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Content A BIOGRAPHY OP
LUCY COUNTESS OF BEDFORD,
THE.LAST GREAT LITERARY PATRONESS
by
Florence Humphreys Morgan
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(English)
January 1956
UMI Number: DP23009
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This dissertation, written by
Florence Humphreys Morgan
under the direction ofh&Xt.Guidance Committee,
and approved by all its members, has been pre
sented to and accepted by the Faculty of the
Graduate School, in partial fulfillm ent of re
quirements fo r the degree of
D O C T O R O F P H I L O S O P H Y
Dean
>Vi/-7 v! ? i S - S '
Date.
Chairman
Guidance Com m ittee■
CONTENTS ----
CHAPTER PAGE!
I* INTRODUCTION ................................ I
II. THE ANCESTORS AND RELATIVES OP THE [
COUNTESS OP BEDFORD.................... ID
III. THE EARLY LIFE OF THE COUNTESS--I58I-I603 . . 29'.
IV. THE COUNTESS OF BEDFORD AND MICHAEL DRAYTON,
1594 AND A F T E R ........................ 52;
V. THE COUNTESS' FIRST YEARS AS A COURTIER, j
1603-1610 .......... 67'
VI. THE COUNTESS AND BEN JONSON, 1599 AND AFTER . , 91
VII. THE COUNTESS AND JOHN DONNE, 1608 AND AFTER . 120
VIII. THE COUNTESS AND HER FAMILY AND OTHER
SECULAR WRITERS, CHIEFLY 1603 TO l6l4 . . . 158
IX. THE COUNTESS1 LATER YEARS AS A COURTIER,
1610 TO 1 6 1 9 ........................... 175
X. THE COUNTESS AND THE PURITANS, DEDICATIONS
OF RELIGIOUS WORKS, CHIEFLY 1608 AND AFTER 209
XI. LAST YEARS, 1619-1627 ....................... 246:
; XII. CONCLUSION............ 272
APPENDIX I. ROBERT KELWAY ............................ 276
APPENDIX II. DEDICATIONS AND TRIBUTES ............... 279'
APPENDIX III. PORTRAITS AND OTHER REPRESENTATIONS
i
i
OF THE COUNTESS AND MEMBERS OF HER |
F A M I L Y ........................... 289
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................. 296
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The life of Lucy Harington Russell, Countess of Bedford!
(1581-1627), the "last noted representative" of the patron- ;
ess in England,1 has never been written, although two Cornell
2
men have done a considerable amount of work on biographies. .
i
One of them, Dr. Raymond Short, has already written a
i
i
dissertation on literary patronage in the time of James I,
I
including Lady Bedford among the patrons; and Patricia ;
Thomson of Sheffield University is now writing on the
subject "Elizabethan and Jacobean Patrons of Letters, with
Special Reference to Lucy, Countess of Bedford." Neither of
)
these studies is primarily biographical. Because of Lady
Bedford’s many contacts with the social, economic, political,
religious, and literary life of her time, her importance
should warrant the writing of a biography.
Certain unfavorable comments about the Countess have
been made. During her lifetime a Puritan broadside referred!
to her as a "dancing dame," and she was occasionally criti
cized for extravagance. Nearly fifty years after her death
William Dugdale wrote that "her‘profuseness was such that
^yra Reynolds, The Learned Lady in England, 1650-1760 !
(New York, .1920), p. ¥ 33^ j
' O
One of these men, Stanley Johnson, is no longer living.
Dr. R. C. Bald, formerly professor at Cornell, has permitted
this writer to see Mr. Johnson’s notes. The other, Dr.
Short, has given up writing his biography, for the present
at least.
she wasted her own and not a little of his [the Earl of Bed
ford's] estate.*1^ This comment was echoed by Horace Wal-
h C g 7
pole, Thomas Pennant,D Samuel Brydges, James N. Brewer,
James Granger,® Elizabeth Benger,^ John B. Nichols,10 Louisa
S. Costello,11 John Hutchins,12 John A. Langford,^ and the !
i
writer of the biographical sketch of John Harington the
Ik
younger in Silvester Harding's The Biographical Mirrour.
Some commentators have pointed out extenuating circum
stances in connection with the extravagance of Lady Bedford.j
^Baronage of England, II (London, 1676), 4l6.
^Anecdotes of Painting (London, 1762-71), Works, III, j
164, n.
j
-*The Journey from Chester to London (London, 1782), p.
2 3 9. ;
^Reflections on the Late Augmentations of the English ,
Peerage(London, 1796), p. 86 ♦ i
7"Warwickshire" (1820), in The Beauties of England and
Wales (London, 1801-16), XXII.
^A Biographical History of England (London, 1824), II,!
171 •
^Memoirs of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia (London*
1825)• ' : ;
1QThe Progresses and Public Entertainments of King
James the First (London, 1 8 2 8), I~j 17^, n.
11Memoirs of Eminent Englishwomen (London, 1844), II,
173-
12
The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset
(Westminster, l8b'l-74), II, 790.
■^Staffordshire and Warwickshire (London, 1875), III,
352.
! _____11 1 (London, 1795-1802), II, 5 8.
' ............. ......— 3]
i
John D. Parry made the observation that she had no family
15
which her expenditures could injure. Jeremiah H. Wiffen,
who wrote the history of the Russell family, to which Lady
Bedford's husband belonged, said that profuseness was the
fault of her age, and praised her for her generous use of j
her wealth to foster art and genius.1^ Richard N. Bray- .
brooke, who edited The Private Correspondence of Jane, Lady
Cornwallis, the most valuable source of information about
t
Lady Bedford since it contains thirty-five of her letters, i
wrote: "That her habits were profuse no one will deny, but !
probably both her means and her expenditure have been ex
aggerated." He praised her "unbounded generosity to men of I
talent.
Horace Walpole described Lady Bedford from one of the
Woburn portraits as "being in a fantastic habit, dancing."
The portrait was one of the Countess as a masquer in Jonson’s
Hymenaei. It is certain that she wears a masque costume,
for Jonson describes one very nearly like it, and there are
^The History and Description of Woburn and Its Abbey >
(London” 1831), p. 2X9. '
l
16 1
Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell (London, <
1833), II, 120-23- Lawrence Stone says that theextravagance
of the Renaissance aristocracy was an important factor in it&
decay. He lists various kinds of extravagant spending— for j
hospitality, especially to royalty, for ostentatious build- I
ing, for high rents in London, for clothing and jewelry, for!
dowries for daughters and European tours for sons, for ex- j
pensive funerals, etc. "Economics of the Elizabethan Aris- I
tocracy," Economic History Review, 18:1-53, 1948. j
17l6l3-l644 (London, 1842), pp. xix-xx. To be referred
to henceforth as Private Correspondence.
- ..-...... *F
portraits of two other women whose similar costumes fit
Jonson's description exactly. Herford and Simpson say that
Lady Bedford, "a collector of great taste," changed the
l8
headdress slightly and simplified the skirt of the dress,
' •• !
presumably that the costume might look better in her
f
portrait.
' Walpole's use of the word fantastic in describing the
19
Countess' costume ^ is probably the source of Pennant's
"fantastic lady," Brydge's "fantastic lady," "his [John !
Harington's] fantastic sister Lucy" in The Biographical
Mirrour, Granger's use of "vain," and Lucy H. Murray's
"fantastic Lucy, Duchess [sic] of Bedford." Nichols refers j
i
to Pennant in speaking of her vanity. The adjective un
stable, used by Gladys S. Thomson, bears some slight re- J
20
lation in meaning to "vain" and "fantastic." All this
comment apparently had its origin in a remark of Walpole1s
about a costume worn in a masque.
Granger made another kind of attack on the character of
the Countess, after commenting on her generosity to poets: j
They, in return, were as lavish of their incense. She,!
upon a moderate calculation, paid them as much for their 1
‘ panegyric as Octavia did Virgil for his encomium on »
; , \
18
Charles H. Herford and Percy and Evelyn Simpson, Ben
Jonson, VII (Oxford, 1941), xv-xix.
^^Walpole may have meant merely that she was dressed
for a fantasy.
2QFamily Background (London, 194-9)f P* 142.
Marcellus.21
Colvile quoted this passage from Granger without acknowledg-
22
ment. Lucy H . Murray wrote:
Though sent on secret missions by the King and involved;
in .many intrigues, she managed to keep her high position j
at Court. She was one of those who introduced the new i
favorite, Villiers, to the King, and so seemed to be sue-'
cessful when she solicited for favors. . . . Later, ;
observing the rise of the Duchess of Lennox and Richmond,
she astutely sued to become one of her chief attendants.23
i
Wiffen and other commentators who interpreted the |
I
Countess' character and actions favorably nevertheless made J
certain general remarks which probably owe their origin to
statements that she was vain and that she bought the tributes
of poets. Although these people lived long before Lucy i
I
Murray's twentieth-century comment was written, their ;
opinions are in some sense an answer to it. Wiffen said
24
that her reputation in her own time was unblemished.
Edmund Lodge wrote:
Men of talents and taste in our day have condescended, j
for the sake of abusing her, to fall into the proverbial i
nonsense that poets can only lie and flatter.25
Parry commented favorably on Lodge's defense of Lady Bedford:
and added: ,
21Granger, II, 171. I
^ Warwickshire Worthies (Warwick, 1869), p* 3^7•
2^The Ideal of the Court Lady in England (Chicago,
1936), p7"^ '
P4
Historical Memoirs, II, 120.
g5portralts Qf illustrious Personages (London, 1835), V,
1-10. Paging begins anew for each biographical sketch. 1
...........................................— 6i
It is nowhere attempted to be established that she was
not a lady of distinguished talents and taste, as well as
personal charms, or in other words, that the eulogiums of
her favorite poets were untrue.
Richard Braybrooke may have published The Private
Correspondence of Jane, Lady Cornwallis in 1842 as an answer I
to the unfavorable comment of Granger and others. He wrote 1
in his introduction: :
Her [the Countess's] numerous letters, replete with |
spirit and vivacity, and at the same time evincing so !
much amiability and good feeling, cannot fail to be read j
with interest, while they afford the best refutation to ]
those calumnies with which her fair fame was so unjustly
assailed by Pennant, and Granger, and other biographers
who followed in their train, without investigating the
authenticity of the statements they so rashly adopted.2? 1
Although there is little definite information about the|
|
education of the Countess, it is possible to surmise what
kind of training she had from what is known about the edu
cation of women during the Renaissance. Her grandmother and
her mother were attendants of Queen Catharine of Aragon and ;
of Queen Elizabeth, both learned women. Queen Catharine,
mother of Mary Tudor, was "the permeating influence in the
period . . . 1523-38-" More and Elyot were "under the spellj
1
I
of Catharine," and Erasmus praised her learning. The di- j
recting force behind the Queen was Juan Luis Vives, who !
wrote for Princess Mary The Instruction of a Christian Woman,
"the leading theoretical manual on women's education of the
26
1 ^The History and Description of Woburn and Its Abbey,
pp. 218-19-
g7private Correspondence, p. iv.
sixteenth century . . . for the whole of Europe.” Vives
made a plan of study for the Princess which included learn
ing to speak and write Latin with attention to good style,
reading Latin authors such as Seneca who "cultivate right
n • 1
language and right living, keeping a notebook of memorable ,
I
sentences to develop a perception of excellence in form and j
i
content, and forming and expressing sincere opinions based j
on her reading and experience. Viv^s in his Instruction wasj
thinking mainly of a woman as the manager of a home; there- :
1
fore he insists on her being expert in all household arts.
She must know about medicine and diet, and must work with
her servants and nurse and teach her own children. She is
j
to prefer the Church Fathers, the Latin moralists, and the i
I
Bible to romances. Vives frowns on dancing, drinking, play-i
ing cards, painting the face, and wearing jewelry and elabo-i
rate clothing. A woman should avoid the attention of lovers;
28
her parents will choose the proper person for her to marry. ;
The Countess was undoubtedly familiar also with the j
less narrowly Christian books, Elyot's Governor and
Castiglione1s Courtier. Book Three of the Courtier concerns'
the conduct and education of the gentlewoman. Castiglione1s;
emphasis is social. His gentlewoman is to be sweet, kind,
naturally graceful, and socially deft. She is to be skill
ful in household management and in entertaining. She must
p O ^
Foster Watson, ed., Vives and the Renascence Edu
cation of Women (London, 19l2) ' .
have a lively wit, hut her speech must be free from silli
ness, sharpness, gossip, and wantonness. In order to talk
well, she is to understand men's activities which she doesn't;
take part in. She is not to be prudish when the conver
sation of others is over-free. She must manage lovers with
tact, being so poised that she will not only remain virtuous,
but be thought so. Magnanimity, strength of mind, and I
i
wisdom are important virtues to have. One of the speakers \
j
in Castiglione's dialogue thinks that many women would be asj
skillful in ruling cities as men and that they can under
stand what men understand. In the other books of the
Courtier Castiglione commends other qualities such as nonchaj-
lance, courage, and honor. The courtier must be learned, ;
j
knowing the great Greek and Roman writers and composing good!
2Q
verse and prose in his own language. v In the Governor
Elyot stresses enjoying the classics as well as learning
good morals from them. Boys begin speaking Latin before
they are seven, and from seven to ten they read books both
in Latin and Greek suited to their age and interest. For j
the nobility he emphasizes both the Aristotelian and the j
"30 !
Christian virtues.Other conduct books, such as Lyly's
Euphues, Spenser's Fairy Queen, and Sidney's Arcadia, were
available at the end of the sixteenth century.
^Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier,
Itrans. Thomas Hoby, Tudor Translations, XXIII (London, 1900).
| 0 Sir Thomas Elyot, The Book Named the Governor, ed. H.
H. S. Croft (London, I883T*
For various reasons the Countess is important from a
literary point of view. Like Castiglione1s courtier she
knew Greek and Latin, wrote verse, and expressed her ideas
in prose in a.way which indicates that she was an educated
woman. Of her verse there is no specimen available, unless j
a poem included in Herbert J. C. Grierson's Poems of John j
31
Donne (Oxford, 1912) is hers, as Grierson thinks it is.
But Donne in one of his letters asks Lady Bedford to send i
i
him certain verses, "those you did me the honor to see in |
Twickenham garden." He also writes of "other of your compo-i
sitions," which might be prose rather than verse.Lady
Bedford's many letters are expressed in prose which reveals I
f
a highly individualized personality. Her learning and her
appreciation of good writing inspired some verse tributes of
literary value which would perhaps not be in existence if
she had been a different kind of person. Jonson's "This
morning, timely wrapped with holy fire . . ."is one of his |
best complimentary poems.In "Honor is so sublime per
fection"^ Donne writes with his characteristic compression,j
!
certain that his patroness will understand what he says. <
^See I, 422-23, and II, cxliii and cxliv. J
j
32C• E. Merrill, ed., Letters to Several Persons of
Honor (New York, 1910), pp 53-59•
33jjerford and Simpson, VIII (Oxford, 1947), 52.
^Roger E. Bennett, ed., The Complete Poems of John
Donne (Chicago, 19^2), pp. 174-75-
Evidently she had a lively interest in literature, or per
haps she valued the praise of literary men; at any rate she
helped many of them. Her help and her encouragement were
forces to make literature better in the time of King James
j
than it would otherwise have been. ;
The purpose of this biography, then, is to establish
I
the importance of the Countess of Bedford as a literary
I
patron, an importance due to the kind of education she had,
to her native intelligence and artistic sense, to her wit, i
to her wealth and generosity, to her many social contacts, j
to her political influence, and to her religious sincerity. !
In quotations from sixteenth and seventeenth century
sources spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been
i
somewhat modernized.
The writer of the dissertation wishes to acknowledge
the great amount of practical help and the encouragement
given her by Dr. R. C. Bald of the English Department of the
University of Chicago. And without the cheerful assistance i
of various members of the Huntington Library staff the work |
could never have been completed. She also wishes to thank
. t
the committee at the University of Southern California '
supervising the dissertation for consideration and patience j
over an unreasonable number of years and under trying j
circumstances. !
--- CHAPTER II -.............
THE ANCESTORS AND RELATIVES OF THE
COUNTESS OF BEDFORD
Lucy Harington's father came of a family which had been
prominent for a long time. An ancestor, John de Harington,
s
was knighted in 1 3 0 5* and even then the family possessed ;
1
much property. Camden records the descent of the Haring- ;
i
tons from the Bruces of Scotland and thus accounts for the j
2 i
favor which James I bestowed upon Lucy Harington’s father, i
In James Wright's History and Antiquities of the County of ;
Rutland (1684), there is a full account of the family begin-:
ning with John de Harington, whose wife Katherine Colepepper
brought him the manor of Exton in Rutlandshire, the home of ;
the family for many generations.3
Lucy Harington's paternal grandfather, Sir James Haring
ton, married Lucy Sidney, the aunt of Sir Philip, and had
eleven children, three sons and eight daughters. One of
these sons, Lucy's uncle Sir Henry Harington, was a Privy
Councilor and a captain of horse in the Irish wars of Queen ;
4 '
Elizabeth's reign. One of Sir Henry's sons, James, was j
•^William Dugdale, The Baronage of England (London,
1675-76), II, 99-
2William Camden, Britannia, trans. Philemon Holland
(London, 1637)* p. 5267
3(London, 1684), p. 148.
^See Calendar of the State Papers Relating to Ireland
.(London, 1574-8 5), II, index.
prominent in Rutlandshire affairs, and the other was probably
the Sir John Harington who was Recorder of the City of
London in 1 5 8 6.^ Lucy's other uncle, Sir James Harington of
„ 6
Ridlington in Rutlandshire, had sixteen children. His son
i
Edward was High Sheriff of Rutlandshire, and his grandson ;
7 '
was the Sir James Harington who wrote Oceana.1 ;
’ Several of Lucy's eight Harington aunts married into
!
interesting families. Her Aunt Catherine married Sir Edward!
Dymock, who held the picturesque office of Champion of
England. At Elizabeth's coronation he rode into the hall
fully armed and offered to fight anyone who denied that she 1
O
was the lawful ruler. Her Aunt Margaret married Don Benito!
{
Hispano, one of whose descendants was a ruler of Portugal.
Her Aunt Theodosia married Edward Sutton, Lord Dudley.
Theodosia's daughter Anne Dudley was a close friend of
Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of James I; she accompanied)
Elizabeth to Heidelberg and later married Count Schomberg.
Theodosia's daughter Mary became the wife of James, Earl of j
Hume.^ Lucy's Aunt Mabel married Sir Andrew Noel of a well-
i
^Acts of the Privy Council, 1 5 8 6. {
t
^Wright, p. 110. i
^Sir John Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic
History of the Peerage and Baronetage (London, 1930), p. Il80.
®Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England
(London, 1842-48), VI,
^DNB, article on Edward Sutton. Also Dugdale, II, 217-
............ " ....' 13'
known Rutlandshire family and had seven children. One of
Mabel's daughters, Theodosia, married Sir Edward Cecil,
nephew of Sir Robert Cecil. Sir Edward was treasurer to
Princess Elizabeth, and he and his wife accompanied the
Princess to Heidelberg.1^ Lucy's Aunt Elizabeth married Sir
Edward Montagu, M.P.; their son James was first master of
Sidney Sussex College and Bishop of Winchester,11 and their
son Henry was first Earl of Manchester, Chief Justice of the!
i
King's Bench, and Lord High Treasurer. ,
Lucy Harington's Aunt Sarah married four times. Her
first husband was Sir Francis Hastings, eldest son of the
fourth Earl of Huntingdon and father of all but one of her
six children. Her oldest son, Henry, became fifth Earl of
|
Huntingdon. He married Elizabeth Stanley, daughter of the j
Earl of Derby, the Countess of Huntingdon who patronized
Donne and other literary men. Sarah's daughter Catherine
married Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, and was the
grandmother of the eighteenth century Earl. Sarah Haring
ton's second husband was Sir George Kingsmill. Her third
was Edward la Zouche, Lord Zouch, by whom she had one ;
f
t
daughter Mary. Lord Zouch was President.of Wales from 1602-:
15 and Warden of the Cinque Ports from 1615-24. Her fourth
10Charles Dalton, The Life and Times of General Sir
Edward Cecil (London, 1 8 6 5), p. 215-
^DNB, article on James Montagu.
12
husband, was Sir Thomas Edmonds the diplomat.
Probably the most illustrious of Lucy Harington's rela
tives were Philip, Robert, and Mary Sidney, children of
Henry Sidney arid Mary Dudley, sister of the Earl of
Leicester. Henry Sidney was Lucy Harington's great-uncle. .
Robert Sidney, Viscount De Lisle and Earl of Leicester, was j
one of the Countess' most loyal friends. He was Queen
Anne's Chamberlain and was prominent in Court functions.
Mary Sidney Herbert was the Countess of Pembroke; her son J
1
I
William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, was a well-known j
statesman. Her younger son, Philip, who became fourth Earl ;
of Pembroke, was Anne Clifford's third husband.
j
Lucy Harington also had interesting relatives on her
mother's side of the family. Her grandfather Robert Kelway
had property in several counties. His will mentions estates
in Stepney, Middlesex, and in Berkshire, Somersetshire,
IS
Dorsetshire, and Warwickshire. His second wife, Cecily
Buistrode, the grandmother of Lucy Harington, had been the
first wife of Alexander Unton, by whom she had had three j
I
children. One of these,* Sir Henry Unton, was "perhaps the J
ablest and best-trained ambassador in her [Elizabeth's]
„14
service." Another of these children, Elizabeth Unton,
12Burke, p. 1357-
■^prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, British Record
Society (1902), III, 960.
^E. P. Cheyney, History of England (New York, 1926),
II, 123 ff.
married Sir John Croke, "an early friend of the Reformation,"
“j PI
who died in 1554. D His son, John Croke, was Recorder of
London. Writing to Sir Robert Cecil in 1602, this John
Croke mentions receiving letters from his "very dear aunt
the Lady Harington, wife to Sir John Harington of Exton."18 ;
1
Sir John Croke's daughter Cecile married Edward Bulstrode, j
and among their children were Dorothy and Cecilia Bulstrode, ‘
17 i
Gentlewomen of Queen Anne's Bedchamber. This Cecily Bui- j
strode died at the Countess of Bedford's home at Twickenham
Park in 1609* Another daughter of Cecily Croke and Edward
Bulstrode married Sir James Whitelocke, Judge of the King's 1
1 f t
Bench, and had one son, Bulstrode Whitelocke.
I
Several of Lucy Harington's relatives are interesting :
from a literary point of view. Sir John Harington, the
translator of Ariosto and writer of such works as A Tract on
the Succession to the Crown> was related to the Countess1
father, Lord Harington--their grandfathers were cousins.
The Oceana of James Harrington is an important political j
document. Sir Philip Sidney was a distinguished writer and j
a well-known literary patron. Sir Philip's sister, the
■^john Croke, Thirteen Psalms Translated into English
Verse . . . with Other Documents Relating to the Crpke Fami
ly, printed for the Percy Society, Vol.' 11, Ilo. 40 (London,
lB’ 44), p. 53*
i6HMCR, Cecil Papers, XII, 452.
■^George J. Aungier, History of Syon and Isleworth
(London, 1840), p. 495*
l8p. 495*
Countess of Pembroke, and the Countess of Bedford were the
most famous patronesses of the late sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries; the Countess of Pembroke was twenty
years older than Lady Bedford. The Countess of Pembroke's j
son William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, was the friend I
i
of various literary men— Daniel, George Herbert, Donne,
j
Jonson, and others. That lively gossip John Aubrey called
him "the greatest Maecenas to learned men of any peer of his
time or since.1 ’1^ In 1629 he presented about 250 Greek
20
manuscripts to the Bodleian. As everyone knows, the first*
folio of Shakespeare's works was dedicated to the Earl of
Pembroke and his brother Philip. Philip Herbert and Robert i
Sidney, who were not much interested in learning and litera-;
ture, were enthusiastic about music and art, and about
building and gardening.
The members of Lucy Harington's immediate family were
her father and mother, her brother and sister, and herself, j
Her father, John Harington, eldest son of Sir James Haring- |
ton and Lucy Sidney, was born at Exton in Rutlandshire in
i
21
1540. He was prominent in public affairs in Rutlandshire,;
being Member of Parliament for that shire in 1571* 1593*
1597-98, and 1601, and High Sheriff in 1594-95* 1597-98,
J o h n Aubrey, Aubrey's Brief Lives, ed. Oliver L. Dick
(London, 1949)* P* 1^5•
; 2QDNB, article on William Herbert.
Thomas Fuller, Worthies of England (London, 1662), p.
348.
" ' .... IT
22
1598-9 9, and 1602-0 3. in 1591 he was made sheriff of
S o m e r s e t s h i r e , and in 1593 he was "admitted of the Council
24
in Wales." He was one of those who went to meet James
after the death of Elizabeth, and very early in James’ reign,j
on July 21, 1 6 0 3, he was knighted, at the suggestion of
!
Robert Cecil, a Rutlandshire neighbor, in a ceremony involv
ing several more prominent men. In this same year, 1603,
i
Lord Harington and the Earl of Bedford were made Barons of I
25 ’
the Parliament. Soon after the King and Queen had arrived
i
in England, their seven-year-old daughter, the Princess
Elizabeth, was put under the guardianship of Lord and Lady
Harington and lived with them at Combe Abbey in Warwickshire.
Lucy Harington's father was not only politically and
socially prominent but also wealthy, his wealth being at its!
height about the time of the accession of James. The
Harington family had for a long time possessed much property!.
In 1513 part of a marriage agreement concerning the heir of j
the Harington estates mentions property in Lincolnshire,
Northamptonshire, and Suffolk.2^ In 1524 John Harington of !
1
Exton was the resident landlord of Rutlandshire having the ■
22Victoria History of the County of Rutland, II, 115* !
^ Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1591-94, p. 124.
?4 . !
Burleigh's notes in William Murdin's State Papers
(London, 1740-59), p. 804.
25j0hn B. Nichols, ed., The Progresses of Queen Eliza
beth (London, 1 7 8 8, 1 8 0 5), IlT7"79'2-
26HMCR, Hastings MSS., I, 307-
27
largest amount of military equipment. In 1 589, when Queen
Elizabeth levied money from Rutlandshire, Sir James Haring-
28
ton, the Countess' grandfather, paid the largest sum. • Her
father owned an interest in more than twenty holdings in
29 ■
small Rutlandshire, as well as property in sixteen other j
' i
counties. Daniel Lysons mentions the estate he had at Mile j
i
^0 *
End, Stepney, in Queen Elizabeth's time. The Haringtons
also had a house in St. Helen's parish, Bishopsgate, where
81
Lucy Harington's great-grandfather died in 1553* This is ;
1
probably the Harington House from which the Countess of Bed-’
ford wrote many of her letters.
One of Lord Harington's properties was Combe Abbey in
Warwickshire, near Coventry, which had come to him through
32
his wife, Anne Kelway. The Abbey had been founded by the
Cistercians in 1150. Lord Harington built on the site of
the Abbey, incorporating a good part of the ancient
33
cloisters in the new building. The park attached to Combe
^Victoria History of . . . Rutland, I, l8l.
28I,l8 2. I
2%right, pp. 110 ff. :
• ^Environs of London (London, l8ll), II, 684. Also
mentioned in Norden's Speculum Britanniae (1593)> last page.
^Henry Machyn, The Diary of Henry Machyn, ed. John G.
Nichols, Camden Society, No. 42 (London, 1848), XXIX, note.
3^Louisa S. Costello, Memoirs of Eminent Englishwomen
(1844), II, 5-6 . '
^Graphic Illustrations of Warwickshire (Birmingham,
1§29),. p. 90. “ ' __
T9’
34
Abbey contained 500 acres.
Another estate of the Haringtons was Exton Manor in
Rutlandshire, which had been owned by the family since 1432,
' 35
when John Harington married Katherine Colepepper. ^ Accord
ing to Wright, it had belonged to King David of Scotland and1
I
had come to the Colepeppers' through their Scotch ancestors,
the Bruces. It had been in the family nearly six hundred
years when it was finally sold, after the decline of the
36
fortunes of the Haringtons in the reign of King James.The
grounds were extensive, the deer park alone containing over 1
1500 acres.^
Camden gives an account of another property belonging j
j
to the Haringtons, Burley, or Harington-Burley, or Burley-onf
the Hill, about one and one-half miles from Exton:
Eastward there standeth Burley most daintily seated,
^See Beauties of England and Wales (London, 1801-16),
XXII, second part, p. 50.
■^Victoria History of . . . Rutland, II, 127-
-^Wright, p. 4 7. Pictures of Exton Old Hall are to be
found in Victoria History of . ♦ . Rutland, II, 130, and in |
Wright, p . 49• In Exton Church are the tombs of the Haring-|
tons and of Robert Kelway, Lady Harington's father. There ;
are four monuments: 1) One for John Harington, Lucy Haring
ton's great-great-grandfather, and Alice his wife; 2) one
for her grandparents James Harington and Lucy Sidney Haring
ton; 3) one for Robert Kelway, her maternal grandfather, and
also for her brother Kelway, who died in infancy (five
figures on this monument apparently represent the grand
father, the child Kelway, her father, her mother, and her
self); 4) one for Anna Bruce, Lucy Harington's niece,
daughter of her sister Prances. Wright has pictures of
these monuments, pp. 5 6-5 7-
I 37john B. Nichols, The Progresses and Magnificent
‘ ' 20
and overlooking the vale of Catmose: a stately and sump
tuous house now of the Haringtons, who by marrying the
daughter and heir of Colepepper, became lords of so fair
an inheritance, that ever since they have flourished in ;
i these parts, like as before time the Colepeppers had
: done.3°
Burley had a court 76 yards by 53 yards, terrace walks, and j
spacious parks.^ • >
I
Opinions concerning the character of Lord Harington arej
to be found mainly in comment concerning his being the j
*
guardian of Princess Elizabeth. Eliot Warburton speaks of !
40 i
him as a "conscientious and high-minded nobleman." Samuel!
R. Gardiner writes:
No better school could have been found for her than a
country house, presided over by a master and mistress who
gained the respect and love of all who knew them. Prom
them she learned the religion, free from fanaticism or
superstition, which was at no distant date to support her,
under no ordinary trials.^
Lucy Harington’s mother, Lady Anne Harington, was the
only child of Robert Kelway, who was born in 1497 and died
at Exton in 1581 at the age of 84, his funeral sermon being j
42
preached by the Puritan churchman Anthony Anderson.
Festivities of King James the First (London, 1828), I, 94, n|.
3®Camden, p. 5 2 6. j
I
39pearl Finch, The History of Burley-on-the-Hlll j
(London, 1901), I, 6~. j
^QMemoirs of Prince Rupert (London, 1849), p. 29. I
^Samuel R. Gardiner, The History of England from the I
Accession of James First to the Outbreak of the Civil War
TLohdon’ ,’ I58J-B4T7 II, 136:--------------------------------
4p
DNB, articles on Kelway and Anderson. See Appendix I.
Robert Kelway came from Minster Lovel, Oxfordshire, accord
ing to the Complete Peerage. He had a legal education and
held various legal and governmental positions, the most im
portant of which was that of Surveyor of the Court of Wards
and Liveries. ^ Frederick A. Inderwick, in his Calendar of !
I - i n . ■ ' r r
Inner Temple Records (London, 1 8 9 6),^ lists many other ac- ;
tivities, mostly legal, in which Kelway was engaged. On !
February 20, 15^9, he married Lady Cecilia Unton, a widow,
45
whose maiden name had been Bulstrode. ^ Lady Cecilia had 1
46
been maid of honor to Catharine of Aragon. When she
married Robert Kelway, she had two sons, Edward and Henry,
47
and one daughter, Elizabeth, who married Sir John Croke. '
Since these people were the half-brothers and the half-
I
sister of Anne Kelway, it is not surprising to discover that!
Henry and John Croke the younger, as well as Edward Bul
strode, were admitted to the chamber of Robert Kelway in
48 !
Figtree Court in 1574 and 1575- James Whitelocke, writer
of Liber Famelicus, a book containing some information about
^Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII,
XXI,. II 517- ' i
44 :
See index.
^Joseph Foster, ed., London Marriage Licenses, 1521-
1869 (London, 1 8 8 7), P- 2357 :
James Whitelocke, Liber Famelicus, Camden Society No.
70 (Westminster, 1 8 5 8), p. 28.
^ Visitation of Buckinghamshire, Publications of the
Harleian Society, 58* PP* 148-49*
^Inderwick, I, 279. __
the Buistrodes, Kelways, and Haringtons, married a woman who
was the grandchild of Elizabeth Unton, wife of Sir John
Croke.
Little is discoverable about Anne Kelway's youth, ex-
i
cept that at one time she was a maid of honor to Queen
Elizabeth. She was with the Court at Buxton Wells in 1557* i
, 49
when she was 26 years old. She and her husband had four
children: Kelway, the oldest, who died in infancy on
I
December 2, 1570^°; Lucy, christened at St. Dunstan's, Step-!
t
ney, January 26, lSSl^1; Frances, christened October 6,
62
1587, at Stepney ; and John, christened May 3, 1592, at
Stepney.33 After Lord Harington’s death in 161 3, Lady :
I
Harington was in great poverty for a time. The King owed
her for expenses incurred by her husband and herself in con-
64
nection with their services to Princess Elizabeth.^ At thej
end of the year 1616 she left England to be first lady of
honor to Elizabeth.^ In May, I6l9> she returned to England;
^John Strype, Annals of the Reformation (Oxford, 1824)>
II, ii, 136. ;
5°Wright, p. 5 6. j
^ B e r n a r d pj. Newdigate, "The Phoenix and the Turtle," j
London Times Literary Supplement, October 24, 1936, p. 862. j
52Daniel Lysons, Environs of London (London, l8ll), II,
6 9 6. Extracts from the parish register of Stepney Church.
53II, 6 9 6,
^ Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1611-18, p. 234.
‘ 55Letter from Chamberlain to Carleton quoted in Thomas
Birch, compiler. Court and Times of James I (London, 1849),
■ ■... ■ '.... 23'
she died in 1 6 2 0 .56
j Some of Lady Harington's contemporaries thought her
ambitious and too much pleased with high place. In 1613 a
i
pertain Andre Pauli writes to William Trumbull from Heidel
berg that Lord Harington is leaving, but that I
his lady would like to stay on, being specially pleased j
at being given the standing of princess, though not with
out some o f f e n c e .57
And in l6l6 Chamberlain writes to Carleton that she is 1
S8 I
considered an ambitious woman. ,
t
Another letter written by Sir Albertus Morton to Win- ■
wood on March 19, 1617, characterizes her more favorably:
Of the good and noble Lady Harington I shall need to
say nothing at present. . . . I do much rejoice that I am
strengthened not only by her wisdom in what I have to do !
here, but also by her authority, of which a secretary in |
this country hath as much need as I have of the former.59
A little later Morton writes that he "rejoices in the compa
ny and comfort of this noble and wise lady, who is fit to
manage matters of greater consequence."^0
: Lucy Harington's brother John was eleven years younger
than herself. We find his name associated with Prince
i
I, 443-44. See also HMCR, Buccleuch, I, 176, for'a letter i
from Sir George Villiers to Winwood on the subject of her j
expenses.
56c[okayne], G. E. C., Complete Peerage, ed. Vicary
Gibbs (London, 1910), VI, 321, n.
57HMCR, Downshire, IV, 169-
58cited in Birch, Court and Times of James I, I, 436.
i 59HMCRj Buccleuch, I, 193-
L__ 6oI, 193-_____ ______ _________
Henry's a little more than a year after James' accession.^
At that time John Harington was only twelve years old;
Prince Henry was ten. In January, 1605, John took part in
the elaborate and expensive ceremonies by which he and other!
boys, including Cecil's son and Charles, Duke of Albany, j
i \
were made Knights of Bath. Stow gives a detailed de- ;
scription of the procedures. The next day Charles was made ;
Duke of York, and he and the other boys took part in further!
62 !
ceremonies. ,
3
John Harington had his early education at Combe and at !
the grammar school of Coventry, where his master was John
Tovey, father of Milton's tutor, Nathaniel Tovey. He at
tended Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Later he was re- j
corder of Coventry .
In 1609 young Harington, then about seventeen, traveled
in Europe with a train of seven gentlemen. In Birch's Life
!of Prince Henry (1 7 6 0) there are letters in Latin from
Harington to Prince Henry, with excerpts from his journal
recording his observations of cities, politics, manners, andj
the characters of well-known men. He attended lectures in j
I
^Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History
(London, 1791), III,
^2John Stow, The Abridgement of the English Chronicle
(London, 1611), p. 8 5 6.
. W. Whitley, The Parliamentary Representation of j
the City of Coventry (Coventry, I&94), p« b?.
64
the universities and conversed with the professors. Wot-
ton, then English ambassador at Venice, makes note of having
received letters from Cecil about the coming of Harington
thither. Cecil calls Harington "a great personage" and his j
friend, and comments on the prominence of other members of
his family in Court life. Cecil says: "Being the right eye,
of the Prince of Wales, the world holds that he will one day!
' 65 :
govern the kingdom." :
The promise of Harington's youth was not fulfilled, forj
he died, apparently of smallpox, in 1614, two years after j
4 the death of Prince Henry.
Lucy Harington's sister, Frances, born in 1587* married
Robert Chichester and had one child, Anne. Frances Chiches-:
|
ter was with the Countess of Bedford at Court in January, j
160 8, for the sisters were listed among the "persons re
ceived on land by the river god” in Jonson's Masque of
B e a u t y Frances died in 1615 at the age of twenty-eight. :
Her daughter Anne married Thomas Lord Bruce, first Earl of
Elgin, and died in 1627, leaving one child, Robert Bruce. j
Lucy Harington's family had educational interests. On ;
July 12, 159^> a license was granted to her father and the
(
i
-Earl of Kent, who were the executors of Harington's aunt,
64pp. 119-1 2 6.
^calendar of State Papers Venetian, 1607-10, pp. 215-
16. :
66
Nichols, Progresses, II, 174.
..... ~~ ~~~26‘ j
Prances Sidney, Countess of Sussex, for the erecting of
67
Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge. Thomas Puller says
that the college was founded in 1596, and lists the Countess,
■ 68
her mother, and her brother among its benefactors. The
Countess made gifts to the library, according to Gerald M. !
69 !
Edwards, and-her father gave the college an annuity of '
70 i
L30. Her cousin James Montagu was the first master, and ,
!
her cousin Edward Montagu was a benefactor. Several of the ;
}
!
Montagu relatives and various churchmen who were associated 1
1
with the Harlngtons were Sidney Sussex men.
Lady Harington's interest in books is indicated by the :
following:
The said Lady Harington . . . built a convenient place !
for a small library in the parish church of Oakham [in j
Rutlandshire] and furnished it with about two hundred
Latin and Greek folios, consisting chiefly of Fathers,
Councils, Schoolmen, and Divines, for the use of the
vicar of that church, and accommodation of the neighbor
ing clergy, most of which books have been curiously bound,
the covers adorned with several gilded frets (commonly
called the Harington's knots).71
Philemon Holland, a Coventry man whose patron she was,
writes of her ’ ’singular affection to advance good literature!
1
^calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1591-94, p* 527- ■
6&The History of the University of Cambridge and ;
Waltham Abbey, ed. James Nichols (London, 1840), p. 216.
^^gidney Sussex College (London, 1899)> P* 70.
7°p. iI k
Tl^right, p. 52.
72
with an extraordinary respect for learned men.' Lord
Harington also gave books to the Coventry Free School.75
Lucy's brother was a well-educated man, knowing Greek, j
Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, logic, philosophy, mathe- I
7h '
matics, military theory, and navigation. John Tovey, his ;
tutor, told John Brinsley something about his method of :
teaching John Harington Latin. After a thorough review of
the rules of Latin grammar, the boy was asked to put English
passages (which his tutor had already translated from Cicero
!
and other authors) into Latin and then compare them with the
originals.^ Another of John Harington's tutors was James
Cleland, the writer of an educational treatise called Insti
tution of a Young Nobleman (1607), a much-traveled and |
worldly-wise man; he was well educated and was acquainted
with important educational ideas up to his own time, being
' ^ 76
indebted to Vives and Castiglione among others.
[
; Lucy Harington was fitted in part for her future life
as a manager and mistress of several great households, as a I
} i
politically and socially influential courtier, and as a
I
I ^Dedication of Holland's translation of Suetonius' ;
History of the Twelve Caesars (London, 1606)-. !
73whitley, p. 6l.
^Samuel Clarke, The Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons,
in The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History (London, 1 6 5 0) . 5
~ ..~ ' ' " i
75John Brinsley, A Consolation for Our Grammar Schools
(London, 1622), pp. 4.3^pr:
T^Ed. Max Molyneux (New York, 19^8).
generous and enlightened literary patron because of the sort
of ancestors she had had and the sort of family she had
grown up in. Her people had long been accustomed to wealth !
i
i
and social and political prominence and the responsibilities;
such privileges entail. Because of their wealth and that of|
her husband she lived in spacious and beautiful houses and •
learned to manage them well. She took it for granted that j
people of her sort should be well-educated and should foster
education. She also had an interest in literature and lite-j
i
rary men in common with several of her relatives. 1
CHAPTER III “ “ 1
THE EARLY LIPE OP THE COUNTESS— 1581-1603
Little is known of Lucy Harington’s life before she be-
* ’ . 4 i
came Countess of Bedford in 1594.at the age of thirteen.
|
Her baptismal record is in the church of St. Dunstan in !
: 1
Stepney, where she was christened on January 26, 1 5 8 1. It
1 |
is not possible to discover exactly where she was during her:
i
early years, but since her parents had residences at that !
i
time at Stepney, in London near Bishopsgate, and near Coven-|
try in Warwickshire, and her grandparents had residences in ,
Rutlandshire, it is possible to surmise that she was in one
of these places. She may or may not have accompanied her
family to Stepney for her sister Prances’ christening in
1587 or her brother John's in 1592. Since the baptismal
records of Lucy herself and of her brother and sister are in
the same place, the supposition might be that the family was
•living there during the years from 1581 to 1592. But ac
cording to Dugdale and Venn’s Athenae Cantabrigienses, John
was born at Combe. If so, Lucy and her sister may also have!
been born there . \
Pew details are known about the education of Lucy j
i
Harington; pretty certainly it was a good one. Newdigate
■^Bernard H. Newdigate, "The Phoenix and the Turtle,"
London Times Literary Supplement, October 24, 1936, p. 862.
Sometimes there was a considerable lapse of time between the
,birth date and the christening. Walter Aston was baptized a|
year after his birth. See Newdigate, Michael Drayton and
His Circle (Oxford, 1941), p. 146.
!
thinks that Claudius Holyband (Claude Desainliens), who
dedicated one of his books to her mother in 1580 before Lucy!
2
was born, may have been her tutor. He dedicated his text- :
book The Flowery Field of Four Languages (1 5 8 3) to the
little girl when she was slightly over two years old. The i
s
four languages were Latin, French, Italian, and English,
printed in parallel columns. Later Florio, in his dedication
to A World of Words (1 5 9 8), wrote that the Countess could
read, write, and speak French, Spanish, and Italian. A
letter written to her in the last year of her life by Sir
Thomas Roe indicates that she could read Greek and Latin.^
In 158 5, when Lucy Harington was four years old, certain
events occurred which had a great part in determining her
future life. On July 28 the father of Edward Russell, whom :
she was to marry nine years later, was killed in a fray on
4
the Scotch border. This death, followed by that of Edward :
Russell’s grandfather on the same day or the following one, j
resulted in Edward Russell's becoming third Earl of Bedford.:
Edward was not yet thirteen--about eight years older than
p
This book was his Treatise for Declining Verbs. On
the title page of his Arnault and Lucenda (London, 1575) is :
the following: "By Claudius Holyband, Schoolmaster, teach- ;
ing in Paul's Churchyard by the Sign of the Lucrece."
1 ^Samuel Richardson, ed., The Negotiations of Sir Thomas!
Roe in His Embassy to the Ottoman Porte, 1621-28 (London, i
1740), p. 5 8 3. 1
^There is an extensive discussion of Russell's death in
the Hamilton Papers, pp. 664 ff., mostly in letters from
Walsingham to Wotton.
' “ ■ ■ ~ 3 X |
Lucy Harington.
Lucy's paternal grandparents died in 1592 and were
buried in Exton Church. Thenceforth her father, as their
oldest son, was in possession of Exton and various other
properties. The fact that he held the offices of sheriff '
j
and Member of Parliament for Rutlandshire during most of the
years from 1593 until the accession of James^ probably means;
fhat he and his family spent much time there in those years.;
They may have lived most of the time at Combe Abbey, which
i
had been part of Anne Harington's dowry, until after his
father's death in 1 5 9 2.
The year 159^ was an important one for Lucy Harington. j
For the first time a literary man of some consequence,
Michael Drayton, dedicated a work to her, a poem called
Matilda. A much more important event was her marriage to
the Earl of Bedford.
The Earl had been in poor health during his childhood.
In September 1 5 8 5, very soon after the death of his grand
father, he was with his maternal grandfather, Sir John i
Forster, at Alnwick. Leicester and Warwick had been made j
guardians of the boy, and his grandfather had been asked to i
) 1
send him to London. Forster wrote to the Earl of Leicester:;
As the young Earl is sickly and weak, and not able to !
travel without danger of his life, pray allow him to re
main with me until the spring, and I will do my best to
i
^cfokayne], G. E. C., Complete Peerage, V, 321. j
' I
! ^Victoria History of the County of Rutland, II, 115- j
....... ^32-
see him brought up in learning, and keep a schoolmaster
for that only purpose, one whom his father made choice of
during his life.'
Perhaps lack of vigorous health accounts for the fact that, |
unlike almost all the other Earls and Dukes of Bedford, the I
i
s
third Earl took little part in public affairs. It may also j
explain the fact that none of his children outlived their
infancy. f
In 1590, even though Edward Russell was only eighteen, '
I
he began to figure in the news because of the wealth and j
|
prominence of his family. At this time he had another one j
Q
of the many illnesses from which he suffered. He seems to '
have found it difficult to decide whom he wanted to marry, j
probably because someone else was trying to decide for him. !
In March, 1591* Roger Manners wrote to Burleigh that the
Countess of Warwick, Edward's aunt, approved of his marriage
to Lady Vere and wished to know whether Burleigh approved.^
Nothing came of this scheme. In 1592 he was wooing another
young woman, Catharine, daughter of Lord Chandos. This
^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, Addenda, 1580-1625,;
p p . 1 5 2 - 5 3 . . ;
Q
Letter, Roger Manners to his brother John Manners, ;
HMCR, Rutland, I, 282. In this same year there is record of
his being implicated in what appears to have been a Puritan
plot against certain Anglo-Catholics. HMCR, BM, Landsdowne
MSS., LXIV, 23-29. Further investigation of this matter
seems to indicate that these letters are incorrectly dated
and therefore could not refer to the third Earl. Moreover,
the rumor of a Puritan plot was the result of certain
, counterfeit letters. See A. F. Scott Pearson, Thomas Cart
wright and Elizabethan Puritanism (1 9 2 5), p. 127 and note.
■ ' ^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1591-9^> P- 16.
....... ........' .." ...33
match was also broken off.10 In 1592 he obtained a license
to travel,11 and he apparently distinguished himself in
battle at the siege of Stenwick in that year.12 I
i
The marriage of Lucy Harington and Edward Russell took :
place on December 12, 1591 * - , and is recorded in the parish ,
17 '
register of St. Dunstan's, Stepney. J She brought with her
as dowry Minster Lovell in Oxfordshire, her grandfather Kel-i
14 '
way's property, and L3000. Lucy was not yet fourteen \
years old. Child marriages were very common in the sixteenth
15
century, being contracted for property reasons. About a
year later, on November 5* 1595* Rowland Whyte writes to the
Countess' cousin, Sir Robert Sidney: "My Lady of Bedford is;
in town and said to be with child." There is no record of!
the christening of this child nor is anything said about it i
later.
Lucy Harington was allying herself with a well-known
^Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth
‘ (London, 175*0, I, 1^0 ff. !
13-Burleigh's notes, Murdin, State Papers, p. 798. j
12Francis Markham, The Book of Honor (London, 1625), P*
97.
i i
-^Daniel Lysons, Environs of London, II, 6 9 6. !
^John Philipot, The Visitation of the County of Buck
ingham Made in 163*0 Harleian Society Publications, No. 5t5
(London, 1909), p. l1 J-9*
! ■*•%. J. Furnivall, ed., Child Marriages in the Diocese j
of Chester, Early English Text Society, Vol. 88 (London, !
1897).
j l6HMCR, Lord De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 182.
family. Froude, in "Cheyneys and the House of Russell,"
writes an interesting account of the Russells. At Cheyneys
in Buckinghamshire there is a chapel built by the widow of
f : !
the first Earl which was subsequently the burial place of
i
■ ' i
the family. Froude says: \
The claims of the Russells to honorable memory the
loudest Radical will acknowledge. For three centuries j
and a half they have led the way in what is called
progress. They rose with the Reformation. They j
' furnished a martyr for the Revolution of 1688. The Re- i
form Bill is connected forever with the name of Lord i
John.-*-? ;
t
John Russell, who later became the first Earl of Bed
ford, was knighted by Henry VIII for distinguished military 1
service. In 1538 he was made Comptroller of the King's ;
Household, member of the Privy Council, and also a peer. At;
the same time he came into possession of the Abbey of Tavis-:
tock and much land about It in Devonshire, as well as lands ;
In Cornwall, Somersetshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hereford.
[
He was Warden of the Stannaries in Devon and Cornwall, Lord I
High Admiral of England and Ireland, and President of the
counties of Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, and Somerset. In 15^7 ■
Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire was granted to Lord Russell.
j
He was given other valuable property in Cambridgeshire,- j
! i
Northamptonshire, and Yorkshire, and also a great estate in
Covent Garden. "None profited so greatly from the plunder
^Fraser's Magazine, 1879, reprinted in Living Age,
1^3-3^9~5T7
35'
1 8
of the Church as this family,” in Pennant's opinion.
Lord Russell was one of sixteen councilors appointed byj
Henry VIII to advise Prince Edward. He became Earl of Bed-
19
ford in 1550, during Edward Vi's reign. At the death of
Edward he was one of several members of the Council who wrote
i
a letter to Princess Mary declaring the right of Jane Grey ;
1 20
to the throne. "For the verity of God's gospel" he was
sent to Fleet Prison a few days after Mary became Queen in
21 ’
1553- The true, reason for his imprisonment seems to have ;
been that he was involved in the Northumberland plot to
raise an army for the purpose of putting Lady Jane Grey on
22
the throne. He seems to have made his peace with Queen j
Mary, however, for she made him Lord Privy Seal and sent him;
23 ;
to attend King Philip of Spain on his journey to England. !
