ENGLAND'S Heroical Epistles WRITTEN In Imitation of the Stile and Manner OF OVID'S EPISTLES WITH ANNOTATIONS OF The Chronicle History By MICHAEL DRAYTON Esq Newly Corrected and Amended Licensed according to Order LONDON Printed for S. Smethwick in Dean's Court and R. Gilford without Bishops-Gate TO THE READER SEEING these Epistles are now to the World made publique it is imagined that I ought to be accountable of my private meaning chiefly for my own discharge lest being mistaken I fall in hazard of a just and universal Reprehension for Hae nugae seria ducent In mala derisum semel exceptumque sinistre Two Points are especially therefore to be explained first why I entitle this Work England's Heroical Epistles secondly why I have annexed Notes to every Epistles end For the first The Title I hope carrieth Reason in it self for that the most and greatest Persons herein were English or else that their Loves were obtained in England And though Heroical be properly understood of Demi-gods as of Hercules and Aeneas whose Parents were said to be the one Coelestial the other Mortal yet is it also transferred to them who for the greatness of Mind come near to Gods For to be born of a Coelestial Incubus is nothing else but to have a great and mighty Spirit far above Earthly weakness of Men in which sence Oâ—… whose Imitator I partly profess to be doth alâ—… use Heroical For the second because the Wâ—… might in truth be judged Brainish if nothing 〈◊〉 amorous Humor were handled therein I have interwoven Matters Historical which unexplained mighâ— defraud the mind of much Content as for Example in Queen Margarites Epistle to William De La-Pool My Daisie Flower which once perfum'd the Air Margarite in French signifies a Daisy which for the allusion to her Name this Queen gave for her Device and this as others more have seemed to me not unworthy the explaining By this mark * in the beginning of every Line thou art directed to the Annotations for an explanation of what is obscure Now though no doubt I had need to excuse other things beside yet these most especially the rest I over-pass to eschew tedious recital If they be as harmelesly taken as I mean them I shall not lastly be afraid to believe and acknowledge thee a gentle Reader M. DRAYTON On the Authour MICHAEL DRAYTON Esq and his Heroick Epistles SEe here Britannia's OVID whose soft Pen Transplants the Grecian Loves to English-men View his EPISTLES throughly and behold Our native Oar coin'd in a Roman Mould Yet all is Standard all Rose-noble Gold See here Britannia's LVCAN whose rich Vein In History does antient Times explain In our fore-Father's out-of-Fashion Dress He do's a Noble Gallantry express Equal to that of Rome and much above The little Fopperies of modern Love The English Hero's Soul is all divine As is the Beauty of the Heroine Howe'er they disagree in Clime or Name The Lover and the Brave are still the same The Muses Treasure and Delight of Fame J. W. On the Ingenious AUTHOUR occasioned by the present Edition of his HEROICAL EPISTLES HEre Reader 's One who when vouchsaft to Write Could both the Sexes of mankind delight â—n gentle Numbers and soft Lays he sings Th' alternate Loves of Subjects and of Kings The Theme he writes of and his Song agree Unequal Notes make up the Harmony Listen ye Wits to that Orphean strain Which charm'd even Ovid's Soul to Life again Tibullus Gallus and Propertius too All Caesar's Court in one sweet Poet view His English Heroes courteous and brave Unblemish'd bear their Honours to the Grave No light Incontinence their Glories stain They fixt and constant in their Loves remain Here no Penelope laments her Fate In her once kind but now inconstant Mate No poor forsaken Sappho can complain Of her too cruel Phaon's cold disdain Naso 't is true was perfect at Address But Drayton's Language only found success So fraught with Love all his EPISTLES came They warm'd the Answers into equal Flame Such was the Poet and his Wit so great Pent up in Earth it was releas'd by Fate Adorn'd with Fancy Innocence and Love His Book discovers that he 's blest above Thus active Stars that shoot along the Sky Leave glitt'ring Tracts to shew which way they fly B. C. A Dedication of These and the foregoing Verses to Mr. Drayton's Heroick Epistles ETernal Book to which our Muses flye In hopes of gaining Immortality Time has devour'd the Younger Sons of Wit Who liv'd when Chaucer Spencer Johnson writ Those lofty Trees are of their Leaves bereft And to a reverend Nakedness are left But the chief Glory of Apollo's Grove Drayton who taught his Daphne how to Love Drayton that sacred Lawrel seems to be From which each Sprig that falls must grow a Tree Our humble Lines eternal Book receive And order Fate to let the Suppliants live But if our Zeal no valued Merit brings And what you inspire must dye like common things Yet to attend the Triumphs of the Brave Contents the Soul and fits it for the Grave Besides near You an easie Fate we choose When by Neglect we Want