Notes and Queries, Number 24, April 13, 1850 | Page 3

Whitgift, that Cartwright acknowledged the generosity of Whitgift, and
admitted "his bond of duty to the Archbishop to be so much the straiter,
as it was without any desert of his own."--_Carwithen's History of the
Church of England_, i. 527. 2nd edit.
Lest this should not suffice to convict Mr. Cunningham of error, I will
adduce two extracts from The Life of Master Thomas Cartwright,
written by the Presbyterian Sa. Clarke, in 1651, and appended to his
Martyrologie.
"About the same time [viz. 1580], the Earl of Leicester preferred him
[Cartwright] to be master of his hospital at Warwick, which place was
worth to him about one hundred pounds."--Clarke, p. 370.
"For riches, he sought them not; yea, he rejected many opportunities
whereby he might have enriched himself. His usual manner was, when
he had good sums of gold sent him, to take only one piece, lest he
should seem to slight his friend's kindness, and to send back the rest
with a thankful acknowledgement of their love and his acceptance of it;
_professing that, for that condition wherein God had set him, he was as
well furnished as they for their high and great places_."--Ib. p. 372.
So much for the "poverty," the "wretchedness," of Cartwright, and the
"inflexible animosity" of Whitgift. The very reverse of all this is the
truth.
J.K.
* * * * *
INEDITED LETTER OF THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH.
Several notices of the Duke of Monmouth having appeared in "NOTES
AND QUERIES," you may be glad to have the following letter, which I
copied literatim some years ago in the State Paper Office from the

domestic papers of the year 1672. The letter was written to Lord
Arlington, then Secretary of State. Monmouth was at the time
commanding the English force serving under Louis XIV. against the
Dutch, and was in his twenty-third year. Mr. Ross had been his tutor;
and was at this time, I believe, employed in the Secretary of State's
office.
"ffrom the Camp nigh "Renalle the 29 Jun
"M'r Ross has tolld mee how mutch I am obliged to you for your
kindness w'ch I am very sensible of and shall try to sho it upon all
occations. I will asur you the effects of your kindness will make me
live within compas for as long as I receave my mony beforehand I shall
do it w'th a greadell of easse.
"I wont trouble you w'th news becaus Mr. Aston will tell you all ther is.
I will try to instrokt him all as well as I can. I wont trouble you no
longer, only I doe asur you ther is nobody mor your humble servant
than I am.
"MONMOUTH."
C.
* * * * *
LYDGATE AND COVERDALE, AND THEIR BIOGRAPHERS.
Dan John Lydgate, as Warton truly observes, was not only the poet of
his monastery, but of the world in general. Yet how has he been treated
by his biographers? Ritson, in his Bibliographia Poetica, says, "he died
at an advanced age, after 1446." Thomson, in his Chronicles of London
Bridge, 2nd edition, p. 11., says, "Lydgate died in the year 1440, at the
age of sixty;" and again, at p. 164. of the same work, he says, "Lydgate
was born about 1375, and died about 1461!" Pitt says that he died in
1482; and the author of the Suffolk Garland, p. 247., prolongs his life
(evidently by a typographical blunder), to about the year 1641! From
these conflicting statements, it is evident that the true dates of Lydgate's

birth and decease are unknown. Mr. Halliwell, in the preface to his
Selection from the Minor Poems of John Lydgate, arrives at the
conclusion from the MSS. which remain of his writings, that he died
before the accession of Edward IV., and there appears to be every
adjunct of external probability; but surely, if our record offices were
carefully examined, some light might be thrown upon the life of this
industrious monk. I am not inclined to rest satisfied with the dictum of
the Birch MS., No. 4245. fo. 60., that no memorials of him exist in
those repositories.
The only authenticated circumstances in Lydgate's biography
(excepting a few dates to poems), are the following:--He was ordained
subdeacon, 1389; deacon, 1393; and priest, 1397. In 1423 he left the
Benedictine Abbey of Bury, in Suffolk, to which he was attached, and
was elected prior of Hatfield Brodhook; but the following year had
license to return to his monastery again. These dates are derived from
the Register of Abbott Cratfield, preserved among the Cotton MSS.
Tiber, B. ix.
My object in calling the attention of your readers to the state of
Lydgate's biography is, to draw forth new facts. Information of a novel
kind may be in their hands without appreciation as