A Metrical History of England Or, Recollections, in Rhyme, Of some of the most prominent Features in our National Chronology, from the Landing of Julius Caesar to the Commencement of the Regency, in 1812. In Two Volumes ... By Thomas Dibdin |
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 | A Metrical History of England |  |
“Her nobles slain, her laws, her freedom, lost;
“Let this reflection from the action flow,
“We ne'er from foreign foes can ruin know.
“Oh, let us then intestine discord shun,
“We ne'er can be but by ourselves undone.”
Savage.
“And yet I bear a burden like an ass.”
“With shallow jesters and rash basin wits,
“Mingled his royalty with carping fools;
“Had his great name prophaned with their scorns;
“Grew a companion to the common streets,
“That, being daily swallowed by men's eyes,
“He was but as the cuckoo is, in June,
“Heard, not regarded.”
Shakespeare's Rich. II.
RICHARD II. surnamed of BOURDEAUX.
Son of the Black Prince Edward, but in sooth,
No heir to his great sire's illustrious deeds,
Was Richard, “being but a moonish youth;”
With York, whose guardianship the States obey.
Ambitious guardians! to prolong their rule,
They represent their nephew as the tool
Of Nevil and Tresilian, Pole and Vere,
(Who certainly had gained the royal ear.)
Much more his uncles had their charge befriended,
If they in honesty had recollected,
Some faults without exposure may be mended,
And by mild means are ofttimes best corrected.
Save what we must record with pain,
Sans further comment let us try,
A very brief Chronology,
'Twill trouble spare to you and us,
Kind reader if you'll take it thus:
King Edward went, we hope, to heaven;
To wear a careful crown on earth.
In thirteen hundred seventy eight,
Wickliff's opinions posed the state.
And John of Gaunt marched many men
To France,—to bring them back again;
While thirteen seventy nine and eighty,
Are not renowned for matters weighty,
Until a poll tax, ill collected,
Much danger to the land effected;
And caused the evils which were done
In thirteen hundred eighty one.
Wat Tyler and his friend Jack Straw,
Into their own hands take the law,
'Till Walworth knock'd rebellion down,
By cracking Master Tyler's crown;
And 'tis but just in Richard's cause,
To say his gallantry deserved applause,
Were by his conduct, mild, yet brave, reclaimed.
The anarchy that er'st prevailed,
Is by friend Andrew's thus detailed,
Translated in a prosperous hour,
From that famed poet Master Gower:
“Wat cries, Tom flies, nor Symkin stays aside;
“And Batt and Gibb, and Hyke they summon loud,
“Colin and Bob combustibles provide,
“While Will the mischief forwards in the crowd;
“Greg hawls, Hob bawls, and Davy joins the cry
“With Larry, not the least among the throng;
“And Jack with sword and firebrand madly strides along.
In thirteen hundred eighty two,
The King had something more to do;
For doomed to lead a restless life,
Bohemian Ann he took to wife.
In thirteen hundred eighty three,
A Bishop militant we see
Against the French, who does no more
Than John of Gaunt achieved before.
In eighty four and eighty five,
The Scots against our armies thrive;
And Richard loses Joan his mother,
For grief, he would'nt spare his brother.
In thirteen hundred eighty six,
King Richard's favourites play sad tricks;
Degrading so their lord's condition,
The crown was rendered in commission.
The British Tars command success;
Being by Nottingham's brave fleet.
As since by others, soundly beat.
'Twas Tresil'an and Brembres fate,
To swing in thirteen eighty eight;
“Sponges” who “soak'd authority”
'Till “squeez'd, and then hung up to dry;”
In this year too we find a place
For famous fight of Chevy Chace
In thirteen hundred eighty nine,
The Nobles to the King resign
Unfettered rule, and ninety sees
(Only one year) the land at ease.
Famine and plague and discontent;
Nor ninety two, nor three brought more
Of happiness, while ninety four,
Still to depress the luckless man,
Deprived him of his good Queen Ann;
Who bid the fair no more bestride
Their steeds like men, but first to ride
As now, with decent modest pride,
Gracing the happy saddle's side.
Assists him in the Irish war;
And 'tis his fate in ninety six,
On Is'bel for a wife to fix,
Some bridegrooms had prefer'd to wait,
The lady's years were only eight.
In ninety seven Glo'ster fell,
And foully too, as records tell.
