---

When Charles, hath got the Spanish Gearle1

The Puritans will scold & bralle

But Digbie2 then shall be made an Earle

And Spanish gold shall pay for all

When Suffolke3 getts the king to frend

5

& makes his wife4 to cease to brall

he then may finish Audeley end5

& the old accompt shall pay for all

When Sussex6 cured of the pox7 yow see

& his whores relived from the hospitall

10

his countesse8 then will honest be

& the Surgion shalbe payed for all

When Mansfeild taken hath Argires9

then paules10 shall have a steeple tall

the Lord mayor then the churchyard cleares

15

& the Turkish gold11 shall pay for all

When Sackfeild12 Spinola13 shall take

& Wentworth14 brings Bucquoy15 to thrall

then16 King will then be frends with Lake17

& the Lady Rosse18 shall pay for all

20

When Cranfeild19 is Lord Tresorer made

then soope & Candles sure will fall20

& all his Soveraignes debts be payd

& thats the day shall pay for all

When the Banquetting howse21 is finishd quite

25

then Jones Sir Inigo22 we will call

& Poetts Ben23 brave maskes shall write

& a Parlament shall pay for all

When oxford24 doth from Weesele25 come

Then Joy to poore decayed Turnball26

30

for up goes every wenches bom

& the ould baude shall paye for all

Sir Gyles27 is much displeased with king

that he a parlament doth call

but my ast and oastis28 they doe sing

35

the day is com shall paye for all

The Scotchmen are but begger yet

although theire begging be not small

but when a parlament doth sitt

the subsidyes shall pay for all

40

When Buckingham had got his Kate29

her father30 seemed to fret his galle

but when the preest concluded her fate

he was contente to paye for all

When purbeck hath recovered his witt31

45

& cooke32 amended his cases all

then hutton house33 heele get

& the day will come shall paye for all

Greate Edward his is Nowe in print34

& thinks to get the divell & all

50

The Spanish gould come to our minte

then thats the day shall pay for all

When Kitt35 doth leave his healthes to drinke

& take delight in beere but small

a shall be then a lord som thinke

55

& the London Lasse shall pay for all

When Yelverton36 shalbe releassed

& Buckingham begine to fall

then will the commons be well pleased

& that hath long been wished of all

60

They say Sejanus37 doth bestowe

what ever offices doe fall

but tis well knowne it is not so

for he is soundly payed for all

Theares none doth nowe so much as name

65

the Eearle of Somersett38 at all

but suerly he was much to blame

for he should once have hang’d39 for all

When Doncaster40 puts money to use

& Devonshier41 prove a prodigall

70

& cooke42 leaves of to playe the goose

then thats the day shall paye for all

O Chanclor43 hat bine bribd with plate

to aunswer which they doe him call

Lord Egerton44 he sent too late

75

for the daye is come shall paye for all

The day that most have wisht to see

is nowe at hand of Bacons fall

but maney men will loosers bee

For he can never pay them all45

80

A countesse46 doth her husband rebuke

& bids him goe & com at her call

but when her Sonne is created a Duke

the day will com shall pay for all

---

Source. Bodleian MS Ashmole 38, fol. 229r-v

Other known sources. Bodleian MS Ashmole 36-37, fol. 108r; Bodleian MS Eng. Poet. c.50, fol. 31v; Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 160, fol. 179v; TCD MS 806, fol. 581v; Folger MS V.a.162, fol. 29v; Rosenbach MS 239/27, p. 66

Miii2

Quick links to other poems within this section

Select page here M0. Introduction Mi1. You Justices & men Mi2. The tottering state Mi3. Pervertinge of the lawes Mi4. Fly not Momperson Mi5. Oyes Mii1. The measled Boare Mii2. Stand fast thou shaking Mii3. Great Verulam is very lame Mii4. Why shoulde poore Mii5. The greate assemblie Mii6. Heer is Francis Verulam Mii7. Within this sty heer Mii8. When you awake Mii9. What hatfull fury Mii10. Blame not the Poet Miii1. One worthy Chancellour Miii2. When Charles, hath got Miii3. Thy followers in hope Miii4. Anagram on John Williams Miii5. The Kinge & the court

¹   When Charles...Gearle: i.e. when Prince Charles has married the Spanish Infanta (see Section N). <back>

²   Digbie: Sir John Digby, later Earl of Bristol, James’s ambassador to Spain to negotiate the Spanish Match. <back>

³   Suffolke: Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, who had been dismissed as Lord Treasurer in 1618 for corruption. <back>

⁴   his wife: Catherine Howard, Countess of Suffolk. <back>

⁵   Audeley end: Audley End, Suffolk’s palatial house, construction of which was financed with his profits from office. <back>

⁶   Sussex: Robert Radcliffe, 5th Earl of Sussex. This stanza implies the Earl had a notorious reputation for womanizing. On the death of his wife in December 1623, he was swiftly remarried to a woman Chamberlain reported as “his concubine” (2.533). <back>

⁷   pox: syphilis. <back>

⁸   countesse: Bridget, Countess of Sussex. <back>

⁹   Mansfeild taken hath Argires: Sir Robert Mansell led an English fleet on an expedition against the Barbary pirates of Algiers, 1620-21. <back>

¹⁰   paules: St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. The Cathedral was in poor physical repair, and an appeal to raise funds had been launched in 1620. <back>

¹¹   Turkish gold: presumably the wealth taken from the Muslim Barbary pirates based in Algiers. <back>

