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.
Pi32 Away, away, great George, o come not here
Notes. This dialogue between the shades of Buckingham and his alleged client, John Lambe, the infamous astrologer-physician and convicted witch who had been murdered two months before the Duke, manages to encompass a larger than usual indictment of Buckingham’s alleged crimes as favourite. Although there is no reason not to assume that the poem dates from the time of Buckingham’s assassination, the only known version is in an eighteenth-century manuscript, containing a handful of pieces on Buckingham and Felton.
Lambe. Away, away, great George, o come not here:
For then in torments thou must bear a share.
Duke. Oh now its too late: Thy Councill’s all in vaine:
The Castle so long beseidg’d at last is tane.
Thow shouldst have told me this, before that I,
5By Murther,1 Pride, Lust, & fowle Treacherye
Had spotted my white Soule: but then didst thou
Uphold me in my sins;2 for which I now
Am damn’de, & have the Lande of Canaan3 lost,
And in the Depth of deepest Miseries tost.
10Then whether should I goe, but where thow art?
That of my Paines as Pleasures4 thow must take Part.
L. Goe hence I say: if Plutoe5 once drawe neare,
Thy Titles,6 nor thy Honours shall not beare
Thee from his ravening Pawes.
15D. Alas! the’re gone,
And e’re this Time dispearst: not one alone
Shall ever have agayne soe many Honours
Heapt on his Head; which to me were false Banners.
Yet Titles, Honours, Places, Charles his Love,
20My Life to spare could not stout7 Felton move:
His powerful Hand hath sett my Spirit free,
And sent my Soule to endles Miserye.
O Famous Felton! thy Valour yet I love;
But of thy heedles Deed do not approve:
25Because thou leftst me neither Time nor Space,
To call to God for Mercie, Pardon, Grace:8
Nor yet to Charles, my honoured Lord & King,
To beg his Pardon, & confes each Thing,
That I gainst him, his Kingdome, & his state,
30That either heretofore, or now of late,
I have attempted, or intended to act,
As well as that I have done: yet your Fact
I know’s approv’d of all; for that all did
Hate me; & though at sometimes close they hidd
35The Rancour of their Malice, yet now at last
They let their Sluices ope, which runnes at waste.
I know each Letter of my Name shalbe
A Theame for their Invencions,9 to let flee
Abroad to all the World, even my black Deeds,
40Which from their black Penns shall receive black Weeds.
My deeds on Seas, in Countrey, Court & Cittie,
Shalbe unto their Song the finall Dittie.
On Seas, from first to last they’le discant on
The Honour in Argiers Voyage wonne:
45When as stout Mansfeild, by my stronger Hand
Was made retorne again into this Land;
Which did more Hurt unto the English Nacion,
Then since the Fabricke of the World’s Creacion.
For then the Turks made Havocke of our men,
50And Shipps, & none would spare; which proved then
A Disadvantage to our Kingdom:10 Next
That to Cales, when as proud Cicill vext,
When Essex for his Life was forc’d to fly;
Or else as Cales great Gates most basely die.11
55By me, they say, the Pallatinate was lost,
And when fresh Supply should be gone, I crost
It; & kept backe the Ayde;12 at last I sent
Brave Oxford over, unto whose Life I lent
Some few Dayes, & then did take it from him,
60With Southampton’s;13 soe I confes my Cryme.
A Navie was prepar’de, & richly mann’de,
Where Neptune’s14 angrie Waves being past, we land
At Martin’s Iland; where landing, march, intrench,
Assault, retreate our men were fain: Revenge
65Then came too late: the best Commanders gone,
And many brave Soldier was lying tread uppon
Together with Shipping of our men; even all
Doth make me call’de, a treacherous Generall.
Yet I came Home, when betters farr wer slaine,
70And for their Valour more Honour they may claime.15
Yet Charles was glad to see me in England’s Shore:
Yet People’s Countenance shew’de what in Heart they bore.
And now the last Ayde which to poor Rochell went,
Was thought in Earnest; but in Jeast ’twas sent.16
75All this the seas cann witnes of my Crime.
But leaving these, then come to our owne Clyme,
And in the Countrey shewe my Deeds sett forthe,
How that I rackt their Rents17 to twice their Worth;
Tooke from them what I pleas’de, & to others gave it;
80And all must be as I myselfe must have it.
In which I farr surpassed all before,
And for one bad Deed here, there was a Score.
For what with Poyson, Treason & base Treacherie,
My Deedes, like Night, would darke the very skie.
85Whoe was it there, except great Charles alone,
That did not to me bend even to the Ground?
