To Sir Robert Cecil, from the Tower, July 1592 [From the original.] Sir-I wrat unto your father how I am dealt withall by the Deputye,1 to whom my disgraces have bynn highly cummended. Hee supposed a debt of four hundred pounds to the Queen, for rent, and sent order to the Shiriff to take away all the cattell my tenants had, and sell them the next day, unless the money weare payd the same day. All Munster had scarce so mich mony in it; and the debt was indeed but fifty marks, which was payde, and it was the first and only rent that hath yet bynn payd by any undertaker. But the Shirife did as he was cummanded, and tooke away five hundred milch kine from the poor people; sume had but two, and sume three, to releve their poor wives and children, and in a strang country newly sett downe to builde and plant. Hee hath forcible thrust mee out of possession of a Castell, because it is in law between mee and his cousin Winckfeld, and will not here my atornes speake. Hee hath admitted a ward, and geven it his man, of a Castell which is the Queen's, and hath bynn by mee new built and planted with Inglishe, this five years; and to profitt his man with a wardship, looseth her Majesties inheritance, and would plant the cussen of a rebell in the place of Inglishe men, the Castell stanetinge in the most dangerous place of all Munster. Besids ther is a band of soldiers, which a base phello, O'Dodall, hath in Yoholl, which duth cost the Queen twelve hundred pound a yeare, and hath not ten good men in it; but our porest people muster and serve hyme for threepence a day, and the rest of his soldiers do nothing but spoyle the country, and drive away our best tenants. If the Queen be over rich, it may be mayntayned; but I will, att three days' warninge, rayse her a better bande, and arme it better tenfold, and better men, whensoever shee shall need it. And, in the mean tyme, it may either be imployed in the North, or discharged; for ther is in Munster, besids, a band of horse, and another of foot, which is more than needeth. In this, if yow pleas to move it, yow may save her Majestye so mich in her coffers. For the rest I will send my man to attend yow, although I care not ether for life or lands; but it will be no small weakninge to the Queen in thos parts, and no small cumfort to the ill-affected Irishe, to have the Inglishe inhabitants driven out 1 Sir William Fitzwilliam. of the country, which are yet stronge enough to master the rest, without her charge.-Yours, to do yow service, Addressed To my honorable frinde, : Sir R. Cicill, Knt., of Her Majesty's most honorable Privy Councell. W. RALEGH.1 To Sir Robert Cecil, from the Tower, July 1592 [As printed by Murdin, from the original.] I hear that there If yow Sir-I pray send me the news of Ireland. are three thousand of the BURGKS in arms, and young ODONELL and the sons of SHANE ONEALE. I wrote in a letter of Mr. KILLEGREEW's, ten days past, a prophesye of this rebellion, which when the Queen read, she made a scorn at my conceat ; but yow shall find it but a shoure of a farther tempest. please to sent me word of what yow hear, I will be laught at again in my opinion touching the same, and be bold to write yow my farther suspicion. Your cousen, the dotinge Deputy,2 hath dispeopled me, of which I have written to your father already. It is a sign how my disgraces have past the seas, and have been highly commended to that wise Governour, who hath used me accordingly. So I leve to trouble yow at this time, being become like a fish cast on dry land, gasping for breath, with lame leggs and lamer loonges.-Yours, for the little while I shall desire to do yow service, W. RALEGH.3 During the same period of imprisonment the capture of the Madre de Dios was effected, and Ralegh was taken down to Dartmouth under the guard of his keeper, Sir George Carew, to assist the authorities, who apparently could not do without him, in dividing the spoil. There is an interesting report of an alleged conversation between Ralegh and Bacon, just before Ralegh started on the illfated expedition to Guiana by means of which he obtained his release from the Tower in 1617, which concisely sums up his attitude in such affairs, and is typical of the Elizabethan sea-rovers. As I have said, there was probably much sympathy in ideas between the two men, notably in the policy, advocated by Bacon and Ralegh alike, of the destruction of the sea-power of Spain to 2 Sir William Fitzwilliam. 1 Edwards, Life, ii. 48. 3 Edwards, Life, ii. 50. make way for the development (not without profit to the "adventurers") of a greater Britain in the New World. Bacon, however, was then Lord Chancellor and was acting for the king, whose ideas were less expansive. B. What will you do if, after all this expenditure, you miss the gold mine? R. We will look after the Plate Fleet, to be sure. B. But then you will be pirates! R. Ah, who ever heard of men being pirates for millions ? 