VII. You Meaner Beauties. THIS little sonnet was written by Sir Henry Wotton, knight, on that amiable princess, Elizabeth daughter of James I. and wife of the Elector Palatine, who was chosen King of Bohemia, Sept. 5, 1619. The consequences of this fatal election are well known: Sir Henry Wotton, who in that and the following year was employed in several embassies in Germany on behalf of this unfortunate lady, seems to have had an uncommon attachment to her merit and fortunes, for he gave away a jewel worth a thousand pounds, that was presented to him by the emperor, "because it came from an enemy to his. royal mistress the queen of Bohemia." See Biog. Britan. This song is printed from the Reliquiæ Wottoniance, 1651, with some corrections from an old MS. copy. You meaner beauties of the night, More by your number, than your light; VIII. The Old and Young Courtier. THIS excellent old song, the subject of | That kept a brave old house at a bountiful which is a comparison between the manners rate, gate; Like an old courtier of the queen's, of the old gentry, as still subsisting in the And an old porter to relieve the poor at his times of Elizabeth, and the modern refinements affected by their sons in the reigns of her successors, is given, with corrections, from an ancient black-letter copy in the Pepys collection, compared with another printed among some miscellaneous "poems and songs" in a book entitled, "Le Prince d'Amour," 1660, 8vo. AN old song made by an aged old pate, With an old lady, whose anger one word asswages; They every quarter paid their old servants their wages, And never knew what belong'd to coachmen, footmen, nor pages, But kept twenty old fellows with blue coats and badges; Like an old courtier, &c. With an old study fill'd full of learned old | Like a flourishing young gallant, newly come books, to his land, With an old reverend chaplain, you might Who keeps a brace of painted madams at his know him by his looks, command, With an old buttery hatch worn quite off the And takes up a thousand pound upon his hooks, And an old kitchen, that maintain'd half a dozen old cooks. Like an old courtier, &c. father's land, And gets drunk in a tavern, till he can neither go nor stand; Like a young courtier, &c. With an old hall, hung about with pikes, With a new-fangled lady, that is dainty, nice, guns, and bows, and spare, With old swords, and bucklers, that had borne Who never knew what belonged to good housemany shrewde blows, keeping, or care, And an old frize coat, to cover his worship's Who buyes gaudy-colored fans to play with trunk hose, wanton air, And a cup of old sherry, to comfort his cop- And seven or eight different dressings of other per nose; women's hair; Like a young courtier, &c. Like an old courtier, &c. With a good old fashion, when Christmasse With a new-fashion'd hall, built where the old one stood, was come, To call in all his old neighbours with bagpipe Hung round with new pictures, that do the and drum, poor no good, With good chear enough to furnish every old With a fine marble chimney, wherein burns neither coal nor wood, room, And old liquor able to make a cat speak, and And a new smooth shovelboard, whereon no man dumb. victuals ne'er stood; Like a young courtier, &c. Like an old courtier, &c. With an old falconer, huntsman, and a kennel With a new study, stuft full of pamphlets, of hounds, and plays, That never hawked, nor hunted, but in his And a new chaplain, that swears faster than own grounds, he prays, Who, like a wise man, kept himself within With a new buttery hatch, that opens once in his own bounds, four or five days, And when he dyed gave every child a thou- And a new French cook, to devise fine kicksand good pounds; shaws, and toys; Like a young courtier, &c. Like an old courtier, &c. But to his eldest son his house and land he With a new fashion, when Christmas is drawassign'd, ing on, Charging him in his will to keep the old On a new journey to London straight we all bountifull mind, must begone, To be good to his old tenants, and to his And leave none to keep house, but our new neighbours be kind: porter John, But in the ensuing ditty you shall hear how Who relieves the poor with a thump on the he was inclin'd; Like a young courtier of the king's, back with a stone; Like a young courtier, &c. With a new gentleman-usher, whose carriage With new titles of honour bought with his is compleat, father's old gold, With a new coachman, footmen, and pages to For which sundry of his ancestors old manors carry up the meat. are sold; With a waiting-gentlewoman, whose dressing And this is the course most of our new galis very neat, lants hold, Who when her lady has din'd, lets the servants Which makes that good house-keeping is now not eat; grown so cold, Like a young courtier, &c. Among the young courtiers of the king, Or the king's young courtiers. IX. Sir John Suckling's Campaigne. But his lost honour must lye still in the dust; At Barwick away it went-a." To Scotland for to ride-a, With a hundred horse more, all his own he swore, WHEN the Scottish Covenanters rose up in arms, and advanced to the English borders in 