followed the olde foole in that desperate wounding of himselfe This brutish acte being committed in the prison belonging to her Maiesties owne house came quickly to her royall eare and some fewe dayes after their pardon to be signed who graciously gaue life to all the rest but commanded them by expresse name to execution saying they were vnworthy mercie that of themselues had none adding it was very likely that such as in a prison and in their state would be so cruell to shead their owne blood would haue small compassion of others whom they ouercame at sea and so leauing them to the lawe they were worthily executed Of her mercie nothing can be saide more but that it equalled or rather as I said before exceeded her iustice Among infinite numbers whom shee pardoned that one especially being a cleare witnesse who shot the Gunne off against Greenwich euen into her Maiesties Barge hurt the next man to her at broade day-light almost impossible to be excused by negligence or ignorance for that any man hauing his peece charged would rather vpon retyring home haue discharged it among the Reedes than toward the breadth of the Riuer whose siluer brest continually bore vp a number of vessels wherein men passed on sundrie affaires How euer wilfull or vnwilfull the act was done it was and by a Iurie he was found guiltie and adiudged to die toward execution he was ledde with such clamour and iniuries of the multitude as sildome any the like hath bene seene or heard so hainous and odious his offence appeared vnto them that being vpon the ladder readie to be cast off the common people had no pitie of him when euen iust in that moment of dispaire and death her Maiestie sent a gracious pardon which deliuered him to all mens wonder I want but the Arcadian Shepheards inchaunting phrase of speaking that was many times witnesse to her iust mercies and mercifull iustice yet rude as I am I haue presumed to handle this excellent Theame in regard the Funerall hastens on of that sometime most Serene Lady and yet I see none or at least past one or two that haue sung any thing since her departure worth the hearing and of them they that are bestable scarce remember her Maiestie I cannot now forget the excellent and cunning Collin indeed for alas I confesse my selfe too too rude complaining that a liberal Mecaenas long since dying was immediatly forgotten euen by those that liuing most laboured to aduance his fame and these as I thinke close part of his songs Being dead no Poet seekes him to reuiue Though many Poets flattered him aliue Somewhat like him or at least to that purpose of a person more excellent though in ruder verse I speake Death now hath ceaz'd her in his ycie armes That sometime was the Sun of our delight And pittilesse of any after-harmes Hath veyld her glory in the cloude of night Nor doth one Poet seek her name to raise That liuing hourely striu'd to sing her praise He that so well could sing the fatall strife Betweene the royall Roses White and Red That prais'd so oft Eliza in her life His Muse seemes now to dye as she is dead Thou sweetest song-man of all English swaines Awake for shame honour ensues thy paines But thou alone deseru'st not to be blamde He that sung fortie yeares her life and birth And is by English Albion so much famde For sweete mixt layes of maiestie with mirth Doth of her losse take now but little keepe Or else I gesse he cannot sing but weepe Neither doth Corin full of worth and wit That finisht dead Musaeus gracious song With grace as great and words and verse as fit Chide meager death for doing vertue wrong He doth not seeke with songs to deck her herse Nor make her name liue in his liuely verse Nor does our English Horace whose steele pen Can draw Characters which will neuer die Till her bright glories vnto listning men Of her he seemes to haue no memorie His Muse an other path desires to tread True Satyres scourge the liuing leaue the dead Nor doth the siluer tongued Melicert Drop from his honied Muse one sable teare To mourne her death that graced his desert And to his laies opend her Royall eare Shepheard remember our Elizabeth And sing her Rape done by that Tarquin Death No lesse do thou sweet singer Coridon The Theame exceedeth Edwards Isabel. Forget her not in Poly-Albion Make some amends I know thou lou'dst her well Thinke t was a fault to haue thy Verses seene Praising the King ere they had mourn'd the Queen And thou delicious sportiue Musidore Although thou haue resign'd thy wreathe of Bay With Cypresse binde thy temples and deplore Elizaes winter in a mournfull Lay I know thou canst and none can better sing Herse songs for her and Paeans to our King Quicke Antihorace though I place thee heere Together with yong Moelibee thy frend And Hero's last Musaeus all three decree All such whose vertues highly I commend Proue not ingrate to her that many a time Hath stoopt her Maiestie to grace your rime And thou that scarce hast fligd thy infant Muse I vse thine owne word and commend thee best In thy proclaiming Iames the rest misvse The name of Poetry with lines vnblest Holding the