Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/20

 Xli INTRODUCTION.

Philip Sidney," whose mother was the Lady Mary, eldest daughter of that Duke of Northumberland : —

" Let then, none dif-allow of thefe my ftraines, Which have the lelf-lame blood jet in my veines."

But she retracts this claim to relationship, in the second edition of her poems, where the verses appear as follows : —

"Then let none difallow of thefe my ftraines Whilft Englilli blood yet runs within my veins."*

Thomas Dudley, her father, was born at Northampton, in England, in the year 1576 or 1577, and was the only son of Captain Roger Dudley, who was killed in battle about the year 1586. He was thus left an orphan, together with a sister, concerning whom, as well as his mother, nothing is known. At a school, to which he was sent by a charitable lady of his native town, he acquired a good knowledge of Latin. But, while still young, he was taken from school, and became a page in the family of William Lord Compton, afterwards Earl of Northampton. He was subsequently a clerk of a kinsman "Judge Nichols," probably Thomas Nicolls, a serjeant-at-law. He next appears at the head of a company of eighty volunteers, raised in and about North- ampton, and forming part of the force collected by order of Queen Elizabeth, to assist Henry IV. of France, in the war against PhiHp IL of Spain. He is said to have been at the siege of Amiens in 1597, and to have returned home to England soon after. From each of these various occupa- tions, of page, lawyer's clerk, and soldier, he derived some benefit, — courtesy of manners, considerable legal skill and acumen, straightforwardness, honesty, and courage. He established himself at Northampton, and married "a Gentle-


 * See pages 346, note, and 347.

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