Notes. This poem’s complaints are too generalized to allow us to argue a precise date of composition with any confidence. The attack on the Scots in the penultimate line might link the poem to the others from c.1612-1614 collected in this section, but we cannot yet demonstrate that link persuasively.

The King hee hawkes, and hunts;

The lords they gather coyne;

The Judges doe as they weere wont;

The lawyers they purloyne.

The clergie lyes a dyeing;

The commons toll the Bell;

The Scotts gett all by lyeing;

And this is Englands knell.

Source. Bodleian MS Malone 23, p. 121

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