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.
Mii9 What hatfull fury dipt thy raging Quill
Notes. This poem responds to “When you awake, dull Brittons, and behould”, defending the parliament’s treatment of Bacon. In the process, it develops a trenchant argument, with some republican undertones, in support of the role of parliament.
“A defence to the Answer made for the Lord Bacon”
What hatfull fury dipt thy raging Quill
in deadly Acconite1 that thow doest fill
each Line with slander and invective spight
against a Sennate whose grave Doome can fright
the most out daring Insolence! fond elfe
5to vallew worth by thine unworthy selfe
no monster multitude (ill tutord mate)
censur’d thy faulty Lord butt such a state
as verry hardly parraleld may bee
for wisedome Courage & Integrety
10Athens Rome Vennice2 yeild preheminence
to theyr farr more admired excellence
butt weer our Comons of a Common merritt
none butt a mallepert3 oreweening4 spirritt
durst tax theyse brave Heroes of the state
15and Reverend Clergy as inordinate
in theyr first sentence, was it not theyr power
that curbed & crusht your famous Chancellour
and this fayre act which you doe brand with shame
shall add renoune to theyr thrice honoured name
20what if defrauding none of that is dew
we graunt that many praysfull parts are trew
which you invest him with, be he a Jemm
fitt to adorne a Royall dyadem
for abstruce knowledg, though the quintessence
25of arts in him keepe private residence
beyond all Common streyn, lett us agree
[gap in the ms: suggesting a missing line]
that he’s the only Phenix of the time
yett this most salvage & inhumane Crime
30of foule extortion soe doth stayne the rest
that whome we most admire, we most detest
oh thow misterious deepe Philosophy
o thow a kingdomes Pillar Pollecy
o filed Phrase, inchaunting elloquence
35why are yee thus estrang’d from innocence
o wretched time; O world of wofull case
wheer wismen studdy Nature more then grace
if that faire Nimph whose awfull majesty
in luster farr surmounts the heavens bright eye
40devine Astraea5 had been harbourd by him
no Cicero, no Cato6 had come nigh him
nor may he now be stild his Country’s father
butt both a name a fact aversed7 it rather
who can with tears bemoane this great mans fall
45or gild his foule sine like a painted wall
who knowing soe much good soe ill did doe
selling both right & wrong & conscience too
A heynous fault & in him most unjust
who had the conscience of a King in trust
50who with such peccadilloes can dispence
I know not what heele call a great offence
butt God and his immediate substitute
would not permitt him longer to pollute
that sacred state but both make ready way
55to what he fear’d, as his doomes dreadfull day
thus is he brought to tast corrections rodd
as a vayne man, not as a demmy God
whose property in doing good, butt evell
though joynd with rarest parts befitts a divell
60who was an angell alsoe ere he fell
and angell like was made Achitophell8
what doe you gaine when with insulting rage
yow bring the dead in scorne upon the stage
if others have done ill, theer’s no defence
65found in retorting crimes, but innocence
or what can it prevayle if man pretend
in doeing evell some more specious end
robbing to purchase land, or give away
will find small difference at the reckoning day
70a just damnation doth to them belong
who under foule pretence, doe fowlest wrong
since then his fault was of soe high a strayne
tweer great ingratitude should he complaine
of his light censure, when that life and limbe
75and Noble titles are preserv’d to him
only the power & wisdome of the land
wrested a weapon from a madd mans hand
had they been more seveer, the Parlament
was nott unfurnisht of a President9
80Tressillian learnt a tricke to stretch a string
though by preventing law to please a King10
but your inconstant moon as ill hath done
not for a King but for Endimion11
your Alban12 knowes (who knowes much more then I)
85how a corrupt Judg was adjudg’d to dye
and his head skinn made lining for a chare
wher his sucksessor satt, he knowes how fayre
Faine speake Count Holland, who for one poore Cowe13
condem’d his bailife to the fatall Bough
90butt fayrer fall the learned Verrulam
and lett this stayne, that late did stayne his fame
be washt by pennytence; long may he live
and from his unexhausted treasure give
Jewels of witt, art, Language, Pollecye
95and teach the world each hidden mistery
of Nature, lett him open all the springs
of Councell fitt to guide the wisest Kings
for lett oblivion cover former Crimes
and he stand honourd to succeeding times
100Source. Huntington MS HM 198, 1.134-36
Mii9
1 Acconite: a poison, derived from a genus of plants of the same name. <back>
2 Athens Rome Vennice: cities associated with republican government, either in ancient or modern times. <back>
3 mallepert: presumptuous, impudent. <back>
4 oreweening: i.e. “overweeing” (having an inflated opinion of oneself). <back>
5 Astraea: in classical mythology, the Just Virgin of the Golden Age; hence a figure representative of justice. <back>
6 no Cicero, no Cato: Roman writers and politicians invoked in “When you awake, dull Brittons, and behould” by way of comparison with Bacon. <back>
7 aversed: averted; opposed. The point is that for Bacon a “fact” of corruption stands in opposition to any “name” of dignity. <back>
8 Achitophell: i.e. Ahitophel, counsellor of King David who plotted against his master (2 Samuel 15.31, 17.1-23). <back>
9 President: i.e. precedent. <back>
10 Tressillian learnt...King: reference to Sir Robert Tressilian, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench under Richard II, who played a critical role in the constitutional crisis of 1386-88. Tressilian co-authored a series of legal statements on the scope of the royal prerogative against the claims of parliament, which effectively accused the parliament of treason. In response, Richard’s baronial enemies accused five of Richard’s advisors of treason, and eventually two (including Tressilian) were executed. Presumably the conviction and execution of Tressilian is the “precedent” to which the poem refers. <back>
11 but your...Endimion: in classical mythology, Endymion was a mortal who loved the moon, and was either put into a permanent sleep by her, or else chose this condition himself. In the early Stuart period the meaning of the figure is also informed by John Lyly’s Elizabethan allegorical play Endimion, The Man in the Moone, in which Endimion (probably the Earl of Leicester) is in fact released from sleep by Cynthia (the moon; Queen Elizabeth). In the present poem, “Endimion” is almost certainly a figure representative of Buckingham: the suggestion being that Bacon has stretched the law for the favourite’s benefit. <back>
12 your Alban: i.e. Bacon, Viscount St. Albans. <back>
13 how a corrupt...Cowe: the details of these precedents, whether factual or mythical, are unclear; however, the poem’s point, about legal corruption and self-interest, is relatively straightforward. <back>
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