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[ p.1 ] (image of introduction page)
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B I O G R A P H I C A L
AND
CRITICAL INTRODUCTION.
HO is there, that will not read with a heart first expanding with admiration, and afterwards wrung with resentment and sorrow, the story of RALEIGH, though a thousand times told?
SIR WALTER RALEIGH was born in 1552, at Hayes Farm, in the parish of Budley, in that part of Devonshire, which borders eastward on the sea, near the spot where the Ottery discharges itself into the British Channel.
He was the fourth son, and the second by a third wife, of Walter Raleigh of Fardel, in the parish of Cornwood, near Plymouth, Esq. His father was of an ancient knightly family, and his mother was Catharine, daughter of Sir Philip Champernoun of Modbury, in the same county; relict of Otho Gilbert of Compton, (the father by her of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the celebrated navigator.)
We are anxious to search out the fountain-head of greatness; and to see if we can discover in the ancestor any of those ingredients which afterwards, in a favoured descendant, burst out / p.2 / into a blaze of fame. We can trace nothing of this kind in the progenitors of SIR WALTER. Their lot seems to have been confined to provincial honours, where they alike were shut from the extended glory and the severe misfortunes of him who rendered their name illustrious over the wide globe.
His father had only a lease in the farm at Hayes, which afterwards passed into other hands; as appears by the following letter of SIR WALTER to Mr. Duke of Devonshire, after he had begun to make his fortune; and to seek a residence for himself.
"MR. DUKE,
"I WROTE to Mr. Prideaux to move you for the purchase of Hayes, a farm sometime in my father's possession. I will most willingly give whatsoever in your conscience you shall deem it worth; and if at any time you shall have occasion to use me, you shall find me a thankful friend to you and yours. I am resolved, if I cannot intreat you, to build at Colliton; but for the natural disposition I have to that place, being born in that house, I had rather seat myself there than any where else. I take my leave, ready to countervail all your courtesies to the utter of my power.
"Your very willing Friend,
"In all I shall be able,
"WALTER RALEIGH."a
"Court, the xxvi. of July, 1584."
a "Aubrey's Lives in Bodl. Letters," ii. 520.
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SIR WALTER was educated at Oxford, where he resided three years; and then, in 1569, at the age of seventeen, formed one of the select troop of an hundred gentlemen, whom Queen Elizabeth permitted Henry Champernoun to transport to France, for the assistance of the Protestant Princes there.
A service of six years on that great theatre, not only fully taught him the duties of a soldier, but improved his natural sagacity and extensive knowledge of mankind.
In 1575, he appears to have taken up his abode in the Middle Temple; as his Commendatory Verses, prefixed to George Gascoigne's "Steel-Glass," are dated from that place.
Soon afterwards his active spirit again led him abroad; and he engaged in the service of the Prince of Orange in the Low-Countries, where the auxiliary forces from England were commanded by Sir John Norris. It is supposed that he was at the battle of Rimenant, on the 1st of August, 1578.
The next year he engaged with his half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who had obtained a patent for planting and inhabiting certain parts of North America, in a naval adventure to that new-discovered world. This enterprize was unsuccessful: and the adventurers returned, after encountering many misfortunes, with the loss of one of their ships.b
b See "Hakluyt's Voyages."
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In 1580, the Pope having instigated the Irish to unfurl the banner of rebellion, RALEIGH accepted a captain's commission under the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Arthur Grey, Lord Grey De Wilton. Here he distinguished himself by his skill and bravery. In 1581, the Earl of Ormond departing for England, his Government of Munster was given to Captain RALEIGH, in commission with Sir William Morgan, and Captain Piers. RALEIGH resided chiefly at Lismore, and spent all this summer in the woods and country adjacent, in continual action with the rebels.
Discontents, and heart-burnings, and disputes ensued between Lord Grey and RALEIGH, which the following curious expressions in a letter of RALEIGH to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, dated from the camp of Lismore, August 25, 1581, evidently allude to. "I have spent some time here under the Deputy in such poor place and charge, as were it not for that I knew him to be as if yours, I would disdain it as much as to keep sheep. I will not trouble your honour with the business of this lost land; for that Sir Warham St. Leger can best of any main deliver unto your lordship the good, the bad, the mischiefs, the means to amend, and all in all, of this commonwealth, or rather common woe!"c
c "Cayley's Life of Raleigh," i.39.
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/ Biographical & Critical Introduction . . . . p.5 /
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here that very eminent poet probably formed his friendship with RALEIGH.
RALEIGH's services in Ireland now ended; and, on his return to England, his disputes with the Lord Deputy came before the Council-Table. Sir Robert Naunton says, in his "Fragmenta Regalia,"- - - "I am somewhat confident, among the second causes of his growth, was the variance between him and my Lord General Grey, in his secondd descent into Ireland, which drew them both over to the Council-Table, there to plead their own causes; where what advantage he had in the case in controversy, I know not; but he had much the better in the manner of telling his tale; insomuch, as the Queen and the Lords took no slight mark of the man and his parts; for from thence he came to be known, and to have access to the Lords; and then we are not to doubt how such a man would comply to progression. And whether or no, my Lord of Leicester had the cast in a good word for him to the Queen, which would have done him no harm, I do not determine; but true it is, he had gotten the Queen's ear in a trice; and she began to be taken with his election, and loved to hear his reasons to her demands. And the truth is, she took him for a kind of oracle; which nettled them all; yea, those that he relied on, began to take this his sudden
d An error of Naunton.
