woo'd me whilst Wars did yet increase I woo my Tudor in sweet calms of Peace To force Affection he did Conquest prove I come with gentle Arguments of Love * Incamp'd at Melans in Wars hot Alarms First saw I Henry clad in Princely Arms At pleasant Windsor First these Eyes of mine My Tudor judg'd for wit and shape divine Henry abroad with Puissance and with Force Tudor at home with Courtship and Discourse He then thou now I hardly can judge whether Did like me best Plantaginet or Tether A March a Measure Battel or a Dance A Courtly Rapier or a conqu'ring Launce His Princely Bed hath strength'ned my Renown * And on my Temples set a double Crown Which glorious Wreath as Henrys lawfull Heir Henry the sixth upon his Brow doth bear * At Troy in Champain he did first enjoy My Bridal Rites to England brought from Troy In England now that Honour thou shalt have Which once in Champain famous Henry gave I seek not Wealth three Kingdoms in my Power If these suffice not where shall be my Dower Sad Discontent may ever follow her Which doth base Pelf before true Love prefer If Titles still could our Affections tye What is so great but Majesty might buy As I seek thee so Kings doe me desire To what they would thou eas'ly may'st aspire That sacred Fire once warm'd my Heart before The Fuell fit the Flame is now the more And means to quench it I in vain doe prove We may hide Treasure but not hide our Love And since it is thy Fortune thus to gain it It were too late nor will I now restrain it * Nor these great Titles vainly will I bring Wife Daughter Mother Sister to a King Of Grandfire Father Husband Son and Brother More thou alone to me then all these other * Nor fear my Tudor that this love of mine Should wrong the Gaunt-born great Lancastrian Line * Or make the English Blood the Sun and Moon Repine at Lorain Burdon Alanson Nor doe I think there is such different ods They should alone be numbred with the Gods Of Cadmus Earthly Issue reck'ning us And they from Jove Mars Neptune Eolus Of great Latonas O'ff-spring onely they And wee the Brats of wofull Niobe Our famous Grandsires as their own bestrid That Horse of Fame that God-begotten Steed Whose bounding Hoof plow'd that Boetian Spring Where those sweet Maids of Memory doe sing I claim not all from Henry but as well To be the Child of Charles and Isabel Nor can I think from whence their Grief should grow That by this Match they be disparag'd so * When John and Longshanks Issue were affy'd And to the Kings of Wales in Wedlock ty'd Shewing the greatness of your Blood thereby Your Race and Royal Consanguinity And Wales as well as haughty England boasts * Of Camilot and all her Pentecosts To have precedence in Pendragons Race At Arthur's Table challenging the Place If by the often Conquest of your Land They boast the Spoiles of their victorious Hand If these our ancient Chronicles be true They altogether are not free from you * When bloody Rufus sought your Towns to sack Twice entring Wales yet twice was beaten back When famous Cambria wash'd her in the Flood Made by th' effusion of the English Blood * And oft return'd with glorious Victory From Worcester Her'ford Chester Shrewsbury Whose Power in ev'ry Conquest so prevails As once expuls'd the English out of Wales Although my Beauty made my Countries Peace And at my Bridal former Broils did cease More then his Power had not his Person been I had not come to England as a Queen Nor took I Henry to supply my want Because in France that time my choice was scant When it had robb'd all Christendom of Men And Englands Flower remain'd amongst us then Gluoster whose Counsels Nestor-like assist Couragious Bedford that great Martiallist Clarence for Vertue honour'd of his Foes And York whose Fame yet daily greater grows Warwick the pride of Nevil's haughty Race Great Salisbury so fear'd in ev'ry place That valiant Pool whom no Atchievement dar's And Vere so famous in the Irish Wars Who though my self so great a Princess born The best of these my equal need not scorn But Henry's rare Perfections and his parts As conqu'ring Kingdoms so he conquer'd Hearts As chaste was I to him as Queen might be But freed from him my chaste love vow'd to thee Beauty doth fetch all Favour from thy Face All perfect Court-ship resteth in thy Grace If thou discourse my Lips such Accents break As Love a Spirit forth of thee seem'd to speak The Brittish Language which our Vowels wants And jarrs so much upon harsh Consonants Comes with such grace from thy mellifluous Tongue As the sweet Notes doe of a well-set Song And runs as smoothly from those Lips of thine As the pure Tuskan from the Florentine Leaving such seas'ned sweetness in the Ear That the Voyce past the sound abides still there In Nisus Tower as when Apollo lay And on his golden Viol us'd to play Where senceless Stones were with such Musick drown'd As many years they did retain the Sound Let not the Beams that Greatness doth reflect Amaze thy Hopes with timerous respect Assure thee Tudor Majesty can be As kind in love as can the mean'st degree And the embraces of a Queen as true As theirs which think them much advanc'd by you When in our Greatness our Affections crave Those secret Joyes that other Women have So I a Queen be soveraign in my choice Let others fawn upon the publick voice Or what by this can ever hap to thee Light in respect to be belov'd of me Let pevish Wordlings prate of Right and Wrong Leave Plaints and Pleas to whom they doe belong Let old Men speak of Chances and Events And Laywers talk of Titles and Descents Leave fond Reports to such as Stories tell And Covenants to those that buy and sell Love my sweet Tudor that becomes thee best And to our good success refer the rest ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History Incamp'd at Melans in Wars hot Alarms First c. NEar unto Melans upon the River of Seyne was the appointed place of Parley between the two Kings of England and France to which place Isabel the Queen of France and the Duke of Rurgoyne brought the young Princess Katherine where King Henry first saw her And on my Temples set a double Crown Henry the fifth and Queen Katherine were taken as King Queen of France and during the life of Charles the French King Henry was called King of England and Heir of France and after the death of Henry the fift Henry the fixth his son then being very young was crown'd at Paris as true and lawfull King of England and France At Troy in Champaine he did first enjoy Troy in Champaine was the place where that victorious King Henry the fift married the Princess Katherine in the presence of the chief Nobility of the Realms of
to Modesty though they offending therein were buried quick A sharp Law for them who may say as Shores Wife does When though abroad restraining us to rome They very hardly keep us safe at home FINIS Mary the French Queen TO Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk The ARGUMENT Mary the Daughter of that Renowned Prince King Henry the Seventh being very young at her Fathers death was after by her Brother King Henry the Eight given in marriage to Lewis King of France being a man old and decrepit This fair and beautiful Lady long before had placed her Affections on Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk a brave and couragious young Gentleman and an especial Favorite of the King her Brother and a Man raised by him King Lewis the Husband of the beautiful Queen died not long after he was married and Charles Brandon having Commission from the King to bring her back to England but being delayed by some sinister means the French Queen writeth this Epistle to hasten the Duke forward on his intended voyage to France SUch health from Heav'n my self may wish to me Such health from France Queen Mary sends to thee Brandon how long mak'st thou excuse to stay And know'st how ill we Women brook delay If one poor Channel thus can part us two Tell me unkind what would an Ocean do Leander had an Hellespont to swim Yet this from Hero could not hinder him His Bark poor Soul his Breast his Arms his Oares But thou a Ship to land thee on our Shores And opposite to famous Kent doth lie The pleasant Fields of flowry Picardy Where our fair Callice walled in her Sands In kenning of the Cliffy Dover stands Here is no Bedlam Nurse to pout nor lour When wantoning we revel in my Towre Nor need I top my Turret with a Light To guide thee to me as thou swim'st by Night Compar'd with me wert thou but half so kind Thy Sighs should stuff thy Sails though wanting Wind But ah thy Breast's becalm'd thy Sighs be slack And mine too stiff and blow thy broad Sayls back Perhaps thou'lt say that I should blame the Flood Because the Wind so full against thee stood Nay blame it not that it did roughly blow For it did chide thee that thou wast so slow Think not it came to keep thee in the Bay T' was sent from me to bid thee come away But that thou vainly let'st occasion slide Thou might'st have wasted hither with the Tide If when thou com'st I knit mine angry Brow Blame me not Brandon thou hast broke thy Vow Yet if I meant to frown I might be dumb For this may make thee stand in doubt to come Nay come sweet Charles have care thy Ship to guide Come my sweet Heart in Faith I will not chide When as my Brother and his lovely Queen In sad Attire for my depart were seen * The utmost date expired of my stay * When I from Dover did depart away Thou know'st what Woe I suff'red for thy sake How oft I fain'd of thee my leave to take God and thou know'st with what an heavy heart I took my farwel when I should depart And being ship'd gave signal with my Hand Up to the Cliff where I did see thee stand Nor could refrain in all the peoples view But cry'd to thee Sweet Charles adieu adieu Look how a little Infant that hath lost The thing wherewith it was delighted most Weary with seeking to some corner creeps And there poor Soul it sits it down and weeps And when the Nurse would fain content