A Ballad, on George Villiers. "In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung, Of mimic statesmen, and their merry king. No fool to laugh at, which he valued more. There, victor of his health, of fortune, friends, And fame, this lord of useless thousands ends."-Pope. EDMUND GAYTON'S "Votive Song" is followed by a Poem, "printed in the year 1666" (Bagford Coll., iii. 31) entitled "The Scotch Riddle Unfolded: or, Reflections upon R. W[ilde], his most Lamentable Ballad, called the LOYAL Non-Conformist.' Not being a ballad, we can omit it (which we may not do with the present verses): it begins, Stand up Smectymnuus,' and bear thy tryal; Loves he the King who disobeys his Laws? &c. The libellous "Ballad," beginning "I sing the praise of a worthy Wight," &c., was made on George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham, author of "The Rehearsal"; son of the first George Villiers, who was the favourite "Steenie" of James I., and of Charles I. Allusions to his failure in 1625 at the adjacent island of Rhé, and to the assassination (by John Felton at Portsmouth, in 1628), are found in the ballad, with exultation at his downfall, although he had been about to renew his attempt to relieve the Huguenots of Rochelle. We attach no weight whatever to the ascription of this unscrupulous lampoon to John Dryden, on the doubtful authority of a mutilated reprint in 1703;2 apparently from a different 1 Smectymnuus here is not so strictly applied as it had been during the Civil War: when it represented the preachers whose initials combined to make up the word. See note on a later page, 653. A similarity of doctrine revived the name. 2 As usual with Poems on Affairs of State, it was most inaccurately printed, words dropped out, and (in addition to verses 7-11 justifiably omitted) verses 21 and 22 also. The sense is often obscured in it, but we gain one or two small corrections. It fails to indicate the burden" With a fa la la," &c. manuscript, entitled "On the Duke of Bucks, by Mr. D . . . . n." It is quite possible, no doubt, that "glorious John" may have penned this satire against his own enemy, and in 1672; but, to our mind, it offers no conclusive token of his style. Buckingham made so many enemies by his reckless vituperation and malicious buffoonery, that a score of versifiers were ready to assail him, especially if they could do this with personal safety, while the verses were supposed to come from Dryden. They are not included by W. D. Christie or Robt. Bell in their editions of the poet. It is much more likely to have been written by [Sir John] D[enham]. As to verse 25 (lines 97-100): Amid the accounts of Buckingham's last hours, we have the younger Richardson's, telling the replies made to the Duke of Queensberry; and Echard's, of that given to Lord Irwin (asking what religion Buckingham professed: "It is an insignificant question, for I have been a shame and a disgrace to all religions; if you can do me any good, do"), and also, more absolutely trustworthy in details, is that of Brian Fairfax, who was present at his deathbed, and obtained information on the spot. Buckingham at first declined the offer to send for the clergyman of the parish. "A Popish priest was then mentioned, to which he exclaimed vehemently, 'No, no,' adding that he would have nothing to do with them. Ultimately he consented to admit a clergyman of the Established Church, listened to him with devout attention, and received the Sacrament." Queensberry had earlier offered his own chaplain, a Dissenter, but "No," said Buckingham, "those fellows always make me sick with their whine and cant." This was in April, 1687. Pope's picture of the death-scene, "In the worst inn's worst room," &c. (Epistle to Allen, Lord Bathurst), is overcoloured but impressive. The anecdote, as told by him to Spence, is certainly inaccurate. If Buckingham had died professing Romanism, Pope might have been less ready to believe and circulate the calumny, as to the two girls. Again, as to verse 26 (lines 101-104): The King knew himself to be exposed frequently to ridicule by Buckingham, but did not trouble himself to resent the insult. He loved fair play, and took it in compensation for his own encouragement of Buckingham's mimicry of others. Clarendon especially was imitated, and resented it indignantly. "His mimicry was irresistible, and when he imitated the stately walk of that solemn personage, a pair of bellows hanging before him for the purse, and Colonel Titus preceding him with a fire-shovel on his shoulders, by way of a mace,-the King and his courtiers are described as convulsed with laughter.”