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“A lybell calld the health to divers Lords & Ladies 1636”

A health to my Lady Duchess1         [m. note: “of Buckingham”]

that loves redd hayr so well2

and to my Lord her husband3

that made her belly swell.4

A health to my Lady Marques5         [m. note: “of Hamilton”]

5

that hath so good a grace

and to my Lord her husband6

with his ill-favourd face

A health to my Lady Arundell7

whose travailing days ar past8

10

and to my Lord her husband9

I hope t’will be his last.

A health to my lady of Kent10

with her fat bouncinge11

and to my Lord her husband12

15

that fucks my Lady Hunt13

A health to my Lady Pembroke14

that lookes so like a witche

and to my Lord her husband15

that so well indures the switche16

20

A health to my Lady Essex17

who once had lost her fame18

and to my Lord her husband19

that is so ill at the game20

A health to my Lady Dorsett21

25

that of gravity hath store

and to my Lord her husband22

that gives his soule for a whore

A health to my Lady Warwick23

beeing made a Countess glories24

30

and to my Lord her husband25

that loves to tell strange stories.

A health to my Lady Lindsey26

that’s quickly moov’d to rage

and to my Lord her husband27

35

that brought his child on the stage.28

A health to my Lady Holland29

of wemen shee’s the best

and to my Lord her husband30

that goes so neately drest.

40

A health to my Lady Dover31

that was first wife to a citt32

and to my Lord her husband33

that hath more wrath than witt

A health to my Lady Denbigh34

45

that’s groome o’the stoole to her grace35

and to my Lord her husband36

whose nose has fyrd his face

A health to my Lady Carnarvan37

that’s a pearl in eache mans ey

50

and to my Lord her husband38

that will both sweare and ly

A health to my Lady Newport39

that loves to play and dance

and to my Lord her husband40

55

that rann away in France41

A health to my Lady Desmond42

with her frend shee loves to play

and to my Lord her husband43

that’s oft sent out of the way

60

A health to my lady Portland44

that was whipt to her marriage bedd45

and to my Lord her husband46

with his great loggerhead

A health to my Lady Wimbleton47

65

but eighteene years of age48

and to my Lord her husband49

that’s jealous of his page.50

A health to my Lady Goring51

in devotion shee’s not cooling52

70

and to my Lord her husband53

that hath gott all by fooling.54

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Source. BL MS Harley 6383, fols. 49r-50r

R6

Quick links to other poems within this section

Select page here R0. Introduction R1 Reader, Ile be sworne R2 Surely the face R3 Vainglorious man R4 Come arme thy self R5 See what a love R6 A health to my Lady R7 U. R. I. C. R8 Landless Will: R9 Two Parliaments dissolv’d

¹   my Lady Duchess: Katherine Villiers (née Manners), Duchess of Buckingham and widow of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. At the time this poem was written, her recent remarriage to the younger Lord Dunluce was a topic of much discussion at court. <back>

²   that loves redd hayr so well: allusion to Katherine Villiers’s new husband, Randal MacDonnell, Lord Dunluce, who succeeded as Earl of Antrim at the end of 1636. <back>

³   my Lord her husband: Randal MacDonnell, Lord Dunluce. <back>

⁴   that made her belly swell: probably a false rumour; Katherine bore no children in the course of her second marriage. <back>

⁵   my Lady Marques: Mary Feilding, Marchioness of Hamilton, daughter of the Earl and Countess of Denbigh, and niece of the Duke of Buckingham. <back>

⁶   my Lord her husband: James, Marquis of Hamilton; prominent advisor to Charles on Scottish affairs. <back>

⁷   my Lady Arundell: Alathea Howard (née Talbot), Countess of Arundel. <back>

⁸   whose travailing days ar past: possibly a reference to the fact that, after twenty-eight years of marriage, she is past child-bearing age (i.e. the “travailing” of labour); possibly a reference to her own continental travels (notably, to Italy in 1623), and a reflection on the diplomatic missions undertaken by her husband, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, in the 1630s. <back>

⁹   my Lord her husband: Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel. <back>

¹⁰   my lady of Kent: Elizabeth Grey (née Talbot), Countess of Kent. <back>

¹¹   with her fat bouncinge: at this point, in accord with the poem’s puerile humour, a word is omitted from the manuscript. <back>

¹²   my Lord her husband: Henry Grey, Earl of Kent and Lord Ruthin. <back>

¹³   my Lady Hunt: possibly Lady Anne Campbell, wife of George Gordon, who became Marquis of Huntly in 1636 (although she did not have a significant presence at court). <back>

¹⁴   my Lady Pembroke: Lady Anne Clifford, best known today as a writer, who was unhappily married to Philip Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. <back>

¹⁵   my Lord her husband: Philip Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. <back>

¹⁶   that so well indures the switche: possibly a muddled allusion to an incident in 1634, in which Herbert broke his staff over the back of Thomas May. But possibly merely invoking misogynist stereotypes of a shrewish woman domineering her husband, on account of Anne Clifford’s notoriously strong will. <back>

