A web-based edition of early seventeenth-century political poetry from manuscript sources. It brings into the public domain over 350 poems, many of which have never before been published.

Pi23 Great Gorge, and art thou gonne


Notes. In the only known source, this poem is attributed to “ E.K.”, the author of several other poems in William Davenport’s collection.


Great Gorge, and art thou gonne?

t’were childishe for a man to moane

for one soe well departed.

thou hast thy cuntryes free good wille

although it’s plaine, thou livinge still

5

to her was hollowe harted.

I will not slander one that’s dead

to saye that Buckinghame is fledd

to any place off reste,

Or that hees in cælestiall sleepe

10

or Christians true for him doe weepe

or holy crosse him bleste,

Yett I am sure hele ryse againe,

I will not saye to eternall paine

which he soe well deserved.

15

Coulde not the reliquices1 off his Lambe2

or his owne deere Idolatrous Damme3

From Felton him preserve.

But I will leave this censure free

to any that will Judge for mee

20

how god hath him disposed;

I am pleased; he lived and dyed moungst French4

he wanted but a Madride wench5

his eyes, for to have closed.



Source. CCRO MS CR 63/2/19, fol. 69r

Pi23






1   reliquices: the relics of saints, and thus objects of specifically “popish” veneration. <back>

2   Lambe: Dr. John Lambe, astrologer-physician, convicted witch and presumed associate of Buckingham. <back>

3   own deere Idolatrous Damme: Buckingham’s mother (“Damme”), Mary Compton, Countess of Buckingham, was a known Catholic convert and thus, in Protestant eyes, “Idolatrous”. <back>

4   he lived and dyed moungst French: although this line refers generally to Buckingham’s moral foreignness, it may also allude specifically to his travels in France as a young man and during his court ascendancy, his military expedition to France in 1627, and to the fact that in the room with him when he was assassinated were several prominent Huguenots, there to consult with Buckingham about the relief of La Rochelle. The “french” was also common slang for syphilis. <back>

5   Madride wench: like the similar allusion to the “Madrille wench” in “Oure crossrow’s turnd, a signe off monstrous luck” (like this poem, only found in William Davenport’s collection), this seems to refer to Buckingham’s alleged sexual adventures in Madrid in 1623. <back>