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.
F5 Essex bird hath flowen hir cage
Notes. A common variant of this bawdy poem includes only the final four lines of this slightly longer version, while one collection includes a version consisting only of the opening couplet. Lindley (117) and Bellany (Politics 169) discuss and contextualize this verse.
Essex bird1 hath flowen hir cage,
And’s gone to Court to ly with a Page.2
She was a lady fyne of late,
She could not be entred shee was soe streight:3
But now with use4 she is soe wyde
5A Car5 may enter on every side.
Source. Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 26, fol. 17v
Other known sources. CCRO MS CR 63/2/19, fol. 11r; Folger MS V.a.162, fol. 50v; Folger MS V.a.345, p. 290; Houghton MS Eng. 686, fol. 34r
F5
1 Essex bird: Frances Howard, wife of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex. <back>
2 Page: Robert Carr had arrived at the Court of James I in England as a page to the Earl of Dunbar. <back>
3 She...streight: this line refers to Frances Howard’s virginity, that was assessed by the nullity commissioners through a physical examination performed by a panel of matrons. The examination found her still to be a virgin; this poem, along with a number of other commentators at the time, is clearly unconvinced. <back>
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