those Countries into his hands By ancient Wigmore's honourable Crest Wigmore in the Marches of Wales was the ancient House of the Mortimers that Noble and Couragious Family When still so long as Burrough bears that name The Queen remembreth the great Overthrow given to the Barons by Andrew Herckley Earl of Carlile at Burrough Bridge after the Battel at Burton Torlton that should our Business direct This was Adam Torlton Bishop of Hereford that great Politician who so highly favoured the Faction of the Queen and Mortimer whose evil counsel afterward wrought the destruction of the King MORTIMER TO QUEEN ISABEL AS thy Salutes my Sorrows doe adjourn So back to thee their int'rest I return Though not in so great Bounty I confess As thy Heroick Princely Lines express For how should Comfort issue from the Breath * Of one condemn'd and long lodg'd up for Death From Murthers Rage thou didst me once repreive My Hopes in Exile now thou do'st revive * Twice all was taken twice thou all didst give And thus twice dead thou mak'st me twice to live This double life of mine your only due You gave to me I give it back to you Ne'er my Escape had I adventur'd thus As did the Skie-attempting Dedalus And yet to give more safetie to my flight Did make a Night of Day a Day of Night Nor had I backt the proud aspiring Wall Which held without my Hopes within my Fall Leaving the Cords to tell where I had gone For Gazers with much fear to look upon But that thy Beauty by a pow'r divine Breath'd a new Life into this Spirit of mine Drawn by the Sun of thy celestial Eyes With fiery Wings which bare me through the Skies The Heav'ns did seem the charge of me to take And Sea and Land befriend me for thy sake Thames stop'd his Tide to make me way to goe As thou hadst charg'd him that it should be so The hollow murm'ring Winds their due time kept As they had rock'd the World while all things slept One Billow bare me and another drave me This strove to help me and that strove to save me The brisling Reeds mov'd with soft Gales did chide me As they would tell me that they meant to hide me The pale-fac'd Night beheld thy heavie cheare And would not let one little Star appeare But over all her smoaky Mantle hurl'd And in thick Vapours muffled up the World And the sad Ayre became so calm and still As it had been obedient to my will And every thing dispos'd it to my Rest As on the Seas when th' Halcion builds her Nest When those rough Waves which late with Fury rush'd Slide smoothly on and suddenly are hush'd Nor Neptune let his Surges out so long As Nature is in bringing forth her Young * Ne'r let the Spensers glorie in my Chance In that I live an Exile here in France That I from England banished should be But England rather banished from me More were her want France our great Bloud should bear Then Englands loss can be to Mortimer * My Grandsire was the first since Arthurs raign That the Round-Table rectifi'd again To whose great Court at Kenelworth did come The peereless Knighthood of all Christendom Whose Princely Order honour'd England more Than all the Conquests she atchiev'd before Never durst Scot set foot on English Ground Nor on his Back did English bear a Wound Whilst Wigmore flourish'd in our Princely Hopes And whilst our Ensigns march'd with Edwards Troops * Whilst famous Longshanks Bones in Fortunes scorn As sacred Reliques to the Field were born Nor ever did the valiant English doubt Whilst our brave Battels guarded them about Nor did our Wives and wofull Mothers mourn * The English Bloud that stained Banocksbourn Whilst with his Minions sporting in his Tent Whole Days and Nights in Banquetting were spent Until the Scots which under safeguard stood Made lavish Havock of the English Blood Whose batt'red Helms lay scatt'red on the Shore Where they in Conquest had been born before A thousand Kingdoms will we seek from far As many Nations waste with Civil War Where the dishevell'd gastly Sea-Nymph sings Or well-rig'd Ships shall stretch their swelling Wings And drag their Anchors through the sandy Fome About the World in ev'ry Clime to rome And those unchrist'ned Countries call our own Where scarce the Name of England hath been known * And in the dead Sea sink our Houses Fame From whose vast Depth we first deriv'd our Name Before foul black-mouth'd Infamy shall sing That Mortimer e'er stoop'd unto a King And we will turn stern-visag'd Fury back To seek his Spoyl who sought our utter Sack And come to beard him in our Native Isle E'er he march forth to follow our Exile And after all these boyst'rous stormy Shocks Yet will we grapple with the chaulky Rocks Nor will we steal like Pyrats or like Thieves From Mountains Forrests or Sea-bord'ring Clifts But fright the Air with Terror when we come Of the stern Trumpet and the bellowing Drum And in the Field advance our plumey Crest And march upon fair Englands flowry Breast And Thames which once we for our Life did swim Shaking our dewy Tresses on his Brim Shall bear my Navy vaunting in her pride Falling from Tanet with the pow'rfull Tide Which fertile Essex and fair Kent shall see Spreading her Flags along the pleasant Lee When on her stemming Poop she proudly bears The famous Ensigns of the Belgick Peers And for that hatefull Sacrilegious Sin Which by the Pope he stands accursed in The Cannon Text shall have a common Gloss Receipts in Parcels shall be paid in Gross This Doctrine preach'd Who from the Church doth take At least shall treble Restitution make For which Rome sends her Curses out from far Through the stern Throat of Terror-breathing War Till to th' unpeopl'd Shores she brings Supplys * Of those industrious Roman Colonies And for his Homage by the which of old Proud Edward Guyne and Aquitan doth hold * Charles by invasive Arms again shall take And send the English Forces o'er the Lake When Edward's Fortune stands upon this Chance To lose in England or to forfeit France And all those Towns great Longshanks left his Son Now lost which one he fortunately won Within their strong Port-culliz'd Ports shal lye And from their Walls his Sieges shall defie And by that firm and undissolved Knot Betwixt their neighb'ring French and bord'ring Scot. Bruce shall bring on his Red-shanks from the Seas From th' Isled Orcads and the Eubides And to his Western Havens give free pass To land the Kern and Irish Galiglass Marching from Tweed to swelling Humber Sands Wasting along the Northern Nether-Lands And wanting those which should his Power sustain Consum'd with Slaughter in his Bloody Reign Our Warlike Sword shall drive him from his Throne Where he shall lye for us to tread upon * And those great Lords now after their Attaints Canonized amongst the English Saints And by the superstitious People
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
