Lettre autographe

last y‘ offer a Remembraune of my deuotion. When I ballaunced y° matter w*° wordes, I found y° worth to weigh downe all witt. He that studies, to be longest in y° Commendacton, must come short. I leave discourses to thos, y° have more Copy of words but not more feeling of greif, and Content my self, y° all my Epitaphes be written in amazednes, leving them as heads for other to Anotamize, concluding w° y° true saing. Leves curae loquntur, ingentes stupent. I have inclosed, a few verses of a Brother of myne, chaplayne of y° Savoy, who is a partner of the Common loss, and sheweth both his affection & duety.

And so as one of y° Queens patients, who have nothing applied thes ten yeres to my wantes but promises, I humbly end, hoping that seing her ma‘* is plesed y* yo’ Ho : and Mr Grevil may be her Remembrauncers, I shall find a spedy repayre of my ruined expectation. Sept. 9 1598

humbly deuoted to yo’ h : disposition

John. Ly1y.

Caecilius moritur; lachrimae hoc singultibus addant, Omnis in hoc vno concidit orbis honos.

Virtutes in se prudentia continet omnes, Ipsaque tecum obuit Cecili; die vbi Virtus?

Foelix, o nimium foelix, bona si mea nossem Anglia, dixerat haec, gemituque recumbit anhelans.

Au dos :

For y° right honorable Sir Robert Cecil Knight Principall Secretary to her Maï*.

9 September 98 Dr Lyly to my Mr. Epitaphe upon the death of mytlotThre, (Manuscripts preserved at Hatfeld House, vol. Ixiv, f. 5.)