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The measled Boare1 is frankt2 I tell noe fable

The Headstrong horse3 is shut up in the stable

The Kings whilome Atturney now condemned4

And A prime Pen of state his place suspended5

Bennet6 is sicke for feare, the Chancellor craddocke7

5

And Lambe8 Stinkes worse than Mackerell or Haddocke

Nor place but Inocence now keepes me safe

The Almanacke foretells this storme must cleere

Or offices will beare no price this yeare.

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Source. Bodleian MS Eng. Poet. c.50, fol. 7r

Mii1

Quick links to other poems within this section

Select page here M0. Introduction Mi1. You Justices & men Mi2. The tottering state Mi3. Pervertinge of the lawes Mi4. Fly not Momperson Mi5. Oyes Mii1. The measled Boare Mii2. Stand fast thou shaking Mii3. Great Verulam is very lame Mii4. Why shoulde poore Mii5. The greate assemblie Mii6. Heer is Francis Verulam Mii7. Within this sty heer Mii8. When you awake Mii9. What hatfull fury Mii10. Blame not the Poet Miii1. One worthy Chancellour Miii2. When Charles, hath got Miii3. Thy followers in hope Miii4. Anagram on John Williams Miii5. The Kinge & the court

¹   measled Boare: i.e. Bacon (Bacon’s crest, worn on his servants’ liveries, was of a boar). <back>

²   frankt: shut up in a frank (an enclosure for feeding swine). <back>

³   Headstrong horse: unclear; possibly another reference to Bacon, but more likely a coded reference to another man. <back>

⁴   The Kings...condemned: Sir Henry Yelverton, Attorney-General from 1617, fell from power in 1620, when he was found guilty in a Star Chamber trial of having passed a charter to the city of London containing unauthorized provisions. <back>

⁵   A prime...suspended: possibly a reference to Sir Robert Naunton, Secretary of State, who was reprimanded and threatened with dismissal (though not suspended) early in 1621, for opening negotiations with the French, without the consent of James, for a possible marriage between Charles and Henrietta Maria. <back>

⁶   Bennet: Sir John Bennet, Judge of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, impeached for a range of corrupt practices in the 1621 Parliament. His case was seen by many as a signal instance of corruption within the judiciary. <back>

⁷   Chancellor craddocke: probably John Cradocke, Chancellor of Durham from 1619. <back>

⁸   Lambe: probably John Lambe, an ecclesiastical lawyer who used the full rigour of the law to compel Church conformity in Northamptonshire. In 1621 the mayor and corporation of Northamptonshire presented a petition to parliament complaining about him; however, the king remained supportive, and knighted him in July of the same year. <back>