---

“The Coppie of a Libell put into the hand of Queene Elizabeths statue1 in Westminster by an unknowne person Anno domini 1621. ultimo Martii. 1623

To the blessed Saint2 Elizabeth of most famous memory.

The humble petition of her now most wretched and most Contemptible, the Commons of poore distressesd England.”

If Saints in heaven cann either see or heare

Or help poor Mortalls, O then lend thin eare

Looke downe blest Soule, and heare oh heare us nowe

Whose humble harts lowe as our knees doe bowe

Looke on our sufferings, thinke but on our wrongs

5

That hardly can be spoke by mortall tongues

O be not nowe lesse gratious then of old:

When each distressed Vassall might be bold

Into thyne open hand to putt his greife

And thence receive tymely and faire releife

10

Be not lesse good, less gratious then before

In heaven the supplications of the poore

Are heard assoone as suits of greatest kings

If our petitions then blest soule want wings

To mount them to the Judge of Judges throne

15

O helpe them mightie soveraigne with thine owne

Carry our just complaints since just they are

And make a tender of them at the barr

Where noe corruption, noe fraud, noe bribe

Noe griping lawyer, avaritious scribe

20

Noe favorite, noe parasite, noe Mynion3

Cann lead, or alter the opinion

Of that great Chancellour, their o lay them downe

And merritt praise in heaven, on earth a crowne.

Where to begin (deserver of all glorie)

25

Or howe to tell our unexampled storie

Heaven knowes we do not knowe, nay which is worst

Thy once best subjects have so oft bene curst

For offering upp Petitions of this kinde

As see wee trimble till wee call to mynde

30

Thy wonted goodnes that oh that doth cheere us

That onely gives us hope that thou wilt heare us.

When heaven was pleas’d honor’d soule to call thee hence4

And soe make wretched for some great offence

This little land. oh then begunn our feares

35

And had wee then the kingdome drown’d with teares,

And in those floods convay’d our soules to heaven

To waite on thyne, wee had not now bene driven

To cry, and call thee from thy fellowe Saints

To heare and pittie those our just complaints.

40

O Pardon blest; but that our grosse omission

And daigne to further this our poore petition,

And wee will make the name of blest Eliza

Equall the Avies of that great Maria5

Noe snuffeling rascall through his hornepie6 nose

45

Shall tell thy storie in his ill tun’d prose,

Nor shewe thy stature to each princes Groome

The Monuments weele build shall make proud Rome

On pilgrimage to come, and att thy shrine

Offer their guifts as to a thing divine

50

And on an alter framed of richest stones

Weele daylie tender sighes teares and groanes.

Eternitie shall sleepe and long tongued Fame

Forgett to speake ere wee forgett thy name

Read blessed Soul, oh read it and beleive us

55

Then give it to his hands that cann relieve us.

The faithfull Beadsmen7 and dayly oratours the poore distressed Commons of dejected England.

The most humble Petition of the nowe most miserable the Commons of Long afflicted England.

If bleeding harts dejected soules find grace

Then all disposer turne not backe thy face

From us thy Suppliants thrice seaven sonnes8 have worne

60

Their Summer suits since wee begann to mourne

Ægypts tenn plagues9 wee have endured twice told

Since blest Eliza was with Saints enrowl’d

Thy Messingers of wrath their vialls powre

Each day upon our heads no howre

65

Plagues begett plagues & vengeance fruitfull growes

As if there weere noe period for our woes

Have our black sinns great God rais’d such a cloud

Twixt us and heaven as cries though neere soe loud

Can get no passage to thy mearcie seate

70

Are our iniquities good God soe great

Soe infinite as neither groanes nor teares

Cann entrance gett Remember but the yeares

Of our affliction, then forgett wee crave

Our crying sinnes bury then in the grave

75

Of darke oblivion thrust them in the syde

Of our Redeemer,10 oh lett them be tyde

In chaines that they may never rise againe

Lett us noe longer begg and sue in vaine

Lett this our supplication, this complaint

80

Tendred by our late sovereigne now thy Saint

Att last find grace, was’t not wee humbly pray

Enough that first thou took’st that Queene away

Was not that dove, that lambe of innocence

Sufficient sacrifice for our offence

85

Oh no! our sins out liv’d her, & our crimes

Did threaten to outlast the last of tymes

Thou did’st remove her that she might not see

The sadd beginning of our miserie.

