Michael Drayton- Collected Poetical Works
Page 52
My lookes shew’d more, that was Angelicall.
And when I breath’d againe, and paused next,
I left mine eyes to comment on the text;
Then comming of thy modestie to tell,
In musicks numbers my voyce rose and fell:
And when I came to paint thy glorious stile,
My speech in greater caden•es to file,
By true descent to weare the Diadem,
Of Naples, Cicils, and Ierusalem.
And from the Gods thou didst deriue thy birth,
If heauenly kinde could ioyne with broode of earth;
Gracing each title that I did recite,
with some mellifluous pleasing Epithete,
Nor left him not till he for loue was sicke,
Beholding thee in my sweet Rhetoricke.
A fifteenes taxe in Fraunce I freely spent
In triumphs, at thy nuptiall Tournament;
And solemniz’d thy marriage in a gowne,
Valu’d at more then was thy fathers Crowne;
And onely striuing how to honour thee,
Gaue to my King, what thy loue gaue to mee.
Iudge if his kindnes haue not power to moue,
who for his loues• sake gaue away his loue.
Had he which once the prize to Greece did bring,
(Of whom old Poets long agoe did sing)
Seene thee for England but imbarqu’d at Deepe,
would ouer-boord haue cast his golden sheepe,
As too vnworthy ballace to be thought,
To pester roome, with such perfection fraught.
The briny seas which saw the ship enfold thee,
would vaute vp to the hatches to behold thee,
And falling backe, themselues in thronging smother,
Breaking for griefe, enuying one another;
when the proud Barke, for ioy thy steps to feele,
Scorn’d the salt waues should kisse her furrowing keele,
And trick’d in all her flags, her selfe she braues,
Capring for ioy vpon the siluer waues;
when like a Bull, from the Phenician strand,
Ioue with Europa, tripping from the land,
Vpon the bosome of the maine doth scud,
And with his swannish breast cleauing the floud,
Tow’rd the faire fields, vpon the other side,
Beareth Agenors ioy, Phenicias pride.
All heauenly beauties, ioyne themselues in one,
To shew their glory in thine eye alone;
Which when it turneth that celestiall ball,
A thousand sweet starres rise, a thousand fall.
Who iustly saith, mine banishment to bee,
when onely Fraunce for my recourse is free?
To view the plaines where I haue seene so oft,
Englands victorious Engines raisd aloft;
when this shall be my comfort in my way,
To see the place where I may boldly say,
Heere mightie Bedford forth the vaward led,
Heere Talbot charg’d, and heere the Frenchmen fled
Heere with our Archers valiant Scales did lie.
Heere stood the Tents of famous Willoughbie;
Heere Mountacute rang’d his vnconquered band,
Heere forth we march’d, and heere we made a stand.
What should we stand to mourne and grieue all day,
For that which time doth easily take away:
What fortune hurts, let patience onely heale,
No wisedome with extremities to deale;
To know our selues to come of humane birth,
These sad afflictions crosse vs heere on earth;
A taxe imposd by heauens eternall law,
To keepe our rude rebellious will in awe.
In vaine we prise that at so deere a rate
whose best assurance is a fickle state,
And needlesse we examine our intent,
when with preuention, we cannot preuent;
when we our selues fore-seeing cannot shun,
That which before, with destinie doth run.
Henry hath power, and may my life depose,
Mine honour mine, that none hath power to lose,
Then be as cheerefull, (beautious royall Queene)
As in the Court of Fraunce we erst haue beene;
As when arriu’d in Porchesters faire roade,
(where, for our comming Henry made aboad)
when in mine armes I brought thee safe to land;
And gaue my lou•, to Henries royal hand;
The happy houres, we passed with the King,
At faire South-hampton, long in banquetting,
with such content as lodg’d in Henries brest,
when he to London brought thee from the West;
Through golden Cheape, when he in pompe did ride,
To Westminster, to entertaine his Bride.
Notes of the Chronicle Historie.
