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Had overspred: your absence casting downe
The flow'rs and Sirens' feathers from her crowne;
Your favour first th' anointed head inclines
To heare my rurall songs and reade my lines:
Your voyce, my reede with lofty musick reares
To offer trembling songs to princely eares."[1]
Buckingham's mother (created Countess of Buckingham in 1618) was of the Beaumonts of Cole-Orton, and thus connected with the family of the poet. The latter, though Grosart speaks of his Puritanism, was in point of fact a Catholic,[2] and it is likely, therefore, that his retirement on his estate at Gracedieu did not end much before 1618, when the whole court veered toward Catholicism in view of the approaching Spanish marriage. In February, 1617, Buckingham's mother changed her faith, and became, according to Wilson, "the cynosure that all the Papists steered by."
Beaumont's poems in these years were all of the courtly and occasional character which Waller later made popular, on such themes as the twentieth anniversary of James's reign (1623), his deliverance from a dangerous accident (January 8, 1622), his glorious memory, the Prince's journey and return, his marriage, etc. Bosworth Field is of the same period, since a dozen or more lines are devoted to praise of James and "hopefull Charles,"
"... born t'asswage
The winds that would disturb this golden age."
Of the favorable reception of these poems there can be little question. My Lord of Buckingham's Welcome to the King at Burley, written by Beaumont, was answered in verse by the King (App. II, VI, VII), and these in turn called forth Beaumont's sonnet Of his Majestie's Vow for the Felicity of My Lord Marquesse of Buckingham, in which,
