kindled flame in all their inner parts Which suckes the blood and drinketh vp the lyfe Of carefull wretches with consuming griefe Thenceforth they playne make ful piteous mone Vnto the author of their balefull bane The daies they waste the nights they grieue and grone Their liues they loath and heauens light disdaine No light but that whose lampe doth yet remaine Fresh burning in the image of their eye They deigne to see and seeing it still dye The whylst thou tyrant Loue doest laugh scorne At their complaints making their paine thy play Whylest they lye languishing like thrals forlorne The whyles thou doest triumph in their decay And otherwhyles their dying to delay Thou doest emmarble the proud hart of her Whose loue before their life they doe prefer So hast thou often done ay me the more To me thy vassall whose yet bleeding hart With thousand wounds thou mangled hast so sore That whole remaines scarse any little part Yet to augment the anguish of my smart Thou hast enfrosen her disdainefull brest That no one drop of pitie there doth rest Why then do I this honor vnto thee Thus to ennoble thy victorious name Since thou doest shew no fauour vnto mee Ne once moue ruth in that rebellious Dame Somewhat to slacke the rigour of my flame Certes small glory doest thou winne hereby To let her liue thus free and me to dy But if thou be indeede as men thee call The worlds great Parent the most kind preseruer Of liuing wights the soueraine Lord of all How falles it then that with thy furious feruour Thou doest afflict as well the not deseruer As him that doeth thy louely heasts despize And on thy subiects most doest tyrannize Yet herein eke thy glory seemeth more By so hard handling those which best thee serue That ere thou doest them vnto grace restore Thou mayest well trie if they will euer swerue And mayest them make it better to deserue And bauing got it may it more esteeme For things hard gotten men more dearely deeme So hard those heauenly beauties be enfyred As things diuine least passions doe impresse The more of stedfast mynds to be admyred The more they stayed be on stedfastnesse But baseborne mynds such lamps regard the lesse Which at first blowing take not hastie fyre Such fancies feele no loue but loose desyre For loue is Lord of truth and loialtie Lifting himselfe out of the lowly dust On golden plumes vp to the purest skie Aboue the reach of loathly sinfull lust Whose base affect through cowardly distrust Of his weake wings dare not to heauen fly But like a moldwarpe in the earth dothly His dunghill thoughts which do themselues enure To dirtie drosse no higher dare aspyre Ne can his feeble earthly eyes endure The flaming light of that celestiall fyre Which kindleth loue in generous desyre And makes him mount aboue the natiue might Of heauie earth vp to the heauens hight Such is the powre of that sweet passion That it all sordid basenesse doth expell And the refyned mynd doth newly fashion Vnto a fairer forme which now doth dwell In his high thought that would it selfe excell Which he beholding still with constant sight Admires the mirrour of so heauenly light VVhose image printing in his deepest wit He thereon feeds his hungrie fantasy Still full yet neuer satisfyde with it Like Tantale that in store doth steruedly So doth he pine in most satiety For nought may quench his infinite desyre Once kindled through that first conceiued fyre Thereon his mynd affixed wholly is Ne thinks on ought but how it to attaine His care his ioy his hope is all on this That seemes in it all blisses to containe In sight whereof all other blisse seemes vaine Thrise happie man might he the same possesse He faines himselfe and doth his fortune blesse And though he do not win his wish to end Yet thus farre happie he him selfe doth weene That heauens such happie grace did to him lend As thing on earth so heauenly to haue seene His harts enshrined saint his heauens queene Fairer then fairest in his fayning eye Whose sole aspect he counts felicitye Then forth he casts in his vnquiet thought What he may do her fauour to obtaine What braue exploit what perill hardly wrought What puissant conquest what aduenturons paine May please her best and grace vnto him gaine He dreads no danger nor misfortune feares His faith his fortune in his breast he beares Thou art his god thou art his mightie guyde Thou being blind letst him not see his feares But cariest him to that which he hath eyde Through seas through flames through thousand swords and