Privy-Councel and by him advanced to be Lord Wotton Baron of Merley in Kent and made Lord Lieutenant of that County Sir James the second son may be numbred among the Martial men of his age who was in the 38 of Queen Elizabeths Reign with Robert Earl of Sussex Count Lodowick of Nassaw Don Christophoro son of Antonio King of Portugal and divers other Gentlemen of Nobleness and Valour Knighted in the Field near Cadiz in Spain after they had gotten great Honour and Riches besides a notable retaliation of Injuries by taking that Town Sir John being a Gentleman excellently accomplished both by Learning and Travel was Knighted by Queen Elizabeth and by her look'd upon with more then ordinary favour and intentions of preferment but Death in his younger years put a period to his growing hopes Of Sir Henry my following discourse shall give an account The descent of these fore-named Wottons were all in a direct Line and most of them and their actions in the memory of those with whom we have conversed But if I had look'd so far back as to Sir Nicolas Wotton who lived in the Reign of King Richard the second or before him upon divers others of great note in their several Ages I might by some be thought tedious and yet others may more justly think me negligent if I omit to mention Nicholas Wotton the fourth Son of Sir Robert whom I first named This Nicholas Wotton was Doctor of Law and sometime Dean of Canterbury a man whom God did not onely bless with a long life but with great abilities of mind and an inclination to imploy them in the service of his Country as is testified by his several Imployments having been sent nine times Ambassadour unto forraign Princes and being a Privy Councellor to King Henry the eighth to Edward the sixth to Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth who also after he had during the Wars between England Scotland and France been three several times and not unsuccessfully imployed in Committies for setling of peace betwixt this and those Kingdomes dyed saith learned Cambden full of Commendations for Wisdom and Piety He was also by the Will of King Henry the eighth made one of his Executors and chief Secretary of State to his Son that pious Prince Edward the sixth Concerning which Nicholas Wotton I shall say but this little more That he refused being offered it by Queen Elizabeth to be Arch-bishop of Canterbury and that he dyed not rich though he lived in that time of the dissolution of Abbeys More might be added but by this it may appear that Sir Henry Wotton was a Branch of such a kindred as left a Stock of Reputation to their Posterity such Reputation as might kindle a generous emulation in strangers and preserve a noble ambition in those of his name and Family to perform Actions worthy of their Ancestors And that Sir Henry Wotton did so might appear more perfectly then my Pen can express it if of his many surviving friends some one of higher parts and imployment had been pleased to have commended his to Posterity But since some years are now past and they have all I know not why forborn to do it my gratitude to the memory of my dead friend and the renewed request of some that still live solicitous to see this duty performed these have had a power to perswade me to undertake it which truly I have not done but with some distrust of mine own Abilities and yet so far from despair that I am modestly confident my humble language shall be accepted because I present all Readers with a Commixture of truth and Sir Henry Wotton's merits This being premised I proceed to tell the Reader that the father of Sir Henry Wotton was twice married first to Elizabeth the Daughter of Sir John Rudstone Knight after whose death though his inclination was averse to all Contentions yet necessitated he was to several Suits in Law in the prosecution whereof which took up much of his time and were the occasion of many Discontents he was by divers of his friends earnestly perswaded to a re-marriage to whom he as often answered That if ever he did put on a resolution to marry he was seriously resolved to avoid three sorts of persons namely those that had Children that had Law-suits that were of his Kindred And yet following his own Law-suits he met in Westminster-Hall with one Mistress Morton Widow to Morton of Kent Esquire who was also engaged in several suits in Law and he observing her Comportment at the time of hearing one of her Causes before the Judges could not but at the same time both compassionate her Condition and yet so affect her Person that although there were in her a concurrence of all those accidents against which he had so seriously resolved yet his affection to her grew then so strong that he resolved to solicite her for a Wife and did and obtained her By her who was the Daughter of Sir William Finch of Eastwell in Kent he had Henry his youngest son His Mother undertook to be Tutoress unto him during much of his Childhood for whose care and pains he paid her each day with such visible signes of future