wit it seemes impossible By drinkes or charmes this worke to passe to bring Know then that Giges were invisible By turning the sigill of his Ring Toward his palme and thereby slew the King Lay with his wife of any man unseene Lastly did raigne by marrying with the queene King Salomon for Magick naturall Was held a cunning man by some Divines He wrote a booke of Science naturall To bind ill Spirits in their darke confines He had great store of wives and Concubines Yet was a Sacred King this I inferre The wisest man that now doth live may erre Also yee say that when I waxed old When age and time mispent had made me dry For ancient held in carnall Lust is cold Natures defect with Art I did supply And that did helpe this imbecility I us'd strong drinks and Oyntments of great price Whose taste or touch might make dead flesh arise To this I answer that those fine extractions Drams and electuaries finely made Serv'd not so much to helpe veneriall actions As for to comfort nature that 's decaid Which being with indifferent judgment weigh'd In noble men may be allowed I trust As tending to their health not to their lust What if I drinke nothing but liquid gold Lactrina christal pearle resolv'd in wine Such as th' Egyptians full cups did hold When Cleopatra with her Lord did dine A trifle care not for the cost was mine What if I gave Hippomenes to drinke To some fair Dames at smal faults you must wink Ye say I was a traytor to the Queene And thât when Monsieur was in greatest grace I being out of favour mov'd with spleene To see a Frenchman frolique in the place Forth toward Barwick then did post apace Minding to raise up a rebellious rout To take my part in what I went about That I was then a traytor I deny But I confesse that I was Monsieurs foe And sought to breake the league of amity Which then betwixt my Prince and him did grow Doubting Religion might be changed so Or that our Lawes and customes were in danger To be corrupt or altered by a stranger Therefore I did a faction strong maintaine Agâinst the Earle of Sussâx a stout Lord On Monsieurs side and then Lord Chamberlain Who sought to make that nuptiall accord Which none may breake witnesse the sacred Wordâ But thus it chânced that he striv'd in vaine To knit that kâot which heaven did not ordaine Thus did ye mis-interpret my conceiâs That for disloyalty my deâds did blame Yet many men have laid their secret baits T' intrap me in such snares to work my shame Whom I in time sufficiently did tame And by my Soveraignes favour bore them downe Proving my selfe true Liegeman to the Crowne Thinke yee I could forget my Soveraigne Lady Thât was to me so gracious and so kinde How many triumphs for her glory made I O I could never blot out of my minde What Characters of grace in her have shin'd But some of you which were by her pâefer'd Have with her bones almoââ her name inter'd When she was gone which of you all did weep What mournfull song did Pâilomela sing Alâs when she in deaths cold bed did sleep Which of you all her dolefull knell did ring How long wâll yee now love your crowned King If you so soon forget your old Queen dead Which foure and fourty yeares hath governed Yee say I sought by murder to aspire And by strong poyson many men to slay Which as ye thought might crosse my high desire And âloud my long expected golden day Perhaps I laid some blocks out of my way Which hindred me from comming to the Bower Whâre Cynthia shin'd like lamps in Pharohs tower Alas I came not of a Tygers kinde My hands with bloud I hated to defile But when by good experience I did finde How some with fained love did me beguile Perchance all pitty then I did exile And as it were against my will was prest To seek their deaths that did my life detest Lo then attend to heare a dolefull tale Of those whose death yâe doe suppose I wrought Yet wish I that the world beleeve not all That hath of me by envious men been wrought But when I for a Kingly fortune sought O pardon me my sâlfe I might forget And cast downe sâme my state aloft to set My first wife fell downe from a paire of staires And brake her neck and so at Comner dy'd Whilst her true servants led with small affaires Unto a Fure at Abingdon did ride This dismall hap did to my wife betide Whether yee call it chance or destiny Too true it is shâ dâd untimely dye O had I now a showrâ of teares to shed Lockt in the empty circles of my âyes All could I shed in mourning for the dead That lost a spouse so young so faire so wise So faire a corps so foule a coarse nâw lies My hope t' have married with a famous Queene Drave pitty back and kept my teares unseene What man so fond that would not lose a Pearle To finde a Diamond leave brasse for gold Or who would not forsake a gallant gitle To win a Qâeen great men in awe to hold âo rule âhe âtate and of none be control'd O but the stâps that lead unto a âhrone Aâe dângerous for men to tread upon Tâe Cardinall Chatillion was my foe Whose death peradventure did compact Because he let Queen Elizâbeth to know My false report given of a former act How I with her had made a precontract And the great Princes hope I bar'd thereby