A Lanthorne for Landlords. To the tune of, The Duke of Norfolke.
WIth sobbing griefe my heart will break
Asunder in my breast,
Before this story of great woe,
I truely haue exprest:
Therefore let all kind hearted men,
And those that tender be,
Come beare a part of this my griefe,
and ioyntly say with me,
Wo worth the man, &c.
Not long agoe in
Lincolne dwelt,
As I did vnderstand,
A labouring man from thence set forth
to serue in
Ireland.
And there in Princes wars was slaine,
As doth that Cooutry know,
But left his widow great with child
as euer she could goe.
Woe, &c.
This woman hauing gone her time,
Her husband being dead,
Of two fine pretty Boyes at once
was swéetly brought to bed;
Whereat her wicked Landlord straight,
Did ponder in his mind,
How that their wants he should relieue,
and succour for them find.
For being borne vpon his ground,
This was his vile conceit,
That he the mother should maintaine,
and giue the other meat:
Which to preuent he hied fast,
Unto this widdow poore,
And on the day she went to Church,
he turn'd her out of doore.
Her houshold goods he strai
[...]d vpon,
To satisfie the rent,
And left her scarce a ragge to weare,
so wilfull was he bent
Her pretty Babes that swéetly slept
Upon her tender breast,
Were forced by the Mizers rage,
by nights in streets to rest.
Quoth she, my husband in your cause,
In warres did lose his life,
And will you vse thus cruelly
his harmelesse wedded wife?
O God reuenge a widdowes wrong,
That all the world may know,
How you haue forst a Soldiers wife
a begging for to goe.
From
Lincolne thus this widdow went,
But left her curse behind,
And begged all the Land about,
her maintenance to find:
At many places where she came;
She knew the whipping post,
Constrained still as beggers be,
to
[...]ast on such like rost.
But weary of such punishment,
Which she had suffered long,
She daily thought within her heart
she had exceeding wrong:
And comming neere to
Norwich gates,
In griefe she sate her downe,
Desiring God that neuer shee
might come in that same Towne.
For I had rather liue, quoth she,
Within these pleasant fields,
And feed my children with such food,
as woods and medowes yéeld,
Before I will of rich men beg,
Or craue it at their doore,
Whose hearts I know are mercilesse
[...]nto the néedy poore.
The second part. To the same tune.
HEr Boyes now growne to two yeeres old,
Did from their Mother run
To gather eares of Barly Corne,
as they before had done.
But marke what heauy chance befell
Unto these pretty Elues,
They happened into lands of Wheat,
wherein they lost themselues.
Woe, &c.
And thinking to returne againe,
They wandred further still,
Far from their Mothers hearing quite,
full sore against her will,
Who sought them all the fields about,
But labouring all in vaine,
For why, her children both were lost,
and could not come againe.
The two swéet Babes when they perceiu'd
The cole blacke night drew on,
And they not in their mothers sight,
for her did make great moane:
But wearied with the dayes great heat,
They sate them downe and cryed,
Untill such time that arme in arme,
these two swéet Infants dyed.
Their Mother after three dayes search,
Resolued had her minde,
That some good honest meaning man
did both her children finde:
And therefore went to séeke her selfe
A seruice out of hand,
Who chanced with that man to dwell,
which owed this green wheat land.
It fell out so in haruest time,
This wofull widdow then,
Was at the reaping of the Wheat,
with other labouring men.
Where finding of her liuelesse Babes,
Almost consum'd away,
She wrung her hands and beat her brest,
but knew not what to say.
The rumor of which wofull chance,
Throughout the City told,
Enforced many a wéeping eye,
the same for to behold.
From whence she was conuay'd againe
To
Lincolne backe with spéed,
To prosecute the Law against
the causer of this déed.
But sée the Iudgement of the Lord,
How he in fury great,
Did bring this Mizer to distresse,
though wealthy was his seat.
For when to
Lincolne shee was brought,
The Caitiffe he was gone,
Of all his cursed family,
remaining was but one.
For first the house wherein she dwelt
Did proue vnfortunate,
Which made the Landlord and his friends,
to maruell much thereat.
For tenants foure there dwelt therein,
A tweluemonth and a day,
Yet none of them could thriue at all,
but beggers went away:
Whereat this miserable wretch
Did turne it to a Barne,
And fild it full in haruest time,
with good red wheat and corne.
To keepe it safely from the poore,
Untill there came a yeare,
That famine might oppresse them all,
and make all victuals deare,
But God forgetting not the wrongs,
He did the Widow poore,
Sent downe a fire from heauen, which soone
consumed all his store:
By which this wicked mizer man,
Was brought to beggery,
And likewise laid a grieuous scourge
vpon his family:
His wife she prou'd a cursed witch,
And burned for the same,
His daughter now a Strumpet is
at
London in defame.
At
Leicester at the Sizes last,
Was hang'd his eldest sonne,
For their consenting wickedly
vnto a murder done.
His second sonne was fled away
Unto the enemy,
And prou'd disloyall to his Prince,
and to his owne country.
His yongest sonne had like mishap,
Or worser in my minde,
For he consented to a bitch,
contrary vnto kinde,
For which, the Lord without delay,
Rain'd vengeance on his head,
Who like a sinfull Sodom
[...]te
defiled Natures bed:
For there were two great mastiue dogs
That met him in a wood,
And tore his limbs in pieces small,
deuouring vp his blo
[...]d:
Whereof when as his father heard,
Most like a desperate man,
Within a channell drown'd himselfe,
that downe the stréete it ran,
Where as water could scarce suffice,
To drowne a silly mouse:
And thus the ruine you haue heard
of him and all his house.
The Widdow shee was soone possest
Of all the goods he left,
In recompence of those swéet Babes
mischance from her
[...]ereft.
Therefore let all hard-hearted men,
By this example take,
That God is iust, and will be true,
for wofull widowes sake.
Woe worth the man, &c.
FINIS.