SIR FRANCIS DRAKE His Honorable lifes commendation and his Tragicall Deathes lamentation * ⎠* Conamur tenues grandia AT OXFORD Printed by Ioseph Barnes and are to bee solde in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Bible 1596. TO THE BEAVTEOVS AND vertuous Lady ELIZABETH late wife unto the highlie renowmed SIR FRANCIS DRAKE deceased DIvorc'd by Death but wedded still by love For love by Death can never be divorced Loe Englands Dragon thy true turtle Dove To seeke her make is now againe enforced Like as the Sparrow from the Castrels ire Made his Asylum in the wise-mans fist So he and I his tongues-man doe require Thy sanctuarie Envie to resist So may heroique DRAKE whose worth gave wings Vnto my Muse that nere before could flie And taught her tune these harsh discordant strings A note above her rurall minstralsie Live in himselfe and I in him may live Thine eies to both vitalitie shall give Your Ladiships vertues devoted CHARLES FITZ-GEFFREY To the Authour ONce dead and twise alive thrise worthie DRAKE And worthie thou by whome he lives againe O would that thou who him alive dost make A life unto thy selfe by him might'st gaine But if thou canst not get this for thy paine Yet will I offer heart and pen to thee And if one faile the other thine shalbe Sure one will faile the other thine shalbe Admitting thee into her chiefest part Wishing that art with nature would agree To ioine an able pen with loving hart That to the world shee might her minde impart So hart imagine should and art indite And art and hart should both thy praises write But now let DRAKE unto whose shrine thou singest These lamentable accents on his tombe Retribute part to thee of that thou bringest And make thee famous though himselfe be dumbe So by thy praising shall thy prayses come Then let thy swan-sweet verse sing to a DRAKE And that which makes him shall thee famous make R. R. To C. F. VVHen to the bankes of sweete Elysium Came worthy DRAKE to get his passage there The ferriman denied his ghost to come Before his exequies solemniz'd were But none t' adorne his funerall hearse did prove And long he sate vpon the hoplesse shoare Vntill thy Muse whome pittie still did move Helpt thee to rise and him to rest no more And sent her mournefull teares unto his ghost And sweete though sad complaintes as exequies Passing him to those fields which long he lost And won his soule the ioy thy pen the prise So still thy funeralles shall adorne his name And â—â—ll his funeralles shall enlarge thy fame F. R. To the Authour ENglands Vlysses slaine by mortall fates His bodie Tethys caught within her armes Jove plac'd his soule amid the heavenlie states Setting him free from fortune-tossing harmes From Scylla's gulfes and Circes deadlie charmes And both did chuse a place to keepe his pray Tethys her lap but Jove the Milke-white Waye Yet shall his fame his worth his worthy deedes Eterniz'd by thy verse amonge us dwell And whatsoever after-after-age succeedes Vnto posteritie the same shall tell And make thy prayses with his owne excell Time that doth all things else in time devoure Shall never have thy name within her power Old GEFFREY CHAVCER Englands auncient Muse And mirrour of the times that did ensue Yeelded to death that nere admits excuse But now in thee he seemes to live a newe If grave Pythagoras sage sawes be true Then sith old GEFFREY's spirite lives in thee Rightlie thou named art FITZ-GEFFERY D. W. SIR FRANCIS DRAKE HIS HONORABLE LIFES commendation and his tragicall deathes lamentation * ⎠* DARKE night the sov'raigne of Cymmerian black Th' inhabitant of pitchie Acheron Mounted upon Alastors snaky backe From Taenarus her blacke pavilion Rides through the world in sad progression Dew-dropping mists and darkenesse duskie bloome Attende as Heraulds to proclaime her roome Blinde Vesperugo cloath'd in sable shade Night's cloudie harbinger colde Hesperus Runs on before to see that way be made And being authorized her Prodromus Rides on the Vulture-bearing Caucasus Vailing the golden tapers of the light And bids Olympus entertaine the night Shee bristling up her leaden-plated crest Of feathers broader then the dragons wings Whose space disioines the Lycaonian beast From Cynosure whose praise the sea-man sings That shee as patronesse directs his rings Enclaspeth with her winged eminence The worlds orbicular circumference Now only is shee earth's high Monarchesse And tirannizeth ore this massie rounde For hee whose puissance quel'd her monstrousnesse Enchaining her beneath the waightie grounde By deaths fierce Heben trident hath his wounde Repaying unto greedie destinie The int'rest of his life-lent usurie Drownd is the day-star in th' Hesperian deepes The radiant Eos of white Albion Tithonus love-lasse faire Aurora weepes And day-reducing Phosphorus doth mone That he unto the other world is gone Denying them the traffique of his sight From whose faire lustre they deriv'd their light See how Apollo tasks his wearied teames Vnto the Occidentall Axâ—ltree Making th' Horizon maske in sable seames Abandoning the earth from mirth and glee Swearing it never more his lamps shall see But meanes except the fates his wrath appease To live immur'd amonge th' Antipodes As when he left th' Olympique starrie