Notes. The sole extant copy of this libel was included in a newsletter sent in August 1612 by Benjamin Norton to Thomas More, the agent in Rome for the English Archpriest, George Birkhead. Norton reported that “there bee a multitude of Epitaphes” attacking Cecil, and claimed this one was “one of the cleaneste” (Newsletters from the Archpresbyterate of George Birkhead 193).

Heere sleepes in the Lorde beepepperde with pox1

a Ciciliane monster beegott of a fox2

some caulde him crookebacke & some litle Robbin3

hee bore on his backe a packe4 like ower Dobbin5

yett none coulde rule him, ride, or beestride him

butt he beestrid many or els they beelyde him

by crafte hee gott creditt, & honor by moneye

much hee delighted in huntinge the Cunniye6

but Rotten with ruttinge like sores in september

hee died as hee lived wth a faulte in one member.7

Source. Newsletters from the Archpresbyterate of George Birkhead 193 (from Archives of the Archdiocese of Westminter, Series A, AAW A XI, no. 136, pp. 369-72)

D16

¹   pox: syphilis. <back>

²   fox: Robert Cecil’s father,William Cecil, Lord Burghley was also widely credited with the cunning of a fox—he was, for instance, the courtier Fox in Spenser’s Mother Hubberds Tale. <back>

³   Robbin: diminutive of Robert. <back>

⁴   a packe: Cecil’s hump on his back. <back>

⁵   Dobbin: a horse, and also a diminutive nickname for Robin/Robert. <back>

⁶   huntinge the Cunniye: a lewd pun, literally meaning rabbit (coney) hunting, but here clearly also meaning sexual pursuit of women. <back>

⁷   faulte in one member: presumbly referring to the syphilitic infection of Cecil’s genitals. <back>