the mind Yet still it mourns for that it cannot find Thus in my careful Cabbin did I lye When as the Ship out of the Road did flie * Think'st thou my Love was faithful then to thee When young Castle to England su'd for me Be judge thy self if it were not of power When I refus'd an Empire for my Dower To Englands Court when once report did bring How thou in France didst revel with the King * When he in triumph of his victory * Under a rich imbroid'red Canopy * Entred proud Tournay which did trembling stand To beg for mercy at his conqu'ring hand To hear of his endearments how I joy'd But see this calm was suddenly destroy'd * When Charles of Castile there to banquet came * With him his Sister that ambitious Dame * Savoy's proud Dutches knowing how long she * All means had try'd to win my love from me Fearing my absence might thy vows acquite To change thy Mary for a Margarite * When in King Henries Tent of Cloth of Gold She often did thee in her Arms enfold Where you were feasted more deliciously Than Cleopatra did Mark Anthony Where sports all day did intertain your sight And then in Masks you pass'd away the night But thou wilt say 't is proper unto us That we by nature all are jealous I must confess 't is oft found in our Sex But who not love not any thing suspects True love doth look with pale suspitious eye Take away love if you take jealousie Turwin and Turney when King Henry took For this great change who then did ever look * When Maximilian to those wars addrest * Wore Englands Cross on his Imperial breast * And in our Army let his Eagle flie * That view'd our Ensigns with a wond'ring Eye Little thought I when Bullen first was won Wedlock should end what angry War begun From which I vow I yet am free in thought * But this alone by Wolseies wit was wrought To his advice the King gave free consent That will I nill I I must be content My Virgins right thy state could not advance But now enriched with the Dower of France Then but poor Suffolk's Dutchess had I been Now the great Dowager the most Christian Queen But I perceive where all thy grief doth lie Lewis of France had my Virginity He had indeed but shall I tell thee what Believe me Brandon he had scarcely that Good feeble King he could not do much harm But Age must needs have something that is warm Small drops God knows do quench that heatless fire When all the strength is only in desire And I could tell if Modesty might tell There 's somewhat else that pleaseth Lovers well To rest his Cheek upon my softer Cheek Was all he had and more he did not seek So might the little Baby clip the Nurse And it content she never a whit the worse Then think this Brandon if that make thee frown He on my Head for Maydenhead set a Crown Who would not change a Kingdom for a Kiss Hard were the Heart that would not yield him this And time yet half so swiftly doth not pass Nor yet full five Months elder then I was When thou to France conducted wast by Fame With many Knights which from all Countries came To see me at Saint Dennis on my Throne Where Lewes held my Coronation * Where the proud Dolphin for thy valour sake * Chose thee at Tilt
sev'ral Nation And nothing more than England hold in scorn So live as Strangers whereas they were born But thy return in this I do not read Thou art a perfect Gentleman indeed O God forbid that Howards Noble line From ancient Vertue should so far decline The Muses train whereof your self are chief Only to me participate their Grief To sooth their humors I do lend them ears He gives a Poet that his Verses hears Till thy return by hope they only live Yet had they all they all away would give The World and they so ill according be That Wealth and Poets never can agree Few live in Court that of their good have care The Muses friends are every-where so rare Some praise thy Worth that it did never know Only because the better sort do so Whose judgment never further doth extend Than it doth please the greatest to commend So great an ill upon desert doth chance When it doth pass by beastly ignorance Why art thou slack whilst no man puts his hand stand * To raise the mount where Surrey's Towers must Or Who the groundsil of that work doth lay Whilst like a Wand'rer thou abroad do'st stray Clip'd in the Arms of some lascivious Dame When thou shouldst rear an Ilion to thy Name When shall the Muses by fair Norwich dwell To be the City of the learned Well Or Phoebus Altars there with Incense heap'd As once in Cyrrha or in Thebe kept Or when shall that fair hoof-plow'd Spring distill From great Mount-Surrey out of Leonards Hill Till thou return the Court I will exchange For some poor Cottage or some Country Grange Where to our Distaves as we sit and Spin My Maid and I will tell what things have bin Our Lutes unstrung shall hang upon the Wall Our Lessons serve to wrap our Towe withal And pass the Night whiles Winter tales we tell Of many things that long ago befell Or tune such homely Carrols as were sung In Courtly Sport when we our selves were young In prety Riddles to bewray our Loves In questions purpose or in drawing Gloves The Noblest Spirits to Vertue most inclin'd These here in Court thy greatest want do find Others there be on which we feed our Eye * Like Arras-work or such like Image'ry Many of us desire Queen Kath'rines state But very few her Vertues imitate Then as Vlysses Wife write I to thee Make no reply but come thy self to me ANNOTATIONS on the Chronicle History Then Windsors or Fitz-Geralds Families THe cost of many Kings which from time to time have adorned the Castle at Windsor with their Princely Magnificence hath made it more Noble than that it need to be spoken of now as though obscure and I hold it more meet to refer you to your vulgar Monuments for the Founders and Finishers thereof than to meddle with matter nothing to the purpose As for the Family of the Fitz-Geralds of whence this excellent Lady was lineally descended the original was English though the Branches did spread themselves into distant Places and Names nothing consonant as in former times it was usual to denominate themselves of their Manours or Forenames as may partly appear in that which ensueth the light whereof proceeded from my learned and very worthy Friend Master Francis Thin Walter of Windsor the Son of Oterus had to Issue William of whom Henry now Lord Windsor is descended and Robert of Windsor of whom Robert the now Earl of Essex and Gerald of Windsor his third Son who married the Daughter of Rees the great Prince of Wales of whom came Nesta Paramour to Henry the First Which Gerald had Issue Maurice Fitz-Gerald Ancestor to Thomas Fitz-Maurice Justice of Ireland buryed at Trayly leaving Issue John his Eldest Son first Earl of Kildare Ancestor to Geraldine and Maurice his second Son first Earl of Desmond To raise the Mount where Surrey's Tow'rs must stand Alluding to the sumptuous House which was afterward builded by him upon Leonard's Hill right against Norwich which in the Rebellion of Norfolk under Ket in King Edward the Sixth's time was much defaced by that impure Rabble Betwixt the Hill and the City as Alexander Nevil describes it the River of Yarmouth râ—…s having West and South thereof a Wood and a little Village called Thorp and on the North the pastures of Mousholl which contain about six miles in length and breadth So that besides the stately greatness of Mount Surrey which was the Houses name the Prospect and Sight thereof was passing pleasant and commodious and no where else did that increasing evil of the Norfolk Fury enkennel it self then but there as it were for a manifest token of their intent to debase all high things and to profane all holy Like Arras-work or rather Imagery Such was he whom Juvenal taxeth in this manner Truncoque similimus Herme Nullo quippe alio vincis discrimine quam quod Illi marmorcum caput est tua vivit Imago Seeming to be born for nothing else but Apparel and the outward appearance intituled Complement with whom the ridiculous Fable of the Ape in Aesop sorteth fitly who coming into a Carver's House and viewing many Marble Works took up the Head of a Man very cunningly wrought who greatly in praising did seem to pity it that having so comely an outside it had nothing within like empty Figures walk and talk in every place at whom the Noble Geraldine modestly glanceth FINIS The Lady Jane Gray TO THE Lord GILFORD DVDLEY The ARGUMENT After the death of that vertuous Prince King Edward the Sixth the Son of that famous King Henry the Eighth Jane the Daughter of Henry Gray Duke of Suffolk by the consent of John Dudley Duke of Northumberland was proclaimed Queen of England being married to Gilford Dudley the fourth Son of the aforesaid Duke of Northumberland which Match was concluded by their ambitious Father who went about by this means to bring the Crown unto their Children and to dispossess the Princess Mary eldest Daughter of King Henry the Eighth Heir to King Edward her Brother Queen Mary rising in Arms to claim her rightful Crown taketh the said Jane Gray and the Lord Gilford her Husband being lodged in the Tower for their more safety which place being lastly their Pallace by this means becomes their Prison where being severed in sundry prisons they write these Epistles one to another MIne own dear Lord since thou art lock'd from me In this disguise my love must steal to thee Since to renue all Loves all kindness past This refuge scarcely left yet this the last My Keeper coming I of thee enquire Who with thy greeting answers my desire Which my tongue willing to return again Grief stops my words and I but strive in vain Where-with amaz'd away in hast he goes When through my Lips my Heart thrusts forth my Woes But then the doors that make a doleful sound Drive back my words that in the noise are drown'd Which somewhat hush'd the Eccho doth record And
