Sir Walter Raleigh: In Life & Legend (61 page)

48 Ibid., pp. 459-60.

49 Above, p. 1 11, fn. 38.

50 de Bry, America, vols I and VIII. For an account of these publications see B. Schmidt, 'Reading Ralegh's America' in P. C. Mancall (ed.), The Atlantic World and Vircinia, 1550- 1024 (Chapel Hill, 2007), pp. 454-88.

CHAPTER 6

1 Hatfield MS 30/106.

2 He seems to have been staying with Throckmorton in May, see Hatfield MSS 40/50 and 51; Letters of Ralegh, pp. 139-40;A. L. Rowse, Ralegh and theThrockmortons (London, 1962), pp. 197-9.

3 Letters of Ralegh, p. 138.

4 Ibid., p. 140.

5 Hatfield MSS 40/25,31/29; HMC, Salisbury, vi, p. 104.

6 Letters of Ralegh, p. 141.

7 Hatfield MSS 40/103, 174/76; HMC, Salisbury, vi, p. 169. See also the neurotic tone of his letter dated 12 May, Hatfield MS 40/75. Ralegh heads the list of those he blames for unnecessary delay.

8 T. Birch, Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1754), p. ii, 10.

9 P E. J. Hammer, 'New light on the Cadiz expedition of 1596', Historical Research 70 (1997), 182-202.

10 R. B. Wernham, The Return of the Armadas, the Last Years of the Elizabethan War Against Spain, 1595-1603 (Oxford, 1994), pp. 96-102. On learning, directly from Ralegh, that the fleet were to penetrate the harbour, Essex had tossed his hat so far into the air that it was blown into the sea.

11 See below, Chapter Eleven, pp. 245-7.

12 Letters of Ralegh, pp. 148-50.

13 Works of Rategh, viii, pp. 667-74, at 672.

14 TNA, SP 12/259/94-6.

15 Rowse, Ralegh and the Throckinortons, p. 202.

16 Letters of Ralegh, p. 150.

17 Sir George Gifford to the Earl of Southampton, 5 July 1596, Hatfield MS 199/54. See also a predictably partial account of Ralegh's actions from Sir George Carew, Hatfield MS 41/99.

18 See for example Hatfield MS 42/9.

19 Hatfield MS 51/86, a letter petitioning for appointment to the Guard; N. E. McClure (ed.), The Letters of John Chamberlain (Philadelphia, 1939), i, p. 31.

20 HMC, Dc L'Isle and Dudley, ii, pp. 285-6.

21 Letters of Chamberlain, i, p. 43, letter dated 30 August 1598.

22 Hatfield MS 46/32.

23 Tooker to Cecil, 23 July 1596, Hatfield MS 42/79.

24 Letters of Ralegh, pp. 154-6.

25 A. R. Beer, My just Desire: the life of Bess Ralegh, wife to Sir Walter (New York, 2003), p. 101.

26 Letters of Ralegh, p. 160.

27 Beer, My Just Desire, p. 101; N. Mears, 'Regnum Cecilianum? A Cecilian perspective of the Court', in J. Guy (ed.), The Reign of Elizabeth I: court and culture in the last decade (Cambridge, 1995), p. 46-64 at 56-8.

28 HMC, De L'Isle and Dudley, ii, p. 251.

29 A. M. C. Latham, 'Sir Walter Ralegh's will', Review of English Studies NS 22 (1971), 129-36, at 130.

30 The MS is at Sherborne, and is printed in full in Letters of Ralech, pp. 381-7.

31 Hatfield MS 58/51.

32 Hatfield MS 56/87, dated 1 November 1597.

33 Letters of Ral(gh, pp. 161-3, at 162.

34 Ibid., p. 164.

35 Wernham, Return of theArunadas, pp. 166-7. Letters of Ralegh, pp. 166-8.

36 Letters of Rnle h, p. 169.

37 HW, Book 5, Chapter 1, Section 9.

38 On the Islands Voyage see also Arthur Gorges's account in S. Purchas, Purchas his PiI~rimes (London, 1625), pt 4, pp. 1,938-69.

39 See 1? E. J. Hammer, Elizabeth's Wars: war, government and society in Tudor Enrland, 15441604 (Basingstoke, 2003), pp. 202-3;Wernham, Return oftheArmadas, pp. 175-6.