perfection in Learning as turned her imployment into a pleasing-trouble which she was content to continue till his Father took him into his own particular care and disposed of him to a Tutor in his own House at Bocton And when time and diligent instruction had made him fit for a removal to an higher Form which was very early he was sent to Winchester-School a place of strict Discipline and Order that so he might in his youth be moulded into a Method of living by Rule which his wise Father knew to be the most necessary way to make the future part of his life both happy to himself and useful for the discharge of all business whether publick or private And that he might be confirmed in this regularity he was at a fit age removed from that School to New-Colledge in Oxford both being founded by William Wickham Bishop of VVinchester There he continued till about the eighteenth year of his Age and was then transplanted into Queens-Colledge where within that year he was by the chief of that Colledge perswasively injoyned to write a play for their private use it was the Tragedy of Tancredo which was so interwoven with Sentences and for the Method and exact personating those humours passions and dispositions which he proposed to represent so performed that the gravest of that society declared he had in a sleight imployment given an early and a solid testimony of his future abilities And though there may be some sower dispositions which may think this not worth a memorial yet that wise Knight Baptista Guarini whom learned Italy accounts one of her ornaments thought it neither an uncomely nor an unprofitable imployment for his Age. But I pass to what will be thought more serious About the nineteenth
with her presence I leave to the most hopeful Prince the Picture of the elected and crowned Queen of Bohemia his Aunt of clear and resplendent vertues through the clouds of her Fortune To my Lords Grace of Canterbury now being I leave my Picture of Divine Love rarely copied from one in the Kings Galleries of my presentation to his Majesty beseeching him to receive it as a pledge of my humble reverence to his great Wisdom And to the most worthy Lord Bishop of London Lord high Treasurer of England in true admiration of his Christian simplicity and contempt of earthly pomp I leave a Picture of Heraclitus bewailing and Democritus laughing at the world Most humbly beseeching the said Lord Archbishop his Grace and the Lord Bishop of London of both whose favours I have tasted in my life time to intercede with our most gracious Soveraign after my death in the bowels of Jesus Christ That out of compassionate memory of my long Services wherein I more studied the publick Honour then mine own Utility some Order may be taken out of my Arrears due in the Exchequer for such satisfaction of my Creditors as those whom I have Ordained Supervisors of this my â—ast Will and Testament shall present unto their Lordships without their farther trouble Hoping likewise in his Majesties most indubitable Goodness that he will keep me from all prejudice which I may otherwise suffer by any defect of formality in the Demand of my said Arrears To for a poor addition to his Cabinet I leave as Emblems of his attractive Vertues and Obliging Nobleness my great Load-stone and a piece of Amber of both kindes naturally united and onely differing in degree of Concoction which is thought somewhat rare Item A piece of Christal Sexangular as they grow all grasping divers several things within it which I bought among the Rhâ—â—tian Alps in the very place where it grew recommending most humbly unto his Lordship the reputation of my poor Name in the point of my debts as I have done to the forenamed Spiritual Lords and am heartily sorry that I have no better token of my humble thankfulness to his honoured Person It ' I leave to Sir Francis Windebank one of his Majesties principall Secretaries of State whom I found my great friend in point of Necessity the four Seasons of old Bassano to hang near the Eye in his Parlour being in little form which I bought at Venice where I first entred into his most worthy Acquaintance To the above named Doctor Bargrave Dean of Canterbury I leave all my Italian Books not disposed in this Will I leave to him likewise my Viol de Gamba which hath been twice with me in Italy in which Country I first contracted with him an unremovable Affection To my other Supervisor Mr. Nicholas Pey I leave my Chest or Cabinet of Instruments and Engines of all kinds of uses in the lower box whereof are some fit to be bequeathed to none but so entire an honest man as he is I leave him likewise forty pound for his pains in the solicitation of my Arrears and am sorry that my ragged Estate can reach no further to one that hath taken such care for me in the same kind during all my forreign Imployments To the Library at Eaton Colledg I leave all my Manuscripts not before disposed and to each of the Fellows a plain Ring â—of Gold enameld black all save the verge with this