History Am I at Home pursu'd with private Hate And War comes raging to my Palace Gate RObert Earl of Leicester who took part with young King Henry entred into England with an Army of three thousand Flemings and spoiled the Countries of Norfolk and Suffolk being succoured by many of the King 's private Enemies And am I branded with the Curse of Rome King Henry the Second the first Plantaginet accused for the Death of Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury slain in that Cathedral Church was accursed by Pope Alexander although he urged sufficient proof of his Innocency in the same and offered to take upon him any Pennance so he might avoid the Curse and Interdiction of his Realm And by the Pride of my rebellious Son Rich Normandy with Armies over-run Henry the young King whom King Henry had caused to be Crowned in his Life as he hoped both for his own good and the good of his Subjects which indeed turned to his own Sorrow and the trouble of the Realm for he rebelled against him and raising a Power by the means of Lewis King of France and William King of Scots who took part with him and invaded Normandy Unkind my Children most unkind Wife Never King more unfortunate then King Henry in the disobedience of his Children First Henry then Geoffrey then Richard then John all at one time or other first or last unnaturally rebelled against him then the Jealousie of Elinor his Queen who suspected his Love to Rosamond Which grievous troubles the Devout of those Times attributed to happen to him justly for refusing to take on him the Government of Jerusalem offered to him by the Patriarch there which Country was mightily afflicted by the Souldan Which only Vaughan thou and I do know This Vaughan was a Knight whom the King exceedingly loved who kept the Palace at Woodstock and much of the Kings Jewels and Treasure to whom the King committed many of his Secrets and in whom he reposed such trust that he durst commit his Love unto his Charge FINIS KING JOHN TO MATILDA The ARGUMENT After King John had assayed by all means possible to win the fair and chast Matilda to his unchast and unlawfull Bed and by unjust Courses and false accusation banish'd the Lord Robert Fitzwater her Noble Father and many other Allies who justly withstood the desire of this wanton King seeking the dishonour of his fair and vertuous Daughter This chast Lady still solicited by the lascivious King flies unto Dunmow in Essex where she becomes a Nun the King still persisting in his Suit sollicites her by this Epistle her Reply confirms her vow'd and invincible Chastity making known to the King her pure unspotted Thoughts WHen these my Letters thy bright Eyes shall view Think them not forc'd or feign'd or strange or new Thou know'st no way no means no course exempted Left now unsought unprov'd on unattempted All Rules Regards all secret Helps of Art What Knowledge Wit Experience can impart And in the old Worlds Ceremonies doted Good days for Love Times Hours Minute noted And where Art left Love teacheth more to find By signs in presence to express the Mind Oft hath mine Eye told thine Eye Beauty griev'd it And begg'd but for one Look to have reliev'd it And still with thine Eyes motion mine Eye mov'd Lab'ring for Mercy telling how it lov'd You blusht I blusht your Cheek pale pale was mine My Red thy Red my Whiteness answer'd thine You sigh'd I sigh'd we both one Passion prove But thy sigh is for Hate my sigh for Love If a word pass'd that insufficient were To help that word mine Eye let forth a Tear And if that Tear did dull or senseless prove My Heart would fetch a Throb to make it move Oft in thy Face one Favour from the rest I singled forth that pleas'd my Fancy best This likes me most another likes me more A third exceeding both those lik'd before Then one as Wonder were derived thence Then that whose rareness passeth excellence Whilst I behold thy Globe-like rowling Eye Thy lovely Cheek me thinks stands smiling by And tells me those are Shadows and Supposes But bids me thither come and gather Roses Looking on that thy Brow doth call to me To come to it if Wonders I will see Now have I done and then thy dimpled Chin Again doth tell me newly I begin And bids me yet to look upon thy Lip Lest wond'ring least the great'st Loverslip My gazing Eye on this and this doth sease Which surfeits yet cannot Desire appease Now like I Brown O lovely Brown thy Hair Only in Browness Beauty dwelleth there Then love I Black think Eye-ball black as Jet Which in a Globe pure Crystalline is set Then White but Snow nor Swan nor Ivory please Then are thy Teeth whiter by much then these In Brown in Black in Pureness and in White All Love all Sweets all Rareness all Delight Thus my stol'n Heart sweet Thief thou hence do'st carry And now thou fly'st into a Sanctuary Fie peevish Girl ingratefull unto Nature Was it for this she fram'd thee such a Creature That thou her Glory should'st encrease thereby And thou alone do'st scorn Society Why Heav'n made Beauty like her self to view Not to be lock'd up in a smoaky Mew A Rosie-tincted Feature is Heav'ns Gold Which all Men joy to touch all to behold It was enacted when the World begun So rare a Beauty should not live a Nun But if this Vow thou needs wilt undertake Oh were mine Arms a Cloyster for thy sake Still may his Pains for ever be augmented This Superstition idly that invented Ill might he thrive who brought this Custome hither That holy People might not live together A happy Time a good World was it then When holy Women liv'd with holy Men. But Kings in this yet priviledg'd may be I 'll be a Monk so I may live with thee Who would not rise to ring the Morning's Knell When thy sweet Lips might be the sacring Bell Or what is he not willingly would fast That on those Lips might feast his Lips at last Who to his Mattins early would not rise Might he but read by th' Light of thy fair Eyes On Worldly Pleasures who would ever look That had thy Curls his Beads thy Brows his Book Wert Thou the Cross to Thee who would not creep And wish the Cross still in his Arms to keep Sweet Girl I 'll take this holy Habit on me Of meer Devotion that is come upon me Holy Matilda Thou the Saint of mine I 'll be thy Servant and my Bed thy Shrine When I do offer be thy Breast the Altar And when I pray thy Mouth shall be my Psalter The Beads that we will bid shall be sweet Kisses Which we will number if one Pleasure misses And when an Ave comes to say Amen We will begin and tell them o'er again Now all good Fortune give me happy Thrift As I should joy t' absolve thee after Shrift But see
That now a Spenser should succeed in all And that his Ashes should another breed Which in his Place and Empire should succeed That wanting One a Kingdoms Wealth to spend Of what that left this now shall make an end To waste all that our Father won before Nor leave our Son a Sword to conquer more Thus but in vain we fondly doe resist Where Pow'r can doe ev'n all things as it list And of our Right with Tyrants to debate Lendeth them means to weaken our Estate Whilst Parliaments must remedy their Wrongs And we must wait for what to us belongs Our Wealth but Fuel to their fond Excess And all our Fasts must feast their Wantonness Think'st thou our Wrongs then insufficient are To move our Brother to religious War * And if they were yet Edward doth detain Homage for Pontiu Guyne and Aquitain And if not that yet hath he broke the Truce Thus all accurr to put back all excuse The Sister 's Wrong joyn'd with the Brother 's Right Methinks might urge him in this cause to fight Are all those People senseless of our Harms Which for our Country oft have manag'd Arms Is the brave Normans Courage quite forgot Have the bold Britains lost the use of Shot The big-bon'd Almans and stout Brabanders Their Warlike Pikes and sharp-edg'd Scymiters Or do the Pickards let their Cross-bows lie Once like the Centaur's of old Thessaly Or if a valiant Leader be their lack Where Thou art present who should beat them back I do conjure Thee by what is most dear By that great Name of famous Mortimer * By ancient Wigmore's honourable Crest The Tombs where all thy famous Grandsires rest Or if then these what more may Thee approve Ev'n by those Vows of thy unfeigned Love In all thou canst to stir the Christian King By forreign Arms some Comfort yet to bring To curb the Pow'r of Traytors that rebell Against the Right of Princely Isabel Vain witless Woman why should I desire To add more heat to thy Immortal fire To urge thee by the violence of Hate To shake the Pillars of thine own Estate When whatsoever we intend to doe Our most Misfortune ever sorteth too And nothing else remains for us beside But Tears and Coffins onely to provide * When still so long as Burrough bears that name Time shall not blot out our deserved shame And whilst clear Trent her wonted course shall keep For our sad Fall she evermore shall weep All see our Ruin on our Backs is thrown And we too weak to bear it out are grown * Torlton that should our Business direct The general Foe doth vehemently suspect For dangerous Things get hardly to their End Whereon so many watchfully attend What should I say My Griefs do still renew And but begin when I should bid adieu Few be my Words but manifold my Woe And still I stay the more I strive to go Then till fair Time some greater Good affords Take my Loves-payment in these airey Words ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History Oh how I fear'd that sleepy Juyce I sent Might yet want power to further mine intent MOrtimer being in the Tower ordaining a Feast in honour of his Birth-day as he pretended inviting thereunto Sir Stephen Seagrave Constable of the Tower with the rest of the Officers belonging to the same he gave them a sleepy Drink provided by the Queen by which means he made his Escape I stole to Thames as though to take the Air And ask'd the gentle Floud as it doth glide Mortimer being got out of the Tower swam the River of Thames into Kent whereof she having intelligence doubteth of his strength to