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.
D3 Ah was there nott a time when one man swayed
Notes. If in fact this verse was penned the week after Cecil’s death, we can date it quite precisely to late May or very early June 1612. Although many of the libels discuss the cause of Cecil’s death, this is the only one to note, correctly, that he suffered from scurvy, a disease that was responsible for some of the noxious symptoms that other libellers attributed to syphilis (Croft, “Reputation” 60-61).
Ah was there nott a time when one man swayed
And rulde both king and people topsye-turvye
Lett king and people now bee well apayde
He is gone, but how? he dide last week of the scurvye.
Source. BL MS Egerton 2230, fol. 33v
D3
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