9-28-54 HFP English 7.14.54 The Noble Traytour. CHAPTER I. “I will board her, though she chide as loud As thunder, when the clouds in Autumn crack." TAMING OF THE SHREW, act 1. fc. II. JUEEN ELIZABETH fits on her Chair of State, a few ladies of the Court ranging themselves in the background. Vice-Chamberlain stands on this fide, Captain of the Guard on the other. The Lord High Treasurer kneels humbly just below the Dais. Her Grace is opening a packet. She looks pale and cloudy the while. About the throne is kept an awful filence. Secretaries ftand near the door at the lower end, whispering one to the other. VOL. II. B of "Her Majesty hath not yet breakfasted: 'tis unheedful my Lord to trouble her with State matters yet." "The tobacco, peradventure, hath turned the royal stomach; 'tis more noxious taken vicariously, as I may fay." "Or there be fomewhat ungrateful i' the letter, may be!" "It is true, gentlemen, the hour is ftill early. Her Grace hath been roufed untimely by news from Holland, and fhe may, indeed, have been affected by the fume o' the weed for Sir Walter exhibited laft evening his ingenious feat of changing Smoke to Gold, having successfully wagered with the Queen that he would weigh the vapours of his Pipe i' the presence; and, if you know it not yet (though my Lord Burghley and perhaps fome others do)—you shall learn presently the quality of the intelligence." It is a folemn fight to see the wild waves dash on the rocky fhore, you at fea in a little cock; it is a fearful found to hear a favage bull bellowing on defolate commons, you wending folitary; it is a dread pain to feel the shock of blows that fell you to the ground. But Majefty incenfed! Francis Bacon and Robert Cecyl learn Court uses. 3 How fad, terrific, fubduing is it! Eyes, ears, touch—blink, hurtle, flinch; nay, the very imagination itself is frightened and perplexed and confounded! 'Tis neither an earthquake from below nor the bolt from above. 'Tis fomething more frequent, mayhap (more at hand, furely) than either; and it is the more certain in effect, being more definite in its object. “'Tis nearer akin to us, fir," whispered Master Francis to his Coufin Robert, ""Tis nearer akin to us than the scourgings of the elements; as it embodies, and is, as I may fay, an emblem of our own evil paffions, heightened by continual indulgence, unrestrained by conscience, love, or fear; and is therefore more deadly, having scope as wide as abfolute power in the creature may reach." Not to speak now of the party upon whofe head the vial of wrath may at fuch and fuch times be poured —his moral degradation, and his sense of it while fuffering thereunder what think you of the royal veffel whence that fierce anger is poured fo lavishly? 'Tis one of your everyday miracles, that the more that Crufe be emptied the faster it fills. The more you spend your ireful Barrel the more you shall have in it against next call. "By the body of God! I will let this upstart know how easily the hand which exalted him can beat him down to the dust again! Ha!" The ladies of the Court, poor things, are frightened; not daring to fee one another. Their very lids quiver, glancing askance. The Vice-Chamberlain looks down upon the ground; you may perceive his toes trembling in his fatin shoes; yet he durft not move even to bear his body more feemly under this folemn circumstance! Burghley himself, however accustomed to fuch scenes, cafteth an imploring look upon the chafed Princess. The Statesmen in embryo crouch together in a far off bay; and the flat-faced ushers gaze fenfelesfly at nothing, preserving state. Only the Captain of the Guard he is at his ease. But, ftay! her Grace hath found breath. "We little thought Robin Dudley would king it in the Netherlands thus! Ha!" And now, crumpling up the packet in her paffionate grafp, she dashes it on the floor. Rifing-one would have thought the Hyrcanian Tigrefs, in extremeft ire, robbed of her fucklings; or yet the cub-drawn Bear, all famished, was about to fpring upon the feeble old Statesman, who |