Note XXIII‑31 — Chapter XXIII · DRAKE AND OXENHAM'S EXPEDITIONS. 1572-1596.
Reading edition
In a poem by Lope de Vega styled 'Dragontea' occur these lines:
'Mirad la disventura y la ruina De aquel hombre atrevido y indomable: Mirad que triste genero de muerte Del cuerpo el alma a los infiernos vierte.'
Vega declares that Drake was poisoned by his own men. The soul of the great navigator was perhaps less sorely vexed by such slander than by the silly verses written in his praise by his own countrymen. The following occurs in Fuller's Worthies:
'Religio quamvis Romana resurgeret olim, Effoderet tumulum non pute, Drace, tuum, Non est quod metuas nec te combusserit ulla Posteritas, in aquâ tutus ab igne manes.'
But the sorriest doggerel of all is found in Clark's Life of Drake, 71:
'Great God of Prowess, Thunderbolt of War: Bellona's darling: Mars of Chivalry: Bloody Enyo's Champion, Foemens fear: Fame's stately Pharos, Mapp of Dignity: Joves Pearl, Pearls pride, Prides foe, Foes enemy: Spains Shaking Fever, Regent of Wars Thunder: Undaunted Drake, a name Importing Wonder:'
The works published by the Hakluyt Society, and the Annales rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum, regnante Elizabetha, by William Camden, London, 1589, probably afford the most reliable information concerning Drake's several expeditions to the West Indies, though neither are free from error. Clark's Life and Death of Sir Francis Drake, London, 1671, and Burton's English Heroe, London, 1687, are chiefly compilations, though of considerable value, inasmuch as both authors had access to sources of information not now available to the public. The latter work passed through no less than 23 editions, and yet we find the opening lines of the preface copied unblushingly from Drake's World Encompassed, in Hakluyt Soc., 5 (published originally in 1628). The Life and Dangerous Voyages of Drake is borrowed mainly from Burton. Barrow's Life of Drake, London, 1843, though a recent publication, contains several copies of letters written by Drake, and was compiled in part from MSS. in the British museum, the state paper office, and the archives of Madrid.