Chapter 24

[183]Dr. Brian Higden at that time bore the office.[184]The Cardinal perhaps remembered the credit which was gained by his successful rival Cardinal Adrian, who being elected to the papacy by the Conclave, through the influence of the emperor Charles V. “before his entry into the cittie of Rome (as we are told by one of Sir Thomas More’s biographers), putting off his hose and shoes, and as I have credibly heard it reported, bare-footed and bare-legged, passed through the streets towards his Palace, with such humbleness, that all the people had him in great reverence.” Harpsfield’sLife of Sir Thomas More. Lambeth MSS. No. 827, fol. 12.W.[185]Storer, in his Poetical Life of Wolsey, 1599, has availed himself of this declaration of the cardinal, in a passage justly celebrated for its eminent beauty. The image in the second stanza is worthy of a cotemporary of Shakspeare:I did not mean with predecessors pride,To walk on cloth as custom did require;More fit that cloth were hung on either sideIn mourning wise, or make the poor attire;More fit the dirige of a mournful quireIn dull sad notes all sorrows to exceed,For him in whom the prince’s love is dead.I am the tombe where that affection lies,That was the closet where it living kept;Yet wise men say, Affection never dies;—No, but it turns; and when it long hath slept,Looks heavy, like the eye that long hath wept.O could it die, that were a restfull state;But living, it converts to deadly hate.[186]Dr. Percy, in the notes to the Northumberland Household Book, has adduced a very curious extract from one of the letters of this Earl of Northumberland, which he thinks affords a “full vindication of the earl from the charge of ingratitude in being the person employed to arrest the cardinal.” However this may be, the earl appears to have felt the embarrassment of his situation; he trembled, and with a faltering voice could hardly utter the ungracious purport of his mission. To a mind of any delicacy the office must have been peculiarly distressing, and even supposing the earl to have been formerly treated in an arbitrary and imperious manner by the cardinal, it is one which he should have avoided. As the letter gives a very curious picture of the manners as well as the literature of our first nobility at that time, I shall placeitin myappendix; the very curious volume in which it is to be found being of great rarity and value.[187]“In the houses of our ancient nobility they dined at long tables. The Lord and his principal guests sate at the upper end of the first table, in the Great Chamber, which was therefore called the Lord’s Board-end. The officers of his household, and inferior guests, at long tables below in the hall. In the middle of each table stood a great salt cellar; and as particular care was taken to place the guests according to their rank, it became a mark of distinction, whether a person sate above or below the salt.”—Notes on the Northumberland Household Book, p. 419.[188]The enemies of Archbishop Laud, particularly in the time of his troubles, were fond of comparing him with Cardinal Wolsey: and a garbled edition of this life was first printed in the year 1641, for the purpose of prejudicing that great prelate in the minds of the people, by insinuating a parallel between him and the cardinal. It is not generally known that, beside the edition of this life then put forth, a small pamphlet was also printed with the following title, “A true Description or rather Parallel betweene Cardinall Wolsey, Archbishop of York, and William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1641.” As it is brief, and of extreme rarity, I shall give it a place in theAppendix.[189]“But what he did there, I know not.” The more recent MS. and Dr. Wordsworth’s edition have this reading.[190]The words which follow, I apprehend, are part of some ecclesiastical hymn. It was not unusual to attribute the name ofScriptureto all such compositions; and to whatever was read in churches. “Also I said and affirmed” (the words are part of the recantation of a Wickliffite), “that I held noScripturecatholike nor holy, but onely that is contained in the Bible. For the legends and lives of saints I held hem nought; and the miracles written of hem, I held untrue.” Fox’sActs, p. 591.W.[191]“I know not whether or no it be worth the mentioning here (however we will put it on the adventure), but Cardinal Wolsey, in his life time was informed by some fortune-tellers,that he should have his end at Kingston. This, his credulity interpreted of Kingston on Thames; which made him alwayes to avoid the riding through that town, though the nearest way from his house to the court. Afterwards, understanding that he was to be committed by the king’s express order to the charge of Sir Anthony [William] Kingston (see Henry Lord Howard in his Book against Prophecies, chap. 28, fol. 130), it struck to his heart; too late perceiving himself deceived by that father of lies in his homonymous prediction.” Fuller’sChurch History. Book v. p. 178.W.[192]whereforwhereas.[193]In the old garbled editions the passage stands thus: “But alas! I am a diseased man, having a fluxe (at which time it was apparent thathe had poisoned himself); it hath made me very weak,” p. 108, edit. 1641. This is a most barefaced and unwarranted interpolation. The words do not occur in any of the MSS. Yet the charge of his having poisoned himself was repeated by many writers among the reformers without scruple. See Tindall’sWorks, p. 404.Supplications to the Queen’s Majesty, fol. 7. A. D. 1555. Fox’sActs, p. 959.[194]“This is an affecting picture,” says a late elegant writer. "Shakspeare had undoubtedly seen these words, his portrait of the sick and dying Cardinal so closely resembling this. But in these words is this chronological difficulty. How is it that Hardwick Hall is spoken of as a house of the Earl of Shrewsbury’s in the reign of Henry VIII, when it is well known that the house of this name between Sheffield and Nottingham, in which the Countess of Shrewsbury spent her widowhood, a house described in the Anecdotes of Painting, and seen and admired by every curious traveller in Derbyshire, did not accrue to the possessions of any part of the Shrewsbury family till the marriage of an earl, who was grandson to the cardinal’s host, with Elizabeth Hardwick, the widow of Sir William Cavendish, in the time of Queen Elizabeth?—The truth however is, that though the story is told to every visitor of Hardwick Hall, that “the great child of honour, Cardinal Wolsey,” slept there a few nights before his death; as is also the story, perhaps equally unfounded, that Mary Queen of Scots was confined there; it wasanotherHardwick which received the weary traveller for a night in this his last melancholy pilgrimage. This was Hardwick-upon-Line in Nottinghamshire, a place about as far to the south of Mansfield as the Hardwick in Derbyshire, so much better known, is to the north-west. It is now gone to much decay, and is consequently omitted in many maps of the county. It is found in Speed. Here the Earl of Shrewsbury had a house in the time of Wolsey. Leland expressly mentions it. “The Erle [of Shrewsbury] hath a parke and manner place or lodge in it called Hardewike-upon-Line, a four miles from Newstede Abbey.” Itin. vol. v. fol. 94, p. 108. Both the Hardwicks became afterwards the property of the Cavendishes. Thoroton tells us that Sir Charles Cavendish, youngest son of Sir William, and father of William Duke of Newcastle, “had begun to build a great house in this lordship, on a hill by the forest side, near Annesly-wood-House, when he was assaulted and wounded by Sir John Stanhope and his men, as he was viewing the work, which was therefore thought fit to be left off, some blood being spilt in the quarrel, then very hot between the two families.—Thoresby’s Edit. of Thoroton, vol. ii. p. 294.”—Who wrote Cavendish’s Life of Wolsey?p.18.[195]Mr. Douce has pointed out a remarkable passage in Pittscottie’s History of Scotland (p. 261, edit. 1788,) in which there is a great resemblance to these pathetic words of the cardinal. James V. imagined that Sir James Hamilton addressed him thus in a dream. “Though I was a sinner against God, I failed not to thee. Had I been as good a servant to the Lord my God as I was to thee, I had not died that death.”