XI.
FANCY AND DESIRE.
BY THE EARL OF OXFORD.
Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford, was in high fame for his poetical talents in the reign of Elizabeth; perhaps it is no injury to his reputation that few of his compositions are preserved for the inspection of impartial posterity. To gratify curiosity, we have inserted a sonnet of his, which is quoted with great encomiums for its "excellencie and wit," in Puttenham's _Arte of Eng. Poesie_,[579] and found intire in the _Garland of Good-will_. A few more of his sonnets (distinguished by the initial letters E. O.), may be seen in the _Paradise of Daintie Devises_. One of these is intitled _The Complaint of a Lover, wearing blacke and tawnie_. The only lines in it worth notice are these:--
"A crowne of baies shall that man 'beare' Who triumphs over me; For black and tawnie will I weare, Which mourning colours be."
We find in Hall's _Chronicle_, that when Q. Catharine of Arragon dyed, Jan. 8, 1536, "Queen Anne (Bullen) ware _yellowe_ for the mourning." And when this unfortunate princess lost her head, May 19, the same year, "on the ascencion day following, the kyng for mourning ware _whyte_." Fol. 227, 228.
Edward, who was the seventeenth earl of Oxford, of the family of Vere, succeeded his father in his title and honours in 1563, and died an aged man in 1604. See Mr. Walpole's _Noble Authors_. Athen. Oxon, &c.
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[Walpole was in error when he stated that Lord Oxford died an aged man, for that nobleman was only about sixty at the time of his death. Sir Egerton Brydges points out in his edition of the _Paradise of Dainty Devices_ (_British Bibliographer_, vol. iii.), that the earl could not have been born earlier than 1540 or 1541, because his elder half-sister Katherine, widow of Edward, Lord Windsor, died in January, 1599, aged 60. The chief events of his life are these. In 1585 he was the chief of those who embarked with the Earl of Leicester for the relief of the states of Holland and Zealand. In 1586 he sat as Lord Great Chamberlain of England on the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1588 he hired and fitted out ships at his own charge against the Spanish Armada. In 1589 he sat on the trial of Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, and in 1601 on the trials of the Earls of Essex and Southampton. His private character was far from good, and his honour was tarnished by his dispute with Sir Philip Sidney. He used his first wife (a daughter of the great Burleigh) cruelly, in revenge for the statesman's treatment of his great friend, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk. In his early youth he travelled in Italy, and returned from that country a finished coxcomb, bringing home with him Italian dresses, perfumes, and embroidered gloves. He presented a pair of the latter to Queen Elizabeth, who was so pleased with them that she was drawn with them on her hands. The earl was buried at Hackney, on the 6th of July, 1604.
Percy might have spared rather more praise for this pretty little poem.]
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Come hither shepherd's swayne: "Sir, what do you require?" I praye thee, shewe to me thy name. "My name is Fond Desire."
When wert thou borne, Desire? 5 "In pompe and pryme of may." By whom, sweet boy, wert thou begot? "By fond Conceit men say."
Tell me, who was thy nurse? "Fresh Youth in sugred joy." 10 What was thy meate and dayly foode? "Sad sighes with great annoy."
What hadst thou then to drinke? "Unsavoury lovers teares." What cradle wert thou rocked in? 15 "In hope devoyde of feares."
What lulld thee then asleepe? "Sweete speech, which likes me best." Tell me, where is thy dwelling place? "In gentle hartes I rest." 20
What thing doth please thee most? "To gaze on beautye stille." Whom dost thou thinke to be thy foe? "Disdayn of my good wille."
Doth companye displease? 25 "Yes, surelye, many one." Where doth Desire delighte to live? "He loves to live alone."
Doth either tyme or age Bringe him unto decaye? 30 "No, no, Desire both lives and dyes Ten thousand times a daye."
Then, fond Desire, farewelle, Thou art no mate for mee; I sholde be lothe, methinkes, to dwelle 35 With such a one as thee.
FOOTNOTES:
[579] Lond. 1589, p. 172.