a fire by blowing in the dead ashes)—when, I say, a man looketh into the cause and ground of this plentiful yield of libels, he will cease to marvel; considering the concurrence which is as well in the nature of the seed as in the travail of tilling and dressing, yea and in the fitness of the season for the bringing up of these1 infectious weeds.

But to verify the saying of our Saviour, non est discipulus super magistrum, as they have sought to deprave her Majesty's government in herself, so have they not forgotten to do the same in her principal servants and counsellors; thinking belike that as the immediate invectives against her Majesty do best satisfy the malice of the foreigner, so the slander and calumniation of her principal counsellors agreeth3 best with the humours of some malcontents within the realm; imagining also that it was like such books should be more read here and freelier dispersed, and also should be less odious to those foreigners which were not merely partial and passionate; who have for the most part in detestation the traitorous libellings of subjects directly against their natural prince.

Amongst the rest in this kind, there hath been published this present year of 1592 a libel that giveth place to none of the rest in malice and untruths," though inferior to most of them in penning and style; the author having chosen the vein of a Lucianist, and yet being a counterfeit even in that kind. This libel is entitled, A Declaration of the true Causes of the great Troubles presupposed to be intended against the Realm of England, and hath a semblance as if it were only bent against the doings of her Majesty's ancient and worthy counsellor the Lord Burghley, whose carefulness and pains her Majesty hath used in her counsels and actions of this realm for these four and thirty years' space in all dangerous times and amidst many and mighty practices, and with such success as our enemies are put still to their papershot of such libels as these; the memory whereof will remain in this land when all these libels shall be extinct and forgotten, according to the Scripture, Memoria justi cum laudibus, at impiBut it is more than evident by the parts

orum nomen putrescet.

9

of the same10 book that the author's malice was to her Majesty

and her government; as may specially appear in this, that he chargeth1 not his Lordship with any particular actions of his private life (such power had2 truth), whereas the libels made against other counsellors have principally insisted upon that part,3 but hath only wrested and detorted such actions of state as in times of his service have been managed, and depraving them hath ascribed and imputed to him the effects that have followed indeed to the good of the realm and the honour of her Majesty, though sometimes to the provoking of the malice, but abridging of the power and means, of desperate and incorrigible" subjects.

All which slanders as his Lordship might justly despise, both for their manifest untruths and for the baseness and obscurity of the author, so nevertheless, according to the moderation which his Lordship useth in all things, never claiming the privilege of his authority when it is question of satisfying the world, he hath been content that they be not passed over altogether in silence ;7 whereupon I have, in particular duty to his Lordship (amongst others that do honour, and love his Lordship and that have diligently observed his actions) and in zeal of truth, collected3 upon the reading of the said libel certain observations; not in form of a just answer, lest I should fall into the error whereof Salomon speaketh thus, Answer not a fool in his own kind, lest thou also be like him; but only to discover the malice and to reprove and convict the untruths thereof: [not doubting but if his Lordship were disposed to enter himself with the libeller into contestation (which he disdaineth to do) he would with a multitude of good witnesses which have been partakers with him in his public service, yea with a princely asseveration of her Majesty (to whom his fidelity is best known), confound the libeller and make him justly odious to all good men ; yea even to a number of persons that for respect of religion do not allow of his actions, and yet in some moderation do not condemn him for his life and manners, nor for his dexterity in all civil causes both of state and justice].10

3 part omitted in B, H, and the words repeated in H.

4 extorted: C.

5 irrevocable: B, C, H. 6 questioned: B. in question: A. 7 So A. he hath thought convenient: C. His Lordship's friends have thought it convenient not [not convenient: H] to pass them over altogether in silence (as others have done): B.

8 marked: B, H.

9 certain observations omitted in B.

10 The passage within brackets is found with one or two slight variations, obviously accidental, in B, C, H; not in A.

The points that I have observed upon the reading of this libel are these following:

I. Of the scope or drift of the libeller.

II. Of the present estate1 of this realm of England, whether it may be truly avouched to be prosperous or afflicted.

III. Of the proceedings against the pretended Catholics, whether they have been violent or moderate and necessary.

IV. Of the disturbance of the quiet of Christendom, and to what causes it may be justly imputed.

V. Of the cunning of the libeller, in palliation of his malicious invective against her Majesty and the state with pretence of taxing only the actions of the Lord Burghley.

VI. Certain true general notes upon the actions of the Lord Burghley.

VII. Of divers particular untruths and abuses dispersed through the libel.

VIII. Of the height of impudency that these men are grown unto in publishing and avouching untruths; with particular recital of some of them for an assay.

