BOOK II. ambassador under Mary was instructed by his master to urge her to have Elizabeth beheaded;" that the next would not attend her coronation, nor even its festivities, because she and the ceremony were heretical; 72 and that the succeeding ones engaged in every plot for her dethronement and assassination; 73 and that all the Spanish writers in that day speak of her with execration, and with the most palpable falsehoods, few, who do not partake the Spanish spirit, will make Spanish authority a foundation for Elizabeth's defamation."4 We do not suppose that her sister Mary was a licentious woman, because when she dreaded plots, she had gentlemen to sleep near her apartment."-The Frenchman's added tale is a manifest absurdity.7 Dr. Lingard's Eliz. p. 261. That the sovereigns at that time had the persons whom they chiefly confided in as their guards, to sleep not only near them, but even in their chamber, and more especially in every dangerous period, the memoirs and dispatches of the time abundantly shew. Queens, tho women, must be defended by men against assassins and conspirators; and that Elizabeth was in peril from these, from the moment Mary, in France, assumed her arms and title, and claimed the present succession, our preceding pages have sufficiently shewn. Even the lord steward of her household was in the confederacy against her. Believing Leicester to be a faithful friend, she placed him where he could protect her. 71 See before, vol. 3, p. 440. He had urged her arrest before. See vol. 3, p. 422. 72 This was the duc de Feria; and Ribadineira states that he would neither attend at the church, nor in public, nor in private, nor be with the other nobles, nor apart by himself, that he might not authorize the impious act; and that he did this because he was so zeloso for the papal religion, and so devoted to the Jesuits, tan devoto de la companià de Jesus.' p. 230, 1. 73 See before, vol. 3, p. 422; and this vol. p. 262, 267, and other places. 74 We must not forget the system and the authority, stated before in this Mod. Hist. in vol. 3, p. 464, to represent all heretics as wretched persons. 75 See before, vol. 3, p. 439, note 77. 76 Houssaie, in his Memoires Historiques, mentions the silly incident of her shewing her leg to Harlay, on his suggesting to her, his master, Henry the fourth's marriage with her, when she told him that this must not be thought of: as if the appearance of any part of her lower limb XXXVII. The profligacy of her court has been also talked CHAP. of," as if the conduct of fashionable persons was that of the sovereign, or could be prevented by her. What court could be more profligate than could in any way indicate her marriageability. The mention of it only shews the avidity of some foreigners to attach depreciating anecdotes to her. See it in D'Israeli, Curios. v. 1. p. 461. This slander was the more absurd, from Elizabeth's being then between 50 and 60. To this Frenchman's imputation of an indecent exposure, let us oppose a genuine fact of the contrary feeling. On 3 May 1578, Gilbert Talbot stated to his noble father: In the morning, about eight o'clock, I happened to walk in the tilt-yard, under the gallery where her majesty useth to stand to see the running at tilt; where by chance she was looking out of a window. My eye was full towards her, and she shewed to be greatly ashamed thereof; for that she was unready and in her night stuff. So when she saw me after dinner, as she went to walk, she gave me a great fillip on the forehead, and told my lord chamberlain, who was the next to her, how I had seen her that morning, and how much ashamed thereof she was.' Lodge, Illust. 2. p. 170. · 77 M. Faunt's authority is quoted for this, who, in August 1582, mentions of the city and court of London: The only discontent Í have, is to live where is so little godliness and exercise of religion; so dissolute manners and corrupt conversation generally.' Birch Mem. 1. p. 26. But he does not apply one sentence personally to her; and the passage obviously alludes to the manners of the day, as he estimated them. It is also obvious from his letters, that he viewed such things with the strictness of a very strong and correct religious feeling; for he thought the world had come into those perilous latter times, which are forewarned us in Scripture.' He would, therefore, have said the same things of our court and city now, and at every period since Elizabeth; for in what court or age does the general society of the rich or great shew much godliness and exercise of religion,' or has been without dissolute manners and corrupt conversation? Perhaps we may justly say, that the moral taste of our own times hath much improved in these respects in the last twenty years; yet still it is probable that persons of M. Faunt's feelings, would characterize fashionable life at present, much as he has done the court and city of Elizabeth. In the next year, he remarks again on the enormities he saw, where sin reigneth in the highest degree;' and thinks a sickness of twenty days a more sweet life, thus in mercy to be afflicted, where I receive other spiritual consolations.' p. 39. His words are those of a good and pious man; but it is manifest that such a man, like a St. Francis de Sales, would apply similar expressions to every court in Christendom, in all ages, whatever may be the morals or the piety of the reigning monarch. Wherever wealth and luxury prevail, such will their general habits seem to be to every mind which makes virtue and religion its exclusive models, regulators and criterions of estimation. II. BOOK that of France, under Louis XVI.? and of Rome, under the ancient popes? of whom many were severely virtuous. Our venerable George III. had several immoral ministers, before lord North took the helm; but we never confound the monarch with the voluptuous manners of his day, unless decided testimony identifies him with the indecencies which, tho he may avoid, others will practise. Without this discrimination, a luxurious age would be made conclusive evidence against the existence of any individual virtue. 