---

“A dreame alludinge to my L of Essex, and his adversaries”

Where Medwaye greetes old Thamesis silver streames1

There did I sleepe, and then my thought did dreame

A stately HART2 did grase on Northerne shore                      [m.note: “Earle of Essex”]

of Thamasis, his head full highe he bore

Of feature comelie, and of couradge bold

5

Sterne was his lookes, yet lov’d of young and old.

The LION3 helde him deere, and had cause whie                   [m.note: “The Queene”]

He did the lion’s throne soe fortefie

That neither Romish wolfe nor Spanishe beare4

The Lion cold hurte or one poore lambkin teare.

10

Me thought I sawe a CAMMELS5 uglie broode                    [m.note: “Sir Rob: Cecill

That on the other side of Medwaie stood                               crookbackt”]

He coulde not relishe silver Medwaes foame

A muddye BROOKE6 pleas’d better mixt with loame.           [m.note: “L. Cobham”]

His meate blood RAWE,7 his salletts all were REWE.8          [m.note: “Sir Walt Rawleigh”]

15

Whose Wardes9 he swallowe could, and never chewe.

The gorged Camell to the Lion came

God sheilde your Grace, and to your foes bring shame.

The HART is all to great, he beares the swaye

The peoples love he hathe, your loves decay

20

If a preservative your Grace will take

Il’e make you stronger, Il’e make proude HARTE to quake

Of Camels milke you shall twoe spoonefulles take

Treble as much from fleeringe10 Brooke his lake

To this yow must ad a stalke of bitter REWE

25

With sugred lies well altogether brewe

A leafe wee’le have from Co-oake11 old his tree                 [m.note: “Sir Ed: Coke”]

That planted was of late in Cicelye12                                   [m.note: “Sir Ro: Cecyll”]

Should I quoth Lion thinke he meanes me ill

My banners he displaide on Gallian plaine.13

30

And Gerreon foil’d14 and did us glorie gaine

O quoth the Cammell Hibernia15 let him swaye

And tame the woolfes which on there foldes doe praie

Me thought he cheerelie went, yet scarce was there

But home bredd wolves, our flockes at home did teare

35

A thowsand wolves he found and made them stoope

And all he tam’d,16 whoe sicke and doth not droope

He sicke retir’d, to Lion welcome was

Till Camell brought a poison in a Glass

Which scarce had warm’d the Hart but night was daie

40

And Lion roard, and th’ Hart was sent awaye17

O that a Camell should a lion leade

I saide, and thought I dream’d yet did I dreade

Cammell for burthen is, and for the waie

And not for kingdoms sterne and scepters swaye.

45

By sleight yet Camell swaies, and LION sleepes

And noble Hart in dampie dongeon18 keepes

Wake noble Lion and this Cammell scorne

And teare him that thy Noble Hart hath torne.

Your Grace to Ireland should the Camell send

50

His backe will beare Tirone19 and never bend

Or him or els white liverd LION20 sende                            [m.note: “Char: Howard

Poore Hart escape, this Lion soone will mend                     L. Admirall”]

To Ireland (generall) thrice renowned swaine

That bravelie triump’t on St. James his plaine.21

55

Goodlye thie feature is, thy stature’s talle

Thy couradge foh,22 thie witt God knowes is smalle.

Sterne Yorke in Irishe broiles sometimes did saye

Send Sommerset if yow will loose the daye23

And send this Lion alwaies pale for dreade

60

Hee’le take the gold and bless himself from leade

Honor to wynne to Ireland he would faine

But that ould fathers24 Ghost doeth him restreyne

When on his death bedd chardged him eaven soe

To Ireland (sonne) see that thou never goe

65

Or send him RAWE whose conscience now is seared25

That knowes not Jove, nor Plato26 ever feared.

For he Pithagoras sowle doeth fast enclose

Within his breast, by Metempsucose27

But fie he waxeth penitent of late

70

And sinnes of former daies he now doeth hate

He will noe more in Court faire Ladass28 staine

Nor Chimney money beg to Comons paine29

Nor cease to be one of the dampned Crewe

Nor paye the score for puddinges that is due

75

Heele swere by God and worship Devill30 for gaine

Tobacco boye or sacke31 to swaye his paine

Then I awoke a frighted with the noise

And sawe my frightfull dreames were dreaminge toies.32

---

Source. Bodleian MS Don. c.54, fols. 19r-20r

Other known sources. BL Add MS 58215, fol. 46v

A7

Quick links to other poems within this section

Select page here A0. Introduction A1 The Word of Deniall A2 The Disease of the stomack A3a Goe soule & b Flye soule A3c Staye Conick soule A4 Courts scorne A5 Courts commender A6 Go Eccho of the minde A7 Where Medwaye greetes A8 Admir-all weaknes A9 Proude and ambitious A10 Essex prayes A11England thy early prime A12 He that in Belgia fought A13 Chamberlaine Chamberlaine A14 England men say of late A15 This day is made Knight A16 Essex did spend

