Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Kaletff) at C,ourt. BEFOEE his return from Ireland, Ealegh does not seem in any special manner to have attracted Elizabeth’s attention. We do not know how he first won her favour; but in those days it was not difficult for any young man to gain access to the court. Once there, a man’s own wit and talents alone could gain him success. When Ealegh first appeared at court, Elizabeth was in her forty-eighth year; but she had not lost her love of admiration. She was still as much a coquette as she had ever been, and demanded as imperiously as any young beauty the entire devotion of her courtiers. There must have been much tinsel and unreality about court life when Ealeigh first made acquaintance with it. The personal devotion which seemed natural enough when paid to a young queen of twenty-five, who was surrounded by difficulties and dangers, became absurd when directed to a woman of forty- eight. But exaggeration was the fashion, and no one could hope to get on at court who was not prepared to make-believe at least, by his words and actions, that Elizabeth occupied the first placein his heart. To the courtiers their behaviour to the Queen must have seemed a hollow mockery, a game which they were obliged to play, but which often became intolerably wearisome. We can well fancy how the gay young nobles who vied with one another in expressing their devotion and adoration to the Queen must, when the restraint of her presence was removed, have laughed together at the airs and graces of this faded beauty. Ealegh began his court life under the powerful protection of Eobert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. This man had long held the first place in Elizabeth’s favour. He was said to have been born on the same day and at the same hour as the Queen. His appearance and manners were w...
