---

“Upon the Dukes Returne. In Ducem Reducem”

And art return’d againe with all thy Faults,

Thou great commaunder of the All-goe-naughts,1

And left the Isle behinde thee? Whats the matter?

Did Winter make thy chopps begin to chatter?

Could not the surging and distemper’d Seas

5

Thy queasie stomach (gorg’d with sweet-meates) please?

Or did’st thou sodainly remove thy station,

Through Jealousie of Hollands supplantation?2

Or was’t for want of Wenches? Or did’st feare

The King (thou absent) durst wrong’d Bristoll3 heare?

10

Or didst thou hasten (headlong) to prevent

A fruitlesse hop’d-for needfull Parliament?

All these, noe question, with a restlesse motion

Vext thy bespotted soule, as that black Potion

Tortur’d the noble Scott, whose Manes tell

15

Thy swolne Ambition made his carkasse swell.4

But there’s a reason worse then these: they say

The Frenchmen beate thee, and thou ran’st away.

Can this bee true? Could not thy glorious boasts,

Before thy goeing, fright them from their coasts?

20

Could not thy Titles feare them? Nor thy Lambe’s

Protection safeguard from thee those French Ramms?

Could not thy Cambridge Pupills5 zealous Praiers

(Compos’d of Brownist and Arminian6 Ayres)

Confound thy Foes? Or ells did their distraction

25

Make in thy happlesse hope the helplesse fraction?

Nor could thy Parliamento-Mastix7 Vowes

Prevaile t’impose the Garland on thy browes?

Could not thy chaplaine,8 London’s Sacrifice,

Nor move, nor suffocate the destinies,

30

That sends from’s paunches Altar more fumes forth

Of smoake and vapours then Landaffe is worth?

Could not thy Mothers Masses,9 nor her Crosses,

Nor Sorceries prevent these fatall losses?

Nor Regal Wishes, nor Imbraces neither,

35

Nor th’Armies valour, nor all these together?

“Hence we collect: To those that wilbee vitious,

“Praie who will praie, Heaven will not bee propitious.

“God’s deafe to those that will not hear the cries

“Of their oppressed Subjects Injuries.

40

“Happie successe then great attempts attends

“When those commaunds vertue and skill commends.

“Thy Sinne, Gods Justice, and the Kingdomes curse,

“Makes mee admire thy Fortunes were noe worse.

Now I have spoke enough, I know, great George,

45

(If I were knowne) to make thy Rage disgorge

Its venome on mee: yet, for all this hate,

Lets (at this distance) but expostulate.

How could this Voyage have such sadd effect

Without close treacherie, or grosse neglect?

50

Thou had’st a Navy Royall, that need not feare

All the French Power. This the coast could cleare

From all Invasion, and keepe back supplie;

The Isle did whollie at thy service lye.

Had every part of that small tract of land

55

Been with a slender Guard and Feild-peece man’d,

Their Entrance, sure, have been impeachd a while,

Or their approch echo’d o’er all the Isle.

What! were our captaines streight’ned in commission,

That they soe landed without Prohibition?

60

They durst not, but wee had (they did descrie)

A heedlesse Duke, a headlesse companie.

But, Oh! What Men or Angels can devise

T’excuse thy base ignoble cowardise,

That brunt of dangers could soe little bide,

65

The very bruite10 would allwaies make thee hide:

And when the bloodie Die of Warr was throwne,

And each Mans valour should bee chiefly showne,

Was’t not a noble part, and bravely playd,

To send a shadowe11 in thy Arms array’d,

70

To personate thee in the battaile, while

Thou sat’st environ’d with a cable coyle

Discharging sugar pelletts? Had it not been

More noblie done, by death, renowne to winne,

Then in an hempen cabbin plagu’d to bee

75

With view of the deserved destinie?

Oh! when I thinke upon that fatall Feild

Wherein soe much brave English blood was spilld

(Wherof I lost a share) And when I call

To minde those Heroes lamentable fall,

80

Rich, Brett, and Cornwall,12 with the rest, whose bones

Want ev’n a Monument of Pebble-stones,

My soule wastes into sighs, My troubled braines

To teares, but that a manly heart disdaines

Such female follie, And I hope to see

85

These worthies deathes (proud France) reveng’d on thee.

But is the cause come safely home againe,

Tryumphing o’er his conquer’d countrymen,

As if such valient leaders mournfull slaughter

Were but a subject for such cowards laughter?

90

Leave (upstart Greatnes) e’re it bee too late

Submitt thy self; be govern’d by the state.

For if but one yeare more thou lordst it thus,

Thou draw’st confusion on thy self and us.

Stay, stay at court then, and at Tennys play,

95

Measure French Galliards13 out, or Kil-a-gray.14

Venus Pavilions15 doe befitt thee best:

Perwiggs16 with Helmetts use not to bee prest.

To o’re-run Spaine, winne Cales,17 and conquer France,

Requires a Soldier’s March, noe Courtiers daunce.

100

Let valient skillfull Generalls bee chose,

That dare in blood confront their proudest Foes,

Then there’s some hope wee may repaire our losses

And make our Enemies to rue our crosses.

Three things have lost our honour (all surmise)

105

Thy Trechery, Neglect, and Cowardise.

