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
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
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
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
sev'ral Nation And nothing more than England hold in scorn So live as Strangers whereas they were born But thy return in this I do not read Thou art a perfect Gentleman indeed O God forbid that Howards Noble line From ancient Vertue should so far decline The Muses train whereof your self are chief Only to me participate their Grief To sooth their humors I do lend them ears He gives a Poet that his Verses hears Till thy return by hope they only live Yet had they all they all away would give The World and they so ill according be That Wealth and Poets never can agree Few live in Court that of their good have care The Muses friends are every-where so rare Some praise thy Worth that it did never know Only because the better sort do so Whose judgment never further doth extend Than it doth please the greatest to commend So great an ill upon desert doth chance When it doth pass by beastly ignorance Why art thou slack whilst no man puts his hand stand * To raise the mount where Surrey's Towers must Or Who the groundsil of that work doth lay Whilst like a Wand'rer thou abroad do'st stray Clip'd in the Arms of some lascivious Dame When thou shouldst rear an Ilion to thy Name When shall the Muses by fair Norwich dwell To be the City of the learned Well Or Phoebus Altars there with Incense heap'd As once in Cyrrha or in Thebe kept Or when shall that fair hoof-plow'd Spring distill From great Mount-Surrey out of Leonards Hill Till thou return the Court I will exchange For some poor Cottage or some Country Grange Where to our Distaves as we sit and Spin My Maid and I will tell what things have bin Our Lutes unstrung shall hang upon the Wall Our Lessons serve to wrap our Towe withal And pass the Night whiles Winter tales we tell Of many things that long ago befell Or tune such homely Carrols as were sung In Courtly Sport when we our selves were young In prety Riddles to bewray our Loves In questions purpose or in drawing Gloves The Noblest Spirits to Vertue most inclin'd These here in Court thy greatest want do find Others there be on which we feed our Eye * Like Arras-work or such like Image'ry Many of us desire Queen Kath'rines state But very few her Vertues imitate Then as Vlysses Wife write I to thee Make no reply but come thy self to me ANNOTATIONS on the Chronicle History Then Windsors or Fitz-Geralds Families THe cost of many Kings which from time to time have adorned the Castle at Windsor with their Princely Magnificence hath made it more Noble than that it need to be spoken of now as though obscure and I hold it more meet to refer you to your vulgar Monuments for the Founders and Finishers thereof than to meddle with matter nothing to the purpose As for the Family of the Fitz-Geralds of whence this excellent Lady was lineally descended the original was English though the Branches did spread themselves into distant Places and Names nothing consonant as in former times it was usual to denominate themselves of their Manours or Forenames as may partly appear in that which ensueth the light whereof proceeded from my learned and very worthy Friend Master Francis Thin Walter of Windsor the Son of Oterus had to Issue William of whom Henry now Lord Windsor is descended and Robert of Windsor of whom Robert the now Earl of Essex and Gerald of Windsor his third Son who married the Daughter of Rees the great Prince of Wales of whom came Nesta Paramour to Henry the First Which Gerald had Issue Maurice Fitz-Gerald Ancestor to Thomas Fitz-Maurice Justice of Ireland buryed at Trayly leaving Issue John his Eldest Son first Earl of Kildare Ancestor to Geraldine and Maurice his second Son first Earl of Desmond To raise the Mount where Surrey's Tow'rs must stand Alluding to the sumptuous House which was afterward builded by him upon Leonard's Hill right against Norwich which in the Rebellion of Norfolk under Ket in King Edward the Sixth's time was much defaced by that impure Rabble Betwixt the Hill and the City as Alexander Nevil describes it the River of Yarmouth râ—…s having West and South thereof a Wood and a little Village called Thorp and on the North the pastures of Mousholl which contain about six miles in length and breadth So that besides the stately greatness of Mount Surrey which was the Houses name the Prospect and Sight