verse.fr : Harrington, Sir John (1561 - 1612)




Harrington, Sir John (1561 - 1612)



Available works:

Sans titre (A goodly Father sitting on a Draught...)
Sans titre (Fair, rich, and young: how rare is her Perfection...)
Sans titre (Great Harms have grown, and Maladies exceeding...)
Sans titre (If Leckes you like, and doe the Smell disleeke...)
Against Writers that Carp at Other Men's Books (The Readers and the Hearers like my Books...)
Of an Accident of saying Grace (My Mall, in your short Absence from this Place...)
Of an Heroical Answer (A grave wise Man that had a great rich Lady...)
Of Faustus, A Stealer of Verses (I heard that Faustus oftentimes rehearses...)
Of Treason (Treason doth never prosper, what’s the Reason?...)
On a Hangman (When Doome of Death by Judgement fore appointed...)
On Clergymen and Their Livings (In ancient Time old Men observèd that...)
On Going to Bathe (A common Phrase long usèd here hath beene...)
On Two Religions. (One by his father kept longe time in schoole...)
To Breake a Little Wind (To breake a little Wind, sometime ones Life doth save,...)
To Mr. John Davies (My dear Friend Davies, some against us partial...)
To Sextus, An Ill Reader (That Epigram that you did last rehearse...)
To the Ladies of the Privy Chamber (Faire Dames, if any look in Scorn, and spites...)
To the Queens Majestie (For ever dear, for ever dreaded Prince...)


The scabrous wit and poems of Sir John Harrington (or Harington) twice resulted in banishment. In keeping with his interest in scatology, the poet invented the world’s first modern flush toilet, which he gave to Queen Elizabeth I.