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.
I16 Thou seest my tombe, Grey haires lye in this grave
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
5his 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
10God 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
15not 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
20Kicke 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>
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>
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