thereof was passing pleasant and commodious and no where else did that increasing evil of the Norfolk Fury enkennel it self then but there as it were for a manifest token of their intent to debase all high things and to profane all holy Like Arras-work or rather Imagery Such was he whom Juvenal taxeth in this manner Truncoque similimus Herme Nullo quippe alio vincis discrimine quam quod Illi marmorcum caput est tua vivit Imago Seeming to be born for nothing else but Apparel and the outward appearance intituled Complement with whom the ridiculous Fable of the Ape in Aesop sorteth fitly who coming into a Carver's House and viewing many Marble Works took up the Head of a Man very cunningly wrought who greatly in praising did seem to pity it that having so comely an outside it had nothing within like empty Figures walk and talk in every place at whom the Noble Geraldine modestly glanceth FINIS The Lady Jane Gray TO THE Lord GILFORD DVDLEY The ARGUMENT After the death of that vertuous Prince King Edward the Sixth the Son of that famous King Henry the Eighth Jane the Daughter of Henry Gray Duke of Suffolk by the consent of John Dudley Duke of Northumberland was proclaimed Queen of England being married to Gilford Dudley the fourth Son of the aforesaid Duke of Northumberland which Match was concluded by their ambitious Father who went about by this means to bring the Crown unto their Children and to dispossess the Princess Mary eldest Daughter of King Henry the Eighth Heir to King Edward her Brother Queen Mary rising in Arms to claim her rightful Crown taketh the said Jane Gray and the Lord Gilford her Husband being lodged in the Tower for their more safety which place being lastly their Pallace by this means becomes their Prison where being severed in sundry prisons they write these Epistles one to another MIne own dear Lord since thou art lock'd from me In this disguise my love must steal to thee Since to renue all Loves all kindness past This refuge scarcely left yet this the last My Keeper coming I of thee enquire Who with thy greeting answers my desire Which my tongue willing to return again Grief stops my words and I but strive in vain Where-with amaz'd away in hast he goes When through my Lips my Heart thrusts forth my Woes But then the doors that make a doleful sound Drive back my words that in the noise are drown'd Which somewhat hush'd the Eccho doth record And
with our Disgrace And we in bonds thus striving to contain it The more resists the more we do restrain it * Oh how ev'n yet I hate these wretched Eyes And in my Glass oft call them faithless Spys Prepar'd for Richard that unawares did look Upon that Traytor Henry Bullenbrook But that excess of Joy my Sense bereav'd So much my Sight had never been deceiv'd Oh how unlike to my lov'd Lord was he Whom rashly I sweet Richard took for thee I might have seen the Courser's self did lack That Princely Rider to bestride his Back He that since Nature her great work began She onely made the Mirrour of a Man That when she meant to form some matchless Lim Still for a Pattern took some part of him And jealous in her Cunning brake the Mould When she in him had done the best she could Oh let that Day be guilty of all Sin That is to come or heretofore hath been * Wherein great Norfolk's forward Course was stay'd To prove the Treasons he to Harford lay'd When with stern Fury both these Dukes enrag'd Their Warlike Gloves at Coventry engag'd When first thou didst repeal thy former Grant Seal'd to brave Mowbray as thy Combatant From his unnumbred Houres let Time divide it Lest in his Minutes he should hap to hide it Yet on his Brow continually to bear it That when it comes all other Hours may fear it And all ill-boding Planets by consent In it may hold their dreadfull Parliament Be it in Heav'ns Decrees enrolled thus Black dismal fatal inauspitious Proud Harford then in height of all his Pride Under great Mowbray's valiant Hand had dy'd And never had from Banishment retir'd The fatal Brand wherewith our Troy was fir'd * Oh why did Charles relieve his needy state A Vagabond and stragling Runagate And in his Court with grace did entertain That vagrant Exile that vile bloody Cain Who with a thousand Mothers Curses went Mark'd with the Brand of ten years Banishment * When thou to Ireland took'st thy last Farewell Millions of Knees upon the Pavements fell And ev'ry where th' applauding Ecchoes ring The joyfull shouts that did salute a King Thy parting hence the Pomp that did adorn Was