That sâught to marry with her Majesty The Prelate had bin better held his tongue And kist his holy Fathers feet in Rome A Masse the sooner for his soule was sung But he might thanke me had he staid at home Or late or never he to heaven had come Therefore I sent him nimbly from the coasts Perhaps to supper with the Lord of hosts When death by hap my first wives neck had crackt And that my suit unto the Queene âll sped It chaâced that I made a post contract And did in sort the Lâdy Sheffââld wed Of whom I had two goodly children bred For the Lord Sheffeild died as I was sure Of a Catarie which physicke could not cure Some thinke thâ rhume was artificiall Which this good Lord befoââ his end did take Tush what I gave to her was naturâll My plighted troth yet some amends did make Though her at length unkinde I did forsâke She must not blame me for a higher reach Made my sure promise finde a sudden breach The valiant Earle whom absent I did wrong In breaking Hymeneus holy band In Ireland did protract the time too long Whilst some in ângland ingled under hand And at his coming homeward to this land He dyed with poyson as they say infected Not without cause for veâgeance I suspâcted Because this fact notorious scandall bred And âor I did his gallant wife abuse To salve âhis sore
or so I leave it to bâ tried hereafter between my yong Lord of âenbighe and Master Philip Sidney whom the same most concerneth for that it is likâ to deprive him of a goodly inheritance if it take place as some will say that in no reason it can not only in râspect of the precedent adultery and murder betweene the parties but also for that my Lord was contracted at least to another Lady before that yet lâveth whereof Master Edwââd Diaâ and Mâster Edmond Tiney both Courtâers can be witnesses and consumated the same contract by generation of children But thâs as I said must be left to be tried hereafter by them who shâll have most interest in the case Onely for the present I must advertise you that you may not take hold so exactly of all my L. doings in wâmens affaires neither touching their marriages neither yet thâir hâsbands For first his Lordship hath a speciall fortuâe that when he dâsireth any womans favour then whât person so evâr standeth in his way hath the luâk to dye quickly for the finishing of his desire As for âxample when his Lordship was in full hope to marry hâr Majâsty and his owne wife stood in his light as he supposed he did but send her aside to the house of his servant Forster of Cumner by Oxford where shortly after she had the chance to fall fâom a paire of stâires and so to breake her neck but yet wiâhout hurting of her hood that stood upon her head But Sir Riâhard Varney who by commandement remaâned with her that day alone with one man onâly and hâd sent away perforâe all her Sârvants from hâr to a Market two miles of hâ I sây wiâh his man can tâll how she died whiâh man being taken afterward for a fellony in the marâhes of Wales and offering to publish the manner of the said murder was made away privily in the prâson and Sâr Richarâ himsâlf dying abâut the same time in London cried pitioâsly ând bâaâphemed God and said to a Gentleman of worship of mine acquâintance not long before his death that all the divels in hell did teare him in pieces The wife also of Balâ Buttleâ kinsman to my Lord gâve out the whole fact a littâe bâfoâe her death Bât to return unto my purpose this was my Lords good fortun to have his wife dye at that time when it was like to turne most to his profit Long after this he fâll in love with the Lady Sheffiâld whom I signified bâfore and then also had he the same fortune to have her husband dye quickly with an extreame rheume in his head as it was given out but as others sây of an artificiall caâârre that stopped his breath The like good chance had he in the death of my Lord of Essex as I have said before and that ât a time most fortunate for hiâ purpose for when he was coming home from Ireland with intent to revenge himselfe upon my Lord of Leycester for begetting his wife with âhilde in his absânce the childe was a dauâhter and brought up by the Lady Shandoies W. Knooles his wifâ my Lord of Ley hearing therof wantâd not a friend or two to accompâny the Dâputy as among other a couple of the Earles owne servants Crompton if I misse not his name yeoman of his bottles and Llâiâhis âhis Secretary entertained afterwârd by my Lord of Leiâester and so he dyed in the way of an extreame flux caused by an Italian Rââipe as all his friends are well assured the mâker wheââof was a Chyâurgeon as is belâeved that thân was newly come to my Lord from Italy a cunning man and sâre in operation with whom if the gâod Lady had beene sooner acquainted and âsed his helpe shâ should not have needed to sitten so pensive at home and fearefull of her husbands former returne out of the same Countrây but might have spared the yong childe in her bâlly which she was enforced to make away cruelly and unnaturally for clearing the house against the good mans arrivall Neithâr must you mârvaile though all these died dâvers manners of outward diseases for this