A web-based edition of early seventeenth-century political poetry from manuscript sources. It brings into the public domain over 350 poems, many of which have never before been published.
Oiii11 When onely one doth rule and guide the shipp
Notes. This epigram expresses one of the most potent anxieties of the later 1620s—the fear that Buckingham, not Charles, was the real ruler of the state. The poem is discussed by McRae (Literature 142-43).
“On the Duke 1628”
When onely one doth rule and guide the shipp,
Who neither Card1 nor Compasse knew before,
The Master Pilot2 and the rest asleepe,
The stately shipp is splitt upon the shore,
But they awaking, start up, stare, and crye,
5Who did this Fault? Not I, nor I, nor I
Soe fares it with a great and wealthie State
Not govern’d by the Master, but his Mate.
Source. BL MS Sloane 826, fol. 181r
Other known sources. Bodleian MS Ashmole 38, p. 152; Bodleian MS Malone 23, p. 120; BL MS Egerton 2725, fol. 82v; BL MS Harley 791, fol. 69r; BL MS Sloane 1454, fol. 25v; Folger MS V.a.262, p. 163
Oiii11
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