our Beings loose In such pure Air gross Muses take no Breath Faint and in gentle Trances meet their Death Thus when in Honour of the Suns return Their imitating Lamps the Persians burn Before his Beams the glimmering Lights expire And Sacrifice themselves to the Coelestial Fire T. B. To the Stationer on this new and correcâ— Impression of England's Heroical Epistles By MICHAEL DRAYTON Esq GO on industriously and give Whilst Wit and Poesie shall live New Light to DRAYTON whose unequall'd Quâ—… Disdains all vain Essays of modern skill The Nine grown Housewives now do ne'er inspirâ— Such double Portions of aetherial Fire As once they did in those his days but since In scantier measures do their warmth dispence Forth then thou Objects of the Criticks Eye Beyond th' Efforts of all our Poesie Expose refin'd and various Delights And glut the nicest Readers Appetites Since the melodious Thracian Orpheus sung No Harp was ever better Touch'd or Strung His Angel-sounds methinks the blood more warms Than all the Pow'rs of Chast Matilda's Charms Could th' Royal Lover's Breast which whilst he sings Some Magick moves the mind 's internal Springs Edwine Sadleyr Baronet ENGLAND'S Heroical Epistles The Epistle of ROSAMOND TO King HENRY the Second The ARGUMENT Henry the Second of that Name King of England having by long Suit and Princely Gifts won to his unlawfull desire fair Rosamond the Daughter of the Lord Walter Clyfford and to avoid the danger of Ellinor his jealous Queen had caused a Labyrinth to be made within his Palace at Woodstock in the centre whereof he had lodged his beauteous Paramour Whilst the King is absent in his Wars in Normandy this poor distressed Lady inclosed in this solitary Place toucht with remorse of Conscience writes to the King of her Distress and miserable Estate urging him with all means and
Senses whilst the small Birds sing Lulled asleep with gentle murmuring Where light-foot Fairies sport at Prison-Base No doubt there is some Pow'r frequents the place There the soft Poplar and smooth Beech do bear Our Names together carved ev'ry where And Gordian Knots do curiously entwine The Names of Henry and Geraldine Oh let this Grove in happy times to come Be call'd The Lovers bless'd Elizium Whither my Mistress wonted to resort In Summers heat in those sweet shades to sport A thousand sundry names I have it given And call'd it Wonder-hider Cover-Heaven The Roof where Beauty her rich Court doth keep Under whose compass all the Stars do sleep There is one Tree which now I call to mind Doth bear these Verses carved in his Rinde When Geraldine shall sit in thy fair shade Fan her sweet Tresses with perfumed Air Let thy large Boughs a Canopy be made To keep the Sun from gazing on my Fair And when thy spreading branched Arms be sunk And thou no Sap nor Pith shalt more retain Ev'n from the dust of thy unwieldy Trunk I will renew thee Phoenix-like again And from thy dry decayed Root will bring A new-born Stem another Aesons Spring I find no cause nor judge I reason why My Country should give place to Lumbardy * As goodly Flow'rs on Thame's rich Banck do grow As beautifie the Banks of wanton Po As many Nymphs as haunt rich Arnus strand By silver Severn tripping hand in hand Our shad's as sweet though not to us so dear Because the Sun hath greater power there This distant place doth give me greater Woe Far off my Sighs the farther have to go Ah absence why thus should'st thou seem so long Or wherefore should'st thou offer Time such wrong Summer so soon to steal on Winters Cold Or Winters Blasts so soon make Summer old Love did us both with one-self Arrow strike Our Wound 's both one our Cure should be the like Except thou hast found out some mean by Art Some pow'rfull Med'cine to withdraw the dart But mine is fixt and absence being proved It sticks too fast it cannot be removed Adieu Adieu from Florence when I go By my next Letters Geraldine shall know Which if good fortune shall by course direct From Venice by some messenger expect Till when I leave thee to thy hearts desire By him that lives thy vertues to admire ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History From learned Florence long time rich in Fame FLorence a City of Tuscan standing upon the River Arnus celebrated by Dante Petrarch and other the most Noble Wits of Italy was the original of the Family out of which this Geraldine did spring as Ireland the place of her Birth which is intimated by these Verses of the Earl of Surrey From Tuscan came my Ladies worthy race Fair Florence was sometimes her ancient seat The Western Isle whose pleasant shore doth face Wild Cambers Cliffs did give her lively heat Great learn'd Agrippa so profound in Art Cornelius Agrippa a man in his time so famous for Magick which the Books published by him concerning that argument do partly prove as in this place needs no further remembrance Howbeit as those abstruse and gloomy Arts are but illusions so in the honour of so rare a Gentleman as this Earl and therewithal