Then like a showre of hailestones11 fell thy darts

90

Oh angrie death12 how many thousand harts

Weere wounded in one yeare? how many bleed

And wisht to dye when all they lov’d weere dead

Mothers left childlesse children quite bereft

Of carefull parents, Nay there was not left

95

A paire of frends to comfort one another

Who wanted not a sister or a brother.

Where was the husband, where the wife could say

Wee should not be devour’d this night this day

Death so his rage, and awful power shewed

100

That men on earth as corne on ground lay strowed

The sadd remembrance of it still remaines

Then thy stretcht arme of Vengeance bound in chaines

The fruitfull fields13 till birds, beasts, hearbs plants trees

Did famish, faint, dry, droop, yea wither and frees

105

And nothing issued from the barren earth

But that leane monster, and thinnefaced death

Next inundations14 rose such as before

Since Noahs flood15 neere topt ore British shoare

Where men and beasts alike ingrave theire bones

110

In the moyst waves instead of Marble stones

How often hath the sunn withdrawne his light

And turn’d our day into the shape of night

Had Egipt thicker darknes16 than had wee

When cleerest eyes at midday could not see

115

Unholesome mists, strange foggs rumors of warrs

Evill portending commets blazing starrs17

Prodigious birthes18 unnaturall sea-seasons

Spurning Philosophers beyond their reason

Frighting the poore, the rich exhorting

120

From their downe bedds where they do lye snorting

Heaven in combustion seemed19 the sky in armes

The starrs beat drummes the spheares did sound alarms

The ayre did often bloodie cullours spread

And all to rouze us from the puft upp bedd

125

Of base securitie, yet nought would fright us

Till hee had robed us, oh what did delight us

Henry20 our joy, Henry whose every limbe

Threatned to conquer death and not death him,

Henry our pride even Henry the blest

131

In whome great Brittaine once sett upp his rest

Who had not in that one, all ample share?

What subject had not rather lost his heire?