rocks Living an exile long in Thessalie And neere Amphrysus fed Admetus flocks Onlie accompaned with Mercurie Or when for Phäetons sad tragedie Enrag'd with passionate woe he fell at ods With thundring Jove and all the minor-Gods But now nor Clymenes audacious boy Torne by the morning-breathing horses rage Nor Amyclaean Hyacinth's annoy Cause this his griefe impatient of asswage These woes long since gave place to time and age The paines that now exagitate his soule Time cannot tame nor swan-white age controule He from whose sunne the sunne deriv'd his shine As doth his sister-planet from his light Whilome than cristall far more cristalline Now is opprest with deaths eternall night Exempt from intercourse of Phoebus sight Who wailes his losse but sollaced in this That his immortall soule survives in blisse The Gods Pandora heavens bright firmament Faire Albions bulwarke castle of defence The worldes rare wonder th' earths rich ornament Harts adamant mindes sacred excellence Wisedomes grave Delphos vertues quintessence Right perfect workmanship of skilfull nature Some semi-God more then a mortall creature Great God of prowesse thunderbolt of war Belionae's darling Mars of chivalrie Bloudy Enyo's champion foe-mens feare Fames stately Pharus map of dignitie Joves pearle pearls pride prides foe foes enemie Spaine-shaking feaver regent of wars thunder Vndaunted DRAKE a name importing wonder All this yea thrise a thousand times and more Than this untold though Angels eloquence Though all the soules of Poets heretofore And moderne Muses made their residence In mortall mould to pen his excellence More then all arts Arithmetique can summe Ay me are now enclos'd in DRAKES rich tombe Tombe ah no tombe but Neptunes froathing waves Waves ah no waves but billow-rouling seas Seas
shew like countenaunce At Pettislego drench'd him in the seaes Thus most she hurts when most she seemes to please O tempt not Fortune shee will not be tempted Her thunder followes when her lightning's donne Her dangers are fore-seene but not prevented When shee doth frowne thinke shee will smile anone And when shee smiles thinke not her frownes are gone What doth her laughter but her lowr's importune Misfortune followes him that tempteth fortune Aske the Wingandicoa savages They can relate of GRINVILE and his deedes The Iles of Flores and Azores these Extol his valour and victorious meedes While Spaines grip't hart fresh streams of anguish bleeds His worth withall the world his praise made even But he scorn'd earth and therefore went to heaven What time out-sliding thought so far could flie As did heroique CAVENDISH drive his sailes The great Magores kingdome did he see Where freezing Boreas rings his northern peales Gainst whose benumming blast no heate availes His prowesse hath beene knowne to Mallaca And to her neighbour-bord'ring Bengala Knighted by honour in deserts faire field Death-scorning GILBERT chronicled by fame To Englands Monarchesse did force to yeeld The savage lande that New-found now we name Making wilde people milde submisse and tame O were mens lives unto their praises tied Then noble GILBERT never hadst thou died But cursed fates did crosse brave CHIDLIES thought O that brave thoughts by fates still cross'd should be Nothing but worth his hungrie humour sought Nothing but honours Nectar thirsted hee When death untimely did exact his fee But CHIDLIE that which death took froÌ„ thy daies Honour shall adde to thine immortall praise If searching labyrinths inextricable By hard adventures and ambiguous waies To purchase glorie and renowne be able And meritorious of eternall praise Then FROBISHER out-lives the Sybils daies What death tooke from his life this gives his name Death hath no dart to slaie deserved fame Out of the concave cavern's of the earth Her golden-oared entrals he descri'd Exiling famine povertie and dearth These precious bowels having once espi'd Where massie gold ingorged did abide He recompensed natures iniurie That gives earth gold and leaves men povertie Rich China and faire Met ' Incognita Admir'd his valour and extold his fame Cathaia and the great America The dangerous straights that yet doe bear his name Are monumentall annals of the same Annals wherein posteritie shall reade How fame the living salves revives the dead Now drop my pen in inke of drery teares A name of late of laughter and of ioye But now ô death the agent of our feares A name of dolour and of dire annoye The sad memoriall of the fates destroye HAVVKINS ô now my hart cleave thou a sunder In naming him me seemes I name a wonder Epitome of Gods heavens conterfaire Fames Pyramis honours imagerye Highe throne wherein all vertues made their seate True prospective of immortalitie Faire mirrour of celestiall maiestie White palme whose silver boughes inharbour'd rest Snowe-feath'red swan the Nestor of the West Nestor in wisedome art and pollicie Nestor in knowledge skyll and prudencie Nestor in counsell and in gravitie Nestor in wit fore-sight and modestie Nestor in might and magnanimitie O would he had as he had Nestors haires Enioyed Nestors age and Nestors yeares A mortall man more then a man of late If mortall man more then a man maie be Since his lifes calender is out of date And deaths new-yeare exactes his custom'd fee No more a man nor mortall now is hee No more a man because of breath bereaven Mortall no more because a saint in heaven CLIFFORD a name that still was ominous Prefiguring an high-resolved minde Victorious vent'rous vertuous valorous Eternall adiunctes to that noble kinde By natures secret influence assign'd Who can denie that names are ominous For CLIFFORDS name hath still beene valorous O had he perish'd in his enterprise As did th' inventour of that brasen beast Who first that fatall engin did devise The dismall Gunne the actour of unrest Whose thunder-bolts do pearce the strongest brest O had he perish'd in his mothers wombe And that which gave him life had beene his tombe Now is the consummation of your griefe The fates have set full period to your paine He who on earth was all your hearts reliefe Whose absence you in heaven it selfe did plaine If plaints attach them that in heaven remaine In heaven is now associate of your ioie Your glad our griefe your pleasure our annoie You whose exploites the world it selfe admired Admire the strange exploites of peereles DRAKE And you whom nether lands nor sea's have tired Have tir'd your tongues when they rehearsall make What hard adventures he did undertake Then if that such Atlantes are too weake What marvell if this waight our shoulders breake O you once matchlesse monarches of the seas But now advanced to an higher place Invested Vice-roy's and high Satrapes In that faire palace neere the milken race O thinke not that his praise doth yours deface If he be iustlie prais'd you iustlie graced Your graces by his praise are not defaced What though his worth above yours is extold Yet thereby is not yours extenuated What though your neighbours iewels dearer sold Than for the price whereat your gemme is rated What thereby is your Diamond abated Wherefore to give both him and you your due I saie he was the best the next were you Like as some travel-tired passenger By silent-sliding Thames rose-shadow'd side Poore care-accloyed pilgrime traveler Sits downe to view the sight-reviving slide The wanton-bubling waters gentle glide Smiling to see the rivers quav'ring flankes Dallie upon the daysie-diap'red bankes Thus while he feasteth both his eies and eares With native musicke sweeter then a mans Like to a showre of silver snowe appeares A flight of alabaster-feath'red swans Whose number while his sence amasing scans Forth-with an other flight his minde doth comber And thus doth number bring him out of number So in the May-tide of his sommer age Valour enmov'd the minde of ventious DRAKE To lay his life with winds and waves in gage And bold and hard adventures t' undertake Leaving his countrie for his countrâ—'s sake Loathinge the life that cowardise doth staine Preferting death if death might honour gaine At Cuba silver at Coquimbo gold At China cloth and precious silkes he found Pearle at the Pearled Iles he did behold Rich Couchanelo hoarded did abound Imbosom'd in Tichamachalco's ground Thus his industrious labour still did raise The publique profite and his private praise As Nilus with his inundation Vpon all Aegypt fertile fat lesse showrs Or as Euphrates on the Chaldee nation An over-flowing floud of plentie powrs And graceth all the continent with flowrs So DRAKE his countrie fil'd with store plentie And filling it himselfe was almost emptie Whereas the night can never finde a place The suns eternall shining to asswage Whereas the sun durst never shew his face For feare of icye winters choaking rage Nations unknown unto
the antique age There hath he bene and made eternall light Where but for him had bene eternall night Plung'd in the Ocean of perplexities With waves of death and windes of black despaire Amid the Scyllas of uncertainties With sourges of sad death and drery feare Which to the skies their billowes oft did reare Scorne-fortune DRAKE by fortunes rage was borne The more she rag'd the more he did her scorne Where dismall dread and agonizinge deathe Hovers about them with their hellish wings Still threatning to intoxicate their breath And stop the conduicts of the vitall springs That nutrimentall spirites to them brings Even in the laws of death did valor beare him That death himself might know DRAKE did not fear him O heavens why take you that which late you gave O seas why hold you him that once held you O earth how hast thou miss'd that thou did'st crave O England how art thou bereft thy due O unto whom wilt thou for comfort sue To earth why that's partaker of thy mone To heavens ah they with-hold that is thine owne O now descend my ever-mourning Muse Downe from the by-cliffe of thy sisters mount Forsake Cytheron nor frequent the use Of th' amber weeping Pegase-hoofe-made fount Now prune thy wings aloft thou maist not mount Sighe forth the humble modell of thy woe For ioie ascends but sorrow sings below Now chaunge thy winter-scorning lawrell boughes That made thy temples swell with mounting braine And with sad cypresse all begirt thy browes The drerie ensignes of ensuing paine Sad presentations of a tragicke vaine In whose broade leaves spectatours cies maie see The deepe-grav'd characters of extasie Now leave Pernassus heaven-aspiring mountaine For sad Avernus hel-depressed plaines