[XXIII‑31] In a poem by Lope de Vega styled 'Dragontea' occur these lines:
'Mirad la disventura y la ruina
De aquel hombre atrevido y indomable:
Mirad que triste genero de muerte
Del cuerpo el alma a los infiernos vierte.'
Vega declares that Drake was poisoned by his own men. The soul of the great navigator was perhaps less sorely vexed by such slander than by the silly verses written in his praise by his own countrymen. The following occurs in Fuller's Worthies:
'Religio quamvis Romana resurgeret olim,
Effoderet tumulum non pute, Drace, tuum,
Non est quod metuas nec te combusserit ulla
Posteritas, in aquâ tutus ab igne manes.'