Cardinal Wolsey to his Dog
Cardinal Wolsey to his Dog
Original Text
Poems of John Galt: A Selection, ed.. G. H. Needler
(Toronto: Burns and MacEachern, 1954): 39.
2Why lingerest thou when all are gone?
3Yet would I bribe thee to remain
4With all the means I have,--this bone.
5The golden gifts of mighty kings
6Not richest in remembrance live.--
7He gives the most that freely flings
8The last of all he has to give.
Notes
1] Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, long-time chief minister of Henry VIII, cast down by the king for failing to arrange a divorce from Katherine of Aragon that would allow the king to marry Anne Boleyn. Wolsey's dog, called Urian, supposedly bit the Pope's toe when Wolsey begged him to support the king's request. In fact, Wolsey never went to Rome, and Foxe's book of martyrs attributes the bite to the spaniel of Anne Boleyn's father. Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire / Sharine Leung
RPO Edition
2011
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