: quite of the old fashion: gallant and gay, and wild for exploits of chivalry, his fhowy character attracted the Queen's notice; but though he was a favourite, and a faucy one, it still appears he loved his royal miftrefs lefs than did any of her courtiers; being attached to antique modes of gaining popularity, calling the apprentices about him against his fovereign, from whom when he received a box on the ear he put his hand to his fword as if to remind her, that Devereux* was as good a name as Tudor; the anagram of that name, vere Dux, he wore in his hat but fuch a spirit of old baronage, royalty would not endure. In 1001 his head was cut away, and the Queen fmiled no more; yet The returned to her former occupations. Her heart was not a fickle one, as Fuller fays, where her grace's kindness did light, there it did lodge and though it was her temper to pay liberally, but reward fparingly, the fhowered on this nobleman many honours, and upon Burleigh fuch emoluments that he left fourteen thousand pounds weight of gold behind him, bequeathing it, oddly enough to our notions, in fo̟ many ounces cach to his furviving friends and relations, having realized in landed property only four thousand pounds o'ycar. When the Queen died fhe left this country fo much improved and happier than the found it, that philofophical Raynal fays, it was time death took her, for that a prince who never will provoke fubjects to infurrection is a nuisance: had Elizabeth reigned 100 years (fays he) the island would never have had spirits to meditate a rebellion. Fauftina thus, in her diverting dialogue with Brutus among the fhades, called round us by the magic pen of Fontenelle, complains of a good husband, because, as she observes, it only rivets a wife's chains for ever, and takes from her even a wish for those loose freedoms which form the happiness of female life. Fontenelle laughs, and endeavours to make us laugh; I fear me much his countryman is ferious: be this as it may, the times did change apace; fovereigns were ferved upon the + Le Duc D' Evreux was an old title in England fince long before King John's time. knee, knee, and that by lords. Let us remember though, that they were lords made fuch by the fovereigns themselves for service done the ftatc. Rank followed merit now, and was no longer annexed merely to birth alone. Authority flid faft from the houfe of peers, whilft diffufion of money long concentred, diffemination of learning long confined, and difcoveries of diftant regions long unknown, produced rapid alteration in the manners both of fmall and great. A breach had been made in the claffes of humanity by the Queen of England when he gave to merit, in the perfon of Sir Francis Drake, royal permiffion to push aside defcent; and that such conduct was both rare and new, witness the well-attefted anecdote concerning a contemporary character, Sir Philip Sydney, who having one day quarrelled about tennis balls with my Lord Oxford, he appealed, as was ufual in fuch cafes, to the fovereign, who fending for the inferior difputant, bid him be well advised of the difference there was in degree between earls and gentlemen; adding, that princes muft fupport the privileges of each fubject; and befides, i£ gentlemen fhewed contempt for the nobility, peafants would foon learn. to infult both, (an event nearer than fhe then apprehended.) Sir Philip's answer was in the fpirit of Sydney : "That he obferved with "due reverence how rank was never meant as privilege to wrong; "witnefs her grace's own fuperior felf, who governed even her own 66 prerogatives by law that my Lord Oxford could challenge nothing "of him fave precedency, homage being now quite out of question." We are told nothing of the queen's reply: the must have seen, methinks, how things were going; and probably for that reafon, among others, called few parliaments, of which fhe made a merit to the nation; (fce Hume and Camden both ;) stopt all difcourfe about her own fupremacy; and when the commons craved freedom of Speech within their own walls, confined them ftrictly but to aye and no. Yelverton, anceftor to the late Earl of Suffex, feemed truly fenfible of their inferiority when he, disclaiming the office of speaker to the house, alleges his own difficulties in facing the unspeakable majesty and facred perfonage perfonage of their dread and dear fovereign, the terror of whofe countenance (fays he) fuffices to appal the ftouteft hearts. Elizabeth however, perfectly aware that the manners becoming in a monarch are offensive in a woman, and willing to blend the charms of influence• with threats of authority, affected in domestic life fears fhe could never