33 CHAPTER III. BEAUTIES AND POETS. NEARLY contemporary with Waller's Sacharissa lived several women of high rank, distinguished as munificent patronesses of poetry, and favourite themes of poets, for the time being. There was the Countess of Pembroke, celebrated by Ben Jonson, The subject of all verse, Sydney's sister, Pembroke's mother. There was the famous Lucy Percy, Countess of Carlisle, very clever, and very fantastic, who aspired to be the Aspasia, the De Rambouillet of her day, and did not quite succeed. She was celebrated by almost all the contemporary poets, There was and even in French, by Voiture. Lucy Harrington, Countess of Bedford, who, notwithstanding the accusation of vanity and extravagance which has been brought against her, was an amiable woman, and munificently rewarded, in presents and pensions, the incense of the poets around her. I know not what her Ladyship may have paid for the following exquisite lines by Ben Jonson; but the reader will agree with me, that it could not have been too much. ON LUCY COUNTESS OF BEDFORD. This morning, timely rapt with holy fire, I thought to form unto my zealous muse To honour, serve, and love; as poets use : Nor lend like influence from his ancient seat. Only a learned, and a manly soul I purpos'd her; that should, with even powers, Of destiny, and spin her own free hours. There was also the "beautiful and every way excellent" Lady Anne Rich,* the daughter-in-law of her who was so loved by Sir Philip Sydney; and the memorable and magnificent-but somewhat masculine-Anne Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, Pembroke, and Dorset, who erected monuments to Spenser, Drayton, and Daniel; and above them all, though living a little later, the Queen herself, Henrietta Maria, whose feminine * Daughter of the first Earl of Devonshire, of the Cavendish family. She was celebrated by Sidney Godolphin in some very sweet lines, which contain a lovely female portrait. Waller's verses on her sudden death are remarkable for a signal instance of the Bathos, That horrid word, at once like lightning spread, Struck all our ears, the Lady Rich is dead! D 2 caprices, French graces, and brilliant eyes, rendered her a very splendid and fruitful theme for the poets of the time.* : There was at this time a kind of traffic between rich beauties and poor poets. The ladies who, in earlier ages, were proud in proportion to the quantity of blood spilt in honour of their charms, were now seized with a passion for being berhymed. Surrey, and his Geraldine, began this taste in England by introducing the school of Petrarch and Sir Philip Sydney had entreated women to listen to those poets who promised them immortality," For thus doing, ye shall be most fair, most wise, most rich, most every thing!-ye shall dwell upon superlatives :"+ and women believed accordingly. In spite of the satirist, I do maintain, that the love of praise and the love of pleasing are paramount in our sex, * See Waller, Carew, D'Avenant: the latter has paid her some exquisite compliments. Sir Philip Sydney's Works, "Defence of Poesie.” both to the love of pleasure and the love of sway. This connection between the high-born beauties and the poets was at first delightful, and honourable to both but, in time, it became degraded and abused. The fees paid for dedications, odes, and sonnets, were any thing but sentimental:— can we wonder if, under such circumstances, the profession of a poet" was connected with personal abasement, which made it disreputable ?" or, that women, while they required the tribute, despised those who paid it,—and were paid for it?— not in sweet looks, soft smiles, and kind wishes, but with silver and gold, a cover at her ladyship's table" below the salt," or a bottle of sack from my lord's cellar. It followed, as a thing of course, that our amatory and lyric poetry declined, and instead of the genuine rapture of tenderness, the glow of imagination, and all "the purple light of love," we have too often only a heap of glit *Scott's Life of Dryden, p. 89. |