Michael Drayton- Collected Poetical Works

by Michael Drayton

  All hauing charge, their voyage hauing bin,

  Before Southampton to take Souldiers in.

  48

  Twelue Merchants Ships, of mighty burthen all,

  New off the Stocks, that had beene rig’d for Stoad,

  Riding in Thames by Lymehouse and Blackwall

  That ready were their Merchandize to load,

  Straitly commanded by the Admirall,

  At the same Port to settle their aboad:

  And each of these a Pinnis at command,

  To put her fraught conueniently to land.

  49

  Eight goodly Ships, so Bristow ready made,

  Which to the King they bountifully lent,

  With Spanish Wines which they for Ballast lade,

  In happy speed of his braue Voyage ment,

  Hoping his Conquest should enlarge their Trade,

  And there-withall a rich and spacious Tent:

  And as, this Fleet the Seuerne Seas doth stem,

  Fiue more from Padstowe came along with them.

  50

  The Hare of Loo, a right good Ship well knowne,

  The yeare before that twice the Strayts had past,

  Two wealthy Spanish Merchants did her owne,

  Who then but lately had repair’d her wast;

  For from her Deck a Pyrate she had blowne,

  After a long Fight, and him tooke at last:

  And from Mounts Bay sixe more, that still in sight,

  Wayted with her before the Ile of Wight.

  51: The Bay of Portugall one of the highest working Seas that

  is known.

  From Plymmouth next came in the Blazing Starre,

  And fiery Dragon to take in their fraught;

  With other foure, especiall men of Warre,

  That in the Bay of Portugall had fought;

  And though returning from a Voyage farre,

  Stem’d that rough Sea, when at the high’st it wrought:

  With these, of Dertmouth seau’n good Ships there were,

  The golden Cressant in their tops that beare.

  52

  So Lyme, three Ships into the Nauy sent,

  Of which the Sampson scarse a mon’th before,

  Had sprung a Planke, and her mayne Mast had spent,

  With extreame perill that she got to shore;

  With them fiue other out of Waymouth went,

  Which by Southampton, were made vp a score:

  With those that rode (at pleasure) in the Bay,

  And that at Anchor before Portsmouth lay.

  53: A Country lying upon the east Sea bordring upon Poland.

  [Famous for Herring fishing.]

  Next these, Newcastle furnisheth the Fleet

  With nine good Hoyes of necessary vse;

  The Danish Pyrats, valiantly that beet,

  Offring to Sack them as they sayl’d for Sluce:

  Six Hulks from Hull at Humbers mouth them meet,

  Which had them oft accompanied to Pruce.

  Fiue more from Yarmouth falling them among,

  That had for Fishing beene prepared long.

  54

  The Cowe of Harwich, neuer put to flight,

  For Hides, and Furres, late to Muscouia bound,

  Of the same Port, another nam’d the Spight,

  That in her comming lately through the Sound,

  After a two-dayes-still-continued fight,

  Had made three Flemings runne themselues a ground;

  With three neat Flee-boats which with them doe take,

  Six Ships of Sandwich vp the Fleet to make.

  55: Aydes to the King by the Nobility.

  Nine Ships for the Nobility there went,

  Of able men, the enterprize to ayde,

  Which to the King most liberally they lent,

  At their owne charge, and bountifully payde,

  Northumberland, and Westmerland in sent

  Fourescore at Armes a peece, themselues and layde

  At six score Archers each, as Suffolke showes,

  Twenty tall men at Armes, with forty Bowes.

  56

  Warwick and Stafford leauied at no lesse

  Then noble Suffolke, nor doe offer more

  Of men at Armes, and Archers which they presse,

  Of their owne Tenants, Arm’d with their owne store:

  Their forwardnesse fore-showes their good successe

  In such a Warre, as had not beene before:

  And other Barrons vnder Earles that were,

  Yet dar’d with them an equall charge to beare.

  57

  Darcy and Camois, zealous for the King,

  Louell, Fitzwater, Willoughby, and Rosse,

  Berckley, Powis, Burrell, fast together cling;

  Seymer, and Saint Iohn for the bus’nesse closse,

  Each twenty Horse, and forty foote doe bring

  More, to nine hundred mounting in the grosse

  In those nine Ships, and fitly them bestow’d,

  Which with the other fall into the Road.

