Prologue
 
Rede Me and Be Nott Wrothe, reputedly written by Jerome Barlowe and William Roye, is a long pre-Reformation verse satire, largely in dialogue, which unrelentingly and irreverently attacks various aspects of Roman Catholicism as well as Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, England's powerful prelate chancellor in power under Henry VIII from 1515 to 1529.

Rede me and be nott wrothe [aIr]

For I say no thyne but trothe.

 

I will ascende makynge my state so hyr,

That my pompous honoure shall never dye.