What tender mother did not wish that dart

Had glanc’d from him and strooke her darlings hart

135

All that weere vertuous, all that weere good

Turn’d their eyes rivers into streames of blood

The Egiptian waters bitter weare,21 but knowe

This toucht the very Soule that did not soe22

O pardon heaven all plagues that went before

140

Had lost themselves in this and weere noe more

To be remembred, that oh that alone

Might well have made us weepe ourselves to stone23

The spawne of Pharo could their blood bee prized

All the first borne that soe weere sacriefized24

145

All that base frie compar’d to this our Henry

Deserves noe mention, noe thought, noe memory,

Lusting Sodome25 such hath thy mercie bene

Although it did abound in crying sinne

Could not take fire untill they weere removed26

150

That thou in mercy like in goodnes loved

And thyne anoynted shee must leave this cittie

Before’t cann be destroyed such was thy pittie

Such thy goodnes: oh is there yet full tenn

Is there great God a number yet of men

155

Whose innocence may slacke thy kindled Ire

And keep this Sodom-Brittaine from the fire

Of thy just anger, is there yet a soule

Whose vertue power hath but to controule

Thy heav’d upp hand of Justice if there bee

160

For his, or her sake rouse thy clemencie

Awake thy mercie lett thy Justice slumber

And save the greater by the lesser number

For his or her sake we do humblie pray

Respite of tyme give us a longer day

165

And then enabled by thy grace and favour

Wele purchase pardon by our good behaviour

Plague, Famine, darknes, inundations

Wee have endured feare of innovations

With expectation of the worst cann followe

170

Dayly torments us and wee hourely swallowe

Our very spiritts with feare and horror

Wee nightly sleepe in dread awake in terror

Nor are we all this while from Vermyn free

The caterpillers27 hang on every tree

175

Lousie Projectors,28 Monopoly mongers29

A crewe of upstart30 Rascalls whose hungers

Cann never be satisfied a sort of slaves

More insatiable farr then whores or graves

Things without soule bredd onely of the slyme

180

Of this old age this base decrepitt tyme

A crewe of upstart parasites that ryse

And doe more mischiefe then the Egiptian flies31

These in our gardens in our houses swarme

One drinks a Mannor another eats a farme

185

This with a lordshipp warmes his lusting whore

That by the sale of Justice doth procure

A tennement or two which having gott

By violence hee drownes them in a pott32

They enter citties corporations

190

Worke not, yet live by occupations

They have not trade, and yet thers none are free

From paying them a tax a fyne a fee

Ægipt had skipping grashoppers33 I yeild

That eate the herbes and fruits of every feild

195

And wee have skipjack34 courtiers I dare say

That doe devoure farr more in one poore day

Than they in Pharoas age could ere have done

The boundemen35 were paid but from some to some

But these for three apprentishipps36 have eate

200

The fruite of all our labours all our sweet

Have we not froggs37 oh yes in every ditch

Devouring poore, impoverishing the rich,

Busie intelligencers38 Base informers

Like toades and froggs lye croaking in all corners

205

Promooting Rascalls whose invenom’d tongues

Have done thy suppliants infinite wrongs

Where they desire to enter theirs noe defence

No antient title noe inheritance

Cann keepe them out, they wrest and strech the lawe

210

Keepe officers and magistrates in awe

They pluck the ballance from faire justice hand

And make her ministers to their commaunds

The lawefull sceptre of soveraigntie

Is a mercinarie Baude to Villanie

215

There is noe equitie noe lawe nor right

All causes goe by favour, or by might

O God of mercie, what cann more be said

Justice is bought, and sold become a trade

Honors confirr’d on base unworthie groomes

220

And clownes for coyne may pearch on highest roomes39

Power Job had many scabbs40 yet none soe badd

As wee this one and twentie yeares have had

Egipt had botches, Murraines sores that smarted41

But yet they lasted not they soone departed

225

Halfe fortie yeares and more are gone, and past

Since these our vexed Soules tooke light repast

Bowman and Jowler...mate42

Compared to us are in a better state

They cann be heard they cann be rewarded

230

When we are curst, slighted unregarded.

Is a people Heavens falne a degree

Belowe the condition of a dogg but wee

Was there a nation in the Universe

More daring, once more bold, more stout, more ferce43

235

And is there now upon the earths broad face

Any that cann be reckoned halfe soe base

Is there a people soe much scorn’d dispised

Soe laught soe trodd on soe vassaliz’d

Wee that all Europe envy’d, wee even wee

240

Are slaves to those wee kept in slaverie

Where is our ancient nobilitie become

Alas they are suppresst, and in their roome

Like proud usurping lucifers44 their sitts

A sort of upstart fawning parasits45

245

Where is the gentrie all supprest disgrac’d

And arrant knight above them nowe are plac’d

Fiddlers, and fooles with dancers, and with rymers

Are nowe in England made the greatest clymers46

Wee had a Parliament a salve for soares

250

A Magna Charta47 all cast out of doores

The bold and hardie Brittaines conquered are

Without a drumb, a sword or sound of warr

If without cause just heaven wee doe complaine

Then send our supplication backe againe

255

More could wee say, and much more could wee speake

But with the thought of this our harts doe breake

As humble then as wee began to crave

A gratious answere oh be pleased to save

The remnant of thy people turne thy face

260

And lett us once more tast thy saveing grace

Forsake us not o Lord but give

Newe life to those that onely wishe to live.

To approve themselves readie, and faithfully thy Servant and Beadsmen

---

Source. Bodleian MS Malone 23, pp. 32-1448

Other known sources. Commons Petition; “Poems from a Seventeenth-Century Manuscript” 150; Bodleian MS Ashmole 36-37, fol. 303r; Bodleian MS Eng. Poet. c.50, fol. 8r; Bodleian MS Eng. Poet. f.10, fol. 107r; Bodleian MS Rawl. D. 398, fol. 222r; Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 160, fol. 16r; Bodleian MS Top. Cheshire c.7, fol. 3r; BL Add. MS 5832, fol. 202r; BL Add. MS 25707, fol. 76r; BL Add. MS 34217, fol. 39v; BL MS Sloane 363, fol. 11r; BL MS Sloane 1479, fol. 6r; Brotherton MS Lt. 28, fol. 2r; Brotherton MS Lt. q. 44, fol. 2r; Nottingham MS Portland PW V 37, p. 243; St. John’s MS K.56, no. 59 and no. 60; Beinecke MS Osborn b.197, p. 86; Folger MS V.a.275, p. 1; Huntington MS HM 198, 1.62