40 Letters of Rale,Eh, p. 173.

41 Hatfield MS 55/88.

42 Hatfield MS 55/108.

43 Hatfield MS 56/98; Letters of Ralegh, p. 171.

44 Letters of kale,Eh, p. 152.

45 P. E. J. Hamner, The Polarisation of Elizabethan Politics: the political career of Robert Devereux, 2nd earl of Essex, 1585-1597 (Cambridge, 1999), pp. 385-6.

46 Ibid., p. 403.

47 Hatfield MS 351 (HMC, Salisbury, xxiii, p. 21-2).

48 P Croft, 'Rex pacificus: Robert Cecil and the 1604 peace with Spain', in G. Burgess et at. (eds), The Accession of James I: historical and cultural consequences (Basingstoke, 2006), pp. 140-54.

49 On the wider debate over continued hostilities, see A. Gajda, 'Debating war and peace in late Elizabethan England', Historical Journal 52 (2009), 851-78.

50 W. A. Wallace, John White, Thomas Harriot and Walter Ralegh in Ireland (London, 1985), p. 22.

51 See Letters of Chamberlain, i, pp. 34, 40.

52 HMC, Dc L'Isle and Dudley, ii, p. 332. In July 1599, Sir Charles Danvers in London suggests to his friend and patron the Earl of Southampton that Ralegh is the 'earnestest suitor' for the vacant Chancellorship of the Duchy, though Sir John Fortescue is doing such a good job as caretaker that the Queen is unlikely to make a swift choice (Hatfield MS 71/104).

53 'Let Ralegh and Carey prate. They are infamous here for their service.' Gelli Meyrick to Edward Reynolds, [August 1599]. Hatfield MS 179/84.

54 W. Camden, Annals, or, the Historic of the Most Renowned and Victorious Princesse Elizabeth (London, 1635), p. 534.

55 Letters of kalegh, p. 186.

56 Ibid., pp. 178-9.

57 HMC, Dc L'Isle and Dudley, ii, p. 447.

58 Letters of Chamherlaiu, i, p. 81; Letters o_f Ralegh, pp.182-3;Wernham, Rehirii of theArmadas, pp. 267-71.

59 Hatfield MS 72/61. Despite his very correct pronouncements on the Catholic threat, Arthur Throckniorton's diary shows how he remained on good terns with most members of his family, setting aside their religious beliefs (P. Collinson, 'The politics of religion and the religion of politics in Elizabethan England', Historical Research 82 (2009), 74-92, at p. 86).

60 T. Rymer, Foedera, Coriventiones, Literae...(London, 1726-35), wi, pp. 398-400; Letters of Rahgh, p. 189.

61 HMC, De L'Isle and Dudley, ii, p. 479.

62 P Ahier, The governorship of Sir Walter Ralegh in Jersey, 1600-1603 (St Helier, 1971), pp. 1-5.

63 Hatfield MS 250/36.

64 Letters of Chamberlain, i, p. 89; HMC, Portland, ii, p. 21.

65 Letters of Rahgh, pp. 192-4.

66 Ibid., p. 225.

CHAPTER 7

1 D. Javitch, Poetry and Courtliness in Renaissance England (Princeton, 1978), intro. and ch. 1.

2 S. May, The Eli:-abethan Courtier Poets: the poems and their contexts (Columbia, 1991), pp. 4-5 and passim. See also M. Partridge, 'Lord Burghley and Il corogiano: civil and martial models of courtliness in Elizabethan England', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 19 (2009), 95-116.

3 G. Puttenhani, TheArte of English Poesie (London, 1589), pp. 61, 63.

4 May, The Elizabethan Courtier Poets, p. 4.

5 The authoritative edition, on which we have relied, is M. Rudick, The Poems of Sir Walter Ralegh: a historical edition (Tempe,AZ,1999). Unless stated otherwise all references to the poems are to this edition; but we have also given cross-references to the more readily available edition by A. M. C Latham, The Poems of Sir Walter Ralegh (London, 1951).

