To be remembred of pofteritie, Save One, that maugre Fortunes iniurie, 165 170 "Cambden! the nourice of antiquitie, 175 "But whie (unhappie wight!) doo I thus crie, "It is not long, fince these two eyes beheld Ver. 172. "As men thus liued in his great outrage, "Behould one Orpheus came, &c." TODD. Ver. 184. A mightie prince, &c.] Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicefter. OLDYS. And greatest ones did fue to gaine his grace; And Right and Loyall did his word maintaine. "I faw him die, I faw him die, as one 190 Of the meane people, and brought foorth on beare; I faw him die, and no man left to mone 195 Ver. 189. Right and Loyall] His motto. OLDYS. Ver. 190. I jaw him die, &c.] If Verulam fpeaks this in her own perfon, Ralph Brook must be wrong, to say his Lordthip died at Cornbury Lodge in Oxfordshire; and fo is Mr. Arthur Collins, who likewise says that the Earl died there, in his way to Killingworth Castle, 4. Sept. 1588. Spenfer could not say it in his own perfon, for he was then in Ireland. OLDYS. Sir Robert Naunton, in his Fragmenta Regalia, or Obfervations on the late queen Elizabeth, her times and favourites, published in 1641, confirms the account that the Earl died at Cornbury; and relates that his death was believed to be occafioned by that poifon which he prepared for others, wherein they report him a rare artist." Abraham Darcie, in his Hift. and Annals of Elizabeth, relates that he died “of a continuall burning feaver; as hee was on his way to go to Killingworth:" And Camden mentions the circumstance of his dying on his journey. It is not improbable that the Earl might difcover fymptoms of the malady, by which he fell, at St. Alban's, which is in the direct road to Warwickshire; and that the report of his illness from this place, having reached Spenfer who was then in Ireland, might occafion the poet, without making further inquiry as to the real place of the Earl's death, to apply this lamentation to the person of Verulam. TODD. "O truftleffe ftate of miferable men, "All is but fained, and with oaker dide, For, when thou dieft, all shall with thee die. 210 "He now is dead, and all is with him dead, Ver. 214. 215 his deedes upbraid:] So Speed relates of this nobleman: "Leicefter ended his dayes, hauing been a peere of great eftate, but lyable to the common destiny of moft Great Ones, whom all men magnifie in their life time, but few fpeake well of after their death." Hift. of Gr. Brit. fol. 1185. TODD. 220 "He now is dead, and all his glorie gone, "Ne doth his Colin, careleffe Colin Cloute, 225 Care now his idle bagpipe up to raise, Ne tell his forrow to the liftning rout Of shepheard groomes, which wont his fongs to praise : Praise who so lift, yet I will him dispraise, Untill he quite him of this guiltie blame: 230 Wake, fhepheards boy, at length awake for fhame. Ver. 224. Yet manie Poets honourd him alive.] In a publication, entitled Leycefters Ghost, printed in 1641, this nobleman is represented as having particularly countenanced the poets: "To learned Schollers I was fomething franck, "You mortals that would have your fame furvive, TODD. "And who fo els did goodnes by him gaine, And who fo els his bounteous minde did trie, Whether he fhepheard be, or fhepheards fwaine, (For manie did, which doo it now denie,) Awake, and to his Song a part applie: And I, the whileft you mourne for his decease, Will with my mourning plaints your plaint increase. 235 "He dyde, and after him his brother dyde, 245 "He, whileft he lived, happie was through thee, And, being dead, is happie now much more; Living, that lincked chaunft with thee to bee, And dead, because him dead thou doft adore As living, and thy loft deare Love deplore. 250 So whilft that thou, faire flower of chastitie, Doft live, by thee thy Lord shall never die. Ver. 239. and after him his brother dyde,] Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, died without iffue Feb. 20, 1589. OLDYS. Ver. 244. But unto thee &c.] Anne, the eldest daughter of Francis Lord Ruffel Earl of Bedford, was his last wife. OLDYS. |