Printed verses by
Sir John Beaumont
(1583-1627) of
Grace Dieu, Leicestershire (elder brother of the dramatist Francis
Beaumont
), written to be spoken before King
James
on his arrival at
Burley-on-the-Hill
in July or August 1621. There is a manuscript copy at Leicester Record Office,
DG9/2796.
Grace Dieu lies about twenty miles west of
Burley, and
Beaumont
was a kinsman of the royal favourite through the Marquis of
Buckingham
’s mother, Maria Beaumont
.
My Lord of Buckinghams welcome to the King
at Burley.
SIr, you haue euer shin’d vpon me bright,
But now, you strike and dazle me
with light:
You Englands radiant Sunne, vouchsafe to grace
My house, a Spheare too little and too base,
My Burley as a Cabinet containes
The gemme of Europe, which from golden veines
Of glorious Princes, to
this height is growne,
And ioynes their precious vertues all in one:
When I
your praise would to the world professe;
My thoughts with zeale, and earnest
feruour presse
Which should be first, and their officious strife
Restraines my
hand from painting you to life.
I write, and hauing written I destroy,
Because
my lines haue bounds, but not my ioy.
Bibliography