A Metrical History of England :: :: University of Virginia Library

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

Dibdin, Thomas (1771-1841)

COURTSHIP of the CANAILLE.

KINGDOM OF NORTHUMBERLAND.

THE KINGDOM OF EAST-ANGLIA.

THE KINGDOM OF MERCIA.

THE KINGDOM OF ESSEX,

THE KINGDOM OF SUSSEX,

THE KINGDOM OF WESSEX,

ETHELRED THE UNREADY.

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EDMUND IRONSIDE.

DANISH SOVEREIGNS.

THE SAXON LINE RESTORED.

II.

EDWARD THE FOURTH.

RICHARD III. surnamed CROOKBACK.

10.

11.

12.

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EDWARD THE FOURTH.

“I've kiss'd and I've prattled with fifty fair maids.”
Mrs. Brookes.

“And now what rests but that we spend our time
“With stately triumphs, mirthful comic shews,
“Such as befit the pleasures of the court.”
Shakespeare.

“He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,
“To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.”
Ibid.

EDWARD THE FOURTH.

King Edward was handsome, was gay, debonair,
His foes found him warlike, abroad in the field;
When he conquer'd the brave, he could vanquish the fair,
And to beauty in turn was too oft known to yield.

Yet some time elapsed e're his festival reign
Was permitted to revel in safety and peace;

For Henry yet claimed his paternal domain,
Nor did Margaret's praise-worthy energies cease.

By succour assisted from Scotland and France,
Once more with her boy against York she makes head;
And the banner of Henry is seen to advance
By the Queen, La Varenne and bold Somerset led.

At Hexham the Marquis of Montague meets
The heroine, true to her sovereign lord;
And spite of it's valour, her army defeats,
When happy the soldier who 'scapes from his sword.

Deserted, on foot, o'er the desolate wild,
No roof to preserve from a storm-boding sky,
Poor Margaret wanders; and presses her child
To a bosom half bursting with agony's sigh.

And “is there no help!” cried the sorrowing Queen,
“For the son of a father so mild and so good?
“No cottage to shield from the night blast so keen,
“No guard to protect from the bands of the wood?

“In battle these nerves were with fortitude braced,
“And for thee, dearest boy, cou'd each danger despise;
“Now foil'd and defeated, proscribed and disgraced,
“The woman returns and the heroine flies.”

“You fly not by heaven,” exclaim'd an unknown,
“'Till your wealth I'm possess'd of whate'er your degree;
“The world is my kingdom, this forest my throne,
“None pass it unless they pay tribute to me.

“Deceit of false friends while prosperity smiled,
“Despoil'd me of all I had power to give;
“Now just retribution for kindness beguil'd,
“Demands in return, on mankind I should live.

“They call me a robber, the proud ones who dare
“To plunder their Sov'reign, his child, and his wife;
“Of his crown they King Henry to rob did'n't spare,
“Yet for poor crowns that I seize the law takes my life.

“No words then, your riches my risk must repay,
“Their wealth all bear with them in times such as these;
“Yours seems to add weight to the cares of the way,
“And what gives you such pain, I can carry with ease.

The boy in her mantle she closely had prest,
Now close and more close, as the savage drew nigh;
And thinking some treasure she clasp'd to her breast,
He seiz'd her, while she, with hysterical cry:

“Intruder! the son of your master respect,
“The offspring of Henry the mild and the good;

“His mother demands that your Prince you protect
“From white-rose assailants who thirst for his blood!

“With feelings electric, amazed and subdued,
“With rev'rence the ruffian to earth bent his knee;
“And he, who late threaten'd in accents so rude,
“Entreated permission her champion to be.

“And safely he led them thro' thicket and brake,
“To the hut of a peasant whose heart like his own,
“Form'd faithfully loyal, for loyalty's sake,
“Adhered to a Prince tho' bereft of his throne.

Thus aided, the Queen cross the sea to her friends
In short period after, found means to depart;
And tho' haply too poor to make royal amends,
Her guides met reward, for—they each had a heart.