[196]In the yeare 1521, the cardinal, by virtue of his legatine authority, issued a mandate to all the bishops in the realme, to take the necessary means for calling in and destroying all books, printed or written, containing any of the errors of Martin Luther: and further directing processes to be instituted against all the possessors and favourers of such books, heresies, &c. The mandate contained also a list of forty-two errors of Luther. See Wilkins’sConcilia, vol. iii. p. 690-693; and Strype’sEcclesiastical Memorials, vol. i. p. 36-40.W.[197]To administer theextreme unction. “Thefyfth sacramentis anoyntynge of seke men, the whiche oyle is halowed of the bysshop, and mynystred by preestes to them that ben of lawfull age, in grete peryll of dethe: in lyghtnes and abatynge of theyr sikenes, yf God wyll that they lyve; and in forgyvynge of theyr venyal synnes, and releasynge of theyr payne, yf they shal deye.”Festival, fol. 171.W.[198]He died Nov. 29, 1530. Le Neve’sFasti, p. 310.According to the superstitious credulity of that age, the death of Wolsey was said to have been preceded by a portentous storm. SeeLetters from the Bodleian, Vol. ii. page 17. In a letter from Dr. Tanner to Dr. Charlett, dated Norwich, Aug. 10, 1709, is the following passage:"On the other side is a coeval note at the end of an old MS. belonging to our cathedral, of the odd exit of the great Cardinal Wolsey, not mentioned, I think, in Cavendish, or any of the ordinary historians,—much like Oliver’s wind.“Anno Xti, 1530, nocte immediate sequente quartum diem Novemb. vehemens ventus quasi per totam Angliam accidebat, et die proximè sequente quinto sc. die ejusdem mensis circa horam primam post meridiem captus erat Dn̄us Thomas Wulsye Cardinalis in ædibus suis de Cahow [Cawood] infra Diocesam suam Eboracensem; et postea in itinere ejus versus Londoniam vigilia St. Andreæ prox. sequente apud Leycestriam moriebatur, quo die ventus quasi Gehennalis tunc fere per totam Angliam accidebat, cujus vehementia apud Leystoft infra Dioc. Norwicensem et alibi in diversis locis infra Regnum Angliæ multæ naves perierunt.”Ad finem Annalium Bartholomæi Cotton. MS. in Biblioth. Eccl. Cath. Norwic. habetur hæc notata.[199]The excellent author of the dissertation on this life doubted whether this passage was not an interpolation, because “Wolsey is spoken of in terms so different from those used in other parts of the book.” But it is only a proof of the integrity of the biographer, whose upright heart and devout catholic spirit would not conceal the truth.[200]This passage follows in the more recent MSS. “riding that same day, being Wednesday, to Northampton; and the next day to Dunstable; and the next day to London; where we tarried untill St. Nicholas Even, and then we rode to Hampton Court.”[201]Here is another addition, in the more recent MSS. to the following effect: “Who hath gotten diverse other rich ornaments into his hands, the which be not rehersed or registered in any of my lords books of inventory, or other writings, whereby any man is able to charge him therewith, but only I.”[202]Mrs. Anne Gainsford.[203]See the Earl of Surrey’s character of him, in an Elegy on his Death, among his poems.[204]It is presumed that the allusion is here to Sir Thomas Wyatt’s verses entitled “A description of such a one as he would love:”A face that should content me wonderous well,Should not be faire, but lovely to behold:Of lively loke, all griefe for to repelWith right good grace, so would I that it shouldSpeak, without words, such words as none can tell;Her tresse also should be of cresped gold.With wit and these perchance I might be tideAnd knit againe the knot that should not slide.Songes and Sonettes, 8vo.1557,p.35. 2.[205]The King of France’s sister.[206]Sanders De Origine ac Progressu Schismatis Anglicani. Libri3. This book was first printed at Cologne, in 1585, and passed through several editions, the last in 1628. It was subsequently translated into French, and printed in 1673-4; which induced Burnet to write his History of the Reformation. In the appendix to his first volume he gives a particular account of Sanders’ book, and refutes the calumnies and falsehoods contained in it. This called forth a reply from the catholic party, under the title ofHistoire du Divorce de HenryVIII.par Joachim Le Grand.Paris, 1688, 3 vols. 12mo. A work not without interest on account of the documents printed in the third volume, some of which I have found useful as illustrations of the present work.[207]Sir Francis Brian was one of the most accomplished courtiers of his times: a man of great probity and a poet. Wyatt addresses his third satire to him, and pays a high compliment in it to his virtue and integrity. He was, like Wyatt, firmly attached to the Protestant cause: on this account he seems to have drawn on himself the hatred of the Roman Catholic party. Sanders, in his malevolent account of the Reformation in England, relates the following absurd and wicked story of him.—Cum autem Henrici Regis domus ex perditissimo hominum constaret, cujusmodi erant aleatores, adulteri, lenones, assentatores, perjuri, blasphemi, rapaces, atque adeò hæretici, inter hos insignis quidem nepos extitit, Franciscus Brianus, Eques Auratus, ex gente et stirpe Bolenorum. Ab illo rex quodam tempore quæsivit, quale peccatum videretur matrem primum, deinde filium cognoscere.—Cui Brianus, “Omnino,” inquit, “tale O rex quale gallinam primùm, deinde pullum ejus gallinaceum comedere.” Quod verbum cum rex magno risu accepisset, ad Brianum dixisse fertur. “Næ! tu merito meus est Inferni Vicarius.” Brianus enim jam prius ob impietatem notissimam vocabatur, “Inferni Vacarius.” Post autem et “Regius Inferni Vicarius.” Rex igitur cum et matrem prius, et postea filiam Mariam Bolenam pro concubina tenuisset, demum at alteram quoque filiam, Annam Bolenam, animum adjicere cœpit.De Schismate Anglicano, p. 24.This disgusting calumny is repeated by the followers of Sanders, and among others by Davanzati, in hisSchisma d’Inghilterra, p. 22, Ed. 1727. And yet that history is presented by the Curators of theStudioat Padua, to the youth educated there as “una stimabilissima Storia; descritta con quei vivi e forti colori che soli vagliano a far comprendere l’atrocita del successo dello Schisma d’Inghilterra.” How (says Dr. Nott, from whom this note is taken) can the bonds of charity be ever brought to unite the members of the Roman Catholic communion with those of the reformed church, so long as their youth shall be thus early taught to consider our Reformation as the portentous offspring of whatever was most odious in human profligacy, and most fearful in blasphemy and irreligion?"Memoirs of Sir Thomas Wyatt, p. 84.[208]32 Henry VIII. A. D. 1540.[209]A. D. 1532-3.[210]Tyndal’s Obedience of a Christian Man.[211]This curious and interesting occurrence, which probably had considerable effect in furthering the progress of the Reformation, is told with more circumstance by Strype, from the manuscripts of Fox. It is so entirely corroborated by what is here said, that I think it incumbent upon me to place it in juxtaposition with Wyatt’s narrative.