Niv1

Quick links to other poems within this section

Select page here < N0. Introduction Ni1 You men of Britaine Ni2 A Prince out of Ni3 A Prince out of the North Ni4 If 88 be past then Nii1Some say Sir Edward Nii2 Whiles thy sonnes rash Nii3 The famous Embassador Nii4 The Belgick Frogge Nii5 When we but heare Nii6 Religion the most sacred Niii1 Why? what meanes this? Niii2 Adew deere Don Niii3 Anagram on Count Niv1 If Saints in heaven Niv2 Your bold Petition Mortalls Nv1 What suddayne change Nv2 From Englands happy Nv3 I’ve read of Ilands flotinge Nv4 False on his Deanrye? Nv5 Tell mee for gods sake Nv6 The day was turnd Nv7A Phillipp once to england Nv8 The starre that rose Nv9 Since Arthure, or his Nv10 Ilium deplores, but still Nv11Our eagle is yett flowne Nv12 Poor silly wight that Nv13 Our Prince whom we Nv14 The Prince of Wales Nv15 All the newes thats Nv16 Oh for an Ovid Nv17 The Prince is now Nv18 The fift of August Nvi1O stay your teares yow Nvi2 Contemne not Gracious Nvi3 Withold thy fiery steeds

¹   Queene Elizabeths statue: the effigy on Elizabeth’s tomb in the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey. <back>

²   Saint: Elizabeth is addressed as a saint throughout the poem, and is assumed to have the intercessionary powers attributed to saints in Catholic tradition. <back>

³   Noe favorite...noe Mynion: although the critique is generalized, James’s favourite Buckingham is clearly implied here. <back>

⁴   call thee hence: Elizabeth I died in March 1603. <back>

⁵   Avies of that great Maria: allusion to the Catholic prayer to the Virgin, “Ave Maria” (“Hail Mary”). <back>

⁶   Homepie: probable scribal error; read “hornpipe”. <back>

⁷   Beadsmen: in religious terms, beadsmen were those who were charged with praying for others; the term was also used as a petitionary salutation from inferiors to superiors. <back>

⁸   thrice seaven sonnes: thrice seven suns; i.e. twenty-one years. <back>

⁹   Ægypts tenn plagues: the story of the plagues sent by God to force the Egyptians to free the enslaved Israelites is told in Exodus 7-12. <back>

¹⁰   the syde / Of our Redeemer: literally the wound in Christ’s side; theologically, the poem alludes to the idea that Christ’s blood redeemed mankind’s sins. <back>

¹¹   hailestones: though used metaphorically here, hail was one of the plagues sent by God to Egypt (Exodus 9.18-34). <back>

¹²   angrie death: the next dozen lines of the poem allude to the severe visitation of plague in England during 1603-04. <back>

¹³   bound in chaines / The fruitfull fields: i.e. created food shortages through bad harvests. Though there were localized crises of dearth in 1608, there were no major harvest disasters between 1598 and 1624. <back>

¹⁴   inundations: floods. There were severe floods in South Wales, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Norfolk and elsewhere in 1607 (Walsham 118, 120, 124 n.40). <back>

¹⁵   Noahs flood: see Genesis 6-9. <back>

¹⁶   Had Egipt thicker darknes: the story of the plague of darkness visited upon the Egyptians is in Exodus 10.21-23. <back>

¹⁷   Evill portending commets blazing starrs: the most notorious comet of the early Stuart age was the much discussed “blazing star” of 1618; however, this line probably refers to the comet of 1607. Comets were widely believed to be portents of future disaster. <back>

¹⁸   Prodigious birthes: monstrous births were widely interpreted as providential signs of God’s displeasure. <back>

¹⁹   Heaven in combustion seemed: this and the following two lines refer to meteorological and astrological phenomena interpreted by contemporaries as prodigies and portents. <back>