Muses to be masculine I quote no such absurditie in thine Thee doe I thanke for will thy worke let passe But wish some of the former had first writ That from their Poems like reflecting glasse Steeld with the puritie of Art and wit Eliza might haue liu'd in euery eye Alwaies beheld till Time and Poems dye But cease you Goblins and you vnder Elues That with rude rimes and meeters reasonlesse Fit to be sung for such as your base selues Presume to name the Muses Patronesse Keep your low Spheres she hath an Angell spirit The learnedst Swaine can hardly sing her merit Onely her brother King the Muses trust Blóod of her Grandsires blood plac'd in her Throne Can raise her glory from the bed of dust To praise her worth belongs to Kings alone In him shall we behold het Maiestie In him her vertue liues and cannot die At this Thenot and the rest desired him to proceede in his discourse of her vertues remembring where hee left at Iustice and though the matter pleafed them so well that they could endure the hearing many dayes yet seeing the Sunne began to dye the West Sea with vermilion tincture the pallace of the morning being hidden in sable clouds and that the care of their flockes must be respected requested him to be as breefe as the time limited him To which Collin answered Thenot I perceiue thou art as all or the most part of the world is carefull onely of thine owne and how euer frends fall yet profit must be respected Well thou dost well and in this I dubbly praise thee to carke for sheepe and lambes that cannot tend themselues not to mourne as without hope our great
ENGLANDS Mourning Garment Worne heere by plaine Shepheards in memorie of their sacred Mistresse ELIZABETH Queene of Vertue while she liued and Theame of Sorrow being dead To the which is added the true manner of her Emperiall Funerall With many new additions being now againe the second time reprinted which was omitted in the first Impression After which followeth the Shepheards Spring-Song for entertainment of King IAMES our most potent Soueraigne Dedicated to all that loued the deceased Queene and honour the liuing KING Imprinted at London for Thomas Millington and are to be sold at the signe of the Crane in Paules Churchyard by Walter Burre 1603. To all true Louers of the right gracious Queene Elizabeth in her life being vndoubtedly those faithfull Subiects that now honour and affect our most potent Lord King Iames after her death MY Epistle to you is like the litle Towne that the Cynicke would haue perswaded the Citizens was readie to runne out at the great gates being scarce so long as the Title In a word the negligence of many better able hath made me bold to write a small Epitomie touching the abūdant vertues of Elizabeth our late sacred Mistris Intreating of her Princely birth chast life royall gouernment and happie death being a Lady borne liuing raigning dying all for Englands good The manner is handled between Shepheards the forme of speech like the persons rude Affection exceedeth Eloquence and I haue not shewne much Art but exprest the dutie of a louing hart Shead some teares in reading our Shepheards sorrow and in that true passion let your loue to our royall Lord be shewne who hateth hypocrites as iust men hell Farewell all of you that giue the dead Queene a sad Farewell and the liuing King a glad Welcome the rest are Time-pleasers and I write not to them Foelicem fuisse infaustum Englands Mourning Garment Worne by plaine Shepheardes for the death of that most excellent Empresse Elizabeth Queene of Vertue while she liued and Theame of Sorrow being dead THENOT COLLIN Thenot. COllin thou lookst as lagging as the day When the Sun setting toward his westerne bed Shewes that like him all glory must decay And frolique life with murkie clouds o re-spred Shall leaue all earthly beautie mongst the dead Such is the habite of thy new aray Why art thou not preparde to welcome May In whose cleare Moone thy younglings shall be fed With nights sweete dewes and open flowers of day Collin I aunswer thee with woe and wel away I am in sable clad sith she cannot be had That me and mine did glad there 's all I 'le say Thenot. Well spoken Swaine let me thy sorrow ken Rich soule though wrong'd by idle Antike men And driuen by falshood to a cloudie den Tell me thy griefe Collin O it is past releefe and which is worst of worst Bayards and beasts accurst with grosest flattery nurst Haue sung her sacred name and prais'd her to their shame Of mayden Queenes who was our last and first Thenot. Deere Collin doe not checke the humblest song The will is euer maister of the worke Those that can sing haue done all Shepheards wrong Like Lozels in their cottages to lurke The ayres the ayre though it be thicke and murke If they to whom true Pastorals belong In needefull layes vse neither pipe nor tong Shall none the vertuous raise Collin Yes those that merit Bayes though teares restraine their layes Some weeping houres or dayes will finde a time To honour Honour still not with a rurall quill But with the soule of skill to blesse their rime Aye me why should I dote