invasion, and in crushing the Irish rebellion,-his wise encouragement of the maritime power of England,—his ardour in humbling the naval supremacy of Spain, in fitting out fleets for the discovery and planting of new countries, and enlarging the boundaries of foreign commerce, his measures of internal policy, for the settlement of a form of ecclesiastical government, for the payment of the debts of the crown, the relief of the poor, the reformation of the coin of the realm,-all speak the great man, and justify the universal confidence of the nation in his prudence, vigilance, and wisdom, and the extraordinary reputation which he had acquired in foreign countries.

No man perhaps ever lived in more difficult times, or survived them with greater credit and success; and the circumspection and caution of his earlier years, under Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Mary, are as remarkable in a different way as his pre-eminence during the reign of Elizabeth. Raised to the peerage from the rank of a private gentleman, he yet thought little of the distinction. He had been as powerful under the name of William Cecil as he now was when he wrote Burleigh; and although on great occasions, where a political object was to be gained, he could assume a magnificence in his entertainments which almost rivalled those of his sovereign, and even ordinarily in his houses, gardens, and equipage, kept up a splendid state, it was apparently more in obedience to the taste of the queen and of the times than from personal vanity or enjoyment. The common habits of his life were sober and unostentatious. "He had a little mule at his favourite seat at Theobalds, upon which he rode up and down the walks: sometimes he would look on those who were shooting with arrows or playing with bowls; but as for himself he never engaged in any diversion, taking the word in its usual sense. He had a few friends who were constantly at his table because he liked their company; but in all his life he never had one favourite, or suffered any body to get an ascendant over him. Basking, as he did, in the sun

B

shine of royal favour, he rather suffered than enjoyed his greatness; and whenever he had time to spare he fled, as his expression was, to Theobalds, and buried himself in privacy, where he would pleasantly throw off his gown and say, 'Lie thou there, Lord Treasurer!'"* Yet these intervals of ease and domestic enjoyment were rarely snatched from the constant pressure of his employments, which continued to engross him from his first entrance into public life till he settled a treaty with the States, as he lay sick upon the bed from which he never

rose.

In striking contrast to the grave Burleigh, the next most conspicuous person in Elizabeth's court was the gay, profligate, and magnificent DUDLEY, EARL OF LEICESTER, the unremitting enemy of Cecil, and yet the highest favourite of the queen. It was as a woman, however, that Elizabeth loved and applauded Dudley, whilst as a sovereign she fully appreciated his rival. Noble birth, the devotion and sufferings of his ancestors in her father's and her sister's reigns, a person and countenance of extreme beauty and gracefulness, and a studied gallantry to his royal mistress, were qualities which endeared Leicester to Elizabeth, and blinded her to the darker parts of his character. Burleigh was earnest for the glory and security of England, and in labouring for his mistress's interest was content that his own should

follow as an accessory. Leicester loved power for its own sake, and desired to be omnipotent at court and in the council, that he might gratify his pride and revenge, destroy his enemies, and raise himself upon their ruin. Endowed with a profound dissimulation, he intrigued with Spain, and plotted with the Roman Catholics, in order to undermine the Protestant interest of Cecil; while, though abandoned in his principles and dissolute in his habits, he could assume the mask of religion and become the leader of the Puritans, that he might use

* Biographia Britannica, art. Cecil. Lloyd's State Worthies, p. 478.

their power to weaken the ecclesiastical establishment, for the support of which his rival was so deeply interested. His information was so secret, that his spies and dependants were supposed to be as busy on the continent as at home. He was little scrupulous as to the means employed to rid himself of an enemy; and whilst, to shame the coldness and parsimony of Cecil, he acted as a munificent patron of the sciences and learning, he scrupled not to deal with astrologers, wizards, and poisoners, provided they lent their dark assistance in the accomplishment of his designs. Yet all this was done so silently and circumspectly that no proof could be found against him, and the thread was lost before it could be traced to the master-hand which presided within the labyrinth. "Many," says Lloyd, "fell in his time, who saw not the hand that pulled them down; and as many died that knew not their own disease."* At the period when Raleigh made his appearance at court, Dudley possessed some of the highest offices in the kingdom; but whilst the reputation of Burleigh is permanent, his once potent rival is now chiefly remembered as the uncle of Sir Philip Sidney and the patron of Spenser.

