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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CAELICA: 50 by FULKE GREVILLE

Poet Analysis

First Line: SCOGGIN HIS WIFE BY CHANCE MISTOOK HER BED
Last Line: SILK WOULD MAKE MANY BY THEIR BACKS BE KNOWN.
Scoggin his wife by chance mistook her bed;
Such chances oft befall poor women-kind,
Alas poor souls, for when they miss their head,
What marvel it is, though the rest be blind?

This bed it was a lord's bed where she light,
Who nobly pitying this poor woman's hap,
Gave alms both to relieve and to delight,
And made the golden shower fall on her lap.

Then in a freedom asks her as they lay,
Whose were her lips and breasts, and she sware, his;
For hearts are open when thoughts fall to play.
At last he asks her, whose her backside is?
She vowed that it was Scoggin's only part,
Who never yet came nearer to her heart.

Scoggin o'erheard, but taught by common use,
That he who sees all those which do him harm,
Or will in marriage boast such small abuse,
Shall never have his nightgown furred warm,
And was content, since all was done in play,
To know his luck, and bear his arms away.

Yet when his wife should to the market go,
Her breast and belly he in cavasse dressed,
And on her backside fine silk did bestow,
Joying to see it braver than the rest.

His neighbors asked him, why? and Scoggin sware,
That part of all his wife was only his,
The lord should deck the rest, to whom they are,
For he knew not what lordly-fashion is.
If husbands now should only deck their own,
Silk would make many by their backs be known.



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