Camden had a great admiration for the second Earl. He
says that Francis Russell, "being the express pattern of
true piety and nobleness, lived most dearly beloved of all
1 R
The Journey from Chester to London (London, 1782), p.
465 • I
‘ ^ . L ., An Impartial and Full Account of the Life and
Death of W. Lord Russell (London, 1684), pp. 1 ff. .
20George Oliver, The History of the City of Exeter |
(Exeter, l86l), pp. 99-100.
21Charles H. Cooper, Athenae Cantabrigienses (Cambridge,
1858-1913), I, 144.
22Thomas Warton, Life of Sir Thomas Pope (London, 1780)j
p. 43. j
g3jmpartial . . . Account, p. 10.
*' .................. ............ .. 36'
24
good men.'f He says again:
King Edward the Sixth created John Lord Russell Earl ofj
Bedford, after whom succeeded his son Francis, a man so
religious and of such a noble courteous nature that I can|
never speak ought so highly in his commendation but his
virtue will far surpass the same.25
In 1586, at the time of Sidney's death, the burgomaster!
1
bf Flushing wrote of the Earl: j
! i
’ The name of . . . the late Earl of Bedford is pleasing |
to all who make profession of religion, and the report of!
his humanity and gentleness flies through all these
provinces.26 j
In 15^7, during his father's lifetime, Francis Russell ;
was Member of Parliament for Buckinghamshire, this being '
"the earliest instance of the son and heir apparent of a
27
peer sitting in the House of Commons." Russell was one of,
Elizabeth's most trusted advisers. Very early in her reign '
she appointed him one of her councilors, along with Sir
! 28
William Cecil and Sir Nicholas Bacon. In 1565? when Mary i
i
of Scotland became a dangerous enemy of Protestant England, j
the Earl of Bedford, who was already the Warden of the East j
Marches, was made lieutenant-general of the northern counties
with authority to protect England in case of a Scotch :
i
pit , I
Britannia, Holland's translation, p. 394. 1
: |
25p. 403.
^ Calendar of State Papers Foreign, 1586-8 7, p* 218.
2?Joseph Foster, Collectanea Genealogica (London, 1882),
I, 5 4.
^Sir Richard Baker, A Chronicle of the Kings of
England (London, 1643), p. 327-
i n v a s i o n . jn 1566 he represented Elizabeth at the
•30
christening of Mary's son James.
As early as 1560 Francis Russell had property in
Rutlandshire near Exton and had business dealings with Lucy
Harington's grandfather Sir James Harington.it is more j
than likely that the two families had been acquainted for a j
considerable length of time before Edward Russell and Lucy 8
l
i
Harington were married. !
j
Francis Russell had seven children by his first wife, ;
1
Margaret St. John. His second wife was Bridget Hussey, who !
had already been married to Richard Morison and Henry Earl
of Rutland. Consequently Edward Russell was related by
blood and marriage to many prominent people. Three of his
aunts were countesses— Ann, Countess of Warwick; Elizabeth,
Countess of Bath; and Margaret, Countess of Cumberland,
mother of Ann Clifford, who was therefore Edward Russell's
first cousin. The Countesses of Warwick and Bath were
Ladies of Queen Elizabeth's Bedchamber. Edward's uncle John
Russell married Elizabeth Cooke, widow of Sir Thomas Hoby; j
her sisters were the wives of Lord Burleigh and of Sir '\j
2^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, Addenda, 15^7-65., s
p. 570. :
30[John Colville?] The Historie of King James the Sext,
written 1588-97* ed. Thomas Thomson (Edinburgh, 1 8 2 5), p. 5.
31wright, The History and Antiquities of the County of
Rutland, p. 66.
" .......... ■----- ~38-
32
Nicholas Bacon, the father of Francis Bacon.
The Earl of Bedford had two London houses— Russell
House on the south side of the Strand, known as "the Bishop
j O O
of Carlisle’s inn and Bedford House on the north side of
‘ 34 f
the Strand, which Edward Russell apparently built. He
i
spent much of his time in the country at Chiswick and Moor
Park.He also owned Cheyneys in Buckinghamshire,*^ which
j
had come into the family through his great-grandmother; and j
I
Bedford House in Exeter, which had been the Convent of the j
' 37
Black Friars before it was given to the first Earl.
Woburn Abbey came into the possession of Edward’s great
grandfather in 1547,^ but the third Earl apparently did not
39 '
live there. He had also inherited many smaller properties^.
32impartial . . . Account, pp. 13-16.
! ^George Thornbury, Old and New London (London,
1873-85), HI, 121.
3^John Stow, The Survey of London (London, 1618), pp.
‘ 370-71 •
35yj.ctoria County History, Herts., II, 377- !
^^Robert Sidney visited there on January 12, 1603« ^
HMCR, Lord DeL’ Isle and Dudley, III, 2.
37"Bedford Chapel," Devon and Cornwall Notes and
Queries, V, Part II, 15• j
: 38paniel Lysons, Magna Britannia (London, 1806-22), II,J
152. j
1 39kCcor(}j_ng stow’s Survey of London (16 1 8), the Earl
of Bedford owned Fisher's Folly outside Blshopsgate. It had
"gardens of pleasure, bowling alleys, and such like" (p.
1319). This information has not been found in any other
source. The Countess' friend Marquis Hamilton lived for a
Itime in Fishery Folly. (DNB, VIII, 1061-62.)
' “ 39'
Lucy Harington had to assume many responsibilities when
she became Countess of Bedford. Richard Brathwaite's
treatise "Some Rules for the Government of the House of an
Earl"^0 shows what an elaborate organization an earl’s j
household often was. Brathwaite, recalling the most ideal J
! i
institution of the sort he had encountered, says that it in-!
eluded about two hundred retainers. He lists nearly a
1
hundred indispensable ones, not including the Countess' i
1
personal servants, and describes their duties. The lord andj
I
lady and the chief officers must set good examples for the
rest. One of those in charge must see that everyone attends
"the ordinary lecture" and morning and evening prayer.
Careful household accounts must be kept. The secretary, one:
of the most important officers, must be an educated man,
able to converse in foreign languages. The groom of the
wardrobe must be skillful in mending and cleaning tapestries*
bedding, and wearing apparel. Waiters, cooks, grooms for
the different rooms, musicians, and workers for the wood
yard, bakehouse, brewhouse, armory, stables, and garden are !
*
listed. Successful overseeing of such great households must;
have required intelligence, firmness, and extensive training.
Undoubtedly the Countess of Bedford had been preparing for
the assumption of such responsibilities from her earliest
childhood, and since she was so young when she was married,
she must have worked hard at learning her duties during the
I
^ 2 i
| In Miscellanea Antigua Anglicana (London, l8l6).
first years of her married life.
' There is very little news of the Earl of Bedford be
tween the time of his marriage in 1594 and the time of the j
Essex rebellion in 1601. On November 17* 1595* he was run- I
1
ning at tilt on the Queen's Day, when the beginning of the 1
i
thirty-eighth year of Elizabeth's reign was being cele-
brated.^ George Peele, in Anglorum Feriae, tells of the
42
Earl's part in the knightly combat. On April 3, 1597*
j
Edward Russell bore the sword before Elizabeth in ceremonies,
43 ■
for the Order of the Garter at Whitehall.
There is more news of the Countess. Early in 1596 she
had one of her many illnesses. Consequently she excused
herself from acting as godmother to her cousin Robert
Sidney's daughter Bridget, and according to Rowland White ;
44
she sent her parents with a gift. In March, 1596, she was;
reporting to Burleigh about persons suspected to be Jesuits:
This bearer my servant hath this morning apprehended a
; couple of very suspicious persons, whereof one hath al
ready confessed himself a Jesuit, the other seems a
desperate villain, denying he had any acquaintance with
the said Jesuit, yet a great likelihood he came over wittf
him. . . .^5
4lHMCR, Various Collection, IV, 1 6 3. ,
^2Works of George Peele, ed. A. H. Bullen (London, 1
1888), II, 351*
i ^George 33. Harrison, The Second Elizabethan Journal
(New York, 1931)* P- 184.
^Arthur Collins, ed., Letters and Memorials of State
(London, 1746), II, 2 3.
^Cecll Papers, VI, 100.
.... “ 4T
On November 27, 1596, she wrote again to Burleigh from
Cheyneys, asking him to reward the bearer of her note for
his services "in the discovering of divers seminaries. 1,48 |
From 1598, when the Countess was seventeen, the records:
!
of her social activities become more frequent. Early in i
1598 she was present at a supper at Essex House in the
company of the ladies Leicester, Northumberland, Essex, and 1
1
47
Rich, and the lords of Essex, Rutland, and Mountjoy. In
November, 1599, Lady Bedford visited the wife of her cousin
Robert Sidney, probably at Baynard's Castle in London, for
Rowland Whyte, the writer of the letter containing the news :
of her visit, had written Sir Robert a letter from there
i
about two weeks before. Whyte's comment concerning the
Countess is as follows: j
This evening the Countess of Bedford came to visit my
Lady, and to assure her„she loved you [Sir Robert Sidney]!
above all her friends.'4'®
In his earlier letter Whyte had told Sir Robert that the
Countess had been very kind to the Sidney children when she ;
49 !
met them abroad. v ;
* - !
; As early as 1599 the Countess had a place at Court as
46Cecil Papers, VI, 494. |
^Letter, Whyte to Sidney, HMCR, Lord DeL'lsle and
Dudley, II, 322.
48HMCR, Lord DeLisIe and Dudley, II, 419-
49II, 416.
%2
one of Elizabeth's ladies.
In January, 1600, there is evidence of the Countess'
being in financial difficulty. Henry Clinton, Earl of
f
Lincoln, reports that she owes him money:
I should have received five hundred pounds of the
Countess of Bedford (if she had dealt truly and honorably
with me). . . . and this day she offers to put me off ;
with two hundred pounds, and to arbitrate the rest, ■
contrary to all reason, honor, or conscience. . . .51
On June 1 6, 1600, Lady Anne Russell, the Earl of Bed- I
j
ford's cousin, was married to Henry Lord Herbert, son of the,
: 1
Earl of Worcester. This wedding was an important affair. !
The Queen was present, "being carried from the waterside in
52
a curious chair and lodged at the Lord Cobham's. It is
not certain that the Earl and Countess were present, but
they had been invited to a wedding supper a few days be
fore, 53 an(i it seems likely that they would attend the wed
ding itself.
In August, 1600, a certain John Carey wrote as follows
ifrom Berwick on the Scotch border:
We look presently for the Earl of Bedford and his j
Countess, my Lady Harington and divers other ladies and !
f
50gee Ben Jonson's "Epistle to the Countess of Rutland'^
(written 1599) and his verses included in a copy of Cynthia's
Revels which he gave to Lady Bedford (p. 95 of this disser-
tation).
^Lodge, Illustrations, III, 107-08.
52John chamberlain, Chamberlain Letters, Camden Society
No. 79 (Westminster, 1861), p . 8 3.
f
i -^Cecil papers, X, 176.
gentlewomen to be here with a great train.^
Essex favored James as Elizabeth's successor, and the
Earl of Bedford was Essex' friend. Essex had been in corre
spondence with James concerning the succession at least
i
since 1598* In July 1600 James had been seeking a party in >
i
England and had declared his intention "not to tarry upon ’
her Majesty's death.1 '-^ plan seems to have been to pre-
1
pare an army and march to the border. There James was to I
demand of the English government a declaration of his right j
of succession, and he planned to invade England if his de-
56
raands were not met.
The Essex rebellion, which occurred in February, 1601, j
I
had serious consequences for the Earl of Bedford. His j
i
version of his part in it, found in a letter which he wrote ;
to the Privy Council, was that, about ten o'clock Sunday
morning, February 8, 160.1, while he was at home listening to!
a sermon, Lady Penelope Rich, the sister of the Earl of
Essex, came in a coach with the message that Essex wished to;
speak with him. Without saying anything to any member of
i
his family, he went with. Lady Rich. After he-*’had arrived atj
I
^Calendar of Border Papers, II, 6 7 8.
55qUoted from State Papers, Scotland, LXLI, No. 41, by
Helen G. Stafford, in James VI of Scotland and the Throne of
England (London, 1940), p. 213.
Winstanley, Hamlet and the Scottish Succession
(Cambridge, 1921), p. 162. ;
the place where Essex was, he suspected that something was
wrong and went home.^7 There are two other versions of what
happened to the Earl of Bedford- According to the first
version, recorded in the State Papers, he followed Essex as
! I
one of a crowd of people, and was drawn away from the crowd !
by some acquaintances, who carried him away by water. Then ■
the Earl got some horsemen together and galloped to Court,
i
but was suspected and seized there. The third version, re
corded in Thomas B. Howell's State Trials, was that his ac
quaintances, finding him in the group following Essex, en-
treated him to leave the crowd but later lost sight of him.
The difference between these last two records may be due to ;
I
carelessness in reporting. The important question is what j
t ;
the Earl's intentions were. He and Essex and Southampton
had been friends since boyhood. Was he willing to support j
Essex in carrying out his rash plan of forcing himself into I
the Queen's presence? When he saw that the scheme was going!
to fail, did he try to save himself by gathering a troop of j
horsemen and rushing to Court? Or did he disapprove of the
plan as soon as he understood what it was and leave Essex
House for home as soon as he could? One gets the impressionj
that he did not know just what was going on or what he
Wanted to do, that he was not a very clear thinker, or
t
57HMCR, XI, 50.
Complete Collection of State Trials (London, 1776-
81), I , 1340.
perhaps just a slow thinker, and could be influenced by
people who knew their own minds more surely or had stronger
personalities. Nearly all of the few facts we know about
him point to his being conservative and religious; it is
hard to believe that, given time for reflection, he would i
I
have approved of a rash and treasonable action against the \
Queen. The reader of the records also gets the impression j
i
that at the time of the trial he was badly frightened, as he!
!
had good reason to be, and was making the best possible ,
interpretation of his actions and not telling all he knew. {
i
Regardless of any good intentions the Earl may have had.
Queen Elizabeth fined him £20,000. The Earl of Rutland was
fined £30,000, Lord Sandys £10,000, Lord Monteagle £8,000, ;
and Lord Cromwell £5,0 0 0 .5 9 others were involved, including!
the Earl of Southampton.^ 0 Two hundred pounds a year of the!
Earl of Bedford's fine was assessed by Attorney General Coke|
on certain Devonshire and Cornwall properties of the
Russells. On December 29, 1601, the Earl wrote to Cecil,
thanking him for assistance in getting permission to use
i
59calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1601-03, p. 8 8.
, ^qHMCR, Salisbury Papers, XI, 44. According to i
Lawrence Stone, the Essex plot was a rebellion of bankrupts
to destroy monopoly of royal favor by the Cecils and the
Howards. "Economics of the Elizabethan Aristocracy," Econ.
Hist. Rev., 18:1-53, 1948. H. R. Trevor-Roper thinks most
of the aristocracy were not really bankrupt. "The Eliza
bethan Aristocracy, An Anatomy Anatomized," Econ. Hist.Rev.,
second series, 3:279-98, 1951*
1 ^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1601-03, p. 2 7 9.
6 2
some of the Countess' property to pay the fine. The Queen|
was afterwards persuaded to reduce the fine from £20,000 to
' 63
£10,000.
I
1
The Earl was also imprisoned, being held first at
64 '
Alderman Holliday's. Later he was restricted to Bedford j
65
House. On August 6, 1601, the Privy Council gave him
permission to go to Cheyneys, but he was forbidden to go j
: 66 !
more than six or seven miles from his home. Also he was i
|
prevented from going to Parliament; the Queen did not actu- j
j
ally deprive him of his right, but she did not want him to
appear in her presence and suggested that he send a proxy
A lampoon of the time ridicules the Earl:
Bedford he ran away '
When our men lost the day j
So 'tis assigned
Except his fine dancing Dame
Do their hard hearts tame
And swear it is a shame
Fools should be fined.
62Cecil Papers, XI, 533*
^ C a l e n d a r Qf state Papers Domestic, 1601-03, P* 55* ;
; 64
HMCR, Townshend, p. 11.
^^QXadys Thomson, Life in a Noble Household, 1641-1700 1
(London, 1937), p* 37*
I
^ Acts of the Privy Council, 1601-04, p. 145* j
67pp. 218-19.
^This lampoon is given in full in Charlotte Stopes'
Life of Southampton (Cambridge, 1922), pp. 235-37* She re
cords other places where it may be found. She thinks the I
writer is making fun of the Earl for turning traitor to his
:friends and still being fined.
The year 1602 was to be marked for the Earl and
i
Countess by two deaths. On January 19 their little son John
Lord Russell was christened at Cheyneys. He lived less than
69
a month, and was buried on February 19- On January 13 Sir!
John Forster died. This was Edward Russell's maternal |
! r
grandfather, who had been Warden of the Middle Marches and
Sheriff of Northumberland, and who had received Bamburgh
70
Castle and extensive abbey lands from the Crown. ,
j
The Countess' father was so ill in the fall of 1602 |
that he sent a message to Robert Cecil, putting his son John)
who was ten years old at this time, under Cecil's protection
in case his illness should be fatal.But by Christmas,
j
1602, Sir John Harington had recovered from his illness, for,
he was keeping j
a royal Christmas in Rutlandshire, having the Earls of
Rutland and Bedford, Sir John Gray and Sir Henry Carey,
with their ladies, the Earl of Pembroke, Sir Robert
Sidney, and many more gallants.72
On January 12, 1603, the Haringtons were at Combe, for Sir
^George Lipscomb, The History and Antiquities of the
County of Buckingham (London, 1347), III, 260-61. Excerpts '
from the parish register at Cheyneys. j
7°George Tate, History of the Borough, Castle, and 1
Barony of Alnwick (Alnwick,"1866-6$), II, 403-04.
' 71cecil Papers, XII, 432. At this time, when he was
ten years old, John was appointed trustee of Rugby School,
along with Sir Henry Goodere. A. T. Mitchell, Rugby School
Register (Rugby, 1901-04), I, ix.
7gchamberlain Letters, p. 1 7 1.
' ....... 48
Robert Sidney was visiting them there.A few days later
he visited the Earl and Countess of Bedford at Cheyneys.
On the 24th of March, 1603, Queen Elizabeth died.
I •
Under James I the Countess and her family were to be favored
far more than they had ever been in the reign of Elizabeth. j
i
The Countess* literary associations before 1603 -were >
not many. The dedications to her by Claudius Holyband in ,
i
1583 and by Florio in 1598 have already been mentioned. A
t
sonnet to her by E. B., prefixed to Drayton's Mortimeriados j
!
(1596), is usually ascribed to Edmund Bolton, a Catholic
poet and antiquary. It contains nothing of biographical
value. Prefixed to Florio*s World of Words (1598) is a
sonnet by II Candido--Matthew Gwinne— who later helped
Florio in his translation of Montaigne. This sonnet is also!
lacking in biographical interest. In 1599 Jonson mentioned
her in his "Epistle to Elizabeth Countess of Rutland," and in
1601 he addressed her in the verses in his gift copy of
Cynthia's Revels. Sir John Harington, translator of Ariosto,
wrote a letter to Lady Bedford on December 19, 1600, with
which he sent' her some psalms translated by her cousin the
Countess of Pembroke and also some of his own epigrams. "it
1
does not appear," writes Norman E. McClure, editor of Haring-
ton's letters and epigrams, "that the Countess either
73HMCR, Lord DeL'Isle and Dudley, III, 2.
74
accepted or praised them.1 Harington's tone in this
letter is excessively respectful] he was no doubt looking [
for a generous patron. But veneration was not natural to
him, and probably his indiscretions would not recommend him j
to the Countess. The most important relationship of Lady !
Bedford with a poet in this part of her life was that with
Michael Drayton, which will be considered in the following
chapter.
I
One tribute by a person who was not literary is worthy j
of note. In 1600 John Dowland dedicated his Second Book of ,
Songs or Airs to Lady Bedford. He was in Denmark at the
time. He writes:
Excellent Lady: I send unto your Ladyship from the |
Court of a foreign Prince the volume of my second labors,:
as to the worthiest Patroness of music, which is the
noblest of all sciences. . . . Your Ladyship hath in
yourself an excellent agreement of many virtues, of which,
j though I admire all, yet I am bound by my profession to
; give especial honor to your knowledge of music. . . .
This is the only clear evidence of the Countess' interest in
and knowledge of music which has been found, although it
would be safe to assume that musical training had been a ■
part of her education. ;
t
In this period of her life before the death of Queen
I :
Elizabeth the Countess had acquired an education in
languages and other subjects similar to the training of the
learned women of the earlier Renaissance. This education
^The Letters and Epigrams of Sir John Harington, ed.
Norman E . McClure (Philadelphia, 1930), p. 390, n.
fitted her to write well, as her letters show she did, and
helped her to understand scholarly men and win their admi
ration .
j Prom the point of view of her personal happiness her
I f
marriage was perhaps not entirely fortunate. No doubt it ;
was arranged by her parents, who may very well have been de
sirous of having a wealthy earl as a son-in-law. Edward .
Russell was physically weak, and his conduct in the Essex !
affair seems to indicate that he was somewhat inept. The
absence of his name in the news of Court affairs probably
means that he preferred country life at Chiswick or in
75
Rutlandshire ^ to taking his place in the social world
which was of great importance to his wife. However, there
j
is not a phrase in the Countess’ letters to Indicate that
she was unhappy in her domestic life. And there were great
advantages for her in becoming allied with a wealthy and
powerful family and in achieving the rank of countess. Her !
ability to help and inspire literary men was greatly
augmented. j
;■ An unfriendly witness calls her a "fine dancing dame."
t
Like many other women of her time she liked elaborate and
expensive clothing. She liked to dance, and the masques and
other Court entertainments gave her many opportunities.
She had already encountered misfortune. Her greatest
j
sorrow was caused by the loss of her little son, for she
i
! ^See Private Correspondence, pp. 25, 6l.
greatly desired to have children. She also had illness to
contend with. But there is unmistakable, evidence in her
letters that she considered it her duty as a religious
person to take sensible care of her health, to keep up her
courage, and to combat depression by useful and unselfish
activity. Her piety and her courage won the admiration of
the literary men and were no doubt deep sources of inspi
ration to them.
CHAPTER IV
THE COUNTESS OP BEDFORD AND MICHAEL DRAYTON,
1594 AND AFTER
| When the Countess at the-age of thirteen became the
i
patron of Michael Drayton, she was perhaps for the first
time aware of some of the responsibilities of her position, j
There were many ways in which a patron could help a literary
I
I
man. He might maintain him at a university, secure a po- i
sition of some sort for him, or provide for him in his :
household. The patron might give the writer money, or pro
vide him with an annuity, or pay him for dedications--the
usual reward being about the equivalent of fifty dollars at ;
present value. A distinguished patron made the literary
man's work more valuable in the eyes of the public, and his I
patron often protected him against his enemies or those whom
he had offended by something which he had written.^ Proba
bly Drayton expected to be a welcome guest at the Countess' j
home or to be given some sort of position there. He hoped
to be paid generously for his dedications, and to be de- j
fended against his critics. \
The association of the Countess and Drayton began
auspiciously enough in 159^> before her marriage. In his
dedicatory epistle prefixed to England's Heroical Epistles
The information in this paragraph was taken from
Phoebe Sheavyn's The Literary Profession in the Elizabethan |
Age (Manchester, 1909)> and Raymond W. Short's "The Patron
age of Poetry Under James I," unpublished doctoral disser
tation (Cornell, 1936^.____
S 3
(1597), and addressed to the Earl of Bedford, Drayton writes
of having devoted his poems
to the protection of my noble Lady, your Countess: to
, whose service I was first bequeathed by that learned and
accomplished gentleman Sir Henry Goodere [the elder] (not!
long since deceased), whose I was whilst he was. j
J
Goodere, who was a neighbor of the Haringtons while they I
were at Combe Abbey in Warwickshire, died in 1595, and the !
arrangement already mentioned took place some time before {
Lucy Harington's marriage on December 12, 1594, since in j
!
Drayton's first dedication to her he addresses her by her
maiden name. This first dedication was for his poem Matilda.
Later works dedicated to her were Endimion and Phoebe (April
12, 1595); Mortimeriados (April 15, 1596) which also in-
t
eludes an address to her in the body of the poem; Robert of ;
Normandy (November, 1596); and Englands Heroical Epistles
(October 12, 1597)• Some of these works were also dedicated!
to members of her family and other people. After 1597 no
new works were dedicated to her; however, the "Great Lady"
sonnet before Endimion and Phoebe was reprinted in 1599,
1600, 1602, 1 60 5, 1 6 0 8, 1 6 1 0, and 1 6 1 3, and in a later un-
P
dated edition. In Polyolbion (1612) there is no mention ofj
the Countess or her family in the sections on Rutlandshire
or Warwickshire, or elsewhere, although he does mention such
■ ?
friends as Anne Goodere and the Aston family.
; 2J. William Hebei, ed., The Works of Michael Drayton, V
'(Oxford, 1941), 22. This edition is hereafter cited as Works.
3gee index to Polyolbion, Works, V, 248 ff.
' ' ...... ..." - 54
If the verses about Selena, first printed in Poems
Lyric and Pastoral (1606) and removed from the 1619 edition,
refer to the Countess, Drayton was very angry with her in
i 4
1 6 0 6. Hebei and Newdigate think that they do refer to her.
Oliver Elton says: I
No one knows who Selena was, but the burden of proof ;
lies with the prosecution [i.e., with those who think ;
; Selena is the Countess].5 :
It is difficult to find anyone else to whom the lines could
possibly refer. The Selena passage follows: j
So once Selena seemed to reguard,
That falthfull Rowland her so highly praysed,
And did his travell for a while reward,
As his estate she purpos'd to have raysed,
But soone she fled him and the swaine defyes,
111 is he sted that on such faith relies.
And to deceitfull Cerberon she cleaves
That beastly clowne to vile of to be spoken,
And that good shepheard wilfully she leaves
And falsly all her promises hath broken,
And al those beautyes whilom hath her graced,
With vulgar breath perpetually defaced.
What daintie flower yet ever was there found
Whose smell or beauty mighte the sence delight
Wherwith Eliza when she lived was crowned
In goodly chapplets he for her not dighte
Which became withered soon as ere she ware them
So ill agreeing with the brow that bare them. j
1 I
: i
i Let age sit soone and ugly on her brow,
No sheepheards praises living let her have j
To her last end noe creature pay one vow
Nor flower be strew'd on her forgotten grave,
; ^The whole story of the change in Poems Lyric and
Pastoral is discussed in detail in Chetham Society Publi
cations, 100, pp. 273-82.
^Michael Drayton (London, 1905)# P* 2 3.
And to the last of all devouring tyrae ^
Nere be her name remembred more In rime.
When Drayton is angry at anyone he is inclined to exaggerate
and write abusively; therefore his comments here do not need
!
to be taken at face value. No one knows certainly who
Cerberon is, possibly Robert Cecil, Viscount Cranborne. j
i
!
Drayton hated him; the best evidence is to be found in his j
1
attack on the Vulture in The Owle (1604), the Vulture being
T
pretty certainly Cecil. Cecil and the Countess' father
were in frequent communication during these years. What j
these verses say mainly, when shorn of the exaggeration
caused by resentment, is that the Countess had deserted
Drayton, a supposition supported by other evidence. His
anger is understandable; it was a great disappointment to
him to lose the wealthy and generous patron to whom the
elder Sir Henry Goodere had so confidently recommended him.
Even if the Selena passage does not refer to the
Countess, there is still enough evidence to make clear that
the relationship between the poet and his patron was not
thriving. In Drayton's dedications to Lady Bedford the j
growth of misunderstanding can be traced. At the time he I
wrote the dedication of Mortimeriados (published April, j
1596) he was very confident of her approval. It is voluble I
In praise of herself and her family. His verses are an j
^Works, V, 189•
; 7V, 176. |
"immortal tomb, more durable than letter-graven brass" to
make her name live eternally. They will do more for her
fame "than earthly honors, or a Countess' name." His dedi
cation of The Tragical Legend of Robert, Duke of Normandy
(published in November, 1596) shows no loss of faith in her
approval. But by the time he wrote the dedication for j
Englands Heroical Epistles (published in 1597), he had for j
j
some reason lost confidence in his power to please her. He
says concerning his epistle of Rosamond to King Henry: :
i
Here must your Ladyship behold variableness in reso
lution, woes, constantly grounded, laments abruptly
broken off: much confidence, no certainty, words beget
ting tears, tears confounding matter, large complaints in
little papers; and many deformed cares in one uniformed
epistle. . . . Your judicial eye must model forth what my
pen hath laid together; much would she say to a King, '
much would I say to a Countess, but that the method of my
epistle must conclude the modesty of hers. . . .
Never after this did Drayton dedicate a new work to the
Countess, although he retained the old dedications in new
editions of his works for many years. It was at this time,
too, in 1597, that he wrote the dedication to the Earl of
Bedford, telling how Goodere had "bequeathed" him to Lady i
!
Bedford--as though he hoped that the Earl might intercede
with the Countess in his behalf.
There may have been several reasons why Drayton failed
to please the Countess as he had hoped to do. One reason
may have been that he became associated with people who did
i
not support the succession of James to the throne. Lady
f
Bedford's father was a strong supporter of James. One
obvious reason was that, since he could claim kinship with
James, he could expect favors from him. Essex was in favor i
of James' succession, and the Earl of Bedford had been
Essex' friend since boyhood. One. reason people had for sup-;
porting James was that his claim seemed most firmly based om
!
hereditary right. Some of Shakespeare's historical plays
8 '
apparently considered this hereditary-right claim. Shake- j
i
speare's plays were presented by the Chamberlain's Men, who :
I
were favored by James and made the King's Men after his ac- ;
cession. Alfred Harbage says that the Chamberlain's Men be-:
9
came James' company because they were the best players.
But R. B. Sharpe, while accepting this reason, says that
James also recognized the sympathies of the company with
Essex,10 who had tried to advance James' cause.
But about 1597 Drayton became associated with the other!
great theatrical company of the tlme^-the Admiral's Men, and
the reason may well have been that he already had friends in
that group. It is probably easy to over-emphasize the po
litical tendencies of the theatrical companies. However,
the Lord Admiral (the Earl of Nottingham) had had trouble ,
1 !
Q j
Gertrude C. Reese, "The Question of the Succession in
Elizabethan Drama," University of Texas Studies in English
(1942), pp. 59-85.
i ^Shakespeare and the Rival Traditions (New York, 1952).
p. 90.
' 10The Real War of the Theaters (Boston, 1935)> PP« 214-
16.
11
with Essex at the time of the Cadiz expedition in 1596,
12
and was considered one of Essex' rivals at Court. Robert
Naunton writes of "the Howards and Cecils on the one part,
TO
my Lord of Essex, etc., on the other part." Moreover, the:
Earl of Nottingham, Cecil, Raleigh, and others were said to ;
be members of "a party of considerable size" which favored
the succession of Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp, repre
senting the Suffolk claim to the throne. The will of Henry i
i^. !
VIII supported this claim. According to the article on j
Seymour in the Dictionary of National Biography,
he was by act of Parliament rightful heir to the throne
for a year after James I's accession, until that monarch's
title was settled by statute.
i
All this involvement about the succession does not con
cern Drayton directly, since his position cannot be very
IB '
clearly discerned. But he and other literary men were
collaborating in writing plays for the Admiral's Men from
December, 1597, to May, 1602, Drayton writing part of at
least twenty-four plays. Drayton addressed no new
-^Arthur Collins, The Peerage of England (London, 1779-'
84), V, 19.
(
•^Laura H. Cadwallader, The Career of the Earl of Essex
. . ♦ (Philadelphia, 1923), P• " 23. 1
^ Fragmentia Regalia, English reprints, No. 20, ed.
Arber (London, 1 8 7 0), p . 5 6.
’ ^Reese, pp. 59 ff-
■^He published a complimentary sonnet addressed to
James in 1600.
i ^Bernard H. Newdigate, Michael Drayton and His Circle
l( 0xf ord, . 194.1.), _pp_. 101 -Q4_i_. _ _.. . ______________ ________
' ....................... " ’..' .- ~~59i
I
dedications to the Countess after 1597* as has been said be
fore; it is possible that he turned to playwriting because
he felt he could no longer depend on her for help. Of all
these plays, only the first part of Sir John Oldcastle is
"" IV -- ■ ■ 7 j
; 2,7 1
still In existence. Sir John Oldcastle glorifies an .
ancestor of Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham, who was a friend of :
Raleigh and an enemy of Essex, and who was accused of plot- !
18 ! '
ting with Aremberg to put Arabella Stuart on the throne.
Cobham was arrested in July, 1603, and put into the Tower,
where he remained for the rest of his life. His wife was a j
daughter of the Earl of Nottingham, and his sister was
Robert Cecil's wife. 19
Whatever may have been Drayton's private loyalties, he j
was associated with various people who were not on the side |
of Essex and James. The only indication of his having
t j
served James is a statement that "during King James' minori-i
i . ;
ty, our poet was instrumental in a correspondence carried on
20
between that Prince and Queen Elizabeth." Drayton was the
first poet to celebrate James' accession in The Majesty of
King James, published Just a few days after Elizabeth's
■^Newdigate, p. 104.
^Samuel R. Gardiner, The History of England from the
Accession of James First to the Outbreak of the Civil War, I
:TLondon,~1883'), ""20“ “ !
19pNB, article on Henry Brooke, 8th Lord Cobham.
‘ PO
! David E. Baker, compiler, Biographica Dramatica
{(London, 1812), I, 1 9 8.
* - 6 0
21
death. Various reasons have been given for Drayton's
failure to gain royal favor by this poem. He neglected to
mention Elizabeth's death, and he lessoned James about
banishing from his Court "the fool, the Pandar, and the
* PP
Parasite" and setting "lovely virtue ever in thy view."
But probably a far more important reason was that James as- ;
‘ I
sociated Drayton with those who had not supported his sue- i
cession. Cecil somehow managed an adroit about-face !
i
.(certainly he had not always been a supporter of James), and!
this change no doubt embittered Drayton and accounts, in
part at least, for his attack on Cecil in The Owle (1604).
The fact that Cecil had been successful in winning James'
favor and Drayton had not must have increased Drayton's j
feeling of resentment. Cobham called Cecil a traitor,
probably because of his shift of ground with regard to the
1 PP
succession. The facts that Drayton had attacked Cecil and
that he had not belonged to the group that supported James
f I
would be reasons why the Countess would not receive him
again into her favor after the beginning of James' reign.
i
His bitterness toward her is apparently expressed in the j
Selena passage in the Pastorals (1606). He had had time to j
realize that he could never again hope for the favor and
21Newdigate, p. 126.
^Works, I, 475*
^priedrich L. G. von Raumer, History of the Sixteenth
and Seventeenth Centuries, translated from the German
;(London, 1835), II, _lj95 L ________
61
help of the King and the Countess of Bedford.
Since there may have been particular occurrences in
1605 which added to Drayton's anger, it is pertinent to look
I
into what was going on during that year. Drayton had been
interested in the theater as a writer for it, and about 1607’
■ r
he was to be a sharer in a theatrical company called “The
1
Children of His Majesty's Revels'1 in Whitefriars, a rival of
oh.
"The Children of Her Majesty's Revels" in Blackfriars.
The Queen's Children were constantly getting into trouble
because of their ridicule of the Scots, and even of the King;
himself. Edmund K. Chambers writes; !
Possibly the countenance given by Queen Anne to the
comedians may have been in part responsible for the long-
suffering with which their insolence was met. It could ,
have been no object for James to underline by any public j
action the strained relations between King and Consort
which already embarrassed the conduct of Court life. Onej
of the companies, indeed, which was most frequently in
trouble was that which had been taken in 1604 under the
direct protection of the Queen, with the title of
"Children of the Queen's Revels." . . . The patent under
which this company was reconstructed in 1604 had exempted
its plays from the jurisdiction of the Master of the
Revels, possibly because the Master was an officer of the
King's Household from which that of the Queen was dis
tinct, and had committed the licensing to the poet Samuel
Daniel, who had been nominated by Anne for the purpose.
Daniel was extremely unfortunate in the exercise of his
functions.2- ^
j ; I
The most famous play which got its writers into difficulty j
because of ridicule of the Scots was Eastward Ho, written by
Jonson, Marston, and Chapman, and probably put on the stage
2^See Newdigate, pp. 112 ff.
2^The Elizabethan Stage (Oxford, 1 9 2 3), I, 3 2 6.
. * " ■ ~ --------------- •... S2
in the early summer of 1605* Marston was supposedly re
sponsible for the most audacious passages. Marston had a
financial interest in the theater, and he had already been
in political trouble over his plays. James was exceeding-
i
ly angry about Eastward Ho. The manager of the Queen's j
1
Children, Kirkham, was forced to sever his connection with j
I
27 ;
the company, and the playhouse was closed for a time. 1 ■ ■
Although there is no evidence that the Countess of Bed-j
ford ridiculed James, Queen Anne clearly did, or at least j
I
she permitted her players to do so, and the Countess was
closely associated with the Queen in these years. Drayton, :
who probably was not well-informed about the Court, may very
well have identified the attitudes of the Queen and the
Countess. Even though Drayton had not been treated well by j
James, he was probably pained and angered by such treatment I
of the sovereign of his country. Marston, the writer of the
most offensive passages, would seem to be a better possi
bility for Cerberon, if Cerberon is a literary man, than
Jonson. It is true that it is not possible to establish the!
fact that Marston and the Countess were acquainted, but her
\
close association with the Queen might account for Drayton's)
! ;
lines:
And to deceitful Cerberon she cleaves
^ C h a m b e r s , xi, 50. See also Joseph Q. Adams, "East
ward Hoe and Its Satire Against the Scots," Studies in Phi
lology, 28:157-69, October 1931-
I 2^Adams, pp. 161-62.
63
That beastly clown too vile of to be spoken. . . .
As Percy Simpson and Katherine Tillotson agree, Ben Jonson
■ p Q
did not take abuse without retaliation in kind. And it is
unlikely that Drayton would have spoken in.just this way of
Jonson, no'matter how angry he was. It was more appropriate:
to call Marston names, for in Marston's writing there were j
many passages which Drayton would certainly have found of- ;
2Q 1
fensive. ^ Not long after the publication of the Selena j
j
passage Drayton helped to establish the company of the King's
i
i
Children, and no doubt he hoped its success would rival or |
exceed that of the Queen's Children. However, this company i
failed, and its failure probably increased Drayton's bitter-!
ness.
Another reason why Drayton did not please the Countess j
was perhaps temperamental and environmental differences be- !
tween the two. Nearly all of Drayton's friends were con
servative and old-fashioned. Several were temporarily or
permanently Catholics— Edmund Bolton, John Davies of Here
ford, Sir John Beaumont, and Thomas Lodge. Several were j
' t
Oxford men, and Oxford was the more conservative university.,
* i.
2®"Ben Jonson in Drayton's Poems," Review of English
Studies, 16:303-06, July 1940.
2%ewdigate says: "He [Drayton] might have written so
of John Marston. . . . But we have no evidence that Marston
enjoyed any great measure of Lady Bedford's favor." Newdi-
gate thinks Florio is the best prospect for Cerberon. But
there is no evidence of association between Florio and the
Countess after 1603 or 1604, except that both were in the
service of the Queen. See Newdigate, pp. 66-69-
Many were historians or antiquarians— John Selden, William j
Warner, Edmund Bolton, and John Stow among others. These
were quiet, patriotic men, mostly country dwellers, who had ;
little connection with or taste for the gay life of the
Court. Friends of Drayton's like George Wither and William 1
Browne were Spenserians and were writing pastorals long
after the pastoral had been in the height of fashion. These
i
people were not of the kind with whom the Countess sur- ;
|
rounded herself— not clever courtiers and men of the world j
like Donne, Sir Thomas Roe, and the Earl of Pembroke. It isj
i
conceivable that Drayton would not know how to talk to Lady
Bedford, that he would be uneasy in her presence and unable j
1
i
to please her no matter how hard he tried. :
j
Since he was a somewhat old-fashioned, conservative man,
Drayton found many things which displeased him in the con
temporary world, where the Countess apparently felt more at j
home than he did. This world seemed immoral to Drayton, as
of course it often was. He was something of an idealist,
i ( !
Inclined to be querulous about a society which did not •
i
measure up to his standards. As early as 1591, when he was
about twenty-eight, he expressed his disapproval of the j
parasitical and the vain. He commented that he did not write
of Mars and Venus. This statement seems to be a protest
against the popular translations of Italian romances and
Ovidian love stories being made at the time. Much of his
own writing used English historical material as its subject
<55
matter. A characteristic complaint is the following from
the preface to Matilda (159*0 ;
Some of the writers of the time in their wanton and
adulterate conceits bring forth such ugly Monsters as a
modest and sober eye can hardly abide to view their de
formities. Then it is no marvel that the divine Muses i
take so small delight in our clime, finding their sweet )
and pleasant fields, which should be holy and sacred, de-
i filed and polluted with such loathsome ordure. }
As late as 1621 he was writing in the same vein:
The Muses here sit sad and mute the while j
A sort of swine unseasonably defile I
Those sacred springs, which from the by-clift hill j
Dropt their pure nectar into every q u i l l .30 j
Such a complaining spirit and such lack of humor and sense
of proportion would hardly endear the poet to the lively and
witty Countess of Bedford, who apparently was to accept John!
Donne's Ovidian poetry without protest— at least until Donnej
decided to become a churchman.
The failure of the patron-poet relationship between
Drayton and the Countess of Bedford was due then to several ;
possible causes. There were environmental and temperamental!
differences between them. They were associated with groups j
i
having different ideas about the all-important political I
, I
problem of the succession. Drayton's association with the
Admiral's Men, which may have been the result of his feeling;
that he could not please the Countess, began almost immedi
ately after he had made his last dedication to her and
probably did more than anything else to widen the gulf
30"To Master William Jeffreys," Works (Oxford, 1932),
in, 238 ff. _____
■ '6 6 :
between them. The friendship of the Countess1 family with {
Cecil, who seemed to Drayton to be a traitor enjoying the
confidence of Drayton's patron and his sovereign while Dray-j
ton himself was neglected, increased the poet’s anger. And !
H I
t
then he may have thought that the Countess was joining the i
Queen in ridicule of the King, an unpardonable offense in
i ■
the eyes of a single-hearted patriot like Drayton with his
love for all the institutions of his country. His indig- i
I
nation was not lessened by the realization that the offend
ing writers, Marston and Jonson, were more successful than
he was, and.that Jonson had the favor of the Court.
CHAPTERV
THE COUNTESS' FIRST YEARS AS A COURTIER,
1603-1610
1
The Countess of Bedford was one of Queen Anne's ladies !
{
of honor from 1603 until the time of the Queen's death in ;
i
1619.
The Queen's father was Frederick II of Denmark, a very
wealthy king who set aside large dowries for his daughters. I
i
f
Her brother was to become Christian IV of Denmark. Queen ;
Elizabeth opposed the alliance of Scotland and Denmark, and '
consequently the marriage of Anne and James was delayed, but:
it finally took place on August 20, 1589* Anne marrying
James by proxy. Anne was not liked by the Calvinists in
Scotland, since she was a Lutheran, and she was bitter when
her son Prince Henry was taken away from her to be brought
up by the Presbyterians. Politically she was something of a
trouble maker, with little discretion. She made a faction
for herself among the turbulent Scotch lords. She was
friendly toward Spain and as Queen of England was involved ;
in intrigues with the European Catholics. She was accused ;
of extravagance, the expenses of her court being approxi
mately £60,000 a year.1
The early years of King James' reign were a fortunate
•^Information in this paragraph comes from the article
on Anne of Denmark, Dictionary of National Biography, and
from Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England
(London, 18^2-48), VII, 305 ff.
i
time for England in many ways~-a breathing spell between the)
danger from Spain and the Civil War. After his unhappy
childhood, when his life was always in danger, and his un-
?
easy young manhood, when he could scarcely keep peace in j
• ■ ■ I
Scotland between factious nobles and an uncompromising ;
i
church, James was now king of one of the most wealthy and ^
progressive of nations, welcomed by the people because he '
; I
was a Scotch Protestant and because his peaceful accession j
i
lessened the danger of foreign invasion. With his extrava- ;
i
gant queen to make the Court life gay and his three children,
soon cordially accepted by the English people, he could look
forward to fortunate years.
Soon after James learned of the death of Elizabeth, he j
began a leisurely progress southward, leaving the Queen and ;
his children in Scotland for the time being. On April 17th
or 18th, 1603, he was at Grimstone Hall, where he knighted
2
the Countess of Bedford’s uncle James Harington. On April
23rd James dined with the Countess' father at Burley-on-the-
Hill, "the house seeming so rich as it had been furnished at!
the charge of an emperor,” and hunted afterward. He spent
; _ I
two days more with the Haringtons. ^ By May 3rd he had ar- j
rived at Theobalds near London, a house belonging to Robert
Cecil, who, as extensive correspondence indicates, was a
1
^Thomas Millington, "True Narration" (1 6 0 3), in Stuart
Tracts, ed. C. H. Firth (Westminster, 1903), p. 33*
j 3gtuart Tracts, pp. 37-39•
f
6 9
4
powerful friend of the Haringtons.
The Queen did not leave Scotland until the second of
June. The Countess of Bedford and her mother, Lady Haring-
ton, had traveled all the way to Edinburgh to meet the new i
i
5 s
sovereign. Anne, with Prince Henry and Princess Elizabeth,!
went first to Berwick on the Scotch border, where various
I
lords and ladies were awaiting her arrival. James had re- ;
quested that Queen Elizabeth's ladies of honor meet her j
there, taking with them jewels and dresses for her. Queen
Anne refused to appoint any of them as Ladies of the Bed
chamber, but she did choose the Countess of Bedford. Then
the Queen, accompanied by many people, made her progress
southward through England, receiving gifts from the towns j
she visited— York, Grimstone, Worksop, Newark, Nottingham,
6 i
Dingley. Anne Clifford, who was thirteen in 1603, tells in
Diary of traveling with her mother from London northwardj
and meeting the Queen at Dingley. The Countess of Bedford
."was so great a woman with the Queen that everybody re-
7 *
spected her." According to Anne Clifford, the Princess
Elizabeth went on to London with her mother and returned
^Gardiner, History of England, 1603-42, I, 100.
^Strickland, VII, 397-
^The Queen's progresses were complained about in later
years because of the great expense of entertaining her and
her host of attendants. See Birch, Court and Times of James
First, I, 76, 3 6 8.
7Diary, with introduction by V. Sackville-West (London,
19.24), pp. _8-9-... . . . ____
'......... . .".. ■ 70
O
later to Combe Abbey to make her home with the Harlngtons.
She writes that after the Queen had established herself at
Hampton Court Lady Rich gradually won her favor,
i
in so much as my Lady of Bedford was something out with j
her, and when she came to Hampton Court was entertained, j
but even indifferently, and yet continued to be of the j
bedchamber.9 ,
Just before the Coronation, on July 24, 1 6 0 3, the King J
created several Knights of Bath, including Sir Robert Carr, j
afterwards the Earl of Somerset; Sir Robert Chichester,
husband of the Countess' sister; and Sir Edward Herbert. 10 ;
I
According to Wiffen, the Earl of Bedford declined this
honor,^ 1 probably because creating Knights of the Bath was
one of James' devices for raising money. About this time I
the King knighted a certain Baptist Hicks, a silk merchant,
!
1
who was later to become a baronet and a peer. He carried on;
his business after being knighted, over the protests of the
t I
citizens of London, for this procedure was against custom.
He was an alderman as well as a merchant, and he and his
aggressive wife were involved in noisy quarrels about
1
( ^Dlary,- p. 16. Mary A. Everett Green, in Lives of the1
Princesses of England (London, 1850-55), V, 151-53# says
-that Elizabeth went to Combe Abbey from Dingley for a few
days and then went to Court. Her keeping was not given to 1
the Haringtons until October 19# 1603*
9piary, p. 1 3. i
""" !
10John Stow, Abridgment of the Chronicle, p. 827* !
■^Jeremiah Wiffen, Memoirs of the House of Russell, XX,
73* Wiffen says that Edward Russell's portraits show that
he accepted some honor, probably at a later time, since he
wears a richly decorated gown, apparently official.
"' . ................. “ TT
12
precedence. This man Is mentioned because he ultimately
managed to secure a large amount of the property of the
Haringtons; he was one of their successors in financial
i |
prosperity.
i - I
In August, 1603, Lady Bedford was seriously ill with a !
}
fever, probably not with the plague, as was at first sus- j
i
1 I
pected. The Countess was in London about December 8, l603>
I
I
for on that day Arabella Stuart wrote:
The Spanish ambassador invited Madame Beaumont (the '
French ambassador's Lady) to dinner, requesting her to '
bring some English Ladies with her. She brought my Lady '
Bedford, Lady Rich, Lady Susan Yere, Lady Dorothy with
her, and great cheer they had.1^-
On February 23, 1604, Lord Harington was granted leave j
of absence from Parliament that he might give more time to
15
the care of the Princess Elizabeth. Robert S. Rait, in !
Five Stuart Princesses, indicates something of the interests'
i
and educational methods of the Countess' father. For the
Princess' amusement and instruction he provided an aviary,
for which birds of all available kinds were collected.
Elizabeth had a "fairy farm, " stocked with the smallest i
1 !
cattle that could be found. Lord Harington constructed j
! 1
lgMiddlesex County Records, IV, 336-39* !
■^Letters Qf Philip Gawdy, ed. Isaac H. Jeayes (London,
3-906)j P* 135*
•^Letter of Arabella Stuart, in John B. Nichols,
Progresses . . . of King James the First, IV, 1060.
• ^Calendar Qf state Papers Domestic, 1603-10, p. 8l.
I
I
L. _ _ _ . . .
7 2
little wooden buildings in all the different orders of
architecture; and in these were scattered paintings of
divers races, and stuffed skins of all sorts of animals.
He had a microscope and a telescope which Elizabeth was en
couraged to use. He taught her history by devising a |
16
picture card game to help her remember facts.
1
The Gunpowder Plot was carried out on November 5* l605*i
The intention of the plotters was "to raise the country and
surprise the Lady Elizabeth from the Lord Harington, whom
17 !
they meant to proclaim Queen." ' The Princess in her
; 1
infancy had been in the care of Lord and Lady Livingstone,
18
adherents of Mary, Queen of Scots ; perhaps for this reason
the plotters preferred her to the more enthusiastically
Protestant Prince Henry. Also, since she lived in the
country, it would be easier to capture her. As soon as Lord;
Harington heard of the plot, he removed the Princess to
1 IQ
Coventry, where, as he said, "the people are very loyal." j
In 1605 Lord Harington was trying to arrange a match
between his son John and Robert Cecil’s daughter; as late as
I609 people still believed the marriage would take ■
i 1 8(London, 1 9 0 8), pp. 54-59- Rait takes most of his
material from Memoirs Relating to the Queen of Bohemia, by j
one of her ladies, privately printed. There is a copy of 1
this rare book in the Bodleian Library.