Motto within Amor unit omnia This is my last Will and Testament save that shall be added by a Schedule thereunto annexed Written on the first of October in the present year of our Redemption 1637. And subscribed by my self with the Testimony of these Witnesses Nich. Oudert Geo. Lash H. Wotton ANd now because the mind of man is best satisfied by the knowledge of Events I think fit to declare that every one that was named in his Will did gladly receive their Legacies by which and his most just and passionate desires for the payment of his debts they joyned in assisting the Overseers of his Will and by their joynt endeavours to the King then whom none was more willing conscionable satisfaction was given for his just debts The next thing wherewith I shall acquaint the Reader is That he went usually once a year if not oftner to the beloved Bocton-hall where he would say he found both cure for all cares by the company which he called the living furniture of that place and a restorative of his strength by the Connaturalness of that which he called his genial aire He yearly went also to Oxford But the Summer before his death he changed that for a journey to Winchester Colledge to which School he was first removed from Bocton And as he returned from Winchester towards Eaton Colledge said to a friend his Companion in that Journey How usefull was that advice of a Holy Monk who perswaded his friend to perform his Customary devotions in a constant place because in that place we usually meet with those very thoughts which possessed us at our last being there And I find it thus far experimentally true that at my now being in that School and seeing that very place where I sate when I was a boy occasioned me to remember those very thoughts of my youth which then possessed me sweet thoughts indeed that promised my growing years numerous pleasures without mixtures of cares and those to be enjoyed when time which I therefore thought slow pac'd had changed my youth into manhood But age and experience have taught me that those were but empty hopes And though my dayes have been many and those mixt with more pleasures than the sons of men do usually enjoy yet I have alwâ—â—es found it true as my Saviour did fore-tell Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof Nevertheless I saw there a succession of boyes using the same recreations and questionless possessed with the same thoughts that then possessed me Thus one generation succeeds another both in their lives recreations hopes fears and dâ—aths Aâ—ter his return from Winchester which was about nine Moneths before his death he fell into a dangerous Fever which weakned him much he was then also much troubled with an Asthma or continual short spitting but that infirmity he seemed to overcome in a good degree by leaving Tobacco which he had taken somewhat immoderately And about two moneths before his death in October 1639. he again fell into a Fever which though he seem'd to recover yet these still left him so weak that those common infirmities which were wont like civil Friends to visit him and after some short time to depart came both oftner and at last took up their constant habitations with him still weakning his body of which he grew dayly more sensible retiring oftner into his Study and making many Papers that had past his Pen both in the dayes of his youth and business useless by fire These and several unusual expressions to his Friends seemed
1670. Sam Woodforde The LIFE OF Mr. GEORGE HERBERT THE Introduction IN a late retreat from the business of this World and those many little cares with which I have too often incumbred my self I fell into a Contemplation of some of those Historical passages that are recorded in Sacred Story and more particularly of what had past betwixt our Blessed Saviour and that wonder of Women and Sinners and Mourners Saint Mary Magdalen I call her Saint because I did not then nor do now consider her as when she was possest with seven Devils not as when her wanton Eyes and dissheveld Hair were designed and manag'd to charm and insnare amorous Beholders But I did then and do now consider her as after she had exprest a visible and sacred sorrow for her sensualities as after those Eyes had wept such a flood of penitential tears as did wash and that hair had wip't and she most passionately kist the feet of hers and our blessed Jesus And I do now consider that because she lov'd much not only much was forgiven her but that beside that blessed blessing of having her sins pardoned she also had from him a testimony that her alablaster box of precious oyntment poured on his head and feet and that Spikenard and those Spices that were by her dedicated to embalm and preserve his sacred body from putrefaction should so far preserve her own memory that these demonstrations of her sanctified love and of her officious and generous gratitude should be recorded and mentioned wheresoever his Gospel should be read intending thereby that as his so her name should also live