Bucking. Honour hath not now transported me to forget your Majesty; I know you to be the umbra or shade of my sovereign King James, unto whom Buckingham was once so great a favourite: But what ghost of Aristotle is that which bears you.company? His pale looks shew him to be some scholar.

K. James. It is the changed shadow of George Eglisham, for ten years together my doctor of physick, who in the discharge of his place was ever to me most faithful; this other is his and my old friend, the Marquis of Hamilton.

Bucking. My liege, I cannot discourse as long as they are present, they do behold me with such threatening looks; and your Majesty hath a disturbed brow, as if you were offended with your servant Buckingham.

K. James. I, and the Marquis of Hamilton, have just cause to frown and be offended; hast thou not been our most ungrateful murderer?

Bucking. Who I, my liege? What act of mine could make you to suspect that I could do a deed so full of horror? Produce a witness to my forehead, before you condemn me upon bare suspicion..

K. James. My Doctor Eglisham shall prove it to thy face, and, if thou hast but any sense of goodness, shall make thy pale ghost blush, ungrateful Buckingham.

Bucking. I defy all such votes and false accusations; if I had been so wicked, why was not I, when living, brought to trial, and sacrificed to justice?

K. James. A petition was drawn by my doctor, George Eglisham, wherein he most lovingly amplified the ingratitude of thee, my favourite Buckingham, in poisoning me his sovereign, which he then presented to my son King Charles, and to the parliament, for he had vowed to revenge our death; but they, taking no course for the examination of thy guiltiness, by reason of thy plot, which dissolved that parliament, doctor Eglisham was fain to go over into Holland, to avoid the fury of thy

malice.

Murq. of Hamilt. Nay, he discovered thee, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who have committed two eminent murders, namely, of the King's Majesty, and of me the Lord Marquis of Hamilton; and, for all thy subtely in thy poisoning art, God hath on earth manifested thee to be the author of our deaths.

Bucking. Were we living, thou durst not use this language; thy words are false: Who dare appear to prove what thou didst speak?

Dr. Eglish. I Doctor Eglisham, as I did once accuse thee unto the King and parliament, and the whole world, so I affirm again, that thou didst poison King James and the Marquis of Hamilton; and first I will prove the murder of the Marquis of Hamilton, who died first.

Bucking. I stand without all fear; and durst thou, base Doctor, to speak even all thy malice can invent against me?

Dr. Eglish. Then know, Buckingham, that, being raised from mean blood to honour, and therefore extreme proud, thou hadst an ambition to match thy niece with the Marquis's eldest son, and the bride should have had fifty-thousand pound sterling for her portion.

Bucking. But, what is this to the matter of poisoning the Marquis? Eglish. Yes, thy niece being unequal in degree to the marquis's son, the marquis thrice refused the offer of such a marriage, but, at last, hoping some way might be found to annul it before it should be confirmed, he yielded to the King's desire of the match, and at Greenwich, before the King, it was concluded; and you, Buckingham, caused your niece to be laid in bed with the marquis's son in the King's chamber, the bride being unfit and not manageable. Afterwards the marquis having set his son into France to prevent the confirmation of the marriage, and your niece growing marriageable, and the confirmation of the marriage by you desired, the marquis answered her since the motion, which caused a deadly quarrel between you and the marquis, often reconciled, and often breaking forth again.

Bucking. It may be I was offended, but I sought no base revenge. Eglish. That shall appear hereafter. The Marquis of Hamilton, after this quarrel happened between you, fell sick, and you, whom King James knew to be vindictive, had occasioned this his sickness, and afterwards his death by poison.

Marq. I could not endure that thou shouldst come near me, Buckingham, in my sickness.

Bucking. But I was still desirous to visit you in your sickness, though this urinal observer, Dr. Eglisham, kept me away.