¹²   Sackfield: possibly Sir Edward Sackville, an officer in Sir Horace Vere’s 1620 volunteer force to aid Frederick V, Elector Palatine. <back>

¹³   Spinola: Ambrosio Spinola, Spanish general who commanded the conquest of the Palatinate in 1620-21. <back>

¹⁴   Wentworth: Sir John Wentworth, an officer in the English volunteer force commanded by Sir Horace Vere to aid Frederick V, Elector Palatine. <back>

¹⁵   Bucquoy: Charles Bonaventure de Longueval, Count of Bucquoy, commander of Imperial forces against the rebels in Bohemia. <back>

¹⁶   then: probable scribal error; read “the” <back>

¹⁷   Lake: Sir Thomas Lake, former Secretary of State, who fell from office in 1618-19 as a result of a scandal involving defamation, forgery and the suborning of witnesses (see Section J). <back>

¹⁸   Lady Rosse: Anne Cecil, Lady Roos, daughter of Sir Thomas Lake and widow of William Cecil, Lord Roos. Lady Roos was imprisoned in 1619 as a result of the defamation, forgery and suborning charges that also brought down her father (see Section J). <back>

¹⁹   Cranfeild: Sir Lionel Cranfield, who became Lord Treasurer late in 1621. <back>

²⁰   fall: i.e. fall in price, presumably thanks to Cranfield’s reforms of the monopolies on soap and candles. <back>

²¹   Banquetting howse: the new Banqueting House in the palace of Whitehall, designed by Inigo Jones, and completed by March 1622. <back>

²²   Jones Sir Inigo: Inigo Jones, the designer of the Banqueting House at Whitehall. He was never knighted. <back>

²³   Poetts Ben: Ben Jonson. (“Poetts” is a probable scribal error; read “Poet”.) <back>

²⁴   oxford: Henry de Vere, 19th Earl of Oxford, and a member of Sir Horace Vere’s 1620 expeditionary force to aid Frederick V, Elector Palatine. <back>

²⁵   Weesele: Wesel, a town in the Rhineland, occupied by the Spanish since 1614. Vere’s force marched through Wesel in 1620. <back>

²⁶   Turnball: Turnbull Street in London, notorious for its whorehouses. On Oxford’s whoremongering reputation, see “Some say Sir Edward Cecill can”. <back>

²⁷   Sir Gyles: Sir Giles Mompesson, monopolist. <back>

²⁸   ast and oastis: host and hostess; i.e. the proprietors of the inns now freed from Mompesson’s intrusive regulation. <back>

²⁹   Buckingham...Kate: George Villiers, Earl of Buckingham, married Katherine (Kate) Manners, daughter of the Earl of Rutland, in May 1620. <back>

³⁰   her father: Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland, who initially opposed the match with Buckingham because of the amount of dowry demanded and because it would require his daughter to renounce her Catholicism. <back>

³¹   purbeck...witt: Buckingham’s elder brother, John Villiers, Viscount Purbeck was afflicted with bouts of insanity. <back>

³²   cooke: Sir Edward Coke. Coke had fought bitterly with his wife Elizabeth, Lady Hatton, to permit their daughter Frances to marry John Villiers. After an epic feud, Coke got his way and the couple was married late in 1617. <back>

³³   hutton house: presumably Hatton House, one of Coke’s wife’s properties that would come to Purbeck as result of his marriage to Frances Coke. <back>

³⁴   Greate Edward...print: unclear; possibly a reference to Sir Edward Coke’s work on successive volumes of his case-law Reports. <back>

³⁵   Kitt: Buckingham’s younger brother, Sir Christopher Villiers. <back>

³⁶   Yelverton: Sir Henry Yelverton, former Attorney-General. Yelverton had been dismissed from office in 1620. In April 1621, testifying to the House of Lords on patents and monopolies, Yelverton launched a blistering attack on Buckingham and his kindred. James ordered Yelverton imprisoned, a sentence that was confirmed by the House of Lords in May 1621. <back>

³⁷   Sejanus: notorious favourite of the Roman Emperor Tiberius; here implying Buckingham. <back>

³⁸   Eearle of Somersett: Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, Buckingham’s predecessor as favourite, who was brought down in the Overbury murder scandal of 1615-16 (see Section H). <back>

³⁹   hang’d: Somerset was sentenced to die for his role in Overbury’s murder; however, the sentence was never carried out. <back>

⁴⁰   Doncaster: James Hay, Viscount Doncaster, a noted profligate. <back>

⁴¹   Devonshier: William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire. Chamberlain reports that at the time of Cavendish’s elevation a “rime” attacking Cavendish and other recently ennobled men, termed the new Earl of Devonshire “a Lombard or usurer”, suggesting he had a reputation for miserliness (2.163). <back>

⁴²   cooke: Sir Edward Coke. <back>

⁴³   Chanclor: Lord Chancellor, Sir Francis Bacon, impeached for bribery by the 1621 Parliament. <back>

⁴⁴   Lord Egerton: Thomas Egerton, Lord Ellesmere, Bacon’s predecessor as Lord Chancellor. <back>

⁴⁵   he can never...all: Bacon’s debts were notoriously huge, and his means of paying them notoriously limited. <back>

⁴⁶   A countesse: the reference here is unclear, but the likeliest candidate—given that her son was in line to be created a duke—is Mary Villiers, Countess of Buckingham, mother of George Villiers the royal favourite. Her husband was Thomas, Lord Compton. <back>