That now a Spenser should succeed in all And that his Ashes should another breed Which in his Place and Empire should succeed That wanting One a Kingdoms Wealth to spend Of what that left this now shall make an end To waste all that our Father won before Nor leave our Son a Sword to conquer more Thus but in vain we fondly doe resist Where Pow'r can doe ev'n all things as it list And of our Right with Tyrants to debate Lendeth them means to weaken our Estate Whilst Parliaments must remedy their Wrongs And we must wait for what to us belongs Our Wealth but Fuel to their fond Excess And all our Fasts must feast their Wantonness Think'st thou our Wrongs then insufficient are To move our Brother to religious War * And if they were yet Edward doth detain Homage for Pontiu Guyne and Aquitain And if not that yet hath he broke the Truce Thus all accurr to put back all excuse The Sister 's Wrong joyn'd with the Brother 's Right Methinks might urge him in this cause to fight Are all those People senseless of our Harms Which for our Country oft have manag'd Arms Is the brave Normans Courage quite forgot Have the bold Britains lost the use of Shot The big-bon'd Almans and stout Brabanders Their Warlike Pikes and sharp-edg'd Scymiters Or do the Pickards let their Cross-bows lie Once like the Centaur's of old Thessaly Or if a valiant Leader be their lack Where Thou art present who should beat them back I do conjure Thee by what is most dear By that great Name of famous Mortimer * By ancient Wigmore's honourable Crest The Tombs where all thy famous Grandsires rest Or if then these what more may Thee approve Ev'n by those Vows of thy unfeigned Love In all thou canst to stir the Christian King By forreign Arms some Comfort yet to bring To curb the Pow'r of Traytors that rebell Against the Right of Princely Isabel Vain witless Woman why should I desire To add more heat to thy Immortal fire To urge thee by the violence of Hate To shake the Pillars of thine own Estate When whatsoever we intend to doe Our most Misfortune ever sorteth too And nothing else remains for us beside But Tears and Coffins onely to provide * When still so long as Burrough bears that name Time shall not blot out our deserved shame And whilst clear Trent her wonted course shall keep For our sad Fall she evermore shall weep All see our Ruin on our Backs is thrown And we too weak to bear it out are grown * Torlton that should our Business direct The general Foe doth vehemently suspect For dangerous Things get hardly to their End Whereon so many watchfully attend What should I say My Griefs do still renew And but begin when I should bid adieu Few be my Words but manifold my Woe And still I stay the more I strive to go Then till fair Time some greater Good affords Take my Loves-payment in these airey Words ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History Oh how I fear'd that sleepy Juyce I sent Might yet want power to further mine intent MOrtimer being in the Tower ordaining a Feast in honour of his Birth-day as he pretended inviting thereunto Sir Stephen Seagrave Constable of the Tower with the rest of the Officers belonging to the same he gave them a sleepy Drink provided by the Queen by which means he made his Escape I stole to Thames as though to take the Air And ask'd the gentle Floud as it doth glide Mortimer being got out of the Tower swam the River of Thames into Kent whereof she having intelligence doubteth of his strength to escape by reason of his long Imprisonment being almost the space of three years Did Bulloyn once a Festival prepare For England Almane Cicill and Navarre Edward Carnarvan the first Prince of Wales of the English Blood married Isabel Daughter of Phillip the Fair a Bulloine in the presence of the Kings of Almain Navarre and Cicill with the chief Nobility of France and England Which Marriage was there solemnized with exceeding Pomp and Magnificence And in my place upon his Regal Throne To set that Girl-boy wanton Gaveston Noting the effeminacy and luxurious wantonness of Gaveston the Kings Minion his Behaviour and Attire ever so Womanlike to please the Eye of his lascivious Master That a foul Witches Bastard should thereby It was urged by the Queen and the Nobility in the disgrace of Pierce Gaveston that his Mother was convicted of Witchcraft and burned for the same and that Pierce had bewitched the King And of our Princely Jewels and our Dowres Let us enjoy the least of what is ours A Complaint of the Prodigality of King Edward giving unto Gaveston the Jewels and Treasure which was left him by the ancient Kings of England and enriching him with the goodly Mannor of Wallingford assigned as parcel of the Dower to the Queen of this famous Isle And match'd with the brave Issue of our Blood Allie the Kingdom to their cravand Brood Edward the Second gave