CHAP. IV. the court. Secret mission to Flanders. Upon these downs, these meads, these rocks, these mountains, Which we may every year Find when we come a-fishing here." Dangers of Happy had it been for him who so sweetly describes such delights, had he really preferred them to the court where "strained sardonic smiles were glosing still!” But though endowed with a taste which enjoyed for a while the silent groves, the best nursery of mirth, and the fountains beside which rural peace passes a slumberous existence, ambition was his ruling passion; and probably the high zest with which he partook of these simple pleasures arose more from contrast than congeniality. After a few months spent at Sherborne, he was recalled to court to undertake, in company with Lord Cobham, a secret mission to Flanders. In Winwood's Memorials, Sir Henry Neville, one of Elizabeth's commissioners at Boulogne, in a letter dated 18th July, informs us that "Sir Walter Raleigh and my Lord Cobham are reported to have gone over upon pretence to see the camp and siege of Fort Isabella, near Ostend." The writer, however, conjectures that their errand had some relation to the proceedings of Prince Maurice, and afterwards informs us they carried a message which did no harm, though Cecil concealed his diplomatic transactions with such care, that the nature of the embassy was then unknown, and cannot now be discovered. Government of Jersey. On his return, Raleigh was promoted to the government of Jersey, a post apparently not incompatible with his attendance on the queen, during which, being captain of her guard, his communication with his royal mistress was frequent and intimate. Of his minute attention to her prevailing tastes in discharging the duties of his office, Aubrey has preserved a characteristic anecdote. "Queen Elizabeth loved to have all the servants of her court proper men; and, (as before said, Sir Walter Raleigh's graceful presence was no mean recommendation to him,) I think, his first preferment at court was captain of her majestie's guard. There came a country gentleman (a some men. illustration. sufficient yeoman) up to town, who had several sons, but CHAP. IV. one an extraordinary proper handsome fellow, whom he Elizabeth's did hope to have preferred to be yeoman of the guard. love of handThe father (a goodly man himself) comes to Sir Walter Raleigh, a stranger to him, and told him that he had brought up a boy that he would desire (having many children) should be one of her majestie's guard. Quoth Sir Walter, Had you spake for yourself, I should readily Incidental bave granted your desire, for your person deserves it; but I put in no boys.' Said the father, Boy, come in.' The son enters, about eighteen or nineteen, but such a goodly proper young fellow as Sir Walter had never seen the like; he was the tallest of all the guard. Sir Walter swears him immediately; and ordered him to carry up the first dish at dinner, where the queen beheld him with admiration, as if a beautiful young giant, like Saul, taller by the head and shoulders than other men, had stalked in with the service." "% Raleigh's magnificence in dress was carried to excess, Magnificence probably as much to gratify Elizabeth, who had a passion in dress. for finery and loved to be surrounded by a brilliant court, as from personal predilection. He wore a suit of silver armour at the tournays, his sword-hilt and belt were studded with diamonds, pearls, and rubies, his court-dress on occasions of state was said to be covered with jewels Court suit to the value of £60,000, and even his shoes glittered with and jewels. precious stones. It was in this splendid apparel that he waited on his royal mistress as captain of her guard during those visits to the houses of her nobility, known by the name of Progresses. In a work which professes to be something more than a mere biography, it may not be improper to make a short digression upon these magnificent tours, so strongly characteristic of the spirit and manners of the times. It has been alleged against the queen, that such excursions impoverished the peerage; and, under the * Aubrey's MS. in the Ashmolean Museum. Works, vol. viii. pp. 741, 742. Royal progresses. Entertain ment by Cecil pageants. CHAP. IV. pretence of conferring an envied distinction, were really intended to check the overgrown wealth of the aristocracy, whilst they enriched the royal household. But this is considering the matter too deeply. Her object was in the first instance to become acquainted with her kingdom, to confirm and increase her popularity by travelling amongst her people, exhibiting her glory to them, accepting with condescension and delight their homage, and repaying it with offices of trust and emolument. When Cecil entertained her at Theobalds in 1591, it was in expectation of being promoted to the secretaryship, though he was then only gratified with the honour of knighthood. When the Earl of Hertford received his royal mistress at Elvetham, the magnificence he displayed was not thought by him too high a price to regain her favour, which had been long withdrawn. It was the