At this time another great man at court was RATCLIFFE, EARL OF SUSSEX and Lord Chamberlain, whose blunt, open, and martial character came out in striking relief beside the polished and brilliant personages amongst whom he moved. His abilities in war were of the highest order, as was repeatedly shown in Ireland; and although the rust of the camp and the smoke of battle had rather besmirched and unfitted him for the office of chamberlain to a virgin queen, there was an affability and simplicity in his manners which attracted all honest men to his party, and enabled him, infinitely inferior as he was to Leicester in court-policy, to raise a party against him which had nearly ruined his great enemy, when Sussex showed the nobleness of mind to plead for a fallen foe. It was his custom to designate Dudley by the nick

* Lloyd's State Worthies, p. 519.

name of the Gipsy, and on his deathbed he is said to have given this singular advice to his friends who stood by:—“I am now passing into another world, and I must now leave you to your fortunes and to the queen's grace and goodness: but beware of the Gipsy-for he will be too hard for you all; you know not the beast so well as I do."*

Leicester, from his lordly state and influence, had acquired amongst the common people the title of the Heart of the Court, while Sussex, by his martial virtue, may be said to have been the soul of the camp; yet there was another at this time in the suite of Elizabeth, who, although bearing no higher title than that of a knight, was better known in England and throughout Europe than if he had borne a ducal star. This was the all-accomplished Sir PHILIP SIDNEY,—a person of so versatile a genius, that he seemed born to arrive at excellence in almost every department, whether of knowledge or of action." His descent," says Sir Robert Naunton, 66 was apparently noble on both sides: for his education, it was such as travel and the university could afford or his tutors infuse; for, after an incredible proficiency in all the species of learning, he left the academical life for that of the court, whither he came by his uncle's [Leicester] invitation, famed aforehand by a noble report of his accomplishments, which, together with the state of his person, framed by a natural propension to arms, soon attracted the good opinion of all men, and was so highly prized in the good opinion of the queen, that she thought the court deficient without him; and whereas, through the fame of his deserts, he was in the election for the kingdom of Pole, she refused to further his advancement, not out of emulation, but out of fear to lose the jewel of her times."+ This quaint encomium savours somewhat of flattery; yet, judging in the calmest mood of his numerous endowments, and estimating him

*Naunton's Fragmenta Regalia, p. 49. + Ibid. p. 66.

by the influence which he acquired over his age, Sidney must have been an extraordinary man. His acquaintance with the affairs of Europe was so exact and profound, that William of Nassau assured Sir Fulke Greville he was deserving of a throne in foreign parts, although he filled no office in England. His abilities in war and wisdom in civil policy were of so high an order, that his uncle Leicester held his government in the Low Countries by his counsels and energy when alive, and lost or rather found it prudent to resign it after his death. As a writer, indeed, he cannot be ranked so high. His Arcadia, which had just been finished when Raleigh came to court, is an interminable and unreadable production, although in some parts deficient neither in sweetness nor in energy; yet we ought to criticise it with a reference to the taste of those times, and not by the rules applicable to a modern novel or romance. That he could sometimes write with no common vigour and elegance, his little piece entitled Valour Anatomised in a Fancy, and his reply to the libel on his uncle Leicester, sufficiently demonstrate. He who was the friend and patron of Spenser, who is styled by the judicious Camden the darling of the learned world,-whose natural genius and propensity to great designs are commemorated by Grotius,—and whose death at the age of thirty-two created a sensation throughout Europe,-could scarcely have been the inferior person to which the amusing and paradoxical attack of Walpole has laboured to reduce him. One other quality of Sidney, which he shared with some of the greatest men of his time, was an ambition for naval adventure and a zeal for the discovery and colonization of new countries, a passion with which Raleigh, as we have already seen, could deeply sympathize, and which did not fail to attract these soaring spirits to each other.

It is unnecessary to add to these sketches of the court of Elizabeth as it existed at the period when Raleigh returned from the Irish wars into England. The brilliant picture might be filled up by other illustrious and