England and France Nor these great Titles vainly will I bring Wife Daughter Mother c. Few Queens of England or France were ever more Princely allied then this Queen as it hath been noted by Historiographers Nor fear my Tudor that this love of mine Should wrong the Gaunt-born c. Noting the Descent of Henry her Husband from John Duke of Lancaster the fourth son of Edward the third which Duke John was sirnamed Gaunt of the City of Gaunt in Flanders where he was born Or make the English Blood the Sun and Moon Repine c. Alluding the Greatness of the English Line to Phoebus and Phoebe fained to be the Children of Latona whose Heavenly kind might scorn to be joyned with any Earthly Progeny yet withall boasting the Blood of France as not inferiour to theirs And with this Allusion followeth on the History of the strife betwixt Juno and the Race of Cadmus whose Issue was afflicted by the Wrath of Heaven The Children of Niobe slain for which the wofull Mother became a Rock gushing forth continually a Fountain of Tears When John and Longshanks Issue were affy'd Lewellin or Leolin ap Jorwith Married Joan daughter to King John a most beautifull Lady Some Authors affirm that she was base born Lewellinap Gryfith Married Elinor daughter to Simon Monfort Earl of Leicester and Cousin to Edward Longshanks both which Lewellins were Princes of Wales Of Camilot and all her Pentecosts To have precedence c. Camilot the Ancient Palace of King Arthur to which place all the Knights of that famous Order yearly repaired at Pentecost according to the Law of the Table and most of the famous home born Knights were of that Country as to this day is perceived by their ancient Monuments When bloody Rufus sought your utter sack Noting the ill success which William Rufus had in two Voyages he made into Wales in which a number of his chief Nobility were slain And oft return'd with glorious Victory Noting the divers sundry Incursions that the Welshmen made into England in the time Rufus John Henry the second and Longshanks OWEN TUDOR TO Queen KATHERINE WHen first mine Eyes beheld your Princely Name And found from whence this friendly Letter came As in excess of Joy I had forgot Whether I saw it or I saw it not My panting Heart doth bid mine Eyes proceed My daz'led Eyes invite my Tongue to read Which wanting their direction dully mist it My Lips which should have spoke were dumb and kist it And left the Paper in my trembling Hand When all my Senses did amazed stand Ev'n as a Mother coming to her Child Which from her presence hath been long exil'd With gentle Arms his tender Neck doth strain Now kissing it now clipping it again And yet excessive Joy deludes her so As still she doubts if this be hers or no. At length awakened from this pleasing Dream When Passion some what left to be extream My longing Eyes with their fair Object meet Where ev'ry Letter 's pleasing ev'ry Word is sweet It was not Henry's Conquest nor his Court That had the power to win me by report Nor was his dreadfull Terror-striking Name The cause that I from Wales to England came For Christian Rhodes and our Religious Truth To great Atchieuement first had won my Youth This brave Adventure did my Valour prove Before I e'er knew what it was to love Nor came I hither by some poor event But by th' Eternal Destinies consent Whose uncomprised Wisedom did fore-see That you in Marriage should be link'd to me By our great Merlin was it not fore-told Amongst his holy Prophesies enrol'd When first he did of Tudors Name divine That Kings and Queens should follow in our Line * And that the Helm the Tudors ancient Crest Should with the golden Flower-de-luce be drest As that the Leek our Countries chief Renown Should grow with Roses in the English Crown As Charles his Daughter you the Lilly were As Henry's Queen the blushing Rose you bear By France's Conquest and by Englands Oath You are the true made Dowager of both Both in your Crown both in your Cheek together Joyn Tethers love to yours and yours to Tether Then cast no future Doubts nor fear no Hate When it so long hath been fore-told by Fate And by the all-disposing doom of Heav'n Before our Births we to one Bed were giv'n No Pallas here nor Juno is at all When I to Venus yeild the golden Ball Nor when the Grecians Wonder I enjoy None in revenge to kindle fire in Troy And have not strange events divin'd to us That in our love we should be prosperous * When in thy presence I was call'd to dance In lofty Tricks whilst I my self advance And in a Turn my footing fail'd by hap Was 't not my chance to light into your Lap Who would not judge it Fortunes greatest grace Since he must fall to fall in such a place His Birth from Heav'n your Tudor not derives Nor stands on tip-toes in Superlatives Although the envious English doe devise A thousand Jests of our Hyperbolies Nor doe I claim that Plot by ancient Deeds Where Phoebus pastures fire-brreathing Steeds Nor doe I boast my God-made Grandfires Scars Nor Gyants Trophies in the Titan's Wars Nor fain my Birth your Princely Ears to please By three Nights getting as was Hercules Nor doe I forge my long Descent to run From aged Neptune or the glorious Sun * And yet in Wales with them that famous be Our learned Bards doe sing my Pedigree * And boast my Birth from great Cadwallader * From old Caer-Septon in Mount Pallador * And from Eneons Line the South-Wales King By Theodor the Tudors Name doe bring My Royal Mothers Princely Stock began * From her great Grandam fair Gwenellian By true descent from Leoline the Great As well from North-Wales as fair Powslands Seat Though for our Princely Genealogy I doe not stand to make Apology Yet who with Judgments true impartial Eyes Shall look from whence our Name at first did rise Shall find that Fortune is to us in debt And why not Tudor as Plantaginet * Nor that term Croggen Nick-name of disgrace Us'd as a by-word now in ev'ry place Shall blot our Blood or wrong a Welshman's Name Which was at first begot with England's shame Our valiant Swords our Right did still maintain Against that cruel proud usurping Dane Buckling besides in many dang'rous Fights With Norways Sweethens and with Muscovites * And kept our Native Language now thus long And to this day yet never chang'd our Tongue When they which now our Nation fain would tame Subdu'd have lost their Country and their Name Nor ever could the Saxons Swords provoke Our Britain Necks to bear their servile Yoke Where Cambria's pleasant Countries bounded be With swelling Severn and the holy De And since great Brutus first arriv'd have stood The only remnant of the Trojan Blood To every Man is not allotted Chance To boast with Henry to have
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
his Princely part to take When as the Staves upon thy Cask did light Grieved therewith I turn'd away my sight And spake aloud when I my self forgot 'T is my sweet Charles my Brandon hurt him not But when I fear'd the King perceived this Good silly Man I pleas'd him with a Kiss And to extoll his valiant Son began That Europe never bred a braver Man And when poor King he simply praised thee Of all the rest I ask'd which thou shouldst be Thus I with him dissembled for thy sake Open confession now amends must make Whilst this old King upon a Pallat lies And only holds a combat with mine Eyes Mine Eyes from his by thy sight stoln away Which might too well their Mistress Thoughts bewray But when I saw thy proud unconquer'd Launce To bear the Prize from all the flow'r of France To see what pleasure did my Soul embrace Might eas'ly be discerned in my Face Look as the Dew upon a Damask Rose How through that liquid Pearl his blushing shows And when the gentle air breaths on his top From the sweet Leaves falls eas'ly drop by drop Thus by my Cheek distilling from mine Eyes One Tear for Joy anothers Room supplies Before mine Eye like Touch thy shape did prove Mine Eye condemn'd my too too partial Love But since by others I the same do try My Love condemns my too too partial Eye The precious stone most beautiful and rare When with it self we only it compare We deem all other of that kind to be As excellent as that