University of Virginia Library


88

Epigr. 16. Ad Reginam. Elizabetham.

When in thy flowring age thou did'st beginne,
Thy happy reigne, Eliza, blessed Queene.
Then as a flowre thy country gan to spring,
All things as after winter waxed greene:
No riper time shakes of thy flowring yeeres,
Thy greennesse stayes, our budd continueth.
No age in thee or winters face appeares.
And as thou, so thy country florisheth.
As if that greennesse and felicitie,
Thy land did giue, which it receiues from thee.