r majesty. Before this time our sprightly poet had
found means to dissipate a considerable portion of the large estate to
which he was born; and being well inclined to listen to the friendly
counsels of Essex, who bade him, "lay good hold on her majesty's bounty
and ask freely," he dexterously opened his case by the following lines
slipped behind her cushion.

"For ever dear, for ever dreaded prince,
You read a verse of mine a little since;
And so pronounced each word and every letter,
Your gracious reading graced my verse the better:
Sith then your highness doth by gift exceeding
Make what you read the better for your reading;
Let my poor muse your pains thus far importune,
Like as you read my verse, so--read my fortune.

"_From your Highness' saucy Godson._"

Of the further progress of his suit and the various little arts of
pleasing to which Harrington now applied himself, some amusing hints
may be gathered out of the following extracts taken from a note-book
kept by himself[129].

[Note 129: See Nugae Antiquae.]

..."I am to send good store of news from the country for her highness
entertainment.... Her highness loveth merry tales."

"The queen stood up and bade me reach forth my arm to rest her thereon.
O! what sweet burden to my next song. Petrarch shall eke out good matter
for this business."

"The queen loveth to see me in my new frize jerkin, and saith 'tis well
enough cut. I will have another made liken to it. I do remember she spit
on sir Matthew's fringed cloth, and said the fool's wit was gone to
rags.--Heaven spare me from such jibing!"

"I must turn my poor wits towards my suit for the lands in the north....
I must go in an early hour, be fore her highness hath special matters
brought up to counsel on.--I must go before the breakfast covers are
placed, and stand uncovered as her highness cometh forth her chamber;
then kneel and say, God save your majesty, I crave your ear at what hour
may suit for your servant to meet your blessed countenance. Thus will I
gain her favor to follow to the auditory.

"Trust not a friend to do or say,
In that yourself can sue or pray."

The lands alluded to in the last extract, formed a large estate in the
north of England, which an ancestor of Harrington had forfeited by his
adherence to the house of York during the civil wars, and which he was
now endeavouring to recover. This further mention of the business occurs