The Vicar of Bray. Anonymous. Humorous Poems: II. Miscellaneous. Bliss Carman, et al., eds. 1904. The World's Best Poetry. IX. Tragedy: Humor

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Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume IX. Tragedy: Humor. 1904.

Humorous Poems: II. Miscellaneous

The Vicar of Bray

Anonymous


IN 1 good King Charles’s golden days,
When loyalty no harm meant,
A zealous high-churchman was I,
And so I got preferment.
To teach my flock I never missed:	5
Kings were by God appointed,
And lost are those that dare resist
Or touch the Lord’s anointed.
And this is law that I ’ll maintain
Until my dying day, sir,	10
That whatsoever king shall reign,
Still I ’ll be the Vicar of Bray, sir.

When royal James possessed the crown,
And popery came in fashion,
The penal laws I hooted down,	15
And read the Declaration;
The Church of Rome I found would fit
Full well my constitution;
And I had been a Jesuit
But for the Revolution. And this is law, etc.	20

When William was our king declared,
To ease the nation’s grievance;
With this new wind about I steered,
And swore to him allegiance;
Old principles I did revoke,	25
Set conscience at a distance;
Passive obedience was a joke,
A jest was non-resistance. And this is law, etc.

When royal Anne became our queen,
The Church of England’s glory,	30
Another face of things was seen,
And I became a Tory;
Occasional conformists base,
I blamed their moderation;
And thought the Church in danger was,	35
By such prevarication. And this is law, etc.

When George in pudding-time came o’er,
And moderate men looked big, sir,
My principles I changed once more,
And so became a Whig, sir;	40
And thus preferment I procured
From our new faith’s-defender,
And almost every day adjured
The Pope and the Pretender. And this is law, etc.

The illustrious house of Hanover,	45
And Protestant succession,
To these I do allegiance swear—
While they can keep possession:
For in my faith and loyalty
I nevermore will falter,	50
And George my lawful king shall be—
Until the times do alter.
And this is law that I ’ll maintain
Until my dying day, sir,
That whatsoever king shall reign,	55
Still I ’ll be the Vicar of Bray, sir.

Note 1. “The Vicar of Bray in Berkshire, England, was Simon Alleyn, or Allen, who held his place from 1540 to 1588. He was a Papist under the reign of Henry the Eighth, and a Protestant under Edward the Sixth. He was a Papist again under Mary, and once more became a Protestant in the reign of Elizabeth. When this scandal to the gown was reproached for his versatility of religious creeds, and taxed for being a turn-coat and an inconstant changeling, as Fuller expresses it, he replied: ‘Not so neither; for if I changed my religion, I am sure I kept true to my principle, which is to live and die the Vicar of Bray.’”—DISRAELI. [back]

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