Kenilworth
Page 408Note 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.