vanish'd quite when as thou didst return Who to my Lord one Look vouchsaf'd to lend Then all too few on Harford to attend Princes like Suns be evermore in sight All see the Clouds betwixt them and their Light Yet they which lighten all beneath their Skies See not the Clouds offending others Eyes And deem their Noon-tide is desir'd of all When all expect clear Changes by their Fall What colour seems to shadow Harford's claim When Law and Right his Fathers Hope do mayme * Affirm'd by Church-men which should bear no Hate That John of Gaunt was illegitimate Whom his reputed Mothers Tongue did spot By a base Flemish Boor to be begot Whom Edward's Eaglets mortally did shun Daring with them to gaze against the Sun Where lawfull Right and Conquest doth allow A tripple Crown on Richard's Princely Brow Three Kingly Lyons bears his Bloody Field * No Bastard's Mark doth blot his conqu'ring Shield Never durst he attempt our hapless Shore Nor set his foot on fatal Ravenspore Nor durst his slugging Hulks approach the Strand Nor stoop a Top as signal to the Land Had not the Piercies promis'd ayd to bring Against their Oath unto their lawfull King * Against their Faith unto our Crown 's true Heir Their valiant Kinsman Edmund Mortimer When I to England came a World of Eyes Like Stars attended on my fair Arise Which now alas like angry Planets frown And are all set before my going down The smooth-fac'd Air did on my coming smile But I with Storms am driven to Exile But Bullenbrook devis'd we thus should part Fearing two Sorrows should possess one Heart To add to our affliction to deny That one poor Comfort left our Misery He had before divorc'd thy Crown and thee Which might suffice and not to Widow me But so to prove the utmost of his hate To part us in this miserable state * Oh would Aumerl had sunk when he betray'd The Plot which once that noble Abbot laid When he infring'd the Oath which he first took For thy Revenge on perjur'd Bullenbrook And been the ransome of our Friends dear Blood Untimely lost and for the Earth too good And we untimely do bewail their state They gone too soon and we remain too late And though with Tears I from my Lord depart This Curse on Harford fall to ease my Heart If the foul breach of a chaste Nuptial Bed May bring a Curse my Curse light on his Head If Murthers guilt with Bloud may deeply stain * Green Scroop and Bushy dye his fault in grain If Perjury may Heav'ns pure Gates debar * Damn'd be the Oath he made at Doncaster If the deposing of a lawfull King Thy Curse condemn'd him if no other thingâ— If this dis-joyn'd for Vengeance cannot call Let them united strongly curse him all And for the Piercies Heav'n may hear mp Pray'r That Bullenbrook now plac'd in Richard's Chair Such cause of Woe to their proud Wives may be As those rebellious Lords have been to me And that coy Dame which now controlleth all And in her Pomp triumpheth in my Fall For her great Lord may water her sad Eyne With as salt Tears as I have done for mine * And mourn for Henry Hotspur her dear Son As I for my dear Mortimer have done And as I am so succourless be sent Lastly to tast perpetual Banishment Then lose thy Care when first thy Crown was lost Sell it so dearly for it dearly cost And since it did of Liberty deprive thee Burying thy Hope let nothing else out-live thee But hard God knows with Sorrow doth it go When Woe becomes a comforter to Woe Yet much me thinks of Comfort I could say If from my Heart some Fears were rid away Something there is that danger still doth show But what it is that Heaven alone doth know Grief to it self most dreadfull doth appear And never yet was Sorrow void of fear But yet in Death doth Sorrow hope the best And Richard thus I wish thee happy Rest ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History If fatal Pomfret hath in former time POmfret Castle ever a fatal place to the Princes of England and most ominous to the Bloud of Plantaginet Oh how even yet I hate these wretched Eyes And in my Glass c. When Bullenbrook returned to London from the West bringing Richard a Prisoner with him the Queen who little knew of her Husbands hard Success stayed to behold his coming in little thinking to have seen her Husband thus led in Triumph by his Foe and now seeming to hate her Eyes that so much had graced her mortal Enemy Wherein great Norfolk's forward Course was stay'd She remembreth the meeting of the two Dukes of Harford and Norfolk at Coventry urging the justness of Mowbray's Quarrel against the Duke of