Our Faeulcons kinde cannot the Cage indure.
HE alludes in these verses to the Faulcon, which was the ancient deuice of the Poles, comparing the greatnes and hautines of his spirit, to the nature of this bird.
This was the meane, proud Warwick• did inuent,
To my disgrace, &c.
The Commons, at this Parliament, through Warwick• meanes accused Suffolk of treason, and vrged the accusation so vehemently that the king was forced to exile him for fiue yeares.
That onely my base yeelding vp of Maine,
Should be the losse of fertile Aquitaine.
The Duke of Suffolke being sent into France to conclude a peace, chose Duke Rainers daughter, the Ladie Margaret, whom he espoused for Henry the sixt, deliuering for her to her Father, the Countries of Aniou and Maine, and the Citie of Mauns. Wherevpon the Earle of Arminach (whose daughter was before promised to the King) seeing himselfe to be deluded, caused all the Englishmen to be expulsed Aquitaine, Gascoyne, and Guyen.
With the base vulgar sort to win him fame,
To be the heire of good Duke Humfreys name.
This Richard that was called the great Earle of Warwicke, when Duke Humfrey was dead, grew into exceeding great fauour with the Commons.
With Salisbury, his vile ambitious Sire,
In Yorks sterne breast, kindling long hidden fire,
By Clarence title, working to supplant,
The Eagle Ayrie of great Iohn of Gaunt.
Richard Plantaginet, Duke of Yorke, in the time of Henry the sixt, claimed the Crowne, (being assisted by this Richard Neuell Earle of Salisburie, and father to the great Earle of Warwicke, who fauoured exceedingly the house of Yorke) in open Parliament, as heire to Lionell Duke of Clarence, the third Sonne of Edward the third, making his title by Anne his Mother, wife to Richard Earle of Cambridge, Sonne to Edmund of Langley, Duke of Yorke; which Anne was daughter to Roger Mortimer Earle of March, which Roger, was sonne and heire to Edmund Mortimer that married the Lady Phillip, daughter and heire to Lionell Duke of Clarence, the third sonne of King Edward, to whom the Crowne after Richard the seconds death, lineally descended he dying without issue. And not to the heires of the Duke of Lancaster, that was younger brother to the Duke of Clarence. Hall. ca. Tit. Yor. & Lanc.
Vrg’d by these enuious Lords to spend their breath,
Calling reuenge on the Protectors death.
Humfrey Duke of Glocester, and Lord Protector in the 25. yeere of Henry the sixt by the meanes of the Queene, and the Duke of Suffolke was arrested by the Lord Beumond at the Parliament holden at Berrie, and the same night after murthered in his bed.
If they would know who robd him, &c. To this verse,
To know how Humfrey died, and who shall raigne.
In these verses he iestes at the Protectors wife, who (being accused and conuicted of treason, because with Iohn Hun a Priest, Roger Bullenbrooke a Negromancer, and Margerie Iordane, called the Witch of Eye, shee had consulted by sorc•rie to kill the King) was adiudged to perpetuall prison in the Ile of Man, &
to do penance openly in three publique places in London.
For twentie yeeres and haue I seru’d in Fraunce,
In the sixt yeere of Henry the sixt, the Duke of Bedford being deceased then Lieuetenant generell, and Regent of Fraunce; this Duke of Suffolke, was promoted to that dignitie, hauing the Lord Talbot, Lord Scales, and the Lord Mountacute to assist him.
Against great Charles, and bastard Orleance.
This was Charles the seauenth, that after the death of Henry the fifth obtained the crowne of Fraunce, and recouered againe much of that his father had lost. Bastard Orleance, was sonne to the Duke of Orleance, begotten of the Lord Cawnies wife, preferred highly to many notable offices, because he being a most valiant Captaine, was continuall enemie to the Englishmen, daily infesting them with diuers incursions.
