so heartily contemned!
Coke had observed, "I know with whom I deal; for we have to deal to-day
with a MAN OF WIT."

COKE. Thou art the most vile and execrable traytor that ever lived.

RAWLEIGH. You speak indiscreetly, barbarously, and uncivilly.

COKE. I want words sufficient to express thy viperous treason.

RAWLEIGH. I think you want words indeed, for you have spoken one thing
half-a-dozen times.

COKE. Thou art an odious fellow; thy name is hateful to all the realm of
England for thy pride.

RAWLEIGH. It will go near to prove a measuring cast between you and me,
Mr. Attorney.

COKE. Well, I will now make it appear to the world that there never
lived a viler viper upon the face of the earth than thou. Thou art a
monster; thou hast an English face, but a Spanish heart. Thou viper! for
I _thou_ thee, thou traitor! Have I angered you?

Rawleigh replied, what his dauntless conduct proved--"I am in no case to
be angry."[348]

Coke had used the same style with the unhappy favourite of Elizabeth,
the Earl of Essex. It was usual with him; the bitterness was in his own
heart as much as in his words; and Lord Bacon has left among his
memorandums one entitled, "Of the abuse I received of Mr.
Attorney-General publicly in the Exchequer." A specimen will complete
our model of his forensic oratory. Coke exclaimed--"Mr. Bacon, if you
have any tooth against me, pluck it out; for it will do you more hurt
than all the teeth in your head will do you good." Bacon replied--"The
less you speak of your own greatness, the more I will think of it." Coke
replied--"I think scorn to stand upon terms of greatness towards you,
who are less than little, less than the least." Coke was exhibited on
the stage for his ill usage of Rawleigh, as was suggested by Theobald in
a note on _Twelfth Night_. This style of railing was long the privilege
of the lawyers; it was revived by Judge Jeffreys; but the bench of
judges in the reign of William and Anne taught a due respect even to
criminals, who were not supposed to be guilty till they were convicted.

When Coke once was himself in disgrace, his high spirit sunk, without a
particle of magnanimity to dignify the fall; his big words, and his
"tyrannical courses," when he could no longer exult that "he was upon
his wings again," sunk with him as he presented himself on his knees to
the council-table. Among other assumptions, he had styled himself "Lord
Chief-Justice of England," when it was declare