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favour for an alarm; and to be sensible of their own supplantation, and to project his; which made him shortly after sing,
"Fortune, my foe, why dost thou frown?"
These openings at Court did not deter R ALEIGH from engaging in those expeditions of naval discovery which were most congenial to the spirit of his adventurous genius. His brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, having resolved to make a second attempt on America, RALEIGH built and sent on that undertaking a bark of 200 tons. On June 11, 1583, the fleet sailed from Plymouth; but in four days a contageous disease, which had seized the crew of our hero's vessel, necessitated them to part company with the rest, and return to port. Sir Humphrey himself, with two of his vessels, was lost in his return from this voyage.
RALEIGH was not discouraged; but drawing fresh hopes from the information obtained in this attempt, laid a plan before the Queen and Council, by which he obtained a grant, dated 25th of March, 1584, of "free liberty to discover such remote heathen and barbarous lands, as were not actually possessed by any Christian, nor inhabited by Christian people." For this purpose he fitted out two vessels, which sailed on the 27th of April following; and reaching the Gulf of Florida on the 2d of July, sailed one hundred and twenty miles along the shore; and at last debarking on a low land, called Wokoken, took possession / p.7 / of it in the name of the Queen of England; and returning home about the middle of September, made such a report that her Majesty adopted the design of planting a colony there, and gave it the name of VIRGINIA e
At this time RALEIGH had risen into such importance as to be elected Representative in Parliament for his native county; and in the following year, 1585, received from the Queen the honour of knighthood; an honour which from the sparing hand of that monarch was considered an high distinction. About this period also SIR WALTER was favoured by a licence to sell wines throughout the kingdom.
In March, 1585, he engaged with his brother, Sir Adrian Gilbert, in prosecuting the discovery of the North-west Passage; in which attempt they employed Captain Davis, an experienced navigator, who soon after fell upon that which is still well-known by the name of Davis's Straits.
In April of the same year, SIR WALTER sent out a fleet of seven sail, under the command of his cousin, Sir Richard Gran-
e A full account of this voyage, written by Captain Edward Hayes, is to be found in "Hakluyt," iii. 246.
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ville of Devonshire, to plant his new colony of Virginia, of which Ralph Lane was appointed Governor. Sir Richard returned to Plymouth on the 18th of October following, having taken in his passage home a Spanish prize worth 50,000l; and having left behind him in Virginia a colony of one hundred and seven persons; among whom was the celebrated mathematician Thomas Hariot. f
At this time happened the suppression of the rebellion of Munster, in Ireland; and the forfeited lands were divided in signiories among those who had been active in its reduction. RALEIGH obtained a grant of 12,000 acres in the counties of Cork and Waterford; which he planted at his own expence, and at the end of this reign sold to Richard Boyle, afterwards the great Earl of Cork, who owns this purchase to have been the first step to his future vast fortune.
In 1586 he fitted out a third voyage to Virginia, under Sir Richard Granville, who found on his arrival the former settlers had already deserted it. Sir Richard left fifteen men there; and in his passage home took some Spanish prizes at the Azores. Two other ships also which he despatched to those parts had equal success against the Spaniards.
f See an account of this voyage in "Hakluyt," iii.251.
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/ Biographical & Critical Introduction . . . . p.9 / |
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In this year he became an adventurer with George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, to the South Seas.
Such at this time was his influence at Court, as well as general fame, that the Queen appointed him Seneschal of the Duchies of Cornwall and Exeter, and Lord Warden of the Stannaries in those counties. Envy, the almost inevitable attendant on greatness, now began to pursue him; and the Earl of Leicester, his former patron and friend, is said to have grown jealous of his influence with her Majesty, and to have set up in opposition to him Robert Devereux, the young Earl of Essex.
Early in 1587, RALEIGH prepared a new colony of one hundred and fifty persons for Virginia, under the command of Mr. John White, whom he appointed Governor, and who departed from Portsmouth with three sail on April 26, and arrived at Hattarass 23d July following. They found the colony already dispersed; and White returning home for supplies a new fleet was prepared under Sir Richard Granville, which was, however, prevented from sailing by the threat of the Spanish invasion. Governor White was sent, therefore, with only two small pinnaces, and sailed from Biddeford on April 22; but these vessels receiving material injuries on their voyage in engagements with the enemy, returned without having completed their expedition, to the distress of the planters abroad, and regret of their patrons at home
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Another mark of royal favour was now conferred on him. He was appointed Captain of her Majesty's Guard.
In this year SIR WALTER distinguished himself by the active part he took against the Spanish Armada.
On March 7, 1589, he assigned over all his rights in the colony of Virginia to certain merchants of the city of London.
In April 1589, he accompanied Sir John Norris and Sir Francis Drake in their expedition to Portugal, to restore Don Antonio, the monarch of that kingdom; who had been expelled from his dominion by Philip II. of Spain. For his conduct on this occasion he was honoured by the Queen with a gold chain.
