The Folger Shakespeare Library

L.b.531: Letter from Christopher Brooke, Marshalsea Prison, to Sir Thomas Egerton, 1601/1602 February 25: autograph manuscript signed

Catalog record:http://hamnet.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=244741
Collection:Papers of the More family of Loseley Park, Surrey
Preferred Citation:Letter from Christopher Brooke, Marshalsea Prison, to Sir Thomas Egerton, 1601/1602 February 25: autograph manuscript signed, Papers of the More family of Loseley Park, Surrey. Transcription by Early Modern Manuscripts Online (EMMO). MS L.b.531, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC.
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leaf 1 recto



May it please your good Lordship
What myne offence is, beinge singled out by it selfe, none can better
iudge then your Honour, whoe vnderstand what man can vnderstand,
& iustly censure greater every day. And perhaps it should
bee indiscreetly done, to offer to your Lordships eares (filled necessarily
every houre with the complaints of the whole Realme) such circumstan=
ces, as might diminishe this poore fault of myne myne. Therfore
I spare, yet will bee bold, my Lord, to say, that they are as
many, as those that can bee founde out to aggravate the same.
My Lord, it was inioyned, that I should make some submission. I
haue drawen one out of my hart, & writt it with myne owne
hande, & sent it to his Grace, & the Rest of the Commissioners
for those causes wherein I have confessed myne offence against
the Canon Lawes, & Constitucions provinciall of this Realme, &
have testified my sorrowe for the whole fact. What other
satisfaccion I (but such an offender as I am) should make, I
knowe not, but I allwayes submitt myselfe. ffor Sir George
Moore (my Lord) I knew then neyther his parson nor his Estate,
much lesse that worthy favour, in which (your Lordship wittnes) he standeth with
your Honour. ffor, my Lord, if I had (as vnwise as I am) I would
have chosen rather to haue vndergone for Mr Donne some other
more apparant daunger. And pardon me a word for him my Lord,
were it not nowe best, that every one, whome he any way concerns,
should become his favourer or his frind, whoe wants (my good Lord)
but fortunes handes & tonge to reare him vpp, & sett him out.
ffor my part, my Lord, besides these other thinges I am held from the
sittinge at yorke, already foure dayes since begunne, where (in
my silly fortune, such as it is) my profitablest practise lies.
And I protest, my Lord, that thereby I am indaungered to loose my
mothers favoure, whome I seeme to forsake in her greatest
businesses, whose favoure is the best part of my strenght & meanes
of well-doinge. Wherfore my humble request vnto your Lordship
is, that youe would bee soe good Lord vnto me as to discharge me &
my suerties of that Recognisance of 1500 1100lb. That when it shall
please his Grace & the Rest to deliuer me from the marshalsee,
whereof I have hope I may noe longer, my Lord, bee staid from those
businesses in the Cuntry, whereof I have nowe more, then yet in all
my lyfe I ever had. Thus I most humbly take my leave, &
betake your Lordship to Gods proteccion. This 25th of ffebruary 1601. from
the marshalsee.

your Honours in all humble service
ever to bee comaunded
Christopher Bruke


leaf 1 verso

leaf 2 recto

leaf 2 verso

To the Right Honourable Sir
Thomas Egerton knight
Lord Keeper of the great
Seale of England