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
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
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
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