s ward's intellectual promise. 'He spent,'
wrote a contemporary, 'his childhood and other younger terms in the study
of good letters.' At the age of twelve, in the autumn of 1585, he was
admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, 'the sweetest nurse of
knowledge in all the University.' Southampton breathed easily the
cultured atmosphere. Next summer he sent his guardian, Burghley, an
essay in Ciceronian Latin on the somewhat cynical text that 'All men are
moved to the pursuit of virtue by the hope of reward.' The argument, if
unconvincing, is precocious. 'Every man,' the boy tells us, 'no matter
how well or how ill endowed with the graces of humanity, whether in the
enjoyment of great honour or condemned to obscurity, experiences that
yearning for glory which alone begets virtuous endeavour.' The paper,
still preserved at Hatfield, is a model of calligraphy; every letter is
shaped with delicate regularity, and betrays a refinement most uncommon
in boys of thirteen. {376a} Southampton remained at the University for
some two years, graduating M.A. at sixteen in 1589. Throughout his after
life he cherished for his college 'great love and affection.'

Before leaving Cambridge, Southampton entered his name at Gray's Inn.
Some knowledge of law was deemed needful in one who was to control a
landed property that was not only large already but likely to grow.
{376b} Meanwhile he was sedulously cultivating his literary tastes. He
took into his 'pay and patronage' John Florio, the well-known author and
Italian tutor, and was soon, according to Florio's testimony, as
thoroughly versed in Italian as 'teaching or learning' could make him.

'When he was young,' wrote a later admirer, 'no ornament of youth was
wanting in him;' and it was naturally to the Court that his friends sent
him at an early age to display his varied graces. He can hardly have
been more than seventeen when he was presented to his sovereign. She
showed him kindly notice, and the Earl of Essex, her brilliant favourite,
acknowledged his fascination. Thenceforth Essex displayed in his welfare
a brotherly interest which proved in course of time a very doubtful
blessing.

Recognition of Southampton's youthful beauty.

While still a boy, Southampton entered with as much zest into the sports
and dissipations of his fellow courtiers as into their literary and
artistic pursuits. At tennis, in jousts and tournaments, he achieved
distinction; nor was he