1552-1618
[Sidenote: _The Nineteenth Century_, 1881. *]
“In appearance what manner of man was Raleigh when in Ireland? There
was much change, of course, from the dashing captain of eight and
twenty, when he was putting the unarmed men to the sword and hanging
the women in Dingle Bay, to the admiral of sixty-five who, between the
Tower and the scaffold, visited his old haunts in the county of Cork
for the last time in the three summer months of 1617.
“But all accounts agree in giving him a commanding presence, a handsome
and well-compacted figure, a forehead rather too high; the lower part
of his face, though partly hidden by the moustache and peaked beard,
showing rare resolution. His portrait, a life-sized head, painted
when he was Major of Youghal, was recently presented to the owner
of his house, where it had been years ago, by the senior member for
the county of Waterford; and another original picture of him when in
Ireland is in the possession of the Rev. Pierce W. Drew of Youghal.
Both these Irish pictures show the same lofty brow and firm lips. There
is an old and much-prized engraving by Vander Werff of Amsterdam that
seems to combine all his characteristic features--the extraordinarily
high forehead, the moustache and peaked beard, ill-concealing a too
determined mouth. The likeness is most striking.”
[Sidenote: Aubrey’s _Lives of Eminent Persons_. *]
“He was a tall, handsome, and bold man; but his _næve_ was, that he was
damnably proud.... In the great parlour at Downton, at Mr. Ralegh’s,
is a good piece (an originall) of Sir W. in a white sattin doublet,
all embroidered with rich pearles, and a mighty rich chaine of great
pearles about his neck. The old servants have told me that the pearles
were neer as big as the painted ones. He had a most remarkable aspect,
an exceedingly high forehead, long-faced, and sourlie-bidded, a kind of
pigge-eie.... He spake broad Devonshire to his dye-ing day. His voice
was small, as likewise were my schoolfellowes, his gr. nephews.”
[Sidenote: _Publications of the Prince Society._ *]
“In all the pictures we have of him, there is almost nothing to suggest
the typical Englishman. Burly and robust. About six feet in height,
he is rather thin than corpulent, and in the vivacity of expression
and the nervous cast of his features he resembles rather the modern
New-Englander than the old-time Englishman. He was nineteen years
younger than Elizabeth, and had, as Naunton describes him, ‘a good
presence in a handsome and well-compacted person.’ Fuller has already
told us that at the time of his entrance at the court his clothes made
a ‘considerable part of his estate.’ He seems to have had an innate
love for the luxury and splendour of dress. He lived at a period
when gentlemen as well as ladies indulged in all the glory of gay
colours. Edwards, describing some of the more noted pictures of him,
says: ‘In another full-length, which long remained in the possession
of his descendants, he is apparelled in a white satin pinked vest,
close sleeved to the wrists with a brown doublet finely flowered
and embroidered with pearls, and a sword, also brown and similarly
decorated. Over the right hip is seen the jewelled pommel of his
dagger. He wears his hat, in which is a black feather with a ruby and
pearl drop. His trunk hose and fringed garters appear to be of white
satin. His buff-coloured shoes are tied with white ribbons.’”