The Curious Case of Lady Purbeck | Page 7

you repeat, & serve in for novelties to be but stale.... Your too much love of the world is too much seen, when having the living" [income] "of ￡10,000, you relieve few or none: the hand that hath taken so much, can it give so little? Herein you show no bowels of compassion.... We desire you to amend this & let your poor Tenants in Norfolk find some comfort, where nothing of your Estate is spent towards their relief, but all brought up hither, to the impoverishing of your country.... When we will not mind ourselves, God (if we belong to him) takes us in hand, & because he seeth that we have unbridled stomachs, therefore he sends outward crosses." And Bacon ends by commending poor Coke "to God's Holy Spirit ... beseeching Him to send you a good issue out of all these troubles, & from henceforth to work a reformation in all that is amiss, & a resolute perseverance, proceeding, & growth, in all that is good, & that for His glory, the bettering of yourself, this Church & Commonwealth; whose faithful servant whilest you remain, I am a faithful servant unto you."
If ever there was a case of adding insult to injury, surely this piece of canting impertinence was one of the most outrageous.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] _Life of Sir Edward Coke._ By H.W. Woolrych. London: J. & W.T. Clarke, 1826, pp. 145-48.
[4] Lipscomb's _History and Antiquities of the Co. of Bucks_, 1847, Vol. IV., p. 548.
[5] Gray made the churchyard of Stoke Pogis the scene of his famous Elegy, and he was buried there in 1771.
[6] _Ency. Brit._, Vol. XIV. Article on London.
[7] Lady Elizabeth's house in Holborn was called Hatton House. A letter (_S.P. Dom._, James I., 13th July, 1622) says: "Lady Hatton sells her house in Holborn to the Duke of Lennox, for ￡12,000." Another letter (ib. 26th February, 1628) says that "Lady Hatton complained so much of her bargain with the Duchess of Richmond for Hatton House, that the Duchess has taken her at her word and left it on her hands, whereby she loses ￡1,500 a year, and ￡6,000 fine."
[8] "Under no man's judgment should the King lie; but under God and the law only."
[9] Letter from John Castle. See D'Israeli's _Character of James I._, p. 125.
[10] _Cabala Sive Scrina Sacra_: Mysteries of State and Government. In _Letters of Illustrious Persons, etc_. London: Thomas Sawbridge and others, 1791, p. 86.

CHAPTER III.
"Marriage is a matter of more worth Than to be dealt in by attorneyship." _Henry VI._, I., v., 5.
If Bacon flattered himself that he had extinguished Coke for good and all, he was much mistaken. It must have alarmed him to find that Lady Elizabeth, after constant quarrels with her husband and ceasing to live with him, had taken his part, now that he had been dismissed from office, that she had solicited his cause at the very Council table,[11] and that she had quarrelled with both the King and the Queen about the treatment of her husband, with the result that she had been forbidden to go to Court, and had begun to live again with Coke, taking with her her daughter, now well on in her 'teens.
There was a period of hostilities, however, early in the year 1617. Sir Edward and Lady Elizabeth went to law about her jointure. In May Chamberlain wrote to Carleton:--
"The Lord Coke & his lady hath great wars at the council table. I was there on Wednesday, but by reason of the Lord Keeper's absence, there was nothing done. What passed yesterday I know not yet: but the first time she came accompanied with the Lord Burghley" (her eldest brother), "& his lady, the Lord Danvers" (her maternal grandfather), "the Lord Denny" (her brother-in-law), "Sir Thomas Howard" (her nephew, afterwards first Earl of Berkshire) "& his lady, with I know not how many more, & declaimed bitterly against him, and so carried herself that divers said Burbage" [the celebrated actor of that time] "could not have acted better. Indeed, it seems he [Sir Edward Coke] hath carried himself very simply, to say no more, in divers matters: and no doubt he shall be sifted thoroughly, for the King is much incensed against him, & by his own weakness he hath lost those few friends he had."
It is clear from this letter that, although her husband was one of the greatest lawyers of the day, Lady Elizabeth was not at all afraid of pitting herself against him in Court, where indeed she seems to have proved the better pleader of the pair.
This dispute was patched up. On 4th June Chamberlain wrote: "Sir Edward Coke & his Lady, after so much animosity and wrangling, are lately made friends; & his curst heart hath been forced to yield more than ever