Note 83 — CONTROVERSY BETWEEN DRYDEN AND STILLINGFLEET, CONCERNING THE DUCHESS OF YORK’S PAPER. (continued 2)
Reading edition
Robert Wisdom was a fugitive in the reign of Queen Mary; in that of Elizabeth, he became rector of Stysted in Essex, and of Settrington in Yorkshire, and died in 1568. He was a zealous puritan, and the author of a hymn, printed at the end of Sternhold’s psalms, which begins with the passage referred to in the text:
Preserve us, Lord, by thy dear word; From Turk and Pope defend us, Lord.
The witty Bishop Corbet thus addresses the ghost of Robert Wisdom:
Thou, once a body, now but aire, Arch-botcher of a psalme or prayer, From Carfax come; And patch me up a zealous lay, With an old ever and for aye, Or all and some. Or such a spirit lend mee, As may a hymne down send mee, To purge my braine. So, Robert, look behind thee, Least Turk or Pope do find thee, And goe to bed againe.