to Pierce Gaveston in Marriage the Daughter of Gilbert Clare Earl of Gloucester begot of the Kings Sister Joan of Acres married to the said Earl of Gloucester Albania Gascoign Cambria Ireland Albania Scotland so called of Albanact the second Son of Brutus and Cambria Wales so called of Camber the third Son The four Realms and Countries brought in subjection by Edward Longshanks Should give away all that his Father won To back a Stranger King Edward offered his Right in France to Charles his Brother in law and his Right in Scotland to Robert Bruce to be ayded against the Barons in the Quarrel of Pierce Gaveston And did great Edward on his Death-bed give Edward Longshankes on his Death-bed at Carlile commanded young Edward his Son on his Blessing not to call back Gaveston who for the misguiding of the Princes Youth was before banished by the whole Council of the Land That after all that fearfull Massacre The Fall of Beauchamp Lacy Lancaster Thomas Earl of Lancaster Guy Earl of Warwick and Henry Earl of Lincoln who had taken their Oath before the deceased King at his Death to withstand his Son Edward if he should call Gaveston from exile being a thing which he much feared now seeing Edward to violate his Fathers Commandment rise in Arms against the King which was the cause of the Civil War and the Ruin of so many Princes And gloried I in Gaveston's great Fall That now a Spenser should succeed in all The two Hugh Spensers the Father and the Son after the Death of Gaveston became the great Favourites of the King the Son being created by him Lord Chamberlain and the Father Earl of Winchester And if they were yet Edward doth detain Homage for Pontiu Guyne and Aquitain Edward Longshanks did Homage for those Cities and Territories to the French King which Edward the second neglecting moved the French King by the subornation of Mortimer to seize
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
Nobility should bear it If Counsel aid that France will tell I know Whose Towns lye wast before the English Foe When thrice we gave the conquer'd French the foil * At Agincourt at Cravant and Vernoyle If Faith avail these Arms did Henry hold To claym his Crown yet scarcely nine months old If Countries care have leave to speak for me Gray hairs in youth my witness then may be If peoples tongues give splendor to my Fame They add a Title to Duke Humphry's Name If Toyle at home French Treason English Hate Shall tell my skill in mannaging the State If forreign Travel my success may try * Then Flanders Almain Boheme Burgundie That Robe of Rome proud Beauford now doth wear In every place such sway should never bear * The Crosier staff in his imperious Hand To be the Scepter that controules the Land That home to England Dispensations draws Which are of power to abrogate our Laws And for those Sums the wealthy Church should pay Upon the needy Comm'nalty to lay His ghostly Counsels only do advise * The means how Langley's Progeny may rise Pathing young Henry's unadvised ways A Duke of York from Cambridge house to raise Which after may our Title undermine Grafted since Edward in Gaunts famous Line Us of Succession falsely to deprive Which they from Clarence fainedly derive Knowing the will old Cambridge ever bore To catch the Wreath that famous Henry wore With Gray and Scroop when first he layd the Plot From us and ours the Garland to have got As from the March-born Mortimer to reign Whose Title Glendour stoutly did maintain When the proud Percies haughty March and he Had shar'd the Land by equal parts in three * His Priesthood now stern Mowbray will restore To stir the fire that kindled was before Against the Yorkists that shall their Claim advance To steel the point of Norfolk's sturdy Lance. Upon the Breast of Harford's issue bent In just revenge of ancient Banishment He doth advise to let our Pris'ner go And doth inlarge the faithless Scotish Foe * Giving our Heirs in Marriage that their Dow'rs May bring invasion upon us and ours Ambitious Suffolk so the Helm doth guide With Beauford's damned Policies suppl'd He and the Queen in Counsel still confer How to raise him who hath advanced her But my dear Heart how vainely do I dream And fly from thee whose Sorrows are my Theam My love to thee and England thus divided Which hath the most how hard to be decided Or thou or that to censure I am loath So near are you so dear unto me both 'Twixt that and thee for equal love I find England ingrateful and my El'nor kind But though my Country justly I reprove Yet I for that neglected have my love Nevertheless thy Humphry's to the now As when fresh Beauty triumph'd on thy Brow As when thy Graces I admired most Or of thy Favours might the frankly'st boast Those Beauties were so infinite before That in abundance I was only poor Of which though Time hath taken some again I