we only see But when we judge of that with others by Too credulous we do condemn our Eye Which then appears more orient and more bright Having a Boyl whereon to shew its light Alanson a fine timb'red Man and tall Yet wants the shape thou art adorn'd withal Vandome good Carriage and a pleasing Eye Yet hath not Suffolk's Princely Majesty Couragious Burbon a sweet Manly Face Yet in his Looks lacks Brandon's Courtly Grace Proud Longavile suppos'd to have no Peer A man scarce made was thought whilst thou wast here The Count Saint-Paul our best at Arms in France Would yield himself a Squire to bear thy Lauce * Galleas and Bounarm matchless for their might Under thy towring Blade have couch'd in fight If with our Love my Brother angry be I 'le say to please him I first fancied thee And but to frame my liking to his mind Never to thee had I been half so kind Worthy my love the Vulgar judge no man Except a Yorkist or Lancastrian Nor think that my affection should be set But in the Line of great Plantaginet I mind not what the idle Commons say I pray thee Charles make hast and come away To thee what 's England if I be not there Or what to me is France if thou not here Thy absence makes me angry for a while But at thy presence I should gladly smile When last of me his leave my Brandon took He sware an Oath and made my Lips the Book He would make hast which now thou do'st denie Thou art forsworn O wilful Perjury Sooner would I with greater sins dispence Than by intreaty pardon this Offence But then I think if I should come to shrive thee Great were the Fault that I should not forgive thee Yet wert thou here I should revenged be But it should be with too much loving thee I that is all that thou shalt fear to taste I pray thee Brandon come sweet Charles make hast ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History The utmost date expired of my stay When I for Dover did depart away KIng Henry the Eight with the Queen and Nobles in the sixth year of his Reign in the Month of September brought this Lady to Dover where she took shipping for France Think'st thou my love was faithful unto thee When young Castile to England su'd for me It was agreed and concluded betwixt Henry the seventh and Philip King of Castile Son to Maximilian the Emperor That Charles eldest Son of the said Philip should marry the Lady Mary Daughter to King Henry when they came to age Which agreement was afterwards in the eight year of Henry the Eight annihilated When he in triumph of his Victory Under a rich imbroyd'red Canopy Entred proud Turney which did trembling stand c. Henry the Eight after the long Siege of Turney which was delivered to him upon composition entred the City in Triumph under a Canopy of Cloth of Gold born by four of the Chief and most Noble Citizens the King himself mounted upon a gallant Courser barbed with the Arms of England France and Ireland When Charles of Castile there to banquet came With him his Sister that ambitious Dame Savoy's proud Dutchess The King being at Turney there came to him the Prince of Castile and the Lady Margaret Dutches of Savoy his Sister to whom King Henry gave great intertainment Savoy's proud Dutchess knowing how long she All means had try'd to win my love from me At this time there was speech of a Marriage to be concluded between Charles Brandon then Lord Lisle and the Dutchess of Savoy the Lord Lisle being highly favoured and exceedingly beloved of the Dutchess When in King Henries Tent of Cloth of Gold The King caused a rich Tent of Cloath of Gold to be erected where he feasted the Prince of Castile and the Dutchess and entertained them with sumptuous Masks and Banquets during their abode When Maximilian to those Wars adrest Wore Englands Cross on his Imperial Breast Maximilian the Emperor with all his Souldiers which served under King Henry wore the Cross of Saint George with the Rose on their Breasts And in our Army let his Eagle flie The black Eagle is the Badge Imperial which here is used for the displaying of his Ensign or Standard That view'd our Ensigns with a wond'ring Eye Henry the Eighth at his Wars in France retained the Emperor and all his Souldiers in Wages which served under him during those Wars But this alone by Wolsey's wit was wrought Thomas Wolsey the Kings Almoner then Bishop of Lincoln a Man of great Authority with the King and afterward Cardinal was the chief cause that this Lady Mary was married to the old French King with whom the French had dealt under-hand to befriend him in that Match Where the proud Dolphin for thy Valour sake Chose thee at Tilt his Princely part to take Francis Duke of Valoys and Dolphin of France at the Marriage of the Lady Mary in honour thereof proclaimed a Justs where be chose the Duke of Suffolk and the Marquess of Dorset for his aids at all Martial Exercises Galeas and Bounarme matchless for their might This Count Galeas at the Justs ran a Course with a Spear which was at the Head five inches square on every side and at the But nine Inches square whereby be shewed his wondrous force and strength This Bounarm a Gentleman of France at the same time came into the field armed at all
with our Disgrace And we in bonds thus striving to contain it The more resists the more we do restrain it * Oh how ev'n yet I hate these wretched Eyes And in my Glass oft call them faithless Spys Prepar'd for Richard that unawares did look Upon that Traytor Henry Bullenbrook But that excess of Joy my Sense bereav'd So much my Sight had never been deceiv'd Oh how unlike to my lov'd Lord was he Whom rashly I sweet Richard took for thee I might have seen the Courser's self did lack That Princely Rider to bestride his Back He that since Nature her great work began She onely made the Mirrour of a Man That when she meant to form some matchless Lim Still for a Pattern took some part of him And jealous in her Cunning brake the Mould When she in him had done the best she could Oh let that Day be guilty of all Sin That is to come or heretofore hath been * Wherein great Norfolk's forward Course was stay'd To prove the Treasons he to Harford lay'd When with stern Fury both these Dukes enrag'd Their Warlike Gloves at Coventry engag'd When first thou didst repeal thy former Grant Seal'd to brave Mowbray as thy Combatant From his unnumbred Houres let Time divide it Lest in his Minutes he should hap to hide it Yet on his Brow continually to bear it That when it comes all other Hours may fear it And all ill-boding Planets by consent In it may hold their dreadfull Parliament Be it in Heav'ns Decrees enrolled thus Black dismal fatal inauspitious Proud Harford then in height of all his Pride Under great Mowbray's valiant Hand had dy'd And never had from Banishment retir'd The fatal Brand wherewith our Troy was fir'd * Oh why did Charles relieve his needy state A Vagabond and stragling Runagate And in his Court with grace did entertain That vagrant Exile that vile bloody Cain Who with a thousand Mothers Curses went Mark'd with the Brand of ten years Banishment * When thou to Ireland took'st thy last Farewell Millions of Knees upon the Pavements fell And ev'ry where th' applauding Ecchoes ring The joyfull shouts that did salute a King Thy parting hence the Pomp that did adorn Was vanish'd quite when as thou didst return Who to my Lord one Look vouchsaf'd to lend Then all too few on Harford to attend Princes like Suns be evermore in sight All see the Clouds betwixt them and their Light Yet they