The Works of Michael Drayton :: :: University of Virginia Library

What news (sweet Poole) look'st thou my Lines should tell,
But like the toling of the dolefull Bell,
Bidding the Deaths-man to prepare the Grave?
Expect from me no other newes to have.
My Brest, which once was Mirths imperiall Throne,
A vast and desart Wildernesse 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 live impris'ned in continuall Night.

No Object greets my Soules internall Eyes,
But divinations of sad Tragedies;
And Care takes up her solitarie Inne,
Where Youth and Joy their Court did once begin.
As in September, when our Yeere resignes
The glorious Sunne to the cold Wat'rie Signes,
Which through the Clouds lookes on the Earth in scorne;
The little Bird, yet to salute the Morne,
Upon the naked Branches sets her foot,
The Leaves then lying on the mossie Root,
And there a silly chiripping doth keepe,
As though she faine would sing, yet faine would weepe,
Praysing faire Summer, 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 Heart.

Now to our aid, who stirres the neighb'ring Kings?
Or who from France a puisant Armie brings?
Who moves the Norman to abet our Warre?

Philip, Duke of Burgoyne, and his sonne, were alwayes great Favourites of the House of Lancaster; howbeit, they often dissembled both with Lancaster and Yorke.

Or brings in Burgoyne to aid Lancaster?

The chiefe Lords of the North parts, in the time of Henry the sixt, withstood the Duke of Yorke at his Rising, giving him two great Overthrowes.

Who in the North our lawfull Clayme commends,
To winne us Credit with our valiant Friends?
To whom shall I my secret Griefes impart,
Whose Brest shall be the Closet of my Heart?

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The ancient Heroes fame thou do'st revive,
As from all them thy selfe thou didst derive:
Nature, by thee, both gave and taketh all,
Alone in Poole she was too prodigall;
Of so divine and rich a temper wrought,
As Heav'n for thee Perfections depth had sought.
Well knew King Henry what he pleaded for,
When he chose thee to be his Orator;
Whose Angell-eye, by pow'rfull influence,
Doth utter more then humane Eloquence:
That if againe Jove would his Sports have try'd,
He in thy shape himselfe would onely hide;
Which in his love might be of greater pow'r,
Then was his Nymph, his Flame, his Swan, his Show'r.

The Duke of Yorke, at the death of Henry the fifth, and at this Kings Coronation, tooke his Oath, to be true subject to him and his Heires for ever: but afterward dispensing therewith, claymed the Crowne, as his rightfull and proper Inheritance.

To that allegeance Yorke was bound by Oath,
To Henries Heires, for safetie of us both;
No longer now he meanes Record shall beare it,
He will dispense with Heav'n, and will unsweare it.
He that's in all the Worlds blacke sinnes forlorne,
Is carelesse now how oft he be forsworne;
And here of late his Title hath set downe,
By which he makes his Clayme unto our Crowne.
And now I heare his hatefull Duchesse chats,
And rips up their Descent unto her Brats,
And blesseth them as Englands lawfull Heires,
And tells them, that our Diademe is theirs:
And if such hap her Goddesse Fortune bring,

The Duke of Yorke had foure sonnes; Edward, Earle of March, that afterward was Duke of Yorke, and King of England, when he had deposed Henry the sixt; and Edmund, Earle of Rutland, slaine by the Lord Clifford, at the Battell at Wakefield; and George, Duke of Clarence, that was murthered in the Tower; and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who was (after he had murthered his Brothers sonnes) King, by the Name of Richard the third.

If three Sonnes faile, shee'le make the fourth a King.

This Richard (whom ironically she here calls Dick) that by Treason, after the murther of his Nephewes, obtained the Crowne, was a Man low of stature, crooke-back'd, the left shoulder much higher then the right, and of a very crabbed and sowre Countenance: His Mother could not be delivered of him; hee was borne Toothed, and with his Feet forward, contrarie to the course of Nature.

He that's so like his Dam, her youngest Dick,
That foule, ill-favour'd, crooke-back'd Stigmatick,
That like a Carkasse stolne out of a Tombe,
Came the wrong way out of his Mothers Wombe,
With Teeth in's Head, his passage to have torne,
As though begot an Age ere he was borne.

Who now will curbe proud Yorke, when he shall rise?
Or arme our Right against his Enterprise,
To crop that Bastard Weed, which dayly growes,

The Red Rose was the Badge of the House of Lancaster, and the White Rose, of Yorke; which, by the Marriage of Henry the seventh with Elizabeth, indubitate Heire of the House of Yorke, was happily united.

To over-shadow our Vermilion Rose?

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The Earle of Warwicke, the setter up and puller downe of Kings, gave for his Armes the White Beare rampant, and the Ragged Staffe.

Or who will muzzle that unruly Beare,
Whose presence strikes our peoples Hearts with feare?
Whilst on his knees this wretched King is downe,
To save 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 underneath his Shrowds,
Whilst in his armes he doth imbrace the Clowds.
O, that he should his Fathers Right inherit,
Yet be an Alien to that mightie Spirit!
How were those Pow'rs dispers'd, or whither gone,
Should sympathize in Generation?
Or what opposed Influence had force,
So much t'abuse and alter Natures course?
“All other Creatures follow after kind,
“But Man alone doth not beget the Mind.

