or at least unblotted, in
any kind of matter objected by Mr. Knyvet, whom we heard at great
length, and his men also. But because Mr. Knyvet's man, called Long
Tom, that once served and was maintained by my Lord of Oxford, a bad
fellow to serve any honest man, came to his death, I am bold to send
to you the inquisition before the Coroner of London, with the verdict
of the jury and the depositions of the ocular witnesses; by all
which, and by a new acquittal at Newgate, Gastrell, the party named
my Lord of Oxford's man, and yet was not then his man, nor yet is,
though Mr. Knyvet report him so to be, was and standeth acquitted of
the death of the said Long Thomas; so as, where her Majesty had just
cause to conceive somewhat hardly of my Lord of Oxford, I doubt not
but when her Majesty shall be informed by my Lord of Leicester of the
truth which he hath seen and not disproved, her Majesty will diminish
her offensive opinion : and I trust also, after you shall have read
these writings, which I will on my credit avow to be true, you will
be of the same mind, and, as opportunity may serve, will also move
her Majesty in this case to think otherwise hereof than the informer
meant to induce her to think. As to the rest of the brabbles and
frays, my Lord of Leicester can also declare upon what small
occasions of repute and light carriages of tales, whereof my Lord of
Oxford is nowise touched, these brabbles are risen. And for the
quarrel of one Roper, of the Guards, against Gastrell, my Lord of
Oxford's man, it is confessed that Roper challenged Gastrell that he
had complained of him; whereas in truth yourself knoweth it was my
Lord of Oxford that did complain to you of Roper and of one Hall, so
as Roper was therein too busy. And hereupon he wrote a long epistle
to Gastrell to challenge him to fight, and so also Costock made the
like challenge, whereby appeareth that these frays grow
by challenges
made to my Lord of Oxford's men: and yet it must be informed that my
Lord of Oxford's men do offer these frays. Good Mr. Vice-Chamberlain,
these things are hardly carried, and these advantages are easily
gotten, where some may say what they will against my Lord of Oxford,
and have presence to utter their humours; and my Lord of Oxford is
neither heard, nor hath presence either to complain or defend
himself: and so long as he shall be subject to the disgrace of her
Majesty (from which God deliver him), I see it apparently, that, how
innocent soever he shall be, the advantages will fall out for his
adversaries; and so I hear they do prognosticate. It hath been also
informed her Majesty that he hath had fifteen or sixteen pages in a
livery going before him in Cheapside; but, if these tongues that
uttered this were so much lessened by measure in their mouths as they
have enlarged in their number, they would never be touched hereafter
with making any verbal lie. Indeed I would he had less than he hath,
and yet in all his house are, nor were at any time, but four : one of
them waiteth upon his wife, my daughter; another in my house, upon
his daughter Bess; a third is a kind of a tumbling-boy; and the
fourth is the son of a brother of Sir John Cutts, lately put to him.
By this false, large, lying report, if her Majesty would cause it to
be tried, she should find upon what roots these blasphemous branches
do grow. But I submit all these things to God's will, who knoweth
best why it pleaseth Him to afflict my Lord of Oxford in this sort,
who hath, I confess, forgotten his duty to God, and yet I hope he may
be made a good servant to her Majesty, if it please her of her
clemency to remit her displeasure; for his fall in her Court, which
is now twice yeared, and he punished as far or farther than any like
crime hath been, first by her Majesty, and then by the drab's friend
in revenge to the peril of his life. And if his own punishment past,
and his humble seeking of forgiveness, cannot recover her Majesty's
favour, yet some, yea many, may think that the intercession of me and
my poor wife, so long and importunately continued, might have
obtained some spark of favour of her Majesty; but hereof I will in
nowise complain of too much hardness, but to myself. I would I could
not, in amaritudine animte, lament my wife's oppressing of her heart
for the opinion she imprinteth therein of her misfortune, a matter
not to be expressed without mistaking : and therefore both I and she
are determined to suffer and lament our misfortune, that, when our
son-in-law was in prosperity, he was cause of our adversity by his
unkind usage of us and ours; and now that he is ruined and in
adversity, we only are made partakers thereof, and by no means, no,
not by bitter' tears of my wife, can obtain a spark of favour for
him, that hath satisfied his offence with punishment, and seeketh
mercy by submission; but contrariwise, whilst we seek for favour, all
crosses are laid against him, and by untruths sought to be kept in
disgrace. But, good Mr. Vice-Chamberlain,
pardon me herein, for my
heart too full to stay my pen, and yet I will end, because I will no
further trouble you with my troubles, which are ordained of God for
myself; and so I will patiently take them and lap them up to carry
with me to the grave, where, when I shall be, I am sure they shall
not follow me. When I began to write, I neither meant nor thought I
could have scribbled thus much ; but the matter hath ministered me
the cause, for I take no pleasure therein. God preserve her Majesty,
and grant her only to understand the true hearts of my poor wife and
me, and then I doubt not the sequel of her gracious favours in far
greater matters than we have required. We have not many years to
live, perchance not many days, and the fewer I am sure to find lack
of her favours, of whom we seek to deserve well by our daily
services. From my house in Westminster, this 12th of March 1582
[1583].
Yours assuredly, as you see, very bold, W. Burghley."
Source: Nicholas, Harris. Memoirs of the Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton (1847).
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
- Rocco Bonetti's Blackfriars Fencing School and Lord Hunsdon's Water Pipe. August 12, 2023. “... the tenement late in the tenure of John Lyllie gentleman & nowe in the tenure of the said Rocho Bonetti...”
On Shakespeare's lameness and historical-fiction biography, etc. August 5, 2023. “Those who support Sogliardo of Stratford and other authorship candidates generally stop by from time to time to remark...”
- Shakespeare CSI: Sir Thomas More, Hand-D. April 22, 2023. “What a glory to have an actual hand-written manuscript from the greatest English writer of all time!”
- Robert Greene and the Construction Shakespeare Never Used. August 9, 2022. 'Our first foray “staring intently into” the texts of Robert Greene has noted that his work utilized far fewer feminine endings than Shakespeare’s.'
A 1572 Oxford Letter and the Player’s Speech in Hamlet. August 11, 2020. “The player’s speech has been a source of consternation among Shakespeare scholars for above 200 years. Why was Aeneas’ tale chosen as the subject?”
- Check out the Shakespeare Authorship Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the Letters Index: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
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