Great Britain -- History; Raleigh, Walter, Sir, 1552?-1618
partner of many joys and sorrows not as she has become, but as she was,
ay, and is to him, and will be to him, he trusts, through all eternity?
There is no feeling in these Elizabethan worshippers which we have not
seen, potential and crude, again and again in the best and noblest of
young men whom we have met, till it was crushed in them by the luxury,
effeminacy, and unbelief in chivalry, which are the sure accompaniment of
a long peace, which war may burn up with beneficent fire.
But we must hasten on now; for Raleigh is out of prison in September, and
by the next spring in parliament speaking wisely and well, especially on
his fixed idea, war with Spain, which he is rewarded for forthwith in
Father Parson’s ‘Andreæ Philopatris Responsio’ by a charge of founding a
school of Atheism for the corruption of young gentlemen; a charge which
Lord Chief-Justice Popham, Protestant as he is, will find it useful one
day to recollect.
Elizabeth, however, now that Raleigh has married the fair Throgmorton and
done wisely in other matters, restores him to favour. If he has sinned,
he has suffered: but he is as useful as ever, now that his senses have
returned to him; and he is making good speeches in parliament, instead of
bad ones to weak maidens; so we find him once more in favour, and
possessor of Sherborne Manor, where he builds and beautifies, with
‘groves and gardens of much variety and great delight.’ And God, too,
seems to have forgiven him; perhaps has forgiven; for there the fair
Throgmorton brings him a noble boy. _Ut sis vitalis metuo puer_!
Raleigh will quote David’s example one day, not wisely or well. Does
David’s example ever cross him now, and those sad words,—‘The Lord hath
put away thy sin, . . . nevertheless the child that is born unto thee
shall die?’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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