1 The capture of the great carrack in 1592, though not effected by Ralegh in person, was probably due to his organisation and dispositions. "My Lord," writes Robert Cecil to Burghley, "there never was such spoil!" And of Ralegh's reception when he came down to Dartmouth in charge of his keeper-describing himself as "still the Queen of England's poor captive "-Cecil writes to the Vice-Chamberlain : I assure you, Sir, his poor servants, to the number of a hundred and forty goodly men, and all the mariners, came to him with such shouts and joy, as I never saw a man more troubled to quiet them in my life.2 The testimony is the more striking from the fact that Ralegh was not a popular man. Ralegh always deferred to Cecil, partly, no doubt, owing to his position, but the deference is also that of the less educated to the more trained, though not the greater, mind. Ralegh's power, however, as a man of action seems to have fairly astonished the great official, for in the same letter Cecil continues : But his heart is broken; for he is very extreme pensive longer than he is busied, in which he can toil terribly.3 Writing of Ralegh in 1597, Cecil, in a letter to Essex, says: For good Mr. Ralegh, who wonders at his own diligence (because diligence and he are not familiars), it is true, etc.1 1 Edwards, Life, i. 591. 3 Ibid. 2 Ibid. i. 153, 154. 4 Ibid. ii. 170. The two statements seem inconsistent, and Edwards thought that the latter is ironical (meaning, that is, that he wrote too much, not too little). This seems to me very far-fetched. In the letter of 1592 Cecil, who was a man of the desk, is expressing the surprise at what he saw at Dartmouth. In such business Ralegh could “ toil terribly." In the letter of 1597 Cecil is replying to a letter from Essex from Plymouth in which he says: We wonder we have not a word from you. Sir Walter Ralegh wrote on Monday and Tuesday, and I sent Sir Thomas Gates on Wednesday. Cecil's reply shows irritation at being stirred up, and he vents it in sarcasm on Ralegh; the point, no doubt, being that Ralegh thought he had done a great deal when he had written a couple of letters: how would he like to have to deal with Cecil's daily correspondence? The two men, in fact, were great in different spheres, and the evidence here is that Ralegh was not fond of writing. I must not go further into the life of this remarkable man, attractive as the subject is, and I only wish to draw attention to these points of character in order to illustrate my proposition that Ralegh was not the kind of man to labour in the difficult art of poetry. And for that matter I do not believe that any man ever wrote good poetry (except perhaps by accident, in an occasional piece dealing with a simple idea, or prompted by a gust of feeling) who did not, in his early life, devote himself seriously to studies with that particular object. Ralegh had no such opportunities, even if he had the inclination, of which there is no evidence. He was altogether of the active type; and my belief is that he only took up writing after 1603 (and then not poetry) as a relief from the tedium of his imprisonment. A few more extracts from Ralegh's correspondence must be given for purposes of comparison with the poems. Among them the following letter to the Queen is important. With regard to it Edwards remarks: The scription of this letter, like its style, bears the charac teristic marks and stamp of Ralegh; but its extreme precision and neatness of hand-so entirely unusual with the writer at this period of his life—are such as might excite at least a momentary misgiving as to its genuineness. . . . On the whole, however, there seems to be no ground for questioning its authenticity as an original letter in Sir Walter's autograph.1 Edwards suggests 1602 for the date, but we have no knowledge of Ralegh being in disfavour at that time, and I think it is much more probable that it was written in the period of his deprivation of access, say about 1594, when the Queen was being strongly urged by Parliament to name a successor. To Queen Elizabeth [From the original.] I presumed to present your Majestye with a paper, contayninge the dangers which might groe by the Spanish faction in Skotland. How it pleased your majesty to accept thereof I know not. I have since harde that divers ill-disposed have a purpose to speak of Succession. If the same be suppresst, I am gladd of it; yet, fearinge the worst, I sett down sume reasons to prove the motive meerly vayne, dangerus, and unnecessarye. And because I durst not mysealf speak in any matter without warrant, I have sent your Majestye thes arguments, which may perchance put others in minde of somewhat not impertinent; and who, beinge graced by your Majesties favour, may, if need require, use them amonge others more worthy. Without glory I speake it, that I durst ether by writinge or speach satisfye the worlde in that poynct, and in every part of their foolish consaytes, which, for shortnes of time, I could not so amplely insert. This beinge, after one hour's warninge, but one houre's work, I humblie beseich your Majestye not to acquaynt any withall, unles occasion be offred to use them. Your Majestye may perchance speake hereof to thos seeminge my great frinds, but I find poore effects of that or any other supposed ametye, for your Majesty havinge left mee, I am left all alone in the worlde, and am sorry that ever I was att all. What I have donn is out of zeale and love, and not by any incoragement; for I am only forgotten in all rights, and in all affaires; and myne enemis have their wills and desires over mee. Ther ar many other things concerninge your Majesty's present service, which meethincks are not, as the 1 Edwards, Life, ii. 258. |