That he may live, with this his first-born son, And this young Lady Vere, that's held so dear And lastly for m May it please yo And that the ho II. THE GARDENER'S SPEECH. the Virtues, all Most fortunate and fair queen, on whose heart | maketh time itsel Wisdom hath laid her crown, and in whose hands Justice hath left her balance, vouchsafe to hear a country controversy, for that there is as great equity in defending of poor men's onions as of rich men's lands. At Pymms, some four miles hence, the youngest son of this honourable old man (whom God bless with as many years and virtues as there be of him conceived hopes [and] wishes!) devised a plot for a garden, as methought, and in a place unfit for pleasure, being overgrown with thistles and turned up with moles, and besides so far from the house that, in my country capacity, a pound had been meeter than a paradise. What his meaning was I durst not inquire, for sunt animis celestibus iræ; but what my labours were I dare boast of. The moles destroyed and the plot levelled, I cast it into four quarters. In the first I framed a maze, not of hyssop and thyme, but that which *Pymms] Qy. "Mimms"? winding and wreat contending to b cherished: all thi and of flowers fa heavenly a maze, thought's promise roses, flowers fit for in themselves, as above an hundred; coloured," but in diversely beautified flowers, being of s all sovereign. These mingled i such shapes as poet. made mine eyes da my thoughts amazed ' partly-coloured] i. e out the checkerd paur -Greene's Quip for on was I commanded to place an arbour all of eglantine, in which my master's conceit outstripped my cunning: "Eglantine," quoth he, "I most honour, and it hath been told me that the deeper it is rooted in the ground, the sweeter it smelleth in the flower, making it ever so green that the sun of Spain at the hottest cannot parch it." As he was telling me more, I, intending* my work more than his words, set my spade with all force into the earth, and, at the first, hit upon the box. This ratcatcher (as children do when any thing is found) cried, "Half!" which I denying, [he] claimed all, because he killed the moles, and if the moles had not been destroyed, there had been no garden; if no garden, no digging; if no digging, no box found. At length this box bred boxes betwixt us; till weary of those black and blue judges, we determined to appeal to your majesty, into whose hands we both commit the box and the cause, [I] hoping that this weasel monger, who is no better than a cat in a house or a ferret in a cony-gat,* shall not dissuade your majesty from a gardener whose art is to make walks pleasant for princes, to set flowers, cast knots, graft trees, to do all things that may bring pleasure and profit; and so to give him one gird† for all, as much odds as there is between a woodcleaver and a carpenter, so great difference in this matter is between the molecatcher and the gardener. WRITTEN ABOUT THE BOX. I was a giant's daughter of this isle, Again never from the earth to be torn, III. THE MOLECATCHER'S SPEECH. Good lady, and the best that ever I saw, or any shall, give me leave to tell a plain tale, in which there is no device, but desert enough. | I went to seek you at Greenwich; and there it was told me that the queen was gone from the court: I wondered that the body should start from the shadow. Next was I pointed to | Hackney; there they said the court was gone into the country: I had thought to have made hue and cry, thinking that he that stole fire from heaven had stolen our heaven from earth. At the last I met with a post who told me you were at Theobald's: I was glad, for that next your majesty I honour the owner of that house, wishing that his virtues may double his years and yours treble. I cannot discourse of knots and mazes: sure I am that the ground was so knotty that the gardener was amazed to see it; and as easy had it been, if I had not been, to make a shaft of a * intending] i. e. attending to. the box] Had probably been mentioned before in some "Speech" which has not come down to us: but qy. "this box"? cammock as a garden of that croft. I came§ not to claim any right for myself, but to give you yours; for that, had the bickering been between us, there should have needed no other justice of peace than this,|| to have made him a mittimus to the first gardener that ever was, Adam. 66 I went to lawyers to ask counsel, who made law like a plaice, a black side and a white; "for," said one, "it belongeth to the lord of the soil, by the custom of the manor." Nay," said the