purpose, that he loved the jeft well, but not the loss of his friend; and that, though he knew that verus quifque fuæ fortunæ faber, was a true and a good principle, yet the most in number were those that numbered themselves, but I will never forgive that man that loseth himself to be rid of his jests. He was father to that refined wit, which fince hath acted a disastrous part on the public ftage, and of late fat in his father's room, as lord chancellor ; those that lived in his age, and from whence I have taken this little model of him, give him a lively character, and they decipher him to be another Solon, and the Simon of those times, fuch a one as Oedipus was in diffolving of riddles; doubtlefs, he was an able instrument, as it was his commendation, that his head was the mallet, for it was a very great one,' and therein kept a wedge, that entered all knotty pieces that came to the table. And now again I must fall back to smooth and plain a way to the rest that is behind, but not from my purpose. There have been, about this time, two rivals in the queen's favour, old fir Francis Knowles, comptroller of the house, and fir Henry Norris, whom she had called up at parliament, to fit with the peers in the higher house; as, Henry Norris of Rycot, who had married the daughter and heir of the old Henry Williams of Tayne, a noble perfon, and to whom, in her adverfity, the queen had been committed to his fafe cuftody, and, from him, had received more than ordinary observances: now, fuch was the goodness of the queen's nature, that she neither forgot the good turns received from the lord Williams, neither was fhe unmindful of this lord Norris, whofe father, in her father's time, and in the business of her brother, died in a noble cause, and in the juftification of her innocency. NORRIS. MY lord Norris had, by this lady, an apt issue, which the queen highly respected, for he had fix fons, and all martial and brave men: the first was William the eldest, and father to the late earl of Berkshire; fir John, vulgarly called general Norris; fir Edward, fir Thomas, fir Henry, and Maximilian, men of haughty courage, and of great experience in the conduct of military affairs; and, to speak in the character of their merit, they were perfons of fuch renown and worth, as future times muft, of duty, owe them the debt of an honourable memory. KNOWLES. SIR Francis Knowles was fomewhat near in the queen's affinity, and had likewise no incompetent iffue; for he had alfo William, his eldest son, and fince earl of Banbury; fir Thomas, fir Robert, and fir Francis, if I be not a little mistaken in their names and marshaling: and there was also the lady Lettice, a fifter of those, who was first countess of Effex, and after of Leicester; and those were also brave men in their times and places; but they were of the court and carpet, and not by the genius of the camp. Between these two families there was, as it falleth out amongst great ones and competitors of favour, no great correspondency; and there were fome feeds, either of emulation or distrust, caft between them; which had they not been disjoined in the refidence of their perfons, as that was the fortune of their employments, the one fide attending the court, and the other the pavilion, furely they would have broken out into fome kind of hoftility, or, at least, they would intwine and wrestle one in the other, like trees circled with ivy; for there was a time, when, both these fraternities being met at court, there paffed a challenge between them at certain exercises, the queen and the old men being spectators, which ended in a flat quarrel amongst them all: for I am perfuaded, though I ought not to judge, that there were fome relicks of this feigned, that were long after the causes of the one family's almost utter extirpation, and the other's inprofperity: for it was a known truth, that, fo long as my lord of Leicester lived, who was the main pillar, on the one fide, for having married the fifter, the other fide took no deep root in the court, though, otherwife, they made their ways to honour by their fwords. And that, which is of more note, confidering my lord of Leicester's use of men of war, being shortly after sent governor to the revolted States, and no foldier himfelf, is, that he made no more account of fir John Norris, a foldier, then deservedly famoufed, and trained from a page under the difcipline of the greatest captain in Chriftendom, the admiral Caftilliau, and of command in the French and Dutch wars almost twenty years. And it is of further obfervation, that my lord of Effex, after Leicefter's decease, though addicted to arms, and honoured by the general in the Portugal expedition, whether out of inftigation, as it hath been thought, or out of ambition and jealousy, eclipsed by the fame and fplendor of this great commander, never loved him in fincerity. Moreover, and certain it is, he not only crushed, and upon all occafions quelled the youth of this great man, and his famous brethren; but therewith drew on his own fatal end, by undertaking the Irish action in a time when he left the court empty of friends, and full-fraught with his profeffed enemies. But I forbear to extend myself in any further relation upon this fubject, as having loft some notes of truth in these two nobles, which I would prefent; and therewith touched fomewhat, which I would not, if the equity of the narration would have permitted any omiffion. PERROT. SIR John Perrot was a goodly gentleman, and of the fword; and he was of a very antient defcent, as an heir to many fubtracts of gentry, especially from Guy de Brian of Lawhorn; fo was he of a very vast estate, and came not to court for want, and to these advancements: he had the endowments of carriage and height of spirit, had he alighted on the alloy and temper of difcretion; the defect whereof, with a native freedom and boldness of speech, drew him on to a clouded fitting, and laid him open to the spleen and advantage of his enemies, of whom fir Chriftopher Hatton was profeffed; he was yet a wife man and a brave courtier, but rough, and participating more of active, than fedentary motions, as being in his inftillation destined for arms. There is a query of fome denotations, how he came to receive the foil, and that in the catastrophe? for he was ftrengthened with honourable alliances and the prime friendship in court, my lords of Leicester and Burleigh, both his contemporaries and familiars; but that there might be (as the adage hath it) falfity in friendship and we may reft fatisfied, that there is no dispute against fate, and they quit him for a perfon that loved to ftand too much alone on his legs, of too often regrefs and difcontinuance from the queen's prefence, a fault which is incompatible with the ways of court and favour. He was fent lord de : |