¹   Where Medwaye greetes...streames: the River Medway runs through northern Kent to meet the North Sea at Chatham. Its outflow meets that of the River Thames (“Thamesis”) at a sandbank known as the Nore, just north of Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey. <back>

²   HART: male deer or stag; representing the Earl of Essex, whose crest included a deer. In 1589, George Peele described Essex as “famous by hys Crest: / His Raine Deere racking with proud and stately pace” (An eclogue gratulory A2v). <back>

³   LION: Queen Elizabeth, whose royal arms as sovereign of England included lions. <back>

⁴   neither Romish wolfe nor Spanishe beare: the twin forces of international Catholicism—the papacy in Rome and the King of Spain—which seemed implacably intent upon the destruction of the Elizabethan regime and the forcible re-Catholicisation of England. <back>

⁵   CAMMELS: Sir Robert Cecil, whose deformed back was often cruelly mocked, as in the marginal note; “crookbackt”, like a camel. <back>

⁶   BROOKE: Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham, Cecil’s brother-in-law. <back>

⁷   RAWE: allusion to the name of Ralegh. <back>

⁸   salletts all were REWE: a sallet was a piece of armour, part of a helmet; “rew” is an old-fashioned variant of “raw”. <back>

⁹   Wardes: Cecil was appointed Master of the Court of Wards in May 1599, succeeding his father Lord Burghley (who had died in August 1598). Cecil’s appointment was an especially bitter blow to Essex, who had long been mooted as Burghley’s successor in the post. <back>

¹⁰   fleeringe: grinning; laughing scornfully or mockingly. <back>

¹¹   Co-oake: Sir Edward Coke. As Attorney-General, he led the Crown’s various legal actions against Essex. He also harboured a grudge against the Earl for very publicly (but unsuccessfully) backing Francis Bacon for the post of Attorney-General in 1593. <back>

¹²   Cicelye: pun on the name Cecil. <back>

¹³   Gallian plaine: Essex commanded an English expeditionary force to France (Gallia) in 1591-92. <back>

¹⁴   Gerreon foil’d: in Greek mythology, Geryon was a triple-bodied, winged giant whose famous herd of red cattle was stolen by Hercules as the tenth of his twelve labours. Geryon supposedly lived in the far west, which suggests that he represents here the King of Spain. This interpretation is especially probable because it seems to embody another allusion to the work of Edmund Spenser. In Spenser’s Faerie Queene, Book 5, Cantos 10-11 (published in 1596), the “fell Tyrant” Geryoneo, the son of Geryon, is described as having seized the lands of Belge (i.e. the embodiment of the Low Countries) and assailing Sir Burbon (i.e. Henri IV of France). This is a clear reference to the forces of Philip II of Spain—“th’armes and legs of three, to succour him in fight” of the three-bodied Geryoneo (5.10.8) seemingly alluding to Philip’s three chief dominions of Spain, Portugal and either Flanders or the New World. “Foil’d” means trampled under foot, defeated. In 1596, Essex and the Lord Admiral, Charles Howard, led a large amphibious force which destroyed a Spanish fleet, stormed the Spanish city of Cadiz (in poetic terms, situated close to the Pillars of Hercules—the Straits of Gibraltar) and carried off a vast quantity of booty, humiliating and enraging Philip. <back>

¹⁵   Hibernia: Ireland. Some of Essex’s supporters believed that his appointment as Lord Lieutenant in Ireland in 1599 was deliberately engineered by his enemies to keep him away from the Queen and make him dependent upon their good will for the provision of fresh supplies. <back>

¹⁶   And tame the woolfes...And all he tam’d: the Camel (Cecil) urges Elizabeth to send Essex to Ireland to end the rebellion that was ravaging that kingdom and threatening the Queen’s authority there (“tame the woolfes...there”). Essex found the task far more demanding than he had been led to believe (encountering “a thowsand wolves” there), but finally brought the Queen’s enemies to heel. However, while Essex was in Ireland, “home bredd wolves” (i.e. Essex’s domestic rivals, led by Cecil himself) had taken advantage of the Earl’s absence to gorge themselves upon “our flockes at home” (i.e. without Essex’s presence to serve as a counterweight, his rivals had been able to amass wealth and authority for themselves, regardless of the harm which this caused to the Queen and her other subjects). In reality, Essex was only able to reimpose a tenuous English authority on the southern half of Ireland and could do no more than arrange a temporary truce with Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone in Ulster. Essex’s domestic rivals certainly seemed to benefit from his absence, with Cecil, for example, being appointed Master of the Court of Wards. <back>