speares Ne ought so strong that may his force withstand With which thou armest his resistlesse hand Witnesse Leander in the Euxine waues And stout AEneas in the Troiane fyre Achilles preassing through the Phrygian glaiues And Orpheus daring to prouoke the yre Of damned fiends to get his loue retyre For both through heauen hell thou makest way To win them worship which to thee obay And if by all these perils and these paynes He may but purchase lyking in her eye What heauens of ioy then to himselfe he faynes Eftsoones he wypes quite out of memory What euer ill before he did aby Had it bene death yet would he die againe To liue thus happie as her grace to gaine Yet when he hath found fauour to his will He nathemore can so contented rest But forceth further on and striueth still T' approch more neare till in her inmost brest He may embosomd bee and loued best And yet not best but to be lou'd alone For loue can not endure a Paragone The feare whereof ô how doth it torment His troubled mynd with more then hellish paine And to his fayning fausie represent Sights neuer seene and thousand shadowes vaine To breake his sleepe and waste his ydle braine Thou that hast neuer lou'd canst not beleeue Least part of th'euils which poore louers greeue The gnawing enuie the hart-fretting feare The vaine surmizes the distrustfull showes The false reports that flying tales doe beare The doubts the daungers the delayes the woes The fayned friends the vnassured foes With thousands more then any tongue can tell Doe make a louers life a wretches hell Yet is there one more cursed then they all That cancker worme that monster Gelosie Which eates the hart and feedes vpon the gall Turning all loues delight to miserie Through feare of loosing his felicitie Ah Gods that euer ye that monster placed In gentle loue that all his ioyes defaced By these ô Loue thou doest thy entrance make Vnto thy heauen and doest the more endeere Thy pleasures vnto those which them partake As after stormes when clouds begin to cleare The Sunne more bright glorious doth appeare So thou thy folke through paines of Purgatorie Dost beare vnto thy blisse and heauens glorie There thou them placest in a Paradize Of all delight and ioyous happie rest Where they doe feede
beneath Till she her selfe for stronger flight can breath Then looke who list thy gazefull eyes to feed With sight of that is faire looke on the frame Of this wyde vniuerse and therein reed The endlesse kinds of creatures which by name Thou cāst not coūt much lesse their natures aime All which are made with wondrous wise respect And all with admirable beautie deckt First th' Earth on adamantine pillers founded Amid the Sea engirt with brasen bands Then th' Aire still flitting but yet firmely bounded On euerie side with pyles of flaming brands Neuer consum'd nor quencht with mortall hands And last that mightie shining christall wall Wherewith he hath encompassed this All. By view whereof it plainly may appeare That still as euery thing doth vpward tend And further is from earth so still more cleare And faire it growes till to his perfect end Of purest beautie it at last ascend Ayre more then water fire much more then ayre And heauen then fire appeares more pure fayre Looke thou no further but affixe thine eye On that bright shynie round still mouing Masse The house of blessed Gods which men call Skye All sowd with glistring stars more thicke thē grasse Whereof each other doth in brightnesse passe But those two most which ruling night and day As King and Queene the heauens Empire sway And tell me then what hast thou euer seene That to their beautie may compared bee Or can the sight that is most sharpe and keene Endure their Captains flaming head to see How much lesse those much higher in degree And so much fairer and much more then these As these are fairer then the land and seas For farre aboue these heauens which here we see Be others farre exceeding these in light Not bounded not corrupt as these same bee But infinite in largenesse and in hight Vnmouing vncorrupt and spotlesse bright That need no Sunne t' illuminate their spheres But their owne natiue light farre passing theirs And as these heauens still by degrees arize Vntill they come to their first Mouers bound That in his mightie compasse doth comprize And carrie all the rest with him around So those likewise doe by degrees redound And rise more faire till they at last ariue To the most faire whereto they all do striue Faire is the heauen where happy