1639, many of the courtiers complimented the king by raising forces at their own expense. Among these none were more distin- SIR John he got him an ambling nag, guished than the gallant Sir John Suckling, who raised a troop of horse, so richly accoutred, that it cost him 12,000Z. The like expensive equipment of other parts of the army, made the king remark, that "the Scots would fight stoutly, if it were but for the Englishmen's fine cloaths." [Lloyd's Memoirs.] When they came to action, the rugged Scots proved more than a match for the fine showy English: many of whom behaved remarkably ill, and among the rest this splendid troop of Sir John Suckling's. This humorous pasquil has been generally supposed to have been written by Sir John, as a banter upon himself. Some of his contemporaries, however, attributed it to Sir John Mennis, a wit of those times, among whose poems it is printed in a small poetical miscellany, entitled, "Musarum delicia: or the Muses recreation, containing several pieces of poetique wit, 2d edition.-By Sir J. M. [Sir John Mennis] and Ja. S. [James Smith]. London, 1656, 12mo."-[See Wood's Athenæ, II., 397, 418.] In that copy is subjoined an additional stanza, which probably was written by this Sir John Mennis, viz.: "But now there is peace, he's return'd to increase His money, which lately he spent-a, To guard him on every side-a. No Errant-knight ever went to fight 5 With halfe so gay a bravada, Had you seen but his look, you'ld have sworn on a book, Hee'ld have conquer'd a whole armada. The ladies ran all to the windows to see So gallant and warlike a sight-a, 10 But he, like a cruel knight, spurr'd on; The king (God bless him!) had singular hopes Of him and all his troop-a: The borderers they, as they met him on the way, For joy did hollow, and whoop-a. 20 The colonell sent for him back agen, 30 None lik'd him so well, as his own colonell, there, To be kill'd the very first man-a. : X. To Althea from Prison. Know no such libertye. When flowing cups run swiftly round With no allaying Thames, Our hearts with loyal flames; THIS excellent sonnet, which possessed a The birds that wanton in the aire, high degree of fame among the old cavaliers, was written by Colonel Richard Lovelace, during his confinement in the gate-house Westminster to which he was committed by the House of Commons, in April, 1642, for presenting a petition from the county of Kent, requesting them to restore the king to his rights, and to settle the government. See Wood's Athenæ, Vol. II., p. 228, and Lysons's Environs of London, Vol. I., p. 109; where may be seen at large the affecting story of this elegant writer, who after having been distinguished for every gallant and polite accomplishment, the pattern of his own sex, and the darling of the ladies, died in the lowest wretchedness, obscurity, and want, in 1658. This song is printed from a scarce volume of his poems entitled, "Lucasta, 1649, 12mo.," collated with a copy in the Editor's folio MS. When, linnet-like, confined I With shriller note shall sing Stone walls doe not a prison make, If I have freedom in my love, And in my soule am free, Ver. 10, with woe-allaying themes, MS. Thames is used for water in general. XI. The Downfall of Charing-Cross. CHARING-CROSS. as it stood before the civil wars, was one of those beautiful Gothic obelisks erected to conjugal affection by Edward I., who built such a one wherever the hearse of his beloved Eleanor rested in its way from Lincolnshire to Westminster. But neither its ornamental situation, the beauty of its structure, nor the noble design of its erection (which did honour to humanity), could preserve it from the merciless zeal of the times: For, in 1647, it was demolished by order of the House of Commons, as popish and superstitious. This occasioned the following not unhumorous sarcasm which has been often printed among the popular sonnets of those times. The plot referred to in verse 17, was that entered into by Mr. Waller the poet, and others, with a view to reduce the city and tower to the service of the king; for which two of them, Nathaniel Tomkins and Richard Chaloner, suffered death, July 5, 1643. Vid. Athen. Ox. II. 24. UNDONE, undone the lawyers are, They wander about the towne, Now Charing-cross is downe: At the end of the Strand, they make a stand, Swearing they are at a loss, And chaffing say, that's not the way, 6 10 **Whitelocke says, "May 3, 1643, Cheapside-cross and other crosses were voted down," &c.-But this vote was not put in execution with regard to 'Charing-Cross," till four years after, as appears from Lilly's Observa tions on the Life, &c., of King Charles, viz., Charing-Cross, we know, was pulled down, 1647, in June, July, and August. Part of the stones were converted to pave before 15 Whitehall. I have seen knife-hafts made of 66 some of the stones, which, being well polished, looked like marble." Ed. 1715, p. 18, Men talk of plots, this might have been worse 12mo. Than that Tomkins, and Chaloner Were hang'd for long agoe. Our parliament did that prevent, See an account of the pulling down Cheap20 side Cross, in the Supplement to Gent. Mag. 1764. |