¹⁷   He sicke retir’d...sent awaye: describing Essex’s unexpected return to court from Ireland early in the morning of 28 September 1599. According to one account, the travel-smeared Essex initially found “a sweet calm” with Elizabeth, but after lunch “found her much changed in that small tyme” (Collins 2:127). He was subsequently placed under arrest. The reference to the Camel (i.e. Cecil) bringing poison in a glass is probably not to be taken literally (as in the famous case of Dr. Roderigo Lopez, who was executed in 1594 for allegedly trying to poison the Queen), but in the more general sense that his dissimulation turned the truthfulness associated with glass (or a mirror) on its head, bewitching the Queen into seeing night as day. <back>

¹⁸   dampie dongeon: Essex was remanded into the custody of Lord Keeper Egerton at York House. <back>

¹⁹   Tirone: Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, leader of the Irish confederation in arms against Elizabeth, and allied with Spain. The plea that the Lion (Elizabeth) should allow the Hart (Essex) to finish his work in Ireland seems to suggest that this poem was written before Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, was appointed as his successor in Ireland on 18 October 1599. <back>

²⁰   white liverd LION: Charles Howard, Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord Admiral of England and created Earl of Nottingham in 1597. Lord Admiral Nottingham is called a lion because the Howard crest includes “a lion on a chapeau”. <back>

²¹   bravelie triump’t’t...plaine: Nottingham served as commander of the army raised during August 1599 in expectation of a new Spanish Armada. The mobilisation proved a false alarm (mocked as “the Invisible Armada”), but large numbers of troops briefly massed around London. <back>

²²   Thy couradge foh: i.e. “Thy courage—foh!” (an expression of scorn for Nottingham’s courage). <back>

²³   Sterne Yorke...loose the daye: Nottingham is here compared to Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset (d.1455), who cut a fine figure at the court of Henry VI and was protected by the King, despite consistent military failure and calls that he should face trial for his misdeeds. Somerset was despised as an incompetent coward by Richard, Duke of York (1411-1460), whose own military efforts in France during the early 1440s had been undermined by the diversion of resources to John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset. York subsequently became heir presumptive to Henry VI in 1447, but was forced to serve as Lord Lieutenant in Ireland by his enemies, 1449-1450. This comparison between Nottingham and Somerset implicitly compares Essex to York, who had Somerset arrested during his brief regency in 1453. <back>

²⁴   ould fathers: reference to William Howard, Lord Howard of Effingham (1510?-1573). <back>

²⁵   seared: dried up, withered, rendered incapable of feeling; a term often applied to the consciences of sinners in religious discourse of this period. <back>

²⁶   Jove, nor Plato: Jove, or Jupiter, was king of the gods in the classical pantheon. Plato (427-347 BC) was one of the most famous philosophers of the classical world, but his name here may stand for philosophy itself. Here the author jokingly reverses the fear and knowledge associated with Jove and Plato. <back>

²⁷   Pithagoras...Metempsucose: Pythagoras (582-500 BC), the classical philosopher and mathematician, was famous for espousing the notion of metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls, by which the human body was only a temporary vessel for a soul which might be reborn into different bodies time and again. <back>

²⁸   Ladass: possible scribal error; perhaps read “Ladies”. Ralegh was famously banned from court in 1592 after his secret marriage to the Maid of Honour Elizabeth Throckmorton was revealed when she gave birth to a son. <back>

²⁹   Chimney...paine: Ralegh was notorious for his willingness to extract money by any means possible. <back>

³⁰   swere by God and worship Devill: the charge of atheism, commonly levelled against Ralegh. <back>

³¹   Tobacco boye or sacke: this should perhaps be read as “Tobacco, boye, or sacke”, thereby listing a series of vices associated with Ralegh. Ralegh was a famous pipe-smoker and supposedly introduced tobacco to England from the New World. The new fashion for smoking was seen by many as dangerously decadent and a sign of sheer hedonism. The mention of “boye” suggests the crime of sodomy, which was often associated with atheism, of which Ralegh was so often accused. “Sacke” is white wine from Spain or the Canary Islands and hence suggests drunkenness. This list of vices is notable for representing un-English (or, in the case of sodomy, unnatural and un-Christian) debauchery supposedly practised by Ralegh and his friends. <back>

³²   toies: tricks; idle fancies. <back>