LEGAL SUBJECTS. 423 



TO THE KING*. 



MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, 



I DO very much thank your majesty for your letter, 

 and think myself much honoured by it. For though 

 it contain some matter of dislike, in which respect it 

 hath grieved me more than any event, which hath 

 fallen out in my life ; yet because I know reprehen 

 sions from the best masters to the best servants are 

 necessary ; and that no chastisement is pleasant for 

 the time, but yet worketh good effects; and for that 

 I find intermixed some passages of trust and grace ; 

 and find also in myself inwardly sincerity of intention, 

 and conformity of will, howsoever I may have erred ; 

 I do not a little comfort myself, resting upon your 

 majesty s accustomed favour ; and most humbly 

 desiring, that any one of my particular notions may 

 be expounded by the constant and direct course, 

 which, your majesty knoweth, I have ever held in 

 your service. 



And because it hath pleased your majesty, of 

 your singular grace and favour, to write fully and 

 freely unto me ; it is duty and decorum in me not 

 to write shortly to your majesty again, but with 

 some length ; not so much by way of defence or 



* This letter appears, from the indorsement of the king s 

 answer to it, to have been written at Gorhambury, July 25, 1617. 

 That printed with this date in his Works, should be August 2, 

 1617, as I 6nd by the original draught of it. 



