Penny Dreadfuls, 1602 · page 262 of 400
Penny Dreadful Cover — page 262: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Description This is a page of running verse poetry from what appears to be an early modern satirical work titled "Albions England" (visible at page top). The text is NOT a Victorian penny dreadful, but rather 16th or 17th-century English verse—likely from William Warner's *Albion's England* (1586 onward). The visible poetry satirizes religious hypocrisy, attacking corrupt clergy and Puritan "hypocrites" who preach poverty while accumulating wealth, refuse to use the Book of Common Prayer, and deliver tedious sermons. The passage criticizes those who impugn Church Order and accuses various religious factions—Calophantick Puritains, the overzealous, the mutinous—of feigning goodness while practicing self-promotion and deceit. The tone is moralistic and combative.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Pies “ALBIONS. sENGE AND! Bre ‘T Toomuch, too little,or aimeane,fort out alike,we fee, oufe. keeping,not Humilitie, inanyofthethree. = Be hofpitalious,Churchmen: :Laye,ceafe facrilegiousfia, (win, | ee Soules-fore,but their Stores-falue,whence even whiningly , they | Bypinching from the Pulpet,and their Pucfes,with this note, | Scarfe will their Studies ftipend them, their wives, and Children cote, | Aodverely itis a fault,and maimed Learnings Foe, _ That Church-Pofleflions fhould amongft the Laye be flared fo: | And verely ic isa fault,iffo the Cleargie liue, _ Astheirsto take be thought no finne,nor Meede to them giue, | _ Almightie euerlafting God swhich only work’ft great wonders, ; Amend fuch Paftors,and vnite thy Flocke that Sathan funders. | Noone thing quailes Religion more than foundring Presbytrie: | Each Sot,impugning Order,faieth, and doth his Fantafie. ) ¢ ~ Our Booke of Common prayer,though moft found Diuinitie, - They will not reade,nor can they preach,yeat vp the Pulpet towre, _ Theare making teadious Preachments,of no edifying powre, ~ Olearned Seers whofe good liues and Dodtrine do agree, - (Notbarren is.our Land of fuch)heer-hence vn-meant are yee: _ Toyou,in Reuerence and Reward,may nothing wanting be. (free : "Tis onelywifhe your work from Dolts,your Hiues ftom Drones were Tis witht in Thefe,in Fugitives, in Papifts, and (more bad, ~ Whom to perfivade to reafon, were with reafon to be mad ) An » he sarang Puritaines camiffe amendmenthad, . Hefe Hypocrites, for thefe three Gifts to their Lawerma pray, ; Tuft to be thought, all to beguile, That none their Guiles bewray : Their Arte is fayning eood they Prantiand hiding bad they haue: _ Their Practife is felfe-praife, of praife all others todepraue. ~ OnLoue fay fome,waites Ielofie,but lelofie wants loue, ~ When curioufly it ouer-plus doth idle Quarrels moue: Beft Puritaines are fo ore-zeal’d.But fhould I terme the reft: Enhofpitalious,Mutinous,and Hypocrites the beft, 7 kT a ari Sarees “a cup wes Infociable, — \ wr