PATRICK CARY: A SEQUEL PAMELA WILLETTS To place the recently acquired manuscript of Italian poems attributed to Patrick Cary' more exactly in context and to dispel any doubts concerning his authorship I should like to bring together some scattered information. I should also like to discuss further sources regarding the last few years of his life. Patrick Cary's formidable mother. Lady Falkland, and the most reasonable of her sons, Lucius, 2nd Viscount Falkland, can be seen from the Catholic viewpoint in a report to Rome on 11 December 1636 by George Con, the successor to Gregorio Panzani as Papal emissary to Henrietta Maria. In Con's words 'il detto Milord e stimato fra questi pro- testanti sopra ogni altro di questo Regno, ed e veramente dottissimo, e di grandissimo spirito. La Madre e cattolica, ed ha tradotto in lingua Inglese opere del Signor Cardinale di Perona. Ha una sorella Dama della Regina di spirito tanto elevato, che non e lontana dalla pazzia'.- From the time that she announced her conversion to Catholicism in 1626 Lady Falkland was in financial difficulties. After the death of his father in 1633 Lucius was charged with the natural duty of seeing to her welfare although he differed from her on points of religion. Lady Falkland petitioned members of the Privy Council for assistance in obtaining means of support and on 9 December 1636 the Council enquired of Lucius what was settled upon her.-^ In his reply on 16 December 1636 Lucius was able to show that he had contributed according to his means.'^ He referred to her recently increased ex- penses in looking after his sisters 'who are returned to her and refused to stay with mee, after the stealth of my Brothers' (the surreptitious removal of Patrick and Henry Cary from his house in the preceding spring). Then, discreetly, he touched on his mother's charac- ter : 'my Mother having no over-frugall Disposition (which is the most that it would bee fitt for mee to sayof anyexpence of hers) a little which shee expects not will more helpe her, then much more which shee knowing would entend to spend according to, and so bee likely to spend beyond'. The Privy Council evidently decided that some restriction of Lady Falk- land's personal freedom was required, for a rough note of proceedings made by Edward Nicholas indicated that she was to be confined to such a place as the Lord Treasurer should think fit.5 Lady Falkland's distress at these arrangements led her to contemplate desperate action which caused a flurry of alarm in Rome. A worried secretary of Cardinal Barberini wrote to Con on 12 March 1637 regarding a rumour that Lady Falkland was on the point of leaving for Rome and that she proposed to bring with her two sons and four daughters: 148 Intendendosi che la Viscontessa di Fuclandia cattolica tratti di trasferirsi d'Inghiltcrra in Roma con due figlioli maschi, e con quattro femine, perche la Sede apostolica pigli sopra di se la cura di tutta questa famiglia, e di lei, quale intendo di piu che sia lunatica, e ben lo mostra, venendo in tempo che la Sede apostolica si trova tanto aggravata, e che al piu quando arrivi qua, ella con le figliole sara posta in un Monastero, ed i figlioli in un Seminario; Vostra Signoria dunque se all' arrivo di questa non sara partita di costa procuri che ella intenda bene questa difficolta, e non si metta a sproposito di venir qua, mentre non vi e persecuzione in cotesto Far from welcoming the prospect of a distinguished visitor Ferragalli, the secretary, said bluntly that he had heard that Lady Falkland was mad, and tbat she showed it coming to Rome at a time when the Papal See was so burdened. The most that could be done for the family would be to place the mother and daughters in a convent and the sons in a seminary. He asked Con to stop her leaving if possible and since she had little sense ('essendo ella di poco cervello') it would be as well to get in touch with her confessors, the Benedictines, and ask them to dissuade her. Con replied on 9 April 1637 that Lady Falkland's difficulties were financial ('credo che la sua intenzione di peregrinare nasca dalla poverta') and that he would try to put her ofF.^ With a hint of reproof he reminded the secretary tbat Lady Falkland had translated the works of Cardinal Duperron into English ('Questa e quella che ha tradotto in lingua Inglese le opere del Cardinale Du Perona'), the implication being that Lady Falkland's intellectual powers had been dismissed too lightly.^ The matter took some time to arrange; Ferragalli thanked Con for his efforts on 12 June 1638.