Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
Sir Walter Scott, Specimen of unpublished “Private Letters,” [1821]
“My Lord,
“Towching this new mishappe of Sir Thomas, whereof your Lordshippe makes querie
of me, I wolde hartilie that I could, truth ![]()
| “PRIVATE LETTERS OF THE 17TH CENTURY.” | 139 |
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and my bounden
dutie alweys firste satisfied, make suche answer as were fullie plesaunte to me
to write, or unto your Lordshippe to reade. But what remedy? young men will
have stirring bloodes; and the courtier-like gallants of the time will be
gamesome and dangerous, as they have bene in dayes past. I think your
Lordshippe is so wise, as to caste one eye backe to your own more juvenile
time, whilest you looke forward with the other upon this mischaunce, which,
upon my lyfe, will be founde to be no otherwise harmful to Sir Thomas than as it shews him an hastie Hotspur
of the day, suddenlie checking at whatsoever may seem to smirche his honour. As
I am a trew man, and your Lordship’s poore kinsman and bounden servant, I
think ther lives not a gentleman more trew to his friende than Sir Thomas; and although ye be but brothers
uterine, yet so dearly doth he holde your favour, that his father, were the
gode knight alyve, should not have more swaye with him than shalle your
Lordship; and, also, it is no kindly part to sow discord betwene brethrene;
for, as the holy Psalmist saythe, ‘Ecce quam
bonum et ijnam jucundum habitare fratres,’ &c.
And moreover, it nedes not to tell your Lordshippe that Sir Thomas is suddene in his anger; and it was
but on Wednesday last that he said to me, with moche distemperature, Master Jenkin, I be tolde that ye meddle and make
betwene me and my Lorde my brother; wherfore, take this for feyr warninge, that
when I shall fynde you so dooying, I will incontinent put my dager to the hike
in you: and this was spoken with all ernestness of visage and actioun, grasping
of his poinard’s handle, as one who wolde presentlie make his words good.
Surely, my Lord, it is not fair carriage towarde your pore kinsman if anie out
of your house make such reports of me, and of that which I have written to you
in sympleness of herte, and in obedience to your commandemente, which is my law
on this matter. Truely, my Lord, I wolde this was well looked to, otherweys my
rewarde for trew service might be to handsell with my herte’s blode the
steel of a Milan poignado. Natheless, I will precede with my mater, fal back
fal edge, trustyng all utterly in the singleness of my integretie, and in your
Lordshippe’s discretioun.
“My Lorde, the braule which hath befallen
chaunced this waye, and not otherwise. It hap’d that one Raines, the master of the ordinarie where his
honour Sir Thomas eteth well nie dailie
(when he is not in attendance at courte, wherein he is perchance more slacke
than were wise), shoulde assemble some of the beste who haunte his house,
havyng diet ther for money. The purpose, as shewn forthe, was to tast a new
piece of choice wyne, and ther Sir ![]()
| 140 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. | |
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Thomas must nedes be, or the purpos holdes
not, and the Alicant becometh Bastard. Wel, my Lord, dice ther wer and music,
lustie helthes and dizzie braines, some saye fair ladyes also, of which I know
nought, save that suche cockatrices hatch wher such cockes of the game do
haunt. Alweys ther was revel and wassail enow and to spare. Now it channced,
that whilst one Button, of
Graie’s-Inn, an Essex man, held the dice, Sir
Thomas fillethe a fulle carouse to the helth of the fair
Ladie Elizabeth. Trulie, my Lord, I
cannot blame his devotioun to so fair a saint, though I may wish the chapel for
his adoration had been better chosen, and the companie more suitable;
sed respice finem. The pledge
being given, and alle men on foote, aye, and some on knee, to drink the same,
young Philip Darcy, a near kinsman of my
Lorde’s, or so callyng himself, takes on him to check at the helthe,
askyng Sir Thomas if he were willinge to
drink the same in a Venetian glasse? the mening of whiche hard sentence your
Lordshippe shal esilie construe. Whereupon Sir
Thomas, your Lordsliippe’s brother, somewhat shrewishly
demanded whether that were his game or his ernest; to which demaunde the uther
answers recklessly as he that wolde not be brow-beaten, that Sir Thomas might take it for game or ernest as
him listed. Whereupon your Lordshippe’s brother, throwing down withal the
woodcocke’s bill, with which, as the fashioun goes, he was picking his
teeth, answered redily, he cared not that for his game or ernest, for that
neither were worth a bean. A small matter this to make such a storie, for
presentlie young Darcie up with the
wine-pot in which they had assaid the freshe hogshede, and heveth it at
Sir Thomas, which vessel missing of the
mark it was aym’d at, encountreth the hede of Master Button, when the outside of the flaggon did that which
peradventure the inside had accomplish’d somewhat later in the evening,
and stretcheth him on the flore; and then the crie arose, and you might see
twenty swords oute at once, and none rightly knowing wherfor. And the groomes
and valets, who waited in the street and in the kitchen, and who, as seldom
failes, had been as besy with the beer as their masters with the wine,
presentlie fell at odds, and betoke themselves to their weapones; so ther was
bouncing of bucklers, and bandying of blades instede of clattering of quart
pottles, and chiming of harpis and fiddles. At length comes the wache, and, as
oft happens in the like affraies, alle men join ageynst them, and they are
beten bak: An honest man, David Booth,
constable of the night, and a chandler by trade, is sorely hurt. The crie rises
of Prentices, prentices, Clubs, clubs, for word went that the court-gallants
and the Graie’s-Inn men had murther’d ![]()
| “PRIVATE LETTERS OF THE 17TH CENTURY.” | 141 |
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a citizen; all
menne take the street, and the whole ward is uppe, none well knowing why.
