Edward Hyde, Heneage Finch, and the Duke of Buckingham's Commonplace Book

The commonplace book of George Villiers, second duke of Buckingham, contains a fragment of a blank-verse tragedy and a large number of poems, none of which was published in his lifetime.' The book was found in the duke's pocket at the time of his death; he died of a chill contracted while hunting on horseback near Castle Helmsley, his estate in Yorkshire, in April 1687. As is customary in commonplace books, the poems in the volume, all fair copies, are arranged under various headsfor example, "House," "Ignoble," "Love," and "Tears." They are almost certainly all Buckingham's own compositions, for none is known to appear in any other place. The dates of composition of a few of the poems can be reliably established: one on the death of Cromwell (p. 22) was most likely composed in 1659 or 1660; another, "To Dryden" (p. 9), clearly refers to Buckingham's portrait as Zimri in Absalom and Achitophel and therefore cannot have been written before November 1681. But it has not heretofore been clear whether the compilation of the book took place over Buckingham's lifetime or was the work of a specific period-whether he copied his poems into it as he wrote them or whether they were later revised. The question has implications for our understanding of Buckingham's working habits: whether he was an impromptu writer or a careful reviser; whether his literary activity continued until the end of his life or ceased with his publication, in 1685, of the pamphlet On the Reasonableness of Men's Having a Religion, or Worship of God; and whether the works in the commonplace book were ephemera or compositions that he hoped to preserve. One poem in the commonplace book offers a clue to the solution of this problem. It is the poem entitled "On the Late Ld Chancellour," appearing on page 7 of the volume. The following is a diplomatic copy of the poem: