Solemnities at Cambridge at the funeral of James I: 7 May 1625

A contemporary writer has briefly described the solemnities at Cambridge on the occasion of the late king's funeral: the assembling at nine o'clock in the morning; the Regent Walk, ‘School yard,’ non-Regent and Regent Houses and Great St Mary's, all hung with black, while numerous ‘escutcheons and verses’ appeared on the hangings; the afternoon sermon preached by Dr Collins and followed by an oration by Mr Thorndike, ‘which being ended the company departed to their severall colleges.’

The Dolor et Solamen

The ‘verses’ subsequently reappeared in a somewhat remarkable collection, wherein laments over the national loss were blended with effusive aspirations for the happiness of the new monarch. The volume, a small quarto of 72 pages, issued from the press of Cantrell Legge, the printer to the university, whose endeavours to extend the sphere of his activity were at this time involving the Press in a warm dispute with the Stationers' Company. On the whole, the Dolor et Solamen may fairly be regarded as a noteworthy specimen of its kind,—a literature, which, as illustrative of contemporary history, has scarcely received the attention it merits; and, amid all the customary forced metaphors and stereotyped classical allusions, there is clearly discernible a genuine sense that both the universities and the Church had lost a patron and defender who had discerned more clearly than most of his predecessors what it was that learning and contributors orthodoxy chiefly needed at his hands.