444
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
u
evasive answers to the commons, in reply to their petitions to her majesty to marry, she has employed an energetic word. " Were I to tell rou that I do not mean to marry, I might say less than I did intend ; and were I to tell you that I do mean to marry, I might say more than it is proper for you to know ; therefore I give you an answer, answerless!"
The following letter from Elizabeth to Heaton, bishop of Ely, is taken from the re^ster of Ely, and gives a trait of the queen :
Pbocd Prilati,
I nnderstand 70a are backward in complying with your a^ecment ; bnt I would have you to know, tbat I, who made you what you are, can unmake you ; and If you do not forthwith fulfil your engagement, by
1 will immediately unftock you.
Youn as you demean yourself,
Elizabeth.*
Heaton, it seems, had promised the queen to exchange some land belonging to the see for an equivalent, and did so, but it was in consequence of the above letter.
In a manuscript at the British museum, No. 4712, in Ayscough's catalogue, there are the ibllowing verses on die death of queen Eliza- beth, which will be admired for their quaintness.
bbitannia lachrymx.
Weep, little Isle t and for thy mistress death. Swim in a double sea of brackish water I
Weep, little world I for great Elizabeth, Daughter of war, for Mars himself begat her I
Mother of Peace, for she bore the latter. She was and Is (what can there more be said On earth the first, in heaven the second maid.
On the funeral of the maiden queen, a poet of the day described the national grief in the following stanzas :
The queen was brought by water to Whitehall, At every stroke the cars did tears let <U1 1 More clung about the huge : JUh under water Wept out their eye* of pearie, and swome blind after, 1 tmnk the bargemen might, with easier thighs, Hifve rovfd her thither tn her people** eye* ; For, howBoe*er, thus much my thoughts have scann'd, Sh'ad come by water, had she come by land.
1603. Atropoion Delion, or the death of Delia i with the Tean of her funeralt. A poetical ex- cursive discourse of our late Eliza. By T. N. London. 4to. Reprinted in the third volume of Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth.
Thomas Newton, the author of this work, translated many other. Notices of him will be found in Wood's Athen. Oxon. Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet, and Ritson's Bib. Poetica.
A pleasant nerv History ; or a fragrant Paste made of three flowers, Rosa, Hosalynd, and Bosemary. By Thomas Newton. London, 1604. 4to.
1603, April 17. A petition, signed by a poor man upon this day, is presented to king James, at Theobalds, on his progress from Emnburgh
• " Yet," said queen Elizabeth, addressing herself to the firelates in fall convocation, March 29, isss, " if you, my lords of the clergy, do not amend, I mean to disperse you :— look you therefore well to your charges,"
to London. " Good king, let there be an ui- formity in true religion, without any disturbaaee of papist or puritan. Good king, let there ut be such delay and crafty proceedings in the bv. and let lawyers have moderate fees. Good kin>. let no man nave more offices than one, especiallv touching the law. Good king, look to tlit takers and officers of thy house, and to thrir ex- ceeding fees that peel and pole thy princely al- lowance."
At his accession to the English throne, Junes was received with transports of joy, and all ranks of men made their court to him ; a be- haviour which he ought to have improred by suitable returns to captivate the goc^d mill aad affections of a people so desirous to be pleased with their king. But this national behaTioux, as a Scotchman had foretold, spoiled a good king, and made a bad king worse. Instead of uniting closely with the people in one common intere^ and love, tixing them by works of regrard, he took much state, and, in his journey from Edin- burgh to London, forbid, by proclamation, the concourse of the people to him ; and when they could not be kept oS, would often disperse them with frowns, and sometimes curses ; and though he neglected so much to gain the public, even at the cheap rate of affability, he sunk into low familiarity with his favourites, and was profuse of riches and honours to particular men. The estates he gave impoverished his treasuij, and was the cause of frequent complaints both from the parliament and the people.
Since the Gowrie conspiracy,* James I. was always afraid of being murdered; he suspected the English generosity and loyalty, whicn dis- played itself so particularly on his ioumey. This IS the best excuse for his lU-timed prohibition; but some attribute it to a resolution then taken up, which was but too much confirmed by his future conduct to the English, to accustom Uiem not to be too familiar with their sovereign.
As a proof of his detenuiuation to maintain the royal prerogative in a higher degree than any of his predecessors, he ordered a man to be hanged who had been caught in an act of rob- bery near Newark, by his sole warrant, without any trial, directly contrary to the privileges of the English nation, and beyond the lawful power of a king of England.
1603. It is a fact highly honourable to the military' profession, that in this year, the patrio- tic English soldiers, who having defeated the Spaniards at the battle of KinsSe, were deter- mined to commemorate their victory by some permanent monument. They subscribed the sum of eighteen hundred pounds towards the purchase of a library, for Trinity college, Dub- lin. The disposal of the money was confined to the illustrious archbishop Usher, who gave the first donation to the library of his own col- lection, consisting originally of 10,000 volumes.
• The Gowrie conspiracy took place on the Jth of August, 1600, at the house of John earl Gowrie, at Perth, on which occasion the earl was slain.
VjOOQ IC
