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
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
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
Senses whilst the small Birds sing Lulled asleep with gentle murmuring Where light-foot Fairies sport at Prison-Base No doubt there is some Pow'r frequents the place There the soft Poplar and smooth Beech do bear Our Names together carved ev'ry where And Gordian Knots do curiously entwine The Names of Henry and Geraldine Oh let this Grove in happy times to come Be call'd The Lovers bless'd Elizium Whither my Mistress wonted to resort In Summers heat in those sweet shades to sport A thousand sundry names I have it given And call'd it Wonder-hider Cover-Heaven The Roof where Beauty her rich Court doth keep Under whose compass all the Stars do sleep There is one Tree which now I call to mind Doth bear these Verses carved in his Rinde When Geraldine shall sit in thy fair shade Fan her sweet Tresses with perfumed Air Let thy large Boughs a Canopy be made To keep the Sun from gazing on my Fair And when thy spreading branched Arms be sunk And thou no Sap nor Pith shalt more retain Ev'n from the dust of thy unwieldy Trunk I will renew thee Phoenix-like again And from thy dry decayed Root will bring A new-born Stem another Aesons Spring I find no cause nor judge I reason why My Country should give place to Lumbardy * As goodly Flow'rs on Thame's rich Banck do grow As beautifie the Banks of wanton Po As many Nymphs as haunt rich Arnus strand By silver Severn tripping hand in hand Our shad's as sweet though not to us so dear Because the Sun hath greater power there This distant place doth give me greater Woe Far off my Sighs the farther have to go Ah absence why thus should'st thou seem so long Or wherefore should'st thou offer Time such wrong Summer so soon to steal on Winters Cold Or Winters Blasts so soon make Summer old Love did us both with one-self Arrow strike Our Wound 's both one our Cure should be the like Except thou hast found out some mean by Art Some pow'rfull Med'cine to withdraw the dart But mine is fixt and absence being proved It sticks too fast it cannot be removed Adieu Adieu from Florence when I go By my next Letters Geraldine shall know Which if good fortune shall by course direct From Venice by some messenger expect Till when I leave thee to thy hearts desire By him that lives thy vertues to admire ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History From learned Florence long time rich in Fame FLorence a City of Tuscan standing upon the River Arnus celebrated by Dante Petrarch and other the most Noble Wits of Italy was the original of the Family out of which this Geraldine did spring as Ireland the place of her Birth which is intimated by these Verses of the Earl of Surrey From Tuscan came my Ladies worthy race Fair Florence was sometimes her ancient seat The Western Isle whose pleasant shore doth face Wild Cambers Cliffs did give her lively heat Great learn'd Agrippa so profound in Art Cornelius Agrippa a man in his time so famous for Magick which the Books published by him concerning that argument do partly prove as in this place needs no further remembrance Howbeit as those abstruse and gloomy Arts are but illusions so in the honour of so rare a Gentleman as this Earl and therewithal so Noble a Poet a quality by which his other Titles receive their greatest lustre Invention may make somewhat more bold with Agrippa above the barren truth That Lyon set in our bright silver Bend. The blazon of the Howards honourable Armour was Gules between six crosselets Fitchy a bend Argent to which afterwards was added by atchievement In the Canton point of the Bend an Escutcheon or within the Scotish tressure a Demi-lion-rampant Gules c. as Master Camden now Clerenceaux from authority noteth Never shall Time or bitter Envy be able to obscure the brightness of so great a Victory as that for which this addition was obtained The Historian of Scotland George Buchanan reporteth That the Earl of Surrey gave for his Badge a Silver Lion which from Antiquity belonged to that name tearing in pieces A Lion prostrate Gules and withall that this which he terms insolence was punished in him and his Posterity as if it were fatal to the Conquerour to do his Soveraign such Loyal service as a thousand such severe Censurers were never able to perform Since Scotish Blood discolour'd Floden Field The Battel was fought