On his return home he touched upon the coast of Ireland; being, as it seems, debarred from the Court by the jealousy and intrigues of Lord Essex. g Here he visited Spenser, the poet, in his delightful retreat at Kilcolman, on the banks of the Mulla, in the county of Cork; renewing an intimacy formerly begun on the Poet's first arrival in that kingdom. Spenser tells us that RALEIGH, sitting beside him under the shady alders on the banks of the Mulla, often provoked him to play some pleasant fit. This appears from his pastoral of "Colin Clout's come home again," dedicated to SIR WALTER, in 1595, in which we find the following passage:
g "Birch's Memoir of Queen Elizabeth,," i.55.
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/ Biographical & Critical Introduction . . . . p.11 / |
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"One day," quoth he, "I sat, as was my trade,
Under the foot of Mole, that mountain hoar,
Keeping my sheep amongst the cooly shade
Of the green alders by the Mulla's shore:
There a strange shepherd chanc'd to find me out,
Whether allured with my pipe's delight,
Whose pleasing sound yshrilled far about,
Or thither led by chance, I know not right:
Whom when I asked from what place he came,
And how he hight, himself he did yclep
The Shepherd of the Ocean by name,
And said he came far from the main-sea deep.
He, sitting me beside in that same shade,
Provoked me to play some pleasant fit;
And, when he heard the music which I made,
He found himself full greatly pleas'd at it:
Yet, æmuling my pipe, he took in hand
My pipe, before that æmuled of many,
And play'd thereon; (for well that skill he con'd;)
Himself as skilful in that art as any.
He pip'd, I sung; and, when he sung, I piped;
By change of turns, each making other merry;
Neither envying other, nor envied:
So piped we, until we both were weary."
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Spenser goes on afterwards:
"His song was all a lamentable lay
Of great unkindness, and of usage hard,
Of CYNTHIA the Lady of the Sea,
Which from her presence faultless him debarr'd.
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And ever and anon, with singulfs rife,
He cried out, to make his undersong;
'Ah! my lov'd Queen, and Goddess of my life,
Who shall me pity, when thou dost me wrong?'
Then 'gan a gentle bonny lass to speak,
That Marin hight: 'Right well he sure did plain,
That could great Cynthia's sore displeasure break,
And move to take him to her grace again."
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Hence we may conclude that RALEIGH was soon restored to the Queen's favour; and, from the following passage, that he took Spenser back with him, and introduced him to the Queen.
"When thus our pipes we both had wearied well,"
Quoth he, "and each an end of singing made,
He 'gan to cast great liking to my lore,
And great disliking to my luckless lot,
That banish'd had myself, like wight forlore,
Into that waste, where I was quite forgot.
The which to leave, thenceforth he counsel'd me,
Unmeet for man, in whom was ought regardful,
And wend with him his Cynthia to see;
Whose grace was great, and bounty most rewardful.
Besides her peerless skill in making well,
And all the ornament of wondrous wit,
Such as all womankind did far excel;
Such as the world admir'd, and praised it:
So what with hope of good, and hate of ill,
He me persuaded forth with him to fare."
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/ Biographical & Critical Introduction . . . . p.13 /
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Again,
"The Shepherd of the Ocean," quoth he,
"Unto that Goddess' grace me first enhanc'd,
And to my oaten pipe inclin'd her ear,
That she thenceforth therein 'gan take delight,
And it desir'd at timely hours to hear,
All were my notes but rude and roughly dight."
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In the same poem he speaks thus of RALEIGH's own poetical turn.
"And there that Shepherd of the Ocean is,
That spends his wit in Love's consuming smart;
Full sweetly temper'd is that Muse of his,
That can empierce a Prince's mighty heart."
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I need not observe that this character well applies to the Poems of RALEIGH now first printed together.
As an additional proof of Spenser's opinion of our accomplished Hero, this may not be an improper place to introduce Spenser's Sonneth to him, prefixed to "The Fairy Queen."
h Spenser's Sonnets before "The Fairy Queen," appear to me to be all of them very valuable, not so much on account of the poetry, as for the peculiarity of praise, by which the person addressed is so happily designated. The character of each of these great men of Queen Elizabeth's Court is drawn with such appropriate traits, that from thence alone may be learned the features by which each was most distinguished. But the poetry itself of them is better, than Warton, in general a most candid critic would allow. A small impression of these Sonnets, from the Lee Press, acocmpanied by Biographical Notes, is in contemplation.
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/ p.14 . . . . Biographical & Critical Introduction / |
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TO THE RIGHT NOBLE AND VALOROUS KNIGHT,
SIR WALTER RALEIGH,
LORD WARDEN OF THE STANNARIES, AND LIEUTENANT OF CORNWALL.
To thee, that art the Summer's nightingale,
Thy Sovereign Goddess's most dear delight,
Why do I send this rustic madrigal,
That may thy tuneful ear unseason quite?
Thou only fit this argument to write,
In whose high thoughts Pleasure hath built her bower,
And dainty Love learn'd sweetly to endite.
My rhymes I know unsavoury and sour,
To taste the streams that, like a golden shower,
Flow from thy fruitful head of thy Love's praise;
Fitter perhaps to thunder martial store,
Whenso they list thy lofty Muse to raise:
Yet, till that thou thy poem wilt make known,
Let thy fair Cynthia's praises be thus rudely shown.
