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No.2.

I AM Sorry the joint masque from the four inns of court Harl.MSS. faileth; wherein I conceive there is no other ground of Vol. 7042. that event but impossibility. Nevertheless, because it falleth out that at this time Gray's Inn is well furnished of gallant young gentlemen, your lordship may be pleased to know, that rather than this occasion shall pass without some demonstration of affection from the inns of court, there are a dozen gentlemen of Gray's Inn, that out of the honour which they bear to your lordship and my lord chamberlain, to whom at their last masque they were so much bounden, will be ready want to furnish a masque; wishing it were in their power to perform it according to their mind. And so for the present I humbly take my leave, resting

Your Lordship's very humble and much bounden,

FR. BACON.

II. A LETTER of ceremony to Queen ELIZA- Rawley's BETH, upon the sending of a new-year's gift. tic.

It may please your sacred Majesty,

ACCORDING to the ceremony of the time, I would not forget, in all humbleness, to present your Majesty with a small new-year's gift: nothing to my mind. And therefore to supply it, I cannot but pray to God to give your Majesty his new-year's gift; that is, a new

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year, that shall be as no year to your body, and as a year with two harvests to your coffers; and every other way prosperous and gladsome. And so I remain,

Your Majesty's loyal and obedient subject.

MI

Rawley's III. A LETTER of ceremony to Queen ELIZABETH, upon the sending of a new-year's gift.

Resuscitatio,

Rawley's
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tio.

wrote1600.

Most excellent sovereign Mistress,

THE only new-year's gift, which I can give your Majesty, is that, which God hath given to me; which is, a mind in all humbleness to wait upon your commandments and business: wherein I would to God, that I were hooded, that I saw less; or that I could perform more for now I am like a hawk, that bates, when I see occasion of service, but cannot fly because I am tied to another's fist. But mean while, I continue my presumption of making to your Majesty my poor oblation of a garment; as unworthy the wearing, as his service, that sends it, but the approach to your excellent person may give worth to both; which is all the happiness I aspire unto.

IV. To the QUEEN.

It may please your sacred Majesty, Probably I WOULD not fail to give your Majesty my most humble and due thanks, for your royal choice of such commissioners in the great star-chamber cause; being persons, besides their honour, of such science and integrity: by whose report I doubt not but your Majesty will find that, which you have been heretofore informed, both by my lord keeper, and by some much meaner person, touching the nature of that cause, to be true. This preparatory hearing doth already assail me, with new and enlarged offers of composition; which if I had born a mind to have hearkened unto, this matter had been quenched long ago, without any benefit to your Majesty. But your Majesty's benefit is to me in greater regard than mine own particular: trusting to your Ma

jesty's gracious disposition and royal word, that your Majesty will include me in any extraordinary course of your sovereign pleasure, which your Majesty shall like to take in this cause. The other man, I spoke to your Majesty of, may, within these two terms, be in the same straits, between your Majesty's justice and mercy, that this man now is, if your Majesty be so pleased. So most humbly craving pardon for my presuming to seek access for these few lines, I recommend your Majesty to the most precious custody and best preservation of the Divine Majesty.

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Your Majesty's most humble,

and entirely obedient servant and subject.

V. To the QUEEN.

may please your excellent Majesty,

I PRESUME according to the ceremony and good manner of the time and my accustomed duty, in all humbleness to present your Majesty with a simple gift ; almost as far from answering my mind, as sorting with your greatness; and therewith wish, that we may continue to reckon on, and ever, your Majesty's happy years of reign and they that reckon upon any other hopes, I would they might reckon short and to their cost. And so craving pardon most humbly, I commend your Majesty to the preservation of the divine goodness.

VI. To the QUEEN.

It may please your excellent Majesty,

I MOST humbly intreat your Majesty, not to impute my absence to any weakness of mind or unworthiness. But, I assure your Majesty, I do find envy beating so strongly upon me, standing as I do, if this be to stand, as it were not strength of mind, but stupidity, if I should not decline the occasions; except I could do your Majesty more service than I can any ways discern that I am able to do. My course towards your Majesty, God is my witness, hath been pure and unleavened and never poor gentleman, as I am per

Rawley's

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tio.

Rawley's
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suaded, had a deeper and truer desire and care of your glory, your safety, your repose of mind, your service: wherein, if I have exceeded my outward vocation, I most humbly crave your Majesty's pardon for my presumption. On the other side, if I have come short of my inward vocation, I most humbly crave God's pardon for quenching the Spirit. But in this mind I find such solitude, and want of comfort, which I judge to be, because I take duty too exactly, and not according to the dregs of this age, wherein the old anthem might never be more truly sung, Totus mundus in maligno positus est. My life hath been threatened, and my name libelled, which I count an honour. But these are the practices of those whose despairs are dangerous, but yet not so dangerous as their hopes; or else the devices of some, that would put out all your Majesty's lights, and fall on reckoning how many years you have reigned; which I beseech our blessed Saviour may be doubled, and that I may never live to see any eclipse of your glory, interruption of safety, or indisposition of your person, which I commend to the Divine Majesty, who keep you and fortify you.

This seems to refer to the Earl of Essex, 1600.

Rawley's VII. To

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my Lord Treasurer BURGHLEY, 1591. My Lord,

WITH as much confidence as mine own honest and faithful devotion unto your service, and your honourable correspondence unto me and my poor estate can breed in a man, do I commend myself unto your lordship. I wax now somewhat ancient; one and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour-glass. My health, I thank God, I find confirmed; and I do not fear that action shall impair it; because I account my ordinary course of study and meditation to be more painful than most parts of action are. I ever bare a mind, in some middle place that I could discharge, to serve her majesty; not as a man born under Sol, that loveth honour; nor under Jupiter, that loveth business, for the contemplative planet carrieth me away wholly: but

as a man born under an excellent sovereign, that deserveth the dedication of all mens abilities. Besides I do not find in myself so much self-love, but that the greater part of my thoughts are to deserve well, if I were able, of my friends, and namely of your lordship; who being the Atlas of this commonwealth, the honour of my house, and the second founder of my poor estate, I am tied by all duties, both of a good patriot, and of an unworthy kinsman, and of an obliged servant, to employ whatsoever I am, to do you service. Again, the meanness of my estate doth somewhat move me: for though I cannot accuse myself, that I am either prodigal or slothful, yet my health is not to spend, nor my course to get. Lastly, I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends, as I have moderate civil ends: for I have taken all knowledge to be my province; and if I could purge it of two sorts of rovers, whereof the one with frivolous disputations, confutations, and verbosities; the other with blind experiments and auricular traditions and impostures, hath committed so many spoils; I hope I should bring in industrious observations, grounded conclusions, and profitable inventions and discoveries; the best state of that province. This, whether it be curiosity, or vain glory, or nature, or, if one take it favourably, philanthropia, is so fixed in my mind, as it cannot be removed. And I do easily see that place of any reasonable countenance doth bring commandment of more wits than of a man's own; which is the thing I greatly affect. And for your lordship, perhaps you shall not find more strength and less encounter in any other. And if your lordship shall find now or at any time, that I do seek or affect any place, whereunto any that is nearer unto your lordship shall be concurrent, say then that I am a most dishonest man. And if your lordship will not carry me on, I will not do as Anaxagoras did, who reduced himself with contemplation unto voluntary poverty: but this I will do, I will sell the inheritance that I have, and purchase some lease of quick revenue, or some office of gain, that shall be executed by deputy, and so give over all care of service, and become

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