowne Catholiques, and were believed to be agents for the +rest; and yett with all this disadvantage to himselfe, he never had +reputation and creditt with that party, who were the only people of +the kingdome, who did not believe him to be of ther profession, for +the penall lawes (those only excepted, which were sanguinary, and even +those sometimes lett loose) were never more rigidly executed, nor had +the Crovme ever so greate a revennue from them, as in his tyme, nor +did they ever pay so deere for the favours and indulgencyes of his +office towards them. + +No man had greater ambition to make his family greate, or stronger +designes to leave a greate fortune to it, yett his exspences were so +prodigiously greate, especially in his house, that all the wayes he +used for supply, which were all that occurred, could not serve his +turne, insomuch that he contracted so greate debts, (the anxiety +wherof he prætended broke his minde, and restrayned that intentnesse +and industry which was necessary for the dew execution of his office) +that the Kinge was pleased twice to pay his debts, at least towards +it, to disburse forty thousande pounde in ready mony out of his +Exchequer; besydes his Majesty gave him a whole forrest, Chute forrest +in Hampshyre, and much other lande belonginge to the Crowne, which +was the more taken notice of, and murmured against, because beinge the +chiefe Minister of the revennue, he was particularly oblieged as +much as in him lay to prævent and even oppose such disinherison; and +because under that obligation, he had avowedly and sowrely crossed the +prætences of other men, and restrayned the Kings bounty from beinge +exercised almost to any; and he had that advantage (if he had made the +right use of it) that his creditt was ample enough (secounded by the +Kings owne exsperience, and observation, and inclination) to retrench +very much of the late unlimited exspences, and especially those of +bountyes, which from the death of the Duke, rann in narrow channells, +which never so much overflowed as towards himselfe; who stopped the +current to other men. + +He was of an imperious nature, and nothinge wary in disoblieginge +and provokinge other men, and had to much courage in offendinge and +incensinge them, but after havinge offended and incensed them, he +was of so unhappy a feminine temper that he was always in a terrible +fright and apprehension of them. He had not that application, and +submissyon and reverence for the Queene as might have bene exspected +from his wisdome and breedinge, and often crossed her prætences and +desyres, with more rudenesse then was naturall to him; yett he was +impertinently sollicitous to know what her Majesty sayd of him in +private, and what resentments shee had towards him; and when by some +confidents (who had ther ends upon him from those offices) he was +informed of some bitter exspressions fallen from her Majesty, he was +so exceedingly afflicted and tormented with the sense of it, that +sometimes by passionate complaints and representations to the Kinge, +sometimes by more dutifull addresses and expostulations with the +Queene in bewaylinge his misfortunes, he frequently exposed himselfe, +and left his condition worse then it was before: and the eclarcicement +commonly ended in the discovery of the persons from whome he had +received his most secrett intelligence. He quickly lost the character +of a bold, stoute, and magnanimous man, which he had bene longe +reputed to be, in worse tymes, and in his most prosperous season, fell +under the reproch of beinge a man of bigg lookes, and of a meane and +abjecte spiritt.... + +To conclude, all the honours the Kinge conferred upon him, as he made +him a Barren, then an Earle, and Knight of the Gartar, and above +this, gave a younge, beautifull Lady, neerely allyed to him and to the +Crowne of Scotlande, in marriage to his eldest Sunn, could not make +him thinke himselfe greate enough; nor could all the Kings bountyes +nor his owne large accessions, rayse a fortune to his Heyre, but after +six or eight yeeres spent in outward opulency, and inward murmur and +trouble, that it was no greater, after vast summes of mony and greate +wealth gotten and rather consumed then injoyed, without any sense +or delight in so greate prosperity, with the agony that it was no +greater, He dyed unlamented by any, bitterly mentioned by most, who +never pretended to love him, and sevearely censured and complayned of, +by those who exspected most from him, and deserved best of him, and +left a numerous family, which was in a shorte tyme worne out, and yett +outlyved the fortune he left behinde him. + +[Footnote 1: In the MS. the words 'he travelled into forrainge parts' +occur after 'Middle temple', as well as after 'constituted'. The whole +sentence is faulty. 'After this' is inserted in the edition of 1702 +before 'he betooke'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'as' inserted in late hand in MS. in place of 'and'.] + +[Footnote 3: 'off' added in later hand in MS.; 'notice of', ll. 2, 6, +ed. 1704.] + + + + +6. + +THE EARL OF ARUNDEL. + +_Thomas Howard, fourteenth Earl of Arundel._ + +_Born 1586. Died 1646._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Arrundell was the next to the officers of State, who in +his owne right and quality, præceded the rest of the councell. He was +a man supercilious and prowde, who lyved alwayes within himselfe, +and to himselfe, conversinge little with any, who were in common +conversation, so that he seemed to lyve as it were in another nation, +his house beinge a place, to which all men resorted, who resorted +to no other place, strangers, or such who affected to looke like +strangers, and dressed themselves accordingly. He resorted sometimes +to the Courte, because ther only was a greater man then himselfe, +and went thither the seldomer, because ther was a greater man then +himselfe. He lived toward all Favorites and greate officers without +any kinde of condescention, and rather suffred himselfe to be ill +treated by ther power and authority (for he was alwayes in disgrace, +and once or twice prysoner in the tower) then to descende in makinge +any application to them; and upon these occasyons, he spent a greate +intervall of his tyme, in severall journyes into forrainge partes, and +with his wife and family had lyved some yeeres in Italy, the humour +and manners of which nation he seemed most to like and approve, and +affected to imitate. He had a good fortune by descent, and a much +greater from his wife, who was the sole daughter upon the matter +(for nether of the two Sisters left any issue) of the greate house of +Shrewsbury, but his exspences were without any measure, and alwayes +exceeded very much his revennue. He was willinge to be thought a +scholar, and to understande the most misterious partes of Antiquity, +because he made a wounderfull and costly purchase of excellent statues +whilst he was in Italy and in Rome (some wherof he could never obtayne +permission to remoove from Rome, though he had payd for them) and had +a rare collection of the most curious Medalls; wheras in truth he was +only able to buy them, never to understande ihem, and as to all partes +of learninge he was almost illiterate, and thought no other parte of +history considerable, but what related to his owne family, in which no +doubt ther had bene some very memorable persons. + +It cannot be denyed, that he had in his person, in his aspecte and +countenance, the appearance of a greate man, which he preserved in +his gate and motion. He wore and affected a habitt very different +from that of the tyme, such as men had only beheld in the pictures of +the most considerable men, all which drew the eyes of most and the +reverence of many towards him, as the image and representative of the +primitive nobility, and natife gravity of the nobles, when they had +bene most venerable. But this was only his outsyde, his nature and +true humour beinge so much disposed to levity, and vulgar delights, +which indeede were very despicable and childish: He was never +suspected to love anybody, nor to have the least propensity to +justice, charity, or compassion, so that, though he gott all he +could, and by all the wayes he could, and spent much more then he +gott or had, he was never knowne to give any thinge, nor in all his +imployments (for he had imployments of greate profitt as well as +honour, beinge sent Ambassadour extraordinary into Germany, for the +treaty of that Generall peace, for which he had greate appointments, +and in which he did nothinge of the least importance, and which is +more wounderfull, he was afterwards made Generall of the Army raysed +for Scotlande, and receaved full pay as such, and in his owne office +of Earle Marshall, more money was drawne from the people by his +authority and prætence of jurisdiction, then had ever bene extorted +by all the officers præcedent) yett I say in all his offices and +imployments, never man used, or imployed by him, ever gott any fortune +under him, nor did ever any man acknowledge any obligation to him. He +was rather thought to be without religion, then to inclyne to this +or that party of any. He would have bene a proper instrument for any +tyranny, if he could have a man tyrant enough to have bene advized by +him, and had no other affection for the nation or the kingdome, then +as he had a greate share in it, in which like the greate Leviathan he +might sporte himselfe, from which he withdrew himselfe, as soone as +he decerned the repose therof was like to be disturbed, and dyed in +Italy, under the same doubtfull character of religion, in which he +lyved. + + + + +7. + +THE EARL OF PEMBROKE. + +_William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke._ + +_Born 1580. Died 1630._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Willyam Earle of Pembroke was next, a man of another molde and +makinge, and of another fame and reputation with all men, beinge +the most universally loved and esteemed, of any man of that age, and +havinge a greate office in the courte, made the courte itselfe better +esteemed and more reverenced in the country; and as he had a greate +number of frends of the best men, so no man had ever wickednesse to +avow himselfe to be his enimy. He was a man very well bredd, and of +excellent partes, and a gracefull speaker upon any subjecte, havinge +a good proportion of learninge, and a ready witt to apply it, and +inlarge upon it, of a pleasant and facetious humour and a disposition +affable, generous, and magnificent; he was master of a greate fortune +from his auncestors, and had a greate addition by his wife (another +daughter and heyre of the Earle of Shrewsbury) which he injoyed +duringe his life, shee outlivinge him, but all served not his +exspence, which was only limited by his greate minde, and occasions +to use it nobly; he lyved many yeeres aboute the courte, before in it, +and never by it, beinge rather regarded and esteemed by Kinge James +then loved and favored, and after the fowle fall of the Earle of +Somersett, he was made L'd Chamberlyne of the Kings house more for +the Courtes sake, then his owne, and the Courte appeared with the more +lustre, because he had the goverment of that Province. As he spente +and lived upon his owne fortune, so he stoode upon his owne feete, +without any other supporte then of his proper virtue and meritt, and +lyved towards the favorites with that decency, as would not suffer +them to censure or reproch his Masters judgement and election, but as +with men of his owne ranke. He was exceedingly beloved in the Courte, +because he never desyred to gett that for himselfe, which others +labored for, but was still ready to promote the prætences of worthy +men, and he was equally celebrated in the country, for havinge +receaved no obligations from the courte, which might corrupt or sway +his affections and judgement; so that all who were displeased and +unsatisfyed in the courte or with the Courte, were alwayes inclined +to putt themselves under his banner, if he would have admitted them, +and yett he did not so rejecte them, as to make them choose another +shelter, but so farr to depende on him, that he could restrayn them +from breakinge out beyounde private resentments, and murmurs. He was a +greate lover of his country, and of the religion and justice which he +believed could only supporte it, and his frendshipps were only with +men of those principles; and as his conversation was most with men of +the most pregnant parts and understandinge, so towards any who needed +supporte or encouragement, though unknowne, if fayrely recommended to +him, he was very liberall; and sure never man was planted in a courte, +that was fitter for that soyle, or brought better qualityes with him +to purify that heyre. + +Yett his memory must not be so flattered, that his virtues and good +inclinations may be believed without some allay of vice, and without +beinge clowded with greate infirmityes, which he had in to exorbitant +a proportion: He indulged to himselfe the pleasures of all kindes, +almost in all excesses; whether out of his naturall constitution, +or for wante of his domestique content and delight (in which he was +most unhappy, for he payed much to deere for his wife's fortune, +by takinge her person into the bargayne) he was immoderately given +up to women,[1] but therin he likewise retayned such a pouer and +jurisdiction over his very appetite, that he was not so much +transported with beauty and outwarde allurements, as with those +advantages of the minde, as manifested an extraordinary witt, +and spirit, and knowledge, and administred greate pleasure in the +conversation; to these he sacrificed himselfe, his pretious tyme, +and much of his fortune, and some who were neerest his trust and +frendshipp, were not without apprehension that his naturall vivacity, +and vigour of minde, begann to lessen and decline, by those excessive +indulgences. Aboute the tyme of the death of Kinge James or presently +after, he was made L'd Steward of his Majestys house, that the Staffe +of Chamberlyne might be putt into the hands of his brother, the Earle +of Mountgomery, upon a new contracte of frendshipp with the Duke of +Buckingham, after whose death he had likewise such offices of his, as +he most affected, of honour and commaunde, none of profitt, which he +cared not for; and within two yeeres after he dyed himselfe, of an +Apoplexy, after a full and cheerefull supper. + +[Footnote 1: The words 'to women' occur twice in the MS., before +'whether out' and after 'given up'.] + + + + +8. + +SIR FRANCIS BACON. + +_Lord Keeper 1617. Lord Chancellor 1618. Baron Verulam 1618, and +Viscount St. Albans 1621._ + +_Born 1561. Died 1626._ + +By BEN JONSON. + + +[Sidenote: _Dominis Verulanus._] + +_One_, though hee be excellent, and the chiefe, is not to bee imitated +alone. For never no Imitator, ever grew up to his _Author_; likenesse +is alwayes on this side Truth: Yet there hapn'd, in my time, one noble +_Speaker_, who was full of gravity in his speaking. His language, +(where hee could spare, or passe by a jest) was nobly _censorious_. No +man ever spake more neatly, more presly, more weightily, or suffer'd +lesse emptinesse, lesse idlenesse, in what hee utter'd. No member of +his speech, but consisted of the owne graces: His hearers could not +cough, or looke aside from him, without losse. Hee commanded where hee +spoke; and had his Judges angry, and pleased at his devotion. No man +had their affections more in his power. The feare of every man that +heard him, was, lest hee should make an end. + + + + +9. + +By ARTHUR WILSON. + + +Not long after comes the great _Lord Chancellor Bacon_ to a _Censure_, +for the most _simple_, and _ridiculous follies_, that ever entred +into the _heart_ of a _Wise man_. He was the true _Emblem_ of _humane +frailty_, being _more_ than _a man_ in some things, and less than a +_woman_ in others. His _crime_ was _Briberie_, and _Extortion_ (which +the King hinted at in his Speech, when he _facetiously_ sayd, _He +thought the Lords had bribed the Prince to speak well of them_) and +these he had often condemned others for as a _Judge_, which now +he comes to suffer for as a _Delinquent_: And they were proved, & +aggravated against him with so many _circumstances_, that they fell +very _fouly_ on him, both in _relation_ to his _Reception_ of them, +and his expending of them: For that which he raked in, and scrued +for one way, he scattered and threw abroad another; for his Servants, +being young, prodigall and expensive Youths, which he kept about him, +his Treasure was their common Store, which they took without stint, +having free accesse to his most retired Privacies; and his indulgence +to them, and familiarity with them, opened a _gap_ to infamous +_Reports_, which left an unsavoury _Tincture_ on him; for where such +_Leeches_ are, there must be _putrid bloud_ to fill their _craving +Appetites_. His _gettings_ were like a _Prince_, with a strong hand; +his _expences_ like a _Prodigall_, with a weak head; and 'tis a wonder +a man of his Noble, and Gallant Parts, that could fly so high above +_Reason_, should fall so far below it; unlesse that _Spirit_ that +_acted_ the first, were too proud to stoop, to see the _deformities_ +of the last. And as he affected his men, so his Wife affected hers: +Seldome doth the Husband deviate one way, but the Wife goeth another. +These things came into the _publique mouth_, and the _Genius_ of the +_Times_ (where _malice_ is not _corrivall_) is the great _Dictator_ +of all _Actions_: For _innocency_ it self is a _crime_, when _calumny_ +sets her mark upon it. How prudent therefore ought men to be, that not +so much as their _garments_ be defiled with the _sour breath_ of the +_Times_! + +This poor _Gentleman_, mounted above _pity_, fell down below it: His +_Tongue_, that was the glory of his time for _Eloquence_, (that tuned +so many sweet _Harrangues_) was like a forsaken _Harp_, hung upon the +_Willows_, whilst the _waters_ of _affliction_ overflowed the _banks_. +And now his high-flying _Orations_ are humbled to _Supplications_,... + + * * * * * + +He was of a _middling stature_, his countenance had in-dented with +_Age_ before he was old; his _Presence_ grave and comely; of a +high-flying and lively _Wit_, striving in some things to be rather +admired than understood, yet so quick and easie where he would express +himself, and his _Memory_ so strong and active, that he appeared the +_Master_ of a large and plenteous _store-house_ of _Knowledge_, being +(as it were) _Natures Midwife_, stripping her _Callou-brood_, and +clothing them in new _Attire_. His _Wit_ was quick to the last; for +_Gondemar_ meeting him the _Lent_ before his _Censure_, and hearing +of his _Miscarriages_, thought to pay him with his _Spanish Sarcasms_ +and _Scoffs_, saying, _My Lord, I wish you a good Easter_; _And you +my Lord_, replyed the _Chancellor_, _a good Passeover_: For he could +neither close with his _English Buffonerie_, nor his _Spanish Treaty_ +(which _Gondemar_ knew) though he was so wise as publiquely to oppose +neither. _In fine, he was a fit Jewel to have beautified, and adorned +a flourishing Kingdom, if his flaws had not disgraced the lustre that +should have set him off._ + + + + +10. + +By THOMAS FULLER. + + +[Sidenote: An essay at his character.] + +None can character him to the life, save himself. He was _in parts_, +more than a Man, who in any Liberal profession, might be, whatsoever +he would himself. A great Honourer of _antient Authors_, yet a great +Deviser and Practiser of new waies in Learning. Privy Counsellor, +as to King JAMES, so to _Nature_ it self, diving into many of her +abstruse Mysteries. New conclusions he would _dig out_ with _mattocks_ +of _gold & silver_, not caring what his experience cost him, expending +on the _Trials of Nature_, all and more than he got by the _Trials at +the Barre_, Posterity being the better for his, though he the worse +for his own, dear experiments. He and his Servants had _all in +common_, the _Men_ never wanting what their _Master_ had, and thus +what came _flowing_ in unto him, was sent _flying_ away from him, who, +in giving of rewards knew no _bounds_, but the _bottome_ of his own +purse. Wherefore when King James heard that he had given _Ten pounds_ +to an _under-keeper_, by whom He had sent him a _Buck_, the King said +merrily, _I and He shall both die Beggars_, which was condemnable +Prodigality in a _Subject_. He lived many years after, and in his +Books will ever survive, in the reading whereof, modest Men commend +him, in what they doe, condemn themselves, in what they doe not +understand, as believing the fault in their own eyes, and not in the +object. + + + + +11. + +By WILLIAM RAWLEY. + + +He was no _Plodder_ upon _Books_; Though he read much; And that, with +great Judgement, and Rejection of Impertinences, incident to many +_Authours_: For he would ever interlace a _Moderate Relaxation_ of +His _Minde_, with his _Studies_; As _Walking_; Or _Taking_ the _Aire +abroad_ in his _Coach_; or some other befitting _Recreation_: And +yet he would _loose_ no _Time_, In as much as upon his _First_ and +_Immediate Return_, he would fall to _Reading_ again: And so suffer +no _Moment_ of _Time_ to Slip from him, without some present +_Improvement_. + +His _Meales_ were _Refections_, of the _Eare_, as well as of the +_Stomack_: Like the _Noctes Atticæ_; or _Convivia Deipno-Sophistarum_; +Wherein a Man might be refreshed, in his _Minde_, and _understanding_, +no lesse then in his _Body_. And I have known some, of no mean Parts, +that have professed to make use of their _Note-Books_, when they have +risen from his _Table_. In which _Conversations_, and otherwise, he +was no Dashing Man; As some Men are; But ever, a _Countenancer_, and +_Fosterer_, of another Mans _Parts_. Neither was he one, that would +_appropriate_ the _Speech_, wholy to Himself; or delight to out-vie +others; But leave a Liberty, to the _Co-Assessours_, to take their +_Turns_, to Wherein he would draw a _Man_ on, and allure him, to +speak upon such a Subject, as wherein he was peculiarly _Skilfull_, +and would delight to speak. And, for Himself, he condemned no Mans +_Observations_; But would light his _Torch_ at every Mans _Candle_. + +His _Opinions_, and _Assertions_, were, for the most part, _Binding_; +And not contradicted, by any; Rather like _Oracles_, then _Discourses_. +Which may be imputed, either to the well weighing of his _Sentence_, by +the Skales of _Truth_, and _Reason_; Or else, to the _Reverence_, and +_Estimation_, wherein he was, commonly, had, that no _Man_ would +_contest_ with him. So that, there was no _Argumentation_, or _Pro_ and +_Con_, (as they term it,) at his _Table_: Or if there chanced to be +any, it was Carried with much _Submission_, and _Moderation_. + +I have often observed; And so have other Men, of great Account; That +if he had occasion to repeat another Mans _Words_, after him; he +had an use, and Faculty, to dresse them in better _Vestments_, and +_Apparell_, then they had before: So that, the _Authour_ should finde +his own _Speech_ much amended; And yet the _Substance_ of it still +_retained_. As if it had been _Naturall_ to him, to use good _Forms_; +As _Ovid_ spake, of his _Faculty_ of _Versifying_; + + _Et quod tentabam Scribere, Versus erat._ + +When his _Office_ called him, as he was of the _Kings Counsell +Learned_, to charge any _Offenders_, either in _Criminals_, or +_Capitals_; He was never of an _Insulting_, or _Domineering Nature_, +over them; But alwayes tender Hearted, and carrying himself decently +towards the _Parties_; (Though it was his Duty, to charge them home:) +But yet, as one, that looked upon the _Example_, with the Eye of +_Severity_; But upon the _Person_, with the Eye of _Pitty_, and +Compassion. And in _Civill Businesse_, as he was _Counseller_ +of _Estate_, he had the best way of _Advising_; Not engaging his +_Master_, in any _Precipitate_, or _grievous_, Courses; But in +_Moderate_, and _Fair_, Proceedings: The _King_, whom he served, +giving him this _Testimony_; That he ever dealt, in Businesse, +Suavibus Modis; _Which was the way, that was most according to his own +Heart_. + +Neither was He, in his time, lesse Gracious with the _Subject_, +then with his _Soveraign_: He was ever Acceptable to the _House of +Commons_, when He was a _Member_ thereof. Being the _Kings Atturney_, +& chosen to a place, in _Parliament_, He was allowed, and dispensed +with, to sit in the _House_; which was not permitted to other +_Atturneys_. + +And as he was a good _Servant_, to his _Master_; Being never, in 19. +years Service, (as himself averred,) rebuked by the _King_, for any +Thing, relating to his _Majesty_; So he was a good _Master_, to his +_Servants_; And rewarded their long _Attendance_, with good _Places_, +freely, when they fell into his Power. Which was the Cause, that so +many young _Gentlemen_, of _Bloud_, and _Quality_, sought to list +themselves, in his _Retinew_. And if he were abused, by any of them, +in their _Places_; It was onely the _Errour_ of the _Goodnesse_ of +his _Nature_; But the Badges of their _Indiscretions_, and +_Intemperances_. + + + + +12. + +BEN JONSON. + +_Born 1573. Died 1637._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Ben Johnsons name can never be forgotten, havinge by his very good +learninge, and the severity of his nature, and manners, very much +reformed the Stage and indeede the English poetry it selfe; his +naturall advantages were judgement to order and governe fancy, +rather then excesse of fancy, his productions beinge slow and upon +deliberation, yett then aboundinge with greate witt and fancy, and +will lyve accordingly, and surely as he did exceedingly exalte the +English language, in eloquence, propriety, and masculyne exspressions, +so he was the best judge of, and fittest to prescribe rules to poetry +and poetts, of any man who had lyved with or before him, or since, if +M'r Cowly had not made a flight beyounde all men, with that modesty +yett to own much of his to the example and learninge of Ben. Johnson: +His conversation was very good and with the men of most note, and he +had for many yeares an extraordinary kindnesse for M'r Hyde, till he +founde he betooke himselfe to businesse, which he believed ought never +to be preferred before his company: He lyved to be very old, and till +the Palsy made a deepe impression upon his body and his minde. + + + + +13. + +By JAMES HOWELL. + +_To Sir THO. HAWK. Knight_. + + +Sir, + +I was invited yesternight to a solemne supper by _B.I._ wher you +were deeply remembred, ther was good company, excellent chear, choice +wines, and joviall welcom; one thing interven'd which almost spoyld +the relish of the rest, that _B._ began to engross all the discourse, +to vapour extremely of himself, and by villifying others to magnifie +his owne _muse_; _T. Ca._ buz'd me in the eare, that though _Ben_ +had barreld up a great deal of knowledg, yet it seems he had not +read the _Ethiques_, which among other precepts of morality forbid +self-commendation, declaring it to be an ill favourd solecism in good +manners; It made me think upon the Lady (not very young) who having a +good while given her guests neat entertainment, a capon being brought +upon the table, instead of a spoon she took a mouthfull of claret and +spouted it into the poope of the hollow bird; such an accident happend +in this entertainment you know--_Proprio laus sordet in ore; be a mans +breath never so sweet, yet it makes ones prayses stink, if he makes +his owne mouth the conduit pipe of it_; But for my part I am content +to dispense with this _Roman_ infirmity of _B._ now that time hath +snowed upon his pericranium. You know _Ovid_, and (your) _Horace_ were +subject to this humour, the first bursting out into, + + _Tamq; opus exegi quod nec Iovis ira, nec ignis_, &c. + +The other into, + + _Exegi monumentum ære perennius_, &c. + +As also _Cicero_ while he forc'd himself into this Exameter; _O +fortunatam natam me consule Romam_. Ther is another reason that +excuseth _B._ which is, that if one be allowed to love the naturall +issue of his body, why not that of the brain, which is of a spirituall +and more noble extraction; I preserve your manuscripts safe for you +till your return to _London_, what newes the times afford this bearer +will impart unto you. So I am, + + Sir, + _Your very humble and most faithfull Servitor_, J.H. +_Westmin. 5 Apr. 1636._ + + + + +14. + +HENRY HASTINGS. + +_Born 1551. Died 1650._ + +By SHAFTESBURY. + + +Mr. Hastings, by his quality, being the son, brother, and uncle to +the Earls of Huntingdon, and his way of living, had the first place +amongst us. He was peradventure an original in our age, or rather the +copy of our nobility in ancient days in hunting and not warlike times; +he was low, very strong and very active, of a reddish flaxen hair, his +clothes always green cloth, and never all worth when new five pounds. +His house was perfectly of the old fashion, in the midst of a large +park well stocked with deer, and near the house rabbits to serve +his kitchen, many fish-ponds, and great store of wood and timber; a +bowling-green in it, long but narrow, full of high ridges, it being +never levelled since it was ploughed; they used round sand bowls, and +it had a banqueting-house like a stand, a large one built in a tree. +He kept all manner of sport-hounds that ran buck, fox, hare, otter, +and badger, and hawks long and short winged; he had all sorts of nets +for fishing: he had a walk in the New Forest and the manor of Christ +Church. This last supplied him with red deer, sea and river fish; and +indeed all his neighbours' grounds and royalties were free to him, who +bestowed all his time in such sports, but what he borrowed to caress +his neighbours' wives and daughters, there being not a woman in all +his walks of the degree of a yeoman's wife or under, and under the +age of forty, but it was extremely her fault if he were not intimately +acquainted with her. This made him very popular, always speaking +kindly to the husband, brother, or father, who was to boot very +welcome to his house whenever he came. There he found beef pudding and +small beer in great plenty, a house not so neatly kept as to shame him +or his dirty shoes, the great hall strewed with marrow bones, full of +hawks' perches, hounds, spaniels, and terriers, the upper sides of +the hall hung with the fox-skins of this and the last year's skinning, +here and there a polecat intermixed, guns and keepers' and huntsmen's +poles in abundance. The parlour was a large long room, as properly +furnished; on a great hearth paved with brick lay some terriers and +the choicest hounds and spaniels; seldom but two of the great chairs +had litters of young cats in them, which were not to be disturbed, +he having always three or four attending him at dinner, and a little +white round stick of fourteen inches long lying by his trencher, that +he might defend such meat as he had no mind to part with to them. The +windows, which were very large, served for places to lay his arrows, +crossbows, stonebows, and other such like accoutrements; the corners +of the room full of the best chose hunting and hawking poles; an +oyster-table at the lower end, which was of constant use twice a day +all the year round, for he never failed to eat oysters before dinner +and supper through all seasons: the neighbouring town of Poole +supplied him with them. The upper part of this room had two small +tables and a desk, on the one side of which was a church Bible, on the +other the Book of Martyrs; on the tables were hawks' hoods, bells, +and such like, two or three old green hats with their crowns thrust +in so as to hold ten or a dozen eggs, which were of a pheasant kind +of poultry he took much care of and fed himself; tables, dice, cards, +and boxes were not wanting. In the hole of the desk were store of +tobacco-pipes that had been used. On one side of this end of the room +was the door of a closet, wherein stood the strong beer and the wine, +which never came thence but in single glasses, that being the rule +of the house exactly observed, for he never exceeded in drink or +permitted it. On the other side was a door into an old chapel not +used for devotion; the pulpit, as the safest place, was never wanting +of a cold chine of beef, pasty of venison, gammon of bacon, or great +apple-pie, with thick crust extremely baked. His table cost him not +much, though it was very good to eat at, his sports supplying all but +beef and mutton, except Friday, when he had the best sea-fish as well +as other fish he could get, and was the day that his neighbours of +best quality most visited him. He never wanted a London pudding, and +always sung it in with 'my part lies therein-a.' He drank a glass of +wine or two at meals, very often syrrup of gilliflower in his sack, +and had always a tun glass without feet stood by him holding a pint +of small beer, which he often stirred with a great sprig of rosemary. +He was well natured, but soon angry, calling his servants bastard +and cuckoldy knaves, in one of which he often spoke truth to his own +knowledge, and sometimes in both, though of the same man. He lived to +a hundred, never lost his eyesight, but always writ and read without +spectacles, and got to horse without help. Until past fourscore he +rode to the death of a stag as well as any. + + + + +15. + +CHARLES I. + +_Born 1600. Succeeded James I 1625. Beheaded 1649._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The severall unhearde of insolencyes which this excellent Prince was +forced to submitt to, at the other tymes he was brought before that +odious judicatory, his Majesticke behaviour under so much insolence, +and resolute insistinge upon his owne dignity, and defendinge it +by manifest authorityes in the lawe, as well as by the cleerest +deductions from reason, the pronouncinge that horrible sentence upon +the most innocent person in the worlde, the execution of that sentence +by the most execrable murther that ever was committed, since that of +our blessed Savyour, and the circumstances therof, the application +and interposition that was used by some noble persons to prævent that +wofull murther, and the hypocrisy with which that interposition was +deluded, the Saintlike behaviour of that blessed Martir, and his +Christian courage and patience at his death, are all particulars +so well knowne, and have bene so much inlarged upon in treatises +peculiarly applyed to that purpose, that the farther mentioninge it +in this place, would but afflicte and grieve the reader, and make the +relation itselfe odious; and therfore no more shall be sayd heare of +that lamentable Tragedy, so much to the dishonour of the Nation, and +the religion professed by it; but it will not be unnecessary to +add the shorte character of his person, that posterity may know the +inestimable losse which the nation then underwent in beinge deprived +of a Prince whose example would have had a greater influence upon the +manners and piety of the nation, then the most stricte lawes can have. + +To speake first of his private qualifications as a man, before the +mention of his princely and royall virtues, He was, if ever any, +the most worthy of the title of an honest man; so greate a lover of +justice, that no temptation could dispose him to a wrongfull action, +except it were so disguysed to him, that he believed it to be just; he +had a tendernesse and compassion of nature, which restrayned him from +ever doinge a hard hearted thinge, and therfore he was so apt to grant +pardon to Malefactors, that his Judges represented to him the damage +and insecurity to the publique that flowed from such his indulgence, +and then he restrayned himselfe from pardoninge ether murthers or +highway robberyes, and quickly decerned the fruits of his severity, by +a wounderfull reformation of those enormityes. He was very punctuall +and regular in his devotions, so that he was never knowne to enter +upon his recreations or sportes, though never so early in the +morninge, before he had bene at publique prayers, so that on huntinge +dayes, his Chaplynes were bounde to a very early attendance, and he +was likewise very stricte in observinge the howres of his private +cabbinett devotions, and was so seveare an exactor of gravity and +reverence in all mention of religion, that he could never indure any +light or prophane worde in religion, with what sharpnesse of witt so +ever it was cover'd; and though he was well pleased and delighted with +readinge verses made upon any occasyon, no man durst bringe before +him any thinge that was prophane or uncleane, that kinde of witt had +never any countenance then. He was so greate an example of conjugall +affection, that they who did not imitate him in that particular, +did not bragge of ther liberty, and he did not only permitt but +directe his Bishopps to prosequte those skandalous vices, in the +Ecclesiasticall Courtes, against persons of eminence, and neere +relation to his service. + +His kingly virtues had some mixture and allay that hindred them from +shyninge in full lustre, and from producinge those fruites they should +have bene attended with; he was not in his nature bountifull, though +he gave very much, which appeared more after the Duke of Buckinghams +death, after which those showers fell very rarely, and he paused to +longe in givinge, which made those to whome he gave lesse sensible of +the benefitt. He kept state to the full, which made his Courte very +orderly, no man prsesuminge to be seene in a place wher he had no +pretence to be; he saw and observed men longe, before he receaved any +about his person, and did not love strangers, nor very confident men. +He was a patient hearer of causes, which he frequently accustomed +himselfe to, at the Councell Board, and judged very well, and was +dextrous in the mediatinge parte, so that he often putt an end to +causes by perswasion, which the stubbornesse of mens humours made +delatory in courts of justice. He was very fearelesse in his person, +but not enterpryzinge, and had an excellent understandinge, but was +not confident enough of it: which made him often tymes chaunge his +owne opinion for a worse, and follow the advice of a man, that did not +judge so well as himselfe: and this made him more irresolute, then the +conjuncture of his affayres would admitt: If he had bene of a rougher +and more imperious nature, he would have founde more respecte and +duty, and his not applyinge some seveare cures, to approchinge evills, +proceeded from the lenity of his nature, and the tendernesse of his +conscience, which in all cases of bloode, made him choose the softer +way, and not hearken to seveare councells how reasonably soever urged. +This only restrayned him from pursuinge his advantage in the first +Scotts expedition, when humanely speakinge, he might have reduced that +Nation to the most slavish obedyence that could have bene wished, +but no man can say, he had then many who advized him to it, but the +contrary, by a wounderfull indisposition all his Councell had to +fightinge, or any other fatigue. He was alwayes an immoderate lover of +the Scottish nation, havinge not only bene borne ther, but educated by +that people and besiedged by them alwayes, havinge few English aboute +him till he was kinge, and the major number of his servants beinge +still of those, who he thought could never fayle him, and then no +man had such an ascendent over him, by the lowest and humblest +insinuations, as Duke Hambleton had. + +As he excelled in all other virtues, so in temperance he was so +stricte that he abhorred all deboshry to that degree, that at a greate +festivall solemnity wher he once was, when very many of the nobility +of the English and Scotts were entertayned, he was[1] told by one who +withdrew from thence, what vast draughts of wine they dranke, and +that ther was one Earle who had dranke most of the rest downe and was +not himselfe mooved or altred, the kinge sayd that he deserved to +be hanged, and that Earle comminge shortly into the roome wher his +Majesty was, in some gayty to shew how unhurte he was from that +battle, the kinge sent one to bidd him withdraw from his Majestys +presence, nor did he in some dayes after appeare before the kinge. + +Ther were so many miraculous circumstances contributed to his ruine, +that men might well thinke that heaven and earth conspired it, and +that the starres designed it, though he was from the first declension +of his power, so much betrayed by his owne servants, that there were +very few who remayned faythfull to him; yett that trechery proceeded +not from any treasonable purpose to do him any harme, but from +particular and personall animosityes against other men; and afterwards +the terrour all men were under of the Parliament and the guilte they +were conscious of themselves, made them watch all opportunityes to +make themselves gratious to those who could do them good, and so they +became spyes upon ther master, and from one piece of knavery, were +hardned and confirmed to undertake another, till at last they had no +hope of præservation but by the destruction of ther master; And after +all this, when a man might reasonably believe, that lesse then a +universall defection of three nations, could not have reduced a greate +kinge to so ugly a fate, it is most certayne that in that very howre +when he was thus wickedly murthered in the sight of the sunn, he had +as greate a share in the heartes and affections of his subjects in +generall, was as much beloved, esteemed and longed for by the people +in generall of the three nations, as any of his predecessors had ever +bene. To conclude, he was the worthyest gentleman, the best master, +the best frende, the best husbande, the best father, and the best +Christian, that the Age in which he lyved had produced, and if he was +not the best kinge, if he was without some parts and qualityes which +have made some kings greate and happy, no other Prince was ever +unhappy, who was possessed of half his virtues and indowments, and so +much without any kinde of vice. + +[Footnote 1: 'he was' altered to 'being' in ed. 1792.] + + + + +16. + +By SIR PHILIP WARWICK. + + +He was a person, tho' born sickly, yet who came thro' temperance and +exercise, to have as firm and strong a body, as most persons I ever +knew, and throughout all the fatigues of the warr, or during his +imprisonment, never sick. His appetite was to plain meats, and tho' +he took a good quantity thereof, yet it was suitable to an easy +digestion. He seldom eat of above three dishes at most, nor drank +above thrice: a glasse of small beer, another of claret wine, and +the last of water; he eat suppers as well as dinners heartily; but +betwixt meales, he never medled with any thing. Fruit he would eat +plentifully, and with this regularity, he moved as steddily, as a star +follows its course. His deportment was very majestick; for he would +not let fall his dignity, no not to the greatest Forraigners, that +came to visit him and his Court; for tho' he was farr from pride, +yet he was carefull of majestie, and would be approacht with respect +and reverence. His conversation was free, and the subject matter of +it (on his own side of the Court) was most commonly rational; or if +facetious, not light. With any Artist or good Mechanick, Traveller, or +Scholar he would discourse freely; and as he was commonly improved by +them, so he often gave light to them in their own art or knowledge. +For there were few Gentlemen in the world, that knew more of useful +or necessary learning, than this Prince did: and yet his proportion of +books was but small, having like Francis the first of France, learnt +more by the ear, than by study. His way of arguing was very civil and +patient; for he seldom contradicted another by his authority, but +by his reason: nor did he by any petulant dislike quash another's +arguments; and he offered his exception by this civill introduction, +_By your favour, Sir, I think otherwise on this or that ground_: yet +he would discountenance any bold or forward addresse unto him. And +in suits or discourse of busines he would give way to none abruptly +to enter into them, but lookt, that the greatest Persons should in +affairs of this nature addresse to him by his proper Ministers, or +by some solemn desire of speaking to him in their own persons. His +exercises were manly; for he rid the great horse very well; and on +the little saddle he was not only adroit, but a laborious hunter or +field-man: and they were wont to say of him, that he fail'd not to do +any of his exercises artificially, but not very gracefully; like some +well-proportion'd faces, which yet want a pleasant air of countenance. +He had a great plainnes in his own nature, and yet he was thought even +by his Friends to love too much a versatile man; but his experience +had thorowly weaned him from this at last. + +He kept up the dignity of his Court, limiting persons to places +suitable to their qualities, unless he particularly call'd for them. +Besides the women, who attended on his beloved Queen and Consort, he +scarce admitted any great Officer to have his wife in the family. Sir +Henry Vane was the first, that I knew in that kind, who having a good +dyet as Comptroller of the Houshold, and a tenuity of fortune, was +winkt at; so as the Court was fill'd, not cramm'd. His exercises of +Religion were most exemplary; for every morning early, and evening not +very late, singly and alone, in his own bed-chamber or closet he spent +some time in private meditation: (for he durst reflect and be alone) +and thro' the whole week, even when he went a hunting, he never +failed, before he sat down to dinner, to have part of the Liturgy read +unto him and his menial servants, came he never so hungry, or so late +in: and on Sundays and Tuesdays he came (commonly at the beginning of +Service) to the Chappell, well attended by his Court-Lords, and chief +Attendants, and most usually waited on by many of the Nobility in +town, who found those observances acceptably entertain'd by him. His +greatest enemies can deny none of this; and a man of this moderation +of mind could have no hungry appetite to prey upon his subjects, tho' +he had a greatnes of mind not to live precariously by them. But when +he fell into the sharpnes of his afflictions, (than which few men +underwent sharper) I dare say, I know it, (I am sure conscientiously +I say it) tho' God dealt with him, as he did with St. Paul, not remove +the thorn, yet he made his grace sufficient to take away the pungency +of it: for he made as sanctified an use of his afflictions, as most +men ever did. + +No Gentleman in his three nations, tho' there were many more learned, +(for I have supposed him but competently learned, tho' eminently +rational) better understood the foundations of his own Church, and the +grounds of the Reformation, than he did: which made the Pope's Nuncio +to the Queen, Signior Con, to say (both of him and Arch-Bishop Laud, +when the King had forced the Archbishop to admit a visit from, and +a conference with the Nuncio) _That when he came first to Court, he +hoped to have made great impressions there; but after he had conferr'd +with Prince and Prelate, (who never denyed him any thing frowardly or +ignorantly, but admitted all, which primitive and uncorrupted Rome for +the first 500 years had exercised_,) he declared he found, _That they +resolved to deal with his Master, the Pope, as wrestlers do with one +another, take him up to fling him down_. And therefore tho' I cannot +say, I know, that he wrote his _Icon Basilike_, or _Image_, which +goes under his own name; yet I can say, I have heard him, even unto my +unworthy selfe, say many of those things it contains: and I have bin +assur'd by Mr. Levett, (one of the Pages of his Bedchamber, and who +was with him thro' all his imprisonments) that he hath not only seen +the Manuscript of that book among his Majestie's papers at the Isle +of Wight, but read many of the chapters himselfe: and Mr. Herbert, +who by the appointment of Parliament attended him, says, he saw the +Manuscript in the King's hand, as he believed; but it was in a running +character, and not that which the King usually wrote. And whoever +reads his private and cursory letters, which he wrote unto the +Queen, and to some great men (especially in his Scotch affairs, set +down by Mr. Burnet, when he stood single, as he did thro' all his +imprisonments) the gravity and significancy of that style may assure +a misbeliever, that he had head and hand enough to express the +ejaculations of a good, pious, and afflicted heart; and Solomon says, +that _affliction gives understanding_, or elevates thoughts: and we +cannot wonder, that so royal a heart, sensible of such afflictions, +should make such a description of them, as he hath done in that book. + +And tho' he was of as slow a pen, as of speech; yet both were very +significant: and he had that modest esteem of his own parts, that he +would usually say, _He would willingly make his own dispatches, but +that he found it better to be a Cobler, than a Shoomaker_. I have +bin in company with very learned men, when I have brought them their +own papers back from him, with his alterations, who ever contest his +amendments to have bin very material. And I once by his commandment +brought him a paper of my own to read, to see, whether it was suitable +unto his directions, and he disallow'd it slightingly: I desir'd him, +I might call Doctor Sanderson to aid me, and that the Doctor might +understand his own meaning from himselfe; and with his Majestie's +leave, I brought him, whilst he was walking, and taking the aire; +whereupon wee two went back; but pleas'd him as little, when wee +return'd it: for smilingly he said, _A man might have as good ware out +of a Chandler's shop_: but afterwards he set it down with his own pen +very plainly, and suitable unto his own intentions. The thing was +of that nature, (being too great an owning of the Scots, when Duke +Hamilton was in the heart of England so meanely defeated, and like +the crafty fox lay out of countenance in the hands of his enemies,) +that it chilled the Doctors ink; and when the matter came to be +communicated, those honourable Persons, that then attended him, +prevayl'd on him to decline the whole. And I remember, when his +displeasure was a little off, telling him, how severely he had dealt +in his charactering the best pen in England, Dr. Sanderson's; he told +me, he had had two Secretaries, one a dull man in comparison of the +other, and yet the first best pleas'd him: _For_, said he, _my Lord +Carleton ever brought me my own sense in my own words; but my Lord +Faulkland most commonly brought me my instructions in so fine a dress, +that I did not alwaies own them._ Which put me in mind to tell him +a story of my Lord Burleigh and his son Cecil: for Burleigh being at +Councill, and Lord Treasurer, reading an order penn'd by a new Clerk +of the Councill, who was a Wit and Scholar, he flung it downward to +the lower end of the Table to his son, the Secretary, saying, _Mr. +Secretary, you bring in Clerks of the Councill, who will corrupt the +gravity and dignity of the style of the Board_: to which the Secretary +replied, _I pray, my Lord, pardon this, for this Gentleman is not warm +in his place, and hath had so little to do, that he is wanton with his +pen: but I will put so much busines upon him, that he shall be willing +to observe your Lordship's directions._ These are so little stories, +that it may be justly thought, I am either vain, or at leasure to sett +them down; but I derive my authority from an Author, the world hath +ever reverenced, _viz_, Plutarch; who writing the lives of Alexander +the great and Julius Cesar, runs into the actions, flowing from their +particular natures, and into their private conversation, saying, +_These smaller things would discover the men, whilst their great +actions only discover the power of their States._ + +One or two things more then I may warrantably observe: First, as +an evidence of his natural probity, whenever any young Nobleman or +Gentleman of quality, who was going to travell, came to kiss his hand, +he cheerfully would give them some good counsel, leading to morall +virtue, especially to good conversation; telling them, that _If he +heard they kept good company abroad, he should reasonably expect, they +would return qualified to serve him and their Country well at home_; +and he was very carefull to keep the youth in his times uncorrupted. +This I find in the Mémoires upon James Duke Hamilton, was his advice +unto that noble and loyal Lord, William, afterwards, Duke Hamilton, +who so well serv'd his Son, and never perfidiously disserv'd him, when +in armes against him. Secondly, his forementioned intercepted letters +to the Queen at Naisby had this passage in them, where mentioning +religion, he said, _This is the only thing, wherein we two differ_; +which even unto a miscreant Jew would have bin proofe enough of this +King's sincerity in his religion; and had it not bin providence or +inadvertence, surely those, who had in this kind defam'd him, would +never themselves have publish'd in print this passage, which thus +justified him. + +This may be truly said, That he valued the Reformation of his own +Church, before any in the world; and was as sensible and as knowing +of, and severe against, the deviations of Rome from the primitive +Church, as any Gentleman in Christendom; and beyond those errors, no +way quarrelsom towards it: for he was willing to give it its due, that +it might be brought to be willing to accept, at least to grant, such +an union in the Church, as might have brought a free and friendly +communion between Dissenters, without the one's totall quitting his +errors, or the other's being necessitated to partake therein: and I +truly believe this was the utmost both of his and his Archbishop's +inclinations; and if I may not, yet both these Martyrs confessions on +the scaffold (God avert the prophecy of the last, _Venient Romani_) +surely may convince the world, that they both dyed true Assertors of +the Reformation. And the great and learned light of this last age, +Grotius, soon discern'd this inclination in him: for in his dedication +of his immortal and scarce ever to be parallel'd book, _De Jure Belli +& Pacis_, he recommends it to Lewis XIII, King of France, as the most +Royall and Christian design imaginable for his Majestic to become a +means to make an union amongst Christians in profession of religion; +and therein he tells him, how well-knowing and well-disposed the King +of England was thereunto. In a word, had he had as daring and active +a courage to obviate danger; as he had a steddy and undaunted in all +hazardous rencounters; or had his active courage equall'd his passive, +the rebellious and tumultuous humor of those, who were disloyall to +him, probably had been quash'd in their first rise: for thro'-out the +English story it may be observed, that the souldier-like spirit in the +Prince hath bin ever much more fortunate and esteem'd, than the pious: +a Prince's awfull reputation being of much more defence to him, than +his Regall (nay Legall) edicts. + + + + +17. + +THE EARL OF STRAFFORD. + +_Thomas Wentworth, knighted 1611, second baronet 1614, created +Viscount Wentworth 1628, Earl of Strafford 1640._ + +_Born 1593. Beheaded 1641._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +All thinges beinge thus transacted, to conclude the fate of this +greate person, he was on the 12. day of May brought from the Tower of +London, wher he had bene a prysoner neere six moneths, to the Skaffold +on Tower Hill, wher with a composed, undaunted courage, he told the +people, he was come thither to satisfy them with his heade, but that +he much feared, the reformation which was begunn in bloode, would not +proove so fortunate to the kingdom as they exspected, and he wished, +and after greate expressyons of his devotion to the Church of +Englande, and the Protestant Religion established by Law and professed +in that Church, of his loyalty to the Kinge, and affection to the +peace and welfare of the Kingdome, with marvellous tranquillity of +minde, he deliver'd his Heade to the blocke, wher it was sever'd from +his body at a blow; many of the standers by, who had not bene over +charitable to him in his life, beinge much affected with the courage +and Christianity of his death. Thus fell the greatest subjecte in +power (and little inferiour to any in fortune) that was at that tyme +in ether of the three Kingdomes; who could well remember the tyme when +he ledd those people, who then pursued him to his grave. He was a man +of greate partes and extraordinary indowments of nature, not unadorned +with some addicion of Arte and learninge, though that agayne was more +improoved and illustrated by the other, for he had a readynesse of +conception, and sharpnesse of expressyon, which made his learninge +thought more, then in truth it was. His first inclinations and +addresses to the Courte, were only to establish his Greatnesse in +the Country, wher he apprehended some Actes of power from the[1] +L'd Savill, who had bene his ryvall alwayes ther, and of late had +strenghtened himselfe by beinge made a Privy Counsellour, and Officer +at Courte, but his first attempts were so prosperous that he contented +not himselfe with beinge secure from his power in the Country, but +rested not till he had bereaved him of all power and place in Courte, +and so sent him downe a most abject disconsolate old man to his +Country, wher he was to have the superintendency over him too, by +getting himselfe at that tyme made L'd President of the North. These +successes, applyed to a nature too elate and arrogant of it selfe, and +a quicker progresse into the greatest imployments and trust, made him +more transported with disdayne of other men, and more contemninge the +formes of businesse, then happily he would have bene, if he had mett +with some interruptions in the beginning, and had passed in a more +leasurely gradation to the office of a Statesman. He was no doubte of +greate observation, and a piercinge judgement both into thinges and +persons, but his too good skill in persons made him judge the worse +of thinges, for it was his misfortune to be of a tyme, wherin very few +wise men were æqually imployed with him, and scarce any (but the L'd +Coventry, whose trust was more confined) whose facultyes and abilityes +were æquall to his, so that upon the matter he wholy relyed upon +himselfe, and decerninge many defects in most men, he too much +neglected what they sayd or did. Of all his passyons his pryde was +most prædominant, which a moderate exercise of ill fortune might have +corrected and reformed, and which was by the hande of heaven strangely +punished, by bringinge his destruction upon him, by two thinges, that +he most despised, the people, and S'r Harry Vane; In a worde, the +Epitaph which Plutarch recordes, that Silla wrote for himselfe, may +not be unfitly applyed to him; That no man did ever passe him, ether +in doinge good to his frends, or in doinge mischieve to his enimyes, +for his Actes of both kindes were most exemplar and notorious. + +[Footnote 1: 'old' inserted in another hand before 'L'd'.] + + + + +18. + +By SIR PHILIP WARWICK. + + +The Lord Viscount Wentworth, Lord President of the North, whom the +Lord Treasurer Portland had brought into his Majestie's affairs, from +his ability and activity had wrought himselfe much into his Majestie's +confidence; and about the year 1632 was appointed by the King to be +Lord Deputy of Ireland, where the state of affairs was in no very +good posture, the revenue of the crown not defraying the standing army +there, nor the ordinary expences; and the deportment of the Romanists +being there also very insolent, and the Scots plantations in the +northern parts of that Realm looking upon themselves, as if they had +been a distinct body. So as here was subject matter enough for this +great man to work on; and considering his hardines, it may well be +supposed, that the difficulties of his employment, being means to shew +his abilities, were gratefull to him; for he was every way qualified +for busines; his naturall faculties being very strong and pregnant, +his understanding, aided by a good phansy, made him quick in +discerning the nature of any busines; and thro' a cold brain he became +deliberate and of a sound judgement. His memory was great, and he made +it greater by confiding in it. His elocution was very fluent, and it +was a great part of his talent readily to reply, or freely to harangue +upon any subject. And all this was lodged in a sowre and haughty +temper; so as it may probably be believed, he expected to have more +observance paid to him, than he was willing to pay to others, tho' +they were of his own quality; and then he was not like to conciliate +the good will of men of the lesser station. + +His acquired parts, both in University and Inns-of-Court Learning, as +likewise his forreign-travells, made him an eminent man, before he was +a conspicuous; so as when he came to shew himselfe first in publick +affairs, which was in the House of Commons, he was soon a bell-weather +in that flock. As he had these parts, he knew how to set a price on +them, if not overvalue them: and he too soon discovered a roughnes in +his nature, which a man no more obliged by him, than I was, would have +called an injustice; tho' many of his Confidents, (who were my good +friends, when I like a little worm, being trod on, would turn and +laugh, and under that disguise say as piquant words, as my little wit +would help me with) were wont to swear to me, that he endeavoured to +be just to all, but was resolv'd to be gracious to none, but to those, +whom he thought inwardly affected him: which never bowed me, till his +broken fortune, and as I thought, very unjustifiable prosecution, +made me one of the fifty six, who gave a negative to that fatall Bill, +which cut the thread of his life. + +He gave an early specimen of the roughnes of his nature, when in the +eager pursuit of the House of Commons after the Duke of Buckingham, +he advised or gave a counsel against another, which was afterwards +taken up and pursued against himselfe. Thus pressing upon another +man's case, he awakened his own fate. For when that House was in +consultation, how to frame the particular charge against that great +Duke, he advised to make a generall one, and to accuse him of treason, +and to let him afterwards get off, as he could; which befell himselfe +at last. I beleive he should make no irrational conjecture, who +determined, that his very eminent parts to support a Crown, and +his very rugged nature to contest disloyalty, or withstand change +of government, made his enemies implacable to him. It was a great +infirmity in him, that he seem'd to overlooke so many, as he did; +since every where, much more in Court, the numerous or lesser sort of +attendants can obstruct, create jealousies, spread ill reports, and +do harme: for as 'tis impossible, that any power or deportment should +satisfy all persons: so there a little friendlines and opennes of +carriage begets hope, and lessens envy. + +In his person he was of a tall stature, but stooped much in the neck. +His countenance was cloudy, whilst he moved, or sat thinking; but when +he spake, either seriously or facetiously, he had a lightsom and a +very pleasant ayre: and indeed whatever he then did, he performed very +gracefully. The greatnes of the envy, that attended him, made many in +their prognosticks to bode him an ill end; and there went current a +story of the dream of his Father, who being both by his wife, nighest +friends, and Physicians, thought to be at the point of his death, +fell suddenly into so profound a sleep, and lay quietly so long, that +his Wife, uncertain of his condition, drew nigh his bed, to observe, +whether she could hear him breath, and gently touching him, he +awaked with great disturbance, and told her the reason was, she had +interrupted him in a dream, which most passionately he desired to have +known the end of. For, said he, I dream'd one appear'd to me, assuring +me, that _I should have a son_, (for 'till then he had none) _who +should be a very great and eminent man: but--and in this instant thou +didst awake me, whereby I am bereaved of the knowledge of the further +fortune of the child_. This I heard, when this Lord was but in the +ascent of his greatnes, and long before his fall: and afterwards +conferring with some of his nighest Relations, I found the tradition +was not disown'd. Sure I am, that his station was like those turfs +of earth or sea-banks, which by the storm swept away, left all the +in-land to be drown'd by popular tumult. + + + + +19. + +THE EARL OF NORTHAMPTON. + +_Spencer Compton, second Earl of Northampton._ + +_Born 1601. Fell at Hopton Heath 1643._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +In this fight, which was sharpe and shorte, there were killed and +taken prysoners of the Parliament party above 200. and more then that +number wounded, for the horse charginge amonge ther foote, more +were hurte then killed; Eight pieces of ther Cannon and most of ther +Ammunition was likewise taken. Of the Earles party were slayne but +25. wherof ther were two Captaynes, some inferiour officers, and the +rest common men, but ther were as many hurte, and those of the chiefe +officers. They who had all the Ensignes of victory (but ther Generall) +thought themselves undone, whilst the other syde who had escaped in +the night and made a hard shifte to carry his deade body with them, +hardly believed they were loosers, + + Et velut æquali bellatum sorte fuisset + componit cum classe virum: + +The truth is, a greater victory had bene an unæquall recompence for a +lesse losse. He was a person of greate courage, honour, and fidelity, +and not well knowne till his Eveninge, havinge in the ease, and +plenty, and luxury of that too happy tyme indulged to himselfe with +that licence, which was then thought necessary to greate fortunes, but +from the beginninge of these distractions, as if he had bene awakened +out of a lethargy, he never proceeded with a lukewarme temper. Before +the Standard was sett up, he appeared in Warwickshyre against the L'd +Brooke, and as much upon his owne reputation as the justice of the +cause (which was not so well then understoode) discountenanced and +drove him out of that County, Afterwardes tooke the Ordinance from +Banbury Castle, and brought them to the Kinge; assoone as an Army was +to be raysed he leavyed with the first upon his owne charge a troope +of Horse and a Regiment of foote, and (not like other men, who warily +distributed ther Family to both sydes, one Sunn to serve the Kinge, +whilst the father, or another sunn engaged as farr for the Parliament) +intirely dedicated all his Children to the quarrell, havinge fowre +Sunns officers under him, wherof three charged that day in the +Fielde; and from the tyme he submitted himselfe to the professyon of +a souldyer, no man more punctuall upon commaunde, no man more diligent +and vigilant in duty, all distresses he bore like a common man, and +all wants and hardnesses as if he had never knowne plenty, or ease, +most prodigall of his person to daunger, and would often say, that +if he outlived these warres, he was certayne never to have so noble +a death, so that it is not to be woundred, if upon such a stroke, the +body that felte it, thought it had lost more then a Limbe. + + + + +20. + +THE EARL OF CARNARVON. + +_Robert Dormer, created Earl of Carnarvon 1628._ + +_Born 1610. Fell at Newbury 1643._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +This day fell the Earle of Carnarvon, who after he had charged and +rowted a body of the enimyes horse, cominge carelesly backe by some of +the scattered troopers, was by one of them who knew him runn through +the body with a sworde, of which he dyed within an howre. He was a +person with whose greate partes and virtue the world was not enough +acquainted. Before the warr, though his education was adorned by +travell, and an exacte observation of the manners of more nations +then our common travellers use to visitt, for he had after the view +of Spayne, France, and most partes of Italy, spent some tyme in Turkey +and those Easterne Countryes, he seemed to be wholly delighted with +those looser exercises of pleasure, huntinge, hawkinge, and the like, +in which the nobility of that tyme too much delighted to excell; After +the troubles begann, havinge the commaunde of the first or secounde +Regiment of Horse that was raysed for the Kinges service, he wholy +gave himselfe up to the office and duty of a Souldyer, noe man more +diligently obeyinge, or more dextrously commaundinge, for he was +not only of a very keene courage in the exposinge his person, but an +excellent discerner and pursuer of advantage upon his enimy, and had a +minde and understandinge very present in the article of daunger, which +is a rare benefitt in that profession. Those infirmityes and that +licence which he had formerly indulged to himselfe, he putt off with +severity, when others thought them excusable under the notion of a +souldyer. He was a greate lover of justice, and practiced it then most +deliberately, when he had power to do wronge, and so stricte in the +observation of his worde and promise, as a Commander, that he could +not be perswaded to stay in the west, when he founde it not in his +power to performe the agreement he had made with Dorchester and +Waymoth. If he had lived he would have proved a greate Ornament to +that profession, and an excellent Souldyer, and by his death the Kinge +founde a sensible weakenesse in his Army. + + + + +21. + +LORD FALKLAND. + +_Lucius Gary, second Viscount Falkland 1633._ + +_Born 1610. Fell at Newbury 1643._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +But I must heare take leave a little longer to discontinue this +narration, and if the celebratinge the memory of eminent and +extraordinary persons, and transmittinge ther greate virtues for the +imitation of posterity, be one of the principle endes and dutyes of +History, it will not be thought impertinent in this place to remember +a losse, which noe tyme will suffer to be forgotten, and no successe +or good fortune could repayre; In this unhappy battell was slayne +the L'd Viscounte Falkelande, a person of such prodigious partes of +learninge and knowledge, of that inimitable sweetenesse and delight in +conversation, of so flowinge and obliginge a humanity and goodnesse +to mankinde, and of that primitive simplicity, and integrity of life, +that if ther were no other brande upon this odious and accursed Civill +war, then that single losse, it must be most infamous and execrable to +all posterity: + +Turpe mori post te, solo non posse dolore. + +Before this parliament his condition of life was so happy, that it +was hardly capable of improovement; before he came to twenty yeeres of +Age, he was master of a noble fortune, which descended to him by the +gifte of a grandfather, without passinge through his father or mother, +who were then both alive, and not well enough contented to finde +themselves passed by in the descent: His education for some yeeres +had bene in Ireland, wher his father was Lord Deputy, so that when +he returned into Englande, to the possessyon of his fortune, he was +unintangled with any acquaintance or frends, which usually grow up by +the custome of conversation, and therfore was to make a pure election +of his company; which he chose by other rules then were prescribed +to the younge nobility of that tyme; And it cannot be denyed, though +he admitted some few to his frendshipp for the agreablenesse of ther +natures, and ther undoubted affection to him, that his familiarity +and frendshipp for the most parte was with men of the most eminent and +sublime partes, and of untouched reputations in pointe of integrity: +and such men had a title to his bosome. + +He was a greate cherisher of witt, and fancy, and good partes in +any man, and if he founde them clowded with poverty or wante, a most +liberall and bountifull Patron towards them, even above his fortune, +of which in those administrations he was such a dispenser, as if he +had bene trusted with it to such uses, and if ther had bene the least +of vice in his expence, he might have bene thought too prodigall: He +was constant and pertinatious in whatsoever he resolved to doe, and +not to be wearyed by any paynes that were necessary to that end, and +therfore havinge once resolved not to see London (which he loved above +all places) till he had perfectly learned the greeke tonge, he went to +his owne house in the Country, and pursued it with that indefatigable +industry, that it will not be believed, in how shorte a tyme he was +master of it, and accurately reade all the Greeke Historyans. In this +tyme, his house beinge within tenn myles of Oxford, he contracted +familiarity and frendshipp with the most polite and accurate men of +that University; who founde such an immensenesse of witt, and such +a soliddity of judgement in him, so infinite a fancy bounde in by a +most logicall ratiocination, such a vast knowledge, that he was not +ignorant in any thinge, yet such an excessive humillity as if he had +knowne nothinge, that they frequently resorted and dwelt with him, +as in a Colledge scituated in a purer ayre, so that his house was +a University bounde in a lesser volume, whither they came not so +much for repose, as study: and to examyne and refyne those grosser +propositions, which lazinesse and consent made currant in vulgar +conversation. + +Many attempts were made upon him, by the instigation of his mother +(who was a Lady of another perswasion in religion, and of a most +maskulyne understandinge, allayed with the passyon and infirmityes of +her owne sex) to perverte him in his piety to the Church of Englande, +and to reconcile him to that of Rome, which they prosequted with the +more confidence, because he declined no opportunity or occasyon of +conference with those of that religion, whether Priests or Laiques, +havinge diligently studyed the controversyes, and exactly reade all or +the choycest of the Greeke and Latine fathers, and havinge a memory so +stupendious, that he remembred on all occasyons whatsoever he reade: +And he was so greate an enimy to that passyon and uncharitablenesse +which he saw produced by difference of opinion in matters of religion, +that in all those disputations with Priests and others of the Roman +Church, he affected to manifest all possible civillity to ther +persons, and estimation of ther partes, which made them retayne still +some hope of his reduction, even when they had given over offeringe +farther reasons to him to that purpose: But this charity towards them +was much lesned, and any correspondence with them quyte declined, when +by sinister Artes they had corrupted his two younger brothers, beinge +both children, and stolen them from his house, and transported them +beyonde seas, and perverted his sisters, upon which occasyon he writt +two large discources against the principle positions of that Religion, +with that sharpnesse of Style, and full waight of reason, that the +Church is deprived of greate jewells, in the concealment of them, and +that they are not published to the world. + +He was superiour to all those passyons and affections which attende +vulgar mindes, and was guilty of no other ambition, then of knowledge, +and to be reputed a lover of all good men, and that made him to much a +contemner of those Artes which must be indulged to in the transaction +of humane affayrs. In the last shorte Parliament he was a Burgesse +in the house of Commons, and from the debates which were then managed +with all imaginable gravity and sobriety, he contracted such a +reverence to Parliaments that he thought it really impossible, that +they could ever produce mischieve or inconvenience to the kingdome, +or that the kingdome could be tolerably happy in the intermissyon +of them; and from the unhappy, and unseasonable dissolution of that +convention, he harboured it may be some jealousy and præjudice of +the Courte, towards which he was not before immoderately inclined, +his father havinge wasted a full fortune ther, in those offices and +imployments, by which other men use to obtayne a greater. He was +chosen agayne this Parliament to serve in the same place, and in the +beginninge of it, declared himselfe very sharply and sevearely against +those exorbitances which had bene most grievous to the State; for +he was so rigidd an observer of established Lawes and rules, that he +could not indure the least breach or deviation from them, and thought +no mischieve so intollerable, as the præsumption of ministers of +State, to breake positive rules for reason of State, or judges to +transgresse knowne Lawes, upon the title of conveniency or necessity, +which made him so seveare against the Earle of Straforde, and the L'd +Finch, contrary to his naturall gentlenesse and temper; insomuch as +they who did not know his composition to be as free from revenge as +it was from pryde, thought that the sharpnesse to the former might +proceede from the memory of some unkindnesses, not without a mixture +of injustice from him towards his father; but without doubte he was +free from those temptations, and was only misledd by the authority +of those, who he believed understoode the Lawes perfectly, of which +himselfe was utterly ignorant, and if the assumption, which was +scarce controverted, had bene true, that an endeavour to overthrow +the fundamentall Lawes of the kingdome had beene treason, a stricte +understandinge might make reasonable conclusions to satisfy his owne +judgement, from the exorbitant partes of ther severall charges. + +The greate opinion he had of the uprightnesse and integrity of those +persons, who appeared most active, especially of Mr. Hambden, kept him +longer from suspectinge any designe against the peace of the kingdome, +and though he differed commonly from them in conclusyons, he believed +longe ther purposes were honest; When he grew better informed what was +Law, and discerned a desyre to controle that Law, by a vote of one, or +both houses, no man more opposed those attempts, and gave the adverse +party more trouble, by reason and argumentation, insomuch as he was +by degrees looked upon as an Advocate for the Courte, to which he +contributed so little, that he declined those addresses, and even +those invitations, which he was oblieged almost by civillity to +entertayne: And he was so jealous of the least imagination that he +should inclyne to præferment, that he affected even a morosity to the +Courte, and to the Courtyers, and left nothinge undone which might +prevent and deverte the Kings or Queenes favour towards him, but +the deservinge it: for when the Kinge sent for him once or twice, to +speake with him, and to give him thankes for his excellent comportment +in those Councells, which his Majesty gratiously tearmed doinge him +service, his answers were more negligent and lesse satisfactory than +might be exspected, as if he cared only that his Actions should be +just, not that they should be acceptable, and that his Majesty should +thinke that they proceeded only from the impulsyon of conscience, +without any sympathy in his affections, which from a Stoicall and +sullen nature might not have bene misinterpreted, yet from a person +of so perfecte a habitt of generous and obsequious complyance with +all good men, might very well have bene interpreted by the Kinge as +more then an ordinary aversenesse to his service, so that he tooke +more paynes, and more forced his nature to actions unagreable and +unpleasant to it, that he might not be thought to inclyne to the +Courte, then any man hath done to procure an office ther; and if any +thinge but not doinge his duty could have kept him from receavinge a +testimony of the Kings grace and trust at that tyme, he had not bene +called to his Councell: not that he was in truth averse to the Courte, +or from receavinge publique imployment: for he had a greate devotion +to the Kings person, and had before used some small endeavour to be +recommended to him for a forrainge negotiation, and had once a desyre +to be sent Ambassadour into France, but he abhorred an imagination +or doubte should sinke into the thoughts of any man, that in the +discharge of his trust and duty in Parliament he had any byas to the +Court, or that the Kinge himselfe should apprehende that he looked for +a rewarde for beinge honest. + +For this reason when he heard it first whispered that the Kinge had +a purpose to make him a Counsellour, for which in the beginninge +ther was no other grounde, but because he was knowne sufficient, haud +semper errat fama, aliquando et elegit, he resolved to declyne it, +and at last suffred himselfe only to be overruled by the advice, and +persuasions of his frends to submitt to it; afterwards when he founde +that the Kinge intended to make him his Secretary of State, he was +positive to refuse it, declaringe to his frends that he was most +unfitt for it, and that he must ether doe that which would be greate +disquyet to his owne nature, or leave that undone which was most +necessary to be done by one that was honored with that place, for that +the most just and honest men did every day that, which he could not +give himselfe leave to doe. And indeede he was so exacte and stricte +an observer of justice and truth _ad amussim_, that he believed +those necessary condescensions and applications to the weaknesse of +other men, and those artes and insinuations which are necessary for +discoveryes and prevention of ill, would be in him a declension from +the rule which he acknowledged fitt and absolutely necessary to be +practiced in those imploiments, and was so precise in the practique +principles he prescribed to himselfe (to all others he was as +indulgent) as if he had lived in republica Platonis non in fæce +Romuli. + +Two reasons prævayled with him to receave the seales, and but for +those he had resolutely avoyded them, the first, the consideration +that it might bringe some blemish upon the Kings affayres, and that +men would have believed that he had refused so greate an honour and +trust, because he must have beene with it oblieged to doe somewhat +elce, not justifiable; and this he made matter of conscience, since he +knew the Kinge made choyce of him before other men, especially because +he thought him more honest then other men; the other was, least he +might be thought to avoyde it, out of feare to doe an ungratious +thinge to the house of Commons, who were sorely troubled at the +displacinge S'r Harry Vane, whome they looked upon as remooved for +havinge done them those offices they stoode in neede of, and the +disdayne of so popular an incumbrance wrought upon him next to the +other, for as he had a full appetite of fame by just and generous +Actions, so he had an æquall contempt of it by any servile expedients, +and he so much the more consented to and approved the justice upon S'r +H. Vane, in his owne private judgement, by how much he surpassed most +men in the religious observation of a trust, the violation wherof he +would not admitt of any excuse for. + +For these reasons he submitted to the Kings commaunde, and became +his Secretary, with as humble and devoute an acknowledgement of the +greatenesse of the obligation, as could be expressed, and as true +a sense of it in his hearte; yet two thinges he could never bringe +himselfe to whilst he continued in that office, (that was to his +death) for which he was contented to be reproched, as for omissyons +in a most necessary parte of his place; the one imployinge of Spyes, +or givinge any countenance or entertaynement to them, I doe not meane +such emissaryes as with daunger will venture to view the enimyes +Campe, and bringe intelligence of ther number or quartringe, or +such generalls as such an observation can comprehende, but those +who by communication of guilte, or dissimulation of manners, wounde +themselves into such trust and secretts, as inabled them to make +discoveryes for the benefitt of the State; the other, the liberty of +openinge letters, upon a suspicion that they might contayne matter of +daungerous consequence; for the first, he would say, such instruments +must be voyd of all ingenuity and common honesty, before they could +be of use, and afterwards they could never be fitt to be credited, and +that no single preservation could be worth so generall a wounde and +corruption of humane society, as the cherishinge such persons would +carry with it: The last he thought such a violation of the Law of +nature, that no qualification by office, could justify a single person +in the trespasse, and though he was convinced by the necessity and +iniquity of the tyme, that those advantages of information were not to +be declined, and were necessarily to be practiced, he founde meanes to +shifte it from himselfe, when he confessed he needed excuse and pardon +for the omissyon, so unwillinge he was to resigne any thinge in his +nature, to an obligation in his office. In all other particulars, he +filled his place plentifully, beinge sufficiently versed in languages, +to understande any that is used in businesse, and to make himselfe +agayne understoode: To speake of his integrity, and his high disdayne +of any bayte that might seeme to looke towards corruption, in tanto +viro, injuria virtutum fuerit. + +Some sharpe expressions he used against the Arch-Bishopp of +Canterbury, and his concurringe in the first Bill to take away the +Votes of Bishopps in the house of Peeres, gave occasyon to some to +believe, and opportunity to others to conclude and publish that he +was no frende to the Church, and the established goverment of it, +and troubled his very frends much, who were more confident of the +contrary, then præpared to answer the allegations. The truth is, +he had unhappily contracted some præjudice to the Arch-Bishopp, and +havinge only knowne him enough, to observe his passyon, when it may +be multiplicity of businesse or other indisposition had possessed +him, did wish him lesse intangled and ingaged in the businesse +of the Courte or State, though, I speake it knowingly, he had a +singular estimation and reverence of his greate learninge and +confessed integrity, and really thought his lettinge himselfe to +those expressyons which implyed a disesteeme of him, or at least an +acknowledgement of his infirmityes, would inable him to shelter him +from parte of the storme he saw raysed for his destruction, which he +abominated with his soule. The givinge his consent to the first Bill +for the displacinge the Bishopps, did proceede from two groundes, the +first, his not understandinge the originall of ther right and suffrage +ther, the other, an opinion that the combination against the whole +goverment of the Church by Bishopps, was so violent and furious, that +a lesse composition then the dispencinge with ther intermedlinge in +sæcular affayres would not præserve the Order, and he was perswaded to +this, by the profession of many persons of Honour, who declared they +did desyre the one, and would then not presse the other, which in that +particular misledd many men; but when his observation and experience +made him discerne more of ther intencions then he before suspected, +with greate frankenesse he opposed the secound Bill that was præferred +for that purpose; and had without scruple the order it selfe in +perfecte reverence, and thought too greate encouragement could not +possibly be given to learninge, nor too greate rewardes to learned +men, and was never in the least degree swayed or moved by the +objections which were made against that goverment, holdinge them +most ridiculous, or affected to the other which those men fancyed to +themselves. + +He had a courage of the most cleere and keene temper, and soe farr +from feare, that he was not without appetite of daunger, and therfore +upon any occasyon of action he alwayes engaged his person in those +troopes which he thought by the forwardnesse of the Commanders to be +most like to be farthest engaged, and in all such encounters he had +aboute him a strange cheerefulnesse and companiablenesse, without at +all affectinge the execution that was then principally to be attended, +in which he tooke no delight, but tooke paynes to prevent it, wher +it was not by resistance necessary, insomuch that at Edgehill, when +the Enimy was rowted, he was like to have incurred greate perill +by interposinge to save those who had throwne away ther armes, and +against whome it may be others were more fierce for ther havinge +throwne them away, insomuch as a man might thinke, he came into the +Feild only out of curiosity to see the face of daunger, and charity +to prævent the sheddinge of bloode; yet in his naturall inclination +he acknowledged he was addicted to the professyon of a Souldyer, and +shortly after he came to his fortune, and before he came to Age, he +went into the Low Countryes with a resolution of procuringe commaunde, +and to give himselfe up to it, from which he was converted by the +compleate inactivity of that Summer; and so he returned into Englande, +and shortly after entred upon that vehement course of study we +mencioned before, till the first Alarum from the North, and then +agayne he made ready for the feild, and though he receaved some +repulse in the commande of a troope of Horse, of which he had a +promise, he went a volunteere with the Earle of Essex. + +From the entrance into this unnaturall warr, his naturall +cheerefulnesse and vivacity grew clowded, and a kinde of sadnesse and +dejection of spiritt stole upon him, which he had never bene used to, +yet, beinge one of those who believed that one battell would end all +differences, and that ther would be so greate a victory on one syde, +that the other would be compelled to submitt to any conditions from +the victor (which supposition and conclusion generally sunke into the +mindes of most men, prævented the lookinge after many advantages which +might then have bene layd hold of) he resisted those indispositions, +et in luctu bellum inter remedia erat: but after the Kings returne +from Brayneforde, and the furious resolution of the two houses, not +to admitt any treaty for peace, those indispositions which had before +touched him, grew into a perfecte habitt of uncheerefulnesse, and he +who had bene so exactly unreserved and affable to all men, that his +face and countenance was alwayes present and vacant to his company, +and held any clowdinesse, and lesse pleasantnesse of the visage, +a kinde of rudenesse or incivillity, became on a suddayne lesse +communicable, and thence very sadd, pale, and exceedingly affected +with the spleene. In his clothes and habitt, which he had intended +before alwayes with more neatenesse, and industry, and exspence, then +is usuall to so greate a minde, he was not now only incurious, but +too negligent, and in his reception of suitors and the necessary or +casuall addresses to his place so quicke, and sharpe, and seveare, +that ther wanted not some men (who were strangers to his nature and +disposition) who believed him prowde and imperious, from which no +mortall man was ever more free. The truth is, as he was of a most +incomparable gentlenesse, application, and even a demisnesse and +submissyon to good, and worthy, and intire men, so he was naturally +(which could not but be more evident in his place which objected him +to another conversation, and intermixture, then his owne election had +done) adversus males injucundus, and was so ill a dissembler of his +dislike, and disinclination to ill men, that it was not possible for +such not to discerne it; ther was once in the house of Commons such a +declared acceptation of the good service an eminent member had done to +them, and as they sayd, to the whole kingdome, that it was mooved, he +beinge present, that the Speaker might in the name of the whole house +give him thankes, and then that every member might as a testimony +of his particular acknowledgement stirr or moove his Hatt towards +him, the which (though not ordred) when very many did, the L'd of +Falkelande (who believed the service itselfe not to be of that moment, +and that an Honourable and generous person could not have stooped to +it, for any recompence) insteede of moovinge his Hatt, stretched both +his Armes out, and clasped his hands togither upon the Crowne of his +Hatt, and held it close downe to his heade, that all men might see +how odious that flattery was to him, and the very approbation of the +person, though at that tyme most popular. + +When ther was any overture or hope of peace, he would be more erecte, +and vigorous, and exceedingly sollicitous to presse any thinge which +he thought might promote it, and sittinge amongst his frends often +after a deepe silence, and frequent sighes, would with a shrill and +sadd Accent ingeminate the word, Peace, Peace, and would passyonately +professe that the very Agony of the Warr, and the view of the +calamityes, and desolation the kingdome did and must indure, tooke his +sleepe from him, and would shortly breake his hearte; This made some +thinke, or prætende to thinke, that he was so much enamour'd on peace, +that he would have bene gladd the Kinge should have bought it at any +pryce, which was a most unreasonable calumny, as if a man, that was +himselfe the most punctuall and præcise, in every circumstance that +might reflecte upon conscience or Honour, could have wished the Kinge +to have committed a trespasse against ether; and yet this senselesse +skandall made some impression upon him, or at least he used it for an +excuse of the daringnesse of his spiritt; for at the leaguer before +Gloster, when his frends passionately reprehended him for exposinge +his person, unnecessarily to daunger, (as he delighted to visitt the +trenches, and neerest approches, and to discover what the enimy did) +as beinge so much besyde the duty of his place, that it might be +understoode against it, he would say, merrily, that his office could +not take away the priviledges of his Age, and that a Secretary in +warr might be present at the greatest secrett of daunger, but withall +alleadged seriously that it concerned him to be more active in +enterpryzes of hazarde, then other men, that all might see that his +impatiency for peace, proceeded not from pusillanimity, or feare to +adventure his owne person. In the morninge before the battell, as +alwayes upon Action, he was very cheerefull, and putt himselfe into +the first ranke of the L'd Byrons Regiment, who was then advancinge +upon the enimy, who had lyned the Hedges on both sydes with +Musqueteers, from whence he was shott with a Musquett on the lower +parte of the belly, and in the instant fallinge from his horse, his +body was not founde till the next morninge: till when ther was some +hope he might have bene a prysoner, though his neerest frends who knew +his temper, receaved small comforte from that imagination; thus fell, +that incomparable younge man, in the fowre and thirteeth yeere of his +Age, havinge so much dispatched the businesse of life, that the oldest +rarely attayne to that immense knowledge, and the youngest enter not +into the world with more innocence, and whosoever leads such a life, +neede not care upon how shorte warninge it be taken from him. + + + + +22. + +By CLARENDON. + + +With S'r Lucius Cary he had a most intire frendshipp without reserve +from his age of twenty yeeres to the howre of his death, neere 20. +yeeres after, upon which ther will be occasion to inlarge, when wee +come to speake of that tyme, and often before, and therfore wee shall +say no more of him in this place, then to shew his condition and +qualifications, which were the first ingredients into that frendshipp, +which was afterwards cultivated and improoved by a constant +conversation and familiarity, and by many accidents which contributed +therunto. He had the advantage of a noble extraction, and of beinge +borne his fathers eldest Sunn, when ther was a greater fortune in +prospecte to be inherited (besydes what he might reasonably exspecte +by his Mother) then came afterwards to his possessyon: His education +was æquall to his birth, at least in the care, if not in the Climate, +for his father beinge Deputy of Irelande, before he was of Age fitt +to be sent abroade, his breedinge was in the Courte and in the +University of Dublin, but under the care, vigilance and derection of +such governours and Tutors, that he learned all those exercizes and +languages better then most men do in more celebrated places, insomuch +as when he came into Englande, which was when he was aboute the age of +18 yeeres, he was not only master of the Latine tounge, and had reade +all the Poetts and other of the best Authors with notable judgement +for that age, but he understoode, and spake, and writt French, as if +he had spente many yeeres in France. He had another advantage, which +was a greate ornament to the rest, that was a good a plentifull +estate, of which he had the early possession: His Mother was the sole +daughter an[d] Heyre of the L'd Chief Barron Tanfeilde, who havinge +given a fayre portion with his daughter in marriage, had kept himselfe +free to dispose of his lande and his other estate, in such manner +as he should thinke fitt: and he setled it in such manner upon his +grandsunn S'r Lucius Cary, without takinge notice of his father or +mother, that upon his Grandmothers death, which fell out aboute the +tyme that he was 19. yeeres of age, all the lande with his very good +houses, very well furnished (worth above 2000_l._ per annum) in a most +pleasant country, and the two most pleasant places in that country, +with a very plentifull personall estate, fell into his hands and +possession, and to his intire disposall. + +With these advantages, he had one greate disadvantage, which in the +first entrance into the worlde, is attended with to much præjudice: +in his person and presence which was in no degree attractive, or +promisinge; his stature was low and smaller then most mens, his motion +not gracefull, and his aspecte, so farr from invitinge, that it had +somewhat in it of simplicity, and his voyce the worst of the three, +and so untuned, that insteede of reconcilinge, it offended the eare, +that no body would have exspected musique from that tounge, and sure +no man was lesse behol[den] to nature, for its recommendation into the +world. But then no man sooner or more disappointed this generall and +customary præjudice; that little person and small stature was quickly +founde to contayne a greate hearte, a courage so keene, and a nature +so fearelesse, that no composition of the strongest limbes and most +harmonious and proportioned presence and strenght, ever more disposed +any man to the greatest enterpryze, it beinge his greatest weakenesse +to be to solicitous for such adventures: and that untuned tounge and +voyce easily discover'd itselfe to be supplyed and governed by a minde +and understandinge so excellent, that the witt and waight of all he +sayde, carryed another kinde of lustre and admiration in it, and +even another kinde of acceptation from the persons present, then any +ornament of delivery could reasonably promise itselfe, or is usually +attended with: And his disposition and nature was so gentle and +oblieginge, so much delighted in courtesy, kindnesse, and generosity, +that all mankinde could not but admire and love him. In a shorte tyme +after he had possession of the estate his grandfather had left him, +and before he was of age, he committed a faulte against his father, +in marryinge a younge Lady whome he passionately loved, without any +considerable portion, which exceedingly offended him, and disappointed +all his reasonable hopes and exspectation, of redeeminge and +repayringe his owne broken fortune and desperate hopes in courte, by +some advantagious marriage of his Sunn, aboute which he had then some +probable treaty: S'r Lucius Cary was very conscious to himselfe of his +offence and transgression, and the consequence of it, which though he +could not repent, havinge marryed a lady of a most extraordinary witt +and judgement, and of the most signall virtue and exemplary life, that +the age produced, and who brought him many hopefull children, in which +he tooke greate delight, yett he confessed it with the most sinceare +and dutifull applications to his Father for his pardon, that could be +made, and in order to the præjudice he had brought upon his fortune by +bringinge no portion to him, he offred to repayre it by resigninge his +whole estate to his disposall, and to rely wholy upon his kindnesse +for his owne maintenance and supporte, and to that purpose he had +caused convayances to be drawne by councell, which he brought ready +ingrossed to his father, and was willinge to seale and execute them, +that they might be valid: But his fathers passyon and indignation so +farr transported him (though he was a gentleman of excellent parts) +that he refused any reconciliation and rejected all the offers which +were made of the estate, so that his Sunn remayned still in the +possession of his estate against his will, of which he founde greate +reason afterwards to rejoyce, but he was for the present so much +afflicted with his fathers displeasure, that he transported himselfe +and his wife into Hollande, resolvinge to buy some military commaunde, +and to spende the remainder of his life in that profession, but beinge +disappointed in the treaty he exspected, and findinge no opportunity +to accommodate himselfe with such a commaunde, he returned agayne into +Englande, resolvinge to retyre to a country life, and to his bookes, +that since he was not like to improove himselfe in armes, he might +advance in letters. + +In this resolution he was so seveare (as he was alwayes naturally very +intent upon what he was inclined to) that he declared he would not see +London in many yeeres (which was the place he loved of all the world) +and that in his studyes, he would first apply himselfe to the Greeke, +and pursue it without intermission, till he should attayne to the full +understandinge of that tounge, and it is hardly to be credited, what +industry he used, and what successe attended that industry, for though +his fathers death, by an unhappy accident, made his repayre to London +absolutely necessary, in fewer yeeres then he had proposed for his +absence, yett he had first made himselfe master of the Greeke tounge +(in the Latine he was very well versed before) and had reade not only +all the Greeke Historians, but Homer likewise and such of the Poetts, +as were worthy to be perused: Though his fathers death brought no +other convenience to him, but a title to redeeme an estate, morgaged +for as much as it was worth, and for which he was compelled to sell +a fyner seate of his owne, yett it imposed a burthen upon him of the +title of a Viscount, and an increase of exspence, in which he was not +in his nature to provident or restrayn'd, havinge naturally such a +generosity and bounty in him, that he seemed to have his estate in +trust, for all worthy persons who stoode in wante of supplyes and +encouragement, as Ben. Johnson and[1] many others of that tyme, whose +fortunes requyred, and whose spiritts made them superiour to ordinary +obligations; which yett they were contented to receave from him, +because his bountyes were so generously distributed, and so much +without vanity and ostentation, that except from those few persons +from whome he sometimes receaved the characters of fitt objectes for +his benefitts, or whome he intrusted for the more secrett derivinge it +to them, he did all he could that the persons themselves who receaved +them, should not know from what fountayne they flow'd; and when that +could not be concealed, he sustayned any acknowledgement from the +persons oblieged, with so much trouble and bashfulnesse, that they +might well perceave that he was even ashamed of the little he had +given, and to receave so large a recompence for it. + +As soone as he had finished all those transactions, which the death +of his father had made necessary to be done, he retyred agayne to +his country life, and to his seveare cource of study, which was very +delightfull to him, as soone as he was ingaged in it, but he was wont +to say, that he never founde reluctancy in any thinge he resolved to +do, but in his quittinge London, and departinge from the conversation +of those he injoyed ther, which was in some degree præserved and +continued by frequent letters, and often visitts, which were made by +his frends from thence, whilst he continued wedded to the country, and +which were so gratefull to him, that duringe ther stay with him, he +looked upon no booke, except ther very conversation made an appeale +to some booke, and truly his whole conversation was one continued +convivium philosophicum or convivium theologicum, inlivened and +refreshed with all the facetiousnesse of witt and good humour, and +pleasantnesse of discource, which made the gravity of the argument +itselfe (whatever it was) very delectable. His house wher he usually +resyded (Tew or Burforde in Oxfordshyre) beinge within tenn or 12 +myles of the University, looked like the University itselfe, by the +company that was alwayes founde there. Ther were D'r Sheldon, D'r Morly, +D'r Hammon, D'r Earles, M'r Chillingworth, and indeede all men of eminent +partes and facultyes in Oxforde, besydes those who resorted thither +from London, who all founde ther lodgings ther as ready as in ther +Colledges, nor did the L'd of the house know of ther comminge or +goinge, nor who were in his house, till he came to dinner or supper, +wher all still mett, otherwise ther was no troublesome ceremony or +constrainte to forbidd men to come to the house, or to make them weary +of stayinge ther; so that many came thither to study in a better ayre, +findinge all the bookes they could desyre in his library, and all the +persons togither, whose company they could wish, and not finde in any +other society. Heare M'r Chillingworth wrote and formed and modelled +his excellent booke against the learned Jesuitt, M'r Nott, after +frequent debates, upon the most important particulars, in many of +which he suffred himselfe to be overruled by the judgement of his +frends, though in others he still adhered, to his owne fancy, which +was scepticall enough even in the highest pointes. In this happy and +delightfull conversation and restrainte he remayned in the country +many yeeres, and untill he had made so prodigious a progresse in +learninge, that ther were very few classique authors in the greeke +or Latine tounge, that he had not reade with great exactnesse; He +had reade all the greeke and Latine fathers, all the most allowed +and authentique Ecclesiasticall writers, and all the Councells, +with wounderfull care and observation, for in religion he thought to +carefull and to curious an enquiry could not be made, amongst those +whose purity was not questioned, and whose authority was constantly +and confidently urged, by men who were furthest from beinge of +on minde amongst themselves, and for the mutuall supporte of ther +severall opinions, in which they most contradicted each other; and in +all those contraversyes, he had so dispassioned a consideration, such +a candor in his nature, and so profounde a charity in his conscience, +that in those pointes in which he was in his owne judgement most +cleere, he never thought the worse, or in any degree declined the +familiarity of those who were of another minde, which without +question is an excellent temper for the propagation and advancement +of Christianity: With these greate advantages of industry, he had a +memory retentive of all that he had ever reade, and an understandinge +and judgement to apply it, seasonably and appositely, with the most +dexterity and addresse, and the least pedantry and affectation, that +ever man who knew so much, was possessed with, of what quality soever; +it is not a triviall evidence, of his learninge, his witt, and his +candour, that may be found in that discource of his, against the +Infallabi[li]ty of the Church of Rome, published since his death, and +from a copy under his owne hande, though not præpared and digested +by him for the presse, and to which he would have given some +castigations. + +But all his parts, abilityes, and facultyes, by arte an[d] industry, +were not to be valewed or mentioned in comparison of his most +accomplished minde and manners; his gentlenesse and affability was so +transcendant and oblieginge, that it drew reverence and some kinde +of complyance from the roughest, and most unpolish'd and stubborne +constitutions, and made them of another temper in debate in his +presence, then they were in other places. He was in his nature so +seueare a lover of justice, and so præcise a lover of truth, that he +was superiour to all possible temptations for the violation of ether, +indeede so rigid an exacter of perfection in all those things which +seemed but to border upon ether of them, and by the common practice +of men, were not thought to border upon ether, that many who knew him +very well, and loved and admired his virtue (as all who did know +him must love and admire it) did believe that he was of a temper and +composition fitter to lyve in Republica Platonis then in fæce Romuli: +but this rigidnesse was only exercised towards himselfe, towards his +frends infirmityes no man was more indulgent: In his conversation, +which was the most cheerefull and pleasant, that can be imagined, +though he was younge (for all I have yett spoken of him, doth +not exceede his age of 25. or 26. yeeres, what progresse he made +afterwards will be mentioned in its proper season in this discource) +and of greate gayty in his humour, with a flowinge delightfulnesse +of language, he had so chast a tounge and eare, that ther was never +knowne a prophane and loose worde to fall from him, nor in truth in +his company, the integrity and cleanelinesse of the witt of that tyme, +not exercisinge itselfe in that licence, before persons for whome they +had any esteeme. + +[Footnote 1: 'as,' MS.] + + + + +23. + +SIDNEY GODOLPHIN. + +_Born 1610. Fell at Chagford 1643._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Sydney Godolphin, was a younger brother of Godolphin, but by the +provision left by his father, and by the death of a younger brother, +liberally supplyed for a very good education, and for a cheerefull +subsistance in any cource of life he proposed to himselfe; Ther was +never so great a minde and spirit contayned in so little roome, so +large an understandinge and so unrestrayned a fancy in so very small a +body, so that the L'd Falkelande used to say merrily, that he thought +it was a greate ingredient into his frendshipp for M'r Godolphin, that +he was pleased to be founde in his company, wher he was the properer +man: and it may be the very remarkablenesse of his little person +made the sharpnesse of his witt and the composed quicknesse of his +judgement and understandinge, the more notable.[1] He had spent some +yeeres in France, and the low countryes, and accompanyed the Earle of +Leicester, in his Ambassage into Denmarke, before he resolved to be +quyett, and attende some promotion in the Courte, wher his excellent +disposition and manners, and extraordinary qualifications, made him +very aceptable: Though every body loved his company very well, yett +he loved very much to be alone, beinge in his constitution inclined +somewhat to melancholique, and to retyrement amongst his bookes, and +was so farr from beinge active, that he was contented to be reproched +by his frendes with lazynesse, and was of so nice and tender a +composition, that a little rayne or winde would disorder him, and +deverte him from any shorte journy he had most willingly proposed to +himselfe: insomuch as when he ridd abroade with those in whose company +he most delighted, if the winde chanced to be in his face, he would +(after a little pleasant murmuringe) suddaynely turne his horse, and +goe home: yett the civill warr no sooner begann, (the first approches +towards which he discovered as soone as any man, by the proceedings in +Parliament, wher he was a member, and opposed with greate indignation) +then he putt himselfe into the first troopes which were raysed in the +West, for the Kinge, and bore the uneasinesse and fatigue of winter +marches, with an exemplar courage and alacrity, untill by to brave a +pursuite of the enimy, into an obscure village in Devonshyre, he was +shutt with a musquett, with which (without sayinge any worde more, +the[n] oh god I am hurte) he fell deade from his horse, to the +excessive griefe of his frends, who were all that knew him, and the +irreparable damage of the publique. + +[Footnote 1: 'notorious and' struck out in MS. before 'notable'.] + + + + +24. + +WILLIAM LAUD. + +_Born 1573. President of St. John's College Oxford 1611. Bishop of St. +David's 1621, of Bath and Wells 1626, and of London 1628. Chancellor +of the University of Oxford 1629. Archbishop of Canterbury 1633. +Beheaded 1645._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +It was within one weeke after the Kings returne from Scotlande that +Abbott dyed at his house at Lambeth, and the Kinge tooke very little +tyme to consider who should be his successour, but the very next tyme +the Bishopp of London (who was longer upon his way home, then +the Kinge had bene) came to him, his Majesty entertayned him very +cheerefully, with this compellation, My L'ds Grace of Canterbury you +are very wellcome, and gave order the same day for the dispatch of all +the necessary formes for the translation, so that within a moneth, +or therabouts, after the death of the other Arch-Bishopp, he was +compleately invested in that high dignity, and setled in his Pallace +at Lambeth: This Greate Prelate had bene before in greate favour with +the Duke of Buckingham, whose greate confident he was, and by him +recommended to the Kinge, as fittest to be trusted in the conferringe +all Ecclesiasticall præferments, when he was but Bishopp of S't Davids, +or newly præferred to Bath and Wells, and from that tyme he intirely +governed that Province without a ryvall, so that his promotion to +Canterbury was longe foreseene and exspected, nor was it attended with +any encrease of envy, or dislike. + +He was a man of greate parts and very exemplar virtues, allayed and +discredited by some unpopular[1] naturall infirmityes, the greatest of +which was (besydes a hasty sharpe way of exspressinge himselfe) that +he believed innocence of hearte, and integrity of manners, was a +guarde stronge enough to secure any man, in his voyage through this +worlde, in what company soever he travelled, and through what wayes +soever he was to passe, and sure never any man was better supplyed +with that provisyon. He was borne of honest parents, who were well +able to provyde for his education, in the schooles of learninge, +from whence they sent him to St. Johns Colledge in Oxforde, the worst +indowed at that tyme, of any in that famous university; from a scholar +he became a fellow, and then the President of that Colledge, after +he had receaved all the graces and degrees, the Proctorshipp and +the Doctorshipp, could be obtained ther: He was alwayes maligned and +persequted by those who were of the Calvinian faction, which was +then very pouerfull, and who accordinge to ther usefull maxime and +practice, call every man they do not love, Papist, and under this +senselesse appellation they created him many troubles and vexations, +and so farr suppressed him, that though he was the Kings Chaplyne, and +taken notice of for an excellent preacher, and a scholer of the most +sublime parts, he had not any præferment to invite him to leave his +poore Colledge, which only gave him breade, till the vigour of his age +was passed; and when he was promoted by Kinge James, it was but to +a poore Bishopricke in Wales, which was not so good a supporte for a +Bishopp as his Colledge was for a pri[v]ate scholler, though a Doctor. +Parliaments in that tyme were frequent, and grew very busy, and the +party under which he had suffer'd a continuall perseqution appeared +very powerfull and full of designe, and they who had the courage +to oppose them, begann to be taken notice of with approbation and +countenance, and under this style he came to be first cherished by the +Duke of Buckingham, after he had made some exsperiments of the temper +and spiritt of the other people, nothinge to his satisfaction: from +this tyme he prospered at the rate of his owne wishes, and beinge +transplanted out of his cold barren Diocesse of S't Davids, into a +warmer climate, he was left, as was sayd before, by that omnipotent +Favorite, in that greate trust with the Kinge, who was sufficiently +indisposed towards the persons or the principles of M'r Calvins +disciples. + +When he came into greate authority, it may be he retayned to keene a +memory of those who had so unjustly and uncharitably persequted him +before, and I doubte was so farr transported with the same passyons he +had reason to complayne of in his ad[v]ersaryes, that, as they accused +him of Popery, because he had some doctrinall opinions, which +they liked not, though they were nothinge allyed to Popery, so he +intertayned to much præjudice to some persons, as if they were enimyes +to the disciplyne of the Church, because they concurred with Calvin +in some doctrinall points, when they abhorred his disciplyne, and +reverenced the goverment of the Church, and prayed for the peace of +it, with as much zeale and fervency, as any in the kingdome, as they +made manifest in ther lives, and in ther sufferings with it and +for it. He had, from his first entrance into the worlde without any +disguise or dissimulation declared his owne opinion of that Classis +of men, and as soone as it was in his power, he did all he could to +hinder the growth and encrease of that faction, and to restrayne those +who were inclined to it, from doinge the mischieue they desyred to do: +But his power at Courte could not enough qualify him, to goe through +with that difficulte reformation, whilst he had a superiour in the +Church, who havinge the raynes in his hande, could slacken them +accordinge to his owne humour and indiscretion, and was thought to be +the more remisse to irritate his cholirique disposition, but when he +had now the Primacy in his owne hande, the Kinge beinge inspired with +the same zeale, he thought he should be to blame, and have much to +answer, if he did not make hast to apply remedyes, to those diseases, +which he saw would grow apace.... + +The Arch-Bishopp had all his life eminently opposed Calvins doctryne +in those contraversyes, before the name of Arminius was taken notice +of or his opinions hearde of; and therupon for wante of another name +they had called him a Papiste, which nobody believed him to be, and +he had more manifested the contrary in his disputations and writings, +then most men had done: and it may be the other founde the more +seveare and rigourous usage from him, for ther propagatinge that +calumny against him. He was a man of greate courage and resolution, +and beinge most assured within himselfe that he proposed no end in all +his actions or designes, then what was pyous and just (as sure no +man had ever a hearte more intire, to the Kinge, the Church, or his +country) he never studyed the best wayes to those ends; he thought it +may be, that any arte or industry that way, would discreditt, at least +make the integrity of the end suspected: let the cause be what it +will, he did courte persons to little, nor cared to make his designes +and purposes appeare as candid as they were, by shewinge them in any +other dresse, then ther owne naturall beauty and roughnesse: and did +not consider enough what men sayd, or were like to say of him. If the +faultes and vices were fitt to be looked into and discover'd, let the +persons be who they would that were guilty of them, they were sure to +finde no connivence of favour from him. He intended the disciplyne of +the Church should be felte, as well as spoken of, and that it should +be applyed to the greatest and most splendid transgressors, as well +as to the punishment of smaller offences, and meaner offenders; and +therupon called for, or cherished the discovery of those who were not +carefull to cover ther owne iniquitycs, thinkinge they were above the +reach of other mens, or ther power, or will to chastice: Persons of +honour and great quality, of the Courte, and of the Country, were +every day cited into the High Commissyon Courte, upon the fame of +ther incontinence, or other skandall in ther lyves; and were ther +prosequted to ther shame and punishment, and as the shame, (which +they called an insolent tryumph upon ther degree and quality, +and levellinge them with the common people) was never forgotten, +but watched for revenge, so the Fynes imposed ther were the more +questioned and repyned against, because they wer assigned to the +rebuildinge and repayringe St. Pauls Church, and thought therfore to +be the more sevearely imposed, and the lesse compassionately reduced +and excused, which likewise made the jurisdiction and rigour of the +Starrchamber more felte and murmured against, which sharpened many +mens humours against the Bishopps, before they had any ill intention +toward the Church. + +[Footnote 1: 'unpopular' substituted for 'ungracious' in MS.] + + + + +25. + +By THOMAS FULLER. + + +[Sidenote: Over-severe in his censures.] + +Amongst his humane frailties, _choler_ and _passion_ most discovered +it self. In the _Star-Chamber_ (where if the crime not extraordinary, +it was fine enough for one to be sued in so chargable a Court) He was +observed always to concur with the severest side, and to infuse more +_vinegar_ then _oyle_ into all his _censures_, and also was much +blamed for his severity to his Predecessor easing him against his +will, and before his time, of his jurisdiction. + +[Sidenote: Over-medling in State matters.] + +But he is most accused for over-medling in State-matters, more +then was fitting, say many, then needful, say most, for one +of his profession. But he never more overshot himself, then +when he did impose the _Scotch Liturgie_, and was [Greek: +allotrio-archiepis[ko]pos] over a free and forrain Church and Nation. +At home, many grumbled at him for oft making the _shallowest_ pretence +of the _Crown deep_ enough (by his powerfull digging therein) to drown +the undoubted right of any private Patron to a Church-living. But +Courtiers most complained, that he persecuted them, not in their +proper places, but what in an ordinary way he should have taken from +the _hands_ of inferior officers, that He with a _long_ and _strong +Arm_ reached to himself over all their heads. Yet others plead for +him, that he abridg'd their _bribes_ not _fees_, and it vexed them +that He struck their _fingers_ with the _dead-palsie_, so that they +could not (as formerly) have a _feeling_ for Church Preferments.... + +[Sidenote: An enemy to gallantry in Clergiemens cloaths.] + +He was very plain in apparrel, and sharply checkt such Clergymen +whom he saw goe in rich or gaudy cloaths, commonly calling them of +the _Church-Triumphant_. Thus as _Cardinal Woolsy_ is reported the +first Prelate, who made _Silks_, and _Sattens_ fashionable amongst +clergy-men; so this Arch-Bishop first retrenched the usual wearing +thereof. Once at a Visitation in _Essex_, one in _Orders_ (of good +estate and extraction) appeared before him very gallant in habit, whom +D'r _Laud_ (then Bishop of _London_) publickly reproved, shewing to +him the plainness of his own apparrel. My _Lord_ (said the Minister) +_you have better cloaths at home and I have worse_, whereat the Bishop +rested very well contented.... + +[Sidenote: No whit addicted to covetousness.] + +Covetousness He perfectly hated, being a single man and having no +project to raise a name or Family, he was the better enabled for +publick performances, having both a _price in his hand_, and an +_heart_ also to dispose thereof for the general good. S't _Johns_ +in _Oxford_, wherein he was bred, was so beautified, enlarged, and +enriched by him, that strangers at the first sight knew it not, +yea, it scarce knoweth it self, so altered to the better from its +former condition. Insomuch that almost it deserveth the name of +_Canterbury-Colledge_, as well as that which _Simon Islip_ founded, +and since hath lost its name, united to _Christ-Church_. More +buildings he intended, (had not the stroke of one _Axe_ hindred the +working of many _hammers_) chiefly on Churches, whereof the following +passage may not impertinently be inserted. + +[Sidenote: The grand causer of the repairing of Churches.] + +It happened that a _Visitation_ was kept at S't _Peters_ in +_Corn-hill_, for the Clergy of _London_. The Preacher discoursing of +the painfulness of the Ministerial Function, proved it from the Greek +deduction of [Greek: Diakonos] or Deacon, so called from [Greek: +konis] _dust_, because he must _laborare in arena in pulvere_, _work +in the dust_, doe hard service in hot weather. Sermon ended, Bishop +_Laud_ proceeded to his charge to the Clergy, and observing the Church +ill repaired without, and slovenly kept within, _I am sorry_ (said He) +_to meet here with so true an Etymologie of Diaconus, for here is both +dust and dirt too, for a Deacon (or Priest either) to work in. Yea it +is dust of the worst kind, caused from the mines of this ancient house +of God, so that it pittieth his[1] servants to see her in the dust_. +Hence he took occasion to press the repairing of that, and other +decaied places of divine worship, so that from this day we may date +the general mending, beautifying and adorning of all English Churches, +some to decency, some to magnificence, and some (if all complaints +were true) to superstition. + +[Sidenote: Principally of S. Pauls] + +But the Church of S't Pauls, (the only Cathedral in Christendom +dedicated to that _Apostle_) was the master: piece of his +performances. We know what[2] one Satyrically said of him, that +_he pluckt down Puritans, and Property, to build up Pauls and +Prerogative_. But let unpartial Judges behold how he left, and +remember how he found that ruinous fabrick, and they must conclude +that (though intending more) he effected much in that great designe. +He communicated his project to some private persons, of taking down +the _great Tower_ in the middle, to the _Spurrs_, and rebuild it in +the same fashion, (but some yards higher) as before. He meant to hang +as great and tuneable a ring of Bels, as any in the world, whose sound +advantaged with their height and vicinity of the _Thames_, must needs +be loud and melodious. But now he is turned to his dust, and all _his +thoughts have perished_, yea that Church, formerly approached with due +reverence, is now entred with just fear, of falling on those under it, +and is so far from having its old decays repaired, that it is daily +decayed in its new reparations. + +He was low of Stature, little in bulk, chearful in countenance, +(wherein gravity and quickness were well compounded) of a sharp and +piercing eye, clear judgement, and (abating the influence of age) +firme memory. He wore his hair very close, and though in the beginning +of his greatness, many measured the length of mens stricktness by +the shortness of their hair, yet some will say, that since out of +Antipathy to conform to his example, his opposites have therein +indulged more liberty to themselves. And thus we take our leave of +him. + +[Footnote 1: Psal. 102. 14] + +[Footnote 2: Lord F.] + + + + +26. + +By SIR PHILIP WARWICK. + + +Archbishop Laud was a man of an upright heart and a pious soul, but +of too warm blood and too positive a nature towards asserting what he +beleived a truth, to be a good Courtier; and his education fitted +him as little for it, as his nature: which having bin most in the +University, and among books and scholars, where oft canvassing +affairs, that are agitated in that province, and prevailing in it, +rather gave him wrong than right measures of a Court. He was generally +acknowledg'd a good scholar, and throughly verst in Ecclesiastical +learning. He was a zealot in his heart both against Popery and +Presbytery; but a great assertor of Church-authority, instituted +by Christ and his Apostles, and as primitively practised; which +notwithstanding, he really and freely acknowledged subject unto the +secular authority. And therefore he carefully endeavored to preserve +the jurisdiction, which the Church anciently exercised, before the +secular authority own'd her; at least so much thereof, as the law +of this our Realm had apply'd to our circumstances; which our common +Lawyers dayly struck at; and thro' prohibitions and other appeals +every day lessened; and this bred an unkindnes to him in many of +the long robe, however some of them were very carefull of the +Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction. + +He was a man of great modesty in his own person and habit, and of +regularity and devotion in his family: and as he was very kind to his +Clergy, so he was very carefull to make them modest in their attire, +and very diligent in their studies, in faithfully dispensing God's +Word, reverently reading the Prayers, and administring the Sacraments, +and in preserving their Churches in cleanlines and with plain and +fitting ornament, that so voyd of superstition, GOD's House in this +age, where every man bettered his own, might not lye alone neglected; +and accordingly he sett upon that great work of St. Paul's Church, +which his diligence perfected in a great measure: and his Master's +piety made magnificent that most noble structure by a Portico: but +not long after the carved work thereof was broken down with axes and +hammers, and the whole sacred edifice made not only a den of thieves, +but a stable of unclean beasts, as I can testifie, having once gone +into it purposely to observe: from which contamination Providence some +few years since cleansed it by fire. + +He prevented likewise a very private and clandestine designe of +introducing Nonconformists into too too many Churches; for that +society of men (that they might have Teachers to please their itching +ears) had a designe to buy in all the Lay-Impropriations, which the +Parish-Churches in Henry the VIII's time were robb'd of, and lodging +the Advowsons and Presentations in their own Feoffees, to have +introduced men, who would have introduced doctrines suitable to their +dependences, which the Court already felt too much the smart of, by +being forced to admitt the Presentations of the Lay-Patrons, who too +often dispose their benefices to men, rather suitable to their own +opinions, than the Articles and Canons of the Church. + +All this bred him more and more envy; but if it had pleas'd God to +have given him an uninterrupted course, and if few of his Successors +had walked in his stepps, wee might, without any tendency to Popery, +or danger of superstition, have serv'd God reverently and uniformely, +and according unto Primitive practice and purity, and not have bin, as +we are now, like a shivered glass, scarse ever to be made whole again. +Thus finding Providence had led him into authority, he very really and +strongly opposed both Popery and Presbytery. He was sensible, how the +first by additions had perverted the purity of Religion, and turned +it into a policy; but resolving not to contest Rome's truths, tho' +he spared not her errors, both Papist and Presbyter, with all their +Lay-Party, were well contented, that it might be believed, he was +Popishly affected. And being conscious likewise, how Presbytery or +the Calvinisticall Reformation, which many here, and more in Scotland, +affected, by substraction and novel interpretation, had forsaken the +good old ways of the primitive Church, and was become dangerous to +Monarchy, he sett himself against this, as well as that: but both +their weights crusht him.... + +As this good Arch-Bishop I write of, had these great eminences, so he +may be acknowledged to have failed in those prudences, which belong +unto a great Minister of State, who like a wise Physician is to +consider times and seasons, as well as persons and diseases, and to +regard those complications, which usually are mixed in ill habits of +body, and to use more alterative than purgative Physick. For popular +bents and inclinations are cured more by a steddy than precipitate +hand or counsel; multitudes being to be drawn over from their errors, +rather by wayes they discerne not, than by those, which they are +likely to contest; whilst upon single persons and great men courses +of violence and authority may be exercised. But Ministers of State +unwillingly run this course, because they would have the honour of +perfecting the work they affect in their own time; and the multitude +of this good man's busines, and the promptnes of his nature, made +those ceremonies, which are necessary by great Persons to be paid unto +men in his station, to be unwelcome unto him, and so he discharged +himselfe of them, and thereby disobliged those persons, who thought +their quality, tho' not their busines, required a patient and +respectfull entertainment. This I reflect upon, because I heard from a +good hand, that the Marquiss of Argile making him an insidious visit, +and he, knowing he neither loved him nor the Church, entertaining him +not with that franknes he should have done, but plainly telling him, +he was at that time a little busy about the King's affairs, this great +Lord took it so much in indignation, and esteem'd it such a Lordly +Prelacy, that he declaimed against it, and became (if possible) more +enemy both to him and the Church, than he was before. The rectitude of +his nature therefore made him not a fitt instrument to struggle with +the obliquity of those times; and he had this infirmity likewise, that +he beleived those forward instruments, which he employed, followed the +zeal of their own natures, when they did but observe that of his: for +as soon as difficulty or danger appeared, his petty instruments shrunk +to nothing, and shewed, from whom they borrowed their heat. + +He weighed not well his Master's condition; for he saw him circled +in by too many powerfull Scots, who mis-affected the Church, and had +joyned with them too many English Counsellors and Courtiers, who were +of the same leaven. If he had perceived an universall concurrence in +his own Clergy, who were esteemed Canonicall men, his attempts might +have seem'd more probable, than otherwise it could: but for him +to think by a purgative Physick to evacuate all those cold slimy +humors, which thus overflowed the body, was ill judged; for the good +affections of the Prince, back'd only by a naked or paper-authority, +sooner begets contumacy, than complyance in dissaffected Subjects.... + +And this shall suffice to be said of that well intentioned, but +not truly considerative, great man, unles wee add this single thing +further, that he who looks upon him thro' those Canons, which in +Synod passed in his time, will find him a true Assertor of Religion, +Royalty, and Property; and that his grand designe was no other, than +that of our first Reformation; which was, that our Church might stand +upon such a foot of Primitive and Ecclesiastick authority, as suited +with God's word, and the best Interpreters of it, sound reason and +Primitive practice. And untill this Nation is blest with such a +spirit, it will lye in that darknes and confusion the Sects at this +time have flung it into. + + + + +27. + +WILLIAM JUXON. + +_Born 1582. President of St. John's College Oxford, 1621. Bishop of +London 1633-49. Lord Treasurer 1635-41. Archbishop of Canterbury 1660. +Died 1663_. + +By SIR PHILIP WARWICK. + + +Having thus described one great Church-man, wee may the more fitly +make mention of another, because they were so intimate and bosome +Friends, and because this first is supposed to have introduced the +last into that eminent employment of Lord Treasurer. Had nature +mingled their tempers, and allayed the one by the prudence and +foresight of the other, or inspirited the other by the zeal and +activity of his Friend, nature had framed a better paist, than usually +she doth, when she is most exact in her work about mankind: sincerity +and integrity being eminent in them both. This reverend Prelate, Dr. +Juxon, then Bishop of London, was of a meek spirit, and of a solid and +steddy judgment; and having addicted his first studies to the Civil +Law, (from which he took his title of Doctor, tho' he afterwards took +on him the Ministry) this fitted him the more for Secular and State +affairs. His temper and prudence wrought so upon all men, that tho' +he had the two most invidious characters both in the Ecclesiasticall +and Civil State; one of a Bishop, the other of a Lord Treasurer: yet +neither drew envy on him; tho' the humor of the times tended to brand +all great men in employment. About the year 1634 the Lord Portland +dyed, and the Treasury was put into Commission; by which means the +true state thereof became distinctly to be known: and in the year +1635, this good and judicious man had the white staff put into his +hand: and tho' he found the revenue low and much anticipated, yet +withall meeting with times peaceable and regular, and his Master +enclined to be frugall, he held up the dignity and honor of his +Majestie's Houshold, and the splendor of the Court, and all publick +expences, and justice in all contracts; so as there were as few +dissatisfactions in his time, as perchance in any, and yet he cleared +off the anticipations on the revenue, and sett his Master beforehand. +The choice of this good man shewed, how remote it was from this King's +intentions, to be either tyrannicall or arbitrary; for so well he +demeaned himselfe thro' his whole seaven years employment, that +neither as Bishop or Treasurer, came there any one accusation against +him in that last Parliament 1640, whose eares were opened, nay itching +after such complaints. Nay even after the King's being driven from +London, he remained at his house, belonging to his Bishoprick, in +Fulham, and sometimes was visited by some of the Grandees, and found +respect from all, and yet walked steddily in his old paths. And +he retained so much of his Master's favour, that when the King was +admitted to any Treaty with the two Houses Commissioners, he alwayes +commanded his attendance on him: for he ever valued his advice. I +remember, that the King, being busy in dispatching some letters with +his own pen, commanded me to wait on the Bishop, and to bring him back +his opinion in a certaine affaire: I humbly pray'd his Majestie, that +I might rather bring him with me, least I should not expresse his +Majestie's sense fully, nor bring back his so significantly, as he +meant it; and because there might be need for him further to explain +himselfe, and least he should not speake freely to me: to which the +King replyed, _Go, as I bid you, if he will speak freely to any body, +he will speak freely to you: This_ (the King said) _I will say of him, +I never gott his opinion freely in my life, but when I had it, I was +ever the better for it_. This character of so judicious a Prince +I could not omitt, because it carried in it the reason of that +confidence, that called him to be his Majestie's Confessor before his +death, and to be his Attendant on the scaffold at his death; so as all +Persons concurring thus about this good Prelate, wee may modestly say, +he was an eminent man. + + + + +28. + +THE MARQUIS OF HERTFORD. + +_William Seymour, second Earl of Hertford 1621, created Marquis of +Hertford 1641, and Duke of Somerset 1660._ + +_Born 1588. Died 1660_. + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Marquis of Hartforde was a man of greate honour, greate interest +in fortune and estate, and of a universall esteeme over the kingdome; +and though he had receaved many and continued disobligations from the +Courte, from the tyme of this Kings comminge to the Crowne as well +as duringe the rainge of Kinge James, in both which seasons more +then ordinary care had bene taken to discountenance and lessen his +interest, yett he had carryed himselfe with notable steddinesse from +the beginninge of the Parliament in the supporte and defence of the +Kings power and dignity, notwithstandinge all his Allyes, and those +with whome he had the greatest familiarity and frendshipp were of +the opposite party, and never concurred with them against the Earle +of Straforde (whome he was knowne not to love) nor in any other +extravagancy: and then he was not to be shaken in his affection to +the goverment of the church, though it was enough knowne that he was +in no degree byassed by any greate inclination to the person of any +Church-man: and with all this, that party carryed themselves towards +him with profounde respecte, not præsuminge to venture ther owne +creditt in endeavoringe to lessen his. + +It is very true, in many respects he wanted those qualityes, which +might have bene wished to be in a person to be trusted in the +education of a greate and a hopefull Prince, and in the forminge his +minde and manners in so tender an age: he was of an age not fitt for +much activity and fatigue, and loved and was even wedded so much to +his ease, that he loved his booke above all exercizes, and had even +contracted such a lazinesse of minde, that he had no delight in an +open and liberall conversation, and cared not to discource and argue +in those points which he understoode very well, only for the trouble +of contendinge, and could never impose upon himselfe the payne that +was necessary to be undergone in such a perpetuall attendance. But +then those lesser dutyes might be otherwise provided for, and he could +well supporte the dignity of a Governour, and exacte that diligence +from others, which he could not exercize himselfe, and his honour +was so unblemished, that none durst murmure against the designation, +and therfore his Majesty thought him very worthy of the high trust, +against which ther was no other exception, but that he was not +ambitious of it, nor in truth willinge to receave and undergo the +charge, so contrary to his naturall constitution; but [in] his pure +zeale and affection for the Crowne, and the conscience that in this +conjuncture his submission might ad[v]ance the Kings service, and that +the refusinge it might proove disadvantagious to his Majesty, he very +cheerefully undertooke the Province, to the generall satisfaction and +publique joy of the whole kingdome, and to the no little honour and +creditt of the Courte, that so important and beloved a person would +attacque himselfe to it, under such a relation, when so many who had +scarce ever eaten any breade, but the Kings, detached themselves +from ther dependance, that they might without him, and against him, +præserve and improove those fortunes which they had procured and +gotten under him, and by his bounty. + + + + +29. + +THE MARQUIS OF NEWCASTLE. + +_William Cavendish, created Viscount Mansfield 1620, Earl of Newcastle +1628, Marquis 1643, and Duke 1665._ + +_Born 1592. Died 1676._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +All that can be said for the Marquiss is, that he was so utterly tired +with a condition and employment so contrary to his Humour, Nature, and +Education, that he did not at all consider the means, or the way that +would let him out of it, and free him for ever from having more to do +with it. And it was a greater wonder, that he sustained the vexation +and fatigue of it so long, than that he broke from it with so little +circumspection. He was a very fine Gentleman, active, and full of +Courage, and most accomplish'd in those Qualities of Horsemanship, +Dancing, and Fencing, which accompany a good breeding; in which his +delight was. Besides that he was amorous in Poetry, and Musick, to +which he indulged the greatest part of his time; and nothing could +have tempted him out of those paths of pleasure, which he enjoyed in a +full and ample fortune, but honour and ambition to serve the King when +he saw him in distress, and abandoned by most of those who were in the +highest degree obliged to him, and by him. He loved Monarchy, as it +was the foundation and support of his own greatness, and the Church, +as it was well constituted for the splendour and security of the +Crown, and Religion, as it cherished, and maintained that Order and +Obedience that was necessary to both; without any other passion for +the particular Opinions which were grown up in it, and distinguished +it into Parties, than as he detested whatsoever was like to disturb +the publick peace. + +He had a particular Reverence for the Person of the King, and the +more extraordinary Devotion for that of the Prince, as he had had the +honour to be trusted with is Education as his Governour; for which +office, as he excelled in some, so he wanted other Qualifications. +Though he had retired from his great Trust, and from the Court, +to decline the insupportable Envie which the powerfull Faction had +contracted against him, yet the King was no sooner necessitated to +possess himself of some place of strength, and to raise some force +for his defence, but the Earl of Newcastle (he was made Marquiss +afterwards) obeyed his first call, and, with great expedition and +dexterity, seised upon that Town; when till then there was not one +port town in England, that avowed their obedience to the King: and +he then presently raised such Regiments of Horse and Foot, as were +necessary for the present state of Affairs; all which was done purely +by his own Interest, and the concurrence of his numerous Allies in +those Northern parts; who with all alacrity obeyed his Commands, +without any charge to the King, which he was not able to supply. + +And after the Battle of Edge Hill, when the Rebells grew so strong in +Yorkshire, by the influence their Garrison of Hull had upon both the +East and West riding there, that it behoved the King presently to make +a General, who might unite all those Northern Counties in his Service, +he could not choose any Man so fit for it as the Earl of Newcastle, +who was not only possessed of a present force, and of that important +Town, but had a greater Reputation and Interest in Yorkshire itself, +than at that present any other Man had: the Earl of Cumberland being +at that time, though of entire affection to the King, much decayed +in the vigour of his Body, and his mind, and unfit for that Activity +which the Season required. And it cannot be denied, that the Earl +of Newcastle, by his quick march with his Troops, as soon as he had +received his Commission to be General, and in the depth of Winter, +redeemed, or rescued the City of York from the Rebells, when they +looked upon it as their own, and had it even within their grasp: and +as soon as he was Master of it, he raised Men apace, and drew an Army +together, with which he fought many Battles, in which he had always +(this last only excepted) Success and Victory. + +He liked the Pomp, and absolute Authority of a General well, and +preserved the dignity of it to the full; and for the discharge of +the outward State, and Circumstances of it, in acts of Courtesy, +Affability, Bounty, and Generosity, he abounded; which in the infancie +of a war became him, and made him, for some time, very acceptable +to Men of all conditions. But the substantial part, and fatigue +of a General, he did not in any degree understand (being utterly +unacquainted with War) nor could submit to; but referred all matters +of that Nature to the discretion of his Lieutenant General King, who, +no doubt, was an officer of great experience and ability, yet being +a Scotch Man was, in that conjuncture, upon more disadvantage than he +would have been, if the General himself had been more intent upon his +Command. In all Actions of the feild he was still present, and never +absent in any Battle; in all which he gave Instances of an invincible +courage and fearlessness in danger; in which the exposing himself +notoriously did sometimes change the fortune of the day, when his +Troops begun to give ground. Such Articles of action were no sooner +over, than he retired to his delightfull Company, Musick, or his +softer pleasures, to all which he was so indulgent, and to his ease, +that he would not be interrupted upon what occasion soever; insomuch +as he sometimes denied Admission to the Chiefest Officers of the Army, +even to General King himself, for two days together; from whence many +Inconveniencies fell out. + + + + +30. + +THE LORD DIGBY. + +_George Digby, second Earl of Bristol 1653._ + +_Born 1612. Died 1677._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +By what hath bene sayde before, it appeares that the L'd Digby was +much trusted by the Kinge, and he was of greate familiarity and +frendshipp with the other three, at least with two of them, for he was +not a man of that exactnesse, as to be in the intire confidence of +the L'd Falkeland, who looked upon his infirmityes with more severity, +then the other two did, and he lived with more franknesse towards +those two, then he did towards the other, yett betweene them two ther +was a free conversation and kindnesse to each other. He was a man +of very extraordinary parts, by nature and arte, and had surely +as good and excellent an education as any man of that age in any +country, a gracefull and beautifull person, of greate eloquence +and becommingnesse in his discource (save that sometimes he seemed +a little affected) and of so universall a knowledge, that he never +wanted subjecte for a discource; he was æquall to a very good parte +in the greatest affayre, but the unfittest man alive to conducte it, +havinge an ambition and vanity superiour to all his other parts, +and a confidence peculiar to himselfe, which sometimes intoxicated, +and transported, and exposed him. He had from his youth, by the +disobligations his family had undergone from the Duke of Buckingham +and the greate men who succeeded him, and some sharpe reprehension +himselfe had mett with, which oblieged him to a country life, +contracted a præjudice and ill will to the Courte, and so had in the +beginninge of the Parliament ingaged himselfe with that party which +discover'd most aversion from it, with a passion and animosity æquall +to ther owne, and therfore very acceptable to them. But when he was +weary of ther violent councells, and withdrew himselfe from them, +with some circumstances which enough provoked them, and made a +reconciliation and mutuall confidence in each other for the future +manifestly impossible, he made private and secrett offerrs of his +service to the Kinge, to whome in so generall a defection of his +servants it could not but be very agreable, and so his Majesty beinge +satisfyed both in the discoveryes he made of what had passed, and +in his professions for the future, remooved him from the house of +Commons, wher he had rendred himselfe marvellously ungratious, and +called him by writt to the house of Peeres, wher he did visibly +advance the Kings service, and quickly rendred himselfe gratefull to +all those, who had not thought to well of him before, when he deserved +less, and men were not only pleased with the assistance he gave upon +all debates, by his judgement and vivacity, but looked upon him as +one who could deryve the Kings pleasure to them, and make a lively +representation of ther good demeanour to the Kinge, which he was very +luxuriant in promisinge to doe, and officious enough in doinge as much +as was just. He had bene instrumentall in promotinge the three persons +above mencioned to the Kings favour, and had himselfe in truth so +greate an esteeme of them, that he did very frequently upon conference +togither departe from his owne inclinations and opinions, and +concurred in thers; and very few men of so greate parts are upon all +occasyons more councellable then he, so that he would seldome be in +daunger of runninge into greate errors, if he would communicate and +expose all his owne thoughts and inclinations to such a disquicition, +nor is he uninclinable in his nature to such an intire communication +in all things which he conceaves to be difficulte; but his fatall +infirmity is, that he to often thinkes difficulte things very easy, +and doth not consider possible consequences, when the proposition +administers somewhat that is delighfull to his fancy, and by pursuinge +wherof he imagynes he shall reape some glory to himselfe, of which +he is immoderately ambitious, so that if the consultation be upon +any action to be done, no man more implicitely enters into that +debate, or more cheerefully resignes his owne conceptions to a joynt +determination, but when it is once affirmatively resolved, besydes +that he may possibly reserve some impertinent circumstance as he +thinkes, the impartinge wherof would change the nature of the thinge, +if his fancy suggests to him any particular which himselfe might +performe in that action, upon the imagination that every body would +approove it, if it were proposed to them, he chooses rather to do it, +then to communicate, that he may have some signall parte to himselfe +in the transaction, in which no other person can clayme a share; +and by this unhappy temper, he did often involve himselfe in very +unprosperous attempts. The Kinge himselfe was the unfittest person +alive to be served by such a Councellour, beinge to easily inclined to +suddayne enterprizes, and as easily amazed when they were entred upon; +and from this unhappy composition in the one and the other, a very +unhappy councell was entred upon, and resolution taken, without the +least communication with ether of the three, which had bene so lately +admitted to an intire truste. + + + + +31. + +THE LORD CAPEL. + +_Arthur Capel, created Baron Capel 1641._ + +_Born 1610. Beheaded 1649._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +He was a man, in whome the malice of his enimyes could discover very +few faultes, and whome his frends could not wish better accomplished, +whome Crumwells owne character well described, and who indeede could +never have bene contented to have lived under that government, whose +memory all men loved and reverenced, though few followed his example. +He had alwayes lyved in a state of greate plenty and generall +estimation, havinge a very noble fortune of his owne by descent, and +a fayre addition to it, by his marriage with an excellent wife, a Lady +of a very worthy extraction, of greate virtue and beauty, by whome he +had a numerous issue of both sexes, in which he tooke greate joy and +comfort, so that no man was more happy in all his domestique affayres, +and so much the more happy, in that he thought himselfe most blessed +in them, and yett the Kings honour was no sooner violated and his +just power invaded, then he threw all those blessings behinde him, and +havinge no other obligations to the Crowne, then those which his owne +honour and conscience suggested to him, he frankely engaged his person +and his fortune from the beginninge of the troubles, as many others +did, in all actions and enterpryzes of the greatest hazarde and +daunger, and continewed to the end, without ever makinge one false +stepp, as few others did, though he had once, by the iniquity of a +faction that then prævayled, an indignity putt upon him, that might +have excused him, for some remission of his former warmth, but it made +no other impressyon upon him, then to be quyett and contented whilst +they would lett him alone, and with the same cheerefulnesse to obey +the first summons, when he was called out, which was quickly after: +in a worde he was a man, that whoever shall after him deserve best in +that nation, shall never thinke himselfe undervalewed, when he shall +heare that his courage, virtue, and fidelity is layde in the balance +with, and compared to that of the Lord Capell. + + + + +32. + +ROYALIST GENERALS. + +PATRICK RUTHVEN, EARL OF BRENTFORD (1573-1651). + +PRINCE RUPERT (1619-82). + +GEORGE, LORD GORING (1608-57). + +HENRY WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER (1612-58). + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Army was lesse united then ever; the old Generall was sett asyde +and Prince Rupert putt into the commaunde, which was no popular +chaunge, for the other was knowne to be an officer of greate +exsperience, and had committed no oversights in his conducte, was +willinge to heare every thinge debated, and alwayes concurred with the +most reasonable opinion, and though he was not of many wordes, and +was not quicke in hearinge, yett upon any action, he was sprightly and +commaunded well; The Prince was rough, and passionate and loved not +debate, liked what was proposed, as he liked the persons who proposed +it, and was so greate an enimy to Digby and Culpeper, who were only +present in debates of the Warr with the Officers, that he crossed all +they proposed. The truth is, all the Army had bene disposed from the +first raysinge it, to a neglecte and contempt of the Councell, and +the Kinge himselfe had not bene sollicitous enough to præserve the +respecte due to it, in which he lost of his owne dignity. Goringe who +was now Generall of the Horse, was no more gratious to Prince Rupert +then Wilmott had bene, and had all the others faults, and wanted his +regularity and preservinge his respects with the officers; Wilmott +loved deboshry, but shutt it out from his businesse, and never +neglected that, and rarely miscarryed in it; Goringe had much a better +understandinge, and a sharper witt, except in the very exercise of +deboshry, and then the other was inspired, a much keener courage, and +presentnesse of minde in daunger; Wilmott decerned it farther off, and +because he could not behave himselfe so well in it, commonly prevented +or warily declined it, and never dranke when he was within distance of +an enimy; Goringe was not able to resist the temptation when he was in +the middle of them, nor would declyne it to obtayne a victory, and in +one of those fitts had suffer'd the Horse to escape out of Cornwall, +and the most signall misfortunes of his life in warr, had ther ryse +from that uncontrolable licence; nether of them valewed ther promises, +professions or frendshipps, accordinge to any rules of honour or +integrity, but Wilmott violated them the lesse willingly, and never +but for some greate benefitt or convenience to himself, Goringe +without scruple out of humour or for witt sake, and loved no man so +well, but that he would cozen him, and then expose him to publicke +mirth, for havinge bene cozened, and therfore he had always fewer +frends then the other, but more company, for no man had a witt that +pleased the company better: The ambitions of both were unlimited, and +so æqually incapable of beinge contented, and both unrestrayned by +any respecte to good nature or justice from pursuinge the satisfaction +therof, yett Willmott had more scruples from religion to startle him, +and would not have attayned his end, by any grosse or fowle acte of +wickednesse; Goringe could have passed through those pleasantly, and +would without hesitation have broken any trust, or done any acte of +treachery, to have satisfyed an ordinary passion or appetite, and in +truth wanted nothinge but industry, for he had witt, and courage and +understandinge, and ambition uncontroled by any feare of god or man, +to have bene as eminent and succesfull in the highest attempt in +wickednesse of any man in the age he lyved in, or before, and of all +his qualifications, dissimulation was his masterpiece, in which he +so much excelled, that men were not ordinaryly ashamed or out of +countenance with beinge deceaved but twice by him. + + + + +33. + +JOHN HAMPDEN. + +_Born 1594. Mortally wounded at Chalgrove Field_ 1643 + +By CLARENDON. + + +Many men observed (as upon signall turnes of greate affayres, as this +was, such observations are frequently made) that the Feild in which +the late skirmish was, and upon which Mr. Hambden receaved his +deaths-wounde, (Chalgrove Feilde) was the same place, in which he had +first executed the Ordinance of the Militia, and engaged that County, +in which his reputation was very greate, in this rebellion, and it was +confessed by the prysoners that were taken that day, and acknowledged +by all, that upon the Alarum that morninge, after ther quarters were +beaten up, he was exceedingly sollicitous to draw forces togither +to pursue the enimy, and beinge himselfe a Collonell of foote putt +himselfe amongst those horse as a volunteere who were first ready, and +that when the Prince made a stande, all the officers were of opinion +to stay till ther body came up, and he alone (beinge secounde to none +but the Generall himselfe in the observance and application of all +men) perswaded and prævayled with them to advance, so violently +did his fate carry him to pay the mulcte in the place, wher he had +committed the transgressyon, aboute a yeere before. + +He was a gentleman of a good family in Buckinghamshyre, and borne to +a fayre fortune, and of a most civill and affable deportment. In his +entrance into the world, he indulged to himselfe all the licence in +sportes and exercises, and company, which was used by men of the +most jolly conversation; afterwards he retired to a more reserved +and melancholique society, yet prseservinge his owne naturall +cheerefulnesse and vivacity, and above all a flowinge courtesy to all +men; Though they who conversed neerely with him founde him growinge +into a dislike of the Ecclesiasticall goverment of the church, yet +most believed it rather a dislike of some Churchmen, and of some +introducements of thers which he apprehended might disquyett the +publique peace: He was rather of reputation in his owne Country, then +of publique discource or fame in the Kingdome, before the businesse +of Shippmony, but then he grew the argument of all tounges, every man +enquyringe who and what he was, that durst at his owne charge supporte +the liberty and property of the kingdome, and reskue his Country +from beinge made a prey to the Courte; his carriage throughout that +agitation was with that rare temper and modesty, that they who watched +him narrowly to finde some advantage against his person to make +him lesse resolute in his cause, were compelled to give him a just +testimony: and the judgement that was given against him infinitely +more advanced him, then the service for which it was given. When this +Parliament begann (beinge returned Knight of the Shyre for the County +wher he lived) the eyes of all men were fixed on him as their Patriæ +Pater, and the Pilott that must steere ther vessell through the +tempests and Rockes which threatned it: And I am perswaded his power +and interest at that tyme was greater, to doe good or hurte, then any +mans in the kingdome, or then any man of his ranke hath had in any +tyme: for his reputation of honesty was universall, and his affections +seemed so publiquely guyded, that no corrupte or pryvate ends could +byasse them. + +He was of that rare affability and temper in debate, and of that +seeminge humillity and submissyon of judgement, as if he brought no +opinyons with him, but a desyre of information and instruction, yet he +had so subtle a way of interrogatinge, and under the notion of doubts, +insinuatinge his objections, that he left his opinions with those, +from whome he pretended to learne and receave them; and even with +them, who were able to præserve themselves from his infusions, and +decerned those opinions to be fixed in him, with which they could +not comply, he alwayes left the character of an ingenious and +conscientious person. He was indeede a very wise man, and of greate +partes, and possessed with the most absolute spiritt of popularity, +that is the most absolute facultyes to governe the people, of any man +I ever knew. For the first yeere of the parliament he seemed rather +to moderate and soften the violent and distempred humours, then +to inflame them, but wise and dispassioned men playnely decerned, +that that moderation proceeded from prudence, and observation that +the season was not rype, [rather] then that he approoved of the +moderation, and that he begatt many opinions and motions the education +wherof he committed to other men, so farr disguisinge his owne +designes that he seemed seldome to wish more then was concluded, +and in many grosse conclutions which would heareafter contribute +to designes not yet sett on foote, when he founde them sufficiently +backed by majority of voyces, he would withdraw himselfe before +the questyon, that he might seeme not to consent to so much visible +unreasonablenesse, which produced as greate a doubte in some, as it +did approbation in others of his integrity: What combination soever +had bene originaly with the Scotts for the invasion of England, and +what farther was enter'd into afterwards, in favour of them, and to +advance any alteration in Parliament, no man doubles was at least with +the privity of this gent[l]eman. + +After he was amongst those members accused by the Kinge of High +treason, he was much altred, his nature and carriage seeminge much +feircer then it did before; and without question when he first drew +his sworde, he threw away the scabberd, for he passionately opposed +the overture made by the Kinge for a treaty from Nottingham, and as +eminently any expedients that might have produced an accommodation in +this that was at Oxforde, and was principally relyed on to prævent any +infusions which might be made into the Earle of Essex towards peace, +or to render them ineffectuall if they were made; and was indeede much +more relyed on by that party, then the Generall himselfe. In the first +entrance into the troubles he undertooke the commande of a Regiment +of foote, and performed the duty of a Collonell on all occasyons most +punctually: He was very temperate in dyett, and a supreme governour +over all his passyons and affections, and had therby a greate power +over other mens: He was of an industry and vigilance not to be tyred +out, or wearyed by the most laborious, and of partes not to be imposed +upon by the most subtle or sharpe, and of a personall courage æqual to +his best partes, so that he was an enimy not to be wished wherever he +might have bene made a frende, and as much to be apprehended wher he +was so, as any man could deserve to be, and therfore his death was +no lesse congratulated on the one party then it was condoled on the +other. In a worde, what was sayd of Cinna, might well be applyed +to him, Erat illi consilium ad facinus aptum, consilio autem neque +lingua neque manus deerat, he had a heade to contryve, and a tounge +to perswade, and a hande to exequte any mischieve; his death therfore +seemed to be a greate deliverance to the nation. + + + + +34. + +JOHN PYM. + +_Born 1584. Died 1643._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Aboute this tyme the Councells at Westminster lost a principle +supporter, by the death of John Pimm, who dyed with greate torment and +agony, of a disease unusuall, and therfore the more spoken of, morbus +pediculosus, which rendred him an objecte very lothsome, to those who +had bene most delighted with him. Noe man had more to answer for the +miseryes of the Kingdome, or had his hande or heade deeper in ther +contrivance, and yet I believe they grew much higher even in his life, +then he designed. He was a man of a private quality and condition of +life, his education in the office of the Exchequer, wher he had bene +a Clerke, and his partes rather acquired by industry, then supplyed +by nature, or adorned by Arte. He had bene well knowen in former +Parliaments and was one of those few who had sate in many, the longe +intermissyon of Parliaments havinge worne out most of those who +had bene acquainted with the rules and orders observed in those +conventions, and this gave him some reputation and reverence amongst +those, who were but now introduced. He had bene most taken notice of, +for beinge concerned and passyonate in the jealosyes of religion, +and much troubled with the Countenance which had bene given to those +opinions which had bene imputed to Arminius; and this gave him greate +authority and interest with those, who were not pleased with the +goverment of the Church, or the growinge power of the Clargy, yet +himselfe industriously tooke care to be believed, and he professed +to be, very intire to the doctryne and disciplyne of the Church of +Englande. In the shorte Parliament before this, he spake much, and +appeared to be the most leadinge man, for besydes the exacte knowledge +of the formes and orders of that Councell, which few men had, he had +a very comely and grave way of expressinge himselfe, with greate +volubility of wordes, naturall and proper, and understoode the temper +and affections of the kingdome as well as any man, and had observed +the errors and mistakes in goverment, and knew well how to make them +appeare greater then they were. After the unhappy dissolution of +that Parliament he continued for the most parte about London, in +conversation and greate repute amongst those Lords, who were most +strangers, and believed most averse from the Courte, in whome he +improoved all imaginable jealosyes and discontents towards the State, +and as soone as this Parliament was resolved to be summoned, he was as +diligent to procure such persons to be elected, as he knew to be most +inclined to the way he meant to take. + +At the first openinge of this Parliament he appeared passyonate +and prepared against the Earle of Straforde, and though in private +designinge he was much governed by M'r Hambden and M'r S't John, yet +he seemed to all men to have the greatest influence upon the house +of Commons of any man, and in truth I thinke he was at that tyme and +for some moneths after the most popular man, and the most able to +do hurte, that hath lived in any tyme. Upon the first designe of +softninge and oblieginge the powerfull persons in both houses, when +it was resolved to make the Earle of Bedford Lord High Treasurer of +Englande, the Kinge likewise intended to make M'r Pimm Chancellour of +the Exchequer, for which he receaved his Majestys promise, and made +a returne of a suitable professyon of his service and devotion, and +therupon, the other beinge no secrett, somewhat declyned from that +sharpnesse in the house, which was more popular then any mans person, +and made some overtures to provyde for the glory and splendor of +the Crowne, in which he had so ill successe, that his interest and +reputation ther visibly abated, and he founde that he was much better +able to do hurte then good, which wrought very much upon him, to +melancholique, and complainte of the violence and discomposure of +the peoples affections and inclinations; in the end, whether upon +the death of the Earle of Bedford he despayred of that præferment, or +whether he was guilty of any thinge, which upon his conversyon to the +Courte he thought might be discovered to his damage, or for pure want +of courage, he suffred himselfe to be carryed by those who would not +follow him, and so continued in the heade of those who made the most +desperate propositions. + +In the proseqution of the Earle of Straforde, his carriage and +language was such, that expressed much personall animosity, and he +was accused of havinge practiced some Artes in it, not worthy a +good man, as an Irishman of very meane and low condition afterwards +acknowledged, that beinge brought to him as an evidence of one parte +of the charge against the Lord Lieuetenant in a particular of which a +person of so vyle quality would not be reasonably thought a competent +informer, M'r Pimm gave him mony to buy him a Sattyn Sute and Cloke, in +which equipage he appeared at the tryall, and gave his evidence, which +if true, may make many other thinges which were confidently reported +afterwards of him, to be believed: As, that he receaved a greate Summ +of mony from the French Ambassadour, to hinder the transportation of +those Regiments of Irelande into Flanders, upon the disbandinge that +Army ther, which had bene præpared by the Earle of Straforde for +the businesse of Scotlande, in which if his Majestys derections and +commands had not bene deverted and contradicted by the houses, many +do believe the rebellyon in Irelande had not happend. Certayne it +is, that his power of doinge shrewd turnes was extraordinary, and no +lesse in doinge good offices for particular persons, and that he did +præserve many from censure, who were under the seveare displeasure of +the houses, and looked upon as eminent Delinquents, and the quality +of many of them made it believed, that he had sold that protection for +valewable consideration. From the tyme of his beinge accused of High +Treason by the Kinge, with the Lord Kimbolton and the other Members, +he never intertayned thoughts of moderation, but alwayes opposed all +overtures of peace and accommodation, and when the Earle of Essex was +disposed the last Summer by those Lords to an inclination towards +a treaty as is before remembred, M'r Pymms power and dexterity wholy +changed him, and wrought him to that temper which he afterwards +swarved not from. He was wounderfully sollicitous for the Scotts +comminge in to ther assistance, though his indisposition of body was +so greate, that it might well have made another impressyon upon his +minde. Duringe his sicknesse he was a very sadd spectacle, but none +beinge admitted to him, who had not concurred with him, it is not +knowne what his last thoughts and considerations were. He dyed towards +the end of December, before the Scotts entred, and was buryed with +wounderfull Pompe and Magnificence in that Place where the Bones of +our English Kings and Princes are committed to ther rest. + + + + +35. + +OLIVER CROMWELL. + +_Born 1599. Lord Protector 1653. Died 1658._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Crumwell (though the greatest Dissembler livinge) alwayes made his +hypocrisy of singular use and benefitt to him, and never did any +thinge, how ungratious or imprudent soever it seemed to be, but what +was necessary to the designe; even his roughnesse and unpolishednesse +which in the beginninge of the Parliament he affected, contrary to +the smoothnesse and complacency which his Cozen and bosome frende +M'r Hambden practiced towards all men, was necessary, and his first +publique declaration in the beginninge of the Warr, to his troope when +it was first mustered,--that he would not deceave or cozen them by +the perplexed and involved exspressions in his Commissyon to fight for +Kinge and Parliament, and therfore told them that if the Kinge chanced +to be in the body of the enimy that he was to charge, he woulde as +soone discharge his pistoll upon him, as at any other private person, +and if ther conscience would not permitt them to do the like, he +advized them not to list themselves in his troope or under his +commaunde,--which was generally looked upon, as imprudent and +malicious, and might by the professyons the Parliament then made, +have prooved daungerous to him, yett served his turne, and severed and +united all the furious and incensed men against the goverment, whether +Ecclesiasticall or Civill, to looke upon him as a man for ther turne, +and upon whome they might depende, as one who would go through his +worke that he undertooke; and his stricte and unsociable humour in not +keepinge company with the other officers of the Army in ther jollityes +and excesses, to which most of the superiour officers under the Earle +of Essex were inclined, and by which he often made himselfe ridiculous +or contemptible, drew all those of the like sowre or reserved natures +to his society and conversation, and gave him opportunity to forme +ther understandings, inclinations, and resolutions to his owne modell; +and by this he grew to have a wounderfull interest in the Common +souldyers, out of which, as his authority increased, he made all +his Officers, well instructed how to lyve in the same manner with +ther Souldyers, that they might be able to apply them to ther owne +purposes. Whilst he looked upon the Presbiterian humour as the best +incentive to rebellion, no man more a Presbiterian, he sunge all +Psalmes with them to ther tunes, and looved the longest sermons as +much as they: but when he discover'd, that they would prescribe some +limitts and bounds to ther rebellion, that it was not well breathed, +and would expyre as soone as some few particulars were granted to them +in religion which he cared not for, and then that the goverment must +runn still in the same channell, it concerned him to make it believed, +that the State had bene more Delinquent, then the Church, and that the +people suffer'd more by the civill, then by the Ecclesiasticall power, +and therfore that the change of one would give them little ease, if +ther were not as greate an alteration in the other, and if the whole +goverment in both were not reformed and altred; which though it made +him generally odious and irreconciled many of his old frends to him, +yett it made those who remayned more cordiall and firme to him, and +he could better compute his owne strengtht, and upon whome he might +depende; and this discovery made him contryve the Modell, which was +the most unpopular acte, and disoblieged all those who first contryved +the rebellyon, and who were the very soule of it; and yett if he had +not brought that to passe and chaunged a Generall, who though not very +sharpesighted would never be governed, nor applyed to any thinge he +did not like, for another who had no eyes, and so would be willinge to +be ledd, all his designes must have come to nothinge, and he remayned +a private Collonell of horse, not considerable enough to be in any +figure upon an advantagious composition. + + + + +36. + +By CLARENDON. + + +He was one of those men, quos vituperare ne inimici quidem possunt, +nisi ut simul laudent, for he could never have done halfe that +mischieve, without greate partes of courage and industry and +judgement, and he must have had a wounderfull understandinge in the +natures and humours of men, and as greate a dexterity in the applyinge +them, who from a private and obscure birth, (though of a good family) +without interest of estate, allyance or frendshipps, could rayse +himselfe to such a height, and compounde and kneade such opposite and +contradictory tempers humour and interests, into a consistence, that +contributed to his designes and to ther owne destruction, whilst +himselfe grew insensibly powerfull enough, to cutt off those by whome +he had climed, in the instant, that they projected to demolish ther +owne buildinge. What Velleius Paterculus sayd of Cinna, may very +justly be sayd of him, Ausum eum quæ nemo auderet bonus, perfecisse +quæ a nullo nisi fortissimo perfici possunt. Without doubte, no man +with more wickednesse ever attempted any thinge, or brought to passe +what he desyred more wickedly, more in the face and contempt of +religion and morall honesty, yet wickednesse as greate as his could +never have accomplish'd those trophees without the assistance of a +greate spiritt, an admirable circumspection and sagacity, and a most +magnanimous resolution. When he appeared first in the Parliament +he seemed to have a person in no degree gratious, no ornament of +discource, none of those talents which use to reconcile the affections +of the standers by, yett as he grew into place and authority, his +partes seemed to be renew[d], as if he had concealed facultyes till +he had occasion to use them; and when he was to acte the parte of +a greate man, he did it without any indecensy through the wante of +custome.... + +He was not a man of bloode, and totally declined Machiavells methode, +which prescribes upon any alteration of a goverment, as a thinge +absolutely necessary, to cutt of all the heades of those and extirpate +ther familyes, who are frends to the old, and it was confidently +reported that in the Councell of Officers, it was more then once +proposed, that ther might be a generall massacre of all the royall +party, as the only exspedient to secure the goverment, but Crumwell +would never consent to it, it may be out of to much contempt of his +enimyes; In a worde, as he had all the wickednesses against which +damnation is denounced and for which Hell fyre is præpared, so he had +some virtues, which have caused the memory of some men in all ages to +be celebrated, and he will be looked upon by posterity, as a brave, +badd man. + + + + +37. + +By SIR PHILIP WARWICK. + + +I have no mind to give an ill character of Cromwell; for in his +conversation towards me he was ever friendly; tho' at the latter end +of the day finding me ever incorrigible, and having some inducements +to suspect me a tamperer, he was sufficiently rigid. The first time, +that ever I took notice of him, was in the very beginning of the +Parliament held in November 1640, when I vainly thought my selfe a +courtly young Gentleman: (for we Courtiers valued our selves much +upon our good cloaths.) I came one morning into the House well clad, +and perceived a Gentleman speaking (whom I knew not) very ordinarily +apparelled; for it was a plain cloth-sute, which seemed to have bin +made by an ill country-taylor; his linen was plain, and not very +clean; and I remember a speck or two of blood upon his little band, +which was not much larger than his collar; his hatt was without a +hatt-band: his stature was of a good size, his sword stuck close +to his side, his countenance swoln and reddish, his voice sharp and +untunable, and his eloquence full of fervor; for the subject matter +would not bear much of reason; it being in behalfe of a servant of Mr. +Prynn's, who had disperst libells against the Queen for her dancing +and such like innocent and courtly sports; and he aggravated the +imprisonment of this man by the Council-Table unto that height, that +one would have beleived, the very Goverment it selfe had been in great +danger by it. I sincerely professe it lessened much my reverence unto +that great councill; for he was very much hearkened unto. And yet I +liv'd to see this very Gentleman, whom out of no ill will to him I +thus describe, by multiplied good successes, and by reall (but usurpt) +power: (having had a better taylor, and more converse among good +company) in my owne eye, when for six weeks together I was a prisoner +in his serjeant's hands, and dayly waited at Whitehall, appeare of a +great and majestick deportment and comely presence. Of him therefore +I will say no more, but that verily I beleive, he was extraordinarily +designed for those extraordinary things, which one while most wickedly +and facinorously he acted, and at another as succesfully and greatly +performed. + + + + +38. + +By JOHN MAIDSTON. + + +His body was wel compact and strong, his stature under 6 foote (I +beleeve about two inches) his head so shaped, as you might see it +a storehouse and shop both of a vast treasury of natural parts. His +temper exceeding fyery, as I have known, but the flame of it kept +downe, for the most part, or soon allayed with thos moral endowments +he had. He was naturally compassionate towards objects in distresse, +even to an effeminate measure; though God had made him a heart, +wherein was left little roume for any fear, but what was due to +himselfe, of which there was a large proportion, yet did he exceed in +tendernesse towards sufferers. A larger soul, I thinke, hath seldome +dwelt in a house of clay than his was. I do believe, if his story were +impartialy transmitted, and the unprejudiced world wel possest with +it, she would adde him to her nine worthies, and make up that number +a decemviri. He lived and dyed in comfortable communion with God, as +judicious persons neer him wel observed. He was that Mordecai that +sought the welfare of his people, and spake peace to his seed, yet +were his temptations such, as it appeared frequently, that he, that +hath grace enough for many men, may have too little for himselfe; +the treasure he had being but in an earthen vessel, and that equally +defiled with original sin, as any other man's nature is. + + + + +39. + +By RICHARD BAXTER + + +Never man was highlier extolled, and never man was baselier reported +of, and vilified than this man. No (meer) man was _better_ and _worse_ +spoken of than he; according as mens Interests led their Judgments. +The Soldiers and Sectaries most highly magnified him, till he began +to seek the Crown and the Establishment of his Family: And then there +were so many that would be Half-Kings themselves, that a King did seem +intollerable to them. The Royalists abhorred him as a most perfidious +Hypocrite; and the Presbyterians thought him little better, in his +management of publick matters. + +If after so many others I may speak my Opinion of him, I think, +that, having been a Prodigal in his Youth, and afterward changed to +a zealous Religiousness, he meant honestly in the main, and was pious +and conscionable in the main course of his Life, till Prosperity and +Success corrupted him: that, at his first entrance into the Wars, +being but a Captain of Horse, he had a special care to get religious +men into his Troop: These men were of greater understanding than +common Soldiers, and therefore were more apprehensive of the +Importance and Consequence of the War; and making not Money, but that +which they took for the Publick Felicity, to be their End, they were +the more engaged to be valiant; for he that maketh Money his End, doth +esteem his Life above his Pay, and therefore is like enough to save +it by flight when danger comes, if possibly he can: But he that maketh +the Felicity of Church and State his End, esteemeth it above his Life, +and therefore will the sooner lay down his Life for it. And men of +Parts and Understanding know how to manage their business, and know +that flying is the surest way to death, and that standing to it is the +likeliest way to escape; there being many usually that fall in flight, +for one that falls in valiant fight. These things it's probable +_Cromwell_ understood; and that none would be such engaged valiant +men as the Religious: But yet I conjecture, that at his first choosing +such men into his Troop, it was the very Esteem and Love of Religious +men that principally moved him; and the avoiding of those Disorders, +Mutinies, Plunderings, and Grievances of the Country, which deboist +men in Armies are commonly guilty of: By this means he indeed sped +better than he expected. _Aires_, _Desborough_, _Berry_, _Evanson_, +and the rest of that Troop, did prove so valiant, that as far as I +could learn, they never once ran away before an Enemy. Hereupon he got +a Commission to take some care of the Associated Counties, where he +brought his Troop into a double Regiment, of fourteen full Troops; and +all these as full of religious men as he could get: These having more +than ordinary Wit and Resolution, had more than ordinary Success; +first in _Lincolnshire_, and afterward in the Earl of _Manchester's_ +Army at _York_ Fight: With their Successes the Hearts both of Captain +and Soldiers secretly rise both in Pride and Expectation: And the +familiarity of many honest erroneous Men (Anabaptists, Antinomians, +&c.) withal began quickly to corrupt their Judgments. Hereupon +_Cromwell's_ general Religious Zeal, giveth away to the power of that +Ambition, which still increaseth as his Successes do increase: Both +Piety and Ambition concurred in his countenancing of all that he +thought Godly of what Sect soever: Piety pleadeth for them as _Godly_; +and _Charity_ as Men; and Ambition secretly telleth him what use he +might make of them. He meaneth well in all this at the beginning, +and thinketh he doth all for the Safety of the Godly, and the Publick +Good, but not without an Eye to himself. + +When Successes had broken down all considerable opposition, he was +then in the face of his Strongest Temptations, which conquered him +when he had conquered others: He thought that he had hitherto done +well, both as to the _End_ and _Means_, and God by the wonderful +Blessing of his Providence had owned his endeavours, and it was +none but God that had made him great: He thought that if the War was +lawful, the Victory was lawful; and if it were lawful to fight against +the King and conquer him, it was lawful to use him as a conquered +Enemy, and a foolish thing to trust him when they had so provoked him, +(whereas indeed the Parliament professed neither to fight against him, +nor to conquer him). He thought that the Heart of the King was deep, +and that he resolved upon Revenge, and that if he were King, he would +easily at one time or other accomplish it; and that it was a dishonest +thing of the Parliament to set men to fight for them against the King, +and then to lay their Necks upon the block, and be at his Mercy; and +that if that must be their Case, it was better to flatter or please +him, than to fight against him. He saw that the _Scots_ and the +Presbyterians in the Parliament, did by the Covenant and the Oath +of Allegiance, find themselves bound to the Person and Family of the +King, and that there was no hope of changing their minds in this: +Hereupon he joyned with that Party in the Parliament who were for the +Cutting off the King, and trusting him no more. And consequently he +joyned with them in raising the Independants to make a Fraction in +the Synod at _Westminster_ and in the City; and in strengthening the +Sectaries in Army, City and Country, and in rendering the _Scots_ and +Ministers as odious as he could, to disable them from hindering the +Change of Government. In the doing of all this, (which _Distrust_ and +_Ambition_ had perswaded him was well done) he thought it lawful to +use his Wits, to choose each Instrument, and suit each means, unto its +end; and accordingly he daily imployed himself, and modelled the Army, +and disbanded all other Garrisons and Forces and Committees, which +were like to have hindered his design. And as he went on, though he +yet resolved not what form the New Commonwealth should be molded into, +yet he thought it but reasonable, that he should be the Chief Person +who had been chief in their Deliverance; (For the Lord _Fairfax_ he +knew had but the Name). At last, as he thought it lawful to cut off +the King, because he thought he was lawfully conquered, so he thought +it lawful to fight against the _Scots_ that would set him up, and to +pull down the Presbyterian Majority in the Parliament, which would +else by restoring him undo all which had cost them so much Blood and +Treasure. And accordingly he conquereth _Scotland_, and pulleth down +the Parliament: being the easilier perswaded that all this was lawful, +because he had a secret Byas and Eye towards his own Exaltation: +For he (and his Officers) thought, that when the King was gone a +Government there must be; and that no Man was so fit for it as he +himself; as best _deserving_ it, and as having by his _Wit_ and great +_Interest_ in the Army, the best sufficiency to manage it: Yea, they +thought that _God had called_ them by _Successes_ to _Govern and take +Care_ of the Commonwealth, and of the Interest of all his People in +the Land; and that if they stood by and suffered the Parliament to do +that which they thought was dangerous, it would be required at their +hands, whom they thought God had made the Guardians of the Land. + +Having thus forced his Conscience to justifie all his Cause, (the +Cutting off the King, the setting up himself and his Adherents, the +pulling down the Parliament and the _Scots_,) he thinketh that the +End being good and necessary, the necessary means cannot be bad: And +accordingly he giveth his Interest and Cause leave to tell him, how +far Sects shall be tollerated and commended, and how far not; and how +far the Ministry shall be owned and supported, and how far not; yea, +and how far Professions, Promises, and Vows shall be kept, or broken; +and therefore the Covenant he could not away with; nor the Ministers, +further than they yielded to his Ends, or did not openly resist them. +He seemed exceeding open hearted, by a familiar Rustick affected +Carriage, (especially to his Soldiers in sporting with them): but he +thought Secrecy a Vertue, and Dissimulation no Vice, and Simulation, +that is, in plain English a Lie, or Perfidiousness to be a tollerable +Fault in a Case of Necessity: being of the same Opinion with the +Lord _Bacon_, (who was not so Precise as Learned) That [_the best +Composition and Temperature is, to have openness in Fame and Opinion, +Secrecy in habit, Dissimulation in seasonable use; and a power to +feign if there be no remedy,_] _Essay_ 6. _pag._ 31. Therefore he kept +fair with all, saving his open or unreconcileable Enemies. He carried +it with such Dissimulation, that Anabaptists, Independants, and +Antinomians did all think that he was one of them: But he never +endeavoured to perswade the Presbyterians that he was one of them; +but only that he would do them Justice, and Preserve them, and that +he honoured their Worth and Piety; for he knew that they were not so +easily deceived. In a word, he did as our Prelates have done, begin +low and rise higher in his Resolutions as his Condition rose, and the +Promises which he made in his lower Condition, he used as the interest +of his higher following Condition did require, and kept up as much +Honesty and Godliness in the main, as his Cause and Interest would +allow. + + + + +40. + +SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX. + +_Born 1612. Died 1671_. + +By RICHARD BAXTER. + + +And these things made the new modelling of the Army to be resolved +on. But all the Question was how to effect it, without stirring up +the Forces against them which they intended to disband: And all this +was notably dispatcht at once, by One Vote, which was called the +_Self-denying Vote_, viz. That because Commands in the Army had much +pay, and Parliament Men should keep to the Service of the House, +therefore no Parliament Men should be Members of the Army.... + +When this was done, the next Question was, Who should be Lord General, +and what new Officers should be put in, or old ones continued? And +here the Policy of _Vane_ and _Cromwell_ did its best: For General +they chose Sir _Thomas Fairfax_, Son of the Lord _Ferdinando Fairfax_, +who had been in the Wars beyond Sea, and had fought valiantly in +_Yorkshire_ for the Parliament, though he was over-powered by the Earl +of _Newcastle's_, Numbers. This Man was chosen because they supposed +to find him a Man of no quickness of Parts, of no Elocution, of no +suspicious plotting Wit, and therefore One that _Cromwell_ could make +use of at his pleasure. And he was acceptable to sober Men, because +he was Religious, Faithful, Valiant, and of a grave, sober, resolved +Disposition; very fit for Execution, and neither too Great nor too +Cunning to be Commanded by the Parliament. + + + + +41. + +SIR HENRY VANE, THE YOUNGER. + +_Born 1613. Beheaded 1662._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The other, S'r H. Vane, was a man of greate naturall parts, and of +very profounde dissimulation, of a quicke conception, and very ready +sharpe and weighty exspression. He had an unusuall aspecte, which +though it might naturally proceede both from his father and mother, +nether of which were beautifull persons, yett made men thinke ther was +somewhat in him of extraordinary, and his whole life made good that +imagination. Within a very shorte tyme after he returned from his +studyes in Magdalen Colledge in Oxforde, wher, though he was under the +care of a very worthy Tutour, he lyved not with greate exactnesse, he +spent some little tyme in France, and more in Geneva, and after his +returne into Englande, contracted a full præjudice and bitternesse +against the Church, both against the forme of the goverment and the +lyturgy, which was generally in greate reverence, even with many of +those, who were not frends to the other. In this giddinesse which then +much displeased, or seemed to displease his father, who still appeared +highly conformable, and exceedingly sharpe against those who were not, +he transported himselfe into New Englande, a Colony within few yeeres +before planted by a mixture of all religions, which disposed the +professors to dislike the goverment of the church, who were qualifyed +by the Kings Charter to chuse ther owne goverment and governors, under +the obligation that every man should take the othes of Allegiance and +Supremacy, which all the first planters did, when they receaved ther +charter, before they transported themselves from hence, nor was ther +in many yeeres after the least scruple amongst them of complyinge with +those obligations, so farr men were in the infancy of ther schisme, +from refusinge to take lawfull othes. He was no sooner landed ther, +but his partes made him quickly taken notice of, and very probably his +quality, beinge the eldest sunn of a Privy Councellour, might give +him some advantage, insomuch that when the next season came for the +election of ther Magistrates, he was chosen ther governour, in which +place he had so ill fortune, his workinge and unquyett fancy raysinge +and infusinge a thousande scruples of conscience which they had not +brought over with them, nor hearde of before, that he unsatisfyed +with them, and they with him, he retransported himselfe into +Englande, havinge sowed such seede of dissention ther, as grew up to +prosperously, and miserably devyded the poore Colony into severall +factions and devisions and persequtions of each other, which still +continue to the greate prejudice of that plantation, insomuch as +some of them, upon the grounde of ther first exspedition, liberty of +conscience, have withdrawne themselves from ther jurisdiction, and +obtayned other Charters from the Kinge, by which in other formes of +goverment they have inlarged ther plantations within new limitts, +adjacent to the other. He was no sooner returned into Englande, then +he seemed to be much reformed in those extravagancyes, and with his +fathers approbation and direction marryed a Lady of a good family, +and by his fathers creditt with the Earle of Northumberland, who was +high Admirall of Englande, was joyned presently and joyntly with S'r +William Russell in the office of Treasurer of the Navy, a place of +greate trust, and profitt, which he æqually shared with the other, and +seemed a man well satisfyed and composed to the goverment. When his +father receaved the disobligation from the L'd Straforde, by his +beinge created Baron of Raby, the house and lande of Vane, and which +title he had promised himselfe, which was unluckily cast upon him, +purely out of contempt, they sucked in all the thoughts of revenge +imaginable, and from thence he betooke himselfe to the frendshipp +of M'r Pimm and all other discontented or seditious persons, and +contributed all that intelligence, which will be hereafter mentioned, +as he himselfe will often be, that designed the ruine of the Earle, +and which grafted him in the intire confidence of those, who promoted +the same, so that nothinge was concealed from him, though it is +believed that he communicated his owne thoughts to very few. + + + + +42. + +By CLARENDON. + + +Ther hath bene scarce any thinge more wounderfull throughout the +progresse of these distractions, then that this Covenant did with such +extraordinary exspedition passe the two houses, when all the leadinge +persons in those Councells were at the same tyme knowne to be as +greate enimyes to Presbitery (the establishment wherof was the sole +end of this Covenant) as they were to the Kinge or the Church, and +he who contributed most to it, and who in truth was the Principle +contriver of it, and the man by whome the Committee in Scotlande was +intirely and stupidly governed, S'r Harry Vane, the younger, was not +afterwards knowne to abhorr the Covenant and the Presbiterians [more] +then he was at that very tyme knowne to do, and laughed at them then, +as much as ever he did afterwards. + +He[1] was indeede a man of extraordinary parts, a pleasant witt, a +greate understandinge, which pierced into and decerned the purposes +of other men with wounderfull sagacity, whilst he had himselfe vultum +clausum, that no man could make a guesse of what he intended; he was +of a temper not to be mooved, and of rare dissimulation, and could +comply when it was not seasonable to contradicte without loosinge +grounde by the condescention, and if he were not superiour to M'r +Hambden, he was inferiour to no other man in all misterious artifices. +Ther neede no more be sayd of his ability, then that he was chosen +to cozen and deceave a whole nation, which excelled in craft and +dissemblinge, which he did with notable pregnancy and dexterity, and +prævayled with a people, which could not be otherwise prævayled upon, +then by advancinge ther Idoll Presbitery, to sacrifice ther peace, +ther interest, and ther fayth, to the erectinge a power and authority, +that resolved to persequte presbitery to an extirpation, and very +neere brought ther purpose to passe. + +[Footnote 1: Before 'He was indeede' Clarendon had written 'S'r Harry +Vane the yonger, was on of the Commissyoners, and therfore the other +neede not be named, since he was All in any businesse wher others +were joyned with him.' He cancelled this on adding the preceding +paragraph.] + + + + +43. + +COLONEL JOHN HUTCHINSON, + +_Governor of Nottingham._ + +_Born 1615. Died 1664._ + +By LUCY HUTCHINSON, his widow. + + +He was of a middle stature, of a slender and exactly well-proportion'd +shape in all parts, his complexion fair, his hayre of a light browne, +very thick sett in his youth, softer then the finest silke, curling +into loose greate rings att the ends, his eies of a lively grey, +well-shaped and full of life and vigour, graced with many becoming +motions, his visage thinne, his mouth well made, and his lipps very +ruddy and gracefull, allthough the nether chap shut over the upper, +yett it was in such a manner as was not unbecoming, his teeth were +even and white as the purest ivory, his chin was something long, and +the mold of his face, his forehead was not very high, his nose was +rays'd and sharpe, but withall he had a most amiable countenance, +which carried in it something of magnanimity and majesty mixt with +sweetnesse, that at the same time bespoke love and awe in all that +saw him; his skin was smooth and white, his legs and feete excellently +well made, he was quick in his pace and turnes, nimble and active and +gracefull in all his motions, he was apt for any bodily exercise, and +any that he did became him, he could dance admirably well, but neither +in youth nor riper yeares made any practise of it, he had skill in +fencing such as became a gentleman, he had a greate love of musick, +and often diverted himselfe with a violl, on which he play'd +masterly, he had an exact eare and judgement in other musick, he shott +excellently in bowes and gunns, and much us'd them for his exercise, +he had greate judgment in paintings, graving, sculpture, and all +liberal arts, and had many curiosities of vallue in all kinds, he took +greate delight in perspective glasses, and for his other rarities was +not so much affected with the antiquity as the merit of the worke--he +took much pleasure in emproovement of grounds, in planting groves and +walkes, and fruite-trees, in opening springs and making fish-ponds; +of country recreations he lov'd none but hawking, and in that was very +eager and much delighted for the time he us'd it, but soone left it +off; he was wonderful neate, cleanly and gentile in his habitt, and +had a very good fancy in it, but he left off very early the wearing +of aniething that was costly, yett in his plainest negligent habitt +appear'd very much a gentleman; he had more addresse than force of +body, yet the courage of his soule so supplied his members that +he never wanted strength when he found occasion to employ it; his +conversation was very pleasant for he was naturally chearful, had +a ready witt and apprehension; he was eager in every thing he did, +earnest in dispute, but withall very rationall, so that he was seldome +overcome, every thing that it was necessary for him to doe he did with +delight, free and unconstrein'd, he hated cerimonious complement, but +yett had a naturall civillity and complaisance to all people, he was +of a tender constitution, but through the vivacity of his spiritt +could undergo labours, watchings and journeyes, as well as any of +stronger compositions; he was rheumatick, and had a long sicknesse +and distemper occasion'd thereby two or three yeares after the warre +ended, but elce for the latter halfe of his life was healthy tho' +tender, in his youth and childhood he was sickly, much troubled with +weaknesse and tooth akes, but then his spiritts carried him through +them; he was very patient under sicknesse or payne or any common +accidints, but yet upon occasions, though never without just ones, he +would be very angrie, and had even in that such a grace as made him +to be fear'd, yet he was never outragious in passion; he had a very +good facultie in perswading, and would speake very well pertinently +and effectually without premeditation upon the greatest occasions +that could be offer'd, for indeed his judgment was so nice, that he +could never frame any speech beforehand to please himselfe, but his +invention was so ready and wisdome so habituall in all his speeches, +that he never had reason to repent himselfe of speaking at any time +without ranking the words beforehand, he was not talkative yett free +of discourse, of a very spare diett, not much given to sleepe, an +early riser when in health, he never was at any time idle, and hated +to see any one elce soe, in all his naturall and ordinary inclinations +and composure, there was somthing extraordinary and tending to vertue, +beyond what I can describe, or can be gather'd from a bare dead +description; there was a life of spiritt and power in him that is not +to be found in any copie drawne from him: to summe up therefore all +that can be sayd of his outward frame and disposition wee must truly +conclude, that it was a very handsome and well furnisht lodging +prepar'd for the reception of that prince, who in the administration +of all excellent vertues reign'd there awhile, till he was called back +to the pallace of the universall emperor. + + + + +44. + +THE EARL OF ESSEX. + +_Robert Devereux, third Earl of Essex._ + +_Born 1591. Died 1646._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Essex hath bene enough mentioned before, his nature and +his understandinge have bene described, his former disobligations +from the Courte, and then his introduction into it, and afterwards his +beinge displaced from the office he held in it, have bene sett forth, +and ther will be occasion heareaffter to renew the discource of him, +and therfore it shall suffice in this place to say, that a weake +judgement, and a little vanity, and as much of pryde, will hurry a +man into as unwarrantable and as violent attempts, as the greatest and +most unlimited and insaciable ambition will doe. He had no ambition +of title, or office, or præferment, but only to be kindly looked +upon, and kindly spoken to, and quyetly to injoy his owne fortune, and +without doubte, no man in his nature more abhorred rebellion then he +did, nor could he have bene ledd into it by any open or transparent +temptation, but by a thousand disguises and cozinages. His pryde +supplyed his want of ambition, and he was angry to see any other man +more respected then himselfe, because he thought he deserved it more, +and did better requite it, for he was in his frendshipps just and +constante, and would not have practiced fouly against those he tooke +to be enimyes: no man had creditt enough with him to corrupt him in +pointe of loyalty to the Kinge, whilst he thought himselfe wise enough +to know what treason was. But the new doctrine and distinction of +Allegiance, and of the Kings power in and out of Parliament, and +the new notions of Ordinances, were to hard for him and did really +intoxicate his understandinge, and made him quitt his owne, to follow +thers, who he thought wish'd as well, and judged better then himselfe; +His vanity disposed him to be his Excellence, and his weaknesse to +believe that he should be the Generall in the Houses, as well as in +the Feild, and be able to governe ther councells, and restrayne ther +passyons, as well as to fight ther battles, and that by this meanes +he should become the præserver and not the destroyer of the Kinge and +Kingdome; and with this ill grounded confidence, he launched out into +that Sea, wher he mett with nothinge but rockes, and shelves, and from +whence he could never discover any safe Porte to harbour in. + + + + +45. + +THE EARL OF SALISBURY. + +_William Cecil, second Earl of Salisbury._ + +_Born 1591. Died 1668._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Salisbury had bene borne and bredd in Courte and had +the Advantage of a descent from a Father and a Grandfather, who had +bene very wise men, and greate Ministers of State in the eyes of +Christendome, whose wisdome and virtues dyed with them, and ther +children only inherited ther titles. He had bene admitted of the +Councell to Kinge James, from which tyme he continued so obsequious +to the Courte, that he never fayled in overactinge all that he was +requyred to do; no acte of power was ever proposed, which he did not +advance, and execute his parte, with the utmost rigour, no man so +greate a tyrant in his country, or was lesse swayed by any motives of +justice or honour; he was a man of no words, except in huntinge and +hawkinge in which he only knew how to behave himselfe, in matters +of State and councell he alwayes concurred in what was proposed for +the Kinge, and cancelled and repayred all those transgressions by +concurringe in all that was proposed against him as soone as any +such propositions were made; yett when the Kinge went to Yorke, he +likewise attended upon his Majesty and at that distance seemed to +have recover'd some courage, and concurred in all councells which +were taken to undeceave the people, and to make the proceedings of the +Parliament odious to all the world; but on a suddayne he caused his +horses to attend him out of the towne, and havinge placed fresh ons +at a distance, he fledd backe to London, with the exspedition such +men use when they are most afrayde, and never after denyed to do any +thinge that was requyred of him, and when the warr was ended, and +Crumwell had putt downe the house of Peeres, he gott himselfe to be +chosen a member of the house of Commons, and sate with them as of +ther owne body, and was esteemed accordingly; in a worde he became +so despicable to all men, that he will hardly ever in joy the ease +which Seneca bequeathed to him: Hic egregiis majoribus ortus est, +qualiscunque est, sub umbra suorum lateat; Ut loca sordida repercussu +solis illustrantur, ita inertes majorum suorum luce resplendeant. + + + + +46. + +THE EARL OF WARWICK. + +_Robert Rich, second Earl of Warwick._ + +_Born 1587. Died 1658._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Warwicke was of the Kings counsell to, but was not +woundred at for leavinge the Kinge, whome he had never served, nor did +he looke upon himselfe as oblieged by that honour, which he knew was +conferred upon him in the crowde of those, whom his Majesty had no +esteeme of, or ever purposed to trust, so his businesse was to joyne +with those, to whome he owed his promotion; he was a man of a pleasant +and companionable witt and conversation, of an universall jollity, and +such a licence in his wordes and in his actions, that a man of lesse +virtue could not be founde out, so that a man might reasonably have +believed, that a man so qualifyed would not have bene able to have +contributed much to the overthrow of a nation, and kingdome; but with +all these faults, he had greate authority and creditt with that people +who in the beginninge of the troubles did all the mischieve; and by +openinge his doores, and makinge his house the Randevooze of all the +silenced Ministers, in the tyme when ther was authority to silence +them, and spendinge a good parte of his estate, of which he was +very prodigall, upon them, and by beinge present with them at ther +devotions, and makinge himselfe merry with them and at them, which +they dispenced with, he became the heade of that party, and gott +the style of a godly man. When the Kinge revoked the Earle of +Northumberlands Commission of Admirall, he presently accepted the +office from the Parliament and never quitted ther service; and +when Crumwell disbanded that Parliament, he betooke himselfe to the +Protection of the Protectour, marryed his Heyre to his daughter, and +lived in so intire a confidence and frendshipp with him, that when he +dyed he had the honour to be exceedingly lamented by him: and left +his estate, which before was subject to a vast debt, more improved and +repayred, then any man, who traffiqued in that desperate commodity of +rebellion. + + + + +47. + +THE EARL OF MANCHESTER. + +_Edward Montagu, created Baron Montagu of Kimbolton 1626, second Earl +of Manchester 1642._ + +_Born 1602. Died 1671._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Manchester, of the whole Caball, was in a thousand +respects most unfitt for the company he kept. He was of a gentle and +a generous nature, civilly bredd, had reverence and affection for the +person of the Kinge, upon whome he had attended in Spayne, loved his +Country with to unskilfull a tendernesse, and was of so excellent a +temper and disposition, that the barbarous tymes, and the rough partes +he was forced to acte in them, did not wype out or much deface those +markes, insomuch as he was never guilty of any rudenesse towards +those, he was oblieged to oppresse, but performed always as good +offices towards his old frendes, and all other persons, as the +iniquity of the tyme, and the nature of the imployment he was in, +would permitt him to doe, which kinde of humanity could be imputed to +very few; and he was at last dismissed, and remooved from any trust, +for no other reason, but because he was not wicked enough. + +He marryed first into the family of the Duke of Buckingham, and by +his favour and interest was called to the house of Peeres in the life +of his father, and made Barron of Kymolton, though he was commonly +treated and knowne by the name of the L'd Mandevill: And was as much +addicted to the service of the Courte as he ought to be. But the death +of his Lady, and the murther of that greate Favorite, his secounde +marriage with the daughter of the Earle of Warwicke, and the very +narrow and restrayned maintenance which he receaved from his father +and which would in no degree defray the exspences of the Courte, +forced him to soone to retyre to a Country life, and totally to +abandon both the Courte and London, whither he came very seldome in +many yeeres; And in this retirement, the discountenance which his +father underwent at Courte, the conversation of that family into which +he was now marryed, the bewitchinge popularity which flowed upon him +with a wounderfull Torrent, with the want of those guardes which a +good education should have supplyed him with, by the cleere notion of +the foundation of the Ecclesiasticall as well as the Civill goverment, +made a greate impression upon his understandinge (for his nature was +never corrupted but remayned still in its integrity) and made him +believe, that the Courte was inclined to hurte and even to destroy the +country, and from particular instances to make generall and daungerous +conclusions. They who had bene alwayes enimyes to the Church, +prævayled with him to lessen his reverence for it, and havinge not +bene well instructed to defende it, [he] yeilded to easily to those +who confidently assaulted it, and thought it had greate errors which +were necessary to be reformed, and that all meanes are lawfull to +compasse that which is necessary, wheras the true Logique is, that +the thinge desyred is not necessary, if the wayes are unlawfull which +are proposed to bringe it to passe. No man was courted with more +application by persons of all conditions and qualityes, and his +person was not lesse acceptable to those of steddy and uncorrupted +principles, then to those of depraved inclinations; and in the +end, even his piety administred some excuse to him, for his fathers +infirmityes and transgressions had so farr exposed him to the +inquisition of justice, that he found it necessary to procure the +assistance and protection of those, who were stronge enough to violate +justice itselfe, and so he adhered to those, who were best able to +defende his fathers honour, and therby to secure his owne fortune, and +concurred with them in ther most violent designes, and gave reputation +to them; and the Courte as unskilfully, tooke an occasion to soone to +make him desperate, by accusinge him of high Treason, when (though he +might be guilty enough,) he was without doubte in his intentions at +least as innocent, as any of the leadinge men; and it is some evidence +that God Almighty saw his hearte was not so malicious as the rest, +that he præserved him to the end of the confusion, when he appeared +as gladd of the Kings restoration, and had heartily wished it +longe before, and very few who had a hand in the contrivance of the +rebellion gave so manifest tokens of repentance as he did; and havinge +for many yeeres undergone the jealosy and hatred of Crumwell, as +one who abominated the murther of the Kinge, and all the barbarous +proceedings against the life of men in cold bloode, the Kinge upon his +returne receaved him into grace and favour, which he never forfeited +by any undutifull behaviour. + + + + +48. + +THE LORD SAY. + +_William Fiennes, created Viscount Say and Sele 1624._ + +_Born 1582. Died 1662._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The last of those Councillours, which were made after the +faction prævayled in Parliament, who were all made to advance an +accommodation, and who adhered to the Parliament, was the L'd Say, a +man who had the deepest hande in the originall contrivance of all the +calamityes which befell that unhappy kingdome, though he had not the +least thought of dissolvinge the Monarchy, and lesse of levellinge the +rankes and distinctions of men, for no man valewed himselfe more upon +his title, or had more ambition to make it greater, and to rayse his +fortune, which was but moderate for his title. He was of a prowde, +morose, and sullen nature, conversed much with bookes, havinge bene +bredd a scholar, and (though nobly borne) a fellow of New-Colledge in +Oxforde, to which he claymed a right, by the Allyance he prætended to +have from William of Wickam the Founder, which he made good by such +an unreasonable Pedigre through so many hundred yeeres, halfe the tyme +wherof extinguishes all relation of kinred, however upon that pretence +that Colledge hath bene seldome without one of that L'ds family. His +parts were not quicke, but so much above those of his owne ranke, that +he had alwayes greate creditt and authority in Parliament, and the +more for takinge all opportunityes to oppose the Courte, and had with +his milke sucked in an implacable malice against the goverment of the +Church. When the Duke of Buckingham proposed to himselfe after his +returne with the Prince from Spayne, to make himselfe popular, by +breakinge that match, and to be gratious with the Parliament, as for +a shorte tyme he was, he resolved to imbrace the frendshipp of the +L'd Say, who was as sollicitous to climbe by that ladder, but the Duke +quickly founde him of to imperious and pedanticall a spiritt, and to +affecte to daungerous mutations, and so cast him off; and from that +tyme, he gave over any pursuite in Courte, and lived narrowly and +sordidly in the country, havinge conversation with very few, but such +who had greate malignity against the church and State, and fomented +ther inclinations and gave them instructions how to behave themselfes +with caution and to do ther businesse with most security, and was in +truth the Pylott that steered all those vessells which were fraighted +with sedition to destroy the goverment. He founde alwayes some way to +make professions of duty to the Kinge and made severall undertakings +to do greate services, which he could not, or would not make good, and +made hast to possesse himselfe of any præferment he could compasse, +whilst his frends were content to attende a more proper conjuncture, +so he gott the Mastershipp of the Wards shortly after the beginninge +of the Parliament, and was as sollicitous to be Treasurer, after the +death of the Earle of Bedforde, and if he could have satisfyed his +rancour in any degree against the Church, he would have bene ready to +have carryed the Prærogative as high as ever it was. When he thought +ther was mischieve enough done, he would have stopped the current and +have deverted farther fury, but he then founde he had only authority +and creditt to do hurte, none to heale the wounds he had given; and +fell into as much contempt with those whome he had ledde, as he was +with those whome he had undone. + + + + +49. + +JOHN SELDEN. + +_Born 1584. Died 1654._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +M'r Selden, was a person whome no character can flatter, or transmitt +in any exspressions æquall to his meritt and virtue. He was of so +stupendious learninge in all kindes, and in all languages, (as may +appeare in his excellent and transcendent writings) that a man would +have thought, he had bene intirely conversant amongst bookes, and had +never spent an howre, but in readinge and writinge, yett his humanity, +courtesy and affability was such, that he would have bene thought +to have bene bredd in the best courtes, but that his good nature, +charity, and delight in doinge good, and in communicatinge all he +knew, exceeded that breedinge. His style in all his writings seemes +harsh and sometymes obscure, which is not wholy to be imputed to the +abstruse subjects, of which he commonly treated, out of the pathes +trodd by other men, but to a little undervalewinge the beauty of a +style, and to much propensity to the language of antiquity, but in his +conversation the most cleere discourcer, and had the best faculty, in +makinge hard things, easy, and præsentinge them to the understandinge, +of any man, that hath bene knowne. M'r Hyde was wonte to say, that he +valewed himselfe upon nothinge more, then upon havinge had M'r Seldence +acquaintance, from the tyme he was very young, and held it with greate +delight, as longe as they were suffred to continue togither in London, +and he was very much troubled alwayes, when he hearde him blamed, +censured and reproched, for stayinge in London, and in the Parliament +after they were in rebellion, and in the worst tymes, which his age +oblieged him to doe; and how wicked soever the actions were which were +every day done, he was confident he had not given his consent to them, +but would have hindred them if he could, with his owne safety, to +which he was alwayes enough indulgent: if he had some infirmityes with +other men, they were waighed downe with wounderfull and prodigious +abilityes and excellencyes in the other skale. + + + + +50. + +JOHN EARLE. + +_Author of 'Micro-cosmographie' 1628. Bishop of Worcester 1662, and of +Salisbury 1663._ + +_Born 1601. Died 1665._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +D'r Earles was at that tyme Chaplyne in the house to the Earle of +Pembroke, L'd Chamberlyne of his Majestys household, and had a +lodginge in the courte under that relation. He was a person very +notable for his elegance in the Greeke and Latine tounges, and beinge +fellow of Merton Colledge in Oxforde, and havinge bene Proctour of the +University, and some very witty and sharpe discourses beinge published +in print without his consent, though knowne to be his, he grew +suddaynely into a very generall esteem with all men, being a man of +greate piety and devotion, a most eloquent and powerfull preacher, and +of a conversation so pleasant and delightfull, so very innocent, and +so very facetious, that no mans company was more desyred, and more +loved. No man was more negligent in his dresse, and habitt, and +meene, no man more wary and cultivated in his behaviour and discourse, +insomuch as he had the greater advantage when he was knowne, by +promisinge so little before he was knowen. He was an excellent Poett +both in Latine, Greeke, and English, as appeares by many pieces +yett abroade, though he suppressed many more himselfe, especially of +English, incomparably good, out of an austerity to those sallyes of +his youth. He was very deere to the L'd Falkelande, with whome he +spent as much tyme as he could make his owne, and as that Lord would +impute the speedy progresse he made in the Greeke tounge, to the +information and assistance he had from M'r Earles, so M'r Earles would +frequently professe that he had gott more usefull learninge by his +conversation at Tew (the L'd Falkelands house) then he had at Oxforde. +In the first setlinge of the Prince his family, he was made on of +his Chaplynes, and attended on him when he was forced to leave the +kingdome, and therfore we shall often have occasyon to mention him +heareafter. He was amongst the few excellent men, who never had, +nor ever could have an enimy, but such a one who was an enimy to all +learninge and virtue, and therfore would never make himselfe knowne. + + + + +51. + +JOHN HALES. + +'_The Ever Memorable Mr. John Hales, of Eaton-Colledge._' + +_Born 1584. Died 1656._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +M'r John Hales, had bene Greeke Professor in the University of +Oxforde, and had borne all[1] the labour of that excellent edition and +impressyon of S't Chrisostomes workes, sett out by S'r Harry Savill, +who was then Warden of Merton Colledge, when the other was fellow +of that house. He was Chaplyne in the house with S'r Dudly Carleton +Ambassador at the Hague in Hollande, at the tyme when the Synod of +Dorte was held, and so had liberty to be present at the consultations +in that assembly, and hath left the best memoriall behinde him, of the +ignorance and passyon and animosity and injustice of that Convention, +of which he often made very pleasant relations, though at that tyme +it receaved to much countenance from Englande. Beinge a person of the +greatest eminency for learninge and other abilityes, from which he +might have promised himselfe any preferment in the Church, he withdrew +himselfe from all pursuites of that kinde into a private fellowshipp +in the Colledge of Eton, wher his frende S'r Harry Savill was Provost, +wher he lyved amongst his bookes, and the most separated from the +worlde of any man then livinge, though he was not in the least degree +inclined to melancholique, but on the contrary of a very open and +pleasant conversation, and therfore was very well pleased with the +resorte of his frends to him, who were such as he had chosen, and in +whose company he delighted, and for whose sake he would sometymes, +once in a yeere, resorte to London, only to injoy ther cheerefull +conversation. + +He would never take any cure of soules, and was so great a contemner +of mony, that he was wonte to say that his fellowshipp, and the +Bursers place (which for the good of the Colledge he held many yeeres) +was worth him fifty poundes a yeere more then he could spende, and +yett besydes his beinge very charitable to all poore people, even to +liberality, he had made a greater and better collection of bookes, +then were to be founde in any other private library, that I have +seene, as he had sure reade more, and carryed more about him, in his +excellent memory, then any man I ever knew, my L'd Falkelande only +excepted, who I thinke syded him. He had, whether from his naturall +temper and constitution, or from his longe retyrement from all +Crowdes, or from his profounde judgement and decerninge spiritt, +contracted some opinions, which were not receaved, nor by him +published, except in private discources, and then rather upon occasion +of dispute, than of positive opinion; and he would often say, his +opinions he was sure did him no harme, but he was farr from beinge +confident, that they might not do others harme, who entertained +them, and might entertayne other resultes from them then he did, +and therfore he was very reserved in communicatinge what he thought +himselfe in those points, in which he differed from what was receaved. + +Nothinge troubled him more, then the brawles which were growne from +religion, and he therfore exceedingly detested the tyranny of +the church of Rome, more for ther imposinge uncharitably upon the +consciences of other men, then for ther errors in ther owne opinions, +and would often say, that he would renounce the religion of the church +of Englande tomorrow if it oblieged him to believe that any other +Christians should be damned: and that no body would conclude another +man to be damned, who did not wish him so: No man more stricte and +seveare to himselfe, to other men so charitable as to ther opinions, +that he thought that other men were more in faulte, for ther carriage +towards them, then the men themselves were who erred: and he thought +that pryde and passyon more then conscience were the cause of all +separation from each others communion, and he frequently sayd, that +that only kept the world from agreeinge upon such a Lyturgy, as might +bringe them into one communion, all doctrinall points upon which men +differed in ther opinions, beinge to have no place in any Liturgye. +Upon an occasionall discource with a frende of the frequent and +uncharitable reproches of Heretique and Schismatique to lightly +throwne at each other amongst men who differr in ther judgement, +he writt a little discource of Schisme, contayned in lesse then two +sheetes of paper, which beinge transmitted from frende to frende in +writing, was at last without any malice brought to the view of the +Arch-Bishopp of Canterbury Dr. Lawde, who was a very rigid survayour +of all thinges which never so little bordred upon Schisme, and thought +the Church could not be to vigilant against, and jealous of such +incursyons. He sent for M'r Hales, whome when they had both lived in +the University of Oxforde he had knowne well, and told him that he +had in truth believed him to be longe since dead, and chidd him +very kindly, for havinge never come to him, havinge bene of his old +acquaintance, then asked him whether he had lately writt a shorte +discource of Schisme, and whether he was of that opinion which that +discource implyed; he told him, that he had for the satisfaction of a +private frende (who was not of his minde) a yeere or two before, +writt such a small tracte, without any imagination that it would be +communicated, and that he believed it did not contayne any thinge that +was not agreable to the judgement of the primitive fathers; upon which +the Arch-Bishopp debated with him upon some exspressions of Irenæus, +and the most auntient fathers, and concluded with sayinge that the +tyme was very apt to sett new doctrynes on foote, of which the witts +of the Age were to susceptable, and that ther could not be to much +care taken to præserve the peace and unity of the Church, and from +thence asked him of his condition, and whether he wanted any thinge, +and the other answeringe that he had enough, and wanted nor desyred no +addition: and so dismissed him with greate courtesy, and shortly after +sent for him agayne, when ther was a Præbendary of Windsor fallen, +and told him the Kinge had given him that præferment because it lay so +convenient to his fellowshipp of Eton, which (though indeede the +most convenient præferment that could be thought of for him) the +Arch-Bishopp could not without greate difficulty perswade him to +accept, and he did accepte it rather to please him, then himselfe, +because he really believed he had enough before. He was one of the +least men in the kingdome, and one of the greatest schollers in +Europe. + +[Footnote 1: 'the greatest part of' in place of 'all' in another hand +in MS.] + + + + +52. + +WILLIAM CHILLINGWORTH. + +_Author of 'The Religion of Protestants,' 1638._ + +_Born 1602. Died 1644._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +M'r Chillingworth, was of a stature little superiour to M'r Hales (and +it was an Age in which ther were many greate and wounderfull men of +that size) and a man of so grea[te] a subtlety of understandinge, and +so rare a temper in debate, that as it was impossible to provoke him +into any passyon, so it was very difficulte to keepe a mans selfe +from beinge a little discomposed by his sharpnesse and quicknesse of +argument and instances, in which he had a rare facility, and a greate +advantage over all the men I ever knew. He had spent all his younger +tyme in disputation, and had arryved to so greate a mastery, as he was +inferior to no man in those skirmishes: but he had with his notable +perfection in this exercise, contracted such an irresolution and habit +of doubtinge, that by degrees he grew confident of nothinge, and a +schepticke at least in the greatest misteryes of fayth; This made +him from first waveringe in religion and indulginge to scruples, to +reconcile himselfe to soone and to easily to the Church of Rome, and +carryinge still his owne inquisitivenesse aboute him, without any +resignation to ther authority (which is the only temper can make +that Church sure of its Proselites) havinge made a journy to S't Omers +purely to perfecte his conversion by the conversation of those who had +the greatest name, he founde as little satisfaction ther, and returned +with as much hast from them, with a beliefe that an intire exemption +from error was nether inherent in, nor necessary to, any Church; which +occasioned that warr which was carryed on by the Jesuitts with so +greate asperity and reproches against him, and in which he defended +himselfe by such an admirable eloquence of language, and the cleere +and incomparable power of reason, that he not only made them appeare +unæquall adversaryes, but carryed the warr into ther owne quarters, +and made the Popes infallibility to be as much shaken and declyned by +ther owne Doctors, and as greate an acrimony amon[g]st themselves upon +that subjecte, and to be at least as much doubted as in the schooles +of the Reformed or Protestant, and forced them since to defende and +maintayne those unhappy contraversyes in religion, with armes and +weopons of another nature, then were used or knowne in the Church of +Rome when Bellarmyne dyed: and which probably will in tyme undermyne +the very foundation that supportes it. + +Such a levity and propensity to change, is commonly attended with +greate infirmityes in, and no lesse reproch and præjudice to the +person, but the sincerity of his hearte was so conspicuous, and +without the least temptation of any corrupt end, and the innocence and +candour of his nature so evident and without any perversenesse, that +all who knew him cleerely decerned, that all those restlesse motions +and fluctuation proceeded only from the warmth and jealosy of his owne +thoughts, in a to nice inquisition for truth: nether the bookes of +the Adversary, nor any of ther persons, though he was acquainted with +the best of both, had ever made greate impression upon him, all his +doubles grew out of himselfe, when he assisted his scruples with all +the strenght of his owne reason, and was then to hard for himselfe; +but findinge as little quyett and repose in those victoryes, he +quickly recover'd by a new appeale to his owne judgement, so that he +was in truth upon the matter in all his Sallyes and retreits his owne +converte, though he was not so totally devested of all thoughts of +this worlde, but that when he was ready for it he admitted some greate +and considerable Churchmen to be sharers with him, in his publique +conversion. Whilst he was in perplexity, or rather some passionate +disinclination to the religion he had bene educated in, he had the +misfortune to have much acquaintance with one M'r Lugar a minister of +that church, a man of a competency of learninge in those points most +contravened with the Romanists, but of no acute parts of witt or +judgement, and wrought so farr upon him, by weakeninge and enervating +those arguments by which he founde he was governed (as he had all the +logique and all the Rhetorique that was necessary to perswade very +powerfully men of the greatest talents) that the poore man, not able +to lyve longe in doubte, to hastily deserted his owne church, and +betooke himselfe to the Roman, nor could all the arguments and reasons +of M'r Chillingworth make him pawse in the exspedition he was usinge, +or reduce him from that Church after he had given himselfe to it, but +had alwayes a greate animosity against him, for havinge (as he sayd) +unkindly betrayed him, and carryed him into another religion, and +ther left him: So unfitt are some constitutions to be troubled with +doubtes, after they are once fixed. + +He did really believe all warr to be unlawfull, and did not thinke +that the Parliament (whose proceedings he perfectly abhorred) did +intruth intende to involve the nation in a civill warr, till after the +battell of Edgehill, and then he thought any exspedient or stratagemm +that was like to putt a speedy ende to it, to be the most commendable; +and so havinge to mathematically conceaved an Engyne that should moove +so lightly, as to be a brest-worke in all incounters and assaultes in +the feilde, he carryed it to make the exsperiment into that parte of +his Majestys army, which was only in that winter season in the Feilde, +under the commaunde of the L'd Hopton in Hampshyre upon the borders +of Sussex, wher he was shutt up in the Castle of Arrundell, which was +forced after a shorte, sharpe seige, to yeild for want of victuall, +and poore M'r Chillingworth with it fallinge into the Rebells hands, +and beinge most barbarously treated by them, especially by that Clargy +which followed them, and beinge broken with sicknesse contracted by +the ill accommadation and wante of meate and fyre duringe the seige, +which was in a terrible season of frost and snow, he dyed shortly +after in pryson. He was a man of excellent parts, and of a cheerefull +disposition, voyde of all kinde of vice, and indewed with many notable +virtues, of a very publique hearte, and an indefatigable desyre to do +good; his only unhappinesse proceeded from his sleepinge to little, +and thinkinge to much, which sometymes threw him into violent feavers. + + + + +53. + +EDMUND WALLER. + +_Born 1606. Died 1687._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Edmund Waller, was borne to a very fayre estate, by the parsimony +or frugality of a wise father and mother, and he thought it so +commendable an advantage, that he resolved to improove it with his +utmost care, upon which in his nature he was to much intent; and in +order to that he was so much reserved and retyred, that he was scarce +ever hearde of, till by his addresse and dexterity, he had gotten +a very rich wife in the Citty, against all the recommendation, and +countenance, and authority of the Courte, which was throughly ingaged +on the behalfe of M'r Crofts, and which used to be succesfull in +that age, against any opposition. He had the good fortune to have an +allyance and frendshipp with D'r Morly, who had assisted and instructed +him in the readinge many good bookes, to which his naturall parts and +promptitude inclined him, especially the poetts, and at the age when +other men used to give over writinge verses (for he was neere thirty +yeeres of age when he first ingaged himselfe in that exercize, at +least that he was knowen to do soe) he surpryzed the towne with two or +three pieces of that kinde, as if a tenth muse had bene newly borne, +to cherish droopinge poetry: the Doctor at that tyme brought him into +that company which was most celebrated for good conversation, wher he +was receaved and esteemed with greate applause and respecte. He was +a very pleasant discourcer in earnest and in jest, and therfore very +gratefull to all kinde of company, wher he was not the lesse esteemed, +for beinge very rich. He had bene even nurced in Parliaments, wher he +sate when he was very young,[1] and so when they were resumed agayne +(after a longe intermission,[2]) he appeared in those assemblyes +with greate advantage, havinge a gracefull way of speakinge, and +by thinkinge much upon severall arguments (which his temper and +complexion that had much of melancholique inclined him to) he +seemed often to speake upon the suddayne, when the occasyon had +only administred the opportunity of sayinge what he had throughly +considered, which gave a greate lustre to all he sayde; which yett was +rather of delight, then wayte. Ther needes no more be sayd to extoll +the excellence and power of his witt, and pleasantnesse of his +conversation, then that it was of magnitude enough to cover a world of +very greate faultes, that is so cover them, that they were not taken +notice of to his reproch, a narrownesse in his nature to the louest +degree, an abjectnesse and want of courage to supporte him in any +virtuous undertakinge, an insinuation and servile flattery to the +height the vaynest and most imperious nature could be contented with: +that it præserved and woone his life from those who were most +resolved to take it, and in an occasyon in which he ought to have +bene ambitious to have lost it, and then præserved him agayne from the +reproch and contempt that was dew to him for so præservinge it, and +for vindicatinge it at such a pryce: that it had power to reconcile +him to those whome he had most offended and provoked, and continued to +his age with that rare felicity, that his company was acceptable, wher +his spirit was odious, and he was at least pittyed, wher he was most +detested. + +[Footnote 1: 'in his infancy' struck out in MS. before 'very young'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'and interdiction' struck out in MS. after +'intermission'.] + + + + +54. + +THOMAS HOBBES. + +_Born 1588. Died 1679._ + +By CLARENDON. + +(On Hobbes's _Leviathan_.) + + +I have proposed to my self, to make some Animadversions upon such +particulars, as may in my judgment produce much mischief in the World, +in a Book of great Name, and which is entertain'd and celebrated (at +least enough) in the World; a Book which contains in it good learning +of all kinds, politely extracted, and very wittily and cunningly +disgested, in a very commendable method, and in a vigorous and +pleasant Style: which hath prevailed over too many, to swallow many +new tenets as maximes without chewing; which manner of diet for +the indigestion M'r _Hobbes_ himself doth much dislike. The thorough +novelty (to which the present age, if ever any, is too much inclin'd) +of the work receives great credit and authority from the known Name +of the Author, a Man of excellent parts, of great wit, some reading, +and somewhat more thinking; One who ha's spent many years in forreign +parts and observation, understands the Learned as well as modern +Languages, hath long had the reputation of a great Philosopher and +Mathematician, and in his age hath had conversation with very many +worthy and extraordinary Men, to which, it may be, if he had bin more +indulgent in the more vigorous part of his life, it might have had +a greater influence upon the temper of his mind, whereas age seldom +submits to those questions, enquiries, and contradictions, which the +Laws and liberty of conversation require: and it hath bin alwaies a +lamentation amongst M'r _Hobbes_ his Friends, that he spent too much +time in thinking, and too little in exercising those thoughts in +the company of other Men of the same, or of as good faculties; for +want whereof his natural constitution, with age, contracted such a +morosity, that doubting and contradicting Men were never grateful to +him: In a word, M'r _Hobbes_ is one of the most antient acquaintance I +have in the World, and of whom I have alwaies had a great esteem, as +a Man who besides his eminent parts of Learning and knowledg, hath bin +alwaies looked upon as a Man of Probity, and a life free from scandal; +and it may be there are few Men now alive, who have bin longer +known to him then I have bin in a fair and friendly conversation and +sociableness. + + + + +55. + +Notes by JOHN AUBREY. + + +I have heard his brother Edm and M'r Wayte his schoole fellow &c, say +that when he was a Boy he was playsome enough: but withall he had even +then a contemplative Melancholinesse. he would gett him into a corner, +and learne his Lesson by heart presently. His haire was black, & his +schoolefellows[1] were wont to call him Crowe. + +[Footnote 1: 'his schoolefellows' written above 'the boyes'.] + + * * * * * + +The Lord Chancellour Bacon loved to converse with him. He assisted his +Lo'p: in translating severall of his Essayes into Latin, one I well +remember is[1] that, _of the Greatnes of Cities_. the rest I have +forgott. His Lo'p: was a very Contemplative person, and was wont to +contemplate in his delicious walkes at Gorambery, and dictate to M'r +Thomas Bushell or some other of his Gentlemen, that attended him +with inke & paper ready, to sett downe presently his thoughts. His +Lo'p: would often say that he better liked M'r Hobbes's taking his +Notions[2], then any of the other, because he understood what he +wrote; which the others not understanding my Lord would many times +have a hard taske to make sense of what they writt. + +[Footnote 1: 'is' above 'was'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Notions' above 'thoughts'.] + +It is to be remembred that about these times, M'r T.H. was much +addicted to Musique, and practised on the Base-Violl. + + * * * * * + +... LEVIATHAN, the manner of writing of which Booke (he told me) was +thus. He walked much and contemplated, and he had in the head of his +staffe[1] a pen and inkehorne; carried alwayes a Note-booke in his +pocket, and as soon as a though[t][2] darted, he presently entred it +into his Booke, or otherwise[3] he might perhaps[4] have lost it. He +had drawne the Designe of the Booke into Chapters &c; so he knew where +about it would come in. Thus that Booke was made. + +[Footnote 1: 'staffe' above 'Cane'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'though' above 'notion'.] + +[Footnote 3: 'otherwise' above 'els'.] + +[Footnote 4: 'might perhaps' above 'should'.] + + * * * * * + +He was marvellous happy and ready in his replies; and Replies that +without rancor, (except provoked). but now I speake of his readinesse +in replies as to witt & drollery, he would say that, he did not care +to give, neither was he adroit[1] at a present answer to a serious +quaere; he had as lieve they should have expected a[n] extemporary +solution[2] to an Arithmeticall probleme, for he turned and _winded_ +& compounded in philosophy, politiques &c. as if he had been at +Analyticall[3] worke. he alwayes avoided as much as he could, to +conclude hastily. + +[Footnote 1: 'adroit' above 'good'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'extemporary' above 'present', 'solution' in place of +'answer'.] + +[Footnote 3: 'Analyticall' above 'Mathematicall'.] + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: His manner[1] of thinking] + +He sayd that he sometimes would sett his thoughts upon researching and +contemplating, always with this Rule[2], that he very much & deeply +considered one thing at a time. Sc. a weeke, or sometimes a fortnight. + +[Footnote 1: 'manner' above 'way'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Rule: Observation' above 'proviso'.] + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Head] + +In his old age he was very bald[1], which claymed a veneration; yet +within dore he used to study, and sitt bare-headed: and sayd he never +tooke cold in his head but that the greatest trouble was to keepe-off +the Flies from pitching on the baldnes: his Head was ... inches (I +have the measure) in compasse, and of a mallet forme, approved by the +Physiologers. + +[Footnote 1: 'recalvus' above 'very bald'.] + +[Sidenote: Eie] + +He had a good Eie, and that of a hazell colour, which was full of life +& spirit, even to his last: when he was earnest, in discourse, there +shone (as it were) a bright live-coale within it. he had two kind +of Lookes: when he laught, was witty, & in a merry humour, one could +scarce see his Eies: by and by when he was serious and earnest[1], he +open'd his eies round (i.) his eielids. he had midling eies, not very +big, nor very little. + +[Footnote 1: 'earnest' above 'positive'.] + +[Sidenote: Stature] + +He was six foote high and something better, and went indifferently +erect; or, rather considering his great age, very erect. + +[Sidenote: Sight Witt] + +His Sight & Witt continued to his last. He had a curious sharp sight, +as he had a sharpe Witt; which was also so sure and steady, (and +contrary to that men call Brodwittednes,) that I have heard him +oftentimes say, that in Multiplying & Dividing he never mistooke a +figure[1]: and so, in other things. He thought much & with excellent +Method, & Stedinesse, which made him seldome make a false step. + +[Footnote 1: 'never ... figure' above 'was never out' ('out' corrected +to 'mistooke').] + +[Sidenote: Reading] + +He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his +Contemplation was much more then his Reading. He was wont to say that, +if he _had read as much as other men, he should have knowne no more +then[1] other men_. + +[Footnote 1: 'knowne ... then' above 'continued still as ignorant +as'.] + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Singing] + +He had alwayes bookes of prick-song lyeing on his Table: e.g. of H. +Lawes &c. Songs: which at night when he was a bed, & the dores made +fast, & was sure no body heard him, he sang _aloud_, (not that he had +a very good voice) but to cleare his pipes[1]: he did beleeve it did +his Lunges good, & conduced much to prolong his life. + +[Footnote 1: 'to cleare his pipes' above 'for his healths sake'.] + + + + +56. + +THOMAS FULLER. + +_Born 1608. Died 1661._ + + +He was of Stature somewhat Tall, exceeding the meane, with a +proportionable bigness to become it, but no way inclining to +Corpulency: of an exact Straightnesse of the whole Body, and a perfect +Symmetry in every part thereof. He was of a Sanguine constitution, +which beautified his Face with a pleasant Ruddinesse, but of so +Grave and serious an aspect, that it Awed and Discountenanced the +smiling Attracts of that complexion. His Head Adorned with a comely +Light-Coloured Haire, which was so, by Nature exactly Curled (an +Ornament enough of it self in this Age to Denominate a handsome +person, and wherefore all Skill and Art is used) but not suffered to +overgrow to any length unseeming his modesty and Profession. + +His Gate and Walking was very upright and graceful, becoming his well +shapen Bulke: approaching something near to that we terme Majesticall; +but that the Doctor was so well known to be void of any affectation or +pride. Nay so Regardlesse was he of himselfe in his Garb and Rayment, +in which no doubt his Vanity would have appeared, as well as in his +stately pace: that it was with some trouble to himselfe, to be either +Neat or Decent; it matter'd not for the outside, while he thought +himself never too Curious and Nice in the Dresses of his mind. + +Very Carelesse also he was to seeming inurbanity in the modes of +Courtship and demeanour, deporting himself much according to the old +_English_ Guise, which for its ease and simplicity suited very well +with the Doctor, whose time was designed for more Elaborate businesse: +and whose MOTTO might have been sincerity. + +As inobservant he was of persons, unless businesse with them, or his +concerns pointed them out and adverted him; seeing and discerning were +two things: often in several places, hath he met with Gentlemen of +his nearest and greatest Acquaintance, at a full rencounter and stop, +whom he hath endeavoured to passe by, not knowing, that is to say, +not minding of them, till rectifyed and recalled by their familiar +compellations. + +This will not (it may be presumed) and justly cannot be imputed unto +any indisposednesse and unaptnesse of his Nature, which was so far +from Rude and untractable, that it may be confidently averred, he +was the most complacent person in the Nation, as his Converse and +Writings, with such a freedome of Discourse and quick Jocundity of +style, do sufficiently evince. + +He was a perfect walking Library, and those that would finde delight +in him must turn him; he was to be diverted from his present purpose +with some urgency: and when once Unfixed and Unbent, his mind freed +from the incumbency of his Study; no Man could be more agreeable to +Civil and Serious mirth, which limits his most heightned Fancy never +transgressed. + +He had the happinesse of a very Honourable, and that very numerous +acquaintance, so that he was noway undisciplined in the Arts of +Civility; yet he continued _semper idem_, which constancy made him +alwaies acceptable to them. At his Diet he was very sparing and +temperate, but yet he allowed himself the repasts and refreshings +of two Meals a day: but no lover of Danties, or the Inventions of +Cookery: solid meats better fitting his strength of Constitution; but +from drink very much abstemious, which questionlesse was the cause +of that uninterrupted Health he enjoyed till this his First and Last +sicknesse: of which Felicity as he himself was partly the cause of by +his exactnesse in eating and drinking, so did he the more dread the +sudden infliction of any Disease, or other violence of Nature, fearing +this his care might amount to a presumption, in the Eyes of the great +Disposer of all things, and so it pleased GOD it should happen. + +But his great abstinence of all was from Sleep, and strange it was +that one of such a Fleshly and sanguine composition, could overwatch +so many heavy propense inclinations to Rest. For this in some sort +he was beholden to his care in Diet aforesaid, (the full Vapours of +a repletion in the Stomack ascending to the Brain, causing that usual +Drowsinesse we see in many) but most especially to his continual +custome, use, and practise, which had so subdued his Nature, that it +was wholy Governed by his Active and Industrious mind. + +And yet this is a further wonder: he did scarcely allow himself, from +his First Degree in the University, any Recreation or Easie Exercise, +no not so much as walking, but very Rare and Seldome; and that not +upon his own choice, but as being compelled by friendly, yet, Forcible +Invitations; till such time as the War posted him from place to place, +and after that his constant attendance on the Presse in the Edition +of his Books: when was a question, which went the fastest, his Head or +his Feet: so that in effect he was a very stranger, if not an Enemy to +all pleasure. + +Riding was the most pleasant, because his necessary convenience; the +Doctors occasions, especially his last work, requiring Travel, to +which he had so accustomed himself: so that this Diversion, (like +Princes Banquets only to be lookt upon by them, not tasted of) was +rather made such then enjoyed by him. + +So that if there were any Felicity or Delight, which he can be truly +said to have had: it was either in his Relations or in his Works. As +to his Relations, certainly, no man was more a tender, more indulgent +a Husband and a Father: his Conjugal Love in both matches being +equally blest with the same Issue, kept a constant Tenour in both +Marriages, which he so improved, that the Harmony of his Affections +still'd all Discord, and Charmed the noyse of passion. + +Towards the Education of his Children, he was exceeding carefull, +allowing them any thing conducing to that end, beyond the present +measure of his estate; which its well hoped will be returned to the +Memory of so good a Father, in their early imitation of him in all +those good Qualities and Literature, to which they have now such an +Hereditary clayme. + +As to his Books, which we usually call the Issue of the Brain, he was +more then Fond, totally abandoning and forsaking all things to follow +them. And yet if Correction and Severity (so this may be allowed the +gravity of the Subject) be also the signes of Love: a stricter and +more carefull hand was never used. True it is they did not grow up +without some errours, like the Tares: nor can the most refined pieces +of any of his Antagonists boast of perfection. He that goes an unknown +and beaten Track in a Dubious way, though he may have good directions, +yet if in the journey he chance to stray, cannot well be blamed; they +have perchance plowed with his Heifer, and been beholden to those +Authorities (for their Exceptions) which he first gave light to. + +To his Neighbours and Friends he behaved himselfe with that +chearfulnesse and plainnesse of Affection and respect, as deservedly +gained him their Highest esteeme: from the meanest to the highest +he omitted nothing what to him belonged in his station, either in +a familiar correspondency, or necessary Visits; never suffering +intreaties of that which either was his Duty, or in his power to +perform. The quickness of his apprehension helped by a Good Nature, +presently suggested unto him (without putting them to the trouble of +an _innuendo_) what their severall Affairs required, in which he would +spare no paynes: insomuch that it was a piece of Absolute Prudence +to rely upon his Advice and Assistance. In a word, to his Superiours +he was Dutifully respectfull without Ceremony or Officiousnesse; +to his equalls he was Discreetly respectful, without neglect or +unsociableness; and to his Inferiours, (whom indeed he judged +Christianly none to be) civilly respectfull without Pride or Disdain. + +But all these so eminent vertues, and so sublimed in him, were but +as foyles to those excellent gifts wherewith God had endued his +intellectuals. He had a Memory of that vast comprehensiveness, that he +is deservedly known for the first inventer of that Noble Art, whereof +having left behind him no Rules, or directions, save, onely what fell +from him in discours, no further account can be given, but a relation +of some very rare experiments of it made by him. + +He undertook once in passing to and fro from _Templebar_ to the +furthest Conduit in _Cheapside_, at his return again to tell every +Signe as they stood in order on both sides of the way, repeating them +either backward or forward, as they should chuse, which he exactly +did, not missing or misplacing one, to the admiration of those that +heard him. + +The like also would he doe in words of different Languages, and of +hard and difficult prolation, to any number whatsoever: but that which +was most strange, and very rare in him, was his way of writing, which +something like the _Chineses_, was from the top of the page to the +bottom: the manner thus. He would write near the Margin the first +words of every Line down to the Foot of the Paper, then would he +begining at the head againe, fill up every one of these Lines, which +without any interlineations or spaces but with the full and equal +length, would so adjust the sense and matter, and so aptly Connex and +Conjoyn the ends and beginnings of the said Lines, that he could +not do it better, as he hath said, if he had writ all out in a +Continuation. + + + + +57. + +JOHN MILTON. + +_Born 1608. Died 1674._ + +Notes by JOHN AUBREY. + + +He was of middle stature,[1] he had light abroun[2] hayre, his +complexion exceeding[3] faire. he was so faire, that they called him +the Lady of Christs college. ovall face. his eie a darke gray.... he +was a Spare man. + +[Footnote 1: Aubrey wrote first 'He was scarce so tall as I am'; then +added above the last six words, 'q[uaere] quot feet I am high'; and +then above this 'Resp: of middle stature'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'abroun' (i.e. auburn) written above 'browne'.] + +[Footnote 3: 'exceeding' above 'very'.] + + * * * * * + +He was an early riser: Sc: at 4 a clock manè. yea, after he lost +his sight: He had a man read to him: The first thing he read was the +Hebrew bible, and that was at 4'h. manè 1/2'h.