  58

  From Holland, Zeland, and from Flanders wonne

  By weekely pay, threescore twelue Bottoms came,

  From fifty vpward, to fiue hundred Tunne;

  For eu’ry vse a Marriner could name,

  Whose glittering Flags against the Radient Sunne,

  Show’d as the Sea had all beene of a flame;

  For Skiffes, Crayes, Scallops, and the like, why these

  From eu’ry small Creeke, cou’red all the Seas.

  59

  The man whose way from London hap’d to lye,

  By those he met might guesse the generall force,

  Daily encountred as he passed by,

  Now with a Troupe of Foote, and then of Horse,

  To whom the people still themselues apply,

  Bringing them victuals as in mere remorce:

  And still the acclamation of the presse,

  Saint George for England, to your good successe.

  60

  There might a man haue seene in eu’ry Streete,

  The Father bidding farewell to his Sonne:

  Small Children kneeling at their Fathers feete:

  The Wife with her deare Husband ne’r had done:

  Brother, his Brother, with adieu to greete:

  One Friend to take leaue of another runne:

  The Mayden with her best belou’d to part,

  Gaue him her hand, who tooke away her heart.

  61

  The nobler Youth the common ranke aboue,

  On their coruetting Coursers mounted faire,

  One ware his Mistris Garter, one her Gloue;

  And he a lock of his deare Ladies haire;

  And he her Colours, whom he most did loue;

  There was not one but did some Fauour weare:

  And each one tooke it, on his happy speede,

  To make it famous by some Knightly deede.

  62

  The cloudes of dust, that from the wayes arose,

  Which in their martch, the trampling Troupes doe reare:

  When as the Sunne their thicknesse doth oppose

  In his descending, shining wondrous cleare,

  To the beholder farre off standing showes

  Like some besieged Towne, that were on fire:

  As though fore-telling e’r they should returne,

  That many a Citie yet secure must burne.

  63

  The well-rig’d Nauie falne into the Road,

  For this short Cut with victuall fully stor’d,

  The King impatient of their long aboad,

  Commands his Army instantly aboard,

  Casting to haue each Company bestow’d,

  As then the time conuenience could afford;

  The Ships appointed wherein they should goe,

  And Boats prepar’d for waftage to and fro.

  64

  To be imbarqu’d when euery Band comes downe,

  Each in
their order as they mustred were,

  Or by the difference of their [a]Armings knowne,

  Or by their Colours; for in Ensignes there,

  Some wore the Armes of their most ancient Towne,

  Others againe their owne Diuises beare,

  There was not any, but that more or lesse,

  Something had got, that something should expresse.

  [Note a: A Blazon of the Ensignes of the seuerall Shires, in 14

  Stanzas following.]

  65

  First, in the [b]Kentish Stremer was a Wood,

  Out of whose top an arme that held a Sword,

  As their right Embleme; and to make it good,

  They aboue other onely had a Word,

  Which was; Vnconquer’d; as that freest had stood.

  [c]Sussex the next that was to come Aboard

  Bore a Blacke Lyon Rampant, sore that bled,

  With a Field-Arrow darted through the head.

  [Note b: Expressing their freedom, as still retaining their

  ancient liberties, by surprising the Conqueror like a mouing

  Wood.]

  [Note c: An expressiõ of King Harolds death, slaine with an Arrow

  in the head, at the Battaile of Hastings, fighting against the

  Conqueror.]

  66

  The men of [d]Surrey, Cheeky Blew and gold,

  (Which for braue Warren their first Earle they wore,

  In many a Field that honour’d was of olde:)

  And Hamshere next in the same Colours bore,

  Three Lions Passant, th’ Armes of Beuis bould,

  Who through the World so famous was of yore;

  A siluer[e] Tower, Dorsets Red Banner beares;

  The Cornishmen two Wrestlers had for theirs.

  [Note d: The first famous Earle of that Countrey.]

  [Note e: Expressing the pleasantnesse of the scituation of that

  County, lying vpon the French sea.]