---

Source. BL MS Sloane 826, fols. 161v-164r

Other known sources. Rous 19; Bodleian MS Ashmole 36-37, fol. 50v; Bodleian MS Ashmole 38, p. 133; Bodleian MS Douce f.5, fol. 5v; Bodleian MS Eng. Poet c.50, fol. 27v; Bodleian MS Malone 21, fol. 56v; Bodleian MS Malone 23, p. 106; Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 26, fol. 79r; Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 160, fol. 198r; Bodleian MS Tanner 306, fol. 264r; Bodleian MS Tanner 465, fol. 98v; BL Add. MS 10309, fol. 42r; BL Add. MS 22591, fol. 315r; BL Add. MS 22959, fol. 22v; BL Add. MS 27408, fol. 146r; BL Add. MS 29492, fol. 49v; BL Add. MS 70639, fol. 70v; BL MS Sloane 826, fol. 32r; Brotherton MS Lt. q. 51, p. 207; CCRO MS CR 63/2/19, fol. 63v; PRO SP 16/85/84; Houghton MS Eng. 1278, item 14; Huntington MS HM 198, 1.44; Huntington MS HM 742, fol. 2r; Rosenbach MS 239/27, p. 54

Oii12

Quick links to other poems within this section

Select page here O0. Introduction Oi1. The Parliament sitts Oi2. Oh honoured England Oi3. Our digby digd’e Oi4. The base on which Oi5. There was a man Oi6. There was a great fleete Oi7. There was a Munkye Oi8. Yee Spanyards Oi9. There was some policye Oi10. The Kinge and his wyfe Oi11. Why did the fond Oi12. Fower Cheyffe Justices Oi13. Justice of late hath Oi14. Ould Ned Cooke Oi15. Rex and Grex Oi16. Come heare, Lady Muses Oi17. There is a man Oii1. when the uncivill civill Oii2. It makes mee to muse Oii3. Great Buckinghame Oii4. In reading these Oii5. And wilt thou goe Oii6. Charles would yee Prevaile Oii7. Rejoice, brave English Oii8. Why was the varlett Oii9. One askte me Oii10. Oure crossrow’s turnd Oii11. The noblest brave Oii12. And art return’d againe Oii13. All you that will goe Oii14. As sick men feare Oiii1. O Admirall! Oiii2. The wisest King Oiii3. The warrlike King Oiii4. Excuse me Eliott Oiii5. Avaunt you giddie Oiii6. Here Dr Lambe Oiii7. If heav’n rejoyce Oiii8. For Lambe go ringe Oiii9. Heare lyes the Impostar Oiii10. Our state’s a Game Oiii11. When onely one doth Oiii12. Of Brittish Beasts Oiii13. To hunt the Doe Oiii14. The Parliament of late Oiii15. A thinge gott by candle

¹   All-goe-naughts: punning on the heroic Argonauts who sailed with Jason for the Golden Fleece. <back>

²   Through Jealousie of Hollands supplantation: the allegation is that Buckingham feared that, in his absence, Henry Rich, Viscount Kensington and Earl of Holland, would supplant him as favourite. <back>

³   wrong’d Bristoll: John Digby, Earl of Bristol, and former ambassador to Spain. Digby had been barred from court and placed under house arrest since his return from Spain in 1624. In the Parliament of 1626, the King charged Bristol with treason for his conduct in Spain; Bristol countered by levying charges of treason against Buckingham for his actions in Spain in 1623. <back>

⁴   black Potion...carkasse swell: allusion to the allegation, levelled by George Eglisham in 1626, that Buckingham had poisoned James, Marquis Hamilton and King James I. “Manes” means “shade” or “ghost”, or possibly “remains”. <back>

⁵   Cambridge Pupills: Buckingham had become Chancellor of Cambridge University in 1626. <back>

⁶   Brownist and Arminian: Brownists were radical Protestant separatists; Arminians were followers of the Dutch theologian Arminius and critics of the Church of England’s Calvinist teachings on predestination. Many feared that, under Buckingham’s protection, “Arminianism” was on the rise in the English Church in the mid-1620s. <back>

⁷   Parliamento-Mastix: Scourge of Parliament. <back>

⁸   thy chaplaine: the identity of Buckingham’s chaplain is difficult to establish. It is possible that the reference to “Landaffe” in the following lines means that the cleric intended is Theophilus Field, Bishop of Llandaff (1619-1627), a Buckingham client. <back>

⁹   Mothers Masses: Mary, Countess of Buckingham, had converted to Catholicism several years earlier. <back>

¹⁰   bruite: rumour. <back>

¹¹   shadowe: substitute disguised as the Duke. Others repeated the same (almost certainly false) allegation. <back>

¹²   Rich, Brett, and Cornwall: casualties of the Ré expedition, Sir Charles Rich and Sir Alexander Brett. The identity of Cornwall is unclear. <back>

¹³   Galliards: a galliard is a type of dance. <back>

¹⁴   Kil-a-gray: unknown; presumably a courtly dance. <back>

¹⁵   Venus Pavilions: the pavilions of the goddess of love (rather than of war). <back>

¹⁶   Perwiggs: periwigs; wigs. <back>

¹⁷   Cales: Cadiz. <back>