SOURCE: O'Neill, John H. “Buckingham's Nondramatic Poetry and Prose,” and “Buckingham's Minor Dramatic Works.” In George Villiers, Second Duke of Buckingham, pp. 21-51; 52-80. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1984.

In the first essay below, O'Neill comments on Buckingham's verse elegies, satires, and epigrams, and on his prose works, including political tracts and speeches in Parliament. In the second, O'Neill discusses Buckingham's minor plays, including The Chances, The Country Gentlemen, and The Restauration.

Buckingham's Nondramatic Poetry and Prose

The duke of Buckingham was influenced by, and was a part of, a tradition of courtly writers which originated in the Renaissance. Like Sir Thomas Wyatt in the reign of Henry VIII, Sir Philip Sidney and Sir Walter Raleigh in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and Richard Lovelace and Sir John Suckling in the reign of Charles I, Buckingham thought of himself as a man of affairs first—a politician, a statesman, and...