+. Then he contemplated. +At 7 his man came to him again & then read to him and wrote till +dinner: the writing was as much as the reading. His daughter Deborah +2[1] could read to him Latin, Italian, & French, & Greeke; married in +Dublin to one M'r Clarke [sells silke &c[2]] very like her father. The +other sister is Mary 1[1], more like her mother. After dinner he usd +to walke 3 or 4 houres at a time, he alwayes had a Garden where he +lived: went to bed about 9. Temperate, rarely drank between meales. +Extreme pleasant in his conversation, & at dinner, supper &c: but +Satyricall. He pronounced the letter R very hard. a certaine signe of +a Satyricall Witt. from Jo. Dreyden. + +[Footnote 1: '2' and '1', marking seniority, above the names.] + +[Footnote 2: 'sells silke &c' above 'a Mercer'.] + +[Sidenote: Litera Canina.] + +He had a delicate tuneable Voice & had good skill: his father +instructed him: he had an Organ in his house: he played on that most. +His exercise was chiefly walking. + +He was visited much by learned[1]: more then he did desire. + +[Footnote 1: 'by learned' added above the line.] + +He was mightily importuned to goe into France & Italie. Foraigners +came much to see him, and much admired him, & offered to him great +preferments to come over to them, & the only inducement of severall +foreigners that came over into England, was chifly to see O. Protector +& M'r J. Milton, and would see _the house and chamber_ wher _he_ was +borne: he was much more admired abrode then at home. + + * * * * * + +His harmonicall, and ingeniose soule did lodge[1] in a beautifull and +well proportioned body--In toto nusquam corpore menda fuit. Ovid. + +[Footnote 1: 'did lodge' above 'dwelt'.] + +He had a very good memory: but I believe that his excellent Method of +thinking, & disposing did much helpe his memorie. + + * * * * * + +Of a very cheerfull humour. + +He was very healthy, & free from all diseases, seldome tooke any +Physique, only sometimes he tooke Manna[1], and only towards his +later end he was visited with the Gowte--Spring & Fall: he would be +chearfull even in his Gowte-fitts: & sing. + +[Footnote 1: 'seldome ... Manna' added above the line.] + +He died of the gowt struck in the 9th or 10th of Novemb 1674, as +appeares by his Apothecaryes Booke. + + +58. + +Note by EDWARD PHILLIPS. + + +There is another very remarkable Passage in the Composure of this Poem +[_Paradise Lost_], which I have a particular occasion to remember; +for whereas I had the perusal of it from the very beginning; for some +years as I went from time to time to Visit him, in a Parcel of Ten, +Twenty, or Thirty Verses at a Time, which being Written by whatever +hand came next, might possibly want Correction as to the Orthography +and Pointing; having as the Summer came on, not been shewed any for +a considerable while, and desiring the reason thereof, was answered, +That his Veine never happily flow'd, but from the _Autumnal +Equinoctial_ to the _Vernal_, and that whatever he attempted was never +to his satisfaction, though he courted his fancy never so much; so +that in all the years he was about this Poem, he may be said to have +spent but half his time therein. + + + + +59. + +Notes by JONATHAN RICHARDSON. + + +One that had Often seen him, told me he us'd to come to a House where +He Liv'd, and he has also Met him in the Street, Led by _Millington_, +the same who was so Famous an Auctioneer of Books about the time of +the Revolution, and Since. This Man was then a Seller of Old Books +in _Little Britain_, and _Milton_ lodg'd at his house. This was 3 +or 4 Years before he Dy'd. he then wore no Sword that My Informer +remembers, though Probably he did, at least 'twas his Custom not long +before to wear one with a Small Silver-Hilt, and in Cold Weather a +Grey Camblet Coat.... + +I have heard many Years Since that he Us'd to Sit in a Grey Coarse +Cloth Coat at the Door of his House, near _Bun-hill_ Fields Without +_Moor-gate_, in Warm Sunny Weather to Enjoy the Fresh Air, and So, as +well as in his Room, receiv'd the Visits of People of Distinguished +Parts, as well as Quality, and very Lately I had the Good Fortune +to have Another Picture of him from an Ancient Clergyman in +_Dorsetshire_, Dr. _Wright_; He found him in a Small House, he thinks +but One Room on a Floor; in That, up One pair of Stairs, which was +hung with a Rusty Green, he found _John Milton_, Sitting in an Elbow +Chair, Black Cloaths, and Neat enough, Pale, but not Cadaverous, his +Hands and Fingers Gouty, and with Chalk Stones. among Other Discourse +He exprest Himself to This Purpose; that was he Free from the Pain +This gave him, his Blindness would be Tolerable. + + * * * * * + +... besides what Affliction he Must have from his Disappointment on +the Change of the Times, and from his Own Private Losses, and probably +Cares for Subsistence, and for his Family; he was in Perpetual Terror +of being Assassinated, though he had Escap'd the Talons of the Law, he +knew he had Made Himself Enemies in Abundance. he was So Dejected he +would lie Awake whole Nights. He then kept Himself as Private as he +could. This Dr. _Tancred Robinson_ had from a Relation of _Milton's_, +Mr. _Walker_ of the Temple. and This is what is Intimated by Himself, +VII. 26. + + _On Evil Daies though fall'n and Evil Tongues, in Darkness, + and with Dangers compast round, and Solitude_. + + * * * * * + +Mr. _Bendish_ has heard the Widow or Daughter or Both say it, that +Soon after the Restauration the King Offer'd to Employ this Pardon'd +Man as his Latin Secretary, the Post in which he Serv'd _Cromwell_ +with So much Integrity and Ability; (that a like Offer was made to +_Thurlow_ is not Disputed as ever I heard) _Milton_ Withstood the +Offer; the Wife press'd his Compliance. _Thou art in the Right_ (says +he) _You, as Other Women, would ride in your Coach; for Me, My Aim is +to Live and Dye an Honest Man_. + + * * * * * + +Other Stories I have heard concerning the Posture he was Usually in +when he Dictated, that he Sat leaning Backward Obliquely in an Easy +Chair, with his Leg flung over the Elbow of it. that he frequently +Compos'd lying in Bed in a Morning ('twas Winter Sure Then) I have +been Well inform'd, that when he could not Sleep, but lay Awake whole +Nights, he Try'd; not One Verse could he make; at Other times flow'd +_Easy his Unpremeditated Verse_, with a certain _Impetus_ and _Æstro_, +as Himself seem'd to Believe. Then, at what Hour soever, he rung +for his Daughter to Secure what Came. I have been also told he would +Dictate many, perhaps 40 Lines as it were in a Breath, and then reduce +them to half the Number. + + + + +60. + +ABRAHAM COWLEY. + +_Born 1618. Died 1667._ + +_Of My self._ + + +It is a hard and nice Subject for a man to write of himself, it grates +his own heart to say any thing of disparagement, and the Readers Eares +to hear any thing of praise from him. There is no danger from me +of offending him in this kind; neither my Mind, nor my Body, nor my +Fortune, allow me any materials for that Vanity. It is sufficient, for +my own contentment, that they have preserved me from being scandalous, +or remarkable on the defective side. But besides that, I shall here +speak of myself, only in relation to the subject of these precedent +discourses, and shall be likelier thereby to fall into the contempt, +then rise up to the estimation of most people. As far as my Memory +can return back into my past Life, before I knew, or was capable +of guessing what the world, or glories, or business of it were, the +natural affections of my soul gave me a secret bent of aversion +from them, as some Plants are said to turn away from others, by +an Antipathy imperceptible to themselves, and inscrutable to mans +understanding. Even when I was a very young Boy at School, instead of +running about on Holy-daies and playing with my fellows, I was wont to +steal from them, and walk into the fields, either alone with a Book, +or with some one Companion, if I could find any of the same temper. +I was then too, so much an Enemy to all constraint, that my Masters +could never prevail on me, by any perswasions or encouragements, +to learn without Book the common rules of Grammar, in which they +dispensed with me alone, because they found I made a shift to do the +usual exercise out of my own reading and observation. That I was then +of the same mind as I am now (which I confess, I wonder at my self) +may appear by the latter end of an Ode, which I made when I was but +thirteen years old, and which was then printed with many other Verses. +The Beginning of it is Boyish, but of this part which I here set down +(if a very little were corrected) I should hardly now be much ashamed. + +9. + + This only grant me, that my means may lye + Too low for Envy, for Contempt too high. + Some Honor I would have + Not from great deeds, but good alone. + The unknown are better than ill known. + Rumour can ope' the Grave, + Acquaintance I would have, but when 't depends + Not on the number, but the choice of Friends. + +10. + + Books should, not business, entertain the Light, + And sleep, as undisturb'd as Death, the Night. + My House a Cottage, more + Then Palace, and should fitting be + For all my Use, no Luxury. + My Garden painted o're + With Natures hand, not Arts; and pleasures yeild, + _Horace_ might envy in his Sabine field. + +11. + + Thus would I double my Lifes fading space, + For he that runs it well, twice runs his race. + And in this true delight, + These unbought sports, this happy State, + I would not fear nor wish my fate, + But boldly say each night, + To morrow let my Sun his beams display, + Or in clouds hide them; I have liv'd to Day. + +You may see by it, I was even then acquainted with the Poets (for the +Conclusion is taken out of _Horace_;) and perhaps it was the immature +and immoderate love of them which stampt first, or rather engraved +these Characters in me: They were like Letters cut into the Bark of +a young Tree, which with the Tree still grow proportionably. But, how +this love came to be produced in me so early, is a hard question: I +believe I can tell the particular little chance that filled my head +first with such Chimes of Verse, as have never since left ringing +there: For I remember when I began to read, and to take some pleasure +in it, there was wont to lie in my Mothers Parlour (I know not by +what accident, for she her self never in her life read any Book but of +Devotion) but there was wont to lie _Spencers_ Works; this I happened +to fall upon, and was infinitely delighted with the Stories of the +Knights, and Giants, and Monsters, and brave Houses, which I found +every where there: (Though my understanding had little to do with all +this) and by degrees with the tinckling of the Rhyme and Dance of the +Numbers, so that I think I had read him all over before I was twelve +years old, and was thus made a Poet as immediately [1] as a Child is +made an Eunuch. With these affections of mind, and my heart wholly set +upon Letters, I went to the University; But was soon torn from thence +by that violent Publick storm which would suffer nothing to stand +where it did, but rooted up every Plant, even from the Princely Cedars +to Me, the Hyssop. Yet I had as good fortune as could have befallen me +in such a Tempest; for I was cast by it into the Family of one of the +best Persons, and into the Court of one of the best Princesses of the +World. Now though I was here engaged in wayes most contrary to the +Original design of my life, that is, into much company, and no small +business, and into a daily sight of Greatness, both Militant and +Triumphant (for that was the state then of the _English_ and _French_ +Courts) yet all this was so far from altering my Opinion, that it +oncly added the confirmation of Reason to that which was before but +Natural Inclination. I saw plainly all the Paint of that kind of Life, +the nearer I came to it; and that Beauty which I did not fall in Love +with, when, for ought I knew, it was reall, was not like to bewitch, +or intice me, when I saw that it was Adulterate. I met with several +great Persons, whom I liked very well, but could not perceive that +any part of their Greatness was to be liked or desired, no more then +I would be glad, or content to be in a Storm, though I saw many Ships +which rid safely and bravely in it: A storm would not agree with my +stomach, if it did with my Courage. Though I was in a croud of as good +company as could be found any where, though I was in business of great +and honourable trust, though I eate at the best Table, and enjoyed the +best conveniences for present subsistance that ought to be desired +by a man of my condition in banishment and publick distresses, yet I +could not abstain from renewing my old School-boys Wish in a Copy of +Verses to the same effect. + + Well then; I now do plainly see + This busie World and I shall ne're agree, &c. + +And I never then proposed to my self any other advantage from His +Majesties Happy Restoration, but the getting into some moderately +convenient Retreat in the Country, which I thought in that case I +might easily have compassed, as well as some others, who[2] with +no greater probabilities or pretences have arrived to extraordinary +fortunes: But I had before written a shrewd Prophesie against my +self, and I think _Apollo_ inspired me in the Truth, though not in the +Elegance of it. + + Thou, neither great at Court nor in the War, + Nor at th' Exchange shal't be, nor at the wrangling Barr; + Content thy self with the small barren praise + Which neglected Verse does raise, &c. + +However by the failing of the Forces which I had expected, I did not +quit the Design which I had resolved on, I cast my self into it _A +Corps perdu_, without making capitulations, or taking counsel of +Fortune. But God laughs at a Man, who sayes to his Soul, _Take thy +ease_: I met presently not onely with many little encumbrances and +impediments, but with so much sickness (a new misfortune to me) as +would have spoiled the happiness of an Emperour as well as Mine: +Yet I do neither repent nor alter my course. _Non ego perfidum Dixi +Sacramentum_; Nothing shall separate me from a Mistress, which I have +loved so long, and have now at last married; though she neither has +brought me a rich Portion, nor lived yet so quietly with me as I hoped +from Her. + + --_Nec vos, dulcissima mundi + Nomina, vos Musæ, Libertas, Otia, Libri, + Hortique Syluæq; anima remanente relinquam._ + + Nor by me ere shall you, + You of all Names the sweetest, and the best, + You Muses, Books, and Liberty and Rest; + You Gardens, Fields, and Woods forsaken be, + As long as Life it self forsakes not Me. + +[Footnote 1: 'irremediably' text 1668, 'immediately' errata 1668.] + +[Footnote 2: 'who' omitted 1668, inserted 1669.] + + + + +61. + +By THOMAS SPRAT. + + +I think it fit to direct my Speech concerning him, by the same rule +by which he was wont to judge of others. In his esteem of other men, +he constantly prefer'd the good temper of their minds, and honesty +of their Actions, above all the excellencies of their Eloquence or +Knowledge. The same course I will take in his praise, which chiefly +ought to be fixed on his life. For that he deserves more applause from +the most virtuous men, than for his other abilities he ever obtained +from the Learned. + +He had indeed a perfect natural goodness, which neither the +uncertainties of his condition, nor the largeness of his wit could +pervert. He had a firmness and strength of mind, that was of proof +against the Art of Poetry it self. Nothing vain or fantastical, +nothing flattering or insolent appeared in his humour. He had a great +integrity, and plainness of Manners; which he preserv'd to the last, +though much of his time was spent in a Nation, and way of life, that +is not very famous for sincerity. But the truth of his heart was above +the corruption of ill examples: And therefore the sight of them rather +confirm'd him in the contrary Virtues. + +There was nothing affected or singular in his habit, or person, or +gesture. He understood the forms of good breeding enough to practise +them without burdening himself, or others. He never opprest any mans +parts, nor ever put any man out of countenance. He never had any +emulation for Fame, or contention for Profit with any man. When he was +in business he suffer'd others importunities with much easiness: When +he was out of it he was never importunate himself. His modesty and +humility were so great, that if he had not had many other equal +Virtues, they might have been thought dissimulation. + +His Conversation was certainly of the most excellent kind; for it was +such as was rather admired by his familiar Friends, than by Strangers +at first sight. He surpriz'd no man at first with any extraordinary +appearance: he never thrust himself violently into the good opinion of +his company. He was content to be known by leisure and by degrees: and +so the esteem that was conceiv'd of him, was better grounded and more +lasting. + +In his Speech, neither the pleasantness excluded gravity, nor was the +sobriety of it inconsistent with delight. No man parted willingly from +his Discourse: for he so ordered it, that every man was satisfied that +he had his share. He govern'd his Passions with great moderation. His +Virtues were never troublesome or uneasy to any. Whatever he disliked +in others, he only corrected it, by the silent reproof of a better +practise. + +His Wit was so temper'd, that no man had ever reason to wish it had +been less: he prevented other mens severity upon it by his own: he +never willingly recited any of his Writings. None but his intimate +friends ever discovered he was a great Poet, by his discourse. His +Learning was large and profound, well compos'd of all Antient and +Modern Knowledge. But it sat exceeding close and handsomly upon him: +it was not imbossed on his mind, but enamelled. + +He never guided his life by the whispers, or opinions of the World. +Yet he had a great reverence for a good reputation. He hearkened to +Fame when it was a just Censurer: But not when an extravagant Babler. +He was a passionate lover of Liberty and Freedom from restraint +both in Actions and Words. But what honesty others receive from +the direction of Laws, he had by native Inclination: And he was not +beholding to other mens wills, but to his own for his Innocence. + + + + +62. + +CHARLES II. + +_Born 1630. Died 1685._ + +By HALIFAX. + +_His_ DISSIMULATION. + + +One great Objection made to him was the concealing himself, and +disguising his Thoughts. In this there ought a Latitude to be given; +it is a Defect not to have it at all, and a Fault to have it too much. +Human Nature will not allow the Mean: like all other things, as soon +as ever Men get to do them well, they cannot easily hold from doing +them too much. 'Tis the case even in the least things, as singing, &c. + +In _France_, he was to dissemble Injuries and Neglects, from one +reason; in _England_, he was to dissemble too, though for other +Causes; A King upon the _Throne_ hath as great Temptations (though of +another kind) to dissemble, as a King in _Exile_. The King of _France_ +might have his Times of Dissembling as much with him, as he could have +to do it with the King of _France_: So he was in a _School_. + +No King can be so little inclined to dissemble but he must needs learn +it from his _Subjects_, who every Day give him such Lessons of it. +Dissimulation is like most other Qualities, it hath two Sides; it is +necessary, and yet it is dangerous too. To have none at all layeth +a Man open to Contempt, to have too much exposeth him to Suspicion, +which is only the less dishonourable Inconvenience. If a Man doth not +take very great Precautions, he is never so much shewed as when he +endeavoureth to hide himself. One Man cannot take more pains to hide +himself, than another will do to see into him, especially in the Case +of Kings. + +It is none of the exalted Faculties of the Mind, since there are +Chamber-Maids will do it better than any Prince in Christendom. +Men given to dissembling are like Rooks at play, they will cheat +for Shillings, they are so used to it. The vulgar Definition of +Dissembling is downright Lying; that kind of it which is less ill-bred +cometh pretty near it. Only Princes and Persons of Honour must have +gentler Words given to their Faults, than the nature of them may in +themselves deserve. + +Princes dissemble with too many, not to have it discovered; no wonder +then that He carried it so far that it was discovered. Men compared +Notes, and got Evidence; so that those whose Morality would give them +leave, took it for an Excuse for serving him ill. Those who knew his +Face, fixed their Eyes there; and thought it of more Importance to +see, than to hear what he said. His Face was as little a Blab as most +Mens, yet though it could not be called a prattling Face, it would +sometimes tell Tales to a good Observer. When he thought fit to be +angry, he had a very peevish Memory; there was hardly a Blot that +escaped him. At the same time that this shewed the Strength of his +Dissimulation, it gave warning too; it fitted his present Purpose, but +it made a Discovery that put Men more upon their Guard against him. +Only Self-flattery furnisheth perpetual Arguments to trust again: The +comfortable Opinion Men have of themselves keepeth up Human Society, +which would be more than half destroyed without it. + + +_Of his WIT and CONVERSATION._ + +His Wit consisted chiefly in the _Quickness_ of his _Apprehension_. +His Apprehension made him _find Faults_, and that led him to short +Sayings upon them, not always equal, but often very good. + +By his being abroad, he contracted a Habit of conversing familiarly, +which added to his natural Genius, made him very _apt to talk_; +perhaps more than a very nice judgment would approve. + +He was apter to make _broad Allusions_ upon any thing that gave +the least occasion, than was altogether suitable with the very +Good-breeding he shewed in most other things. The Company he kept +whilst abroad, had so used him to that sort of Dialect, that he was so +far from thinking it a Fault or an Indecency, that he made it a matter +of Rallery upon those who could not prevail upon themselves to join in +it. As a Man who hath a good Stomach loveth generally to talk of Meat, +so in the vigour of his Age, he began that style, which, by degrees +grew so natural to him, that after he ceased to do it out of Pleasure, +he continued to do it out of Custom. The Hypocrisy of the former Times +inclined Men to think they could not shew too great an Aversion to +it, and that helped to encourage this unbounded liberty of Talking, +without the Restraints of Decency which were before observed. In +his more familiar Conversations with the Ladies, even they must be +passive, if they would not enter into it. How far Sounds as well +as Objects may have their Effects to raise Inclination, might be an +Argument to him to use that Style; or whether using Liberty at its +full stretch, was not the general Inducement without any particular +Motives to it. + +The manner of that time of _telling Stories_, had drawn him into it; +being commended at first for the Faculty of telling a Tale well, he +might insensibly be betrayed to exercise it too often. Stories are +dangerous in this, that the best expose a Man most, by being oftenest +repeated. It might pass for an Evidence for the Moderns against the +Ancients, that it is now wholly left off by all that have any pretence +to be distinguished by their good Sense. + +He had the Improvements of _Wine, &c_. which made him _pleasant_ and +_easy in Company_; where he bore his part, and was acceptable even to +those who had no other Design than to be merry with him. + +The Thing called _Wit_, a Prince may taste, but it is dangerous for +him to take too much of it; it hath Allurements which by refining his +Thoughts, take off from their _dignity_, in applying them less to the +governing part. There is a Charm in Wit, which a Prince must resist: +and that to him was no easy matter; it was contesting with Nature upon +Terms of Disadvantage. + +His Wit was not so ill-natured as to put Men out of countenance. In +the case of a King especially, it is more allowable to speak sharply +_of_ them, than _to_ them. + +His Wit was not acquired by _Reading_; that which he had above his +original Stock by Nature, was from Company, in which he was very +capable to observe. He could not so properly be said to have a Wit +very much raised, as a plain, gaining, well-bred, recommending kind of +Wit. + +But of all Men that ever _liked_ those who _had Wit_, he could the +best _endure_ those who had _none_. This leaneth more towards a Satire +than a Compliment, in this respect, that he could not only suffer +Impertinence, but at some times seemed to be pleased with it. + +He encouraged some to talk a good deal more with him, than one would +have expected from a Man of so good a Taste: He should rather have +order'd his Attorney-General to prosecute them for a Misdemeanour, in +using Common-sense so scurvily in his Presence. However, if this was +a Fault, it is arrogant for any of his Subjects to object to it, since +it would look like defying such a piece of Indulgence. He must in some +degree loosen the Strength of his Wit, by his Condescension to talk +with Men so very unequal to him. Wit must be used to some _Equality_, +which may give it Exercise, or else it is apt either to languish, +or to grow a little vulgar, by reigning amongst Men of a lower Size, +where there is no Awe to keep a Man upon his _guard_. + +It fell out rather by Accident than Choice, that his Mistresses +were such as did not care that Wit of the best kind should have the +Precedence in their Apartments. Sharp and strong Wit will not always +be so held in by Good-manners, as not to be a little troublesome in +a _Ruelle_. But wherever Impertinence hath Wit enough left to be +thankful for being well used, it will not only be admitted, but +kindly received; such Charms every thing hath that setteth us off by +Comparison. + +His _Affability_ was a Part, and perhaps not the least, of his Wit. + +It is a Quality that must not always spring from the Heart, Mens +Pride, as well as their Weakness, maketh them ready to be deceived by +it: They are more ready to believe it a Homage paid to their Merit, +than a Bait thrown out to deceive them. _Princes_ have a particular +Advantage. + +There was at first as much of Art as Nature in his Affability, but by +Habit it became Natural. It is an Error of the better hand, but the +_Universality_ taketh away a good deal of the Force of it. A Man +that hath had a kind Look seconded with engaging Words, whilst he is +chewing the Pleasure, if another in his Sight should be just received +as kindly, that Equality would presently alter the Relish: The Pride +of Mankind will have Distinction; till at last it cometh to Smile for +Smile, meaning nothing of either Side; without any kind of Effect; +mere Drawing-room Compliments; the _Bow_ alone would be better without +them. He was under some Disadvantages of this kind, that grew still +in proportion as it came by Time to be more known, that there was less +Signification in those Things than at first was thought. + +The Familiarity of his Wit must needs have the Effect of _lessening_ +the _Distance_ fit to be kept to him. The Freedom used to him whilst +abroad, was retained by those who used it longer than either they +ought to have kept it, or he have suffered it, and others by their +Example learned to use the same. A King of _Spain_ that will say +nothing but _Tiendro cuydado_, will, to the generality, preserve +more Respect; an Engine that will speak but sometimes, at the same +time that it will draw the Raillery of the Few who judge well, it +will create Respect in the ill-judging Generality. Formality is +sufficiently revenged upon the World for being so unreasonably laughed +at; it is destroyed it is true, but it hath the spiteful Satisfaction +of seeing every thing destroyed with it. + +His fine Gentlemanship did him no Good, encouraged in it by being too +much applauded. + +His Wit was better suited to his Condition _before_ he was restored +than _afterwards_. The Wit of a Gentleman, and that of a crowned Head, +ought to be different things. As there is a _Crown Law_, there is a +_Crown Wit_ too. To use it with Reserve is very good, and very rare. +There is a Dignity in doing things _seldom_, even without any other +Circumstance. Where Wit will run continually, the Spring is apt to +fail; so that it groweth vulgar, and the more it is practised, the +more it is debased. + +He was so good at finding out other Mens weak Sides, that it made +him less intent to cure his own: That generally happeneth. It may be +called a treacherous Talent, for it betrayeth a Man to forget to judge +himself, by being so eager to censure others: This doth so misguide +Men the first Part of their Lives, that the Habit of it is not easily +recovered, when the greater Ripeness of their Judgment inclineth them +to look more into themselves than into other Men. + +Men love to see themselves in the false Looking-glass of other Mens +Failings. It maketh a Man think well of himself at the time, and by +sending his Thoughts abroad to get Food for Laughing, they are less +at leisure to see Faults at home. Men choose rather to make the War in +another Country, than to keep all well at home. + + +_His_ TALENTS, TEMPER, HABITS, &c. + +He had a _Mechanical Head_, which appeared in his inclination to +Shipping and Fortification, &c. This would make one conclude, that +his Thoughts would naturally have been more fixed to Business, if his +Pleasures had not drawn them away from it. + +He had a very good _Memory_, though he would not always make equal +good Use of it. So that if he had accustomed himself to direct his +Faculties to his Business, I see no Reason why he might not have been +a good deal Master of it. His Chain of _Memory_ was longer than his +Chain of _Thought_; the first could bear any Burden, the other was +tired by being carried on too long; it was fit to ride a Heat, but it +had not Wind enough for a long Course. + +A very great Memory often forgetteth how much Time is lost by +repeating things of no Use. It was one Reason of his talking so much; +since a great Memory will always have something to say, and will be +discharging itself, whether in or out of Season, if a good Judgment +doth not go along with it, to make it stop and turn. One might say +of his Memory, that it was a _Beauté Journaliere_; Sometimes he would +make shrewd Applications, &c. at others he would bring things out of +it, that never deserved to be laid in it. He grew by Age into a pretty +exact _Distribution_ of his _Hours_, both for his Business, Pleasures, +and the Exercise for his Health, of which he took as much care as +could possibly consist with some Liberties he was resolved to indulge +in himself. He walked by his Watch, and when he pulled it out to look +upon it, skilful Men would make haste with what they had to say to +him. + +He was often retained in his _personal_ against his _politick_ +Capacity. He would speak upon those Occasions most dexterously against +himself; _Charles Stuart_ would be bribed against the _King_; and +in the Distinction, he leaned more to his natural Self, than his +Character would allow. He would not suffer himself to be so much +fettered by his Character as was convenient; he was still starting +out of it, the Power of Nature was too strong for the Dignity of his +Calling, which generally yielded as often as there was a contest. + +It was not the best use he made of his _Back-stairs_ to admit Men +to bribe him against himself, to procure a Defalcation, help a +lame Accountant to get off, or side with the Farmers against the +Improvement of the Revenue. The King was made the Instrument to +defraud the Crown, which is somewhat extraordinary. + +That which might tempt him to it probably was, his finding that those +about him so often took Money upon those Occasions; so that he thought +he might do well at least to be a Partner. He did not take the Money +to _hoard_ it; there were those at Court who watched those Times, as +the _Spaniards_ do for the coming in of the _Plate Fleet_. The Beggars +of both Sexes helped to empty his Cabinet, and to leave room in them +for a new lading upon the next Occasion. These Negotiators played +double with him too, when it was for their purpose so to do. He _knew +it_, and _went on_ still; so he gained his present end, at the time, +he was less solicitous to enquire into the Consequences. + +He could not properly be said to be either _covetous_ or _liberal_; +his desire to get was not with an Intention to be rich; and his +spending was rather an Easiness in letting Money go, than any +premeditated Thought for the Distribution of it. He would do as much +to throw off the burden of a present Importunity, as he would to +relieve a want. + +When once the Aversion to bear Uneasiness taketh place in a Man's +Mind, it doth so check all the Passions, that they are dampt into a +kind of Indifference; they grow faint and languishing, and come to be +subordinate to that fundamental Maxim, of not purchasing any thing at +the price of a Difficulty. This made that he had as little Eagerness +to oblige, as he had to hurt Men; the Motive of his giving Bounties +was rather to make Men less uneasy to him, than more easy to +themselves; and yet no ill-nature all this while. He would slide from +an asking Face, and could guess very well. It was throwing a Man off +from his Shoulders, that leaned upon them with his whole weight; so +that the Party was not glader to receive, than he was to give. It was +a kind of implied bargain; though Men seldom kept it, being so apt to +forget the advantage they had received, that they would presume the +King would as little remember the good he had done them, so as to make +it an Argument against their next Request. + +This Principle of making the _love_ of _Ease_ exercise an entire +Sovereignty in his Thoughts, would have been less censured in a +private Man, than might be in a Prince. The Consequence of it to the +Publick changeth the Nature of that Quality, or else a Philosopher in +his private Capacity might say a great deal to justify it. The truth +is, a King is to be such a distinct Creature from a Man, that their +Thoughts are to be put in quite a differing Shape, and it is such a +disquieting task to reconcile them, that Princes might rather expect +to be lamented than to be envied, for being in a Station that exposeth +them, if they do not do more to answer Mens Expectations than human +Nature will allow. + +That Men have the less Ease for their loving it so much, is so far +from a wonder, that it is a natural Consequence, especially in the +case of a Prince. Ease is seldom got without some pains, but it is yet +seldomer kept without them. He thought giving would make Men more easy +to him, whereas he might have known it would certainly make them more +troublesome. + +When Men receive Benefits from Princes, they attribute less to his +Generosity than to their own Deserts; so that in their own Opinion, +their Merit cannot be bounded; by that mistaken Rule, it can as +little be satisfied. They would take it for a diminution to have it +circumscribed. Merit hath a Thirst upon it that can never be quenched +by golden Showers. It is not only still ready, but greedy to receive +more. This King _Charles_ found in as many Instances as any Prince +that ever reigned, because the Easiness of Access introducing the +good Success of their first Request, they were the more encouraged to +repeat those Importunities, which had been more effectually stopt in +the Beginning by a short and resolute Denial. But his Nature did not +dispose him to that Method, it directed him rather to put off the +troublesome Minute for the time, and that being his Inclination, he +did not care to struggle with it. + +I am of an Opinion, in which I am every Day more confirmed by +Observation, that Gratitude is one of those things that cannot be +bought. It must be born with Men, or else all the Obligations in +the World will not create it. An outward Shew may be made to satisfy +Decency, and to prevent Reproach; but a real Sense of a kind thing is +a Gift of Nature, and never was, nor can be acquired. + +The Love of Ease is an Opiate, it is pleasing for the time, quieteth +the Spirits, but it hath its Effects that seldom fail to be most +fatal. The immoderate Love of Ease maketh a Man's Mind pay a passive +Obedience to any thing that happeneth: It reduceth the Thoughts from +having _Desire_ to be _content_. + +It must be allowed he had a little Over-balance on the well-natured +Side, not Vigour enough to be earnest to do a kind Thing, much less +to do a harsh one; but if a hard thing was done to another Man, he +did not eat his Supper the worse for it. It was rather a Deadness +than Severity of Nature, whether it proceeded from a Dissipation of +Spirits, or by the Habit of Living in which he was engaged. + +If a King should be born with more Tenderness than might suit with his +Office, he would in time be hardned. The Faults of his Subjects make +Severity so necessary, that by the frequent Occasions given to use +it, it comes to be habitual, and by degrees the Resistance that Nature +made at first groweth fainter, till at last it is in a manner quite +extinguished. + +In short, this Prince might more properly be said to have _Gifts_ than +_Virtues_, as Affability, Easiness of Living, Inclinations to give, +and to forgive: Qualities that flowed from his Nature rather than from +his Virtue. + +He had not more Application to any thing than the Preservation of +his _Health_; it had an intire Preference to any thing else in his +Thoughts, and he might be said without Aggravation to study that, with +as little Intermission as any Man in the World. He understood it very +well, only in this he failed, that he thought it was more reconcilable +with his _Pleasures_, than it really was. It is natural to have such +a Mind to reconcile these, that 'tis the easier for any Man that goeth +about it, to be guilty of that Mistake. + +This made him overdo in point of Nourishment, the better to furnish to +those Entertainments; and then he thought by great _Exercise_ to make +Amends, and to prevent the ill Effects of his Blood being too much +raised. The Success he had in this Method, whilst he had Youth and +Vigour to support him in it, encouraged him to continue it longer than +Nature allowed. Age stealeth so insensibly upon us, that we do not +think of suiting our way of Reasoning to the several Stages of Life; +so insensibly that not being able to pitch upon any _precise Time_, +when we cease to be young, we either flatter ourselves that we always +continue to be so, or at least forget how much we are mistaken in it. + + + + +63. + +By BURNET. + + +The King was then thirty years of age, and, as might have been +supposed, past the levities of youth and the extravagance of pleasure. +He had a very good understanding. He knew well the state of affairs +both at home and abroad. He had a softness of temper that charmed all +who came near him, till they found how little they could depend on +good looks, kind words, and fair promises; in which he was liberal +to excess, because he intended nothing by them, but to get rid of +importunities, and to silence all farther pressing upon him. He seemed +to have no sense of religion: Both at prayers and sacrament he, as it +were, took care to satisfy people, that he was in no sort concerned in +that about which he was employed. So that he was very far from being +an hypocrite, unless his assisting at those performances was a sort of +hypocrisy, (as no doubt it was:) But he was sure not to encrease that +by any the least appearance of religion. He said once to my self, he +was no atheist, but he could not think God would make a man miserable +only for taking a little pleasure out of the way. He disguised his +Popery to the last. But when he talked freely, he could not help +letting himself out against the liberty that under the Reformation +all men took of enquiring into matters of religion: For from their +enquiring into matters of religion they carried the humour farther, +to enquire into matters of state. He said often, he thought government +was a much safer and easier thing where the authority was believed +infallible, and the faith and submission of the people was implicite: +About which I had once much discourse with him. He was affable and +easy, and loved to be made so by all about him. The great art of +keeping him long was, the being easy, and the making every thing easy +to him. He had made such observations on the _French_ government, that +he thought a King who might be checkt, or have his Ministers called +to an account by a Parliament, was but a King in name. He had a great +compass of knowledge, tho' he was never capable of much application +or study. He understood the Mechanicks and Physick; and was a good +Chymist, and much set on several preparations of Mercury, chiefly the +fixing it. He understood navigation well: But above all he knew the +architecture of ships so perfectly, that in that respect he was exact +rather more than became a Prince. His apprehension was quick, and his +memory good. He was an everlasting talker. He told his stories with +a good grace: But they came in his way too often. He had a very ill +opinion both of men and women; and did not think that there was either +sincerity or chastity in the world out of principle, but that some had +either the one or the other out of humour or vanity. He thought that +no body did serve him out of love: And so he was quits with all the +world, and loved others as little as he thought they loved him. He +hated business, and could not be easily brought to mind any: But when +it was necessary, and he was set to it, he would stay as long as his +Ministers had work for him. The ruine of his reign, and of all his +affairs, was occasioned chiefly by his delivering himself up at his +first coming over to a mad range of pleasure. + + +64. + +By BURNET. + + +Thus lived and died King _Charles_ the second. He was the greatest +instance in history of the various revolutions of which any one man +seemed capable. He was bred up, the first twelve years of his life, +with the splendor that became the heir of so great a Crown. After +that he past thro' eighteen years in great inequalities, unhappy in +the war, in the loss of his Father, and of the Crown of _England_. +_Scotland_ did not only receive him, tho' upon terms hard of +digestion, but made an attempt upon _England_ for him, tho' a feeble +one. He lost the battle of _Worcester_ with too much indifference: +And then he shewed more care of his person, than became one who had so +much at stake. He wandered about _England_ for ten weeks after that, +hiding from place to place. But, under all the apprehensions he had +then upon him, he shewed a temper so careless, and so much turned +to levity, that he was then diverting himself with little houshold +sports, in as unconcerned a manner, as if he had made no loss, and had +been in no danger at all. He got at last out of _England_. But he had +been obliged to so many, who had been faithful to him, and careful of +him, that he seemed afterwards to resolve to make an equal return to +them all: And finding it not easy to reward them all as they deserved, +he forgot them all alike. Most Princes seem to have this pretty deep +in them; and to think that they ought never to remember past services, +but that their acceptance of them is a full reward. He, of all in our +age, exerted this piece of prerogative in the amplest manner: For he +never seemed to charge his memory, or to trouble his thoughts, with +the sense of any of the services that had been done him. While he +was abroad at _Paris_, _Colen_, or _Brussells_, he never seemed to +lay any thing to heart. He pursued all his diversions, and irregular +pleasures, in a free carrier; and seemed to be as serene under the +loss of a Crown, as the greatest Philosopher could have been. Nor did +he willingly hearken to any of those projects, with which he often +complained that his Chancellor persecuted him. That in which he seemed +most concerned was, to find money for supporting his expence. And it +was often said, that, if _Cromwell_ would have compounded the matter, +and have given him a good round pension, that he might have been +induced to resign his title to him. During his exile he delivered +himself so entirely to his pleasures, that he became incapable of +application. He spent little of his time in reading or study, and +yet less in thinking. And, in the state his affairs were then in, he +accustomed himself to say to every person, and upon all occasions, +that which he thought would please most: So that words or promises +went very easily from him. And he had so ill an opinion of mankind, +that he thought the great art of living and governing was, to manage +all things and all persons with a depth of craft and dissimulation. +And in that few men in the world could put on the appearances of +sincerity better than he could: Under which so much artifice was +usually hid, that in conclusion he could deceive none, for all were +become mistrustful of him. He had great vices, but scarce any vertues +to correct them: He had in him some vices that were less hurtful, +which corrected his more hurtful ones. He was during the active part +of life given up to sloth and lewdness to such a degree, that he hated +business, and could not bear the engaging in any thing that gave him +much trouble, or put him under any constraint. And, tho' he desired to +become absolute, and to overturn both our religion and our laws, yet +he would neither run the risque, nor give himself the trouble, which +so great a design required. He had an appearance of gentleness in his +outward deportment: But he seemed to have no bowels nor tenderness in +his nature: And in the end of his life he became cruel. He was apt to +forgive all crimes, even blood it self: Yet he never forgave any thing +that was done against himself, after his first and general act of +indemnity, which was to be reckoned as done rather upon maxims of +state than inclinations of mercy. He delivered himself up to a most +enormous course of vice, without any sort of restraint, even from +the consideration of the nearest relations: The most studied +extravagancies that way seemed, to the very last, to be much delighted +in, and pursued by him. He had the art of making all people grow fond +of him at first, by a softness in his whole way of conversation, as he +was certainly the best bred man of the age. But when it appeared how +little could be built on his promise, they were cured of the fondness +that he was apt to raise in them. When he saw young men of quality, +who had something more than ordinary in them, he drew them about him, +and set himself to corrupt them both in religion and morality; in +which he proved so unhappily successful, that he left _England_ much +changed at his death from what he had found it at his Restoration. He +loved to talk over all the stories of his life to every new man that +came about him. His stay in _Scotland_, and the share he had in the +war of _Paris_, in carrying messages from the one side to the other, +were his common topicks. He went over these in a very graceful manner; +but so often, and so copiously, that all those who had been long +accustomed to them grew weary of them: And when he entred on those +stories they usually withdrew: So that he often began them in a full +audience, and before he had done there were not above four or five +left about him: Which drew a severe jest from _Wilmot_, Earl of +_Rochester_. He said, he wondred to see a man have so good a memory +as to repeat the same story without losing the least circumstance, and +yet not remember that he had told it to the same persons the very day +before. This made him fond of strangers; for they hearkned to all +his often repeated stories, and went away as in a rapture at such an +uncommon condescension in a King. + +His person and temper, his vices as well as his fortunes, resemble the +character that we have given us of _Tiberius_ so much, that it were +easy to draw the parallel between them. _Tiberius_'s banishment, and +his coming afterwards to reign, makes the comparison in that respect +come pretty near. His hating of business, and his love of pleasures; +his raising of favourites, and trusting them entirely; and his pulling +them down, and hating them excessively; his art of covering deep +designs, particularly of revenge, with an appearance of softness, +brings them so near a likeness, that I did not wonder much to observe +the resemblance of their face and person. At _Rome_ I saw one of the +last statues made for _Tiberius_, after he had lost his teeth. But, +bating the alteration which that made, it was so like King _Charles_, +that Prince _Borghese_, and _Signior Dominica_ to whom it belonged, +did agree with me in thinking that it looked like a statue made for +him. + + + + +65. + +THE EARL OF CLARENDON. + +_Edward Hyde, knighted 1643, created Baron Hyde 1660, Earl of +Clarendon 1661. Lord Chancellor 1658-1667._ + +_Born 1609. Died 1674._ + +By BURNET. + + +The Earl of _Clarendon_ was bred to the Law, and was like to grow +eminent in his profession when the wars began. He distinguished +himself so in the House of Commons, that he became considerable, and +was much trusted all the while the King was at _Oxford_. He stayed +beyond sea following the King's fortune till the Restoration; and was +now an absolute favourite, and the chief or the only Minister, but +with too magisterial a way. He was always pressing the King to mind +his affairs, but in vain. He was a good Chancellour, only a little too +rough, but very impartial in the administration of justice. He never +seemed to understand foreign affairs well: And yet he meddled too much +in them. He had too much levity in his wit, and did not always observe +the decorum of his post. He was high, and was apt to reject those +who addressed themselves to him with too much contempt. He had such a +regard to the King, that when places were disposed of, even otherwise +than as he advised, yet he would justify what the King did, and +disparage the pretensions of others, not without much scorn; which +created him many enemies. He was indefatigable in business, tho' the +gout did often disable him from waiting on the King: Yet, during his +credit, the King came constantly to him when he was laid up by it. + + + + +66. + +THE EARL OF LAUDERDALE. + +_John Maitland, second Earl, created Duke 1672, Secretary of State for +Scotland 1660-1680._ + +_Born 1616. Died 1682._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Latherdale, who had bene very eminent in contrivinge +and carryinge on the kings service, when his Majesty was crowned in +Scotlande, and therby had wrought himselfe into a very particular +esteme with the kinge, had marched with him into Englande, and behaved +himselfe well at Worcester, wher he was taken prissoner, had besydes +that meritt, the sufferinge an imprysonment from that very tyme, +with some circumstances of extreme rigour, beinge a man against whome +Crumwell had alwayes professed a more then ordinary animosity, and +though the sceane of his imprysonment had bene altred, accordinge +to the alterations of the goverments which succeeded, yett he never +founde himselfe in compleate liberty, till the kinge was proclaymed by +the Parliament, and then he thought it not necessary to repayre into +Scotlande for authority or recommendation, but sendinge his advise +thither to his frends, he made hast to transporte himselfe with the +Parliament Commissyoners to the Hague, where he was very well receaved +by the kinge, and left nothinge undone on his parte, that might +cultivate these old inclinations, beinge a man of as much addresse, +and insinuation, in which that nation excells, as was then amongst +them. He applyed himselfe to those who were most trusted by the kinge +with a marvellous importunity, and especially to the Chancellour, with +whome as often as they had ever bene togither, he had a perpetuall +warr. He now magnifyed his constancy with lowde elogiums as well to +his face, as behinde his backe, remembred many sharpe exspressions +formerly used by the Chancellour which he confessed had then made +him mad, though upon recollection afterwards he had founde to be very +reasonable. He was very polite in all his discources, called himselfe +and his nation a thousand Traytors, and Rebells, and in his discourses +frequently sayd, when I was a Traytour, or when I was in rebellion, +and seemed not æqually delighted with any argument, as when he +skornefully spake of the Covenante, upon which he brake a hundred +jests: in summ all his discourses were such, as pleased all the +company, who commonly believed all he sayd, and concurred with him. He +[renew]ed his old acquaintance and familiarity with Middleton, by all +the protestations of frendshipp, assured him of the unanimous desyre +of Scotlande, to be [un]der his commaunde, and declared to the kinge, +that he could not send any man into Scotlande who would be able to +do him so much service in the place of Commissyoner as Middleton, and +that it was in his Majestys power to unite that whole kingdome to his +service as one m[an:] all which pleased the kinge well, so that by the +tyme that the Commissioners appeared at London, upon some old promise +in Scotlande, or new inclination upon his longe sufferings, which he +magnifyed enough, the kinge gave him the Signett, and declared him to +be Secretary of State of that kingdome, and at the same tyme declared +that Middleton should be his Commissyoner, the Earle of Glengarne +his Chancellour, the Earle of Rothesse, who was likewise one of the +Commissyoners, and his person very agreable to the kinge, President of +the Councell, and conferred all other inferiour offices, upon men most +notable for ther affection to the old goverment of Church and State. + + + + +67. + +By BURNET. + + +The Earl of _Lauderdale_, afterwards made Duke, had been for many +years a zealous Covenanter: But in the year forty seven he turned to +the King's interests; and had continued a prisoner all the while after +_Worcester_ fight, where he was taken. He was kept for some years in +the tower of _London_, in _Portland_ castle, and in other prisons, +till he was set at liberty by those who called home the King. So he +went over to _Holland_. And since he continued so long, and contrary +to all mens opinions in so high a degree of favour and confidence, +it may be expected that I should be a little copious in setting out +his character; for I knew him very particularly. He made a very ill +appearance: He was very big: His hair red, hanging odly about him: +His tongue was too big for his mouth, which made him bedew all that +he talked to: And his whole manner was rough and boisterous, and very +unfit for a Court. He was very learned, not only in _Latin_, in which +he was a master, but in _Greek_ and _Hebrew_. He had read a great deal +of divinity, and almost all the historians ancient and modern: So that +he had great materials. He had with these an extraordinary memory, +and a copious but unpolished expression. He was a man, as the Duke of +_Buckingham_ called him to me, of a blundering understanding. He was +haughty beyond expression, abject to those he saw he must stoop to, +but imperious to all others. He had a violence of passion that carried +him often to fits like madness, in which he had no temper. If he took +a thing wrong, it was a vain thing to study to convince him: That +would rather provoke him to swear, he would never be of another mind: +He was to be let alone: And perhaps he would have forgot what he had +said, and come about of his own accord. He was the coldest friend and +the violentest enemy I ever knew: I felt it too much not to know it. +He at first seemed to despise wealth: But he delivered himself up +afterwards to luxury and sensuality: And by that means he ran into a +vast expence, and stuck at nothing that was necessary to support it. +In his long imprisonment he had great impressions of religion on his +mind: But he wore these out so entirely, that scarce any trace of them +was left. His great experience in affairs, his ready compliance +with every thing that he thought would please the King, and his bold +offering at the most desperate counsels, gained him such an interest +in the King, that no attempt against him nor complaint of him could +ever shake it, till a decay of strength and understanding forced him +to let go his hold. He was in his principles much against Popery +and arbitrary government: And yet by a fatal train of passions and +interests he made way for the former, and had almost established +the latter. And, whereas some by a smooth deportment made the first +beginnings of tyranny less discernible and unacceptable, he by the +fury of his behaviour heightned the severity of his ministry, which +was liker the cruelty of an inquisition than the legality of justice. +With all this he was a Presbyterian, and retained his aversion to King +_Charles_ I. and his party to his death. + + + + +68. + +THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. + +_Anthony Ashley Cooper, created Earl of Shaftesbury 1662._ + +_Born 1621. Died 1683._ + +By BURNET. + + +The man that was in the greatest credit with the Earl of _Southampton_ +was Sir _Anthony Ashly Cooper_, who had married his niece, and +became afterwards so considerable that he was raised to be Earl of +_Shaftsbury_. And since he came to have so great a name, and that I +knew him for many years in a very particular manner, I will dwell a +little longer on his character; for it was of a very extraordinary +composition. He began to make a considerable figure very early. Before +he was twenty he came into the House of Commons, and was on the King's +side; and undertook to get _Wiltshire_ and _Dorsetshire_ to declare +for him: But he was not able to effect it. Yet Prince _Maurice_ +breaking articles to a town, that he had got to receive him, +furnished him with an excuse to forsake that side, and to turn to +the Parliament. He had a wonderful faculty in speaking to a popular +assembly, and could mix both the facetious and the serious way of +arguing very agreeably. He had a particular talent to make others +trust to his judgment, and depend on it: And he brought over so many +to a submission to his opinion, that I never knew any man equal to +him in the art of governing parties, and of making himself the head +of them. He was as to religion a Deist at best: He had the dotage of +Astrology in him to a high degree: He told me, that a _Dutch_ doctor +had from the stars foretold him the whole series of his life. But that +which was before him, when he told me this, proved false, if he told +me true: For he said, he was yet to be a greater man than he had +been. He fancied, that after death our souls lived in stars. He had +a general knowledge of the slighter parts of learning, but understood +little to the bottom: So he triumphed in a rambling way of talking, +but argued slightly when he was held close to any point. He had a +wonderful faculty at opposing, and running things down; but had not +the like force in building up. He had such an extravagant vanity in +setting himself out, that it was very disagreeable. He pretended that +_Cromwell_ offered to make him King. He was indeed of great use to +him in withstanding the enthusiasts of that time. He was one of those +who press'd him most to accept of the Kingship, because, as he said +afterwards, he was sure it would ruin him. His strength lay in the +knowledge of _England_, and of all the considerable men in it. He +understood well the size of their understandings, and their tempers: +And he knew how to apply himself to them so dextrously, that, tho' +by his changing sides so often it was very visible how little he was +to be depended on, yet he was to the last much trusted by all the +discontented party. He was not ashamed to reckon up the many turns +he had made: And he valued himself on the doing it at the properest +season, and in the best manner. This he did with so much vanity, and +so little discretion, that he lost many by it. And his reputation was +at last run so low, that he could not have held much longer, had he +not died in good time, either for his family or for his party: The +former would have been ruined, if he had not saved it by betraying the +latter. + + + + +69. + +By DRYDEN. + + + Some by their Friends, more by themselves thought wise, + Oppos'd the Pow'r, to which they could not rise. + Some had in Courts been Great, and thrown from thence, + Like Fiends, were harden'd in Impenitence. + Some, by their Monarch's fatal mercy grown, + From Pardon'd Rebels, Kinsmen to the Throne, + Were raised in Pow'r and publick Office high: + Strong Bands, if Bands ungrateful men coud tie. + Of these the false _Achitophel_ was first: + A Name to all succeeding Ages curst. + For close Designs, and crooked Counsels fit; + Sagacious, Bold, and Turbulent of wit: + Restless, unfixt in Principles and Place; + In Pow'r unpleas'd, impatient of Disgrace. + A fiery Soul, which working out its way, + Fretted the Pigmy-Body to decay: + And o'r inform'd the Tenement of Clay, + A daring Pilot in extremity; + Pleas'd with the Danger, when the Waves went high + He sought the Storms; but for a Calm unfit, + Would Steer too nigh the Sands, to boast his Wit. + Great Wits are sure to Madness near alli'd; + And thin Partitions do their Bounds divide: + Else, why should he, with Wealth and Honour blest, + Refuse his Age the needful hours of Rest? + Punish a Body which he coud not please; + Bankrupt of Life, yet Prodigal of Ease? + And all to leave, what with his Toil he won, + To that unfeather'd, two-legg'd thing, a Son: + Got, while his Soul did huddled Notions trie; + And born a shapeless Lump, like Anarchy. + In Friendship false, implacable in Hate: + Resolv'd to Ruine or to Rule the State. + To Compass this, the Triple Bond he broke; + The Pillars of the Publick Safety shook: + And fitted _Israel_ for a Foreign Yoke. + Then, seiz'd with Fear, yet still affecting Fame, + Usurp'd a Patriot's All-attoning Name. + So easie still it proves in Factious Times, + With publick Zeal to cancel private Crimes: + How safe is Treason, and how sacred ill, + here none can sin against the Peoples Will: + Where Crouds can wink; and no offence be known, + Since in anothers guilt they find their own. + Yet, Fame deserv'd, no Enemy can grudge; + The Statesman we abhor, but praise the Judge. + In _Israels_ Courts ne'r sat an _Abbetbdin_ + With more discerning Eyes, or Hands more clean: + Unbrib'd, unsought, the Wretched to redress; + Swift of Dispatch, and easie of Access. + Oh, had he been content to serve the Crown, + With Vertues onely proper to the Gown; + Or, had the rankness of the Soil been freed + From Cockle, that opprest the Noble Seed: + _David_, for him his tuneful Harp had strung, + And Heav'n had wanted one Immortal Song. + But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand; + And Fortunes Ice prefers to Vertues Land: + _Achitophel_, grown weary to possess + A lawful Fame, and lazie Happiness, + Disdain'd the Golden Fruit to gather free, + And lent the Croud his Arm to shake the Tree. + Now, manifest of Crimes, contriv'd long since, + He stood at bold Defiance with his Prince: + Held up the Buckler of the Peoples Cause, + Against the Crown; and sculk'd behind the Laws, + The wish'd occasion of the Plot he takes; + Some Circumstances finds, but more he makes. + By buzzing Emissaries, fills the ears + Of listning Crouds, with Jealousies and Fears + Of Arbitrary Counsels brought to light, + And proves the King himself a _Jebusite_. + Weak Arguments! which yet he knew full well, + Were strong with People easie to Rebel. + For, govern'd by the _Moon_, the giddy _Jews_ + Tread the same Track when she the Prime renews: + And once in twenty Years, their Scribes Record, + By natural Instinct they change their Lord. + _Achitophel_ still wants a Chief, and none + Was found so fit as Warlike _Absalon_: + Not, that he wish'd his Greatness to create, + (For Polititians neither love nor hate:) + But, for he knew, his Title not allow'd, + Would keep him still depending on the Croud: + That Kingly pow'r, thus ebbing out, might be + Drawn to the Dregs of a Democracie. + + + + +70. + +THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. + +_George Villiers, second Duke 1628._ + +_Born 1628. Died 1687._ + +By BURNET. + + +The first of these was a man of noble presence. He had a great +liveliness of wit, and a peculiar faculty of turning all things into +ridicule with bold figures and natural descriptions. He had no sort +of literature: Only he was drawn into chymistry: And for some years +he thought he was very near the finding the philosopher's stone; which +had the effect that attends on all such men as he was, when they are +drawn in, to lay out for it. He had no principles of religion, vertue, +or friendship. Pleasure, frolick, or extravagant diversion was all +that he laid to heart. He was true to nothing, for he was not true to +himself. He had no steadiness nor conduct: He could keep no secret, +nor execute any design without spoiling it. He could never fix his +thoughts, nor govern his estate, tho' then the greatest in _England_. +He was bred about the King: And for many years he had a great +ascendent over him: But he spake of him to all persons with that +contempt, that at last he drew a lasting disgrace upon himself. And he +at length ruined both body and mind, fortune and reputation equally. +The madness of vice appeared in his person in very eminent instances; +since at last he became contemptible and poor, sickly, and sunk in his +parts, as well as in all other respects, so that his conversation was +as much avoided as ever it had been courted. He found the King, when +he came from his travels in the year 45, newly come to _Paris_, sent +over by his father when his affairs declined: And finding the King +enough inclined to receive ill impressions, he, who was then got into +all the impieties and vices of the age, set himself to corrupt the +King, in which he was too successful, being seconded in that wicked +design by the Lord _Percy_. And to compleat the matter, _Hobbs_ was +brought to him, under the pretence of instructing him in mathematicks: +And he laid before him his schemes, both with relation to religion and +politicks, which made deep and lasting impressions on the King's mind. +So that the main blame of the King's ill principles, and bad morals, +was owing to the Duke of _Buckingham_. + + + + +71. + +By DRYDEN. + + + Some of their Chiefs were Princes of the Land: + In the first Rank of these did _Zimri_ stand: + A man so various, that he seem'd to be + Not one, but all Mankind's Epitome. + Stiff in Opinions, always in the wrong; + Was Every thing by starts, and Nothing long: + But, in the course of one revolving Moon, + Was Chymist, Fidler, States-Man, and Buffoon: + Then all for Women, Painting, Rhiming, Drinking; + Besides ten thousand Freaks that dy'd in thinking. + Blest Madman, who coud every hour employ, + With something New to wish, or to enjoy! + Railing and praising were his usual Theams; + And both (to shew his Judgment) in Extreams: + So over Violent, or over Civil, + That every Man, with him, was God or Devil. + In squandring Wealth was his peculiar Art: + Nothing went unrewarded, but Desert. + Begger'd by Fools, whom still he found too late: + He had his Jest, and they had his Estate. + He laugh'd himself from Court; then sought Relief + By forming Parties, but could ne'r be Chief: + For, spight of him, the weight of Business fell + On _Absalom_ and wise _Achitophel_: + Thus, wicked but in Will, of Means bereft, + He left not Faction, but of that was left. + + + + +72. + +THE MARQUIS OF HALIFAX. + +_George Savile, created Baron Savile and Viscount Halifax 1668, Earl +of Halifax 1679, Marquis of Halifax 1682._ + +_Born 1633. Died 1695._ + +By BURNET. + + +I name Sir _George Saville_ last, because he deserves a more copious +character. He rose afterwards to be Viscount, Earl, and Marquis of +_Halifax_. He was a man of a great and ready wit; full of life, +and very pleasant; much turned to satyr. He let his wit run much +on matters of religion: So that he passed for a bold and determined +Atheist; tho' he often protested to me, he was not one; and said, he +believed there was not one in the world: He confessed, he could not +swallow down every thing that divines imposed on the world: He was +a Christian in submission: He believed as much as he could, and he +hoped that God would not lay it to his charge, if he could not disgest +iron, as an ostrich did, nor take into his belief things that must +burst him: If he had any scruples, they 20 were not sought for, nor +cherished by him; for he never read an atheistical book. In a fit of +sickness, I knew him very much touched with a sense of religion. I +was then often with him. He seemed full of good purposes: But they +went off with his sickness. He was always talking of morality and +friendship. He was punctual in all payments, and just in all his +private dealings. But, with relation to the publick, he went backwards +and forwards, and changed sides so often, that in conclusion no side +trusted him. He seemed full of Common-wealth notions: Yet he went +into the worst part of King _Charles's_ reign. The liveliness of his +imagination was always too hard for his judgment. A severe jest was +preferred by him to all arguments whatsoever. And he was endless in +consultations: For when after much discourse a point was settled, if +he could find a new jest, to make even that which was suggested by +himself seem ridiculous, he could not hold, but would study to raise +the credit of his wit, tho' it made others call his judgment in +question. When he talked to me as a philosopher of his contempt of the +world, I asked him, what he meant by getting so many new titles, which +I call'd the hanging himself about with bells and tinsel. He had no +other excuse for it, but this, that, since the world were such fools +as to value those matters, a man must be a fool for company: He +considered them but as rattles: Yet rattles please children: So these +might be of use to his family. His heart was much set on raising his +family. But, tho' he made a vast estate for them, he buried two of his +sons himself, and almost all his grandchildren. The son that survived +was an honest man, but far inferior to him. + + + + +73. + +SIR EDMUND SAUNDERS. + +_Lord Chief Justice 1682. Died 1683._ + +By ROGER NORTH. + + +The Lord Chief Justice _Saunders_ succeeded in the Room of +_Pemberton_. His Character, and his Beginning, were equally strange. +He was at first no better than a poor Beggar Boy, if not a Parish +Foundling, without known Parents, or Relations. He had found a way +to live by Obsequiousness (in _Clement's-Inn_, as I remember) and +courting the Attornies Clerks for Scraps. The extraordinary Observance +and Diligence of the Boy, made the Society willing to do him Good. He +appeared very ambitious to learn to write; and one of the Attornies +got a Board knocked up at a Window on the Top of a Staircase; and that +was his Desk, where he sat and wrote after Copies of Court and other +Hands the Clerks gave him. He made himself so expert a Writer that he +took in Business, and earned some Pence by Hackney-writing. And thus, +by degrees, he pushed his Faculties, and fell to Forms, and, by Books +that were lent him, became an exquisite entering Clerk; and, by the +same course of Improvement of himself, an able Counsel, first in +special Pleading, then, at large. And, after he was called to the Bar, +had Practice, in the _King's Bench_ Court, equal with any there. As to +his Person, he was very corpulent and beastly; a mere Lump of morbid +Flesh. He used to say, _by his Troggs_, (such an humourous Way of +talking he affected) _none could say be wanted Issue of his Body, +for he had nine in his Back_. He was a fetid Mass, that offended his +Neighbours at the Bar in the sharpest Degree. Those, whose ill Fortune +it was to stard near him, were Confessors, and, in Summer-time, almost +Martyrs. This hateful Decay of his Carcase came upon him by continual +Sottishness; for, to say nothing of Brandy, he was seldom without a +Pot of Ale at his Nose, or near him. That Exercise was all he used; +the rest of his Life was sitting at his Desk, or piping at home; and +that _Home_ was a Taylor's House in _Butcher-Row_, called his Lodging, +and the Man's Wife was his Nurse, or worse; but, by virtue of his +Money, of which he made little Account, though he got a great deal, +he soon became Master of the Family; and, being no Changling, he never +removed, but was true to his Friends, and they to him, to the last +Hour of his Life. + +So much for his Person and Education. As for his Parts, none had them +more lively than he. Wit and Repartee, in an affected Rusticity, were +natural to him. He was ever ready, and never at a Loss; and none +came so near as he to be a Match for Serjeant _Mainard_. His great +Dexterity was in the Art of special Pleading, and he would lay Snares +that often caught his Superiors who were not aware of his Traps. And +he was so fond of Success for his Clients that, rather than fail, he +would set the Court hard with a Trick; for which he met sometimes with +a Reprimand, which he would wittily ward off, so that no one was much +offended with him. But _Hales_ could not bear his Irregularity of +Life; and for that, and Suspicion of his Tricks, used to bear hard +upon him in the Court. But no ill Usage from the Bench was too hard +for his Hold of Business, being such as scarce any could do but +himself. With all this, he had a Goodness of Nature and Disposition in +so great a Degree that he may be deservedly styled a _Philanthrope_. +He was a very _Silenus_ to the Boys, as, in this Place, I may term the +Students of the Law, to make them merry whenever they had a Mind to +it. He had nothing of rigid or austere in him. If any, near him at +the Bar, grumbled at his Stench, he ever converted the Complaint into +Content and Laughing with the Abundance of his Wit. As to his ordinary +Dealing, he was as honest as the driven Snow was white; and why not, +having no Regard for Money, or Desire to be rich? And, for good Nature +and Condescension, there was not his Fellow. I have seen him, for +Hours and half Hours together, before the Court sat, stand at the Bar, +with an Audience of Students over against him, putting of Cases, and +debating so as suited their Capacities, and encouraged their Industry. +And so in the _Temple_, he seldom moved without a Parcel of Youths +hanging about him, and he merry and jesting with them. + +It will be readily conceived that this Man was never cut out to be a +Presbyter, or any Thing that is severe and crabbed. In no Time did he +lean to Faction, but did his Business without Offence to any. He put +off officious Talk of Government or Politicks, with Jests, and so +made his Wit a Catholicon, or Shield, to cover all his weak Places and +Infirmities. When the Court fell into a steddy Course of using the +Law against all Kinds of Offenders, this Man was taken into the King's +Business; and had the Part of drawing, and Perusal of almost all +Indictments and Informations that were then to be prosecuted, with the +Pleadings thereon if any were special; and he had the settling of the +large Pleadings in the _Quo Warranto_ against _London_. His Lordship +had no sort of Conversation with him, but in the Way of Business, +and at the Bar; but once, after he was in the King's Business, he +dined with his Lordship, and no more. And then he shewed another +Qualification he had acquired, and that was to play Jigs upon an +Harpsichord; having taught himself with the Opportunity of an old +Virginal of his Landlady's; but in such a Manner, not for Defect but +Figure, as to see him were a Jest. The King, observing him to be of +a free Disposition, Loyal, Friendly, and without Greediness or Guile, +thought of him to be the Chief Justice of the _King's Bench_ at that +nice Time. And the Ministry could not but approve of it. So great a +Weight was then at stake, as could not be trusted to Men of doubtful +Principles, or such as any Thing might tempt to desert them. While he +sat in the Court of _King's Bench_, he gave the Rule to the general +Satisfaction of the Lawyers. But his Course of Life was so different +from what it had been, his Business incessant, and, withal, crabbed; +and his Diet and Exercise changed, that the Constitution of his Body, +or Head rather, could not sustain it, and he fell into an Apoplexy and +Palsy, which numbed his Parts; and he never recovered the Strength +of them. He out-lived the Judgment on the _Quo Warranto_; but was not +present otherwise than by sending his Opinion, by one of the Judges, +to be for the King, who, at the pronouncing of the Judgment, declared +it to the Court accordingly, which is frequently done in like Cases. + + + + +74. + +TWO GROUPS OF DIVINES. + +BENJAMIN WHITCHCOT or WHICHCOTE (1609-83), Provost of King's College, +Cambridge, 1645. RALPH CUDWORTH (1617-88), Master of Clare College, +Cambridge, 1645, and Christ's College, 1654. JOHN WILKINS (1614-72), +Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, 1648; Master of Trinity College, +Cambridge, 1659; Bishop of Chester, 1668. HENRY MORE (1614-87), Fellow +of Christ's College, Cambridge, 1639. JOHN WORTHINGTON (1618-71), +Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, 1650. + +JOHN TILLOTSON (1630-94), Archbishop of Canterbury, 1691. EDWARD +STILLINGFLEET (1635-99), Bishop of Worcester, 1689. SIMON PATRICK +(1626-1707), Bishop of Chichester, 1689; Ely, 1691. WILLIAM LLOYD +(1627-1717), Bishop of St. Asaph, 1680; Lichfield, 1692; Worcester, +1700. THOMAS TENISON (1636-1715), Archbishop of Canterbury, 1694. + +By BURNET. + + +With this great accession of wealth there broke in upon the Church a +great deal of luxury and high living, on the pretence of hospitality; +while others made purchases, and left great estates, most of which we +have seen melt away. And with this overset of wealth and pomp, that +came on men in the decline of their parts and age, they, who were +now growing into old age, became lazy and negligent in all the true +concerns of the Church: They left preaching and writing to others, +while they gave themselves up to ease and sloth. In all which sad +representation some few exceptions are to be made; but so few, that, +if a new set of men had not appeared of another stamp, the Church had +quite lost her esteem over the Nation. + +These were generally of _Cambridge_, formed under some divines, the +chief of whom were Drs. _Whitchcot_, _Cudworth_, _Wilkins_, _More_, +and _Worthington_. _Whitchcot_ was a man of a rare temper, very mild +and obliging. He had great credit with some that had been eminent in +the late times; but made all the use he could of it to protect good +men of all persuasions. He was much for liberty of conscience: And +being disgusted with the dry systematical way of those times, he +studied to raise those who conversed with him to a nobler set of +thoughts, and to consider religion as a seed of a deiform nature, (to +use one of his own phrases.) In order to this, he set young students +much on reading the ancient Philosophers, chiefly _Plato_, _Tully_, +and _Plotin_, and on considering the Christian religion as a doctrine +sent from God, both to elevate and sweeten humane nature, in which he +was a great example, as well as a wise and kind instructer. _Cudworth_ +carried this on with a great strength of genius, and a vast compass +of learning. He was a man of great conduct and prudence: Upon which +his enemies did very falsly accuse him of craft and dissimulation. +_Wilkins_ was of _Oxford_, but removed to _Cambridge_. His first +rise was in the Elector Palatine's family, when he was in _England_. +Afterwards he married _Cromwell_'s sister; but made no other use of +that alliance, but to do good offices, and to cover the University +from the sourness of _Owen_ and _Goodwin_. At _Cambridge_ he joined +with those who studied to propagate better thoughts, to take men off +from being in parties, or from narrow notions, from superstitious +conceits, and a fierceness about opinions. He was also a great +observer and a promoter of experimental philosophy, which was then +a new thing, and much looked after. He was naturally ambitious, but +was the wisest Clergy-man I ever knew. He was a lover of mankind, and +had a delight in doing good. _More_ was an open hearted, and sincere +Christian philosopher, who studied to establish men in the great +principles of religion against atheism, that was then beginning to +gain ground, chiefly by reason of the hypocrisy of some, and the +fantastical conceits of the more sincere enthusiasts. + +_Hobbs_, who had long followed the Court, and passed there for a +mathematical man, tho' he really knew little that way, being disgusted +by the Court, came into _England_ in _Cromwell_'s time, and published +a very wicked book, with a very strange title, _The Leviathan_. His +main principles were, that all men acted under an absolute necessity, +in which he seemed protected by the then received doctrine of absolute +decrees. He seemed to think that the universe was God, and that souls +were material, Thought being only subtil and unperceptible motion. He +thought interest and fear were the chief principles of society: And he +put all morality in the following that which was our own private will +or advantage. He thought religion had no other foundation than the +laws of the land. And he put all the law in the will of the Prince, +or of the people: For he writ his book at first in favour of absolute +monarchy, but turned it afterwards to gratify the republican party. +These were his true principles, tho' he had disguised them, for +deceiving unwary readers. And this set of notions came to spread much. +The novelty and boldness of them set many on reading them. The impiety +of them was acceptable to men of corrupt minds, which were but too +much prepared to receive them by the extravagancies of the late times. +So this set of men at _Cambridge_ studied to assert, and examine +the principles of religion and morality on clear grounds, and in +a philosophical method. In this _More_ led the way to many that +came after him. _Worihington_ was a man of eminent piety and great +humility, and practised a most sublime way of self-denial and +devotion. All these, and those who were formed under them, studied to +examine farther into the nature of things than had been done formerly. +They declared against superstition on the one hand, and enthusiasm on +the other. They loved the constitution of the Church, and the Liturgy, +and could well live under them: But they did not think it unlawful +to live under another form. They wished that things might have been +carried with more moderation. And they continued to keep a good +correspondence with those who had differed from them in opinion, +and allowed a great freedom both in philosophy and in divinity: +From whence they were called men of Latitude. And upon this men of +narrower thoughts and fiercer tempers fastened upon them the name of +Latitudinarians. They read _Episcopius_ much. And the making out the +reasons of things being a main part of their studies, their enemies +called them Socinians. They were all very zealous against popery. And +so, they becoming soon very considerable, the Papists set themselves +against them to decry them as Atheists, Deists, or at best Socinians. +And now that the main principle of religion was struck at by _Hobbs_ +and his followers, the Papists acted upon this a very strange part. +They went in so far even into the argument for Atheism, as to publish +many books, in which they affirmed, that there was no certain proofs +of the Christian religion, unless we took it from the authority of the +Church as infallible. This was such a delivering up of the cause +to them, that it raised in all good men a very high indignation at +Popery; that party shewing, that they chose to make men, who would not +turn Papists, become Atheists, rather than believe Christianity upon +any other ground than infallibility. + +The most eminent of those, who were formed under those great men I +have mention'd, were _Tillotson_, _Stillingfleet_, and _Patrick_. The +first of these was a man of a clear head, and a sweet temper. He had +the brightest thoughts, and the most correct style of all our divines; +and was esteemed the best preacher of the age. He was a very prudent +man; and had such a management with it, that I never knew any +Clergy-man so universally esteemed and beloved, as he was for above +twenty years. He was eminent for his opposition to Popery. He was no +friend to persecution, and stood up much against Atheism. Nor did +any man contribute more to bring the City to love our worship, than +he did. But there was so little superstition, and so much reason +and gentleness in his way of explaining things, that malice was +long levelled at him, and in conclusion broke out fiercely on him. +_Stillingfleet_ was a man of much more learning, but of a more +reserved, and a haughtier temper. He in his youth writ an _Irenicum_ +for healing our divisions, with so much learning and moderation, that +it was esteemed a masterpiece. His notion was, that the Apostles had +settled the Church in a constitution of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, +but had made no perpetual law about it, having only taken it in, +as they did many other things, from the customs and practice of the +synagogue; from which he inferred, that certainly the constitution +was lawful since authorised by them, but not necessary, since they had +made no settled law about it. This took with many; but was cried out +upon by others as an attempt against the Church. Yet the argument was +managed with so much learning and skill, that none of either side +ever undertook to answer it. After that, he wrote against infidelity, +beyond any that had gone before him. And then he engaged to write +against Popery, which he did with such an exactness and liveliness, +that no books of controversy were so much read and valued, as his +were. He was a great man in many respects. He knew the world well, +and was esteemed a very wise man. The writing of his _Irenicum_ was a +great snare to him: For, to avoid the imputations which that brought +upon him, he not only retracted the book, but he went into the humours +of that high sort of people beyond what became him, perhaps beyond +his own sense of things. He applied himself much to the study of the +law and records, and the original of our constitution, and was a very +extraordinary man. _Patrick_ was a great preacher. He wrote much, and +well, and chiefly on the Scriptures. He was a laborious man in his +function, of great strictness of life, but a little too severe against +those who differed from him. But that was, when he thought their +doctrines struck at the fundamentals of religion. He became afterwards +more moderate. To these I shall add another divine, who, tho' of +_Oxford_, yet as he was formed by Bishop _Wilkins_, so he went into +most of their principles; but went far beyond them in learning. +_Lloyd_ was a great critick in the _Greek_ and _Latin_ authors, +but chiefly in the Scriptures; of the words and phrases of which he +carried the most perfect concordance in his memory, and had it the +readiest about him, of all men that ever I knew. He was an exact +historian, and the most punctual in chronology of all our divines. +He had read the most books, and with the best judgment, and had made +the most copious abstracts out of them, of any in this age: So that +_Wilkins_ used to say, he had the most learning in ready cash of any +he ever knew. He was so exact in every thing he set about, that he +never gave over any part of study, till he had quite mastered it. But +when that was done, he went to another subject, and did not lay out +his learning with the diligence with which he laid it in. He had many +volumes of materials upon all subjects laid together in so distinct a +method, that he could with very little labour write on any of them. He +had more life in his imagination, and a truer judgment, than may seem +consistent with such a laborious course of study. Yet, as much as he +was set on learning, he had never neglected his pastoral care. For +several years he had the greatest cure in _England_, St. _Martins_, +which he took care of with an application and diligence beyond any +about him; to whom he was an example, or rather a reproach, so few +following his example. He was a holy, humble, and patient man, ever +ready to do good when he saw a proper opportunity: Even his love of +study did not divert him from that. He did upon his promotion find +a very worthy successor in his cure, _Tenison_, who carried on and +advanced all those good methods that he had begun in the management +of that great cure. He endowed schools, set up a publick library, and +kept many Curates to assist him in his indefatigable labours among +them. He was a very learned man, and took much pains to state the +notions and practices of heathenish idolatry, and so to fasten that +charge on the Church of _Rome_. And, _Whitehall_ lying within that +parish, he stood as in the front of the battel all King _James's_ +reign; and maintained, as well as managed, that dangerous post with +great courage and much judgment, and was held in very high esteem for +his whole deportment, which was ever grave and moderate. These have +been the greatest divines we have had these forty years: And may we +ever have a succession of such men to fill the room of those who have +already gone off the stage, and of those who, being now very old, +cannot hold their posts long. Of these I have writ the more fully, +because I knew them well, and have lived long in great friendship with +them; but most particularly with _Tillotson_ and _Lloyd_. And, as I +am sensible I owe a great deal of the consideration that has been had +for me to my being known to be their friend, so I have really learned +the best part of what I know from them. But I owed them much more +on the account of those excellent principles and notions, of which +they were in a particular manner communicative to me. This set of +men contributed more than can be well imagined to reform the way +of preaching; which among the divines of _England_ before them was +over-run with pedantry, a great mixture of quotations from fathers +and ancient writers, a long opening of a text with the concordance +of every word in it, and a giving all the different expositions with +the grounds of them, and the entring into some parts of controversy, +and all concluding in some, but very short, practical applications, +according to the subject or the occasion. This was both long and +heavy, when all was pye-balled, full of many sayings of different +languages. The common style of sermons was either very flat and low, +or swelled up with rhetorick to a false pitch of a wrong sublime. The +King had little or no literature, but true and good sense; and had got +a right notion of style; for he was in _France_ at a time when they +were much set on reforming their language. It soon appear'd that he +had a true taste. So this help'd to raise the value of these men, +when the King approved of the style their discourses generally ran +in; which was clear, plain, and short. They gave a short paraphrase +of their text, unless where great difficulties required a more copious +enlargement: But even then they cut off unnecessary shews of learning, +and applied themselves to the matter, in which they opened the nature +and reasons of things so fully, and with that simplicity, that their +hearers felt an instruction of another sort than had commonly been +observed before. So they became very much followed: And a set of these +men brought off the City in a great measure from the prejudices they +had formerly to the Church. + + + + +75. + +JAMES II. + +_Born 1633. Created Duke of York. Succeeded Charles II 1685. Fled to +France 1688. Died 1701._ + +By BURNET. + + +I will digress a little to give an account of the Duke's character, +whom I knew for some years so particularly, that I can say much +upon my own knowledge. He was very brave in his youth, and so much +magnified by Monsieur _Turenne_, that, till his marriage lessened him +he really clouded the King, and pass'd for the superior genius. He was +naturally candid and sincere, and a firm friend, till affairs and his +religion wore out all his first principles and inclinations. He had +a great desire to understand affairs: And in order to that he kept +a constant journal of all that pass'd, of which he shewed me a +great deal. The Duke of _Buckingham_ gave me once a short but severe +character of the two brothers. It was the more severe, because it +was-true: The King (he said) could see things if he would, and the +Duke would see things if he could. He had no true judgment, and +was soon determined by those whom he trusted: But he was obstinate +against all other advices. He was bred with high notions of the Kingly +authority, and laid it down for a maxim, that all who opposed the King +were rebels in their hearts. He was perpetually in one amour or other, +without being very nice in his choice: Upon which the King said once, +he believed his brother had his mistresses given him by his Priests +for penance. He gave me this account of his changing his religion: +When he escaped out of the hands of the Earl of _Northumberland_, who +had the charge of his education trusted to him by the Parliament, and +had used him with great respect, all due care was taken, as soon as +he got beyond sea, to form him to a strict adherence to the Church +of _England_: Among other things much was said of the authority of +the Church, and of the tradition from the Apostles in support of +Episcopacy: So that, when he came to observe that there was more +reason to submit to the Catholick Church than to one particular +Church, and that other traditions might be taken on her word, as +well as Episcopacy was received among us, he thought the step was not +great, but that it was very reasonable to go over to the Church of +_Rome_: And Doctor _Steward_ having taught him to believe a real but +unconceivable presence of _Christ_ in the Sacrament, he thought this +went more than half way to transubstantiation. He said, that a Nun's +advice to him to pray every day, that, if he was not in the right way, +God would set him right, did make a great impression on him. But he +never told me when or where he was reconciled. He suffered me to say a +great deal to him on all these heads. I shewed the difference between +submission and obedience in matters of order and indifferent things, +and an implicite submission from the belief of infallibility. I +also shewed him the difference between a speculation of a mode of +_Christ's_ presence, when it rested in an opinion, and an adoration +founded on it: Tho' the opinion of such a presence was wrong, there +was no great harm in that alone: But the adoration of an undue object +was idolatry. He suffered me to talk much and often to him on these +heads. But I plainly saw, it made no impression: And all that he +seemed to intend by it was, to make use of me as an instrument to +soften the aversion that people began to be possessed with to him. He +was naturally eager and revengeful: And was against the taking off any +that set up in an opposition to the measures of the Court, and who by +that means grew popular in the House of Commons. He was for rougher +methods. He continued for many years dissembling his religion, and +seemed zealous for the Church of _England_: But it was chiefly on +design to hinder all propositions that tended to unite us among our +selves. He was a frugal Prince, and brought his Court into method and +magnificence: For he had 100000_l_. a year allowed him. He was made +High Admiral: And he came to understand all the concerns of the +sea very particularly. He had a very able Secretary about him, Sir +_William Coventry_; a man of great notions and eminent vertues, the +best Speaker in the House of Commons, and capable of bearing the chief +ministry, as it was once thought he was very near it. The Duke found, +all the great seamen had a deep tincture from their education: They +both hated Popery, and loved liberty: They were men of severe tempers, +and kept good discipline. But in order to the putting the fleet into +more confident hands, the Duke began a method of sending pages of +honour, and other young persons of quality, to be bred to the sea. And +these were put in command, as soon as they were capable of it, if not +sooner. This discouraged many of the old seamen, when they saw in what +a channel advancement was like to go; who upon that left the service, +and went and commanded merchantmen. By this means the vertue and +discipline of the navy is much lost. It is true, we have a breed of +many gallant men, who do distinguish themselves in action. But it is +thought, the Nation has suffered much by the vices and disorders of +those Captains, who have risen by their quality, more than by merit or +service. + + + + +76. + +By BURNET. + + +He was a Prince that seemed made for greater things, than will be +found in the course of his Life, more particularly of his Reign: He +was esteemed in the former parts of his Life, a Man of great Courage, +as he was quite thro' it a man of great application to business: He +had no vivacity of thought, invention or expression: But he had a good +judgment, where his Religion or his Education gave him not a biass, +which it did very often: He was bred with strange Notions of the +Obedience due to Princes, and came to take up as strange ones, of the +Submission due to Priests: He was naturally a man of truth, fidelity, +and justice: But his Religion was so infused in him, and he was so +managed in it by his Priests, that the Principles which Nature had +laid in him, had little power over him, when the concerns of his +Church stood in the way: He was a gentle Master, and was very easy to +all who came near him: yet he was not so apt to pardon, as one ought +to be, that is the Vicegerent of that God, who is slow to anger, and +ready to forgive: He had no personal Vices but of one sort: He was +still wandring from one Amour to another, yet he had a real sense of +Sin, and was ashamed of it: But Priests know how to engage Princes +more entirely into their interests, by making them compound for their +Sins, by a great zeal for Holy Church, as they call it. In a word, if +it had not been for his Popery, he would have been, if not a great +yet a good Prince. By what I once knew of him, and by what I saw him +afterwards carried to, I grew more confirmed in the very bad opinion, +which I was always apt to have, of the Intrigues of the Popish Clergy, +and of the Confessors of Kings: He was undone by them, and was their +Martyr, so that they ought to bear the chief load of all the errors +of his inglorious Reign, and of its fatal Catastrophe. He had the +Funeral which he himself had desired, private, and without any sort of +Ceremony. + + + + +NOTES + + +1. + +The History of Great Britain, Being the Life and Reign of King James +The First, Relating To what passed from his first Accesse to the +Crown, till his Death. By Arthur Wilson, Esq. London, 1653. (pp. +289-90.) + +Arthur Wilson (1595-1652) was a gentleman-in-waiting to Robert +Devereux, third Earl of Essex, during James's reign, and was +afterwards in the service of Robert Rich, second Earl of Essex. The +_History_ was written towards the end of his life, and published the +year after his death. He was the author also of an autobiography, +_Observations of God's Providence in the Tract of my Life_ (first +printed in Francis Peck's _Desiderata Curiosa_, 1735, Lib. XII, pp. +6-34), and of three plays, _The Swisser_ (performed at Blackfriars, +1633, first printed in 1904, ed. Albert Feuillerat, from the MS. +in the British Museum), _The Corporall_ (performed, 1633, but not +extant), and _The Inconstant Lady_ (first printed in 1814, ed. Philip +Bliss, from the MS. in the Bodleian Library). The three plays were +entered in the Registers of the Stationers' Company, September 4, +1646, and September 9, 1653. But nothing he wrote appears to have been +published during his life. + +Page 2, l. 24. _Peace begot Plenty_. An adaptation of the wellknown +saying which Puttenham in his _Arte of English Poesie_ (ed. Arber, p. +217) attributes to Jean de Meung. Puttenham gives it thus: + + Peace makes plentie, plentie makes pride, + Pride breeds quarrell, and quarrell brings warre: + Warre brings spoile, and spoile pouertie, + Pouertie pacience, and pacience peace: + So peace brings warre, and warre brings peace. + +It is found also in Italian and Latin. Allusions to it are frequent +in the seventeenth century. Compare the beginning of Swift's _Battle +of the Books_, and see the correspondence in _The Times Literary +Supplement_, February 17-March 30, 1916. + + +2. + +The Court and Character of King James. Written and taken by Sir +A.W. being an eye, and eare witnesse. Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit +regnare. Published by Authority. London, MDCL. + +'The Character of King James' forms a section by itself at the +conclusion of the volume, pp. 177-89. The volume was reprinted in +the following year, when there were added to it 'The Court of King +Charles' and 'Observations (instead of a Character) upon this King, +from his Childe-hood'. Both editions are carelessly printed. The +second, which corrects some of the errors of the first but introduces +others, has been used for the present text. + +Weldon was clerk of the kitchen to James I and afterwards clerk of +the Green Cloth. He was knighted in 1617, and accompanied James to +Scotland in that year, but was dismissed from his place at court for +his satire on the Scots. He took the side of the parliament in the +Civil War. The dedication to Lady Elizabeth Sidley (first printed in +the second edition) states that the work 'treads too near the heeles +of truth, and these Times, to appear in publick'. According to Anthony +à Wood she had suppressed the manuscript, which was stolen from +her. Weldon had died before it was printed. The answer to it called +_Aulicus Coquinariæ_ describes it as 'Pretended to be penned by Sir +A.W. and published since his death, 1650'. + +Other works of the same kind, though of inferior value, are Sir Edward +Peyton's _The Divine Catastrophe of The Kingly Family Of the House of +Stuarts_, 1652, and Francis Osborne's _Traditionall Memoyres on The +Raigne of King James_, 1658. They were printed together by Sir Walter +Scott in 1811 under the title _The Secret History of the Court of +James the First_, a collection which contains the historical material +employed in _The Fortunes of Nigel_. + +Though carelessly written, and as carelessly printed, Weldon's +character of James is in parts remarkably vivid. It was reprinted by +itself in Morgan's _Pboenix Britannicus_, 1732, pp. 54-6; and it +was incorporated in the edition of Defoe's _Memoirs of a Cavalier_ +published in 1792: see _The Retrospective Review_, 1821, vol. iii, pt. +ii, pp. 378-9. + +There is a valuable article on Weldon's book as a whole in _The +Retrospective Review_, 1823, vol. vii, pt. I. + +PAGE 4, l. 6. _before he was born_, probably an allusion to the murder +of Rizzio in Mary's presence. + +l. 11. The syntax is faulty: delete 'and'? + +On James's capacity for strong drinks, compare Roger Coke's _Detection +of the Court and State of England_ (1694), ed. 1719, vol. i, p. 78. + +l. 27. _that foul poysoning busines_, the poisoning of Sir Thomas +Overbury, the great scandal of the reign. Robert Ker, or Carr, created +Viscount Rochester 1611 and Earl of Somerset 1613, had cast his eye +on the Countess of Essex, and, after a decree of nullity of marriage +with Essex had been procured, married her in December 1613. Overbury, +who had been Somerset's friend, opposed the projected marriage. On +a trumped up charge of disobedience to the king he was in April 1613 +committed to the Tower, where he was slowly poisoned, and died in +September. Somerset and the Countess were both found guilty in 1616, +but ultimately pardoned; four of the accomplices were hanged. Weldon +deals with the scandal at some length in the main part of his work, +pp. 61 ff. + +l. 30. _Mountgomery_, Philip Herbert, created Earl of Montgomery 1605, +succeeded his brother, William Herbert, as fourth Earl of Pembroke +in 1630 (see No. 7). To this 'most noble and incomparable paire +of brethren' Heminge and Condell dedicated the First Folio of +Shakespeare's plays, 1623. Montgomery's character is given by +Clarendon, _History_, ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 74-5; and, as fourth +Earl of Pembroke, vol. ii, pp. 539-41. + +Page 5, l. 22. _unfortunate in the marriage of his Daughter_. James's +daughter Elizabeth married the Elector Palatine, Frederick V, in 1613. +His election as King of Bohemia led to the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) +in which James long hesitated to become involved and played at best +an ineffectual part. The opinion here expressed is explained by +an earlier passage in Weldon's book, pp. 82-4: 'In this Favourites +(Somerset's) flourishing time, came over the _Palsgrave_ to marry our +Kings daughter, which for the present, gave much content, and with the +generall applause, yet it proved a most infortunate match to him and +his Posterity, and all Christendome, for all his Alliance with so +many great Princes, which put on him aspiring thoughts, and was so +ambitious as not to content himselfe with his hereditary patrimony +of one of the greatest Princes in _Germany_; but must aspire to a +Kingdome, beleeving that his great allyance would carry him through +any enterprise, or bring him off with honour, in both which he failed; +being cast out of his own Country with shame, and he and his, ever +after, living upon the devotion of other Princes; but had his Father +in Law spent halfe the mony in Swords he did in words, for which he +was but scorned, it had kept him in his own inheritance, and saved +much Christian bloud since shed; but whiles he, being wholly addicted +to peace, spent much treasure, in sending stately Embassadours to +treat, his Enemies (which he esteemed friends) sent Armies with a +lesse charge to conquer, so that it may be concluded, that this +then thought the most happy match in Christendome, was the greatest +unhappinesse to Christendome, themselves, and posterity.' + +l. 27. _Sir Robert Mansell_ (1573-1656), Vice-Admiral of England under +Charles I. Clarendon, writing of the year 1642, says that 'his courage +and integrity were unquestionable' (ed. Macray, vol. ii, p. 219). +'Argiers' or 'Argier' was the common old form of 'Algiers': cf. _The +Tempest_, I. ii. 261, 265. + +Page 6, l. 2. _Cottington_, Francis Cottington (1578-1652), baronet +1623, Baron Cottington, 1631. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer from +1629 to 1642. + +Page 7, l. 5. The first edition reads 'In sending Embassadours, which +were'. The printer's substitution of 'His' for 'In' and omission of +'which' do not wholly mend the syntax. + +l. 10. _peace with honour_. An early instance of the phrase made +famous by Lord Beaconsfield in his speech of July 16, 1878, after the +Congress of Berlin, 'Lord Salisbury and myself have brought you back +peace, but a peace I hope with honour.' Cf. _Notes and Queries_, 1887, +Seventh Series, vol. iii, p. 96. + +l. 14. _Nullum tempus, &c._, the law maxim _Nullum tempus occurrit +regi_, lapse of time does not bar the crown. The Parliament which met +in February 1624 passed 'An Act for the generall quiett of the Subject +agaynst all pretences of Concealement' (21° Jac. I, c. 2) which +declared sixty years' possession of Lands, &c., to be a good title +against the Crown. + +l. 18. _his Tuesday Sermons_, likewise explained by an earlier passage +in Weldon's book, pp. 8, 9: 'the chiefe of those secrets, was that +of _Gowries_ Conspiracy, though that Nation [the Scots] gave little +credit to the Story, but would speak sleightly and despitefully of +it, and those of the wisest of that Nation; yet there was a weekly +commemoration by the Tuesday Sermon, and an anniversary Feast, as +great as it was possible, for the Kings preservation, ever on the +fifth of August.' James attempted to force the Tuesday sermon on the +University of Oxford; it was to be preached by members of each college +in rotation. See Brodrick's _Memorials of Merton College_, 1885, p. +70. + +Page 8, l. 1. _a very wise man_. Compare _The Fortunes of Nigel_, +chap. v: 'the character bestowed upon him by Sully--that he was +the wisest fool in Christendom'. Two volumes of the _Mémoires_ of +Maximilien de Béthune, Duc de Sully (1560-1641), appeared in 1638; the +others after 1650. There is much about James in the second volume, but +this description of him does not appear to be there. + +ll. 10-12. _two Treasurers_, see p. 21, ll. 15-22: _three +Secretaries_, Sir Thomas Lake; Sir Robert Naunton; Sir George Calvert, +Baron Baltimore; Sir Edward Conway, Viscount Conway: _two Lord +Keepers_, Sir Francis Bacon; John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln (see +p. 18, l. 5): _two Admiralls_, Charles Howard of Effingham, Earl of +Nottingham; the Duke of Buckingham: _three Lord chief Justices_, Sir +Edward Coke; Henry Montagu, Earl of Manchester; James Ley, Earl of +Marlborough. + +Weldon's statement is true of the year 1623; he might have said +'_three_ Treasurers' and '_four_ Secretaries'. + + +3. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 7-9, 18-20; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. +i, pp. 9-11, 26-9; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 10-13, 38-43. + +This is the first of the portraits in Clarendon's great gallery, and +it is drawn with great care. Clarendon was only a youth of twenty when +Buckingham was assassinated, and he had therefore not the personal +knowledge and contact to which the later portraits owe so much of +their value. But he had throughout all his life been interested in +the remarkable career of this 'very extraordinary person'. Sir Henry +Wotton's 'Observations by Way of Parallel' on the Earl of Essex +and Buckingham had suggested to him his first character study, 'The +Difference and Disparity' between them. (It is printed after the +'Parallel' in _Reliquiæ Wottonianæ_, and described in the third +edition, 1672, as 'written by the Earl of Clarendon in his younger +dayes'.) His two studies offer an interesting comparison. Many of the +ideas are the same, but there is a marked difference in the precision +of drawing and the ease of style. The character here reprinted was +written when Clarendon had mastered his art. + +Page 11, l. 5. See p. 4, l. 27. + +Page 13, l. 25. The passage here omitted deals with Buckingham's +unsuccessful journey to Spain with Prince Charles, and with his +assassination. + +Page 16, l. 28. _touched upon before_, ed. Macray, vol. i, p. 38; here +omitted. + + +4. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 27, 28; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 36-8; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 56-9. + +Page 18, l. 5. _the Bishopp of Lincolne_, John Williams (1582-1650), +afterwards Archbishop of York. He succeeded Bacon as Lord Keeper. He +is sketched in Wilson's _History of Great Britain_, pp. 196-7, and +Fuller's _Church-History of Britain_, 1655, Bk. XI, pp. 225-8. His +life by John Hacket, _Scrinia Reserata_, 1693, is notorious for the +'embellishments' of its style; a shorter life, based on Hacket's, was +an early work of Ambrose Philips. + +l. 22. _the Earle of Portlande_, Sir Richard Weston: see No. 5. + +l. 24. _Hambleton_, Clarendon's usual spelling of 'Hamilton'. + + +5. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 28-32; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 31-43; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 59-67. + +Another and more favourable character of Weston is the matter of an +undated letter which Sir Henry Wotton sent to him as 'a strange New +years Gift' about 1635. 'In short, it is only an Image of your Self, +drawn by memory from such discourse as I have taken up here and +there of your Lordship, among the most intelligent and unmalignant +men; which to pourtrait before you I thought no servile office, but +ingenuous and real'. See _Reliquiæ Wottonianæ_, ed. 1672, pp. 333-6. + +Page 21, l. 7. _the white staffe_. 'The Third _Great Officer_ of the +Crown, is the _Lord High Treasurer of England_, who receives this High +Office by delivery of a _White Staffe_ to him by the _King_, and +holds it _durante bene placito Regis_' (Edward Chamberlayne, _Angliæ +Notitia_, 1674, p. 152). + +Page 23, l. 4. _L'd Brooke_, Sir Fulke Greville (1554-1628) the +friend and biographer of Sir Philip Sidney. He was Chancellor of the +Exchequer from 1614 to 1621. + +Page 28, l. 18. _eclarcicement_, introduced into English about +this time, and in frequent use till the beginning of the nineteenth +century. + +l. 28. _a younge, beautifull Lady_, Frances, daughter of Esmé, third +Duke of Lennox, married to Jerome Weston, afterwards second Earl of +Portland, in 1632. + + +6. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 33, 34; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, +p. 44; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 69-71. + +This is one of Clarendon's most unfriendly portraits. It was seriously +edited when first printed. The whole passage about the coldness and +selfishness of Arundel's nature on p. 31, ll. 12-30, was omitted, as +likewise the allusion to his ignorance on p. 30, ll. 25-7, 'wheras in +truth he was only able to buy them, never to understande them.' Minor +alterations are the new reading 'thought no part of History _so_ +considerable, _as_ what related to his own Family' p. 30, ll. 28, +29, and the omission of 'vulgar' p. 31, l. 11. The purpose of these +changes is obvious. They are extreme examples of the methods of +Clarendon's first editors. In no other character did they take so +great liberties with his text. + +Arundel's great collection of ancient marbles is now in the Ashmolean +Museum in the University of Oxford. The inscriptions were presented +to the University in 1667 by Lord Henry Howard, Arundel's grandson, +afterwards sixth Duke of Norfolk, and the statues were reunited +to them in 1755 by the gift of Henrietta Countess of Pomfret. As +Clarendon's _History_ was an official publication of the University, +it is probable that the prospect of receiving the statues induced +the editors to remove or alter the passages that might be thought +offensive. + +As a whole this character does not show Clarendon's usual detachment. +Arundel was Earl Marshal, and Clarendon in the Short Parliament of +1640 and again at the beginning of the Long Parliament had attacked +the jurisdiction of the Earl Marshal's Court, which, as he says, +'never presumed to sit afterwards'. The account given in Clarendon's +_Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 37-9, explains much in this character. Clarendon +there says that Arundel 'did him the honour to detest and hate him +perfectly'. There was resentment on both sides. The character was +written in Clarendon's later years, but he still remembered with +feeling the days when as Mr. Edward Hyde he was at cross purposes with +this Earl of ancient lineage. + +A different character of Arundel is given in the 'Short View' of his +life written by Sir Edward Walker (1612-77), Garter King of Arms and +Secretary of War to Charles I: + +'He was tall of Stature, and of Shape and proportion rather goodly +than neat; his Countenance was Majestical and grave, his Visage long, +his Eyes large black and piercing; he had a hooked Nose, and some +Warts or Moles on his Cheeks; his Countenance was brown, his Hair thin +both on his Head and Beard; he was of a stately Presence and Gate, so +that any Man that saw him, though in never so ordinary Habit, could +not but conclude him to be a great Person, his Garb and Fashion +drawing more Observation than did the rich Apparel of others; so that +it was a common Saying of the late Earl of _Carlisle_, Here comes the +Earl of _Arundel_ in his plain Stuff and trunk Hose, and his Beard +in his Teeth, that looks more like a Noble Man than any of us. He +was more learned in Men and Manners than in Books, yet understood the +_Latin_ Tongue very well, and was Master of the _Italian_; besides he +was a great Favourer of learned Men, such as Sir _Robert Cotton_, Sir +_Henry Spelman_, Mr. _Camden_, Mr. _Selden_, and the like. He was a +great Master of Order and Ceremony, and knew and kept greater Distance +towards his Sovereign than any Person I ever observed, and expected +no less from his inferiours; often complaining that the too great +Affability of the King, and the _French_ Garb of the Court would +bring MAJESTY into Contempt.... He was the greatest Favourer of Arts, +especially Painting, Sculpture, Designs, Carving, Building and the +like, that this Age hath produced; his Collection of Designs being +more than of any Person living, and his Statues equal in Number, Value +and Antiquity to those in the Houses of most Princes; to gain which, +he had Persons many Years employed both in _Italy_, _Greece_, and so +generally in any part of _Europe_ where Rarities were to be had. His +Paintings likewise were numerous and of the most excellent Masters, +having more of that exquisite Painter _Hans Holben_ than are in the +World besides.... He was a Person of great and universal Civility, but +yet with that Restriction as that it forbad any to be bold or sawcy +with him; though with those whom he affected, which were Lovers of +State, Nobility and curious Arts, he was very free and conversible; +but they being but few, the Stream of the times being otherwise, he +had not many Confidents or Dependents; neither did he much affect +to have them, they being unto great Persons both burthensome and +dangerous. He was not popular at all, nor cared for it, as loving +better by a just Hand than Flattery to let the common People to know +their Distance and due Observance. Neither was he of any Faction in +Court or Council, especially not of the _French_ or Puritan.... He was +in Religion no Bigot or Puritan, and professed more to affect moral +Vertues than nice Questions and Controversies.... If he were defective +in any thing, it was that he could not bring his Mind to his Fortune; +which though great, was far too little for the Vastness of his noble +Designs.' + +Walker's character was written before Clarendon's. It is dated +'Iselsteyne the 7th of June 1651'. It was first published in 1705 in +his _Historical Discourses upon Several Occasions_, pp. 221-3. + +Page 30, l. 15. _his wife_, 'the Lady Alithea Talbot, third Daughter +and Coheir of _Gilbert Talbot_ Earl of _Shrewsbury_, Grandchild of +_George Talbot_ Earl of _Shrewsbury_ and Earl Marshal of _England_' +(Walker, _Historical Discourses_, p. 211). + + +7. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 34, 35; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 44-6; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 71-3. + +This pleasing portrait of Pembroke, one of the great patrons of +literature of James's reign, follows immediately after the unfriendly +portrait of Arundel, the art collector. Clarendon knew the value of +contrast in the arrangement of his gallery. + +Pembroke is sometimes supposed to have been the patron of Shakespeare. +It cannot, however, be proved that there were any personal relations, +though the First Folio was dedicated to him and his brother, the Earl +of Montgomery, afterwards fourth Earl of Pembroke. See note, p. 4, +l. 30. He was the patron of Ben Jonson, who dedicated to him his +_Catiline_, his favourite play, and his _Epigrams_, 'the ripest of +my studies'; also of Samuel Daniel, Chapman, and William Browne. See +_Shakespeare's England_, vol. ii, pp. 202-3. + +Clarendon has also given a character of the fourth Earl, 'the poor +Earl of Pembroke', _History_, ed. Macray, vol. ii, pp. 539-41. + + +8. + +Timber: or, Discoveries; Made Vpon Men and Matter. By Ben: Iohnson. +London, Printed M.DC.XLI. (pp. 101-2.) + +This character is a remarkable testimony to the impression which +Bacon's restrained eloquence made on his contemporaries. Yet it is +little more than an exercise in free translation. Jonson has pieced +together two passages in the _Controversies_ of Marcus Seneca, and +placed the name of 'Dominus Verulanus' in the margin. The two passages +are these: + +'Non est unus, quamvis præcipuus sit, imitandus: quia nunquam par +fit imitator auctori. Hæc natura est rei. Semper citra veritatem est +similitudo.' Lib. I, Præfatio (ed. Paris, 1607, p. 58). + +'Oratio eius erat valens cultu, ingentibus plena sententiis. Nemo +minus passus est aliquid in actione sua otiosi esse. Nulla pars erat, +quæ non sua virtute staret. Nihil, in quo auditor sine damno aliud +ageret. Omnia intenta aliquo, petentia. Nemo magis in sua potestate +habuit audientium affectus. Verum est quod de illo dicit Gallio +noster. Cum diceret, rerum potiebatur, adeo omnes imperata faciebant. +Cum ille voluerat, irascebantur. Nemo non illo dicente timebat, ne +desineret.' Epit. Declamat. Lib. III (p. 231). + +From the continuation of the first passage Jonson took the words +'insolent Greece' ('insolenti Græciæ') in his verses 'To the memory of +Shakespeare'. + +Jonson has left a more vivid picture of Bacon as a speaker in a short +sentence of his Conversations with Drummond of Hawthornden: 'My Lord +Chancelor of England wringeth his speeches from the strings of his +band.' + + +9. + +Reign of King James the First, 1653, pp. 158-60. + +Page 36, l. 18. _which the King hinted at_, in the King's Speech to +the Lords, 1621: 'But because the World at this time talks so much of +_Bribes_, I have just cause to fear the whole _Body_ of this _House_ +hath _bribed_ him [Prince Charles] to be a good _Instrument_ for you +upon all occasions: He doth so good Offices in all his _Reports_ +to me, both for the _House_ in _generall_, and every one of you +in _particular_.' The speech is given in full by Wilson before the +passage on Bacon. + +Page 37, l. 25. The passage here omitted is 'The humble Submission and +Supplication of the Lord Chancellour'. + +Page 38, l. 10. _a good Passeover_, a good passage back to Spain. +Gondomar was Spanish ambassador. + + +10. + +The Church-History of Britain; From the Birth of Jesus Christ, Untill +the Year M.DC.XLVIII. Endeavoured By Thomas Fuller. London, 1655. (Bk. +x, p. 89.) + + +11. + +Resuscitatio, Or, Bringing into Publick Light Severall Pieces, of +the Works, Civil, Historical, Philosophical, & Theological, Hitherto +Sleeping; Of the Right Honourable Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam, +Viscount Saint Alban. According to the best Corrected Coppies. +Together, With his Lordships Life. By William Rawley, Doctor in +Divinity, His Lordships First, and Last, Chapleine. Afterwards, +Chapleine, to His late Maiesty. London, 1657. + +'The Life of the Honourable Author' serves as introduction to this +volume of Bacon's literary remains. It runs to fourteen pages, +unnumbered. The passage quoted from this life (_c1v-c2v_) is of the +nature of a character. + +Rawley's work is disfigured by pedantically heavy punctuation. He +carried to absurd excess the methods which his Master adopted in the +1625 edition of his _Essays_. It has not been thought necessary to +retain all his commas. + +Page 41, l. 4. _Et quod tentabam_, &c. Ovid, _Tristia_, IV. x. 26. + + +12. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 48; _Life_, ed. 1759, p. 16. + +Page 42, l. 23. _M'r Cowly_, an indication of Cowley's fame among his +contemporaries. This was written in 1668, after the publication of +_Paradise Lost_, but Clarendon ignores Milton. + +l. 25. _to own much of his_, 'to ascribe much of this' _Life_ 1759. + +Page 43, l. 2. _M'r Hyde_, Clarendon himself. + + +13. + +A New Volume of Familiar Letters, Partly Philosophicall, Politicall, +Historicall. The second Edition, with Additions. By James Howell, Esq. +London, 1650. (Letter XIII, pp. 25-6.) + +This is the second volume of _Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ_, first published +1645 (vol. 1) and 1647 (vol. 2). The text is here printed from the +copy of the second edition which Howell presented to Selden with an +autograph dedication: 'Ex dono Authoris ... Opusculum hoc honoris ergô +mittitur, Archiuis suis reponendum. 3° non: Maij 1652.' The volume now +reposes in the Selden collection in the Bodleian library. The second +edition of this letter differs from the first in the insertion of the +bracketed words, ll. 22, 23, and the date. + +The authenticity of the letters as a whole is discussed in Joseph +Jacob's edition, 1890, pp. lxxi ff. This was probably not a real +letter written to his correspondent at the given date. But whenever, +and in whatever circumstances, Howell wrote it, the value of the +picture it gives us of Ben Jonson is not impaired. + +PAGE 43, l. 9. _Sir Tho. Hawk_. Sir Thomas Hawkins, translator of +Horace's _Odes and Epodes_, 1625; hence 'your' Horace, p. 44, l. 4. + +l. 17. _T. Ca._ Thomas Carew, the poet, one of the 'Tribe of Ben'. + +PAGE 44, l. 6. _Iamque opus_, Ovid, _Metam._ xv. 871; cf. p. 202, +l. 13. l. 8. _Exegi monumentum_, Horace, _Od._ iii. 30. i. l. 10. _O +fortunatam_, preserved in Quintilian, _Inst. Orat._ ix. 4. 41 and xi. +I. 24, and in Juvenal, _Sat._ x. 122. + + +14. + +This remarkable portrait of a country gentleman of the old school +is from the 'Fragment of Autobiography', written by the first Earl +of Shaftesbury (see Nos. 68, 69) towards the end of his life. The +manuscript is among the Shaftesbury papers in the Public Record +Office, but at present (1918) has been temporarily withdrawn for +greater safety, and is not available for reference. The text is +therefore taken from the modernized version in W.D. Christie's +_Memoirs of Shaftesbury_, 1859, pp. 22-5, and _Life of Shaftesbury_, +1871, vol. i, appendix i, pp. xv-xvii. + +The character was published in Leonard Howard's _Collection of +Letters, from the Original Manuscripts_, 1753, pp. 152-5, and was +reprinted in _The Gentleman's Magazine_ for April 1754, pp. 160-1, and +again in _The Connoisseur_, No. 81, August 14, 1755. _The Gentleman's +Magazine_ (1754, p. 215) is responsible for the error that it is to be +found in Peck's _Desiderata Curiosa_. + +Hastings was Shaftesbury's neighbour in Dorsetshire. A full-length +portrait of him in his old age, clad in green cloth and holding +a pike-staff in his right hand, is at St. Giles, the seat of the +Shaftesbury family. It is reproduced in Hutchins's _History of +Dorset_, ed. 1868, vol. iii, p. 152. + +PAGE 44, ll. 24-26. He was the second son of George fourth Earl of +Huntingdon. Shaftesbury is describing his early associates after his +marriage in 1639: 'The eastern part of Dorsetshire had a bowling-green +at Hanley, where the gentlemen went constantly once a week, though +neither the green nor accommodation was inviting, yet it was well +placed for to continue the correspondence of the gentry of those +parts. Thither resorted Mr. Hastings of Woodland,' &c. + +Page 47, l. 12. '_my part lies therein-a_.' As was pointed out by E.F. +Rimbault in _Notes and Queries_, 1859, Second Series, vol. vii, p. +323, this is part of an old catch printed with the music in _Pammelia. +Musicks Miscellanie. Or, Mixed Varietie of Pleasant Roundelayes, and +delightfull Catches_, 1609: + + There lies a pudding in the fire, + and my parte lies therein a: + whome should I call in, + O thy good fellowes and mine a. + +_Pammelia_, 'the earliest collection of rounds, catches, and canons +printed in England', was brought out by Thomas Ravenscroft. Another +edition appeared in 1618. + + +15. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 383-4; _History_, Bk. XI, ed. 1704, vol. iii, +pp. 197-9; ed. Macray, vol. iv, pp. 488-92. + +The sense of Fate overhangs the portrait in which Clarendon paints for +posterity the private virtues of his unhappy master. The easy dignity +of the style adapts itself to the grave subject. This is one of +Clarendon's greatest passages. It was written twenty years after +Charles's death, but Time had not dulled his feelings. 'But ther shall +be only incerted the shorte character of his person, as it was found +in the papers of that person whose life is heare described, who was so +nerely trusted by him, and who had the greatest love for his person, +and the greatest reverence for his memory, that any faythfull servant +could exspresse.' So he wrote at first in the account of his own life. +On transferring the passage to the _History_ he substituted the more +impersonal sentence (p. 48, l. 27--p. 49, l. 5) which the general +character of the _History_ demanded. + +Page 48, l. 15. _our blessed Savyour_. Compare 'The Martyrdom of King +Charls I. or His Conformity with Christ in his Sufferings. In a Sermon +preached at Bredah, Before his Sacred Majesty King Charls The Second, +And the Princess of Orange. By the Bishop of Downe. Printed at the +Hage 1649, and reprinted at London ... 1660'. Clarendon probably heard +this sermon. + +l. 21. _have bene so much_, substituted in MS. for 'fitt to be more'. + +_treatises_. E.g. _Elenchus Motuum Nuperorum in Anglia_ (part 1), +1649, by George Bate or Bates, principal physician to Charles I and +II; _England's black Tribunall. Set forth in the Triall of K. Charles +I_, 1660; and the sermon mentioned above. + +Page 51, l. 20. _educated by that people_. His tutor was Sir Peter +Young (1544-1628), the tutor of James. Patrick Young (1584-1652), Sir +Peter's son, was Royal Librarian. + +l. 26. _Hambleton_. Cf. p. 18, l. 24. + + +16. + +Mémoires Of the reigne of King Charles I. With a Continuation to the +Happy Restauration of King Charles II. By Sir Philip Warwick, Knight. +Published from the Original Manuscript. With An Alphabetical Table. +London, 1701. (pp. 64-75.) + +Warwick (1609-83) was Secretary to Charles in 1647-8. 'When I think +of dying', he wrote, adapting a saying of Cicero, 'it is one of my +comforts, that when I part from the dunghill of this world, I shall +meet King Charles, and all those faithfull spirits, that had virtue +enough to be true to him, the Church, and the Laws unto the last.' +(_Mémoires_, p. 331.) Passages in the _Mémoires_ show that they were +begun after the summer of 1676 (p. 37), and completed shortly after +May 18, 1677 (p. 403). + +Page 55, l. 13. _Sir Henry Vane_, the elder. + +l. 14. _dyet_, allowance for expenses of living. + +Page 56, l. 26. [Greek: Eikon Basilikae]. _The Pourtraicture of His +Sacred Maiesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings_ was published in +February 1649. Charles's authorship was at once doubted in Milton's +[Greek: EIKONOKLASTAES] and in [Greek: EIKON ALAETHINAE]. _The +Pourtraicture of Truths most sacred Majesty truly suffering, though +not solely_, and supported in [Greek: EIKON AKLASTOS], in [Greek: +EIKON AE PISTAE], and in _The Princely Pellican_, all published +in 1649. The weight of evidence is now strongly in favour of +the authorship of John Gauden (1605-62), bishop of Exeter at +the Restoration. Gauden said in 1661 that he had written it, and +examination of his claims is generally admitted to have confirmed +them. See H.J. Todd's _Letter concerning the Author_, 1825, and +_Gauden the Author, further shewn_, 1829; and C.E. Doble's four +letters in _The Academy_, May 12-June 30, 1883. + +Carlyle had no doubt that Charles was not the author. 'My reading +progresses with or without fixed hope. I struggled through the +"Eikon Basilike" yesterday; one of the paltriest pieces of vapid, +shovel-hatted, clear-starched, immaculate falsity and cant I have ever +read. It is to me an amazement how any mortal could ever have taken +that for a genuine book of King Charles's. Nothing but a surpliced +Pharisee, sitting at his ease afar off, could have got up such a set +of meditations. It got Parson Gauden a bishopric.'--Letter of November +26, 1840 (Froude's _Thomas Carlyle_, 1884, vol. i, p. 199). + +Page 57, l. 4. Thomas Herbert (1606-82), made a baronet in 1660. +Appointed by Parliament in 1647 to attend the King, he was latterly +his sole attendant, and accompanied him with Juxon to the scaffold. +His _Threnodia Carolina_, reminiscences of Charles's captivity, was +published in 1702 under the title, _Memoirs of the Two last Years of +the Reign of that unparalleled Prince, of ever Blessed Memory, King +Charles I_. It was 'printed for the first time from the original MS.' +(now in private possession), but in modernized spelling, in Allan +Fea's _Memoirs of the Martyr King_, 1905, pp. 74-153. + +l. 10. Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715), bishop of Salisbury, 1689, the +historian whose characters are given in the later part of this volume. +His _Mémoires of the Lives and Actions of James and William Dukes of +Hamilton_, 1677, his first historical work, appeared while Warwick was +writing his _Mémoires of Charles_. It attracted great attention, as +its account of recent events was furnished with authentic documents. +'It was the first political biography of the modern type, combining +a narrative of a man's life with a selection from his letters' (C.H. +Firth, introduction to Clarke and Foxcroft's _Life of Burnet_, 1907, +p. xiii). + +l. 15. _affliction gives understanding_. Compare Proverbs 29. 15, +and Ecclesiasticus 4. 17 and 34. 9; the exact words are not in the +Authorised Version. + +l. 30. Robert Sanderson (1587-1663), Regius Professor of Divinity at +Oxford, 1642, Bishop of Lincoln, 1660. Izaak Walton wrote his _Life_, +1678. + +Page 58, l. 20. Sir Dudley Carleton (1573-1632), created Baron +Carleton, 1626, and Viscount Dorchester, 1628; Secretary of State, +1628. + +l. 21. Lord Falkland, see pp. 71-97; Secretary of State, 1642. + +Page 59, ll. 11-13. Plutarch, Life of Alexander the Great; opening +sentences, roughly paraphrased. + +Page 60, l. 20. _Venient Romani_, St. John, xi. 48. See _The +Archbishop of Canterbury's Speech or His Funerall Sermon, Preacht by +himself on the Scaffold on Tower-Hill, on Friday the 10. of Ianuary, +1644. London_, 1644, p. 10: 'I but perhaps a great clamour there is, +that I would have brought in Popery, I shall answer that more fully +by and by, in the meane time, you know what the Pharisees said against +Christ himself, in the eleventh of _Iohn_, _If we let him alone, +all men will beleeve on him_, Et venient Romani, _and the Romanes +will come and take away both our place and the Nation_. Here was a +causelesse cry against Christ that the Romans would come, and see how +just the Iudgement of God was, they crucified Christ for feare least +the Romans should come, and his death was that that brought in the +Romans upon them, God punishing them with that which they most feared: +and I pray God this clamour of _veniunt Romani_, (of which I have +given to my knowledge no just cause) helpe not to bring him in; for +the Pope never had such a Harvest in England since the Reformation, as +he hath now upon the Sects and divisions that are amongst us.' + +ll. 22-30. Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) brought out his _De Jure Belli ac +Pacis Libri Tres_ at Paris in 1625. Towards the end of the dedication +to Louis XIII Grotius says: 'Pertæsos discordiarum animos excitat in +hanc spem recens contracta inter te & sapientissimum pacisque illius +sanctæ amantissimum Magnæ Britanniæ Regem amicitia & auspicatissimo +Sororis tuæ matrimonio federata.' + + +17. + +Clarendon, MS. History, p. 59; _History_, Bk. III, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 203-4; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 340-2. + +Page 62, l. 23. Thomas Savile (1590-1658), created Viscount Savile, +1628, Privy Councillor, 1640, Controller and then Treasurer of the +Household. 'He was', says Clarendon, 'a man of an ambitious and +restless nature, of parts and wit enough, but in his disposition and +inclination so false that he could never be believed or depended upon. +His particular malice to the earl of Strafford, which he had sucked in +with his milk, (there having always been an immortal feud between the +families, and the earl had shrewdly overborne his father), had engaged +him with all persons who were willing, and like to be able, to do him +mischieve' (_History_, Bk. VI, ed. Macray, vol. ii, p. 534). + +Page 63, l. 25. _S'r Harry Vane_. See p. 152, ll. 9 ff. + +l. 26. _Plutarch recordes_, Life of Sylla, last sentence. + + +18. + +Mémoires of the reigne of King Charles I, 1701, pp. 109-13. + +Page 65, l. 21. Warwick was member for Radnor in the Long Parliament +from 1640 to 1644. The Bill of Attainder passed the Commons on April +21, 1641, by 204 votes to 59 (Clarendon, ed. Macray, vol. i, p. 306; +Rushworth, _Historical Collections_, third part, vol. i, 1692, p. +225). The names of the minority were posted up at Westminster, under +the heading 'These are Straffordians, Betrayers of their Country' +(Rushworth, _id._, pp. 248-9). There are 56 names, and 'Mr. Warwick' +is one of them. + + +19. + +Clarendon, MS. History, p. 398; _History_, Bk. VI, ed. 1703, vol. ii, +pp. 115-6; ed. Macray, vol. ii, pp. 477-8. + +Page 68, l. 5. _Et velut æquali_. The source of this quotation is not +yet found. + +l. 15. _the Standard was sett up_, at Nottingham, on August 22, 1642. + +l. 17. Robert Greville (1608-43), second Baron Brooke, cousin of Sir +Fulke Greville, first Baron (p. 23, l. 4). See Clarendon, ed. Macray, +vol. ii, pp. 474-5. + +l. 27. _all his Children_. Compare Warwick's account of 'that most +noble and stout Lord, the Earle of Northampton', _Mémoires_, pp. +255-7: 'This may be said of him, that he faithfully served his Master, +living and dead; for he left six eminent sons, who were all heirs +of his courage, loyalty, and virtue; whereof the eldest was not then +twenty.' + + +20. + +Clarendon, MS. History, pp. 477-8; _History_, Bk. VII, ed. 1703, vol. +ii, pp. 269-70; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 177-8. + +Carnarvon's character has much in common with Northampton's. Though +separated in the _History_, they are here placed together as companion +portraits of two young Royalist leaders who fell early in the Civil +War. + +Page 70, l. 21. Dorchester and Weymouth surrendered to Carnarvon on +August 2 and 5, 1643. They were granted fair conditions, but on the +arrival of the army of Prince Maurice care was not taken 'to observe +those articles which had been made upon the surrender of the towns; +which the earl of Carnarvon (who was full of honour and justice upon +all contracts) took so ill that he quitted the command he had with +those forces, and returned to the King before Gloster' (Clarendon, +vol. iii, p. 158). + + +21. + +Clarendon, MS. History, pp. 478-81; _History_, Bk. VII, ed. 1703, vol. +ii, pp. 270-7; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 178-90. + +Clarendon wrote two characters of Falkland, the one in 1647 in the +'History' and the other in 1668 in the 'Life'. Both are long, and both +are distinguished by sustained favour of affection and admiration as +well as by wealth of detail. He was aware that the earlier character +was out of scale in a history, but he would not condense it. He even +thought of working it up into a book by itself, wherein he would +follow the example of Tacitus who wrote the _Agricola_ before the +_Annals_ and _Histories_. He corresponded about it with John Earle +(see No. 50). From two of the letters the following extracts are +taken: + +'I would desire you (at your leisure) to send me that discourse +of your own which you read to me at Dartmouth in the end of your +contemplations upon the Proverbs, in memory of my Lord Falkland; of +whom in its place I intend to speak largely, conceiving it to be so +far from an indecorum, that the preservation of the fame and merit of +persons, and deriving the same to posterity, is no less the business +of history, than the truth of things. And if you are not of another +opinion, you cannot in justice deny me this assistance' (March 16, +1646-7: _State Papers_, 1773, vol. ii, p. 350). + +'I told you long since, that when I came to speak of that unhappy +battle of Newbury, I would enlarge upon the memory of our dear friend +that perished there; to which I conceive myself obliged, not more by +the rights of friendship, than of history, which ought to transmit the +virtue of excellent persons to posterity; and therefore I am careful +to do justice to every man who hath fallen in the quarrel, on which +side soever, as you will find by what I have said of Mr. Hambden +himself. I am now past that point; and being quickened your most +elegant and political commemoration of him, and from hints there, +thinking it necessary to say somewhat for his vindication in such +particulars as may possibly have made impression in good men, it may +be I have insisted longer upon the argument than may be agreeable to +the rules to be observed in such a work; though it be not much longer +than Livy is in recollecting the virtues of one of the Scipios after +his death. I wish it were with you, that you might read it; for if +you thought it unproportionable for the place where it is, I could +be willingly diverted to make it a piece by itself, and inlarge it +into the whole size of his life; and that way it would be sooner +communicated to the world. And you know Tacitus published the life +of Julius Agricola, before either of his annals or his history. I +am contented you should laugh at me for a fop in talking of Livy or +Tacitus; when all I can hope for is to side Hollingshead, and Stow, or +(because he is a poor Knight too, and worse than either of them) Sir +Richard Baker' (December 14, 1647, _id._ p. 386). + +Page 71, l. 22. _Turpe mori_. Lucan, ix. 108. + +l. 26. His mother's father, Sir Lawrence Tanfield, Chief Baron of the +Exchequer. He died in May 1625. See p. 87, ll. 21 ff. + +Page 72, l. 3. _His education_. See p. 87, ll. 6-13. His father, Henry +Carey, first Viscount, was Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1622 to 1629, +when he was recalled. He died in 1633. + +l. 30. _his owne house_, at Great Tew, 16 miles NW. of Oxford; +inherited from Sir Lawrence Tanfield. The house was demolished in +1790, but the gardens remain. + +PAGE 74, l. 14. _two large discources_. See p. 94, ll. 10-15. +Falkland's _Of the Infallibilitie of the Church of Rome ... Now +first published from a Copy of his owne hand_ had appeared at Oxford +in 1645, two years before Clarendon wrote this passage. It is a +short pamphlet of eighteen quarto pages. It had been circulated in +manuscript during his lifetime, and he had written a _Reply_ to an +_Answer_ to it. The second 'large discource' may be this _Reply_. Or +it may be his _Answer to a Letter of Mr. Mountague, justifying his +change of Religion, being dispersed in many Copies_. Both of these +were first published, along with the _Infallibilitie_, in 1651, under +the editorship of Dr. Thomas Triplet, tutor of the third Viscount, +to whom the volume is dedicated. The dedication is in effect a +character of Falkland, and dwells in particular on his great virtue +of friendship. A passage in it recalls Clarendon. 'And your blessed +Mother', says Triplet, 'were she now alive, would say, she had the +best of Friends before the best of Husbands. This was it that made +_Tew_ so valued a Mansion to us: For as when we went from _Oxford_ +thither, we found our selves never out of the Universitie: So we +thought our selves never absent from our own beloved home'. + +l. 25. He was Member for Newport in the Isle of Wight in The Short +Parliament, and again in The Long Parliament. + +Page 75, l. 5. His father was Controller of the Household before his +appointment as Lord Deputy of Ireland. Cf. p. 91, ll. 3, 4. + +l. 18. _L'd Finch_, Sir John Finch (1584-1660), Speaker, Chief Justice +of the Common Pleas, and Lord Keeper, created Baron Finch, 1640. He +was impeached in 1640 and fled to Holland. 'The Lord Falkland took +notice of the business of ship-money, and very sharply mentioned the +lord Finch as the principal promoter of it, and that, being then +a sworn judge of the law, he had not only given his own judgement +against law, but been the solicitor to corrupt all the other judges to +concur with him in their opinion; and concluded that no man ought to +be more severely prosecuted than he' (Clarendon, vol. i, p. 230). + +Page 77, l. 26. _haud semper_, Tacitus, _Agricola_, ix. + +Page 78, l. 17. _in republica Platonis_, Cicero, _Epis. ad Atticum_, +ii. 1. + +l. 20. _it_, i.e. his avoiding them. + +l. 30. Sir Harry Vane, the elder, was dismissed from the Secretaryship +of State in November 1641. In an earlier section of the _History_ +(vol. i, p. 458) Clarendon claims responsibility for Falkland's +acceptance of the Secretaryship: 'It was a very difficult task to +Mr. Hyde, who had most credit with him, to persuade him to submit to +this purpose of the King cheerfully, and with a just sense of the +obligation, by promising that in those parts of the office which +required most drudgery he would help him the best he could, and would +quickly inform him of all the necessary forms. But, above all, he +prevailed with him by enforcing the ill consequence of his refusal', +&c. + +Page 80, l. 19. _in tanto viro_, Tacitus, _Agricola_, ix. + +l. 20. _Some sharpe expressions_. See the quotation by Fuller, p. +105, ll. 14, 15. Clarendon refers to Falkland's speech 'Concerning +Episcopacy' in the debate on the bill for depriving the bishops of +their votes, introduced on March 30, 1641: 'The truth is, Master +Speaker, that as some ill Ministers in our state first tooke +away our mony from us, and after indeavoured to make our mony +not worth the taking, by turning it into brasse by a kind of +_Antiphilosophers-stone_: so these men used us in the point of +preaching, first depressing it to their power, and next labouring +to make it such, as the harme had not beene much if it had beene +depressed, the most frequent subjects even in the most sacred +auditories, being the _Jus divinum_ of Bishops and tithes, the +sacrednesse of the clergie, the sacriledge of impropriations, +the demolishing of puritanisme and propriety, the building of the +prerogative at _Pauls_, the introduction of such doctrines, as, +admitting them true, the truth would not recompence the scandall; or +of such as were so far false, that, as Sir _Thomas More_ sayes of the +Casuists, their businesse was not to keepe men from sinning, but to +enforme them _Quam prope ad peccatum sine peccato liceat accedere_: +so it seemed their worke was to try how much of a Papist might bee +brought in without Popery, and to destroy as much as they could of the +Gospell, without bringing themselves into danger of being destroyed by +the Law.'--_Speeches and Passages of This Great and Happy Parliament: +From the third of November, 1640 to this instant June, 1641_, p. 190. +The speech is reprinted in Lady Theresa Lewis's _Lives of the Friends +of Clarendon_, 1852, vol. i, pp. 53-62. + +Page 82, ll. 23-6. See p. 90, ll. 6-13. + +Page 83, l. 2. Falkland's participation in 'the Northern Expedition +against the Scots', 1639, was the subject of a eulogistic poem by +Cowley: + + Great is thy _Charge_, O _North_; be wise and just, + _England_ commits her _Falkland_ to thy trust; + Return him safe: _Learning_ would rather choose + Her _Bodley_, or her _Vatican_ to loose. + All things that are but _writ_ or _printed_ there, + In his unbounded Breast _engraven_ are, &c. + +It was the occasion also of Waller's 'To my Lord of Falkland'. + +l. 14. _et in luctu_, Tacitus, _Agricola_, xxix. + +l. 15. _the furious resolution_, passed on November 24, 1642, after +the battle at Brentford: see Clarendon, vol. ii, pp. 395-9. + +Page 84, l. 9. _adversus malos_, Tacitus, _Agricola_, xxii. + +ll. 11-28. The date of this incident is uncertain. Professor Firth +believes it to have happened when the House resolved that Colonel +Goring 'deserved very well of the Commonwealth, and of this House', +for his discovery of the army plot, June 9, 1641 (_Journals of the +House of Commons_, vol. ii, p. 172). + +Page 85, l. 18. _the leaguer before Gloster_. The siege of Gloucester +was raised by the Earl of Essex on September 8, 1643. Clarendon +had described it (vol. iii, pp. 167 ff.) just before he came to the +account of Falkland. + +Page 86, l. 1. _the battell_, i.e. of Newbury, September 20, 1643. How +Falkland met his death is told in Byron's narrative of the fight: 'My +Lord of Falkland did me the honour to ride in my troop this day, and I +would needs go along with him, the enemy had beat our foot out of the +close, and was drawne up near the hedge; I went to view, and as I was +giving orders for making the gap wide enough, my horse was shott in +the throat with a musket bullet and his bit broken in his mouth so +that I was forced to call for another horse, in the meanwhile my Lord +Falkland (more gallantly than advisedly) spurred his horse through the +gapp, where both he and his horse were immediately killed.' See Walter +Money, _The Battles of Newbury_, 1884, p. 52; also p. 93. + +A passage in Whitelocke's _Memorials_, ed. 1682, p. 70, shows that +he had a presentiment of his death: 'The Lord _Falkland_, Secretary +of State, in the morning of the fight, called for a clean shirt, and +being asked the reason of it, answered, _that if he were slain in the +Battle, they should not find, his body in foul Linnen_. Being diswaded +by his friends to goe into the fight, as having no call to it, and +being no Military Officer, he said _he was weary of the times, and +foresaw much misery to his own Countrey, and did beleive be should be +out of it ere night_, and could not be perswaded to the contrary, but +would enter into the battle, and was there slain.' + + +22. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 51-4; _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 19-23. + +This is Falkland in his younger days, amid the hospitable pleasures of +Tew, before he was overwhelmed in politics and war. + +Page 86, l. 20. _he_, i.e. Clarendon. + +Page 88, l. 2. _the two most pleasant places_, Great Tew (see p. 72, +l. 30) and Burford, where Falkland was born. He sold Burford in 1634 +to William Lenthall, the Speaker of the Long Parliament: see p. 91, l. +5. + +Page 89, l. 2. He married Lettice, daughter of Sir Richard Morrison +of Tooley Park, Leicestershire. His friendship with her brother Henry +is celebrated in an ode by Ben Jonson, 'To the immortall memorie, and +friendship of that noble paire, Sir Lucius Cary, and Sir H. Morison' +(_Under-woods_, 1640, p. 232). + +Page 91, ll. 17-20. So in the MS. The syntax is confused, but the +sense is clear. + +Page 92, ll. 21, 22. Gilbert Sheldon (1598-1677), Archbishop of +Canterbury, 1663; Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and builder +of the Sheldonian Theatre there. + +George Morley (1597-1684), Bishop of Worcester, 1660. + +Henry Hammond (1605-60), chaplain to Charles I. + +Clarendon has given short characters of Sheldon and Morley in his +_Life_. For his characters of Earle and Chillingworth, see Nos. 50 and +52. + +Page 94, l. 11. See note p. 74, l. 14. + +Page 95, l. 3. Cf. p. 78, l. 17. + +l. 17. It is notable that Clarendon nowhere suggests that Falkland was +also a poet. Cowley gives his verses the highest praise in his address +to him on the Northern Expedition (see p. 83, l. 2, note); and they +won him a place in Suckling's _Sessions of the Poets_: + + He was of late so gone with Divinity + That he had almost forgot his Poetry, + Though to say the truth (and _Apollo_ did know it) + He might have been both his Priest and his Poet. + +His poems were collected and edited by A.B. Grosart in 1871. + + +23. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 55; _Life_, ed. 1759, p. 24. + +This very pleasing portrait of Godolphin serves as a pendant to the +longer and more elaborate description of his friend. Clarendon wrote +also a shorter character of him in the _History_ (vol. ii, pp. 457-8). + +Page 96, l. 2. _so very small a body_. He is the 'little Cid' (i.e. +Sidney) of Suckling's _Sessions of the Poets_. + +PAGE 97, l. 1. He was member for Helston from 1628 to 1643. + +l. 6. In the character in the _History_ Clarendon says that he left +'the ignominy of his death upon a place which could never otherwise +have had a mention to the world'. The place was Chagford. + + +24. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 69-70; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 69-73; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 119-25. + +The three characters of Laud here given supplement each other. They +convey the same idea of the man. + +Page 97, l. 20. George Abbott (1562-1633), Archbishop of Canterbury, +1611. In the preceding paragraph Clarendon had written an unfavourable +character of him. He 'considered Christian religion no otherwise than +as it abhorred and reviled Popery, and valued those men most who did +that most furiously': 'if men prudently forbore a public reviling +and railing at the hierarchy and ecclesiastical government, let their +opinions and private practice be what it would, they were not only +secure from any inquisition of his, but acceptable to him, and at +least equally preferred by him': his house was 'a sanctuary to the +most eminent of that factious party'. Cf. p. 100, ll. 21-7. + +Page 101, l. 2. In the omitted portion Clarendon dealt with the +'Arminianism', as it was then understood in England: 'most of the +popular preachers, who had not looked into the ancient learning, took +Calvin's word for it, and did all they could to propagate his opinions +in those points: they who had studied more, and were better versed +in the antiquities of the Church, the Fathers, the Councils, and the +ecclesiastical histories, with the same heat and passion in preaching +and writing, defended the contrary. But because in the late dispute in +the Dutch churches, those opinions were supported by Jacobus Arminius, +the divinity professor in the university of Leyden in Holland, the +latter men we mentioned were called Arminians, though many of them +had never read a word written by Arminius'. Arminius (the name is the +Latinized form of Harmens or Hermans) died in 1609. + + +25. + +The Church-History of Britain, 1648, Bk. XI, pp. 217-9. + +Page 104, l. 15. Canterbury College was founded at Oxford in 1363 by +Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury. It was incorporated in Christ +Church, Wolsey's foundation, and so 'lost its name'; but the name +survives in the Canterbury quadrangle. + +Page 105, l. 13. _Lord F._, i.e. Lord Falkland: see p. 80, l. 20 note. + + +26. + +Mémoires of the reigne of King Charles I, 1701, pp. 78-82, 89-93. + +Page 107, l. 27. _cleansed it by fire_. Perhaps a reminiscence of +Dryden's _Annus Mirabilis_, 1667, stanza 276: + + The daring Flames peep't in, and saw from far + The awful Beauties of the Sacred Quire: + But since it was prophan'd by Civil War, + Heav'n thought it fit to have it purg'd by fire. + +l. 29. _too too_, so in the original; perhaps but not certainly a +misprint. + + +27. + +Mémoires, 1701, pp. 93-6. + +Page 112, l. 9. _Lord Portland_, Sir Richard Weston: see No. 5. + +l. 13. _white staff_, see p. 21, l. 7 note. + + +28. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 152-3; _History_, Bk. IV, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 332-3; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 563-5. + +This is the first of three characters of Hertford in Clarendon's +_History_. The others, in Bk. VI (MS. Life) ed. Macray, ii. 528, and +Bk. VII (MS. History) iii. 128, are supplementary. + +Page 114, l. 10. _disobligations_, on account of his secret marriage +with James's cousin, Arabella Stuart, daughter of Charles Stuart, Earl +of Lennox, brother of the Earl of Darnley. She died a prisoner in the +Tower; he escaped to France, but after her death was allowed to return +to England in 1616. He succeeded his grandfather as Earl of Hertford +in 1621. He lived in retirement from the dissolution of Parliament in +March 1629 to 1640, when he was made a Privy Councillor. + +Page 115, l. 5. He was appointed Governor to the Prince of Wales in +May 1641, in succession to the Earl of Newcastle. He was then in his +fifty-third year. In the following month he was made a Marquis. See +his life in Lady Theresa Lewis's _Lives of the Friends of Clarendon_, +vol. ii, pp. 436-42. + +Page 116, l. 2. _attacque_, an unexpected form of 'attach' at this +time, and perhaps a slip, but 'attack' and 'attach' are ultimately the +same word; cf. Italian _attaccare_. The _New English Dictionary_ gives +an instance in 1666 of 'attach' in the sense of 'attack'. + + +29. + +Clarendon, MS. History, Transcript, vol. iv, pp. 440-2; _History_, Bk. +VIII, ed. 1703, vol. ii, pp. 391-3; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 380-3. + +The original manuscript of much of Book VIII is lost. The text is +taken from the transcript that was made for the printers. + +This is the portrait of a great English nobleman whose tastes +lay in music and poetry and the arts of peace, but was forced by +circumstances into the leadership of the Royalist army in the North. +He showed little military talent, though he was far from devoid +of personal courage; and he escaped from the conflict, weary and +despondent, when other men were content to carry on the unequal +struggle. He modelled himself on the heroes of Romance. The part he +tried to play could not be adjusted to the rude events of the civil +war. + +His romantic cast of mind is shown in his challenge to Lord Fairfax to +follow 'the Examples of our Heroick Ancestors, who used not to spend +their time in scratching one another out of holes, but in pitched +Fields determined their Doubts'. Fairfax replied by expressing his +readiness to fight but refusing to follow 'the Rules of _Amadis +de Gaule_, or the Knight of the Sun, which the language of the +Declaration seems to affect in appointing pitch'd battles' (Rushworth, +_Historical Collections_, third part, vol. ii, 1692, pp. 138, 141). + +Warwick's short character of Newcastle resembles Clarendon's: 'He was +a Gentleman of grandeur, generosity, loyalty, and steddy and forward +courage; but his edge had too much of the razor in it: for he had +a tincture of a Romantick spirit, and had the misfortune to have +somewhat of the Poet in him; so as he chose Sir William Davenant, an +eminent good Poet, and loyall Gentleman, to be Lieutenant-Generall +of his Ordnance. This inclination of his own and such kind of +witty society (to be modest in the expressions of it) diverted many +counsels, and lost many opportunities; which the nature of that +affair, this great man had now entred into, required' (_Mémoires_, pp. +235-6). + +His life by the Duchess of Newcastle--the 'somewhat fantastical, and +original-brain'd, generous Margaret Newcastle', as Charles Lamb calls +her--was published in 1667. The edition by C.H. Firth, 1886, contains +copious historical notes, and an introduction which points out +Newcastle's place as a patron and author. + +Page 116, ll. 15-22. Newcastle had been besieged at York. He was +relieved by Prince Rupert, who, against Newcastle's advice, forced on +the disastrous battle of Marston Moor (July 2, 1644) without waiting +for reinforcements. In this battle Newcastle was not in command +but fought at the head of a company of volunteers. The next day he +embarked at Scarborough for the continent, where he remained till the +Restoration. + +l. 24. He published two books on horsemanship--_La Méthode et +Invention Nouvelle de Dresser les Chevaux_, written originally in +English, but printed in French at Antwerp in 1658, and _A New Method +and Extraordinary Invention to Dress Horses_, 1667. The former was +dedicated to Prince Charles, whom, as Governor, he had taught to +ride. On his reputation as a horseman, see C.H. Firth, _op. cit._, pp. +xx-xxii. + +Page 117, l. 20. He was Governor of the Prince from 1638 to 1641: cf. +note on p. 115, l. 5. + +l. 29. Newcastle-upon-Tyne (from which he took his title) was +'speedily and dexterously' secured for the King at the end of June +1642 'by his lordship's great interest in those parts, the +ready compliance of the best of the gentry, and the general good +inclinations of the place' (Clarendon, vol. ii, p. 227). + +Page 118, l. 17. Henry Clifford (1591-1643) fifth Earl of Cumberland. +He had commanded the Royalist forces in Yorkshire, but was 'in his +nature inactive, and utterly inexperienced'. He willingly gave up +the command (Clarendon, vol. ii, pp. 282, 464-5). He died shortly +afterwards. + +l. 28. _this last_, Marston Moor. + +Page 119, l. 8. _unacquainted with War_. Clarendon expressed himself +privately on this point much more emphatically than the nature of his +_History_ would allow: 'you will find the Marquis of Newcastle a very +lamentable man and as fit to be a General as a Bishop.' (Letter to +Sir Edward Nicholas, dated Madrid, June 4, 1650: _State Papers_, 1786, +vol. iii, p. 20.) + +l. 10. James King (1589?-1652?), created Baron Eythin and Kerrey in +the Scottish peerage in 1643. He had been a general in the army of the +King of Sweden, and returned to this country in 1640. He left it with +Newcastle after Marston Moor. He entirely disapproved of Rupert's +plans for the battle; his comment, as reported by Clarendon, was 'By +God, sir, it is very fyne in the paper, but ther is no such thinge in +the Feilds' (vol. iii, p. 376). + + +30. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 136; _History_, Bk. IV, ed. 1702, vol. i, pp. +270-1; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 461-3. + +The references to Digby in various parts of the _History_ show the +interest--sometimes an amused interest--that Clarendon took in his +strange and erratic character. 'The temper and composition of his mind +was so admirable, that he was always more pleased and delighted that +he had advanced so far, which he imputed to his virtue and conduct, +than broken or dejected that his success was not answerable, which +he still charged upon second causes, for which he could not be +accountable' (vol. iv, p. 122). 'He was a person of so rare a +composition by nature and by art, (for nature alone could never have +reached to it,) that he was so far from being ever dismayed by any +misfortune, (and greater variety of misfortunes never befell any man,) +that he quickly recollected himself so vigorously, that he did really +believe his condition to be improved by that ill accident' (_id._, p. +175). But the interest is shown above all by the long study of Digby +that he wrote at Montpelier in 1669. It was first printed in his +_State Papers_, 1786, vol. iii, supplement, pp. li-lxxiv. The +manuscript--a transcript revised by Clarendon--is in the Bodleian +Library, Clarendon MS. 122, pp. 1-48. + +Page 120, l. 8. _the other three_, Sir John Culpeper, or Colepeper; +Lord Falkland; and Clarendon. + +Page 121, l. 2. _sharpe reprehension_. 'He was committed to the Fleet +in June 1634, but released in July, for striking Mr. Crofts in Spring +Garden, within the precincts of the Court. _Cal. Dom. State. Papers_, +1634-5 (1864), pp. 81, 129'--Macray, vol. i, p. 461. + +Shaftesbury gives a brief sketch of him at this time in his +fragmentary autobiography: 'The Earl of Bristoll was retired from all +business and lived privately to himself; but his son the Lord Digby, +a very handsome young man of great courage and learning and of a quick +wit, began to show himself to the world and gave great expectations +of himself, he being justly admired by all, and only gave himself +disadvantage with a pedantic stiffness and affectation he had +contracted.' + +l. 19. As Baron Digby, during the lifetime of his father; June 9, +1641. + +Page 123, l. 5. _a very unhappy councell_, the impeachment and +attempted 'Arrest of the Five Members', January 3 and 4, 1642. Compare +Clarendon, vol. i, p. 485: 'And all this was done without the least +communication with any body but the Lord Digby, who advised it.' + + +31. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 389, and MS. History, p. 25 (or 597); +_History_, Bk. XI, ed. 1704, vol. iii, pp. 210-11; ed. Macray, vol. +iv, pp. 510-11. + +This admirable character was not all written at the same time. The +first sentence is from Clarendon's Life, and the remainder from the +History, where the date, '21 Nov. 1671', is appended. 123, l. 15. +_Crumwells owne character_,--in the debate in Parliament on carrying +out the sentence of death, March 8, 1649. Clarendon had briefly +described Cromwell's speech: 'Cromwell, who had known him very well, +spake so much good of him, and professed to have so much kindness +and respect for him, that all men thought he was now safe, when he +concluded, that his affection to the public so much weighed down his +private friendship, that he could not but tell them, that the question +was now, whether they would preserve the most bitter and the most +implacable enemy they had' (vol. iv, p. 506). + +l. 22. He married in November 1626, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Charles +Morrison, of Cassiobury, Hertfordshire, and granddaughter of the first +Viscount Campden. Their daughter Theodosia was the wife of the second +Earl of Clarendon. + +Page 124, l. 13. _an indignity_, probably a reference to Lord Hopton's +command of the army in the west; see vol. iv, p. 131. + + +32. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 273; _History_, Bk. VIII, ed. 1703, vol. ii, +pp. 427-8; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 443-5. + +The four generals in this group are described on various occasions in +the _History_. In this passage Clarendon sums up shortly what he says +elsewhere, and presents a parallel somewhat in the manner of Plutarch. + +Page 125, l. 23. Clarendon has a great passage in Book VII (vol. iii, +pp. 224-6) on the value of Councils, even when the experience and +wisdom of the councillors individually may not promise the right +decisions. The passage is suggested by, and immediately follows, a +short character of Prince Rupert. + +Page 126, ll. 15, 16. Clarendon refers to the retreat of the +Parliamentary Army at Lostwithiel, on August 31, 1644, when Essex +embarked the foot at Fowey and escaped by sea, and Sir William Balfour +broke away with the horse. In describing it, Clarendon says that 'the +notice and orders came to Goring when he was in one of his jovial +exercises; which he received with mirth, and slighting those who sent +them, as men who took alarms too warmly; and he continued his delights +till all the enemy's horse were passed through his quarters, nor did +then pursue them in any time' (vol. iii, p. 403; cf. p. 391). But +Goring's horse was not so posted as to be able to check Balfour's. +See the article on Goring by C.H. Firth in the _Dictionary of National +Biography_ and S.R. Gardiner's _Civil War_, 1893, vol. ii, pp. 13-17. +Clarendon was misinformed; yet this error in detail does not impair +the truth of the portrait. + + +33. + +Clarendon, MS. History, pp. 447-8; _History_, Bk. VII, ed. 1704, vol. +ii, pp. 204-6; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 61-4. + +The studied detachment that Clarendon tried to cultivate when writing +about his political enemies is nowhere shown better than in the +character of Hampden. 'I am careful to do justice', he claimed, 'to +every man who hath fallen in the quarrel, on which side soever, as +you will find by what I have said of Mr. Hambden himself' (see No. +21, note). The absence of all enthusiasm makes the description of +Hampden's merits the more telling. But there is a tail with a sting in +it. + +The last sentence, it must be admitted, is not of a piece with +the rest of the character. There was some excuse for doubting its +authenticity. But doubts gave place to definite statements that it +had been interpolated by the Oxford editors when seeing the +_History_ through the press. Edmund Smith, the author of _Phædra and +Hippolytus_, started the story that while he was resident in Christ +Church he was 'employ'd to interpolate and alter the Original', and +specially mentioned this sentence as having been 'foisted in'; and +the story was given a prominent place by Oldmixon in his _History of +England, during the Reigns of the Royal House of Stuart_ (see _Letters +of Thomas Burnat to George Duckett_, ed. Nichol Smith, 1914, p. xx). +A controversy ensued, the final contribution to which is John Burton's +_Genuineness of L'd Clarendon's History Vindicated_, 1744. Once the +original manuscript was accessible, all doubt was removed. Every word +of the sentence is there to be found in Clarendon's hand. But it is +written along the margin, to take the place of a deleted sentence, and +is evidently later than the rest of the character. This accounts for +the difference in tone. + +Page 129, ll. 22 ff. Compare Warwick, _Mémoires_, p. 240: 'He was of +a concise and significant language, and the mildest, yet subtillest, +speaker of any man in the House; and had a dexterity, when a question +was going to be put, which agreed not with his sense, to draw it over +to it, by adding some equivocall or sly word, which would enervate the +meaning of it, as first put.' + +At the beginning of this short character of Hampden, Warwick says that +'his blood in its temper was acrimonious, as the scurfe commonly on +his face shewed'. + +Page 131, l. 4. _this that was at Oxforde_, i.e. the overture, +February and March 1643: Clarendon, vol. ii, pp. 497 ff. + +ll. 24-6. _Erat illi_, &c. Cicero, _Orat. in Catilinam_ iii. 7. +'Cinna' should be 'Catiline'. + + +34. + +Clarendon, MS. History, pp. 525-7; _History_, Bk. VII, ed. 1703, vol. +ii, pp. 353-5; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 321-4. + +The character of Pym does not show the same detachment as the +character of Hampden. Clarendon has not rejected unauthenticated +Royalist rumour. + +Page 132, ll. 7-9. This rumour occasioned the publication of an +official narrative of his disease and death, 'attested under the Hands +of his Physicians, Chyrurgions, and Apothecary', from which it appears +that he died of an intestinal abscess. See John Forster's _John Pym_ +('Lives of Eminent British Statesmen', vol. iii), pp. 409-11. + +l. 19. He was member for Tavistock from 1624. + +Page 133, l. 26. Oliver St. John (1603-42), Solicitor-General, +mortally wounded at Edgehill. + +ll. 29, 30. Cf. p. 129, ll. 15-18. + +Page 134, l. 3. Francis Russell (1593-1641), fourth Earl of Bedford. +'This lord was the greatest person of interest in all the popular +party, being of the best estate and best understanding of the whole +pack, and therefore most like to govern the rest; he was besides of +great civility, and of much more good-nature than any of the others. +And therefore the King, resolving to do his business with that party +by him, resolved to make him Lord High Treasurer of England, in the +place of the Bishop of London, who was as willing to lay down the +office as any body was to take it up; and, to gratify him the more, at +his desire intended to make Mr. Pimm Chancellor of the Exchequer, as +he had done Mr. St. John his Solicitor-General' (Clarendon, vol. i, +p. 333). The plan was frustrated by Bedford's death in 1641. The +Chancellorship of the Exchequer was bestowed on Culpeper (_id._, p. +457). + +ll. 27 ff. The authority for this story is the _Mercurius Academicus_ +for February 3, 1645-6 (pp. 74-5), a journal of the Court party +published at Oxford (hence the title), and the successor of the +_Mercurius Aulicus_. The Irishman is there reported to have made this +confession on the scaffold. + +Page 135, ll. 25-8. _The last Summer_, i.e. before Pym's death, 1643. +See Clarendon, vol. iii, pp. 116, 135, 141. + +Page 136, ll. 7-10. He died on December 8, 1643, and was buried on +December 13 in Westminster Abbey, whence his body was ejected at the +Restoration. + + +35. + +Clarendon, MS. History, Bk. X, p. 24 (or 570); _History_, ed. 1704, +vol. iii, pp. 84-5; ed. Macray, vol. iv, pp. 305-7. + +The two characters of Cromwell by Clarendon were written about the +same time. Though the first is from the manuscript of the History, +it belongs to a section that was added in 1671, when the matter in +the original History was combined with the matter in the Life. It +describes Cromwell as Clarendon remembered him before he had risen +to his full power. He was then in Clarendon's eyes preeminently a +dissembler--'the greatest dissembler living'. The other character +views him in the light of his complete achievement. It represents +him, with all his wickedness, as a man of 'great parts of courage and +industry and judgement'. He is a 'bad man', but a 'brave, bad man', +to whose success, remarkable talents, and even some virtues, must have +contributed. The recognition of his greatness was unwilling; it was +all the more sincere. + +'Crumwell' is Clarendon's regular spelling. + +Page 136, l. 22. Hampden's mother, Elizabeth Cromwell, was the sister +of Cromwell's father. + +Page 138, l. 18. _the Modell_, i.e. the New Model Army, raised in the +Spring of 1645. See C.H. Firth's _Cromwell's Army_, 1902, ch. iii. + +l. 21. _chaunged a Generall_, the Earl of Essex. See No. 40. + + +36. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 549-50; _History_, Bk. XV, ed. 1704, vol. +iii, pp. 505-6, 509; ed. Macray, vol. vi, pp. 91-2, 97. + +Page 139, ll. 3, 4. _quos vituperare_, Cicero, _Pro Fonteio_, xvii. +39 'Is igitur vir, quem ne inimicus quidem satis in appellando +significare poterat, nisi ante laudasset.' + +ll. 19, 20. _Ausum eum_, Velleius Paterculus, ii. 24. + +Page 140, ll. 9-12. Machiavelli, _The Prince_, ch. vii. + +ll. 17-22. Editorial taste in 1704 transformed this sentence thus: +'In a word, as he was guilty of many Crimes against which Damnation +is denounced, and for which Hell-fire is prepared, so he had some good +Qualities which have caused the Memory of some Men in all Ages to be +celebrated; and he will be look'd upon by Posterity as a brave wicked +Man.' + + +37. + +Mémoires Of the reigne of King Charles I, 1701, pp. 247-8. + +Page 141, l. 17. _a servant of Mr. Prynn's_, John Lilburne (1614-57). +But it is doubtful if he was Prynne's servant; see the article in the +_Dictionary of National Biography_. Lilburne's petition was presented +by Cromwell on November 9, 1640, and referred to a Committee; and +on May 4, 1641, the House resolved 'That the Sentence of the +Star-Chamber, given against John Lilborne, is illegal, and against the +Liberty of the Subject; and also, bloody, wicked, cruel, barbarous, +and tyrannical' (_Journals of the House of Commons_, vol. ii, pp. 24, +134). + +ll. 29, 30. Warwick was imprisoned on suspicion of plotting against +the Protector's Government in 1655. + + +38. + +A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, Esq.; Edited by +Thomas Birch, 1742, vol. i, p. 766. + +This passage is from a letter written to 'John Winthrop, esq; governor +of the colony of Connecticut in New England', and dated 'Westminster, +March 24, 1659'. + +Maidston was Cromwell's servant. + + +39. + +Reliquiæ Baxterianæ: or, Mr. Richard Baxter's Narrative of The most +Memorable Passages of his Life and Times. Faithfully Publish'd from +his own Original Manuscript, By Matthew Sylvester. London: MDCXCVI. +(Lib. I, Part I, pp. 98-100.) + +The interest of this character lies largely in its Presbyterian point +of view. It is a carefully balanced estimate by one who had been a +chaplain in the Parliamentary army, but opposed Cromwell when, after +the fall of Presbyterianism, he assumed the supreme power. + +Page 144, ll. 19-24. See the article by C.H. Firth on 'The Raising of +the Ironsides' in the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, +1899, vol. xiii, and its sequel, 'The Later History of the Ironsides', +1901, vol. xv; and the articles on John Desborough (who married +Cromwell's sister) and James Berry in the _Dictionary of National +Biography_. 'Who Captain Ayres was it is difficult to say ... He left +the regiment about June 1644, and his troop was given to James Berry +... the captain-lieutenant of Cromwell's own troop'. (R.H.S. Trans., +vol. xiii, pp. 29, 30). Berry subsequently became one of Cromwell's +major-generals. His character is briefly sketched by Baxter, who +calls him 'my old Bosom Friend', _Reliquiæ_, 1696, p. 57. For Captain +William Evanson, see R.H.S. Trans., vol. xv, pp. 22-3. + +Page 146, l. 12. A passage from Bacon's essay 'Of Faction' (No. 51) +is quoted in the margin in the edition of 1696. 'Fraction' in l. 12 is +probably a misprint for 'Faction'. + +Page 148, ll. 7-10. The concluding sentence of the essay 'Of +Simulation and Dissimulation'. Brackets were often used at this time +to mark a quotation. + + +40. + +Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, 1696, Lib. I, Part I, p. 48. + +Much the same opinion of Fairfax was held by Sir Philip Warwick and +Clarendon. Warwick says he was 'a man of a military genius, undaunted +courage and presence of mind in the field both in action and danger, +but of a very common understanding in all other affairs, and of a +worse elocution; and so a most fit tool for Mr. Cromwel to work with' +(_Mémoires_, p. 246). Clarendon alludes to him as one 'who had no +eyes, and so would be willinge to be ledd' (p. 138, l. 24). But Milton +saw him in a different light when he addressed to him the sonnet on +his capture of Colchester in August 1648: + + _Fairfax_, whose name in armes through Europe rings + Filling each mouth with envy, or with praise,... + Thy firm unshak'n vertue ever brings + Victory home,... + O yet a nobler task awaites thy hand; + For what can Warr, but endless warr still breed, + Till Truth, & Right from Violence be freed, + And Public Faith cleard from the shamefull brand + Of Public Fraud. In vain doth Valour bleed + While Avarice, & Rapine share the land. + +Fairfax's military capacity is certain, and his private virtues are +unquestioned. Writing in 1648, Milton credited him with the power to +settle the affairs of the nation. But Fairfax was not a politician. He +broke with Cromwell over the execution of the king, and in July 1650 +retired into private life. Baxter, Warwick, and Clarendon all wrote +of him at a distance of time that showed his merits and limitations in +truer perspective. + +Milton addressed him again when singing the praises of Bradshaw and +Cromwell and other Parliamentary leaders in his _Pro Populo Anglicano +Defensio Secunda_, 1654. As a specimen of a contemporary Latin +character, and a character by Milton, the passage is now quoted in +full: + +'Sed neque te fas est præterire, _Fairfaxi_, in quo cum summa +fortitudine summam modestiam, summam vitæ sanctitatem, & natura & +divinus favor conjunxit: Tu harum in partem laudum evocandus tuo jure +ac merito es; quanquam in illo nunc tuo secessu, quantus olim Literni +Africanus ille Scipio, abdis te quoad potes; nec hostem solum, sed +ambitionem, & quæ præstantissimum quemque mortalium vincit, gloriam +quoque vicisti; tuisque virtutibus & præclare factis, jucundissimum & +gloriosissimum per otium frueris, quod est laborum omnium & humanarum +actionum vel maximarum finis; qualique otio cum antiqui Heroes, post +bella & decora tuis haud majora, fruerentur, qui eos laudare conati +sunt poetæ, desperabant se posse alia ratione id quale esset digne +describere, nisi eos fabularentur, coelo receptos, deorum epulis +accumbere. Verum te sive valetudo, quod maxime crediderim, sive +quid aliud retraxit, persuasissimum hoc habeo, nihil te a rationibus +reipublicæ divellere potuisse, nisi vidisses quantum libertatis +conservatorem, quam firmum atque fidum Anglicanæ rei columen ac +munimentum in successore tuo relinqueres' (ed. 1654, pp. 147-8). + +Page 149, l. 9. The Self-denying Ordinance, discharging members of +Parliament from all offices, civil and military, passed both Houses on +April 3, 1645. + +l. 18. He succeeded his father as third Lord Fairfax in 1648. + +l. 21. See p. 118, ll. 8 ff. + + +41. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 103; _History_, Bk. III, ed. 1702, vol. i, pp. +148-9; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 247-9. + +Baxter has an account of Vane in his Autobiography: 'He was the +Principal Man that drove on the Parliament to go too high, and act +too vehemently against the King: Being of very ready Parts, and very +great Subtilty, and unwearied Industry, he laboured, and not without +Success, to win others in Parliament, City and Country to his Way. +When the Earl of _Strafford_ was accused, he got a Paper out of his +Father's Cabinet (who was Secretary of State) which was the chief +Means of his Condemnation: To most of our Changes he was that _within_ +the House, which _Cromwell_ was _without_. His great Zeal to drive +all into War, and to the highest, and to cherish the Sectaries, and +especially in the Army, made him above all Men to be valued by that +Party ... When Cromwell had served himself by him as his surest +Friend, as long as he could; and gone as far with him as their way lay +together, (_Vane_ being for a Fanatick Democracie, and _Cromwell_ for +Monarchy) at last there was no Remedy but they must part; and when +_Cromwell_ cast out the Rump (as disdainfully as Men do Excrements) +he called _Vane_ a Jugler' (_Reliquiæ Baxterianæ_, Lib. I, Part I, p. +75). This account occurs in Baxter's description of the sectaries who +were named after him 'Vanists'. + +Clarendon and Baxter both lay stress on the element of the fanatic +in Vane's nature; and in a later section of the _History_ Clarendon +speaks of it emphatically: ... 'Vane being a man not to be described +by any character of religion; in which he had swallowed some of the +fancies and extravagances of every sect or faction, and was become +(which cannot be expressed by any other language than was peculiar to +that time) _a man above ordinances_, unlimited and unrestrained by any +rules or bounds prescribed to other men, by reason of his perfection. +He was a perfect enthusiast, and without doubt did believe himself +inspired' (vol. vi, p. 148). + +Milton's sonnet, to Vane 'young in yeares, but in sage counsell old' +gives no suggestion of the fanatic: + + besides to know + Both spirituall powre & civill, what each meanes + What severs each thou 'hast learnt, which few have don. + The bounds of either sword to thee wee ow. + Therfore on thy firme hand religion leanes + In peace, & reck'ns thee her eldest son. + +There was much in Vane's views about Church and State with which +Milton sympathized; and the sonnet was written in 1652, before +Cromwell broke with Vane. + +See also Pepys's _Diary_, June 14, 1662, and Burnet's _History of His +Own Time_, ed. Osmund Airy, vol. i, pp. 284-6. + +Page 150, ll. 13, 14. _Magdalen College_, a mistake for Magdalen Hall, +of which Vane was a Gentleman Commoner; but he did not matriculate. +See Wood's _Athenæ Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. iii, col. 578. + +l. 17. He returned to England in 1632; he had been in the train of the +English ambassador at Vienna. + +ll. 25 ff. He transported himself into New England in 1635. He was +chosen Governor of Massachusetts in March 1636 and held the post +for one year, being defeated at the next election. He retransported +himself into England in August 1637. + +Page 151, ll. 27-9. 'In New Hampshire and at Rhode Island. The grant +by the Earl of Warwick as the Governor of the King's Plantations in +America of a charter for Providence, &c., Rhode Island, is dated March +14, 164-3/4; _Calendar of Colonial State Papers_, 1574-1660, p. 325. +The code of laws adopted there in 1647 declares "sith our charter +gives us power to govern ourselves ... the form of government +established in Providence plantations is democratical." _Collections +of the Massachusetts Hist. Soc._, second series, vol. vii, p. +79.'--Note by Macray. + +Page 152, ll. 2, 3. He married Frances, daughter of Sir Christopher +Wray, of Ashby, Lincolnshire. + +ll. 5, 6. He was made joint Treasurer of the Navy in January 1639, and +was dismissed in December 1641. + +ll. 10 ff. Strafford was created Baron of Raby in 1640. At the +conclusion of Book VI Clarendon says that the elder Vane's 'malice to +the Earl of Strafford (who had unwisely provoked him, wantonly and out +of contempt) transported him to all imaginable thoughts of revenge'. +Cf. p. 63, l. 25. + + +42. + +Clarendon, MS. History, p. 486 (first paragraph) and Life, p. 249 +(second paragraph); _History_, Bk. VII, ed. 1703, vol. ii, p. 292; ed. +Macray, vol. iii, pp. 216-17. + +Clarendon added the first paragraph in the margin of the manuscript +of his earlier work when he dovetailed the two works to form the +_History_ in its final form. + +Page 152, l. 27. _this Covenant_, the Solemn League and Covenant, +which passed both Houses on September 18, 1643: 'the battle of Newbery +being in that time likewise over (which cleared and removed more +doubts than the Assembly had done), it stuck very few hours with both +Houses; but being at once judged convenient and lawful, the Lords and +Commons and their Assembly of Divines met together at the church, +with great solemnity, to take it, on the five and twentieth day of +September' (Clarendon, vol. iii, p. 205). + + +43. + +Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, Governor of Nottingham +Castle and Town ... Written by His Widow Lucy, Daughter of Sir Allen +Apsley, Lieutenant of the Tower, &c. Now first published from the +original manuscript by the Rev. Julius Hutchinson ... London: 1806. +(pp. 4-6.) + +The original manuscript has disappeared, and the edition of 1806 is +the only authoritative text. It has been many times reprinted. It was +edited with introduction, notes, and appendices by C.H. Firth in 1885 +(new edition, 1906). + +The Memoirs as a whole are the best picture we possess of a puritan +soldier and household of the seventeenth century. They were written by +his widow as a consolation to herself and for the instruction of +her children. To 'such of you as have not seene him to remember his +person', she leaves, by way of introduction, 'His Description.' It is +this passage which is here reprinted. + + +44, 45, 46, 47, 48. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 212-15; _History_, Bk. VI, ed. 1703, vol. ii, +pp. 158-62; ed. Macray, vol. ii, pp. 541-8. + +These five characters of Parliamentary peers follow one another at +the conclusion of Clarendon's sixth book, and are part of his 'view +of those persons who were of the King's Council, and had deserted his +service, and stayed in the Parliament to support the rebellion'. +A short passage on the Earl of Holland, between the characters of +Warwick and Manchester, is omitted. + +Taken as a group, they are yet another proof of Clarendon's skill in +portraiture. Each character is clearly distinguished. + +Page 159, ll. 7-10. His grandfather was William Cecil (1520-98), Lord +Burghley, the great minister of Elizabeth; his father was Robert Cecil +(1563-1612), created Earl of Salisbury, 1605, Secretary of State at +the accession of James. + +Page 160, l. 9. He was member for King's Lynn in 1649, and +Hertfordshire in 1654 and 1656. + +ll. 13-16. _Hic egregiis_, &c. Seneca, _De Beneficiis_, iv, cap. 30. + +Page 161, ll. 3-19. 'Clarendon's view that Warwick was a jovial +hypocrite is scarcely borne out by other contemporary evidence. The +"jollity and good humour" which he mentions are indeed confirmed. "He +was one of the most best-natured and cheerfullest persons I have in +my time met with," writes his pious daughter-in-law (_Autobiography +of Lady Warwick_, ed. Croker, p. 27). Edmund Calamy, however, in his +sermon at Warwick's funeral, enlarges on his zeal for religion; and +Warwick's public conduct during all the later part of his career is +perfectly consistent with Calamy's account of his private life (_A +Pattern for All, especially for Noble Persons_, &c., 1658, 410, pp. +34-9).'--C.H. Firth, in the _Dictionary of National Biography_. + +l. 13. _Randevooze_ (or _-vouze_, or _-vouce_, or _-vowes_) is a +normal spelling of _Rendezvous_ in the seventeenth century. The words +had been introduced into English by the reign of Elizabeth. + +ll. 20-2. The proceedings are described at some length by Clarendon, +vol. ii, pp. 19-22, 216-23. Warwick was appointed Admiral by the +Parliament on July 1, 1642. + +l. 23. The expulsion of the Long Parliament on April 20, 1653. A +thorough examination of all the authorities for the story of the +expulsion will be found in two articles by C.H. Firth in _History_, +October 1917 and January 1918. + +ll. 24-5. Robert Rich, his grandson, married Frances, Cromwell's +youngest daughter, in November 1657, but died in the following +February, aged 23. See _Thurloe's State Papers_, vol. vi, p. 573. + +Page 162, l. 11. _in Spayne_, on the occasion of the proposed Spanish +match. + +ll. 22-3. He resigned his generalship on April 2, 1645, the day before +the Self-Denying Ordinance was passed. + +ll. 24 ff. His first wife was Buckingham's cousin, their mothers +being sisters. He married his second wife in 1626, before Buckingham's +death. He was five times married. + +Page 163, l. 11. _his father_, Henry Montagu (1563-1642), created +Baron Montagu of Kimbolton and Viscount Mandeville, 1620, and Earl of +Manchester, 1628. By the favour of Buckingham he had been made Lord +Treasurer in 1620, but within a year was deprived of the office and +'reduced to the empty title of President of the Council'; see the +character (on the whole favourable) by Clarendon, vol. i, pp. 67-9. + +l. 12. Manchester and Warwick are described by Clarendon as 'the two +pillars of the Presbyterian party' (vol. iv, p. 245). + +Page 164, l. 16. He was accused with the five members of the House of +Commons, January 3, 1642. Cf. p. 123, l. 5. + +l. 26. Elsewhere Clarendon says that Manchester 'was known to have all +the prejudice imaginable against Cromwell' (vol. iv, p. 245). He lived +in retirement during the Commonwealth, but returned to public life at +the Restoration, when he was made Lord Chamberlain. + +This character may be compared with Clarendon's other character of +Manchester, vol. i, pp. 242-3, and with the character in Warwick's +_Mémoires_, pp. 246-7. Burnet, speaking of him in his later years, +describes him as 'A man of a soft and obliging temper, of no great +depth, but universally beloved, being both a vertuous and a generous +man'. + +Page 165, ll. 6-9. See Clarendon, vol. i, p. 259. + +l. ii. _that unhappy kingdome_. This was written in France. + +ll. 20-5. Antony à Wood did not share Clarendon's scepticism about +Say's descent, though he shared his dislike of Say himself: see +_Athenæ Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. in, col. 546. + +Page 166, ll. 25 ff. See Clarendon, ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 333-5. Cf. +note p. 134, l. 3. After the King's execution he took little part in +public affairs, but at the Restoration he managed to be made a Privy +Councillor and Lord Privy Seal. + +Clarendon has another and shorter character of Say, which supplements +the character here given, and deals mainly with his ecclesiastical +politics (vol. i, p. 241). He was thought to be the only member of the +Independent party in the House of Peers (vol. iii, p. 507). + +Arthur Wilson gives short characters of Essex, Warwick, and Say: +'_Saye_ and _Seale_ was a seriously subtil _Peece_, and alwayes averse +to the Court wayes, something out of pertinatiousnesse; his _Temper_ +and _Constitution_ ballancing him altogether on that _Side_, which +was contrary to the _Wind_; so that he seldome tackt about or went +upright, though he kept his _Course_ steady in his owne way a long +time: yet it appeared afterwards, when the harshnesse of the humour +was a little allayed by the sweet _Refreshments_ of Court favours, +that those sterne _Comportments_ supposed _naturall_, might be +mitigated, and that indomitable Spirits by gentle usage may be tamed +and brought to obedience' (_Reign of King James I_, p. 162). + + +49. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 48-9: _Life_, ed. 1759, p. 16. + +This and the four following characters of men of learning and letters +are taken from the early section of the _Life_ where Clarendon proudly +records his friendships and conversation with 'the most excellent men +in their several kinds that lived in that age, by whose learning and +information and instruction he formed his studies, and mended his +understanding, and by whose gentleness and sweetness of behaviour, +and justice, and virtue, and example, he formed his manners.' The +characters of Jonson, Falkland, and Godolphin which belong to the same +section have already been given. + +Page 167, l. 27. _his conversation_, fortunately represented for us in +his _Table-Talk_, a collection of the 'excellent things that usually +fell from him', made by his amanuensis Richard Milward, and published +in 1689. + +Page 168, l. 3. _M'r Hyde_, i.e. Clarendon himself. + +l. 5. _Seldence_, a phonetic spelling, showing Clarendon's haste in +composition. + +l.10. Selden was member for Oxford during the Long Parliament. + +ll. 15, 16. Compare Clarendon's _History_, vol. ii, p. 114: 'he had +for many years enjoyed his ease, which he loved, was rich, and would +not have made a journey to York, or have lain out of his own bed, for +any preferment, which he had never affected. Compare also Aubrey's +_Brief Lives_, ed. A. Clark, vol. ii, p. 224: 'He was wont to say +"I'le keepe myselfe warme and moyst as long as I live, for I shall be +cold and dry when I am dead ".' + + +50. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 57; _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 26-7. + +Izaak Walton included a short character of Earle in his _Life of +Hooker_, published in the year of Earle's death: 'Dr. Earle, now Lord +Bishop of Salisbury, of whom I may justly say, (and let it not offend +him, because it is such a trifle as ought not to be concealed from +posterity, or those that now live, and yet know him not,) that since +Mr. Hooker died, none have lived whom God hath blessed with more +innocent wisdom, more sanctified learning, or a more pious, peaceable, +primitive temper: so that this excellent person seems to be only like +himself, and our venerable Richard Hooker.' + +See also _Athenæ Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. iii, cols. 716-9. + +Page 168, l. 25. _Earle of Pembroke_, the fourth Earl, Lord +Chamberlain 1626-1641: see p. 4, l. 30, note. + +Page 169, l. 3. _Proctour_, in 1631. The 'very witty and sharpe +discourses' are his _Micro-cosmographie_, first published anonymously +in 1628. + +l. 23. Compare p. 72, ll. 29 ff., and p. 90, ll. 21 ff. + +l. 28. He was made chaplain and tutor to Prince Charles in 1641. His +'lodginge in the court' as chaplain to the Lord Chamberlain had made +him known to the king. + + +51. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 57-8; _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 27-8. + +'The Ever Memorable Mr. John Hales, of Eaton-Colledge', as he is +called on the title-page of his _Golden Remains_, published in 1659 +(second impression, 1673), is probably best known now by his remark +'That there was no subject of which any Poet ever writ, but he would +produce it much better treated of in Shakespeare'. This remark was +first given in print in Dryden's essay _Of Dramatick Poesie_, 1668, +and was repeated in varying forms in Nahum Tate's Dedication to the +_Loyal General_, 1680, Charles Gildon's _Reflections on Mr. Rymer's +Short View of Tragedy_, 1694, and Nicholas Rowe's _Account of the +Life of Shakespear_, 1709. But it had apparently been made somewhere +between 1633 and 1637 in the company of Lord Falkland. It is the one +gem that survives of this retired student's 'very open and pleasant +conversation'. + +Clarendon's portrait explains the honour and affection in which the +'ever memorable' but now little known scholar was held by all his +friends. The best companion to it is the life by Wood, _Athenæ +Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. iv, cols. 409-15. See also John Pearson's +preface to _Golden Remains_. + +Page 170, ll. 10 ff. Hales was elected Fellow of Merton College in +1605, and Regius Professor of Greek in 1615. His thirty-two letters to +Sir Dudley Carlton (cf. p. 58, l. 20) reporting the proceedings of the +Synod of Dort, run from November 24, 1618, to February 7, 1619, and +are included in his _Golden Remains_. On his return to England in 1619 +he withdrew to his fellowship at Eton. + +Sir Henry Savile's monumental edition of the Greek text of St. +Chrysostom, in eight large folio volumes, was published at Eton, +1610-12. Savile was an imperious scholar, but when Clarendon says +that Hales 'had borne all the labour' of this great edition, he can +only mean that Hales had given his assistance at all stages of its +production. In Brodrick's _Memorials of Merton College_, p. 70, it is +stated that Hales was voted an allowance for the help he had given. +Savile was appointed Warden of Merton in 1585 and Provost of Eton in +1596, and continued to hold both posts at the same time till his death +in 1622. + +Page 171, ll. 8-12. Compare the verse epistle in Suckling's _Fragmenta +Aurea_, which was manifestly addressed to Hales, though his name is +not given (ed. 1648, pp. 34-5): + + Whether these lines do find you out, + Putting or clearing of a doubt; + ... know 'tis decreed + You straight bestride the Colledge Steed ... + And come to Town; 'tis fit you show + Your self abroad, that men may know + (What e're some learned men have guest) + That Oracles are not yet ceas't ... + News in one day as much w' have here + As serves all Windsor for a year. + +In Suckling's _Sessions of the Poets_, 'Hales set by himselfe most +gravely did smile'. + +ll. 14 ff. Compare the story told by Wood: 'When he was Bursar of his +Coll. and had received bad money, he would lay it aside, and put good +of his own in the room of it to pay to others. Insomuch that sometimes +he has thrown into the River 20 and 30_l_. at a time. All which he +hath stood to, to the loss of himself, rather than others of the +Society should be endamaged.' + +l. 19. Reduced to penury by the Civil Wars, Hales was 'forced to sell +the best part of his most admirable Library (which cost him 2500_l_.) +to Cornelius Bee of London, Bookseller, for 700_l_. only'. But Wood +also says that he might be styled 'a walking Library'. Another account +of his penury and the sale of his library is found in John Walker's +_Sufferings of the Clergy_, 1714, Part II, p. 94. + +l. 24. _syded_, i.e. stood by the side of, equalled, rivalled. + +Page 173, ll. 1 ff. His _Tract concerning Schisme and Schismaticks_ +was published in 1642, and was frequently reissued. It was written +apparently about 1636, and certainly before 1639. He was installed as +canon of Windsor on June 27, 1639. + + +52. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 58-9; _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 28-30. + +Clarendon clearly enjoyed writing this character of Chillingworth. The +shrewd observation is tempered by subdued humour. Looking back on his +friendship at a distance of twenty years, he felt an amused pleasure +in the disputatiousness which could be irritating, the intellectual +vanity, the irresolution that came from too great subtlety. +Chillingworth was always 'his own convert'; 'his only unhappiness +proceeded from his sleeping too little and thinking too much'. But +Clarendon knew the solid merits of _The Religion of Protestants_ +(_History_, vol. i, p. 95); and he felt bitterly the cruel +circumstances of his death. + +Page 174, ll. 17-19. Compare the character of Godolphin, p. 96, ll. 1 +ff. + +Page 176, l. 14. _the Adversary_, Edward Knott (1582-1656), Jesuit +controversialist. + +l. 29. _Lugar_, John Lewgar (1602-1665): see Wood's _Athenæ +Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. iii, cols. 696-7. + +Page 177, l. 24. This Engine is described in the narrative of the +siege of Gloucester in Rushworth's _Historical Collections_, ed. 1692, +Part III, vol. ii, p. 290: 'The King's Forces, by the Directions of +Dr. _Chillingworth_, had provided certain Engines, after the manner of +the Roman _Testudines cum Pluteis_, wherewith they intended to Assault +the City between the South and West Gates; They ran upon Cart-Wheels, +with a _Blind_ of Planks Musquet-proof, and holes for four Musqueteers +to play out of, placed upon the Axle-tree to defend the Musqueteers +and those that thrust it forwards, and carrying a Bridge before it; +the Wheels were to fall into the Ditch, and the end of the Bridge to +rest upon the Towns Breastworks, so making several compleat Bridges to +enter the City. To prevent which, the Besieged intended to have made +another Ditch out of their Works, so that the Wheels falling therein, +the Bridge would have fallen too short of their Breastworks into their +wet Mote, and so frustrated that Design.' + +ll. 26 ff. Hopton took Arundel Castle on December 9, 1643, and was +forced to surrender on January 6 (Clarendon, vol. iii, pp. 330-5). +Aubrey says that Chillingworth 'dyed of the _morbus castrensis_ after +the taking of Arundel castle by the parliament: wherin he was very +much blamed by the king's soldiers for his advice in military affaires +there, and they curst _that little priest_ and imputed the losse of +the castle to his advice'. (_Brief Lives_, ed. A. Clark, vol. i, p. +172). The chief actor in the final persecution was Francis Cheynell +(1608-65), afterwards intruded President of St. John's College +and Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford; see his +_Chillingworthi Novissima. Or, the Sicknesse, Heresy, Death, and +Buriall of William Chillingworth (In his own phrase) Clerk of Oxford, +and in the conceit of his fellow Souldiers, the Queens Arch-Engineer, +and Grand-Intelligencer_, 1644. + + +53. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 55; _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 24, 25. + +Weakness of character disguised by ready wit, pleasant discourse, +and charm of manner is Clarendon's judgement on Waller. They had +been friends in their early days when Waller was little more than +an opulent poet who could make a good speech in parliament; but his +behaviour on the discovery of 'Waller's plot', the purpose of which +was to hold the city for the king, his inefficiency in any action +but what was directed to his own safety and advancement, and his +subsequent relations with Cromwell, definitely estranged them. +To Clarendon, Waller is the time-server whose pleasing arts are +transparent. 'His company was acceptable, where his spirit was +odious.' The censure was the more severe because of the part which +Waller had just played at Clarendon's fall. The portrait may be +overdrawn; but there is ample evidence from other sources to confirm +its essential truth. + +Burnet says that '_Waller_ was the delight of the House: And even at +eighty he said the liveliest things of any among them: He was only +concerned to say that which should make him be applauded. But he never +laid the business of the House to heart, being a vain and empty, tho' +a witty, man' (_History of His Own Time_, ed. 1724, vol. i, p. 388). +He is described by Aubrey, _Brief Lives_, ed. A. Clark, vol. ii, pp. +276-7. + +Clarendon's character was included by Johnson in his _Life of Waller_, +with a few comments. Page 179, l. 1. _a very rich wife_, Anne, only +daughter of John Bankes, mercer; married 1631, died 1634. 'The fortune +which Waller inherited from his father, which must have been largely +increased during his long minority, has been variously estimated +at from £2,000 to £3,500 a year; adding to this the amount which +he received with Miss Bankes, said to have been about £8,000, and +allowing for the difference in the value of the money, it appears +probable that, with the exception of Rogers, the history of English +literature can show no richer poet' (_Poems of Waller_, ed. Thorn +Drury, vol. i, p. xx). + +l. 4. _M'r Crofts_, William Crofts (1611-77), created Baron Crofts of +Saxham in 1658 at Brussels. He was captain of Queen Henrietta Maria's +Guards. + +l. 6. _D'r Marly_. See p. 92, l. 21, note. + +ll. 10-14. Waller's poems were first published in 1645, when Waller +was abroad. But they had been known in manuscript. They appear to +have first come to the notice of Clarendon when Waller was introduced +to the brilliant society of which Falkland was the centre. If the +introduction took place, as is probable, about 1635, this is the +explanation of Clarendon's 'neere thirty yeeres of age'. But some of +his poems must have been written much earlier. What is presumably +his earliest piece, on the escape of Prince Charles from shipwreck +at Santander on his return from Spain in 1623, was probably written +shortly after the event it describes, though like other of his early +pieces it shows, as Johnson pointed out, traces of revision. + +l. 21. _nurced in Parliaments_. He entered Parliament in 1621, at the +age of sixteen, as member for Amersham. See _Poems_, ed. Drury, vol. +i. p. xvii. + +Page 180, l. 5. The great instance of his wit is his reply to Charles +II, when asked why his Congratulation 'To the King, upon his Majesty's +happy Return' was inferior to his Panegyric 'Upon the Death of the +Lord Protector'--'Poets, Sir, succeed better in fiction than in truth' +(quoted from _Menagiana_ in Fenton's 'Observations on Waller's Poems', +and given by Johnson). See _Lives of the Poets_, ed. G.B. Hill, vol. +i, p. 271. + + +54. + +Brief View and Survey of the Dangerous and pernicious Errors to Church +and State, In Mr. Hobbes's Book, Entitled Leviathan. By Edward Earl of +Clarendon. Oxford, 1676. (pp. 2-3.) + +It is a misfortune that Clarendon did not write a character of Hobbes, +and, more than this, that there is no character of Hobbes by any one +which corresponds in kind to the other characters in this collection. +But in answering the _Leviathan_, Clarendon thought it well to state +by way of introduction that he was on friendly terms with the author, +and the passage here quoted from his account of their relations is in +effect a character. He condemned Hobbes's political theories; 'Yet I +do hope', he says, 'nothing hath fallen from my Pen, which implies the +least undervaluing of Mr. _Hobbes_ his Person, or his Parts.' + +Page 181, l. 21. _ha's_, a common spelling at this time and earlier, +on the false assumption that _has_ was a contraction of _haves_. + + +55. + +Bodleian Library, MS. Aubrey 9, foll. 34-7, 41, 42, 46-7. + +The text of these notes on Hobbes is taken direct from Aubrey's +manuscript, now in the Bodleian Library. The complete life is printed +in _Brief Lives by John Aubrey_, edited by Andrew Clark, 1898, vol. i, +pp. 321-403. + +Aubrey collected most of his biographical notes, to which he gave the +title '[Greek: Schediasmata.] Brief Lives', in order to help Anthony à +Wood in the compilation of his _Athenæ Oxonienses_. 'I have, according +to your desire', he wrote to Wood in 1680, 'putt in writing these +minutes of lives tumultuarily, as they occur'd to my thoughts or as +occasionally I had information of them.... 'Tis a taske that I never +thought to have undertaken till you imposed it upon me.' Independently +of Wood, Aubrey had collected material for a life of Hobbes, in +accordance with a promise he had made to Hobbes himself. All his +manuscript notes were submitted to Wood, who made good use of them. +On their return Aubrey deposited them in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, +the library of which is now merged in the Bodleian. + +The notes were written 'tumultuarily', jotted down hastily, and as +hastily added to, altered, and transposed. They are a first draft for +the fair copy which was never made. The difficulty of giving a true +representation of them in print is increased by Aubrey's habit of +inserting above the line alternatives to words or phrases without +deleting the original words or even indicating his preference. In the +present text the later form has, as a rule, been adopted, the other +being given in a footnote. + +'The Life of Mr. Thomas Hobbes, of Malmesburie' is by far the longest +of Aubrey's 'Brief Lives', but it does not differ from the others +in manner. The passages selected may be regarded as notes for a +character. + +Page 183, ll. 1 ff. Aubrey is a little more precise in his notes +on Bacon. 'Mr. Thomas Hobbes told me ... that he was employed in +translating part of the Essayes, viz. three of them, one whereof was +that of the Greatnesse of Cities, the other two I have now forgott' +(ed. A. Clark, vol. i, p. 83). On the evidence of style, Aldis Wright +thought that the other two essays translated by Hobbes were 'Of +Simulation and Dissimulation' and 'Of Innovation': see the preface to +his edition of _Bacon's Essays_, 1862, pp. xix, xx. The translation +appeared in 1638 under the title _Sermones fideles, sive interiora +rerum_. + +l. 4. Gorhambury was Bacon's residence in Hertfordshire, near St. +Alban's, inherited from his father. Aubrey described it in a long +digression 'for the sake of the lovers of antiquity', ed. Clark, vol. +i, pp. 79-84, and p. 19. + +l. 5. Thomas Bushell (1594-1674), afterwards distinguished as a mining +engineer and metallurgist: see his life in the _Dictionary of National +Biography_. + +Page 185, l. 2. (_i._) or _i._, a common form at this time for _i.e._ + +l. 20. Henry Lawes (1596-1662), who wrote the music for _Comus_, and +to whom Milton addressed one of his sonnets: + + _Harry_ whose tuneful and well measur'd Song + First taught our English Musick how to span + Words with just note and accent,... + To after age thou shalt be writ the man, + That with smooth aire couldst humor best our tongue. + +This sonnet was prefixed to Lawes's _Choice Psalmes_ in 1648; his +_Ayres and Dialogues for One, Two, and Three Voices_ appeared in three +books from 1653 to 1658. + + +56. + +The Life of That Reverend Divine, and Learned Historian, Dr. Thomas +Fuller. London, 1661. (pp. 66-77.) + +This work was twice reissued with new title-pages at Oxford in 1662, +and was for the first time reprinted in 1845 by way of introduction to +J.S. Brewer's edition of Fuller's _Church History_. It is the basis of +all subsequent lives of Fuller. But the author is unknown. + +The passage here quoted from the concluding section of this _Life_ is +the only contemporary sketch of Fuller's person and character that is +now known. Aubrey's description is a mere note, and is considerably +later: 'He was of a middle stature; strong sett; curled haire; a very +working head, in so much that, walking and meditating before dinner, +he would eate-up a penny loafe, not knowing that he did it. His +naturall memorie was very great, to which he had added the _art of +memorie_: he would repeate to you forwards and backwards all the +signes from Ludgate to Charing-crosse' (ed. A. Clark, vol. i, p. 257). + +Page 187, l. 20. _a perfect walking Library_, Compare p. 171, l. 19, +note. + +Page 191, ll. 3 ff. Compare Aubrey. But Fuller disclaimed the use of +an art of memory. 'Artificiall memory', he said, 'is rather a trick +then an art.' He condemned the 'artificiall rules which at this day +are delivered by Memory-mountebanks'. His great rule was 'Marshall thy +notions into a handsome method'. See his section 'Of Memory' in his +_Holy State_, 1642, Bk. III, ch. 10; and compare J.E. Bailey, _Life of +Thomas Fuller_, 1874, pp. 413-15. + + +57. + +Bodleian Library, MS. Aubrey 8 foll. 63, 63 v, 68. + +The text is taken direct from Aubrey's manuscript, such contractions +as 'X'ts coll:' and 'da:' for daughter being expanded. For the +complete life, see _Brief Lives_, ed. A. Clark, vol. ii, pp. 62-72. + +There is no character of Milton. We have again to be content with +notes for a character. + +Page 192, l. 7. Christ's College, Cambridge, which Milton entered in +February 1625, aged sixteen. + +ll. 15-18. Milton had three daughters, by his first wife--Anne, Mary, +and Deborah. Mary died unmarried. Deborah's husband, Abraham Clarke, +left Dublin for London during the troubles in Ireland under James II: +see Masson's _Life of Milton_, vol. vi, p. 751. He is described by +Johnson as a 'weaver in Spitalfields': see _Lives of the Poets_, ed. +G.B. Hill, vol. i, pp. 158-60. + +Page 193, ll. 2-4. _Litera Canina_. See Persius, _Sat_. i. 109 +'Sonat hic de nare canina littera'; and compare Ben Jonson, _English +Grammar_, '_R_ Is the _Dogs_ Letter, and hurreth in the sound.' + +ll. 11, 12. But the Comte de Cominges, French Ambassador to England, +1662-5, in his report to Louis XIV on the state of literature in +England, spoke of 'un nommé Miltonius qui s'est rendu plus infâme par +ses dangereux écrits que les bourreaux et les assassins de leur roi'. +This was written in 1663, and Cominges knew only Milton's Latin works. +See J.J. Jusserand, _A French Ambassador at the Court of Charles the +Second_, 1892, p. 58, and _Shakespeare en France_, 1898, p. 107. + +l. 19. _In toto nusquam_. Ovid, _Amores_, i. 5. 18. + +Page 194, l. 4. Milton died November 8: see Masson, _Life of Milton_, +vol. vi, p. 731. + + +58. + +Letters of State, Written by Mr. John Milton, To most of the Sovereign +Princes and Republicks of Europe. From the Year 1649 Till the Year +1659. To which is added, An Account of his Life.... London: Printed in +the Year, 1694. (p. xxxvi.) + +'The Life of Mr. John Milton' (pp. i-xliv) serves as introduction to +this little volume of State Papers. It is the first life of Milton. +Edward Phillips (1630-96) was the son of Milton's sister, and was +educated by him. Unfortunately he failed to take proper advantage of +his great opportunity. The Life is valuable for some of its details, +but as a whole it is disappointing; and it makes no attempt at +characterization. The note on Milton in his _Theatrum Poetarum, or a +Compleat Collection of the Poets_, 1675, is also disappointing. + + +59. + +Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton's Paradise Lost. By J. +Richardson, Father and Son. With the Life of the Author, and a +Discourse on the Poem. By J.R. Sen. London: M.DCC.XXXIV. (pp. iii-v; +xciv; c; cxiv.) + +Jonathan Richardson (1665-1745) was one of the chief portrait-painters +of his time. There are portraits by him of Pope, Steele, and +Prior--all now in the National Portrait Gallery; and his writings on +painting were standard works till the time of Reynolds. His book on +Milton was an excursion late in life, with the assistance of his son, +into another field of criticism. His introductory life of Milton +(pp. i-cxliii) is a substantial piece of work, and is valuable as +containing several anecdotes that might otherwise have been lost. +Those that bear on Milton's character are here reproduced. The +typographical eccentricities have been preserved. + +Page 194, ll. 28 ff. Edward Millington's place of business was 'at the +Pelican in Duck Lane' in 1670; from Michaelmas, 1671, it was 'at the +Bible in Little Britain' (see Arber's _Term Catalogues_, vol. i, pp. +31, 93). It was about 1680 that he turned auctioneer of books, though +he did not wholly abandon publishing. 'There was usually as much +Comedy in his "Once, Twice, Thrice", as can be met with in a modern +Play.' See the _Life and Errors of John Dunton_, ed. 1818, pp. 235-6. +He died at Cambridge in 1703. + +Page 196, l. 4. Dr. Tancred Robinson (d. 1748), physician to George I, +and knighted by him. + +l. 10. Henry Bendish (d. 1740), son of Bridget Ireton or Bendish, +Cromwell's granddaughter: see _Letters of John Hughes_, ed. John +Duncombe, vol. ii (1773), pp. x, xlii. + +l. 14. John Thurloe (1616-68), Secretary of State under Cromwell. +Compare No. 38 note. + +l. 25. 'Easy my unpremeditated verse', _Paradise Lost_, ix. 24. + + +60. + +The Works of M'r Abraham Cowley. Consisting of Those which were +formerly Printed: and Those which he Design'd for the Press, Now +Published out of the Authors Original Copies. London, 1668.--'Several +Discourses by way of Essays, in Verse and Prose,' No. II. (pp. 143-6.) + +Cowley's Essays were written towards the close of his life. They were +'left scarce finish'd', and many others were to have been added to +them. They were first published posthumously in the collected edition +of 1668, under the superintendence of Thomas Sprat (see No. 61). +This edition, which alone is authoritative, has been followed in the +present reprint of the eleventh and last Essay, probably written at +the beginning of 1667. + +Page 198, l. 1. _at School_, Westminster. + +ll. 19 ff. The concluding stanzas of 'A Vote', printed in Cowley's +_Sylva_, 1636. Cowley was then aged eighteen. The first stanza +contains three new readings, 'The unknown' for 'Th' ignote', 'I would +have' for 'I would hug', and 'Not on' for 'Not from'. + +Page 199, l. 15. _out of Horace_, _Odes_, iii. 29. 41-5. + +Page 200, l. 4. _immediately_. The reading in the text of 1668 is +'irremediably', but 'immediately' is given as the correct reading in +the 'Errata' (printed on a slip that is pasted in at the conclusion of +Cowley's first preface). The edition of 1669 substitutes 'immediately' +in the text. The alteration must be accepted on Sprat's authority, but +it is questionable if it gives a better sense. + +ll. 6-10. Cowley was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, as a +Westminster scholar on June 14, 1637. He was admitted Minor Fellow +in 1640, and graduated M.A. in 1643. He was ejected in the following +year as a result of the Earl of Manchester's commission to enforce the +solemn League and Covenant in Cambridge. See _Cowley's Pure Works_, +ed. J.R. Lumby, pp. ix-xiii, and Johnson's _Lives of the Poets_, ed. +G.B. Hill, vol. i, p. 5. + +ll. 9, 10. _Cedars ... Hyssop_. I Kings, iv. 33. + +l. 12. _one of the best Persons_, Henry Jermyn, created Baron Jermyn, +1643, and Earl of St. Albans, 1660, chief officer of Henrietta Maria's +household in Paris: see Clarendon, vol. iv, p. 312. As secretary +to Jermyn, Cowley 'cyphcr'd and decypher'd with his own hand, the +greatest part of all the Letters that passed between their Majesties, +and managed a vast Intelligence in many other parts: which for some +years together took up all his days, and two or three nights every +week' (Sprat). He told Sprat that he intended to dedicate all his +Essays to St. Albans 'as a testimony of his entire respects to him'. + +Page 201, l. 10. _Well then_. The opening lines of 'The Wish', +included in _The Mistress_, 1647 (ed. 1668, pp. 22-3). + +ll. 14 ff. At the instance of Jermyn, Cowley had been promised by both +Charles I and Charles II the mastership of the Savoy Hospital, but the +post was given in 1660 to Sheldon, and in 1663, on Sheldon's promotion +to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, to Henry Killigrew: see W.J. +Loftie, _Memorials of the Savoy_, 1878, pp. 145 ff., and Wood, _Fasti +Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, part I, col. 494. In the _Calendar of State +Papers_, Domestic Series, 1661-2, p. 210, there is the statement of +the case of Abraham Cowley, 'showing that the place may be held by a +person not a divine, and that Cowley ... having seen all preferments +given away, and his old University companions advanced before him, is +put to great shame by missing this place'. He is called 'Savoy missing +Cowley' in the Restoration _Session of the Poets_, printed in _Poems +on State Affairs_. + +l. 21. _Thou, neither_. In the ode entitled 'Destinie', _Pindarique +Odes_, 1656 (ed. 1668, p. 31, 'That neglected'). + +l. 28. _A Corps perdu_, misprinted _A Corps perdi_, edd. 1668, 1669, +_A Corpus perdi_, 1672, 1674, &c.; _Perdue_, Errata, 1668. + +Page 202, l. 1. St. Luke, xii. 16-21. + +ll. 3-5. 'Out of hast to be gone away from the Tumult and Noyse of the +City, he had not prepar'd so healthful a situation in the Country, as +he might have done, if he had made a more leasurable choice. Of this +he soon began to find the inconvenience at _Barn Elms_, where he was +afflicted with a dangerous and lingring _Fever_.... Shortly after his +removal to _Chertsea_ [April 1665], he fell into another consuming +Disease. Having languish'd under this for some months, he seem'd to +be pretty well cur'd of its ill Symptomes. But in the heat of the last +Summer [1667], by staying too long amongst his Laborers in the Medows, +he was taken with a violent Defluxion, and Stoppage in his Breast, and +Throat. This he at first neglected as an ordinary Cold, and refus'd +to send for his usual Physicians, till it was past all remedies; and +so in the end after a fortnight sickness, it prov'd mortal to him' +(Sprat). In the Latin life prefixed to Cowley's _Poemata Latina_, +1668, Sprat is more specific: 'Initio superioris Anni, inciderat in +_Morbum_, quem Medici _Diabeten_ appellant.' + +l. 6. _Non ego_. Horace, _Odes_, ii. 17. 9, 10. + +ll. 11 ff. _Nec vos_. These late Latin verses may be Cowley's own, but +they are not in his collected Latin poems. Compare Virgil, _Georgics_, +ii. 485-6. 'Syluæq;' = 'Sylvæque': 'q;' was a regular contraction for +_que_: cf. p. 44, l. 6. + + +61. + +The Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley, 1668.--'An Account of the Life and +Writings of M'r Abraham Cowley'. (pp. [18]-[20].) + +Thomas Sprat (1635-1713), author of _The History of the +Royal-Society_, 1667, afterwards Bishop of Rochester, 1684, was +entrusted by Cowley's will with 'the revising of all his Works that +were formerly printed, and the collecting of those Papers which he had +design'd for the Press'; and as literary executor he brought out in +1668 a folio edition of the English works, and an octavo edition of +the Latin works. To both he prefixed a life, one in English and the +other in Latin. The more elaborate English life was written partly in +the hope that 'a Character of Mr. _Cowley_ may be of good advantage to +our Nation'. Unfortunately the ethical bias has injured the biography. +In Johnson's words, 'his zeal of friendship, or ambition of eloquence, +has produced a funeral oration rather than a history: he has given the +character, not the life of Cowley; for he writes with so little detail +that scarcely any thing is distinctly known, but all is shewn confused +and enlarged through the mist of panegyrick.' Similarly Coleridge asks +'What literary man has not regretted the prudery of Sprat in refusing +to let his friend Cowley appear in his slippers and dressing-gown?' +(_Biographia Literaria_, ch. iii). His method is the more to be +regretted as no one knew Cowley better in his later years. His +greatest error of judgement was to suppress his large collection +of Cowley's letters. But with all its faults Sprat's Life of Cowley +occupies an important place at the beginning of English biography of +men of letters. It is the earliest substantial life of a poet whose +reputation rested on his poetry. Fulke Greville's life of Sir Philip +Sidney was the life of a soldier and a statesman of promise; and to +Izaak Walton, Donne was not so much a poet as a great Churchman. + +In the edition of 1668 the life of Cowley runs to twenty-four folio +pages. The passage here selected deals directly with his character. + +Page 203, ll. 25-7. It is evidently the impression of a stranger at +first sight that Aubrey gives in his short note: 'A.C. discoursed very +ill and with hesitation' (ed. A. Clark, vol. i, p. 190). + + +62. + +A Character of King Charles the Second: And Political, Moral and +Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections. By George Savile, Marquis of +Halifax. London: MDCCL. + +Halifax's elaborate and searching account of Charles II was first +published in 1750 'from his original Manuscripts, in the Possession +of his Grand-daughter Dorothy Countess of Burlington'. It consists +of seven parts: I. Of his Religion; II. His Dissimulation; III. His +Amours, Mistresses, &c.; IV. His Conduct to his Ministers; V. Of +his Wit and Conversation; VI. His Talents, Temper, Habits, &c.; VII. +Conclusion. Only the second, fifth, and sixth are given here. The +complete text is reprinted in Sir Walter Raleigh's _Works of Halifax_, +1912, pp. 187-208. + +For other characters of Charles, in addition to the two by Burnet +which follow, see Evelyn's _Diary_, February 4, 1685; Dryden's +dedication of _King Arthur_, 1691; 'A Short Character of King Charles +the II' by John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, Duke of Buckingham, +'Printed from the Original Copy' in _Miscellaneous Works Written by +George, late Duke of Buckingham_, ed. Tho. Brown, vol. ii, 1705, pp. +153-60, and with Pope's emendations in _Works_, 1723, vol. ii, pp. +57-65; and James Welwood's _Memoirs Of the Most Material Transactions +in England, for the Last Hundred Years, Preceding the Revolution_, +1700, pp. 148-53. + +For Halifax himself, see No. 72. + +Page 208, l. 12. An allusion to the Quarrel of the Ancients and +Moderns, which assumed prominence in England with the publication +in 1690 of Sir William Temple's _Essay upon the Ancient and Modern +Learning_. Compare Burnet, p. 223, l. 11 and note. + +PAGE 209, l. 29. _Ruelle_. Under Louis XIV it was the custom for +ladies of fashion to receive morning visitors in their bedrooms; hence +_ruelle_, the passage by the side of a bed, came to mean a ladies' +chamber. Compare _The Spectator_, Nos. 45 and 530. + +Page 211, l. 2. _Tiendro cuydado_, evidently an imperfect recollection +of the phrase _se tendrá cuydado_, 'care will be taken', 'the matter +will have attention': compare _Cortes de Madrid_, 1573, Peticion +96,... 'se tendrá cuidado de proueher en ello lo que conuiniere'. + +Page 212, ll. 7, 8. Compare Pepys's _Diary_, May 4, 1663: 'meeting the +King, we followed him into the Park, where Mr. Coventry and he talking +of building a new yacht out of his private purse, he having some +contrivance of his own'. Also, Evelyn's _Diary_, February 4, 1685: +'a lover of the sea, and skilful in shipping; not affecting other +studies, yet he had a laboratory and knew of many empirical medicines, +and the easier mechanical mathematics.' Also, Buckingham, ed. 1705, +p. 155: 'the great and almost only pleasure of Mind he seem'd addicted +to, was _Shipping_ and _Sea-Affairs_; which seem'd to be so much his +Talent for _Knowledge_, as well as _Inclination_, that a War of that +Kind, was rather an _Entertainment_, than any _Disturbance_ to his +Thoughts.' Also Welwood, _Memoirs_, p. 151. Also, Burnet, _infra_, p. +219. + +Page 213, l. 10. According to Pepys (_Diary_, December 8, 1666), +the distinction between Charles Stuart and the King was drawn by Tom +Killigrew in his remonstrance to Charles on the very ill state that +matters were coming to: 'There is a good, honest, able man, that I +could name, that if your Majesty would employ, and command to see all +things well executed, all things would soon be mended; and this is one +Charles Stuart, who now spends his time in employing his lips about +the Court, and hath no other employment; but if you would give him +this employment, he were the fittest man in the world to perform it.' + +Page 217, ll. 11 ff. Compare Welwood's _Memoirs_, p. 149. + + +63. + +Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. From the Restoration +of King Charles II. to the Settlement of King William and Queen Mary +at the Revolution. London: 1724. (pp. 93-4.) + +Burnet began his _History of His Own Time_ in 1683, after the +publication of his _History of the Reformation_. In its original form +it partook largely of the nature of Memoirs. But on the appearance +of Clarendon's History in 1702 he was prompted to recast his entire +narrative on a method that confined the strictly autobiographical +matter to a section by itself and as a whole assured greater dignity. +The part dealing with the reign of Charles II was rewritten by August +1703. The work was brought down to 1713 and completed in that year. +Two years later Burnet died, leaving instructions that it was not to +be printed till six years after his death. + +The _History_ was published in two folio volumes, dated 1724 and 1734. +The first, which contains the reigns of Charles II and James II, came +out at the end of 1723 and was edited by Burnet's second son, Gilbert +Burnet, then rector of East Barnet. The second volume was edited +by his third son, Thomas Burnet, afterwards a Judge of the Court +of Common Pleas. The complete autograph of the History, and the +transcript which was prepared for the press under the author's +directions, are now both in the Bodleian Library. + +The original form of the work survives in two transcripts (one of them +with Burnet's autograph corrections) in the Harleian collection in +the British Museum, and in a fragment of Burnet's original manuscript +in the Bodleian. The portions of this original version that differ +materially from the final printed version were published in 1902 by +Miss H.C. Foxcroft under the title _A Supplement to Burnet's History_. + +Much of the interest of the earlier version lies in the characters, +which are generally longer than they became on revision, and +sometimes contain details that were suppressed. But in a volume of +representative selections, where the art of a writer is as much our +concern as his matter, the preference must be given to what Burnet +himself intended to be final. The extracts are reprinted from the two +volumes edited by his sons. There was not the same reason to go direct +to his manuscript as to Clarendon's: see notes p. 231, l. 26; p. 252, +l. 10; and p. 255, l. 6. + + +64. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 611-3.) + +Burnet's two characters of Charles II are in striking agreement with +the more elaborate study by Halifax. + +Page 221, ll. 1 ff. Compare Halifax, p. 216, ll. 10 ff. + +l. 14. _his Chancellor_, Clarendon. + +Page 222, l. 16. _he became cruel_. This statement was attacked by +Roger North, _Lives of the Norths_, ed. 1890, vol. i, p. 330: 'whereas +some of our barbarous writers call this awaking of the king's genius +to a sedulity in his affairs, a growing cruel, because some suffered +for notorious treasons, I must interpret their meaning; which is a +distaste, because his majesty was not pleased to be undone as his +father was; and accordingly, since they failed to wound his person and +authority, they fell to wounding his honour.' Buckingham says, 'He was +an Illustrious Exception to all the Common Rules of _Phisiognomy_; for +with a most _Saturnine_ harsh sort of Countenance, he was both of a +_Merry_ and a _Merciful_ Disposition' (ed. 1705, p. 159); with which +compare Welwood, ed. 1700, p. 149. The judicial verdict had already +been pronounced by Halifax: see p. 216, ll. 23 ff. + +ll. 21-3. See Burnet, ed. Osmund Airy, vol. i, p. 539, for the +particular reference. The scandal was widespread, but groundless. + +Page 223, l. 9. _the war of Paris_, the Fronde. See Clarendon, vol. v, +pp. 243-5. + +ll. 11 ff. Compare Buckingham, ed. 1705, p. 157: 'Witty in all +sorts of Conversation; and telling a Story so well, that, not out of +Flattery, but the Pleasure of hearing it, we seem'd Ignorant of what +he had repeated to us Ten Times before; as a good _Comedy_ will bear +the being often seen.' Also Halifax, p. 208, ll. 7-14. + +l. 17. John Wilmot (1647-80), second Earl of Rochester, son of Henry +Wilmot, first Earl (No. 32). Burnet knew him well and wrote his life, +_Some Passages of the Life and Death Of the Right Honourable John Earl +of Rochester_, 1680; 'which', says Johnson, 'the critick ought to read +for its elegance, the philosopher for its arguments, and the saint for +its piety' (_Lives of the Poets_, ed. G.B. Hill, vol. i, p. 222). + +ll. 25 ff. The resemblance to Tiberius was first pointed out in print +in Welwood's _Memoirs_, p. 152, which appeared twenty-four years +before Burnet's _History_. But Welwood was indebted to Burnet. He +writes as if they had talked about it; or he might have seen Burnet's +early manuscript. + + +65. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 94-5.) + +The author of most of the characters in this volume himself deserves a +fuller character. The main portions of Burnet's original sketch (1683) +are therefore given here, partly by way of supplement, and partly to +illustrate the nature of Burnet's revision (1703): + +'The great man with the king was chancellor Hyde, afterwards made Earl +of Clarendon. He had been in the beginning of the long parliament very +high against the judges upon the account of the ship-money and became +then a considerable man; he spake well, his style had no flaw in it, +but had a just mixture of wit and sense, only he spoke too copiously; +he had a great pleasantness in his spirit, which carried him sometimes +too far into raillery, in which he sometimes shewed more wit than +discretion. He went over to the court party when the war was like to +break out, and was much in the late king's councils and confidence +during the war, though he was always of the party that pressed the +king to treat, and so was not in good terms with the queen. The late +king recommended him to this king as the person on whose advices he +wished him to rely most, and he was about the king all the while that +he was beyond sea, except a little that he was ambassador in Spain; he +managed all the king's correspondences in England, both in the little +designs that the cavaliers were sometimes engaged in, and chiefly in +procuring money for the king's subsistence, in which Dr. Sheldon was +very active; he had nothing so much before his eyes as the king's +service and doated on him beyond expression: he had been a sort of +governor to him and had given him many lectures on the politics +and was thought to assume and dictate too much ... But to pursue +Clarendon's character: he was a man that knew England well, and was +lawyer good enough to be an able chancellor, and was certainly a very +incorrupt man. In all the king's foreign negotiations he meddled too +much, for I have been told that he had not a right notion of foreign +matters, but he could not be gained to serve the interests of other +princes. Mr. Fouquet sent him over a present of 10,000 pounds after +the king's restoration and assured him he would renew that every +year, but though both the king and the duke advised him to take it he +very worthily refused it. He took too much upon him and meddled in +everything, which was his greatest error. He fell under the hatred +of most of the cavaliers upon two accounts. The one was the act of +indemnity which cut off all their hopes of repairing themselves of +the estates of those that had been in the rebellion, but he said it +was the offer of the indemnity that brought in the king and it was +the observing of it that must keep him in, so he would never let that +be touched, and many that had been deeply engaged in the late times +having expiated it by their zeal of bringing home the king were +promoted by his means, such as Manchester, Anglesey, Orrery, Ashley, +Holles, and several others. The other thing was that, there being an +infinite number of pretenders to employments and rewards for their +services and sufferings, so that the king could only satisfy some few +of them, he upon that, to stand between the king and the displeasure +which those disappointments had given, spoke slightly of many of them +and took it upon him that their petitions were not granted; and some +of them having procured several warrants from the secretaries for the +same thing (the secretaries considering nothing but their fees), he +who knew on whom the king intended that the grant should fall, took +all upon him, so that those who were disappointed laid the blame +chiefly if not wholly upon him. He was apt to talk very imperiously +and unmercifully, so that his manner of dealing with people was as +provoking as the hard things themselves were; but upon the whole +matter he was a true Englishman and a sincere protestant, and what +has passed at court since his disgrace has sufficiently vindicated him +from all ill designs' (_Supplement_, ed. Foxcroft, pp. 53-6). + +There is a short character of Clarendon in Warwick's _Mémoires_, pp. +196-8; compare also Pepys's _Diary_, October 13, 1666, and Evelyn's +_Diary_, August 27, 1667, and September 18, 1683. + + +66. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 638-9; _Continuation of the Life of Edward +Earl of Clarendon_, ed. 1759, pp. 51-2. + +Page 226, l. 8. He was released from Windsor Castle in March 1660. +Compare Burnet's character, p. 228, ll. 2-4. + +l. 19. _the Chancellour_, i.e. Clarendon himself. + +Page 227, ll. 5 ff. John Middleton (1619-74), created Earl of +Middleton, 1656. He was taken prisoner at Worcester, but escaped to +France. As Lord High Commissioner for Scotland and Commander-in-chief, +he was mainly responsible for the unfortunate methods of forcing +episcopacy on Scotland. + +William Cunningham (1610-64), ninth Earl of Glencairn, Lord Chancellor +of Scotland. + +John Leslie (1630-81), seventh Earl and first Duke of Rothes, +President of the Council in Scotland; Lord Chancellor, 1667. + +On the composition of the ministry in Scotland, compare Burnet, ed. +Osmund Airy, vol. i, pp. 199, ff. + + +67. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 101-2.) + +We are fortunate in having companion characters of Lauderdale by +Clarendon and Burnet. Their point of view is different. Clarendon +describes the Lauderdale of the Restoration who is climbing to power +and is officially his inferior. Burnet looks back on him at the +height of power and remembers how it was made to be felt. But the two +characters have a strong likeness. Burnet is here seen at his best. + +Page 228, ll. 14-17. Compare Roger North's _Lives of the Norths_, ed. +1890, vol. i, p. 231: 'the duke himself, being also learned, having +a choice library, took great pleasure ... in hearing him talk of +languages and criticism'. Compare also Evelyn's _Diary_, August 27, +1678. His library was dispersed by auction--the French, Italian, and +Spanish books on May 14, and the English books on May 27, 1690: copies +of the sale catalogues are in the Bodleian. The catalogue of his +manuscripts, 1692, is printed in the _Bannatyne Miscellany_, vol. ii, +1836, p. 149. + +l. 30. As Professor of Theology in the University of Glasgow Burnet +had enjoyed the favour of Lauderdale, and had dedicated to him, in +fulsome terms, _A Vindication of the Church and State of Scotland_. +The break came suddenly, and with no apparent cause, in 1673, when +Burnet was appointed royal chaplain and was winning the ears of the +King. Henceforward Lauderdale continued a 'violent enemy'. Their +relations at this time are described in Clarke and Foxcroft's _Life of +Gilbert Burnet_, 1907, pp. 109 ff., where Burnet's concluding letter +of December 15, 1673, is printed in full. + +Page 229, ll. 2-7. Richard Baxter delivered himself to Lauderdale in a +long letter about his lapse from his former professions of piety--'so +fallne from all that can be called serious religion, as that +sensuality and complyance with sin is your ordinary course.' The +letter (undated, but before 1672) is printed in _The Landerdale +Papers_, ed. Osmund Airy, Camden Society, vol. iii, 1885, pp. 235-9. + +ll. 8-12. 'The broad and pungent wit, and the brutal _bonhomie_.. +probably went as far as anything else in securing Charles's favour.' +Osmund Airy, Burnet's _History_, vol. i, p. 185. + + +68. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 96-7.) + +Page 230, l. 14. He was chosen for Tewkesbury in March 1640, but he +did not sit in the Long Parliament. + +l. 18, _a town_, Weymouth: see p. 70, l. 21 note. He had been +appointed governor of it in August 1643 after some dispute, but was +shortly afterwards removed (Clarendon, vol. iii, pp. 163-5, 362). + +Page 231, l. 2. Shaftesbury writes about the prediction of 'Doctor +Olivian, a German, a very learned physician', in his autobiographical +fragment: see No. 14 note. + +ll. 14, 15. Compare Burnet's first sketch of Shaftesbury, ed. +Foxcroft, p. 59: 'he told some that Cromwell offered once to make him +king, but he never offered to impose so gross a thing on me.' + +ll. 17, 18. See the Newsletter of December 28, 1654, in _The Clarke +Papers_, ed. C.H. Firth, Camden Society, 1899, p. 16: 'a few daies +since when the House was in a Grand Committee of the whole House upon +the Government, Mr. Garland mooved to have my Lord Protectour crowned, +which mocion was seconded by Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Mr. Hen. +Cromwell, and others, but waved.' + +l. 26. After 'party' Burnet wrote (autograph, fol. 49) 'He had no sort +of virtue: for he was both a leud and corrupt man: and had no regard +either to trueth or Justice.' But he struck out 'no sort ... and had'. +The sentence thus read in the transcript (p. 76) 'He had no regard +either to Truth or Justice'. This in turn was struck out, either by +Burnet himself or by the editor. + +The following words are likewise struck out in the transcript, after +'manner' (l. 28): 'and was not out of countenance in owning his +unsteadiness and deceitfullness.' + + +69. + +Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem ... The Second Edition; Augmented and +Revised. London, 1681. (ll. 142-227.) + +The first edition was published on November 17, 1681, a few days +before Shaftesbury's trial for high treason. In the second, which +appeared within a month, the character of Shaftesbury was 'augmented' +by twelve lines (p. 233, ll. 17-28). + +Shaftesbury had been satirized by Butler in the Third Part of +_Hudibras_, 1678, three years before the crisis in his remarkable +career, and while his schemes still prospered. To Butler he is the +unprincipled turn-coat who thinks only of his own interests: + + So Politick, as if one eye + Upon the other were a Spye;... + H'had seen three Governments Run down, + And had a Hand in ev'ry one, + Was for 'em, and against 'em all. + But Barb'rous when they came to fall:... + By giving aim from side, to side, + He never fail'd to save his Tide, + But got the start of ev'ry State, + And at a Change, ne'r came too late.... + Our _State-Artificer_ foresaw, + Which way the World began to draw:... + He therefore wisely cast about, + All ways he could, t'_insure his Throat_; + And hither came t'observe, and smoke + What Courses other Riscers took: + And to the utmost do his Best + To Save himself, and Hang the Rest. + +(Canto II, ll. 351-420). + +Dryden's satire should be compared with Butler's. But a comparison +with the prose character by Burnet, which had no immediate political +purpose, will reveal even better Dryden's mastery in satirical +portraiture. Another verse character is in _The Review_ by Richard +Duke, written shortly after Dryden's poem. + +Absalom is Monmouth, David Charles II, Israel England, the Jews the +English, and a Jebusite a Romanist. + +Page 232, l. 28. Compare Seneca, _De Tranquillitate Animi_, xvii. 10: +'nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiæ fuit.' + +Page 233, l. 7. The humorous definition of man ascribed to Plato in +Diogenes Laertius, Lib. vi. 40 (Life of Diogenes), [Greek: Platonos +horisamenou, anthropos esti zoon dipoun apteron.] + +The son was a handsomer man than the father, though he did not inherit +his ability. His son, the third earl, was the critic and philosopher +who wrote the _Characteristicks_. + +l. 12. _the Triple Bond_, the alliance of England, Holland, and Sweden +against France in 1667, broken by the war with France against Holland +in 1672. But Shaftesbury then knew nothing of the secret Treaty of +Dover, 1670. + +l. 16. _Usurp'd_, in ed. 1 'Assum'd'. + +l. 25. _Abbethdin_ 'the president of the Jewish judicature', 'the +father of the house of judgement'. Shaftesbury was Lord Chancellor, +1672-3. + +Page 234, l. 4. David would have sung his praises instead of writing a +psalm, and so Heaven would have had one psalm the less. + +ll. 5, 6. Macaulay pointed out in his essay on Sir William Temple +that these lines are a reminiscence of a couplet under the portrait of +Sultan Mustapha the First in Knolles's _Historie of the Turkes_ (ed. +1638, p. 1370): + + Greatnesse, on Goodnesse loues to slide, not stand, + and leaues for Fortunes ice, Vertues firm land. + +l. 15. The alleged Popish Plot, invented by Titus Oates, to murder the +king and put the government in the hands of the Jesuits. Shaftesbury +had no share in the invention, but he believed it, and made political +use of it. + +Page 235, l. 4. This line reappears in _The Hind and the Panther_, +Part I, l. 211. As W.D. Christie pointed out, it is a reminiscence +of a couplet in _Lachrymæ Musarum_, 1649, the volume to which +Dryden contributed his school-boy verses 'Upon the Death of the Lord +Hastings': + + It is decreed, we must be drain'd (I see) + Down to the dregs of a _Democracie_. + +This is the opening couplet of the English poem preceding Dryden's, +and signed 'M.N.' i.e. Marchamont Needham (p. 81). + + +70. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (p. 100.) + +'The portrait of this Duke has been drawn by four masterly hands: +Burnet has hewn it out with his rough chissel; Count Hamilton touched +it with that slight delicacy, that finishes while it seems but to +sketch; Dryden catched the living likeness; Pope compleated the +historical resemblance.'--Horace Walpole, _Royal and Noble Authors_, +ed. 1759, vol. ii, p. 78. + +There is also Butler's prose character of 'A Duke of Bucks', first +printed in Thyer's edition of the _Genuine Remains of Butler_, 1759, +vol. ii, pp. 72-5, but written apparently about 1667-9. And there is a +verse character in Duke's _Review_. + +Page 235, l. 11. _a great liveliness of wit_. In the first sketch +Burnet wrote 'he has a flame in his wit that is inimitable'. It lives +in _The Rehearsal_. His 'Miscellaneous Works' were collected in two +volumes by Tom Brown, 1704-5. + +Page 236, l. 12. Compare Butler: 'one that has studied the whole Body +of Vice.' + +l. 14. Sir Henry Percy, created Baron Percy of Alnwick in 1643. He +was then general of the ordinance of the king's army. He joined the +Queen's party in France in 1645. + +l. 15. _Hobbs_. For Burnet's view of Hobbes, see p. 246, ll. 21 ff. + + +71. + +Absalom and Achitophel. Second Edition. 1681. (ll. 543-68.) + +Dryden is his own best critic: 'The Character of _Zimri_ in my +_Absalom_, is, in my Opinion, worth the whole Poem: 'Tis not bloody, +but 'tis ridiculous enough. And he for whom it was intended, was +too witty to resent it as an injury. If I had rail'd, I might have +suffer'd for it justly: But I manag'd my own Work more happily, +perhaps more dextrously. I avoided the mention of great Crimes +and apply'd my self to the representing of Blind-sides, and little +Extravagancies: To which, the wittier a Man is, he is generally the +more obnoxious. It succeeded as I wish'd.' ('Discourse concerning +Satire' prefixed to Dryden's Juvenal, 1693, p. xlii.) + +Burnet's prose character again furnishes the best commentary. + +Page 236, ll. 28 ff. Compare Butler: 'He is as inconstant as the Moon, +which he lives under ... His Mind entertains all Things very freely, +that come and go; but, like Guests and Strangers they are not +welcome, if they stay long ... His Ears are perpetually drilled with +a Fiddlestick. He endures Pleasures with less Patience, than other Men +do their Pains.' + + +72. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 267-8.) + +This is not one of Burnet's best characters. He did not see the +political wisdom that lay behind the ready wit. Halifax was too subtle +for Burnet's heavy-handed grasp. To recognize the inadequacy of this +short-sighted estimate, it is sufficient to have read the 'Character +of King Charles II' (No. 62). + +Burnet suffered from Halifax's wit: 'In the House of Lords,' says the +first Earl of Dartmouth, 'he affected to conclude all his discourses +with a jest, though the subject were never so serious, and if it did +not meet with the applause he expected, would be extremely out of +countenance and silent, till an opportunity offered to retrieve the +approbation he thought he had lost; but was never better pleased than +when he was turning Bishop Burnet and his politics into ridicule' +(Burnet, ed. Airy, vol. i, p. 485). + +Dryden understood Halifax, the Jotham of his _Absalom and Achitophel_: + + _Jotham_ of piercing Wit and pregnant Thought: + Endew'd by Nature, and by Learning taught + To move Assemblies, who but onely tri'd + The worse awhile, then chose the better side; + Nor chose alone, but turn'd the Balance too; + So much the weight of one brave man can do. + +See also Dryden's dedication to Halifax of his _King Arthur_. + + +73. + +The Life of the Right Honourable Francis North, Baron of Guilford, +Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, under King Charles II. and King James +II.... By the Honourable Roger North, Esq; London, MDCCXLII. (pp. +223-6.) + +Roger North's lives of his three brothers, Lord Keeper Guilford, +Sir Dudley North, and Dr. John North, Master of Trinity College, +Cambridge, were begun about 1710 but were not published till 1742-4, +eight years after his death. The edition of the 'Lives of the Norths' +by Augustus Jessopp, 3 vols., 1890, contains also his autobiography. + +The Life of Lord Keeper Guilford is invaluable as a picture of the +bench and bar under Charles II and James II. + +Page 240, l. 6. Sir Francis Pemberton (1625-97), Lord Chief Justice, +1681, removed from the King's Bench, 1683, 'near the time that the +great cause of the _quo warranto_ against the city of London was to be +brought to judgment in that court.' North had just described him as a +judge. + +Page 241, l. 1. Compare Scott's _Monastery_, ch. xiv: '"By my troggs," +replied Christie, "I would have thrust my lance down his throat."' +'Troggs' is an altered form of 'Troth'. It appears to be Scottish +in origin; no Southern instance is quoted in Wright's _Dialect +Dictionary_. Saunders may have learned it from a London Scot. + +l. 22. Sir John Maynard (1602-90), 'the king's eldest serjeant, but +advanced no farther'. Described by North, ed. 1890, p. 149; also p. +26: 'Serjeant Maynard, the best old book-lawyer of his time, used to +say that the law was _ars bablativa_'. + +l. 30. Sir Matthew Hale (1609-76), Lord Chief Justice of the King's +Bench, described by North, pp. 79 ff. Burnet wrote _The Life and Death +of Sir Matthew Hale_, 1682. + +Page 243, l. 5. The action taken by the Crown in 1682 contesting the +charter of the city of London. Judgement was given for the Crown. See +_State Trials_, ed. 1810, vol. viii, 1039 ff., and Burnet, ed. Airy, +vol. ii, pp. 343 ff., and compare Hallam, _Constitutional History_, +ch. xii, ed. 1863, pp. 453-4. + + +74. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 186-91). + +This passage brings together ten of the great divines of the century. +It would be easy, as critics have shown, to name as many others, such +as Jeremy Taylor, Sanderson, Sheldon, Cosin, Pearson, and South. But +Burnet is mainly concerned with the men who in his opinion had the +greatest influence during the time of which he is writing, and who +were known to him personally. By way of introduction he speaks of +the Cambridge Platonists under whom his great contemporaries had been +formed. Incidentally he expresses his views on Hobbes's _Leviathan_, +and he concludes with a valuable account of the reform in preaching. +The passage as a whole is an excellent specimen of Burnet's method and +style. + +Page 246, ll. 6, 7. John Owen (1616-83), made Dean of Christ Church by +Cromwell in 1651, Vice-Chancellor of the University, 1652-8, deprived +of the Deanery, 1659. Thomas Goodwin (1600-80), President of Magdalen +College, 1650-60, likewise one of the Commission of Visitors to the +University appointed by the Parliament. Both were Independents. See +H.L. Thompson, _Christ Church_ (College Histories), 1900, pp. 69, 70; +and H.A. Wilson, _Magdalen College_, 1899, pp. 172-4. + +Page 248, l. 5. Simon Episcopius, or Bischop (1583-1643), Dutch +theologian and follower of Arminius: see p. 101, l. 3, note. + +Page 249, l. 12. _Irenicum_. _A Weapon-Salve for the Churches Wounds_, +published 1661. + +Page 252, l. 10. The following sentence is in the original manuscript +(folio 98) before 'But I owed': 'and if I have arrived at any faculty +of writing clear and correctly, I owe that entirely to them: for as +they joined with Wilkins in that Noble tho despised attempt at an +Universall Character, and a Philosophicall Language, they took great +pains to observe all the common errours of language in generall, and +of ours in particular: and in the drawing the tables for that work, +which was Lloyds province, he had looked further into a naturall +purity and simplicity of stile, than any man I ever knew: into +all which he led me, and so helpt me to any measure of exactnes +of writing, which may be thought to belong to me.' The sentence is +deleted in the transcript that was sent to the printer; but whether it +was deleted by Burnet himself, or by the editor, is uncertain. There +are other minor alterations in the same page of the transcript (p. +140). + +The book referred to in the omitted passage is Wilkins's _Essay +Towards a Real Character And a Philosophical Language_, presented +to the Royal Society and published in 1668. Lloyd's 'continual +assistance' is acknowledged in the 'Epistle to the Reader'. + + +75. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 168-70.) + +Page 253, l. 23. He served under Turenne in four campaigns, 1652-5, +latterly as Lieutenant-General. His own account of these campaigns has +fortunately been preserved. It is a portion of the journal to which +Burnet refers. See _The Life of James the Second King of England, +etc., collected out of memoirs writ of his own hand.... Published from +the original Stuart manuscripts in Carlton-House_, edited by James +Stanier Clarke, 2 vols, 1816. + +Page 254, l. 20. After the surrender at Oxford on June 24, 1646, James +was given into the charge of the Earl of Northumberland and confined +at St. James's. See _Life_, ed. J.S. Clarke, vol. i, pp. 30-1, and +Clarendon, vol. iv, pp. 237, and 326-8. + +Page 255, l. 3. Richard Stuart (1594-1651), 'the dean of the King's +chapel, whom his majesty had recommended to his son to instruct him in +all matters relating to the Church' (Clarendon, vol. iv, p. 341). See +Wood's _Athenæ Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. iii, cols. 295-8, and John +Walker's _Sufferings of the Clergy_, Pt. II, p. 48. + +ll. 6-8. The autograph reads (fol. 87): 'He said that a Nun had +advised him to pray every day, that if he was not in the right way +that God would set him right, did make a great impression on him.' The +transcript (p. 127) agrees with the print. + +ll. 27-9. James definitely joined the Roman church at the beginning of +1669: see _Life_, ed. J.S. Clarke, vol. i, p. 440. + +Page 256, l. 3. As High Admiral he defeated the Dutch at Lowestoft, +1665, and Southwold Bay, 1672. Compare Dryden's _Annus Mirabilis_, ll. +73-4: + + Victorious _York_ did first, with fam'd success, + To his known valour make the _Dutch_ give place; + +also his _Verses to the Duchess_ on the Duke's victory of June 3, +1665. He ceased to be High Admiral on the passing of the Test Act, +1673. + +Page 256, l. 6. Sir William Coventry (1628-86), secretary to James, +1660-7. 'He was the man of the finest parts and the best temper that +belonged to the court:' see his character by Burnet, ed. Airy, vol. i, +pp. 478-9. + +ll. 13 ff. Compare Pepys's _Diary_, November 20, 1661, June 27 and +July 2, 1662, June 2, 1663, July 21, 1666, &c. + + +76. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. ii. (p. 292-3.) + + + + +INDEX. + + +Abbott, George, Archbishop of Canterbury +Achitophel. See Shaftesbury. +Aires, or Ayres, Captain. +Anglesey, Arthur Annesley, first Earl of. +Argyle, Archibald Campbell, Marquis of. +Arminius. +Army, The New Model. +Arundel, Thomas Howard, Earl of: + character by Clarendon; + by Sir Edward Walker; + his art collections. +Ascham, Roger. +Ashley, Lord. See Shaftesbury. +Aubrey, John: + description of Hobbes; + of Milton; + his manuscripts; quoted. +_Aulicus Coquinariæ_. + +Bacon, Sir Francis, Baron Verulam, Viscount St. Albans: + character by Jonson; + by Arthur Wilson; + by Fuller; + by Rawley; + his relations with Hobbes; + Essays quoted by Baxter; + _Advancement of Learning_; + _Henry VII_; + _Apophthegms_. +Baker, Sir Richard. +Balfour, Sir William. +Bankes, Anne, wife of Edmund Waller. +Bate, or Bates, George: _Elenchus Motuum_. +Baxter, Richard: + character of Cromwell; + _Reliquiæ Baxterianæ_; + letter to Lauderdale. +Bedford, Francis Russell, fourth Earl of. +Bee, Cornelius, bookseller. +Bendish, Bridget. +Bendish, Henry. +Bentivoglio, Cardinal Guido. +Berry, James. +Bible. +Boileau. +Bolton, Edmund: _Hypercritica_. +Bradshaw, John: Milton's praise of. +Brentford, Patrick Ruthven, Earl of: + character by Clarendon. +Bristol, John Digby, first Earl of. +Bristol, second Earl of. See Digby, George. +Brooke, Sir Fulke Greville, first Baron. +Brooke, Robert Greville, second Baron. +Buckingham, George Villiers, first Duke of: + character by Clarendon; + by Sir Henry Wotton; + Clarendon's early account. +Buckingham, George Villiers, second Duke of: + character by Burnet; + by Dryden (Zimri); + other characters. +Buckingham, or Buckinghamshire, John Sheffield, Duke of: + 'Character of Charles II'. +Burleigh, William Cecil, Baron. +Burnet, Gilbert, Bishop of Salisbury: + characters of Charles II; + Clarendon; + Lauderdale; + Shaftesbury; + Buckingham; + Halifax; + seventeenth-century divines; + James II; + account of Vane; + Waller; + Sir Philip Warwick; + his characters; + revision of his characters; + _History of His Own Time_; + _Memoirs of Dukes of Hamilton_; + _Life of Hale_; + _Life of Rochester_; + relations with Lauderdale; + with English divines. +Burton, John. +Bushell, Thomas. +Butler, Samuel: character of Shaftesbury; + of Buckingham. +Byron, John, first Baron Byron. + +Cæsar. +Calamy, Edward. +Calvert, Sir George, Baron Baltimore. +Camden, William. +Cambridge Platonists. +Canterbury College. +Capel, Arthur, Baron Capel: + character by Clarendon, + Cromwell's character of him. +Carew, Thomas. +Carleton, Sir Dudley, Baron Carleton, + Viscount Dorchester. +Carlisle, James Hay, Earl of. +Carlyle, Thomas. +Carnarvon, Robert Dormer, Earl of: character by Clarendon. +Cavendish, George. +Cecil, Robert. _See_ Salisbury. +Chamberlayne, Edward: _Angliæ Nolitia_. +Charles I: + character by Clarendon; + by Sir Philip Warwick; + Prince. +Charles II: + his character by Halifax; + by Burnet; + other characters; + his taste in sermons. +Cheynell, Francis. +Chillingworth, William: character by Clarendon; + his siege engine. +Christ Church, Oxford. +Christie, W.D. +Cicero. +Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of: + character by Burnet; + other characters of him; + characters written by him, _see_ Contents; + his long study of Digby; + his merits as a character writer; + his conception of history; + his manuscripts; + the _History_; + its authenticity; + editorial alterations; + the _Life_; + _View of Hobbes's Leviathan_; + _Essays_ quoted; + _Letters_ quoted; + other writings; + his picture gallery. +Clarendon, Henry Hyde, second Earl of. +Clarke, Abraham. +_Clélie_. +Coke, Sir Edward. +Coke, Roger: _Detection of the Court and State of England_. +Coleridge, S.T. +Cominges, Le Comte de, French ambassador. +Con, Signior, papal nuncio. +_Connoisseur, The_. +Conway, Sir Edward, Viscount Conway. +Cottington, Sir Francis, Baron Cottington. +Cotton, Sir Robert. +Cousin, Victor. +Coventry, Sir Thomas, Baron Coventry: character by Clarendon. +Coventry, Sir William, character by Burnet. +Cowley, Abraham: + 'Of My self', + character by Sprat, + note by Aubrey, + his _Essays_, + verses on Falkland, + Latin verses. +Crofts, William, Baron Crofts. +Cromwell, Oliver, Lord Protector: + character by Clarendon, + by Sir Philip Warwick, + by John Maidston, + by Baxter. +Cudworth, Ralph: character by Burnet. +Culpeper, or Colepeper, Sir John. +Cumberland, Henry Clifford, Earl of. +_Cyrus, Le Grand_. + +Davenant, Sir William. +Davila, Enrico Caterino. +Desborough, John. +Digby, George, Baron Digby, second Earl of Bristol: + character by Clarendon; + others by Clarendon; + description by Shaftesbury. +Diogenes Laertius. +_Divers portraits_. +Dominico, Signior. +Dorchester, Viscount. See Carleton. +Dort, Synod of. +Dryden, John: + character of Shaftesbury, + of Buckingham; + of Halifax; + _Absalom and Achitophel_; + _Annus Mirabilis_; + _Of Dramatick Poesie_; + _Verses to Duchess of York_; + dedication of _King Arthur_. +Duke, Richard, _The Review_. +Dunton, John, _Life and Errors_. + +Earle, or Earles, John, Bishop of Worcester: + character by Clarendon; + described by Walton; + letters from Clarendon; + _Micro-cosmographie_. +_Eikon Basilike_. +Elizabeth, daughter of James I. +_England's Black Tribunall_. +Episcopius. +_Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ_. +Essex, Robert Devereux, second + Earl of: Clarendon's early study. +Essex, Robert Devereux, third Earl of: + character by Clarendon, + by Arthur Wilson. +Evanson, William. +Evelyn, John: + _Diary_; + letter quoted. + +Fairfax, Ferdinando, second Baron. +Fairfax, Sir Thomas, third Baron: + character by Baxter, + Milton's sonnet; + and Latin character; + Clarendon's estimate, + Warwick's estimate. +Falkland, Henry Cary, first Viscount. +Falkland, Lattice, second Viscountess. +Falkland, Lucius Gary, second Viscount: + character by Clarendon (1647); + later character (1668); + his marriage; + his death; + his speech concerning episcopacy; + his writings; + quoted by Fuller. + See also Tew. +Finch, Sir John, Baron Finch. +Firth, C.H. +Fouquet, Nicholas. +Fuller, Thomas: + his character (anonymous); + described by Aubrey; + his _Life_; + his character of Bacon; + of Laud; + his characters; + _Church-History_; + _Holy State_; + _Worthies of England_. + +_Galerie des Peintures, La_. +Gardiner, S.R. +Gauden, John. +_Gentleman's Magazine_. +Gildon, Charles. +Glencairn, William Cunningham, Earl of. +Godolphin, Sidney: character by Clarendon. +Gondomar, Spanish ambassador. +Goodwin, Thomas, President of Magdalen College, Oxford. +Goring, George, Baron Goring: character by Clarendon. +Greville, Fulke. See Brooke. +Grotius, Hugo. +Guilford, Francis North, Baron of, Lord Keeper. + +Hacket, John: _Scrinia Reserata_. +Hale, Sir Matthew, Lord Chief Justice. +Hales, John, of Eton: + character by Clarendon; + letters on Synod of Dort; + _Tract concerning Schisme_; + _Golden Remains_; + praise of Shakespeare. +Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of: + character by Burnet; + by Dryden; + his character of Charles II. +Hall, Joseph, Bishop. +Hamilton, Antoine. +Hamilton, James, third Marquis and first Duke of Hamilton. +Hamilton, William, second Duke of Hamilton. +Hammond, Henry, chaplain to Charles I. +Hampden, John: + character by Clarendon; + Clarendon's reference to it; + its authenticity; + character by Sir Philip Warwick. +Hastings, Henry: character by Shaftesbury. +Hawkins, Sir Thomas. +Hayward, Sir John. +Henry, Prince. +Herbert, Sir Thomas. +Hertford, William Seymour, Marquis of: character by Clarendon. +Hobbes, Edmund. +Hobbes, Thomas: + described by Clarendon; + by Aubrey; + assists Bacon; + Burnet's opinions. +Holinshed, Raphael. +Holland, Philemon. +Holles, Denzil, first Baron Holles. +Hopton, Ralph, first Baron Hopton. +Horace. +Howard, Charles, Baron Howard of Effingham, Earl of Nottingham. +Howard, Leonard: _Collection of Letters_. +Howell, James: character of Ben Jonson. +_Hudibras_. +Huntingdon, Earls of. +Hutchinson, John, Colonel: + character by his widow; + her _Memoirs_. +Hyde, Edward. See Clarendon. + +Irenæus. +_Irenicum_, Stillingfleet's. +Islip, Simon, Archbishop of Canterbury. + +James I: + character by Arthur Wilson; + by Sir Anthony Weldon; + 'the wisest foole in Christendome'. +James II: + characters by Burnet; + his journal; + High Admiral. +Jermyn, Henry, Baron Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans. +Johnson, Samuel: + quoted; + _Lives of the Poets_. +Jonson, Ben: + character by Clarendon; + by James Howell; + his character of Bacon, + and description. +Jotham. See Halifax. +Juxon, William, Archbishop of Canterbury: character by Sir Philip Warwick. + +Killigrew, Henry. +Killigrew, Thomas, the elder. +Kimbolton, Baron. See Manchester, Earl of. +King, James, General. +Knolles, Richard: _History of The Turkes_. +Knott, Edward: 'the learned Jesuit'. + +La Bruyère. +_Lachrymæ Musarum_. +Lake, Sir Thomas. +Laud, William, Archbishop of Canterbury: + character by Clarendon; + by Fuller; + by Sir Philip Warwick; + speech on scaffold. +Lauderdale, John Maitland, Earl of: + character by Clarendon; + character by Burnet; + his library. +Lawes, Henry, musician. +Leicester, Robert Sidney, Earl of. +Levett, Mr., Page of Bedchamber to Charles I. +Lewgar, John. +Lilburne, John. +Lincoln, Bishop of. _See_ Williams, John. +Livy. +Lloyd, William, Bishop of Worcester: character by Burnet. +Lucan. +Lugar. See Lewgar. + +Macaulay, Lord, +Machiavelli, +Maidston, John: character of Cromwell, +Manchester, Edward Montagu, second Earl of, Baron Montagu of Kimbolton, + Viscount Mandeville: + character by Clarendon, + by Warwick, + by Burnet, +Manchester, Henry Montagu, first Earl of, +Mandeville, Viscount. See Manchester, Earl of. +Mansell, Sir Robert, +Marlborough, James Ley, Earl of, +_Martyrdom of King Charles_, +Maurice, Prince. +Maynard, Sir John, +_Mercurius Academicus_, +Middlesex, Lionel Cranfield, Earl of, +Middleton, John, Earl of Middleton, +Millington, Edward, bookseller and auctioneer, +Milton, John: + described by Aubrey, + note by Edward Phillips, + notes by Jonathan Richardson, + his sonnet to Fairfax, + to Vane, + to Henry Lawes, + his Latin character of Fairfax, + _Eikonoklastes_, + _Defensio Secunda_, + his daughters, + ignored by Clarendon, +Milward, Richard, +Molière, +Montaigne, +Montgomery, Earl of. See Pembroke, fourth Earl of. +Montpensier, Mlle de, +More, Henry, the Cambridge Platonist: character by Burnet, +More, Sir Thomas, +Morley, George, Bishop of Worcester, +'My part lies therein-a', + +Naunton, Sir Robert, +Needham, Marchamont, +Newcastle, William Cavendish, Marquis of, afterwards Duke of: + character by Clarendon, + character by Warwick, + Life by the Duchess, + his books on horsemanship, + Clarendon's opinion of his military capacity, +Nicholas, Sir Edward, +North, Francis. See Guilford, Lord Keeper. +North, Roger: + character of Sir Edmund Saunders, + his _Lives of the Norths_, +North, Sir Thomas, +Northampton, Spencer Compton, second Earl of: character by Clarendon, +Northumberland, Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of, +Nott. See Knott. + +Oldmixon, John, +Olivian, Dr., 'a German', +Orrery, Roger Boyle, first Earl of, +Osborne, Francis: _Traditionall Memoyres on the Raigne of King James_, +Overbury, Sir Thomas, +Ovid, +Owen, John, Dean of Christ Church, + +Patrick, Simon, Bishop of Chichester: character by Burnet, +'Peace begot Plenty', +'Peace with honour', +Pearson, John, Bishop of Chester, +Peck, Francis: _Desiderata Curiosa_, +Pemberton, Sir Francis, Lord Chief Justice, +Pembroke, Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery, fourth Earl of, +Pembroke, William Herbert, third Earl of: character by Clarendon, +Pepys, Samuel: _Diary_, +Percy, Sir Henry, Baron Percy of Alnwick, +Persius, +Peyton, Sir Edward: _Divine Catastrophe of the House of Stuarts_, +Philips, Ambrose, +Phillips, Edward: + note on Milton, his uncle, + _Life of Milton_, + _Theatrum Poetarum_, +_Phoenix Britannicus_, +Plato, +Plutarch, +_Poems on State Affairs_, +Polybius, +Portland, Earl of. See Weston, Sir Richard. +Preaching, reform in, +Prynne, William, +Pym, John: character by Clarendon, + +Raleigh, Sir Walter, +Rawley, William: + character of Bacon, + _Life_, +_Reliquiæ Wottonianæ_, +_Retrospective Review_, +Rich, Robert, Earl of Warwick's grandson, +Richardson, Jonathan: + notes on Milton, + _Explanatory Notes on Paradise Lost_, +Robinson, Sir Tancred, +Rochester, first Earl of. See Wilmot, Henry. +Rochester, John Wilmot, second Earl of, +Rochester, Laurence Hyde, first Earl of the Hyde family, +Rothes, John Leslie, Earl and Duke of, +Rowe, Nicholas, +Rupert, Prince: character by Clarendon, +Rushworth: _Historical Collections_, +Russell, Sir William, Treasurer of the Navy, +Ruthven, Patrick. See Brentford, Earl of. +Rutland, Francis Manners, sixth Earl of, + +St. John, Oliver, +St. John's College, Oxford, +St. Martin's, 'the greatest cure in England', +St. Paul's Cathedral, +St. Peters in Cornhill, +Salisbury, Robert Cecil, first Earl of, +Salisbury, William Cecil, third Earl of: character by Clarendon, +Sallust, +Sanderson, Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, +Saunders, Sir Edmund, Lord Chief Justice: character by Roger North, +Savile, Sir Henry, +Savile, George. See Halifax, Marquis of. +Savile, Thomas, Viscount Savile, +Savoy Hospital, +Say and Sele, William Fiennes, Viscount: + character by Clarendon, + by Arthur Wilson, +Scott, Sir Walter, +Scudéry, Madeleine de +Selden, John: character by Clarendon +Seneca, Lucius Annæus +Seneca, Marcus Annæus +_Session of the Poets_ (Restoration poem) +_Sessions of the Poets_, Suckling's +Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Baron Ashley, Earl of: + character by Burnet; + by Dryden (Achitophel); + by Butler; + by Duke; + his character of Henry Hastings; + description of Digby; + his _Autobiography_ +Shakespeare +Sheldon, Gilbert, Archbishop of Canterbury +Shrewsbury, Gilbert Talbot, Earl of +Smith, Edmund +Somaize, Antoine Bandeau, sieur de +Somerset, Robert Ker _or_ Carr, Earl of +Sorel, Charles +Spelman, Sir Henry +Spenser, Edmund +Sprat, Thomas, Bishop of Rochester: + character of Cowley; + _Life of Cowley_ +Stillingfleet, Edward, Bishop of Worcester: character by Burnet +Stow, John +Strada, Famiano +Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of: + character by Clarendon; + by Warwick; +Stuart, Richard, dean of the King's Chapel +Suckling, Sir John +Suetonius +Suffolk, Thomas Howard, Earl of +Sully, Duc de: _Mémoires_ +Swift, Jonathan + +Tacitus +Tanfield, Sir Lawrence +Tate, Nahum +Temple, Sir William +Tenison, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury: character by Burnet +Tew, seat of Lord Falkland +Theophrastus +Thuanus (Jacques de Thou) +Thucydides +Thurloe, John, Secretary of State; + _State Papers_ +Tiberius, James I compared to; + Charles II compared to +Tillotson, John, Archbishop of Canterbury: character by Burnet +Triplet, Dr. Thomas +Tuesday Sermons of James I +Turenne, Marshal + +Vane, Sir Henry, the elder +Vane, Sir Henry, the younger: + characters by Clarendon; + character by Baxter; + Milton's sonnet; + other accounts +Velleius Paterculus + +Walker, Sir Edward: _Historical Discourses_ +Walker, John: _Sufferings of the Clergy_ +Walker, Mr., of the Temple, 'a Relation of Milton's' +Waller, Edmund: + his character by Clarendon, + described by Burnet, + by Aubrey, +Walpole, Horace: _Royal and Noble Authors_, +Walton, Izaak, +Warwick, Mary, Countess of, +Warwick, Sir Philip: + character of Charles I, + Strafford, + Laud, + Juxon, + Cromwell, + Hampden, + Fairfax, + Clarendon, + his characters, + his _Mémoires_, + a Straffordian, + imprisoned, + described by Burnet, +Warwick, Robert Rich, second Earl of: + character by Clarendon, + by Arthur Wilson, + pillar of the Presbyterian party, +Wayte, Mr., +Weldon, Sir Anthony: + character of James I, + _Court and Character of King James_, +Welwood, James: _Memoirs_, +Weston, Sir Richard, Earl of Portland: + character by Clarendon, + by Wotton, +Whitchcot, or Whichcote, Benjamin: character by Burnet, +Whitelocke: _Memorials_, +'White Staff', +Wilkins, John: + character by Burnet, + his _Essay Towards a Real Character_, +William of Wickham, +Williams, John, Bishop of Lincoln, Lord Keeper, +Wilmot, Henry, Baron Wilmot, Earl of Rochester: character by Clarendon, +Wilson, Arthur: + character of James I, + of Bacon, + of Essex, Warwick, and Say, + _Reign of King James_, +Wolsey, Cardinal, +Wood: _Athenæ Oxonienses_, +Worthington, John: character by Burnet, +Wotton, Sir Henry, +Wright, Dr., 'an ancient clergyman in Dorsetshire', + +Xenophon, + +Young, Sir Peter, +Young, Patrick, + +Zimri. See Buckingham. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Characters from 17th Century Histories +and Chronicles, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13751 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..186282f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13751 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13751) diff --git a/old/13751-8.txt b/old/13751-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bfa0ff0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13751-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12833 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Characters from 17th Century Histories and +Chronicles, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Characters from 17th Century Histories and Chronicles + +Author: Various + +Release Date: October 14, 2004 [EBook #13751] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARACTERS FROM 17TH CENTURY *** + + + + +Produced by William Flis and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +CHARACTERS + +FROM THE + +HISTORIES & MEMOIRS + +OF THE + +SEVENTEENTH CENTURY + + +With an Essay on THE CHARACTER + +and Historical Notes + +By DAVID NICHOL SMITH + + +OXFORD + + + +1918 + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +ESSAY ON THE CHARACTER + + I. The Beginnings + II. The Literary Models + III. Clarendon + IV. Other Character Writers + + +CHARACTERS + + 1. JAMES I. By Arthur Wilson + 2. " By Sir Anthony Weldon + 3. THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM (George Villiers, first Duke). By Clarendon + 4. SIR THOMAS COVENTRY. By Clarendon + 5. SIR RICHARD WESTON. By Clarendon + 6. THE EARL OF ARUNDEL (Thomas Howard, fourteenth Earl). By Clarendon + 7. THE EARL OF PEMBROKE (William Herbert, third Earl). By Clarendon + 8. SIR FRANCIS BACON. By Ben Jonson + 9. " " " By Arthur Wilson + 10. " " " By Thomas Fuller + 11. " " " By William Rawley + 12. BEN JONSON. By Clarendon + 13. " " By James Howell + 14. HENRY HASTINGS. By Shaftesbury + 15. CHARLES I. By Clarendon + 16. " By Sir Philip Warwick + 17. THE EARL OF STRAFFORD (Thomas Wentworth, first Earl). By Clarendon + 18. THE EARL OF STRAFFORD (Thomas Wentworth, first Earl). By Sir Philip + Warwick + 19. THE EARL OF NORTHAMPTON (Spencer Compton, second Earl). By Clarendon + 20. THE EARL OF CARNARVON (Robert Dormer, first Earl). By Clarendon + 21. LORD FALKLAND (Lucius Cary, second Viscount). By Clarendon + 22. LORD FALKLAND (Lucius Cary, second Viscount). By Clarendon + 23. SIDNEY GODOLPHIN. By Clarendon + 24. WILLIAM LAUD. By Clarendon + 25. " " By Thomas Fuller + 26. " " By Sir Philip Warwick + 27. WILLIAM JUXON. By Sir Philip Warwick + 28. THE MARQUIS OF HERTFORD (William Seymour, first Marquis). By Clarendon + 29. THE MARQUIS OF NEWCASTLE (William Cavendish, first Marquis, and Duke). + By Clarendon + 30. THE LORD DIGBY (George Digby, second Earl of Bristol). By Clarendon + 31. THE LORD CAPEL (Arthur Capel, first Baron). By Clarendon + 32. ROYALIST GENERALS: PATRICK RETHVEN, EARL OF BRENTFORD; PRINCE RUPERT; + GEORGE, LORD GORING; HENRY WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER. By Clarendon + 33. JOHN HAMPDEN. By Clarendon + 34. JOHN PYM. By Clarendon + 35. OLIVER CROMWELL. By Clarendon + 36. OLIVER CROMWELL. By Clarendon + 37. " " By Sir Philip Warwick + 38. " " By John Maidston + 39. " " By Richard Baxter + 40. SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX. By Richard Baxter + 41. SIR HENRY VANE, the younger. By Clarendon + 42. " " " " " By Clarendon + 43. COLONEL JOHN HUTCHINSON. By Lucy Hutchinson + 44. THE EARL OF ESSEX (Robert Devereux, third Earl). By Clarendon + 45. THE EARL OF SALISBURY (William Cecil, second Earl). By Clarendon + 46. THE EARL OF WARWICK (Robert Rich, second Earl). By Clarendon + 47. THE EARL OF MANCHESTER (Edward Montagu, second Earl). By Clarendon + 48. THE LORD SAY (William Fiennes, first Viscount Say and Sele). By + Clarendon + 49. JOHN SELDEN. By Clarendon + 50. JOHN EARLE. By Clarendon + 51. JOHN HALES. By Clarendon + 52. WILLIAM CHILLINGWORTH. By Clarendon + 53. EDMUND WALLER. By Clarendon + 54. THOMAS HOBBES. By Clarendon + 55. " " Notes by John Aubrey + 56. THOMAS FULLER. Anonymous + 57. JOHN MILTON. Notes by John Aubrey + 58. " " Note by Edward Phillips + 59. " " Notes by Jonathan Richardson + 60. ABRAHAM COWLEY. By himself + 61. " " By Thomas Sprat + 62. CHARLES II. By Halifax + 63. CHARLES II. By Burnet + 64. CHARLES II. By Burnet + 65. THE EARL OF CLARENDON (Edward Hyde, first Earl), By Burnet + 66. THE EARL OF LAUDERDALE (John Maitland, second Earl, created + Duke 1672). By Clarendon. + 67. THE EARL OF LAUDERDALE (John Maitland, second Earl, created + Duke 1672). By Burnet + 68. THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY (Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl). + By Burnet + 69. THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY (Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl). + By Dryden + 70. THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM (George Villiers, second Duke). By Burnet + 71. THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM (George Villiers, second Duke). By Dryden + 72. THE MARQUIS OF HALIFAX (George Savile, first Marquis). By Burnet + 73. SIR EDMUND SAUNDERS. By Roger North + 74. TWO GROUPS OF DIVINES: (1. Benjamin Whitchcot, Ralph Cudworth, John + Wilkins, Henry More, John Worthington; 2. John Tillotson, Edward + Stillingfleet, Simon Patrick, William Lloyd, Thomas Tenison). By + Burnet + 75. JAMES II. By Burnet + 76. JAMES II. By Burnet + + + + +THE CHARACTER + + +The seventeenth century is rich in short studies or characters of its +great men. Its rulers and statesmen, its soldiers and politicians, +its lawyers and divines, all who played a prominent part in the public +life, have with few notable exceptions been described for us by their +contemporaries. There are earlier characters in English literature; +but as a definite and established form of literary composition +the character dates from the seventeenth century. Even Sir Robert +Naunton's _Fragmenta Regalia, or Observations on the late Queen +Elizabeth her Times and Favourites_, a series of studies of the great +men of Elizabeth's court, and the first book of its kind, is an old +man's recollection of his early life, and belongs to the Stuart period +in everything but its theme. Nor at any later period is there the same +wealth of material for such a collection as is given in this volume. +The eighteenth century devoted itself rather to biography. When the +facts of a man's life, his works, and his opinions claimed detailed +treatment, the fashion of the short character had passed. + +Yet the seventeenth century did not know its richness. None of its +best characters were then printed. The writers themselves could not +have suspected how many others were similarly engaged, so far were +they from belonging to a school. The characters in Clarendon's +_History of the Rebellion_ were too intimate and searching to be +published at once, and they remained in manuscript till about +thirty years after his death. In the interval Burnet was drawing the +characters in his _History of His Own Time_. He, like Clarendon, +was not aware of being indebted to any English model. Throughout the +period which they cover there are the characters by Fuller, Sir Philip +Warwick, Baxter, Halifax, Shaftesbury, and many others, the Latin +characters by Milton, and the verse characters by Dryden. There is no +sign that any of these writers copied another or tried to emulate +him. Together, but with no sense of their community, they made the +seventeenth century the great age of the character in England. + + + + +I. The Beginnings. + + +The art of literary portraiture in the seventeenth century developed +with the effort to improve the writing of history. Its first and at +all times its chief purpose in England was to show to later ages what +kind of men had directed the affairs and shaped the fortunes of +the nation. In France it was to be practised as a mere pastime; to +sketch well-known figures in society, or to sketch oneself, was for +some years the fashionable occupation of the salons. In England the +character never wholly lost the qualities of its origin. It might be +used on occasion as a record of affection, or as a weapon of political +satire; but our chief character writers are our historians. At the +beginning of the seventeenth century England was recognized to be +deficient in historical writings. Poetry looked back to Chaucer as its +father, was proud of its long tradition, and had proved its right to +sing the glories of Elizabeth's reign. The drama, in the full vigour +of its youth, challenged comparison with the drama of Greece and Rome. +Prose was conscious of its power in exposition and controversy. But in +every review of our literature's great achievement and greater promise +there was one cause of serious misgivings. England could not yet rank +with other countries in its histories. Many large volumes had been +printed, some of them containing matter that is invaluable to the +modern student, but there was no single work that was thought to +be worthy of England's greatness. The prevailing type was still the +chronicle. Even Camden, 'the glory and light of the kingdom', as Ben +Jonson called him, was an antiquary, a collector, and an annalist. +History had yet to be practised as one of the great literary arts. + +Bacon pointed out the 'unworthiness' and 'deficiences' of English +history in his _Advancement of Learning_.[1] 'Some few very worthy, +but the greater part beneath mediocrity' was his verdict on modern +histories in general. He was not the first to express these views. +Sir Henry Savile had been more emphatic in his dedication to Queen +Elizabeth of his collection of early chronicles, _Rerum Anglicarum +Scriptores post Bedam_, published in 1596.[2] And after Bacon, +somewhere about 1618, these views were again expressed by Edmund +Bolton in his _Hypercritica, or a Rule of Judgement for writing or +reading our Histories_.[3] 'The vast vulgar Tomes', he said, 'procured +for the most part by the husbandry of Printers, and not by appointment +of the Prince or Authority of the Common-weal, in their tumultuary and +centonical Writings do seem to resemble some huge disproportionable +Temple, whose Architect was not his Arts Master'. He repeated what he +calls the common wish 'that the majesty of handling our history might +once equal the majesty of the argument'. England had had all other +honours, but only wanted a history. + +But the most valuable statement on the conditions of English history +at this time and the obstacles that hindered its progress was made by +Sir John Hayward at the beginning of his _Lives of the III Normans, +Kings of England_, published in 1613. Leaving aside the methods of the +chroniclers, he had taken the classical historians as his model in +his _First Part of the Life and raigne of King Henrie the IIII_. The +interest of this work to the modern reader lies in its structure, its +attempt at artistic unity, its recognition that English history must +be written on a different plan, rather than in its historical matter. +But it was no sooner published than Hayward was committed to the +Tower because the account of the deposition of Richard II was held +to be treasonable, the offence being aggravated by the dedication, +in perfectly innocent terms, to the Earl of Essex. His work was thus +checked till he met with encouragement from Henry, Prince of Wales, +a patron of literature, of whom, though a mere youth, such men as +Jonson, Chapman, and Raleigh, spoke with an enthusiasm that cannot be +mistaken for flattery. Prince Henry saw the need of a worthy history +of England. He therefore sent for Hayward to discuss the reasons with +him: + + Prince Henry ... sent for mee, a few monethes before his + death. And at my second comming to his presence, among some + other speeches, hee complained much of our Histories of + England; and that the English Nation, which is inferiour to + none in Honourable actions, should be surpassed by all, in + leauing the memorie of them to posteritie.... + + I answered, that I conceiued these causes hereof; One, + that men of sufficiencie were otherwise employed; either + in publicke affaires, or in wrestling with the world, for + maintenance or encrease of their private estates. Another is, + for that men might safely write of others in maner of a tale, + but in maner of a History, safely they could not: because, + albeit they should write of men long since dead, and whose + posteritie is cleane worne out; yet some aliue, finding + themselues foule in those vices, which they see obserued, + reproued, condemned in others; their guiltinesse maketh them + apt to conceiue, that whatsoeuer the words are, the finger + pointeth onely at them. The last is, for that the Argument of + our _English_ historie hath been so foiled heretofore by some + unworthie writers, that men of qualitie may esteeme themselues + discredited by dealing in it.... + + Then he questioned, whether I had wrote any part of our + _English_ Historie, other then that which had been published; + which at that time he had in his hands. I answered, that I + had wrote of certaine of our _English_ Kings, by way of a + briefe description of their liues: but for historie, I did + principally bend, and binde my selfe to the times wherein + I should liue; in which my owne obseruations might somewhat + direct me: but as well in the one as in the other I had at + that time perfected nothing. + +The result of the interview was that Hayward proceeded to 'perfect +somewhat of both sorts'. The brief description of the lives of the +three Norman kings was in due course ordered to be published, and +would have been dedicated to its real patron but for his untimely +death; in dedicating it instead to Prince Charles, Hayward fortunately +took the opportunity to relate his conversation with Prince Henry. +How far he carried the other work is not certain; it survives in the +fragment called _The Beginning of the Raigne of Queene Elizabeth_,[4] +published after his death with _The Life and Raigne of King Edward +the Sixt_. He might have brought it down to the reign of James. Had he +been at liberty to follow his own wishes, he would have been the first +Englishman to write a 'History of his own time'. But when an author +incurred imprisonment for writing about the deposition of a sovereign, +and when modern applications were read into accounts of what had +happened long ago, the complexity of his own time was a dangerous if +not a forbidden subject. + +There is a passage to the same effect in the preface to _The Historie +of the World_ by Sir Walter Raleigh, who, unlike Hayward, willingly +chose to be silent on what he knew best: + + I know that it will bee said by many, That I might have beene + more pleasing to the Reader, if I had written the Story of + mine owne times; having been permitted to draw water as neare + the Well-head as another. To this I answer, that who-so-ever + in writing a moderne Historie, shall follow truth too neare + the heeles, it may happily strike out his teeth. There is no + Mistresse or Guide, that hath led her followers and servants + into greater miseries.... It is enough for me (being in that + state I am) to write of the eldest times: wherein also why may + it not be said, that in speaking of the past, I point at the + present, and taxe the vices of those that are yet lyving, in + their persons that are long since dead; and have it laid to my + charge? But this I cannot helpe, though innocent. + +He wrote of remote ages, and contributed nothing to historical +knowledge. But he enriched English literature with a 'just history', +as distinct from annals and chronicles.[5] 'I am not altogether +ignorant', he said, 'in the Lawes of Historie, and of the Kindes.' +When we read his lives and commendations of the great men of antiquity +as he pictured them, we cannot but regret that the same talents, the +same overmastering interest in the eternal human problems, had not +been employed in depicting men whom he had actually known. The other +Elizabethan work that ranks with Raleigh's in its conception of the +historian's office and in its literary excellence, deals with another +country. It is the _History of the Turks_ by Richard Knolles. + +The character was definitely introduced into English literature when +the historians took as their subjects contemporary or recent events +at home, and, abandoning the methods of the chronicle, fashioned their +work on classical models. Its introduction had been further prepared +to some extent by the growing interest in lives, which, unlike +chronicles that recorded events, recognized the part played by men +in the control of events. In his _Advancement of Learning_ Bacon +regretted that Englishmen gave so little thought to describing the +deeds and characters of their great countrymen. 'I do find strange', +he said, 'that these times have so little esteemed the virtues of the +times, as that the writing of lives should be no more frequent.' He +and Hayward both wrote lives with the consciousness that their methods +were new in English, though largely borrowed from the classics.[6] +Hayward tried to produce a picture of the period he dealt with, +and his means for procuring harmoniousness of design was to centre +attention on the person of the sovereign. It is a conception of +history not as a register of facts but as a representation of the +national drama. His _Henry IV_ gives the impression, especially by its +speeches, that he looked upon history as resolving itself ultimately +into a study of men; and it thus explains how he wished to be free +to describe the times wherein he lived. He is on the whole earlier +than Bacon, who wrote his _Historie of the Reigne of King Henry the +Seventh_ late in life, during the leisure that was forced on him +by his removal from all public offices. Written to display the +controlling policy in days that were 'rough, and full of mutations, +and rare accidents', it is a study of the statecraft and character of +a king who had few personal gifts and small capacity for a brilliant +part, yet won by his ready wisdom the best of all praises that 'what +he minded he compassed'. How he compassed it, is what interested +Bacon. 'I have not flattered him,' he says, 'but took him to the life +as well as I could, sitting so far off, and having no better light.' +Would that Bacon had felt at liberty to choose those who sat near at +hand. Who better than the writer of the _Essays_ could have painted a +series of miniatures of the courts of Elizabeth and James? + +When at last the political upheaval of this century compelled men to +leave, whether in histories, or memoirs, or biographies, a record of +what they had themselves experienced, the character attained to its +full importance and excellence. 'That posterity may not be deceaved +by the prosperous wickednesse of these tymes, into an opinyon, that +lesse then a generall combination and universall apostacy in the whole +Nacion from their religion and allegiaunce could in so shorte a tyme +have produced such a totall and prodigious alteration and confusion +over the whole kingdome, and so the memory of those few who out of +duty and conscience have opposed and resisted that Torrent which hath +overwhelmed them, may loose the recompence dew to ther virtue, and +havinge undergone the injuryes and reproches of this, may not finde +a vindication in a better Age'--in these words Clarendon began his +_History of the Rebellion_. But he could not vindicate the memory +of his political friends without describing the men who had overcome +them. The history of these confused and difficult years would not be +properly understood if the characters of all the chief actors in the +tragic drama were not known. For to Clarendon history was the record +of the struggle of personalities. When we are in the midst of a +crisis, or view it from too near a distance, it is natural for us +to think of it as a fight between the opposing leaders, and the +historians of their own time are always liable to attribute to the +personal force of a statesman what is due to general causes of which +he is only the instrument. Of these general causes Clarendon took +little account. 'Motives which influenced masses of men', it has been +said, 'escape his appreciation, and the _History of the Rebellion_ +is accordingly an account of the Puritan Revolution which is +unintelligible because the part played by Puritanism is misunderstood +or omitted altogether'.[7] But the _History of the Rebellion_ is a +Stuart portrait gallery, and the greatest portrait gallery in the +English language. + +[Footnote 1: Book II, ed. Aldis Wright, pp. 92-5.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Historæ nostræ particulam quidam non male: sed qui totum +corpus ea fide, eaque dignitate scriptis complexus sit, quam suscepti +operis magnitudo postularet, hactenus plane neminem extitisse +constat.... Nostri ex fæce plebis historici, dum maiestatem tanti +operis ornare studuerunt, putidissimis ineptiis contaminarunt. Ita +factum est nescio qua huiusce insulæ infoelicitate, ut maiores tui, +(serenissima Regina) viri maximi, qui magnam huius orbis nostri partem +imperio complexi, omnes sui temporis reges rerum gestarum gloria +facile superarunt, magnorum ingeniorum quasi lumine destituti, iaceant +ignoti, & delitescant.'] + +[Footnote 3: _Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century_, ed. +Spingarn, vol. i, pp. 82-115.] + +[Footnote 4: See also Camden Society Publications, No. 7, 1840.] + +[Footnote 5: Roger Ascham in his _Scholemaster_ divides History into +'Diaria', 'Annales', 'Commentaries', and 'Iustam Historiam'.] + +[Footnote 6: Bacon told Queen Elizabeth that there was no treason in +Hayward's _Henry IV_, but 'very much felony', because Hayward 'had +stolen many of his sentences and conceits out of Cornelius Tacitus' +(_Apophthegms_, 58). Hayward and Bacon had a precursor in the author +of _The History of King Richard the Thirde_, generally attributed to +Sir Thomas More, and printed in the collection of his works published +in 1557. It was known to the chroniclers, but it did not affect the +writing of history. Nor did George Cavendish's _Life and Death of +Thomas Wolsey_, which they likewise used for its facts.] + +[Footnote 7: C.H. Firth, 'Burnet as a Historian', in Clarke and +Foxcroft's _Life of Gilbert Burnet_, 1907, pp. xliv, xlv.] + + + + +II. The Literary Models. + + +The authentic models for historical composition were in Greek and +Latin. Much as our literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries owed to the classics, the debt was nowhere more obvious, +and more fully acknowledged, than in our histories. The number of +translations is in itself remarkable. Many of them, and notably +the greatest of all, North's Plutarch, belong to the early part of +Elizabeth's reign, but they became more frequent at the very time when +the inferiority of our native works was engaging attention.[1] By the +middle of the seventeenth century the great classical historians could +all be read in English. It was not through translation, however, that +their influence was chiefly exercised. + +The classical historians who were best known were Thucydides, +Polybius, and Plutarch among the Greeks, and Sallust, Livy, Tacitus, +and Suetonius among the Latins; and the former group were not so well +known as the latter. It was recognized that in Thucydides, to use +Hobbes's words, 'the faculty of writing history is at the highest.'[2] +But Thucydides was a difficult author, and neither he nor Polybius +exerted the same direct influence as the Latin historians who had +imitated them, or learned from them. Most of what can be traced +ultimately to the Greeks came to England in the seventeenth century +through Latin channels. Every educated man had been trained in Latin, +and was as familiar with it for literary purposes as with his native +tongue. Further, the main types of history--the history of a long +period of years, the history of recent events, and the biographical +history--were all so admirably represented in Latin that it was not +necessary to go to Greek for a model. In one respect Latin could claim +pre-eminence. It might possess no single passage greater than the +character study of Pericles or of the Athenians by Thucydides, but it +developed the character study into a recognized and clearly defined +element in historical narrative. Livy provided a pattern of narrative +on a grand scale. For 'exquisite eloquence' he was held not to +have his equal.[3] But of all the Latin historians, Tacitus had the +greatest influence. 'There is no learning so proper for the direction +of the life of man as Historie; there is no historie so well worth the +reading as Tacitus. Hee hath written the most matter with best conceit +in fewest words of any Historiographer ancient or moderne.'[4] This +had been said at the beginning of the first English translation of +Tacitus, and it was the view generally held when he came to be better +known. He appealed to Englishmen of the seventeenth century like no +other historian. They felt the human interest of a narrative based +on what the writer had experienced for himself; and they found +that its political wisdom could be applied, or even applied itself +spontaneously, to their own circumstances. They were widely read in +the classics. They knew how Plutarch depicted character in his Lives, +and Cicero in his Speeches. They knew all the Latin historians. But +when they wrote their own characters their chief master was Tacitus. + + * * * * * + +Continental historians provided the incentive of rivalry. They too +were the pupils of the Ancients, and taught nothing that might not be +learned equally well or better from their masters, but they invited +the question why England should be behind Italy, France, or the Low +Countries in worthy records of its achievements. In their own century, +Thuanus, Davila, Bentivoglio, Strada, and Grotius set the standard for +modern historical composition. Jacques Auguste de Thou, or Thuanus, +wrote in Latin a history of his own time in 138 books. He intended to +complete it in 143 books with the assassination of Henri IV in 1610, +but his labours were interrupted by his death in 1617. The collected +edition of his monumental work was issued in 1620 under the title +_Iacobi Augusti Thuani Historiarum sui temporis ab anno 1543 usque +ad annum 1607 Libri CXXXVIII_. Enrico Caterino Davila dealt with the +affairs of France from Francis II to Henri IV in his _Historia +delle guerre civili di Francia_, published in 1630. Cardinal Guido +Bentivoglio described the troubles in the Low Countries in his _Della +Guerra di Fiandra_, published from 1632 to 1639. Famianus Strada +wrote on the same subject in Latin; the first part of his _De Bella +Belgico_, which was meant to cover the period from 1555 to 1590 but +was not completed, appeared in 1632, and the second in 1647. Hugo +Grotius, the great Dutch scholar, had long been engaged on his +_Annales et Historiæ de Rebus Belgicis_ when he died in 1640; it was +brought out by his sons in 1657, and contained five books of Annals +from 1566 to 1588, and eighteen books of Histories to 1609. These +five historians were well known in England, and were studied for their +method as well as their matter. Burnet took Thuanus as his model. 'I +have made him ', he says, 'my pattern in writing.'[5] The others are +discussed by Clarendon in a long passage of his essay 'On an Active +and on a Contemplative Life'.[6] He there develops the view, not +without reference to his own history, that 'there was never yet a good +History written but by men conversant in business, and of the best +and most liberal education'; and he illustrates it by comparing the +histories of his four contemporaries: + + Two of these are by so much preferable before the other Two, + that the first may worthily stand by the Sides of the best + of the Ancients, whilst both the others must be placed under + them; and a Man, without knowing more of them, may by reading + their Books find the Difference between their Extractions, + their Educations, their Conversations, and their Judgment. The + first Two are _Henry D'Avila_ and Cardinal _Bentivoglio_, both + _Italians_ of illustrious Birth; ... they often set forth and + describe the same Actions with very pleasant and delightful + Variety; and commonly the greatest Persons they have occasion + to mention were very well known to them both, which makes + their Characters always very lively. Both their Histories are + excellent, and will instruct the ablest and wisest Men how to + write, and terrify them from writing. The other Two were _Hugo + Grotius_ and _Famianus Strada_, who both wrote in _Latin_ + upon the same Argument, and of the same Time, of the Wars of + _Flanders_, and of the _Low-Countries_. + +He proceeds to show that Grotius, with all his learning and abilities, +and with all his careful revisions, had not been able to give his +narrative enough life and spirit; it was deficient in 'a lively +Representation of Persons and Actions, which makes the Reader present +at all they say or do'. The whole passage, which is too long to +be quoted in full, is not more valuable as a criticism than as an +indication of his own aims, and of his equipment to realize them. Some +years earlier, when he was still thinking 'with much agony' about the +method he was to employ in his own history, he had cited the methods +of Davila, 'who', he added, 'I think hath written as ours should be +written.'[7] + +One of Clarendon's tests of a good history, it will be noted, is +the 'lively representation of persons'; the better writers are +distinguished by making 'their characters always very lively'. In +his own hands, and in Burnet's, the character assumes even greater +importance than the continental historians had given it. At every +opportunity Clarendon leaves off his narrative of events to describe +the actors in the great drama, and Burnet introduces his main subject +with what is in effect an account of his _dramatis personæ_. They +excel in the range and variety of their characters. But they had +studied the continental historians, and the encouragement of example +must not be forgotten. + + * * * * * + +The debt to French literature can easily be overstated. No French +influence is discoverable in the origin and rise of the English +character, nor in its form or manner; but its later development may +have been hastened by French example, especially during the third +quarter of the seventeenth century. + +France was the home of the _mémoire_, the personal record in which +the individual portrays himself as the centre of his world, and +describes events and persons in the light of his own experience. It +was established as a characteristic form of French literature in the +sixteenth century,[8] and it reached its full vigour and variety +in the century of Sully, Rohan, Richelieu, Tallemant des Réaux, +Bassompierre, Madame de Motteville, Mlle de Montpensier, La +Rochefoucauld, Villars, Cardinal de Retz, Bussy-Rabutin--to name but +a few. This was the age of the _mémoire_, always interesting, often +admirably written; and, as might be expected, sometimes exhibiting the +art of portraiture at perfection. The English memoir is comparatively +late. The word, in the sense of a narrative of personal recollections, +was borrowed at the Restoration. The thing itself, under other names, +is older. It is a branch of history that flourishes in stirring +and difficult times when men believe themselves to have special +information about hidden forces that directed the main current of +events, and we date it in this country from the period of the Civil +Wars. It is significant that when Shaftesbury in his old age composed +his short and fragmentary autobiography he began by saying, 'I in this +follow the French fashion, and write my own memoirs.' Even Swift, when +publishing Temple's _Memoirs_, said that ''tis to the French (if I +mistake not) we chiefly owe that manner of writing; and Sir William +Temple is not only the first, but I think the only Englishman (at +least of any consequence) who ever attempted it.' Few English memoirs +were then in print, whereas French memoirs were to be numbered by +dozens. But the French fashion is not to be regarded as an importation +into English literature, supplying what had hitherto been lacking. At +most it stimulated what already existed. + +The _mémoire_ was not the only setting for French portraits at this +time. There were the French romances, and notably the _Artamène ou +le Grand Cyrus_ and the _Clélie_ of Madeleine de Scudéry. The full +significance of the _Grand Cyrus_ has been recovered for modern +readers by Victor Cousin, with great skill and charm, in his _Société +française au XVIIe siècle_, where he has shown it to be, 'properly +speaking, a history in portraits'. The characters were drawn from +familiar figures in French society. 'Ainsi s'explique', says Cousin, +'l'immense succès du _Cyrus_ dans le temps où il parut. C'était une +galerie des portraits vrais et frappants, mais un peu embellis, +où tout ce qu'il y avait de plus illustre en tout genre--princes, +courtisans, militaires, beaux-esprits, et surtout jolies +femmes--allaient se chercher et se reconnaissaient avec un plaisir +inexprimable.'[9] It was easy to attack these romances. Boileau made +fun of them because the classical names borne by the characters +were so absurdly at variance with the matter of the stories.[10] But +instead of giving, as he said, a French air and spirit to Greece and +Rome, Madeleine de Scudéry only gave Greek and Roman names to France +as she knew it. The names were a transparent disguise that was not +meant to conceal the picture of fashionable society. + +The next stage was the portrait by itself, without any setting. At the +height of the popularity of the romances, Mlle de Montpensier hit upon +a new kind of entertainment for the talented circle of which she was +the brilliant centre. It was nothing more nor less than a paper game. +They drew each other, or persons whom they knew, or themselves, and +under their real names. And they played the game so well that what was +written for amusement was worth printing. _Divers Portraits, Imprimés +en l'année M DC LIX_ was the simple title of the first collection, +which was intended only for the contributors.[11] When it reached its +final form in 1663, it contained over a hundred and fifty portraits, +and was offered to the public as _La Galerie des Peintures, ou Recueil +des portraits et éloges en vers et en prose, contenant les portraits +du Roy, de la Reyne, des princes, princesses, duchesses, marquises, +comtesses, et autres seigneurs et dames les plus illustres de France; +la plupart composés par eux-mêmes_.[12] The introductory defence of +the portrait cites Suetonius and Plutarch, and Horace and Montaigne, +but also states frankly the true original of the new fashion--'il faut +avouer que nous sommes très redevables au _Cyrus_ et à la _Clélie_ +qui nous en ont fourni les modèles.' About the same time Antoine +Baudeau, sieur de Somaize, brought out his _Grand Dictionnaire des +Précieuses_,[13] in which there are many portraits in the accepted +manner. The portrait was more than a fashion at this time in France; +it was the rage. It therefore invited the satirists. Molière has a +passing jest at them in his _Précieuses Ridicules_;[14] Charles Sorel +published his _Description de I'isle de la Portraiture et de la ville +des Portraits_; and Boileau wrote his _Héros de Roman_. + +The effects of all this in England are certainly not obvious. It is +quite a tenable view that the English characters would have been +no less numerous, nor in any way different in quality, had every +Englishman been ignorant of French. But the _mémoires_ and romances +were well known, and it was after 1660 that the art of the character +attained its fullest excellence. The literary career of Clarendon +poses the question in a simple form. Most of his characters, and the +best as a whole, were written at Montpelier towards the close of +his life. Did he find in French literature an incentive to indulge +and perfect his natural bent? Yet there can be no conclusive answer +to those who find a sufficient explanation in the leisure of these +unhappy years, and in the solace that comes to chiefs out of war +and statesmen out of place in ruminating on their experiences and +impressions. + + * * * * * + +Something may have been learned also from the other kind of character +that is found at its best in modern literature in the seventeenth +century, the character derived from Theophrastus, and depicting not +the individual but the type. In France, the one kind led on to the +other. The romances of Scudéry prepared the way for the _Caractères ou +les Moeurs de ce Siècle_ of La Bruyère. When the fashionable portrait +of particular persons fell out of favour, there arose in its place the +description of dispositions and temperaments; and in the hands of La +Bruyère 'the manners of the century' were the habits and varieties +of human nature. In England the two kinds existed side by side. They +correspond to the two methods of the drama. Begin with the individual, +but draw him in such a way that we recognize in him our own or others' +qualities; or begin with the qualities shared by classes of people, +embody these in a person who stands for the greatest common measure of +the class, and finally--and only then--let him take on his distinctive +traits: these are methods which are not confined to the drama, and +at all stages of our literature have lived in helpful rivalry. Long +before France had her La Bruyère, England had her Hall, Overbury, and +Earle.[15] The Theophrastan character was at its best in this country +at the beginning of the seventeenth century when the historical +character was still in its early stages; and it was declining when +the historical character had attained its full excellence. They cannot +always be clearly distinguished, and they are sometimes purposely +blended, as in Butler's character of 'A Duke of Bucks,' where +the satire on a man of pronounced individuality is heightened by +describing his eccentricities as if they belonged to a recognized +class. + +The great lesson that the Theophrastan type of character could teach +was the value of balance and unity. A haphazard statement of +features and habits and peculiarities might suffice for a sketch, +but perspective and harmony were necessary to a finished portrait. +It taught that the surest method in depicting character was first +to conceive the character as a whole, and then to introduce detail +incidentally and in proper subordination. But the same lesson could +have been learned elsewhere. It might have been learned from the +English drama. + +[Footnote 1: North's Plutarch went into five editions between 1579 +and 1631; Thucydides was translated by Hobbes in 1629, and Polybius +by Edward Grimeston in 1633; Xenophon's _Anabasis_ was translated +by John Bingham in 1623, and the _Cyropædia_ by Philemon Holland in +1632; Arthur Golding's version of Cæsar's _Gallic War_ was several +times reprinted between 1565 and 1609; Philemon Holland, the +translator-general of the age, as Fuller called him, brought out +his Livy in 1600, and his Suetonius in 1606; Sallust was translated +by Thomas Heywood in 1608, and by William Crosse in 1629; Velleius +Paterculus was 'rendred English by Sir Robert Le Grys' in 1632; and by +1640 there had been six editions of Sir Henry Savile's _Histories_ and +_Agricola_ of Tacitus, first published in 1591, and five editions of +Richard Grenewey's _Annals_ and _Germany_, first published in 1598. +See H.R. Palmer's _English Editions and Translations of Greek and +Latin Classics printed before 1641_, Bibliographical Society, 1911.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Thucydides ... in whom (I beleeve with many others) the +Faculty of writing History is at the Highest.' Thucydides, 1629, 'To +the Readers.'] + +[Footnote 3: Philemon Holland's Livy, 1600, 'Dedication to +Elizabeth.'] + +[Footnote 4: Sir Henry Savile's Tacitus, 1591, 'A.B. To the Reader.'] + +[Footnote 5: _Supplement to Burnet's History_, ed. H.C. Foxcroft, p. +451.] + +[Footnote 6: In 'Reflections upon Several Christian Duties, Divine and +Moral, by Way of Essays', printed in _A Collection of several Tracts +of Edward Earl of Clarendon_, 1727, pp. 80-1.] + +[Footnote 7: Letter to the Earl of Bristol, February 1, 1646 +(_State Papers_, vol. ii, p. 334). Davila was very well known in +England--better, it would appear, than the other three--and was +credited with being more than a mere literary model. Clarendon says +that from his account of the civil wars of France 'no question our +Gamesters learned much of their play'. Sir Philip Warwick, after +remarking that Hampden was well read in history, tells us that the +first time he ever saw Davila's book it was lent to him 'under the +title of Mr. Hambden's _Vade Mecum_' (_Mémoires_, 1701, p. 240). +A translation was published by the authority of the Parliament in +1647-8. Translations of Strada, Bentivoglio, and Grotius followed in +1650, 1654, and 1665. Only parts of Thuanus were translated. The size +of his history was against a complete version.] + +[Footnote 8: See the _Mémoires_ of Monluc, Brantôme, La Noue, &c. The +fifty-two volumes in Petitot's incomplete series entitled _Collection +des Mémoires relatifs à l'histoire de France jusqu'au commencement +du dix-septième siècle_ show at a glance the remarkable richness of +French literature in the _mémoire_ at an early date.] + +[Footnote 9: _La Socíété française au XVIIe siècle_, 1858 vol. i, p. +7. The 'key' drawn up in 1657 is printed as an appendix.] + +[Footnote 10: _Art poétique_, iii. 115-18.] + +[Footnote 11: Cousin, _Madame de Sablé_, 1854, pp. 42-8.] + +[Footnote 12: Edited by Edouard de Barthélemy in 1860 under the title +_La Galerie des Portraits de Mademoiselle de Montpensier_.] + +[Footnote 13: Edited by Ch. Livet, 1856 (Bibliothèque Elzevirienne. 2 +vols.).] + +[Footnote 14: Sc. x, where Madelon says 'Je vous avoue que je suis +furieusement pour les portraits: je ne vois rien de si galant que +cela', and Mascarille replies, 'Les portraits sont difficiles, et +demandent un esprit profond: vous en verrez de ma manière qui ne vous +déplairont pas.'] + +[Footnote 15: Joseph Hall's _Characters of Vertues and Vices_ appeared +in 1608 Overbury's _Characters_ 1614-22. For Earle, see pp. 168-70.] + + + + +III. Clarendon. + + +Clarendon's _History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England_ +is made up of two works composed with different purposes and at +a distance of twenty years. The first, which may be called the +'Manuscript History', belongs to 1646-8; the second, the 'Manuscript +Life', to 1668-70. They were combined to form the _History_ as we +now read it in 1671, when new sections were added to give continuity +and to complete the narrative. On Clarendon's death in 1674 the +manuscripts passed to his two sons, Henry Hyde, second Earl of +Clarendon, and Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester; and under the +supervision of the latter a transcript of the _History_ was made for +the printers. The work was published at Oxford in three handsome +folio volumes in 1702, 1703, and 1704, and became the property of the +University. The portions of the 'Manuscript Life' which Clarendon +had not incorporated in the _History_ as being too personal, were +published by the University in 1759, under the title _The Life +of Edward Earl of Clarendon_, and were likewise printed from a +transcript.[1] + +The original manuscripts, now also in the possession of the University +of which Clarendon's family were such generous benefactors, enable +us to fix the dates of composition. We know whether a part belongs +originally to the 'Manuscript History' or the 'Manuscript Life', or +whether it was pieced in later. More than this, Clarendon every now +and again inserts the month and the day on which he began or ended +a section. We can thus trace the stages by which his great work was +built up, and learn how his art developed. We can also judge how +closely the printed texts represent what Clarendon had written. The +old controversy on the authenticity of the first edition has long been +settled.[2] The original editors did their work faithfully according +to the editorial standards of their day; and they were well within the +latitude allowed them by the terms of Clarendon's instructions when +they occasionally omitted a passage, or when they exercised their +somewhat prim and cautious taste in altering and polishing phrases +that Clarendon had dashed down as quickly as his pen could move.[3] +Later editors have restored the omitted passages and scrupulously +reproduced Clarendon's own words. But no edition has yet reproduced +his spelling. In the characters printed in this volume the attempt +is made, for the first time it is believed, to represent the original +manuscripts accurately to the letter.[4] + +On the defeat of the last Royalist army in Cornwall in February 1646 +it was necessary to provide for the safety of Prince Charles, and +Clarendon, in these days Sir Edward Hyde, accompanied him when on the +night of March 2 he set sail for Scilly. They arrived in Scilly on +March 4, and there they remained till April 16, when the danger of +capture by the Parliamentary fleet compelled them to make good their +escape to Jersey. It is a remarkable testimony to the vigour of +Clarendon's mind that even in the midst of this crisis he should +have been able to begin his _History_. He began it in Scilly on March +18, 1646--the date is at the head of his manuscript; and once he +was settled in Jersey he immediately resumed it. But in writing his +_History_ he did not, in these days, think of himself only as an +historian. He was a trusted adviser of the defeated party, and he +planned his faithful narrative of what he knew so well not solely to +vindicate the character and conduct of the King, but also with the +immediate purpose of showing how the disasters had been brought out, +and, by implication, how further disaster might be avoided. The proof +of this is to be found not in the _History_ itself, where he seems +to have his eye only on 'posterity' and 'a better age', but in his +correspondence. In a letter written to Sir Edward Nicholas, the King's +secretary, on November 15, 1646, Clarendon spoke of his _History_ at +some length: + + As soon as I found myself alone, I thought the best way to + provide myself for new business against the time I should be + called to it (for, Mr. Secretary, you and I must once again + to business) was to look over the faults of the old; and so + I resolved (which you know I threatned you with long ago) to + write the history of these evil times, and of this most lovely + Rebellion. Well; without any other help than a few diurnals + I have wrote of longer paper than this, and in the same fine + small hand, above threescore sheets of paper.... I write with + all fidelity and freedom of all I know, of persons and things, + and the oversights and omissions on both sides, in order to + what they desired; so that you will believe it will make mad + work among friends and foes, if it were published; but out + of it enough may be chosen to make a perfect story, and the + original kept for their perusal, who may be the wiser for + knowing the most secret truths; and you know it will be an + easier matter to blot out two sheets, than to write half an + one. If I live to finish it (as on my conscience I shall, for + I write apace), I intend to seal it up, and have it always + with me. If I die, I appoint it to be delivered to you, to + whose care (with a couple of good fellows more) I shall leave + it; that either of you dying, you may so preserve it, that + in due time somewhat by your care may be published, and the + original be delivered to the King, who will not find himself + flattered in it, nor irreverently handled: though, the truth + will better suit a dead than a living man. Three hours a + day I assign to this writing task; the rest to other study + and books; so I doubt not after seven years time in this + retirement, you will find me a pretty fellow.[5] + +From this, as from other passages in his letters, Clarendon's +first intentions are clear. The _History_ was to be a repository of +authentic information on 'this most lovely Rebellion', constructed +with the specifically didactic purpose of showing the King and his +advisers what lessons were to be learned from their errors; they would +be 'the wiser for knowing the most secret truths'. At first he looked +on his work as containing the materials of a 'perfect story', but as +he proceeded his ambitions grew. He had begun to introduce characters; +and when in the spring of 1647 he was about to write his first +character of Lord Falkland, he had come to the view that 'the +preservation of the fame and merit of persons, and deriving the same +to posterity, is no less the business of history than the truth of +things'.[6] He gave much thought to the character of Falkland, 'whom +the next age shall be taught', he was determined, 'to value more than +the present did.'[7] Concurrently with the introduction of characters +he paid more attention to the literary, as distinct from the +didactic, merits of his work. We find him comparing himself with other +historians, and considering what Livy and Tacitus would have done +in like circumstances. By the spring of 1648 he had brought down his +narrative to the opening of the campaign of 1644. Earlier in the +year he had been commanded by the King to be ready to rejoin Prince +Charles, and shortly afterwards he received definite instructions from +the Queen to attend on her and the Prince at Paris. He left Jersey +in June, and with his re-entry into active politics his _History_ was +abruptly ended. The seven years of retirement which he had anticipated +were cut down by the outbreak of the Second Civil War to two; and +within a year the King for whose benefit he had begun this _History_ +was led to the scaffold. Not for twenty years was Clarendon again to +have the leisure to be an historian. When in 1668 he once more took +up his pen, it was not a continuation of the first work, but an +entirely new work, that came in steady flow from the abundance of his +knowledge. + +Clarendon returned to England as Lord Chancellor in 1660, and for +seven years enjoyed the power which he had earned by ceaseless +devotion to his two royal masters. The ill success of the war with the +Dutch, jealousy of his place and influence, the spiteful opposition +of the King's chief mistress, and the King's own resentment at an +attitude that showed too little deference and imprudently suggested +the old relations of tutor and pupil, all combined to bring about his +fall. He fled from England on November 30, 1667, and was never to set +foot in England again. Broken in health and spirit, he sought in vain +for many months a resting-place in France, and not till July 1668 did +he find a new home at Montpelier. Here his health improved, and here +he remained till June 1671. These were busy years of writing, and +by far the greater portion of his published work, if his letters +and state papers be excluded, belongs to this time. First of all he +answered the charge of high treason brought against him by the House +of Commons in _A Discourse, by Way of Vindication of my self_, begun +on July 24, 1668; he wrote most of his _Reflections upon Several +Christian Duties, Divine and Moral_, a collection of twenty-five +essays, some of considerable length, on subjects largely suggested +by his own circumstances; and he completed between December 1668 and +February 1671 his _Contemplations and Reflections upon the Psalms of +David_, an elaborate exposition extending to well over four hundred +folio pages of print, which he had begun at Jersey in 1647. But his +great work at this time was his _Life_, begun on July 23, 1668, +and brought down to 1660 by August 1, 1670. It is by far the most +elaborate autobiography that had yet been attempted in English. The +manuscript consists of over six hundred pages, and each page contains +on an average about a thousand words. He wrote with perfect freedom, +for this work, unlike the earlier _History_, was not intended for the +eyes of the King, and the didactic days were over. He wrote too with +remarkable ease. The very appearance of the manuscript, where page +follows page with hardly an erasure, and the 'fine hand' becomes finer +and finer, conveys even a sense of relief and pleasure. His pen seems +to move of itself and the long and elaborate sentences to evolve of +their own free will. The story of his life became a loose framework +into which he could fit all that he wished to tell of his own times; +and the more he told, his vindication would be the more complete. +'Even unawares', he admitted, 'many things are inserted not so +immediately applicable to his own person, which possibly may +hereafter, in some other method, be communicated to the world.'[8] He +welcomed the opportunity to tell all that he knew. There was no reason +for reticence. He wrote of men as of things frankly as he knew them. +More than a history of the Rebellion, his _Life_ is also a picture of +the society in which he had moved. It is the work which contains most +of his characters.[9] + +His early _History_ had been left behind in England on his sudden +flight. For about four years he was debarred from all intercourse with +his family, but in 1671 the royal displeasure so far relaxed that his +second son, Laurence, was granted a pass to visit him, and he brought +the manuscript that had been left untouched for twenty years. They met +in June at Moulins, which was to be Clarendon's home till April 1674. +Once the old and the new work were both in his hands, he cast his +great _History of the Rebellion_ in its final form, and thus 'finished +the work which his heart was most set upon'. In June 1672 he turned +to the 'Continuation of his Life', which deals with his Chancellorship +and his fall, and was not intended 'ever for a public view, or for +more than the information of his children'. As its conclusion shows, +it was his last work to be completed, but while engaged on it he found +time to write much else, including his reply to Hobbes's _Leviathan_. +'In all this retirement', he could well say, in a passage which reads +like his obituary, 'he was very seldom vacant, and then only when he +was under some sharp visitation of the gout, from reading excellent +books, or writing some animadversions and exercitations of his own, +as appears by the papers and notes which he left.' The activity of +these years of banishment is remarkable in a man who had turned sixty +and had passed through about thirty years of continuous storm. His +intellectual vitality was unimpaired. The old English jollity that +Evelyn had remarked in him in happier if more difficult days had gone, +but the even temper from which it had sprung still remained. He was at +his best as a writer then; writing was never an effort to him, but in +his exile it was an exercise and recreation. He could have said with +Dryden that 'what judgment I had increases rather than diminishes; and +thoughts, such as they are, come crowding in so fast upon me, that my +only difficulty is to choose or to reject'. + +He was still in hopes that he would be allowed to return to England, +to die in his own country and among his children. 'Seven years', +he said, 'was a time prescribed and limited by God himself for the +expiration of some of his greatest judgements.'[10] In the seventh +year of his banishment he left Moulins for Rouen, so as to be nearer +home. His hopes were vain. He died at Rouen on December 9, 1674.[11] +His body was brought to England for burial in Westminster. + + * * * * * + +Clarendon had been interested in the study of character all his +life. His earliest work was 'The Difference and Disparity between the +Estates and Conditions of George Duke of Buckingham and Robert Earl of +Essex'. Sir Henry Wotton had written observations on these statesmen +'by way of parallel', and Clarendon pointed out as a sequel wherein +they differed. It is a somewhat laboured composition in comparison +with his later work, a young man's careful essay that lacks the +confidence that comes with experience, but it shows at an early stage +the talents which knowledge and practice were to develop into mastery. +The school in which he learned most was the circle of his friends. Few +men can have owed more to their friends than he did, or have been more +generous in acknowledging the debt. He tells us he was often heard to +say that 'next the immediate blessing and providence of God Almighty, +which had preserved him throughout the whole course of his life +(less strict than it ought to have been) from many dangers and +disadvantages, in which many other young men were lost, he owed +all the little he knew, and the little good that was in him, to the +friendships and conversation he had still been used to, of the most +excellent men in their several kinds that lived in that age; by whose +learning, and information, and instruction, he formed his studies, +and mended his understanding, and by whose gentleness and sweetness +of behaviour, and justice, and virtue, and example, he formed his +manners, subdued that pride and suppressed that heat and passion he +was naturally inclined to be transported with.' He used often to say, +he continues, that 'he never was so proud, or thought himself so good +a man, as when he was the worst man in the company'. He cultivated +his friendships, it is true, with an eye to his advancement; but it +is equally true that he had a nature which invited friendships. He +enjoyed to the full the pleasure of living and seeing others live, +and a great part of his pleasure consisted in observing how men +differed in their habits and foibles. He tells how Ben Jonson did +not understand why young Mr. Hyde should neglect the delights of his +company at the call of business; how Selden, with all his stupendous +learning, was never more studious of anything than his ease; how +Earle gave a wrong impression by the negligence of his dress and +mien, whereas no man was more wary and cultivated in his behaviour and +discourse; how Chillingworth argued for the pleasure of arguing and +thereby irritated his friends and at last grew confident of nothing; +how Hales, great in scholarship but diminutive in stature, liked to be +by himself but had a very open and pleasant conversation in congenial +company; how Waller nursed his reputation for ready wit by seeming +to speak on the sudden what he had thoroughly considered. In all his +accounts of the friends of his youth Clarendon is in the background, +but we picture him moving among them at ease, conscious of his +inferiority in learning and brilliance and the gentler virtues, +yet trusting to his own judgement, and convinced that every man +worth knowing has a pronounced individuality. In these happy and +irresponsible days, when he numbered poets among his friends, he +himself wrote poetry. Little of it is preserved. He contributed +introductory verses to Davenant's _Albovine_, and composed verses on +the death of Donne. His poetry was well enough known for Dryden to +allude to it during his Lord Chancellorship, in the address presented +to him at the height of his power in 1662: + + The _Muses_, who your early Courtship boast, + Though now your Flames are with their Beauty lost, + Yet watch their Time, that if you have forgot + They were your Mistresses, the world may not. + +But first the law claimed him, and then politics, and then came the +Civil War. As Privy Councillor and Chancellor of the Exchequer he was +in the thick of the conflict. The men whom he had now to study were +men of affairs. He had the clear and unimpassioned vision which often +goes with a warm temperament, and could scrutinize his friends without +endangering his affection for them. However deeply his feelings might +be engaged, he had taken a pleasure in trying to see them exactly as +they were. When he came to judge his political enemies he continued +the same attitude of detachment, and studiously cultivated it. 'I am +careful', he said in a private letter,[12] 'to do justice to every +man who hath fallen in the quarrel, on which side soever.' 'I know +myself', he said in the _History_,[13] 'to be very free from any of +those passions which naturally transport men with prejudice towards +the persons whom they are obliged to mention, and whose actions they +are at liberty to censure.' It was beyond human nature for a man who +had lived through what he did to be completely unprejudiced. He did +not always scrupulously weigh what he knew would be to the discredit +of the Parliamentary leaders, nor did he ignore mere Royalist rumour, +as in the character of Pym. But his characters of them are often more +favourable than might have been expected. He may show his personal +dislike, or even his sense of their crime, but behind this he permits +us to see the qualities which contributed to their success. There can +be no reasonable objection to his characters of Hampden and Cromwell. +Political partisans find them disappointing, and they are certainly +not the final verdict. The worst that can be said of them is that +they are drawn from a wrong point of view; but from that point of view +their honesty is unquestionable. He does not distinguish men by their +party. The folly of his own side is exhibited as relentlessly as the +knavery of his opponents. Of no one did he write a more unfavourable +character than the Earl of Arundel. He explains the failure of Laud, +and he does not conceal the weakness of Charles. + +There is a broad distinction between his earlier and later characters. +While he was still in the midst of the conflict and hoped to influence +it by stating what he knew, he depicted the individual in relation +to events. When the conflict was over and he was at leisure to draw +on his recollections, he made the individual to a greater degree the +representative of the type. But the distinction is not clearly marked, +and Clarendon may not have suspected it. His habitual detachment was +assisted by his exile. The displeasure of his ungrateful master, from +whom he had never been separated during seventeen difficult years, had +proved the vanity of the little things of life. He looked at men from +a distance that obscures what is insignificant, and shows only the +essential. + +All his characters are clearly defined. We never confound them; we +never have any doubt of how he understood them. He sees men as a whole +before he begins to describe them, and then his only difficulty, as +his manuscripts show, is to make his pen move fast enough. He does not +build up his characters. He does not, as many others do, start with +the external features in the hope of arriving at the central facts. He +starts from the centre and works outwards. This is the reason of the +convincingness of his characters, their dramatic truth. The dramatic +sense in him is stronger than the pictorial. + +He troubles little about personal appearance, or any of the traits +which would enable us to visualize his men. We understand them rather +than see them. Hampden, he tells us, was 'of a most civil and affable +deportment' and had 'a flowing courtesy to all men', a 'rare temper +and modesty'; it is Sir Philip Warwick who speaks of the 'scurf +commonly on his face'.[14] He says that the younger Vane 'had an +unusual aspect', and leaves us wondering what was unusual. His +Falkland is an exception, but he adopted a different scale when +describing his greatest friend and only hero. Each of his two accounts +of Falkland is in fact a brief biography rather than a character; +the earliest of them, written shortly after Falkland's death, he once +thought of making into a volume by itself. In his characters proper +he confines himself more strictly than any other writer to matters of +character. They are characters rather than portraits. + +But portraiture was one of his passions, though he left its practice +to the painters. He adorned his houses with the likenesses of his +friends. It was fitting that our greatest character writer should +have formed one of the great collections of pictures of 'wits, poets, +philosophers, famous and learned Englishmen'.[15] To describe them +on paper, and to contrive that they should look down on him from his +walls, were different ways of indulging the same keen and tireless +interest in the life amid which he moved. + +[Footnote 1: For a detailed examination of the composition and value +of Clarendon's _History_ see the three articles by Professor C.H. +Firth in _The English Historical Review_ for 1904. No student of +Clarendon can ever afford to neglect them.] + +[Footnote 2: See No. 33, introductory note.] + +[Footnote 3: See No. 6, introductory note, and No. 36, p. 140, II. +17-22 note.] + +[Footnote 4: Contractions have been expanded. The punctuation of the +original is slight, and it has been found desirable occasionally to +insert commas, where seventeenth century printers would have inserted +them; but the run of the sentences has not been disturbed. In +modernized versions Clarendon's long sentences are sometimes +needlessly subdivided.] + +[Footnote 5: _State Papers_, 1773, vol. ii, pp. 288-9.] + +[Footnote 6: Letter of March 16, 1647; _infra_ p. 275.] + +[Footnote 7: Letter of January 8, 1647; T.H. Lister, _Life of +Clarendon_, 1837, vol. iii, p. 43.] + +[Footnote 8: Ed. 1857, part 1, § 85; omitted in the edition of 1759.] + +[Footnote 9: Of the thirty-seven characters by Clarendon in this +volume, twenty-seven are from the 'Manuscript Life'.] + +[Footnote 10: _State Papers_, 1786, vol. iii, supp., p. xlv.] + +[Footnote 11: Clarendon's lifetime coincided almost exactly with +Milton's. He was two months younger than Milton, and died one month +later.] + +[Footnote 12: December 14, 1647; _infra_ p. 275.] + +[Footnote 13: Book ix, _ad init._; ed. Macray, vol. iv, p. 3.] + +[Footnote 14: See note, p. 129, ll. 22 ff.] + +[Footnote 15: Evelyn's _Diary_, December 20, 1668. See the account of +'The Clarendon Gallery' in Lady Theresa Lewis's _Lives of the friends +of Clarendon_, 1852, vol. i, pp. 15* ff., and vol. iii, pp. 241 ff.] + + + + +IV. Other Character Writers. + + +When Clarendon's _History_ was at last made public, no part of it +was more frequently discussed, or more highly praised, than its +characters--'so just', said Evelyn, 'and tempered without the least +ingredient of passion or tincture of revenge, yet with such natural +and lively touches as show his lordship well knew not only the +persons' outsides, but their very interiors.'[1] About the same time, +and probably as a consequence of the publication of Clarendon's work, +Bishop Burnet proceeded to put into its final form the _History_ on +which he had been engaged since 1683. He gave special attention to his +characters, some of which he entirely rewrote. They at once invited +comparison with Clarendon's, and first impressions, then as now, were +not in their favour. 'His characters are miserably wrought,' said +Swift.[2] + +Burnet was in close touch with the political movements of his time. +'For above thirty years,' he wrote, 'I have lived in such intimacy +with all who have had the chief conduct of affairs, and have been so +much trusted, and on so many important occasions employed by them, +that I have been able to penetrate far into the true secrets of +counsels and designs.'[3] He had a retentive memory, and a full share +of worldly wisdom. But he was not an artist like Clarendon. His style +has none of the sustained dignity, the leisurely evolution, which in +Clarendon is so strangely at variance with the speed of composition. +All is stated, nothing suggested. There is a succession of short +sentences, each perfectly clear in itself, often unlinked to what +precedes or follows, and always without any of the finer shades of +meaning. It is rough work, and on the face of it hasty, and so it +would have remained, no matter how often it had been revised. Again, +Burnet does not always have perfect control of the impression he +wishes to convey. It is as if he did not have the whole character in +his mind before he began to write, but collected his thoughts from +the stores of his memory in the process of composition. We are often +uncertain how to understand a character before we have read it all. In +some cases he seems to be content to present us with the material from +which, once we have pieced it together ourselves, we can form our own +judgement. But what he tells us has been vividly felt by him, and is +vividly presented. The great merit of his characters lies in their +realism. Of the Earl of Lauderdale he says that 'He made a very ill +appearance: He was very big: His hair red, hanging oddly about him: +His tongue was too big for his mouth, which made him bedew all that +he talked to.' There is no hint of this in Clarendon's character of +Lauderdale, nor could Clarendon have spoken with the same directness. +Burnet has no circumlocutions, just as in private life he was +not known to indulge in them. When he reports what was said in +conversation he gives the very words. Lauderdale 'was a man, as the +Duke of Buckingham called him to me, of a blundering understanding'. +Halifax 'hoped that God would not lay it to his charge, if he could +not digest iron, as an ostrich did, nor take into his belief things +that must burst him'. It is the directness and actuality of such +things as these, and above all his habit of describing men in relation +to himself, that make his best characters so vivid. Burnet is seldom +in the background. He allows us to suspect that it is not the man +himself whom he presents to us but the man as he knew him, though +he would not have admitted the distinction. He could not imitate the +detachment of Clarendon, who is always deliberately impersonal, and +writes as if he were pronouncing the impartial judgement of history +from which there can be no appeal. Burnet views his men from a much +nearer distance. His perspective may sometimes be at fault, but he +gets the detail. + +With all his shrewd observation, it must be admitted that his range of +comprehension was limited. There were no types of character too subtle +for Clarendon to understand. There were some which eluded Burnet's +grasp. He is at his best in describing such a man as Lauderdale, where +the roughness of the style is in perfect keeping with the subject. +His character of Shaftesbury, whom he says he knew for many years in a +very particular manner, is a valuable study and a remarkable companion +piece to Dryden's _Achitophel_. But he did not understand Halifax. The +surface levity misled him. He tells us unsuspectingly as much about +himself as about Halifax. He tells us that the Trimmer could never be +quite serious in the good bishop's company. + +We learn more about Halifax from his own elaborate study of Charles +II. It is a prolonged analysis by a man of clear vision, and perfect +balance of judgement, and no prepossessions; who was, moreover, master +of the easy pellucid style that tends to maxim and epigram. A more +impartial and convincing estimate of any king need never be expected. +In method and purpose, it stands by itself. It is indeed not so +much a character in the accepted sense of the word as a scientific +investigation of a personality. Others try to make us see and +understand their men; Halifax anatomizes. Yet he occasionally permits +us to discover his own feelings. Nothing disappointed him more in the +merry monarch than the company he kept, and his comprehensive taste in +wit. 'Of all men that ever _liked_ those who _had wit_, he could the +best _endure_ those who had _none_': there is more here than is on the +surface; we see at once Charles, and his court, and Halifax himself. + +As a class, the statesmen and politicians more than hold their +own with the other character writers of the seventeenth century. +Shaftesbury's picture of Henry Hastings, a country gentleman of the +old school, who carried well into the Stuart period the habits and +life of Tudor times, shows a side of his varied accomplishments which +has not won the general recognition that it deserves. It is a sketch +exactly in the style of the eighteenth century essayists. It makes us +regret that the fragmentary autobiography in which it is found did not +come down to a time when it could have included sketches of his famous +contemporaries. The literary skill of his grandson, the author of the +_Characteristicks_, was evidently inherited. + +Sir Philip Warwick has the misfortune to be overshadowed by Clarendon. +As secretary to Charles I in the year before his execution, and as +a minor government official under Charles II, he was well acquainted +with men and affairs. Burnet describes him as 'an honest but a weak +man', and adds that 'though he pretended to wit and politics, he was +not cut out for that, and least of all for writing of history'. He +could at least write characters. They do not bear the impress of a +strong personality, but they have the fairmindedness and the calm +outlook that spring from a gentle and unassertive nature. His Cromwell +and his Laud are alike greatly to his credit; and the private view +that he gives us of Charles has unmistakable value. His _Mémoires_ +remained in manuscript till 1701, the year before the publication of +Clarendon's _History_. It was the first book to appear with notable +characters of the men of the Civil Wars and the Protectorate. + +The Histories and Memoirs of the seventeenth century contain by far +the greatest number of its characters; but they are to be found also +in scattered Lives, and in the collections of material that mark the +rise of modern English biography. There are disappointingly few by +Fuller. In his _Worthies of England_ he is mainly concerned with the +facts of a man's life, and though, in his own word, he fleshes the +bare skeleton of time, place, and person with pleasant passages, +and interlaces many delightful stories by way of illustrations, and +everywhere holds us by the quaint turns of his fertile fancy, yet the +scheme of the book did not involve the depicting of character, nor did +it allow him to deal with many contemporaries whom he had known. In +the present volume it has therefore been found best to represent him +by the studies of Bacon and Laud in his _Church-History_. Bacon he +must have described largely from hearsay, but what he says of Laud is +an admirable specimen of his manner, and leaves us wishing that he had +devoted himself in larger measure to the worthies of his own time. + +There are no characters in Aubrey's _Brief Lives_, which are only a +series of rough jottings by a prince of gossips, who collected what +he could and put it all on paper 'tumultuarily'. But the extracts from +what he says of Hobbes and Milton may be considered as notes for a +character, details that awaited a greater artist than Aubrey was to +work them into a picture; and if Hobbes and Milton are to be given a +place, as somehow or other they must be, in a collection of the kind +that this volume offers, there is no option but to be content with +such notes, for there is no set character of either of them. The value +of the facts which Aubrey has preserved is shown by the use made of +them by all subsequent biographers, and notably by Anthony à Wood, +whose _Athenæ Oxonienses_ is our first great biographical dictionary. + +Lives of English men of letters begin in the seventeenth century, +and from Rawley's _Life of Bacon_, Sprat's _Life of Cowley_, and the +anonymous _Life of Fuller_ it is possible to extract passages which +are in effect characters. But Walton's _Lives_, the best of all +seventeenth century Lives, refuse to yield any section, for each of +them is all of a piece; they are from beginning to end continuous +character studies, revealing qualities of head and heart in their +affectionate record of fact and circumstance. There is therefore +nothing in this volume from his _Life of Donne_ or his _Life of +Herbert_. As a rule the characters that can be extracted from Lives +are much inferior to the clearly defined characters that are inserted +in Histories. The focus is not the same. When an author after dealing +with a man's career sums up his mental and moral qualities in a +section by itself, he does not trust to it alone to convey the total +impression. He is too liable also to panegyric, like Rawley, who could +see no fault in his master Bacon, or Sprat who, in Johnson's words, +produced a funeral oration on Cowley. There are no characters +of scholars or poets so good as Clarendon's Hales, or Earle, or +Chillingworth, or Waller; and for this reason, that Clarendon +envisages them, not as scholars or poets but as men, and gains a +definite and complete effect within small compass. + +Roger North made his life of his brother Lord Keeper Guilford an +account of the bench and bar under Charles II and James II. Of its +many sketches of lawyers whom he or his brother had known, none is +so perfect in every way as the character of Chief Justice Saunders, a +remarkable man in real life who still lives in North's pages with +all his eccentricities. North writes at length about his brother, +yet nowhere do we see and understand him so clearly as we see and +understand Saunders. The truth is that a life and a character have +different objects and methods and do not readily combine. It is only +a small admixture of biography that a character will endure. And with +the steady development of biography the character declined. + +A character must be short; and it must be entire, the complete +expression of a clear judgement. The perfect model is provided +by Clarendon. He has more than formal excellence. 'Motives', said +Johnson, 'are generally unknown. We cannot trust to the characters +we find in history, unless when they are drawn by those who knew the +persons; as those, for instance, by Sallust and by Lord Clarendon.'[4] + + +[Footnote 1: Letter to Pepys, January 20, 1703; Pepys's _Diary_, ed. +Braybrooke, 1825, vol. ii, p. 290.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Short Remarks on Bishop Burnet's _History_,' _ad init._] + +[Footnote 3: _History_, preface] + +[Footnote 4: Boswell, 1769, ed. G.B. Hill, vol. ii, p. 79.] + + * * * * * + +Sooner or later every one who deals with the history or literature +of the seventeenth century has to own his obligations to Professor +C.H. Firth. My debt is not confined to his writings, references to +which will be found continually in the notes. At every stage of +the preparation of this volume I have had the advantage of his most +generous interest. And with his name it is a pleasure to associate in +one compendious acknowledgement the names of Dr. Henry Bradley and Mr. +Percy Simpson. + +Oxford, +September 16, 1918. +D.N.S. + + + + +1. + +JAMES I. + +_James VI of Scotland 1567. James I 1603._ + +_Born 1566. Died 1625._ + +By ARTHUR WILSON. + + +He was born a King, and from that height, the less fitted to look +into inferiour things; yet few escaped his knowledge, being, as it +were, a _Magazine_ to retain them. His _Stature_ was of the _Middle +Size_; rather tall than low, well set and somewhat plump, of a ruddy +Complexion, his hair of a light brown, in his full perfection, had +at last a Tincture of white. If he had any predominant _Humor_ to +Ballance his _Choler_, it was Sanguine, which made his _Mirth Witty_. +His Beard was scattering on the Chin, and very thin; and though his +Clothes were seldome fashioned to the _Vulgar_ garb, yet in the whole +man he was not uncomely. He was a King in understanding, and was +content to have his Subjects ignorant in many things; As in curing the +_Kings Evil_, which he knew a _Device_, to ingrandize the _Vertue_ of +Kings, when _Miracles_ were in fashion; but he let the World believe +it, though he smiled at it, in his own _Reason_, finding the strength +of the _Imagination_ a more powerfull _Agent_ in the _Cure_, than +the _Plaisters his Chirurgions_ prescribed for the _Sore_. It was a +hard _Question_, whether his Wisedome, and knowledge, exceeded his +_Choler_, and _Fear_; certainly the last couple drew him with most +violence, because they were not acquisititious, but _Naturall_; If he +had not had that _Allay_, his high touring, and mastering _Reason_, +had been of a _Rare_, and sublimed _Excellency_; but these earthy +_Dregs_ kept it down, making his _Passions_ extend him as farre +as _Prophaness_, that I may not say _Blasphemy_, and _Policy_ +superintendent of all his _Actions_; which will not last long (like +the _Violence_ of that _Humor_) for it often makes those that know +well, to do ill, and not be able to prevent it. + +He had pure _Notions_ in _Conception_, but could bring few of them +into _Action_, though they tended to his own _Preservation_: For this +was one of his _Apothegms_, which he made no timely use of. _Let that +Prince, that would beware of Conspiracies, be rather jealous of such, +whom his extraordinary favours have advanced, than of those whom +his displeasure hath discontented. These want means to execute their +Pleasures, but they have means at pleasure to execute their desires_. +Ambition to rule is more vehement than Malice to revenge. Though the +last part of this _Aphorism_, he was thought to practice too soon, +where there was no cause for prevention, and neglect too late, when +time was full ripe to produce the effect. + +Some _Parallel'd_ him to _Tiberius_ for _Dissimulation_, yet _Peace_ +was maintained by him as in the Time of _Augustus_; And _Peace_ begot +_Plenty_, and _Plenty_ begot _Ease_ and _Wantonness_, and _Ease_ and +_Wantonnesse_ begot _Poetry_, and _Poetry_ swelled to that _bulk_ +in his time, that it begot strange _Monstrous Satyrs_, against the +King[s] own person, that haunted both _Court_, and _Country_, which +exprest would be too bitter to leave a sweet perfume behind him. +And though bitter ingredients are good to imbalm and preserve dead +_bodies_, yet these were such as might indanger to kill a living name, +if _Malice_ be not brought in with an _Antidote_. And the tongues +of those times, more fluent than my _Pen_, made every little +_miscarriage_ (being not able to discover their true operations, like +smal _seeds_ hid in earthy _Darknesse_) grow up, and spread into such +exuberant _branches_, that evil _Report_ did often pearch upon them. +So dangerous it is for _Princes_, by a _Remisse Comportment_, to give +growth to the least _Error_; for it often proves as _fruitful_ as +_Malice_ can make it. + + + + +2. + +By SIR ANTHONY WELDON. + + +This Kings Character is much easier to take then his Picture, for he +could never be brought to sit for the taking of that, which is the +reason of so few good peeces of him; but his Character was obvious to +every eye. + +He was of a middle stature, more corpulent through his cloathes then +in his body, yet fat enough, his cloathes ever being made large and +easie, the Doublets quilted for steletto proofe, his Breeches in great +pleites and full stuffed: Hee was naturally of a timorous disposition, +which was the reason of his quilted Doublets: His eyes large, ever +rowling after any stranger came in his presence, insomuch, as many +for shame have left the roome, as being out of countenance: His Beard +was very thin: His Tongue too large for his mouth, which ever made +him speak full in the mouth, and made him drink very uncomely, as if +eating his drink, which came out into the cup of each side of his +mouth: His skin was as soft as Taffeta Sarsnet, which felt so, because +hee never washt his hands, onely rubb'd his fingers ends slightly with +the wet end of a Naptkin: His Legs were very weake, having had (as was +thought) some foul play in his youth, or rather before he was born, +that he was not able to stand at seven years of age, that weaknesse +made him ever leaning on other mens shoulders, his walke was ever +circular ... He was very temperate in his exercises, and in his dyet, +and not intemperate in his drinking; however in his old age, and +_Buckinghams_ joviall Suppers, when he had any turne to doe with +him, made him sometimes overtaken, which he would the very next day +remember, and repent with teares; it is true, he dranke very often, +which was rather out of a custom then any delight, and his drinks were +of that kind for strength, as Frontiniack, Canary, High Country wine, +Tent Wine, and Scottish Ale, that had he not had a very strong brain, +might have daily been overtaken, although he seldom drank at any +one time above four spoonfulls, many times not above one or two; He +was very constant in all things, his Favourites excepted, in which +he loved change, yet never cast down any (he once raised) from +the height of greatnesse, though from their wonted nearnesse, and +privacy; unlesse by their own default, by opposing his change, as in +_Somersets_ case: yet had he not been in that foul poysoning busines, +and so cast down himself, I do verily beleeve not him neither; for al +his other Favorites he left great in Honour, great in Fortune; and did +much love _Mountgomery_, and trusted him more at the very last gaspe, +then at the first minute of his Favoriteship: In his Dyet, Apparrell, +and Journeys, he was very constant; in his Apparrell so constant, as +by his good wil he would never change his cloathes untill worn out to +very ragges: His Fashion never: Insomuch as one bringing to him a Hat +of a _Spanish_ Block, he cast it from him, swearing he neither loved +them nor their fashions. Another time, bringing him Roses on his +Shooes, he asked, if they would make him a ruffe-footed-Dove? one yard +of six penny Ribbond served that turne: His Dyet and Journies were +so constant, that the best observing Courtier of our time was wont +to say, were he asleep seven yeares, and then awakened, he would tell +where the King every day had been, and every dish he had had at his +Table. + +Hee was not very uxorious, (though he had a very brave Queen that +never crossed his designes, nor intermedled with State affaires, +but ever complyed with him (even against the nature of any, but of +a milde spirit) in the change of Favourites;) for he was ever best, +when furthest from the Queene, and that was thought to be the first +grounds of his often removes, which afterwards proved habituall. +He was unfortunate in the marriage of his Daughter, and so was all +Christendome besides; but sure the Daughter was more unfortunate in +a Father, then he in a Daughter: He naturally loved not the sight of +a Souldier, nor of any Valiant man; and it was an observation that +Sir _Robert Mansell_ was the only valiant man he ever loved, and him +he loved so intirely, that for all _Buckinghams_ greatnesse with +the King, and his hatred of Sir _Robert Mansell_, yet could not +that alienate the Kings affections from him; insomuch as when by +the instigation of _Cottington_ (then Embassadour in _Spaine_) by +_Buckinghams_ procurement, the _Spanish_ Embassadour came with a +great complaint against _Sir Robert Mansell_, then at _Argiers_, to +suppresse the Pirats, That he did support them; having never a friend +there, (though many) that durst speake in his defence, the King +himselfe defended him in these words: _My Lord Embassadour, I cannot +beleeve this, for I made choyce my selfe of him, out of these reasons; +I know him to be valiant, honest, and Nobly descended as most in my +Kingdome, and will never beleeve a man thus qualified will doe so base +an act_. He naturally loved honest men, that were not over active, +yet never loved any man heartily untill he had bound him unto him by +giving him some suite, which he thought bound the others love to him +againe; but that argued a poore disposition in him, to beleeve that +any thing but a Noble minde, seasoned with vertue, could make any +firme love or union, for mercinary mindes are carried away with a +greater prize, but Noble mindes, alienated with nothing but publick +disgraces. + +He was very witty, and had as many ready witty jests as any man +living, at which he would not smile himselfe, but deliver them in a +grave and serious manner: He was very liberall, of what he had not in +his owne gripe, and would rather part with 100._li._ hee never had in +his keeping, then one twenty shillings peece within his owne custody: +He spent much, and had much use of his Subjects purses, which bred +some clashings with them in Parliament, yet would alwayes come off, +and end with a sweet and plausible close; and truly his bounty was not +discommendable, for his raising Favourites was the worst: Rewarding +old servants, and releiving his Native Country-men, was infinitely +more to be commended in him, then condemned. His sending Embassadours, +were no lesse chargeable then dishonourable and unprofitable to him +and his whole Kingdome; for he was ever abused in all Negotiations, +yet hee had rather spend 100000._li._ on Embassies, to keep or procure +peace with dishonour, then 10000._li._ on an Army that would have +forced peace with honour: He loved good Lawes, and had many made in +his time, and in his last Parliament, for the good of his Subjects, +and suppressing Promoters, and progging fellowes, gave way to that +_Nullum tempus, &c._ to be confined to 60. yeares, which was more +beneficiall to the Subjects in respect of their quiets, then all the +Parliaments had given him during his whole Reign. By his frequenting +Sermons he appeared Religious; yet his Tuesday Sermons (if you will +beleeve his owne Country men, that lived in those times when they +were erected, and well understood the cause of erecting them) were +dedicated for a strange peece of devotion. + +He would make a great deale too bold with God in his passion, both in +cursing and swearing, and one straine higher vergeing on blasphemie; +But would in his better temper say, he hoped God would not impute +them as sins, and lay them to his charge, seeing they proceeded from +passion: He had need of great assurance, rather then hopes, that would +make daily so bold with God. + +He was so crafty and cunning in petty things, as the circumventing any +great man, the change of a Favourite, &c. insomuch as a very wise man +was wont to say, he beleeved him the wisest foole in Christendome, +meaning him wise in small things, but a foole in weighty affaires. + +He ever desired to prefer meane men in great places, that when he +turned them out again, they should have no friend to bandy with them: +And besides, they were so hated by being raised from a meane estate, +to over-top all men, that every one held it a pretty recreation to +have them often turned out: There were living in this Kings time, at +one instant, two Treasurers, three Secretaries, two Lord Keepers, two +Admiralls, three Lord chief Justices, yet but one in play, therefore +this King had a pretty faculty in putting out and in: By this you +may perceive in what his wisdome consisted, but in great and weighty +affaires even at his wits end. + +He had a trick to cousen himselfe with bargains under hand, by taking +1000._li._ or 10000._li._ as a bribe, when his Counsell was treating +with his Customers to raise them to so much more yearly, this went +into his Privy purse, wherein hee thought hee had over-reached the +Lords, but cousened himselfe; but would as easily breake the bargaine +upon the next offer, saying, he was mistaken and deceived, and +therefore no reason he should keep the bargaine; this was often the +case with the Farmers of the Customes; He was infinitely inclined +to peace, but more out of feare then conscience, and this was the +greatest blemish this King had through all his Reign, otherwise might +have been ranked with the very best of our Kings, yet sometimes would +hee shew pretty flashes of valour which might easily be discerned to +be forced, not naturall; and being forced, could have wished, rather, +it would have recoiled backe into himselfe, then carryed to that +King it had concerned, least he might have been put to the tryall, to +maintaine his seeming valour. + +In a word, he was (take him altogether and not in peeces) such a King, +I wish this Kingdom have never any worse, on the condition, not +any better; for he lived in peace, dyed in peace, and left all his +Kingdomes in a peaceable condition, with his owne Motto: + +_Beati Pacifici_. + + + + +3. + +THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. + +_George Villiers, created Viscount Villiers 1616, Earl of Buckingham +1617, Marquis 1618, and Duke 1623. Born 1592. Assassinated 1628_. + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Duke was indeede a very extraordinary person, and never any man in +any age, nor I believe in any country or nation, rose in so shorte a +tyme to so much greatenesse of honour fame and fortune upon no other +advantage or recommendation, then of the beauty and gracefulnesse +and becommingnesse of his person; and I have not the least purpose of +undervale[w]inge his good partes and qualityes (of which ther will be +occasion shortly to give some testimony) when I say, that his first +introduction into favour was purely from the handsomnesse of his +person: He was the younger Sunn of S'r George Villyers of Brookesby in +the County of Leicester, a family of an auncient extraction, even from +the tyme of the conquest, and transported then with the conqueror out +of Normandy, wher the family hath still remayned and still continues +with lustre: After S'r Georges first marriage, in which he had 2 or +3 Sunnes and some daughters, who shared an ample inheritance from +him, by a secounde marriage with a younge lady of the family of the +Beaumonts, he had this gentleman, and two other Sunns, and a daughter, +who all came afterwards to be raysed to greate titles and dignityes. +George, the eldest Sunn of this secounde bedd, was after the death +of his father, by the singular affection and care of his Mother, who +injoyed a good joynture in the accounte of that age, well brought up, +and for the improvment of his education, and givinge an ornament to +his hopefull person, he was by her sent into France, wher he spent +2. or 3. yeeres in attayninge the language, and in learninge the +exercises of rydinge and dauncinge, in the last of which he excelled +most men; and returned into Englande by the tyme he was 21. yeeres +old. + +Kinge James raingned at that tyme, and though he was a Prince of +more learninge and knowledge then any other of that age, and really +delighted more in bookes, and in the conversation of learned men, +yett of all wise men livinge, he was the most delighted and taken with +handsome persons, and with fyne clothes; He begann to be weary of his +Favorite the Earle of Somersett, who was the only Favorite who kept +that post so longe without any publique reproch from the people, and +by the instigation and wickednesse of his wife, he became at least +privy to a horrible murther, that exposed him to the utmost severity +of the law (the poysoninge of S'r Thomas Overbury) upon which both he +and his wife were condemned to dy, after a tryall by ther Peeres, and +many persons of quality were executed for the same: Whilst this was +in agitation, and before the utmost discovery was made, Mr. Villiers +appeared in Courte, and drew the Kings eyes upon him: Ther were enough +in the Courte enough angry and incensed against Somersett, for beinge +what themselves desyred to be, and especially for beinge a Scotchman, +and ascendinge in so shorte a tyme from beinge a page, to the height +he was then at, to contribute all they coulde, to promote the one, +that they might throw out the other; which beinge easily brought to +passe, by the proceedinge of the law upon his cryme aforesayd, the +other founde very little difficulty in rendringe himselfe gracious to +the Kinge, whose nature and disposition was very flowinge in affection +towards persons so adorned, insomuch that in few dayes after his first +appearance in Courte he was made Cup-bearer to the Kinge, by which +he was naturally to be much in his presence, and so admitted to that +conversation and discource, with which that Prince alwayes abounded +at his meales; and his inclination to his new Cuppbearer disposed him +to administer frequent occasions of discourcinge of the Courte of +France, and the transactions ther, with which he had bene so lately +acquainted, that he could pertinently inlarge upon that subjecte, +to the Kings greate delight, and to the reconcilinge the esteeme and +valew of all the Standers by likewise to him, which was a thinge +the Kinge was well pleased with: He acted very few weekes upon this +Stage, when he mounted higher, and beinge knighted, without any other +qualification he was at the same tyme made Gentleman of the Bedd +chamber, and Knight of the Order of the Gartar; and in a shorte tyme +(very shorte for such a prodigious ascent,) he was made a Barron, +a Viscount, an Earle, a Marquisse, and became L'd High Admirall of +Englande, L'd Warden of the Cinque Ports, Master of the Horse, and +intirely disposed of all the graces of the Kinge, in conferringe +all the Honours and all the Offices of the three kingdomes without +a ryvall; in dispencinge wherof, he was guyded more by the rules of +appetite then of judgement, and so exalted almost all of his owne +numerous family and dependants, who had no other virtue or meritt then +ther allyance to him, which æqually offended the auncient nobility and +the people of all conditions, who saw the Flowres of the Crowne every +day fadinge and withered, whilst the Demeasnes and revennue therof +was sacrificed to the inrichinge a private family (how well soever +originally extracted) not heard of before ever to the nation, and +the exspences of the Courte so vast, unlimited by the old good rules +of Oeconomy, that they had a sadd prospecte of that poverty and +necessity, which afterwards befell the Crowne, almost to the ruine of +it. + +Many were of opinion, that Kinge James before his death, grew weary of +his Favorite, and that if he had lyved, he would have deprived him at +least of his large and unlimited power; and this imagination prævayled +with some men, as the L'd Keeper Lincolne, the Earle of Middlesex, L'd +High Treasurer of England, and other gentlemen of name, though not +in so high stations, that they had the courage, to withdraw from ther +absolute dependance upon the Duke, and to make some other assayes, +which prooved to the ruine of every on of them, ther appearinge no +markes or evidence, that the Kinge did really lessen his affection +to him, to the houre of his death; on the contrary, as he created him +Duke of Buckingham, in his absence, whilst he was with the Prince +in Spayne, so after his returne, he exequted the same authority in +conferringe all favours and graces, and revenginge himselfe upon +those who had manifested any unkindnesse towards him: And yett +notwithstandinge all this, if that Kings nature had æqually disposed +him, to pull downe, as to builde and erecte, and if his courage and +severity in punishinge and reforminge had bene as greate, as his +generosity and inclination was to obliege, it is not to be doubted, +but that he would have withdrawne his affection from the Duke intirely +before his death, which those persons who were admitted to any privacy +with [him], and were not in the confidence of the other (for before +those he knew well how to dissemble) had reason enough to exspecte.... + + * * * * * + +This greate man was a person of a noble nature and generous +disposition, and of such other indowments, as made him very capable +of beinge a greate favorite to a greate Kinge; he understoode the Arts +and artifices of a Courte, and all the learninge that is professed +ther, exactly well; by longe practice in businesse, under a Master +that discourced excellently, and surely knew all things wounderfully, +and tooke much delight in indoctrinatinge his younge unexsperienced +Favorite, who he knew would be alwayes looked upon as the +workemanshipp of his owne handes, he had obtayned a quicke conception +and apprehension of businesse, and had the habitt of speakinge very +gracefully, and pertinently. He was of a most flowinge courtesy and +affability to all men, who made any addresse to him, and so desyrous +to obliege them, that he did not enough consider the valew of the +obligation, or the meritt of the person he chose to obliege, from +which much of his misfortune resulted. He was of a courage not to be +daunted, which was manifested in all his actions, and his contests +with particular persons of the greatest reputation, and especially +in his whole demeanour at the Isle of Rees, both at the landinge and +upon the retriete, in both which no man was more fearelesse, or more +ready to expose himselfe to the brightest daungers. His kindnesse +and affection to his frends was so vehement, that it was so many +marriages, for better and worse, and so many leagues offensive and +defensive, as if he thought himselfe oblieged to love all his frends, +and to make warr upon all they were angry with, let the cause be what +it would. And it cannot be denyed, that he was an enimy in the same +excesse, and prosequted those he looked upon as his enimyes, with +the utmost rigour and animosity, and was not easily induced to a +reconciliation; and yett ther were some examples of his receadinge in +that particular; and in highest passyon, he was so farr from stoopinge +to any dissimulation, wherby his displeasure might be concealed and +covered, till he had attayned his revenge, the low methode of Courts, +that he never indeavoured to do any man an ill office, before he first +told him what he was to exspecte from him, and reproched him with the +injures he had done, with so much generosity, that the person found +it in his pouer, to receave farther satisfaction in the way he would +chuse for himselfe.... + +His single misfortune was (which indeede was productive of many +greater) that he never made a noble and a worthy frendshipp with a man +so neere his æquall, that he would frankely advize him, for his honour +and true interest, against the current, or rather the torrent of his +impetuous passyons: which was partly the vice of the tyme, when the +Courte was not replenished with greate choyce of excellent men, and +partly the vice of the persons, who were most worthy to be applyed +to, and looked upon his youth, and his obscurity, as obligations upon +him, to gayne ther frendshipps by extraordinary application; then his +ascent was so quicke, that it seemed rather a flight, then a growth, +and he was such a darlinge of fortune, that he was at the topp, before +he was seene at the bottome, for the gradation of his titles, was the +effecte, not cause of his first promotion, and as if he had bene borne +a favorite, he was supreme the first moneth he came to courte, and +it was wante of confidence, not of creditt, that he had not all at +first, which he obtayned afterwards, never meetinge with the least +obstruction, from his settinge out, till he was as greate as he could +be, so that he wanted dependants, before he thought he could wante +coadjutors; nor was he very fortunate in the election of those +dependants, very few of his servants havinge bene ever qualifyed +enough to assiste or advize him, and were intente only upon growinge +rich under [him], not upon ther masters growinge good as well as +greate, insomuch as he was throughout his fortune, a much wiser man, +then any servant or frende he had: Lett the faulte or misfortune be +what and whence it will, it may very reasonably be believed that if +he had bene blessed with one faythfull frende, who had bene qualifyed +with wisdome and integrity, that greate person would have committed +as few faults, and done as transcendant worthy actions, as any man +who shyned in such a sphere in that age, in Europe, for he was of +an excellent nature, and of a capacity very capable of advice and +councell; he was in his nature just and candid, liberall, generous, +and bountifull, nor was it ever knowne that the temptation of money +swayed him to do an unjust, or unkinde thinge, and though he left a +very greate inheritance to his heyres, consideringe the vast fortune +he inherited by his wife (the sole daughter and Heyre of Francis +Earle of Rutlande,) he owed no parte of it to his owne industry or +sollicitation, but to the impatient humour of two kings his masters, +who would make his fortune æquall to his titles, and the one above +other men, as the other was, and he considered it no otherwise then +as thers, and left it at his death ingaged for the crowne, almost to +the valew of it, as is touched upon before. If he had an immoderate +ambition, with which he was charged, and is a weede (if it be a weede) +apt to grow in the best soyles, it does not appeare that it was in +his nature, or that he brought it with him to the Courte, but rather +founde it ther, and was a garment necessary for that ayre; nor was +it more in his power to be without promotion, and titles, and wealth, +then for a healthy man to sitt in the sunn, in the brightest dogge +dayes, and remayne without any warmth: he needed no ambition who was +so seated in the hartes of two such masters. + + + + +4. + +SIR THOMAS COVENTRY. + +_Solicitor-General 1617. Attorney-General 1621. Lord Keeper 1625. +Created Baron Coventry 1628. Born 1578. Died 1640_. + +By CLARENDON. + + +S'r Thomas Coventry was then L'd Keeper of the Greate Seale of +England, and newly made a Barron. He was a Sunn of the Robe, his +father havinge bene a Judge in the courte of the Common pleas, who +tooke greate care to breede his Sunn, though his first borne, in +the Study of the common law, by which himselfe had bene promoted to +that degree, and in which, in the society of the Inner Temple, his +Sunn made a notable progresse, by an early eminence in practice and +learninge, insomuch as he was Recorder of London, Sollicitor generall, +and Kings Atturny before he was forty yeeres of age, a rare ascent, +all which offices he discharged, with greate abilityes, and singular +reputation of integrity: In the first yeere after the death of Kinge +James, he was advanced to be Keeper of the Greate Scale of Englande, +the naturall advancement from, the office of Atturny Generall, upon +the remoovall of the Bishopp of Lincolne, who though a man of greate +witt, and good scholastique learninge, was generally thought so very +unæquall to the place that his remoove was the only recompence and +satisfaction that could be made for his promotion, and yett it was +enough knowne, that the disgrace proceeded only from the pri[v]ate +displeasure of the Duke of Buckingham[1]: The L'd Coventry injoyed +this place with a universall reputation (and sure justice was never +better administred) for the space of aboute sixteen yeeres, even to +his death, some months before he was sixty yeeres of age, which was +another importante circumstance of his felicity: that greate office +beinge so slippery, that no man had dyed in it before, for neere the +space of forty yeeres, nor had his successors for some tyme after him +much better fortune: and he himselfe had use of all his strenght and +skill (as he was an excellent wrastler) to præserve himselfe from +fallinge, in two shockes, the one given him by the Earle of Portlande, +L'd High Treasurer of Englande, the other by the Marq's of Hambleton, +who had the greatest power over the affections of the Kinge, of any +man of that tyme. + +He was a man of wounderfull gravity and wisdome, and understood not +only the whole science and mistery of the Law, at least æqually with +any man who had ever sate in that place, but had a cleere conception +of the whole policy of the government both of Church and State, which +by the unskilfulnesse of some well meaninge men, justled each the +other to much. He knew the temper, and disposition and genius of the +kingdome most exactly, saw ther spiritts grow every day more sturdy, +and inquisitive, and impatient, and therfore naturally abhorred all +innovations, which he foresaw would produce ruinous effects: yett many +who stoode at a distance thought that he was not active and stoute +enough in the opposinge those innovations, for though by his place he +præsided in all publique councells, and was most sharpe sighted in the +consequence of things, yett he was seldome knowne to speake in matters +of state, which he well knew were for the most parte concluded, before +they were brought to that publique agitation, never in forrainge +affayres, which the vigour of his judgement could well comprehende, +nor indeede freely in any thinge, but what immediately and playnely +concerned the justice of the kingdome, and in that as much as he +could, he procured references to the Judges. Though in his nature he +had not only a firme gravity, but a severity, and even some morosity +(which his children and domestiques had evidence enough of) [yet][2] +it was so happily tempred, that his courtesy and affability towards +all men was so transcended, so much without affectation, that it +marvellously reconciled [him] to all men of all degrees, and he was +looked upon as an excellent courtyer, without receadinge from the +native simplicity of his owne manner. He had in the playne way of +speakinge and delivery (without much ornament of eloqution) a strange +power of makinge himselfe believed (the only justifiable designe of +eloquence) so that though he used very frankely to deny, and would +never suffer any man to departe from him, with an opinion that he +was inclined to gratify when in truth he was not, (holdinge that +dissimulation to be the worst of lyinge) yett the manner of it was +so gentle and oblieginge, and his condescension such, to informe the +persons, who[m] he could not satisfy, that few departed from him, +with ill will and ill wishes; but then this happy temper, and these +good facultyes, rather præserved him from havinge many enimyes, and +supplyed him with some well-wishers, then furnished him with any +fast and unshaken frends, who are alwayes procured in courtes by more +ardour, and more vehement professions and applications, then he would +suffer himselfe to be entangled with; so that he was a man rather +exceedingly liked, then passionately loved, insomuch that it never +appeared, that he had any one frende in the Courte, of quality enough +to prævent or diverte any disadvantage he mighte be exposed to, and +therfore it is no wonder, nor to be imputed to him, that he retyred +within himselfe as much as he could, and stood upon his defence, +without makinge desperate sallyes against growinge mischieves, which +he knew well he had no power to hinder, and which might probably begin +in his owne ruine: to conclude, his security consisted very much, in +the little creditt he had with the Kinge, and he dyed in a season most +opportune, and in which a wise man would have prayed to have finished +his cource, and which in truth crowned his other signall prosperity in +this worlde. + +[Footnote 1: 'Buckinghman', MS.] + +[Footnote 2: 'but', MS.] + + + + +5. + +SIR RICHARD WESTON. + +_Chancellor of the Exchequer 1621. Lord Treasurer 1628. Baron Weston +1628, and Earl of Portland 1633._ + +_Born 1577. Died 1635._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +S'r Richard Weston had bene advanced to the white staffe, to the +office of L'd High Treasurer of England, some moneths before the +death of the Duke of Buckingham, and had in that shorte tyme so much +disoblieged him, at least disappointed his exspectation, that many who +were privy to the Dukes most secrett purposes, did believe that if +he had outlived that voyage, in which he was ingaged, he would have +remooved him, and made another Treasurer: and it is very true that +greate office to had bene very slippery, and not fast to those who +had trusted themselves in it, insomuch as there were at that tyme +five noble persons alive, who had all succeded on another immediately +in that unsteady charge, without any other person interveninge, the +Earle of Suffolke, the L'd Viscount Mandevill, afterwards Earle of +Manchester, the Earle of Middlesex, and the Earle of Marleborough, who +was remooved under prætence of his age, and disability for the work +(which had bene a better reason against his promotion, so few yeeres +before, that his infirmityes were very little increased) to make roome +for the present Officer, who though advanced by the Duke, may properly +be sayd to be establish'd by his death. + +He was a gentleman of a very good and auncient extraction, by father +and mother; his education had bene very good, amongst bookes and +men. After some yeeres study of the law in the Middle temple, and at +an age fitt to make observations and reflexions, out of which that +which is commonly called exsperience is constituted, he travelled +into forrainge partes, and was acquainted in forrainge partes;[1] he +betooke himselfe to the courte, and lyved ther some yeeres at that +distance, and with that awe, as[2] was agreable to the modesty of that +age, when men were seene some tyme, before they were knowne, and well +knowne before they were præferred, or durst prætende to be præferred. +He spent the best parte of his fortune, a fayre on, that he inherited +from his father, in his attendance at courte, and involved his +frends in securityes with him, who were willinge to runn his hopefull +fortune, before he receaved the least fruite from it, but the +countenance of greate men, and those in authority, the most naturall, +and most certayne stayres to ascende by: He was then sent Ambassadour +to the Arch-Dukes Alberte and Isabella into Flanders, and to the Diett +in Germany, to treate aboute the restitution of the Palatinat, in +which negotiation he behaved himselfe with greate prudence, and with +the concurrent testimony of a wise man, from all those with whome he +treated, Princes and Ambassadours: and upon his returne was made a +Privy Councellour, and Chauncelour of the Exchequer, in the place of +the L'd Brooke, who was ether perswaded, or putt out of the place, +which beinge an office of honour and trust, is likewise an excellent +stage for men of parts to tread, and expose themselfes upon, and +wher they have occasion of all natures to lay out and spredd all +ther facultyes and qualifications most for ther advantage; He behaved +himselfe very well in this function, and appeared æquall to it, and +carryed himselfe so luckily in Parliament, that he did his master much +service, and præserved himselfe in the good opinion and acceptation +of the house, which is a blessinge not indulged to many by those high +powers: He did swimme in those troubled and boysterous waters, in +which the Duke of Buckingham rode as Admirall, with a good grace, when +very many who were aboute him, were drowned or forced on shore, with +shrewde hurtes and bruises, which shewed he knew well how and when to +use his limbes and strenght to the best advantage, sometimes only to +avoyde sinkinge, and sometymes to advance and gett grounde; and by +this dexterity he kept his creditt with those who could do him good, +and lost it not with others, who desyred the destruction of those upon +whome he most depended. + +He was made L'd Treasurer in the manner, and at the tyme mentioned +before, upon the remoovall of the Earle of Marleborough, and few +moneths before the death of the Duke; the former circumstance, which +is often attended by compassion towards the degraded, and præjudice +toward the promoted, brought him no disadvantage, for besydes the +delight that season had in changes, there was little reverence towards +the person remooved, and the extreme, visible poverty of the Exchequer +sheltered that Provence from the envy it had frequently created, +and opened a doore for much applause to be the portion of a wise and +provident Minister: For the other of the Dukes death, though some who +knew the Dukes passyons and præjudice (which often produced rather +suddayne indisposition, then obstinate resolution) believed he would +have bene shortly cashiered, as so many had lately bene, and so that +the death of his founder, was a greater confirmation of him in the +office, then the delivery of the white staffe had bene, many other +wise men, who knew the Treasurers talent, in remoovinge præjudice and +reconcilinge himselfe to waveringe and doubtfull affections, believed +that the losse of the Duke was very unseasonable, and that the awe or +apprehension of his power and displeasure, was a very necessary allay +for the impetuosity of the new officers nature, which needed some +restrainte and checque for some tyme to his immoderate prætences and +appetite of power. He did indeede appeare on the suddayne wounderfully +elated, and so farr threw off his olde affectation to please some very +much, and to displease none, in which arte he had excelled, that in +few moneths after the Dukes death, he founde himselfe to succeede him +in the publique displeasure, and in the malice of his enimyes, without +succeedinge him in his creditt at courte, or in the affection of any +considerable dependants; and yett, though he was not superiour to all +other men, in the affection, or rather resignation of the Kinge, so +that he might dispence favours and disfavours accordinge to his owne +election, he had a full share in his masters esteeme, who looked upon +him as a wise and able servant and worthy of the trust he reposed +in him, and receaved no other advice in the large businesse of his +revennue, nor was any man so much his superiour, as to be able to +lessen him in the Kings affection, by his power; so that he was in a +post in which he might have founde much ease and delight, if he could +have contayned himselfe within the verge of his owne Provence, which +was large enough, and of such an extente, that he might at the same +tyme have drawne a greate dependance upon him of very considerable +men, and appeared a very usefull and profitable Minister to the Kinge, +whose revennue had bene very loosely managed duringe the late yeeres, +and might by industry and order have bene easily improoved, and no +man better understoode what methode was necessary towards that good +husbandry then he. But I know not by what frowardnesse in his starres, +he tooke more paynes in examininge and enquiringe into other mens +offices, then in the discharge of his owne, and not so much joy in +what he had, as trouble and agony for what he had not. The truth is, +he had so vehement a desyre to be the sole favorite, that he had +no relish of the power he had, and in that contention he had many +ryvalls, who had creditt enough to do him ill offices, though not +enough to satisfy ther owne ambition, the Kinge himselfe beinge +resolved to hold the raynes in his owne handes, and to putt no further +trust in others, then was necessary for the capacity they served +in: which resolution in his Majesty was no sooner believed, and the +Treasurers prsetence taken notice,[3] then he founde the number of +his enimyes exceedingly increased, and others to be lesse eager in the +pursuite of his frendshipp; and every day discovered some infirmityes +in him, which beinge before knowne to few, and not taken notice,[3] +did now expose him both to publique reproch, and to private +animosityes, and even his vices admitted those contradictions in them, +that he could hardly injoy the pleasante fruite of any of them. That +which first exposed him to the publique jealosy, which is alwayes +attended with publique reproch, was the concurrent suspicion of +his religion. His wife and all his daughters were declared of the +Roman religion, and though himselfe and his Sunns sometimes went to +church, he was never thought to have zeale for it, and his domestique +conversation and dependants, with whome only he used intire freedome, +were all knowne Catholiques, and were believed to be agents for the +rest; and yett with all this disadvantage to himselfe, he never had +reputation and creditt with that party, who were the only people of +the kingdome, who did not believe him to be of ther profession, for +the penall lawes (those only excepted, which were sanguinary, and even +those sometimes lett loose) were never more rigidly executed, nor had +the Crovme ever so greate a revennue from them, as in his tyme, nor +did they ever pay so deere for the favours and indulgencyes of his +office towards them. + +No man had greater ambition to make his family greate, or stronger +designes to leave a greate fortune to it, yett his exspences were so +prodigiously greate, especially in his house, that all the wayes he +used for supply, which were all that occurred, could not serve his +turne, insomuch that he contracted so greate debts, (the anxiety +wherof he prætended broke his minde, and restrayned that intentnesse +and industry which was necessary for the dew execution of his office) +that the Kinge was pleased twice to pay his debts, at least towards +it, to disburse forty thousande pounde in ready mony out of his +Exchequer; besydes his Majesty gave him a whole forrest, Chute forrest +in Hampshyre, and much other lande belonginge to the Crowne, which +was the more taken notice of, and murmured against, because beinge the +chiefe Minister of the revennue, he was particularly oblieged as +much as in him lay to prævent and even oppose such disinherison; and +because under that obligation, he had avowedly and sowrely crossed the +prætences of other men, and restrayned the Kings bounty from beinge +exercised almost to any; and he had that advantage (if he had made the +right use of it) that his creditt was ample enough (secounded by the +Kings owne exsperience, and observation, and inclination) to retrench +very much of the late unlimited exspences, and especially those of +bountyes, which from the death of the Duke, rann in narrow channells, +which never so much overflowed as towards himselfe; who stopped the +current to other men. + +He was of an imperious nature, and nothinge wary in disoblieginge +and provokinge other men, and had to much courage in offendinge and +incensinge them, but after havinge offended and incensed them, he +was of so unhappy a feminine temper that he was always in a terrible +fright and apprehension of them. He had not that application, and +submissyon and reverence for the Queene as might have bene exspected +from his wisdome and breedinge, and often crossed her prætences and +desyres, with more rudenesse then was naturall to him; yett he was +impertinently sollicitous to know what her Majesty sayd of him in +private, and what resentments shee had towards him; and when by some +confidents (who had ther ends upon him from those offices) he was +informed of some bitter exspressions fallen from her Majesty, he was +so exceedingly afflicted and tormented with the sense of it, that +sometimes by passionate complaints and representations to the Kinge, +sometimes by more dutifull addresses and expostulations with the +Queene in bewaylinge his misfortunes, he frequently exposed himselfe, +and left his condition worse then it was before: and the eclarcicement +commonly ended in the discovery of the persons from whome he had +received his most secrett intelligence. He quickly lost the character +of a bold, stoute, and magnanimous man, which he had bene longe +reputed to be, in worse tymes, and in his most prosperous season, fell +under the reproch of beinge a man of bigg lookes, and of a meane and +abjecte spiritt.... + +To conclude, all the honours the Kinge conferred upon him, as he made +him a Barren, then an Earle, and Knight of the Gartar, and above +this, gave a younge, beautifull Lady, neerely allyed to him and to the +Crowne of Scotlande, in marriage to his eldest Sunn, could not make +him thinke himselfe greate enough; nor could all the Kings bountyes +nor his owne large accessions, rayse a fortune to his Heyre, but after +six or eight yeeres spent in outward opulency, and inward murmur and +trouble, that it was no greater, after vast summes of mony and greate +wealth gotten and rather consumed then injoyed, without any sense +or delight in so greate prosperity, with the agony that it was no +greater, He dyed unlamented by any, bitterly mentioned by most, who +never pretended to love him, and sevearely censured and complayned of, +by those who exspected most from him, and deserved best of him, and +left a numerous family, which was in a shorte tyme worne out, and yett +outlyved the fortune he left behinde him. + +[Footnote 1: In the MS. the words 'he travelled into forrainge parts' +occur after 'Middle temple', as well as after 'constituted'. The whole +sentence is faulty. 'After this' is inserted in the edition of 1702 +before 'he betooke'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'as' inserted in late hand in MS. in place of 'and'.] + +[Footnote 3: 'off' added in later hand in MS.; 'notice of', ll. 2, 6, +ed. 1704.] + + + + +6. + +THE EARL OF ARUNDEL. + +_Thomas Howard, fourteenth Earl of Arundel._ + +_Born 1586. Died 1646._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Arrundell was the next to the officers of State, who in +his owne right and quality, præceded the rest of the councell. He was +a man supercilious and prowde, who lyved alwayes within himselfe, +and to himselfe, conversinge little with any, who were in common +conversation, so that he seemed to lyve as it were in another nation, +his house beinge a place, to which all men resorted, who resorted +to no other place, strangers, or such who affected to looke like +strangers, and dressed themselves accordingly. He resorted sometimes +to the Courte, because ther only was a greater man then himselfe, +and went thither the seldomer, because ther was a greater man then +himselfe. He lived toward all Favorites and greate officers without +any kinde of condescention, and rather suffred himselfe to be ill +treated by ther power and authority (for he was alwayes in disgrace, +and once or twice prysoner in the tower) then to descende in makinge +any application to them; and upon these occasyons, he spent a greate +intervall of his tyme, in severall journyes into forrainge partes, and +with his wife and family had lyved some yeeres in Italy, the humour +and manners of which nation he seemed most to like and approve, and +affected to imitate. He had a good fortune by descent, and a much +greater from his wife, who was the sole daughter upon the matter +(for nether of the two Sisters left any issue) of the greate house of +Shrewsbury, but his exspences were without any measure, and alwayes +exceeded very much his revennue. He was willinge to be thought a +scholar, and to understande the most misterious partes of Antiquity, +because he made a wounderfull and costly purchase of excellent statues +whilst he was in Italy and in Rome (some wherof he could never obtayne +permission to remoove from Rome, though he had payd for them) and had +a rare collection of the most curious Medalls; wheras in truth he was +only able to buy them, never to understande ihem, and as to all partes +of learninge he was almost illiterate, and thought no other parte of +history considerable, but what related to his owne family, in which no +doubt ther had bene some very memorable persons. + +It cannot be denyed, that he had in his person, in his aspecte and +countenance, the appearance of a greate man, which he preserved in +his gate and motion. He wore and affected a habitt very different +from that of the tyme, such as men had only beheld in the pictures of +the most considerable men, all which drew the eyes of most and the +reverence of many towards him, as the image and representative of the +primitive nobility, and natife gravity of the nobles, when they had +bene most venerable. But this was only his outsyde, his nature and +true humour beinge so much disposed to levity, and vulgar delights, +which indeede were very despicable and childish: He was never +suspected to love anybody, nor to have the least propensity to +justice, charity, or compassion, so that, though he gott all he +could, and by all the wayes he could, and spent much more then he +gott or had, he was never knowne to give any thinge, nor in all his +imployments (for he had imployments of greate profitt as well as +honour, beinge sent Ambassadour extraordinary into Germany, for the +treaty of that Generall peace, for which he had greate appointments, +and in which he did nothinge of the least importance, and which is +more wounderfull, he was afterwards made Generall of the Army raysed +for Scotlande, and receaved full pay as such, and in his owne office +of Earle Marshall, more money was drawne from the people by his +authority and prætence of jurisdiction, then had ever bene extorted +by all the officers præcedent) yett I say in all his offices and +imployments, never man used, or imployed by him, ever gott any fortune +under him, nor did ever any man acknowledge any obligation to him. He +was rather thought to be without religion, then to inclyne to this +or that party of any. He would have bene a proper instrument for any +tyranny, if he could have a man tyrant enough to have bene advized by +him, and had no other affection for the nation or the kingdome, then +as he had a greate share in it, in which like the greate Leviathan he +might sporte himselfe, from which he withdrew himselfe, as soone as +he decerned the repose therof was like to be disturbed, and dyed in +Italy, under the same doubtfull character of religion, in which he +lyved. + + + + +7. + +THE EARL OF PEMBROKE. + +_William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke._ + +_Born 1580. Died 1630._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Willyam Earle of Pembroke was next, a man of another molde and +makinge, and of another fame and reputation with all men, beinge +the most universally loved and esteemed, of any man of that age, and +havinge a greate office in the courte, made the courte itselfe better +esteemed and more reverenced in the country; and as he had a greate +number of frends of the best men, so no man had ever wickednesse to +avow himselfe to be his enimy. He was a man very well bredd, and of +excellent partes, and a gracefull speaker upon any subjecte, havinge +a good proportion of learninge, and a ready witt to apply it, and +inlarge upon it, of a pleasant and facetious humour and a disposition +affable, generous, and magnificent; he was master of a greate fortune +from his auncestors, and had a greate addition by his wife (another +daughter and heyre of the Earle of Shrewsbury) which he injoyed +duringe his life, shee outlivinge him, but all served not his +exspence, which was only limited by his greate minde, and occasions +to use it nobly; he lyved many yeeres aboute the courte, before in it, +and never by it, beinge rather regarded and esteemed by Kinge James +then loved and favored, and after the fowle fall of the Earle of +Somersett, he was made L'd Chamberlyne of the Kings house more for +the Courtes sake, then his owne, and the Courte appeared with the more +lustre, because he had the goverment of that Province. As he spente +and lived upon his owne fortune, so he stoode upon his owne feete, +without any other supporte then of his proper virtue and meritt, and +lyved towards the favorites with that decency, as would not suffer +them to censure or reproch his Masters judgement and election, but as +with men of his owne ranke. He was exceedingly beloved in the Courte, +because he never desyred to gett that for himselfe, which others +labored for, but was still ready to promote the prætences of worthy +men, and he was equally celebrated in the country, for havinge +receaved no obligations from the courte, which might corrupt or sway +his affections and judgement; so that all who were displeased and +unsatisfyed in the courte or with the Courte, were alwayes inclined +to putt themselves under his banner, if he would have admitted them, +and yett he did not so rejecte them, as to make them choose another +shelter, but so farr to depende on him, that he could restrayn them +from breakinge out beyounde private resentments, and murmurs. He was a +greate lover of his country, and of the religion and justice which he +believed could only supporte it, and his frendshipps were only with +men of those principles; and as his conversation was most with men of +the most pregnant parts and understandinge, so towards any who needed +supporte or encouragement, though unknowne, if fayrely recommended to +him, he was very liberall; and sure never man was planted in a courte, +that was fitter for that soyle, or brought better qualityes with him +to purify that heyre. + +Yett his memory must not be so flattered, that his virtues and good +inclinations may be believed without some allay of vice, and without +beinge clowded with greate infirmityes, which he had in to exorbitant +a proportion: He indulged to himselfe the pleasures of all kindes, +almost in all excesses; whether out of his naturall constitution, +or for wante of his domestique content and delight (in which he was +most unhappy, for he payed much to deere for his wife's fortune, +by takinge her person into the bargayne) he was immoderately given +up to women,[1] but therin he likewise retayned such a pouer and +jurisdiction over his very appetite, that he was not so much +transported with beauty and outwarde allurements, as with those +advantages of the minde, as manifested an extraordinary witt, +and spirit, and knowledge, and administred greate pleasure in the +conversation; to these he sacrificed himselfe, his pretious tyme, +and much of his fortune, and some who were neerest his trust and +frendshipp, were not without apprehension that his naturall vivacity, +and vigour of minde, begann to lessen and decline, by those excessive +indulgences. Aboute the tyme of the death of Kinge James or presently +after, he was made L'd Steward of his Majestys house, that the Staffe +of Chamberlyne might be putt into the hands of his brother, the Earle +of Mountgomery, upon a new contracte of frendshipp with the Duke of +Buckingham, after whose death he had likewise such offices of his, as +he most affected, of honour and commaunde, none of profitt, which he +cared not for; and within two yeeres after he dyed himselfe, of an +Apoplexy, after a full and cheerefull supper. + +[Footnote 1: The words 'to women' occur twice in the MS., before +'whether out' and after 'given up'.] + + + + +8. + +SIR FRANCIS BACON. + +_Lord Keeper 1617. Lord Chancellor 1618. Baron Verulam 1618, and +Viscount St. Albans 1621._ + +_Born 1561. Died 1626._ + +By BEN JONSON. + + +[Sidenote: _Dominis Verulanus._] + +_One_, though hee be excellent, and the chiefe, is not to bee imitated +alone. For never no Imitator, ever grew up to his _Author_; likenesse +is alwayes on this side Truth: Yet there hapn'd, in my time, one noble +_Speaker_, who was full of gravity in his speaking. His language, +(where hee could spare, or passe by a jest) was nobly _censorious_. No +man ever spake more neatly, more presly, more weightily, or suffer'd +lesse emptinesse, lesse idlenesse, in what hee utter'd. No member of +his speech, but consisted of the owne graces: His hearers could not +cough, or looke aside from him, without losse. Hee commanded where hee +spoke; and had his Judges angry, and pleased at his devotion. No man +had their affections more in his power. The feare of every man that +heard him, was, lest hee should make an end. + + + + +9. + +By ARTHUR WILSON. + + +Not long after comes the great _Lord Chancellor Bacon_ to a _Censure_, +for the most _simple_, and _ridiculous follies_, that ever entred +into the _heart_ of a _Wise man_. He was the true _Emblem_ of _humane +frailty_, being _more_ than _a man_ in some things, and less than a +_woman_ in others. His _crime_ was _Briberie_, and _Extortion_ (which +the King hinted at in his Speech, when he _facetiously_ sayd, _He +thought the Lords had bribed the Prince to speak well of them_) and +these he had often condemned others for as a _Judge_, which now +he comes to suffer for as a _Delinquent_: And they were proved, & +aggravated against him with so many _circumstances_, that they fell +very _fouly_ on him, both in _relation_ to his _Reception_ of them, +and his expending of them: For that which he raked in, and scrued +for one way, he scattered and threw abroad another; for his Servants, +being young, prodigall and expensive Youths, which he kept about him, +his Treasure was their common Store, which they took without stint, +having free accesse to his most retired Privacies; and his indulgence +to them, and familiarity with them, opened a _gap_ to infamous +_Reports_, which left an unsavoury _Tincture_ on him; for where such +_Leeches_ are, there must be _putrid bloud_ to fill their _craving +Appetites_. His _gettings_ were like a _Prince_, with a strong hand; +his _expences_ like a _Prodigall_, with a weak head; and 'tis a wonder +a man of his Noble, and Gallant Parts, that could fly so high above +_Reason_, should fall so far below it; unlesse that _Spirit_ that +_acted_ the first, were too proud to stoop, to see the _deformities_ +of the last. And as he affected his men, so his Wife affected hers: +Seldome doth the Husband deviate one way, but the Wife goeth another. +These things came into the _publique mouth_, and the _Genius_ of the +_Times_ (where _malice_ is not _corrivall_) is the great _Dictator_ +of all _Actions_: For _innocency_ it self is a _crime_, when _calumny_ +sets her mark upon it. How prudent therefore ought men to be, that not +so much as their _garments_ be defiled with the _sour breath_ of the +_Times_! + +This poor _Gentleman_, mounted above _pity_, fell down below it: His +_Tongue_, that was the glory of his time for _Eloquence_, (that tuned +so many sweet _Harrangues_) was like a forsaken _Harp_, hung upon the +_Willows_, whilst the _waters_ of _affliction_ overflowed the _banks_. +And now his high-flying _Orations_ are humbled to _Supplications_,... + + * * * * * + +He was of a _middling stature_, his countenance had in-dented with +_Age_ before he was old; his _Presence_ grave and comely; of a +high-flying and lively _Wit_, striving in some things to be rather +admired than understood, yet so quick and easie where he would express +himself, and his _Memory_ so strong and active, that he appeared the +_Master_ of a large and plenteous _store-house_ of _Knowledge_, being +(as it were) _Natures Midwife_, stripping her _Callou-brood_, and +clothing them in new _Attire_. His _Wit_ was quick to the last; for +_Gondemar_ meeting him the _Lent_ before his _Censure_, and hearing +of his _Miscarriages_, thought to pay him with his _Spanish Sarcasms_ +and _Scoffs_, saying, _My Lord, I wish you a good Easter_; _And you +my Lord_, replyed the _Chancellor_, _a good Passeover_: For he could +neither close with his _English Buffonerie_, nor his _Spanish Treaty_ +(which _Gondemar_ knew) though he was so wise as publiquely to oppose +neither. _In fine, he was a fit Jewel to have beautified, and adorned +a flourishing Kingdom, if his flaws had not disgraced the lustre that +should have set him off._ + + + + +10. + +By THOMAS FULLER. + + +[Sidenote: An essay at his character.] + +None can character him to the life, save himself. He was _in parts_, +more than a Man, who in any Liberal profession, might be, whatsoever +he would himself. A great Honourer of _antient Authors_, yet a great +Deviser and Practiser of new waies in Learning. Privy Counsellor, +as to King JAMES, so to _Nature_ it self, diving into many of her +abstruse Mysteries. New conclusions he would _dig out_ with _mattocks_ +of _gold & silver_, not caring what his experience cost him, expending +on the _Trials of Nature_, all and more than he got by the _Trials at +the Barre_, Posterity being the better for his, though he the worse +for his own, dear experiments. He and his Servants had _all in +common_, the _Men_ never wanting what their _Master_ had, and thus +what came _flowing_ in unto him, was sent _flying_ away from him, who, +in giving of rewards knew no _bounds_, but the _bottome_ of his own +purse. Wherefore when King James heard that he had given _Ten pounds_ +to an _under-keeper_, by whom He had sent him a _Buck_, the King said +merrily, _I and He shall both die Beggars_, which was condemnable +Prodigality in a _Subject_. He lived many years after, and in his +Books will ever survive, in the reading whereof, modest Men commend +him, in what they doe, condemn themselves, in what they doe not +understand, as believing the fault in their own eyes, and not in the +object. + + + + +11. + +By WILLIAM RAWLEY. + + +He was no _Plodder_ upon _Books_; Though he read much; And that, with +great Judgement, and Rejection of Impertinences, incident to many +_Authours_: For he would ever interlace a _Moderate Relaxation_ of +His _Minde_, with his _Studies_; As _Walking_; Or _Taking_ the _Aire +abroad_ in his _Coach_; or some other befitting _Recreation_: And +yet he would _loose_ no _Time_, In as much as upon his _First_ and +_Immediate Return_, he would fall to _Reading_ again: And so suffer +no _Moment_ of _Time_ to Slip from him, without some present +_Improvement_. + +His _Meales_ were _Refections_, of the _Eare_, as well as of the +_Stomack_: Like the _Noctes Atticæ_; or _Convivia Deipno-Sophistarum_; +Wherein a Man might be refreshed, in his _Minde_, and _understanding_, +no lesse then in his _Body_. And I have known some, of no mean Parts, +that have professed to make use of their _Note-Books_, when they have +risen from his _Table_. In which _Conversations_, and otherwise, he +was no Dashing Man; As some Men are; But ever, a _Countenancer_, and +_Fosterer_, of another Mans _Parts_. Neither was he one, that would +_appropriate_ the _Speech_, wholy to Himself; or delight to out-vie +others; But leave a Liberty, to the _Co-Assessours_, to take their +_Turns_, to Wherein he would draw a _Man_ on, and allure him, to +speak upon such a Subject, as wherein he was peculiarly _Skilfull_, +and would delight to speak. And, for Himself, he condemned no Mans +_Observations_; But would light his _Torch_ at every Mans _Candle_. + +His _Opinions_, and _Assertions_, were, for the most part, _Binding_; +And not contradicted, by any; Rather like _Oracles_, then _Discourses_. +Which may be imputed, either to the well weighing of his _Sentence_, by +the Skales of _Truth_, and _Reason_; Or else, to the _Reverence_, and +_Estimation_, wherein he was, commonly, had, that no _Man_ would +_contest_ with him. So that, there was no _Argumentation_, or _Pro_ and +_Con_, (as they term it,) at his _Table_: Or if there chanced to be +any, it was Carried with much _Submission_, and _Moderation_. + +I have often observed; And so have other Men, of great Account; That +if he had occasion to repeat another Mans _Words_, after him; he +had an use, and Faculty, to dresse them in better _Vestments_, and +_Apparell_, then they had before: So that, the _Authour_ should finde +his own _Speech_ much amended; And yet the _Substance_ of it still +_retained_. As if it had been _Naturall_ to him, to use good _Forms_; +As _Ovid_ spake, of his _Faculty_ of _Versifying_; + + _Et quod tentabam Scribere, Versus erat._ + +When his _Office_ called him, as he was of the _Kings Counsell +Learned_, to charge any _Offenders_, either in _Criminals_, or +_Capitals_; He was never of an _Insulting_, or _Domineering Nature_, +over them; But alwayes tender Hearted, and carrying himself decently +towards the _Parties_; (Though it was his Duty, to charge them home:) +But yet, as one, that looked upon the _Example_, with the Eye of +_Severity_; But upon the _Person_, with the Eye of _Pitty_, and +Compassion. And in _Civill Businesse_, as he was _Counseller_ +of _Estate_, he had the best way of _Advising_; Not engaging his +_Master_, in any _Precipitate_, or _grievous_, Courses; But in +_Moderate_, and _Fair_, Proceedings: The _King_, whom he served, +giving him this _Testimony_; That he ever dealt, in Businesse, +Suavibus Modis; _Which was the way, that was most according to his own +Heart_. + +Neither was He, in his time, lesse Gracious with the _Subject_, +then with his _Soveraign_: He was ever Acceptable to the _House of +Commons_, when He was a _Member_ thereof. Being the _Kings Atturney_, +& chosen to a place, in _Parliament_, He was allowed, and dispensed +with, to sit in the _House_; which was not permitted to other +_Atturneys_. + +And as he was a good _Servant_, to his _Master_; Being never, in 19. +years Service, (as himself averred,) rebuked by the _King_, for any +Thing, relating to his _Majesty_; So he was a good _Master_, to his +_Servants_; And rewarded their long _Attendance_, with good _Places_, +freely, when they fell into his Power. Which was the Cause, that so +many young _Gentlemen_, of _Bloud_, and _Quality_, sought to list +themselves, in his _Retinew_. And if he were abused, by any of them, +in their _Places_; It was onely the _Errour_ of the _Goodnesse_ of +his _Nature_; But the Badges of their _Indiscretions_, and +_Intemperances_. + + + + +12. + +BEN JONSON. + +_Born 1573. Died 1637._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Ben Johnsons name can never be forgotten, havinge by his very good +learninge, and the severity of his nature, and manners, very much +reformed the Stage and indeede the English poetry it selfe; his +naturall advantages were judgement to order and governe fancy, +rather then excesse of fancy, his productions beinge slow and upon +deliberation, yett then aboundinge with greate witt and fancy, and +will lyve accordingly, and surely as he did exceedingly exalte the +English language, in eloquence, propriety, and masculyne exspressions, +so he was the best judge of, and fittest to prescribe rules to poetry +and poetts, of any man who had lyved with or before him, or since, if +M'r Cowly had not made a flight beyounde all men, with that modesty +yett to own much of his to the example and learninge of Ben. Johnson: +His conversation was very good and with the men of most note, and he +had for many yeares an extraordinary kindnesse for M'r Hyde, till he +founde he betooke himselfe to businesse, which he believed ought never +to be preferred before his company: He lyved to be very old, and till +the Palsy made a deepe impression upon his body and his minde. + + + + +13. + +By JAMES HOWELL. + +_To Sir THO. HAWK. Knight_. + + +Sir, + +I was invited yesternight to a solemne supper by _B.I._ wher you +were deeply remembred, ther was good company, excellent chear, choice +wines, and joviall welcom; one thing interven'd which almost spoyld +the relish of the rest, that _B._ began to engross all the discourse, +to vapour extremely of himself, and by villifying others to magnifie +his owne _muse_; _T. Ca._ buz'd me in the eare, that though _Ben_ +had barreld up a great deal of knowledg, yet it seems he had not +read the _Ethiques_, which among other precepts of morality forbid +self-commendation, declaring it to be an ill favourd solecism in good +manners; It made me think upon the Lady (not very young) who having a +good while given her guests neat entertainment, a capon being brought +upon the table, instead of a spoon she took a mouthfull of claret and +spouted it into the poope of the hollow bird; such an accident happend +in this entertainment you know--_Proprio laus sordet in ore; be a mans +breath never so sweet, yet it makes ones prayses stink, if he makes +his owne mouth the conduit pipe of it_; But for my part I am content +to dispense with this _Roman_ infirmity of _B._ now that time hath +snowed upon his pericranium. You know _Ovid_, and (your) _Horace_ were +subject to this humour, the first bursting out into, + + _Tamq; opus exegi quod nec Iovis ira, nec ignis_, &c. + +The other into, + + _Exegi monumentum ære perennius_, &c. + +As also _Cicero_ while he forc'd himself into this Exameter; _O +fortunatam natam me consule Romam_. Ther is another reason that +excuseth _B._ which is, that if one be allowed to love the naturall +issue of his body, why not that of the brain, which is of a spirituall +and more noble extraction; I preserve your manuscripts safe for you +till your return to _London_, what newes the times afford this bearer +will impart unto you. So I am, + + Sir, + _Your very humble and most faithfull Servitor_, J.H. +_Westmin. 