reason ledde the king â–ª My Father thus without all my desert To reue me halfe the kingdome which by course Of law and nature should remayne to me Hermon If you with stubborne and vntamed pryde Had stood against him in rebelling wise Or if with grudging minde you had enuied So slow a slidyng of his aged yeres Or sought before your time to haste the course Of fatall death vpon his royall head Or stained your stocke with murder of your kyn Some face of reason might perhaps haue seemed To yelde some likely cause to spoyle ye thus Ferrox The wrekeful Gods powre on my cursed head Eternall plagues and neuer dying woes The hellish prince adiudge my dampned ghost To Tantales thirste or proude Ixions wheele Or cruell gripe to gnaw my growing harte To during tormentes and vnquenched flames If euer I conceyued so foule a thought To wisshe his ende of life or yet of reigne Dordan Ne yet your father O most noble Prince Did euer thinke so fowle a thing of you For he with more than fathers tendre loue While yet the fates do lende him life to rule Who long might lyue to see your ruling well To you my Lorde and to his other sonne Lo he resignes his realme and royaltie Which neuer would so wise a Prince haue done If he had once misdemed that in your harte There euer lodged so vnkinde a thought But tendre loue my Lorde and setled truste Of your good nature and your noble minde Made him to place you thus in royall throne And now to geue you half his realme to guide Yea and that halfe which in abounding store Of things that serue to make a welthy realme In stately cities and in frutefull soyle In temperate breathing of the milder heauen In thinges of nedefull vse which frendly sea Transportes by traffike from the forreine partes In flowing wealth in honour and in force Doth passe the double value of the parte That Porrex hath allotted to his reigne Such is your case such is your fathers loue Ferrex Ah loue my frendes loue wrongs not whoÌ„ he loues Dordan Ne yet he wrongeth you that geueth you So large a reigne ere that the course of time Bring you to kingdome by discended right Which time perhaps might end your time before Ferrex Is this no wrong say you to reaue from me My natiue right of halfe so great a realme And thus to matche his yonger sonne with me In egall power and in as great degree Yea and what sonne the sonne whose swelling pride Woulde neuer yelde one poinct of reuerence Whan I the elder and apparaunt heire Stoode in the likelihode to possesse the whole Yea and that sonne which from his childish age Enuieth myne honour and doth hate my life What will he now do when his pride his rage The mindefull malice of his grudging harte Is armed with force with wealth and kingly state Hermon Was this not wrong yea yll aduised wrong To giue so mad a man so sharpe a sworde To so great perill of so great missehappe Wide open thus to set so large a waye Dordan Alas my Lord what griefull thing is this That of your brother you can thinke so ill I neuer saw him vtter likelie signe Whereby a man might see or once misdeme Such hate of you ne such vnyelding pride Ill is their counsell shamefull be their ende That raysing such mistrustfull feare in you Sowing the seede of such vnkindly hate Trauaile by treason to destroy you both Wise is your brother and of noble hope Worthie to welde a large and mightie realme So much a stronger frende haue you therby Whose strength is your strength if you gree in one Hermon If nature and the Goddes had pinched so Their flowing bountie and their noble giftes Of princelie qualities from you my Lorde And powrde them all at ones in wastfull wise Upon your fathers yonger sonne alone Perhappes there be that in your preiudice Would say that birth should yeld to worthinesse But sithe in eche good gift and princelie arte Ye are his matche and in the chiefe of all In mildenesse and in sobre gouernaunce Ye farre surmount And sith there is in you Sufficing skill and hopefull towardnesse To weld the whole and match your elders prayse I see no cause why ye should loose the halfe Ne would I wisshe you yelde to such a losse Lest your milde sufferaunce of so great a wronge Be deemed cowardishe and simple dreade Which shall geue courage to the fierie head Of your yonge brother to inuade the whole While yet therfore stickes in the peoples minde The lothed wrong of your disheritaunce And ere your brother haue by settled power By guile full cloke of an alluring showe Got him some force and fauour in the realme And while the noble Queene your mother lyues To worke and practise all for your auaile Attempt redresse by armes and wreake your self Upon his life that gayneth by your losse Who nowe to shame of you and griefe of vs In your owne kingdome triumphes ouer you Shew now your courage meete for kingly state That they which haue auowed to spend theyr goods Their landes their