“Upon the Lady Anne waited a young fair gentlewoman, named Mrs. Gainsford; and in her service was also retained Mr. George Zouch. This gentleman, of a comely sweet person, a Zouch indeed, was a suitor in the way of marriage to the said young lady: and among other love tricks, once he plucked from her a book in Englishe, called Tyndall’s Obedience, which the Lady Anne had lent her to read. About which time the Cardinal had given commandment to the prelates, and especially to Dr. Sampson, dean of the king’s chapel, that they should have a vigilant eye over all people for such books, that they came not abroad; that so as much as might be, they might not come to the king’s reading. But this which he most feared fell out upon this occasion. For Mr. Zouch (I use the words of the MS.) was so ravished with the spirit of God speaking now as well in the heart of the reader, as first it did in the heart of the maker of the book, that he was never well but when he was reading of that book. Mrs. Gainsford wept because she could not get the book from her wooer, and he was as ready to weep to deliver it. But see the providence of God:—Mr. Zouch standing in the chapel before Dr. Sampson, ever reading upon this book; and the dean never having his eye off the book, in the gentleman’s hand, called him to him, and then snatched the book out of his hand, asked his name, and whose man he was. And the book he delivered to the cardinal. In the meantime, the Lady Anne asketh her woman for the book. She on her knees told all the circumstances. The Lady Anne showed herself not sorry nor angry with either of the two. But, said she, ‘Well, it shall be the dearest book that ever the dean or cardinal took away.’ The noblewoman goes to the king, and upon her knees she desireth the king’s help for her book. Upon the king’s token the book was restored. And now bringing the book to him, she besought his grace most tenderly to read it. The king did so, and delighted in the book. “For (saith he) this book is for me and all kings to read.” And in a little time, by the help of this virtuous lady, by the means aforesaid, had his eyes opened to the truth, to advance God’s religion and glory, to abhor the pope’s doctrine, his lies, his pomp, and pride, to deliver his subjects out of the Egyptian darkness, the Babylonian bonds that the pope had brought his subjects under. And so contemning the threats of all the world, the power of princes, rebellions of his subjects at home, and the raging of so many and mighty potentates abroad; set forward a reformation in religion, beginning with the triple crowned head at first, and so came down to the members, bishops, abbots, priors, and such like.”—Strype’s Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol. i. p. 112.[212]Mr. George Zouch.[213]So it is in the Calendars prefixed to the Book of Common Prayer in Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Lord Herbert says it was the sixth, Sanders the eighth, and Archbishop Cranmer the thirteenth or fourteenth.[214]A. D. 1534.[215]Shaxton and Latimer.[216]To every one of these she gave a little book of devotions, neatly written on vellum, and bound in covers of solid gold enamelled, with a ring to each cover to hang it at their girdles for their constant use and meditation.One of these little volumes, traditionally said to have been given by the queen when on the scaffold to her attendant, one of the Wyatt family, and preserved by them through several generations, was described by Vertue as being seen by him in the possession of Mr. George Wyatt of Charterhouse Square, in 1721. VideWalpole’s Miscellaneous Antiquities, printed at Strawberry Hill, 1772, No. II. p. 13. It was a diminutive volume, consisting of one hundred and four leaves of vellum, one and seven-eighths of an inch long by one and five-eighths of an inch broad; containing a metrical version of parts of thirteen Psalms: and bound in pure gold richly chased, with a ring to append it to the neck-chain or girdle. It was in Mr. Triphook’s possession in the year 1817.[217]Cosȳ: this woman’s name was Cousyns.[218]Probably the name of one of her attendants.[219]unless.[220]that.[221]Sir Francis Weston.[222]they.[223]note.[224]accepts.[225]that.[226]i. e.what.[227]us.[228]Anvers, Antwerp.[229]number.[230]an hour.[231]number.[232]That is his long continuance with the cardinal.[233]He had probably disobliged the king by his attachment to Anne Boleyn.[234]fear.[235]Carlisle.[236]William Worm, whom he mentions in a former letter, as the person who betrayed him.[237]brought.[238]out.[239]Antiphonars, Gralls, Orderlys, Manuals, and Professionaries, are books containing different portions of the Roman Catholic Ritual. See Percy’s Northumberland Household Book, p. 446, and Burn’s Ecclesiastical Law.[240]licence.There is a tradition at Alnwick that an auditor was formerly confined in the dungeon under one of the towers till he could make up his accounts to his lord’s satisfaction.[241]Dr. Augustine, or Agostino, a native of Venice, was physician to the cardinal, and was arrested at Cawood at the same time with his master, being treated with the utmost indignity: v.Life, pp. 348, 351. In the Cottonian MS. Titus b. i. fol. 365, there is a letter of his to Thomas Cromwell, in Italian, requiring speedy medical assistance, apparently for Cardinal Wolsey. It is dated Asher, Jan. 19th, 1529-30. Cavendish describes him as being dressed in a “boistous gown of black velvet;” with which he overthrew one of the silver crosses, which broke Bonner’s head in its fall.[242]Premunire.[243]soweth.[244]f.rest thereof.[245]This mention of omens reminds me that Dr. Wordsworth in his notes to Wolsey’s Life has related the following affecting anecdote of Archbishop Laud."The year 1639 we all know was big with events calamitous to Laud, and to the church and monarchy. In Lambeth Library is preserved a small pane of glass, in which are written with a diamond pencil the following words:Memorand: Ecclesiæ deMicham, Cheme et Stone, cum aliisfulguro combusta suntJanuar: 14, 1638/9.Omen evertat Deus.On a piece of paper the same size as the glass and kept in the same case with it, is written by the hand of Abp. Wake, as follows: “This glasse was taken out of the west-window of the gallery at Croydon before I new-built it: and is, as I take it, the writing of Abp. Laud’s own hand.”[246]umber, i. e. shade,ombre, Fr.[247]kynd, isnature.[248]gystes, orgests, areactions.[249]For hisbehove, for hisbehooforadvantage.[250]To put inure, i. e. to put inuse. Thus in Ferrex and Porrex, by Sackville:And wisdome willed me without protractIn speedie wise to put the same inure.[251]estatts, i. e. nobles, persons of rank or great estate.[252]This word was used by our ancestors to signify any thinggreasyorfilthy; the revolutions of language have at length confined it to one only of its ancient acceptations, that ofobscenity.[253]sely, i. e.simple.[254]gold and byse, is gold andpurple.[255]entaylled, i. e. carved, vide p.300.[256]This is no uninteresting picture of the seclusion desired by our ancestors in the old geometric style of gardening. Of this curious knot-garden of Wolsey the remains are still to be seen at Hampton Court, the maze there forming part of it.[257]I past not of, i. e. I cared not for.[258]vaylled, availed.[259]rathest, i. e. soonest.[260]blent, i. e.blind.[261]This is a version of the concluding passage of the Life of the Cardinal.[262]wyst, i. e. knew.[263]for thenons, ornonce, for thepurpose.[264]This isTittenhanger, in Hertfordshire, which Wolsey held as Abbot of St. Albans: there was formerly a palace belonging to the Abbots of St. Albans there.[265]Sheets ofRaynes. The fine linen used by our ancestors is frequently called cloth ofRaynes. Rennes in Brittanny was formerly celebrated for its manufacture of fine linen. In the enumeration of the cardinal’s treasures at Hampton Court, many pieces of cloth of Raynes are mentioned. In the Old Phrase Book, entitled Vulgaria, by W. Horman, 1519, is the following passage: “He weareth a shurte ofRayniswhan curser wold serve him.”[266]“Andforthe hurt of envy,” i. e.againstthe hurt of envy. Envy being thecauseof his seeking to shrowd himself.[267]Ashrowd, signified a shield or buckler, and metaphorically any kind of defence, coverture, or place of protection.[268]——“least I shold fallIn the dayngerof the learned and honorable sort.”That is, “lest I should encounter theircensure, or fall into the control of their severe judgment.” The phrase has its origin from the barbarous Latinin dangerio, and is common to Chaucer and our elder writers as well as to Shakspeare and his cotemporaries.[269]By this is meant the Fourth Year of the Reign of Philip, and the Fifth of Queen Mary, answering to 1558. The Latin rhyming couplet Cavendish appears to have added after the commencement of Elizabeth’s reign. How far from a true prophecy it proved, the long and prosperous reign of Elizabeth may witness.