5 Apr. 1636._ + + + + +14. + +HENRY HASTINGS. + +_Born 1551. Died 1650._ + +By SHAFTESBURY. + + +Mr. Hastings, by his quality, being the son, brother, and uncle to +the Earls of Huntingdon, and his way of living, had the first place +amongst us. He was peradventure an original in our age, or rather the +copy of our nobility in ancient days in hunting and not warlike times; +he was low, very strong and very active, of a reddish flaxen hair, his +clothes always green cloth, and never all worth when new five pounds. +His house was perfectly of the old fashion, in the midst of a large +park well stocked with deer, and near the house rabbits to serve +his kitchen, many fish-ponds, and great store of wood and timber; a +bowling-green in it, long but narrow, full of high ridges, it being +never levelled since it was ploughed; they used round sand bowls, and +it had a banqueting-house like a stand, a large one built in a tree. +He kept all manner of sport-hounds that ran buck, fox, hare, otter, +and badger, and hawks long and short winged; he had all sorts of nets +for fishing: he had a walk in the New Forest and the manor of Christ +Church. This last supplied him with red deer, sea and river fish; and +indeed all his neighbours' grounds and royalties were free to him, who +bestowed all his time in such sports, but what he borrowed to caress +his neighbours' wives and daughters, there being not a woman in all +his walks of the degree of a yeoman's wife or under, and under the +age of forty, but it was extremely her fault if he were not intimately +acquainted with her. This made him very popular, always speaking +kindly to the husband, brother, or father, who was to boot very +welcome to his house whenever he came. There he found beef pudding and +small beer in great plenty, a house not so neatly kept as to shame him +or his dirty shoes, the great hall strewed with marrow bones, full of +hawks' perches, hounds, spaniels, and terriers, the upper sides of +the hall hung with the fox-skins of this and the last year's skinning, +here and there a polecat intermixed, guns and keepers' and huntsmen's +poles in abundance. The parlour was a large long room, as properly +furnished; on a great hearth paved with brick lay some terriers and +the choicest hounds and spaniels; seldom but two of the great chairs +had litters of young cats in them, which were not to be disturbed, +he having always three or four attending him at dinner, and a little +white round stick of fourteen inches long lying by his trencher, that +he might defend such meat as he had no mind to part with to them. The +windows, which were very large, served for places to lay his arrows, +crossbows, stonebows, and other such like accoutrements; the corners +of the room full of the best chose hunting and hawking poles; an +oyster-table at the lower end, which was of constant use twice a day +all the year round, for he never failed to eat oysters before dinner +and supper through all seasons: the neighbouring town of Poole +supplied him with them. The upper part of this room had two small +tables and a desk, on the one side of which was a church Bible, on the +other the Book of Martyrs; on the tables were hawks' hoods, bells, +and such like, two or three old green hats with their crowns thrust +in so as to hold ten or a dozen eggs, which were of a pheasant kind +of poultry he took much care of and fed himself; tables, dice, cards, +and boxes were not wanting. In the hole of the desk were store of +tobacco-pipes that had been used. On one side of this end of the room +was the door of a closet, wherein stood the strong beer and the wine, +which never came thence but in single glasses, that being the rule +of the house exactly observed, for he never exceeded in drink or +permitted it. On the other side was a door into an old chapel not +used for devotion; the pulpit, as the safest place, was never wanting +of a cold chine of beef, pasty of venison, gammon of bacon, or great +apple-pie, with thick crust extremely baked. His table cost him not +much, though it was very good to eat at, his sports supplying all but +beef and mutton, except Friday, when he had the best sea-fish as well +as other fish he could get, and was the day that his neighbours of +best quality most visited him. He never wanted a London pudding, and +always sung it in with 'my part lies therein-a.' He drank a glass of +wine or two at meals, very often syrrup of gilliflower in his sack, +and had always a tun glass without feet stood by him holding a pint +of small beer, which he often stirred with a great sprig of rosemary. +He was well natured, but soon angry, calling his servants bastard +and cuckoldy knaves, in one of which he often spoke truth to his own +knowledge, and sometimes in both, though of the same man. He lived to +a hundred, never lost his eyesight, but always writ and read without +spectacles, and got to horse without help. Until past fourscore he +rode to the death of a stag as well as any. + + + + +15. + +CHARLES I. + +_Born 1600. Succeeded James I 1625. Beheaded 1649._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The severall unhearde of insolencyes which this excellent Prince was +forced to submitt to, at the other tymes he was brought before that +odious judicatory, his Majesticke behaviour under so much insolence, +and resolute insistinge upon his owne dignity, and defendinge it +by manifest authorityes in the lawe, as well as by the cleerest +deductions from reason, the pronouncinge that horrible sentence upon +the most innocent person in the worlde, the execution of that sentence +by the most execrable murther that ever was committed, since that of +our blessed Savyour, and the circumstances therof, the application +and interposition that was used by some noble persons to prævent that +wofull murther, and the hypocrisy with which that interposition was +deluded, the Saintlike behaviour of that blessed Martir, and his +Christian courage and patience at his death, are all particulars +so well knowne, and have bene so much inlarged upon in treatises +peculiarly applyed to that purpose, that the farther mentioninge it +in this place, would but afflicte and grieve the reader, and make the +relation itselfe odious; and therfore no more shall be sayd heare of +that lamentable Tragedy, so much to the dishonour of the Nation, and +the religion professed by it; but it will not be unnecessary to +add the shorte character of his person, that posterity may know the +inestimable losse which the nation then underwent in beinge deprived +of a Prince whose example would have had a greater influence upon the +manners and piety of the nation, then the most stricte lawes can have. + +To speake first of his private qualifications as a man, before the +mention of his princely and royall virtues, He was, if ever any, +the most worthy of the title of an honest man; so greate a lover of +justice, that no temptation could dispose him to a wrongfull action, +except it were so disguysed to him, that he believed it to be just; he +had a tendernesse and compassion of nature, which restrayned him from +ever doinge a hard hearted thinge, and therfore he was so apt to grant +pardon to Malefactors, that his Judges represented to him the damage +and insecurity to the publique that flowed from such his indulgence, +and then he restrayned himselfe from pardoninge ether murthers or +highway robberyes, and quickly decerned the fruits of his severity, by +a wounderfull reformation of those enormityes. He was very punctuall +and regular in his devotions, so that he was never knowne to enter +upon his recreations or sportes, though never so early in the +morninge, before he had bene at publique prayers, so that on huntinge +dayes, his Chaplynes were bounde to a very early attendance, and he +was likewise very stricte in observinge the howres of his private +cabbinett devotions, and was so seveare an exactor of gravity and +reverence in all mention of religion, that he could never indure any +light or prophane worde in religion, with what sharpnesse of witt so +ever it was cover'd; and though he was well pleased and delighted with +readinge verses made upon any occasyon, no man durst bringe before +him any thinge that was prophane or uncleane, that kinde of witt had +never any countenance then. He was so greate an example of conjugall +affection, that they who did not imitate him in that particular, +did not bragge of ther liberty, and he did not only permitt but +directe his Bishopps to prosequte those skandalous vices, in the +Ecclesiasticall Courtes, against persons of eminence, and neere +relation to his service. + +His kingly virtues had some mixture and allay that hindred them from +shyninge in full lustre, and from producinge those fruites they should +have bene attended with; he was not in his nature bountifull, though +he gave very much, which appeared more after the Duke of Buckinghams +death, after which those showers fell very rarely, and he paused to +longe in givinge, which made those to whome he gave lesse sensible of +the benefitt. He kept state to the full, which made his Courte very +orderly, no man prsesuminge to be seene in a place wher he had no +pretence to be; he saw and observed men longe, before he receaved any +about his person, and did not love strangers, nor very confident men. +He was a patient hearer of causes, which he frequently accustomed +himselfe to, at the Councell Board, and judged very well, and was +dextrous in the mediatinge parte, so that he often putt an end to +causes by perswasion, which the stubbornesse of mens humours made +delatory in courts of justice. He was very fearelesse in his person, +but not enterpryzinge, and had an excellent understandinge, but was +not confident enough of it: which made him often tymes chaunge his +owne opinion for a worse, and follow the advice of a man, that did not +judge so well as himselfe: and this made him more irresolute, then the +conjuncture of his affayres would admitt: If he had bene of a rougher +and more imperious nature, he would have founde more respecte and +duty, and his not applyinge some seveare cures, to approchinge evills, +proceeded from the lenity of his nature, and the tendernesse of his +conscience, which in all cases of bloode, made him choose the softer +way, and not hearken to seveare councells how reasonably soever urged. +This only restrayned him from pursuinge his advantage in the first +Scotts expedition, when humanely speakinge, he might have reduced that +Nation to the most slavish obedyence that could have bene wished, +but no man can say, he had then many who advized him to it, but the +contrary, by a wounderfull indisposition all his Councell had to +fightinge, or any other fatigue. He was alwayes an immoderate lover of +the Scottish nation, havinge not only bene borne ther, but educated by +that people and besiedged by them alwayes, havinge few English aboute +him till he was kinge, and the major number of his servants beinge +still of those, who he thought could never fayle him, and then no +man had such an ascendent over him, by the lowest and humblest +insinuations, as Duke Hambleton had. + +As he excelled in all other virtues, so in temperance he was so +stricte that he abhorred all deboshry to that degree, that at a greate +festivall solemnity wher he once was, when very many of the nobility +of the English and Scotts were entertayned, he was[1] told by one who +withdrew from thence, what vast draughts of wine they dranke, and +that ther was one Earle who had dranke most of the rest downe and was +not himselfe mooved or altred, the kinge sayd that he deserved to +be hanged, and that Earle comminge shortly into the roome wher his +Majesty was, in some gayty to shew how unhurte he was from that +battle, the kinge sent one to bidd him withdraw from his Majestys +presence, nor did he in some dayes after appeare before the kinge. + +Ther were so many miraculous circumstances contributed to his ruine, +that men might well thinke that heaven and earth conspired it, and +that the starres designed it, though he was from the first declension +of his power, so much betrayed by his owne servants, that there were +very few who remayned faythfull to him; yett that trechery proceeded +not from any treasonable purpose to do him any harme, but from +particular and personall animosityes against other men; and afterwards +the terrour all men were under of the Parliament and the guilte they +were conscious of themselves, made them watch all opportunityes to +make themselves gratious to those who could do them good, and so they +became spyes upon ther master, and from one piece of knavery, were +hardned and confirmed to undertake another, till at last they had no +hope of præservation but by the destruction of ther master; And after +all this, when a man might reasonably believe, that lesse then a +universall defection of three nations, could not have reduced a greate +kinge to so ugly a fate, it is most certayne that in that very howre +when he was thus wickedly murthered in the sight of the sunn, he had +as greate a share in the heartes and affections of his subjects in +generall, was as much beloved, esteemed and longed for by the people +in generall of the three nations, as any of his predecessors had ever +bene. To conclude, he was the worthyest gentleman, the best master, +the best frende, the best husbande, the best father, and the best +Christian, that the Age in which he lyved had produced, and if he was +not the best kinge, if he was without some parts and qualityes which +have made some kings greate and happy, no other Prince was ever +unhappy, who was possessed of half his virtues and indowments, and so +much without any kinde of vice. + +[Footnote 1: 'he was' altered to 'being' in ed. 1792.] + + + + +16. + +By SIR PHILIP WARWICK. + + +He was a person, tho' born sickly, yet who came thro' temperance and +exercise, to have as firm and strong a body, as most persons I ever +knew, and throughout all the fatigues of the warr, or during his +imprisonment, never sick. His appetite was to plain meats, and tho' +he took a good quantity thereof, yet it was suitable to an easy +digestion. He seldom eat of above three dishes at most, nor drank +above thrice: a glasse of small beer, another of claret wine, and +the last of water; he eat suppers as well as dinners heartily; but +betwixt meales, he never medled with any thing. Fruit he would eat +plentifully, and with this regularity, he moved as steddily, as a star +follows its course. His deportment was very majestick; for he would +not let fall his dignity, no not to the greatest Forraigners, that +came to visit him and his Court; for tho' he was farr from pride, +yet he was carefull of majestie, and would be approacht with respect +and reverence. His conversation was free, and the subject matter of +it (on his own side of the Court) was most commonly rational; or if +facetious, not light. With any Artist or good Mechanick, Traveller, or +Scholar he would discourse freely; and as he was commonly improved by +them, so he often gave light to them in their own art or knowledge. +For there were few Gentlemen in the world, that knew more of useful +or necessary learning, than this Prince did: and yet his proportion of +books was but small, having like Francis the first of France, learnt +more by the ear, than by study. His way of arguing was very civil and +patient; for he seldom contradicted another by his authority, but +by his reason: nor did he by any petulant dislike quash another's +arguments; and he offered his exception by this civill introduction, +_By your favour, Sir, I think otherwise on this or that ground_: yet +he would discountenance any bold or forward addresse unto him. And +in suits or discourse of busines he would give way to none abruptly +to enter into them, but lookt, that the greatest Persons should in +affairs of this nature addresse to him by his proper Ministers, or +by some solemn desire of speaking to him in their own persons. His +exercises were manly; for he rid the great horse very well; and on +the little saddle he was not only adroit, but a laborious hunter or +field-man: and they were wont to say of him, that he fail'd not to do +any of his exercises artificially, but not very gracefully; like some +well-proportion'd faces, which yet want a pleasant air of countenance. +He had a great plainnes in his own nature, and yet he was thought even +by his Friends to love too much a versatile man; but his experience +had thorowly weaned him from this at last. + +He kept up the dignity of his Court, limiting persons to places +suitable to their qualities, unless he particularly call'd for them. +Besides the women, who attended on his beloved Queen and Consort, he +scarce admitted any great Officer to have his wife in the family. Sir +Henry Vane was the first, that I knew in that kind, who having a good +dyet as Comptroller of the Houshold, and a tenuity of fortune, was +winkt at; so as the Court was fill'd, not cramm'd. His exercises of +Religion were most exemplary; for every morning early, and evening not +very late, singly and alone, in his own bed-chamber or closet he spent +some time in private meditation: (for he durst reflect and be alone) +and thro' the whole week, even when he went a hunting, he never +failed, before he sat down to dinner, to have part of the Liturgy read +unto him and his menial servants, came he never so hungry, or so late +in: and on Sundays and Tuesdays he came (commonly at the beginning of +Service) to the Chappell, well attended by his Court-Lords, and chief +Attendants, and most usually waited on by many of the Nobility in +town, who found those observances acceptably entertain'd by him. His +greatest enemies can deny none of this; and a man of this moderation +of mind could have no hungry appetite to prey upon his subjects, tho' +he had a greatnes of mind not to live precariously by them. But when +he fell into the sharpnes of his afflictions, (than which few men +underwent sharper) I dare say, I know it, (I am sure conscientiously +I say it) tho' God dealt with him, as he did with St. Paul, not remove +the thorn, yet he made his grace sufficient to take away the pungency +of it: for he made as sanctified an use of his afflictions, as most +men ever did. + +No Gentleman in his three nations, tho' there were many more learned, +(for I have supposed him but competently learned, tho' eminently +rational) better understood the foundations of his own Church, and the +grounds of the Reformation, than he did: which made the Pope's Nuncio +to the Queen, Signior Con, to say (both of him and Arch-Bishop Laud, +when the King had forced the Archbishop to admit a visit from, and +a conference with the Nuncio) _That when he came first to Court, he +hoped to have made great impressions there; but after he had conferr'd +with Prince and Prelate, (who never denyed him any thing frowardly or +ignorantly, but admitted all, which primitive and uncorrupted Rome for +the first 500 years had exercised_,) he declared he found, _That they +resolved to deal with his Master, the Pope, as wrestlers do with one +another, take him up to fling him down_. And therefore tho' I cannot +say, I know, that he wrote his _Icon Basilike_, or _Image_, which +goes under his own name; yet I can say, I have heard him, even unto my +unworthy selfe, say many of those things it contains: and I have bin +assur'd by Mr. Levett, (one of the Pages of his Bedchamber, and who +was with him thro' all his imprisonments) that he hath not only seen +the Manuscript of that book among his Majestie's papers at the Isle +of Wight, but read many of the chapters himselfe: and Mr. Herbert, +who by the appointment of Parliament attended him, says, he saw the +Manuscript in the King's hand, as he believed; but it was in a running +character, and not that which the King usually wrote. And whoever +reads his private and cursory letters, which he wrote unto the +Queen, and to some great men (especially in his Scotch affairs, set +down by Mr. Burnet, when he stood single, as he did thro' all his +imprisonments) the gravity and significancy of that style may assure +a misbeliever, that he had head and hand enough to express the +ejaculations of a good, pious, and afflicted heart; and Solomon says, +that _affliction gives understanding_, or elevates thoughts: and we +cannot wonder, that so royal a heart, sensible of such afflictions, +should make such a description of them, as he hath done in that book. + +And tho' he was of as slow a pen, as of speech; yet both were very +significant: and he had that modest esteem of his own parts, that he +would usually say, _He would willingly make his own dispatches, but +that he found it better to be a Cobler, than a Shoomaker_. I have +bin in company with very learned men, when I have brought them their +own papers back from him, with his alterations, who ever contest his +amendments to have bin very material. And I once by his commandment +brought him a paper of my own to read, to see, whether it was suitable +unto his directions, and he disallow'd it slightingly: I desir'd him, +I might call Doctor Sanderson to aid me, and that the Doctor might +understand his own meaning from himselfe; and with his Majestie's +leave, I brought him, whilst he was walking, and taking the aire; +whereupon wee two went back; but pleas'd him as little, when wee +return'd it: for smilingly he said, _A man might have as good ware out +of a Chandler's shop_: but afterwards he set it down with his own pen +very plainly, and suitable unto his own intentions. The thing was +of that nature, (being too great an owning of the Scots, when Duke +Hamilton was in the heart of England so meanely defeated, and like +the crafty fox lay out of countenance in the hands of his enemies,) +that it chilled the Doctors ink; and when the matter came to be +communicated, those honourable Persons, that then attended him, +prevayl'd on him to decline the whole. And I remember, when his +displeasure was a little off, telling him, how severely he had dealt +in his charactering the best pen in England, Dr. Sanderson's; he told +me, he had had two Secretaries, one a dull man in comparison of the +other, and yet the first best pleas'd him: _For_, said he, _my Lord +Carleton ever brought me my own sense in my own words; but my Lord +Faulkland most commonly brought me my instructions in so fine a dress, +that I did not alwaies own them._ Which put me in mind to tell him +a story of my Lord Burleigh and his son Cecil: for Burleigh being at +Councill, and Lord Treasurer, reading an order penn'd by a new Clerk +of the Councill, who was a Wit and Scholar, he flung it downward to +the lower end of the Table to his son, the Secretary, saying, _Mr. +Secretary, you bring in Clerks of the Councill, who will corrupt the +gravity and dignity of the style of the Board_: to which the Secretary +replied, _I pray, my Lord, pardon this, for this Gentleman is not warm +in his place, and hath had so little to do, that he is wanton with his +pen: but I will put so much busines upon him, that he shall be willing +to observe your Lordship's directions._ These are so little stories, +that it may be justly thought, I am either vain, or at leasure to sett +them down; but I derive my authority from an Author, the world hath +ever reverenced, _viz_, Plutarch; who writing the lives of Alexander +the great and Julius Cesar, runs into the actions, flowing from their +particular natures, and into their private conversation, saying, +_These smaller things would discover the men, whilst their great +actions only discover the power of their States._ + +One or two things more then I may warrantably observe: First, as +an evidence of his natural probity, whenever any young Nobleman or +Gentleman of quality, who was going to travell, came to kiss his hand, +he cheerfully would give them some good counsel, leading to morall +virtue, especially to good conversation; telling them, that _If he +heard they kept good company abroad, he should reasonably expect, they +would return qualified to serve him and their Country well at home_; +and he was very carefull to keep the youth in his times uncorrupted. +This I find in the Mémoires upon James Duke Hamilton, was his advice +unto that noble and loyal Lord, William, afterwards, Duke Hamilton, +who so well serv'd his Son, and never perfidiously disserv'd him, when +in armes against him. Secondly, his forementioned intercepted letters +to the Queen at Naisby had this passage in them, where mentioning +religion, he said, _This is the only thing, wherein we two differ_; +which even unto a miscreant Jew would have bin proofe enough of this +King's sincerity in his religion; and had it not bin providence or +inadvertence, surely those, who had in this kind defam'd him, would +never themselves have publish'd in print this passage, which thus +justified him. + +This may be truly said, That he valued the Reformation of his own +Church, before any in the world; and was as sensible and as knowing +of, and severe against, the deviations of Rome from the primitive +Church, as any Gentleman in Christendom; and beyond those errors, no +way quarrelsom towards it: for he was willing to give it its due, that +it might be brought to be willing to accept, at least to grant, such +an union in the Church, as might have brought a free and friendly +communion between Dissenters, without the one's totall quitting his +errors, or the other's being necessitated to partake therein: and I +truly believe this was the utmost both of his and his Archbishop's +inclinations; and if I may not, yet both these Martyrs confessions on +the scaffold (God avert the prophecy of the last, _Venient Romani_) +surely may convince the world, that they both dyed true Assertors of +the Reformation. And the great and learned light of this last age, +Grotius, soon discern'd this inclination in him: for in his dedication +of his immortal and scarce ever to be parallel'd book, _De Jure Belli +& Pacis_, he recommends it to Lewis XIII, King of France, as the most +Royall and Christian design imaginable for his Majestic to become a +means to make an union amongst Christians in profession of religion; +and therein he tells him, how well-knowing and well-disposed the King +of England was thereunto. In a word, had he had as daring and active +a courage to obviate danger; as he had a steddy and undaunted in all +hazardous rencounters; or had his active courage equall'd his passive, +the rebellious and tumultuous humor of those, who were disloyall to +him, probably had been quash'd in their first rise: for thro'-out the +English story it may be observed, that the souldier-like spirit in the +Prince hath bin ever much more fortunate and esteem'd, than the pious: +a Prince's awfull reputation being of much more defence to him, than +his Regall (nay Legall) edicts. + + + + +17. + +THE EARL OF STRAFFORD. + +_Thomas Wentworth, knighted 1611, second baronet 1614, created +Viscount Wentworth 1628, Earl of Strafford 1640._ + +_Born 1593. Beheaded 1641._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +All thinges beinge thus transacted, to conclude the fate of this +greate person, he was on the 12. day of May brought from the Tower of +London, wher he had bene a prysoner neere six moneths, to the Skaffold +on Tower Hill, wher with a composed, undaunted courage, he told the +people, he was come thither to satisfy them with his heade, but that +he much feared, the reformation which was begunn in bloode, would not +proove so fortunate to the kingdom as they exspected, and he wished, +and after greate expressyons of his devotion to the Church of +Englande, and the Protestant Religion established by Law and professed +in that Church, of his loyalty to the Kinge, and affection to the +peace and welfare of the Kingdome, with marvellous tranquillity of +minde, he deliver'd his Heade to the blocke, wher it was sever'd from +his body at a blow; many of the standers by, who had not bene over +charitable to him in his life, beinge much affected with the courage +and Christianity of his death. Thus fell the greatest subjecte in +power (and little inferiour to any in fortune) that was at that tyme +in ether of the three Kingdomes; who could well remember the tyme when +he ledd those people, who then pursued him to his grave. He was a man +of greate partes and extraordinary indowments of nature, not unadorned +with some addicion of Arte and learninge, though that agayne was more +improoved and illustrated by the other, for he had a readynesse of +conception, and sharpnesse of expressyon, which made his learninge +thought more, then in truth it was. His first inclinations and +addresses to the Courte, were only to establish his Greatnesse in +the Country, wher he apprehended some Actes of power from the[1] +L'd Savill, who had bene his ryvall alwayes ther, and of late had +strenghtened himselfe by beinge made a Privy Counsellour, and Officer +at Courte, but his first attempts were so prosperous that he contented +not himselfe with beinge secure from his power in the Country, but +rested not till he had bereaved him of all power and place in Courte, +and so sent him downe a most abject disconsolate old man to his +Country, wher he was to have the superintendency over him too, by +getting himselfe at that tyme made L'd President of the North. These +successes, applyed to a nature too elate and arrogant of it selfe, and +a quicker progresse into the greatest imployments and trust, made him +more transported with disdayne of other men, and more contemninge the +formes of businesse, then happily he would have bene, if he had mett +with some interruptions in the beginning, and had passed in a more +leasurely gradation to the office of a Statesman. He was no doubte of +greate observation, and a piercinge judgement both into thinges and +persons, but his too good skill in persons made him judge the worse +of thinges, for it was his misfortune to be of a tyme, wherin very few +wise men were æqually imployed with him, and scarce any (but the L'd +Coventry, whose trust was more confined) whose facultyes and abilityes +were æquall to his, so that upon the matter he wholy relyed upon +himselfe, and decerninge many defects in most men, he too much +neglected what they sayd or did. Of all his passyons his pryde was +most prædominant, which a moderate exercise of ill fortune might have +corrected and reformed, and which was by the hande of heaven strangely +punished, by bringinge his destruction upon him, by two thinges, that +he most despised, the people, and S'r Harry Vane; In a worde, the +Epitaph which Plutarch recordes, that Silla wrote for himselfe, may +not be unfitly applyed to him; That no man did ever passe him, ether +in doinge good to his frends, or in doinge mischieve to his enimyes, +for his Actes of both kindes were most exemplar and notorious. + +[Footnote 1: 'old' inserted in another hand before 'L'd'.] + + + + +18. + +By SIR PHILIP WARWICK. + + +The Lord Viscount Wentworth, Lord President of the North, whom the +Lord Treasurer Portland had brought into his Majestie's affairs, from +his ability and activity had wrought himselfe much into his Majestie's +confidence; and about the year 1632 was appointed by the King to be +Lord Deputy of Ireland, where the state of affairs was in no very +good posture, the revenue of the crown not defraying the standing army +there, nor the ordinary expences; and the deportment of the Romanists +being there also very insolent, and the Scots plantations in the +northern parts of that Realm looking upon themselves, as if they had +been a distinct body. So as here was subject matter enough for this +great man to work on; and considering his hardines, it may well be +supposed, that the difficulties of his employment, being means to shew +his abilities, were gratefull to him; for he was every way qualified +for busines; his naturall faculties being very strong and pregnant, +his understanding, aided by a good phansy, made him quick in +discerning the nature of any busines; and thro' a cold brain he became +deliberate and of a sound judgement. His memory was great, and he made +it greater by confiding in it. His elocution was very fluent, and it +was a great part of his talent readily to reply, or freely to harangue +upon any subject. And all this was lodged in a sowre and haughty +temper; so as it may probably be believed, he expected to have more +observance paid to him, than he was willing to pay to others, tho' +they were of his own quality; and then he was not like to conciliate +the good will of men of the lesser station. + +His acquired parts, both in University and Inns-of-Court Learning, as +likewise his forreign-travells, made him an eminent man, before he was +a conspicuous; so as when he came to shew himselfe first in publick +affairs, which was in the House of Commons, he was soon a bell-weather +in that flock. As he had these parts, he knew how to set a price on +them, if not overvalue them: and he too soon discovered a roughnes in +his nature, which a man no more obliged by him, than I was, would have +called an injustice; tho' many of his Confidents, (who were my good +friends, when I like a little worm, being trod on, would turn and +laugh, and under that disguise say as piquant words, as my little wit +would help me with) were wont to swear to me, that he endeavoured to +be just to all, but was resolv'd to be gracious to none, but to those, +whom he thought inwardly affected him: which never bowed me, till his +broken fortune, and as I thought, very unjustifiable prosecution, +made me one of the fifty six, who gave a negative to that fatall Bill, +which cut the thread of his life. + +He gave an early specimen of the roughnes of his nature, when in the +eager pursuit of the House of Commons after the Duke of Buckingham, +he advised or gave a counsel against another, which was afterwards +taken up and pursued against himselfe. Thus pressing upon another +man's case, he awakened his own fate. For when that House was in +consultation, how to frame the particular charge against that great +Duke, he advised to make a generall one, and to accuse him of treason, +and to let him afterwards get off, as he could; which befell himselfe +at last. I beleive he should make no irrational conjecture, who +determined, that his very eminent parts to support a Crown, and +his very rugged nature to contest disloyalty, or withstand change +of government, made his enemies implacable to him. It was a great +infirmity in him, that he seem'd to overlooke so many, as he did; +since every where, much more in Court, the numerous or lesser sort of +attendants can obstruct, create jealousies, spread ill reports, and +do harme: for as 'tis impossible, that any power or deportment should +satisfy all persons: so there a little friendlines and opennes of +carriage begets hope, and lessens envy. + +In his person he was of a tall stature, but stooped much in the neck. +His countenance was cloudy, whilst he moved, or sat thinking; but when +he spake, either seriously or facetiously, he had a lightsom and a +very pleasant ayre: and indeed whatever he then did, he performed very +gracefully. The greatnes of the envy, that attended him, made many in +their prognosticks to bode him an ill end; and there went current a +story of the dream of his Father, who being both by his wife, nighest +friends, and Physicians, thought to be at the point of his death, +fell suddenly into so profound a sleep, and lay quietly so long, that +his Wife, uncertain of his condition, drew nigh his bed, to observe, +whether she could hear him breath, and gently touching him, he +awaked with great disturbance, and told her the reason was, she had +interrupted him in a dream, which most passionately he desired to have +known the end of. For, said he, I dream'd one appear'd to me, assuring +me, that _I should have a son_, (for 'till then he had none) _who +should be a very great and eminent man: but--and in this instant thou +didst awake me, whereby I am bereaved of the knowledge of the further +fortune of the child_. This I heard, when this Lord was but in the +ascent of his greatnes, and long before his fall: and afterwards +conferring with some of his nighest Relations, I found the tradition +was not disown'd. Sure I am, that his station was like those turfs +of earth or sea-banks, which by the storm swept away, left all the +in-land to be drown'd by popular tumult. + + + + +19. + +THE EARL OF NORTHAMPTON. + +_Spencer Compton, second Earl of Northampton._ + +_Born 1601. Fell at Hopton Heath 1643._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +In this fight, which was sharpe and shorte, there were killed and +taken prysoners of the Parliament party above 200. and more then that +number wounded, for the horse charginge amonge ther foote, more +were hurte then killed; Eight pieces of ther Cannon and most of ther +Ammunition was likewise taken. Of the Earles party were slayne but +25. wherof ther were two Captaynes, some inferiour officers, and the +rest common men, but ther were as many hurte, and those of the chiefe +officers. They who had all the Ensignes of victory (but ther Generall) +thought themselves undone, whilst the other syde who had escaped in +the night and made a hard shifte to carry his deade body with them, +hardly believed they were loosers, + + Et velut æquali bellatum sorte fuisset + componit cum classe virum: + +The truth is, a greater victory had bene an unæquall recompence for a +lesse losse. He was a person of greate courage, honour, and fidelity, +and not well knowne till his Eveninge, havinge in the ease, and +plenty, and luxury of that too happy tyme indulged to himselfe with +that licence, which was then thought necessary to greate fortunes, but +from the beginninge of these distractions, as if he had bene awakened +out of a lethargy, he never proceeded with a lukewarme temper. Before +the Standard was sett up, he appeared in Warwickshyre against the L'd +Brooke, and as much upon his owne reputation as the justice of the +cause (which was not so well then understoode) discountenanced and +drove him out of that County, Afterwardes tooke the Ordinance from +Banbury Castle, and brought them to the Kinge; assoone as an Army was +to be raysed he leavyed with the first upon his owne charge a troope +of Horse and a Regiment of foote, and (not like other men, who warily +distributed ther Family to both sydes, one Sunn to serve the Kinge, +whilst the father, or another sunn engaged as farr for the Parliament) +intirely dedicated all his Children to the quarrell, havinge fowre +Sunns officers under him, wherof three charged that day in the +Fielde; and from the tyme he submitted himselfe to the professyon of +a souldyer, no man more punctuall upon commaunde, no man more diligent +and vigilant in duty, all distresses he bore like a common man, and +all wants and hardnesses as if he had never knowne plenty, or ease, +most prodigall of his person to daunger, and would often say, that +if he outlived these warres, he was certayne never to have so noble +a death, so that it is not to be woundred, if upon such a stroke, the +body that felte it, thought it had lost more then a Limbe. + + + + +20. + +THE EARL OF CARNARVON. + +_Robert Dormer, created Earl of Carnarvon 1628._ + +_Born 1610. Fell at Newbury 1643._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +This day fell the Earle of Carnarvon, who after he had charged and +rowted a body of the enimyes horse, cominge carelesly backe by some of +the scattered troopers, was by one of them who knew him runn through +the body with a sworde, of which he dyed within an howre. He was a +person with whose greate partes and virtue the world was not enough +acquainted. Before the warr, though his education was adorned by +travell, and an exacte observation of the manners of more nations +then our common travellers use to visitt, for he had after the view +of Spayne, France, and most partes of Italy, spent some tyme in Turkey +and those Easterne Countryes, he seemed to be wholly delighted with +those looser exercises of pleasure, huntinge, hawkinge, and the like, +in which the nobility of that tyme too much delighted to excell; After +the troubles begann, havinge the commaunde of the first or secounde +Regiment of Horse that was raysed for the Kinges service, he wholy +gave himselfe up to the office and duty of a Souldyer, noe man more +diligently obeyinge, or more dextrously commaundinge, for he was +not only of a very keene courage in the exposinge his person, but an +excellent discerner and pursuer of advantage upon his enimy, and had a +minde and understandinge very present in the article of daunger, which +is a rare benefitt in that profession. Those infirmityes and that +licence which he had formerly indulged to himselfe, he putt off with +severity, when others thought them excusable under the notion of a +souldyer. He was a greate lover of justice, and practiced it then most +deliberately, when he had power to do wronge, and so stricte in the +observation of his worde and promise, as a Commander, that he could +not be perswaded to stay in the west, when he founde it not in his +power to performe the agreement he had made with Dorchester and +Waymoth. If he had lived he would have proved a greate Ornament to +that profession, and an excellent Souldyer, and by his death the Kinge +founde a sensible weakenesse in his Army. + + + + +21. + +LORD FALKLAND. + +_Lucius Gary, second Viscount Falkland 1633._ + +_Born 1610. Fell at Newbury 1643._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +But I must heare take leave a little longer to discontinue this +narration, and if the celebratinge the memory of eminent and +extraordinary persons, and transmittinge ther greate virtues for the +imitation of posterity, be one of the principle endes and dutyes of +History, it will not be thought impertinent in this place to remember +a losse, which noe tyme will suffer to be forgotten, and no successe +or good fortune could repayre; In this unhappy battell was slayne +the L'd Viscounte Falkelande, a person of such prodigious partes of +learninge and knowledge, of that inimitable sweetenesse and delight in +conversation, of so flowinge and obliginge a humanity and goodnesse +to mankinde, and of that primitive simplicity, and integrity of life, +that if ther were no other brande upon this odious and accursed Civill +war, then that single losse, it must be most infamous and execrable to +all posterity: + +Turpe mori post te, solo non posse dolore. + +Before this parliament his condition of life was so happy, that it +was hardly capable of improovement; before he came to twenty yeeres of +Age, he was master of a noble fortune, which descended to him by the +gifte of a grandfather, without passinge through his father or mother, +who were then both alive, and not well enough contented to finde +themselves passed by in the descent: His education for some yeeres +had bene in Ireland, wher his father was Lord Deputy, so that when +he returned into Englande, to the possessyon of his fortune, he was +unintangled with any acquaintance or frends, which usually grow up by +the custome of conversation, and therfore was to make a pure election +of his company; which he chose by other rules then were prescribed +to the younge nobility of that tyme; And it cannot be denyed, though +he admitted some few to his frendshipp for the agreablenesse of ther +natures, and ther undoubted affection to him, that his familiarity +and frendshipp for the most parte was with men of the most eminent and +sublime partes, and of untouched reputations in pointe of integrity: +and such men had a title to his bosome. + +He was a greate cherisher of witt, and fancy, and good partes in +any man, and if he founde them clowded with poverty or wante, a most +liberall and bountifull Patron towards them, even above his fortune, +of which in those administrations he was such a dispenser, as if he +had bene trusted with it to such uses, and if ther had bene the least +of vice in his expence, he might have bene thought too prodigall: He +was constant and pertinatious in whatsoever he resolved to doe, and +not to be wearyed by any paynes that were necessary to that end, and +therfore havinge once resolved not to see London (which he loved above +all places) till he had perfectly learned the greeke tonge, he went to +his owne house in the Country, and pursued it with that indefatigable +industry, that it will not be believed, in how shorte a tyme he was +master of it, and accurately reade all the Greeke Historyans. In this +tyme, his house beinge within tenn myles of Oxford, he contracted +familiarity and frendshipp with the most polite and accurate men of +that University; who founde such an immensenesse of witt, and such +a soliddity of judgement in him, so infinite a fancy bounde in by a +most logicall ratiocination, such a vast knowledge, that he was not +ignorant in any thinge, yet such an excessive humillity as if he had +knowne nothinge, that they frequently resorted and dwelt with him, +as in a Colledge scituated in a purer ayre, so that his house was +a University bounde in a lesser volume, whither they came not so +much for repose, as study: and to examyne and refyne those grosser +propositions, which lazinesse and consent made currant in vulgar +conversation. + +Many attempts were made upon him, by the instigation of his mother +(who was a Lady of another perswasion in religion, and of a most +maskulyne understandinge, allayed with the passyon and infirmityes of +her owne sex) to perverte him in his piety to the Church of Englande, +and to reconcile him to that of Rome, which they prosequted with the +more confidence, because he declined no opportunity or occasyon of +conference with those of that religion, whether Priests or Laiques, +havinge diligently studyed the controversyes, and exactly reade all or +the choycest of the Greeke and Latine fathers, and havinge a memory so +stupendious, that he remembred on all occasyons whatsoever he reade: +And he was so greate an enimy to that passyon and uncharitablenesse +which he saw produced by difference of opinion in matters of religion, +that in all those disputations with Priests and others of the Roman +Church, he affected to manifest all possible civillity to ther +persons, and estimation of ther partes, which made them retayne still +some hope of his reduction, even when they had given over offeringe +farther reasons to him to that purpose: But this charity towards them +was much lesned, and any correspondence with them quyte declined, when +by sinister Artes they had corrupted his two younger brothers, beinge +both children, and stolen them from his house, and transported them +beyonde seas, and perverted his sisters, upon which occasyon he writt +two large discources against the principle positions of that Religion, +with that sharpnesse of Style, and full waight of reason, that the +Church is deprived of greate jewells, in the concealment of them, and +that they are not published to the world. + +He was superiour to all those passyons and affections which attende +vulgar mindes, and was guilty of no other ambition, then of knowledge, +and to be reputed a lover of all good men, and that made him to much a +contemner of those Artes which must be indulged to in the transaction +of humane affayrs. In the last shorte Parliament he was a Burgesse +in the house of Commons, and from the debates which were then managed +with all imaginable gravity and sobriety, he contracted such a +reverence to Parliaments that he thought it really impossible, that +they could ever produce mischieve or inconvenience to the kingdome, +or that the kingdome could be tolerably happy in the intermissyon +of them; and from the unhappy, and unseasonable dissolution of that +convention, he harboured it may be some jealousy and præjudice of +the Courte, towards which he was not before immoderately inclined, +his father havinge wasted a full fortune ther, in those offices and +imployments, by which other men use to obtayne a greater. He was +chosen agayne this Parliament to serve in the same place, and in the +beginninge of it, declared himselfe very sharply and sevearely against +those exorbitances which had bene most grievous to the State; for +he was so rigidd an observer of established Lawes and rules, that he +could not indure the least breach or deviation from them, and thought +no mischieve so intollerable, as the præsumption of ministers of +State, to breake positive rules for reason of State, or judges to +transgresse knowne Lawes, upon the title of conveniency or necessity, +which made him so seveare against the Earle of Straforde, and the L'd +Finch, contrary to his naturall gentlenesse and temper; insomuch as +they who did not know his composition to be as free from revenge as +it was from pryde, thought that the sharpnesse to the former might +proceede from the memory of some unkindnesses, not without a mixture +of injustice from him towards his father; but without doubte he was +free from those temptations, and was only misledd by the authority +of those, who he believed understoode the Lawes perfectly, of which +himselfe was utterly ignorant, and if the assumption, which was +scarce controverted, had bene true, that an endeavour to overthrow +the fundamentall Lawes of the kingdome had beene treason, a stricte +understandinge might make reasonable conclusions to satisfy his owne +judgement, from the exorbitant partes of ther severall charges. + +The greate opinion he had of the uprightnesse and integrity of those +persons, who appeared most active, especially of Mr. Hambden, kept him +longer from suspectinge any designe against the peace of the kingdome, +and though he differed commonly from them in conclusyons, he believed +longe ther purposes were honest; When he grew better informed what was +Law, and discerned a desyre to controle that Law, by a vote of one, or +both houses, no man more opposed those attempts, and gave the adverse +party more trouble, by reason and argumentation, insomuch as he was +by degrees looked upon as an Advocate for the Courte, to which he +contributed so little, that he declined those addresses, and even +those invitations, which he was oblieged almost by civillity to +entertayne: And he was so jealous of the least imagination that he +should inclyne to præferment, that he affected even a morosity to the +Courte, and to the Courtyers, and left nothinge undone which might +prevent and deverte the Kings or Queenes favour towards him, but +the deservinge it: for when the Kinge sent for him once or twice, to +speake with him, and to give him thankes for his excellent comportment +in those Councells, which his Majesty gratiously tearmed doinge him +service, his answers were more negligent and lesse satisfactory than +might be exspected, as if he cared only that his Actions should be +just, not that they should be acceptable, and that his Majesty should +thinke that they proceeded only from the impulsyon of conscience, +without any sympathy in his affections, which from a Stoicall and +sullen nature might not have bene misinterpreted, yet from a person +of so perfecte a habitt of generous and obsequious complyance with +all good men, might very well have bene interpreted by the Kinge as +more then an ordinary aversenesse to his service, so that he tooke +more paynes, and more forced his nature to actions unagreable and +unpleasant to it, that he might not be thought to inclyne to the +Courte, then any man hath done to procure an office ther; and if any +thinge but not doinge his duty could have kept him from receavinge a +testimony of the Kings grace and trust at that tyme, he had not bene +called to his Councell: not that he was in truth averse to the Courte, +or from receavinge publique imployment: for he had a greate devotion +to the Kings person, and had before used some small endeavour to be +recommended to him for a forrainge negotiation, and had once a desyre +to be sent Ambassadour into France, but he abhorred an imagination +or doubte should sinke into the thoughts of any man, that in the +discharge of his trust and duty in Parliament he had any byas to the +Court, or that the Kinge himselfe should apprehende that he looked for +a rewarde for beinge honest. + +For this reason when he heard it first whispered that the Kinge had +a purpose to make him a Counsellour, for which in the beginninge +ther was no other grounde, but because he was knowne sufficient, haud +semper errat fama, aliquando et elegit, he resolved to declyne it, +and at last suffred himselfe only to be overruled by the advice, and +persuasions of his frends to submitt to it; afterwards when he founde +that the Kinge intended to make him his Secretary of State, he was +positive to refuse it, declaringe to his frends that he was most +unfitt for it, and that he must ether doe that which would be greate +disquyet to his owne nature, or leave that undone which was most +necessary to be done by one that was honored with that place, for that +the most just and honest men did every day that, which he could not +give himselfe leave to doe. And indeede he was so exacte and stricte +an observer of justice and truth _ad amussim_, that he believed +those necessary condescensions and applications to the weaknesse of +other men, and those artes and insinuations which are necessary for +discoveryes and prevention of ill, would be in him a declension from +the rule which he acknowledged fitt and absolutely necessary to be +practiced in those imploiments, and was so precise in the practique +principles he prescribed to himselfe (to all others he was as +indulgent) as if he had lived in republica Platonis non in fæce +Romuli. + +Two reasons prævayled with him to receave the seales, and but for +those he had resolutely avoyded them, the first, the consideration +that it might bringe some blemish upon the Kings affayres, and that +men would have believed that he had refused so greate an honour and +trust, because he must have beene with it oblieged to doe somewhat +elce, not justifiable; and this he made matter of conscience, since he +knew the Kinge made choyce of him before other men, especially because +he thought him more honest then other men; the other was, least he +might be thought to avoyde it, out of feare to doe an ungratious +thinge to the house of Commons, who were sorely troubled at the +displacinge S'r Harry Vane, whome they looked upon as remooved for +havinge done them those offices they stoode in neede of, and the +disdayne of so popular an incumbrance wrought upon him next to the +other, for as he had a full appetite of fame by just and generous +Actions, so he had an æquall contempt of it by any servile expedients, +and he so much the more consented to and approved the justice upon S'r +H. Vane, in his owne private judgement, by how much he surpassed most +men in the religious observation of a trust, the violation wherof he +would not admitt of any excuse for. + +For these reasons he submitted to the Kings commaunde, and became +his Secretary, with as humble and devoute an acknowledgement of the +greatenesse of the obligation, as could be expressed, and as true +a sense of it in his hearte; yet two thinges he could never bringe +himselfe to whilst he continued in that office, (that was to his +death) for which he was contented to be reproched, as for omissyons +in a most necessary parte of his place; the one imployinge of Spyes, +or givinge any countenance or entertaynement to them, I doe not meane +such emissaryes as with daunger will venture to view the enimyes +Campe, and bringe intelligence of ther number or quartringe, or +such generalls as such an observation can comprehende, but those +who by communication of guilte, or dissimulation of manners, wounde +themselves into such trust and secretts, as inabled them to make +discoveryes for the benefitt of the State; the other, the liberty of +openinge letters, upon a suspicion that they might contayne matter of +daungerous consequence; for the first, he would say, such instruments +must be voyd of all ingenuity and common honesty, before they could +be of use, and afterwards they could never be fitt to be credited, and +that no single preservation could be worth so generall a wounde and +corruption of humane society, as the cherishinge such persons would +carry with it: The last he thought such a violation of the Law of +nature, that no qualification by office, could justify a single person +in the trespasse, and though he was convinced by the necessity and +iniquity of the tyme, that those advantages of information were not to +be declined, and were necessarily to be practiced, he founde meanes to +shifte it from himselfe, when he confessed he needed excuse and pardon +for the omissyon, so unwillinge he was to resigne any thinge in his +nature, to an obligation in his office. In all other particulars, he +filled his place plentifully, beinge sufficiently versed in languages, +to understande any that is used in businesse, and to make himselfe +agayne understoode: To speake of his integrity, and his high disdayne +of any bayte that might seeme to looke towards corruption, in tanto +viro, injuria virtutum fuerit. + +Some sharpe expressions he used against the Arch-Bishopp of +Canterbury, and his concurringe in the first Bill to take away the +Votes of Bishopps in the house of Peeres, gave occasyon to some to +believe, and opportunity to others to conclude and publish that he +was no frende to the Church, and the established goverment of it, +and troubled his very frends much, who were more confident of the +contrary, then præpared to answer the allegations. The truth is, +he had unhappily contracted some præjudice to the Arch-Bishopp, and +havinge only knowne him enough, to observe his passyon, when it may +be multiplicity of businesse or other indisposition had possessed +him, did wish him lesse intangled and ingaged in the businesse +of the Courte or State, though, I speake it knowingly, he had a +singular estimation and reverence of his greate learninge and +confessed integrity, and really thought his lettinge himselfe to +those expressyons which implyed a disesteeme of him, or at least an +acknowledgement of his infirmityes, would inable him to shelter him +from parte of the storme he saw raysed for his destruction, which he +abominated with his soule. The givinge his consent to the first Bill +for the displacinge the Bishopps, did proceede from two groundes, the +first, his not understandinge the originall of ther right and suffrage +ther, the other, an opinion that the combination against the whole +goverment of the Church by Bishopps, was so violent and furious, that +a lesse composition then the dispencinge with ther intermedlinge in +sæcular affayres would not præserve the Order, and he was perswaded to +this, by the profession of many persons of Honour, who declared they +did desyre the one, and would then not presse the other, which in that +particular misledd many men; but when his observation and experience +made him discerne more of ther intencions then he before suspected, +with greate frankenesse he opposed the secound Bill that was præferred +for that purpose; and had without scruple the order it selfe in +perfecte reverence, and thought too greate encouragement could not +possibly be given to learninge, nor too greate rewardes to learned +men, and was never in the least degree swayed or moved by the +objections which were made against that goverment, holdinge them +most ridiculous, or affected to the other which those men fancyed to +themselves. + +He had a courage of the most cleere and keene temper, and soe farr +from feare, that he was not without appetite of daunger, and therfore +upon any occasyon of action he alwayes engaged his person in those +troopes which he thought by the forwardnesse of the Commanders to be +most like to be farthest engaged, and in all such encounters he had +aboute him a strange cheerefulnesse and companiablenesse, without at +all affectinge the execution that was then principally to be attended, +in which he tooke no delight, but tooke paynes to prevent it, wher +it was not by resistance necessary, insomuch that at Edgehill, when +the Enimy was rowted, he was like to have incurred greate perill +by interposinge to save those who had throwne away ther armes, and +against whome it may be others were more fierce for ther havinge +throwne them away, insomuch as a man might thinke, he came into the +Feild only out of curiosity to see the face of daunger, and charity +to prævent the sheddinge of bloode; yet in his naturall inclination +he acknowledged he was addicted to the professyon of a Souldyer, and +shortly after he came to his fortune, and before he came to Age, he +went into the Low Countryes with a resolution of procuringe commaunde, +and to give himselfe up to it, from which he was converted by the +compleate inactivity of that Summer; and so he returned into Englande, +and shortly after entred upon that vehement course of study we +mencioned before, till the first Alarum from the North, and then +agayne he made ready for the feild, and though he receaved some +repulse in the commande of a troope of Horse, of which he had a +promise, he went a volunteere with the Earle of Essex. + +From the entrance into this unnaturall warr, his naturall +cheerefulnesse and vivacity grew clowded, and a kinde of sadnesse and +dejection of spiritt stole upon him, which he had never bene used to, +yet, beinge one of those who believed that one battell would end all +differences, and that ther would be so greate a victory on one syde, +that the other would be compelled to submitt to any conditions from +the victor (which supposition and conclusion generally sunke into the +mindes of most men, prævented the lookinge after many advantages which +might then have bene layd hold of) he resisted those indispositions, +et in luctu bellum inter remedia erat: but after the Kings returne +from Brayneforde, and the furious resolution of the two houses, not +to admitt any treaty for peace, those indispositions which had before +touched him, grew into a perfecte habitt of uncheerefulnesse, and he +who had bene so exactly unreserved and affable to all men, that his +face and countenance was alwayes present and vacant to his company, +and held any clowdinesse, and lesse pleasantnesse of the visage, +a kinde of rudenesse or incivillity, became on a suddayne lesse +communicable, and thence very sadd, pale, and exceedingly affected +with the spleene. In his clothes and habitt, which he had intended +before alwayes with more neatenesse, and industry, and exspence, then +is usuall to so greate a minde, he was not now only incurious, but +too negligent, and in his reception of suitors and the necessary or +casuall addresses to his place so quicke, and sharpe, and seveare, +that ther wanted not some men (who were strangers to his nature and +disposition) who believed him prowde and imperious, from which no +mortall man was ever more free. The truth is, as he was of a most +incomparable gentlenesse, application, and even a demisnesse and +submissyon to good, and worthy, and intire men, so he was naturally +(which could not but be more evident in his place which objected him +to another conversation, and intermixture, then his owne election had +done) adversus males injucundus, and was so ill a dissembler of his +dislike, and disinclination to ill men, that it was not possible for +such not to discerne it; ther was once in the house of Commons such a +declared acceptation of the good service an eminent member had done to +them, and as they sayd, to the whole kingdome, that it was mooved, he +beinge present, that the Speaker might in the name of the whole house +give him thankes, and then that every member might as a testimony +of his particular acknowledgement stirr or moove his Hatt towards +him, the which (though not ordred) when very many did, the L'd of +Falkelande (who believed the service itselfe not to be of that moment, +and that an Honourable and generous person could not have stooped to +it, for any recompence) insteede of moovinge his Hatt, stretched both +his Armes out, and clasped his hands togither upon the Crowne of his +Hatt, and held it close downe to his heade, that all men might see +how odious that flattery was to him, and the very approbation of the +person, though at that tyme most popular. + +When ther was any overture or hope of peace, he would be more erecte, +and vigorous, and exceedingly sollicitous to presse any thinge which +he thought might promote it, and sittinge amongst his frends often +after a deepe silence, and frequent sighes, would with a shrill and +sadd Accent ingeminate the word, Peace, Peace, and would passyonately +professe that the very Agony of the Warr, and the view of the +calamityes, and desolation the kingdome did and must indure, tooke his +sleepe from him, and would shortly breake his hearte; This made some +thinke, or prætende to thinke, that he was so much enamour'd on peace, +that he would have bene gladd the Kinge should have bought it at any +pryce, which was a most unreasonable calumny, as if a man, that was +himselfe the most punctuall and præcise, in every circumstance that +might reflecte upon conscience or Honour, could have wished the Kinge +to have committed a trespasse against ether; and yet this senselesse +skandall made some impression upon him, or at least he used it for an +excuse of the daringnesse of his spiritt; for at the leaguer before +Gloster, when his frends passionately reprehended him for exposinge +his person, unnecessarily to daunger, (as he delighted to visitt the +trenches, and neerest approches, and to discover what the enimy did) +as beinge so much besyde the duty of his place, that it might be +understoode against it, he would say, merrily, that his office could +not take away the priviledges of his Age, and that a Secretary in +warr might be present at the greatest secrett of daunger, but withall +alleadged seriously that it concerned him to be more active in +enterpryzes of hazarde, then other men, that all might see that his +impatiency for peace, proceeded not from pusillanimity, or feare to +adventure his owne person. In the morninge before the battell, as +alwayes upon Action, he was very cheerefull, and putt himselfe into +the first ranke of the L'd Byrons Regiment, who was then advancinge +upon the enimy, who had lyned the Hedges on both sydes with +Musqueteers, from whence he was shott with a Musquett on the lower +parte of the belly, and in the instant fallinge from his horse, his +body was not founde till the next morninge: till when ther was some +hope he might have bene a prysoner, though his neerest frends who knew +his temper, receaved small comforte from that imagination; thus fell, +that incomparable younge man, in the fowre and thirteeth yeere of his +Age, havinge so much dispatched the businesse of life, that the oldest +rarely attayne to that immense knowledge, and the youngest enter not +into the world with more innocence, and whosoever leads such a life, +neede not care upon how shorte warninge it be taken from him. + + + + +22. + +By CLARENDON. + + +With S'r Lucius Cary he had a most intire frendshipp without reserve +from his age of twenty yeeres to the howre of his death, neere 20. +yeeres after, upon which ther will be occasion to inlarge, when wee +come to speake of that tyme, and often before, and therfore wee shall +say no more of him in this place, then to shew his condition and +qualifications, which were the first ingredients into that frendshipp, +which was afterwards cultivated and improoved by a constant +conversation and familiarity, and by many accidents which contributed +therunto. He had the advantage of a noble extraction, and of beinge +borne his fathers eldest Sunn, when ther was a greater fortune in +prospecte to be inherited (besydes what he might reasonably exspecte +by his Mother) then came afterwards to his possessyon: His education +was æquall to his birth, at least in the care, if not in the Climate, +for his father beinge Deputy of Irelande, before he was of Age fitt +to be sent abroade, his breedinge was in the Courte and in the +University of Dublin, but under the care, vigilance and derection of +such governours and Tutors, that he learned all those exercizes and +languages better then most men do in more celebrated places, insomuch +as when he came into Englande, which was when he was aboute the age of +18 yeeres, he was not only master of the Latine tounge, and had reade +all the Poetts and other of the best Authors with notable judgement +for that age, but he understoode, and spake, and writt French, as if +he had spente many yeeres in France. He had another advantage, which +was a greate ornament to the rest, that was a good a plentifull +estate, of which he had the early possession: His Mother was the sole +daughter an[d] Heyre of the L'd Chief Barron Tanfeilde, who havinge +given a fayre portion with his daughter in marriage, had kept himselfe +free to dispose of his lande and his other estate, in such manner +as he should thinke fitt: and he setled it in such manner upon his +grandsunn S'r Lucius Cary, without takinge notice of his father or +mother, that upon his Grandmothers death, which fell out aboute the +tyme that he was 19. yeeres of age, all the lande with his very good +houses, very well furnished (worth above 2000_l._ per annum) in a most +pleasant country, and the two most pleasant places in that country, +with a very plentifull personall estate, fell into his hands and +possession, and to his intire disposall. + +With these advantages, he had one greate disadvantage, which in the +first entrance into the worlde, is attended with to much præjudice: +in his person and presence which was in no degree attractive, or +promisinge; his stature was low and smaller then most mens, his motion +not gracefull, and his aspecte, so farr from invitinge, that it had +somewhat in it of simplicity, and his voyce the worst of the three, +and so untuned, that insteede of reconcilinge, it offended the eare, +that no body would have exspected musique from that tounge, and sure +no man was lesse behol[den] to nature, for its recommendation into the +world. But then no man sooner or more disappointed this generall and +customary præjudice; that little person and small stature was quickly +founde to contayne a greate hearte, a courage so keene, and a nature +so fearelesse, that no composition of the strongest limbes and most +harmonious and proportioned presence and strenght, ever more disposed +any man to the greatest enterpryze, it beinge his greatest weakenesse +to be to solicitous for such adventures: and that untuned tounge and +voyce easily discover'd itselfe to be supplyed and governed by a minde +and understandinge so excellent, that the witt and waight of all he +sayde, carryed another kinde of lustre and admiration in it, and +even another kinde of acceptation from the persons present, then any +ornament of delivery could reasonably promise itselfe, or is usually +attended with: And his disposition and nature was so gentle and +oblieginge, so much delighted in courtesy, kindnesse, and generosity, +that all mankinde could not but admire and love him. In a shorte tyme +after he had possession of the estate his grandfather had left him, +and before he was of age, he committed a faulte against his father, +in marryinge a younge Lady whome he passionately loved, without any +considerable portion, which exceedingly offended him, and disappointed +all his reasonable hopes and exspectation, of redeeminge and +repayringe his owne broken fortune and desperate hopes in courte, by +some advantagious marriage of his Sunn, aboute which he had then some +probable treaty: S'r Lucius Cary was very conscious to himselfe of his +offence and transgression, and the consequence of it, which though he +could not repent, havinge marryed a lady of a most extraordinary witt +and judgement, and of the most signall virtue and exemplary life, that +the age produced, and who brought him many hopefull children, in which +he tooke greate delight, yett he confessed it with the most sinceare +and dutifull applications to his Father for his pardon, that could be +made, and in order to the præjudice he had brought upon his fortune by +bringinge no portion to him, he offred to repayre it by resigninge his +whole estate to his disposall, and to rely wholy upon his kindnesse +for his owne maintenance and supporte, and to that purpose he had +caused convayances to be drawne by councell, which he brought ready +ingrossed to his father, and was willinge to seale and execute them, +that they might be valid: But his fathers passyon and indignation so +farr transported him (though he was a gentleman of excellent parts) +that he refused any reconciliation and rejected all the offers which +were made of the estate, so that his Sunn remayned still in the +possession of his estate against his will, of which he founde greate +reason afterwards to rejoyce, but he was for the present so much +afflicted with his fathers displeasure, that he transported himselfe +and his wife into Hollande, resolvinge to buy some military commaunde, +and to spende the remainder of his life in that profession, but beinge +disappointed in the treaty he exspected, and findinge no opportunity +to accommodate himselfe with such a commaunde, he returned agayne into +Englande, resolvinge to retyre to a country life, and to his bookes, +that since he was not like to improove himselfe in armes, he might +advance in letters. + +In this resolution he was so seveare (as he was alwayes naturally very +intent upon what he was inclined to) that he declared he would not see +London in many yeeres (which was the place he loved of all the world) +and that in his studyes, he would first apply himselfe to the Greeke, +and pursue it without intermission, till he should attayne to the full +understandinge of that tounge, and it is hardly to be credited, what +industry he used, and what successe attended that industry, for though +his fathers death, by an unhappy accident, made his repayre to London +absolutely necessary, in fewer yeeres then he had proposed for his +absence, yett he had first made himselfe master of the Greeke tounge +(in the Latine he was very well versed before) and had reade not only +all the Greeke Historians, but Homer likewise and such of the Poetts, +as were worthy to be perused: Though his fathers death brought no +other convenience to him, but a title to redeeme an estate, morgaged +for as much as it was worth, and for which he was compelled to sell +a fyner seate of his owne, yett it imposed a burthen upon him of the +title of a Viscount, and an increase of exspence, in which he was not +in his nature to provident or restrayn'd, havinge naturally such a +generosity and bounty in him, that he seemed to have his estate in +trust, for all worthy persons who stoode in wante of supplyes and +encouragement, as Ben. Johnson and[1] many others of that tyme, whose +fortunes requyred, and whose spiritts made them superiour to ordinary +obligations; which yett they were contented to receave from him, +because his bountyes were so generously distributed, and so much +without vanity and ostentation, that except from those few persons +from whome he sometimes receaved the characters of fitt objectes for +his benefitts, or whome he intrusted for the more secrett derivinge it +to them, he did all he could that the persons themselves who receaved +them, should not know from what fountayne they flow'd; and when that +could not be concealed, he sustayned any acknowledgement from the +persons oblieged, with so much trouble and bashfulnesse, that they +might well perceave that he was even ashamed of the little he had +given, and to receave so large a recompence for it. + +As soone as he had finished all those transactions, which the death +of his father had made necessary to be done, he retyred agayne to +his country life, and to his seveare cource of study, which was very +delightfull to him, as soone as he was ingaged in it, but he was wont +to say, that he never founde reluctancy in any thinge he resolved to +do, but in his quittinge London, and departinge from the conversation +of those he injoyed ther, which was in some degree præserved and +continued by frequent letters, and often visitts, which were made by +his frends from thence, whilst he continued wedded to the country, and +which were so gratefull to him, that duringe ther stay with him, he +looked upon no booke, except ther very conversation made an appeale +to some booke, and truly his whole conversation was one continued +convivium philosophicum or convivium theologicum, inlivened and +refreshed with all the facetiousnesse of witt and good humour, and +pleasantnesse of discource, which made the gravity of the argument +itselfe (whatever it was) very delectable. His house wher he usually +resyded (Tew or Burforde in Oxfordshyre) beinge within tenn or 12 +myles of the University, looked like the University itselfe, by the +company that was alwayes founde there. Ther were D'r Sheldon, D'r Morly, +D'r Hammon, D'r Earles, M'r Chillingworth, and indeede all men of eminent +partes and facultyes in Oxforde, besydes those who resorted thither +from London, who all founde ther lodgings ther as ready as in ther +Colledges, nor did the L'd of the house know of ther comminge or +goinge, nor who were in his house, till he came to dinner or supper, +wher all still mett, otherwise ther was no troublesome ceremony or +constrainte to forbidd men to come to the house, or to make them weary +of stayinge ther; so that many came thither to study in a better ayre, +findinge all the bookes they could desyre in his library, and all the +persons togither, whose company they could wish, and not finde in any +other society. Heare M'r Chillingworth wrote and formed and modelled +his excellent booke against the learned Jesuitt, M'r Nott, after +frequent debates, upon the most important particulars, in many of +which he suffred himselfe to be overruled by the judgement of his +frends, though in others he still adhered, to his owne fancy, which +was scepticall enough even in the highest pointes. In this happy and +delightfull conversation and restrainte he remayned in the country +many yeeres, and untill he had made so prodigious a progresse in +learninge, that ther were very few classique authors in the greeke +or Latine tounge, that he had not reade with great exactnesse; He +had reade all the greeke and Latine fathers, all the most allowed +and authentique Ecclesiasticall writers, and all the Councells, +with wounderfull care and observation, for in religion he thought to +carefull and to curious an enquiry could not be made, amongst those +whose purity was not questioned, and whose authority was constantly +and confidently urged, by men who were furthest from beinge of +on minde amongst themselves, and for the mutuall supporte of ther +severall opinions, in which they most contradicted each other; and in +all those contraversyes, he had so dispassioned a consideration, such +a candor in his nature, and so profounde a charity in his conscience, +that in those pointes in which he was in his owne judgement most +cleere, he never thought the worse, or in any degree declined the +familiarity of those who were of another minde, which without +question is an excellent temper for the propagation and advancement +of Christianity: With these greate advantages of industry, he had a +memory retentive of all that he had ever reade, and an understandinge +and judgement to apply it, seasonably and appositely, with the most +dexterity and addresse, and the least pedantry and affectation, that +ever man who knew so much, was possessed with, of what quality soever; +it is not a triviall evidence, of his learninge, his witt, and his +candour, that may be found in that discource of his, against the +Infallabi[li]ty of the Church of Rome, published since his death, and +from a copy under his owne hande, though not præpared and digested +by him for the presse, and to which he would have given some +castigations. + +But all his parts, abilityes, and facultyes, by arte an[d] industry, +were not to be valewed or mentioned in comparison of his most +accomplished minde and manners; his gentlenesse and affability was so +transcendant and oblieginge, that it drew reverence and some kinde +of complyance from the roughest, and most unpolish'd and stubborne +constitutions, and made them of another temper in debate in his +presence, then they were in other places. He was in his nature so +seueare a lover of justice, and so præcise a lover of truth, that he +was superiour to all possible temptations for the violation of ether, +indeede so rigid an exacter of perfection in all those things which +seemed but to border upon ether of them, and by the common practice +of men, were not thought to border upon ether, that many who knew him +very well, and loved and admired his virtue (as all who did know +him must love and admire it) did believe that he was of a temper and +composition fitter to lyve in Republica Platonis then in fæce Romuli: +but this rigidnesse was only exercised towards himselfe, towards his +frends infirmityes no man was more indulgent: In his conversation, +which was the most cheerefull and pleasant, that can be imagined, +though he was younge (for all I have yett spoken of him, doth +not exceede his age of 25. or 26. yeeres, what progresse he made +afterwards will be mentioned in its proper season in this discource) +and of greate gayty in his humour, with a flowinge delightfulnesse +of language, he had so chast a tounge and eare, that ther was never +knowne a prophane and loose worde to fall from him, nor in truth in +his company, the integrity and cleanelinesse of the witt of that tyme, +not exercisinge itselfe in that licence, before persons for whome they +had any esteeme. + +[Footnote 1: 'as,' MS.] + + + + +23. + +SIDNEY GODOLPHIN. + +_Born 1610. Fell at Chagford 1643._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Sydney Godolphin, was a younger brother of Godolphin, but by the +provision left by his father, and by the death of a younger brother, +liberally supplyed for a very good education, and for a cheerefull +subsistance in any cource of life he proposed to himselfe; Ther was +never so great a minde and spirit contayned in so little roome, so +large an understandinge and so unrestrayned a fancy in so very small a +body, so that the L'd Falkelande used to say merrily, that he thought +it was a greate ingredient into his frendshipp for M'r Godolphin, that +he was pleased to be founde in his company, wher he was the properer +man: and it may be the very remarkablenesse of his little person +made the sharpnesse of his witt and the composed quicknesse of his +judgement and understandinge, the more notable.[1] He had spent some +yeeres in France, and the low countryes, and accompanyed the Earle of +Leicester, in his Ambassage into Denmarke, before he resolved to be +quyett, and attende some promotion in the Courte, wher his excellent +disposition and manners, and extraordinary qualifications, made him +very aceptable: Though every body loved his company very well, yett +he loved very much to be alone, beinge in his constitution inclined +somewhat to melancholique, and to retyrement amongst his bookes, and +was so farr from beinge active, that he was contented to be reproched +by his frendes with lazynesse, and was of so nice and tender a +composition, that a little rayne or winde would disorder him, and +deverte him from any shorte journy he had most willingly proposed to +himselfe: insomuch as when he ridd abroade with those in whose company +he most delighted, if the winde chanced to be in his face, he would +(after a little pleasant murmuringe) suddaynely turne his horse, and +goe home: yett the civill warr no sooner begann, (the first approches +towards which he discovered as soone as any man, by the proceedings in +Parliament, wher he was a member, and opposed with greate indignation) +then he putt himselfe into the first troopes which were raysed in the +West, for the Kinge, and bore the uneasinesse and fatigue of winter +marches, with an exemplar courage and alacrity, untill by to brave a +pursuite of the enimy, into an obscure village in Devonshyre, he was +shutt with a musquett, with which (without sayinge any worde more, +the[n] oh god I am hurte) he fell deade from his horse, to the +excessive griefe of his frends, who were all that knew him, and the +irreparable damage of the publique. + +[Footnote 1: 'notorious and' struck out in MS. before 'notable'.] + + + + +24. + +WILLIAM LAUD. + +_Born 1573. President of St. John's College Oxford 1611. Bishop of St. +David's 1621, of Bath and Wells 1626, and of London 1628. Chancellor +of the University of Oxford 1629. Archbishop of Canterbury 1633. +Beheaded 1645._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +It was within one weeke after the Kings returne from Scotlande that +Abbott dyed at his house at Lambeth, and the Kinge tooke very little +tyme to consider who should be his successour, but the very next tyme +the Bishopp of London (who was longer upon his way home, then +the Kinge had bene) came to him, his Majesty entertayned him very +cheerefully, with this compellation, My L'ds Grace of Canterbury you +are very wellcome, and gave order the same day for the dispatch of all +the necessary formes for the translation, so that within a moneth, +or therabouts, after the death of the other Arch-Bishopp, he was +compleately invested in that high dignity, and setled in his Pallace +at Lambeth: This Greate Prelate had bene before in greate favour with +the Duke of Buckingham, whose greate confident he was, and by him +recommended to the Kinge, as fittest to be trusted in the conferringe +all Ecclesiasticall præferments, when he was but Bishopp of S't Davids, +or newly præferred to Bath and Wells, and from that tyme he intirely +governed that Province without a ryvall, so that his promotion to +Canterbury was longe foreseene and exspected, nor was it attended with +any encrease of envy, or dislike. + +He was a man of greate parts and very exemplar virtues, allayed and +discredited by some unpopular[1] naturall infirmityes, the greatest of +which was (besydes a hasty sharpe way of exspressinge himselfe) that +he believed innocence of hearte, and integrity of manners, was a +guarde stronge enough to secure any man, in his voyage through this +worlde, in what company soever he travelled, and through what wayes +soever he was to passe, and sure never any man was better supplyed +with that provisyon. He was borne of honest parents, who were well +able to provyde for his education, in the schooles of learninge, +from whence they sent him to St. Johns Colledge in Oxforde, the worst +indowed at that tyme, of any in that famous university; from a scholar +he became a fellow, and then the President of that Colledge, after +he had receaved all the graces and degrees, the Proctorshipp and +the Doctorshipp, could be obtained ther: He was alwayes maligned and +persequted by those who were of the Calvinian faction, which was +then very pouerfull, and who accordinge to ther usefull maxime and +practice, call every man they do not love, Papist, and under this +senselesse appellation they created him many troubles and vexations, +and so farr suppressed him, that though he was the Kings Chaplyne, and +taken notice of for an excellent preacher, and a scholer of the most +sublime parts, he had not any præferment to invite him to leave his +poore Colledge, which only gave him breade, till the vigour of his age +was passed; and when he was promoted by Kinge James, it was but to +a poore Bishopricke in Wales, which was not so good a supporte for a +Bishopp as his Colledge was for a pri[v]ate scholler, though a Doctor. +Parliaments in that tyme were frequent, and grew very busy, and the +party under which he had suffer'd a continuall perseqution appeared +very powerfull and full of designe, and they who had the courage +to oppose them, begann to be taken notice of with approbation and +countenance, and under this style he came to be first cherished by the +Duke of Buckingham, after he had made some exsperiments of the temper +and spiritt of the other people, nothinge to his satisfaction: from +this tyme he prospered at the rate of his owne wishes, and beinge +transplanted out of his cold barren Diocesse of S't Davids, into a +warmer climate, he was left, as was sayd before, by that omnipotent +Favorite, in that greate trust with the Kinge, who was sufficiently +indisposed towards the persons or the principles of M'r Calvins +disciples. + +When he came into greate authority, it may be he retayned to keene a +memory of those who had so unjustly and uncharitably persequted him +before, and I doubte was so farr transported with the same passyons he +had reason to complayne of in his ad[v]ersaryes, that, as they accused +him of Popery, because he had some doctrinall opinions, which +they liked not, though they were nothinge allyed to Popery, so he +intertayned to much præjudice to some persons, as if they were enimyes +to the disciplyne of the Church, because they concurred with Calvin +in some doctrinall points, when they abhorred his disciplyne, and +reverenced the goverment of the Church, and prayed for the peace of +it, with as much zeale and fervency, as any in the kingdome, as they +made manifest in ther lives, and in ther sufferings with it and +for it. He had, from his first entrance into the worlde without any +disguise or dissimulation declared his owne opinion of that Classis +of men, and as soone as it was in his power, he did all he could to +hinder the growth and encrease of that faction, and to restrayne those +who were inclined to it, from doinge the mischieue they desyred to do: +But his power at Courte could not enough qualify him, to goe through +with that difficulte reformation, whilst he had a superiour in the +Church, who havinge the raynes in his hande, could slacken them +accordinge to his owne humour and indiscretion, and was thought to be +the more remisse to irritate his cholirique disposition, but when he +had now the Primacy in his owne hande, the Kinge beinge inspired with +the same zeale, he thought he should be to blame, and have much to +answer, if he did not make hast to apply remedyes, to those diseases, +which he saw would grow apace.... + +The Arch-Bishopp had all his life eminently opposed Calvins doctryne +in those contraversyes, before the name of Arminius was taken notice +of or his opinions hearde of; and therupon for wante of another name +they had called him a Papiste, which nobody believed him to be, and +he had more manifested the contrary in his disputations and writings, +then most men had done: and it may be the other founde the more +seveare and rigourous usage from him, for ther propagatinge that +calumny against him. He was a man of greate courage and resolution, +and beinge most assured within himselfe that he proposed no end in all +his actions or designes, then what was pyous and just (as sure no +man had ever a hearte more intire, to the Kinge, the Church, or his +country) he never studyed the best wayes to those ends; he thought it +may be, that any arte or industry that way, would discreditt, at least +make the integrity of the end suspected: let the cause be what it +will, he did courte persons to little, nor cared to make his designes +and purposes appeare as candid as they were, by shewinge them in any +other dresse, then ther owne naturall beauty and roughnesse: and did +not consider enough what men sayd, or were like to say of him. If the +faultes and vices were fitt to be looked into and discover'd, let the +persons be who they would that were guilty of them, they were sure to +finde no connivence of favour from him. He intended the disciplyne of +the Church should be felte, as well as spoken of, and that it should +be applyed to the greatest and most splendid transgressors, as well +as to the punishment of smaller offences, and meaner offenders; and +therupon called for, or cherished the discovery of those who were not +carefull to cover ther owne iniquitycs, thinkinge they were above the +reach of other mens, or ther power, or will to chastice: Persons of +honour and great quality, of the Courte, and of the Country, were +every day cited into the High Commissyon Courte, upon the fame of +ther incontinence, or other skandall in ther lyves; and were ther +prosequted to ther shame and punishment, and as the shame, (which +they called an insolent tryumph upon ther degree and quality, +and levellinge them with the common people) was never forgotten, +but watched for revenge, so the Fynes imposed ther were the more +questioned and repyned against, because they wer assigned to the +rebuildinge and repayringe St. Pauls Church, and thought therfore to +be the more sevearely imposed, and the lesse compassionately reduced +and excused, which likewise made the jurisdiction and rigour of the +Starrchamber more felte and murmured against, which sharpened many +mens humours against the Bishopps, before they had any ill intention +toward the Church. + +[Footnote 1: 'unpopular' substituted for 'ungracious' in MS.] + + + + +25. + +By THOMAS FULLER. + + +[Sidenote: Over-severe in his censures.] + +Amongst his humane frailties, _choler_ and _passion_ most discovered +it self. In the _Star-Chamber_ (where if the crime not extraordinary, +it was fine enough for one to be sued in so chargable a Court) He was +observed always to concur with the severest side, and to infuse more +_vinegar_ then _oyle_ into all his _censures_, and also was much +blamed for his severity to his Predecessor easing him against his +will, and before his time, of his jurisdiction. + +[Sidenote: Over-medling in State matters.] + +But he is most accused for over-medling in State-matters, more +then was fitting, say many, then needful, say most, for one +of his profession. But he never more overshot himself, then +when he did impose the _Scotch Liturgie_, and was [Greek: +allotrio-archiepis[ko]pos] over a free and forrain Church and Nation. +At home, many grumbled at him for oft making the _shallowest_ pretence +of the _Crown deep_ enough (by his powerfull digging therein) to drown +the undoubted right of any private Patron to a Church-living. But +Courtiers most complained, that he persecuted them, not in their +proper places, but what in an ordinary way he should have taken from +the _hands_ of inferior officers, that He with a _long_ and _strong +Arm_ reached to himself over all their heads. Yet others plead for +him, that he abridg'd their _bribes_ not _fees_, and it vexed them +that He struck their _fingers_ with the _dead-palsie_, so that they +could not (as formerly) have a _feeling_ for Church Preferments.... + +[Sidenote: An enemy to gallantry in Clergiemens cloaths.] + +He was very plain in apparrel, and sharply checkt such Clergymen +whom he saw goe in rich or gaudy cloaths, commonly calling them of +the _Church-Triumphant_. Thus as _Cardinal Woolsy_ is reported the +first Prelate, who made _Silks_, and _Sattens_ fashionable amongst +clergy-men; so this Arch-Bishop first retrenched the usual wearing +thereof. Once at a Visitation in _Essex_, one in _Orders_ (of good +estate and extraction) appeared before him very gallant in habit, whom +D'r _Laud_ (then Bishop of _London_) publickly reproved, shewing to +him the plainness of his own apparrel. My _Lord_ (said the Minister) +_you have better cloaths at home and I have worse_, whereat the Bishop +rested very well contented.... + +[Sidenote: No whit addicted to covetousness.] + +Covetousness He perfectly hated, being a single man and having no +project to raise a name or Family, he was the better enabled for +publick performances, having both a _price in his hand_, and an +_heart_ also to dispose thereof for the general good. S't _Johns_ +in _Oxford_, wherein he was bred, was so beautified, enlarged, and +enriched by him, that strangers at the first sight knew it not, +yea, it scarce knoweth it self, so altered to the better from its +former condition. Insomuch that almost it deserveth the name of +_Canterbury-Colledge_, as well as that which _Simon Islip_ founded, +and since hath lost its name, united to _Christ-Church_. More +buildings he intended, (had not the stroke of one _Axe_ hindred the +working of many _hammers_) chiefly on Churches, whereof the following +passage may not impertinently be inserted. + +[Sidenote: The grand causer of the repairing of Churches.] + +It happened that a _Visitation_ was kept at S't _Peters_ in +_Corn-hill_, for the Clergy of _London_. The Preacher discoursing of +the painfulness of the Ministerial Function, proved it from the Greek +deduction of [Greek: Diakonos] or Deacon, so called from [Greek: +konis] _dust_, because he must _laborare in arena in pulvere_, _work +in the dust_, doe hard service in hot weather. Sermon ended, Bishop +_Laud_ proceeded to his charge to the Clergy, and observing the Church +ill repaired without, and slovenly kept within, _I am sorry_ (said He) +_to meet here with so true an Etymologie of Diaconus, for here is both +dust and dirt too, for a Deacon (or Priest either) to work in. Yea it +is dust of the worst kind, caused from the mines of this ancient house +of God, so that it pittieth his[1] servants to see her in the dust_. +Hence he took occasion to press the repairing of that, and other +decaied places of divine worship, so that from this day we may date +the general mending, beautifying and adorning of all English Churches, +some to decency, some to magnificence, and some (if all complaints +were true) to superstition. + +[Sidenote: Principally of S. Pauls] + +But the Church of S't Pauls, (the only Cathedral in Christendom +dedicated to that _Apostle_) was the master: piece of his +performances. We know what[2] one Satyrically said of him, that +_he pluckt down Puritans, and Property, to build up Pauls and +Prerogative_. But let unpartial Judges behold how he left, and +remember how he found that ruinous fabrick, and they must conclude +that (though intending more) he effected much in that great designe. +He communicated his project to some private persons, of taking down +the _great Tower_ in the middle, to the _Spurrs_, and rebuild it in +the same fashion, (but some yards higher) as before. He meant to hang +as great and tuneable a ring of Bels, as any in the world, whose sound +advantaged with their height and vicinity of the _Thames_, must needs +be loud and melodious. But now he is turned to his dust, and all _his +thoughts have perished_, yea that Church, formerly approached with due +reverence, is now entred with just fear, of falling on those under it, +and is so far from having its old decays repaired, that it is daily +decayed in its new reparations. + +He was low of Stature, little in bulk, chearful in countenance, +(wherein gravity and quickness were well compounded) of a sharp and +piercing eye, clear judgement, and (abating the influence of age) +firme memory. He wore his hair very close, and though in the beginning +of his greatness, many measured the length of mens stricktness by +the shortness of their hair, yet some will say, that since out of +Antipathy to conform to his example, his opposites have therein +indulged more liberty to themselves. And thus we take our leave of +him. + +[Footnote 1: Psal. 102. 14] + +[Footnote 2: Lord F.] + + + + +26. + +By SIR PHILIP WARWICK. + + +Archbishop Laud was a man of an upright heart and a pious soul, but +of too warm blood and too positive a nature towards asserting what he +beleived a truth, to be a good Courtier; and his education fitted +him as little for it, as his nature: which having bin most in the +University, and among books and scholars, where oft canvassing +affairs, that are agitated in that province, and prevailing in it, +rather gave him wrong than right measures of a Court. He was generally +acknowledg'd a good scholar, and throughly verst in Ecclesiastical +learning. He was a zealot in his heart both against Popery and +Presbytery; but a great assertor of Church-authority, instituted +by Christ and his Apostles, and as primitively practised; which +notwithstanding, he really and freely acknowledged subject unto the +secular authority. And therefore he carefully endeavored to preserve +the jurisdiction, which the Church anciently exercised, before the +secular authority own'd her; at least so much thereof, as the law +of this our Realm had apply'd to our circumstances; which our common +Lawyers dayly struck at; and thro' prohibitions and other appeals +every day lessened; and this bred an unkindnes to him in many of +the long robe, however some of them were very carefull of the +Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction. + +He was a man of great modesty in his own person and habit, and of +regularity and devotion in his family: and as he was very kind to his +Clergy, so he was very carefull to make them modest in their attire, +and very diligent in their studies, in faithfully dispensing God's +Word, reverently reading the Prayers, and administring the Sacraments, +and in preserving their Churches in cleanlines and with plain and +fitting ornament, that so voyd of superstition, GOD's House in this +age, where every man bettered his own, might not lye alone neglected; +and accordingly he sett upon that great work of St. Paul's Church, +which his diligence perfected in a great measure: and his Master's +piety made magnificent that most noble structure by a Portico: but +not long after the carved work thereof was broken down with axes and +hammers, and the whole sacred edifice made not only a den of thieves, +but a stable of unclean beasts, as I can testifie, having once gone +into it purposely to observe: from which contamination Providence some +few years since cleansed it by fire. + +He prevented likewise a very private and clandestine designe of +introducing Nonconformists into too too many Churches; for that +society of men (that they might have Teachers to please their itching +ears) had a designe to buy in all the Lay-Impropriations, which the +Parish-Churches in Henry the VIII's time were robb'd of, and lodging +the Advowsons and Presentations in their own Feoffees, to have +introduced men, who would have introduced doctrines suitable to their +dependences, which the Court already felt too much the smart of, by +being forced to admitt the Presentations of the Lay-Patrons, who too +often dispose their benefices to men, rather suitable to their own +opinions, than the Articles and Canons of the Church. + +All this bred him more and more envy; but if it had pleas'd God to +have given him an uninterrupted course, and if few of his Successors +had walked in his stepps, wee might, without any tendency to Popery, +or danger of superstition, have serv'd God reverently and uniformely, +and according unto Primitive practice and purity, and not have bin, as +we are now, like a shivered glass, scarse ever to be made whole again. +Thus finding Providence had led him into authority, he very really and +strongly opposed both Popery and Presbytery. He was sensible, how the +first by additions had perverted the purity of Religion, and turned +it into a policy; but resolving not to contest Rome's truths, tho' +he spared not her errors, both Papist and Presbyter, with all their +Lay-Party, were well contented, that it might be believed, he was +Popishly affected. And being conscious likewise, how Presbytery or +the Calvinisticall Reformation, which many here, and more in Scotland, +affected, by substraction and novel interpretation, had forsaken the +good old ways of the primitive Church, and was become dangerous to +Monarchy, he sett himself against this, as well as that: but both +their weights crusht him.... + +As this good Arch-Bishop I write of, had these great eminences, so he +may be acknowledged to have failed in those prudences, which belong +unto a great Minister of State, who like a wise Physician is to +consider times and seasons, as well as persons and diseases, and to +regard those complications, which usually are mixed in ill habits of +body, and to use more alterative than purgative Physick. For popular +bents and inclinations are cured more by a steddy than precipitate +hand or counsel; multitudes being to be drawn over from their errors, +rather by wayes they discerne not, than by those, which they are +likely to contest; whilst upon single persons and great men courses +of violence and authority may be exercised. But Ministers of State +unwillingly run this course, because they would have the honour of +perfecting the work they affect in their own time; and the multitude +of this good man's busines, and the promptnes of his nature, made +those ceremonies, which are necessary by great Persons to be paid unto +men in his station, to be unwelcome unto him, and so he discharged +himselfe of them, and thereby disobliged those persons, who thought +their quality, tho' not their busines, required a patient and +respectfull entertainment. This I reflect upon, because I heard from a +good hand, that the Marquiss of Argile making him an insidious visit, +and he, knowing he neither loved him nor the Church, entertaining him +not with that franknes he should have done, but plainly telling him, +he was at that time a little busy about the King's affairs, this great +Lord took it so much in indignation, and esteem'd it such a Lordly +Prelacy, that he declaimed against it, and became (if possible) more +enemy both to him and the Church, than he was before. The rectitude of +his nature therefore made him not a fitt instrument to struggle with +the obliquity of those times; and he had this infirmity likewise, that +he beleived those forward instruments, which he employed, followed the +zeal of their own natures, when they did but observe that of his: for +as soon as difficulty or danger appeared, his petty instruments shrunk +to nothing, and shewed, from whom they borrowed their heat. + +He weighed not well his Master's condition; for he saw him circled +in by too many powerfull Scots, who mis-affected the Church, and had +joyned with them too many English Counsellors and Courtiers, who were +of the same leaven. If he had perceived an universall concurrence in +his own Clergy, who were esteemed Canonicall men, his attempts might +have seem'd more probable, than otherwise it could: but for him +to think by a purgative Physick to evacuate all those cold slimy +humors, which thus overflowed the body, was ill judged; for the good +affections of the Prince, back'd only by a naked or paper-authority, +sooner begets contumacy, than complyance in dissaffected Subjects.... + +And this shall suffice to be said of that well intentioned, but +not truly considerative, great man, unles wee add this single thing +further, that he who looks upon him thro' those Canons, which in +Synod passed in his time, will find him a true Assertor of Religion, +Royalty, and Property; and that his grand designe was no other, than +that of our first Reformation; which was, that our Church might stand +upon such a foot of Primitive and Ecclesiastick authority, as suited +with God's word, and the best Interpreters of it, sound reason and +Primitive practice. And untill this Nation is blest with such a +spirit, it will lye in that darknes and confusion the Sects at this +time have flung it into. + + + + +27. + +WILLIAM JUXON. + +_Born 1582. President of St. John's College Oxford, 1621. Bishop of +London 1633-49. Lord Treasurer 1635-41. Archbishop of Canterbury 1660. +Died 1663_. + +By SIR PHILIP WARWICK. + + +Having thus described one great Church-man, wee may the more fitly +make mention of another, because they were so intimate and bosome +Friends, and because this first is supposed to have introduced the +last into that eminent employment of Lord Treasurer. Had nature +mingled their tempers, and allayed the one by the prudence and +foresight of the other, or inspirited the other by the zeal and +activity of his Friend, nature had framed a better paist, than usually +she doth, when she is most exact in her work about mankind: sincerity +and integrity being eminent in them both. This reverend Prelate, Dr. +Juxon, then Bishop of London, was of a meek spirit, and of a solid and +steddy judgment; and having addicted his first studies to the Civil +Law, (from which he took his title of Doctor, tho' he afterwards took +on him the Ministry) this fitted him the more for Secular and State +affairs. His temper and prudence wrought so upon all men, that tho' +he had the two most invidious characters both in the Ecclesiasticall +and Civil State; one of a Bishop, the other of a Lord Treasurer: yet +neither drew envy on him; tho' the humor of the times tended to brand +all great men in employment. About the year 1634 the Lord Portland +dyed, and the Treasury was put into Commission; by which means the +true state thereof became distinctly to be known: and in the year +1635, this good and judicious man had the white staff put into his +hand: and tho' he found the revenue low and much anticipated, yet +withall meeting with times peaceable and regular, and his Master +enclined to be frugall, he held up the dignity and honor of his +Majestie's Houshold, and the splendor of the Court, and all publick +expences, and justice in all contracts; so as there were as few +dissatisfactions in his time, as perchance in any, and yet he cleared +off the anticipations on the revenue, and sett his Master beforehand. +The choice of this good man shewed, how remote it was from this King's +intentions, to be either tyrannicall or arbitrary; for so well he +demeaned himselfe thro' his whole seaven years employment, that +neither as Bishop or Treasurer, came there any one accusation against +him in that last Parliament 1640, whose eares were opened, nay itching +after such complaints. Nay even after the King's being driven from +London, he remained at his house, belonging to his Bishoprick, in +Fulham, and sometimes was visited by some of the Grandees, and found +respect from all, and yet walked steddily in his old paths. And +he retained so much of his Master's favour, that when the King was +admitted to any Treaty with the two Houses Commissioners, he alwayes +commanded his attendance on him: for he ever valued his advice. I +remember, that the King, being busy in dispatching some letters with +his own pen, commanded me to wait on the Bishop, and to bring him back +his opinion in a certaine affaire: I humbly pray'd his Majestie, that +I might rather bring him with me, least I should not expresse his +Majestie's sense fully, nor bring back his so significantly, as he +meant it; and because there might be need for him further to explain +himselfe, and least he should not speake freely to me: to which the +King replyed, _Go, as I bid you, if he will speak freely to any body, +he will speak freely to you: This_ (the King said) _I will say of him, +I never gott his opinion freely in my life, but when I had it, I was +ever the better for it_. This character of so judicious a Prince +I could not omitt, because it carried in it the reason of that +confidence, that called him to be his Majestie's Confessor before his +death, and to be his Attendant on the scaffold at his death; so as all +Persons concurring thus about this good Prelate, wee may modestly say, +he was an eminent man. + + + + +28. + +THE MARQUIS OF HERTFORD. + +_William Seymour, second Earl of Hertford 1621, created Marquis of +Hertford 1641, and Duke of Somerset 1660._ + +_Born 1588. Died 1660_. + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Marquis of Hartforde was a man of greate honour, greate interest +in fortune and estate, and of a universall esteeme over the kingdome; +and though he had receaved many and continued disobligations from the +Courte, from the tyme of this Kings comminge to the Crowne as well +as duringe the rainge of Kinge James, in both which seasons more +then ordinary care had bene taken to discountenance and lessen his +interest, yett he had carryed himselfe with notable steddinesse from +the beginninge of the Parliament in the supporte and defence of the +Kings power and dignity, notwithstandinge all his Allyes, and those +with whome he had the greatest familiarity and frendshipp were of +the opposite party, and never concurred with them against the Earle +of Straforde (whome he was knowne not to love) nor in any other +extravagancy: and then he was not to be shaken in his affection to +the goverment of the church, though it was enough knowne that he was +in no degree byassed by any greate inclination to the person of any +Church-man: and with all this, that party carryed themselves towards +him with profounde respecte, not præsuminge to venture ther owne +creditt in endeavoringe to lessen his. + +It is very true, in many respects he wanted those qualityes, which +might have bene wished to be in a person to be trusted in the +education of a greate and a hopefull Prince, and in the forminge his +minde and manners in so tender an age: he was of an age not fitt for +much activity and fatigue, and loved and was even wedded so much to +his ease, that he loved his booke above all exercizes, and had even +contracted such a lazinesse of minde, that he had no delight in an +open and liberall conversation, and cared not to discource and argue +in those points which he understoode very well, only for the trouble +of contendinge, and could never impose upon himselfe the payne that +was necessary to be undergone in such a perpetuall attendance. But +then those lesser dutyes might be otherwise provided for, and he could +well supporte the dignity of a Governour, and exacte that diligence +from others, which he could not exercize himselfe, and his honour +was so unblemished, that none durst murmure against the designation, +and therfore his Majesty thought him very worthy of the high trust, +against which ther was no other exception, but that he was not +ambitious of it, nor in truth willinge to receave and undergo the +charge, so contrary to his naturall constitution; but [in] his pure +zeale and affection for the Crowne, and the conscience that in this +conjuncture his submission might ad[v]ance the Kings service, and that +the refusinge it might proove disadvantagious to his Majesty, he very +cheerefully undertooke the Province, to the generall satisfaction and +publique joy of the whole kingdome, and to the no little honour and +creditt of the Courte, that so important and beloved a person would +attacque himselfe to it, under such a relation, when so many who had +scarce ever eaten any breade, but the Kings, detached themselves +from ther dependance, that they might without him, and against him, +præserve and improove those fortunes which they had procured and +gotten under him, and by his bounty. + + + + +29. + +THE MARQUIS OF NEWCASTLE. + +_William Cavendish, created Viscount Mansfield 1620, Earl of Newcastle +1628, Marquis 1643, and Duke 1665._ + +_Born 1592. Died 1676._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +All that can be said for the Marquiss is, that he was so utterly tired +with a condition and employment so contrary to his Humour, Nature, and +Education, that he did not at all consider the means, or the way that +would let him out of it, and free him for ever from having more to do +with it. And it was a greater wonder, that he sustained the vexation +and fatigue of it so long, than that he broke from it with so little +circumspection. He was a very fine Gentleman, active, and full of +Courage, and most accomplish'd in those Qualities of Horsemanship, +Dancing, and Fencing, which accompany a good breeding; in which his +delight was. Besides that he was amorous in Poetry, and Musick, to +which he indulged the greatest part of his time; and nothing could +have tempted him out of those paths of pleasure, which he enjoyed in a +full and ample fortune, but honour and ambition to serve the King when +he saw him in distress, and abandoned by most of those who were in the +highest degree obliged to him, and by him. He loved Monarchy, as it +was the foundation and support of his own greatness, and the Church, +as it was well constituted for the splendour and security of the +Crown, and Religion, as it cherished, and maintained that Order and +Obedience that was necessary to both; without any other passion for +the particular Opinions which were grown up in it, and distinguished +it into Parties, than as he detested whatsoever was like to disturb +the publick peace. + +He had a particular Reverence for the Person of the King, and the +more extraordinary Devotion for that of the Prince, as he had had the +honour to be trusted with is Education as his Governour; for which +office, as he excelled in some, so he wanted other Qualifications. +Though he had retired from his great Trust, and from the Court, +to decline the insupportable Envie which the powerfull Faction had +contracted against him, yet the King was no sooner necessitated to +possess himself of some place of strength, and to raise some force +for his defence, but the Earl of Newcastle (he was made Marquiss +afterwards) obeyed his first call, and, with great expedition and +dexterity, seised upon that Town; when till then there was not one +port town in England, that avowed their obedience to the King: and +he then presently raised such Regiments of Horse and Foot, as were +necessary for the present state of Affairs; all which was done purely +by his own Interest, and the concurrence of his numerous Allies in +those Northern parts; who with all alacrity obeyed his Commands, +without any charge to the King, which he was not able to supply. + +And after the Battle of Edge Hill, when the Rebells grew so strong in +Yorkshire, by the influence their Garrison of Hull had upon both the +East and West riding there, that it behoved the King presently to make +a General, who might unite all those Northern Counties in his Service, +he could not choose any Man so fit for it as the Earl of Newcastle, +who was not only possessed of a present force, and of that important +Town, but had a greater Reputation and Interest in Yorkshire itself, +than at that present any other Man had: the Earl of Cumberland being +at that time, though of entire affection to the King, much decayed +in the vigour of his Body, and his mind, and unfit for that Activity +which the Season required. And it cannot be denied, that the Earl +of Newcastle, by his quick march with his Troops, as soon as he had +received his Commission to be General, and in the depth of Winter, +redeemed, or rescued the City of York from the Rebells, when they +looked upon it as their own, and had it even within their grasp: and +as soon as he was Master of it, he raised Men apace, and drew an Army +together, with which he fought many Battles, in which he had always +(this last only excepted) Success and Victory. + +He liked the Pomp, and absolute Authority of a General well, and +preserved the dignity of it to the full; and for the discharge of +the outward State, and Circumstances of it, in acts of Courtesy, +Affability, Bounty, and Generosity, he abounded; which in the infancie +of a war became him, and made him, for some time, very acceptable +to Men of all conditions. But the substantial part, and fatigue +of a General, he did not in any degree understand (being utterly +unacquainted with War) nor could submit to; but referred all matters +of that Nature to the discretion of his Lieutenant General King, who, +no doubt, was an officer of great experience and ability, yet being +a Scotch Man was, in that conjuncture, upon more disadvantage than he +would have been, if the General himself had been more intent upon his +Command. In all Actions of the feild he was still present, and never +absent in any Battle; in all which he gave Instances of an invincible +courage and fearlessness in danger; in which the exposing himself +notoriously did sometimes change the fortune of the day, when his +Troops begun to give ground. Such Articles of action were no sooner +over, than he retired to his delightfull Company, Musick, or his +softer pleasures, to all which he was so indulgent, and to his ease, +that he would not be interrupted upon what occasion soever; insomuch +as he sometimes denied Admission to the Chiefest Officers of the Army, +even to General King himself, for two days together; from whence many +Inconveniencies fell out. + + + + +30. + +THE LORD DIGBY. + +_George Digby, second Earl of Bristol 1653._ + +_Born 1612. Died 1677._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +By what hath bene sayde before, it appeares that the L'd Digby was +much trusted by the Kinge, and he was of greate familiarity and +frendshipp with the other three, at least with two of them, for he was +not a man of that exactnesse, as to be in the intire confidence of +the L'd Falkeland, who looked upon his infirmityes with more severity, +then the other two did, and he lived with more franknesse towards +those two, then he did towards the other, yett betweene them two ther +was a free conversation and kindnesse to each other. He was a man +of very extraordinary parts, by nature and arte, and had surely +as good and excellent an education as any man of that age in any +country, a gracefull and beautifull person, of greate eloquence +and becommingnesse in his discource (save that sometimes he seemed +a little affected) and of so universall a knowledge, that he never +wanted subjecte for a discource; he was æquall to a very good parte +in the greatest affayre, but the unfittest man alive to conducte it, +havinge an ambition and vanity superiour to all his other parts, +and a confidence peculiar to himselfe, which sometimes intoxicated, +and transported, and exposed him. He had from his youth, by the +disobligations his family had undergone from the Duke of Buckingham +and the greate men who succeeded him, and some sharpe reprehension +himselfe had mett with, which oblieged him to a country life, +contracted a præjudice and ill will to the Courte, and so had in the +beginninge of the Parliament ingaged himselfe with that party which +discover'd most aversion from it, with a passion and animosity æquall +to ther owne, and therfore very acceptable to them. But when he was +weary of ther violent councells, and withdrew himselfe from them, +with some circumstances which enough provoked them, and made a +reconciliation and mutuall confidence in each other for the future +manifestly impossible, he made private and secrett offerrs of his +service to the Kinge, to whome in so generall a defection of his +servants it could not but be very agreable, and so his Majesty beinge +satisfyed both in the discoveryes he made of what had passed, and +in his professions for the future, remooved him from the house of +Commons, wher he had rendred himselfe marvellously ungratious, and +called him by writt to the house of Peeres, wher he did visibly +advance the Kings service, and quickly rendred himselfe gratefull to +all those, who had not thought to well of him before, when he deserved +less, and men were not only pleased with the assistance he gave upon +all debates, by his judgement and vivacity, but looked upon him as +one who could deryve the Kings pleasure to them, and make a lively +representation of ther good demeanour to the Kinge, which he was very +luxuriant in promisinge to doe, and officious enough in doinge as much +as was just. He had bene instrumentall in promotinge the three persons +above mencioned to the Kings favour, and had himselfe in truth so +greate an esteeme of them, that he did very frequently upon conference +togither departe from his owne inclinations and opinions, and +concurred in thers; and very few men of so greate parts are upon all +occasyons more councellable then he, so that he would seldome be in +daunger of runninge into greate errors, if he would communicate and +expose all his owne thoughts and inclinations to such a disquicition, +nor is he uninclinable in his nature to such an intire communication +in all things which he conceaves to be difficulte; but his fatall +infirmity is, that he to often thinkes difficulte things very easy, +and doth not consider possible consequences, when the proposition +administers somewhat that is delighfull to his fancy, and by pursuinge +wherof he imagynes he shall reape some glory to himselfe, of which +he is immoderately ambitious, so that if the consultation be upon +any action to be done, no man more implicitely enters into that +debate, or more cheerefully resignes his owne conceptions to a joynt +determination, but when it is once affirmatively resolved, besydes +that he may possibly reserve some impertinent circumstance as he +thinkes, the impartinge wherof would change the nature of the thinge, +if his fancy suggests to him any particular which himselfe might +performe in that action, upon the imagination that every body would +approove it, if it were proposed to them, he chooses rather to do it, +then to communicate, that he may have some signall parte to himselfe +in the transaction, in which no other person can clayme a share; +and by this unhappy temper, he did often involve himselfe in very +unprosperous attempts. The Kinge himselfe was the unfittest person +alive to be served by such a Councellour, beinge to easily inclined to +suddayne enterprizes, and as easily amazed when they were entred upon; +and from this unhappy composition in the one and the other, a very +unhappy councell was entred upon, and resolution taken, without the +least communication with ether of the three, which had bene so lately +admitted to an intire truste. + + + + +31. + +THE LORD CAPEL. + +_Arthur Capel, created Baron Capel 1641._ + +_Born 1610. Beheaded 1649._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +He was a man, in whome the malice of his enimyes could discover very +few faultes, and whome his frends could not wish better accomplished, +whome Crumwells owne character well described, and who indeede could +never have bene contented to have lived under that government, whose +memory all men loved and reverenced, though few followed his example. +He had alwayes lyved in a state of greate plenty and generall +estimation, havinge a very noble fortune of his owne by descent, and +a fayre addition to it, by his marriage with an excellent wife, a Lady +of a very worthy extraction, of greate virtue and beauty, by whome he +had a numerous issue of both sexes, in which he tooke greate joy and +comfort, so that no man was more happy in all his domestique affayres, +and so much the more happy, in that he thought himselfe most blessed +in them, and yett the Kings honour was no sooner violated and his +just power invaded, then he threw all those blessings behinde him, and +havinge no other obligations to the Crowne, then those which his owne +honour and conscience suggested to him, he frankely engaged his person +and his fortune from the beginninge of the troubles, as many others +did, in all actions and enterpryzes of the greatest hazarde and +daunger, and continewed to the end, without ever makinge one false +stepp, as few others did, though he had once, by the iniquity of a +faction that then prævayled, an indignity putt upon him, that might +have excused him, for some remission of his former warmth, but it made +no other impressyon upon him, then to be quyett and contented whilst +they would lett him alone, and with the same cheerefulnesse to obey +the first summons, when he was called out, which was quickly after: +in a worde he was a man, that whoever shall after him deserve best in +that nation, shall never thinke himselfe undervalewed, when he shall +heare that his courage, virtue, and fidelity is layde in the balance +with, and compared to that of the Lord Capell. + + + + +32. + +ROYALIST GENERALS. + +PATRICK RUTHVEN, EARL OF BRENTFORD (1573-1651). + +PRINCE RUPERT (1619-82). + +GEORGE, LORD GORING (1608-57). + +HENRY WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER (1612-58). + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Army was lesse united then ever; the old Generall was sett asyde +and Prince Rupert putt into the commaunde, which was no popular +chaunge, for the other was knowne to be an officer of greate +exsperience, and had committed no oversights in his conducte, was +willinge to heare every thinge debated, and alwayes concurred with the +most reasonable opinion, and though he was not of many wordes, and +was not quicke in hearinge, yett upon any action, he was sprightly and +commaunded well; The Prince was rough, and passionate and loved not +debate, liked what was proposed, as he liked the persons who proposed +it, and was so greate an enimy to Digby and Culpeper, who were only +present in debates of the Warr with the Officers, that he crossed all +they proposed. The truth is, all the Army had bene disposed from the +first raysinge it, to a neglecte and contempt of the Councell, and +the Kinge himselfe had not bene sollicitous enough to præserve the +respecte due to it, in which he lost of his owne dignity. Goringe who +was now Generall of the Horse, was no more gratious to Prince Rupert +then Wilmott had bene, and had all the others faults, and wanted his +regularity and preservinge his respects with the officers; Wilmott +loved deboshry, but shutt it out from his businesse, and never +neglected that, and rarely miscarryed in it; Goringe had much a better +understandinge, and a sharper witt, except in the very exercise of +deboshry, and then the other was inspired, a much keener courage, and +presentnesse of minde in daunger; Wilmott decerned it farther off, and +because he could not behave himselfe so well in it, commonly prevented +or warily declined it, and never dranke when he was within distance of +an enimy; Goringe was not able to resist the temptation when he was in +the middle of them, nor would declyne it to obtayne a victory, and in +one of those fitts had suffer'd the Horse to escape out of Cornwall, +and the most signall misfortunes of his life in warr, had ther ryse +from that uncontrolable licence; nether of them valewed ther promises, +professions or frendshipps, accordinge to any rules of honour or +integrity, but Wilmott violated them the lesse willingly, and never +but for some greate benefitt or convenience to himself, Goringe +without scruple out of humour or for witt sake, and loved no man so +well, but that he would cozen him, and then expose him to publicke +mirth, for havinge bene cozened, and therfore he had always fewer +frends then the other, but more company, for no man had a witt that +pleased the company better: The ambitions of both were unlimited, and +so æqually incapable of beinge contented, and both unrestrayned by +any respecte to good nature or justice from pursuinge the satisfaction +therof, yett Willmott had more scruples from religion to startle him, +and would not have attayned his end, by any grosse or fowle acte of +wickednesse; Goringe could have passed through those pleasantly, and +would without hesitation have broken any trust, or done any acte of +treachery, to have satisfyed an ordinary passion or appetite, and in +truth wanted nothinge but industry, for he had witt, and courage and +understandinge, and ambition uncontroled by any feare of god or man, +to have bene as eminent and succesfull in the highest attempt in +wickednesse of any man in the age he lyved in, or before, and of all +his qualifications, dissimulation was his masterpiece, in which he +so much excelled, that men were not ordinaryly ashamed or out of +countenance with beinge deceaved but twice by him. + + + + +33. + +JOHN HAMPDEN. + +_Born 1594. Mortally wounded at Chalgrove Field_ 1643 + +By CLARENDON. + + +Many men observed (as upon signall turnes of greate affayres, as this +was, such observations are frequently made) that the Feild in which +the late skirmish was, and upon which Mr. Hambden receaved his +deaths-wounde, (Chalgrove Feilde) was the same place, in which he had +first executed the Ordinance of the Militia, and engaged that County, +in which his reputation was very greate, in this rebellion, and it was +confessed by the prysoners that were taken that day, and acknowledged +by all, that upon the Alarum that morninge, after ther quarters were +beaten up, he was exceedingly sollicitous to draw forces togither +to pursue the enimy, and beinge himselfe a Collonell of foote putt +himselfe amongst those horse as a volunteere who were first ready, and +that when the Prince made a stande, all the officers were of opinion +to stay till ther body came up, and he alone (beinge secounde to none +but the Generall himselfe in the observance and application of all +men) perswaded and prævayled with them to advance, so violently +did his fate carry him to pay the mulcte in the place, wher he had +committed the transgressyon, aboute a yeere before. + +He was a gentleman of a good family in Buckinghamshyre, and borne to +a fayre fortune, and of a most civill and affable deportment. In his +entrance into the world, he indulged to himselfe all the licence in +sportes and exercises, and company, which was used by men of the +most jolly conversation; afterwards he retired to a more reserved +and melancholique society, yet prseservinge his owne naturall +cheerefulnesse and vivacity, and above all a flowinge courtesy to all +men; Though they who conversed neerely with him founde him growinge +into a dislike of the Ecclesiasticall goverment of the church, yet +most believed it rather a dislike of some Churchmen, and of some +introducements of thers which he apprehended might disquyett the +publique peace: He was rather of reputation in his owne Country, then +of publique discource or fame in the Kingdome, before the businesse +of Shippmony, but then he grew the argument of all tounges, every man +enquyringe who and what he was, that durst at his owne charge supporte +the liberty and property of the kingdome, and reskue his Country +from beinge made a prey to the Courte; his carriage throughout that +agitation was with that rare temper and modesty, that they who watched +him narrowly to finde some advantage against his person to make +him lesse resolute in his cause, were compelled to give him a just +testimony: and the judgement that was given against him infinitely +more advanced him, then the service for which it was given. When this +Parliament begann (beinge returned Knight of the Shyre for the County +wher he lived) the eyes of all men were fixed on him as their Patriæ +Pater, and the Pilott that must steere ther vessell through the +tempests and Rockes which threatned it: And I am perswaded his power +and interest at that tyme was greater, to doe good or hurte, then any +mans in the kingdome, or then any man of his ranke hath had in any +tyme: for his reputation of honesty was universall, and his affections +seemed so publiquely guyded, that no corrupte or pryvate ends could +byasse them. + +He was of that rare affability and temper in debate, and of that +seeminge humillity and submissyon of judgement, as if he brought no +opinyons with him, but a desyre of information and instruction, yet he +had so subtle a way of interrogatinge, and under the notion of doubts, +insinuatinge his objections, that he left his opinions with those, +from whome he pretended to learne and receave them; and even with +them, who were able to præserve themselves from his infusions, and +decerned those opinions to be fixed in him, with which they could +not comply, he alwayes left the character of an ingenious and +conscientious person. He was indeede a very wise man, and of greate +partes, and possessed with the most absolute spiritt of popularity, +that is the most absolute facultyes to governe the people, of any man +I ever knew. For the first yeere of the parliament he seemed rather +to moderate and soften the violent and distempred humours, then +to inflame them, but wise and dispassioned men playnely decerned, +that that moderation proceeded from prudence, and observation that +the season was not rype, [rather] then that he approoved of the +moderation, and that he begatt many opinions and motions the education +wherof he committed to other men, so farr disguisinge his owne +designes that he seemed seldome to wish more then was concluded, +and in many grosse conclutions which would heareafter contribute +to designes not yet sett on foote, when he founde them sufficiently +backed by majority of voyces, he would withdraw himselfe before +the questyon, that he might seeme not to consent to so much visible +unreasonablenesse, which produced as greate a doubte in some, as it +did approbation in others of his integrity: What combination soever +had bene originaly with the Scotts for the invasion of England, and +what farther was enter'd into afterwards, in favour of them, and to +advance any alteration in Parliament, no man doubles was at least with +the privity of this gent[l]eman. + +After he was amongst those members accused by the Kinge of High +treason, he was much altred, his nature and carriage seeminge much +feircer then it did before; and without question when he first drew +his sworde, he threw away the scabberd, for he passionately opposed +the overture made by the Kinge for a treaty from Nottingham, and as +eminently any expedients that might have produced an accommodation in +this that was at Oxforde, and was principally relyed on to prævent any +infusions which might be made into the Earle of Essex towards peace, +or to render them ineffectuall if they were made; and was indeede much +more relyed on by that party, then the Generall himselfe. In the first +entrance into the troubles he undertooke the commande of a Regiment +of foote, and performed the duty of a Collonell on all occasyons most +punctually: He was very temperate in dyett, and a supreme governour +over all his passyons and affections, and had therby a greate power +over other mens: He was of an industry and vigilance not to be tyred +out, or wearyed by the most laborious, and of partes not to be imposed +upon by the most subtle or sharpe, and of a personall courage æqual to +his best partes, so that he was an enimy not to be wished wherever he +might have bene made a frende, and as much to be apprehended wher he +was so, as any man could deserve to be, and therfore his death was +no lesse congratulated on the one party then it was condoled on the +other. In a worde, what was sayd of Cinna, might well be applyed +to him, Erat illi consilium ad facinus aptum, consilio autem neque +lingua neque manus deerat, he had a heade to contryve, and a tounge +to perswade, and a hande to exequte any mischieve; his death therfore +seemed to be a greate deliverance to the nation. + + + + +34. + +JOHN PYM. + +_Born 1584. Died 1643._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Aboute this tyme the Councells at Westminster lost a principle +supporter, by the death of John Pimm, who dyed with greate torment and +agony, of a disease unusuall, and therfore the more spoken of, morbus +pediculosus, which rendred him an objecte very lothsome, to those who +had bene most delighted with him. Noe man had more to answer for the +miseryes of the Kingdome, or had his hande or heade deeper in ther +contrivance, and yet I believe they grew much higher even in his life, +then he designed. He was a man of a private quality and condition of +life, his education in the office of the Exchequer, wher he had bene +a Clerke, and his partes rather acquired by industry, then supplyed +by nature, or adorned by Arte. He had bene well knowen in former +Parliaments and was one of those few who had sate in many, the longe +intermissyon of Parliaments havinge worne out most of those who +had bene acquainted with the rules and orders observed in those +conventions, and this gave him some reputation and reverence amongst +those, who were but now introduced. He had bene most taken notice of, +for beinge concerned and passyonate in the jealosyes of religion, +and much troubled with the Countenance which had bene given to those +opinions which had bene imputed to Arminius; and this gave him greate +authority and interest with those, who were not pleased with the +goverment of the Church, or the growinge power of the Clargy, yet +himselfe industriously tooke care to be believed, and he professed +to be, very intire to the doctryne and disciplyne of the Church of +Englande. In the shorte Parliament before this, he spake much, and +appeared to be the most leadinge man, for besydes the exacte knowledge +of the formes and orders of that Councell, which few men had, he had +a very comely and grave way of expressinge himselfe, with greate +volubility of wordes, naturall and proper, and understoode the temper +and affections of the kingdome as well as any man, and had observed +the errors and mistakes in goverment, and knew well how to make them +appeare greater then they were. After the unhappy dissolution of +that Parliament he continued for the most parte about London, in +conversation and greate repute amongst those Lords, who were most +strangers, and believed most averse from the Courte, in whome he +improoved all imaginable jealosyes and discontents towards the State, +and as soone as this Parliament was resolved to be summoned, he was as +diligent to procure such persons to be elected, as he knew to be most +inclined to the way he meant to take. + +At the first openinge of this Parliament he appeared passyonate +and prepared against the Earle of Straforde, and though in private +designinge he was much governed by M'r Hambden and M'r S't John, yet +he seemed to all men to have the greatest influence upon the house +of Commons of any man, and in truth I thinke he was at that tyme and +for some moneths after the most popular man, and the most able to +do hurte, that hath lived in any tyme. Upon the first designe of +softninge and oblieginge the powerfull persons in both houses, when +it was resolved to make the Earle of Bedford Lord High Treasurer of +Englande, the Kinge likewise intended to make M'r Pimm Chancellour of +the Exchequer, for which he receaved his Majestys promise, and made +a returne of a suitable professyon of his service and devotion, and +therupon, the other beinge no secrett, somewhat declyned from that +sharpnesse in the house, which was more popular then any mans person, +and made some overtures to provyde for the glory and splendor of +the Crowne, in which he had so ill successe, that his interest and +reputation ther visibly abated, and he founde that he was much better +able to do hurte then good, which wrought very much upon him, to +melancholique, and complainte of the violence and discomposure of +the peoples affections and inclinations; in the end, whether upon +the death of the Earle of Bedford he despayred of that præferment, or +whether he was guilty of any thinge, which upon his conversyon to the +Courte he thought might be discovered to his damage, or for pure want +of courage, he suffred himselfe to be carryed by those who would not +follow him, and so continued in the heade of those who made the most +desperate propositions. + +In the proseqution of the Earle of Straforde, his carriage and +language was such, that expressed much personall animosity, and he +was accused of havinge practiced some Artes in it, not worthy a +good man, as an Irishman of very meane and low condition afterwards +acknowledged, that beinge brought to him as an evidence of one parte +of the charge against the Lord Lieuetenant in a particular of which a +person of so vyle quality would not be reasonably thought a competent +informer, M'r Pimm gave him mony to buy him a Sattyn Sute and Cloke, in +which equipage he appeared at the tryall, and gave his evidence, which +if true, may make many other thinges which were confidently reported +afterwards of him, to be believed: As, that he receaved a greate Summ +of mony from the French Ambassadour, to hinder the transportation of +those Regiments of Irelande into Flanders, upon the disbandinge that +Army ther, which had bene præpared by the Earle of Straforde for +the businesse of Scotlande, in which if his Majestys derections and +commands had not bene deverted and contradicted by the houses, many +do believe the rebellyon in Irelande had not happend. Certayne it +is, that his power of doinge shrewd turnes was extraordinary, and no +lesse in doinge good offices for particular persons, and that he did +præserve many from censure, who were under the seveare displeasure of +the houses, and looked upon as eminent Delinquents, and the quality +of many of them made it believed, that he had sold that protection for +valewable consideration. From the tyme of his beinge accused of High +Treason by the Kinge, with the Lord Kimbolton and the other Members, +he never intertayned thoughts of moderation, but alwayes opposed all +overtures of peace and accommodation, and when the Earle of Essex was +disposed the last Summer by those Lords to an inclination towards +a treaty as is before remembred, M'r Pymms power and dexterity wholy +changed him, and wrought him to that temper which he afterwards +swarved not from. He was wounderfully sollicitous for the Scotts +comminge in to ther assistance, though his indisposition of body was +so greate, that it might well have made another impressyon upon his +minde. Duringe his sicknesse he was a very sadd spectacle, but none +beinge admitted to him, who had not concurred with him, it is not +knowne what his last thoughts and considerations were. He dyed towards +the end of December, before the Scotts entred, and was buryed with +wounderfull Pompe and Magnificence in that Place where the Bones of +our English Kings and Princes are committed to ther rest. + + + + +35. + +OLIVER CROMWELL. + +_Born 1599. Lord Protector 1653. Died 1658._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Crumwell (though the greatest Dissembler livinge) alwayes made his +hypocrisy of singular use and benefitt to him, and never did any +thinge, how ungratious or imprudent soever it seemed to be, but what +was necessary to the designe; even his roughnesse and unpolishednesse +which in the beginninge of the Parliament he affected, contrary to +the smoothnesse and complacency which his Cozen and bosome frende +M'r Hambden practiced towards all men, was necessary, and his first +publique declaration in the beginninge of the Warr, to his troope when +it was first mustered,--that he would not deceave or cozen them by +the perplexed and involved exspressions in his Commissyon to fight for +Kinge and Parliament, and therfore told them that if the Kinge chanced +to be in the body of the enimy that he was to charge, he woulde as +soone discharge his pistoll upon him, as at any other private person, +and if ther conscience would not permitt them to do the like, he +advized them not to list themselves in his troope or under his +commaunde,--which was generally looked upon, as imprudent and +malicious, and might by the professyons the Parliament then made, +have prooved daungerous to him, yett served his turne, and severed and +united all the furious and incensed men against the goverment, whether +Ecclesiasticall or Civill, to looke upon him as a man for ther turne, +and upon whome they might depende, as one who would go through his +worke that he undertooke; and his stricte and unsociable humour in not +keepinge company with the other officers of the Army in ther jollityes +and excesses, to which most of the superiour officers under the Earle +of Essex were inclined, and by which he often made himselfe ridiculous +or contemptible, drew all those of the like sowre or reserved natures +to his society and conversation, and gave him opportunity to forme +ther understandings, inclinations, and resolutions to his owne modell; +and by this he grew to have a wounderfull interest in the Common +souldyers, out of which, as his authority increased, he made all +his Officers, well instructed how to lyve in the same manner with +ther Souldyers, that they might be able to apply them to ther owne +purposes. Whilst he looked upon the Presbiterian humour as the best +incentive to rebellion, no man more a Presbiterian, he sunge all +Psalmes with them to ther tunes, and looved the longest sermons as +much as they: but when he discover'd, that they would prescribe some +limitts and bounds to ther rebellion, that it was not well breathed, +and would expyre as soone as some few particulars were granted to them +in religion which he cared not for, and then that the goverment must +runn still in the same channell, it concerned him to make it believed, +that the State had bene more Delinquent, then the Church, and that the +people suffer'd more by the civill, then by the Ecclesiasticall power, +and therfore that the change of one would give them little ease, if +ther were not as greate an alteration in the other, and if the whole +goverment in both were not reformed and altred; which though it made +him generally odious and irreconciled many of his old frends to him, +yett it made those who remayned more cordiall and firme to him, and +he could better compute his owne strengtht, and upon whome he might +depende; and this discovery made him contryve the Modell, which was +the most unpopular acte, and disoblieged all those who first contryved +the rebellyon, and who were the very soule of it; and yett if he had +not brought that to passe and chaunged a Generall, who though not very +sharpesighted would never be governed, nor applyed to any thinge he +did not like, for another who had no eyes, and so would be willinge to +be ledd, all his designes must have come to nothinge, and he remayned +a private Collonell of horse, not considerable enough to be in any +figure upon an advantagious composition. + + + + +36. + +By CLARENDON. + + +He was one of those men, quos vituperare ne inimici quidem possunt, +nisi ut simul laudent, for he could never have done halfe that +mischieve, without greate partes of courage and industry and +judgement, and he must have had a wounderfull understandinge in the +natures and humours of men, and as greate a dexterity in the applyinge +them, who from a private and obscure birth, (though of a good family) +without interest of estate, allyance or frendshipps, could rayse +himselfe to such a height, and compounde and kneade such opposite and +contradictory tempers humour and interests, into a consistence, that +contributed to his designes and to ther owne destruction, whilst +himselfe grew insensibly powerfull enough, to cutt off those by whome +he had climed, in the instant, that they projected to demolish ther +owne buildinge. What Velleius Paterculus sayd of Cinna, may very +justly be sayd of him, Ausum eum quæ nemo auderet bonus, perfecisse +quæ a nullo nisi fortissimo perfici possunt. Without doubte, no man +with more wickednesse ever attempted any thinge, or brought to passe +what he desyred more wickedly, more in the face and contempt of +religion and morall honesty, yet wickednesse as greate as his could +never have accomplish'd those trophees without the assistance of a +greate spiritt, an admirable circumspection and sagacity, and a most +magnanimous resolution. When he appeared first in the Parliament +he seemed to have a person in no degree gratious, no ornament of +discource, none of those talents which use to reconcile the affections +of the standers by, yett as he grew into place and authority, his +partes seemed to be renew[d], as if he had concealed facultyes till +he had occasion to use them; and when he was to acte the parte of +a greate man, he did it without any indecensy through the wante of +custome.... + +He was not a man of bloode, and totally declined Machiavells methode, +which prescribes upon any alteration of a goverment, as a thinge +absolutely necessary, to cutt of all the heades of those and extirpate +ther familyes, who are frends to the old, and it was confidently +reported that in the Councell of Officers, it was more then once +proposed, that ther might be a generall massacre of all the royall +party, as the only exspedient to secure the goverment, but Crumwell +would never consent to it, it may be out of to much contempt of his +enimyes; In a worde, as he had all the wickednesses against which +damnation is denounced and for which Hell fyre is præpared, so he had +some virtues, which have caused the memory of some men in all ages to +be celebrated, and he will be looked upon by posterity, as a brave, +badd man. + + + + +37. + +By SIR PHILIP WARWICK. + + +I have no mind to give an ill character of Cromwell; for in his +conversation towards me he was ever friendly; tho' at the latter end +of the day finding me ever incorrigible, and having some inducements +to suspect me a tamperer, he was sufficiently rigid. The first time, +that ever I took notice of him, was in the very beginning of the +Parliament held in November 1640, when I vainly thought my selfe a +courtly young Gentleman: (for we Courtiers valued our selves much +upon our good cloaths.) I came one morning into the House well clad, +and perceived a Gentleman speaking (whom I knew not) very ordinarily +apparelled; for it was a plain cloth-sute, which seemed to have bin +made by an ill country-taylor; his linen was plain, and not very +clean; and I remember a speck or two of blood upon his little band, +which was not much larger than his collar; his hatt was without a +hatt-band: his stature was of a good size, his sword stuck close +to his side, his countenance swoln and reddish, his voice sharp and +untunable, and his eloquence full of fervor; for the subject matter +would not bear much of reason; it being in behalfe of a servant of Mr. +Prynn's, who had disperst libells against the Queen for her dancing +and such like innocent and courtly sports; and he aggravated the +imprisonment of this man by the Council-Table unto that height, that +one would have beleived, the very Goverment it selfe had been in great +danger by it. I sincerely professe it lessened much my reverence unto +that great councill; for he was very much hearkened unto. And yet I +liv'd to see this very Gentleman, whom out of no ill will to him I +thus describe, by multiplied good successes, and by reall (but usurpt) +power: (having had a better taylor, and more converse among good +company) in my owne eye, when for six weeks together I was a prisoner +in his serjeant's hands, and dayly waited at Whitehall, appeare of a +great and majestick deportment and comely presence. Of him therefore +I will say no more, but that verily I beleive, he was extraordinarily +designed for those extraordinary things, which one while most wickedly +and facinorously he acted, and at another as succesfully and greatly +performed. + + + + +38. + +By JOHN MAIDSTON. + + +His body was wel compact and strong, his stature under 6 foote (I +beleeve about two inches) his head so shaped, as you might see it +a storehouse and shop both of a vast treasury of natural parts. His +temper exceeding fyery, as I have known, but the flame of it kept +downe, for the most part, or soon allayed with thos moral endowments +he had. He was naturally compassionate towards objects in distresse, +even to an effeminate measure; though God had made him a heart, +wherein was left little roume for any fear, but what was due to +himselfe, of which there was a large proportion, yet did he exceed in +tendernesse towards sufferers. A larger soul, I thinke, hath seldome +dwelt in a house of clay than his was. I do believe, if his story were +impartialy transmitted, and the unprejudiced world wel possest with +it, she would adde him to her nine worthies, and make up that number +a decemviri. He lived and dyed in comfortable communion with God, as +judicious persons neer him wel observed. He was that Mordecai that +sought the welfare of his people, and spake peace to his seed, yet +were his temptations such, as it appeared frequently, that he, that +hath grace enough for many men, may have too little for himselfe; +the treasure he had being but in an earthen vessel, and that equally +defiled with original sin, as any other man's nature is. + + + + +39. + +By RICHARD BAXTER + + +Never man was highlier extolled, and never man was baselier reported +of, and vilified than this man. No (meer) man was _better_ and _worse_ +spoken of than he; according as mens Interests led their Judgments. +The Soldiers and Sectaries most highly magnified him, till he began +to seek the Crown and the Establishment of his Family: And then there +were so many that would be Half-Kings themselves, that a King did seem +intollerable to them. The Royalists abhorred him as a most perfidious +Hypocrite; and the Presbyterians thought him little better, in his +management of publick matters. + +If after so many others I may speak my Opinion of him, I think, +that, having been a Prodigal in his Youth, and afterward changed to +a zealous Religiousness, he meant honestly in the main, and was pious +and conscionable in the main course of his Life, till Prosperity and +Success corrupted him: that, at his first entrance into the Wars, +being but a Captain of Horse, he had a special care to get religious +men into his Troop: These men were of greater understanding than +common Soldiers, and therefore were more apprehensive of the +Importance and Consequence of the War; and making not Money, but that +which they took for the Publick Felicity, to be their End, they were +the more engaged to be valiant; for he that maketh Money his End, doth +esteem his Life above his Pay, and therefore is like enough to save +it by flight when danger comes, if possibly he can: But he that maketh +the Felicity of Church and State his End, esteemeth it above his Life, +and therefore will the sooner lay down his Life for it. And men of +Parts and Understanding know how to manage their business, and know +that flying is the surest way to death, and that standing to it is the +likeliest way to escape; there being many usually that fall in flight, +for one that falls in valiant fight. These things it's probable +_Cromwell_ understood; and that none would be such engaged valiant +men as the Religious: But yet I conjecture, that at his first choosing +such men into his Troop, it was the very Esteem and Love of Religious +men that principally moved him; and the avoiding of those Disorders, +Mutinies, Plunderings, and Grievances of the Country, which deboist +men in Armies are commonly guilty of: By this means he indeed sped +better than he expected. _Aires_, _Desborough_, _Berry_, _Evanson_, +and the rest of that Troop, did prove so valiant, that as far as I +could learn, they never once ran away before an Enemy. Hereupon he got +a Commission to take some care of the Associated Counties, where he +brought his Troop into a double Regiment, of fourteen full Troops; and +all these as full of religious men as he could get: These having more +than ordinary Wit and Resolution, had more than ordinary Success; +first in _Lincolnshire_, and afterward in the Earl of _Manchester's_ +Army at _York_ Fight: With their Successes the Hearts both of Captain +and Soldiers secretly rise both in Pride and Expectation: And the +familiarity of many honest erroneous Men (Anabaptists, Antinomians, +&c.) withal began quickly to corrupt their Judgments. Hereupon +_Cromwell's_ general Religious Zeal, giveth away to the power of that +Ambition, which still increaseth as his Successes do increase: Both +Piety and Ambition concurred in his countenancing of all that he +thought Godly of what Sect soever: Piety pleadeth for them as _Godly_; +and _Charity_ as Men; and Ambition secretly telleth him what use he +might make of them. He meaneth well in all this at the beginning, +and thinketh he doth all for the Safety of the Godly, and the Publick +Good, but not without an Eye to himself. + +When Successes had broken down all considerable opposition, he was +then in the face of his Strongest Temptations, which conquered him +when he had conquered others: He thought that he had hitherto done +well, both as to the _End_ and _Means_, and God by the wonderful +Blessing of his Providence had owned his endeavours, and it was +none but God that had made him great: He thought that if the War was +lawful, the Victory was lawful; and if it were lawful to fight against +the King and conquer him, it was lawful to use him as a conquered +Enemy, and a foolish thing to trust him when they had so provoked him, +(whereas indeed the Parliament professed neither to fight against him, +nor to conquer him). He thought that the Heart of the King was deep, +and that he resolved upon Revenge, and that if he were King, he would +easily at one time or other accomplish it; and that it was a dishonest +thing of the Parliament to set men to fight for them against the King, +and then to lay their Necks upon the block, and be at his Mercy; and +that if that must be their Case, it was better to flatter or please +him, than to fight against him. He saw that the _Scots_ and the +Presbyterians in the Parliament, did by the Covenant and the Oath +of Allegiance, find themselves bound to the Person and Family of the +King, and that there was no hope of changing their minds in this: +Hereupon he joyned with that Party in the Parliament who were for the +Cutting off the King, and trusting him no more. And consequently he +joyned with them in raising the Independants to make a Fraction in +the Synod at _Westminster_ and in the City; and in strengthening the +Sectaries in Army, City and Country, and in rendering the _Scots_ and +Ministers as odious as he could, to disable them from hindering the +Change of Government. In the doing of all this, (which _Distrust_ and +_Ambition_ had perswaded him was well done) he thought it lawful to +use his Wits, to choose each Instrument, and suit each means, unto its +end; and accordingly he daily imployed himself, and modelled the Army, +and disbanded all other Garrisons and Forces and Committees, which +were like to have hindered his design. And as he went on, though he +yet resolved not what form the New Commonwealth should be molded into, +yet he thought it but reasonable, that he should be the Chief Person +who had been chief in their Deliverance; (For the Lord _Fairfax_ he +knew had but the Name). At last, as he thought it lawful to cut off +the King, because he thought he was lawfully conquered, so he thought +it lawful to fight against the _Scots_ that would set him up, and to +pull down the Presbyterian Majority in the Parliament, which would +else by restoring him undo all which had cost them so much Blood and +Treasure. And accordingly he conquereth _Scotland_, and pulleth down +the Parliament: being the easilier perswaded that all this was lawful, +because he had a secret Byas and Eye towards his own Exaltation: +For he (and his Officers) thought, that when the King was gone a +Government there must be; and that no Man was so fit for it as he +himself; as best _deserving_ it, and as having by his _Wit_ and great +_Interest_ in the Army, the best sufficiency to manage it: Yea, they +thought that _God had called_ them by _Successes_ to _Govern and take +Care_ of the Commonwealth, and of the Interest of all his People in +the Land; and that if they stood by and suffered the Parliament to do +that which they thought was dangerous, it would be required at their +hands, whom they thought God had made the Guardians of the Land. + +Having thus forced his Conscience to justifie all his Cause, (the +Cutting off the King, the setting up himself and his Adherents, the +pulling down the Parliament and the _Scots_,) he thinketh that the +End being good and necessary, the necessary means cannot be bad: And +accordingly he giveth his Interest and Cause leave to tell him, how +far Sects shall be tollerated and commended, and how far not; and how +far the Ministry shall be owned and supported, and how far not; yea, +and how far Professions, Promises, and Vows shall be kept, or broken; +and therefore the Covenant he could not away with; nor the Ministers, +further than they yielded to his Ends, or did not openly resist them. +He seemed exceeding open hearted, by a familiar Rustick affected +Carriage, (especially to his Soldiers in sporting with them): but he +thought Secrecy a Vertue, and Dissimulation no Vice, and Simulation, +that is, in plain English a Lie, or Perfidiousness to be a tollerable +Fault in a Case of Necessity: being of the same Opinion with the +Lord _Bacon_, (who was not so Precise as Learned) That [_the best +Composition and Temperature is, to have openness in Fame and Opinion, +Secrecy in habit, Dissimulation in seasonable use; and a power to +feign if there be no remedy,_] _Essay_ 6. _pag._ 31. Therefore he kept +fair with all, saving his open or unreconcileable Enemies. He carried +it with such Dissimulation, that Anabaptists, Independants, and +Antinomians did all think that he was one of them: But he never +endeavoured to perswade the Presbyterians that he was one of them; +but only that he would do them Justice, and Preserve them, and that +he honoured their Worth and Piety; for he knew that they were not so +easily deceived. In a word, he did as our Prelates have done, begin +low and rise higher in his Resolutions as his Condition rose, and the +Promises which he made in his lower Condition, he used as the interest +of his higher following Condition did require, and kept up as much +Honesty and Godliness in the main, as his Cause and Interest would +allow. + + + + +40. + +SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX. + +_Born 1612. Died 1671_. + +By RICHARD BAXTER. + + +And these things made the new modelling of the Army to be resolved +on. But all the Question was how to effect it, without stirring up +the Forces against them which they intended to disband: And all this +was notably dispatcht at once, by One Vote, which was called the +_Self-denying Vote_, viz. That because Commands in the Army had much +pay, and Parliament Men should keep to the Service of the House, +therefore no Parliament Men should be Members of the Army.... + +When this was done, the next Question was, Who should be Lord General, +and what new Officers should be put in, or old ones continued? And +here the Policy of _Vane_ and _Cromwell_ did its best: For General +they chose Sir _Thomas Fairfax_, Son of the Lord _Ferdinando Fairfax_, +who had been in the Wars beyond Sea, and had fought valiantly in +_Yorkshire_ for the Parliament, though he was over-powered by the Earl +of _Newcastle's_, Numbers. This Man was chosen because they supposed +to find him a Man of no quickness of Parts, of no Elocution, of no +suspicious plotting Wit, and therefore One that _Cromwell_ could make +use of at his pleasure. And he was acceptable to sober Men, because +he was Religious, Faithful, Valiant, and of a grave, sober, resolved +Disposition; very fit for Execution, and neither too Great nor too +Cunning to be Commanded by the Parliament. + + + + +41. + +SIR HENRY VANE, THE YOUNGER. + +_Born 1613. Beheaded 1662._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The other, S'r H. Vane, was a man of greate naturall parts, and of +very profounde dissimulation, of a quicke conception, and very ready +sharpe and weighty exspression. He had an unusuall aspecte, which +though it might naturally proceede both from his father and mother, +nether of which were beautifull persons, yett made men thinke ther was +somewhat in him of extraordinary, and his whole life made good that +imagination. Within a very shorte tyme after he returned from his +studyes in Magdalen Colledge in Oxforde, wher, though he was under the +care of a very worthy Tutour, he lyved not with greate exactnesse, he +spent some little tyme in France, and more in Geneva, and after his +returne into Englande, contracted a full præjudice and bitternesse +against the Church, both against the forme of the goverment and the +lyturgy, which was generally in greate reverence, even with many of +those, who were not frends to the other. In this giddinesse which then +much displeased, or seemed to displease his father, who still appeared +highly conformable, and exceedingly sharpe against those who were not, +he transported himselfe into New Englande, a Colony within few yeeres +before planted by a mixture of all religions, which disposed the +professors to dislike the goverment of the church, who were qualifyed +by the Kings Charter to chuse ther owne goverment and governors, under +the obligation that every man should take the othes of Allegiance and +Supremacy, which all the first planters did, when they receaved ther +charter, before they transported themselves from hence, nor was ther +in many yeeres after the least scruple amongst them of complyinge with +those obligations, so farr men were in the infancy of ther schisme, +from refusinge to take lawfull othes. He was no sooner landed ther, +but his partes made him quickly taken notice of, and very probably his +quality, beinge the eldest sunn of a Privy Councellour, might give +him some advantage, insomuch that when the next season came for the +election of ther Magistrates, he was chosen ther governour, in which +place he had so ill fortune, his workinge and unquyett fancy raysinge +and infusinge a thousande scruples of conscience which they had not +brought over with them, nor hearde of before, that he unsatisfyed +with them, and they with him, he retransported himselfe into +Englande, havinge sowed such seede of dissention ther, as grew up to +prosperously, and miserably devyded the poore Colony into severall +factions and devisions and persequtions of each other, which still +continue to the greate prejudice of that plantation, insomuch as +some of them, upon the grounde of ther first exspedition, liberty of +conscience, have withdrawne themselves from ther jurisdiction, and +obtayned other Charters from the Kinge, by which in other formes of +goverment they have inlarged ther plantations within new limitts, +adjacent to the other. He was no sooner returned into Englande, then +he seemed to be much reformed in those extravagancyes, and with his +fathers approbation and direction marryed a Lady of a good family, +and by his fathers creditt with the Earle of Northumberland, who was +high Admirall of Englande, was joyned presently and joyntly with S'r +William Russell in the office of Treasurer of the Navy, a place of +greate trust, and profitt, which he æqually shared with the other, and +seemed a man well satisfyed and composed to the goverment. When his +father receaved the disobligation from the L'd Straforde, by his +beinge created Baron of Raby, the house and lande of Vane, and which +title he had promised himselfe, which was unluckily cast upon him, +purely out of contempt, they sucked in all the thoughts of revenge +imaginable, and from thence he betooke himselfe to the frendshipp +of M'r Pimm and all other discontented or seditious persons, and +contributed all that intelligence, which will be hereafter mentioned, +as he himselfe will often be, that designed the ruine of the Earle, +and which grafted him in the intire confidence of those, who promoted +the same, so that nothinge was concealed from him, though it is +believed that he communicated his owne thoughts to very few. + + + + +42. + +By CLARENDON. + + +Ther hath bene scarce any thinge more wounderfull throughout the +progresse of these distractions, then that this Covenant did with such +extraordinary exspedition passe the two houses, when all the leadinge +persons in those Councells were at the same tyme knowne to be as +greate enimyes to Presbitery (the establishment wherof was the sole +end of this Covenant) as they were to the Kinge or the Church, and +he who contributed most to it, and who in truth was the Principle +contriver of it, and the man by whome the Committee in Scotlande was +intirely and stupidly governed, S'r Harry Vane, the younger, was not +afterwards knowne to abhorr the Covenant and the Presbiterians [more] +then he was at that very tyme knowne to do, and laughed at them then, +as much as ever he did afterwards. + +He[1] was indeede a man of extraordinary parts, a pleasant witt, a +greate understandinge, which pierced into and decerned the purposes +of other men with wounderfull sagacity, whilst he had himselfe vultum +clausum, that no man could make a guesse of what he intended; he was +of a temper not to be mooved, and of rare dissimulation, and could +comply when it was not seasonable to contradicte without loosinge +grounde by the condescention, and if he were not superiour to M'r +Hambden, he was inferiour to no other man in all misterious artifices. +Ther neede no more be sayd of his ability, then that he was chosen +to cozen and deceave a whole nation, which excelled in craft and +dissemblinge, which he did with notable pregnancy and dexterity, and +prævayled with a people, which could not be otherwise prævayled upon, +then by advancinge ther Idoll Presbitery, to sacrifice ther peace, +ther interest, and ther fayth, to the erectinge a power and authority, +that resolved to persequte presbitery to an extirpation, and very +neere brought ther purpose to passe. + +[Footnote 1: Before 'He was indeede' Clarendon had written 'S'r Harry +Vane the yonger, was on of the Commissyoners, and therfore the other +neede not be named, since he was All in any businesse wher others +were joyned with him.' He cancelled this on adding the preceding +paragraph.] + + + + +43. + +COLONEL JOHN HUTCHINSON, + +_Governor of Nottingham._ + +_Born 1615. Died 1664._ + +By LUCY HUTCHINSON, his widow. + + +He was of a middle stature, of a slender and exactly well-proportion'd +shape in all parts, his complexion fair, his hayre of a light browne, +very thick sett in his youth, softer then the finest silke, curling +into loose greate rings att the ends, his eies of a lively grey, +well-shaped and full of life and vigour, graced with many becoming +motions, his visage thinne, his mouth well made, and his lipps very +ruddy and gracefull, allthough the nether chap shut over the upper, +yett it was in such a manner as was not unbecoming, his teeth were +even and white as the purest ivory, his chin was something long, and +the mold of his face, his forehead was not very high, his nose was +rays'd and sharpe, but withall he had a most amiable countenance, +which carried in it something of magnanimity and majesty mixt with +sweetnesse, that at the same time bespoke love and awe in all that +saw him; his skin was smooth and white, his legs and feete excellently +well made, he was quick in his pace and turnes, nimble and active and +gracefull in all his motions, he was apt for any bodily exercise, and +any that he did became him, he could dance admirably well, but neither +in youth nor riper yeares made any practise of it, he had skill in +fencing such as became a gentleman, he had a greate love of musick, +and often diverted himselfe with a violl, on which he play'd +masterly, he had an exact eare and judgement in other musick, he shott +excellently in bowes and gunns, and much us'd them for his exercise, +he had greate judgment in paintings, graving, sculpture, and all +liberal arts, and had many curiosities of vallue in all kinds, he took +greate delight in perspective glasses, and for his other rarities was +not so much affected with the antiquity as the merit of the worke--he +took much pleasure in emproovement of grounds, in planting groves and +walkes, and fruite-trees, in opening springs and making fish-ponds; +of country recreations he lov'd none but hawking, and in that was very +eager and much delighted for the time he us'd it, but soone left it +off; he was wonderful neate, cleanly and gentile in his habitt, and +had a very good fancy in it, but he left off very early the wearing +of aniething that was costly, yett in his plainest negligent habitt +appear'd very much a gentleman; he had more addresse than force of +body, yet the courage of his soule so supplied his members that +he never wanted strength when he found occasion to employ it; his +conversation was very pleasant for he was naturally chearful, had +a ready witt and apprehension; he was eager in every thing he did, +earnest in dispute, but withall very rationall, so that he was seldome +overcome, every thing that it was necessary for him to doe he did with +delight, free and unconstrein'd, he hated cerimonious complement, but +yett had a naturall civillity and complaisance to all people, he was +of a tender constitution, but through the vivacity of his spiritt +could undergo labours, watchings and journeyes, as well as any of +stronger compositions; he was rheumatick, and had a long sicknesse +and distemper occasion'd thereby two or three yeares after the warre +ended, but elce for the latter halfe of his life was healthy tho' +tender, in his youth and childhood he was sickly, much troubled with +weaknesse and tooth akes, but then his spiritts carried him through +them; he was very patient under sicknesse or payne or any common +accidints, but yet upon occasions, though never without just ones, he +would be very angrie, and had even in that such a grace as made him +to be fear'd, yet he was never outragious in passion; he had a very +good facultie in perswading, and would speake very well pertinently +and effectually without premeditation upon the greatest occasions +that could be offer'd, for indeed his judgment was so nice, that he +could never frame any speech beforehand to please himselfe, but his +invention was so ready and wisdome so habituall in all his speeches, +that he never had reason to repent himselfe of speaking at any time +without ranking the words beforehand, he was not talkative yett free +of discourse, of a very spare diett, not much given to sleepe, an +early riser when in health, he never was at any time idle, and hated +to see any one elce soe, in all his naturall and ordinary inclinations +and composure, there was somthing extraordinary and tending to vertue, +beyond what I can describe, or can be gather'd from a bare dead +description; there was a life of spiritt and power in him that is not +to be found in any copie drawne from him: to summe up therefore all +that can be sayd of his outward frame and disposition wee must truly +conclude, that it was a very handsome and well furnisht lodging +prepar'd for the reception of that prince, who in the administration +of all excellent vertues reign'd there awhile, till he was called back +to the pallace of the universall emperor. + + + + +44. + +THE EARL OF ESSEX. + +_Robert Devereux, third Earl of Essex._ + +_Born 1591. Died 1646._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Essex hath bene enough mentioned before, his nature and +his understandinge have bene described, his former disobligations +from the Courte, and then his introduction into it, and afterwards his +beinge displaced from the office he held in it, have bene sett forth, +and ther will be occasion heareaffter to renew the discource of him, +and therfore it shall suffice in this place to say, that a weake +judgement, and a little vanity, and as much of pryde, will hurry a +man into as unwarrantable and as violent attempts, as the greatest and +most unlimited and insaciable ambition will doe. He had no ambition +of title, or office, or præferment, but only to be kindly looked +upon, and kindly spoken to, and quyetly to injoy his owne fortune, and +without doubte, no man in his nature more abhorred rebellion then he +did, nor could he have bene ledd into it by any open or transparent +temptation, but by a thousand disguises and cozinages. His pryde +supplyed his want of ambition, and he was angry to see any other man +more respected then himselfe, because he thought he deserved it more, +and did better requite it, for he was in his frendshipps just and +constante, and would not have practiced fouly against those he tooke +to be enimyes: no man had creditt enough with him to corrupt him in +pointe of loyalty to the Kinge, whilst he thought himselfe wise enough +to know what treason was. But the new doctrine and distinction of +Allegiance, and of the Kings power in and out of Parliament, and +the new notions of Ordinances, were to hard for him and did really +intoxicate his understandinge, and made him quitt his owne, to follow +thers, who he thought wish'd as well, and judged better then himselfe; +His vanity disposed him to be his Excellence, and his weaknesse to +believe that he should be the Generall in the Houses, as well as in +the Feild, and be able to governe ther councells, and restrayne ther +passyons, as well as to fight ther battles, and that by this meanes +he should become the præserver and not the destroyer of the Kinge and +Kingdome; and with this ill grounded confidence, he launched out into +that Sea, wher he mett with nothinge but rockes, and shelves, and from +whence he could never discover any safe Porte to harbour in. + + + + +45. + +THE EARL OF SALISBURY. + +_William Cecil, second Earl of Salisbury._ + +_Born 1591. Died 1668._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Salisbury had bene borne and bredd in Courte and had +the Advantage of a descent from a Father and a Grandfather, who had +bene very wise men, and greate Ministers of State in the eyes of +Christendome, whose wisdome and virtues dyed with them, and ther +children only inherited ther titles. He had bene admitted of the +Councell to Kinge James, from which tyme he continued so obsequious +to the Courte, that he never fayled in overactinge all that he was +requyred to do; no acte of power was ever proposed, which he did not +advance, and execute his parte, with the utmost rigour, no man so +greate a tyrant in his country, or was lesse swayed by any motives of +justice or honour; he was a man of no words, except in huntinge and +hawkinge in which he only knew how to behave himselfe, in matters +of State and councell he alwayes concurred in what was proposed for +the Kinge, and cancelled and repayred all those transgressions by +concurringe in all that was proposed against him as soone as any +such propositions were made; yett when the Kinge went to Yorke, he +likewise attended upon his Majesty and at that distance seemed to +have recover'd some courage, and concurred in all councells which +were taken to undeceave the people, and to make the proceedings of the +Parliament odious to all the world; but on a suddayne he caused his +horses to attend him out of the towne, and havinge placed fresh ons +at a distance, he fledd backe to London, with the exspedition such +men use when they are most afrayde, and never after denyed to do any +thinge that was requyred of him, and when the warr was ended, and +Crumwell had putt downe the house of Peeres, he gott himselfe to be +chosen a member of the house of Commons, and sate with them as of +ther owne body, and was esteemed accordingly; in a worde he became +so despicable to all men, that he will hardly ever in joy the ease +which Seneca bequeathed to him: Hic egregiis majoribus ortus est, +qualiscunque est, sub umbra suorum lateat; Ut loca sordida repercussu +solis illustrantur, ita inertes majorum suorum luce resplendeant. + + + + +46. + +THE EARL OF WARWICK. + +_Robert Rich, second Earl of Warwick._ + +_Born 1587. Died 1658._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Warwicke was of the Kings counsell to, but was not +woundred at for leavinge the Kinge, whome he had never served, nor did +he looke upon himselfe as oblieged by that honour, which he knew was +conferred upon him in the crowde of those, whom his Majesty had no +esteeme of, or ever purposed to trust, so his businesse was to joyne +with those, to whome he owed his promotion; he was a man of a pleasant +and companionable witt and conversation, of an universall jollity, and +such a licence in his wordes and in his actions, that a man of lesse +virtue could not be founde out, so that a man might reasonably have +believed, that a man so qualifyed would not have bene able to have +contributed much to the overthrow of a nation, and kingdome; but with +all these faults, he had greate authority and creditt with that people +who in the beginninge of the troubles did all the mischieve; and by +openinge his doores, and makinge his house the Randevooze of all the +silenced Ministers, in the tyme when ther was authority to silence +them, and spendinge a good parte of his estate, of which he was +very prodigall, upon them, and by beinge present with them at ther +devotions, and makinge himselfe merry with them and at them, which +they dispenced with, he became the heade of that party, and gott +the style of a godly man. When the Kinge revoked the Earle of +Northumberlands Commission of Admirall, he presently accepted the +office from the Parliament and never quitted ther service; and +when Crumwell disbanded that Parliament, he betooke himselfe to the +Protection of the Protectour, marryed his Heyre to his daughter, and +lived in so intire a confidence and frendshipp with him, that when he +dyed he had the honour to be exceedingly lamented by him: and left +his estate, which before was subject to a vast debt, more improved and +repayred, then any man, who traffiqued in that desperate commodity of +rebellion. + + + + +47. + +THE EARL OF MANCHESTER. + +_Edward Montagu, created Baron Montagu of Kimbolton 1626, second Earl +of Manchester 1642._ + +_Born 1602. Died 1671._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Manchester, of the whole Caball, was in a thousand +respects most unfitt for the company he kept. He was of a gentle and +a generous nature, civilly bredd, had reverence and affection for the +person of the Kinge, upon whome he had attended in Spayne, loved his +Country with to unskilfull a tendernesse, and was of so excellent a +temper and disposition, that the barbarous tymes, and the rough partes +he was forced to acte in them, did not wype out or much deface those +markes, insomuch as he was never guilty of any rudenesse towards +those, he was oblieged to oppresse, but performed always as good +offices towards his old frendes, and all other persons, as the +iniquity of the tyme, and the nature of the imployment he was in, +would permitt him to doe, which kinde of humanity could be imputed to +very few; and he was at last dismissed, and remooved from any trust, +for no other reason, but because he was not wicked enough. + +He marryed first into the family of the Duke of Buckingham, and by +his favour and interest was called to the house of Peeres in the life +of his father, and made Barron of Kymolton, though he was commonly +treated and knowne by the name of the L'd Mandevill: And was as much +addicted to the service of the Courte as he ought to be. But the death +of his Lady, and the murther of that greate Favorite, his secounde +marriage with the daughter of the Earle of Warwicke, and the very +narrow and restrayned maintenance which he receaved from his father +and which would in no degree defray the exspences of the Courte, +forced him to soone to retyre to a Country life, and totally to +abandon both the Courte and London, whither he came very seldome in +many yeeres; And in this retirement, the discountenance which his +father underwent at Courte, the conversation of that family into which +he was now marryed, the bewitchinge popularity which flowed upon him +with a wounderfull Torrent, with the want of those guardes which a +good education should have supplyed him with, by the cleere notion of +the foundation of the Ecclesiasticall as well as the Civill goverment, +made a greate impression upon his understandinge (for his nature was +never corrupted but remayned still in its integrity) and made him +believe, that the Courte was inclined to hurte and even to destroy the +country, and from particular instances to make generall and daungerous +conclusions. They who had bene alwayes enimyes to the Church, +prævayled with him to lessen his reverence for it, and havinge not +bene well instructed to defende it, [he] yeilded to easily to those +who confidently assaulted it, and thought it had greate errors which +were necessary to be reformed, and that all meanes are lawfull to +compasse that which is necessary, wheras the true Logique is, that +the thinge desyred is not necessary, if the wayes are unlawfull which +are proposed to bringe it to passe. No man was courted with more +application by persons of all conditions and qualityes, and his +person was not lesse acceptable to those of steddy and uncorrupted +principles, then to those of depraved inclinations; and in the +end, even his piety administred some excuse to him, for his fathers +infirmityes and transgressions had so farr exposed him to the +inquisition of justice, that he found it necessary to procure the +assistance and protection of those, who were stronge enough to violate +justice itselfe, and so he adhered to those, who were best able to +defende his fathers honour, and therby to secure his owne fortune, and +concurred with them in ther most violent designes, and gave reputation +to them; and the Courte as unskilfully, tooke an occasion to soone to +make him desperate, by accusinge him of high Treason, when (though he +might be guilty enough,) he was without doubte in his intentions at +least as innocent, as any of the leadinge men; and it is some evidence +that God Almighty saw his hearte was not so malicious as the rest, +that he præserved him to the end of the confusion, when he appeared +as gladd of the Kings restoration, and had heartily wished it +longe before, and very few who had a hand in the contrivance of the +rebellion gave so manifest tokens of repentance as he did; and havinge +for many yeeres undergone the jealosy and hatred of Crumwell, as +one who abominated the murther of the Kinge, and all the barbarous +proceedings against the life of men in cold bloode, the Kinge upon his +returne receaved him into grace and favour, which he never forfeited +by any undutifull behaviour. + + + + +48. + +THE LORD SAY. + +_William Fiennes, created Viscount Say and Sele 1624._ + +_Born 1582. Died 1662._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The last of those Councillours, which were made after the +faction prævayled in Parliament, who were all made to advance an +accommodation, and who adhered to the Parliament, was the L'd Say, a +man who had the deepest hande in the originall contrivance of all the +calamityes which befell that unhappy kingdome, though he had not the +least thought of dissolvinge the Monarchy, and lesse of levellinge the +rankes and distinctions of men, for no man valewed himselfe more upon +his title, or had more ambition to make it greater, and to rayse his +fortune, which was but moderate for his title. He was of a prowde, +morose, and sullen nature, conversed much with bookes, havinge bene +bredd a scholar, and (though nobly borne) a fellow of New-Colledge in +Oxforde, to which he claymed a right, by the Allyance he prætended to +have from William of Wickam the Founder, which he made good by such +an unreasonable Pedigre through so many hundred yeeres, halfe the tyme +wherof extinguishes all relation of kinred, however upon that pretence +that Colledge hath bene seldome without one of that L'ds family. His +parts were not quicke, but so much above those of his owne ranke, that +he had alwayes greate creditt and authority in Parliament, and the +more for takinge all opportunityes to oppose the Courte, and had with +his milke sucked in an implacable malice against the goverment of the +Church. When the Duke of Buckingham proposed to himselfe after his +returne with the Prince from Spayne, to make himselfe popular, by +breakinge that match, and to be gratious with the Parliament, as for +a shorte tyme he was, he resolved to imbrace the frendshipp of the +L'd Say, who was as sollicitous to climbe by that ladder, but the Duke +quickly founde him of to imperious and pedanticall a spiritt, and to +affecte to daungerous mutations, and so cast him off; and from that +tyme, he gave over any pursuite in Courte, and lived narrowly and +sordidly in the country, havinge conversation with very few, but such +who had greate malignity against the church and State, and fomented +ther inclinations and gave them instructions how to behave themselfes +with caution and to do ther businesse with most security, and was in +truth the Pylott that steered all those vessells which were fraighted +with sedition to destroy the goverment. He founde alwayes some way to +make professions of duty to the Kinge and made severall undertakings +to do greate services, which he could not, or would not make good, and +made hast to possesse himselfe of any præferment he could compasse, +whilst his frends were content to attende a more proper conjuncture, +so he gott the Mastershipp of the Wards shortly after the beginninge +of the Parliament, and was as sollicitous to be Treasurer, after the +death of the Earle of Bedforde, and if he could have satisfyed his +rancour in any degree against the Church, he would have bene ready to +have carryed the Prærogative as high as ever it was. When he thought +ther was mischieve enough done, he would have stopped the current and +have deverted farther fury, but he then founde he had only authority +and creditt to do hurte, none to heale the wounds he had given; and +fell into as much contempt with those whome he had ledde, as he was +with those whome he had undone. + + + + +49. + +JOHN SELDEN. + +_Born 1584. Died 1654._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +M'r Selden, was a person whome no character can flatter, or transmitt +in any exspressions æquall to his meritt and virtue. He was of so +stupendious learninge in all kindes, and in all languages, (as may +appeare in his excellent and transcendent writings) that a man would +have thought, he had bene intirely conversant amongst bookes, and had +never spent an howre, but in readinge and writinge, yett his humanity, +courtesy and affability was such, that he would have bene thought +to have bene bredd in the best courtes, but that his good nature, +charity, and delight in doinge good, and in communicatinge all he +knew, exceeded that breedinge. His style in all his writings seemes +harsh and sometymes obscure, which is not wholy to be imputed to the +abstruse subjects, of which he commonly treated, out of the pathes +trodd by other men, but to a little undervalewinge the beauty of a +style, and to much propensity to the language of antiquity, but in his +conversation the most cleere discourcer, and had the best faculty, in +makinge hard things, easy, and præsentinge them to the understandinge, +of any man, that hath bene knowne. M'r Hyde was wonte to say, that he +valewed himselfe upon nothinge more, then upon havinge had M'r Seldence +acquaintance, from the tyme he was very young, and held it with greate +delight, as longe as they were suffred to continue togither in London, +and he was very much troubled alwayes, when he hearde him blamed, +censured and reproched, for stayinge in London, and in the Parliament +after they were in rebellion, and in the worst tymes, which his age +oblieged him to doe; and how wicked soever the actions were which were +every day done, he was confident he had not given his consent to them, +but would have hindred them if he could, with his owne safety, to +which he was alwayes enough indulgent: if he had some infirmityes with +other men, they were waighed downe with wounderfull and prodigious +abilityes and excellencyes in the other skale. + + + + +50. + +JOHN EARLE. + +_Author of 'Micro-cosmographie' 1628. Bishop of Worcester 1662, and of +Salisbury 1663._ + +_Born 1601. Died 1665._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +D'r Earles was at that tyme Chaplyne in the house to the Earle of +Pembroke, L'd Chamberlyne of his Majestys household, and had a +lodginge in the courte under that relation. He was a person very +notable for his elegance in the Greeke and Latine tounges, and beinge +fellow of Merton Colledge in Oxforde, and havinge bene Proctour of the +University, and some very witty and sharpe discourses beinge published +in print without his consent, though knowne to be his, he grew +suddaynely into a very generall esteem with all men, being a man of +greate piety and devotion, a most eloquent and powerfull preacher, and +of a conversation so pleasant and delightfull, so very innocent, and +so very facetious, that no mans company was more desyred, and more +loved. No man was more negligent in his dresse, and habitt, and +meene, no man more wary and cultivated in his behaviour and discourse, +insomuch as he had the greater advantage when he was knowne, by +promisinge so little before he was knowen. He was an excellent Poett +both in Latine, Greeke, and English, as appeares by many pieces +yett abroade, though he suppressed many more himselfe, especially of +English, incomparably good, out of an austerity to those sallyes of +his youth. He was very deere to the L'd Falkelande, with whome he +spent as much tyme as he could make his owne, and as that Lord would +impute the speedy progresse he made in the Greeke tounge, to the +information and assistance he had from M'r Earles, so M'r Earles would +frequently professe that he had gott more usefull learninge by his +conversation at Tew (the L'd Falkelands house) then he had at Oxforde. +In the first setlinge of the Prince his family, he was made on of +his Chaplynes, and attended on him when he was forced to leave the +kingdome, and therfore we shall often have occasyon to mention him +heareafter. He was amongst the few excellent men, who never had, +nor ever could have an enimy, but such a one who was an enimy to all +learninge and virtue, and therfore would never make himselfe knowne. + + + + +51. + +JOHN HALES. + +'_The Ever Memorable Mr. John Hales, of Eaton-Colledge._' + +_Born 1584. Died 1656._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +M'r John Hales, had bene Greeke Professor in the University of +Oxforde, and had borne all[1] the labour of that excellent edition and +impressyon of S't Chrisostomes workes, sett out by S'r Harry Savill, +who was then Warden of Merton Colledge, when the other was fellow +of that house. He was Chaplyne in the house with S'r Dudly Carleton +Ambassador at the Hague in Hollande, at the tyme when the Synod of +Dorte was held, and so had liberty to be present at the consultations +in that assembly, and hath left the best memoriall behinde him, of the +ignorance and passyon and animosity and injustice of that Convention, +of which he often made very pleasant relations, though at that tyme +it receaved to much countenance from Englande. Beinge a person of the +greatest eminency for learninge and other abilityes, from which he +might have promised himselfe any preferment in the Church, he withdrew +himselfe from all pursuites of that kinde into a private fellowshipp +in the Colledge of Eton, wher his frende S'r Harry Savill was Provost, +wher he lyved amongst his bookes, and the most separated from the +worlde of any man then livinge, though he was not in the least degree +inclined to melancholique, but on the contrary of a very open and +pleasant conversation, and therfore was very well pleased with the +resorte of his frends to him, who were such as he had chosen, and in +whose company he delighted, and for whose sake he would sometymes, +once in a yeere, resorte to London, only to injoy ther cheerefull +conversation. + +He would never take any cure of soules, and was so great a contemner +of mony, that he was wonte to say that his fellowshipp, and the +Bursers place (which for the good of the Colledge he held many yeeres) +was worth him fifty poundes a yeere more then he could spende, and +yett besydes his beinge very charitable to all poore people, even to +liberality, he had made a greater and better collection of bookes, +then were to be founde in any other private library, that I have +seene, as he had sure reade more, and carryed more about him, in his +excellent memory, then any man I ever knew, my L'd Falkelande only +excepted, who I thinke syded him. He had, whether from his naturall +temper and constitution, or from his longe retyrement from all +Crowdes, or from his profounde judgement and decerninge spiritt, +contracted some opinions, which were not receaved, nor by him +published, except in private discources, and then rather upon occasion +of dispute, than of positive opinion; and he would often say, his +opinions he was sure did him no harme, but he was farr from beinge +confident, that they might not do others harme, who entertained +them, and might entertayne other resultes from them then he did, +and therfore he was very reserved in communicatinge what he thought +himselfe in those points, in which he differed from what was receaved. + +Nothinge troubled him more, then the brawles which were growne from +religion, and he therfore exceedingly detested the tyranny of +the church of Rome, more for ther imposinge uncharitably upon the +consciences of other men, then for ther errors in ther owne opinions, +and would often say, that he would renounce the religion of the church +of Englande tomorrow if it oblieged him to believe that any other +Christians should be damned: and that no body would conclude another +man to be damned, who did not wish him so: No man more stricte and +seveare to himselfe, to other men so charitable as to ther opinions, +that he thought that other men were more in faulte, for ther carriage +towards them, then the men themselves were who erred: and he thought +that pryde and passyon more then conscience were the cause of all +separation from each others communion, and he frequently sayd, that +that only kept the world from agreeinge upon such a Lyturgy, as might +bringe them into one communion, all doctrinall points upon which men +differed in ther opinions, beinge to have no place in any Liturgye. +Upon an occasionall discource with a frende of the frequent and +uncharitable reproches of Heretique and Schismatique to lightly +throwne at each other amongst men who differr in ther judgement, +he writt a little discource of Schisme, contayned in lesse then two +sheetes of paper, which beinge transmitted from frende to frende in +writing, was at last without any malice brought to the view of the +Arch-Bishopp of Canterbury Dr. Lawde, who was a very rigid survayour +of all thinges which never so little bordred upon Schisme, and thought +the Church could not be to vigilant against, and jealous of such +incursyons. He sent for M'r Hales, whome when they had both lived in +the University of Oxforde he had knowne well, and told him that he +had in truth believed him to be longe since dead, and chidd him +very kindly, for havinge never come to him, havinge bene of his old +acquaintance, then asked him whether he had lately writt a shorte +discource of Schisme, and whether he was of that opinion which that +discource implyed; he told him, that he had for the satisfaction of a +private frende (who was not of his minde) a yeere or two before, +writt such a small tracte, without any imagination that it would be +communicated, and that he believed it did not contayne any thinge that +was not agreable to the judgement of the primitive fathers; upon which +the Arch-Bishopp debated with him upon some exspressions of Irenæus, +and the most auntient fathers, and concluded with sayinge that the +tyme was very apt to sett new doctrynes on foote, of which the witts +of the Age were to susceptable, and that ther could not be to much +care taken to præserve the peace and unity of the Church, and from +thence asked him of his condition, and whether he wanted any thinge, +and the other answeringe that he had enough, and wanted nor desyred no +addition: and so dismissed him with greate courtesy, and shortly after +sent for him agayne, when ther was a Præbendary of Windsor fallen, +and told him the Kinge had given him that præferment because it lay so +convenient to his fellowshipp of Eton, which (though indeede the +most convenient præferment that could be thought of for him) the +Arch-Bishopp could not without greate difficulty perswade him to +accept, and he did accepte it rather to please him, then himselfe, +because he really believed he had enough before. He was one of the +least men in the kingdome, and one of the greatest schollers in +Europe. + +[Footnote 1: 'the greatest part of' in place of 'all' in another hand +in MS.] + + + + +52. + +WILLIAM CHILLINGWORTH. + +_Author of 'The Religion of Protestants,' 1638._ + +_Born 1602. Died 1644._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +M'r Chillingworth, was of a stature little superiour to M'r Hales (and +it was an Age in which ther were many greate and wounderfull men of +that size) and a man of so grea[te] a subtlety of understandinge, and +so rare a temper in debate, that as it was impossible to provoke him +into any passyon, so it was very difficulte to keepe a mans selfe +from beinge a little discomposed by his sharpnesse and quicknesse of +argument and instances, in which he had a rare facility, and a greate +advantage over all the men I ever knew. He had spent all his younger +tyme in disputation, and had arryved to so greate a mastery, as he was +inferior to no man in those skirmishes: but he had with his notable +perfection in this exercise, contracted such an irresolution and habit +of doubtinge, that by degrees he grew confident of nothinge, and a +schepticke at least in the greatest misteryes of fayth; This made +him from first waveringe in religion and indulginge to scruples, to +reconcile himselfe to soone and to easily to the Church of Rome, and +carryinge still his owne inquisitivenesse aboute him, without any +resignation to ther authority (which is the only temper can make +that Church sure of its Proselites) havinge made a journy to S't Omers +purely to perfecte his conversion by the conversation of those who had +the greatest name, he founde as little satisfaction ther, and returned +with as much hast from them, with a beliefe that an intire exemption +from error was nether inherent in, nor necessary to, any Church; which +occasioned that warr which was carryed on by the Jesuitts with so +greate asperity and reproches against him, and in which he defended +himselfe by such an admirable eloquence of language, and the cleere +and incomparable power of reason, that he not only made them appeare +unæquall adversaryes, but carryed the warr into ther owne quarters, +and made the Popes infallibility to be as much shaken and declyned by +ther owne Doctors, and as greate an acrimony amon[g]st themselves upon +that subjecte, and to be at least as much doubted as in the schooles +of the Reformed or Protestant, and forced them since to defende and +maintayne those unhappy contraversyes in religion, with armes and +weopons of another nature, then were used or knowne in the Church of +Rome when Bellarmyne dyed: and which probably will in tyme undermyne +the very foundation that supportes it. + +Such a levity and propensity to change, is commonly attended with +greate infirmityes in, and no lesse reproch and præjudice to the +person, but the sincerity of his hearte was so conspicuous, and +without the least temptation of any corrupt end, and the innocence and +candour of his nature so evident and without any perversenesse, that +all who knew him cleerely decerned, that all those restlesse motions +and fluctuation proceeded only from the warmth and jealosy of his owne +thoughts, in a to nice inquisition for truth: nether the bookes of +the Adversary, nor any of ther persons, though he was acquainted with +the best of both, had ever made greate impression upon him, all his +doubles grew out of himselfe, when he assisted his scruples with all +the strenght of his owne reason, and was then to hard for himselfe; +but findinge as little quyett and repose in those victoryes, he +quickly recover'd by a new appeale to his owne judgement, so that he +was in truth upon the matter in all his Sallyes and retreits his owne +converte, though he was not so totally devested of all thoughts of +this worlde, but that when he was ready for it he admitted some greate +and considerable Churchmen to be sharers with him, in his publique +conversion. Whilst he was in perplexity, or rather some passionate +disinclination to the religion he had bene educated in, he had the +misfortune to have much acquaintance with one M'r Lugar a minister of +that church, a man of a competency of learninge in those points most +contravened with the Romanists, but of no acute parts of witt or +judgement, and wrought so farr upon him, by weakeninge and enervating +those arguments by which he founde he was governed (as he had all the +logique and all the Rhetorique that was necessary to perswade very +powerfully men of the greatest talents) that the poore man, not able +to lyve longe in doubte, to hastily deserted his owne church, and +betooke himselfe to the Roman, nor could all the arguments and reasons +of M'r Chillingworth make him pawse in the exspedition he was usinge, +or reduce him from that Church after he had given himselfe to it, but +had alwayes a greate animosity against him, for havinge (as he sayd) +unkindly betrayed him, and carryed him into another religion, and +ther left him: So unfitt are some constitutions to be troubled with +doubtes, after they are once fixed. + +He did really believe all warr to be unlawfull, and did not thinke +that the Parliament (whose proceedings he perfectly abhorred) did +intruth intende to involve the nation in a civill warr, till after the +battell of Edgehill, and then he thought any exspedient or stratagemm +that was like to putt a speedy ende to it, to be the most commendable; +and so havinge to mathematically conceaved an Engyne that should moove +so lightly, as to be a brest-worke in all incounters and assaultes in +the feilde, he carryed it to make the exsperiment into that parte of +his Majestys army, which was only in that winter season in the Feilde, +under the commaunde of the L'd Hopton in Hampshyre upon the borders +of Sussex, wher he was shutt up in the Castle of Arrundell, which was +forced after a shorte, sharpe seige, to yeild for want of victuall, +and poore M'r Chillingworth with it fallinge into the Rebells hands, +and beinge most barbarously treated by them, especially by that Clargy +which followed them, and beinge broken with sicknesse contracted by +the ill accommadation and wante of meate and fyre duringe the seige, +which was in a terrible season of frost and snow, he dyed shortly +after in pryson. He was a man of excellent parts, and of a cheerefull +disposition, voyde of all kinde of vice, and indewed with many notable +virtues, of a very publique hearte, and an indefatigable desyre to do +good; his only unhappinesse proceeded from his sleepinge to little, +and thinkinge to much, which sometymes threw him into violent feavers. + + + + +53. + +EDMUND WALLER. + +_Born 1606. Died 1687._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Edmund Waller, was borne to a very fayre estate, by the parsimony +or frugality of a wise father and mother, and he thought it so +commendable an advantage, that he resolved to improove it with his +utmost care, upon which in his nature he was to much intent; and in +order to that he was so much reserved and retyred, that he was scarce +ever hearde of, till by his addresse and dexterity, he had gotten +a very rich wife in the Citty, against all the recommendation, and +countenance, and authority of the Courte, which was throughly ingaged +on the behalfe of M'r Crofts, and which used to be succesfull in +that age, against any opposition. He had the good fortune to have an +allyance and frendshipp with D'r Morly, who had assisted and instructed +him in the readinge many good bookes, to which his naturall parts and +promptitude inclined him, especially the poetts, and at the age when +other men used to give over writinge verses (for he was neere thirty +yeeres of age when he first ingaged himselfe in that exercize, at +least that he was knowen to do soe) he surpryzed the towne with two or +three pieces of that kinde, as if a tenth muse had bene newly borne, +to cherish droopinge poetry: the Doctor at that tyme brought him into +that company which was most celebrated for good conversation, wher he +was receaved and esteemed with greate applause and respecte. He was +a very pleasant discourcer in earnest and in jest, and therfore very +gratefull to all kinde of company, wher he was not the lesse esteemed, +for beinge very rich. He had bene even nurced in Parliaments, wher he +sate when he was very young,[1] and so when they were resumed agayne +(after a longe intermission,[2]) he appeared in those assemblyes +with greate advantage, havinge a gracefull way of speakinge, and +by thinkinge much upon severall arguments (which his temper and +complexion that had much of melancholique inclined him to) he +seemed often to speake upon the suddayne, when the occasyon had +only administred the opportunity of sayinge what he had throughly +considered, which gave a greate lustre to all he sayde; which yett was +rather of delight, then wayte. Ther needes no more be sayd to extoll +the excellence and power of his witt, and pleasantnesse of his +conversation, then that it was of magnitude enough to cover a world of +very greate faultes, that is so cover them, that they were not taken +notice of to his reproch, a narrownesse in his nature to the louest +degree, an abjectnesse and want of courage to supporte him in any +virtuous undertakinge, an insinuation and servile flattery to the +height the vaynest and most imperious nature could be contented with: +that it præserved and woone his life from those who were most +resolved to take it, and in an occasyon in which he ought to have +bene ambitious to have lost it, and then præserved him agayne from the +reproch and contempt that was dew to him for so præservinge it, and +for vindicatinge it at such a pryce: that it had power to reconcile +him to those whome he had most offended and provoked, and continued to +his age with that rare felicity, that his company was acceptable, wher +his spirit was odious, and he was at least pittyed, wher he was most +detested. + +[Footnote 1: 'in his infancy' struck out in MS. before 'very young'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'and interdiction' struck out in MS. after +'intermission'.] + + + + +54. + +THOMAS HOBBES. + +_Born 1588. Died 1679._ + +By CLARENDON. + +(On Hobbes's _Leviathan_.) + + +I have proposed to my self, to make some Animadversions upon such +particulars, as may in my judgment produce much mischief in the World, +in a Book of great Name, and which is entertain'd and celebrated (at +least enough) in the World; a Book which contains in it good learning +of all kinds, politely extracted, and very wittily and cunningly +disgested, in a very commendable method, and in a vigorous and +pleasant Style: which hath prevailed over too many, to swallow many +new tenets as maximes without chewing; which manner of diet for +the indigestion M'r _Hobbes_ himself doth much dislike. The thorough +novelty (to which the present age, if ever any, is too much inclin'd) +of the work receives great credit and authority from the known Name +of the Author, a Man of excellent parts, of great wit, some reading, +and somewhat more thinking; One who ha's spent many years in forreign +parts and observation, understands the Learned as well as modern +Languages, hath long had the reputation of a great Philosopher and +Mathematician, and in his age hath had conversation with very many +worthy and extraordinary Men, to which, it may be, if he had bin more +indulgent in the more vigorous part of his life, it might have had +a greater influence upon the temper of his mind, whereas age seldom +submits to those questions, enquiries, and contradictions, which the +Laws and liberty of conversation require: and it hath bin alwaies a +lamentation amongst M'r _Hobbes_ his Friends, that he spent too much +time in thinking, and too little in exercising those thoughts in +the company of other Men of the same, or of as good faculties; for +want whereof his natural constitution, with age, contracted such a +morosity, that doubting and contradicting Men were never grateful to +him: In a word, M'r _Hobbes_ is one of the most antient acquaintance I +have in the World, and of whom I have alwaies had a great esteem, as +a Man who besides his eminent parts of Learning and knowledg, hath bin +alwaies looked upon as a Man of Probity, and a life free from scandal; +and it may be there are few Men now alive, who have bin longer +known to him then I have bin in a fair and friendly conversation and +sociableness. + + + + +55. + +Notes by JOHN AUBREY. + + +I have heard his brother Edm and M'r Wayte his schoole fellow &c, say +that when he was a Boy he was playsome enough: but withall he had even +then a contemplative Melancholinesse. he would gett him into a corner, +and learne his Lesson by heart presently. His haire was black, & his +schoolefellows[1] were wont to call him Crowe. + +[Footnote 1: 'his schoolefellows' written above 'the boyes'.] + + * * * * * + +The Lord Chancellour Bacon loved to converse with him. He assisted his +Lo'p: in translating severall of his Essayes into Latin, one I well +remember is[1] that, _of the Greatnes of Cities_. the rest I have +forgott. His Lo'p: was a very Contemplative person, and was wont to +contemplate in his delicious walkes at Gorambery, and dictate to M'r +Thomas Bushell or some other of his Gentlemen, that attended him +with inke & paper ready, to sett downe presently his thoughts. His +Lo'p: would often say that he better liked M'r Hobbes's taking his +Notions[2], then any of the other, because he understood what he +wrote; which the others not understanding my Lord would many times +have a hard taske to make sense of what they writt. + +[Footnote 1: 'is' above 'was'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Notions' above 'thoughts'.] + +It is to be remembred that about these times, M'r T.H. was much +addicted to Musique, and practised on the Base-Violl. + + * * * * * + +... LEVIATHAN, the manner of writing of which Booke (he told me) was +thus. He walked much and contemplated, and he had in the head of his +staffe[1] a pen and inkehorne; carried alwayes a Note-booke in his +pocket, and as soon as a though[t][2] darted, he presently entred it +into his Booke, or otherwise[3] he might perhaps[4] have lost it. He +had drawne the Designe of the Booke into Chapters &c; so he knew where +about it would come in. Thus that Booke was made. + +[Footnote 1: 'staffe' above 'Cane'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'though' above 'notion'.] + +[Footnote 3: 'otherwise' above 'els'.] + +[Footnote 4: 'might perhaps' above 'should'.] + + * * * * * + +He was marvellous happy and ready in his replies; and Replies that +without rancor, (except provoked). but now I speake of his readinesse +in replies as to witt & drollery, he would say that, he did not care +to give, neither was he adroit[1] at a present answer to a serious +quaere; he had as lieve they should have expected a[n] extemporary +solution[2] to an Arithmeticall probleme, for he turned and _winded_ +& compounded in philosophy, politiques &c. as if he had been at +Analyticall[3] worke. he alwayes avoided as much as he could, to +conclude hastily. + +[Footnote 1: 'adroit' above 'good'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'extemporary' above 'present', 'solution' in place of +'answer'.] + +[Footnote 3: 'Analyticall' above 'Mathematicall'.] + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: His manner[1] of thinking] + +He sayd that he sometimes would sett his thoughts upon researching and +contemplating, always with this Rule[2], that he very much & deeply +considered one thing at a time. Sc. a weeke, or sometimes a fortnight. + +[Footnote 1: 'manner' above 'way'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Rule: Observation' above 'proviso'.] + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Head] + +In his old age he was very bald[1], which claymed a veneration; yet +within dore he used to study, and sitt bare-headed: and sayd he never +tooke cold in his head but that the greatest trouble was to keepe-off +the Flies from pitching on the baldnes: his Head was ... inches (I +have the measure) in compasse, and of a mallet forme, approved by the +Physiologers. + +[Footnote 1: 'recalvus' above 'very bald'.] + +[Sidenote: Eie] + +He had a good Eie, and that of a hazell colour, which was full of life +& spirit, even to his last: when he was earnest, in discourse, there +shone (as it were) a bright live-coale within it. he had two kind +of Lookes: when he laught, was witty, & in a merry humour, one could +scarce see his Eies: by and by when he was serious and earnest[1], he +open'd his eies round (i.) his eielids. he had midling eies, not very +big, nor very little. + +[Footnote 1: 'earnest' above 'positive'.] + +[Sidenote: Stature] + +He was six foote high and something better, and went indifferently +erect; or, rather considering his great age, very erect. + +[Sidenote: Sight Witt] + +His Sight & Witt continued to his last. He had a curious sharp sight, +as he had a sharpe Witt; which was also so sure and steady, (and +contrary to that men call Brodwittednes,) that I have heard him +oftentimes say, that in Multiplying & Dividing he never mistooke a +figure[1]: and so, in other things. He thought much & with excellent +Method, & Stedinesse, which made him seldome make a false step. + +[Footnote 1: 'never ... figure' above 'was never out' ('out' corrected +to 'mistooke').] + +[Sidenote: Reading] + +He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his +Contemplation was much more then his Reading. He was wont to say that, +if he _had read as much as other men, he should have knowne no more +then[1] other men_. + +[Footnote 1: 'knowne ... then' above 'continued still as ignorant +as'.] + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Singing] + +He had alwayes bookes of prick-song lyeing on his Table: e.g. of H. +Lawes &c. Songs: which at night when he was a bed, & the dores made +fast, & was sure no body heard him, he sang _aloud_, (not that he had +a very good voice) but to cleare his pipes[1]: he did beleeve it did +his Lunges good, & conduced much to prolong his life. + +[Footnote 1: 'to cleare his pipes' above 'for his healths sake'.] + + + + +56. + +THOMAS FULLER. + +_Born 1608. Died 1661._ + + +He was of Stature somewhat Tall, exceeding the meane, with a +proportionable bigness to become it, but no way inclining to +Corpulency: of an exact Straightnesse of the whole Body, and a perfect +Symmetry in every part thereof. He was of a Sanguine constitution, +which beautified his Face with a pleasant Ruddinesse, but of so +Grave and serious an aspect, that it Awed and Discountenanced the +smiling Attracts of that complexion. His Head Adorned with a comely +Light-Coloured Haire, which was so, by Nature exactly Curled (an +Ornament enough of it self in this Age to Denominate a handsome +person, and wherefore all Skill and Art is used) but not suffered to +overgrow to any length unseeming his modesty and Profession. + +His Gate and Walking was very upright and graceful, becoming his well +shapen Bulke: approaching something near to that we terme Majesticall; +but that the Doctor was so well known to be void of any affectation or +pride. Nay so Regardlesse was he of himselfe in his Garb and Rayment, +in which no doubt his Vanity would have appeared, as well as in his +stately pace: that it was with some trouble to himselfe, to be either +Neat or Decent; it matter'd not for the outside, while he thought +himself never too Curious and Nice in the Dresses of his mind. + +Very Carelesse also he was to seeming inurbanity in the modes of +Courtship and demeanour, deporting himself much according to the old +_English_ Guise, which for its ease and simplicity suited very well +with the Doctor, whose time was designed for more Elaborate businesse: +and whose MOTTO might have been sincerity. + +As inobservant he was of persons, unless businesse with them, or his +concerns pointed them out and adverted him; seeing and discerning were +two things: often in several places, hath he met with Gentlemen of +his nearest and greatest Acquaintance, at a full rencounter and stop, +whom he hath endeavoured to passe by, not knowing, that is to say, +not minding of them, till rectifyed and recalled by their familiar +compellations. + +This will not (it may be presumed) and justly cannot be imputed unto +any indisposednesse and unaptnesse of his Nature, which was so far +from Rude and untractable, that it may be confidently averred, he +was the most complacent person in the Nation, as his Converse and +Writings, with such a freedome of Discourse and quick Jocundity of +style, do sufficiently evince. + +He was a perfect walking Library, and those that would finde delight +in him must turn him; he was to be diverted from his present purpose +with some urgency: and when once Unfixed and Unbent, his mind freed +from the incumbency of his Study; no Man could be more agreeable to +Civil and Serious mirth, which limits his most heightned Fancy never +transgressed. + +He had the happinesse of a very Honourable, and that very numerous +acquaintance, so that he was noway undisciplined in the Arts of +Civility; yet he continued _semper idem_, which constancy made him +alwaies acceptable to them. At his Diet he was very sparing and +temperate, but yet he allowed himself the repasts and refreshings +of two Meals a day: but no lover of Danties, or the Inventions of +Cookery: solid meats better fitting his strength of Constitution; but +from drink very much abstemious, which questionlesse was the cause +of that uninterrupted Health he enjoyed till this his First and Last +sicknesse: of which Felicity as he himself was partly the cause of by +his exactnesse in eating and drinking, so did he the more dread the +sudden infliction of any Disease, or other violence of Nature, fearing +this his care might amount to a presumption, in the Eyes of the great +Disposer of all things, and so it pleased GOD it should happen. + +But his great abstinence of all was from Sleep, and strange it was +that one of such a Fleshly and sanguine composition, could overwatch +so many heavy propense inclinations to Rest. For this in some sort +he was beholden to his care in Diet aforesaid, (the full Vapours of +a repletion in the Stomack ascending to the Brain, causing that usual +Drowsinesse we see in many) but most especially to his continual +custome, use, and practise, which had so subdued his Nature, that it +was wholy Governed by his Active and Industrious mind. + +And yet this is a further wonder: he did scarcely allow himself, from +his First Degree in the University, any Recreation or Easie Exercise, +no not so much as walking, but very Rare and Seldome; and that not +upon his own choice, but as being compelled by friendly, yet, Forcible +Invitations; till such time as the War posted him from place to place, +and after that his constant attendance on the Presse in the Edition +of his Books: when was a question, which went the fastest, his Head or +his Feet: so that in effect he was a very stranger, if not an Enemy to +all pleasure. + +Riding was the most pleasant, because his necessary convenience; the +Doctors occasions, especially his last work, requiring Travel, to +which he had so accustomed himself: so that this Diversion, (like +Princes Banquets only to be lookt upon by them, not tasted of) was +rather made such then enjoyed by him. + +So that if there were any Felicity or Delight, which he can be truly +said to have had: it was either in his Relations or in his Works. As +to his Relations, certainly, no man was more a tender, more indulgent +a Husband and a Father: his Conjugal Love in both matches being +equally blest with the same Issue, kept a constant Tenour in both +Marriages, which he so improved, that the Harmony of his Affections +still'd all Discord, and Charmed the noyse of passion. + +Towards the Education of his Children, he was exceeding carefull, +allowing them any thing conducing to that end, beyond the present +measure of his estate; which its well hoped will be returned to the +Memory of so good a Father, in their early imitation of him in all +those good Qualities and Literature, to which they have now such an +Hereditary clayme. + +As to his Books, which we usually call the Issue of the Brain, he was +more then Fond, totally abandoning and forsaking all things to follow +them. And yet if Correction and Severity (so this may be allowed the +gravity of the Subject) be also the signes of Love: a stricter and +more carefull hand was never used. True it is they did not grow up +without some errours, like the Tares: nor can the most refined pieces +of any of his Antagonists boast of perfection. He that goes an unknown +and beaten Track in a Dubious way, though he may have good directions, +yet if in the journey he chance to stray, cannot well be blamed; they +have perchance plowed with his Heifer, and been beholden to those +Authorities (for their Exceptions) which he first gave light to. + +To his Neighbours and Friends he behaved himselfe with that +chearfulnesse and plainnesse of Affection and respect, as deservedly +gained him their Highest esteeme: from the meanest to the highest +he omitted nothing what to him belonged in his station, either in +a familiar correspondency, or necessary Visits; never suffering +intreaties of that which either was his Duty, or in his power to +perform. The quickness of his apprehension helped by a Good Nature, +presently suggested unto him (without putting them to the trouble of +an _innuendo_) what their severall Affairs required, in which he would +spare no paynes: insomuch that it was a piece of Absolute Prudence +to rely upon his Advice and Assistance. In a word, to his Superiours +he was Dutifully respectfull without Ceremony or Officiousnesse; +to his equalls he was Discreetly respectful, without neglect or +unsociableness; and to his Inferiours, (whom indeed he judged +Christianly none to be) civilly respectfull without Pride or Disdain. + +But all these so eminent vertues, and so sublimed in him, were but +as foyles to those excellent gifts wherewith God had endued his +intellectuals. He had a Memory of that vast comprehensiveness, that he +is deservedly known for the first inventer of that Noble Art, whereof +having left behind him no Rules, or directions, save, onely what fell +from him in discours, no further account can be given, but a relation +of some very rare experiments of it made by him. + +He undertook once in passing to and fro from _Templebar_ to the +furthest Conduit in _Cheapside_, at his return again to tell every +Signe as they stood in order on both sides of the way, repeating them +either backward or forward, as they should chuse, which he exactly +did, not missing or misplacing one, to the admiration of those that +heard him. + +The like also would he doe in words of different Languages, and of +hard and difficult prolation, to any number whatsoever: but that which +was most strange, and very rare in him, was his way of writing, which +something like the _Chineses_, was from the top of the page to the +bottom: the manner thus. He would write near the Margin the first +words of every Line down to the Foot of the Paper, then would he +begining at the head againe, fill up every one of these Lines, which +without any interlineations or spaces but with the full and equal +length, would so adjust the sense and matter, and so aptly Connex and +Conjoyn the ends and beginnings of the said Lines, that he could +not do it better, as he hath said, if he had writ all out in a +Continuation. + + + + +57. + +JOHN MILTON. + +_Born 1608. Died 1674._ + +Notes by JOHN AUBREY. + + +He was of middle stature,[1] he had light abroun[2] hayre, his +complexion exceeding[3] faire. he was so faire, that they called him +the Lady of Christs college. ovall face. his eie a darke gray.... he +was a Spare man. + +[Footnote 1: Aubrey wrote first 'He was scarce so tall as I am'; then +added above the last six words, 'q[uaere] quot feet I am high'; and +then above this 'Resp: of middle stature'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'abroun' (i.e. auburn) written above 'browne'.] + +[Footnote 3: 'exceeding' above 'very'.] + + * * * * * + +He was an early riser: Sc: at 4 a clock manè. yea, after he lost +his sight: He had a man read to him: The first thing he read was the +Hebrew bible, and that was at 4'h. manè 1/2'h.