; ^Stow, p. 4-57.
I l8Strickland, VII, 367- j
^Letter Qf Lord Harington to Cecil, Calendar of State j
Papers Domestic, 1603-IO, p. 242.
20
place. But Cecil objected to it. In 1605 he wrote a very
long letter to Lord Harington on the subject. He wrote to
Lord Harington himself rather than asking the Countess to
write to her father, because she was strongly In favor of
the marriage; if he could persuade Lord Harington that the 1
I
match was undesirable, the Countess might give up the idea j
i
because
1
!
of that obedience to your commands which is observed by t
the world in all her carriage more than is usual in this I
age toward parents. {
i
i
He says: '
If she had not more resembled her sex in loving her own
will than she does in those other noble and discreet
parts of her mind (wherein she has so great a portion be-j
yond most of those that I have known), she might have
moved you to suspend the sending up of any particulari
ties at this time.
Cecil's stated reason for objecting to the match was that
the two young people were unequal in merit, the young man
being "extraordinarily qualified," in addition to being of
good family and heir to his father's property, and Cecil's
daughter "promising little worthy affection." He thinks the
young man will find some other woman more suitable when he is
a little older.21 * .
1
Sometime during the late summer or early fall of 1604 j
the Countess of Bedford was very ill.22 But by October 2nd
20Calendar of State Papers Venetian, 1607-10, pp. 215-
16.
! 21HMCR, Salisbury MSS., XVII, 629-30.
! 22Sir John Holies to Cecil, HMCH, Portland, IX, 13-
she had recovered and was beginning her quarter of attend
ance on the Queen.2^ Coke wrote to Sir Fulke Greville at
this.time: "Lady Bedford keepeth her prerogative of great-
24
ness at Court." In April, 1605, she was present at the
2^ :
christening of Princess Mary. The only other reference toj
the Countess in 1605 or 1606 is found in a letter to Dudley j
Carleton from Tobie Matthew, who was in Florence: ;
f
\
What was the reason that drove the La: of Bedford
thence from Court and particularly how thrives she, whom
they would needs persuade me I was in love withal?26 ;
i
s s
There is no other account of the Countess’ being driven from;
Court, an event which, if it happened, probably occurred in !
the Countess’ term of service in the fall of 1605, since
Matthew’s letter was written in August, 1 6 0 6.
In 1608 Twickenham Park House, nine miles west of
London near the Thames, was transferred to George, Lord
Carew, and George Croke, in trust for the Countess of Bed
ford.2" ^ Apparently she spent much of her time there from
1608 to 1 6 1 8, and there her generosity and hospitality drew
various literary men during those years. From the literary j
£>oint of view 1608 is also important because during that !
' 23HMCR, Lord DeL’Isle and Dudley, III, 1 3 6.
i ■— " . i — " 1 ............................. ■ ’. I ■
; 2lfHMCR, Cowper, I, 52.,
1
2^Lodge, Illustrations, III, 280.
^uIn Bernard Newdigate, Michael Drayton and His Circle,
p. 65-
27
| 'Edmund Gosse, The Life and Letters of John Donne
(London, 1899), I, 21TH
year the friendship between John Donne and the Countess of
Bedford was firmly established. This relationship, as well I
as her friendship with Ben Jonson and with less important
literary men, will be discussed in later chapters.
During 1609 the Countess lost two of her relatives, whoj
were living with her at Twickenham at the time of their :
deaths. One of these was Lady Bridget Markham, Lucy
28 i
Russell1s aunt. Lady Markham was only two years older j
i
than the Countess, and had also been a Lady of the Bed- j
i
i
chamber to Queen Anne. She died May 4, 1609, and was buried:
in the cemetery of the parish church of Twickenham on May
19th. Lysons records a long epitaph which states that she
had been one of the Queen's Ladies and was the most intimate,
2Q
friend of the Countess. Cecilia Bulstrode, the Countess' ;
cousin, died on August 4, 1609- She and her sister Dorothy
had been Gentlewomen of the Bedchamber in 1607*^° John
Donne wrote poems concerning the deaths of both Bridget
Markham and Cecilia Bulstrode, Jonson and Lord Herbert also j
wrote verses concerning Cecilia Bulstrode, and Francis Beau-
mont wrote a very strange elegy on Lady Markham. j
i
I The Countess herself was ill in the early part of June,]
! !
2®Private Correspondence, p. 2 5, n. i
j
i 2^Environs of London, II, 794. j
! SO^h^telock, Liber Famelicus, p. 17* 1
1 3lThe Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, ed. Henry Weber
((Edinburgh, 1812), XIV, 399-401.
76'
32
1609, but by the first of July she had apparently re
covered, for Robert Sidney says nothing about her illness
when he is writing to his wife concerning a visit of Lady
Bedford to Penshurst which he thinks will take place near
the beginning of September. 33 About the middle of September:
34
the. Countess was at Bath, and later in the month she was
t
s 1 I
probably with her mother at Kew, for Lady Harington was }
35
dangerously ill at that time. !
i
i
We catch several glimpses of the Countess1 father j
I
during the year 1609* In August he wrote to Cecil from Kew j
that he had been at Nonesuch with the Duke of York— Prince
Charles— and the Princess. In October he wrote from Kew !
that he could not wait in person on Cecil with his account
books for the expenses of the Princess for the reason that
Prince Henry, now fifteen, called often for his sister to
ride with him, and on these occasions Lord Harington had to
be in attendance on the Princess- During this year Lord
Harington was given the freedom of the city of Coventry, an
honor paid to only a few other men, one of them being Sir
i
32HMCR, VII, 527-
-- i
33HMCR, Lord DeL1Isle and Dudley, IV, 134. \
3k TV, 158.
! 35IV, 161.
^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1 6 0 3-IO, p. 534.
37p* 552.
771
John Suckling.^
The Countess' brother was one of the young gentlemen
attending on Prince Henry, his time of service being the
i ■
same as the Countess' with the Queen--the last quarter of
the year.^ On July 6, 1607, when he was fifteen years old,!
i
he was admitted as fellow commoner at Sidney Sussex College,;
ii0
Cambridge. In July, 1609, he was traveling in Europe with
i
1
a group of attendant gentlemen and servants. He visited 1
yenice, where he was honored by the Doge as one who would
41 !
some day be prominent in English political affairs. While;
he was there Sir Henry Wotton, who was English ambassador,
wrote as follows to Robert Cecil:
He has taken a house for some three or four months, and;
determines to study the form of this government; neither
has he [Wotton] ever yet seen in his years such a desire
of knowledge, nor a more religious disposition, Joined
with so quick a temper. . .
A considerable amount of information about the business;
affairs of the Countess and her family in the years from
1603 to 1610 is available. In one way the accession of
James was a fortunate event for the Earl of Bedford, for on j
3®Whitley, Parliamentary Representation in the City of !
Coventry, p. 69*
39on October 9, 1604, Robert Sidney wrote, "The boys
must wait by quarters, and the Earl of Essex and Harington
do begin." HMCR, Lord DeL'Isle and Dudley, III, 139-
1 ^°John Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part I, II, 310.
^Logan P. Smith, Life and Letters of Henry Wotton
(Oxford, 1907), I, 441, 462.
i
1 ^Calendar of State Papers Ireland, 1606-08, p. 6 5 6.
“• ....
June 21, 1603, he was pardoned for the remaining £3,000 of
the £10,000 fine resulting from his involvement with Essex,
and for "all forfeitures for non-payment of £2,000 at the
I 4.3
time appointed."
Early in 1607 there are several references to the fi- 1
; . i
nancial affairs of the Earl and Countess of Bedford. In
i !
February Cecil and others requested the permission of the
Earl's cousin William Lord Russell for the Earl to sell the '
I
manor of Middleborne to Lord St. John. The Countess con-
t
sented to this sale, provided a compensation was made to herj
for this property was part of her jointure. This was an un
entailed estate; at about the same time William Lord Russell:
(whose son was to succeed Edward Russell as fourth Earl of j
Bedford) refused the Earl permission to sell some entailed ;
1
ill!
property.
In April, 1610, Cecil was trying to buy Covent Garden
from Edward Russell, but the Earl wrote that he had "bound
himself under a heavy penalty not to further impoverish him-
ii C
self by sale of his property." D This pledge was made to the
Russell heirs. There is no record of activity on Edward :
Russell's part which would involve spending large sums of j
money; therefore he was probably using much of it for the
Countess' expenses at Court for such items as the many
^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1603-10, p. 15* i
4V 3vr. I
masqulng costumes, made of the most costly materials and
trimmed with real jewels.
Information about Lord Harington*s business affairs
l
concerns mostly his expenditures for the Princess. On
January 18, 1 6 0 5, he thanks Cecil for "the unaccustomed i
46
favor I have by your means received from his Majesty." j
This reference does not necessarily concern financial aid,
!
but it probably does, and it may express gratitude for the t
J
grant to Lord Harington of the reversion of certain lands in!
i
Leicestershire which was made on February 1, 1 6 0 5*^^ On
April 22, 1 6 0 5, Lord Harington writes to Cecil from Exton as
follows:
: Finding that by your furtherance my servant, whom I em-;
! ployed last year in the receipt of the Lady Elizabeth's j
allowance, had thereby a speedy dispatch, whereas former
ly to my charge my servant attended a quarter of a year
before he could get payment, emboldens me, being now
again to require her Grace's half year's allowance, to.
, entreat you--finding the accounts fit to be passed— to
1 allow of them by subscribing thereunto.^8
On June 13, 1605, he writes that he
finds the portion allowed to him for the diet of the Lady,
Elizabeth's Grace and her followers so far short of the 1
charge which he sustains that he has made his estate ;
somewhat less to support it, and entreats Salisbury's j
opinion if he may presume to become a suitor to the King :
for the reversion of some land in fee-farm.^9 j
In November, 1 6 0 6, he is writing to Cecil again about money j
i
|
' 46HMCR, Salisbury, XVII, 154.
^ Calendar o:£> State Papers Domestic, 1603-IO, p. 191*
^8HMCR, Salisbury, XVII, 154.
' 49XVII, 2 5 7-5 8. _ _ __ _
due him for "the two half years just past.''^0
The following passage is to be found in the Pell
Records for 1608:
To the Lord Harington, as well the sum of L750 by ad- I
vance, parcel of his yearly allowance of LI,50° for the j
diets of the Lady Elizabeth Grace, payable half yearly |
during pleasure, and due for the half year to end at the j
feast of Saint Michael the Archangel last past, 1608, as ;
i also the sum of Ll,6l7 • • ♦ for the charges of her J
j Grace’s journey to the Court and other expenses for the J
: half year ended at the feast of the Annunciation of the '
Blessed Virgin Mary last past, 1 6 0 8. . . .51 !
> j
i
Later the amount for the care of the Princess was increased ,
f
from LI,500 yearly to L2,500. Nevertheless Lord Harington
was still in debt because of her expenses.
The entertainments which contributed most to the social
i I
jglory of the reign of James were the masques. Since they j
i
were of such great importance from social and literary
points of view, the chronological scheme will be abandoned
for a short time to record something about all the masques
of the reign of James in which the Countess of Bedford took ’
part. All of those in which she certainly took part come
within the period 1603 to 1610. The masque had been de- j
veloping for some time, but the frugal Elizabeth would not ,
spend enough to make it the gorgeous spectacle it became j
under James. Ben Jonson was the greatest of all masque
! 5 ° H M C R , Salisbury, XVIII, 338.
51prederick Devon, compiler, Issues of the Exchequer
; . . . During the Reign of James I (London, 1 8 3 6), P* 8 .
i - ^Victoria History of Rutlandshire, I, 184.
I ....
writers. He searched his mind for new and interesting
themes and details— classical stories, lore about the alche
mists, and folk material about witches and fairies. The
i
allegorical machinery of the masques was elaborate. Jonson
and others could write poetry for them, but the literary man'
i
could not make the masque alone— he needed the aid of the j
artist and architect, the musician, the dancing master, and (
i
the contriver of costumes, each color with its allegorical !
M I
meaning. J In the minds of those who participated the j
dancing was probably most important.
Early in James' reign the setting was "dispersed," that
is, put in various places in the great hall used for the
spectacle. But soon it was confined to one end of the room
so that there was sufficient space left for the dancers and i
t I
the audience. There was usually a structure very much like j
a proscenium arch with a curtain on which a landscape or
other suitable scene was represented. Painted flats running
i
in horizontal grooves were used. Someone invented a turning
machine which could display at least two scenes. There were!
elaborate devices such as clouds from which girls emerged |
and flights of steps down which they came. Many torches
were used to light the scenes. Every masquer had a torch-
bearer "who'accompanied him in the processional dances in
and out, and stood to throw an illumination on the figure
53j)0n q . Allen, "Symbolic Color in the Literature of !
the English Renaissance," Philological Quarterly, 15:81-90,
January 1936.
' " — -- - - 82
dances.”5^ Speaking and singing parts were usually done by
professionals, and they acted in the anti-masques, which
soon became popular. The noble characters were acted by
young courtiers; what they wanted to do was to dress up in
glittering costumes and dance. First the masquers them
selves put on intricate dances, and then they led out
* »
persons of the opposite sex from the audience in what were
called the revels. Prince Henry was one of the leading I
c c !
dancers in the Court m a s q u e s . j
i
Queen Anne died in 1619* and from that time on the
Countess of Bedford was not a courtier. Between 1 6 0 3, when :
the reign of James and Anne began, and 1619 about thirty
masques were presented. Sixteen of these were written by j
Ben Jonson. Anne danced in her own "Queen's masques" of
1604, 1 6 0 5, 1608, 1609, 1610, and probably 1611.^ There
are only five masques in which the Countess certainly took
part: 1) Daniel's The Vision of Twelve Goddesses, January
8, 1604; 2) Jonson's Masque of Blackness, January 6, 1605; j
3) his Hymenaei, January 5# 1 6 0 6; 4) his Masque of Beauty, '
1 ,
January 10, I6 0 8; and 5) his Masque of Queens, February 2, ;
1 6 0 9. One other masque which the Countess managed but
probably did not take part in, Lovers Made Men, given
! ^Margaret Dean-Smith, "A Chapman Masque," London Times
Literary Supplement, January 26, 1951? P* 53-
55pecember 2 9, 1950, p. 8 2 7.
j 56chambers^ The Elizabethan Stage, I, 17*1-•
February 22, 1617, will be discussed with other events oc
curring in that year.
Edmund K. Chambers says:
* Next to Anne herself, the most conspicuous performer in)
the Queen's masks was perhaps Lucy Countess of Bedford. '
. . . Amongst the men shone the two brothers Herbert, ’ 1
' William Earl of Pembroke and Philip Earl of Montgomery, I
and that most splendid and extravagant of all the Jaco
bean courtiers, James Lord Hay.57 :
1 The first of the five masques in which the Countess is I
known to have taken part was Daniel's The Vision of the j
Twelve Goddesses, dedicated to the Countess and presented in
the Hall of Hampton Court on Sunday night, January 8, 1604.
The twelve goddesses were the Queen and eleven of her maids )
of honor. From the list of characters and those who took
the parts we know who these women were:
Lady Rich - Venus
Lady Hatton - Macaria
Lady Walsingham - Astraea
Lady Susan Vere - Flora
Lady Dorothy Hastings -
Ceres
Lady Elizabeth Howard -
Tethys
: In his dedication Daniel expresses his gratitude to the j
Countess of Bedford for recommending him to the Queen as
writer of her masque for that year.^9 He says that he has j
i
-^Chambers, I, 200.
^chambers says that manuscript notes in a copy of the
Allde edition (B.M.161,a,41) indicates who took the parts.
(Elizabethan Stage, III, 2 7 8.) Henry Goodere was among the
men masquers. Law, The History of Hampton Court Palace
[London, 1888], I, 15*)
[____ ^Samuel_DanielComplete Works, ed. Alexander B.
Queen Anne - Pallas
Countess of Suffolk - Juno
Countess of Hertford - Diana
Countess of Bedford - Vesta
Countess of Derby - Proserpina
Countess of Nottingham -
; Concordia
" - .-.- .-------84i
had only the simplest and plainest allegorical meanings in
mind for his characters. He explains what each one means,
saying of the part taken by the Countess that "the ancients
i
i
attributed the blessing of religion to Vesta. The costume
of the goddess is described as follows: j
i
Vesta, in a white mantle embroidered with gold flames, j
1 with a dressing like a nun, presented a burning lamp in i
J one hand and a book in the other. '
i
Four of the five masques in which Lady Bedford took |
j
' I
part were written by Jonson. What the poet had in mind in j
his Court entertainments is expressed in the dedication to j
his play Cynthia's Revels (presented in 1600):
To the special fountain of manners, the Court. Thou art 1
a bountiful and brave spring, and waterest all the noble !
plants of this Island. In thee the whole Kingdom J
dresseth itself, and is ambitious to use thee as her i
glass. Beware, then, thou render men's figures truly, I
and teach them no less to hate their deformities than to i
love their forms: for to grace there should come rever- |
encej and no man can call that lovely which is not also
venerable. It is not powdering, perfuming, and every day!
smelling of the tailor that converteth to a beautiful
object: but a mind, shining through any suit, which
needs no false light either of riches or honors,to help
it.
Thy servant, but not slave, s - n
{ Ben. Jonson !
On January 4, 1 6 0 5, the Countess' cousin Sir Philip ;
Herbert and Lady Susan Vere were married at Whitehall, the 1
King himself giving the bride away. On the evening of
January 6 Jonson's Masque of Blackness was given in the old
Banqueting House at Whitehall. Dudley Carleton gives a
Grosart (London, 1885-8 6), III, 185 ff.
6°Herford ancj . Simpson, Ben Jonson, IV (1932), 33*
... .......... ..... 85
vivid picture of it:
There was a great engine at the lower end of the room
which had motion, and in it were the images of sea horses
with other terrible fishes, which were ridden by Moors.
The indecorum was that there was all fish and no water,
i At the further end was a great shell in form of a scallop;
; • wherein were four seats; on the lowest sat the Queen with!
my Lady Bedford. . . . Their apparel was rich, but too 1
light and courtesan-like for such great ones. Instead of;
visards, their faces, and arms up to the elbows, were
: painted black. . . . The night's work was concluded with !
i a banquet in the great chamber, which was so furiously I
assaulted that down went table and tresses before one bit1
was t o u c h e d . j
There was gambling during the festivities; the groom won J
62 '
LI,000. In this masque the Countess took the part of ;
Aglaia, the character being interpreted as Splendor.
Jonson's Masque of Hymen, or Hymenaei, was given on
Sunday, January 5* 1 6 0 6, probably in the old Banqueting
House at Whitehall, to celebrate the marriage of the young
Earl of Essex and Frances Howard. The Countess of Bedford
was one of the eight "powers of Juno"--which one is not
1 ;
known. According to a man named Pory, who wrote about the
masque to Sir Robert Cotton, these "powers" were dressed in ■
white, each one wearing many jewels and on her head "a white)
i
plume of richest heron's feathers." The feathers and jewels,
I
are to be seen in portraits of the Countess and two other
t
dancers, but in the portraits the costumes are not white.
Mr. Pory was probably just unobservant, for Jonson himself
!
| ^l-Dudley carleton to Winwood, Winwood's Memorials, ed.
Edmund Sawyer (London, 1725), II, 4TI
j 6?II, 43.
! ____63Nichols, Progresses, . . 1, 488 . .... ___________________
* ..... ....................................~B'6
gives a detailed description of the costumes, naming the
colors used, and his description seems to fit perfectly the
dress in a portrait which is supposed to be of the Countess
of Rutland.^
I
1 On January 10, 1608, Jonson's Masque of Beauty was pre-i
I
sented at Whitehall in the new Banqueting House. Listed
among the "persons received on land by the River God" are '
Lady Bedford, her sister Lady Prances Chichester, Lady Anne !
Clifford, and Arabella Stuart. <
The last masque in which the Countess is known to have ;
taken part was Jonson's Masque of Queens, which was given in;
the new Banqueting House at Whitehall on February 2, 1609-
This masque was postponed because the French and Spanish j
ambassadors quarreled over precedence. The Frenchman, Mon- ;
sieur de la Boderie, persuaded the Countess to intervene on i
his behalf with Queen Anne. The Queen solved the problem by;
delaying the masque until the Spanish ambassador had gone
65
home. J The Queen liked anti-masques and the King was
interested in witchcraft; so Jonson put in a witch anti-
! _ j
masque which constantly reminds the reader of the witch
scenes in Macbeth.
64jonsonts description Is in Herford and Simpson's Ben
Jonson, VII, 230 ff. Mr. Pory's letter is In X, 465-7• The
portrait of the Countess of Rutland (?) faces p. 208 in Vol.
VII. That of the Countess of Bedford is the frontispiece of
Newdigate's The Phoenix and the Turtle (Oxford, 1937)*
I 65soderie to Villeroy in de la Boderie, Ambassades, IV,
104. Quoted in Mary A. Sullivan, Court Masques of James I
(Lincoln, Nebraska, 1913)* P* 211.
■ ~ 87
It is interesting to note that, although the Countess'
time of service with the Queen was pretty clearly the
quarter of the year beginning in October, she was still at
I
Court in the early part of January, and, when the Masque of
Queens was presented, in early February. That she should >
have stayed beyond the first of the year is reasonable, be- (
cause the courtiers were preparing for the Christmas festivij
! 1
ties for weeks beforehand, and these festivities always 1
| i
carried over into January at least as far as Twelfth Night. ,
I
i j
One masque not mentioned heretofore was dedicated to
the Countess— Robert White's Cupid's Banishment, "presented
to her Majesty by Younger Gentlewomen of the Ladies' Hall, j
j
in Deptford at Greenwich, the 4th of May, l6l7*n^ Since it!
was given in May, there is no reason to suppose that the \
Countess was present.
i |
During the years 1603 to 1610 several literary men
dedicated works to Lady Bedford or paid tribute to her, but
not so many as wrote such tributes in the period of her
I J
later years as a courtier, 1610 to l6l9* Two important
I
literary men, Ben Jonson and John Donne, will be dealt with j
in separate chapters, and the others will be grouped in one ;
i
chapter given to less important figures. Samuel Daniel is
j
one of the more important literary men of the 1603 to 1610
^Reprinted in John B. Nichols, ed., Progresses ■ . .
of King James the First (London, 1 8 2 8), III^ 283 ?£• This
Ladies' Hall was the first "public" school for girls in
England. Dorothy Gardiner, English Girlhood at School
|(London, 1929), p. 209-
8 8 t
period. Two of his works are dedicated to Lady Bedford, the
first dated 1 6 0 3. John Florio's translation of Montaigne's
Essays, published in 1 6 0 3, is dedicated to the Countess and
j
her mother. Sonnets to Lady Bedford and Lady Harington by
1
Matthew Gwinne, who helped Florio, were published with the i
Essays. In a play by Gwinne, Vertumnuus, published in 1607,’
t
tribute is paid to the Countess in the dedicatory verses. )
!
Isaac Wake, in his Rex Platonicus, 1 6 0 7, dedicated to Prince!
Henry, mentions the Countess and her brother. Some of John ;
Owen's Epigrams (1607) concern young Harington and one con- i
cerns the Countess. James Cleland also dedicated The Insti
tution of a Young Nobleman to Harington. In 1609 George
Chapman included with his translation of the Iliad a sonnet
to the Countess, among sonnets to several other people. In
this period two works were dedicated to Lady Harington
alone— Philemon Holland's translation of Suetonius' Twelve
Caesars, 1 6 0 6, and Daniel Tuvil's Essays Politic and Moral, \
I6 0 8. All of these dedications will be discussed in a later)
chapter. I
t
There were also various dedications to the Harington
1
(family by churchmen, which will be considered in a separate ;
I
!
chapter.
; This period of the Countess' life, from 16U3 to l6l0i
is the time of the establishment of her social and political
power in the new reign. Her father made use of his blood
relationship to James to gain the King's favor, and as a
891
consequence the bringing up of Princess Elizabeth was en
trusted to him. Lady Bedford and her mother made a de
termined effort to gain the Queen's approval by going to
Edinburgh to meet her, whereas other ladies went only to the!
Border. They were successful, and Lady Bedford was given arv
important position in the Court.
; t
The success of the Haringtons in impressing the new
i
sovereigns was a mixed blessing. Their vast expenditures \
were due to a considerable extent to the extravagance of the
King and Queen. Ultimately the family fortunes were serious^,
ly impaired. Lord Harington's life was probably shortened
by the difficulties he had with Princess Elizabeth's re-
!
tainers after he had accompanied her to the Palatinate. j
As far as the Countess was concerned, her association j
i
with the Queen was in the main fortunate for her. The Courtj
was the center of national life, and Lady Bedford liked to
be where significant events were going on. She made in- |
fluential friends, kept in touch with political affairs, and
enjoyed the expensive social life of the Court. The masques,]
i
which were peculiarly a phenomenon of this reign, gave her '
i
opportunities to dress elaborately, to dance, and to enjoy
the society of other young people. Because of the masques j
she increased her knowledge of music, scenery, acting, and j
literature. They would no doubt have been put on if she had]
|
never lived, but in Jonson's case particularly it is not un
reasonable to suppose that he approached his writing with
more enthusiasm and inspiration than he would have if she
had not been there. He could hardly expect the Queen to ap
preciate the research he did for a masque and the ethical
ideas he incorporated in it, but he could depend on the
Countess to take note of these things. :
Ultimately Court life was to seem futile and empty to i
i !
the Countess and the company of the Queen undesirable, but ;
when the reign was new Lady Bedford undoubtedly enjoyed her-;
self and communicated her pleasure to her literary friends. |
CHAPTER VI -- - -...- - "
THE COUNTESS AND BEN JONSON,
1599 AND AFTER
i
■ The first clear record of Ben Jonson's interest in Lady
Bedford is to be found in his "Epistle to Elizabeth Countess!
of Rutland," which was written sometime late in 1599 and j
sent as a gift for New Year's, 1600. 1 The intention in this!
chapter is to describe briefly Jonson's association with the|
Countess and to summarize or record some of his tributes to ’
her, such as the one in his poem to the Countess of Rutland j
(who was Sir Philip Sidney's daughter and therefore related
to Lucy Russell); then to attempt to answer questions con- ;
cerning the connection of Lady Bedford with certain of •
Jonson's works.
i
In his poem to the Countess of Rutland Jonson calls
Lucy Russell
! . . . that purest light
2 i
of all Lucina's [Elizabeth's] train, Lucy the bright,
a phrase which indicates that she was one of the Queen's j
ladies in waiting. Jonson says that she has already favored*
him and that he has ;
. . . already used some happy hours
t
, To her remembrance.
■^■Charles H. Herford and Percy and Evelyn Simpson, eds.,
Ben Jonson, XI (Oxford, 1952), 43- Any part of this edition!
will hereafter be cited as Ben Jonson.
[ 2Ben Jonson, VIII (1947) , II5 .______ J
He is referring to something he has written, but what this j
work is, is not known. There are at least two possibilities).
Perhaps he means Cynthia's Revels, which he may have been
i
working on, since it was acted less than a year later. It
I [
is just possible that he may have had Lady Bedford in mind
as the model for the character Arete. Another work he may ;
1 i
i
have been referring to is The May Lord, a pastoral in which
i
he intended that the character Ethra should represent the !
I
i
Countess. This work was not finished, and nothing further j
3 ■
is known about it.
4
Three epigrams— numbers LXXVI, LXXXIV, and XCIV — were
addressed to Lady Bedford by Jonson. None of these has been
dated. Eighty-four is of little consequence, being merely a
thank-you note for a buck the Countess had given him. ;
Seventy-six, "On Lucy Countess of Bedford," was probably
written before the accession of James, near the time when
Jonson first became acquainted with her.
! LXXVI. On Lucy Countess of Bedford
I This morning, timely rapt with holy fire
i I thought to form unto my zealous Muse I
i What kind of creature I could most desire
! To honor, serve, and love, as poets use.
I meant to make her fair, and free, and wise, !
Of greatest blood, and yet more good than greatj
I meant the day-star should not brighter rise,
Nor lend like influence from his lucent seat.
I meant she should be courteous, facile, sweet,
Hating that solemn vice of greatness, pride;
i I meant each softest virtue there should meet,
Pit in that softer bosom to reside.
3Ben Jonson, I (1925), 1^3-
4VIII (1947)* _____
Only a learned and a manly soul
I purposed her, that should, with even powers,
The rock, the spindle, and the shears control
Of destiny, and spin her own free hours.
Such when I meant to fain, and wished to see,
My muse bade Bedford write, and that was she.
The reader of this tribute may think it necessary to remind
himself that Jonson badly wanted the patronage of the
wealthy and generous Countess and that therefore he might
l
write insincerely, exaggerating her virtues. It is also
well to remember that Jonson was a proud and independent !
man, a responsible artist who had taken pains with these '
Verses. If this is an idealized portrait of Lucy Russell,
it represents the ideal she probably set up for herself and j
the ideal which Jonson wished her to approximate. This is
Castiglione1s great lady, with whom the poet and his patron
were familiar.
Although Epigram XCIV, "To Lucy, Countess of Bedford,
with Mr. Donne’s Satires," cannot be dated, according to
i !
Herbert J. C. Grierson, Donne's five satires were probably
completed before 1600.^ In all likelihood Jonson would give!
( them (in manuscript, of course, since they were not 1
published during Donne's lifetime) to the Countess very soon
after they were completed. She had asked for the Satires.
Jonson writes:
! Rare poems ask rare friends.
Yet satires, since the most of mankind be
; Their unavoided subject, fewest see;
For none e'er took that pleasure in sin's sense I
i |
|
! ^The Poems of John Donne (Oxford, 1912), II, 102-104-.
But, when they heard it taxed, took more offense.
They then, that living where the matter is bred,
Dare for these poems yet both ask and read,
And like them too, must needfully, though few,
Be of the best; and 'mongst those, best are you.
In 1600 the Countess was nineteen years old. The impli- j
cations of the poem are that, even though young, she will •
1
not be offended by the brutally frank language of the j
Satires and that, though a courtier, she will be interested (
1
in and perhaps amused by Donne's ridicule in Satire IV of I
i
"th1 huffing braggart, puft Nobility" and of the selling of !
!
fields to buy rich apparel, as she herself had probably done
or was to do in the future. She would have to be a learned
lady to understand Donne's references, and she would have to;
f
be intelligent to follow his difficult and often obscurely J
expressed thought. She was not merely a pretty, vain !
creature who liked dressing up for dances and masques but a |
woman with a taste for the writing of Donne, who was perhaps
the most aggressively masculine poet of her age, a man of
the greatest originality, with a gift for incisive phrasing !
and startling imagery. ■
Sometime late in 1600 Cynthia's Revels was acted at j
Blackfriar1s, and the play was published in 1601. In a gift;
copy Jonson wrote the following verses to the Countess:
♦
^This copy of the play is in the William Andrews Clark
Memorial Library. In "Armorial Book-Stamps and Their )
Owners,” H. J. B. Clements writes: "One of the most inter
esting [of armorial book-stamps] is perhaps that of Lucy,
Countess of Bedford. . . . She used her husband's crest,
. . . but to mark her ownership of a book she stamped in the
corners of the binding a fret, taken from the arms of her
95'
Go little book, go little fable
Unto the bright and amiable
Lucy of Bedford; she that bounty
Appropriates still unto that County:
Tell her, his muse that did invent thee
To Cynthia's fairest nymph hath sent thee,
And sworn that he will quite discard thee
If any way she do reward thee
But with a kiss (if thou canst dare it) !
Of her white hand, or she can spare it. j
Among Jonson's poems which he did not include in his *
Works are two--"The Phoenix Analyzed" and "Ode '£y$b*t(r»air-r<*Ti ;
: — which are to be found together in Rawlinson poetic manu- l
script 31 in the Bodleian Library. The Ode is headed "To
7
L:C:Of:B." Possibly the person who wrote this heading was ;
mistaken in thinking that the verses were intended for the
Countess. More probably the verses were used at different
times for two different purposes, for they are also among |
the poems at the end of Robert Chester's Love1s Martyr
(l60l). This matter will be discussed more fully when the
identification of the Phoenix in Love1s Martyr is considered.
After the accession of James, Jonson wrote four masques I
in which the Countess is known to have taken part: The
Masque of Blackness, January 6, 1605; Hymenaei, January 5, ■
m-rr-rT-r,,— --"I".... .m." niflnrn r f
1606; The Masque of Beauty, January 10, 1 6 0 8; and The Masque;
' 8 '
of Queens, February 2, l609* Since both Lady Bedford and
father, Lord Harington." Library, 4th series, 20:127,
September 1939* The Clark copy of Cynthia's Revels is so
marked.
■ 7Ben Jonson, VIII (1947), 364, n.
Q
| See Percy Simpson, "Lucy Countess of Bedford," London
Times Literary Supplement, October 8, 1938.
• ' " ' ~ ' ..■"......" ' 96
Jonson were present when these masques were given, they at
least had further opportunity to observe one another's ap
pearance and character, although of course there was a social
I ' ' ^
gulf of some depth between a countess and a mere playwright.;
In 1605 Jonson wrote a letter which may have been ad
dressed to Lady Bedford.10 In it he is asking for help dur-j
I
ing his imprisonment for his part in Eastward Ho. Herford ;
and Simpson think her the most likely candidate, but there I
I
were other possibilities. The letter is of no great conse- j
quence in any case. 1
There are several questions concerning Jonson and the
Countess which are interesting to speculate about, although j
f
conclusive answers to them probably cannot be found. One is;
the question whether Lady Bedford was the model for Arete in
11
Cynthia's Revels. Another is whether Lucy Russell is the
Phoenix in Chester's Love *s Martyr and what the connection ;
is between Chester's poem and the verses by various authors j
appended to it. Among these poems are Jonson's "The Phoenix;
Analyzed" and "Ode •" Still another question
is whether the collegiate ladies in' Eptcoene have anything j
■ 1
%ee Chapter V, pp. 8 1-8 7, of this dissertation for j
further comments on these masques.
: 10Ben Jonson, I (1925), 197-98.
13-John Palmer suggests another problem when he writes j
that the Countess "is the likeliest candidate for Jonson1s ;
sole sequence of love songs--the poems to Charis." See Ben
Jonson (London, 19^3), P> 103- No other commentator who
mentions this theory has been found.
to do with Lady Bedford and the literary salon which some I
commentators think she had at Twickenham- These questions
will be considered in chronological order.
Certain characters in Cynthia's Revels may have been
i
modeled on real people. Dekker thought that Crites was j
t
Jonson himself, and Marston and' Dekker believed that they |
i
1 O
were represented in the play by Anaides and Hedon. It is '
not at all certain that any real persons were referred to,
but at least some people of Jonson's time had such a theory.j
i
Herford and Simpson ask: "Is it necessary in this play to '
find personal portraits for the chief characters? Who, in
that case, is Arete?It is possible that Arete is Lady
Bedford; there are various bits of evidence which point in
that direction. In the verses to the Countess which Jonson j
wrote in the copy of Cynthia's Revels which he gave her he
calls her "Cynthia's fairest nymph." Cynthia of course is
Elizabeth. In the play Jonson calls Arete "The worthiest
lady in Court (next to Cynthia)." (IV.iv.25-26) He also
1 |
calls her "bright Arete" (V.v.2); the word bright may refer i
'to the meaning of the name Lucy. The word arete means j
"virtue." •
i
Cynthia's Revels, according to Herford and Simpson,
12Ben Jonson, IX (1950), 486-87- See Ralph W.
Berringer. "Jonson1s Cynthia's Revels and the War of the
Theatres, Philological Quarterly, 22:1-22, January 1943-
13Ben Jonson, IX (1950), 487- See also I (1925), 24-
31 •___ ______
"was a palpable bid for the Queen's favor.Jonson in
cluded a masque to please Elizabeth and to make the play
suitable for Court presentation.. But he also included much j
criticism of courtiers and made what looked like a reference;
t :
i 15 '
to the Queen's troubles with Essex consequently the play :
was not presented first at Court as Jonson had hoped it
would be, though there was apparently a later presentation
there.^ Arete is the only admirable lady in Cynthia's
i
17 1
Revels, a person whom the Queen favors. If Jonson ex- I
i
pected the play to be put on at Court, it is likely that he ;
created the part of Arete for Lucy Russell.
One passage concerning the character indicates that
i
Jonson approved of her for being something of a Puritan.
Phantaste, one of the foolish courtiers, says of Arete:
"What a set face the gentlewoman has, as she were still
going to a sacrifice." Another of the foolish courtiers
!
answers: ”0, she is the extraction of a dozen of Puritans, I
for a look." (IV.v.20-23) The Countess had had much associ-j
ation with Puritans and perhaps had the grave manner of some
i
bf them. At least she may have seemed somewhat austere when’
compared with courtiers of light mind and loose morals.
The theory that the Countess of Bedford was the Phoenix
I ^ Ben Jonson, I (1925), 26.
»
x5i (1925), 394.
i
< l6IX (1 9 5 0), 1 8 8.
I J^see Cynthia's Revels, V.vi.
of Robert Chester's Love's Martyr (1601) was first advanced :
by Bernard H. Newdigate in the preface of Jiijt-.-edition of
Jonson's poems published in 1936. The preface is dated St.
George's Day, 1936, i.e., April 2 3. He discussed the matter
at greater length in an article entitled "The Phoenix and j
I
the Turtle: Was Lady Bedford the Phoenix?" in the London j
Times Literary Supplement for October 4, 1936. In his •
l8
edition of the verses published with Chester's poems he J
also discusses this theory. He bases his argument partly on^
j
the fact that Jonson's "Ode " which is among-
those verses, is also found with the heading "To L:C:Of:B:"
in the Bodleian manuscript already mentioned. He feels that;
i
his argument is strengthened by what seems to him a similari
ty between the wording of "The Phoenix Analyzed," the lyric j
accompanying the "Ode” in the manuscript, and that of the
poem "Go little book . . ."in the gift copy of Cynthia's
Revels, which was undoubtedly addressed to the Countess.
Love's Martyr, written by an obscure Welsh poet who was)
a retainer of Sir John Salisbury, Esquire of the body to ;
Queen Elizabeth, has long been 'a source of puzzlement to
scholars because of difference of opinion as to who the .
I
Phoenix and the Turtle of the story were and as to what con-|
I
nection the fourteen poems written by Shakespeare, Jonson, |
I
Chapman, Marston, and unknown writers and published with ‘
I
1 R
°The Phoenix and the Turtle, ed. Bernard H . Newdigate
;(Oxford"]; 1 9 3 7), introduction.
~ ... ~ roo~
Love 1s Martyr have with Chester's poem. Carleton Brown's
theory, advanced in 1914, that Love's Martyr was a nuptial
poem for the wedding of Sir John Salisbury and Ursula.
Stanley1^ in December, 1 5 8 6, seems the most tenable one.
The weakness of this supposition is that the poem was not
published until fifteen years after it was written, or at
least after the first part of it was written. '
In Love1s Martyr a prose introduction to the appended
j
poems is worded as follows: ,
f
Hereafter follow diverse poetical essays on the former <
subject; viz.: the Turtle and Phoenix. Done by the best
and chiefest of our modern writers . . . and (now first)
consecrated by them all generally to the love and merit
of the true-noble Knight Sir John Salusbury. 20 j
:
Apparently Salisbury asked his literary friends for verses
i |
to publish with Chester's book. The poems might have been i
on the general subject of the phoenix and the turtle, which ;
was a popular one, or they might have developed a Platonic
1 21
allegory. But careful examination of the fourteen ap
pended lyrics produces the impression that all of them, with
the exception of Shakespeare's, could very well be about or |
applied to a real family, probably Sir John Salisbury's. !
Most of Shakespeare's poem could be fitted in, but the
i
S
^poems by Sir John Salusbury and Robert Chester, ed.
Carleton Brown, Rarly English Text Society, No. 113 (London,
1914), p. lxii ff.
J
^Robert Chester, Love's Martyr, ed. Alexander B.
Grosart, New Shakespeare Society, Series VIII, 2 (1 8 7 8), p.
177.
! 21
, “ ^Herford and Simpson favor the theory that they are
' “ 101
"Threnos" does not fit at all. In it Shakespeare represents
the Phoenix and the Turtle as being dead and as leaving no
posterity, whereas Sir John and his wife were still living
!
in 1601 and Sir John was survived by four of his eleven
[ i
children. Herford and Simpson think Shakespeare had no
22 !
knowledge of the family. Another possibility is that the ;
; 1
lyric had been written for some other purpose entirely and j
1 ' |
was included among the other poems without change. ;
i
The poem by "ignoto" and the four "perfection" lyrics
by Marston probably concern the daughter of the Phoenix and
the Turtle. Apparently these various poems published with
Love1s Martyr were not written at the same time. Herford
and Simpson think they were composed soon after the
daughter’s birth in 1587>2^ but Marston’s last lyric must
have been written later, when she was grown up, perhaps
about 1601, for he asks
What should I call this creature
Which now is grown unto maturity?2^
The "creature" he refers to is the daughter, as his other
i
poems indicate. 1
•
The remaining poems, by Chapman and Jonson, concern the;
meaning of true love and the beauty and worth of the Phoenix'.
allegorical. See Ben Jonson, XI (1952), 40.
ggBen Jonson, XI (1952), 41.
23Ben Jonson, XI (1952), 40.
oh.
c^Since girls married young, she might have been
considered mature at fourteen.
They could very well be applied to the lives of Salisbury
and his wife, though they are so general that they need not
be so applied. They could be lyrics the writers had com
posed originally for some other purpose. Of course the last
two lyrics by Jonson, "The Phoenix Analyzed" and "Ode ' £v-
kij' ," are the important ones for the purpose of
this study. "The Phoenix Analyzed" could concern the hero j
!
and heroine of Chester's poem: *
\ i
Now after all let no man !
1 Receive it for a fable j
If a bird so amiable i
Do turn into a woman.
Or (by our Turtle's augur)
That Nature's fairest creature
Prove of his mistress' feature i
But a bare type and figure.
The reference to the Turtle is a little difficult to explain!
if the poem is addressed to the Countess of Bedford and she |
is not Chester's Phoenix. Also the insistence on the
phoenix figure is a little strange if Jonson is merely
writing a complimentary poem to Lady Bedford.
It is fairly easy to find some support for the theory ;
that the "Ode " was written first to compli
ment the Countess:
I
Splendor I 0 more than mortal,
For other forms come short all I
Of her illustrate brightness, j
As far as sin's from lightness.
Her wit as quick and sprightful
As fire; and more delightful
Than the stolen sports of lovers
! When night their meeting covers.
TOJ
Judgment (adorned with learning)
Doth shine in her discerning,
Clear as a naked vestal
Closed in an orb of crystal.
Her breath for sweet exceeding 1
The phoenix place of breeding,
But mixt with sound, transcending
All nature of commending.
i
Alas, then whither wade I, '
In thought to praise this lady, ;
When seeking her renouning
Myself am so near drowning. \
)
Retire, and say her graces j
Are deeper than their faces; '
Yet she’s not nice to show them, j
Nor takes she pride to know them. j
The use of the words brightness and splendor and the refer- ;
ence to wit, judgment, learning, and modesty would suggest |
i
that the poet may have been addressing Lucy Russell, al- j
though she was surely not the only woman of the time with j
these qualities. This poem may have been intended for the
Countess in the first place and later given to Chester for i
publication with his poem. The phoenix reference in the
Ode does not seem to be of any great significance in de
termining to whom the poem was first addressed. If it was i
already in the poem to Lady Bedford so much the better for ,
!
use in the Chester volume. ;
Several scholars have questioned Newdigate's theory
that Chester's Phoenix was Lucy Russell. Raymond ¥. Short,
in an article entitled "Was Lady Bedford the Phoenix?"
) i
published In the London Times Literary Supplement for Febru-
, imtii -T ■-■-III - . If III t " " ■ 7 1 1 " n ' i i i ' t n i . . .
ary 13, 1937, comments that Chester would not have written
his poem about the Bedfords, since so far as is known he had
only one patron, Salisbury. He does not believe there was
any connection between the Salisburys and the Bedfords.2^
x \
Short does not think the verses appended to Love 1s Martyr I
are even on the same subject as the poem itself. He also
remarks that most of "the dozen Elizabethan patronesses of
literature . . . were at some time or other compared to the ‘
i
Phoenix." Hyder E. Rollins expresses his doubt about the
Countess' being the Phoenix in his edition of Shakespeare's >
poems in the Variorum Shakespeare (1938). Thomas P. Harri
son, in "Love's Martyr, by Robert Chester: a New Interpre-
26
tation," presents convincing evidence that the Turtle is
I
Salisbury. Herford and Simpson, in their edition of Jonson's
works, express doubt concerning Newdigate1s theory. About
the evidence in the Bodleian manuscript that the "Ode 'Ev-
i 9a-u.trla.a-rc k>| " at least was addressed to Lady Bedford they
write: "All it proves is that he [Jonson] privately re-used
2 7
the poem which he did not print later."
To sum up: The Salisburys are the likeliest candidates^
i
for the Phoenix and the Turtle. It would be pleasant to j
establish a connection between the Countess of Bedford and !
i
. j
25Newdigate answers this point in the February 20th
issue of the Supplement by saying that both Salisbury and
the Countess of Bedford were in Elizabeth's court.
26{jniversity of Texas Studies in English, XXX (1951),
61 ff.
27Ben Jonson, XI (1952), 4l.
28
Shakespeare, but it can scarcely be done on the doubtful
argument that Shakespeare's poem compliments Chester's
Phoenix and that Chester's Phoenix was Lucy Russell. The
1 ' * •
first of Jonsonfs poems in Love * s Martyr which begins
We must sing too? What subject shall we choose?
was pretty certainly written for the Chester volume; the
other three may have been. He used "The Phoenix Analyzed"
and "Ode " to compliment the Countess; per- j
haps the Ode was written originally for her and then given ,
to Chester. "The Phoenix Analyzed" may have been written
first for Love's Martyr.
The relationship between Jonson and the Countess was
not always serene; once at least he got into trouble with j
i
her over his treatment of one of her cousins. It is barely :
possible that he refers to this cousin unfavorably in Epi-
coene; if so, a summing up of what is known about Jonson's
attitude toward her will help in deciding whether one of the:
characters in Epicoene is modeled after her.
Cecilia Bulstrode, three years younger than the
\
Countess, was a gentlewoman of the bedchamber to Queen Anne.j
On August 4, 1609> at the age of twenty-five, she died in ;
her cousin's home at Twickenham after a lingering illness,
oft
The theory that Midsummer Night's Dream may have been
Written to celebrate the marriage of the Earland Countess
of Bedford has been considered by Pleay (The Life and Work
of Shakespeare, 1886, p. l8l) and Sidney Lee (The Life of
Shakespeare, 1925, p- 232). Edmund K. Chambers (Shakespeare;
Gleanings, 1944, p. 6 5) does not uphold this theory.
not, says Lord Herbert of Cherbury, "sine Inquietudine
spiritus et conscientiae. She may have had need for the
repentance which, according to Herbert, occupied the last j
days of her life. What her moral status was is difficult to
discern. Percy Simpson thinks she was immoral, if a certain;
poem addressed to her, probably by Sir John Roe, may be ;
3 0
considered as evidence. In Herford and Simpson's edition ,
of Jonson's works the following statement is to be found:
"The erotic verses addressed to her by one of her intimates j
(probably either Donne or Roe) sufficiently attest her
character."^1 The poem is to be found in Grierson's edition
of Donne's poems.It was written in 1602, seven years be-;
i
fore Cecilia Bulstrode's death. A person trying to read ;
this poem impartially is not sure that she is immoral, al- I
though the poem sounds as though she had suggested that the I
writer be her lover. The language is very free, as was often
the case in Elizabethan times. What the poem seems to be is
a refusal to enjoy, perhaps for less chivalrous reasons than
the writer gives. Friendship, he says, is a finer thing j
than temporary love . The whole poem may possibly be a mere
exercise in the wit which both Roe and Cecilia Bulstrode j
|
2%he Poems, English and Latin, of Edward Lord Herbert
of Cherbury, ed. George C. Moore Smith (Oxford, 1923)» P• 20.
; 30" B e n jonson and Cecilia Bulstrode," London Times
Literary Supplement, May 6, 1930 > P- 187*
i 31gen Jonson, I (1925), 59.
I
! 3gThe poems of John Donne (Oxford, 1912), II, 410.
.............. 107
enjoyed. A much more delicate expression of the idea that
his lady should not be too generous is found in another poem:
printed by Grierson and also ascribed to Roe:
Dear love, continue nice and chaste, ;
For if you yield you do me wrong, ;
Let duller wits to love's end haste, [
I have enough to woo thee long . . . ;
Jonson's poem on Cecilia Bulstrode called "An Epigram J
33 i
on the Court Pucell" has not been dated. It may have been!
Written several years before her death, near the time of thel
writing of the poem ascribed to Roe. Or, if it is the sole
cause of the Countess' anger toward Jonson, it may have been,
written only a short time before she died. Clearly Miss
Bulstrode had made Jonson angry— by censuring him, as he j
says. He retorts by asking whether he may not censure her j
too. He is not afraid of her, even though she is a favorite
of the wits, can write news with the best, can talk on all
subjects, and dresses luxuriously to be seen on her way to
church. Since he wants nothing from her he is not afraid of
her, and he would not trust her because she has already j
broken contract twice. Her face by candlelight would not :
[
please a lover. He warns her that the Court is an evil j
place; an honestly born child would be called a bastard !
there. The poem is harsh, but perhaps it scarcely merits
I
the descriptive terms "foul-mouthed ferocity," "ribald i
33sen Jonson, VIII (19^7), 222-23. i
; _ - _ - : .- 108
abuse, and "sheer brutality"^ applied it by Herford and
Simpson. The term pucell was ambiguousj it could signify
either a virgin or a courtesan.
i Herford and Simpson suggest one fact -of some importance!
about the poem when they say, ;
i
In sheer brutality the epigram on Mistress Bulstrode, ;
"The Court Pucell," falls little short of Martial's
verses to Gallaj and more cannot be said.36 .
It was Jonson's custom to follow a classical precedent in
almost everything he wrote, and perhaps his language would ,
have been less rough if he had had no Roman example to
follow.
The poem ultimately fell into Cecilia Bulstrode's hands;
Jonson told Drummond that
that piece of the Pucell of the Court was stolen out of
his pocket by a gentleman who drank him drowsy and given ;
Mistress Bulstrode, which brought him great displeasure.37;
The person whose displeasure could disturb him would surely j
be the Countess.
Apparently Lady Bedford, after her cousin's death, in- |
structed George Garrard, who served her in some capacity, to
clemand an elegy from Ben Jonson. Jonson responded quickly.
He wrote to Garrard: j
i
If it [his recently written elegy] be well, as I think
34Ben Jonson, I (1925), 59-
35ii (1925), 356.
