Bastard's Epigrams on Enclosures
| Artifact Summary | |
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| Artifact type | |
| Creator/author | |
| Date | 1598 |
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Entry
[From Chrestoleros, in The Poems, English and Latin, of the Rev. Thomas Bastard, M.A., ed. A. B. Grosart (1880), pp. 37, 49, 72.] Book III., Epigr. 22. Ad reginam Elizebetham. I Knowe where is a thiefe and long hath beene, Which spoyleth euery place where he resortes : He steales away both subiectes from the Queene, And men from his owne country of all sortes. Howses by three, and seauen, and ten he raseth, To make the common gleabe, his priuate land: Our country Cities cruell he defaceth, The grasse grows greene where litle Troy did stand, The forlorne fatherhanging downe his head, His outcast company drawne vp and downe, The pining labourer doth begge his bread, The plowswayne seeks his dinner from the towne.
OPrince, the wrong is thine, for vnderstand, Many such robbries will vndoe thy land.
ENCLOSURES AND THE COUNTRYSIDE Book IV., Epigr. 20. Sheepehaue eate vp our medows and our downes, Our corne, our wood, whole villages and townes. Yea, theyhaue eate vp many wealthy men, Besides widowes and Orphane childeren : Besides our statutes and our iron lawes Which they haue swallowed down into their maws. Till now I thought the prouerbe did but iest, Which said a blacke sheepe was a biting beast. Book VI., Epigr. 8.
When the great Forests dwelling was so wide, And carelesse wood grew fast by the fires side : Thendogs did want the sheepherds field to keepe ; Now we want Foxes to consume our sheepe.
VOL. III,
