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From Roberts coach to Robins carr1

Franke,2 flings, and climes, and travells farr

And Tom3 attempts the carr4 to staye

Whom Weston5 whipps out of the way

Moone, sunne, and many a starr beesyde

5

Lends Franke there light, her carr to guide6

Olde Venus7 with her borrowed light

Finds beasts, and riders passing right

Att length an Elvish8 trick is showne

That Franke, and carr, are overthrowne,

10

The Turner,9 and then quickly spye

Where coaches creepe and carrs doe flye.

To four fierce beasts this race did trust

Call’d pride, ambition, murder, lust;

Woonder all men, is itt nott strange

15

Tyme should make so greate a change

Of Gods wrath it is a token

That the greatest Carr is broken

Sinn did loade itt, honnor top’t itt

Tyme disclos’de itt, vengeance cropt itt.

20

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Source. BL MS Egerton 2230, fol. 71v

Other known sources. CCRO MS CR 63/2/19, fol. 11v; V&A MS D25.F.39, fol. 98v; Rosenbach MS 1083/16, p. 13

H3

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   From Roberts...carr: Frances Howard’s (perceived) social fall from the wife of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, to the wife of the (supposedly) low-born Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset. The social derogation is implied by the social distinction between an aristocratic coach and a humbler car, cart or carriage. <back>

²   Franke: Frances Howard. <back>

³   Tom: Sir Thomas Overbury. <back>

⁴   carr: a continued pun on Robert Carr’s name. <back>

⁵   Weston: Richard Weston, Overbury’s keeper in the Tower, convicted as the principal in his murder. <back>

⁶   her carr to guide: the language here and the allusion to Venus in the following line may refer to emblems of Venus that sometimes depicted her riding on a chariot (car) pulled by doves. Frances Howard “guides” the “Car of love” in the 1613-14 libel “Lady changed to Venus Dove”. <back>

⁷   Venus: goddess of love, the planet also known as the evening and morning star, and a symbol of venery. <back>

⁸   Elvish: referring to Sir Gervase Elwes, Lieutenant of the Tower of London, convicted as an accessory to Overbury’s murder, and whose initial testimony sparked the investigation into Overbury’s death. <back>

⁹   Turner: Anne Turner, confidante of Frances Howard, convicted as an accessory to Overbury’s murder. <back>