Henry, from overcaution, Scotland leaves,
England he seeks in unpropitious hour:
Where, prisoner made, that want of faith hegrieves,
Which gives him mournful lodging in the Tower.

Edward most wisely to detach
From Margaret the Gallic court's protection,
The famous Earl of Warwick with dispatch,
Sends to King Louis to propose a match,
Between the Princess Bona and himself.
But by a sudden turn of new affection,
That prudent plan was laid upon the shelf;
And, ere Lord Warwick could have well arrived,
The King was by an English subject wived.
For it fell out one day,
That Widow Grey

Having a suit about her children's lands:
So played her part,
The Monarch's heart,
Plump as a partridge, popp'd into her hands.

Now against Edward's folly wagg'd each tongue;
And yet the widow, tho' they say,
And truly too, that she was grey,
Was well-bred, witty, beautiful and young.
But Kings, 'tis quite as hard as it is true,
Areborn to wed—with love they've nought to do.

Warwick and Louis fool'd in such a fashion,
Flew in a passion;
Warwick espous'd King Henry's cause, and thus
Louis' best men,
And mighty Margaret, (herself an host
When at her post,)
Upon the sea the red rose flag exalted;
And never halted

Till French and English, pied a terre, were ready
To shout “Vive Henry,” and “Down with Neddy.”

(A brief parenthesis permit, to say,
Warwick had been the luckiest of his day,
Let him of what he would be undertaker;
And in those revolutionary ups and downs,
He so did settle and unsettle crowns,
They, not unaptly, styled him “the King-maker.”)

Ev'n Edward's brother, Clarence, joins the Earl,
And York's Archbishop, Oxford, Somerset,
In Henry's name their banners proud unfurl;
And Montague, who late in anger met
The Queen at Hexham, now her cause espouses.
While Englishmen, by so long feud opprest,
And wishing very much to be at rest,
With reason cry “A plague of both your houses!”
Near Banbury King Edward gets a beating,
Taken by Warwick, they with care convey
His Majesty to Yorkshire; whence, defeating

His keeper's vigilance, he finds the way
To join his friends at Stamford.—Victory
Changes again her side; with Warwick fly
Clarence and Co. to France, supplies and aid
She amply lends, and such dispatch is made
That Edward yields in turn, deposed, o'erthrown,
And Warwick sets on Henry's head the crown.

A little year, scarce more, a King was he,
E're ecce it'rum, Edward o'er the sea
Brings men and means, at Ravenspur he lands,
And modestly his dukedom but demands;
'Till fickle Clarence from poor Hal secedes,
Again in civil strife old England bleeds,
'Till Barnet's bloody field closed Warwick's power
And life, —while Edward re-ascends the throne;
The changeling court again his sceptre own,
And Henry, fortune's fool, beholds the tower.

With one most desp'rate fatal effort more,
The unsubdued, tho' often conquer'd Queen,
The fields of Tewkesbury imbues with gore.
And, wou'd some kinder duty mine had been,
Than tell how Edward, royal Margaret's son,
Gracing the train of him the day who won,
With words, becoming such a Prince, address'd
Proud “Edward, Clarence, Glos'ter, and the rest,”
Who (gall'd, the glorious filial lad should dare
Speak like his honor'd father's rightful heir),
“Buried their fatal daggers in his breast.”
And, hapless Henry! now thine hour is come,
Relentless Richard has pronounced thy doom;
Destroy'd by him, as most historians tell,
“After life's fitful fever he sleeps well,”
And, kinder hearted monarch never fell!

For Margaret—permit that here
The Muse should claim an honest tear;
Unyielding matron in thine infants cause!
Great Queen! had Hal possessed but half thy nerve,
Thou had'st not needed gain that sound applause,
Thy princely actions ever will deserve.

Imprison'd, shame on't, 'till her ransom paid,
Unkingly souls! who cou'd a price demand;
Heroic Margaret, by foreign aid,
Return'd in sorrow to her native land.
Returned to mourn the sad mistaken day,
Ambition taught her tow'ring soul to stray,
And charmed her from her household gods away.