36ii (1925), 356.
; 37i (1925), 135*
it is, for my invention hath not cooled so much to judge,!
show it, though the greater wits have gone before. . . .
’Til your letter came I was not so much as acquainted
with the sad argument, which both struck me and keeps me
a heavy man. Would God I had seen her before that some
that live might have corrected some prejudices they have
had injuriously of me.3° j
!
When Jonson wrote his "Epitaph on Cecilia Bulstrode" he
took great pains to make clear that he had no doubt about
I
her virginity. Possibly the Countess had insisted that he j
atone for the ambiguity of certain parts of "An Epigram on <
I
the Court Pucell." Jonson writes: [
I
Stay, view this stone: and if thou beest not such, |
Read here a little, that thou mayst know much.
It covers, first, a Virgin, and then one
That durst be that in Court: a virtue alone
To fill an epitaph.
Jonson's reparation was not entirely sincere. He evi- !
dently prized his exercise in classical vituperation, for he!
did not destroy his "Epigram on the Court Pucell," and in
later years he read the verses to Drummond. He did not in- j
elude the elegy he wrote at the Countess’ bidding among his
collected poems,but he did include "An Epigram on the
Court Pucell." •
| Perhaps the most interesting question concerning Jonson!
and the Countess is whether he had her in mind when he was
representing the collegiate ladies in Epicoene. Raymond W.
Short thinks the Countess set up a platonic court at
38Ben Jonson, VIII (1947), 372.
39nerford and Simpson put it among his "ungathered
verse." Ben Jonson, VIII (1947), 371-
i
110
Twickenham. Prom 1608-18, he says, "numerous poets ad
dressed complimentary effusions to her." He continues:
She was influential at Court and Jonson wanted Court
favor for his masques; yet he offended her by attacking
; her circle in The Silent Woman. . . . In the prologue to j
The Silent Woman Jonson scores off the metaphysical poetsj
who were especially favored by Lucy Bedford’s group.^0 i
i
Herford and Simpson also say that she
made her country house at Twickenham a little court of
literature--as near an approach to the French salon as ;
the English seventeenth century ever achieved."^ i
! j
Lady Bedford acquired Twickenham Park House in 1 6 0 8. ;
The theory that she had a salon there is attractive; the
'chief objection to it is that the evidence for it is so very
scanty. Donne was certainly there. A grace by Jonson "per-;
haps at Lady Bedford's table, dated 1613, may be an indi
cation of his presence at Twickenham, but the Countess also |
had houses in town. The presence of Donne or Jonson at her
table would insure good conversation, but would not neces
sarily indicate that she had a salon. It is difficult to
discover what other clever men might have been at Twickenham:
1
Sir John Roe died in 1 6 0 8. Sir Thomas Roe was in England I
very little after the first months of l609* Sir Tobie j
)
Matthew was in Europe. There is no evidence that the J
Countess was on friendly terms with her eccentric cousin Sirj
4c>,,The Patronage of Poetry under James I," unpublished J
doctoral dissertation (Cornell, 1936), pp. 17^-76.
4lBen Jonson, I (1925), 5^•
i 42VIII (19^7), ^19.
_ rIT
John Harington. Sir Edward Herbert may possibly have been
there, since he is the one who reported on Cecilia Bul
strode ' s illness.
And why should her salon be platonic? The Countess
I
does not seem to have been platonically inclined. The l
friendships of Donne and Jonson, for example, were not of
! i
that sort. If Donne's "Twickenham garden" concerns her, his'
r
attitude could be more accurately described as Petrarchan. 1
It is unlikely that Jonson would have given Donne's Satires
to a woman who would establish a platonic salon. j
It is true that Jonson has something to say about the
metaphysical poets in the Prologue to Epicoene, but he seems
i
thoroughly good-natured; what he says would not be likely to*
(
offend anyone. His lines are as follows: |
But in this age a sect of writers are
That only for particular likings care
And will taste nothing that is popular.
None of his offerings, he says, are "far fet," and with that;
remark he leaves the school of Donne.
Certain passages of Epicoene might possibly be applied ;
i
|
to the Countess. In the first act True-wit says:
i
Why, is it not.arrived yet, the news? - !
A new foundation, sir, here in the town, of ;
ladies that call themselves the Collegiates, an order
between courtiers and country-r-Madames that live
from their husbands, and give entertainment to
all the Wits and Braveries of the time, as they
all call * hem: cry down or up what they like or
dislike in a brain, or a fashion, with most masculine
or rather hermaphroditical authority and every
‘ day gain to their college some new probationer.
t
Clerimont asks who the president is, and True-wit replies:
112
"The grave and youthful matron, the lady Haughty." (1.1.73-
84).
Another passage in which True-wit is describing various
kinds of undesirable wives to Morose may glance at Lady Bed-
f
ford:
If learned there was never such a parrot; all your
patrimony will be too little for the guests that must be ;
invited to hear her speak Latin and Greek . . . (Il.ii. !
76-78). |
These last lines about the learned lady may possibly be !
aimed at the Countess. They have no connection with the j
passage about the collegiate ladies.
The passage about "country-madames that live from their
husbands" might be applied to Lady Bedford, since it seems j
probable that the Earl was often enjoying hunting and other j
s
country activities at Chiswick or in Rutlandshire rather
than frequenting the city or the Court. In Poetaster (l601)j
Jonson comments that ladies rule their husbands and do as
they please, and that a citizen's wife should learn from
them that "a body's husband does not so well at Court" (IV.
ii-55)•
However, if the collegiate ladies entertained the wits
i
it was not at Twickenham, for True-wit says that they as
sembled "here i' the town," that is, probably at Harington
{
House, or possibly Bedford House, if the passage concerns
the Countess. "The grave and youthful matron, the lady 1
Haughty" might possibly fit Lady Bedford, but later Jonson
; • i
says that Lady Haughty is "above fifty" (V.ii.3 6). Since
Lady Bedford was twenty-eight in 1609, she can scarcely be
Lady Haughty. Clerimont's "a pox of her autumnal face,"
JiO
which is almost certainly an echo of Donne's Elegy IX, J
would be more likely to suggest Lady Herbert, to whom Donne j
was thought to address his elegy and who was in her forties j
44
in 1609• However, the evidence for identifying Lady
Haughty with either Lady Herbert or Lady Bedford is insuf- t
j
ficient. j
i
Although the Countess is probably not to be found among
the collegiate ladies, it is barely possible that Cecilia
Bulstrode is, in the character of Mavis. Jonson had written;
of Miss Bulstrode in "An Epigram on the Court Pucell":
45
Her face there's none can like by candle light.
In Epicoene Centaure says of Mavis: "Here comes Mavis, a
worse face than she [Lady Haughty]! You would not like this
by candle-light" (V.ii*37-38). Mavis has written an
"Italian riddle" for Sir Dauphine, whom all the ladies are
pursuing. When the "riddle" is read, it proves to be an un
mistakably plain invitation to Dauphine to make love to her.i
f
!
Even though several years have elapsed since the writing of
the poem ascribed to Sir John Roe and refusing the love of
^3rhe_ Poems of John Donne (Oxford, 1912), II, 62. j
^Grierson writes: "I rather suspect that he [Jonson]
is poking fun at his friend's [Donne's] paradoxes, perhaps
in a sly way at that 'grave and youthful matron* Lady j
Danvers [Magdalen Herbert]." The Poems of John Donne (Ox
ford, 1912), II, 6 3. i
1
^Ben Jonson, VIII (1947), 223- j
Cecilia Bulstrode, it is possible that Jonson has that
46
writer's relationship to Miss Bulstrode in mind.
Since Jonson prized the good-will of the Countess, he
could scarcely have dared to paint so offensive a portrait
of the collegiate ladies as he did if he intended to include;
i
Lady Bedford among them. Only violent anger against her
could have led him to so rash a procedure. Lady Haughty and
her friends are neither pleasant nor decent. The scenes i
!
where they and Dauphine are on the stage are a tissue of of
fensive implication and double-entendre. According to the
code of the ladies a husband must be corrected and ruled.
They avoid childbirth to preserve their youth and beauty so i
that they may enjoy love affairs with numerous servants. ^
Jonson was not particularly discreet, but surely he would
not have dared or wanted to include the Countess as one of
these people.
A letter from Jonson to Donne found in the Tobie
Matthew collection may have been written in 1609* A lady is
referred to, who, Herford and Simpson think, is the Countess;
48 ;
of Bedford. Jonson has offended the lady in some way, and,
I ;
Donne has advised him not to defend himself. Raymond W. •
Short thinks that Lady Bedford was offended by what she
^Since Sir John Roe died in 1608, it seems extremely
unlikely that Dauphine is meant to represent him. (See The
Poems of John Donne, II, cxxxiv, and note.)
^See Epicoene, IV.iii, and V.ii.
I
1 ^BenJonson, I (1925), 204.
”115]
considered to be references to particular people in Epi-
coene. ^ In this letter to Donne, Jonson writes:
Exasperations I intend none, for
Truth cannot be sharp but to ill natures, or such
weak ones whom the ill spirit's suspicion or credulity
still possess. My Lady may believe whispering,
receive tales, suspect and condemn my honesty; and
I may not answer, on the pain of losing her, as if
she who had this prejudice of me were not already
lost. 0 no, she will do me no hurt, she will
think and speak well of any faculties. She cannot
there Judge me; or if she could, I would exchange j
all glory (if I had all men's abilities) which ;
could come that way for honest simplicity. . . i
!
This letter could concern Jonson and the Countess, and '
the cause of her anger could be either some offensive refer
ence in Epicoene, perhaps to Cecilia Bulstrode, or his
earlier treatment of Miss Bulstrode in "An Epigram on the
Court Pucell." Since the Epigram was probably written some
months or even years before the girl's death, the Countess
may have been angry about something in Epicoene. In any
case she was very angry, since she would not listen to
Jonson's defense of himself and since she was displeased
with Donne for befriending Jonson.
There are two statements of particular interest in this
letter. One is that Lady Bedford has promised not to injure1
Jonson with others and to speak well of his abilities. This
promise would seem to indicate that even when she was angry !
she was not unreasonable or vindictive. Then he says that j
i i
^"The Patronage of Poetry under James I," pp. 174 ff* j
5°Ben Jonson, I (1925), 203-04.
she is not capable of judging his abilities. This statement
is perhaps true, for his abilities were very great and were
hot easy for anyone to judge. The remark, however, is not
t
gracious-, especially since in earlier years he had praised
!
her judgment, her learning, and her manly soul. However, it^
is not very safe to base conclusions on this letter, for the,
lady mentioned in it may not be the Countess, and the letter!
may not have been written near the time of the presentation
of Epicoene. j
A good reason for not insisting too much on the identi-.
fication of Mavis in Epicoene with Cecilia Bulstrode is that
Epicoene may not have been presented on the stage before her;
t
death. In the Folio of l6l6 Jonson said that it was "acted j
in the year 1 6 0 9," but in the old style of dating 1609 would;
extend through March 24, 1610, as we now record dates, and
we do not know certainly what part of the year it was pro
duced in. Neither can we be certain whether Jonson used the
old or new style of dating. Edmund K. Chambers thinks that
It was "probably produced . . . either at the end of 1609,
51 i
or if Jonson's chronology permits, early in 1610. If -
this time is correct, the play was not produced until after 1
i
Cecilia Bulstrode's death.
The boldest juggling with the order of events in 1609
would have to be used to support the theory that Mavis is
s
patterned after Miss Bulstrode— we can scarcely suppose that]
51The Elizabethan Stage, III, 369-70.
117
Jonson made insulting references to her in Epicoene after
her death. If it were possible to put the presentation of
the play before her death on August 4, several events might)
be arranged in understandable relation to one another. Epi~
• | \
coene is presented with something in it which offends Lady ;
i \
Bedford. Jonson writes the letter to Donne quoted above, j
hoping that she will see it or learn of its contents. !
!
Cecilia Bulstrode dies, and Jonson does not learn of her <
I
death until he receives orders from the Countess through
Garrard to write an elegy for her cousin. Jonson obeys j
eagerly, glad of an opportunity to gain her good will again.
In his letter to Garrard he says that the girl's death "both
struck and keeps me a heavy man." He is sorry for two
reasons: because he has spoken unkindly of her in his j
writing once, and perhaps twice; and because he has incurred)
the Countess' serious displeasure.
Would God I had seen her [Cecilia Bulstrode] before
[her death] that some that live might have corrected some
prejudices they have injuriously of me.
This is an orderly arrangement of events, but it rests \
upon the probably untenable assumption that Epicoene was put1
on the stage before August 4, 1609- And the displeasure of ;
!
the Countess may have been caused by "An Epigram on the I
i
Court Pucell" only, and may have had no connection with Epi-j
coene. The letter to Donne may also concern the Epigram.
After 1609 there is no further record of the associ
ation of Jonson and the Countess. But they probably saw one
another at least when certain of the poet's later masques
were given. It is likely that she was present at the per
formance of The Masque of Oberon, the Fairy Prince, January
1, 1611; Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly, February 3> I
f
)
l6ll; Love Restored, January 6, 1612; Irish Masque, December
29f 1613; The Masque of Flowers, January 6, 1611; Mercury
Vindicated, January 6, 1615 or 1616; Golden Age Restored, j
early in January, 1615j Masque at Christmas, 1 6 1 6; Vision of'
l
Delight, January 6, 1617; and Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue,j
January 6, 1 6 1 8. Since it is either likely or certain that
the Queen was present at each of these masques, and since
the Countess was in all probability in attendance on the j
Queen on the dates when the masques were given, it is very
likely that she saw Jonson at these times. j
Nevertheless, if there had been a cordial friendship
between the poet and Lady Bedford, there would probably be
some record of it. Perhaps she could never again feel quite
friendly toward him after he had displeased her, probably by>
j :
his treatment of Cecilia Bulstrode. The Countess was very |
I <
loyal to her friends, and she was quick to take offense when
one of them was slighted or misrepresented. And Jonson must:
I
have found the continuing obligation to defer to and compli-
I
ment a great lady somewhat onerous, for he was primarily a j
j i
’ scholar, a writer, and a teacher of young literary men j
I t
rather than a courtier. There had been a time, however,
when he had been inspired by Lucy Russell to write excellent
verse. And he could scarcely have forgotten entirely that
she had been one of those who had helped him to make his
i
masques something more than passing entertainment. No lady
of the Court was better qualified than she to appreciate the
learning and the ethical purpose of the masques which were i
; I
so important to Jonson. j
CHAPTER VII
THE COUNTESS AND JOHN DONNE,
1
1608 AND AFTER
John Donne addressed eight poems to the Countess of
j i
Bedford, wrote three elegies on the deaths of her brother ■
t
and her relatives Bridget Markham and Cecilia Bulstrode, and'
I
wrote three other poems that may concern her. He addressed
three letters to her, and three more from the Burley Manu-
i
O 1
script may have been written to her. In about twenty-five ,
of his letters addressed to other people, mostly those to
Sir Henry Goodere and to George Garrard, he refers to Lady
Bedford. Henry Goodere was a close friend of Donne's and a
i
member of the Countess' household,^ and Garrard saw her
frequently at Court. Letters which the Countess wrote to j
* *
bonne are mentioned in his correspondence, but none of them j
is known to exist, and she does not refer to him in any of
her available letters. From the letters and poems the
I **-For a mainly economic interpretation of the relation- j
ship between Donne and the Countess, see Patricia Thomson, !
’ ’ John Donne and the Countess of Bedford," Modern Language
Review, 44:329-40, April 1 9 4 9. j
2Evelyn M. Sinpson, Study of the Prose Works of John !
Donne (Oxford, 1924), pp. 271 ff., for a full account of the;
Tetters. Mrs. Simpson prints eighteen letters not found in
other collections which she is certain are Donne's, and
fourteen others which she thinks are probably his. These
letters were in a manuscript found at Burley-on-the-Hill,
which was once the property of the Countess' family.
^The Poems of John Donne, ed. Herbert J. C. Grierson
' (Oxford, 1912), II, 153*
' 121
reader can put together some sort of account of the friend
ship between Donne and Lady Bedford. But various matters
make this task difficult. The authorship of some poems and
i
letters is not certain. Many of them it has not been possi
ble to date. Whether two poems refer to the Countess of
Bedford, or to any specific person, is not known. Grierson,
who has made a careful study of all of Donne's verse, says: |
t - ’
i
"The two most enigmatical poems in the Songs and Sonets are
"T ' (
4 ‘
Twicknam garden and A nocturnall upon S . Lucies day.1 1 ;
Since the Countess had a celebrated garden at Twickenham and
since her name was Lucy--its meaning "light" being much com
mented upon by the poets of the time— the possibility that
s
i
the two poems refer to her cannot be entirely dismissed.
One reason why they create difficulty is that they are love I
poems. All other verses which Donne wrote to Lady Bedford
express nothing more than was to be conventionally expected j
in the addresses of the poet to the patron; or at any rate
they are friendship rather than love poems.
The matter of sincerity in the addresses to the patron ,
causes difficulty. Even some of Donne's letters to Goodere ;
were apparently written with the expectation that Goodere
would relay Donne's compliments to Lady Bedford. Donne was
in serious financial difficulty almost all of the years when
he was most closely associated with the Countess, so that,
more than most writers, he was tempted to buy favor with
^The Poems of John Donne, II, 10.
' ......'............... T 2 2 ':
flattery. When he finally decided to go into the Church,
one reason for his decision was that the King had closed all
other doors to him; again, if he was to have a place in
public life, a matter which was of the greatest possible im
portance to him, he must keep the King's favor by perfect ;
I
High Church orthodoxy. Perhaps Donne's solution was to make,
himself really believe what policy made it advisable for him
j
to say he believed.
The complimentary writing addressed to the patron was
not necessarily completely false and insincere. There was
sometimes behind the forms of compliment a human being of
average or more than average honesty and truthfulness, re
cording— with some exaggeration and favorable emphasis, no
doubt— the actuality as he saw it. Some of the patrons may
have merited the praise they received. Or the literary man ;
may have admired certain qualities which an ideal patron
would possess and may have credited his own patron--with
what degree of sincerity it is not always possible to de
termine— with these qualities. The patron, on the other
i
hand, probably wished to measure up to this ideal; and if he;
did not conform to it, he was still pleased to have the j
S ’ |
ideal qualities ascribed to him.
; The account of the friendship of Donne and the Countess
is so complicated by many details and surmises that a brief
summary of the main features of it will be a useful guide.
Donne was becoming acquainted with Lady Bedford in 1607 and
1608. Prom 1608 to 1611 he was apparently a frequent visl- \
tor at Twickenham. In 1611 he offended her by publishing
I
two of his poems praising Elizabeth Drury. If "A nocturnalli
upon S. Lucies day" concerns the Countess, it may have been !
written when she was dangerously ill in late 1612. Donne's
years of greatest distress and indecision, from late 1612 to
late l6l4 (he entered the Church in January, 1615), are
marked by the Countess' forgiving him for the Drury poems,
probably by his most mature verse letters to her warning her1
against the great perils of Court life to the reputation of
an innocent person, by his elegy on her brother's death, and
by her displeasure concerning his decision to enter the
Church. Their friendship was not entirely given up after he
took orders, for several times in the later years of their
lives he wrote of her with respect and affection, and as
late as 1621 she invited him to preach at Harington House.
Donne was at least aware of the existence of the
Countess many years before he became one of her circle of
poets at Twickenham, for in 1602 he wrote to Goodere j
mentioning the death of her infant son. If she was one of
Queen Elizabeth's ladies of honor, as Grierson says she was/*
* I
they may have seen one another at Court several years earlier
5
Edmund Gosse, The Life and Letters of John Donne
(London, 1 8 9 9), I, 11 O'"
S T
The Poems of John Donne, II, 152.
----- ---"" .........— 124'
than 1602, for Donne was probably there in Essex* train
7
about 1597* At any rate Donne had some acquaintance with
the Countess before his mention of her in a letter, probably
O Q
to Sir Henry Goodere, in early 1 6 0 8, for he was already
1
sending her a letter by Goodere, an action which in those
formal days would surely have been preceded by one or more
encounters. In this letter to Goodere Donne is the poised
courtier, the perhaps amused prospective 1 1 servant" of a I
i
young and reputedly beautiful great lady. The Countess as j
Donne sees her at this time— she was about twenty-six— is
not obviously Puritanical; she is more the dancing dame some
of the Puritans had made fun of. Several of Donne's early
I ' !
references to her give the impression that he thinks her
something of a butterfly. Most of her letters of a later
time to Jane Cornwallis close with "In haste," and now she
is dashing about, engaged in Court affairs of great or small
importance. "Deliver this letter to your Lady, now," Donne 1
^The Poems of John Donne, II, 104.
| q 1
j °Letter Ixx in Letters to Severall Persons of Honour, j
ed. Charles E. Merrill (New York, 1910). In these letters, t
edited originally by Donne's son John and published in 1 6 5 1,
this letter was given as addressed to Sir Thomas Roe. But
Roger E. Bennett, in "Donne's Letters to Severall Persons of
Honour,1 1 PMLA, 56:120-40, March 19^1, thinks that it is ad-"
dressed to Goodere and that "Your Lady" is the Countess of
Bedford.
%)onne speaks of the New Year, and the letter is dated
"the last of 1607, as I remember." But the new year began
on March 2 5, and we would date this letter early in 1 6 0 8.
Donne speaks of a masque, probably the Hadington Masque,
given February 9- Merrill's date, March 24, seems late, for
no masque would be given in Lent, and Donne writes as though
writes to Goodere, "or when the rage of the mask is past. " 10
The next time Donne mentions her, probably in the spring of
1 6 0 8, she was "dispatching in so much haste for Twicknam"
that she did not answer another letter he had sent her . 11
In the summer or fall of that year he asks Goodere to give j
!
her a message "when you find that good Lady emptiest of
business and pleasure. " 12
On August 6, 1 6 0 8, Donne writes to Sir John Harington \
I
(probably the Countess* brother) to say that he is going to j
1
13
name a daughter for Lady Bedford. During the last months
of 1608 he was trying to get the position of one of James'
secretaries in Ireland who had died in October— Sir Geoffrey
Fenton. Either the Earl or the Countess of Bedford was
trying to get this appointment for Donne, but did not sue- j
lii
ceed. On the fourteenth of November Donne had dinner witH
15
Lady Bedford, perhaps to consult about this matter. ^
j Two poems which cannot be dated closely because of atti
tude and content may perhaps be put in the early part of the
acquaintance of Donne and the Countess. They have the con- i
I
the masque had not yet been given. !
10Merrill, p. 177, Letter ixx. !
13-p. 120, Letter xllv.
12p . 130, Letter xlix.
-^p. 1 0 3, Letter xl.
-^pp. 123-126, Letter xlvi, and notes, p. 295-
* ^ p . 123, Letter xlvi.
ventional Petrarchan tone common to poems written to great
ladies. He praises her physical beauty, but with great re
straint. He gives the impression that he does not know her
very well but would like to know her better. It seems possi
ble to distinguish between these verse letters and three
others, apparently written later, in which he is less court-!
ly and more serious. One of the two begins "You have re-
; 16!
fined me— ." It is a welcome to Twickenham in the autumn, j
He says that she has shown him that great values like virtue;
I
i
have meaning according to circumstance, and that one may
choose to celebrate them in city or country. At the worldly
Court his verse by praising her would reveal the meaning of ;
virtue as notes reveal the meaning of a dark text. But the
country responds to her by keeping all its beauty until she ;
comes. She creates a new world there, her light turning
night into day. Her coming to Twickenham makes the Court
the antipodes in autumn and makes the country season seem
like spring. But he is not sacrificing to her soul as a
priest but welcoming herself, the lovely temple of her soul,!
as a pilgrim goes to Rome to see the great churches there. . !
Yet he would not be too religious, but an admiring layman. !
I
He sees her as the embodiment of all rare stories and of all
parts of the book of Fate which are not sad or guilty. She
■^Grierson and Bennett date this poem c. 1609-10? I
see no reason why it could not be somewhat earlier. Coffin 1
dates it c. 1607-08. Charles M. Coffin, ed., The Complete
Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne (New York, 1952), p.
127
Is the original of virtue and loveliness, all her deeds
showing these traits to be indivisible. Leaving all argu
ment, he knows by his senses that "the story of beauty, in
Twicknam is, and you."
The second one begins "Reason is our soul's left I
17 !
handr--." ' Donne says that those who have the blessings of •
her light love her from reason, he from faith. But he too |
i
would like to love her through reason by understanding her ,
i
better. He studies her in her chosen friends, in her "deeds}
-I
accesses, and restraints," her devices, her reading. But
the reasons for loving her grow Infinite in number; there
fore he falls back on the catholic faith in her goodness
I
which not one heretic denies, though if he did, his denial j
would prove nothing, ;
For rocks, which high-topped and deep-rooted stick
Waves wash, not undermine, nor overthrow.
Her birth and beauty are a balsam to keep her fresh and new,;
but her learning, virtue, and religion make a medicine to
keep off all ill.
Mrs. Simpson, in her Study of the Prose Works of John j
Donne, records three letters from the Burley Manuscript ■
* I
which she thinks are Donne's, and.which may concern the |
Countess, Letters 15* 16, and 30. Mrs. Simpson does not
: ~ * ~ ^The Poems of John Donne, I, 189 • Grierson says it
was written before her illness in 1612, but late. Coffin
dates it 1607 or 1608. The latter dating seems more proba- j
jble to this writer because of the content of the poem as de
scribed briefly above. j
mention the Countess In her comment on Letter 15, but it
contains the phrase "by that fair learned, hand" which she
considers a possible clue to the recipient of Letter 16,
1
since Letter xxiii of the 1651 Letters ends in a similar way.
In Letter 15 the writer is distressed because he has been ;
1
accused of speaking dishonorably of the lady to whom the
letter is addressed. Richard Neville and John Davies are
mentioned, and the writer speaks of the anger of the lady's
1
j
father. The content of this letter gives no clue to the 1
meaning in relation to the Countess, nor is it possible to
18
decide when it was written.
Letter 16, which is signed "Anonymous," seems to have j
been written by Donne and could well concern the Countess.
It apparently belongs to about the same time as the poem
"You have refined me. . . ." He writes:
How charitably you deal with us of these parts (?) that
at this time of the year (when the sun forsakes us) you
come to us and suffer us not (out of your mercy) to taste
the bitterness of a winter; but Madam you owe me this re-;
lief because in all that part of this summer which I
i spent in your presence you doubled the heat and I lived j
under the rage of a hot sun and your eyes. . . .
He apologizes for not visiting her; various business obli
gations have made it impossible. He closes with the phrase
about kissing her "fair virtuous hand."1^
Letter 30 begins with a mention of illness, and Mrs.
Simpson calls attention to a certain similarity between
: -^Simpson, pp. 302-303*
129
Donne's comment and his remarks about illness in Letter xii
of the 1651 edition of the letters. It might possibly have
been written in 1607 or 1 6 0 8. He has been given the privi
lege of visiting the lady, and his illness prevents his
doing so. His letter shall speak to her for him. j
i
It shall tell you truly (for from me it sucked no levin
of flattery) with what height or rather lowness of de
votion I reverence you: who besides the commandment of a;
noble birth, and your persuasive eloquence of beauty, j
have the advantage of the furniture of arts and languages;
. . . To that treasure of your virtues whereof your fair !
eyes' courtesy is not the least jewel I present this
paper. . . . And so kissing your fair hand that vouchsafes'
the receipt of these lines I take leave.20 1
The death at Twickenham on May 4, 1609> of the Countess'
aunt Bridget Markham, was the occasion of at least one verse:
letter written by Donne. This aunt, two years older than
21 ’
Lucy Russell, was a very close friend of the Countess'.
There is a Latin inscription on her tombstone in Twickenham
Church which may have been composed by the Countess and
which expresses Lady Bedford's great love toward her and
22
intimacy with her. For the purpose of establishing the
f 20Simpson, pp. 315-16. Relying on the "fair learned
hand" phrase gets the reader of these letters quickly into
trouble, for on p. 319 of Mrs. Simpson’s book is a letter
which’can be dated April, 1599, and which is from someone j
going to Ireland, probably Wotton; near the end of it is the'
following: "May I after this kiss that fair and learned
hand of your mistress than whom the world doth possess
nothing more virtuous." Mrs. Simpson thinks this letter may
have been written _to Donne.
21Gosse, I, 229.
22Daniel Lysons, Environs of London*(London, l8ll), II,
789-
... ...........’ - — 130
likelihood of connection between this verse letter of Donne's
and another poem of unknown authorship, Donne's verse letter
will be summarized.
Death, he writes, is the sea which environs all; it
roars at its boundaries when it takes a friend. Then our
tears, and the tears of the soul for sin, have a funereal
taste, and become sinful in resisting God's no and drowning
the world again. Tears mist our vision of ourselves and hers.
j
Death has already refined her flesh; at the last day her
soul will fashion such flesh for itself as will be made the
Elixir of all. Both her body and soul shall live. None
sins to death who loathes sin, nor does any die who is not
loth to die. Grace kept her from sin, yet made her repent. !
She sinned only enough to make God's word that all are sin
ners true. Her zealous conscience made sinful acts of mere
omissions. She was good enough to refute the heresy that
women cannot be friends. If we told how good she was,
people might think her old, and we would but increase Death's
triumph over such a prey. i
j
Then someone wrote "Death, be not proud, " which could j
yery well be a sort of continuation of and protest against ;
i , |
the last lines of this poem. "Death, be not proud" gave
Donne the opening phrase of one of his most admired sonnets.
Since this poem has been attributed to Lady Bedford, it will
be quoted entire:
1
i
I
Elegie
Death he not proud, thy hand gave not this blow,
Sin was her captive, whence thy power doth flow;
The executioner of wrath thou art,
J But to destroy the just is not thy part.
Thy coming, terror, anguish, grief denounce;
Her happy state, courage, ease, joy pronounce.
From out the crystal palace of her breast,
The clearer soul was called to endless rest,
(Not by the thundering voice, wherewith God threats,
1 But as with crowned saints in heaven he treats,)
And, waited on by angels, home was brought,
To joy that it through many dangers fought;
The key of mercy gently did unlock
The door 'twixt heaven and it, when life did knock.
Nor boast, the fairest frame was made thy prey,
Because to mortal eyes it did decay;
A better witness than thou art, assures,
That though dissolved, it yet a space endures;
No dram thereof shall want or loss sustain,
When her best soul inhabits it again.
Go then to people cursed before they were,
Their spoils in triumph of thy conquest wear,
Glory not thou thyself in these hot tears
Which our face, not for hers but our harm wears,
The mourning livery given by grace, not thee,
Which wills our souls in these streams washed should be,
And on our hearts, her memory's best tomb,
In this her epitaph doth write thy doom.
Blind were those eyes, saw not how bright did shine
Through flesh's misty veil the beams divine.
Deaf were the ears, not charmed with that sweet sound
I Which did in the spirit-instructed voice abound.
Of flint the conscience, did not yield and melt,
At what in her last act it saw, heard, felt.
Weep not, nor grudge then, to have lost her sight,
Taught thus, our after stay's but a short night:
But by all souls not by corruption choked
1 Let in high raised notes that power.be invoked.
Calm the rough seas, by which she sails to rest,
From sorrows here, to a kingdom ever blest;
And teach this hymn of her with joy, and sing,
THE GRAVE NO CONQUEST GETS, DEATH HATH NO STING.23
Grierson says that this poem was not written by Donne, and
I
the reader agrees, for the style and thought do not seem to
2%he Poems of John Donne, I, 422.
be his. Grierson continues: "According to two Mss. (RP31
and H40) the Elegie, ’Death be not proud,' was written by
pli
Lady Bedford herself." Two of Lady Bedford's relatives
died during 1609, and "Death, be not proud" might be in
i
answer to Donne's other poem "Elegy on Mistress Boulstred," j
i
which begins "Death, I recant ..." and emphasizes the uni-!
versal triumph of death. "Death, be not proud" might have j
been written in response to either of the two elegies; but
i
Lady Bedford was apparently more warmly devoted to Bridget !
Markham than to any other friend she had at this time, and j
would perhaps be more likely to be inspired to write the
25
poem by her grief over this relative's death.
j
Another poem beginning "You that are she and you that'si
double she" develops the Platonic idea that two friends are j
♦
one and were destined to be so before they were born.
Grierson says the poem is certainly Donne's, and again the \
reader agrees from internal evidence of style and thought.
It seems reasonable to suppose that this poem concerns the
Countess and Bridget Markham. Grierson associated it with \
1 26 '
another poem called "Death" and adds that "it is not quite!
certain that it ('Death') was written on Mistress
2i+The Poems of John Donne, II, 209-
i h - - i r 1, ,. . . — -
; 25nowever, in two MSS. "Death, be not proud," is given
as a continuation of "Death, I recant," the poem on Cecilia
Bulstrode. See The Poems of John Donne, II, cxliii and
cxliv.
I 2^The Poems of John Donne, I, 284.
.. 133.
,,27
Boulstred. 1 It is not certain that it concerns Bridget
Markham either, but it fits her far better than Cecilia Bui-;
28
strode. Grierson comments that the lines of "Death" con- ;
cerning the keeping of the Sabbath with fasting and prayer
suggest a Puritanical habit of mind. He writes:
Probably both Lady Markham and Lady Bedford belonged to
the more Calvinistic wing of the Church. There is a dis
tinctly Calvinistic flavor about Lady Bedford's own elegy
[he means "Death be not proud"] which reads also as
though it were to some extent a rebuke to Donne for the
note, either too pagan or too Catholic for her taste, of
his poems on Death.”9
In July, 1609, Donne reported to Goodere on the illness'
of the Countess' cousin Cecilia Bulstrode, who died at Twick
enham on August 4, 1609* He had seen her, observed her physi
cal symptoms, and "imputed all her sickness to her mind."
Still, he remembered her history, and feared she would not
•30
love long. Ben Jonson had addressed a very harsh poem to ;
this young woman entitled "An Epigram on the Court Pucell."
Cecilia Bulstrode was one of Queen Anne's maids of honor.
If her reputation at Court was doubtful or bad, her sickness;
of mind may have been due to shame or remorse, or of course
her sickness of mind may have caused her doubtful behavior, j
and Donne's phrase "her history" may refer to her Court ex
perience. Donne in his "Elegy on Mistress Boulstred"
g?The Poems of John Donne, II, cxliii.
o«
This name is commonly spelled Bulstrode.
2%he Poems of John Donne, II, 215. i
3°Merrill, pp. 185 ff., Letter lxxvii.
represents her as virtuous. After a meditation on the uni
versal power of death, he says that Death was foolish to
take this girl when she was young, for if she had grown
older she might have put herself more in his power by being j
guilty of the sins characteristic of the different ages, or ;
by causing others to sin in that they imputed evil to her ofj
)
which she was innocent, j
Such as would call her friendship, love, and feign i
To sociableness a name profane.31 I
This seems to indicate that Donne thought she had been mis- I
{
judged. Or he may have been complying with the convention
of speaking no ill of the dead, since he was essentially onei
who honored c o n v e n t i o n s Sir Edward Herbert also wrote !
verses on the death of Cecilia Bulstrode, and he too lauds !
•a-2
her for her virtue. J Both poets could have misrepresented j
the girl's character, but it is also possible that they did |
not misrepresent it. On August 14, 1 6 0 9, ten days after the
death of Cecilia Bulstrode, Donne tells Goodere that he is
sending a letter to Lady Bedford
!
who did me the honor to acknowledge the receipt of one ofj
mine by one of hers; and who only hath power to cast the j
fetters of verse upon my free meditations: It should '
give you some delight and some comfort, because you are j
the first which see it, and it is the last which you |
3-^The Poems of John Donne, I, 282.
32About this matter there is difference of opinion.
33q. C. Moore-Smith, ed., The Poems . . . of Edward
Lord Herbert of Cherbury (Oxford 1923), P* 20.
135"
shall see of this kind from me. 3^
This may be a record of a series of verse letters:
l) Donne’s verses on Bridget Markham; 2) Lady Bedford's
"Death be not proud"; and 3) Donne's verses on Cecilia Bui- j
1
i
strode. ;
Two of Donne's letters which Merrill dates 1609 or 1610
are related. One is to Goodere, and with it Donne sends the:
t
other letter, which is to the Countess, with permission for .
Goodere to read it. He tells Goodere that he has asked Lady!
Bedford "for the verses she showed in the garden." He con- ;
tinues:
I would write apace to her, whilst it is possible to ex- j
press that which I yet know of her, for by this growth I '
see how soon she will be i n e f f a b l e .35
I
This last sentence sounds like one he expected Goodere to I
show or read to the Countess. Donne's enclosed letter to
Lady Bedford contains several matters of some biographical
significance. He says he will not make a petition in verse
nor "add these to your other papers." The other papers
might be taken to be in verse, and if they are, they may be |
the poems about the Countess' relatives. If so, this letter}
I
would have to be dated after August 14, 1609- The more im
portant part of the letter follows:
I have yet adventured so near as to make a petition for
verse, it is for those your Ladyship did me the honor to
see in Twicknam garden, except you repent your making;
3^Merrill, p. 101, Letter xxxix.
35pp. 55-56, Letter xxi . _ _____
and having mended your judgment by thinking worse, that
is, better, because juster, of their subject. They must
needs be an excellent exercise of your wit, which speaks
so well of so ill: I humbly beg them of your Ladyship,
, with two such promises, as to any other of your compo-
sitions were threatenings: that I will not show them,
1 and that I will not believe them; and nothing should be
so used that comes from your brain or h e a r t . 3 6 j
There is nothing obscure about this passage. Donne is ask
ing for verses by the Countess which she has already shown
to him, verses of which he is the subject. She has written i
favorably of him. He promises not to show them (since ap- i
parently they are too personal for handing about among his 1
friends) nor to believe them, that is, to take them too
seriously. Since Donne's "Twicknam garden" is a Petrarchan ;
love poem, much more personal than the verse letters to the j
Countess, the reader is strongly tempted to jump to the con-;
elusions that "Twicknam garden" is addressed to the Countess
and that these verses by her which Donne saw in the garden
were also love poems. But there is no reliable evidence
which justifies arriving at these conclusions. The matter
will be discussed further when "A nocturnall upon S. Lucies :
day" is considered.
The next episode in the friendship of Donne and Lady j
Bedford is a stormy one in which both of them lost their *
tempers. Gaps must be filled with hypotheses in order to
make a logical record, but the leading facts are plain. The
beginning is a letter by Donne, probably to Goodere, written!
Sherrill, pp> 58-59, Letter xxiii.
' "" ... ~.... l' 37 ;
toward the end of 1611.37 Donne says that he has found a 1
way to meet his obligations which he thinks Goodere will be j
glad to hear about. He is in the afternoon of life; he must
do something. He does not expect Goodere to misjudge his
actions. He asks Goodere to maintain him "in the same room .
in my Lady Bedford's opinion in the which you placed me." (
He continues:
I
I profess to you that I am too much bound to her for j
expressing every way her care of my fortune, that I am - j
weary before she is; and out of a lothness that so good ;
works should be bestowed upon so ill stuff, or that so
much ill fortune should be mingled with hers as that she !
should miss anything that she desired, though it were but:
for me.[,] I am willing to depart from further exercising1
her endeavors in that kind. I shall be bold to deliver
my poor letters to her Ladyship's hands through yours,
whilst I am abroad.
Again the contents of this letter were probably intended fori
the Countess herself. What he seems to be saying, in plain j
English, is that he is dispensing with her patronage. He
had managed to acquire the patronage of wealthy Sir Robert
Drury by writing certain poems about Sir Robert's daughter
Elizabeth, a girl of fifteen whom Donne had never seen and
who had died about a year before Donne wrote his first poem j
j
about her, these poems being published iri 1611. Two of the !
poems (another was published in 1612) are long and very good]
Donne's famous "Anniversaries." They are filled with the
most extravagant praise of the dead girl. Ben Jonson
; ^Merrill, p. 82, Letter xxxii. Merrill dates it "lat
ter part of l6ll"; Roger E. Bennett, in "Donne's Letters
from the Continent," Philological Quarterly, 19:66-78, Janu
ary 19^0, dates it [November, l6ll][London].
muttered something about blasphemy— one did not write in
that way except about the Virgin. Donne defended himself by
saying that he was writing about the idea of woman, not
about .a particular woman, an explanation not likely to make ;
i
a favorable impression on the Countess of Bedford.
As indicated at the end of the letter to Goodere, Donne
went abroad with Drury, remaining there from November, l6ll,,
38 i
until about the first of September, 1612. About the ’
!
3Q '
middle of January-^ Donne writes again, probably to Goodere,.
sending some French verses to the Countess. Clearly Donne
has her on his mind (and probably conscience), but he ad
dresses nothing directly to her. So far he has had only one;
|
letter from Goodere, and apparently it has told him nothing j
about the Countess' reception of the Drury poems. Probably I
early in February he receives a letter from George Garrard, j
but if it tells him anything about the Countess he makes no i
sign that it does in letters he writes to the Garrards in
early February. He has another letter from Goodere with no I
i
mention of the Countess' attitude. In early March he writes;
to Garrard, after receiving letters. Again Garrard has ,
pbviously said nothing of the Countess' displeasure. But
Donne writes like a man with a very guilty conscience, or at
least like one who has got himself into a predicament which
. A. Shapiro, "The Text of Donne's Letters," Review
of English Studies, 7:291-301, July 1931-
■ 39jJetter xli, Bennett's dating.
139
he does not know just how to get out of. He writes to
Garrard:
Sir, you do me double honor when my name passes through
you to that noble Lady In whose presence you are. .
If I shall at any time take courage by your letter to ex
press my meditations of that Lady in writing, I shall ;
scarce think less time to be due to that employment than j
to be all my life in making those verses, and so take ;
them with me and sing them amongst her fellow Angels in |
Heaven. I should be loath that in anything of mine, com
posed of her, she should not appear much better than some'
of those of whom I have written. And yet I cannot hope i
for better expressings than I have given of them. So you;
see how much I should wrong her, by making her but equal j
to others. I would I could be believed when I say that i
all that is written of them is but prophecy of h e r . 40
Clearly this is an apology, meant for the Countess’ eyes,
for the poems to Elizabeth Drury. Between this letter and
Donne's next one, dated April 4, 1612 (English date March |
26), he has learned that the Countess had protested strongly!
against the Drury poems.
Just what Lady Bedford said is not known, but she may
well have reasoned that he could not be sincere in what he
had written about both her and Elizabeth Drury. Or if she
had heard his excuses about the Drury poems, she may have j
perceived that if those poems did not praise Elizabeth Drury
but an ideal woman the\ poems he had written to herself did
not necessarily praise her. It looked as though the Drury j
poems were written solely to win patronage; if so, then per
haps all his complimentary addresses to the Countess were
merely for the purpose of winning favor.
^Merrill, pp. 223-24, Letter xciv.
140
As often, when Donne wishes to convey a message to the
Countess, he does not address her directly, but writes to
someone else. This time he chooses George Garrard. In the
first part of the letter he argues that he has' made a mis- |
i
take in publishing his verses at all. That is something a > .
gentleman does not do. This argument is entirely beside the.
i *
point. Then he continues with a more acceptable line of :
I
reasoning:
i
But for the other part of the imputation of having said j
too much, my defense is, that' my purpose was to say as j
well as I could: for since I never saw the Gentlewoman, J
I cannot be understood to have bound myself to have
spoken just truths, but I would not be thought to have
gone about to praise her, or any other in rime, except I *
; took such person, as might be capable of all that I could
say. If any of those Ladies think that Mistress Drury *
was not so, let that Lady make herself fit for all those ,
praises in the book, and they shall be hers.41 j
Donne is rude here because he is angry. His anger might
indicate that his intentions in writing the Drury poems had '
been such that the Countess should not have been angry. In
"The First Anniversary" he had written a great poem. The
girl it was addressed to did not really matter; the poem it-
{
self was what was important. The girl's death and the un- i
i
satisfactory financial situation in which Donne found him-
I !
self may have started him off; or he may have thought of the;
poem first and then may have attached it to Elizabeth Drury |
; ' i
that it might help him, as it surely deserved to do, since
j
it is considered one of his greatest poems. j
! ^Letter lxxxv. See also Letter xcii.
.. i4T
While Donne was in Prance with Drury, not very long
after he had heard of the Countess' displeasure, he probably
wrote the verses to her beginning "Though I be dead— It j
is Easter, the time of growth and confession. Therefore he j
writes:
• I
Pirst I confess I have to others lent ;
Your stock, and over prodigally spent
Your treasure, for since I had never known j
Virtue or beauty, but as they are grown 1
In you, I should not think or say they shine, j
(So as I have) in any other Mine. . . . I
Next I confess my impenitence, for I
Can scarce repent my first fault, since thereby
Remote low spirits, which shall n'er read you,
May in less lessons find enough to do,
By studying copies, not originals.
At that point Donne lost interest in the poem and wrote no
more. He wanted to send something to the Countess to pro- 1
i
pitiate her, but this was not good enough. He must have
known that no Petrarchan love-logic was appropriate; if he
could find nothing sincere to say that would be acceptable 1
he had better remain silent.
! Early in April he wrote again, probably to Goodere. He
does not speak specifically of the Countess' displeasure, j
! ' !
I
but he has it in mind, for he defends himself again by say- .
ing that, although he had never seen Elizabeth Drury, he :
would not have praised anyone in printed verses "that had
not been capable of the best praise that I could give." He
adds:
Therefore give me leave to end this, in which if you do
not find the remembrance of my humblest services to my
* Lady Bedford, your love and faith ought to try all the
experiments of powders, and drying, and waterings to
discover some lines which appeared not; because it is im
possible that a letter should come from me, with such an
ungrateful silence.^-2
The Countess seems to have maintained a dignified si
lence after the one outburst which Donne heard about from
Garrard. In mid-July Donne writes: '
I can glory of nothing in this* voyage, but that I have !
afflicted my Lady Bedford with few letters. [We have no ;
record of any letters sent directly to her.] I protest
earnestly to you, it troubles me much more to dispatch a ;
pacquet into England without a letter to her, than it
would to put in three. But I have been heretofore too j
immodest towards her, and I suffer this Purgatory for it.!
I
He is over his anger, and he does not want to lose her favor.
In his last letter from the Continent he writes, probably to
Garrard, that he will "sneak: into London, about the end of
August." He wants to find a letter from Garrard as soon as ;
he reaches London, "for I shall come in extreme darkness and;
ignorance, except you give me light." The light he wants is!
possibly with regard to the Countess' present state of mind ;
43
toward him.
For the time being, references to the Countess in
Donne's letters cease. The serious illness of Lady Bedford ,
which is thought to have been the cause of the writing of "A;
nocturnall upon S. Lucies day" extended from November 23, j
1612, until after the fifteenth of January, 1613* But it is;
^Merrill, p. 66, Letter xxvi.
4.3
JFor the sequence of the letters written while Donne j
was in Europe with Sir Robert Drury, I have depended on the i
analysis of Bennett, pp. 6 6-7 8. , since I can find no fault
with his arrangement.
s
difficult to keep from associating this poem with "Twicknam I
f
garden." It is impossible to date either poem certainly, or|
j j
to say certainly that either concerns the Countess. Worse
still is the apparent lapse of two years or more between
f 1
them, when the one reasonably tenable opinion to be formed I
concerning them is that they seem to indicate the same kind
of relationship. And if the relationship was between the ■
i
Countess of Bedford and John Donne, it is highly unlikely |
i
j
that it would have remained unchanged for two years or more.j
' I
Other evidence points to a changing, not static, relation
ship, one in which a Petrarchan love affair such as these
poems indicate, if present at all, was not the main ingredi
ent . It is the part of wisdom to make no more guesses about;
these poems, which do not need the support of biographical
notation.
However, brief comment on the conventions of the love
poetry of Donne's time will at least prevent hasty misin-
i
i '
terpretation of such poems as these. There were three major
lines of thought about love--the Platonic, the Petrarchan,
1 I
and the Ovidian. According to Platonic doctrine— to simpli
fy greatly— love was a union of souls. According to the j
i
Petrarchan interpretation the lady was an Inaccessible para
gon of all desirabilities and the lover was nothing. The
Ovidian attitude was that love- is primarily physical
pleasure and delight in physical beauty. These conventions
were universally understood in Donne's time. The complex
romantic philosophy of the Jacobean period had its begin
nings, as far as it is possible to discover, in the time of
the troubadours, for Platonic love in ancient times was not j
thought of in connection with the relationship between men
and women. The lady of the castle was usually married to a S
man older than herself and chosen for her by her parents, a ;
man who was away from home a great part of the time. The j
singing poet resident in the castle was a young, educated, j
and often gifted man, with little occupation besides love j
i
making. Since he was of lower social rank he had to do his
wooing with delicacy and discretion. The idealism of ro
mantic love owed much to Christianity as well as to Platon- I
ism. It was related to the worship of the Virgin, and the |
phrases of the medieval "religion of love" were frequently !
used.
That John Donne should make romantic love to the
Countess was not against the conventions of his time. Ex
actly how much sincere feeling would have been involved if
i :
he had done so is not ascertainable. Both were married, buti
i
marriage did not stand in the way of the Petrarchan lover,
since physical'union was not supposed to be his goal. ;
Donne’s marriage was based on love, and we have no evidence
that he was unfaithful to his wife. There is no evidence
that the Countess' marriage was not a happy one, although
she and her husband lived apart some of the time, probably
because of their differing interests. What is known of her
religious and family background would make it extremely un
likely that she would be guilty of adultery.
If Donne and the Countess were making love, and if
"Twicknam garden" and "A nocturnall upon S. Lucies day" are :
! ■
records of that feeling, they were playing a conventional
game of their day. That they may have become over-serious
about it is possible; but, if so, Donne at least would
: i
quickly recover his poise. His later verse letters to the ;
S
Countess (at least they seem to be later) sound very much |
like tributes to an unambiguous friendship, expressed, it is'
true, in terms of elaborate courtesy such as were expected
from a poet to a patron and a great lady of rank far above
his own.
There are three of these verse letters. All warn of
the presence of evil, all are more serious in tone than the
earlier verse letters, one is religious. Two of them might I
have been written at almost any time between 1608 arid the
beginning of 1 6 1 5, but perhaps the likeliest time for all of!
them is between the end of 1612 and the end of l6l4. One ofi
them speaks of "two stars lately sent to the firmament," andj
* • *
these are probably Prince Henry, who died on November 6, j
1
1612, and the Countess' brother John, who died February 26,
!
1614.
; The first, "Honor is so sublime perfection," begins by
1
i
t ^Grierson remarks that the "stars" could be Lady Mark
ham and Cecilia Bulstrode (who died in 1 6 0 9), but he thinks
not. The Poems of John Donne, II, 132.
