Was Herod Such a Nasty Chap?

Was Herod such a nasty chap;

Not raised well by his mother?

He told his men, “Go kill a child;

Then go and kill another”.

His men ranged far and wide, they say,

In search of little infants

But not to pat their little heads

But remove them in an instant.

They roamed around the countryside

As Herod had so ordered;

Cutting off each little head

Which they with knife and sword did.

The Mums and Dads were cross, of course

And, really, who could blame them?

“You’ve massacred these Innocents

And that is how we’ll name them.”

The Murder of the Innocents

Became the subject matter

In chalk and charcoal; ink and paint;

Especially the latter.

Renaissance painters did a lot

On canvas and on wood.

Let’s face it, nothing’s really bad

That can’t produce some good.

I guess the parents did feel peeved,

But everyone agrees;

Think of the lovely paintings

That hang in galleries.

The Louvre and the Guggenheim,

The National, the Tate

Are full of paintings, every one,

These acts commemorate.

So if you’d like to show your taste

And so impress your friends

The Murder of the Innocents

Does all that it intends.

The subject is an easy one

To recognise, of course,

Unlike portraits of a foreign bloke

Sitting on a horse,

Or battles full of symbolism

In places you’ve not heard of

Or explanations in the catalogue

You don’t understand a word of.

So get you to a gallery

And please do not dismiss

King Herod as a nasty chap

And just remember this:

Sing Yay! For Herod, Yay! again,

Remembering what he’s done

I think he patronised the Arts

In early A.D. 1