Speeches to Queen Elizabeth at Theobalds. The first of these Specches was originally printed in The History of English Dramatic Poetry by Mr. J. P. Collier, who has prefaced it with the following remarks: "In 1591 Queen Elizabeth paid a visit to Lord Burghley, at Theobalds, where, it seems, she was received with much solemnity, although the Lord Treasurer did not himself make his appearance to welcome her. In March, 1587, he had lost his mother at a very advanced age, and in April, 1589, his wife, to whom he was deeply attached, died: in the interval, also, his daughter, Lady Oxford, had expired, so that in 1591, depressed by these misfortunes, he had resolved to retire from public life, and the visit of the Queen was, perhaps, intended to revive his spirits, and to recall him to her active service. Mr. Nichols, in his Progresses, under this date, relates all that was known upon this point, and without being able to explain it, inserts from Strype a sort of mock writ or summons, directed to Sir Christopher Hatton, the object of which was, by a little official playfulness, to withdraw Lord Burghley from his seclusion in that document he is spoken of as a Hermit; and it seems clear, that since the death of his wife, two years and some months anterior, he had quitted his noble mansion in disgust, and, making only occasional visits to court, had resided in some obscure cottage m the neighbourhood of Theobalds. A MS. poem, in blank verse, has fallen into my hands, which serves to cxp'ain the whole proceeding: it is a speech supposed to be delivered by a Hermit to the Queen, on her first arrival at Theobalds, the purpose of which was to excuse the absence of Lord Burghley, by stating that he had taken up his abode in the cell belonging to the Hermit, in consequence of his grief, and had enjoined the Hermit to do the honours of the house in his stead. Robert Cecil, knighted just afterwards, was the person who pronounced the speech, and he referred to it when the Queen again came to Theobalds in 1594. It was written by a poet no less distinguished than George Peele, who was employed by Lord Burghley's son to aid the scheme; for the mock writ, before mentioned, which puzzled Strype, and, as he says, defied commentary, is besought by the individual in the disguise of a Hermit. The whole piece is in the poet's handwriting, and his init als, G. P., are subscribod at the end." Vol. i. pp. 283-4. The second and third Speeches, forming part of the entertainment to her Majesty on the same occasion, 1.0 now printed from a MS. in Peele's handwriting, which has been obligingly leut to me by Mr. Collier, who was not possessed of it when he gave his excellent History to the public. "On the 10th of May 1591, the Queen came from Hackney to Theobalds' [Burghley Popers, vol. ii. p. 196," &c. Nichols's Prog. of Queen Elizabeth, vol. iii. p. 74, ed. 1823. SPEECHES TO QUEEN ELIZABETH AT THEOBALD'S. I. THE HERMIT'S SPEECH. My sovereign lady, and most gracious queen, I am a hermit that this ten years' space To change his mind and ease my troubled cares I went up to the lantern of this hall, And there hath liv'd two years and some few Every first golden letter of these lines months, By reason of these most bitter accidents; He often quits the place and comes to court, * keeps] i. e. resides, lives. your Being put together signify her name * there] MS. "that." t table] i. e. tablet. PP That he may live, with this his first-born son, And this young Lady Vere, that's held so dear And lastly for myself, most gracious queen, Finis. G. P. II. THE GARDENER'S SPEECH. Most fortunate and fair queen, on whose heart | maketh time itself wither with wondering; all 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"? the Virtues, all the Graces, all the Muses winding and wreathing about your majesty, each contending to be chief, all contented to be cherished: all this not of potherbs, but flowers, and of flowers fairest and sweetest; for in so heavenly a maze, which astonished all earthly thought's promise, the Virtues were done in roses, flowers fit for the twelve Virtues, who have in themselves, as we gardeners have observed, above an hundred; the Grace[s] of pausies partlycoloured, but in one stalk, never asunder, yet diversely beautified; the Muses of nine several flowers, being of sundry natures, yet all sweet, all sovereign. These mingled in a maze, and brought into such shapes as poets and painters use to shadow, made mine eyes dazzle with the shadow, and all my thoughts amazed to behold the bodies. Then * partly-coloured] i. e. parti-coloured: "there budded out the checkerd paunsie or partly-coloured harts-ease. -Greene's Quip for an Upstart Courtier, Sig. B. ed. 1620 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 95. "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 girdi. e. hit, scoff. cammock] i. e. crooked tree, or knee-timber. § came] Qy. "come"? this] "his molespade." Marginal note in MS. |