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(A.D. 1487)
HARRY, our King in England, from London town is gone, | |
| And comen to Hamull on the Hoke in the Countie of Suthampton. | |
| For there lay the Mary of the Tower, his ship of war so strong, | |
| And he would discover, certaynely, if his shipwrights did him wrong. | |
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| He told not none of his setting forth, nor yet where he would go, | 5 |
| (But only my Lord of Arundel) and meanly did he show, | |
| In an old jerkin and patched hose that no man might him mark. | |
| With his frieze hood and cloak above, he looked like any clerk. | |
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| He was at Hamull on the Hoke about the hour of the tide, | |
| And saw the Mary haled into dock, the winter to abide, | 10 |
| With all her tackle and habilaments which are the King his own; | |
| But then ran on his false shipwrights and stripped her to the bone. | |
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| They heaved the main-mast overboard, that was of a trusty tree, | |
| And they wrote down it was spent and lost by force of weather at sea. | |
| But they sawen it into planks and strakes as far as it might go, | 15 |
| To maken beds for their own wives and little children also. | |
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| There was a knave called Slingawai, he crope beneath the deck, | |
| Crying: “Good felawes, come and see! The ship is nigh a wreck! | |
| For the storm that took our tall main-mast, it blew so fierce and fell, | |
| Alack! it hath taken the kettles and pans, and this brass pott as well!” | 20 |
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| With that he set the pott on his head and hied him up the hatch, | |
| While all the shipwrights ran below to find what they might snatch; | |
| All except Bob Brygandyne and he was a yeoman good, | |
| He caught Slingawai round the waist and threw him on to the mud. | |
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| “I have taken plank and rope and nail, without the King his leave, | 25 |
| After the custom of Portesmouth, but I will not suffer a thief. | |
| Nay, never lift up thy hand at me—there’s no clean hands in the trade. | |
| Steal in measure,” quo’ Brygandyne. “There’s measure in all things made!” | |
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| “Gramercy, yeoman!” said our King. “Thy council liketh me.” | |
| And he pulled a whistle out of his neck and whistled whistles three. | 30 |
| Then came my Lord of Arundel pricking across the down, | |
| And behind him the Mayor and Burgesses of merry Suthampton town. | |
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| They drew the naughty shipwrights up, with the kettles in their hands, | |
| And bound them round the forecastle to wait the King’s commands. | |
| But “Sith ye have made your beds,” said the King, “ye needs must lie thereon. | 35 |
| For the sake of your wives and little ones—felawes, get you gone!” | |
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| When they had beaten Slingawai, out of his own lips | |
| Our King appointed Brygandyne to be Clerk of all his ships. | |
| “Nay, never lift up thy hands to me—there’s no clean hands in the trade. | |
| But steal in measure,” said Harry our King. “There’s measure in all things made!” | 40 |
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| God speed the Mary of the Tower, the Sovereign, and Grace Dieu, | |
| The Sweepstakes and the Mary Fortune, and the Henry of Bristol too! | |
| All tall ships that sail on the sea, or in our harbours stand, | |
| That they may keep measure with Harry our King and peace in Engeland! | |
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