6 Nos 1, 2, 3, 31 in Rudick, Poems; nos 1, 13, 14, 35 in Latham, Poems.

7 Quoted in Latham, Poems, p. xxiii. See H. R. Woudhuysen, Sir Philip Sidney and the Circulation (?f Manuscripts, 1558-1640 (Oxford, 1996), pp. 12-16.

8 Nos 23-7 in Rudick, Poems; nos 22-5 in Latham, Poems.

9 Notably by W. Oakeshott, The Queen and the Poet (London, 1960).

10 See Rudick, Poems, pp. xxxii-xxxv for an account of the problem.

11 The arguments are complex: for detail see M. Rudick, 'The "Ralegh Group" in the Phoenix Nest', Studies in Bibliography 24 (1971), 131-7.

12 Rudick, Poems, no. 2; Latham, Poems, no. 13.

13 Rudick, Poems, no. 5; Lathan, Poems, no. 10. See also Rudick, pp. xxxii-xxxv; S. J. Greenblatt, Sir WalterRalegh: the renaissance man and his roles (London, 1973), pp. 64-8.

14 Rudick, Poems, no. 17; Latham, Poems, no. 12.

15 i.e. princess.

16 Rudick, Poems, no. 15A. Not included in Latham: on the evidence then available the attribution to Ralegh seemed insecure. See Rudick, Poems, pp. s»ix-xli.

17 Rudick, Poems, no. 15B. See also nos 15C, 15D.

18 May, Eli-- nbetl,nu Courtier Poets, pp. 119-23.

19 Greenblatt, Sir Walter Ralegh, pp. 68-70.

20 Rudick, Poems, no. 16; Latham, Poems, no. 4. The attribution to Ralegh is firm: see Rudick, Poems, p. xli, and also pp. 147-9 for helpful paraphrases of this difficult poem.

21 Rudick, Poems, no. 13; Latham, Poems, no. 21. We have divided the text into stanzas, as in Lathan, and occasionally supplied additional punctuation. We have also supplied the identities of the speakers in parentheses. See Latham, Poems, pp. 120-2; Rudick, Poems, pp. xxxix, 145; Greenblatt, Sir Walter Ralegh, pp. 70-4.

22 i.e. knit.

23 It is not entirely clear whether the speaker of the final sixteen lines is the pilgrim or the poet - or neither.

24 i.e. unlasting.

25 Rudick, Poems, no. 10B; Lathan, Poems, no. 7.

26 Rudick, Poems, nos. 12A, 12B; Latham, Poems, no. 3.

27 Above, p. 142.

28 Below, p. 153.

29 Bodleian, Rawlinson MSS Poetry 212, 172. 'The Lie' is printed in Rudick, Poems, nos 20A-C; and in Latham, Poems, no. 26.

30 For example, E. Jones (ed.), The New Oxford Book of Sixteenth Century Verse (Oxford, 1991), pp. 371-3; Greenblatt, Sir Walter Ralegh, pp. 70-4.

31 See J. Guy (ed.), The Reign of Elizabeth I: court and culture in the last decade (Cambridge, 1995), passim.

32 'To give the lie', that is, to accuse a person to their face of lying (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989).

33 'God' is given as 'good' in other MSS.

34 Rudick, Poems, nos 54A-C; Latham, Poems, no. 30. See Rudick, Poems, pp. Lxix-Lxxiii and fn. 75 on problems of attribution; also Latham, Poems, pp. 140-3; Greenblatt, Sir Walter Ralegh, pp. 121-6; P. Edwards, Sir Walter Ralegh (London, 1953), pp. 93-6; Lefranc, Sir Walter Ralegh, pp. 84-5.

35 Hatfield MS 144. Rudick, Poems, nos 24-7, pp. xlviii-li; Latham, Poems, nos 22-5, pp. 122-8.

36 K. Duncan Jones, 'The date of Raleigh's "21th and last booke of the Ocean to Scinthia"', Review (?f English Studies 21 (1970), 143-58. We are grateful to Professor Duncan-Jones for drawing her article to our attention. Some critics have suggested that the long Cynthia poem, and possibly others, may have been written at different moments in Ralegh's career and knitted together later. This is possible, but we cannot be sure and must work with what we have.