to succeeding generations even till time shall be no more Upon occasion of which fair example I did lately look back and not without some content at least to my self that I have endeavour'd to deserve the love and preserve the memory of my two deceased friends Dr. Donne and Sir Henry Wotton by declaring the various employments and accidents of their Lives And though Mr. George Herbert whose Life I now intend to write were to me a stranger as to his person yet since he was and was worthy to be their friend and very many of his have been mine I judge it may not be unacceptable to thoseâ— that knew any of them in their lives or do now know their Writings to see this Conjunction of them after their deaths without which many things that concern'd them and some things that concern'd the Age in which they livâ—d would be less perfect and lost to posterity For these Reasons I have undertaken it and if I have prevented any abler person I beg pardon of him and my Reader The Life GEorge Herbert was born the Third day of April in the Year of our Redemption 1593. The place of his Birth was near to the Town of Montgomery and in that Castle that did then bear the name of that Town and County that Castle was then a place of state and strength and had been successively happy in the Family of the Herberts who had long possest it and with it a plentiful Estate and hearts as liberal to their poor Neighbours A Family that hath been blest with men of remarkable wisdom and with a willingness to serve their Countrey and indeed to do good to all Mankind for which they were eminent But alas this Family did in the late Rebellion suffer extremely in their Estates and the Heirs of that Castle saw it laid level with that earth that was too good to bury those Wretches that were the cause of it The Father of our George was Richard Herbert the Son of Edward Herbert Knight the Son of Richard Herbert Knight the Son of the famous Sir Richard Herbert of Colebrook in the County of Monmouth Banneret who was the youngest Brother of that memorable William Herbert Earl of Pembroke that liv'd in the Reign of our King Edward the fourth His Mother was Magdalen Newport the youngest Daughter of Sir Richard and Sister to Sir Francis Newport of High Arkall in the County of Salop Knight and Grand-father of Francis Lord Newport now Comptroller of His Majesties Houshold A Family that for their Loyalty have suffered much in their Estates and seen the ruine of that excellent Structure where their Ancestors have long liv'd and been memorable for their Hospitality This Mother of George Herbert of whose person and wisdom and vertue I intend to give a true account in a seasonable place was the happy Mother of seven Sons and three Daughters which she would often say was Jobs number and as often bless God that they were neither defective in their shapes or in their reason and often reprove them that did not praise God for so great a blessing I shall give the Reader a short accompt of their names and not say much of their Fortunes Edward the eldest was first made Knight of the Bath at that glorious time of our late Prince Henries being install'd Knight of the Garter and after many years useful travel and the attainment of many Languages he was by King James sent Ambassador Resident to the then French King Lewis the Thirteenth There he continued about two Years but he could not subject himself to a compliance with the humors of the Duke de Luines who was then the great and powerful Favourite at Court so that upon a complaint to our King he was call'd back into England in some displeasure but at his return he gave such an honourable account of his employment and so justified his Comportment to the Duke and all the Court that he was suddenly sent back upon the same Embassie from which he return'd in the beginning of the Reign of our good King Charles the first who made him first Baron of Castle-Island and not long after of Cherberie in the County of Salop He was a man of great learning and reason as appears by his printed Book de veritate and by his History of the Reign of King Henry the Eight and by several other Tracts The second and third Brothers were Richard and William who ventur'd their lives to purchase Honour in the Wars of the Low Countries and dyed Officers in that employment Charles was the fourth and dyed Fellow of New-Colledge in Oxford Henry was the sixth who became a menial servant to the Crown in the dayes of King James and hath continued to be so for fifty years during all which time he hath been Master of the Revels a place that requires a diligent wisdome with which God hath blest him The seventh Son was Thomas who being made Captain of a Ship in that Fleet with which Sir Robert Mansell was sent against Algiers â—id there shew a fortunate and true English valor Of the three Sisters I need not say more then that they were all married to persons of worth and plentiful fortunes and liv'd to be examples of vertue and to do good in their generations I now come to give my intended account of George who was the fifth of
