BOOK I, Chap. II. LIFE OF SIR ROBERT COTTON. ELIZABETH; Sir Robert, the self-made exile, and the maker Such, in few words, was the career of the man, the forgotten production of whose pen was to shorten the life of a statesman whose only connection with it-so far as the evidence goes-lay in the fact that a copy chanced to turn up in his library; fell under the keen eye of a lawyer who thought that something might be made of it; and was then copied probably by some clerk, who was in the habit of making transcripts for students to whom money was less precious than time. In some points of the story Registers of the Privy Council, James I, vol. v, pp. 484, 485, 489; Nov. 3-5, 1629. (C. O.) Domestic Correspondence, James I, vol. cli, § 24, § 69, seqq., and vol. clii, § 78, seqq. In this last-named document the following passage occurs. The writer is Richard James, who for very many years was Librarian to Sir Robert Cotton, and he is writing to Secretary Lord Dorchester.-'About July last, I was willed by Sir Robert Cotton to carry him [Mr. Oliver Saint John] into the Upper Study and there let him make search among some bundles of papers for business of the Sewers. . . . . If he (St. John) did make any mention of a projecting pamphlet there pretended to be found, so God save me as I entered into no further conversation of it. Neither can I believe that any such as this now questioned was ever in keeping with us, or ever seen by Sir R. Cotton until, of late, he received it from my Lord of Clare. For myself, let not God be merciful unto me if, before that time, I ever saw, heard, or thought of it' (R. James to Dorchester, vol. 152, § 78). (R. H.) There is also some further information on the subject in MS. Harl. 7000, ff. 267, seqq. (B. M.) A considerable number of the letters of Richard James to Sir Robert Cotton, his friend and benefactor, are preserved in MS. Harl. 7002. But these throw no satisfactory light on the incident of 1629. I believe, however, that to an observant reader they will be likely to suggest the idea that Richard James knew more i Chap. II. there is still considerable uncertainty. But so much as this BOOK 1, seems to be established. How the tract came, at the LIFE OF first, into Sir Robert Corron's library there is no evidence SIR ROBERT whatever to shew. COTTON. It is not the least curious point in this transaction that the Earl of SOMERSET should have been mixed up with it. He had been released from the Tower almost eight years before (namely, on the 28th of January, 1622), but was prohibited from living near the Court. At first, he was ordered to restrict himself to one or other of two old mansions in Oxfordshire-Caversham and Grey's Court. After- Council wards, his option was enlarged, by including, in the license, James 1, Aldenham, in Hertfordshire. It is evident that, after 425 (C..). than he was willing that Sir Robert should know. The letters are without dates, after the fashion of the times, and this adds to their obscurity. But one thing is plain. The writer ran away from London, either when he knew that the first inquiry was imminent or thought it probable that a renewed inquiry would be set on foot. In one of these letters, after many professions of attachment, he writes thus: 'From you, at this time, I should not have parted, if the exigence and penurie of my life had not forc'd a silent retreat into myself, and my owne home at Corpus Christi College;' and then, a fit of poesy-such as it was-coming over him, he ends his letter metrically, as thus: Registers, vol. v, pp. 230, Book I, Chap. II. LIFE OF BUCKINGHAM's death, he began to hope that a political career might be still possible for him. And statesmen SIR ROBERT like BEDFORD and CLARE as well as COTTON-kept up with him a correspondence. COTTON, BEN JONSON VERSES TO Domestic Charles I, vol. cxix, $33. More than once or twice, coming events had cast their preliminary shadows over Sir Robert, in relation to the very matter which so vexed his heart in the winter of 1629. 'Sir Robert COTTON's Library is threatened to be sealed up' is a sentence which made its occasional appearance in news-letters, long before King CHARLES hurried down to the Council Chamber to vent his indignation on the handing about of DUDLEY'S 'Proposition to bridle Parliaments.' One cause of the rumour lay doubtless in the known enmity between BUCKINGHAM and the great antiquary. This enmity, on one occasion, brought Ben JONSON into peril. Ben was fond of visiting Cotton House. He liked the master, and he liked the table; and he was wont to meet at it men with whom he could exchange genial talk. On one such occasion, just a year before the Florence pamphlet incident, some verses went round the table at Cotton House, with the dessert. They began, Enjoy thy bondage,' and ended with the words 'England's ransom here doth lie.' Only two months had then passed since BUCKINGHAM'S assassination, and these verses were, or were supposed to be, addressed to FELTON. We can now imagine more than one reason why such lines may have been curiously glanced at, over Sir Robert's table, without assuming that there was any triumphing over a fallen enemy; still less any approval of murder. But there seems to have been present one guest too many. Some informer told the story at Whitehall, and JONSON found himself accused of being the author of the obnoxious verses. He cleared himself; but not, it seems, without some difficulty and BOOK I, annoyance. The release from immediate restraint of the prisoner of November '29 was no concession to any prompting of CHARLES' own better nature. Fortunately for Sir Robert COTTON, his companions in the offence were peers. Their fellow-peers shewed, quietly but significantly, that continued restraint would need to be preceded by some open declaration of its cause. During the course of the proceedings which followed their release it was asserted-I do not know by whom-that not only had the Proposition' been copied, but that an 'Answer' to it had been either written, or drafted. And that the reply, like the original tract, would be found in Sir Robert's library. This somewhat inexplicable circumstance in the story is nowhere mentioned, I think, except in a Minute of the Privy Council. The Minute runs thus: Chap. II. 'A Warrant directed to Thomas MEwtas, Esq. .. and Laurence WHITAKER, Esq. [Clerks of Council]autorising them to accompanie Sir Robert COTTON, Knight, to his house and assist him in searching amongst the papers in his studie or elsewhere, for certaine notes or draughtes for an answer to a Proposicion" pretended to be made "for His Majesties Service" touching the securing of His Estate, and also to seeke diligently amongst his papers, and lykewise the trunkes and chambers of Mr. JAMES, and [of] FLOOD, Sir Robert COTTON's servant, as well for anie such notes, as also for coppies of the said "Proposicion," and for other Registers, wrytings, of that nature, which may import prejudice to vol. 5, pp. the government and His Majestie's service." The new 1629. search, it seems, had not the desired, or any important, Nov. 10. result. Council Charles I; 493, 495, Whitehall. (C. O.). ! BOOK I. Chap. II. LIFE OF A year passed away. The proceedings in the Star Chamber proved to be almost as fruitless, as had been the SIR ROBERT vain, but repeated, searches which wearied the legs and COTTON. Domestic Corresp. clxvii, § 65, seqq. (R. H.) COTTON'S THE ARTFUL QUACK AND perplexed the minds of Clerks of Council and of Messen- Under such circumstances it is not surprising that his OS even faintly, for an opportunity of returning, at last, to i |