James I, Commons Tears, ballad libels, Marprelate, proclamation, Francis Bacon, History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh

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following year when James responds personally to a libel (now perished) that interferes with matters of state (‘The Answere to the Libell Called the Comons Teares: “The wiper of the peoples teares The dryer vp of doubts and feares”’). ⁹⁴

Although we do not know the tone established by the antecedent, the gravity of James’s response, the monotony of his rhyming couplets and lugubrious meter seem particularly out of place when compared to the more upbeat verbal pyrotechnics of ballad libels and their answers. This is perhaps unavoidable bearing in mind the imperative of maintaining some degree of regal decorum and dignity; however, this approach also seems to reflect a misjudgement on James’s part since successful responses in kind generally enter into the ribald spirit of the verses they answer so that they can be pitched at, and sway the opinion of, the same target audience.

The government sponsored responses to the Marprelate tracts provide a clear example of this, and it is an idea of which Bacon, who drafted the above proclamation, appears particularly conscious in his History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh. He describes the propriety of Henry’s reaction to a libel cast in his face by the French ambassador Robert Gaguin, writing that the king “was content to cause an answer to be made in like verse; and that as speaking in his own person, but in a style of scorn and sport”. ⁹⁵ The success of such a strategy, if Henry did solicit his mediators, is evident from the sheer volume of responses from his courtiers which was sufficient to effectively run Gaguin out of court (this episode is discussed pp.95-9). In his account of this event Bacon makes it

⁹⁴ The Poems of King James VI of Scotland, ed. James Craigie, STS, 2 vols (London and Edinburgh: Printed for the Society by Blackwood, 1955-8), II. (1958), pp.182-91. My quotations are taken from Craigie’s transcription of MS. Harley 367, fols 151^r-2^v. Craigie dates James’s answer between late 1622 and early 1623.

⁹⁵ The History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh, ed. F. J. Levy (Indianapolis and NY: Bobbs-Merrill, 1972), p.138.

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