liues and honours in your cause â–ª May be the bolder to mainteyne your parte When they do see that cowarde feare in you Shall not betray ne faile their faithfull hartes If once the death of Porrex ende the strife And pay the price of his vsurped reigne Your mother shall perswade the angry kyng The Lords your frends eke shall appease his rage For they be wise and well they can forsee That ere longe time your aged fathers death Will bryng a time when you shall well requite Their frendlie fauour or their hatefull spite Yea or their slackenesse to auaunce your cause Wise men do not so hang on passing staâ—â— Of present Princes chiefely in their age But they will further cast their reaching eye To viewe and weye the times and reignes to come Ne is it likely though the kyng be wrothe That he yet will or that the realme will beare Extreme reuenge vpon his onely sonne Or if he woulde what one is he that dare Be minister to such an enterprise And here you be now placed in your owne Amyd your Frendes your vassalles and your strength We shall defende and kepe your person safe Till either counsell turne his tender minde Or age or sorrow end his werie dayes But if the feare of Goddes and secrete grudge Of natures law repining at the fact Withholde your courage from so great attempt Know ye that lust of kingdomes hath no law The Goddes do beare and well allow in kinges The thinges they abhorre in rascall routes When kinges on slender quarrells runne to warres And then in cruell and vnkindely wise Commaund theftes rapes murders of innocentes The spoile of townes ruines of mighty realmes Thinke you such princes do suppose them selues Subiect to lawes of kinde and feare of Gods Murders and violent theftes in priuate men Are hainous crimes
and full of foule reproch Yet none offence but deckt with glorious name Of noble conquestes in the handes of kinges But if you like not yet so hoâ—e deuise Ne list to take such vauntage of the time But though with perill of your owne estate You will not be the first that shall inuade Assemble yet your force for your defence And for your safetie stand vpon your garde Dordan O heauen was there euer heard or knowen So wicked counsell to a noble prince Let me my Lorde disclose vnto your grace This hainous tale what mischiefe it containes Your fathers death your brothers and your owne Your present murder and eternall shame Heare me O King and suffer not to sinke So high a treason in your princely brest Ferrex The mightie Goddes forbid that euer I Should once conceaue such mischiefe in my hart Although my brother hath bereft my realme And beare perhappes to me an hatefull minde Shall I reuenge it with his death therefore Or shall I so destroy my fathers life That gaue me life the Gods forbid I say Cease you to speake so any more to me Ne you my frend with answere once repeate So foule a tale In silence let it die What lord or subiect shall haue hope at all That vnder me they safely shall enioye Their goods their honours landes and liberties With whom neither one onely brother deare Ne father dearer could emoye their liues But sith I feare my yonger brothers rage And sith perhappes some other man may geue Some like aduise to moue his grudging head At mine estate which counsell may perchaunce Take greater force with him than this with me I will in secrete so prepare my selfe As if his malice or his lust to reigne Breake forth in armes or sodeine violence I may withstand his rage and keepe mine owne Dordan I feare the fatall time now draweth on When ciuil hate shall end the noble line Of famous Brute and of his royall seede Great Ioue defend the mischiefes now at hand O that the Secretaries wise aduise Had erst bene heard when he besought the king Not to diuide his land nor send his sonnes To further partes from presence of his court Ne yet to yelde to them his gouernaunce Lo such are they now in the royall throne As was rashe Phaeton in Phebus carre Ne then the fiery stedes did draw the flame With wilder randoâ— through the kindled skies Than traitorous counseâ—â— now will whirle abouâ— The youthfull heades of these vnskilfull kinges But I here of their father will enforme The reuerence of him perhappes shall stay The growing mischiefes while they yet are greene If this helpe not then woe vnto them selues The prince the people the diuided land Actus secundus Scena secunda Porrex Tyndar Philander POrrex And is it thus And doth he so prepare Against his brother as his mortall foe And now while yet his aged father liues Neither regardes he him nor feares he me Warre would he haue and he shall haue it so Tyndar I saw my selfe the great prepared store Of horse of armour and of weapon there Ne bring I to my lorde reported tales Without the ground of seen and fearched trouth Loe secrete quarrels runne about his court To bring the name of you my lorde in hate Ech