[183]Dr. Brian Higden at that time bore the office.

[184]The Cardinal perhaps remembered the credit which was gained by his successful rival Cardinal Adrian, who being elected to the papacy by the Conclave, through the influence of the emperor Charles V. “before his entry into the cittie of Rome (as we are told by one of Sir Thomas More’s biographers), putting off his hose and shoes, and as I have credibly heard it reported, bare-footed and bare-legged, passed through the streets towards his Palace, with such humbleness, that all the people had him in great reverence.” Harpsfield’sLife of Sir Thomas More. Lambeth MSS. No. 827, fol. 12.W.

[185]Storer, in his Poetical Life of Wolsey, 1599, has availed himself of this declaration of the cardinal, in a passage justly celebrated for its eminent beauty. The image in the second stanza is worthy of a cotemporary of Shakspeare:I did not mean with predecessors pride,To walk on cloth as custom did require;More fit that cloth were hung on either sideIn mourning wise, or make the poor attire;More fit the dirige of a mournful quireIn dull sad notes all sorrows to exceed,For him in whom the prince’s love is dead.I am the tombe where that affection lies,That was the closet where it living kept;Yet wise men say, Affection never dies;—No, but it turns; and when it long hath slept,Looks heavy, like the eye that long hath wept.O could it die, that were a restfull state;But living, it converts to deadly hate.

I did not mean with predecessors pride,To walk on cloth as custom did require;More fit that cloth were hung on either sideIn mourning wise, or make the poor attire;More fit the dirige of a mournful quireIn dull sad notes all sorrows to exceed,For him in whom the prince’s love is dead.I am the tombe where that affection lies,That was the closet where it living kept;Yet wise men say, Affection never dies;—No, but it turns; and when it long hath slept,Looks heavy, like the eye that long hath wept.O could it die, that were a restfull state;But living, it converts to deadly hate.

I did not mean with predecessors pride,

To walk on cloth as custom did require;

More fit that cloth were hung on either side

In mourning wise, or make the poor attire;

More fit the dirige of a mournful quire

In dull sad notes all sorrows to exceed,

For him in whom the prince’s love is dead.

I am the tombe where that affection lies,That was the closet where it living kept;Yet wise men say, Affection never dies;—No, but it turns; and when it long hath slept,Looks heavy, like the eye that long hath wept.O could it die, that were a restfull state;But living, it converts to deadly hate.

I am the tombe where that affection lies,

That was the closet where it living kept;

Yet wise men say, Affection never dies;—

No, but it turns; and when it long hath slept,

Looks heavy, like the eye that long hath wept.

O could it die, that were a restfull state;

But living, it converts to deadly hate.

[186]Dr. Percy, in the notes to the Northumberland Household Book, has adduced a very curious extract from one of the letters of this Earl of Northumberland, which he thinks affords a “full vindication of the earl from the charge of ingratitude in being the person employed to arrest the cardinal.” However this may be, the earl appears to have felt the embarrassment of his situation; he trembled, and with a faltering voice could hardly utter the ungracious purport of his mission. To a mind of any delicacy the office must have been peculiarly distressing, and even supposing the earl to have been formerly treated in an arbitrary and imperious manner by the cardinal, it is one which he should have avoided. As the letter gives a very curious picture of the manners as well as the literature of our first nobility at that time, I shall placeitin myappendix; the very curious volume in which it is to be found being of great rarity and value.

[187]“In the houses of our ancient nobility they dined at long tables. The Lord and his principal guests sate at the upper end of the first table, in the Great Chamber, which was therefore called the Lord’s Board-end. The officers of his household, and inferior guests, at long tables below in the hall. In the middle of each table stood a great salt cellar; and as particular care was taken to place the guests according to their rank, it became a mark of distinction, whether a person sate above or below the salt.”—Notes on the Northumberland Household Book, p. 419.

[188]The enemies of Archbishop Laud, particularly in the time of his troubles, were fond of comparing him with Cardinal Wolsey: and a garbled edition of this life was first printed in the year 1641, for the purpose of prejudicing that great prelate in the minds of the people, by insinuating a parallel between him and the cardinal. It is not generally known that, beside the edition of this life then put forth, a small pamphlet was also printed with the following title, “A true Description or rather Parallel betweene Cardinall Wolsey, Archbishop of York, and William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1641.” As it is brief, and of extreme rarity, I shall give it a place in theAppendix.

