Laurie Glass - I. There’s Many a Gentle Person Made a Jack Lyrics

Before a legend can be built or broken, Someone like me is needed to create a stage
For fabled folk to rise and fly from, Or plummet to a dishonourable fate
I had no dreams of holding so much power When first King Richard called me to his side
But fated for such work, I often wonder If dangerous ways were always on my path

Great lions of head and heart roared in his being
A man of such devout and regal ways That leaders of the realm had called upon
Him and asked, pleaded and begged him to be king
That such a man could find himself cast downward In such a devious, utter, complete way

My fear says less about my leader's kingship Than of the hateful one who saw him slain
When first he caught my glance Among a meeting of better folk than I would
Prove to be, It seemed he saw within my presentation
A mind that shared a happy kingdom's dream. He raised me up from nothing with a few words

A simple jack, become a gentleman. Because I showed connection with his vision
When first he told the Parliament of Lords his aim
To summon forth and lead for England A new age of prosperity and peace
My task was that which I was given life for, A pleasure and a game, never a chore

To dance with words and place promising pictures Within the minds of all who wielded law
To convince them all to join the dance with Richard And end divisions that so pained our land
The king endowed me with a badge of honour, A gilded silver boar given by his hand
An emblem saying I spoke for crown and country, His emblem to be worn with humble pride

I often wondered on its curious conflict, Why gild silver? Is silver not enough
But soon I came to think it was a warning For those who spoke for him but were not him
Not for me a golden crown of princehood, Even if I did act for the king
Plantagenet roses had clashed in battle For such a time that none could see an end

But Richard told us it was all that mattered, And soon I came to clearly understand
My work was to coerce if not recruit Those who found convenience in continued war
To dance, deceive, distract with my directives, If any such delivered his desire
And hence my badge reflected my masked mission, To act as gilding on the royal throne

So even if I made some murderous moments, There never would be staining on the crown
The more I danced with power, it enthralled me. I always knew that learned, lorded minds
Their differing dreams, desires and ambitions Might be as worthy as those of the king
But as lords I seduced, in turn seduced me. I told myself it was not simple greed

That turned my thoughts to profiting in person From gilded silver power at my hands
For was it not the teaching in the token That since I could not ever be the gold
I should sell my talent to the highest bidder Because my silver tongue was all I had