escape by reason of his long Imprisonment being almost the space of three years Did Bulloyn once a Festival prepare For England Almane Cicill and Navarre Edward Carnarvan the first Prince of Wales of the English Blood married Isabel Daughter of Phillip the Fair a Bulloine in the presence of the Kings of Almain Navarre and Cicill with the chief Nobility of France and England Which Marriage was there solemnized with exceeding Pomp and Magnificence And in my place upon his Regal Throne To set that Girl-boy wanton Gaveston Noting the effeminacy and luxurious wantonness of Gaveston the Kings Minion his Behaviour and Attire ever so Womanlike to please the Eye of his lascivious Master That a foul Witches Bastard should thereby It was urged by the Queen and the Nobility in the disgrace of Pierce Gaveston that his Mother was convicted of Witchcraft and burned for the same and that Pierce had bewitched the King And of our Princely Jewels and our Dowres Let us enjoy the least of what is ours A Complaint of the Prodigality of King Edward giving unto Gaveston the Jewels and Treasure which was left him by the ancient Kings of England and enriching him with the goodly Mannor of Wallingford assigned as parcel of the Dower to the Queen of this famous Isle And match'd with the brave Issue of our Blood Allie the Kingdom to their cravand Brood Edward the Second gave to Pierce Gaveston in Marriage the Daughter of Gilbert Clare Earl of Gloucester begot of the Kings Sister Joan of Acres married to the said Earl of Gloucester Albania Gascoign Cambria Ireland Albania Scotland so called of Albanact the second Son of Brutus and Cambria Wales so called of Camber the third Son The four Realms and Countries brought in subjection by Edward Longshanks Should give away all that his Father won To back a Stranger King Edward offered his Right in France to Charles his Brother in law and his Right in Scotland to Robert Bruce to be ayded against the Barons in the Quarrel of Pierce Gaveston And did great Edward on his Death-bed give Edward Longshankes on his Death-bed at Carlile commanded young Edward his Son on his Blessing not to call back Gaveston who for the misguiding of the Princes Youth was before banished by the whole Council of the Land That after all that fearfull Massacre The Fall of Beauchamp Lacy Lancaster Thomas Earl of Lancaster Guy Earl of Warwick and Henry Earl of Lincoln who had taken their Oath before the deceased King at his Death to withstand his Son Edward if he should call Gaveston from exile being a thing which he much feared now seeing Edward to violate his Fathers Commandment rise in Arms against the King which was the cause of the Civil War and the Ruin of so many Princes And gloried I in Gaveston's great Fall That now a Spenser should succeed in all The two Hugh Spensers the Father and the Son after the Death of Gaveston became the great Favourites of the King the Son being created by him Lord Chamberlain and the Father Earl of Winchester And if they were yet Edward doth detain Homage for Pontiu Guyne and Aquitain Edward Longshanks did Homage for those Cities and Territories to the French King which Edward the second neglecting moved the French King by the subornation of Mortimer to seize
Son so base That to Gaunt's Issue should give Soveraign place * He that from France brought John his Prisoner home As those great Caesars did their Spoyls to Rome * Whose Name obtained by his fatal Hand Was ever fearfull to that conquer'd Land His Fame encreasing purchas'd in those Wars Can scarcely now be bounded with the Stars With him is Valour from the base World fled Or here in me is it extinguished Who for his Vertue and his Conquests sake Posterity a Demy-god shall make And judge this vile and abject Spirit of mine Could not proceed from temper so divine What Earthly Humour or what vulgar Eye Can look so low as on our Misery When Bullenbrook is mounted to our Throne And makes that his which we but call'd our own Into our Counsels he himself intrudes And who but Henry with the Multitudes His Power desgrades his dreadfull Frown disgraceth He throws them down whom our Advancement placeth As my disable and unworthy Hand Never had Power belonging to Command He treads our sacred Tables in the dust * And proves our Acts of Parliment unjust As though he hated that it should be said That such a Law by Richard once was made Whilst I deprest before his Greatness lye Under the weight of Hate and Infamy My Back a Foot-stool Bullenbrook to raise My Looseness mock'd and hatefull by his praise Out-live mine Honour bury my Estate And leave my self nought but my Peoples Hate Sweet Queen I le take all Counsel thou canst give So that thou bidst me neither hope nor live Succour that comes when Ill hath done his worst But sharpens Grief to make us more accurst Comfort is now unpleasing to mine Eare Past cure past care my Bed become my Bier Since now Misfortune humbleth us so long Till Heaven be grown unmindfull of our Wrong Yet it forbid my Wrongs should ever dye But still remembred to Posterity And let the Crown be fatal that he wears And ever wet with wofull Mothers Tears Thy Curse on Percy angry Heavens prevent Who have not one Curse left on him unspent To scourge the World now borrowing of my store As rich of Woe as I a King am poor Then cease dear Queen my Sorrows to bewaile My Wound 's too great for Pity now to heale Age stealeth on whilst thou complainest thus My Grief be mortal and infectious Yet better Fortunes thy fair Youth may try That follow thee which still from me doth fly ANNOTATIONS on the Chronicle History This Tongue which then denounc'd my Regal State RIchard the Second at the Resignation of the Crown to the Duke of Harford in the Tower of London delivering the same with his own hand there confessed his disability to govern vtterly denouncing all Kingly Authority And left'st great Burbon for thy love to me Before the Princess Isabel was married to the King Lewes Duke of Burbon sued to have had her in Marriage which was thought he had obtained if this Motion had not fallen out in the mean time This Duke of Burbon sued again to have received her at her coming into France after the imprisonment of King Richard but King Charles her Father then crossed him as before and gave her to Charles son to the Duke of Orleans When Harford had his Judgement of Exile When the Combate should have been at Coventry betwixt Henry Duke of Harford and Thomas Duke of Norfolk where Harford was adjudged to Banishment for ten years the Commons exceedingly lamented so greatly was be ever favoured of the People Then being forc'd t' abridge his banish'd years When the Duke came to take his leave of the King being then at Eltham the King to please the Commons rather then for any love he bare to Harford repealed four years of his Banishment But Henry boasts of our Atchievements done Henry the eldest son of John Duke of Lancaster at the first Earle of Darby then created Duke of Harford after the death of Duke John his father was Duke of Lancaster and Hartford Earl of Darby Liecester and Lincoln and after he had obtained the Crown was called by the name of Bullenbrook which is a Town in Lincolnshire as vsually all the Kings of England bare the name of the place where they were born Seven goodly Siens in their Spring did flourish Edward the third had seven sons Edward Prince of Wales after called the Black-Prince William of Hatfield the second Lionel Duke of Clarence the third John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster the fourth Edmund of Langley Duke of York the fifth Thomas of Woodstock Dukes of Glocester the sixt William of Windsor the seventh Edward the top-branch of that golden Tree As disabling Henry Bullenbrook being but Son of the fourth Brother William and Lionel being both before John of Gaunt He that from France brought John his Prisoner home Edward the Black-Prince taking John King of France Prisoner at the Battel of Poictiers brought him into England where at the Savoy he died Whose Name atchieved by his fatal hand Called the Black-Prince not so much of his Complexion as of the famous Battels he fought as is shewed before in the Gloss upon the Epistle of Edward to the Countess of Salisbury And proves our Acts of Parliament unjust In the next Parliament after Richard's Resignation of the Crown Henry caused to be annihilated all the Laws made in the Parliament called the Wicked Parliament held in the twentieth year of King Richards Reign FINIS Queen KATHERINE TO OWEN TUDOR The ARGUMENT After the Death of Henry the fifth Queen Katherine Dowager of England and France Daughter to Charles the French King holding her Estate with Henry her Son then Sixth of that name falleth in Love with Owen Tudor a Welchman a brave and gallant Gentleman of the Wardrobe to the young King her Son yet fearing if her Love should be discov'red the Nobility would cross her purposed Marriage or if her Princely promise should not assure his good success the high and great Attempt might perhaps daunt the forwardness of this modest and shamefull Youth She therefore writes to him this following Epistle JUdge not a Princes worth impeach'd hereby That Love thus triumphs over Majesty Nor think less Vertue in this Royal Hand That it intreats and wonted to command For in this sort tho' humbly now it woo The day hath been thou would'st have kneel'd unto Nor think that this submission of my State Proceeds from Frailty rather judge it Fate Alcides ne'r more fit for Wars stern Shock Then when with Women spinning at the Rock Never less Clouds did Phoebus glory dim Then in a Clowns shape when he covered him Joves great Command was never more obey'd Then when a Satyrs Antick parts he play'd He was thy King who su'd for love to me And she his Queen who sues for love to thee When Henry was my love was only his But by his death it Owen Tudors is My love to Owen him my Henry giveth My love to Henry in my Owen liveth Henry
