cernedness. But yet she was so offended, that she forbad Tarleton and all jesters from coming near her table."

a

Bohun's Character of Queen Elizabeth.

Among the various sources

whence the preceding dramatic notices have been derived, it is proper to point out Dr. Drake's Memoirs of Shakspeare and his age, and Warton's History of English Poetry.

CHAPTER XXIV.

FROM 1593 TO 1597.

A parliament.-Haughty language of the queen.-Committal of Wentworth and other members. of Morice. His letter to lord Burleigh. — Act to retain subjects in their due obedience.-Debates on the subsidy.—Free speeches of Francis Bacon and sir E. Hobby. - Queen's speech. Notice of Francis Bacon-of Anthony Bacon.- Connexion of the two Bacons with Essex. - Francis disappointed of preferment. Conduct of Burleigh towards him.- Of Fulk Greville. Reflections. -Conversion of Henry IV.Behaviour of Elizabeth. War in Bretagne. Anecdote of the queen and sir C. Blount. — Affair of Dr. Lopez.Squire's attempt on the life of the queen. Notice of Ferdinando earl of Derby. - Letter of the queen to lord Willoughby. Particulars of sir Walter Raleigh. His expedition to Guiana. - Unfortunate enterprise of Drake and Hawkins. - Death of Hawkins. - Death and character of Drake.-Letters of Rowland Whyte.-Case of the earl of Hertford.- Anecdote of Essex. Queen at the lordkeeper's.-Anecdote of the queen and Bishop Rudd.-Case of sir T. Arundel.

NOTWITHSTANDING all the frugal arts of Elizabeth, the state of her finances compelled her in the spring of 1593 to summon a parliament. It was four entire years since this assembly had last met: but her majesty took care to let the commons know, that the causes of offence which had then occurred were still fresh in her memory; and that her resolution to preserve her own prerogative in

its rigor, and the ecclesiastical commission in all its terrors, was still inflexible.

It even appeared, that an apprehension lest her present necessities might embolden the parliament to treat her despotic mandates with a deference less profound than they had formerly exhibited, irritated her temper and prompted her to assume a more haughty and menacing style than her habitual study of popularity had hitherto permitted her to employ. In answer to the three customary requests made by the speaker, for liberty of speech, freedom from arrests, and access to her person; she replied by her lord-keeper, that such liberty of speech as the commons were justly entitled to, liberty, namely, of aye and no, she was willing to grant; but by no means a liberty for every one to speak what he listed. And if any idle heads should be found careless enough of their own safety to attempt innovations in the state, or reforms in the church, she laid her injunctions on the speaker to refuse the bills offered for such purposes till they should have been examined by those who were better qualified to judge of these matters. She promised that she would not impeach the liberty of their persons, provided they did not permit themselves to imagine that any neglect of duty would be allowed to pass unpunished under shelter of this privilege; and she engaged not to deny them access to her person on weighty affairs and at convenient seasons; when she should have leisure from other important business of state.

But threats alone were not found sufficient to restrain all attempts on the part of the commons to

exercise their known rights and fulfil their duty to the country. Peter Wentworth, a member whose courageous and independent spirit had already drawn upon him repeated manifestations of royal displeasure, presented to the lord-keeper a petition, praying that the upper house would join with the lower in a supplication to the queen for fixing the succession. Elizabeth, enraged at the bare mention of a subject so offensive to her, instantly committed to the Fleet prison Wentworth, sir Thomas Bromley who had seconded him, and two other members to whom he had imparted the business; and when the house were preparing to petition her for their release, some privy counsellors dissuaded them from the step, as one which could only prove injurious to these gentleman by giving additional offence to her majesty.

Soon after James Morice, member for Colchester, an eminent lawyer, who was attorney of the court of Wards and chancellor of the Duchy, made a motion for redress of the abuses in the bishops' courts; and especially of the enormous ones committed under the High Commission. Several members supported the motion; but the queen, sending in wrath for the speaker, required him to deliver up the bill to her; reminded him of her strict injunctions at the opening of the sessions, and testified her extreme indignation and surprise at the boldness of the commons in intermeddling with subjects which she had expressly forbidden them to discuss. She informed him, that it lay in her power to summon parliaments and to dismiss them; and to sanction or to reject

any determination of theirs; that she had at present called them together for the twofold purpose of enacting further laws for the maintenance of religious conformity; and of providing for the national defence against Spain; and that these ought therefore to be the objects of their deliberations.

As for Morice, he was seized by a serjeant at arms in the house itself, suspended from his office, rendered incapable of practising as a lawyer and committed to prison; whence he soon after addressed to Burleigh the following high-minded appeal:

"Right honorable my very good lord,

"That I am no more hardly handled, I impute next unto God to your honorable good will and favor; for although I am assured that the cause I took in hand is good and honest, yet I believe that, besides your lordship and that honorable person your son, I have never an honorable friend. But no matter; for the best causes seldom find the most friends, especially having many, and those mighty, enemies.

"I see no cause in my conscience to repent me of that I have done, nor to be dismayed, although grieved by this my restraint of liberty; for I stand for the maintenance of the honor of God and of my prince, and for the preservation of public justice and the liberties of my country against wrong and oppression; being well content, at her majesty's good pleasure and commandment, (whom I beseech God long to preserve in all princely feli