................ .......................*' " ........... — ■ .............. ' — T 4 6 1
saying that honor is something given to the high by the low;
therefore she is not to care how low her praisers be. Her
light subdues all clouds, and, except for God’s, is the besti
light to contemplate. Her body
I
. . . As an amber drop enwraps a bee, j
Covering discovers your quick soul, that we ' <
May in your through-shine front your '
heart1s thoughts see. '
She understands how discretion and religion are one. She I
i i 1
must always be the same, unimperiled by evil, great and f
innocent. ^ )
In the next verse letter, "This twilight of two years,"
Donne speaks of the two years just passed in which he has
been in doubt what he is. This is a New Year's poem, per- j
haps written for March 25, 1613, or March 25, l6l4. No com-j
mentator has heretofore been rash enough to date this letterj
It may have been written for March 25, l6ll, at the end of
the first two years of the acquaintance of Donne and the
Countess, 1608-1610. But the serious religious tone makes
this dating seem too early. The two years could be the ones
at Twickenham before Donne became associated with Drury, I
J
l6 0 9-l6ll, but at the end of that time he would scarcely
have been writing to the Countess as he does in this verse
letter, because in March, 1612, he was uneasy over her
probable displeasure concerning the Drury poems, and this
poem shows no sign of such discomfort. March 25, 1 6 1 5,
215 The Poems of John Donne, I, 218.
after his two years of indecision about what profession to
follow, will not do, for he had entered the Church January
15, and, since these verses are secular poetry in spite of
the religious tone, it is very unlikely that he would have
i
written them at that time. In March, 1614, the Countess’
brother had just died. This poem makes no reference to that!
event. Besides, Donne had vowed to write no more secular j
I
verses after his poem on Lord Harington's death, a vow which1
i
he kept except for one poem to the Countess of Huntingdon, :
j
reluctantly written. His vow may not have been meant to in-J
elude verses to the Countess herself, or these verses may
have been written before he wrote those on Lord Harington's :
i
death. One possibility is that Donne had written his elegy
on Lord Harington, the Countess had expressed her gratitude,!
as it is known she did, the misunderstanding between Donne
and the Countess was over, and this verse letter is Donne's i
response. The difficulty with this attractive theory is
1 46
that, if Merrill's dating of Letter lviii is right, Donne
and Lady Bedford were reconciled before August or September, I
1613* The dating of March 25, 1613, for this verse letter '
seems to be most likely. The "twilight of two years" (not
necessarily two complete calendar years) was the duration of|
the Countess' displeasure in which he had been in doubt what
1
he was, since, in the language of compliment, he existed 1
only when she approved of him. The religious tone may be
^Discussed on p. 149 of this chapter.
partly in response to the Countess' greater dislike of the
frivolities of the Court after her serious illness in late
I6l2 and early 1613* during which she had come under the in-
*
fluence of the Puritan physician and minister, John Burges.
This verse letter, after commenting on the dubious
! :
years just passed, goes on to say that these years have
shown him her value; in recompense he would reveal her
I
virtue to future years for emulation. Yet his verse is t
!
shortlived, and only by faith could her goodness be believed
I
(
in. In these times there is little faith. Those who be
lieve in her goodness will wonder how such a nothing as he
is could know one so high. Lest his praise endanger her, he.
will ask God's help to make it good. God will teach her
how to employ her gifts of beauty, learning, favor, and j
blood. God will lessen over-confidence with doubt, and
clear away the doubt. He will teach her that good and bad
are not just the same in the cloister and in the Court. In )
the Court much is indifferent. Pity is not always good
there, and some vain disport on this side sin is allowable. ;
Yet God will show her that some hours must not be broken in-j
to by pleasure. He will give her knowledge through the j
i
weakness of others. He will make her doubt wisely, spy for
good ends, and escape spies. God will reveal knowledge
which she must conceal. Her conscience will keep her inno- i
cent; but for her fame's sake God will give her wariness.
He will show her how to escape offense, or to avenge it if j
.. 7 .. 149
necessary. He will teach her to control her joy when she is
fortunate and her sadness when she is not. He will defend
her soul from need of tears, or rebaptize her with one tear.
He will not blot her.name out of the Book of Life.
! • I
i
And when with active joy we hear 217 j
This private Gospel, then 1 tis our New Year. ' !
■ ' • !
In a puzzling letter to Goodere, which Merrill dates !
t
August-September, 1 6 1 3,^® Donne is sending a letter (perhapsj
of recommendation?) to Goodere from the Countess. j
I
Because it came not last week, I went now to solicit it, i
and she sent it me next day with some thanks, and some ,
excuse that she knew not me when I was with her. You
know, I do not easily put myself into those hazards, nor ‘
do much brag of my valor now, otherwise than I purposed
it for a service to you.
"When I was with her" possibly refers to the years when ,
Donne spent much time at Twickenham, roughly I608 to 1611. !
He is not "with her" now, for he went to ask about the
letter. When the Countess says that she did not know him at
some former time she may mean that she did not fully ap-
*
!
predate his worth. She may have read the "Anniversaries"
and may have recognized their value and decided to forgive
the fact that they were not addressed to herself, or she may,
have been favorably impressed by the verse lettbr he had I
!
sent her a few months before. The reader must proceed with
I
caution in interpreting the last sentence, "You know, I do
f ;
^The Poems of John Donne, I, 1 9 8.
^Merrill, p. 154, Letter lviii. See p. 147 of this
chapter.
' 150'
not easily put myself into those hazards. ..." The obvi
ous meaning is that now he keeps out of sentimental trouble
with his women friends. The days of poetic flirtations are
over for him. The Countess' letters to her friend Jane
I
Cornwallis in later years show her to be emotional. Donne >
i
1
wishes to avoid involvement. The late verse letters to her ;
j
seem to indicate that, whatever his feeling for her may have,
i
been at some former time, now it is warm and respectful j
friendship. In the last verse letters particularly he seems!
i I
s i
to be trying to help her to keep her head in the morally
dubious world in which she must live as a courtier. He does:
not wish her to be disgraced, as Cecilia Bulstrode had been.;
Nowhere is there any implication that she is not good; but
i
at Court even the virtuous are in danger of being misunder- j
stood. Another prose letter, which cannot be dated with any
certainty but which because of its tone may belong to this
period, is a mere declaration of friendship. He writes:
In Letters, by which we deliver over our affections, and
assurances of friendship, and the best faculties of our
souls, times and days cannot have interest, nor be con- j
siderable, because that which passes by them is eternal, I
and out of the measure of time. Because therefore it is >
the office of this letter to convey my best wishes and
all the effects of a noble love unto you . . . you may be;
pleased to allow the letter thus much of the soul's privij
lege as to exempt it from straitness of hours. . . . And
for my part, I shall make it so like my soul that as that
affection of which it is the messenger, begun in me with
out my knowing when, any more than I know when my soul
began, so it shall continue as'long as that.
^Merrill, pp. 20-21, Letter ix. Augustus Jessopp, in
his biography, John Donne (London, 1897), P* dates this
letter 1607-08. Merrill dates it "before February, 1614,1 1
".. I5T
On December 26, l6l3» Donne wrote a letter to Sir
Robert Drury concerning the illness of the Countess* brother,
Lord John Harington, with the encouraging news that he was
recovering. "This I heard yesterday," Donne writes, "for I
have not been there yet."'*0 But the young lord's recovery \
51
was only temporary; he died on February 26. In honor of
Harington, Donne wrote one of his longest elegies, "Obse-
i
quies to the Lord Harrington, Brother to the Lady Lucy, |
!
Countess of Bedford." In it he says that Lord Harington's
soul was harmony not only at birth but all through his lifeJ
Now he is part of "God's great organ, this whole sphere."
If his soul sees what happens on earth he will be pleased toj
see Donne has grown to that degree of goodness that he can j
study Lord Harington and make himself a map of him. At mid
night, by the light of Lord Harington's soul, he sees
through all Church and State and, what is more difficult,
through himself. When good men live on earth virtue itself 1
seems to be near. Lord Harington's virtue is one; it cannot
be analyzed without injury. If Fate had meant to have his :
virtues counted she would have permitted him to live to old j
age; then people might have had time to appreciate them one
because it mentions the Countess' brother, who died February
26, 1614. '
5°Merrill, p. 132, Letter 1.
51james Whitelocke, Liber Famelicus, p. 39* Whitelocke
says he died at Kew, February 26; Gosse says that he died at
Twickenham, February 27- Whitelocke was a relative by
marriage and would be more likely to be right.
by one. Having only a short life to live, he had to travel
all the paths of virtue at the speed of an angel's flight or)
of thought, or at the speed of one's reading when he does
hot consider each letter. Why did he not live to be a great!
' • . I
sundial by which all might tell time? Death, because of him,
has become a Court where men seek good company; the cities
are nothing but ant hills— the cemetery is the place where
the good repair. If Lord Harington had lived he might have
reconciled Prince and subjects. He had no chance to meet
such enemies as envy and popularity. Why did he not live to!
help others live well? Yet the poet must not speak against
God, who willed this early death. Though Donne may not die j
with Lord Harington, he will inter his muse in Harington's j
52
grave
With one or two exceptions, Donne apparently kept his
promise to write no secular poetry. He speaks of this
promise later when Goodere is urging him to write verses for
the Countess of Huntingdon, probably about January, 1615*
He has two reasons for not wishing to write the verses, one j
being that the Countess of Huntingdon had known him "in the '
beginning of a graver course than of a Poet, into which
(that I may also keep my dignity) I would not seem to re
lapse." He states the other reason as follows:
The other stronger reason is my integrity to the other
Countess [i.e., the Countess of Bedford], of whose worthi
ness though I swallowed your opinion at first upon your
; -^The poems of John Donne, I, 271.
words, yet I have had since an explicit faith, and now a
knowledge: and for her delight (since she descends to
them) I have reserved not only all the verses which I
should make but all thoughts of women's worthiness. But
because I hope she will not disdain that I should write
well of her Picture [i.e., the Countess of Huntingdon], I
have obeyed you thus far as to write: but entreat you by
your friendship that by this occasion of versifying I be
not traduced, nor esteemed light in that Tribe, and that
house where I have lived [i.e., Lady Bedford's house].
He does not want the enclosed‘verses given to the Countess
of Huntingdon if Goodere has changed his mind about wanting
the verses, or if they do not suit him."^
The last verse letter, ”T ’have written then, when you
writ,” begins by saying that Donne did not want to write as
soon as her letter arrived lest he be thought guilty of try
ing to buy her favor, and yet it seemed ungrateful not to
write. But he is such a nothing that if he had paid all he
would still have paid nothing. He owes more even by having
permission to write to her. Yet he, though barren ground,
may yield some modest wealth to pay his debt to her with, as
pagan temples have served well as Christian shrines. His
pagan muse has been hallowed by her and has come to dwell
with her in whom all virtue, departed from other Courtiers'
hearts, has come to reside, so that she ransoms her sex and
i
preserves the Court. She knows about everything except her
virtue, and she can never know about it, for humility is a
part of it. Since she does not want to hear praises, he in
vites her to meditate with him on the ill of others. He
^Merrill, pp. 89-90, Letter xxxiv.
........................... ~T5'4'
says that we do not seek the good as we ought:
Lightness depresseth us, emptiness fills,
We sweat and faint, yet still go down the hills.
Our bodies control our souls
As dead low earth eclipses and controls
The quick high moon.
i
We must labor and pray. When the good seed of the mind is
i
transplanted into the body it degenerates. The body is a !
temple to be redeemed from death and yet it is the soul’s i
prison where the soul learns vice. We must live so that we ;
i
may join the two stars lately sent to the firmament. She
I
has enough "wise degrees of vice” to be free from the unjust!
suspicion which might result from having too much of one
i
I
virtue and to have compassion for the wretchedness of others!.
Some know how to make ill work for good, but she should be
content with virtue, her "known nourishment."
As has been said before, the two "stars" could be
Prince Henry and the Countess’ brother. If so, these verses!
must have been written after Lord Harington’s death in
February, 1614. It is possible that the Countess’ letter
mentioned at the beginning of this poem was one expressing
her gratitude for Donne's "Obsequies to the Lord Harrington."
Donne had said in the prose letter accompanying the "Obse
quies "5^ that he did not send the verses that she might
thank him for them; and now he says again that he did not
Sprinted before the "Obsequies" in Grierson's,
Bennett's, and Coffin’s editions of the poems. The Poems of
John Donne, I, 2 7 6.
‘ .... ......' * ". T55
wish to "be thought guilty of trying to buy her favor" by
answering her letter too promptly.
Toward the end of 1614 the friendship of Donne and the
Countess seemed to be firmly established, but it was to be
!
seriously shaken again. 1
i
For about two years Donne 1s most powerful patron had |
(
t i
been the Earl of Somerset. To please the Earl he had writ- |
t
ten an epithalamium for the marriage of Somerset to Frances '
j
Howard, a union about which Lancelot Andrewes preserved a
disapproving silence and which Archbishop Abbot opposed. I
Donne had received many promises of help from Somerset and
few fulfillments. Finally, when he realized that there was ;
no future for him in the legal or political world, he urged ;
Somerset to obtain a church appointment for him. Apparently
Donne made his final decision to go into the Church about
December 1, l6l4.
On December 20, 1614, Donne wrote Goodere a letter
about printing privately some of his secular poetry and
dedicating the volume to Somerset. He tells Goodere about j
f i
i
this project "so softly that if that good Lady were in the 1
55
room with you and this letter, she might not hear." Ap
parently Donne did not print the poems, but in any case he
feared the Countess' displeasure, for she undoubtedly knew
how incongruous with the dignity of a prospective divine was
the poetry of his youth. Nor would she have been pleased
55Merrill, pp. 169-71, Letter lxv.
' 1 5 6 "
with the dedication to Somerset.
Evidently the Countess promised to help satisfy Donne's
creditors before his ordination.^ But something happened,
and she disappointed him by sending much less money than he
had expected--only L 3 0. j
i
i
He writes to Goodere: j
Upon this motion which I made to her by letter, and by ■
Sir Tho. Roe's assistance, if any scruple should arise in!
her, she was somewhat more startling than I looked for j
from her. She had more suspicion of my calling, a betterj
memory of my past life than I had thought her nobility j
could have admitted: of all which, though I humbly thankj
God I can make good use, as one that needs as many re- j
membrances in that kind as not only friends but enemies
can present, yet I am afraid they proceed in her rather
from some ill impression taken from D[octor] Burges than :
that they grow in herself.57
It is understandable that the Countess, with a little
prompting from the Puritan Burges perhaps, and with her
knowledge of Donne's Ovidian poetry and his involvement with
Somerset, should question his sincerity and his fitness for
the Church. She must have known, too, that if he was to
gain advancement by pleasing James, he would have to conform,
sincerely or otherwise, to a High Church position to which
j
her more scrupulous friends among the Puritan clergy such as,
Burges could not conform.
For several'years after 1615 nothing is to be learned
about the friendship of Donne and the Countess of Bedford.
But it was not broken off. In May, 1 6 1 9, just before Donne
56Merrill^ p. 128, Letter xlviii.
j ^PP- 189-90, Letter lxxviii.
went to Germany, he wrote to Goodere that he was thankful
for benefits,
principally for keeping me alive in the memory of the
noblest Countess, whose commandment if it had been her
Ladyship's pleasure to have anything said or done in her j
service at^Heidelberg, I should have been glad to have i
r e c e i v e d . l
i
On January 7, 1620, the Countess asked Donne to preach before
59 i
her household at Harington House. ^ Sometime during the next
i
year Donne had intended to have supper with the Countess, J
but she was unable to keep the engagement.^0 In February, j
1622, about three months after he had become Dean of St. j
Paul's, Donne sent something to the Countess with a letter
to Goodere. This may have been the undated, very pious j
’ ’ Epitaph on Himself" addressed to the Countess of-Bedford
One of the best results of the friendship between John j
Donne and the Countess of Bedford is the good poetry of the
t
verse letters. No other woman friend was as important to
bonne, not even Magdalen Herbert. He wrote as well as he
knew how to honor and please Lady Bedford, and the literary
world was the gainer. A less important result was the
I \
preservation of Lucy Russell's name for posterity. If John ,
Donne had not written about her, her fame would be far less j
than it is.
^^Merrill, .p. 19^, Letter lxxix.
59j0hn Donne, Complete Works, ed. Henry Alford (London,
1839), IV, 537.
i 6°Merrill, p> 1 3 4, Letter li.
8j-The Poems of John Donne.., I,. 291 ? _______ _____________
f CHAPTER VIII" .................
THE COUNTESS AND HER FAMILY AND OTHER SECULAR WRITERS,
CHIEFLY 1603 TO l6l4
Of the dedications and tributes of a literary sort, ex
clusive of those of Drayton, Jonson, and Donne, the ones to
i j
be considered first will be those to the Countess alone or
1
to her and a member of her family. Then some consideration
j
will be given to those to some member or members of her I
i
family but not to her. There are about twenty authors in ;
i
each group, some names being repeated in the second group.
Most of the works fall within the years 1603 to I6l4 when
the Countess and her family were most wealthy and most
prominent. A roughly chronological order will be followed, j
1 i
only the more interesting people being discussed.
The works which the schoolmaster Claude Desainliens, or
Claudius Holyband, as he was called in England, dedicated to
Lucy Harington and her mother were not literary master
pieces but mere language textbooks. Desainliens, a Huguenot
refugee, came to London in 1564, and by 1566 he was to be j
found teaching "in Paul's Churchyard by the Sign of the
Lucrece,"^ His patron was Lord Buckhurst, and at one time i
f i
!
j
^A complete listing of dedications and tributes will be
found in Appendix II. j
^Austin Warren, "Claudius Holyband: an Elizabethan
Schoolmaster," Notes and Queries, 177:237-40, September 3 0,
1939<
^Title page of his work, The Pretie and Wittle Hlstorie
of Arnalt & Lucenda (1575)-
he traveled on the Continent with Lady Bedford’s uncle by
marriage, Lord Zouch. In 1580 before Lucy was born he dedi
cated his Treatise for Declining of Verbs and his Treasury
of the French Tongue, a dictionary, to Lady Harington. In
July, 1583^ when Lucy Harington was about a year and a half •
old, he dedicated his Field of Flowers to her. This was a
language text with Italian, French, Latin, and English in |
parallel columns. His Calvinistic tendencies might be i
!
i
guessed from his wish, expressed at'the end of his dedi- j
cation, that the little girl might ultimately be found among
4 ;
the Lord's elect. He is supposed to be one of the men
lampooned by Shakespeare in Love 1s Labour1s Lost.
Another Italian with whom the Countess and her family j
were acquainted was John Florio, English-born son of a j
teacher of Italian, a Protestant exile who took John Florio i
back to the Continent during Queen Mary's reign.^ In the
1570's the father was secretary to the French embassy In
London.^ He was in the service of his patron Southampton
about 1589 or 1590. Hebei says that Lady Bedford obtained ;
i
for him the position of reader in Italian to Queen Anne in j
1 6 0 3. In 1604 he was made gentleman-extraordinary and groomj
j ^For further comment see also Austin Warren, "Desain-
iiens," Notes and Queries, 175=371^ November 19, 1938.
; 5dnb, article on John Florio. I
' ^Eleanor Rosenberg, "Giacopo Castelvetro," Huntington
Library Quarterly, 6:119-^5, February 1943-
7
bf the Queen’s privy chamber. In 1598 Florio dedicated his
World of Words to the Countess of Bedford, as well as to the
Earl of Rutland and the Earl of Southampton. In the dedi
cation is to be found the information that Lady Bedford
1
read, wrote, and spoke Italian, French, and Spanish.
Before the first book of his translation of Montaigne’s;
Essays (1603) Florio wrote a very long dedication to the
Countess and her mother. The euphuistic style may be illus-
j
trated by the following passage: !
Strange it may seem to some, whose seeming is misseeming,
in one worthless patronage to join two so severally all-
worthy Ladies. But to any in the right, it would be
judged wrong to disjoin them in ought who never were
nearer in kind than ever in kindness.
This dedication includes some useful information as well as ;
a multiplicity of words. Sir Edward Wotton apparently per- ;
suaded Florio to begin the translation. He continued it in !
the Countess' home:
Without pity of my failing, my fainting, my laboring,
my languishing, my gasping for some breath (0 could so
Honorable be so pitiless? Madame, now do I flatter you?)
yet commanded me on: (and let me die outright ere I do
not that command.) I say not you took pleasure at shore j
; . . . to see me sea-tossed, weatherbeaten, shipwracked, j
almost drowned. . . . Nor say I . . . you checked with a i
sour-stern countenance the yearnful complaint of your j
’ drooping, near-dying subject- . . . Nor say I . . . like ;
an ironically modest virgin you induced, yea commanded, *
yea, delighted to see me strive for life, yet fall out of
breath. Unmerciful you were, but not so cruel. (Madame,
now do I flatter you?) Like the Spartan imperious mother,
a shield indeed you gave me, but with this word, Aut cum
hoc; aut in hoc. . . . I must needs say while this was
doing, to put and keep me in heart like a captived
^John W. Hebei, "Drayton's Sirena," PMLA, 39:814-36,
December 1924._ _______ ______
cannibal fattened against my death, you often cried
coraggio, and called £a £a, and applauded as I passed.
Florio was helped financially by the Earl of Bedford,
t
the Countess' sister and her husband, and Lord and Lady
Harington, the Haringtons1 house being his "retreat in ;
storms." Lady Bedford suggested two men to assist him with j
his translation— Theodore Diodati to help him with the
difficult passages, and Matthew Gwinne to translate for him
passages of Latin prose and of Latin, Greek, and French |
!
poetry. Diodati and Gwinne were both physicians. Diodati, ■
the father of Milton's friend Charles Diodati, was at one
time tutor to the Countess' brother. Gwinne, a professor of
medicine at Gresham College, later attended Prince Henry and:
Princess Elizabeth as their physician. He was interested in
literature and music. Under the pen name of II Candido he
wrote a sonnet addressed to the Countess which was prefixed !
to Florio's World of Words and sonnets to Lady Bedford and
her mother published with the translation of Montaigne's
Essays. He wrote two Latin plays, one of which, Vertumnuus |
(1607), included a mention of Lady Bedford in the dedicatory1
verses. Florio and Gwinne were in their fifties in 1603, •
c
when the Countess was twenty-two; Diodati was about her age."
Another Italian who dedicated a book to the Countess in
O
Montaigne's Essays; John Florio's Translation, ed. J.
I . M . Stewart (London, 1931T", II, 559-63 •
i ^dnb, articles on Matthew Gwinne and Charles Diodati.
' 1 6 2
1614 was Giacomo (or Giacopo) Castelvetro. He was a man of
Florio's age or older who left the Continent as early as
1 5 8 0. He was King James' Italian teacher for four years.
By 1584 he was in London, and soon made the acquaintance of |
Florio. He attended Sir Henry Wotton in Venice, and ap
parently helped young John Harington with his Italian while j
Harington was in Italy.^ Of his book, Raconto di tutte le ‘
i
Radici, di tutte l'Herbe, et di tutti i Frutti che crudi o !
! |
cotti in Italia si mangiano, there are at least seven manu- j
t <
1 •
script copies in existence, one of them being dedicated to
Lady Bedford. The definition of literature would have to be
very broad to include this book, for it is a plea for the j
growth and use of fruits and vegetables and the proper prepa
ration of them for the table.
One of the most important English poets with whom Lady
Bedford was associated was Samuel Daniel. Daniel was about
twenty years older than she and had been a protege of her
cousin, Mary, Countess of Pembroke, and tutor of William,
! j
third Earl of Pembroke. Daniel’s earliest work was dedi- {
S
1
bated to Sir Edward Dymock, the Countess' uncle by marriage.1
| {
Near the time of Lucy Harington's marriage his reputation as
a poet was established. In 1599 he was tutor to the Earl of
Bedford's cousin Anne Clifford. Early in 1603 he wrote "A
Panegyric Congratulatory," which was presented before the
| -^Harington gave him a small pension. Katherine T.
Butler, "An Italian's Message to England in l6l4," Italian
Studies, 2:1-18, August 1938.
King when he visited Harington-Burley on his journey, from
Scotland. When Daniel published this work he added epistles
to certain well-known people; one of these was addressed to j
the Countess. Through her influence he was chosen to write j
the Queen's first masque, The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses;
(1604), which he dedicated to the Countess. Early in 1604
he was appointed licenser of plays for the Children of the
i
Queen's Revels, an office which he did not perform very I
i
i
tactfully, since several times the company was suspected of J
f
putting on plays with political overtones unfavorable to j
James' government. In 1607 he became groom of the Queen's
chamber. He got into trouble over his play The Tragedy of
" .. " ■ ' ' — j
Philotas (1 6 0 7) because he was suspected of presenting a j
j
sympathetic version of the Essex story. Although Essex had j
favored the succession of James, he was still a rebel against
his sovereign and as such could scarcely be approved of by
James. Anthony a Wood, who is not entirely reliable, re
cords that Daniel was in animo catholicusIf so, he
might still have received the help of the Countess, since j
j
. she had some Catholic friends. j
' !
There is no clear evidence of relationship between i
1
Daniel and the Countess after 1604, nor is there evidence of
any misunderstanding between them. Daniel was a wealthy
12
man ; he did not need Lady Bedford' s patronage for f inancia..
11Athenae Oxonienses, II, 271, n.
■^DNB article.
reasons. His favorable relationship with the Queen, for
which the Countess was probably responsible, assured him a
place in Court activities. If Jonson replaced him as writer
of the Queen's masques, one reason may have been that Jonson
was a better dramatist, more resourceful in finding plots J
and material.
i
One Catholic who addressed a poem to Lady Bedford was J
i
Edmund Bolton, who "is almost certainly the 'E. B.' whose j
!
lines to the Countess followed Drayton's dedication of |
Mortimeriados [1596]."1^ Bolton was an antiquary who because;
of his faith was debarred from public employment and died in
l l i !
great poverty, having at one time been imprisoned for debt. ;
John Owen, "most noted epigrammatist in the age in
which he lived," in the opinion of Anthony a Wood,1- * was an !
Oxford man who became headmaster of a school in Warwick-
16
shire. According to k Wood his epigrams were put on the
i ;
Index Expurgatorius for some quips about the Catholic Church.!,
and a"Popishly affected" uncle cut him off without a cent.
Some of his epigrams were translated by a Puritanical poet, j
John Vicars. He wrote one epigram concerning the Countess— !
i
"The light to thee (sweet Lucy) gives a name . . ."--and j
^Bernard H. Newdigate, Michael Drayton and His Circle,
P • 9^ •
l4DNB article.
t _ _
i -^Athenae Qxonienses, II, 319*
i
j -^DNB article.
I ... _
four about her brother, two of which were translated by
Robert Hayraan and published in Quodlibets (1 6 2 8).
George Chapman, a "religious and temperate" man who was
befriended by Walsingham, was almost twenty-five years older}
i
than Lady Bedford; the fatherly tone of his sonnet addressed1
i
to her is therefore understandable. This and other sonnets
i
were printed with Homer Prince of Poets . . . Iliads in 1609-
All of these poems are grave in tone, but the one to the ‘
1
Countess seems to differ a little from the others in being ai
i I
warning.
To the most honored Patroness and Grace
of Virtue, the Countess of Bedford.
To you, fair patroness and muse to learning
The fount of learning and the Muses sends
This cordial for your virtues, and forewarning
To leave no good for th' ill the world commends. t
Custom seduceth but the vulgar sort,
With whom, when Noblesse mixeth, she is vulgar.
The truly noble still repair their fort
With gracing good excitements and gifts rare,
In which the narrow path to happiness
Is only beaten. Vulgar pleasure sets
Nets for herself In swinge of her excess
And beats herself there dead ere free she gets.
Since pleasure then with pleasure still doth waste,
Still please with Virtue, Madame: that will last.
i
In 1611 a woman poet, Emilia Lanyer, dedicated her re- \
t 1
ligious poems entitled Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum to the ;
Countess and several other ladies of high rank, and included
a very pious poem addressed to Lady Bedford. This poem con
tains nothing of biographical value. Mrs. Lanyer seems to
have been in the service of Queen Elizabeth and of Anne
Clifford and several other noble ladies. It is not easy to i
: i
decide to which religiousgroupshe belonged, but her [
T66
terminology is not Calvinistic.
John Davies of Hereford, the best penman of the age ac
cording to Thomas Puller, taught writing to Oxford men and
others but apparently was not a member of the University. j
I
He wrote two poems to the Countess, but there is no further ;
)
evidence of his acquaintance with her. Certain lines to herj
in his "Worthy Persons," published with The Scourge of Polly'
in l6ll, are of some biographical significance: 1
j
Sith he whose pen is Poesy's condit-pipe ,
(Whence flows a deluge of clear Helicon)
Thy name hath floated from Confusion's gripe, ;
And housed it in Fame's heavenliest clarion:
Nay sith Apollo's most refulgent sons
Have crowned it with the brightest beams of praise
That maugre Envy's base detractions [
It shall (admired) outlive Time's nights and days, j
How can my nought yield ought (or good or fair) j
To thy perfections' beams or glorious name? . . .
The first lines might refer to Drayton. "Apollo's most re
fulgent sons" might be Jonson, Donne, and Chapman. Among
the worthy persons Davies includes Lady Bedford's mother and
brother, praising highly John's tutor Tovey. There is
nothing of importance in his dedicatory verses to the j
Countess with The Muses Sacrifice (l6l2), except that he ex
presses gracefully what several poets said about her at j
different times:
For wit and spirit, in beauty's livery,
Do still attend thine all-commanding eyes . . .
About Arthur Saul, who dedicated his Famous Game of
Chess-Play to Lady Bedford in 1614, few facts have been dis
covered . His father was an exile in the time of Queen
Mary^ and, according to Strype, "displayed a strong Puritan
] _ 8 ■
leaning." Young Saul's dedication suggests that he may
have been employed in some way in one of the Harington
households. He writes of "having received many courtesies
!
from your honorable father, late deceased, . . . and from
your honorable and worthy self who [sic] in duty I do ever '
reverence."
All that has been discovered about Carew Gorges is that!
!
he was one of the eleven children of Arthur Gorges, a rela- ,
tive and friend of Raleigh. From the manner of Carew Gorges'
19
dedication the reader would suspect that he was very young.
He rambles pleasantly through his long dedication to Lady
I
Bedford of his father's translation of Lucan's Pharsalia j
(1614). He is presenting her with this poem which he found
by chance among his father's manuscripts.
And because it lay idly there, I desired him to give it
to me. Who then asking what I would do with it, I told
him that I would present it to my lady my mistress.
Which humor of mine he seemed very well to like: but he I
answered that it was not fair enough written for her
reading. Whereunto I replied that if I might have it, I I
would amend that fault, and get it printed by the help of;
my schoolmaster. . . . The which now (as mine own) I do ■
! humbly recommend to your honorable acceptance as some t
testimony of my devoted zeal until years and ability 1
shall second my endeavors with parts more answerable to '
my desire. . . .
•^Anthony a Wood, Fasti Oxonienses, I, 128.
l8Annals, I, i, 4-89 ff.
19ne was ten years old. See Helen E. Sandison's
i"Arthur Gorges, Spenser's Alcyon.and Raleigh's Friend,"
PMLA, 43:645-74, September 1928.
Abraham Jackson, who wrote Sorrow's Lenitive (1614)
after the death of Lady Bedford's brother and dedicated the
poem to the Countess and her mother, was an Oxford church-
20
man, a retainer of the Haringtons. He writes that their
favorable acceptance of my poor endeavors in an office of!
the like nature hath animated me again to put pen to I
paper with a purpose to lenify that bitter pill of
passion (which natural affection hath once more caused j
you to swallow) with the sweet julep of consolation. j
This seems to mean that he also wrote a memorial poem for ;
1
Lady Bedford's father, but no such work is known.
Some writers who dedicated works to the Countess' fami-;
ly but not to herself will now be considered. John
Stradling, a churchman, wrote a small book for the young
Earl of Bedford called A Direction for Travelers (1592),
part of it taken from the writing of Justus Lipsius, a con
temporary Flemish critic. In the dedication to the Earl,
Stradling says:
: It is full two years (right honorable Lord) since for
many great courtesies received at your hands I undertook
! and finished the translation of those two famous books of
constancy, written by that great and learned clerk Justus
1 Lipsius. . . .
1 i
Now, he says, the books are in the press and more than half j
finished, but since the Earl is going abroad so soon, ;
Stradling asks him* to accept this other little treatise of
Lipsius about traveling. When Stradling published the trans
lation of the Two Books of Constancy in 1595> three years
later, he did not dedicate it to the Earl of Bedford, as his
20Anthony a Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, II, 1 6 7•
comment above would lead one to expect, but to his great-
uncle Edward Stradling, whose estate St. Donat's was be-
21
queathed to John Stradling in 1609- In his dedication to
his great-uncle John Stradling says that this translation
i
has been done in great haste during the last five weeks be- j
cause he planned to complete it as a birthday present for j
his great-uncle. This seems to be an instance when two ir-. ■
reconcilable explanations of the same action were made. t
f
Andrew Willet, a well-known and zealous Puritan
preacher, addressed a poem in his Sacrorum Emblematum
Centuria Una [1596?] to Edward Russell. At Cambridge,
Willet was a friend of William Perkins. He was later a
chaplain of Prince Henry and preached frequently at Court.
About 1618 he was imprisoned for opposing the proposed
22
Spanish marriage of Prince Charles. There are sketches of
his life in Puller's Abel Redivivus, in Strype's Annals, in j
Samuel Clarke's Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, and else- |
where.
: Philemon Holland, who belonged to Lady Harington's j
1
generation rather than to the Countess', was a physician whoj
settled at Coventry about 1 5 9 5 He was headmaster of the j
1
21Stradling's translation of Lipsius' Two Books of
Constancy (1595], ed. Rudolph Kirk, Rutgers'University Press.
1 9 3 8, notes, p. 211.
22John Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part I, IV, 413*
j 23dnB article.
...... 170
pii
free school there for nearly twenty years, and was famous
as a translator. In a long and stately dedication he pre
sents his translation of Suetonius' Twelve Caesars (1 6 0 6) to
Lady Harington. He had done the translating during an epi
demic of the pestilence, which had prevented his visiting >
her at Combe Abbey. He says that he had often been kindly
entertained there, and he comments on Lady Harington's (
t
enthusiasm for the publication of good literature.
Henry Holland, son of Philemon, accompanied Princess I
|
Elizabeth and the Haringtons to Heidelberg in 1 6 1 3. He was ;
a partisan of Essex.2- ^ He began a collection of all of the
26
works of the moderate Puritan divine Greenham. In 1643 he:
was serving under the Parliamentary general, the Earl of
Denbigh.2^ Herotologla, published in 1620, contains pictures'
and biographical sketches of Lady Bedford's father and
brother.
Daniel Tuvil dedicated his Essays Politic and Moral
(1 6 0 8) to Lady Harington. He was a churchman, a graduate of
Sidney Sussex College, employed in Lady Harington's house- j
hold in some capacity. He calls his book of essays--an J
1 1 '
early example of the essay form in England--a young and ;
1
^Anthony a Wood, Fasti Oxonienses, I, 234.
2^See the last part of his biographical sketch of Essex
in HerfrPologia (1620) .
: ^William Haller, The Rise of Puritanism (New York,
1938), p..26.
j 2^DNB article.
tender Infant." "Myself have imparted unto him part of that
beauty and perfection which art and nature hath bestowed on |
me. . . ." History does not support this man's high esti
mate of his value; the only record of his life discovered by1
this writer is the short notice in Venn's Athenae Cantabri- '
glenses.
i James Maxwell was a Scotchman, educated at the Uni
versity of Edinburgh, who defended the Church of England
against the Puritans. He dedicated his work The Mirror of
Religious Men (1611) to Lord and Lady Harington; he speaks
of the greatness of their humanity, "both towards scholars
and my countrymen." In the dedication of another work,
Queen Elizabeth's Looking-Glass (1612), he mentions Lady
Harington.
Henry Peacham, who wrote the popular book The Complete !
Gentleman, addressed an emblem in his Minerva Britanna (1612)
to Lord Harington. The verses praise firmness and stead
fastness; it is not clear whether these virtues are at
tributed to Lord Harington.
In the library of Sidney Sussex College Is a manuscript:
called A Mathematical Discourse, written by John Waymouth and
dedicated either to Lord Harington or to young John Haring- j
ton. It was given to the college by Lady Bedford and Lady :
28 ^
Harington, perhaps in 1614 after John Harington's death. j
I pQ
Montague R. James, A Descriptive Catalogue of the
Manuscripts in the Library of Sidney Sussex College (Cam-
p; T3ge7-TH^5T7— ” 7 ~ ~
i w
A part of Francis Markham’s Book of Honor (1625) was
dedicated to the Earl of Bedford. This man was related to
the Countess* and she had been godmother to one of his
children. He was born in 1565 and had been brought up in
the Pembroke household. He went to Cambridge and later j
studied law at Heidelberg. He was captain of a company
under Essex in Ireland and served with Sir Francis Vere in ;
i
£ ? Q *
the Low Countries. Markham expresses his gratitude and I
t
devotion to various people besides the Earl of Bedford who i
had befriended him--the Earl of Huntingdon, the young Earl
of Essex, and Francis Bacon among others.
Long after the death of Lady Bedford and of all membersi
of her immediate family, two Puritan churchmen made favora- ,
ble mention of her brother in non-theological works. Thomas
Gataker of Sidney Sussex College called John Harington a
"mirror of nobility" in his Discourse Apologetical (165*0 •'^1
Gataker wrote a sketch of the life of Richard Stock, the
Puritan who preached John Harington’s funeral sermon, for
i
Samuel Clarke, another Puritan, to include in his Marrow of j
Ecclesiastical History (I6 5O). Gataker ;was a member of the (
i ' (
Westminster Assembly.31 Samuel Clarke, of Emmanuel College i
i
short autobiography of Markham is printed in the
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, second series,
1:15-18, November 17, 1859-
3qdn b, article on John Harington, second Baron Haring
ton of Exton.
■ 31-yenn, Athenae Cantabrigienses, Part I, II, 200.
i
173
in Cambridge, preached at Coventry at one time, but he was
driven from place to place because of his non-conformity.
In the; first edition of his Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons^
Clarke included a biography of Lady Bedford's brother, I
emphasizing his unusual piety, his religious observances, !
and his reading of Calvin's Institutes♦
Attempting to classify the writers of all these works
i
does not produce any startling results. Almost all were t
j
Protestant, as would be expected, and some were definitely i
Puritan. Some were churchmen, but their writings considered
in this chapter are not sermons or comment on the Bible.
Some were Essex partisans, as the Earl of Bedford probably
was, and more may have been. Several were members of the
Bedford-Harington households. About one third were Cam
bridge men; approximately one fourth were Oxford men; and
fifteen of them could not be certainly associated with
either university. The presence among them of Desainliens,
t
Florlo, Diodati, and Castelvetro might indicate a hospitablej
i !
attitude toward Europeans. There were also Welshmen like
J
Gwinne and Owen, and Scotchmen like Cleland and Maxwell. 1
• i
The works are also of various kinds--textbooks; books on
32Autobiographical sketch in Lives of Sundry Eminent
Persons.
33included with The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History,
1650. In the 1683 edition of Lives the biography of Haring-
ton is omitted.
conduct; books on chess and horticulture; translations from
French, Latin, and Greek; and English writing of definitely !
literary nature such as epigrams, emblems, essays, and
masques.
!
The conclusions to be drawn about the Countess are thab
i
she had a wide range of interests and that she was hospita- ;
ble in her attitude toward various points of view. With very
j
few exceptions, the writers who paid tribute to her and her [
; t
family were well educated. Wit, that is, intelligence and j
{
I :
the ability to see and express likeness and differences, was:
frequently ascribed to her. It would seem that where she
was there was a lively circulation of information and ideas,!
expressed by a wide variety of human types. j
CHAPTER IX j
!
THE COUNTESS' LATER YEARS AS A COURTIER,
1610 TO 1619
The ceremonies for making young Henry Prince of Wales j
in June, 1610, were a kind of high point for the royal farai-j
ly, and also for the Countess of Bedford, for from that time,
on her life was frequently darkened by misfortune. She was ;
1
to be socially and politically powerful to the end of her
j
life, but financial worry and ill health were to trouble herj
and several of her friends and relatives were to die.
On September 5* 1610, Robert Sidney wrote to his wife:
Upon Monday my Lady of Bedford was brought to bed of a
daughter, but it died within two hours after. She her
self is very weak and much grieved for the loss of the
child.1 |
About a year later, on October 5, 1611, John Chamberlain
wrote to Dudley Carleton: "The Countess of Bedford mis-
p
carried of the child there was so much hope of." The
Countess was about thirty years old in 1611. She was to
i j
live sixteen years longer, but nothing more is heard of !
| i
children. Since she and her husband died childless, the
earldom passed to another branch of the Russell family.
; In September, 1612, because of the serious illness of ;
Prince Henry, Queen Anne was called back to London from a
HMCR, Lord DeL'Isle and Dudley, IV, 229- See also ex
cerpt s-I^FonTThe-^egTster-Boolcs—a¥_CHeyneys, in Lipscomb, j
Buckinghamshire, III, 260-61.
i ^Quoted in Birch, Court and Times of James the First,
I, l^P-.^1-....................... ........
progress she was making. He grew gradually worse and died
on November 6. This death would concern the Haringtons a
little more than it did people in general because young
Harington was one of the Prince's companions, and because
I
Princess Elizabeth, who was very fond of her brother, was
with Lord and Lady Harington.
In late November, 1612, the Countess herself was
dangerously ill. Richard Earl of Dorset writes to Sir
i
Thomas Edmonds on November 23: !
1
My Lady Bedford last night, about one of the clock, was
suddenly, and hath continued ever since, speechless, and ;
is past all hopes, though yet alive: and even now my
wife [Anne Clifford] is gone to see her.3 ;
j
Sir Thomas Lake, in a letter to Sir Dudley Carleton, January!
4
6, 1613, speaks of her as still being seriously ill ; and on;
c ;
January 15 she was no better. On February 11, however, she;
had sufficiently recovered to stand sponsor for the daughter;
of the Countess of Salisbury.^
i After her illness in late 1612 and early l6l3> the
Countess changed her attitude toward the Court somewhat.
Chamberlain writes to Carleton:
1
^Quoted in Birch, I, 211. The theory has been advanced;
-that this illness was another miscarriage. I find no ;
further evidence to support this supposition.
^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1611-18, p. 170.
5Letter from John Thorp to William Trumbull, HMCR,
Devonshire, IV, 16.
^Chamberlain to Carleton, Calendar of State Papers
Domestic, l6ll-l8, p. 170.
His [the Earl of Bedford’s] lady . . . shows herself
again in Court, though in her sickness she in a manner
vowed never to come there. . . . Marry, she is somewhat
reformed in her attire, and forbears painting, which,
they say, makes her look somewhat strangely among so many
: vizards, which, together with their frizzled, powdered
hair, makes them look all alike. . . . . Dr. Burges, who is!
turned physician, was much about her in her sickness, and!
. did her more good with his spiritual counsel than with i
: natural physic.' 1
(
John Burges had "turned physician" because he had been for- ,
| ’ :
bidden to preach, his non-conformity being offensive to the |
!
King. He was later licensed to preach again, partly because!
8 *
the Countess favored him. This Doctor Burges is of some
interest for the reason that the theory has been advanced
that the Countess was so much impressed by him that from
this time on she preferred him to Donne as her spiritual ad-
Q 1
viser. It is not certain that Donne had been her spiritual
adviser before this time, although it seems reasonably clear;
that his influence of this kind in the last half of 1613 and
l6l4 was of some importance.
If Lady Bedford began to be critical of the Court,
there were several possible causes. Dr. Burges' influence
was no doubt one of them. Her parents were religious, and j
i
there is ample evidence of the somewhat extreme Puritanism j
of her brother. She had lost her children and had been so
^Quoted in Birch, I, 262.
®James Spedding, et al., eds., The Works of Francis
Bacon (London, 1857-74), V, 371 ff.
9see Patricia Thomson, "John Donne and the Countess of
Bedford," Modern Language Review, 44:329-40, April 1949-
........... ~ ................... 1 7 8 '
gravely 111 that she was near to death. She was now old
enough and serious enough to find Anne's endless pursuit of j
pleasure somewhat empty and tiresome. She said later that
there was no good to be done at Court.
Regardless of the' national sorrow over the death of the!
i
Prince, the wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Frederick Count,
l
Palatine was celebrated with much splendor a little more !
than three months later, on February 14, 1613* According to;
Daniel Neal, this marriage
was promoted by Archbishop Abbot, and universally ap
proved by the Puritans in England as the grand security
of the Protestant succession in case of failure of heirs 1
from the King's son.H
This wedding was of interest to Lord and Lady Harington be- !
< r
cause they were to accompany Elizabeth and her husband to
Heidelberg. The Countess was one of the Princess' attend- '
12
ants at the ceremony. The wedding was an expensive affair.
There are various estimates of its cost; the figures in the j
The following are j
■LI, 000
L2,800
L3.000
i-5,555
L5,000
L5.000
l^Wiffen, Memoirs of the House of Russell, II, 101.
Pell Records are probably most reliable,
some of the items included:
Fireworks
A naval fight as entertainment
Apparel
Ships for transportation
Entertainment for Frederick
Marriage expenses
■^Private Correspondence, p . 45•
^History of the Puritans, I, 457.
IQ
The dowry L40,000
14
James also gave Elizabeth an annuity of £2,000. Chamber-
lain writes to Mrs. Carleton: "This extreme cost and riches
makes us all poor."1"’
Others besides the Haringtons who attended Elizabeth ,
and her husband to the Palatinate were the Duke of Lenox,
the Earl of Arundel, Lord Zouch, who was Lord Harington1s
16 '
brother-in-law, Robert Sidney, Lord Harington*s cousin, I
and Henry Holland, the eldest son of Philemon Holland and f
f
the compiler of HeraJologia Anglica, which includes biographi-
17
cal accounts of Lady Bedford’s father and brother. In May,
1613, Sir Ralph Winwood wrote from the Hague that the
i
18 ?
Countess planned to join her parents, but apparently she |
did not go to the Continent; a letter to Carleton quoted in
19
Birch gives lack of money as the reason. v
It was unfortunate that she could not go, for her
father died at Worms on August 23, 1 6 1 3* There had been
•^Frederick Devon, compiler, Issues of the Exchequer
, . . . During the Reign of James I (London, 1 8 3 6), pp. 157- I
7 3. !
: ^Thomas D. Hardy, Syllabus of Rymer’s Poedera (London,!
1 8 6 9-8 5)., II, 8 3 8. ;
■^Quoted in Birch, I; 226.
l6HMCR, Buccleuch, I, 242.
^DNB, article on Henry Holland.
l8HMCR, Downshire, IV, 115-
^Birch, I, 262.
serious quarreling among certain Scotch retainers in the
Court of the Princess at Heidelberg, and Lord Harington
seems to have become very angry with them. The Frenchman
Pierre Dathenes writes to William Trumbull from Heidelberg j
as follows:
i
We have lost on Monday last Lord Harington, who had left
for Worms on his homeward journey. The doctors say it I
was due to a fit of passion about the quarrel between the;
two squires, his Highness [Frederick] having referred thej
case to the King [James]. Lady Harington is taking the *
■ body to England.^ *
21 22 ■ *
According to the Complete Peerage and James Whitelocke,
Lord Harington was buried at Exton on October 7, 1613* He
was seventy-three years o l d . 2 ^ Lord Harington's brothers,
24 I
Sir Henry and Sir James, also died during this year. :
In the summer of 1613 Edward Russell had a serious j
accident. On July 17 John Donne writes:
My Lord of Bedford, I hear, had lately a desperate fall
from his horse, and was speechless all Tuesday last; his
lady rode away hastily from Twickenham to him, but I hear
no more yet of him.25
Chamberlin tells what happened:
20Translated from the French. HMCR, Downshlre, IV, 186.
According to Thomas Lorkin, young John Harington went to ;
Calais to meet his parents. (Letter quoted in Birch, I,
2 6 8.) ;
21Complete Peerage, VI, 321.
22Liber Famelicus, p . 31 • j
23complete Peerage, VI, -321. j
2^Birch, I, 302. j
25;gdmund Gosse, Life and Letters of John Donne, II, 16.
T 8 T
The Earl of Bedford, hunting in a park of his own, by the
fall of his horse was thrown against a tree, and so
bruised that the report went that he was dead, and it is
doubted yet [this letter is written nearly two weeks
: after Donne's] that he is in danger, for that his skull
; is said to be c r a c k e d .26
A letter written more than a month later reports that he was|
still very ill.2^ !
Another sorrow was in store for Lady Bedford, for in j
early 1614 her brother died. James Whitelocke gives some of
the details: !
Upon Saturday night, 26 February, 1614, died at Kew in
the county of Surrey, that worthy young nobleman John
Lord Harington of Exton, being not full 22 years of age. '
He was the most complete young gentleman of his age that
this kingdom could afford for religion, learning, and
courteous b e h a v i o r .2o
Donne wrote a funeral ode, and there were elegies by Francisj
29 !
Hering, Abraham Jackson, ^ and Thomas Hoe, and one by a
certain George Tooke, apparently a Puritan, called The
Belides Elegy (1659)- Tooke says that Lord Harington was
t
One "with whom I was long conversant, at the same hearth,
i i
the same board, and in the same bed." The Belides Elegy is !
" I I 1 T ' ■ 1 ' ' " 1 " r " |
' 26
; Chamberlain to Carleton, August 1, 1613, quoted in
Birch, I, 262. i
2^Charles Lancaster to Sir Robert Cotton, Ellis, Origi- j
nal Letters, Second Series, III, 234. For mention of Edward
Russell's illness see also a letter in the Egerton Papers, j
Camden Society 12 (1840), p. 463, and a letter by Nicholas Tj.
Charles, The Visitation of the County of Huntingdon, Camden !
Society 43, xiii, n. ;
i- o R !
^uLiber Famelicus, p. 39- !
^Sorrow's Lenitive (l6l4) . Jackson was an Oxford man j
,who was a retainer of the Haringtons. (Anthony a Wood,
Athe.nae Qxonienses, 26_ 7 . . _ ) . _________________ . ________
a rhapsody in couplets on the virtues of the young lord.
The funeral sermon, preached by Richard Stock, a Puritan
minister of Bread Street, London, was dedicated to the
SO
Countess, her mother, and her sister.-'
|
There is a characterization of Lord Harington by another!
. i
Puritan, Samuel Clarke, which praises his learning and piety;
According to Clarke, Harington was thoroughly familiar with j
\
Calvin’s Institutes and spent many hours every day in re- i
i
“ 51 I
ligious observances. Clarke records the theory that, be- t
cause of Lord Harington’s aggressive Protestantism, he and
his tutor John Tovey were given a slow poison while they
were traveling in Europe, from which Tovey died on the
journey home. Sir John Harington also records the rumor
about the p o i s o n i n g .^2 The young Lord Harington's death was;
linked with the deaths of "my Lord Treasurer [Cecil], the
Prince, the elder Harington, Overbury, and Northampton,"
With suspicion placed on "the two Monnsons which yet remain
i hSS
untried. This is probably part of the irresponsible
gossip of the time. Sober historians like Gardiner ignore ,
the poisoning theory. It does not seem tenable in young i
3°Richard stock, The Churches Lamentation (1614), !
