Characters from the Histories & Memoirs of the Seventeenth Century
History
Characters from the Histories & Memoirs of the Seventeenth Century
Great Britain -- Biography; Great Britain -- History -- Stuarts, 1603-1714
more than of any Person living, and his Statues equal in Number, Value
and Antiquity to those in the Houses of most Princes; to gain which,
he had Persons many Years employed both in _Italy_, _Greece_, and so
generally in any part of _Europe_ where Rarities were to be had. His
Paintings likewise were numerous and of the most excellent Masters,
having more of that exquisite Painter _Hans Holben_ than are in the
World besides.... He was a Person of great and universal Civility, but
yet with that Restriction as that it forbad any to be bold or sawcy
with him; though with those whom he affected, which were Lovers of
State, Nobility and curious Arts, he was very free and conversible;
but they being but few, the Stream of the times being otherwise, he
had not many Confidents or Dependents; neither did he much affect
to have them, they being unto great Persons both burthensome and
dangerous. He was not popular at all, nor cared for it, as loving
better by a just Hand than Flattery to let the common People to know
their Distance and due Observance. Neither was he of any Faction in
Court or Council, especially not of the _French_ or Puritan.... He was
in Religion no Bigot or Puritan, and professed more to affect moral
Vertues than nice Questions and Controversies.... If he were defective
in any thing, it was that he could not bring his Mind to his Fortune;
which though great, was far too little for the Vastness of his noble
Designs.'
Walker's character was written before Clarendon's. It is dated
'Iselsteyne the 7th of June 1651'. It was first published in 1705 in
his _Historical Discourses upon Several Occasions_, pp. 221-3.
Page 30, l. 15. _his wife_, 'the Lady Alithea Talbot, third Daughter
and Coheir of _Gilbert Talbot_ Earl of _Shrewsbury_, Grandchild of
_George Talbot_ Earl of _Shrewsbury_ and Earl Marshal of _England_'
(Walker, _Historical Discourses_, p. 211).
7.
Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 34, 35; _History_, Bk. I, ed. 1702, vol. i,
pp. 44-6; ed. Macray, vol. i, pp. 71-3.
This pleasing portrait of Pembroke, one of the great patrons of
literature of James's reign, follows immediately after the unfriendly
portrait of Arundel, the art collector. Clarendon knew the value of
contrast in the arrangement of his gallery.
Pembroke is sometimes supposed to have been the patron of Shakespeare.
It cannot, however, be proved that there were any personal relations,
though the First Folio was dedicated to him and his brother, the Earl
of Montgomery, afterwards fourth Earl of Pembroke. See note, p. 4,
l. 30. He was the patron of Ben Jonson, who dedicated to him his
_Catiline_, his favourite play, and his _Epigrams_, 'the ripest of
my studies'; also of Samuel Daniel, Chapman, and William Browne. See
_Shakespeare's England_, vol. ii, pp. 202-3.
Clarendon has also given a character of the fourth Earl, 'the poor
Earl of Pembroke', _History_, ed. Macray, vol. ii, pp. 539-41.
8.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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