[189]“But what he did there, I know not.” The more recent MS. and Dr. Wordsworth’s edition have this reading.

[190]The words which follow, I apprehend, are part of some ecclesiastical hymn. It was not unusual to attribute the name ofScriptureto all such compositions; and to whatever was read in churches. “Also I said and affirmed” (the words are part of the recantation of a Wickliffite), “that I held noScripturecatholike nor holy, but onely that is contained in the Bible. For the legends and lives of saints I held hem nought; and the miracles written of hem, I held untrue.” Fox’sActs, p. 591.W.

[191]“I know not whether or no it be worth the mentioning here (however we will put it on the adventure), but Cardinal Wolsey, in his life time was informed by some fortune-tellers,that he should have his end at Kingston. This, his credulity interpreted of Kingston on Thames; which made him alwayes to avoid the riding through that town, though the nearest way from his house to the court. Afterwards, understanding that he was to be committed by the king’s express order to the charge of Sir Anthony [William] Kingston (see Henry Lord Howard in his Book against Prophecies, chap. 28, fol. 130), it struck to his heart; too late perceiving himself deceived by that father of lies in his homonymous prediction.” Fuller’sChurch History. Book v. p. 178.W.

[192]whereforwhereas.

[193]In the old garbled editions the passage stands thus: “But alas! I am a diseased man, having a fluxe (at which time it was apparent thathe had poisoned himself); it hath made me very weak,” p. 108, edit. 1641. This is a most barefaced and unwarranted interpolation. The words do not occur in any of the MSS. Yet the charge of his having poisoned himself was repeated by many writers among the reformers without scruple. See Tindall’sWorks, p. 404.Supplications to the Queen’s Majesty, fol. 7. A. D. 1555. Fox’sActs, p. 959.

[194]“This is an affecting picture,” says a late elegant writer. "Shakspeare had undoubtedly seen these words, his portrait of the sick and dying Cardinal so closely resembling this. But in these words is this chronological difficulty. How is it that Hardwick Hall is spoken of as a house of the Earl of Shrewsbury’s in the reign of Henry VIII, when it is well known that the house of this name between Sheffield and Nottingham, in which the Countess of Shrewsbury spent her widowhood, a house described in the Anecdotes of Painting, and seen and admired by every curious traveller in Derbyshire, did not accrue to the possessions of any part of the Shrewsbury family till the marriage of an earl, who was grandson to the cardinal’s host, with Elizabeth Hardwick, the widow of Sir William Cavendish, in the time of Queen Elizabeth?—The truth however is, that though the story is told to every visitor of Hardwick Hall, that “the great child of honour, Cardinal Wolsey,” slept there a few nights before his death; as is also the story, perhaps equally unfounded, that Mary Queen of Scots was confined there; it wasanotherHardwick which received the weary traveller for a night in this his last melancholy pilgrimage. This was Hardwick-upon-Line in Nottinghamshire, a place about as far to the south of Mansfield as the Hardwick in Derbyshire, so much better known, is to the north-west. It is now gone to much decay, and is consequently omitted in many maps of the county. It is found in Speed. Here the Earl of Shrewsbury had a house in the time of Wolsey. Leland expressly mentions it. “The Erle [of Shrewsbury] hath a parke and manner place or lodge in it called Hardewike-upon-Line, a four miles from Newstede Abbey.” Itin. vol. v. fol. 94, p. 108. Both the Hardwicks became afterwards the property of the Cavendishes. Thoroton tells us that Sir Charles Cavendish, youngest son of Sir William, and father of William Duke of Newcastle, “had begun to build a great house in this lordship, on a hill by the forest side, near Annesly-wood-House, when he was assaulted and wounded by Sir John Stanhope and his men, as he was viewing the work, which was therefore thought fit to be left off, some blood being spilt in the quarrel, then very hot between the two families.—Thoresby’s Edit. of Thoroton, vol. ii. p. 294.”—Who wrote Cavendish’s Life of Wolsey?p.18.

[195]Mr. Douce has pointed out a remarkable passage in Pittscottie’s History of Scotland (p. 261, edit. 1788,) in which there is a great resemblance to these pathetic words of the cardinal. James V. imagined that Sir James Hamilton addressed him thus in a dream. “Though I was a sinner against God, I failed not to thee. Had I been as good a servant to the Lord my God as I was to thee, I had not died that death.”

[196]In the yeare 1521, the cardinal, by virtue of his legatine authority, issued a mandate to all the bishops in the realme, to take the necessary means for calling in and destroying all books, printed or written, containing any of the errors of Martin Luther: and further directing processes to be instituted against all the possessors and favourers of such books, heresies, &c. The mandate contained also a list of forty-two errors of Luther. See Wilkins’sConcilia, vol. iii. p. 690-693; and Strype’sEcclesiastical Memorials, vol. i. p. 36-40.W.

[197]To administer theextreme unction. “Thefyfth sacramentis anoyntynge of seke men, the whiche oyle is halowed of the bysshop, and mynystred by preestes to them that ben of lawfull age, in grete peryll of dethe: in lyghtnes and abatynge of theyr sikenes, yf God wyll that they lyve; and in forgyvynge of theyr venyal synnes, and releasynge of theyr payne, yf they shal deye.”Festival, fol. 171.W.

[198]He died Nov. 29, 1530. Le Neve’sFasti, p. 310.According to the superstitious credulity of that age, the death of Wolsey was said to have been preceded by a portentous storm. SeeLetters from the Bodleian, Vol. ii. page 17. In a letter from Dr. Tanner to Dr. Charlett, dated Norwich, Aug. 10, 1709, is the following passage:"On the other side is a coeval note at the end of an old MS. belonging to our cathedral, of the odd exit of the great Cardinal Wolsey, not mentioned, I think, in Cavendish, or any of the ordinary historians,—much like Oliver’s wind.“Anno Xti, 1530, nocte immediate sequente quartum diem Novemb. vehemens ventus quasi per totam Angliam accidebat, et die proximè sequente quinto sc. die ejusdem mensis circa horam primam post meridiem captus erat Dn̄us Thomas Wulsye Cardinalis in ædibus suis de Cahow [Cawood] infra Diocesam suam Eboracensem; et postea in itinere ejus versus Londoniam vigilia St. Andreæ prox. sequente apud Leycestriam moriebatur, quo die ventus quasi Gehennalis tunc fere per totam Angliam accidebat, cujus vehementia apud Leystoft infra Dioc. Norwicensem et alibi in diversis locis infra Regnum Angliæ multæ naves perierunt.”Ad finem Annalium Bartholomæi Cotton. MS. in Biblioth. Eccl. Cath. Norwic. habetur hæc notata.

[198]He died Nov. 29, 1530. Le Neve’sFasti, p. 310.