so Noble a Poet a quality by which his other Titles receive their greatest lustre Invention may make somewhat more bold with Agrippa above the barren truth That Lyon set in our bright silver Bend. The blazon of the Howards honourable Armour was Gules between six crosselets Fitchy a bend Argent to which afterwards was added by atchievement In the Canton point of the Bend an Escutcheon or within the Scotish tressure a Demi-lion-rampant Gules c. as Master Camden now Clerenceaux from authority noteth Never shall Time or bitter Envy be able to obscure the brightness of so great a Victory as that for which this addition was obtained The Historian of Scotland George Buchanan reporteth That the Earl of Surrey gave for his Badge a Silver Lion which from Antiquity belonged to that name tearing in pieces A Lion prostrate Gules and withall that this which he terms insolence was punished in him and his Posterity as if it were fatal to the Conquerour to do his Soveraign such Loyal service as a thousand such severe Censurers were never able to perform Since Scotish Blood discolour'd Floden Field The Battel was fought at Bramston near Floden Hill being a part of the Cheviot a Mountain that exceedeth all the Mountaines in the North of England for bigness in which the wilful Perjury of James the Fifth was punished from Heaven by the Earl of Surrey being left by King Henry the Eighth then in France before Turwin for the defence of this Realm Nor beautious Stanhope whom all Tongues report To be the glory c. Of the Beauty of that Lady he himself testifies in an Elegie which he writ of her refusing to dance with him which he seemeth to allegorize under a Lion and a Wolf And of himself he saith A Lion saw I late as white as any Snow And of her I might perceive a Wolf as white as a Whales Bone A fairer Beast of fresher hue beheld I never none But that her Looks were coy and froward was her Grace And famous Wyat who in Numbers sings Sir Thomas Wyat the Elder a most excellent Poet as his Poems extant do witness besides certain Encomions written by the Earl of Surrey upon some of Davids Psalms by him translated What holy Grave what worthy Sepulchre To Wyats Psalms shall Christians purchase then And afterward upon his Death the said Earl writeth thus What vertues rare were temp'red in thy Breast Honour that England such a Jewel bred And kiss the Ground whereas thy Corps did rest Of Hunsdon where those sweet celestial Eyne It is manifest by a Sonnet written by this Noble Earl that the first time he beheld his Lady was at Hunsdon Hunsdon did first present her to mine Eyne Which Sonnet being altogether a description of his Love I do alledge in divers places of this Gloss as proof of what I write Of Hampton Court and Windsor where abound All Pleasures c. That be enjoyed the presence of his fair and vertous Mistress in those two places by reason of Queen Katherines usual aboad there on whom this Lady Geraldine was attending I prove by these Verses of his Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine Windsor alas doth chase me from her sight And in another Sonnet following When Windsor Walls sustain'd my wearied Arm My Hand my Chin to ease my restless Head And that his delight might draw him to compare Windsor to Paradise an Elegie may prove where he remembreth his passed Pleasures in that place With a Kings Son my Childish years I pass'd In greater Feasts than Priams Son of Troy And again in the same Elegie Those large green Courts where we were wont to rove With Eyes cast up unto the
Maidens Tower With easie sighs such as Men draw in love And again in the same The stately Seats the Ladies bright of hue The Dances short long Tales of sweet Delight And for the pleasantness of the place these Verses of his may testifie in the same Elegie before recited The secret Groves which we have made resound With silver drops the Meads yet spread for ruth As goodly flow'rs on Thamesi's rich Banck do grow c. I had thought in this place not to have spoken of Thames being so oft remembred by me before in sundry other places on this occasion but thinking of that excellent Epigram which as I judge either to be done by the said Earl or Sir Francis Brian for the worthiness thereof I will here insert as it seems to me was compyled at the Authors being in Spain Tagus farewel which Westward with thy Streams Turn'st up the grains of Gold already try'd For I with Spur and Sayl go seek the Thames Against the Sun that shews his wealthy pride And to the Town that Brutus sought by Dreams Like bended Moon that leanes her lusty side To seek my Country now for whom I live O mighty Jove for this the Winds me give The Lady GERALDINE TO Henry Howard Earl of Surrey SUCH greeting as the Noble Surrey sends The like to thee thy Geraldine commends A Maidens thoughts do check my trembling hand On other Terms or Complements to stand Which might my speech be as my Heart affords Should come attired in far richer words But all is one my Faith as firm shall prove As hers