conquer'd France Yet if my Fortunes be thus rais'd by thee This may presage a further good to me And our Saint David in the Britains Right May joyn with George the Sainted English Knight * And old Caermarden Merlin's famous Town Not scorn'd by London though of such renown Ah would to God that Hour my Hopes attend Were with my Wish brought to desired end Blame me not Madam though I thus desire Many there be that after you enquire Till now your Beauty in Nights Bosome slept What Eye durst stir where awfull Henry kept Who durst attempt to sail but near the Bay Where that all-conqu'ring great Alcides lay Your Beauty now is set a Royal Prize And Kings repair to cheapen Merchandize If you but walk to take the breathing Ayre Orithia makes me that I Boreas fear If to the Fire Jove once in Lightning came And fair Egina makes me fear the flame If in the Sun then sad Suspicion dreams Phoebus should spread Lucothoe in his Beams If in a Fountain you do cool your Blood Neptune I fear which once came in a Floud If with your Maids I dread Apollo's Rape Who cous'ned Chion in an old Wives shape If you do banquet Bacchus makes me dread Who in a Grape Erigone did feed And if my self your Chamber-door should keep Yet fear I Hermes coming in a Sleep Pardon sweet Queen if I offend in this In these Delays Love most impatient is And Youth wants pow'r his hot Spleen to suppress When Hope already banquets in Excess Though Henry's Fame in me you shall not find Yet that which better shall content your mind But onely in the Title of a King VVas his advantage in no other thing If in his love more pleasure you did take Never let Queen trust Britain for my sake Yet judge me not from Modesty exempt That I another Phaetons Charge attempt My Mind that thus your Favours dare aspire Shews that 't is touch't with a celestial fire If I 'm in fault the more is Beauties blame VVhen she her self is author of the same All Men to some one quality incline Onely to Love is naturally mine Thou art by Beauty famous as by Birth Ordain'd by Heav'n to cheer the drooping Earth Add faithfull Love unto your greater State And be alike in all things fortunate A King might promise more I not deny But yet by Heav'n he lov'd not more then I. And thus I leave till time my Faith approve I cease to write but never cease to love ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History And that the Helm the Tudors antient Crest THE Arms of Tudor was three Helmets whereof he speaketh as a thing prophetically foretold of Merlin When in thy presence I was call'd to dance Owen Tudor being a courtly and active Gentleman commanded once to dance before the Queen in a Turn not being able to recover himself fell into her Lap as she sat upon a little Stool with many of her Ladies about her And yet with them in Wales that famous be Our learned Bards c. This Berdh as they call it in the Brittish Tongue or as we more properly say Bard or Bardus be their Poets which keep the Records of Pedigrees and Descents and sung in Odes and Measures to their Harps after the old manner of the Lyrick Poets And boast my Blood from great Cadwallader Cadwallader the last King of the Britains descended of the Noble and ancient Race of the Trojans to whom an Angel appeared commanding him to goe to Rome to Pope Sergius where he ended his Life From old Caer-Septon in Mount Palador Caer-Septon now called Shaftsbury at whose Building it was said an Eagle prophesied or rather one named Aquila of the fame of that Place and of the recovery of the Isle by the Britains bringing back with them the Bones of Cadwallader from Rome And from Encons Line the South-Wales King From Theodor c. This Encon was slain by the Rebels of Gwentland he was a notable and worthy Gentleman who in his life did many noble Acts and was Father to Theodor or Tudor Maur of whom descended the Princes of South-Wales From her great Grandam fair Gwenellian Gwenellian the daughter of Rees ap Grisseth ap Theodor Prince of South-Wales married Ednivet Vaughan Ancestor to Owen Tudor By true descent from Leolin the Great This is the Lowhelin called Leolinus Magnus Prince of North-Wales Nor that word Croggen Nick-name of disgrace In the Voyage that Henry the Second made against the Welshmen as his Souldiers passed Offas Ditch at Croggen Castle they were overthrown by the Welshmen which word Croggen hath since been used to the Welshmen's Disgrace which was at first begun with their Honour And kept our Native Language now thus long The Welshmen be those ancient Britains which when the Picts Danes and Saxons invaded here were first driven into those parts where they have kept their Language ever since the first without commixtion with any other And old Caer-Marden Merlins famous Town Caer-Marden or Merlin's Town so called of Merlin's being found there This was Ambrose Merlins whose Prophesies we have There was another of that Name called Merlin Sylvestris born in Scotland sirnamed Calidonius of the Forrest Calidon where he prophesied FINIS ELINOR COBHAM TO Duke HVMPHREY The ARGUMENT Elinor Daughter to the Lord Cobham of Sterborough and Wife to Humphrey Plantaginet Duke of Gloucester the Son of Henry the fourth King of England sirnamed Bullingbrook This noble Duke for his great wisdom and justice called the good was by King Henry the fifth Brother to the Duke at his Death appointed Protector of the Land during the nonage of Henry the sixth this Elinor Dutchess of Gloucester a Proud and Ambitious Woman knowing that if young Henry died without issue the Duke her Husband was the nearest of the blood Conspired with one Bullingbrook a Great Magitian Hun a Priest and Jourdan Witch of Eye by sorcery to make away the King and by conjuration to know who should succeed Of this being justly convicted she was adjudged to do pennance three several times openly in London and then to perpetual banishment to the Isle of Man from whence she writes this Epistle MEthinks not knowing who these Lines should send Thou straight turn'st over to the latter end Where thou my Name no sooner hast espy'd But in disdain my Letter casts aside Why if thou wilt I will my self deny Nay I 'll affirm and swear I am not I Or if in that thy shame thou do'st perceive For thy dear sake loe I my Name will leave And yet methinks amaz'd thou shouldst not stand Nor seem so much appalled at my Hand For my Misfortunes have inur'd thine Eye Long before this to Sights of Misery No no read on 't is I the very same All thou canst read is but to read my shame Be not dismay'd nor let my Name affright The worst it can is but t' offend thy sight It cannot wound nor doe thee deadly harm It is no dreadfull Spell
England's Heir I think thou wilt confess Wert thou a Prince I hope I am no less But that thy Birth doth make thy Stock divine Else durst I boast my Bloud as good as thine Disdain me not nor take my Love in scorn Whose Brow a Crown hereafter may adorn But what I am I call mine own no more Take what thou wilt and what thou wilt restore Only I crave whate'er I did intend In faithfull Love all happily may end Farewell sweet Lady so well may'st thou fare To equal Joy with measure of my Care Thy Vertues more then mortal Tongue can tell A thousand-thousand times Farewell Farewell ANNOTATIONS on the Chronicle History Receive these Papers from thy wofull Lord. BAndello by whom this History was made famous being an Italian as it is the Peoples custome in that Clime rather to fail sometimes in the truth of Circumstance then to forgoe the grace of their Conceit in like manner as the Grecians of whom the Satyrist Et quicquid Graecia mendax Audet in Historia Thinking it to be a greater Triall that a Countess should be sued unto by a King then by the son of a King and consequently that the honour of her Chastitie should be the more hath caused it to be generally taken so but as by Polydore Fabian and Froisard appears the contrary is true Yet may Bandello be very well excused as being a stranger whose errors in the truth of our History are not so materiall that they should need an Invective lest his Wit should be defrauded of any part of his due which were not less were every part a Fiction However lest a common error should prevail against a truth these Epistles are conceived in those Persons who were indeed the Actors To wit Edward sirnamed the Black Prince not so much of his Complextion as of the dismall Battels which he fought in France in like Sense as we may say A black Day for some Tragicall event though the Sun shine never so bright therein And Alice the Countess of Salisbury who as it is certain was beloved of Prince Edward so it is certain that many Points now currant in the received Story can never hold together with likelyhood of such inforcement had it not been shaded under the Title of a King And when thou let'st down that transparent Lid. Not that the Lid is transparent for no part of the Skin is transparent but for that the Gem which that Closure is said to contain is transparent for otherwise how could the Mind understand by the Eye Should not the Images slide thorow the same and replenish the Stage of the Fancy But this belongs to Opticks The Latines call the Eye-lid Cilium I will not say of Celando as the Eye-brow Supercilium and the Hair on the Eye-lids Palpebra perhaps quòd Palpitet all which have their distinct and necessary vses ALICE Countess of SALISBVRY TO THE BLACK PRINCE AS One that fain would grant yet fain deny 'Twixt Hope and Fear I doubtfully reply A Womans Weakness lest I should discover Answering a Prince and writing to a Lover And some say Love with Reason doth dispence And our plain words wrests to another sense Think you not then poor Women had not need Be well advis'd to write what Men should read When being silent but to move away Doth often bring us into obloquy Whilst in our Hearts our secret Thoughts abide Th' invenom'd Tongue of Slander yet is ty'd But if once spoke deliver'd up to Fame In her Report