"Epistle to the Christian Reader." Not paged.
^Samuel Clarke, The Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons
'(London, 1 6 8 3), pp. 121-30.
3%ugae Antiquae, II, 307 ff-
- ^HMCR, IV, 3 6 1. Coke accused Sir Thomas Monson of
being a "papist" and inferred that he was involved in the
murder of Prince Henry.
Harington's case, since he traveled, in Europe with Tovey in
1609 and did not die until 1614.^ j
The writer of The Narrative History of King James de- !
scribes Lord Harington's virtues at length, and concludes: ;
He gave all he had to the Countess of Bedford, his sister,;
defeating her neither of land nor barony, esteeming her *
worthy of much more than he had to leave her.35
He could have given his property to his nearest male rela
tive. As a matter of fact, two thirds of the property was
1 * * j
i
given to the Countess and one third to her sister. ;
*
Only a little more than a year after the Countess'
brother was buried at Exton, her sister Prances died. In
May, 1615, Carew writes to Sir Thomas Roe: "The Lady i
Chichester, the only sister to the Countess of Bedford, is
t
dead, which gave a new wound to her and the old lady [Lady i
Harington]."3^ Lady Chichester had one daughter, Anne, who j
married Thomas Lord Bruce, first Earl of Elgin, and died in I
l627> leaving one child, a boy. Lady Chichester was buried 1
o O
in the parish church of Poylton.
^Gosse says that he went abroad after his father's
death, but no other statement to this effect has been found.
(Life of Donne, II, 4 3.)
^ The Narrative History of King James (London, 1 6 5 1), !
p. 56.
3^H0lland, Her6»ologia.
3^John Maclean, ed., Letters from George Lord Carew to
Sir Thomas Roe, Camden Society Publications, No. 73 (West
minster, i860), pp. 11-12.
' progresses, II, 175* n.
" .... ..........x84:
The earliest letter from Lady Bedford in The Private
Correspondence of Jane Lady Cornwallis, 1613-1644 (edited by
Lord Braybrooke and published in 1842)., is dated July 30,
1614. This book is the best of all sources of information
i
about the Countess, for thirty-four of her letters are in
cluded, the last one being written in March, 1 6 2 6, about a
year before her death. Jane Meautys Cornwallis, whose
second husband was Nathaniel Bacon, a painter,and Lady
!
Bedford were about the same age. When the two became ac- j
f 1
quainted is not known, though Jane Cornwallis' family and i
4q
the Russells had long been associated. Before her
marriage to Lord Cornwallis, Jane Meautys had been one of j
the Countess' attendants. Lady Jane was wealthy and of good
family. There was a family tradition that "she possessed a I
strong masculine understanding and was an excellent woman of
41
business." Lady Bedford writes long letters to her friend
in which she reveals her thoughts and feelings with consider!-
I j
able frankness. Without this correspondence we should be
much poorer in our understanding of Lucy Russell.
< f
Before the Countess' first letter, written in July,
i
l6l4, there is mention of her in the Cornwallis
39jn Nichols' Progresses he is called "the most eminent
amateur painter of his time." (Ill, 525, n.) See also "Sir
Nathaniel Bacon, Knight of the Bath," Gentleman's Magazine,
196, part 1:396, May 1 8 2 6.
; 40prjvate Correspondence, Introduction, p. xx.
_ .
correspondence. Early in l6l4 Nathaniel Bacon was apparent
ly painting a picture for her, perhaps a landscape, since he
asks Lady Cornwallis to tell Lady Bedford that the weather
42
has not been favorable "to the proceedings of her picture."
i
In another letter which Bacon writes to Lady Jane on March 1
6, 1614, he expresses his concern over young Lord Harington's
’ 43 i
death.
When Lady Bedford writes In July she has had some Court}
i
obligations because of the short and unexpected visit of thel
I ,
King of Denmark beginning near the end of July. Now she is ■
going to Rutlandshire, and expects to meet her friend Jane
44
on the way, at her cousin’s home at Huntingdon. In her j
I
October letter from Bedford House she gives her friend the '
news that when she returned from Rutland she found the Earl !
very ill with a fever. He has just recovered sufficiently
for her to go about her business affairs. She writes:
Now I thank God I can say that out of a very great and
almost hopeless danger my Lord of Bedford hath recovered
so much health and strength as we are out of all fear of
him, and do conceive that the violent fever he hath had
hath done him some good for his palsy, his speech being j
better than before he fell sick, though his lameness be j
nothing a m e n d e d . }
i
It was more than a year earlier, in 1613, that Edward !
<
Russell had been seriously hurt by a fall from a horse.
L lQ
Private Correspondence, p . 20.
43p. 21.
44p . 23•
. 45p. 28. _____
Apparently the consequences of that accident were lameness
and Impaired speech, though there may have been some other
cause for the defect in speaking. These handicaps would no >
doubt have kept him from taking part in public affairs, even
if he had desired to do so. He was still in poor health
three years later, in 1617j for Nicholas Byfield, who was
vicar at Isleworth, a village on the river next to Twicken-
i
ham, says that Edward Russell i
has shown his daily and affectionate respect for the word
i of God and prayer in private, since the Lord hath made you,
less able to resort more frequently to the public as- j
semblies.'H' D
In Lady Bedford's letter of October, l6l4, she says
that she must be much in attendance at Court because her
friend Lady Roxborough is expecting the birth of a child
about December first and cannot wait on the Queen. Evident
ly at this time it was not the Countess' custom to attend
47
constantly, even during the last quarter of the year.
About a year later Anne Clifford writes to her mother: i
My lady of Bedford is become a new courtier again, and as !
it is thought, will quite leave her house and poor husband^
and be a continual abider there. He is still weak and ^
sick, yet the physicians say he may live this many years. ,
j
Anne Clifford's phrase "become a new courtier," joined with j
i
the fact that, except from the Countess' own letters, the
Dedication of Exposition on the Epistle to the Colos
si ans (1617)•
^Letter 21, p. 3 0.
1 48G. C. Williamson, Lady Anne Clifford (Kendal, 1922),
pp. 152-53-
news of her from 1613 to l6l6 is scanty, may very well mean
that from 1613 when the Earl was hurt she was spending much
time with him and was not much at Court.
In November, 1615, she was at Twickenham, for her
cousin Catherine Hastings Stanhope's child Charles was j
i
baptized on November 11 at her home "by a special dispen- 1
49 ; !
sation." In December, 1615, she writes that she is likely(
I
"to be a Londoner the most of this winter to air my house at'
50 ^
Twickenham against the spring." There seems to be an
inference here that during these years she did not always ;
come to London even for the winter. The custom of the no
bility was to spend the winter months in the city to enjoy
i
the lively social life and to go for the summer to their j
f
country places where the air was more fresh and cool. Lady ;
Bedford once wrote her friend that she was finding London
very dull toward the end of May because "there is almost no
body of quality left in it."'*1
There are several letters for 1 6 1 6. On Good Friday she
is again taking Lady Roxborough's place with the Queen be
cause that lady is expecting the birth of a child. Her
little son born in l6l4 had died."*2 In her September letter
to Lady Cornwallis, the Countess reports on the events of
4
^Lysons,■Environs of London, II, 79^-95• i
5°Private Correspondence, pp. 33-3^- •
; 51
' ' ■ - 188'
the summer. She had planned to visit her friend at Brome
and take her to Exton as her guest. But the King had de
cided to visit her, probably at Exton, and her housekeeping
problems had absorbed all of her attention. Then she went !
i
to Huntingdon to visit her cousins for two days, intending 1
to return to Exton. While she was at Huntingdon the Queen ;
ordered.her to come to wait on her at Woodstock. She obeyed,
although she became so ill that she could scarcely get home ;
to Bedford House for some medical treatment. She planned toj
go again to Rutland, where the Earl was, but she was very
ill for the last six weeks of the summer. As soon as she is:
able she is going to Harington House for the winter. She j
writes of the
i
danger or canker of this sickly time, wherein my people j
everywhere have been visited with much sickness, which j
hath concluded at Exton with the death of poor Francke
Markham [the Countess' cousin].'1
Lady Bedford had "concluded such a match for her as I had
reason to believe she should have lived contentedly.
The Countess tells her friend that Lady Harington is
going to Germany soon "by my Lady Elizabeth's extreme j
earnest desire and the King's commandment." Making such a '
journey in the winter is hard for an old person, but "her
spirit carries her body beyond what almost could be hoped
iTor at her years. Her mother finally left on December 30;
53prjvate Correspondence, pp. 25-26.
5\>. 26.
l6lj, accompanied by Sir John Finett, whose home was in
Twickenham, and others. She was taken to France in the pin-!
nace of her sister-in-law's husband, Lord Zouch. She wanted
to pay Lord Zouch for taking her, for "if this company be
carried over free, others will expect it, though his Lord- j
ship is at the expense of keeping up the boat."^5 Before ^
she left England she furnished money for the care of her ;
i
i
father's tomb in Exton Church and provided for the relief of|
the poor on her lands in Rutlandshire. With Elizabeth she;
was to take the place of her niece Anne Dudley, who had died'
57
during 1615* Lady Bedford planned to visit her mother and'
the Princess in Germany in the spring and to take the waters
at the Spa for her ailments, by Mayerne's advice, but there j
is no record of her going abroad at this time. I
During the year 1616 Lady Bedford arranged with Nicholas
Stone to make a monument for certain members of her family.
In Stone's "pocketbook" is the following:
1616. A bargain made with Mr. Chambers for the use of !
the right honorable Lucy Countess of Bedford, for one
fair and stately tomb of touchstone and white marble for j
her father and mother and brother and sister, for which I;
was to have 1020L and my Lady was to gfcand at all charges,
! for carriage and iron and setting up.5° :
^ C a l e n d a r Qf state Papers Domestic, I6II-1 8, p. 417•
^^Wright, History and Antiquities of the County of Rut-
land, p. 5 2.
I
^Mary Ann Everett Green, Lives of the Princesses of j
England, V, 2 7 8. !
1 58patricia Thomson (pp. 329-^0) says that this monument
was never completed and was not paid for. See the "Notebook
Late in February, 1617, the Countess was again engaged
in matchmaking. She believed in married love, as her
letters show, and her chief aim was to find young persons
well suited to each other who would have enduring happiness ;
together. Sometimes she seems to have ignored the wishes of:
fathers with other purposes in mind. Chamberlain writes to
Carleton: [
*
This night [February 22, 1 6 1 7], he [the French ambassa-!
dor, Henri, Baron de la Tour] is solemnly invited by Lord!
Hay to the wardrobe, to a supper and a masque where the ■
Countess of Bedford is to be lady and mistress of the
1 feast, as she is of the managing of his love to the Earl
of Northumberland's daughter Lady Lucy Percy. It re
quired all the Countess' address and skill to bring the
aforesaid alliance to bear, as it was ill approved by
Lord Northumberland, chiefly perhaps from its having been:
previously recommended by the Countess of Somerset.59
This masque was Jonson's Lovers Made Men, which Herford and ;
Simpson call the first English opera. Nicholas Lanier "made!
both the scene and the music."
In March Lady Bedford was godmother to two babies, as
the following passage from a letter by Chamberlain indicates:
; There were two christenings in the chapel at Whitehall j
[ this week; the first on Tuesday, March 11th, of a son of j
Lord Haddington's where the King, the Earl of Southampton;
f and the Countess of Bedford were gossips; the other on
; Thursday the 13th, of a son of the Lady Feilding, sister !
of the Earl of Buckingham, who was partner with the King
of Nicholas Stone" in the Walpole Society Publications, VII
(1918-19), 47-48. Stone's note suggests that the tomb was
never completed. See also p. 111.
-^Quoted by Wiffen, Memoirs of the House of Russell,
II, 106-07.
6oBen Jonson, VII, 451.
191!
£ T * j
and the same Lady of Bedford in that business.
In 1617, apparently as the result of Buckingham's in-
62
fluence, the King granted the Earl and Countess of Bedford
63
the manor of Moor Park in Hertfordshire. The next year
the Countess gave her kinsman William Harington her interest;
in Twickenham Park House and thenceforth resided mainly at
64
Moor Park. Of her famous garden there Sir William Temple
wrote an extensive description: !
1
The perfectest figure of a garden I ever saw either at ,
home or abroad was that of Moor Park in Hertfordshire, !
when I knew it about thirty years ago. It was made by
the Countess of Bedford, esteemed among the greatest wits
of her time, and celebrated by Doctor Donne. . . . It
lies on the side of a hill (upon which the house stands)
but not very steep. The length of the house, where the j
best rooms and of most use or pleasure are, lies upon the!
breadth of the garden, the great parlor opens into the
middle of a terrace gravel-walk that lies even with it,
and which may be, as I remember, about three hundred
paces long and broad in proportion; the border set with
standard laurels, and at large distances, which have the
beauty of orange trees out of flower and fruit: from
this walk are three descents by many stone steps, in the
middle and at each end, into a very large parterre. This:
is divided into quarters by gravel walks, and adorned wifchi
two fountains and eight statues in the several quarters;
at the end of the terrace walk are two summerhouses even I
with the cloisters, which are paved with stone, and de- '
signed for walks of shade, there being none other in the j
whole parterre. Over these two cloisters are two terraces
covered with lead and fenced with balusters; and the
passage into these airy walks is out of the two summer-
1
1
6l i
Letter, Chamberlain to Carleton, quoted by Wiffen,
TI, 106. ;
6? ’
^ See notice of a letter from the Earl to Buckingham, ;
July 4, 1617, in HMCR, II, 53* I
^3John Timbs, Abbeys, Castles . . . of England and
Wales, second edition (London, 1902), x, 271.
> ^Wiffen,. 1 1 8 ^
” ' ~ ...... ........" T9 2"
houses, at the end of the first terrace walk. The
i cloister facing the south is covered with vines, and
would have been proper for an orangehouse, and the other
for myrtles. . . .
1 Prom the middle of the parterre is a descent by many
| steps flying on each side of a grotto that lies beneath
them (covered with lead and flat) into the lower garden,
! ' which is all fruit-trees ranged about the several !
quarters of a wilderness which is very shady; the walks
here are all green, the grotto embellished with figures
of shell-rock-work, fountains and water-works. . . . j
There was a garden on the other side of the ho.use, . . .
very wild, shady, and adorned with rough rock-work and j
fountains.
i
This was Moor-Park, when I was acquainted with it, and 1
the sweetest place, I think, that I have seen in my life,;
either before or since, at home or abroad.65
During the summer of 1617 the Countess spent some time
in Warwickshire trying to make a bargain with Buckingham's
66
officers for the fee farm of Combe Abbey. But her chief ;
preoccupation that year seems to have been with Moor Park.
In the spring she wrote her friend of "some little building j
67
I have in hand at the More." Perhaps this "little build- i
ing" was making the elaborate structures for her garden. In
October she asked the advice of Jane Cornwallis and her
husband about her building there and added,
I am still adding some trifles of pleasure to that place f
I am so much in love with, as, if I were so fond of any
man, I were in hard c a s e .68 ;
l
85The Works of Sir William Temple (London, 1770), II,
214-16 .
i
66prjVate Correspondence, p. 44.
67p. 43-
68p. 47.
193]
During this year Lady Bedford was. angry at the Queen
because she thought Anne had mistreated her friend Lady Rox-
69
borough. Without consulting the Queen, Lady Roxborough's ;
husband had secretly obtained the King's promise that he
might be Chamberlain to the Prince of Wales. Queen Anne was
very angry, and late in l6l6 she had banished Lady Rox-
70
borough to Scotland. Lady Bedford writes:
F
Of the Queen’s court I can say little good, for her j
resolution to part with Roxborough still continues, which!
makes her look big upon all she thinks loves that good
woman, and they attend her seldom: of which matter I am
one that prize her favor, but upon such an occasion can
not be sorry for her frowns, which are now little to me,
all my court businesses being so dispatched as they will
not much require my attendance there; and I am grown to
love my ease and liberty so well as no measure of favor
could often invite me thither, where there is no hope of !
any good to be done.'-*-
Several months later she writes: "Lady Roxborough is in
72
Scotland, which makes me perfectly hate the Court." In a 1
postscript to one of these letters to Lady Jane the Countess!
refers again to the Queen. She asks her friend to send some;
money to Norwich,
! whence I have had two letters lately from the fine Mr.
Russell, who it seems the fair Queen hath forsaken, for
he writes me word he is there prisoner, in the under
sheriff's house, in great necessity; and it were a great
^Robert Carey, Memoirs, ed. G. H. Powell (London,
1905), pp. 92-93. i
|
7 ° L a d y Bedford had been one of the godmothers for Lady 1
Roxborough's daughter in April, 1616. (Nichols, Progresses,!
Ill, 166.). I
: ^Private Correspondence, pp. 44-45•
7 2 P r 4 8 .
194
pity so complete a fool should starve.
Lady Bedford was perhaps present at Court in early
November, 1617, when the Muscovite ambassadors brought gifts
to the King to the value of £,4,000. Sir John Finett, who
f
s • i
was Master of Ceremonies for both James and Charles, gives j
i
an account of the jealousies and struggles for precedence i
among the various ambassadors. Expensive gifts were ex- I
i f
changed as between savage tribes. Finett describes in de- ■
j
tail the Russian gifts. There were I
sable furs, black foxes, ermines, hawks with their hoods ;
and mantles all embroidered with gold and pearl; two |
living sables, a Persian dagger and knife set with stones:
and pearls, two rich cloth-of-gold Persian horse cloths, |
a Persian kettle drum to lure hawks with. . . .74 i
On the first of December, 1617, occurred the death of
Arthur Wingfield, who was a first cousin of the Countess.
Sir George Carew writes to Roe about the catastrophe:
Arthur Wingfield, the Countess of Bedford’s cousin German:
and my kinsman (who was once her page and after that, if
i I be not mistaken, a servant to the Lady Electress her
i Grace . . .) was slain in private duel by a young gentle-
: man called Ayliffe. . . . Wingfield was left dead in the
i place, and the other is now prisoner.‘5
i i
: In March, 1618, the Countess wrote her friend Jane
’ . j
Cornwallis the well-known letter about the Holbeins, which
t
she hoped to procure with Nathaniel Bacon's assistance:
i
I am a very diligent gatherer of all I can get of
1
73private Correspondence, p. 46.
i
^Finetti Philoxenis (London, 1 6 5 6), p. 39*
; ^Letters of Carew to Roe, Camden Society Publications,
No ._76,._ pp. .132-33..______________.___ _ _ _ _ _
.................... “ ' 1951
j
Holbein’s or any other excellent master's hand; I do not I
care at what rate I have them for price. . . . Some of
those I have, I found in obscure places, and gentlemen's |
houses, that, because they were old, made no reckoning of
them; and that makes me think it likely that there may
I yet be in divers places many excellent unknown pieces, j
for which I lay wait with all my friends; and when Mr. [
; Bacon comes to London, he shall see that though I be but !
| a late beginner, I have pretty store of choice pieces.
' . . . Be not curious to think I may pay too much, for I !
had rather have them than jewels.76
i . !
There were Holbeins in the collection of Lady Jane's father*-;
in-law, whose death was expected, though it did not occur at’
i
this time. The Countess is indignant over "a trick my Lord
of Arundel put upon me yesterday to the cousening me of some
pictures promised me.” This time she is going to get her
77
word in ahead of the wily Earl.
Patricia Thomson has discovered another letter by the '
t
Countess about paintings in the Dutch State Papers. It ex
presses her approval of the painter Mittens. She writes of
her collection, which will show the partisans of Italian
painting what the Dutch can do. It indicates her interest
in the quality of the painting rather than in the subject
yO
painted. This letter was written November 5* 1621.
Frequently Lady Bedford made plans to visit her friend 1
or to have Lady Cornwallis visit her, but often these plans j
■could not be carried out because of her Court responsibili- j
' ^ Private Correspondence, pp. 50-51.
’ 77P• 50.
^Patricia Thomson, "Lucy Countess of Bedford as a
Collector of Paintings," Notes and Queries, 193:70-71,
iFebruary 21, 1948. ...... ....
~ ......: '...... "..... ‘ .“T 96
ties or* business affairs she was engaged in. In May, l6l8,
however, she did make a two-day visit to Jane Cornwallis'
home, Brome Hall in Suffolk, as is shown by an extract from
an old household book made by the editor of the Cornwallis
i
70
correspondence. ^ The Countess also wrote to Lady Jane from)
!
Bedford House- concerning her visit.
In October of the same year she gave young Frederick, |
Lady Cornwallis' eight-year-old son, a sword. She writes: 1
1
I send this messenger to bring me word how you, Mr. ,
; Bacon, and all your little ones do, and by him send my j
servant Fred, a sword to defend him from the malice of
the bucks In this their choleric season.
She continues:
This month puts me in mind to entreat the performance of
your promise for some of the little white single rose
roots I saw at Brome, and to challenge Mr. Bacon's
promise for some flowers, if about you there be any
extraordinary ones; for I am now very busy furnishing my
gardens
For the time being she was obliged to leave her garden
ing, for the Queen was very ill in the fall of 1618, "which
j Q - |
makes me oftener a courtier than I intended."
i
1 At this time there is evidence of Lady Bedford's in-
i
fluence with the Duke of Buckingham--one of the secrets of
her power at Court. The Duke owed her much, for she had
been one of the chief instigators of the successful plan to
replace Somerset with Villiers in the King's favor. As
^Private Correspondence, p . 53 and note.
; 80P- 57.
L . . 8lP- 57.
: .. ~ “.......... ’ ...... 197'
Thomas Fuller puts It, "The Lady Lucy, Countess of Bedford,
led him by the one hand, and William Earl of Pembroke by the
02
other." Through the Duke's influence she was successful
: 88
in obtaining a position for Sir Humphrey May. Lady Isa-
i
bella Rich, trying to help Dudley Carleton to obtain a \
i
secretaryship, wishes he had applied to the Countess, "who ;
is powerful with both the Marquises [probably Buckingham and.
Marquis Hamilton] and the Lord Chamberlain [William Her-
84 *
bert]." A letter Lady Bedford wrote to Carleton on
October 18, 1618, indicates that she was trying to get this j
position for him, but she did not succeed. v
Another instance of her matchmaking is recorded in a
letter from Chamberlain to Carleton, dated November 14, 1618.
Chamberlain writes:
The Marquis of Hamilton and she are in hand to make up a
match for his son and heir with her niece, daughter to
her sister, the Lady Chichester, from whom she inherits
L 1500 a year land, and may be a greater heir by her awpt,
if her Ladyship could be persuaded to hold her h a n d s .^6
Marquis Hamilton was one of the Countess' best friends, and
she was very much in favor of this marriage. Lady Harington
j
had obtained permission to come from Heidelberg to attend j
j
j
8 ^Worthies of England, II, 2 3 2. '
83calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1623-25, p- 553-
8^l6ll-l8, p. 5 9 8.
8 5l4/103-4l.
88Birch, The Court and Times of James the First, II,
; i o 8 ^ .
87
the wedding. But Lady Bedford's brother-in-law apparently
would not agree to provide a satisfactory dowry, even though
the King had suggested the alliance. The Countess wrote: j
88 ’
"if love will not make him, I hope fear will prevail."
Sir Robert Chichester remained obdurate, and the marriage !
did not take place.
f
In another matchmaking venture Lady Bedford was more j
’ • • • j
i
successful. Thomas Larkin, in a letter to Sir Thomas i
!
Puckering, gives an account of the marriage of the son of
Sir Robert Smith and Lady Isabella Rich, daughter of the j
Earl of Warwick and Essex' sister. Larkin writes:
So they were presently married, and from thence conducted!
to my Lord of Southampton's to dinner, and to my Lady !
Bedford's to repose; but the father is a heavy man to see!
his son bestowed without his knowledge and c o n s e n t . ,
i
In a letter written on the twentieth of January, 1619* !
the Countess comforts Lady Jane Cornwallis in her distress
over illness in her family. Lady Bedford pleads with her
friend to keep up her courage, not to let melancholy destroy
her kind sensibleness or make her "yield up the strength of ‘
i
. . . resisting reason. The Countess says that she has few,
dependable friends, but that there are two who will help
1 j
Lady Jane if she comes to London. One of these friends was '
I
pretty clearly Marquis Hamilton. The other was perhaps her
; 8?Birch, II, 601.
i 8®Private Correspondence, p. 58 and note.
! 8^Wiffen, Memoirs . . ., II, 108. Taken from Birch MS.j
cousin the Earl of Pembroke. She offers lodgings to Lady
Jane while she is finding a London dwelling suitable for her
large household. Lady Jane has offered to lend the Countess!
t
money, and Lady Bedford reluctantly accepts the offer. In
i
her gratitude she says: I
i
I Be confident that there is none of yours to whom I will !
be more wanting in anything I may do for them than I j
i would have been to my own if God had continued me a ,
m o t h e r . , i
!
This communication has great warmth; it is perhaps the most I
revealing of all the letters in showing the Countess' good ■
sense and her loyalty and gratitude to one who has be
friended her. In September, 1620, she repaid the money Lady!
Jane had lent her.91 j
Queen Anne died on March 2, 1619* From the Cornwallis ;
letters we learn that Lady Jane could not come to London for
j ?
the funeral, which took place May 13, because of the illness
92
of her husband.
i I
; In 1619 there is only one more piece of news about the i
Countess. Late in December she was in the train of one J
i i
hundred coaches which accompanied the body of Lady Hadding- j
93 !
ton from Westminster to New Hall in Essex.
From 1610 to 1619 there are various records of business
9°Private Correspondence, p. 62.
: 91Pp. 7 1-7 2.
92p . 6 3•
i 93chamberlain to Carleton, in Nichols, Progresses, III,
^97-
■ ' " “ 200
transactions on the part of the Countess and her family,
many of them on the debit side.
In 1611 the Earl of Bedford
conveyed Covent Garden in trust for the present mainte
nance of the Countess, who will transfer to his Lordship |
: the things desired by him therein [these things not beingi
1 specified]
Certain artisans attempted to introduce into England I
the manufacture of gold and silver thread, under the patron—
age of Lady Bedford. They were given a patent May 21, l6ll.l
The Countess was to receive L1000. The English goldsmiths
resisted, but attempts to infringe on the patent were
punished. A new patent was granted, after much opposition,
on January 10, 1616. James took the patent into his own
hands in 1618, and infringers were sent to the Fleet. When j
the aldermen of London offered 1,100,000 bail for these
OS
people, James released them.
; Lord Harington was one of those who shared a grant of
the Bermudas from the King. In April, 1612, according to
1 j
Arthur Collins, a ship with sixty persons aboard was sent to1
I „ 1
the islands to take possession of them. These people were ;
followed by others, and yearly supplies, which soon made
them a flourishing plantation. There is no information
^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, l6ll-l8, p. 69- I
■ . . * — . . . . i
; • 95wiiiiam h . arid H. C. Overall, Analytical Index to the;
Series of Records Known as the Remembrancia (London, 1878), :
p. 219, n.
' ^The Peerage of England (London, 1779-84), I, 294.
2 0 1
as to whether Lord Harington profited from this venture. In
1615 the Countess also obtained land on the Bermudas when
lots were cast for ownership. This land later became the
• 97
property of her friend Marquis Hamilton. in 1617 Carew
i
wrote to Roe that the Bermuda venture was likely to fail.^® '
Lord Harington continued to be involved in difficulties,
because of his expenditures for the Princess. His cousin
James Whitelocke writes as follows: j
This term of St. Michael, 1612, I lent my Lord Harington i
L3j0Q0 to redeem his manor of Lobthrop, which was fallen 1
into the viscount of Rochester's [Somerset’s] hand, for
the net payment of L3>000 which should have been paid un
to him on Allhallond day 1612, yet the viscount was con- ;
tented to receive his money after the day, and convey the;
land to me.99 ■
On November 3, 1612, there was a warrant to advance L500 to }
i
Lord Harington. 100 On November 27, 1612, the following oc- !
curs in the Pell Records:
By order, dated the last of October, 1612, to the Right
Honorable the Lord Harington, the sum of L2,9 9 1,17s,2d.
for the charges of apparel and other necessaries for the |
, person of the Lady Elizabeth, her teachers1 fees, rewards,
servants' wages, etc., for the half year ended at the
feast of St. Michael the Archangel last past. . . .
Entries like this do not occur regularly in the Pell Records.
97j. Henry Lefroy, The History of the Bermudas, Hak- I
luyt Society Publications7 LXV' (London, 1882), 106.
9^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1611-lS, p. 426.
99Liber Famelicus, p . 29-
. 100Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1611-18, p. 154.
} 10LpevOn, Issues of the Exchequer . . . During the
Reign of James I, p. 153*
' 202]
?
On March 1, l6l3> Blondi writes to Carleton: !
Lord Harington, in order to pay his debts, which are f
•L30,000, obtained leave to call in all tradesmen's tokens]
and to coin a brass money, which should be generally cur-!
rent, but the King stopped the patent at the entreaty of j
the Duke of Lenox, who wanted to share the profit. This i
Harington refused, and now neither he nor his wife is !
able to attend the Princess on her journey, on account of;
their debts. The King intends to choose some other
lady.
However, Lord Harington got the license to coin the money,
1031
and he and Lady Harington were able to go with Elizabeth. :
»
The patent for farthings was limited to L25,000, and it was ;
feared that Lord Harington would not profit because the
104
coins could easily be imitated. In May the use of trades-
105
men's tokens was forbidden, to protect Lord Harington. ;
j
After his death a protest from the Duke of Lenox, who had
wanted to share the profit from coining the money, is re
corded in a letter to Somerset. Lenox wishes
to procure the King's direction to stay the ministers of ,
Lord Harington from proceeding in the matter of the
farthing tokens, they opposing for their own profit the
! transfer thereof to the Duke, though he has offered terma
satisfactory to Lord Harington [the Countess' brother]
I
After the death of the young lord, Lady Harington writes to
Somerset that she is "reduced to great straits for want of
i
~^2Calendar of State Papers Domestic, l6ll-l8, p. 174. :
Originally in Italian. 1 !
1 03p. 1 7 5.. |
1 • 10 V- 180. j
■ 1Q5p. 184. |
lo6p. 215. j
money so long due to her, for which she pays heavy inter
est.1 '10^ Probably it was in response to this plea that a
proclamation was made continuing the patent of the tokens to
her.108
The reversion of the office of enrollment of the pleas !
I
in the Court of King's Bench went in 1612 to Somerset and
i
young Harington. The Countess made over her brother's part
to Somerset after young Harington*s death, and Whitelocke, !
I
who had some sort of claim on Lord Harington's share, was ;
i
bought off for L8 0 0 .109 ;
Several pieces of Harington property in Rutlandshire
changed hands after the young lord's death in 1614. Ridlingf
ton Manor and Leighfield Manor were conveyed to the Countess’
cousin Sir Edward Noel,.who had married the daughter of the ;
i
wealthy silk mercer Baptist Hicks. According to the
Victoria History of Rutland, Exton, which belonged to Edward
Russell, was sold to Baptist Hicks, but it is not clear when
this transaction took place. Clipsham and Pickworth Stock- [
ing were sold in l6l4 and 1616 to Francis Stacy, who was ap
parently a cousin of the Countess.110 !
When Lady Harington wished to join Princess Elizabeth
1Q7calendar of State Papers Domestic, l6ll-l8, p. 234.
lo8p. 237-
!
f 109Gardiner, History of England . . ., 1603-42, III,
3-L, 32.
110II, 42 ff.
!
in Heidelberg toward the end of l6l6, money which was owed
to her was necessary to pay the expenses of her journey.
Villiers wrote to Winwood: j
! I understand from my Lady of Bedford that my letter will
be a sufficient warrant unto you for the payment of so
; much money to my Lady Harington as is due to her. . . .
‘ His Majesty’s pleasure is that you take speedy order for ;
; the payment of that money unto her, that there be no- (
! further stay of her journey.
Villiers said that Winwood should pay it out of his own ;
1
111 I
pocket if necessary; his Majesty would pay it back soon. j
l
The reader wonders whether Winwood paid this debt, and if hej
did, whether he ever got his money back. A few days later
Chamberlain wrote to Carleton that the King had provided
£5,000 for Lady Harington. Perhaps this was the sum paid to}
112
her by Winwood.
There was more trouble over the farthing tokens. In
July, 1 6 1 6, the patent was continued to the Countess and the
Duke of Lenox.About two weeks later a grant was made to
Edward Woodward and Thomas Garrett, London goldsmiths,
at nomination of the Duke of Lenox and Countess of Bed- ;
ford, of patent for coining farthing tokens of copper, :
all other tokens to be suppressed.If* ;
But this action interfered with the profits of a certain j
} 1
Gerard Malines and his sons. They appealed to Lord Zouch toj
111HMCR, Buccleuch, I, 1 7 6.
112Birch, I, 4A3-44.
•^^Acts of the Privy Council, 1615-16, pp. 6 6 3-6 5*
; ^^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1611-18, p. 387*
' " " “ 205]
Use his influence on the Council to help them in a dispute
with the Countess,
who has coined new farthing tokens, whereby they are in
danger of losing L2,000 spent in the former tokens, and
£500 worth of copper prepared and are also unjustly ex
cluded from the work.J-15 !
i
This seems to mean that Lady Bedford changed the design of
the coin and changed workmen, to the detriment of Malines. !
In 1618 the Earl of Bedford assigned four shares in thej
I
j
Virginia Company to Sir Edward Harwood, who had been young 1
Harington1s friend. In the same year the Earl himself in- ;
vested L120 as an "adventurer" to Virginia, and there was
still an investment of more than &180 in the name of Lord
TI . . 116 I
Harington.
During the period covered by this chapter the Countess ;
was in her thirties. It was a time of great domestic mis
fortune, since her husband was seriously injured, and her
daughter, her father, her brother, and her sister died. All
of these deaths occurred before she wrote the first letter
i
to Jane Cornwallis contained in The Private Correspondence, 1
but from her later comment concerning other deaths it is
evident that, being warmly devoted to her relatives and •
friends, she experienced so great a feeling of loss when one
of them died that her strong sense of the joy of living was
permanently reduced. Edward Russell’s accident also caused
■^^QaXendar of State Papers Domestic, 1 6II-I8, p. A5 6. i
i .
: - * - ^A Declaration of the Colony and Affairs in Virginia
(London, 1 6 2 0), p. 3 2 5. “ .. .._ _ “
her great concern, and apparently her care of him kept her
away from Court most of the time for two or three years.
For this and other reasons her interest in Court life
waned, but her political and social power were not much re- j
duced since she retained her influence with Buckingham,
Marquis Hamilton, the Earl of Pembroke, and other important «
people. She was also obliged to attend the King and Queen
occasionally when they had special need for her. She en- j
!
gaged as usual in such activities as matchmaking and attend-'
ing christenings.
In her letters of the latter part of the period she has;
something to say about such artistic interests as gardening i
and collecting pictures. Temple's comment shows that her j
garden at Moor Park was one of the most beautiful of her
time. She had also had a garden at Twickenham.
Since she was perhaps foolishly generous in spending
money on her garden and in various other ways she was as
usual ridden by financial troubles. Her influential friends!
seem to have done what they could to help her, but "all j
would not serve."
Yet by living in great houses she maintained her po- j
i
sition in the extravagant world of James' reign and con
tinued to exert a mainly beneficent influence on many
writers of the time. Her homes, her gardens, and her art
collection were a part of their environment. If her taste
i
Was above average, as it seems to have been, this environ-
. 207
ment was a favorable one for the literary man’s Imagination
to work in. And the Countess herself was an important part
I
of that environment. Even when she exasperated great poets
i
she was a stimulating force to be reckoned with.
During this period for the first time we have the 1
Countess' letters to help us in understanding her. They arej
of immense value. They give all sorts of details about her
daily activities which cannot be found elsewhere. More im
portant, they record her feelings, her attitudes, and her
thoughts. The reader hears the woman herself speaking
rather than hearing about her. The letters indicate why
such men as Donne and Jonson could take a genuine interest ,
in her, for they show her warmth, her generosity, her
i
courageous cheerfulness, her intelligence, and her vigorous ;
interest in people, in art, and in the affairs of her
country. Her quietly sincere religious feeling and her de- ;
termination to lead a good and useful life which are ap
parent in these letters would deepen the respect for her of j
such poets as Jonson, Chapman, and Donne, who were religiousj
men, although their church position was not the same as hers.!
1 And they could expect her to appreciate good writing, j
for she writes very well herself. She takes pains to phrase:
a thought exactly and effectively, and she can develop a
theme at some length with good sequence and use of suspense.
f
When she writes of something which affects her deeply, as
1
!
the death of Marquis Hamilton toward the end of her life did.
: ' “ 208'
she has an eloquence which adequately conveys her feeling to
the reader.
C H A P T E R x - - - .....................
THE COUNTESS AND THE PURITANS,
DEDICATIONS OP RELIGIOUS WORKS,
CHIEFLY 1608 AND AFTER
; Patricia Thomson says that the Countess of Bedford was
"by upbringing and inclination a Puritan,"1 a statement (
whose truth it is difficult to demonstrate, although she
certainly had many Puritan friends and relatives and was 1
! f
patron to various Puritan churchmen. Puritanism has already,
1
been referred to many times, but it seems desirable to put
in one place many facts about the religious and political
position of the Countess' immediate family; her other rela-
!
tives; and the friends of her family, her husband, and her- j
i
f
self. Places where she and her family lived also had Puri- j
tan associations. Finally dedications of religious works,
mostly by Puritan churchmen, will be recorded.
Since the term Puritan has many meanings and since it
is difficult to define without slanting the definition ac- 1
cording to whether one has the Puritan or Catholic type of j
mind, it would simplify matters to dispense with the term j
i
entirely; but there is no convenient substitute for it. In ■
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the word had moral, [
religious, ecclesiastical, philosophical, and political j
meanings, and a person might be a Puritan of one sort and
»
• lMJohn Donne and the Countess of Bedford," Modern
Language Review, 44:329-40, April 1949*
" 2 1 0
not of another. Elizabethan Puritans and Jacobean and Caro
linian Puritans were not exactly the same, but they were j
more like one another than they were like Catholics or Anglo+
Catholics.
Knappen says that the "first detailed platform of the
! '
Puritan party" was laid down at Geneva in 1555 by the j
t
English church of exiles there. These people believed that ;
the Scriptures were sufficient to govern all actions by.
They wanted good preaching by well-educated men, and ,
2
election of ministers by the congregation. Early in Eliza-:
beth's reign the term Puritan was applied to "those within
the Church of England who demanded further reformation.
In 1566 when Archbishop Parker issued the Book of Advertise-:
ments giving rules for church service, thirty-seven per centl
i i
of the ministers of London would not obey the rules. The
"spiritual" preaching of the Puritans, as distinguished from
the "witty" preaching of the Anglo-Catholics, arose in Cam- i
bridge.
It was greatly encouraged by the founding of two new
colleges, Emmanuel in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay . . .
and Sidney Sussex in 1596 by the Countess of Sussex, aunt;
to Sir Philip Sidney. Both were established expressly
for the purpose of training up a preaching ministry.5 ;
^Marshall M. Knappen, Tudor Puritanism (Chicago, 1939),
pp. 141-42.
3New English Dictionary.
^John B. Black, The Reign of Elizabeth (Oxford, 1936),
p. 156.
^William Haller, The Rise of Puritanism (New York,
1938-)-,-p.. -174___See. Edmund Carter, History "of the University
sir
The leadership of the Puritans before the Civil War was
mainly in the hands of university men and was not radical,
but their preaching encouraged the development of radical-
‘ 6
ism. The
j
spiritual egalitarianism, implicit in every word the I
preachers spoke, seized upon the imagination of men who, i
no matter what their social rank, had reason to be dis
contented with the . . . regime in church and state.7 :
Most of the early leaders were not separatists. They i
"avoided direct attack upon the government of the church and)
confined their efforts to setting forth Puritan ideals in J
„8
pulpit and press. The Puritan's sense of responsibility
for others made him favor an established church and punish-
9 1
ment for heresy, though some of the Puritans, most of them i
the type later identified with the Independents, were tole- j
rant.
Toward the end of the sixteenth century the Puritans I
revived Sabbatarianism, which was not favored by either
Elizabeth or James. The promulgation of this doctrine was
part of the ever-present anti-Catholicism of the Puritans.
The doctrine
was attractive to many because it implied that the
! I
of Cambridge (London, 1753)> P* 351* Carter calls Mildmay
"a Patron of the .Puritans,."
6Haller, p. 17^.
7P . 86.
; 8P. 217*
%nappen, p. 3 ^ 6 . j
2 1 2 '
Sabbath was the one holy day, and. that the holy days of
the Church were mere human inventions, if not downright
Popish. 0
Allen thinks that not all Sabbatarians were Puritans, but
11
that all Puritans were Sabbatarians.
The Puritan was inclined to be somewhat indifferent if :
t
not hostile to the fine arts, though there were so many ex- ,
ceptions to this statement that it is scarcely worth making.1
j
Music and dancing were taught to the children of most well- j
12 '
educated Puritans. Pleasure was not frowned on, provided ,
it was not detrimental to morality. Calvin, Knappen says,
taught that it was lawful to enjoy the good gifts of God—
prosperity, children, food and drink. . . . Happiness it
self was not under fire. . . .^3
r
Games and sports were not universally disapproved of- Hunt
ing in moderation was allowed. The Puritan gentry often j
gambled for small stakes, though they did not permit their
servants to gamble, since the servants could not afford to
14
lose money. Sumptuous attire for the upper classes was
1C
not disapproved of, provided pride and vanity were avoided.
After the Civil War began and great numbers of people from
■^John W. Allen, English Political Thought, 1603-1660
(London, 1938), I, 170":
{
1:LAllen, I, 268.
12Knappen, p. 437*
^ p . 428.
lifp. 4 3 8.
; ^ 36 .
" ............ ' 2 1 3 1
the lower classes formed part of the Parliamentarian party, j
the Puritans became increasingly intolerant about these
matters.
There were important political meanings of the term
I
Puritan. Since the Puritan was anti-Catholic, he was po-
I
litically anti-Spanish. The House of Commons became more
anti-Spanish as James played Spain against the House to
limit its power. Not all those against Spain were Puritans,!
i
but all Puritans were probably against Spain. The personal S
government of the Stuart kings was opposed by the Puritans
in the House of Commons and supported by the High-Church
Anglo-Catholics. The divine-right principle for the :
* i
sovereign was strengthened by the apostolic-sanction
16
doctrine of the Anglican Church.
In spite of all the doctrinal and political impli
cations of the Puritan movement, Knappen says that
1 !
[ the mainspring of the Puritan’s mechanism was his moral
! consciousness. . . . To expect salvation without an ap
propriate manner of life was sheer stupidity. By the
fruits we are to know the reality of faith. . . . At no !
moment was one exempt from ethical considerations.17 j
I
He also emphasizes the religious nature of the movement.
Puritanism was primarily a religious movement. . . . The
salvation or damnation of the individual was its central I
theme. To think of it as being primarily concerned with
the things of this world is to misrepresent it complete
ly •
l6Allen, I, 129.
•^Knappen, pp. 341-42. i
1
i l8p . 401.
The description of the Puritan in the last few pages is
an incomplete one. The extremists have not been considered,
since pretty clearly the Countess of Bedford’s friends and
relatives were not Levellers or Diggers. These sects had
i
many good ideas, but they have no ascertainable connection f
IQ
with the subject of this dissertation. The intolerance of
many of the Presbyterians— the whole subject of toleration--,
i
t
has not been discussed. •
Several of Lucy Harington's relatives or people they .
married were Puritans in some sense of the word. In 1605
Sir Edward Montagu, Lucy's cousin, introduced a bill in the
House against pluralities and non-residence and another for
20
a learned ministry. Gardiner says that he was sent home
j
from Parliament because he had something to do with the
Northamptonshire petition in favor of deprived non-conform- 1
pi
ing ministers. He was a benefactor of the Puritan college;
Sidney Sussex, and his brother James Montagu was the first j
22
master there. Another of Sir Edward's brothers was Henry ;
I
Montagu, Earl of Manchester. Gardiner, writing of the Earl's
political position in 1616, says that his j
constant agreement with the Court on the various
•^For further data see Don Wolfe, Milton in the Puritan
Revolution (New York, 1941).
1 20Knappen, p. 3 2 6.
21Gardiner, History of England . ♦ I, 199-
op
DNB, article on James Montagu.
' ' " 2X5'
questions at issue since the accession of James had
recommended him to favor for the position of Chief
Justice of the King's Bench.23
However, his son Edward, the second Earl of Manchester, was
called "the natural head of the Presbyterians" in l658-60.2^
This Earl's second wife was one of the Puritan family of thej
i
Riches. He was a military leader on the Parliamentarian
side during the war, but he was so tolerant and unenthusi-
astic about carrying on the conflict that he was disapproved!
I
of by Cromwell. He wanted "peace, a constitutional monarchy,
and puritanism."2^ A brother of this second Earl of Man
chester, Walter Montagu, was a friend of Queen Henrietta
Maria; he became a Catholic, and was banished from England
in'1649.26 ;
F
Sir Francis Hastings, Lucy Harington's uncle by
marriage, was of a family in which there were several people
of Puritan inclination. Sir Francis' father, the fourth
Earl of Huntingdon, was one of the Puritans who "started
2 7
schools so far as they were able." Knappen writes:
23$ardiner, History of England . . ., Ill, 26. '
^Godfrey Davies, The Early Stuarts (Oxford, 1937), p.
2 5 6.
g5pNB, article on Edward Montagu.
2^DNB, article on Walter Montagu. Another uncle by
marriage, Sir Edward Dymock, offered a petition in the House
in 1584 in favor of Puritan preachers. (Strype, Life of
Whitgift, I, 347.)
I 2^Knappen, p. 469* It is difficult to determine whether
Knappen is writing of the third or fourth Earl. The third
one became Earl in 1561 and died in 1595; the fourth one
216'
At the Reformation illiteracy was widespread. . . . By
the end of the century [the sixteenth] the Protestants in
general and the Puritans in particular had made greatsin
roads on this evil, though much remained to be done.2°
Knappen writes elsewhere of "Puritan landlords like Francis
Russell, the Earl of Bedford, . . . and the Earl of Hunting-j
! „PQ i
don. ^ The following passage indicates clearly in just
what sense Henry, the third Earl of Huntingdon, uncle of
Francis Hastings who married Lucy’s Aunt Sarah, was a Puri- |
i
tan: I
The state puritans, of whom the Earl of Huntingdon was j
the chief, united Calvinistic sentiments with a prefer
ence for episcopal government; they also combined with a
retention of the forms of the Establishment some of the
practices of the Nonconformists, particularly the free
choice of their minister and his voluntary maintenance. j
Hence in the large towns they founded lectureships, which)
might be filled by men who had scruples about the cere-
monies, and objected to many parts of the common prayer. ;
Lucy's cousin William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, was defi
nitely of the anti-Spanish faction at Court.^ He was
32
against James' method of dealing with Parliament. His
became Earl in 1595 and died in 1604.
2®Knappen, p. 469- I
29p . 4n. ;
3°James Thompson, History of Leicester (London, 1849), t
p . 288. • j
^Gardiner, History of England . . ., 1603-1642, III,
336-37-
32DNB, article on William Herbert. Raumer records the
following instruction, given to the French ambassador de
Blainville, September 3> 1 6 2 5: "The Lord Pembroke is one ofj
the most considerable men in the country, and is, as it j
would seem, head of the Puritans." History of the Sixteenth)
and Seventeenth Centuries, 11, 296-977
brother Philip was a Calvinist who identified himself with
the Parliamentarians after 1641.33 sir James Harington, who!
wrote Oceana (1 6 5 6), expressed ideas which were unacceptable!
to those who believed in monarchy by divine right and a
church established by apostolic sanction.-^
r
Some of Lucy Harington's relatives on her mother's side!
: '
were politically among the Puritans. James Whitelocke was !
in the anti-Spanish group in Parliament about 1613 and was
imprisoned for a short time.33 His son Buistrode Whitelockej
was a Parliamentarian, but tolerant, being against the
theory of Presbyterian!sm by divine right and against the
-36
use of the power of excommunication. James Whitelocke1s
371
brother-in-law, Edward Bulstrode, was on the Puritan side.^';
j
Sir John Croke1s grandson was active in the Parliamentary j
38
cause.
It is not easy to determine the extent of the Puritan- j
ism of the Countess' parents. But of the Puritanism of her j
brother there can be no reasonable doubt. He was a strict
Sabbatarian and spent several hours a day in religious
33qnb, article on Philip Herbert.
3^See Douglas Bush, English Literature in the Earlier I
Seventeenth Century (Oxford, 1946), pp. 254 ff.
35dn b, article on James Whitelocke.
36dnb , article on Whitelocke. j
3^pn b, article on Edward Bulstrode.
■ 33parochial Collections of Wood and Rawlinson, Oxford
shire Record Series (Oxford, 1922), IV, 205-07•
" " “218-
observance. He kept a spiritual diary, a typical Puritan
procedure in his time, and read Calvin's Institutes. His
funeral sermon was preached by "Mr. Stock, the famous Puri
tan preacher of Bread Street, London, n 1 + 0 who puts him on a
Jin
pedestal as a kind of Puritan saint. Evidently he was
still considered so in 16* 1 - 2, twenty-eight years after his ,
death, for a Puritan churchman, preaching before Lord Pair-
i
fax, speaks of young Harington as follows: *
That truly honorable and divinely noble Lord Harington
prayed constantly twice a day in secret, twice with his
servants in his chamber, and joined at appointed times
with the family in p r a y e r .
43
According to Colvile, Harington was a pupil of Bishop
Still, who, Knappen says, "though not so advanced a Puritan
44
as Cartwright, . . . had signed petitions in his behalf."
Samuel Clarke, who wrote John Harington's biography in Lives i
of Sundry Eminent Persons (1650), was an ejected minister;
and Henry Holland, who wrote biographies of him and his
father in Heru>ologia (1620), served under the Parliamentary j
39See Haller, p. 97- i
1
^Colvile, Warwickshire Worthies, pp. 3 8 6-8 7*
41
Clarke, The Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons, pp. 121-
30* '
^John Shaw, Two Clean Birds; or the Cleansing of the
Leper. An excerpt from this sermon Is in Yorkshire Diaries
and Autobiographies in the Seventeenth and "EighteenfTT
Centuries, Surtees Society Publications, No. 65 (Durham,
1877), P* 37^.
