learnedest counsellor in this kingdom; to the end that so good an argument, lighting upon so bad an author, might receive some reputation by the hands into which, and by which, it shall be delivered. And therefore, I make it my humble suit to your lordship, to present this mean but well-meant writing to his majesty, and with it my humble and zealous duty; and also, my like humble request of pardon, if I have too often taken his name in vain, not only in the dedication, but in the voucher of the authority of his speeches and writings. And so I remain. 1605. LXXVII. To Sir 'THOMAS BODLEY, upon send- Rawley's ing his book of Advancement of Learning. Sir, I THINK no man may more truly say with the psalm, Multum incola fuit anima mea, than myself; for, I do confess, since I was of any understanding, my mind hath in effect been absent from that I have done; and in absence are many errors, which I do willingly acknowledge; and, amongst the rest, this great one that led the rest; that knowing myself by inward calling to be fitter to hold a book, than to play a part, I have led my life in civil causes; for which I was not very fit by nature, and more unfit by the preoccupation of my mind. Therefore calling myself home, I have now for a time enjoyed myself, whereof likewise I desire to make the world partaker. My labours, if I may so term that which was the comfort of my other labours, I have dedicated to the king; desirous, if there be any good in them, it may be as the fat of a sacrifice, incensed to his honour: and the second copy I have sent unto you, not only in good affection, but in a kind of congruity, in regard of your great and rare desert of learning. For books are the 9 Sir Thomas Bodley restored the public library in Oxford, begun in the times of king Henry VI. by Humphry duke of Gloucester; or was rather the founder of a new one, which now bears his name, and which hath placed him among the chief benefactors to that university, and to the commonwealth of learning. He died in the entrance of the year 1613. Stephens. Resuscitatio. shrines where the saint is, or is believed to be: and you having built an ark to save learning from deluge, deserve propriety in any new instrument or engine, whereby learning should be improved or advanced. 1605. Rawley's LXXVIII. To the Earl of 'SALISBURY, upon sending the Advancement of Learning. Resuscita tio. It may please your good Lordship, I PRESENT your lordship with a work of my vacant time, which if it had been more, the work had been better. It appertaineth to your lordship, besides my particular respects, in some propriety, in regard you are a great governor in a province of learning. And, that which is more, you have added to your place affection towards learning; and to your affection judgment of which the last I could be content were, for the time, less, that you might the less exquisitely censure that which I offer unto you. But sure I am, the argument is good, if it had lighted upon à good author. But I shall content myself to awake better spirits, like a bell-ringer, which is first up to call others to church. So with my humble desire of your lordship's good acceptation, I remain. 1605. Sir Robert Cecil, created by king James lord Cecil, viscount Cranburne, and earl of Salisbury, was not only son to one of the greatest statesmen of his age, the lord Burleigh, but succeeded him in his places and abilities, and was one of the great supports of the queen's declining years. Yet the ill offices he was thought to perform towards the noble and popular earl of Essex, together with his conduct in some particulars in her successor's reign, abated the lustre of his character, which otherwise from his parts and prudence would have appeared very conspicuous. After he had been long secretary of state, some years lord treasurer and chancellor of the university of Cambridge, he died in May 1612, at Marlborough, in his return from the Bath; as by a diary of his sickness and the account given by Sir Robert Naunton, one of his retinue, appears; which I should not mention, but that his enemies in their libels, which flew freely about, have suggested that he died on the Downs; which, if true, could be esteemed at most but his misfortune. Stephens. LXXIX. To the Lord Treasurer BUCKHURST, on the same subject. May it please your good Lordship, I HAVE finished a work touching the advancement or setting forward of learning, which I have dedicated to his majesty, the most learned of a sovereign, or temporal prince that time hath known: and upon reason not unlike I humbly present one of the books to your lordship: not only as a chancellor of an university, but as one that was excellently bred in all learning; which I have ever noted to shine in all your speeches and behaviours: and therefore your lordship will yield a gracious aspect to your first love, and take pleasure in the adorning of that wherewith yourself are so much adorned. And so humbly desiring your favourable acceptation thereof, with signification of humble duty, I remain. 1605. 