man almost can now debate the cause And aske a reason of so great a wrong Why he so noble and so wise a prince Is as vnworthy rest his heritage And why the king misseledde by craftie meanes Diuided thus his land from course of right The wiser sort holde downe their griefull heades Eche man withdrawes from talke and company Of those that haue bene knowne to fauour you To hide the mischiefe of their meaning there Rumours are spread of your preparing here The rascall numbers of vnskilfull sort Are filled with monstrous tales of you and yours In secrete I was counselled by my frendes To hast me thence and brought you as you know Letters from those that both can truely tell And would not write vnlesse they knew it well Philand My lord yet ere you moue vnkindly warre Send to your brother to demaund the cause Perhappes some traitorous tales haue filled his eares With false reportes against your noble grace Which once disclosed shall end the growing strife That els not stayed with wise foresight in time Shall hazarde both your kingdomes and your liues Send to your father eke he shall appease Your kindled mindes and rid you of this feare Porrex Ridde me of feare I feare him not at all Ne will to him ne to my father send If danger were for one to tary there Thinke ye it safetie to returne againe In mischiefes such as Ferrex now intendes The wonted courteous lawes to messengers Are not obserued which in iust warre they vse Shall I so hazard any one of mine Shall I betray my trusty frendes to him That haue disclosed his treason vnto me Let him entreate that feares I feare him not Or shall I to the king my father send Yea and send now while such a mother liues That loues my brother and that hateth me Shall I geue leasure by my fonde delayes To Ferrex to oppresse me all vnware I will not but I will inuade his realme And seeke the traitour prince within his court Mischiefe for mischiefe is a due reward His wretched head shall pay the worthy price Of this his treason and his hate to me Shall I abide and treate and send and pray And holde my yelden throate to traitours knife While I with valiant minde and conquering force Might rid my selfe of foes and winne a realme Yet rather when I haue the wretches head Then to the king my father will I send The bootelesse case may yet appease his wrath If not I will defend me as I may Philand Lo here the end of these two youthful kings The fathers death the ruine of their realmes O most vnhappy state of counsellers That light on so vnhappy lordes and times That neither can their good aduise be heard Yet must they beare the blames of ill successe But I will to the king their father haste Ere this mischiefe come to the likely end That if the mindfull wrath of wrekefull Gods Since mightie Ilions fall not yet appeased With these poore remnantes of the Troian name Haue not determined by vnmoued fate Out of this realme to rase the Brittishe line By good aduise by awe of fathers name By force of wiser lordes this kindled hate May yet be quentched ere it consume vs all Chorus When youth not bridled with a guiding stay Is left to randon of their owne delight And welds whole realmes by force of soueraign sway Great is the daunger of vnmaistred might Lest skillesse rage throwe downe with headlong fallâ— Their lands their states their liues them selues alâ— When growing pride doth fill the swelling brest And gredy lust doth rayse the climbing minde Oh hardlie maye the perill be represt Ne feare of angrie Goddes ne lawes
yonge and noble minds And so shall guide and traine in tempred stay Their yet greene bending wittes with reuerent awe As now inured with vertues at the first Custome O King shall bring delightfulnesse By vse of vertue vice shall growe in hate But if you so dispose it that the daye Which endes your life shall first begin their reigne Great is the perill what will be the ende When such beginning of such liberties Uoide of suche stayes as in your life do lye Shall leaue them free to randon of their will An open praie to traiterous flatterie The greatest pestilence of noble youthe Whiche perill shal be past if in your life Their tempred youthe with aged fathers awe Be brought in vre of skilfull stayednesse And in your life their liues disposed so Shall length your noble life in ioyfulnesse Thus thinke I that your grace hath wisely thought And that your tender care of common weale Hath bred this thought so to diuide your lande And plant your sonnes to beare the present rule While you yet liue to see their rulinge well That you may longer lyue by ioye therein What furder meanes behouefull are and meetâ— At greater leisure may your grace deuise When all haue said and when we be agreed If this be best to part the realme in twaine And place your sonnes in present gouernement Whereof as I haue plainely said my mynde So woulde I here the rest of all