William Baldwin

William Baldwin Poems

William Baldwin Biography

Not much is known about William Baldwin’s background although it is thought he could have been of Welsh ancestry. It is considered by most scholars that his birth was around 1515 and it is possible he received a degree from Oxford in 1533 although this is not a verifiable fact. At some stage in his adult life Baldwin came to work in Whitchurch’s printing house in London and from 1547 he worked as a printers assistant there for six years. Whitchurch was a man opposed to Roman Catholicism and supported the Protestant Reformation and published sixty eight books including religious works and Baldwin’s writing for example, A Treatise of Moral Philosophy (1549) and Wonderful News of the Death of Paul the Third (1552). Baldwin’s A Mirror for Magistrates was completed in 1555 but could not be published until after the end of Mary I’s reign. It seems likely that Baldwin continued working in London until at least 1559 and was well considered by his peers despite his Protestant religious views. It is thought possible that he became a preacher and is likely that he died in 1563. Baldwin was a well known as a writer, translator and editor with wide ranging interests and a complex linguistic and narrative style. His work shows a knowledge of the political power of writing and reflects his efforts to use Erasmian humanism to aid the cause of the Protestant Reformation.)

The Best Poem Of William Baldwin

Beware The Cat

This little book Bevvare the Cat
moste pleasantly compil'd:
In time obscured was and so,
siince that hath been exilde.

Exilde, because perchaunce at first,
it shewed the toyes and drifts:
Of such as then by wiles and willes,
maintained Popish shifts.

Shifts, such as those in such a time,
delighted for to vse:
Wherby ful many simple soules,
they did ful sore abuse.

Abuse? yea sure and that with spight
when as the Cat gan tel:
Of many pranks of popish preests,
bothe foolish mad and fel.

Fel sure & vaine, if iudgement right
appeere to be in place:
And so as fel in pleasant wise,
this fixion shewes their grace.

Grace? nay sure vngratiousnes,
of such and many mo:
which may be tolde in these our daies
to make vs laugh also.

Also to laugh? nay rather weep,
to see such shifts now vsed:
And that in euery sorte of men,
true vertue is abused.

Abused? yea, and quite downe cast,
let vs be sure of that:
And therfore now as hath been said,
I say beware the Cat.

The Cat ful pleasantly wil shew,
some sleights that now are wrought
And make some laugh, which vnto mirth
to be constrainde are loght.

Lothe? yea, for ouer passing greef,
that much bereues their minde:
For such disorder as in states,
of euery sorte they finde.

Finde? yea, who can now boste but that
the Cat wil him disclose?
Therfore in midst of mirth (I say)
beware the Cat to those.

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