ANNE, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE, acknowledged judge of literary works, and a muni- ficent patron of authors of merit. He was a great favourite at Court, conspicuous, as the Earl of Clifford had been, at masques, revels, tilts, and tourneys, his gallant demeanour and fine person gaining for him the friendship of Prince Henry; but at home he was a very different personage. One source of bitter feeling was his reiterated demand that his young wife should sell her rights in the contested lands of her inheritance, in order to supply his reckless extravagance, -a measure to which she would never consent. With this spendthrift lord, Anne Clifford lived for fifteen miserable years ; but at the end of that time, almost fortunately for her, he died, in 1624, leaving her with two daughters, Margaret and Isabel, the heir, Thomas, having died in his infancy. Her experience of married life appeared scarcely calculated to afford many attractions to the widow, or to induce her to adventure on it a second time ; yet, in four years after the death of the Earl of Dorset, she accepted the hand of Philip Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, the celebrated favourite of James the First. This choice was as unfortunate as her former one ; for this gay courtier was even more profuse and splendid than the Earl of Dorset. His stables are said to have resembled palaces, and his falconry, on which he chiefly prided himself, was furnished at an enormous expense. From his royal patron he received, at one period, no less than. 36
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