212 The Duchess of Newcastle 



hard for place; for though I am naturally bashful, 

 yet in such a cause my spirits would be all on fire. 

 Otherwise I am so well bred, as to be civill to all 

 persons, of all degrees, or qualities; Hkewise I am so 

 proud, or rather just to My Lord, as to abate nothing 

 of the qualitie of his wife ; for if honour be the marke 

 of merit, and his masters royall favour, who will 

 favour none but those that have merit to deserve, it 

 were a baseness for me to neglect the ceremony thereof. 

 Also in some cases I am naturally a coward, and in 

 other cases very valiant; as for example, if any of 

 my neerest friends were in danger, I should never 

 consider my life in striving to help them, though I 

 were sure to do them no good, and would willingly, 

 nay cheerfully, resign my life for their sakes. Likewise 

 I should not spare my life, if honour bids me dye; 

 but in a danger where my friends, or my honour is 

 not concerned, or ingaged, but only my life to be 

 unprofitably lost, I am the veriest coward in nature, 

 as upon the sea, or any dangerous places, or of thieves, 

 or fire, or the Uke. Nay, the shooting of a gun, although 

 but a pot-gun, will make me start, and stop my 

 hearing, much less have I courage to discharge one; 

 or if a sword should be held against me, although but 

 in jest, I am afraid. Also as I am not covetous, so I am 

 not prodigall, but of the two I am incHning to be 

 prodigall, yet I cannot say to a vain prodigallity, 

 because I imagine it is to a profitable end, for per- 

 ceiving the world is given, or apt to honour the outside 

 more than the inside, worshipping show more than 

 substance; and I am so vain, if it be a vanity, as to 

 endeavour to be worship't, rather than not to be 

 regarded; yet I shall never be so prodigall as to 

 impoverish my friends, or go beyond the limits or 

 facilitie of our estate. And though I desire to appear 



