the King's house, and manage the expences thereof, it is much more requisite to make a good choice of such servants both for his thrift and for his honour.

For your part, I shall wish that you would not interpose your self much in these things, which are properly for the officers of the Household; that may draw too much envy upon you, and this would be too low for your thoughts (who will find enough to busy you about of a higher nature): Yet this will very well become you and your general trust, not to suffer the King to be too much abused, where your vigilance can prevent it. But then the way of doing it would be thus, to advertise the King of the defects, and then himself to find them out, rather as if it were by accident, than as prompted unto it.

In Court there are also some other requisites, which in their seasons may be thought upon; besides the serious affairs pertaining to government, which are many: Matter of pastime and disport are fit in their seasons, but if they shall be too common they will lose their repute, and become arguments of lightness rather than of recreation. Where there is a Queen and Lady1 of Honour attending her person, sometimes to entertain them with Revels and Masks, are ornaments fit for a Court. Otherwise for a King or a young Prince who are active (and to be so commends them), sports abroad, and of more manly and useful deportment, as riding the great horse, the Tilt, the Barriers, the Tennis, &c., are more commendable. But neither in jest or earnest must there be countenance or ear given to flatterers or sycophants, the bane of all Courts. They are flies who will not only buz about in every ear, but will blow and corrupt every place where they light.

Sir, I cannot flatter, I have dealt plainly and clearly with you, according to the freedom you have been pleased to afford me. I have but a word or two more to trouble you with.

You serve a gracious Master and a good, and there is a noble and a hopeful Prince, whom you must not disserve; Adore not him as the rising sun in such a measure, as that you put a jealousy into the father, who raised you; Nor out of the confidence you have in the father's affections, make not yourself suspected of the son; keep an equal and a fit distance,

1 So in the original. It should apparently be "ladies.”

so may you be serviceable to both, and deservedly be in the favour of both.

If you find in these, or in any other your observations (which doubtless are much better than these loose collections) anything which you would have either the father or the son to take to heart, an admonition from a dead author, or a caveat from an impartial pen, whose aim neither was nor can be taken to be at any particular by design, will prevail more and take better impression than a down right advice, which perhaps may be mistaken, as if it were spoken magisterially.

Thus may you long live a happy instrument for your King and Country: you shall not be a meteor, or a blazing star, but stella fixa, happy here, and more happy hereafter. Deus manu sua te ducat, thats the hearty prayer of,

Your most obliged Servant,

In the only copy of this tract which I have seen I can find no traces of any signature; but as a good deal of the edge has been cut off in the binding I cannot be sure that there never was one. The title-page (which I have not reproduced) informs us that it was printed in 1661, for R. H. and H. B. and was to be sold at Westminster and the Royal Exchange; and that it had never been printed before.

I have not corrected any word in it without notice. But in the spelling, the punctuation, and the employment of capital letters, I have used my own judgment. It is not probable that the spelling of the print represents that of the original manuscript: it comes so near to the modern form, that I have no doubt it was modernised by the printer and represents the ordinary orthography of 1661. And as for punctuation and capitals, they are governed by no principle of any kind, and would be very uncouth and perplexing to the reader of a modern book.

The much enlarged and altered version which follows appeared in print for the first time, I believe, two years after; but without any history except what is contained in the title.

A COPY OF A LETTER CONCEIVED TO BE WRITTEN TO THE LATE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM WHEN FIRST HE BECAME A FAVOURITE TO KING JAMES; CONTAINING SOME ADVICES TO THE DUKE

FOR HIS BETTER DIRECTION IN THAT EMINENT PLACE OF FAVOURITE: DRAWN AT THE ENTREATY OF THE DUKE HIMSELF. FROM SIR FRANCIS BACON.1

Noble Sir,

What you requested of me by word, when I last waited on you, you have since renewed by your letters. Your requests are commands unto me; and yet the matter is of that nature, that I find myself very unable to serve you therein as you desire. It hath pleased the King to cast an extraordinary eye of favour upon you, and you express yourself very desirous to win upon the judgment of your master, and not upon his affections only. I do very much commend your noble ambition herein; for favour so bottomed is like to be lasting; whereas if it be built but upon the sandy foundation of personal respects only, it cannot be long-lived.

Yet in this you have erred, in applying yourself to me, the most unworthy of your servants, to give assistance upon so weighty a subject.

You know I am no courtier, nor versed in state affairs. My life hitherto hath rather been contemplative than active. I have rather studied books than men. I can but guess, at the most, at these things in which you desire to be advised. Nevertheless, to shew my obedience, though with the hazard of my discretion, I shall yield unto you.