other, "it is treasure trove." "What's that?" quoth I. "Marry, all money or jewels hidden in the earth are the queen's." Noli me tangere: I let go my hold, and desire your majesty that you will hold yours. Now, for that this gardener twitteth me with my vocation, I could prove it a mystery not mechanical, and tell the tale of the giant's daughter which was turned to a mole because she would eat fairer bread than is made of wheat, cony-gat] i. e. rabbit-burrow. t gird] i. e. hit, scoff. cammock] i. e. crooked tree, or knee-timber. § came] Qy. "come"? this] "his molespade." Marginal note in MS. wear finer cloth than is made of wool, drink neater wine than is made of grapes; why she was blind, and yet light of hearing; and how good clerks told me that moles in fields were like ill subjects in commonwealths, which are always turning up the place in which they are bred. But I will not trouble your majesty, but every day pray on my heavers at your blessing,-a knoc tree. Now, madı him to end his g be past, let him w worms like a lapv The Honour of the Garter. Displaied in a Poeme gratulatorie: Entitled to the worthie and renowned Eirle of Northeas berland. Created Knight of that Order, and installd at Windsore. Anno Regni Elizabethæ. 35. Die Juni 26. Bj George Peele, Maister of Artes in Oxenforde. At London, Printed by the Widdowe Charlewood, for John Barbie, and an o be sold at the West doore of Paules. 4to. [1593.] On the back of the title are the arms of Elizabeth with the motto "Semper eadem," and under them thes verses; My copy "Gallia victa dedit flores, invicta Leones Anglia; ius belli in flore, leone suum: of this poem differs here and there from the copy in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford,-alterations having been made in the text after a part of the impression was thrown off. Henry, the ninth Earl of Northumberland, was born in 1564. Miss Aikin has given so elegant a sketch of his life, that I cannot do better than transcribe it here. "Immediately after the fatal catastrophe of his father is 1585, this young nobleman, anxious apparently to efface the stigma of popery and disaffection stamped by the rash attempts of his uncle and father on the gallant name of Percy, had seized the opportunity of embarking with Leicester for the wars of the Low Countries. He now sought distinction on another element and in a cause still nearer to the hearts of Englishmen [i. e. when in 1588 he joined the fleet against the Spanish Armada, on board a vessel hired by himself]. The conversion to Protestantism and loyalty of the head of such a house could not bus be regarded by Elizabeth with feelings of peculiar complacency; and in 1593 she was pleased to confer upon the earl the insignia of the Garter. He was present in 1601 at the siege of Ostend; where he considered himself as so much aggrieved by the conduct of Sir Francis Vere, that on the return of this officer to England he sent him a challenge. During the decline of the queen's health, Northumberland was distinguished by the warmth with which he embraced the interests of the King of Scots; and he was the first privy-councillor named by James on his accession to the English throne. But the fate of his family seemed still to pursue him: on some unsupported charges connected with the gun-powder plot, he was stripped of all his offices, heavily fined, and sentenced to perpetual imprisonment; the tardy mercy of the king procured, however, his release at the end of fifteen years; and he passed the remainder of his life in tranquil and honourable retirement. This unfortunate nobleman was a person of considerable talents: the abundant leisure for intellectual pursuits afforded by his long captivity was chiefly employed by him in the study of the mathematics, including perhaps the occult sciences; and as he was permitted to enjoy freely the conversation of such men of learning as he was desirous of assembling around him, he became one of their most bountiful patrons." He died in 1632. All that is known concerning this nobleman is to be found in Collins's Peerage, by Sir E. Brydges, vol il p. 328. * Mentioned in the former editions of the present collection as being in the possession of Mr. Thorpe tie bookseller. Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth, vol. ii. p. 219. Let me observe that one of the weakest parts of Miss Aikin's pleasing work is her account of the early English dramatists: she appears to have little or no acquaintance with them, and has drawn her notices not from the best sources. She does not mention Peele. |