Wright, Queen Elizabeth and her Times, II

2. Elizabeth avait un nom pour chacun de ses ministres ou de ses favoris. Burghley était son « esprit »; Walsingham était la « lune »; Lady Norris était sa « corneille »; Hatton « Lyddes » ou son « mouton », etc. (Sir H. Nicolas, Memoirs of Sir Chr. Hatton, 126). Voici une lettre éminemment suggestive de ce goût pour les sous-entendus (Water=Sir W. Ralegh; Pecora Campi= Hatton). Sir Th. Heneage écrit à Hatton : « I received your letters with your token [a bucket, a bodkin, & a book] to her Majesty, before ten of the clock this morning, which I carried up immediately to her Highness, then ready to ride abroad to kill a doe in the parrock of the great park; and desiring to furnish her Majesty with the bucket, because I thought (as it happened) water should be so nigh her as soon as she came out of her drawing chamber, I presented her withal together with the letter you wrote, which she took in her hand, and smiling said « there was never such another ». And seeking to put the bodkin in her head, where it could not well abide, she gave it me again and the letter withal; which when she came into the standing in the parrock she took of me and read... I was willed to write unto you. that she liked your preamble so ill, as she had little list to look on the bucket or the book; and that if Princes were like Gods (as they should be) they would suffer no element so to abound as to breed confusion. And that pecora campi was so dear unto her that she had bounded her banks so sure as no water nor fioods could be able ever to overthrow them. And for better assurance unto you that you should fear no drowning, she hath sent you a bird, that (together with the rainbow) brought the good tidings and the covenant that there should be no more destruction by water. And further she willed me to send you word, with her commendations, that you should remember she was à Shepherd, and then you might think how dear her Sheep was unto her » (Additional mss., 15891, f. 97, cité par Sir Harris Nicolas, Hatton, 276-277. Cf. p. 297).

8. Sidney, après sa brouille avec Elizabeth, envoie à la reine un fouet à manche d’or, une chaîne et un cœur d’or, laissant entendre par là qu'il renonçait à son opposition à la volonté de sa souveraine (Pollard, Introduction to Astrophel & Stella, xiv). De même, la reine envoie à Ralegh « an ancor guided by a lady, as you see; and farther her Highness willed me to sende you worde that she wished you as great good-hap and safty to your ship, as if her sealf wer ther in parson » (Additional mss. 4231, f. 85, cité par Edwards, Life of Ralegh, II, 19).