Note to Ch. XLI.--DEATH OF THE EARL OF LEICESTER.

In a curious manuscript copy of the information given by Ben Jonson

to Drummond of Hawthornden, as transcribed by Sir Robert Sibbald,

Leicester's death is ascribed to poison administered as a cordial by his

countess, to whom he had given it, representing it to be a restorative

in any faintness, in the hope that she herself might be cut off by using

it. We have already quoted Jonson's account of this merited stroke of

retribution in a note of the Introduction to this volume. It may be

here added that the following satirical epitaph on Leicester occurs in

Drummond's Collection, but is evidently not of his composition:-

EPITAPH ON THE ERLE OF LEISTER.

Here lies a valiant warriour,

Who never drew a sword;

Here lies a noble courtier,

Who never kept his word;

Here lies the Erle of Leister,

Who governed the Estates,

Whom the earth could never living love,

And the just Heaven now hates.



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