that often is to blame About to write but newly entring in Methinks I end e'er I can well begin When I would end then something makes me stay For then methinks I should have more to say And some one thing remaineth in my Breast For want of Words that cannot be exprest What I would say as said to thee I feign Then in thy Person I reply again And in thy Cause urge all that may effect Then what again mine Honour must respect O Lord what sundry Passions doe I try To set that right which is so much awry Being a Prince I blame you not to prove The greater reason to obtain your Love That Greatness which doth challenge no denyal The only Test that doth allow my Tryal Edward so great the greater were his fall And my Offence in this were capitall To Men is granted priviledge to tempt But in that Charter Women be exempt Men win us not except we give consent Against our selves unless that we be bent Who doth impute it as a Fault to you You prove not false except we be untrue It is your vertue being Men to try And it is ours by Vertue to deny Your Faults it self serves for the Faults excuse And makes it ours though yours be the abuse Beauty a Beggar fie it is too bad When in it self sufficiency is had Not made a Lure t' intice the wand'ring Eye But an Attire t' adorn our Modesty If Modesty and Women once do sever We may bid farewell to our Fame for ever Let John and Henry Edward's instance be Matilda and fair Rosamond for me Alike both woo'd alike su'd to be won Th' one by the Father th' other by the Son Henry obtaining did our Weakness wound And lays the fault on wanton Rosamond Matilda chast in life and death all one By her denial lays the fault on John By these we prove Men accessary still But Women only Principals of Ill. What Praise is ours but what our Vertues get If they be lent so much we be in debt Whilst our own Honours we our selves defend All force too weak whatever Men pretend If all the World else should subborn our fame 'T is we our selves that overthrow the same And howsoe'r although by force you win Yet on our Weakness still returns the sin A vertuous Prince who doth not Edward call And shall I then be guilty of your Fall Now God forbid yet rather let me dye Then such a Sin upon my Soul should lye Where is great Edward Whither is he led At whose victorious Name whole Armies fled Is that brave Spirit that conquer'd so in France Thus overcome and vanquish'd with a Glance Is that great Heart that did aspire so high So soon trans-pierced with a Womans Eye He that a King at Poictiers Battel took Himself led Captive with a wanton Look * Twice as a Bride to Church I have been led Twice have two Lords enjoy'd my Bridal Bed How can that Beauty yet be undestroy'd That years have wasted and two Men enjoy'd Or should be thought fit for a Princes store Of which two Subjects were possest before Let Spain let France or Scotland so prefer Their Infant Queens for Englands Dowager That Bloud should be much more then half divine That should be equal ev'ry way with thine Yet Princely Edward though I thus reprove you As mine own life so dearly do I love you My noble Husband who so loved you That gentle Lord that reverend Mountague Ne'r Mothers
left unblown My Skin with lothsome Jaundize over-grown So pin'd away that if thou long'st to see Ruin's true Picture only look on me Sometime in thinking of what I have had I from a sudden Extasie grow mad Then like a Bedlam forth thy El'nor runs Like one of Bacchus raging frantick Nuns Or like a Tartar when in strange disguise Prepar'd unto a dismal Sacrifice That Prelate Beaufort a foul ill befal him Prelate said I nay Devil I should call him Ah God forgive me if I think amiss His very Name me thinks my Poyson is Ah that vile Judas our professed Foe My Curse pursue him wheresoe'r he goe That to my Judgment when I did appear Laid to my charge those things that never were That I should know of Bullenbrooks Intents The hallowing of his Magick Instruments That I procured Southwell to assist Which was by Order consecrate a Priest That it was I should cover all they did Which but for him had to this day been hid Ah that vile Bastard that himself dare vant To be the Son of thy brave Grandsire Gaunt Whom he but father'd of meer Charity To rid his Mother of that Infamy Who if Report of elder Times be true Yet to this day his Father never knew He that by Murthers black and odious Crime To Henries Throne attempted once to clime Having procur'd by hope of golden gain A fatal Hand his Soverain to have slain Whom to his Chamber closely he convey'd And for that purpose fitly there had laid Upon whose Sword that famous Prince had dy'd If by a Dog he had not been descry'd But now the Queen her Minion Pool and he As it please them ev'n so must all things be England's no place for any one beside All is too little to maitain their pride situation might remain an assured Monument of his Wisdome if there were no other memory of the same They say the Druides once lived in this Isle It should seem that there were two Islands both of them called Mona though now distinguished the one by the name of Man the other by the Name of Anglesey both which were full of many infernal Ceremonies as may appear by Agricola's Voyage made into the hithermost Man described by his Son-in-Law Cornelius Tacitus And as Superstition the Daughter of Barbarism and Ignorance so amongst those Northerly Nations like as in America Magick was most esteemed Druidae were the publick Ministers of their Religion as throughly taught in all Rites thereof Their Doctrine concerned the Immortality of the Soul the Contempt of Death and all other Points which may conduce to Resolution Fortitude and Magnanimity Their abode was in Groves and Woods whereupon they have their Name Their pewer extended it self to master the Souls of Men deceased and to confer with Ghosts and other Spirits about the success of things Plutarch in his profound and learned Discourse of the defect of Oracles reporteth That the outmost British Isles were the Prison of a sort of fictious Demi-gods But it shall not need to speak any farther of the Druidae then that which Lucan doth Et vos barbaricos ritus moremque sinistrum Sacrorum Druidae positis repetistis ab armis Did not the Heavens her coming in withstand Noting the prodigious and fearful signs that were seen England a little before her coming in which Elinor expresseth in this Epistle as afore-shewing the Dangers which should ensue upon this unlucky Marriage The hallowing of the Magick Instruments The Instruments which Bullenbrook used in his Conjurations according to the divelish Ceremonies and Customs of these unlawful Arts were dedicated at a Mass in the Lodge in Harnsey Park by Southwel Priest of Westminster Having procur'd by hope of golden gain This was one of the Articles that Duke Humphry urged against Cardinal Beauford That he conspired the death of Henry the fifth by conveying a Villain into his Chamber which in the Night should have murthered him but what ground of Truth he had for the same I leave to dispute Duke HVMPHRY TO ELINOR COBHAM ME thinks thou shouldst not doubt I could forget Her whom so many do remember yet No no our joys away like shaddows slide But Sorrows firm in memory abide Nay I durst answer thou do'st nothing less But into Passion urg'd by thy distress No El'nor no thy Woes thy Grief thy Wrong Have in my breast been resident too long Oh when Report in ev'ry place had spred My El'nor was to Sanctuary fled With cursed Oneley and the Witch of Eye As guilty of their vile Conspiracy The dreadfull Spirits when they did invocate For the Succession and the Realm's Estate When Henry's Image they in Wax had wrought By which he should have to his death been brought That as his Picture did consume away His Person so by Sickness should decay Grief that before could ne'r my thoughts controul That instant took possession of my Soul Ah would to God I could forget thine ill As for mine own let that inflict me still But that before hath taken too sure hold Forget it said I would to God I could Of any Woe if thou hast but one part I have the whole remaining in my heart I have no need of others Cares to borrow For all I have is nothing else but Sorrow No my sweet Nell thou took'st not all away Though thou went'st hence here still thy Woes do stay Though from thy Husband thou wert forc'd to go Those still remain they will not leave him so No eye bewails my Ill mones thy distress Our Grief 's the more but yet our debt the less We owe no Tears no Mourning days are kept For those that yet for us have never wept We hold no Obijts no sad Exequies Upon the Death-days of unweeping Eyes Alas good Nell what should thy patienee move T' upbraid thy kind Lord with a forreign love Thou might'st have bid all former ills adue Forgot the old we have such store of new Did I omit thy love to entertain With mutual Grief to answer Grief again Or think'st thou I unkindly did forbear To bandy Woe for Woe and Tear for Tear Did I forget or carelesly neglect Those shews of Love that Ladies so respect In mounful black was I not seen to goe By outward signs t' express my inward Woe Did I thy loss not publickly lament Nor by my Looks bewray'd my Discontent Is this the cause If this be it know then One Grief conceal'd more grieveous is than ten If in my breast those Sorrows sometimes were And never utt'red they must still be there And if thou know'st they many were before By time increasing they must needs be more England to me can challenge nothing lent Let her cast up what is receiv'd what spent If I her own can she from blame me free If she but prove a step-mother to me That if I should with that proud Bastard strive To plead for Birth-right my Prerogative Be that allow'd I should not need to fear it For then my true