The Daisie in French is called Margarite, which was Queene Margarets Badge; wherewithall the Nobilitie and Chivalrie of the Land, at her first Arrivall, were so delighted, that they wore it in their Hats, in token of Honour.

My Daisie flower, which erst perfum'd the ayre,
Which for my favour Princes dayn'd to weare,
Now in the dust lyes trodden on the ground,
And with Yorkes Garlands ev'ry one is crown'd:
When now his Rising waits on our Decline,
And in our Setting, he begins to shine;
Now in the Skies that dreadfull Comet waves.

The ragged, or bearded Staffe, was a part of the Armes belonging to the Earledome of Warwicke.

And who be Starres, but Warwicks bearded Staves?
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 have cry'd, God save Queene Margarite.

When Fame shall brute thy Banishment abroad,
The Yorkist's Faction then will lay on load;
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 Warwick will consent,
To have it done by Act of Parlament,
That to my Teeth my Birth she may defie,

Rayner, Duke of Anjou, called himselfe King of Naples, Cicile, and Jerusalem, who had neyther Inheritance, nor received any Tribute from those Parts; and was not able, at the Marriage of the Queene, at his owne Charges, to send her into England, though hee gave no Dower with her: Which, by the Duchesse of Gloucester, was often, in disgrace, cast in her Teeth.

Sland'ring Duke Rayner with base Beggerie;

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The onely way she could devise to grieve me,
Wanting sweet Suffolke, which should most relieve me.

And from that Stocke doth sprout another Bloome,

This was Jack Cade, which caused the Kentish Men to rebell, in the eight and twentieth yeere of King Henry the sixt.

A Kentish Rebell, a base upstart Groome;

This Jack Cade, instructed by the Duke of Yorke, pretended to be descended from Mortimer, which married Ladie Philip, Daughter to the Duke of Clarence.

And this is he the White-Rose must preferre,
By Clarence Daughter, match'd with Mortimer.
Thus by Yorkes meanes, this rascall pesant, Cade,
Must in all haste Plantaginet be made:
For that ambitious Duke sets all on worke,
To sound what Friends affect the Clayme of Yorke,
Whilst he abroad doth practise to command,

The Duke of Yorke being made Deputie of Ireland, first there began to practise his long pretended purpose, and strengthening himselfe by all meanes possible, that hee might, at his returne into England, by open Warre, clayme that, which so long before hee had privily gone about to obtaine.

And makes us weake, by strength'ning Ireland;
More his owne power still seeking to increase,
Then for King Henries good, or Englands peace.

Henry Beauford, Bishop and Cardinall of Winchester, sonne to John of Gaunt, begot in his age, was a proud and ambitious Prelate, favouring mightily the Queene and the Duke of Suffolke, continually heaping up innumerable Treasure, in hope to have beene Pope, as himselfe on his Death-bed confessed.

Great Winchester untimely is deceas'd,
That more and more my Woes should be increas'd.
Beauford, whose shoulders proudly bare up all
The Churches Prop, that famous Cardinall.
The Commons (bent to Mischiefe) never let,

Edmund, Duke of Somerset, in the foure and twentieth yeere of Henry the sixt, was made Regent of France, and sent into Normandie, to defend the English Territories against the French Invasions: but in short time he lost all that King Henry the fifth wonne; for which cause, the Nobles and Commons ever after hated him.

With France t'upbraid that valiant Somerset,
Rayling in Tumults on his Souldiers losse;
Thus all goes backward, crosse comes after crosse:
And now of late, Duke Humphrey's old Allies,
With banish'd El'nors base Accomplices,
Attending their Revenge, grow wond'rous Crouse,
And threaten Death and Vengeance to our House;
And I alone the last poore remnant am,

Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham, was a great Favourite of the Queenes Faction, in the time of Henry the sixt.

T'indure these stormes with wofull Buckingham.

I pray thee, Poole, have care how thou do'st passe,
Never the Sea yet halfe so dang'rous was;

The Witch of Eye received answere from her Spirit, That the Duke of Suffolke should take heed of Water: Which the Queene fore-warnes him of, as remembring the Witches Prophesie; which afterwards came to passe.

And one fore-told, by Water thou should'st die,
(Ah! foule befall that foule Tongues Prophesie)
Yet I by Night am troubled in my Dreames,
That I doe see thee toss'd in dang'rous Streames;
And oft-times ship-wrack'd, cast upon the Land,
And lying breathlesse on the queachy Sand;
And oft in Visions see thee in the Night,
Where thou at Sea maintain'st a dang'rous Fight,

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And with thy proved Target and thy Sword,
Beat'st backe the Pyrate which would come aboord.
Yet be not angry, that I warne thee thus,
“The truest love is most suspitious.
Sorrow doth utter what it still doth grieve:
But Hope forbids us, Sorrow to beleeve;
And in my counsell yet this comfort is,
It cannot hurt, although I thinke amisse:
Then live in hope, in Triumph to returne,
When cleerer Dayes shall leave in Clouds to mourne.
But so hath Sorrow girt my Soule about,
That that word Hope (me thinkes) comes slowly out:
The reason is, I know it here would rest,
Where it might still behold thee in my Brest.
Farewell, sweet Poole, faine more I would indite,
But that my Teares doe blot what I doe write.

FINIS.