FullReads

[Footnote 238:
A series of these poems and songs, all remarkable for the strength of their expressions against Buckingham, were edited by F.W. Fairholt, F.S.A., for the Percy Society, and published by them in 1850. Here is a specimen from Sloane MS. No. 826.

Of British beasts the Buck is king,
His game and fame through Europe ring,
His home exalted keepes in awe
The lesser flocks; his will’s a law.
Our Charlemaine takes much delight
In this great beast so fair in sight,
With his whole heart affects the same,
And loves too well Buck-King of Game.
When he is chased, then ‘gins the sport;
When nigh his end, who’s sorry for’t?
And when he falls the hunter’s glad,
The hounds are flesh’d, and few are sadd!
]

[Footnote 239:
In the notes to a previous article on Buckingham in Vol. I. will be found an account of his offices and emoluments. An epitaph made after his murder thus expresses the popular sense of his position:–

This little grave embraces
One Duke and twenty places.
]

[Footnote 240:
There is a picture of Buckingham, mounted on a charger by the sea-shore, crowded with Tritons, etc. As it reflects none of the graces or beauty of the original, and seems the work of some wretched apprentice of Rubens (perhaps Gerbier himself), these contradictory accompaniments increased the suspicion that the picture could not be the duke’s: it was not recollected generally, that the favourite was both admiral and general; and that the duke was at once Neptune and Mars, ruling both sea and land. ]

[Footnote 241:
This machine seems noticed in Le Mercure Francois, 2627, p. 803. ]

[Footnote 242:
Gerbier, a foreigner, scarcely ever writes an English name correctly, while his orthography is not always intelligible. He means here Lady Davies, an extraordinary character and supposed prophetess. This Cassandra hit the time in her dark predictions, and was more persuaded than ever that she was a prophetess! See a remarkable anecdote of her in a preceding article, “Of Anagrams.” ]

[Footnote 243:
The correct title is “The copie of his Grace’s most excellent Rotomontados, sent by his servant the Lord Grimes, in answer to the Lower House of Parliament, 1628.” It is preserved in the Sloane MS. No. 826 (British Museum), and begins thus:–

Avaunt you giddy-headed multitude
And do your worst of spite; I never sued
To gain your votes, though well I know your ends
To ruin me, my fortune, and my friends.
]

[Footnote 244:
The duke was buried among the royal personages in Henry the Seventh’s chapel. His heart was placed in a monument erected in Portsmouth church, which, “greatly in contravention of religious decorum, usurped the place of the altar-piece,” until a few years since, when it was very properly removed to one of the side aisles. ]

[Footnote 245:
Sloane MSS. 4178, letter 519. ]