NOTES \V W X X. 



it be but an idle digression, yet because I am not willing to be short in com 

 memoration of his benefits, I will presume to trouble your lordship with the 

 relating to you the manner of it. After the Queen had denied me the solicitor s 

 place, for the which his lordship had been a long and earnest suitor on my be 

 half, it pleased him to come to me from Richmond to Twicknam Park, and 

 brake with me, and said, Mr. Bacon, the Queen hath denied me the place for 

 you, and hath placed another ; 1 know you are the least part of your own 

 matter, but you faie ill, because you have chosen me for your mean and de- 

 pendance : you have spent your time and thoughts in my matters; I die (these 

 were his very words) if 1 do not somewhat towards your fortune; you shall not 

 deny to accept a piece of land, which 1 will bestow upon you. My answer, I 

 remember was, that for my fortune it was no great matter ; but that his lord 

 ship s offer made me call to mind what was wont to be said, when I was in 

 France, of the Duke of Guise, that he was the greatest usurer in France, because 

 he had turned all his estate into obligations ; meaning that he had left himself 

 nothing, but only had bound numbers of persons to him. Now, my lord, (said 

 I) I would not have you imitate his course, nor turn your state thus by great 

 gifts into obligations, for you will find many bad debtors. He bad me take no 

 care for that, and pressed it : whereupon I said, My lord, I see I must be your 

 homager, and hold land of your gift ; but do you know the manner of doing 

 homage in law? Always it is with a saying of his faith to the king and his 

 other lords, and therefore, my lord, (said 1) 1 can be no more yours than I was, 

 and it may be with the ancient savings ; and if I grow to be a rich man, you 

 will give me leave to give it back to some of your unrewarded followers v 



XX. Life, p. xxxiv. 



In a letter to Sir Robert Cecil, he says : Casting the worst of my fortune with 

 an honourable friend, that had long used me privately, I told his lordship of 

 this purpose of mine to travel, accompanying it with these very words, that 

 upon her majesty s rejecting me with such circumstance, though my heart 

 might be good, yet mine eyes would be sore, that I should take no pleasure to 

 look upon my friends ; for that I was not an impudent man, that could face 

 out a disgrace ; and that I hoped her majesty would not be offended, that, not 

 able to endure the sun, I fled into the shade. 



Mr. Francis Bacon to the Earl of Essex.* 



My Lord, I thank your lordship very much for your kind and comfortable 

 letter, which 1 hope will be followed at hand with another of more assurance. 

 And I must confess this very delay hath gone so near me, as it hath almost 

 overthrown my health ; for when I revolved the good memory of my father, the 

 near degree of alliance I stand in to my Lord Treasurer, your lordship s so sig 

 nalled and declared favour, the honourable testimony of so many counsellors, 

 the commendations unlaboured, and in sort offered by my lords the Judges and 

 the Master of the Rolls elect ;t that I was voiced with great expectation, and, 

 though I say it myself, with the wishes of most men, to the higher place ; J that 

 I am a man that the Queen hath already done for ; and that princes, especially 

 her majesty, love to make an end where they begin ; and then add hereunto 

 the obscureness and many exceptions to my competitors : when I say I revolve 

 all this, I cannot but conclude with myself, that no man ever read a more exqui 

 site disgrace ; and therefore truly, my lord, I was determined, if her majesty 

 reject me, this to do. My nature can take no evil ply ; but I will, by God s 

 assistance, with this disgrace of my fortune, and yet with that comfort of the 

 good opinion of so many honourable and worthy persons, retire myself with a 

 couple of men to Cambridge, and there spend my life in my studies and con- 



* Among the papers of Antony Bacon, Esq. vol. iii. fol. 62, in the Lambeth 

 Library. 



t Sir Thomas Egerton. 



t That of Attorney General. 