+. Then he contemplated. +At 7 his man came to him again & then read to him and wrote till +dinner: the writing was as much as the reading. His daughter Deborah +2[1] could read to him Latin, Italian, & French, & Greeke; married in +Dublin to one M'r Clarke [sells silke &c[2]] very like her father. The +other sister is Mary 1[1], more like her mother. After dinner he usd +to walke 3 or 4 houres at a time, he alwayes had a Garden where he +lived: went to bed about 9. Temperate, rarely drank between meales. +Extreme pleasant in his conversation, & at dinner, supper &c: but +Satyricall. He pronounced the letter R very hard. a certaine signe of +a Satyricall Witt. from Jo. Dreyden. + +[Footnote 1: '2' and '1', marking seniority, above the names.] + +[Footnote 2: 'sells silke &c' above 'a Mercer'.] + +[Sidenote: Litera Canina.] + +He had a delicate tuneable Voice & had good skill: his father +instructed him: he had an Organ in his house: he played on that most. +His exercise was chiefly walking. + +He was visited much by learned[1]: more then he did desire. + +[Footnote 1: 'by learned' added above the line.] + +He was mightily importuned to goe into France & Italie. Foraigners +came much to see him, and much admired him, & offered to him great +preferments to come over to them, & the only inducement of severall +foreigners that came over into England, was chifly to see O. Protector +& M'r J. Milton, and would see _the house and chamber_ wher _he_ was +borne: he was much more admired abrode then at home. + + * * * * * + +His harmonicall, and ingeniose soule did lodge[1] in a beautifull and +well proportioned body--In toto nusquam corpore menda fuit. Ovid. + +[Footnote 1: 'did lodge' above 'dwelt'.] + +He had a very good memory: but I believe that his excellent Method of +thinking, & disposing did much helpe his memorie. + + * * * * * + +Of a very cheerfull humour. + +He was very healthy, & free from all diseases, seldome tooke any +Physique, only sometimes he tooke Manna[1], and only towards his +later end he was visited with the Gowte--Spring & Fall: he would be +chearfull even in his Gowte-fitts: & sing. + +[Footnote 1: 'seldome ... Manna' added above the line.] + +He died of the gowt struck in the 9th or 10th of Novemb 1674, as +appeares by his Apothecaryes Booke. + + +58. + +Note by EDWARD PHILLIPS. + + +There is another very remarkable Passage in the Composure of this Poem +[_Paradise Lost_], which I have a particular occasion to remember; +for whereas I had the perusal of it from the very beginning; for some +years as I went from time to time to Visit him, in a Parcel of Ten, +Twenty, or Thirty Verses at a Time, which being Written by whatever +hand came next, might possibly want Correction as to the Orthography +and Pointing; having as the Summer came on, not been shewed any for +a considerable while, and desiring the reason thereof, was answered, +That his Veine never happily flow'd, but from the _Autumnal +Equinoctial_ to the _Vernal_, and that whatever he attempted was never +to his satisfaction, though he courted his fancy never so much; so +that in all the years he was about this Poem, he may be said to have +spent but half his time therein. + + + + +59. + +Notes by JONATHAN RICHARDSON. + + +One that had Often seen him, told me he us'd to come to a House where +He Liv'd, and he has also Met him in the Street, Led by _Millington_, +the same who was so Famous an Auctioneer of Books about the time of +the Revolution, and Since. This Man was then a Seller of Old Books +in _Little Britain_, and _Milton_ lodg'd at his house. This was 3 +or 4 Years before he Dy'd. he then wore no Sword that My Informer +remembers, though Probably he did, at least 'twas his Custom not long +before to wear one with a Small Silver-Hilt, and in Cold Weather a +Grey Camblet Coat.... + +I have heard many Years Since that he Us'd to Sit in a Grey Coarse +Cloth Coat at the Door of his House, near _Bun-hill_ Fields Without +_Moor-gate_, in Warm Sunny Weather to Enjoy the Fresh Air, and So, as +well as in his Room, receiv'd the Visits of People of Distinguished +Parts, as well as Quality, and very Lately I had the Good Fortune +to have Another Picture of him from an Ancient Clergyman in +_Dorsetshire_, Dr. _Wright_; He found him in a Small House, he thinks +but One Room on a Floor; in That, up One pair of Stairs, which was +hung with a Rusty Green, he found _John Milton_, Sitting in an Elbow +Chair, Black Cloaths, and Neat enough, Pale, but not Cadaverous, his +Hands and Fingers Gouty, and with Chalk Stones. among Other Discourse +He exprest Himself to This Purpose; that was he Free from the Pain +This gave him, his Blindness would be Tolerable. + + * * * * * + +... besides what Affliction he Must have from his Disappointment on +the Change of the Times, and from his Own Private Losses, and probably +Cares for Subsistence, and for his Family; he was in Perpetual Terror +of being Assassinated, though he had Escap'd the Talons of the Law, he +knew he had Made Himself Enemies in Abundance. he was So Dejected he +would lie Awake whole Nights. He then kept Himself as Private as he +could. This Dr. _Tancred Robinson_ had from a Relation of _Milton's_, +Mr. _Walker_ of the Temple. and This is what is Intimated by Himself, +VII. 26. + + _On Evil Daies though fall'n and Evil Tongues, in Darkness, + and with Dangers compast round, and Solitude_. + + * * * * * + +Mr. _Bendish_ has heard the Widow or Daughter or Both say it, that +Soon after the Restauration the King Offer'd to Employ this Pardon'd +Man as his Latin Secretary, the Post in which he Serv'd _Cromwell_ +with So much Integrity and Ability; (that a like Offer was made to +_Thurlow_ is not Disputed as ever I heard) _Milton_ Withstood the +Offer; the Wife press'd his Compliance. _Thou art in the Right_ (says +he) _You, as Other Women, would ride in your Coach; for Me, My Aim is +to Live and Dye an Honest Man_. + + * * * * * + +Other Stories I have heard concerning the Posture he was Usually in +when he Dictated, that he Sat leaning Backward Obliquely in an Easy +Chair, with his Leg flung over the Elbow of it. that he frequently +Compos'd lying in Bed in a Morning ('twas Winter Sure Then) I have +been Well inform'd, that when he could not Sleep, but lay Awake whole +Nights, he Try'd; not One Verse could he make; at Other times flow'd +_Easy his Unpremeditated Verse_, with a certain _Impetus_ and _Æstro_, +as Himself seem'd to Believe. Then, at what Hour soever, he rung +for his Daughter to Secure what Came. I have been also told he would +Dictate many, perhaps 40 Lines as it were in a Breath, and then reduce +them to half the Number. + + + + +60. + +ABRAHAM COWLEY. + +_Born 1618. Died 1667._ + +_Of My self._ + + +It is a hard and nice Subject for a man to write of himself, it grates +his own heart to say any thing of disparagement, and the Readers Eares +to hear any thing of praise from him. There is no danger from me +of offending him in this kind; neither my Mind, nor my Body, nor my +Fortune, allow me any materials for that Vanity. It is sufficient, for +my own contentment, that they have preserved me from being scandalous, +or remarkable on the defective side. But besides that, I shall here +speak of myself, only in relation to the subject of these precedent +discourses, and shall be likelier thereby to fall into the contempt, +then rise up to the estimation of most people. As far as my Memory +can return back into my past Life, before I knew, or was capable +of guessing what the world, or glories, or business of it were, the +natural affections of my soul gave me a secret bent of aversion +from them, as some Plants are said to turn away from others, by +an Antipathy imperceptible to themselves, and inscrutable to mans +understanding. Even when I was a very young Boy at School, instead of +running about on Holy-daies and playing with my fellows, I was wont to +steal from them, and walk into the fields, either alone with a Book, +or with some one Companion, if I could find any of the same temper. +I was then too, so much an Enemy to all constraint, that my Masters +could never prevail on me, by any perswasions or encouragements, +to learn without Book the common rules of Grammar, in which they +dispensed with me alone, because they found I made a shift to do the +usual exercise out of my own reading and observation. That I was then +of the same mind as I am now (which I confess, I wonder at my self) +may appear by the latter end of an Ode, which I made when I was but +thirteen years old, and which was then printed with many other Verses. +The Beginning of it is Boyish, but of this part which I here set down +(if a very little were corrected) I should hardly now be much ashamed. + +9. + + This only grant me, that my means may lye + Too low for Envy, for Contempt too high. + Some Honor I would have + Not from great deeds, but good alone. + The unknown are better than ill known. + Rumour can ope' the Grave, + Acquaintance I would have, but when 't depends + Not on the number, but the choice of Friends. + +10. + + Books should, not business, entertain the Light, + And sleep, as undisturb'd as Death, the Night. + My House a Cottage, more + Then Palace, and should fitting be + For all my Use, no Luxury. + My Garden painted o're + With Natures hand, not Arts; and pleasures yeild, + _Horace_ might envy in his Sabine field. + +11. + + Thus would I double my Lifes fading space, + For he that runs it well, twice runs his race. + And in this true delight, + These unbought sports, this happy State, + I would not fear nor wish my fate, + But boldly say each night, + To morrow let my Sun his beams display, + Or in clouds hide them; I have liv'd to Day. + +You may see by it, I was even then acquainted with the Poets (for the +Conclusion is taken out of _Horace_;) and perhaps it was the immature +and immoderate love of them which stampt first, or rather engraved +these Characters in me: They were like Letters cut into the Bark of +a young Tree, which with the Tree still grow proportionably. But, how +this love came to be produced in me so early, is a hard question: I +believe I can tell the particular little chance that filled my head +first with such Chimes of Verse, as have never since left ringing +there: For I remember when I began to read, and to take some pleasure +in it, there was wont to lie in my Mothers Parlour (I know not by +what accident, for she her self never in her life read any Book but of +Devotion) but there was wont to lie _Spencers_ Works; this I happened +to fall upon, and was infinitely delighted with the Stories of the +Knights, and Giants, and Monsters, and brave Houses, which I found +every where there: (Though my understanding had little to do with all +this) and by degrees with the tinckling of the Rhyme and Dance of the +Numbers, so that I think I had read him all over before I was twelve +years old, and was thus made a Poet as immediately [1] as a Child is +made an Eunuch. With these affections of mind, and my heart wholly set +upon Letters, I went to the University; But was soon torn from thence +by that violent Publick storm which would suffer nothing to stand +where it did, but rooted up every Plant, even from the Princely Cedars +to Me, the Hyssop. Yet I had as good fortune as could have befallen me +in such a Tempest; for I was cast by it into the Family of one of the +best Persons, and into the Court of one of the best Princesses of the +World. Now though I was here engaged in wayes most contrary to the +Original design of my life, that is, into much company, and no small +business, and into a daily sight of Greatness, both Militant and +Triumphant (for that was the state then of the _English_ and _French_ +Courts) yet all this was so far from altering my Opinion, that it +oncly added the confirmation of Reason to that which was before but +Natural Inclination. I saw plainly all the Paint of that kind of Life, +the nearer I came to it; and that Beauty which I did not fall in Love +with, when, for ought I knew, it was reall, was not like to bewitch, +or intice me, when I saw that it was Adulterate. I met with several +great Persons, whom I liked very well, but could not perceive that +any part of their Greatness was to be liked or desired, no more then +I would be glad, or content to be in a Storm, though I saw many Ships +which rid safely and bravely in it: A storm would not agree with my +stomach, if it did with my Courage. Though I was in a croud of as good +company as could be found any where, though I was in business of great +and honourable trust, though I eate at the best Table, and enjoyed the +best conveniences for present subsistance that ought to be desired +by a man of my condition in banishment and publick distresses, yet I +could not abstain from renewing my old School-boys Wish in a Copy of +Verses to the same effect. + + Well then; I now do plainly see + This busie World and I shall ne're agree, &c. + +And I never then proposed to my self any other advantage from His +Majesties Happy Restoration, but the getting into some moderately +convenient Retreat in the Country, which I thought in that case I +might easily have compassed, as well as some others, who[2] with +no greater probabilities or pretences have arrived to extraordinary +fortunes: But I had before written a shrewd Prophesie against my +self, and I think _Apollo_ inspired me in the Truth, though not in the +Elegance of it. + + Thou, neither great at Court nor in the War, + Nor at th' Exchange shal't be, nor at the wrangling Barr; + Content thy self with the small barren praise + Which neglected Verse does raise, &c. + +However by the failing of the Forces which I had expected, I did not +quit the Design which I had resolved on, I cast my self into it _A +Corps perdu_, without making capitulations, or taking counsel of +Fortune. But God laughs at a Man, who sayes to his Soul, _Take thy +ease_: I met presently not onely with many little encumbrances and +impediments, but with so much sickness (a new misfortune to me) as +would have spoiled the happiness of an Emperour as well as Mine: +Yet I do neither repent nor alter my course. _Non ego perfidum Dixi +Sacramentum_; Nothing shall separate me from a Mistress, which I have +loved so long, and have now at last married; though she neither has +brought me a rich Portion, nor lived yet so quietly with me as I hoped +from Her. + + --_Nec vos, dulcissima mundi + Nomina, vos Musæ, Libertas, Otia, Libri, + Hortique Syluæq; anima remanente relinquam._ + + Nor by me ere shall you, + You of all Names the sweetest, and the best, + You Muses, Books, and Liberty and Rest; + You Gardens, Fields, and Woods forsaken be, + As long as Life it self forsakes not Me. + +[Footnote 1: 'irremediably' text 1668, 'immediately' errata 1668.] + +[Footnote 2: 'who' omitted 1668, inserted 1669.] + + + + +61. + +By THOMAS SPRAT. + + +I think it fit to direct my Speech concerning him, by the same rule +by which he was wont to judge of others. In his esteem of other men, +he constantly prefer'd the good temper of their minds, and honesty +of their Actions, above all the excellencies of their Eloquence or +Knowledge. The same course I will take in his praise, which chiefly +ought to be fixed on his life. For that he deserves more applause from +the most virtuous men, than for his other abilities he ever obtained +from the Learned. + +He had indeed a perfect natural goodness, which neither the +uncertainties of his condition, nor the largeness of his wit could +pervert. He had a firmness and strength of mind, that was of proof +against the Art of Poetry it self. Nothing vain or fantastical, +nothing flattering or insolent appeared in his humour. He had a great +integrity, and plainness of Manners; which he preserv'd to the last, +though much of his time was spent in a Nation, and way of life, that +is not very famous for sincerity. But the truth of his heart was above +the corruption of ill examples: And therefore the sight of them rather +confirm'd him in the contrary Virtues. + +There was nothing affected or singular in his habit, or person, or +gesture. He understood the forms of good breeding enough to practise +them without burdening himself, or others. He never opprest any mans +parts, nor ever put any man out of countenance. He never had any +emulation for Fame, or contention for Profit with any man. When he was +in business he suffer'd others importunities with much easiness: When +he was out of it he was never importunate himself. His modesty and +humility were so great, that if he had not had many other equal +Virtues, they might have been thought dissimulation. + +His Conversation was certainly of the most excellent kind; for it was +such as was rather admired by his familiar Friends, than by Strangers +at first sight. He surpriz'd no man at first with any extraordinary +appearance: he never thrust himself violently into the good opinion of +his company. He was content to be known by leisure and by degrees: and +so the esteem that was conceiv'd of him, was better grounded and more +lasting. + +In his Speech, neither the pleasantness excluded gravity, nor was the +sobriety of it inconsistent with delight. No man parted willingly from +his Discourse: for he so ordered it, that every man was satisfied that +he had his share. He govern'd his Passions with great moderation. His +Virtues were never troublesome or uneasy to any. Whatever he disliked +in others, he only corrected it, by the silent reproof of a better +practise. + +His Wit was so temper'd, that no man had ever reason to wish it had +been less: he prevented other mens severity upon it by his own: he +never willingly recited any of his Writings. None but his intimate +friends ever discovered he was a great Poet, by his discourse. His +Learning was large and profound, well compos'd of all Antient and +Modern Knowledge. But it sat exceeding close and handsomly upon him: +it was not imbossed on his mind, but enamelled. + +He never guided his life by the whispers, or opinions of the World. +Yet he had a great reverence for a good reputation. He hearkened to +Fame when it was a just Censurer: But not when an extravagant Babler. +He was a passionate lover of Liberty and Freedom from restraint +both in Actions and Words. But what honesty others receive from +the direction of Laws, he had by native Inclination: And he was not +beholding to other mens wills, but to his own for his Innocence. + + + + +62. + +CHARLES II. + +_Born 1630. Died 1685._ + +By HALIFAX. + +_His_ DISSIMULATION. + + +One great Objection made to him was the concealing himself, and +disguising his Thoughts. In this there ought a Latitude to be given; +it is a Defect not to have it at all, and a Fault to have it too much. +Human Nature will not allow the Mean: like all other things, as soon +as ever Men get to do them well, they cannot easily hold from doing +them too much. 'Tis the case even in the least things, as singing, &c. + +In _France_, he was to dissemble Injuries and Neglects, from one +reason; in _England_, he was to dissemble too, though for other +Causes; A King upon the _Throne_ hath as great Temptations (though of +another kind) to dissemble, as a King in _Exile_. The King of _France_ +might have his Times of Dissembling as much with him, as he could have +to do it with the King of _France_: So he was in a _School_. + +No King can be so little inclined to dissemble but he must needs learn +it from his _Subjects_, who every Day give him such Lessons of it. +Dissimulation is like most other Qualities, it hath two Sides; it is +necessary, and yet it is dangerous too. To have none at all layeth +a Man open to Contempt, to have too much exposeth him to Suspicion, +which is only the less dishonourable Inconvenience. If a Man doth not +take very great Precautions, he is never so much shewed as when he +endeavoureth to hide himself. One Man cannot take more pains to hide +himself, than another will do to see into him, especially in the Case +of Kings. + +It is none of the exalted Faculties of the Mind, since there are +Chamber-Maids will do it better than any Prince in Christendom. +Men given to dissembling are like Rooks at play, they will cheat +for Shillings, they are so used to it. The vulgar Definition of +Dissembling is downright Lying; that kind of it which is less ill-bred +cometh pretty near it. Only Princes and Persons of Honour must have +gentler Words given to their Faults, than the nature of them may in +themselves deserve. + +Princes dissemble with too many, not to have it discovered; no wonder +then that He carried it so far that it was discovered. Men compared +Notes, and got Evidence; so that those whose Morality would give them +leave, took it for an Excuse for serving him ill. Those who knew his +Face, fixed their Eyes there; and thought it of more Importance to +see, than to hear what he said. His Face was as little a Blab as most +Mens, yet though it could not be called a prattling Face, it would +sometimes tell Tales to a good Observer. When he thought fit to be +angry, he had a very peevish Memory; there was hardly a Blot that +escaped him. At the same time that this shewed the Strength of his +Dissimulation, it gave warning too; it fitted his present Purpose, but +it made a Discovery that put Men more upon their Guard against him. +Only Self-flattery furnisheth perpetual Arguments to trust again: The +comfortable Opinion Men have of themselves keepeth up Human Society, +which would be more than half destroyed without it. + + +_Of his WIT and CONVERSATION._ + +His Wit consisted chiefly in the _Quickness_ of his _Apprehension_. +His Apprehension made him _find Faults_, and that led him to short +Sayings upon them, not always equal, but often very good. + +By his being abroad, he contracted a Habit of conversing familiarly, +which added to his natural Genius, made him very _apt to talk_; +perhaps more than a very nice judgment would approve. + +He was apter to make _broad Allusions_ upon any thing that gave +the least occasion, than was altogether suitable with the very +Good-breeding he shewed in most other things. The Company he kept +whilst abroad, had so used him to that sort of Dialect, that he was so +far from thinking it a Fault or an Indecency, that he made it a matter +of Rallery upon those who could not prevail upon themselves to join in +it. As a Man who hath a good Stomach loveth generally to talk of Meat, +so in the vigour of his Age, he began that style, which, by degrees +grew so natural to him, that after he ceased to do it out of Pleasure, +he continued to do it out of Custom. The Hypocrisy of the former Times +inclined Men to think they could not shew too great an Aversion to +it, and that helped to encourage this unbounded liberty of Talking, +without the Restraints of Decency which were before observed. In +his more familiar Conversations with the Ladies, even they must be +passive, if they would not enter into it. How far Sounds as well +as Objects may have their Effects to raise Inclination, might be an +Argument to him to use that Style; or whether using Liberty at its +full stretch, was not the general Inducement without any particular +Motives to it. + +The manner of that time of _telling Stories_, had drawn him into it; +being commended at first for the Faculty of telling a Tale well, he +might insensibly be betrayed to exercise it too often. Stories are +dangerous in this, that the best expose a Man most, by being oftenest +repeated. It might pass for an Evidence for the Moderns against the +Ancients, that it is now wholly left off by all that have any pretence +to be distinguished by their good Sense. + +He had the Improvements of _Wine, &c_. which made him _pleasant_ and +_easy in Company_; where he bore his part, and was acceptable even to +those who had no other Design than to be merry with him. + +The Thing called _Wit_, a Prince may taste, but it is dangerous for +him to take too much of it; it hath Allurements which by refining his +Thoughts, take off from their _dignity_, in applying them less to the +governing part. There is a Charm in Wit, which a Prince must resist: +and that to him was no easy matter; it was contesting with Nature upon +Terms of Disadvantage. + +His Wit was not so ill-natured as to put Men out of countenance. In +the case of a King especially, it is more allowable to speak sharply +_of_ them, than _to_ them. + +His Wit was not acquired by _Reading_; that which he had above his +original Stock by Nature, was from Company, in which he was very +capable to observe. He could not so properly be said to have a Wit +very much raised, as a plain, gaining, well-bred, recommending kind of +Wit. + +But of all Men that ever _liked_ those who _had Wit_, he could the +best _endure_ those who had _none_. This leaneth more towards a Satire +than a Compliment, in this respect, that he could not only suffer +Impertinence, but at some times seemed to be pleased with it. + +He encouraged some to talk a good deal more with him, than one would +have expected from a Man of so good a Taste: He should rather have +order'd his Attorney-General to prosecute them for a Misdemeanour, in +using Common-sense so scurvily in his Presence. However, if this was +a Fault, it is arrogant for any of his Subjects to object to it, since +it would look like defying such a piece of Indulgence. He must in some +degree loosen the Strength of his Wit, by his Condescension to talk +with Men so very unequal to him. Wit must be used to some _Equality_, +which may give it Exercise, or else it is apt either to languish, +or to grow a little vulgar, by reigning amongst Men of a lower Size, +where there is no Awe to keep a Man upon his _guard_. + +It fell out rather by Accident than Choice, that his Mistresses +were such as did not care that Wit of the best kind should have the +Precedence in their Apartments. Sharp and strong Wit will not always +be so held in by Good-manners, as not to be a little troublesome in +a _Ruelle_. But wherever Impertinence hath Wit enough left to be +thankful for being well used, it will not only be admitted, but +kindly received; such Charms every thing hath that setteth us off by +Comparison. + +His _Affability_ was a Part, and perhaps not the least, of his Wit. + +It is a Quality that must not always spring from the Heart, Mens +Pride, as well as their Weakness, maketh them ready to be deceived by +it: They are more ready to believe it a Homage paid to their Merit, +than a Bait thrown out to deceive them. _Princes_ have a particular +Advantage. + +There was at first as much of Art as Nature in his Affability, but by +Habit it became Natural. It is an Error of the better hand, but the +_Universality_ taketh away a good deal of the Force of it. A Man +that hath had a kind Look seconded with engaging Words, whilst he is +chewing the Pleasure, if another in his Sight should be just received +as kindly, that Equality would presently alter the Relish: The Pride +of Mankind will have Distinction; till at last it cometh to Smile for +Smile, meaning nothing of either Side; without any kind of Effect; +mere Drawing-room Compliments; the _Bow_ alone would be better without +them. He was under some Disadvantages of this kind, that grew still +in proportion as it came by Time to be more known, that there was less +Signification in those Things than at first was thought. + +The Familiarity of his Wit must needs have the Effect of _lessening_ +the _Distance_ fit to be kept to him. The Freedom used to him whilst +abroad, was retained by those who used it longer than either they +ought to have kept it, or he have suffered it, and others by their +Example learned to use the same. A King of _Spain_ that will say +nothing but _Tiendro cuydado_, will, to the generality, preserve +more Respect; an Engine that will speak but sometimes, at the same +time that it will draw the Raillery of the Few who judge well, it +will create Respect in the ill-judging Generality. Formality is +sufficiently revenged upon the World for being so unreasonably laughed +at; it is destroyed it is true, but it hath the spiteful Satisfaction +of seeing every thing destroyed with it. + +His fine Gentlemanship did him no Good, encouraged in it by being too +much applauded. + +His Wit was better suited to his Condition _before_ he was restored +than _afterwards_. The Wit of a Gentleman, and that of a crowned Head, +ought to be different things. As there is a _Crown Law_, there is a +_Crown Wit_ too. To use it with Reserve is very good, and very rare. +There is a Dignity in doing things _seldom_, even without any other +Circumstance. Where Wit will run continually, the Spring is apt to +fail; so that it groweth vulgar, and the more it is practised, the +more it is debased. + +He was so good at finding out other Mens weak Sides, that it made +him less intent to cure his own: That generally happeneth. It may be +called a treacherous Talent, for it betrayeth a Man to forget to judge +himself, by being so eager to censure others: This doth so misguide +Men the first Part of their Lives, that the Habit of it is not easily +recovered, when the greater Ripeness of their Judgment inclineth them +to look more into themselves than into other Men. + +Men love to see themselves in the false Looking-glass of other Mens +Failings. It maketh a Man think well of himself at the time, and by +sending his Thoughts abroad to get Food for Laughing, they are less +at leisure to see Faults at home. Men choose rather to make the War in +another Country, than to keep all well at home. + + +_His_ TALENTS, TEMPER, HABITS, &c. + +He had a _Mechanical Head_, which appeared in his inclination to +Shipping and Fortification, &c. This would make one conclude, that +his Thoughts would naturally have been more fixed to Business, if his +Pleasures had not drawn them away from it. + +He had a very good _Memory_, though he would not always make equal +good Use of it. So that if he had accustomed himself to direct his +Faculties to his Business, I see no Reason why he might not have been +a good deal Master of it. His Chain of _Memory_ was longer than his +Chain of _Thought_; the first could bear any Burden, the other was +tired by being carried on too long; it was fit to ride a Heat, but it +had not Wind enough for a long Course. + +A very great Memory often forgetteth how much Time is lost by +repeating things of no Use. It was one Reason of his talking so much; +since a great Memory will always have something to say, and will be +discharging itself, whether in or out of Season, if a good Judgment +doth not go along with it, to make it stop and turn. One might say +of his Memory, that it was a _Beauté Journaliere_; Sometimes he would +make shrewd Applications, &c. at others he would bring things out of +it, that never deserved to be laid in it. He grew by Age into a pretty +exact _Distribution_ of his _Hours_, both for his Business, Pleasures, +and the Exercise for his Health, of which he took as much care as +could possibly consist with some Liberties he was resolved to indulge +in himself. He walked by his Watch, and when he pulled it out to look +upon it, skilful Men would make haste with what they had to say to +him. + +He was often retained in his _personal_ against his _politick_ +Capacity. He would speak upon those Occasions most dexterously against +himself; _Charles Stuart_ would be bribed against the _King_; and +in the Distinction, he leaned more to his natural Self, than his +Character would allow. He would not suffer himself to be so much +fettered by his Character as was convenient; he was still starting +out of it, the Power of Nature was too strong for the Dignity of his +Calling, which generally yielded as often as there was a contest. + +It was not the best use he made of his _Back-stairs_ to admit Men +to bribe him against himself, to procure a Defalcation, help a +lame Accountant to get off, or side with the Farmers against the +Improvement of the Revenue. The King was made the Instrument to +defraud the Crown, which is somewhat extraordinary. + +That which might tempt him to it probably was, his finding that those +about him so often took Money upon those Occasions; so that he thought +he might do well at least to be a Partner. He did not take the Money +to _hoard_ it; there were those at Court who watched those Times, as +the _Spaniards_ do for the coming in of the _Plate Fleet_. The Beggars +of both Sexes helped to empty his Cabinet, and to leave room in them +for a new lading upon the next Occasion. These Negotiators played +double with him too, when it was for their purpose so to do. He _knew +it_, and _went on_ still; so he gained his present end, at the time, +he was less solicitous to enquire into the Consequences. + +He could not properly be said to be either _covetous_ or _liberal_; +his desire to get was not with an Intention to be rich; and his +spending was rather an Easiness in letting Money go, than any +premeditated Thought for the Distribution of it. He would do as much +to throw off the burden of a present Importunity, as he would to +relieve a want. + +When once the Aversion to bear Uneasiness taketh place in a Man's +Mind, it doth so check all the Passions, that they are dampt into a +kind of Indifference; they grow faint and languishing, and come to be +subordinate to that fundamental Maxim, of not purchasing any thing at +the price of a Difficulty. This made that he had as little Eagerness +to oblige, as he had to hurt Men; the Motive of his giving Bounties +was rather to make Men less uneasy to him, than more easy to +themselves; and yet no ill-nature all this while. He would slide from +an asking Face, and could guess very well. It was throwing a Man off +from his Shoulders, that leaned upon them with his whole weight; so +that the Party was not glader to receive, than he was to give. It was +a kind of implied bargain; though Men seldom kept it, being so apt to +forget the advantage they had received, that they would presume the +King would as little remember the good he had done them, so as to make +it an Argument against their next Request. + +This Principle of making the _love_ of _Ease_ exercise an entire +Sovereignty in his Thoughts, would have been less censured in a +private Man, than might be in a Prince. The Consequence of it to the +Publick changeth the Nature of that Quality, or else a Philosopher in +his private Capacity might say a great deal to justify it. The truth +is, a King is to be such a distinct Creature from a Man, that their +Thoughts are to be put in quite a differing Shape, and it is such a +disquieting task to reconcile them, that Princes might rather expect +to be lamented than to be envied, for being in a Station that exposeth +them, if they do not do more to answer Mens Expectations than human +Nature will allow. + +That Men have the less Ease for their loving it so much, is so far +from a wonder, that it is a natural Consequence, especially in the +case of a Prince. Ease is seldom got without some pains, but it is yet +seldomer kept without them. He thought giving would make Men more easy +to him, whereas he might have known it would certainly make them more +troublesome. + +When Men receive Benefits from Princes, they attribute less to his +Generosity than to their own Deserts; so that in their own Opinion, +their Merit cannot be bounded; by that mistaken Rule, it can as +little be satisfied. They would take it for a diminution to have it +circumscribed. Merit hath a Thirst upon it that can never be quenched +by golden Showers. It is not only still ready, but greedy to receive +more. This King _Charles_ found in as many Instances as any Prince +that ever reigned, because the Easiness of Access introducing the +good Success of their first Request, they were the more encouraged to +repeat those Importunities, which had been more effectually stopt in +the Beginning by a short and resolute Denial. But his Nature did not +dispose him to that Method, it directed him rather to put off the +troublesome Minute for the time, and that being his Inclination, he +did not care to struggle with it. + +I am of an Opinion, in which I am every Day more confirmed by +Observation, that Gratitude is one of those things that cannot be +bought. It must be born with Men, or else all the Obligations in +the World will not create it. An outward Shew may be made to satisfy +Decency, and to prevent Reproach; but a real Sense of a kind thing is +a Gift of Nature, and never was, nor can be acquired. + +The Love of Ease is an Opiate, it is pleasing for the time, quieteth +the Spirits, but it hath its Effects that seldom fail to be most +fatal. The immoderate Love of Ease maketh a Man's Mind pay a passive +Obedience to any thing that happeneth: It reduceth the Thoughts from +having _Desire_ to be _content_. + +It must be allowed he had a little Over-balance on the well-natured +Side, not Vigour enough to be earnest to do a kind Thing, much less +to do a harsh one; but if a hard thing was done to another Man, he +did not eat his Supper the worse for it. It was rather a Deadness +than Severity of Nature, whether it proceeded from a Dissipation of +Spirits, or by the Habit of Living in which he was engaged. + +If a King should be born with more Tenderness than might suit with his +Office, he would in time be hardned. The Faults of his Subjects make +Severity so necessary, that by the frequent Occasions given to use +it, it comes to be habitual, and by degrees the Resistance that Nature +made at first groweth fainter, till at last it is in a manner quite +extinguished. + +In short, this Prince might more properly be said to have _Gifts_ than +_Virtues_, as Affability, Easiness of Living, Inclinations to give, +and to forgive: Qualities that flowed from his Nature rather than from +his Virtue. + +He had not more Application to any thing than the Preservation of +his _Health_; it had an intire Preference to any thing else in his +Thoughts, and he might be said without Aggravation to study that, with +as little Intermission as any Man in the World. He understood it very +well, only in this he failed, that he thought it was more reconcilable +with his _Pleasures_, than it really was. It is natural to have such +a Mind to reconcile these, that 'tis the easier for any Man that goeth +about it, to be guilty of that Mistake. + +This made him overdo in point of Nourishment, the better to furnish to +those Entertainments; and then he thought by great _Exercise_ to make +Amends, and to prevent the ill Effects of his Blood being too much +raised. The Success he had in this Method, whilst he had Youth and +Vigour to support him in it, encouraged him to continue it longer than +Nature allowed. Age stealeth so insensibly upon us, that we do not +think of suiting our way of Reasoning to the several Stages of Life; +so insensibly that not being able to pitch upon any _precise Time_, +when we cease to be young, we either flatter ourselves that we always +continue to be so, or at least forget how much we are mistaken in it. + + + + +63. + +By BURNET. + + +The King was then thirty years of age, and, as might have been +supposed, past the levities of youth and the extravagance of pleasure. +He had a very good understanding. He knew well the state of affairs +both at home and abroad. He had a softness of temper that charmed all +who came near him, till they found how little they could depend on +good looks, kind words, and fair promises; in which he was liberal +to excess, because he intended nothing by them, but to get rid of +importunities, and to silence all farther pressing upon him. He seemed +to have no sense of religion: Both at prayers and sacrament he, as it +were, took care to satisfy people, that he was in no sort concerned in +that about which he was employed. So that he was very far from being +an hypocrite, unless his assisting at those performances was a sort of +hypocrisy, (as no doubt it was:) But he was sure not to encrease that +by any the least appearance of religion. He said once to my self, he +was no atheist, but he could not think God would make a man miserable +only for taking a little pleasure out of the way. He disguised his +Popery to the last. But when he talked freely, he could not help +letting himself out against the liberty that under the Reformation +all men took of enquiring into matters of religion: For from their +enquiring into matters of religion they carried the humour farther, +to enquire into matters of state. He said often, he thought government +was a much safer and easier thing where the authority was believed +infallible, and the faith and submission of the people was implicite: +About which I had once much discourse with him. He was affable and +easy, and loved to be made so by all about him. The great art of +keeping him long was, the being easy, and the making every thing easy +to him. He had made such observations on the _French_ government, that +he thought a King who might be checkt, or have his Ministers called +to an account by a Parliament, was but a King in name. He had a great +compass of knowledge, tho' he was never capable of much application +or study. He understood the Mechanicks and Physick; and was a good +Chymist, and much set on several preparations of Mercury, chiefly the +fixing it. He understood navigation well: But above all he knew the +architecture of ships so perfectly, that in that respect he was exact +rather more than became a Prince. His apprehension was quick, and his +memory good. He was an everlasting talker. He told his stories with +a good grace: But they came in his way too often. He had a very ill +opinion both of men and women; and did not think that there was either +sincerity or chastity in the world out of principle, but that some had +either the one or the other out of humour or vanity. He thought that +no body did serve him out of love: And so he was quits with all the +world, and loved others as little as he thought they loved him. He +hated business, and could not be easily brought to mind any: But when +it was necessary, and he was set to it, he would stay as long as his +Ministers had work for him. The ruine of his reign, and of all his +affairs, was occasioned chiefly by his delivering himself up at his +first coming over to a mad range of pleasure. + + +64. + +By BURNET. + + +Thus lived and died King _Charles_ the second. He was the greatest +instance in history of the various revolutions of which any one man +seemed capable. He was bred up, the first twelve years of his life, +with the splendor that became the heir of so great a Crown. After +that he past thro' eighteen years in great inequalities, unhappy in +the war, in the loss of his Father, and of the Crown of _England_. +_Scotland_ did not only receive him, tho' upon terms hard of +digestion, but made an attempt upon _England_ for him, tho' a feeble +one. He lost the battle of _Worcester_ with too much indifference: +And then he shewed more care of his person, than became one who had so +much at stake. He wandered about _England_ for ten weeks after that, +hiding from place to place. But, under all the apprehensions he had +then upon him, he shewed a temper so careless, and so much turned +to levity, that he was then diverting himself with little houshold +sports, in as unconcerned a manner, as if he had made no loss, and had +been in no danger at all. He got at last out of _England_. But he had +been obliged to so many, who had been faithful to him, and careful of +him, that he seemed afterwards to resolve to make an equal return to +them all: And finding it not easy to reward them all as they deserved, +he forgot them all alike. Most Princes seem to have this pretty deep +in them; and to think that they ought never to remember past services, +but that their acceptance of them is a full reward. He, of all in our +age, exerted this piece of prerogative in the amplest manner: For he +never seemed to charge his memory, or to trouble his thoughts, with +the sense of any of the services that had been done him. While he +was abroad at _Paris_, _Colen_, or _Brussells_, he never seemed to +lay any thing to heart. He pursued all his diversions, and irregular +pleasures, in a free carrier; and seemed to be as serene under the +loss of a Crown, as the greatest Philosopher could have been. Nor did +he willingly hearken to any of those projects, with which he often +complained that his Chancellor persecuted him. That in which he seemed +most concerned was, to find money for supporting his expence. And it +was often said, that, if _Cromwell_ would have compounded the matter, +and have given him a good round pension, that he might have been +induced to resign his title to him. During his exile he delivered +himself so entirely to his pleasures, that he became incapable of +application. He spent little of his time in reading or study, and +yet less in thinking. And, in the state his affairs were then in, he +accustomed himself to say to every person, and upon all occasions, +that which he thought would please most: So that words or promises +went very easily from him. And he had so ill an opinion of mankind, +that he thought the great art of living and governing was, to manage +all things and all persons with a depth of craft and dissimulation. +And in that few men in the world could put on the appearances of +sincerity better than he could: Under which so much artifice was +usually hid, that in conclusion he could deceive none, for all were +become mistrustful of him. He had great vices, but scarce any vertues +to correct them: He had in him some vices that were less hurtful, +which corrected his more hurtful ones. He was during the active part +of life given up to sloth and lewdness to such a degree, that he hated +business, and could not bear the engaging in any thing that gave him +much trouble, or put him under any constraint. And, tho' he desired to +become absolute, and to overturn both our religion and our laws, yet +he would neither run the risque, nor give himself the trouble, which +so great a design required. He had an appearance of gentleness in his +outward deportment: But he seemed to have no bowels nor tenderness in +his nature: And in the end of his life he became cruel. He was apt to +forgive all crimes, even blood it self: Yet he never forgave any thing +that was done against himself, after his first and general act of +indemnity, which was to be reckoned as done rather upon maxims of +state than inclinations of mercy. He delivered himself up to a most +enormous course of vice, without any sort of restraint, even from +the consideration of the nearest relations: The most studied +extravagancies that way seemed, to the very last, to be much delighted +in, and pursued by him. He had the art of making all people grow fond +of him at first, by a softness in his whole way of conversation, as he +was certainly the best bred man of the age. But when it appeared how +little could be built on his promise, they were cured of the fondness +that he was apt to raise in them. When he saw young men of quality, +who had something more than ordinary in them, he drew them about him, +and set himself to corrupt them both in religion and morality; in +which he proved so unhappily successful, that he left _England_ much +changed at his death from what he had found it at his Restoration. He +loved to talk over all the stories of his life to every new man that +came about him. His stay in _Scotland_, and the share he had in the +war of _Paris_, in carrying messages from the one side to the other, +were his common topicks. He went over these in a very graceful manner; +but so often, and so copiously, that all those who had been long +accustomed to them grew weary of them: And when he entred on those +stories they usually withdrew: So that he often began them in a full +audience, and before he had done there were not above four or five +left about him: Which drew a severe jest from _Wilmot_, Earl of +_Rochester_. He said, he wondred to see a man have so good a memory +as to repeat the same story without losing the least circumstance, and +yet not remember that he had told it to the same persons the very day +before. This made him fond of strangers; for they hearkned to all +his often repeated stories, and went away as in a rapture at such an +uncommon condescension in a King. + +His person and temper, his vices as well as his fortunes, resemble the +character that we have given us of _Tiberius_ so much, that it were +easy to draw the parallel between them. _Tiberius_'s banishment, and +his coming afterwards to reign, makes the comparison in that respect +come pretty near. His hating of business, and his love of pleasures; +his raising of favourites, and trusting them entirely; and his pulling +them down, and hating them excessively; his art of covering deep +designs, particularly of revenge, with an appearance of softness, +brings them so near a likeness, that I did not wonder much to observe +the resemblance of their face and person. At _Rome_ I saw one of the +last statues made for _Tiberius_, after he had lost his teeth. But, +bating the alteration which that made, it was so like King _Charles_, +that Prince _Borghese_, and _Signior Dominica_ to whom it belonged, +did agree with me in thinking that it looked like a statue made for +him. + + + + +65. + +THE EARL OF CLARENDON. + +_Edward Hyde, knighted 1643, created Baron Hyde 1660, Earl of +Clarendon 1661. Lord Chancellor 1658-1667._ + +_Born 1609. Died 1674._ + +By BURNET. + + +The Earl of _Clarendon_ was bred to the Law, and was like to grow +eminent in his profession when the wars began. He distinguished +himself so in the House of Commons, that he became considerable, and +was much trusted all the while the King was at _Oxford_. He stayed +beyond sea following the King's fortune till the Restoration; and was +now an absolute favourite, and the chief or the only Minister, but +with too magisterial a way. He was always pressing the King to mind +his affairs, but in vain. He was a good Chancellour, only a little too +rough, but very impartial in the administration of justice. He never +seemed to understand foreign affairs well: And yet he meddled too much +in them. He had too much levity in his wit, and did not always observe +the decorum of his post. He was high, and was apt to reject those +who addressed themselves to him with too much contempt. He had such a +regard to the King, that when places were disposed of, even otherwise +than as he advised, yet he would justify what the King did, and +disparage the pretensions of others, not without much scorn; which +created him many enemies. He was indefatigable in business, tho' the +gout did often disable him from waiting on the King: Yet, during his +credit, the King came constantly to him when he was laid up by it. + + + + +66. + +THE EARL OF LAUDERDALE. + +_John Maitland, second Earl, created Duke 1672, Secretary of State for +Scotland 1660-1680._ + +_Born 1616. Died 1682._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Latherdale, who had bene very eminent in contrivinge +and carryinge on the kings service, when his Majesty was crowned in +Scotlande, and therby had wrought himselfe into a very particular +esteme with the kinge, had marched with him into Englande, and behaved +himselfe well at Worcester, wher he was taken prissoner, had besydes +that meritt, the sufferinge an imprysonment from that very tyme, +with some circumstances of extreme rigour, beinge a man against whome +Crumwell had alwayes professed a more then ordinary animosity, and +though the sceane of his imprysonment had bene altred, accordinge +to the alterations of the goverments which succeeded, yett he never +founde himselfe in compleate liberty, till the kinge was proclaymed by +the Parliament, and then he thought it not necessary to repayre into +Scotlande for authority or recommendation, but sendinge his advise +thither to his frends, he made hast to transporte himselfe with the +Parliament Commissyoners to the Hague, where he was very well receaved +by the kinge, and left nothinge undone on his parte, that might +cultivate these old inclinations, beinge a man of as much addresse, +and insinuation, in which that nation excells, as was then amongst +them. He applyed himselfe to those who were most trusted by the kinge +with a marvellous importunity, and especially to the Chancellour, with +whome as often as they had ever bene togither, he had a perpetuall +warr. He now magnifyed his constancy with lowde elogiums as well to +his face, as behinde his backe, remembred many sharpe exspressions +formerly used by the Chancellour which he confessed had then made +him mad, though upon recollection afterwards he had founde to be very +reasonable. He was very polite in all his discources, called himselfe +and his nation a thousand Traytors, and Rebells, and in his discourses +frequently sayd, when I was a Traytour, or when I was in rebellion, +and seemed not æqually delighted with any argument, as when he +skornefully spake of the Covenante, upon which he brake a hundred +jests: in summ all his discourses were such, as pleased all the +company, who commonly believed all he sayd, and concurred with him. He +[renew]ed his old acquaintance and familiarity with Middleton, by all +the protestations of frendshipp, assured him of the unanimous desyre +of Scotlande, to be [un]der his commaunde, and declared to the kinge, +that he could not send any man into Scotlande who would be able to +do him so much service in the place of Commissyoner as Middleton, and +that it was in his Majestys power to unite that whole kingdome to his +service as one m[an:] all which pleased the kinge well, so that by the +tyme that the Commissioners appeared at London, upon some old promise +in Scotlande, or new inclination upon his longe sufferings, which he +magnifyed enough, the kinge gave him the Signett, and declared him to +be Secretary of State of that kingdome, and at the same tyme declared +that Middleton should be his Commissyoner, the Earle of Glengarne +his Chancellour, the Earle of Rothesse, who was likewise one of the +Commissyoners, and his person very agreable to the kinge, President of +the Councell, and conferred all other inferiour offices, upon men most +notable for ther affection to the old goverment of Church and State. + + + + +67. + +By BURNET. + + +The Earl of _Lauderdale_, afterwards made Duke, had been for many +years a zealous Covenanter: But in the year forty seven he turned to +the King's interests; and had continued a prisoner all the while after +_Worcester_ fight, where he was taken. He was kept for some years in +the tower of _London_, in _Portland_ castle, and in other prisons, +till he was set at liberty by those who called home the King. So he +went over to _Holland_. And since he continued so long, and contrary +to all mens opinions in so high a degree of favour and confidence, +it may be expected that I should be a little copious in setting out +his character; for I knew him very particularly. He made a very ill +appearance: He was very big: His hair red, hanging odly about him: +His tongue was too big for his mouth, which made him bedew all that +he talked to: And his whole manner was rough and boisterous, and very +unfit for a Court. He was very learned, not only in _Latin_, in which +he was a master, but in _Greek_ and _Hebrew_. He had read a great deal +of divinity, and almost all the historians ancient and modern: So that +he had great materials. He had with these an extraordinary memory, +and a copious but unpolished expression. He was a man, as the Duke of +_Buckingham_ called him to me, of a blundering understanding. He was +haughty beyond expression, abject to those he saw he must stoop to, +but imperious to all others. He had a violence of passion that carried +him often to fits like madness, in which he had no temper. If he took +a thing wrong, it was a vain thing to study to convince him: That +would rather provoke him to swear, he would never be of another mind: +He was to be let alone: And perhaps he would have forgot what he had +said, and come about of his own accord. He was the coldest friend and +the violentest enemy I ever knew: I felt it too much not to know it. +He at first seemed to despise wealth: But he delivered himself up +afterwards to luxury and sensuality: And by that means he ran into a +vast expence, and stuck at nothing that was necessary to support it. +In his long imprisonment he had great impressions of religion on his +mind: But he wore these out so entirely, that scarce any trace of them +was left. His great experience in affairs, his ready compliance +with every thing that he thought would please the King, and his bold +offering at the most desperate counsels, gained him such an interest +in the King, that no attempt against him nor complaint of him could +ever shake it, till a decay of strength and understanding forced him +to let go his hold. He was in his principles much against Popery +and arbitrary government: And yet by a fatal train of passions and +interests he made way for the former, and had almost established +the latter. And, whereas some by a smooth deportment made the first +beginnings of tyranny less discernible and unacceptable, he by the +fury of his behaviour heightned the severity of his ministry, which +was liker the cruelty of an inquisition than the legality of justice. +With all this he was a Presbyterian, and retained his aversion to King +_Charles_ I. and his party to his death. + + + + +68. + +THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. + +_Anthony Ashley Cooper, created Earl of Shaftesbury 1662._ + +_Born 1621. Died 1683._ + +By BURNET. + + +The man that was in the greatest credit with the Earl of _Southampton_ +was Sir _Anthony Ashly Cooper_, who had married his niece, and +became afterwards so considerable that he was raised to be Earl of +_Shaftsbury_. And since he came to have so great a name, and that I +knew him for many years in a very particular manner, I will dwell a +little longer on his character; for it was of a very extraordinary +composition. He began to make a considerable figure very early. Before +he was twenty he came into the House of Commons, and was on the King's +side; and undertook to get _Wiltshire_ and _Dorsetshire_ to declare +for him: But he was not able to effect it. Yet Prince _Maurice_ +breaking articles to a town, that he had got to receive him, +furnished him with an excuse to forsake that side, and to turn to +the Parliament. He had a wonderful faculty in speaking to a popular +assembly, and could mix both the facetious and the serious way of +arguing very agreeably. He had a particular talent to make others +trust to his judgment, and depend on it: And he brought over so many +to a submission to his opinion, that I never knew any man equal to +him in the art of governing parties, and of making himself the head +of them. He was as to religion a Deist at best: He had the dotage of +Astrology in him to a high degree: He told me, that a _Dutch_ doctor +had from the stars foretold him the whole series of his life. But that +which was before him, when he told me this, proved false, if he told +me true: For he said, he was yet to be a greater man than he had +been. He fancied, that after death our souls lived in stars. He had +a general knowledge of the slighter parts of learning, but understood +little to the bottom: So he triumphed in a rambling way of talking, +but argued slightly when he was held close to any point. He had a +wonderful faculty at opposing, and running things down; but had not +the like force in building up. He had such an extravagant vanity in +setting himself out, that it was very disagreeable. He pretended that +_Cromwell_ offered to make him King. He was indeed of great use to +him in withstanding the enthusiasts of that time. He was one of those +who press'd him most to accept of the Kingship, because, as he said +afterwards, he was sure it would ruin him. His strength lay in the +knowledge of _England_, and of all the considerable men in it. He +understood well the size of their understandings, and their tempers: +And he knew how to apply himself to them so dextrously, that, tho' +by his changing sides so often it was very visible how little he was +to be depended on, yet he was to the last much trusted by all the +discontented party. He was not ashamed to reckon up the many turns +he had made: And he valued himself on the doing it at the properest +season, and in the best manner. This he did with so much vanity, and +so little discretion, that he lost many by it. And his reputation was +at last run so low, that he could not have held much longer, had he +not died in good time, either for his family or for his party: The +former would have been ruined, if he had not saved it by betraying the +latter. + + + + +69. + +By DRYDEN. + + + Some by their Friends, more by themselves thought wise, + Oppos'd the Pow'r, to which they could not rise. + Some had in Courts been Great, and thrown from thence, + Like Fiends, were harden'd in Impenitence. + Some, by their Monarch's fatal mercy grown, + From Pardon'd Rebels, Kinsmen to the Throne, + Were raised in Pow'r and publick Office high: + Strong Bands, if Bands ungrateful men coud tie. + Of these the false _Achitophel_ was first: + A Name to all succeeding Ages curst. + For close Designs, and crooked Counsels fit; + Sagacious, Bold, and Turbulent of wit: + Restless, unfixt in Principles and Place; + In Pow'r unpleas'd, impatient of Disgrace. + A fiery Soul, which working out its way, + Fretted the Pigmy-Body to decay: + And o'r inform'd the Tenement of Clay, + A daring Pilot in extremity; + Pleas'd with the Danger, when the Waves went high + He sought the Storms; but for a Calm unfit, + Would Steer too nigh the Sands, to boast his Wit. + Great Wits are sure to Madness near alli'd; + And thin Partitions do their Bounds divide: + Else, why should he, with Wealth and Honour blest, + Refuse his Age the needful hours of Rest? + Punish a Body which he coud not please; + Bankrupt of Life, yet Prodigal of Ease? + And all to leave, what with his Toil he won, + To that unfeather'd, two-legg'd thing, a Son: + Got, while his Soul did huddled Notions trie; + And born a shapeless Lump, like Anarchy. + In Friendship false, implacable in Hate: + Resolv'd to Ruine or to Rule the State. + To Compass this, the Triple Bond he broke; + The Pillars of the Publick Safety shook: + And fitted _Israel_ for a Foreign Yoke. + Then, seiz'd with Fear, yet still affecting Fame, + Usurp'd a Patriot's All-attoning Name. + So easie still it proves in Factious Times, + With publick Zeal to cancel private Crimes: + How safe is Treason, and how sacred ill, + here none can sin against the Peoples Will: + Where Crouds can wink; and no offence be known, + Since in anothers guilt they find their own. + Yet, Fame deserv'd, no Enemy can grudge; + The Statesman we abhor, but praise the Judge. + In _Israels_ Courts ne'r sat an _Abbetbdin_ + With more discerning Eyes, or Hands more clean: + Unbrib'd, unsought, the Wretched to redress; + Swift of Dispatch, and easie of Access. + Oh, had he been content to serve the Crown, + With Vertues onely proper to the Gown; + Or, had the rankness of the Soil been freed + From Cockle, that opprest the Noble Seed: + _David_, for him his tuneful Harp had strung, + And Heav'n had wanted one Immortal Song. + But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand; + And Fortunes Ice prefers to Vertues Land: + _Achitophel_, grown weary to possess + A lawful Fame, and lazie Happiness, + Disdain'd the Golden Fruit to gather free, + And lent the Croud his Arm to shake the Tree. + Now, manifest of Crimes, contriv'd long since, + He stood at bold Defiance with his Prince: + Held up the Buckler of the Peoples Cause, + Against the Crown; and sculk'd behind the Laws, + The wish'd occasion of the Plot he takes; + Some Circumstances finds, but more he makes. + By buzzing Emissaries, fills the ears + Of listning Crouds, with Jealousies and Fears + Of Arbitrary Counsels brought to light, + And proves the King himself a _Jebusite_. + Weak Arguments! which yet he knew full well, + Were strong with People easie to Rebel. + For, govern'd by the _Moon_, the giddy _Jews_ + Tread the same Track when she the Prime renews: + And once in twenty Years, their Scribes Record, + By natural Instinct they change their Lord. + _Achitophel_ still wants a Chief, and none + Was found so fit as Warlike _Absalon_: + Not, that he wish'd his Greatness to create, + (For Polititians neither love nor hate:) + But, for he knew, his Title not allow'd, + Would keep him still depending on the Croud: + That Kingly pow'r, thus ebbing out, might be + Drawn to the Dregs of a Democracie. + + + + +70. + +THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. + +_George Villiers, second Duke 1628._ + +_Born 1628. Died 1687._ + +By BURNET. + + +The first of these was a man of noble presence. He had a great +liveliness of wit, and a peculiar faculty of turning all things into +ridicule with bold figures and natural descriptions. He had no sort +of literature: Only he was drawn into chymistry: And for some years +he thought he was very near the finding the philosopher's stone; which +had the effect that attends on all such men as he was, when they are +drawn in, to lay out for it. He had no principles of religion, vertue, +or friendship. Pleasure, frolick, or extravagant diversion was all +that he laid to heart. He was true to nothing, for he was not true to +himself. He had no steadiness nor conduct: He could keep no secret, +nor execute any design without spoiling it. He could never fix his +thoughts, nor govern his estate, tho' then the greatest in _England_. +He was bred about the King: And for many years he had a great +ascendent over him: But he spake of him to all persons with that +contempt, that at last he drew a lasting disgrace upon himself. And he +at length ruined both body and mind, fortune and reputation equally. +The madness of vice appeared in his person in very eminent instances; +since at last he became contemptible and poor, sickly, and sunk in his +parts, as well as in all other respects, so that his conversation was +as much avoided as ever it had been courted. He found the King, when +he came from his travels in the year 45, newly come to _Paris_, sent +over by his father when his affairs declined: And finding the King +enough inclined to receive ill impressions, he, who was then got into +all the impieties and vices of the age, set himself to corrupt the +King, in which he was too successful, being seconded in that wicked +design by the Lord _Percy_. And to compleat the matter, _Hobbs_ was +brought to him, under the pretence of instructing him in mathematicks: +And he laid before him his schemes, both with relation to religion and +politicks, which made deep and lasting impressions on the King's mind. +So that the main blame of the King's ill principles, and bad morals, +was owing to the Duke of _Buckingham_. + + + + +71. + +By DRYDEN. + + + Some of their Chiefs were Princes of the Land: + In the first Rank of these did _Zimri_ stand: + A man so various, that he seem'd to be + Not one, but all Mankind's Epitome. + Stiff in Opinions, always in the wrong; + Was Every thing by starts, and Nothing long: + But, in the course of one revolving Moon, + Was Chymist, Fidler, States-Man, and Buffoon: + Then all for Women, Painting, Rhiming, Drinking; + Besides ten thousand Freaks that dy'd in thinking. + Blest Madman, who coud every hour employ, + With something New to wish, or to enjoy! + Railing and praising were his usual Theams; + And both (to shew his Judgment) in Extreams: + So over Violent, or over Civil, + That every Man, with him, was God or Devil. + In squandring Wealth was his peculiar Art: + Nothing went unrewarded, but Desert. + Begger'd by Fools, whom still he found too late: + He had his Jest, and they had his Estate. + He laugh'd himself from Court; then sought Relief + By forming Parties, but could ne'r be Chief: + For, spight of him, the weight of Business fell + On _Absalom_ and wise _Achitophel_: + Thus, wicked but in Will, of Means bereft, + He left not Faction, but of that was left. + + + + +72. + +THE MARQUIS OF HALIFAX. + +_George Savile, created Baron Savile and Viscount Halifax 1668, Earl +of Halifax 1679, Marquis of Halifax 1682._ + +_Born 1633. Died 1695._ + +By BURNET. + + +I name Sir _George Saville_ last, because he deserves a more copious +character. He rose afterwards to be Viscount, Earl, and Marquis of +_Halifax_. He was a man of a great and ready wit; full of life, +and very pleasant; much turned to satyr. He let his wit run much +on matters of religion: So that he passed for a bold and determined +Atheist; tho' he often protested to me, he was not one; and said, he +believed there was not one in the world: He confessed, he could not +swallow down every thing that divines imposed on the world: He was +a Christian in submission: He believed as much as he could, and he +hoped that God would not lay it to his charge, if he could not disgest +iron, as an ostrich did, nor take into his belief things that must +burst him: If he had any scruples, they 20 were not sought for, nor +cherished by him; for he never read an atheistical book. In a fit of +sickness, I knew him very much touched with a sense of religion. I +was then often with him. He seemed full of good purposes: But they +went off with his sickness. He was always talking of morality and +friendship. He was punctual in all payments, and just in all his +private dealings. But, with relation to the publick, he went backwards +and forwards, and changed sides so often, that in conclusion no side +trusted him. He seemed full of Common-wealth notions: Yet he went +into the worst part of King _Charles's_ reign. The liveliness of his +imagination was always too hard for his judgment. A severe jest was +preferred by him to all arguments whatsoever. And he was endless in +consultations: For when after much discourse a point was settled, if +he could find a new jest, to make even that which was suggested by +himself seem ridiculous, he could not hold, but would study to raise +the credit of his wit, tho' it made others call his judgment in +question. When he talked to me as a philosopher of his contempt of the +world, I asked him, what he meant by getting so many new titles, which +I call'd the hanging himself about with bells and tinsel. He had no +other excuse for it, but this, that, since the world were such fools +as to value those matters, a man must be a fool for company: He +considered them but as rattles: Yet rattles please children: So these +might be of use to his family. His heart was much set on raising his +family. But, tho' he made a vast estate for them, he buried two of his +sons himself, and almost all his grandchildren. The son that survived +was an honest man, but far inferior to him. + + + + +73. + +SIR EDMUND SAUNDERS. + +_Lord Chief Justice 1682. Died 1683._ + +By ROGER NORTH. + + +The Lord Chief Justice _Saunders_ succeeded in the Room of +_Pemberton_. His Character, and his Beginning, were equally strange. +He was at first no better than a poor Beggar Boy, if not a Parish +Foundling, without known Parents, or Relations. He had found a way +to live by Obsequiousness (in _Clement's-Inn_, as I remember) and +courting the Attornies Clerks for Scraps. The extraordinary Observance +and Diligence of the Boy, made the Society willing to do him Good. He +appeared very ambitious to learn to write; and one of the Attornies +got a Board knocked up at a Window on the Top of a Staircase; and that +was his Desk, where he sat and wrote after Copies of Court and other +Hands the Clerks gave him. He made himself so expert a Writer that he +took in Business, and earned some Pence by Hackney-writing. And thus, +by degrees, he pushed his Faculties, and fell to Forms, and, by Books +that were lent him, became an exquisite entering Clerk; and, by the +same course of Improvement of himself, an able Counsel, first in +special Pleading, then, at large. And, after he was called to the Bar, +had Practice, in the _King's Bench_ Court, equal with any there. As to +his Person, he was very corpulent and beastly; a mere Lump of morbid +Flesh. He used to say, _by his Troggs_, (such an humourous Way of +talking he affected) _none could say be wanted Issue of his Body, +for he had nine in his Back_. He was a fetid Mass, that offended his +Neighbours at the Bar in the sharpest Degree. Those, whose ill Fortune +it was to stard near him, were Confessors, and, in Summer-time, almost +Martyrs. This hateful Decay of his Carcase came upon him by continual +Sottishness; for, to say nothing of Brandy, he was seldom without a +Pot of Ale at his Nose, or near him. That Exercise was all he used; +the rest of his Life was sitting at his Desk, or piping at home; and +that _Home_ was a Taylor's House in _Butcher-Row_, called his Lodging, +and the Man's Wife was his Nurse, or worse; but, by virtue of his +Money, of which he made little Account, though he got a great deal, +he soon became Master of the Family; and, being no Changling, he never +removed, but was true to his Friends, and they to him, to the last +Hour of his Life. + +So much for his Person and Education. As for his Parts, none had them +more lively than he. Wit and Repartee, in an affected Rusticity, were +natural to him. He was ever ready, and never at a Loss; and none +came so near as he to be a Match for Serjeant _Mainard_. His great +Dexterity was in the Art of special Pleading, and he would lay Snares +that often caught his Superiors who were not aware of his Traps. And +he was so fond of Success for his Clients that, rather than fail, he +would set the Court hard with a Trick; for which he met sometimes with +a Reprimand, which he would wittily ward off, so that no one was much +offended with him. But _Hales_ could not bear his Irregularity of +Life; and for that, and Suspicion of his Tricks, used to bear hard +upon him in the Court. But no ill Usage from the Bench was too hard +for his Hold of Business, being such as scarce any could do but +himself. With all this, he had a Goodness of Nature and Disposition in +so great a Degree that he may be deservedly styled a _Philanthrope_. +He was a very _Silenus_ to the Boys, as, in this Place, I may term the +Students of the Law, to make them merry whenever they had a Mind to +it. He had nothing of rigid or austere in him. If any, near him at +the Bar, grumbled at his Stench, he ever converted the Complaint into +Content and Laughing with the Abundance of his Wit. As to his ordinary +Dealing, he was as honest as the driven Snow was white; and why not, +having no Regard for Money, or Desire to be rich? And, for good Nature +and Condescension, there was not his Fellow. I have seen him, for +Hours and half Hours together, before the Court sat, stand at the Bar, +with an Audience of Students over against him, putting of Cases, and +debating so as suited their Capacities, and encouraged their Industry. +And so in the _Temple_, he seldom moved without a Parcel of Youths +hanging about him, and he merry and jesting with them. + +It will be readily conceived that this Man was never cut out to be a +Presbyter, or any Thing that is severe and crabbed. In no Time did he +lean to Faction, but did his Business without Offence to any. He put +off officious Talk of Government or Politicks, with Jests, and so +made his Wit a Catholicon, or Shield, to cover all his weak Places and +Infirmities. When the Court fell into a steddy Course of using the +Law against all Kinds of Offenders, this Man was taken into the King's +Business; and had the Part of drawing, and Perusal of almost all +Indictments and Informations that were then to be prosecuted, with the +Pleadings thereon if any were special; and he had the settling of the +large Pleadings in the _Quo Warranto_ against _London_. His Lordship +had no sort of Conversation with him, but in the Way of Business, +and at the Bar; but once, after he was in the King's Business, he +dined with his Lordship, and no more. And then he shewed another +Qualification he had acquired, and that was to play Jigs upon an +Harpsichord; having taught himself with the Opportunity of an old +Virginal of his Landlady's; but in such a Manner, not for Defect but +Figure, as to see him were a Jest. The King, observing him to be of +a free Disposition, Loyal, Friendly, and without Greediness or Guile, +thought of him to be the Chief Justice of the _King's Bench_ at that +nice Time. And the Ministry could not but approve of it. So great a +Weight was then at stake, as could not be trusted to Men of doubtful +Principles, or such as any Thing might tempt to desert them. While he +sat in the Court of _King's Bench_, he gave the Rule to the general +Satisfaction of the Lawyers. But his Course of Life was so different +from what it had been, his Business incessant, and, withal, crabbed; +and his Diet and Exercise changed, that the Constitution of his Body, +or Head rather, could not sustain it, and he fell into an Apoplexy and +Palsy, which numbed his Parts; and he never recovered the Strength +of them. He out-lived the Judgment on the _Quo Warranto_; but was not +present otherwise than by sending his Opinion, by one of the Judges, +to be for the King, who, at the pronouncing of the Judgment, declared +it to the Court accordingly, which is frequently done in like Cases. + + + + +74. + +TWO GROUPS OF DIVINES. + +BENJAMIN WHITCHCOT or WHICHCOTE (1609-83), Provost of King's College, +Cambridge, 1645. RALPH CUDWORTH (1617-88), Master of Clare College, +Cambridge, 1645, and Christ's College, 1654. JOHN WILKINS (1614-72), +Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, 1648; Master of Trinity College, +Cambridge, 1659; Bishop of Chester, 1668. HENRY MORE (1614-87), Fellow +of Christ's College, Cambridge, 1639. JOHN WORTHINGTON (1618-71), +Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, 1650. + +JOHN TILLOTSON (1630-94), Archbishop of Canterbury, 1691. EDWARD +STILLINGFLEET (1635-99), Bishop of Worcester, 1689. SIMON PATRICK +(1626-1707), Bishop of Chichester, 1689; Ely, 1691. WILLIAM LLOYD +(1627-1717), Bishop of St. Asaph, 1680; Lichfield, 1692; Worcester, +1700. THOMAS TENISON (1636-1715), Archbishop of Canterbury, 1694. + +By BURNET. + + +With this great accession of wealth there broke in upon the Church a +great deal of luxury and high living, on the pretence of hospitality; +while others made purchases, and left great estates, most of which we +have seen melt away. And with this overset of wealth and pomp, that +came on men in the decline of their parts and age, they, who were +now growing into old age, became lazy and negligent in all the true +concerns of the Church: They left preaching and writing to others, +while they gave themselves up to ease and sloth. In all which sad +representation some few exceptions are to be made; but so few, that, +if a new set of men had not appeared of another stamp, the Church had +quite lost her esteem over the Nation. + +These were generally of _Cambridge_, formed under some divines, the +chief of whom were Drs. _Whitchcot_, _Cudworth_, _Wilkins_, _More_, +and _Worthington_. _Whitchcot_ was a man of a rare temper, very mild +and obliging. He had great credit with some that had been eminent in +the late times; but made all the use he could of it to protect good +men of all persuasions. He was much for liberty of conscience: And +being disgusted with the dry systematical way of those times, he +studied to raise those who conversed with him to a nobler set of +thoughts, and to consider religion as a seed of a deiform nature, (to +use one of his own phrases.) In order to this, he set young students +much on reading the ancient Philosophers, chiefly _Plato_, _Tully_, +and _Plotin_, and on considering the Christian religion as a doctrine +sent from God, both to elevate and sweeten humane nature, in which he +was a great example, as well as a wise and kind instructer. _Cudworth_ +carried this on with a great strength of genius, and a vast compass +of learning. He was a man of great conduct and prudence: Upon which +his enemies did very falsly accuse him of craft and dissimulation. +_Wilkins_ was of _Oxford_, but removed to _Cambridge_. His first +rise was in the Elector Palatine's family, when he was in _England_. +Afterwards he married _Cromwell_'s sister; but made no other use of +that alliance, but to do good offices, and to cover the University +from the sourness of _Owen_ and _Goodwin_. At _Cambridge_ he joined +with those who studied to propagate better thoughts, to take men off +from being in parties, or from narrow notions, from superstitious +conceits, and a fierceness about opinions. He was also a great +observer and a promoter of experimental philosophy, which was then +a new thing, and much looked after. He was naturally ambitious, but +was the wisest Clergy-man I ever knew. He was a lover of mankind, and +had a delight in doing good. _More_ was an open hearted, and sincere +Christian philosopher, who studied to establish men in the great +principles of religion against atheism, that was then beginning to +gain ground, chiefly by reason of the hypocrisy of some, and the +fantastical conceits of the more sincere enthusiasts. + +_Hobbs_, who had long followed the Court, and passed there for a +mathematical man, tho' he really knew little that way, being disgusted +by the Court, came into _England_ in _Cromwell_'s time, and published +a very wicked book, with a very strange title, _The Leviathan_. His +main principles were, that all men acted under an absolute necessity, +in which he seemed protected by the then received doctrine of absolute +decrees. He seemed to think that the universe was God, and that souls +were material, Thought being only subtil and unperceptible motion. He +thought interest and fear were the chief principles of society: And he +put all morality in the following that which was our own private will +or advantage. He thought religion had no other foundation than the +laws of the land. And he put all the law in the will of the Prince, +or of the people: For he writ his book at first in favour of absolute +monarchy, but turned it afterwards to gratify the republican party. +These were his true principles, tho' he had disguised them, for +deceiving unwary readers. And this set of notions came to spread much. +The novelty and boldness of them set many on reading them. The impiety +of them was acceptable to men of corrupt minds, which were but too +much prepared to receive them by the extravagancies of the late times. +So this set of men at _Cambridge_ studied to assert, and examine +the principles of religion and morality on clear grounds, and in +a philosophical method. In this _More_ led the way to many that +came after him. _Worihington_ was a man of eminent piety and great +humility, and practised a most sublime way of self-denial and +devotion. All these, and those who were formed under them, studied to +examine farther into the nature of things than had been done formerly. +They declared against superstition on the one hand, and enthusiasm on +the other. They loved the constitution of the Church, and the Liturgy, +and could well live under them: But they did not think it unlawful +to live under another form. They wished that things might have been +carried with more moderation. And they continued to keep a good +correspondence with those who had differed from them in opinion, +and allowed a great freedom both in philosophy and in divinity: +From whence they were called men of Latitude. And upon this men of +narrower thoughts and fiercer tempers fastened upon them the name of +Latitudinarians. They read _Episcopius_ much. And the making out the +reasons of things being a main part of their studies, their enemies +called them Socinians. They were all very zealous against popery. And +so, they becoming soon very considerable, the Papists set themselves +against them to decry them as Atheists, Deists, or at best Socinians. +And now that the main principle of religion was struck at by _Hobbs_ +and his followers, the Papists acted upon this a very strange part. +They went in so far even into the argument for Atheism, as to publish +many books, in which they affirmed, that there was no certain proofs +of the Christian religion, unless we took it from the authority of the +Church as infallible. This was such a delivering up of the cause +to them, that it raised in all good men a very high indignation at +Popery; that party shewing, that they chose to make men, who would not +turn Papists, become Atheists, rather than believe Christianity upon +any other ground than infallibility. + +The most eminent of those, who were formed under those great men I +have mention'd, were _Tillotson_, _Stillingfleet_, and _Patrick_. The +first of these was a man of a clear head, and a sweet temper. He had +the brightest thoughts, and the most correct style of all our divines; +and was esteemed the best preacher of the age. He was a very prudent +man; and had such a management with it, that I never knew any +Clergy-man so universally esteemed and beloved, as he was for above +twenty years. He was eminent for his opposition to Popery. He was no +friend to persecution, and stood up much against Atheism. Nor did +any man contribute more to bring the City to love our worship, than +he did. But there was so little superstition, and so much reason +and gentleness in his way of explaining things, that malice was +long levelled at him, and in conclusion broke out fiercely on him. +_Stillingfleet_ was a man of much more learning, but of a more +reserved, and a haughtier temper. He in his youth writ an _Irenicum_ +for healing our divisions, with so much learning and moderation, that +it was esteemed a masterpiece. His notion was, that the Apostles had +settled the Church in a constitution of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, +but had made no perpetual law about it, having only taken it in, +as they did many other things, from the customs and practice of the +synagogue; from which he inferred, that certainly the constitution +was lawful since authorised by them, but not necessary, since they had +made no settled law about it. This took with many; but was cried out +upon by others as an attempt against the Church. Yet the argument was +managed with so much learning and skill, that none of either side +ever undertook to answer it. After that, he wrote against infidelity, +beyond any that had gone before him. And then he engaged to write +against Popery, which he did with such an exactness and liveliness, +that no books of controversy were so much read and valued, as his +were. He was a great man in many respects. He knew the world well, +and was esteemed a very wise man. The writing of his _Irenicum_ was a +great snare to him: For, to avoid the imputations which that brought +upon him, he not only retracted the book, but he went into the humours +of that high sort of people beyond what became him, perhaps beyond +his own sense of things. He applied himself much to the study of the +law and records, and the original of our constitution, and was a very +extraordinary man. _Patrick_ was a great preacher. He wrote much, and +well, and chiefly on the Scriptures. He was a laborious man in his +function, of great strictness of life, but a little too severe against +those who differed from him. But that was, when he thought their +doctrines struck at the fundamentals of religion. He became afterwards +more moderate. To these I shall add another divine, who, tho' of +_Oxford_, yet as he was formed by Bishop _Wilkins_, so he went into +most of their principles; but went far beyond them in learning. +_Lloyd_ was a great critick in the _Greek_ and _Latin_ authors, +but chiefly in the Scriptures; of the words and phrases of which he +carried the most perfect concordance in his memory, and had it the +readiest about him, of all men that ever I knew. He was an exact +historian, and the most punctual in chronology of all our divines. +He had read the most books, and with the best judgment, and had made +the most copious abstracts out of them, of any in this age: So that +_Wilkins_ used to say, he had the most learning in ready cash of any +he ever knew. He was so exact in every thing he set about, that he +never gave over any part of study, till he had quite mastered it. But +when that was done, he went to another subject, and did not lay out +his learning with the diligence with which he laid it in. He had many +volumes of materials upon all subjects laid together in so distinct a +method, that he could with very little labour write on any of them. He +had more life in his imagination, and a truer judgment, than may seem +consistent with such a laborious course of study. Yet, as much as he +was set on learning, he had never neglected his pastoral care. For +several years he had the greatest cure in _England_, St. _Martins_, +which he took care of with an application and diligence beyond any +about him; to whom he was an example, or rather a reproach, so few +following his example. He was a holy, humble, and patient man, ever +ready to do good when he saw a proper opportunity: Even his love of +study did not divert him from that. He did upon his promotion find +a very worthy successor in his cure, _Tenison_, who carried on and +advanced all those good methods that he had begun in the management +of that great cure. He endowed schools, set up a publick library, and +kept many Curates to assist him in his indefatigable labours among +them. He was a very learned man, and took much pains to state the +notions and practices of heathenish idolatry, and so to fasten that +charge on the Church of _Rome_. And, _Whitehall_ lying within that +parish, he stood as in the front of the battel all King _James's_ +reign; and maintained, as well as managed, that dangerous post with +great courage and much judgment, and was held in very high esteem for +his whole deportment, which was ever grave and moderate. These have +been the greatest divines we have had these forty years: And may we +ever have a succession of such men to fill the room of those who have +already gone off the stage, and of those who, being now very old, +cannot hold their posts long. Of these I have writ the more fully, +because I knew them well, and have lived long in great friendship with +them; but most particularly with _Tillotson_ and _Lloyd_. And, as I +am sensible I owe a great deal of the consideration that has been had +for me to my being known to be their friend, so I have really learned +the best part of what I know from them. But I owed them much more +on the account of those excellent principles and notions, of which +they were in a particular manner communicative to me. This set of +men contributed more than can be well imagined to reform the way +of preaching; which among the divines of _England_ before them was +over-run with pedantry, a great mixture of quotations from fathers +and ancient writers, a long opening of a text with the concordance +of every word in it, and a giving all the different expositions with +the grounds of them, and the entring into some parts of controversy, +and all concluding in some, but very short, practical applications, +according to the subject or the occasion. This was both long and +heavy, when all was pye-balled, full of many sayings of different +languages. The common style of sermons was either very flat and low, +or swelled up with rhetorick to a false pitch of a wrong sublime. The +King had little or no literature, but true and good sense; and had got +a right notion of style; for he was in _France_ at a time when they +were much set on reforming their language. It soon appear'd that he +had a true taste. So this help'd to raise the value of these men, +when the King approved of the style their discourses generally ran +in; which was clear, plain, and short. They gave a short paraphrase +of their text, unless where great difficulties required a more copious +enlargement: But even then they cut off unnecessary shews of learning, +and applied themselves to the matter, in which they opened the nature +and reasons of things so fully, and with that simplicity, that their +hearers felt an instruction of another sort than had commonly been +observed before. So they became very much followed: And a set of these +men brought off the City in a great measure from the prejudices they +had formerly to the Church. + + + + +75. + +JAMES II. + +_Born 1633. Created Duke of York. Succeeded Charles II 1685. Fled to +France 1688. Died 1701._ + +By BURNET. + + +I will digress a little to give an account of the Duke's character, +whom I knew for some years so particularly, that I can say much +upon my own knowledge. He was very brave in his youth, and so much +magnified by Monsieur _Turenne_, that, till his marriage lessened him +he really clouded the King, and pass'd for the superior genius. He was +naturally candid and sincere, and a firm friend, till affairs and his +religion wore out all his first principles and inclinations. He had +a great desire to understand affairs: And in order to that he kept +a constant journal of all that pass'd, of which he shewed me a +great deal. The Duke of _Buckingham_ gave me once a short but severe +character of the two brothers. It was the more severe, because it +was-true: The King (he said) could see things if he would, and the +Duke would see things if he could. He had no true judgment, and +was soon determined by those whom he trusted: But he was obstinate +against all other advices. He was bred with high notions of the Kingly +authority, and laid it down for a maxim, that all who opposed the King +were rebels in their hearts. He was perpetually in one amour or other, +without being very nice in his choice: Upon which the King said once, +he believed his brother had his mistresses given him by his Priests +for penance. He gave me this account of his changing his religion: +When he escaped out of the hands of the Earl of _Northumberland_, who +had the charge of his education trusted to him by the Parliament, and +had used him with great respect, all due care was taken, as soon as +he got beyond sea, to form him to a strict adherence to the Church +of _England_: Among other things much was said of the authority of +the Church, and of the tradition from the Apostles in support of +Episcopacy: So that, when he came to observe that there was more +reason to submit to the Catholick Church than to one particular +Church, and that other traditions might be taken on her word, as +well as Episcopacy was received among us, he thought the step was not +great, but that it was very reasonable to go over to the Church of +_Rome_: And Doctor _Steward_ having taught him to believe a real but +unconceivable presence of _Christ_ in the Sacrament, he thought this +went more than half way to transubstantiation. He said, that a Nun's +advice to him to pray every day, that, if he was not in the right way, +God would set him right, did make a great impression on him. But he +never told me when or where he was reconciled. He suffered me to say a +great deal to him on all these heads. I shewed the difference between +submission and obedience in matters of order and indifferent things, +and an implicite submission from the belief of infallibility. I +also shewed him the difference between a speculation of a mode of +_Christ's_ presence, when it rested in an opinion, and an adoration +founded on it: Tho' the opinion of such a presence was wrong, there +was no great harm in that alone: But the adoration of an undue object +was idolatry. He suffered me to talk much and often to him on these +heads. But I plainly saw, it made no impression: And all that he +seemed to intend by it was, to make use of me as an instrument to +soften the aversion that people began to be possessed with to him. He +was naturally eager and revengeful: And was against the taking off any +that set up in an opposition to the measures of the Court, and who by +that means grew popular in the House of Commons. He was for rougher +methods. He continued for many years dissembling his religion, and +seemed zealous for the Church of _England_: But it was chiefly on +design to hinder all propositions that tended to unite us among our +selves. He was a frugal Prince, and brought his Court into method and +magnificence: For he had 100000_l_. a year allowed him. He was made +High Admiral: And he came to understand all the concerns of the +sea very particularly. He had a very able Secretary about him, Sir +_William Coventry_; a man of great notions and eminent vertues, the +best Speaker in the House of Commons, and capable of bearing the chief +ministry, as it was once thought he was very near it. The Duke found, +all the great seamen had a deep tincture from their education: They +both hated Popery, and loved liberty: They were men of severe tempers, +and kept good discipline. But in order to the putting the fleet into +more confident hands, the Duke began a method of sending pages of +honour, and other young persons of quality, to be bred to the sea. And +these were put in command, as soon as they were capable of it, if not +sooner. This discouraged many of the old seamen, when they saw in what +a channel advancement was like to go; who upon that left the service, +and went and commanded merchantmen. By this means the vertue and +discipline of the navy is much lost. It is true, we have a breed of +many gallant men, who do distinguish themselves in action. But it is +thought, the Nation has suffered much by the vices and disorders of +those Captains, who have risen by their quality, more than by merit or +service. + + + + +76. + +By BURNET. + + +He was a Prince that seemed made for greater things, than will be +found in the course of his Life, more particularly of his Reign: He +was esteemed in the former parts of his Life, a Man of great Courage, +as he was quite thro' it a man of great application to business: He +had no vivacity of thought, invention or expression: But he had a good +judgment, where his Religion or his Education gave him not a biass, +which it did very often: He was bred with strange Notions of the +Obedience due to Princes, and came to take up as strange ones, of the +Submission due to Priests: He was naturally a man of truth, fidelity, +and justice: But his Religion was so infused in him, and he was so +managed in it by his Priests, that the Principles which Nature had +laid in him, had little power over him, when the concerns of his +Church stood in the way: He was a gentle Master, and was very easy to +all who came near him: yet he was not so apt to pardon, as one ought +to be, that is the Vicegerent of that God, who is slow to anger, and +ready to forgive: He had no personal Vices but of one sort: He was +still wandring from one Amour to another, yet he had a real sense of +Sin, and was ashamed of it: But Priests know how to engage Princes +more entirely into their interests, by making them compound for their +Sins, by a great zeal for Holy Church, as they call it. In a word, if +it had not been for his Popery, he would have been, if not a great +yet a good Prince. By what I once knew of him, and by what I saw him +afterwards carried to, I grew more confirmed in the very bad opinion, +which I was always apt to have, of the Intrigues of the Popish Clergy, +and of the Confessors of Kings: He was undone by them, and was their +Martyr, so that they ought to bear the chief load of all the errors +of his inglorious Reign, and of its fatal Catastrophe. He had the +Funeral which he himself had desired, private, and without any sort of +Ceremony. + + + + +NOTES + + +1. + +The History of Great Britain, Being the Life and Reign of King James +The First, Relating To what passed from his first Accesse to the +Crown, till his Death. By Arthur Wilson, Esq. London, 1653. (pp. +289-90.) + +Arthur Wilson (1595-1652) was a gentleman-in-waiting to Robert +Devereux, third Earl of Essex, during James's reign, and was +afterwards in the service of Robert Rich, second Earl of Essex. The +_History_ was written towards the end of his life, and published the +year after his death. He was the author also of an autobiography, +_Observations of God's Providence in the Tract of my Life_ (first +printed in Francis Peck's _Desiderata Curiosa_, 1735, Lib. XII, pp. +6-34), and of three plays, _The Swisser_ (performed at Blackfriars, +1633, first printed in 1904, ed. Albert Feuillerat, from the MS. +in the British Museum), _The Corporall_ (performed, 1633, but not +extant), and _The Inconstant Lady_ (first printed in 1814, ed. Philip +Bliss, from the MS. in the Bodleian Library). The three plays were +entered in the Registers of the Stationers' Company, September 4, +1646, and September 9, 1653. But nothing he wrote appears to have been +published during his life. + +Page 2, l. 24. _Peace begot Plenty_. An adaptation of the wellknown +saying which Puttenham in his _Arte of English Poesie_ (ed. Arber, p. +217) attributes to Jean de Meung. Puttenham gives it thus: + + Peace makes plentie, plentie makes pride, + Pride breeds quarrell, and quarrell brings warre: + Warre brings spoile, and spoile pouertie, + Pouertie pacience, and pacience peace: + So peace brings warre, and warre brings peace. + +It is found also in Italian and Latin. Allusions to it are frequent +in the seventeenth century. Compare the beginning of Swift's _Battle +of the Books_, and see the correspondence in _The Times Literary +Supplement_, February 17-March 30, 1916. + + +2. + +The Court and Character of King James. Written and taken by Sir +A.W. being an eye, and eare witnesse. Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit +regnare. Published by Authority. London, MDCL. + +'The Character of King James' forms a section by itself at the +conclusion of the volume, pp. 177-89. The volume was reprinted in +the following year, when there were added to it 'The Court of King +Charles' and 'Observations (instead of a Character) upon this King, +from his Childe-hood'. Both editions are carelessly printed. The +second, which corrects some of the errors of the first but introduces +others, has been used for the present text. + +Weldon was clerk of the kitchen to James I and afterwards clerk of +the Green Cloth. He was knighted in 1617, and accompanied James to +Scotland in that year, but was dismissed from his place at court for +his satire on the Scots. He took the side of the parliament in the +Civil War. The dedication to Lady Elizabeth Sidley (first printed in +the second edition) states that the work 'treads too near the heeles +of truth, and these Times, to appear in publick'. According to Anthony +à Wood she had suppressed the manuscript, which was stolen from +her. Weldon had died before it was printed. The answer to it called +_Aulicus Coquinariæ_ describes it as 'Pretended to be penned by Sir +A.W. and published since his death, 1650'. + +Other works of the same kind, though of inferior value, are Sir Edward +Peyton's _The Divine Catastrophe of The Kingly Family Of the House of +Stuarts_, 1652, and Francis Osborne's _Traditionall Memoyres on The +Raigne of King James_, 1658. They were printed together by Sir Walter +Scott in 1811 under the title _The Secret History of the Court of +James the First_, a collection which contains the historical material +employed in _The Fortunes of Nigel_. + +Though carelessly written, and as carelessly printed, Weldon's +character of James is in parts remarkably vivid. It was reprinted by +itself in Morgan's _Pboenix Britannicus_, 1732, pp. 54-6; and it +was incorporated in the edition of Defoe's _Memoirs of a Cavalier_ +published in 1792: see _The Retrospective Review_, 1821, vol. iii, pt. +ii, pp. 378-9. + +There is a valuable article on Weldon's book as a whole in _The +Retrospective Review_, 1823, vol. vii, pt. I. + +PAGE 4, l. 6. _before he was born_, probably an allusion to the murder +of Rizzio in Mary's presence. + +l. 11. The syntax is faulty: delete 'and'? + +On James's capacity for strong drinks, compare Roger Coke's _Detection +of the Court and State of England_ (1694), ed. 1719, vol. i, p. 78. + +l. 27. _that foul poysoning busines_, the poisoning of Sir Thomas +Overbury, the great scandal of the reign. Robert Ker, or Carr, created +Viscount Rochester 1611 and Earl of Somerset 1613, had cast his eye +on the Countess of Essex, and, after a decree of nullity of marriage +with Essex had been procured, married her in December 1613. Overbury, +who had been Somerset's friend, opposed the projected marriage. On +a trumped up charge of disobedience to the king he was in April 1613 +committed to the Tower, where he was slowly poisoned, and died in +September. Somerset and the Countess were both found guilty in 1616, +but ultimately pardoned; four of the accomplices were hanged. Weldon +deals with the scandal at some length in the main part of his work, +pp. 61 ff. + +l. 30. _Mountgomery_, Philip Herbert, created Earl of Montgomery 1605, +succeeded his brother, William Herbert, as fourth Earl of Pembroke +in 1630 (see No. 7). To this 'most noble and incomparable paire +of brethren' Heminge and Condell dedicated the First Folio of +Shakespeare's plays, 1623. Montgomery's character is given by +Clarendon, _History_, ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 74-5; and, as fourth +Earl of Pembroke, vol. ii, pp. 539-41. + +Page 5, l. 22. _unfortunate in the marriage of his Daughter_. James's +daughter Elizabeth married the Elector Palatine, Frederick V, in 1613. +His election as King of Bohemia led to the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) +in which James long hesitated to become involved and played at best +an ineffectual part. The opinion here expressed is explained by +an earlier passage in Weldon's book, pp. 82-4: 'In this Favourites +(Somerset's) flourishing time, came over the _Palsgrave_ to marry our +Kings daughter, which for the present, gave much content, and with the +generall applause, yet it proved a most infortunate match to him and +his Posterity, and all Christendome, for all his Alliance with so +many great Princes, which put on him aspiring thoughts, and was so +ambitious as not to content himselfe with his hereditary patrimony +of one of the greatest Princes in _Germany_; but must aspire to a +Kingdome, beleeving that his great allyance would carry him through +any enterprise, or bring him off with honour, in both which he failed; +being cast out of his own Country with shame, and he and his, ever +after, living upon the devotion of other Princes; but had his Father +in Law spent halfe the mony in Swords he did in words, for which he +was but scorned, it had kept him in his own inheritance, and saved +much Christian bloud since shed; but whiles he, being wholly addicted +to peace, spent much treasure, in sending stately Embassadours to +treat, his Enemies (which he esteemed friends) sent Armies with a +lesse charge to conquer, so that it may be concluded, that this +then thought the most happy match in Christendome, was the greatest +unhappinesse to Christendome, themselves, and posterity.' + +l. 27. _Sir Robert Mansell_ (1573-1656), Vice-Admiral of England under +Charles I. Clarendon, writing of the year 1642, says that 'his courage +and integrity were unquestionable' (ed. Macray, vol. ii, p. 219). +'Argiers' or 'Argier' was the common old form of 'Algiers': cf. _The +Tempest_, I. ii. 261, 265. + +Page 6, l. 2. _Cottington_, Francis Cottington (1578-1652), baronet +1623, Baron Cottington, 1631. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer from +1629 to 1642. + +Page 7, l. 5. The first edition reads 'In sending Embassadours, which +were'. The printer's substitution of 'His' for 'In' and omission of +'which' do not wholly mend the syntax. + +l. 10. _peace with honour_. An early instance of the phrase made +famous by Lord Beaconsfield in his speech of July 16, 1878, after the +Congress of Berlin, 'Lord Salisbury and myself have brought you back +peace, but a peace I hope with honour.' Cf. _Notes and Queries_, 1887, +Seventh Series, vol. iii, p. 96. + +l. 14. _Nullum tempus, &c._, the law maxim _Nullum tempus occurrit +regi_, lapse of time does not bar the crown. The Parliament which met +in February 1624 passed 'An Act for the generall quiett of the Subject +agaynst all pretences of Concealement' (21° Jac. I, c. 2) which +declared sixty years' possession of Lands, &c., to be a good title +against the Crown. + +l. 18. _his Tuesday Sermons_, likewise explained by an earlier passage +in Weldon's book, pp. 8, 9: 'the chiefe of those secrets, was that +of _Gowries_ Conspiracy, though that Nation [the Scots] gave little +credit to the Story, but would speak sleightly and despitefully of +it, and those of the wisest of that Nation; yet there was a weekly +commemoration by the Tuesday Sermon, and an anniversary Feast, as +great as it was possible, for the Kings preservation, ever on the +fifth of August.' James attempted to force the Tuesday sermon on the +University of Oxford; it was to be preached by members of each college +in rotation. See Brodrick's _Memorials of Merton College_, 1885, p. +70. + +Page 8, l. 1. _a very wise man_. Compare _The Fortunes of Nigel_, +chap. v: 'the character bestowed upon him by Sully--that he was +the wisest fool in Christendom'. Two volumes of the _Mémoires_ of +Maximilien de Béthune, Duc de Sully (1560-1641), appeared in 1638; the +others after 1650. There is much about James in the second volume, but +this description of him does not appear to be there. + +ll. 10-12. _two Treasurers_, see p. 21, ll. 15-22: _three +Secretaries_, Sir Thomas Lake; Sir Robert Naunton; Sir George Calvert, +Baron Baltimore; Sir Edward Conway, Viscount Conway: _two Lord +Keepers_, Sir Francis Bacon; John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln (see +p. 18, l. 5): _two Admiralls_, Charles Howard of Effingham, Earl of +Nottingham; the Duke of Buckingham: _three Lord chief Justices_, Sir +Edward Coke; Henry Montagu, Earl of Manchester; James Ley, Earl of +Marlborough. + +Weldon's statement is true of the year 1623; he might have said +'_three_ Treasurers' and '_four_ Secretaries'. + + +3. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 7-9, 18-20; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. +i, pp. 9-11, 26-9; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 10-13, 38-43. + +This is the first of the portraits in Clarendon's great gallery, and +it is drawn with great care. Clarendon was only a youth of twenty when +Buckingham was assassinated, and he had therefore not the personal +knowledge and contact to which the later portraits owe so much of +their value. But he had throughout all his life been interested in +the remarkable career of this 'very extraordinary person'. Sir Henry +Wotton's 'Observations by Way of Parallel' on the Earl of Essex +and Buckingham had suggested to him his first character study, 'The +Difference and Disparity' between them. (It is printed after the +'Parallel' in _Reliquiæ Wottonianæ_, and described in the third +edition, 1672, as 'written by the Earl of Clarendon in his younger +dayes'.) His two studies offer an interesting comparison. Many of the +ideas are the same, but there is a marked difference in the precision +of drawing and the ease of style. The character here reprinted was +written when Clarendon had mastered his art. + +Page 11, l. 5. See p. 4, l. 27. + +Page 13, l. 25. The passage here omitted deals with Buckingham's +unsuccessful journey to Spain with Prince Charles, and with his +assassination. + +Page 16, l. 28. _touched upon before_, ed. Macray, vol. i, p. 38; here +omitted. + + +4. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 27, 28; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 36-8; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 56-9. + +Page 18, l. 5. _the Bishopp of Lincolne_, John Williams (1582-1650), +afterwards Archbishop of York. He succeeded Bacon as Lord Keeper. He +is sketched in Wilson's _History of Great Britain_, pp. 196-7, and +Fuller's _Church-History of Britain_, 1655, Bk. XI, pp. 225-8. His +life by John Hacket, _Scrinia Reserata_, 1693, is notorious for the +'embellishments' of its style; a shorter life, based on Hacket's, was +an early work of Ambrose Philips. + +l. 22. _the Earle of Portlande_, Sir Richard Weston: see No. 5. + +l. 24. _Hambleton_, Clarendon's usual spelling of 'Hamilton'. + + +5. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 28-32; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 31-43; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 59-67. + +Another and more favourable character of Weston is the matter of an +undated letter which Sir Henry Wotton sent to him as 'a strange New +years Gift' about 1635. 'In short, it is only an Image of your Self, +drawn by memory from such discourse as I have taken up here and +there of your Lordship, among the most intelligent and unmalignant +men; which to pourtrait before you I thought no servile office, but +ingenuous and real'. See _Reliquiæ Wottonianæ_, ed. 1672, pp. 333-6. + +Page 21, l. 7. _the white staffe_. 'The Third _Great Officer_ of the +Crown, is the _Lord High Treasurer of England_, who receives this High +Office by delivery of a _White Staffe_ to him by the _King_, and +holds it _durante bene placito Regis_' (Edward Chamberlayne, _Angliæ +Notitia_, 1674, p. 152). + +Page 23, l. 4. _L'd Brooke_, Sir Fulke Greville (1554-1628) the +friend and biographer of Sir Philip Sidney. He was Chancellor of the +Exchequer from 1614 to 1621. + +Page 28, l. 18. _eclarcicement_, introduced into English about +this time, and in frequent use till the beginning of the nineteenth +century. + +l. 28. _a younge, beautifull Lady_, Frances, daughter of Esmé, third +Duke of Lennox, married to Jerome Weston, afterwards second Earl of +Portland, in 1632. + + +6. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 33, 34; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, +p. 44; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 69-71. + +This is one of Clarendon's most unfriendly portraits. It was seriously +edited when first printed. The whole passage about the coldness and +selfishness of Arundel's nature on p. 31, ll. 12-30, was omitted, as +likewise the allusion to his ignorance on p. 30, ll. 25-7, 'wheras in +truth he was only able to buy them, never to understande them.' Minor +alterations are the new reading 'thought no part of History _so_ +considerable, _as_ what related to his own Family' p. 30, ll. 28, +29, and the omission of 'vulgar' p. 31, l. 11. The purpose of these +changes is obvious. They are extreme examples of the methods of +Clarendon's first editors. In no other character did they take so +great liberties with his text. + +Arundel's great collection of ancient marbles is now in the Ashmolean +Museum in the University of Oxford. The inscriptions were presented +to the University in 1667 by Lord Henry Howard, Arundel's grandson, +afterwards sixth Duke of Norfolk, and the statues were reunited +to them in 1755 by the gift of Henrietta Countess of Pomfret. As +Clarendon's _History_ was an official publication of the University, +it is probable that the prospect of receiving the statues induced +the editors to remove or alter the passages that might be thought +offensive. + +As a whole this character does not show Clarendon's usual detachment. +Arundel was Earl Marshal, and Clarendon in the Short Parliament of +1640 and again at the beginning of the Long Parliament had attacked +the jurisdiction of the Earl Marshal's Court, which, as he says, +'never presumed to sit afterwards'. The account given in Clarendon's +_Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 37-9, explains much in this character. Clarendon +there says that Arundel 'did him the honour to detest and hate him +perfectly'. There was resentment on both sides. The character was +written in Clarendon's later years, but he still remembered with +feeling the days when as Mr. Edward Hyde he was at cross purposes with +this Earl of ancient lineage. + +A different character of Arundel is given in the 'Short View' of his +life written by Sir Edward Walker (1612-77), Garter King of Arms and +Secretary of War to Charles I: + +'He was tall of Stature, and of Shape and proportion rather goodly +than neat; his Countenance was Majestical and grave, his Visage long, +his Eyes large black and piercing; he had a hooked Nose, and some +Warts or Moles on his Cheeks; his Countenance was brown, his Hair thin +both on his Head and Beard; he was of a stately Presence and Gate, so +that any Man that saw him, though in never so ordinary Habit, could +not but conclude him to be a great Person, his Garb and Fashion +drawing more Observation than did the rich Apparel of others; so that +it was a common Saying of the late Earl of _Carlisle_, Here comes the +Earl of _Arundel_ in his plain Stuff and trunk Hose, and his Beard +in his Teeth, that looks more like a Noble Man than any of us. He +was more learned in Men and Manners than in Books, yet understood the +_Latin_ Tongue very well, and was Master of the _Italian_; besides he +was a great Favourer of learned Men, such as Sir _Robert Cotton_, Sir +_Henry Spelman_, Mr. _Camden_, Mr. _Selden_, and the like. He was a +great Master of Order and Ceremony, and knew and kept greater Distance +towards his Sovereign than any Person I ever observed, and expected +no less from his inferiours; often complaining that the too great +Affability of the King, and the _French_ Garb of the Court would +bring MAJESTY into Contempt.... He was the greatest Favourer of Arts, +especially Painting, Sculpture, Designs, Carving, Building and the +like, that this Age hath produced; his Collection of Designs being +more than of any Person living, and his Statues equal in Number, Value +and Antiquity to those in the Houses of most Princes; to gain which, +he had Persons many Years employed both in _Italy_, _Greece_, and so +generally in any part of _Europe_ where Rarities were to be had. His +Paintings likewise were numerous and of the most excellent Masters, +having more of that exquisite Painter _Hans Holben_ than are in the +World besides.... He was a Person of great and universal Civility, but +yet with that Restriction as that it forbad any to be bold or sawcy +with him; though with those whom he affected, which were Lovers of +State, Nobility and curious Arts, he was very free and conversible; +but they being but few, the Stream of the times being otherwise, he +had not many Confidents or Dependents; neither did he much affect +to have them, they being unto great Persons both burthensome and +dangerous. He was not popular at all, nor cared for it, as loving +better by a just Hand than Flattery to let the common People to know +their Distance and due Observance. Neither was he of any Faction in +Court or Council, especially not of the _French_ or Puritan.... He was +in Religion no Bigot or Puritan, and professed more to affect moral +Vertues than nice Questions and Controversies.... If he were defective +in any thing, it was that he could not bring his Mind to his Fortune; +which though great, was far too little for the Vastness of his noble +Designs.' + +Walker's character was written before Clarendon's. It is dated +'Iselsteyne the 7th of June 1651'. It was first published in 1705 in +his _Historical Discourses upon Several Occasions_, pp. 221-3. + +Page 30, l. 15. _his wife_, 'the Lady Alithea Talbot, third Daughter +and Coheir of _Gilbert Talbot_ Earl of _Shrewsbury_, Grandchild of +_George Talbot_ Earl of _Shrewsbury_ and Earl Marshal of _England_' +(Walker, _Historical Discourses_, p. 211). + + +7. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 34, 35; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 44-6; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 71-3. + +This pleasing portrait of Pembroke, one of the great patrons of +literature of James's reign, follows immediately after the unfriendly +portrait of Arundel, the art collector. Clarendon knew the value of +contrast in the arrangement of his gallery. + +Pembroke is sometimes supposed to have been the patron of Shakespeare. +It cannot, however, be proved that there were any personal relations, +though the First Folio was dedicated to him and his brother, the Earl +of Montgomery, afterwards fourth Earl of Pembroke. See note, p. 4, +l. 30. He was the patron of Ben Jonson, who dedicated to him his +_Catiline_, his favourite play, and his _Epigrams_, 'the ripest of +my studies'; also of Samuel Daniel, Chapman, and William Browne. See +_Shakespeare's England_, vol. ii, pp. 202-3. + +Clarendon has also given a character of the fourth Earl, 'the poor +Earl of Pembroke', _History_, ed. Macray, vol. ii, pp. 539-41. + + +8. + +Timber: or, Discoveries; Made Vpon Men and Matter. By Ben: Iohnson. +London, Printed M.DC.XLI. (pp. 101-2.) + +This character is a remarkable testimony to the impression which +Bacon's restrained eloquence made on his contemporaries. Yet it is +little more than an exercise in free translation. Jonson has pieced +together two passages in the _Controversies_ of Marcus Seneca, and +placed the name of 'Dominus Verulanus' in the margin. The two passages +are these: + +'Non est unus, quamvis præcipuus sit, imitandus: quia nunquam par +fit imitator auctori. Hæc natura est rei. Semper citra veritatem est +similitudo.' Lib. I, Præfatio (ed. Paris, 1607, p. 58). + +'Oratio eius erat valens cultu, ingentibus plena sententiis. Nemo +minus passus est aliquid in actione sua otiosi esse. Nulla pars erat, +quæ non sua virtute staret. Nihil, in quo auditor sine damno aliud +ageret. Omnia intenta aliquo, petentia. Nemo magis in sua potestate +habuit audientium affectus. Verum est quod de illo dicit Gallio +noster. Cum diceret, rerum potiebatur, adeo omnes imperata faciebant. +Cum ille voluerat, irascebantur. Nemo non illo dicente timebat, ne +desineret.' Epit. Declamat. Lib. III (p. 231). + +From the continuation of the first passage Jonson took the words +'insolent Greece' ('insolenti Græciæ') in his verses 'To the memory of +Shakespeare'. + +Jonson has left a more vivid picture of Bacon as a speaker in a short +sentence of his Conversations with Drummond of Hawthornden: 'My Lord +Chancelor of England wringeth his speeches from the strings of his +band.' + + +9. + +Reign of King James the First, 1653, pp. 158-60. + +Page 36, l. 18. _which the King hinted at_, in the King's Speech to +the Lords, 1621: 'But because the World at this time talks so much of +_Bribes_, I have just cause to fear the whole _Body_ of this _House_ +hath _bribed_ him [Prince Charles] to be a good _Instrument_ for you +upon all occasions: He doth so good Offices in all his _Reports_ +to me, both for the _House_ in _generall_, and every one of you +in _particular_.' The speech is given in full by Wilson before the +passage on Bacon. + +Page 37, l. 25. The passage here omitted is 'The humble Submission and +Supplication of the Lord Chancellour'. + +Page 38, l. 10. _a good Passeover_, a good passage back to Spain. +Gondomar was Spanish ambassador. + + +10. + +The Church-History of Britain; From the Birth of Jesus Christ, Untill +the Year M.DC.XLVIII. Endeavoured By Thomas Fuller. London, 1655. (Bk. +x, p. 89.) + + +11. + +Resuscitatio, Or, Bringing into Publick Light Severall Pieces, of +the Works, Civil, Historical, Philosophical, & Theological, Hitherto +Sleeping; Of the Right Honourable Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam, +Viscount Saint Alban. According to the best Corrected Coppies. +Together, With his Lordships Life. By William Rawley, Doctor in +Divinity, His Lordships First, and Last, Chapleine. Afterwards, +Chapleine, to His late Maiesty. London, 1657. + +'The Life of the Honourable Author' serves as introduction to this +volume of Bacon's literary remains. It runs to fourteen pages, +unnumbered. The passage quoted from this life (_c1v-c2v_) is of the +nature of a character. + +Rawley's work is disfigured by pedantically heavy punctuation. He +carried to absurd excess the methods which his Master adopted in the +1625 edition of his _Essays_. It has not been thought necessary to +retain all his commas. + +Page 41, l. 4. _Et quod tentabam_, &c. Ovid, _Tristia_, IV. x. 26. + + +12. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 48; _Life_, ed. 1759, p. 16. + +Page 42, l. 23. _M'r Cowly_, an indication of Cowley's fame among his +contemporaries. This was written in 1668, after the publication of +_Paradise Lost_, but Clarendon ignores Milton. + +l. 25. _to own much of his_, 'to ascribe much of this' _Life_ 1759. + +Page 43, l. 2. _M'r Hyde_, Clarendon himself. + + +13. + +A New Volume of Familiar Letters, Partly Philosophicall, Politicall, +Historicall. The second Edition, with Additions. By James Howell, Esq. +London, 1650. (Letter XIII, pp. 25-6.) + +This is the second volume of _Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ_, first published +1645 (vol. 1) and 1647 (vol. 2). The text is here printed from the +copy of the second edition which Howell presented to Selden with an +autograph dedication: 'Ex dono Authoris ... Opusculum hoc honoris ergô +mittitur, Archiuis suis reponendum. 3° non: Maij 1652.' The volume now +reposes in the Selden collection in the Bodleian library. The second +edition of this letter differs from the first in the insertion of the +bracketed words, ll. 22, 23, and the date. + +The authenticity of the letters as a whole is discussed in Joseph +Jacob's edition, 1890, pp. lxxi ff. This was probably not a real +letter written to his correspondent at the given date. But whenever, +and in whatever circumstances, Howell wrote it, the value of the +picture it gives us of Ben Jonson is not impaired. + +PAGE 43, l. 9. _Sir Tho. Hawk_. Sir Thomas Hawkins, translator of +Horace's _Odes and Epodes_, 1625; hence 'your' Horace, p. 44, l. 4. + +l. 17. _T. Ca._ Thomas Carew, the poet, one of the 'Tribe of Ben'. + +PAGE 44, l. 6. _Iamque opus_, Ovid, _Metam._ xv. 871; cf. p. 202, +l. 13. l. 8. _Exegi monumentum_, Horace, _Od._ iii. 30. i. l. 10. _O +fortunatam_, preserved in Quintilian, _Inst. Orat._ ix. 4. 41 and xi. +I. 24, and in Juvenal, _Sat._ x. 122. + + +14. + +This remarkable portrait of a country gentleman of the old school +is from the 'Fragment of Autobiography', written by the first Earl +of Shaftesbury (see Nos. 68, 69) towards the end of his life. The +manuscript is among the Shaftesbury papers in the Public Record +Office, but at present (1918) has been temporarily withdrawn for +greater safety, and is not available for reference. The text is +therefore taken from the modernized version in W.D. Christie's +_Memoirs of Shaftesbury_, 1859, pp. 22-5, and _Life of Shaftesbury_, +1871, vol. i, appendix i, pp. xv-xvii. + +The character was published in Leonard Howard's _Collection of +Letters, from the Original Manuscripts_, 1753, pp. 152-5, and was +reprinted in _The Gentleman's Magazine_ for April 1754, pp. 160-1, and +again in _The Connoisseur_, No. 81, August 14, 1755. _The Gentleman's +Magazine_ (1754, p. 215) is responsible for the error that it is to be +found in Peck's _Desiderata Curiosa_. + +Hastings was Shaftesbury's neighbour in Dorsetshire. A full-length +portrait of him in his old age, clad in green cloth and holding +a pike-staff in his right hand, is at St. Giles, the seat of the +Shaftesbury family. It is reproduced in Hutchins's _History of +Dorset_, ed. 1868, vol. iii, p. 152. + +PAGE 44, ll. 24-26. He was the second son of George fourth Earl of +Huntingdon. Shaftesbury is describing his early associates after his +marriage in 1639: 'The eastern part of Dorsetshire had a bowling-green +at Hanley, where the gentlemen went constantly once a week, though +neither the green nor accommodation was inviting, yet it was well +placed for to continue the correspondence of the gentry of those +parts. Thither resorted Mr. Hastings of Woodland,' &c. + +Page 47, l. 12. '_my part lies therein-a_.' As was pointed out by E.F. +Rimbault in _Notes and Queries_, 1859, Second Series, vol. vii, p. +323, this is part of an old catch printed with the music in _Pammelia. +Musicks Miscellanie. Or, Mixed Varietie of Pleasant Roundelayes, and +delightfull Catches_, 1609: + + There lies a pudding in the fire, + and my parte lies therein a: + whome should I call in, + O thy good fellowes and mine a. + +_Pammelia_, 'the earliest collection of rounds, catches, and canons +printed in England', was brought out by Thomas Ravenscroft. Another +edition appeared in 1618. + + +15. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 383-4; _History_, Bk. XI, ed. 1704, vol. iii, +pp. 197-9; ed. Macray, vol. iv, pp. 488-92. + +The sense of Fate overhangs the portrait in which Clarendon paints for +posterity the private virtues of his unhappy master. The easy dignity +of the style adapts itself to the grave subject. This is one of +Clarendon's greatest passages. It was written twenty years after +Charles's death, but Time had not dulled his feelings. 'But ther shall +be only incerted the shorte character of his person, as it was found +in the papers of that person whose life is heare described, who was so +nerely trusted by him, and who had the greatest love for his person, +and the greatest reverence for his memory, that any faythfull servant +could exspresse.' So he wrote at first in the account of his own life. +On transferring the passage to the _History_ he substituted the more +impersonal sentence (p. 48, l. 27--p. 49, l. 5) which the general +character of the _History_ demanded. + +Page 48, l. 15. _our blessed Savyour_. Compare 'The Martyrdom of King +Charls I. or His Conformity with Christ in his Sufferings. In a Sermon +preached at Bredah, Before his Sacred Majesty King Charls The Second, +And the Princess of Orange. By the Bishop of Downe. Printed at the +Hage 1649, and reprinted at London ... 1660'. Clarendon probably heard +this sermon. + +l. 21. _have bene so much_, substituted in MS. for 'fitt to be more'. + +_treatises_. E.g. _Elenchus Motuum Nuperorum in Anglia_ (part 1), +1649, by George Bate or Bates, principal physician to Charles I and +II; _England's black Tribunall. Set forth in the Triall of K. Charles +I_, 1660; and the sermon mentioned above. + +Page 51, l. 20. _educated by that people_. His tutor was Sir Peter +Young (1544-1628), the tutor of James. Patrick Young (1584-1652), Sir +Peter's son, was Royal Librarian. + +l. 26. _Hambleton_. Cf. p. 18, l. 24. + + +16. + +Mémoires Of the reigne of King Charles I. With a Continuation to the +Happy Restauration of King Charles II. By Sir Philip Warwick, Knight. +Published from the Original Manuscript. With An Alphabetical Table. +London, 1701. (pp. 64-75.) + +Warwick (1609-83) was Secretary to Charles in 1647-8. 'When I think +of dying', he wrote, adapting a saying of Cicero, 'it is one of my +comforts, that when I part from the dunghill of this world, I shall +meet King Charles, and all those faithfull spirits, that had virtue +enough to be true to him, the Church, and the Laws unto the last.' +(_Mémoires_, p. 331.) Passages in the _Mémoires_ show that they were +begun after the summer of 1676 (p. 37), and completed shortly after +May 18, 1677 (p. 403). + +Page 55, l. 13. _Sir Henry Vane_, the elder. + +l. 14. _dyet_, allowance for expenses of living. + +Page 56, l. 26. [Greek: Eikon Basilikae]. _The Pourtraicture of His +Sacred Maiesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings_ was published in +February 1649. Charles's authorship was at once doubted in Milton's +[Greek: EIKONOKLASTAES] and in [Greek: EIKON ALAETHINAE]. _The +Pourtraicture of Truths most sacred Majesty truly suffering, though +not solely_, and supported in [Greek: EIKON AKLASTOS], in [Greek: +EIKON AE PISTAE], and in _The Princely Pellican_, all published +in 1649. The weight of evidence is now strongly in favour of +the authorship of John Gauden (1605-62), bishop of Exeter at +the Restoration. Gauden said in 1661 that he had written it, and +examination of his claims is generally admitted to have confirmed +them. See H.J. Todd's _Letter concerning the Author_, 1825, and +_Gauden the Author, further shewn_, 1829; and C.E. Doble's four +letters in _The Academy_, May 12-June 30, 1883. + +Carlyle had no doubt that Charles was not the author. 'My reading +progresses with or without fixed hope. I struggled through the +"Eikon Basilike" yesterday; one of the paltriest pieces of vapid, +shovel-hatted, clear-starched, immaculate falsity and cant I have ever +read. It is to me an amazement how any mortal could ever have taken +that for a genuine book of King Charles's. Nothing but a surpliced +Pharisee, sitting at his ease afar off, could have got up such a set +of meditations. It got Parson Gauden a bishopric.'--Letter of November +26, 1840 (Froude's _Thomas Carlyle_, 1884, vol. i, p. 199). + +Page 57, l. 4. Thomas Herbert (1606-82), made a baronet in 1660. +Appointed by Parliament in 1647 to attend the King, he was latterly +his sole attendant, and accompanied him with Juxon to the scaffold. +His _Threnodia Carolina_, reminiscences of Charles's captivity, was +published in 1702 under the title, _Memoirs of the Two last Years of +the Reign of that unparalleled Prince, of ever Blessed Memory, King +Charles I_. It was 'printed for the first time from the original MS.' +(now in private possession), but in modernized spelling, in Allan +Fea's _Memoirs of the Martyr King_, 1905, pp. 74-153. + +l. 10. Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715), bishop of Salisbury, 1689, the +historian whose characters are given in the later part of this volume. +His _Mémoires of the Lives and Actions of James and William Dukes of +Hamilton_, 1677, his first historical work, appeared while Warwick was +writing his _Mémoires of Charles_. It attracted great attention, as +its account of recent events was furnished with authentic documents. +'It was the first political biography of the modern type, combining +a narrative of a man's life with a selection from his letters' (C.H. +Firth, introduction to Clarke and Foxcroft's _Life of Burnet_, 1907, +p. xiii). + +l. 15. _affliction gives understanding_. Compare Proverbs 29. 15, +and Ecclesiasticus 4. 17 and 34. 9; the exact words are not in the +Authorised Version. + +l. 30. Robert Sanderson (1587-1663), Regius Professor of Divinity at +Oxford, 1642, Bishop of Lincoln, 1660. Izaak Walton wrote his _Life_, +1678. + +Page 58, l. 20. Sir Dudley Carleton (1573-1632), created Baron +Carleton, 1626, and Viscount Dorchester, 1628; Secretary of State, +1628. + +l. 21. Lord Falkland, see pp. 71-97; Secretary of State, 1642. + +Page 59, ll. 11-13. Plutarch, Life of Alexander the Great; opening +sentences, roughly paraphrased. + +Page 60, l. 20. _Venient Romani_, St. John, xi. 48. See _The +Archbishop of Canterbury's Speech or His Funerall Sermon, Preacht by +himself on the Scaffold on Tower-Hill, on Friday the 10. of Ianuary, +1644. London_, 1644, p. 10: 'I but perhaps a great clamour there is, +that I would have brought in Popery, I shall answer that more fully +by and by, in the meane time, you know what the Pharisees said against +Christ himself, in the eleventh of _Iohn_, _If we let him alone, +all men will beleeve on him_, Et venient Romani, _and the Romanes +will come and take away both our place and the Nation_. Here was a +causelesse cry against Christ that the Romans would come, and see how +just the Iudgement of God was, they crucified Christ for feare least +the Romans should come, and his death was that that brought in the +Romans upon them, God punishing them with that which they most feared: +and I pray God this clamour of _veniunt Romani_, (of which I have +given to my knowledge no just cause) helpe not to bring him in; for +the Pope never had such a Harvest in England since the Reformation, as +he hath now upon the Sects and divisions that are amongst us.' + +ll. 22-30. Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) brought out his _De Jure Belli ac +Pacis Libri Tres_ at Paris in 1625. Towards the end of the dedication +to Louis XIII Grotius says: 'Pertæsos discordiarum animos excitat in +hanc spem recens contracta inter te & sapientissimum pacisque illius +sanctæ amantissimum Magnæ Britanniæ Regem amicitia & auspicatissimo +Sororis tuæ matrimonio federata.' + + +17. + +Clarendon, MS. History, p. 59; _History_, Bk. III, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 203-4; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 340-2. + +Page 62, l. 23. Thomas Savile (1590-1658), created Viscount Savile, +1628, Privy Councillor, 1640, Controller and then Treasurer of the +Household. 'He was', says Clarendon, 'a man of an ambitious and +restless nature, of parts and wit enough, but in his disposition and +inclination so false that he could never be believed or depended upon. +His particular malice to the earl of Strafford, which he had sucked in +with his milk, (there having always been an immortal feud between the +families, and the earl had shrewdly overborne his father), had engaged +him with all persons who were willing, and like to be able, to do him +mischieve' (_History_, Bk. VI, ed. Macray, vol. ii, p. 534). + +Page 63, l. 25. _S'r Harry Vane_. See p. 152, ll. 9 ff. + +l. 26. _Plutarch recordes_, Life of Sylla, last sentence. + + +18. + +Mémoires of the reigne of King Charles I, 1701, pp. 109-13. + +Page 65, l. 21. Warwick was member for Radnor in the Long Parliament +from 1640 to 1644. The Bill of Attainder passed the Commons on April +21, 1641, by 204 votes to 59 (Clarendon, ed. Macray, vol. i, p. 306; +Rushworth, _Historical Collections_, third part, vol. i, 1692, p. +225). The names of the minority were posted up at Westminster, under +the heading 'These are Straffordians, Betrayers of their Country' +(Rushworth, _id._, pp. 248-9). There are 56 names, and 'Mr. Warwick' +is one of them. + + +19. + +Clarendon, MS. History, p. 398; _History_, Bk. VI, ed. 1703, vol. ii, +pp. 115-6; ed. Macray, vol. ii, pp. 477-8. + +Page 68, l. 5. _Et velut æquali_. The source of this quotation is not +yet found. + +l. 15. _the Standard was sett up_, at Nottingham, on August 22, 1642. + +l. 17. Robert Greville (1608-43), second Baron Brooke, cousin of Sir +Fulke Greville, first Baron (p. 23, l. 4). See Clarendon, ed. Macray, +vol. ii, pp. 474-5. + +l. 27. _all his Children_. Compare Warwick's account of 'that most +noble and stout Lord, the Earle of Northampton', _Mémoires_, pp. +255-7: 'This may be said of him, that he faithfully served his Master, +living and dead; for he left six eminent sons, who were all heirs +of his courage, loyalty, and virtue; whereof the eldest was not then +twenty.' + + +20. + +Clarendon, MS. History, pp. 477-8; _History_, Bk. VII, ed. 1703, vol. +ii, pp. 269-70; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 177-8. + +Carnarvon's character has much in common with Northampton's. Though +separated in the _History_, they are here placed together as companion +portraits of two young Royalist leaders who fell early in the Civil +War. + +Page 70, l. 21. Dorchester and Weymouth surrendered to Carnarvon on +August 2 and 5, 1643. They were granted fair conditions, but on the +arrival of the army of Prince Maurice care was not taken 'to observe +those articles which had been made upon the surrender of the towns; +which the earl of Carnarvon (who was full of honour and justice upon +all contracts) took so ill that he quitted the command he had with +those forces, and returned to the King before Gloster' (Clarendon, +vol. iii, p. 158). + + +21. + +Clarendon, MS. History, pp. 478-81; _History_, Bk. VII, ed. 1703, vol. +ii, pp. 270-7; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 178-90. + +Clarendon wrote two characters of Falkland, the one in 1647 in the +'History' and the other in 1668 in the 'Life'. Both are long, and both +are distinguished by sustained favour of affection and admiration as +well as by wealth of detail. He was aware that the earlier character +was out of scale in a history, but he would not condense it. He even +thought of working it up into a book by itself, wherein he would +follow the example of Tacitus who wrote the _Agricola_ before the +_Annals_ and _Histories_. He corresponded about it with John Earle +(see No. 50). From two of the letters the following extracts are +taken: + +'I would desire you (at your leisure) to send me that discourse +of your own which you read to me at Dartmouth in the end of your +contemplations upon the Proverbs, in memory of my Lord Falkland; of +whom in its place I intend to speak largely, conceiving it to be so +far from an indecorum, that the preservation of the fame and merit of +persons, and deriving the same to posterity, is no less the business +of history, than the truth of things. And if you are not of another +opinion, you cannot in justice deny me this assistance' (March 16, +1646-7: _State Papers_, 1773, vol. ii, p. 350). + +'I told you long since, that when I came to speak of that unhappy +battle of Newbury, I would enlarge upon the memory of our dear friend +that perished there; to which I conceive myself obliged, not more by +the rights of friendship, than of history, which ought to transmit the +virtue of excellent persons to posterity; and therefore I am careful +to do justice to every man who hath fallen in the quarrel, on which +side soever, as you will find by what I have said of Mr. Hambden +himself. I am now past that point; and being quickened your most +elegant and political commemoration of him, and from hints there, +thinking it necessary to say somewhat for his vindication in such +particulars as may possibly have made impression in good men, it may +be I have insisted longer upon the argument than may be agreeable to +the rules to be observed in such a work; though it be not much longer +than Livy is in recollecting the virtues of one of the Scipios after +his death. I wish it were with you, that you might read it; for if +you thought it unproportionable for the place where it is, I could +be willingly diverted to make it a piece by itself, and inlarge it +into the whole size of his life; and that way it would be sooner +communicated to the world. And you know Tacitus published the life +of Julius Agricola, before either of his annals or his history. I +am contented you should laugh at me for a fop in talking of Livy or +Tacitus; when all I can hope for is to side Hollingshead, and Stow, or +(because he is a poor Knight too, and worse than either of them) Sir +Richard Baker' (December 14, 1647, _id._ p. 386). + +Page 71, l. 22. _Turpe mori_. Lucan, ix. 108. + +l. 26. His mother's father, Sir Lawrence Tanfield, Chief Baron of the +Exchequer. He died in May 1625. See p. 87, ll. 21 ff. + +Page 72, l. 3. _His education_. See p. 87, ll. 6-13. His father, Henry +Carey, first Viscount, was Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1622 to 1629, +when he was recalled. He died in 1633. + +l. 30. _his owne house_, at Great Tew, 16 miles NW. of Oxford; +inherited from Sir Lawrence Tanfield. The house was demolished in +1790, but the gardens remain. + +PAGE 74, l. 14. _two large discources_. See p. 94, ll. 10-15. +Falkland's _Of the Infallibilitie of the Church of Rome ... Now +first published from a Copy of his owne hand_ had appeared at Oxford +in 1645, two years before Clarendon wrote this passage. It is a +short pamphlet of eighteen quarto pages. It had been circulated in +manuscript during his lifetime, and he had written a _Reply_ to an +_Answer_ to it. The second 'large discource' may be this _Reply_. Or +it may be his _Answer to a Letter of Mr. Mountague, justifying his +change of Religion, being dispersed in many Copies_. Both of these +were first published, along with the _Infallibilitie_, in 1651, under +the editorship of Dr. Thomas Triplet, tutor of the third Viscount, +to whom the volume is dedicated. The dedication is in effect a +character of Falkland, and dwells in particular on his great virtue +of friendship. A passage in it recalls Clarendon. 'And your blessed +Mother', says Triplet, 'were she now alive, would say, she had the +best of Friends before the best of Husbands. This was it that made +_Tew_ so valued a Mansion to us: For as when we went from _Oxford_ +thither, we found our selves never out of the Universitie: So we +thought our selves never absent from our own beloved home'. + +l. 25. He was Member for Newport in the Isle of Wight in The Short +Parliament, and again in The Long Parliament. + +Page 75, l. 5. His father was Controller of the Household before his +appointment as Lord Deputy of Ireland. Cf. p. 91, ll. 3, 4. + +l. 18. _L'd Finch_, Sir John Finch (1584-1660), Speaker, Chief Justice +of the Common Pleas, and Lord Keeper, created Baron Finch, 1640. He +was impeached in 1640 and fled to Holland. 'The Lord Falkland took +notice of the business of ship-money, and very sharply mentioned the +lord Finch as the principal promoter of it, and that, being then +a sworn judge of the law, he had not only given his own judgement +against law, but been the solicitor to corrupt all the other judges to +concur with him in their opinion; and concluded that no man ought to +be more severely prosecuted than he' (Clarendon, vol. i, p. 230). + +Page 77, l. 26. _haud semper_, Tacitus, _Agricola_, ix. + +Page 78, l. 17. _in republica Platonis_, Cicero, _Epis. ad Atticum_, +ii. 1. + +l. 20. _it_, i.e. his avoiding them. + +l. 30. Sir Harry Vane, the elder, was dismissed from the Secretaryship +of State in November 1641. In an earlier section of the _History_ +(vol. i, p. 458) Clarendon claims responsibility for Falkland's +acceptance of the Secretaryship: 'It was a very difficult task to +Mr. Hyde, who had most credit with him, to persuade him to submit to +this purpose of the King cheerfully, and with a just sense of the +obligation, by promising that in those parts of the office which +required most drudgery he would help him the best he could, and would +quickly inform him of all the necessary forms. But, above all, he +prevailed with him by enforcing the ill consequence of his refusal', +&c. + +Page 80, l. 19. _in tanto viro_, Tacitus, _Agricola_, ix. + +l. 20. _Some sharpe expressions_. See the quotation by Fuller, p. +105, ll. 14, 15. Clarendon refers to Falkland's speech 'Concerning +Episcopacy' in the debate on the bill for depriving the bishops of +their votes, introduced on March 30, 1641: 'The truth is, Master +Speaker, that as some ill Ministers in our state first tooke +away our mony from us, and after indeavoured to make our mony +not worth the taking, by turning it into brasse by a kind of +_Antiphilosophers-stone_: so these men used us in the point of +preaching, first depressing it to their power, and next labouring +to make it such, as the harme had not beene much if it had beene +depressed, the most frequent subjects even in the most sacred +auditories, being the _Jus divinum_ of Bishops and tithes, the +sacrednesse of the clergie, the sacriledge of impropriations, +the demolishing of puritanisme and propriety, the building of the +prerogative at _Pauls_, the introduction of such doctrines, as, +admitting them true, the truth would not recompence the scandall; or +of such as were so far false, that, as Sir _Thomas More_ sayes of the +Casuists, their businesse was not to keepe men from sinning, but to +enforme them _Quam prope ad peccatum sine peccato liceat accedere_: +so it seemed their worke was to try how much of a Papist might bee +brought in without Popery, and to destroy as much as they could of the +Gospell, without bringing themselves into danger of being destroyed by +the Law.'--_Speeches and Passages of This Great and Happy Parliament: +From the third of November, 1640 to this instant June, 1641_, p. 190. +The speech is reprinted in Lady Theresa Lewis's _Lives of the Friends +of Clarendon_, 1852, vol. i, pp. 53-62. + +Page 82, ll. 23-6. See p. 90, ll. 6-13. + +Page 83, l. 2. Falkland's participation in 'the Northern Expedition +against the Scots', 1639, was the subject of a eulogistic poem by +Cowley: + + Great is thy _Charge_, O _North_; be wise and just, + _England_ commits her _Falkland_ to thy trust; + Return him safe: _Learning_ would rather choose + Her _Bodley_, or her _Vatican_ to loose. + All things that are but _writ_ or _printed_ there, + In his unbounded Breast _engraven_ are, &c. + +It was the occasion also of Waller's 'To my Lord of Falkland'. + +l. 14. _et in luctu_, Tacitus, _Agricola_, xxix. + +l. 15. _the furious resolution_, passed on November 24, 1642, after +the battle at Brentford: see Clarendon, vol. ii, pp. 395-9. + +Page 84, l. 9. _adversus malos_, Tacitus, _Agricola_, xxii. + +ll. 11-28. The date of this incident is uncertain. Professor Firth +believes it to have happened when the House resolved that Colonel +Goring 'deserved very well of the Commonwealth, and of this House', +for his discovery of the army plot, June 9, 1641 (_Journals of the +House of Commons_, vol. ii, p. 172). + +Page 85, l. 18. _the leaguer before Gloster_. The siege of Gloucester +was raised by the Earl of Essex on September 8, 1643. Clarendon +had described it (vol. iii, pp. 167 ff.) just before he came to the +account of Falkland. + +Page 86, l. 1. _the battell_, i.e. of Newbury, September 20, 1643. How +Falkland met his death is told in Byron's narrative of the fight: 'My +Lord of Falkland did me the honour to ride in my troop this day, and I +would needs go along with him, the enemy had beat our foot out of the +close, and was drawne up near the hedge; I went to view, and as I was +giving orders for making the gap wide enough, my horse was shott in +the throat with a musket bullet and his bit broken in his mouth so +that I was forced to call for another horse, in the meanwhile my Lord +Falkland (more gallantly than advisedly) spurred his horse through the +gapp, where both he and his horse were immediately killed.' See Walter +Money, _The Battles of Newbury_, 1884, p. 52; also p. 93. + +A passage in Whitelocke's _Memorials_, ed. 1682, p. 70, shows that +he had a presentiment of his death: 'The Lord _Falkland_, Secretary +of State, in the morning of the fight, called for a clean shirt, and +being asked the reason of it, answered, _that if he were slain in the +Battle, they should not find, his body in foul Linnen_. Being diswaded +by his friends to goe into the fight, as having no call to it, and +being no Military Officer, he said _he was weary of the times, and +foresaw much misery to his own Countrey, and did beleive be should be +out of it ere night_, and could not be perswaded to the contrary, but +would enter into the battle, and was there slain.' + + +22. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 51-4; _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 19-23. + +This is Falkland in his younger days, amid the hospitable pleasures of +Tew, before he was overwhelmed in politics and war. + +Page 86, l. 20. _he_, i.e. Clarendon. + +Page 88, l. 2. _the two most pleasant places_, Great Tew (see p. 72, +l. 30) and Burford, where Falkland was born. He sold Burford in 1634 +to William Lenthall, the Speaker of the Long Parliament: see p. 91, l. +5. + +Page 89, l. 2. He married Lettice, daughter of Sir Richard Morrison +of Tooley Park, Leicestershire. His friendship with her brother Henry +is celebrated in an ode by Ben Jonson, 'To the immortall memorie, and +friendship of that noble paire, Sir Lucius Cary, and Sir H. Morison' +(_Under-woods_, 1640, p. 232). + +Page 91, ll. 17-20. So in the MS. The syntax is confused, but the +sense is clear. + +Page 92, ll. 21, 22. Gilbert Sheldon (1598-1677), Archbishop of +Canterbury, 1663; Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and builder +of the Sheldonian Theatre there. + +George Morley (1597-1684), Bishop of Worcester, 1660. + +Henry Hammond (1605-60), chaplain to Charles I. + +Clarendon has given short characters of Sheldon and Morley in his +_Life_. For his characters of Earle and Chillingworth, see Nos. 50 and +52. + +Page 94, l. 11. See note p. 74, l. 14. + +Page 95, l. 3. Cf. p. 78, l. 17. + +l. 17. It is notable that Clarendon nowhere suggests that Falkland was +also a poet. Cowley gives his verses the highest praise in his address +to him on the Northern Expedition (see p. 83, l. 2, note); and they +won him a place in Suckling's _Sessions of the Poets_: + + He was of late so gone with Divinity + That he had almost forgot his Poetry, + Though to say the truth (and _Apollo_ did know it) + He might have been both his Priest and his Poet. + +His poems were collected and edited by A.B. Grosart in 1871. + + +23. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 55; _Life_, ed. 1759, p. 24. + +This very pleasing portrait of Godolphin serves as a pendant to the +longer and more elaborate description of his friend. Clarendon wrote +also a shorter character of him in the _History_ (vol. ii, pp. 457-8). + +Page 96, l. 2. _so very small a body_. He is the 'little Cid' (i.e. +Sidney) of Suckling's _Sessions of the Poets_. + +PAGE 97, l. 1. He was member for Helston from 1628 to 1643. + +l. 6. In the character in the _History_ Clarendon says that he left +'the ignominy of his death upon a place which could never otherwise +have had a mention to the world'. The place was Chagford. + + +24. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 69-70; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 69-73; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 119-25. + +The three characters of Laud here given supplement each other. They +convey the same idea of the man. + +Page 97, l. 20. George Abbott (1562-1633), Archbishop of Canterbury, +1611. In the preceding paragraph Clarendon had written an unfavourable +character of him. He 'considered Christian religion no otherwise than +as it abhorred and reviled Popery, and valued those men most who did +that most furiously': 'if men prudently forbore a public reviling +and railing at the hierarchy and ecclesiastical government, let their +opinions and private practice be what it would, they were not only +secure from any inquisition of his, but acceptable to him, and at +least equally preferred by him': his house was 'a sanctuary to the +most eminent of that factious party'. Cf. p. 100, ll. 21-7. + +Page 101, l. 2. In the omitted portion Clarendon dealt with the +'Arminianism', as it was then understood in England: 'most of the +popular preachers, who had not looked into the ancient learning, took +Calvin's word for it, and did all they could to propagate his opinions +in those points: they who had studied more, and were better versed +in the antiquities of the Church, the Fathers, the Councils, and the +ecclesiastical histories, with the same heat and passion in preaching +and writing, defended the contrary. But because in the late dispute in +the Dutch churches, those opinions were supported by Jacobus Arminius, +the divinity professor in the university of Leyden in Holland, the +latter men we mentioned were called Arminians, though many of them +had never read a word written by Arminius'. Arminius (the name is the +Latinized form of Harmens or Hermans) died in 1609. + + +25. + +The Church-History of Britain, 1648, Bk. XI, pp. 217-9. + +Page 104, l. 15. Canterbury College was founded at Oxford in 1363 by +Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury. It was incorporated in Christ +Church, Wolsey's foundation, and so 'lost its name'; but the name +survives in the Canterbury quadrangle. + +Page 105, l. 13. _Lord F._, i.e. Lord Falkland: see p. 80, l. 20 note. + + +26. + +Mémoires of the reigne of King Charles I, 1701, pp. 78-82, 89-93. + +Page 107, l. 27. _cleansed it by fire_. Perhaps a reminiscence of +Dryden's _Annus Mirabilis_, 1667, stanza 276: + + The daring Flames peep't in, and saw from far + The awful Beauties of the Sacred Quire: + But since it was prophan'd by Civil War, + Heav'n thought it fit to have it purg'd by fire. + +l. 29. _too too_, so in the original; perhaps but not certainly a +misprint. + + +27. + +Mémoires, 1701, pp. 93-6. + +Page 112, l. 9. _Lord Portland_, Sir Richard Weston: see No. 5. + +l. 13. _white staff_, see p. 21, l. 7 note. + + +28. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 152-3; _History_, Bk. IV, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 332-3; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 563-5. + +This is the first of three characters of Hertford in Clarendon's +_History_. The others, in Bk. VI (MS. Life) ed. Macray, ii. 528, and +Bk. VII (MS. History) iii. 128, are supplementary. + +Page 114, l. 10. _disobligations_, on account of his secret marriage +with James's cousin, Arabella Stuart, daughter of Charles Stuart, Earl +of Lennox, brother of the Earl of Darnley. She died a prisoner in the +Tower; he escaped to France, but after her death was allowed to return +to England in 1616. He succeeded his grandfather as Earl of Hertford +in 1621. He lived in retirement from the dissolution of Parliament in +March 1629 to 1640, when he was made a Privy Councillor. + +Page 115, l. 5. He was appointed Governor to the Prince of Wales in +May 1641, in succession to the Earl of Newcastle. He was then in his +fifty-third year. In the following month he was made a Marquis. See +his life in Lady Theresa Lewis's _Lives of the Friends of Clarendon_, +vol. ii, pp. 436-42. + +Page 116, l. 2. _attacque_, an unexpected form of 'attach' at this +time, and perhaps a slip, but 'attack' and 'attach' are ultimately the +same word; cf. Italian _attaccare_. The _New English Dictionary_ gives +an instance in 1666 of 'attach' in the sense of 'attack'. + + +29. + +Clarendon, MS. History, Transcript, vol. iv, pp. 440-2; _History_, Bk. +VIII, ed. 1703, vol. ii, pp. 391-3; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 380-3. + +The original manuscript of much of Book VIII is lost. The text is +taken from the transcript that was made for the printers. + +This is the portrait of a great English nobleman whose tastes +lay in music and poetry and the arts of peace, but was forced by +circumstances into the leadership of the Royalist army in the North. +He showed little military talent, though he was far from devoid +of personal courage; and he escaped from the conflict, weary and +despondent, when other men were content to carry on the unequal +struggle. He modelled himself on the heroes of Romance. The part he +tried to play could not be adjusted to the rude events of the civil +war. + +His romantic cast of mind is shown in his challenge to Lord Fairfax to +follow 'the Examples of our Heroick Ancestors, who used not to spend +their time in scratching one another out of holes, but in pitched +Fields determined their Doubts'. Fairfax replied by expressing his +readiness to fight but refusing to follow 'the Rules of _Amadis +de Gaule_, or the Knight of the Sun, which the language of the +Declaration seems to affect in appointing pitch'd battles' (Rushworth, +_Historical Collections_, third part, vol. ii, 1692, pp. 138, 141). + +Warwick's short character of Newcastle resembles Clarendon's: 'He was +a Gentleman of grandeur, generosity, loyalty, and steddy and forward +courage; but his edge had too much of the razor in it: for he had +a tincture of a Romantick spirit, and had the misfortune to have +somewhat of the Poet in him; so as he chose Sir William Davenant, an +eminent good Poet, and loyall Gentleman, to be Lieutenant-Generall +of his Ordnance. This inclination of his own and such kind of +witty society (to be modest in the expressions of it) diverted many +counsels, and lost many opportunities; which the nature of that +affair, this great man had now entred into, required' (_Mémoires_, pp. +235-6). + +His life by the Duchess of Newcastle--the 'somewhat fantastical, and +original-brain'd, generous Margaret Newcastle', as Charles Lamb calls +her--was published in 1667. The edition by C.H. Firth, 1886, contains +copious historical notes, and an introduction which points out +Newcastle's place as a patron and author. + +Page 116, ll. 15-22. Newcastle had been besieged at York. He was +relieved by Prince Rupert, who, against Newcastle's advice, forced on +the disastrous battle of Marston Moor (July 2, 1644) without waiting +for reinforcements. In this battle Newcastle was not in command +but fought at the head of a company of volunteers. The next day he +embarked at Scarborough for the continent, where he remained till the +Restoration. + +l. 24. He published two books on horsemanship--_La Méthode et +Invention Nouvelle de Dresser les Chevaux_, written originally in +English, but printed in French at Antwerp in 1658, and _A New Method +and Extraordinary Invention to Dress Horses_, 1667. The former was +dedicated to Prince Charles, whom, as Governor, he had taught to +ride. On his reputation as a horseman, see C.H. Firth, _op. cit._, pp. +xx-xxii. + +Page 117, l. 20. He was Governor of the Prince from 1638 to 1641: cf. +note on p. 115, l. 5. + +l. 29. Newcastle-upon-Tyne (from which he took his title) was +'speedily and dexterously' secured for the King at the end of June +1642 'by his lordship's great interest in those parts, the +ready compliance of the best of the gentry, and the general good +inclinations of the place' (Clarendon, vol. ii, p. 227). + +Page 118, l. 17. Henry Clifford (1591-1643) fifth Earl of Cumberland. +He had commanded the Royalist forces in Yorkshire, but was 'in his +nature inactive, and utterly inexperienced'. He willingly gave up +the command (Clarendon, vol. ii, pp. 282, 464-5). He died shortly +afterwards. + +l. 28. _this last_, Marston Moor. + +Page 119, l. 8. _unacquainted with War_. Clarendon expressed himself +privately on this point much more emphatically than the nature of his +_History_ would allow: 'you will find the Marquis of Newcastle a very +lamentable man and as fit to be a General as a Bishop.' (Letter to +Sir Edward Nicholas, dated Madrid, June 4, 1650: _State Papers_, 1786, +vol. iii, p. 20.) + +l. 10. James King (1589?-1652?), created Baron Eythin and Kerrey in +the Scottish peerage in 1643. He had been a general in the army of the +King of Sweden, and returned to this country in 1640. He left it with +Newcastle after Marston Moor. He entirely disapproved of Rupert's +plans for the battle; his comment, as reported by Clarendon, was 'By +God, sir, it is very fyne in the paper, but ther is no such thinge in +the Feilds' (vol. iii, p. 376). + + +30. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 136; _History_, Bk. IV, ed. 1702, vol. i, pp. +270-1; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 461-3. + +The references to Digby in various parts of the _History_ show the +interest--sometimes an amused interest--that Clarendon took in his +strange and erratic character. 'The temper and composition of his mind +was so admirable, that he was always more pleased and delighted that +he had advanced so far, which he imputed to his virtue and conduct, +than broken or dejected that his success was not answerable, which +he still charged upon second causes, for which he could not be +accountable' (vol. iv, p. 122). 'He was a person of so rare a +composition by nature and by art, (for nature alone could never have +reached to it,) that he was so far from being ever dismayed by any +misfortune, (and greater variety of misfortunes never befell any man,) +that he quickly recollected himself so vigorously, that he did really +believe his condition to be improved by that ill accident' (_id._, p. +175). But the interest is shown above all by the long study of Digby +that he wrote at Montpelier in 1669. It was first printed in his +_State Papers_, 1786, vol. iii, supplement, pp. li-lxxiv. The +manuscript--a transcript revised by Clarendon--is in the Bodleian +Library, Clarendon MS. 122, pp. 1-48. + +Page 120, l. 8. _the other three_, Sir John Culpeper, or Colepeper; +Lord Falkland; and Clarendon. + +Page 121, l. 2. _sharpe reprehension_. 'He was committed to the Fleet +in June 1634, but released in July, for striking Mr. Crofts in Spring +Garden, within the precincts of the Court. _Cal. Dom. State. Papers_, +1634-5 (1864), pp. 81, 129'--Macray, vol. i, p. 461. + +Shaftesbury gives a brief sketch of him at this time in his +fragmentary autobiography: 'The Earl of Bristoll was retired from all +business and lived privately to himself; but his son the Lord Digby, +a very handsome young man of great courage and learning and of a quick +wit, began to show himself to the world and gave great expectations +of himself, he being justly admired by all, and only gave himself +disadvantage with a pedantic stiffness and affectation he had +contracted.' + +l. 19. As Baron Digby, during the lifetime of his father; June 9, +1641. + +Page 123, l. 5. _a very unhappy councell_, the impeachment and +attempted 'Arrest of the Five Members', January 3 and 4, 1642. Compare +Clarendon, vol. i, p. 485: 'And all this was done without the least +communication with any body but the Lord Digby, who advised it.' + + +31. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 389, and MS. History, p. 25 (or 597); +_History_, Bk. XI, ed. 1704, vol. iii, pp. 210-11; ed. Macray, vol. +iv, pp. 510-11. + +This admirable character was not all written at the same time. The +first sentence is from Clarendon's Life, and the remainder from the +History, where the date, '21 Nov. 1671', is appended. 123, l. 15. +_Crumwells owne character_,--in the debate in Parliament on carrying +out the sentence of death, March 8, 1649. Clarendon had briefly +described Cromwell's speech: 'Cromwell, who had known him very well, +spake so much good of him, and professed to have so much kindness +and respect for him, that all men thought he was now safe, when he +concluded, that his affection to the public so much weighed down his +private friendship, that he could not but tell them, that the question +was now, whether they would preserve the most bitter and the most +implacable enemy they had' (vol. iv, p. 506). + +l. 22. He married in November 1626, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Charles +Morrison, of Cassiobury, Hertfordshire, and granddaughter of the first +Viscount Campden. Their daughter Theodosia was the wife of the second +Earl of Clarendon. + +Page 124, l. 13. _an indignity_, probably a reference to Lord Hopton's +command of the army in the west; see vol. iv, p. 131. + + +32. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 273; _History_, Bk. VIII, ed. 1703, vol. ii, +pp. 427-8; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 443-5. + +The four generals in this group are described on various occasions in +the _History_. In this passage Clarendon sums up shortly what he says +elsewhere, and presents a parallel somewhat in the manner of Plutarch. + +Page 125, l. 23. Clarendon has a great passage in Book VII (vol. iii, +pp. 224-6) on the value of Councils, even when the experience and +wisdom of the councillors individually may not promise the right +decisions. The passage is suggested by, and immediately follows, a +short character of Prince Rupert. + +Page 126, ll. 15, 16. Clarendon refers to the retreat of the +Parliamentary Army at Lostwithiel, on August 31, 1644, when Essex +embarked the foot at Fowey and escaped by sea, and Sir William Balfour +broke away with the horse. In describing it, Clarendon says that 'the +notice and orders came to Goring when he was in one of his jovial +exercises; which he received with mirth, and slighting those who sent +them, as men who took alarms too warmly; and he continued his delights +till all the enemy's horse were passed through his quarters, nor did +then pursue them in any time' (vol. iii, p. 403; cf. p. 391). But +Goring's horse was not so posted as to be able to check Balfour's. +See the article on Goring by C.H. Firth in the _Dictionary of National +Biography_ and S.R. Gardiner's _Civil War_, 1893, vol. ii, pp. 13-17. +Clarendon was misinformed; yet this error in detail does not impair +the truth of the portrait. + + +33. + +Clarendon, MS. History, pp. 447-8; _History_, Bk. VII, ed. 1704, vol. +ii, pp. 204-6; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 61-4. + +The studied detachment that Clarendon tried to cultivate when writing +about his political enemies is nowhere shown better than in the +character of Hampden. 'I am careful to do justice', he claimed, 'to +every man who hath fallen in the quarrel, on which side soever, as +you will find by what I have said of Mr. Hambden himself' (see No. +21, note). The absence of all enthusiasm makes the description of +Hampden's merits the more telling. But there is a tail with a sting in +it. + +The last sentence, it must be admitted, is not of a piece with +the rest of the character. There was some excuse for doubting its +authenticity. But doubts gave place to definite statements that it +had been interpolated by the Oxford editors when seeing the +_History_ through the press. Edmund Smith, the author of _Phædra and +Hippolytus_, started the story that while he was resident in Christ +Church he was 'employ'd to interpolate and alter the Original', and +specially mentioned this sentence as having been 'foisted in'; and +the story was given a prominent place by Oldmixon in his _History of +England, during the Reigns of the Royal House of Stuart_ (see _Letters +of Thomas Burnat to George Duckett_, ed. Nichol Smith, 1914, p. xx). +A controversy ensued, the final contribution to which is John Burton's +_Genuineness of L'd Clarendon's History Vindicated_, 1744. Once the +original manuscript was accessible, all doubt was removed. Every word +of the sentence is there to be found in Clarendon's hand. But it is +written along the margin, to take the place of a deleted sentence, and +is evidently later than the rest of the character. This accounts for +the difference in tone. + +Page 129, ll. 22 ff. Compare Warwick, _Mémoires_, p. 240: 'He was of +a concise and significant language, and the mildest, yet subtillest, +speaker of any man in the House; and had a dexterity, when a question +was going to be put, which agreed not with his sense, to draw it over +to it, by adding some equivocall or sly word, which would enervate the +meaning of it, as first put.' + +At the beginning of this short character of Hampden, Warwick says that +'his blood in its temper was acrimonious, as the scurfe commonly on +his face shewed'. + +Page 131, l. 4. _this that was at Oxforde_, i.e. the overture, +February and March 1643: Clarendon, vol. ii, pp. 497 ff. + +ll. 24-6. _Erat illi_, &c. Cicero, _Orat. in Catilinam_ iii. 7. +'Cinna' should be 'Catiline'. + + +34. + +Clarendon, MS. History, pp. 525-7; _History_, Bk. VII, ed. 1703, vol. +ii, pp. 353-5; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 321-4. + +The character of Pym does not show the same detachment as the +character of Hampden. Clarendon has not rejected unauthenticated +Royalist rumour. + +Page 132, ll. 7-9. This rumour occasioned the publication of an +official narrative of his disease and death, 'attested under the Hands +of his Physicians, Chyrurgions, and Apothecary', from which it appears +that he died of an intestinal abscess. See John Forster's _John Pym_ +('Lives of Eminent British Statesmen', vol. iii), pp. 409-11. + +l. 19. He was member for Tavistock from 1624. + +Page 133, l. 26. Oliver St. John (1603-42), Solicitor-General, +mortally wounded at Edgehill. + +ll. 29, 30. Cf. p. 129, ll. 15-18. + +Page 134, l. 3. Francis Russell (1593-1641), fourth Earl of Bedford. +'This lord was the greatest person of interest in all the popular +party, being of the best estate and best understanding of the whole +pack, and therefore most like to govern the rest; he was besides of +great civility, and of much more good-nature than any of the others. +And therefore the King, resolving to do his business with that party +by him, resolved to make him Lord High Treasurer of England, in the +place of the Bishop of London, who was as willing to lay down the +office as any body was to take it up; and, to gratify him the more, at +his desire intended to make Mr. Pimm Chancellor of the Exchequer, as +he had done Mr. St. John his Solicitor-General' (Clarendon, vol. i, +p. 333). The plan was frustrated by Bedford's death in 1641. The +Chancellorship of the Exchequer was bestowed on Culpeper (_id._, p. +457). + +ll. 27 ff. The authority for this story is the _Mercurius Academicus_ +for February 3, 1645-6 (pp. 74-5), a journal of the Court party +published at Oxford (hence the title), and the successor of the +_Mercurius Aulicus_. The Irishman is there reported to have made this +confession on the scaffold. + +Page 135, ll. 25-8. _The last Summer_, i.e. before Pym's death, 1643. +See Clarendon, vol. iii, pp. 116, 135, 141. + +Page 136, ll. 7-10. He died on December 8, 1643, and was buried on +December 13 in Westminster Abbey, whence his body was ejected at the +Restoration. + + +35. + +Clarendon, MS. History, Bk. X, p. 24 (or 570); _History_, ed. 1704, +vol. iii, pp. 84-5; ed. Macray, vol. iv, pp. 305-7. + +The two characters of Cromwell by Clarendon were written about the +same time. Though the first is from the manuscript of the History, +it belongs to a section that was added in 1671, when the matter in +the original History was combined with the matter in the Life. It +describes Cromwell as Clarendon remembered him before he had risen +to his full power. He was then in Clarendon's eyes preeminently a +dissembler--'the greatest dissembler living'. The other character +views him in the light of his complete achievement. It represents +him, with all his wickedness, as a man of 'great parts of courage and +industry and judgement'. He is a 'bad man', but a 'brave, bad man', +to whose success, remarkable talents, and even some virtues, must have +contributed. The recognition of his greatness was unwilling; it was +all the more sincere. + +'Crumwell' is Clarendon's regular spelling. + +Page 136, l. 22. Hampden's mother, Elizabeth Cromwell, was the sister +of Cromwell's father. + +Page 138, l. 18. _the Modell_, i.e. the New Model Army, raised in the +Spring of 1645. See C.H. Firth's _Cromwell's Army_, 1902, ch. iii. + +l. 21. _chaunged a Generall_, the Earl of Essex. See No. 40. + + +36. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 549-50; _History_, Bk. XV, ed. 1704, vol. +iii, pp. 505-6, 509; ed. Macray, vol. vi, pp. 91-2, 97. + +Page 139, ll. 3, 4. _quos vituperare_, Cicero, _Pro Fonteio_, xvii. +39 'Is igitur vir, quem ne inimicus quidem satis in appellando +significare poterat, nisi ante laudasset.' + +ll. 19, 20. _Ausum eum_, Velleius Paterculus, ii. 24. + +Page 140, ll. 9-12. Machiavelli, _The Prince_, ch. vii. + +ll. 17-22. Editorial taste in 1704 transformed this sentence thus: +'In a word, as he was guilty of many Crimes against which Damnation +is denounced, and for which Hell-fire is prepared, so he had some good +Qualities which have caused the Memory of some Men in all Ages to be +celebrated; and he will be look'd upon by Posterity as a brave wicked +Man.' + + +37. + +Mémoires Of the reigne of King Charles I, 1701, pp. 247-8. + +Page 141, l. 17. _a servant of Mr. Prynn's_, John Lilburne (1614-57). +But it is doubtful if he was Prynne's servant; see the article in the +_Dictionary of National Biography_. Lilburne's petition was presented +by Cromwell on November 9, 1640, and referred to a Committee; and +on May 4, 1641, the House resolved 'That the Sentence of the +Star-Chamber, given against John Lilborne, is illegal, and against the +Liberty of the Subject; and also, bloody, wicked, cruel, barbarous, +and tyrannical' (_Journals of the House of Commons_, vol. ii, pp. 24, +134). + +ll. 29, 30. Warwick was imprisoned on suspicion of plotting against +the Protector's Government in 1655. + + +38. + +A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, Esq.; Edited by +Thomas Birch, 1742, vol. i, p. 766. + +This passage is from a letter written to 'John Winthrop, esq; governor +of the colony of Connecticut in New England', and dated 'Westminster, +March 24, 1659'. + +Maidston was Cromwell's servant. + + +39. + +Reliquiæ Baxterianæ: or, Mr. Richard Baxter's Narrative of The most +Memorable Passages of his Life and Times. Faithfully Publish'd from +his own Original Manuscript, By Matthew Sylvester. London: MDCXCVI. +(Lib. I, Part I, pp. 98-100.) + +The interest of this character lies largely in its Presbyterian point +of view. It is a carefully balanced estimate by one who had been a +chaplain in the Parliamentary army, but opposed Cromwell when, after +the fall of Presbyterianism, he assumed the supreme power. + +Page 144, ll. 19-24. See the article by C.H. Firth on 'The Raising of +the Ironsides' in the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, +1899, vol. xiii, and its sequel, 'The Later History of the Ironsides', +1901, vol. xv; and the articles on John Desborough (who married +Cromwell's sister) and James Berry in the _Dictionary of National +Biography_. 'Who Captain Ayres was it is difficult to say ... He left +the regiment about June 1644, and his troop was given to James Berry +... the captain-lieutenant of Cromwell's own troop'. (R.H.S. Trans., +vol. xiii, pp. 29, 30). Berry subsequently became one of Cromwell's +major-generals. His character is briefly sketched by Baxter, who +calls him 'my old Bosom Friend', _Reliquiæ_, 1696, p. 57. For Captain +William Evanson, see R.H.S. Trans., vol. xv, pp. 22-3. + +Page 146, l. 12. A passage from Bacon's essay 'Of Faction' (No. 51) +is quoted in the margin in the edition of 1696. 'Fraction' in l. 12 is +probably a misprint for 'Faction'. + +Page 148, ll. 7-10. The concluding sentence of the essay 'Of +Simulation and Dissimulation'. Brackets were often used at this time +to mark a quotation. + + +40. + +Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, 1696, Lib. I, Part I, p. 48. + +Much the same opinion of Fairfax was held by Sir Philip Warwick and +Clarendon. Warwick says he was 'a man of a military genius, undaunted +courage and presence of mind in the field both in action and danger, +but of a very common understanding in all other affairs, and of a +worse elocution; and so a most fit tool for Mr. Cromwel to work with' +(_Mémoires_, p. 246). Clarendon alludes to him as one 'who had no +eyes, and so would be willinge to be ledd' (p. 138, l. 24). But Milton +saw him in a different light when he addressed to him the sonnet on +his capture of Colchester in August 1648: + + _Fairfax_, whose name in armes through Europe rings + Filling each mouth with envy, or with praise,... + Thy firm unshak'n vertue ever brings + Victory home,... + O yet a nobler task awaites thy hand; + For what can Warr, but endless warr still breed, + Till Truth, & Right from Violence be freed, + And Public Faith cleard from the shamefull brand + Of Public Fraud. In vain doth Valour bleed + While Avarice, & Rapine share the land. + +Fairfax's military capacity is certain, and his private virtues are +unquestioned. Writing in 1648, Milton credited him with the power to +settle the affairs of the nation. But Fairfax was not a politician. He +broke with Cromwell over the execution of the king, and in July 1650 +retired into private life. Baxter, Warwick, and Clarendon all wrote +of him at a distance of time that showed his merits and limitations in +truer perspective. + +Milton addressed him again when singing the praises of Bradshaw and +Cromwell and other Parliamentary leaders in his _Pro Populo Anglicano +Defensio Secunda_, 1654. As a specimen of a contemporary Latin +character, and a character by Milton, the passage is now quoted in +full: + +'Sed neque te fas est præterire, _Fairfaxi_, in quo cum summa +fortitudine summam modestiam, summam vitæ sanctitatem, & natura & +divinus favor conjunxit: Tu harum in partem laudum evocandus tuo jure +ac merito es; quanquam in illo nunc tuo secessu, quantus olim Literni +Africanus ille Scipio, abdis te quoad potes; nec hostem solum, sed +ambitionem, & quæ præstantissimum quemque mortalium vincit, gloriam +quoque vicisti; tuisque virtutibus & præclare factis, jucundissimum & +gloriosissimum per otium frueris, quod est laborum omnium & humanarum +actionum vel maximarum finis; qualique otio cum antiqui Heroes, post +bella & decora tuis haud majora, fruerentur, qui eos laudare conati +sunt poetæ, desperabant se posse alia ratione id quale esset digne +describere, nisi eos fabularentur, coelo receptos, deorum epulis +accumbere. Verum te sive valetudo, quod maxime crediderim, sive +quid aliud retraxit, persuasissimum hoc habeo, nihil te a rationibus +reipublicæ divellere potuisse, nisi vidisses quantum libertatis +conservatorem, quam firmum atque fidum Anglicanæ rei columen ac +munimentum in successore tuo relinqueres' (ed. 1654, pp. 147-8). + +Page 149, l. 9. The Self-denying Ordinance, discharging members of +Parliament from all offices, civil and military, passed both Houses on +April 3, 1645. + +l. 18. He succeeded his father as third Lord Fairfax in 1648. + +l. 21. See p. 118, ll. 8 ff. + + +41. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 103; _History_, Bk. III, ed. 1702, vol. i, pp. +148-9; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 247-9. + +Baxter has an account of Vane in his Autobiography: 'He was the +Principal Man that drove on the Parliament to go too high, and act +too vehemently against the King: Being of very ready Parts, and very +great Subtilty, and unwearied Industry, he laboured, and not without +Success, to win others in Parliament, City and Country to his Way. +When the Earl of _Strafford_ was accused, he got a Paper out of his +Father's Cabinet (who was Secretary of State) which was the chief +Means of his Condemnation: To most of our Changes he was that _within_ +the House, which _Cromwell_ was _without_. His great Zeal to drive +all into War, and to the highest, and to cherish the Sectaries, and +especially in the Army, made him above all Men to be valued by that +Party ... When Cromwell had served himself by him as his surest +Friend, as long as he could; and gone as far with him as their way lay +together, (_Vane_ being for a Fanatick Democracie, and _Cromwell_ for +Monarchy) at last there was no Remedy but they must part; and when +_Cromwell_ cast out the Rump (as disdainfully as Men do Excrements) +he called _Vane_ a Jugler' (_Reliquiæ Baxterianæ_, Lib. I, Part I, p. +75). This account occurs in Baxter's description of the sectaries who +were named after him 'Vanists'. + +Clarendon and Baxter both lay stress on the element of the fanatic +in Vane's nature; and in a later section of the _History_ Clarendon +speaks of it emphatically: ... 'Vane being a man not to be described +by any character of religion; in which he had swallowed some of the +fancies and extravagances of every sect or faction, and was become +(which cannot be expressed by any other language than was peculiar to +that time) _a man above ordinances_, unlimited and unrestrained by any +rules or bounds prescribed to other men, by reason of his perfection. +He was a perfect enthusiast, and without doubt did believe himself +inspired' (vol. vi, p. 148). + +Milton's sonnet, to Vane 'young in yeares, but in sage counsell old' +gives no suggestion of the fanatic: + + besides to know + Both spirituall powre & civill, what each meanes + What severs each thou 'hast learnt, which few have don. + The bounds of either sword to thee wee ow. + Therfore on thy firme hand religion leanes + In peace, & reck'ns thee her eldest son. + +There was much in Vane's views about Church and State with which +Milton sympathized; and the sonnet was written in 1652, before +Cromwell broke with Vane. + +See also Pepys's _Diary_, June 14, 1662, and Burnet's _History of His +Own Time_, ed. Osmund Airy, vol. i, pp. 284-6. + +Page 150, ll. 13, 14. _Magdalen College_, a mistake for Magdalen Hall, +of which Vane was a Gentleman Commoner; but he did not matriculate. +See Wood's _Athenæ Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. iii, col. 578. + +l. 17. He returned to England in 1632; he had been in the train of the +English ambassador at Vienna. + +ll. 25 ff. He transported himself into New England in 1635. He was +chosen Governor of Massachusetts in March 1636 and held the post +for one year, being defeated at the next election. He retransported +himself into England in August 1637. + +Page 151, ll. 27-9. 'In New Hampshire and at Rhode Island. The grant +by the Earl of Warwick as the Governor of the King's Plantations in +America of a charter for Providence, &c., Rhode Island, is dated March +14, 164-3/4; _Calendar of Colonial State Papers_, 1574-1660, p. 325. +The code of laws adopted there in 1647 declares "sith our charter +gives us power to govern ourselves ... the form of government +established in Providence plantations is democratical." _Collections +of the Massachusetts Hist. Soc._, second series, vol. vii, p. +79.'--Note by Macray. + +Page 152, ll. 2, 3. He married Frances, daughter of Sir Christopher +Wray, of Ashby, Lincolnshire. + +ll. 5, 6. He was made joint Treasurer of the Navy in January 1639, and +was dismissed in December 1641. + +ll. 10 ff. Strafford was created Baron of Raby in 1640. At the +conclusion of Book VI Clarendon says that the elder Vane's 'malice to +the Earl of Strafford (who had unwisely provoked him, wantonly and out +of contempt) transported him to all imaginable thoughts of revenge'. +Cf. p. 63, l. 25. + + +42. + +Clarendon, MS. History, p. 486 (first paragraph) and Life, p. 249 +(second paragraph); _History_, Bk. VII, ed. 1703, vol. ii, p. 292; ed. +Macray, vol. iii, pp. 216-17. + +Clarendon added the first paragraph in the margin of the manuscript +of his earlier work when he dovetailed the two works to form the +_History_ in its final form. + +Page 152, l. 27. _this Covenant_, the Solemn League and Covenant, +which passed both Houses on September 18, 1643: 'the battle of Newbery +being in that time likewise over (which cleared and removed more +doubts than the Assembly had done), it stuck very few hours with both +Houses; but being at once judged convenient and lawful, the Lords and +Commons and their Assembly of Divines met together at the church, +with great solemnity, to take it, on the five and twentieth day of +September' (Clarendon, vol. iii, p. 205). + + +43. + +Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, Governor of Nottingham +Castle and Town ... Written by His Widow Lucy, Daughter of Sir Allen +Apsley, Lieutenant of the Tower, &c. Now first published from the +original manuscript by the Rev. Julius Hutchinson ... London: 1806. +(pp. 4-6.) + +The original manuscript has disappeared, and the edition of 1806 is +the only authoritative text. It has been many times reprinted. It was +edited with introduction, notes, and appendices by C.H. Firth in 1885 +(new edition, 1906). + +The Memoirs as a whole are the best picture we possess of a puritan +soldier and household of the seventeenth century. They were written by +his widow as a consolation to herself and for the instruction of +her children. To 'such of you as have not seene him to remember his +person', she leaves, by way of introduction, 'His Description.' It is +this passage which is here reprinted. + + +44, 45, 46, 47, 48. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 212-15; _History_, Bk. VI, ed. 1703, vol. ii, +pp. 158-62; ed. Macray, vol. ii, pp. 541-8. + +These five characters of Parliamentary peers follow one another at +the conclusion of Clarendon's sixth book, and are part of his 'view +of those persons who were of the King's Council, and had deserted his +service, and stayed in the Parliament to support the rebellion'. +A short passage on the Earl of Holland, between the characters of +Warwick and Manchester, is omitted. + +Taken as a group, they are yet another proof of Clarendon's skill in +portraiture. Each character is clearly distinguished. + +Page 159, ll. 7-10. His grandfather was William Cecil (1520-98), Lord +Burghley, the great minister of Elizabeth; his father was Robert Cecil +(1563-1612), created Earl of Salisbury, 1605, Secretary of State at +the accession of James. + +Page 160, l. 9. He was member for King's Lynn in 1649, and +Hertfordshire in 1654 and 1656. + +ll. 13-16. _Hic egregiis_, &c. Seneca, _De Beneficiis_, iv, cap. 30. + +Page 161, ll. 3-19. 'Clarendon's view that Warwick was a jovial +hypocrite is scarcely borne out by other contemporary evidence. The +"jollity and good humour" which he mentions are indeed confirmed. "He +was one of the most best-natured and cheerfullest persons I have in +my time met with," writes his pious daughter-in-law (_Autobiography +of Lady Warwick_, ed. Croker, p. 27). Edmund Calamy, however, in his +sermon at Warwick's funeral, enlarges on his zeal for religion; and +Warwick's public conduct during all the later part of his career is +perfectly consistent with Calamy's account of his private life (_A +Pattern for All, especially for Noble Persons_, &c., 1658, 410, pp. +34-9).'--C.H. Firth, in the _Dictionary of National Biography_. + +l. 13. _Randevooze_ (or _-vouze_, or _-vouce_, or _-vowes_) is a +normal spelling of _Rendezvous_ in the seventeenth century. The words +had been introduced into English by the reign of Elizabeth. + +ll. 20-2. The proceedings are described at some length by Clarendon, +vol. ii, pp. 19-22, 216-23. Warwick was appointed Admiral by the +Parliament on July 1, 1642. + +l. 23. The expulsion of the Long Parliament on April 20, 1653. A +thorough examination of all the authorities for the story of the +expulsion will be found in two articles by C.H. Firth in _History_, +October 1917 and January 1918. + +ll. 24-5. Robert Rich, his grandson, married Frances, Cromwell's +youngest daughter, in November 1657, but died in the following +February, aged 23. See _Thurloe's State Papers_, vol. vi, p. 573. + +Page 162, l. 11. _in Spayne_, on the occasion of the proposed Spanish +match. + +ll. 22-3. He resigned his generalship on April 2, 1645, the day before +the Self-Denying Ordinance was passed. + +ll. 24 ff. His first wife was Buckingham's cousin, their mothers +being sisters. He married his second wife in 1626, before Buckingham's +death. He was five times married. + +Page 163, l. 11. _his father_, Henry Montagu (1563-1642), created +Baron Montagu of Kimbolton and Viscount Mandeville, 1620, and Earl of +Manchester, 1628. By the favour of Buckingham he had been made Lord +Treasurer in 1620, but within a year was deprived of the office and +'reduced to the empty title of President of the Council'; see the +character (on the whole favourable) by Clarendon, vol. i, pp. 67-9. + +l. 12. Manchester and Warwick are described by Clarendon as 'the two +pillars of the Presbyterian party' (vol. iv, p. 245). + +Page 164, l. 16. He was accused with the five members of the House of +Commons, January 3, 1642. Cf. p. 123, l. 5. + +l. 26. Elsewhere Clarendon says that Manchester 'was known to have all +the prejudice imaginable against Cromwell' (vol. iv, p. 245). He lived +in retirement during the Commonwealth, but returned to public life at +the Restoration, when he was made Lord Chamberlain. + +This character may be compared with Clarendon's other character of +Manchester, vol. i, pp. 242-3, and with the character in Warwick's +_Mémoires_, pp. 246-7. Burnet, speaking of him in his later years, +describes him as 'A man of a soft and obliging temper, of no great +depth, but universally beloved, being both a vertuous and a generous +man'. + +Page 165, ll. 6-9. See Clarendon, vol. i, p. 259. + +l. ii. _that unhappy kingdome_. This was written in France. + +ll. 20-5. Antony à Wood did not share Clarendon's scepticism about +Say's descent, though he shared his dislike of Say himself: see +_Athenæ Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. in, col. 546. + +Page 166, ll. 25 ff. See Clarendon, ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 333-5. Cf. +note p. 134, l. 3. After the King's execution he took little part in +public affairs, but at the Restoration he managed to be made a Privy +Councillor and Lord Privy Seal. + +Clarendon has another and shorter character of Say, which supplements +the character here given, and deals mainly with his ecclesiastical +politics (vol. i, p. 241). He was thought to be the only member of the +Independent party in the House of Peers (vol. iii, p. 507). + +Arthur Wilson gives short characters of Essex, Warwick, and Say: +'_Saye_ and _Seale_ was a seriously subtil _Peece_, and alwayes averse +to the Court wayes, something out of pertinatiousnesse; his _Temper_ +and _Constitution_ ballancing him altogether on that _Side_, which +was contrary to the _Wind_; so that he seldome tackt about or went +upright, though he kept his _Course_ steady in his owne way a long +time: yet it appeared afterwards, when the harshnesse of the humour +was a little allayed by the sweet _Refreshments_ of Court favours, +that those sterne _Comportments_ supposed _naturall_, might be +mitigated, and that indomitable Spirits by gentle usage may be tamed +and brought to obedience' (_Reign of King James I_, p. 162). + + +49. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 48-9: _Life_, ed. 1759, p. 16. + +This and the four following characters of men of learning and letters +are taken from the early section of the _Life_ where Clarendon proudly +records his friendships and conversation with 'the most excellent men +in their several kinds that lived in that age, by whose learning and +information and instruction he formed his studies, and mended his +understanding, and by whose gentleness and sweetness of behaviour, +and justice, and virtue, and example, he formed his manners.' The +characters of Jonson, Falkland, and Godolphin which belong to the same +section have already been given. + +Page 167, l. 27. _his conversation_, fortunately represented for us in +his _Table-Talk_, a collection of the 'excellent things that usually +fell from him', made by his amanuensis Richard Milward, and published +in 1689. + +Page 168, l. 3. _M'r Hyde_, i.e. Clarendon himself. + +l. 5. _Seldence_, a phonetic spelling, showing Clarendon's haste in +composition. + +l.10. Selden was member for Oxford during the Long Parliament. + +ll. 15, 16. Compare Clarendon's _History_, vol. ii, p. 114: 'he had +for many years enjoyed his ease, which he loved, was rich, and would +not have made a journey to York, or have lain out of his own bed, for +any preferment, which he had never affected. Compare also Aubrey's +_Brief Lives_, ed. A. Clark, vol. ii, p. 224: 'He was wont to say +"I'le keepe myselfe warme and moyst as long as I live, for I shall be +cold and dry when I am dead ".' + + +50. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 57; _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 26-7. + +Izaak Walton included a short character of Earle in his _Life of +Hooker_, published in the year of Earle's death: 'Dr. Earle, now Lord +Bishop of Salisbury, of whom I may justly say, (and let it not offend +him, because it is such a trifle as ought not to be concealed from +posterity, or those that now live, and yet know him not,) that since +Mr. Hooker died, none have lived whom God hath blessed with more +innocent wisdom, more sanctified learning, or a more pious, peaceable, +primitive temper: so that this excellent person seems to be only like +himself, and our venerable Richard Hooker.' + +See also _Athenæ Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. iii, cols. 716-9. + +Page 168, l. 25. _Earle of Pembroke_, the fourth Earl, Lord +Chamberlain 1626-1641: see p. 4, l. 30, note. + +Page 169, l. 3. _Proctour_, in 1631. The 'very witty and sharpe +discourses' are his _Micro-cosmographie_, first published anonymously +in 1628. + +l. 23. Compare p. 72, ll. 29 ff., and p. 90, ll. 21 ff. + +l. 28. He was made chaplain and tutor to Prince Charles in 1641. His +'lodginge in the court' as chaplain to the Lord Chamberlain had made +him known to the king. + + +51. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 57-8; _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 27-8. + +'The Ever Memorable Mr. John Hales, of Eaton-Colledge', as he is +called on the title-page of his _Golden Remains_, published in 1659 +(second impression, 1673), is probably best known now by his remark +'That there was no subject of which any Poet ever writ, but he would +produce it much better treated of in Shakespeare'. This remark was +first given in print in Dryden's essay _Of Dramatick Poesie_, 1668, +and was repeated in varying forms in Nahum Tate's Dedication to the +_Loyal General_, 1680, Charles Gildon's _Reflections on Mr. Rymer's +Short View of Tragedy_, 1694, and Nicholas Rowe's _Account of the +Life of Shakespear_, 1709. But it had apparently been made somewhere +between 1633 and 1637 in the company of Lord Falkland. It is the one +gem that survives of this retired student's 'very open and pleasant +conversation'. + +Clarendon's portrait explains the honour and affection in which the +'ever memorable' but now little known scholar was held by all his +friends. The best companion to it is the life by Wood, _Athenæ +Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. iv, cols. 409-15. See also John Pearson's +preface to _Golden Remains_. + +Page 170, ll. 10 ff. Hales was elected Fellow of Merton College in +1605, and Regius Professor of Greek in 1615. His thirty-two letters to +Sir Dudley Carlton (cf. p. 58, l. 20) reporting the proceedings of the +Synod of Dort, run from November 24, 1618, to February 7, 1619, and +are included in his _Golden Remains_. On his return to England in 1619 +he withdrew to his fellowship at Eton. + +Sir Henry Savile's monumental edition of the Greek text of St. +Chrysostom, in eight large folio volumes, was published at Eton, +1610-12. Savile was an imperious scholar, but when Clarendon says +that Hales 'had borne all the labour' of this great edition, he can +only mean that Hales had given his assistance at all stages of its +production. In Brodrick's _Memorials of Merton College_, p. 70, it is +stated that Hales was voted an allowance for the help he had given. +Savile was appointed Warden of Merton in 1585 and Provost of Eton in +1596, and continued to hold both posts at the same time till his death +in 1622. + +Page 171, ll. 8-12. Compare the verse epistle in Suckling's _Fragmenta +Aurea_, which was manifestly addressed to Hales, though his name is +not given (ed. 1648, pp. 34-5): + + Whether these lines do find you out, + Putting or clearing of a doubt; + ... know 'tis decreed + You straight bestride the Colledge Steed ... + And come to Town; 'tis fit you show + Your self abroad, that men may know + (What e're some learned men have guest) + That Oracles are not yet ceas't ... + News in one day as much w' have here + As serves all Windsor for a year. + +In Suckling's _Sessions of the Poets_, 'Hales set by himselfe most +gravely did smile'. + +ll. 14 ff. Compare the story told by Wood: 'When he was Bursar of his +Coll. and had received bad money, he would lay it aside, and put good +of his own in the room of it to pay to others. Insomuch that sometimes +he has thrown into the River 20 and 30_l_. at a time. All which he +hath stood to, to the loss of himself, rather than others of the +Society should be endamaged.' + +l. 19. Reduced to penury by the Civil Wars, Hales was 'forced to sell +the best part of his most admirable Library (which cost him 2500_l_.) +to Cornelius Bee of London, Bookseller, for 700_l_. only'. But Wood +also says that he might be styled 'a walking Library'. Another account +of his penury and the sale of his library is found in John Walker's +_Sufferings of the Clergy_, 1714, Part II, p. 94. + +l. 24. _syded_, i.e. stood by the side of, equalled, rivalled. + +Page 173, ll. 1 ff. His _Tract concerning Schisme and Schismaticks_ +was published in 1642, and was frequently reissued. It was written +apparently about 1636, and certainly before 1639. He was installed as +canon of Windsor on June 27, 1639. + + +52. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 58-9; _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 28-30. + +Clarendon clearly enjoyed writing this character of Chillingworth. The +shrewd observation is tempered by subdued humour. Looking back on his +friendship at a distance of twenty years, he felt an amused pleasure +in the disputatiousness which could be irritating, the intellectual +vanity, the irresolution that came from too great subtlety. +Chillingworth was always 'his own convert'; 'his only unhappiness +proceeded from his sleeping too little and thinking too much'. But +Clarendon knew the solid merits of _The Religion of Protestants_ +(_History_, vol. i, p. 95); and he felt bitterly the cruel +circumstances of his death. + +Page 174, ll. 17-19. Compare the character of Godolphin, p. 96, ll. 1 +ff. + +Page 176, l. 14. _the Adversary_, Edward Knott (1582-1656), Jesuit +controversialist. + +l. 29. _Lugar_, John Lewgar (1602-1665): see Wood's _Athenæ +Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. iii, cols. 696-7. + +Page 177, l. 24. This Engine is described in the narrative of the +siege of Gloucester in Rushworth's _Historical Collections_, ed. 1692, +Part III, vol. ii, p. 290: 'The King's Forces, by the Directions of +Dr. _Chillingworth_, had provided certain Engines, after the manner of +the Roman _Testudines cum Pluteis_, wherewith they intended to Assault +the City between the South and West Gates; They ran upon Cart-Wheels, +with a _Blind_ of Planks Musquet-proof, and holes for four Musqueteers +to play out of, placed upon the Axle-tree to defend the Musqueteers +and those that thrust it forwards, and carrying a Bridge before it; +the Wheels were to fall into the Ditch, and the end of the Bridge to +rest upon the Towns Breastworks, so making several compleat Bridges to +enter the City. To prevent which, the Besieged intended to have made +another Ditch out of their Works, so that the Wheels falling therein, +the Bridge would have fallen too short of their Breastworks into their +wet Mote, and so frustrated that Design.' + +ll. 26 ff. Hopton took Arundel Castle on December 9, 1643, and was +forced to surrender on January 6 (Clarendon, vol. iii, pp. 330-5). +Aubrey says that Chillingworth 'dyed of the _morbus castrensis_ after +the taking of Arundel castle by the parliament: wherin he was very +much blamed by the king's soldiers for his advice in military affaires +there, and they curst _that little priest_ and imputed the losse of +the castle to his advice'. (_Brief Lives_, ed. A. Clark, vol. i, p. +172). The chief actor in the final persecution was Francis Cheynell +(1608-65), afterwards intruded President of St. John's College +and Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford; see his +_Chillingworthi Novissima. Or, the Sicknesse, Heresy, Death, and +Buriall of William Chillingworth (In his own phrase) Clerk of Oxford, +and in the conceit of his fellow Souldiers, the Queens Arch-Engineer, +and Grand-Intelligencer_, 1644. + + +53. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 55; _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 24, 25. + +Weakness of character disguised by ready wit, pleasant discourse, +and charm of manner is Clarendon's judgement on Waller. They had +been friends in their early days when Waller was little more than +an opulent poet who could make a good speech in parliament; but his +behaviour on the discovery of 'Waller's plot', the purpose of which +was to hold the city for the king, his inefficiency in any action +but what was directed to his own safety and advancement, and his +subsequent relations with Cromwell, definitely estranged them. +To Clarendon, Waller is the time-server whose pleasing arts are +transparent. 'His company was acceptable, where his spirit was +odious.' The censure was the more severe because of the part which +Waller had just played at Clarendon's fall. The portrait may be +overdrawn; but there is ample evidence from other sources to confirm +its essential truth. + +Burnet says that '_Waller_ was the delight of the House: And even at +eighty he said the liveliest things of any among them: He was only +concerned to say that which should make him be applauded. But he never +laid the business of the House to heart, being a vain and empty, tho' +a witty, man' (_History of His Own Time_, ed. 1724, vol. i, p. 388). +He is described by Aubrey, _Brief Lives_, ed. A. Clark, vol. ii, pp. +276-7. + +Clarendon's character was included by Johnson in his _Life of Waller_, +with a few comments. Page 179, l. 1. _a very rich wife_, Anne, only +daughter of John Bankes, mercer; married 1631, died 1634. 'The fortune +which Waller inherited from his father, which must have been largely +increased during his long minority, has been variously estimated +at from £2,000 to £3,500 a year; adding to this the amount which +he received with Miss Bankes, said to have been about £8,000, and +allowing for the difference in the value of the money, it appears +probable that, with the exception of Rogers, the history of English +literature can show no richer poet' (_Poems of Waller_, ed. Thorn +Drury, vol. i, p. xx). + +l. 4. _M'r Crofts_, William Crofts (1611-77), created Baron Crofts of +Saxham in 1658 at Brussels. He was captain of Queen Henrietta Maria's +Guards. + +l. 6. _D'r Marly_. See p. 92, l. 21, note. + +ll. 10-14. Waller's poems were first published in 1645, when Waller +was abroad. But they had been known in manuscript. They appear to +have first come to the notice of Clarendon when Waller was introduced +to the brilliant society of which Falkland was the centre. If the +introduction took place, as is probable, about 1635, this is the +explanation of Clarendon's 'neere thirty yeeres of age'. But some of +his poems must have been written much earlier. What is presumably +his earliest piece, on the escape of Prince Charles from shipwreck +at Santander on his return from Spain in 1623, was probably written +shortly after the event it describes, though like other of his early +pieces it shows, as Johnson pointed out, traces of revision. + +l. 21. _nurced in Parliaments_. He entered Parliament in 1621, at the +age of sixteen, as member for Amersham. See _Poems_, ed. Drury, vol. +i. p. xvii. + +Page 180, l. 5. The great instance of his wit is his reply to Charles +II, when asked why his Congratulation 'To the King, upon his Majesty's +happy Return' was inferior to his Panegyric 'Upon the Death of the +Lord Protector'--'Poets, Sir, succeed better in fiction than in truth' +(quoted from _Menagiana_ in Fenton's 'Observations on Waller's Poems', +and given by Johnson). See _Lives of the Poets_, ed. G.B. Hill, vol. +i, p. 271. + + +54. + +Brief View and Survey of the Dangerous and pernicious Errors to Church +and State, In Mr. Hobbes's Book, Entitled Leviathan. By Edward Earl of +Clarendon. Oxford, 1676. (pp. 2-3.) + +It is a misfortune that Clarendon did not write a character of Hobbes, +and, more than this, that there is no character of Hobbes by any one +which corresponds in kind to the other characters in this collection. +But in answering the _Leviathan_, Clarendon thought it well to state +by way of introduction that he was on friendly terms with the author, +and the passage here quoted from his account of their relations is in +effect a character. He condemned Hobbes's political theories; 'Yet I +do hope', he says, 'nothing hath fallen from my Pen, which implies the +least undervaluing of Mr. _Hobbes_ his Person, or his Parts.' + +Page 181, l. 21. _ha's_, a common spelling at this time and earlier, +on the false assumption that _has_ was a contraction of _haves_. + + +55. + +Bodleian Library, MS. Aubrey 9, foll. 34-7, 41, 42, 46-7. + +The text of these notes on Hobbes is taken direct from Aubrey's +manuscript, now in the Bodleian Library. The complete life is printed +in _Brief Lives by John Aubrey_, edited by Andrew Clark, 1898, vol. i, +pp. 321-403. + +Aubrey collected most of his biographical notes, to which he gave the +title '[Greek: Schediasmata.] Brief Lives', in order to help Anthony à +Wood in the compilation of his _Athenæ Oxonienses_. 'I have, according +to your desire', he wrote to Wood in 1680, 'putt in writing these +minutes of lives tumultuarily, as they occur'd to my thoughts or as +occasionally I had information of them.... 'Tis a taske that I never +thought to have undertaken till you imposed it upon me.' Independently +of Wood, Aubrey had collected material for a life of Hobbes, in +accordance with a promise he had made to Hobbes himself. All his +manuscript notes were submitted to Wood, who made good use of them. +On their return Aubrey deposited them in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, +the library of which is now merged in the Bodleian. + +The notes were written 'tumultuarily', jotted down hastily, and as +hastily added to, altered, and transposed. They are a first draft for +the fair copy which was never made. The difficulty of giving a true +representation of them in print is increased by Aubrey's habit of +inserting above the line alternatives to words or phrases without +deleting the original words or even indicating his preference. In the +present text the later form has, as a rule, been adopted, the other +being given in a footnote. + +'The Life of Mr. Thomas Hobbes, of Malmesburie' is by far the longest +of Aubrey's 'Brief Lives', but it does not differ from the others +in manner. The passages selected may be regarded as notes for a +character. + +Page 183, ll. 1 ff. Aubrey is a little more precise in his notes +on Bacon. 'Mr. Thomas Hobbes told me ... that he was employed in +translating part of the Essayes, viz. three of them, one whereof was +that of the Greatnesse of Cities, the other two I have now forgott' +(ed. A. Clark, vol. i, p. 83). On the evidence of style, Aldis Wright +thought that the other two essays translated by Hobbes were 'Of +Simulation and Dissimulation' and 'Of Innovation': see the preface to +his edition of _Bacon's Essays_, 1862, pp. xix, xx. The translation +appeared in 1638 under the title _Sermones fideles, sive interiora +rerum_. + +l. 4. Gorhambury was Bacon's residence in Hertfordshire, near St. +Alban's, inherited from his father. Aubrey described it in a long +digression 'for the sake of the lovers of antiquity', ed. Clark, vol. +i, pp. 79-84, and p. 19. + +l. 5. Thomas Bushell (1594-1674), afterwards distinguished as a mining +engineer and metallurgist: see his life in the _Dictionary of National +Biography_. + +Page 185, l. 2. (_i._) or _i._, a common form at this time for _i.e._ + +l. 20. Henry Lawes (1596-1662), who wrote the music for _Comus_, and +to whom Milton addressed one of his sonnets: + + _Harry_ whose tuneful and well measur'd Song + First taught our English Musick how to span + Words with just note and accent,... + To after age thou shalt be writ the man, + That with smooth aire couldst humor best our tongue. + +This sonnet was prefixed to Lawes's _Choice Psalmes_ in 1648; his +_Ayres and Dialogues for One, Two, and Three Voices_ appeared in three +books from 1653 to 1658. + + +56. + +The Life of That Reverend Divine, and Learned Historian, Dr. Thomas +Fuller. London, 1661. (pp. 66-77.) + +This work was twice reissued with new title-pages at Oxford in 1662, +and was for the first time reprinted in 1845 by way of introduction to +J.S. Brewer's edition of Fuller's _Church History_. It is the basis of +all subsequent lives of Fuller. But the author is unknown. + +The passage here quoted from the concluding section of this _Life_ is +the only contemporary sketch of Fuller's person and character that is +now known. Aubrey's description is a mere note, and is considerably +later: 'He was of a middle stature; strong sett; curled haire; a very +working head, in so much that, walking and meditating before dinner, +he would eate-up a penny loafe, not knowing that he did it. His +naturall memorie was very great, to which he had added the _art of +memorie_: he would repeate to you forwards and backwards all the +signes from Ludgate to Charing-crosse' (ed. A. Clark, vol. i, p. 257). + +Page 187, l. 20. _a perfect walking Library_, Compare p. 171, l. 19, +note. + +Page 191, ll. 3 ff. Compare Aubrey. But Fuller disclaimed the use of +an art of memory. 'Artificiall memory', he said, 'is rather a trick +then an art.' He condemned the 'artificiall rules which at this day +are delivered by Memory-mountebanks'. His great rule was 'Marshall thy +notions into a handsome method'. See his section 'Of Memory' in his +_Holy State_, 1642, Bk. III, ch. 10; and compare J.E. Bailey, _Life of +Thomas Fuller_, 1874, pp. 413-15. + + +57. + +Bodleian Library, MS. Aubrey 8 foll. 63, 63 v, 68. + +The text is taken direct from Aubrey's manuscript, such contractions +as 'X'ts coll:' and 'da:' for daughter being expanded. For the +complete life, see _Brief Lives_, ed. A. Clark, vol. ii, pp. 62-72. + +There is no character of Milton. We have again to be content with +notes for a character. + +Page 192, l. 7. Christ's College, Cambridge, which Milton entered in +February 1625, aged sixteen. + +ll. 15-18. Milton had three daughters, by his first wife--Anne, Mary, +and Deborah. Mary died unmarried. Deborah's husband, Abraham Clarke, +left Dublin for London during the troubles in Ireland under James II: +see Masson's _Life of Milton_, vol. vi, p. 751. He is described by +Johnson as a 'weaver in Spitalfields': see _Lives of the Poets_, ed. +G.B. Hill, vol. i, pp. 158-60. + +Page 193, ll. 2-4. _Litera Canina_. See Persius, _Sat_. i. 109 +'Sonat hic de nare canina littera'; and compare Ben Jonson, _English +Grammar_, '_R_ Is the _Dogs_ Letter, and hurreth in the sound.' + +ll. 11, 12. But the Comte de Cominges, French Ambassador to England, +1662-5, in his report to Louis XIV on the state of literature in +England, spoke of 'un nommé Miltonius qui s'est rendu plus infâme par +ses dangereux écrits que les bourreaux et les assassins de leur roi'. +This was written in 1663, and Cominges knew only Milton's Latin works. +See J.J. Jusserand, _A French Ambassador at the Court of Charles the +Second_, 1892, p. 58, and _Shakespeare en France_, 1898, p. 107. + +l. 19. _In toto nusquam_. Ovid, _Amores_, i. 5. 18. + +Page 194, l. 4. Milton died November 8: see Masson, _Life of Milton_, +vol. vi, p. 731. + + +58. + +Letters of State, Written by Mr. John Milton, To most of the Sovereign +Princes and Republicks of Europe. From the Year 1649 Till the Year +1659. To which is added, An Account of his Life.... London: Printed in +the Year, 1694. (p. xxxvi.) + +'The Life of Mr. John Milton' (pp. i-xliv) serves as introduction to +this little volume of State Papers. It is the first life of Milton. +Edward Phillips (1630-96) was the son of Milton's sister, and was +educated by him. Unfortunately he failed to take proper advantage of +his great opportunity. The Life is valuable for some of its details, +but as a whole it is disappointing; and it makes no attempt at +characterization. The note on Milton in his _Theatrum Poetarum, or a +Compleat Collection of the Poets_, 1675, is also disappointing. + + +59. + +Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton's Paradise Lost. By J. +Richardson, Father and Son. With the Life of the Author, and a +Discourse on the Poem. By J.R. Sen. London: M.DCC.XXXIV. (pp. iii-v; +xciv; c; cxiv.) + +Jonathan Richardson (1665-1745) was one of the chief portrait-painters +of his time. There are portraits by him of Pope, Steele, and +Prior--all now in the National Portrait Gallery; and his writings on +painting were standard works till the time of Reynolds. His book on +Milton was an excursion late in life, with the assistance of his son, +into another field of criticism. His introductory life of Milton +(pp. i-cxliii) is a substantial piece of work, and is valuable as +containing several anecdotes that might otherwise have been lost. +Those that bear on Milton's character are here reproduced. The +typographical eccentricities have been preserved. + +Page 194, ll. 28 ff. Edward Millington's place of business was 'at the +Pelican in Duck Lane' in 1670; from Michaelmas, 1671, it was 'at the +Bible in Little Britain' (see Arber's _Term Catalogues_, vol. i, pp. +31, 93). It was about 1680 that he turned auctioneer of books, though +he did not wholly abandon publishing. 'There was usually as much +Comedy in his "Once, Twice, Thrice", as can be met with in a modern +Play.' See the _Life and Errors of John Dunton_, ed. 1818, pp. 235-6. +He died at Cambridge in 1703. + +Page 196, l. 4. Dr. Tancred Robinson (d. 1748), physician to George I, +and knighted by him. + +l. 10. Henry Bendish (d. 1740), son of Bridget Ireton or Bendish, +Cromwell's granddaughter: see _Letters of John Hughes_, ed. John +Duncombe, vol. ii (1773), pp. x, xlii. + +l. 14. John Thurloe (1616-68), Secretary of State under Cromwell. +Compare No. 38 note. + +l. 25. 'Easy my unpremeditated verse', _Paradise Lost_, ix. 24. + + +60. + +The Works of M'r Abraham Cowley. Consisting of Those which were +formerly Printed: and Those which he Design'd for the Press, Now +Published out of the Authors Original Copies. London, 1668.--'Several +Discourses by way of Essays, in Verse and Prose,' No. II. (pp. 143-6.) + +Cowley's Essays were written towards the close of his life. They were +'left scarce finish'd', and many others were to have been added to +them. They were first published posthumously in the collected edition +of 1668, under the superintendence of Thomas Sprat (see No. 61). +This edition, which alone is authoritative, has been followed in the +present reprint of the eleventh and last Essay, probably written at +the beginning of 1667. + +Page 198, l. 1. _at School_, Westminster. + +ll. 19 ff. The concluding stanzas of 'A Vote', printed in Cowley's +_Sylva_, 1636. Cowley was then aged eighteen. The first stanza +contains three new readings, 'The unknown' for 'Th' ignote', 'I would +have' for 'I would hug', and 'Not on' for 'Not from'. + +Page 199, l. 15. _out of Horace_, _Odes_, iii. 29. 41-5. + +Page 200, l. 4. _immediately_. The reading in the text of 1668 is +'irremediably', but 'immediately' is given as the correct reading in +the 'Errata' (printed on a slip that is pasted in at the conclusion of +Cowley's first preface). The edition of 1669 substitutes 'immediately' +in the text. The alteration must be accepted on Sprat's authority, but +it is questionable if it gives a better sense. + +ll. 6-10. Cowley was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, as a +Westminster scholar on June 14, 1637. He was admitted Minor Fellow +in 1640, and graduated M.A. in 1643. He was ejected in the following +year as a result of the Earl of Manchester's commission to enforce the +solemn League and Covenant in Cambridge. See _Cowley's Pure Works_, +ed. J.R. Lumby, pp. ix-xiii, and Johnson's _Lives of the Poets_, ed. +G.B. Hill, vol. i, p. 5. + +ll. 9, 10. _Cedars ... Hyssop_. I Kings, iv. 33. + +l. 12. _one of the best Persons_, Henry Jermyn, created Baron Jermyn, +1643, and Earl of St. Albans, 1660, chief officer of Henrietta Maria's +household in Paris: see Clarendon, vol. iv, p. 312. As secretary +to Jermyn, Cowley 'cyphcr'd and decypher'd with his own hand, the +greatest part of all the Letters that passed between their Majesties, +and managed a vast Intelligence in many other parts: which for some +years together took up all his days, and two or three nights every +week' (Sprat). He told Sprat that he intended to dedicate all his +Essays to St. Albans 'as a testimony of his entire respects to him'. + +Page 201, l. 10. _Well then_. The opening lines of 'The Wish', +included in _The Mistress_, 1647 (ed. 1668, pp. 22-3). + +ll. 14 ff. At the instance of Jermyn, Cowley had been promised by both +Charles I and Charles II the mastership of the Savoy Hospital, but the +post was given in 1660 to Sheldon, and in 1663, on Sheldon's promotion +to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, to Henry Killigrew: see W.J. +Loftie, _Memorials of the Savoy_, 1878, pp. 145 ff., and Wood, _Fasti +Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, part I, col. 494. In the _Calendar of State +Papers_, Domestic Series, 1661-2, p. 210, there is the statement of +the case of Abraham Cowley, 'showing that the place may be held by a +person not a divine, and that Cowley ... having seen all preferments +given away, and his old University companions advanced before him, is +put to great shame by missing this place'. He is called 'Savoy missing +Cowley' in the Restoration _Session of the Poets_, printed in _Poems +on State Affairs_. + +l. 21. _Thou, neither_. In the ode entitled 'Destinie', _Pindarique +Odes_, 1656 (ed. 1668, p. 31, 'That neglected'). + +l. 28. _A Corps perdu_, misprinted _A Corps perdi_, edd. 1668, 1669, +_A Corpus perdi_, 1672, 1674, &c.; _Perdue_, Errata, 1668. + +Page 202, l. 1. St. Luke, xii. 16-21. + +ll. 3-5. 'Out of hast to be gone away from the Tumult and Noyse of the +City, he had not prepar'd so healthful a situation in the Country, as +he might have done, if he had made a more leasurable choice. Of this +he soon began to find the inconvenience at _Barn Elms_, where he was +afflicted with a dangerous and lingring _Fever_.... Shortly after his +removal to _Chertsea_ [April 1665], he fell into another consuming +Disease. Having languish'd under this for some months, he seem'd to +be pretty well cur'd of its ill Symptomes. But in the heat of the last +Summer [1667], by staying too long amongst his Laborers in the Medows, +he was taken with a violent Defluxion, and Stoppage in his Breast, and +Throat. This he at first neglected as an ordinary Cold, and refus'd +to send for his usual Physicians, till it was past all remedies; and +so in the end after a fortnight sickness, it prov'd mortal to him' +(Sprat). In the Latin life prefixed to Cowley's _Poemata Latina_, +1668, Sprat is more specific: 'Initio superioris Anni, inciderat in +_Morbum_, quem Medici _Diabeten_ appellant.' + +l. 6. _Non ego_. Horace, _Odes_, ii. 17. 9, 10. + +ll. 11 ff. _Nec vos_. These late Latin verses may be Cowley's own, but +they are not in his collected Latin poems. Compare Virgil, _Georgics_, +ii. 485-6. 'Syluæq;' = 'Sylvæque': 'q;' was a regular contraction for +_que_: cf. p. 44, l. 6. + + +61. + +The Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley, 1668.--'An Account of the Life and +Writings of M'r Abraham Cowley'. (pp. [18]-[20].) + +Thomas Sprat (1635-1713), author of _The History of the +Royal-Society_, 1667, afterwards Bishop of Rochester, 1684, was +entrusted by Cowley's will with 'the revising of all his Works that +were formerly printed, and the collecting of those Papers which he had +design'd for the Press'; and as literary executor he brought out in +1668 a folio edition of the English works, and an octavo edition of +the Latin works. To both he prefixed a life, one in English and the +other in Latin. The more elaborate English life was written partly in +the hope that 'a Character of Mr. _Cowley_ may be of good advantage to +our Nation'. Unfortunately the ethical bias has injured the biography. +In Johnson's words, 'his zeal of friendship, or ambition of eloquence, +has produced a funeral oration rather than a history: he has given the +character, not the life of Cowley; for he writes with so little detail +that scarcely any thing is distinctly known, but all is shewn confused +and enlarged through the mist of panegyrick.' Similarly Coleridge asks +'What literary man has not regretted the prudery of Sprat in refusing +to let his friend Cowley appear in his slippers and dressing-gown?' +(_Biographia Literaria_, ch. iii). His method is the more to be +regretted as no one knew Cowley better in his later years. His +greatest error of judgement was to suppress his large collection +of Cowley's letters. But with all its faults Sprat's Life of Cowley +occupies an important place at the beginning of English biography of +men of letters. It is the earliest substantial life of a poet whose +reputation rested on his poetry. Fulke Greville's life of Sir Philip +Sidney was the life of a soldier and a statesman of promise; and to +Izaak Walton, Donne was not so much a poet as a great Churchman. + +In the edition of 1668 the life of Cowley runs to twenty-four folio +pages. The passage here selected deals directly with his character. + +Page 203, ll. 25-7. It is evidently the impression of a stranger at +first sight that Aubrey gives in his short note: 'A.C. discoursed very +ill and with hesitation' (ed. A. Clark, vol. i, p. 190). + + +62. + +A Character of King Charles the Second: And Political, Moral and +Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections. By George Savile, Marquis of +Halifax. London: MDCCL. + +Halifax's elaborate and searching account of Charles II was first +published in 1750 'from his original Manuscripts, in the Possession +of his Grand-daughter Dorothy Countess of Burlington'. It consists +of seven parts: I. Of his Religion; II. His Dissimulation; III. His +Amours, Mistresses, &c.; IV. His Conduct to his Ministers; V. Of +his Wit and Conversation; VI. His Talents, Temper, Habits, &c.; VII. +Conclusion. Only the second, fifth, and sixth are given here. The +complete text is reprinted in Sir Walter Raleigh's _Works of Halifax_, +1912, pp. 187-208. + +For other characters of Charles, in addition to the two by Burnet +which follow, see Evelyn's _Diary_, February 4, 1685; Dryden's +dedication of _King Arthur_, 1691; 'A Short Character of King Charles +the II' by John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, Duke of Buckingham, +'Printed from the Original Copy' in _Miscellaneous Works Written by +George, late Duke of Buckingham_, ed. Tho. Brown, vol. ii, 1705, pp. +153-60, and with Pope's emendations in _Works_, 1723, vol. ii, pp. +57-65; and James Welwood's _Memoirs Of the Most Material Transactions +in England, for the Last Hundred Years, Preceding the Revolution_, +1700, pp. 148-53. + +For Halifax himself, see No. 72. + +Page 208, l. 12. An allusion to the Quarrel of the Ancients and +Moderns, which assumed prominence in England with the publication +in 1690 of Sir William Temple's _Essay upon the Ancient and Modern +Learning_. Compare Burnet, p. 223, l. 11 and note. + +PAGE 209, l. 29. _Ruelle_. Under Louis XIV it was the custom for +ladies of fashion to receive morning visitors in their bedrooms; hence +_ruelle_, the passage by the side of a bed, came to mean a ladies' +chamber. Compare _The Spectator_, Nos. 45 and 530. + +Page 211, l. 2. _Tiendro cuydado_, evidently an imperfect recollection +of the phrase _se tendrá cuydado_, 'care will be taken', 'the matter +will have attention': compare _Cortes de Madrid_, 1573, Peticion +96,... 'se tendrá cuidado de proueher en ello lo que conuiniere'. + +Page 212, ll. 7, 8. Compare Pepys's _Diary_, May 4, 1663: 'meeting the +King, we followed him into the Park, where Mr. Coventry and he talking +of building a new yacht out of his private purse, he having some +contrivance of his own'. Also, Evelyn's _Diary_, February 4, 1685: +'a lover of the sea, and skilful in shipping; not affecting other +studies, yet he had a laboratory and knew of many empirical medicines, +and the easier mechanical mathematics.' Also, Buckingham, ed. 1705, +p. 155: 'the great and almost only pleasure of Mind he seem'd addicted +to, was _Shipping_ and _Sea-Affairs_; which seem'd to be so much his +Talent for _Knowledge_, as well as _Inclination_, that a War of that +Kind, was rather an _Entertainment_, than any _Disturbance_ to his +Thoughts.' Also Welwood, _Memoirs_, p. 151. Also, Burnet, _infra_, p. +219. + +Page 213, l. 10. According to Pepys (_Diary_, December 8, 1666), +the distinction between Charles Stuart and the King was drawn by Tom +Killigrew in his remonstrance to Charles on the very ill state that +matters were coming to: 'There is a good, honest, able man, that I +could name, that if your Majesty would employ, and command to see all +things well executed, all things would soon be mended; and this is one +Charles Stuart, who now spends his time in employing his lips about +the Court, and hath no other employment; but if you would give him +this employment, he were the fittest man in the world to perform it.' + +Page 217, ll. 11 ff. Compare Welwood's _Memoirs_, p. 149. + + +63. + +Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. From the Restoration +of King Charles II. to the Settlement of King William and Queen Mary +at the Revolution. London: 1724. (pp. 93-4.) + +Burnet began his _History of His Own Time_ in 1683, after the +publication of his _History of the Reformation_. In its original form +it partook largely of the nature of Memoirs. But on the appearance +of Clarendon's History in 1702 he was prompted to recast his entire +narrative on a method that confined the strictly autobiographical +matter to a section by itself and as a whole assured greater dignity. +The part dealing with the reign of Charles II was rewritten by August +1703. The work was brought down to 1713 and completed in that year. +Two years later Burnet died, leaving instructions that it was not to +be printed till six years after his death. + +The _History_ was published in two folio volumes, dated 1724 and 1734. +The first, which contains the reigns of Charles II and James II, came +out at the end of 1723 and was edited by Burnet's second son, Gilbert +Burnet, then rector of East Barnet. The second volume was edited +by his third son, Thomas Burnet, afterwards a Judge of the Court +of Common Pleas. The complete autograph of the History, and the +transcript which was prepared for the press under the author's +directions, are now both in the Bodleian Library. + +The original form of the work survives in two transcripts (one of them +with Burnet's autograph corrections) in the Harleian collection in +the British Museum, and in a fragment of Burnet's original manuscript +in the Bodleian. The portions of this original version that differ +materially from the final printed version were published in 1902 by +Miss H.C. Foxcroft under the title _A Supplement to Burnet's History_. + +Much of the interest of the earlier version lies in the characters, +which are generally longer than they became on revision, and +sometimes contain details that were suppressed. But in a volume of +representative selections, where the art of a writer is as much our +concern as his matter, the preference must be given to what Burnet +himself intended to be final. The extracts are reprinted from the two +volumes edited by his sons. There was not the same reason to go direct +to his manuscript as to Clarendon's: see notes p. 231, l. 26; p. 252, +l. 10; and p. 255, l. 6. + + +64. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 611-3.) + +Burnet's two characters of Charles II are in striking agreement with +the more elaborate study by Halifax. + +Page 221, ll. 1 ff. Compare Halifax, p. 216, ll. 10 ff. + +l. 14. _his Chancellor_, Clarendon. + +Page 222, l. 16. _he became cruel_. This statement was attacked by +Roger North, _Lives of the Norths_, ed. 1890, vol. i, p. 330: 'whereas +some of our barbarous writers call this awaking of the king's genius +to a sedulity in his affairs, a growing cruel, because some suffered +for notorious treasons, I must interpret their meaning; which is a +distaste, because his majesty was not pleased to be undone as his +father was; and accordingly, since they failed to wound his person and +authority, they fell to wounding his honour.' Buckingham says, 'He was +an Illustrious Exception to all the Common Rules of _Phisiognomy_; for +with a most _Saturnine_ harsh sort of Countenance, he was both of a +_Merry_ and a _Merciful_ Disposition' (ed. 1705, p. 159); with which +compare Welwood, ed. 1700, p. 149. The judicial verdict had already +been pronounced by Halifax: see p. 216, ll. 23 ff. + +ll. 21-3. See Burnet, ed. Osmund Airy, vol. i, p. 539, for the +particular reference. The scandal was widespread, but groundless. + +Page 223, l. 9. _the war of Paris_, the Fronde. See Clarendon, vol. v, +pp. 243-5. + +ll. 11 ff. Compare Buckingham, ed. 1705, p. 157: 'Witty in all +sorts of Conversation; and telling a Story so well, that, not out of +Flattery, but the Pleasure of hearing it, we seem'd Ignorant of what +he had repeated to us Ten Times before; as a good _Comedy_ will bear +the being often seen.' Also Halifax, p. 208, ll. 7-14. + +l. 17. John Wilmot (1647-80), second Earl of Rochester, son of Henry +Wilmot, first Earl (No. 32). Burnet knew him well and wrote his life, +_Some Passages of the Life and Death Of the Right Honourable John Earl +of Rochester_, 1680; 'which', says Johnson, 'the critick ought to read +for its elegance, the philosopher for its arguments, and the saint for +its piety' (_Lives of the Poets_, ed. G.B. Hill, vol. i, p. 222). + +ll. 25 ff. The resemblance to Tiberius was first pointed out in print +in Welwood's _Memoirs_, p. 152, which appeared twenty-four years +before Burnet's _History_. But Welwood was indebted to Burnet. He +writes as if they had talked about it; or he might have seen Burnet's +early manuscript. + + +65. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 94-5.) + +The author of most of the characters in this volume himself deserves a +fuller character. The main portions of Burnet's original sketch (1683) +are therefore given here, partly by way of supplement, and partly to +illustrate the nature of Burnet's revision (1703): + +'The great man with the king was chancellor Hyde, afterwards made Earl +of Clarendon. He had been in the beginning of the long parliament very +high against the judges upon the account of the ship-money and became +then a considerable man; he spake well, his style had no flaw in it, +but had a just mixture of wit and sense, only he spoke too copiously; +he had a great pleasantness in his spirit, which carried him sometimes +too far into raillery, in which he sometimes shewed more wit than +discretion. He went over to the court party when the war was like to +break out, and was much in the late king's councils and confidence +during the war, though he was always of the party that pressed the +king to treat, and so was not in good terms with the queen. The late +king recommended him to this king as the person on whose advices he +wished him to rely most, and he was about the king all the while that +he was beyond sea, except a little that he was ambassador in Spain; he +managed all the king's correspondences in England, both in the little +designs that the cavaliers were sometimes engaged in, and chiefly in +procuring money for the king's subsistence, in which Dr. Sheldon was +very active; he had nothing so much before his eyes as the king's +service and doated on him beyond expression: he had been a sort of +governor to him and had given him many lectures on the politics +and was thought to assume and dictate too much ... But to pursue +Clarendon's character: he was a man that knew England well, and was +lawyer good enough to be an able chancellor, and was certainly a very +incorrupt man. In all the king's foreign negotiations he meddled too +much, for I have been told that he had not a right notion of foreign +matters, but he could not be gained to serve the interests of other +princes. Mr. Fouquet sent him over a present of 10,000 pounds after +the king's restoration and assured him he would renew that every +year, but though both the king and the duke advised him to take it he +very worthily refused it. He took too much upon him and meddled in +everything, which was his greatest error. He fell under the hatred +of most of the cavaliers upon two accounts. The one was the act of +indemnity which cut off all their hopes of repairing themselves of +the estates of those that had been in the rebellion, but he said it +was the offer of the indemnity that brought in the king and it was +the observing of it that must keep him in, so he would never let that +be touched, and many that had been deeply engaged in the late times +having expiated it by their zeal of bringing home the king were +promoted by his means, such as Manchester, Anglesey, Orrery, Ashley, +Holles, and several others. The other thing was that, there being an +infinite number of pretenders to employments and rewards for their +services and sufferings, so that the king could only satisfy some few +of them, he upon that, to stand between the king and the displeasure +which those disappointments had given, spoke slightly of many of them +and took it upon him that their petitions were not granted; and some +of them having procured several warrants from the secretaries for the +same thing (the secretaries considering nothing but their fees), he +who knew on whom the king intended that the grant should fall, took +all upon him, so that those who were disappointed laid the blame +chiefly if not wholly upon him. He was apt to talk very imperiously +and unmercifully, so that his manner of dealing with people was as +provoking as the hard things themselves were; but upon the whole +matter he was a true Englishman and a sincere protestant, and what +has passed at court since his disgrace has sufficiently vindicated him +from all ill designs' (_Supplement_, ed. Foxcroft, pp. 53-6). + +There is a short character of Clarendon in Warwick's _Mémoires_, pp. +196-8; compare also Pepys's _Diary_, October 13, 1666, and Evelyn's +_Diary_, August 27, 1667, and September 18, 1683. + + +66. