jest well, but not the loss of his friend: He would say, that though he knew unusquisque sua fortuna faber was a true and good principle, yet the most in number were those that marred themselves, but I will never forgive that man that loseth himself to be rid of his jest.

He was father to that refined wit, which since hath acted a disastrous part on the public stage, and of late sate 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, gives him a lively character; and they decipher him for another Solon, and the Synon of those times, such a one as Edipus was in dissolving of riddles; doubtless he was as able an instrument; and it was his commendation, that his head was the maul, (for it was a great one,) and therein he kept the wedge that entered the knotty pieces that came to the table. And now I must again fall back to smooth and plain a way to the rest that is behind, but not from the purpose.

There were about these times two rivals in the Queen's favour, old Sir Francis Knowls, controller of the house, * and Sir Henry Norris, whom she called up at a parliament, to sit with the peers in the higher House, as Lord Norris of Recot, who had married the daughter and heir of the old Lord Williams of Tain, a noble person, and to whom, in the Queen's adversity, she had been committed to safe custody, and from him had received more than ordinary observances. Now such was the goodness of the Queen's nature, that she neither

* Sir Francis Knowls, or Knollys, whose sister was married to Secretary Walsingham. He was vice-chamberlain, treasurer of the household, and knight of the garter.

+ During the reign of Queen Mary, Elizabeth, when removed from her confinement in the Tower to Woodstock, was placed under the guardianship of Sir John Williams, afterwards Lord Williams of Tame, and Sir Henry Benefield. The former was distinguished by the courtesy, the latter by the churlish severity of his conduct towards their royal charge. As we see that Elizabeth did not forget to reward the former, it may be mentioned to her honour, that the only vengeance she took of her jailor Benefield, was to assure him, he should

forgot the good turns received from the Lord Williams, neither was she unmindful of this Lord Norris, whose father, in her father's time, and in the business of her mother, died in a noble cause, and in the justification of her innocency. *

have the custody of any state prisoner, whom she desired should be confined with peculiar rigour.

* Henry Norris, groom of the stole, unjustly executed, on account of alleged adultery with Ann Bullen, 1536.

LORD NORRIS.

My Lord Norris had, by this lady, an ample issue, which the Queen highly respected; for he had six sons, and all martial brave men; the first was William his eldest, and father to the late Earl of Berkshire; Sir John, vulgarly called General Norris; Sir Edward, Sir Thomas, Sir Henry, and Maximilian, men of an haughty courage, and of great experience in the conduct of military affairs: and, to speak in the character of their merit, they were such persons of such renown and worth, as future times must out of duty owe them the debt of an honourable memory.

KNOWLS.

Sir Francis Knowls was somewhat of the Queen's affinity, and had likewise no incompetent issue; for he had also William his eldest, and since Earl of Banbury; Sir Thomas, Sir Robert, and Sir Francis, if I be not a little mistaken in their names and marshalling; and there was also the Lady Lettice, a sister of these, who was first Countess of Essex, and after of Leicester; and these were also brave men in their times and places, but they were of the court and carpet, not led by the genius of the camp.

Between these two families there was (as it falleth out amongst great ones and competitors for favour) no great correspondency and there were some seeds, either of emulation or distrust, cast between them, which, had they not been disjoined in the residence of their persons, as it was the for