171 to an adept's discourses on the philosopher's stone,' 171 In 1598, sir John Stanhope wrote to Cecil: 'I was all the afternoon with her majesty, at my book. She was pleased with the Philosopher's Stone, and hath been all this day reasonably quiet.' D'Israeli Curios. v. 1. p. 463. 172 In 1565 Charnock presented her with his book, richly gilt; which he describes in his dedication to her to be,' As to the true and perfect making of the philosopher's stone; a most precious pearl for princes; a jewel above all the jewels of the world.' Strype, v. 4. p. 508. 173 We see this transition in Charnock's distinguishing to her, that there were 'two sciences, a false and a true. The false is named alchemy, written in liquid and delicious words, which common prac titioners do follow, thinking thereby to make both silver and gold, working with sulphur, arsenic, quicksilver, sal ammoniac, and other salts and bodies combined; merging them together, dissolving them, vapouring them, congealing them, and other operations manifold.' He tells her, that a number, not only in this, your highness's realm, but also throughout all Europe, desire to put in practice this false science of alchemy, for lucre sake, whereby they be deceived, and, yearly, great riches consumed.' But he aspires to teach her the true science.' This, he says, was revealed unto him in the reign of her sister, by a friar, under a most sacred and dreadful oath. He assures her,' that the science of natural philosophy is a science most true;' and that by it may be wrought, in length of time, that rich jewel, named the Philosopher's Stone.' Strype, 510, 511. He styles himself Student in the science of astronomy, physic, and natural philosophy.' ib. 508. 174 Lord Burghley's letter, from his house in the Strand, to the chancellor of Cambridge, was written on 7 May 1588, amid all the bustle of preparing against the armada, to signify her command, that no graduate or scholar within the university should wear a hat, except on a journey, but a square cap of cloth; and that all others who have taken no degree as scholars, wear a round cloth cap. The sons of noblemen and knights might wear round caps of velvet, but no hat. The D.D.'s and masters were to use scarlet tippets or tippets of velvet. All were to wear a gown and hood of cloth, according to his degree, which gown, tippet, and square cap, the said doctors and heads shall be bound to wear when they shall resort to the court or to London.' Velvet, satin, and silk were forbidden, and all long locks of hair. Every scholar's head was to be polled and rounded. Ellis, First Series, v. 3. p. 24-8. 17 Lord Burghley wrote, in 1580, to Cambridge, recommending to its СНАР. XXXVII. II. BOOK bearing of Shakspeare's instructive and soul-commanding Muse; and we see in this quality an immortal superiority in his works, over all his buskined competitors, whom curiosity may rescue from their shrouds for our transient inspection: but to whom no praise can now give the virtue they want; nor, from that deficiency, can it make them popular in human society, where, altho vice may be written or practised, it is never honored, and will not long be remembered. Shakspeare, shunning the infected regions, in which they chose to sport, has escaped their consuming disease, and lives still in vigorous and venerated health; producing and teaching a new intellectual progeny in every age, who feel their greatest merit to be an emulous resemblance of their undying prototype. But it is probable that no small portion of this merit, which will make his dramas interesting and serviceable to every age of the human race, arose from the moral taste and feeling of his illustrious queen whom he aspired to please; and of those statesmen and noblemen of congenial spirit, in whom her selecting confidence and friendship were principally placed. Born in 1564, he composed twenty-three of his thirty-five dramas, before she died.176 heads lord Oxford's players, that they might shew their cunning in several plays, already practised by them before the queen's majesty.' Lord Leicester had also his dramatic servants. And in January 1594, the heads and fellows of Trinity College wrote to the minister, We intend, for the exercise of young gentlemen and scholars in our college, to set forth certain comedies and one tragedy;' and there being in that tragedy sundry personages of greatest state to be represented in antient princely attire, which is no where to be bad but in the office of robes in the Tower,' they request to be furnished with the 'meet necessaries upon sufficient security.' Ellis, ib. p. 32, 3. 