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.
D20 Heere lyes Salisbury that little great comaunder
Notes. Croft (“Reputation” 55, 61, 65) discusses and contextualizes several parts of this poem. Like the author of “Passer by know heere is interrd”, the poet here casually attributes attacks on Cecil to “the Vulgar”, before going on himself to attack Cecil, in this case in the guise of ostensibly praising his charitable activities.
Heere lyes Salisbury that little great1 comaunder
On whome Mallice it selfe cannot fasten a slander
Though Crookeback the Vulgar did terme him in sight
There weere more beside him that are not upright
Hee was just to king James as hee was to the old queene2
5Did many good deeds that never were seene
He humbled the rich, made much of the poore
Hee would father the orphanes,3 and ferritt the whoore
Betweene married folkes if ther fell any strife
To doe for the husband hee dealt with the wife
10Thee widdowe hee kept, and oft in the yeare
Good turnes hee did Virgins that cost him full deere
I meane not her honor, for shee was noe mayde
By her wee confesse hee soundly was paid4
A gamster hee was their never was fairer
15Yet hee plaid most with old cards and had ever a sharer
Hee was bitter foe, but hee was a sweet frend
When any hee loved, hee loved to an end
By way of prevention offences to shunn
Hee would pnish offences before any weere done,
20To the good of the state, hee was a mayne stay
Till Poe5 with his Sirrope6 did squirt him away
Don Leonard7 great Scorpio8 that governs the tayle9
The cullions10 and members11 both female and male
A sonn12 hee hath left us, though noebodie mynd him
25And a doughter13 for goodnes that comes not behind him
Thus heere lyes his lordship interr’d as you see
And noe doubt but his Soule is where it should bee
If pray for the dead you cannot with hope
Yet say Lord have mercy on Beeston and Cope.14
30Source. Bodleian MS Malone 23, pp. 65-66
Other known sources. Huntington MS HM 198, 2.125
D20
1 little great: Cecil was both a powerful man (“great”) and of small physical stature (“little”). The same phrase is used in line 2 of the Cecil libel “Passer by know heere is interrd”, and more affectionately in line 5 of Samuel Daniel’s “If greatnes, wisedome, pollicie of state”. <back>
2 old queene: Elizabeth I. <back>
3 father the orphanes: alludes to Cecil’s work as Master of the Court of Wards. <back>
4 soundly was paid: i.e. contracted syphilis. <back>
5 Poe: Leonard Poe, one of Cecil’s physicians. <back>
6 Sirrope: syrup; presumably here a medicine. If the syrup is a syphilis treatment then it might refer to the commonly used decoctions of guaiacum wood that could be drunk by the patient. <back>
8 Scorpio: astrological sign, whose application to Poe is unclear. <back>
9 tayle: in contemporary bawdy usage, tail can mean either the posterior or both the male and female genitalia. <back>
10 cullions: testicles. <back>
12 sonn: William Cecil, created Viscount Cranborne in 1605, succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of Salisbury in 1612. <back>
13 doughter: Cecil’s daughter Frances, married in 1610 to Henry Clifford, the son of the Earl of Cumberland. <back>
14 Beeston and Cope: Sir Hugh Beeston and Sir Walter Cope, both members of Cecil’s inner circle. Cope wrote and circulated a manuscript Apology for Cecil that vigorously defended the Lord Treasurer’s reputation (see Croft, “Reputation” 65). <back>
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