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.
F9 The fayre and famous mayde is gone
Notes. The only surviving version of this opaque, scabrous poem is transcribed among a collection of libels on Frances Howard and Robert Carr, suggesting that at least one contemporary might have believed that the “fayre and famous mayde” in question was the Countess of Essex. While some allusions in the verse may seem to support this identification, several others—including the arresting final couplet—do not. On balance, it seems fair to conclude that this poem originated with another scandalous marriage, though which one is now very difficult to determine. We include it here as an example of how a seventeenth-century reader could appropriate a libel from one context and apply it to another.
The fayre and famous mayde is gone
And stolne a marryage all a lone
Some say that seeme to know the truthe,
She was ashamed to wedd a youth
For she knew well what did belonge
5Unto a man; els they her wronge
And was Limbde naked to the twist1
I would the paynter there had Kist
Butt now my Lordes the noble teller2
Putts downe their hoers in a seller
10Why? you would none; yett loe hee rights her
In spight of those that most did spight her
see how his thinne nose droppes rose nobles3
What wantes in crownes in wordes hee doubles
The Irish coyne in bagges runnes sweatinge
15To this rich weddinge gott by cheatinge
The Goodly house and landes in Kent
All to this danty wench is ment
And all his suites worke for his darkinge
What thinke you his leane chappes starveling?
20But soft? we lost the lovely bride
She and her mate to bed are hied
She in her lovers armes girt round
Where must bee lost what hee never found
Most happy bee his chance for hee
25Injoyes her now from hedd to knee
from lippe to hippe from side to side
And that which hee found woman wide
full fruitfull prove Shee as her grandame
To bring a Sonne though gott at randome
30And glory youth that hast pervailed
Since many mist that were entayled
And when thow art amidst her cranny4
Wish well to Watson and trelany5
Source. “Poems from a Seventeenth-Century Manuscript” 70-2
F9
1 Limbde...twist: painted (limned) naked to the waist (the “twist” is the junction of the thighs with the body). <back>
2 teller: counter of money, probably here referring to one of the four Tellers of the Exchequer. <back>
3 rose nobles: gold coins issued in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. <back>
4 cranny: literally, notch or crevice; here clearly a bawdy reference to sexual penetration. <back>
5 Watson and trelany: Watson and Trelawney. The allusion here is obscure—Thomas Watson was a Jacobean Teller of the Exchequer, and if this Watson is indeed him, then the allusion would fit with earlier lines on the “noble teller” and on the receipt and spending of money. <back>
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