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.
Piii14 Who ever lov’d man vertuous
Notes. While alluding to popular perceptions of Buckingham, this relatively straightforward epitaph focuses less on chiding the Duke’s critics than it does on trumpeting his virtues.
Who ever lov’d man vertuous,
Stout,1 liberall,2 wise, industrious,
Or to the arts a matchles frend
Laments (thrice honor’d Duke thy end)
And lett him knowe what ere hee bee
5Would highely praise mortallitie
Must faigne some person in a man
Just like to that of Buckingham
A Soule inricht with soe much good
As kings (not Commons) understood
10Fond Mallice doe what ere thou cann
Tyme will bewaile brave Buckingham
To that most sadd, and mournefull name
His life hath added such a Fame
That to expresse to future yeares
15his worth, his Fate, his Maisters teares
Hee needs noe Funerall, nor verse,
But his owne Name writt on his herse.
Source. Bodleian MS Malone 23, pp. 140-41
Other known sources. BL MS Harley 6383, fol. 27r
Piii14
1 Stout: brave. This epithet was often used to describe Felton. <back>
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