[72] Not that she is careful or anxious about, or regrets the loss of
this life. So in Milton's "Paradise Lost," Bk. ix. line 171--

"Revenge at first though sweet,
Bitter ere long back on itself recoils;
Let it; _I reck not_, so it light well aim'd."

And again, in the "History of Sir John Oldcastle," 1600--

"I _reck_ of death the less in that I die,
Not by the sentence of that envious priest."

[73] Petrarch and Laura.

[74] These initials were almost unquestionably intended for Christopher
Hatton, afterwards knighted and created Lord Chancellor of England. In
the fourth year of Queen Elizabeth, 1562, about six years before this
play is supposed to have been written, we learn from Dugdale's "Origines
Juridiciales," p. 150, a magnificent Christmas was kept in the Inner
Temple, at which her majesty was present, and Mr Hatton was appointed
Master of the Game. Historians say he owed his rise, not so much to his
mental abilities, as to the graces of his person and his excellence in
dancing, which captivated the Queen to such a degree, that he arose
gradually from one of her Gentlemen Pensioners to the highest employment
in the law, which he, however, filled without censure, supplying his own
defects by the assistance of the ablest men in the profession. _The
grave Lord Keeper_, after his promotion, still retained his fondness for
that accomplishment to which he was indebted for his rise, _and led the
Brawls_ almost until his death. In 1589, on the marriage of his heir
with Judge Gawdy's daughter, "the Lord Chancellor danced the measures at
the solemnity, and left his gown on the chair, saying _Lie there,
Chancellor_." His death, which happened two years after, was hastened by
an unexpected demand of money from the Queen, urged in so severe a
manner, that all the kindness she afterwards showed to him was
insufficient to remove the impression it had made on him. See Birch's
"Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth." vol. i. pp. 8, 56, [and Nicolas's "Life of
Hatton," p. 478.]

[75] Dryden's translation of Boccaccio's "Description of the Cave" is as
follows:--

"Next the proud palace of Salerno stood
A Mount of rough ascent, and thick with wood.
Through this a cave was dug with vast expence:
The work it seem'd of some suspicious prince,
Who, when abusing power with lawless might,
From public justice would secure his flight.
The passage made by many a winding way,
Reach'd eve