Michel Le Blon and England II

Abstract

ABSTRACTAlthough Weckherlin began ‘Des Grossen Gustav-Adolfen Ebenbild’ before he sent two sonnets on the Swedish monarch to Stockholm 1632/33, the elegy was not published with them in 1641, although we know that it was complete before 1642. When it finally appeared in 1648, it was dated 1633. Le Blon's correspondence shows that the poem was sent to Sweden in the spring of 1635 and was rewarded with a golden medal commemorating the late king and a chain. As motifs on such medals recur in the poem, Weckherlin completed the elegy between February 20, 1634 and March 9, 1635. In fact, Le Blon conferred the medal in 1638, but the politics of the civil war in England hindered publication in 1641. When finally published, the poem turned out to be a most fortuitous tribute highly befitting both Gustavus Adolphus and the Peace of Westphalia.