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 638-9; _Continuation of the Life of Edward +Earl of Clarendon_, ed. 1759, pp. 51-2. + +Page 226, l. 8. He was released from Windsor Castle in March 1660. +Compare Burnet's character, p. 228, ll. 2-4. + +l. 19. _the Chancellour_, i.e. Clarendon himself. + +Page 227, ll. 5 ff. John Middleton (1619-74), created Earl of +Middleton, 1656. He was taken prisoner at Worcester, but escaped to +France. As Lord High Commissioner for Scotland and Commander-in-chief, +he was mainly responsible for the unfortunate methods of forcing +episcopacy on Scotland. + +William Cunningham (1610-64), ninth Earl of Glencairn, Lord Chancellor +of Scotland. + +John Leslie (1630-81), seventh Earl and first Duke of Rothes, +President of the Council in Scotland; Lord Chancellor, 1667. + +On the composition of the ministry in Scotland, compare Burnet, ed. +Osmund Airy, vol. i, pp. 199, ff. + + +67. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 101-2.) + +We are fortunate in having companion characters of Lauderdale by +Clarendon and Burnet. Their point of view is different. Clarendon +describes the Lauderdale of the Restoration who is climbing to power +and is officially his inferior. Burnet looks back on him at the +height of power and remembers how it was made to be felt. But the two +characters have a strong likeness. Burnet is here seen at his best. + +Page 228, ll. 14-17. Compare Roger North's _Lives of the Norths_, ed. +1890, vol. i, p. 231: 'the duke himself, being also learned, having +a choice library, took great pleasure ... in hearing him talk of +languages and criticism'. Compare also Evelyn's _Diary_, August 27, +1678. His library was dispersed by auction--the French, Italian, and +Spanish books on May 14, and the English books on May 27, 1690: copies +of the sale catalogues are in the Bodleian. The catalogue of his +manuscripts, 1692, is printed in the _Bannatyne Miscellany_, vol. ii, +1836, p. 149. + +l. 30. As Professor of Theology in the University of Glasgow Burnet +had enjoyed the favour of Lauderdale, and had dedicated to him, in +fulsome terms, _A Vindication of the Church and State of Scotland_. +The break came suddenly, and with no apparent cause, in 1673, when +Burnet was appointed royal chaplain and was winning the ears of the +King. Henceforward Lauderdale continued a 'violent enemy'. Their +relations at this time are described in Clarke and Foxcroft's _Life of +Gilbert Burnet_, 1907, pp. 109 ff., where Burnet's concluding letter +of December 15, 1673, is printed in full. + +Page 229, ll. 2-7. Richard Baxter delivered himself to Lauderdale in a +long letter about his lapse from his former professions of piety--'so +fallne from all that can be called serious religion, as that +sensuality and complyance with sin is your ordinary course.' The +letter (undated, but before 1672) is printed in _The Landerdale +Papers_, ed. Osmund Airy, Camden Society, vol. iii, 1885, pp. 235-9. + +ll. 8-12. 'The broad and pungent wit, and the brutal _bonhomie_.. +probably went as far as anything else in securing Charles's favour.' +Osmund Airy, Burnet's _History_, vol. i, p. 185. + + +68. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 96-7.) + +Page 230, l. 14. He was chosen for Tewkesbury in March 1640, but he +did not sit in the Long Parliament. + +l. 18, _a town_, Weymouth: see p. 70, l. 21 note. He had been +appointed governor of it in August 1643 after some dispute, but was +shortly afterwards removed (Clarendon, vol. iii, pp. 163-5, 362). + +Page 231, l. 2. Shaftesbury writes about the prediction of 'Doctor +Olivian, a German, a very learned physician', in his autobiographical +fragment: see No. 14 note. + +ll. 14, 15. Compare Burnet's first sketch of Shaftesbury, ed. +Foxcroft, p. 59: 'he told some that Cromwell offered once to make him +king, but he never offered to impose so gross a thing on me.' + +ll. 17, 18. See the Newsletter of December 28, 1654, in _The Clarke +Papers_, ed. C.H. Firth, Camden Society, 1899, p. 16: 'a few daies +since when the House was in a Grand Committee of the whole House upon +the Government, Mr. Garland mooved to have my Lord Protectour crowned, +which mocion was seconded by Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Mr. Hen. +Cromwell, and others, but waved.' + +l. 26. After 'party' Burnet wrote (autograph, fol. 49) 'He had no sort +of virtue: for he was both a leud and corrupt man: and had no regard +either to trueth or Justice.' But he struck out 'no sort ... and had'. +The sentence thus read in the transcript (p. 76) 'He had no regard +either to Truth or Justice'. This in turn was struck out, either by +Burnet himself or by the editor. + +The following words are likewise struck out in the transcript, after +'manner' (l. 28): 'and was not out of countenance in owning his +unsteadiness and deceitfullness.' + + +69. + +Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem ... The Second Edition; Augmented and +Revised. London, 1681. (ll. 142-227.) + +The first edition was published on November 17, 1681, a few days +before Shaftesbury's trial for high treason. In the second, which +appeared within a month, the character of Shaftesbury was 'augmented' +by twelve lines (p. 233, ll. 17-28). + +Shaftesbury had been satirized by Butler in the Third Part of +_Hudibras_, 1678, three years before the crisis in his remarkable +career, and while his schemes still prospered. To Butler he is the +unprincipled turn-coat who thinks only of his own interests: + + So Politick, as if one eye + Upon the other were a Spye;... + H'had seen three Governments Run down, + And had a Hand in ev'ry one, + Was for 'em, and against 'em all. + But Barb'rous when they came to fall:... + By giving aim from side, to side, + He never fail'd to save his Tide, + But got the start of ev'ry State, + And at a Change, ne'r came too late.... + Our _State-Artificer_ foresaw, + Which way the World began to draw:... + He therefore wisely cast about, + All ways he could, t'_insure his Throat_; + And hither came t'observe, and smoke + What Courses other Riscers took: + And to the utmost do his Best + To Save himself, and Hang the Rest. + +(Canto II, ll. 351-420). + +Dryden's satire should be compared with Butler's. But a comparison +with the prose character by Burnet, which had no immediate political +purpose, will reveal even better Dryden's mastery in satirical +portraiture. Another verse character is in _The Review_ by Richard +Duke, written shortly after Dryden's poem. + +Absalom is Monmouth, David Charles II, Israel England, the Jews the +English, and a Jebusite a Romanist. + +Page 232, l. 28. Compare Seneca, _De Tranquillitate Animi_, xvii. 10: +'nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiæ fuit.' + +Page 233, l. 7. The humorous definition of man ascribed to Plato in +Diogenes Laertius, Lib. vi. 40 (Life of Diogenes), [Greek: Platonos +horisamenou, anthropos esti zoon dipoun apteron.] + +The son was a handsomer man than the father, though he did not inherit +his ability. His son, the third earl, was the critic and philosopher +who wrote the _Characteristicks_. + +l. 12. _the Triple Bond_, the alliance of England, Holland, and Sweden +against France in 1667, broken by the war with France against Holland +in 1672. But Shaftesbury then knew nothing of the secret Treaty of +Dover, 1670. + +l. 16. _Usurp'd_, in ed. 1 'Assum'd'. + +l. 25. _Abbethdin_ 'the president of the Jewish judicature', 'the +father of the house of judgement'. Shaftesbury was Lord Chancellor, +1672-3. + +Page 234, l. 4. David would have sung his praises instead of writing a +psalm, and so Heaven would have had one psalm the less. + +ll. 5, 6. Macaulay pointed out in his essay on Sir William Temple +that these lines are a reminiscence of a couplet under the portrait of +Sultan Mustapha the First in Knolles's _Historie of the Turkes_ (ed. +1638, p. 1370): + + Greatnesse, on Goodnesse loues to slide, not stand, + and leaues for Fortunes ice, Vertues firm land. + +l. 15. The alleged Popish Plot, invented by Titus Oates, to murder the +king and put the government in the hands of the Jesuits. Shaftesbury +had no share in the invention, but he believed it, and made political +use of it. + +Page 235, l. 4. This line reappears in _The Hind and the Panther_, +Part I, l. 211. As W.D. Christie pointed out, it is a reminiscence +of a couplet in _Lachrymæ Musarum_, 1649, the volume to which +Dryden contributed his school-boy verses 'Upon the Death of the Lord +Hastings': + + It is decreed, we must be drain'd (I see) + Down to the dregs of a _Democracie_. + +This is the opening couplet of the English poem preceding Dryden's, +and signed 'M.N.' i.e. Marchamont Needham (p. 81). + + +70. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (p. 100.) + +'The portrait of this Duke has been drawn by four masterly hands: +Burnet has hewn it out with his rough chissel; Count Hamilton touched +it with that slight delicacy, that finishes while it seems but to +sketch; Dryden catched the living likeness; Pope compleated the +historical resemblance.'--Horace Walpole, _Royal and Noble Authors_, +ed. 1759, vol. ii, p. 78. + +There is also Butler's prose character of 'A Duke of Bucks', first +printed in Thyer's edition of the _Genuine Remains of Butler_, 1759, +vol. ii, pp. 72-5, but written apparently about 1667-9. And there is a +verse character in Duke's _Review_. + +Page 235, l. 11. _a great liveliness of wit_. In the first sketch +Burnet wrote 'he has a flame in his wit that is inimitable'. It lives +in _The Rehearsal_. His 'Miscellaneous Works' were collected in two +volumes by Tom Brown, 1704-5. + +Page 236, l. 12. Compare Butler: 'one that has studied the whole Body +of Vice.' + +l. 14. Sir Henry Percy, created Baron Percy of Alnwick in 1643. He +was then general of the ordinance of the king's army. He joined the +Queen's party in France in 1645. + +l. 15. _Hobbs_. For Burnet's view of Hobbes, see p. 246, ll. 21 ff. + + +71. + +Absalom and Achitophel. Second Edition. 1681. (ll. 543-68.) + +Dryden is his own best critic: 'The Character of _Zimri_ in my +_Absalom_, is, in my Opinion, worth the whole Poem: 'Tis not bloody, +but 'tis ridiculous enough. And he for whom it was intended, was +too witty to resent it as an injury. If I had rail'd, I might have +suffer'd for it justly: But I manag'd my own Work more happily, +perhaps more dextrously. I avoided the mention of great Crimes +and apply'd my self to the representing of Blind-sides, and little +Extravagancies: To which, the wittier a Man is, he is generally the +more obnoxious. It succeeded as I wish'd.' ('Discourse concerning +Satire' prefixed to Dryden's Juvenal, 1693, p. xlii.) + +Burnet's prose character again furnishes the best commentary. + +Page 236, ll. 28 ff. Compare Butler: 'He is as inconstant as the Moon, +which he lives under ... His Mind entertains all Things very freely, +that come and go; but, like Guests and Strangers they are not +welcome, if they stay long ... His Ears are perpetually drilled with +a Fiddlestick. He endures Pleasures with less Patience, than other Men +do their Pains.' + + +72. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 267-8.) + +This is not one of Burnet's best characters. He did not see the +political wisdom that lay behind the ready wit. Halifax was too subtle +for Burnet's heavy-handed grasp. To recognize the inadequacy of this +short-sighted estimate, it is sufficient to have read the 'Character +of King Charles II' (No. 62). + +Burnet suffered from Halifax's wit: 'In the House of Lords,' says the +first Earl of Dartmouth, 'he affected to conclude all his discourses +with a jest, though the subject were never so serious, and if it did +not meet with the applause he expected, would be extremely out of +countenance and silent, till an opportunity offered to retrieve the +approbation he thought he had lost; but was never better pleased than +when he was turning Bishop Burnet and his politics into ridicule' +(Burnet, ed. Airy, vol. i, p. 485). + +Dryden understood Halifax, the Jotham of his _Absalom and Achitophel_: + + _Jotham_ of piercing Wit and pregnant Thought: + Endew'd by Nature, and by Learning taught + To move Assemblies, who but onely tri'd + The worse awhile, then chose the better side; + Nor chose alone, but turn'd the Balance too; + So much the weight of one brave man can do. + +See also Dryden's dedication to Halifax of his _King Arthur_. + + +73. + +The Life of the Right Honourable Francis North, Baron of Guilford, +Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, under King Charles II. and King James +II.... By the Honourable Roger North, Esq; London, MDCCXLII. (pp. +223-6.) + +Roger North's lives of his three brothers, Lord Keeper Guilford, +Sir Dudley North, and Dr. John North, Master of Trinity College, +Cambridge, were begun about 1710 but were not published till 1742-4, +eight years after his death. The edition of the 'Lives of the Norths' +by Augustus Jessopp, 3 vols., 1890, contains also his autobiography. + +The Life of Lord Keeper Guilford is invaluable as a picture of the +bench and bar under Charles II and James II. + +Page 240, l. 6. Sir Francis Pemberton (1625-97), Lord Chief Justice, +1681, removed from the King's Bench, 1683, 'near the time that the +great cause of the _quo warranto_ against the city of London was to be +brought to judgment in that court.' North had just described him as a +judge. + +Page 241, l. 1. Compare Scott's _Monastery_, ch. xiv: '"By my troggs," +replied Christie, "I would have thrust my lance down his throat."' +'Troggs' is an altered form of 'Troth'. It appears to be Scottish +in origin; no Southern instance is quoted in Wright's _Dialect +Dictionary_. Saunders may have learned it from a London Scot. + +l. 22. Sir John Maynard (1602-90), 'the king's eldest serjeant, but +advanced no farther'. Described by North, ed. 1890, p. 149; also p. +26: 'Serjeant Maynard, the best old book-lawyer of his time, used to +say that the law was _ars bablativa_'. + +l. 30. Sir Matthew Hale (1609-76), Lord Chief Justice of the King's +Bench, described by North, pp. 79 ff. Burnet wrote _The Life and Death +of Sir Matthew Hale_, 1682. + +Page 243, l. 5. The action taken by the Crown in 1682 contesting the +charter of the city of London. Judgement was given for the Crown. See +_State Trials_, ed. 1810, vol. viii, 1039 ff., and Burnet, ed. Airy, +vol. ii, pp. 343 ff., and compare Hallam, _Constitutional History_, +ch. xii, ed. 1863, pp. 453-4. + + +74. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 186-91). + +This passage brings together ten of the great divines of the century. +It would be easy, as critics have shown, to name as many others, such +as Jeremy Taylor, Sanderson, Sheldon, Cosin, Pearson, and South. But +Burnet is mainly concerned with the men who in his opinion had the +greatest influence during the time of which he is writing, and who +were known to him personally. By way of introduction he speaks of +the Cambridge Platonists under whom his great contemporaries had been +formed. Incidentally he expresses his views on Hobbes's _Leviathan_, +and he concludes with a valuable account of the reform in preaching. +The passage as a whole is an excellent specimen of Burnet's method and +style. + +Page 246, ll. 6, 7. John Owen (1616-83), made Dean of Christ Church by +Cromwell in 1651, Vice-Chancellor of the University, 1652-8, deprived +of the Deanery, 1659. Thomas Goodwin (1600-80), President of Magdalen +College, 1650-60, likewise one of the Commission of Visitors to the +University appointed by the Parliament. Both were Independents. See +H.L. Thompson, _Christ Church_ (College Histories), 1900, pp. 69, 70; +and H.A. Wilson, _Magdalen College_, 1899, pp. 172-4. + +Page 248, l. 5. Simon Episcopius, or Bischop (1583-1643), Dutch +theologian and follower of Arminius: see p. 101, l. 3, note. + +Page 249, l. 12. _Irenicum_. _A Weapon-Salve for the Churches Wounds_, +published 1661. + +Page 252, l. 10. The following sentence is in the original manuscript +(folio 98) before 'But I owed': 'and if I have arrived at any faculty +of writing clear and correctly, I owe that entirely to them: for as +they joined with Wilkins in that Noble tho despised attempt at an +Universall Character, and a Philosophicall Language, they took great +pains to observe all the common errours of language in generall, and +of ours in particular: and in the drawing the tables for that work, +which was Lloyds province, he had looked further into a naturall +purity and simplicity of stile, than any man I ever knew: into +all which he led me, and so helpt me to any measure of exactnes +of writing, which may be thought to belong to me.' The sentence is +deleted in the transcript that was sent to the printer; but whether it +was deleted by Burnet himself, or by the editor, is uncertain. There +are other minor alterations in the same page of the transcript (p. +140). + +The book referred to in the omitted passage is Wilkins's _Essay +Towards a Real Character And a Philosophical Language_, presented +to the Royal Society and published in 1668. Lloyd's 'continual +assistance' is acknowledged in the 'Epistle to the Reader'. + + +75. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 168-70.) + +Page 253, l. 23. He served under Turenne in four campaigns, 1652-5, +latterly as Lieutenant-General. His own account of these campaigns has +fortunately been preserved. It is a portion of the journal to which +Burnet refers. See _The Life of James the Second King of England, +etc., collected out of memoirs writ of his own hand.... Published from +the original Stuart manuscripts in Carlton-House_, edited by James +Stanier Clarke, 2 vols, 1816. + +Page 254, l. 20. After the surrender at Oxford on June 24, 1646, James +was given into the charge of the Earl of Northumberland and confined +at St. James's. See _Life_, ed. J.S. Clarke, vol. i, pp. 30-1, and +Clarendon, vol. iv, pp. 237, and 326-8. + +Page 255, l. 3. Richard Stuart (1594-1651), 'the dean of the King's +chapel, whom his majesty had recommended to his son to instruct him in +all matters relating to the Church' (Clarendon, vol. iv, p. 341). See +Wood's _Athenæ Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. iii, cols. 295-8, and John +Walker's _Sufferings of the Clergy_, Pt. II, p. 48. + +ll. 6-8. The autograph reads (fol. 87): 'He said that a Nun had +advised him to pray every day, that if he was not in the right way +that God would set him right, did make a great impression on him.' The +transcript (p. 127) agrees with the print. + +ll. 27-9. James definitely joined the Roman church at the beginning of +1669: see _Life_, ed. J.S. Clarke, vol. i, p. 440. + +Page 256, l. 3. As High Admiral he defeated the Dutch at Lowestoft, +1665, and Southwold Bay, 1672. Compare Dryden's _Annus Mirabilis_, ll. +73-4: + + Victorious _York_ did first, with fam'd success, + To his known valour make the _Dutch_ give place; + +also his _Verses to the Duchess_ on the Duke's victory of June 3, +1665. He ceased to be High Admiral on the passing of the Test Act, +1673. + +Page 256, l. 6. Sir William Coventry (1628-86), secretary to James, +1660-7. 'He was the man of the finest parts and the best temper that +belonged to the court:' see his character by Burnet, ed. Airy, vol. i, +pp. 478-9. + +ll. 13 ff. Compare Pepys's _Diary_, November 20, 1661, June 27 and +July 2, 1662, June 2, 1663, July 21, 1666, &c. + + +76. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. ii. (p. 292-3.) + + + + +INDEX. + + +Abbott, George, Archbishop of Canterbury +Achitophel. See Shaftesbury. +Aires, or Ayres, Captain. +Anglesey, Arthur Annesley, first Earl of. +Argyle, Archibald Campbell, Marquis of. +Arminius. +Army, The New Model. +Arundel, Thomas Howard, Earl of: + character by Clarendon; + by Sir Edward Walker; + his art collections. +Ascham, Roger. +Ashley, Lord. See Shaftesbury. +Aubrey, John: + description of Hobbes; + of Milton; + his manuscripts; quoted. +_Aulicus Coquinariæ_. + +Bacon, Sir Francis, Baron Verulam, Viscount St. Albans: + character by Jonson; + by Arthur Wilson; + by Fuller; + by Rawley; + his relations with Hobbes; + Essays quoted by Baxter; + _Advancement of Learning_; + _Henry VII_; + _Apophthegms_. +Baker, Sir Richard. +Balfour, Sir William. +Bankes, Anne, wife of Edmund Waller. +Bate, or Bates, George: _Elenchus Motuum_. +Baxter, Richard: + character of Cromwell; + _Reliquiæ Baxterianæ_; + letter to Lauderdale. +Bedford, Francis Russell, fourth Earl of. +Bee, Cornelius, bookseller. +Bendish, Bridget. +Bendish, Henry. +Bentivoglio, Cardinal Guido. +Berry, James. +Bible. +Boileau. +Bolton, Edmund: _Hypercritica_. +Bradshaw, John: Milton's praise of. +Brentford, Patrick Ruthven, Earl of: + character by Clarendon. +Bristol, John Digby, first Earl of. +Bristol, second Earl of. See Digby, George. +Brooke, Sir Fulke Greville, first Baron. +Brooke, Robert Greville, second Baron. +Buckingham, George Villiers, first Duke of: + character by Clarendon; + by Sir Henry Wotton; + Clarendon's early account. +Buckingham, George Villiers, second Duke of: + character by Burnet; + by Dryden (Zimri); + other characters. +Buckingham, or Buckinghamshire, John Sheffield, Duke of: + 'Character of Charles II'. +Burleigh, William Cecil, Baron. +Burnet, Gilbert, Bishop of Salisbury: + characters of Charles II; + Clarendon; + Lauderdale; + Shaftesbury; + Buckingham; + Halifax; + seventeenth-century divines; + James II; + account of Vane; + Waller; + Sir Philip Warwick; + his characters; + revision of his characters; + _History of His Own Time_; + _Memoirs of Dukes of Hamilton_; + _Life of Hale_; + _Life of Rochester_; + relations with Lauderdale; + with English divines. +Burton, John. +Bushell, Thomas. +Butler, Samuel: character of Shaftesbury; + of Buckingham. +Byron, John, first Baron Byron. + +Cæsar. +Calamy, Edward. +Calvert, Sir George, Baron Baltimore. +Camden, William. +Cambridge Platonists. +Canterbury College. +Capel, Arthur, Baron Capel: + character by Clarendon, + Cromwell's character of him. +Carew, Thomas. +Carleton, Sir Dudley, Baron Carleton, + Viscount Dorchester. +Carlisle, James Hay, Earl of. +Carlyle, Thomas. +Carnarvon, Robert Dormer, Earl of: character by Clarendon. +Cavendish, George. +Cecil, Robert. _See_ Salisbury. +Chamberlayne, Edward: _Angliæ Nolitia_. +Charles I: + character by Clarendon; + by Sir Philip Warwick; + Prince. +Charles II: + his character by Halifax; + by Burnet; + other characters; + his taste in sermons. +Cheynell, Francis. +Chillingworth, William: character by Clarendon; + his siege engine. +Christ Church, Oxford. +Christie, W.D. +Cicero. +Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of: + character by Burnet; + other characters of him; + characters written by him, _see_ Contents; + his long study of Digby; + his merits as a character writer; + his conception of history; + his manuscripts; + the _History_; + its authenticity; + editorial alterations; + the _Life_; + _View of Hobbes's Leviathan_; + _Essays_ quoted; + _Letters_ quoted; + other writings; + his picture gallery. +Clarendon, Henry Hyde, second Earl of. +Clarke, Abraham. +_Clélie_. +Coke, Sir Edward. +Coke, Roger: _Detection of the Court and State of England_. +Coleridge, S.T. +Cominges, Le Comte de, French ambassador. +Con, Signior, papal nuncio. +_Connoisseur, The_. +Conway, Sir Edward, Viscount Conway. +Cottington, Sir Francis, Baron Cottington. +Cotton, Sir Robert. +Cousin, Victor. +Coventry, Sir Thomas, Baron Coventry: character by Clarendon. +Coventry, Sir William, character by Burnet. +Cowley, Abraham: + 'Of My self', + character by Sprat, + note by Aubrey, + his _Essays_, + verses on Falkland, + Latin verses. +Crofts, William, Baron Crofts. +Cromwell, Oliver, Lord Protector: + character by Clarendon, + by Sir Philip Warwick, + by John Maidston, + by Baxter. +Cudworth, Ralph: character by Burnet. +Culpeper, or Colepeper, Sir John. +Cumberland, Henry Clifford, Earl of. +_Cyrus, Le Grand_. + +Davenant, Sir William. +Davila, Enrico Caterino. +Desborough, John. +Digby, George, Baron Digby, second Earl of Bristol: + character by Clarendon; + others by Clarendon; + description by Shaftesbury. +Diogenes Laertius. +_Divers portraits_. +Dominico, Signior. +Dorchester, Viscount. See Carleton. +Dort, Synod of. +Dryden, John: + character of Shaftesbury, + of Buckingham; + of Halifax; + _Absalom and Achitophel_; + _Annus Mirabilis_; + _Of Dramatick Poesie_; + _Verses to Duchess of York_; + dedication of _King Arthur_. +Duke, Richard, _The Review_. +Dunton, John, _Life and Errors_. + +Earle, or Earles, John, Bishop of Worcester: + character by Clarendon; + described by Walton; + letters from Clarendon; + _Micro-cosmographie_. +_Eikon Basilike_. +Elizabeth, daughter of James I. +_England's Black Tribunall_. +Episcopius. +_Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ_. +Essex, Robert Devereux, second + Earl of: Clarendon's early study. +Essex, Robert Devereux, third Earl of: + character by Clarendon, + by Arthur Wilson. +Evanson, William. +Evelyn, John: + _Diary_; + letter quoted. + +Fairfax, Ferdinando, second Baron. +Fairfax, Sir Thomas, third Baron: + character by Baxter, + Milton's sonnet; + and Latin character; + Clarendon's estimate, + Warwick's estimate. +Falkland, Henry Cary, first Viscount. +Falkland, Lattice, second Viscountess. +Falkland, Lucius Gary, second Viscount: + character by Clarendon (1647); + later character (1668); + his marriage; + his death; + his speech concerning episcopacy; + his writings; + quoted by Fuller. + See also Tew. +Finch, Sir John, Baron Finch. +Firth, C.H. +Fouquet, Nicholas. +Fuller, Thomas: + his character (anonymous); + described by Aubrey; + his _Life_; + his character of Bacon; + of Laud; + his characters; + _Church-History_; + _Holy State_; + _Worthies of England_. + +_Galerie des Peintures, La_. +Gardiner, S.R. +Gauden, John. +_Gentleman's Magazine_. +Gildon, Charles. +Glencairn, William Cunningham, Earl of. +Godolphin, Sidney: character by Clarendon. +Gondomar, Spanish ambassador. +Goodwin, Thomas, President of Magdalen College, Oxford. +Goring, George, Baron Goring: character by Clarendon. +Greville, Fulke. See Brooke. +Grotius, Hugo. +Guilford, Francis North, Baron of, Lord Keeper. + +Hacket, John: _Scrinia Reserata_. +Hale, Sir Matthew, Lord Chief Justice. +Hales, John, of Eton: + character by Clarendon; + letters on Synod of Dort; + _Tract concerning Schisme_; + _Golden Remains_; + praise of Shakespeare. +Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of: + character by Burnet; + by Dryden; + his character of Charles II. +Hall, Joseph, Bishop. +Hamilton, Antoine. +Hamilton, James, third Marquis and first Duke of Hamilton. +Hamilton, William, second Duke of Hamilton. +Hammond, Henry, chaplain to Charles I. +Hampden, John: + character by Clarendon; + Clarendon's reference to it; + its authenticity; + character by Sir Philip Warwick. +Hastings, Henry: character by Shaftesbury. +Hawkins, Sir Thomas. +Hayward, Sir John. +Henry, Prince. +Herbert, Sir Thomas. +Hertford, William Seymour, Marquis of: character by Clarendon. +Hobbes, Edmund. +Hobbes, Thomas: + described by Clarendon; + by Aubrey; + assists Bacon; + Burnet's opinions. +Holinshed, Raphael. +Holland, Philemon. +Holles, Denzil, first Baron Holles. +Hopton, Ralph, first Baron Hopton. +Horace. +Howard, Charles, Baron Howard of Effingham, Earl of Nottingham. +Howard, Leonard: _Collection of Letters_. +Howell, James: character of Ben Jonson. +_Hudibras_. +Huntingdon, Earls of. +Hutchinson, John, Colonel: + character by his widow; + her _Memoirs_. +Hyde, Edward. See Clarendon. + +Irenæus. +_Irenicum_, Stillingfleet's. +Islip, Simon, Archbishop of Canterbury. + +James I: + character by Arthur Wilson; + by Sir Anthony Weldon; + 'the wisest foole in Christendome'. +James II: + characters by Burnet; + his journal; + High Admiral. +Jermyn, Henry, Baron Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans. +Johnson, Samuel: + quoted; + _Lives of the Poets_. +Jonson, Ben: + character by Clarendon; + by James Howell; + his character of Bacon, + and description. +Jotham. See Halifax. +Juxon, William, Archbishop of Canterbury: character by Sir Philip Warwick. + +Killigrew, Henry. +Killigrew, Thomas, the elder. +Kimbolton, Baron. See Manchester, Earl of. +King, James, General. +Knolles, Richard: _History of The Turkes_. +Knott, Edward: 'the learned Jesuit'. + +La Bruyère. +_Lachrymæ Musarum_. +Lake, Sir Thomas. +Laud, William, Archbishop of Canterbury: + character by Clarendon; + by Fuller; + by Sir Philip Warwick; + speech on scaffold. +Lauderdale, John Maitland, Earl of: + character by Clarendon; + character by Burnet; + his library. +Lawes, Henry, musician. +Leicester, Robert Sidney, Earl of. +Levett, Mr., Page of Bedchamber to Charles I. +Lewgar, John. +Lilburne, John. +Lincoln, Bishop of. _See_ Williams, John. +Livy. +Lloyd, William, Bishop of Worcester: character by Burnet. +Lucan. +Lugar. See Lewgar. + +Macaulay, Lord, +Machiavelli, +Maidston, John: character of Cromwell, +Manchester, Edward Montagu, second Earl of, Baron Montagu of Kimbolton, + Viscount Mandeville: + character by Clarendon, + by Warwick, + by Burnet, +Manchester, Henry Montagu, first Earl of, +Mandeville, Viscount. See Manchester, Earl of. +Mansell, Sir Robert, +Marlborough, James Ley, Earl of, +_Martyrdom of King Charles_, +Maurice, Prince. +Maynard, Sir John, +_Mercurius Academicus_, +Middlesex, Lionel Cranfield, Earl of, +Middleton, John, Earl of Middleton, +Millington, Edward, bookseller and auctioneer, +Milton, John: + described by Aubrey, + note by Edward Phillips, + notes by Jonathan Richardson, + his sonnet to Fairfax, + to Vane, + to Henry Lawes, + his Latin character of Fairfax, + _Eikonoklastes_, + _Defensio Secunda_, + his daughters, + ignored by Clarendon, +Milward, Richard, +Molière, +Montaigne, +Montgomery, Earl of. See Pembroke, fourth Earl of. +Montpensier, Mlle de, +More, Henry, the Cambridge Platonist: character by Burnet, +More, Sir Thomas, +Morley, George, Bishop of Worcester, +'My part lies therein-a', + +Naunton, Sir Robert, +Needham, Marchamont, +Newcastle, William Cavendish, Marquis of, afterwards Duke of: + character by Clarendon, + character by Warwick, + Life by the Duchess, + his books on horsemanship, + Clarendon's opinion of his military capacity, +Nicholas, Sir Edward, +North, Francis. See Guilford, Lord Keeper. +North, Roger: + character of Sir Edmund Saunders, + his _Lives of the Norths_, +North, Sir Thomas, +Northampton, Spencer Compton, second Earl of: character by Clarendon, +Northumberland, Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of, +Nott. See Knott. + +Oldmixon, John, +Olivian, Dr., 'a German', +Orrery, Roger Boyle, first Earl of, +Osborne, Francis: _Traditionall Memoyres on the Raigne of King James_, +Overbury, Sir Thomas, +Ovid, +Owen, John, Dean of Christ Church, + +Patrick, Simon, Bishop of Chichester: character by Burnet, +'Peace begot Plenty', +'Peace with honour', +Pearson, John, Bishop of Chester, +Peck, Francis: _Desiderata Curiosa_, +Pemberton, Sir Francis, Lord Chief Justice, +Pembroke, Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery, fourth Earl of, +Pembroke, William Herbert, third Earl of: character by Clarendon, +Pepys, Samuel: _Diary_, +Percy, Sir Henry, Baron Percy of Alnwick, +Persius, +Peyton, Sir Edward: _Divine Catastrophe of the House of Stuarts_, +Philips, Ambrose, +Phillips, Edward: + note on Milton, his uncle, + _Life of Milton_, + _Theatrum Poetarum_, +_Phoenix Britannicus_, +Plato, +Plutarch, +_Poems on State Affairs_, +Polybius, +Portland, Earl of. See Weston, Sir Richard. +Preaching, reform in, +Prynne, William, +Pym, John: character by Clarendon, + +Raleigh, Sir Walter, +Rawley, William: + character of Bacon, + _Life_, +_Reliquiæ Wottonianæ_, +_Retrospective Review_, +Rich, Robert, Earl of Warwick's grandson, +Richardson, Jonathan: + notes on Milton, + _Explanatory Notes on Paradise Lost_, +Robinson, Sir Tancred, +Rochester, first Earl of. See Wilmot, Henry. +Rochester, John Wilmot, second Earl of, +Rochester, Laurence Hyde, first Earl of the Hyde family, +Rothes, John Leslie, Earl and Duke of, +Rowe, Nicholas, +Rupert, Prince: character by Clarendon, +Rushworth: _Historical Collections_, +Russell, Sir William, Treasurer of the Navy, +Ruthven, Patrick. See Brentford, Earl of. +Rutland, Francis Manners, sixth Earl of, + +St. John, Oliver, +St. John's College, Oxford, +St. Martin's, 'the greatest cure in England', +St. Paul's Cathedral, +St. Peters in Cornhill, +Salisbury, Robert Cecil, first Earl of, +Salisbury, William Cecil, third Earl of: character by Clarendon, +Sallust, +Sanderson, Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, +Saunders, Sir Edmund, Lord Chief Justice: character by Roger North, +Savile, Sir Henry, +Savile, George. See Halifax, Marquis of. +Savile, Thomas, Viscount Savile, +Savoy Hospital, +Say and Sele, William Fiennes, Viscount: + character by Clarendon, + by Arthur Wilson, +Scott, Sir Walter, +Scudéry, Madeleine de +Selden, John: character by Clarendon +Seneca, Lucius Annæus +Seneca, Marcus Annæus +_Session of the Poets_ (Restoration poem) +_Sessions of the Poets_, Suckling's +Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Baron Ashley, Earl of: + character by Burnet; + by Dryden (Achitophel); + by Butler; + by Duke; + his character of Henry Hastings; + description of Digby; + his _Autobiography_ +Shakespeare +Sheldon, Gilbert, Archbishop of Canterbury +Shrewsbury, Gilbert Talbot, Earl of +Smith, Edmund +Somaize, Antoine Bandeau, sieur de +Somerset, Robert Ker _or_ Carr, Earl of +Sorel, Charles +Spelman, Sir Henry +Spenser, Edmund +Sprat, Thomas, Bishop of Rochester: + character of Cowley; + _Life of Cowley_ +Stillingfleet, Edward, Bishop of Worcester: character by Burnet +Stow, John +Strada, Famiano +Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of: + character by Clarendon; + by Warwick; +Stuart, Richard, dean of the King's Chapel +Suckling, Sir John +Suetonius +Suffolk, Thomas Howard, Earl of +Sully, Duc de: _Mémoires_ +Swift, Jonathan + +Tacitus +Tanfield, Sir Lawrence +Tate, Nahum +Temple, Sir William +Tenison, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury: character by Burnet +Tew, seat of Lord Falkland +Theophrastus +Thuanus (Jacques de Thou) +Thucydides +Thurloe, John, Secretary of State; + _State Papers_ +Tiberius, James I compared to; + Charles II compared to +Tillotson, John, Archbishop of Canterbury: character by Burnet +Triplet, Dr. Thomas +Tuesday Sermons of James I +Turenne, Marshal + +Vane, Sir Henry, the elder +Vane, Sir Henry, the younger: + characters by Clarendon; + character by Baxter; + Milton's sonnet; + other accounts +Velleius Paterculus + +Walker, Sir Edward: _Historical Discourses_ +Walker, John: _Sufferings of the Clergy_ +Walker, Mr., of the Temple, 'a Relation of Milton's' +Waller, Edmund: + his character by Clarendon, + described by Burnet, + by Aubrey, +Walpole, Horace: _Royal and Noble Authors_, +Walton, Izaak, +Warwick, Mary, Countess of, +Warwick, Sir Philip: + character of Charles I, + Strafford, + Laud, + Juxon, + Cromwell, + Hampden, + Fairfax, + Clarendon, + his characters, + his _Mémoires_, + a Straffordian, + imprisoned, + described by Burnet, +Warwick, Robert Rich, second Earl of: + character by Clarendon, + by Arthur Wilson, + pillar of the Presbyterian party, +Wayte, Mr., +Weldon, Sir Anthony: + character of James I, + _Court and Character of King James_, +Welwood, James: _Memoirs_, +Weston, Sir Richard, Earl of Portland: + character by Clarendon, + by Wotton, +Whitchcot, or Whichcote, Benjamin: character by Burnet, +Whitelocke: _Memorials_, +'White Staff', +Wilkins, John: + character by Burnet, + his _Essay Towards a Real Character_, +William of Wickham, +Williams, John, Bishop of Lincoln, Lord Keeper, +Wilmot, Henry, Baron Wilmot, Earl of Rochester: character by Clarendon, +Wilson, Arthur: + character of James I, + of Bacon, + of Essex, Warwick, and Say, + _Reign of King James_, +Wolsey, Cardinal, +Wood: _Athenæ Oxonienses_, +Worthington, John: character by Burnet, +Wotton, Sir Henry, +Wright, Dr., 'an ancient clergyman in Dorsetshire', + +Xenophon, + +Young, Sir Peter, +Young, Patrick, + +Zimri. See Buckingham. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Characters from 17th Century Histories +and Chronicles, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARACTERS FROM 17TH CENTURY *** + +***** This file should be named 13751-8.txt or 13751-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/7/5/13751/ + +Produced by William Flis and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/13751-8.zip b/old/13751-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9e21e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13751-8.zip diff --git a/old/13751.txt b/old/13751.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3c8dd8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13751.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12833 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Characters from 17th Century Histories and +Chronicles, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Characters from 17th Century Histories and Chronicles + +Author: Various + +Release Date: October 14, 2004 [EBook #13751] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARACTERS FROM 17TH CENTURY *** + + + + +Produced by William Flis and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +CHARACTERS + +FROM THE + +HISTORIES & MEMOIRS + +OF THE + +SEVENTEENTH CENTURY + + +With an Essay on THE CHARACTER + +and Historical Notes + +By DAVID NICHOL SMITH + + +OXFORD + + + +1918 + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +ESSAY ON THE CHARACTER + + I. The Beginnings + II. The Literary Models + III. Clarendon + IV. Other Character Writers + + +CHARACTERS + + 1. JAMES I. By Arthur Wilson + 2. " By Sir Anthony Weldon + 3. THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM (George Villiers, first Duke). By Clarendon + 4. SIR THOMAS COVENTRY. By Clarendon + 5. SIR RICHARD WESTON. By Clarendon + 6. THE EARL OF ARUNDEL (Thomas Howard, fourteenth Earl). By Clarendon + 7. THE EARL OF PEMBROKE (William Herbert, third Earl). By Clarendon + 8. SIR FRANCIS BACON. By Ben Jonson + 9. " " " By Arthur Wilson + 10. " " " By Thomas Fuller + 11. " " " By William Rawley + 12. BEN JONSON. By Clarendon + 13. " " By James Howell + 14. HENRY HASTINGS. By Shaftesbury + 15. CHARLES I. By Clarendon + 16. " By Sir Philip Warwick + 17. THE EARL OF STRAFFORD (Thomas Wentworth, first Earl). By Clarendon + 18. THE EARL OF STRAFFORD (Thomas Wentworth, first Earl). By Sir Philip + Warwick + 19. THE EARL OF NORTHAMPTON (Spencer Compton, second Earl). By Clarendon + 20. THE EARL OF CARNARVON (Robert Dormer, first Earl). By Clarendon + 21. LORD FALKLAND (Lucius Cary, second Viscount). By Clarendon + 22. LORD FALKLAND (Lucius Cary, second Viscount). By Clarendon + 23. SIDNEY GODOLPHIN. By Clarendon + 24. WILLIAM LAUD. By Clarendon + 25. " " By Thomas Fuller + 26. " " By Sir Philip Warwick + 27. WILLIAM JUXON. By Sir Philip Warwick + 28. THE MARQUIS OF HERTFORD (William Seymour, first Marquis). By Clarendon + 29. THE MARQUIS OF NEWCASTLE (William Cavendish, first Marquis, and Duke). + By Clarendon + 30. THE LORD DIGBY (George Digby, second Earl of Bristol). By Clarendon + 31. THE LORD CAPEL (Arthur Capel, first Baron). By Clarendon + 32. ROYALIST GENERALS: PATRICK RETHVEN, EARL OF BRENTFORD; PRINCE RUPERT; + GEORGE, LORD GORING; HENRY WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER. By Clarendon + 33. JOHN HAMPDEN. By Clarendon + 34. JOHN PYM. By Clarendon + 35. OLIVER CROMWELL. By Clarendon + 36. OLIVER CROMWELL. By Clarendon + 37. " " By Sir Philip Warwick + 38. " " By John Maidston + 39. " " By Richard Baxter + 40. SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX. By Richard Baxter + 41. SIR HENRY VANE, the younger. By Clarendon + 42. " " " " " By Clarendon + 43. COLONEL JOHN HUTCHINSON. By Lucy Hutchinson + 44. THE EARL OF ESSEX (Robert Devereux, third Earl). By Clarendon + 45. THE EARL OF SALISBURY (William Cecil, second Earl). By Clarendon + 46. THE EARL OF WARWICK (Robert Rich, second Earl). By Clarendon + 47. THE EARL OF MANCHESTER (Edward Montagu, second Earl). By Clarendon + 48. THE LORD SAY (William Fiennes, first Viscount Say and Sele). By + Clarendon + 49. JOHN SELDEN. By Clarendon + 50. JOHN EARLE. By Clarendon + 51. JOHN HALES. By Clarendon + 52. WILLIAM CHILLINGWORTH. By Clarendon + 53. EDMUND WALLER. By Clarendon + 54. THOMAS HOBBES. By Clarendon + 55. " " Notes by John Aubrey + 56. THOMAS FULLER. Anonymous + 57. JOHN MILTON. Notes by John Aubrey + 58. " " Note by Edward Phillips + 59. " " Notes by Jonathan Richardson + 60. ABRAHAM COWLEY. By himself + 61. " " By Thomas Sprat + 62. CHARLES II. By Halifax + 63. CHARLES II. By Burnet + 64. CHARLES II. By Burnet + 65. THE EARL OF CLARENDON (Edward Hyde, first Earl), By Burnet + 66. THE EARL OF LAUDERDALE (John Maitland, second Earl, created + Duke 1672). By Clarendon. + 67. THE EARL OF LAUDERDALE (John Maitland, second Earl, created + Duke 1672). By Burnet + 68. THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY (Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl). + By Burnet + 69. THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY (Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl). + By Dryden + 70. THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM (George Villiers, second Duke). By Burnet + 71. THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM (George Villiers, second Duke). By Dryden + 72. THE MARQUIS OF HALIFAX (George Savile, first Marquis). By Burnet + 73. SIR EDMUND SAUNDERS. By Roger North + 74. TWO GROUPS OF DIVINES: (1. Benjamin Whitchcot, Ralph Cudworth, John + Wilkins, Henry More, John Worthington; 2. John Tillotson, Edward + Stillingfleet, Simon Patrick, William Lloyd, Thomas Tenison). By + Burnet + 75. JAMES II. By Burnet + 76. JAMES II. By Burnet + + + + +THE CHARACTER + + +The seventeenth century is rich in short studies or characters of its +great men. Its rulers and statesmen, its soldiers and politicians, +its lawyers and divines, all who played a prominent part in the public +life, have with few notable exceptions been described for us by their +contemporaries. There are earlier characters in English literature; +but as a definite and established form of literary composition +the character dates from the seventeenth century. Even Sir Robert +Naunton's _Fragmenta Regalia, or Observations on the late Queen +Elizabeth her Times and Favourites_, a series of studies of the great +men of Elizabeth's court, and the first book of its kind, is an old +man's recollection of his early life, and belongs to the Stuart period +in everything but its theme. Nor at any later period is there the same +wealth of material for such a collection as is given in this volume. +The eighteenth century devoted itself rather to biography. When the +facts of a man's life, his works, and his opinions claimed detailed +treatment, the fashion of the short character had passed. + +Yet the seventeenth century did not know its richness. None of its +best characters were then printed. The writers themselves could not +have suspected how many others were similarly engaged, so far were +they from belonging to a school. The characters in Clarendon's +_History of the Rebellion_ were too intimate and searching to be +published at once, and they remained in manuscript till about +thirty years after his death. In the interval Burnet was drawing the +characters in his _History of His Own Time_. He, like Clarendon, +was not aware of being indebted to any English model. Throughout the +period which they cover there are the characters by Fuller, Sir Philip +Warwick, Baxter, Halifax, Shaftesbury, and many others, the Latin +characters by Milton, and the verse characters by Dryden. There is no +sign that any of these writers copied another or tried to emulate +him. Together, but with no sense of their community, they made the +seventeenth century the great age of the character in England. + + + + +I. The Beginnings. + + +The art of literary portraiture in the seventeenth century developed +with the effort to improve the writing of history. Its first and at +all times its chief purpose in England was to show to later ages what +kind of men had directed the affairs and shaped the fortunes of +the nation. In France it was to be practised as a mere pastime; to +sketch well-known figures in society, or to sketch oneself, was for +some years the fashionable occupation of the salons. In England the +character never wholly lost the qualities of its origin. It might be +used on occasion as a record of affection, or as a weapon of political +satire; but our chief character writers are our historians. At the +beginning of the seventeenth century England was recognized to be +deficient in historical writings. Poetry looked back to Chaucer as its +father, was proud of its long tradition, and had proved its right to +sing the glories of Elizabeth's reign. The drama, in the full vigour +of its youth, challenged comparison with the drama of Greece and Rome. +Prose was conscious of its power in exposition and controversy. But in +every review of our literature's great achievement and greater promise +there was one cause of serious misgivings. England could not yet rank +with other countries in its histories. Many large volumes had been +printed, some of them containing matter that is invaluable to the +modern student, but there was no single work that was thought to +be worthy of England's greatness. The prevailing type was still the +chronicle. Even Camden, 'the glory and light of the kingdom', as Ben +Jonson called him, was an antiquary, a collector, and an annalist. +History had yet to be practised as one of the great literary arts. + +Bacon pointed out the 'unworthiness' and 'deficiences' of English +history in his _Advancement of Learning_.[1] 'Some few very worthy, +but the greater part beneath mediocrity' was his verdict on modern +histories in general. He was not the first to express these views. +Sir Henry Savile had been more emphatic in his dedication to Queen +Elizabeth of his collection of early chronicles, _Rerum Anglicarum +Scriptores post Bedam_, published in 1596.[2] And after Bacon, +somewhere about 1618, these views were again expressed by Edmund +Bolton in his _Hypercritica, or a Rule of Judgement for writing or +reading our Histories_.[3] 'The vast vulgar Tomes', he said, 'procured +for the most part by the husbandry of Printers, and not by appointment +of the Prince or Authority of the Common-weal, in their tumultuary and +centonical Writings do seem to resemble some huge disproportionable +Temple, whose Architect was not his Arts Master'. He repeated what he +calls the common wish 'that the majesty of handling our history might +once equal the majesty of the argument'. England had had all other +honours, but only wanted a history. + +But the most valuable statement on the conditions of English history +at this time and the obstacles that hindered its progress was made by +Sir John Hayward at the beginning of his _Lives of the III Normans, +Kings of England_, published in 1613. Leaving aside the methods of the +chroniclers, he had taken the classical historians as his model in +his _First Part of the Life and raigne of King Henrie the IIII_. The +interest of this work to the modern reader lies in its structure, its +attempt at artistic unity, its recognition that English history must +be written on a different plan, rather than in its historical matter. +But it was no sooner published than Hayward was committed to the +Tower because the account of the deposition of Richard II was held +to be treasonable, the offence being aggravated by the dedication, +in perfectly innocent terms, to the Earl of Essex. His work was thus +checked till he met with encouragement from Henry, Prince of Wales, +a patron of literature, of whom, though a mere youth, such men as +Jonson, Chapman, and Raleigh, spoke with an enthusiasm that cannot be +mistaken for flattery. Prince Henry saw the need of a worthy history +of England. He therefore sent for Hayward to discuss the reasons with +him: + + Prince Henry ... sent for mee, a few monethes before his + death. And at my second comming to his presence, among some + other speeches, hee complained much of our Histories of + England; and that the English Nation, which is inferiour to + none in Honourable actions, should be surpassed by all, in + leauing the memorie of them to posteritie.... + + I answered, that I conceiued these causes hereof; One, + that men of sufficiencie were otherwise employed; either + in publicke affaires, or in wrestling with the world, for + maintenance or encrease of their private estates. Another is, + for that men might safely write of others in maner of a tale, + but in maner of a History, safely they could not: because, + albeit they should write of men long since dead, and whose + posteritie is cleane worne out; yet some aliue, finding + themselues foule in those vices, which they see obserued, + reproued, condemned in others; their guiltinesse maketh them + apt to conceiue, that whatsoeuer the words are, the finger + pointeth onely at them. The last is, for that the Argument of + our _English_ historie hath been so foiled heretofore by some + unworthie writers, that men of qualitie may esteeme themselues + discredited by dealing in it.... + + Then he questioned, whether I had wrote any part of our + _English_ Historie, other then that which had been published; + which at that time he had in his hands. I answered, that I + had wrote of certaine of our _English_ Kings, by way of a + briefe description of their liues: but for historie, I did + principally bend, and binde my selfe to the times wherein + I should liue; in which my owne obseruations might somewhat + direct me: but as well in the one as in the other I had at + that time perfected nothing. + +The result of the interview was that Hayward proceeded to 'perfect +somewhat of both sorts'. The brief description of the lives of the +three Norman kings was in due course ordered to be published, and +would have been dedicated to its real patron but for his untimely +death; in dedicating it instead to Prince Charles, Hayward fortunately +took the opportunity to relate his conversation with Prince Henry. +How far he carried the other work is not certain; it survives in the +fragment called _The Beginning of the Raigne of Queene Elizabeth_,[4] +published after his death with _The Life and Raigne of King Edward +the Sixt_. He might have brought it down to the reign of James. Had he +been at liberty to follow his own wishes, he would have been the first +Englishman to write a 'History of his own time'. But when an author +incurred imprisonment for writing about the deposition of a sovereign, +and when modern applications were read into accounts of what had +happened long ago, the complexity of his own time was a dangerous if +not a forbidden subject. + +There is a passage to the same effect in the preface to _The Historie +of the World_ by Sir Walter Raleigh, who, unlike Hayward, willingly +chose to be silent on what he knew best: + + I know that it will bee said by many, That I might have beene + more pleasing to the Reader, if I had written the Story of + mine owne times; having been permitted to draw water as neare + the Well-head as another. To this I answer, that who-so-ever + in writing a moderne Historie, shall follow truth too neare + the heeles, it may happily strike out his teeth. There is no + Mistresse or Guide, that hath led her followers and servants + into greater miseries.... It is enough for me (being in that + state I am) to write of the eldest times: wherein also why may + it not be said, that in speaking of the past, I point at the + present, and taxe the vices of those that are yet lyving, in + their persons that are long since dead; and have it laid to my + charge? But this I cannot helpe, though innocent. + +He wrote of remote ages, and contributed nothing to historical +knowledge. But he enriched English literature with a 'just history', +as distinct from annals and chronicles.[5] 'I am not altogether +ignorant', he said, 'in the Lawes of Historie, and of the Kindes.' +When we read his lives and commendations of the great men of antiquity +as he pictured them, we cannot but regret that the same talents, the +same overmastering interest in the eternal human problems, had not +been employed in depicting men whom he had actually known. The other +Elizabethan work that ranks with Raleigh's in its conception of the +historian's office and in its literary excellence, deals with another +country. It is the _History of the Turks_ by Richard Knolles. + +The character was definitely introduced into English literature when +the historians took as their subjects contemporary or recent events +at home, and, abandoning the methods of the chronicle, fashioned their +work on classical models. Its introduction had been further prepared +to some extent by the growing interest in lives, which, unlike +chronicles that recorded events, recognized the part played by men +in the control of events. In his _Advancement of Learning_ Bacon +regretted that Englishmen gave so little thought to describing the +deeds and characters of their great countrymen. 'I do find strange', +he said, 'that these times have so little esteemed the virtues of the +times, as that the writing of lives should be no more frequent.' He +and Hayward both wrote lives with the consciousness that their methods +were new in English, though largely borrowed from the classics.[6] +Hayward tried to produce a picture of the period he dealt with, +and his means for procuring harmoniousness of design was to centre +attention on the person of the sovereign. It is a conception of +history not as a register of facts but as a representation of the +national drama. His _Henry IV_ gives the impression, especially by its +speeches, that he looked upon history as resolving itself ultimately +into a study of men; and it thus explains how he wished to be free +to describe the times wherein he lived. He is on the whole earlier +than Bacon, who wrote his _Historie of the Reigne of King Henry the +Seventh_ late in life, during the leisure that was forced on him +by his removal from all public offices. Written to display the +controlling policy in days that were 'rough, and full of mutations, +and rare accidents', it is a study of the statecraft and character of +a king who had few personal gifts and small capacity for a brilliant +part, yet won by his ready wisdom the best of all praises that 'what +he minded he compassed'. How he compassed it, is what interested +Bacon. 'I have not flattered him,' he says, 'but took him to the life +as well as I could, sitting so far off, and having no better light.' +Would that Bacon had felt at liberty to choose those who sat near at +hand. Who better than the writer of the _Essays_ could have painted a +series of miniatures of the courts of Elizabeth and James? + +When at last the political upheaval of this century compelled men to +leave, whether in histories, or memoirs, or biographies, a record of +what they had themselves experienced, the character attained to its +full importance and excellence. 'That posterity may not be deceaved +by the prosperous wickednesse of these tymes, into an opinyon, that +lesse then a generall combination and universall apostacy in the whole +Nacion from their religion and allegiaunce could in so shorte a tyme +have produced such a totall and prodigious alteration and confusion +over the whole kingdome, and so the memory of those few who out of +duty and conscience have opposed and resisted that Torrent which hath +overwhelmed them, may loose the recompence dew to ther virtue, and +havinge undergone the injuryes and reproches of this, may not finde +a vindication in a better Age'--in these words Clarendon began his +_History of the Rebellion_. But he could not vindicate the memory +of his political friends without describing the men who had overcome +them. The history of these confused and difficult years would not be +properly understood if the characters of all the chief actors in the +tragic drama were not known. For to Clarendon history was the record +of the struggle of personalities. When we are in the midst of a +crisis, or view it from too near a distance, it is natural for us +to think of it as a fight between the opposing leaders, and the +historians of their own time are always liable to attribute to the +personal force of a statesman what is due to general causes of which +he is only the instrument. Of these general causes Clarendon took +little account. 'Motives which influenced masses of men', it has been +said, 'escape his appreciation, and the _History of the Rebellion_ +is accordingly an account of the Puritan Revolution which is +unintelligible because the part played by Puritanism is misunderstood +or omitted altogether'.[7] But the _History of the Rebellion_ is a +Stuart portrait gallery, and the greatest portrait gallery in the +English language. + +[Footnote 1: Book II, ed. Aldis Wright, pp. 92-5.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Historae nostrae particulam quidam non male: sed qui totum +corpus ea fide, eaque dignitate scriptis complexus sit, quam suscepti +operis magnitudo postularet, hactenus plane neminem extitisse +constat.... Nostri ex faece plebis historici, dum maiestatem tanti +operis ornare studuerunt, putidissimis ineptiis contaminarunt. Ita +factum est nescio qua huiusce insulae infoelicitate, ut maiores tui, +(serenissima Regina) viri maximi, qui magnam huius orbis nostri partem +imperio complexi, omnes sui temporis reges rerum gestarum gloria +facile superarunt, magnorum ingeniorum quasi lumine destituti, iaceant +ignoti, & delitescant.'] + +[Footnote 3: _Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century_, ed. +Spingarn, vol. i, pp. 82-115.] + +[Footnote 4: See also Camden Society Publications, No. 7, 1840.] + +[Footnote 5: Roger Ascham in his _Scholemaster_ divides History into +'Diaria', 'Annales', 'Commentaries', and 'Iustam Historiam'.] + +[Footnote 6: Bacon told Queen Elizabeth that there was no treason in +Hayward's _Henry IV_, but 'very much felony', because Hayward 'had +stolen many of his sentences and conceits out of Cornelius Tacitus' +(_Apophthegms_, 58). Hayward and Bacon had a precursor in the author +of _The History of King Richard the Thirde_, generally attributed to +Sir Thomas More, and printed in the collection of his works published +in 1557. It was known to the chroniclers, but it did not affect the +writing of history. Nor did George Cavendish's _Life and Death of +Thomas Wolsey_, which they likewise used for its facts.] + +[Footnote 7: C.H. Firth, 'Burnet as a Historian', in Clarke and +Foxcroft's _Life of Gilbert Burnet_, 1907, pp. xliv, xlv.] + + + + +II. The Literary Models. + + +The authentic models for historical composition were in Greek and +Latin. Much as our literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries owed to the classics, the debt was nowhere more obvious, +and more fully acknowledged, than in our histories. The number of +translations is in itself remarkable. Many of them, and notably +the greatest of all, North's Plutarch, belong to the early part of +Elizabeth's reign, but they became more frequent at the very time when +the inferiority of our native works was engaging attention.[1] By the +middle of the seventeenth century the great classical historians could +all be read in English. It was not through translation, however, that +their influence was chiefly exercised. + +The classical historians who were best known were Thucydides, +Polybius, and Plutarch among the Greeks, and Sallust, Livy, Tacitus, +and Suetonius among the Latins; and the former group were not so well +known as the latter. It was recognized that in Thucydides, to use +Hobbes's words, 'the faculty of writing history is at the highest.'[2] +But Thucydides was a difficult author, and neither he nor Polybius +exerted the same direct influence as the Latin historians who had +imitated them, or learned from them. Most of what can be traced +ultimately to the Greeks came to England in the seventeenth century +through Latin channels. Every educated man had been trained in Latin, +and was as familiar with it for literary purposes as with his native +tongue. Further, the main types of history--the history of a long +period of years, the history of recent events, and the biographical +history--were all so admirably represented in Latin that it was not +necessary to go to Greek for a model. In one respect Latin could claim +pre-eminence. It might possess no single passage greater than the +character study of Pericles or of the Athenians by Thucydides, but it +developed the character study into a recognized and clearly defined +element in historical narrative. Livy provided a pattern of narrative +on a grand scale. For 'exquisite eloquence' he was held not to +have his equal.[3] But of all the Latin historians, Tacitus had the +greatest influence. 'There is no learning so proper for the direction +of the life of man as Historie; there is no historie so well worth the +reading as Tacitus. Hee hath written the most matter with best conceit +in fewest words of any Historiographer ancient or moderne.'[4] This +had been said at the beginning of the first English translation of +Tacitus, and it was the view generally held when he came to be better +known. He appealed to Englishmen of the seventeenth century like no +other historian. They felt the human interest of a narrative based +on what the writer had experienced for himself; and they found +that its political wisdom could be applied, or even applied itself +spontaneously, to their own circumstances. They were widely read in +the classics. They knew how Plutarch depicted character in his Lives, +and Cicero in his Speeches. They knew all the Latin historians. But +when they wrote their own characters their chief master was Tacitus. + + * * * * * + +Continental historians provided the incentive of rivalry. They too +were the pupils of the Ancients, and taught nothing that might not be +learned equally well or better from their masters, but they invited +the question why England should be behind Italy, France, or the Low +Countries in worthy records of its achievements. In their own century, +Thuanus, Davila, Bentivoglio, Strada, and Grotius set the standard for +modern historical composition. Jacques Auguste de Thou, or Thuanus, +wrote in Latin a history of his own time in 138 books. He intended to +complete it in 143 books with the assassination of Henri IV in 1610, +but his labours were interrupted by his death in 1617. The collected +edition of his monumental work was issued in 1620 under the title +_Iacobi Augusti Thuani Historiarum sui temporis ab anno 1543 usque +ad annum 1607 Libri CXXXVIII_. Enrico Caterino Davila dealt with the +affairs of France from Francis II to Henri IV in his _Historia +delle guerre civili di Francia_, published in 1630. Cardinal Guido +Bentivoglio described the troubles in the Low Countries in his _Della +Guerra di Fiandra_, published from 1632 to 1639. Famianus Strada +wrote on the same subject in Latin; the first part of his _De Bella +Belgico_, which was meant to cover the period from 1555 to 1590 but +was not completed, appeared in 1632, and the second in 1647. Hugo +Grotius, the great Dutch scholar, had long been engaged on his +_Annales et Historiae de Rebus Belgicis_ when he died in 1640; it was +brought out by his sons in 1657, and contained five books of Annals +from 1566 to 1588, and eighteen books of Histories to 1609. These +five historians were well known in England, and were studied for their +method as well as their matter. Burnet took Thuanus as his model. 'I +have made him ', he says, 'my pattern in writing.'[5] The others are +discussed by Clarendon in a long passage of his essay 'On an Active +and on a Contemplative Life'.[6] He there develops the view, not +without reference to his own history, that 'there was never yet a good +History written but by men conversant in business, and of the best +and most liberal education'; and he illustrates it by comparing the +histories of his four contemporaries: + + Two of these are by so much preferable before the other Two, + that the first may worthily stand by the Sides of the best + of the Ancients, whilst both the others must be placed under + them; and a Man, without knowing more of them, may by reading + their Books find the Difference between their Extractions, + their Educations, their Conversations, and their Judgment. The + first Two are _Henry D'Avila_ and Cardinal _Bentivoglio_, both + _Italians_ of illustrious Birth; ... they often set forth and + describe the same Actions with very pleasant and delightful + Variety; and commonly the greatest Persons they have occasion + to mention were very well known to them both, which makes + their Characters always very lively. Both their Histories are + excellent, and will instruct the ablest and wisest Men how to + write, and terrify them from writing. The other Two were _Hugo + Grotius_ and _Famianus Strada_, who both wrote in _Latin_ + upon the same Argument, and of the same Time, of the Wars of + _Flanders_, and of the _Low-Countries_. + +He proceeds to show that Grotius, with all his learning and abilities, +and with all his careful revisions, had not been able to give his +narrative enough life and spirit; it was deficient in 'a lively +Representation of Persons and Actions, which makes the Reader present +at all they say or do'. The whole passage, which is too long to +be quoted in full, is not more valuable as a criticism than as an +indication of his own aims, and of his equipment to realize them. Some +years earlier, when he was still thinking 'with much agony' about the +method he was to employ in his own history, he had cited the methods +of Davila, 'who', he added, 'I think hath written as ours should be +written.'[7] + +One of Clarendon's tests of a good history, it will be noted, is +the 'lively representation of persons'; the better writers are +distinguished by making 'their characters always very lively'. In +his own hands, and in Burnet's, the character assumes even greater +importance than the continental historians had given it. At every +opportunity Clarendon leaves off his narrative of events to describe +the actors in the great drama, and Burnet introduces his main subject +with what is in effect an account of his _dramatis personae_. They +excel in the range and variety of their characters. But they had +studied the continental historians, and the encouragement of example +must not be forgotten. + + * * * * * + +The debt to French literature can easily be overstated. No French +influence is discoverable in the origin and rise of the English +character, nor in its form or manner; but its later development may +have been hastened by French example, especially during the third +quarter of the seventeenth century. + +France was the home of the _memoire_, the personal record in which +the individual portrays himself as the centre of his world, and +describes events and persons in the light of his own experience. It +was established as a characteristic form of French literature in the +sixteenth century,[8] and it reached its full vigour and variety +in the century of Sully, Rohan, Richelieu, Tallemant des Reaux, +Bassompierre, Madame de Motteville, Mlle de Montpensier, La +Rochefoucauld, Villars, Cardinal de Retz, Bussy-Rabutin--to name but +a few. This was the age of the _memoire_, always interesting, often +admirably written; and, as might be expected, sometimes exhibiting the +art of portraiture at perfection. The English memoir is comparatively +late. The word, in the sense of a narrative of personal recollections, +was borrowed at the Restoration. The thing itself, under other names, +is older. It is a branch of history that flourishes in stirring +and difficult times when men believe themselves to have special +information about hidden forces that directed the main current of +events, and we date it in this country from the period of the Civil +Wars. It is significant that when Shaftesbury in his old age composed +his short and fragmentary autobiography he began by saying, 'I in this +follow the French fashion, and write my own memoirs.' Even Swift, when +publishing Temple's _Memoirs_, said that ''tis to the French (if I +mistake not) we chiefly owe that manner of writing; and Sir William +Temple is not only the first, but I think the only Englishman (at +least of any consequence) who ever attempted it.' Few English memoirs +were then in print, whereas French memoirs were to be numbered by +dozens. But the French fashion is not to be regarded as an importation +into English literature, supplying what had hitherto been lacking. At +most it stimulated what already existed. + +The _memoire_ was not the only setting for French portraits at this +time. There were the French romances, and notably the _Artamene ou +le Grand Cyrus_ and the _Clelie_ of Madeleine de Scudery. The full +significance of the _Grand Cyrus_ has been recovered for modern +readers by Victor Cousin, with great skill and charm, in his _Societe +francaise au XVIIe siecle_, where he has shown it to be, 'properly +speaking, a history in portraits'. The characters were drawn from +familiar figures in French society. 'Ainsi s'explique', says Cousin, +'l'immense succes du _Cyrus_ dans le temps ou il parut. C'etait une +galerie des portraits vrais et frappants, mais un peu embellis, +ou tout ce qu'il y avait de plus illustre en tout genre--princes, +courtisans, militaires, beaux-esprits, et surtout jolies +femmes--allaient se chercher et se reconnaissaient avec un plaisir +inexprimable.'[9] It was easy to attack these romances. Boileau made +fun of them because the classical names borne by the characters +were so absurdly at variance with the matter of the stories.[10] But +instead of giving, as he said, a French air and spirit to Greece and +Rome, Madeleine de Scudery only gave Greek and Roman names to France +as she knew it. The names were a transparent disguise that was not +meant to conceal the picture of fashionable society. + +The next stage was the portrait by itself, without any setting. At the +height of the popularity of the romances, Mlle de Montpensier hit upon +a new kind of entertainment for the talented circle of which she was +the brilliant centre. It was nothing more nor less than a paper game. +They drew each other, or persons whom they knew, or themselves, and +under their real names. And they played the game so well that what was +written for amusement was worth printing. _Divers Portraits, Imprimes +en l'annee M DC LIX_ was the simple title of the first collection, +which was intended only for the contributors.[11] When it reached its +final form in 1663, it contained over a hundred and fifty portraits, +and was offered to the public as _La Galerie des Peintures, ou Recueil +des portraits et eloges en vers et en prose, contenant les portraits +du Roy, de la Reyne, des princes, princesses, duchesses, marquises, +comtesses, et autres seigneurs et dames les plus illustres de France; +la plupart composes par eux-memes_.[12] The introductory defence of +the portrait cites Suetonius and Plutarch, and Horace and Montaigne, +but also states frankly the true original of the new fashion--'il faut +avouer que nous sommes tres redevables au _Cyrus_ et a la _Clelie_ +qui nous en ont fourni les modeles.' About the same time Antoine +Baudeau, sieur de Somaize, brought out his _Grand Dictionnaire des +Precieuses_,[13] in which there are many portraits in the accepted +manner. The portrait was more than a fashion at this time in France; +it was the rage. It therefore invited the satirists. Moliere has a +passing jest at them in his _Precieuses Ridicules_;[14] Charles Sorel +published his _Description de I'isle de la Portraiture et de la ville +des Portraits_; and Boileau wrote his _Heros de Roman_. + +The effects of all this in England are certainly not obvious. It is +quite a tenable view that the English characters would have been +no less numerous, nor in any way different in quality, had every +Englishman been ignorant of French. But the _memoires_ and romances +were well known, and it was after 1660 that the art of the character +attained its fullest excellence. The literary career of Clarendon +poses the question in a simple form. Most of his characters, and the +best as a whole, were written at Montpelier towards the close of +his life. Did he find in French literature an incentive to indulge +and perfect his natural bent? Yet there can be no conclusive answer +to those who find a sufficient explanation in the leisure of these +unhappy years, and in the solace that comes to chiefs out of war +and statesmen out of place in ruminating on their experiences and +impressions. + + * * * * * + +Something may have been learned also from the other kind of character +that is found at its best in modern literature in the seventeenth +century, the character derived from Theophrastus, and depicting not +the individual but the type. In France, the one kind led on to the +other. The romances of Scudery prepared the way for the _Caracteres ou +les Moeurs de ce Siecle_ of La Bruyere. When the fashionable portrait +of particular persons fell out of favour, there arose in its place the +description of dispositions and temperaments; and in the hands of La +Bruyere 'the manners of the century' were the habits and varieties +of human nature. In England the two kinds existed side by side. They +correspond to the two methods of the drama. Begin with the individual, +but draw him in such a way that we recognize in him our own or others' +qualities; or begin with the qualities shared by classes of people, +embody these in a person who stands for the greatest common measure of +the class, and finally--and only then--let him take on his distinctive +traits: these are methods which are not confined to the drama, and +at all stages of our literature have lived in helpful rivalry. Long +before France had her La Bruyere, England had her Hall, Overbury, and +Earle.[15] The Theophrastan character was at its best in this country +at the beginning of the seventeenth century when the historical +character was still in its early stages; and it was declining when +the historical character had attained its full excellence. They cannot +always be clearly distinguished, and they are sometimes purposely +blended, as in Butler's character of 'A Duke of Bucks,' where +the satire on a man of pronounced individuality is heightened by +describing his eccentricities as if they belonged to a recognized +class. + +The great lesson that the Theophrastan type of character could teach +was the value of balance and unity. A haphazard statement of +features and habits and peculiarities might suffice for a sketch, +but perspective and harmony were necessary to a finished portrait. +It taught that the surest method in depicting character was first +to conceive the character as a whole, and then to introduce detail +incidentally and in proper subordination. But the same lesson could +have been learned elsewhere. It might have been learned from the +English drama. + +[Footnote 1: North's Plutarch went into five editions between 1579 +and 1631; Thucydides was translated by Hobbes in 1629, and Polybius +by Edward Grimeston in 1633; Xenophon's _Anabasis_ was translated +by John Bingham in 1623, and the _Cyropaedia_ by Philemon Holland in +1632; Arthur Golding's version of Caesar's _Gallic War_ was several +times reprinted between 1565 and 1609; Philemon Holland, the +translator-general of the age, as Fuller called him, brought out +his Livy in 1600, and his Suetonius in 1606; Sallust was translated +by Thomas Heywood in 1608, and by William Crosse in 1629; Velleius +Paterculus was 'rendred English by Sir Robert Le Grys' in 1632; and by +1640 there had been six editions of Sir Henry Savile's _Histories_ and +_Agricola_ of Tacitus, first published in 1591, and five editions of +Richard Grenewey's _Annals_ and _Germany_, first published in 1598. +See H.R. Palmer's _English Editions and Translations of Greek and +Latin Classics printed before 1641_, Bibliographical Society, 1911.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Thucydides ... in whom (I beleeve with many others) the +Faculty of writing History is at the Highest.' Thucydides, 1629, 'To +the Readers.'] + +[Footnote 3: Philemon Holland's Livy, 1600, 'Dedication to +Elizabeth.'] + +[Footnote 4: Sir Henry Savile's Tacitus, 1591, 'A.B. To the Reader.'] + +[Footnote 5: _Supplement to Burnet's History_, ed. H.C. Foxcroft, p. +451.] + +[Footnote 6: In 'Reflections upon Several Christian Duties, Divine and +Moral, by Way of Essays', printed in _A Collection of several Tracts +of Edward Earl of Clarendon_, 1727, pp. 80-1.] + +[Footnote 7: Letter to the Earl of Bristol, February 1, 1646 +(_State Papers_, vol. ii, p. 334). Davila was very well known in +England--better, it would appear, than the other three--and was +credited with being more than a mere literary model. Clarendon says +that from his account of the civil wars of France 'no question our +Gamesters learned much of their play'. Sir Philip Warwick, after +remarking that Hampden was well read in history, tells us that the +first time he ever saw Davila's book it was lent to him 'under the +title of Mr. Hambden's _Vade Mecum_' (_Memoires_, 1701, p. 240). +A translation was published by the authority of the Parliament in +1647-8. Translations of Strada, Bentivoglio, and Grotius followed in +1650, 1654, and 1665. Only parts of Thuanus were translated. The size +of his history was against a complete version.] + +[Footnote 8: See the _Memoires_ of Monluc, Brantome, La Noue, &c. The +fifty-two volumes in Petitot's incomplete series entitled _Collection +des Memoires relatifs a l'histoire de France jusqu'au commencement +du dix-septieme siecle_ show at a glance the remarkable richness of +French literature in the _memoire_ at an early date.] + +[Footnote 9: _La Societe francaise au XVIIe siecle_, 1858 vol. i, p. +7. The 'key' drawn up in 1657 is printed as an appendix.] + +[Footnote 10: _Art poetique_, iii. 115-18.] + +[Footnote 11: Cousin, _Madame de Sable_, 1854, pp. 42-8.] + +[Footnote 12: Edited by Edouard de Barthelemy in 1860 under the title +_La Galerie des Portraits de Mademoiselle de Montpensier_.] + +[Footnote 13: Edited by Ch. Livet, 1856 (Bibliotheque Elzevirienne. 2 +vols.).] + +[Footnote 14: Sc. x, where Madelon says 'Je vous avoue que je suis +furieusement pour les portraits: je ne vois rien de si galant que +cela', and Mascarille replies, 'Les portraits sont difficiles, et +demandent un esprit profond: vous en verrez de ma maniere qui ne vous +deplairont pas.'] + +[Footnote 15: Joseph Hall's _Characters of Vertues and Vices_ appeared +in 1608 Overbury's _Characters_ 1614-22. For Earle, see pp. 168-70.] + + + + +III. Clarendon. + + +Clarendon's _History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England_ +is made up of two works composed with different purposes and at +a distance of twenty years. The first, which may be called the +'Manuscript History', belongs to 1646-8; the second, the 'Manuscript +Life', to 1668-70. They were combined to form the _History_ as we +now read it in 1671, when new sections were added to give continuity +and to complete the narrative. On Clarendon's death in 1674 the +manuscripts passed to his two sons, Henry Hyde, second Earl of +Clarendon, and Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester; and under the +supervision of the latter a transcript of the _History_ was made for +the printers. The work was published at Oxford in three handsome +folio volumes in 1702, 1703, and 1704, and became the property of the +University. The portions of the 'Manuscript Life' which Clarendon +had not incorporated in the _History_ as being too personal, were +published by the University in 1759, under the title _The Life +of Edward Earl of Clarendon_, and were likewise printed from a +transcript.[1] + +The original manuscripts, now also in the possession of the University +of which Clarendon's family were such generous benefactors, enable +us to fix the dates of composition. We know whether a part belongs +originally to the 'Manuscript History' or the 'Manuscript Life', or +whether it was pieced in later. More than this, Clarendon every now +and again inserts the month and the day on which he began or ended +a section. We can thus trace the stages by which his great work was +built up, and learn how his art developed. We can also judge how +closely the printed texts represent what Clarendon had written. The +old controversy on the authenticity of the first edition has long been +settled.[2] The original editors did their work faithfully according +to the editorial standards of their day; and they were well within the +latitude allowed them by the terms of Clarendon's instructions when +they occasionally omitted a passage, or when they exercised their +somewhat prim and cautious taste in altering and polishing phrases +that Clarendon had dashed down as quickly as his pen could move.[3] +Later editors have restored the omitted passages and scrupulously +reproduced Clarendon's own words. But no edition has yet reproduced +his spelling. In the characters printed in this volume the attempt +is made, for the first time it is believed, to represent the original +manuscripts accurately to the letter.[4] + +On the defeat of the last Royalist army in Cornwall in February 1646 +it was necessary to provide for the safety of Prince Charles, and +Clarendon, in these days Sir Edward Hyde, accompanied him when on the +night of March 2 he set sail for Scilly. They arrived in Scilly on +March 4, and there they remained till April 16, when the danger of +capture by the Parliamentary fleet compelled them to make good their +escape to Jersey. It is a remarkable testimony to the vigour of +Clarendon's mind that even in the midst of this crisis he should +have been able to begin his _History_. He began it in Scilly on March +18, 1646--the date is at the head of his manuscript; and once he +was settled in Jersey he immediately resumed it. But in writing his +_History_ he did not, in these days, think of himself only as an +historian. He was a trusted adviser of the defeated party, and he +planned his faithful narrative of what he knew so well not solely to +vindicate the character and conduct of the King, but also with the +immediate purpose of showing how the disasters had been brought out, +and, by implication, how further disaster might be avoided. The proof +of this is to be found not in the _History_ itself, where he seems +to have his eye only on 'posterity' and 'a better age', but in his +correspondence. In a letter written to Sir Edward Nicholas, the King's +secretary, on November 15, 1646, Clarendon spoke of his _History_ at +some length: + + As soon as I found myself alone, I thought the best way to + provide myself for new business against the time I should be + called to it (for, Mr. Secretary, you and I must once again + to business) was to look over the faults of the old; and so + I resolved (which you know I threatned you with long ago) to + write the history of these evil times, and of this most lovely + Rebellion. Well; without any other help than a few diurnals + I have wrote of longer paper than this, and in the same fine + small hand, above threescore sheets of paper.... I write with + all fidelity and freedom of all I know, of persons and things, + and the oversights and omissions on both sides, in order to + what they desired; so that you will believe it will make mad + work among friends and foes, if it were published; but out + of it enough may be chosen to make a perfect story, and the + original kept for their perusal, who may be the wiser for + knowing the most secret truths; and you know it will be an + easier matter to blot out two sheets, than to write half an + one. If I live to finish it (as on my conscience I shall, for + I write apace), I intend to seal it up, and have it always + with me. If I die, I appoint it to be delivered to you, to + whose care (with a couple of good fellows more) I shall leave + it; that either of you dying, you may so preserve it, that + in due time somewhat by your care may be published, and the + original be delivered to the King, who will not find himself + flattered in it, nor irreverently handled: though, the truth + will better suit a dead than a living man. Three hours a + day I assign to this writing task; the rest to other study + and books; so I doubt not after seven years time in this + retirement, you will find me a pretty fellow.[5] + +From this, as from other passages in his letters, Clarendon's +first intentions are clear. The _History_ was to be a repository of +authentic information on 'this most lovely Rebellion', constructed +with the specifically didactic purpose of showing the King and his +advisers what lessons were to be learned from their errors; they would +be 'the wiser for knowing the most secret truths'. At first he looked +on his work as containing the materials of a 'perfect story', but as +he proceeded his ambitions grew. He had begun to introduce characters; +and when in the spring of 1647 he was about to write his first +character of Lord Falkland, he had come to the view that 'the +preservation of the fame and merit of persons, and deriving the same +to posterity, is no less the business of history than the truth of +things'.[6] He gave much thought to the character of Falkland, 'whom +the next age shall be taught', he was determined, 'to value more than +the present did.'[7] Concurrently with the introduction of characters +he paid more attention to the literary, as distinct from the +didactic, merits of his work. We find him comparing himself with other +historians, and considering what Livy and Tacitus would have done +in like circumstances. By the spring of 1648 he had brought down his +narrative to the opening of the campaign of 1644. Earlier in the +year he had been commanded by the King to be ready to rejoin Prince +Charles, and shortly afterwards he received definite instructions from +the Queen to attend on her and the Prince at Paris. He left Jersey +in June, and with his re-entry into active politics his _History_ was +abruptly ended. The seven years of retirement which he had anticipated +were cut down by the outbreak of the Second Civil War to two; and +within a year the King for whose benefit he had begun this _History_ +was led to the scaffold. Not for twenty years was Clarendon again to +have the leisure to be an historian. When in 1668 he once more took +up his pen, it was not a continuation of the first work, but an +entirely new work, that came in steady flow from the abundance of his +knowledge. + +Clarendon returned to England as Lord Chancellor in 1660, and for +seven years enjoyed the power which he had earned by ceaseless +devotion to his two royal masters. The ill success of the war with the +Dutch, jealousy of his place and influence, the spiteful opposition +of the King's chief mistress, and the King's own resentment at an +attitude that showed too little deference and imprudently suggested +the old relations of tutor and pupil, all combined to bring about his +fall. He fled from England on November 30, 1667, and was never to set +foot in England again. Broken in health and spirit, he sought in vain +for many months a resting-place in France, and not till July 1668 did +he find a new home at Montpelier. Here his health improved, and here +he remained till June 1671. These were busy years of writing, and +by far the greater portion of his published work, if his letters +and state papers be excluded, belongs to this time. First of all he +answered the charge of high treason brought against him by the House +of Commons in _A Discourse, by Way of Vindication of my self_, begun +on July 24, 1668; he wrote most of his _Reflections upon Several +Christian Duties, Divine and Moral_, a collection of twenty-five +essays, some of considerable length, on subjects largely suggested +by his own circumstances; and he completed between December 1668 and +February 1671 his _Contemplations and Reflections upon the Psalms of +David_, an elaborate exposition extending to well over four hundred +folio pages of print, which he had begun at Jersey in 1647. But his +great work at this time was his _Life_, begun on July 23, 1668, +and brought down to 1660 by August 1, 1670. It is by far the most +elaborate autobiography that had yet been attempted in English. The +manuscript consists of over six hundred pages, and each page contains +on an average about a thousand words. He wrote with perfect freedom, +for this work, unlike the earlier _History_, was not intended for the +eyes of the King, and the didactic days were over. He wrote too with +remarkable ease. The very appearance of the manuscript, where page +follows page with hardly an erasure, and the 'fine hand' becomes finer +and finer, conveys even a sense of relief and pleasure. His pen seems +to move of itself and the long and elaborate sentences to evolve of +their own free will. The story of his life became a loose framework +into which he could fit all that he wished to tell of his own times; +and the more he told, his vindication would be the more complete. +'Even unawares', he admitted, 'many things are inserted not so +immediately applicable to his own person, which possibly may +hereafter, in some other method, be communicated to the world.'[8] He +welcomed the opportunity to tell all that he knew. There was no reason +for reticence. He wrote of men as of things frankly as he knew them. +More than a history of the Rebellion, his _Life_ is also a picture of +the society in which he had moved. It is the work which contains most +of his characters.[9] + +His early _History_ had been left behind in England on his sudden +flight. For about four years he was debarred from all intercourse with +his family, but in 1671 the royal displeasure so far relaxed that his +second son, Laurence, was granted a pass to visit him, and he brought +the manuscript that had been left untouched for twenty years. They met +in June at Moulins, which was to be Clarendon's home till April 1674. +Once the old and the new work were both in his hands, he cast his +great _History of the Rebellion_ in its final form, and thus 'finished +the work which his heart was most set upon'. In June 1672 he turned +to the 'Continuation of his Life', which deals with his Chancellorship +and his fall, and was not intended 'ever for a public view, or for +more than the information of his children'. As its conclusion shows, +it was his last work to be completed, but while engaged on it he found +time to write much else, including his reply to Hobbes's _Leviathan_. +'In all this retirement', he could well say, in a passage which reads +like his obituary, 'he was very seldom vacant, and then only when he +was under some sharp visitation of the gout, from reading excellent +books, or writing some animadversions and exercitations of his own, +as appears by the papers and notes which he left.' The activity of +these years of banishment is remarkable in a man who had turned sixty +and had passed through about thirty years of continuous storm. His +intellectual vitality was unimpaired. The old English jollity that +Evelyn had remarked in him in happier if more difficult days had gone, +but the even temper from which it had sprung still remained. He was at +his best as a writer then; writing was never an effort to him, but in +his exile it was an exercise and recreation. He could have said with +Dryden that 'what judgment I had increases rather than diminishes; and +thoughts, such as they are, come crowding in so fast upon me, that my +only difficulty is to choose or to reject'. + +He was still in hopes that he would be allowed to return to England, +to die in his own country and among his children. 'Seven years', +he said, 'was a time prescribed and limited by God himself for the +expiration of some of his greatest judgements.'[10] In the seventh +year of his banishment he left Moulins for Rouen, so as to be nearer +home. His hopes were vain. He died at Rouen on December 9, 1674.[11] +His body was brought to England for burial in Westminster. + + * * * * * + +Clarendon had been interested in the study of character all his +life. His earliest work was 'The Difference and Disparity between the +Estates and Conditions of George Duke of Buckingham and Robert Earl of +Essex'. Sir Henry Wotton had written observations on these statesmen +'by way of parallel', and Clarendon pointed out as a sequel wherein +they differed. It is a somewhat laboured composition in comparison +with his later work, a young man's careful essay that lacks the +confidence that comes with experience, but it shows at an early stage +the talents which knowledge and practice were to develop into mastery. +The school in which he learned most was the circle of his friends. Few +men can have owed more to their friends than he did, or have been more +generous in acknowledging the debt. He tells us he was often heard to +say that 'next the immediate blessing and providence of God Almighty, +which had preserved him throughout the whole course of his life +(less strict than it ought to have been) from many dangers and +disadvantages, in which many other young men were lost, he owed +all the little he knew, and the little good that was in him, to the +friendships and conversation he had still been used to, of the most +excellent men in their several kinds that lived in that age; by whose +learning, and information, and instruction, he formed his studies, +and mended his understanding, and by whose gentleness and sweetness +of behaviour, and justice, and virtue, and example, he formed his +manners, subdued that pride and suppressed that heat and passion he +was naturally inclined to be transported with.' He used often to say, +he continues, that 'he never was so proud, or thought himself so good +a man, as when he was the worst man in the company'. He cultivated +his friendships, it is true, with an eye to his advancement; but it +is equally true that he had a nature which invited friendships. He +enjoyed to the full the pleasure of living and seeing others live, +and a great part of his pleasure consisted in observing how men +differed in their habits and foibles. He tells how Ben Jonson did +not understand why young Mr. Hyde should neglect the delights of his +company at the call of business; how Selden, with all his stupendous +learning, was never more studious of anything than his ease; how +Earle gave a wrong impression by the negligence of his dress and +mien, whereas no man was more wary and cultivated in his behaviour and +discourse; how Chillingworth argued for the pleasure of arguing and +thereby irritated his friends and at last grew confident of nothing; +how Hales, great in scholarship but diminutive in stature, liked to be +by himself but had a very open and pleasant conversation in congenial +company; how Waller nursed his reputation for ready wit by seeming +to speak on the sudden what he had thoroughly considered. In all his +accounts of the friends of his youth Clarendon is in the background, +but we picture him moving among them at ease, conscious of his +inferiority in learning and brilliance and the gentler virtues, +yet trusting to his own judgement, and convinced that every man +worth knowing has a pronounced individuality. In these happy and +irresponsible days, when he numbered poets among his friends, he +himself wrote poetry. Little of it is preserved. He contributed +introductory verses to Davenant's _Albovine_, and composed verses on +the death of Donne. His poetry was well enough known for Dryden to +allude to it during his Lord Chancellorship, in the address presented +to him at the height of his power in 1662: + + The _Muses_, who your early Courtship boast, + Though now your Flames are with their Beauty lost, + Yet watch their Time, that if you have forgot + They were your Mistresses, the world may not. + +But first the law claimed him, and then politics, and then came the +Civil War. As Privy Councillor and Chancellor of the Exchequer he was +in the thick of the conflict. The men whom he had now to study were +men of affairs. He had the clear and unimpassioned vision which often +goes with a warm temperament, and could scrutinize his friends without +endangering his affection for them. However deeply his feelings might +be engaged, he had taken a pleasure in trying to see them exactly as +they were. When he came to judge his political enemies he continued +the same attitude of detachment, and studiously cultivated it. 'I am +careful', he said in a private letter,[12] 'to do justice to every +man who hath fallen in the quarrel, on which side soever.' 'I know +myself', he said in the _History_,[13] 'to be very free from any of +those passions which naturally transport men with prejudice towards +the persons whom they are obliged to mention, and whose actions they +are at liberty to censure.' It was beyond human nature for a man who +had lived through what he did to be completely unprejudiced. He did +not always scrupulously weigh what he knew would be to the discredit +of the Parliamentary leaders, nor did he ignore mere Royalist rumour, +as in the character of Pym. But his characters of them are often more +favourable than might have been expected. He may show his personal +dislike, or even his sense of their crime, but behind this he permits +us to see the qualities which contributed to their success. There can +be no reasonable objection to his characters of Hampden and Cromwell. +Political partisans find them disappointing, and they are certainly +not the final verdict. The worst that can be said of them is that +they are drawn from a wrong point of view; but from that point of view +their honesty is unquestionable. He does not distinguish men by their +party. The folly of his own side is exhibited as relentlessly as the +knavery of his opponents. Of no one did he write a more unfavourable +character than the Earl of Arundel. He explains the failure of Laud, +and he does not conceal the weakness of Charles. + +There is a broad distinction between his earlier and later characters. +While he was still in the midst of the conflict and hoped to influence +it by stating what he knew, he depicted the individual in relation +to events. When the conflict was over and he was at leisure to draw +on his recollections, he made the individual to a greater degree the +representative of the type. But the distinction is not clearly marked, +and Clarendon may not have suspected it. His habitual detachment was +assisted by his exile. The displeasure of his ungrateful master, from +whom he had never been separated during seventeen difficult years, had +proved the vanity of the little things of life. He looked at men from +a distance that obscures what is insignificant, and shows only the +essential. + +All his characters are clearly defined. We never confound them; we +never have any doubt of how he understood them. He sees men as a whole +before he begins to describe them, and then his only difficulty, as +his manuscripts show, is to make his pen move fast enough. He does not +build up his characters. He does not, as many others do, start with +the external features in the hope of arriving at the central facts. He +starts from the centre and works outwards. This is the reason of the +convincingness of his characters, their dramatic truth. The dramatic +sense in him is stronger than the pictorial. + +He troubles little about personal appearance, or any of the traits +which would enable us to visualize his men. We understand them rather +than see them. Hampden, he tells us, was 'of a most civil and affable +deportment' and had 'a flowing courtesy to all men', a 'rare temper +and modesty'; it is Sir Philip Warwick who speaks of the 'scurf +commonly on his face'.[14] He says that the younger Vane 'had an +unusual aspect', and leaves us wondering what was unusual. His +Falkland is an exception, but he adopted a different scale when +describing his greatest friend and only hero. Each of his two accounts +of Falkland is in fact a brief biography rather than a character; +the earliest of them, written shortly after Falkland's death, he once +thought of making into a volume by itself. In his characters proper +he confines himself more strictly than any other writer to matters of +character. They are characters rather than portraits. + +But portraiture was one of his passions, though he left its practice +to the painters. He adorned his houses with the likenesses of his +friends. It was fitting that our greatest character writer should +have formed one of the great collections of pictures of 'wits, poets, +philosophers, famous and learned Englishmen'.[15] To describe them +on paper, and to contrive that they should look down on him from his +walls, were different ways of indulging the same keen and tireless +interest in the life amid which he moved. + +[Footnote 1: For a detailed examination of the composition and value +of Clarendon's _History_ see the three articles by Professor C.H. +Firth in _The English Historical Review_ for 1904. No student of +Clarendon can ever afford to neglect them.] + +[Footnote 2: See No. 33, introductory note.] + +[Footnote 3: See No. 6, introductory note, and No. 36, p. 140, II. +17-22 note.] + +[Footnote 4: Contractions have been expanded. The punctuation of the +original is slight, and it has been found desirable occasionally to +insert commas, where seventeenth century printers would have inserted +them; but the run of the sentences has not been disturbed. In +modernized versions Clarendon's long sentences are sometimes +needlessly subdivided.] + +[Footnote 5: _State Papers_, 1773, vol. ii, pp. 288-9.] + +[Footnote 6: Letter of March 16, 1647; _infra_ p. 275.] + +[Footnote 7: Letter of January 8, 1647; T.H. Lister, _Life of +Clarendon_, 1837, vol. iii, p. 43.] + +[Footnote 8: Ed. 1857, part 1, Sec. 85; omitted in the edition of 1759.] + +[Footnote 9: Of the thirty-seven characters by Clarendon in this +volume, twenty-seven are from the 'Manuscript Life'.] + +[Footnote 10: _State Papers_, 1786, vol. iii, supp., p. xlv.] + +[Footnote 11: Clarendon's lifetime coincided almost exactly with +Milton's. He was two months younger than Milton, and died one month +later.] + +[Footnote 12: December 14, 1647; _infra_ p. 275.] + +[Footnote 13: Book ix, _ad init._; ed. Macray, vol. iv, p. 3.] + +[Footnote 14: See note, p. 129, ll. 22 ff.] + +[Footnote 15: Evelyn's _Diary_, December 20, 1668. See the account of +'The Clarendon Gallery' in Lady Theresa Lewis's _Lives of the friends +of Clarendon_, 1852, vol. i, pp. 15* ff., and vol. iii, pp. 241 ff.] + + + + +IV. Other Character Writers. + + +When Clarendon's _History_ was at last made public, no part of it +was more frequently discussed, or more highly praised, than its +characters--'so just', said Evelyn, 'and tempered without the least +ingredient of passion or tincture of revenge, yet with such natural +and lively touches as show his lordship well knew not only the +persons' outsides, but their very interiors.'[1] About the same time, +and probably as a consequence of the publication of Clarendon's work, +Bishop Burnet proceeded to put into its final form the _History_ on +which he had been engaged since 1683. He gave special attention to his +characters, some of which he entirely rewrote. They at once invited +comparison with Clarendon's, and first impressions, then as now, were +not in their favour. 'His characters are miserably wrought,' said +Swift.[2] + +Burnet was in close touch with the political movements of his time. +'For above thirty years,' he wrote, 'I have lived in such intimacy +with all who have had the chief conduct of affairs, and have been so +much trusted, and on so many important occasions employed by them, +that I have been able to penetrate far into the true secrets of +counsels and designs.'[3] He had a retentive memory, and a full share +of worldly wisdom. But he was not an artist like Clarendon. His style +has none of the sustained dignity, the leisurely evolution, which in +Clarendon is so strangely at variance with the speed of composition. +All is stated, nothing suggested. There is a succession of short +sentences, each perfectly clear in itself, often unlinked to what +precedes or follows, and always without any of the finer shades of +meaning. It is rough work, and on the face of it hasty, and so it +would have remained, no matter how often it had been revised. Again, +Burnet does not always have perfect control of the impression he +wishes to convey. It is as if he did not have the whole character in +his mind before he began to write, but collected his thoughts from +the stores of his memory in the process of composition. We are often +uncertain how to understand a character before we have read it all. In +some cases he seems to be content to present us with the material from +which, once we have pieced it together ourselves, we can form our own +judgement. But what he tells us has been vividly felt by him, and is +vividly presented. The great merit of his characters lies in their +realism. Of the Earl of Lauderdale he says that 'He made a very ill +appearance: He was very big: His hair red, hanging oddly about him: +His tongue was too big for his mouth, which made him bedew all that +he talked to.' There is no hint of this in Clarendon's character of +Lauderdale, nor could Clarendon have spoken with the same directness. +Burnet has no circumlocutions, just as in private life he was +not known to indulge in them. When he reports what was said in +conversation he gives the very words. Lauderdale 'was a man, as the +Duke of Buckingham called him to me, of a blundering understanding'. +Halifax 'hoped that God would not lay it to his charge, if he could +not digest iron, as an ostrich did, nor take into his belief things +that must burst him'. It is the directness and actuality of such +things as these, and above all his habit of describing men in relation +to himself, that make his best characters so vivid. Burnet is seldom +in the background. He allows us to suspect that it is not the man +himself whom he presents to us but the man as he knew him, though +he would not have admitted the distinction. He could not imitate the +detachment of Clarendon, who is always deliberately impersonal, and +writes as if he were pronouncing the impartial judgement of history +from which there can be no appeal. Burnet views his men from a much +nearer distance. His perspective may sometimes be at fault, but he +gets the detail. + +With all his shrewd observation, it must be admitted that his range of +comprehension was limited. There were no types of character too subtle +for Clarendon to understand. There were some which eluded Burnet's +grasp. He is at his best in describing such a man as Lauderdale, where +the roughness of the style is in perfect keeping with the subject. +His character of Shaftesbury, whom he says he knew for many years in a +very particular manner, is a valuable study and a remarkable companion +piece to Dryden's _Achitophel_. But he did not understand Halifax. The +surface levity misled him. He tells us unsuspectingly as much about +himself as about Halifax. He tells us that the Trimmer could never be +quite serious in the good bishop's company. + +We learn more about Halifax from his own elaborate study of Charles +II. It is a prolonged analysis by a man of clear vision, and perfect +balance of judgement, and no prepossessions; who was, moreover, master +of the easy pellucid style that tends to maxim and epigram. A more +impartial and convincing estimate of any king need never be expected. +In method and purpose, it stands by itself. It is indeed not so +much a character in the accepted sense of the word as a scientific +investigation of a personality. Others try to make us see and +understand their men; Halifax anatomizes. Yet he occasionally permits +us to discover his own feelings. Nothing disappointed him more in the +merry monarch than the company he kept, and his comprehensive taste in +wit. 'Of all men that ever _liked_ those who _had wit_, he could the +best _endure_ those who had _none_': there is more here than is on the +surface; we see at once Charles, and his court, and Halifax himself. + +As a class, the statesmen and politicians more than hold their +own with the other character writers of the seventeenth century. +Shaftesbury's picture of Henry Hastings, a country gentleman of the +old school, who carried well into the Stuart period the habits and +life of Tudor times, shows a side of his varied accomplishments which +has not won the general recognition that it deserves. It is a sketch +exactly in the style of the eighteenth century essayists. It makes us +regret that the fragmentary autobiography in which it is found did not +come down to a time when it could have included sketches of his famous +contemporaries. The literary skill of his grandson, the author of the +_Characteristicks_, was evidently inherited. + +Sir Philip Warwick has the misfortune to be overshadowed by Clarendon. +As secretary to Charles I in the year before his execution, and as +a minor government official under Charles II, he was well acquainted +with men and affairs. Burnet describes him as 'an honest but a weak +man', and adds that 'though he pretended to wit and politics, he was +not cut out for that, and least of all for writing of history'. He +could at least write characters. They do not bear the impress of a +strong personality, but they have the fairmindedness and the calm +outlook that spring from a gentle and unassertive nature. His Cromwell +and his Laud are alike greatly to his credit; and the private view +that he gives us of Charles has unmistakable value. His _Memoires_ +remained in manuscript till 1701, the year before the publication of +Clarendon's _History_. It was the first book to appear with notable +characters of the men of the Civil Wars and the Protectorate. + +The Histories and Memoirs of the seventeenth century contain by far +the greatest number of its characters; but they are to be found also +in scattered Lives, and in the collections of material that mark the +rise of modern English biography. There are disappointingly few by +Fuller. In his _Worthies of England_ he is mainly concerned with the +facts of a man's life, and though, in his own word, he fleshes the +bare skeleton of time, place, and person with pleasant passages, +and interlaces many delightful stories by way of illustrations, and +everywhere holds us by the quaint turns of his fertile fancy, yet the +scheme of the book did not involve the depicting of character, nor did +it allow him to deal with many contemporaries whom he had known. In +the present volume it has therefore been found best to represent him +by the studies of Bacon and Laud in his _Church-History_. Bacon he +must have described largely from hearsay, but what he says of Laud is +an admirable specimen of his manner, and leaves us wishing that he had +devoted himself in larger measure to the worthies of his own time. + +There are no characters in Aubrey's _Brief Lives_, which are only a +series of rough jottings by a prince of gossips, who collected what +he could and put it all on paper 'tumultuarily'. But the extracts from +what he says of Hobbes and Milton may be considered as notes for a +character, details that awaited a greater artist than Aubrey was to +work them into a picture; and if Hobbes and Milton are to be given a +place, as somehow or other they must be, in a collection of the kind +that this volume offers, there is no option but to be content with +such notes, for there is no set character of either of them. The value +of the facts which Aubrey has preserved is shown by the use made of +them by all subsequent biographers, and notably by Anthony a Wood, +whose _Athenae Oxonienses_ is our first great biographical dictionary. + +Lives of English men of letters begin in the seventeenth century, +and from Rawley's _Life of Bacon_, Sprat's _Life of Cowley_, and the +anonymous _Life of Fuller_ it is possible to extract passages which +are in effect characters. But Walton's _Lives_, the best of all +seventeenth century Lives, refuse to yield any section, for each of +them is all of a piece; they are from beginning to end continuous +character studies, revealing qualities of head and heart in their +affectionate record of fact and circumstance. There is therefore +nothing in this volume from his _Life of Donne_ or his _Life of +Herbert_. As a rule the characters that can be extracted from Lives +are much inferior to the clearly defined characters that are inserted +in Histories. The focus is not the same. When an author after dealing +with a man's career sums up his mental and moral qualities in a +section by itself, he does not trust to it alone to convey the total +impression. He is too liable also to panegyric, like Rawley, who could +see no fault in his master Bacon, or Sprat who, in Johnson's words, +produced a funeral oration on Cowley. There are no characters +of scholars or poets so good as Clarendon's Hales, or Earle, or +Chillingworth, or Waller; and for this reason, that Clarendon +envisages them, not as scholars or poets but as men, and gains a +definite and complete effect within small compass. + +Roger North made his life of his brother Lord Keeper Guilford an +account of the bench and bar under Charles II and James II. Of its +many sketches of lawyers whom he or his brother had known, none is +so perfect in every way as the character of Chief Justice Saunders, a +remarkable man in real life who still lives in North's pages with +all his eccentricities. North writes at length about his brother, +yet nowhere do we see and understand him so clearly as we see and +understand Saunders. The truth is that a life and a character have +different objects and methods and do not readily combine. It is only +a small admixture of biography that a character will endure. And with +the steady development of biography the character declined. + +A character must be short; and it must be entire, the complete +expression of a clear judgement. The perfect model is provided +by Clarendon. He has more than formal excellence. 'Motives', said +Johnson, 'are generally unknown. We cannot trust to the characters +we find in history, unless when they are drawn by those who knew the +persons; as those, for instance, by Sallust and by Lord Clarendon.'[4] + + +[Footnote 1: Letter to Pepys, January 20, 1703; Pepys's _Diary_, ed. +Braybrooke, 1825, vol. ii, p. 290.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Short Remarks on Bishop Burnet's _History_,' _ad init._] + +[Footnote 3: _History_, preface] + +[Footnote 4: Boswell, 1769, ed. G.B. Hill, vol. ii, p. 79.] + + * * * * * + +Sooner or later every one who deals with the history or literature +of the seventeenth century has to own his obligations to Professor +C.H. Firth. My debt is not confined to his writings, references to +which will be found continually in the notes. At every stage of +the preparation of this volume I have had the advantage of his most +generous interest. And with his name it is a pleasure to associate in +one compendious acknowledgement the names of Dr. Henry Bradley and Mr. +Percy Simpson. + +Oxford, +September 16, 1918. +D.N.S. + + + + +1. + +JAMES I. + +_James VI of Scotland 1567. James I 1603._ + +_Born 1566. Died 1625._ + +By ARTHUR WILSON. + + +He was born a King, and from that height, the less fitted to look +into inferiour things; yet few escaped his knowledge, being, as it +were, a _Magazine_ to retain them. His _Stature_ was of the _Middle +Size_; rather tall than low, well set and somewhat plump, of a ruddy +Complexion, his hair of a light brown, in his full perfection, had +at last a Tincture of white. If he had any predominant _Humor_ to +Ballance his _Choler_, it was Sanguine, which made his _Mirth Witty_. +His Beard was scattering on the Chin, and very thin; and though his +Clothes were seldome fashioned to the _Vulgar_ garb, yet in the whole +man he was not uncomely. He was a King in understanding, and was +content to have his Subjects ignorant in many things; As in curing the +_Kings Evil_, which he knew a _Device_, to ingrandize the _Vertue_ of +Kings, when _Miracles_ were in fashion; but he let the World believe +it, though he smiled at it, in his own _Reason_, finding the strength +of the _Imagination_ a more powerfull _Agent_ in the _Cure_, than +the _Plaisters his Chirurgions_ prescribed for the _Sore_. It was a +hard _Question_, whether his Wisedome, and knowledge, exceeded his +_Choler_, and _Fear_; certainly the last couple drew him with most +violence, because they were not acquisititious, but _Naturall_; If he +had not had that _Allay_, his high touring, and mastering _Reason_, +had been of a _Rare_, and sublimed _Excellency_; but these earthy +_Dregs_ kept it down, making his _Passions_ extend him as farre +as _Prophaness_, that I may not say _Blasphemy_, and _Policy_ +superintendent of all his _Actions_; which will not last long (like +the _Violence_ of that _Humor_) for it often makes those that know +well, to do ill, and not be able to prevent it. + +He had pure _Notions_ in _Conception_, but could bring few of them +into _Action_, though they tended to his own _Preservation_: For this +was one of his _Apothegms_, which he made no timely use of. _Let that +Prince, that would beware of Conspiracies, be rather jealous of such, +whom his extraordinary favours have advanced, than of those whom +his displeasure hath discontented. These want means to execute their +Pleasures, but they have means at pleasure to execute their desires_. +Ambition to rule is more vehement than Malice to revenge. Though the +last part of this _Aphorism_, he was thought to practice too soon, +where there was no cause for prevention, and neglect too late, when +time was full ripe to produce the effect. + +Some _Parallel'd_ him to _Tiberius_ for _Dissimulation_, yet _Peace_ +was maintained by him as in the Time of _Augustus_; And _Peace_ begot +_Plenty_, and _Plenty_ begot _Ease_ and _Wantonness_, and _Ease_ and +_Wantonnesse_ begot _Poetry_, and _Poetry_ swelled to that _bulk_ +in his time, that it begot strange _Monstrous Satyrs_, against the +King[s] own person, that haunted both _Court_, and _Country_, which +exprest would be too bitter to leave a sweet perfume behind him. +And though bitter ingredients are good to imbalm and preserve dead +_bodies_, yet these were such as might indanger to kill a living name, +if _Malice_ be not brought in with an _Antidote_. And the tongues +of those times, more fluent than my _Pen_, made every little +_miscarriage_ (being not able to discover their true operations, like +smal _seeds_ hid in earthy _Darknesse_) grow up, and spread into such +exuberant _branches_, that evil _Report_ did often pearch upon them. +So dangerous it is for _Princes_, by a _Remisse Comportment_, to give +growth to the least _Error_; for it often proves as _fruitful_ as +_Malice_ can make it. + + + + +2. + +By SIR ANTHONY WELDON. + + +This Kings Character is much easier to take then his Picture, for he +could never be brought to sit for the taking of that, which is the +reason of so few good peeces of him; but his Character was obvious to +every eye. + +He was of a middle stature, more corpulent through his cloathes then +in his body, yet fat enough, his cloathes ever being made large and +easie, the Doublets quilted for steletto proofe, his Breeches in great +pleites and full stuffed: Hee was naturally of a timorous disposition, +which was the reason of his quilted Doublets: His eyes large, ever +rowling after any stranger came in his presence, insomuch, as many +for shame have left the roome, as being out of countenance: His Beard +was very thin: His Tongue too large for his mouth, which ever made +him speak full in the mouth, and made him drink very uncomely, as if +eating his drink, which came out into the cup of each side of his +mouth: His skin was as soft as Taffeta Sarsnet, which felt so, because +hee never washt his hands, onely rubb'd his fingers ends slightly with +the wet end of a Naptkin: His Legs were very weake, having had (as was +thought) some foul play in his youth, or rather before he was born, +that he was not able to stand at seven years of age, that weaknesse +made him ever leaning on other mens shoulders, his walke was ever +circular ... He was very temperate in his exercises, and in his dyet, +and not intemperate in his drinking; however in his old age, and +_Buckinghams_ joviall Suppers, when he had any turne to doe with +him, made him sometimes overtaken, which he would the very next day +remember, and repent with teares; it is true, he dranke very often, +which was rather out of a custom then any delight, and his drinks were +of that kind for strength, as Frontiniack, Canary, High Country wine, +Tent Wine, and Scottish Ale, that had he not had a very strong brain, +might have daily been overtaken, although he seldom drank at any +one time above four spoonfulls, many times not above one or two; He +was very constant in all things, his Favourites excepted, in which +he loved change, yet never cast down any (he once raised) from +the height of greatnesse, though from their wonted nearnesse, and +privacy; unlesse by their own default, by opposing his change, as in +_Somersets_ case: yet had he not been in that foul poysoning busines, +and so cast down himself, I do verily beleeve not him neither; for al +his other Favorites he left great in Honour, great in Fortune; and did +much love _Mountgomery_, and trusted him more at the very last gaspe, +then at the first minute of his Favoriteship: In his Dyet, Apparrell, +and Journeys, he was very constant; in his Apparrell so constant, as +by his good wil he would never change his cloathes untill worn out to +very ragges: His Fashion never: Insomuch as one bringing to him a Hat +of a _Spanish_ Block, he cast it from him, swearing he neither loved +them nor their fashions. Another time, bringing him Roses on his +Shooes, he asked, if they would make him a ruffe-footed-Dove? one yard +of six penny Ribbond served that turne: His Dyet and Journies were +so constant, that the best observing Courtier of our time was wont +to say, were he asleep seven yeares, and then awakened, he would tell +where the King every day had been, and every dish he had had at his +Table. + +Hee was not very uxorious, (though he had a very brave Queen that +never crossed his designes, nor intermedled with State affaires, +but ever complyed with him (even against the nature of any, but of +a milde spirit) in the change of Favourites;) for he was ever best, +when furthest from the Queene, and that was thought to be the first +grounds of his often removes, which afterwards proved habituall. +He was unfortunate in the marriage of his Daughter, and so was all +Christendome besides; but sure the Daughter was more unfortunate in +a Father, then he in a Daughter: He naturally loved not the sight of +a Souldier, nor of any Valiant man; and it was an observation that +Sir _Robert Mansell_ was the only valiant man he ever loved, and him +he loved so intirely, that for all _Buckinghams_ greatnesse with +the King, and his hatred of Sir _Robert Mansell_, yet could not +that alienate the Kings affections from him; insomuch as when by +the instigation of _Cottington_ (then Embassadour in _Spaine_) by +_Buckinghams_ procurement, the _Spanish_ Embassadour came with a +great complaint against _Sir Robert Mansell_, then at _Argiers_, to +suppresse the Pirats, That he did support them; having never a friend +there, (though many) that durst speake in his defence, the King +himselfe defended him in these words: _My Lord Embassadour, I cannot +beleeve this, for I made choyce my selfe of him, out of these reasons; +I know him to be valiant, honest, and Nobly descended as most in my +Kingdome, and will never beleeve a man thus qualified will doe so base +an act_. He naturally loved honest men, that were not over active, +yet never loved any man heartily untill he had bound him unto him by +giving him some suite, which he thought bound the others love to him +againe; but that argued a poore disposition in him, to beleeve that +any thing but a Noble minde, seasoned with vertue, could make any +firme love or union, for mercinary mindes are carried away with a +greater prize, but Noble mindes, alienated with nothing but publick +disgraces. + +He was very witty, and had as many ready witty jests as any man +living, at which he would not smile himselfe, but deliver them in a +grave and serious manner: He was very liberall, of what he had not in +his owne gripe, and would rather part with 100._li._ hee never had in +his keeping, then one twenty shillings peece within his owne custody: +He spent much, and had much use of his Subjects purses, which bred +some clashings with them in Parliament, yet would alwayes come off, +and end with a sweet and plausible close; and truly his bounty was not +discommendable, for his raising Favourites was the worst: Rewarding +old servants, and releiving his Native Country-men, was infinitely +more to be commended in him, then condemned. His sending Embassadours, +were no lesse chargeable then dishonourable and unprofitable to him +and his whole Kingdome; for he was ever abused in all Negotiations, +yet hee had rather spend 100000._li._ on Embassies, to keep or procure +peace with dishonour, then 10000._li._ on an Army that would have +forced peace with honour: He loved good Lawes, and had many made in +his time, and in his last Parliament, for the good of his Subjects, +and suppressing Promoters, and progging fellowes, gave way to that +_Nullum tempus, &c._ to be confined to 60. yeares, which was more +beneficiall to the Subjects in respect of their quiets, then all the +Parliaments had given him during his whole Reign. By his frequenting +Sermons he appeared Religious; yet his Tuesday Sermons (if you will +beleeve his owne Country men, that lived in those times when they +were erected, and well understood the cause of erecting them) were +dedicated for a strange peece of devotion. + +He would make a great deale too bold with God in his passion, both in +cursing and swearing, and one straine higher vergeing on blasphemie; +But would in his better temper say, he hoped God would not impute +them as sins, and lay them to his charge, seeing they proceeded from +passion: He had need of great assurance, rather then hopes, that would +make daily so bold with God. + +He was so crafty and cunning in petty things, as the circumventing any +great man, the change of a Favourite, &c. insomuch as a very wise man +was wont to say, he beleeved him the wisest foole in Christendome, +meaning him wise in small things, but a foole in weighty affaires. + +He ever desired to prefer meane men in great places, that when he +turned them out again, they should have no friend to bandy with them: +And besides, they were so hated by being raised from a meane estate, +to over-top all men, that every one held it a pretty recreation to +have them often turned out: There were living in this Kings time, at +one instant, two Treasurers, three Secretaries, two Lord Keepers, two +Admiralls, three Lord chief Justices, yet but one in play, therefore +this King had a pretty faculty in putting out and in: By this you +may perceive in what his wisdome consisted, but in great and weighty +affaires even at his wits end. + +He had a trick to cousen himselfe with bargains under hand, by taking +1000._li._ or 10000._li._ as a bribe, when his Counsell was treating +with his Customers to raise them to so much more yearly, this went +into his Privy purse, wherein hee thought hee had over-reached the +Lords, but cousened himselfe; but would as easily breake the bargaine +upon the next offer, saying, he was mistaken and deceived, and +therefore no reason he should keep the bargaine; this was often the +case with the Farmers of the Customes; He was infinitely inclined +to peace, but more out of feare then conscience, and this was the +greatest blemish this King had through all his Reign, otherwise might +have been ranked with the very best of our Kings, yet sometimes would +hee shew pretty flashes of valour which might easily be discerned to +be forced, not naturall; and being forced, could have wished, rather, +it would have recoiled backe into himselfe, then carryed to that +King it had concerned, least he might have been put to the tryall, to +maintaine his seeming valour. + +In a word, he was (take him altogether and not in peeces) such a King, +I wish this Kingdom have never any worse, on the condition, not +any better; for he lived in peace, dyed in peace, and left all his +Kingdomes in a peaceable condition, with his owne Motto: + +_Beati Pacifici_. + + + + +3. + +THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. + +_George Villiers, created Viscount Villiers 1616, Earl of Buckingham +1617, Marquis 1618, and Duke 1623. Born 1592. Assassinated 1628_. + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Duke was indeede a very extraordinary person, and never any man in +any age, nor I believe in any country or nation, rose in so shorte a +tyme to so much greatenesse of honour fame and fortune upon no other +advantage or recommendation, then of the beauty and gracefulnesse +and becommingnesse of his person; and I have not the least purpose of +undervale[w]inge his good partes and qualityes (of which ther will be +occasion shortly to give some testimony) when I say, that his first +introduction into favour was purely from the handsomnesse of his +person: He was the younger Sunn of S'r George Villyers of Brookesby in +the County of Leicester, a family of an auncient extraction, even from +the tyme of the conquest, and transported then with the conqueror out +of Normandy, wher the family hath still remayned and still continues +with lustre: After S'r Georges first marriage, in which he had 2 or +3 Sunnes and some daughters, who shared an ample inheritance from +him, by a secounde marriage with a younge lady of the family of the +Beaumonts, he had this gentleman, and two other Sunns, and a daughter, +who all came afterwards to be raysed to greate titles and dignityes. +George, the eldest Sunn of this secounde bedd, was after the death +of his father, by the singular affection and care of his Mother, who +injoyed a good joynture in the accounte of that age, well brought up, +and for the improvment of his education, and givinge an ornament to +his hopefull person, he was by her sent into France, wher he spent +2. or 3. yeeres in attayninge the language, and in learninge the +exercises of rydinge and dauncinge, in the last of which he excelled +most men; and returned into Englande by the tyme he was 21. yeeres +old. + +Kinge James raingned at that tyme, and though he was a Prince of +more learninge and knowledge then any other of that age, and really +delighted more in bookes, and in the conversation of learned men, +yett of all wise men livinge, he was the most delighted and taken with +handsome persons, and with fyne clothes; He begann to be weary of his +Favorite the Earle of Somersett, who was the only Favorite who kept +that post so longe without any publique reproch from the people, and +by the instigation and wickednesse of his wife, he became at least +privy to a horrible murther, that exposed him to the utmost severity +of the law (the poysoninge of S'r Thomas Overbury) upon which both he +and his wife were condemned to dy, after a tryall by ther Peeres, and +many persons of quality were executed for the same: Whilst this was +in agitation, and before the utmost discovery was made, Mr. Villiers +appeared in Courte, and drew the Kings eyes upon him: Ther were enough +in the Courte enough angry and incensed against Somersett, for beinge +what themselves desyred to be, and especially for beinge a Scotchman, +and ascendinge in so shorte a tyme from beinge a page, to the height +he was then at, to contribute all they coulde, to promote the one, +that they might throw out the other; which beinge easily brought to +passe, by the proceedinge of the law upon his cryme aforesayd, the +other founde very little difficulty in rendringe himselfe gracious to +the Kinge, whose nature and disposition was very flowinge in affection +towards persons so adorned, insomuch that in few dayes after his first +appearance in Courte he was made Cup-bearer to the Kinge, by which +he was naturally to be much in his presence, and so admitted to that +conversation and discource, with which that Prince alwayes abounded +at his meales; and his inclination to his new Cuppbearer disposed him +to administer frequent occasions of discourcinge of the Courte of +France, and the transactions ther, with which he had bene so lately +acquainted, that he could pertinently inlarge upon that subjecte, +to the Kings greate delight, and to the reconcilinge the esteeme and +valew of all the Standers by likewise to him, which was a thinge +the Kinge was well pleased with: He acted very few weekes upon this +Stage, when he mounted higher, and beinge knighted, without any other +qualification he was at the same tyme made Gentleman of the Bedd +chamber, and Knight of the Order of the Gartar; and in a shorte tyme +(very shorte for such a prodigious ascent,) he was made a Barron, +a Viscount, an Earle, a Marquisse, and became L'd High Admirall of +Englande, L'd Warden of the Cinque Ports, Master of the Horse, and +intirely disposed of all the graces of the Kinge, in conferringe +all the Honours and all the Offices of the three kingdomes without +a ryvall; in dispencinge wherof, he was guyded more by the rules of +appetite then of judgement, and so exalted almost all of his owne +numerous family and dependants, who had no other virtue or meritt then +ther allyance to him, which aequally offended the auncient nobility and +the people of all conditions, who saw the Flowres of the Crowne every +day fadinge and withered, whilst the Demeasnes and revennue therof +was sacrificed to the inrichinge a private family (how well soever +originally extracted) not heard of before ever to the nation, and +the exspences of the Courte so vast, unlimited by the old good rules +of Oeconomy, that they had a sadd prospecte of that poverty and +necessity, which afterwards befell the Crowne, almost to the ruine of +it. + +Many were of opinion, that Kinge James before his death, grew weary of +his Favorite, and that if he had lyved, he would have deprived him at +least of his large and unlimited power; and this imagination praevayled +with some men, as the L'd Keeper Lincolne, the Earle of Middlesex, L'd +High Treasurer of England, and other gentlemen of name, though not +in so high stations, that they had the courage, to withdraw from ther +absolute dependance upon the Duke, and to make some other assayes, +which prooved to the ruine of every on of them, ther appearinge no +markes or evidence, that the Kinge did really lessen his affection +to him, to the houre of his death; on the contrary, as he created him +Duke of Buckingham, in his absence, whilst he was with the Prince +in Spayne, so after his returne, he exequted the same authority in +conferringe all favours and graces, and revenginge himselfe upon +those who had manifested any unkindnesse towards him: And yett +notwithstandinge all this, if that Kings nature had aequally disposed +him, to pull downe, as to builde and erecte, and if his courage and +severity in punishinge and reforminge had bene as greate, as his +generosity and inclination was to obliege, it is not to be doubted, +but that he would have withdrawne his affection from the Duke intirely +before his death, which those persons who were admitted to any privacy +with [him], and were not in the confidence of the other (for before +those he knew well how to dissemble) had reason enough to exspecte.... + + * * * * * + +This greate man was a person of a noble nature and generous +disposition, and of such other indowments, as made him very capable +of beinge a greate favorite to a greate Kinge; he understoode the Arts +and artifices of a Courte, and all the learninge that is professed +ther, exactly well; by longe practice in businesse, under a Master +that discourced excellently, and surely knew all things wounderfully, +and tooke much delight in indoctrinatinge his younge unexsperienced +Favorite, who he knew would be alwayes looked upon as the +workemanshipp of his owne handes, he had obtayned a quicke conception +and apprehension of businesse, and had the habitt of speakinge very +gracefully, and pertinently. He was of a most flowinge courtesy and +affability to all men, who made any addresse to him, and so desyrous +to obliege them, that he did not enough consider the valew of the +obligation, or the meritt of the person he chose to obliege, from +which much of his misfortune resulted. He was of a courage not to be +daunted, which was manifested in all his actions, and his contests +with particular persons of the greatest reputation, and especially +in his whole demeanour at the Isle of Rees, both at the landinge and +upon the retriete, in both which no man was more fearelesse, or more +ready to expose himselfe to the brightest daungers. His kindnesse +and affection to his frends was so vehement, that it was so many +marriages, for better and worse, and so many leagues offensive and +defensive, as if he thought himselfe oblieged to love all his frends, +and to make warr upon all they were angry with, let the cause be what +it would. And it cannot be denyed, that he was an enimy in the same +excesse, and prosequted those he looked upon as his enimyes, with +the utmost rigour and animosity, and was not easily induced to a +reconciliation; and yett ther were some examples of his receadinge in +that particular; and in highest passyon, he was so farr from stoopinge +to any dissimulation, wherby his displeasure might be concealed and +covered, till he had attayned his revenge, the low methode of Courts, +that he never indeavoured to do any man an ill office, before he first +told him what he was to exspecte from him, and reproched him with the +injures he had done, with so much generosity, that the person found +it in his pouer, to receave farther satisfaction in the way he would +chuse for himselfe.... + +His single misfortune was (which indeede was productive of many +greater) that he never made a noble and a worthy frendshipp with a man +so neere his aequall, that he would frankely advize him, for his honour +and true interest, against the current, or rather the torrent of his +impetuous passyons: which was partly the vice of the tyme, when the +Courte was not replenished with greate choyce of excellent men, and +partly the vice of the persons, who were most worthy to be applyed +to, and looked upon his youth, and his obscurity, as obligations upon +him, to gayne ther frendshipps by extraordinary application; then his +ascent was so quicke, that it seemed rather a flight, then a growth, +and he was such a darlinge of fortune, that he was at the topp, before +he was seene at the bottome, for the gradation of his titles, was the +effecte, not cause of his first promotion, and as if he had bene borne +a favorite, he was supreme the first moneth he came to courte, and +it was wante of confidence, not of creditt, that he had not all at +first, which he obtayned afterwards, never meetinge with the least +obstruction, from his settinge out, till he was as greate as he could +be, so that he wanted dependants, before he thought he could wante +coadjutors; nor was he very fortunate in the election of those +dependants, very few of his servants havinge bene ever qualifyed +enough to assiste or advize him, and were intente only upon growinge +rich under [him], not upon ther masters growinge good as well as +greate, insomuch as he was throughout his fortune, a much wiser man, +then any servant or frende he had: Lett the faulte or misfortune be +what and whence it will, it may very reasonably be believed that if +he had bene blessed with one faythfull frende, who had bene qualifyed +with wisdome and integrity, that greate person would have committed +as few faults, and done as transcendant worthy actions, as any man +who shyned in such a sphere in that age, in Europe, for he was of +an excellent nature, and of a capacity very capable of advice and +councell; he was in his nature just and candid, liberall, generous, +and bountifull, nor was it ever knowne that the temptation of money +swayed him to do an unjust, or unkinde thinge, and though he left a +very greate inheritance to his heyres, consideringe the vast fortune +he inherited by his wife (the sole daughter and Heyre of Francis +Earle of Rutlande,) he owed no parte of it to his owne industry or +sollicitation, but to the impatient humour of two kings his masters, +who would make his fortune aequall to his titles, and the one above +other men, as the other was, and he considered it no otherwise then +as thers, and left it at his death ingaged for the crowne, almost to +the valew of it, as is touched upon before. If he had an immoderate +ambition, with which he was charged, and is a weede (if it be a weede) +apt to grow in the best soyles, it does not appeare that it was in +his nature, or that he brought it with him to the Courte, but rather +founde it ther, and was a garment necessary for that ayre; nor was +it more in his power to be without promotion, and titles, and wealth, +then for a healthy man to sitt in the sunn, in the brightest dogge +dayes, and remayne without any warmth: he needed no ambition who was +so seated in the hartes of two such masters. + + + + +4. + +SIR THOMAS COVENTRY. + +_Solicitor-General 1617. Attorney-General 1621. Lord Keeper 1625. +Created Baron Coventry 1628. Born 1578. Died 1640_. + +By CLARENDON. + + +S'r Thomas Coventry was then L'd Keeper of the Greate Seale of +England, and newly made a Barron. He was a Sunn of the Robe, his +father havinge bene a Judge in the courte of the Common pleas, who +tooke greate care to breede his Sunn, though his first borne, in +the Study of the common law, by which himselfe had bene promoted to +that degree, and in which, in the society of the Inner Temple, his +Sunn made a notable progresse, by an early eminence in practice and +learninge, insomuch as he was Recorder of London, Sollicitor generall, +and Kings Atturny before he was forty yeeres of age, a rare ascent, +all which offices he discharged, with greate abilityes, and singular +reputation of integrity: In the first yeere after the death of Kinge +James, he was advanced to be Keeper of the Greate Scale of Englande, +the naturall advancement from, the office of Atturny Generall, upon +the remoovall of the Bishopp of Lincolne, who though a man of greate +witt, and good scholastique learninge, was generally thought so very +unaequall to the place that his remoove was the only recompence and +satisfaction that could be made for his promotion, and yett it was +enough knowne, that the disgrace proceeded only from the pri[v]ate +displeasure of the Duke of Buckingham[1]: The L'd Coventry injoyed +this place with a universall reputation (and sure justice was never +better administred) for the space of aboute sixteen yeeres, even to +his death, some months before he was sixty yeeres of age, which was +another importante circumstance of his felicity: that greate office +beinge so slippery, that no man had dyed in it before, for neere the +space of forty yeeres, nor had his successors for some tyme after him +much better fortune: and he himselfe had use of all his strenght and +skill (as he was an excellent wrastler) to praeserve himselfe from +fallinge, in two shockes, the one given him by the Earle of Portlande, +L'd High Treasurer of Englande, the other by the Marq's of Hambleton, +who had the greatest power over the affections of the Kinge, of any +man of that tyme. + +He was a man of wounderfull gravity and wisdome, and understood not +only the whole science and mistery of the Law, at least aequally with +any man who had ever sate in that place, but had a cleere conception +of the whole policy of the government both of Church and State, which +by the unskilfulnesse of some well meaninge men, justled each the +other to much. He knew the temper, and disposition and genius of the +kingdome most exactly, saw ther spiritts grow every day more sturdy, +and inquisitive, and impatient, and therfore naturally abhorred all +innovations, which he foresaw would produce ruinous effects: yett many +who stoode at a distance thought that he was not active and stoute +enough in the opposinge those innovations, for though by his place he +praesided in all publique councells, and was most sharpe sighted in the +consequence of things, yett he was seldome knowne to speake in matters +of state, which he well knew were for the most parte concluded, before +they were brought to that publique agitation, never in forrainge +affayres, which the vigour of his judgement could well comprehende, +nor indeede freely in any thinge, but what immediately and playnely +concerned the justice of the kingdome, and in that as much as he +could, he procured references to the Judges. Though in his nature he +had not only a firme gravity, but a severity, and even some morosity +(which his children and domestiques had evidence enough of) [yet][2] +it was so happily tempred, that his courtesy and affability towards +all men was so transcended, so much without affectation, that it +marvellously reconciled [him] to all men of all degrees, and he was +looked upon as an excellent courtyer, without receadinge from the +native simplicity of his owne manner. He had in the playne way of +speakinge and delivery (without much ornament of eloqution) a strange +power of makinge himselfe believed (the only justifiable designe of +eloquence) so that though he used very frankely to deny, and would +never suffer any man to departe from him, with an opinion that he +was inclined to gratify when in truth he was not, (holdinge that +dissimulation to be the worst of lyinge) yett the manner of it was +so gentle and oblieginge, and his condescension such, to informe the +persons, who[m] he could not satisfy, that few departed from him, +with ill will and ill wishes; but then this happy temper, and these +good facultyes, rather praeserved him from havinge many enimyes, and +supplyed him with some well-wishers, then furnished him with any +fast and unshaken frends, who are alwayes procured in courtes by more +ardour, and more vehement professions and applications, then he would +suffer himselfe to be entangled with; so that he was a man rather +exceedingly liked, then passionately loved, insomuch that it never +appeared, that he had any one frende in the Courte, of quality enough +to praevent or diverte any disadvantage he mighte be exposed to, and +therfore it is no wonder, nor to be imputed to him, that he retyred +within himselfe as much as he could, and stood upon his defence, +without makinge desperate sallyes against growinge mischieves, which +he knew well he had no power to hinder, and which might probably begin +in his owne ruine: to conclude, his security consisted very much, in +the little creditt he had with the Kinge, and he dyed in a season most +opportune, and in which a wise man would have prayed to have finished +his cource, and which in truth crowned his other signall prosperity in +this worlde. + +[Footnote 1: 'Buckinghman', MS.] + +[Footnote 2: 'but', MS.] + + + + +5. + +SIR RICHARD WESTON. + +_Chancellor of the Exchequer 1621. Lord Treasurer 1628. Baron Weston +1628, and Earl of Portland 1633._ + +_Born 1577. Died 1635._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +S'r Richard Weston had bene advanced to the white staffe, to the +office of L'd High Treasurer of England, some moneths before the +death of the Duke of Buckingham, and had in that shorte tyme so much +disoblieged him, at least disappointed his exspectation, that many who +were privy to the Dukes most secrett purposes, did believe that if +he had outlived that voyage, in which he was ingaged, he would have +remooved him, and made another Treasurer: and it is very true that +greate office to had bene very slippery, and not fast to those who +had trusted themselves in it, insomuch as there were at that tyme +five noble persons alive, who had all succeded on another immediately +in that unsteady charge, without any other person interveninge, the +Earle of Suffolke, the L'd Viscount Mandevill, afterwards Earle of +Manchester, the Earle of Middlesex, and the Earle of Marleborough, who +was remooved under praetence of his age, and disability for the work +(which had bene a better reason against his promotion, so few yeeres +before, that his infirmityes were very little increased) to make roome +for the present Officer, who though advanced by the Duke, may properly +be sayd to be establish'd by his death. + +He was a gentleman of a very good and auncient extraction, by father +and mother; his education had bene very good, amongst bookes and +men. After some yeeres study of the law in the Middle temple, and at +an age fitt to make observations and reflexions, out of which that +which is commonly called exsperience is constituted, he travelled +into forrainge partes, and was acquainted in forrainge partes;[1] he +betooke himselfe to the courte, and lyved ther some yeeres at that +distance, and with that awe, as[2] was agreable to the modesty of that +age, when men were seene some tyme, before they were knowne, and well +knowne before they were praeferred, or durst praetende to be praeferred. +He spent the best parte of his fortune, a fayre on, that he inherited +from his father, in his attendance at courte, and involved his +frends in securityes with him, who were willinge to runn his hopefull +fortune, before he receaved the least fruite from it, but the +countenance of greate men, and those in authority, the most naturall, +and most certayne stayres to ascende by: He was then sent Ambassadour +to the Arch-Dukes Alberte and Isabella into Flanders, and to the Diett +in Germany, to treate aboute the restitution of the Palatinat, in +which negotiation he behaved himselfe with greate prudence, and with +the concurrent testimony of a wise man, from all those with whome he +treated, Princes and Ambassadours: and upon his returne was made a +Privy Councellour, and Chauncelour of the Exchequer, in the place of +the L'd Brooke, who was ether perswaded, or putt out of the place, +which beinge an office of honour and trust, is likewise an excellent +stage for men of parts to tread, and expose themselfes upon, and +wher they have occasion of all natures to lay out and spredd all +ther facultyes and qualifications most for ther advantage; He behaved +himselfe very well in this function, and appeared aequall to it, and +carryed himselfe so luckily in Parliament, that he did his master much +service, and praeserved himselfe in the good opinion and acceptation +of the house, which is a blessinge not indulged to many by those high +powers: He did swimme in those troubled and boysterous waters, in +which the Duke of Buckingham rode as Admirall, with a good grace, when +very many who were aboute him, were drowned or forced on shore, with +shrewde hurtes and bruises, which shewed he knew well how and when to +use his limbes and strenght to the best advantage, sometimes only to +avoyde sinkinge, and sometymes to advance and gett grounde; and by +this dexterity he kept his creditt with those who could do him good, +and lost it not with others, who desyred the destruction of those upon +whome he most depended. + +He was made L'd Treasurer in the manner, and at the tyme mentioned +before, upon the remoovall of the Earle of Marleborough, and few +moneths before the death of the Duke; the former circumstance, which +is often attended by compassion towards the degraded, and praejudice +toward the promoted, brought him no disadvantage, for besydes the +delight that season had in changes, there was little reverence towards +the person remooved, and the extreme, visible poverty of the Exchequer +sheltered that Provence from the envy it had frequently created, +and opened a doore for much applause to be the portion of a wise and +provident Minister: For the other of the Dukes death, though some who +knew the Dukes passyons and praejudice (which often produced rather +suddayne indisposition, then obstinate resolution) believed he would +have bene shortly cashiered, as so many had lately bene, and so that +the death of his founder, was a greater confirmation of him in the +office, then the delivery of the white staffe had bene, many other +wise men, who knew the Treasurers talent, in remoovinge praejudice and +reconcilinge himselfe to waveringe and doubtfull affections, believed +that the losse of the Duke was very unseasonable, and that the awe or +apprehension of his power and displeasure, was a very necessary allay +for the impetuosity of the new officers nature, which needed some +restrainte and checque for some tyme to his immoderate praetences and +appetite of power. He did indeede appeare on the suddayne wounderfully +elated, and so farr threw off his olde affectation to please some very +much, and to displease none, in which arte he had excelled, that in +few moneths after the Dukes death, he founde himselfe to succeede him +in the publique displeasure, and in the malice of his enimyes, without +succeedinge him in his creditt at courte, or in the affection of any +considerable dependants; and yett, though he was not superiour to all +other men, in the affection, or rather resignation of the Kinge, so +that he might dispence favours and disfavours accordinge to his owne +election, he had a full share in his masters esteeme, who looked upon +him as a wise and able servant and worthy of the trust he reposed +in him, and receaved no other advice in the large businesse of his +revennue, nor was any man so much his superiour, as to be able to +lessen him in the Kings affection, by his power; so that he was in a +post in which he might have founde much ease and delight, if he could +have contayned himselfe within the verge of his owne Provence, which +was large enough, and of such an extente, that he might at the same +tyme have drawne a greate dependance upon him of very considerable +men, and appeared a very usefull and profitable Minister to the Kinge, +whose revennue had bene very loosely managed duringe the late yeeres, +and might by industry and order have bene easily improoved, and no +man better understoode what methode was necessary towards that good +husbandry then he. But I know not by what frowardnesse in his starres, +he tooke more paynes in examininge and enquiringe into other mens +offices, then in the discharge of his owne, and not so much joy in +what he had, as trouble and agony for what he had not. The truth is, +he had so vehement a desyre to be the sole favorite, that he had +no relish of the power he had, and in that contention he had many +ryvalls, who had creditt enough to do him ill offices, though not +enough to satisfy ther owne ambition, the Kinge himselfe beinge +resolved to hold the raynes in his owne handes, and to putt no further +trust in others, then was necessary for the capacity they served +in: which resolution in his Majesty was no sooner believed, and the +Treasurers prsetence taken notice,[3] then he founde the number of +his enimyes exceedingly increased, and others to be lesse eager in the +pursuite of his frendshipp; and every day discovered some infirmityes +in him, which beinge before knowne to few, and not taken notice,[3] +did now expose him both to publique reproch, and to private +animosityes, and even his vices admitted those contradictions in them, +that he could hardly injoy the pleasante fruite of any of them. That +which first exposed him to the publique jealosy, which is alwayes +attended with publique reproch, was the concurrent suspicion of +his religion. His wife and all his daughters were declared of the +Roman religion, and though himselfe and his Sunns sometimes went to +church, he was never thought to have zeale for it, and his domestique +conversation and dependants, with whome only he used intire freedome, +were all knowne Catholiques, and were believed to be agents for the +rest; and yett with all this disadvantage to himselfe, he never had +reputation and creditt with that party, who were the only people of +the kingdome, who did not believe him to be of ther profession, for +the penall lawes (those only excepted, which were sanguinary, and even +those sometimes lett loose) were never more rigidly executed, nor had +the Crovme ever so greate a revennue from them, as in his tyme, nor +did they ever pay so deere for the favours and indulgencyes of his +office towards them. + +No man had greater ambition to make his family greate, or stronger +designes to leave a greate fortune to it, yett his exspences were so +prodigiously greate, especially in his house, that all the wayes he +used for supply, which were all that occurred, could not serve his +turne, insomuch that he contracted so greate debts, (the anxiety +wherof he praetended broke his minde, and restrayned that intentnesse +and industry which was necessary for the dew execution of his office) +that the Kinge was pleased twice to pay his debts, at least towards +it, to disburse forty thousande pounde in ready mony out of his +Exchequer; besydes his Majesty gave him a whole forrest, Chute forrest +in Hampshyre, and much other lande belonginge to the Crowne, which +was the more taken notice of, and murmured against, because beinge the +chiefe Minister of the revennue, he was particularly oblieged as +much as in him lay to praevent and even oppose such disinherison; and +because under that obligation, he had avowedly and sowrely crossed the +praetences of other men, and restrayned the Kings bounty from beinge +exercised almost to any; and he had that advantage (if he had made the +right use of it) that his creditt was ample enough (secounded by the +Kings owne exsperience, and observation, and inclination) to retrench +very much of the late unlimited exspences, and especially those of +bountyes, which from the death of the Duke, rann in narrow channells, +which never so much overflowed as towards himselfe; who stopped the +current to other men. + +He was of an imperious nature, and nothinge wary in disoblieginge +and provokinge other men, and had to much courage in offendinge and +incensinge them, but after havinge offended and incensed them, he +was of so unhappy a feminine temper that he was always in a terrible +fright and apprehension of them. He had not that application, and +submissyon and reverence for the Queene as might have bene exspected +from his wisdome and breedinge, and often crossed her praetences and +desyres, with more rudenesse then was naturall to him; yett he was +impertinently sollicitous to know what her Majesty sayd of him in +private, and what resentments shee had towards him; and when by some +confidents (who had ther ends upon him from those offices) he was +informed of some bitter exspressions fallen from her Majesty, he was +so exceedingly afflicted and tormented with the sense of it, that +sometimes by passionate complaints and representations to the Kinge, +sometimes by more dutifull addresses and expostulations with the +Queene in bewaylinge his misfortunes, he frequently exposed himselfe, +and left his condition worse then it was before: and the eclarcicement +commonly ended in the discovery of the persons from whome he had +received his most secrett intelligence. He quickly lost the character +of a bold, stoute, and magnanimous man, which he had bene longe +reputed to be, in worse tymes, and in his most prosperous season, fell +under the reproch of beinge a man of bigg lookes, and of a meane and +abjecte spiritt.... + +To conclude, all the honours the Kinge conferred upon him, as he made +him a Barren, then an Earle, and Knight of the Gartar, and above +this, gave a younge, beautifull Lady, neerely allyed to him and to the +Crowne of Scotlande, in marriage to his eldest Sunn, could not make +him thinke himselfe greate enough; nor could all the Kings bountyes +nor his owne large accessions, rayse a fortune to his Heyre, but after +six or eight yeeres spent in outward opulency, and inward murmur and +trouble, that it was no greater, after vast summes of mony and greate +wealth gotten and rather consumed then injoyed, without any sense +or delight in so greate prosperity, with the agony that it was no +greater, He dyed unlamented by any, bitterly mentioned by most, who +never pretended to love him, and sevearely censured and complayned of, +by those who exspected most from him, and deserved best of him, and +left a numerous family, which was in a shorte tyme worne out, and yett +outlyved the fortune he left behinde him. + +[Footnote 1: In the MS. the words 'he travelled into forrainge parts' +occur after 'Middle temple', as well as after 'constituted'. The whole +sentence is faulty. 'After this' is inserted in the edition of 1702 +before 'he betooke'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'as' inserted in late hand in MS. in place of 'and'.] + +[Footnote 3: 'off' added in later hand in MS.; 'notice of', ll. 2, 6, +ed. 1704.] + + + + +6. + +THE EARL OF ARUNDEL. + +_Thomas Howard, fourteenth Earl of Arundel._ + +_Born 1586. Died 1646._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Arrundell was the next to the officers of State, who in +his owne right and quality, praeceded the rest of the councell. He was +a man supercilious and prowde, who lyved alwayes within himselfe, +and to himselfe, conversinge little with any, who were in common +conversation, so that he seemed to lyve as it were in another nation, +his house beinge a place, to which all men resorted, who resorted +to no other place, strangers, or such who affected to looke like +strangers, and dressed themselves accordingly. He resorted sometimes +to the Courte, because ther only was a greater man then himselfe, +and went thither the seldomer, because ther was a greater man then +himselfe. He lived toward all Favorites and greate officers without +any kinde of condescention, and rather suffred himselfe to be ill +treated by ther power and authority (for he was alwayes in disgrace, +and once or twice prysoner in the tower) then to descende in makinge +any application to them; and upon these occasyons, he spent a greate +intervall of his tyme, in severall journyes into forrainge partes, and +with his wife and family had lyved some yeeres in Italy, the humour +and manners of which nation he seemed most to like and approve, and +affected to imitate. He had a good fortune by descent, and a much +greater from his wife, who was the sole daughter upon the matter +(for nether of the two Sisters left any issue) of the greate house of +Shrewsbury, but his exspences were without any measure, and alwayes +exceeded very much his revennue. He was willinge to be thought a +scholar, and to understande the most misterious partes of Antiquity, +because he made a wounderfull and costly purchase of excellent statues +whilst he was in Italy and in Rome (some wherof he could never obtayne +permission to remoove from Rome, though he had payd for them) and had +a rare collection of the most curious Medalls; wheras in truth he was +only able to buy them, never to understande ihem, and as to all partes +of learninge he was almost illiterate, and thought no other parte of +history considerable, but what related to his owne family, in which no +doubt ther had bene some very memorable persons. + +It cannot be denyed, that he had in his person, in his aspecte and +countenance, the appearance of a greate man, which he preserved in +his gate and motion. He wore and affected a habitt very different +from that of the tyme, such as men had only beheld in the pictures of +the most considerable men, all which drew the eyes of most and the +reverence of many towards him, as the image and representative of the +primitive nobility, and natife gravity of the nobles, when they had +bene most venerable. But this was only his outsyde, his nature and +true humour beinge so much disposed to levity, and vulgar delights, +which indeede were very despicable and childish: He was never +suspected to love anybody, nor to have the least propensity to +justice, charity, or compassion, so that, though he gott all he +could, and by all the wayes he could, and spent much more then he +gott or had, he was never knowne to give any thinge, nor in all his +imployments (for he had imployments of greate profitt as well as +honour, beinge sent Ambassadour extraordinary into Germany, for the +treaty of that Generall peace, for which he had greate appointments, +and in which he did nothinge of the least importance, and which is +more wounderfull, he was afterwards made Generall of the Army raysed +for Scotlande, and receaved full pay as such, and in his owne office +of Earle Marshall, more money was drawne from the people by his +authority and praetence of jurisdiction, then had ever bene extorted +by all the officers praecedent) yett I say in all his offices and +imployments, never man used, or imployed by him, ever gott any fortune +under him, nor did ever any man acknowledge any obligation to him. He +was rather thought to be without religion, then to inclyne to this +or that party of any. He would have bene a proper instrument for any +tyranny, if he could have a man tyrant enough to have bene advized by +him, and had no other affection for the nation or the kingdome, then +as he had a greate share in it, in which like the greate Leviathan he +might sporte himselfe, from which he withdrew himselfe, as soone as +he decerned the repose therof was like to be disturbed, and dyed in +Italy, under the same doubtfull character of religion, in which he +lyved. + + + + +7. + +THE EARL OF PEMBROKE. + +_William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke._ + +_Born 1580. Died 1630._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Willyam Earle of Pembroke was next, a man of another molde and +makinge, and of another fame and reputation with all men, beinge +the most universally loved and esteemed, of any man of that age, and +havinge a greate office in the courte, made the courte itselfe better +esteemed and more reverenced in the country; and as he had a greate +number of frends of the best men, so no man had ever wickednesse to +avow himselfe to be his enimy. He was a man very well bredd, and of +excellent partes, and a gracefull speaker upon any subjecte, havinge +a good proportion of learninge, and a ready witt to apply it, and +inlarge upon it, of a pleasant and facetious humour and a disposition +affable, generous, and magnificent; he was master of a greate fortune +from his auncestors, and had a greate addition by his wife (another +daughter and heyre of the Earle of Shrewsbury) which he injoyed +duringe his life, shee outlivinge him, but all served not his +exspence, which was only limited by his greate minde, and occasions +to use it nobly; he lyved many yeeres aboute the courte, before in it, +and never by it, beinge rather regarded and esteemed by Kinge James +then loved and favored, and after the fowle fall of the Earle of +Somersett, he was made L'd Chamberlyne of the Kings house more for +the Courtes sake, then his owne, and the Courte appeared with the more +lustre, because he had the goverment of that Province. As he spente +and lived upon his owne fortune, so he stoode upon his owne feete, +without any other supporte then of his proper virtue and meritt, and +lyved towards the favorites with that decency, as would not suffer +them to censure or reproch his Masters judgement and election, but as +with men of his owne ranke. He was exceedingly beloved in the Courte, +because he never desyred to gett that for himselfe, which others +labored for, but was still ready to promote the praetences of worthy +men, and he was equally celebrated in the country, for havinge +receaved no obligations from the courte, which might corrupt or sway +his affections and judgement; so that all who were displeased and +unsatisfyed in the courte or with the Courte, were alwayes inclined +to putt themselves under his banner, if he would have admitted them, +and yett he did not so rejecte them, as to make them choose another +shelter, but so farr to depende on him, that he could restrayn them +from breakinge out beyounde private resentments, and murmurs. He was a +greate lover of his country, and of the religion and justice which he +believed could only supporte it, and his frendshipps were only with +men of those principles; and as his conversation was most with men of +the most pregnant parts and understandinge, so towards any who needed +supporte or encouragement, though unknowne, if fayrely recommended to +him, he was very liberall; and sure never man was planted in a courte, +that was fitter for that soyle, or brought better qualityes with him +to purify that heyre. + +Yett his memory must not be so flattered, that his virtues and good +inclinations may be believed without some allay of vice, and without +beinge clowded with greate infirmityes, which he had in to exorbitant +a proportion: He indulged to himselfe the pleasures of all kindes, +almost in all excesses; whether out of his naturall constitution, +or for wante of his domestique content and delight (in which he was +most unhappy, for he payed much to deere for his wife's fortune, +by takinge her person into the bargayne) he was immoderately given +up to women,[1] but therin he likewise retayned such a pouer and +jurisdiction over his very appetite, that he was not so much +transported with beauty and outwarde allurements, as with those +advantages of the minde, as manifested an extraordinary witt, +and spirit, and knowledge, and administred greate pleasure in the +conversation; to these he sacrificed himselfe, his pretious tyme, +and much of his fortune, and some who were neerest his trust and +frendshipp, were not without apprehension that his naturall vivacity, +and vigour of minde, begann to lessen and decline, by those excessive +indulgences. Aboute the tyme of the death of Kinge James or presently +after, he was made L'd Steward of his Majestys house, that the Staffe +of Chamberlyne might be putt into the hands of his brother, the Earle +of Mountgomery, upon a new contracte of frendshipp with the Duke of +Buckingham, after whose death he had likewise such offices of his, as +he most affected, of honour and commaunde, none of profitt, which he +cared not for; and within two yeeres after he dyed himselfe, of an +Apoplexy, after a full and cheerefull supper. + +[Footnote 1: The words 'to women' occur twice in the MS., before +'whether out' and after 'given up'.] + + + + +8. + +SIR FRANCIS BACON. + +_Lord Keeper 1617. Lord Chancellor 1618. Baron Verulam 1618, and +Viscount St. Albans 1621._ + +_Born 1561. Died 1626._ + +By BEN JONSON. + + +[Sidenote: _Dominis Verulanus._] + +_One_, though hee be excellent, and the chiefe, is not to bee imitated +alone. For never no Imitator, ever grew up to his _Author_; likenesse +is alwayes on this side Truth: Yet there hapn'd, in my time, one noble +_Speaker_, who was full of gravity in his speaking. His language, +(where hee could spare, or passe by a jest) was nobly _censorious_. No +man ever spake more neatly, more presly, more weightily, or suffer'd +lesse emptinesse, lesse idlenesse, in what hee utter'd. No member of +his speech, but consisted of the owne graces: His hearers could not +cough, or looke aside from him, without losse. Hee commanded where hee +spoke; and had his Judges angry, and pleased at his devotion. No man +had their affections more in his power. The feare of every man that +heard him, was, lest hee should make an end. + + + + +9. + +By ARTHUR WILSON. + + +Not long after comes the great _Lord Chancellor Bacon_ to a _Censure_, +for the most _simple_, and _ridiculous follies_, that ever entred +into the _heart_ of a _Wise man_. He was the true _Emblem_ of _humane +frailty_, being _more_ than _a man_ in some things, and less than a +_woman_ in others. His _crime_ was _Briberie_, and _Extortion_ (which +the King hinted at in his Speech, when he _facetiously_ sayd, _He +thought the Lords had bribed the Prince to speak well of them_) and +these he had often condemned others for as a _Judge_, which now +he comes to suffer for as a _Delinquent_: And they were proved, & +aggravated against him with so many _circumstances_, that they fell +very _fouly_ on him, both in _relation_ to his _Reception_ of them, +and his expending of them: For that which he raked in, and scrued +for one way, he scattered and threw abroad another; for his Servants, +being young, prodigall and expensive Youths, which he kept about him, +his Treasure was their common Store, which they took without stint, +having free accesse to his most retired Privacies; and his indulgence +to them, and familiarity with them, opened a _gap_ to infamous +_Reports_, which left an unsavoury _Tincture_ on him; for where such +_Leeches_ are, there must be _putrid bloud_ to fill their _craving +Appetites_. His _gettings_ were like a _Prince_, with a strong hand; +his _expences_ like a _Prodigall_, with a weak head; and 'tis a wonder +a man of his Noble, and Gallant Parts, that could fly so high above +_Reason_, should fall so far below it; unlesse that _Spirit_ that +_acted_ the first, were too proud to stoop, to see the _deformities_ +of the last. And as he affected his men, so his Wife affected hers: +Seldome doth the Husband deviate one way, but the Wife goeth another. +These things came into the _publique mouth_, and the _Genius_ of the +_Times_ (where _malice_ is not _corrivall_) is the great _Dictator_ +of all _Actions_: For _innocency_ it self is a _crime_, when _calumny_ +sets her mark upon it. How prudent therefore ought men to be, that not +so much as their _garments_ be defiled with the _sour breath_ of the +_Times_! + +This poor _Gentleman_, mounted above _pity_, fell down below it: His +_Tongue_, that was the glory of his time for _Eloquence_, (that tuned +so many sweet _Harrangues_) was like a forsaken _Harp_, hung upon the +_Willows_, whilst the _waters_ of _affliction_ overflowed the _banks_. +And now his high-flying _Orations_ are humbled to _Supplications_,... + + * * * * * + +He was of a _middling stature_, his countenance had in-dented with +_Age_ before he was old; his _Presence_ grave and comely; of a +high-flying and lively _Wit_, striving in some things to be rather +admired than understood, yet so quick and easie where he would express +himself, and his _Memory_ so strong and active, that he appeared the +_Master_ of a large and plenteous _store-house_ of _Knowledge_, being +(as it were) _Natures Midwife_, stripping her _Callou-brood_, and +clothing them in new _Attire_. His _Wit_ was quick to the last; for +_Gondemar_ meeting him the _Lent_ before his _Censure_, and hearing +of his _Miscarriages_, thought to pay him with his _Spanish Sarcasms_ +and _Scoffs_, saying, _My Lord, I wish you a good Easter_; _And you +my Lord_, replyed the _Chancellor_, _a good Passeover_: For he could +neither close with his _English Buffonerie_, nor his _Spanish Treaty_ +(which _Gondemar_ knew) though he was so wise as publiquely to oppose +neither. _In fine, he was a fit Jewel to have beautified, and adorned +a flourishing Kingdom, if his flaws had not disgraced the lustre that +should have set him off._ + + + + +10. + +By THOMAS FULLER. + + +[Sidenote: An essay at his character.] + +None can character him to the life, save himself. He was _in parts_, +more than a Man, who in any Liberal profession, might be, whatsoever +he would himself. A great Honourer of _antient Authors_, yet a great +Deviser and Practiser of new waies in Learning. Privy Counsellor, +as to King JAMES, so to _Nature_ it self, diving into many of her +abstruse Mysteries. New conclusions he would _dig out_ with _mattocks_ +of _gold & silver_, not caring what his experience cost him, expending +on the _Trials of Nature_, all and more than he got by the _Trials at +the Barre_, Posterity being the better for his, though he the worse +for his own, dear experiments. He and his Servants had _all in +common_, the _Men_ never wanting what their _Master_ had, and thus +what came _flowing_ in unto him, was sent _flying_ away from him, who, +in giving of rewards knew no _bounds_, but the _bottome_ of his own +purse. Wherefore when King James heard that he had given _Ten pounds_ +to an _under-keeper_, by whom He had sent him a _Buck_, the King said +merrily, _I and He shall both die Beggars_, which was condemnable +Prodigality in a _Subject_. He lived many years after, and in his +Books will ever survive, in the reading whereof, modest Men commend +him, in what they doe, condemn themselves, in what they doe not +understand, as believing the fault in their own eyes, and not in the +object. + + + + +11. + +By WILLIAM RAWLEY. + + +He was no _Plodder_ upon _Books_; Though he read much; And that, with +great Judgement, and Rejection of Impertinences, incident to many +_Authours_: For he would ever interlace a _Moderate Relaxation_ of +His _Minde_, with his _Studies_; As _Walking_; Or _Taking_ the _Aire +abroad_ in his _Coach_; or some other befitting _Recreation_: And +yet he would _loose_ no _Time_, In as much as upon his _First_ and +_Immediate Return_, he would fall to _Reading_ again: And so suffer +no _Moment_ of _Time_ to Slip from him, without some present +_Improvement_. + +His _Meales_ were _Refections_, of the _Eare_, as well as of the +_Stomack_: Like the _Noctes Atticae_; or _Convivia Deipno-Sophistarum_; +Wherein a Man might be refreshed, in his _Minde_, and _understanding_, +no lesse then in his _Body_. And I have known some, of no mean Parts, +that have professed to make use of their _Note-Books_, when they have +risen from his _Table_. In which _Conversations_, and otherwise, he +was no Dashing Man; As some Men are; But ever, a _Countenancer_, and +_Fosterer_, of another Mans _Parts_. Neither was he one, that would +_appropriate_ the _Speech_, wholy to Himself; or delight to out-vie +others; But leave a Liberty, to the _Co-Assessours_, to take their +_Turns_, to Wherein he would draw a _Man_ on, and allure him, to +speak upon such a Subject, as wherein he was peculiarly _Skilfull_, +and would delight to speak. And, for Himself, he condemned no Mans +_Observations_; But would light his _Torch_ at every Mans _Candle_. + +His _Opinions_, and _Assertions_, were, for the most part, _Binding_; +And not contradicted, by any; Rather like _Oracles_, then _Discourses_. +Which may be imputed, either to the well weighing of his _Sentence_, by +the Skales of _Truth_, and _Reason_; Or else, to the _Reverence_, and +_Estimation_, wherein he was, commonly, had, that no _Man_ would +_contest_ with him. So that, there was no _Argumentation_, or _Pro_ and +_Con_, (as they term it,) at his _Table_: Or if there chanced to be +any, it was Carried with much _Submission_, and _Moderation_. + +I have often observed; And so have other Men, of great Account; That +if he had occasion to repeat another Mans _Words_, after him; he +had an use, and Faculty, to dresse them in better _Vestments_, and +_Apparell_, then they had before: So that, the _Authour_ should finde +his own _Speech_ much amended; And yet the _Substance_ of it still +_retained_. As if it had been _Naturall_ to him, to use good _Forms_; +As _Ovid_ spake, of his _Faculty_ of _Versifying_; + + _Et quod tentabam Scribere, Versus erat._ + +When his _Office_ called him, as he was of the _Kings Counsell +Learned_, to charge any _Offenders_, either in _Criminals_, or +_Capitals_; He was never of an _Insulting_, or _Domineering Nature_, +over them; But alwayes tender Hearted, and carrying himself decently +towards the _Parties_; (Though it was his Duty, to charge them home:) +But yet, as one, that looked upon the _Example_, with the Eye of +_Severity_; But upon the _Person_, with the Eye of _Pitty_, and +Compassion. And in _Civill Businesse_, as he was _Counseller_ +of _Estate_, he had the best way of _Advising_; Not engaging his +_Master_, in any _Precipitate_, or _grievous_, Courses; But in +_Moderate_, and _Fair_, Proceedings: The _King_, whom he served, +giving him this _Testimony_; That he ever dealt, in Businesse, +Suavibus Modis; _Which was the way, that was most according to his own +Heart_. + +Neither was He, in his time, lesse Gracious with the _Subject_, +then with his _Soveraign_: He was ever Acceptable to the _House of +Commons_, when He was a _Member_ thereof. Being the _Kings Atturney_, +& chosen to a place, in _Parliament_, He was allowed, and dispensed +with, to sit in the _House_; which was not permitted to other +_Atturneys_. + +And as he was a good _Servant_, to his _Master_; Being never, in 19. +years Service, (as himself averred,) rebuked by the _King_, for any +Thing, relating to his _Majesty_; So he was a good _Master_, to his +_Servants_; And rewarded their long _Attendance_, with good _Places_, +freely, when they fell into his Power. Which was the Cause, that so +many young _Gentlemen_, of _Bloud_, and _Quality_, sought to list +themselves, in his _Retinew_. And if he were abused, by any of them, +in their _Places_; It was onely the _Errour_ of the _Goodnesse_ of +his _Nature_; But the Badges of their _Indiscretions_, and +_Intemperances_. + + + + +12. + +BEN JONSON. + +_Born 1573. Died 1637._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Ben Johnsons name can never be forgotten, havinge by his very good +learninge, and the severity of his nature, and manners, very much +reformed the Stage and indeede the English poetry it selfe; his +naturall advantages were judgement to order and governe fancy, +rather then excesse of fancy, his productions beinge slow and upon +deliberation, yett then aboundinge with greate witt and fancy, and +will lyve accordingly, and surely as he did exceedingly exalte the +English language, in eloquence, propriety, and masculyne exspressions, +so he was the best judge of, and fittest to prescribe rules to poetry +and poetts, of any man who had lyved with or before him, or since, if +M'r Cowly had not made a flight beyounde all men, with that modesty +yett to own much of his to the example and learninge of Ben. Johnson: +His conversation was very good and with the men of most note, and he +had for many yeares an extraordinary kindnesse for M'r Hyde, till he +founde he betooke himselfe to businesse, which he believed ought never +to be preferred before his company: He lyved to be very old, and till +the Palsy made a deepe impression upon his body and his minde. + + + + +13. + +By JAMES HOWELL. + +_To Sir THO. HAWK. Knight_. + + +Sir, + +I was invited yesternight to a solemne supper by _B.I._ wher you +were deeply remembred, ther was good company, excellent chear, choice +wines, and joviall welcom; one thing interven'd which almost spoyld +the relish of the rest, that _B._ began to engross all the discourse, +to vapour extremely of himself, and by villifying others to magnifie +his owne _muse_; _T. Ca._ buz'd me in the eare, that though _Ben_ +had barreld up a great deal of knowledg, yet it seems he had not +read the _Ethiques_, which among other precepts of morality forbid +self-commendation, declaring it to be an ill favourd solecism in good +manners; It made me think upon the Lady (not very young) who having a +good while given her guests neat entertainment, a capon being brought +upon the table, instead of a spoon she took a mouthfull of claret and +spouted it into the poope of the hollow bird; such an accident happend +in this entertainment you know--_Proprio laus sordet in ore; be a mans +breath never so sweet, yet it makes ones prayses stink, if he makes +his owne mouth the conduit pipe of it_; But for my part I am content +to dispense with this _Roman_ infirmity of _B._ now that time hath +snowed upon his pericranium. You know _Ovid_, and (your) _Horace_ were +subject to this humour, the first bursting out into, + + _Tamq; opus exegi quod nec Iovis ira, nec ignis_, &c. + +The other into, + + _Exegi monumentum aere perennius_, &c. + +As also _Cicero_ while he forc'd himself into this Exameter; _O +fortunatam natam me consule Romam_. Ther is another reason that +excuseth _B._ which is, that if one be allowed to love the naturall +issue of his body, why not that of the brain, which is of a spirituall +and more noble extraction; I preserve your manuscripts safe for you +till your return to _London_, what newes the times afford this bearer +will impart unto you. So I am, + + Sir, + _Your very humble and most faithfull Servitor_, J.H. +_Westmin. 5 Apr. 1636._ + + + + +14. + +HENRY HASTINGS. + +_Born 1551. Died 1650._ + +By SHAFTESBURY. + + +Mr. Hastings, by his quality, being the son, brother, and uncle to +the Earls of Huntingdon, and his way of living, had the first place +amongst us. He was peradventure an original in our age, or rather the +copy of our nobility in ancient days in hunting and not warlike times; +he was low, very strong and very active, of a reddish flaxen hair, his +clothes always green cloth, and never all worth when new five pounds. +His house was perfectly of the old fashion, in the midst of a large +park well stocked with deer, and near the house rabbits to serve +his kitchen, many fish-ponds, and great store of wood and timber; a +bowling-green in it, long but narrow, full of high ridges, it being +never levelled since it was ploughed; they used round sand bowls, and +it had a banqueting-house like a stand, a large one built in a tree. +He kept all manner of sport-hounds that ran buck, fox, hare, otter, +and badger, and hawks long and short winged; he had all sorts of nets +for fishing: he had a walk in the New Forest and the manor of Christ +Church. This last supplied him with red deer, sea and river fish; and +indeed all his neighbours' grounds and royalties were free to him, who +bestowed all his time in such sports, but what he borrowed to caress +his neighbours' wives and daughters, there being not a woman in all +his walks of the degree of a yeoman's wife or under, and under the +age of forty, but it was extremely her fault if he were not intimately +acquainted with her. This made him very popular, always speaking +kindly to the husband, brother, or father, who was to boot very +welcome to his house whenever he came. There he found beef pudding and +small beer in great plenty, a house not so neatly kept as to shame him +or his dirty shoes, the great hall strewed with marrow bones, full of +hawks' perches, hounds, spaniels, and terriers, the upper sides of +the hall hung with the fox-skins of this and the last year's skinning, +here and there a polecat intermixed, guns and keepers' and huntsmen's +poles in abundance. The parlour was a large long room, as properly +furnished; on a great hearth paved with brick lay some terriers and +the choicest hounds and spaniels; seldom but two of the great chairs +had litters of young cats in them, which were not to be disturbed, +he having always three or four attending him at dinner, and a little +white round stick of fourteen inches long lying by his trencher, that +he might defend such meat as he had no mind to part with to them. The +windows, which were very large, served for places to lay his arrows, +crossbows, stonebows, and other such like accoutrements; the corners +of the room full of the best chose hunting and hawking poles; an +oyster-table at the lower end, which was of constant use twice a day +all the year round, for he never failed to eat oysters before dinner +and supper through all seasons: the neighbouring town of Poole +supplied him with them. The upper part of this room had two small +tables and a desk, on the one side of which was a church Bible, on the +other the Book of Martyrs; on the tables were hawks' hoods, bells, +and such like, two or three old green hats with their crowns thrust +in so as to hold ten or a dozen eggs, which were of a pheasant kind +of poultry he took much care of and fed himself; tables, dice, cards, +and boxes were not wanting. In the hole of the desk were store of +tobacco-pipes that had been used. On one side of this end of the room +was the door of a closet, wherein stood the strong beer and the wine, +which never came thence but in single glasses, that being the rule +of the house exactly observed, for he never exceeded in drink or +permitted it. On the other side was a door into an old chapel not +used for devotion; the pulpit, as the safest place, was never wanting +of a cold chine of beef, pasty of venison, gammon of bacon, or great +apple-pie, with thick crust extremely baked. His table cost him not +much, though it was very good to eat at, his sports supplying all but +beef and mutton, except Friday, when he had the best sea-fish as well +as other fish he could get, and was the day that his neighbours of +best quality most visited him. He never wanted a London pudding, and +always sung it in with 'my part lies therein-a.' He drank a glass of +wine or two at meals, very often syrrup of gilliflower in his sack, +and had always a tun glass without feet stood by him holding a pint +of small beer, which he often stirred with a great sprig of rosemary. +He was well natured, but soon angry, calling his servants bastard +and cuckoldy knaves, in one of which he often spoke truth to his own +knowledge, and sometimes in both, though of the same man. He lived to +a hundred, never lost his eyesight, but always writ and read without +spectacles, and got to horse without help. Until past fourscore he +rode to the death of a stag as well as any. + + + + +15. + +CHARLES I. + +_Born 1600. Succeeded James I 1625. Beheaded 1649._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The severall unhearde of insolencyes which this excellent Prince was +forced to submitt to, at the other tymes he was brought before that +odious judicatory, his Majesticke behaviour under so much insolence, +and resolute insistinge upon his owne dignity, and defendinge it +by manifest authorityes in the lawe, as well as by the cleerest +deductions from reason, the pronouncinge that horrible sentence upon +the most innocent person in the worlde, the execution of that sentence +by the most execrable murther that ever was committed, since that of +our blessed Savyour, and the circumstances therof, the application +and interposition that was used by some noble persons to praevent that +wofull murther, and the hypocrisy with which that interposition was +deluded, the Saintlike behaviour of that blessed Martir, and his +Christian courage and patience at his death, are all particulars +so well knowne, and have bene so much inlarged upon in treatises +peculiarly applyed to that purpose, that the farther mentioninge it +in this place, would but afflicte and grieve the reader, and make the +relation itselfe odious; and therfore no more shall be sayd heare of +that lamentable Tragedy, so much to the dishonour of the Nation, and +the religion professed by it; but it will not be unnecessary to +add the shorte character of his person, that posterity may know the +inestimable losse which the nation then underwent in beinge deprived +of a Prince whose example would have had a greater influence upon the +manners and piety of the nation, then the most stricte lawes can have. + +To speake first of his private qualifications as a man, before the +mention of his princely and royall virtues, He was, if ever any, +the most worthy of the title of an honest man; so greate a lover of +justice, that no temptation could dispose him to a wrongfull action, +except it were so disguysed to him, that he believed it to be just; he +had a tendernesse and compassion of nature, which restrayned him from +ever doinge a hard hearted thinge, and therfore he was so apt to grant +pardon to Malefactors, that his Judges represented to him the damage +and insecurity to the publique that flowed from such his indulgence, +and then he restrayned himselfe from pardoninge ether murthers or +highway robberyes, and quickly decerned the fruits of his severity, by +a wounderfull reformation of those enormityes. He was very punctuall +and regular in his devotions, so that he was never knowne to enter +upon his recreations or sportes, though never so early in the +morninge, before he had bene at publique prayers, so that on huntinge +dayes, his Chaplynes were bounde to a very early attendance, and he +was likewise very stricte in observinge the howres of his private +cabbinett devotions, and was so seveare an exactor of gravity and +reverence in all mention of religion, that he could never indure any +light or prophane worde in religion, with what sharpnesse of witt so +ever it was cover'd; and though he was well pleased and delighted with +readinge verses made upon any occasyon, no man durst bringe before +him any thinge that was prophane or uncleane, that kinde of witt had +never any countenance then. He was so greate an example of conjugall +affection, that they who did not imitate him in that particular, +did not bragge of ther liberty, and he did not only permitt but +directe his Bishopps to prosequte those skandalous vices, in the +Ecclesiasticall Courtes, against persons of eminence, and neere +relation to his service. + +His kingly virtues had some mixture and allay that hindred them from +shyninge in full lustre, and from producinge those fruites they should +have bene attended with; he was not in his nature bountifull, though +he gave very much, which appeared more after the Duke of Buckinghams +death, after which those showers fell very rarely, and he paused to +longe in givinge, which made those to whome he gave lesse sensible of +the benefitt. He kept state to the full, which made his Courte very +orderly, no man prsesuminge to be seene in a place wher he had no +pretence to be; he saw and observed men longe, before he receaved any +about his person, and did not love strangers, nor very confident men. +He was a patient hearer of causes, which he frequently accustomed +himselfe to, at the Councell Board, and judged very well, and was +dextrous in the mediatinge parte, so that he often putt an end to +causes by perswasion, which the stubbornesse of mens humours made +delatory in courts of justice. He was very fearelesse in his person, +but not enterpryzinge, and had an excellent understandinge, but was +not confident enough of it: which made him often tymes chaunge his +owne opinion for a worse, and follow the advice of a man, that did not +judge so well as himselfe: and this made him more irresolute, then the +conjuncture of his affayres would admitt: If he had bene of a rougher +and more imperious nature, he would have founde more respecte and +duty, and his not applyinge some seveare cures, to approchinge evills, +proceeded from the lenity of his nature, and the tendernesse of his +conscience, which in all cases of bloode, made him choose the softer +way, and not hearken to seveare councells how reasonably soever urged. +This only restrayned him from pursuinge his advantage in the first +Scotts expedition, when humanely speakinge, he might have reduced that +Nation to the most slavish obedyence that could have bene wished, +but no man can say, he had then many who advized him to it, but the +contrary, by a wounderfull indisposition all his Councell had to +fightinge, or any other fatigue. He was alwayes an immoderate lover of +the Scottish nation, havinge not only bene borne ther, but educated by +that people and besiedged by them alwayes, havinge few English aboute +him till he was kinge, and the major number of his servants beinge +still of those, who he thought could never fayle him, and then no +man had such an ascendent over him, by the lowest and humblest +insinuations, as Duke Hambleton had. + +As he excelled in all other virtues, so in temperance he was so +stricte that he abhorred all deboshry to that degree, that at a greate +festivall solemnity wher he once was, when very many of the nobility +of the English and Scotts were entertayned, he was[1] told by one who +withdrew from thence, what vast draughts of wine they dranke, and +that ther was one Earle who had dranke most of the rest downe and was +not himselfe mooved or altred, the kinge sayd that he deserved to +be hanged, and that Earle comminge shortly into the roome wher his +Majesty was, in some gayty to shew how unhurte he was from that +battle, the kinge sent one to bidd him withdraw from his Majestys +presence, nor did he in some dayes after appeare before the kinge. + +Ther were so many miraculous circumstances contributed to his ruine, +that men might well thinke that heaven and earth conspired it, and +that the starres designed it, though he was from the first declension +of his power, so much betrayed by his owne servants, that there were +very few who remayned faythfull to him; yett that trechery proceeded +not from any treasonable purpose to do him any harme, but from +particular and personall animosityes against other men; and afterwards +the terrour all men were under of the Parliament and the guilte they +were conscious of themselves, made them watch all opportunityes to +make themselves gratious to those who could do them good, and so they +became spyes upon ther master, and from one piece of knavery, were +hardned and confirmed to undertake another, till at last they had no +hope of praeservation but by the destruction of ther master; And after +all this, when a man might reasonably believe, that lesse then a +universall defection of three nations, could not have reduced a greate +kinge to so ugly a fate, it is most certayne that in that very howre +when he was thus wickedly murthered in the sight of the sunn, he had +as greate a share in the heartes and affections of his subjects in +generall, was as much beloved, esteemed and longed for by the people +in generall of the three nations, as any of his predecessors had ever +bene. To conclude, he was the worthyest gentleman, the best master, +the best frende, the best husbande, the best father, and the best +Christian, that the Age in which he lyved had produced, and if he was +not the best kinge, if he was without some parts and qualityes which +have made some kings greate and happy, no other Prince was ever +unhappy, who was possessed of half his virtues and indowments, and so +much without any kinde of vice. + +[Footnote 1: 'he was' altered to 'being' in ed. 1792.] + + + + +16. + +By SIR PHILIP WARWICK. + + +He was a person, tho' born sickly, yet who came thro' temperance and +exercise, to have as firm and strong a body, as most persons I ever +knew, and throughout all the fatigues of the warr, or during his +imprisonment, never sick. His appetite was to plain meats, and tho' +he took a good quantity thereof, yet it was suitable to an easy +digestion. He seldom eat of above three dishes at most, nor drank +above thrice: a glasse of small beer, another of claret wine, and +the last of water; he eat suppers as well as dinners heartily; but +betwixt meales, he never medled with any thing. Fruit he would eat +plentifully, and with this regularity, he moved as steddily, as a star +follows its course. His deportment was very majestick; for he would +not let fall his dignity, no not to the greatest Forraigners, that +came to visit him and his Court; for tho' he was farr from pride, +yet he was carefull of majestie, and would be approacht with respect +and reverence. His conversation was free, and the subject matter of +it (on his own side of the Court) was most commonly rational; or if +facetious, not light. With any Artist or good Mechanick, Traveller, or +Scholar he would discourse freely; and as he was commonly improved by +them, so he often gave light to them in their own art or knowledge. +For there were few Gentlemen in the world, that knew more of useful +or necessary learning, than this Prince did: and yet his proportion of +books was but small, having like Francis the first of France, learnt +more by the ear, than by study. His way of arguing was very civil and +patient; for he seldom contradicted another by his authority, but +by his reason: nor did he by any petulant dislike quash another's +arguments; and he offered his exception by this civill introduction, +_By your favour, Sir, I think otherwise on this or that ground_: yet +he would discountenance any bold or forward addresse unto him. And +in suits or discourse of busines he would give way to none abruptly +to enter into them, but lookt, that the greatest Persons should in +affairs of this nature addresse to him by his proper Ministers, or +by some solemn desire of speaking to him in their own persons. His +exercises were manly; for he rid the great horse very well; and on +the little saddle he was not only adroit, but a laborious hunter or +field-man: and they were wont to say of him, that he fail'd not to do +any of his exercises artificially, but not very gracefully; like some +well-proportion'd faces, which yet want a pleasant air of countenance. +He had a great plainnes in his own nature, and yet he was thought even +by his Friends to love too much a versatile man; but his experience +had thorowly weaned him from this at last. + +He kept up the dignity of his Court, limiting persons to places +suitable to their qualities, unless he particularly call'd for them. +Besides the women, who attended on his beloved Queen and Consort, he +scarce admitted any great Officer to have his wife in the family. Sir +Henry Vane was the first, that I knew in that kind, who having a good +dyet as Comptroller of the Houshold, and a tenuity of fortune, was +winkt at; so as the Court was fill'd, not cramm'd. His exercises of +Religion were most exemplary; for every morning early, and evening not +very late, singly and alone, in his own bed-chamber or closet he spent +some time in private meditation: (for he durst reflect and be alone) +and thro' the whole week, even when he went a hunting, he never +failed, before he sat down to dinner, to have part of the Liturgy read +unto him and his menial servants, came he never so hungry, or so late +in: and on Sundays and Tuesdays he came (commonly at the beginning of +Service) to the Chappell, well attended by his Court-Lords, and chief +Attendants, and most usually waited on by many of the Nobility in +town, who found those observances acceptably entertain'd by him. His +greatest enemies can deny none of this; and a man of this moderation +of mind could have no hungry appetite to prey upon his subjects, tho' +he had a greatnes of mind not to live precariously by them. But when +he fell into the sharpnes of his afflictions, (than which few men +underwent sharper) I dare say, I know it, (I am sure conscientiously +I say it) tho' God dealt with him, as he did with St. Paul, not remove +the thorn, yet he made his grace sufficient to take away the pungency +of it: for he made as sanctified an use of his afflictions, as most +men ever did. + +No Gentleman in his three nations, tho' there were many more learned, +(for I have supposed him but competently learned, tho' eminently +rational) better understood the foundations of his own Church, and the +grounds of the Reformation, than he did: which made the Pope's Nuncio +to the Queen, Signior Con, to say (both of him and Arch-Bishop Laud, +when the King had forced the Archbishop to admit a visit from, and +a conference with the Nuncio) _That when he came first to Court, he +hoped to have made great impressions there; but after he had conferr'd +with Prince and Prelate, (who never denyed him any thing frowardly or +ignorantly, but admitted all, which primitive and uncorrupted Rome for +the first 500 years had exercised_,) he declared he found, _That they +resolved to deal with his Master, the Pope, as wrestlers do with one +another, take him up to fling him down_. And therefore tho' I cannot +say, I know, that he wrote his _Icon Basilike_, or _Image_, which +goes under his own name; yet I can say, I have heard him, even unto my +unworthy selfe, say many of those things it contains: and I have bin +assur'd by Mr. Levett, (one of the Pages of his Bedchamber, and who +was with him thro' all his imprisonments) that he hath not only seen +the Manuscript of that book among his Majestie's papers at the Isle +of Wight, but read many of the chapters himselfe: and Mr. Herbert, +who by the appointment of Parliament attended him, says, he saw the +Manuscript in the King's hand, as he believed; but it was in a running +character, and not that which the King usually wrote. And whoever +reads his private and cursory letters, which he wrote unto the +Queen, and to some great men (especially in his Scotch affairs, set +down by Mr. Burnet, when he stood single, as he did thro' all his +imprisonments) the gravity and significancy of that style may assure +a misbeliever, that he had head and hand enough to express the +ejaculations of a good, pious, and afflicted heart; and Solomon says, +that _affliction gives understanding_, or elevates thoughts: and we +cannot wonder, that so royal a heart, sensible of such afflictions, +should make such a description of them, as he hath done in that book. + +And tho' he was of as slow a pen, as of speech; yet both were very +significant: and he had that modest esteem of his own parts, that he +would usually say, _He would willingly make his own dispatches, but +that he found it better to be a Cobler, than a Shoomaker_. I have +bin in company with very learned men, when I have brought them their +own papers back from him, with his alterations, who ever contest his +amendments to have bin very material. And I once by his commandment +brought him a paper of my own to read, to see, whether it was suitable +unto his directions, and he disallow'd it slightingly: I desir'd him, +I might call Doctor Sanderson to aid me, and that the Doctor might +understand his own meaning from himselfe; and with his Majestie's +leave, I brought him, whilst he was walking, and taking the aire; +whereupon wee two went back; but pleas'd him as little, when wee +return'd it: for smilingly he said, _A man might have as good ware out +of a Chandler's shop_: but afterwards he set it down with his own pen +very plainly, and suitable unto his own intentions. The thing was +of that nature, (being too great an owning of the Scots, when Duke +Hamilton was in the heart of England so meanely defeated, and like +the crafty fox lay out of countenance in the hands of his enemies,) +that it chilled the Doctors ink; and when the matter came to be +communicated, those honourable Persons, that then attended him, +prevayl'd on him to decline the whole. And I remember, when his +displeasure was a little off, telling him, how severely he had dealt +in his charactering the best pen in England, Dr. Sanderson's; he told +me, he had had two Secretaries, one a dull man in comparison of the +other, and yet the first best pleas'd him: _For_, said he, _my Lord +Carleton ever brought me my own sense in my own words; but my Lord +Faulkland most commonly brought me my instructions in so fine a dress, +that I did not alwaies own them._ Which put me in mind to tell him +a story of my Lord Burleigh and his son Cecil: for Burleigh being at +Councill, and Lord Treasurer, reading an order penn'd by a new Clerk +of the Councill, who was a Wit and Scholar, he flung it downward to +the lower end of the Table to his son, the Secretary, saying, _Mr. +Secretary, you bring in Clerks of the Councill, who will corrupt the +gravity and dignity of the style of the Board_: to which the Secretary +replied, _I pray, my Lord, pardon this, for this Gentleman is not warm +in his place, and hath had so little to do, that he is wanton with his +pen: but I will put so much busines upon him, that he shall be willing +to observe your Lordship's directions._ These are so little stories, +that it may be justly thought, I am either vain, or at leasure to sett +them down; but I derive my authority from an Author, the world hath +ever reverenced, _viz_, Plutarch; who writing the lives of Alexander +the great and Julius Cesar, runs into the actions, flowing from their +particular natures, and into their private conversation, saying, +_These smaller things would discover the men, whilst their great +actions only discover the power of their States._ + +One or two things more then I may warrantably observe: First, as +an evidence of his natural probity, whenever any young Nobleman or +Gentleman of quality, who was going to travell, came to kiss his hand, +he cheerfully would give them some good counsel, leading to morall +virtue, especially to good conversation; telling them, that _If he +heard they kept good company abroad, he should reasonably expect, they +would return qualified to serve him and their Country well at home_; +and he was very carefull to keep the youth in his times uncorrupted. +This I find in the Memoires upon James Duke Hamilton, was his advice +unto that noble and loyal Lord, William, afterwards, Duke Hamilton, +who so well serv'd his Son, and never perfidiously disserv'd him, when +in armes against him. Secondly, his forementioned intercepted letters +to the Queen at Naisby had this passage in them, where mentioning +religion, he said, _This is the only thing, wherein we two differ_; +which even unto a miscreant Jew would have bin proofe enough of this +King's sincerity in his religion; and had it not bin providence or +inadvertence, surely those, who had in this kind defam'd him, would +never themselves have publish'd in print this passage, which thus +justified him. + +This may be truly said, That he valued the Reformation of his own +Church, before any in the world; and was as sensible and as knowing +of, and severe against, the deviations of Rome from the primitive +Church, as any Gentleman in Christendom; and beyond those errors, no +way quarrelsom towards it: for he was willing to give it its due, that +it might be brought to be willing to accept, at least to grant, such +an union in the Church, as might have brought a free and friendly +communion between Dissenters, without the one's totall quitting his +errors, or the other's being necessitated to partake therein: and I +truly believe this was the utmost both of his and his Archbishop's +inclinations; and if I may not, yet both these Martyrs confessions on +the scaffold (God avert the prophecy of the last, _Venient Romani_) +surely may convince the world, that they both dyed true Assertors of +the Reformation. And the great and learned light of this last age, +Grotius, soon discern'd this inclination in him: for in his dedication +of his immortal and scarce ever to be parallel'd book, _De Jure Belli +& Pacis_, he recommends it to Lewis XIII, King of France, as the most +Royall and Christian design imaginable for his Majestic to become a +means to make an union amongst Christians in profession of religion; +and therein he tells him, how well-knowing and well-disposed the King +of England was thereunto. In a word, had he had as daring and active +a courage to obviate danger; as he had a steddy and undaunted in all +hazardous rencounters; or had his active courage equall'd his passive, +the rebellious and tumultuous humor of those, who were disloyall to +him, probably had been quash'd in their first rise: for thro'-out the +English story it may be observed, that the souldier-like spirit in the +Prince hath bin ever much more fortunate and esteem'd, than the pious: +a Prince's awfull reputation being of much more defence to him, than +his Regall (nay Legall) edicts. + + + + +17. + +THE EARL OF STRAFFORD. + +_Thomas Wentworth, knighted 1611, second baronet 1614, created +Viscount Wentworth 1628, Earl of Strafford 1640._ + +_Born 1593. Beheaded 1641._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +All thinges beinge thus transacted, to conclude the fate of this +greate person, he was on the 12. day of May brought from the Tower of +London, wher he had bene a prysoner neere six moneths, to the Skaffold +on Tower Hill, wher with a composed, undaunted courage, he told the +people, he was come thither to satisfy them with his heade, but that +he much feared, the reformation which was begunn in bloode, would not +proove so fortunate to the kingdom as they exspected, and he wished, +and after greate expressyons of his devotion to the Church of +Englande, and the Protestant Religion established by Law and professed +in that Church, of his loyalty to the Kinge, and affection to the +peace and welfare of the Kingdome, with marvellous tranquillity of +minde, he deliver'd his Heade to the blocke, wher it was sever'd from +his body at a blow; many of the standers by, who had not bene over +charitable to him in his life, beinge much affected with the courage +and Christianity of his death. Thus fell the greatest subjecte in +power (and little inferiour to any in fortune) that was at that tyme +in ether of the three Kingdomes; who could well remember the tyme when +he ledd those people, who then pursued him to his grave. He was a man +of greate partes and extraordinary indowments of nature, not unadorned +with some addicion of Arte and learninge, though that agayne was more +improoved and illustrated by the other, for he had a readynesse of +conception, and sharpnesse of expressyon, which made his learninge +thought more, then in truth it was. His first inclinations and +addresses to the Courte, were only to establish his Greatnesse in +the Country, wher he apprehended some Actes of power from the[1] +L'd Savill, who had bene his ryvall alwayes ther, and of late had +strenghtened himselfe by beinge made a Privy Counsellour, and Officer +at Courte, but his first attempts were so prosperous that he contented +not himselfe with beinge secure from his power in the Country, but +rested not till he had bereaved him of all power and place in Courte, +and so sent him downe a most abject disconsolate old man to his +Country, wher he was to have the superintendency over him too, by +getting himselfe at that tyme made L'd President of the North. These +successes, applyed to a nature too elate and arrogant of it selfe, and +a quicker progresse into the greatest imployments and trust, made him +more transported with disdayne of other men, and more contemninge the +formes of businesse, then happily he would have bene, if he had mett +with some interruptions in the beginning, and had passed in a more +leasurely gradation to the office of a Statesman. He was no doubte of +greate observation, and a piercinge judgement both into thinges and +persons, but his too good skill in persons made him judge the worse +of thinges, for it was his misfortune to be of a tyme, wherin very few +wise men were aequally imployed with him, and scarce any (but the L'd +Coventry, whose trust was more confined) whose facultyes and abilityes +were aequall to his, so that upon the matter he wholy relyed upon +himselfe, and decerninge many defects in most men, he too much +neglected what they sayd or did. Of all his passyons his pryde was +most praedominant, which a moderate exercise of ill fortune might have +corrected and reformed, and which was by the hande of heaven strangely +punished, by bringinge his destruction upon him, by two thinges, that +he most despised, the people, and S'r Harry Vane; In a worde, the +Epitaph which Plutarch recordes, that Silla wrote for himselfe, may +not be unfitly applyed to him; That no man did ever passe him, ether +in doinge good to his frends, or in doinge mischieve to his enimyes, +for his Actes of both kindes were most exemplar and notorious. + +[Footnote 1: 'old' inserted in another hand before 'L'd'.] + + + + +18. + +By SIR PHILIP WARWICK. + + +The Lord Viscount Wentworth, Lord President of the North, whom the +Lord Treasurer Portland had brought into his Majestie's affairs, from +his ability and activity had wrought himselfe much into his Majestie's +confidence; and about the year 1632 was appointed by the King to be +Lord Deputy of Ireland, where the state of affairs was in no very +good posture, the revenue of the crown not defraying the standing army +there, nor the ordinary expences; and the deportment of the Romanists +being there also very insolent, and the Scots plantations in the +northern parts of that Realm looking upon themselves, as if they had +been a distinct body. So as here was subject matter enough for this +great man to work on; and considering his hardines, it may well be +supposed, that the difficulties of his employment, being means to shew +his abilities, were gratefull to him; for he was every way qualified +for busines; his naturall faculties being very strong and pregnant, +his understanding, aided by a good phansy, made him quick in +discerning the nature of any busines; and thro' a cold brain he became +deliberate and of a sound judgement. His memory was great, and he made +it greater by confiding in it. His elocution was very fluent, and it +was a great part of his talent readily to reply, or freely to harangue +upon any subject. And all this was lodged in a sowre and haughty +temper; so as it may probably be believed, he expected to have more +observance paid to him, than he was willing to pay to others, tho' +they were of his own quality; and then he was not like to conciliate +the good will of men of the lesser station. + +His acquired parts, both in University and Inns-of-Court Learning, as +likewise his forreign-travells, made him an eminent man, before he was +a conspicuous; so as when he came to shew himselfe first in publick +affairs, which was in the House of Commons, he was soon a bell-weather +in that flock. As he had these parts, he knew how to set a price on +them, if not overvalue them: and he too soon discovered a roughnes in +his nature, which a man no more obliged by him, than I was, would have +called an injustice; tho' many of his Confidents, (who were my good +friends, when I like a little worm, being trod on, would turn and +laugh, and under that disguise say as piquant words, as my little wit +would help me with) were wont to swear to me, that he endeavoured to +be just to all, but was resolv'd to be gracious to none, but to those, +whom he thought inwardly affected him: which never bowed me, till his +broken fortune, and as I thought, very unjustifiable prosecution, +made me one of the fifty six, who gave a negative to that fatall Bill, +which cut the thread of his life. + +He gave an early specimen of the roughnes of his nature, when in the +eager pursuit of the House of Commons after the Duke of Buckingham, +he advised or gave a counsel against another, which was afterwards +taken up and pursued against himselfe. Thus pressing upon another +man's case, he awakened his own fate. For when that House was in +consultation, how to frame the particular charge against that great +Duke, he advised to make a generall one, and to accuse him of treason, +and to let him afterwards get off, as he could; which befell himselfe +at last. I beleive he should make no irrational conjecture, who +determined, that his very eminent parts to support a Crown, and +his very rugged nature to contest disloyalty, or withstand change +of government, made his enemies implacable to him. It was a great +infirmity in him, that he seem'd to overlooke so many, as he did; +since every where, much more in Court, the numerous or lesser sort of +attendants can obstruct, create jealousies, spread ill reports, and +do harme: for as 'tis impossible, that any power or deportment should +satisfy all persons: so there a little friendlines and opennes of +carriage begets hope, and lessens envy. + +In his person he was of a tall stature, but stooped much in the neck. +His countenance was cloudy, whilst he moved, or sat thinking; but when +he spake, either seriously or facetiously, he had a lightsom and a +very pleasant ayre: and indeed whatever he then did, he performed very +gracefully. The greatnes of the envy, that attended him, made many in +their prognosticks to bode him an ill end; and there went current a +story of the dream of his Father, who being both by his wife, nighest +friends, and Physicians, thought to be at the point of his death, +fell suddenly into so profound a sleep, and lay quietly so long, that +his Wife, uncertain of his condition, drew nigh his bed, to observe, +whether she could hear him breath, and gently touching him, he +awaked with great disturbance, and told her the reason was, she had +interrupted him in a dream, which most passionately he desired to have +known the end of. For, said he, I dream'd one appear'd to me, assuring +me, that _I should have a son_, (for 'till then he had none) _who +should be a very great and eminent man: but--and in this instant thou +didst awake me, whereby I am bereaved of the knowledge of the further +fortune of the child_. This I heard, when this Lord was but in the +ascent of his greatnes, and long before his fall: and afterwards +conferring with some of his nighest Relations, I found the tradition +was not disown'd. Sure I am, that his station was like those turfs +of earth or sea-banks, which by the storm swept away, left all the +in-land to be drown'd by popular tumult. + + + + +19. + +THE EARL OF NORTHAMPTON. + +_Spencer Compton, second Earl of Northampton._ + +_Born 1601. Fell at Hopton Heath 1643._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +In this fight, which was sharpe and shorte, there were killed and +taken prysoners of the Parliament party above 200. and more then that +number wounded, for the horse charginge amonge ther foote, more +were hurte then killed; Eight pieces of ther Cannon and most of ther +Ammunition was likewise taken. Of the Earles party were slayne but +25. wherof ther were two Captaynes, some inferiour officers, and the +rest common men, but ther were as many hurte, and those of the chiefe +officers. They who had all the Ensignes of victory (but ther Generall) +thought themselves undone, whilst the other syde who had escaped in +the night and made a hard shifte to carry his deade body with them, +hardly believed they were loosers, + + Et velut aequali bellatum sorte fuisset + componit cum classe virum: + +The truth is, a greater victory had bene an unaequall recompence for a +lesse losse. He was a person of greate courage, honour, and fidelity, +and not well knowne till his Eveninge, havinge in the ease, and +plenty, and luxury of that too happy tyme indulged to himselfe with +that licence, which was then thought necessary to greate fortunes, but +from the beginninge of these distractions, as if he had bene awakened +out of a lethargy, he never proceeded with a lukewarme temper. Before +the Standard was sett up, he appeared in Warwickshyre against the L'd +Brooke, and as much upon his owne reputation as the justice of the +cause (which was not so well then understoode) discountenanced and +drove him out of that County, Afterwardes tooke the Ordinance from +Banbury Castle, and brought them to the Kinge; assoone as an Army was +to be raysed he leavyed with the first upon his owne charge a troope +of Horse and a Regiment of foote, and (not like other men, who warily +distributed ther Family to both sydes, one Sunn to serve the Kinge, +whilst the father, or another sunn engaged as farr for the Parliament) +intirely dedicated all his Children to the quarrell, havinge fowre +Sunns officers under him, wherof three charged that day in the +Fielde; and from the tyme he submitted himselfe to the professyon of +a souldyer, no man more punctuall upon commaunde, no man more diligent +and vigilant in duty, all distresses he bore like a common man, and +all wants and hardnesses as if he had never knowne plenty, or ease, +most prodigall of his person to daunger, and would often say, that +if he outlived these warres, he was certayne never to have so noble +a death, so that it is not to be woundred, if upon such a stroke, the +body that felte it, thought it had lost more then a Limbe. + + + + +20. + +THE EARL OF CARNARVON. + +_Robert Dormer, created Earl of Carnarvon 1628._ + +_Born 1610. Fell at Newbury 1643._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +This day fell the Earle of Carnarvon, who after he had charged and +rowted a body of the enimyes horse, cominge carelesly backe by some of +the scattered troopers, was by one of them who knew him runn through +the body with a sworde, of which he dyed within an howre. He was a +person with whose greate partes and virtue the world was not enough +acquainted. Before the warr, though his education was adorned by +travell, and an exacte observation of the manners of more nations +then our common travellers use to visitt, for he had after the view +of Spayne, France, and most partes of Italy, spent some tyme in Turkey +and those Easterne Countryes, he seemed to be wholly delighted with +those looser exercises of pleasure, huntinge, hawkinge, and the like, +in which the nobility of that tyme too much delighted to excell; After +the troubles begann, havinge the commaunde of the first or secounde +Regiment of Horse that was raysed for the Kinges service, he wholy +gave himselfe up to the office and duty of a Souldyer, noe man more +diligently obeyinge, or more dextrously commaundinge, for he was +not only of a very keene courage in the exposinge his person, but an +excellent discerner and pursuer of advantage upon his enimy, and had a +minde and understandinge very present in the article of daunger, which +is a rare benefitt in that profession. Those infirmityes and that +licence which he had formerly indulged to himselfe, he putt off with +severity, when others thought them excusable under the notion of a +souldyer. He was a greate lover of justice, and practiced it then most +deliberately, when he had power to do wronge, and so stricte in the +observation of his worde and promise, as a Commander, that he could +not be perswaded to stay in the west, when he founde it not in his +power to performe the agreement he had made with Dorchester and +Waymoth. If he had lived he would have proved a greate Ornament to +that profession, and an excellent Souldyer, and by his death the Kinge +founde a sensible weakenesse in his Army. + + + + +21. + +LORD FALKLAND. + +_Lucius Gary, second Viscount Falkland 1633._ + +_Born 1610. Fell at Newbury 1643._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +But I must heare take leave a little longer to discontinue this +narration, and if the celebratinge the memory of eminent and +extraordinary persons, and transmittinge ther greate virtues for the +imitation of posterity, be one of the principle endes and dutyes of +History, it will not be thought impertinent in this place to remember +a losse, which noe tyme will suffer to be forgotten, and no successe +or good fortune could repayre; In this unhappy battell was slayne +the L'd Viscounte Falkelande, a person of such prodigious partes of +learninge and knowledge, of that inimitable sweetenesse and delight in +conversation, of so flowinge and obliginge a humanity and goodnesse +to mankinde, and of that primitive simplicity, and integrity of life, +that if ther were no other brande upon this odious and accursed Civill +war, then that single losse, it must be most infamous and execrable to +all posterity: + +Turpe mori post te, solo non posse dolore. + +Before this parliament his condition of life was so happy, that it +was hardly capable of improovement; before he came to twenty yeeres of +Age, he was master of a noble fortune, which descended to him by the +gifte of a grandfather, without passinge through his father or mother, +who were then both alive, and not well enough contented to finde +themselves passed by in the descent: His education for some yeeres +had bene in Ireland, wher his father was Lord Deputy, so that when +he returned into Englande, to the possessyon of his fortune, he was +unintangled with any acquaintance or frends, which usually grow up by +the custome of conversation, and therfore was to make a pure election +of his company; which he chose by other rules then were prescribed +to the younge nobility of that tyme; And it cannot be denyed, though +he admitted some few to his frendshipp for the agreablenesse of ther +natures, and ther undoubted affection to him, that his familiarity +and frendshipp for the most parte was with men of the most eminent and +sublime partes, and of untouched reputations in pointe of integrity: +and such men had a title to his bosome. + +He was a greate cherisher of witt, and fancy, and good partes in +any man, and if he founde them clowded with poverty or wante, a most +liberall and bountifull Patron towards them, even above his fortune, +of which in those administrations he was such a dispenser, as if he +had bene trusted with it to such uses, and if ther had bene the least +of vice in his expence, he might have bene thought too prodigall: He +was constant and pertinatious in whatsoever he resolved to doe, and +not to be wearyed by any paynes that were necessary to that end, and +therfore havinge once resolved not to see London (which he loved above +all places) till he had perfectly learned the greeke tonge, he went to +his owne house in the Country, and pursued it with that indefatigable +industry, that it will not be believed, in how shorte a tyme he was +master of it, and accurately reade all the Greeke Historyans. In this +tyme, his house beinge within tenn myles of Oxford, he contracted +familiarity and frendshipp with the most polite and accurate men of +that University; who founde such an immensenesse of witt, and such +a soliddity of judgement in him, so infinite a fancy bounde in by a +most logicall ratiocination, such a vast knowledge, that he was not +ignorant in any thinge, yet such an excessive humillity as if he had +knowne nothinge, that they frequently resorted and dwelt with him, +as in a Colledge scituated in a purer ayre, so that his house was +a University bounde in a lesser volume, whither they came not so +much for repose, as study: and to examyne and refyne those grosser +propositions, which lazinesse and consent made currant