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.
Piii18 Hee that can reade a sigh, or spell a teare
Notes. In one source, this poem is attributed to “ Dr. Lewis” (Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 26). Another variant preserves only the first six lines, and titles the abbreviated poem “On a Learned Nobleman” (Bodleian MS Sancroft 53). The poem’s conclusion celebrates the birth of Buckingham’s posthumous son, Francis Villiers, which implies that the verse was completed after Francis’s birth in April 1629.
“To my Lord Duke of Buckingham his memory”
Hee that can reade a sigh, or spell a teare,
Pronounce amazement, and accent wilde feare,
Or get all greif by hart; hee, onely hee,
Is fitt to reade, or write thy Elegie.
Unvalued Lord! whoe wer’t so hard a text:
5Writt in one age, but understood ith’ next.
Write Elegyes, for those that dye: my Lord
(Though halfe the age wear Feltons) can afford
Vertue enough, for to survive the rage
Of a tumultous & self-cursing age;
10Nor greives it mee, the Cittie-wives are slacke
To mourne for thee in clarrett or burnt-sacke:1
Whoe for their husbands doe not use to weepe:
Unlesse the wyne be hott, and they drunck deepe.
Their children shall lament thee, when they knowe
15What t’was to loose such bloud, and loose it soe.
T’is yet too soone for them to knowe; such things,
As Buckingham, none can esteeme but kings.
And you2 (shame of your nation) whose bold strife
Is to pourtraict a monster backe to life;
20That hee may live within a fewe yeeres pawse
The witnesse of your curse, That was the cause,
Yow that cann prayse applaud, you that cann paynt
Such a prodigious villayne to a Saynt
And while yow think’t Idolatry to glaunce
25Upon a bleeding Crucifix by chaunce;
Can yett create an Idoll divell t’adore,
And deck your Oratryes with such store.3
Yow that would kill his dust, doe yow not see
Howe god derydes your wickednes: whilest hee
30Hathe given those ashes life, and made his tombe
Of posthume issue,4 such a fruitefull wombe.
See yow not howe the Phenixe5 is renew’d
And to him from his death, more yeers accru’d!
Yow tooke him hence, when he had spent for yow
35Thirtie fyve6 carefull yeers; heaven would renew
His lease; and send him to a wilfull thronge
An Infant backe agayne, t’expound the wronge,
His innocency felt, when the beleefe
Of a deceyvll7 world, sign’d their owne greife.
40Should I bewaile thee then? or byd myne eyes
Write on thy joyfull cradle, Elegyes?
When I assured am this short disguise
Of Infancie, wherein oure feare-drown’d eyes
Discover thee, cann at the furthest last
45Not above twenty yeeres, and then thy fast
Sprouting and growing glory will in strength
(Though short nowe) yet be writt agayne at length.
When the uncoozend8 world shall all confesse
Thou wert sent backe to earth agayne, to blesse
50Thyne Enemies and to revenge their all,
By blessing them once more against their will.
Source. Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 26, fols. 37v-38r
Other known sources. Bodleian MS Eng. Poet. e.97, p. 60; Bodleian MS Sancroft 53, p. 46
Piii18
1 To mourne for thee...burnt-sacke: wines (“clarrett”, “burnt-sacke”) were traditionally served to mourners at funerals. <back>
2 you: the “you” addressed in this and the next eleven lines are the English people who have celebrated Buckingham’s death (“kill[ed] his dust”) and turned the assassin Felton into their “Idoll divell”. <back>
3 And while yow think’t...such store: the poet accuses Felton’s supporters of turning the assassin into an idol and of decorating their places of prayer (“Oratryes”) with his image (presumbly his engraved picture). The poet implies that these Felton-worshippers are (stereotypically hypocritical) Puritans, who are just the kind of people so obsessed by the dangers of Catholicism that they would label as idolatry even an accidental glance at the kind of religious images (here a “bleeding Crucifix”) found in Catholic churches. <back>
4 posthume issue: Buckingham’s son Francis was born after his father’s death, in April 1629. <back>
5 Phenixe: i.e. the phoenix, the mythological bird that could miraculously regenerate itself. <back>
6 Thirtie fyve: Buckingham was murdered five days before his thirty-sixth birthday. <back>
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