I must add a further note, in conclusion, about "Marinell," who I suggested in Chapter III. was intended for the Earl of Cumberland. I have since found some evidence (too late to insert there) which has removed from my mind any doubts I may have felt as to the soundness of that interpretation. In Lodge's Portraits it is stated that "his father dying in 1569 left him an infant of eleven years, and his wardship was granted by the Crown to Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford; but his education seems to have been to have been superintended by the Viscount Montague, who had married his mother's sister [daughter of Lord Dacre of Gillesland], and at whose house in Sussex [Cowdray] he passed some years of his youth." The "three-square scuchin," the arms of Montague, may thus be accounted for. (See p. 89 above.)

With regard to the legal case, Lodge quotes Purchas, from which it becomes clear that the dispute with the Queen in F.Q. IV. xii. was about Cumberland's share in the great prize of the Madre de Dios, referred to in Chapter XVI. This expedition, which was the fifth out of ten which he fitted out in twelve consecutive years (1586-1598), fell in with the expedition fitted out by Ralegh, including the ships of the Queen, and the carrack was taken as a result of a concerted attack. The booty was so great that the commanders fell to quarrelling among themselves, but priority was finally yielded "to Sir John Burroughes [commander of one of Ralegh's ships] pretending the Queenes name," by whom the prize was brought home. Purchas adds that Cumberland's share "would have amounted according to his employment of ships and men to two or three millions, but because his Commission, large though otherwise, had not provided for the case of his returne, and substituting another in his place, some adjudged it to depend on the Queenes mercie and bountie [the high prerogative argument in the poem]. Neither yet by reason of some mens imbezelling had her Majestie the account of the fifth part of her value; and the Earle was faine to accept of sixe and thirtie thousand pounds for him and his, at

out of gift." Purchas refers in the margin to Hakluyt, and adds: "My copie also argueth my Lords case, which I have omitted." This must have either been in MS. or suppressed, as there is nothing of the kind in Hakluyt's account, the unctuous character of which is rather unpleasant reading. The writer of it disparages the performance of Cumberland's ships as against those of Ralegh; and, as regards the division of the spoil, he says that it "amounted to no less than 150,000 li. sterling [after the pillaging, which he does not mention], which being divided among the adventurers (whereof her Majesty was the chiefe) was sufficient to yield contentment to all parties"-obviously a perversion of the truth.

Purchas states that on his previous expedition (the fourth) Cumberland had obtained from the Queen a new ship, the Garland, but that, on this (the fifth) expedition, "His Lordship considering the inconvenience of her Majesties command, not to lay any Spanish ship aboard with her ships, lest both might together be destroyed by fire, rather chose to seeke out amongst the Merchants, then to make further use of the ships Royall." 2

I should have saved the reader a rather lengthy discourse, and myself some trouble, had it occurred to me to look into these authorities, under this head, before. As it is I may perhaps venture to claim that what is written on this subject in Chapter III. shows that the method of inquiry for the author's meaning through the internal evidence is justified in the case of Spenser's works.

1 The account is stated to have been “prepared by Sir Walter Ralegh," not "written by," and I suspect that it was written by Hakluyt under his directions. In any case, if Ralegh wrote it, he did not write the account of the last fight of the Revenge, which is described as "Penned by Sir Walter Ralegh," the style of the two accounts being entirely different. The latter, however, seems evidently to be the work of Bacon; compare the introductory remarks about the defeat of the Spanish Armada with Bacon's, which will be found in Spedding, Life, i. 142 and vii. 489. See Hakluyt (Hakluyt Society), vii. 38 and 105.

2 See Purchas his Pilgrimes, xvi. 13-17; Hakluyt, vii. 105-118 (Hakluyt Society). Ralegh complained that Cumberland had a profit of £17,000, while he, who had adventured for the Queen, was a loser. Edwards, i. 157.

The Fowre Hymnes present some points of interest in connection with this inquiry, but as I have already alluded to them incidentally I will confine myself here to a brief note. The two first might from their style readily be identified as the work of a very young writer, and there is no reason therefore to doubt that they were composed, as the author states, "in the greener times of my youth." The Shepheards Calender appeared when Spenser was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, and it is evident that these poems were not written before it. The expression above quoted is therefore quite inapplicable to the supposed author at that time. It is, moreover, unnatural that a man of Spenser's origin and early experiences should, in one of his first poetical efforts, have written the following couplet:

For all that faire is, is by nature good;

That is a signe to know the gentle blood.1

At the time when the second pair of hymns were presumably composed (1596) Spenser was (according to the accepted dates) forty-four years old. The reader

is invited to refer to the early pages of this book for his story, and then to consider the phenomenon of the following lines from the pen of such a man at that, or indeed at any other, time of his life:

Many lewd layes (ah, woe is me the more!)

In praise of that mad fit which fooles call love,

I have in th' heat of youth made heretofore,
That in light wits did loose affection move;
But all those follies now I do reprove,
And turned have the tenor of my string,

The heavenly prayses of true love to sing.

1 An Hymne in Honour of Beautie.

Compare with this the sentiment of

the following stanza from the Faerie Queene (II. iv. 1):

"In brave poursuitt of honorable deed,
There is I know not (what) great difference
Betweene the vulgar and the noble seed,
Which unto things of valorous pretence
Seemes to be borne by native influence;
As feates of armes, and love to entertaine :
But chiefly skill to ride seemes a science
Proper to gentle blood: some others faine
To menage steeds, as did this vaunter, but in vaine."

And ye that wont with greedie vaine desire
To reade my fault, and, wondring at my flame,
To warme your selves at my wide sparckling fire,
Sith now that heat is quenched, quench my blame,
And in her ashes shrowd my dying shame;
For who my passed follies now pursewes,
Beginnes his owne, and my old fault renewes.

An Hymne of Heavenly Love.

There is nothing answering to this description in Spenser's poems, even after due allowance has been made for exaggeration under the mood of reaction, real or assumed, from worldly preoccupations; and though it might be suggested that the passage is a literary artifice for the introduction of the alternative hymns, this does not satisfactorily account for the lines. They refer, in my belief, to pieces which appeared from time to time. under other names.

CHAPTER XVIII

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF BACON

I HAVE now completed my survey, for the purpose of this work, of Spenser's poems, and I will supplement it with a few notes relating to Bacon's habits and personal characteristics.

Bacon had a fondness for colour and display, which, considering the greatness of his intellectual powers, must be regarded as abnormal. It is reported, for instance, that when he married, at the mature age of forty-five, "he was clad from top to toe in purple, and hath made himself and his wife such store of fine raiments of cloth of silver and gold that it draws deep into her portion."1 Aubrey's description also of the house, a summer fancy, which he built himself in the grounds of Gorhambury (known as "Verulam house"), and of his fish ponds, gardens, etc., is evidence of similar peculiarities of taste. This house must have been a very curious structure, with its pictorial representations on the outside walls of Jupiter and other "gods of the Gentiles" glittering in the sun.2 Aubrey says that Sir Harbottle Grimston sold it about 1665 "to two carpenters for fower hundred poundes; of which they made eight hundred poundes," and that it cost "nine or ten thousand the building." According to Aubrey also, "this Oct. 1681, it rang over

1 Carleton to Chamberlain, 11th April 1606, cited by Spedding, Life, iii. 291.

2 "On the dores of the upper storie on the outside (which were painted darke umber) were the figures of the gods of the Gentiles . . . bigger than the life... the heightnings were of hatchings of gold, which when the sun shone on them made a most glorious shew.”—Aubrey, Brief Lives, ed. Andrew Clark, 1898.