'There passeth a story commonly told and believed,
that Spencer presenting his poems to queen Elizabeth,
she, highly affected therewith, commanded the lord
Cecil, her treasurer, to give him an hundred pound; and
when the treasurer (a good steward of the queen's
money) alledged that the sum was too much; "Then give
him," quoth the queen, "What is reason;" to which the
lord consented, but was so busied, belike, about
matters of higher concernment, that Spencer received no
reward, whereupon he presented this petition in a small
piece of paper to the queen in her progress:--
I was promis'd on a time,
To have reason for my rhyme;
From that time unto this season,
I receiv'd nor rhyme nor reason.
'Hereupon the queen gave strict order (not without some
check to her treasurer), for the present payment of the
hundred pounds the first intended unto him.
'He afterwards went over into Ireland, secretary
to the lord Gray, lord deputy thereof; and though that
his office under his lord was lucrative, yet he got no
estate; but saith my author "peculiari poetis fato
semper cum paupertate conflictatus est." So that it
fared little better with him than with William Xilander
the German (a most excellent linguist, antiquary,
philosopher and mathematician), who was so poor, that
(as Thuanus saith), he was thought "fami non famae
scribere.
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