Poetry Codex

Metaphysical & Cavalier

Richard Corbet

1582–1635

Richard Corbet was born at Ewell in Surrey in 1582, was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, and became a celebrated wit among the university poets. He rose to be Dean of Christ Church, then Bishop of Oxford in 1628 and Bishop of Norwich in 1632, and died on 28 July 1635. He was a friend of Ben Jonson and a famous humorist in the pulpit and out of it.

His poems circulated in manuscript and were first printed after his death, in 1647 and again in 1648 and 1672. The fourth edition, edited by Octavius Gilchrist in 1807, is used here. The English poems are given in order: the mock-heroic Iter Boreale, the verse letters, elegies and epitaphs, and the ballad The Faeryes Farewell, his best-known piece.

Poems (42)

  1. An Elegie Written upon the Death of Dr. Ravis, Bishop of London
  2. To Thomas Coryate
  3. A Certain Poem, to the Tune of Bonny Nell
  4. On the Lady Arabella
  5. Upon Mistris Mallet, an Unhandsome Gentlewoman, who made Love unto Him
  6. On Mr. Francis Beaumont, then newly dead
  7. An Elegie on the Late Lord William Howard, Baron of Effingham
  8. To the Lord Mordaunt, upon His Returne from the North
  9. To the Prince
  10. A New-Yeares Gift to my Lorde Duke of Buckingham
  11. A Letter to Sir Thomas Aylesbury
  12. Dr. Corbet’s Journey into France
  13. An Exhortation to Mr. John Hammon, Minister in the Parish of Bewdly
  14. An Elegy upon the Death of Queene Anne
  15. An Elegie upon the Death of his owne Father
  16. An Elegie upon the Death of the Lady Haddington, who Dyed of the Small Pox
  17. On Christ-Church Play at Woodstock
  18. A Letter to the Duke of Buckingham, being with the Prince in Spaine
  19. On the Earl of Dorsets Death
  20. To the New-Borne Prince, upon the Apparition of a Starr, and the Following Ecclypse
  21. On the Birth of the Young Prince Charles
  22. To his Son, Vincent Corbet
  23. An Epitaph on Dr. Donne, Dean of Pauls
  24. Certain Few Woordes Spoken concerninge one Benet Corbett after her Decease
  25. Iter Boreale
  26. On Mr. Rice, the Manciple of Christ-Church in Oxford
  27. On Henry Bolings
  28. On John Dawson, Butler of Christ-Church
  29. On Great Tom of Christ-Church
  30. R. C.
  31. A Proper New Ballad, Intituled The Faeryes Farewell; or, God-a-Mercy Will
  32. A Non Sequitur
  33. Nonsence
  34. The Country Life
  35. To the Ghost of Robert Wisdome
  36. An Epitaph on Thomas Jonce
  37. To the Ladyes of the New Dresse, that Weare their Gorgets and Rayles Downe to their Wastes
  38. The Ladies’ Answer
  39. Corbet’s Reply
  40. Upon Fairford Windows
  41. Upon Faireford Windowes
  42. The Distracted Puritane

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