V

WITH SPENSER AT KILCOLMAN

89

Here at

come home again, to his patron and friend.
Kilcolman, in the peace of the well-watered woodland
country, it was that the Shepherd of the Ocean from
the Main-deep sea, borrowed the poet's rustic pipe,
"himself as skilful in that art as any," and here it seems
His song was all a lamentable lay

Of great unkindness and of usage hard
Of Cynthia the Lady of the Sea,

Which from her faultless presence him debarred.

The Queen's passing displeasure seems, however, to have been of short duration, for it was not long before the two poets set out together for the Court, and sailing past Lundy landed at St. Michael's Mount. In the following year the three cantos of the Faery Queen were given to the world, and their author was assigned a pension of £50 a year, in spite of the opposition of the Lord-Treasurer, whose opinion of the value of literature is summed up in his characteristic protest, "All this for a song!" In Raleigh's restless, strenuous life of activity and ambition, spent, until the shadow of the Tower closed round him, in the distracting atmosphere of Court intrigue, amid the noise of battle, or the uncertainties of travel and adventure, this visit to a kindred spirit in the green solitudes of Kilcolman stands out in bright relief, suggestive of many pleasant associations. It is perhaps not amiss that the only record of their intercourse which has come down to us should be framed in the language of poetry.

CHAPTER VI

THE IRISH UNDERTAKING.

MARRIAGE AND EXCLUSION

FROM COURT

1589-1595

IF Raleigh's Irish undertaking ended in failure it was not from any want of energy on his part, although circumstances and the multifarious nature of his interests and occupations precluded his personal superintendence. For the Irish themselves he had little sympathy, and the conditions of his tenure compelled him to ignore their very existence. He had, it is true, in earlier days during the rebellion, suggested the expediency of attempting to win over some of the lesser Irish chieftains, who had been drawn to the Desmond faction rather by fear than sympathy. The proposal was, however, purely opportunist and not inspired by any confidence in the character or intentions of these representative men. If Lord Grey, under whom he first served, had declared himself in favour of a Mahometan conquest of Ireland, Raleigh was equally consistent in advocating, and perhaps in unduly urging the policy of Thorough. It is difficult to-day to see through the eyes of three hundred years ago. No kindlier soul, no more sensitive

CHAP. VI

RALEIGH'S IRISH POLICY

91

spirit than the poet Spenser was ever connected with the thankless task of Irish administration, and yet he could see no hope for better things but in the depopulation of the country. Burghley indeed had other views. He opposed the distribution of the forfeited lands, and would perhaps have ultimately contemplated the administration of their own local affairs by the Irish. But it was the stern repressive policy of Gilbert and Carew, which secured the Queen's approval and Raleigh's unquestioning commendation. To Ormonde, who, himself an Irishman, was less uncompromising, save when dealing with the hereditary foes of his race, Raleigh was throughout strongly opposed. In two years of his rule in Munster traitors had, he said, multiplied by a thousand, and his employment only intensified the bitterness of rebellion, since a Geraldine would rather die a thousand deaths than be subdued by a Butler. Not less vigorous in later days was his opposition to the policy of Essex, who, with no previous experience of Irish government, inaugurated his assumption of office with a promise of amnesty and restitution. A man of Raleigh's temperament could not understand a policy which alternated a merciless use of the curb with a reckless abandonment of the reins. Rightly or wrongly he was firmly consistent to the view which from the first he had deliberately formed, and like the majority of his contemporaries he admitted no extenuating plea for rebellion.

Holding these views it is perhaps not surprising, however deplorable such an opinion may seem to us to-day, that he was by no means troubled in his conscience as to the means by which rebels might legitimately be removed. The ceaseless harassing

guerilla war, maintained against the Government and the new settlers, had hardened men's hearts to a pitch of ferocity, which we may understand without excusing; and the continual menace of foreign invasion, facilitated by the internal enemies of the realm in Ireland, had extinguished their natural scruples as to methods of repression. It was not merely that a price was set on the heads of rebels openly proclaimed: in the sixteenth century no man would have questioned the expediency of such procedure; but the practice of secret assassination had come to be condoned and countenanced. Even the pious Earl of Sussex is convicted, by a damning letter to the Queen, of having suborned a messenger from Shan O'Neill to kill his master for a reward; and the self-confessed perpetrator of a second attempt to remove him by poison escaped without punishment under the same administration. On this subject some correspondence passed between Raleigh and Sir Robert Cecil, who avowed an antipathy to the use of poison, but otherwise was not much troubled with scruples. Raleigh's letter, in reply, it would seem, to one asking for his advice, has been preserved. No date is affixed, but it has generally been assigned to the autumn of 1598. The wording and reference are not clear, but its meaning cannot be misinterpreted or explained away. There are many spots in the sun of his great reputation, and if by his enemies this letter has often been quoted in malice, his admirers can find nothing to urge in extenuation, save that such views were common to many of his contemporaries. It can only be quoted as it stands.

SIR-It can be no disgrace if it were known that the killing of a rebel were practised; for you see that the lives

VI

PRACTICE AGAINST REBELS

93

of anointed Princes are daily sought, and we have always in Ireland given head-money for the killing of rebels, who are evermore proclaimed at a price. So was the Earl of Desmond, and so have all rebels been practised against. Notwithstanding, I have written this enclosed to Stafford, who only recommended that knave to me upon his credit. But, for yourself, you are not to be touched in the matter. And for me I am more sorry for being deceived than for being declared in the practice.-Your Lordship's ever to do you service, W. RALEIGH.

He hath nothing under my hand but a passport.

One of the conditions of the vast grants made to the undertakers in Ireland was that the country should be re-peopled with well-affected Englishmen. Raleigh sought in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall for such colonists, whom he established with their wives and children in Cork, Waterford, and Tipperary. Discovering that the climate of the southern portion of the island was favourable to the growth of tobacco, he established a plantation in his garden at Youghal. He introduced the potato, with other plants and trees whose cultivation was new to Ireland. He also brought over miners from Cornwall to prospect. But the principal industry which he endeavoured to foster was the utilisation of the ample timber which Irish forests produced. This scheme commended itself on political, no less than on economical grounds, for the dense forest districts had become hidingplaces for the hunted population, and were a source of permanent danger in time of rebellion. An opening for a profitable trade was found in the manufacture of barrel-boards, pipe-staves, and hogsheads for the continental wine-trade, and he employed one hundred and fifty skilled labourers and workmen in their manufacture.