Beschreibung:

Civil War broadside poem.- Anonymous (1640-1641) On wings of feare, Finch flies away. One paire of legges is worth two paire of hands: whirre. Alas poore Will, hee's forc'd to stay. Ide try the conclusion, were I out of these bands. Heigh-ho, broadside with sixteen six-line stanzas in letterpress, ending with an envoi, and illustrated with four woodcuts including portraits of John Finch and Archbishop William Laud, on laid paper with small watermark of a bunch of grapes with stalk and single leaf, sheet 350 x 265 mm. (13 3/4 x 10 1/2 in), old folds, minor printers' creases and nicks to sheet, unframed, 1640 or 1641. Literature: STC 10877; Wing O330A [STC suggests a publication date of 1640 while Wing suggests 1641] ⁂ ESTC records only three copies (of two variant settings). Only two settings of the text are known; in one, the first line of the stanza has the reading "choose" (as in the present copy), and in the other, the spelling is "chuse". ESTC records one copy of the present variant at the BL (but the BL's website lists 3? copies), and one copy of each variation at Harvard. A poetical satire on Archbishop William Laud (1573-1645), and John Finch, 1st Baron Finch (1584-1660). The former was accused of treason by the Long Parliament, and in 1641 imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he remained throughout the early stages of the English Civil War. The latter was appointed Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England in 1640, but was so unpopular that one of the first acts of the Long Parliament, which met in the same year, was his impeachment; he subsequently fled to Holland.