37 E. Spenser, Colin Clouts Come HomeAgaine (1595)11.164-71 in Poetical Warks, J. C. Smith and E. de Selincourt (eds) (Oxford, 1912), pp. 535-45; Dedicatory Letter of the Author to Sir Walter Ralegh for Colin Clout Comes HomeAgaine, dated by Spenser 27 December 1591; Dedicatory Letter to The Faerie Qteene; Greenblatt, Sir Walter Raleplm, pp. 60-4.

38 Oakeshott, The Queen and the Poet, p. 139.

39 Ralegh transcribed this poem in a notebook of geographical information relating to The History of the World (BL,Add. MS 57555).

40 Rudick, Poems, pp. 157-8.

41 Rudick, Poems, no. 25; Latham, Poems, no. 23.

42 Or 'spiteful'.

43 Letters of Ralegh, p. 70. The Queen was about to depart for Nonsuch Palace, Surrey.

44 Rudick, Poems, no. 26; Latham, Poems, no. 24. There are valuable commentaries in Greenblatt, Sir Walter Ralegh, pp. 60-98; P. Edwards, Sir Walter Ralegh (London, 1953), pp. 110-26.

45 The reading in Edwards, Sir Walter Ralegh, has proved to be of great help. See also Oakeshott, The Queen and the Poet, pp. 176-209.

46 The second person in the poem is never the Queen, usually 'his joys'.

47 The Queen had ordered him to return in May 1592 from the voyage he was appointed to command to Panama: above, Chapter Three, p. 68; Chapter Four, p. 75. Rudick, Poems, p. 1, fn. 40.

48 i.e. embraced.

49 'Like truthles dreames': Rudick, Poems, no. 17; Latham, Poems, no. 12. The line in Cynthia provides a firm attribution for no. 17, which would otherwise be uncertain.

50 'lyuies' = limbs;'a bleedinge' = ableeding.

51 Underscored in the MS.

52 i.e. deceit.

53 Ku dick, Poems, nos 32, 33.

54 For different views on this see Greenblatt, Sir Walter Ralegh, pp. 87-98; A. Beer, "'Knowing shee cann renew"; Sir Walter in praise of the Virgin Queen', Criticism 34 (1992), 497-516.

55 Ben Jonson claimed that 'the best wits in England' had a hand in writing the History; see Rudick, Poems, pp. lix, 81-104.

56 HW, Book 1, Chapter 1, Section 6.

57 HW, Book 1, Chapter 2, Section 5.

58 HW, Book 1, Chapter 6, Section 3.

59 Below, Chapter Eleven, pp. 248-52.

60 Rudick, Poems, no. 29C; also 29A, 29B and pp. hi-liv, 164-6. Latham, Poems, no. 31. Latham prints the version set to music by Orlando Gibbons. The eight-line versions are similar but mostly lack the last two lines.

61 A. Righter, Shakespeare and the Idea of the Play (London, 1967); L. G. Christian, Theatrum Mundi: the history of an idea (London, 1987).

62 Below, p. 259; HW, Preface, sig. D 1 v; Greenblatt, Sir Walter Ralegh, pp. 26-56.

63 Rudick, Poems, no. 31; Latham, Poems, no. 35. HW, Book 5, Chapter 1, Section 9.

64 Rudick, Poems, no. 30 and pp. liv, 166-7. The poem seems to be a translation from a French original.

65 Rudick, Poems, nos 32-4, pp. Iv-lvi; Latham, Poems, nos 37, 38.

66 Rudick, Poems, no. 35, pp. lvi-lviii; Latham, Poems, no. 40. One version is inscribed 'Sir Walter Rawleigh hys verses written in hys byble a lyttell before his death'; another is headed 'By Sir W. R. which he writ the night before his execution'. Below, Chapter Thirteen, p. 315.

67 H. R. Woudhuysen, Sir Philip Sidney and the Circulation of Manuscripts, pp. 156-7.

CHAPTER 8

1 HMC, Hatfield, iv, pp. 507-8.

2 HMC, De L'Isle and Dudley, ii, pp. 240-3, 265, 273, 286, 300.

3 See, for example, Letters of Ralegh, p. 239; HMC, Dc L'Isle and Dudley, ii, pp. 435, 448, 459,486.

4 See M. C. Questier, Catholicism and Community in Early Modern England: politics, aristocratic patronage and religion, c. 1550-1640 (Cambridge, 2006), p. 228.