Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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A20825
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The legend of great Cromvvel. By Michael Drayton Esquier
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Drayton, Michael, 1563-1631.
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1607
(1607)
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STC 7204; ESTC S105399
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16,702
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48
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Conscience quickly of him told Who entertain'd him with right friendly cheere O Sir quoth he intreate you that I could To lend your hand vnto my Coosin deare Contrition whom a sore disease doth hold That wounded by Hypocrisie of late Now lieth in most desperate estate Sir quoth the Frier I hope him soone to cure Which to your comfort quickly you shall see Will he a while my dressing but endure And to Contrition therewith commeth hee And by faire speech himselfe of him assure But first of all going thorough for his fee Which done quoth he if outwardly you show Sound t'not auailes if inwardly or no. But secretly assoiling of his sin No other med'cine will vnto him lay Saying that heauen his siluer him should win And to giue Friers was better then to pray So he were shrieu'd what need he care a pin Thus with his patient he so long did play Vntill Contrition had forgot to weepe This the wise Plowman shew'd me from his sleepe He saw their faults that loosly liued then Others againe our weaknesses shall see For this is sure he bideth not with men That shall know all to be what they should bee Yet let the faithfull and industrious pen Haue the due merit but returne to mee Whose fall this while blind fortune did deuise To be as strange as strangely I did rise Those secret foes yet subt'ly to deceiue That me maligning lifted at my state The King to marry forward still I heaue His former wife being repudiate To Anne the sister of the Duke of Cleaue The German Princes to confederate To back me still gainst those against me lay Which as their owne retain'd me here in pay Which my destruction principally wrought When afterward abandoning her bed Which to his will to passe could not be brought So long as yet I beare about my head The only man her saftie that had sought Of her againe and only fauoured Which was the cause he hasted to my end Vpon whose fall hers likewise did depend For in his hie distemprature of blood Who was so great whose life he did regard Or what was it that his desires withstood He not inuested were it nere so hard Nor held he me so absolutely good That though I crost him yet I should be spar'd But with those things I lastly was to goe Which he to ground did violently throw When VVinchester with all those enemies Whom my much power from audience had debar'd The longer time there mischiefs to deuise Feeling with me how lastly now it far'd When I had done the King that did suffice Lastly thrust in against me to be heard When all was ill contrarily turn'd good Making a maine to th'shedding of my blood And that the King his action doth deny And on my guilt doth altogether lay Hauing his ryot satisfied thereby Seemes not to know how I therein did sway What late was truth conuerted heresie When he in me had purchased his pray Himselfe to cleere and satisfie the sin Leaues me but late his instrument therein Those lawes I made my selfe alone to please To giue me power more freely to my will Euen to my equals hurtfull sundrie waies Forced to things that most doe say were ill Vpon me now as violently ceaze By which I lastly perisht by my skill On mine owne neck returning as my due That heauie yoke wherein by me they drew My greatnes threatned by ill-boding eyes My actions strangely censured of all Yet in my way my giddines not sees The pit wherein I likely was to fall O were the sweets of mans felicities Often amongst not temp'red with some gall He would forget by his oreweening skill Iust heauen aboue doth censure good and ill Things ouer ranck doe neuer kindly beare As in the corne the fluxure when we see Fill but the straw when it should feed the eare Rotting that time in ripening it should bee And being once downe it selfe can neuer reare With vs well doth this similie agree By the wise man due to the great in all By their owne weight b'ing broken in their fall Selfe-louing man what sooner doth abuse And more then his prosperitie doth wound Into the deepe but fall how can he chuse That ouer strides whereon his foote to ground Who sparingly prosperitie doth vse And to himselfe doth after-ill propound Vnto his height who happily doth clime Sits aboue fortune and controlleth time Not chusing that vs most delight doth bring And most that by the generall breath is freed Wooing that suffrage but the vertuous thing Which in it selfe is excellent indeed Of which the depth and perfect managing Amongst the most but few there be that heed Affecting that agreeing with their blood Seldome enduring neuer yet was good But whil'st we striue too suddenly to rise By flattring Princes with a seruill tong And being soothers to their tyrannies Worke our more woes by what doth many wrong And vnto others tending iniuries Vnto our selues it hapneth oft among In our owne snares vnluckily are caught Whil'st our attempts fall instantly to naught The Counsell Chamber place of my arrest Where chiefe I was when greatest was the store And had my speeches noted of the best That did them as hie Oracles adore A Parliament was lastly my enquest That was my selfe a Parliament before The Tower hill scaffold last I did ascend Thus the great'st man of England made his end FINIS