feel, pretending a diflike of certain fmells, and acting on fome occafion her terrors of a dentist fo naturally, that Bifhop Aylmer actually fate down to the operator and loft a found tooth, that fo her grace might be prevailed on to part with a decayed one. Her coquetry was all political as it appears, put on for purpose of keeping that power in her own hands which fhe faw loofening daily, and difpofed more and more to flip from them. Cecil, in a private paper preferved by Haynes, fays, That the decay of obedience being compared with that fearfulness and reverence which poffeffed all eftates toward their fuperiors in times past, would astonish any confiderate perfon to behold the defperation of reform: and Hume thinks the Queen's frugality was a measure by which she meant merely to hold fast her own independence. Henry VIII. came to the crown and found full coffers; yet fo had he and his fon and his eldest daughter diminished them, that Elizabeth had four millions of debt to pay; which the honourably discharged, though often refusing offered money from her subjects. This, with her familiarities, when in a good humour, made her adored; and royalty was not then afraid of encouraging individuals to familiarity by good humour. Have you looked over Haywood's book, faid fhe to my lord Bacon, that haply there may be no treafon in it? Marry, fovereign, replies her merry Chancellor, I find no treafon in the book, but much felony, whereby he hath ftolen all his beft fentences as I do think from Cornelius Tacitus: but rack him not, good madam, for to fay footh, his ftyle is too much difjointed already. On another occafion when mufick was performing, Are you not out of tune? faid fhe. Madam, replies Dr. Tye, your And no marvel, doctor, anfwers her majefty, for they have this morning been stunned with much babble. I pr'ythee, ears are out of tune. good be amended. Of this good fervant, play, that fo their conditions may be amended. reign, what English reader regrets not the conclufion? What writer grieves not who is forced to abridge it? but when a new century began fhe left us. Elizabetha Regina Angliæ, Anglis Agna, Hiberix Lea, Said the wits; and Henry the fourth of France, who was one himfelf, exclaimed, "Le Roy Elifabeth eft mort; nous aurons la reine Jacques." When he understood the King of Scotland was her fucceffor. His defire of a conference with our fovereign detained her, as it seems, a while upon the ftage, defirous to preferve the balance of power in Europe; but when that bufinefs by Rofni's management was fettled, some fcruples feized her mind, and poisoned her last hours with thought of Effex's unjust or cruel condemnation: the Lady Nottingham having declared upon her death-bed, how that earl had configned to her a ring the Queen once gave him, begging mercy; but that by her husband's command that token was suppressed, and pardon treacherously withheld from him. After this news our fovereign refused comfort, and died of only ten days illness, caused by anxiety, at seventy years of age. СНАР: CHAP. VIII. FIRST PORTION OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY; ITS EFFECTS ON ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, HOLLAND, FRANCE, AND PORTUGAL. WITH A SKETCH OF THE CHANGES IN COMMON LIFE, UR Retrofpection muft, at beginning of this chapter, do what Elizabeth's courtiers (basely enough) did by anticipation at beginning of the century; turn all their eyes towards Scotland. That nation fometimes feared, always refpected by ours, had from that hour a claim to being loved by us-we served the fame fovereign. It is for that reason neceffary we fhould look back a moment to their conduct, who must in future be confidered as our nearest connexion, and recollect how their king, James II., was foon after the taking of Conftantinople by Mahomet, killed accidentally before Roxburgh castle by the bursting of a piece of ordnance, the world being in those days little acquainted with fuch matters. A Scotch fhilling then, Buchanan says, was equal to an English fixpence, the halfpenny was first coined in the next reign and called a bawbie, becaufe ftamped with the image of James III. then a babie, perhaps, or poffibly from a corruption of bafpiece, low money, French. It is obfervable that many French words are retained among this people, who have always maintained a clofe, not to fay kind correfpondence with France, ever fince Charlemagne made alliance with their king Achaius, and took young Mailros for his tutor, exchanging chivalry for literature, if it be true that Mailros instituted, on his return from the continent, that ancient military Order the Thistle, and added the well known motto, nemo |