Penny Dreadfuls, 1602 · page 158 of 400
Penny Dreadful Cover — page 158: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Page This is a printed page of **running verse poetry**, not a penny dreadful but rather early modern literature (the typography and language suggest 17th-century publication, predating Victorian penny dreadfuls by centuries). The visible text is a philosophical and moral poem in English verse titled "Albions England." The speaker defends humble faith and practical charity over astrological and cosmographic learning, declaring that loving God and one's neighbour matters more than understanding celestial mysteries. The poem then shifts to social critique, lamenting the poverty and underappreciation of poets and clerks, contrasting their meager circumstances with the wealth of merchants. The language is archaic and the sentiment moralistic throughout.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
+a” rath y ~ ATRNON © ENGLAND. "Whom this Aftrologie,and this Cofmographie miflike, Beneath the Earth beyond the Moone, further then farre mult feeke. - Signes workings,Planets lun@ures, and the elevated Poale, With thoufand royes and tearmes wherein our curious Attifts roale, Be fran gers to my Cell yeat loe as found a minde and heart As theirs chat calculate their times,eate, fleepe,and wake by arte, : Whatwas the world before thew Ae or God ere he was God, : | Why this be did,or doth not that,his bidden,or forbod , : — Idare not thioke,or arrogate fuch Myfteries deuine, a a - Faith with her Fruites fignificant {office thefe wits of mine, | : ‘To loue God,and ourneighbour as our felfe is all in fine, S “ One Lawand Con pell was and is,and eithers drift is thus, ‘To thew vs how the law dothkill,and Gofpell quicken vs: _ Which Corafiue and Lenatine of Simples made compound Dorather cure he kindly heales that alfo feeles his wound. : a Tae al J _ This is my reft :if more [knew l thould butknow too Siew Se Or build in my conceited brayne too high aboue my touch, — Orelfe againft the haive in all prooue toyous: euen fuch _ Asbetoo > many olockifh Clerkes and bookith Clownes sextreeme -Inall things, fauein hone ftv that haue no zeale butfeeme. As for the Courtitis.you know,become a skittifh Coult, - Of wife men hardlier m annaged than of the glorious doute: "Vice rides on horfé backe,vertue doth from ont the faddell boule. : P The are all deformities in forme 1nfome one man we {ee, dui ~ More Ae ian regarded franke not to continue free, ~ When as the Marchants booke the Map ofall his wealth fhalbee, _ The Mafes bacely begge,or bibde, or both,and rouft,for why ? i | They finde as bad Beftoeas is their Portage begoerly: | _ Yeanow by melancholie walkesand thred-bare coates we gefle At Clyents and at Poetes :none worke more and profit lefic, _ None make to more,ynmade of more,the good of other men, _ For thofe inrich our Gownefts,thefe ererhize wich their pen: a _ Yeat,foothly suid to Poets now weare largific,and but loft, - meter: Bek: anor 3 Pes Heomilebooks:c