Menewhile our gallants had the lucke and sense to disperse their company, some
getting them into the Temples the gates wherof were presentlie shut to prevent
pursuite I warrant, and some taking boat as they might; water thus saving whom
wyne hath endaunger’d. The Alderman of the ward, worthy Master Danvelt, with Master Deputy, and others of
repute, bestow’d themselves not a litel to compose the tumult, and so al
past over for the evening.
“My Lord, this is the hole of the mater,
so far as my earnest and anxious serch had therein, as well for the sake of my
blode-relation to your honourable house, as frome affectioun to my kinsman
Sir Thomas, and especiallie in humble
obedience to your regarded commandes. As for other offence given by Sir Thomas, whereof idle bruites are current, as
that he should have call’d Master
Darcie a codshead or an woodcocke, I can lerne of no such
termes, nor anie nere to them, only that when he said he cared not for his game
or ernest, he flung down the woodcock’s bill, to which it may be there
was sticking a part of the head, though myinformant saithe otherwise; and he
stode so close by Sir Thomas, that he herde
the quart-pot whissel as it flew betwixt there too hedes. Of damage done among
the better sort, there is not muche; some cuts and thrusts ther wer, that had
their sequents in blood and woundes, but none dedlie. Of the rascal sort, one
fellowe is kill’d, and sundrie hurt. Hob
Hilton, your brother’s grome, for life a maymed man,
having a slash over the right hande, for faulte of a gauntlet.—Marry he has
been a brave knave and a sturdie: and if it pleses your goode Lordshippe, I
fynd he wolde gladlie be prefer’d, when tym is fitting, to the office of
bedle. He hath a burlie frame, and scare-babe visage; he shall do wel enoughe
in such charge, though lackyng the use of four fingers.* The hurtyng of the
constabel is a worse mater; as also the anger that is between the courtiers and
Graie’s-Inn men; so that yf close hede be not given, I doubt me we shall
here of more Gesta Graiorum. Thei
will not be persuaded but that the quarrel betwixt Sir
Thomas and young Darcie was
simulate; and that Master Dutton’s
hurte wes wilful; whereas, on my lyfe, it will not be founde so.
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* “The death of the rascal sort is mentioned as
he would have commemorated that of a dog; and his readiest plan of
providing for a profligate menial, is to place him in superintendence
of the unhappy poor, over whom his fierce looks, and rough demeanour
are to supply the means of authority, which his arm can no longer
enforce by actual violence!”
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| 142 |
LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
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“The counseyl hath taen the matter up,
and I here H. M. spoke many things gravely and solidly, and as one who taketh
to hert such unhappie chaunces, both against brauling and drinking. Sir Thomas, with others, hath put in plegge to be
forthcoming; and so strictly taken up wes the unhappie mater of the Scots
Lord,* that if Booth shulde die, which God
forefend, there might be a fereful reckoning: For one cityzen sayeth, I trust
falslie, he saw Sir Thomas draw back his
hand, having in it a drawn sword, just as the constabel felle. It seems but too
constant, that thei were within but short space of ech other when this unhappy
chaunce befel. My Lord, it is not for me to saie what course your Lordshippe
should steer in this storm, onlie that the Lord Chansellour’s gode worde
wil, as resen is, do yeman’s service. Schulde it come to fine or
imprisonment, as is to be fered, why should not your Lordshippe cast the weyght
into the balance for that restraint which goode Sir Thomas
must nedes bear himself, rather than for such penalty as must nedes pinche the
purses of his frendes. Your Lordship always knoweth best; but surely the yonge
knyght hath but litel reson to expect that you shulde further engage yourself
in such bondes as might be necessary to bring this fine into the Chequer.
Nether have wise men helde it unfit that heated bloode be coold by
sequestration for a space from temptation. There is dout, moreover, whether he
may not hold himself bounden, according to the forme of faythe which such
gallants and stirring spirits profess, to have further meeting with Master Philip Darcie, or this same Button, or with bothe, on this rare dependance of
an woodcocke’s hede, and a quart-pot; certeynly, methoughte, the last tym
we met, and when he bare himself towards me, as I have premonish’d your
Lordshippe, that he was fitter for quiet residence under safe keeping, than for
a free walk amongst peceful men.
“And thus, my Lord, ye have the whole mater before
you; trew ye shall find it,—my dutie demands it,—unpleasing, I cannot amende
it: But I truste neither more evil in esse nor in posse, than I have set forth
as above. From one, who is ever your Lordshippe’s most bounden to
command, &c.—J. H.”