  67

  The [f]Deuonshire Band, a Beacon set on fire,

  Sommerset [g]a Virgine bathing in a Spring,

  Their Cities Armes, the men of Glostershire,

  In Gold three [h]Bloudy Cheuernells doe bring;

  Wiltshire a Crowned[a] Piramed; As nigher

  Then any other to martch to the King;

  Barkshire a [b]Stag, vnder an Oake that stood,

  Oxford a White Bull wading in a Flood.

  [Note f: As lying the fittest to expell or forwarne Inuasion.]

  [Note g: Expressing the delicacy of the Bath, their chiefe

  Citty.]

  [Note h: The Armes of the ancient Family of Clare Earle of

  Gloster borne by the City.]

  [Note a: Stonidge being the first wonder of England, standing in

  Wiltshire.]

  [Note b: An old Embleme of Berech, or Berkshire.]

  68

  The mustred men for [c]Buckingham, are gone

  Vnder the Swan, the Armes of that olde Towne,

  The Londoners, and Middlesex as one,

  Are by the Red Crosse, and the Dagger knowne;

  The Men of [d]Essex ouermatch’d by none,

  Vnder Queene Hellens Image Martching downe;

  [e]Suffolke a Sunne halfe risen from the brack,

  [f]Norfolke a Triton on a Dolphines backe.

  [Note c: A Badge of the ancient family of the Staffords Dukes of

  that place.]

  [Note d: Queene Helen Founder of the Crosse, wife to Constantine,

  and Daughter to King Coell, builder of Colchester in Essex.]

  [Note e: Suffolke the most Easterly of the English shieres.]

  [Note f: For the braue prospect to the Germaine Ocean.]

  69

  The Souldiers sent from [g]Cambridgshire, a Bay

  Vpon a Mountaine watred with a shower:

  Hartford[h] two Harts that in a Riuer play;

  Bedfords an Eagle pearcht vpon a Tower,

  And [i]Huntington a People proud as they,

  Not giuing place to any for their power,

  A youthfull Hunter, with a Chaplet Crown’d,

  In a pyde Lyam leading forth his Hound.

  [Note g: Hauing relation to that famous Vniuersitie their Shiere

  Towne.]

  [Note h: The Armes of the Towne somewhat alluding to the name.]

  [Note i: The Armes of the towne of Huntingdon, first so named of

  a place where Hunters met.]

  70

  Northampton[k] with a Castle seated high,

  Supported by two Lyons thither came;

  The men of [l]Rutland, to them marching nie,

  In their rich Ensigne beare an Ermine Ram,

  And [m]Lestershire that on their strength relye,

  A Bull and Mastiue fighting for the game.

  Lincolne[n] a Ship most neatly that was lim’d

  In all her Sailes with Flags and Pennons trim’d.

  [Note k: The armes of the towne.]

  [Note l: From the aboundance of wooll in that tract.]

  [Note m: A sport more vsed in that Shiere from ancient time, then

  in any other.]

  [Note n: For the length that it hath vpon the Germane Ocean.]

  71

  Stout[a] Warwickshire, her ancient badge the Beare,

  Worster[b] a Peare-Tree laden with the Fruit,

  A Golden Fleece and[c] Hereford doth weare,

  Stafford[d] a Hermet in his homely sute,

  Shropshire[e] a Falcon towring in the Ayre,

  And for the Shiere whose surface seems most brute,

  Darby, an Eagle sitting on a Roote,

  A swathed Infant holding in her foote.

  [Note a: The Beare and ragged Staffe, the ancient Armes of that

  Earledome.]

  [Note b: For the aboundance of fruit more there then in any other

  tract.]

  [Note c: The finenesse of the wooll of Lemster in that Shiere.]

  [Note d: Many Hermites liued there in the woods in times past, it

  being all forrestie.]

  [Note e: Expressing the loftinesse of the mountaines in that

  Shiere, on which many Hawkes were wont to airy.]