ask no more but what doth yet remain Be patient gentle Heart in thy distress Thou art a Princess not a whit the less Whilst in these Breasts we bear about this Life I am thy Husband and thou art my Wife Cast not thine eye on such as mounted be But look on those cast down as low as we For some of them which proudly pearch so hie Ere long shall come as low as thou or I. They weep for joy and let us laugh in Woe We shall exchange when Heav'n will have it so We mourn and they in after-time may mourn Woe past may once laugh present Woe to scorn And worse then hath been we can never tast Worse cannot come then is already past In all extream's the only depth of ill Is that which comforts the afflicted still Ah would to God thou couldst thy Griefs deny And on my back let all the Burthen lye Or if thou canst resign make them mine own Both in one Carriage to be undergone Till we again our former hopes recover And prosp'rous Times blow these Misfortunes over For in the thought of those fore-passed years Some new resemblance of old Joy appears Mutual our Care so mutual be our Love That our Affliction never can remove So rest in peace where peace hath hope to live Wishing thee more then I my self can give ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History At Agincourt at Cravant and Vernoyle THe three famous Battels fought by the Englishmen in France Agincourt by Henry the fifth against the whole Power of France Cravant fought by Montacute Earl of Salisbury and the Duke of Burgoyne against the Dolphin of France and William Stuart Constable of Scotland Vernoyle fought by John Duke of Bedford against the Duke of Alanson and with him most of the Nobility of France Duke Humphry an especial Counsellor in all these Expeditions Then Flanders Almaine Boheme Burgundy Here remembring the ancient Amity which in his Embassies he had concluded betwixt the King of England and Sigismund Emperor of Almain drawing the Duke of Burgoyne into the same League giving himself as an Hostage for the Duke at Saint Omers while the Duke came to Calice to confirm the League With his many other Imployments to forreign Kingdomes That Crosier staff in his imperious hand Henry Beauford Cardinal of Winchester that proud and haughty Prelate received the Cardinals Hat at Calice by the Popes Legate which dignity Henry the fifth his Nephew forbad him to take upon him knowing his haughty and malicious spirit unfit for that Robe and Calling The means how Langley's Progeny may rise As willing to shew the House of Cambridge to be descended of Edmund Langley Earl of York a younger Brother to John of Gaunt his Grandfather as much as in him lay to smother the Title that the Yorkists made to the Crown from Lionel of Clarence Gaunts elder Brother by the Daughter of Mortimer His Priesthood now stern Mowbray doth restore Noting the ancient Grudge between the House of Lancaster and Norfolk ever since Moubray Duke of Norfolk was banished for the Accusation of Henry Duke of Harford after that King of England Father to Duke Humphry Which Accusation he came as a Combatant to have made good in the Lists at Coventry Giving our Heirs in Marriage that their Dow'rs James Stuart King of Scots having been long Prisoner in England was released and took to Wife the Daughter of John Duke of Somerset Sister to John Duke of Somerset Neice to the Cardinal and the Duke of Excester and Cousin-German removed to the King This King broke the Oath he had taken and became afterward a great Enemy to England FINIS WILLIAM DE-LA-POOLE Duke of SUFFOLK TO Queen MARGARET The ARGUMENT William De-La-Pool first Marquess and after created Duke of Suffolk being sent into France by King Henry the Sixth concluded a Marriage between the King his Master and Margaret Daughter to Rayner Duke of Anjou who only had the
ENGLAND'S Heroical Epistles WRITTEN In Imitation of the Stile and Manner OF OVID'S EPISTLES WITH ANNOTATIONS OF The Chronicle History By MICHAEL DRAYTON Esq Newly Corrected and Amended Licensed according to Order LONDON Printed for S. Smethwick in Dean's Court and R. Gilford without Bishops-Gate TO THE READER SEEING these Epistles are now to the World made publique it is imagined that I ought to be accountable of my private meaning chiefly for my own discharge lest being mistaken I fall in hazard of a just and universal Reprehension for Hae nugae seria ducent In mala derisum semel exceptumque sinistre Two Points are especially therefore to be explained first why I entitle this Work England's Heroical Epistles secondly why I have annexed Notes to every Epistles end For the first The Title I hope carrieth Reason in it self for that the most and greatest Persons herein were English or else that their Loves were obtained in England And though Heroical be properly understood of Demi-gods as of Hercules and Aeneas whose