in vulgar +conversation. + +Many attempts were made upon him, by the instigation of his mother +(who was a Lady of another perswasion in religion, and of a most +maskulyne understandinge, allayed with the passyon and infirmityes of +her owne sex) to perverte him in his piety to the Church of Englande, +and to reconcile him to that of Rome, which they prosequted with the +more confidence, because he declined no opportunity or occasyon of +conference with those of that religion, whether Priests or Laiques, +havinge diligently studyed the controversyes, and exactly reade all or +the choycest of the Greeke and Latine fathers, and havinge a memory so +stupendious, that he remembred on all occasyons whatsoever he reade: +And he was so greate an enimy to that passyon and uncharitablenesse +which he saw produced by difference of opinion in matters of religion, +that in all those disputations with Priests and others of the Roman +Church, he affected to manifest all possible civillity to ther +persons, and estimation of ther partes, which made them retayne still +some hope of his reduction, even when they had given over offeringe +farther reasons to him to that purpose: But this charity towards them +was much lesned, and any correspondence with them quyte declined, when +by sinister Artes they had corrupted his two younger brothers, beinge +both children, and stolen them from his house, and transported them +beyonde seas, and perverted his sisters, upon which occasyon he writt +two large discources against the principle positions of that Religion, +with that sharpnesse of Style, and full waight of reason, that the +Church is deprived of greate jewells, in the concealment of them, and +that they are not published to the world. + +He was superiour to all those passyons and affections which attende +vulgar mindes, and was guilty of no other ambition, then of knowledge, +and to be reputed a lover of all good men, and that made him to much a +contemner of those Artes which must be indulged to in the transaction +of humane affayrs. In the last shorte Parliament he was a Burgesse +in the house of Commons, and from the debates which were then managed +with all imaginable gravity and sobriety, he contracted such a +reverence to Parliaments that he thought it really impossible, that +they could ever produce mischieve or inconvenience to the kingdome, +or that the kingdome could be tolerably happy in the intermissyon +of them; and from the unhappy, and unseasonable dissolution of that +convention, he harboured it may be some jealousy and praejudice of +the Courte, towards which he was not before immoderately inclined, +his father havinge wasted a full fortune ther, in those offices and +imployments, by which other men use to obtayne a greater. He was +chosen agayne this Parliament to serve in the same place, and in the +beginninge of it, declared himselfe very sharply and sevearely against +those exorbitances which had bene most grievous to the State; for +he was so rigidd an observer of established Lawes and rules, that he +could not indure the least breach or deviation from them, and thought +no mischieve so intollerable, as the praesumption of ministers of +State, to breake positive rules for reason of State, or judges to +transgresse knowne Lawes, upon the title of conveniency or necessity, +which made him so seveare against the Earle of Straforde, and the L'd +Finch, contrary to his naturall gentlenesse and temper; insomuch as +they who did not know his composition to be as free from revenge as +it was from pryde, thought that the sharpnesse to the former might +proceede from the memory of some unkindnesses, not without a mixture +of injustice from him towards his father; but without doubte he was +free from those temptations, and was only misledd by the authority +of those, who he believed understoode the Lawes perfectly, of which +himselfe was utterly ignorant, and if the assumption, which was +scarce controverted, had bene true, that an endeavour to overthrow +the fundamentall Lawes of the kingdome had beene treason, a stricte +understandinge might make reasonable conclusions to satisfy his owne +judgement, from the exorbitant partes of ther severall charges. + +The greate opinion he had of the uprightnesse and integrity of those +persons, who appeared most active, especially of Mr. Hambden, kept him +longer from suspectinge any designe against the peace of the kingdome, +and though he differed commonly from them in conclusyons, he believed +longe ther purposes were honest; When he grew better informed what was +Law, and discerned a desyre to controle that Law, by a vote of one, or +both houses, no man more opposed those attempts, and gave the adverse +party more trouble, by reason and argumentation, insomuch as he was +by degrees looked upon as an Advocate for the Courte, to which he +contributed so little, that he declined those addresses, and even +those invitations, which he was oblieged almost by civillity to +entertayne: And he was so jealous of the least imagination that he +should inclyne to praeferment, that he affected even a morosity to the +Courte, and to the Courtyers, and left nothinge undone which might +prevent and deverte the Kings or Queenes favour towards him, but +the deservinge it: for when the Kinge sent for him once or twice, to +speake with him, and to give him thankes for his excellent comportment +in those Councells, which his Majesty gratiously tearmed doinge him +service, his answers were more negligent and lesse satisfactory than +might be exspected, as if he cared only that his Actions should be +just, not that they should be acceptable, and that his Majesty should +thinke that they proceeded only from the impulsyon of conscience, +without any sympathy in his affections, which from a Stoicall and +sullen nature might not have bene misinterpreted, yet from a person +of so perfecte a habitt of generous and obsequious complyance with +all good men, might very well have bene interpreted by the Kinge as +more then an ordinary aversenesse to his service, so that he tooke +more paynes, and more forced his nature to actions unagreable and +unpleasant to it, that he might not be thought to inclyne to the +Courte, then any man hath done to procure an office ther; and if any +thinge but not doinge his duty could have kept him from receavinge a +testimony of the Kings grace and trust at that tyme, he had not bene +called to his Councell: not that he was in truth averse to the Courte, +or from receavinge publique imployment: for he had a greate devotion +to the Kings person, and had before used some small endeavour to be +recommended to him for a forrainge negotiation, and had once a desyre +to be sent Ambassadour into France, but he abhorred an imagination +or doubte should sinke into the thoughts of any man, that in the +discharge of his trust and duty in Parliament he had any byas to the +Court, or that the Kinge himselfe should apprehende that he looked for +a rewarde for beinge honest. + +For this reason when he heard it first whispered that the Kinge had +a purpose to make him a Counsellour, for which in the beginninge +ther was no other grounde, but because he was knowne sufficient, haud +semper errat fama, aliquando et elegit, he resolved to declyne it, +and at last suffred himselfe only to be overruled by the advice, and +persuasions of his frends to submitt to it; afterwards when he founde +that the Kinge intended to make him his Secretary of State, he was +positive to refuse it, declaringe to his frends that he was most +unfitt for it, and that he must ether doe that which would be greate +disquyet to his owne nature, or leave that undone which was most +necessary to be done by one that was honored with that place, for that +the most just and honest men did every day that, which he could not +give himselfe leave to doe. And indeede he was so exacte and stricte +an observer of justice and truth _ad amussim_, that he believed +those necessary condescensions and applications to the weaknesse of +other men, and those artes and insinuations which are necessary for +discoveryes and prevention of ill, would be in him a declension from +the rule which he acknowledged fitt and absolutely necessary to be +practiced in those imploiments, and was so precise in the practique +principles he prescribed to himselfe (to all others he was as +indulgent) as if he had lived in republica Platonis non in faece +Romuli. + +Two reasons praevayled with him to receave the seales, and but for +those he had resolutely avoyded them, the first, the consideration +that it might bringe some blemish upon the Kings affayres, and that +men would have believed that he had refused so greate an honour and +trust, because he must have beene with it oblieged to doe somewhat +elce, not justifiable; and this he made matter of conscience, since he +knew the Kinge made choyce of him before other men, especially because +he thought him more honest then other men; the other was, least he +might be thought to avoyde it, out of feare to doe an ungratious +thinge to the house of Commons, who were sorely troubled at the +displacinge S'r Harry Vane, whome they looked upon as remooved for +havinge done them those offices they stoode in neede of, and the +disdayne of so popular an incumbrance wrought upon him next to the +other, for as he had a full appetite of fame by just and generous +Actions, so he had an aequall contempt of it by any servile expedients, +and he so much the more consented to and approved the justice upon S'r +H. Vane, in his owne private judgement, by how much he surpassed most +men in the religious observation of a trust, the violation wherof he +would not admitt of any excuse for. + +For these reasons he submitted to the Kings commaunde, and became +his Secretary, with as humble and devoute an acknowledgement of the +greatenesse of the obligation, as could be expressed, and as true +a sense of it in his hearte; yet two thinges he could never bringe +himselfe to whilst he continued in that office, (that was to his +death) for which he was contented to be reproched, as for omissyons +in a most necessary parte of his place; the one imployinge of Spyes, +or givinge any countenance or entertaynement to them, I doe not meane +such emissaryes as with daunger will venture to view the enimyes +Campe, and bringe intelligence of ther number or quartringe, or +such generalls as such an observation can comprehende, but those +who by communication of guilte, or dissimulation of manners, wounde +themselves into such trust and secretts, as inabled them to make +discoveryes for the benefitt of the State; the other, the liberty of +openinge letters, upon a suspicion that they might contayne matter of +daungerous consequence; for the first, he would say, such instruments +must be voyd of all ingenuity and common honesty, before they could +be of use, and afterwards they could never be fitt to be credited, and +that no single preservation could be worth so generall a wounde and +corruption of humane society, as the cherishinge such persons would +carry with it: The last he thought such a violation of the Law of +nature, that no qualification by office, could justify a single person +in the trespasse, and though he was convinced by the necessity and +iniquity of the tyme, that those advantages of information were not to +be declined, and were necessarily to be practiced, he founde meanes to +shifte it from himselfe, when he confessed he needed excuse and pardon +for the omissyon, so unwillinge he was to resigne any thinge in his +nature, to an obligation in his office. In all other particulars, he +filled his place plentifully, beinge sufficiently versed in languages, +to understande any that is used in businesse, and to make himselfe +agayne understoode: To speake of his integrity, and his high disdayne +of any bayte that might seeme to looke towards corruption, in tanto +viro, injuria virtutum fuerit. + +Some sharpe expressions he used against the Arch-Bishopp of +Canterbury, and his concurringe in the first Bill to take away the +Votes of Bishopps in the house of Peeres, gave occasyon to some to +believe, and opportunity to others to conclude and publish that he +was no frende to the Church, and the established goverment of it, +and troubled his very frends much, who were more confident of the +contrary, then praepared to answer the allegations. The truth is, +he had unhappily contracted some praejudice to the Arch-Bishopp, and +havinge only knowne him enough, to observe his passyon, when it may +be multiplicity of businesse or other indisposition had possessed +him, did wish him lesse intangled and ingaged in the businesse +of the Courte or State, though, I speake it knowingly, he had a +singular estimation and reverence of his greate learninge and +confessed integrity, and really thought his lettinge himselfe to +those expressyons which implyed a disesteeme of him, or at least an +acknowledgement of his infirmityes, would inable him to shelter him +from parte of the storme he saw raysed for his destruction, which he +abominated with his soule. The givinge his consent to the first Bill +for the displacinge the Bishopps, did proceede from two groundes, the +first, his not understandinge the originall of ther right and suffrage +ther, the other, an opinion that the combination against the whole +goverment of the Church by Bishopps, was so violent and furious, that +a lesse composition then the dispencinge with ther intermedlinge in +saecular affayres would not praeserve the Order, and he was perswaded to +this, by the profession of many persons of Honour, who declared they +did desyre the one, and would then not presse the other, which in that +particular misledd many men; but when his observation and experience +made him discerne more of ther intencions then he before suspected, +with greate frankenesse he opposed the secound Bill that was praeferred +for that purpose; and had without scruple the order it selfe in +perfecte reverence, and thought too greate encouragement could not +possibly be given to learninge, nor too greate rewardes to learned +men, and was never in the least degree swayed or moved by the +objections which were made against that goverment, holdinge them +most ridiculous, or affected to the other which those men fancyed to +themselves. + +He had a courage of the most cleere and keene temper, and soe farr +from feare, that he was not without appetite of daunger, and therfore +upon any occasyon of action he alwayes engaged his person in those +troopes which he thought by the forwardnesse of the Commanders to be +most like to be farthest engaged, and in all such encounters he had +aboute him a strange cheerefulnesse and companiablenesse, without at +all affectinge the execution that was then principally to be attended, +in which he tooke no delight, but tooke paynes to prevent it, wher +it was not by resistance necessary, insomuch that at Edgehill, when +the Enimy was rowted, he was like to have incurred greate perill +by interposinge to save those who had throwne away ther armes, and +against whome it may be others were more fierce for ther havinge +throwne them away, insomuch as a man might thinke, he came into the +Feild only out of curiosity to see the face of daunger, and charity +to praevent the sheddinge of bloode; yet in his naturall inclination +he acknowledged he was addicted to the professyon of a Souldyer, and +shortly after he came to his fortune, and before he came to Age, he +went into the Low Countryes with a resolution of procuringe commaunde, +and to give himselfe up to it, from which he was converted by the +compleate inactivity of that Summer; and so he returned into Englande, +and shortly after entred upon that vehement course of study we +mencioned before, till the first Alarum from the North, and then +agayne he made ready for the feild, and though he receaved some +repulse in the commande of a troope of Horse, of which he had a +promise, he went a volunteere with the Earle of Essex. + +From the entrance into this unnaturall warr, his naturall +cheerefulnesse and vivacity grew clowded, and a kinde of sadnesse and +dejection of spiritt stole upon him, which he had never bene used to, +yet, beinge one of those who believed that one battell would end all +differences, and that ther would be so greate a victory on one syde, +that the other would be compelled to submitt to any conditions from +the victor (which supposition and conclusion generally sunke into the +mindes of most men, praevented the lookinge after many advantages which +might then have bene layd hold of) he resisted those indispositions, +et in luctu bellum inter remedia erat: but after the Kings returne +from Brayneforde, and the furious resolution of the two houses, not +to admitt any treaty for peace, those indispositions which had before +touched him, grew into a perfecte habitt of uncheerefulnesse, and he +who had bene so exactly unreserved and affable to all men, that his +face and countenance was alwayes present and vacant to his company, +and held any clowdinesse, and lesse pleasantnesse of the visage, +a kinde of rudenesse or incivillity, became on a suddayne lesse +communicable, and thence very sadd, pale, and exceedingly affected +with the spleene. In his clothes and habitt, which he had intended +before alwayes with more neatenesse, and industry, and exspence, then +is usuall to so greate a minde, he was not now only incurious, but +too negligent, and in his reception of suitors and the necessary or +casuall addresses to his place so quicke, and sharpe, and seveare, +that ther wanted not some men (who were strangers to his nature and +disposition) who believed him prowde and imperious, from which no +mortall man was ever more free. The truth is, as he was of a most +incomparable gentlenesse, application, and even a demisnesse and +submissyon to good, and worthy, and intire men, so he was naturally +(which could not but be more evident in his place which objected him +to another conversation, and intermixture, then his owne election had +done) adversus males injucundus, and was so ill a dissembler of his +dislike, and disinclination to ill men, that it was not possible for +such not to discerne it; ther was once in the house of Commons such a +declared acceptation of the good service an eminent member had done to +them, and as they sayd, to the whole kingdome, that it was mooved, he +beinge present, that the Speaker might in the name of the whole house +give him thankes, and then that every member might as a testimony +of his particular acknowledgement stirr or moove his Hatt towards +him, the which (though not ordred) when very many did, the L'd of +Falkelande (who believed the service itselfe not to be of that moment, +and that an Honourable and generous person could not have stooped to +it, for any recompence) insteede of moovinge his Hatt, stretched both +his Armes out, and clasped his hands togither upon the Crowne of his +Hatt, and held it close downe to his heade, that all men might see +how odious that flattery was to him, and the very approbation of the +person, though at that tyme most popular. + +When ther was any overture or hope of peace, he would be more erecte, +and vigorous, and exceedingly sollicitous to presse any thinge which +he thought might promote it, and sittinge amongst his frends often +after a deepe silence, and frequent sighes, would with a shrill and +sadd Accent ingeminate the word, Peace, Peace, and would passyonately +professe that the very Agony of the Warr, and the view of the +calamityes, and desolation the kingdome did and must indure, tooke his +sleepe from him, and would shortly breake his hearte; This made some +thinke, or praetende to thinke, that he was so much enamour'd on peace, +that he would have bene gladd the Kinge should have bought it at any +pryce, which was a most unreasonable calumny, as if a man, that was +himselfe the most punctuall and praecise, in every circumstance that +might reflecte upon conscience or Honour, could have wished the Kinge +to have committed a trespasse against ether; and yet this senselesse +skandall made some impression upon him, or at least he used it for an +excuse of the daringnesse of his spiritt; for at the leaguer before +Gloster, when his frends passionately reprehended him for exposinge +his person, unnecessarily to daunger, (as he delighted to visitt the +trenches, and neerest approches, and to discover what the enimy did) +as beinge so much besyde the duty of his place, that it might be +understoode against it, he would say, merrily, that his office could +not take away the priviledges of his Age, and that a Secretary in +warr might be present at the greatest secrett of daunger, but withall +alleadged seriously that it concerned him to be more active in +enterpryzes of hazarde, then other men, that all might see that his +impatiency for peace, proceeded not from pusillanimity, or feare to +adventure his owne person. In the morninge before the battell, as +alwayes upon Action, he was very cheerefull, and putt himselfe into +the first ranke of the L'd Byrons Regiment, who was then advancinge +upon the enimy, who had lyned the Hedges on both sydes with +Musqueteers, from whence he was shott with a Musquett on the lower +parte of the belly, and in the instant fallinge from his horse, his +body was not founde till the next morninge: till when ther was some +hope he might have bene a prysoner, though his neerest frends who knew +his temper, receaved small comforte from that imagination; thus fell, +that incomparable younge man, in the fowre and thirteeth yeere of his +Age, havinge so much dispatched the businesse of life, that the oldest +rarely attayne to that immense knowledge, and the youngest enter not +into the world with more innocence, and whosoever leads such a life, +neede not care upon how shorte warninge it be taken from him. + + + + +22. + +By CLARENDON. + + +With S'r Lucius Cary he had a most intire frendshipp without reserve +from his age of twenty yeeres to the howre of his death, neere 20. +yeeres after, upon which ther will be occasion to inlarge, when wee +come to speake of that tyme, and often before, and therfore wee shall +say no more of him in this place, then to shew his condition and +qualifications, which were the first ingredients into that frendshipp, +which was afterwards cultivated and improoved by a constant +conversation and familiarity, and by many accidents which contributed +therunto. He had the advantage of a noble extraction, and of beinge +borne his fathers eldest Sunn, when ther was a greater fortune in +prospecte to be inherited (besydes what he might reasonably exspecte +by his Mother) then came afterwards to his possessyon: His education +was aequall to his birth, at least in the care, if not in the Climate, +for his father beinge Deputy of Irelande, before he was of Age fitt +to be sent abroade, his breedinge was in the Courte and in the +University of Dublin, but under the care, vigilance and derection of +such governours and Tutors, that he learned all those exercizes and +languages better then most men do in more celebrated places, insomuch +as when he came into Englande, which was when he was aboute the age of +18 yeeres, he was not only master of the Latine tounge, and had reade +all the Poetts and other of the best Authors with notable judgement +for that age, but he understoode, and spake, and writt French, as if +he had spente many yeeres in France. He had another advantage, which +was a greate ornament to the rest, that was a good a plentifull +estate, of which he had the early possession: His Mother was the sole +daughter an[d] Heyre of the L'd Chief Barron Tanfeilde, who havinge +given a fayre portion with his daughter in marriage, had kept himselfe +free to dispose of his lande and his other estate, in such manner +as he should thinke fitt: and he setled it in such manner upon his +grandsunn S'r Lucius Cary, without takinge notice of his father or +mother, that upon his Grandmothers death, which fell out aboute the +tyme that he was 19. yeeres of age, all the lande with his very good +houses, very well furnished (worth above 2000_l._ per annum) in a most +pleasant country, and the two most pleasant places in that country, +with a very plentifull personall estate, fell into his hands and +possession, and to his intire disposall. + +With these advantages, he had one greate disadvantage, which in the +first entrance into the worlde, is attended with to much praejudice: +in his person and presence which was in no degree attractive, or +promisinge; his stature was low and smaller then most mens, his motion +not gracefull, and his aspecte, so farr from invitinge, that it had +somewhat in it of simplicity, and his voyce the worst of the three, +and so untuned, that insteede of reconcilinge, it offended the eare, +that no body would have exspected musique from that tounge, and sure +no man was lesse behol[den] to nature, for its recommendation into the +world. But then no man sooner or more disappointed this generall and +customary praejudice; that little person and small stature was quickly +founde to contayne a greate hearte, a courage so keene, and a nature +so fearelesse, that no composition of the strongest limbes and most +harmonious and proportioned presence and strenght, ever more disposed +any man to the greatest enterpryze, it beinge his greatest weakenesse +to be to solicitous for such adventures: and that untuned tounge and +voyce easily discover'd itselfe to be supplyed and governed by a minde +and understandinge so excellent, that the witt and waight of all he +sayde, carryed another kinde of lustre and admiration in it, and +even another kinde of acceptation from the persons present, then any +ornament of delivery could reasonably promise itselfe, or is usually +attended with: And his disposition and nature was so gentle and +oblieginge, so much delighted in courtesy, kindnesse, and generosity, +that all mankinde could not but admire and love him. In a shorte tyme +after he had possession of the estate his grandfather had left him, +and before he was of age, he committed a faulte against his father, +in marryinge a younge Lady whome he passionately loved, without any +considerable portion, which exceedingly offended him, and disappointed +all his reasonable hopes and exspectation, of redeeminge and +repayringe his owne broken fortune and desperate hopes in courte, by +some advantagious marriage of his Sunn, aboute which he had then some +probable treaty: S'r Lucius Cary was very conscious to himselfe of his +offence and transgression, and the consequence of it, which though he +could not repent, havinge marryed a lady of a most extraordinary witt +and judgement, and of the most signall virtue and exemplary life, that +the age produced, and who brought him many hopefull children, in which +he tooke greate delight, yett he confessed it with the most sinceare +and dutifull applications to his Father for his pardon, that could be +made, and in order to the praejudice he had brought upon his fortune by +bringinge no portion to him, he offred to repayre it by resigninge his +whole estate to his disposall, and to rely wholy upon his kindnesse +for his owne maintenance and supporte, and to that purpose he had +caused convayances to be drawne by councell, which he brought ready +ingrossed to his father, and was willinge to seale and execute them, +that they might be valid: But his fathers passyon and indignation so +farr transported him (though he was a gentleman of excellent parts) +that he refused any reconciliation and rejected all the offers which +were made of the estate, so that his Sunn remayned still in the +possession of his estate against his will, of which he founde greate +reason afterwards to rejoyce, but he was for the present so much +afflicted with his fathers displeasure, that he transported himselfe +and his wife into Hollande, resolvinge to buy some military commaunde, +and to spende the remainder of his life in that profession, but beinge +disappointed in the treaty he exspected, and findinge no opportunity +to accommodate himselfe with such a commaunde, he returned agayne into +Englande, resolvinge to retyre to a country life, and to his bookes, +that since he was not like to improove himselfe in armes, he might +advance in letters. + +In this resolution he was so seveare (as he was alwayes naturally very +intent upon what he was inclined to) that he declared he would not see +London in many yeeres (which was the place he loved of all the world) +and that in his studyes, he would first apply himselfe to the Greeke, +and pursue it without intermission, till he should attayne to the full +understandinge of that tounge, and it is hardly to be credited, what +industry he used, and what successe attended that industry, for though +his fathers death, by an unhappy accident, made his repayre to London +absolutely necessary, in fewer yeeres then he had proposed for his +absence, yett he had first made himselfe master of the Greeke tounge +(in the Latine he was very well versed before) and had reade not only +all the Greeke Historians, but Homer likewise and such of the Poetts, +as were worthy to be perused: Though his fathers death brought no +other convenience to him, but a title to redeeme an estate, morgaged +for as much as it was worth, and for which he was compelled to sell +a fyner seate of his owne, yett it imposed a burthen upon him of the +title of a Viscount, and an increase of exspence, in which he was not +in his nature to provident or restrayn'd, havinge naturally such a +generosity and bounty in him, that he seemed to have his estate in +trust, for all worthy persons who stoode in wante of supplyes and +encouragement, as Ben. Johnson and[1] many others of that tyme, whose +fortunes requyred, and whose spiritts made them superiour to ordinary +obligations; which yett they were contented to receave from him, +because his bountyes were so generously distributed, and so much +without vanity and ostentation, that except from those few persons +from whome he sometimes receaved the characters of fitt objectes for +his benefitts, or whome he intrusted for the more secrett derivinge it +to them, he did all he could that the persons themselves who receaved +them, should not know from what fountayne they flow'd; and when that +could not be concealed, he sustayned any acknowledgement from the +persons oblieged, with so much trouble and bashfulnesse, that they +might well perceave that he was even ashamed of the little he had +given, and to receave so large a recompence for it. + +As soone as he had finished all those transactions, which the death +of his father had made necessary to be done, he retyred agayne to +his country life, and to his seveare cource of study, which was very +delightfull to him, as soone as he was ingaged in it, but he was wont +to say, that he never founde reluctancy in any thinge he resolved to +do, but in his quittinge London, and departinge from the conversation +of those he injoyed ther, which was in some degree praeserved and +continued by frequent letters, and often visitts, which were made by +his frends from thence, whilst he continued wedded to the country, and +which were so gratefull to him, that duringe ther stay with him, he +looked upon no booke, except ther very conversation made an appeale +to some booke, and truly his whole conversation was one continued +convivium philosophicum or convivium theologicum, inlivened and +refreshed with all the facetiousnesse of witt and good humour, and +pleasantnesse of discource, which made the gravity of the argument +itselfe (whatever it was) very delectable. His house wher he usually +resyded (Tew or Burforde in Oxfordshyre) beinge within tenn or 12 +myles of the University, looked like the University itselfe, by the +company that was alwayes founde there. Ther were D'r Sheldon, D'r Morly, +D'r Hammon, D'r Earles, M'r Chillingworth, and indeede all men of eminent +partes and facultyes in Oxforde, besydes those who resorted thither +from London, who all founde ther lodgings ther as ready as in ther +Colledges, nor did the L'd of the house know of ther comminge or +goinge, nor who were in his house, till he came to dinner or supper, +wher all still mett, otherwise ther was no troublesome ceremony or +constrainte to forbidd men to come to the house, or to make them weary +of stayinge ther; so that many came thither to study in a better ayre, +findinge all the bookes they could desyre in his library, and all the +persons togither, whose company they could wish, and not finde in any +other society. Heare M'r Chillingworth wrote and formed and modelled +his excellent booke against the learned Jesuitt, M'r Nott, after +frequent debates, upon the most important particulars, in many of +which he suffred himselfe to be overruled by the judgement of his +frends, though in others he still adhered, to his owne fancy, which +was scepticall enough even in the highest pointes. In this happy and +delightfull conversation and restrainte he remayned in the country +many yeeres, and untill he had made so prodigious a progresse in +learninge, that ther were very few classique authors in the greeke +or Latine tounge, that he had not reade with great exactnesse; He +had reade all the greeke and Latine fathers, all the most allowed +and authentique Ecclesiasticall writers, and all the Councells, +with wounderfull care and observation, for in religion he thought to +carefull and to curious an enquiry could not be made, amongst those +whose purity was not questioned, and whose authority was constantly +and confidently urged, by men who were furthest from beinge of +on minde amongst themselves, and for the mutuall supporte of ther +severall opinions, in which they most contradicted each other; and in +all those contraversyes, he had so dispassioned a consideration, such +a candor in his nature, and so profounde a charity in his conscience, +that in those pointes in which he was in his owne judgement most +cleere, he never thought the worse, or in any degree declined the +familiarity of those who were of another minde, which without +question is an excellent temper for the propagation and advancement +of Christianity: With these greate advantages of industry, he had a +memory retentive of all that he had ever reade, and an understandinge +and judgement to apply it, seasonably and appositely, with the most +dexterity and addresse, and the least pedantry and affectation, that +ever man who knew so much, was possessed with, of what quality soever; +it is not a triviall evidence, of his learninge, his witt, and his +candour, that may be found in that discource of his, against the +Infallabi[li]ty of the Church of Rome, published since his death, and +from a copy under his owne hande, though not praepared and digested +by him for the presse, and to which he would have given some +castigations. + +But all his parts, abilityes, and facultyes, by arte an[d] industry, +were not to be valewed or mentioned in comparison of his most +accomplished minde and manners; his gentlenesse and affability was so +transcendant and oblieginge, that it drew reverence and some kinde +of complyance from the roughest, and most unpolish'd and stubborne +constitutions, and made them of another temper in debate in his +presence, then they were in other places. He was in his nature so +seueare a lover of justice, and so praecise a lover of truth, that he +was superiour to all possible temptations for the violation of ether, +indeede so rigid an exacter of perfection in all those things which +seemed but to border upon ether of them, and by the common practice +of men, were not thought to border upon ether, that many who knew him +very well, and loved and admired his virtue (as all who did know +him must love and admire it) did believe that he was of a temper and +composition fitter to lyve in Republica Platonis then in faece Romuli: +but this rigidnesse was only exercised towards himselfe, towards his +frends infirmityes no man was more indulgent: In his conversation, +which was the most cheerefull and pleasant, that can be imagined, +though he was younge (for all I have yett spoken of him, doth +not exceede his age of 25. or 26. yeeres, what progresse he made +afterwards will be mentioned in its proper season in this discource) +and of greate gayty in his humour, with a flowinge delightfulnesse +of language, he had so chast a tounge and eare, that ther was never +knowne a prophane and loose worde to fall from him, nor in truth in +his company, the integrity and cleanelinesse of the witt of that tyme, +not exercisinge itselfe in that licence, before persons for whome they +had any esteeme. + +[Footnote 1: 'as,' MS.] + + + + +23. + +SIDNEY GODOLPHIN. + +_Born 1610. Fell at Chagford 1643._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Sydney Godolphin, was a younger brother of Godolphin, but by the +provision left by his father, and by the death of a younger brother, +liberally supplyed for a very good education, and for a cheerefull +subsistance in any cource of life he proposed to himselfe; Ther was +never so great a minde and spirit contayned in so little roome, so +large an understandinge and so unrestrayned a fancy in so very small a +body, so that the L'd Falkelande used to say merrily, that he thought +it was a greate ingredient into his frendshipp for M'r Godolphin, that +he was pleased to be founde in his company, wher he was the properer +man: and it may be the very remarkablenesse of his little person +made the sharpnesse of his witt and the composed quicknesse of his +judgement and understandinge, the more notable.[1] He had spent some +yeeres in France, and the low countryes, and accompanyed the Earle of +Leicester, in his Ambassage into Denmarke, before he resolved to be +quyett, and attende some promotion in the Courte, wher his excellent +disposition and manners, and extraordinary qualifications, made him +very aceptable: Though every body loved his company very well, yett +he loved very much to be alone, beinge in his constitution inclined +somewhat to melancholique, and to retyrement amongst his bookes, and +was so farr from beinge active, that he was contented to be reproched +by his frendes with lazynesse, and was of so nice and tender a +composition, that a little rayne or winde would disorder him, and +deverte him from any shorte journy he had most willingly proposed to +himselfe: insomuch as when he ridd abroade with those in whose company +he most delighted, if the winde chanced to be in his face, he would +(after a little pleasant murmuringe) suddaynely turne his horse, and +goe home: yett the civill warr no sooner begann, (the first approches +towards which he discovered as soone as any man, by the proceedings in +Parliament, wher he was a member, and opposed with greate indignation) +then he putt himselfe into the first troopes which were raysed in the +West, for the Kinge, and bore the uneasinesse and fatigue of winter +marches, with an exemplar courage and alacrity, untill by to brave a +pursuite of the enimy, into an obscure village in Devonshyre, he was +shutt with a musquett, with which (without sayinge any worde more, +the[n] oh god I am hurte) he fell deade from his horse, to the +excessive griefe of his frends, who were all that knew him, and the +irreparable damage of the publique. + +[Footnote 1: 'notorious and' struck out in MS. before 'notable'.] + + + + +24. + +WILLIAM LAUD. + +_Born 1573. President of St. John's College Oxford 1611. Bishop of St. +David's 1621, of Bath and Wells 1626, and of London 1628. Chancellor +of the University of Oxford 1629. Archbishop of Canterbury 1633. +Beheaded 1645._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +It was within one weeke after the Kings returne from Scotlande that +Abbott dyed at his house at Lambeth, and the Kinge tooke very little +tyme to consider who should be his successour, but the very next tyme +the Bishopp of London (who was longer upon his way home, then +the Kinge had bene) came to him, his Majesty entertayned him very +cheerefully, with this compellation, My L'ds Grace of Canterbury you +are very wellcome, and gave order the same day for the dispatch of all +the necessary formes for the translation, so that within a moneth, +or therabouts, after the death of the other Arch-Bishopp, he was +compleately invested in that high dignity, and setled in his Pallace +at Lambeth: This Greate Prelate had bene before in greate favour with +the Duke of Buckingham, whose greate confident he was, and by him +recommended to the Kinge, as fittest to be trusted in the conferringe +all Ecclesiasticall praeferments, when he was but Bishopp of S't Davids, +or newly praeferred to Bath and Wells, and from that tyme he intirely +governed that Province without a ryvall, so that his promotion to +Canterbury was longe foreseene and exspected, nor was it attended with +any encrease of envy, or dislike. + +He was a man of greate parts and very exemplar virtues, allayed and +discredited by some unpopular[1] naturall infirmityes, the greatest of +which was (besydes a hasty sharpe way of exspressinge himselfe) that +he believed innocence of hearte, and integrity of manners, was a +guarde stronge enough to secure any man, in his voyage through this +worlde, in what company soever he travelled, and through what wayes +soever he was to passe, and sure never any man was better supplyed +with that provisyon. He was borne of honest parents, who were well +able to provyde for his education, in the schooles of learninge, +from whence they sent him to St. Johns Colledge in Oxforde, the worst +indowed at that tyme, of any in that famous university; from a scholar +he became a fellow, and then the President of that Colledge, after +he had receaved all the graces and degrees, the Proctorshipp and +the Doctorshipp, could be obtained ther: He was alwayes maligned and +persequted by those who were of the Calvinian faction, which was +then very pouerfull, and who accordinge to ther usefull maxime and +practice, call every man they do not love, Papist, and under this +senselesse appellation they created him many troubles and vexations, +and so farr suppressed him, that though he was the Kings Chaplyne, and +taken notice of for an excellent preacher, and a scholer of the most +sublime parts, he had not any praeferment to invite him to leave his +poore Colledge, which only gave him breade, till the vigour of his age +was passed; and when he was promoted by Kinge James, it was but to +a poore Bishopricke in Wales, which was not so good a supporte for a +Bishopp as his Colledge was for a pri[v]ate scholler, though a Doctor. +Parliaments in that tyme were frequent, and grew very busy, and the +party under which he had suffer'd a continuall perseqution appeared +very powerfull and full of designe, and they who had the courage +to oppose them, begann to be taken notice of with approbation and +countenance, and under this style he came to be first cherished by the +Duke of Buckingham, after he had made some exsperiments of the temper +and spiritt of the other people, nothinge to his satisfaction: from +this tyme he prospered at the rate of his owne wishes, and beinge +transplanted out of his cold barren Diocesse of S't Davids, into a +warmer climate, he was left, as was sayd before, by that omnipotent +Favorite, in that greate trust with the Kinge, who was sufficiently +indisposed towards the persons or the principles of M'r Calvins +disciples. + +When he came into greate authority, it may be he retayned to keene a +memory of those who had so unjustly and uncharitably persequted him +before, and I doubte was so farr transported with the same passyons he +had reason to complayne of in his ad[v]ersaryes, that, as they accused +him of Popery, because he had some doctrinall opinions, which +they liked not, though they were nothinge allyed to Popery, so he +intertayned to much praejudice to some persons, as if they were enimyes +to the disciplyne of the Church, because they concurred with Calvin +in some doctrinall points, when they abhorred his disciplyne, and +reverenced the goverment of the Church, and prayed for the peace of +it, with as much zeale and fervency, as any in the kingdome, as they +made manifest in ther lives, and in ther sufferings with it and +for it. He had, from his first entrance into the worlde without any +disguise or dissimulation declared his owne opinion of that Classis +of men, and as soone as it was in his power, he did all he could to +hinder the growth and encrease of that faction, and to restrayne those +who were inclined to it, from doinge the mischieue they desyred to do: +But his power at Courte could not enough qualify him, to goe through +with that difficulte reformation, whilst he had a superiour in the +Church, who havinge the raynes in his hande, could slacken them +accordinge to his owne humour and indiscretion, and was thought to be +the more remisse to irritate his cholirique disposition, but when he +had now the Primacy in his owne hande, the Kinge beinge inspired with +the same zeale, he thought he should be to blame, and have much to +answer, if he did not make hast to apply remedyes, to those diseases, +which he saw would grow apace.... + +The Arch-Bishopp had all his life eminently opposed Calvins doctryne +in those contraversyes, before the name of Arminius was taken notice +of or his opinions hearde of; and therupon for wante of another name +they had called him a Papiste, which nobody believed him to be, and +he had more manifested the contrary in his disputations and writings, +then most men had done: and it may be the other founde the more +seveare and rigourous usage from him, for ther propagatinge that +calumny against him. He was a man of greate courage and resolution, +and beinge most assured within himselfe that he proposed no end in all +his actions or designes, then what was pyous and just (as sure no +man had ever a hearte more intire, to the Kinge, the Church, or his +country) he never studyed the best wayes to those ends; he thought it +may be, that any arte or industry that way, would discreditt, at least +make the integrity of the end suspected: let the cause be what it +will, he did courte persons to little, nor cared to make his designes +and purposes appeare as candid as they were, by shewinge them in any +other dresse, then ther owne naturall beauty and roughnesse: and did +not consider enough what men sayd, or were like to say of him. If the +faultes and vices were fitt to be looked into and discover'd, let the +persons be who they would that were guilty of them, they were sure to +finde no connivence of favour from him. He intended the disciplyne of +the Church should be felte, as well as spoken of, and that it should +be applyed to the greatest and most splendid transgressors, as well +as to the punishment of smaller offences, and meaner offenders; and +therupon called for, or cherished the discovery of those who were not +carefull to cover ther owne iniquitycs, thinkinge they were above the +reach of other mens, or ther power, or will to chastice: Persons of +honour and great quality, of the Courte, and of the Country, were +every day cited into the High Commissyon Courte, upon the fame of +ther incontinence, or other skandall in ther lyves; and were ther +prosequted to ther shame and punishment, and as the shame, (which +they called an insolent tryumph upon ther degree and quality, +and levellinge them with the common people) was never forgotten, +but watched for revenge, so the Fynes imposed ther were the more +questioned and repyned against, because they wer assigned to the +rebuildinge and repayringe St. Pauls Church, and thought therfore to +be the more sevearely imposed, and the lesse compassionately reduced +and excused, which likewise made the jurisdiction and rigour of the +Starrchamber more felte and murmured against, which sharpened many +mens humours against the Bishopps, before they had any ill intention +toward the Church. + +[Footnote 1: 'unpopular' substituted for 'ungracious' in MS.] + + + + +25. + +By THOMAS FULLER. + + +[Sidenote: Over-severe in his censures.] + +Amongst his humane frailties, _choler_ and _passion_ most discovered +it self. In the _Star-Chamber_ (where if the crime not extraordinary, +it was fine enough for one to be sued in so chargable a Court) He was +observed always to concur with the severest side, and to infuse more +_vinegar_ then _oyle_ into all his _censures_, and also was much +blamed for his severity to his Predecessor easing him against his +will, and before his time, of his jurisdiction. + +[Sidenote: Over-medling in State matters.] + +But he is most accused for over-medling in State-matters, more +then was fitting, say many, then needful, say most, for one +of his profession. But he never more overshot himself, then +when he did impose the _Scotch Liturgie_, and was [Greek: +allotrio-archiepis[ko]pos] over a free and forrain Church and Nation. +At home, many grumbled at him for oft making the _shallowest_ pretence +of the _Crown deep_ enough (by his powerfull digging therein) to drown +the undoubted right of any private Patron to a Church-living. But +Courtiers most complained, that he persecuted them, not in their +proper places, but what in an ordinary way he should have taken from +the _hands_ of inferior officers, that He with a _long_ and _strong +Arm_ reached to himself over all their heads. Yet others plead for +him, that he abridg'd their _bribes_ not _fees_, and it vexed them +that He struck their _fingers_ with the _dead-palsie_, so that they +could not (as formerly) have a _feeling_ for Church Preferments.... + +[Sidenote: An enemy to gallantry in Clergiemens cloaths.] + +He was very plain in apparrel, and sharply checkt such Clergymen +whom he saw goe in rich or gaudy cloaths, commonly calling them of +the _Church-Triumphant_. Thus as _Cardinal Woolsy_ is reported the +first Prelate, who made _Silks_, and _Sattens_ fashionable amongst +clergy-men; so this Arch-Bishop first retrenched the usual wearing +thereof. Once at a Visitation in _Essex_, one in _Orders_ (of good +estate and extraction) appeared before him very gallant in habit, whom +D'r _Laud_ (then Bishop of _London_) publickly reproved, shewing to +him the plainness of his own apparrel. My _Lord_ (said the Minister) +_you have better cloaths at home and I have worse_, whereat the Bishop +rested very well contented.... + +[Sidenote: No whit addicted to covetousness.] + +Covetousness He perfectly hated, being a single man and having no +project to raise a name or Family, he was the better enabled for +publick performances, having both a _price in his hand_, and an +_heart_ also to dispose thereof for the general good. S't _Johns_ +in _Oxford_, wherein he was bred, was so beautified, enlarged, and +enriched by him, that strangers at the first sight knew it not, +yea, it scarce knoweth it self, so altered to the better from its +former condition. Insomuch that almost it deserveth the name of +_Canterbury-Colledge_, as well as that which _Simon Islip_ founded, +and since hath lost its name, united to _Christ-Church_. More +buildings he intended, (had not the stroke of one _Axe_ hindred the +working of many _hammers_) chiefly on Churches, whereof the following +passage may not impertinently be inserted. + +[Sidenote: The grand causer of the repairing of Churches.] + +It happened that a _Visitation_ was kept at S't _Peters_ in +_Corn-hill_, for the Clergy of _London_. The Preacher discoursing of +the painfulness of the Ministerial Function, proved it from the Greek +deduction of [Greek: Diakonos] or Deacon, so called from [Greek: +konis] _dust_, because he must _laborare in arena in pulvere_, _work +in the dust_, doe hard service in hot weather. Sermon ended, Bishop +_Laud_ proceeded to his charge to the Clergy, and observing the Church +ill repaired without, and slovenly kept within, _I am sorry_ (said He) +_to meet here with so true an Etymologie of Diaconus, for here is both +dust and dirt too, for a Deacon (or Priest either) to work in. Yea it +is dust of the worst kind, caused from the mines of this ancient house +of God, so that it pittieth his[1] servants to see her in the dust_. +Hence he took occasion to press the repairing of that, and other +decaied places of divine worship, so that from this day we may date +the general mending, beautifying and adorning of all English Churches, +some to decency, some to magnificence, and some (if all complaints +were true) to superstition. + +[Sidenote: Principally of S. Pauls] + +But the Church of S't Pauls, (the only Cathedral in Christendom +dedicated to that _Apostle_) was the master: piece of his +performances. We know what[2] one Satyrically said of him, that +_he pluckt down Puritans, and Property, to build up Pauls and +Prerogative_. But let unpartial Judges behold how he left, and +remember how he found that ruinous fabrick, and they must conclude +that (though intending more) he effected much in that great designe. +He communicated his project to some private persons, of taking down +the _great Tower_ in the middle, to the _Spurrs_, and rebuild it in +the same fashion, (but some yards higher) as before. He meant to hang +as great and tuneable a ring of Bels, as any in the world, whose sound +advantaged with their height and vicinity of the _Thames_, must needs +be loud and melodious. But now he is turned to his dust, and all _his +thoughts have perished_, yea that Church, formerly approached with due +reverence, is now entred with just fear, of falling on those under it, +and is so far from having its old decays repaired, that it is daily +decayed in its new reparations. + +He was low of Stature, little in bulk, chearful in countenance, +(wherein gravity and quickness were well compounded) of a sharp and +piercing eye, clear judgement, and (abating the influence of age) +firme memory. He wore his hair very close, and though in the beginning +of his greatness, many measured the length of mens stricktness by +the shortness of their hair, yet some will say, that since out of +Antipathy to conform to his example, his opposites have therein +indulged more liberty to themselves. And thus we take our leave of +him. + +[Footnote 1: Psal. 102. 14] + +[Footnote 2: Lord F.] + + + + +26. + +By SIR PHILIP WARWICK. + + +Archbishop Laud was a man of an upright heart and a pious soul, but +of too warm blood and too positive a nature towards asserting what he +beleived a truth, to be a good Courtier; and his education fitted +him as little for it, as his nature: which having bin most in the +University, and among books and scholars, where oft canvassing +affairs, that are agitated in that province, and prevailing in it, +rather gave him wrong than right measures of a Court. He was generally +acknowledg'd a good scholar, and throughly verst in Ecclesiastical +learning. He was a zealot in his heart both against Popery and +Presbytery; but a great assertor of Church-authority, instituted +by Christ and his Apostles, and as primitively practised; which +notwithstanding, he really and freely acknowledged subject unto the +secular authority. And therefore he carefully endeavored to preserve +the jurisdiction, which the Church anciently exercised, before the +secular authority own'd her; at least so much thereof, as the law +of this our Realm had apply'd to our circumstances; which our common +Lawyers dayly struck at; and thro' prohibitions and other appeals +every day lessened; and this bred an unkindnes to him in many of +the long robe, however some of them were very carefull of the +Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction. + +He was a man of great modesty in his own person and habit, and of +regularity and devotion in his family: and as he was very kind to his +Clergy, so he was very carefull to make them modest in their attire, +and very diligent in their studies, in faithfully dispensing God's +Word, reverently reading the Prayers, and administring the Sacraments, +and in preserving their Churches in cleanlines and with plain and +fitting ornament, that so voyd of superstition, GOD's House in this +age, where every man bettered his own, might not lye alone neglected; +and accordingly he sett upon that great work of St. Paul's Church, +which his diligence perfected in a great measure: and his Master's +piety made magnificent that most noble structure by a Portico: but +not long after the carved work thereof was broken down with axes and +hammers, and the whole sacred edifice made not only a den of thieves, +but a stable of unclean beasts, as I can testifie, having once gone +into it purposely to observe: from which contamination Providence some +few years since cleansed it by fire. + +He prevented likewise a very private and clandestine designe of +introducing Nonconformists into too too many Churches; for that +society of men (that they might have Teachers to please their itching +ears) had a designe to buy in all the Lay-Impropriations, which the +Parish-Churches in Henry the VIII's time were robb'd of, and lodging +the Advowsons and Presentations in their own Feoffees, to have +introduced men, who would have introduced doctrines suitable to their +dependences, which the Court already felt too much the smart of, by +being forced to admitt the Presentations of the Lay-Patrons, who too +often dispose their benefices to men, rather suitable to their own +opinions, than the Articles and Canons of the Church. + +All this bred him more and more envy; but if it had pleas'd God to +have given him an uninterrupted course, and if few of his Successors +had walked in his stepps, wee might, without any tendency to Popery, +or danger of superstition, have serv'd God reverently and uniformely, +and according unto Primitive practice and purity, and not have bin, as +we are now, like a shivered glass, scarse ever to be made whole again. +Thus finding Providence had led him into authority, he very really and +strongly opposed both Popery and Presbytery. He was sensible, how the +first by additions had perverted the purity of Religion, and turned +it into a policy; but resolving not to contest Rome's truths, tho' +he spared not her errors, both Papist and Presbyter, with all their +Lay-Party, were well contented, that it might be believed, he was +Popishly affected. And being conscious likewise, how Presbytery or +the Calvinisticall Reformation, which many here, and more in Scotland, +affected, by substraction and novel interpretation, had forsaken the +good old ways of the primitive Church, and was become dangerous to +Monarchy, he sett himself against this, as well as that: but both +their weights crusht him.... + +As this good Arch-Bishop I write of, had these great eminences, so he +may be acknowledged to have failed in those prudences, which belong +unto a great Minister of State, who like a wise Physician is to +consider times and seasons, as well as persons and diseases, and to +regard those complications, which usually are mixed in ill habits of +body, and to use more alterative than purgative Physick. For popular +bents and inclinations are cured more by a steddy than precipitate +hand or counsel; multitudes being to be drawn over from their errors, +rather by wayes they discerne not, than by those, which they are +likely to contest; whilst upon single persons and great men courses +of violence and authority may be exercised. But Ministers of State +unwillingly run this course, because they would have the honour of +perfecting the work they affect in their own time; and the multitude +of this good man's busines, and the promptnes of his nature, made +those ceremonies, which are necessary by great Persons to be paid unto +men in his station, to be unwelcome unto him, and so he discharged +himselfe of them, and thereby disobliged those persons, who thought +their quality, tho' not their busines, required a patient and +respectfull entertainment. This I reflect upon, because I heard from a +good hand, that the Marquiss of Argile making him an insidious visit, +and he, knowing he neither loved him nor the Church, entertaining him +not with that franknes he should have done, but plainly telling him, +he was at that time a little busy about the King's affairs, this great +Lord took it so much in indignation, and esteem'd it such a Lordly +Prelacy, that he declaimed against it, and became (if possible) more +enemy both to him and the Church, than he was before. The rectitude of +his nature therefore made him not a fitt instrument to struggle with +the obliquity of those times; and he had this infirmity likewise, that +he beleived those forward instruments, which he employed, followed the +zeal of their own natures, when they did but observe that of his: for +as soon as difficulty or danger appeared, his petty instruments shrunk +to nothing, and shewed, from whom they borrowed their heat. + +He weighed not well his Master's condition; for he saw him circled +in by too many powerfull Scots, who mis-affected the Church, and had +joyned with them too many English Counsellors and Courtiers, who were +of the same leaven. If he had perceived an universall concurrence in +his own Clergy, who were esteemed Canonicall men, his attempts might +have seem'd more probable, than otherwise it could: but for him +to think by a purgative Physick to evacuate all those cold slimy +humors, which thus overflowed the body, was ill judged; for the good +affections of the Prince, back'd only by a naked or paper-authority, +sooner begets contumacy, than complyance in dissaffected Subjects.... + +And this shall suffice to be said of that well intentioned, but +not truly considerative, great man, unles wee add this single thing +further, that he who looks upon him thro' those Canons, which in +Synod passed in his time, will find him a true Assertor of Religion, +Royalty, and Property; and that his grand designe was no other, than +that of our first Reformation; which was, that our Church might stand +upon such a foot of Primitive and Ecclesiastick authority, as suited +with God's word, and the best Interpreters of it, sound reason and +Primitive practice. And untill this Nation is blest with such a +spirit, it will lye in that darknes and confusion the Sects at this +time have flung it into. + + + + +27. + +WILLIAM JUXON. + +_Born 1582. President of St. John's College Oxford, 1621. Bishop of +London 1633-49. Lord Treasurer 1635-41. Archbishop of Canterbury 1660. +Died 1663_. + +By SIR PHILIP WARWICK. + + +Having thus described one great Church-man, wee may the more fitly +make mention of another, because they were so intimate and bosome +Friends, and because this first is supposed to have introduced the +last into that eminent employment of Lord Treasurer. Had nature +mingled their tempers, and allayed the one by the prudence and +foresight of the other, or inspirited the other by the zeal and +activity of his Friend, nature had framed a better paist, than usually +she doth, when she is most exact in her work about mankind: sincerity +and integrity being eminent in them both. This reverend Prelate, Dr. +Juxon, then Bishop of London, was of a meek spirit, and of a solid and +steddy judgment; and having addicted his first studies to the Civil +Law, (from which he took his title of Doctor, tho' he afterwards took +on him the Ministry) this fitted him the more for Secular and State +affairs. His temper and prudence wrought so upon all men, that tho' +he had the two most invidious characters both in the Ecclesiasticall +and Civil State; one of a Bishop, the other of a Lord Treasurer: yet +neither drew envy on him; tho' the humor of the times tended to brand +all great men in employment. About the year 1634 the Lord Portland +dyed, and the Treasury was put into Commission; by which means the +true state thereof became distinctly to be known: and in the year +1635, this good and judicious man had the white staff put into his +hand: and tho' he found the revenue low and much anticipated, yet +withall meeting with times peaceable and regular, and his Master +enclined to be frugall, he held up the dignity and honor of his +Majestie's Houshold, and the splendor of the Court, and all publick +expences, and justice in all contracts; so as there were as few +dissatisfactions in his time, as perchance in any, and yet he cleared +off the anticipations on the revenue, and sett his Master beforehand. +The choice of this good man shewed, how remote it was from this King's +intentions, to be either tyrannicall or arbitrary; for so well he +demeaned himselfe thro' his whole seaven years employment, that +neither as Bishop or Treasurer, came there any one accusation against +him in that last Parliament 1640, whose eares were opened, nay itching +after such complaints. Nay even after the King's being driven from +London, he remained at his house, belonging to his Bishoprick, in +Fulham, and sometimes was visited by some of the Grandees, and found +respect from all, and yet walked steddily in his old paths. And +he retained so much of his Master's favour, that when the King was +admitted to any Treaty with the two Houses Commissioners, he alwayes +commanded his attendance on him: for he ever valued his advice. I +remember, that the King, being busy in dispatching some letters with +his own pen, commanded me to wait on the Bishop, and to bring him back +his opinion in a certaine affaire: I humbly pray'd his Majestie, that +I might rather bring him with me, least I should not expresse his +Majestie's sense fully, nor bring back his so significantly, as he +meant it; and because there might be need for him further to explain +himselfe, and least he should not speake freely to me: to which the +King replyed, _Go, as I bid you, if he will speak freely to any body, +he will speak freely to you: This_ (the King said) _I will say of him, +I never gott his opinion freely in my life, but when I had it, I was +ever the better for it_. This character of so judicious a Prince +I could not omitt, because it carried in it the reason of that +confidence, that called him to be his Majestie's Confessor before his +death, and to be his Attendant on the scaffold at his death; so as all +Persons concurring thus about this good Prelate, wee may modestly say, +he was an eminent man. + + + + +28. + +THE MARQUIS OF HERTFORD. + +_William Seymour, second Earl of Hertford 1621, created Marquis of +Hertford 1641, and Duke of Somerset 1660._ + +_Born 1588. Died 1660_. + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Marquis of Hartforde was a man of greate honour, greate interest +in fortune and estate, and of a universall esteeme over the kingdome; +and though he had receaved many and continued disobligations from the +Courte, from the tyme of this Kings comminge to the Crowne as well +as duringe the rainge of Kinge James, in both which seasons more +then ordinary care had bene taken to discountenance and lessen his +interest, yett he had carryed himselfe with notable steddinesse from +the beginninge of the Parliament in the supporte and defence of the +Kings power and dignity, notwithstandinge all his Allyes, and those +with whome he had the greatest familiarity and frendshipp were of +the opposite party, and never concurred with them against the Earle +of Straforde (whome he was knowne not to love) nor in any other +extravagancy: and then he was not to be shaken in his affection to +the goverment of the church, though it was enough knowne that he was +in no degree byassed by any greate inclination to the person of any +Church-man: and with all this, that party carryed themselves towards +him with profounde respecte, not praesuminge to venture ther owne +creditt in endeavoringe to lessen his. + +It is very true, in many respects he wanted those qualityes, which +might have bene wished to be in a person to be trusted in the +education of a greate and a hopefull Prince, and in the forminge his +minde and manners in so tender an age: he was of an age not fitt for +much activity and fatigue, and loved and was even wedded so much to +his ease, that he loved his booke above all exercizes, and had even +contracted such a lazinesse of minde, that he had no delight in an +open and liberall conversation, and cared not to discource and argue +in those points which he understoode very well, only for the trouble +of contendinge, and could never impose upon himselfe the payne that +was necessary to be undergone in such a perpetuall attendance. But +then those lesser dutyes might be otherwise provided for, and he could +well supporte the dignity of a Governour, and exacte that diligence +from others, which he could not exercize himselfe, and his honour +was so unblemished, that none durst murmure against the designation, +and therfore his Majesty thought him very worthy of the high trust, +against which ther was no other exception, but that he was not +ambitious of it, nor in truth willinge to receave and undergo the +charge, so contrary to his naturall constitution; but [in] his pure +zeale and affection for the Crowne, and the conscience that in this +conjuncture his submission might ad[v]ance the Kings service, and that +the refusinge it might proove disadvantagious to his Majesty, he very +cheerefully undertooke the Province, to the generall satisfaction and +publique joy of the whole kingdome, and to the no little honour and +creditt of the Courte, that so important and beloved a person would +attacque himselfe to it, under such a relation, when so many who had +scarce ever eaten any breade, but the Kings, detached themselves +from ther dependance, that they might without him, and against him, +praeserve and improove those fortunes which they had procured and +gotten under him, and by his bounty. + + + + +29. + +THE MARQUIS OF NEWCASTLE. + +_William Cavendish, created Viscount Mansfield 1620, Earl of Newcastle +1628, Marquis 1643, and Duke 1665._ + +_Born 1592. Died 1676._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +All that can be said for the Marquiss is, that he was so utterly tired +with a condition and employment so contrary to his Humour, Nature, and +Education, that he did not at all consider the means, or the way that +would let him out of it, and free him for ever from having more to do +with it. And it was a greater wonder, that he sustained the vexation +and fatigue of it so long, than that he broke from it with so little +circumspection. He was a very fine Gentleman, active, and full of +Courage, and most accomplish'd in those Qualities of Horsemanship, +Dancing, and Fencing, which accompany a good breeding; in which his +delight was. Besides that he was amorous in Poetry, and Musick, to +which he indulged the greatest part of his time; and nothing could +have tempted him out of those paths of pleasure, which he enjoyed in a +full and ample fortune, but honour and ambition to serve the King when +he saw him in distress, and abandoned by most of those who were in the +highest degree obliged to him, and by him. He loved Monarchy, as it +was the foundation and support of his own greatness, and the Church, +as it was well constituted for the splendour and security of the +Crown, and Religion, as it cherished, and maintained that Order and +Obedience that was necessary to both; without any other passion for +the particular Opinions which were grown up in it, and distinguished +it into Parties, than as he detested whatsoever was like to disturb +the publick peace. + +He had a particular Reverence for the Person of the King, and the +more extraordinary Devotion for that of the Prince, as he had had the +honour to be trusted with is Education as his Governour; for which +office, as he excelled in some, so he wanted other Qualifications. +Though he had retired from his great Trust, and from the Court, +to decline the insupportable Envie which the powerfull Faction had +contracted against him, yet the King was no sooner necessitated to +possess himself of some place of strength, and to raise some force +for his defence, but the Earl of Newcastle (he was made Marquiss +afterwards) obeyed his first call, and, with great expedition and +dexterity, seised upon that Town; when till then there was not one +port town in England, that avowed their obedience to the King: and +he then presently raised such Regiments of Horse and Foot, as were +necessary for the present state of Affairs; all which was done purely +by his own Interest, and the concurrence of his numerous Allies in +those Northern parts; who with all alacrity obeyed his Commands, +without any charge to the King, which he was not able to supply. + +And after the Battle of Edge Hill, when the Rebells grew so strong in +Yorkshire, by the influence their Garrison of Hull had upon both the +East and West riding there, that it behoved the King presently to make +a General, who might unite all those Northern Counties in his Service, +he could not choose any Man so fit for it as the Earl of Newcastle, +who was not only possessed of a present force, and of that important +Town, but had a greater Reputation and Interest in Yorkshire itself, +than at that present any other Man had: the Earl of Cumberland being +at that time, though of entire affection to the King, much decayed +in the vigour of his Body, and his mind, and unfit for that Activity +which the Season required. And it cannot be denied, that the Earl +of Newcastle, by his quick march with his Troops, as soon as he had +received his Commission to be General, and in the depth of Winter, +redeemed, or rescued the City of York from the Rebells, when they +looked upon it as their own, and had it even within their grasp: and +as soon as he was Master of it, he raised Men apace, and drew an Army +together, with which he fought many Battles, in which he had always +(this last only excepted) Success and Victory. + +He liked the Pomp, and absolute Authority of a General well, and +preserved the dignity of it to the full; and for the discharge of +the outward State, and Circumstances of it, in acts of Courtesy, +Affability, Bounty, and Generosity, he abounded; which in the infancie +of a war became him, and made him, for some time, very acceptable +to Men of all conditions. But the substantial part, and fatigue +of a General, he did not in any degree understand (being utterly +unacquainted with War) nor could submit to; but referred all matters +of that Nature to the discretion of his Lieutenant General King, who, +no doubt, was an officer of great experience and ability, yet being +a Scotch Man was, in that conjuncture, upon more disadvantage than he +would have been, if the General himself had been more intent upon his +Command. In all Actions of the feild he was still present, and never +absent in any Battle; in all which he gave Instances of an invincible +courage and fearlessness in danger; in which the exposing himself +notoriously did sometimes change the fortune of the day, when his +Troops begun to give ground. Such Articles of action were no sooner +over, than he retired to his delightfull Company, Musick, or his +softer pleasures, to all which he was so indulgent, and to his ease, +that he would not be interrupted upon what occasion soever; insomuch +as he sometimes denied Admission to the Chiefest Officers of the Army, +even to General King himself, for two days together; from whence many +Inconveniencies fell out. + + + + +30. + +THE LORD DIGBY. + +_George Digby, second Earl of Bristol 1653._ + +_Born 1612. Died 1677._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +By what hath bene sayde before, it appeares that the L'd Digby was +much trusted by the Kinge, and he was of greate familiarity and +frendshipp with the other three, at least with two of them, for he was +not a man of that exactnesse, as to be in the intire confidence of +the L'd Falkeland, who looked upon his infirmityes with more severity, +then the other two did, and he lived with more franknesse towards +those two, then he did towards the other, yett betweene them two ther +was a free conversation and kindnesse to each other. He was a man +of very extraordinary parts, by nature and arte, and had surely +as good and excellent an education as any man of that age in any +country, a gracefull and beautifull person, of greate eloquence +and becommingnesse in his discource (save that sometimes he seemed +a little affected) and of so universall a knowledge, that he never +wanted subjecte for a discource; he was aequall to a very good parte +in the greatest affayre, but the unfittest man alive to conducte it, +havinge an ambition and vanity superiour to all his other parts, +and a confidence peculiar to himselfe, which sometimes intoxicated, +and transported, and exposed him. He had from his youth, by the +disobligations his family had undergone from the Duke of Buckingham +and the greate men who succeeded him, and some sharpe reprehension +himselfe had mett with, which oblieged him to a country life, +contracted a praejudice and ill will to the Courte, and so had in the +beginninge of the Parliament ingaged himselfe with that party which +discover'd most aversion from it, with a passion and animosity aequall +to ther owne, and therfore very acceptable to them. But when he was +weary of ther violent councells, and withdrew himselfe from them, +with some circumstances which enough provoked them, and made a +reconciliation and mutuall confidence in each other for the future +manifestly impossible, he made private and secrett offerrs of his +service to the Kinge, to whome in so generall a defection of his +servants it could not but be very agreable, and so his Majesty beinge +satisfyed both in the discoveryes he made of what had passed, and +in his professions for the future, remooved him from the house of +Commons, wher he had rendred himselfe marvellously ungratious, and +called him by writt to the house of Peeres, wher he did visibly +advance the Kings service, and quickly rendred himselfe gratefull to +all those, who had not thought to well of him before, when he deserved +less, and men were not only pleased with the assistance he gave upon +all debates, by his judgement and vivacity, but looked upon him as +one who could deryve the Kings pleasure to them, and make a lively +representation of ther good demeanour to the Kinge, which he was very +luxuriant in promisinge to doe, and officious enough in doinge as much +as was just. He had bene instrumentall in promotinge the three persons +above mencioned to the Kings favour, and had himselfe in truth so +greate an esteeme of them, that he did very frequently upon conference +togither departe from his owne inclinations and opinions, and +concurred in thers; and very few men of so greate parts are upon all +occasyons more councellable then he, so that he would seldome be in +daunger of runninge into greate errors, if he would communicate and +expose all his owne thoughts and inclinations to such a disquicition, +nor is he uninclinable in his nature to such an intire communication +in all things which he conceaves to be difficulte; but his fatall +infirmity is, that he to often thinkes difficulte things very easy, +and doth not consider possible consequences, when the proposition +administers somewhat that is delighfull to his fancy, and by pursuinge +wherof he imagynes he shall reape some glory to himselfe, of which +he is immoderately ambitious, so that if the consultation be upon +any action to be done, no man more implicitely enters into that +debate, or more cheerefully resignes his owne conceptions to a joynt +determination, but when it is once affirmatively resolved, besydes +that he may possibly reserve some impertinent circumstance as he +thinkes, the impartinge wherof would change the nature of the thinge, +if his fancy suggests to him any particular which himselfe might +performe in that action, upon the imagination that every body would +approove it, if it were proposed to them, he chooses rather to do it, +then to communicate, that he may have some signall parte to himselfe +in the transaction, in which no other person can clayme a share; +and by this unhappy temper, he did often involve himselfe in very +unprosperous attempts. The Kinge himselfe was the unfittest person +alive to be served by such a Councellour, beinge to easily inclined to +suddayne enterprizes, and as easily amazed when they were entred upon; +and from this unhappy composition in the one and the other, a very +unhappy councell was entred upon, and resolution taken, without the +least communication with ether of the three, which had bene so lately +admitted to an intire truste. + + + + +31. + +THE LORD CAPEL. + +_Arthur Capel, created Baron Capel 1641._ + +_Born 1610. Beheaded 1649._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +He was a man, in whome the malice of his enimyes could discover very +few faultes, and whome his frends could not wish better accomplished, +whome Crumwells owne character well described, and who indeede could +never have bene contented to have lived under that government, whose +memory all men loved and reverenced, though few followed his example. +He had alwayes lyved in a state of greate plenty and generall +estimation, havinge a very noble fortune of his owne by descent, and +a fayre addition to it, by his marriage with an excellent wife, a Lady +of a very worthy extraction, of greate virtue and beauty, by whome he +had a numerous issue of both sexes, in which he tooke greate joy and +comfort, so that no man was more happy in all his domestique affayres, +and so much the more happy, in that he thought himselfe most blessed +in them, and yett the Kings honour was no sooner violated and his +just power invaded, then he threw all those blessings behinde him, and +havinge no other obligations to the Crowne, then those which his owne +honour and conscience suggested to him, he frankely engaged his person +and his fortune from the beginninge of the troubles, as many others +did, in all actions and enterpryzes of the greatest hazarde and +daunger, and continewed to the end, without ever makinge one false +stepp, as few others did, though he had once, by the iniquity of a +faction that then praevayled, an indignity putt upon him, that might +have excused him, for some remission of his former warmth, but it made +no other impressyon upon him, then to be quyett and contented whilst +they would lett him alone, and with the same cheerefulnesse to obey +the first summons, when he was called out, which was quickly after: +in a worde he was a man, that whoever shall after him deserve best in +that nation, shall never thinke himselfe undervalewed, when he shall +heare that his courage, virtue, and fidelity is layde in the balance +with, and compared to that of the Lord Capell. + + + + +32. + +ROYALIST GENERALS. + +PATRICK RUTHVEN, EARL OF BRENTFORD (1573-1651). + +PRINCE RUPERT (1619-82). + +GEORGE, LORD GORING (1608-57). + +HENRY WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER (1612-58). + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Army was lesse united then ever; the old Generall was sett asyde +and Prince Rupert putt into the commaunde, which was no popular +chaunge, for the other was knowne to be an officer of greate +exsperience, and had committed no oversights in his conducte, was +willinge to heare every thinge debated, and alwayes concurred with the +most reasonable opinion, and though he was not of many wordes, and +was not quicke in hearinge, yett upon any action, he was sprightly and +commaunded well; The Prince was rough, and passionate and loved not +debate, liked what was proposed, as he liked the persons who proposed +it, and was so greate an enimy to Digby and Culpeper, who were only +present in debates of the Warr with the Officers, that he crossed all +they proposed. The truth is, all the Army had bene disposed from the +first raysinge it, to a neglecte and contempt of the Councell, and +the Kinge himselfe had not bene sollicitous enough to praeserve the +respecte due to it, in which he lost of his owne dignity. Goringe who +was now Generall of the Horse, was no more gratious to Prince Rupert +then Wilmott had bene, and had all the others faults, and wanted his +regularity and preservinge his respects with the officers; Wilmott +loved deboshry, but shutt it out from his businesse, and never +neglected that, and rarely miscarryed in it; Goringe had much a better +understandinge, and a sharper witt, except in the very exercise of +deboshry, and then the other was inspired, a much keener courage, and +presentnesse of minde in daunger; Wilmott decerned it farther off, and +because he could not behave himselfe so well in it, commonly prevented +or warily declined it, and never dranke when he was within distance of +an enimy; Goringe was not able to resist the temptation when he was in +the middle of them, nor would declyne it to obtayne a victory, and in +one of those fitts had suffer'd the Horse to escape out of Cornwall, +and the most signall misfortunes of his life in warr, had ther ryse +from that uncontrolable licence; nether of them valewed ther promises, +professions or frendshipps, accordinge to any rules of honour or +integrity, but Wilmott violated them the lesse willingly, and never +but for some greate benefitt or convenience to himself, Goringe +without scruple out of humour or for witt sake, and loved no man so +well, but that he would cozen him, and then expose him to publicke +mirth, for havinge bene cozened, and therfore he had always fewer +frends then the other, but more company, for no man had a witt that +pleased the company better: The ambitions of both were unlimited, and +so aequally incapable of beinge contented, and both unrestrayned by +any respecte to good nature or justice from pursuinge the satisfaction +therof, yett Willmott had more scruples from religion to startle him, +and would not have attayned his end, by any grosse or fowle acte of +wickednesse; Goringe could have passed through those pleasantly, and +would without hesitation have broken any trust, or done any acte of +treachery, to have satisfyed an ordinary passion or appetite, and in +truth wanted nothinge but industry, for he had witt, and courage and +understandinge, and ambition uncontroled by any feare of god or man, +to have bene as eminent and succesfull in the highest attempt in +wickednesse of any man in the age he lyved in, or before, and of all +his qualifications, dissimulation was his masterpiece, in which he +so much excelled, that men were not ordinaryly ashamed or out of +countenance with beinge deceaved but twice by him. + + + + +33. + +JOHN HAMPDEN. + +_Born 1594. Mortally wounded at Chalgrove Field_ 1643 + +By CLARENDON. + + +Many men observed (as upon signall turnes of greate affayres, as this +was, such observations are frequently made) that the Feild in which +the late skirmish was, and upon which Mr. Hambden receaved his +deaths-wounde, (Chalgrove Feilde) was the same place, in which he had +first executed the Ordinance of the Militia, and engaged that County, +in which his reputation was very greate, in this rebellion, and it was +confessed by the prysoners that were taken that day, and acknowledged +by all, that upon the Alarum that morninge, after ther quarters were +beaten up, he was exceedingly sollicitous to draw forces togither +to pursue the enimy, and beinge himselfe a Collonell of foote putt +himselfe amongst those horse as a volunteere who were first ready, and +that when the Prince made a stande, all the officers were of opinion +to stay till ther body came up, and he alone (beinge secounde to none +but the Generall himselfe in the observance and application of all +men) perswaded and praevayled with them to advance, so violently +did his fate carry him to pay the mulcte in the place, wher he had +committed the transgressyon, aboute a yeere before. + +He was a gentleman of a good family in Buckinghamshyre, and borne to +a fayre fortune, and of a most civill and affable deportment. In his +entrance into the world, he indulged to himselfe all the licence in +sportes and exercises, and company, which was used by men of the +most jolly conversation; afterwards he retired to a more reserved +and melancholique society, yet prseservinge his owne naturall +cheerefulnesse and vivacity, and above all a flowinge courtesy to all +men; Though they who conversed neerely with him founde him growinge +into a dislike of the Ecclesiasticall goverment of the church, yet +most believed it rather a dislike of some Churchmen, and of some +introducements of thers which he apprehended might disquyett the +publique peace: He was rather of reputation in his owne Country, then +of publique discource or fame in the Kingdome, before the businesse +of Shippmony, but then he grew the argument of all tounges, every man +enquyringe who and what he was, that durst at his owne charge supporte +the liberty and property of the kingdome, and reskue his Country +from beinge made a prey to the Courte; his carriage throughout that +agitation was with that rare temper and modesty, that they who watched +him narrowly to finde some advantage against his person to make +him lesse resolute in his cause, were compelled to give him a just +testimony: and the judgement that was given against him infinitely +more advanced him, then the service for which it was given. When this +Parliament begann (beinge returned Knight of the Shyre for the County +wher he lived) the eyes of all men were fixed on him as their Patriae +Pater, and the Pilott that must steere ther vessell through the +tempests and Rockes which threatned it: And I am perswaded his power +and interest at that tyme was greater, to doe good or hurte, then any +mans in the kingdome, or then any man of his ranke hath had in any +tyme: for his reputation of honesty was universall, and his affections +seemed so publiquely guyded, that no corrupte or pryvate ends could +byasse them. + +He was of that rare affability and temper in debate, and of that +seeminge humillity and submissyon of judgement, as if he brought no +opinyons with him, but a desyre of information and instruction, yet he +had so subtle a way of interrogatinge, and under the notion of doubts, +insinuatinge his objections, that he left his opinions with those, +from whome he pretended to learne and receave them; and even with +them, who were able to praeserve themselves from his infusions, and +decerned those opinions to be fixed in him, with which they could +not comply, he alwayes left the character of an ingenious and +conscientious person. He was indeede a very wise man, and of greate +partes, and possessed with the most absolute spiritt of popularity, +that is the most absolute facultyes to governe the people, of any man +I ever knew. For the first yeere of the parliament he seemed rather +to moderate and soften the violent and distempred humours, then +to inflame them, but wise and dispassioned men playnely decerned, +that that moderation proceeded from prudence, and observation that +the season was not rype, [rather] then that he approoved of the +moderation, and that he begatt many opinions and motions the education +wherof he committed to other men, so farr disguisinge his owne +designes that he seemed seldome to wish more then was concluded, +and in many grosse conclutions which would heareafter contribute +to designes not yet sett on foote, when he founde them sufficiently +backed by majority of voyces, he would withdraw himselfe before +the questyon, that he might seeme not to consent to so much visible +unreasonablenesse, which produced as greate a doubte in some, as it +did approbation in others of his integrity: What combination soever +had bene originaly with the Scotts for the invasion of England, and +what farther was enter'd into afterwards, in favour of them, and to +advance any alteration in Parliament, no man doubles was at least with +the privity of this gent[l]eman. + +After he was amongst those members accused by the Kinge of High +treason, he was much altred, his nature and carriage seeminge much +feircer then it did before; and without question when he first drew +his sworde, he threw away the scabberd, for he passionately opposed +the overture made by the Kinge for a treaty from Nottingham, and as +eminently any expedients that might have produced an accommodation in +this that was at Oxforde, and was principally relyed on to praevent any +infusions which might be made into the Earle of Essex towards peace, +or to render them ineffectuall if they were made; and was indeede much +more relyed on by that party, then the Generall himselfe. In the first +entrance into the troubles he undertooke the commande of a Regiment +of foote, and performed the duty of a Collonell on all occasyons most +punctually: He was very temperate in dyett, and a supreme governour +over all his passyons and affections, and had therby a greate power +over other mens: He was of an industry and vigilance not to be tyred +out, or wearyed by the most laborious, and of partes not to be imposed +upon by the most subtle or sharpe, and of a personall courage aequal to +his best partes, so that he was an enimy not to be wished wherever he +might have bene made a frende, and as much to be apprehended wher he +was so, as any man could deserve to be, and therfore his death was +no lesse congratulated on the one party then it was condoled on the +other. In a worde, what was sayd of Cinna, might well be applyed +to him, Erat illi consilium ad facinus aptum, consilio autem neque +lingua neque manus deerat, he had a heade to contryve, and a tounge +to perswade, and a hande to exequte any mischieve; his death therfore +seemed to be a greate deliverance to the nation. + + + + +34. + +JOHN PYM. + +_Born 1584. Died 1643._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Aboute this tyme the Councells at Westminster lost a principle +supporter, by the death of John Pimm, who dyed with greate torment and +agony, of a disease unusuall, and therfore the more spoken of, morbus +pediculosus, which rendred him an objecte very lothsome, to those who +had bene most delighted with him. Noe man had more to answer for the +miseryes of the Kingdome, or had his hande or heade deeper in ther +contrivance, and yet I believe they grew much higher even in his life, +then he designed. He was a man of a private quality and condition of +life, his education in the office of the Exchequer, wher he had bene +a Clerke, and his partes rather acquired by industry, then supplyed +by nature, or adorned by Arte. He had bene well knowen in former +Parliaments and was one of those few who had sate in many, the longe +intermissyon of Parliaments havinge worne out most of those who +had bene acquainted with the rules and orders observed in those +conventions, and this gave him some reputation and reverence amongst +those, who were but now introduced. He had bene most taken notice of, +for beinge concerned and passyonate in the jealosyes of religion, +and much troubled with the Countenance which had bene given to those +opinions which had bene imputed to Arminius; and this gave him greate +authority and interest with those, who were not pleased with the +goverment of the Church, or the growinge power of the Clargy, yet +himselfe industriously tooke care to be believed, and he professed +to be, very intire to the doctryne and disciplyne of the Church of +Englande. In the shorte Parliament before this, he spake much, and +appeared to be the most leadinge man, for besydes the exacte knowledge +of the formes and orders of that Councell, which few men had, he had +a very comely and grave way of expressinge himselfe, with greate +volubility of wordes, naturall and proper, and understoode the temper +and affections of the kingdome as well as any man, and had observed +the errors and mistakes in goverment, and knew well how to make them +appeare greater then they were. After the unhappy dissolution of +that Parliament he continued for the most parte about London, in +conversation and greate repute amongst those Lords, who were most +strangers, and believed most averse from the Courte, in whome he +improoved all imaginable jealosyes and discontents towards the State, +and as soone as this Parliament was resolved to be summoned, he was as +diligent to procure such persons to be elected, as he knew to be most +inclined to the way he meant to take. + +At the first openinge of this Parliament he appeared passyonate +and prepared against the Earle of Straforde, and though in private +designinge he was much governed by M'r Hambden and M'r S't John, yet +he seemed to all men to have the greatest influence upon the house +of Commons of any man, and in truth I thinke he was at that tyme and +for some moneths after the most popular man, and the most able to +do hurte, that hath lived in any tyme. Upon the first designe of +softninge and oblieginge the powerfull persons in both houses, when +it was resolved to make the Earle of Bedford Lord High Treasurer of +Englande, the Kinge likewise intended to make M'r Pimm Chancellour of +the Exchequer, for which he receaved his Majestys promise, and made +a returne of a suitable professyon of his service and devotion, and +therupon, the other beinge no secrett, somewhat declyned from that +sharpnesse in the house, which was more popular then any mans person, +and made some overtures to provyde for the glory and splendor of +the Crowne, in which he had so ill successe, that his interest and +reputation ther visibly abated, and he founde that he was much better +able to do hurte then good, which wrought very much upon him, to +melancholique, and complainte of the violence and discomposure of +the peoples affections and inclinations; in the end, whether upon +the death of the Earle of Bedford he despayred of that praeferment, or +whether he was guilty of any thinge, which upon his conversyon to the +Courte he thought might be discovered to his damage, or for pure want +of courage, he suffred himselfe to be carryed by those who would not +follow him, and so continued in the heade of those who made the most +desperate propositions. + +In the proseqution of the Earle of Straforde, his carriage and +language was such, that expressed much personall animosity, and he +was accused of havinge practiced some Artes in it, not worthy a +good man, as an Irishman of very meane and low condition afterwards +acknowledged, that beinge brought to him as an evidence of one parte +of the charge against the Lord Lieuetenant in a particular of which a +person of so vyle quality would not be reasonably thought a competent +informer, M'r Pimm gave him mony to buy him a Sattyn Sute and Cloke, in +which equipage he appeared at the tryall, and gave his evidence, which +if true, may make many other thinges which were confidently reported +afterwards of him, to be believed: As, that he receaved a greate Summ +of mony from the French Ambassadour, to hinder the transportation of +those Regiments of Irelande into Flanders, upon the disbandinge that +Army ther, which had bene praepared by the Earle of Straforde for +the businesse of Scotlande, in which if his Majestys derections and +commands had not bene deverted and contradicted by the houses, many +do believe the rebellyon in Irelande had not happend. Certayne it +is, that his power of doinge shrewd turnes was extraordinary, and no +lesse in doinge good offices for particular persons, and that he did +praeserve many from censure, who were under the seveare displeasure of +the houses, and looked upon as eminent Delinquents, and the quality +of many of them made it believed, that he had sold that protection for +valewable consideration. From the tyme of his beinge accused of High +Treason by the Kinge, with the Lord Kimbolton and the other Members, +he never intertayned thoughts of moderation, but alwayes opposed all +overtures of peace and accommodation, and when the Earle of Essex was +disposed the last Summer by those Lords to an inclination towards +a treaty as is before remembred, M'r Pymms power and dexterity wholy +changed him, and wrought him to that temper which he afterwards +swarved not from. He was wounderfully sollicitous for the Scotts +comminge in to ther assistance, though his indisposition of body was +so greate, that it might well have made another impressyon upon his +minde. Duringe his sicknesse he was a very sadd spectacle, but none +beinge admitted to him, who had not concurred with him, it is not +knowne what his last thoughts and considerations were. He dyed towards +the end of December, before the Scotts entred, and was buryed with +wounderfull Pompe and Magnificence in that Place where the Bones of +our English Kings and Princes are committed to ther rest. + + + + +35. + +OLIVER CROMWELL. + +_Born 1599. Lord Protector 1653. Died 1658._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Crumwell (though the greatest Dissembler livinge) alwayes made his +hypocrisy of singular use and benefitt to him, and never did any +thinge, how ungratious or imprudent soever it seemed to be, but what +was necessary to the designe; even his roughnesse and unpolishednesse +which in the beginninge of the Parliament he affected, contrary to +the smoothnesse and complacency which his Cozen and bosome frende +M'r Hambden practiced towards all men, was necessary, and his first +publique declaration in the beginninge of the Warr, to his troope when +it was first mustered,--that he would not deceave or cozen them by +the perplexed and involved exspressions in his Commissyon to fight for +Kinge and Parliament, and therfore told them that if the Kinge chanced +to be in the body of the enimy that he was to charge, he woulde as +soone discharge his pistoll upon him, as at any other private person, +and if ther conscience would not permitt them to do the like, he +advized them not to list themselves in his troope or under his +commaunde,--which was generally looked upon, as imprudent and +malicious, and might by the professyons the Parliament then made, +have prooved daungerous to him, yett served his turne, and severed and +united all the furious and incensed men against the goverment, whether +Ecclesiasticall or Civill, to looke upon him as a man for ther turne, +and upon whome they might depende, as one who would go through his +worke that he undertooke; and his stricte and unsociable humour in not +keepinge company with the other officers of the Army in ther jollityes +and excesses, to which most of the superiour officers under the Earle +of Essex were inclined, and by which he often made himselfe ridiculous +or contemptible, drew all those of the like sowre or reserved natures +to his society and conversation, and gave him opportunity to forme +ther understandings, inclinations, and resolutions to his owne modell; +and by this he grew to have a wounderfull interest in the Common +souldyers, out of which, as his authority increased, he made all +his Officers, well instructed how to lyve in the same manner with +ther Souldyers, that they might be able to apply them to ther owne +purposes. Whilst he looked upon the Presbiterian humour as the best +incentive to rebellion, no man more a Presbiterian, he sunge all +Psalmes with them to ther tunes, and looved the longest sermons as +much as they: but when he discover'd, that they would prescribe some +limitts and bounds to ther rebellion, that it was not well breathed, +and would expyre as soone as some few particulars were granted to them +in religion which he cared not for, and then that the goverment must +runn still in the same channell, it concerned him to make it believed, +that the State had bene more Delinquent, then the Church, and that the +people suffer'd more by the civill, then by the Ecclesiasticall power, +and therfore that the change of one would give them little ease, if +ther were not as greate an alteration in the other, and if the whole +goverment in both were not reformed and altred; which though it made +him generally odious and irreconciled many of his old frends to him, +yett it made those who remayned more cordiall and firme to him, and +he could better compute his owne strengtht, and upon whome he might +depende; and this discovery made him contryve the Modell, which was +the most unpopular acte, and disoblieged all those who first contryved +the rebellyon, and who were the very soule of it; and yett if he had +not brought that to passe and chaunged a Generall, who though not very +sharpesighted would never be governed, nor applyed to any thinge he +did not like, for another who had no eyes, and so would be willinge to +be ledd, all his designes must have come to nothinge, and he remayned +a private Collonell of horse, not considerable enough to be in any +figure upon an advantagious composition. + + + + +36. + +By CLARENDON. + + +He was one of those men, quos vituperare ne inimici quidem possunt, +nisi ut simul laudent, for he could never have done halfe that +mischieve, without greate partes of courage and industry and +judgement, and he must have had a wounderfull understandinge in the +natures and humours of men, and as greate a dexterity in the applyinge +them, who from a private and obscure birth, (though of a good family) +without interest of estate, allyance or frendshipps, could rayse +himselfe to such a height, and compounde and kneade such opposite and +contradictory tempers humour and interests, into a consistence, that +contributed to his designes and to ther owne destruction, whilst +himselfe grew insensibly powerfull enough, to cutt off those by whome +he had climed, in the instant, that they projected to demolish ther +owne buildinge. What Velleius Paterculus sayd of Cinna, may very +justly be sayd of him, Ausum eum quae nemo auderet bonus, perfecisse +quae a nullo nisi fortissimo perfici possunt. Without doubte, no man +with more wickednesse ever attempted any thinge, or brought to passe +what he desyred more wickedly, more in the face and contempt of +religion and morall honesty, yet wickednesse as greate as his could +never have accomplish'd those trophees without the assistance of a +greate spiritt, an admirable circumspection and sagacity, and a most +magnanimous resolution. When he appeared first in the Parliament +he seemed to have a person in no degree gratious, no ornament of +discource, none of those talents which use to reconcile the affections +of the standers by, yett as he grew into place and authority, his +partes seemed to be renew[d], as if he had concealed facultyes till +he had occasion to use them; and when he was to acte the parte of +a greate man, he did it without any indecensy through the wante of +custome.... + +He was not a man of bloode, and totally declined Machiavells methode, +which prescribes upon any alteration of a goverment, as a thinge +absolutely necessary, to cutt of all the heades of those and extirpate +ther familyes, who are frends to the old, and it was confidently +reported that in the Councell of Officers, it was more then once +proposed, that ther might be a generall massacre of all the royall +party, as the only exspedient to secure the goverment, but Crumwell +would never consent to it, it may be out of to much contempt of his +enimyes; In a worde, as he had all the wickednesses against which +damnation is denounced and for which Hell fyre is praepared, so he had +some virtues, which have caused the memory of some men in all ages to +be celebrated, and he will be looked upon by posterity, as a brave, +badd man. + + + + +37. + +By SIR PHILIP WARWICK. + + +I have no mind to give an ill character of Cromwell; for in his +conversation towards me he was ever friendly; tho' at the latter end +of the day finding me ever incorrigible, and having some inducements +to suspect me a tamperer, he was sufficiently rigid. The first time, +that ever I took notice of him, was in the very beginning of the +Parliament held in November 1640, when I vainly thought my selfe a +courtly young Gentleman: (for we Courtiers valued our selves much +upon our good cloaths.) I came one morning into the House well clad, +and perceived a Gentleman speaking (whom I knew not) very ordinarily +apparelled; for it was a plain cloth-sute, which seemed to have bin +made by an ill country-taylor; his linen was plain, and not very +clean; and I remember a speck or two of blood upon his little band, +which was not much larger than his collar; his hatt was without a +hatt-band: his stature was of a good size, his sword stuck close +to his side, his countenance swoln and reddish, his voice sharp and +untunable, and his eloquence full of fervor; for the subject matter +would not bear much of reason; it being in behalfe of a servant of Mr. +Prynn's, who had disperst libells against the Queen for her dancing +and such like innocent and courtly sports; and he aggravated the +imprisonment of this man by the Council-Table unto that height, that +one would have beleived, the very Goverment it selfe had been in great +danger by it. I sincerely professe it lessened much my reverence unto +that great councill; for he was very much hearkened unto. And yet I +liv'd to see this very Gentleman, whom out of no ill will to him I +thus describe, by multiplied good successes, and by reall (but usurpt) +power: (having had a better taylor, and more converse among good +company) in my owne eye, when for six weeks together I was a prisoner +in his serjeant's hands, and dayly waited at Whitehall, appeare of a +great and majestick deportment and comely presence. Of him therefore +I will say no more, but that verily I beleive, he was extraordinarily +designed for those extraordinary things, which one while most wickedly +and facinorously he acted, and at another as succesfully and greatly +performed. + + + + +38. + +By JOHN MAIDSTON. + + +His body was wel compact and strong, his stature under 6 foote (I +beleeve about two inches) his head so shaped, as you might see it +a storehouse and shop both of a vast treasury of natural parts. His +temper exceeding fyery, as I have known, but the flame of it kept +downe, for the most part, or soon allayed with thos moral endowments +he had. He was naturally compassionate towards objects in distresse, +even to an effeminate measure; though God had made him a heart, +wherein was left little roume for any fear, but what was due to +himselfe, of which there was a large proportion, yet did he exceed in +tendernesse towards sufferers. A larger soul, I thinke, hath seldome +dwelt in a house of clay than his was. I do believe, if his story were +impartialy transmitted, and the unprejudiced world wel possest with +it, she would adde him to her nine worthies, and make up that number +a decemviri. He lived and dyed in comfortable communion with God, as +judicious persons neer him wel observed. He was that Mordecai that +sought the welfare of his people, and spake peace to his seed, yet +were his temptations such, as it appeared frequently, that he, that +hath grace enough for many men, may have too little for himselfe; +the treasure he had being but in an earthen vessel, and that equally +defiled with original sin, as any other man's nature is. + + + + +39. + +By RICHARD BAXTER + + +Never man was highlier extolled, and never man was baselier reported +of, and vilified than this man. No (meer) man was _better_ and _worse_ +spoken of than he; according as mens Interests led their Judgments. +The Soldiers and Sectaries most highly magnified him, till he began +to seek the Crown and the Establishment of his Family: And then there +were so many that would be Half-Kings themselves, that a King did seem +intollerable to them. The Royalists abhorred him as a most perfidious +Hypocrite; and the Presbyterians thought him little better, in his +management of publick matters. + +If after so many others I may speak my Opinion of him, I think, +that, having been a Prodigal in his Youth, and afterward changed to +a zealous Religiousness, he meant honestly in the main, and was pious +and conscionable in the main course of his Life, till Prosperity and +Success corrupted him: that, at his first entrance into the Wars, +being but a Captain of Horse, he had a special care to get religious +men into his Troop: These men were of greater understanding than +common Soldiers, and therefore were more apprehensive of the +Importance and Consequence of the War; and making not Money, but that +which they took for the Publick Felicity, to be their End, they were +the more engaged to be valiant; for he that maketh Money his End, doth +esteem his Life above his Pay, and therefore is like enough to save +it by flight when danger comes, if possibly he can: But he that maketh +the Felicity of Church and State his End, esteemeth it above his Life, +and therefore will the sooner lay down his Life for it. And men of +Parts and Understanding know how to manage their business, and know +that flying is the surest way to death, and that standing to it is the +likeliest way to escape; there being many usually that fall in flight, +for one that falls in valiant fight. These things it's probable +_Cromwell_ understood; and that none would be such engaged valiant +men as the Religious: But yet I conjecture, that at his first choosing +such men into his Troop, it was the very Esteem and Love of Religious +men that principally moved him; and the avoiding of those Disorders, +Mutinies, Plunderings, and Grievances of the Country, which deboist +men in Armies are commonly guilty of: By this means he indeed sped +better than he expected. _Aires_, _Desborough_, _Berry_, _Evanson_, +and the rest of that Troop, did prove so valiant, that as far as I +could learn, they never once ran away before an Enemy. Hereupon he got +a Commission to take some care of the Associated Counties, where he +brought his Troop into a double Regiment, of fourteen full Troops; and +all these as full of religious men as he could get: These having more +than ordinary Wit and Resolution, had more than ordinary Success; +first in _Lincolnshire_, and afterward in the Earl of _Manchester's_ +Army at _York_ Fight: With their Successes the Hearts both of Captain +and Soldiers secretly rise both in Pride and Expectation: And the +familiarity of many honest erroneous Men (Anabaptists, Antinomians, +&c.) withal began quickly to corrupt their Judgments. Hereupon +_Cromwell's_ general Religious Zeal, giveth away to the power of that +Ambition, which still increaseth as his Successes do increase: Both +Piety and Ambition concurred in his countenancing of all that he +thought Godly of what Sect soever: Piety pleadeth for them as _Godly_; +and _Charity_ as Men; and Ambition secretly telleth him what use he +might make of them. He meaneth well in all this at the beginning, +and thinketh he doth all for the Safety of the Godly, and the Publick +Good, but not without an Eye to himself. + +When Successes had broken down all considerable opposition, he was +then in the face of his Strongest Temptations, which conquered him +when he had conquered others: He thought that he had hitherto done +well, both as to the _End_ and _Means_, and God by the wonderful +Blessing of his Providence had owned his endeavours, and it was +none but God that had made him great: He thought that if the War was +lawful, the Victory was lawful; and if it were lawful to fight against +the King and conquer him, it was lawful to use him as a conquered +Enemy, and a foolish thing to trust him when they had so provoked him, +(whereas indeed the Parliament professed neither to fight against him, +nor to conquer him). He thought that the Heart of the King was deep, +and that he resolved upon Revenge, and that if he were King, he would +easily at one time or other accomplish it; and that it was a dishonest +thing of the Parliament to set men to fight for them against the King, +and then to lay their Necks upon the block, and be at his Mercy; and +that if that must be their Case, it was better to flatter or please +him, than to fight against him. He saw that the _Scots_ and the +Presbyterians in the Parliament, did by the Covenant and the Oath +of Allegiance, find themselves bound to the Person and Family of the +King, and that there was no hope of changing their minds in this: +Hereupon he joyned with that Party in the Parliament who were for the +Cutting off the King, and trusting him no more. And consequently he +joyned with them in raising the Independants to make a Fraction in +the Synod at _Westminster_ and in the City; and in strengthening the +Sectaries in Army, City and Country, and in rendering the _Scots_ and +Ministers as odious as he could, to disable them from hindering the +Change of Government. In the doing of all this, (which _Distrust_ and +_Ambition_ had perswaded him was well done) he thought it lawful to +use his Wits, to choose each Instrument, and suit each means, unto its +end; and accordingly he daily imployed himself, and modelled the Army, +and disbanded all other Garrisons and Forces and Committees, which +were like to have hindered his design. And as he went on, though he +yet resolved not what form the New Commonwealth should be molded into, +yet he thought it but reasonable, that he should be the Chief Person +who had been chief in their Deliverance; (For the Lord _Fairfax_ he +knew had but the Name). At last, as he thought it lawful to cut off +the King, because he thought he was lawfully conquered, so he thought +it lawful to fight against the _Scots_ that would set him up, and to +pull down the Presbyterian Majority in the Parliament, which would +else by restoring him undo all which had cost them so much Blood and +Treasure. And accordingly he conquereth _Scotland_, and pulleth down +the Parliament: being the easilier perswaded that all this was lawful, +because he had a secret Byas and Eye towards his own Exaltation: +For he (and his Officers) thought, that when the King was gone a +Government there must be; and that no Man was so fit for it as he +himself; as best _deserving_ it, and as having by his _Wit_ and great +_Interest_ in the Army, the best sufficiency to manage it: Yea, they +thought that _God had called_ them by _Successes_ to _Govern and take +Care_ of the Commonwealth, and of the Interest of all his People in +the Land; and that if they stood by and suffered the Parliament to do +that which they thought was dangerous, it would be required at their +hands, whom they thought God had made the Guardians of the Land. + +Having thus forced his Conscience to justifie all his Cause, (the +Cutting off the King, the setting up himself and his Adherents, the +pulling down the Parliament and the _Scots_,) he thinketh that the +End being good and necessary, the necessary means cannot be bad: And +accordingly he giveth his Interest and Cause leave to tell him, how +far Sects shall be tollerated and commended, and how far not; and how +far the Ministry shall be owned and supported, and how far not; yea, +and how far Professions, Promises, and Vows shall be kept, or broken; +and therefore the Covenant he could not away with; nor the Ministers, +further than they yielded to his Ends, or did not openly resist them. +He seemed exceeding open hearted, by a familiar Rustick affected +Carriage, (especially to his Soldiers in sporting with them): but he +thought Secrecy a Vertue, and Dissimulation no Vice, and Simulation, +that is, in plain English a Lie, or Perfidiousness to be a tollerable +Fault in a Case of Necessity: being of the same Opinion with the +Lord _Bacon_, (who was not so Precise as Learned) That [_the best +Composition and Temperature is, to have openness in Fame and Opinion, +Secrecy in habit, Dissimulation in seasonable use; and a power to +feign if there be no remedy,_] _Essay_ 6. _pag._ 31. Therefore he kept +fair with all, saving his open or unreconcileable Enemies. He carried +it with such Dissimulation, that Anabaptists, Independants, and +Antinomians did all think that he was one of them: But he never +endeavoured to perswade the Presbyterians that he was one of them; +but only that he would do them Justice, and Preserve them, and that +he honoured their Worth and Piety; for he knew that they were not so +easily deceived. In a word, he did as our Prelates have done, begin +low and rise higher in his Resolutions as his Condition rose, and the +Promises which he made in his lower Condition, he used as the interest +of his higher following Condition did require, and kept up as much +Honesty and Godliness in the main, as his Cause and Interest would +allow. + + + + +40. + +SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX. + +_Born 1612. Died 1671_. + +By RICHARD BAXTER. + + +And these things made the new modelling of the Army to be resolved +on. But all the Question was how to effect it, without stirring up +the Forces against them which they intended to disband: And all this +was notably dispatcht at once, by One Vote, which was called the +_Self-denying Vote_, viz. That because Commands in the Army had much +pay, and Parliament Men should keep to the Service of the House, +therefore no Parliament Men should be Members of the Army.... + +When this was done, the next Question was, Who should be Lord General, +and what new Officers should be put in, or old ones continued? And +here the Policy of _Vane_ and _Cromwell_ did its best: For General +they chose Sir _Thomas Fairfax_, Son of the Lord _Ferdinando Fairfax_, +who had been in the Wars beyond Sea, and had fought valiantly in +_Yorkshire_ for the Parliament, though he was over-powered by the Earl +of _Newcastle's_, Numbers. This Man was chosen because they supposed +to find him a Man of no quickness of Parts, of no Elocution, of no +suspicious plotting Wit, and therefore One that _Cromwell_ could make +use of at his pleasure. And he was acceptable to sober Men, because +he was Religious, Faithful, Valiant, and of a grave, sober, resolved +Disposition; very fit for Execution, and neither too Great nor too +Cunning to be Commanded by the Parliament. + + + + +41. + +SIR HENRY VANE, THE YOUNGER. + +_Born 1613. Beheaded 1662._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The other, S'r H. Vane, was a man of greate naturall parts, and of +very profounde dissimulation, of a quicke conception, and very ready +sharpe and weighty exspression. He had an unusuall aspecte, which +though it might naturally proceede both from his father and mother, +nether of which were beautifull persons, yett made men thinke ther was +somewhat in him of extraordinary, and his whole life made good that +imagination. Within a very shorte tyme after he returned from his +studyes in Magdalen Colledge in Oxforde, wher, though he was under the +care of a very worthy Tutour, he lyved not with greate exactnesse, he +spent some little tyme in France, and more in Geneva, and after his +returne into Englande, contracted a full praejudice and bitternesse +against the Church, both against the forme of the goverment and the +lyturgy, which was generally in greate reverence, even with many of +those, who were not frends to the other. In this giddinesse which then +much displeased, or seemed to displease his father, who still appeared +highly conformable, and exceedingly sharpe against those who were not, +he transported himselfe into New Englande, a Colony within few yeeres +before planted by a mixture of all religions, which disposed the +professors to dislike the goverment of the church, who were qualifyed +by the Kings Charter to chuse ther owne goverment and governors, under +the obligation that every man should take the othes of Allegiance and +Supremacy, which all the first planters did, when they receaved ther +charter, before they transported themselves from hence, nor was ther +in many yeeres after the least scruple amongst them of complyinge with +those obligations, so farr men were in the infancy of ther schisme, +from refusinge to take lawfull othes. He was no sooner landed ther, +but his partes made him quickly taken notice of, and very probably his +quality, beinge the eldest sunn of a Privy Councellour, might give +him some advantage, insomuch that when the next season came for the +election of ther Magistrates, he was chosen ther governour, in which +place he had so ill fortune, his workinge and unquyett fancy raysinge +and infusinge a thousande scruples of conscience which they had not +brought over with them, nor hearde of before, that he unsatisfyed +with them, and they with him, he retransported himselfe into +Englande, havinge sowed such seede of dissention ther, as grew up to +prosperously, and miserably devyded the poore Colony into severall +factions and devisions and persequtions of each other, which still +continue to the greate prejudice of that plantation, insomuch as +some of them, upon the grounde of ther first exspedition, liberty of +conscience, have withdrawne themselves from ther jurisdiction, and +obtayned other Charters from the Kinge, by which in other formes of +goverment they have inlarged ther plantations within new limitts, +adjacent to the other. He was no sooner returned into Englande, then +he seemed to be much reformed in those extravagancyes, and with his +fathers approbation and direction marryed a Lady of a good family, +and by his fathers creditt with the Earle of Northumberland, who was +high Admirall of Englande, was joyned presently and joyntly with S'r +William Russell in the office of Treasurer of the Navy, a place of +greate trust, and profitt, which he aequally shared with the other, and +seemed a man well satisfyed and composed to the goverment. When his +father receaved the disobligation from the L'd Straforde, by his +beinge created Baron of Raby, the house and lande of Vane, and which +title he had promised himselfe, which was unluckily cast upon him, +purely out of contempt, they sucked in all the thoughts of revenge +imaginable, and from thence he betooke himselfe to the frendshipp +of M'r Pimm and all other discontented or seditious persons, and +contributed all that intelligence, which will be hereafter mentioned, +as he himselfe will often be, that designed the ruine of the Earle, +and which grafted him in the intire confidence of those, who promoted +the same, so that nothinge was concealed from him, though it is +believed that he communicated his owne thoughts to very few. + + + + +42. + +By CLARENDON. + + +Ther hath bene scarce any thinge more wounderfull throughout the +progresse of these distractions, then that this Covenant did with such +extraordinary exspedition passe the two houses, when all the leadinge +persons in those Councells were at the same tyme knowne to be as +greate enimyes to Presbitery (the establishment wherof was the sole +end of this Covenant) as they were to the Kinge or the Church, and +he who contributed most to it, and who in truth was the Principle +contriver of it, and the man by whome the Committee in Scotlande was +intirely and stupidly governed, S'r Harry Vane, the younger, was not +afterwards knowne to abhorr the Covenant and the Presbiterians [more] +then he was at that very tyme knowne to do, and laughed at them then, +as much as ever he did afterwards. + +He[1] was indeede a man of extraordinary parts, a pleasant witt, a +greate understandinge, which pierced into and decerned the purposes +of other men with wounderfull sagacity, whilst he had himselfe vultum +clausum, that no man could make a guesse of what he intended; he was +of a temper not to be mooved, and of rare dissimulation, and could +comply when it was not seasonable to contradicte without loosinge +grounde by the condescention, and if he were not superiour to M'r +Hambden, he was inferiour to no other man in all misterious artifices. +Ther neede no more be sayd of his ability, then that he was chosen +to cozen and deceave a whole nation, which excelled in craft and +dissemblinge, which he did with notable pregnancy and dexterity, and +praevayled with a people, which could not be otherwise praevayled upon, +then by advancinge ther Idoll Presbitery, to sacrifice ther peace, +ther interest, and ther fayth, to the erectinge a power and authority, +that resolved to persequte presbitery to an extirpation, and very +neere brought ther purpose to passe. + +[Footnote 1: Before 'He was indeede' Clarendon had written 'S'r Harry +Vane the yonger, was on of the Commissyoners, and therfore the other +neede not be named, since he was All in any businesse wher others +were joyned with him.' He cancelled this on adding the preceding +paragraph.] + + + + +43. + +COLONEL JOHN HUTCHINSON, + +_Governor of Nottingham._ + +_Born 1615. Died 1664._ + +By LUCY HUTCHINSON, his widow. + + +He was of a middle stature, of a slender and exactly well-proportion'd +shape in all parts, his complexion fair, his hayre of a light browne, +very thick sett in his youth, softer then the finest silke, curling +into loose greate rings att the ends, his eies of a lively grey, +well-shaped and full of life and vigour, graced with many becoming +motions, his visage thinne, his mouth well made, and his lipps very +ruddy and gracefull, allthough the nether chap shut over the upper, +yett it was in such a manner as was not unbecoming, his teeth were +even and white as the purest ivory, his chin was something long, and +the mold of his face, his forehead was not very high, his nose was +rays'd and sharpe, but withall he had a most amiable countenance, +which carried in it something of magnanimity and majesty mixt with +sweetnesse, that at the same time bespoke love and awe in all that +saw him; his skin was smooth and white, his legs and feete excellently +well made, he was quick in his pace and turnes, nimble and active and +gracefull in all his motions, he was apt for any bodily exercise, and +any that he did became him, he could dance admirably well, but neither +in youth nor riper yeares made any practise of it, he had skill in +fencing such as became a gentleman, he had a greate love of musick, +and often diverted himselfe with a violl, on which he play'd +masterly, he had an exact eare and judgement in other musick, he shott +excellently in bowes and gunns, and much us'd them for his exercise, +he had greate judgment in paintings, graving, sculpture, and all +liberal arts, and had many curiosities of vallue in all kinds, he took +greate delight in perspective glasses, and for his other rarities was +not so much affected with the antiquity as the merit of the worke--he +took much pleasure in emproovement of grounds, in planting groves and +walkes, and fruite-trees, in opening springs and making fish-ponds; +of country recreations he lov'd none but hawking, and in that was very +eager and much delighted for the time he us'd it, but soone left it +off; he was wonderful neate, cleanly and gentile in his habitt, and +had a very good fancy in it, but he left off very early the wearing +of aniething that was costly, yett in his plainest negligent habitt +appear'd very much a gentleman; he had more addresse than force of +body, yet the courage of his soule so supplied his members that +he never wanted strength when he found occasion to employ it; his +conversation was very pleasant for he was naturally chearful, had +a ready witt and apprehension; he was eager in every thing he did, +earnest in dispute, but withall very rationall, so that he was seldome +overcome, every thing that it was necessary for him to doe he did with +delight, free and unconstrein'd, he hated cerimonious complement, but +yett had a naturall civillity and complaisance to all people, he was +of a tender constitution, but through the vivacity of his spiritt +could undergo labours, watchings and journeyes, as well as any of +stronger compositions; he was rheumatick, and had a long sicknesse +and distemper occasion'd thereby two or three yeares after the warre +ended, but elce for the latter halfe of his life was healthy tho' +tender, in his youth and childhood he was sickly, much troubled with +weaknesse and tooth akes, but then his spiritts carried him through +them; he was very patient under sicknesse or payne or any common +accidints, but yet upon occasions, though never without just ones, he +would be very angrie, and had even in that such a grace as made him +to be fear'd, yet he was never outragious in passion; he had a very +good facultie in perswading, and would speake very well pertinently +and effectually without premeditation upon the greatest occasions +that could be offer'd, for indeed his judgment was so nice, that he +could never frame any speech beforehand to please himselfe, but his +invention was so ready and wisdome so habituall in all his speeches, +that he never had reason to repent himselfe of speaking at any time +without ranking the words beforehand, he was not talkative yett free +of discourse, of a very spare diett, not much given to sleepe, an +early riser when in health, he never was at any time idle, and hated +to see any one elce soe, in all his naturall and ordinary inclinations +and composure, there was somthing extraordinary and tending to vertue, +beyond what I can describe, or can be gather'd from a bare dead +description; there was a life of spiritt and power in him that is not +to be found in any copie drawne from him: to summe up therefore all +that can be sayd of his outward frame and disposition wee must truly +conclude, that it was a very handsome and well furnisht lodging +prepar'd for the reception of that prince, who in the administration +of all excellent vertues reign'd there awhile, till he was called back +to the pallace of the universall emperor. + + + + +44. + +THE EARL OF ESSEX. + +_Robert Devereux, third Earl of Essex._ + +_Born 1591. Died 1646._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Essex hath bene enough mentioned before, his nature and +his understandinge have bene described, his former disobligations +from the Courte, and then his introduction into it, and afterwards his +beinge displaced from the office he held in it, have bene sett forth, +and ther will be occasion heareaffter to renew the discource of him, +and therfore it shall suffice in this place to say, that a weake +judgement, and a little vanity, and as much of pryde, will hurry a +man into as unwarrantable and as violent attempts, as the greatest and +most unlimited and insaciable ambition will doe. He had no ambition +of title, or office, or praeferment, but only to be kindly looked +upon, and kindly spoken to, and quyetly to injoy his owne fortune, and +without doubte, no man in his nature more abhorred rebellion then he +did, nor could he have bene ledd into it by any open or transparent +temptation, but by a thousand disguises and cozinages. His pryde +supplyed his want of ambition, and he was angry to see any other man +more respected then himselfe, because he thought he deserved it more, +and did better requite it, for he was in his frendshipps just and +constante, and would not have practiced fouly against those he tooke +to be enimyes: no man had creditt enough with him to corrupt him in +pointe of loyalty to the Kinge, whilst he thought himselfe wise enough +to know what treason was. But the new doctrine and distinction of +Allegiance, and of the Kings power in and out of Parliament, and +the new notions of Ordinances, were to hard for him and did really +intoxicate his understandinge, and made him quitt his owne, to follow +thers, who he thought wish'd as well, and judged better then himselfe; +His vanity disposed him to be his Excellence, and his weaknesse to +believe that he should be the Generall in the Houses, as well as in +the Feild, and be able to governe ther councells, and restrayne ther +passyons, as well as to fight ther battles, and that by this meanes +he should become the praeserver and not the destroyer of the Kinge and +Kingdome; and with this ill grounded confidence, he launched out into +that Sea, wher he mett with nothinge but rockes, and shelves, and from +whence he could never discover any safe Porte to harbour in. + + + + +45. + +THE EARL OF SALISBURY. + +_William Cecil, second Earl of Salisbury._ + +_Born 1591. Died 1668._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Salisbury had bene borne and bredd in Courte and had +the Advantage of a descent from a Father and a Grandfather, who had +bene very wise men, and greate Ministers of State in the eyes of +Christendome, whose wisdome and virtues dyed with them, and ther +children only inherited ther titles. He had bene admitted of the +Councell to Kinge James, from which tyme he continued so obsequious +to the Courte, that he never fayled in overactinge all that he was +requyred to do; no acte of power was ever proposed, which he did not +advance, and execute his parte, with the utmost rigour, no man so +greate a tyrant in his country, or was lesse swayed by any motives of +justice or honour; he was a man of no words, except in huntinge and +hawkinge in which he only knew how to behave himselfe, in matters +of State and councell he alwayes concurred in what was proposed for +the Kinge, and cancelled and repayred all those transgressions by +concurringe in all that was proposed against him as soone as any +such propositions were made; yett when the Kinge went to Yorke, he +likewise attended upon his Majesty and at that distance seemed to +have recover'd some courage, and concurred in all councells which +were taken to undeceave the people, and to make the proceedings of the +Parliament odious to all the world; but on a suddayne he caused his +horses to attend him out of the towne, and havinge placed fresh ons +at a distance, he fledd backe to London, with the exspedition such +men use when they are most afrayde, and never after denyed to do any +thinge that was requyred of him, and when the warr was ended, and +Crumwell had putt downe the house of Peeres, he gott himselfe to be +chosen a member of the house of Commons, and sate with them as of +ther owne body, and was esteemed accordingly; in a worde he became +so despicable to all men, that he will hardly ever in joy the ease +which Seneca bequeathed to him: Hic egregiis majoribus ortus est, +qualiscunque est, sub umbra suorum lateat; Ut loca sordida repercussu +solis illustrantur, ita inertes majorum suorum luce resplendeant. + + + + +46. + +THE EARL OF WARWICK. + +_Robert Rich, second Earl of Warwick._ + +_Born 1587. Died 1658._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Warwicke was of the Kings counsell to, but was not +woundred at for leavinge the Kinge, whome he had never served, nor did +he looke upon himselfe as oblieged by that honour, which he knew was +conferred upon him in the crowde of those, whom his Majesty had no +esteeme of, or ever purposed to trust, so his businesse was to joyne +with those, to whome he owed his promotion; he was a man of a pleasant +and companionable witt and conversation, of an universall jollity, and +such a licence in his wordes and in his actions, that a man of lesse +virtue could not be founde out, so that a man might reasonably have +believed, that a man so qualifyed would not have bene able to have +contributed much to the overthrow of a nation, and kingdome; but with +all these faults, he had greate authority and creditt with that people +who in the beginninge of the troubles did all the mischieve; and by +openinge his doores, and makinge his house the Randevooze of all the +silenced Ministers, in the tyme when ther was authority to silence +them, and spendinge a good parte of his estate, of which he was +very prodigall, upon them, and by beinge present with them at ther +devotions, and makinge himselfe merry with them and at them, which +they dispenced with, he became the heade of that party, and gott +the style of a godly man. When the Kinge revoked the Earle of +Northumberlands Commission of Admirall, he presently accepted the +office from the Parliament and never quitted ther service; and +when Crumwell disbanded that Parliament, he betooke himselfe to the +Protection of the Protectour, marryed his Heyre to his daughter, and +lived in so intire a confidence and frendshipp with him, that when he +dyed he had the honour to be exceedingly lamented by him: and left +his estate, which before was subject to a vast debt, more improved and +repayred, then any man, who traffiqued in that desperate commodity of +rebellion. + + + + +47. + +THE EARL OF MANCHESTER. + +_Edward Montagu, created Baron Montagu of Kimbolton 1626, second Earl +of Manchester 1642._ + +_Born 1602. Died 1671._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Manchester, of the whole Caball, was in a thousand +respects most unfitt for the company he kept. He was of a gentle and +a generous nature, civilly bredd, had reverence and affection for the +person of the Kinge, upon whome he had attended in Spayne, loved his +Country with to unskilfull a tendernesse, and was of so excellent a +temper and disposition, that the barbarous tymes, and the rough partes +he was forced to acte in them, did not wype out or much deface those +markes, insomuch as he was never guilty of any rudenesse towards +those, he was oblieged to oppresse, but performed always as good +offices towards his old frendes, and all other persons, as the +iniquity of the tyme, and the nature of the imployment he was in, +would permitt him to doe, which kinde of humanity could be imputed to +very few; and he was at last dismissed, and remooved from any trust, +for no other reason, but because he was not wicked enough. + +He marryed first into the family of the Duke of Buckingham, and by +his favour and interest was called to the house of Peeres in the life +of his father, and made Barron of Kymolton, though he was commonly +treated and knowne by the name of the L'd Mandevill: And was as much +addicted to the service of the Courte as he ought to be. But the death +of his Lady, and the murther of that greate Favorite, his secounde +marriage with the daughter of the Earle of Warwicke, and the very +narrow and restrayned maintenance which he receaved from his father +and which would in no degree defray the exspences of the Courte, +forced him to soone to retyre to a Country life, and totally to +abandon both the Courte and London, whither he came very seldome in +many yeeres; And in this retirement, the discountenance which his +father underwent at Courte, the conversation of that family into which +he was now marryed, the bewitchinge popularity which flowed upon him +with a wounderfull Torrent, with the want of those guardes which a +good education should have supplyed him with, by the cleere notion of +the foundation of the Ecclesiasticall as well as the Civill goverment, +made a greate impression upon his understandinge (for his nature was +never corrupted but remayned still in its integrity) and made him +believe, that the Courte was inclined to hurte and even to destroy the +country, and from particular instances to make generall and daungerous +conclusions. They who had bene alwayes enimyes to the Church, +praevayled with him to lessen his reverence for it, and havinge not +bene well instructed to defende it, [he] yeilded to easily to those +who confidently assaulted it, and thought it had greate errors which +were necessary to be reformed, and that all meanes are lawfull to +compasse that which is necessary, wheras the true Logique is, that +the thinge desyred is not necessary, if the wayes are unlawfull which +are proposed to bringe it to passe. No man was courted with more +application by persons of all conditions and qualityes, and his +person was not lesse acceptable to those of steddy and uncorrupted +principles, then to those of depraved inclinations; and in the +end, even his piety administred some excuse to him, for his fathers +infirmityes and transgressions had so farr exposed him to the +inquisition of justice, that he found it necessary to procure the +assistance and protection of those, who were stronge enough to violate +justice itselfe, and so he adhered to those, who were best able to +defende his fathers honour, and therby to secure his owne fortune, and +concurred with them in ther most violent designes, and gave reputation +to them; and the Courte as unskilfully, tooke an occasion to soone to +make him desperate, by accusinge him of high Treason, when (though he +might be guilty enough,) he was without doubte in his intentions at +least as innocent, as any of the leadinge men; and it is some evidence +that God Almighty saw his hearte was not so malicious as the rest, +that he praeserved him to the end of the confusion, when he appeared +as gladd of the Kings restoration, and had heartily wished it +longe before, and very few who had a hand in the contrivance of the +rebellion gave so manifest tokens of repentance as he did; and havinge +for many yeeres undergone the jealosy and hatred of Crumwell, as +one who abominated the murther of the Kinge, and all the barbarous +proceedings against the life of men in cold bloode, the Kinge upon his +returne receaved him into grace and favour, which he never forfeited +by any undutifull behaviour. + + + + +48. + +THE LORD SAY. + +_William Fiennes, created Viscount Say and Sele 1624._ + +_Born 1582. Died 1662._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The last of those Councillours, which were made after the +faction praevayled in Parliament, who were all made to advance an +accommodation, and who adhered to the Parliament, was the L'd Say, a +man who had the deepest hande in the originall contrivance of all the +calamityes which befell that unhappy kingdome, though he had not the +least thought of dissolvinge the Monarchy, and lesse of levellinge the +rankes and distinctions of men, for no man valewed himselfe more upon +his title, or had more ambition to make it greater, and to rayse his +fortune, which was but moderate for his title. He was of a prowde, +morose, and sullen nature, conversed much with bookes, havinge bene +bredd a scholar, and (though nobly borne) a fellow of New-Colledge in +Oxforde, to which he claymed a right, by the Allyance he praetended to +have from William of Wickam the Founder, which he made good by such +an unreasonable Pedigre through so many hundred yeeres, halfe the tyme +wherof extinguishes all relation of kinred, however upon that pretence +that Colledge hath bene seldome without one of that L'ds family. His +parts were not quicke, but so much above those of his owne ranke, that +he had alwayes greate creditt and authority in Parliament, and the +more for takinge all opportunityes to oppose the Courte, and had with +his milke sucked in an implacable malice against the goverment of the +Church. When the Duke of Buckingham proposed to himselfe after his +returne with the Prince from Spayne, to make himselfe popular, by +breakinge that match, and to be gratious with the Parliament, as for +a shorte tyme he was, he resolved to imbrace the frendshipp of the +L'd Say, who was as sollicitous to climbe by that ladder, but the Duke +quickly founde him of to imperious and pedanticall a spiritt, and to +affecte to daungerous mutations, and so cast him off; and from that +tyme, he gave over any pursuite in Courte, and lived narrowly and +sordidly in the country, havinge conversation with very few, but such +who had greate malignity against the church and State, and fomented +ther inclinations and gave them instructions how to behave themselfes +with caution and to do ther businesse with most security, and was in +truth the Pylott that steered all those vessells which were fraighted +with sedition to destroy the goverment. He founde alwayes some way to +make professions of duty to the Kinge and made severall undertakings +to do greate services, which he could not, or would not make good, and +made hast to possesse himselfe of any praeferment he could compasse, +whilst his frends were content to attende a more proper conjuncture, +so he gott the Mastershipp of the Wards shortly after the beginninge +of the Parliament, and was as sollicitous to be Treasurer, after the +death of the Earle of Bedforde, and if he could have satisfyed his +rancour in any degree against the Church, he would have bene ready to +have carryed the Praerogative as high as ever it was. When he thought +ther was mischieve enough done, he would have stopped the current and +have deverted farther fury, but he then founde he had only authority +and creditt to do hurte, none to heale the wounds he had given; and +fell into as much contempt with those whome he had ledde, as he was +with those whome he had undone. + + + + +49. + +JOHN SELDEN. + +_Born 1584. Died 1654._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +M'r Selden, was a person whome no character can flatter, or transmitt +in any exspressions aequall to his meritt and virtue. He was of so +stupendious learninge in all kindes, and in all languages, (as may +appeare in his excellent and transcendent writings) that a man would +have thought, he had bene intirely conversant amongst bookes, and had +never spent an howre, but in readinge and writinge, yett his humanity, +courtesy and affability was such, that he would have bene thought +to have bene bredd in the best courtes, but that his good nature, +charity, and delight in doinge good, and in communicatinge all he +knew, exceeded that breedinge. His style in all his writings seemes +harsh and sometymes obscure, which is not wholy to be imputed to the +abstruse subjects, of which he commonly treated, out of the pathes +trodd by other men, but to a little undervalewinge the beauty of a +style, and to much propensity to the language of antiquity, but in his +conversation the most cleere discourcer, and had the best faculty, in +makinge hard things, easy, and praesentinge them to the understandinge, +of any man, that hath bene knowne. M'r Hyde was wonte to say, that he +valewed himselfe upon nothinge more, then upon havinge had M'r Seldence +acquaintance, from the tyme he was very young, and held it with greate +delight, as longe as they were suffred to continue togither in London, +and he was very much troubled alwayes, when he hearde him blamed, +censured and reproched, for stayinge in London, and in the Parliament +after they were in rebellion, and in the worst tymes, which his age +oblieged him to doe; and how wicked soever the actions were which were +every day done, he was confident he had not given his consent to them, +but would have hindred them if he could, with his owne safety, to +which he was alwayes enough indulgent: if he had some infirmityes with +other men, they were waighed downe with wounderfull and prodigious +abilityes and excellencyes in the other skale. + + + + +50. + +JOHN EARLE. + +_Author of 'Micro-cosmographie' 1628. Bishop of Worcester 1662, and of +Salisbury 1663._ + +_Born 1601. Died 1665._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +D'r Earles was at that tyme Chaplyne in the house to the Earle of +Pembroke, L'd Chamberlyne of his Majestys household, and had a +lodginge in the courte under that relation. He was a person very +notable for his elegance in the Greeke and Latine tounges, and beinge +fellow of Merton Colledge in Oxforde, and havinge bene Proctour of the +University, and some very witty and sharpe discourses beinge published +in print without his consent, though knowne to be his, he grew +suddaynely into a very generall esteem with all men, being a man of +greate piety and devotion, a most eloquent and powerfull preacher, and +of a conversation so pleasant and delightfull, so very innocent, and +so very facetious, that no mans company was more desyred, and more +loved. No man was more negligent in his dresse, and habitt, and +meene, no man more wary and cultivated in his behaviour and discourse, +insomuch as he had the greater advantage when he was knowne, by +promisinge so little before he was knowen. He was an excellent Poett +both in Latine, Greeke, and English, as appeares by many pieces +yett abroade, though he suppressed many more himselfe, especially of +English, incomparably good, out of an austerity to those sallyes of +his youth. He was very deere to the L'd Falkelande, with whome he +spent as much tyme as he could make his owne, and as that Lord would +impute the speedy progresse he made in the Greeke tounge, to the +information and assistance he had from M'r Earles, so M'r Earles would +frequently professe that he had gott more usefull learninge by his +conversation at Tew (the L'd Falkelands house) then he had at Oxforde. +In the first setlinge of the Prince his family, he was made on of +his Chaplynes, and attended on him when he was forced to leave the +kingdome, and therfore we shall often have occasyon to mention him +heareafter. He was amongst the few excellent men, who never had, +nor ever could have an enimy, but such a one who was an enimy to all +learninge and virtue, and therfore would never make himselfe knowne. + + + + +51. + +JOHN HALES. + +'_The Ever Memorable Mr. John Hales, of Eaton-Colledge._' + +_Born 1584. Died 1656._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +M'r John Hales, had bene Greeke Professor in the University of +Oxforde, and had borne all[1] the labour of that excellent edition and +impressyon of S't Chrisostomes workes, sett out by S'r Harry Savill, +who was then Warden of Merton Colledge, when the other was fellow +of that house. He was Chaplyne in the house with S'r Dudly Carleton +Ambassador at the Hague in Hollande, at the tyme when the Synod of +Dorte was held, and so had liberty to be present at the consultations +in that assembly, and hath left the best memoriall behinde him, of the +ignorance and passyon and animosity and injustice of that Convention, +of which he often made very pleasant relations, though at that tyme +it receaved to much countenance from Englande. Beinge a person of the +greatest eminency for learninge and other abilityes, from which he +might have promised himselfe any preferment in the Church, he withdrew +himselfe from all pursuites of that kinde into a private fellowshipp +in the Colledge of Eton, wher his frende S'r Harry Savill was Provost, +wher he lyved amongst his bookes, and the most separated from the +worlde of any man then livinge, though he was not in the least degree +inclined to melancholique, but on the contrary of a very open and +pleasant conversation, and therfore was very well pleased with the +resorte of his frends to him, who were such as he had chosen, and in +whose company he delighted, and for whose sake he would sometymes, +once in a yeere, resorte to London, only to injoy ther cheerefull +conversation. + +He would never take any cure of soules, and was so great a contemner +of mony, that he was wonte to say that his fellowshipp, and the +Bursers place (which for the good of the Colledge he held many yeeres) +was worth him fifty poundes a yeere more then he could spende, and +yett besydes his beinge very charitable to all poore people, even to +liberality, he had made a greater and better collection of bookes, +then were to be founde in any other private library, that I have +seene, as he had sure reade more, and carryed more about him, in his +excellent memory, then any man I ever knew, my L'd Falkelande only +excepted, who I thinke syded him. He had, whether from his naturall +temper and constitution, or from his longe retyrement from all +Crowdes, or from his profounde judgement and decerninge spiritt, +contracted some opinions, which were not receaved, nor by him +published, except in private discources, and then rather upon occasion +of dispute, than of positive opinion; and he would often say, his +opinions he was sure did him no harme, but he was farr from beinge +confident, that they might not do others harme, who entertained +them, and might entertayne other resultes from them then he did, +and therfore he was very reserved in communicatinge what he thought +himselfe in those points, in which he differed from what was receaved. + +Nothinge troubled him more, then the brawles which were growne from +religion, and he therfore exceedingly detested the tyranny of +the church of Rome, more for ther imposinge uncharitably upon the +consciences of other men, then for ther errors in ther owne opinions, +and would often say, that he would renounce the religion of the church +of Englande tomorrow if it oblieged him to believe that any other +Christians should be damned: and that no body would conclude another +man to be damned, who did not wish him so: No man more stricte and +seveare to himselfe, to other men so charitable as to ther opinions, +that he thought that other men were more in faulte, for ther carriage +towards them, then the men themselves were who erred: and he thought +that pryde and passyon more then conscience were the cause of all +separation from each others communion, and he frequently sayd, that +that only kept the world from agreeinge upon such a Lyturgy, as might +bringe them into one communion, all doctrinall points upon which men +differed in ther opinions, beinge to have no place in any Liturgye. +Upon an occasionall discource with a frende of the frequent and +uncharitable reproches of Heretique and Schismatique to lightly +throwne at each other amongst men who differr in ther judgement, +he writt a little discource of Schisme, contayned in lesse then two +sheetes of paper, which beinge transmitted from frende to frende in +writing, was at last without any malice brought to the view of the +Arch-Bishopp of Canterbury Dr. Lawde, who was a very rigid survayour +of all thinges which never so little bordred upon Schisme, and thought +the Church could not be to vigilant against, and jealous of such +incursyons. He sent for M'r Hales, whome when they had both lived in +the University of Oxforde he had knowne well, and told him that he +had in truth believed him to be longe since dead, and chidd him +very kindly, for havinge never come to him, havinge bene of his old +acquaintance, then asked him whether he had lately writt a shorte +discource of Schisme, and whether he was of that opinion which that +discource implyed; he told him, that he had for the satisfaction of a +private frende (who was not of his minde) a yeere or two before, +writt such a small tracte, without any imagination that it would be +communicated, and that he believed it did not contayne any thinge that +was not agreable to the judgement of the primitive fathers; upon which +the Arch-Bishopp debated with him upon some exspressions of Irenaeus, +and the most auntient fathers, and concluded with sayinge that the +tyme was very apt to sett new doctrynes on foote, of which the witts +of the Age were to susceptable, and that ther could not be to much +care taken to praeserve the peace and unity of the Church, and from +thence asked him of his condition, and whether he wanted any thinge, +and the other answeringe that he had enough, and wanted nor desyred no +addition: and so dismissed him with greate courtesy, and shortly after +sent for him agayne, when ther was a Praebendary of Windsor fallen, +and told him the Kinge had given him that praeferment because it lay so +convenient to his fellowshipp of Eton, which (though indeede the +most convenient praeferment that could be thought of for him) the +Arch-Bishopp could not without greate difficulty perswade him to +accept, and he did accepte it rather to please him, then himselfe, +because he really believed he had enough before. He was one of the +least men in the kingdome, and one of the greatest schollers in +Europe. + +[Footnote 1: 'the greatest part of' in place of 'all' in another hand +in MS.] + + + + +52. + +WILLIAM CHILLINGWORTH. + +_Author of 'The Religion of Protestants,' 1638._ + +_Born 1602. Died 1644._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +M'r Chillingworth, was of a stature little superiour to M'r Hales (and +it was an Age in which ther were many greate and wounderfull men of +that size) and a man of so grea[te] a subtlety of understandinge, and +so rare a temper in debate, that as it was impossible to provoke him +into any passyon, so it was very difficulte to keepe a mans selfe +from beinge a little discomposed by his sharpnesse and quicknesse of +argument and instances, in which he had a rare facility, and a greate +advantage over all the men I ever knew. He had spent all his younger +tyme in disputation, and had arryved to so greate a mastery, as he was +inferior to no man in those skirmishes: but he had with his notable +perfection in this exercise, contracted such an irresolution and habit +of doubtinge, that by degrees he grew confident of nothinge, and a +schepticke at least in the greatest misteryes of fayth; This made +him from first waveringe in religion and indulginge to scruples, to +reconcile himselfe to soone and to easily to the Church of Rome, and +carryinge still his owne inquisitivenesse aboute him, without any +resignation to ther authority (which is the only temper can make +that Church sure of its Proselites) havinge made a journy to S't Omers +purely to perfecte his conversion by the conversation of those who had +the greatest name, he founde as little satisfaction ther, and returned +with as much hast from them, with a beliefe that an intire exemption +from error was nether inherent in, nor necessary to, any Church; which +occasioned that warr which was carryed on by the Jesuitts with so +greate asperity and reproches against him, and in which he defended +himselfe by such an admirable eloquence of language, and the cleere +and incomparable power of reason, that he not only made them appeare +unaequall adversaryes, but carryed the warr into ther owne quarters, +and made the Popes infallibility to be as much shaken and declyned by +ther owne Doctors, and as greate an acrimony amon[g]st themselves upon +that subjecte, and to be at least as much doubted as in the schooles +of the Reformed or Protestant, and forced them since to defende and +maintayne those unhappy contraversyes in religion, with armes and +weopons of another nature, then were used or knowne in the Church of +Rome when Bellarmyne dyed: and which probably will in tyme undermyne +the very foundation that supportes it. + +Such a levity and propensity to change, is commonly attended with +greate infirmityes in, and no lesse reproch and praejudice to the +person, but the sincerity of his hearte was so conspicuous, and +without the least temptation of any corrupt end, and the innocence and +candour of his nature so evident and without any perversenesse, that +all who knew him cleerely decerned, that all those restlesse motions +and fluctuation proceeded only from the warmth and jealosy of his owne +thoughts, in a to nice inquisition for truth: nether the bookes of +the Adversary, nor any of ther persons, though he was acquainted with +the best of both, had ever made greate impression upon him, all his +doubles grew out of himselfe, when he assisted his scruples with all +the strenght of his owne reason, and was then to hard for himselfe; +but findinge as little quyett and repose in those victoryes, he +quickly recover'd by a new appeale to his owne judgement, so that he +was in truth upon the matter in all his Sallyes and retreits his owne +converte, though he was not so totally devested of all thoughts of +this worlde, but that when he was ready for it he admitted some greate +and considerable Churchmen to be sharers with him, in his publique +conversion. Whilst he was in perplexity, or rather some passionate +disinclination to the religion he had bene educated in, he had the +misfortune to have much acquaintance with one M'r Lugar a minister of +that church, a man of a competency of learninge in those points most +contravened with the Romanists, but of no acute parts of witt or +judgement, and wrought so farr upon him, by weakeninge and enervating +those arguments by which he founde he was governed (as he had all the +logique and all the Rhetorique that was necessary to perswade very +powerfully men of the greatest talents) that the poore man, not able +to lyve longe in doubte, to hastily deserted his owne church, and +betooke himselfe to the Roman, nor could all the arguments and reasons +of M'r Chillingworth make him pawse in the exspedition he was usinge, +or reduce him from that Church after he had given himselfe to it, but +had alwayes a greate animosity against him, for havinge (as he sayd) +unkindly betrayed him, and carryed him into another religion, and +ther left him: So unfitt are some constitutions to be troubled with +doubtes, after they are once fixed. + +He did really believe all warr to be unlawfull, and did not thinke +that the Parliament (whose proceedings he perfectly abhorred) did +intruth intende to involve the nation in a civill warr, till after the +battell of Edgehill, and then he thought any exspedient or stratagemm +that was like to putt a speedy ende to it, to be the most commendable; +and so havinge to mathematically conceaved an Engyne that should moove +so lightly, as to be a brest-worke in all incounters and assaultes in +the feilde, he carryed it to make the exsperiment into that parte of +his Majestys army, which was only in that winter season in the Feilde, +under the commaunde of the L'd Hopton in Hampshyre upon the borders +of Sussex, wher he was shutt up in the Castle of Arrundell, which was +forced after a shorte, sharpe seige, to yeild for want of victuall, +and poore M'r Chillingworth with it fallinge into the Rebells hands, +and beinge most barbarously treated by them, especially by that Clargy +which followed them, and beinge broken with sicknesse contracted by +the ill accommadation and wante of meate and fyre duringe the seige, +which was in a terrible season of frost and snow, he dyed shortly +after in pryson. He was a man of excellent parts, and of a cheerefull +disposition, voyde of all kinde of vice, and indewed with many notable +virtues, of a very publique hearte, and an indefatigable desyre to do +good; his only unhappinesse proceeded from his sleepinge to little, +and thinkinge to much, which sometymes threw him into violent feavers. + + + + +53. + +EDMUND WALLER. + +_Born 1606. Died 1687._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +Edmund Waller, was borne to a very fayre estate, by the parsimony +or frugality of a wise father and mother, and he thought it so +commendable an advantage, that he resolved to improove it with his +utmost care, upon which in his nature he was to much intent; and in +order to that he was so much reserved and retyred, that he was scarce +ever hearde of, till by his addresse and dexterity, he had gotten +a very rich wife in the Citty, against all the recommendation, and +countenance, and authority of the Courte, which was throughly ingaged +on the behalfe of M'r Crofts, and which used to be succesfull in +that age, against any opposition. He had the good fortune to have an +allyance and frendshipp with D'r Morly, who had assisted and instructed +him in the readinge many good bookes, to which his naturall parts and +promptitude inclined him, especially the poetts, and at the age when +other men used to give over writinge verses (for he was neere thirty +yeeres of age when he first ingaged himselfe in that exercize, at +least that he was knowen to do soe) he surpryzed the towne with two or +three pieces of that kinde, as if a tenth muse had bene newly borne, +to cherish droopinge poetry: the Doctor at that tyme brought him into +that company which was most celebrated for good conversation, wher he +was receaved and esteemed with greate applause and respecte. He was +a very pleasant discourcer in earnest and in jest, and therfore very +gratefull to all kinde of company, wher he was not the lesse esteemed, +for beinge very rich. He had bene even nurced in Parliaments, wher he +sate when he was very young,[1] and so when they were resumed agayne +(after a longe intermission,[2]) he appeared in those assemblyes +with greate advantage, havinge a gracefull way of speakinge, and +by thinkinge much upon severall arguments (which his temper and +complexion that had much of melancholique inclined him to) he +seemed often to speake upon the suddayne, when the occasyon had +only administred the opportunity of sayinge what he had throughly +considered, which gave a greate lustre to all he sayde; which yett was +rather of delight, then wayte. Ther needes no more be sayd to extoll +the excellence and power of his witt, and pleasantnesse of his +conversation, then that it was of magnitude enough to cover a world of +very greate faultes, that is so cover them, that they were not taken +notice of to his reproch, a narrownesse in his nature to the louest +degree, an abjectnesse and want of courage to supporte him in any +virtuous undertakinge, an insinuation and servile flattery to the +height the vaynest and most imperious nature could be contented with: +that it praeserved and woone his life from those who were most +resolved to take it, and in an occasyon in which he ought to have +bene ambitious to have lost it, and then praeserved him agayne from the +reproch and contempt that was dew to him for so praeservinge it, and +for vindicatinge it at such a pryce: that it had power to reconcile +him to those whome he had most offended and provoked, and continued to +his age with that rare felicity, that his company was acceptable, wher +his spirit was odious, and he was at least pittyed, wher he was most +detested. + +[Footnote 1: 'in his infancy' struck out in MS. before 'very young'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'and interdiction' struck out in MS. after +'intermission'.] + + + + +54. + +THOMAS HOBBES. + +_Born 1588. Died 1679._ + +By CLARENDON. + +(On Hobbes's _Leviathan_.) + + +I have proposed to my self, to make some Animadversions upon such +particulars, as may in my judgment produce much mischief in the World, +in a Book of great Name, and which is entertain'd and celebrated (at +least enough) in the World; a Book which contains in it good learning +of all kinds, politely extracted, and very wittily and cunningly +disgested, in a very commendable method, and in a vigorous and +pleasant Style: which hath prevailed over too many, to swallow many +new tenets as maximes without chewing; which manner of diet for +the indigestion M'r _Hobbes_ himself doth much dislike. The thorough +novelty (to which the present age, if ever any, is too much inclin'd) +of the work receives great credit and authority from the known Name +of the Author, a Man of excellent parts, of great wit, some reading, +and somewhat more thinking; One who ha's spent many years in forreign +parts and observation, understands the Learned as well as modern +Languages, hath long had the reputation of a great Philosopher and +Mathematician, and in his age hath had conversation with very many +worthy and extraordinary Men, to which, it may be, if he had bin more +indulgent in the more vigorous part of his life, it might have had +a greater influence upon the temper of his mind, whereas age seldom +submits to those questions, enquiries, and contradictions, which the +Laws and liberty of conversation require: and it hath bin alwaies a +lamentation amongst M'r _Hobbes_ his Friends, that he spent too much +time in thinking, and too little in exercising those thoughts in +the company of other Men of the same, or of as good faculties; for +want whereof his natural constitution, with age, contracted such a +morosity, that doubting and contradicting Men were never grateful to +him: In a word, M'r _Hobbes_ is one of the most antient acquaintance I +have in the World, and of whom I have alwaies had a great esteem, as +a Man who besides his eminent parts of Learning and knowledg, hath bin +alwaies looked upon as a Man of Probity, and a life free from scandal; +and it may be there are few Men now alive, who have bin longer +known to him then I have bin in a fair and friendly conversation and +sociableness. + + + + +55. + +Notes by JOHN AUBREY. + + +I have heard his brother Edm and M'r Wayte his schoole fellow &c, say +that when he was a Boy he was playsome enough: but withall he had even +then a contemplative Melancholinesse. he would gett him into a corner, +and learne his Lesson by heart presently. His haire was black, & his +schoolefellows[1] were wont to call him Crowe. + +[Footnote 1: 'his schoolefellows' written above 'the boyes'.] + + * * * * * + +The Lord Chancellour Bacon loved to converse with him. He assisted his +Lo'p: in translating severall of his Essayes into Latin, one I well +remember is[1] that, _of the Greatnes of Cities_. the rest I have +forgott. His Lo'p: was a very Contemplative person, and was wont to +contemplate in his delicious walkes at Gorambery, and dictate to M'r +Thomas Bushell or some other of his Gentlemen, that attended him +with inke & paper ready, to sett downe presently his thoughts. His +Lo'p: would often say that he better liked M'r Hobbes's taking his +Notions[2], then any of the other, because he understood what he +wrote; which the others not understanding my Lord would many times +have a hard taske to make sense of what they writt. + +[Footnote 1: 'is' above 'was'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Notions' above 'thoughts'.] + +It is to be remembred that about these times, M'r T.H. was much +addicted to Musique, and practised on the Base-Violl. + + * * * * * + +... LEVIATHAN, the manner of writing of which Booke (he told me) was +thus. He walked much and contemplated, and he had in the head of his +staffe[1] a pen and inkehorne; carried alwayes a Note-booke in his +pocket, and as soon as a though[t][2] darted, he presently entred it +into his Booke, or otherwise[3] he might perhaps[4] have lost it. He +had drawne the Designe of the Booke into Chapters &c; so he knew where +about it would come in. Thus that Booke was made. + +[Footnote 1: 'staffe' above 'Cane'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'though' above 'notion'.] + +[Footnote 3: 'otherwise' above 'els'.] + +[Footnote 4: 'might perhaps' above 'should'.] + + * * * * * + +He was marvellous happy and ready in his replies; and Replies that +without rancor, (except provoked). but now I speake of his readinesse +in replies as to witt & drollery, he would say that, he did not care +to give, neither was he adroit[1] at a present answer to a serious +quaere; he had as lieve they should have expected a[n] extemporary +solution[2] to an Arithmeticall probleme, for he turned and _winded_ +& compounded in philosophy, politiques &c. as if he had been at +Analyticall[3] worke. he alwayes avoided as much as he could, to +conclude hastily. + +[Footnote 1: 'adroit' above 'good'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'extemporary' above 'present', 'solution' in place of +'answer'.] + +[Footnote 3: 'Analyticall' above 'Mathematicall'.] + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: His manner[1] of thinking] + +He sayd that he sometimes would sett his thoughts upon researching and +contemplating, always with this Rule[2], that he very much & deeply +considered one thing at a time. Sc. a weeke, or sometimes a fortnight. + +[Footnote 1: 'manner' above 'way'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Rule: Observation' above 'proviso'.] + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Head] + +In his old age he was very bald[1], which claymed a veneration; yet +within dore he used to study, and sitt bare-headed: and sayd he never +tooke cold in his head but that the greatest trouble was to keepe-off +the Flies from pitching on the baldnes: his Head was ... inches (I +have the measure) in compasse, and of a mallet forme, approved by the +Physiologers. + +[Footnote 1: 'recalvus' above 'very bald'.] + +[Sidenote: Eie] + +He had a good Eie, and that of a hazell colour, which was full of life +& spirit, even to his last: when he was earnest, in discourse, there +shone (as it were) a bright live-coale within it. he had two kind +of Lookes: when he laught, was witty, & in a merry humour, one could +scarce see his Eies: by and by when he was serious and earnest[1], he +open'd his eies round (i.) his eielids. he had midling eies, not very +big, nor very little. + +[Footnote 1: 'earnest' above 'positive'.] + +[Sidenote: Stature] + +He was six foote high and something better, and went indifferently +erect; or, rather considering his great age, very erect. + +[Sidenote: Sight Witt] + +His Sight & Witt continued to his last. He had a curious sharp sight, +as he had a sharpe Witt; which was also so sure and steady, (and +contrary to that men call Brodwittednes,) that I have heard him +oftentimes say, that in Multiplying & Dividing he never mistooke a +figure[1]: and so, in other things. He thought much & with excellent +Method, & Stedinesse, which made him seldome make a false step. + +[Footnote 1: 'never ... figure' above 'was never out' ('out' corrected +to 'mistooke').] + +[Sidenote: Reading] + +He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his +Contemplation was much more then his Reading. He was wont to say that, +if he _had read as much as other men, he should have knowne no more +then[1] other men_. + +[Footnote 1: 'knowne ... then' above 'continued still as ignorant +as'.] + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Singing] + +He had alwayes bookes of prick-song lyeing on his Table: e.g. of H. +Lawes &c. Songs: which at night when he was a bed, & the dores made +fast, & was sure no body heard him, he sang _aloud_, (not that he had +a very good voice) but to cleare his pipes[1]: he did beleeve it did +his Lunges good, & conduced much to prolong his life. + +[Footnote 1: 'to cleare his pipes' above 'for his healths sake'.] + + + + +56. + +THOMAS FULLER. + +_Born 1608. Died 1661._ + + +He was of Stature somewhat Tall, exceeding the meane, with a +proportionable bigness to become it, but no way inclining to +Corpulency: of an exact Straightnesse of the whole Body, and a perfect +Symmetry in every part thereof. He was of a Sanguine constitution, +which beautified his Face with a pleasant Ruddinesse, but of so +Grave and serious an aspect, that it Awed and Discountenanced the +smiling Attracts of that complexion. His Head Adorned with a comely +Light-Coloured Haire, which was so, by Nature exactly Curled (an +Ornament enough of it self in this Age to Denominate a handsome +person, and wherefore all Skill and Art is used) but not suffered to +overgrow to any length unseeming his modesty and Profession. + +His Gate and Walking was very upright and graceful, becoming his well +shapen Bulke: approaching something near to that we terme Majesticall; +but that the Doctor was so well known to be void of any affectation or +pride. Nay so Regardlesse was he of himselfe in his Garb and Rayment, +in which no doubt his Vanity would have appeared, as well as in his +stately pace: that it was with some trouble to himselfe, to be either +Neat or Decent; it matter'd not for the outside, while he thought +himself never too Curious and Nice in the Dresses of his mind. + +Very Carelesse also he was to seeming inurbanity in the modes of +Courtship and demeanour, deporting himself much according to the old +_English_ Guise, which for its ease and simplicity suited very well +with the Doctor, whose time was designed for more Elaborate businesse: +and whose MOTTO might have been sincerity. + +As inobservant he was of persons, unless businesse with them, or his +concerns pointed them out and adverted him; seeing and discerning were +two things: often in several places, hath he met with Gentlemen of +his nearest and greatest Acquaintance, at a full rencounter and stop, +whom he hath endeavoured to passe by, not knowing, that is to say, +not minding of them, till rectifyed and recalled by their familiar +compellations. + +This will not (it may be presumed) and justly cannot be imputed unto +any indisposednesse and unaptnesse of his Nature, which was so far +from Rude and untractable, that it may be confidently averred, he +was the most complacent person in the Nation, as his Converse and +Writings, with such a freedome of Discourse and quick Jocundity of +style, do sufficiently evince. + +He was a perfect walking Library, and those that would finde delight +in him must turn him; he was to be diverted from his present purpose +with some urgency: and when once Unfixed and Unbent, his mind freed +from the incumbency of his Study; no Man could be more agreeable to +Civil and Serious mirth, which limits his most heightned Fancy never +transgressed. + +He had the happinesse of a very Honourable, and that very numerous +acquaintance, so that he was noway undisciplined in the Arts of +Civility; yet he continued _semper idem_, which constancy made him +alwaies acceptable to them. At his Diet he was very sparing and +temperate, but yet he allowed himself the repasts and refreshings +of two Meals a day: but no lover of Danties, or the Inventions of +Cookery: solid meats better fitting his strength of Constitution; but +from drink very much abstemious, which questionlesse was the cause +of that uninterrupted Health he enjoyed till this his First and Last +sicknesse: of which Felicity as he himself was partly the cause of by +his exactnesse in eating and drinking, so did he the more dread the +sudden infliction of any Disease, or other violence of Nature, fearing +this his care might amount to a presumption, in the Eyes of the great +Disposer of all things, and so it pleased GOD it should happen. + +But his great abstinence of all was from Sleep, and strange it was +that one of such a Fleshly and sanguine composition, could overwatch +so many heavy propense inclinations to Rest. For this in some sort +he was beholden to his care in Diet aforesaid, (the full Vapours of +a repletion in the Stomack ascending to the Brain, causing that usual +Drowsinesse we see in many) but most especially to his continual +custome, use, and practise, which had so subdued his Nature, that it +was wholy Governed by his Active and Industrious mind. + +And yet this is a further wonder: he did scarcely allow himself, from +his First Degree in the University, any Recreation or Easie Exercise, +no not so much as walking, but very Rare and Seldome; and that not +upon his own choice, but as being compelled by friendly, yet, Forcible +Invitations; till such time as the War posted him from place to place, +and after that his constant attendance on the Presse in the Edition +of his Books: when was a question, which went the fastest, his Head or +his Feet: so that in effect he was a very stranger, if not an Enemy to +all pleasure. + +Riding was the most pleasant, because his necessary convenience; the +Doctors occasions, especially his last work, requiring Travel, to +which he had so accustomed himself: so that this Diversion, (like +Princes Banquets only to be lookt upon by them, not tasted of) was +rather made such then enjoyed by him. + +So that if there were any Felicity or Delight, which he can be truly +said to have had: it was either in his Relations or in his Works. As +to his Relations, certainly, no man was more a tender, more indulgent +a Husband and a Father: his Conjugal Love in both matches being +equally blest with the same Issue, kept a constant Tenour in both +Marriages, which he so improved, that the Harmony of his Affections +still'd all Discord, and Charmed the noyse of passion. + +Towards the Education of his Children, he was exceeding carefull, +allowing them any thing conducing to that end, beyond the present +measure of his estate; which its well hoped will be returned to the +Memory of so good a Father, in their early imitation of him in all +those good Qualities and Literature, to which they have now such an +Hereditary clayme. + +As to his Books, which we usually call the Issue of the Brain, he was +more then Fond, totally abandoning and forsaking all things to follow +them. And yet if Correction and Severity (so this may be allowed the +gravity of the Subject) be also the signes of Love: a stricter and +more carefull hand was never used. True it is they did not grow up +without some errours, like the Tares: nor can the most refined pieces +of any of his Antagonists boast of perfection. He that goes an unknown +and beaten Track in a Dubious way, though he may have good directions, +yet if in the journey he chance to stray, cannot well be blamed; they +have perchance plowed with his Heifer, and been beholden to those +Authorities (for their Exceptions) which he first gave light to. + +To his Neighbours and Friends he behaved himselfe with that +chearfulnesse and plainnesse of Affection and respect, as deservedly +gained him their Highest esteeme: from the meanest to the highest +he omitted nothing what to him belonged in his station, either in +a familiar correspondency, or necessary Visits; never suffering +intreaties of that which either was his Duty, or in his power to +perform. The quickness of his apprehension helped by a Good Nature, +presently suggested unto him (without putting them to the trouble of +an _innuendo_) what their severall Affairs required, in which he would +spare no paynes: insomuch that it was a piece of Absolute Prudence +to rely upon his Advice and Assistance. In a word, to his Superiours +he was Dutifully respectfull without Ceremony or Officiousnesse; +to his equalls he was Discreetly respectful, without neglect or +unsociableness; and to his Inferiours, (whom indeed he judged +Christianly none to be) civilly respectfull without Pride or Disdain. + +But all these so eminent vertues, and so sublimed in him, were but +as foyles to those excellent gifts wherewith God had endued his +intellectuals. He had a Memory of that vast comprehensiveness, that he +is deservedly known for the first inventer of that Noble Art, whereof +having left behind him no Rules, or directions, save, onely what fell +from him in discours, no further account can be given, but a relation +of some very rare experiments of it made by him. + +He undertook once in passing to and fro from _Templebar_ to the +furthest Conduit in _Cheapside_, at his return again to tell every +Signe as they stood in order on both sides of the way, repeating them +either backward or forward, as they should chuse, which he exactly +did, not missing or misplacing one, to the admiration of those that +heard him. + +The like also would he doe in words of different Languages, and of +hard and difficult prolation, to any number whatsoever: but that which +was most strange, and very rare in him, was his way of writing, which +something like the _Chineses_, was from the top of the page to the +bottom: the manner thus. He would write near the Margin the first +words of every Line down to the Foot of the Paper, then would he +begining at the head againe, fill up every one of these Lines, which +without any interlineations or spaces but with the full and equal +length, would so adjust the sense and matter, and so aptly Connex and +Conjoyn the ends and beginnings of the said Lines, that he could +not do it better, as he hath said, if he had writ all out in a +Continuation. + + + + +57. + +JOHN MILTON. + +_Born 1608. Died 1674._ + +Notes by JOHN AUBREY. + + +He was of middle stature,[1] he had light abroun[2] hayre, his +complexion exceeding[3] faire. he was so faire, that they called him +the Lady of Christs college. ovall face. his eie a darke gray.... he +was a Spare man. + +[Footnote 1: Aubrey wrote first 'He was scarce so tall as I am'; then +added above the last six words, 'q[uaere] quot feet I am high'; and +then above this 'Resp: of middle stature'.] + +[Footnote 2: 'abroun' (i.e. auburn) written above 'browne'.] + +[Footnote 3: 'exceeding' above 'very'.] + + * * * * * + +He was an early riser: Sc: at 4 a clock mane. yea, after he lost +his sight: He had a man read to him: The first thing he read was the +Hebrew bible, and that was at 4'h. mane 1/2'h.+. Then he contemplated. +At 7 his man came to him again & then read to him and wrote till +dinner: the writing was as much as the reading. His daughter Deborah +2[1] could read to him Latin, Italian, & French, & Greeke; married in +Dublin to one M'r Clarke [sells silke &c[2]] very like her father. The +other sister is Mary 1[1], more like her mother. After dinner he usd +to walke 3 or 4 houres at a time, he alwayes had a Garden where he +lived: went to bed about 9. Temperate, rarely drank between meales. +Extreme pleasant in his conversation, & at dinner, supper &c: but +Satyricall. He pronounced the letter R very hard. a certaine signe of +a Satyricall Witt. from Jo. Dreyden. + +[Footnote 1: '2' and '1', marking seniority, above the names.] + +[Footnote 2: 'sells silke &c' above 'a Mercer'.] + +[Sidenote: Litera Canina.] + +He had a delicate tuneable Voice & had good skill: his father +instructed him: he had an Organ in his house: he played on that most. +His exercise was chiefly walking. + +He was visited much by learned[1]: more then he did desire. + +[Footnote 1: 'by learned' added above the line.] + +He was mightily importuned to goe into France & Italie. Foraigners +came much to see him, and much admired him, & offered to him great +preferments to come over to them, & the only inducement of severall +foreigners that came over into England, was chifly to see O. Protector +& M'r J. Milton, and would see _the house and chamber_ wher _he_ was +borne: he was much more admired abrode then at home. + + * * * * * + +His harmonicall, and ingeniose soule did lodge[1] in a beautifull and +well proportioned body--In toto nusquam corpore menda fuit. Ovid. + +[Footnote 1: 'did lodge' above 'dwelt'.] + +He had a very good memory: but I believe that his excellent Method of +thinking, & disposing did much helpe his memorie. + + * * * * * + +Of a very cheerfull humour. + +He was very healthy, & free from all diseases, seldome tooke any +Physique, only sometimes he tooke Manna[1], and only towards his +later end he was visited with the Gowte--Spring & Fall: he would be +chearfull even in his Gowte-fitts: & sing. + +[Footnote 1: 'seldome ... Manna' added above the line.] + +He died of the gowt struck in the 9th or 10th of Novemb 1674, as +appeares by his Apothecaryes Booke. + + +58. + +Note by EDWARD PHILLIPS. + + +There is another very remarkable Passage in the Composure of this Poem +[_Paradise Lost_], which I have a particular occasion to remember; +for whereas I had the perusal of it from the very beginning; for some +years as I went from time to time to Visit him, in a Parcel of Ten, +Twenty, or Thirty Verses at a Time, which being Written by whatever +hand came next, might possibly want Correction as to the Orthography +and Pointing; having as the Summer came on, not been shewed any for +a considerable while, and desiring the reason thereof, was answered, +That his Veine never happily flow'd, but from the _Autumnal +Equinoctial_ to the _Vernal_, and that whatever he attempted was never +to his satisfaction, though he courted his fancy never so much; so +that in all the years he was about this Poem, he may be said to have +spent but half his time therein. + + + + +59. + +Notes by JONATHAN RICHARDSON. + + +One that had Often seen him, told me he us'd to come to a House where +He Liv'd, and he has also Met him in the Street, Led by _Millington_, +the same who was so Famous an Auctioneer of Books about the time of +the Revolution, and Since. This Man was then a Seller of Old Books +in _Little Britain_, and _Milton_ lodg'd at his house. This was 3 +or 4 Years before he Dy'd. he then wore no Sword that My Informer +remembers, though Probably he did, at least 'twas his Custom not long +before to wear one with a Small Silver-Hilt, and in Cold Weather a +Grey Camblet Coat.... + +I have heard many Years Since that he Us'd to Sit in a Grey Coarse +Cloth Coat at the Door of his House, near _Bun-hill_ Fields Without +_Moor-gate_, in Warm Sunny Weather to Enjoy the Fresh Air, and So, as +well as in his Room, receiv'd the Visits of People of Distinguished +Parts, as well as Quality, and very Lately I had the Good Fortune +to have Another Picture of him from an Ancient Clergyman in +_Dorsetshire_, Dr. _Wright_; He found him in a Small House, he thinks +but One Room on a Floor; in That, up One pair of Stairs, which was +hung with a Rusty Green, he found _John Milton_, Sitting in an Elbow +Chair, Black Cloaths, and Neat enough, Pale, but not Cadaverous, his +Hands and Fingers Gouty, and with Chalk Stones. among Other Discourse +He exprest Himself to This Purpose; that was he Free from the Pain +This gave him, his Blindness would be Tolerable. + + * * * * * + +... besides what Affliction he Must have from his Disappointment on +the Change of the Times, and from his Own Private Losses, and probably +Cares for Subsistence, and for his Family; he was in Perpetual Terror +of being Assassinated, though he had Escap'd the Talons of the Law, he +knew he had Made Himself Enemies in Abundance. he was So Dejected he +would lie Awake whole Nights. He then kept Himself as Private as he +could. This Dr. _Tancred Robinson_ had from a Relation of _Milton's_, +Mr. _Walker_ of the Temple. and This is what is Intimated by Himself, +VII. 26. + + _On Evil Daies though fall'n and Evil Tongues, in Darkness, + and with Dangers compast round, and Solitude_. + + * * * * * + +Mr. _Bendish_ has heard the Widow or Daughter or Both say it, that +Soon after the Restauration the King Offer'd to Employ this Pardon'd +Man as his Latin Secretary, the Post in which he Serv'd _Cromwell_ +with So much Integrity and Ability; (that a like Offer was made to +_Thurlow_ is not Disputed as ever I heard) _Milton_ Withstood the +Offer; the Wife press'd his Compliance. _Thou art in the Right_ (says +he) _You, as Other Women, would ride in your Coach; for Me, My Aim is +to Live and Dye an Honest Man_. + + * * * * * + +Other Stories I have heard concerning the Posture he was Usually in +when he Dictated, that he Sat leaning Backward Obliquely in an Easy +Chair, with his Leg flung over the Elbow of it. that he frequently +Compos'd lying in Bed in a Morning ('twas Winter Sure Then) I have +been Well inform'd, that when he could not Sleep, but lay Awake whole +Nights, he Try'd; not One Verse could he make; at Other times flow'd +_Easy his Unpremeditated Verse_, with a certain _Impetus_ and _AEstro_, +as Himself seem'd to Believe. Then, at what Hour soever, he rung +for his Daughter to Secure what Came. I have been also told he would +Dictate many, perhaps 40 Lines as it were in a Breath, and then reduce +them to half the Number. + + + + +60. + +ABRAHAM COWLEY. + +_Born 1618. Died 1667._ + +_Of My self._ + + +It is a hard and nice Subject for a man to write of himself, it grates +his own heart to say any thing of disparagement, and the Readers Eares +to hear any thing of praise from him. There is no danger from me +of offending him in this kind; neither my Mind, nor my Body, nor my +Fortune, allow me any materials for that Vanity. It is sufficient, for +my own contentment, that they have preserved me from being scandalous, +or remarkable on the defective side. But besides that, I shall here +speak of myself, only in relation to the subject of these precedent +discourses, and shall be likelier thereby to fall into the contempt, +then rise up to the estimation of most people. As far as my Memory +can return back into my past Life, before I knew, or was capable +of guessing what the world, or glories, or business of it were, the +natural affections of my soul gave me a secret bent of aversion +from them, as some Plants are said to turn away from others, by +an Antipathy imperceptible to themselves, and inscrutable to mans +understanding. Even when I was a very young Boy at School, instead of +running about on Holy-daies and playing with my fellows, I was wont to +steal from them, and walk into the fields, either alone with a Book, +or with some one Companion, if I could find any of the same temper. +I was then too, so much an Enemy to all constraint, that my Masters +could never prevail on me, by any perswasions or encouragements, +to learn without Book the common rules of Grammar, in which they +dispensed with me alone, because they found I made a shift to do the +usual exercise out of my own reading and observation. That I was then +of the same mind as I am now (which I confess, I wonder at my self) +may appear by the latter end of an Ode, which I made when I was but +thirteen years old, and which was then printed with many other Verses. +The Beginning of it is Boyish, but of this part which I here set down +(if a very little were corrected) I should hardly now be much ashamed. + +9. + + This only grant me, that my means may lye + Too low for Envy, for Contempt too high. + Some Honor I would have + Not from great deeds, but good alone. + The unknown are better than ill known. + Rumour can ope' the Grave, + Acquaintance I would have, but when 't depends + Not on the number, but the choice of Friends. + +10. + + Books should, not business, entertain the Light, + And sleep, as undisturb'd as Death, the Night. + My House a Cottage, more + Then Palace, and should fitting be + For all my Use, no Luxury. + My Garden painted o're + With Natures hand, not Arts; and pleasures yeild, + _Horace_ might envy in his Sabine field. + +11. + + Thus would I double my Lifes fading space, + For he that runs it well, twice runs his race. + And in this true delight, + These unbought sports, this happy State, + I would not fear nor wish my fate, + But boldly say each night, + To morrow let my Sun his beams display, + Or in clouds hide them; I have liv'd to Day. + +You may see by it, I was even then acquainted with the Poets (for the +Conclusion is taken out of _Horace_;) and perhaps it was the immature +and immoderate love of them which stampt first, or rather engraved +these Characters in me: They were like Letters cut into the Bark of +a young Tree, which with the Tree still grow proportionably. But, how +this love came to be produced in me so early, is a hard question: I +believe I can tell the particular little chance that filled my head +first with such Chimes of Verse, as have never since left ringing +there: For I remember when I began to read, and to take some pleasure +in it, there was wont to lie in my Mothers Parlour (I know not by +what accident, for she her self never in her life read any Book but of +Devotion) but there was wont to lie _Spencers_ Works; this I happened +to fall upon, and was infinitely delighted with the Stories of the +Knights, and Giants, and Monsters, and brave Houses, which I found +every where there: (Though my understanding had little to do with all +this) and by degrees with the tinckling of the Rhyme and Dance of the +Numbers, so that I think I had read him all over before I was twelve +years old, and was thus made a Poet as immediately [1] as a Child is +made an Eunuch. With these affections of mind, and my heart wholly set +upon Letters, I went to the University; But was soon torn from thence +by that violent Publick storm which would suffer nothing to stand +where it did, but rooted up every Plant, even from the Princely Cedars +to Me, the Hyssop. Yet I had as good fortune as could have befallen me +in such a Tempest; for I was cast by it into the Family of one of the +best Persons, and into the Court of one of the best Princesses of the +World. Now though I was here engaged in wayes most contrary to the +Original design of my life, that is, into much company, and no small +business, and into a daily sight of Greatness, both Militant and +Triumphant (for that was the state then of the _English_ and _French_ +Courts) yet all this was so far from altering my Opinion, that it +oncly added the confirmation of Reason to that which was before but +Natural Inclination. I saw plainly all the Paint of that kind of Life, +the nearer I came to it; and that Beauty which I did not fall in Love +with, when, for ought I knew, it was reall, was not like to bewitch, +or intice me, when I saw that it was Adulterate. I met with several +great Persons, whom I liked very well, but could not perceive that +any part of their Greatness was to be liked or desired, no more then +I would be glad, or content to be in a Storm, though I saw many Ships +which rid safely and bravely in it: A storm would not agree with my +stomach, if it did with my Courage. Though I was in a croud of as good +company as could be found any where, though I was in business of great +and honourable trust, though I eate at the best Table, and enjoyed the +best conveniences for present subsistance that ought to be desired +by a man of my condition in banishment and publick distresses, yet I +could not abstain from renewing my old School-boys Wish in a Copy of +Verses to the same effect. + + Well then; I now do plainly see + This busie World and I shall ne're agree, &c. + +And I never then proposed to my self any other advantage from His +Majesties Happy Restoration, but the getting into some moderately +convenient Retreat in the Country, which I thought in that case I +might easily have compassed, as well as some others, who[2] with +no greater probabilities or pretences have arrived to extraordinary +fortunes: But I had before written a shrewd Prophesie against my +self, and I think _Apollo_ inspired me in the Truth, though not in the +Elegance of it. + + Thou, neither great at Court nor in the War, + Nor at th' Exchange shal't be, nor at the wrangling Barr; + Content thy self with the small barren praise + Which neglected Verse does raise, &c. + +However by the failing of the Forces which I had expected, I did not +quit the Design which I had resolved on, I cast my self into it _A +Corps perdu_, without making capitulations, or taking counsel of +Fortune. But God laughs at a Man, who sayes to his Soul, _Take thy +ease_: I met presently not onely with many little encumbrances and +impediments, but with so much sickness (a new misfortune to me) as +would have spoiled the happiness of an Emperour as well as Mine: +Yet I do neither repent nor alter my course. _Non ego perfidum Dixi +Sacramentum_; Nothing shall separate me from a Mistress, which I have +loved so long, and have now at last married; though she neither has +brought me a rich Portion, nor lived yet so quietly with me as I hoped +from Her. + + --_Nec vos, dulcissima mundi + Nomina, vos Musae, Libertas, Otia, Libri, + Hortique Syluaeq; anima remanente relinquam._ + + Nor by me ere shall you, + You of all Names the sweetest, and the best, + You Muses, Books, and Liberty and Rest; + You Gardens, Fields, and Woods forsaken be, + As long as Life it self forsakes not Me. + +[Footnote 1: 'irremediably' text 1668, 'immediately' errata 1668.] + +[Footnote 2: 'who' omitted 1668, inserted 1669.] + + + + +61. + +By THOMAS SPRAT. + + +I think it fit to direct my Speech concerning him, by the same rule +by which he was wont to judge of others. In his esteem of other men, +he constantly prefer'd the good temper of their minds, and honesty +of their Actions, above all the excellencies of their Eloquence or +Knowledge. The same course I will take in his praise, which chiefly +ought to be fixed on his life. For that he deserves more applause from +the most virtuous men, than for his other abilities he ever obtained +from the Learned. + +He had indeed a perfect natural goodness, which neither the +uncertainties of his condition, nor the largeness of his wit could +pervert. He had a firmness and strength of mind, that was of proof +against the Art of Poetry it self. Nothing vain or fantastical, +nothing flattering or insolent appeared in his humour. He had a great +integrity, and plainness of Manners; which he preserv'd to the last, +though much of his time was spent in a Nation, and way of life, that +is not very famous for sincerity. But the truth of his heart was above +the corruption of ill examples: And therefore the sight of them rather +confirm'd him in the contrary Virtues. + +There was nothing affected or singular in his habit, or person, or +gesture. He understood the forms of good breeding enough to practise +them without burdening himself, or others. He never opprest any mans +parts, nor ever put any man out of countenance. He never had any +emulation for Fame, or contention for Profit with any man. When he was +in business he suffer'd others importunities with much easiness: When +he was out of it he was never importunate himself. His modesty and +humility were so great, that if he had not had many other equal +Virtues, they might have been thought dissimulation. + +His Conversation was certainly of the most excellent kind; for it was +such as was rather admired by his familiar Friends, than by Strangers +at first sight. He surpriz'd no man at first with any extraordinary +appearance: he never thrust himself violently into the good opinion of +his company. He was content to be known by leisure and by degrees: and +so the esteem that was conceiv'd of him, was better grounded and more +lasting. + +In his Speech, neither the pleasantness excluded gravity, nor was the +sobriety of it inconsistent with delight. No man parted willingly from +his Discourse: for he so ordered it, that every man was satisfied that +he had his share. He govern'd his Passions with great moderation. His +Virtues were never troublesome or uneasy to any. Whatever he disliked +in others, he only corrected it, by the silent reproof of a better +practise. + +His Wit was so temper'd, that no man had ever reason to wish it had +been less: he prevented other mens severity upon it by his own: he +never willingly recited any of his Writings. None but his intimate +friends ever discovered he was a great Poet, by his discourse. His +Learning was large and profound, well compos'd of all Antient and +Modern Knowledge. But it sat exceeding close and handsomly upon him: +it was not imbossed on his mind, but enamelled. + +He never guided his life by the whispers, or opinions of the World. +Yet he had a great reverence for a good reputation. He hearkened to +Fame when it was a just Censurer: But not when an extravagant Babler. +He was a passionate lover of Liberty and Freedom from restraint +both in Actions and Words. But what honesty others receive from +the direction of Laws, he had by native Inclination: And he was not +beholding to other mens wills, but to his own for his Innocence. + + + + +62. + +CHARLES II. + +_Born 1630. Died 1685._ + +By HALIFAX. + +_His_ DISSIMULATION. + + +One great Objection made to him was the concealing himself, and +disguising his Thoughts. In this there ought a Latitude to be given; +it is a Defect not to have it at all, and a Fault to have it too much. +Human Nature will not allow the Mean: like all other things, as soon +as ever Men get to do them well, they cannot easily hold from doing +them too much. 