  72

  Olde[f] Nottingham, an Archer clad in greene,

  Vnder a Tree with his drawne Bowe that stood,

  Which in a checkquer’d Flagge farre off was seene:

  It was the Picture of olde Robin Hood,

  And[g] Lancashire not as the least I weene,

  Thorough three Crownes, three Arrowes smear’d with blood:

  Cheshiere a Banner very square and broad,

  Wherein a man vpon a Lyon rode.

  [Note f: That famous out-law liued much in that Country, and is

  yet by many places there celebrated.]

  [Note g: Accounted euer the best Archers in England.]

  73

  A flaming Lance, the[h] Yorkshiere men for them,

  As those for Durham neere againe at hand,

  A Myter crowned with a Diadem:

  An Armed man, the men of[i] Cumberland:

  So[k] Westmerland link’d with it in one Stem,

  A Ship that wrackt lay fierd vpon the sand:

  Northumberland[l] with these com’n as a Brother,

  Two Lyons fighting tearing one another.

  [Note h: For their agillity with the Speare, and swiftnesse of

  their Naggs.]

  [Note i: Being ready stil in Armes against the Scots.]

  [Note k: Expressing the scite therof iuting out into those

  dangerous Seas, betwixt England and Ireland.]

  [Note l: Their terrible conflicts (many times) with the Scots,

  expressed in the fight between the golden and red Lyons.]

  74

  Thus as themselues the English men had show’d

  Vnder the Ensigne of each seu’rall Shiere,

  The Natiue Welch who no lesse honour ow’d

  To their ow
ne King, nor yet lesse valiant were,

  In one strong Reg’ment had themselues bestow’d,

  And of the rest, resumed had the Reare:

  To their owne Quarter marching as the rest,

  As neatly Arm’d, and brauely as the best.

  75

  [a]Pembrooke, a Boat wherein a Lady stood,

  Rowing her selfe within a quiet Bay;

  Those men of South-Wales of the [b]mixed blood,

  Had of the Welch the leading of the way:

  Caermardin[c] in her Colours beare a Rood,

  Whereon an olde man lean’d himselfe to stay

  At a Starre pointing; which of great renowne,

  Was skilfull Merlin, namer of that Towne.

  [Note a: Milford Hauen in Pembrookeshiere, one of the brauest

  harbours in the knowne world, therefore not vnaptly so

  expressed.]

  [Note b: Partly Dutch, partly English, partly Welch.]

  [Note c: Merlin, by whose birth and knowledge that towne is made

  famous.]

  76

  [d]Clamorgan men, a Castell great and hie,

  From which, out of the Battlement aboue,

  A flame shot vp it selfe into the skye:

  The men of [e]Munmouth (for the ancient loue

  To that deare Country; neighbouring them so nie)

  Next after them in Equipage that moue,

  Three Crownes Imperiall which supported were,

  With three Arm’d Armes, in their proud Ensigne beare.

  [Note d: A Watch Tower or Pharus, hauing the scituation where

  Seuerne beginneth to widden, as when Pirats haue come in to giue

  warning to the other Maratyne Countries.]

  [Note e: For the glory it hath attained, to be the Kings

  birth-place, and to expresse his principalities.]

  77

  The men of [f]Brecknock brought a Warlick Tent,

  Vpon whose top there sate a watchfull Cock,

  Radnor,[g] a mountaine of a high assent,

  Thereon a Shepheard keeping of his Flock,

  As [h]Cardigan the next to them that went,

  Came with a Mermayde sitting on a Rock,

  And [i]Merioneth beares (as these had done)

  Three dancing Goates against the rising Sunne.

  [Note f: The Armes of Brecknock.]

  [Note g: Lying towards the midst of Wales, and for aboundance of

  Sheepe, liuing on those high Mountaines.]

  [Note h: Expressing the scituation of that Shiere, lying on the

  Maratine part vpon the Irish Sea.]

  [Note i: For the aboundance of Goates, being on those

  inaccessible Mountaines.]

  78

  Those of [a]Montgomery, beare a prancing Steed,

  Denbigh[b] a Neptune with his three-fork’d Mace:

  Flintshiere[c] a Workmayd in her Summers weed,

  With Sheafe and Sickle (with a warlick pace)

  Those of Caernaruon not the least in speed,