Dr. John Williams, (Keeper of the Great Seal, Bishop of Lincoln, and afterwards Archbishop of York,) was born in Caernarvonshire in Wales in 1582, and died in 1650. He preached James the First’s funeral sermon, in which he compared him to king Solomon. How well he was qualified for this courtly task may be seen by the following specimen.
The following speech I have thought worth preserving, as it pretty clearly shews the relation which at this time was understood to subsist, and the tone that prevailed, between the king and his parliament.
Sir Heneage Finch was recorder of London. I have given his speech on being appointed speaker, as a curious instance of the flowery stile then in vogue. It is full of far-fetched thoughts, and fulsome compliments.
John Selden, (The well-known Author of Table-Talk, and other works of great learning,) was born in 1584, and died in 1654. He was member at different times for Great Bedwin, in Wiltshire, and Lancashire, and through his whole life a strenuous oppositionist.
Sir Dudley Digges, born in 1583, was made master of the rolls in 1636, and died in 1639. I have already given one or two specimens of the pompous stile; but as the following extract soars to a still sublimer pitch, I could not resolve to omit it. After a slight introduction to the charge brought forward against the duke of Buckingham, his titles were formally enumerated, and then Sir Dudley Digges proceeded.
Mr. John Pym, one of the great leaders of the republican party, was member for Tavistock. He died in 1643. The subject of the speech is the charge against the duke of Buckingham, of which he was one of the managers. It certainly contains a great deal of good sense, strongly expressed.
Mr. Wandesford.—This long and closely reasoned speech about a posset-drink, and sticking-plaister, applied by the duke of Buckingham to James I. a little before his death, is a proof of the gravity with which our ancestors could treat the meanest subjects, when they were connected with serious consequences.
Sir Dudley Carleton.—One may collect from the following speech of Sir Dudley Carleton’s that he was a great traveller, and a very well-meaning man. He was born 1573, and died 1631. Before his death he was created Viscount Dorchester.
Mr. Creskeld.—If the thoughts in the following introduction to an elaborate legal dissertation are conceits, they are nevertheless ingenious and poetical conceits.
Robert Rich, (Created Earl of Warwick, and Lord Rich of Leeze, by James I.).—I have given the following speech on the right of the crown to imprison the subject without any reason shewn, for its good sense and logical acuteness.