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.
B18 Here lieth one who if his case be bad
Notes. This epitaph on Richard Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury (d.1610), survives in a number of variants, some more opaque than others. In this version, the scribe has copied the couplet in such a way as to make some sense of its message. The couplet thus appears to depend on a pun on “grace”, as both divine grace and the earthly title given to the Archbishop. Thus if Bancroft is now in hell—“if his case be bad”—it is because he lacked (divine) “grace” even though he had the title “grace” while alive.
“On Badscroft Archbishop of Canterbury”
Here lieth one who if his case be bad } his
It is because he wanted what he had } grace
Source. John Rylands MS Eng. 410, fol. 21r
Other known sources. Bodleian MS Don. d.58, fol. 18r; Bodleian MS Firth d.7, fol. 160r; CUL Add. MS 4138, fol. 49r
B18
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