Thou woldyst not learne to knowe these thre;
But euer was full of iniquite:
Wherfore all this lande hathe ben troubled with the.
Synge, &c.
All they, that were of the new trycke,
Agaynst the churche thou baddest them stycke
Wherfore nowe thou haste touchyd the quycke.
Synge, &c.
Bothe sacramentes and sacramentalles
Thou woldyst not suffre within thy walles;
Nor let vs praye for all chrysten soules.
Synge, &c.
Of what generacyon thou were no tonge can tell,
Whyther of Chayme, or Syschemell,[1]
Or else sent vs frome the deuyll of hell.
Synge, &c.
Thou woldest neuer to vertue applye,
But couetyd euer to clymme to hye,
And nowe haste thou trodden thy shoo awrye.
Synge, &c.
Who-so-euer dyd winne thou wolde not lose;
Wherefore all Englande doth hate the, as I suppose,
Bycause thou wast false to the redolent rose.
Synge, &c.
Thou myghtest have learned thy cloth to flocke
Upon thy gresy fullers stocke;[2]
Wherfore lay downe thy heade vpon this blocke.
Synge, &c.
Yet saue that soule, that God hath bought,
And for thy carcas care thou nought,
Let it suffre payne, as it hath wrought.
Synge, &c.
God save King Henry with all his power,
And Prynce Edwarde that goodly flowre,
With al hys lordes of great honoure.
Synge trolle on awaye, syng trolle on away.
Hevye and how rombelowe trolle on awaye.
***The foregoing piece gave rise to a poetic controversy, which was carried on
through a succession of seven or eight ballads written for and against Lord Cromwell.
These are all preserved in the archives of the Antiquarian Society, in a large folio
Collection of Proclamations, &c. made in the reigns of King Henry VIII., King
Edward VI., Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, King James I. &c.
NOTES
1.i.e.Cain, or Ishmael. See below, the note, Book v. no. iii, stanza 3d.