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.
I19 Fly Fame, report, that all the world may knowe
Notes. Aligning Ralegh with the English nation against a diabolic Spanish enemy, this poem is a good example of the posthumous reinvention of Ralegh as a Protestant “Patriot” hero, that would become standard in much 1620s’ anti-Spanish polemic.
“Upon Sir Walter Raleighe”
Fly Fame, report, that all the world may knowe,
England hath loste a freind, esteemed a foe.
For as some would it, but alack they fayld;
Faythfull he prooved, yet faithlesse they prevayled.
They wisht they sayd him false, and falsely proov’d
5Their ground was hate: Spayne and the devill moov’d
Tell where thow comest, Raleigh my freind is dead:
Not myne alone, but all true English bredd.
But how deservedly, lett wise men judge.
And sure hee’le fynde desert much lesse then grudge
10His well-wisht welfare to his natyve soyle,
Wofull destrucion to him did recoyle.
A Knight, a Captaine, and a souldyer bould,
as Hee by treacherie never soe was sould.
A Judas wish,1 not kisse, did him betray:
15Butt cursed hee, that could not say him nay.
Whoe thoughe offended, might hee still have lyved
In sovereigne favor, nowe of life bereaved.
But being deade, thy fame shall never dy:
But Raleigh’s name shall lyve eternally.
20Source. Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 26, fol. 70r
Other known sources. Ralegh, Poems 198
I19
1 A Judas wish: probably a reference to Stukeley’s betrayal of Ralegh. <back>
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