THE SQUIRE S SPEECH. 115 



a melancholy dreaming hermit, a mutinous brain-sick sol 

 dier, and a busy tedious secretary. His petition is, that he 

 may be as free as the rest ; and, at least, while he is here, 

 troubled with nothing but with care how to please and 

 honour you. 



THE HERMIT S SPEECH IN THE PRESENCE. 

 THOUGH our ends be diverse, and therefore may be one 

 more just than another; yet the complaint of this squire is 

 general, and therefore alike unjust against us all. Albeit 

 he is angry, that we offer ourselves to his master uncalled, 

 and forgets we come not of ourselves, but as the messengers 

 of self-love, from whom all that comes should be well 

 taken. He saith, when we come, we are importunate. If 

 he mean, that we err in form, we have that of his master, 

 who, being a lover, useth no other form of soliciting. If 

 he will charge us to err in matter, I, for my part, will pre 

 sently prove, that I persuade him to nothing but for his 

 own good. For I wish him to leave turning over the book 

 of fortune, which is but a play for children ; when there be 



of the Sydney Family, Vol. I. p. 362. According to this letter, the Earl of 

 Essex, some considerable time before he came himself into the Tilt-yard, sent 

 his page with some speech to the queen, who returned with her majesty s glove ; 

 and when his lordship came himself, he was met by an old hermit, a secretary 

 of state, a brave soldier, and an esquire. The first presented him with a book of 

 meditations ; the second with political discourses ; the third with orations of 

 bravely fought battles ; the fourth was his own follower, to whom the other three 

 imparted much of their purpose before the earl came in. &quot; Another, adds Mr. 

 Whyte, devised with him, persuading him to this and that course of life, accord 

 ing to their inclinations. Comes into the Tilt-yard unthought upon, the ordinary 

 postboy of London, a ragged villain, all bemired, upon a poor lean jade, gallop 

 ing and blowing for life, and delivered the secretary a packet of letters, which he 

 presently offered my Lord of Essex. And with this dumb show our eyes were 

 fed for that time. In the after-supper, before the queen, they first delivered a 

 well penned speech to move this worthy knight to leave his following of love, 

 and to betake him to heavenly meditation ; the secretaries all tending to have 

 him follow matters of state ; the soldiers persuading him to the war : but the 

 squire answered them all, and concluded with an excellent, but too plain, Eng 

 lish, that this knight would never forsake his mistress s love, whose virtue made 

 all his thoughts divine ; whose wisdom taught him all true policy ; whose beauty 

 and worth were at all times able to make him fit to command armies. He 

 showed all the defects and imperfections of all their times ; and therefore thought 

 his course of life to be best in serving his mistress.&quot; Mr. Whyte then mentions, 

 that the part of the old hermit was performed by him, who, at Cambridge, played 

 that of Giraldi ; that Morley acted the secretary ; and that the soldier was re 

 presented by him who acted the pedant, and that Mr. Tobie Matthew was the 

 squire. &quot; The world,&quot; says Mr. Whyte, &quot; makes many untrue constructions of 

 these speeches, comparing the hermit and the secretary to two of the lords ; and 

 the soldier to Sir Roger Williams. But the queen said, that if she had thought 

 there had been so much said of her, she would not have been there that night 

 and so went to bed.&quot; 



