CONDEMNATION OF ENCLOSURES 63 



who make " one fearme of two or three," and even sometimes 

 " bringe VI to one " ; or of the greed of " step-lords," like the 

 " rich franklings," * who 



" Occupyingo a dosen men's lyvyngis 

 Take all in their owne hondes alone." 



Nor do the innocent causes of much of the trouble escape attack ; 

 sheep " that were wont to be so myke and tame, and so smal eaters, 

 now, as I heare saie, be become so greate devowerers, and so wylde, 

 that they eate up and swallow down the very men themselfes," 2 

 drive " husbandry " out of the country, and thrust " Christian 

 labourers " off the land. 



" Sheepe have eate up our medows and our downes, 

 Our corne, our wood, whole villages and townes ; 

 Yea, they have eate up many wealthy men, 

 Besides widowes and orphane childeren ; 

 Besides our statutes and our Iron Lawes, 

 Which they have swallowed down into their maws : 

 Till now I thought the proverbe did but jest, 

 Which said a blacke sheepe was a biting beast." 3 



Enclosers were condemned by preachers as " guilty before God of 

 the sin in the text ' they have sold the righteous for silver and the 

 poor for a pair of shoes.' ' A playwright like Massinger did not 

 draw entirely on his imagination, but expressed the feeling of the 

 day when he painted his portrait of a Sir Giles Overreach, insensible 

 to pity for his victims and justly called : 



" Extortioner, Tyrant, Cormorant, or Intruder 

 On my poor neighbour's right, or grand Incloser 

 Of what was common to my private use." 4 



In the passion for sheep and hedges, which changed " merrie 

 England " into " sighing or sorrowful England," men saw the 

 fulfilment of the prophecy " Home and Thorne shall make England 

 forlorne." 5 Superstitions enforced the popular judgment, and 

 legend doomed " emparkers," like Sir John Townley, to haunt the 

 solitudes they had created, uttering bitter cries of unavailing 

 remorse. 



ltl Rede me and be nott Wrothe." By William Roy (1527), Arbor's 



Reprints, 28. 



4 More's Utopia, bk. i. (Ralph Robynson's Translation), ed. Lupton, p. 51. 



3 Bastard's Chrestoleros (1598), bk. iv. Epigram 20. 



4 A New Way to pay Old Debts, Act. iv. Sc. 1. 



5 Francis Trigge, Humble Petition of Two Sisters : the Church and the Com- 

 monwealth (1604). 



