[The plaintiff was committed to the Fleet Prison on Feb. 8, 1596, by
order of the Lord Keeper, for drawing a replication of sixscore
sheets containing much impertinent matter which might well have been
contained in sixteen. On Feb. 10 the Lord Keeper ordered that on the
following Saturday the Warden of the Fleet should cut a hole through
the replication, and put the plaintiff's head through the hole and
let it hang about his shoulders with the written side outwards, and
lead the plaintiff bareheaded and barefaced round about Westminster
Hall, and show him at the bar of all the courts, and so back to the
Fleet.--Abridged from Spence's _Equitable Jurisdiction_, vol. i. p.
376.]
'Gainst Weldon Mylward files a bill,
But doth his replication fill
With scandalous and idle matter,
That would disgrace the maddest hatter.
Woe is me for Mylward!
'Twas sixscore sheets, it might have been
Contained, and amply, in sixteen;
So after that the court hath risen
Must Mylward Fleetward go to prison.
Woe is me for Mylward!
And two days afterwards 'tis meet
That by the Warden of the Fleet
He be led on in slow progression
Through every court that sits in session.
Woe is me for Mylward!
The pleading writ with words so fair
Must Mylward like a tabard wear,
A hole therein, the Warden cuts it,
A head put through it, Mylward puts it.
Woe is me for Mylward!
The bar makes merry at his shame;
What careth he? He winneth fame,
Three hundred years his reputation
Hath rested on that replication.
Woe is me for Mylward!