—J. H. Jesse. [Bagford Collection, III. 32; Wood's Coll., 417, art. 25.] A BALLAD. Sing the praise of a worthy Wight, 1 -) that never wou'd fight, 4 For his Face, but more for his A― made a Knight. The Knight soon after a Duke became, 3 With, &c. That Idol Duke to that Greatness did Swell, And now you shall hear how his Mighty Son With, &c. 8 12 16 1 The dashes, no doubt, represent "George Villiers." The allusions to his alleged pusillanimity are false, for his courage was proved at Rhé, and elsewhere; but, like most favourites, he did not always with steady courage meet those whom his arrogance had insulted. He was esteemed pre-eminently handsome and graceful, and to have thus won the heart of Anne of Austria, Queen of Louis XIII. The disastrous expedition of Buckingham against the Island of Rhé, in 1627, the failure of which compelled the Rochellais to surrender to the French King and his besieging Romanists, has been described fully in James Rawson Gardiner's History of England under the Duke of Buckingham and Charles I., 1875, vol. ii. pp. 135-164. The later version of 1703 reads, "That since all 3 Scil. Buckingham. English men curse his Name." John Felton; who, from a fanatical enthusiasm, combined with a patriotic idea that he was slaying the enemy of his country's liberty, stabbed the Duke in his residence at Portsmouth, 23rd August, 1628. Poems connected with the event were republished for the Percy Society in 1850, vol. xxix. Some of the most important are in State Poems. 1 For the Incest, Old R1 can tell when and where; And K With, &c. Now he who Bravely and Nobly begins, Must afterwards think when such Glory he wins, For S With, &c. 4 C- -t lost this Nation more Brave men than ever were Killed before,5 With, &c. 20 24 28 The omitted word is not the nickname applied to Charles II., "Old Rowley," with reference to the Duchess of Cleveland (who was Buckingham's cousin, and on terms of intimacy with him). There is evidence that it was "Richmond," and with a calumnious insinuation regarding his wife, to meet whom Buckingham had in disguise braved dangers, during Cromwell's time. That anything beyond innocent affection united them is probably the slander of impure minds. The reference is evidently to those early days-" who so begins." 2 This probably refers to some suspected correspondence with Cromwell, about 1656-7, with imposed conditions or concessions to be made by Villiers, in the event of his becoming the husband of the Protector's daughter. 3 Kynaston, the actor, whose name is indicated here, was celebrated for the performance of female characters until women displaced all male rivals. His effeminate beauty and graceful demeanour made him a favourite, so that ladies of title carried him away from the theatre in their carriages, in broad daylight. A" State Poem," iii. 92, mentions " Kynaston acting both Venus and Mars." 4 "Shrewsbury": Lady Anna-Maria Brudenell, daughter of the Earl of Cardigan, Countess of Shrewsbury. Her portrait, photographed "from the original by Mary Beale, at Althorp," adorns the privately-printed volume of valuable Althorp Memoirs, 1869, by G. Steinman Steinman, Esq., F.S.A., including a biography of her written with his usual exactitude. He shows that Pope's lines (cited in our motto), referring to "Clieveden's proud alcove," as being "the bower of wanton Shrewsbury and love," are inaccurate; the workmen having been engaged on Clieveden in 1680, "when she had become a second time a wife." 5 On August 18, 1662, a duel was fought for her at the Old Pall Mall, in St. James's, by two of her early lovers, Captain Thomas Howard (brother of the first Earl of Carlisle) and Henry Jermyn, afterwards Lord Dover. Colonel Giles Rawlings, Privy Purse to the Duke of York, and second of Jermyn, was slain in this combat by Col. Cary Dillon, second of Howard. Jermyn received three wounds from the hand of Howard. After the Countess had notoriously favoured Buckingham, he fought a duel with her husband, the Earl of Shrewsbury, on January 16, 1667-8, and wounded him to the death: "run through the body from the right breast through the shoulder." Capt. Wm. Jenkins, one of Buckingham's seconds, was killed on the spot, and all the others wounded. Henry Killigrew, wounded in nine places, but not killed, May 18, 1669, was another of her victims. More seed has been spilt in her Nauseous Womb, With, &c. Yet he that will after her Beastly Life hunt, The Pox upon Pox has Eaten by Bits With, &c. And now I have done with that Rampant Whore, With, &c. I come to his Farce,2 which must needs be well done, With, &c. Yet gathering from Plays, Pimps, and Table Chatt, 3 And his Family Scribe Antichristian M: 4 With, &c. 1 Perhaps this refers, if to any particular " Groom," to Henry Killigrew, Groom of the King's Bed-chamber; who boasted of his intimacy with the Duchess of Cleveland. He was punished by a murderous assault, made on him at her instigation, as mentioned in previous note. 2 The Rehearsal," composed between 1663 and 1664, "ready in 1665, but stopped by the Plague," produced in the winter of 1671, but not printed until 1672. It need not be forgotten that the personal insults towards Dryden in this play provoked the reprisal against Buckingham of the Zimri, in Absolom and Achitophel, Novemb. 1681. Dr. Thos. Sprat, the friend and biographer of Abraham Cowley, was at this time Buckingham's Chaplain, and afterwards became Bishop of Rochester. "Matt.," but literally Martin, Clifford. We learn (from Malone, citing Wood's MS. additions to the Athene Oxon.) that he had been elected from Westminster to Trinity Coll. Cambridge, about 1640; was a lieutenant in Thos. Earl of Ossory's regiment in 1660; was made Master of the Charter-House on November 17, 1671, and died Dec. 10, 1677. Samuel Butler was also reputed to have had a hand in the "Rehearsal," beside Spratt and Clifford, assisting Buckingham. |