my Lordes Philand In part I thinke as hath bene said before In parte agayne my minde is otherwise As for diuiding of this realme in twaine And lotting out the same in egall partes To either of my lordes your graces sounes That thinke I best for this your realmes behofe For profite and aduauncement of your sonnes And for your comforte and your honour eke But so to place them while your life do last To yelde to them your royall gouernaunce To be aboue them onely in the name Of father not in kingly state also I thinke not good for you for them nor vs. This kingdome since the bloudie ciuill fielde Where Morgan slaine did yeld his conquered parte Unto his cosins sworde in Camberland Conteineth all that whilome did suffice Three noble sonnes of your forefather Brute So your two sonnes it maye suffice also The moe the stronger if they gree in one The smaller compasse that the realme doth holde The easier is the swey thereof to welde The nearer Iustice to the wronged poore The smaller charge and yet ynoughe for one And whan the region is diuided so That brethren be the lordes of either parte Such strength doth nature knit betwene them both In sondrie bodies by conioyned loue That not as two but one of doubled force Eche is to other as a sure defence The noblenesse and glory of the one Doth sharpe the courage of the others mynde With vertuous enuie to contende for praise And suche an egaluesse hath nature made Betwene the brethren of one fathers seede As an vnkindly wrong it seemes to bee To throwe the brother subiect vnder fecte Of him whose peere he is by course of kinde And nature that did make this egalnesse Ofte so repineth at so great a wrong That ofte she rayseth vp a grudginge griefe In yonger brethren at the elders state Wherby both townes and kingdomes haue ben rased And famous stockes of royall bloud destroied The brother that shoulde be the brothers aide And haue a wakefull care for his defence Gapes for his death and blames the lyngering yeres That draw not forth his ende with faster course And oft impacient of so longe delayes With hatefull slaughter he preuentes the fates And heapes a iust rewarde for brothers bloode With endlesse vengeaunce on his stocke for aye Suche mischiefes here are wisely mette withall If egall state maye nourishe egall loue Where none hath cause to grudge at others good But nowe the head to stoupe beneth them bothe Ne kinde ne reason ne good ordre beares And oft it hath ben seene where natures course Hath ben peruerted in disordered wise When fathers cease to know that they should rule The children cease to know they should obey And often ouerkindly tendernesse Is mother of vnkindly stubbornenesse I speake not this in enuie or reproche As if I grudged the glorie of your sonnes Whose honour I besech the Goddes encrease Nor yet as if I thought there did remaine So filthie cankers in their noble brestes Whom I esteeme which is their greatest praise Undoubted children of so good a kyng Onelie I meane to shewe by certeine rules Whiche kinde hath graft within the mind of man That nature hath her ordre and her course Which being broken doth corrupt the state Of myndes and thinges euen in the best of all My lordes your sonnes may learne to rule of you Your owne example in your noble courte Is fittest guyder of their youthfull yeares If you desire to see some present ioye By sight of their well rulynge in your lyfe See them obey so shall you see them rule Who so obeyeth not with humblenesse Will rule with outrage and with insolence Longe maye they rule I do beseche the Goddes But longe may they learne ere they begyn to rule If kinde and fates woulde suffre I would wisshe Them aged princes and immortall kinges Wherfore most noble kynge I well assent Betwene your sonnes that you diuide your realme And as in kinde so match them in degree But while the Goddes prolong your royall life Prolong your reigne for therto lyue you here And therfore haue the Goddes so long forborne To ioyne you to them selues that still you might Be prince and father of our common weale They when they see your children ripe to rule Will make them roume and will remoue you hence That yours in right ensuynge of your life Maye rightly honour your immortall name Eub. Your wonted true regarde of faithfull hartes Makes me O kinge the bolder to presume To speake what I conceiue within my brest Although the same do not agree at all With that which other here my lordes haue said Nor which your selfe haue seemed best to lyke Pardon I craue and that my wordes be deâ—â—ed To flowe from hartie zeale vnto your grace And to the safetie of your common weale To parte your realme vnto my lordes your sounes I thinke not good for you ne yet for them But worste of all for this our natiue lande Within one land one single rule is best Diuided reignes do make diuided hartes But peace preserues the countrey and the prince Suche is in man the gredy minde to reigne So great is his desire to climbe alofte In worldly stage the stateliest partes to beare That faith and iustice and all kindly loue Do yelde vnto desire of soueraignitie Where egall state doth raise an egall hope To winne the thing that either wold attaine Your grace remembreth how in passed yeres The mightie Brute first prince of all this lande Possessed the same and ruled it well in