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Early in 1592, SIR WALTER formed a design against the Spaniards in the West Indies, and proceeded to sea with his fleet on the 6th of May. The next day he received from the Queen an order of recall, which he did not obey till the fleet had reached Cape Finister on the 11th; when separating the ships into two squadrons, he divided the command between Sir John Burgh and Sir Martin Frobisher. They took and brought to England the Madre de Dios, the richest prize which had at that time been taken, first estimated by SIR WALTER at 500,000l. / p.15 / but found afterwards not to produce more than a third of that sum, of which the Queen claimed a large share.
An event now occurred, not unimportant to the domestic life of this great man. An amour which took place with Elizabeth, daughter of the celebrated Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, one of the maids of honour to the Queen, so offended her Majesty that she sent them both prisoners to the Tower. SIR WALTER married the lady, and they proved examples of conjugal affection and virtue. He continued in confinement till September.
Anthony Bacon, in a letter written early in the year 1593, says, "SIR WALTER having been almost a year in disgrace, for several occasions, as I think you have heard, is yet hovering between fear and hope, notwithstanding his great share of the rich Carac."
At this time he appeared as a conspicuous speaker in parliament.
The next year our Hero was so entirely restored to favour, that he obtained a grant from her Majesty of the manor of Sherbourne, in Dorsetshire, which had been alienated from the See of Salisbury by Bishop Caldwell. Coker, in his Survey of this county, says, "Queen Elizabeth granted the fee-farm of it to SIR WALTER, who began very fairly to build the castle. But altering his purpose, he built in a park adjoining to it, out of the ground, a most fine house; which he beautified with orchards, / p.16 / gardens, and groves, of much variety and great delight. So that whether that you consider the pleasantness of the seat, the goodness of the soil, or the other delicacies belonging unto it, it rests unparalleled by any in these parts."
In 1594, he was made happy by the birth of his eldest son, Walter.
But the Queen's resentment for his conduct towards a lady of her court rankled, it seems, in her bosom. "Finding," says Naunton, "his favours declining and falling into a recess, he undertook a new peregrination to leave that terra infirma of the Court for that of the waves, and by declining himself, and by absence, to expel his, and the passion of his enemies. Which in Court was a strange device of recovery, but that he then knew there was some ill office done him; yet he durst not attempt to amend it otherwise than by going aside, thereby to teach envy a new way of forgetfulness, and not so much as think of him."
RALEIGH now, therefore, having planned his voyage to Guiana, took the command of it himself. He departed from England on Thursday, February 6, 1595, and returned late in the summer of that year, when he published an account of the expedition, under the title of "The Discovery of the large rich and beautiful Empire of Guiana; with a relation of the great and Golden City of Manoa, called by the Spaniards EL DORADO, &c. printed by Robert Robinson, London, 1596." 4to. Inserted also / p.17 / in "Hakluyt's Voyages," iii. 627; in "Birch's Works of Raleigh," ii. 137; in "Cayley's Life of Raleigh," i. 157, &c.
At this time he resolved on a second attempt to Guiana. On December 13th of that year Rowland White writes to Sir Robert Sydney: "There be great means made for SIR WALTER RALEIGH's coming to the Court: he lives about London very gallant: his voyage goes forward; and my Lord Treasurer ventures with him 500l. in money: Sir Robert Cecil ventures a new ship, bravely furnished; the very hull stands in 500l." The command of this voyage was given to Lawrence Keymis. He sailed in January, 1596; and returned in June following. A relation of this expedition, by Keymis himself, may be found in the third volume of "Hakluyt's Voyages."
SIR WALTER now had a chief command in the Cadiz action, under the Earl of Essex, in which he took a very able and gallant part.
In the Island Voyage, 1597, which was aimed principally against the Spanish Plate-Fleets, RALEIGH, who was one of the principal leaders, would have been completely successful, had he not been thwarted by the jealousy and presumption of Essex.
Early in 1598, RALEIGH was sent down to Cornwall, to defend the coast against some threatened attacks of the Spaniards; and he was soon afterwards talked of for the high post of Lord Deputy of Ireland.
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On the 20th of September that year, Rowland White writes, "I heard of one that is familiar among them, that Sir Robert Cecil and SIR WALTER RALEIGH do infinitely desire to be BARONS, and they have a purpose to be called unto it, though there be no parliament."
About June 1600, SIR WALTER went over to Flanders with Lord Cobham, and on August 26th of that year, was appointed Governor of Jersey.
Now came the misfortunes and condemnation of the imprudent Essex. On this occasion there is extant a letter of RALEIGH, first printed in "Murdin's State Papers," which leaves a blot on his character, that I confess cannot be effaced from my mind. It is too curious and too characteristic to be omitted.
"Sir Walter Raleigh to Sir Robert Cecil.
"SIR,
"I am not wise enough to give you advice; but if you take it for a good counsel to relent towards this tyrant, you will repent it when it shall be too late. His malice is fixed, and will not evaporate by any of your mild courses; for he will ascribe the alteration to her Majesty's pusillanimity, and not to your good nature, knowing that you work but upon her humour, and not out of any love towards him. The less you make him, the less he shall be able to harm you and yours; and if her Majesty's favour fail him, he will again decline to a common person. For / p.19 / after-revenges, fear them not; for your own father was esteemed to be the contriver of Norfolk's ruin, yet his soni followeth your father's son,k and loveth him. Humours of men succeed not, but grow by occasion, and accidents of time and power. Somerset made no revenge on the Duke of Northumberland's heirs. Northumberland,l that now is, thinks not of Hatton'sm issue. Kelloway lives, that murdered the brother of Horsey; and Horsey let him go-by all his life-time. I coud name a thousand of those; and therefore after-fears are but prophecies, or rather conjectures from causes remote: look to the present, and you do wisely. His son shall be the youngest Earl of England but one, and if his father be not kept down, Will. Cecil shall be able to keep as many men at his heels, and more too. He may also match in a better house than his and so that fear is not worth the fearing. But if the father continue, he will be able to break the branches, and pull up the tree root and all. Lose not your advantage; if you do, I read your destiny.