Parents were said to be the one Coelestial the other Mortal yet is it also transferred to them who for the greatness of Mind come near to Gods For to be born of a Coelestial Incubus is nothing else but to have a great and mighty Spirit far above Earthly weakness of Men in which sence Oâ—… whose Imitator I partly profess to be doth alâ—… use Heroical For the second because the Wâ—… might in truth be judged Brainish if nothing 〈◊〉 amorous Humor were handled therein I have interwoven Matters Historical which unexplained mighâ— defraud the mind of much Content as for Example in Queen Margarites Epistle to William De La-Pool My Daisie Flower which once perfum'd the Air Margarite in French signifies a Daisy which for the allusion to her Name this Queen gave for her Device and this as others more have seemed to me not unworthy the explaining By this mark * in the beginning of every Line thou art directed to the Annotations for an explanation of what is obscure Now though no doubt I had need to excuse other things beside yet these most especially the rest I over-pass to eschew tedious recital If they be as harmelesly taken as I mean them I shall not lastly be afraid to believe and acknowledge thee a gentle Reader M. DRAYTON On the Authour MICHAEL DRAYTON Esq and his Heroick Epistles SEe here Britannia's OVID whose soft Pen Transplants the Grecian Loves to English-men View his EPISTLES throughly and behold Our native Oar coin'd in a Roman Mould Yet all is Standard all Rose-noble Gold See here Britannia's LVCAN whose rich Vein In History does antient Times explain In our fore-Father's out-of-Fashion Dress He do's a Noble Gallantry express Equal to that of Rome and much above The little Fopperies of modern Love The English Hero's Soul is all divine As is the Beauty of the Heroine Howe'er they disagree in Clime or Name The Lover and the Brave are still the same The Muses Treasure and Delight of Fame J. W. On the Ingenious AUTHOUR occasioned by the present Edition of his HEROICAL EPISTLES HEre Reader 's One who when vouchsaft to Write Could both the Sexes of mankind delight â—n gentle Numbers and soft Lays he sings Th' alternate Loves of Subjects and of Kings The Theme he writes of and his Song agree Unequal Notes make up the Harmony Listen ye Wits to that Orphean strain Which charm'd even Ovid's Soul to Life again Tibullus Gallus and Propertius too All Caesar's Court in one sweet Poet view His English Heroes courteous and brave Unblemish'd bear their Honours to the Grave No light Incontinence their Glories stain They fixt and constant in their Loves remain Here no Penelope laments her Fate In her once kind but now inconstant Mate No poor forsaken Sappho can complain Of her too cruel Phaon's cold disdain Naso 't is true was perfect at Address But Drayton's Language only found success So fraught with Love all his EPISTLES came They warm'd the Answers into equal Flame Such was the Poet and his Wit so great Pent up in Earth it was releas'd by Fate Adorn'd with Fancy Innocence and Love His Book discovers that he 's blest above Thus active Stars that shoot along the Sky Leave glitt'ring Tracts to shew which way they fly B. C. A Dedication of These and the foregoing Verses to Mr. Drayton's Heroick Epistles ETernal Book to which our Muses flye In hopes of gaining Immortality Time has devour'd the Younger Sons of Wit Who liv'd when Chaucer Spencer Johnson writ Those lofty Trees are of their Leaves bereft And to a reverend Nakedness are left But the chief Glory of Apollo's Grove Drayton who taught his Daphne how to Love Drayton that sacred Lawrel seems to be From which each Sprig that falls must grow a Tree Our humble Lines eternal Book receive And order Fate to let the Suppliants live But if our Zeal no valued Merit brings And what you inspire must dye like common things Yet to attend the Triumphs of the Brave Contents the Soul and fits it for the Grave Besides near You an easie Fate we choose When by Neglect we Want our Beings loose In such pure Air gross Muses take no Breath Faint and in gentle Trances meet their Death Thus when in Honour of the Suns return Their imitating Lamps the Persians burn Before his Beams the glimmering Lights expire And Sacrifice themselves to the Coelestial Fire T. B. To the Stationer on this new and correcâ— Impression of England's Heroical Epistles By MICHAEL DRAYTON Esq GO on industriously and give Whilst Wit and Poesie shall live New Light to DRAYTON whose unequall'd Quâ—… Disdains all vain Essays of modern skill The Nine grown Housewives now do ne'er inspirâ— Such double Portions of aetherial Fire As once they did in those his days but since In scantier measures do their warmth dispence Forth then thou Objects of the Criticks Eye Beyond th' Efforts of all our Poesie Expose refin'd and various Delights And glut the nicest