And haue I seene Vernoyla’s batfull fields,
Vernoyle is that noted place in Fraunce, where the great battell was fought in the beginning of Henry the sixt his raigne, where the most of the French Cheualry were ouercome by the Duke of Bedford.
And from Aumerle with-drew my warlike powers,
Aumerle is that strong defenced towne in Fraunce, which the Duke of Suffolke got after 24. great assaults giuen vnto it.
And came my selfe in person first to Towers
Th’Embassadours for tru•e to entertaine,
From Belgia, Denmarke, Hungary and Spaine.
Towers is a Citie in Fraunce, built by Brutus as he came into Brittaine, where, in the twentie and one yeere of the raigne of Henry the sixt, was appointed a great diet to be kept, whether came the Embassadours of the Empire, Spaine, Hungary, and Denmarke, to intreat for a perpetuall peace, to be made betweene the two Kings of England and France.
By true descent to weare the Diadem,
Of Naples, Cicile, and Ierusalem.
Rayner Duke of Aniou, Father to Queene Margaret, called himselfe King of Naples, Cicily, and Ierusalem, hauing the title alone of King of those Countries.
A fifteenes taxe in Fraunce I freely spent,
The Duke of Suffolke, after the marriage concluded twixt King Henry and Margarit, daughter to Duke Rayner, asked in open Parliament a whole fifteenth to fetch her into England.
Seene thee for England but imbaqu’d at Deepe.
Deepe is a Towne in Fraunce, bordering vpon the Sea, where the Duke of Suffolk with Queene Margaret, tooke ship for England.
As when arriu’d in Porchesters faire Roadel
Porchester, a Hauen Towne in the South-west part of England, where the King tarried, expecting the Queenes arriuall, whom from thence he conuayed to South-hampton.
Queene Margaret to William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolke.
WHAT newes (sweet Pole) look’st thou my lines should tell,
But like the tolling of the dolefull bell?
Bidding the deaths-man to prepare the graue,
Expect from me no other newes to haue,
My brest, which once was mirths imperiall throne,
A vast and desart wildernes is growne;
Like that cold Region, from the world remote,
On whose breeme seas, the Icie mountaines flote
where those poore creatures banish’d from the light,
Doe liue imprison’d in continuall night.
No ioy presents my soules eternall eyes,
But diuination of sad tragedies,
And care takes vp her solitarie In,
where youth and ioy, their Court did once begin.
As in September, when our yeare resignes,
The glorious Sunne vnto the watrie signes,
which through the clouds lookes on the earth in scorne;
The little bird, yet to salute the morne,
Vpon the naked branches sets her foote,
The leaues now lying on the mossie roote;
And there a silly chirripping doth keepe,
As though she faine would sing, yet faine would weepe,
Praysing faire Sommer, that too soone is gone,
Or sad for Winter too fast comming on.
In this strange plight I mourne for thy depart,
Because that weeping cannot ease my hart.
Now to our ayde, who stirs the neighbouring Kings?
Or who from Fraunce a puissant Armie brings?
Who moues the Norman to abet our war?
Or stirs vp Burgoyne, to ayde Lancaster?
Who in the North our lawfull claime commends,
To win vs credite with our valiant friends?
To whom shall I my secret griefe impart?
whose breast I made the closet of my hart.
The ancient Heroes fame thou didst reuiue,
And didst from them thy memory deriue;
Nature by thee, both gaue and taketh all,
Alone in Pole shee was too prodigall;
Of so diuine and rich a temper wrought,
As heauen for him, perfections deepe had sought;
Well knew King Henry what he pleaded for,
when he chose thee to be his Orator;
whose Angell-eye, by powrefull influence,
Doth vtter more then humaine eloquence,
That when Ioue would his youthfull sports haue tride,
But in thy shape, himselfe would neuer hide;
Which in his loue had beene of greater power,
Then was his nimph, his flame, his swan, his shower.
To that allegiance Yorke was bound by oath,
To Henries heires, and safety of vs both,
No longer now he meanes record shal beare it,
He will dispence with heauen, and will vnsweare it.