^Warwickshire Worthies, p. 3 8 0.
j ^Tudor Puritanism, p . 259 •
2X9'
general the Earl of Denbigh after the war began. John
Harington was a reader of the works of Rogers— this is
probably Richard Rogers, whose most important work is his
Seven Treatises (1603), which, according to Haller, was j
> •
! the first important exposition of the code of behavior
which expressed the English Calvinist, or, more broadly
speaking, the Puritan conception of the spiritual and
. moral life.76 '
Edward Russell, after his marriage, had such Puritans
as Nicholas Byfield as his chaplains, and Puritan churchmen i
dedicated works to him, a subject which will be discussed
later. William Perkins, a very tolerant Calvinist with a
"Puritan bias," in a dedication of his Exposition of the
Apostle’s Creed (1595) to the Earl of Bedford, writes that I
he hopes the Earl will accept his work "the rather because '
you vouchsafed when you were in Cambridge to be a hearer
thereof when it was taught and delivered.” There is no
record of the Earl's taking a degree at Cambridge, but this
passage indicates that he at least attended lectures there.
The Earl's grandfather, the second Earl of Bedford,
joined the English exiles at Geneva during Queen Mary's '
reign.^ He is described as being "the most decisively com
mitted to reform" of all the lords prominent in the !
^DNB, article on Henry Holland.
^Haller, p. 1 1 7-
j ^Anthony Froude, "Cheyneys and the House of Russell," j
Fraser *s Magazine, 143:354, 1879> reprinted in Living Age♦ i
48
government of his time. Knappen remarks that at the end
of the sixteenth century "it is hard to find devout Puritan j
nobles of the Huntingdon-Bedford type. Brook quotes the
following passage: * ;
Francis Earl of Bedford was . . . a constant friend of
the persecuted puritans. At his death he left twenty
pounds to be given to a number of pious ministers, for
preaching twenty sermons at Cheyneys, Woburn, and Melsh-
burn.5°
The second Earl's daughter, the Countess of Warwick, be
friended John Udal, a "celebrated Puritan," about
The second Earl's son Lord John Russell married one of the
highly educated and Puritanical daughters of Sir Anthony
Cooke, a sister of the wives of Lord Burleigh and Sir
Nicholas Bacon. Edward Russell's cousin Anne Clifford j
i
52
"assisted the ejected clergy with her bounty." Edward's
successor, the fourth Earl of Bedford, was one of the peers !
CO
in Parliament who were in opposition to Charles, ^ and later
was general of the horse under the Earl of Essex. He was
only a Puritan politically, for "he had no desire that there
^"The Reformation," The Cambridge Modern History, II
.(Cambridge, 1934), 567-
^Tudor Puritanism, p. 421.
5°MS Chronology, II, 373# quoted in Benjamin Brook, The.
Lives of the Puritans (London, 1 8 1 3), I, 304. j
5^-Brook, II, 1-9- |
52DNB, article on Anne Clifford.
53uavies, p. 94.
Eli
should be any alteration in the government of the Church. ^
The Essex rebellion in which Edward Russell was accused!
of being involved apparently had religious and political
meanings which associate Essex with the Puritan group. ;
55 •
Knappen says he was "posing as the Puritan champion." As ■
i
early as 1595 he befriended the non-conforming minister
56
William Smythurst. George B. Harrison, who wrote The Life
and Death of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex (London, 1937), !
T : ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- j
has much to say on this subject. According to him Essex J
hated Spain to the point where he wished to start a war *
against that country. He feared that the Spanish Infanta
would claim the throne of England when Elizabeth died, and )
he wished the succession to be settled on James by act of j
Parliament. He was accused of wishing to alter the
established religion and modify the government of the
country. He was listening to preachers who "were boldly de~
daring the extreme Puritan doctrine that the superior
magistrates of the realm had power to restrain even kings
themselves." Shortly before the rebellion Essex House was
!
crowded with Puritan sympathizers.-^ John B. Black writes: .
The death of Essex removed not only the leader of the war|
party in England and the "protector" of the Puritans, but
j
^Daniel Neal, History of the Puritans (London, 1822),
II, 315.
-^Tudor Puritanism, p. 319*
56Brook, III, 514. j
; 57j3arrison, pp. 278-97-
222'
also one whom even the Catholics appear to have trusted
because of his generous outlook and professed attachment :
to toleration.5°
Eliot Warburton says that James' daughter Elizabeth was
"supposed to incline toward the Puritan party, and Neal
says that she and her husband "were the delight of the Puri
tans."^ Their son, the Elector Palatine in exile, took the.
Covenant about 16^3> though their sons Rupert and Maurice
served on King Charles' side.^1 This inclination toward j
Puritanism on Elizabeth's part may have been due to her as- !
sociation with the Haringtons. Daniel Dyke, a Puritan di
vine suspended for non-conformity in 15^ 3» was chaplain to
62
Princess Elizabeth at Combe.
The places in which Lucy Harington's family lived had
Puritan associations. Of Stepney, Walter H. Frere and G. W.i
Hill write:
By 1579 • • • Puritanism - using the word in its Eliza
bethan sense - was firmly established in Stepney, though
there still lay before it a gradual development into the
more distinct Puritanism of the Commonwealth.83
Anthony Anderson, a Puritan, became vicar at Stepney in
i
j
^®Reign of Elizabeth, p. 373* !
----------------------------------------------------------------------- I
^Memoirs of Prince Rupert (London, 18^9), p. 29. j
6oNeal, II, 86.
6lIII, 138.
62DNB, article on Dyke, and dedication of his Certain
Comfortable Sermons (l6l7)> addressed to the Princess.
^Memorials of Stepney Parish (Guildford, 1890-91), pp*i
vi and vii. !
223:
64
1586. Stephen Gosson was lecturer there from 1585-91, and
was rector at St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, in the parish
where Lucy Harington's mother had a residence, from 1600-
65
1624. Robert Harris, another Puritan, was at St.
66
Botolph’s. John Burges also preached there, leaving in
1617.67 ;
s
Rutland was one of the counties where the Puritans were
68 '
giving trouble about 1570. Knappen says that in 1583-84 i
i
petitions against the requirement to subscribe to the Prayer,
69
Book came from Rutland as well as from some other shires.
He also lists Robert Johnson, Archdeacon of Leicester, who
was the founder of Rutlandshire schools in Uppingham (the
market town nearest Exton and Burley) and Oakham (Oakham ;
manor was one of the Harington properties) as a Puritan
70
leader in Parliament.
Combe Abbey was near Coventry, which also had Puritan
associations. Nathaniel Tovey, son of John Tovey who was
master of the Coventry grammar school, was ejected from his ;
^Richard Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum
Parochiale Londonense . . (London^ 1708-10) .
^DNB, article on Stephen Gosson.
Alfred Beesley, History of Banbury (London, l84l), p.
289.
^Birch, Court and Times of James I, II, 28-29*
68Black, p. 159*
8%udor Puritanism, p. 2 6 9•
. 224'
living for non-conformity.^1 Thomas Cooper, a Puritan, be- ;
came vicar of Holy Trinity, Coventry, in 1604, resigning in i
72
1610. Frederick Smith says, "Coventry . . . was of strong;
70
Puritan sympathies." After the Restoration the wall
around it was "demolished by order of Charles II because the
,74
city had set King Charles I at defiance.
Sidney Sussex College, of which Lucy Harington's father
was one of the founders, was a Puritan College in "Cambridge,
the cradle of Puritanism."^ Knappen writes as follows !
about certain colleges in Cambridge:
In 1 5 6 8 -6 9 Sir Walter Mildmay . . . made a sizable
contribution to his old college, Christ’s, the Puritan
stronghold, to endow a Greek lectureship, six scholar
ships, and a preacher. . . . He took steps to set up a
new foundation, Emmanuel College, which received the
royal charter, 1584. • • • The whole purpose and tone of ;
the new institution were Puritan. . . . Inspired by Mild
may ’s example, Frances Sidney, Dowager Countess of
Sussex, spent her declining years saving money to emulate:
him. . . . The original statutes of Sidney Sussex were
largely copied from those of Emmanuel, but the executors ;
did not have Mildmay's means, nor were they so faithful
to his ideals. The new college . . . produced a number
of prominent Puritans, including Oliver Cromwell.76
/^David Masson, The Life of John Milton (Cambridge and ;
London, 1859-94), I* 106 ff. !
7gDNB, article on Thomas Cooper. 1
^Coventry; Six Hundred Years of Municipal Life (Coven-1
try, 1945), p. 92.
7^John A. Langford, et al., Staffordshire and Warwick- j
shire (London, [1875?]), P~* 557* j
|
^Leicester Bradner, Edmund Spenser and the "Faerie j
Queen" (Chicago, 1948), p. 3* :
■ T^Tudor Puritanism, p . 472. 1
The Countess and her family had friends among people of!
various religious and political persuasions. Some of these :
people were definitely Puritan. It is not always possible
to discover how close the relationship between the Haring-
tons and these friends and acquaintances was. If a person
was mentioned as attending a social gathering at which the
Haringtons were present, or if someone visited them, or if
someone in the group around Essex is mentioned in connection
!
with the Earl of Bedford, he is included. It has not been '
possible to learn the religious or political position of
many friends with any certainty; these people have been ex- !
eluded. The matter of pro-Spanish and anti-Spanish factions;
at Court will be considered later, but some people from
those factions may be included here, since there was a rough
identification of the Puritan and anti-Spanish groups, and
of the Catholic and Anglo-Catholic and the pro-Spanish
groups. Sometimes a person's Puritanism was not discovera- !
ble until the beginning of the Civil War forced him into
alignment with the Puritan group, and then he may have been
a Puritan only in politics, not in his church preference.
This classification of friends can be only very roughly ;
accurate at best.
A few Catholics were friends or acquaintances of the
Haringtons. Henry, fourth Lord Mordaunt, whose horseshoe is:
77
among those at Oakham, was imprisoned in the Tower for a
year because he was suspected of being involved in the Gun-
powder Plot. His wife came from a Catholic family. Lord
Monteagle, who revealed the Gunpowder Plot, was also a
Catholic and, strangely enough, was involved in the Essex
70
rebellion. ^ Gardiner lists the Earl of Rutland as one of
Rn
the Catholic lords at the time of the Gunpowder Plot, and
he had been one of Lord Harington's guests at Christmas
1602. He was also involved in the Essex rebellion. Anne
Vavasour, who was one of the Countess' ladies, came of a
Yorkshire Catholic family, though whether she herself was a
Catholic has not been discovered. One of the Vavasours was ;
Qo
on the side of Parliament in 1644. The Countess' friend
Tobie Matthew became a Catholic before he returned to j
England from Europe in 1606. He was imprisoned for six
months because of his religion, and presently left England
again. In l6l4 he became a priest.The Earls of
^The barony of Oakham belonged to the Haringtons from *
1596-1621. Every peer entering the town was supposed to
give a horseshoe to the baron, on which the name of the
donor was stamped. Victoria History of Rutland, II, 10, 13.:
^8DNB, article on Henry Mordaunt.
79pNB, article on William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle. j
8°History of England . . ., 1603-1642, I, 245-46.
| O “ I
Edward P. Cheyney, A History of England (New York,
1926), II, 5 6 8.
; ^Victoria History of Yorkshire, III, 424.
83pNB, article on Tobie Matthew, 1577-1655* I
.. “ 227
Northampton, Suffolk, Arundel, and Worcester, whom the
Haringtons surely knew, were or had recently been Catholics.
How friendly they and the Haringtons were is not clear.
Some people the Haringtons knew were neither Catholic
nor Puritan; that is, they were probably Anglicans. Lord
Burleigh and his son Robert Cecil were good friends of the
Countess' father. Burleigh, like Queen Elizabeth herself,
I
was inclined to be pro-Spanish in politics rather than pro- ,
84 1
French. He was no Puritan in religion, but he criticized
Whitglft and Aylmer for their severe treatment of the Puri
tans, and complained of the worldliness of many of the
8 i s
Anglican clergymen. ^ Robert Cecil's position is difficult ;
to ascertain. Though he was probably loyal to England, he
was one of those who accepted a Spanish pension. However,
86
he opposed James in 1612 in favor of war with Spain.
William Compton, whose horseshoe was at Oakham, had a son
Spencer Compton who was on the King's side in the war and
O
was therefore not a Puritan. Thomas Lake, who was on the
Countess' side when she was trying to replace James' favor
ite Somerset with Villiers, was later a pensioner of Spain
84
Conyers Read, Mr. Secretary Walsingham and the Policy)
of Queen Elizabeth (Oxford, 1925), I* 203. \
^5gee Black, pp. 161-62; Knappen, pp. 275-76; and
Haller, p. 29-
^Gardiner, History of England . . ., II, 220. ;
®^DNB, article on Spencer Compton.
oo
and was supported by the Howards. James, Lord Strange,
whose marriage with Charlotte Tremoullle was managed by the j
Countess, was a moderate Anglican and a constitutional
royalist. Before the Civil War he tried to keep peace be
tween the factions, but he finally fought on the King’s side.
In his absence from home his wife directed the defense of
Lathom House against the Parliamentarians.^ Lady Roxburgh,
one of the Countess' friends whom she defended when Queen
i
Anne was displeased with her, was the wife of a man who sup-,
ported James' policy against the Presbyterians in Scotland.^0
Ludovick Stuart, the husband of Lady Richmond, in whose
>
train the Countess was to be found In 1625, supported James'
91 - - »
ecclesiastical policy in Scotland.
Several of the Haringtons' friends, though not demon
strably Puritan, were strongly Protestant. Lord Harington's
go
friend Sir John Grey was among these. John Digby, who
later became Earl of Bristol, was one of Lord Harington's
friends, and was definitely Protestant, though some members
of his family, Kenelm Digby, for example, were Catholic.
O O
DNB, article on Sir Thomas Lake; also Gardiner,
History of England . . ♦, III, 72. ;
®9d n b, articles on James, Lord Strange, and Charlotte j
StanleyT’TTountess of Derby. j
9°DNB, article on Robert Ker, first Earl of Roxburgh. ■
I
^1DNB, article on Ludovick Stuart, second Duke of Lenox.
9gDNB, article on Sir John Grey.
93pNB, article on John Digby. ■
Lord Harington’s friend Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby,
whose horseshoe was at Oakham, was born on the Continent
while his parents were exiles during the reign of Queen
Mary.^ sir Albertus Morton went to Heidelberg as secretary
to Princess Elizabeth and later took money from England to
the Protestant princes of Germany. Sir Henry Wotton, who
was of the Essex party, and who later recorded the visit of ;
t
Lady Bedford's brother to Venice, wanted James to intervene .
96 •
in behalf of the Elector Palatine. Lord Southampton, an
Essex supporter and a friend of the Earl of Bedford, was
97
strongly anti-Spanish. 1 Villiers, although not dependable
in his political and religious affiliations, was supported ;
by the anti-Spanish faction at Court, to which the Countess
belonged.^® Lady Bedford's good friend Sir Thomas Roe stood
with the group who resisted the extension of the King's pre-:
rogative. He left England in 1615 "because all hopes of
usefulness for him at home were at an end."^ In 1623 the
Countess wrote very freely to Sir Dudley Carleton about
Charles' proposed Spanish marriage.100 Gardiner says of
, I
9^DNB, article on Peregrine Bertie. 1
95d n b, article on Albertus Morton.
96d n b, article on Henry Wotton.
i
97Gardiner, History of England . . ., Ill, 336-37* !
j
98III, 28. |
" 1 1, 311*
; 100State Papers, l^( /lJ +3*63? 14/154.49* etc.
Carleton that he sympathized, "entirely with the movement
against Spain without rising into any large view of contempo
rary politics."101
A few of the friends of the Harington family can be al
most certainly identified as Puritans. Lord Harington's
friend Sir Walter Mildmay, who held various important govern
ment positions under Queen Elizabeth, "used what influence
(
he had to shield the puritans from the attacks of the i
!
I
bishops." He "identified himself with the popular party in !
102
the Commons." Knappen lists him among "lay patrons of
the Puritans."10^ Fulke Greville, first Lord Brooke, a War
wickshire man, was one of the peers in Parliament who was
104
against Charles. William West says:
In the Civil War . . . Coventry attached itself to the
Parliament. The Influence of Lord Brooke [Robert
Greville, second Lord Brooke] overpowered that of the
Earl of Nottingham, the recorder.
Lord Brooke "strenuously supported the Parliament and the
people."10' * Young John Harington's most intimate friend,
Edward Harwood,10^ whose life was written by the Puritan
101Gardiner, History of England . . ., VI, 39*
102DNB, article on Walter Mildmay.
1 r _ i
103Knappen, p. 5 1 8. !
10^Davies, p . 94• ;
105The History . . . of Warwickshire (Birmingham, 1 8 3 0) ! ,
p. 7 6 1. [
10^Clarke, Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, pp. 121 ff.
“"231]
Hugh Peters, was enthusiastic "in the quelling of the
Arminian faction."10^ In Puritan fashion he "kept a diary
i oft
of his inward man." He was also a friend of the Earl of |
Bedford, and in 1619 he was reporting to Carleton about the \
Countess' illness.10^
The Riches were Puritans. Lord Robert Rich, Earl of
Warwick, the husband of Penelope Devereux, and their sons,
i
Robert Rich, second Earl of Warwick, and Henry Rich, first
I
Earl of Holland, were all allied with the Parliamentarians. ;
In 1640 Lord Conway wrote to Laud: "The Earl of Warwick
[the second Earl] is the temporal head of the Puritans and
the Earl of Holland is their spiritual. " 110
The popular physician Sir Theodore Mayerne, who some
times attended the Countess, came of a Puritan family. Beza-
111
was his god-father, and he was educated at Geneva.
Sir Francis Nethersole, who married Sir Henry Goodere's
daughter Lucy, one of Lady Bedford's attendants, "tended
toward Presbyterianism." He was loyal to Charles, but he
tried to arbitrate between the opponents and would take no
1Q7Harleian Miscellany, V, 198-200. i
lo8V, 1 9 8-2 0 0. !
109calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1619-23* PP* 51*
53 • |
11(^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1640, p. 2 7 8. I
See also DNB articles. j
111DNB, article on Theodore Mayerne. !
i
j
232
1 1 2
part In the war. Lady Bedford was godmother to Basil
Peilding, Buckingham's nephew. This young man ultimately
fought on the side of Parliament.11- ^
Two of the Countess' most powerful friends, Lord Hay
and the Marquis of Hamilton, could probably be classified as
Puritans. Lord Hay was against Spain and wanted James to go
to war in behalf of his son-in-law, Frederick of Bohemia.
He became at last "an aristocratic Presbyterian."11^ At the
time of the death of her great friend Marquis Hamilton, the
Countess wrote to Jane Cornwallis:
I pray God they the Catholics knew him not so well to be 1
the boldest opposer of their ends as they used means for :
the shortening of his noble days.11^
I
This passage indicates nothing more than that he was an
enthusiastic Protestant; but Simonds D'Ewes, who was a Puri
tan, wrote of him as follows:
In the beginning of this month [March, 1625] died James
Hamilton, to the grief of all good men and true Protes
tants, because he loved the Gospel and was a good Common-!
wealth's man.116
This quotation may indicate that he was a Puritan.
llgDNB, article on Francis Nethersole. !
11^DNB, article on Basil Feilding, second Earl of Den
bigh .
11^DNB, article on James Hay, first Earl of Carlisle.
11^Private Correspondence, p. 128.
116fhe Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds
D 'Ewes, ed. James 0. Halliwell (London, 1845), I T , 261-62.
I
' 233]
Many churchmen were associated with the Countess’ j
parents, her brother, her husband, and herself. The greater:
number of these were definitely Puritan. The account of the
Countess’ family and dedications by churchmen begins in 1576,
five years before Lucy Harington was born, when Anthony
Anderson preached a sermon at Harington-Burley. When this
sermon was published it was accompanied by an epistle ad-
I
dressed to Lucy Harington's father, her grandfather, and Siri
J
William Fitzwilliam.11^ In 1581 Anderson also preached the !
funeral sermon of Lady Harington's father, Robert Kelway.
In 1587 he was vicar of St. Dunstan's, Stepney, where the
baptismal records of the Harington children are to be j
T T Q
found. His works were said to be "of puritanic charac
ter."11^
In 1592 occurs the first recorded association between
William Perkins and the Earl of Bedford, when Perkins dedi- j
cated An Exposition of the Lord's Prayer to the Earl. In
1595 he dedicated A Salve for a Sick Man to the Countess and
An Exposition of the Symbol or Creed of the Apostles to the
Earl. In the dedication of this last work Perkins writes
)
^^Much information concerning dedications has been ob-!
tained by consulting the card catalogue of the Folger Shakesr
peare Library, at Huntington Library, and by correspondence I
with Folger, where dedications of all books in that library {
are listed under the names of the people to whom the works
are dedicated.
11®Newcourt, Repertorium . . ., I, 7^0.
11^DNB, article on Anthony Anderson. j
that Edward Russell had heard these lectures when he was In !
Cambridge. Benjamin Brook writes that Perkins was a
120
thorough Puritan, yet moderate. Daniel Neal calls him a
121 '
peaceable Puritan non-conformist.
As far as it is possible to discover, the association
between the Haringtons and the Toveys began in 1 6 0 3. When
Princess Elizabeth was put under the care of Lord and Lady
Harington, John Tovey was made their chaplain. "According-
ly," says Colvile, "Mr. Tovey moved to Combe Abbey, only two
miles distant [from Coventry where he had been master of the
grammar school]." Colvile continues:
Mr. Tovey had a son named Nathaniel, born in Coventry,
who, at an early period of his life, was taken under the ;
patronage of Lucy, Countess of Bedford.122
Masson records that Lady Bedford sent Nathaniel to Cambridge
so that "the excellent talent which she saw in him might not
be wasted away in the idleness of a Court life.""^^ Later
he became a non-conformist.
The only obvious connections between the Countess’
family and John Milton are through the Toveys and the
Diodatis. Nathaniel Tovey was the tutor of Milton and his
120Lives of the Puritans, II, 129.
I
121History of the Puritans, I, 3 7 8.
•^^Warwickshire Worthies, pp. 757-58.
122
JMasson quotes this passage but does not give the
source. (Life of Milton, I, 130.) The source is a record
of the inscription on Tovey1s monument in the church at
Ayleston to be found in John Nichols’ History and Antiquities
;of Leicestershire (London 1795-1815), IV, Part I, 3 1.
brother Christopher. Milton's friend Charles Diodati was
the son of Theodore Diodati whom the Countess asked to
assist Plorio when he was translating Montaigne's Essays.
Since Milton was nineteen years old when Lady Bedford died
and had already become acquainted with Charles Diodati and
Nicholas Tovey, it is extremely likely that he had heard of
her.
I
Thomas Cooper, who in 1604 became vicar of Holy Trinity
i 2 A
Church in Coventry, dedicated his work The Romish Spider ;
(1606) to Lord and Lady Harington and others. The
Christian's Daily Sacrifice, published in 1609, contained
epistles to Princess Elizabeth and to Lord and Lady Haring- ;
ton.
In 1608 Daniel Dyke dedicated Certain Comfortable
Sermons upon the 124th Psalm, which he had preached before
Elizabeth at Combe, to' the Princess, mentioning Lord and
Lady Harington in his dedication. Apparently he was a
chaplain of the Princess. In 1616 his Two Treatises . . .
of Repentance . . . and of Christ's Temptations was dedi
cated to Lady Harington and The Mystery of Self-Deceiving to!
the Countess. In l6l8 his Two Treatises: the One upon
Philemon, the Other the School of Affliction was dedicated
to Lady Bedford. All dedications after 161M- were written byj
Daniel Dyke's brother Jeremiah, or perhaps'by John Dyke, forj
i
Daniel Dyke died in that year. The last dedication is
1 2 4
DNB, article on Thomas Cooper. |
.... " 2361
[
signed by both Jeremiah and John. From the prefatory ma
terial to The Mystery of Self-Deceiving the reader learns
how young John Harington kept a diary of his sins and how he
observed the Sabbath very reverently "with his people about
him." Jeremiah Dyke speaks of "his careful expense of time,
his keeping of set hours of study." The last dedication was
probably written by John Dyke; it is entirely different in
language and tone from the others. This writer comments
that some great persons permit their homes to be disorderly
I
Ziim [?] do lodge there, and . . . their houses are
full of Ochim, or of doleful creatures. Ostriches dwell
there, and Satyrs dance there; Iim and Dragons are in
their pleasant Palaces. . . . If but a paltry dog or hawk
be unfed or misdieted, oh the tragedies, oh the blusters
and terrible thundercracks of fierce and furious language
that ensue. . . . In too many families Venus hath her
altars in the chambers, and Bacchus his sacrifice in the
Butteries.
About John Dyke nothing is to be discovered. Jeremiah
was a Puritan, "a divine of great peace and moderation," who
took his degrees at Sidney Sussex College.12^ His brother
Daniel was, according to Brook, "a divine of great learn-
126
ing." He also took his degrees at Sidney Sussex College,
but while he was a Fellow there he was suspended for non- '
conformity. Later he refused to wear the surplice, and when
he was about to be deprived, in 1589> even the intercession
Qok, Lives of the Puritans, II, 279*
126II, 2 3 5.
......... " ' 2 3 7 '
of Burleigh was ineffectual in protecting him.^2^
In 160‘ 9 John Downame dedicated his Four Treatises . . . i
[on] Swearing, Drunkenness, Whoredom, and Bribery to Lord
and Lady Harington. William Haller writes of this man:
High on the list [of Puritan preachers] would come John
Downame, author of popular expositions of Puritan
doctrine which won esteem not far below that accorded
to Perkins.
Brook says that Downame "first delivered and afterwards pro-,
i
moted the famous lecture at Bartholomew's Church, behind thej
i
Exchange." In 1640, with other Puritans, he presented a
petition to the Privy Council against Laud's book of canons,
and in 1644 he was chosen as one of the London ministers to ;
12Q
ordain public preachers. ^
Also in 1609 John Dod and Robert Cleaver dedicated A
Plain . . . Exposition of the 13th and 14th Chapters of the ;
Proverbs of Solomon to Lord and Lady Harington. These
writers comment on "your Christian love generally towards
all the servants of God." Both of these men were Puritans,
Dod a rather famous one. Marshall M. Knappen speaks of
130 1
Dod, and William Haller makes many references to him in
t
The Rise of Puritanism. Haller says that he was educated at'
r
1 2?DNB, article on Daniel Dyke. See also Carter, Gam- :
bridge, p. 376. Carter classifies Daniel and Jeremy Dyke as
"quiet Puritans." I
I
128The Rise of Puritanism, p. 79* {
129Brook, II, 496-97. ;
13°Tudor Puritanism, p. 292.
Jesus College, Cambridge, and that he "became the chief holy:
man of the spiritual brotherhood." He preached the funeral j
sermon of Cartwright. In 1604 he was silenced by the-
bishops. 131 Robert Cleaver, "the Puritan minister of
Drayton [Oxfordshire] , " 1^2 was silenced by Bancroft for non
conformity , 133 jn 1614 Archbishop Abbot wrote to the Bishop
of Petersborough:
The King wishes to know the truth of a report that sever
al silenced ministers, especially Mr. Dod and Mr. Cleaver,
are suffered to preach in [your] diocese.134
The Countess' acquaintance with John Burges apparently
began about the time of her illness in late 1612. He was
eighteen years older than Lady Bedford and had been educated;
at St. John's College, Cambridge. He was sent to the Tower
in 1604 for non-conformity, and shortly after he was re
leased left England to study medicine at Leyden. He re
turned to England about 1612, but James would not let him
practice medicine within ten miles of London because he had j
formerly been in holy orders. Burges settled at Isleworth, j
not far from Twickenham, where he acquired a large practice.
He had influential friends such as Dr. Mayerne, Francis
Bacon, and the Earl and Countess of Bedford, but they could
3-3lThe Rise of Puritanism, p. 5 6, etc.
132Beesley, p. 284.
133Brook, III, 516. I
•^^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1 6II-I8, p. 254. ;
not help him with James, who found him too Puritanical•18^
In 1616, however, he was permitted to preach again, partly
because the Countess favored him.18^ Somerset found a house
for his wife where she could be near to Dr. Burges,18^ an(i
the Winwoods were willing to pay higher rent that they might
be in his neighborhood.18® He was a popular minister,
having a great audience when he preached at Paul1s Cross in
July, 1 6 1 7• He had been preaching at Bishopsgate, near the
homes of the Countess and Lady Harington, but in the summer
of 1617 he left there to take a living at Sutton Coldfield
in Warwickshire.
In 1624 Burges dedicated the works of his father-in-law^
Thomas Wilcox, another Puritan who had been imprisoned for
non-conformity,18^ to the Earl and Countess of Bedford. In ;
his dedication Burges says that he welcomes the opportunity i
of publishing to all men . . . my most humble and thank
ful acknowledgements of your honorable favors . . . and
mine own obligation unto your Honors in all that I am, or
all that I can. . . .
Burges’ son-in-law, William Ames, was also a well-known
18^DNB> article on John Burges. See Edward Russell's *
letter, Wiffen, Memoirs of the - House of Russell, II, 119-20.
See also Birch, Court and Times of James the First, I, 262.
18®James Spedding, et al., eds., Letters and Life of
Bacon (London, 1857-74), V, 371-73-
1- ^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1 6II-I8, p. 2 2 5. i
188Birch, I, 303- !
139Br00k, II, 185. ■
Puritan. He was deprived of his degrees 1 , for preaching in J
the University Church [at Cambridge] against card playing."
He became minister of the English church at The Hague and
later taught divinity in the University of Franeker.
Cornelius Burges, John Burges' son, one of Charles I's '
chaplains-in-ordinary, dedicated his work called Baptismal
Regeneration of Elect Infants to the fourth Earl of Bedford
in 1629- He says in his prefatory epistle: "it cannot be
i
unknown to such as know me how much I stand obliged to your :
noble predecessors, the late Earl and Countess of Bedford."
In the early years of Charles' reign, at least, Cornelius
Burges was not antagonistic to episcopalianism, but he was
Calvinist and therefore anti-Arminian. Later he took the
141
side of Parliament and was one of the Assembly of Divines.
Burges is the first signer of a document called The Dissent
ing Ministers' Vindication of Themselves from the Horrid and
Ik 2
Detestable Murder of King Charles the First. They have
i ~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . " " " " " ~ _
been accused of being instrumental in causing the death of
the King. (Evidently he had not yet been executed.) When
they first sided with the Parliament they did it with loyal
ty to the King, "not intending the least hurt to his person,:
but to stop his party from doing further hurt to the King- 1
dom." They do not favor the present Parliament because j
i
j
l4QDNB, article on William Ames. j
lJ+1Neal, II, 393-
lJ+^Dated ca. January 20, 1648. 1
241:
members have been excluded and Imprisoned. They warn their •
readers not to subscribe to nlate models" or "agreement of
the people," which tend to subversion of government. The
people are to mourn for their sins and those of Parliament,
"and the woeful miscarriages of the King himself (which we
cannot but acknowledge to be many and very great)." They
are to pray God to "restrain the violence of men" that they
may not take the life of their s o v e r e i g n . 1 ^
When Lady Bedford's brother died, his funeral sermon j
was preached by a Puritan divine, Richard Stock. Later
Stock published this sermon, dedicating it to Lady Bedford,
Lady Harington, and Lady Chichester. With it were published:
the elegies of I. P., Francis Hering, and Thomas Roe. Stock
said that Lord Harington had read the works of Rogers. This:
was probably Richard Rogers, who in 1603 published Seven
144
Treatises . . ., a rule of life for Puritans. Colvile
says: "It appears that Sir John Harington had been a pupil :
of the eminent divine, Bishop Still. Knappen says of
this man that, "though not so advanced a Puritan as Cart
wright, he had signed petitions in his behalf."1^
In 1642 a Puritan, John Shaw, preached a sermon before
Lord Fairfax, published in 1644 under the title Two Clean
^•^Harleian Miscellany, VI, 129 ff- I
l44Haller, pp. 3 6, 117- |
^-^Warwickshire Worthies, p. 3 8 3.
1 l46Tudor Puritanism, p. 259*
“ 2 4 2 ;
Birds; or the Cleansing of the Leper, in which he sets up
young Lord Harington as a model of Puritan behavior.
In 1615 Nicholas Byfield dedicated a treatise entitled ;
An Exposition upon the Epistle to the Colossians to the Earl1
and Countess of Bedford. In 1617 he dedicated to Lady Bed
ford A Commentary upon the Three First Chapters of the First
Epistle of Peter and Sermons upon the First Chapter of the
First Epistle General of Peter. He dedicated The Cure of
the Fear of Death, 1 6 1 8, to Lady Harington. And in 1620 he
dedicated to the Countess The Marrow of the Oracles of God.
About 1615 Byfield became the chaplain of the Earl of Bed
ford. In the first dedication he writes that the Earl is
not able to go to public services at this time, but that he
does attend private services. He praises the Countess for
her "care of God's Sabbaths" and for her "never-failing at- |
tendance upon the ordinances of God with the congregation,
morning and evening." She not only attends herself but
brings her people with her. He is grateful for the en
couragement given him by the respect of the Earl and
\
Countess for his ministry. The Countess has been responsi
ble for King James' vindication of Byfield against some of
his enemies. The dedication of The Cure of the Fear of
Death indicates that Lady Harington had also heard his \
|
sermons.
William Gouge, who, after Byfield's death in 1622,
added the Epistle to the Reader before Byfield's work Com-
243
ments on the Second Chapter of Peter, the epistle being
dated 1 6 2 5, writes:
He was . . . a diligent preacher, for constantly he
preached twice on the Lord's Days; and in summer, when
many of the Gentry and City came to his parish at Isle-
worth, and dwelt there, he spent an hour on Wednesday,
and another on Friday, week after week, in expounding the
Scripture in his church.
Byfield was born in Warwickshire. Benjamin Brook calls him
"a thorough Calvinist, a non-conformist.
About 1622 the Countess was befriending John Preston, a,
popular Puritan preacher. Marquis Hamilton wanted James to
make Preston one of his chaplains. James refused, but
allowed Buckingham to persuade him to make Preston chaplain
to Prince Charles. Buckingham
highly esteemed him, and hoped by his means to ingratiate
himself with the Puritans whose power was then growing
formidable in Parliament . . . The Earl of Pembroke and
the Countess of Bedford had great Interest in him.
He was offered the bishopric of Gloucester, but refused
it.1*8
Another churchman whom the Countess was evidently try- •
ing to help was John Davenport, a Coventry man, who became a
non-conformist after Laud was made Bishop of London in 1 6 2 8. ;
149
Later Davenport was a well-known New England divine.
Twenty-three works of a theological nature are
l2^Lives of the Puritans, II, 297* !
12*®II, 352 ff. Carter, Cambridge, p. 180, calls
Preston "a chief among the Puritans.
l2+9see Letters of John Davenport, Puritan Divine, ed.
Isabel M. Calder_ (New Haven, 1937), p. 19-
~~2W
dedicated to the Countess and her family. Only six are
dedicated to Lady Bedford alone, three more to her and some j
member of her family, and the other fourteen to members of
her family but not to her. This distribution of dedications:
would seem to mean that members of the Countess' family were,
somewhat more responsive to these churchmen than herself.
The greater number of the churchmen who associated with the ;
Earl and Countess of Bedford, Lady Bedford's parents, and
her brother, were Puritans. Most of these preachers were
well-educated and moderate men.
The Countess and her family were anti-Catholic, al
though they had some Catholic friends. They were definitely
anti-Spanish, and wished James to support the cause of
Protestantism on the Continent by aiding his son-in-law. j
The Countess herself wished, for the end of the personal
government of the Stuarts and favored government by the King
and both Houses of Parliament. Illness and the influence ofj
Dr. Burges made her, for a time at least, very doubtful
about some of the frivolities of the Court. And as she grew;
older she naturally cared less for Court pleasures. The
presence of many Puritans among her relatives and friends
must at least have made her thoroughly familiar with their
outlook on religion and politics. It is not at all likely I
that she was strongly opposed to the Puritans. But there is
j
no convincing evidence that she was either a Calvinist or a j
Parliamentarian, or that, if she had lived to the time of J
the Civil War, she would not have been on the side of the
King and the Anglican Church. She was probably a low-church
Anglican. In one of her letters she writes:
The Houses have sat so short a time as what they do is
not yet to be judged, but I trust things will succeed
well both for the Church and the Commonwealth. -*-50
Surely the term "the Church" can have only one meaning--the
Established Church. And of course her words "the Common
wealth" indicate that she thought of government as being by
representatives of the whole people and the King, not by the
King alone.
More important than her church position is the sinceri
ty of her religious feeling, which is shown many times by
what she says in her letters. The following is a character
istic passage:
But God saw us not worthy of such a blessing [the con- j
tinuation of Marquis Hamilton's life], whose will, as it
is ever best, whatsoever it appear to our sense, so must
we submit ourselves to it in all things, though it is the
hardliest practised lesson of all we learn in religion.1-?!
This sentence shows that her piety was not "meek"1^2; that
the submission to the will of God which she knew to be
necessary was not always easy for her.
150private Correspondence, p . 90.
^Ip. 130.
1^2Introduction, p. xxi.
CHAPTER X T '
LAST YEARS, 1619-1627
The death of the Queen was an ..important event in the
life of the Countess. Wiffen comments that she had been for
sixteen years in attendance on Anne, and that during that
time "she was identified more than any other lady with her
' “ |
[the Queen's] amusements, tastes, and movements.' Anne's
body lay in state until May 13; then it was attended to i
2 *
Westminster Abbey by the nobility. The Countess was among j
the mourners.^
In May, 1619* Lady Bedford's mother, who had been for
more than two years with the Princess Elizabeth, became
seriously ill on her homeward journey to England. A letter !
from Thomas Lorkin to Thomas Puckering, dated May 24th,
gives the details:
Upon Tuesday last, my Lady Bedford went to Dover, think
ing to meet ray Lady Harington, but there met with news of
a dangerous sickness whereunto she has fallen beyond the '
seas, I think at Calais, whither my Lady Bedford hath
gone over to her.'4'
Lady Harington reached London on May 29th. Carew writes
that in Bishopsgate, where Harington House was located,
• ^ Memoirs of the House of Russell, II, 109*
^Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England, VII, 483*
^Nichols, The Progresses . . . of King James the First,
ill, 5^0.
^Quoted in Birch, Court and Times of James the First,
II, 167-
5
crowds assembled to witness her homecoming.
On June 8th both she and Lady Bedford were very ill,
and by June 12th the Countessf illness had been identified
as smallpox. She was attended by Mayerne, the most popular
6
physician of the time. On June 18th Abraham Williams
writes to the Earl of Doncaster: "My Lady Bedford is some
times well, sometimes ill, but past all danger, as it is
hoped.On July 9th Williams writes: "My Lady Bedford is
well recovered, only she hath a [disorder] in one of her
O
eyes; so that she doth not yet go abroad." Concerning the
condition of her eye there are various records. On July
15th Chamberlain writes that "the master-pock hath settled
in one of her eyes, whereby she is like to lose it."^ The
Earl of Carlisle writes: "She hath a pin and web in one of :
her eyes. . . . She will hardly escape the loss of her
eye."1^ Anne Clifford says that the Countess lost one of
her eyes. 11
On the 2 5th of May, 1620, the Countess’ mother died in ;
^Letters of Carew to Roe, Camden Society Publications, 1
No. 7 6, p . 6 5,
^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1619-23, P* 53-
7Birch, II, 174.
®II, 179- The brackets are in Birch. I
^Letter, Chamberlain to Carleton, quoted in Birch, II,i
180. j
10Letter, quoted In Wiffen, Memoirs . . ., II, 109, n.
^ Diary, p . 105 .
-.............................'248'
St. Botolph's parish, Bishopsgate, where she had a house,
12
and was buried at Exton. On the first of June Lady Bed
ford writes to Jane Cornwallis:
What a mother I have lost I need not tell you, that know !
what she was in herself and to me. . . .It now rests for
me to follow as well as I can her good example, which God
grant I may., in living for His service that I may die in 1
His favor.
The religious tone, which is to be expected in this letter,
is present also in many of the others. It is a tone habitu
al with the Countess, at least in the years in which she was
writing to her friend.
In the fall of 1620 Lady Bedford was in good spirits,
playfully threatening her friend in a postscript: i
If you deliver not my affectionate salutations to Mr.
Bacon and your son Fred, it shall be the ground of a
greater quarrel between us than yet we ever had.!4
She is delighted with a horse Lady Cornwallis has given her:;
You have sent me the finest little beast that ever I saw,i
whose beauty may excuse many faults, if she have any.
How well she will play I long to be at liberty to try;
and howsoever she prove, she shall be much made of for
the hands’ sake she comes from.1^
Evidently she is speaking of this same creature three years
later when she says: ,
i
The little jewel you sent me is a treasure, being the !
12private Correspondence, p. 6 5, n. Facts taken from
the register of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate. See also Com
plete Peerage, VI, 322.
^private Correspondence, pp. 65-67*
1‘ tp. 7 4.
: 15P- 73- ______
finest and best that I think was ever of her kind, for
which since I cannot thank you gnough, I will use no
words to thank you for at all.1^
In August, 1621, Lady Bedford was with Elizabeth of
Bohemia at The Hague. She stayed only a few days, from
about August 13th to 17th. Carola Oman says:
She [Elizabeth] had exactly one day of far from uninter
rupted converse with her friend. Her Majesty both dined
and supped at the British Embassy, where Lady Bedford was
staying, on August 17th.1'
For several reasons the Countess' visit was not very
pleasant. When she first arrived, Elizabeth was troubled
over the departure of her husband to join the Prince of
Orange. The Dutch ladies at The Hague made themselves dis
agreeable over matters of precedence during Lady Bedford's
visit. Then her stay was cut short because the wind for
passage to England was suddenly very favorable and she
thought she had better take advantage of it.
From August 30, 1621, to November 19, 1 6 2 3, the
Countess was carrying on a correspondence with Dudley Carle-,
ton and Elizabeth of Bohemia, principally concerning the
Queen's affairs, although Carleton was also trying to get
some sort of position in England. Lady Bedford's seven
letters to Carleton make it possible to get some idea of
■I / T
°Private Correspondence, p. 8 6. |
• ^Elizabeth of Bohemia (London, 1 9 3 8), p. 262.
•^pp.262-6 3* Reference to State Papers Holland,
IOO.7 8 6. These facts are also to be found in Mary A.
Everett Green, Elizabeth of Bohemia (London, 1909), PP* l|86-j
what was going on. Dr. Burges was to some extent in her
confidence with regard to her attempt to help the Queen.
Frederick Count Palatine had lost both the throne of Bohemia!
and the sovereignty of the Palatinate, and it is clear that I
Lady Bedford was doing all she could to assist him at least
to regain his rights in the Palatinate.
Gardiner says that some money was sent to Frederick by
the English government in 1621 and that more was promised.
i
One of the very few letters of the Earl of Bedford concerns
this matter. It is quoted in Gardiner's History of England,;
1603-1642, from the State Papers of Holland:
God grant that the King's resolutions may be so pro
pounded to the Parliament, as they may with a general i
applause be seconded, and not disputed, and that no past :
disputes breed such variance at home as may hinder the
speedy execution requisite for the good success of what
Is to be done by us a b r o a d . 1 ”
The first letter from Lady Bedford to Carleton, written;
in August, 1621, makes clear that Frederick was trying to
get Prince Charles to help him, and in the third letter,
i
written in May, 1622, the Countess was urging Elizabeth to
write to her brother. All this scheming was apparently
carried on in great secrecy; one letter mentions the Queen's
having burned something she had received from the Countess. 1
The insistence on secrecy seems a bit excessive if it was
only the restoration of Frederick to the Palatinate which
2 3 0. The style of this letter may be slightly i
pretentious, but it shows that the Earl, like the Countess, ;
had facility in expression. j
was being considered. It is just possible that Elizabeth
and the Countess were looking forward to the time when James
would no longer be living. Who would succeed him? In l6l4,i
at the meeting of Parliament following the birth of Eliza
beth's first son, Prince Frederick Henry, a bill "natural
izing Prince Henry, and declaring him lawful successor to
the throne of England after his mother" was passed. Prince
Charles, fourteen at this time, was in such delicate health
20 *
that he was not expected to outlive King James. There was;
i
no reason why Elizabeth should not succeed her father; Henry
VIII's daughters had done so. She and her husband were un
alterably Protestant. In the 1620's James was conniving
with Spain to marry Charles to the Infanta, one of his
purposes, it is true, being to obtain the assistance of
Spain in restoring the Palatinate to Frederick. Many of the
English Protestants were enthusiastically in favor of Eliza-
21
beth and her children as successors to James. It is
possible that for a time the Countess was one of these
people. She was not necessarily disloyal to Charles, but if.
he had married the Spanish Infanta, or if some accident had ;
befallen him on his journey to Spain in 1 6 2 3, she would have;
t
welcomed Elizabeth as James' successor. As early as 1616
20Cotton MS. Titus CVII.7 0, cited by Oman, p. 133*
2^0n March 20, 1621, the French Ambassador, Tillieres, I
wrote: "The King is in the greatest fear that the Electress
Palatine his daughter will arrive here [in England] and
‘ favor the party of the Puritans." Von Raumer, History of
‘ the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, II, 2 5 3.
252J
Chamberlain had spoken of Lady Harington, who was just then :
going to join Elizabeth in Heidelberg, as being considered
22
ambitious and looking "for a day." Pretty clearly this
day was the one of Elizabeth’s succession to the English
throne.
Charles and Buckingham began their journey to Spain on !
February 17, 1623, reached Madrid March 7, and returned to
i
England October 5> without bringing back the Infanta as they
i
had hoped to do. On March 28 the Countess wrote Carleton a !
|
significant letter: ,
My Lo.,
I beseech you do me the favor to deliver or send the
Queen this letter as soon as you can; with the contents
whereof it is like she will acquaint you, which if she
do, believe so well of me as that if I had not found much
cause I would not have done what I confess against myself,
and for God's sake preach more wariness to the Queen whom
she uses freedom to, else she will undo herself, and make;
others afraid how they interest themselves in her service,
though for my part I will never omit making good my pro
fessions to her as becomes a faithful and careful servants
I rest
Your Lordship's assured friend,
Bedford
Harington House in
haste this 28th of March
What Elizabeth apparently had said was that Charles was
safe in Spain, since she, an uncompromising Protestant,
would succeed to the English throne if anything happened to
him. That is, from the Spanish point of view, Charles was a
far more hopeful prospect as sovereign of England, and
22Birch, I, 436.
23state Papers 14/140.57*
2 5 3 -
therefore the Spaniards would not harm him. Her remark
seems to have been twisted to mean that she looked forward
to Charles' death as clearing the way for her succession,
and a rumor was started that she intended to go to England
to be at hand if anything happened to him. The indiscretion;
of the Duchess of Lenox was apparently responsible for the
24
misunderstanding. There is so much evidence of genuine
1
affection between Elizabeth and Charles that no reasonable 1
: i
person would accuse her of desiring his death. One of the :
reasons why Charles finally broke off negotiations with
Spain was that he could get no promise of help in restoring
the Palatinate to Frederick.
f
What the Countess had done ’ ’against herself" is obscure;
Perhaps it was to do everything she could to promote Freder-;
ick of Bohemia's cause. Many English Protestants were
willing to start a war for that purpose, and King James was !
firmly opposed to war. Possibly it was to use her influence;
to promote Elizabeth’s succession in case the marriage of
Charles and the Infanta took place. Lady Bedford was not
pleased with what was going on in England. In April, 1623,
she wrote to Carleton:
I am I protest grown so very a fool in the ways of this i
time as I can make no judgment of anything, all wonted |
grounds failing: and I assure your Lordship even those ;
that are nearest the wellhead [i.e., James] know not with!
what bucket to draw for themselves or their friends.25 ;
! 22tOman, pp. 276-77* i
1 ^ State papers 14/143.63- _ J
"254
\
In November, 1623, she says there is no news; she is weary
"of our expectation to understand what purpose Spain will
26
please to avow to have concerning us and our friends."
The quiet irony of this last statement highlights the differ
ence between this Independent Englishwoman and the uneasy
and intriguing King. Perhaps he was right in keeping away
from war with Spain, but his methods lost him confidence and
respect.
A good deal of the Countess' political philosophy is
apparent In the following letter which she wrote to the
Queen of Bohemia when Charles appeared in Parliament after
his return from Spain:
On the stage of this our world . . . none plays his
part with so due applause as your excellent brother, who
. . . hath begotten, by his princely and wise proceedings,
such an opinion of his reality, judgment, and worthy in
tentions for the public good that I think that never
Prince was more powerful in a House of Parliament than
he; and there doth he express himself substantially so
well that he is often called upon to speak; and he doth
It with that satisfaction to both Houses as is much ad
mired. And he behaves himself with as much reverence to
the Houses, . . . unto the Lower House, as any other man
sits among them; and he will patiently bear contra
dictions, and calmly forego his own opinions, if he have j
been mistaken. . . . He is, besides, most diligent, and ;
indefatigable in businesses, a patient hearer, judicious
in distinguishing counsels,.moderate in all his actions,
steady in his resolutions; so even, as variableness is a
thing neither in deed, nor in appearance, in him; and so
civil, and accomplished withal, every way both in mind
and body, that, consider him, even not as a Prince (which;
yet adds much luster to him) and there is nobody who must;
not acknowledge him to be a gentleman very full of per
fections. ' !
2^State Papers 14/154.49*
2^Letter from Lady Bedford to the Queen of Bohemia, in
Since Charles had given up the Spanish marriage and had
championed his sister and brother-in-law's cause, the
Countess was ready to give him her enthusiastic support.
i
This elaborate description of the Renaissance gentleman and
prince is a portrait of what she hoped Charles was.
The Countess' letters to Lady Cornwallis from 1621 to
f ■
1623 are full of affectionate concern over her friend's ill
health and regret that she cannot see Lady Jane as frequent-i
I
ly as she would like. She says nothing about public affairs!
except to comment on Charles' improvement after his return
from Spain. In May, 1621, she tells Lady Cornwallis that
she has had an unhealthful spring. She hopes her illness
aQ
"will not end in a lame leg." On January 16, 1623, she
writes:
s
For this two last months I have had so much ill health
and pain as made me for a good part of the time unable to
write, and yet hath left me a lame woman. 9
Gout was one of the ailments the Countess was suffering
: -30
from, as a letter written at a later time indicates.
In May, 1621, she also had written that she must stay
in London a part of the summer because .