Readers Appetites Since the melodious Thracian Orpheus sung No Harp was ever better Touch'd or Strung His Angel-sounds methinks the blood more warms Than all the Pow'rs of Chast Matilda's Charms Could th' Royal Lover's Breast which whilst he sings Some Magick moves the mind 's internal Springs Edwine Sadleyr Baronet ENGLAND'S Heroical Epistles The Epistle of ROSAMOND TO King HENRY the Second The ARGUMENT Henry the Second of that Name King of England having by long Suit and Princely Gifts won to his unlawfull desire fair Rosamond the Daughter of the Lord Walter Clyfford and to avoid the danger of Ellinor his jealous Queen had caused a Labyrinth to be made within his Palace at Woodstock in the centre whereof he had lodged his beauteous Paramour Whilst the King is absent in his Wars in Normandy this poor distressed Lady inclosed in this solitary Place toucht with remorse of Conscience writes to the King of her Distress and miserable Estate urging him with all means and
thought That by their Reliques Miracles are wrought And think that Floud much vertue doth retain Which took the Bloud of famous Bohun slain Continuing the remembrance of the thing Shall make the People more abhor their King Nor shall a Spenser be he ne'er so great Possess our Wigmore our renowned Seat To raze the ancient Trophies of our Race With our deserts their Monuments to grace Nor shall he lead our valiant Marchers forth To make the Spensers famous in the North Nor be the Guardants of the British Pales Defending England and preserving Wales At first our Troubles easily recall'd But now grown head-strong hardly to be rul'd Deliberate counsel needs us to direct Where not ev'n plainess frees us from suspect By those Mishaps our Errors that attend Let us our Faults ingenuously amend Then Dear repress all peremptory Spleen Be more than Woman as you are a Queen Smother those Sparks which quickly else would burn Till Time produce what now it doth adjourn Till when great Queen I leave you though a while Live you in rest nor pity my Exile ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History Of one condemn'd and long lodg'd up for Death ROger Mortimer Lord of Wigmore had stood publickly condemned for his Insurrection with Thomas Earl of Lancaster and Bohun Earl of Hereford the space of three Months and as report went the day of his Execution was determined to have been shortly which he prevented by his escape Twice all was taken twice thou all didst give At what time the two Mortimers this Roger Lord of Wigmore and his Uncle Roger Mortimer the elder were apprehended in the West the Queen by means of Torlton Bishop of Hereford and Beck Bishop of Duresme and Patriarch of Jerusalem being then both mighty in the State upon the submission of the Mortimers somewhat pacified the King and now secondly she wrought means for his escape Leaving the Cords to tell where I had gone With strong Ladders made of Cords provided him for the purpose be escaped out of the Tower which when the same were found fastened to the Walls in such a desperate Attempt they bred astonishment in the Beholders Ne'er let the Spencers glory in my chance The two Hugh Spencers the Father and the Son then being so highly favour'd of the King knew that their greatest safety came by his Exile whose high and turbulent Spirit could never brook any Corrival in Greatness My Grandsire was the first since Arthur's Reign That the Round Table rectified again Roger Mortimer called the great Lord Mortimer Grandfather to this Roger which was afterward the first Earl of March erected again the Round Table at Kenelworth after the antient Order of King Arthurs Table with the Retinue of an hundred Knights and an hundred Ladies in his House for the entertaining of such Adventurers as came thither from all parts of Christendome Whilst famous Longshank's Bones in Fortunes scorn Edward Longshanks willed at his Death that his Body should be boyled the Flesh from the Bones and that the Bones should be born to the Wars in Scotland which he was perswaded unto by a Prophecy which told That the English should still be fortunate in Conquest so long as his Bones were carried in the Feild The English Bloud that stained Banocksbourn In the great Voyage Edward the Second made against the Scots at the Battel at Striveling near unto the River of Banocksbourn in Scotland there was in the English Camp such Banquetting and Excess such Riot and Disorder that the Scots who in the mean time laboured for Advantage gave to the English a great Overthrow And in the Dead-Sea sink our Houses Fame From whose c. Mortimer so called of Mare Mortuum and in French Mortimer in English the Dead-Sea which is said to be where Sodom and Gomorrha once were before they were destroyed with fire from Heaven And for that hatefull Sacrilegious Sin Which by the Pope he