Masques and age of solemn pageantry and splendid devices. Masques, triumphs, and dramatic exhibitions, in which there was a singular combination of Pagan imagery and mythology with Gothic romances, were the chief amusements of the period. The business, as Bishop Hurd has well described it, was to welcome the queen to the palaces of her nobles, and at the same time to celebrate the glory of her government; and what more elegant way of complimenting a great prince than through the veil of fiction, or how could they better entertain a learned one than by having recourse to the old poetical story? Nor are the masquemakers to be lightly censured for intermixing classical fable with Gothic fancies,-a practice sanctioned by the authority of Chaucer, Spenser, and Milton, and often accomplished with much grace and ingenuity. Elizabeth was in no usual degree acquainted with the writers of Greece and Rome, and well able to appreciate such allusions. She took delight in music, and loved the studied magnificence of those pageants, their intricate mechanism, their lofty conceits, and the incense of high-flown adulation addressed to her. Marlowe's excellent description of the fondness of Edward II. for such exhibitions might with equal propriety be applied to this princess. Masquemakers. "Music and poetry are her delight, Shall bathe him in a spring; and there, hard by, CHAP. IV. Marlowe's description. The taste of the gravest men of the times gave a Taste of the countenance to such pastimes. Sir Thomas More did time. not think it beneath him to compose pageants; and a letter of Lord Bacon is preserved, in which this philosopher appears as the representative of a dozen young gentlemen of Gray's Inn, who declare their willingness to furnish a masque, since the proposal of a joint one by the four inns of court had failed. Some idea of the magnificence of the presents made on such occasions may be formed from an account in the Sidney Letters of the queen's dining at Kew, the seat of Sir John Puckering, lord-keeper. "Her entertainment for that meal was Entertaingreat and exceeding costly. At her first lighting, she ment at had a fine fanne with a handle garnished with diamonds. When she was in the middle way between the gardengate and the house, there came running towards her one with a nosegay in his hand, and delivered it unto her, with a short well-penned speech: it had in it a very rich jewel, with many pendants of unfirled diamonds, valued at £400 at least. After dinner, in her privy-chamber, he gave her a fair pair of virginals. In her bed-chamber, presented her with a fine gown and a juppin, which things were pleasing to her highness; and, to grace his lordship the more, she, of herself, took from him a salt, a spoon, and a fork, of fair agate."+ * Marlowe's Edward II. Nichol's Progresses, Preface, p. 15. + Sidney Letters, vol. i. p. 376. Kew CHAP. IV. Costly entertainments by Cecil. Acquire Queen. During her reign she visited Secretary Cecil at Theobalds twelve times: each of these royal favours cost him from £2000 to £3000; nor did she hesitate to remain a month or six weeks, receiving strangers and ambassadors, and entertained as bountifully as if she had been in one of her own palaces. In her early years the queen had devoted much time ments of the to study. She was deeply read in classical literature, as well as in the romances of her own age; and her excessive vanity delighted to display itself in quoting Greek, extemporizing in Latin, and replying to the foreign knight, the far-travelled pilgrim, or the Graces and goddesses of the pageant, in the same language used in addressing her. It was the wish to afford Elizabeth an opportunity of evincing her erudition that gave rise to the uncouth mixture of dead and living languages which distinguishes the masque of the period; to the hermits who discourse in Latin, and the Cupids who chatter in French and Spanish, and the noble knights or ermined sages who pour out at such interminable length their hexameters and pentameters; as well as to the far-fetched allegories, abstruse classical allusions, and mythological devices so constantly introduced. Display of erudition. Raleigh's judgment of masques. Rise of Raleigh to favour. In all the qualifications which fitted him to judge of a masque or to take part in its performance, Raleigh yielded to no one at court. A scholar, a poet, a universal reader, possessing a noble person, rich in his attire, an eloquent speaker, far-travelled both by land and sea, having an imagination fraught with the wonders of the New World and the wisdom of the Old, scarcely any subject, character, or sentiment, could be introduced which, if he was a spectator, he could not illustrate by his powers of conversation, or to which he could not impart new life, strength, and spirit as an actor. As the queen in her progresses was attended by the yeomen of her guard, his office of captain kept him near her person; and availing himself of these opportunities, he rose into greater favour during the last years of her life than at any former period. Some months after the death of Essex, Lord Herbert |