which lighten all beneath their Skies See not the Clouds offending others Eyes And deem their Noon-tide is desir'd of all When all expect clear Changes by their Fall What colour seems to shadow Harford's claim When Law and Right his Fathers Hope do mayme * Affirm'd by Church-men which should bear no Hate That John of Gaunt was illegitimate Whom his reputed Mothers Tongue did spot By a base Flemish Boor to be begot Whom Edward's Eaglets mortally did shun Daring with them to gaze against the Sun Where lawfull Right and Conquest doth allow A tripple Crown on Richard's Princely Brow Three Kingly Lyons bears his Bloody Field * No Bastard's Mark doth blot his conqu'ring Shield Never durst he attempt our hapless Shore Nor set his foot on fatal Ravenspore Nor durst his slugging Hulks approach the Strand Nor stoop a Top as signal to the Land Had not the Piercies promis'd ayd to bring Against their Oath unto their lawfull King * Against their Faith unto our Crown 's true Heir Their valiant Kinsman Edmund Mortimer When I to England came a World of Eyes Like Stars attended on my fair Arise Which now alas like angry Planets frown And are all set before my going down The smooth-fac'd Air did on my coming smile But I with Storms am driven to Exile But Bullenbrook devis'd we thus should part Fearing two Sorrows should possess one Heart To add to our affliction to deny That one poor Comfort left our Misery He had before divorc'd thy Crown and thee Which might suffice and not to Widow me But so to prove the utmost of his hate To part us in this miserable state * Oh would Aumerl had sunk when he betray'd The Plot which once that noble Abbot laid When he infring'd the Oath which he first took For thy Revenge on perjur'd Bullenbrook And been the ransome of our Friends dear Blood Untimely lost and for the Earth too good And we untimely do bewail their state They gone too soon and we remain too late And though with Tears I from my Lord depart This Curse on Harford fall to ease my Heart If the foul breach of a chaste Nuptial Bed May bring a Curse my Curse light on his Head If Murthers guilt with Bloud may deeply stain * Green Scroop and Bushy dye his fault in grain If Perjury may Heav'ns pure Gates debar * Damn'd be the Oath he made at Doncaster If the deposing of a lawfull King Thy Curse condemn'd him if no other thingâ— If this dis-joyn'd for Vengeance cannot call Let them united strongly curse him all And for the Piercies Heav'n may hear mp Pray'r That Bullenbrook now plac'd in Richard's Chair Such cause of Woe to their proud Wives may be As those rebellious Lords have been to me And that coy Dame which now controlleth all And in her Pomp triumpheth in my Fall For her great Lord may water her sad Eyne With as salt Tears as I have done for mine * And mourn for Henry Hotspur her dear Son As I for my dear Mortimer have done And as I am so succourless be sent Lastly to tast perpetual Banishment Then lose thy Care when first thy Crown was lost Sell it so dearly for it dearly cost And since it did of Liberty deprive thee Burying thy Hope let nothing else out-live thee But hard God knows with Sorrow doth it go When Woe becomes a comforter to Woe Yet much me thinks of Comfort I could say If from my Heart some Fears were rid away Something there is that danger still doth show But what it is that Heaven alone doth know Grief to it self most dreadfull doth appear And never yet was Sorrow void of fear But yet in Death doth Sorrow hope the best And Richard thus I wish thee happy Rest ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History If fatal Pomfret hath in former time POmfret Castle ever a fatal place to the Princes of England and most ominous to the Bloud of Plantaginet Oh how even yet I hate these wretched Eyes And in my Glass c. When Bullenbrook returned to London from the West bringing Richard a Prisoner with him the Queen who little knew of her Husbands hard Success stayed to behold his coming in little thinking to have seen her Husband thus led in Triumph by his Foe and now seeming to hate her Eyes that so much had graced her mortal Enemy Wherein great Norfolk's forward Course was stay'd She remembreth the meeting of the two Dukes of Harford and Norfolk at Coventry urging the justness of Mowbray's Quarrel against the Duke of
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
no Magick Charm If she that sent it love Duke Humphry so Is' t possible her Name should be his Foe Yes I am Elinor I am very she Who brought for Dower a Virgins Bed to thee * Though envious Beauford slander'd me before To be Duke Humphry's wanton Paramour And though indeed I can it not deny * To Magick once I did my self apply I won thee not as there be many think With poys'ning Philters and bewitching Drink Nor on thy Person did I ever prove Those wicked Potions so procuring Love I cannot boast to be rich Holland's Heir Nor of the Blood and Greatness of Baveire * Yet Elinor brought no forreign Armies in To fetch her back as did thy Jacomin Nor clam'rous Husband follow'd me that fled Exclaiming Humphry to defile his Bed Nor wast thou forc'd the Slander to suppress To send me back as an Adulteress * Brabant nor Burgoyne claimed me by force Nor su'd to Rome to hasten my Divorce Nor Belgia's Pomp defac'd with Belgia's Fire The just reward of her unjust desire * Nor Bedford's Spouse your noble Sister Ann That Princely-issued great Burgonian Need stand with me to move a Womans strife To yield the place to the Protector 's VVife If Cobham's Name my Birth can dignifie Or Sterborough renown my Family * VVhere 's Greenwich now thy Elinor's Court of late Where she with Humphry held a Princely State That pleasant Kent when I abroad should ride That to my pleasure laid forth all her Pride The Thames by Water when I took the air That danc'd my Barge in lanching from the stayre The anch'ring Ships which when I pass'd the Road Were wont to hang their chequ'red Tops abroad How could it be those that were wont to stand To see my Pomp so Goddess-like to Land Should after see me mayl'd up in a Sheet Do shamefull Pennance three times in the Street Rung with a Bell a Taper in my Hand Bare-foot to trudge before a Beadle's VVand That little Babes not having use of Tongue Stood pointing at me as I came along Where then was Humphrey where was his Command Wast thou not Lord Protector of the Land Or for thy Justice who could thee deny The Title of the good Duke Humphry What Bloud extract from famous Edward's Line Could boast it self to be so pure as thine Who else next Henry should the Realm prefer If it allow the Line of Lancaster But Rayner's Daughter must from France be set And with a vengeance on our Throne be set Mauns Main and Anjou on that Beggar cast To bring her home to England in such hast And what for Henry thou hadst laboured there To joyn the King with Arminack's rich Heir Must all be dash'd as no such thing had been Pool needs must have his Darling made a Queen How should he with our Princes else be plac'd To have his Earlship with a Dukedome grac'd And raise the Off-spring of his Blood so high As Lords of us and our Posterity O that by Sea when he to France was sent The Ship had sunk wherein the Traytor went Or that the Sands had swallow'd her before She e'er set foot upon the English Shore But all is well nay we have store to give What need we more we by her Looks can live All that great Henry by his Conquests heapt And famous Bedford to his glory kept Is given back