of famous Willoughby Here Montacute rang'd his unconquer'd Band Here march'd we out and here we made a stand What should we sit to mourn and grieve all day For that which Time doth easily take away What Fortune hurts let Suff'rance only heal No wisdom with Extremities to deal To know our selves to come of humane Birth These sad Afflictions cross us here on Earth A punishment from the eternal Law To make us still of Heav'n to stand in awe In vain we prize that at so dear a rate Whose long'st assurance bear 's a Minutes date Why should we idly talk of our Intent When Heav'ns Decree no Counsel can prevent When our fore-sight not possibly can shun That which the Fates determine shall be don Henry hath Power and may my life depose Mine Honour 's mine that none hath power to lose Then be as chearful beautious Royal Queen As in the Court of France we oft have been * As when arriv'd in Porcesters fair Road Where for our coming Henry made aboad When in mine Arms I brought thee safe to Land And gave my Love to Henry's Royal Hand The happy Hours we passed with the King At fair Southampton long in Banqueting With such content as lodg'd in Henries Breast When he to London brought thee from the West Through golden Cheap when he in Pomp did ride To Westminster to entertain his Bride ANNOTATIONS on the Chronicle History Our Faulkons kind cannot the Cage endure HE alludes in these Verses to the Faulcon which was the ancient Device of the Pools comparing the greatness and haughtiness of his spirit to the nature of this Bird. This was the mean proud Warwick did invent To my disgrace c. The Commons at this Parliament through Warwicks means accused Suffolk of Treason and urged the Accusation so vehemently that the King was forced to exile him for five years That only I by yielding up of Main Should be the loss of fertile Aquitain The Duke of Suffolk being sent into France to conclude a Peace chose Duke Rayners Daughter the Lady Margaret whom he espoused for Henry the sixth delivering for her to her Father the Countries of Anjou and Main and the City of Mauns Whereupon the Earl of Arminack whose Daughter was before promised to the King seeing himself to be deluded caused all the Englishmen to be expulsed Aquitain Gascoyne and Guyne With the base vulgar sort to win him fame To be the Heir of good Duke Humphry's name This Richard that was called the great Earl of Warwick when Duke Humphry was dead grew into exceeding great favour with the Commons With Salisbury his vile ambitious Sire In York's stern Breast kindling long hidden fire By Clarence Title working to supplant The Eagle-Airy of great John of Gaunt Richard Plantaginet Duke of York in the time of Henry the Sixth claymed the Crown being assisted by this Richard Nevil Earl of Salisbury and Father to the great Earl of Warwick who favoured exceedingly the House of York in open Parliament as Heir to Lionel Duke of Clarence the third Son of Edward the Third making his Title by Ann his Mother Wife to Richard Earl of Cambridge Son to Edmund of Langley Duke of York Which Ann was Daughter to Roger Mortimer Earl of March which Roger was Son and Heir to Edmund Mortimer that married the Lady Philip Daughter and Heir to Lionel Duke of Clarence the third Son of King Edward to whom the Crown after King Richard the Seconds Death lineally descended he dying without Issue and not to the Heir of the Duke of Lancaster that was younger Brother to the Duke of Clarence Hall cap. 1. Tit. Yor. Lanc. Urg'd by these envious Lords to spend their breath Calling revenge on the Protectors death Humphry Duke of Glouster and Lord Protector in the five and twentieth year of Henry the Sixth by means of the Queen and the Duke of Suffolk was arrested by the Lord Beaumont at the Parliament holden at Bury and the same Night after murthered in his Bed If they would know who rob'd him c To this Verse To know how Humphry dy'd and who shall reign In these Verses he jests at the Protectors Wife who being accused and convicted of Treason because with John Hun a Priest Roger Bullenbrook a Necromancer and Margery Jordan called the Witch of Eye she had consulted by Sorcery to kill the King was adjudged to perpetual Imprisonment in the Isle of Man and to do Penance openly in three publick places in London For twenty years and have I serv'd in France In the sixth year of Henry the Sixth the Duke of Bedford being deceased then Lieutenant General and Regent of France this Duke of Suffolk was promoted to that Dignity having the Lord Talbot Lord Scales and the Lord Mountacute to assist him Against great Charles and Bastard Orleance This was Charles the Seventh who after the death of Henry the Fifth obtained the Crown of France and recovered again much of that his Father had lost Bastard Orleance was Son to the Duke of Orleance begotten of the Lord Cawnies Wife preferred highly to many notable Offices because be being a most valiant Captain was a continual Enemy to the Englishmen dayly infesting them with divers Incursions And have I seen Vernoyla's batful Fields Vernoyle is that noted place in France where the great Battle was fought in the beginning of Henry the Sixth his Reign where most of the French Chivalrie were overcome by the Duke of Bedford And from Aumerle withdrew my Warlike Powers Aumerle is that strong defenced Town in France which the Duke of Suffolk got after four and twenty great Assaults given unto it And came my self in person first to Tours Th'Embassadours for Truce to entertain From Belgia Denmark Hungary and Spain Tours is a City in France built by Brutus as he came into Brittain where in the one and twentieth year of the Reign of Henry the Sixth was appointed a great Diet to be kept whither came Embassadors of the Empire Spain Hungary and Denmark to intreat for a perpetual Peace to be made between the two Kings of England and France By true descent to wear the Diadem Of Naples Cicil and Jerusalem Rayner Duke of Anjou Father to Queen Margaret called himself King of Naples Cicily and Jerusalem having the Title alone of the King of those Countries A fifteenth Tax in France I freely spent The Duke of Suffolk after the Marriage concluded between King Henry and Margaret Daughter to Rayner asked in open Parliament a whole Fifteenth to fetch her into England Seen thee for England but imbarqu'd at Deep Deep is a Town in France bordering upon the Sea where the Duke of Suffolk with Queen Margaret took Ship for England As when arriv'd at Porchesters fair Rhoad Porchester a Haven Town in the South-West part of England where the King tarried expecting the Queens arrival whom from thence be conveyed to Southampton Queen MARGARET TO WILLIAM DE-LA-POOLE Duke of SUFFOLK WHat news sweet Pool look'st
my Counsel yet this comfort is It cannot hurt although I think amiss Then live in hope in Triumph to return When clearer Days shall leave in Clouds to mourn But so hath Sorrow girt my Soul about That that word Hope me thinks comes slowly out The reason is I know it here would rest Where it might still behold thee in my Breast Farewel sweet Pool fain more I would indite But that my Tears do blot what I do write ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History Or brings in Burgoin to aid Lancaster PHilip Duke of Burgoine and his Son were always great Favorites of the House of Lancaster howbeit they often dissembled both with Lancaster and York Who in the North our lawful Claim commends To win us credit with our valiant Friends The chief Lords of the North parts in the time of Henry the Sixth withstood the Duke of York at his Rising giving him two great overthrows To that Allegeance York was bound by Oath To Henry's Heirs for safety of us both No longer now he means Records shall bear it He will dispence with Heaven and will unswear it The Duke of York at the death of Henry the Fifth and at this Kings Coronation took his Oath to be true subject to him and his Heirs for ever but afterward dispensing therewith claymed the Crown as his rightful and proper Inheritance If three Sons sail she 'l make the fourth a King The Duke of York had four Sons Edward Earl of March that afterward was Duke of York and King of England when he had deposed Henry the Sixth and Edmund Earl of Rutland slain by the Lord Clifford at the Battle at Wakefield and George Duke of Clarence that was murthered in the Tower and Richard Duke of Gloucester who was after he had murthered his Brothers Sons King by the Name of Richard the Third He that 's so like his Dam her youngest Dick That foul ill-favour'd crook-back'd Stigmatick c. Till this Verse As though begot an age c. This Richard whom ironically she calls Dick that by Treason after the murther of his Nephews obtained the Crown was a Man low of stature crook-back'd the left shoulder much higher than the right and of a very crabbed and sowr countenance His Mother could not be delivered of him he was born Toothed and with his Feet forward contrary to the course of Nature To over-shaddow our Vermilion Rose The Red Rose was the Badge of the House of Lancaster and the White Rose of York which by the marriage of Henry the Seventh with Elizabeth indubitate Heir of the House of York was happily united Or who will muzzle that unruly Bear The Earl of Warwick the setter up and puller down of Kings gave for his Arms the White Bear rampant and the Ragged Staff My daisy flower which once perfum'd the Air Which for my favour Princes dayn'd to wear Now in the dust lies c. The Daisy in French is called Margarite which was Queen Margarets Badge wherewithal the Nobility and Chivalry of the Land at her first arrival were so delighted that they wore it in their Hats in token of Honour And who be Stars but Warwicks bearded Staves The ragged and bearded Staff was a part of the Arms belonging to the Earldom of Warwick Sland'ring Duke Rayner with base Beggery Rayner Duke of Anjou called himself King of Naples Cicile and Jerusalem who had neither Inheritance nor reâ—eived any Tribute from those Parts and was not able at the Marriage of the Queen at his own Charge to send her into England though be gave no Dower