Being weary thus, he sought for rest, To ease his burthened soule, Upon a stone; the which a wretch Did churlishly controule; And sayd, 'Awaye, thou king of Jewes, Pass on; thy execution place Thou seest nowe draweth neare.' And thereupon he thrust him thence; 'I sure will rest, but thou shalt walke, With that this cursed shoemaker, For offering Christ this wrong, Left wife and children, house and all, Where after he had seene the bloude Of Jesus Christ thus shed, And to the crosse his bodye nail'd, Awaye with speed he fled Without returning backe againe Unto his dwelling place, And wandred up and downe the worlde, A runnagate most base. No resting could he finde at all, 25 30 35 40 45 No ease, nor hearts content; 50 No house, nor home, nor biding place: But wandring forth he went From towne to towne in foreigne landes, With grieved conscience still, Repenting for the heinous guilt Of his fore-passed ill. 55 Thus after some fewe ages past In wandring up and downe; He much again desired to see Jerusalems renowne, But finding it all quite destroyd, He wandred thence with woe, Our Saviours wordes, which he had spoke, 'I'll rest,' sayd hee, 'but thou shalt walke,' So doth this wandring Jew From place to place, but cannot rest For seeing countries newe; Declaring still the power of him, Since Christ his death, he showes. The world he hath still compast round 60 65 70 But as he did those times, When Christ did suffer on the crosse For mortall sinners crimes. He hath past through many a foreigne place, Arabia, Egypt, Africa, Grecia, Syria, and great Thrace, And throughout all Hungaria; Where Paul and Peter preached Christ, Those blest apostles deare; There he hath told our Saviours wordes, In countries far, and neare. And lately in Bohemia, With many a German towne; 90 95 His journeyes, and his wayes. If people give this Jew an almes, Is not above a groat a time: Which he, for Jesus' sake, And thereof make no spare, Of him hath dailye care. He ne'er was seene to laugh nor smile, And dayes forepast and gone: Or take God's name in vaine, He telles them that they crucifie Their Saviour Christe againe. 105 110 115 120 'If you had seene his death,' saith he, 'As these mine eyes have done, Ten thousand thousand times would yee And suffer for his sake all paine Of torments, and all woes.' These are his wordes and eke his life Whereas he comes or goes. 125 IV. THE LYE, BY SIR WALTER RALEIGH, -is found in a very scarce miscellany intitled 'Davison's Poems, or a poeticall Rapsodie divided into sixe books.... The 4th impression newly corrected and augmented, and put into a forme more pleasing to the reader. Lond. 1621, 12mo.' This poem is reported to have been written by its celebrated author the night before his execution, Oct. 29, 1618. But this must be a mistake, for there were at least two editions of Davison's poems before that time, one in 1608,1 the other in 1611.2 So that unless this poem was an after-insertion in the 4th edit. it must have been written long before the death of Sir Walter: perhaps it was composed soon after his condemnation in 1603. See Oldys's Life of Sir W. Raleigh, p. 173, fol.3 GOE, Soule! the bodies guest, 5 1 Catalog. of T. Rawlinson, 1727.-2 Cat. of Sion Coll. library. This is either lost or mislaid.-3 This beautiful poem has been ascribed to others, such as Richard Edwards, Lord Essex, T. Davison, and Joshua Sylvester, but was ascribed to Raleigh during his lifetime. A copy of it is traced as far back as 1593. He did write a poem, some say two, on the night ere his execution, but not the above.-ED. VOL. II. Goe, tell the court, it glowes Tell potentates they live Not strong but by their factions; Tell men of high condition, Tell them that brave it most, Spare not to give the lye. Tell zeale, it lacks devotion; |