Let the Queen hold Bothwell,n while she hath him; he will ever be the canker of her estate and safety. Princes are lost by security, and preserved by prevention. I have seen the last of her good days, and all ours after his liberty.
"WALTER RALEIGH."o
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This letter strikes me to be the dictation of a man apparently (I do not admit really) acute in worldly wisdom; but frightfully
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i Northampton. |
k Cecil himself. |
l Percy. |
| m Sir Christopher. |
n Meaning Essex. |
o "Murdin," p.811. "Cayley," i. 341. |
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wicked. It exhibits an appalling picture of the course of human affairs; of the modes by which success in the paths of public life is too frequently attained and secured, and the consequent value there must be in a long transmission of honours and riches, which, if they were the blessing they are too generally supposed to be, would, when thus gotten, be an impeachment on the justice of Providence. Another awful lesson is here exhibited: RALEIGH, in this dreadful letter, is pressing forward for a rival that snare, by which he afterwards perished himself! He urges Cecil to get rid of Essex! By that riddance he himself became no longer necessary to Cecil, as a counterpoise to Essex's power. Then I have no doubt it was that Cecil, become an adept in the abominable lesson of this letter, and conscious of his minor talents but more persevering cunning, resolved to disencumber himself of the ascendant abilities, and aspiring and dangerous ambition of RALEIGH!
We speak of these times with enthusiasm: our imaginations are inflamed with their chivalrous spirit, and the magnanimous understanding and heart of the Princess who sat upon the throne! But does not a more deep and calm reflection see much to disapprove, and much which fills us with horror in this boasted reign? A monarch of sagacity and resolution, whose affections were set upon the happiness and glory of her nation, and who generally employed fit means for her purposes, yet of / p.21 / despotic principles, liable to fits of caprice, and even favouritism; untouched by finer feelings; exacting hard measure in the services of those that she employed; and by no means nice in the sacrifice of any one whom her opinion of state-necessity induced her to abandon!
Her favouritism, though it yielded at last, after a dangerous and fatal struggle, to her sense of public duty, displayed itself most glaringly in the case of Essex. In this fond play-thing of transient fortune there were many showy and attractive qualities: but let us ask our sober reason where were the great virtues, or the transcendent intellect, or the unselfish heroism? What affair did he conduct, what expedition did he command, in which he shewed superior skill? In what great business was he employed, in which the gratification of his own private fame and vanity does not appear the primary object? A childish jealousy of RALEIGH induced him to thwart great national concerns, over which he ought not to have presided.
When we see this young nobleman put over the head of RALEIGH, a man of so much longer experience, of talents so much more profound, of enduring fortitude so much more sublime, what can we say for this occasional weakness of a Princess, whose transcendent exercise of the reins of power we are so habituated to extoll? We must not attribute it to the superior birth and rank of Essex; though this would have been / p.22 / at least as excusable as that absurd and unseasonable attachment of old age to youth, from which it flowed. The Queen, however, gave a degree of superiority to birth and rank, which in our more enlightened days excites a just indignation. If it be unwise to make the road of ascent to low men too easy, RALEIGH was not a low man; and great talents, long tried, and well exerted, ought at all times, and in every state, to have the first place.
But this illustrious Queen, whose magnanimous spirit and powerful sagacity knew in general by what instruments to govern, carried to the grave with her all the sunshine and all the happiness of RALEIGH. Now the storm, which the witchery of the wicked Cecil had been conjuring together, burst upon his head. A Prince from the North with a meanness of soul which has no parallel, and a narrow subtlety of intellect, which is worse than folly, ascended the British throne, and changed the face and character of the court and the nation. King James frowned on RALEIGH; and within three months entertained a charge against him of high treason. This supposed conspiracy, so well known by the name of RALEIGH's Plot, remains a mystery to this day. Those unhappy noblemen, (Brooke,) Lord Cobham, and (Thomas Grey,) Lord Grey de Wilton, were involved in the charge, and themselves and their ancient houses ruined by it. But the details of this extraordinary affair have been so often repeated, / p.23 / that I shall refrain from fatiguing the reader by again relating them here.
On November 17, 1603, RALEIGH was brought to his trial at Winchester. The charge was of a plot to advance Arabella Stuart to the crown. The wretched Cobham was produced as an evidence against him: he was tampered with, and equivocated. RALEIGH was found guilty; and sentence of execution pronounced.
Sir Dudley Carleton in a celebrated letter, descriptive of this trial, says, "After sentence given, his request was, to have his answers related to the King, and pardon begged; of which if there were no hope, then that Cobham might die first. He answered with that temper, wit, learning, courage and judgment, that, save that it went with the hazard of his life, it was the happiest day that ever he spent. And so well he shifted all advantages that were taken against him, that were not fama malum gravius quam res, and an ill name half-hanged, in the opinion of all men he had been acquitted." It was universally allowed, that there was no legal evidence sufficient to justify this verdict.
