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.
Mii4 Why shoulde poore chauncelour be condemned by a cry
Notes. This poem on Bacon is unusual in its focus on his alleged homosexual relationship with his servant(s). To “go behind” becomes a combined allusion to bribery and sodomy. In the only known version of the poem, it is presented as the beginning of “Great Verulam is very lame the gout of go-out feeling”; however, since the latter poem is otherwise relatively stable, and widely circulated, the following lines are best considered as a discrete text.
Why shoulde poore chauncelour be condemned by a cry
Who tooke from few yett gave to many
He strove to make his Lady1 rich we finde
He lov’d her well but alas he went behinde
God knowes he husband’ not his store2
5He should have done his youth less: his Lady more
But now’s the time all freely speake theire minde
Thy judgments are he wente too much behinde.
Source. Bodleian MS Eng. Poet. f.10, fol. 96r
Mii4
1 his Lady: i.e. his wife, Lady Alice Bacon. <back>
2 God knowes...store: presumably a reference to the fact that Bacon had no children <back>
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