Notes. The only known version of this poem exists in the unpublished section of the news-diary of John Rous, where it is transcribed alongside libels and other documents on events in the 1624 Parliament.

Our digby1 digd’e but digd’e in vaine

for powdering Pope & king of Spaine

& though he dig’de with might & maine

to make a matche twixte us & Spaine

take away S what doth remaine

but England matched unto paine

& S is but a hissing piece

a noise of serpents, voice of geese

& geese they are being kept under

but give them leave they’ll roare like thunder.

Source. BL Add. MS 28640, fol. 149v

Oi3

¹   digby: John Digby, Earl of Bristol and English ambassador to Spain. Digby was widely characterized as an agent of Spanish ambitions and chief English architect of the Spanish Match. <back>