No More Learning

points to its being the reading of the MS. from which _1635_ was
printed.

l. 26. _So pale, so lame, &c. _ The chipping and debasement of the
French crown is frequently referred to, and Shakespeare is fond
of punning on the word. But two extracts from Stow's _Chronicle_
(_continued . . . by_ Edmund Howes), 1631, will throw some light on the
references to coins in this poem: In the year 1559 took place the last
abasement of English money whereby testons and groats were lowered in
value and called in, 'and according to the last valuation of them,
she gave them fine money of cleane silver for them commonly called
Sterling money, and from this time there was no manner of base money
coyned or used in England . . . but all English monies were made of gold
and silver, which is not so in any other nation whatsoever, but have
sundry sorts of copper money. '

'The 9. of November, the French crowne that went currant for six
shillings foure pence, was proclaimed to be sixe shillings.
'

In 1561, 'The fifteenth of November, the Queenes Maiestie published a
Proclamation for divers small pieces of silver money to be currant,
as the sixe pence, foure pence, three pence, 2 pence and a peny, three
half-pence, and 3 farthings: and also forbad all forraigne coynes to
be currant within the same Realme, as well gold as silver, calling
them all into her Maiesties Mints, except two sorts of crownes of
gold, the one the French crowne, the other the Flemish crowne. ' The
result was the bringing in of large sums in 'silver plates: and as
much or more in pistolets, and other gold of Spanish coynes, and one
weeke in pistolets and other Spanish gold 16000 pounds, all these to
be coyned with the Queenes stamps. '

l. 29. _Spanish Stamps still travelling. _ Grosart regards this as an
allusion to the wide diffusion of Spanish coins. The reference is more
pointed. It is to the prevalence of Spanish bribery, the policy of
securing paid agents in every country. It was by money that Parma
secured his first hold on the revolted provinces. Gardiner has shown
that Lord Cranborne, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, accepted a pension
from the Spanish king (_Hist. of England_, i, p. 215). The discovery
of the number of his Court who were in Spanish pay came as a profound
shock to James at a later period. The invariable charge brought by
one Dutch statesman against another was of being in the pay of the
Spaniard.

'It is his Indian gold,' says Raleigh, speaking of the King of Spain
in 1596, 'that endangers and disturbs all the nations of Europe; it
creeps into councils, purchases intelligence, and sets bound loyalty
at liberty in the greatest monarchies thereof. '

ll.