Robert Wever c.1550
Virtually nothing is known of the life of the poet Robert/Richard Wever and even his first name is uncertain. What is known is that he wrote a short morality play, An Enterlude called Lusty Juventus, which contains his oft anthologised poem, Love’s Pleasure, also known as In a Herber Green Asleep Whereas I Lay. It tells the story of a decadent youth who is trying to reform after meeting Good Council until confronted by the devil whose son Hypocrisy is tasked with further corrupting him by introducing him to the vices of dicing, gaming, swearing and whoring. In the end he meets Good Council again and repents. As the poem ends with a prayer for the King and his council, it suggests it was written before the accession of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558 although its date of publication is shown as 1565.