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“By Ld Carr: Earle of Somersett: his owne verses:”

If ever woe possest a stubbern heart

If punishment bee dew to bad deserte

If ever greife or sorrow man hath croste

Lay all on mee, I have deserv’d the moste

Let all the world complain uppon my name

5

Let all the world reporte nought but my shame

Let all the world beare these my words in mynde

That to my friend1 Like Judas proved unkinde

I that on Earth had all I could desire

I that like Phaieton2 did above all aspire

10

Have nothinge els to comfort my sad mones

But thus to tell my greife to wrathlesse stones.3

Lett all my friends beare theis my words in minde

Bee not like mee to your best friend unkinde

Beare this same proverbe allwayes in your view

15

for to my greife I finde it to be trewe.

Hee that begins to Clyme & climes but slowe

Can catch small harme though hee fall nere so lowe

But hee that when hee clymes a mayne4

Hee fales so lowe hee nere can rise againe

20

Thus I advertise all before I dye

Hee must needs fall to lowe that clymes to hye.

I that was rich in state though meane in birth

Ame now the meanest creature one the earth.

The world condems mee for my monstrous deed

25

And that which makes my heart with sorrowe bleed

Is this, that more besides poore wretched I

for this offence in ths strong hold must lye.5

Oh had I lyven poorely as at first

But twas for honour that my minde did thirst

30

Honor I aym’d at and I hitt the white6

first from a Page the Kinge made mee a knight

From thence I stept into a Vicounts place

And beinge Earle I reaped this fowle disgrace7

Then did I thinke my fate coulde never fall

35

And like a gamster8 then I threw at all

But then the Lord that doth disclose all crimes

That ere hath bin committed in these tymes

Hee did disclose this plott that Hell invented

The which till now my heart hath nere relented

40

Mercy O Lord I crave for my fowle sinne

A penitent soule I know much mercy wynnes

Let not thy angry browe gainst mee be bent

For with a fervent heart I do repent.

---

Source. Morgan MS MA 1057, pp. 190-91

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H15

Quick links to other poems within this section

Select page here H0. Introduction H1. There was an ould H2. In England there lives H3. From Roberts coach H4. Robbin of Essex H5. A page, a knight H6. Heere lyes hee H7. When Carr in Court H8. The Sommers sun H9. I.C.U.R H10. Poore Pilote thou hast H11. The wealth he gott H12. Why how now Robine H13. From Car a Carter H14. Dazal’d thus with hight H15. If ever woe possest H16. A bird ill hatchd H17. She with whom troops H18. from Cathernes docke H19. Me thinks I see H20. Looke, and lament H21. Libellous Anagram H22. Anagram on H23. Sir you are one H24. Once dead and twice H25. Hadst thou lik other H26. Hesperides, within whose H27. The house of the Howards H28. Here under lyes

¹   my friend: Sir Thomas Overbury. <back>

²   Phaieton: Phaeton, son of the sun-god Phoebus, whose rash request to be allowed to drive the chariot of the sun for a day almost led to disaster. Contemporaries commonly compared James I’s reckless young favourites to Phaeton. <back>

³   stones: i.e. the stones of Carr’s cell in the Tower of London. <back>

⁴   a mayne: amain; at full speed, violently. <back>

⁵   more besides...must lye: presumably a reference to Carr’s wife, Frances Howard, imprisoned with him in the Tower of London, but possibly also a reference to the other suspects—Sir Robert Cotton and Sir Thomas and Sir William Monson—still in custody during the spring and early summer of 1616. <back>

⁶   the white: an archery target. <back>

⁷   first from a Page...disgrace: these three lines rehearse Carr’s cursus honorum, familiar from many other libels. He arrived at James I’s Court in England as a page to George Home, Earl of Dunbar; was knighted by the king in 1607; made Viscount Rochester in 1611; and elevated as Earl of Somerset in November 1613. <back>

⁸   gamster: gamester; gambler. <back>