my lordes may seeme for best aduise I wish that it should streight be put in vre Mandud My lordes than let vs presently depart And follow this that liketh vs so well Fergus If euer time to gaine a kingdome here Were offred man now it is offred mee The realme is reft both of their king and queene The ofspring of the prince is slaine and dead No issue now remaines the heire vnknowen The people are in armes and mutynies The nobles they are busied how to cease These great rebellious tumultes and vproares And Brittavne land now desert left alone Amyd these broyles vncertayne where to rest Offers her selfe vnto that noble hart That will or dare pursue to beare her crowne Shall I that am the duke of Albanye Discended from that line of noble bloud Which hath so long florished in worthy fame Of valiaunt hartes such as in noble brestes Of right should rest aboue the the baser sort Refuse to venture life to winne a crowne Whom shall I finde enmies that will withstand My fact herein if I attempt by armes To seeke the same now in these times of broyle These dukes power can hardly well appease The people that already are in armes But if perhappes my force be once in field Is not my strength in power aboue the best Of all these lordes now left in Brittayne land And though they should match me with power of mē Yet doubtfull is the chaunce of battailles ioyued If victors of the field we may depart Ours is the scepter then of great Brittayne ▪ If slayne amid the playne this body lye Mine enemies yet shall not deny me this But that I dyed geuing the noble charge To hazarde life for conquest of a crowne Forthwith therefore will I in post depart To Albanye and raise in armour there All power I can and here my secret friendes By secret practise shall sollicite still To seeke to wynne to me the peoples hartes Actus quintus Scena Secunda Eubulus Clotyn. Mandad Gwenard Arostus Nuntius Evb. O Ioue how are these peoples harts abusde ▪ What blind fury thus he adlong caries them That though so many bookes so many rolles Of auncient time recorde what greuous plagues Light on these rebelles aye and though so oft Their cares haue heard their aged fathers tell What iuste reward these traitours still receyue Yea though them selues haue sene depe death bloud By strangling cord and slaughter of the sword To such assigned yet can they not beware Yet can not stay their lewde rebellious handes But suffring loe fowle treason to distaine Their wretched myndes forget their loyall hart Reiect all truth and rise against their prince A ruthefull case that those whom duties bond Whom grafted law by nature truth and faith Bound to preserue their countrey and their king Borne to defend their common wealth and prince Euen they should geue consent thus to subuert Thee Brittaine land from thy wombe should spring O natiue soile those that will needs destroy And tuyne thee and eke them selues in fine For lo when once the dukes had offred grace Of pardon sweete the multitude missledde By traitorous fraude of their vngracious heades One sort that saw the dangerous successe Of stubborne standing in rebellious warre And knew the difference of princes power From headlesse nombre of tumultuous routes Whom common countreies care and priuate feare Taught to repent the errour of their rage Layde handes vpon the captaines of their band And brought them bound vnto the mightie dukes And other sort not trusting yet so well The truth of pardon or mistrusting more Their owne offence than that they could conceiue Such hope of pardon for so foule misdede Or for that they their captaines could not yeld Who fearing to be yelded fled before Stale home by silence of the secret night The thirde vnhappy and enraged sort Of desperate hartes who stained in princes bloud From trayterous furour could not be withdrawen By loue by law by grace ne yet by feare By proffered life ne yet by threatned death With mindes hopelesse of life dreadlesse of death Carelesse of countrey and awelesse of God Stoode bent to fight as furies did them moue With violent death to close their traiterous life These all by power of horsemen were opprest And with reuenging sworde slayne in the field Or with the strangling cord hangd on the tree Where yet their carryen carcases do preach The fruites that rebelles reape of their vproares And of the murder of their sacred prince But loe where do approche the noble dukes By whom