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.
Piii5 I did not flatter thee Alive, and nowe
Notes. Under no illusion about the moral compromises demanded by a successful career at court, and acutely aware of the favourite’s role to deflect criticism from the King, this poem nonetheless presents Buckingham as a man of virtue, and chides the political arrogance of his parliamentary critics.
“An Apologie, in memorie of the most illustrious Prince George Duke of Buckingham”
I did not flatter thee Alive, and nowe
I might be thought to late to fix my vowe
Upon thy shrine, If I had other end,
Then for respect of honor, to defend
And vindicate thy Fame, from th’envious breath
5Of fowle detraction, smileing in thy death
Noe modest penn will vex thy grave; but theire
Will rather make oblation1 in a teare;
I am not yet ingag’d, or fondlie ledd
In loud Hiperbolies thy cause to plead
10My plume soares not above its native straine
Truth walketh safest in the humble plaine.
I sing not Rhodes made great by Villars name
Nor Palestine whence Beaumont takes his fame.2
The things wee did not, and the blood that flowes
15From noble Ancestors, Hee onely owes
That vertuous is himselfe, and crownes the storie
Of his great Grandsire, by his proper3 glorie,
A subject worthier sweetest Poets verse
Then all the Armorie that guilds thy hearse;4
20The vertues of thy mynd rais’d thee more highe
Then this great length of style wee call thee by5
Too true thy fate was hard, to knowe these tymes
Where nothing is of note, besides our crymes
Where nobler vertue is, or not regarded
25Or is mistaken, or is ill rewarded:
And where the Ulcerous breath of Malecontent
Turnes into poison what was truely meant,
And measures deepest Councells of the State
By their events which still are ruled by fate
30(As what’s in Chamber of the Starrs decreed6
Should bee A like by all on earth Agreed)
The Vulgar els would sing thy worth and praise
Thy highe endeavours upon holy daies
Sing funerall dirges to thy name, and spend
35Theire deep tongu’d Mouths unto another end.
It is a destinie belongs to State
Him whome the Prince doth love, the people hate,
Whose indigested humors ever are
In opposition unto what is rare
40And what they cannot apprehend, doe hate
Taxing him most, who’s greatest in the State
Which wise kings knowe, and what it is to have
A Favorite, whose office is to save
Their goverment from blame, as what’s amisse
45The fault bee not there owne; but counted his
O burthen’d state of Favorits, that must
Not onely make themselves; but others just.
Noe doubt hee had his faults, but who are cleere
First throwe the stone,7 soe it will soone appeare
50That his weere but of Natures brittle mould
Which being common are the best untould
The Court creates fewe Saints, who theire deserves
A mediocritie8 of vertue serves
As what is counted vertue in A cell9
55Is held perhaps A vice, by them that dwell
In Princes pallaces, where all things goe
Not as they are, but what they are in showe
Where to bee great is good, els little found
But emptie caske,10 wild looks, and fruitles sound
60Which was noe character of thine, who wer’t
A frend to all in whome was found desert
And who loves vertue in another, still
Doth vertuous things, or wanteth of his will
Who shutt them selves from grace, must not expect
65That they bee courted, where they use neglect
To have theire merrit priz’d at such A rate
As but to right them, Greatnes must abate.
A Favorite should have enoughe to doe
To grace all that deserves and woo them too;
70Those men cry downe the Favour of A king
Who keepe noe longer tyme then hee doth sing
Besides who sitts in that highe circle, throwes
His smyles not allwaies on the purple rose,
But doe wee therefore blame the Sunn whose heat
75Produceth cockle11 there in stead of wheate
Els howe hee lov’d all noble spiritts best
Those Armes may witnes, and that royall brest
That did receive his coole, and latest breath
By bloodie hand under Arreast of death
80Thoughe not soe suddaine; but his Angell might
Take him upon his wings, in his highe flight
Then, what is gain’d pale Envie heere? but some
Moore choller for the Angrie day of doome
When wilt thou blush? hadd’st thou but any grace
85Even with the Roses taken from his face
Though not soe much his owne, as of two kings12
Who crops the flower, the stemme whereon it springs
Must also suffer. O it is too bold
To strike whome Princes in their Armes enfold
90Whose sacred persons noe small dainger runn
When such excesse is in their bosome done,
Whereon if Princes but reflect, they will
Emptie they veynes, that doe these cesternes fill
Deplore th’effects; but blame those maisters, who
95Inspire th’Assassines such foule deeds to doe
Proscribing Men, when for none other ill
A Sacrifice to expiate theire will.13
As to bee of the Cabbinet, is but
To deale the cards some leaprous hand must cutt14
100If such the State of Princes bee to have
Theire Grace the Beere15 to laud men on their grave
Their case is not soe rich, but that it weere
Much better bee their subjects once A yeare
To ryfle all theire Actions, and cast downe
105The men they cannot relish with A frowne
In case they are not th’object falce, on whome
They thus discharg’d, till they come neerer home.