to Rayner all in post And by this means rich Normandy is lost Those which have come as Mistresses of ours Have into England brought their goodly Dow'rs Which to our Coffers yearly Tribute brings The Life of Subjects and the strength of Kings The means whereby fair England ever might Raise Power in France to back her antient Right But she brings Ruine here to make aboad And cancels all our lawfull Claim abroad And she must recapitulate my Shame And give a thousand by-words to my Name And call me Beldam Gib Witch Night-mare Trot With all despight that may a Woman spot Oh that I were a Witch but for her sake Faith then her Queenship little Rest should take I 'd scratch that Face that may not feel the Air And knit whole Ropes of Witch-knots in her Hair O how I 'd Hag her nightly in her Bed And on her Brest sit like a lump of Lead And like a Fairy pinch that dainty Skin Her wanton Blood is now so cocker'd in Or take me some such known familiar shape As she my Vengeance never should escape Were I a Garment none should need the more To sprinkle me with Nessus poys'ned Gore It were enough if she once put me on To tear both Flesh and Sinews from the Bone Were I a Flower that might her Smell delight Though I were not the poys'ning Aconite I would send such a Fume into her Brow Should make her mad as mad as I am now * They say the Druides once lived in this Isle This fatall Man the place of my Exile Whose pow'rfull Charms such dreadfull Wonders wrought Which in the Gotish Island Tongue were taught Oh that their Spels to me they had resign'd Wherewith they rais'd and calm'd both Sea and Wind And made the Moon pawse in her paled Sphere Whilst her grim Dragons drew them through the Air Their Hellish Power to kill the Plow-mans Seed Or to fore-speak whole Flocks as they did feed To nurse a damned Spirit with humane Blood To carry them through Earth Air Fire and Floud Had I this skill that Time hath almost lost How like a Goblin I would haunt her ghost O pardon pardon my mis-govern'd Tongue A Womans strength cannot endure my Wrong * Did not the Heav'ns her coming in withstand As though affrighted when she came to Land The Earth did quake her coming to abide The goodly Thames did twice keep back his Tide Pauls shook with Tempests that mounting spire With Lightning sent from Heav'n was set on fire Our stately Buidings to the ground were blown Her Pride by these prodigious signs were shown More fearfull Visions on the English Earth Then ever were at any Death or Birth Ah Humphry Humphry if I should not speak My Breast would split my very Heart would break I that was wont so many to command Worse now than with a Clap-dish in my hand A simple Mantle covering me withal The very'st Leper of Cares Hospital That from my State a Presence held in awe Glad here to kennel in a Pad of Straw And like an Owl by Night to goe abroad Roosted all day within an Ivy Tod Among the Sea-Cliffs in the dampy Caves In Charnel-Houses fit to dwell in Graves Saw'st thou those Eyes in whose sweet cheerfull Look Duke Humphry once such joy and pleasure took Sorrow hath so despoil'd them all of grace Thou couldst not say this was my El'nors face Like a foul Gorgon whose dishevell'd Hair With every blast flyes glaring in the Air Some standing up like Horns upon my Head Even like Those Women that in Coos are bred My lank Breasts hang like Bladders
Title of King of Sicily and Jerusalem This Marriage being made contrary to the liking of the Lords and Counsel of the Realm by reason of the yielding up of Anjou and Main into the Dukes hands which shortly after proved the loss of all Aquitain they ever after bore a continued hatred to the Duke and by means of the Commons banished him at the Parliament at Bury where after he had judgment of his Exile being then ready to depart he writes back to the Queen this Epistle IN my disgrace dear Queen rest thy Content And Margarets health from Suffolk's Banishment Five years exile were not an hour to me But that so soon I must depart from thee Where thou 'rt not present it is ever night All be exil'd that live not in thy sight Those Savages which worship the Suns rise Would hate their God if they beheld thine Eyes The worlds great light might'st thou be seen abroad Would at our Noon-stead ever make aboad And force the poor Antipodes to mourn Fearing lest he would never more return Wer 't not for thee it were my great'st exile To live within this Sea-inviron'd Isle Pool's Courage brooks not limiting in Bands But that great Queen thy Sov'raignty commands * Our Faulcons kind cannot the Cage indure Nor Buzzard-like doth stoop to ev'ry Lure Their mounting Brood in open Air doe rove Nor will with Crows be coup't within a Grove We all do breathe upon this Earthly Ball Likewise one Heav'n incompasseth thus all No Banishment can be to him assign'd Who doth retain a true resolved Mind Man in himself a little World doth bear His Soul the Monarch ever ruling there Where ever then his Body doth remain He is a King that in himself doth reign And never feareth Fortunes hot'st Alarms That bears against her Patience for his Arm 's * This was the mean proud Warwick did invent To my digrace at Leister Parliament * That only I by yielding up of Main * Should cause the loss of fertile Aquitain * With the base vulgar sort to win him fame To be the Heir of good Duke Humphry's Name And so by Treason spotting my pure Blood Make this a mean to raise the Nevils Brood * With Salisbury his vile ambitious Sire * In York's stern Breast kindling long hidden fire * By Clarence Title working to supplant * The Eagle Ayrie of great John of Gaunt And to this end did my Exile conclude Thereby to please the Rascal Multitude * Urg'd by these envious Lords to spend their breath Crying revenge for the Protectors death That since the old decrepit Duke is dead By me of force he must be murthered * If they would know who rob'd him of his Life * Let them call home Dame Elinor his Wife * Who with a Taper walked in a Sheet * To light her shame at Noon through London Street * And let her bring her Necromantick Book * That foul Hag Jordan Hun and Bullenbrook * And let them call the Spirits from Hell again To know how Humphry dy'd and who shall reign * For twenty years and have I serv'd in France * Against great Charles and Bastard Orleance And seen the Slaughter of a World of Men Victorious now as hardly conquer'd then * And have I seen Vernoyla's batful Fields Strew'd with ten thousand Helmes ten thousand Shields Where famous Bedford did our Fortune try Or France or England for the Victory The sad investing of so many Towns Scor'd on my Breast in honourable Wounds When Mountacute and Talbot of much Name Under my Ensign both first won their Fame In Heat and Cold all these have I endur'd To rouze the French within their Walls immur'd Through all my Life these perils have I past And now to fear a Banishment at last Thou know'st how I thy beauty to advance For thee refus'd the Infanta of France Brake the Contract Duke Humphry first did make 'Twixt Henry and the Princess Arminack Only that here thy presence I might gain I gave Duke Rayner Anjou Mauns and Main Thy Peerless Beauty for a Dower to bring As of it self sufficient for a King * And from Aumerle withdrew my Warlike Pow'rs * And came my self in person first to Tours * Th'Embassadours for truce to entertain * From Belgia Denmark Hungary and Spain And to the King relating of thy story My Tongue flow'd with such plenteous Oratory