He that’s in all the worlds blacke sinnes forlorne,
Is carelesse now how oft he be forsworne;
And now of late his title hath set downe,
By which he makes his claime vnto the crowne.
And now I heare, his hatefull Dutches chats,
And rips vp their descent vnto her brats,
And blesseth them as Englands lawfull heires,
And tels them that our Diadem is theirs.
And if such hap her Goddesse fortune bring,
If three sonnes faile, she’le make the fourth a King.
He that’s so like his Dam, her youngest Dicke,
That foule, ill-fauoured, crook-back’d stigmaticke,
That like a carcas stolne out of a Tombe;
Came the wrong way out of his mothers wombe;
With teeth in’s head, his passage to haue torne,
As though begot an age ere he was borne.
Who now will curbe proud Yorke when he shall rise,
Or Armes our right against his enterprize?
To crop that bastard weede which dayly growes
To ouer-shadow our vermilian Rose?
Or who will muzzell that vnrulie Beare,
whose presence strikes our peoples harts with feare?
Whilst on his knees this wretched King is downe,
To saue them labour, reaching at his Crowne,
where like a mounting Cedar he should beare,
His plumed top, aloft into the ayre;
And let these shrubs sit vnderneath his shrowdes,
whilst in his armes he doth embrace the clowdes,
O that he should his Fathers right inherit,
Yet be an alien to that mightie spirit,
How were those powers disperc’d, or whether gone,
Should sympathize in generation,
Or what apposed influence had force,
To abuse kinde, and alter natures course?
All other creatures follow after kinde,
But man alone doth not beget the minde.
My Daysie-flower, which erst perfum’d the ayre,
which for my fauours Princes once did weare,
Now in the dust lyes troden on the ground,
And with Yorkes garlands euery one is crownd.
When now his rising waytes on our decline,
And in our setting he begins to shine,
And who be starres but Warwicks bearded staues?
And all those knees which bended once so low,
Grow stiffe, as though they had forgot to bow;
And none like them, pursue me with despite,
which most haue cryde, God saue Queene Margarite,
When fame shall brute thy banishment abrode,
The Yorkish faction then will lay on loade;
And when it comes once to our Westerne coast,
O how that hag Dame Elinor will boast,
And labour straight, by all the meanes she can,
To be call’d home, out of the Ile of Man,
To which I know great Warwicke will consent,
To haue it done by act of Parlement,
That to my teeth my birth shee may defie,
Slaundring Duke Rayner with base beggerie;
The onely way she could deuise to grieue me,
wanting sweet Suffolke, which should most relieue me.
And from that stock doth sprout another bloome,
A Kentish Rebell, a base vpstart groome;
And this is hee the white-rose must prefer,
By Clarence daughter, match’d with Mortimer,
Thus by Yorkes meanes, this rascall pesant Cade,
Must in all hast, Plantaginet be made;
Thus that ambitious Duke sets all on worke
To sound what friends affect the claime of Yorke,
Whilst he abroad doth practise to commaund,
And makes vs weake by strengthning Ireland;
More his owne power still seeking to increase,
Then for King Henries good, or Englands peace.
Great Winchester vntimely is deceas’d,
That more and more my woes should be encreas’d.
Beuford, whose shoulders proudly bare vp all
The Churches prop, that famous Cardinall,
The Commons (bent to mischiefe) neuer let,
with Fraunce t’vpbraid that valiant Sommerset,
Rayling in tumults on his souldiours losse,
Thus all goes backward, crosse comes after crosse,
And now of late, Duke Humfreys old alies,
with banish’d Elnors base accomplices,
Attending theyr reuenge, grow wondrous crouse,
And threaten death and vengeance to our house;
And I alone the wofull remnant am,
• endure these stormes with wofull Buckingham.
I pray thee Pole haue care how thou doost passe,
Neuer the Sea yet halfe so dangerous was;
And one fore-told by water thou should’st die,