After living for nearly a month in daily expectation of being executed, RALEIGH was reprieved. On December 15, he was removed to the Tower. About 1608, SIR WALTER's estate p at
p This property was afterwards valued by the State at 5000 l. a year.
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Sherbourne was begged by Carr, the favourite; and granted to that wretched nobleman the following year.
SIR WALTER being now suffered to linger in the Tower, gave up his time to literature.
Prince Henry favoured this great man. "No king but my father," said he, "would keep such a bird in a cage."
In 1612, on the death of Cecil, whom King James had created Earl of Salisbury, RALEIGH entertained hopes of his freedom. In 1614, he had the liberty of the Tower allowed him; and the same year published his "History of the World."
At length he obtained his release, on March 17, 1616, after twelve years imprisonment,q a favour only to be obtained by bribery.
The treasures of Guiana still haunted the mind of RALEIGH; and he now made preparations for a new voyage. A commission was procured, through the influence of Sir Ralph Winwood, bearing date August 26, 1616. SIR WALTER was also offered a regular pardon for 700 l. which had not been given him on his release. This he declined, by the advice of Sir Francis Bacon, who said, "Sir, the knee-timber of your voyage is money. Spare your purse in this particular; for upon my life you have a sufficient pardon for all that is past already; the
q Lord Grey died in the Tower, 1614; and Lord Cobham survived SIR WALTER about three months, in miserable poverty.
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King, having, under his Broad Seal, made you Admiral of your Fleet, and given you power of the Martial Law over your officers and soldiers."
On March 28, 1617, SIR WALTER sailed with the fleet, which he had collected. In November following, he reached the continent of South America.
It is well known that this expedition failed: nor can it be doubted that the pusillanimous monarch James betrayed all the plans to the Spaniards, who thus fortified all the entrances against him.
For the rest," says SIR WALTER, "there was never poor man so exposed to the slaughter as I was. For, being commanded by my allegiance, to set down, not only the country, but the very river by which I was to enter it; to name my ships' number, men, and my artillery, this was sent by the Spanish Ambassador to his master, the King of Spain," &c. His eldest son, Walter, was killed in this expedition; fighting with extraordinary valour, and constant vigour of mind.
On
SIR WALTER's return, it was alledged that the golden mine was a mere chimera of his imagination. "What," said Howell, "will not one in captivity, as
SIR WALTER was, promise to regain his freedom? Who would not promise not only mines, but mountains of gold, for liberty?
Gondomar inflamed the King, by pretending that RALEIGH / p.26 / had broken the peace between the two kingdoms of Britain and Spain. RALEIGH surrendered himself; afterwards made an unsuccessful attempt to escape when on his journey to London; and was re-committed to the Tower.
It was now resolved that SIR WALTER should be brought to the bar of the King's Bench by Habeus Corpus, and execution awarded upon his former sentence. He was accordingly brought up on October 28, 1618, though taken from his bed under the infliction of an ague-fit. Execution was accordingly granted; and he was delivered to the Sheriffs of Middlesex, and conveyed to the Gate-House, near the Palace-Yard. His heroism did not forsake him. To some who deplored his misfortunes he observed, with calmness, that "the world itself is but a larger prison, out of which some are daily selected for execution."
On Thursday, October 29th, he was conducted to the scaffold, in Old Palace-Yard. His countenance was cheerful; and he said, "I desire to be borne withal, for this is the third day of my fever; and if I shall shew any weakness, I beseech you to attribute it to my malady; for this is the hour, in which it was wont to come." He then addressed the spectators in a long speech, which ended thus:
- - - - - "And now I intreat you to join with me in prayer to the great God of Heaven, whom I have grievously offended, being a man full of all vanity, and have lived a sinful life, in all / p.27 / sinful callings; for I have been a soldier, a captain, a sea-captain, and a courtier, which are courses of wickedness and vice, that God would forgive me, and cast away my sins from me, and that he would receive me into everlasting life. So I take my leave of you all, making my peace with God."
When he bade farewell to his friends, he said, "I have a long journey to go, and therefore I will take my leave." Having asked the executioner to shew him the axe, which the executioner hesitated to do, he cried, "I prithee let me see it! Dost thou think I am afraid of it?" He then took hold of it, felt the edge, and smiling, said to the sheriff, "this is a sharp medicine; but it is a physician for all evils." He forgave the executioner, and being asked which way he would lay himself on the block, he answered, "So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lies." At two strokes his head was taken off, without the least shrink, or motion of his body.
Dr. Tounson, Dean of Westminster, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, has a given relation of this dreadful execution, in a letter to Sir John Isham of Lamport, in Northamptonshire, dated November 9, 1618.
