Of course the prophecy [that in the year 1588 AD, empires would fall] could not be kept secret. ... The makers of almanacs were permitted [by Elizabeth I], probably encouraged, to argue against it. One, by Thomas Tymme, "A preparation against the prognosticated dangers of 1588," was mostly pious exhortation, but the other was full dress academic argument. Its title page, somewhat abbreviated, runs "A discoursive problem concerning prophecies, how far they are to be valued or credited...devised especially in abatement of the terrible threatening and menaces peremptorily denounced against the kingdoms and states of the world this present famous year 1588, supposed the Great-wonderful and Fatal Yeare of our Age. By I.H. Physition."
...
To suppress an unpleasant argument and arrange to have it refuted, to hold out one hand in friendship and keep a sword in the other, to follow at the same time two apparently irreconcilable lines of policy and play two contradictory roles with such histrionic gusto that even old friends never quite know earnest from acting, this was how, by choice or by what she thought necessity, Elizabeth I regularly played the game of high politics. Even in the thirtieth year of her reign, when the queen's ambiguities cannot have been altogether unexpected, they continued to confuse not only her enemies but her servants and advisers. People were puzzled at the time, and many have been puzzled ever since by her behavior in that anxious winter while England expected the shock of the great Armada.
- The Armada, Garrett Mattingly, 1959, pg. 187
Feb 25, 2017
Feb 7, 2017
All that is human in me
Well - one at least is safe. One shelter'd hare
Has never heard the sanguinary yell
Of cruel man, exulting in her woes.
Innocent partner of my peaceful home,
Whom ten long years' experience of my care
Has made at last familiar; she has lost
Much of her vigilant instinctive dread,
Not needful here, beneath a roof like mine.
Yes - thou mayst eat thy bread, and lick the hand
That feeds thee; thou mayst frolic on the floor
At evening, and at night retire secure
To thy straw couch, and slumber unalarm'd;
For I have gain'd thy confidence, have pledged
All that is human in me, to protect
Thine unsuspecting gratitude and love.
If I survive thee, I will dig thy grave;
And, when I place thee in it, sighing say,
I knew at least one hare that had a friend.
- William Cowper (1731 - 1800), "My Pet Hare"
Has never heard the sanguinary yell
Of cruel man, exulting in her woes.
Innocent partner of my peaceful home,
Whom ten long years' experience of my care
Has made at last familiar; she has lost
Much of her vigilant instinctive dread,
Not needful here, beneath a roof like mine.
Yes - thou mayst eat thy bread, and lick the hand
That feeds thee; thou mayst frolic on the floor
At evening, and at night retire secure
To thy straw couch, and slumber unalarm'd;
For I have gain'd thy confidence, have pledged
All that is human in me, to protect
Thine unsuspecting gratitude and love.
If I survive thee, I will dig thy grave;
And, when I place thee in it, sighing say,
I knew at least one hare that had a friend.
- William Cowper (1731 - 1800), "My Pet Hare"
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