at Bramston near Floden Hill being a part of the Cheviot a Mountain that exceedeth all the Mountaines in the North of England for bigness in which the wilful Perjury of James the Fifth was punished from Heaven by the Earl of Surrey being left by King Henry the Eighth then in France before Turwin for the defence of this Realm Nor beautious Stanhope whom all Tongues report To be the glory c. Of the Beauty of that Lady he himself testifies in an Elegie which he writ of her refusing to dance with him which he seemeth to allegorize under a Lion and a Wolf And of himself he saith A Lion saw I late as white as any Snow And of her I might perceive a Wolf as white as a Whales Bone A fairer Beast of fresher hue beheld I never none But that her Looks were coy and froward was her Grace And famous Wyat who in Numbers sings Sir Thomas Wyat the Elder a most excellent Poet as his Poems extant do witness besides certain Encomions written by the Earl of Surrey upon some of Davids Psalms by him translated What holy Grave what worthy Sepulchre To Wyats Psalms shall Christians purchase then And afterward upon his Death the said Earl writeth thus What vertues rare were temp'red in thy Breast Honour that England such a Jewel bred And kiss the Ground whereas thy Corps did rest Of Hunsdon where those sweet celestial Eyne It is manifest by a Sonnet written by this Noble Earl that the first time he beheld his Lady was at Hunsdon Hunsdon did first present her to mine Eyne Which Sonnet being altogether a description of his Love I do alledge in divers places of this Gloss as proof of what I write Of Hampton Court and Windsor where abound All Pleasures c. That be enjoyed the presence of his fair and vertous Mistress in those two places by reason of Queen Katherines usual aboad there on whom this Lady Geraldine was attending I prove by these Verses of his Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine Windsor alas doth chase me from her sight And in another Sonnet following When Windsor Walls sustain'd my wearied Arm My Hand my Chin to ease my restless Head And that his delight might draw him to compare Windsor to Paradise an Elegie may prove where he remembreth his passed Pleasures in that place With a Kings Son my Childish years I pass'd In greater Feasts than Priams Son of Troy And again in the same Elegie Those large green Courts where we were wont to rove With Eyes cast up unto the
Widow hears Is it a King drys up the Orphans Tears Is it a King regards the Clyents Cry Gives Life to him by Law condemn'd to dye Is it his Care the Common-wealth that keeps As doth the Nurse her Babie whilst it sleeps And that poor King of all those Hope 's prevented Unheard unhelp'd unpittty'd unlamented Yet let me be with Poverty opprest Of Earthly Blessings robb'd and dispossest Let me be scorn'd rejected and revil'd And from my Kingdom let me live exil'd Let the Worlds Curse upon me still remain And let the last bring on the first again All Miserie 's that wretched Man may wound Leave for my Comfort only Rosamond For Thee swift Time his speedy Course doth stay At thy Command the Destinies obey Pity is dead that comes not from thine Eyes And at thy Feet ev'n Mercy prostrate lyes If I were feeble rheumatick or cold These were true signs that I were waxed old But I can march all day in massie Steel Nor yet my Arms unwieldy weight do feel Nor wak'd by night with Bruise or bloudy Wound The Tent my Bed no Pillow but the Ground For very Age had I lain Bedrid long One Smile of Thine again could make me Young Were there in Art a Power but so divine As is in that sweet Angel-Tongue of Thine That great Enchantress which once took such pains To put young Bloud into old Aeson's Veins And in Groves Mountain and the Moorish Fen Sought out more Herbs then had been known to Men And in the pow'rfull Potion that she makes Put Bloud of Men of Birds of Beasts and Snakes Never had needed to have gone so far To seek the Soyles where all those Simples are One Accent from thy Lips the Bloud more warms Then all her Philters Exorcisms and Charms Thy Presence hath repaired in one day What many Years with Sorrows did decay And made fresh Beauty in her flower to spring Out of the wrinkles of Times ruining Ev'n as the hungry Winter-starved Earth When she by nature labours tow'rds her Birth Still as the Day upon the dark World creeps One Blossom forth after another peeps Till the same Flower whose Root at last unbound Gets from