is the excellenây of the Iââlian art for which this Chyruâgian and Doctor Iulio wâre entertained so carefully who can makâ a mân dye in what manâer oâ shâw of siâknessâ you wâll by wâose instructâons âo doubt but hâs Lorâship is now cunning espâcially âdding also to âhese âhe counsell of his Doctor Bayây a man also noâ a little studied as he seemeth in his art for I heard him once my selfe in publique Act in Oxford and thât in presence of my Lord of Leicâster if I be not deceived maintain that poyson might so be tempâred and given as iâ should not appeâre presently and yet should kill thâ pârty afâerward at what time should be appointed Which aâgument belike pleased well his Loâdship and thââefore was chosen to be discussed in his audience if I be not deceived of hâs being that dây present So though one dye of a flux and aâoâher of a catarrâ yât âhis impârâeth ââttle to thâ matter but shewâth rathâr the great cunning and skill of the Arâificâr So Cardinall Chatilian aâ I hâve saiâ before having accused my Lârd of Leicester to thâ Qâeens Majesty and after thât pâssiâg from Lonâon towards France about the marriage died by the way at Canterbury of a burning fever and so proved Doctor Bayâieâ asserâion ârue that poyson may be given to kill at a day At this the Lawyer cast up his eyes to heaven and I stood somewhat musing and thinking of that which had beene spoken of the Earle of Essex whose case indeed moved me more then all the rest for that he was â very noble Gentleman a great advancer of true Religion a Pâtron to many Preachers anâ Students and towards me and some of my friends in pârâicular he had bâene in some things very benâficiall and therefore I said that it grieved me extreamly to heare or thinke of so unworthy a death contrived by such meanes to so worthy a Peere And so much the more for that it was my chance to come to the understanding of divers particulars concerning that thing both from one Lea an Irish-man Robin âonnies and others that were present at Pentereis the Merchants house in Dublin upon the Key where the murder was committed The matter was wrought especially by Crompton yeoman of the bottels by the procurement of Lloyd as you haue noted before and there was poysoned at the same time and with the same cup aâ given of curtesie by the Earle one Mistresse Alâs Draykot a goodly Gentlewoman whom the Earle affectioned much who departing thence towards her owne house which was 18. miles off the foresaid Lea accompanying her and waiting upon her she began to fall sick very grievously upon the way and continued with increase of paineâ and excessive torments by vomiting untill she died which was the
onely to use for a pretext and helpe whereby to place himselfe in supreame dignity and afterward whatsoever had befallen of the state the others head could never have come to other end then it enjoyed For if Queene Mary had not cut it off King John of Northumberland would have done the same in time and so all men doe well know that weâe privy to any of his cunning dealings And what Huntingtons secret opinion of Leycester is notwithstanding this outward shew of dependance it was my chance to learne from the mouth of a speciall man of that hasty King who was his Ledger or Agent in London and at a time falling in talke of his Masters title declared that he had heard him divers times in secret complaine to his Lady Leycesters sister as greatly fearing that in the end he would offer him wrong and pretend some title for himselfe Well quoth the Lawyer it sâemeth by this last point that these two Lords are cunning practitioners in the art of dissimulation but for the former whereof you speake in truth I have heard men of good discourse affirme that the Duke of Northumberland had strange devises in his head for deceiving of Suffolke who was nothing so fine as himselfe and for bringing the Crowne to his owne Family And among other devises it is thought that hee had most certaine intention to marry the Lady Mary himselfe after once hee had brought her into his owne hands and to have bestowed her Majestie that now is upon some one of his children if it should have beene thought best to give her life and so consequently to have shaken off Suffolke and his pedegree with condigne punishment for his bold behaviour in that behalfe Verily quoth I this had beene an excellent Stratageme if it had taken place But I pray you Sir how could himselfe have taken the Lady Mary to wife seeing hee was at that time married to another O quoth the Gentleman you question like a Schollar As though my Lord of Leycester had not a wife alive when hee first began to pretend marriage to the Queenes Majesty Do not you remember the story of King Richard the third who at such time as he thought best for the establishing of his title to marry his owne Neece that afterward was married to King Henry the seventh how he caused secretly to be given abroad that his owne wife was dead whom all the World knew to bee then alive and in good health but yet soone afterward she was seene dead indeed These great peâsonages in matters oâ such weight as is a Kingdome have privilâdges to dispose of Womens bodies marriages lives and deaths as shall be thought for the time most convenient And what doe you thinke I pray you of this new Tâiumvirat so lately concluded about Arbellâ for so I must call the same though one of the three persons bee no Vir but Virago I meane of the maâriage betweene young Denbigh and the little Daughter of Lenox wheâeby the Father-in-law the Grand-mother and the Uncle of the new designed Queene have conceived to themselves a singular triumphant raigne But what doe you think may ensue hereof is there nothing of the old plot of Duke John of Northumberland in this Marry Sir quoth the Lawyer if this be so I dare assure you there is sequell enough pretended hereby And first no doubt but there goeth a deep drift by the wife and sonne against old Abraham the Husband and Father with the well-lined large pouch And secondly a farre deeper by trusty Robert against his best Mistresse but deepest of all by the whole Crew against the designements of the hasty Earle who thirsteth a Kingdome with great intemperance and seemeth if there were plaine dealing to hope by these good people to quench shortly his drought But either part in truth seeketh to deceive other and therefore it is hard to say where the game in fine will rest Well howsoever that be quoth the Gentleman I am of opinion that my Lord of Leycester will use both this practise and many more for bringing the Scepter finally to his owne head and that he will not onely imploy Huntington to defeate Scotland and Arbella to defeate Huntington but also would use the marriage of the Queene imprisoned to defeat them both if she were in his hand and any one of all three to dispossesse her Majesty that now is as also the authority of all foure to bring it to himselfe with many other fetches flings and friscoes besides which simple men as yet doe not conceive And howsoever these two conjoyned Earles doe seeme for the time to draw together and to play booty yet am I of opinion that the one will beguile the other at the upshot And Hastings for ought I see when hee commeth to the scambling is like to have no better luck by the Beare then his Ancestour had once by the Boare Who using his helpe first in murdering the Sonne and Heire of King Henry the sixt and after in destroying the faithfull Friends and Kinsmen of King Edward the fift for his easier way to usurpation made an end of him also in the Tower at the the very same day and houre that the other were by his counsell destroyed in Pontfret Castle So that where the Goale and price of the game is a Kingdome there is neither faith neither good fellowship nor faire play among the Gamesters And this shall be enough for the first point viz. what good my Lord of Leycester meaneth to himselfe in respect of Huntington Touching the second whether the attempt be purposed in her Majesties dayes or no the matter is much lesse doubtfull to him that knoweth or can imagine what a torment the delay of a Kingdome is to such a one as suffereth hunger thereof and feareth that every houre may breed some alteration to the prejudice of his conceived hope Wee see oftentimes that the childe is impatient in this matter to expect the naturall end of his parents life Whom notwithstanding by nature he is enforced to love and who also by nature is like long to leave this World before him and after whose decease hee is assured to obtaine his desire but most certaine of dangerous event if he attempt to get it while yet his parent liveth Which foure considerations are no doubt of great force to containe a child in duty and bridle his desire albeit sometimes not sufficient to withstand the greedy appetite of raigning But what shall wee thinke where none of these foure considerations do restraine where the present Possessor is no parent where she is like by nature to out-live the expector whose death must needs bring infinite difficulties to the enterprise and in whose life-time the matter is most easie to be atchieved under colour and authority of the present Possessor shall we thinke that in such a case the ambitious man will over-rule his
boldnes if I have been too plain with him And so I pray you let us goe to supper for I see my seruant expecting yonder at the Gallery doore to call us downe To that said the Lawyer I am content with all my heart and I would it had beene sooner for that I am afraid lest any by chance have ovârheard us here since night For my owne part I must say that I have not been at such a conference this seven years nor meane to bee hereafter if I may escape well with this whereof I am sure I shall dreame this fortnight and thinke oftner of my Lord of Leicester than ever I had intended God amend him and me both But if ever I heare at other hands of these matters hereafter I shall surely be quake britch and thinke every bush a theefe And with that came up the Mistris of the house to fetch us down to supper and so all was husht saving that at supper a gentleman or two began again to speak of my Lord and that so coâformable to some of our former speech as indeed it is the common talke at tables every where that the old