DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53269#0244
( >32 )
(he happened to open a hiftory of thofe times, in which it was related.*
Soon after the birth of this child, (who was mother to the illuftrious
Lord Ruffel, and died May io, 1684, Lady Somerfet,, who is al-
lowed on all hands to have been extremely beautiful, ceafed to be
an object of defire. Sir Symonds D’Ewes fays, in his 'plain lan-
guage, that “ her hufband lived to abhor her/’ that “ foon after the
birth of her daughter, fhe was difabled by the fecret punifhment of a
higher providence from being capable of further copulation /’ and that
though fhe lived “ neare upon twentie years afterwards, yet her hufband .
the earl of Somerfet never knew her carnallie ; but the faid infirmitie hill
incr.eafed more and more upon her, till at laft fhe died of it in very great
extremitie.”-/- She died Auguft 23, 1632, and he furvived her thirteen
years, dying in July, 1645 ; on the 17th of which month he was interred im
the church of St. Paul’s, Covent Garden.
Sir Thomas Overbury, if we are to believe Bacon, was an infolent and
turbulent incendiary, full of wildnefs of fpeech and project; but the paper
in which this reprefentation is found, J containing a fcherne for the ar-
rangement and management of the evidence on the trial of Somerfet, which,
as attorney-general,. he fubmitted to the king for his infpedtion and re-
marks,. reflects much difgrace on. that great mean man ; and his character
of Overbury is certainly much overcharged. Mr. Warr, who was counfel
with Bacon on the trial of Wefton, and had been intimately acquainted with
Overbury in the Temple, bore teftimony to (i hisJingular honefl and •virtuous
confer fation” and declared that “ he was addicted to no dijhoneft adlions”
The truth feems to be, that he was- a man, of confiderable ability, and
finding himfelf bafely treated by an obfcure and ignorant upflart, who (to
ufe Overbury’s own language) owed to him all his fortune, under {landing,
and reputation in the world, naturally expreffed his fenfe of the wrong done
to him in animated and indignant language.
He is author of a poem much admired in his own time, called The Wife,
and of a volume of Characters, or “ witty defcriptions of the pro-
* Oldmixon’s Hist, of the Stuarts, p. 44.
f They lived, according to Wilfon, who has given a loathfome account of her death, many years in the
fame houfe without fpeaking to each other. Their relidence was at Chelfea.
J Birch’s ColleHion of Bacon’s Letters, &c. Svo. 1763. p. 65.
(he happened to open a hiftory of thofe times, in which it was related.*
Soon after the birth of this child, (who was mother to the illuftrious
Lord Ruffel, and died May io, 1684, Lady Somerfet,, who is al-
lowed on all hands to have been extremely beautiful, ceafed to be
an object of defire. Sir Symonds D’Ewes fays, in his 'plain lan-
guage, that “ her hufband lived to abhor her/’ that “ foon after the
birth of her daughter, fhe was difabled by the fecret punifhment of a
higher providence from being capable of further copulation /’ and that
though fhe lived “ neare upon twentie years afterwards, yet her hufband .
the earl of Somerfet never knew her carnallie ; but the faid infirmitie hill
incr.eafed more and more upon her, till at laft fhe died of it in very great
extremitie.”-/- She died Auguft 23, 1632, and he furvived her thirteen
years, dying in July, 1645 ; on the 17th of which month he was interred im
the church of St. Paul’s, Covent Garden.
Sir Thomas Overbury, if we are to believe Bacon, was an infolent and
turbulent incendiary, full of wildnefs of fpeech and project; but the paper
in which this reprefentation is found, J containing a fcherne for the ar-
rangement and management of the evidence on the trial of Somerfet, which,
as attorney-general,. he fubmitted to the king for his infpedtion and re-
marks,. reflects much difgrace on. that great mean man ; and his character
of Overbury is certainly much overcharged. Mr. Warr, who was counfel
with Bacon on the trial of Wefton, and had been intimately acquainted with
Overbury in the Temple, bore teftimony to (i hisJingular honefl and •virtuous
confer fation” and declared that “ he was addicted to no dijhoneft adlions”
The truth feems to be, that he was- a man, of confiderable ability, and
finding himfelf bafely treated by an obfcure and ignorant upflart, who (to
ufe Overbury’s own language) owed to him all his fortune, under {landing,
and reputation in the world, naturally expreffed his fenfe of the wrong done
to him in animated and indignant language.
He is author of a poem much admired in his own time, called The Wife,
and of a volume of Characters, or “ witty defcriptions of the pro-
* Oldmixon’s Hist, of the Stuarts, p. 44.
f They lived, according to Wilfon, who has given a loathfome account of her death, many years in the
fame houfe without fpeaking to each other. Their relidence was at Chelfea.
J Birch’s ColleHion of Bacon’s Letters, &c. Svo. 1763. p. 65.