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.
A4 Courts scorne, states disgracing
Notes. This attack on Ralegh is linked with Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, although the case for his authorship is weak, and the attribution to the Earl may simply reflect his notorious hostility towards Ralegh. One manuscript copy suggests that it circulated as early as 1595, predating the second and final rupture between Essex and Ralegh in 1597 (DeVere 107-08). This makes it unlikely that Essex himself wrote this riposte, although it is conceivable that the anonymous circulation of “Goe Soule the bodies guest” provided the Earl with an opportunity to vent his own political frustrations in a way which enabled him to cast himself as the champion of political orthodoxy. Regardless of its authorship, this verse scorns the content and the author of “The Lie” almost stanza by stanza. It is answered in kind in (“Courts commender states mantayner”).
“Another answeare thought to bee made by R. Essex”
Courts scorne, states disgracinge
Potentates scoffe, goverments defacinge
Prelates nippe, churches unhallowinge
Artes injurye, vertues debasinge
Ages monster honours wastinge
5Beauties blemish, favours blastinge
Witts excremente, wisdoms vomitte
Physickes scorne, lawes commette1
Fortunes childe,2 natures defiler
Justices revenger, frindshippes beguiler
10Such is the songe, such is the author
Woorthy to bee rewarded with a halter.3
Source. Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 212, fol. 91r
Other known sources. DeVere 60; Bodleian MS Ashmole 781, p. 164; Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 172, fol. 13r; Rosenbach MS 1083/15, p. 34
A4
1 lawes commette: comets were seen as portents of major events. This phrase seems to imply inevitable legal retribution against “the author” rather than disaster for the legal system. <back>
2 Fortunes childe: Ralegh was often associated with Fortune. To his critics, his success in winning Elizabeth’s favour was otherwise incomprehensible and the fortunate nature of this success was emphasized to indicate that it was undeserved. <back>
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