^ Given this timing one wonders whether Patrick Cary's journey to Rome (he arrived in the autumn of 1638 and vvas looked after by the Procurator ofthe English Benedictines, Father John Wilfrid) was part of a bargain made with the Benedictines by Lady Falkland when she gave up her own intention of going to Rome.^° Shortly after Patrick Cary arrived in Rome the first of a number of recommendations on his behalf to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, the Protector ofthe English (fig. x), was sent. On 6 December 1638 Walter Montagu, persona grata in Rome owing to his recent conversion, wrote at the Queen's request to recommend 'un gentilhomme anglois nomme Patricius Cary, qu'est a present a Rome, il est d'une famille fort honorable, la mere est une catholique fort virtueuse, et a fait elever ses filles en cette religion, la piete et le zele de la mere est fort notable et de grand exemple icy elle a eu encore le bonheur de lever deux de ces garcons catoliques dont celuy qu'est a Rome a present est l'un pour qui Monseigneur la Reyne ma Maitresse m'a commande de vous demander sa protection et faveur'." No identifiable reference to Patrick Cary in Rome has so far been found in the correspondence between Con and Cardinal Barberini, although English visitors brought by Father John Wilfrid to have an audience with the Cardinal, are frequently mentioned. Patrick Cary wrote in a later letter to Edward Hyde that he had been 'bred up in the Schools' in Rome.'' Presumably he attended the University in the Palazzo della Sapienza, whicb was patronised by the Barberini, rather than the Collegio Romano which was controlled by tbe Jesuits.'-'' We know from Patrick Cary's letters to Edward Hyde that Henrietta Maria contributed 149 Fig, I. Cardinal Francesco Barberini. From H. Teti, Aedes Barberinae (1642) 150 to his financial support in Rome. Such assistance formed part of the Queen's energetic policy in aid of the Catholic cause which is reflected in a contemporary portrait bearing the motto, 'Servir a Dieu c'est regner' (fig. 2). In the spring of 1641, not long before the opening of the trial of Strafford when the Queen was engaged in many political manoeuvres, she did more for him. A further letter of recommendation was sent to Cardinal Barberini and this time Henrietta Maria used as her advocate an English Benedictine, David Codner. A certain amount is known about the writer which helps to explain the eccentricities of his letter.''* He had survived an eventful career in England since his arrival in 1626 and was one of those who owed his liberty to the protection of the Queen. During the 1630s he wrote a series of detailed but obviously partial reports to Italy under the pseudonym of 'Matteo Selvaggio'. Panzani did not trust him but admitted that he had nothing definite against him ('a me non piace in modo alcuno, e dubito grandemente di lui, ma confesso, che non ne ho havuto cattiva relatione').'^ He summed up his dislike precisely by saying that Codner was too fidgety, was never still, knew everything and talked too much ('lo vedo troppo mobile, sempre salta hor qua, hor la, mai sta fermo; sa ogni cosa; non finisce mai di ciarlare'). Henrietta Maria was not to know that her advocate was regarded with some suspicion in Rome. At the time of writing Codner was attached to the chapel of Marie de Medici in London and was therefore easily at hand to serve the Queen in this commission. He evidently regarded it as a highly important duty and went to astonishing lengths in drafting the recommendation for Patrick Cary. In a letter of close on a thousand words, couched in highly ornate Latin, he extolled the virtues of Cary's mother and the promise of her son^^ ('Sentiat, quaeso, sentiat, in hoc adolescente, Eminentissime atque Amplissime Cardinalis, tantae Matris filio'). He mentioned the sufferings of Lady Falkland in bringing up her children to be Catholics, her worldly sacrifices, her intellect above that of women {'supra muliebre ingenium'), her most erudite pen which had translated the works of Cardinal Duperron into English. Lady Falkland had died in October 1639 and Codner piously wished that her spirit in heaven might rejoice ('gaudeant in coelo sanctissimae Matris manes') to see her offspring, particularly this one, not forsaken but growing up under the Cardinal's protection to attain fortune, excellence of character, and blossom hereafter in the Church ('in aetatem, fortunas, virtutesque universas, sub tua solius clientela optima succresceret, et ad promerendum etiam in Ecclesia aliquando efflorescet'). Codner hoped that the Bishop of Angouleme (Cardinal Duperron's nephew and Grand Almoner to Henrietta Maria) might rejoice in hearing of Cardinal Barberini's beneficence to this young man.