As the report by speaking did indite Begetting still more ravishing delight And when my Speech did cease as telling all My Look shew'd more that was Angelical And when I breath'd again and pawsed next I left mine Eyes dilating on the Text Then coming of thy Modesty to tell In Musicks numbers my Voice rose and fell And when I came to paint thy glorious stile My speech in greater Cadences to file * By true descent to wear the Diadem * Of Naples Cicil and Jerusalem As from the Gods thou didst derive thy Birth If those of Heaven could mix with these of Earth Gracing each Title that I did recite With some mellifluous pleasing Epithite Nor left him not till he for love was sick Beholding thee in my sweet Rhetorick A Fifteens Tax in France I freely spent In Triumphs at thy Nuptial Tournament And solemniz'd thy Marriage in a Gown Valu'd at more than was thy Fathers Crown And only striving how to honour thee Gave to my King what thy love gave to me Judge if his kindness have not power to move Who for his loves sake gave away his love Had he which once the Prize to Greece did bring Of whom th' old Poets long ago did sing * Seen thee for England but imbark'd at Deep Would over-board have cast his golden Sheep As too unworthy ballast to be thought To pester room with such perfection fraught The briny Seas which saw the Ship infold thee Would vault up to the Hatches to behold thee And falling back themselves in thronging smother Breaking for grief enving one another When the proud Bark for Joy thy steps to feel Scorn'd that the Brack should kiss her furrowing Keel And trick'd in all her Flags her self she braves Cap'ring for joy upon the silver Waves When like a Bull from the Phenician Strand Jove with Europa rushing from the Land Upon the Bosome of the Main doth scud And with his Swannish Breast cleaving the Floud Tow'rd the fair Fields upon the other side Beareth Agenor's joy Phenicia's pride All heavenly Beauties joyn themselves in one To shew their glory in thine Eye alone Which when it turneth that celestial Ball A thousand sweet Stars rise a thousand fall Who justly saith mine Banishment to be When only France for my recours is free To view the Plains where I have seen so oft Englands victorious Engines rays'd aloft When this shall be a comfort in my way To see the place where I may boldly say Here mighty Bedford forth the Vaward led Here Talbot charg'd and here the Frenchmen fled Here with our Archers valiant Scales did lye Here stood the Tents
points with ten Spears about him in each Stirrop three under each Thigh one one under his left Arm and one in his Hand and putting his Horse to the Career never stopped him till he had broken every Staff Hall Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk TO Mary the French Queen BUT that my Faith commands me to forbear The fault 's your own if I impatient were Were my dispatch such as should be my speed I should want time your loving Lines to read Here in the Court Camelion-like I fare And as that Creature only feed on Air All Day I wait and all the Night I watch And starve mine Ears to hear of my dispatch If Dover were th' Abydos of my Rest Or pleasant Calice were my Maries Cest You should not need bright Queen to blame me so Did not the Distance to Desire say no No tedious Night from Travel should be free Till through the Seas with swimming still to thee A snowy Path I made unto thy Bay So bright as is that Nectar-stained Way The restless Sun by travelling doth wear Passing his Course to finish up the Year But Paris locks my Love within the Main And London yet thy Brandon doth detain Of thy firm love thou put'st me still in mind But of my Faith not one word can I find * When Longavile to Mary was affy'd And thou by him wast made King Lewis's Bride How oft I wish'd that thou a Prize might'st be That I in Arms might combate him for thee And in the madness of my love distraught A thousand times his Murther have fore-thought But that th' all-seeing Pow'rs which sit above Regard not Mad-mens Oaths nor faults in Love And have confirm'd it by the grant of Heaven That Lovers sins on Earth should be forgiven For never Man is half so much distress'd As he that loves to see his Love possess'd Coming to Richmond after thy depart Richmond where first thou stol'st away my heart Me thought it look'd not as it did of late But wanting thee forlorn and desolate In whose fair walks thou often hast been seen To sport with Cath'rine Henries beautious Queen Astonishing sad Winter with thy sight So that for thee the day hath put back night And the small Birds as in the pleasant Spring Forgot themselves and have begun to sing So oft as I by Thames go and return Me thinks for thee the River yet doth mourn Whom I have seen to let his Stream at large Which like an Hand-maid waited on thy Barge And if thou hap'st against the Flood to row Which way it eb'd it presently would flow Weeping in Drops upon the labouring Oares For joy that it had got thee from the Shoares The Swans with musick that the Rowers make Ruffing their plumes came gliding on the Lake As the swift Dolphins by Arions strings Were brought to Land with Syren ravishings The flocks and heards that pasture near the Flood To gaze on thee have oft forborn their food And sat down sadly mourning by the brim That they by Nature were not made to swim When as the Post to Englands Royal Court Of thy hard passage brought the true report * How in a storm thy well-rigg'd Ships were tost And thou thy self in danger to be lost I knew 't was Venus loath'd that aged Bed Where Beauty so should be dishonoured Or fear'd the Sea-Nymphs haunting of the Lake If thou but seen their Goddess should forsake And whirling round her Dove-drawn Coach about To view the Navy then in lanching out Her ayrie Mantle loosely doth unbind Which fanning forth a rougher gale of wind Wafted thy Sails with speed unto the Land And ran thy Ships on Bullins harb'ring strand How should I joy of thy arrive to hear But as a poor Sea-faring passenger After long travail tempest torn and wrack'd By some unpitty'ng Pyrat that is sack'd Hears the false Robber that hath stoln his wealth Landed in some safe Harbour and in health Inrich'd with the invaluable store For which he long had travelled before * When thou to Abvile held'st th' appointed day We heard how Lewis met thee on the way Where thou in glitt'ring Tissue strangely dight * Appear'dst unto him like the Queen of Light In Cloath of Silver all thy Virgin Train In Beauty sumptuous as the Nothern Wain And thou alone the foremost glorious Star Which led'st the Team of that great Waggoner What could thy Thought be but as I did think When thine Eyes tasted what mine Ears did drink * A cripple King layd bed-rid long before Yet at thy coming crept out of the door 'T was well he rid he had no leggs to go But this thy Beauty forc'd his Body to For whom a Cullice had more fitter been Than in a golden Bed a gallant Queen To use thy Beauty as the Miser Gold Which hoards it up but only to behold Sill looking on it with a jealous Eye Fearing to lend yet loving Usury O Sacriledge if Beauty be divine The prophane Hand to touch the hallowed Shrine To surfeit sickness on the sound mans Diet To rob content yet still to live unquiet And having all to be of all beguil'd And yet still longing like a little Child * When Marquess Dorset and the valiant Grays To purchase Fame first crost the narrow Seas With all the Knights that my Associates went In honour