Leave Aganippes hony-bubling fountaine Whereby the Muses Chorus still remaines And to the waters warble forth their straines Leave Aganippe for the Stygian lake And for the fiendes the Muses songs forsake In steede of Helicons greene-varnisht grove Walke in the silent shade of Erebus In steede of Ida where the ladies strove Before the braine-sicke sonne of Priamus Frequent the bloomy walkes of Taenarus Weare sable Heben for the springing bay Chaunge ioies aucoutrements for griefes aray Sorrow be thou my Muse sadnesse my song And death the subiect that I versifie The destinies despight and fortunes wronge Is that which now I must historifie In silent cell of sad Melancholie My Heben pen shall poure out ynkie teares That he maie weepe that reades he sigh that heares But that which Jove and destinie hath don Men may lament but never disanull And they that checke me for presumption When love constrain'd me write though I were dull Blaming presumption must praise love at full And easilie the fault may be redressed Where love and dutie only have transgressed Now was the mon'the that olde Sextilis name Chaung'd by the Roman Senates sage decree And gloryinge so to innovate the same To have himselfe new-christ'ned did agree Proud that Augustus god-father should bee While Ceres clad him in a mantle fayre Of bearded corne still quavering with the ayre When as a royall fleete with ioyfull mindes O how mishap is neerest still to ioy Daringe their hopes and lives to sea and windes Two trustlesse treasurers full of annoye Did toward the westerne Indes their course imploy Whose guide to DRAKE HAWKINS was assign'd When they went forth ô who would stay behinde Whether to win from Spaine that was not Spaines Or to acquite us of sustained wronge Or intercept their Indian hoped gaines Thereby to weaken them and make us stronge Heere to discusse to me doth not belong Yet if griefe maie saie truth by natures lawes Ill was th' effect how good so-ere the cause Now are they on the seas resolv'd to proove The mercie of a mercie-wanting wave England behinde them lies there lies their love Before them and about them aire they have And sometime foggie mists their sight bereave Beneath them seas above them skies they finde Seas full of waves skies threatning stormes winde O Neptune never like thy selfe in shew Inconstant variable mutable How dost thou Proteus-like thy forme renew O whereto is thy change imputable O whereunto art thou best suteable Rightly the moone predominateth thee For thou art all as changeable as shee Thus still ambiguous twixt feare and hope Feare in the stormes and hope in calmer tide Passing saint Michaels promontorie toppe At length the bay of Portingale they spi'de Where not determining long time t' abide Againe they venter on their daungers source And to the Grand Canaries bend their course Now passe in silence ô my drouping pen So manie famous townes and ports past by Some tooke some burnt some unassaulted then As that Port Rico place of miserie Where ô great HAWKINS brave CLIFFORD lie The taking of the citty Hatch conceale Nor many other brave attempts reveale Only two base ignoble places tell Famous for nothing but for death and dreade Where ô that which my Muse lamentes befell The stages where our tragedie was plaide Th' one Scudo th' other Portabella saide Both to be rased out of memorie But for memoriall of this tragedie O wherefore should so manie famous places Worthie eternall memorie and fame Be heere conceal'd unworthy such disgraces And these two should be registred by name Though meritorious of eternall blame But some are sometime named to their shames And therefore must I tell these places names Whether of both was in the greatest fault I know not nor I care not much to knowe Far deeper passions now my minde assault Thus much I know ô that I knew not so Both iointlie ioin'd to aggravate our woe Since he on whom his countries hope relied At Scudo sickned at Portbella died Accursed Ile whose life-impoys'ning aire Intoxicates his sanctified breath But most accursed port that did impaire That flesh compacted of the purest earth And made the same a sacrifice to death O let them languish in eternall night That did extinguish earths faire-shining light O let these places be earth's dismall hell Th' inhabitants eternall-tortur'd ghosts The snaky-hayred Furies loathsome cell Swarming with fiends and damned spirites hoasts And palpable thick fogs infect the coasts And bee this never-ending purgatorie A place of pennance for DRAKES wofull story O soule exhale out of thy deepest center The sorrow-sobbing sighes of extasie O let thy voice heavens territories enter Breathe forth into the aires concavitie The dismall accents of thy tragedie Call heaven and earth to witnesse of thy woe How that thy griefe doth heaven and earth oreflowe O let our clamours to the skies repaire O let our smoake-exhalinge breaths enfold A mightie cloud of sighes amid the aire Like vapours in the element enrold By Sol's attractive powre expellinge cold Till being dissolv'd they shal on earth againe Powre downe a deluge of teare-showring raine Now dusky clouds have overcast the sunne That latelie bright translucent splendour shed In radiant rayes that from his beames did runne Into earth's