stands accursed in Gaustellinus and Lucas two Cardinals sent into England from Pope Clement to appease the antient Hate between the King and Thomas Earl of Lancaster to whose Embassy the King seemed to yield but after their Departure he went back from his Promises for the which he was accursed at Rome Of those industrious Roman Colonies A Colony is a sort or number of People that come to inhabit a Place before not inhabited whereby he seems here to prophesie of the subversion of the Land the Pope joyning with the Power of other Princes against Edward for the breach of his Promise Charles by invasive Arms again shall take Charles the French King moved by the Wrong done unto his Sister seizeth the Provinces which belonged to the King of England into his hands stirred the rather thereto by Mortimer who sollicited her cause in France as is expressed before in the other Epistle in the Gloss upon this Point And those great Lords now after their Attaints Cannoniz'd among the English Saints After the death of Thomas Earl of Lancaster at Pomfret the People imagined great Miracles to be done by his Relicks as they did of the Body of Bohun Earl of Hereford slain at Burrough Bridge FINIS EDWARD The Black PRINCE TO ALICE Countess of Salisbury The ARGUMENT Alice Countess of Salisbury remaining at Roxborough Castle in the North in the absence of the Earl her Husband who was by the King's command sent over into Flanders and there deceased e'er his return This Lady being besieged in her Castle by the Scots Edward the Black Prince being sent by the King his Father to relieve the North Parts with an Army and to remove the Siege of Roxborough there fell in Love with the Countess when after she return'd to London he sought by divers and sundry means to win her to his youthfull Pleasures as by forcing the Earl of Kent her Father and her Mother unnaturally to become his Agents in his vain desires where after a long and assured tryal of her invincible Constancy he taketh her to his VVife to which end he only frameth this Epistle REceive these Papers from thy wofull Lord With far more Woes than they with Words are stor'd Which if thine Eye for rashness do reprove They 'll say they came from that imperious Love In ev'ry Line well may'st thou understand Which Love hath sign'd and sealed with his hand And where to farther process he refers In Blots set down to thee for Characters This cannot blâ—sh although you do refuse it Nor will reply however you shall use it All 's one to this though you should bid Despair This still entreats you this still speaks you fair Hast thou a living Soul a humane Sense To like dislike prove order and dispence The depth of Reason soundly to advise To love things good things hurtfull to despise The touch of Judgement which should all things prove Hast thou all this yet not allow'st my Love Sound moves a Sound Voice doth beget a Voice One Eccho makes another to rejoyce One well-tun'd String set
Harford and the faithfull assurance of his Victory Oh why did Charles relieve his needy state A Vagabond c. Charles the French King her Father received the Duke of Harford and relieved him in France being so nearly allied 〈◊〉 Cousin German to King Richard his Son in Law which he did simply little thinking that he should after return to England and dispossess King Richard of the Crown When thou to Ireland took'st thy last Farewell King Richard made a Voyage with his Army into Ireland against Onell and Mackmur who rebelled at what time Henry entred here at home and robbed him of all Kingly Dignity Affirm'd by Church-men which should bear no Hate That John of Gaunt was illegitimate William Wickham in the great Quarrel betwixt John of Gaunt and the Clergy of meer Spight and Malice as it should seem reported That the Queen confessed to him on her Death-Bed being then her Confessor That John of Gaunt was the Son of a Flemming and that she was brought to Bed of a Woman-Child at Gaunt which was smothered in the Cradle by mischance and that she obtained this Child of a poor Woman making the King believe it was her own greatly fearing his displeasure Fox ex Chron. Alban No Bastards Mark doth blot his conq'ring Shield Shewing the true and indubitate Birth of Richard his Right unto the Crown of England as carrying the Arms without Blot or Difference Against their Faith unto the Crowns true Heir Their valiant Kinsman c. Edmund Mortimer Earl of March son of Earl Roger Mortimer which was Son to Lady Philip Daughter to Lionel Duke of Clarence the third Son to King Edward the â—hird which Edmund King Richard going into Ireland was proclaimed Heir apparent to the Crown whose Aunt called Elinor this Lord Piercy had married Oh would Aumerl had sunk when he betray'd The Plot which once that Noble Abbot laid The Abbot of Westminster had plotted the Death of King