According to the superstitious credulity of that age, the death of Wolsey was said to have been preceded by a portentous storm. SeeLetters from the Bodleian, Vol. ii. page 17. In a letter from Dr. Tanner to Dr. Charlett, dated Norwich, Aug. 10, 1709, is the following passage:

"On the other side is a coeval note at the end of an old MS. belonging to our cathedral, of the odd exit of the great Cardinal Wolsey, not mentioned, I think, in Cavendish, or any of the ordinary historians,—much like Oliver’s wind.

“Anno Xti, 1530, nocte immediate sequente quartum diem Novemb. vehemens ventus quasi per totam Angliam accidebat, et die proximè sequente quinto sc. die ejusdem mensis circa horam primam post meridiem captus erat Dn̄us Thomas Wulsye Cardinalis in ædibus suis de Cahow [Cawood] infra Diocesam suam Eboracensem; et postea in itinere ejus versus Londoniam vigilia St. Andreæ prox. sequente apud Leycestriam moriebatur, quo die ventus quasi Gehennalis tunc fere per totam Angliam accidebat, cujus vehementia apud Leystoft infra Dioc. Norwicensem et alibi in diversis locis infra Regnum Angliæ multæ naves perierunt.”

Ad finem Annalium Bartholomæi Cotton. MS. in Biblioth. Eccl. Cath. Norwic. habetur hæc notata.

[199]The excellent author of the dissertation on this life doubted whether this passage was not an interpolation, because “Wolsey is spoken of in terms so different from those used in other parts of the book.” But it is only a proof of the integrity of the biographer, whose upright heart and devout catholic spirit would not conceal the truth.

[200]This passage follows in the more recent MSS. “riding that same day, being Wednesday, to Northampton; and the next day to Dunstable; and the next day to London; where we tarried untill St. Nicholas Even, and then we rode to Hampton Court.”

[201]Here is another addition, in the more recent MSS. to the following effect: “Who hath gotten diverse other rich ornaments into his hands, the which be not rehersed or registered in any of my lords books of inventory, or other writings, whereby any man is able to charge him therewith, but only I.”

[202]Mrs. Anne Gainsford.

[203]See the Earl of Surrey’s character of him, in an Elegy on his Death, among his poems.

[204]It is presumed that the allusion is here to Sir Thomas Wyatt’s verses entitled “A description of such a one as he would love:”A face that should content me wonderous well,Should not be faire, but lovely to behold:Of lively loke, all griefe for to repelWith right good grace, so would I that it shouldSpeak, without words, such words as none can tell;Her tresse also should be of cresped gold.With wit and these perchance I might be tideAnd knit againe the knot that should not slide.Songes and Sonettes, 8vo.1557,p.35. 2.

[204]It is presumed that the allusion is here to Sir Thomas Wyatt’s verses entitled “A description of such a one as he would love:”

A face that should content me wonderous well,Should not be faire, but lovely to behold:Of lively loke, all griefe for to repelWith right good grace, so would I that it shouldSpeak, without words, such words as none can tell;Her tresse also should be of cresped gold.With wit and these perchance I might be tideAnd knit againe the knot that should not slide.Songes and Sonettes, 8vo.1557,p.35. 2.

A face that should content me wonderous well,

Should not be faire, but lovely to behold:

Of lively loke, all griefe for to repel

With right good grace, so would I that it should

Speak, without words, such words as none can tell;

Her tresse also should be of cresped gold.

With wit and these perchance I might be tide

And knit againe the knot that should not slide.

Songes and Sonettes, 8vo.1557,p.35. 2.

[205]The King of France’s sister.

[206]Sanders De Origine ac Progressu Schismatis Anglicani. Libri3. This book was first printed at Cologne, in 1585, and passed through several editions, the last in 1628. It was subsequently translated into French, and printed in 1673-4; which induced Burnet to write his History of the Reformation. In the appendix to his first volume he gives a particular account of Sanders’ book, and refutes the calumnies and falsehoods contained in it. This called forth a reply from the catholic party, under the title ofHistoire du Divorce de HenryVIII.par Joachim Le Grand.Paris, 1688, 3 vols. 12mo. A work not without interest on account of the documents printed in the third volume, some of which I have found useful as illustrations of the present work.

[207]Sir Francis Brian was one of the most accomplished courtiers of his times: a man of great probity and a poet. Wyatt addresses his third satire to him, and pays a high compliment in it to his virtue and integrity. He was, like Wyatt, firmly attached to the Protestant cause: on this account he seems to have drawn on himself the hatred of the Roman Catholic party. Sanders, in his malevolent account of the Reformation in England, relates the following absurd and wicked story of him.—Cum autem Henrici Regis domus ex perditissimo hominum constaret, cujusmodi erant aleatores, adulteri, lenones, assentatores, perjuri, blasphemi, rapaces, atque adeò hæretici, inter hos insignis quidem nepos extitit, Franciscus Brianus, Eques Auratus, ex gente et stirpe Bolenorum. Ab illo rex quodam tempore quæsivit, quale peccatum videretur matrem primum, deinde filium cognoscere.—Cui Brianus, “Omnino,” inquit, “tale O rex quale gallinam primùm, deinde pullum ejus gallinaceum comedere.” Quod verbum cum rex magno risu accepisset, ad Brianum dixisse fertur. “Næ! tu merito meus est Inferni Vicarius.” Brianus enim jam prius ob impietatem notissimam vocabatur, “Inferni Vacarius.” Post autem et “Regius Inferni Vicarius.” Rex igitur cum et matrem prius, et postea filiam Mariam Bolenam pro concubina tenuisset, demum at alteram quoque filiam, Annam Bolenam, animum adjicere cœpit.De Schismate Anglicano, p. 24.This disgusting calumny is repeated by the followers of Sanders, and among others by Davanzati, in hisSchisma d’Inghilterra, p. 22, Ed. 1727. And yet that history is presented by the Curators of theStudioat Padua, to the youth educated there as “una stimabilissima Storia; descritta con quei vivi e forti colori che soli vagliano a far comprendere l’atrocita del successo dello Schisma d’Inghilterra.” How (says Dr. Nott, from whom this note is taken) can the bonds of charity be ever brought to unite the members of the Roman Catholic communion with those of the reformed church, so long as their youth shall be thus early taught to consider our Reformation as the portentous offspring of whatever was most odious in human profligacy, and most fearful in blasphemy and irreligion?"Memoirs of Sir Thomas Wyatt, p. 84.

This disgusting calumny is repeated by the followers of Sanders, and among others by Davanzati, in hisSchisma d’Inghilterra, p. 22, Ed. 1727. And yet that history is presented by the Curators of theStudioat Padua, to the youth educated there as “una stimabilissima Storia; descritta con quei vivi e forti colori che soli vagliano a far comprendere l’atrocita del successo dello Schisma d’Inghilterra.” How (says Dr. Nott, from whom this note is taken) can the bonds of charity be ever brought to unite the members of the Roman Catholic communion with those of the reformed church, so long as their youth shall be thus early taught to consider our Reformation as the portentous offspring of whatever was most odious in human profligacy, and most fearful in blasphemy and irreligion?"Memoirs of Sir Thomas Wyatt, p. 84.

