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“Verses supposed to bee made by Dr. Corbet Bishop of Oxford against the opposing the Duke in Parliament 1628”

The wisest King did wonder when hee spy’d

The Nobles march on Foot, their Vassalls ride.1

His Majestie may wonder more to see

Some that will needs bee Kings aswell as hee:

A sadd presage of daunger to this land,

5

When lower strive to gett the upper hand;

When Prince and Peares to Peysants must obey,

When lay-men must their Teachers teach the way2

When Prym and Prinn and Jourdan3 must define

What Lords4 are hetrodox, and what divine,

10

Good brother Brough, Elder of Amsterdam

Shutt up at home your wilde Arminian Ramm,5

If heere hee comes, these men will cutt his throat,

Blest Buchanan6sings them a sweeter note,

Hee teacheth how to curbe the power of Kings,

15

And shewes us how to clipp the Eagles Winges,

It is a Paritie7 must sett all right,

Then shall the Gospell shine like Phœbus8 bright,

Our Consistorian Fabrick9 is the thing

Wee must reare up in spight of Church and King,

20

Against the Papists wee have gott the day,

Blinde Bishops10 onely now stande in our way,

But wee will have a trick to tame their pride,

Tonnage and Poundage11 ells shall bee deny’de.

---

Source. BL MS Sloane 826, fol. 153r-v

Other known sources. Corbett, Poems 82; Corbett, “Richard Corbett’s” 32; Rous 42; Bodleian MS Malone 23, p. 116; Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 26, fol. 8v; Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 62, fol. 42v; Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 84, fol. 72r; BL Add. MS 22118, fol. 36v; BL Add. MS 22959, fol. 35v; BL Add. MS 29996, fol. 70v; BL Add. MS 35331, fol. 28r; BL Add. MS 61683, fol. 68r; BL MS Egerton 2541, fol. 118r; BL MS Harley 6383, fol. 29r; BL MS Lans. 491, fol. 184v; BL MS Sloane 1479, fol. 47r; CUL MS Dd.11.73, fol. 102v; St. John’s MS K.56, no. 30

Oiii2

Quick links to other poems within this section

Select page here O0. Introduction Oi1. The Parliament sitts Oi2. Oh honoured England Oi3. Our digby digd’e Oi4. The base on which Oi5. There was a man Oi6. There was a great fleete Oi7. There was a Munkye Oi8. Yee Spanyards Oi9. There was some policye Oi10. The Kinge and his wyfe Oi11. Why did the fond Oi12. Fower Cheyffe Justices Oi13. Justice of late hath Oi14. Ould Ned Cooke Oi15. Rex and Grex Oi16. Come heare, Lady Muses Oi17. There is a man Oii1. when the uncivill civill Oii2. It makes mee to muse Oii3. Great Buckinghame Oii4. In reading these Oii5. And wilt thou goe Oii6. Charles would yee Prevaile Oii7. Rejoice, brave English Oii8. Why was the varlett Oii9. One askte me Oii10. Oure crossrow’s turnd Oii11. The noblest brave Oii12. And art return’d againe Oii13. All you that will goe Oii14. As sick men feare Oiii1. O Admirall! Oiii2. The wisest King Oiii3. The warrlike King Oiii4. Excuse me Eliott Oiii5. Avaunt you giddie Oiii6. Here Dr Lambe Oiii7. If heav’n rejoyce Oiii8. For Lambe go ringe Oiii9. Heare lyes the Impostar Oiii10. Our state’s a Game Oiii11. When onely one doth Oiii12. Of Brittish Beasts Oiii13. To hunt the Doe Oiii14. The Parliament of late Oiii15. A thinge gott by candle

¹   The wisest king...Vassalls ride: alluding to Ecclesiastes 10.7 in which the author— usually identified as Solomon—notes, “I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth”. <back>

²   When lay-men...teach the way: Walter Yonge (BL Add MS 35331) believed this line referred to a controversial Puritan tract, Maschil Unmasked, by a London draper, Thomas Spencer. Both Pearl and Pearl and Bennett and Trevor-Roper argue, however, that the line refers to the House of Commons’ committee on religion. <back>

³   Prym and Prinn and Jourdan: John Pym, William Prynne and Ignatius Jordan. John Pym was a leading anti-Arminian MP; Ignatius Jordan a notoriously Puritan MP; and William Prynne a Puritan polemicist and pamphleteer. <back>

⁴   Lords: in this context probably bishops. <back>

⁵   Good brother Brough...wilde Arminian Ramm: perhaps an allusion to William Brough, Rector of St. Michael in London, who was later accused of teaching “the errors of Arminianism, of universal grace and free-will in man fallen, and the apostacy of the saints” (qtd. in Tyacke 196). Arminianism had begun in the United Provinces (hence the reference to Amsterdam). The rise of Arminianism in England was a source of great concern in the parliamentary sessions of 1628 and 1629. Pearl and Pearl argue that “Ramm” is an allusion to the French logician Petrus Ramus. <back>

⁶   Blest Buchanan: George Buchanan, sixteenth-century Scots Calvinist who defended the right of resistance to an ungodly monarch. <back>

⁷   Paritie: equality of rank in the Church—i.e. a Presbyterian rather than an episcopal system of Church government. Anti-Puritan discourse routinely assumed that Puritan demands for parity in the Church implied a Puritan desire for social and political parity in the commonwealth. <back>

⁸   Phœbus: the sun. <back>

⁹   Our Consistorian Fabrick: a Presbyterian system of Church government. <back>

¹⁰   Blinde Bishops: Walter Yonge identifies three such “Blinde Bishops” in a marginal note: William Laud, Bishop of London, Richard Neile, Bishop of Winchester, and Samuel Harsnett, Bishop of Norwich (BL Add. MS 35331). All three were noted anti-Puritans and suspected Arminians. <back>

¹¹   Tonnage and Poundage: a customs levy usually granted by parliament to a king for life at the beginning of his reign. Parliament had failed to make this grant in 1625, but Charles I had continued to collect the tax anyway, prompting parliamentary protests in 1626, 1628 and 1629. <back>