Henry to have been done at a Tilt at Oxford Of which Confederacy there was John Holland Duke of Excester Thomas Holland Duke of Surrey the Duke of Aumerl Montacute Earl of Salisbury Spencer Earl of Gloucester the Bishop of Carlile Sir Thomas Blunt these all had bound themselves one to another by Indenture to perform it but were all betrayed by the Duke of Aumerl Scroop Green and Bushy dye his Fault in grain Henry going towards the Castle of Flint where King Richard was caused Scroop Green and Bushy to be executed at Bristow as vile Persons which had seduced the King to this lascivious and wicked life Damn'd be the Oath he made at Doncaster After Henries exile at his return into England he took his Oath at Doncaster upon the Sacrament not to claim the Croâ—… or Kingdom of England but only the Dukedome of Lancaster his own proper Right and the Right of his Wife And mourn for Henry Hotspur her dear Son As I for my c. This was the brave couragious Henry Hotspur that obtained so many Victories against the Scots which after falling 〈◊〉 right with the Curse of Queen Isabel was slain by Henry the Battel at Shrewsbury FINIS RICHARD the Second TO Queen ISABEL WHat can my Queen but hope for from this Hand That it should write which never could command A Kingdoms Greatness think how he should sway That wholesome Counsel never could obey Ill this rude Hand did guide a Scepter then Worse now I fear me it will rule a Pen. How shall I call my self or by what Name To make thee know from whence these Letters came Not from thy Husband for my hateful Life Makes thee a Widdow being yet a Wife Nor from a King that Title I have lost Now of that Name proud Bullenbrook may boast What I have been doth but this comfort bring No words so wofull as I was a King This lawless Life which first procur'd my Hate * This Tongue which then renounc'd my Regal State This abject Soul of mine consenting to it This Hand that was the Instrument to doe it All these be witness that I now deny All Princely Types all Kingly Soveraignty Didst thou for my sake leave thy Fathers Court Thy famous Country and thy Princely Port And undertook'st to travel dang'rous Ways Driven by aukward Winds and boyst'rous Seas * And left'st great Burbon for thy love to me Who su'd in Marriage to be link'd to thee Offering for Dower the Countries neighb'ring nigh Of fruitfull Almaine and rich Burgundie Didst thou all this that England should receive thee To miserable Banishment to leave thee And in my Down-fall and my Fortunes wrack Thus to thy Country to convey thee back When quiet Sleep the heavey Hearts Relief Hath rested Sorrow somewhat less'ned Grief My passed Greatness into mind I call And think this while I dreamed of my Fall With this Conceit my Sorrows I beguile That my fair Queen is but with drawn a while And my Attendants in some Chamber by As in the height of my Prosperity Calling a loud and asking who is there The Eccho answ'ring tels me Woe is there And when mine Arms would gladly thee enfold I clip the Pillow and the place is cold Which when my waking Eyes precisely view 'T is a true token that it is too true As many Minutes as in the Hours there be So many Hours each Minute seems to me Each Hour a Day Morn Noon-tide and a Set Each Day a Year with Miseries compleat A Winter Spring-time Summer and a Fall All Seasons varying but unseasoned all In endless Woe my thred of Life thus wears In Minutes Hours Days by Months to lingring Years They praise the Summer that enjoy the South Pomfret is closed in the Norths cold Mouth There pleasant Summer dwelleth all the Year Frost-starved-Winter doth inhabit here A place wherein Despair may fitly dwell Sorrow best suiting with a cloudy Cell * When Harford had his Judgement of Exile Saw I the People's murmuring the while Th' uncertain Commons touch'd with inward Care As though his Sorrows mutually they bare Fond Women and scarce-speaking Children mourn Bewayle his parting wishing his return * That I was forc'd t'abridg his banish'd Years When they be dew'd his Foot-steps with their Tears Yet by example could not learn to know To what his Greatness by their Love might grow * But Henry boasts of our Atchievements don Bearing the Trophies our great Fathers won And all the story of our famous War Must grace the Annals of Great Lancaster * Seven goodly Siens in their Spring did flourish Which one self-Root brought forth one Stock did nourish * Edward the top-Branch of that golden Tree Nature in him her utmost power did see Who from the Bud still blossomed so fair As all might judge what Fruit it meant to bare But I his Graft of ev'ry Weed o'er-grown And from our kind as Refuse forth am thrown * We from our Grandsire stood in one Degree But after Edward John the young'st of three Might Princely Wales beget a
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