"He was," says the Dean, "the most fearless of death, that ever was known; and the most resolute and confident, yet with reverence and conscience. When I began to encourage him against the fear of death, he seemed to make so light of it, that / p.28 / I wondered at him. And when I told him that the dear servants of God, in better causes than his, had shrunk back, and trembled a little, he denied not; but yet gave God thanks he never feared death, and much less then. For it was but an opinion and imagination, and the manner of death, though to others it might seem grievous, yet he had rather die so than of a burning fever. With much more to that purpose, with such confidence and cheerfulness, that I was fain to divert my speech another way; and wished him not to flatter himself; for this extraordinary boldness, I was afraid came from some false ground. If it sprang from the assurance he had of the love and favour of God, of the hope of his salvation by Christ, and his own innocency, as he pleaded, I said he was a happy man. But if it were out of an humour of vain glory, or carelessness, or contempt of death, or senselessness of his own estate, he were much to be lamented, &c. For I told him, that heathen men had set as little by their lives as he would do, and seemed to die as bravely. He answered, that he was persuaded, that no man that knew God, and feared him, could die with cheerfulness and courage, except he were assured of the love and favour of God unto him. That other men might make shews outwardly, but they felt no joy within; with much more to that effect very christianly, so that he satisfied me then, as I think he did all his spectators at his death," &c.
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"He was very cheerful that morning he died, and took tobacco, and made no more of his death than if he had been to take a journey. And left a great impression in the minds of those that beheld him, insomuch that Sir Lewis Stukeley and the Frenchman grew very odious."
Another account says, "In all the time he was upon the scaffold, nor before, there appeared not the least alteration in him, either in his voice or countenance; but he seemed as free from all manner of apprehension, as if he had come thither rather to be a spectator than a sufferer; nay, the beholders seemed much more sensible than did he. So that he hath purchased here, in the opinion of men, such honour and reputation, as it is thought his greatest enemies are they that are most sorrowful for his death, which they see is like to turn so much to his advantage."
This unparallelled sacrifice of so great a man to the insolent demands of Spain, gave such disgust to the people, that the King published a Declaration, in justification of the measure, which only increased the odium naturally generated by highly disgraceful measures!
Even one of the ministers wrote to Cottington, our agent then in Spain, (according to a letter preserved by Rushworth,) desiring him to represent to that Court, "in how many actions of late, his Majesty had strained upon the affections of his people; / p.30 / and especially in this last concerning SIR WALTER RALEIGH, who died with a great deal of courage and constancy; and at his death, moved the common sort of people to much remorse, who all attributed his death to the desire his Majesty had to satisfy Spain. Farther, you may let them know, how able a man SIR WALTER RALEIGH was to have done his Majesty service, if he should have been pleased to employ him. Yet to give them content, he hath not spared him, when by preserving him, he might have given great satisfaction to his subjects, and had at command, upon all occasions, as useful a man as served any prince in Christendom."
Such was the active life; and such was the afflicting end, of one of the most extraordinary, and one of the most eminent men in the annals of English History. I can scarcely name another, who united so many opposing qualities of greatness.
If there were no other blots in King James's reign, RALEIGH's death alone would render it intolerable to every generous and reflecting mind. When I consider what sort of talents and conduct covered Cecil's grave with wealth and high honours, while those of RALEIGH led him to the scaffold, and his posterity to extinction in poverty and ruin, my heart bursts with indignation and horror!
His History of the World, that work of stupendous learning, by which he soothed, for so many years, the pressure of those / p.31 / iron chains, which bound down his active body, would alone have immortalized his name. It begins with the Creation, and ends a little before the birth of Christ, a period of 4000 years. It has, however, been pronounced to be rather "an Historical Dissertation," than "to rise to the majesty of History." But the extent of his learning, and the power of his judgment have been extolled as wonderful.
A Collection of valuable Prose Tracts, by SIR WALTER, upon many political questions of great interest, which arose in his time, was published by Dr. Birch, in two vols. 8vo. 1751. These are now become scarce. They contain a rich fund of political wisdom, applicable far beyond the great occasion which gave birth to them, expanded by general axioms, and filled with the germs of that noble science of political economy, which the latter half, of the century lately closed, cultivated with such success. One of these tracts, entitled, "The Cabinet Council," had the honour to be first published in 8vo. by Milton, in 1658. Many other things of his still remain in MS.; of which Mr. Cayley has given a list.
RALEIGH's mind appears to have been characterized by boldness, and freedom from nice scruples, either in thought or in action.
He was, as Lodge says of Sydney, a poet rather by neces- / p.32 / sity than inclination; he only indulged in speculation, when he was shut out from action: for his head was restless and turbulent. When no overwhelming passions or interests misled him, he was generous, and perhaps even feeling.
Difficulties and disappointments gave a plaintive sort of moral cast to his occasional effusions.
He possessed all the various faculties of the mind in such ample degrees, that to whichever of them he had given exclusive or unproportionate cultivation, in that he must have highly excelled. There are so many beautiful lines in the poem prefixed to "Spenser's Fairy Queen," beginning "Methought I saw," &c. that it is clear he was capable of attaining an high place among poetical writers.
The mere assent to greatness in the state, from such a private condition as RALEIGH's, could not have been effected in those days without some extraordinary powers of intellect and of spirit; unless, perhaps, through the slow intrigues of gradually-improving office, where daily presence and daily opportunity might find room for the incessant activity of a selfish cunning; a mode, by which the elevation of Burleigh may probably be accounted for.