Edward takes Berwick from the Scot,
Then hies to France in angry mood,
But, at Pecquigni, quarrels are forgot,
And England, rare to say, has truce from blood;
Save where his arts intriguing Glo'ster tries,
And Clarence, victim of a brother, dies.
'Tis strange in Ned, who loved the fair, we find,
At once a tender and terrific mind,

Lib'ral in love, and brave,—upon the whole
He own'd a very little sort of soul.
Some fancied prophet cries G shall succeed
The King, and lo! he makes George Clarence bleed.
Edward, in hunting, kills a fav'rite buck,
His hasty owner curst him for his luck,
He dies. —Another elf, who kept the crown,
For mere assertion that his only son
Was heir to it, his forfeit life lays down;
Pity that Edward e'er a crown had won.
With three gay mistresses, and one fair wife,
In love's allurements Edward pass'd his life;
One well he loved, (of whom the story goes,
That Richard's pow'r bade famine end her woes.)
Our page might notice, but what wou'd you more
That matchless Rowe has told of dying Shore;
Whose sad “severe repentance could not save
“From want, from shame, and an untimely grave.”

Now Edward's days bid masks and shows entwine
Their charms, no roses now to strife invite;
Or if they mention make of red or white,
'Tis only when they're speaking of their wine.

By some excess, the King at last o'erta'en,
(If not by poison), terminates his reign;
Glo'ster attended him, and some suspicion
Attach'd of course to such a kind physician.

The art of Printing first with us was known
This reign; from Germany it found it's way;
And Caxton's press the prototype we own,
Of all that since has gilded learning's way.

Seneschal of Normandy.

The outlaw and his friend conducted the royal wanderers to Bamborough Castle, whence they shortly sailed for Sluys.—This story is from the authority of Monstrelet.

“Sir James Harrington discovered the forlorn monarch while dining at Waddington Hall, Lancashire, and brought him to Town with his legs tied to the stirrups; for this service Edward gave the knight many manors, which Henry VII. took away from him.” Habington—Stow—Nugæ Antiquæ, &c.

“This beautiful widow was the daughter of Jacqueline, Duchess of Bedford, by her second husband, Lord Widville, and had been married to Sir John Grey, of Groby, She told Edward when he add essed her, that “though too humble to be his wife, she was too high to become his concubine.” There are doubts whether Warwick's defection was not less on account of this marriage, than from an unprincipled attempt of Edward's to seduce the daughter or niece of (Warwick) his benefactor.” Hall.

Field Pieces are first mentioned as used at this battle:— “The King sparkled the enemy with his ordnance, slew many of the commons, and thereby gained the victory.” Leland.

J.P. Andrews says, “No scenes in Pantomime could be shifted more nimbly than those of this year.”

The Marquis of Montague fell in striving to rescue his brother Warwick. The Duke of Exeter, who had been the greatest subject under Henry VI. and reduced to begging in his cause, perished in attempting to escape.

Fabian, who lived at this period, says, he was by the King's servants incontinently slain. Hall says, that they who stood about, viz. Clarence, Gloucester, Dorset, and Hastings, suddenly murdered the Prince. Fabian also says, from “common fame,” that Henry was killed by the Duke of Gloucester; while Horace Walpole observes, Mob stories, or Lancasterian forgeries, ought to be rejected from sober history.

Vide B. De Moleviele.

Thomas Burdett, a Warwickshire Gentleman.

Walter Walker, a Grocer of London.

Of whom he was wont to say, one was the merriest, one the wittiest, and a third the holiest, man ever boasted. Medulla Historiæ Anglicanæ.

Caxton, who was employed to print a work of Antony Widville, Earl Rivers, thus oddly concludes it in his own words:

“Go, thou little Quayer, and recommaund me
“Unto the good grace of my precious Lord
“Th'erle Ryveris; for I have emprinted thee
“At his commandement, following ev'ry worde
“His copye, as his Secretarie can recorde;
“At Westmestre, of Feverer the XX Day,
“And of King Edwarde the XVII. Yere viaye,
“Emprinted by Caxton,

In Feverer, the colde season.”

It is observed by Hume and others, that scarcely two historians agree as to the dates of circumstances occuring in this reign.