with her Which by the Duchess of Gloucester was often in disgrace cast in her Teeth A Kentish Rebel a base upstart Groom This was Jack Cade which caused the Kentish Men to rebel in the eight and twentieth year of King Henry the Sixth And this is he the White Rose must prefer By Clarence Daughter match'd to Mortimer This Jack Cade instructed by the Duke of York pretended to be descended from Mortimer which married Lady Philip Daughter to the Duke of Clarence And makes us weak by strengthning Ireland The Duke of York being made Deputy of Ireland first there began to practise his long pretended purpose and strengthning himself hy all means possible that he might at his return into England by open War claim that which so long before he had privily gone about to obtain Great Winchester untimely is deceas'd Henry Beauford Bishop and Cardinal Wincester Son to John of Gaunt begot in his age was a proud and ambitious Prelate favouring mightily the Queen and the Duke of Suffolk continually heaping up innumerable Treasures in hope to have been Pope as himself on his deah-bed confessed With France t' upbraid the valiant Somerset Edmund Duke of Somerset in the four and twentieth year of Henry the Sixth was made Regent of France and sent into Normandy to defend the English Territories against the French Invasions but in short time he lost all that King Henry the Fifth won for which cause the Nobles and Commons ever after hated him T' indure these storms with woful Buckingham Humphry Duke of Buckingham was a great Favorite of the Queens Faction in the time of Henry the Sixth And one foretold by Water thou shouldst dye The Witch of Eye received answer from her Spirit That the Duke of Suffolk should take heed of Water Which the Queen fore-warns him of as remembring the Witches Prophesie which afterwards came to pass FINIS EDWARD the Fourth TO Mistress SHORE The ARGUMENT Edward the Fourth Son to Richard Duke of York after he had obtained quiet possession of the Crown by deposing Henry the Sixth which Henry was after murthered in the Tower by Crook'd-back Richard hearing by report of many the rare and wonderful Beauty of Mrs. Jane Shore so called of her Husband a Goldsmith in Lombard-Sreet cometh himself disguised to London to see her where after he had once beheld her he was so surprised with her admirable Beauty that not long after he robbed her Husband of his dearest Jewel but he first by this Epistle writeth to his beauteous Paramour TO thee the fair'st that ever breath'd this Air * From English Edward to thee fairest fair Ah would to God thy Title were no more That no remembrance might remain of Shore To countermand a Monarchs high desire And barr mine Eyes of what they most admire Oh! why should Fortune make the City proud To give that more than is the Court allow'd Where they like Wretches hoord it up to spare And do ingross it as they do their Ware When Fame first blaz'd thy Beauty hear in Court Mine Ears repuls'd it as a light Report But when mine Eyes saw what mine Ear had heard They thought Report too niggardly had spar'd And strucken dumb with wonder did but mutter Conceiving more than it had words to utter Then think of what thy Husband is possest When I malign the Wealth wherewith hee 's blest When much abundance makes the
twice or thrice reiterates my word When like an adverse wind in Isis course Against the Tide bending his boistrous force But when the floud hath wrought it self about He following on doth headlong thrust it out Thus strive my sighs with tears er'e they begin And breaking out again sighs drive them in A thousand forms present my troubled thought Yet prove abortive ere they forth are brought The depth of Woe with words we hardly sound Sorrow is so insensibly profound As tears do fall and rise sighs come and go So do these numbers ebb so do they flow These briny tears do make my Ink look pale My Ink Cloaths tears in this sad mourning vail The Letters Mourners weep with my dim Eye The Paper pale griev'd at my misery Yet miserable our selves why should we deem Since none are so but in their own esteem Who in distress from resolution flies Is rightly said to yield to miseries * They which begot us dld beget this sin They first begun what did our grief begin We tasted not 't was they which did rebel Not our offence but in their fall we fell They which a Crown would to my Lord have link'd All hope of life and liberty extinct A Subject born a Soveraign to have been Hath made me now nor Subject nor a Queen Ah vile Ambition how do'st thou deceive us Which shew'st us Heaven and in Hell do'st leave us Seldom untouch'd doth innocence escape When errour cometh in good counsels shape A lawful title counterchecks proud might The weakest things become strong props to right Then my dear Lord although affliction grieve us Yet let our spotless innocence relieve us Death but an acted passion doth appear Where truth gives courage and the conscience clear And let thy comfort thus consist in mine That I bear part of whatso'ere is thine And when we liv'd untouch'd with these disgraces When as our Kingdom was our sweet embraces At Durham Pallace where sweet Hymen sang Whose buildings with our Nuptial Musick rang When Prothalamions prais'd that happy day Wherein great Dudley match'd with noble Gray When they devis'd to link by Wedlocks band The House of Suffolk to Northumberland Our fatal Dukedom to your Dukedom bound To frame this building on so weak a ground For what avails a lawless Usurpation Which gives a Sceptre but not rules a Nation Only the surfeit of a vain opinion What gives content gives what exceeds Dominion * When first my ears were pierced with the same Of Jane proclaimed by a Princess name A suddain fright my trembling Heart appalls The fear of Conscience entreth Iron Walls Thrice happy for our Fathers had it been If what we fear'd they wisely had foreseen And kept a mean Gate in an humble path To have escap'd the Heav'ns impetuous wrath The true bred Eagle strongly stems the wind And not each Bird resembling their brave kind He like a King doth from the Clouds command The fearful Fowl that moves but near the Land Though Mary be from mighty Kings descended My Bloud not from Plantaginet pretended * My Grandsire Brandon did our House advance By Princely Mary Dowager of France The fruit of that fair stock which did combine And York's sweet branch with Lancaster's entwine And in one stalk did happily unite The pure vermilion Rose and purer white I the untimely slip of that rich Stem Whose golden Bud brings forth a Diadem But oh forgive me Lord it is not I Nor do I boast of this but learn to die Whilst we were as our selves conjoyned then Nature to Nature now an Alien To gain a Kingdom who spares their next blood Nearness contemn'd if Sov'raignty withstood A Diadem once dazeling the Eye The day's too dark to see Affinity And where the Arm is stretch'd to reach a Crown Friendship is broke the dearest things thrown down * For what great Henry most strove t' avoid The Heav'ns have built where Earth would have destroy'd And seating Edward on his Regal Throne He gives to Mary all that was his own But death assuring what by life is theirs The lawfull claim of Henry's lawfull Heirs By mortal Laws the bond may be divorc'd But Heav'ns decree by no means can be forc'd They rule the case when men have all decreed Who took him hence foresaw who should succeed For we in vain relie on humane Laws When Heaven stands forth to plead the righteous cause Thus rule the Skies in their continual Course That yields to Fate that doth not yield to force Mans Wit doth build for Time but to devour Vertues free from Time and Fortunes pow'r Then my kind Lord sweet Gilford be not griev'd The Soul is Heav'nly and from Heav'n reliev'd And as we once have plighted troth together Now let us make exchange of minds to either To thy fair breast take my resolved mind Arm'd against black Despair and all her kind Into my bosome breath that Soul of thine There to be made as perfect as is mine So shall our Faiths as firmly be approv'd As I of thee or thou of me belov'd This life no life wert thou not dear to me Nor this no death were I not woe for thee Thou my dear Husband and my Lord before But truly learn to die thou shalt be more Now live by prayer on Heaven fix all thy thought And surely find what ere by zeal is sought For each good motion that the Soul awakes A Heavenly figure sees from whence it takes That sweet resemblance which by power of kind Forms like it self an Image in the mind And in our Faith the operations be Of that divineness which through that we see Which never errs but accidentally By our frail Fleshes imbecillity By each temptation over-apt to slide Except our spirit becomes our bodies guide For as these Towers our bodies do inclose So our Souls prisons verily are those Our Bodies stopping that Celestial Light As these do hinder our exteriour sight Whereon death seizing doth discharge the debt And us at blessed liberty doth set Then draw thy forces all up to thy heart The strongest fortress of this Earthly part And on these three let thy assurance lie On Faith Repentance and Humility By which to Heaven ascending by degrees Persist in Prayer upon your bended Knees Whereon if you assuredly be staid You need in peril not to be dismaid Which still shall keep you that you shall not fall For any peril that can you appall The Key of Heav'n thus with you you shall bear And Grace you guiding get you entrance there And if you these Celestial Joys possess Which mortal Tongue 's unable to express Then thank the Heaven preparing us this Room Crowning our heads with glorious Martyrdom Before the black and dismal days begin The days of Idolatry and Sin Not suffering us to see that wicked Age When Persecution vehemently shall rage When Tyranny new Torture shall invent Inflicting vengeance on the Innocent Yet Heaven forbids that Mary's Womb should bring England's fair Scepter to a