the frosty Prison of the Ground Spreading the Leaves unto the pow'rfull noon Deck'd in fresh Colours smiles upon the Sun Never unquiet Care lodg'd in that Breast Where but one Thought of Rosamond did rest Nor Thirst nor Travel which on War attend Ere the long Day brought to desired end Nor yet pale Fear did or lean Famine live Where hope of Thee did any Comfort give Ah what Injustice then is this of Thee That thus the Guiltless do'st condemn for me When only she by means of my Offence Redeems thy Pureness and thy Innocence When to our Wills perforce obey they must That 's just in them what e'er in us unjust Of what we do not them account we make The Fault craves pardon for th' Offenders sake And what to work a Prince's VVill may merit Hath deep'st impression in the gentlest Spirit If 't be my Name that doth thee so offend No more my self shall be mine own Names Friend If it be that which Thou dost only hate That Name in my Name lastly hath his date Say 't is accurst and fatal and dispraise it If written blot it if engraven raze it Say that of all Names 't is a Name of Woe Once a King's Name but now it is not so And when all this is done I know 't will grieve thee And therefore Sweet why should I now belive thee For shouldst thou think those Eyes with Envy lowre Which passing by thee gaze up to thy Towre But rather praise thine own which be so clear VVhich from the Turret like two Stars appear Above the Sun doth shine beneath thine Eye Mocking the Heav'n to make another Skye The little Stream which by thy Tow'r doth glide VVhere oft thou spend'st the weary Ev'ning Tide To view thee well his Course would gladly stay As loth from thee to part so soon away And with Salutes thy self would gladly greet And offer some small Drops up at thy Feet But finding that the envious Banks restrain it T' excuse it self doth in this sort complain it And therefore this sad bubling Murmur keeps And for thy want within the Channel weeps And as thou do'st into the Water look The Fish which see thy shadow in the Brook Forget to feed and all amazed lye So daunted with the lustre of thine Eye And that sweet Name which thou so much do'st wrong In time shall be some famous Poet's Song And with the very sweetness of that Name Lyons and Tygers Men shall learn to tame The carefull Mother at her pensive Breast VVith Rosamond shall bring her Babe to Rest The little Birds by Mens continual sound Shall learn to speak and prattle Rosamond And when in April they begin to sing VVith Rosamond shall welcome in the Spring And she in whom all Rarities are found Shall still be said to be a Rosamond The little Flowers dropping their honied Dew VVhich as thou writ'st do weep upon thy Shoe Not for thy Fault sweet Rosamond do moan Only lament that thou so soon art gone For if thy Foot touch Hemlock as it goes That Hemlock's made much sweeter then the Rose Of Jove or Neptune how they did betray Speak not of Jo or Amimone VVhen she for whom Jove once became a Bull Compar'd with Thee had been a Tawny Trull He a white Bull and she a whiter Cow Yet he nor she ne'er half so white as Thou Long since thou know'st my Dear I've careful been To lodge thee safe free from my jealous Queen The Labyrinths Conveyance guides thee so * VVhich only Vaughan thou and I do know Tho' she should watch thee with an hundred Eyes I 'll antidote her furious Mercuries And with an Argus Mind my Phoenix keep VVith Eyes that ne'er were overcome by sleep And those Stars which look in but look to see Wond'ring what Star here on the Earth should be As oft the Moon amidst the silent Night Hath come to joy us with her friendly Light And by the Curtain help'd mine Eye to see What envious night and darkness hid from me When I have wish'd that she might ever stay And other Worlds might still enjoy the Day What should I say words tears and sighs be spent And want of Time doth further Help prevent My Camp resounds with fearfull shocks of War Yet in my Breast more dang'rous Conflicts are Yet is my Signal to the Battels sound The blessed Name of beauteous Rosamond Accursed be that Heart that Tongue that Breath Should think should speak or whisper of thy Death For in one Smile or Lowre from thy sweet Eye Consists my Life my Hope my Victory Sweet Woodstock where my Rosamond doth rest Be blest in her in whom thy King is blest For though in France a while my Body be My Heart remains dear Paradise in thee ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle