The story of Sir Walter Ralegh : and A day in a tobacco factory / by Joseph Hatton ; illustrated by John Wallace.

  • Hatton, Joseph, 1841-1907.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The story of Sir Walter Ralegh : and A day in a tobacco factory / by Joseph Hatton ; illustrated by John Wallace. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    courtesy well calculated to impress the romantic soul of Elizabeth. Her Majesty, taking- the air on foot, stopped at a plashy place, making some scruple whether to go on or no, when Ralegh, dressed in the gay and picturesque habit of the times, im¬ mediately cast off and spread his new plush cloak on the ground, whereon the Queen trod gently over. He was soon so well established in Her Majesty’s favour that upon a window, obvious to the Queen’s eye, he wrote “ Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall,” beneath which Her Majesty capped it with “ If thy heart fail thee, climb not at all.” The daring young courtier from the West made his way rapidly in the Queen’s esteem. The generally accepted idea that the incident of the cloak (as vouched by Fuller) was Ralegh’s first introduction to Her Majesty, is not supported by evidence. Sir Christopher Hatton’s biographer says the Lord Chancellor saw it, and mentioned the fact as a reason for honours which the Queen had conferred upon Ralegh years before the date which Hatton’s apologist indicates. Elizabeth was too astute a woman to advance a courtier’s fortunes out of mere complacency. To shine in those days was to out¬ rival tremendous competition, but Raiegh was no ordinary person and had done no ordinary work. A soldier in France, a sailor of renown, in Ireland, both warrior and statesman, apart from his fine presence, he had much to commend him at Court. Before and after his advent the Queen had shown a shrewd and subtle instinct in the selection of her counsellors. She could sound the hidden depths of a man’s capacity for State employment, and she was woman enough to understand where he was most vulnerable to feminine coquetry. Her ministers were not only her instruments as Queen, they were faithful knights to the Lady of the land. She played them off one against the other. A keen diplomatist, she did not scruple to inspire them with the sentiment and ambition of lovers. That she could assume a womanish interest without feeling it, is only too well established in the history of her “poor frog ” Alencon. In regard to Essex, Leicester, Hatton,