Doth it with Monarchie in sequence fall,
The comons thus should doe? and undoe all
110Give lawes unto theire kings, they may not smyle
Without an Act of parliament the while,
Then to deface what heerein little was
The gracefull modell of that greater masse
A peice whome Nature framed with such Art
115As was througheout, noe fault in any part
Was soe much more to aggravate th’offence
That Heaven had bene on him at such expence
And where some have affirmed the Soule to bee
Mixt with his Mould in such A Simpathie
120As by the bodies structure wee may knowe
The disposition of the mynde, if soe
Noe doubt his Soule, that lodg’d therein was faire
Like as the Inne to which it did repaire
And that the harmonie in him was such
125As Orpheus16 made when hee his lyre did touch
By which and other Arts of court weere gain’d
All noble harts which hee with love mainetain’d
That hee could not reclame the vulgar presse17
The fault was not his owne but of successe
130Great Lord my lynes doth now fall short, but ere
Th’inconstant yeare runn out his course, I darr
Sing thy Lord praise, and in full verse proclame
Since thou wer’t taken hence, this state is lame
Nor shall the vurgar therefore chyde my verse:
135But runn to pay their Teares upon thy hearse.
Source. Bodleian MS Malone 23, pp. 123-27
Piii5
2 I sing not Rhodes...his fame: here the poet refuses to praise Buckingham for the great deeds of his ancestors, a Villiers and a Beaumont (Buckingham’s mother was Mary, daughter of Anthony Beaumont). Although the specific allusions are not entirely clear, two possible candidates are Philippe Villiers de L’Isle-Adam, an early sixteenth-century Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, and Robert (sometimes known as de Beaumont), 4th Earl of Leicester, who went on crusade with Richard I (the Lionheart) in the late twelfth century. <back>
4 the Armorie that guilds thy hearse: aristocratic funeral hearses were typically adorned with heraldic devices and family coats-of-arms. <back>
5 this great length...call thee by: allusion to the long list of Buckingham’s titles. <back>
6 in Chamber of the Starrs decreed: determined by the stars (in astrological thinking), or, more generally, determined by the heavens. There may also be a pun here on the court of Star Chamber. <back>
7 but who are cleere...throwe the stone: allusion to Christ’s comment to those about to stone a woman for adultery, that “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (John 8.7). <back>
8 A mediocritie: a middling amount. <back>
9 cell: monk’s or hermit’s room; thus a place of religious virtue. <back>
10 emptie caske: presumably a reference to the excessive consumption of drink at court; but may also pun on “caske” and “casque” (helmet). <back>
11 cockle: a weed that grows in cornfields. <back>
12 two kings: James I and Charles I. <back>
13 those maisters...expiate theire will: presumably an attack on those MPs whose 1628 Remonstrance against Buckingham was cited by Felton as motive for the assassination. <back>
14 As to bee...hand must cutt: this image anticipates the ensuing charge that by attempting to bring down Buckingham, the Commons was in effect staking a claim to control the King’s freedom to govern in the way he saw fit. Thus to be “of the Cabbinet” (in the King’s Privy Council), under parliament’s desired way of doing things, would be to play with a deck of cards already cut by another (“leaprous”; i.e. lower-class and diseased) hand. <back>
15 Beere: i.e. bier; tomb. <back>
16 Orpheus: in Greek myth, Orpheus played the lyre so beautifully that he charmed all who heard it. <back>
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