Curiosities of Literature Volume Ii Part 55

Harke! I'll tell you news from court; Marke, these things will make you good sport.

All the French that lately did prance There, up and downe in bravery, Now are all sent back to France, King Charles hath smelt some knavery.

[Footnote 216: A letter from the Earl of Dorchester, 27th May, 1630.

Harl. MSS. 7000 (160).]

[Footnote 217: The letters he sent to Buckingham are full of tender respect for the queen, lamenting her (certainly unwarrantable) neglect of reciprocity of attention, and silly squabbles in favour of her servants.]

[Footnote 218: Clarendon details the political coquetries of Monsieur La Ferte; his "notable familiarity with those who governed most in the two houses;" ii. 93.]

[Footnote 219: Hume seems to have discovered in "Estrades' Memoirs" the real occasion of Richelieu's conduct. In 1639 the French and Dutch proposed dividing the Low Country provinces; England was to stand neuter. Charles replied to D'Estrades, that his army and fleet should instantly sail to prevent these projected conquests. From that moment the intolerant ambition of Richelieu swelled the venom of his heart, and he eagerly seized on the first opportunity of supplying the Covenanters in Scotland with arms and money. Hume observes, that Charles here expressed his mind with an imprudent candour; but it proves he had acquired a just idea of national interest, vi. 337. See on this a very curious pa.s.sage in the Catholic Dodd's "Church History," iii. 22. He apologises for his cardinal by a.s.serting that the same line of policy was pursued here in England "by Charles I. himself, who sent fleets and armies to a.s.sist the Huguenots, or French rebels, as he calls them; and that this was the constant practice of Queen Elizabeth's ministry, to foment differences in several neighbouring kingdoms, and support their rebellious subjects, as the forces she employed for that purpose both in France, Flanders, and Scotland, are an undeniable proof." The recriminations of politicians are the confessions of great sinners.]

[Footnote 220: "Grotii Epistolae," 375 and 380, fo. Ams. 1687. A volume which contains 2500 letters of this great man.]

[Footnote 221: "La Vie du Cardinal Duc de Richelieu," anonymous, but written by Jean le Clerc, vol. i. 507. An impartial but heavy life of a great minister, of whom, between the panegyrics of his flatterers and the satires of his enemies, it was difficult to discover a just medium.]

[Footnote 222: Mem. Rec. vol. vi. 131.]

[Footnote 223: It is quoted in the "Remarques Critiques sur le Dictionnaire de Bayle," Paris, 1748. This anonymous folio volume was written by Le Sieur Joly, a canon of Dijon, and is full of curious researches, and many authentic discoveries. The writer is no philosopher, but he corrects and adds to the knowledge of Bayle. Here I found some original anecdotes of Hobbes, from MS. sources, during that philosopher's residence at Paris, which I have given in "Quarrels of Authors."]

[Footnote 224: Montresor, attached to the Duke of Orleans, has left us some very curious memoirs, in two small volumes; the second preserving many historical doc.u.ments of that active period. This spirited writer has not hesitated to detail his projects for the a.s.sa.s.sination of the tyrannical minister.]

[Footnote 225: At page 154 of this work is a different view of the character of this extraordinary man: those anecdotes are of a lighter and satirical nature; they touch on "the follies of the wise."]

[Footnote 226: In "The Disparity." to accompany "The Parallel" of Sir Henry Wotton; two exquisite cabinet-pictures, preserved in the _Reliquiae Wottonianae;_ and at least equal to the finest "Parallels" of Plutarch.]

[Footnote 227: The singular openness of his character was not statesmanlike. He was one of those whose ungovernable sincerity "cannot put all their pa.s.sions in their pockets." He told the Count-Duke Olivarez, on quitting Spain, that "he would always cement the friends.h.i.+p between the two nations; but with regard to you, sir, in particular, you must not consider me as your friend, but must ever expect from me all possible enmity and opposition." The cardinal was willing enough, says Hume, "to accept what was proffered, and on these terms the favourites parted." Buckingham, desirous of accommodating the parties in the nation, once tried at the favour of the puritanic party, whose head was Dr. Preston, master of Emanuel College. The duke was his generous patron, and Dr. Preston his most servile adulator. The more zealous puritans were offended at this intimacy; and Dr. Preston, in a letter to some of his party, observed that it was true that the duke was a vile and profligate fellow, but that there was no other way to come at him but by the lowest flattery; that it was necessary for the glory of G.o.d that such instruments should be made use of; and more in this strain.

Some officious hand conveyed this letter to the duke, who, when Dr.

Preston came one morning as usual, asked him whether he had ever disobliged him, that he should describe him to his party in such black characters. The doctor, amazed, denied the fact; on which the duke instantly produced the letter, then turned from him, never to see him more. It is said that from this moment he abandoned the puritan party, and attached himself to Laud. This story was told by Thomas Baker to W.