that makes the greatest shew of Love In Cupids School I never read those Books Whose Lectures oft we practice in our Looks Nor ever did suspitious rival Eye Yet lie in wait my Favours to espy My Virgin Thoughts are innocent and meek As the chast Blushes sitting on my Cheek As in a Feaver I do shiver yet Since first my Pen was to the Paper set If I do err you know my Sex is weak Fear proves a Fault where Maids are forc'd to speak Do I not ill Ah sooth me not herein O if I do reprove me of my sin Chide me in Faith or if my Fault you hide My Tongue will teach my self my self to chide Nay Noble Surrey blot it if thou wilt Then too much boldness should return my Guilt For that should be ev'n from our selves conceal'd Which is disclos'd if to our Thoughts reveal'd For the least Motion more the smallest Breath That may impeach our Modesty is Death The Page that brought thy Letters to my hand Me thinks should marvel at my strange demand For till he blush'd I did not yet espie The nakedness of my Immodesty Which in my Face he greater might have seen But that my Fan I quickly put between Yet scarcely that my inward Guilt could hide Fear seeing all fears it of all is spy'd Like to a Taper lately burning bright But wanting matter to maintain his Light The Blaze ascending forced by the smoke Living by that which seeks the same to choke The Flame still hanging in the Air doth burn Until drawn dawn it back again return Then clear then dim then spreadeth and then closeth Now getteth strength and now his brightness loseth As well the best discerning Eye may doubt Whether it yet be in or whether out Thus in my Cheek my sundry passions shew'd Now ashy pale and now again it glow'd If in your Verse there be a pow'r to move It 's you alone who are the cause I love It 's you bewitch my Bosome by mine Ear Unto that end I did not place you there Aires to asswage the bloody Souldiers mind Poor Women we are naturally kind Perhaps you 'l think that I these terms inforce For that in Court this kindness is of course Or that it is that Hony-steeped Gall We oft are said to bait our Loves withal That in one Eye we carry strong desire In th' other drops which quickly quench that fire Ah what so false can Envy speak of us But it shall find some vainly credulous I do not so and to add proof thereto I love in Faith in Faith sweet Lord I do Nor let the Envy of invenom'd Tongues Which still is grounded on poor Ladies Wrongs Thy Noble Breast disasterly possess By any doubt to make my love the less My House from Florence I do not pretend Nor from those Geralds claim I to descend Nor hold those Honours insufficient are That I receive from Desmond or Kildare Nor add I greater worth unto my Blood Than Irish Milk to give me Infant-food Nor better Air will ever boast to breath Than that of Lemster Munster or of Meath Nor crave I other forreign far Allies * Than Windsor's or Fitz-Gerald's Families It is enough to leave unto my Heirs If they but please t' acknowledge me for theirs To what place ever did the Court remove But that the House gives matter to my Love At Windsor still I see thee sit and walk There mount thy Courser there devise there talk The Robes the Garter and the state of Kings Into my Thoughts thy hoped Greatness brings None-such the Name imports me thinks so much None such as it nor as my Lord none such In Hamptons great Magnificence I find The lively Image of thy Princely Mind Fair Richmonds Tow'rs like goodly Trophies stand Rear'd by the pow'r of thy victorious Hand White-Halls triumphing Galleries are yet Adorn'd with rich Devices of thy Wit In Greenwich still as in a Glass I view Where last thou bad'st thy Geraldine adieu With ev'ry little perling breath that blows How are my Thoughts confus'd with Joys and Woes As through a Gate so through my longing Ears Pass to my Heart whole multitudes of Fears Oh in a Map that I might see thee show The place where now in danger thou dost go Whilst we discourse to travel with our Eye Romania Tuscan and fair Lumbardy Or with thy pen exactly to set down The Model of that Temple or that Town And to relate at large where thou hast been As there and there and what thou there hast seen Expressing in a Figure by thy Hand How Naples lies how Florence fair doth stand Or as the Grecians finger dip'd in Wine Drawing a River in a little Line And with a drop a Gulf to figure out To model Venice moted round about Then adding more to counterseit a Sea And draw the Front of stately Genoua These from thy Lips were like harmonious Tones Which now do sound like Mandrakes dreadful Grones Some travel hence t' inrich their Minds with Skill Leave here their Good and bring home others Ill Which seem to like all Countries but their own Affecting most where they the least are known Their Leg their Thigh their Back their Neck their Head As they had been in several Countries bred In their Attyre their Gesture and their Gate Found in each one in all Italionate So well in all deformity in fashion Borrowing a Limb of ev'ry