---

Landless Will: of Lambeth strand1

and blacke Tom Tyrant of Ireland2

like Fox and woolfe did Lurke

with many Rookes and madgepies

to picke out good King Charles his eyes

5

and then be Pope and Turke.3

And still they have him by the nose

he cannot see his Freinds from’s Foes

nor yett theire divellish plott,

but since the vermine are found out

10

and lately hunted by the Route

they stinke most Pestilent hott

Whilst that in ballance even stoode

the Church, the state, like souldiers Good

bravely boare upp the heade;

15

and with them sweetly did conspire

Peace, wealth and honor to acquire

without Coercive dreade.

But these Inovators4 doe Indevoure

the King and Subjects for to severe

20

and them to subdevide,

Tom doth the Commons racke & teare,

and Will. the Clergies skull up reare

which weighs downe all with Pride

Will, faine would weare a Triple Crowne5

25

and Tom with scepter6 would beate downe

and breake the Commons Pates,

For the poore Protestants sage knaves

would be good Subjects yet not slaves

to new found Rights and rates

30

Tom like a Turkish Mungarell

to whom noe fiend nor divell of hell

can with more Cruell dreade

squeese the poore Irish Cramacrees7

and makes them peepe through Pilleries

35

as they weare smitten deade.

Through blood and Teares he hath gott In

a Cursed Treasure to the Kinge

which poysons all the reste

unprosperous to Kinge and State

40

their Counsells all unfortunate

God bless us from the beaste.

And nowe the beast I thinke uppon

tis tyme to leave this Bedlam Tom8

that soe hath rent the state,

45

unto his Pox and flux and stone9

that Justly racks his flesh and bone

although it be to late.

Now to the little fox againe

and that perkinge wretch the wrenn10

50

that Peaetely11 ginns to prate.

What domineeringe do they keepe

like Pigmies (hercules being asleepe)12

and stroute it or’e the state.

Till Prentises caught upp the clubb

55

and swore them with those flailes to dubb

which made them skip aside;13

and duck where noe high alter was14

To let the Peoples fury passe

Soe odious was theire pride.

60

Each Petty Preist practisd with hope,

and state enough to be a pope,

which most the wife denies

whom to recompence doth raise his crest

and make him like the Roman beast

65

Fuller of hornes then Eyes;15

but Plott and pride beginn to fall

Scottland hath kickt them oute of all;16

and England lately Gauled

doth wince, and lift to throwe the loade

70

since Ireland is soe undertrode,

neare was poore Ile soe mau’ld

Nowe England sure wilbe noe slave

haveing scapt soe many a knave

that lewdly laboured Itt

75

Tom Turke thy Paines and scepters lost

Pope Will thy triple Crowne is Crost

The triple Tree17 must fitt

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Source. BL MS Harley 6947, fol. 210r-v

Other known sources. NLS MS Advocates 19.3.8, fol. 33r; TCD MS 806, fol. 535r

R8

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   Landless Will: of Lambeth strand: as Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud’s London residence was Lambeth Palace; however, the poet seems concerned to point out that Laud does not own this property, and perhaps also to remind the reader of his relatively humble background (as the son of a Reading clothier). <back>

²   blacke Tom Tyrant of Ireland: Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, was Lord-Deputy of Ireland, where he established a reputation for harsh and authoritarian methods. <back>

³   Pope and Turke: Laud was commonly charged by his enemies with popish leanings; “Turk” stands as symbolic of arbitrary and tyrannous rule. <back>

⁴   Inovators: in the years preceding the Civil War, it is notable that the representatives of various different political and religious interests used the charge of “innovation” against their enemies. To Laud and Strafford, the “Puritans” were innovators; here, as in other proto-oppositionist discourse, the charge is turned back against them. <back>

⁵   Triple Crowne: i.e. of a pope. <back>

⁶   scepter: i.e. of a king. <back>

⁷   Irish Cramacrees: while it has not been possible to trace the term “Cramacrees”, the poet clearly signals sympathy here for the native Irish, politically repressed and financially “squeezed” under Wentworth’s rule. <back>

⁸   Bedlam Tom: madman; inhabitant of the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, used in early modern London to house lunatics. <back>

⁹   Pox and flux and stone: medical terms; loosely, venereal disease, dysentery, kidney-stone. <back>

¹⁰   that perkinge wretch the wrenn: Matthew Wren, Bishop of Norwich and one of Laud’s closest allies. Wren’s persecution of Puritans had attracted considerable comment, most notably in the pamphlet Newes from Ipswich (1636), probably written (at least in part) by William Prynne. <back>

¹¹   Peaetely: possibly “pertly”; i.e. boldly, audaciously. <back>

¹²   What domineeringe...being asleepe): the image is of small and insignificant people exploiting the lethargy of a ruler. “[H]ercules” here may be code for the King. <back>

¹³   Till Prentises...skip aside: probable allusion to an incident that occurred soon after the collapse of the Short Parliament, in May 1640. A mob of over 1000 apprentices descended upon Lambeth Palace, Laud’s London residence, to protest at his reputed role in the Parliament’s failure. Laud dodged the protest (i.e. “skip[ped] aside”) by moving into Whitehall. <back>

¹⁴   and duck...was: allusion to Laud’s controversial position on Church furnishings; the subtext is that the high altar cannot here protect him against the people’s fury. <back>

¹⁵   Each Petty Preist...then Eyes: the scurrilous suggestion here is that Laudian priests are so committed to proto-Catholic practices that they resist sex with their own wives, and as a result they are rewarded with the “hornes” of a cuckold. The reference to “the Roman beast” draws on imagery of the Book of Revelation, which describes the Whore of Babylon sitting on “a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns” (Revelation 17.3). <back>

¹⁶   Scottland hath kickt...all: reference to the Bishops’ Wars of 1639 and 1640, and possibly also to the issue that prompted the Wars, Scottish resistance to the Laudian English Liturgy. <back>

¹⁷   triple Tree: i.e. Tyburn (place of execution in London). <back>