of thy Nuptial Tournament Think'st thou I joy'd not in thy Beauties pride * When thou in Triumph didst through Paris ride Where all the Streets as thou didst pace along With Arras Biss and Tapestry were hung Ten thousand gallant Citizens prepar'd In rich Attire thy Princely self to guard Next them three thousand choice Religious Men In golden Vestments follow'd on agen And in Procession as they came along With Hymen sweetly sang thy Marriage Song * Next these five Dukes as did their places fall With each of them a Princely Cardinal Then thou on thy Imperial Chariot set Crown'd with a rich impearled Coronet Whilst the Parisian Dames as thy Train past Their precious incense in abundance cast As Cynthia from her wave-embattel'd Shrowds Op'ning the West comes streaming through the Clouds With shining Troops of Silver-tressed Stars Attending on her as her Torch-bearers And all the lesser Lights about her Throne With admiration stand as lookers on Whilst she alone in height of all her pride The Queen of Light along her Sphere doth glide When on the Tilt my Horse like Thunder came No other Signal had I but thy Name Thy Voyce my Trumpet and my Guide thine Eyes And but thy Beauty I esteem'd no prize * That large lim'd Almain of the Giants Race Which bare strength on his Breast fear in his Face Whose sinew'd Arms with his steel-temper'd Blade Through Plate and Male such open passage made Upon whose Might the Frenchmens glory lay And all the hope of that victorious day Thou saw'st thy Brandon beat him on his Knee Off'ring his Shield a conquer'd Spoil to thee But thou wilt say perhaps I vainly
boast And tell thee that which thou already know'st No sacred Queen my Valour I deny It was thy Beauty not my Chivalry One of thy tressed Curls there falling down As loath to be imprisoned in thy Crown I saw the soft Ayr sportively to take it And into strange and sundry forms to make it Now parting it to four to three to twain Now twisting it then it untwist again Then make the threads to dally with thine Eye A Sunny Candle for a golden Fly At length from thence one little tear it got Which falling down as though a Star had shot My up-turn'd Eye pursu'd it with my Sight The which again redoubled all my Might 'T is but in vain of my Descent to boast When Heav'ns Lamp shines all other Lights be lost Faulcons seem poor the Eagle sitting by Whose Brood surveyes the Sun with open Eye * Else might my blood find Issue from his force * Who beat the Tyrant Richard from his Horse On Bosworth Plain whom Richmond chose to wield His glorious Ensign in that conqu'ring Field And with his Sword in his dear Sov'reigns sight To his last breath stood fast in Henries Right Then beautious Empress think this safe delay Shall be the Even to a joyful Day Fore-sight doth still on all advantage lye Wise-men give place forc'd by necessity To put back ill our good we must forbear Better first fear then after still to fear 'T were over-sight in that at which we aim To put the Hazzard on an after-Game With patience then let us our Hopes attend And till I come receive these Lines I send ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History When Longavile to Mary was affy'd THe Duke of Longavile who was Prisoner in England upon the Peace to be concluded between England and France was delivered and married to the Princess Mary for Lewis the French King his Master How in a storm thy well-ri'd Ships were tost And thou c. As the Queen sayled for France a mighty storm arose at Sea so that the Navy was in great danger and was severed some driven upon the Coast of Flanders some on Brittain the Ship wherein the Queen was driven into the Haven at Bullen with very great danger When thou to Abvile held'st th' appointed day King Lewis met her by Abvile near to the Forrest of Arders and brought her into Abvile with great Solemnity Appeard'st unto him like the Queen of Light Expressing the sumptuous Attye of the Queen and her Train attended by the chief of the Nobility of England with six and thirty Ladies all in Cloth of Silver their Horses trapped with Crimson Velvet A criple King laid Bedrid long before King Lewis was a man of great years troubled much with the Gout so that he had long time before little use of his Legs When Marques Dorset and the valiant Grayes The Duke of Suffolk when the Proclamation came into England of Justs to be holden in France at Paris be for the Queens sake his Mistress obtained of the King to go thither With whom went the Marquess Dorset and his four Brothers the Lord Clinton Sir Edward Nevil Sir Giles Capel Thomas Cheyney which went all over with the Duke as his Assistants When thou in Triumph didst through Paris ride A true description of the Queens entring into Paris after her Coronation performed at St. Denis Then five great Dukes as did their Places fall The Dukes of Alanson Burbon Vandom Longavile Suffolk with five Cardinals That larg-lim'd Almain of the Giants Race Francis Valoys the Dolphin of France envying the glory that the English Men had obtained at the Tilt brought in an Almain secretly a Man thought almost of incomparable strength which inccuntred Charles Brandon at the Barriers but the Duke grappling with him so beat him about the Head with the Pummel of his Sword that the blood came out of the sight if his Caske Else might my Blood find issue from his force Who beat c. Sir William Brandon Standard bearer to the Earl of Richmond after Henry the Seventh at Bosworth-Field a brave and gallant Gentleman who was slain by Richard there this was Father to this Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk FINIS Henry Howard Earl of Surrey TO THE Lady GERALDINE The ARGUMENT Henry Howard that truly noble Earl of Surrey and excellent Poet falling in love with Geraldine descended of the Noble Family of the Fitzs-Gerarlds of Ireland a fair and modest Lady and one of the honourable Maids to Queen Catharine Dowager eternizeth her praises in many excellent Poems of rare and sundry inventions and after some few years being determined to see Italy that famous Source and Helicon of all excellent Arts first visiteth the renowned City of Floreoe from whence the Geralds challenge their descent from the anctient Family of the Geraldi there in honour of his Mistress he advanceth her Picture and challengeth to maintain her Beauty by deeds of Arms against all that durst appear in the Lifts where after the proof of his incomparable valour whose Arms crowned her Beauty with eternal Memory he writeth this Epistle to his dearest Mistress * FRom learned Florence long time rich in fame From whence thy Race thy noble Grandsiers came To famous England that kind Nurse of mine Thy Surrey sends to heav'nly Geraldine Yet let not Tuscan think I do it wrong That I from thence write in my Native Tongue That in these harsh-tun'd Cadences I sing Sitting so near the Muses sacred Spring But rather think it self adorn'd thereby That England reads the praise of Italy Though to the Tuscans I the smoothness grant Our Dialect no Majesty doth want To set thy praises in as high a Key As France or Spain or Germany or they That day I quit the Fore-land of fair Kent And that my Ship her course for Flanders bent With what regret and how heavy a look My leave of England and of thee I took I did intreat the Tide if it might be But to convey me one sigh back to thee Up to the Deck a Billow lightly skips Taking my sigh and down again it slips Into the Gulf it self it headlong throws And as a Post to England-ward it goes As I sate wondring how the rough Seas stir'd I might far off perceive a little Bird Which as she fain from Shore to Shore would flie Had lost her self in the broad vasty Skie Her feeble Wing beginning to deceive her The Seas of life still gaping to bereave her Unto the Ship she makes which she discovers And there poor fool a while for refuge hovers And when at lengeh her flagging Pinnion fails Painting she hangs upon the ratling Sails And being forc'd to loose her hold with pain Yet beaten off she strait lights on again And tos'd with flaws with storms with wind with weather Yet still departing thence still turneth thither Now with the Poop now with the Prow doth bear Now on this side now that now here now there Me thinks these Storms should be my sad depart
