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.
J1 Waste not a signe that courtlye Rosse should fall
Notes. The single surviving copy of this obscene attack on Anne Cecil, Lady Roos, survives in the commonplace book of William Davenport of Bramhall, Cheshire. The charge that Lady Roos wore fake pudenda or pubic hair is repeated in Francis Osborne’s unpublished 1650s’ play The True Tragicomedy Formerly Acted at Court (see Bellany, Politics 275).
“A Lybell uppon the Ladie Rosse”
Waste not a signe that courtlye Rosse should fall
when that her Mirkine1 lost his Coronall2
what tricke in dancinge could the devill produce
to fitte her too a haire and make it loose
Twas no Caper.3 for she hath ofte bene boulder
5when she advancte her legge on one mans shoulder
Sure some crosse poynte:4 for in open waye5
her Mirkine nere was foundered or made straye
who had the harder chance I praye you reade
the Page that founde or she that lost her bearde.
10Source. CCRO MS CR 63/2/19, fol. 20r
J1
1 Mirkine: merkin. The exact meaning of the term is a little vague here; in contemporary usage, a merkin could be the female pudenda, a fake vagina, or fake pubic hair. <back>
2 Coronall: crown; here, presumably, pubic hair. <back>
3 Caper: an energetic type of dance. <back>
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