these tumults haue ben thus appeasde Clotyn. I thinke the world will now at length beware And feare to put on armes agaynst their prince Mand. If not those trayterous hartes that dare rebell Let them beholde the wide and hugie fieldes With bloud and bodies spread of rebelles slayne The lofty trees clothed with the corpses dead That strangled with the corde do hang theron Arostus A iust rewarde such as all times before Haue euer lotted to those wretched folkes Gwen. But what meanes he that commeth here so fast Nun. My lordes as dutie and my trouth doth moue And of my countrey worke a care in mee That if the spending of my breath auailed To do the seruice that my hart desires I would not shunne to imbrace a present death So haue I now in that wherein I thought My trauayle mought performe some good effect Uentred my life to bring these tydinges here Fergus the mightie duke of Albanye Is now in armes and lodgeth in the fielde With twentie thousand men hether he bendes His spedy marche and mindes to inuade the crowne Dayly he gathereth strength and spreads abrode That to this realme no certeine heire remaines That Brittayne land is left without a guide That he the scepter seekes for nothing els But to preserue the people and the land Which now remaine as ship without a sterne Loe this is that which I haue here to say Cloyton Is this his fayth and shall he falsely thus Abuse the vauntage of vnhappie times O wretched land if his outragious pride His cruell and vntempred wilfulness His deepe dissembling shewes of false pretence Should once attaine the crowne of Brittaine land Let vs my lordes with timely force resist The new attempt of this our common foe As we would quench the flames of common fire Mand. Though we remaine without a certain prince To weld the realme or guide the wandring rule Yet now the common mother of vs all Our natiue land our countrey that conteines Our wiues children kindred our selues and all That euer is or may be deare to man Cries vnto vs to helpe our selues and her Let vs aduaunce our powers to represse This growing foe of all our liberties Gwenard Yea let vs so my lordes with hasty speede And ye O Goddes send vs the welcome death To shed our bloud in field and leaue vs not In lothesome life to lenger out our dayes To see the hugie heapes of
these vnhappes 〈◊〉 now roll downe vpon the wretched land Where emptie place of princely gouernaunce No certaine stay now left of doubtlesse heire Thus leaue this guidelesse realme an open pray To endlesse stormes and waste of ciuill warre Arostus That ye my lordes do so agree in one To saue your countrey from the violent reigne And wrongfully vsurped tyrannie Of him that threatens conquest of you all To saue your realme and in this realme your selues From forreine thraldome of so proud a prince Much do I prayse and I besech the Goddes With happy honour to requite it you But O my lordes sith now the heauens wrath Hath reft this land the issue of their prince Sith of the body of our late soueraigne lorde Remaines no moe since the yong kinges be slaine And of the title of discended crowne Uncertainly the diuerse mindes do thinke Euen of the learned sort and more vncertainly Will parciall fancie and affection deeme But most vncertainly will climbing pride And hope of reigne withdraw to sundry partes The doubtfull right and hopefull lust to reigne When once this noble seruice is atchieued For Brittaine land the mother of ye all When once ye haue with armed force represt The proude attemptes of this Albanian prince That threatens thraldome to your natiue land When ye shall vanquishers returne from field And finde the princely state an open pray To gredie lust and to vsurping power Then then my lordes if euer kindly care Of auncient honour of your auncesters Of present wealth and noblesse of your stockes Yea of the liues and safetie yet to come Of your deare wiues your children and your selues Might moue your noble hartes with gentle ruth Then then haue pitie on the torne estate Then helpe to salue the welneare hopelesse sore Which ye shall do if ye your selues withholde The slaying knife from your owne mothers throate Her shall you saue and you and yours in her If ye shall all with one assent forbeare Once to lay hand or take vnto your selues The crowne by colour of pretended right Or by what other meanes so euer it be Till first by common counsell of you all In Parliament the regall diademe Be set in certaine place of gouernaunce In which your Parliament and in your choise Preferre the right my lordes with respect Of streugth or frendes or what soeuer cause That may set forward any others part For right will last and wrong can not endure Right meane I his or hers vpon whose name The people rest by meane of natiue line Or by the vertue of some former lawe Already made their title to aduaunce Such one my lordes let