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Of Queen Elizabeth.
QUeen Elizabeth reigned long and happy; and though she cloathed her self in a Sheeps skin, yet she had a Lions paw, and a Foxes head; she strokes the Cheeks of her Subjects with Flattery. whilst she picks their Purses; and though she seemed loth, yet she never failed to crush to death those that disturbed her waies. Her Favourites for Sport, she would be va∣rious to, sometimes in Favour, and sometimes out of Favour, as Essex, Leicester, Ralegh, Hatton, and the like: But she stuck close to her old Counsellors and Favourites, Burleigh, Walsingham, and the rest. Neither did the first Favourites get so much as the last, Ralegh got not so much as Burleigh did; some may say, be∣cause they spent more, they laid up less; but vain Favourites get more Enemies to themselves, and Hatred to their Princes, than Profit to themselves; for the sight of their Vanities makes the People remember their Taxes, and think that their Prince hath posed from their Purses to maintain their Vanities; and their Prince thinks they have given them more, because they shew what they have, and many times more than they have: But the Wisest save, and lay it up, till the Envy is past, and the Tax forgot. But Queen Elizabeth maintained more forein Wars at one time, than any of her Predecessors before her, and yet without the Grievance of the People; for it was not so much out of their Purses, as the Prizes she got by Sea; for though the King of Spain had the Honour of being Master of the Indies, yet the Queen of England had the Honour of being Mistris of the Sea; so her Ships were her Mines, to maintain her War against him.