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.
B6 Water thy plaints with grace divine
Notes. This libel on Ralegh’s 1603 fall and treason trial plays on a shorter, religious poem, attributed posthumously to Ralegh himself. The latter poem reads: “Water thy plants with grace devine, and hope to live for aye / Then to thy saviour Christe incline, in him make stedfast stay / Rawe is the reason that doth lye within an Atheists head / Which saith the soule of man doth dye, when that the boddies dead” (Ralegh, Poems 137).
Water1 thy plaints with grace divine
and trust in God for aye
And to thy saviour Christ incline
in him make stedfast staye.
Rawe is the reason that doth lie,2
5within thy treacherous head,
To say the soule of Man doth die
when that the Corpse is dead.3
Nowe may you see the soodaine fall,
of him that thought to clime full hie,
10A man well knowne unto you all
whose state you see doth stand Rawlie,4
Time did he take when time did serve,
now is his time neare spent,
Even for him selfe he craved still
15and never would relent.
For he hath run a retchless5 race,
which now hath brought him to disgrace
You that do see his soodaine fall
a warninge be it to you all
20Source. BL Add. MS 22601, fol. 63v
Other known sources. Ralegh, Poems 187; Bodleian MS Ashmole 781, p. 163; Brotherton MS Lt. q. 9, fol. 17r
B6
1 Water: there is a possible pun here, as “Walter” was often pronounced “Water” or “Watter”. <back>
2 Rawe...lie: punning on Ralegh’s name, typically pronounced “Raw-lee”. <back>
3 To say the soule...Corpse is dead: Ralegh and his circle had been suspected of atheism in the 1590s. A 1594 investigation explored whether they did in fact believe in the mortality of the soul, the atheistical belief alleged by this couplet. The prosecution at Ralegh’s treason trial revived the old suspicions. <back>
4 Rawlie: punning again on the pronunciation of Ralegh’s name. <back>
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