Eglish. I knew your visitation proceeded from dissimulation; but, to hasten to the end of my accusation, you Buckingham, and my Lord Denbigh, would not, all the time of his sickness, suffer his son to come near him, lest my lord marquis should advise him not to marry Buckingham's niece. Matters being thus suspiciously carried, my lord marquis deceased, and you, Buckingham, would have him buried that night in Westminster church: When he was dead, his body was swelled to a strange and monstrous proportion; I desired his body might be viewed by physicians, but you, Buckingham, being guilty, endeavoured to hinder it; but view him they did, and all the physicians acknowledged that he was poisoned; and, after his death, you, Buckingham, sent my lord marquis, his son, out of town, made a dissembling shew of mourning for his death, and a bruit was spread of poisoning Buckingham's adversaries, and the poisonmonger or mountebank, was graced by Buckingham; all which are sufficient grounds to prove you guilty of the Marquis of Hamilton's death: Now I will also declare thee to be a traitor, in poisoning thy sovereign King James.

Bucking. Speak what thou canst, and add more lyes to this relation, I will not answer thee until the end.

K. James. Was Buckingham the author of my death, I would have thought those heavenly essences, called angels, might have been sooner corrupted than Buckingham; was he my poisoner?

Eglish. He was, my liege, Buckingham being advertised that your Majesty had, by letters, intelligence of his bad behaviour in Spain, and that your affection towards him was thereby grown somewhat colder; Buckingham, after his coming from Spain, said, that, the King being grown old, it was fit he should resign all government, and let the prince be crowned.

VOL. V.

K. James. Didst thou desire the death of thy aged prince? I could not long have lived by nature's course, must poison needs dispatch me? But proceed, Eglisham, give us the circumstances briefly, how and in what manner I was poisoned by Buckingham.

Eglish. Then thus, my liege, your highness being sick of an ague, and in the spring, which is no deadly disease, Buckingham, when your doctors of physick were at dinner, on the Monday before your death, offered you a white powder to take; you refused it, but, after his much importunity, took it, and thereupon you grew extreme sick, crying out against that white powder, and the countess of Buckingham. Buckingham's mother applied a plaister to the King's heart and breast, whereby all the physicians said that he was poisoned; but Buckingham threatened the physicians, and quarrelled with them, and Buckingham's mother fell down on her knees, and desired justice against those that had said that her son and she had poisoned your Majesty. Poisoned me, said you, and with that, King James, you turned yourself, swooned and died. Buckingham, as before, made a dissembling shew that he was sorry for the King's death, which was nothing so; for he was nothing moved at all, during his sickness, nor after his death. To conclude, the dead body of King James, like as Marquis Hamilton's corps, swelled above all measure, their hair came off, and their nails became loose: Now thereupon, upon these proofs, in presence of the King and marquis, confess thyself guilty, for, Buckingham, thou wert both a murderer and a traitor.

K. James. Buckingham, what canst thou alledge for thyself? Did not I end many differences and jealousies between my son Charles and thee, and compose many fractions? Did not I, when ill language issued from thee, insomuch that blows were struck, and swords drawn in my presence, to the jeopardy of thy life, cry, save my George, save my George? Did I not love thee, Buckingham, as if thou hadst been my dearest son? Made thee, from a low beginning, rise so fast, that - thy sudden growth in honour was envied at the court? Hadst thou poisoned some other man, thy soul had not been half so black or foul; thou mightest have been compelled to it by envy, or else transported by some cruel passion, or urged thereunto by jealous fears, to make away thy enemy; but to kill him that was thy gracious prince, whose favour had created thee Duke, and gave thee honours far above desert; it was the highest step of base ingratitude. O Buckingham, go and lament thy sins, and here, to ease thy troubled mind, confess unto me, didst thou poison thy master King James, shew me why, and for what reason thou didst it.

Bucking. First, your Majesty began to decline your wonted affection to me, and likewise to be very jealous of all my actions and sayings. Secondly, your Majesty was stricken in years, and grew intemperate, and a burden to yourself and to your people, and they sick of an old government, and desiring a new change. Thirdly, had I not undertaken it, I could not have stood a favourite to a succeeding King, nor been so eminent in the court.