[208]32 Henry VIII. A. D. 1540.

[209]A. D. 1532-3.

[210]Tyndal’s Obedience of a Christian Man.

[211]This curious and interesting occurrence, which probably had considerable effect in furthering the progress of the Reformation, is told with more circumstance by Strype, from the manuscripts of Fox. It is so entirely corroborated by what is here said, that I think it incumbent upon me to place it in juxtaposition with Wyatt’s narrative.“Upon the Lady Anne waited a young fair gentlewoman, named Mrs. Gainsford; and in her service was also retained Mr. George Zouch. This gentleman, of a comely sweet person, a Zouch indeed, was a suitor in the way of marriage to the said young lady: and among other love tricks, once he plucked from her a book in Englishe, called Tyndall’s Obedience, which the Lady Anne had lent her to read. About which time the Cardinal had given commandment to the prelates, and especially to Dr. Sampson, dean of the king’s chapel, that they should have a vigilant eye over all people for such books, that they came not abroad; that so as much as might be, they might not come to the king’s reading. But this which he most feared fell out upon this occasion. For Mr. Zouch (I use the words of the MS.) was so ravished with the spirit of God speaking now as well in the heart of the reader, as first it did in the heart of the maker of the book, that he was never well but when he was reading of that book. Mrs. Gainsford wept because she could not get the book from her wooer, and he was as ready to weep to deliver it. But see the providence of God:—Mr. Zouch standing in the chapel before Dr. Sampson, ever reading upon this book; and the dean never having his eye off the book, in the gentleman’s hand, called him to him, and then snatched the book out of his hand, asked his name, and whose man he was. And the book he delivered to the cardinal. In the meantime, the Lady Anne asketh her woman for the book. She on her knees told all the circumstances. The Lady Anne showed herself not sorry nor angry with either of the two. But, said she, ‘Well, it shall be the dearest book that ever the dean or cardinal took away.’ The noblewoman goes to the king, and upon her knees she desireth the king’s help for her book. Upon the king’s token the book was restored. And now bringing the book to him, she besought his grace most tenderly to read it. The king did so, and delighted in the book. “For (saith he) this book is for me and all kings to read.” And in a little time, by the help of this virtuous lady, by the means aforesaid, had his eyes opened to the truth, to advance God’s religion and glory, to abhor the pope’s doctrine, his lies, his pomp, and pride, to deliver his subjects out of the Egyptian darkness, the Babylonian bonds that the pope had brought his subjects under. And so contemning the threats of all the world, the power of princes, rebellions of his subjects at home, and the raging of so many and mighty potentates abroad; set forward a reformation in religion, beginning with the triple crowned head at first, and so came down to the members, bishops, abbots, priors, and such like.”—Strype’s Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol. i. p. 112.

“Upon the Lady Anne waited a young fair gentlewoman, named Mrs. Gainsford; and in her service was also retained Mr. George Zouch. This gentleman, of a comely sweet person, a Zouch indeed, was a suitor in the way of marriage to the said young lady: and among other love tricks, once he plucked from her a book in Englishe, called Tyndall’s Obedience, which the Lady Anne had lent her to read. About which time the Cardinal had given commandment to the prelates, and especially to Dr. Sampson, dean of the king’s chapel, that they should have a vigilant eye over all people for such books, that they came not abroad; that so as much as might be, they might not come to the king’s reading. But this which he most feared fell out upon this occasion. For Mr. Zouch (I use the words of the MS.) was so ravished with the spirit of God speaking now as well in the heart of the reader, as first it did in the heart of the maker of the book, that he was never well but when he was reading of that book. Mrs. Gainsford wept because she could not get the book from her wooer, and he was as ready to weep to deliver it. But see the providence of God:—Mr. Zouch standing in the chapel before Dr. Sampson, ever reading upon this book; and the dean never having his eye off the book, in the gentleman’s hand, called him to him, and then snatched the book out of his hand, asked his name, and whose man he was. And the book he delivered to the cardinal. In the meantime, the Lady Anne asketh her woman for the book. She on her knees told all the circumstances. The Lady Anne showed herself not sorry nor angry with either of the two. But, said she, ‘Well, it shall be the dearest book that ever the dean or cardinal took away.’ The noblewoman goes to the king, and upon her knees she desireth the king’s help for her book. Upon the king’s token the book was restored. And now bringing the book to him, she besought his grace most tenderly to read it. The king did so, and delighted in the book. “For (saith he) this book is for me and all kings to read.” And in a little time, by the help of this virtuous lady, by the means aforesaid, had his eyes opened to the truth, to advance God’s religion and glory, to abhor the pope’s doctrine, his lies, his pomp, and pride, to deliver his subjects out of the Egyptian darkness, the Babylonian bonds that the pope had brought his subjects under. And so contemning the threats of all the world, the power of princes, rebellions of his subjects at home, and the raging of so many and mighty potentates abroad; set forward a reformation in religion, beginning with the triple crowned head at first, and so came down to the members, bishops, abbots, priors, and such like.”—Strype’s Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol. i. p. 112.

[212]Mr. George Zouch.

[213]So it is in the Calendars prefixed to the Book of Common Prayer in Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Lord Herbert says it was the sixth, Sanders the eighth, and Archbishop Cranmer the thirteenth or fourteenth.

[214]A. D. 1534.

[215]Shaxton and Latimer.

[216]To every one of these she gave a little book of devotions, neatly written on vellum, and bound in covers of solid gold enamelled, with a ring to each cover to hang it at their girdles for their constant use and meditation.One of these little volumes, traditionally said to have been given by the queen when on the scaffold to her attendant, one of the Wyatt family, and preserved by them through several generations, was described by Vertue as being seen by him in the possession of Mr. George Wyatt of Charterhouse Square, in 1721. VideWalpole’s Miscellaneous Antiquities, printed at Strawberry Hill, 1772, No. II. p. 13. It was a diminutive volume, consisting of one hundred and four leaves of vellum, one and seven-eighths of an inch long by one and five-eighths of an inch broad; containing a metrical version of parts of thirteen Psalms: and bound in pure gold richly chased, with a ring to append it to the neck-chain or girdle. It was in Mr. Triphook’s possession in the year 1817.