l. 24. r. do it 32. l. 2. r. fortune 63. l. 121. r. Dort In Sir H. Wotton 29. l. 10. r. samed 35. l. 9. as well 37. l. 22. dele Mr. Bedell 38. l. 17. dele mis 41. l. 8. r. delivery 45. l. 5. r. mont 47. l. 19. r. Syfiphâ— 53. l. 7. r. against 56. l. 24. r. Elegy 75. l. 19. r. those In Mr. Hoooker 25. l. 4. r. assiduous still 42. l. 7. r. God and so These must be thus corrected or that Paragraph will not be senceâ— 42 l. 11. r. and in wicked 42. l. 15. dele it 56. l. 20. r. answers In George Herbert 14. l. 4. r. his 24. dele of 32. l. 22. â—r Parish Church 33. l. 26. r. she 34. l. 4. dele at 49. l. 10. r. wants it 63. l. 24. dele too 65. l. 24. r. spirits and 72. l. 3. r. for the 80. l. 1. r. to their The Copy of a Letter writ to Mr. Isaac Walton by Doctor King Lord Bishop of Chichester Honest Isaac THough a Familiarity of more then Forty years continuance and the constant experience of your Love even in the worst times be sufficient to indear our Friendship yet I must confess my Affection much improved not onely by Evidences of private Respect to many that know and love you but by your new Demonstration of a publick Spirit testified in a diligent true and useful Collection of so many Material Passages as you have now afforded me in the Life of Venerable Mr. Hooker of which since desired by such a Friend as your self I shall not deny to give the Testimony of what I know concerning him and his learned Books but shall first here take a fair occasion to tell you that you have been happy in choosing to write the Lives of three such Persons as Posterity hath just cause to honour which they will do the more for the true Relation of them by your happy Pen of all which I shall give you my unfeigned Censure I shall begin with my most dear and incomparable Friend Dr. Donne late Dean of St. Pauls Church who not onely trusted me as his Executor but three days before his death delivered into my hands those excellent Sermons of his now made publick professing before Dr. Winniff Dr. Monford and I think your self then present at his bed side that it was by my restless importunity that he had prepared them for the Press together with which as his best Legacy he gave me all his Sermon-Notes and his other Papers containing an Extract of near Fifteen hundred Authours How these were got out of my hands you who were the Messenger for them and how lost both to me and your self is not now seasonable to complain but since they did miscarry I am glad that the general Demonstration of his Worth was so fairly preserved and represented to the World by your Pen in the History of his Life indeed so well that beside others the best Critick of our later time Mr. John Hales of Eaton Colledge affirm'd to me He had not seen a Life written with more advantage to the Subject or more reputation to the Writer then that of Dr. Donnes After the performance of this task for Dr. Donne you undertook the like office for our Friend Sir Henry Wotton betwixt which two there was a Friendship begun in Oxford continued in their various Travels and more confirmed in the religious Friendship of Age and doubtless this excellent Person had writ the Life of Dr. Donne if Death had not prevented him by which means his and your Pre-collections for that Work fell to the happy Menage of your Pen a Work which you would have declined if imperious Persuasions had not been stronger then your modest Resolutions against it And I am thus far glad that the first Life was so imposed upon you because it gave an unavoidable Cause of Writing the second if not 't is too probable we had wanted both which had been a prejudice to all Lovers of Honour and ingenious Learning And let me not leave my Friend Sir Henry without this Testimony added to yours That he was a Man of as Florid a Wit and as Elegant a Pen as any former or ours which in that kind is a most excellent Age hath ever produced And now having made this voluntary Observation of our two deceased Friends I proceed to satisfie your desire concerning what I know and believe of the ever-memorable Mr. Hooker who was Schismaticorum Mallcus so great a Champion for the Church of Englands Rights against the Factious Torrent of Separatists that then ran high against Church-Discipline and in his unanswerable Books continues to be so against the unquiet Disciples of their Schism which now under other Names still carry on their Design and who as the proper Heirs of Irrational Zeal would again take into the scarce closed Wounds of a newly bleeding State and Church And first though I dare not say that I knew Mr. Hooker yet as our Ecclesiastical History reports to the honour of S. Ignatius that he lived in the time of St. John and had seen him in his Childhood so I also joy that in my Minority I have often seen Mr. Hooker with my Father who was then Bishop of London from whom and others at that time I have heard most of the material passages which you relate in the History of his Life and from