on rimes on songs or note Confusion can best quote sacred Elizaes losse Whose praise doth grace all verse that shal the same reherse No gold neede decke her herse to her all gold is drosse With that Collin in discontent brake his pipe and in that passion as if his heart had beene like his pipe parted each peece from the other hee fell without sense on the earth not then insensible of his sorrowe for it yeelded wept and groand at once with his fall his weepings and his sighs Poore Th. showted for help at whose call came some Nymphs full of sorrow for their Soueraigne and no whit amazed to see him lie as dead their hearts were so dead with thinking of that which had astonied his But yet as gathering of companies draw more more to wonder so prooued it among the Shepheards that left none but their curres to attend their flockes themselues flocking about Thenot Collin who now recouered from his trance and all asking the reason of his griefe with teares abounding in his eyes that likewise drew more aboundantly from theirs he distractedly answered Illum nec enim reprehendere fas est Qui fleat hanc cuius fregerunt stamina parcae Solus honor sequitur mortales ille misellos And therewithall making a signe for the Shepheards and Nymphs to sit downe he told them they had lost that sacred Nymph that carefull Shepheardesse ELIZA but if it pleased them to lend attention he would repeate somthing of her worth memorie that should liue in despite of death whereupon a still silence seizd them all sauing only now and then by sighing they exprest their hearts sorrow and Collin thus began Seeing Honor onely followeth mortals and the works of the vertuous die not with their deaths and yet those workes neuerthelesse with the honours and rites due to the departed might be much blemished if there were no gratitude in their successors let vs poore Rurals though no other wayes able to erect Statues for our late dread Soueraigne worthy all memory among our selues repeate part of her excellent Graces and our benefite obtained by her Gouernment for to reckon all were Opus infinitum alabour without end She was the vndoubted issue of two royall Princes Henry of Lancaster and Elizabeth of Yorke In whose vnion the quiet of vs poore Swaines began for till that blessed mariage England was a shambles of slaughtred men so violent was the blood of ambition so potent the factions and so implacable their heads whose eyes were neuer cleard till they were washt in blood euen in the deare blood of their Obiects hearts This King Grandfather to our late Queene was the first Brittish King that manie a hundred yeeres before wore the Emperiall Diademe of England France Ireland in him began the name of Tewther descended from the ancient Brittish King to florish the issue male of royal Plantagenet ending in his beginning his wife Grandmother to our late Elizabeth being the last Plantagenet whose Temples were heere circled with a sphere of gold Which King and Queene liued and loued and now lie intoombed in that most famous Chappell built at his Kingly charge in the Abbey of Westminster King Henry dying in a good age left England rich beautifull and full of peace and so blest with his issue after royally matcht to Scotland France besides his vndoubted heire
almost thirtie yeares agoe courting it now and then I haue seene the Ladies make great shift to hide away their looking-glasses if her Maiestie had past by their lodgings O humble Lady how meeke a spirite hadst thou How farre from affecting beautie or vaine pride when thou desiredst not to see that face which all thy subiects longed dayly to behold and sundry Princes came from farre to wonder at As in these things shee kept truely the Meane so likewise in her gifts as I first nored touching her Charitie which was still so tempered notwithstanding her great charge in aiding her distressed neighbours that she was euer truely liberall and no way prodigall as I trust his Royall Maiestie shall by the treasure finde As shee was adorned with all these vertues so was she indued with Fortitude and Princely courage so plentifully that her displeasure shooke euen her stoutest aduersaries and those vnnaturall traytors that came armed sundry times with bloodie resolution to lay violent hands on her sacred Maiestie her very lookes would daunt and their instruments prepared for her death dropt from their trembling hands with terrour of their consciences and amazement to behold her countenance Nay when she knew they came of purpose to kill her she hath singled diuerse of them alone and let some passe from her with milde caueats a farre off whose lenitie rather increasing then diminishing their malice they haue followed destruction which too timely ouertooke them I could in this place name many particular men as Parry and others but I will content yee with one priuate example ouerpassing the generall when Appletree whom I remembred before had hurt her water-man being next to her in the Barge the French Ambassador being amazed and all crying Treason Treason yetshee with an vndaunted spirite came to the open place