earldom in 1609--about the year of _Philaster_. I have already shown that the Sackvilles were connected with the Fletchers by marriage. They were also patrons of Beaumont's friends, Jonson and Drayton. While the third Earl was still living, poor old Ben writes to son, Edward Sackville, a grateful epistle for succouring his necessities. And to the same Edward, as fourth Earl,[125] Drayton dedicated, 1630, the _Nimphalls_ of his _Muses Elizium_, and to his Countess, Mary, the _Divine Poems_, published therewith. If, as others have conjectured, the Earl is himself the Dorilus of the _Nimphalls_, the exquisite _Description of Elizium_ which precedes, may be, after the fashion of the poets and painters of the Renaissance, an idealized picture of Knole Park, where Drayton probably had been received: A Paradice on earth is found, Though farre from vulgar sight, Which, with those pleasures doth abound, That it Elizium hight,-- of its groves of stately trees, its merle and mavis, its daisies damasking the green, its spreading vines upon the "cleeves," its ripening fruits: The Poets Paradice this is, To which but few can come; The Muses onely bower of blisse, Their Deare Elizium. It was the widow of the third Earl, Anne (Clifford), Countess of Dorset and, afterwards, of Pembroke and Montgomery,[126] who erected the monument to Drayton in the Poets' Corner. That Beaumont was acquainted with this family of poets and patrons of art is, therefore, in every way more than probable; and there is a poetic pleasure in the reflection that the family still retains, in the house which Beaumont probably often visited, this noble presentment of the dramatist. The portrait at Nuneham, which I have mentioned above, is not so life-like as that at Knole: it lacks the shading. But it is for us most expressive: it is that of an older man, spade-bearded, of broader brow, higher cheek-bones, and face falling away toward the chin; of the same magnanimity and grace, but with eyes more almond-shaped and sensitive, and eloquent of illness. It is the likeness of Beaumont approaching the portals of death. [Illustration: By permission of Mr. Lewis Harcourt. THE BEAUMONT OF THE NUNEHAM PORTRAIT]