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.
I2 Young witts are soone seduced and alwaies apt
Notes. Internal evidence suggests this verse dates from the period before Ralegh’s return to England from Guiana in 1618. The poem is also one of the first libels to attack the new royal favourite, George Villiers, Marquis of Buckingham, identifying him here with the pro-Spanish, pro-Catholic forces at court.
“The poore souldiers feare turned into policie”
Young witts are soone seduced and alwaies apt
to neglect danger till they be intrapt
Our Phaeton forsakes old Phœbus race1
Anchises will not tread Eneas2 trace
Ah, Ah my hart doth pant to heare and see
5The devilish plott of Spanish trechery
Now doth the Buckingham3 with recreation
not affect the nimrodes4 of our nation
Our Fauns persued by currs that thirst for blood
Jesuits, Friers, monkes, that damned brood.
10Alas poor Watt,5 thy hands to short to shunn
by turning them whom thou canst not outrunn
God preserve thee and we to doe thee good
Will trie our strength, and spend our dearest blood
Doe not sacrifice to Baal6 nor crave a bull7
15But scorne the terrors of a Popish gull.
Swime with the Dolphin if thou art soe bent
Our hope is almost with expecting spent
Hast to thy shelter know this thy doome
Few freinds abroade close enemies at home.
20Source. Bodleian MS Rawl. D.1048, fol. 76v
I2
1 Our Phaeton...race: Phaeton, the son of Phoebus (Apollo, the sun god), drove the chariot of the sun off its usual course. The story of Phoebus and Phaeton was often used in Jacobean political poetry to depict disorder and misgovernment. It is possible that the allusion refers here to the young favourite Buckingham’s dangerously growing influence on the course of political affairs. For a more certain use of the myth to criticize Buckingham’s power, see “From such a face whose Excellence”. <back>
2 Anchises...Eneas: Aeneas, the mythical Trojan founder of Rome, was the son of Anchises. This line may allude to the incident in Book 2 of Virgil’s Aeneid in which Anchises at first refuses to abandon Troy, before changing his mind and being carried from the ruined city by his son. The specific political allusion here is harder to grasp, but should generally be taken as a criticism of royal failure to follow the specifically anti-Spanish policies advocated in the poem and personified by Ralegh. <back>
3 Buckingham: George Villiers, appointed Earl of Buckingham in 1617, and Marquis of Buckingham early in 1618. <back>
4 nimrodes: Genesis 10.9 describes Nimrod as “a mighty hunter before the Lord”. Here Nimrod serves as a figure of Protestant militarism. <back>
6 sacrfice to Baal: perform idolatrous worship to a false God (i.e. submit to the false religion of “popery”). <back>
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