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.
Pii8 Immortall Man of glorie, whose brave hand
Notes. The Scotsman James Balfour reported that “one Mr. [Richard] James, ane attender one Sir Robert Cotton, a grate lover of his countrey, and a hatter of all suche as he supposed enimes to the same, was called in question for wretting” this poem, “wich he named a statue to the memorey of that vorthey patriot S. Johne Feltone” (2.174). On James’s likely authorship of a long letter on Felton, transcribed in Bodleian MS Malone 23, pp. 165-190, see Bellany, “‘The Brightnes of the Noble Leiutenants Action’”.
“Felton commended &c”
Immortall Man of glorie, whose brave hand
Hath once begun to disinchaunt our land
From Magique thralldome. One proud Man did mate1
The Nobles, Gentles, Commons of our state;
Struck Peace and Warr at pleasure, hurld downe all
5That to his Idoll Greatnes would not fall
With groveling adoration: Sacred Rent
Of Brittaine, Saxon, Norman Princes spent
Hee on his Panders, Minions, Pimpes, and Whores,2
Whilst their great Royal Offspring wanted dores
10To shutt out Hunger, had not the kinde whelpe
Of good Elizas lyon gave them helpe.3
The seats of Justice forc’d say, they lye,
Unto our auntient English Libertie.4
The stain of honour, which to deeds of praise
15And high atchievements should brave spiritts raise,
The shipps, the Men, the money cast away
Under his onely all confounding sway
Illiads of greife, on topp of which hee bore
Himselfe triumphant, neither trayn’d in lore
20Of Arts or Armes:5 yet in a hautie vast
Debordment6 of Ambition, now in haste
The cunning Houndhurst must transported bee
To make him the Restorer Mercurie
In an heroick painting,7 when before
25Antwerpian Rubens best skill made him soare,
Ravisht by heavenly powers, unto the skie
Opening, and ready him to deifie
In a bright blissfull Pallace, Fayrie Ile,8
Naught but illusion were we, till this guile
30Was by thy hand cut off, stout Machabee;9
Nor they, nor Rome, nor did Greece ever see
A greater glorie to the Neighbour Flood.
Then sinke all Fables of old Brute and Ludd,10
And give thy Statues place. In spight of charme
35Of Witch or Wizard,11 thy more mighty Arme,
With Zeale and Justice arm’d, hath in truth wonne
The prize of Patriott to a Brittish Sonne.
Source. BL MS Sloane 826, fols. 191v-192r
Other known sources. Bodleian MS Douce 357, fol. 17r; Bodleian MS Malone 23, p. 207; Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 84, fol. 74v; BL Add. MS 5832, fol. 196v; BL Add. MS 21544, fol. 128r; BL MS Egerton 2026, fol. 64v; V&A MS F48.G.2/1, item 3; Huntington MS 198, 1.158
Pii8
1 mate: probably checkmate, as in chess. <back>
2 Sacred Rent...Pimpes, and Whores: these lines accuse Buckingham of spending royal revenues—the inheritance amassed by England’s ancient and medieval rulers, the Britons, the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans—on his favourites (“Minions”), and on his whores and their procurers (“Panders” and “Pimpes”). <back>
3 Whilst their great...gave them helpe: allusion to the sufferings of the Elector Palatine, Frederick V, and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of James I, following their expulsion from Bohemia and from their ancestral lands in the Palatinate in 1619-1621. Frederick and Elizabeth eventually found refuge under Dutch protection at The Hague. The “kind whelpe / Of good Elizas lyon” that assisted the Palatines were the Dutch heirs (“whelpe”) of the Netherlands rebels (the Netherlands were often cartographically represented as a lion) against Spain, rebels who had been aided by Elizabeth I (“good Eliza”). <back>
4 The seats of Justice...English Libertie: this couplet charges Buckingham with corrupting the legal system, and conniving in forms of arbitrary government that violated English liberties. <back>
5 The stain of honour...or Armes: allusive reference to Buckingham’s calamitous leadership of the English war effort, 1625-28. “Iliad”, as used in the phrase “Iliads of greife”, may mean “a long series of disasters” (OED). <back>
7 The cunning Houndhurst...heroick painting: reference to an identifiable portrait of the Duke, painted by the Dutch artist Gerrit Van Honthorst in the spring and summer of 1628, which depicted Buckingham in the guise of the god Mercury, presenting the seven liberal arts to Apollo and Diana, represented as Charles and his Queen, Henrietta Maria. <back>
8 Antwerpian Rubens...Fayrie Ile: this almost certainly refers to Peter Paul Rubens’ “Apotheosis of Buckingham”, painted between 1625 and 1627 and hung on the ceiling of Buckingham’s London residence at York House. The painting depicts the Duke being carried up into the sky. <back>
9 stout Machabee: Felton is here compared to the Macabees, who in the second century BC led the Israelite resistance movement against attempts by their Syrian overlords to eradicate Judiasm. “Stout” means brave. <back>
10 Fables of old Brute and Ludd: the mythic version of the origins of Britain, enshrined in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s twelfth-century narrative history, attributed the founding of the nation to Brutus, a descendant of the Trojan hero and legendary founder of Rome, Aeneas. According to Geoffrey, King Lud enlarged and renovated Brutus’s city “Troynovant”, on the site of modern London, renaming it Caire-Lud or Lud’s town. <back>
11 In spight of charme...of Wizard: allusion to Buckingham’s supposed use of witchcraft—whether supplied by his mother, Mary, Countess of Buckingham, or his alleged associate, the convicted witch John Lambe—to secure his hold on power. <back>
Web Marketing & Design
by FourSquare Innovations 
