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Upon Bungy.
By Robert Herrick
Bungy does fast; looks pale; puts sackcloth on;
Not out of conscience, or religion:
Or that this younker keeps so strict a Lent,
Fearing to break the king's commandement:
But being poor, and knowing flesh is dear,
He keeps not one, but many Lents i' th' year.
Extra Info:
Fearing to break the king's commandement. In 1608 there was issued a proclamation containing "Orders conceived by the Lords of his Maiestie's Privie Counsell and by his Highnesse speciall direction, commanded to be put in execution for the restraint of killing and eating of flesh the next Lent". This was re-issued ten years later (there is no intermediate issue at the British Museum), and from 1619 onwards became annual under James and Charles in the form of "A proclamation for restraint of killing, dressing, and eating of Flesh in Lent, or on Fish dayes, appointed by the Law, to be hereafter strictly observed by all sorts of people".
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