soules haue place In full enioyment of felicitie Whence they doe still behold the glorious face Of the diuine eternall Maiestie More faire is that where those Idees on hie Enraunged be which Plato so admyred And pure Intelligences from God inspyred Yet fairer is that heauen in w hich doe raine The soueraine Powres and mightie Potentates Which in their high protections doe containe All mortall Princes and imperiall States And fayrer yet whereas the royall Seates And heauenly Dominations are set From whom all earthly gouernance is fet Yet farre more faire be those bright Cherubins Which all with golden wings are ouerdight And those eternall burning Seraphins Which from their faces dart out fierie light Yet fairer then they both and much more bright Be th'Angels and Archangels which attend On Gods owne person without rest or end These thus in faire each other farre excelling As to the Highest they approch more neare Yet is that Highest farre beyond all telling Fairer then all the rest which there appeare Though all their beauties ioynd together were How then can mortall tongue hope to expresse The image of such endlesse perfectnesse Cease then my tongue and lend vnto my mynd Leaue to bethinke how great that beautie is Whose vtmost parts so beautifull I fynd How much more those essentiall parts of his His truth his loue his wisedome and his blis His grace his doome his mercy and his might By which he lends vs of himselfe a sight Those vnto all he daily doth display And shew himselfe in th' image of his grace As in a looking glasse through which he may Be seene of all his creatures vile and base That are vnable else to see his face His glorious face which glistereth else so bright That th'Angels selues can not endure his sight But we fraile wights whose sight cannot sustaine The Suns bright beames whē he on vs doth shyne But that their points rebutted backe againe Are duld how can we see with feeble eyne The glory of that Maiestie diuine In sight of whom both Sun and Moone are darke Compared to his least resplendent sparke The meanes therefore which vnto vs is lent Him to behold is on his workes to looke Which he hath made in beauty excellent And in the same as in a brasen booke To reade enregistred in euery nooke His goodnesse which his beautie doth declare For all that 's good is beautifull and faire Thenee gathering plumes of perfect speculation To impe the wings of thy high flying mynd Mount vp aloft through heauenly contemplation From this darke world whose damps the soule do blynd And like the natiue brood of Eagles kynd On that bright Sunne of glorie fixe thine eyes Clear'd from grosse mists of fraile infirmities Humbled with feare and awfull reuerence Before the footestoole of his Maiestie Throw thy selfe downe with trembling innocence Ne dare looke vp with corruptible eye On the dred face of that great Deity For feare lest if he chaunce to looke on thee Thou turne to nought and quite confounded be But lowly fall before his mercie seate Close couered with the Lambes integrity From the iustwrath of his auengefull threate That sits vpon the righteous throne on hy His throne is built vpon Eternity More firme and durable then steele or brasse Or the hard diamond which them both doth passe His scepter is the rod of Righteousnesse With which he bruseth all his foes to dust And the great Dragon strongly doth represse Vnder the rigour of his iudgement iust His seate is Truth to which the faithfull trust Frō whence proceed her beames so pure bright That all about him sheddeth glorious light Light farre exceeding that bright blazing sparke Which darted is from Titans flaming head That with his beames enlumineth the darke The dark dampish aire wherby al things are red Whose nature yet so much is maruelled Of mortall wits that it doth much amaze The greatest wisards which thereon do gaze But that immortall light which there doth shine Is many thousand times more cleare More excellent more glorious more diuine Through which to God all mortall actions here And euen the thoughts of men do plaine appeare For from th' eternall Truth it doth proceed Through heauenly vertue which her beames doe breed With the great glorie of that wondrous light His throne is all encompassed around And hid in his owne brightnesse from the sight Of all that looke thereon with eyes vnsound And vnderneath his feet are to be found Thunder and lightning and tempestuous fyre The instruments of his auenging yre There in his bosome Sapience doth sit The soueraine dearling of the Deity Clad like a Queene in royall robes