176 Our old Speed remarks of her court: It was not only a frequent academy of as honorable counsellors, illustrious peers, gallant XXXVII. If we pass from her personal habits and character, CHAP. to her public conduct, we find a princess who was esteemed by her continental contemporaries, to be one of the greatest sovereigns that had filled the English throne. Abstracting from our consideration their military talents, no king, from the time of Alfred the Great, appears to have reigned in England with more royal qualities, with more intellectual endowments, or with greater public utilities, than Elizabeth."77 She made those two great patriotic objects the principles of her regal policy and conduct, which she desired to be engraved on her monumental tablet-The maintenance of the Protestant Reformation, and the preservation of national peace with all other states and kingdoms.' And she is an expressive instance of the admirable arrangement of the supreme government of human affairs, by which the fittest agents to produce the grand improvements which human nature requires, and which are ordained to create them, are always made to arise, elevated to power, and urged into appropriate action, at the necessary and most congruous times, and in the places where they will be most effective. A Luther 178 courtiers, learned professors, intelligent statists, as ever attended any Christian prince; but also a nursery, where young nobles and others might be trained up to the managing of greatest affairs; and a sanctuary where the meanest might find relief against the mightiest. The greatest were drawn to practice equity, both by her example and command.' Chron. p. 907. 177 This was the impression of Perefixe, the Historian of Henry le Grand, without any limitation: L'une des plus illustres, et des plus heroiques princesses, qui ayent jamais regné: et laquelle regit son état, avec plus de conduite, et plus de vigueur, qu'aucun roy de ses predecesseurs n'avoit jamais fait.' Hist. p. 320. 178 Religionis instaurationem et pacis conservationem.' Bacon, p. 187. Lord BOOK II. was excited in Saxony to begin the mighty change that was wanted in the intellectual mind of Europe, when the exertions of such a man and spirit were requisite, and would be efficacious. He having successfully begun the wonderful mutation, passed away when he could no further advance it; and Elizabeth was conducted to the English throne as soon as she had attained the proper age and qualifications, when the arm and head of a wise, firm, upright, enlightened, moral and religious sovereign, were wanted to discomfit its fierce opponents, and to uphold what all the popes, royalties, and hierarchies of Europe, south of the Baltic, at that precise juncture were confederated and resolute to destroy. They put in vehement action against her, individually, and against the Reformation every where, all the means of ruin and evil, by which power and skill, wickedness and activity could overwhelm what they detested or resolved to abolish. But altho they repeatedly forced into perilous operation against her, the most formidable agents and instruments of mischief, which agitated her wisest counsellors with gloomy apprehensions; yet, strong, unshaken, and never subverted, like the rocky cliffs of the island she governed, Elizabeth endured and confronted the ever-recurring hostilities with magnanimous imperturbability. Calm, mild, serene, undaunted, and moving by grander laws, and under the most exalted guidance, she relied on that Protector who never forsook her: and every plot being defeated and dispersed by her quiet and steadfast counteraction, continually disappointed the malevolence and enmity of its authors, and only augmented the attachment of her subjects, XXXVII. and her own reputation. But if these opponents CHAP. had not so inveterately assailed her, and so pertinaciously applied themselves to exterminate the Reformation and its professors, the chief wish of her heart, and the grand rules of her policy, would have been fulfilled. England would have been in fraternal peace with all its neighbors during the whole of her reign; and the sacred and indestructible rights of conscience would have been every where preserved, without that profusion of bloodshed and human misery, which the papacy and its adherents so wilfully and systematically occasioned. All that she could do to avoid warfare she fearlessly did, against the plans and urgencies of many of her statesmen. They wished larger wars, and mighty armies and operations; but she, seeking only peace, tho compelled to resist military violences by arms, always limited her warlike aids and exertions to the smallest amount, extent and duration, that were not incompatible with their efficacious result. The peace of England and of Europe was still her favorite purpose and desire in every armament she sent out, and in every enterprise which she permitted others to execute in her name. She even listened to the prince of Parma's insidious talk of pacification, when the armada was on the seas. Ambition, and the lust of power, never stained her conduct. She reigned like the kind and guardian angel of Protestant Europe, assisting and superintending it with beneficent care; acting only for the sake of doing good, and always producing it in some shape or other. Hence no sovereign ever ruled with more of the thanks and blessings of mankind while she lived, and none to |