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.
H14 Dazal’d thus with hight of place
Notes. The scribal history of this poem is examined by Pebworth (“Sir Henry Wotton’s ‘Dazel’d Thus, with Height of Place’”). Bellany (Politics 166-67) explores the poem’s analysis of Somerset’s fall in the context of other representations of the fallen favourite.
“Upon Somersets fall”1
Dazal’d thus with hight of place,
Whilst our hopes our witts beguile,
No man marks the narrow space
’Twixt a prison, & a smile.
Then since fortunes favours fade,
5You that in her armes doe sleep,
Learn to swimm & not to wade;
For, the hearts of Kings are deep.
But, if greatnes be so blind,
As to trust in tow’rs of aire,
10Let it be with goodness lin’d
That, at least the fall be faire.
Then, though darkn’d, you shall say,
When friends fail, & Princes frown,
Vertue is the roughest way,
15But proves at night a bed of down.
Source. BL MS Sloane 1925, fols. 30v-29v2
Other known sources. Pebworth; Wotton 522; Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 147, p. 97; Bodleian MS Rawl. Poet. 166, p. 83; Bodleian MS Tanner 465, fol. 61v; BL Add. MS 25707, fol. 185v; BL Add. MS 69968A, fol. 30v; BL Add. MS 72439, fol. 148r; BL MS Harley 1221, fol. 110v; BL MS Harley 6038, fol. 44r; BL MS Lans. 777, fol. 64v; BL MS Sloane 1446, fol. 76v; Rosenbach MS 239/23, fol. 95v
H14
1 Upon Somersets fall: the poem is not universally linked in contemporary copies to Somerset’s fall. <back>
2 Due to a fault in the binding of this manuscript, the text begins on fol. 30v and ends on fol. 29v.<back>
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