on Nectar heauenly wize With Hercules and Hebe and the rest Of Venus dearlings through her bountie blest And lie like Gods in yuorie beds arayd With rose and lillies ouer them displayd There with thy daughter Pleasure they doe play Their hurtlesse sports without rebuke or blame And in her snowy bosome boldly lay Their quiet heads deuoyd of guilty shame After full ioyance of their gentle game Then her they crowne their Goddesse and their Queene And decke with floures thy altars well beseene Ay me deare Lord that euer I might hope For all the paines and woes that I endure To come at length vnto the wished scope Of my desire or might my selfe assure That happie port for euer to recure Then would I thinke these paines no paines at all And all my woes to be but penance small Then would I sing of thine immortall praise An heauenly Hymne such as the Angels sing And thy triumphant name then would I raise Boue all the gods thee onely honoring My guide my God my victor and my king Till then dread Lord vouchsafe to take of me This simple song thus fram'd in praise of thee FINIS AN HYMNE IN HONOVR OF BEAVTIE AH whither Loue wilt thou now carrie mee What wontlesse fury dost thou now inspire Into my feeble breast too full of thee Whylest seeking to aslake thy raging fyre Thou in me kindlest much more great desyre And vp aloft aboue my strength doest rayse The wondrous matter of my fyre to prayse That as I earst in praise of thine owne name So now in honour of thy Mother deare An honourable Hymne I eke should frame And with the brightnesse of her beautie cleare The rauisht harts of gazefull men might reare To admiration of that heauenly light From whence proceeds such foule enchaunting might Therto do thou great Goddesse queene of Beauty Mother of loue and of all worlds delight Without whose souerayne grace and kindly dewty Nothing on earth seemes fayre to fleshly sight Doe thou vouchsafe with thy loue-kindling light Tilluminate my dim and dulled eyne And beautifie this sacred hymne of thyne That both to thee to whom I meane it most And eke to her whose faire immortall beame Hath darted fyre into my feeble ghost That now it wasted is with woes extreame It may so please that she at length will streame Some deaw of grace into my withered hart After long sorrow and consuming smart WHat time this worlds great workmaister did cast To make al things such as we now behold It seemes that he before his eyes had plast A goodly Paterne to whose perfect mould He fashiond them as comely as he could That now so faire and seemely they appeare As nought may be amended any wheare That wondrous Paterne wheresoere it bee Whether in earth layd vp in secret store Or else in heauen that no man may it see With sinfull eyes for feare it to deflore Is perfect Beautie which all men adore Whose face and feature doth so much excell All mortall sence that none the same may tell Thereof as euery earthly thing partakes Or more or lesse by influence diuine So it more faire accordingly it makes And the grosse matter of this earthly myne Which clotheth it thereafter doth refyne Doing away the drosse which dims the light Of that faire beame which therein is empight For through infusion of celestiall powre The duller earth it quickneth with delight And life-full spirits priuily doth powre Through all the parts that to the lookers sight They seeme to please That is thy soueraine might O Cyprian Queene which flowing from the beame Of thy bright starre thou into them doest streame That is the thing which giueth pleasant grace To all things faire that kindleth liuely fyre Light of thy lampe which shyning in the face Thence to the soule darts amorous desyre And robs the harts of those which it admyre Therewith thou pointest thy Sons poysned arrow That wounds the life wastes the inmost marrow How vainely then doe ydle wits inuent That beautie is nought else but mixture made Of colours faire and goodly temp'rament Of pure complexions that shall quickly fade And passe away like to a sommers shade Or that it is but comely composition Of parts well measurd with meet disposition Hath white and red in it such wondrous powre That it can pierce through th' eyes vnto the hart And therein stirre such rage and restlesse stowre As nought but death can stint his dolours smart Or can proportion of the outward part Moue such affection in the inward mynd That it can rob both sense and reason blynd Why doe not then the