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
truly to the like Struck near at hand doth make another strike How comes it then that our Affections jar What Opposition doth beget this War I know that Nature frankly to thee gave That measure of her Bounty that I have And as to me she likewise to thee lent For ev'ry Sense a several Instrument But ev'ry one because it is thine own Doth prize it self unto it self alone Thy dainty hand when it it self doth touch That feeling tells it that there is none such When in thy Glass thine Eye it self doth see That thinks there 's none like to it self can be And ev'ry one doth judge it self divine Because that thou dost challenge it for thine And each it self Narcissus-like doth smother Loving it self nor cares for any other Fie be not burn'd thus in thine own desire 'T is needless Beauty should it self admire The Sun by which all Creatures light'ned be And seeth all it self yet cannot see And his own Brightness his own foil is made And is to us the cause of his own shade When first thy Beauty by mine Eye was prov'd It saw not then so much to be belov'd But when it came a perfect view to take Each Look of one doth many Beauties make In little Circles first it doth arise Then somewhat larger seeming in mine Eyes And in this circling Compass as it goes So more and more the same in Greatness grows And as it yet at liberty is let The Motion still doth other Forms beget Until at length look any way I could Nothing there was but Beauty to behold Art thou offended that thou art belov'd Remove the cause th' effect is soon remov'd Indent with Beauty how far to extend Set down Desire a Limit where to end Then charm thine Eyes that they no more may wound And limit Love to keep within a bound If this thou do'st then shalt thou doe much more And bring to pass what never was before Make Anguish sportive craving all Delight Mirth solemn sullen and inclin'd to Night Ambition lowly envy speaking well Love his Relief for Niggardize to sell Our Warlike Fathers did these Forts devise As surest Holds against our Enemies Places wherein your Sex might safeliest rest Fear soon is setled in a Womans Breast Thy Breast is of another temper far And then thy Castle fitter for the War Thou do'st not safely in thy Castle rest Thy Castle should be safer in thy Breast That keeps out Foes but doth thy Friends inclose But ah thy Breast keeps out both Friends and Foes That may be batter'd or be undermin'd Or by straight Siege for want of succour pin'd But thy hard Heart 's invincible to all And more obdurate then thy Castle Wall Of all the shapes that ever Jove did prove Wherewith he us'd to entertain his Love That likes me best when in a golden Showre He rain'd himself on Danae in her Towre Nor did I ever envy his command In that he bears the Thunder in his Hand But in that showry shape I cannot be And as he came to her I come to thee Thy Tow'r with Foes is not begirt about If thou within they are besieg'd without One Hair of thine more vigour doth retain To bind thy Foe then any Iron Chain Who might be giv'n in such a golden String Would not be captive though he were a King Hadst thou all India heap'd up in thy Fort And thou thy self besieged in that sort Get thou but out where they can thee espye They 'll follow thee and let the Treasure lye I cannot think what force thy Tower should win If thou thy self do'st guard the same within Thine Eye retains Artillery at will To kill whoever thou desir'st to kill For that alone more deeply wounds Mens Hearts Than they can thee though with a thousand Darts For there intrenched little Cupid lyes And from those Turrets all the World defies * And when thou let'st down that transparent Lid Of Entrance there an Army doth forbid And as for Famine her thou need'st not fear Who thinks of Want when thou art present there Thy onely sight puts Spirit into the Blood And comforts Life without the taste of Food And as thy Souldiers keep their Watch and Ward Thy Chastity thy inward Breast doth guard Thy modest Pulse serves as a Larum Bell Which watched by some wakefull Sentinell Is stirring still with every little Fear Warning if any Enemy be near Thy vertuous Thoughts when all the others rest Like carefull Scouts pass up and down thy Breast And still they round about that place do keep Whilst all the blessed Garrison do sleep But yet I fear if that the truth were told That thou hast rob'd and fly'st into this Hold I thought as much and didst this Fort devise That thou in safety here might'st tyranize Yes thou hast robb'd the Heaven and Earth of all And they against thy lawless Theft do call Thine Eyes with mine that wage continual Wars Borrow their brightness of the twinkling Stars Thy Lips from mine that in thy Mask be pent Have filch'd the Blushing from the Orient Thy Cheek for which mine all this Pennance proves Steals the pure whiteness both from Swans Doves Thy Breath for which mine still in Sighs consumes Hath robb'd all Flowers all Odours and Perfumes O mighty Love bring hither all thy Pow'r And fetch this Heav'nly Thief out of her Tow'r For if she may be suff'red in this sort Heavens store will soon be hoarded in this Fort. When I arriv'd before that State of Love And saw thee on that Battlement above I thought there was no other Heaven but there And thou an Angel didst from thence appear But when my Reason did reprove mine Eye That thou wert subject to Mortality I then excus'd what the bold Scot had done No marvel that he would the Fort have won Perceiving well those envious Walls did hide More wealth then was in all the World beside Against thy Foe I came to lend thee aid And thus to thee my self I have betray'd He is besieg'd the Siege that came to raise There 's no Assault that not my Breast assays Love grown extream doth find unlawfull Shifts The Gods take shapes and do allure with Gifts Commanding Jove that by great Styx doth swear Forsworn in Love with Lovers Oaths doth bear Love causeless still doth aggravate his cause It is his Law to violate all Laws His Reason is in only wanting Reason And were untrue not deeply touch'd with Treason Unlawfull Means doth make his lawfull Gain He speaks most true when he the most doth fain Pardon the Faults that have escap'd by Me Against fair Vertue Chastity and Thee If Gods can their own Excellence excell It is in pard'ning Mortals that rebell When all thy Trials are enroll'd by Fame And all thy Sex made glorious by thy Name Then I a Captive shall be brought hereby T' adorn the Triumph of thy Chastity I sue not now thy Paramour to be But as a Husband to be link'd to thee I 'm
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