[1] Lodge's "Illustrations of British History," iii. 67.
[2] Sidney Letters, ii. 45.
[3] When Rawleigh was himself in the place where he had put Essex--on
the scaffold, he solemnly declared that "he had no hand in his blood,
and was none of them that procured his death." How are we to
reconcile this declaration with the extraordinary letter which first
appeared in Murdin's Collection, and which Hume asserts "contains the
strongest proofs to the contrary?"--Mr. Lodge understands the advice
of Rawleigh in the very worst sense; Mr. Tytler, with ingenuity,
suggests that Cecil, with "a prospective wariness, which--not
satisfied with deceiving his contemporaries--provided _blinds for
posterity_," procured Rawleigh to address this letter to him; and, in
a word, that, in composing this energetic epistle, he was not so much
the writer as the agent in the plot. I am more disposed to believe
that when Rawleigh wrote so remarkable a letter, he was fully aware
of its import, and looked forwards to the result.
[4] The extraordinary means of the duplicity of this wily minister
are stated by Mr. TYTLER in the Appendix to his "Life of Rawleigh."
[5] As _Rawleigh_, like all his contemporaries, including Shakspeare,
wrote his name diversely, so that we are at a loss to pronounce it,
this spontaneous sally of the Scottish monarch reveals its real
pronunciation; which is also confirmed by a sort of epigram of that
day.
[6] The secret history of this state-riddle--the conspiracy of
Cobham, a disappointed courtier--as Mr. Lodge observes, might fill a
moderate volume of speculations on its darker parts. All historians
agree that it must remain insolvable, and "hopelessly obscure." It
is, however, opened with great vigour and novelty of research by Mr.
TYTLER in the Appendix to his biography of Rawleigh. But he passes
over too slightly the conversation and the offer of the "eight
thousand crowns;" and "the pension," of which Rawleigh said--"he
would tell him more when he saw the money." It is quite evident that
Rawleigh had been tampered with by the silly Cobham, whose ricketty
brains had been concocting a crude, fantastic plot, which was hardly
the initial of one. But Rawleigh had listened; he had not positively
refused his participation, neither had he yielded his consent. When
"the eight thousand crowns" had safely arrived, where were they to
go? Rawleigh declared that "when he saw the money, he would be ready
to talk more on the subject." Mr. Tytler, like Sir Walter, is pleased
to consider that the whole affair was "one of Lord Cobham's idle
conceits."
[7] This incident in the life of Rawleigh is told in the "Curiosities
of Literature," vol. iii. I have been enabled to give the secret
history of this Sir Lewis Stukeley, who having first despoiled, then
betrayed his great kinsman. That history offers one of the most
striking instances of moral retribution.
[8] The explanatory stanzas prefixed to this "Mind," though
unsubscribed by the name of the writer, were composed by Jonson, for
they appear in his works.
[9] Rawleigh notices a singular instinct in the birds in these new
regions, which built their nests on the twigs of trees, pendent over
the waters, rather than in the branches, to save their young from the
attacks of the monkeys. In such relations he is full and particular.
He collects the marvellous accounts of the _Ficus indica_--the
Banian, or sacred tree of the Brahmins; we nowhere find such a lively
picture of that singular curiosity of nature, the self-planting tree,
here minutely described.
[10] The authors of the "General Dictionary" censure Wood for his
unauthenticated assertions; and they infer that, as he was thus
evidently erroneous in his notion of Rawleigh's history, he may have
been equally so in his idea of the philosophical theology of Hariot.
Wood, however, could have alleged his authority, though a very
indifferent one. We have recently discovered that Wood here was only
transcribing the crude hearsays of his friend Aubrey; and, in these
matters, the Oxford antiquary, and the "magotie-headed" gossiper, as
Wood afterwards found him to be, were equally intelligent.
[11] Hoskyns wrote many poems. A manuscript volume of his poems,
fairly written we may presume for the press, and "bigger than all
Donne's works," was "lent by his son Sir Benedict," A. Wood tells us,
"who was a man that ran with the usurping Parliament, to a certain
person, in 1653, but he could never retrieve it." We are left in the
dark to know whether we have lost a great poet or only a loyalist;
whether the "certain person" was a parliamentary _enrage_, or only
utterly reckless of a collection of poems "bigger than Dr. Donne's!"
One poem of this great critic has come down to us, of which there is
more than one manuscript in the Museum, and one in the Ashmolean,--"A
Vision," addressed to the king during his confinement, in which he
introduces his mother, and his wife, and his child. By the frequency
of these copies we find how much temporary passion gave an interest
to very indifferent writings. It is printed by Dr. Bliss in the
"Athenae Oxonienses."
[12] Preface to the "History of the World."
[13] The name of Rawleigh proved too attractive for the booksellers
to escape their grasp; they have forged his name on various
occasions, and they have done worse; for they have unquestionably
adulterated his genuine works by admitting writings which he never
could have written. Rawleigh composed some "Instructions to his Son
and to Posterity." The publisher of his "Remains" probably considered
that "The Dutiful Advice of a Loving Son to his Aged Father" must be
equally acceptable. Sir Walter had no aged father to address; and if
he had, he would not have written such a mean piece of puritanic
insolence. I suspect that "The Advice" was nothing but a parody on
"The Instructions" by some very witless scribbler.
[14] Hume was bitterly attacked in the "Biographia Britannica" by a
Dr. Philip Nicoll, one of the writers calling himself one of the
proprietors, for his account of the conduct of Rawleigh--art.
"Ralegh," note (cc). The spirit of nationality was rife in 1760, when
we find that a cruel apology is inflicted on Hume as "a foreigner!
for this writer may be allowed the privilege of that plea, as being
born and bred, and constantly living among a people, and under a
constitution, of a very different nature, genius, and temper from the
English!" I cannot believe that Hume, to remove the odium of
Rawleigh's death from the Scottish monarch, purposely depreciated the
hero; but probably looking hastily into the account of Guiana,
stuffed with the monstrous tales of a lying Spaniard, and considering
the whole to be a gross artifice of the great navigator for an
interested purpose, he gave way to his impressions.
[15] The Dean of Westminster was astonished at Rawleigh's
cheerfulness on the day of his execution, who "made no more of his
death than if he had been to take a journey." The divine was fearful
that this contempt of death might arise from "a senselessness of his
own state," but the hero satisfied the dean that he died "very
Christianly." Yet the gossip of Aubrey tells, that "his cousin
Whitney said, and I think it is printed, that he spake not one word
of Christ, but of the great and incomprehensible God with much zeal
and adoration, so that he concluded he was an a-Christ, not an
a-theist." In this manner great men were then judged whenever they
"ventured at discourse which was unpleasant to the churchmen," as
this confused recorder of curious matters has sent down to us. This
indicates that Socinian principles were appearing.