78 The popular scandal against Elizabeth, has turned chiefly on Leicester, Hatton and Essex; but without a single criminating fact as to either. A love of gallantry, habits of gay society," and freedom of manners amounting sometimes to frolic,80 are all that can be, on any creditable authority, imputed to her. It will become no one to defend the indefensible. Levity is levity in an Elizabeth, as well as in a countess, or a peasant; but it is just not to confound the whims, the follies, and the enjoyments of the 78 Mr. D'Israeli seems to have expressed the truth, when he wrote, that her alleged amours 'never went further than mere gallantry.' Curios. of Literature, v. 1. p. 458-9. 5th edition. 79 Her foreign biographer, Gregorio Leti, says of her: She was a queen; was pretty, young, full of spirit; loved the pomp of dress, diversions, balls, amusements, and to have the handsomest persons of the kingdom for her favorites. This is all that I can inform the reader of.' Hist. Eliz. 2. p. 513. 80 The publicity with which her freedoms were done, was an indication that no immorality was, in her mind, connected with them. Napoleon sometimes pinched the ears of those with whom he was in high good humor. Melville says, that Elizabeth pinched Leicester, when she made him an earl, to go to Scotland to be the husband of Mary; as he knelt to her to receive the honor a petty indecorum; but to do it before two ambassadors, implied that it was considered by her as a harmless joke on her power and act of aggrandizing her courtiers. 81 XXXVII. great and fashionable, with their vicious guilt. The CHAP. court of Elizabeth was splendid and gay; the puritans condemned what they thought injurious, but the queen was exhorted from the poetical press not to regard their objections; nor had she the power to abolish what they disliked. She did not, like a Charles II. make the manners of her court. She found them as they were; poets reprimanded them,82 but the nobility were too formidable, and her crown too precarious from their cabals, to allow her to alter their state or enjoyments. She had no choice, but to join the festivities they expected and required. Even the prelates continued too much of the ancient pomp and luxury of the Roman priesthood.83 It was the general taste as well as his own, and not peculiarly the queen's inclination, that Leicester 8 In Puttenham's varied poem of the Partheniades, which he addressed to her, Calliope is made, in answer to these requisitions, to tell the queen, that to take From holydays, and from weddings, Minstrels, feasts, and robes and rings; From courtly girls, gorgeous gear; From banquets, mirth and wanton cheer; From worldly things, take vanity, Sleight, semblant course, order and degree Princess! it is as if one take away Green woods from forests, and sun-shine from the day. 82 Her poet and critic, Puttenham, quoted two verses of this nature: The courtier's life, full delicate it is; But where no wise man will ever set his bliss.' Art Poetry, p. 180. 43 Beza gives us these traits of England in 1574. After noticing the sound, sans intelligence, of the organs, and the gay music, gringotée, in the churches, he says, 'Besides, the primate, the bishop, and other such officers, are accompanied by pages, lacqueys, estaffiers, and other followers, up to 20, 30, 40 or 100; nay, some even to 200 horses.' He then complains of la debauché et la vanité de la cour; les delices des prelats, and la superbe des nobles.' Rev. Matin, 2d Dial. p. 10; 12. Elizabeth had not the power to change these relaxations. BOOK sought to gratify by his magnificent festivities at Kenilworth,84 II. Leicester was but one, out of great numbers, who were candidates for her favor. Few lovers could be more copious of poetry and panegyric, than her gentleman pensioner Puttenham; 85 but with no He entertained her and the court for ten days, in July 1575. Upon the queen's first entrance, a floating island appeared on the large piece of water there, blazing with torches. In this was the Lady of the Lake, with her two nymphs, in silk dresses, who made a speech in verse to Elizabeth, on the antiquity and history of the castle. A flourish of cornets, and other loud music, closed the address. Within the court a bridge had been erected, 70 feet long and 20 wide, over which she passed; and on each side were the deities of the heathen Olympus, offering her presents. Sylvanus brought a cage of wildfowl; Pomona, various fruits; Ceres, corn; Neptune, sea fish; and Bacchus, wine. Mars appeared with all the habiliments of war, and Phoebus with instruments of music. During every day of her stay, various raree-shows and sports were exercised. The chase, in which was a savage man, with satyrs; bear baitings, fireworks, Italian tumblers, a country bridal; running at the quintain, and morrice dancing. The Coventry men came and acted their ancient play, called Hock Tuesday, representing the destruction of the Danes in Ethelred's time, which pleased the queen so much, that she gave them a brace of bucks, and five marks in money, to bear the charges of a feast. 'On the lake, a Triton emerged to sight, riding on a mermaid eighteen feet long. Arion was also there on his dolphin, making rare music. The goodly company drank 320 hogsheads of beer, besides their other luxuries.' Sidney Pap. Mem. p. 48. 85 This gentleman, whose republication we owe to Mr. Hazlewood, and whom Ames called Webster, devoted his Partheniades as a newyear's gift to her in 1579. It contains several smooth and pleasing lines, and much solid truth in its encomiums, but likewise enough to overwhelm any human being by their quantity and personal adulation. A few specimens shew us what she had to hear, and to keep herself from being spoiled by. 'Her majesty hath all the parts that justly make a most happy creature in this world. Youthful beauty, in body well disposed; Lovely favor, that age cannot displace; Fast |