In ninety eight the banishment
Of Hereford such discontent
Did in his partizans create,
As caus'd the King's ensuing fate;
For Hereford, his father dead,
(He, Duke of Lancaster instead),
Returns with means which soon encrease,
As Richard's failing powers cease;
And Bolingbroke the King deposes,
Whose scene of earthly grandeur closes.
In thirteen hundred ninety nine.
And soon in the succeeding year,
By means most horrible we fear,
His spirit sought that Judge most just,
Who sees in Kings but common dust.
Of fiend-like ruffians join'd to slay
Their 'prisoned Sovereign, who bore
Himself in knightly sort that fatal day,
Of his opponents killing four,
As tho' the spirit of his sire in death,
Breathed valour from the source which gave the Monarch breath.
The celebrated John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; the Earl of Cambridge, afterwards Duke of York; and the Duke of Gloucester; all uncles to the King, were appointed his guardians, he being but ten years old.
Vere, Earl of Oxford, Marquis of Dublin, and Duke of Ireland; Tresilian, a Judge; Michael de la Pole, a merchant's son; and Nevil, Archbishop of York.
A reformer of the Romish Church, he was cited by the Ecclesiastical Courts, but protected against them by the Duke of Lancaster.
Sir William Walworth, Lord Mayor of London, enraged at Tyler's insolence in an interview with the King, struck him to the ground, and the dagger with which he dispatched him is commemorated by a place in the city arms.
Gower's verses as a specimen of this reign's literature may not be unacceptable, particularly from the comic effect produced by putting English nick-names into a Latin dress.
“Watte vocat cui Thoma venit, neque Symme retardat,“Bat que, Gibbe simul, Hykke venire subent.
“Colle furit, quem Bobbe juvat, nocumenta parantes,
“Cum quibus ad damnum Wille coire vovet.
“Grigge rapit, Dum Davie, strepit, comes est quibus Hobbe,
“Larkin, et in medio non minor esse putat,
“Hudde ferit, quem Judde terit, dum Tibbe juvatur,
“Jakke domosque vivos vellit, & ense neeat, &c.”
She broke her heart because Richard would not forgive Lord Holland, her son by a second marriage, for the murder of Lord Stafford's heir. Yet the inconsistent King granted him the next day the very pardon which, however unjust, would some hours earlier have saved his parent's life.
The King was forced through a dread of deposition to abandon his Ministers, and even commit the government of the realm to twelve commissioners appointed by parliament.
Celebrated by ancient Scotch Bards as the battle of Otterbourne. —Vide Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, p. 27.
Richard at this period abounded in money, which he raised by various extortions, to squander it away in ridiculous prodigality; of this, John Handinge, a cotemporary poet, “not over smoothly,” sings:—
“Truly I herd Robert Ireleffe say,“(Clerke of the grene cloth) that to thè housholde
“Came every dayè forth, most part alway,
“Ten thousand folkis, bi his messes told,
“That follow'd the house, ayè as thei wold;
“And, in the ketchin, three hundred servitours,
“And, in eche office, many occup'ours;
“Chamberers also, eke and launderers,
“And ladies fair, with their gentlewomen,
“Three hundred of them occupied were then,
“There was great pride among the officers;
“And of all men far passing their compeers,
“Of rich arraye, and more cost o-us,
“Than was before or since more preci-ous.”
Richard's favorite method of obtaining money, was by loan; the proportions of the respective sums (as given by Andrews, from Rymer's Fædera) will shew the comparative wealth of the English Chies:
“From London, was asked ....................... 10,000 Marks. “York, Gloucester, Salisbury, and Lincoln, each 200 Marks. “Cambridge, Canterbury, & Southampton, each 100 Marks. “Bristol ....................................... 800 Marks. “Norwich ....................................... 500 Marks. “Lynn .......................................... 400 Marks. “Bath, Derby, and Litchfield, each ............. 20 Marks. “Harwich and Liskeard. each .................... 10 Marks.
A manuscript in the late Royal Library at Paris, entitled Embassies, and numbered 8448, makes the unfortunate Richard reproach the ingratitude of Bolingbroke, in what are given as his genuine words: “Thrice have I saved his life; once my dear uncle of Lancaster (on whom God have mercy) would have slain him for his treason and villainy; and then, O God of Paradise, all night did I ride to preserve him from death. Once, also, he drew his sword on me, in the chamber of Queen Ann! Oh, heaven! how truly is it said that the most deadly foe a man can have, is he whom he has saved from destruction.”
| A Metrical History of England | |