Lawyer begân to shrink and be appâled and to cast dry looks upon the Gentleman ouâ friend doubting lest something hâd been discoverâd of our confeâence But indeed it was not so Pia et utilis Meditatio desumpta ex libro Iobi Cap 20. HOc scio a principio ex quo positus est homo supeâ terram quod laus impiorum brevis sit et gaudium hypocritae ad instaâ puncti Si ascenderit usque ad coelum superbia ejus et caput ejus nubes tetigerit quasi sterquilinium in fine perdetur et qui eum viderant dicent ubi est velut somnium avolans non invânietur transiet sicut visio nocturna Oculus qui eum viderat non videbit neque ultra intuebitur eum locus suâs Filii eius atterentur egestate manus illius reddent es laborem suum Ossa eius implebuntur vitiis adolescentiae ejus cum eo in pulvere dormient Paâis eius in utero illius vertetur in fâl aspidum intrinsecus Divitias quas devoravit evomet et de venâre illius extrabet eas Deus Caput aspidum surget occidet cum lingua viprae Luet quae fecit omnia nec tamen consumetur Iuxta multitudinem adinventionum suarum sic et sustinebit QuoniaÌ coÌfringens nudabit pauperes domum rapuit non aedificavit eam nec est satiatas venter eius cum habuerit quae concupierit possidere non poterit Non reman sit de cibo eius propterea non permanebit de bonis eius CuÌ satiatus fuerit arctabitur aestuabit omnis dolor irruet super eum Vtinam impleatur venter eius ut immiâtat in âú Deus iâaÌ fuâoris sui pluat super illum bellum suum Fugiet arma ferrea irruet in arcum aereum Gladius eductus egrediens de vagina sua fulgurans in amaritudine sua Omnes tenebrae absconditae sunt in occultis eius Devorabit eum ignis qui non succenditur affligetur relictus in tabernaculo suo Apertum ââit geâmen domus illius detrabetur in de furoris dei Haecest pars bominis impii à deo hereditas verborum ejus à domino A Godly and profitable Meditation taken out of the 20. Chapter of the Booke of Job THis I know from the first that man was placed upon earth that the praise or applause given to wicked men endureth but a little anâ the joy of an hypocrite is but for a momenâ Though his pride were so great as to mount tâ heaven and his head should touch the skyes yeâ in the end shall hee come to perdition as a dunâhill and they who beheld him in glory beforâ shall say where is he he shall be found as a flâing dreame and as a phantasie by night shall ãâã away The eye that beheld him before shall ãâã more see him nor yet shall his place of honouâ ever more behold him His children shall be worâout with beggeâie and his owne hands shall râturne upon him his sorrow His olâ bones ãâã be replenished with the vices of his youth are they shall sleep with him in his grave His breaâ in his belly shâl be turned inwardly into the ãâã of Serpents The riches which hee hath devouâââ he shall vomit forth againe and God shâll ãâã them forth of his belly He shall suck thâ head ãâã Cocatrices and the venemous âongues of addââ shall slay him He shall sustaine due punishmeââ for all the wickednes that he hath committed ãâã yet shall he have end or consummation thereoâ Hee shall suffer according to the multitude of ãâã his wicked inventions For that by violence heâ hath spoyled the poore made havock of his houââ and not builded the same His womb is never satisfied yet when he hath that which he desired he shall not bee able to possesse the same There remaineth no part of his meat for the poore and therefore there shall remaine nothing of his goods When his belly is full then shall he begin to be straitned then shall he sweat and all kinde of sorrow shall rush upon him I would his belly were once full that God might send out upon him the rage of his fury and raine upon him his war He shall flye away from Iron weapons and run upon a bow of brasse A drawne sword comming out of his skabard shall flash as lightning in his bitternesse All daâknesse lye hidden for him in secret the fire that needeth no kindling shâll devoure him and hee shall be tormented alone in his tabernacle The off-spring of his house shall be made open and pulled down in the day of Gods fury This is the portion of a wicked man from God and this is the inheritance of his substance from the Lord. FINIS LEICESTER'S GHOST Printed Anno Dom. MDCXLI LEICESTER'S GHOST J That sometimes shin'd like the orient Sunne Though Foâtunâs subject yet a puissant Lord Am now an object to be gaz'd upon An abject rather fit to be deplor'd Dejected now that whilome was ador'd Affected once suspected since of many Rejected now reâpected scarce of any My Spirit hovering in the foggie aire Since it did passe the frozen Stygian flood Vnto great Britâines Empire did repaire Where of ELIZA's death I understood And that the heavens carefull of Englands good Rais'd up a King who crowned with loves peace Brought in new soyes made old griefes to ceaââ Thus from the concave vaults of starlesse night Where neither sunne nor moone vouchsafâ to shire My wretched Ghost aâ length is come to light By charâers granted from the powers divine Snake-eating envie ô doe not repine At honouâs-shâdow doe not bite the dead My pride is past my pompe from th' earth is fleâ My