---

“Supposed to be made against the Lady Frauncis Coun: of Somerset”

She with whom troops of bustuary1 slaves

(Like legions) sojourn’d still a moungst the graves;

And there laid plotts which made the silver moone

To fall in labour many times to soone:

Canidia now draws on.

5

She that in every vice did soe excell,

That she could read new principles to hell;

And shew the fiends recorded in her lookes

Such deeds, as were not in their blackest books:

Canidia now draws on.

10

She that by spells could make a frozen stone,

Melt and dissolve with soft affection:2

And in an instant strike the factours dead

That should pay duties to the marriage bedd:3

Canidia now draws on.

15

She that consisted all of borrow’d grace,

Could paint her hart as smoothly as her face;

And when her breath gave wings to silken words,

Poysons in thoughts conceite, and murthering swords:

Canidia now draws on

20

She that could reeke within the sheets of lust,

And there be searcht,4 yet passe with out mistrust;

She that could surfle5 upp the waies of sinne,

And make strait posternes6 where wide gates had beene:

Canidia now draws on.

25

She that could cheate the matrimoniall bedd

With a false stampt, adulterate maidenhead;

And make the husband thinke those kisses chast,

Which were stale panders to his spouses wast:

Canidia now draws on.

30

Whose brest was that Aceldama7 of bloud,

Whose virtue still became the cankers food;

Whose closet might a Golgotha8 be stil’d,

Or else a charnell where dead bones are pil’d:

Canidia now draws on.

35

Whose waxen pictures fram’d by incantation,

Whose Philters, Potions for loves propagation

Count Circe,9 but a novice in the trade,

And scorne all Drugs that Colchos10 ever made;

Canidia now draws on.

40

Oh lett no bells be ever heard to ring,

Lett not a chime the nightly houres sing;

Lett not the lyrik larke salute the day,

Nor Philomele11 tune the sad darkes away:

Canidia still draws on.

45

Lett croking ravens, and death boading owles,

Lett groning mandraks,12 and the ghastly howles

Of men unburied bee the fatall knell

To ring Canidia downe from earth to hell;

Canidia still draws on

50

Let wolves and tygers howle, lett serpents cry,

Let basilisks13 bedew their poysoning eie;

Let Plutos dogg14 strech high his barking note,

And chaunt her dirges with his triple throate:

Canidia still draws on.

55

Under his burthen lett great Atlas15 quake,

Lett the fixt earths unmoved center shake;

And the faire heavens wrappt as it were with wonder

That divells dy, speake out their loudest thunder:

Canidia still draws on.

60

Noe longer shall the pretty marigolds

Ly sepulchred all night in their owne folds;

The rose should florish, and throughout the yeare

No leafe nor plant once blasted would appeare:

Were once Canidia gone.

65

The strarres wold seeme as glorious as the moone,

And she like Phœbus16 in his brightest noone;

Mists, clouds, vapours, all would passe a way,

And the whole yeare bee as an Halcyon day:

Oh were Canidia gone.

70

---

Source. BL MS Sloane 1792, fols. 2v-4r

Other known sources. Bodleian MS Malone 23, p. 8; BL MS Harley 3910, fol. 26r; Nottingham MS Portland PW V 37, p. 135; Folger MS V.a.103, fol. 66r; Huntington MS HM 198, 1.33

H17

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   bustuary: pertaining to funeral pyres. <back>

²   She that by spells...affection: some reports alleged that Frances Howard had used love potions to seduce Robert Carr. <back>

³   strike the factours...bedd: many reports suggested that Frances Howard had used witchcraft to render her first husband, Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, sexually impotent. <back>

⁴   searcht: during the 1613 proceedings to nullify her first marriage, Frances Howard was inspected by a panel of midwives to prove that she was still a virgin and that her marriage had never been consummated. <back>

⁵   surfle: to cover up, paint over (usually with cosmetics). The implication is that Frances Howard used magical assistance to fake the signs of virginity. <back>

⁶   posternes: posterns; private doors. <back>

⁷   Aceldama: the field of blood (Acts 1.19). <back>

⁸   Golgotha: graveyard. <back>

⁹   Circe: a witch in Homer’s Odyssey. <back>

¹⁰   Colchos: Colchis, or Medea; witch, poisoner and murderess. <back>

¹¹   Philomele: in classical mythology, Philomela was transformed into a nightingale. <back>

¹²   mandraks: mandrakes; plants believed to emit a fatal cry when pulled from the ground. <back>

¹³   basilisks: serpents whose gaze was fatal. <back>

¹⁴   Plutos dogg: the three-headed Cerberus who guarded Hades. <back>

¹⁵   Atlas: in myth, sentenced to hold up the heavens. <back>

¹⁶   Phœbus: the sun. <back>