VOLUME 13
good man in other places, is no great matter; but in Asia, to keep a sober and
temperate life, that is a matter indeed praiseworthy:"-- so here, why may I not affirm,
without flattery, what every man's conscience can testify? In that age, that sex, in such
state and fortune, in so great occasions, so many incitements, in all these to retain so
sober conversation, so temperate condition, such mildness of manners, such
humbleness of stomach, such clemency in forgiving, such travailing in study, briefly,
in the midst of Asia, so far to degenerate from all Asia, it hath not lightly been seen in
Europe. Hitherto it hath been seen in very few, whereby it may appear, not only what
education or what nature may do, but what God, above nature, hath wrought in her
noble breast; adorning it with so worthy virtues, of which her princely qualities and
virtuous dispositions, such as have been conversant with her youth, can better testify.
That which I have seen and read, I trust I may boldly repeat without suspicion,
either of feigning or flattery. For so I have read, written and testified of her Grace, by
one both learned, and also that can say something in this matter; who, in a certain
book, by him set forth, entreating of her Grace's virtuous bringing up, what discreet,
sober, and godly women she had about her, namely, speaketh of two points in her
Grace to be considered; one, concerning her moderate and maidenly behaviour; the
other, concerning her training up in learning and good letters. Declaring first, for her
virtuous moderation of life; that seven years after her father's death, she had so little
pride of stomach, so little delight in glistering gazes of the world, in gay apparel, rich
attire, and precious jewels, that, in all that time, she never looked upon those that her
father left her, (and which other ladies commonly be so fond upon,) but only once,
and that against her will. And moreover, after that, she so little gloried in the same,
that there came neither gold nor stone upon her head, till her sister enforced her to lay
off her former soberness, and bear her company in her glistering gains; yea, and then
she so wore it, as every man might see, that her body bore that which her heart
misliked; wherein the virtuous prudence of this princess, not reading, but following,
the words of Paul and Peter, well considered true nobility to consist, not in
circumstances of the body, but in substance of the heart; not in such things which
deck the body, but in that which dignifieth the mind; shining and blazing more bright
than pearl or stone, be it never so precious. Again, the said author, further proceeding
in the same matter, thus testifieth: that he knew a great man's daughter, receiving from
Lady Mary, before she was queen, goodly apparel of tinsel cloth of gold, and velvet
laid on with parchment lace of gold; when she saw it she said, "What shall I do with
it?" "Marry," said a gentlewoman, "wear it." "Nay," quoth she, "that were a shame to
follow my Lady Mary against God's word, and leave my Lady Elizabeth which
followeth God's word." Let noble ladies and gentlewomen here learn, either to give or
to take good example given; and if they disdain to teach their inferiors in well-doing,
yet let it not shame them to learn of their betters. Likewise also at the coming in of the
Scottish queen, when all the other ladies of the court flourished in their bravery, with
their hair frowsened, and curled, and double curled, yet she altered nothing, but, to the
shame of them all, kept her old maidenly shamefacedness.
Let us now come to the second point, declaring how she hath been trained in
learning, and that, not vulgar and common, but the purest and the best, which is most
commended at these days; as the tongues, arts, and God's word; wherein she so
exceedingly profited, as the aforesaid author doth witness, that, being under twenty
years of age, she was not, in the best kind of learning, inferior to those that all their
lifetime had been brought up in the universities, and were counted jolly fellows. And,
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