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.
Mii3 Great Verulam is very lame, the gout of goe-out feeling
Notes. This poem, the most densely topical and allusive of all the libels on Bacon, is almost certainly the work of John Hoskyns. It raises the suggestion that Bacon was effectively sacrificed to the political interests of his otherwise loyal patron, the Duke of Buckingham, and hints scurrilously about his relationships with his servants. The poem is discussed in Jardine and Stewart 465.
“Vpon the fall of Sir Francis Bacon Lo: Verulam & Viscount St. Alban Lo: Chancellor”
Great Verulam is very lame,1 the gout of goe-out feeling2
Hee humbly beggs the crutch of state with falling sicknes3 reeling
Diseasd, displeasd & greved sore, that stately fate shold perish
Unhappie that noe helpe can cure nor high protection cherish.
Yet cannot I but marvell much, and that in common reason
5That Bacon should neglected be, when it is most in season
Perhaps the Game of Buck hath villifi’d the Bore4
Or els the Crescent in the wayne that hee can hunt no more
Be what it will the Relative the antecedent moveing
Declines to case accusative, the dative soe much loveing5
10Young6 this greife will make the old, for care with youth ill matches
Sorrowe makes Mute7 to muse, that Hatche’s8 under hatches
Bushells9 want by halfe a peck the measure of such tares
Because his Lords posteriors, makes buttons which hee weares10
Tho Edney11 nowe be cleane cassher’d, greife moves him to compassion
15To thinke that fates should bring soe lowe, the wheele of his Ambition.
Had Butler12 liv’d had13 vex’d & grev’d so suddaine for to see
The hogsh’d that soe late was brocht to run soe neere the Lee14
Fletcher15 may goe & feather bolts16, for such as quickly shoot them
Nowe Cockens17 combe is newely18 a man may soone confute them
20The Red-rose house19 lamenteth much, that this soe fatall day
Should bring the fall of Leafe in March before the spring in May
Albons condole their suddaine losse, their greatest Viscount Charter20
Who suffering for his Conscience sake, is turn’d Franciscan Martyr.21
Source. Bodleian MS Malone 23, p. 23
Other known sources. Osborn 210; Bodleian MS Douce f.5, fol. 37v; Bodleian MS Eng. Poet. c.50, fol. 32v; Bodleian MS Eng. Poet. f.10, fol. 96r; Bodleian MS Rawl. B. 151, fol. 102v; Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 117, fol. 22v; BL MS Harley 367, fol. 187r; BL MS Harley 1221, fol. 80v; BL MS Harley 6038, fol. 27r; Nottingham MS Portland PW V 37, p. 152; Folger MS V.a.192, part 2 fol. 7r; Folger MS V.a.345, p. 127
Mii3
1 Great Verulam is very lame: this limping pun on Bacon’s title is noted by Sir Simonds D’Ewes as the invention of men mocking Bacon’s shortage of money: “So as men raised very bitter sarcasms or jests of him; as that he lately was very lame, alluding to his barony of Verulam, but now having fallen into a consumption of purse, without all question he was become All-bones, alluding to his new honour of St. Alban” (qtd. in Jardine and Stewart 443). <back>
2 gout of goe-out feeling: punning on Bacon’s fall from power and his struggles with gout. <back>
3 falling sicknes: epilepsy; here the use is entirely figurative. <back>
4 Perhaps the Game...Bore: the suggestion here, raised at the time by some people close to Bacon, though without any apparent foundation, is that Buckingham turned against Bacon, in order to protect his own position (Jardine and Stewart 455-56). <back>
5 Be what...loveing: an intricate and barely penetrable mesh of puns on grammatical terms. “[D]ative” can mean “disposed to give”, and thus probably alludes to the bribery allegations; “accusative” might carry legal connotations; “Relative” may refer to a particular person, unidentifiable at this point. <back>
6 Young: John Young, one of Bacon’s secretaries. <back>
7 Mute: i.e. Thomas Meautys, another of Bacon’s secretaries; or Edmund Meautys, Bacon’s gentleman of the horse. <back>
8 Hatche’s: i.e. Hatcher, Bacon’s seal-bearer. <back>
9 Bushells: Thomas Bushell, one of Bacon’s gentleman ushers. <back>
10 Because his Lords...weares: “Aubrey explains the lewd reference to Bacon’s backside and buttons: ‘’Twas the fashion in those days for gentlemen to have their suits of clothes garnished with buttons. My Lord Bacon was then in disgrace, and his man Bushell having more buttons than usual on his cloak, they said that his Lord’s breech made buttons and Bushell wore them: from whence he was called “buttoned Bushell”.’ Aubrey can only be suggesting that it was maliciously put about that Bushell’s ostentatious dress had been earned by sexual services to his master” (Jardine and Stewart 465). <back>
11 Edney: Francis Edney, Bacon’s chamber-man. <back>
12 Butler: Mr. Butler, one of Bacon’s gentleman ushers. <back>
13 had: probable scribal error; read “he had”. <back>
14 Lee: possibly either Mr. Leigh, Bacon’s sergeant-at-arms, or Humphrey Leigh, one of Bacon’s yeoman ushers presumably punning on the River Lea. <back>
15 Fletcher: Mr. Fletcher, Bacon’s gentleman waiter. <back>
16 feather bolts: punning on the name Fletcher, as a maker of arrows. To feather bolts is to attach feathers to arrows. <back>
17 Cockens: Mr. Cockaine, Bacon’s page. <back>
18 is newely: probable scribal error; read “is newly cut”. <back>
19 Red-rose house: the allusion here is clearly to Bacon’s home, York House (a point made in a marginal note in one source (Bodleian Eng. Poet. c.50). Although the red rose was actually associated with the House of Lancaster most sources of the poem are consistent with this historical error. Only one known source prefers the historially correct “whit Rose” (BL MS Harley 367). <back>
20 Albons condole...Charter: punning on Bacon’s title, Viscount St. Alban’s. <back>
21 Who suffering...Martyr: the image of martyrdom (punning on the Catholic Franciscan order), though obviously couched in heavy irony, echoes the poem’s earlier suggestion that Bacon has been sacrificed in the political interests of Buckingham. <back>
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