I. Of the scope or drift of the libeller.

It is good advice in dealing with cautelous and malicious persons (whose speech is ever at distance with their meanings), non quid dixerint sed quid spectárint videndum; a man is not to regard what they affirm or what they hold, but what they would convey under their pretended discourse, and what turn they would serve.

It soundeth strange1 in the ears of an Englishman," that "the miseries of the present estate of England exceed them of all former times whatsoever." One would straightway think with himself, doth this man believe what he saith; or, not believing it, doth he think it possible to make us believe it? Surely, in my conceit, neither of both. But his end no doubt was, to round the Pope and the King of Spain in the ear by seeming to tell a tale to the people of England. For such books are ever wont to be translated into divers languages; and no doubt the man was not so simple as to think he could persuade the people of England the

1 state: B.

4 strangely: C.

2 that which: B.
5 all Englishmen : A.

3 course: H. discoverie: A.
6 all omitted in A and C.

contrary of that they taste and feel; but he thought he might better abuse the states abroad if he directed his speech to them who could best convict him and disprove him if he said untrue; so that as Livy saith in the like case, Etolos magis coram quibus verba facerent quam ad quos pensi habere; that the Etolians, in their talk' did more respect those which did overhear them than those to whom they directed their speech; so in this matter3 this fellow cared not to be counted a liar by all England, upon price of deceiving of Spain and Italy. For it must be understood that it hath been the general practice of this kind of men many years,of the one side, to abuse the foreign estates by making them believe that all is out of joint and ruinous here in England, and that there is a great part ready to join with the invader; and on the other side, to make evil subjects of England believe of great preparations abroad and in great readiness to be put in act; and so to deceive on both sides. And this I take to be his principal drift. So again it is an extravagant and incredible conceit to imagine that all the conclusions and actions of estate which have passed during her Majesty's reign should be ascribed to one counsellor alone, and to such an one as was never noted for an imperious or overruling man. And to say that though he carried them not by violence, yet he compassed them by device, there is no man of judgment that looketh into the nature of these times, but will easily descry that the wits of these days are too much refined, and practice too much in use,5 for any man to walk invisible, or to make all the world his instruments. And therefore, no not in this point assuredly, the libeller spake as he thought. But this he foresaw, that the imputation of cunning doth breed suspicion, and the imputation of greatness and sway doth breed envy. And therefore finding where he was most wrung and by whose policy and experience their plots were most crossed, the mark he shot at was to see whether he could heave at his Lordship's authority by making him suspected to the Queen or generally odious to the realm; knowing well enough for the one point, that there are not only jealousies, but certain revolutions in princes' minds, so that it is a rare virtue in the rarest princes to continue constant to the end in their favours and

1 tale: C, H.

2 ever hear: A, C.

3 in like manner: H. in the same manner: B.
From and to use omitted in A, C. 6 feeling: B.

4 have been: B, H.

7 his : A.

2

employments; and knowing for the other point, that envy ever accompanieth greatness though never so well deserved, and that his Lordship hath always marched a round and real course in service, and as he hath not moved envy by pomp and ostentation, so hath he never extinguished it by any popular or insinuative carriage of himself. And this no doubt was his second drift.

A third drift was, to assay if he could supplant and weaken (by this violent3 kind of libelling, and turning the whole imputation upon his Lordship) his resolution and courage, and to make him proceed more cautely and not so throughly and strongly against them; knowing his Lordship to be a politic man, and one that hath a great stake to lose.

8

Lastly, lest while I discover the cunning and art of this fellow," I should make him wiser than he was, I think a great part of the cause of this book was passion. Difficile est tacere cum doleas. The humours of these men being of themselves eager and fierce, have by the abort and blasting of their hopes been kindled 10 and enraged. And surely this book is of all that sort that have1l been written of the meanest workmanship; being fraughted12 with sundry base scoffs and cold amplifications and other characters of despite, but void of all judgment or ornament.

II. Of the present state of this realm of England, whether it may be truly avouched to be prosperous or afflicted.

The benefits of Almighty God upon this land, since the time that in his singular providence he led as it were by the hand. and placed in the kingdom his servant our Queen Elizabeth, are such as, not in boasting or in confidence of ourselves but in praise of his blessed13 name, are worthy to be both considered and confessed, yea and registered in perpetual memory. Notwithstanding, I mean not after the manner of a panegyric to extol the present time. It shall suffice only that those men that through the gall and bitterness of their own heart have lost their

4 upon his Lordship's resolution: B, H.

5 cautelly: A. cautellie: C.

7 against them omitted in B.

the cause of omitted in A, C.

cautelously: H.

3 violent omitted in B.

6 thoroughly: B.

10 blynded: A.

8 the libeller: B. of this book omitted in H.

11 this book of all, etc., written, is: B. hath : C, H. 12 fraught: A, H. 13 holy: A.