VII.
YOU MEANER BEAUTIES.
This little Sonnet was written by Sir Henry Wotton, Knight, on that amiable Princess, Elizabeth daughter of James I. and wife of the Elector Palatine, who was chosen King of Bohemia, Sept. 5, 1619. The consequences of this fatal election are well known: Sir Henry Wotton, who in that and the following year was employed in several embassies in Germany on behalf of this unfortunate lady, seems to have had an uncommon attachment to her merit and fortunes, for he gave away a jewel worth a thousand pounds, that was presented to him by the Emperor, "because it came from an enemy to his royal mistress the Queen of Bohemia." See Biog. Britan.
This song is printed from the Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, 1651, with some corrections from an old MS. copy.
[This elegant little poem in praise of the Queen of Bohemia (who was called by those who knew her and were won by her sweetness, spirit, wit, and unselfishness—the Queen of Hearts) has been very frequently reprinted. The unfortunate princess was also named the Snow Queen and her husband the Winter King, in allusion to the fact that their reign at Prague only lasted one winter. The poem first appeared, according to Dr. Rimbault, in "The Sixt Set of Bookes, wherein are Anthemes for Versus and Chorus of 5 and 6 Parts; apt for Violls and Voyces: newly composed by Michaell Est, Bachelor of Musicke, and Master of the Choristers of the Cathedrall Church in Litchfield," London, 1624, 4to. It is printed in Wit's Recreations, 1640, and Wit's Interpreter, 1671, and in "Songs and Fancies to severall Musicall parts, both apt for Voices and Viols," Aberdeen, 1682. Alterations were made in the various copies, and in the latter book a wretched second part, quite out of harmony with the original, was added. It has found its way, with some variations, among Montrose's poems (see Napier's Life of Montrose, 1856, Appendix, p. xl.), and Robert Chambers (ignorant of the Englishman Sir Henry Wotton's claim to the authorship) actually printed it in his Scottish Songs (vol. ii. p. 631) as if "written by Darnley in praise of the beauty of Queen Mary before their marriage."
Percy, while copying from the Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, 1651, transposed stanzas 2 and 3. In Abp. Sancroft's MS. (Tanner, 465, fol. 43) the following verses occur as stanzas 4 and 6 of the whole poem:—
"You rubies, that do gems adorn,
And sapphires with your azure hue
Like to the skies, or blushing morn,
How pale's your brightness in our view
When diamonds are mixed with you.
"The rose, the violet, all the spring
Unto her breath, for sweetness run;
The diamond's dark'ned in the ring
If she appear, the moon's undone,
As in the presence of the Sun.">[