¹⁷   my Lady Essex: Elizabeth Devereux (née Paulet), Countess of Essex. <back>

¹⁸   who once had lost her fame: presumably a reference to a fresh scandal. In mid-1636 the Countess was accused, by relatives of her husband, of conducting an affair with Sir William Uvedale. A son she bore on 5 November—her first after six years of marriage—was widely suspected to be the illegitimate product of this affair, though Essex accepted it, albeit uneasily, as his own. The baby died just over a month after its birth, and Essex and his wife were thereafter permanently estranged. <back>

¹⁹   my Lord her husband: Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex. <back>

²⁰   that is so ill at the game: clearly a sexual reference, which constructs an image of Essex based on the gossip and rumours generated by both his marriages. In 1613 he was divorced from Frances Howard, on grounds of his alleged sexual insufficiency (see Section F). The suggestion that his second wife’s baby had been fathered by another reinforced the scandalous image of Essex as impotent—an image that would feature prominently in royalist propaganda of the Civil War, when Essex was a prominent Parliamentarian general. <back>

²¹   my Lady Dorsett: Mary Sackville, Countess of Dorset, governess of Prince Charles and Prince James. <back>

²²   my Lord her husband: Edward Sackville, Earl of Dorset, Lord Chamberlain in Henrietta Maria’s household. <back>

²³   my Lady Warwick: Susan Rich (née Rowe), Countess of Warwick. <back>

²⁴   beeing made a Countess glories: the Countess, Robert Rich’s second wife, was the daughter of Sir Henry Rowe, who had served as Lord Mayor of London in 1607, and the widow of city alderman William Halliday. This line therefore reflects on her social rise as a result of her secondmarriage. <back>

²⁵   my Lord her husband: Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick. <back>

²⁶   my Lady Lindsey: Elizabeth Bertie, Countess of Lindsay. <back>

²⁷   my Lord her husband: Robert Bertie, Earl of Lindsay. <back>

²⁸   that brought his child...stage: while it has not been possible to trace a particular incident to which this line refers, it is most likely that the Earl is being accused of allowing members of his family to participate in a masque or courtly entertainment. Such performances were popular at the Caroline court, but were vehemently denounced by many Puritans. <back>

²⁹   my Lady Holland: Isabel Rich (née Cope), Countess of Holland. <back>

³⁰   my Lord her husband: Henry Rich, Earl of Holland, High Steward in Henrietta Maria’s household. <back>

³¹   my Lady Dover: Mary Carey, Countess of Dover. <back>

³²   that was first wife to a citt: Mary Carey’s first marriage was to Alderman (hence a man of the “citt[y]”) Sir William Cockayne. <back>

³³   my Lord her husband: Henry Carey, Earl of Dover. <back>

³⁴   my Lady Denbigh: Susan Feilding (née Villiers), Countess of Denbigh, Mistress of the Robes for Henrietta Maria. <back>

³⁵   that’s groome...her grace: the title “Groom of the Stool” was in this period used to identify the Queen’s “first lady”. <back>

³⁶   my Lord her husband: William Feilding, Earl of Denbigh. <back>

³⁷   my Lady Carnarvan: Anne Dormer (née Herbert), Countess of Carnarvon. <back>

³⁸   my Lord her husband: Robert Dormer, Earl of Carnarvon. <back>

³⁹   my Lady Newport: Anne Blount (daughter of John, Baron Boteler), Countess of Newport. <back>

⁴⁰   my Lord her husband: Mountjoy Blount, Earl of Newport. <back>

⁴¹   that rann away in France: probably an allusion to Blount’s role as a leader of the failed naval expedition to Rochelle in 1628. <back>

⁴²   my Lady Desmond: wife of George Feilding, Earl of Desmond. <back>

⁴³   my Lord her husband: George Feilding, Earl of Desmond. <back>

⁴⁴   my lady Portland: Frances Weston (née Stuart), wife of Jerome, Earl of Portland. <back>

⁴⁵   that was whipt...bedd: Lady Frances Stuart, a cousin of King Charles, married Jerome Weston in 1632, after extended negotiations. It was widely believed that she did not initially agree to the marriage with a man socially inferior to her, and that the influence of the King was required to seal the match. <back>

⁴⁶   my Lord her husband: Jerome Weston, Earl of Portland. <back>

⁴⁷   my Lady Wimbleton: Sophia Cecil (née Zouch), Countess of Wimbledon. <back>

⁴⁸   but eighteene years of age: Sophia was seventeen years old at the date of her marriage, and her husband sixty-three. <back>

⁴⁹   my Lord her husband: Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon. <back>

⁵⁰   that’s jealous of his page: while the author might have had in mind a particular “page”, it is perhaps just as likely that he was merely invoking the stereotype of the jealous husband married to a significantly younger, and sexually voracious, woman. <back>

⁵¹   my Lady Goring: Mary (née Nevill), Lady Goring. <back>

⁵²   in devotion shee’s not cooling: suggestion of puritanical religious fervour. <back>

⁵³   my Lord her husband: George Goring (Earl of Norwich from 1644), who served first as Henrietta Maria’s Vice-Chamberlain, and subsequently as her Master of the Horse. <back>

⁵⁴   that hath gott all by fooling: this recalls allegations against Goring made in the Jacobean poem “Listen jolly gentlemen”. <back>