Notes. This poem adopts Ralegh’s voice and, unlike most of the epitaphs, engages with the circumstances of the failed Guiana expedition of 1617-18.

“Upon Sir Walter Rawleigh”

Thou seest my tombe, Grey haires lye in this grave

first a Comannder in my end a slave

to unhappy mens base Butcher,1 to that wretch

eyes saw my one much honer’d body stretch.2

My thoughts perswaded mee Mars Larum bell3

his sword should mount mee, by the Axe I fell

wast for grand treason, neere demand for what

for my division hath decided that

Yet while I liv’d I prayd till that dire stroake

the passage of my breath and Conditt4 broake

God save the Kinge if I wrongd Spanish lawes5

with them, Right and religion pleade my cause

Lett not falce malice my true project spott

some have adventur’d (was not blanke their lott)6

for the weste Indies from the highest Kinge7

not from the west, all rich promotions springe

Companions, of Sticks you gott a towne8

I gott a blocke,9 and therewith gott a Crowne

of purest gould10 (was the whole voyage lost)

No twas to my preferment to your Cost

Kicke not my urne heele Judge mee thats most just

(in liew of oare)11 Adventurers take my dust

the Lord will reunite, this earth doth keepe

mee slumbringe, dreame yee that my name doth sleepe

Source. BL MS Harley 6057, fol. 50v

Other known sources. Ralegh, Poems 196

I16

¹   base Butcher: the executioner. <back>

²   body stretch: reference to the posture of the body before beheading. <back>

³   Mars Larum bell: the god of war’s alarm bell. <back>

⁴   Conditt: conduit; i.e. the neck and throat. <back>

⁵   Spanish lawes: referring to Ralegh’s alleged offences against the Spanish on the Guiana expedition. <back>

⁶   some have adventur’d...weste Indies: allusion to the fact that the adventurers who accompanied Ralegh to Guiana contributed £30 to £50 each to the costs of the expedition. In effect, therefore, they invested in the voyage’s financial success (i.e. the discovery of gold). Since the voyage failed to find gold, the adventurers’ investment was like a “blanke...lott” in a lottery. <back>

⁷   highest Kinge: God. <back>

⁸   a towne: perhaps an allusion to the capture of the town of San Tomé in Guiana, which had been a mere stockade twenty years earlier. <back>

⁹   a blocke: i.e. the executioner’s block. <back>

¹⁰   Crowne of purest gould: the crown of salvation and, perhaps, more daringly, a martyr’s crown. <back>

¹¹   oare: ore; i.e. the precious metals that the voyagers had hoped to find. <back>