_Countess of Pembroke's letter--Drayton's Poems--A Flemish
Account--Bishop Burnet._
Your correspondent, at p. 28., asks whether there is any contemporary
copy of the celebrated letter, said to have been written by Anne,
Countess of Pembroke, to Sir Joseph Williamson? I would refer him to Mr.
Hartley Coleridge's _Lives of Distinguished Northerns_, 1833, p. 290.
His arguments for considering the letter _spurious_, if not conclusive,
are very forcible, but they are too copious for this paper.
Your readers, who may not be conversant with that undeservedly neglected
volume, will confess their obligation, when they have consulted its
pages, in having been directed to so valuable and so original a work. It
may be observed, that those letters of the Countess which are authentic,
are certainly written in a very different style to the one in question;
but this letter, if addressed by her to Sir Joseph Williamson, would be
written under peculiar circumstances, and being in her 84th year, she
might naturally have asked the assistance of the ablest pen within her
reach. I have the copy of an interesting letter, addressed by the late
Mr. John Baynes to Ritson, in 1785, stating his admiration of the
Countess's "spirit and industry, having seen the collections made by her
order relative to the Cliffords--such as no other noble family in the
world can show."
I join in wishing that Mr. Pickering would add a judicious selection
from Drayton's poetical works to his _Lives of Aldine Poets_. To the
list given by your correspondent (p. 28.), may be added a work entitled
_Ideas Mirrour Amours in quatorzains_ (London, 1594, 4to. p. 51.), which
was lent to me about forty years ago, but which I have not seen since.
Some notice of it, by myself, will be found in the _Censura Literaria_.
with the following note by Sir C. Brydges:--"The extreme rarity of this
publication renders a farther account desirable, and also more copious
extracts. It appears wholly unknown to Herbert, and to all the
biographers of Drayton." It is unnoticed by Ritson also. Chalmers, in
his _Series of English Poets_, has referred to this communication, but
he has not printed the poem amongst Drayton's works.
The expression "a Flemish account" is probably not of very long
standing, as it is not found in the most celebrated of our earlier
dramatists, unless, indeed, Mrs. Page's remark on Falstaff's letter may
be cited as an illustration:--"What an unweighed behaviour hath this
Flemish drunkard _picked out of my conversation_, that he dares in this
manner assay me."
If the habit of drinking to excess prevailed in the Low Countries in the
sixteenth century to the extent represented, may not the expression have
arisen from that circumstance, and been equivalent to the contempt which
is usually entertained for the loose or imperfect statements made by a
tipsy or drunken man?
When quoting opinions upon Burnet, we must not forget the brief but
pregnant character which Burke has given of the Bishop's _History of his
Own Times_. In his admirable speech at Bristol, previous to the election
if 1780, Burke says, "Look into the History of Bishop Burnet; _he is a
witness without exception_."
Dr. Johnson was not so laudatory:--"Burnet is very entertaining. The
style, indeed, is mere chit-chat. I do not believe that he intentionally
lied; but he was so much prejudiced, that he took no pains to find out
the truth."
The reader may refer to Dr. Hickes's _Criticism_ (Atterbury's
_Correspondence_, i. 492.). Calamy's expression is a significant, if not
a very complimentary one, as regards Burnet's candour (_Life and Times_,
i. 59.).