We must not compare those days with the present, where private and even low men rise with too little check. I do not doubt, that while climbing up the steep and perilous heights of / p.33 / ambition, RALEIGH met with numerous, scarcely-supportable insults as well as thrusts. Essex was of a generous temper, but he was vain and haughty, and nursed and blown up by intemperate and foolish aristocratical prejudices. Incalculably inferior to RALEIGH in all the powers of the understanding, in age, in experience, and exercised wisdom, any insolence, such as his unreserved temper was likely to betray, must have created in a character like RALEIGH's, inspired as it was by the most daring consciousness of intrinsic pre-eminence both in natural and acquired endowments, feelings of mingled abhorrence, disgust, anger, and disdain, that were not likely to subside without finding some means to discharge themselves on their object. Sir Robert Cecil, a man of industrious parts, always actuated by a crooked and selfish policy, saw and seized this occasion, that he might turn it into an instrument of injury in conducting his own malignant rivalry towards the same imprudent nobleman.
Sackville, Carey, and St. John, who rose to the peerage in this reign, were all related to the Queen: the descent of Lord Howard of Walden, (afterwards created Earl of Suffolk by King James,) was equally illustrious. The father of Norris had suffered in the cause of Anne Boleyn the Queen's mother. Compton possessed large property, and was the heir of a very ancient and distinguished family.
It was a reign, no doubt, of vigorous counsels and vigorous / p.34 / action: yet the Queen was not only jealous and hard to please, but capricious.
It is mortifying to observe, how generally cunning will prevail over talent: not that RALEIGH was exempt from descending to this base mode of success: but in him this debasement was occasional; in Cecil it was constant.
RALEIGH did not disdain the grossest flattery to the Queen:r but he did no more perhaps than every other courtier.
What is called RALEIGH's Plot appears to have been nothing like a plot. Perhaps there had been some improper tamperings among the accused. But did James fear RALEIGH? He ought then to have taken away the venom of his discontent by employment and confidence!
Do I pronounce RALEIGH a poet? Not, perhaps, in the judgment of a severe criticism. RALEIGH, in his better days, was too much occupied in action to have cultivated all the powers of a poet; which require solitude and perpetual meditation, and a refinement of sensibility, such as intercourse with business and the world deadens !
But, perhaps, it will be pleaded, that his long years of imprisonment gave him leisure for meditation, more than enough ! It has been beautifully said by Lovelace, that
r See his letter in Hume.
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"Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage,"
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so long as the mind is free. But broken spirits, and indescribable injuries and misfortunes do not agree with the fervour required by the Muse. Hope, that "sings of promis'd pleasure," could never visit him in his dreary bondage; and Ambition, whose lights had hitherto led him through difficulties and dangers and sufferings, must now have kept entirely aloof from one, whose fetters disabled him to follow as a votary in her train. Images of rural beauty quiet and freedom might, perhaps, have added, by the contrast, to the poignancy of his present painful situation; and he might rather prefer the severity of mental labour in unravelling the dreary and comfortless records of perplexing History in remote ages of war and bloodshed!
There are times when we dare not stir our feelings, or our fancies; when the only mode of reconciling ourselves to the excruciating pressure of our sorrows is the encouragement of a dull apathy, which will allow none but the coarser powers of the intellect to operate.
The production of an Heroic Poem would have nobly employed this illustrious Hero's mighty faculties, during the lamentable years of his unjust incarceration. But how could He delight to dwell on the tale of Heroes, to whom the result of Heroism / p.36 / had been oppression, imprisonment, ruin, and condemnation to death.
We have no proof that RALEIGH possessed the copious, vivid, and creative powers of Spenser; nor is it probable that any cultivation would have brought forth from him fruit equally rich. But even in the careless fragments now presented to the reader, I think we can perceive some traits of attraction and excellence, which perhaps even Spenser wanted. If less diversified than that gifted bard, he would, I think, have sometimes been more forcible and sublime. His images would have been more gigantic, and his reflections more daring. With all his mental attention keenly bent on the busy state of existing things in political society, the range of his thought had been lowered down to practical wisdom: but other habits of intellectual exercise, excursions into the ethereal fields of fiction, and converse with the Spirits which inhabit those upper regions, would have given a grasp and a colour to his conceptions as magnificent as the fortitude of his soul!
I lament, therefore, that these idlenesses of a passing hour, thrown forth without care, and scattered without an attempt at preservation, are all the specimens that we have of RALEIGH's poetical genius. To me they appear to justify the praise which I have thus ventured to confer on that genius: but I am well aware that they will be viewed in a very different manner by / p.37 / many others, who will discover nothing in them but the crude abortions of a jejuine wit, never worth collecting, and now grown tiresomely obsolete by the changes of Time!
To him, whose enlarged taste is alive to excellence in every varying fashion of our literature, to him whose mind is not so narrowed by the severity of a cold discipline, as to refuse to throw on the composition some of the interest derived from the character of the man, to him whose fancy is not too sterile, or too cynical to delight in pastoral poetry, to him whose sensibility or ardour can cherish with fondness the very fragments of genius, to him whose love of History is enlightened by imagination and enriched by moral reflection, I consign this imperfect collection of the Poems of Sir Walter Raleigh, with a glow of satisfaction and triumph: yet not unabated by regret at the imperfect manner in which I have performed my task.
Janurary 16, 1814.
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[ p.39 ] (image of Contents page.)
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OWARDS fear to die; but Courage stout,
HILST my Soul's eye beheld no light
VEN such is Time, thatb takes onc trust
N Pescod time, when hound to horn
AN'S life's a Tragedy: his mother's womb,
EY, down, a down, did Dian sing,
HEPHERD, what's Love, I pray thee