K. James. Who were actors besides thyself in this hellish plot? Bucking. Many more besides myself, whom I dare not reveal aş

yet; but time shall produce them, and their foul actions. Sir, I desire your pardon; I did contrive your death by poison, but I have paid full justice for it, since my conscience hath been my judge and exe

cutioner.

K. James. Let princes learn from thee, never to trust a favourite: But what dost thou answer to the accusation of poisoning the Marquis of Hamilton?

Bucking. This Dr. Eglisham hath spoke all truth, and proved, by many circumstances, that I procured his death by poison; I know that I am guilty, but cannot more be punished; furies of conscience do torment my soul, and I have no hope of ease until you seal my pardon, and say you can forgive me, for I, George, Duke of Buckingham, pojsoned King James, and the Marquis of Hamilton.

Eglish. And, lastly, for fear that I George Eglisham should discover you, as I have now done, to be the poisoner, I was sought to be murdered, but I fled into Holland; and there, by your appointment, I was stabbed and killed.

3

Bucking. I do acknowledge that my mortal hatred unto thee was great; and I acknowledge myself guilty too of thy death, Dr. Eglisham.

K. James. Then, Buckingham, thou wast to me a most ungrateful traitor.

Marq. of Hamilton. To me a cunning and dissembling poisoner. Bucking. I suffer for it now, for heaven is just: Farewell, I'll go and weep for grief.

MURDER will out, and just revenge, though slow,
Doth overtake the murderer, this I know,
Whose passages of life, and shining glory,
Might be compil'd into a tragick story.
For, before Felton did my life conclude,
I added murder to ingratitude;

Never did weeping penitent confess

With greater sorrow: Oh I did transgress
Against the laws of nature, that would have
Subjects defend good kings, not dig their graves.
The voice of murder she doth upward fly,
And unto heaven doth for vengeance cry;

And you, good king, were gracious to that man,
Whose ghost you see, the Duke of Buckingham.
But I was most ungrateful to my king,
And Marquis Hamilton, whom I did bring
Both to untimely deaths, forgive my sin.
Great king, great marquis, doctor Eglisham,
All murder'd by the Duke of Buckingham.
Forgive me all, and pardon me, I pray;
This being said, the duke's ghost shrunk away.

A WORTHY SPEECH,

SPOKEN IN THE HONOURABLE HOUSE OF COMMONS,

By Sir Benjaman Rudyard,

FOR ACCOMMODATION,

BETWIXT HIS MAJESTY AND HIS PARLIAMENT.

JULY THE NINTU, 1642.

July 18. Printed for Richard Lownds, 1642. Quarto, containing eight pages.

IN

Mr. Speaker,

N the way we are, we have gone as far as words can carry us: We have voted our own rights, and the king's duty: No doubt there is a relative duty between a king and his subjects; obedience from a subject to a king, protection from a king to his people. The present unhappy distance, between his Majesty and the parliament, makes the whole kingdom stand amazed, in a fearful expectation of dismal calamities to fall upon it: It deeply and conscionably concerns this house to compose and settle these threatening, ruining distractions. Mr. Speaker, I am touched, I am pierced with an apprehension of the honour of the house, and success of this parliament. The best way to give a stop to these desperate, imminent mischiefs, is, to make a fair way for the king's return hither; it will likewise give best satisfaction to the people, and will be our best justification. Mr. Speaker, that we may the better consider the condition we are now in, let us set ourselves three years back: If any man then could have credibly told us, that, within three years, the queen shall be gone out of England into the Low Countries for any cause whatsoever; the king shall remove from his parliament, from London to York, declaring himself not to be safe here; that there shall be a total rebellion in Ireland, such discords and distempers both in church and state here, as now we find ; certainly we should have trembled at the thought of it; wherefore it is fit we should be sensible now we are in it.

On the other side, if a man then could have credibly told us, that, within three years, ye shall have a parliament, it would have been good