be your chosen king Such one so borne within your natiue land Such one preferre and in no wise admitte The heauie yoke of forreine gouernance Let forreine titles yelde to publike wealth And with that hart wherewith ye now prepare Thus to withstand the proude muading foe With that same hart my lordes keepe out also Unnaturall thraldome of strangers reigne Ne suffer you against the rules of kinde Your mother land to serue a forreine prince Eubulus Loe here the end of Brutus royall line And loe the entry to the wofull wracke And vtter ruine of this noble realme The royall king and eke his sonnes are slaine No ruler restes within the regall seate The heire to whom the scepter longes vnknowen That to eche force of forreine princes power Whom vauntage of our wretched state may moue By sodeine armes to gaine so riche a realme And to the proud and gredie minde at home Whom blinded lust to reigne leade to aspire Loe Brittaine realme is left an open pray A present spoyle by conquest to ensue Who seeth not now how many rising mindes Do feede their thoughts with hope to reach a realme And who will not by force attempt to winne So great a gaine that hope perswades to haue A simple colour shall for title serue Who winnes the royall crowne will want no right Nor such as shall display by long discent A lineall race to proue him lawfull king In the meane while these ciuel armes shall rage And thus a thousand mischiefes shall vnfolde And farre and neare spread thee O Brittaine land All right and lawe shall cease and he that had Nothing to day to morrowe shall enioye Great heapes of golde and he that flowed in wealth Loe he shall be berest of life and all And happiest he that then possesseth least The wiues shall suffer rape the maides defloured And children fatherlesse shall weepe and wane With fire and sworde thy natiue folke shall perishe One kinsman shall bereaue an others life The father shall vnwitting slay the sonne The sonne shall slay the sire and know it not Women and maides the cruell souldiers sword Shall perse to death and sillie children loe That play in the streetes and fieldes are found By violent hand shall close their latter day Whom shall the fierce and bloudy souldier Reserue to life Whom shall he spare from death Euen thou O wretched mother halfe aliue Thou shalt beholde thy deare and onely childe Slaine with the sworde while he yet suckes thy brest Loe giltlesse bloud shall thus eche where be shed Thus shall the wasted soile yelde forth no fruite But dearth and famine shall possesse the land The townes shall be consumed and burnt with fire The peopled cities shall waxe desolate And thou O Brittaine whilome in renowme Whilome in wealth and fame shalt thus be torne Dismembred thus and thus be rent in twaine Thus wasted and defaced spoyled and destroyed These be the fruites your ciuil warres will bring Hereto it commes when kinges will not consent To graue aduise but followe wilfull will. This is the end when in fonde princes hartes Flattery preuailes and sage rede hath no place These are the plages when murder is the meane To make new heires vnto the royall crowne Thus wreke the Gods when that the mothers wrath Nought but the bloud of her owne childe may swage These mischiefes spring when rebells will arise To worke reuenge and iudge their princes fact This this ensues when noble men do faile In loyall trouth and subiectes will be kinges And this doth growe when loe vnto the prince Whom death or sodeine happe of life bereaues No certaine heire remaines such certaine heire As not all onely is the rightfull heire But to the realme is so made knowen to be And trouth therby vested in subiectes hartes To owe fayth there where right is knowen to rest Alas in Parliament what hope can be When is of Parliament no hope at all Which though it be assembled by consent Yet is not likely with consent to end While eche one for him selfe or for his frend Against his foe shall trauaile what he may While now the state left open to the man That shall with greatest force inuade the same Shall fill ambicious mindes with gaping hope When will they once with yelding hartes agree Or in the while how shall the realme be vsed No no then Parliament should haue bene holden And certeine heires appointed to the crowne To stay the title of established right And in the people plant obedience While yet the prince did liue whose name and power By lawfull sommons and authoritie Might make a Parliament to be of force And might haue set the state in quiet stay But now O happie man whom spedie death Depriues of life ne is enforced to see These hugie mischiefes and these miseries These ciuil warres these murders these wronges Of iuâ—â—ice yet must God in fine restore This noble crowne vnto the lawfull heire For right will alwayes liue and rise at length But wrong can neuer take deepe roote to last â–ª