---

“A Song”

Come arme thy self brave England

Put on thin iron coate

And shake of dull securitie

Which made this Kingdome dote

For thou hast long clothed bin

5

In silken robes of peace

Which made our enymyes bragge & boast

And our passions cease.

When peace first entred Berwicke1

And threw our bulwarks downe

10

Dismounted all our ordinance

That furnished the towne

And by this long continuance

It hath all most un donne us

Which makes our enimyes bragge and boast

15

And thinke to overcome us.

Our castles our blockhouses

That should affront our foes

Were kept this 27 yeares2

By pigens, pyes, and crowes

20

Or by some ancient beads man3

That scarse a flie could kill

While hee lies sleeping in the gate

A begger steales his bill.4

Our brass and Iron peeces

25

Are eaten up with rust

Insteed of balles and powder

Are cramd with durt & dust

And those that yet stand mounted

Are of soe milde condition

30

They dare not shoote against theire foes

Tis out of their commission.

Faire Essex, Suffolke, Northfolke,

Prepared were to fight

But yet the theevish Dunkerks

35

Still robd us in our sight.5

And is not this a shame

A greife and a vexation

That one poore paultry lowsy towne

should trouble a whole Nation.

40

Wee kill them all in taverns

With oaths and bugbeare words

And in a drunken quarrell

Goe forth and shew our swords

And after this bravado

45

Come in and drinke againe

A health to the confusion of

The pride and power of Spaine.

And for this quaffing valour

A captaine hee is made6

50

Because hee went into the feild

And shew’d his naked blade

Hee purchast hath a beaver7

A buffcoate and a belt

To make a voyage ore the seas

55

To fetch a flanders felt.8

God bless our noble K. and Queene,

And eke our Lady Besse9

And send us better generalls

Then were in the last presse10

60

And send us such commaunders

As in Elizas reigne

And then wee need not feare the Turke

The Devill or pride of spaine.

---

Source. BL MS Sloane 1792, fols. 74v-75v

R4

Quick links to other poems within this section

Select page here R0. Introduction R1 Reader, Ile be sworne R2 Surely the face R3 Vainglorious man R4 Come arme thy self R5 See what a love R6 A health to my Lady R7 U. R. I. C. R8 Landless Will: R9 Two Parliaments dissolv’d

¹   When peace...Berwicke: sardonic reference to James’s journey in 1603 to assume the English throne, travelling from Edinburgh and crossing into England at the town of Berwick. James liked to be known for his commitment to peace. <back>

²   this 27 yeares: presumably twenty-seven years from James’s accession in 1603. <back>

³   beads man: in Catholic religious practice, a beadsman is a man employed to pray for the welfare of another. Here, the term signifies perhaps a man left as a kind of pre-Reformation relic, or perhaps more generally a harmless subordinate. <back>

⁴   bill: slightly ambiguous, but probably referring to a weapon, similar to a halberd, used by both soldiers and constables. <back>

⁵   Faire Essex...our sight: privateers from Dunkirk, a town held by the Spanish, troubled English shipping in the late 1620s. Plans for a joint Anglo-Dutch attack on Dunkirk came to nothing. <back>

⁶   And for this...hee is made: it is not clear whether these lines refer to a particular man. <back>

⁷   beaver: face-guard of a helmet. <back>

⁸   Because hee went...flanders felt: while the exact events (if any) behind these lines are unclear, the meaning is straightforward; the poet expresses indignation at those who put interests of trade above those of English Protestant militarism. <back>

⁹   our Lady Besse: probably King Charles’s sister, Elizabeth, who became a symbol for those in England who desired a more militant foreign policy after she and her husband, the Elector Frederick, were driven into exile by Habsburg forces. <back>

¹⁰   And send us...the last presse: presumably a reference to the last military mobilization, c.1627-28. A sardonic glance at the leadership of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, is probably intended. <back>