[SIR WALTER RALEIGH’S ’ NOTE OR REMEMBRANCE ’

     for his speech on the Scaffold Oct. 29 1618.]

     Two fits of an agew.

     Thankes to god.

     of calling god to witness.

     note

     That He Speake iustly & truely.

     I.) Concerning his loyalty to ye

     King.  French Agent,

     & Comission fro ye french King.

     2.) of Slanderous fpeeches touching

     his majty. a french man.

     Sr L. Stukely.

     3.) Sr L. Stukely.  My lo:  Carewe.

     4.) SrL.  Stukely.  My lo:  of Danchaster.

     5.) Sr L. St:  S’ Edward Perham.

     6.) Sr L. St. A letter on london hyway l0000li.

     7.) Mine of Guiana.

     8.) Came back by constreynt.

     9.) My L. of Arundell.

     10.) Company ufed ill in ye Voyadge.

     11.  Spotting of his face & counterfeiting sicknes.

     12 The E. of Eflex.

     Lastly, he deiired ye company to ioyne with him in prayer. &c.

     [Brit.  MM.  Add. MSS. 6789.]

Every paragraph of the speech is noted, but not quite in the order of the speech as variously reported by those who witnessed the execution and heard it.  Circumstances occurred after Sir Walter began to speak, which may have caused the slight change in the order as here set down.  This argues in favor of its being a note prepared beforehand.  If so It must have been written shortly before the speech, because the order for the execution was not given in the King’s Bench Court till the afternoon of the 28th, and the execution was fixed for early the next morning.

There is a little confusion of the tenses, but this is not strange considering that the note was penned by a third person.  The last two lines, below the number 12, may have been added by Hariot afterwards, as they are in the past tense and third person, and are separated from the rest of the note by a dash.  This point is not numbered.  It is possible that thefirst five lines were also added subsequently, as they are not numbered, and are placed near the top of the paper, as if interpolated, but they are in the same handwriting, and apparently were written with the same pen and ink.

At all events, whether written by Hariot before or after the deed, it is a precious contemporary document, and is another proof, if any more be needed, of the genuineness of the reported dying speech, and, consequently, that the famous ‘Spanish papers’ recently reproduced are forgeries and false.  It requires no great stretch of the imagination with this little messenger in hand to believe that the ingenious teacher and friend of his youth, and for nearly two score years the constant companion of his manhood, passed that dreadful night with Sir Walter in the Gate House at Westminster, and after ’ dear Bess’ had taken her leave at midnight, penned out this note of remembrance for his friend’s morning guidance, that nothing should be forgotten in case the ague returned, which he feared even more than death.