Notes. Parts of this poem are excerpted and discussed by Croft (“Reputation” 55, 60) and McRae (Literature 59-61).

The divell now hath fetcht the Ape

Of crooked manners, crooked shape.1

Great were his infirmities,

But greater his enormities

Oppression, lechery, blood, & pride

He liv’d in; & like Herod2 di’d.

Source. Bodleian MS Tanner 299, fol. 11r

D8

¹   Crooked shape: Cecil’s crooked back. <back>

²   Herod: according to the ancient historian Josephus, Herod the Great died in great agony, suffering grotesque symptoms similar to those that allegedly afflicted Cecil. <back>