'Tis the case even in the least things, as singing, &c. + +In _France_, he was to dissemble Injuries and Neglects, from one +reason; in _England_, he was to dissemble too, though for other +Causes; A King upon the _Throne_ hath as great Temptations (though of +another kind) to dissemble, as a King in _Exile_. The King of _France_ +might have his Times of Dissembling as much with him, as he could have +to do it with the King of _France_: So he was in a _School_. + +No King can be so little inclined to dissemble but he must needs learn +it from his _Subjects_, who every Day give him such Lessons of it. +Dissimulation is like most other Qualities, it hath two Sides; it is +necessary, and yet it is dangerous too. To have none at all layeth +a Man open to Contempt, to have too much exposeth him to Suspicion, +which is only the less dishonourable Inconvenience. If a Man doth not +take very great Precautions, he is never so much shewed as when he +endeavoureth to hide himself. One Man cannot take more pains to hide +himself, than another will do to see into him, especially in the Case +of Kings. + +It is none of the exalted Faculties of the Mind, since there are +Chamber-Maids will do it better than any Prince in Christendom. +Men given to dissembling are like Rooks at play, they will cheat +for Shillings, they are so used to it. The vulgar Definition of +Dissembling is downright Lying; that kind of it which is less ill-bred +cometh pretty near it. Only Princes and Persons of Honour must have +gentler Words given to their Faults, than the nature of them may in +themselves deserve. + +Princes dissemble with too many, not to have it discovered; no wonder +then that He carried it so far that it was discovered. Men compared +Notes, and got Evidence; so that those whose Morality would give them +leave, took it for an Excuse for serving him ill. Those who knew his +Face, fixed their Eyes there; and thought it of more Importance to +see, than to hear what he said. His Face was as little a Blab as most +Mens, yet though it could not be called a prattling Face, it would +sometimes tell Tales to a good Observer. When he thought fit to be +angry, he had a very peevish Memory; there was hardly a Blot that +escaped him. At the same time that this shewed the Strength of his +Dissimulation, it gave warning too; it fitted his present Purpose, but +it made a Discovery that put Men more upon their Guard against him. +Only Self-flattery furnisheth perpetual Arguments to trust again: The +comfortable Opinion Men have of themselves keepeth up Human Society, +which would be more than half destroyed without it. + + +_Of his WIT and CONVERSATION._ + +His Wit consisted chiefly in the _Quickness_ of his _Apprehension_. +His Apprehension made him _find Faults_, and that led him to short +Sayings upon them, not always equal, but often very good. + +By his being abroad, he contracted a Habit of conversing familiarly, +which added to his natural Genius, made him very _apt to talk_; +perhaps more than a very nice judgment would approve. + +He was apter to make _broad Allusions_ upon any thing that gave +the least occasion, than was altogether suitable with the very +Good-breeding he shewed in most other things. The Company he kept +whilst abroad, had so used him to that sort of Dialect, that he was so +far from thinking it a Fault or an Indecency, that he made it a matter +of Rallery upon those who could not prevail upon themselves to join in +it. As a Man who hath a good Stomach loveth generally to talk of Meat, +so in the vigour of his Age, he began that style, which, by degrees +grew so natural to him, that after he ceased to do it out of Pleasure, +he continued to do it out of Custom. The Hypocrisy of the former Times +inclined Men to think they could not shew too great an Aversion to +it, and that helped to encourage this unbounded liberty of Talking, +without the Restraints of Decency which were before observed. In +his more familiar Conversations with the Ladies, even they must be +passive, if they would not enter into it. How far Sounds as well +as Objects may have their Effects to raise Inclination, might be an +Argument to him to use that Style; or whether using Liberty at its +full stretch, was not the general Inducement without any particular +Motives to it. + +The manner of that time of _telling Stories_, had drawn him into it; +being commended at first for the Faculty of telling a Tale well, he +might insensibly be betrayed to exercise it too often. Stories are +dangerous in this, that the best expose a Man most, by being oftenest +repeated. It might pass for an Evidence for the Moderns against the +Ancients, that it is now wholly left off by all that have any pretence +to be distinguished by their good Sense. + +He had the Improvements of _Wine, &c_. which made him _pleasant_ and +_easy in Company_; where he bore his part, and was acceptable even to +those who had no other Design than to be merry with him. + +The Thing called _Wit_, a Prince may taste, but it is dangerous for +him to take too much of it; it hath Allurements which by refining his +Thoughts, take off from their _dignity_, in applying them less to the +governing part. There is a Charm in Wit, which a Prince must resist: +and that to him was no easy matter; it was contesting with Nature upon +Terms of Disadvantage. + +His Wit was not so ill-natured as to put Men out of countenance. In +the case of a King especially, it is more allowable to speak sharply +_of_ them, than _to_ them. + +His Wit was not acquired by _Reading_; that which he had above his +original Stock by Nature, was from Company, in which he was very +capable to observe. He could not so properly be said to have a Wit +very much raised, as a plain, gaining, well-bred, recommending kind of +Wit. + +But of all Men that ever _liked_ those who _had Wit_, he could the +best _endure_ those who had _none_. This leaneth more towards a Satire +than a Compliment, in this respect, that he could not only suffer +Impertinence, but at some times seemed to be pleased with it. + +He encouraged some to talk a good deal more with him, than one would +have expected from a Man of so good a Taste: He should rather have +order'd his Attorney-General to prosecute them for a Misdemeanour, in +using Common-sense so scurvily in his Presence. However, if this was +a Fault, it is arrogant for any of his Subjects to object to it, since +it would look like defying such a piece of Indulgence. He must in some +degree loosen the Strength of his Wit, by his Condescension to talk +with Men so very unequal to him. Wit must be used to some _Equality_, +which may give it Exercise, or else it is apt either to languish, +or to grow a little vulgar, by reigning amongst Men of a lower Size, +where there is no Awe to keep a Man upon his _guard_. + +It fell out rather by Accident than Choice, that his Mistresses +were such as did not care that Wit of the best kind should have the +Precedence in their Apartments. Sharp and strong Wit will not always +be so held in by Good-manners, as not to be a little troublesome in +a _Ruelle_. But wherever Impertinence hath Wit enough left to be +thankful for being well used, it will not only be admitted, but +kindly received; such Charms every thing hath that setteth us off by +Comparison. + +His _Affability_ was a Part, and perhaps not the least, of his Wit. + +It is a Quality that must not always spring from the Heart, Mens +Pride, as well as their Weakness, maketh them ready to be deceived by +it: They are more ready to believe it a Homage paid to their Merit, +than a Bait thrown out to deceive them. _Princes_ have a particular +Advantage. + +There was at first as much of Art as Nature in his Affability, but by +Habit it became Natural. It is an Error of the better hand, but the +_Universality_ taketh away a good deal of the Force of it. A Man +that hath had a kind Look seconded with engaging Words, whilst he is +chewing the Pleasure, if another in his Sight should be just received +as kindly, that Equality would presently alter the Relish: The Pride +of Mankind will have Distinction; till at last it cometh to Smile for +Smile, meaning nothing of either Side; without any kind of Effect; +mere Drawing-room Compliments; the _Bow_ alone would be better without +them. He was under some Disadvantages of this kind, that grew still +in proportion as it came by Time to be more known, that there was less +Signification in those Things than at first was thought. + +The Familiarity of his Wit must needs have the Effect of _lessening_ +the _Distance_ fit to be kept to him. The Freedom used to him whilst +abroad, was retained by those who used it longer than either they +ought to have kept it, or he have suffered it, and others by their +Example learned to use the same. A King of _Spain_ that will say +nothing but _Tiendro cuydado_, will, to the generality, preserve +more Respect; an Engine that will speak but sometimes, at the same +time that it will draw the Raillery of the Few who judge well, it +will create Respect in the ill-judging Generality. Formality is +sufficiently revenged upon the World for being so unreasonably laughed +at; it is destroyed it is true, but it hath the spiteful Satisfaction +of seeing every thing destroyed with it. + +His fine Gentlemanship did him no Good, encouraged in it by being too +much applauded. + +His Wit was better suited to his Condition _before_ he was restored +than _afterwards_. The Wit of a Gentleman, and that of a crowned Head, +ought to be different things. As there is a _Crown Law_, there is a +_Crown Wit_ too. To use it with Reserve is very good, and very rare. +There is a Dignity in doing things _seldom_, even without any other +Circumstance. Where Wit will run continually, the Spring is apt to +fail; so that it groweth vulgar, and the more it is practised, the +more it is debased. + +He was so good at finding out other Mens weak Sides, that it made +him less intent to cure his own: That generally happeneth. It may be +called a treacherous Talent, for it betrayeth a Man to forget to judge +himself, by being so eager to censure others: This doth so misguide +Men the first Part of their Lives, that the Habit of it is not easily +recovered, when the greater Ripeness of their Judgment inclineth them +to look more into themselves than into other Men. + +Men love to see themselves in the false Looking-glass of other Mens +Failings. It maketh a Man think well of himself at the time, and by +sending his Thoughts abroad to get Food for Laughing, they are less +at leisure to see Faults at home. Men choose rather to make the War in +another Country, than to keep all well at home. + + +_His_ TALENTS, TEMPER, HABITS, &c. + +He had a _Mechanical Head_, which appeared in his inclination to +Shipping and Fortification, &c. This would make one conclude, that +his Thoughts would naturally have been more fixed to Business, if his +Pleasures had not drawn them away from it. + +He had a very good _Memory_, though he would not always make equal +good Use of it. So that if he had accustomed himself to direct his +Faculties to his Business, I see no Reason why he might not have been +a good deal Master of it. His Chain of _Memory_ was longer than his +Chain of _Thought_; the first could bear any Burden, the other was +tired by being carried on too long; it was fit to ride a Heat, but it +had not Wind enough for a long Course. + +A very great Memory often forgetteth how much Time is lost by +repeating things of no Use. It was one Reason of his talking so much; +since a great Memory will always have something to say, and will be +discharging itself, whether in or out of Season, if a good Judgment +doth not go along with it, to make it stop and turn. One might say +of his Memory, that it was a _Beaute Journaliere_; Sometimes he would +make shrewd Applications, &c. at others he would bring things out of +it, that never deserved to be laid in it. He grew by Age into a pretty +exact _Distribution_ of his _Hours_, both for his Business, Pleasures, +and the Exercise for his Health, of which he took as much care as +could possibly consist with some Liberties he was resolved to indulge +in himself. He walked by his Watch, and when he pulled it out to look +upon it, skilful Men would make haste with what they had to say to +him. + +He was often retained in his _personal_ against his _politick_ +Capacity. He would speak upon those Occasions most dexterously against +himself; _Charles Stuart_ would be bribed against the _King_; and +in the Distinction, he leaned more to his natural Self, than his +Character would allow. He would not suffer himself to be so much +fettered by his Character as was convenient; he was still starting +out of it, the Power of Nature was too strong for the Dignity of his +Calling, which generally yielded as often as there was a contest. + +It was not the best use he made of his _Back-stairs_ to admit Men +to bribe him against himself, to procure a Defalcation, help a +lame Accountant to get off, or side with the Farmers against the +Improvement of the Revenue. The King was made the Instrument to +defraud the Crown, which is somewhat extraordinary. + +That which might tempt him to it probably was, his finding that those +about him so often took Money upon those Occasions; so that he thought +he might do well at least to be a Partner. He did not take the Money +to _hoard_ it; there were those at Court who watched those Times, as +the _Spaniards_ do for the coming in of the _Plate Fleet_. The Beggars +of both Sexes helped to empty his Cabinet, and to leave room in them +for a new lading upon the next Occasion. These Negotiators played +double with him too, when it was for their purpose so to do. He _knew +it_, and _went on_ still; so he gained his present end, at the time, +he was less solicitous to enquire into the Consequences. + +He could not properly be said to be either _covetous_ or _liberal_; +his desire to get was not with an Intention to be rich; and his +spending was rather an Easiness in letting Money go, than any +premeditated Thought for the Distribution of it. He would do as much +to throw off the burden of a present Importunity, as he would to +relieve a want. + +When once the Aversion to bear Uneasiness taketh place in a Man's +Mind, it doth so check all the Passions, that they are dampt into a +kind of Indifference; they grow faint and languishing, and come to be +subordinate to that fundamental Maxim, of not purchasing any thing at +the price of a Difficulty. This made that he had as little Eagerness +to oblige, as he had to hurt Men; the Motive of his giving Bounties +was rather to make Men less uneasy to him, than more easy to +themselves; and yet no ill-nature all this while. He would slide from +an asking Face, and could guess very well. It was throwing a Man off +from his Shoulders, that leaned upon them with his whole weight; so +that the Party was not glader to receive, than he was to give. It was +a kind of implied bargain; though Men seldom kept it, being so apt to +forget the advantage they had received, that they would presume the +King would as little remember the good he had done them, so as to make +it an Argument against their next Request. + +This Principle of making the _love_ of _Ease_ exercise an entire +Sovereignty in his Thoughts, would have been less censured in a +private Man, than might be in a Prince. The Consequence of it to the +Publick changeth the Nature of that Quality, or else a Philosopher in +his private Capacity might say a great deal to justify it. The truth +is, a King is to be such a distinct Creature from a Man, that their +Thoughts are to be put in quite a differing Shape, and it is such a +disquieting task to reconcile them, that Princes might rather expect +to be lamented than to be envied, for being in a Station that exposeth +them, if they do not do more to answer Mens Expectations than human +Nature will allow. + +That Men have the less Ease for their loving it so much, is so far +from a wonder, that it is a natural Consequence, especially in the +case of a Prince. Ease is seldom got without some pains, but it is yet +seldomer kept without them. He thought giving would make Men more easy +to him, whereas he might have known it would certainly make them more +troublesome. + +When Men receive Benefits from Princes, they attribute less to his +Generosity than to their own Deserts; so that in their own Opinion, +their Merit cannot be bounded; by that mistaken Rule, it can as +little be satisfied. They would take it for a diminution to have it +circumscribed. Merit hath a Thirst upon it that can never be quenched +by golden Showers. It is not only still ready, but greedy to receive +more. This King _Charles_ found in as many Instances as any Prince +that ever reigned, because the Easiness of Access introducing the +good Success of their first Request, they were the more encouraged to +repeat those Importunities, which had been more effectually stopt in +the Beginning by a short and resolute Denial. But his Nature did not +dispose him to that Method, it directed him rather to put off the +troublesome Minute for the time, and that being his Inclination, he +did not care to struggle with it. + +I am of an Opinion, in which I am every Day more confirmed by +Observation, that Gratitude is one of those things that cannot be +bought. It must be born with Men, or else all the Obligations in +the World will not create it. An outward Shew may be made to satisfy +Decency, and to prevent Reproach; but a real Sense of a kind thing is +a Gift of Nature, and never was, nor can be acquired. + +The Love of Ease is an Opiate, it is pleasing for the time, quieteth +the Spirits, but it hath its Effects that seldom fail to be most +fatal. The immoderate Love of Ease maketh a Man's Mind pay a passive +Obedience to any thing that happeneth: It reduceth the Thoughts from +having _Desire_ to be _content_. + +It must be allowed he had a little Over-balance on the well-natured +Side, not Vigour enough to be earnest to do a kind Thing, much less +to do a harsh one; but if a hard thing was done to another Man, he +did not eat his Supper the worse for it. It was rather a Deadness +than Severity of Nature, whether it proceeded from a Dissipation of +Spirits, or by the Habit of Living in which he was engaged. + +If a King should be born with more Tenderness than might suit with his +Office, he would in time be hardned. The Faults of his Subjects make +Severity so necessary, that by the frequent Occasions given to use +it, it comes to be habitual, and by degrees the Resistance that Nature +made at first groweth fainter, till at last it is in a manner quite +extinguished. + +In short, this Prince might more properly be said to have _Gifts_ than +_Virtues_, as Affability, Easiness of Living, Inclinations to give, +and to forgive: Qualities that flowed from his Nature rather than from +his Virtue. + +He had not more Application to any thing than the Preservation of +his _Health_; it had an intire Preference to any thing else in his +Thoughts, and he might be said without Aggravation to study that, with +as little Intermission as any Man in the World. He understood it very +well, only in this he failed, that he thought it was more reconcilable +with his _Pleasures_, than it really was. It is natural to have such +a Mind to reconcile these, that 'tis the easier for any Man that goeth +about it, to be guilty of that Mistake. + +This made him overdo in point of Nourishment, the better to furnish to +those Entertainments; and then he thought by great _Exercise_ to make +Amends, and to prevent the ill Effects of his Blood being too much +raised. The Success he had in this Method, whilst he had Youth and +Vigour to support him in it, encouraged him to continue it longer than +Nature allowed. Age stealeth so insensibly upon us, that we do not +think of suiting our way of Reasoning to the several Stages of Life; +so insensibly that not being able to pitch upon any _precise Time_, +when we cease to be young, we either flatter ourselves that we always +continue to be so, or at least forget how much we are mistaken in it. + + + + +63. + +By BURNET. + + +The King was then thirty years of age, and, as might have been +supposed, past the levities of youth and the extravagance of pleasure. +He had a very good understanding. He knew well the state of affairs +both at home and abroad. He had a softness of temper that charmed all +who came near him, till they found how little they could depend on +good looks, kind words, and fair promises; in which he was liberal +to excess, because he intended nothing by them, but to get rid of +importunities, and to silence all farther pressing upon him. He seemed +to have no sense of religion: Both at prayers and sacrament he, as it +were, took care to satisfy people, that he was in no sort concerned in +that about which he was employed. So that he was very far from being +an hypocrite, unless his assisting at those performances was a sort of +hypocrisy, (as no doubt it was:) But he was sure not to encrease that +by any the least appearance of religion. He said once to my self, he +was no atheist, but he could not think God would make a man miserable +only for taking a little pleasure out of the way. He disguised his +Popery to the last. But when he talked freely, he could not help +letting himself out against the liberty that under the Reformation +all men took of enquiring into matters of religion: For from their +enquiring into matters of religion they carried the humour farther, +to enquire into matters of state. He said often, he thought government +was a much safer and easier thing where the authority was believed +infallible, and the faith and submission of the people was implicite: +About which I had once much discourse with him. He was affable and +easy, and loved to be made so by all about him. The great art of +keeping him long was, the being easy, and the making every thing easy +to him. He had made such observations on the _French_ government, that +he thought a King who might be checkt, or have his Ministers called +to an account by a Parliament, was but a King in name. He had a great +compass of knowledge, tho' he was never capable of much application +or study. He understood the Mechanicks and Physick; and was a good +Chymist, and much set on several preparations of Mercury, chiefly the +fixing it. He understood navigation well: But above all he knew the +architecture of ships so perfectly, that in that respect he was exact +rather more than became a Prince. His apprehension was quick, and his +memory good. He was an everlasting talker. He told his stories with +a good grace: But they came in his way too often. He had a very ill +opinion both of men and women; and did not think that there was either +sincerity or chastity in the world out of principle, but that some had +either the one or the other out of humour or vanity. He thought that +no body did serve him out of love: And so he was quits with all the +world, and loved others as little as he thought they loved him. He +hated business, and could not be easily brought to mind any: But when +it was necessary, and he was set to it, he would stay as long as his +Ministers had work for him. The ruine of his reign, and of all his +affairs, was occasioned chiefly by his delivering himself up at his +first coming over to a mad range of pleasure. + + +64. + +By BURNET. + + +Thus lived and died King _Charles_ the second. He was the greatest +instance in history of the various revolutions of which any one man +seemed capable. He was bred up, the first twelve years of his life, +with the splendor that became the heir of so great a Crown. After +that he past thro' eighteen years in great inequalities, unhappy in +the war, in the loss of his Father, and of the Crown of _England_. +_Scotland_ did not only receive him, tho' upon terms hard of +digestion, but made an attempt upon _England_ for him, tho' a feeble +one. He lost the battle of _Worcester_ with too much indifference: +And then he shewed more care of his person, than became one who had so +much at stake. He wandered about _England_ for ten weeks after that, +hiding from place to place. But, under all the apprehensions he had +then upon him, he shewed a temper so careless, and so much turned +to levity, that he was then diverting himself with little houshold +sports, in as unconcerned a manner, as if he had made no loss, and had +been in no danger at all. He got at last out of _England_. But he had +been obliged to so many, who had been faithful to him, and careful of +him, that he seemed afterwards to resolve to make an equal return to +them all: And finding it not easy to reward them all as they deserved, +he forgot them all alike. Most Princes seem to have this pretty deep +in them; and to think that they ought never to remember past services, +but that their acceptance of them is a full reward. He, of all in our +age, exerted this piece of prerogative in the amplest manner: For he +never seemed to charge his memory, or to trouble his thoughts, with +the sense of any of the services that had been done him. While he +was abroad at _Paris_, _Colen_, or _Brussells_, he never seemed to +lay any thing to heart. He pursued all his diversions, and irregular +pleasures, in a free carrier; and seemed to be as serene under the +loss of a Crown, as the greatest Philosopher could have been. Nor did +he willingly hearken to any of those projects, with which he often +complained that his Chancellor persecuted him. That in which he seemed +most concerned was, to find money for supporting his expence. And it +was often said, that, if _Cromwell_ would have compounded the matter, +and have given him a good round pension, that he might have been +induced to resign his title to him. During his exile he delivered +himself so entirely to his pleasures, that he became incapable of +application. He spent little of his time in reading or study, and +yet less in thinking. And, in the state his affairs were then in, he +accustomed himself to say to every person, and upon all occasions, +that which he thought would please most: So that words or promises +went very easily from him. And he had so ill an opinion of mankind, +that he thought the great art of living and governing was, to manage +all things and all persons with a depth of craft and dissimulation. +And in that few men in the world could put on the appearances of +sincerity better than he could: Under which so much artifice was +usually hid, that in conclusion he could deceive none, for all were +become mistrustful of him. He had great vices, but scarce any vertues +to correct them: He had in him some vices that were less hurtful, +which corrected his more hurtful ones. He was during the active part +of life given up to sloth and lewdness to such a degree, that he hated +business, and could not bear the engaging in any thing that gave him +much trouble, or put him under any constraint. And, tho' he desired to +become absolute, and to overturn both our religion and our laws, yet +he would neither run the risque, nor give himself the trouble, which +so great a design required. He had an appearance of gentleness in his +outward deportment: But he seemed to have no bowels nor tenderness in +his nature: And in the end of his life he became cruel. He was apt to +forgive all crimes, even blood it self: Yet he never forgave any thing +that was done against himself, after his first and general act of +indemnity, which was to be reckoned as done rather upon maxims of +state than inclinations of mercy. He delivered himself up to a most +enormous course of vice, without any sort of restraint, even from +the consideration of the nearest relations: The most studied +extravagancies that way seemed, to the very last, to be much delighted +in, and pursued by him. He had the art of making all people grow fond +of him at first, by a softness in his whole way of conversation, as he +was certainly the best bred man of the age. But when it appeared how +little could be built on his promise, they were cured of the fondness +that he was apt to raise in them. When he saw young men of quality, +who had something more than ordinary in them, he drew them about him, +and set himself to corrupt them both in religion and morality; in +which he proved so unhappily successful, that he left _England_ much +changed at his death from what he had found it at his Restoration. He +loved to talk over all the stories of his life to every new man that +came about him. His stay in _Scotland_, and the share he had in the +war of _Paris_, in carrying messages from the one side to the other, +were his common topicks. He went over these in a very graceful manner; +but so often, and so copiously, that all those who had been long +accustomed to them grew weary of them: And when he entred on those +stories they usually withdrew: So that he often began them in a full +audience, and before he had done there were not above four or five +left about him: Which drew a severe jest from _Wilmot_, Earl of +_Rochester_. He said, he wondred to see a man have so good a memory +as to repeat the same story without losing the least circumstance, and +yet not remember that he had told it to the same persons the very day +before. This made him fond of strangers; for they hearkned to all +his often repeated stories, and went away as in a rapture at such an +uncommon condescension in a King. + +His person and temper, his vices as well as his fortunes, resemble the +character that we have given us of _Tiberius_ so much, that it were +easy to draw the parallel between them. _Tiberius_'s banishment, and +his coming afterwards to reign, makes the comparison in that respect +come pretty near. His hating of business, and his love of pleasures; +his raising of favourites, and trusting them entirely; and his pulling +them down, and hating them excessively; his art of covering deep +designs, particularly of revenge, with an appearance of softness, +brings them so near a likeness, that I did not wonder much to observe +the resemblance of their face and person. At _Rome_ I saw one of the +last statues made for _Tiberius_, after he had lost his teeth. But, +bating the alteration which that made, it was so like King _Charles_, +that Prince _Borghese_, and _Signior Dominica_ to whom it belonged, +did agree with me in thinking that it looked like a statue made for +him. + + + + +65. + +THE EARL OF CLARENDON. + +_Edward Hyde, knighted 1643, created Baron Hyde 1660, Earl of +Clarendon 1661. Lord Chancellor 1658-1667._ + +_Born 1609. Died 1674._ + +By BURNET. + + +The Earl of _Clarendon_ was bred to the Law, and was like to grow +eminent in his profession when the wars began. He distinguished +himself so in the House of Commons, that he became considerable, and +was much trusted all the while the King was at _Oxford_. He stayed +beyond sea following the King's fortune till the Restoration; and was +now an absolute favourite, and the chief or the only Minister, but +with too magisterial a way. He was always pressing the King to mind +his affairs, but in vain. He was a good Chancellour, only a little too +rough, but very impartial in the administration of justice. He never +seemed to understand foreign affairs well: And yet he meddled too much +in them. He had too much levity in his wit, and did not always observe +the decorum of his post. He was high, and was apt to reject those +who addressed themselves to him with too much contempt. He had such a +regard to the King, that when places were disposed of, even otherwise +than as he advised, yet he would justify what the King did, and +disparage the pretensions of others, not without much scorn; which +created him many enemies. He was indefatigable in business, tho' the +gout did often disable him from waiting on the King: Yet, during his +credit, the King came constantly to him when he was laid up by it. + + + + +66. + +THE EARL OF LAUDERDALE. + +_John Maitland, second Earl, created Duke 1672, Secretary of State for +Scotland 1660-1680._ + +_Born 1616. Died 1682._ + +By CLARENDON. + + +The Earle of Latherdale, who had bene very eminent in contrivinge +and carryinge on the kings service, when his Majesty was crowned in +Scotlande, and therby had wrought himselfe into a very particular +esteme with the kinge, had marched with him into Englande, and behaved +himselfe well at Worcester, wher he was taken prissoner, had besydes +that meritt, the sufferinge an imprysonment from that very tyme, +with some circumstances of extreme rigour, beinge a man against whome +Crumwell had alwayes professed a more then ordinary animosity, and +though the sceane of his imprysonment had bene altred, accordinge +to the alterations of the goverments which succeeded, yett he never +founde himselfe in compleate liberty, till the kinge was proclaymed by +the Parliament, and then he thought it not necessary to repayre into +Scotlande for authority or recommendation, but sendinge his advise +thither to his frends, he made hast to transporte himselfe with the +Parliament Commissyoners to the Hague, where he was very well receaved +by the kinge, and left nothinge undone on his parte, that might +cultivate these old inclinations, beinge a man of as much addresse, +and insinuation, in which that nation excells, as was then amongst +them. He applyed himselfe to those who were most trusted by the kinge +with a marvellous importunity, and especially to the Chancellour, with +whome as often as they had ever bene togither, he had a perpetuall +warr. He now magnifyed his constancy with lowde elogiums as well to +his face, as behinde his backe, remembred many sharpe exspressions +formerly used by the Chancellour which he confessed had then made +him mad, though upon recollection afterwards he had founde to be very +reasonable. He was very polite in all his discources, called himselfe +and his nation a thousand Traytors, and Rebells, and in his discourses +frequently sayd, when I was a Traytour, or when I was in rebellion, +and seemed not aequally delighted with any argument, as when he +skornefully spake of the Covenante, upon which he brake a hundred +jests: in summ all his discourses were such, as pleased all the +company, who commonly believed all he sayd, and concurred with him. He +[renew]ed his old acquaintance and familiarity with Middleton, by all +the protestations of frendshipp, assured him of the unanimous desyre +of Scotlande, to be [un]der his commaunde, and declared to the kinge, +that he could not send any man into Scotlande who would be able to +do him so much service in the place of Commissyoner as Middleton, and +that it was in his Majestys power to unite that whole kingdome to his +service as one m[an:] all which pleased the kinge well, so that by the +tyme that the Commissioners appeared at London, upon some old promise +in Scotlande, or new inclination upon his longe sufferings, which he +magnifyed enough, the kinge gave him the Signett, and declared him to +be Secretary of State of that kingdome, and at the same tyme declared +that Middleton should be his Commissyoner, the Earle of Glengarne +his Chancellour, the Earle of Rothesse, who was likewise one of the +Commissyoners, and his person very agreable to the kinge, President of +the Councell, and conferred all other inferiour offices, upon men most +notable for ther affection to the old goverment of Church and State. + + + + +67. + +By BURNET. + + +The Earl of _Lauderdale_, afterwards made Duke, had been for many +years a zealous Covenanter: But in the year forty seven he turned to +the King's interests; and had continued a prisoner all the while after +_Worcester_ fight, where he was taken. He was kept for some years in +the tower of _London_, in _Portland_ castle, and in other prisons, +till he was set at liberty by those who called home the King. So he +went over to _Holland_. And since he continued so long, and contrary +to all mens opinions in so high a degree of favour and confidence, +it may be expected that I should be a little copious in setting out +his character; for I knew him very particularly. He made a very ill +appearance: He was very big: His hair red, hanging odly about him: +His tongue was too big for his mouth, which made him bedew all that +he talked to: And his whole manner was rough and boisterous, and very +unfit for a Court. He was very learned, not only in _Latin_, in which +he was a master, but in _Greek_ and _Hebrew_. He had read a great deal +of divinity, and almost all the historians ancient and modern: So that +he had great materials. He had with these an extraordinary memory, +and a copious but unpolished expression. He was a man, as the Duke of +_Buckingham_ called him to me, of a blundering understanding. He was +haughty beyond expression, abject to those he saw he must stoop to, +but imperious to all others. He had a violence of passion that carried +him often to fits like madness, in which he had no temper. If he took +a thing wrong, it was a vain thing to study to convince him: That +would rather provoke him to swear, he would never be of another mind: +He was to be let alone: And perhaps he would have forgot what he had +said, and come about of his own accord. He was the coldest friend and +the violentest enemy I ever knew: I felt it too much not to know it. +He at first seemed to despise wealth: But he delivered himself up +afterwards to luxury and sensuality: And by that means he ran into a +vast expence, and stuck at nothing that was necessary to support it. +In his long imprisonment he had great impressions of religion on his +mind: But he wore these out so entirely, that scarce any trace of them +was left. His great experience in affairs, his ready compliance +with every thing that he thought would please the King, and his bold +offering at the most desperate counsels, gained him such an interest +in the King, that no attempt against him nor complaint of him could +ever shake it, till a decay of strength and understanding forced him +to let go his hold. He was in his principles much against Popery +and arbitrary government: And yet by a fatal train of passions and +interests he made way for the former, and had almost established +the latter. And, whereas some by a smooth deportment made the first +beginnings of tyranny less discernible and unacceptable, he by the +fury of his behaviour heightned the severity of his ministry, which +was liker the cruelty of an inquisition than the legality of justice. +With all this he was a Presbyterian, and retained his aversion to King +_Charles_ I. and his party to his death. + + + + +68. + +THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. + +_Anthony Ashley Cooper, created Earl of Shaftesbury 1662._ + +_Born 1621. Died 1683._ + +By BURNET. + + +The man that was in the greatest credit with the Earl of _Southampton_ +was Sir _Anthony Ashly Cooper_, who had married his niece, and +became afterwards so considerable that he was raised to be Earl of +_Shaftsbury_. And since he came to have so great a name, and that I +knew him for many years in a very particular manner, I will dwell a +little longer on his character; for it was of a very extraordinary +composition. He began to make a considerable figure very early. Before +he was twenty he came into the House of Commons, and was on the King's +side; and undertook to get _Wiltshire_ and _Dorsetshire_ to declare +for him: But he was not able to effect it. Yet Prince _Maurice_ +breaking articles to a town, that he had got to receive him, +furnished him with an excuse to forsake that side, and to turn to +the Parliament. He had a wonderful faculty in speaking to a popular +assembly, and could mix both the facetious and the serious way of +arguing very agreeably. He had a particular talent to make others +trust to his judgment, and depend on it: And he brought over so many +to a submission to his opinion, that I never knew any man equal to +him in the art of governing parties, and of making himself the head +of them. He was as to religion a Deist at best: He had the dotage of +Astrology in him to a high degree: He told me, that a _Dutch_ doctor +had from the stars foretold him the whole series of his life. But that +which was before him, when he told me this, proved false, if he told +me true: For he said, he was yet to be a greater man than he had +been. He fancied, that after death our souls lived in stars. He had +a general knowledge of the slighter parts of learning, but understood +little to the bottom: So he triumphed in a rambling way of talking, +but argued slightly when he was held close to any point. He had a +wonderful faculty at opposing, and running things down; but had not +the like force in building up. He had such an extravagant vanity in +setting himself out, that it was very disagreeable. He pretended that +_Cromwell_ offered to make him King. He was indeed of great use to +him in withstanding the enthusiasts of that time. He was one of those +who press'd him most to accept of the Kingship, because, as he said +afterwards, he was sure it would ruin him. His strength lay in the +knowledge of _England_, and of all the considerable men in it. He +understood well the size of their understandings, and their tempers: +And he knew how to apply himself to them so dextrously, that, tho' +by his changing sides so often it was very visible how little he was +to be depended on, yet he was to the last much trusted by all the +discontented party. He was not ashamed to reckon up the many turns +he had made: And he valued himself on the doing it at the properest +season, and in the best manner. This he did with so much vanity, and +so little discretion, that he lost many by it. And his reputation was +at last run so low, that he could not have held much longer, had he +not died in good time, either for his family or for his party: The +former would have been ruined, if he had not saved it by betraying the +latter. + + + + +69. + +By DRYDEN. + + + Some by their Friends, more by themselves thought wise, + Oppos'd the Pow'r, to which they could not rise. + Some had in Courts been Great, and thrown from thence, + Like Fiends, were harden'd in Impenitence. + Some, by their Monarch's fatal mercy grown, + From Pardon'd Rebels, Kinsmen to the Throne, + Were raised in Pow'r and publick Office high: + Strong Bands, if Bands ungrateful men coud tie. + Of these the false _Achitophel_ was first: + A Name to all succeeding Ages curst. + For close Designs, and crooked Counsels fit; + Sagacious, Bold, and Turbulent of wit: + Restless, unfixt in Principles and Place; + In Pow'r unpleas'd, impatient of Disgrace. + A fiery Soul, which working out its way, + Fretted the Pigmy-Body to decay: + And o'r inform'd the Tenement of Clay, + A daring Pilot in extremity; + Pleas'd with the Danger, when the Waves went high + He sought the Storms; but for a Calm unfit, + Would Steer too nigh the Sands, to boast his Wit. + Great Wits are sure to Madness near alli'd; + And thin Partitions do their Bounds divide: + Else, why should he, with Wealth and Honour blest, + Refuse his Age the needful hours of Rest? + Punish a Body which he coud not please; + Bankrupt of Life, yet Prodigal of Ease? + And all to leave, what with his Toil he won, + To that unfeather'd, two-legg'd thing, a Son: + Got, while his Soul did huddled Notions trie; + And born a shapeless Lump, like Anarchy. + In Friendship false, implacable in Hate: + Resolv'd to Ruine or to Rule the State. + To Compass this, the Triple Bond he broke; + The Pillars of the Publick Safety shook: + And fitted _Israel_ for a Foreign Yoke. + Then, seiz'd with Fear, yet still affecting Fame, + Usurp'd a Patriot's All-attoning Name. + So easie still it proves in Factious Times, + With publick Zeal to cancel private Crimes: + How safe is Treason, and how sacred ill, + here none can sin against the Peoples Will: + Where Crouds can wink; and no offence be known, + Since in anothers guilt they find their own. + Yet, Fame deserv'd, no Enemy can grudge; + The Statesman we abhor, but praise the Judge. + In _Israels_ Courts ne'r sat an _Abbetbdin_ + With more discerning Eyes, or Hands more clean: + Unbrib'd, unsought, the Wretched to redress; + Swift of Dispatch, and easie of Access. + Oh, had he been content to serve the Crown, + With Vertues onely proper to the Gown; + Or, had the rankness of the Soil been freed + From Cockle, that opprest the Noble Seed: + _David_, for him his tuneful Harp had strung, + And Heav'n had wanted one Immortal Song. + But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand; + And Fortunes Ice prefers to Vertues Land: + _Achitophel_, grown weary to possess + A lawful Fame, and lazie Happiness, + Disdain'd the Golden Fruit to gather free, + And lent the Croud his Arm to shake the Tree. + Now, manifest of Crimes, contriv'd long since, + He stood at bold Defiance with his Prince: + Held up the Buckler of the Peoples Cause, + Against the Crown; and sculk'd behind the Laws, + The wish'd occasion of the Plot he takes; + Some Circumstances finds, but more he makes. + By buzzing Emissaries, fills the ears + Of listning Crouds, with Jealousies and Fears + Of Arbitrary Counsels brought to light, + And proves the King himself a _Jebusite_. + Weak Arguments! which yet he knew full well, + Were strong with People easie to Rebel. + For, govern'd by the _Moon_, the giddy _Jews_ + Tread the same Track when she the Prime renews: + And once in twenty Years, their Scribes Record, + By natural Instinct they change their Lord. + _Achitophel_ still wants a Chief, and none + Was found so fit as Warlike _Absalon_: + Not, that he wish'd his Greatness to create, + (For Polititians neither love nor hate:) + But, for he knew, his Title not allow'd, + Would keep him still depending on the Croud: + That Kingly pow'r, thus ebbing out, might be + Drawn to the Dregs of a Democracie. + + + + +70. + +THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. + +_George Villiers, second Duke 1628._ + +_Born 1628. Died 1687._ + +By BURNET. + + +The first of these was a man of noble presence. He had a great +liveliness of wit, and a peculiar faculty of turning all things into +ridicule with bold figures and natural descriptions. He had no sort +of literature: Only he was drawn into chymistry: And for some years +he thought he was very near the finding the philosopher's stone; which +had the effect that attends on all such men as he was, when they are +drawn in, to lay out for it. He had no principles of religion, vertue, +or friendship. Pleasure, frolick, or extravagant diversion was all +that he laid to heart. He was true to nothing, for he was not true to +himself. He had no steadiness nor conduct: He could keep no secret, +nor execute any design without spoiling it. He could never fix his +thoughts, nor govern his estate, tho' then the greatest in _England_. +He was bred about the King: And for many years he had a great +ascendent over him: But he spake of him to all persons with that +contempt, that at last he drew a lasting disgrace upon himself. And he +at length ruined both body and mind, fortune and reputation equally. +The madness of vice appeared in his person in very eminent instances; +since at last he became contemptible and poor, sickly, and sunk in his +parts, as well as in all other respects, so that his conversation was +as much avoided as ever it had been courted. He found the King, when +he came from his travels in the year 45, newly come to _Paris_, sent +over by his father when his affairs declined: And finding the King +enough inclined to receive ill impressions, he, who was then got into +all the impieties and vices of the age, set himself to corrupt the +King, in which he was too successful, being seconded in that wicked +design by the Lord _Percy_. And to compleat the matter, _Hobbs_ was +brought to him, under the pretence of instructing him in mathematicks: +And he laid before him his schemes, both with relation to religion and +politicks, which made deep and lasting impressions on the King's mind. +So that the main blame of the King's ill principles, and bad morals, +was owing to the Duke of _Buckingham_. + + + + +71. + +By DRYDEN. + + + Some of their Chiefs were Princes of the Land: + In the first Rank of these did _Zimri_ stand: + A man so various, that he seem'd to be + Not one, but all Mankind's Epitome. + Stiff in Opinions, always in the wrong; + Was Every thing by starts, and Nothing long: + But, in the course of one revolving Moon, + Was Chymist, Fidler, States-Man, and Buffoon: + Then all for Women, Painting, Rhiming, Drinking; + Besides ten thousand Freaks that dy'd in thinking. + Blest Madman, who coud every hour employ, + With something New to wish, or to enjoy! + Railing and praising were his usual Theams; + And both (to shew his Judgment) in Extreams: + So over Violent, or over Civil, + That every Man, with him, was God or Devil. + In squandring Wealth was his peculiar Art: + Nothing went unrewarded, but Desert. + Begger'd by Fools, whom still he found too late: + He had his Jest, and they had his Estate. + He laugh'd himself from Court; then sought Relief + By forming Parties, but could ne'r be Chief: + For, spight of him, the weight of Business fell + On _Absalom_ and wise _Achitophel_: + Thus, wicked but in Will, of Means bereft, + He left not Faction, but of that was left. + + + + +72. + +THE MARQUIS OF HALIFAX. + +_George Savile, created Baron Savile and Viscount Halifax 1668, Earl +of Halifax 1679, Marquis of Halifax 1682._ + +_Born 1633. Died 1695._ + +By BURNET. + + +I name Sir _George Saville_ last, because he deserves a more copious +character. He rose afterwards to be Viscount, Earl, and Marquis of +_Halifax_. He was a man of a great and ready wit; full of life, +and very pleasant; much turned to satyr. He let his wit run much +on matters of religion: So that he passed for a bold and determined +Atheist; tho' he often protested to me, he was not one; and said, he +believed there was not one in the world: He confessed, he could not +swallow down every thing that divines imposed on the world: He was +a Christian in submission: He believed as much as he could, and he +hoped that God would not lay it to his charge, if he could not disgest +iron, as an ostrich did, nor take into his belief things that must +burst him: If he had any scruples, they 20 were not sought for, nor +cherished by him; for he never read an atheistical book. In a fit of +sickness, I knew him very much touched with a sense of religion. I +was then often with him. He seemed full of good purposes: But they +went off with his sickness. He was always talking of morality and +friendship. He was punctual in all payments, and just in all his +private dealings. But, with relation to the publick, he went backwards +and forwards, and changed sides so often, that in conclusion no side +trusted him. He seemed full of Common-wealth notions: Yet he went +into the worst part of King _Charles's_ reign. The liveliness of his +imagination was always too hard for his judgment. A severe jest was +preferred by him to all arguments whatsoever. And he was endless in +consultations: For when after much discourse a point was settled, if +he could find a new jest, to make even that which was suggested by +himself seem ridiculous, he could not hold, but would study to raise +the credit of his wit, tho' it made others call his judgment in +question. When he talked to me as a philosopher of his contempt of the +world, I asked him, what he meant by getting so many new titles, which +I call'd the hanging himself about with bells and tinsel. He had no +other excuse for it, but this, that, since the world were such fools +as to value those matters, a man must be a fool for company: He +considered them but as rattles: Yet rattles please children: So these +might be of use to his family. His heart was much set on raising his +family. But, tho' he made a vast estate for them, he buried two of his +sons himself, and almost all his grandchildren. The son that survived +was an honest man, but far inferior to him. + + + + +73. + +SIR EDMUND SAUNDERS. + +_Lord Chief Justice 1682. Died 1683._ + +By ROGER NORTH. + + +The Lord Chief Justice _Saunders_ succeeded in the Room of +_Pemberton_. His Character, and his Beginning, were equally strange. +He was at first no better than a poor Beggar Boy, if not a Parish +Foundling, without known Parents, or Relations. He had found a way +to live by Obsequiousness (in _Clement's-Inn_, as I remember) and +courting the Attornies Clerks for Scraps. The extraordinary Observance +and Diligence of the Boy, made the Society willing to do him Good. He +appeared very ambitious to learn to write; and one of the Attornies +got a Board knocked up at a Window on the Top of a Staircase; and that +was his Desk, where he sat and wrote after Copies of Court and other +Hands the Clerks gave him. He made himself so expert a Writer that he +took in Business, and earned some Pence by Hackney-writing. And thus, +by degrees, he pushed his Faculties, and fell to Forms, and, by Books +that were lent him, became an exquisite entering Clerk; and, by the +same course of Improvement of himself, an able Counsel, first in +special Pleading, then, at large. And, after he was called to the Bar, +had Practice, in the _King's Bench_ Court, equal with any there. As to +his Person, he was very corpulent and beastly; a mere Lump of morbid +Flesh. He used to say, _by his Troggs_, (such an humourous Way of +talking he affected) _none could say be wanted Issue of his Body, +for he had nine in his Back_. He was a fetid Mass, that offended his +Neighbours at the Bar in the sharpest Degree. Those, whose ill Fortune +it was to stard near him, were Confessors, and, in Summer-time, almost +Martyrs. This hateful Decay of his Carcase came upon him by continual +Sottishness; for, to say nothing of Brandy, he was seldom without a +Pot of Ale at his Nose, or near him. That Exercise was all he used; +the rest of his Life was sitting at his Desk, or piping at home; and +that _Home_ was a Taylor's House in _Butcher-Row_, called his Lodging, +and the Man's Wife was his Nurse, or worse; but, by virtue of his +Money, of which he made little Account, though he got a great deal, +he soon became Master of the Family; and, being no Changling, he never +removed, but was true to his Friends, and they to him, to the last +Hour of his Life. + +So much for his Person and Education. As for his Parts, none had them +more lively than he. Wit and Repartee, in an affected Rusticity, were +natural to him. He was ever ready, and never at a Loss; and none +came so near as he to be a Match for Serjeant _Mainard_. His great +Dexterity was in the Art of special Pleading, and he would lay Snares +that often caught his Superiors who were not aware of his Traps. And +he was so fond of Success for his Clients that, rather than fail, he +would set the Court hard with a Trick; for which he met sometimes with +a Reprimand, which he would wittily ward off, so that no one was much +offended with him. But _Hales_ could not bear his Irregularity of +Life; and for that, and Suspicion of his Tricks, used to bear hard +upon him in the Court. But no ill Usage from the Bench was too hard +for his Hold of Business, being such as scarce any could do but +himself. With all this, he had a Goodness of Nature and Disposition in +so great a Degree that he may be deservedly styled a _Philanthrope_. +He was a very _Silenus_ to the Boys, as, in this Place, I may term the +Students of the Law, to make them merry whenever they had a Mind to +it. He had nothing of rigid or austere in him. If any, near him at +the Bar, grumbled at his Stench, he ever converted the Complaint into +Content and Laughing with the Abundance of his Wit. As to his ordinary +Dealing, he was as honest as the driven Snow was white; and why not, +having no Regard for Money, or Desire to be rich? And, for good Nature +and Condescension, there was not his Fellow. I have seen him, for +Hours and half Hours together, before the Court sat, stand at the Bar, +with an Audience of Students over against him, putting of Cases, and +debating so as suited their Capacities, and encouraged their Industry. +And so in the _Temple_, he seldom moved without a Parcel of Youths +hanging about him, and he merry and jesting with them. + +It will be readily conceived that this Man was never cut out to be a +Presbyter, or any Thing that is severe and crabbed. In no Time did he +lean to Faction, but did his Business without Offence to any. He put +off officious Talk of Government or Politicks, with Jests, and so +made his Wit a Catholicon, or Shield, to cover all his weak Places and +Infirmities. When the Court fell into a steddy Course of using the +Law against all Kinds of Offenders, this Man was taken into the King's +Business; and had the Part of drawing, and Perusal of almost all +Indictments and Informations that were then to be prosecuted, with the +Pleadings thereon if any were special; and he had the settling of the +large Pleadings in the _Quo Warranto_ against _London_. His Lordship +had no sort of Conversation with him, but in the Way of Business, +and at the Bar; but once, after he was in the King's Business, he +dined with his Lordship, and no more. And then he shewed another +Qualification he had acquired, and that was to play Jigs upon an +Harpsichord; having taught himself with the Opportunity of an old +Virginal of his Landlady's; but in such a Manner, not for Defect but +Figure, as to see him were a Jest. The King, observing him to be of +a free Disposition, Loyal, Friendly, and without Greediness or Guile, +thought of him to be the Chief Justice of the _King's Bench_ at that +nice Time. And the Ministry could not but approve of it. So great a +Weight was then at stake, as could not be trusted to Men of doubtful +Principles, or such as any Thing might tempt to desert them. While he +sat in the Court of _King's Bench_, he gave the Rule to the general +Satisfaction of the Lawyers. But his Course of Life was so different +from what it had been, his Business incessant, and, withal, crabbed; +and his Diet and Exercise changed, that the Constitution of his Body, +or Head rather, could not sustain it, and he fell into an Apoplexy and +Palsy, which numbed his Parts; and he never recovered the Strength +of them. He out-lived the Judgment on the _Quo Warranto_; but was not +present otherwise than by sending his Opinion, by one of the Judges, +to be for the King, who, at the pronouncing of the Judgment, declared +it to the Court accordingly, which is frequently done in like Cases. + + + + +74. + +TWO GROUPS OF DIVINES. + +BENJAMIN WHITCHCOT or WHICHCOTE (1609-83), Provost of King's College, +Cambridge, 1645. RALPH CUDWORTH (1617-88), Master of Clare College, +Cambridge, 1645, and Christ's College, 1654. JOHN WILKINS (1614-72), +Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, 1648; Master of Trinity College, +Cambridge, 1659; Bishop of Chester, 1668. HENRY MORE (1614-87), Fellow +of Christ's College, Cambridge, 1639. JOHN WORTHINGTON (1618-71), +Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, 1650. + +JOHN TILLOTSON (1630-94), Archbishop of Canterbury, 1691. EDWARD +STILLINGFLEET (1635-99), Bishop of Worcester, 1689. SIMON PATRICK +(1626-1707), Bishop of Chichester, 1689; Ely, 1691. WILLIAM LLOYD +(1627-1717), Bishop of St. Asaph, 1680; Lichfield, 1692; Worcester, +1700. THOMAS TENISON (1636-1715), Archbishop of Canterbury, 1694. + +By BURNET. + + +With this great accession of wealth there broke in upon the Church a +great deal of luxury and high living, on the pretence of hospitality; +while others made purchases, and left great estates, most of which we +have seen melt away. And with this overset of wealth and pomp, that +came on men in the decline of their parts and age, they, who were +now growing into old age, became lazy and negligent in all the true +concerns of the Church: They left preaching and writing to others, +while they gave themselves up to ease and sloth. In all which sad +representation some few exceptions are to be made; but so few, that, +if a new set of men had not appeared of another stamp, the Church had +quite lost her esteem over the Nation. + +These were generally of _Cambridge_, formed under some divines, the +chief of whom were Drs. _Whitchcot_, _Cudworth_, _Wilkins_, _More_, +and _Worthington_. _Whitchcot_ was a man of a rare temper, very mild +and obliging. He had great credit with some that had been eminent in +the late times; but made all the use he could of it to protect good +men of all persuasions. He was much for liberty of conscience: And +being disgusted with the dry systematical way of those times, he +studied to raise those who conversed with him to a nobler set of +thoughts, and to consider religion as a seed of a deiform nature, (to +use one of his own phrases.) In order to this, he set young students +much on reading the ancient Philosophers, chiefly _Plato_, _Tully_, +and _Plotin_, and on considering the Christian religion as a doctrine +sent from God, both to elevate and sweeten humane nature, in which he +was a great example, as well as a wise and kind instructer. _Cudworth_ +carried this on with a great strength of genius, and a vast compass +of learning. He was a man of great conduct and prudence: Upon which +his enemies did very falsly accuse him of craft and dissimulation. +_Wilkins_ was of _Oxford_, but removed to _Cambridge_. His first +rise was in the Elector Palatine's family, when he was in _England_. +Afterwards he married _Cromwell_'s sister; but made no other use of +that alliance, but to do good offices, and to cover the University +from the sourness of _Owen_ and _Goodwin_. At _Cambridge_ he joined +with those who studied to propagate better thoughts, to take men off +from being in parties, or from narrow notions, from superstitious +conceits, and a fierceness about opinions. He was also a great +observer and a promoter of experimental philosophy, which was then +a new thing, and much looked after. He was naturally ambitious, but +was the wisest Clergy-man I ever knew. He was a lover of mankind, and +had a delight in doing good. _More_ was an open hearted, and sincere +Christian philosopher, who studied to establish men in the great +principles of religion against atheism, that was then beginning to +gain ground, chiefly by reason of the hypocrisy of some, and the +fantastical conceits of the more sincere enthusiasts. + +_Hobbs_, who had long followed the Court, and passed there for a +mathematical man, tho' he really knew little that way, being disgusted +by the Court, came into _England_ in _Cromwell_'s time, and published +a very wicked book, with a very strange title, _The Leviathan_. His +main principles were, that all men acted under an absolute necessity, +in which he seemed protected by the then received doctrine of absolute +decrees. He seemed to think that the universe was God, and that souls +were material, Thought being only subtil and unperceptible motion. He +thought interest and fear were the chief principles of society: And he +put all morality in the following that which was our own private will +or advantage. He thought religion had no other foundation than the +laws of the land. And he put all the law in the will of the Prince, +or of the people: For he writ his book at first in favour of absolute +monarchy, but turned it afterwards to gratify the republican party. +These were his true principles, tho' he had disguised them, for +deceiving unwary readers. And this set of notions came to spread much. +The novelty and boldness of them set many on reading them. The impiety +of them was acceptable to men of corrupt minds, which were but too +much prepared to receive them by the extravagancies of the late times. +So this set of men at _Cambridge_ studied to assert, and examine +the principles of religion and morality on clear grounds, and in +a philosophical method. In this _More_ led the way to many that +came after him. _Worihington_ was a man of eminent piety and great +humility, and practised a most sublime way of self-denial and +devotion. All these, and those who were formed under them, studied to +examine farther into the nature of things than had been done formerly. +They declared against superstition on the one hand, and enthusiasm on +the other. They loved the constitution of the Church, and the Liturgy, +and could well live under them: But they did not think it unlawful +to live under another form. They wished that things might have been +carried with more moderation. And they continued to keep a good +correspondence with those who had differed from them in opinion, +and allowed a great freedom both in philosophy and in divinity: +From whence they were called men of Latitude. And upon this men of +narrower thoughts and fiercer tempers fastened upon them the name of +Latitudinarians. They read _Episcopius_ much. And the making out the +reasons of things being a main part of their studies, their enemies +called them Socinians. They were all very zealous against popery. And +so, they becoming soon very considerable, the Papists set themselves +against them to decry them as Atheists, Deists, or at best Socinians. +And now that the main principle of religion was struck at by _Hobbs_ +and his followers, the Papists acted upon this a very strange part. +They went in so far even into the argument for Atheism, as to publish +many books, in which they affirmed, that there was no certain proofs +of the Christian religion, unless we took it from the authority of the +Church as infallible. This was such a delivering up of the cause +to them, that it raised in all good men a very high indignation at +Popery; that party shewing, that they chose to make men, who would not +turn Papists, become Atheists, rather than believe Christianity upon +any other ground than infallibility. + +The most eminent of those, who were formed under those great men I +have mention'd, were _Tillotson_, _Stillingfleet_, and _Patrick_. The +first of these was a man of a clear head, and a sweet temper. He had +the brightest thoughts, and the most correct style of all our divines; +and was esteemed the best preacher of the age. He was a very prudent +man; and had such a management with it, that I never knew any +Clergy-man so universally esteemed and beloved, as he was for above +twenty years. He was eminent for his opposition to Popery. He was no +friend to persecution, and stood up much against Atheism. Nor did +any man contribute more to bring the City to love our worship, than +he did. But there was so little superstition, and so much reason +and gentleness in his way of explaining things, that malice was +long levelled at him, and in conclusion broke out fiercely on him. +_Stillingfleet_ was a man of much more learning, but of a more +reserved, and a haughtier temper. He in his youth writ an _Irenicum_ +for healing our divisions, with so much learning and moderation, that +it was esteemed a masterpiece. His notion was, that the Apostles had +settled the Church in a constitution of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, +but had made no perpetual law about it, having only taken it in, +as they did many other things, from the customs and practice of the +synagogue; from which he inferred, that certainly the constitution +was lawful since authorised by them, but not necessary, since they had +made no settled law about it. This took with many; but was cried out +upon by others as an attempt against the Church. Yet the argument was +managed with so much learning and skill, that none of either side +ever undertook to answer it. After that, he wrote against infidelity, +beyond any that had gone before him. And then he engaged to write +against Popery, which he did with such an exactness and liveliness, +that no books of controversy were so much read and valued, as his +were. He was a great man in many respects. He knew the world well, +and was esteemed a very wise man. The writing of his _Irenicum_ was a +great snare to him: For, to avoid the imputations which that brought +upon him, he not only retracted the book, but he went into the humours +of that high sort of people beyond what became him, perhaps beyond +his own sense of things. He applied himself much to the study of the +law and records, and the original of our constitution, and was a very +extraordinary man. _Patrick_ was a great preacher. He wrote much, and +well, and chiefly on the Scriptures. He was a laborious man in his +function, of great strictness of life, but a little too severe against +those who differed from him. But that was, when he thought their +doctrines struck at the fundamentals of religion. He became afterwards +more moderate. To these I shall add another divine, who, tho' of +_Oxford_, yet as he was formed by Bishop _Wilkins_, so he went into +most of their principles; but went far beyond them in learning. +_Lloyd_ was a great critick in the _Greek_ and _Latin_ authors, +but chiefly in the Scriptures; of the words and phrases of which he +carried the most perfect concordance in his memory, and had it the +readiest about him, of all men that ever I knew. He was an exact +historian, and the most punctual in chronology of all our divines. +He had read the most books, and with the best judgment, and had made +the most copious abstracts out of them, of any in this age: So that +_Wilkins_ used to say, he had the most learning in ready cash of any +he ever knew. He was so exact in every thing he set about, that he +never gave over any part of study, till he had quite mastered it. But +when that was done, he went to another subject, and did not lay out +his learning with the diligence with which he laid it in. He had many +volumes of materials upon all subjects laid together in so distinct a +method, that he could with very little labour write on any of them. He +had more life in his imagination, and a truer judgment, than may seem +consistent with such a laborious course of study. Yet, as much as he +was set on learning, he had never neglected his pastoral care. For +several years he had the greatest cure in _England_, St. _Martins_, +which he took care of with an application and diligence beyond any +about him; to whom he was an example, or rather a reproach, so few +following his example. He was a holy, humble, and patient man, ever +ready to do good when he saw a proper opportunity: Even his love of +study did not divert him from that. He did upon his promotion find +a very worthy successor in his cure, _Tenison_, who carried on and +advanced all those good methods that he had begun in the management +of that great cure. He endowed schools, set up a publick library, and +kept many Curates to assist him in his indefatigable labours among +them. He was a very learned man, and took much pains to state the +notions and practices of heathenish idolatry, and so to fasten that +charge on the Church of _Rome_. And, _Whitehall_ lying within that +parish, he stood as in the front of the battel all King _James's_ +reign; and maintained, as well as managed, that dangerous post with +great courage and much judgment, and was held in very high esteem for +his whole deportment, which was ever grave and moderate. These have +been the greatest divines we have had these forty years: And may we +ever have a succession of such men to fill the room of those who have +already gone off the stage, and of those who, being now very old, +cannot hold their posts long. Of these I have writ the more fully, +because I knew them well, and have lived long in great friendship with +them; but most particularly with _Tillotson_ and _Lloyd_. And, as I +am sensible I owe a great deal of the consideration that has been had +for me to my being known to be their friend, so I have really learned +the best part of what I know from them. But I owed them much more +on the account of those excellent principles and notions, of which +they were in a particular manner communicative to me. This set of +men contributed more than can be well imagined to reform the way +of preaching; which among the divines of _England_ before them was +over-run with pedantry, a great mixture of quotations from fathers +and ancient writers, a long opening of a text with the concordance +of every word in it, and a giving all the different expositions with +the grounds of them, and the entring into some parts of controversy, +and all concluding in some, but very short, practical applications, +according to the subject or the occasion. This was both long and +heavy, when all was pye-balled, full of many sayings of different +languages. The common style of sermons was either very flat and low, +or swelled up with rhetorick to a false pitch of a wrong sublime. The +King had little or no literature, but true and good sense; and had got +a right notion of style; for he was in _France_ at a time when they +were much set on reforming their language. It soon appear'd that he +had a true taste. So this help'd to raise the value of these men, +when the King approved of the style their discourses generally ran +in; which was clear, plain, and short. They gave a short paraphrase +of their text, unless where great difficulties required a more copious +enlargement: But even then they cut off unnecessary shews of learning, +and applied themselves to the matter, in which they opened the nature +and reasons of things so fully, and with that simplicity, that their +hearers felt an instruction of another sort than had commonly been +observed before. So they became very much followed: And a set of these +men brought off the City in a great measure from the prejudices they +had formerly to the Church. + + + + +75. + +JAMES II. + +_Born 1633. Created Duke of York. Succeeded Charles II 1685. Fled to +France 1688. Died 1701._ + +By BURNET. + + +I will digress a little to give an account of the Duke's character, +whom I knew for some years so particularly, that I can say much +upon my own knowledge. He was very brave in his youth, and so much +magnified by Monsieur _Turenne_, that, till his marriage lessened him +he really clouded the King, and pass'd for the superior genius. He was +naturally candid and sincere, and a firm friend, till affairs and his +religion wore out all his first principles and inclinations. He had +a great desire to understand affairs: And in order to that he kept +a constant journal of all that pass'd, of which he shewed me a +great deal. The Duke of _Buckingham_ gave me once a short but severe +character of the two brothers. It was the more severe, because it +was-true: The King (he said) could see things if he would, and the +Duke would see things if he could. He had no true judgment, and +was soon determined by those whom he trusted: But he was obstinate +against all other advices. He was bred with high notions of the Kingly +authority, and laid it down for a maxim, that all who opposed the King +were rebels in their hearts. He was perpetually in one amour or other, +without being very nice in his choice: Upon which the King said once, +he believed his brother had his mistresses given him by his Priests +for penance. He gave me this account of his changing his religion: +When he escaped out of the hands of the Earl of _Northumberland_, who +had the charge of his education trusted to him by the Parliament, and +had used him with great respect, all due care was taken, as soon as +he got beyond sea, to form him to a strict adherence to the Church +of _England_: Among other things much was said of the authority of +the Church, and of the tradition from the Apostles in support of +Episcopacy: So that, when he came to observe that there was more +reason to submit to the Catholick Church than to one particular +Church, and that other traditions might be taken on her word, as +well as Episcopacy was received among us, he thought the step was not +great, but that it was very reasonable to go over to the Church of +_Rome_: And Doctor _Steward_ having taught him to believe a real but +unconceivable presence of _Christ_ in the Sacrament, he thought this +went more than half way to transubstantiation. He said, that a Nun's +advice to him to pray every day, that, if he was not in the right way, +God would set him right, did make a great impression on him. But he +never told me when or where he was reconciled. He suffered me to say a +great deal to him on all these heads. I shewed the difference between +submission and obedience in matters of order and indifferent things, +and an implicite submission from the belief of infallibility. I +also shewed him the difference between a speculation of a mode of +_Christ's_ presence, when it rested in an opinion, and an adoration +founded on it: Tho' the opinion of such a presence was wrong, there +was no great harm in that alone: But the adoration of an undue object +was idolatry. He suffered me to talk much and often to him on these +heads. But I plainly saw, it made no impression: And all that he +seemed to intend by it was, to make use of me as an instrument to +soften the aversion that people began to be possessed with to him. He +was naturally eager and revengeful: And was against the taking off any +that set up in an opposition to the measures of the Court, and who by +that means grew popular in the House of Commons. He was for rougher +methods. He continued for many years dissembling his religion, and +seemed zealous for the Church of _England_: But it was chiefly on +design to hinder all propositions that tended to unite us among our +selves. He was a frugal Prince, and brought his Court into method and +magnificence: For he had 100000_l_. a year allowed him. He was made +High Admiral: And he came to understand all the concerns of the +sea very particularly. He had a very able Secretary about him, Sir +_William Coventry_; a man of great notions and eminent vertues, the +best Speaker in the House of Commons, and capable of bearing the chief +ministry, as it was once thought he was very near it. The Duke found, +all the great seamen had a deep tincture from their education: They +both hated Popery, and loved liberty: They were men of severe tempers, +and kept good discipline. But in order to the putting the fleet into +more confident hands, the Duke began a method of sending pages of +honour, and other young persons of quality, to be bred to the sea. And +these were put in command, as soon as they were capable of it, if not +sooner. This discouraged many of the old seamen, when they saw in what +a channel advancement was like to go; who upon that left the service, +and went and commanded merchantmen. By this means the vertue and +discipline of the navy is much lost. It is true, we have a breed of +many gallant men, who do distinguish themselves in action. But it is +thought, the Nation has suffered much by the vices and disorders of +those Captains, who have risen by their quality, more than by merit or +service. + + + + +76. + +By BURNET. + + +He was a Prince that seemed made for greater things, than will be +found in the course of his Life, more particularly of his Reign: He +was esteemed in the former parts of his Life, a Man of great Courage, +as he was quite thro' it a man of great application to business: He +had no vivacity of thought, invention or expression: But he had a good +judgment, where his Religion or his Education gave him not a biass, +which it did very often: He was bred with strange Notions of the +Obedience due to Princes, and came to take up as strange ones, of the +Submission due to Priests: He was naturally a man of truth, fidelity, +and justice: But his Religion was so infused in him, and he was so +managed in it by his Priests, that the Principles which Nature had +laid in him, had little power over him, when the concerns of his +Church stood in the way: He was a gentle Master, and was very easy to +all who came near him: yet he was not so apt to pardon, as one ought +to be, that is the Vicegerent of that God, who is slow to anger, and +ready to forgive: He had no personal Vices but of one sort: He was +still wandring from one Amour to another, yet he had a real sense of +Sin, and was ashamed of it: But Priests know how to engage Princes +more entirely into their interests, by making them compound for their +Sins, by a great zeal for Holy Church, as they call it. In a word, if +it had not been for his Popery, he would have been, if not a great +yet a good Prince. By what I once knew of him, and by what I saw him +afterwards carried to, I grew more confirmed in the very bad opinion, +which I was always apt to have, of the Intrigues of the Popish Clergy, +and of the Confessors of Kings: He was undone by them, and was their +Martyr, so that they ought to bear the chief load of all the errors +of his inglorious Reign, and of its fatal Catastrophe. He had the +Funeral which he himself had desired, private, and without any sort of +Ceremony. + + + + +NOTES + + +1. + +The History of Great Britain, Being the Life and Reign of King James +The First, Relating To what passed from his first Accesse to the +Crown, till his Death. By Arthur Wilson, Esq. London, 1653. (pp. +289-90.) + +Arthur Wilson (1595-1652) was a gentleman-in-waiting to Robert +Devereux, third Earl of Essex, during James's reign, and was +afterwards in the service of Robert Rich, second Earl of Essex. The +_History_ was written towards the end of his life, and published the +year after his death. He was the author also of an autobiography, +_Observations of God's Providence in the Tract of my Life_ (first +printed in Francis Peck's _Desiderata Curiosa_, 1735, Lib. XII, pp. +6-34), and of three plays, _The Swisser_ (performed at Blackfriars, +1633, first printed in 1904, ed. Albert Feuillerat, from the MS. +in the British Museum), _The Corporall_ (performed, 1633, but not +extant), and _The Inconstant Lady_ (first printed in 1814, ed. Philip +Bliss, from the MS. in the Bodleian Library). The three plays were +entered in the Registers of the Stationers' Company, September 4, +1646, and September 9, 1653. But nothing he wrote appears to have been +published during his life. + +Page 2, l. 24. _Peace begot Plenty_. An adaptation of the wellknown +saying which Puttenham in his _Arte of English Poesie_ (ed. Arber, p. +217) attributes to Jean de Meung. Puttenham gives it thus: + + Peace makes plentie, plentie makes pride, + Pride breeds quarrell, and quarrell brings warre: + Warre brings spoile, and spoile pouertie, + Pouertie pacience, and pacience peace: + So peace brings warre, and warre brings peace. + +It is found also in Italian and Latin. Allusions to it are frequent +in the seventeenth century. Compare the beginning of Swift's _Battle +of the Books_, and see the correspondence in _The Times Literary +Supplement_, February 17-March 30, 1916. + + +2. + +The Court and Character of King James. Written and taken by Sir +A.W. being an eye, and eare witnesse. Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit +regnare. Published by Authority. London, MDCL. + +'The Character of King James' forms a section by itself at the +conclusion of the volume, pp. 177-89. The volume was reprinted in +the following year, when there were added to it 'The Court of King +Charles' and 'Observations (instead of a Character) upon this King, +from his Childe-hood'. Both editions are carelessly printed. The +second, which corrects some of the errors of the first but introduces +others, has been used for the present text. + +Weldon was clerk of the kitchen to James I and afterwards clerk of +the Green Cloth. He was knighted in 1617, and accompanied James to +Scotland in that year, but was dismissed from his place at court for +his satire on the Scots. He took the side of the parliament in the +Civil War. The dedication to Lady Elizabeth Sidley (first printed in +the second edition) states that the work 'treads too near the heeles +of truth, and these Times, to appear in publick'. According to Anthony +a Wood she had suppressed the manuscript, which was stolen from +her. Weldon had died before it was printed. The answer to it called +_Aulicus Coquinariae_ describes it as 'Pretended to be penned by Sir +A.W. and published since his death, 1650'. + +Other works of the same kind, though of inferior value, are Sir Edward +Peyton's _The Divine Catastrophe of The Kingly Family Of the House of +Stuarts_, 1652, and Francis Osborne's _Traditionall Memoyres on The +Raigne of King James_, 1658. They were printed together by Sir Walter +Scott in 1811 under the title _The Secret History of the Court of +James the First_, a collection which contains the historical material +employed in _The Fortunes of Nigel_. + +Though carelessly written, and as carelessly printed, Weldon's +character of James is in parts remarkably vivid. It was reprinted by +itself in Morgan's _Pboenix Britannicus_, 1732, pp. 54-6; and it +was incorporated in the edition of Defoe's _Memoirs of a Cavalier_ +published in 1792: see _The Retrospective Review_, 1821, vol. iii, pt. +ii, pp. 378-9. + +There is a valuable article on Weldon's book as a whole in _The +Retrospective Review_, 1823, vol. vii, pt. I. + +PAGE 4, l. 6. _before he was born_, probably an allusion to the murder +of Rizzio in Mary's presence. + +l. 11. The syntax is faulty: delete 'and'? + +On James's capacity for strong drinks, compare Roger Coke's _Detection +of the Court and State of England_ (1694), ed. 1719, vol. i, p. 78. + +l. 27. _that foul poysoning busines_, the poisoning of Sir Thomas +Overbury, the great scandal of the reign. Robert Ker, or Carr, created +Viscount Rochester 1611 and Earl of Somerset 1613, had cast his eye +on the Countess of Essex, and, after a decree of nullity of marriage +with Essex had been procured, married her in December 1613. Overbury, +who had been Somerset's friend, opposed the projected marriage. On +a trumped up charge of disobedience to the king he was in April 1613 +committed to the Tower, where he was slowly poisoned, and died in +September. Somerset and the Countess were both found guilty in 1616, +but ultimately pardoned; four of the accomplices were hanged. Weldon +deals with the scandal at some length in the main part of his work, +pp. 61 ff. + +l. 30. _Mountgomery_, Philip Herbert, created Earl of Montgomery 1605, +succeeded his brother, William Herbert, as fourth Earl of Pembroke +in 1630 (see No. 7). To this 'most noble and incomparable paire +of brethren' Heminge and Condell dedicated the First Folio of +Shakespeare's plays, 1623. Montgomery's character is given by +Clarendon, _History_, ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 74-5; and, as fourth +Earl of Pembroke, vol. ii, pp. 539-41. + +Page 5, l. 22. _unfortunate in the marriage of his Daughter_. James's +daughter Elizabeth married the Elector Palatine, Frederick V, in 1613. +His election as King of Bohemia led to the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) +in which James long hesitated to become involved and played at best +an ineffectual part. The opinion here expressed is explained by +an earlier passage in Weldon's book, pp. 82-4: 'In this Favourites +(Somerset's) flourishing time, came over the _Palsgrave_ to marry our +Kings daughter, which for the present, gave much content, and with the +generall applause, yet it proved a most infortunate match to him and +his Posterity, and all Christendome, for all his Alliance with so +many great Princes, which put on him aspiring thoughts, and was so +ambitious as not to content himselfe with his hereditary patrimony +of one of the greatest Princes in _Germany_; but must aspire to a +Kingdome, beleeving that his great allyance would carry him through +any enterprise, or bring him off with honour, in both which he failed; +being cast out of his own Country with shame, and he and his, ever +after, living upon the devotion of other Princes; but had his Father +in Law spent halfe the mony in Swords he did in words, for which he +was but scorned, it had kept him in his own inheritance, and saved +much Christian bloud since shed; but whiles he, being wholly addicted +to peace, spent much treasure, in sending stately Embassadours to +treat, his Enemies (which he esteemed friends) sent Armies with a +lesse charge to conquer, so that it may be concluded, that this +then thought the most happy match in Christendome, was the greatest +unhappinesse to Christendome, themselves, and posterity.' + +l. 27. _Sir Robert Mansell_ (1573-1656), Vice-Admiral of England under +Charles I. Clarendon, writing of the year 1642, says that 'his courage +and integrity were unquestionable' (ed. Macray, vol. ii, p. 219). +'Argiers' or 'Argier' was the common old form of 'Algiers': cf. _The +Tempest_, I. ii. 261, 265. + +Page 6, l. 2. _Cottington_, Francis Cottington (1578-1652), baronet +1623, Baron Cottington, 1631. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer from +1629 to 1642. + +Page 7, l. 5. The first edition reads 'In sending Embassadours, which +were'. The printer's substitution of 'His' for 'In' and omission of +'which' do not wholly mend the syntax. + +l. 10. _peace with honour_. An early instance of the phrase made +famous by Lord Beaconsfield in his speech of July 16, 1878, after the +Congress of Berlin, 'Lord Salisbury and myself have brought you back +peace, but a peace I hope with honour.' Cf. _Notes and Queries_, 1887, +Seventh Series, vol. iii, p. 96. + +l. 14. _Nullum tempus, &c._, the law maxim _Nullum tempus occurrit +regi_, lapse of time does not bar the crown. The Parliament which met +in February 1624 passed 'An Act for the generall quiett of the Subject +agaynst all pretences of Concealement' (21 deg. Jac. I, c. 2) which +declared sixty years' possession of Lands, &c., to be a good title +against the Crown. + +l. 18. _his Tuesday Sermons_, likewise explained by an earlier passage +in Weldon's book, pp. 8, 9: 'the chiefe of those secrets, was that +of _Gowries_ Conspiracy, though that Nation [the Scots] gave little +credit to the Story, but would speak sleightly and despitefully of +it, and those of the wisest of that Nation; yet there was a weekly +commemoration by the Tuesday Sermon, and an anniversary Feast, as +great as it was possible, for the Kings preservation, ever on the +fifth of August.' James attempted to force the Tuesday sermon on the +University of Oxford; it was to be preached by members of each college +in rotation. See Brodrick's _Memorials of Merton College_, 1885, p. +70. + +Page 8, l. 1. _a very wise man_. Compare _The Fortunes of Nigel_, +chap. v: 'the character bestowed upon him by Sully--that he was +the wisest fool in Christendom'. Two volumes of the _Memoires_ of +Maximilien de Bethune, Duc de Sully (1560-1641), appeared in 1638; the +others after 1650. There is much about James in the second volume, but +this description of him does not appear to be there. + +ll. 10-12. _two Treasurers_, see p. 21, ll. 15-22: _three +Secretaries_, Sir Thomas Lake; Sir Robert Naunton; Sir George Calvert, +Baron Baltimore; Sir Edward Conway, Viscount Conway: _two Lord +Keepers_, Sir Francis Bacon; John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln (see +p. 18, l. 5): _two Admiralls_, Charles Howard of Effingham, Earl of +Nottingham; the Duke of Buckingham: _three Lord chief Justices_, Sir +Edward Coke; Henry Montagu, Earl of Manchester; James Ley, Earl of +Marlborough. + +Weldon's statement is true of the year 1623; he might have said +'_three_ Treasurers' and '_four_ Secretaries'. + + +3. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 7-9, 18-20; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. +i, pp. 9-11, 26-9; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 10-13, 38-43. + +This is the first of the portraits in Clarendon's great gallery, and +it is drawn with great care. Clarendon was only a youth of twenty when +Buckingham was assassinated, and he had therefore not the personal +knowledge and contact to which the later portraits owe so much of +their value. But he had throughout all his life been interested in +the remarkable career of this 'very extraordinary person'. Sir Henry +Wotton's 'Observations by Way of Parallel' on the Earl of Essex +and Buckingham had suggested to him his first character study, 'The +Difference and Disparity' between them. (It is printed after the +'Parallel' in _Reliquiae Wottonianae_, and described in the third +edition, 1672, as 'written by the Earl of Clarendon in his younger +dayes'.) His two studies offer an interesting comparison. Many of the +ideas are the same, but there is a marked difference in the precision +of drawing and the ease of style. The character here reprinted was +written when Clarendon had mastered his art. + +Page 11, l. 5. See p. 4, l. 27. + +Page 13, l. 25. The passage here omitted deals with Buckingham's +unsuccessful journey to Spain with Prince Charles, and with his +assassination. + +Page 16, l. 28. _touched upon before_, ed. Macray, vol. i, p. 38; here +omitted. + + +4. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 27, 28; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 36-8; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 56-9. + +Page 18, l. 5. _the Bishopp of Lincolne_, John Williams (1582-1650), +afterwards Archbishop of York. He succeeded Bacon as Lord Keeper. He +is sketched in Wilson's _History of Great Britain_, pp. 196-7, and +Fuller's _Church-History of Britain_, 1655, Bk. XI, pp. 225-8. His +life by John Hacket, _Scrinia Reserata_, 1693, is notorious for the +'embellishments' of its style; a shorter life, based on Hacket's, was +an early work of Ambrose Philips. + +l. 22. _the Earle of Portlande_, Sir Richard Weston: see No. 5. + +l. 24. _Hambleton_, Clarendon's usual spelling of 'Hamilton'. + + +5. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 28-32; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 31-43; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 59-67. + +Another and more favourable character of Weston is the matter of an +undated letter which Sir Henry Wotton sent to him as 'a strange New +years Gift' about 1635. 'In short, it is only an Image of your Self, +drawn by memory from such discourse as I have taken up here and +there of your Lordship, among the most intelligent and unmalignant +men; which to pourtrait before you I thought no servile office, but +ingenuous and real'. See _Reliquiae Wottonianae_, ed. 1672, pp. 333-6. + +Page 21, l. 7. _the white staffe_. 'The Third _Great Officer_ of the +Crown, is the _Lord High Treasurer of England_, who receives this High +Office by delivery of a _White Staffe_ to him by the _King_, and +holds it _durante bene placito Regis_' (Edward Chamberlayne, _Angliae +Notitia_, 1674, p. 152). + +Page 23, l. 4. _L'd Brooke_, Sir Fulke Greville (1554-1628) the +friend and biographer of Sir Philip Sidney. He was Chancellor of the +Exchequer from 1614 to 1621. + +Page 28, l. 18. _eclarcicement_, introduced into English about +this time, and in frequent use till the beginning of the nineteenth +century. + +l. 28. _a younge, beautifull Lady_, Frances, daughter of Esme, third +Duke of Lennox, married to Jerome Weston, afterwards second Earl of +Portland, in 1632. + + +6. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 33, 34; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, +p. 44; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 69-71. + +This is one of Clarendon's most unfriendly portraits. It was seriously +edited when first printed. The whole passage about the coldness and +selfishness of Arundel's nature on p. 31, ll. 12-30, was omitted, as +likewise the allusion to his ignorance on p. 30, ll. 25-7, 'wheras in +truth he was only able to buy them, never to understande them.' Minor +alterations are the new reading 'thought no part of History _so_ +considerable, _as_ what related to his own Family' p. 30, ll. 28, +29, and the omission of 'vulgar' p. 31, l. 11. The purpose of these +changes is obvious. They are extreme examples of the methods of +Clarendon's first editors. In no other character did they take so +great liberties with his text. + +Arundel's great collection of ancient marbles is now in the Ashmolean +Museum in the University of Oxford. The inscriptions were presented +to the University in 1667 by Lord Henry Howard, Arundel's grandson, +afterwards sixth Duke of Norfolk, and the statues were reunited +to them in 1755 by the gift of Henrietta Countess of Pomfret. As +Clarendon's _History_ was an official publication of the University, +it is probable that the prospect of receiving the statues induced +the editors to remove or alter the passages that might be thought +offensive. + +As a whole this character does not show Clarendon's usual detachment. +Arundel was Earl Marshal, and Clarendon in the Short Parliament of +1640 and again at the beginning of the Long Parliament had attacked +the jurisdiction of the Earl Marshal's Court, which, as he says, +'never presumed to sit afterwards'. The account given in Clarendon's +_Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 37-9, explains much in this character. Clarendon +there says that Arundel 'did him the honour to detest and hate him +perfectly'. There was resentment on both sides. The character was +written in Clarendon's later years, but he still remembered with +feeling the days when as Mr. Edward Hyde he was at cross purposes with +this Earl of ancient lineage. + +A different character of Arundel is given in the 'Short View' of his +life written by Sir Edward Walker (1612-77), Garter King of Arms and +Secretary of War to Charles I: + +'He was tall of Stature, and of Shape and proportion rather goodly +than neat; his Countenance was Majestical and grave, his Visage long, +his Eyes large black and piercing; he had a hooked Nose, and some +Warts or Moles on his Cheeks; his Countenance was brown, his Hair thin +both on his Head and Beard; he was of a stately Presence and Gate, so +that any Man that saw him, though in never so ordinary Habit, could +not but conclude him to be a great Person, his Garb and Fashion +drawing more Observation than did the rich Apparel of others; so that +it was a common Saying of the late Earl of _Carlisle_, Here comes the +Earl of _Arundel_ in his plain Stuff and trunk Hose, and his Beard +in his Teeth, that looks more like a Noble Man than any of us. He +was more learned in Men and Manners than in Books, yet understood the +_Latin_ Tongue very well, and was Master of the _Italian_; besides he +was a great Favourer of learned Men, such as Sir _Robert Cotton_, Sir +_Henry Spelman_, Mr. _Camden_, Mr. _Selden_, and the like. He was a +great Master of Order and Ceremony, and knew and kept greater Distance +towards his Sovereign than any Person I ever observed, and expected +no less from his inferiours; often complaining that the too great +Affability of the King, and the _French_ Garb of the Court would +bring MAJESTY into Contempt.... He was the greatest Favourer of Arts, +especially Painting, Sculpture, Designs, Carving, Building and the +like, that this Age hath produced; his Collection of Designs being +more than of any Person living, and his Statues equal in Number, Value +and Antiquity to those in the Houses of most Princes; to gain which, +he had Persons many Years employed both in _Italy_, _Greece_, and so +generally in any part of _Europe_ where Rarities were to be had. His +Paintings likewise were numerous and of the most excellent Masters, +having more of that exquisite Painter _Hans Holben_ than are in the +World besides.... He was a Person of great and universal Civility, but +yet with that Restriction as that it forbad any to be bold or sawcy +with him; though with those whom he affected, which were Lovers of +State, Nobility and curious Arts, he was very free and conversible; +but they being but few, the Stream of the times being otherwise, he +had not many Confidents or Dependents; neither did he much affect +to have them, they being unto great Persons both burthensome and +dangerous. He was not popular at all, nor cared for it, as loving +better by a just Hand than Flattery to let the common People to know +their Distance and due Observance. Neither was he of any Faction in +Court or Council, especially not of the _French_ or Puritan.... He was +in Religion no Bigot or Puritan, and professed more to affect moral +Vertues than nice Questions and Controversies.... If he were defective +in any thing, it was that he could not bring his Mind to his Fortune; +which though great, was far too little for the Vastness of his noble +Designs.' + +Walker's character was written before Clarendon's. It is dated +'Iselsteyne the 7th of June 1651'. It was first published in 1705 in +his _Historical Discourses upon Several Occasions_, pp. 221-3. + +Page 30, l. 15. _his wife_, 'the Lady Alithea Talbot, third Daughter +and Coheir of _Gilbert Talbot_ Earl of _Shrewsbury_, Grandchild of +_George Talbot_ Earl of _Shrewsbury_ and Earl Marshal of _England_' +(Walker, _Historical Discourses_, p. 211). + + +7. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 34, 35; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 44-6; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 71-3. + +This pleasing portrait of Pembroke, one of the great patrons of +literature of James's reign, follows immediately after the unfriendly +portrait of Arundel, the art collector. Clarendon knew the value of +contrast in the arrangement of his gallery. + +Pembroke is sometimes supposed to have been the patron of Shakespeare. +It cannot, however, be proved that there were any personal relations, +though the First Folio was dedicated to him and his brother, the Earl +of Montgomery, afterwards fourth Earl of Pembroke. See note, p. 4, +l. 30. He was the patron of Ben Jonson, who dedicated to him his +_Catiline_, his favourite play, and his _Epigrams_, 'the ripest of +my studies'; also of Samuel Daniel, Chapman, and William Browne. See +_Shakespeare's England_, vol. ii, pp. 202-3. + +Clarendon has also given a character of the fourth Earl, 'the poor +Earl of Pembroke', _History_, ed. Macray, vol. ii, pp. 539-41. + + +8. + +Timber: or, Discoveries; Made Vpon Men and Matter. By Ben: Iohnson. +London, Printed M.DC.XLI. (pp. 101-2.) + +This character is a remarkable testimony to the impression which +Bacon's restrained eloquence made on his contemporaries. Yet it is +little more than an exercise in free translation. Jonson has pieced +together two passages in the _Controversies_ of Marcus Seneca, and +placed the name of 'Dominus Verulanus' in the margin. The two passages +are these: + +'Non est unus, quamvis praecipuus sit, imitandus: quia nunquam par +fit imitator auctori. Haec natura est rei. Semper citra veritatem est +similitudo.' Lib. I, Praefatio (ed. Paris, 1607, p. 58). + +'Oratio eius erat valens cultu, ingentibus plena sententiis. Nemo +minus passus est aliquid in actione sua otiosi esse. Nulla pars erat, +quae non sua virtute staret. Nihil, in quo auditor sine damno aliud +ageret. Omnia intenta aliquo, petentia. Nemo magis in sua potestate +habuit audientium affectus. Verum est quod de illo dicit Gallio +noster. Cum diceret, rerum potiebatur, adeo omnes imperata faciebant. +Cum ille voluerat, irascebantur. Nemo non illo dicente timebat, ne +desineret.' Epit. Declamat. Lib. III (p. 231). + +From the continuation of the first passage Jonson took the words +'insolent Greece' ('insolenti Graeciae') in his verses 'To the memory of +Shakespeare'. + +Jonson has left a more vivid picture of Bacon as a speaker in a short +sentence of his Conversations with Drummond of Hawthornden: 'My Lord +Chancelor of England wringeth his speeches from the strings of his +band.' + + +9. + +Reign of King James the First, 1653, pp. 158-60. + +Page 36, l. 18. _which the King hinted at_, in the King's Speech to +the Lords, 1621: 'But because the World at this time talks so much of +_Bribes_, I have just cause to fear the whole _Body_ of this _House_ +hath _bribed_ him [Prince Charles] to be a good _Instrument_ for you +upon all occasions: He doth so good Offices in all his _Reports_ +to me, both for the _House_ in _generall_, and every one of you +in _particular_.' The speech is given in full by Wilson before the +passage on Bacon. + +Page 37, l. 25. The passage here omitted is 'The humble Submission and +Supplication of the Lord Chancellour'. + +Page 38, l. 10. _a good Passeover_, a good passage back to Spain. +Gondomar was Spanish ambassador. + + +10. + +The Church-History of Britain; From the Birth of Jesus Christ, Untill +the Year M.DC.XLVIII. Endeavoured By Thomas Fuller. London, 1655. (Bk. +x, p. 89.) + + +11. + +Resuscitatio, Or, Bringing into Publick Light Severall Pieces, of +the Works, Civil, Historical, Philosophical, & Theological, Hitherto +Sleeping; Of the Right Honourable Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam, +Viscount Saint Alban. According to the best Corrected Coppies. +Together, With his Lordships Life. By William Rawley, Doctor in +Divinity, His Lordships First, and Last, Chapleine. Afterwards, +Chapleine, to His late Maiesty. London, 1657. + +'The Life of the Honourable Author' serves as introduction to this +volume of Bacon's literary remains. It runs to fourteen pages, +unnumbered. The passage quoted from this life (_c1v-c2v_) is of the +nature of a character. + +Rawley's work is disfigured by pedantically heavy punctuation. He +carried to absurd excess the methods which his Master adopted in the +1625 edition of his _Essays_. It has not been thought necessary to +retain all his commas. + +Page 41, l. 4. _Et quod tentabam_, &c. Ovid, _Tristia_, IV. x. 26. + + +12. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 48; _Life_, ed. 1759, p. 16. + +Page 42, l. 23. _M'r Cowly_, an indication of Cowley's fame among his +contemporaries. This was written in 1668, after the publication of +_Paradise Lost_, but Clarendon ignores Milton. + +l. 25. _to own much of his_, 'to ascribe much of this' _Life_ 1759. + +Page 43, l. 2. _M'r Hyde_, Clarendon himself. + + +13. + +A New Volume of Familiar Letters, Partly Philosophicall, Politicall, +Historicall. The second Edition, with Additions. By James Howell, Esq. +London, 1650. (Letter XIII, pp. 25-6.) + +This is the second volume of _Epistolae Ho-Elianae_, first published +1645 (vol. 1) and 1647 (vol. 2). The text is here printed from the +copy of the second edition which Howell presented to Selden with an +autograph dedication: 'Ex dono Authoris ... Opusculum hoc honoris ergo +mittitur, Archiuis suis reponendum. 3 deg. non: Maij 1652.' The volume now +reposes in the Selden collection in the Bodleian library. The second +edition of this letter differs from the first in the insertion of the +bracketed words, ll. 22, 23, and the date. + +The authenticity of the letters as a whole is discussed in Joseph +Jacob's edition, 1890, pp. lxxi ff. This was probably not a real +letter written to his correspondent at the given date. But whenever, +and in whatever circumstances, Howell wrote it, the value of the +picture it gives us of Ben Jonson is not impaired. + +PAGE 43, l. 9. _Sir Tho. Hawk_. Sir Thomas Hawkins, translator of +Horace's _Odes and Epodes_, 1625; hence 'your' Horace, p. 44, l. 4. + +l. 17. _T. Ca._ Thomas Carew, the poet, one of the 'Tribe of Ben'. + +PAGE 44, l. 6. _Iamque opus_, Ovid, _Metam._ xv. 871; cf. p. 202, +l. 13. l. 8. _Exegi monumentum_, Horace, _Od._ iii. 30. i. l. 10. _O +fortunatam_, preserved in Quintilian, _Inst. Orat._ ix. 4. 41 and xi. +I. 24, and in Juvenal, _Sat._ x. 122. + + +14. + +This remarkable portrait of a country gentleman of the old school +is from the 'Fragment of Autobiography', written by the first Earl +of Shaftesbury (see Nos. 68, 69) towards the end of his life. The +manuscript is among the Shaftesbury papers in the Public Record +Office, but at present (1918) has been temporarily withdrawn for +greater safety, and is not available for reference. The text is +therefore taken from the modernized version in W.D. Christie's +_Memoirs of Shaftesbury_, 1859, pp. 22-5, and _Life of Shaftesbury_, +1871, vol. i, appendix i, pp. xv-xvii. + +The character was published in Leonard Howard's _Collection of +Letters, from the Original Manuscripts_, 1753, pp. 152-5, and was +reprinted in _The Gentleman's Magazine_ for April 1754, pp. 160-1, and +again in _The Connoisseur_, No. 81, August 14, 1755. _The Gentleman's +Magazine_ (1754, p. 215) is responsible for the error that it is to be +found in Peck's _Desiderata Curiosa_. + +Hastings was Shaftesbury's neighbour in Dorsetshire. A full-length +portrait of him in his old age, clad in green cloth and holding +a pike-staff in his right hand, is at St. Giles, the seat of the +Shaftesbury family. It is reproduced in Hutchins's _History of +Dorset_, ed. 1868, vol. iii, p. 152. + +PAGE 44, ll. 24-26. He was the second son of George fourth Earl of +Huntingdon. Shaftesbury is describing his early associates after his +marriage in 1639: 'The eastern part of Dorsetshire had a bowling-green +at Hanley, where the gentlemen went constantly once a week, though +neither the green nor accommodation was inviting, yet it was well +placed for to continue the correspondence of the gentry of those +parts. Thither resorted Mr. Hastings of Woodland,' &c. + +Page 47, l. 12. '_my part lies therein-a_.' As was pointed out by E.F. +Rimbault in _Notes and Queries_, 1859, Second Series, vol. vii, p. +323, this is part of an old catch printed with the music in _Pammelia. +Musicks Miscellanie. Or, Mixed Varietie of Pleasant Roundelayes, and +delightfull Catches_, 1609: + + There lies a pudding in the fire, + and my parte lies therein a: + whome should I call in, + O thy good fellowes and mine a. + +_Pammelia_, 'the earliest collection of rounds, catches, and canons +printed in England', was brought out by Thomas Ravenscroft. Another +edition appeared in 1618. + + +15. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 383-4; _History_, Bk. XI, ed. 1704, vol. iii, +pp. 197-9; ed. Macray, vol. iv, pp. 488-92. + +The sense of Fate overhangs the portrait in which Clarendon paints for +posterity the private virtues of his unhappy master. The easy dignity +of the style adapts itself to the grave subject. This is one of +Clarendon's greatest passages. It was written twenty years after +Charles's death, but Time had not dulled his feelings. 'But ther shall +be only incerted the shorte character of his person, as it was found +in the papers of that person whose life is heare described, who was so +nerely trusted by him, and who had the greatest love for his person, +and the greatest reverence for his memory, that any faythfull servant +could exspresse.' So he wrote at first in the account of his own life. +On transferring the passage to the _History_ he substituted the more +impersonal sentence (p. 48, l. 27--p. 49, l. 5) which the general +character of the _History_ demanded. + +Page 48, l. 15. _our blessed Savyour_. Compare 'The Martyrdom of King +Charls I. or His Conformity with Christ in his Sufferings. In a Sermon +preached at Bredah, Before his Sacred Majesty King Charls The Second, +And the Princess of Orange. By the Bishop of Downe. Printed at the +Hage 1649, and reprinted at London ... 1660'. Clarendon probably heard +this sermon. + +l. 21. _have bene so much_, substituted in MS. for 'fitt to be more'. + +_treatises_. E.g. _Elenchus Motuum Nuperorum in Anglia_ (part 1), +1649, by George Bate or Bates, principal physician to Charles I and +II; _England's black Tribunall. Set forth in the Triall of K. Charles +I_, 1660; and the sermon mentioned above. + +Page 51, l. 20. _educated by that people_. His tutor was Sir Peter +Young (1544-1628), the tutor of James. Patrick Young (1584-1652), Sir +Peter's son, was Royal Librarian. + +l. 26. _Hambleton_. Cf. p. 18, l. 24. + + +16. + +Memoires Of the reigne of King Charles I. With a Continuation to the +Happy Restauration of King Charles II. By Sir Philip Warwick, Knight. +Published from the Original Manuscript. With An Alphabetical Table. +London, 1701. (pp. 64-75.) + +Warwick (1609-83) was Secretary to Charles in 1647-8. 'When I think +of dying', he wrote, adapting a saying of Cicero, 'it is one of my +comforts, that when I part from the dunghill of this world, I shall +meet King Charles, and all those faithfull spirits, that had virtue +enough to be true to him, the Church, and the Laws unto the last.' +(_Memoires_, p. 331.) Passages in the _Memoires_ show that they were +begun after the summer of 1676 (p. 37), and completed shortly after +May 18, 1677 (p. 403). + +Page 55, l. 13. _Sir Henry Vane_, the elder. + +l. 14. _dyet_, allowance for expenses of living. + +Page 56, l. 26. [Greek: Eikon Basilikae]. _The Pourtraicture of His +Sacred Maiesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings_ was published in +February 1649. Charles's authorship was at once doubted in Milton's +[Greek: EIKONOKLASTAES] and in [Greek: EIKON ALAETHINAE]. _The +Pourtraicture of Truths most sacred Majesty truly suffering, though +not solely_, and supported in [Greek: EIKON AKLASTOS], in [Greek: +EIKON AE PISTAE], and in _The Princely Pellican_, all published +in 1649. The weight of evidence is now strongly in favour of +the authorship of John Gauden (1605-62), bishop of Exeter at +the Restoration. Gauden said in 1661 that he had written it, and +examination of his claims is generally admitted to have confirmed +them. See H.J. Todd's _Letter concerning the Author_, 1825, and +_Gauden the Author, further shewn_, 1829; and C.E. Doble's four +letters in _The Academy_, May 12-June 30, 1883. + +Carlyle had no doubt that Charles was not the author. 'My reading +progresses with or without fixed hope. I struggled through the +"Eikon Basilike" yesterday; one of the paltriest pieces of vapid, +shovel-hatted, clear-starched, immaculate falsity and cant I have ever +read. It is to me an amazement how any mortal could ever have taken +that for a genuine book of King Charles's. Nothing but a surpliced +Pharisee, sitting at his ease afar off, could have got up such a set +of meditations. It got Parson Gauden a bishopric.'--Letter of November +26, 1840 (Froude's _Thomas Carlyle_, 1884, vol. i, p. 199). + +Page 57, l. 4. Thomas Herbert (1606-82), made a baronet in 1660. +Appointed by Parliament in 1647 to attend the King, he was latterly +his sole attendant, and accompanied him with Juxon to the scaffold. +His _Threnodia Carolina_, reminiscences of Charles's captivity, was +published in 1702 under the title, _Memoirs of the Two last Years of +the Reign of that unparalleled Prince, of ever Blessed Memory, King +Charles I_. It was 'printed for the first time from the original MS.' +(now in private possession), but in modernized spelling, in Allan +Fea's _Memoirs of the Martyr King_, 1905, pp. 74-153. + +l. 10. Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715), bishop of Salisbury, 1689, the +historian whose characters are given in the later part of this volume. +His _Memoires of the Lives and Actions of James and William Dukes of +Hamilton_, 1677, his first historical work, appeared while Warwick was +writing his _Memoires of Charles_. It attracted great attention, as +its account of recent events was furnished with authentic documents. +'It was the first political biography of the modern type, combining +a narrative of a man's life with a selection from his letters' (C.H. +Firth, introduction to Clarke and Foxcroft's _Life of Burnet_, 1907, +p. xiii). + +l. 15. _affliction gives understanding_. Compare Proverbs 29. 15, +and Ecclesiasticus 4. 17 and 34. 9; the exact words are not in the +Authorised Version. + +l. 30. Robert Sanderson (1587-1663), Regius Professor of Divinity at +Oxford, 1642, Bishop of Lincoln, 1660. Izaak Walton wrote his _Life_, +1678. + +Page 58, l. 20. Sir Dudley Carleton (1573-1632), created Baron +Carleton, 1626, and Viscount Dorchester, 1628; Secretary of State, +1628. + +l. 21. Lord Falkland, see pp. 71-97; Secretary of State, 1642. + +Page 59, ll. 11-13. Plutarch, Life of Alexander the Great; opening +sentences, roughly paraphrased. + +Page 60, l. 20. _Venient Romani_, St. John, xi. 48. See _The +Archbishop of Canterbury's Speech or His Funerall Sermon, Preacht by +himself on the Scaffold on Tower-Hill, on Friday the 10. of Ianuary, +1644. London_, 1644, p. 10: 'I but perhaps a great clamour there is, +that I would have brought in Popery, I shall answer that more fully +by and by, in the meane time, you know what the Pharisees said against +Christ himself, in the eleventh of _Iohn_, _If we let him alone, +all men will beleeve on him_, Et venient Romani, _and the Romanes +will come and take away both our place and the Nation_. Here was a +causelesse cry against Christ that the Romans would come, and see how +just the Iudgement of God was, they crucified Christ for feare least +the Romans should come, and his death was that that brought in the +Romans upon them, God punishing them with that which they most feared: +and I pray God this clamour of _veniunt Romani_, (of which I have +given to my knowledge no just cause) helpe not to bring him in; for +the Pope never had such a Harvest in England since the Reformation, as +he hath now upon the Sects and divisions that are amongst us.' + +ll. 22-30. Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) brought out his _De Jure Belli ac +Pacis Libri Tres_ at Paris in 1625. Towards the end of the dedication +to Louis XIII Grotius says: 'Pertaesos discordiarum animos excitat in +hanc spem recens contracta inter te & sapientissimum pacisque illius +sanctae amantissimum Magnae Britanniae Regem amicitia & auspicatissimo +Sororis tuae matrimonio federata.' + + +17. + +Clarendon, MS. History, p. 59; _History_, Bk. III, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 203-4; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 340-2. + +Page 62, l. 23. Thomas Savile (1590-1658), created Viscount Savile, +1628, Privy Councillor, 1640, Controller and then Treasurer of the +Household. 'He was', says Clarendon, 'a man of an ambitious and +restless nature, of parts and wit enough, but in his disposition and +inclination so false that he could never be believed or depended upon. +His particular malice to the earl of Strafford, which he had sucked in +with his milk, (there having always been an immortal feud between the +families, and the earl had shrewdly overborne his father), had engaged +him with all persons who were willing, and like to be able, to do him +mischieve' (_History_, Bk. VI, ed. Macray, vol. ii, p. 534). + +Page 63, l. 25. _S'r Harry Vane_. See p. 152, ll. 9 ff. + +l. 26. _Plutarch recordes_, Life of Sylla, last sentence. + + +18. + +Memoires of the reigne of King Charles I, 1701, pp. 109-13. + +Page 65, l. 21. Warwick was member for Radnor in the Long Parliament +from 1640 to 1644. The Bill of Attainder passed the Commons on April +21, 1641, by 204 votes to 59 (Clarendon, ed. Macray, vol. i, p. 306; +Rushworth, _Historical Collections_, third part, vol. i, 1692, p. +225). The names of the minority were posted up at Westminster, under +the heading 'These are Straffordians, Betrayers of their Country' +(Rushworth, _id._, pp. 248-9). There are 56 names, and 'Mr. Warwick' +is one of them. + + +19. + +Clarendon, MS. History, p. 398; _History_, Bk. VI, ed. 1703, vol. ii, +pp. 115-6; ed. Macray, vol. ii, pp. 477-8. + +Page 68, l. 5. _Et velut aequali_. The source of this quotation is not +yet found. + +l. 15. _the Standard was sett up_, at Nottingham, on August 22, 1642. + +l. 17. Robert Greville (1608-43), second Baron Brooke, cousin of Sir +Fulke Greville, first Baron (p. 23, l. 4). See Clarendon, ed. Macray, +vol. ii, pp. 474-5. + +l. 27. _all his Children_. Compare Warwick's account of 'that most +noble and stout Lord, the Earle of Northampton', _Memoires_, pp. +255-7: 'This may be said of him, that he faithfully served his Master, +living and dead; for he left six eminent sons, who were all heirs +of his courage, loyalty, and virtue; whereof the eldest was not then +twenty.' + + +20. + +Clarendon, MS. History, pp. 477-8; _History_, Bk. VII, ed. 1703, vol. +ii, pp. 269-70; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 177-8. + +Carnarvon's character has much in common with Northampton's. Though +separated in the _History_, they are here placed together as companion +portraits of two young Royalist leaders who fell early in the Civil +War. + +Page 70, l. 21. Dorchester and Weymouth surrendered to Carnarvon on +August 2 and 5, 1643. They were granted fair conditions, but on the +arrival of the army of Prince Maurice care was not taken 'to observe +those articles which had been made upon the surrender of the towns; +which the earl of Carnarvon (who was full of honour and justice upon +all contracts) took so ill that he quitted the command he had with +those forces, and returned to the King before Gloster' (Clarendon, +vol. iii, p. 158). + + +21. + +Clarendon, MS. History, pp. 478-81; _History_, Bk. VII, ed. 1703, vol. +ii, pp. 270-7; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 178-90. + +Clarendon wrote two characters of Falkland, the one in 1647 in the +'History' and the other in 1668 in the 'Life'. Both are long, and both +are distinguished by sustained favour of affection and admiration as +well as by wealth of detail. He was aware that the earlier character +was out of scale in a history, but he would not condense it. He even +thought of working it up into a book by itself, wherein he would +follow the example of Tacitus who wrote the _Agricola_ before the +_Annals_ and _Histories_. He corresponded about it with John Earle +(see No. 50). From two of the letters the following extracts are +taken: + +'I would desire you (at your leisure) to send me that discourse +of your own which you read to me at Dartmouth in the end of your +contemplations upon the Proverbs, in memory of my Lord Falkland; of +whom in its place I intend to speak largely, conceiving it to be so +far from an indecorum, that the preservation of the fame and merit of +persons, and deriving the same to posterity, is no less the business +of history, than the truth of things. And if you are not of another +opinion, you cannot in justice deny me this assistance' (March 16, +1646-7: _State Papers_, 1773, vol. ii, p. 350). + +'I told you long since, that when I came to speak of that unhappy +battle of Newbury, I would enlarge upon the memory of our dear friend +that perished there; to which I conceive myself obliged, not more by +the rights of friendship, than of history, which ought to transmit the +virtue of excellent persons to posterity; and therefore I am careful +to do justice to every man who hath fallen in the quarrel, on which +side soever, as you will find by what I have said of Mr. Hambden +himself. I am now past that point; and being quickened your most +elegant and political commemoration of him, and from hints there, +thinking it necessary to say somewhat for his vindication in such +particulars as may possibly have made impression in good men, it may +be I have insisted longer upon the argument than may be agreeable to +the rules to be observed in such a work; though it be not much longer +than Livy is in recollecting the virtues of one of the Scipios after +his death. I wish it were with you, that you might read it; for if +you thought it unproportionable for the place where it is, I could +be willingly diverted to make it a piece by itself, and inlarge it +into the whole size of his life; and that way it would be sooner +communicated to the world. And you know Tacitus published the life +of Julius Agricola, before either of his annals or his history. I +am contented you should laugh at me for a fop in talking of Livy or +Tacitus; when all I can hope for is to side Hollingshead, and Stow, or +(because he is a poor Knight too, and worse than either of them) Sir +Richard Baker' (December 14, 1647, _id._ p. 386). + +Page 71, l. 22. _Turpe mori_. Lucan, ix. 108. + +l. 26. His mother's father, Sir Lawrence Tanfield, Chief Baron of the +Exchequer. He died in May 1625. See p. 87, ll. 21 ff. + +Page 72, l. 3. _His education_. See p. 87, ll. 6-13. His father, Henry +Carey, first Viscount, was Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1622 to 1629, +when he was recalled. He died in 1633. + +l. 30. _his owne house_, at Great Tew, 16 miles NW. of Oxford; +inherited from Sir Lawrence Tanfield. The house was demolished in +1790, but the gardens remain. + +PAGE 74, l. 14. _two large discources_. See p. 94, ll. 10-15. +Falkland's _Of the Infallibilitie of the Church of Rome ... Now +first published from a Copy of his owne hand_ had appeared at Oxford +in 1645, two years before Clarendon wrote this passage. It is a +short pamphlet of eighteen quarto pages. It had been circulated in +manuscript during his lifetime, and he had written a _Reply_ to an +_Answer_ to it. The second 'large discource' may be this _Reply_. Or +it may be his _Answer to a Letter of Mr. Mountague, justifying his +change of Religion, being dispersed in many Copies_. Both of these +were first published, along with the _Infallibilitie_, in 1651, under +the editorship of Dr. Thomas Triplet, tutor of the third Viscount, +to whom the volume is dedicated. The dedication is in effect a +character of Falkland, and dwells in particular on his great virtue +of friendship. A passage in it recalls Clarendon. 'And your blessed +Mother', says Triplet, 'were she now alive, would say, she had the +best of Friends before the best of Husbands. This was it that made +_Tew_ so valued a Mansion to us: For as when we went from _Oxford_ +thither, we found our selves never out of the Universitie: So we +thought our selves never absent from our own beloved home'. + +l. 25. He was Member for Newport in the Isle of Wight in The Short +Parliament, and again in The Long Parliament. + +Page 75, l. 5. His father was Controller of the Household before his +appointment as Lord Deputy of Ireland. Cf. p. 91, ll. 3, 4. + +l. 18. _L'd Finch_, Sir John Finch (1584-1660), Speaker, Chief Justice +of the Common Pleas, and Lord Keeper, created Baron Finch, 1640. He +was impeached in 1640 and fled to Holland. 'The Lord Falkland took +notice of the business of ship-money, and very sharply mentioned the +lord Finch as the principal promoter of it, and that, being then +a sworn judge of the law, he had not only given his own judgement +against law, but been the solicitor to corrupt all the other judges to +concur with him in their opinion; and concluded that no man ought to +be more severely prosecuted than he' (Clarendon, vol. i, p. 230). + +Page 77, l. 26. _haud semper_, Tacitus, _Agricola_, ix. + +Page 78, l. 17. _in republica Platonis_, Cicero, _Epis. ad Atticum_, +ii. 1. + +l. 20. _it_, i.e. his avoiding them. + +l. 30. Sir Harry Vane, the elder, was dismissed from the Secretaryship +of State in November 1641. In an earlier section of the _History_ +(vol. i, p. 458) Clarendon claims responsibility for Falkland's +acceptance of the Secretaryship: 'It was a very difficult task to +Mr. Hyde, who had most credit with him, to persuade him to submit to +this purpose of the King cheerfully, and with a just sense of the +obligation, by promising that in those parts of the office which +required most drudgery he would help him the best he could, and would +quickly inform him of all the necessary forms. But, above all, he +prevailed with him by enforcing the ill consequence of his refusal', +&c. + +Page 80, l. 19. _in tanto viro_, Tacitus, _Agricola_, ix. + +l. 20. _Some sharpe expressions_. See the quotation by Fuller, p. +105, ll. 14, 15. Clarendon refers to Falkland's speech 'Concerning +Episcopacy' in the debate on the bill for depriving the bishops of +their votes, introduced on March 30, 1641: 'The truth is, Master +Speaker, that as some ill Ministers in our state first tooke +away our mony from us, and after indeavoured to make our mony +not worth the taking, by turning it into brasse by a kind of +_Antiphilosophers-stone_: so these men used us in the point of +preaching, first depressing it to their power, and next labouring +to make it such, as the harme had not beene much if it had beene +depressed, the most frequent subjects even in the most sacred +auditories, being the _Jus divinum_ of Bishops and tithes, the +sacrednesse of the clergie, the sacriledge of impropriations, +the demolishing of puritanisme and propriety, the building of the +prerogative at _Pauls_, the introduction of such doctrines, as, +admitting them true, the truth would not recompence the scandall; or +of such as were so far false, that, as Sir _Thomas More_ sayes of the +Casuists, their businesse was not to keepe men from sinning, but to +enforme them _Quam prope ad peccatum sine peccato liceat accedere_: +so it seemed their worke was to try how much of a Papist might bee +brought in without Popery, and to destroy as much as they could of the +Gospell, without bringing themselves into danger of being destroyed by +the Law.'--_Speeches and Passages of This Great and Happy Parliament: +From the third of November, 1640 to this instant June, 1641_, p. 190. +The speech is reprinted in Lady Theresa Lewis's _Lives of the Friends +of Clarendon_, 1852, vol. i, pp. 53-62. + +Page 82, ll. 23-6. See p. 90, ll. 6-13. + +Page 83, l. 2. Falkland's participation in 'the Northern Expedition +against the Scots', 1639, was the subject of a eulogistic poem by +Cowley: + + Great is thy _Charge_, O _North_; be wise and just, + _England_ commits her _Falkland_ to thy trust; + Return him safe: _Learning_ would rather choose + Her _Bodley_, or her _Vatican_ to loose. + All things that are but _writ_ or _printed_ there, + In his unbounded Breast _engraven_ are, &c. + +It was the occasion also of Waller's 'To my Lord of Falkland'. + +l. 14. _et in luctu_, Tacitus, _Agricola_, xxix. + +l. 15. _the furious resolution_, passed on November 24, 1642, after +the battle at Brentford: see Clarendon, vol. ii, pp. 395-9. + +Page 84, l. 9. _adversus malos_, Tacitus, _Agricola_, xxii. + +ll. 11-28. The date of this incident is uncertain. Professor Firth +believes it to have happened when the House resolved that Colonel +Goring 'deserved very well of the Commonwealth, and of this House', +for his discovery of the army plot, June 9, 1641 (_Journals of the +House of Commons_, vol. ii, p. 172). + +Page 85, l. 18. _the leaguer before Gloster_. The siege of Gloucester +was raised by the Earl of Essex on September 8, 1643. Clarendon +had described it (vol. iii, pp. 167 ff.) just before he came to the +account of Falkland. + +Page 86, l. 1. _the battell_, i.e. of Newbury, September 20, 1643. How +Falkland met his death is told in Byron's narrative of the fight: 'My +Lord of Falkland did me the honour to ride in my troop this day, and I +would needs go along with him, the enemy had beat our foot out of the +close, and was drawne up near the hedge; I went to view, and as I was +giving orders for making the gap wide enough, my horse was shott in +the throat with a musket bullet and his bit broken in his mouth so +that I was forced to call for another horse, in the meanwhile my Lord +Falkland (more gallantly than advisedly) spurred his horse through the +gapp, where both he and his horse were immediately killed.' See Walter +Money, _The Battles of Newbury_, 1884, p. 52; also p. 93. + +A passage in Whitelocke's _Memorials_, ed. 1682, p. 70, shows that +he had a presentiment of his death: 'The Lord _Falkland_, Secretary +of State, in the morning of the fight, called for a clean shirt, and +being asked the reason of it, answered, _that if he were slain in the +Battle, they should not find, his body in foul Linnen_. Being diswaded +by his friends to goe into the fight, as having no call to it, and +being no Military Officer, he said _he was weary of the times, and +foresaw much misery to his own Countrey, and did beleive be should be +out of it ere night_, and could not be perswaded to the contrary, but +would enter into the battle, and was there slain.' + + +22. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 51-4; _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 19-23. + +This is Falkland in his younger days, amid the hospitable pleasures of +Tew, before he was overwhelmed in politics and war. + +Page 86, l. 20. _he_, i.e. Clarendon. + +Page 88, l. 2. _the two most pleasant places_, Great Tew (see p. 72, +l. 30) and Burford, where Falkland was born. He sold Burford in 1634 +to William Lenthall, the Speaker of the Long Parliament: see p. 91, l. +5. + +Page 89, l. 2. He married Lettice, daughter of Sir Richard Morrison +of Tooley Park, Leicestershire. His friendship with her brother Henry +is celebrated in an ode by Ben Jonson, 'To the immortall memorie, and +friendship of that noble paire, Sir Lucius Cary, and Sir H. Morison' +(_Under-woods_, 1640, p. 232). + +Page 91, ll. 17-20. So in the MS. The syntax is confused, but the +sense is clear. + +Page 92, ll. 21, 22. Gilbert Sheldon (1598-1677), Archbishop of +Canterbury, 1663; Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and builder +of the Sheldonian Theatre there. + +George Morley (1597-1684), Bishop of Worcester, 1660. + +Henry Hammond (1605-60), chaplain to Charles I. + +Clarendon has given short characters of Sheldon and Morley in his +_Life_. For his characters of Earle and Chillingworth, see Nos. 50 and +52. + +Page 94, l. 11. See note p. 74, l. 14. + +Page 95, l. 3. Cf. p. 78, l. 17. + +l. 17. It is notable that Clarendon nowhere suggests that Falkland was +also a poet. Cowley gives his verses the highest praise in his address +to him on the Northern Expedition (see p. 83, l. 2, note); and they +won him a place in Suckling's _Sessions of the Poets_: + + He was of late so gone with Divinity + That he had almost forgot his Poetry, + Though to say the truth (and _Apollo_ did know it) + He might have been both his Priest and his Poet. + +His poems were collected and edited by A.B. Grosart in 1871. + + +23. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 55; _Life_, ed. 1759, p. 24. + +This very pleasing portrait of Godolphin serves as a pendant to the +longer and more elaborate description of his friend. Clarendon wrote +also a shorter character of him in the _History_ (vol. ii, pp. 457-8). + +Page 96, l. 2. _so very small a body_. He is the 'little Cid' (i.e. +Sidney) of Suckling's _Sessions of the Poets_. + +PAGE 97, l. 1. He was member for Helston from 1628 to 1643. + +l. 6. In the character in the _History_ Clarendon says that he left +'the ignominy of his death upon a place which could never otherwise +have had a mention to the world'. The place was Chagford. + + +24. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 69-70; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 69-73; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 119-25. + +The three characters of Laud here given supplement each other. They +convey the same idea of the man. + +Page 97, l. 20. George Abbott (1562-1633), Archbishop of Canterbury, +1611. In the preceding paragraph Clarendon had written an unfavourable +character of him. He 'considered Christian religion no otherwise than +as it abhorred and reviled Popery, and valued those men most who did +that most furiously': 'if men prudently forbore a public reviling +and railing at the hierarchy and ecclesiastical government, let their +opinions and private practice be what it would, they were not only +secure from any inquisition of his, but acceptable to him, and at +least equally preferred by him': his house was 'a sanctuary to the +most eminent of that factious party'. Cf. p. 100, ll. 21-7. + +Page 101, l. 2. In the omitted portion Clarendon dealt with the +'Arminianism', as it was then understood in England: 'most of the +popular preachers, who had not looked into the ancient learning, took +Calvin's word for it, and did all they could to propagate his opinions +in those points: they who had studied more, and were better versed +in the antiquities of the Church, the Fathers, the Councils, and the +ecclesiastical histories, with the same heat and passion in preaching +and writing, defended the contrary. But because in the late dispute in +the Dutch churches, those opinions were supported by Jacobus Arminius, +the divinity professor in the university of Leyden in Holland, the +latter men we mentioned were called Arminians, though many of them +had never read a word written by Arminius'. Arminius (the name is the +Latinized form of Harmens or Hermans) died in 1609. + + +25. + +The Church-History of Britain, 1648, Bk. XI, pp. 217-9. + +Page 104, l. 15. Canterbury College was founded at Oxford in 1363 by +Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury. It was incorporated in Christ +Church, Wolsey's foundation, and so 'lost its name'; but the name +survives in the Canterbury quadrangle. + +Page 105, l. 13. _Lord F._, i.e. Lord Falkland: see p. 80, l. 20 note. + + +26. + +Memoires of the reigne of King Charles I, 1701, pp. 78-82, 89-93. + +Page 107, l. 27. _cleansed it by fire_. Perhaps a reminiscence of +Dryden's _Annus Mirabilis_, 1667, stanza 276: + + The daring Flames peep't in, and saw from far + The awful Beauties of the Sacred Quire: + But since it was prophan'd by Civil War, + Heav'n thought it fit to have it purg'd by fire. + +l. 29. _too too_, so in the original; perhaps but not certainly a +misprint. + + +27. + +Memoires, 1701, pp. 93-6. + +Page 112, l. 9. _Lord Portland_, Sir Richard Weston: see No. 5. + +l. 13. _white staff_, see p. 21, l. 7 note. + + +28. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 152-3; _History_, Bk. IV, ed. 1702, vol. i, +pp. 332-3; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 563-5. + +This is the first of three characters of Hertford in Clarendon's +_History_. The others, in Bk. VI (MS. Life) ed. Macray, ii. 528, and +Bk. VII (MS. History) iii. 128, are supplementary. + +Page 114, l. 10. _disobligations_, on account of his secret marriage +with James's cousin, Arabella Stuart, daughter of Charles Stuart, Earl +of Lennox, brother of the Earl of Darnley. She died a prisoner in the +Tower; he escaped to France, but after her death was allowed to return +to England in 1616. He succeeded his grandfather as Earl of Hertford +in 1621. He lived in retirement from the dissolution of Parliament in +March 1629 to 1640, when he was made a Privy Councillor. + +Page 115, l. 5. He was appointed Governor to the Prince of Wales in +May 1641, in succession to the Earl of Newcastle. He was then in his +fifty-third year. In the following month he was made a Marquis. See +his life in Lady Theresa Lewis's _Lives of the Friends of Clarendon_, +vol. ii, pp. 436-42. + +Page 116, l. 2. _attacque_, an unexpected form of 'attach' at this +time, and perhaps a slip, but 'attack' and 'attach' are ultimately the +same word; cf. Italian _attaccare_. The _New English Dictionary_ gives +an instance in 1666 of 'attach' in the sense of 'attack'. + + +29. + +Clarendon, MS. History, Transcript, vol. iv, pp. 440-2; _History_, Bk. +VIII, ed. 1703, vol. ii, pp. 391-3; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 380-3. + +The original manuscript of much of Book VIII is lost. The text is +taken from the transcript that was made for the printers. + +This is the portrait of a great English nobleman whose tastes +lay in music and poetry and the arts of peace, but was forced by +circumstances into the leadership of the Royalist army in the North. +He showed little military talent, though he was far from devoid +of personal courage; and he escaped from the conflict, weary and +despondent, when other men were content to carry on the unequal +struggle. He modelled himself on the heroes of Romance. The part he +tried to play could not be adjusted to the rude events of the civil +war. + +His romantic cast of mind is shown in his challenge to Lord Fairfax to +follow 'the Examples of our Heroick Ancestors, who used not to spend +their time in scratching one another out of holes, but in pitched +Fields determined their Doubts'. Fairfax replied by expressing his +readiness to fight but refusing to follow 'the Rules of _Amadis +de Gaule_, or the Knight of the Sun, which the language of the +Declaration seems to affect in appointing pitch'd battles' (Rushworth, +_Historical Collections_, third part, vol. ii, 1692, pp. 138, 141). + +Warwick's short character of Newcastle resembles Clarendon's: 'He was +a Gentleman of grandeur, generosity, loyalty, and steddy and forward +courage; but his edge had too much of the razor in it: for he had +a tincture of a Romantick spirit, and had the misfortune to have +somewhat of the Poet in him; so as he chose Sir William Davenant, an +eminent good Poet, and loyall Gentleman, to be Lieutenant-Generall +of his Ordnance. This inclination of his own and such kind of +witty society (to be modest in the expressions of it) diverted many +counsels, and lost many opportunities; which the nature of that +affair, this great man had now entred into, required' (_Memoires_, pp. +235-6). + +His life by the Duchess of Newcastle--the 'somewhat fantastical, and +original-brain'd, generous Margaret Newcastle', as Charles Lamb calls +her--was published in 1667. The edition by C.H. Firth, 1886, contains +copious historical notes, and an introduction which points out +Newcastle's place as a patron and author. + +Page 116, ll. 15-22. Newcastle had been besieged at York. He was +relieved by Prince Rupert, who, against Newcastle's advice, forced on +the disastrous battle of Marston Moor (July 2, 1644) without waiting +for reinforcements. In this battle Newcastle was not in command +but fought at the head of a company of volunteers. The next day he +embarked at Scarborough for the continent, where he remained till the +Restoration. + +l. 24. He published two books on horsemanship--_La Methode et +Invention Nouvelle de Dresser les Chevaux_, written originally in +English, but printed in French at Antwerp in 1658, and _A New Method +and Extraordinary Invention to Dress Horses_, 1667. The former was +dedicated to Prince Charles, whom, as Governor, he had taught to +ride. On his reputation as a horseman, see C.H. Firth, _op. cit._, pp. +xx-xxii. + +Page 117, l. 20. He was Governor of the Prince from 1638 to 1641: cf. +note on p. 115, l. 5. + +l. 29. Newcastle-upon-Tyne (from which he took his title) was +'speedily and dexterously' secured for the King at the end of June +1642 'by his lordship's great interest in those parts, the +ready compliance of the best of the gentry, and the general good +inclinations of the place' (Clarendon, vol. ii, p. 227). + +Page 118, l. 17. Henry Clifford (1591-1643) fifth Earl of Cumberland. +He had commanded the Royalist forces in Yorkshire, but was 'in his +nature inactive, and utterly inexperienced'. He willingly gave up +the command (Clarendon, vol. ii, pp. 282, 464-5). He died shortly +afterwards. + +l. 28. _this last_, Marston Moor. + +Page 119, l. 8. _unacquainted with War_. Clarendon expressed himself +privately on this point much more emphatically than the nature of his +_History_ would allow: 'you will find the Marquis of Newcastle a very +lamentable man and as fit to be a General as a Bishop.' (Letter to +Sir Edward Nicholas, dated Madrid, June 4, 1650: _State Papers_, 1786, +vol. iii, p. 20.) + +l. 10. James King (1589?-1652?), created Baron Eythin and Kerrey in +the Scottish peerage in 1643. He had been a general in the army of the +King of Sweden, and returned to this country in 1640. He left it with +Newcastle after Marston Moor. He entirely disapproved of Rupert's +plans for the battle; his comment, as reported by Clarendon, was 'By +God, sir, it is very fyne in the paper, but ther is no such thinge in +the Feilds' (vol. iii, p. 376). + + +30. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 136; _History_, Bk. IV, ed. 1702, vol. i, pp. +270-1; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 461-3. + +The references to Digby in various parts of the _History_ show the +interest--sometimes an amused interest--that Clarendon took in his +strange and erratic character. 'The temper and composition of his mind +was so admirable, that he was always more pleased and delighted that +he had advanced so far, which he imputed to his virtue and conduct, +than broken or dejected that his success was not answerable, which +he still charged upon second causes, for which he could not be +accountable' (vol. iv, p. 122). 'He was a person of so rare a +composition by nature and by art, (for nature alone could never have +reached to it,) that he was so far from being ever dismayed by any +misfortune, (and greater variety of misfortunes never befell any man,) +that he quickly recollected himself so vigorously, that he did really +believe his condition to be improved by that ill accident' (_id._, p. +175). But the interest is shown above all by the long study of Digby +that he wrote at Montpelier in 1669. It was first printed in his +_State Papers_, 1786, vol. iii, supplement, pp. li-lxxiv. The +manuscript--a transcript revised by Clarendon--is in the Bodleian +Library, Clarendon MS. 122, pp. 1-48. + +Page 120, l. 8. _the other three_, Sir John Culpeper, or Colepeper; +Lord Falkland; and Clarendon. + +Page 121, l. 2. _sharpe reprehension_. 'He was committed to the Fleet +in June 1634, but released in July, for striking Mr. Crofts in Spring +Garden, within the precincts of the Court. _Cal. Dom. State. Papers_, +1634-5 (1864), pp. 81, 129'--Macray, vol. i, p. 461. + +Shaftesbury gives a brief sketch of him at this time in his +fragmentary autobiography: 'The Earl of Bristoll was retired from all +business and lived privately to himself; but his son the Lord Digby, +a very handsome young man of great courage and learning and of a quick +wit, began to show himself to the world and gave great expectations +of himself, he being justly admired by all, and only gave himself +disadvantage with a pedantic stiffness and affectation he had +contracted.' + +l. 19. As Baron Digby, during the lifetime of his father; June 9, +1641. + +Page 123, l. 5. _a very unhappy councell_, the impeachment and +attempted 'Arrest of the Five Members', January 3 and 4, 1642. Compare +Clarendon, vol. i, p. 485: 'And all this was done without the least +communication with any body but the Lord Digby, who advised it.' + + +31. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 389, and MS. History, p. 25 (or 597); +_History_, Bk. XI, ed. 1704, vol. iii, pp. 210-11; ed. Macray, vol. +iv, pp. 510-11. + +This admirable character was not all written at the same time. The +first sentence is from Clarendon's Life, and the remainder from the +History, where the date, '21 Nov. 1671', is appended. 123, l. 15. +_Crumwells owne character_,--in the debate in Parliament on carrying +out the sentence of death, March 8, 1649. Clarendon had briefly +described Cromwell's speech: 'Cromwell, who had known him very well, +spake so much good of him, and professed to have so much kindness +and respect for him, that all men thought he was now safe, when he +concluded, that his affection to the public so much weighed down his +private friendship, that he could not but tell them, that the question +was now, whether they would preserve the most bitter and the most +implacable enemy they had' (vol. iv, p. 506). + +l. 22. He married in November 1626, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Charles +Morrison, of Cassiobury, Hertfordshire, and granddaughter of the first +Viscount Campden. Their daughter Theodosia was the wife of the second +Earl of Clarendon. + +Page 124, l. 13. _an indignity_, probably a reference to Lord Hopton's +command of the army in the west; see vol. iv, p. 131. + + +32. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 273; _History_, Bk. VIII, ed. 1703, vol. ii, +pp. 427-8; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 443-5. + +The four generals in this group are described on various occasions in +the _History_. In this passage Clarendon sums up shortly what he says +elsewhere, and presents a parallel somewhat in the manner of Plutarch. + +Page 125, l. 23. Clarendon has a great passage in Book VII (vol. iii, +pp. 224-6) on the value of Councils, even when the experience and +wisdom of the councillors individually may not promise the right +decisions. The passage is suggested by, and immediately follows, a +short character of Prince Rupert. + +Page 126, ll. 15, 16. Clarendon refers to the retreat of the +Parliamentary Army at Lostwithiel, on August 31, 1644, when Essex +embarked the foot at Fowey and escaped by sea, and Sir William Balfour +broke away with the horse. In describing it, Clarendon says that 'the +notice and orders came to Goring when he was in one of his jovial +exercises; which he received with mirth, and slighting those who sent +them, as men who took alarms too warmly; and he continued his delights +till all the enemy's horse were passed through his quarters, nor did +then pursue them in any time' (vol. iii, p. 403; cf. p. 391). But +Goring's horse was not so posted as to be able to check Balfour's. +See the article on Goring by C.H. Firth in the _Dictionary of National +Biography_ and S.R. Gardiner's _Civil War_, 1893, vol. ii, pp. 13-17. +Clarendon was misinformed; yet this error in detail does not impair +the truth of the portrait. + + +33. + +Clarendon, MS. History, pp. 447-8; _History_, Bk. VII, ed. 1704, vol. +ii, pp. 204-6; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 61-4. + +The studied detachment that Clarendon tried to cultivate when writing +about his political enemies is nowhere shown better than in the +character of Hampden. 'I am careful to do justice', he claimed, 'to +every man who hath fallen in the quarrel, on which side soever, as +you will find by what I have said of Mr. Hambden himself' (see No. +21, note). The absence of all enthusiasm makes the description of +Hampden's merits the more telling. But there is a tail with a sting in +it. + +The last sentence, it must be admitted, is not of a piece with +the rest of the character. There was some excuse for doubting its +authenticity. But doubts gave place to definite statements that it +had been interpolated by the Oxford editors when seeing the +_History_ through the press. Edmund Smith, the author of _Phaedra and +Hippolytus_, started the story that while he was resident in Christ +Church he was 'employ'd to interpolate and alter the Original', and +specially mentioned this sentence as having been 'foisted in'; and +the story was given a prominent place by Oldmixon in his _History of +England, during the Reigns of the Royal House of Stuart_ (see _Letters +of Thomas Burnat to George Duckett_, ed. Nichol Smith, 1914, p. xx). +A controversy ensued, the final contribution to which is John Burton's +_Genuineness of L'd Clarendon's History Vindicated_, 1744. Once the +original manuscript was accessible, all doubt was removed. Every word +of the sentence is there to be found in Clarendon's hand. But it is +written along the margin, to take the place of a deleted sentence, and +is evidently later than the rest of the character. This accounts for +the difference in tone. + +Page 129, ll. 22 ff. Compare Warwick, _Memoires_, p. 240: 'He was of +a concise and significant language, and the mildest, yet subtillest, +speaker of any man in the House; and had a dexterity, when a question +was going to be put, which agreed not with his sense, to draw it over +to it, by adding some equivocall or sly word, which would enervate the +meaning of it, as first put.' + +At the beginning of this short character of Hampden, Warwick says that +'his blood in its temper was acrimonious, as the scurfe commonly on +his face shewed'. + +Page 131, l. 4. _this that was at Oxforde_, i.e. the overture, +February and March 1643: Clarendon, vol. ii, pp. 497 ff. + +ll. 24-6. _Erat illi_, &c. Cicero, _Orat. in Catilinam_ iii. 7. +'Cinna' should be 'Catiline'. + + +34. + +Clarendon, MS. History, pp. 525-7; _History_, Bk. VII, ed. 1703, vol. +ii, pp. 353-5; ed. Macray, vol. iii, pp. 321-4. + +The character of Pym does not show the same detachment as the +character of Hampden. Clarendon has not rejected unauthenticated +Royalist rumour. + +Page 132, ll. 7-9. This rumour occasioned the publication of an +official narrative of his disease and death, 'attested under the Hands +of his Physicians, Chyrurgions, and Apothecary', from which it appears +that he died of an intestinal abscess. See John Forster's _John Pym_ +('Lives of Eminent British Statesmen', vol. iii), pp. 409-11. + +l. 19. He was member for Tavistock from 1624. + +Page 133, l. 26. Oliver St. John (1603-42), Solicitor-General, +mortally wounded at Edgehill. + +ll. 29, 30. Cf. p. 129, ll. 15-18. + +Page 134, l. 3. Francis Russell (1593-1641), fourth Earl of Bedford. +'This lord was the greatest person of interest in all the popular +party, being of the best estate and best understanding of the whole +pack, and therefore most like to govern the rest; he was besides of +great civility, and of much more good-nature than any of the others. +And therefore the King, resolving to do his business with that party +by him, resolved to make him Lord High Treasurer of England, in the +place of the Bishop of London, who was as willing to lay down the +office as any body was to take it up; and, to gratify him the more, at +his desire intended to make Mr. Pimm Chancellor of the Exchequer, as +he had done Mr. St. John his Solicitor-General' (Clarendon, vol. i, +p. 333). The plan was frustrated by Bedford's death in 1641. The +Chancellorship of the Exchequer was bestowed on Culpeper (_id._, p. +457). + +ll. 27 ff. The authority for this story is the _Mercurius Academicus_ +for February 3, 1645-6 (pp. 74-5), a journal of the Court party +published at Oxford (hence the title), and the successor of the +_Mercurius Aulicus_. The Irishman is there reported to have made this +confession on the scaffold. + +Page 135, ll. 25-8. _The last Summer_, i.e. before Pym's death, 1643. +See Clarendon, vol. iii, pp. 116, 135, 141. + +Page 136, ll. 7-10. He died on December 8, 1643, and was buried on +December 13 in Westminster Abbey, whence his body was ejected at the +Restoration. + + +35. + +Clarendon, MS. History, Bk. X, p. 24 (or 570); _History_, ed. 1704, +vol. iii, pp. 84-5; ed. Macray, vol. iv, pp. 305-7. + +The two characters of Cromwell by Clarendon were written about the +same time. Though the first is from the manuscript of the History, +it belongs to a section that was added in 1671, when the matter in +the original History was combined with the matter in the Life. It +describes Cromwell as Clarendon remembered him before he had risen +to his full power. He was then in Clarendon's eyes preeminently a +dissembler--'the greatest dissembler living'. The other character +views him in the light of his complete achievement. It represents +him, with all his wickedness, as a man of 'great parts of courage and +industry and judgement'. He is a 'bad man', but a 'brave, bad man', +to whose success, remarkable talents, and even some virtues, must have +contributed. The recognition of his greatness was unwilling; it was +all the more sincere. + +'Crumwell' is Clarendon's regular spelling. + +Page 136, l. 22. Hampden's mother, Elizabeth Cromwell, was the sister +of Cromwell's father. + +Page 138, l. 18. _the Modell_, i.e. the New Model Army, raised in the +Spring of 1645. See C.H. Firth's _Cromwell's Army_, 1902, ch. iii. + +l. 21. _chaunged a Generall_, the Earl of Essex. See No. 40. + + +36. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 549-50; _History_, Bk. XV, ed. 1704, vol. +iii, pp. 505-6, 509; ed. Macray, vol. vi, pp. 91-2, 97. + +Page 139, ll. 3, 4. _quos vituperare_, Cicero, _Pro Fonteio_, xvii. +39 'Is igitur vir, quem ne inimicus quidem satis in appellando +significare poterat, nisi ante laudasset.' + +ll. 19, 20. _Ausum eum_, Velleius Paterculus, ii. 24. + +Page 140, ll. 9-12. Machiavelli, _The Prince_, ch. vii. + +ll. 17-22. Editorial taste in 1704 transformed this sentence thus: +'In a word, as he was guilty of many Crimes against which Damnation +is denounced, and for which Hell-fire is prepared, so he had some good +Qualities which have caused the Memory of some Men in all Ages to be +celebrated; and he will be look'd upon by Posterity as a brave wicked +Man.' + + +37. + +Memoires Of the reigne of King Charles I, 1701, pp. 247-8. + +Page 141, l. 17. _a servant of Mr. Prynn's_, John Lilburne (1614-57). +But it is doubtful if he was Prynne's servant; see the article in the +_Dictionary of National Biography_. Lilburne's petition was presented +by Cromwell on November 9, 1640, and referred to a Committee; and +on May 4, 1641, the House resolved 'That the Sentence of the +Star-Chamber, given against John Lilborne, is illegal, and against the +Liberty of the Subject; and also, bloody, wicked, cruel, barbarous, +and tyrannical' (_Journals of the House of Commons_, vol. ii, pp. 24, +134). + +ll. 29, 30. Warwick was imprisoned on suspicion of plotting against +the Protector's Government in 1655. + + +38. + +A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, Esq.; Edited by +Thomas Birch, 1742, vol. i, p. 766. + +This passage is from a letter written to 'John Winthrop, esq; governor +of the colony of Connecticut in New England', and dated 'Westminster, +March 24, 1659'. + +Maidston was Cromwell's servant. + + +39. + +Reliquiae Baxterianae: or, Mr. Richard Baxter's Narrative of The most +Memorable Passages of his Life and Times. Faithfully Publish'd from +his own Original Manuscript, By Matthew Sylvester. London: MDCXCVI. +(Lib. I, Part I, pp. 98-100.) + +The interest of this character lies largely in its Presbyterian point +of view. It is a carefully balanced estimate by one who had been a +chaplain in the Parliamentary army, but opposed Cromwell when, after +the fall of Presbyterianism, he assumed the supreme power. + +Page 144, ll. 19-24. See the article by C.H. Firth on 'The Raising of +the Ironsides' in the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, +1899, vol. xiii, and its sequel, 'The Later History of the Ironsides', +1901, vol. xv; and the articles on John Desborough (who married +Cromwell's sister) and James Berry in the _Dictionary of National +Biography_. 'Who Captain Ayres was it is difficult to say ... He left +the regiment about June 1644, and his troop was given to James Berry +... the captain-lieutenant of Cromwell's own troop'. (R.H.S. Trans., +vol. xiii, pp. 29, 30). Berry subsequently became one of Cromwell's +major-generals. His character is briefly sketched by Baxter, who +calls him 'my old Bosom Friend', _Reliquiae_, 1696, p. 57. For Captain +William Evanson, see R.H.S. Trans., vol. xv, pp. 22-3. + +Page 146, l. 12. A passage from Bacon's essay 'Of Faction' (No. 51) +is quoted in the margin in the edition of 1696. 'Fraction' in l. 12 is +probably a misprint for 'Faction'. + +Page 148, ll. 7-10. The concluding sentence of the essay 'Of +Simulation and Dissimulation'. Brackets were often used at this time +to mark a quotation. + + +40. + +Reliquiae Baxterianae, 1696, Lib. I, Part I, p. 48. + +Much the same opinion of Fairfax was held by Sir Philip Warwick and +Clarendon. Warwick says he was 'a man of a military genius, undaunted +courage and presence of mind in the field both in action and danger, +but of a very common understanding in all other affairs, and of a +worse elocution; and so a most fit tool for Mr. Cromwel to work with' +(_Memoires_, p. 246). Clarendon alludes to him as one 'who had no +eyes, and so would be willinge to be ledd' (p. 138, l. 24). But Milton +saw him in a different light when he addressed to him the sonnet on +his capture of Colchester in August 1648: + + _Fairfax_, whose name in armes through Europe rings + Filling each mouth with envy, or with praise,... + Thy firm unshak'n vertue ever brings + Victory home,... + O yet a nobler task awaites thy hand; + For what can Warr, but endless warr still breed, + Till Truth, & Right from Violence be freed, + And Public Faith cleard from the shamefull brand + Of Public Fraud. In vain doth Valour bleed + While Avarice, & Rapine share the land. + +Fairfax's military capacity is certain, and his private virtues are +unquestioned. Writing in 1648, Milton credited him with the power to +settle the affairs of the nation. But Fairfax was not a politician. He +broke with Cromwell over the execution of the king, and in July 1650 +retired into private life. Baxter, Warwick, and Clarendon all wrote +of him at a distance of time that showed his merits and limitations in +truer perspective. + +Milton addressed him again when singing the praises of Bradshaw and +Cromwell and other Parliamentary leaders in his _Pro Populo Anglicano +Defensio Secunda_, 1654. As a specimen of a contemporary Latin +character, and a character by Milton, the passage is now quoted in +full: + +'Sed neque te fas est praeterire, _Fairfaxi_, in quo cum summa +fortitudine summam modestiam, summam vitae sanctitatem, & natura & +divinus favor conjunxit: Tu harum in partem laudum evocandus tuo jure +ac merito es; quanquam in illo nunc tuo secessu, quantus olim Literni +Africanus ille Scipio, abdis te quoad potes; nec hostem solum, sed +ambitionem, & quae praestantissimum quemque mortalium vincit, gloriam +quoque vicisti; tuisque virtutibus & praeclare factis, jucundissimum & +gloriosissimum per otium frueris, quod est laborum omnium & humanarum +actionum vel maximarum finis; qualique otio cum antiqui Heroes, post +bella & decora tuis haud majora, fruerentur, qui eos laudare conati +sunt poetae, desperabant se posse alia ratione id quale esset digne +describere, nisi eos fabularentur, coelo receptos, deorum epulis +accumbere. Verum te sive valetudo, quod maxime crediderim, sive +quid aliud retraxit, persuasissimum hoc habeo, nihil te a rationibus +reipublicae divellere potuisse, nisi vidisses quantum libertatis +conservatorem, quam firmum atque fidum Anglicanae rei columen ac +munimentum in successore tuo relinqueres' (ed. 1654, pp. 147-8). + +Page 149, l. 9. The Self-denying Ordinance, discharging members of +Parliament from all offices, civil and military, passed both Houses on +April 3, 1645. + +l. 18. He succeeded his father as third Lord Fairfax in 1648. + +l. 21. See p. 118, ll. 8 ff. + + +41. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 103; _History_, Bk. III, ed. 1702, vol. i, pp. +148-9; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 247-9. + +Baxter has an account of Vane in his Autobiography: 'He was the +Principal Man that drove on the Parliament to go too high, and act +too vehemently against the King: Being of very ready Parts, and very +great Subtilty, and unwearied Industry, he laboured, and not without +Success, to win others in Parliament, City and Country to his Way. +When the Earl of _Strafford_ was accused, he got a Paper out of his +Father's Cabinet (who was Secretary of State) which was the chief +Means of his Condemnation: To most of our Changes he was that _within_ +the House, which _Cromwell_ was _without_. His great Zeal to drive +all into War, and to the highest, and to cherish the Sectaries, and +especially in the Army, made him above all Men to be valued by that +Party ... When Cromwell had served himself by him as his surest +Friend, as long as he could; and gone as far with him as their way lay +together, (_Vane_ being for a Fanatick Democracie, and _Cromwell_ for +Monarchy) at last there was no Remedy but they must part; and when +_Cromwell_ cast out the Rump (as disdainfully as Men do Excrements) +he called _Vane_ a Jugler' (_Reliquiae Baxterianae_, Lib. I, Part I, p. +75). This account occurs in Baxter's description of the sectaries who +were named after him 'Vanists'. + +Clarendon and Baxter both lay stress on the element of the fanatic +in Vane's nature; and in a later section of the _History_ Clarendon +speaks of it emphatically: ... 'Vane being a man not to be described +by any character of religion; in which he had swallowed some of the +fancies and extravagances of every sect or faction, and was become +(which cannot be expressed by any other language than was peculiar to +that time) _a man above ordinances_, unlimited and unrestrained by any +rules or bounds prescribed to other men, by reason of his perfection. +He was a perfect enthusiast, and without doubt did believe himself +inspired' (vol. vi, p. 148). + +Milton's sonnet, to Vane 'young in yeares, but in sage counsell old' +gives no suggestion of the fanatic: + + besides to know + Both spirituall powre & civill, what each meanes + What severs each thou 'hast learnt, which few have don. + The bounds of either sword to thee wee ow. + Therfore on thy firme hand religion leanes + In peace, & reck'ns thee her eldest son. + +There was much in Vane's views about Church and State with which +Milton sympathized; and the sonnet was written in 1652, before +Cromwell broke with Vane. + +See also Pepys's _Diary_, June 14, 1662, and Burnet's _History of His +Own Time_, ed. Osmund Airy, vol. i, pp. 284-6. + +Page 150, ll. 13, 14. _Magdalen College_, a mistake for Magdalen Hall, +of which Vane was a Gentleman Commoner; but he did not matriculate. +See Wood's _Athenae Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. iii, col. 578. + +l. 17. He returned to England in 1632; he had been in the train of the +English ambassador at Vienna. + +ll. 25 ff. He transported himself into New England in 1635. He was +chosen Governor of Massachusetts in March 1636 and held the post +for one year, being defeated at the next election. He retransported +himself into England in August 1637. + +Page 151, ll. 27-9. 'In New Hampshire and at Rhode Island. The grant +by the Earl of Warwick as the Governor of the King's Plantations in +America of a charter for Providence, &c., Rhode Island, is dated March +14, 164-3/4; _Calendar of Colonial State Papers_, 1574-1660, p. 325. +The code of laws adopted there in 1647 declares "sith our charter +gives us power to govern ourselves ... the form of government +established in Providence plantations is democratical." _Collections +of the Massachusetts Hist. Soc._, second series, vol. vii, p. +79.'--Note by Macray. + +Page 152, ll. 2, 3. He married Frances, daughter of Sir Christopher +Wray, of Ashby, Lincolnshire. + +ll. 5, 6. He was made joint Treasurer of the Navy in January 1639, and +was dismissed in December 1641. + +ll. 10 ff. Strafford was created Baron of Raby in 1640. At the +conclusion of Book VI Clarendon says that the elder Vane's 'malice to +the Earl of Strafford (who had unwisely provoked him, wantonly and out +of contempt) transported him to all imaginable thoughts of revenge'. +Cf. p. 63, l. 25. + + +42. + +Clarendon, MS. History, p. 486 (first paragraph) and Life, p. 249 +(second paragraph); _History_, Bk. VII, ed. 1703, vol. ii, p. 292; ed. +Macray, vol. iii, pp. 216-17. + +Clarendon added the first paragraph in the margin of the manuscript +of his earlier work when he dovetailed the two works to form the +_History_ in its final form. + +Page 152, l. 27. _this Covenant_, the Solemn League and Covenant, +which passed both Houses on September 18, 1643: 'the battle of Newbery +being in that time likewise over (which cleared and removed more +doubts than the Assembly had done), it stuck very few hours with both +Houses; but being at once judged convenient and lawful, the Lords and +Commons and their Assembly of Divines met together at the church, +with great solemnity, to take it, on the five and twentieth day of +September' (Clarendon, vol. iii, p. 205). + + +43. + +Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, Governor of Nottingham +Castle and Town ... Written by His Widow Lucy, Daughter of Sir Allen +Apsley, Lieutenant of the Tower, &c. Now first published from the +original manuscript by the Rev. Julius Hutchinson ... London: 1806. +(pp. 4-6.) + +The original manuscript has disappeared, and the edition of 1806 is +the only authoritative text. It has been many times reprinted. It was +edited with introduction, notes, and appendices by C.H. Firth in 1885 +(new edition, 1906). + +The Memoirs as a whole are the best picture we possess of a puritan +soldier and household of the seventeenth century. They were written by +his widow as a consolation to herself and for the instruction of +her children. To 'such of you as have not seene him to remember his +person', she leaves, by way of introduction, 'His Description.' It is +this passage which is here reprinted. + + +44, 45, 46, 47, 48. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 212-15; _History_, Bk. VI, ed. 1703, vol. ii, +pp. 158-62; ed. Macray, vol. ii, pp. 541-8. + +These five characters of Parliamentary peers follow one another at +the conclusion of Clarendon's sixth book, and are part of his 'view +of those persons who were of the King's Council, and had deserted his +service, and stayed in the Parliament to support the rebellion'. +A short passage on the Earl of Holland, between the characters of +Warwick and Manchester, is omitted. + +Taken as a group, they are yet another proof of Clarendon's skill in +portraiture. Each character is clearly distinguished. + +Page 159, ll. 7-10. His grandfather was William Cecil (1520-98), Lord +Burghley, the great minister of Elizabeth; his father was Robert Cecil +(1563-1612), created Earl of Salisbury, 1605, Secretary of State at +the accession of James. + +Page 160, l. 9. He was member for King's Lynn in 1649, and +Hertfordshire in 1654 and 1656. + +ll. 13-16. _Hic egregiis_, &c. Seneca, _De Beneficiis_, iv, cap. 30. + +Page 161, ll. 3-19. 'Clarendon's view that Warwick was a jovial +hypocrite is scarcely borne out by other contemporary evidence. The +"jollity and good humour" which he mentions are indeed confirmed. "He +was one of the most best-natured and cheerfullest persons I have in +my time met with," writes his pious daughter-in-law (_Autobiography +of Lady Warwick_, ed. Croker, p. 27). Edmund Calamy, however, in his +sermon at Warwick's funeral, enlarges on his zeal for religion; and +Warwick's public conduct during all the later part of his career is +perfectly consistent with Calamy's account of his private life (_A +Pattern for All, especially for Noble Persons_, &c., 1658, 410, pp. +34-9).'--C.H. Firth, in the _Dictionary of National Biography_. + +l. 13. _Randevooze_ (or _-vouze_, or _-vouce_, or _-vowes_) is a +normal spelling of _Rendezvous_ in the seventeenth century. The words +had been introduced into English by the reign of Elizabeth. + +ll. 20-2. The proceedings are described at some length by Clarendon, +vol. ii, pp. 19-22, 216-23. Warwick was appointed Admiral by the +Parliament on July 1, 1642. + +l. 23. The expulsion of the Long Parliament on April 20, 1653. A +thorough examination of all the authorities for the story of the +expulsion will be found in two articles by C.H. Firth in _History_, +October 1917 and January 1918. + +ll. 24-5. Robert Rich, his grandson, married Frances, Cromwell's +youngest daughter, in November 1657, but died in the following +February, aged 23. See _Thurloe's State Papers_, vol. vi, p. 573. + +Page 162, l. 11. _in Spayne_, on the occasion of the proposed Spanish +match. + +ll. 22-3. He resigned his generalship on April 2, 1645, the day before +the Self-Denying Ordinance was passed. + +ll. 24 ff. His first wife was Buckingham's cousin, their mothers +being sisters. He married his second wife in 1626, before Buckingham's +death. He was five times married. + +Page 163, l. 11. _his father_, Henry Montagu (1563-1642), created +Baron Montagu of Kimbolton and Viscount Mandeville, 1620, and Earl of +Manchester, 1628. By the favour of Buckingham he had been made Lord +Treasurer in 1620, but within a year was deprived of the office and +'reduced to the empty title of President of the Council'; see the +character (on the whole favourable) by Clarendon, vol. i, pp. 67-9. + +l. 12. Manchester and Warwick are described by Clarendon as 'the two +pillars of the Presbyterian party' (vol. iv, p. 245). + +Page 164, l. 16. He was accused with the five members of the House of +Commons, January 3, 1642. Cf. p. 123, l. 5. + +l. 26. Elsewhere Clarendon says that Manchester 'was known to have all +the prejudice imaginable against Cromwell' (vol. iv, p. 245). He lived +in retirement during the Commonwealth, but returned to public life at +the Restoration, when he was made Lord Chamberlain. + +This character may be compared with Clarendon's other character of +Manchester, vol. i, pp. 242-3, and with the character in Warwick's +_Memoires_, pp. 246-7. Burnet, speaking of him in his later years, +describes him as 'A man of a soft and obliging temper, of no great +depth, but universally beloved, being both a vertuous and a generous +man'. + +Page 165, ll. 6-9. See Clarendon, vol. i, p. 259. + +l. ii. _that unhappy kingdome_. This was written in France. + +ll. 20-5. Antony a Wood did not share Clarendon's scepticism about +Say's descent, though he shared his dislike of Say himself: see +_Athenae Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. in, col. 546. + +Page 166, ll. 25 ff. See Clarendon, ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 333-5. Cf. +note p. 134, l. 3. After the King's execution he took little part in +public affairs, but at the Restoration he managed to be made a Privy +Councillor and Lord Privy Seal. + +Clarendon has another and shorter character of Say, which supplements +the character here given, and deals mainly with his ecclesiastical +politics (vol. i, p. 241). He was thought to be the only member of the +Independent party in the House of Peers (vol. iii, p. 507). + +Arthur Wilson gives short characters of Essex, Warwick, and Say: +'_Saye_ and _Seale_ was a seriously subtil _Peece_, and alwayes averse +to the Court wayes, something out of pertinatiousnesse; his _Temper_ +and _Constitution_ ballancing him altogether on that _Side_, which +was contrary to the _Wind_; so that he seldome tackt about or went +upright, though he kept his _Course_ steady in his owne way a long +time: yet it appeared afterwards, when the harshnesse of the humour +was a little allayed by the sweet _Refreshments_ of Court favours, +that those sterne _Comportments_ supposed _naturall_, might be +mitigated, and that indomitable Spirits by gentle usage may be tamed +and brought to obedience' (_Reign of King James I_, p. 162). + + +49. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 48-9: _Life_, ed. 1759, p. 16. + +This and the four following characters of men of learning and letters +are taken from the early section of the _Life_ where Clarendon proudly +records his friendships and conversation with 'the most excellent men +in their several kinds that lived in that age, by whose learning and +information and instruction he formed his studies, and mended his +understanding, and by whose gentleness and sweetness of behaviour, +and justice, and virtue, and example, he formed his manners.' The +characters of Jonson, Falkland, and Godolphin which belong to the same +section have already been given. + +Page 167, l. 27. _his conversation_, fortunately represented for us in +his _Table-Talk_, a collection of the 'excellent things that usually +fell from him', made by his amanuensis Richard Milward, and published +in 1689. + +Page 168, l. 3. _M'r Hyde_, i.e. Clarendon himself. + +l. 5. _Seldence_, a phonetic spelling, showing Clarendon's haste in +composition. + +l.10. Selden was member for Oxford during the Long Parliament. + +ll. 15, 16. Compare Clarendon's _History_, vol. ii, p. 114: 'he had +for many years enjoyed his ease, which he loved, was rich, and would +not have made a journey to York, or have lain out of his own bed, for +any preferment, which he had never affected. Compare also Aubrey's +_Brief Lives_, ed. A. Clark, vol. ii, p. 224: 'He was wont to say +"I'le keepe myselfe warme and moyst as long as I live, for I shall be +cold and dry when I am dead ".' + + +50. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 57; _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 26-7. + +Izaak Walton included a short character of Earle in his _Life of +Hooker_, published in the year of Earle's death: 'Dr. Earle, now Lord +Bishop of Salisbury, of whom I may justly say, (and let it not offend +him, because it is such a trifle as ought not to be concealed from +posterity, or those that now live, and yet know him not,) that since +Mr. Hooker died, none have lived whom God hath blessed with more +innocent wisdom, more sanctified learning, or a more pious, peaceable, +primitive temper: so that this excellent person seems to be only like +himself, and our venerable Richard Hooker.' + +See also _Athenae Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. iii, cols. 716-9. + +Page 168, l. 25. _Earle of Pembroke_, the fourth Earl, Lord +Chamberlain 1626-1641: see p. 4, l. 30, note. + +Page 169, l. 3. _Proctour_, in 1631. The 'very witty and sharpe +discourses' are his _Micro-cosmographie_, first published anonymously +in 1628. + +l. 23. Compare p. 72, ll. 29 ff., and p. 90, ll. 21 ff. + +l. 28. He was made chaplain and tutor to Prince Charles in 1641. His +'lodginge in the court' as chaplain to the Lord Chamberlain had made +him known to the king. + + +51. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 57-8; _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 27-8. + +'The Ever Memorable Mr. John Hales, of Eaton-Colledge', as he is +called on the title-page of his _Golden Remains_, published in 1659 +(second impression, 1673), is probably best known now by his remark +'That there was no subject of which any Poet ever writ, but he would +produce it much better treated of in Shakespeare'. This remark was +first given in print in Dryden's essay _Of Dramatick Poesie_, 1668, +and was repeated in varying forms in Nahum Tate's Dedication to the +_Loyal General_, 1680, Charles Gildon's _Reflections on Mr. Rymer's +Short View of Tragedy_, 1694, and Nicholas Rowe's _Account of the +Life of Shakespear_, 1709. But it had apparently been made somewhere +between 1633 and 1637 in the company of Lord Falkland. It is the one +gem that survives of this retired student's 'very open and pleasant +conversation'. + +Clarendon's portrait explains the honour and affection in which the +'ever memorable' but now little known scholar was held by all his +friends. The best companion to it is the life by Wood, _Athenae +Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. iv, cols. 409-15. See also John Pearson's +preface to _Golden Remains_. + +Page 170, ll. 10 ff. Hales was elected Fellow of Merton College in +1605, and Regius Professor of Greek in 1615. His thirty-two letters to +Sir Dudley Carlton (cf. p. 58, l. 20) reporting the proceedings of the +Synod of Dort, run from November 24, 1618, to February 7, 1619, and +are included in his _Golden Remains_. On his return to England in 1619 +he withdrew to his fellowship at Eton. + +Sir Henry Savile's monumental edition of the Greek text of St. +Chrysostom, in eight large folio volumes, was published at Eton, +1610-12. Savile was an imperious scholar, but when Clarendon says +that Hales 'had borne all the labour' of this great edition, he can +only mean that Hales had given his assistance at all stages of its +production. In Brodrick's _Memorials of Merton College_, p. 70, it is +stated that Hales was voted an allowance for the help he had given. +Savile was appointed Warden of Merton in 1585 and Provost of Eton in +1596, and continued to hold both posts at the same time till his death +in 1622. + +Page 171, ll. 8-12. Compare the verse epistle in Suckling's _Fragmenta +Aurea_, which was manifestly addressed to Hales, though his name is +not given (ed. 1648, pp. 34-5): + + Whether these lines do find you out, + Putting or clearing of a doubt; + ... know 'tis decreed + You straight bestride the Colledge Steed ... + And come to Town; 'tis fit you show + Your self abroad, that men may know + (What e're some learned men have guest) + That Oracles are not yet ceas't ... + News in one day as much w' have here + As serves all Windsor for a year. + +In Suckling's _Sessions of the Poets_, 'Hales set by himselfe most +gravely did smile'. + +ll. 14 ff. Compare the story told by Wood: 'When he was Bursar of his +Coll. and had received bad money, he would lay it aside, and put good +of his own in the room of it to pay to others. Insomuch that sometimes +he has thrown into the River 20 and 30_l_. at a time. All which he +hath stood to, to the loss of himself, rather than others of the +Society should be endamaged.' + +l. 19. Reduced to penury by the Civil Wars, Hales was 'forced to sell +the best part of his most admirable Library (which cost him 2500_l_.) +to Cornelius Bee of London, Bookseller, for 700_l_. only'. But Wood +also says that he might be styled 'a walking Library'. Another account +of his penury and the sale of his library is found in John Walker's +_Sufferings of the Clergy_, 1714, Part II, p. 94. + +l. 24. _syded_, i.e. stood by the side of, equalled, rivalled. + +Page 173, ll. 1 ff. His _Tract concerning Schisme and Schismaticks_ +was published in 1642, and was frequently reissued. It was written +apparently about 1636, and certainly before 1639. He was installed as +canon of Windsor on June 27, 1639. + + +52. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 58-9; _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 28-30. + +Clarendon clearly enjoyed writing this character of Chillingworth. The +shrewd observation is tempered by subdued humour. Looking back on his +friendship at a distance of twenty years, he felt an amused pleasure +in the disputatiousness which could be irritating, the intellectual +vanity, the irresolution that came from too great subtlety. +Chillingworth was always 'his own convert'; 'his only unhappiness +proceeded from his sleeping too little and thinking too much'. But +Clarendon knew the solid merits of _The Religion of Protestants_ +(_History_, vol. i, p. 95); and he felt bitterly the cruel +circumstances of his death. + +Page 174, ll. 17-19. Compare the character of Godolphin, p. 96, ll. 1 +ff. + +Page 176, l. 14. _the Adversary_, Edward Knott (1582-1656), Jesuit +controversialist. + +l. 29. _Lugar_, John Lewgar (1602-1665): see Wood's _Athenae +Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. iii, cols. 696-7. + +Page 177, l. 24. This Engine is described in the narrative of the +siege of Gloucester in Rushworth's _Historical Collections_, ed. 1692, +Part III, vol. ii, p. 290: 'The King's Forces, by the Directions of +Dr. _Chillingworth_, had provided certain Engines, after the manner of +the Roman _Testudines cum Pluteis_, wherewith they intended to Assault +the City between the South and West Gates; They ran upon Cart-Wheels, +with a _Blind_ of Planks Musquet-proof, and holes for four Musqueteers +to play out of, placed upon the Axle-tree to defend the Musqueteers +and those that thrust it forwards, and carrying a Bridge before it; +the Wheels were to fall into the Ditch, and the end of the Bridge to +rest upon the Towns Breastworks, so making several compleat Bridges to +enter the City. To prevent which, the Besieged intended to have made +another Ditch out of their Works, so that the Wheels falling therein, +the Bridge would have fallen too short of their Breastworks into their +wet Mote, and so frustrated that Design.' + +ll. 26 ff. Hopton took Arundel Castle on December 9, 1643, and was +forced to surrender on January 6 (Clarendon, vol. iii, pp. 330-5). +Aubrey says that Chillingworth 'dyed of the _morbus castrensis_ after +the taking of Arundel castle by the parliament: wherin he was very +much blamed by the king's soldiers for his advice in military affaires +there, and they curst _that little priest_ and imputed the losse of +the castle to his advice'. (_Brief Lives_, ed. A. Clark, vol. i, p. +172). The chief actor in the final persecution was Francis Cheynell +(1608-65), afterwards intruded President of St. John's College +and Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford; see his +_Chillingworthi Novissima. Or, the Sicknesse, Heresy, Death, and +Buriall of William Chillingworth (In his own phrase) Clerk of Oxford, +and in the conceit of his fellow Souldiers, the Queens Arch-Engineer, +and Grand-Intelligencer_, 1644. + + +53. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 55; _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 24, 25. + +Weakness of character disguised by ready wit, pleasant discourse, +and charm of manner is Clarendon's judgement on Waller. They had +been friends in their early days when Waller was little more than +an opulent poet who could make a good speech in parliament; but his +behaviour on the discovery of 'Waller's plot', the purpose of which +was to hold the city for the king, his inefficiency in any action +but what was directed to his own safety and advancement, and his +subsequent relations with Cromwell, definitely estranged them. +To Clarendon, Waller is the time-server whose pleasing arts are +transparent. 'His company was acceptable, where his spirit was +odious.' The censure was the more severe because of the part which +Waller had just played at Clarendon's fall. The portrait may be +overdrawn; but there is ample evidence from other sources to confirm +its essential truth. + +Burnet says that '_Waller_ was the delight of the House: And even at +eighty he said the liveliest things of any among them: He was only +concerned to say that which should make him be applauded. But he never +laid the business of the House to heart, being a vain and empty, tho' +a witty, man' (_History of His Own Time_, ed. 1724, vol. i, p. 388). +He is described by Aubrey, _Brief Lives_, ed. A. Clark, vol. ii, pp. +276-7. + +Clarendon's character was included by Johnson in his _Life of Waller_, +with a few comments. Page 179, l. 1. _a very rich wife_, Anne, only +daughter of John Bankes, mercer; married 1631, died 1634. 'The fortune +which Waller inherited from his father, which must have been largely +increased during his long minority, has been variously estimated +at from L2,000 to L3,500 a year; adding to this the amount which +he received with Miss Bankes, said to have been about L8,000, and +allowing for the difference in the value of the money, it appears +probable that, with the exception of Rogers, the history of English +literature can show no richer poet' (_Poems of Waller_, ed. Thorn +Drury, vol. i, p. xx). + +l. 4. _M'r Crofts_, William Crofts (1611-77), created Baron Crofts of +Saxham in 1658 at Brussels. He was captain of Queen Henrietta Maria's +Guards. + +l. 6. _D'r Marly_. See p. 92, l. 21, note. + +ll. 10-14. Waller's poems were first published in 1645, when Waller +was abroad. But they had been known in manuscript. They appear to +have first come to the notice of Clarendon when Waller was introduced +to the brilliant society of which Falkland was the centre. If the +introduction took place, as is probable, about 1635, this is the +explanation of Clarendon's 'neere thirty yeeres of age'. But some of +his poems must have been written much earlier. What is presumably +his earliest piece, on the escape of Prince Charles from shipwreck +at Santander on his return from Spain in 1623, was probably written +shortly after the event it describes, though like other of his early +pieces it shows, as Johnson pointed out, traces of revision. + +l. 21. _nurced in Parliaments_. He entered Parliament in 1621, at the +age of sixteen, as member for Amersham. See _Poems_, ed. Drury, vol. +i. p. xvii. + +Page 180, l. 5. The great instance of his wit is his reply to Charles +II, when asked why his Congratulation 'To the King, upon his Majesty's +happy Return' was inferior to his Panegyric 'Upon the Death of the +Lord Protector'--'Poets, Sir, succeed better in fiction than in truth' +(quoted from _Menagiana_ in Fenton's 'Observations on Waller's Poems', +and given by Johnson). See _Lives of the Poets_, ed. G.B. Hill, vol. +i, p. 271. + + +54. + +Brief View and Survey of the Dangerous and pernicious Errors to Church +and State, In Mr. Hobbes's Book, Entitled Leviathan. By Edward Earl of +Clarendon. Oxford, 1676. (pp. 2-3.) + +It is a misfortune that Clarendon did not write a character of Hobbes, +and, more than this, that there is no character of Hobbes by any one +which corresponds in kind to the other characters in this collection. +But in answering the _Leviathan_, Clarendon thought it well to state +by way of introduction that he was on friendly terms with the author, +and the passage here quoted from his account of their relations is in +effect a character. He condemned Hobbes's political theories; 'Yet I +do hope', he says, 'nothing hath fallen from my Pen, which implies the +least undervaluing of Mr. _Hobbes_ his Person, or his Parts.' + +Page 181, l. 21. _ha's_, a common spelling at this time and earlier, +on the false assumption that _has_ was a contraction of _haves_. + + +55. + +Bodleian Library, MS. Aubrey 9, foll. 34-7, 41, 42, 46-7. + +The text of these notes on Hobbes is taken direct from Aubrey's +manuscript, now in the Bodleian Library. The complete life is printed +in _Brief Lives by John Aubrey_, edited by Andrew Clark, 1898, vol. i, +pp. 321-403. + +Aubrey collected most of his biographical notes, to which he gave the +title '[Greek: Schediasmata.] Brief Lives', in order to help Anthony a +Wood in the compilation of his _Athenae Oxonienses_. 'I have, according +to your desire', he wrote to Wood in 1680, 'putt in writing these +minutes of lives tumultuarily, as they occur'd to my thoughts or as +occasionally I had information of them.... 'Tis a taske that I never +thought to have undertaken till you imposed it upon me.' Independently +of Wood, Aubrey had collected material for a life of Hobbes, in +accordance with a promise he had made to Hobbes himself. All his +manuscript notes were submitted to Wood, who made good use of them. +On their return Aubrey deposited them in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, +the library of which is now merged in the Bodleian. + +The notes were written 'tumultuarily', jotted down hastily, and as +hastily added to, altered, and transposed. They are a first draft for +the fair copy which was never made. The difficulty of giving a true +representation of them in print is increased by Aubrey's habit of +inserting above the line alternatives to words or phrases without +deleting the original words or even indicating his preference. In the +present text the later form has, as a rule, been adopted, the other +being given in a footnote. + +'The Life of Mr. Thomas Hobbes, of Malmesburie' is by far the longest +of Aubrey's 'Brief Lives', but it does not differ from the others +in manner. The passages selected may be regarded as notes for a +character. + +Page 183, ll. 1 ff. Aubrey is a little more precise in his notes +on Bacon. 'Mr. Thomas Hobbes told me ... that he was employed in +translating part of the Essayes, viz. three of them, one whereof was +that of the Greatnesse of Cities, the other two I have now forgott' +(ed. A. Clark, vol. i, p. 83). On the evidence of style, Aldis Wright +thought that the other two essays translated by Hobbes were 'Of +Simulation and Dissimulation' and 'Of Innovation': see the preface to +his edition of _Bacon's Essays_, 1862, pp. xix, xx. The translation +appeared in 1638 under the title _Sermones fideles, sive interiora +rerum_. + +l. 4. Gorhambury was Bacon's residence in Hertfordshire, near St. +Alban's, inherited from his father. Aubrey described it in a long +digression 'for the sake of the lovers of antiquity', ed. Clark, vol. +i, pp. 79-84, and p. 19. + +l. 5. Thomas Bushell (1594-1674), afterwards distinguished as a mining +engineer and metallurgist: see his life in the _Dictionary of National +Biography_. + +Page 185, l. 2. (_i._) or _i._, a common form at this time for _i.e._ + +l. 20. Henry Lawes (1596-1662), who wrote the music for _Comus_, and +to whom Milton addressed one of his sonnets: + + _Harry_ whose tuneful and well measur'd Song + First taught our English Musick how to span + Words with just note and accent,... + To after age thou shalt be writ the man, + That with smooth aire couldst humor best our tongue. + +This sonnet was prefixed to Lawes's _Choice Psalmes_ in 1648; his +_Ayres and Dialogues for One, Two, and Three Voices_ appeared in three +books from 1653 to 1658. + + +56. + +The Life of That Reverend Divine, and Learned Historian, Dr. Thomas +Fuller. London, 1661. (pp. 66-77.) + +This work was twice reissued with new title-pages at Oxford in 1662, +and was for the first time reprinted in 1845 by way of introduction to +J.S. Brewer's edition of Fuller's _Church History_. It is the basis of +all subsequent lives of Fuller. But the author is unknown. + +The passage here quoted from the concluding section of this _Life_ is +the only contemporary sketch of Fuller's person and character that is +now known. Aubrey's description is a mere note, and is considerably +later: 'He was of a middle stature; strong sett; curled haire; a very +working head, in so much that, walking and meditating before dinner, +he would eate-up a penny loafe, not knowing that he did it. His +naturall memorie was very great, to which he had added the _art of +memorie_: he would repeate to you forwards and backwards all the +signes from Ludgate to Charing-crosse' (ed. A. Clark, vol. i, p. 257). + +Page 187, l. 20. _a perfect walking Library_, Compare p. 171, l. 19, +note. + +Page 191, ll. 3 ff. Compare Aubrey. But Fuller disclaimed the use of +an art of memory. 'Artificiall memory', he said, 'is rather a trick +then an art.' He condemned the 'artificiall rules which at this day +are delivered by Memory-mountebanks'. His great rule was 'Marshall thy +notions into a handsome method'. See his section 'Of Memory' in his +_Holy State_, 1642, Bk. III, ch. 10; and compare J.E. Bailey, _Life of +Thomas Fuller_, 1874, pp. 413-15. + + +57. + +Bodleian Library, MS. Aubrey 8 foll. 63, 63 v, 68. + +The text is taken direct from Aubrey's manuscript, such contractions +as 'X'ts coll:' and 'da:' for daughter being expanded. For the +complete life, see _Brief Lives_, ed. A. Clark, vol. ii, pp. 62-72. + +There is no character of Milton. We have again to be content with +notes for a character. + +Page 192, l. 7. Christ's College, Cambridge, which Milton entered in +February 1625, aged sixteen. + +ll. 15-18. Milton had three daughters, by his first wife--Anne, Mary, +and Deborah. Mary died unmarried. Deborah's husband, Abraham Clarke, +left Dublin for London during the troubles in Ireland under James II: +see Masson's _Life of Milton_, vol. vi, p. 751. He is described by +Johnson as a 'weaver in Spitalfields': see _Lives of the Poets_, ed. +G.B. Hill, vol. i, pp. 158-60. + +Page 193, ll. 2-4. _Litera Canina_. See Persius, _Sat_. i. 109 +'Sonat hic de nare canina littera'; and compare Ben Jonson, _English +Grammar_, '_R_ Is the _Dogs_ Letter, and hurreth in the sound.' + +ll. 11, 12. But the Comte de Cominges, French Ambassador to England, +1662-5, in his report to Louis XIV on the state of literature in +England, spoke of 'un nomme Miltonius qui s'est rendu plus infame par +ses dangereux ecrits que les bourreaux et les assassins de leur roi'. +This was written in 1663, and Cominges knew only Milton's Latin works. +See J.J. Jusserand, _A French Ambassador at the Court of Charles the +Second_, 1892, p. 58, and _Shakespeare en France_, 1898, p. 107. + +l. 19. _In toto nusquam_. Ovid, _Amores_, i. 5. 18. + +Page 194, l. 4. Milton died November 8: see Masson, _Life of Milton_, +vol. vi, p. 731. + + +58. + +Letters of State, Written by Mr. John Milton, To most of the Sovereign +Princes and Republicks of Europe. From the Year 1649 Till the Year +1659. To which is added, An Account of his Life.... London: Printed in +the Year, 1694. (p. xxxvi.) + +'The Life of Mr. John Milton' (pp. i-xliv) serves as introduction to +this little volume of State Papers. It is the first life of Milton. +Edward Phillips (1630-96) was the son of Milton's sister, and was +educated by him. Unfortunately he failed to take proper advantage of +his great opportunity. The Life is valuable for some of its details, +but as a whole it is disappointing; and it makes no attempt at +characterization. The note on Milton in his _Theatrum Poetarum, or a +Compleat Collection of the Poets_, 1675, is also disappointing. + + +59. + +Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton's Paradise Lost. By J. +Richardson, Father and Son. With the Life of the Author, and a +Discourse on the Poem. By J.R. Sen. London: M.DCC.XXXIV. (pp. iii-v; +xciv; c; cxiv.) + +Jonathan Richardson (1665-1745) was one of the chief portrait-painters +of his time. There are portraits by him of Pope, Steele, and +Prior--all now in the National Portrait Gallery; and his writings on +painting were standard works till the time of Reynolds. His book on +Milton was an excursion late in life, with the assistance of his son, +into another field of criticism. His introductory life of Milton +(pp. i-cxliii) is a substantial piece of work, and is valuable as +containing several anecdotes that might otherwise have been lost. +Those that bear on Milton's character are here reproduced. The +typographical eccentricities have been preserved. + +Page 194, ll. 28 ff. Edward Millington's place of business was 'at the +Pelican in Duck Lane' in 1670; from Michaelmas, 1671, it was 'at the +Bible in Little Britain' (see Arber's _Term Catalogues_, vol. i, pp. +31, 93). It was about 1680 that he turned auctioneer of books, though +he did not wholly abandon publishing. 'There was usually as much +Comedy in his "Once, Twice, Thrice", as can be met with in a modern +Play.' See the _Life and Errors of John Dunton_, ed. 1818, pp. 235-6. +He died at Cambridge in 1703. + +Page 196, l. 4. Dr. Tancred Robinson (d. 1748), physician to George I, +and knighted by him. + +l. 10. Henry Bendish (d. 1740), son of Bridget Ireton or Bendish, +Cromwell's granddaughter: see _Letters of John Hughes_, ed. John +Duncombe, vol. ii (1773), pp. x, xlii. + +l. 14. John Thurloe (1616-68), Secretary of State under Cromwell. +Compare No. 38 note. + +l. 25. 'Easy my unpremeditated verse', _Paradise Lost_, ix. 24. + + +60. + +The Works of M'r Abraham Cowley. Consisting of Those which were +formerly Printed: and Those which he Design'd for the Press, Now +Published out of the Authors Original Copies. London, 1668.--'Several +Discourses by way of Essays, in Verse and Prose,' No. II. (pp. 143-6.) + +Cowley's Essays were written towards the close of his life. They were +'left scarce finish'd', and many others were to have been added to +them. They were first published posthumously in the collected edition +of 1668, under the superintendence of Thomas Sprat (see No. 61). +This edition, which alone is authoritative, has been followed in the +present reprint of the eleventh and last Essay, probably written at +the beginning of 1667. + +Page 198, l. 1. _at School_, Westminster. + +ll. 19 ff. The concluding stanzas of 'A Vote', printed in Cowley's +_Sylva_, 1636. Cowley was then aged eighteen. The first stanza +contains three new readings, 'The unknown' for 'Th' ignote', 'I would +have' for 'I would hug', and 'Not on' for 'Not from'. + +Page 199, l. 15. _out of Horace_, _Odes_, iii. 29. 41-5. + +Page 200, l. 4. _immediately_. The reading in the text of 1668 is +'irremediably', but 'immediately' is given as the correct reading in +the 'Errata' (printed on a slip that is pasted in at the conclusion of +Cowley's first preface). The edition of 1669 substitutes 'immediately' +in the text. The alteration must be accepted on Sprat's authority, but +it is questionable if it gives a better sense. + +ll. 6-10. Cowley was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, as a +Westminster scholar on June 14, 1637. He was admitted Minor Fellow +in 1640, and graduated M.A. in 1643. He was ejected in the following +year as a result of the Earl of Manchester's commission to enforce the +solemn League and Covenant in Cambridge. See _Cowley's Pure Works_, +ed. J.R. Lumby, pp. ix-xiii, and Johnson's _Lives of the Poets_, ed. +G.B. Hill, vol. i, p. 5. + +ll. 9, 10. _Cedars ... Hyssop_. I Kings, iv. 33. + +l. 12. _one of the best Persons_, Henry Jermyn, created Baron Jermyn, +1643, and Earl of St. Albans, 1660, chief officer of Henrietta Maria's +household in Paris: see Clarendon, vol. iv, p. 312. As secretary +to Jermyn, Cowley 'cyphcr'd and decypher'd with his own hand, the +greatest part of all the Letters that passed between their Majesties, +and managed a vast Intelligence in many other parts: which for some +years together took up all his days, and two or three nights every +week' (Sprat). He told Sprat that he intended to dedicate all his +Essays to St. Albans 'as a testimony of his entire respects to him'. + +Page 201, l. 10. _Well then_. The opening lines of 'The Wish', +included in _The Mistress_, 1647 (ed. 1668, pp. 22-3). + +ll. 14 ff. At the instance of Jermyn, Cowley had been promised by both +Charles I and Charles II the mastership of the Savoy Hospital, but the +post was given in 1660 to Sheldon, and in 1663, on Sheldon's promotion +to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, to Henry Killigrew: see W.J. +Loftie, _Memorials of the Savoy_, 1878, pp. 145 ff., and Wood, _Fasti +Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, part I, col. 494. In the _Calendar of State +Papers_, Domestic Series, 1661-2, p. 210, there is the statement of +the case of Abraham Cowley, 'showing that the place may be held by a +person not a divine, and that Cowley ... having seen all preferments +given away, and his old University companions advanced before him, is +put to great shame by missing this place'. He is called 'Savoy missing +Cowley' in the Restoration _Session of the Poets_, printed in _Poems +on State Affairs_. + +l. 21. _Thou, neither_. In the ode entitled 'Destinie', _Pindarique +Odes_, 1656 (ed. 1668, p. 31, 'That neglected'). + +l. 28. _A Corps perdu_, misprinted _A Corps perdi_, edd. 1668, 1669, +_A Corpus perdi_, 1672, 1674, &c.; _Perdue_, Errata, 1668. + +Page 202, l. 1. St. Luke, xii. 16-21. + +ll. 3-5. 'Out of hast to be gone away from the Tumult and Noyse of the +City, he had not prepar'd so healthful a situation in the Country, as +he might have done, if he had made a more leasurable choice. Of this +he soon began to find the inconvenience at _Barn Elms_, where he was +afflicted with a dangerous and lingring _Fever_.... Shortly after his +removal to _Chertsea_ [April 1665], he fell into another consuming +Disease. Having languish'd under this for some months, he seem'd to +be pretty well cur'd of its ill Symptomes. But in the heat of the last +Summer [1667], by staying too long amongst his Laborers in the Medows, +he was taken with a violent Defluxion, and Stoppage in his Breast, and +Throat. This he at first neglected as an ordinary Cold, and refus'd +to send for his usual Physicians, till it was past all remedies; and +so in the end after a fortnight sickness, it prov'd mortal to him' +(Sprat). In the Latin life prefixed to Cowley's _Poemata Latina_, +1668, Sprat is more specific: 'Initio superioris Anni, inciderat in +_Morbum_, quem Medici _Diabeten_ appellant.' + +l. 6. _Non ego_. Horace, _Odes_, ii. 17. 9, 10. + +ll. 11 ff. _Nec vos_. These late Latin verses may be Cowley's own, but +they are not in his collected Latin poems. Compare Virgil, _Georgics_, +ii. 485-6. 'Syluaeq;' = 'Sylvaeque': 'q;' was a regular contraction for +_que_: cf. p. 44, l. 6. + + +61. + +The Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley, 1668.--'An Account of the Life and +Writings of M'r Abraham Cowley'. (pp. [18]-[20].) + +Thomas Sprat (1635-1713), author of _The History of the +Royal-Society_, 1667, afterwards Bishop of Rochester, 1684, was +entrusted by Cowley's will with 'the revising of all his Works that +were formerly printed, and the collecting of those Papers which he had +design'd for the Press'; and as literary executor he brought out in +1668 a folio edition of the English works, and an octavo edition of +the Latin works. To both he prefixed a life, one in English and the +other in Latin. The more elaborate English life was written partly in +the hope that 'a Character of Mr. _Cowley_ may be of good advantage to +our Nation'. Unfortunately the ethical bias has injured the biography. +In Johnson's words, 'his zeal of friendship, or ambition of eloquence, +has produced a funeral oration rather than a history: he has given the +character, not the life of Cowley; for he writes with so little detail +that scarcely any thing is distinctly known, but all is shewn confused +and enlarged through the mist of panegyrick.' Similarly Coleridge asks +'What literary man has not regretted the prudery of Sprat in refusing +to let his friend Cowley appear in his slippers and dressing-gown?' +(_Biographia Literaria_, ch. iii). His method is the more to be +regretted as no one knew Cowley better in his later years. His +greatest error of judgement was to suppress his large collection +of Cowley's letters. But with all its faults Sprat's Life of Cowley +occupies an important place at the beginning of English biography of +men of letters. It is the earliest substantial life of a poet whose +reputation rested on his poetry. Fulke Greville's life of Sir Philip +Sidney was the life of a soldier and a statesman of promise; and to +Izaak Walton, Donne was not so much a poet as a great Churchman. + +In the edition of 1668 the life of Cowley runs to twenty-four folio +pages. The passage here selected deals directly with his character. + +Page 203, ll. 25-7. It is evidently the impression of a stranger at +first sight that Aubrey gives in his short note: 'A.C. discoursed very +ill and with hesitation' (ed. A. Clark, vol. i, p. 190). + + +62. + +A Character of King Charles the Second: And Political, Moral and +Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections. By George Savile, Marquis of +Halifax. London: MDCCL. + +Halifax's elaborate and searching account of Charles II was first +published in 1750 'from his original Manuscripts, in the Possession +of his Grand-daughter Dorothy Countess of Burlington'. It consists +of seven parts: I. Of his Religion; II. His Dissimulation; III. His +Amours, Mistresses, &c.; IV. His Conduct to his Ministers; V. Of +his Wit and Conversation; VI. His Talents, Temper, Habits, &c.; VII. +Conclusion. Only the second, fifth, and sixth are given here. The +complete text is reprinted in Sir Walter Raleigh's _Works of Halifax_, +1912, pp. 187-208. + +For other characters of Charles, in addition to the two by Burnet +which follow, see Evelyn's _Diary_, February 4, 1685; Dryden's +dedication of _King Arthur_, 1691; 'A Short Character of King Charles +the II' by John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, Duke of Buckingham, +'Printed from the Original Copy' in _Miscellaneous Works Written by +George, late Duke of Buckingham_, ed. Tho. Brown, vol. ii, 1705, pp. +153-60, and with Pope's emendations in _Works_, 1723, vol. ii, pp. +57-65; and James Welwood's _Memoirs Of the Most Material Transactions +in England, for the Last Hundred Years, Preceding the Revolution_, +1700, pp. 148-53. + +For Halifax himself, see No. 72. + +Page 208, l. 12. An allusion to the Quarrel of the Ancients and +Moderns, which assumed prominence in England with the publication +in 1690 of Sir William Temple's _Essay upon the Ancient and Modern +Learning_. Compare Burnet, p. 223, l. 11 and note. + +PAGE 209, l. 29. _Ruelle_. Under Louis XIV it was the custom for +ladies of fashion to receive morning visitors in their bedrooms; hence +_ruelle_, the passage by the side of a bed, came to mean a ladies' +chamber. Compare _The Spectator_, Nos. 45 and 530. + +Page 211, l. 2. _Tiendro cuydado_, evidently an imperfect recollection +of the phrase _se tendra cuydado_, 'care will be taken', 'the matter +will have attention': compare _Cortes de Madrid_, 1573, Peticion +96,... 'se tendra cuidado de proueher en ello lo que conuiniere'. + +Page 212, ll. 7, 8. Compare Pepys's _Diary_, May 4, 1663: 'meeting the +King, we followed him into the Park, where Mr. Coventry and he talking +of building a new yacht out of his private purse, he having some +contrivance of his own'. Also, Evelyn's _Diary_, February 4, 1685: +'a lover of the sea, and skilful in shipping; not affecting other +studies, yet he had a laboratory and knew of many empirical medicines, +and the easier mechanical mathematics.' Also, Buckingham, ed. 1705, +p. 155: 'the great and almost only pleasure of Mind he seem'd addicted +to, was _Shipping_ and _Sea-Affairs_; which seem'd to be so much his +Talent for _Knowledge_, as well as _Inclination_, that a War of that +Kind, was rather an _Entertainment_, than any _Disturbance_ to his +Thoughts.' Also Welwood, _Memoirs_, p. 151. Also, Burnet, _infra_, p. +219. + +Page 213, l. 10. According to Pepys (_Diary_, December 8, 1666), +the distinction between Charles Stuart and the King was drawn by Tom +Killigrew in his remonstrance to Charles on the very ill state that +matters were coming to: 'There is a good, honest, able man, that I +could name, that if your Majesty would employ, and command to see all +things well executed, all things would soon be mended; and this is one +Charles Stuart, who now spends his time in employing his lips about +the Court, and hath no other employment; but if you would give him +this employment, he were the fittest man in the world to perform it.' + +Page 217, ll. 11 ff. Compare Welwood's _Memoirs_, p. 149. + + +63. + +Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. From the Restoration +of King Charles II. to the Settlement of King William and Queen Mary +at the Revolution. London: 1724. (pp. 93-4.) + +Burnet began his _History of His Own Time_ in 1683, after the +publication of his _History of the Reformation_. In its original form +it partook largely of the nature of Memoirs. But on the appearance +of Clarendon's History in 1702 he was prompted to recast his entire +narrative on a method that confined the strictly autobiographical +matter to a section by itself and as a whole assured greater dignity. +The part dealing with the reign of Charles II was rewritten by August +1703. The work was brought down to 1713 and completed in that year. +Two years later Burnet died, leaving instructions that it was not to +be printed till six years after his death. + +The _History_ was published in two folio volumes, dated 1724 and 1734. +The first, which contains the reigns of Charles II and James II, came +out at the end of 1723 and was edited by Burnet's second son, Gilbert +Burnet, then rector of East Barnet. The second volume was edited +by his third son, Thomas Burnet, afterwards a Judge of the Court +of Common Pleas. The complete autograph of the History, and the +transcript which was prepared for the press under the author's +directions, are now both in the Bodleian Library. + +The original form of the work survives in two transcripts (one of them +with Burnet's autograph corrections) in the Harleian collection in +the British Museum, and in a fragment of Burnet's original manuscript +in the Bodleian. The portions of this original version that differ +materially from the final printed version were published in 1902 by +Miss H.C. Foxcroft under the title _A Supplement to Burnet's History_. + +Much of the interest of the earlier version lies in the characters, +which are generally longer than they became on revision, and +sometimes contain details that were suppressed. But in a volume of +representative selections, where the art of a writer is as much our +concern as his matter, the preference must be given to what Burnet +himself intended to be final. The extracts are reprinted from the two +volumes edited by his sons. There was not the same reason to go direct +to his manuscript as to Clarendon's: see notes p. 231, l. 26; p. 252, +l. 10; and p. 255, l. 6. + + +64. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 611-3.) + +Burnet's two characters of Charles II are in striking agreement with +the more elaborate study by Halifax. + +Page 221, ll. 1 ff. Compare Halifax, p. 216, ll. 10 ff. + +l. 14. _his Chancellor_, Clarendon. + +Page 222, l. 16. _he became cruel_. This statement was attacked by +Roger North, _Lives of the Norths_, ed. 1890, vol. i, p. 330: 'whereas +some of our barbarous writers call this awaking of the king's genius +to a sedulity in his affairs, a growing cruel, because some suffered +for notorious treasons, I must interpret their meaning; which is a +distaste, because his majesty was not pleased to be undone as his +father was; and accordingly, since they failed to wound his person and +authority, they fell to wounding his honour.' Buckingham says, 'He was +an Illustrious Exception to all the Common Rules of _Phisiognomy_; for +with a most _Saturnine_ harsh sort of Countenance, he was both of a +_Merry_ and a _Merciful_ Disposition' (ed. 1705, p. 159); with which +compare Welwood, ed. 1700, p. 149. The judicial verdict had already +been pronounced by Halifax: see p. 216, ll. 23 ff. + +ll. 21-3. See Burnet, ed. Osmund Airy, vol. i, p. 539, for the +particular reference. The scandal was widespread, but groundless. + +Page 223, l. 9. _the war of Paris_, the Fronde. See Clarendon, vol. v, +pp. 243-5. + +ll. 11 ff. Compare Buckingham, ed. 1705, p. 157: 'Witty in all +sorts of Conversation; and telling a Story so well, that, not out of +Flattery, but the Pleasure of hearing it, we seem'd Ignorant of what +he had repeated to us Ten Times before; as a good _Comedy_ will bear +the being often seen.' Also Halifax, p. 208, ll. 7-14. + +l. 17. John Wilmot (1647-80), second Earl of Rochester, son of Henry +Wilmot, first Earl (No. 32). Burnet knew him well and wrote his life, +_Some Passages of the Life and Death Of the Right Honourable John Earl +of Rochester_, 1680; 'which', says Johnson, 'the critick ought to read +for its elegance, the philosopher for its arguments, and the saint for +its piety' (_Lives of the Poets_, ed. G.B. Hill, vol. i, p. 222). + +ll. 25 ff. The resemblance to Tiberius was first pointed out in print +in Welwood's _Memoirs_, p. 152, which appeared twenty-four years +before Burnet's _History_. But Welwood was indebted to Burnet. He +writes as if they had talked about it; or he might have seen Burnet's +early manuscript. + + +65. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 94-5.) + +The author of most of the characters in this volume himself deserves a +fuller character. The main portions of Burnet's original sketch (1683) +are therefore given here, partly by way of supplement, and partly to +illustrate the nature of Burnet's revision (1703): + +'The great man with the king was chancellor Hyde, afterwards made Earl +of Clarendon. He had been in the beginning of the long parliament very +high against the judges upon the account of the ship-money and became +then a considerable man; he spake well, his style had no flaw in it, +but had a just mixture of wit and sense, only he spoke too copiously; +he had a great pleasantness in his spirit, which carried him sometimes +too far into raillery, in which he sometimes shewed more wit than +discretion. He went over to the court party when the war was like to +break out, and was much in the late king's councils and confidence +during the war, though he was always of the party that pressed the +king to treat, and so was not in good terms with the queen. The late +king recommended him to this king as the person on whose advices he +wished him to rely most, and he was about the king all the while that +he was beyond sea, except a little that he was ambassador in Spain; he +managed all the king's correspondences in England, both in the little +designs that the cavaliers were sometimes engaged in, and chiefly in +procuring money for the king's subsistence, in which Dr. Sheldon was +very active; he had nothing so much before his eyes as the king's +service and doated on him beyond expression: he had been a sort of +governor to him and had given him many lectures on the politics +and was thought to assume and dictate too much ... But to pursue +Clarendon's character: he was a man that knew England well, and was +lawyer good enough to be an able chancellor, and was certainly a very +incorrupt man. In all the king's foreign negotiations he meddled too +much, for I have been told that he had not a right notion of foreign +matters, but he could not be gained to serve the interests of other +princes. Mr. Fouquet sent him over a present of 10,000 pounds after +the king's restoration and assured him he would renew that every +year, but though both the king and the duke advised him to take it he +very worthily refused it. He took too much upon him and meddled in +everything, which was his greatest error. He fell under the hatred +of most of the cavaliers upon two accounts. The one was the act of +indemnity which cut off all their hopes of repairing themselves of +the estates of those that had been in the rebellion, but he said it +was the offer of the indemnity that brought in the king and it was +the observing of it that must keep him in, so he would never let that +be touched, and many that had been deeply engaged in the late times +having expiated it by their zeal of bringing home the king were +promoted by his means, such as Manchester, Anglesey, Orrery, Ashley, +Holles, and several others. The other thing was that, there being an +infinite number of pretenders to employments and rewards for their +services and sufferings, so that the king could only satisfy some few +of them, he upon that, to stand between the king and the displeasure +which those disappointments had given, spoke slightly of many of them +and took it upon him that their petitions were not granted; and some +of them having procured several warrants from the secretaries for the +same thing (the secretaries considering nothing but their fees), he +who knew on whom the king intended that the grant should fall, took +all upon him, so that those who were disappointed laid the blame +chiefly if not wholly upon him. He was apt to talk very imperiously +and unmercifully, so that his manner of dealing with people was as +provoking as the hard things themselves were; but upon the whole +matter he was a true Englishman and a sincere protestant, and what +has passed at court since his disgrace has sufficiently vindicated him +from all ill designs' (_Supplement_, ed. Foxcroft, pp. 53-6). + +There is a short character of Clarendon in Warwick's _Memoires_, pp. +196-8; compare also Pepys's _Diary_, October 13, 1666, and Evelyn's +_Diary_, August 27, 1667, and September 18, 1683. + + +66. + +Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 638-9; _Continuation of the Life of Edward +Earl of Clarendon_, ed. 1759, pp. 51-2. + +Page 226, l. 8. He was released from Windsor Castle in March 1660. +Compare Burnet's character, p. 228, ll. 2-4. + +l. 19. _the Chancellour_, i.e. Clarendon himself. + +Page 227, ll. 5 ff. John Middleton (1619-74), created Earl of +Middleton, 1656. He was taken prisoner at Worcester, but escaped to +France. As Lord High Commissioner for Scotland and Commander-in-chief, +he was mainly responsible for the unfortunate methods of forcing +episcopacy on Scotland. + +William Cunningham (1610-64), ninth Earl of Glencairn, Lord Chancellor +of Scotland. + +John Leslie (1630-81), seventh Earl and first Duke of Rothes, +President of the Council in Scotland; Lord Chancellor, 1667. + +On the composition of the ministry in Scotland, compare Burnet, ed. +Osmund Airy, vol. i, pp. 199, ff. + + +67. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 101-2.) + +We are fortunate in having companion characters of Lauderdale by +Clarendon and Burnet. Their point of view is different. Clarendon +describes the Lauderdale of the Restoration who is climbing to power +and is officially his inferior. Burnet looks back on him at the +height of power and remembers how it was made to be felt. But the two +characters have a strong likeness. Burnet is here seen at his best. + +Page 228, ll. 14-17. Compare Roger North's _Lives of the Norths_, ed. +1890, vol. i, p. 231: 'the duke himself, being also learned, having +a choice library, took great pleasure ... in hearing him talk of +languages and criticism'. Compare also Evelyn's _Diary_, August 27, +1678. His library was dispersed by auction--the French, Italian, and +Spanish books on May 14, and the English books on May 27, 1690: copies +of the sale catalogues are in the Bodleian. The catalogue of his +manuscripts, 1692, is printed in the _Bannatyne Miscellany_, vol. ii, +1836, p. 149. + +l. 30. As Professor of Theology in the University of Glasgow Burnet +had enjoyed the favour of Lauderdale, and had dedicated to him, in +fulsome terms, _A Vindication of the Church and State of Scotland_. +The break came suddenly, and with no apparent cause, in 1673, when +Burnet was appointed royal chaplain and was winning the ears of the +King. Henceforward Lauderdale continued a 'violent enemy'. Their +relations at this time are described in Clarke and Foxcroft's _Life of +Gilbert Burnet_, 1907, pp. 109 ff., where Burnet's concluding letter +of December 15, 1673, is printed in full. + +Page 229, ll. 2-7. Richard Baxter delivered himself to Lauderdale in a +long letter about his lapse from his former professions of piety--'so +fallne from all that can be called serious religion, as that +sensuality and complyance with sin is your ordinary course.' The +letter (undated, but before 1672) is printed in _The Landerdale +Papers_, ed. Osmund Airy, Camden Society, vol. iii, 1885, pp. 235-9. + +ll. 8-12. 'The broad and pungent wit, and the brutal _bonhomie_.. +probably went as far as anything else in securing Charles's favour.' +Osmund Airy, Burnet's _History_, vol. i, p. 185. + + +68. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 96-7.) + +Page 230, l. 14. He was chosen for Tewkesbury in March 1640, but he +did not sit in the Long Parliament. + +l. 18, _a town_, Weymouth: see p. 70, l. 21 note. He had been +appointed governor of it in August 1643 after some dispute, but was +shortly afterwards removed (Clarendon, vol. iii, pp. 163-5, 362). + +Page 231, l. 2. Shaftesbury writes about the prediction of 'Doctor +Olivian, a German, a very learned physician', in his autobiographical +fragment: see No. 14 note. + +ll. 14, 15. Compare Burnet's first sketch of Shaftesbury, ed. +Foxcroft, p. 59: 'he told some that Cromwell offered once to make him +king, but he never offered to impose so gross a thing on me.' + +ll. 17, 18. See the Newsletter of December 28, 1654, in _The Clarke +Papers_, ed. C.H. Firth, Camden Society, 1899, p. 16: 'a few daies +since when the House was in a Grand Committee of the whole House upon +the Government, Mr. Garland mooved to have my Lord Protectour crowned, +which mocion was seconded by Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Mr. Hen. +Cromwell, and others, but waved.' + +l. 26. After 'party' Burnet wrote (autograph, fol. 49) 'He had no sort +of virtue: for he was both a leud and corrupt man: and had no regard +either to trueth or Justice.' But he struck out 'no sort ... and had'. +The sentence thus read in the transcript (p. 76) 'He had no regard +either to Truth or Justice'. This in turn was struck out, either by +Burnet himself or by the editor. + +The following words are likewise struck out in the transcript, after +'manner' (l. 28): 'and was not out of countenance in owning his +unsteadiness and deceitfullness.' + + +69. + +Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem ... The Second Edition; Augmented and +Revised. London, 1681. (ll. 142-227.) + +The first edition was published on November 17, 1681, a few days +before Shaftesbury's trial for high treason. In the second, which +appeared within a month, the character of Shaftesbury was 'augmented' +by twelve lines (p. 233, ll. 17-28). + +Shaftesbury had been satirized by Butler in the Third Part of +_Hudibras_, 1678, three years before the crisis in his remarkable +career, and while his schemes still prospered. To Butler he is the +unprincipled turn-coat who thinks only of his own interests: + + So Politick, as if one eye + Upon the other were a Spye;... + H'had seen three Governments Run down, + And had a Hand in ev'ry one, + Was for 'em, and against 'em all. + But Barb'rous when they came to fall:... + By giving aim from side, to side, + He never fail'd to save his Tide, + But got the start of ev'ry State, + And at a Change, ne'r came too late.... + Our _State-Artificer_ foresaw, + Which way the World began to draw:... + He therefore wisely cast about, + All ways he could, t'_insure his Throat_; + And hither came t'observe, and smoke + What Courses other Riscers took: + And to the utmost do his Best + To Save himself, and Hang the Rest. + +(Canto II, ll. 351-420). + +Dryden's satire should be compared with Butler's. But a comparison +with the prose character by Burnet, which had no immediate political +purpose, will reveal even better Dryden's mastery in satirical +portraiture. Another verse character is in _The Review_ by Richard +Duke, written shortly after Dryden's poem. + +Absalom is Monmouth, David Charles II, Israel England, the Jews the +English, and a Jebusite a Romanist. + +Page 232, l. 28. Compare Seneca, _De Tranquillitate Animi_, xvii. 10: +'nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit.' + +Page 233, l. 7. The humorous definition of man ascribed to Plato in +Diogenes Laertius, Lib. vi. 40 (Life of Diogenes), [Greek: Platonos +horisamenou, anthropos esti zoon dipoun apteron.] + +The son was a handsomer man than the father, though he did not inherit +his ability. His son, the third earl, was the critic and philosopher +who wrote the _Characteristicks_. + +l. 12. _the Triple Bond_, the alliance of England, Holland, and Sweden +against France in 1667, broken by the war with France against Holland +in 1672. But Shaftesbury then knew nothing of the secret Treaty of +Dover, 1670. + +l. 16. _Usurp'd_, in ed. 1 'Assum'd'. + +l. 25. _Abbethdin_ 'the president of the Jewish judicature', 'the +father of the house of judgement'. Shaftesbury was Lord Chancellor, +1672-3. + +Page 234, l. 4. David would have sung his praises instead of writing a +psalm, and so Heaven would have had one psalm the less. + +ll. 5, 6. Macaulay pointed out in his essay on Sir William Temple +that these lines are a reminiscence of a couplet under the portrait of +Sultan Mustapha the First in Knolles's _Historie of the Turkes_ (ed. +1638, p. 1370): + + Greatnesse, on Goodnesse loues to slide, not stand, + and leaues for Fortunes ice, Vertues firm land. + +l. 15. The alleged Popish Plot, invented by Titus Oates, to murder the +king and put the government in the hands of the Jesuits. Shaftesbury +had no share in the invention, but he believed it, and made political +use of it. + +Page 235, l. 4. This line reappears in _The Hind and the Panther_, +Part I, l. 211. As W.D. Christie pointed out, it is a reminiscence +of a couplet in _Lachrymae Musarum_, 1649, the volume to which +Dryden contributed his school-boy verses 'Upon the Death of the Lord +Hastings': + + It is decreed, we must be drain'd (I see) + Down to the dregs of a _Democracie_. + +This is the opening couplet of the English poem preceding Dryden's, +and signed 'M.N.' i.e. Marchamont Needham (p. 81). + + +70. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (p. 100.) + +'The portrait of this Duke has been drawn by four masterly hands: +Burnet has hewn it out with his rough chissel; Count Hamilton touched +it with that slight delicacy, that finishes while it seems but to +sketch; Dryden catched the living likeness; Pope compleated the +historical resemblance.'--Horace Walpole, _Royal and Noble Authors_, +ed. 1759, vol. ii, p. 78. + +There is also Butler's prose character of 'A Duke of Bucks', first +printed in Thyer's edition of the _Genuine Remains of Butler_, 1759, +vol. ii, pp. 72-5, but written apparently about 1667-9. And there is a +verse character in Duke's _Review_. + +Page 235, l. 11. _a great liveliness of wit_. In the first sketch +Burnet wrote 'he has a flame in his wit that is inimitable'. It lives +in _The Rehearsal_. His 'Miscellaneous Works' were collected in two +volumes by Tom Brown, 1704-5. + +Page 236, l. 12. Compare Butler: 'one that has studied the whole Body +of Vice.' + +l. 14. Sir Henry Percy, created Baron Percy of Alnwick in 1643. He +was then general of the ordinance of the king's army. He joined the +Queen's party in France in 1645. + +l. 15. _Hobbs_. For Burnet's view of Hobbes, see p. 246, ll. 21 ff. + + +71. + +Absalom and Achitophel. Second Edition. 1681. (ll. 543-68.) + +Dryden is his own best critic: 'The Character of _Zimri_ in my +_Absalom_, is, in my Opinion, worth the whole Poem: 'Tis not bloody, +but 'tis ridiculous enough. And he for whom it was intended, was +too witty to resent it as an injury. If I had rail'd, I might have +suffer'd for it justly: But I manag'd my own Work more happily, +perhaps more dextrously. I avoided the mention of great Crimes +and apply'd my self to the representing of Blind-sides, and little +Extravagancies: To which, the wittier a Man is, he is generally the +more obnoxious. It succeeded as I wish'd.' ('Discourse concerning +Satire' prefixed to Dryden's Juvenal, 1693, p. xlii.) + +Burnet's prose character again furnishes the best commentary. + +Page 236, ll. 28 ff. Compare Butler: 'He is as inconstant as the Moon, +which he lives under ... His Mind entertains all Things very freely, +that come and go; but, like Guests and Strangers they are not +welcome, if they stay long ... His Ears are perpetually drilled with +a Fiddlestick. He endures Pleasures with less Patience, than other Men +do their Pains.' + + +72. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 267-8.) + +This is not one of Burnet's best characters. He did not see the +political wisdom that lay behind the ready wit. Halifax was too subtle +for Burnet's heavy-handed grasp. To recognize the inadequacy of this +short-sighted estimate, it is sufficient to have read the 'Character +of King Charles II' (No. 62). + +Burnet suffered from Halifax's wit: 'In the House of Lords,' says the +first Earl of Dartmouth, 'he affected to conclude all his discourses +with a jest, though the subject were never so serious, and if it did +not meet with the applause he expected, would be extremely out of +countenance and silent, till an opportunity offered to retrieve the +approbation he thought he had lost; but was never better pleased than +when he was turning Bishop Burnet and his politics into ridicule' +(Burnet, ed. Airy, vol. i, p. 485). + +Dryden understood Halifax, the Jotham of his _Absalom and Achitophel_: + + _Jotham_ of piercing Wit and pregnant Thought: + Endew'd by Nature, and by Learning taught + To move Assemblies, who but onely tri'd + The worse awhile, then chose the better side; + Nor chose alone, but turn'd the Balance too; + So much the weight of one brave man can do. + +See also Dryden's dedication to Halifax of his _King Arthur_. + + +73. + +The Life of the Right Honourable Francis North, Baron of Guilford, +Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, under King Charles II. and King James +II.... By the Honourable Roger North, Esq; London, MDCCXLII. (pp. +223-6.) + +Roger North's lives of his three brothers, Lord Keeper Guilford, +Sir Dudley North, and Dr. John North, Master of Trinity College, +Cambridge, were begun about 1710 but were not published till 1742-4, +eight years after his death. The edition of the 'Lives of the Norths' +by Augustus Jessopp, 3 vols., 1890, contains also his autobiography. + +The Life of Lord Keeper Guilford is invaluable as a picture of the +bench and bar under Charles II and James II. + +Page 240, l. 6. Sir Francis Pemberton (1625-97), Lord Chief Justice, +1681, removed from the King's Bench, 1683, 'near the time that the +great cause of the _quo warranto_ against the city of London was to be +brought to judgment in that court.' North had just described him as a +judge. + +Page 241, l. 1. Compare Scott's _Monastery_, ch. xiv: '"By my troggs," +replied Christie, "I would have thrust my lance down his throat."' +'Troggs' is an altered form of 'Troth'. It appears to be Scottish +in origin; no Southern instance is quoted in Wright's _Dialect +Dictionary_. Saunders may have learned it from a London Scot. + +l. 22. Sir John Maynard (1602-90), 'the king's eldest serjeant, but +advanced no farther'. Described by North, ed. 1890, p. 149; also p. +26: 'Serjeant Maynard, the best old book-lawyer of his time, used to +say that the law was _ars bablativa_'. + +l. 30. Sir Matthew Hale (1609-76), Lord Chief Justice of the King's +Bench, described by North, pp. 79 ff. Burnet wrote _The Life and Death +of Sir Matthew Hale_, 1682. + +Page 243, l. 5. The action taken by the Crown in 1682 contesting the +charter of the city of London. Judgement was given for the Crown. See +_State Trials_, ed. 1810, vol. viii, 1039 ff., and Burnet, ed. Airy, +vol. ii, pp. 343 ff., and compare Hallam, _Constitutional History_, +ch. xii, ed. 1863, pp. 453-4. + + +74. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 186-91). + +This passage brings together ten of the great divines of the century. +It would be easy, as critics have shown, to name as many others, such +as Jeremy Taylor, Sanderson, Sheldon, Cosin, Pearson, and South. But +Burnet is mainly concerned with the men who in his opinion had the +greatest influence during the time of which he is writing, and who +were known to him personally. By way of introduction he speaks of +the Cambridge Platonists under whom his great contemporaries had been +formed. Incidentally he expresses his views on Hobbes's _Leviathan_, +and he concludes with a valuable account of the reform in preaching. +The passage as a whole is an excellent specimen of Burnet's method and +style. + +Page 246, ll. 6, 7. John Owen (1616-83), made Dean of Christ Church by +Cromwell in 1651, Vice-Chancellor of the University, 1652-8, deprived +of the Deanery, 1659. Thomas Goodwin (1600-80), President of Magdalen +College, 1650-60, likewise one of the Commission of Visitors to the +University appointed by the Parliament. Both were Independents. See +H.L. Thompson, _Christ Church_ (College Histories), 1900, pp. 69, 70; +and H.A. Wilson, _Magdalen College_, 1899, pp. 172-4. + +Page 248, l. 5. Simon Episcopius, or Bischop (1583-1643), Dutch +theologian and follower of Arminius: see p. 101, l. 3, note. + +Page 249, l. 12. _Irenicum_. _A Weapon-Salve for the Churches Wounds_, +published 1661. + +Page 252, l. 10. The following sentence is in the original manuscript +(folio 98) before 'But I owed': 'and if I have arrived at any faculty +of writing clear and correctly, I owe that entirely to them: for as +they joined with Wilkins in that Noble tho despised attempt at an +Universall Character, and a Philosophicall Language, they took great +pains to observe all the common errours of language in generall, and +of ours in particular: and in the drawing the tables for that work, +which was Lloyds province, he had looked further into a naturall +purity and simplicity of stile, than any man I ever knew: into +all which he led me, and so helpt me to any measure of exactnes +of writing, which may be thought to belong to me.' The sentence is +deleted in the transcript that was sent to the printer; but whether it +was deleted by Burnet himself, or by the editor, is uncertain. There +are other minor alterations in the same page of the transcript (p. +140). + +The book referred to in the omitted passage is Wilkins's _Essay +Towards a Real Character And a Philosophical Language_, presented +to the Royal Society and published in 1668. Lloyd's 'continual +assistance' is acknowledged in the 'Epistle to the Reader'. + + +75. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. (pp. 168-70.) + +Page 253, l. 23. He served under Turenne in four campaigns, 1652-5, +latterly as Lieutenant-General. His own account of these campaigns has +fortunately been preserved. It is a portion of the journal to which +Burnet refers. See _The Life of James the Second King of England, +etc., collected out of memoirs writ of his own hand.... Published from +the original Stuart manuscripts in Carlton-House_, edited by James +Stanier Clarke, 2 vols, 1816. + +Page 254, l. 20. After the surrender at Oxford on June 24, 1646, James +was given into the charge of the Earl of Northumberland and confined +at St. James's. See _Life_, ed. J.S. Clarke, vol. i, pp. 30-1, and +Clarendon, vol. iv, pp. 237, and 326-8. + +Page 255, l. 3. Richard Stuart (1594-1651), 'the dean of the King's +chapel, whom his majesty had recommended to his son to instruct him in +all matters relating to the Church' (Clarendon, vol. iv, p. 341). See +Wood's _Athenae Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. iii, cols. 295-8, and John +Walker's _Sufferings of the Clergy_, Pt. II, p. 48. + +ll. 6-8. The autograph reads (fol. 87): 'He said that a Nun had +advised him to pray every day, that if he was not in the right way +that God would set him right, did make a great impression on him.' The +transcript (p. 127) agrees with the print. + +ll. 27-9. James definitely joined the Roman church at the beginning of +1669: see _Life_, ed. J.S. Clarke, vol. i, p. 440. + +Page 256, l. 3. As High Admiral he defeated the Dutch at Lowestoft, +1665, and Southwold Bay, 1672. Compare Dryden's _Annus Mirabilis_, ll. +73-4: + + Victorious _York_ did first, with fam'd success, + To his known valour make the _Dutch_ give place; + +also his _Verses to the Duchess_ on the Duke's victory of June 3, +1665. He ceased to be High Admiral on the passing of the Test Act, +1673. + +Page 256, l. 6. Sir William Coventry (1628-86), secretary to James, +1660-7. 'He was the man of the finest parts and the best temper that +belonged to the court:' see his character by Burnet, ed. Airy, vol. i, +pp. 478-9. + +ll. 13 ff. Compare Pepys's _Diary_, November 20, 1661, June 27 and +July 2, 1662, June 2, 1663, July 21, 1666, &c. + + +76. + +Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. ii. (p. 292-3.) + + + + +INDEX. + + +Abbott, George, Archbishop of Canterbury +Achitophel. See Shaftesbury. +Aires, or Ayres, Captain. +Anglesey, Arthur Annesley, first Earl of. +Argyle, Archibald Campbell, Marquis of. +Arminius. +Army, The New Model. +Arundel, Thomas Howard, Earl of: + character by Clarendon; + by Sir Edward Walker; + his art collections. +Ascham, Roger. +Ashley, Lord. See Shaftesbury. +Aubrey, John: + description of Hobbes; + of Milton; + his manuscripts; quoted. +_Aulicus Coquinariae_. + +Bacon, Sir Francis, Baron Verulam, Viscount St. Albans: + character by Jonson; + by Arthur Wilson; + by Fuller; + by Rawley; + his relations with Hobbes; + Essays quoted by Baxter; + _Advancement of Learning_; + _Henry VII_; + _Apophthegms_. +Baker, Sir Richard. +Balfour, Sir William. +Bankes, Anne, wife of Edmund Waller. +Bate, or Bates, George: _Elenchus Motuum_. +Baxter, Richard: + character of Cromwell; + _Reliquiae Baxterianae_; + letter to Lauderdale. +Bedford, Francis Russell, fourth Earl of. +Bee, Cornelius, bookseller. +Bendish, Bridget. +Bendish, Henry. +Bentivoglio, Cardinal Guido. +Berry, James. +Bible. +Boileau. +Bolton, Edmund: _Hypercritica_. +Bradshaw, John: Milton's praise of. +Brentford, Patrick Ruthven, Earl of: + character by Clarendon. +Bristol, John Digby, first Earl of. +Bristol, second Earl of. See Digby, George. +Brooke, Sir Fulke Greville, first Baron. +Brooke, Robert Greville, second Baron. +Buckingham, George Villiers, first Duke of: + character by Clarendon; + by Sir Henry Wotton; + Clarendon's early account. +Buckingham, George Villiers, second Duke of: + character by Burnet; + by Dryden (Zimri); + other characters. +Buckingham, or Buckinghamshire, John Sheffield, Duke of: + 'Character of Charles II'. +Burleigh, William Cecil, Baron. +Burnet, Gilbert, Bishop of Salisbury: + characters of Charles II; + Clarendon; + Lauderdale; + Shaftesbury; + Buckingham; + Halifax; + seventeenth-century divines; + James II; + account of Vane; + Waller; + Sir Philip Warwick; + his characters; + revision of his characters; + _History of His Own Time_; + _Memoirs of Dukes of Hamilton_; + _Life of Hale_; + _Life of Rochester_; + relations with Lauderdale; + with English divines. +Burton, John. +Bushell, Thomas. +Butler, Samuel: character of Shaftesbury; + of Buckingham. +Byron, John, first Baron Byron. + +Caesar. +Calamy, Edward. +Calvert, Sir George, Baron Baltimore. +Camden, William. +Cambridge Platonists. +Canterbury College. +Capel, Arthur, Baron Capel: + character by Clarendon, + Cromwell's character of him. +Carew, Thomas. +Carleton, Sir Dudley, Baron Carleton, + Viscount Dorchester. +Carlisle, James Hay, Earl of. +Carlyle, Thomas. +Carnarvon, Robert Dormer, Earl of: character by Clarendon. +Cavendish, George. +Cecil, Robert. _See_ Salisbury. +Chamberlayne, Edward: _Angliae Nolitia_. +Charles I: + character by Clarendon; + by Sir Philip Warwick; + Prince. +Charles II: + his character by Halifax; + by Burnet; + other characters; + his taste in sermons. +Cheynell, Francis. +Chillingworth, William: character by Clarendon; + his siege engine. +Christ Church, Oxford. +Christie, W.D. +Cicero. +Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of: + character by Burnet; + other characters of him; + characters written by him, _see_ Contents; + his long study of Digby; + his merits as a character writer; + his conception of history; + his manuscripts; + the _History_; + its authenticity; + editorial alterations; + the _Life_; + _View of Hobbes's Leviathan_; + _Essays_ quoted; + _Letters_ quoted; + other writings; + his picture gallery. +Clarendon, Henry Hyde, second Earl of. +Clarke, Abraham. +_Clelie_. +Coke, Sir Edward. +Coke, Roger: _Detection of the Court and State of England_. +Coleridge, S.T. +Cominges, Le Comte de, French ambassador. +Con, Signior, papal nuncio. +_Connoisseur, The_. +Conway, Sir Edward, Viscount Conway. +Cottington, Sir Francis, Baron Cottington. +Cotton, Sir Robert. +Cousin, Victor. +Coventry, Sir Thomas, Baron Coventry: character by Clarendon. +Coventry, Sir William, character by Burnet. +Cowley, Abraham: + 'Of My self', + character by Sprat, + note by Aubrey, + his _Essays_, + verses on Falkland, + Latin verses. +Crofts, William, Baron Crofts. +Cromwell, Oliver, Lord Protector: + character by Clarendon, + by Sir Philip Warwick, + by John Maidston, + by Baxter. +Cudworth, Ralph: character by Burnet. +Culpeper, or Colepeper, Sir John. +Cumberland, Henry Clifford, Earl of. +_Cyrus, Le Grand_. + +Davenant, Sir William. +Davila, Enrico Caterino. +Desborough, John. +Digby, George, Baron Digby, second Earl of Bristol: + character by Clarendon; + others by Clarendon; + description by Shaftesbury. +Diogenes Laertius. +_Divers portraits_. +Dominico, Signior. +Dorchester, Viscount. See Carleton. +Dort, Synod of. +Dryden, John: + character of Shaftesbury, + of Buckingham; + of Halifax; + _Absalom and Achitophel_; + _Annus Mirabilis_; + _Of Dramatick Poesie_; + _Verses to Duchess of York_; + dedication of _King Arthur_. +Duke, Richard, _The Review_. +Dunton, John, _Life and Errors_. + +Earle, or Earles, John, Bishop of Worcester: + character by Clarendon; + described by Walton; + letters from Clarendon; + _Micro-cosmographie_. +_Eikon Basilike_. +Elizabeth, daughter of James I. +_England's Black Tribunall_. +Episcopius. +_Epistolae Ho-Elianae_. +Essex, Robert Devereux, second + Earl of: Clarendon's early study. +Essex, Robert Devereux, third Earl of: + character by Clarendon, + by Arthur Wilson. +Evanson, William. +Evelyn, John: + _Diary_; + letter quoted. + +Fairfax, Ferdinando, second Baron. +Fairfax, Sir Thomas, third Baron: + character by Baxter, + Milton's sonnet; + and Latin character; + Clarendon's estimate, + Warwick's estimate. +Falkland, Henry Cary, first Viscount. +Falkland, Lattice, second Viscountess. +Falkland, Lucius Gary, second Viscount: + character by Clarendon (1647); + later character (1668); + his marriage; + his death; + his speech concerning episcopacy; + his writings; + quoted by Fuller. + See also Tew. +Finch, Sir John, Baron Finch. +Firth, C.H. +Fouquet, Nicholas. +Fuller, Thomas: + his character (anonymous); + described by Aubrey; + his _Life_; + his character of Bacon; + of Laud; + his characters; + _Church-History_; + _Holy State_; + _Worthies of England_. + +_Galerie des Peintures, La_. +Gardiner, S.R. +Gauden, John. +_Gentleman's Magazine_. +Gildon, Charles. +Glencairn, William Cunningham, Earl of. +Godolphin, Sidney: character by Clarendon. +Gondomar, Spanish ambassador. +Goodwin, Thomas, President of Magdalen College, Oxford. +Goring, George, Baron Goring: character by Clarendon. +Greville, Fulke. See Brooke. +Grotius, Hugo. +Guilford, Francis North, Baron of, Lord Keeper. + +Hacket, John: _Scrinia Reserata_. +Hale, Sir Matthew, Lord Chief Justice. +Hales, John, of Eton: + character by Clarendon; + letters on Synod of Dort; + _Tract concerning Schisme_; + _Golden Remains_; + praise of Shakespeare. +Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of: + character by Burnet; + by Dryden; + his character of Charles II. +Hall, Joseph, Bishop. +Hamilton, Antoine. +Hamilton, James, third Marquis and first Duke of Hamilton. +Hamilton, William, second Duke of Hamilton. +Hammond, Henry, chaplain to Charles I. +Hampden, John: + character by Clarendon; + Clarendon's reference to it; + its authenticity; + character by Sir Philip Warwick. +Hastings, Henry: character by Shaftesbury. +Hawkins, Sir Thomas. +Hayward, Sir John. +Henry, Prince. +Herbert, Sir Thomas. +Hertford, William Seymour, Marquis of: character by Clarendon. +Hobbes, Edmund. +Hobbes, Thomas: + described by Clarendon; + by Aubrey; + assists Bacon; + Burnet's opinions. +Holinshed, Raphael. +Holland, Philemon. +Holles, Denzil, first Baron Holles. +Hopton, Ralph, first Baron Hopton. +Horace. +Howard, Charles, Baron Howard of Effingham, Earl of Nottingham. +Howard, Leonard: _Collection of Letters_. +Howell, James: character of Ben Jonson. +_Hudibras_. +Huntingdon, Earls of. +Hutchinson, John, Colonel: + character by his widow; + her _Memoirs_. +Hyde, Edward. See Clarendon. + +Irenaeus. +_Irenicum_, Stillingfleet's. +Islip, Simon, Archbishop of Canterbury. + +James I: + character by Arthur Wilson; + by Sir Anthony Weldon; + 'the wisest foole in Christendome'. +James II: + characters by Burnet; + his journal; + High Admiral. +Jermyn, Henry, Baron Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans. +Johnson, Samuel: + quoted; + _Lives of the Poets_. +Jonson, Ben: + character by Clarendon; + by James Howell; + his character of Bacon, + and description. +Jotham. See Halifax. +Juxon, William, Archbishop of Canterbury: character by Sir Philip Warwick. + +Killigrew, Henry. +Killigrew, Thomas, the elder. +Kimbolton, Baron. See Manchester, Earl of. +King, James, General. +Knolles, Richard: _History of The Turkes_. +Knott, Edward: 'the learned Jesuit'. + +La Bruyere. +_Lachrymae Musarum_. +Lake, Sir Thomas. +Laud, William, Archbishop of Canterbury: + character by Clarendon; + by Fuller; + by Sir Philip Warwick; + speech on scaffold. +Lauderdale, John Maitland, Earl of: + character by Clarendon; + character by Burnet; + his library. +Lawes, Henry, musician. +Leicester, Robert Sidney, Earl of. +Levett, Mr., Page of Bedchamber to Charles I. +Lewgar, John. +Lilburne, John. +Lincoln, Bishop of. _See_ Williams, John. +Livy. +Lloyd, William, Bishop of Worcester: character by Burnet. +Lucan. +Lugar. See Lewgar. + +Macaulay, Lord, +Machiavelli, +Maidston, John: character of Cromwell, +Manchester, Edward Montagu, second Earl of, Baron Montagu of Kimbolton, + Viscount Mandeville: + character by Clarendon, + by Warwick, + by Burnet, +Manchester, Henry Montagu, first Earl of, +Mandeville, Viscount. See Manchester, Earl of. +Mansell, Sir Robert, +Marlborough, James Ley, Earl of, +_Martyrdom of King Charles_, +Maurice, Prince. +Maynard, Sir John, +_Mercurius Academicus_, +Middlesex, Lionel Cranfield, Earl of, +Middleton, John, Earl of Middleton, +Millington, Edward, bookseller and auctioneer, +Milton, John: + described by Aubrey, + note by Edward Phillips, + notes by Jonathan Richardson, + his sonnet to Fairfax, + to Vane, + to Henry Lawes, + his Latin character of Fairfax, + _Eikonoklastes_, + _Defensio Secunda_, + his daughters, + ignored by Clarendon, +Milward, Richard, +Moliere, +Montaigne, +Montgomery, Earl of. See Pembroke, fourth Earl of. +Montpensier, Mlle de, +More, Henry, the Cambridge Platonist: character by Burnet, +More, Sir Thomas, +Morley, George, Bishop of Worcester, +'My part lies therein-a', + +Naunton, Sir Robert, +Needham, Marchamont, +Newcastle, William Cavendish, Marquis of, afterwards Duke of: + character by Clarendon, + character by Warwick, + Life by the Duchess, + his books on horsemanship, + Clarendon's opinion of his military capacity, +Nicholas, Sir Edward, +North, Francis. See Guilford, Lord Keeper. +North, Roger: + character of Sir Edmund Saunders, + his _Lives of the Norths_, +North, Sir Thomas, +Northampton, Spencer Compton, second Earl of: character by Clarendon, +Northumberland, Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of, +Nott. See Knott. + +Oldmixon, John, +Olivian, Dr., 'a German', +Orrery, Roger Boyle, first Earl of, +Osborne, Francis: _Traditionall Memoyres on the Raigne of King James_, +Overbury, Sir Thomas, +Ovid, +Owen, John, Dean of Christ Church, + +Patrick, Simon, Bishop of Chichester: character by Burnet, +'Peace begot Plenty', +'Peace with honour', +Pearson, John, Bishop of Chester, +Peck, Francis: _Desiderata Curiosa_, +Pemberton, Sir Francis, Lord Chief Justice, +Pembroke, Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery, fourth Earl of, +Pembroke, William Herbert, third Earl of: character by Clarendon, +Pepys, Samuel: _Diary_, +Percy, Sir Henry, Baron Percy of Alnwick, +Persius, +Peyton, Sir Edward: _Divine Catastrophe of the House of Stuarts_, +Philips, Ambrose, +Phillips, Edward: + note on Milton, his uncle, + _Life of Milton_, + _Theatrum Poetarum_, +_Phoenix Britannicus_, +Plato, +Plutarch, +_Poems on State Affairs_, +Polybius, +Portland, Earl of. See Weston, Sir Richard. +Preaching, reform in, +Prynne, William, +Pym, John: character by Clarendon, + +Raleigh, Sir Walter, +Rawley, William: + character of Bacon, + _Life_, +_Reliquiae Wottonianae_, +_Retrospective Review_, +Rich, Robert, Earl of Warwick's grandson, +Richardson, Jonathan: + notes on Milton, + _Explanatory Notes on Paradise Lost_, +Robinson, Sir Tancred, +Rochester, first Earl of. See Wilmot, Henry. +Rochester, John Wilmot, second Earl of, +Rochester, Laurence Hyde, first Earl of the Hyde family, +Rothes, John Leslie, Earl and Duke of, +Rowe, Nicholas, +Rupert, Prince: character by Clarendon, +Rushworth: _Historical Collections_, +Russell, Sir William, Treasurer of the Navy, +Ruthven, Patrick. See Brentford, Earl of. +Rutland, Francis Manners, sixth Earl of, + +St. John, Oliver, +St. John's College, Oxford, +St. Martin's, 'the greatest cure in England', +St. Paul's Cathedral, +St. Peters in Cornhill, +Salisbury, Robert Cecil, first Earl of, +Salisbury, William Cecil, third Earl of: character by Clarendon, +Sallust, +Sanderson, Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, +Saunders, Sir Edmund, Lord Chief Justice: character by Roger North, +Savile, Sir Henry, +Savile, George. See Halifax, Marquis of. +Savile, Thomas, Viscount Savile, +Savoy Hospital, +Say and Sele, William Fiennes, Viscount: + character by Clarendon, + by Arthur Wilson, +Scott, Sir Walter, +Scudery, Madeleine de +Selden, John: character by Clarendon +Seneca, Lucius Annaeus +Seneca, Marcus Annaeus +_Session of the Poets_ (Restoration poem) +_Sessions of the Poets_, Suckling's +Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Baron Ashley, Earl of: + character by Burnet; + by Dryden (Achitophel); + by Butler; + by Duke; + his character of Henry Hastings; + description of Digby; + his _Autobiography_ +Shakespeare +Sheldon, Gilbert, Archbishop of Canterbury +Shrewsbury, Gilbert Talbot, Earl of +Smith, Edmund +Somaize, Antoine Bandeau, sieur de +Somerset, Robert Ker _or_ Carr, Earl of +Sorel, Charles +Spelman, Sir Henry +Spenser, Edmund +Sprat, Thomas, Bishop of Rochester: + character of Cowley; + _Life of Cowley_ +Stillingfleet, Edward, Bishop of Worcester: character by Burnet +Stow, John +Strada, Famiano +Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of: + character by Clarendon; + by Warwick; +Stuart, Richard, dean of the King's Chapel +Suckling, Sir John +Suetonius +Suffolk, Thomas Howard, Earl of +Sully, Duc de: _Memoires_ +Swift, Jonathan + +Tacitus +Tanfield, Sir Lawrence +Tate, Nahum +Temple, Sir William +Tenison, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury: character by Burnet +Tew, seat of Lord Falkland +Theophrastus +Thuanus (Jacques de Thou) +Thucydides +Thurloe, John, Secretary of State; + _State Papers_ +Tiberius, James I compared to; + Charles II compared to +Tillotson, John, Archbishop of Canterbury: character by Burnet +Triplet, Dr. Thomas +Tuesday Sermons of James I +Turenne, Marshal + +Vane, Sir Henry, the elder +Vane, Sir Henry, the younger: + characters by Clarendon; + character by Baxter; + Milton's sonnet; + other accounts +Velleius Paterculus + +Walker, Sir Edward: _Historical Discourses_ +Walker, John: _Sufferings of the Clergy_ +Walker, Mr., of the Temple, 'a Relation of Milton's' +Waller, Edmund: + his character by Clarendon, + described by Burnet, + by Aubrey, +Walpole, Horace: _Royal and Noble Authors_, +Walton, Izaak, +Warwick, Mary, Countess of, +Warwick, Sir Philip: + character of Charles I, + Strafford, + Laud, + Juxon, + Cromwell, + Hampden, + Fairfax, + Clarendon, + his characters, + his _Memoires_, + a Straffordian, + imprisoned, + described by Burnet, +Warwick, Robert Rich, second Earl of: + character by Clarendon, + by Arthur Wilson, + pillar of the Presbyterian party, +Wayte, Mr., +Weldon, Sir Anthony: + character of James I, + _Court and Character of King James_, +Welwood, James: _Memoirs_, +Weston, Sir Richard, Earl of Portland: + character by Clarendon, + by Wotton, +Whitchcot, or Whichcote, Benjamin: character by Burnet, +Whitelocke: _Memorials_, +'White Staff', +Wilkins, John: + character by Burnet, + his _Essay Towards a Real Character_, +William of Wickham, +Williams, John, Bishop of Lincoln, Lord Keeper, +Wilmot, Henry, Baron Wilmot, Earl of Rochester: character by Clarendon, +Wilson, Arthur: + character of James I, + of Bacon, + of Essex, Warwick, and Say, + _Reign of King James_, +Wolsey, Cardinal, +Wood: _Athenae Oxonienses_, +Worthington, John: character by Burnet, +Wotton, Sir Henry, +Wright, Dr., 'an ancient clergyman in Dorsetshire', + +Xenophon, + +Young, Sir Peter, +Young, Patrick, + +Zimri. See Buckingham. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Characters from 17th Century Histories +and Chronicles, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARACTERS FROM 17TH CENTURY *** + +***** This file should be named 13751.txt or 13751.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/7/5/13751/ + +Produced by William Flis and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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