blossomes of the field Which are arayd with much more orient hew And to the sense most daintie odours yield Worke like impression in the lookers vew Or why doe not faire pictures like powre shew In which oftimes we Nature see of Art Exceld in perfect limming euery part But ah beleeue me there is more then so That workes such wonders in the minds of men I that haue often prou'd too well it know And who so list the like assayes to ken Shall find by tryall and confesse it then That Beautie is not as fond men misdeeme An outward shew of things that onely seeme For that same goodly hew of white and red With which the cheekes are sprinckled shal decay And those sweete rosy leaues so fairely spred Vpon the lips shall fade and fall away To that they were euen to corrupted clay That golden wyre those sparckling stars so bright Shall turne to dust and loose their goodly light But that faire lampe from whose celestiall ray That light proceedes which kindleth louers fire Shall neuer be extinguisht nor decay But when the vitall spirits doe expyre Vnto her natiue planet shall retyre For it is heauenly borne and can not die Being a parcell of the purest skie For when the soule the which deriued was At first out of that great immortall Spright By whom all liue to loue whilome did pas Downe from the top of purest heauens hight To be embodied here it then tooke light And liuely spirits from that fayrest starre Which lights the world forth from his firie carre Which powre retayning still or more or lesse When she in fleshly seede is est enraced Through euery part she doth the same impresse According as the heauens haue her graced And frames her house in which she will be placed Fit for her selfe adorning it with spoyle Of th'heauenly riches which she robderewhyle Therof it comes that these faire soules which haue The most resemblance of that heauenly light Frame to themselues most beautifull and braue Their fleshly bowre most fit for their delight And the grosse matter by a soueraine might Tempers so trim that it may well be seene A pallace fit for such a virgin Queene So euery spirit as it is most pure And hath in it the more of heauenly light So it the fairer bodie doth procure To habit in and it more fairely
most fit For so great powre and peerelesse maiesty And all with gemmes and iewels gorgeously Adornd that brighter then the starres appeare And make her natiue brightnes seem more cleare And on her head a crowne of purest gold Is set in signe of highest soueraignty And in her hand a scepter she doth hold With which she rules the house of God on hy And menageth the euer-mouing sky And in the same these lower creatures all Subiected to her powre imperiall Both he auen and earth obey vnto her will And all the creatures which they both containe For of her fulnesse which the world doth fill They all partake and do in state remaine As their great Maker did at first ordaine Through obseruation of her high beheast By which they first were made and still increast The fairenesse of her face no tongue can tell For she the daughters of all wemens race And Angels eke in beautie doth excell Sparkled on her from Gods owne glorious face And more increast by her owne goodly grace That it doth farre exceed all humane thought Ne can on earth compared be to ought Ne could that Painter had he liued yet Which pictured Venus with so curious quill That all posteritie admyred it Haue purtrayd this for all his maistring skill Ne she her selfe had she remained still And were as faire as fabling wits do fayne Could once come neare this beauty souerayne But had those wits the wonders of their dayes Or that sweete Teian Poet which did spend His plenteous vaine in setting forth her prayse Seene but a glims of this which I pretend How wondrously would he her face commend Aboue that Idole of his fayning thought That all the world shold with his rimes be fraught How then dare I the nouice of his Art Presume to picture so diuine a wight Or hope t' expresse her least perfections part Whose beautie filles the heauens with her light And darkes the earth with shadow of her sight Ah gentle Muse thou art too weake and faint The pourtraict of so heauenly hew to paint Let Angels which her goodly face behold And see at will her soueraigne praises sing And those most facred mysteries vnfold Of that faire loue of mightie heauens king Enough is me t'admyre so heauenly thing And being thus with her huge loue possest In th' only wonder of her selfe to rest But who so may thrise