2 I shall draw this noble lord's character from Sir Robert Naunton's observations of the favourites of queen Elizabeth; and much in his own words: My lord of Buckhurst was of the noble house of the Sackvilles, and of the queen's consanguinity. He was a very fine gentleman of person and endowments both of art and nature, but without measure magnificent, till on the turn of his humour, and the allay that his years, and good counsels of the queen, etc. had wrought upon those immoderate courses of his youth, and that height of spirit inherent to his house; she began to assist him in the reparation of that vast patrimony he had much wasted. After the honour she had given him of lord Buckhurst, and knight of the garter, she procured him to be chosen chancellor of the university of Oxford, upon the death of Sir Christopher Hatton, and constituted him lord treasurer, on the death of the lord Burleigh, which office he enjoyed till April, 1608, dying then suddenly at the council table; the king having some years before created him earl of Dorset. He is also much commended for his happy vein in poetry, to which he was addicted in his youth; and for his elocution, and the excellencies of his pen; faculties that ran in the blood, as Sir Robert Naunton observes in his son Robert, and his grandsons Richard and Edward, successive earls of Dorset; and the last age had the satisfaction to see continued in the person of the right honourable Charles earl of Dorset and Middlesex. Stephens. Rawley's Resuscitatio. Resuscita Rawley's LXXX. To the Lord Chancellor, Sir T. EGERTON, Lord Ellesmere, on the same subjećt. tio. Sir Tobie 11. May it please your good Lordship, I HUMBLY present your lordship with a work, wherein as you have much commandment over the author, so your lordship hath great interest in the argument: for, to speak without flattery, few have like use of learning, or like judgment in learning, as I have observed in your lordship. And again, your lordship hath been a great planter of learning, not only in those places in the Church, which have been in your own gift, but also in your commendatory vote, no man hath more constantly held Detur digniori: and therefore, both your lordship is beholding to learning, and learning beholding to you: which maketh me presume with good assurance that your lordship will accept well of these my labours; the rather because your lordship in private speech hath often begun to me in expressing your admiration of his majesty's learning, to whom I have dedicated this work; and whose virtue and perfection in that kind did chiefly move me to a work of this nature. And so with signification of my most humble duty and affection to your lordship, I remain. 1605. SIR, LXXXI, To Mr MATTHEW. I PERCEIVE you have some time when you can be content to think of your friends; from whom since you have borrowed yourself, you do well, not paying the principal, to send the interest at six months day. The relation which here I send you inclosed, carries the truth of that which is public: and though my little leisure might have required a briefer, yet the matter would have endured and asked a larger. I have now at last taught that child to go, at the swadling whereof you were. My work touching the proficiency and advancement of learning, I have put into two books: whereof the former, which you saw, I can't but account as a page to the latter. I have now published them both; whereof I thought it a small adventure to send you a copy, who have more right to it than any man, except bishop Andrews, who was my inquisitor. The death of the late great judge concerned not me, because the other was not removed. I write this in answer to your good wishes; which I return not as 3 flowers of Florence, but as you mean them; whom I conceive place can't alter, no more than time shall me, except it be for the better. 1605. LXXXII. To Dr. PLAYFERE,' desiring him to Rawley's translate the Advancement into Latin. Mr. Dr. Playfere, Resuscita tio. A GREAT desire will take a small occasion to hope and put in trial that which is desired. It pleased you a good while since to express unto me the good liking which you conceived of my book of the advancement of learning; and that more significantly, as it seemed to me, than out of courtesy or civil respect. Myself, as I then took contentment in your approbation thereof, so I should esteem and acknowledge not only my contentment increased, but my labours advanced, if I might obtain your help in that nature which I desire: wherein, before I set down in plain terms my request unto you, I will open myself, what it was which I chiefly sought and propounded to myself in that work; that you may perceive that which I now desire, to be pursuant thereupon. If I do not much err, for any judgment that a man maketh of his own doings, had need be spoken with a Sinunquam fallat imago,* I have • Vir. Ecl. this opinion, that if I had sought mine own commen- ii. 27.. dation, it had been a much fitter course for me to have 3 Mr. Matthew wrote an elegy on the Duke of Florence's felicity. • Thomas Playfere, D. D. a native of Kent, educated in St. John's college in Cambridge, and appointed Margaret professor of divinity in that university about 1596, in the room of Dr. Peter Baro. He died there about January or February, 1608. A |