of the Barge and bade them neuer feare for if the shotte were made at her they durst not shoote againe such maiestie had her presence and such boldnesse her heart that shee despised all feare and was as all Princes are or should be so full of diuine fulnesse that guiltie mortalitie durst not behold her but with dazeled eyes But I wonder saith Thenot she in so many yeares built no goodly Aedifice wherein her memorie might liue So did shee answered Collin the goodliest buildings in the earth such as like fleeting Iles commanded the seas whose outward wal's are dreadfull Engins of brasse sending fearefull thunder among enemies And the inhabitants of those wooden Iles are worthy Seamen such as dread to danger but for her would haue runne euen into destructions mouth I tell thee Thenot I haue seene in a fight some like nimble spirites hanging in the aire by little cords some lading ordinance with deathfull powder some charging Muskets and discharging ruine on their enemies some at the foreship others busie at helme skipping here and there like Roes in lightnesse and Lions in courage that it would haue powred spirite into a sicke man to see their resolutions For such tenants made she many buildings exceeding any Emperours Nauy in the earth whose seruice I doubt not will be acceptable to her most worthy Successor our dread Soueraigne Lord and King Other Pallaces shee had great store of which shee maintained and yearely repaired at least would haue done if those that had care of her suruaying would haue beene as carefull for hers as for their owne What should I say of her the clowdie mantle of the night couers the beautie of the heauen and this euening lookes like those foure days that preceeded the morning of her death The beasts the night that she ended her fate in earth kept an vnwonted bellowing so that I assure thee Thenot being assured of her sickenesse I was troubled being awakened with their cries with imagination of her death that I pittied not my bleating flocke who with their innocent notes kept time with my true teares till the houre of her death was past when immediately a heauy sleepe shut vp the windowes of mine eyes at which time as I haue since heard deaths eternal sleep vtterly benummed all her sences whose soule I doubt not hath already entred endlesse rest whither God will draw her glorified body in his great day Sweete Virgine she was borne on the Eue of that blessed Virgines Natiuitie holy Mary Christs mother shee died on the Eue of the Annunciation of the same most holy Virgin ablessed note of her endlesse blessednesse and her societie in heauen with those wise Virgines that kept Oyle euer in their Lampes to awayte the Bridegroome Shee came vnto the Crowne after her Royall sisters death like a fresh Spring euen in the beginning of Winter and brought vs comforte as the cleare Sunne doeth to storme-dressed Marriners shee left the Crowne likewise in the winter of her Age and the beginning of our Spring as if the Ruler of heauen had ordained her Coronation in our sharpest Winter to bring vs happinesse and vncrowned her in our happiest Spring to leaue vs in more felicitie by her Succeeder O happy beginning and more happy end which notwithstanding as naturall sonnes and subiects let her not goe vnwept for toher graue This euening let vs be like the Euening that drops dewy teares on the earth and while our hindes shut vp the sheepe in their folds sing a Funerall song for the losse of diuine Elizabeth inuocating absent Schollers to bewaile her whom in sundry Schooles shee cherisht and personally in either of their Vniuersities visited let vs bid souldiers lament her toward whom besides many apparant signes of her exceeding loue this is one most worth memorie shee came amongest them mounted at Tilburie being gathered into a royall Armie against the Spanish Inuasion promising to share with them in all fortunes if the enemie durst but shew his face aland Let Citizens likewise shead teares for her losse especially those of London to whome she was euer a kinde Soueraigne and bountifull neighbour I neede not bidde the Courtiers weepe for they can neuer forgette the countenance of their gracious Mistresse till they haue ingrauen in their hearts the fauour of their most Royall Maister For vs poore Shepheards though we are not able to sute our selues in blacke fine inough to adorne so Royall an Enterrement yet Thenot quicken thy inuention Dryope and Chloris shall beare parte and let vs conclude our sorrow for Eliza in a Funerall Hymne that shall haue power to draw from the swelling Clowdes waters to assist our woe The Springs taught by the teares that breake from our eyes already ouerflow their bounds The Birds sit mute to heare our musicke and our harmelesse flocke hearken to our moanes To this they all as gladly as their griefe would suffer them consented Collin for his broken Pipe toooke Cuddyes who could neither sing nor play Hee was so full of passion and sighes The Funerall Song betweene Collin and Thenot Dryope and Chloris vpon the death of the sacred Virgine ELIZABETH Collin YE sacred Muses