happie man him hold Of all on earth whom God so much doth grace And lets his owne Beloued to behold For in the view of her celestiall face All ioy all blisse all happinesse haue place Ne ought on earth can want vnto the wight Who of her selfe can win the wishfull sight For she out of her secret threasury Plentie of riches forth on him will powre Euen heauenly riches which there hidden ly Within the closet of her chastest bowre Th' eternall portion of her precious dowre Which mighty God hath giuen to her free And to all those which thereof worthy bee None thereof worthy be but those whom shee Vouchsafeth to her presence to receaue And letteth them her louely face to see Wherof such wondrous pleasures they conceaue And sweete contentment that it doth bereaue Their soule of sense through infinite delight And them transport from flesh into the spright In which they see such admirable things As carries them into an extasy And heare such heauenly notes and carolings Of Gods high praise that filles the brasen sky And feele such ioy and pleasure inwardly That maketh them all worldly cares forget And onely thinke on that before them set Ne from thenceforth doth any fleshly sense Or idle thought of earthly things remaine But all that earst seemd sweet seemes now offense And all that pleased earst now seemes to paine Their ioy their comfort their desire their gaine Is fixed all on that which now they see All other sights but fayned shadowes bee And that faire lampe which vseth to enflame The hearts of men with selfe consuming fyre Thenceforth seemes fowle full of sinfull blame And all that pompe to which proud minds aspyre By name of honor and so much desyre Seemes to them basenesse and all riches drosse And all mirth sadnesse and all lucre losse So full their eyes are of that glorious sight And senses fraught with such satietie That in nought else on earth they can delight But in th' aspect of that felicitie Which they haue written in their inward ey On which they feed and in their fastened mynd All happie ioy and full contentment fynd Ah then my hungry soule which long hast fed On idle fancies of thy foolish thought And with false beauties flattring bait misled Hast after vaine deceiptfull shadowes sought Which all are fled and now haue left thee nought But late repentance through thy follies prief Ah ceasse to gaze no matter of thy grief And looke at last vp to that soueraine light From whose pure beams alperfect beauty springs That kindleth loue in euery godly spright Euen the loue of God which loathing brings Of this vile world and these gay seeming things With whose sweete pleasures being so possest Thy straying thoughts henceforth for euer rest Daphnaida AN ELEGIE VPON THE DEATH OF THE NOBLE AND VERTVOVS DOVGLAS Howard daughter and heire of Henry Lord Howard Viscount Byndon and wife of Arthur Gorges Esquier Dedicated to the Right honorable the Ladie Helena Marquesse of Northampton By Ed. Sp. ANCHORA SPEI AT LONDON Printed for William Ponsonby 1596. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE AND VERtuous Lady Helena Marquesse of North-hampton I Haue the rather presumed humbly to offer vnto your Honour the dedication of this little Poëme for that the noble and vertuous Gentlewomā of whom it is written was by match neere alied and in affection greatly deuoted vnto your Ladiship The occasion why I wrote the same was aswell the great good fame which I heard of her deceassed as the particular good will which I beare vnto her husband Master Arthur Gorges a louer of learning and vertue whose house as your Ladiship by mariage hath honoured so doe I find the name of them by many notable records to be of great antiquitie in this Realme and such as haue euer borne themselues with honoarable reputation to the world vnspotted loyaltie to their Prince and Countrey besides so lineally are they descended from the Howards as that the Lady Anne Howard eldest daughter to Iohn Duke of Norfolke was wife to Sir Edmund mother to Sir Edward and grandmother to Sir William and Sir Thomas Gorges Knightes And therefore I doe assure my selfe that no due honour done to the white Lyon but will be most gratefull to your Ladiship whose husband and children do so neerely participate with the bloud of that noble family So in all dutie I recommende this Pamphlet and the good acceptance thereof to your honourable fauour and protection London this first of Ianuarie 1591. Your Honours humbly euer Ed. Sp. DAPHNAIDA WHat euer man he be whose heauie