my Father received such a Character of his Learning Humility and other Virtues that like Jewels of unvaluable price they still cast such a lustre as Envy or the Rust of Time shall never darken From my Father I have also heard all the Circumstances of the Plot to defame him and how Sir Edwin Sandys outwitted his Accusers and gained their Confession and I could give an account of each particular of that Plot but that I judge it fitter to be forgotten and rot in the same grave with the malicious Authors I may not omit to declare that my Fathers Knowledge of Mr. Hooker was occasioned by the Learned Dr. John Spencer who after the Death of Mr. Hooker was so careful to preserve his unvaluable Sixth Seventh and Eighth Books of ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY and his other Writings that he procured Henry Jackson then of Corpus Christi Colledge to transcribe for him all Mr. Hookers remaining written Papers many of which were imperfect for his Study had been rifled or worse used by Mr Chark and another of Principles too like his but these Papers were endeavored to be compleated by his dear friend Dr. Spencer who bequeathed them as a precious Legacy to my Father after whose Death they rested in my hand till Dr. Abbot then Archbishop of Canterbury commanded them out of my custody by authorizing Dr. John Barkcham to require and bring them to him to his Palace in Lambeth at which time I have heard they were put into the Bishops Library and that they remained there till the Martyrdom of Archbishop Laud and were then by the Brethren of
Reader may be pleased to know that his Father was masculinely and lineally descended from a very antient Family in Wales where many of his name now live that deserve and have great reputation in that Countrey By his Mother he was descended of the Family of the famous and learned Sir Tho. Moor sometime Lord Chancellour of England as also from that worthy and laborious Judge Rastall who left Posterity the vast Statutes of the Law of this Nation most exactly abridged He had his first breeding in his Fathers house where a private Tutor had the care of him until the ninth year of his age and in his tenth year was sent to the University of Oxford having at that time a good command both of the French and Latine Tongue This and some other of his remarkable Abilities made one give this censure of him That this age had brought forth another Picus Mirandula of whom Story sayes That he was rather born than made wise by study There he remained in Hart-Hall having for the advancement of his studies Tutors of several Sciences to attend and instruct him till time made him capable and his learning expressed in publick exercises declared him worthy to receive his first degree in the Schools which he forbore by advice from his friends who being for their Religion of the Romish perswasion were conscionably averse to some parts of the Oath that is always tendered at those times and not to be refused by those that expect the titulary honour of their studies About the fourteenth year of his age he was transplanted from Oxford to Cambridge where that he might receive nourishment from both Soils he staid till his seventeenth year all which time he was a most laborious Student often changing his studies but endeavouring to take no degree for the reasons formerly mentioned About the seventeenth year of his age he was removed to London and then admitted into Lincolns-Inne with an intent to study the Law where he gave great testimonies of his Wit his Learning and of his Improvement in that profession which never served him for other use than an Ornament and Self-satisfaction His Father died before his admission into this Society and being a Merchant left him his portion in money it was 3000 l. His Mother and those to whose care he was committed were watchful to improve his knowledge and to that end appointed him Tutors in the Mathematicks and all the Liberal Sciences to attend him But with these Arts they were advised to instil particular Principles of the Romish Church of which those Tutors profest though secretly themselves to be members They had almost obliged him to their faith having for their advantage besides many opportunities the example of his dear and pious Parents which was a most powerful perswasion and did work much upon him as he professeth in his Preface to his Pseudo-Martyr a Book of which the Reader shall have some account in what follows He was now entered into the eighteenth year of his age and at that time had betrothed himself to no Religion that might give him any other denomination than a Christian. And Reason and Piety had both perswaded him that there could be no such sin as Schis me if an adherence to some visible Church were not necessary He did therefore at his entrance into the nineteenth year of his age though his youth and strength then promised him a long life yet being unresolved in his Religion he thought it necessary to rectifie all scruples that concerned that and therefore