Page images
PDF
EPUB

English Reprints.

CAREFULLY EDITED BY

EDWARD ARBER,
Affociate, King's College, London, F.R.G.S., &c.

GEORGE VILLIERS,

Second Duke of Buckingham.
THE REHEARSAL, 1072.

GEORGE GASCOIGNE, ESQ.

THE STEELE GLAS, 1576.

JOHN EARLE, M.A.

Fellow of Merton College, Oxford.
MICRO-COSMOGRAPHIE, 1628.

LONDON:

ALEX. MURRAY & SON, 30, QUEEN SQUARE, W.C.

Ent. Stat. Hall.]

1869.

[All Rights referved.

The English Reprints

MAY BE OBTAINED IN THREE FORMS.

I.-The Monthly issue, in stiff covers, chiefly in Sixpenny or Shilling Works. See Catalogue.

(a) Cut edges.

Handsome and durable Cases for preserving copies in this form
may be obtained
One Shilling each.

...

...

...

(b) Uncut edges, for those desirous of binding for themselves, &c. Of the same prices as the preceding.

II. In bevelled green cloth, red edges, &c., two or three Works making up into occasional Volumes, generally Half a Crown or Three Shillings and Sixpence each.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]

{

Five Shillings. Three Shillings and Sixpence.

10. VILLIERS IS. II. GASCOIGNE IS. 12. EARLE..... Is...

English Reprints.

GEORGE VILLIERS.

Second Duke of Buckingham.

THE REHEARSAL.

First acted 7 Dec. 1671. Published [? July] 1672.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PREVIOUS PLAYS, ETC.

CAREFULLY EDITED BY

EDWARD ARBER,

Affociate, King's College, London, F.R.G.S., &c.

LONDON:

ALEX. MURRAY & SON, 30, QUEEN SQUARE, W.C.

Ent Stat. Hall.]

2 November, 1868.

[All Rights referved.

A CONTENTS RSITY|

LIBRARY
OCT 25 1962

[blocks in formation]

(4) The ILLUSTRATIONS, on even numbered pages, prin-
cipally taken from the following Plays :-

[ocr errors]

Mrs. A. Behn, The Amorous Prince.
Sir W. D'Avenant, Love and Honour.
(Poet-laureate) Play Houfe to be let.

Siege of Rhodes, Part I.

J. Dryden, Conqueft of Granada, Parts I. and II.

(Poet-laureate) The Indian Emperor.

Marriage-à-la-mode.

Secret Love, or The Maiden Queen.

Tyrannic Love.

The Wild Gallant.

Sir R. Fanfhawe's tranflation of

Don A. H. de Mendoza's Querer pro folo querer.

of

GEORGE VILLIERS,

Second Duke of Buckingham.

INSTEAD of the usual brief Chronicle, we shall on this occasion adduce a series of testimonies that have come down to us from contemporaries, all intimately acquainted with Villiers.

1. In the year 1758, was published in London, a 4to Catalogue of the Curious Collection of Pictures of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. The Catalogue is prefaced by the following

ADVERTISEMENT.

WE proceed to gratify the curiosity of the public with some other lists of valuable collections; the principal one belonged to that magnificent favourite, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham; and was only such part of his Museum as was preserved by an old servant of the family, Mr. Traylman, and by him sent to Antwerp to the young duke, to be sold for his subsistence; great part having been embezzled, when the estate was sequestered by the parliament. Some of the pictures, on the assassination of the first duke, had been purchased by the king, the earl of Northumberland, and Abbot Montagu. The collection was kept at York-house in the Strand, and had been bought by the duke at great prices. He gave £10,000 for what had been collected by Sir Peter Paul Rubens; and Sir Henry Wootton, when ambassador at Venice, purchased many other capital ones for his grace. One may judge a little how valuable the entire collection must have been, by this list of what remained, where we find no fewer than nineteen by Titian, seventeen by Tintoret, twenty-one by Bassan, two by Julio Romano, two by Giorgione, thirteen by Paul Veronese, eight by Palma, three by Guido, thirteen by Rubens, three by Leonardo da Vinci, two by Corregio, and three by Raphael; besides other esteemed and scarce masters.

Mr. Duart of Antwerp bought some of them, but the greater part were purchased by the archduke Leopold, and added to his noble collection in the castle of Prague. He bought the chief picture, the Ecce Homo by Titian, in which were introduced the portraits of the pope, the emperor Charles the Fifth, and Solyman the magnificent. It appears by a note of Mr. Vertue, in the original manuscript, that Thomas earl of Arundel offered the first duke the value of £7,000 in money or land for that single piece. There is a copy of it at Northumberland house.

It may not be improper to mention in this place, that Villiers, when sent with the earl of Holland to the States, to negociate the restoration of the Palatinate, purchased a curious collection of Arabic manuscripts, collected by Erpinius, a famous linguist; which, according to the duke's designa tion of them, were after his death, bestowed on the university of Cambridge, of which his grace had been chancellor

Embedded in this Catalogue, at pp. 24-39. is the following Life of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, the celebrated Poet. Written by Brian Fairfax Esq. and never before published. This Life is both able and graphic; and apparently authentic. As it will be new to most readers, we give it entire. BRIAN FAIRFAX, Esq. was the second son of Rev. Henry Fairfax, rector of Bolton Percy, and cousin to Thomas, 4th Lord Fairfax (the Parliamentary general), brother to Henry, 5th Lord, and uncle of Thomas 6th Lord Fairfax. [See The Fairfax Correspondence. Ed. by G. W. Johnson, i. cxxCXXV. 1848.] In 1599, he edited Short Memorials of Thomas [4th] Lord Fairfax. Written by himself. The following gives the most favourable account of Villiers; and would seem to show that up to the Restoration, he was apparently no worse than his neighbours.

The original papers from whence this manuscript

is faithfully taken, were written by Mr.
BRIAN FAIRFAX, and in the possession of
the late bishop Atterbury.

Memoirs of the Life of GEORge Villiers,

Duke of BUCKINGHAM.

GEORGE Villiers, duke of Buckingham, was the son of that noble favourite

« PreviousContinue »