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 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

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the other — this caused her majesty to make proclamation agaimt them both, and to place selected grave citizena at ererygate to cut the ruff's, and break Me rainer«potn<« of all passengers that exceeded a yard in length of the rapiers, and a nayle of a yard in depth of their rulTs."*

xhere is this singular and admirable in the conduct of Elizabeth that she made her plea- sures subservient to her policy, and she main- tained her affairs by ^vhat in general occasions the ruin of princes. So secret were her amours, that even to the present day their mysteries cannot be penetrated ; but the utility she drew from them is public, and always operated for the good of her people. Her lovers were her minis- ters, and her ministers were her lovers. Love commanded, lore was obeyed ; and the reigu of this princess was happy, because it was a reign of Love, in which its chains and its slaveiy are lilted I Those who are well acquainte<l with the private anecdotes of those times, know what en- couragement this royal coquette gave to most who were near her person. Dodd, in his Church History, says, that the earls of Arran and Arun- del, and sir William Pickering, " were not out of hopes of gaining queen Elizabeth's affections in a matrimonial way."

She encouraged every person of eminence: she even went so far, on the anniversary of her coronation, as publicly to take a ring from her finger, and put it on the duke of Alengon's hand. She also ranked amongst her suitors Henry III. and Henry IV. of France.

She never forgave Buzenval for ridiculing her bad pronunciation of the French language; and when Henry IV. sent him over on an embassy, she would not receive him. So nice was tlie irritable pride of this great queen, that she made her private injuries matters of state.

" This queen," writes Du Maurier, in his Mi- moiret pour servir A PHhtoire de I'Hollande, " who displaved so many heroic accomplish- ments, had this foible, of wishing to be thought beautiful by all the worid. I heard from my father, that at every audience he had with her majesty, she pulled off her gloves more than a hundred times to display her hands, which indeed were very beautiful and very white." A not less curious anecdote relates to the duke

• The foUowin^extract is taken from Stowe, which may amuse the reader :— " In the second veere of Queen Eliza- beth 1560, her sitke woman, Mistris Montagae, presented her majestic for a new yeere's slO, a paire 0/ black knit silk stockingt, the which, after a few days' wearing, pleased her highness so well, that she sent for Mistris MoDtaOTC, and asked her where she bad them, and if she could help her to any more : who answered, saying, ' I made them very carefully of purpose only for your majes- tic, and seeing these please you so well, I will presently set more In band.' ' Do so (quoth the qnccne), for indeed I like Mk ttockings to well, iecause they are pleamnl, fine, anddelicttte, that henceforth I will wear no more cloth STociiNos '— and fiom that time unto her death the qneene never wore any more cloth hote, but only silkc stockings."

The use of coaches was first introduced into England during her reign. In 1S80, the earl of Arundel brought them into use; before which the queen, on public occa- sioDS rode on horseback beiiind her chamberlain.

of Anjou and our Elizabeth ; it is one more proof of her partiality for handsome men. The writer was Lewis Guy on, a cotemporary.

" Francis duke of"^ Anjou, being desirous of marrying a crowned head, caused proposals of marriage to be made to Elizabeth queen of England. Letters passed betwixt them, and their portraits were exchanged. At length her majesty informed him, that she would never contract a marriage with any one who sought her, if she did not first tee hU person. If he would not come, nothing more should be said on the subject. This prince, over-pressed by his young friends, (who were as little able of judg- ing as himself) paid no attention to the counsels of men of maturer judgment. He passed over to England without a splendid train. The said lady contemplated his person: she found him tigiu, disfigured by deep scars of the small-pnx, and that he also had an ilLshaped nose, with swellings in the neck ! All these were so many reasons with her, that he could never be ad- mitted into her good graces."

By the following extract from a letter from one of her gentlemen, we discover that her usual habits, though studious, were not of the gentlest kind, and that the service she exacted from her attendants was not borne without concealed mur- murs. The writer groans in secrecy to his friend. Sir John Stanhope writes to Sir Robert Cecil in 1698 : " I was all the aftemowne with her majestic, at my hooke ; and then thinking to rest me, went in agayne with your letter. She was pleased with the Filosofer's stone, and hath been alt this day reasonably quyett. Mr. Grcvell is absent, and I am tyed so as I cannot styrr, but shall be at the wourse for yt, these two daves ! ''

The origin of Raleigh's advancement in the queen's graces was by an act of gallantry. Ra- leigh spoiled anew plush cloak, while the queen, stepping cautiously on this prodigal's footcloth, shot forth a smile, in which he read promotion. Captain Raleigh soon became sir Walter, and rapidly advanced in the queen's favour.

Hume has preserved in his notes a letter written by Raleigh. It is a perfect amorous composition. After having exerted his poetic talents to exalt her charms and his affection, he concludes, by comparing her majesty, who was then sixty, to Venus and Diana. Sir Walter was not her only courtier who wrote in this style. Even in her old age she affected a strange fond- ness for music and dancing, with a kind of childish simplicity ; her court seemed a court of love, and she the sovereign.

The education of Elizabeth had been severely classical ; she thought iuid she wrote in all the spirit of the characttrs of antiquity; and her speeches and her letters are studded with apo- thegms, and a terseness of ideas and language, that give an exalted idea of her mind.* In her

are three most excellent prtn/ers, made hy queen Elixaieth. By Thomas Scorocold. Lrndon. Ifiia.
 * Svppticationa of Saints. A Booke of Praj/ert, wherein

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