Sir Robert Chichester's [her brother-in-law's] scurvy
I
A Collection of Letters Made by Sir Tobie Matthew, ed. John j
Donne the younger” Also reprinted in Wiffen, Memoirs of thej
House of Russell, II, 112-14. j
p O
Private Correspondence, p. 7 8• ;
256;
dealing hath broken up the match betwixt his daughter and
my Lo. of Arran [son of Lady Bedford's friend the second
Marquis of Hamilton] which drives me to play my game an
other way than I had laid my cards.81
The following passage, written in 1622, describes her
further dealings with her niece and her brother-in-law:
My niece, her father, and I have bargained, she with
him for the present possession of her land, and I with
her for her possibility in the lease of Combe, which to
settle thoroughly, and provide to pay for, will cost me
so long a stay here in London. This done, I intend to
turn Combe wholly into money, both to make myself a free
woman from debt, and with the rest of it to raise as good!
an estate for life as I can, having now none but myself
to provide for; those designs I had for my niece being
crossed by her father's untowardness, and her own portion
being sufficient for any match. Nor do I fear finding
this any serious work for her, having a thing so well-
known, as I have already many offerers for it.’2
In 1624 the Countess is hopeful about the political
situation. She is still pleased with Charles,33 an< 3. be
lieves that the proposed French marriage will be "upon less
ill conditions than Spain insisted on for matter of re
ligion . "3^
Her letter of February, 1624, is filled with her con
cern over Lord Richmond's sudden death. She went quickly to
Lady Richmond to do what she could to comfort her. Her
husband's death,
I
31private Correspondence, pp. 78-79* She had been try
ing to bring about this marriage since 1 6 1 8. See Chapter
IX, pp. 197-98.
32private Correspondence, p . 7 6.
33p. 91* 1
34p. 123.
though it were such a blow from Heaven as I must confess
I never knew given, will not kill her, of so strange
resisting stuff are our hearts made.35
She goes on to paint a picture of a fortunate woman,.such as
Lady Richmond was:
She had of glory and greatness as much as a subject was
capable of, wealth of all kinds in abundance, health and
extraordinary beauty even at this age, and, above all, a
noble husband, that was the love of her heart, and doted
on her with the same passion to the last hour of his life
that he did in the first month of his being in love with
her.36
When Lady Richmond learned of her loss, "I much feared the
first violence might have distracted her, but her passion
had so liberal vent as I think it wrought the less inward
ly • Lady Richmond had made certain vows in case she out
lived her husband; the Countess urged her to keep them.
For my part, I confess I encouraged her to it, which,
some say, hereafter she will love me nothing the better
for; but it is the counsel I should take to myself in
her case.38
About a year after Lord Richmond’s death the Countess was
* 3 0
one of Lady Richmond1s attendants. Ludovick Stuart, Duke
of Richmond and Lenox, the King's first cousin, had been the;
only duke in England except Prince Charles until Villiers
was made Duke of Buckingham in 1623, and after that James
■^Private Correspondence, p . 88.
36Pp. 88-89- j
37p. 89. 1
38P • 89. '
! 39chamberlain to Carleton, Nichols, Progresses, IV, ;
1026. j
gave Stuart precedence over Villiers. The Duke of Lenox was!
opposed to Charles' Spanish match as the Countess was. He
40
was said to be much respected for his integrity.
In March, 1625, one of the Countess' best friends died.;
Simonds D'Ewes writes:
In the beginning of this month died James Hamilton,
Marquis of Hamilton, to the grief of all good men and
true Protestants, because he loved the Gospel and was
a good Commonwealth's raan.^1
In a letter quoted by Birch the following statement occurs: ‘
The young lord Hamilton's son was then so sick also at
the Countess of Bedford's, at Moor Park, that he could
not come unto his father before his death.
The Countess writes of the death of the Marquis to Lady Jane:
I acknowledge that I feel so to the quick this last af-
fliction4^ Q0d hath pleased to lay upon me as no worldly
comfort will ever be able to prevail against it, for I
have lost the best’ and worthiest friend that ever
breathed, whom I could not love enough for what he was to
me, nor sufficiently admire for what he was in himself
and to all the world. . . . He that was so suddenly taken
from me, both for his years, strength, health and temper,!
was like to have lived to much greater age than any I
have left, and so I think he would, had not his noble
heart been too great for these times and his fortunes in
them. . .
More than half of another very long letter to Lady Jane
^°James Cleland, The Institution of a Young Nobleman,
ed. Max Molyneux (New York, 1 9 4 8), p . xv.
^ Autobiography. . . ., I, 261-62. ;
f
42Birch, II, 503-
^3jjere the editor of the Cornwallis correspondence
writes in a footnote: "There can be no doubt that the person
whose loss is here lamented was James, Marquis of Hamilton."
Private Correspondence, p. 118, n.
^Private Correspondence, pp. 1 1 8 - 1 9 *
" “ " " '259 '
concerns the Marquis. In it Lady Bedford expresses her sus
picion that he had been poisoned. She states her view of
the matter very carefully. The evidence is not conclusive; |
"yet both myself and many other of his friends rest not
clear of doubt. She speaks bitterly of those who have
attacked his reputation:
To defend him is a duty I owe him in this detracting timej
when those that durst not have breathed amiss on his
least action while he lived will now venture as much as !
in them lies to slubber his fame, when they shall think I
themselves out of the hearing of those would,make them j
keep in their venom, or make them smart for uttering it
at the least.'4'®
In the last part of the first letter concerning Hamil
ton's death the Countess writes:
I believe you will hear of a great change before this
letter come to your hands; for I heard . . . from Theo
balds that the King was this morning in so weak estate
as there was no hope of his life.4-*
She prophesied truly, for on March 27, 1625, King James died.
One comment concerning the Countess' attitude toward his
death which may well be merely gossip must nevertheless be
recorded. The meaning of the passage is somewhat obscure,
but apparently Lord Morton and Lord Roxborough did not at- I
tend the King's body from Theobalds to the city as almost
all other noblemen did. The writer, whose name is not given,
says: ;
|
^Private Correspondence, p. 129- i
*°pp. 130-31- j
^pp. 119-20.
That afternoon they [the two lords] went to Moor Park to j
my Lady Bedford's to pass the time and be merry there.
It is an observation is much remarked here.^°
This sounds like hearsay evidence. Still, the general'im-.
pression one gets from this passage about Lady Bedford's
attitude toward the King is supported by other evidence. It:
is clear that she deeply disapproved of James' chess-playing
with Spain and of his highhanded methods of dealing with
Parliament.
In these years her power in high places continued to be;
great. She was aware of this power, and took care to main- ;
tain it. In lamenting the death of Marquis Hamilton, she
says that now the Lord Chamberlain (Philip Herbert, Earl of !
Montgomery) is "the last person left of power that I can
rely on." In the spring of 1624 she had been using her
influence with Prince Charles to secure a promotion for
50
Dudley Carleton. In January, 1625, when King James had
welcomed the Duke of Brunswick to England with all possible ;
honor and ceremony, one of the places where the Duke had
51
been entertained was the Countess of Bedford's.-^ In August,
V
1625, after Charles had become King, she offered her
services to her aunt Lady Zouch concerning a will because
Lady Zouch "wanted to make sure friends about the
1
^8HMCR, MSS, of the Earl of Mar and Kellie, II, 227- !
^9px»ivate Correspondence, p. 119- !
^ Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1623-25, P- 215-
-^HMCR, Townshend, p. 21. j
' ~ 2 ' 6 r
King."^2 In December, 1626, when Lady Hastings and Sir
Edward Zouch were contending over their rights under Lord
Zouch's will,
these disputes had been referred by the parties to the
Lord Steward of the Household [William Herbert, Earl of
Pembroke] and the Countess of Bedford, whose award the
Lord Keeper thought should be adhered to, with one slight!
alteration.53
A cousin of the Countess, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir
Henry Harington, was buried at Twickenham September 22, 1625-
cli •
She was the wife of Sir Benjamin Rudyerd.-^
Lady Bedford was involved in two matchmaking ventures
in the fall of 1625, one match being between James, Lord
Strange, and a Frenchwoman, Lady Charlotte de la Tremouille,
and the other between the son of Sir Theodore Mayerne and a
Frenchwoman, Mademoiselle de Rohan. The account of the
Countess' interest in these proposed marriages is to be
found in a long letter she wrote to some French friend on
October 2, 1 6 2 5• This letter also gives evidence of her
continuing intimacy with the Queen of Bohemia. Her comment j
on the second match shows her high regard for Mayerne, whom
she calls "my father Mayerne" and characterizes as being
"all nobleness, discretion, and goodness." She indicates
t
the closeness of her friendship with him when she says:
My Lord Chamberlain and I have such an interest in the J
5%1MCR, Buccleuch, I, 26l. !
53caiendar of State Papers Domestic, 1 6 2 5-2 6, p. 502.
) ^ Lysons, Environs of London, II, 19^-95•
father [i.e., Mayerne], as whatsoever we should undertake
he will pgke good, though himself were not acquainted
with it.
Mayerne was appointed chief physiclan-in-ordinary to King
Charles January 17, 1626.*^
Nathaniel Bacon reports to his wife Lady Jane (she had 1
assumed Bacon's name in January, 1626) on February 3, 1626,
that her friend Lady Bedford is well,-^ but on February 10
he writes that she has been "exceedingly ill of the gout,”
58
and she was no better on February 16. In her last letter |
to Lady Bacon, the Countess refers to this illness. She is
going to follow a course of treatment Mayerne has recom
mended, not because she has much hope of being cured but
"rather because it shall not be laid to my charge that I
115 9
neglect the means of health.
In this last letter she is, as always, much concerned
about public affairs. When Charles first became King she
had not been disappointed in her expectations. She had re- ;
corded with approval that he kept his state with more digni-;
ty than James. People, she said, were pleased to see "the
t
King so well inclined to favor honest men." He was careful ,
55wiffen, Memoirs of the House of Russell, II, 116. •
56syllabus of Rymer's Foedera, II, 862.
57private Correspondence, p . 140. i
5®pp. l'4l, 143. Mayerne notes her ailment--”Mylade
Bedford podagra." See Ellis, Original Letters, Second :
Series, III, 246. J
! _ ^Private correspondence, p. 146. J
about religious observance too, "so as there is all good I
signs that God hath set him over this kingdom for a bless
ing. But by the time she writes her last letter to her
friend in the spring of 1626 the King and Parliament are al
ready at odds. Conditions are going to grow worse and worse,
she says, if
this Parliament and the- King part not upon better terms
than yet they stand, the King having declared himself
stiff one way, and they growing stronger and stronger in
their resolutions another. !
If the King only knew how to play the game, he might "have
of them what none of his predecessors ever had of their
people."61
On December 9, 1626, just a few months before the death
of the Countess, Sir Thomas Roe wrote her a long letter from
Constantinople, where he was minister. It reveals one of
her interests which has not appeared before--an interest in ! •
collecting Greek and Roman coins and medals. Sir Thomas had
known her for a long time; he was one of the gentlemen who
had been in her brother's household before John Harington's
I
death in l6l4. Now he sits down to give her an hour of
f
pleasure by telling her something he knows she will like to
hear. He writes: >
I am glad to find an excuse and force an occasion to re
new in your remembrance the name of an old servant. . . .
I have recalled my thoughts upon what your Ladyship took
the latest pleasure, that I saw you marshalling of
6QPrivate Correspondence, pp. 125-26.
; 6lp. 146.
ancient coins and medals, . . . so that I have presumed
to entertain you one hour with the enclosed catalogue of
such as in this pilgrimage I have collected. . . . [Here
Hoe writes a long and learned passage about the nature of
the coins and their historical and moral significance.]
To the contemplation of their inscriptions I leave your
Ladyship, not doubting you will teach me, when I ..return,
more than I can find of them without help. . . •fc>2
On March 20, 1627* Lady Bedford's niece Anne, wife of
Thomas Lord Bruce, died in childbed. She was buried at
Exton Church, where a monument was erected for her by her
husband. She had one child, a boy named Robert Bruce. ^
In 1626 the Earl of Bedford had been at the Court of
Holland with Sir Dudley Carleton and others. Early in 1627,
as Lord Lieutenant of Devonshire, he was overseeing the de
fense of Dartmouth and sending soldiers to Portsmouth to be
64
shipped to Guernsey and Jersey. But later on in the year
he contracted smallpox,^ and he died on May 3* 1627* He
was privately interred at Cheyneys, on the night of the day
62
Samuel Richardson, ed., The Negotiations of Sir
Thomas Roe in His Embassy to the" Ottoman Porte, 1621-28
"(London, 1740). I owe this ’ important reference to the kind
ness of Dr. Bald. About 1619 Roe had returned to England
with a collection of coins, medals, vases, etc. The Earl of
Arundel and William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, were rivals
in their attempt to secure these treasures. (Letter of the
Earl of Arundel to his Countess, quoted in M. A. Tierney's
History and Antiquities of the Castle and Town of Arundel
U«34j, P- ^3 5.) ' :
63John Prince, Worthies of Devon (London, 1810), p. 205.J
64Acts of the Privy Council, 1 6 2 7* pp. 271* 3 8 5-8 6* 390i
i
^ The Obituary of Richard Smyth, Camden Society Publi- \
cations"^ No • 44 (London, 1849) * p- 18.
■ “265;
of his death, in Russell Chapel, the burial place of his two
66
children and of his ancestors.
The Countess lived only a short time after the death of
her husband. On May 4, 1627, Thomas Meautys writes to his
f
sister, Lady Jane Bacon: I
My Lo. of Bedford died on Tuesday last: my Lady’s re
covery is much doubted; her strength and spirits being,
as they say, far spent, and wearing out daily by an un
toward cough, which is-almost continual. This I under
stood from Mrs. Dixon.
Lord Braybrooke, the editor of the Cornwallis correspondence,
writes in the introduction:
His [the Earl of Bedford's] wife survived him only a few
days, and was buried with her ancestors in Exton Church,
on the 31st of the same month.
The day of her death was May 26, 1627-^
The business affairs of the period from 1619 to 1627
are complicated. In June, 1 6 1 9, there is evidence that the i
Countess was trying to find ways to pay her debts. On June
19* Chamberlain writes that there has been a grant of L2,000
70
a year to her and Marquis Hamilton. On July 12 a grant
66
See excerpts from the Register Books at Cheyneys in \
Lipscomb, Buckinghamshire, III, 260-61.
67private Correspondence, p. 173*
6®p. xviii. Wiffen says the parish register of Exton
Church has an entry indicating the burial of the Countess
there in the year 1627. (Memoirs of the House of Russell,
II, addenda after p. 592. See also a note by Lord Bray
brooke, Notes and Queries, second series, IV, 2 3 6.)
6%iffen, II, 120.
^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1619-23, p- 54.
was made to several men on behalf of the Countess "of
certain arrears of an old custom of 2d per chaldron on sea
coals."71 On November 20, 1619* Chamberlain writes to
Carleton:
The Lady hath gotten an imposition of two-pence a
chaldron upon sea-coal: and yet all will not serve, for
she is upon selling all the land that descended to her
from her father or her brother, being, they say, L 5 0 ,0 0 0
in debt; as that the overplus will hardly amount to
L20,000 J2
"They say” often identifies news as of doubtful veracity;
perhaps L50,000 is an exaggeration. The Countess' probably
excessive generosity is illustrated by the fact that in 1620
when Henry Goodere's daughter, who had been Lady Bedford's
attendant, married Sir Francis Nethersole, the Countess gave
her L 500 or more in money and L 500 in gloves, "which brought
in a great contribution of plate to make up a portion, which
her father, Sir Henry, could not g i v e . " 7 ^
Early in 1621 Chamberlain writes to Carleton: "The
Earl of Bedford has left his wife t4,000 jointure, and a
74
town and country house." These two residences must have
' t
been Bedford House and Moor Park House. In the same year
there is evidence that the Countess was disposing of her
mother's property to pay debts, for she sold Oakham in
71Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1619-23* p. 61.
^Quoted in Birch, II, 194-95-
73II, 202. !
^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1619-23* p. 248.
Rutlandshire to the Duke of B u c k i n g h a m .75 In an account of I
the King's visit to Burley on August 1621, Chamberlain
mentions the fact that Burley also had been "lately bought
by Buckingham.In 1622 Lady Bedford sold Combe Abbey to ;
Lady Craven for L36,000. She ultimately sold her rights in
Moor Park to her cousin, William Earl of Pembroke.''
In 1622 Bedford House was apparently leased to Francis ;
Bacon, and Tobie Matthew was with him there.7® In 1622 also-
the use of the farthing tokens was established in Ireland,
according to a letter to the Lord Deputy of Ireland signed
by Sir John Suckling and others.79 jn this year the Earl of
Bedford finished paying off L10,000 of debts, as indicated
by the following docket dated February 23rd:
Warrant to the officers of the Exchequer to strike a
tally on behalf of the Earl of Bedford, of receipt of
il 0 ,0 0 0 from him, for certain entails of lands, which
L10,000 was by him paid direct to the King, instead of
into the Exchequer, and discharge to the said Earl of
•L 600 more, which by contract he was to have paid for the
same, and which the King remitted.
At Michaelmas, 1 6 2 3, the Earl of Rutland paid the Countess a
^ Victoria History of Rutlandshire, II, 13* !
^Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1619-23, p. 28l.
77Robert Clutterbuck, The History and Antiquities of
the County of Hertford (London, I8 1 5-2 7) l7 19^ •
78Birch, II, 317.
79Acts of the Privy Council, 1621-23, p. 269*
®°Calendar of State Papers Domestic, l6l9-23> p- 350*
ftl
quarter's rent for Bedford House.
The matter of the patent for gold and sliver thread was
debated for two or three years In the House of Lords, and
finally in 1624 there was a proclamation "abolishing the
manufacture of gold and silver to any persons except the
82
officers of the mints, and changes, and to goldsmiths."
In 1624 Secretary Conway wrote to Attorney General
Coventry as follows:
Sir James Perrot and other lessees of the Mines Royal in
Pembrokeshire have consented that Marquis Hamilton, Lord
Chichester, and the Countess of Bedford be joined with
them in their grant, which is prepared accordingly.°3
In 1631, after the death of the Earl and Countess, Sir
Francis Goodwin put in a claim for part of the value of the
manor of Moor Park, which was about to be sold to Sir John
Sidley, because of "his suretyship for a large debt of the
84
late Earl and Countess of Bedford." So, although the
Countess had managed to provide a living for herself by the
sale of Combe Abbey, other property of hers was encumbered
at the time of her death.
In the last years of Lady Bedford's life, from 1619 to '
1 6 2 7, she was no longer one of the most prominent ladies at
Court and was therefore less in the public eye socially. As
8lHMCR, Rutland, IV, 5 2 6.
ftp :
Syllabus of Rymer's Foedera, II, 854.
^calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1 6 2 3-2 5, p. 264.
84l631-33, p. 116. ;
a consequence the literary men sought more conspicuous
figures to address their dedications to. Moreover, she
probably had less money with which to pay for dedications
than she had had in former years, or preferred to spend her
money in other ways. Only one literary work was dedicated
to her in these years--Patrick Hannay1s Sheretine and
Mariana in 1622. In 1620 Henry Holland published his
Her&tologia, which contained biographical sketches and
pictures of her father and brother. Francis Markham's Book
of Honor, 1625, has several dedicatory epistles, one of them
addressed to the Earl of Bedford.
The matter of greatest interest in this last period of
the Countess’ life is what is to be learned about her po
litical position. In the last years of James* reign she was:
active in various matters that concerned the state. Her
visit to Elizabeth of Bohemia was probably partly for the
purpose of discussing the political situation at the time,
and her subsequent correspondence with Carleton concerned
the same thing. She may have hoped that Elizabeth would
! {
succeed James. If she did have such a hope, one reason was
of course that the Queen of Bohemia had long been her friend;
and that the Countess would be favored. Another was that j
Elizabeth was strongly Protestant and would oppose Spain,
J
even to the point of making war if necessary, for the
purpose of restoring the Palatinate to Frederick.
When Charles had given up the Spanish marriage and it
was clear that he was to succeed his father, she wrote the
idealized description of him to his sister. This account of
him is really a "character"'of the ideal ruler as she would
i - t
have him he. He is interested in the public good. He is
wise, moderate, dependable, and diligent. He is patient
when opposed and ready to learn from others. He is a prince
in appearance, manners, and ability to speak well. Most im
portant of all, in the Countess* judgment, he recognizes the
rights and powers of both Houses of Parliament and favors
honest men. Later on, when she complains of the rigidity of
both King and Parliament, she shows her conviction that
consideration, tolerance, and willingness to compromise are
necessary if government is to be successfully carried on.
Her political philosophy seems to correspond approxi
mately to that of the Earl of Pembroke, and probably she was
influenced by him. He disapproved of James' attempts to
institute a one-man government and contended for the rights
of Parliament. He was "loyal and yet a friend to liberty."®'*
Both the Earl of Pembroke and Marquis Hamilton were tolerant,
moderate men who probably restrained the Countess' tendency ;
to be impulsive.
Apparently she was more concerned about public affairs
than her distinguished literary friends were and was a
greater lover of political liberty. Drayton was conserva
tive; Jonson was a more convinced Royalist than she; Daniel !
' ®^DNB, article on William Herbert. |
perhaps had Catholic sympathies; Donne's High-Church
sition made political liberalism inadvisable.
CHAPTER XII ". i
CONCLUSION
If the Countess of Bedford was the last great patroness,*
it is pertinent to ask why literary patronage declined after
her time. One obvious cause was that the nobility, among
whom most of the patrons were found, decreased in numbers
and wealth as a result of the Civil War. Most of them were
on the King's side. Some of their great houses were de
stroyed; many were plundered by the soldiers of both factions.
The resources of the nobility were overtaxed by the quarter
ing of troops. Valuable objects were sold to raise money
for the King.3"
Anything which made the author less dependent on the
patron for subsistence contributed to the decline of patron
age. One of these factors was the rise of subscription
publishing, which began very early in the seventeenth
century. Sarah L. C. Clapp has found almost a hundred cases
of such publishing between 1617 and 1697-2
Harry Ransom says, "Literary patronage tended to de- j
crease according to the widening distribution of w e a l t h . j
As is well known, the middle class was increasing in numbers,
-^Elizabeth Godfrey [pseud, for Jessie Bedford], Social
Life Under the Stuarts (London, 1904), pp. 253
2"The Beginning of Subscription Publication," Modern
Philology, 29=199-224, November 1931- !
3"The Rewards of Authorship in the Eighteenth Century,";
University of Texas Studies in English, 18:47-66, July 1938.
273;
wealth and power throughout the seventeenth century. This
increase provided more readers for literary works and more
independence for the men who wrote them. The newspapers and:
inagazines began as a result of the increasing number of
; !
readers with money to pay for them. These afforded employ
ment for writers. George E. Beauchamp writes:
Everyone has agreed that somewhere between I6 5O and 17^0
writing became a profession. . . . From approximately
1660 on [an author] could live with an ever-increasing
degree of comfort from the sale of his writings.^
When one observes Lady Bedford herself as a patroness,
he discovers various reasons why she was an important one.
The Countess of Bedford was an interesting person in
many ways. Her letters and evidence from other sources show
that as a woman in the offices of friend, relative, and
homemaker she was at least reasonably successful. She had a;
warm interest in many people. She was fond of her friend
Jane Cornwallis' little son Frederick, frequently sending
messages or gifts to him. She kept certain lodgings ready
for Lady Cornwallis when she came to London. She was not so
narrowly good as to refuse shelter in her home to such women
I
of clouded reputation as Anne Vavasour and Cecilia Bulstrode.
When sickness was widespread in England, she journeyed from
one of her houses to another, doing what she could for her ;
people. She enjoyed starting suitably congenial young
^"The Profession of Writing in England from l660-17*+0, "
Summaries of Doctoral Dissertations, Northwestern University,
10:12-15, June-August 19^2.
i
people off in their married life with generous gifts. She
enjoyed good food and flowers and dogs and horses. She
liked to have elaborate architectural structures built for
her great garden at Moor Park. She liked luxurious clothing
and expensive jewels, as her portraits bear witness. No
doubt she was extravagant, but she was immensely alive and
i
had much capacity for appreciating luxuries and for giving
others the opportunity to enjoy them.
She had great social and political power, which she
seems to have used for the most part in an enlightened way.
Of course we hear no protest from her against the monopolies
on farthing coins and gold and silver thread which she and
her family fought to hold, using their influence with the
!
King, in spite of the fact that these monopolies caused much
unfavorable comment and hard feeling. One of the ways in
which she used her social power was to bring about marriages
which were likely to be happy ones. She helped a great many
of her relatives; whether this help was for the general good
it is impossible to discover, but at least it shows loyalty
to her own people. In spite of her high rank, her attitude ’
toward church and government seems to incline toward what we
would now call the democratic. But she was no extremist;
she thought the sovereign a necessary part of government, |
and she was not associated with the separatists. Because
she had known many Puritans she probably did not stress
■elaborate forms of worship as much as the High-Church peoplej
The Countess enjoyed music; the masques with their
combination of music, dancing, acting, and poetry; painting;
and literature. She liked to collect ancient coins. All of
these interests and the generous amounts of money she was
willing to spend to foster them made her a power for the
encouragement and advancement of the arts.
The literary men she knew and patronized found certain •
traits of hers particularly pleasing. Of course her good
education and her intelligence made her attractive to them.
They were delighted with her mental energy, her quick wit,
and her decorous gaiety. All the good things they said in
their writing, whether grave or humorous, she would be like-;
ly to understand. But if she kept to the end of her life
the respect of a man like John Donne, turned the most moral-!
ly strict of preachers in his later years, the main reason
was that she herself had moral seriousness and genuine piety.
APPENDIX I
ROBERT KELWAY
APPENDIX I
ROBERT KELWAY
Evidently there were two Robert Kelways, perhaps father;
and son. Anthony a Wood says that the younger was the "de
scendant" of the elder. However, the account a Wood gives
of the life of the older man evidently fits the life of the
1
younger one, who was Anne Kelway's father. John Hutchins,
in his History of Dorsetshire (Westminster, 1861-71!-), uses
» 2 !
a Wood's account. Burke's Peerage and the Dictionary of
National Biography mention only one Robert Kelway, the
father of Anne. The book called Masters of the Honorable
Society of the Inner Temple (1 8 8 3) has the Robert Kelway who;
died in 1581 "reporting cases" before he was twelve years
old. ^
A Robert Kelway was Commissioner of the Peace for Wilt
shire in 15X0, 1511, 1512, 1513, 1515, 1523, 15W, etc.4 In
1510 Anne Kelway's father would have been only thirteen
years old; therefore this is evidently a different person.
This is probably the one who was mayor of New Sarum, Wilt
shire, in 1523- He is probably also the one who in 15^7
"obtained large grants from Henry VIII of church lands in t
i
- ^ - Athenae Oxonienses (1691-92), I, 209. j
I
2IV, 195- 1
3p. 8.
j i
Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII,
I, No. 898, etc.
278'
c
Wilts." He is perhaps the one who in 1544 was given
custody of certain lands during the minority of Princesses
Mary and Elizabeth^ and who bought Wiltshire properties from:
the Crown.7 The will of Anne Kelway's father makes no
Q
mention of property in Wiltshire, nor is Wiltshire
mentioned in any record which clearly concerns him.
Sir William Kelway, who in 1562 and 1563 carried on an
extensive correspondence with Burleigh concerning naval af-
|
fairs at Portsmouth, was apparently related in some way to
Robert Kelway, for in Robert Kelway’s will Sir William's son
and heir is mentioned as "cousin Francis."^
^Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries, IV, 101.
^Letters and Papers . ♦ ., XIX, II, 74. j
7XXI, II, 330. |
Q
Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, British Record 1
Society^ III, 180. j
9john Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials (pub. 1822), III,
,'ii, 1 8 1.
APPENDIX II
DEDICATIONS AND TRIBUTES
APPENDIX II
DEDICATIONS AND TRIBUTES
A- Dedications and Tributes to the Countess of Bedford
Alone, or to Her and Some Member of Her Family
(Chronologically arranged)
Desainliens, Claude. Campo di Fior. London, 1 5 8 3* To L.C.
B. ;
Drayton, Michael. Matilda. London, 159^* To L.C.B.
Sonnets complimenting the Countess published with
Matilda:
One by "Anonimos."
One by H.G., probably Henry Goodere.
One by W.G., probably William Goodere, Henry
Goodere*s father.
Endymion and Phoebe .... London, 1595 *
To L.C.B.
Perkins, William. A Salve for a Sick Man. Cambridge, 1595-
To L.C.B.
Campion, Thomas. Poemata. London, 1595- Complimentary
reference to £ .'C .B. in "Umbra," 1. 329*
Drayton, Michael. Mortimeriados♦ London, 1 5 9 6. To L.C.B.,
and complimentary verses included in the poem, lines
2 6 0 -6 6 and 2 0 8 0-8 3. i
Sonnet by E.B., probably Edmund Bolton, pub. with
Mortimeriados
__________________. Robert of Normandy. London, 1596. To L.
C.B. and Lady Harington.
__________________. Englands Heroicall Epistles. London,
1597* To L.C.B., her mother, her husband, and several
others. !
Florio, John. A Worlde of Wordes. London, 1598. To L.C.B.1
and the Earls of Rutland and Southampton. ;
Sonnet pub. with A Worlde of Wordes addressed to L.C.B.j
By "II Candido," that is, Matthew Gwinne.
[
Dowland, John. The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres. London,;
1600. To L.C.B.
Published with The Second Booke is a lyric addressed to
1 L.C.B. by the publisher of the book, George Eastland.
Jonson, Ben. The Fountain of Selfe-Love or Cynthias Reveils.
London, l601. Verses "Go little hook . I ." addressed
to L.C.B. and written in a copy of the play which
Jonson presented to her.
Montaigne, Michel de. The Essayes . . . Trans. John Florioi
London, I6 0 3. First book ded. to L.C.B. and Lady
Harington.
Sonnet accompanying Florio's translation addressed to
L.C.B. Written by Matthew Gwinne.
Daniel, Samuel. A Panegyricke Congratulatorie Delivered to
the Kings Most Excellent Majestie at Burleigh Harring
ton in Rutlandshire I London, 1 6 0 3• This is accompa- ;
nied by several poetical epistles, one of which is ad
dressed to L.C.B. :
The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses. London,
1604. To L.C.B.
Perkins, William. A Godly and Learned Exposition Upon the
Three First Chapters of the Revelation. Second edition.
London, 1 6 0 6. In the dedication Perkins speaks of Lord;
Harington, "Father of the virtuous Lady the Countess of!
Bedford."
Markham, Gervase. The English Arcadia. London, 1607* ap
pears in the Stationer's Register, January 16, 1605-06,
as The Countesse of Bedfordes Arcadia, but in the book
itself there is no reference or dedication to her.
Wake, Isaac. Rex Platonicus. Oxford, 1607- In the dedi
cation to “ Prince Henry there are references to L.C.B.,
"dilecta musis" (p. 13), and to her brother (p. 41).
Gwinne, Matthew. Vertumnus. . . . London, 1607* There is ■
a tribute to L.C.B. in the dedicatory verses.
i
Chapman, George. Homer Prince of Poets . . . Iliads.
London, 1609- Dedicatory sonnets to L.C.B. and several
other people. ^
Lanyer, Emilia. Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum. London, 1611. ;
Includes a sonnet to L.C.B. Also mention of the Bed
fords in "Description of Cookham" at the end of Salve j
Deus. *
Davies, John [of Hereford]. The Scourge of Folly. London,
l6ll. Before this in "Worthy Persons" there are
sonnets to L.C.B., her mother and her brother.
2821
f
Davies, John [of Hereford]. The Muses Sacrifice. . . .
London, 1612. To L.C.B. and two other Ladies.
Owen, John. Epigrammatum. London, 1612. Epigram 32 is ad
dressed to L.C.B.
Cotton, Clement. The Mirror of Martyrs. London, 1613* To !
L.C.B. and Lady Harington.
Jackson, Abraham. Sorrows Lenitive. London, 1614. This
poem concerns the death of the Countess' brother.
Dedicated to L.C.B. and her mother. Reference in the
poem to "graceful Lucy, Bedford's worthy wife."
I
Stock, Richard. The Churches Lamentation. London, 1614.
I Funeral sermon for young Lord Harington. To L.C.B.,
her mother, and her sister.
Lucanus, Marcus Annaeus. Pharsalia. Trans. Arthur Gorges.
London, l6l4. Dedication to L.C.B. written by Carew
Gorges, son of Arthur Gorges.
Saul, Arthur. The Famous Game of Chesse-Play. London, 1614.
To L.C.B. !
Castelvetri (or -vetro), Giacomo. Brieve Racconto di tutte
le Radici, di tutte l'Herbe, & di tutti i Frutti, che
crudi o cotti in Italia si mangiano. 1614. One of the
seven manuscript copies is dedicated to L.C.B.
Sylvester, Joshua. Bethulias Rescue. (in The Parliament of;
Virtues Royal. London, l6l4.) L.C.B. is first in a
list of fifteen countesses and baronesses to whom the
prefatory sonnet is addressed.
Byfield, Nicholas. An Exposition upon the Epistle to the
Colossians. London, 1 6 1 5• To L.C.B. and the Earl of
Bedford.
Gerhard, Johann. The Soules Watch. Trans. Richard Bruch.
London, 1 6 1 5. To L.C.B.
Peretto, Francesco. Gli occhi. Oda. All1 illust. Contessa j
Lucia Bedford. . . London, l6l6. The only copy is i
in Lincoln Cathedral Library. j
Dyke, Daniel. The Mystery of Selfe-Deceiving. London, I616L
To L.C.B.
Jonson, Benjamin. The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. London,
' 1616. ContainsEpigrams LXXVI, LXXXIV, and XCIV, ad- I
dressed to the Countess. His Epistle to the Countess
of Rutland" In this edition contains complimentary com
ment on the Countess of Bedford. See also "A Form of
Grace," in Herford and Simpson's Ben Jonson, VIII
(1947), 419* which mentions her.
White, Robert. Cupids Banishment. A masque presented in
! 1617, published in 1640. To L.C.B.
Byfield, Nicholas. A Commentary upon the Three First '
Chapters of the First Epistle of Peter. London, 1637* :
Dedication dated 1617* Commentary onthe first chapter,
dedicated to L.C.B.
___________ . Sermons upon the First Chapter of the
1 First Epistle Generali of Peter. London, lbl?. To L. :
C .B. :
1
Dyke, Daniel. Two Treatises, the One upon Philemon, the
Other the School of Affliction. London, 1 6 1 8. To L.C.
B.
Byfield, Nicholas. The Marrow of the Oracles of God.
London, 1620. To L.C.B.
Calvin, Jean. Two and Twenty Lectures upon the Five First
Chapters of Jeremiah. Trans. Clement Cotton. London,
1620. To L.C.B. and Lady Harington.
Hannay, Patrick. The Nightingale, Sheretine and Mariana.
. . . London"; 1622. Sheretine and Mariana is dedi-
cated to the Countess.
Wilcocks, Thomas. The Works of that Late Divine Mr. Thomas I
Wilcocks. Ed. John Burges, son-in-law of Wilcocks. j
London, 1624. Ded. to L.C.B. and the Earl of Bedford. I
Markham, Francis. The Book of Honour. London, 1 6 2 5.
Complimentary comment on the Countess in an epistle ad-‘
dressed to the Earl of Bedford.
Burges, Cornelius. Baptismall Regeneration of Elect Infants.
Oxford, 1629* In his dedication to the fourth Earl of :
’ Bedford Burges mentions the third Earl and the Countess
Donne, John. Poems. London, 1633* Date of
Poems to the Countess Composition
"Reason is our souls left hand . . ." 1607-08?
"You have refined me . . ." 1607-08?
"You that are she and you ..." 1609?
"T'have written then . . ." 1609-10?
! "Though I be dead and buried ..." 1612
I
Poems to the Countess
Date of
Composition
"Honor is so sublime perfection ..." 1612-14? :
"This twilight of two years ..." 1613?
"Obsequies to the Lord. Harington," l6l4, has an intro
ductory letter to the Countess.
Also many references in letters. See Donne chapter.
Tovey, Nathaniel. He died in 1 6 5 8. On his tombstone is a
complimentary reference to the Countess and the state
ment that he had been her attendant. See John Nichols,;
The History and Antiquities of Leicestershire, IV, Parti
1, 2 8. ;
Ni.Br. [perhaps Nicholas Breton]. Complimentary verses
under an engraving of the Countess by Simon Van Der
Passe, now in the British Museum.
The verses are as follows:
Religions love, in wisedomes worth,
The truest Beauty, best setts forth:
Judicious witt, with Learnings love,
A Gratious Spirit, best approve.
All these in One, this Shadowe showes
What Honor, with the Substance goes.
See Jean Robertson, ed., Poems by Breton (Liverpool,
1952), p. cxxviii.
Poems or Lines which May Have Been Addressed to the
Countess or May Concern Her
Beaumont, Francis. Grierson thinks his verses beginning
; "Madam, so may my verses pleasing be . . . " were ad- j
dressed to the Countess. See The Poems of John Donne, '
II, xciv and cxxvi. For the poem, see The Works of
Beaumont and Fletcher, ed. Henry Weber (Edinburgh,
1812), XIV, 438-40.
Donne, John.
"Twicknam garden" !
"A Nocturnall upon S. Lucies day" ,
Herbert, Sir Edward. "A Divine Love." See an article by J.;
W. Hebei, "'A Divine Love' Addressed by Lord Herbert to'
Lady Bedford," Modern Language Review, 20:74-76, Janu- i
ary 1925•
Jonson, Ben.
"The Phoenix Analyzed"
"Ode , £ir<9*M.e-«-«rTtK>f "
Spenser, Edmund. Colin Clouts Come Home Again. London,
1595> lines 456 and 907-
B. Dedications and Tributes to Members of the Countess'
Family but Not to Her
(Chronologically arranged)
Anderson, Anthony. A Godlie Sermon. . . . London, 1576.
To Lord Harington and others.
Desainliens, Claude. Treasury of the French Tongue. London*
I58O . To Lady Harington.
A Treatise for Declining of Verbes.
London, X5BU7- To Lady Harington.
Anderson, Anthony. A Sermon. • » • (Funeral sermon for
Robert Kelway.) London, I58T7 To Lord Harington.
Whetstone, George. A Mirror of Treue Honnour. . . ♦ (Life i
of the second Earl of Bedford.) London, 1585 - To
Edward Russell.
Spenser, Edmund. Complaints . . . London, 1591* One
stanza of "The Ruines of Time," lines 266-73> concerns ;
Edward Russell.
Lipsius, Justus. A Direction for Travailers. Trans. Sir
John Stradling. London, 1592. To Edward Russell.
Perkins, William. An Exposition of the Lords Prayer. ,
London, 1592. To Edward Russell. |
Waymouth, John. A Mathematical Discourse. Dedicated to Sir-
John Harington, presumably the Countess' father. Given!
to Sidney Sussex College by L.C.B. and her mother. Thei
date must be between 1594 when Lucy Harington became
Countess of Bedford and 1603 when her father became a !
baron and would no longer be called "Sir." Another j
possibility is that it was dedicated to the Countess' '
brother between the time he entered Sidney Sussex in j
1607 and his father's death in 1 6 1 3, when young Haring-;
ton became second Baron Harington. ;
Perkins, William. An Exposition of the Symbole or Creed of
the Apostles. Cambridge, 159$. ToEdward Russell. ;
Willet, Andrew. Sacrorum Emblematum Centuria Una. Cam
bridge, [1596? J. This book contains a poem addressed
to Edward Russell, but not concerning him.
Gwinne, Matthew. Sonnet to Lady Harington published with
Florio’s translation of Montaigne's essays, 1 6 0 3.
Dyke, Daniel. Certaine Comfortable Sermons upon the 124th
Psalme. London, 1616'. Preached before Princess Eliza-
beth at Combe before 1 6 0 6^ Mention of Lord and Lady
Harington.
Suetonius Tranquillus, Gaius. Twelve Caesars. Trans.
Philemon Holland. London, 1606. To Lady Harington.
Cooper, Thomas. The Romish Spider. London, 1606. To Lord
and Lady Harington and others.
Cleland, James. The Institution of a Young Nobleman. Ox
ford, 1607- Part IV is dedicated to the young Lord
Harington.
Owen, John. Epigrammatum. . . . London, 1607* Four epi
grams are addressed to young Lord Harington. Two of
these were translated by Robert Hayman, Quodlibets,
London, 1 6 2 8.
Tuvil, Daniel. Essaies Politicke and Morall. London, 1 6 0 8. ;
To Lady Harington.
Downame, John. Four Treatises. London, 1609- To Lord and
Lady Harington.
Dod, John, and Robert Cleaver. A Plaine and Familiar Expo
sition of the Thirteenth arid Fourteenth Chapters of the!
P'roverbs 6'f Solomon I London, lbt>9. To Lord and Lady
Harington. * 1
Cooper, Thomas. The Christians Daily Sacrifice. London,
1 6 0 9. To Princess Elizabeth and Lord and Lady Haring- :
ton. !
i
i
i
Maxwell, James. The Mirrour of Religious Men. . . . London^
l6ll. To Lord and Lady Harington. I
Peacham, Henry. Minerva Britanna. London, 1612. This book
contains an emblem addressed to Lord Harington.
Maxwell, James. Queene Elizabeths Looking-glasse. ♦ . .
London, 1612“ This book contains a reference to Lady
Harington.
Stock, Richard. The Churches Lamentation. London, l6l4.
(Funeral sermon for young Lord Harington.) In the
last pages of this book are the following poems con
cerning Lord Harington:
A Latin elegy by Francis Hering
An English elegy by Hering
An epitaph by Hering
An epitaph by I.P. of Sidney Sussex College
An elegy by Thomas Roe (This elegy is also to be
found in Beloe1s Anecdotes, VI, 108-10.)
Donne, John. "Obsequies to the Lord Harington." l6l4. ;
Verses addressed to John, second Baron Harington, supposed
to be under a portrait. These verses, beginning "Rich '
ornament, rare honor of our clime," are recorded in T.
W. Whitley, Parliamentary Representation in the City of
Coventry, p . 67• I
Sandison, Helen, ed. The Poems of Arthur Gorges. Oxford,
1953- This book includes a lyric called "Upon the
Death of the Young Lord Harington." (p. 30.)
Dyke, Daniel. Two Treatises . . . of Repentance . . . and
of Christs Temptations. London, 16l6. To Lady Haring-;
ton.
Byfield, Nicholas. The Cure of the Fear of Death. London, j
I6l8 . To Lady Harington.
De Croy, Francis. The Three Conformities. Trans. William
Hart. London, "1620. To Lady Harington.
Holland, Henry. Hero>ologia Anglica. . . . Arnhem, 1620. !
This book contains engravings and biographical sketches;
of the Countess' father and brother. At the end of it
is a long Latin poem concerning young John Harington by(
Abraham Holland. j
Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS. D. 350f-3l6: "Orations in
praise of the Lady Lucy [sic], wife of John First Lord
Harington, of Exton, who died in June, 1620." Sup- j
posedly by Richard Stock.
Francis Hering (Herring) was a physician, probably at
tending on John Harington. Dictionary of National Biography.
article on Hering.
288
Brinsley, John A. A Consolation for Our Grammar Schools.
London, 1622. This hook contains comment on young Lord:
Harington.
Markham, Francis. The Book of Honour. London, 1625- In
part 3} Epistle 5 is addressed to Edward Russell.
Shaw, John. Two Clean Birds; or the Cleansing of the Leper. 1
Sermon preached before Lord Fairfax in 1642. York,
164*!-. An extract from it is printed in Thomas Broad,
Yorkshire Diaries and Autobiographies in the Seven
teenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Durham, 1877• [Sur
tees Society, No. 65-)
Clarke, Samuel. Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons, published !
with The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History. London, !
I65O. Lhis book' contains a biographical sketch of ;
young John Harington. The sketch was omitted from the
1683 edition.
Gataker, Thomas. Discourse Apologetical. London, 1654.
This author refers to young Harington as the "mirror of
nobility."
Jeremiah Wiffen writes of "the virtues of Lord Harington the
elder being commemorated in Latin verse by Holland."
(Memoirs of the House of Russell, II, 104.) I have not
seen these verses, nor do I know which Holland he
refers to.
APPENDIX III
PORTRAITS AND OTHER REPRESENTATIONS OF THE
COUNTESS AND MEMBERS OF HER FAMILY
APPENDIX III ...~.. ]
PORTRAITS AND OTHER REPRESENTATIONS OF THE
COUNTESS AND MEMBERS OF HER FAMILY
A. Portraits and Other Representations of the Countess of j
»
Bedford
1. Portrait in the masquing costume the Countess wore in
Jonson*s Hymenaei. This is listed in George
Scharf, A Description and Historical Catalogue of :
................ " ................. t
the Collection of Pictures at Woburn Abbey (London;
1 8 9 0), as No. 75- ;
Reproductions:
1) As frontispiece in Bernard H. Newdigate,
The Phoenix and Turtle (Oxford, 1937).
2) In Walpole Society Publications, Vol. Ill,:
Plate IX, a.
3) In T. F. Henderson, James I and VI (London;
1904), p. 2 3 2.
2. A Honthorst portrait in the Woburn Abbey collection,
listed in the catalogue as No. 74. This is a
half-length picture. The Countess is dressed in
i
black and is leaning her head on her right hand. ,
j
According to the Woburn catalogue there is (or was)
a repetition of this portrait in the collection of
the Duke of Devonshire and also a repetition of it
which was at Combe Abbey.
Reproductions:
l) In Evelyn Hardy, Donne, a Spirit in
Conflict (London, 1942). ;
2) In Herford and Simpson, Ben Jonson, VIII,
60.
3) In Edmund Lodge, Portraits of Illustrious
Personages of Great Britain (London, 1835),
Vol. V.
Another portrait, perhaps Toy Honthorst, in the Edwards
collection at the Town Hall of Stow-on-the-Wold.
The Countess' dress is similar to that in the
Honthorst portrait, but she is standing facing the
spectator. See Herford and Simpson, Ben Jonson,. 1
VIII, x.
Jeremiah Wiffen, referring to Thomas Pennant, writes of;
a portrait similar to Honthorst's which "exists at
Alloa [Castle], painted in 1620, in the thirty-
eighth year of her [the Countess'] age, which
Pennant attributes to Cornelius Jansen." (Memoirs
of the House of Russell, II, 123*)
Reproduction in C. H. Collins Baker, Lely and the
Stuart Painters (London, 1912), I, 64.
Wiffen speaks of another portrait "in the possession of
the Duke of Portland, a full-length, with red
stockings, and otherwise singularly attired; the
features somewhat caricatured, and the figure
standing amidst clouds." (Memoirs . . ., II, 123•)
Another half-length portrait, listed in the Woburn
catalogue as No. 73; the Countess wears a large
radiating ruff and a headdress of lace and red j
feathers.
' ............................ ‘.............' '.. 292
7- In Walpole Society Publications, III, is a reproduction;
(Plate XX) of a "Full-length Portrait of Lucy
Harington, Countess of Bedford, in the Royal
Gallery of Grifsholm, Stockholm." It is supposed-:
ly by Gheeraerts. It is marked as a portrait of
Queen Elizabeth, but the Harington arms are in
corporated in it.
8 . The Richardson portrait, engraved by Simon Van Der
Passe. With this engraving are printed verses by '
Ni.Br., perhaps Nicholas Breton.
Reproductions:
1) As frontispiece in Jean Robertson, ed..
Poems by Nicholas Breton (Liverpool, 1952).
2) In Sidney Colvin, Early Engraving and En
gravers in England, 1545-1695/ p. lQl.
3) In James Granger, Biographical History of
England (London, 17o9-74)> II> 170.
9* A miniature by Isaac Oliver in the collection of the
Duke of Buccleuch at Montagu House. The Countess
is wearing a heartshaped headdress and a flowered i
costume.
Reproductions:
1) In T. F. Henderson, James I and VI (London,
1904), p. 2 3 2. ;
2) In Graham Reynolds, Nicholas Hilliard and
Isaac Oliver (London, 1947) " , a catalogue of
an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert
Museum, Plates XXXVI and XXXVII.
10. A miniature by Nicholas Hilliard. Reproduction in
Louisa Costello, Memoirs of Eminent Englishwomen
...................... ~ "293
(London, 1844), II, 172.
11. The Earl and Countess of Bedford are supposed to be
represented in a painting of Queen Elizabeth in a ;
litter surrounded by her courtiers. There are two
versions of this painting, reproduced as frontis
pieces for Vols. Ill and IX of Walpole Society
Publications. See an article by George Scharf,
"Queen Elizabeth's Procession in a Litter to Cele-
I
brate the Marriage of Anne Russell at Blackfriars,,
June 16, 1600," Archaeological Journal, 23:131-44,
June 1866.
12. A drawing by Inigo Jones of the Countess as Penthesilea
in Jonson's Masque of Queens. This may not be a
likeness of Lady Bedford but merely a generalized
representation. Reproduction in Shakespeare 1s
England (Oxford, 1923), II, 312.
B. Portraits and Other Representations of Members of the
Countess' Family
1. A painting listed as No. 71 in the Woburn catalogue is
of Edward Russell. It is by Marcus Gheeraerts and
is dated 1616. The Earl is standing and has his i
arm in a sling. Reproduction in Walpole Society
Publications, Vol. Ill, Plate XXXVII.
2. A painting listed as No. 72 in the Woburn catalogue is I
also of the Earl, but he is sitting in an armchair!
i
He is wearing the same costume in both paintings, j
In the Woburn Abbey collection (No. 57) there is also a:
painting of the Countess' brother, painter unknown.
In T . W. Whitley, The Parliamentary Representation of
the City of Coventry (Coventry, l89J +) are prints
from engravings of the Countess' father and
brother. The picture of her father had originally
been painted by Isaac Oliver, and that of her
brother had been engraved by R. Elstrack.
In Henry Holland, Hercoologia, pp. 133* 138* are prints '
from engravings of the Countess' father and
brother. These engravings were made from paint
ings by Isaac Oliver (Notes and Queries, IV, v,
j
{
10.) According to Sidney Colvin, the engravings
were the work of Simon Van Der Passe's sister i
Magdalena and his brother Willem. (Early Engrav
ing and Engravers in England, 15^5-1695* P• 102.)
A picture of Prince Henry and a young man with a stag.
There has been some controversy over who the young
man is. Lionel Cust settles the matter by demon- ;
strating that there are two pictures, the young ’
man in one being John, second Baron Harington, and
the young man in the other being Robert Devereux, ;
the young Earl of Essex. The young men can be disj
i
tinguished by the fact that their respective arms |
i
are represented in the pictures. Cust thinks the :
Devereux picture is later and by a different
■ artist. (See Walpole Society Publications, Vol.
Ill, for an article on the pictures and for Plates:
XXXIV, a and b, which show the two pictures.) The:
painting containing a picture of Lord Harington is
also reproduced as the frontispiece of Art News,
April 13, 19^0. This painting was by Isaac Oliver.
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i
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Allen, John ¥. English Political Thought, 1603-1660. >
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"Anne Clifford." Dictionary of National Biography, IV, 512- *
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