waving the Law and betrothing himself to no Art or Profession that might justly denominate him he begun to survey the Body of Divinity as it was then controverted betwixt the Reformed and the Roman Church And as Gods blessed Spirit did then awaken him to the search and in that industry did never forsake him they be his own words so he calls the same holy Spirit to witness this Protestationâ— that in that disquisition and search he proceeded with humility and diffidence in himself and by that which he took to be the safest way namely frequent Prayers and an indifferent affection to both parties and indeed truth had too much light about her to be hid from so sharp an Inquirer and he had too much ingenuity not to acknowledge he had found her Being to undertake this search he believed the Cardinal Bellarmine to be the best defender of the Roman cause and therefore betook himself to the examination of his Reasons The Cause was weighty and wilful delays had been inexcusable both towards God and his own Conscience he therefore proceeded in this search with all moderate haste and before the twentieth year of his age did shew the then Dean of Gloucester whose name my memory hath now lost all the Cardinals works marked with many weighty observations under his own hand which works were bequeathed by him at his death as a Legacy to a most dear Friend The year following he resolved to travel and the Earl of Essex going first the Cales and after the Island voyages he took the advantage of those opportunities waited upon his Lordship and was an eye-witness of those happy and unhappy employments But he returned not back into England till he had staid some years first in Italy and then in Spain where he made many useful observations of those Countreys their Laws and manner of Government and returned perfect in their Languages The time that he spent in Spain was at his first going into Italy designed for travelling the Holy Land and for viewing Jerusalem and the Sepulchre of our Saviour But at his being in the furthest parts of Italy the disappointment of Company or of a safe Convoy or the uncertainty of returns for Money into those remote parts denied him that happiness which he did often occasionally mention with a deploration Not long after his return into England that exemplary Pattern of Gravity and Wisdom the Lord Elsemore then Keeper of the Great Seal and Lord Chancellour of England taking notice of his Learning Languages and other Abilities and much affecting his Person and Condition took him to be his chief Secretary supposing and intending it to be an Introduction to some more weighty Employment in the State for which his Lordship did often protest he thought him very fit Nor did his Lordship in this time of Master Donne's attendance upon him account him to be so much his Servant as to forget he was his friend and to testifie it did always use him with much courtesie appointing him a place at his own Table to which he esteemed his Company and Discourse a great Ornament He continued that employment for the space of five years being daily useful and not mercenary to his Friends During which time he I dare not say unhappily fell into such a liking as with her approbation increased into a love with a young Gentlewoman that lived in that Family who was Niece to the Lady Elsemore and daughter to
Merit and did therefore desire him to accept of that Jewel as a Testimony of his good opinion of him which was a Jewel of Diamonds of more value then a thousand pounds This was received with all Circumstances and terms of Honour by Sir Henry Wotton but the next morning at his departing from Vienna at his taking leave of the Countess of Sabrina an Italian Lady in whose House the Emperour had appointed him to be lodg'd and honourably entertained He acknowledged her Merits and besought her to accept of that Jewel as a testimony of his gratitude for her Civilities presenting her with the same that was given him by the Emperour which being suddenly discovered by the Emperour was by him taken for a high affront and Sir Henry Wotton told so To which he replyed That though he received it with thankfulness yet he found in himself an indisposition to be the better for any gift that came from an Enemy to his Royal Mistress the Queen of Bohemia for so she was pleased he should alwayes call her Many other of his services to his Prince and this Nation might be insisted upon as namely his procuration of Priviledges and courtesies with the German Princes and the Republick of Venice for the English Merchants and what he did by direction of King James with the Venetian State concerning the Bishop of Spalato's return to the Church of Rome But for the particulars of these and many more that I mean to make known I want a view of some papers that might inform me his late Majesties Letter-Office having suffered a strange alienation and indeed I want time too for the Printers Press-stayes so that I must haste to bring Sir Henry Wotton in an instant from Venice