One of these little volumes, traditionally said to have been given by the queen when on the scaffold to her attendant, one of the Wyatt family, and preserved by them through several generations, was described by Vertue as being seen by him in the possession of Mr. George Wyatt of Charterhouse Square, in 1721. VideWalpole’s Miscellaneous Antiquities, printed at Strawberry Hill, 1772, No. II. p. 13. It was a diminutive volume, consisting of one hundred and four leaves of vellum, one and seven-eighths of an inch long by one and five-eighths of an inch broad; containing a metrical version of parts of thirteen Psalms: and bound in pure gold richly chased, with a ring to append it to the neck-chain or girdle. It was in Mr. Triphook’s possession in the year 1817.

[217]Cosȳ: this woman’s name was Cousyns.

[218]Probably the name of one of her attendants.

[219]unless.

[220]that.

[221]Sir Francis Weston.

[222]they.

[223]note.

[224]accepts.

[225]that.

[226]i. e.what.

[227]us.

[228]Anvers, Antwerp.

[229]number.

[230]an hour.

[231]number.

[232]That is his long continuance with the cardinal.

[233]He had probably disobliged the king by his attachment to Anne Boleyn.

[234]fear.

[235]Carlisle.

[236]William Worm, whom he mentions in a former letter, as the person who betrayed him.

[237]brought.

[238]out.

[239]Antiphonars, Gralls, Orderlys, Manuals, and Professionaries, are books containing different portions of the Roman Catholic Ritual. See Percy’s Northumberland Household Book, p. 446, and Burn’s Ecclesiastical Law.

[240]licence.There is a tradition at Alnwick that an auditor was formerly confined in the dungeon under one of the towers till he could make up his accounts to his lord’s satisfaction.

[241]Dr. Augustine, or Agostino, a native of Venice, was physician to the cardinal, and was arrested at Cawood at the same time with his master, being treated with the utmost indignity: v.Life, pp. 348, 351. In the Cottonian MS. Titus b. i. fol. 365, there is a letter of his to Thomas Cromwell, in Italian, requiring speedy medical assistance, apparently for Cardinal Wolsey. It is dated Asher, Jan. 19th, 1529-30. Cavendish describes him as being dressed in a “boistous gown of black velvet;” with which he overthrew one of the silver crosses, which broke Bonner’s head in its fall.

[242]Premunire.

[243]soweth.

[244]f.rest thereof.

[245]This mention of omens reminds me that Dr. Wordsworth in his notes to Wolsey’s Life has related the following affecting anecdote of Archbishop Laud."The year 1639 we all know was big with events calamitous to Laud, and to the church and monarchy. In Lambeth Library is preserved a small pane of glass, in which are written with a diamond pencil the following words:Memorand: Ecclesiæ deMicham, Cheme et Stone, cum aliisfulguro combusta suntJanuar: 14, 1638/9.Omen evertat Deus.On a piece of paper the same size as the glass and kept in the same case with it, is written by the hand of Abp. Wake, as follows: “This glasse was taken out of the west-window of the gallery at Croydon before I new-built it: and is, as I take it, the writing of Abp. Laud’s own hand.”

[245]This mention of omens reminds me that Dr. Wordsworth in his notes to Wolsey’s Life has related the following affecting anecdote of Archbishop Laud.

"The year 1639 we all know was big with events calamitous to Laud, and to the church and monarchy. In Lambeth Library is preserved a small pane of glass, in which are written with a diamond pencil the following words:

Memorand: Ecclesiæ deMicham, Cheme et Stone, cum aliisfulguro combusta suntJanuar: 14, 1638/9.Omen evertat Deus.

On a piece of paper the same size as the glass and kept in the same case with it, is written by the hand of Abp. Wake, as follows: “This glasse was taken out of the west-window of the gallery at Croydon before I new-built it: and is, as I take it, the writing of Abp. Laud’s own hand.”

[246]umber, i. e. shade,ombre, Fr.

[247]kynd, isnature.

[248]gystes, orgests, areactions.

[249]For hisbehove, for hisbehooforadvantage.

[250]To put inure, i. e. to put inuse. Thus in Ferrex and Porrex, by Sackville:And wisdome willed me without protractIn speedie wise to put the same inure.

[250]To put inure, i. e. to put inuse. Thus in Ferrex and Porrex, by Sackville:

And wisdome willed me without protractIn speedie wise to put the same inure.

And wisdome willed me without protract

In speedie wise to put the same inure.

[251]estatts, i. e. nobles, persons of rank or great estate.

[252]This word was used by our ancestors to signify any thinggreasyorfilthy; the revolutions of language have at length confined it to one only of its ancient acceptations, that ofobscenity.

[253]sely, i. e.simple.

[254]gold and byse, is gold andpurple.

[255]entaylled, i. e. carved, vide p.300.

[256]This is no uninteresting picture of the seclusion desired by our ancestors in the old geometric style of gardening. Of this curious knot-garden of Wolsey the remains are still to be seen at Hampton Court, the maze there forming part of it.

[257]I past not of, i. e. I cared not for.

[258]vaylled, availed.

[259]rathest, i. e. soonest.

[260]blent, i. e.blind.

[261]This is a version of the concluding passage of the Life of the Cardinal.

[262]wyst, i. e. knew.

[263]for thenons, ornonce, for thepurpose.

[264]This isTittenhanger, in Hertfordshire, which Wolsey held as Abbot of St. Albans: there was formerly a palace belonging to the Abbots of St. Albans there.

[265]Sheets ofRaynes. The fine linen used by our ancestors is frequently called cloth ofRaynes. Rennes in Brittanny was formerly celebrated for its manufacture of fine linen. In the enumeration of the cardinal’s treasures at Hampton Court, many pieces of cloth of Raynes are mentioned. In the Old Phrase Book, entitled Vulgaria, by W. Horman, 1519, is the following passage: “He weareth a shurte ofRayniswhan curser wold serve him.”

[266]“Andforthe hurt of envy,” i. e.againstthe hurt of envy. Envy being thecauseof his seeking to shrowd himself.

[267]Ashrowd, signified a shield or buckler, and metaphorically any kind of defence, coverture, or place of protection.

[268]——“least I shold fallIn the dayngerof the learned and honorable sort.”That is, “lest I should encounter theircensure, or fall into the control of their severe judgment.” The phrase has its origin from the barbarous Latinin dangerio, and is common to Chaucer and our elder writers as well as to Shakspeare and his cotemporaries.

[268]——“least I shold fallIn the dayngerof the learned and honorable sort.”

That is, “lest I should encounter theircensure, or fall into the control of their severe judgment.” The phrase has its origin from the barbarous Latinin dangerio, and is common to Chaucer and our elder writers as well as to Shakspeare and his cotemporaries.

[269]By this is meant the Fourth Year of the Reign of Philip, and the Fifth of Queen Mary, answering to 1558. The Latin rhyming couplet Cavendish appears to have added after the commencement of Elizabeth’s reign. How far from a true prophecy it proved, the long and prosperous reign of Elizabeth may witness.

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