Page:The Queens of England.djvu/494

446 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. ners of civil war are common here and are symptoms doubly strong of the bitter temper of men's minds ; because in this country men are in general better regulated, or by the good administration of justice are more kept within the sphere of their duties." Be it in justice added, that the assertion in the same despatches that the queen had been using all her efforts to corrupt the mind of the prince, by flattering his pas- sions and diverting him from his studies and exercises, out of contempt to his father, does not appear to be well founded. An heir-apparent, in truth, wants no such teaching. From the experience of all history, we may call it his normal state to be in full opposition to the sovereign. The extravagant reckless- ness of James, who, before the prince was twelve years old, had surrounded him with an establishment more than sufficient for a sovereign, gave in this instance more effect to the hostil- ity ; but in itself it was only natural. As James' cowardly in- stincts were all for peace, Henry's flushed forth into passionate eagerness for war. As James lived upon the site of Carr, Henry hated him so bitterly that the favorite was charged, and upon no mean evidence, with the prince's premature death. As James imprisoned Raleigh, and laughed at his pursuits, Henry visited him in his prison, proclaimed everywhere sym- pathy and admiration for him, got him to write upon subjects in which he was interested and carried him materials for his History of the World. "What !" was James' frequent com- ment on this willful independence of his heir, "will he bury me alive?" That, apart from his position induced, however, the prince had also worthy dispositions all authorities seem to agree ; and without doubting that the popular regret for his death was hyperbolical, and found vent in the bewailing of ex- pectations that would never have been realized, it is as little possible to question that mere ordinary accomplishments, how- ever high the rank that recommended them, could not have moved so general and so sincere a sorrow. Raleigh wept for him as his only friend ; Drayton and Sylvester, whom he had pensioned had good reason to mourn for him ; Browne, Donne, and Ben Jonson made pathetic tributes to his virtues ; Hey- wood and Webster offered earnest elegies ; and old Chapman bewails in the prince his "most dear and heroical patron." The only disrespect to his memory was evinced by his father. "His majesty," says the prince's chamberlain, "being unwilling and unable to stav so near the gates of sorrow, removed to