Wotton, as coming from one well versed in the secret history of that time.--_Lansdowne MSS_. 872, fo. 88.]

[Footnote 228: A well-known tract against the Duke of Buckingham, by Dr.

George Eglisham, physician to James the First, ent.i.tled "The Forerunner of Revenge," may be found in many of our collections. Gerbier, in his ma.n.u.script memoirs, gives a curious account of this political libeller, the model of that cla.s.s of desperate scribblers. "The falseness of his libels," says Gerbier, "he hath since acknowledged, though too late.

During my residence at Bruxelles, this Eglisham desired Sir William Chaloner, who then was at Liege, to bear a letter to me, which is still extant: he proposed, if the king would pardon and receive him into favour again, with some competent subsistence, that he would recant all that he had said or written to the disadvantage of any in the court of England, confessing that he had been urged thereunto by some combustious spirits, that for their malicious designs had set him on work."

Buckingham would never notice these and similar libels. Eglisham flew to Holland after he had deposited his political venom in his native country, and found a fate which every villanous factionist who offers to recant for "a competent subsistence" does not always; he was found dead, a.s.sa.s.sinated in his walks by a companion. Yet this political libel, with many like it, are still authorities. "George Duke of Buckingham," says Oldys, "will not speedily outstrip Dr. Eglisham's 'Forerunner of Revenge.'"]

[Footnote 229: The misery of prime ministers and favourites is a portion of their fate which has not always been noticed by their biographers; one must be conversant with secret history to discover the thorn in their pillow. Who could have imagined that Buckingham, possessing the entire affections of his sovereign, during his absence had reason to fear being supplanted? When his confidential secretary, Dr. Mason, slept in the same chamber with the duke, he would give way at night to those suppressed pa.s.sions which his unaltered countenance concealed by day. In the absence of all other ears and eyes he would break out into the most querulous and impa.s.sioned language, declaring that "never his despatches to divers princes, nor the great business of a fleet, of an army, of a siege, of a treaty, of war and peace both on foot together, and all of them in his head at a time, did not so much break his repose as the idea that some at home under his majesty, of whom he had well deserved, were now content to forget him." So short-lived is the grat.i.tude observed to an absent favourite, who is most likely to fall by the creatures his own hands have made.]

[Footnote 230: Sloane MSS. 4181.]

[Footnote 231: Gerbier gives a curious specimen of Grondomar's pleasant sort of impudence. When James expressed himself with great warmth on the Spaniards, under Spinola, taking the first town in the Palatinate, under the eyes of our amba.s.sador, Gondomar, with Cervantic humour, attempted to give a new turn to the discussion, for he wished that Spinola had taken the whole Palatinate at once, for "then the generosity of my master would be shown in all its l.u.s.tre, by restoring it all again to the English amba.s.sador, who had witnessed the whole operations." James, however, at this moment was no longer pleased with the inexhaustible humour of his old friend, and set about trying what could be done.]

[Footnote 232: Hacket's Life of Lord Keeper Williams, p. 115, pt. 1, fo.]

[Footnote 233: The narrative furnished by Buckingham, and vouched by the prince to the parliament, agrees in the main with what the duke told Gerbier. It is curious to observe how the narrative seems to have perplexed Hume, who, from some preconceived system, condemns Buckingham "for the falsity of this long narrative, as calculated entirely to mislead the parliament." He has, however, in the note [T] of this very volume, sufficiently marked the difficulties which hung about the opinion he has given in the text. The curious may find the narrative in Frankland's Annals, p. 89, and in Rushworth's Hist. Col. I. 119. It has many entertaining particulars.]

[Footnote 234: Letter from J. Mead to Sir M. Stuteville, June 5, 1628.

Harl. MSS. 7000.]

[Footnote 235: Memoirs of James II. vol. ii. p. 163.]

[Footnote 236: This was afterwards reduced to the sum of 1500 marks, and was collected by an a.s.sessment and fine. The old account-books of the City companies afford many items of the monies thus paid to the general fund. The Carpenters' Company, for instance, have this entry in their books: "Paid in January, 1632, for an a.s.sessment imposed on our Companie, by reason of the death of Dr. Lambe ... V. li."]

[Footnote 237: Rushworth has preserved a burthen of one of these songs:--

Let Charles and George do what they can, The duke shall die like Doctor Lambe.

And on the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Duke, I find two lines in a MS.

letter.--

The shepherd's struck, the sheep are fled!

For want of _Lambe_ the _wolf_ is dead!

There is a scarce tract ent.i.tled "A brief Description of the notorious Life of John Lambe, otherwise called Dr. Lambe," with a curious wood print of the mob pelting him in the street.]

[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-sh.o.r.e, crowded with Tritons, &c. 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 Ca.s.sandra 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 t.i.tle 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 mult.i.tude 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.]