²⁰   Henry: James I’s eldest son, Henry, who died in November 1612. Henry’s death triggered intense grief among those who saw him as the future hope of a more militant Protestant nation. <back>

²¹   The Egiptian waters bitter weare: perhaps an allusion to Exodus 15.23, where the Israelites in the wilderness “could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter”. <back>

²²   This toucht...did not soe: this line is a little obscure. One possible reading would repunctuate it as “This toucht the very Soule, that did not soe”. Thus, Henry’s death was bitter to the soul, unlike the Egyptian waters whose bitterness did not penetrate as deep. <back>

²³   weepe ourselves to stone: perhaps an allusion to the myth of Niobe, who wept for her lost children even after being turned into a stone. <back>

²⁴   The spawne...were sacriefized: allusion to the plague of the deaths of the first-born sons in Egypt (Exodus 11-12). <back>

²⁵   Sodome: the city of wickedness, destroyed by God (Genesis 19). <back>

²⁶   Could not take fire...weere removed: before destroying Sodom, God had Lot and his family escape (Genesis 19). <back>

²⁷   caterpillers: a common term for corrupt courtiers and officials who despoiled the commonweal. <back>

²⁸   Projectors: devisers of schemes (“projects”) to raise money for the Crown by delegating enforcement powers to private individuals. Ideally, projects should marry private and public gain; too often, however, they appeared to enable private gain at public expense. <back>

²⁹   Monopoly mongers: dealers in monopolies (a common form of project which granted to an individual a monopoly over a manufacturing process or form of economic regulation). Monopolies had been a source of vigorous debate in the Parliament of 1621 (see Section M), and had been used by King and courtiers as rewards to clients and relatives. <back>

³⁰   upstart: of low social origins. <back>

³¹   Egiptian flies: allusion to the plague of flies visited upon the Egyptians (Exodus 8.20-31). <back>

³²   A tennement...in a pott: a little obscure, though perhaps can be read as “exhausts the tenements, corruptly obtained, by wasting resources on riotous consumption (of drink)”. <back>

³³   Ægipt had skipping grashoppers: for the biblical plague of locusts, see Exodus 10:12-19. <back>

³⁴   skipjack: foolish, foppish. <back>

³⁵   boundemen: bondmen; serfs or slaves. <back>

³⁶   for three apprentishipps: apprenticeships were typically seven years long; thus this phrase is best read as a measure of time, twenty-one years. <back>

³⁷   froggs: the plague of frogs that afflicted Egypt is described in Exodus 8.1-14. <back>

³⁸   intelligencers: sellers of information. <back>

³⁹   Honors confirr’d...highest roomes: this couplet alludes generally to the inflation of honours—the profligate granting and sale of titles—under James, and perhaps more specifically to the promotion of socially obscure favourites at the Jacobean court. <back>

⁴⁰   Power Job had many scabbs: among many other afflictions, God gave “Power” ( i.e. “poor”) Job a bad case of boils (Job 2.7). <back>

⁴¹   Egipt had botches...smarted: God inflicted plagues of boils (“botches”) and cattle disease (“Murraines”) upon the Egyptians (Exodus 9.3-6, 9.8-11). <back>

⁴²   Bowman and Jowler, Ringwood and his mate: proverbially-used names of dogs. The allusion here is to James’s well-known love for the hunt—and thus to his care for his hunting dogs, instead of care for his people. <back>

⁴³   More daring...more ferce: it was a common lament in the 1620s that English martial vigour had decayed since Elizabeth’s death. <back>

⁴⁴   lucifers: devils. <back>

⁴⁵   upstart fawning parasits: generally speaking, courtiers who have risen to authority from outside the old nobility. In this context, Buckingham and his kindred are clearly implied. <back>

⁴⁶   Fiddlers...clymers: compare this couplet to the libel on James I’s merry fools and courtiers, “Listen jolly gentlemen”. Buckingham was known to have charmed the King with his dancing skills. <back>

⁴⁷   Magna Charta: Magna Carta, the document asserting the “liberties” of “free men”, extracted by baronial rebels from King John in 1215. <back>

⁴⁸   The order of pages in this manuscript has been disrupted in binding. <back>