to London leaving the Reader to make up what is defective in this place by this small supplement of the inscription under his Armes which he left at all those houses where he rested or lodged when he returned from his last Embassie into England Henricus Wottonius Anglo-Cantianus Thomae optimi viri filius natu minimus a serenissimo Jacobo I. Mag. Britt Rege in equestrem titulum adscitus ejusdemque ter ad Rempublicam Venetam Legatus Ordinarius semel ad confaederatarum Provinciarum Ordines in Juliacensi negotio Bis ad Carolum Emanuel Sabaudiae Ducem semel ad unitos superioris Gâ—rmaniae Principes in Conventu Heilbrunensi postremo ad Archiducem Leopoldum Ducem Wittembergensem Civitates imperiales Argentinam Ulmamque ipsum Romanorum Imperatorem Ferdinandum secundum Legatus Extraordinarius tandem hoc didicit Animas fieri sapientiores quiescendo To London he came that year in which King James dyed who having for the reward of his forreign service promised him the reversion of an Office which was fit to be turned into present money for a supply of his present necessities and also granted him the reversion of the Master of the Rolls place if he out-lived charitable Sir Julius Caesar who then possessed it and then grown so old that he was said to be kept alive beyond Natures Course by the prayers of those many poor which he daily relieved But these were but in hope and his condition required a present support For in the beginning of these imployments he sold to his elder brother the Lord Wotton the Rent-charge left by his good Father and which is worse was now at his return indebted to several persons whom he was not able to satisfie but by the Kings payment of his Arrears due for his forreign Imployments He had brought into England many servants of which some were German and Italian Artists this was part of his condition who had many times hardly sufficient to supply the occasions of the day For it may by no means be said of his providence as himself said of Sir Philip Sidney's wit That it was the very measure of congruity He being alwayes so careless of money as though our Saviours wores Care not for to morrow were to be literally understood But it pleased God that in this juncture of time the Provostship of His Majesties Colledge of Eaton became void by the death ofâ— Murray for which there were as the place deserv'd many earnest and powerful Suiters to the King Sir Henry who had for many years like Siciphus rolled the restless stone of a State imployment and knowing experimentally that the great blessing of sweet content was not to be found in multitudes of men or business and that a Colledge was the fittest place to nourish holy thoughts and to afford rest both to his body and mind which his age being now almost threescore years seemed to require did therefore use his own and the interest of all his friends to procure it By which means and quitting the King of his promised reversionary Offices and a piece of honest policy which I have not time to relate he got a Grant of it from His Majesty And this was a fair settlement for his mind but money was wanting to furnish him with those necessaries which attend removes and a settlement in such a place and to procure that he wrote to his old friend Mr. Nicholas Pey for his assistance of which Nicholas Pey I shall here say a little for the clearing of something that I shall say hereafter He was in his youth a Clerk or in some such way a servant to the Lord Wotton Sir Henry's brother and by him when he was Comptroller of the Kings Houshold was made a great Officer in His Majesties house This and other favours being conferred upon Mr. Pey in whom was a radical honesty were alwayes thankfully acknowledged by him and his gratitude exprest by a willing and unwearied serviceableness to that Family even till his death To him Sir Henry Wotton wrote to use all his inâ—â—â—â— at Court to procure Five hundred pounds of his Arrears for less would not settle him â—â—â— Colledge and the want of it wrinkled â—â—â—â—â— with care 't was his own expression and thâ—r being procured he should the next day after find him in his Colledge and Invidiae remedium writ over his Study door This money being part of his Arrears was by his own and the help of honest Nicholas Pey's interest in Court quickly procured him and he as quickly in the Colledge the place where indeed his happiness then seemed to have its beginning the Colledge being to his mind as a quiet Harbor to a Sea-faring-man after a tempestuous voyage where by the bounty of the pious Founder his very Food and Rayment were plentifully provided for him in kind where he was freed from all corroding cares and seated on such a Rock as the waves of want could not probably shake where he might sit in a Calm and looking down behold the busie multitude turmoyl'd and tossed in a tempestuous Sea of dangers And as Sir William Davenant has happily exprest the like of another person Laugh at the graver business of the State Which speaks men rather wise than