---

“An Answere to the same Lyne for Lyne”

The warrlike King was troubl’d when hee spy’d

His darling Absolons aspiring pride.1

His Majestie may more disdaine to see

Some Preist that would bee King aswell as hee.

A sadd presage of danger to the land,

5

When Prælats strive to gett the upper hand,

Where Prince and Peare the Clergie must obey,

Where laymen may those Teachers teach the way,

When Prym and Prinn, even Jourdan2 may define

What Prelat’s hetrodox, and what divine.

10

Pelagian broode, elder then Amsterdam,

Garland your Bull, court your Armenian Ramm,3

The commons, if they can, will clense their throats,

And make them with Buchanan4 sing clearer notes,

And teach them how that Parliaments and Kings

15

Can crush their Pride, and clippe their Eagles wings,

It is this Paritie5 must sett all right,

Then shall the Gospell shine like Phœbus6 bright,

True Protestant Religion is the thing

Wee must reare up to honour Church and King.

20

Against the Papists wee should have the day,

If some blinde Bishops stood not in the way,

But they will finde a tricke to hold their Pride

Though Tonnage Poundage7 never bee deny’d.

---

Source. BL MS Sloane 826, fols. 153v-154r

Other known sources. Corbett, Poems 83; Corbett, “Richard Corbett’s” 32; Bodleian MS Ashmole 36-37, fol. 75r; Bodleian MS Malone 23, p. 117; Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 84, fol. 71r; BL Add. MS 29607, fol. 1r; BL Add. MS 35331, fol. 30v; BL Add. MS 61683, fol. 67r; BL MS Harley 6383, fol. 34v; BL MS Sloane 1479, fol. 47v

Oiii3

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 warrlike King...aspiring pride: allusion to the story of Absalom’s revolt against his father, King David (2 Samuel 13-20). <back>

²   Prym and Prinn, even Jourdan: John Pym, William Prynne and Ignatius Jordan. Pym was a leading anti-Arminian MP; Jordan a notoriously Puritan MP; and Prynne a Puritan polemicist and pamphleteer. <back>

³   Pelagian broode...Armenian Ramm: the exact meaning of this knotty couplet is unclear. Pearl and Pearl suggest that “broode” “may be the Dutch broeder, brother”, and argue that “the phrase may be an elaborate pun to mean that the Dutch ‘brother’ who follows the doctrines of Pelagius (the fifth-century British monk who denied original sin and predestination: in Calvinist eyes a precursor of Arminius) accepted a heresy which was even older than Amsterdam, whereas an elder he served even the papal bull and the Arminian Ramist” (39 n.34). <back>

⁴   Buchanan: George Buchanan, sixteenth-century Scots Calvinist resistance theorist. <back>

⁵   Paritie: equality in Church government. Walter Yonge’s copy has “purity” (BL Add. MS 35331; Pearl and Pearl 39 n.35.) <back>

⁶   Phœbus: the sun. <back>

⁷   Tonnage Poundage: tonnage and poundage was 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>