Such was the over-topping Topp of my
Ambicion: but at last being come thus high,
I had a Fall: but not in Charles his Love;
90For that is firmely placed, & will not move;
Untill his Eyes shall opened be, & finde
All my fowle Deedes that I have left behinde
Doe clearly manifest as well to him, as other,
That with the Charmes & Magicke of my Mother,18
95I have bewitcht his Senses, soe that he
Could not my Treason nor Offences see,
That I committed in Country, Court & State:
Nor in Religion how I sett Debate.19
And how of Justice I have sold the Place
100Unto the Badd, whoe soe altered the Case,
As pleased me, or best serv’de for my Ends:
Nor how I have enrich’de my base-born Friends.
In Cittie eke20 their Cryes breakes ope the Gates,
And for their Fortunes doe declare their Hates,
105To me, for that I fetcht, & never meant to pay:
Which now hath brought their States unto Decay.
And since, dear Lambe, by the I had this Arte,
To cozen King and Kingdome, Its fitt I smarte.
And since we have liv’de in Pleasure both together,
110God’s just in all, which will not now let us sever.
England farewell! thy Curse I ame sure I have;
And in Abundance they will fill my Grave.
What care I for them! here then ends my Labour,
That as liv’de, soe I dyed in Charles his Favour.
115Source. BL Add. MS 5832, fols. 197v-199r
Pi32
1 Murther: the allusion is to Buckingham’s alleged poisonings, specified in detail later in the poem. <back>
2 then didst thou...my sins: Lambe was alleged to have provided magical assistance to facilitate Buckingham’s murders and sexual conquests. <back>
3 Lande of Canaan: the promised land; in this case, heaven. <back>
4 Pleasures: this may be meant to refer generally to the pleasures Buckingham enjoyed as favourite; however, there may also be a specific allusion to the sexual pleasures that Buckingham was alleged to secure using Lambe’s love potions. <back>
5 Plutoe: ruler of the classical underworld. <back>
6 Thy Titles: Buckingham held several aristocratic titles in addition to his dukedom. <back>
8 Because thou leftst me...Grace: Buckingham’s complaint, that Felton’s knife left him no time to repent his sins, was echoed by a number of contemporary observers. <back>
9 each Letter...for their Invencions: apparent allusion to the composition of acrostic libels (see, e.g., “Great potent Duke, whom fortune rais’d soe high”). <back>
10 Argiers Voyage...to our Kingdom: reference to the unsuccessful 1620-21 naval expedition led by Sir Robert Mansell (here, somewhat misleadingly, referred to as “Mansfeild”) against the Muslim pirates (“Turks”) based in Algiers. <back>
11 Next / That to Cales...basely die: reference to the failed 1625 naval expedition to Cadiz led by Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon. The specific incident alluded to concerned one of the English commanders, Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, who was forced to halt an assault on Spanish ships because of the failure of the main fleet to lend him timely support. <back>
12 By me, they say...the Ayde: allusion to the failure of the English to prevent the loss of the Palatinate—the ancestral lands of James I’s son-in-law Frederick V, Elector Palatine—to Catholic forces in 1620-21, and to the English Crown’s subsequent inability to achieve their restoration. The reference to a failure to grant “fresh Supply” may point to the tragically underfunded English expeditionary force under the command of Ernst von Mansfelt, sent to liberate the Palatinate in 1624-25, but decimated by hunger and disease before it could reach German territory. <back>
13 Brave Oxford...Southampton’s: Henry de Vere, Earl of Oxford, assumed command of a regiment of Palatine troops in the United Provinces in May 1624, but died in June 1625 at The Hague. Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, died at Bergen-op-Zoom in November 1624, after leading a group of English volunteers to fight for the Dutch against the Spanish. George Eglisham’s 1626 pamphlet, The Forerunner of Revenge, alleged that Buckingham had poisoned Southampton, while several libels levelled the charge that he had poisoned Oxford. <back>
14 Neptune’s: Neptune was the god of the sea. <back>
15 A Navie was prepar’de... may claime: reference to Buckingham’s 1627 expedition to the Ile de Ré, and to the heavy casualties suffered by the English during the siege of, failed assault upon and disastrous retreat from the island citadel of St. Martin (see Section O). <back>
16 Ayde which to poor Rochell...sent: reference to the abortive late April 1628 mission to relieve the Huguenots of La Rochelle. The expedition was commanded by Buckingham’s brother-in-law, William Feilding, Earl of Denbigh. <back>
17 rackt their Rents: raised rents excessively. <back>
18 Charmes & Magicke of my Mother: the Duke’s mother, Mary Compton, Countess of Buckingham, was a known Catholic and was frequently alleged to be a witch. <back>
19 in Religion how I sett Debate: perhaps a specific allusion to the 1628 parliamentary Remonstrance’s charge that Buckingham was responsible for the rise of anti-Calvinist Arminianism in the Church of England. <back>
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