Sir, in the first place, I shall be bold to put you in mind of the present condition you are in. You are not only a courtier, but a bed-chamber man, and so are in the eye and ear of your master; but you are also a Favourite, the Favourite of the time, and so are in his bosom also. The world hath so voted you, and doth so esteem of you; for kings and great princes, even the wisest of them, have had their friends, their favourites, their privadoes, in all ages; for they have their affections as well as other men. Of these they make several uses; sometimes to

This is the title of the Lansdowne MS. (a collector's copy, but apparently an independent one), and agrees substantially with that in the Cabala (Ed. 1663), from which the seven opening paragraphs are supplied, the first leaf of the MS. having been lost.

communicate and debate their thoughts with them, and to ripen their judgments thereby; sometimes to ease their cares by imparting them; and sometimes to interpose them between themselves and the envy or malice of their people; (for kings cannot err; that must be discharged upon the shoulders of their ministers; and they who are nearest unto them must be content to bear the greatest load). Truly, Sir, I do not believe or suspect that you are chosen to this eminency, out of the last of these considerations: for you serve such a master, who by his wisdom and goodness is as free from the malice or envy of his subjects as, I think I may truly say, ever any king was who hath sat upon his throne before him. But I am confident his Majesty hath cast his eyes upon you, as finding you to be such as you should be, or hoping to make you to be such as he would have you to be; for this I may say without flattery, your outside promiseth as much as can be expected from a gentleman. But be it in the one respect or other, it belongeth to you to take care of yourself, and to know well what the name of a Favourite signifies. If you be chosen upon the former respects, you have reason to take care of your actions and deportment, out of your gratitude, for the King's sake; but if out of the latter, you ought to take the greater care for your own sake.

You are as a new-risen star, and the eyes of all men are upon you let not your own negligence make you fall like a meteor. The contemplation then of your present condition must necessarily prepare you for action. What time can be well spared from your attendance on your master will be taken up by suitors, whom you cannot avoid nor decline without reproach. For if you do not already, you will soon find the throng of suitors attend you; for no man almost who hath to do with the King will think himself safe, unless you be his good angel and guide him; or at least that you be not a Malus Genius against him so that, in respect of the King your master, you must be very wary that you give him true information; and if the matter concern him in his government, that you do not flatter him. If you do, you are as great a traitor to him in the court of heaven, as he that draws his sword against him. And in respect of the suitors which shall attend you, there is nothing will bring you more honour and more ease, than to do them what right in justice you may, and with as much speed as you may: for

believe it, Sir, next to the obtaining of the suit, a speedy and gentle denial (when the case will not bear it) is the most acceptable to suitors. They will gain by their dispatch, whereas else they shall spend their time and money in attending; and you will gain in the ease you will find in being rid of their importunity. But if they obtain what they reasonably desired, they will be doubly bound to you for your favour. Bis dat qui cito dat; it multiplies the courtesy, to do it with good words and speedily. That you may be able to do this with the best advantage, my humble advice is this. When suitors come unto you, set apart a certain hour in a day to give them audience. If the business be light and easy, it may by word only be delivered, and in a word be answered; but if it be either of weight or of difficulty, direct the suitor to commit it to writing (if it be not so already) and then direct him to attend for his answer at a set time to be appointed; which would constantly be observed, unless some matter of great moment do interrupt it. When you have received the petitions, (and it will please the petitioners well to have access unto you to deliver them into your own hand,) let your secretary first read them, and draw lines under the material parts thereof; (for the matter, for the most part, lies in a narrow room). The petitions being thus prepared, do you constantly set apart an hour in a day to peruse those petitions; and after you have ranked them into several files, according to the subject matter, make choice of two or three friends, whose judgments and fidelities you believe you may trust in a business of that nature; and recommend it to one or more of them, to inform you of their opinions, and of their reasons for or against the granting of it. And if the matter be of great weight indeed, then it would not be amiss to send several copies of the same petition to several of your friends, the one not knowing what the other doth, and desire them to return you their an

For the rest of the letter the text is taken from the Lausdowne MS., 213, f. 92; of which the first leaf is wanting. It is, I think, the better copy of the two; but it seems to be an independent one; and it is not easy to understand in what relation they stand to each other. The variations are very many, but for the most part unimportant, as far as the sense is concerned. They are such as a man might naturally make in writing or dictating a fresh copy of his own work, but hardly such as he would take the trouble to introduce by way of correction in revising it. I have not thought it worth while to make a complete collation, which would take a good deal of space. But wherever the sense is materially affected by the difference, I have given in the foot-notes the reading of the other copy. C means the copy in the Cabala: L the Lansdowne MS.