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.

E7 The King hee hawkes, and hunts

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;

5

The commons toll the Bell;

The Scotts gett all by lyeing;

And this is Englands knell.



Source. Bodleian MS Malone 23, p. 121

E2