Celestiall Elegies of the Goddesses and the Muses, deploring the death of the right honourable and vertuous Ladie the Ladie Fravnces Countesse of Hertford late wife vnto the right honorable Edvvard Seymor Vicount Beauchamp and Earle of Hertford. Wherevnto are annexed some funerall verses touching the death of Mathevv Evvens Esquire, late one of the Barons of her Maiesties Court of Eschequer, vnto whome the author hereof was allyed ... By Thomas Rogers |
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Celestiall Elegies of the Muses.
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 | Celestiall Elegies of the Goddesses and the Muses, deploring the death of the right honourable and vertuous Ladie the Ladie Fravnces Countesse of Hertford |  |
Celestiall Elegies of the Muses.
QVATORZIAN. 1 Clio.
Great princes actes I vse to royalize,And from the Stigian flouds their fame to saue,
And in the Cristall mirror of the skies,
With wits faire Diamond I their praise ingraue:
By me Alcmenas sonne is made deuine,
And faire Calisto turned to a Beare
Now in the Starrie firmament doth shine,
And with her light adornes this Hemysphere,
And I will raise to heauen this noble dame,
Aboue the purest Element of fire,
And lo in Starres characterize hir fame,
That time shall not her glories date expire,
And yet my heart in pittie takes remorse,
For her deare soule and bodies late diuorse.
QVATORZIAN. 2 Melpomene.
Knowing her life what shall I sound her praise?Or musing of her death fall in a sounde?
Shall I recorde her fame in my sweete laies?
Or by my sorrow make her death renownde?
I know not what to doe, I am amazde,
I wander in a Laborinth of woes,
Her praise alreadie through the world is blazd,
And now her death with greefe I must disclose;
Wherefore I register her death with teares,
Which doe turne blacke with sorrowe in the fall,
Wringing my handes renting my golden heares,
And with these reliques grace her funerall,
Exclaming thus with euerlasting cries,
Vertue grows sicke, shame liues, true honor dies.
QVATORZAIN. 3 Thalia.
I that in Princes Pallaces was bred,And did delight in euerie comicke sport,
Whose daintie feete on carpets vsde to treade,
And dance the measures statly in the court,
Will turne my mirthfull songs to dolefull cries,
And fill with teares the Heliconian brooke,
My louely cheekes besmeard with weeping eyes,
Like fleshlesse deathes Anatomie I looke,
For she that brought new reuels out of France,
When she returned to her natiue soyle,
Who sought my glory chiefly to aduance,
Hath now by death receiued a fatall foile,
Thus by her losse I am compeld to rue
That she to soone hath bid the world adewe.
QVATORZAIN. 4 Euterpe.
Come sisters let vs sing sad roundelaies,And strew green Cypres boughs vpō hir Tombe
Crowning her image with immortall bayes,
Oh sacred ofspring of Latonas wombe,
Play on thy seauen-strunge harpe and sadly warble,
The wailefull murmur of celestiall spheares,
And while thou doest engraue her fame in marble,
Ile digge her graue with showres of sacred teares;
My pipe shall make the stones to weepe for pitte,
As great Amphions Lyre did make them dance,
To build againe the ruynes of that Citie,
Which did maintaine the Grecian puisance,
And yet not Thebes but Troynouant shall mourne
For her whose flesh to Elements did turne.
QVATORZAIN. 5 Terpsichore.
VVhat dolefull Diapason shall I make,What mournfull songs of sorrow shall I sing
What comfort in sweete Musicke can I take,
Sith death hath broke this Ladies vitall string:
My sacred Lyre that did resound of yore,
Celestiall harmony, like Phœbus Lute,
Such ioyfull accents now shall sound no more,
For inward sorrow makes our consort mute;
Sith death hath broke that string that did vnite
In mutuall loue her bodie and her soule,
My dulcimers shall make no more delight
And I will liue in euerlasting dole
For how can Musicke solace humaine eares,
Whē strings are broke & harts are drownd in tears
QVATORZAIN. 6. Erato.
Ye that like Iulius Cæsar seeke to measure,The spacious clymates of the centred round,
To fish for kingdomes and to purchase treasure,
Oppose your liues to euerie fatall wound:
Behold euen in the map of my sad face,
A true Cosmographie of humane woes,
For since foule death his Trophees heare did place,
In quiet rest I neuer could repose,
Vnto th'Antarticke Pole what need ye saile,
At home in safetie better may yee sleepe,
Consider by her death your flesh is fraile,
Sit downe by me vppon these rockes and weepe,
For Albion now more sorrowes doth containe,
Then there is wealth in all the Ocean mayne.
QVATORZAIN. 7 Calliope.
Were it nor that Eliza did reuiue,My drooping spirits that are like to perish,
If that worlds myrrour onely she aliue,
Did not with bountie still my Poems cherish,
I should goe languish in some obscure caue,
Or with rude Satyres, & wood-nymphs should dwel
Learning should lie in base Obliuions graue,
And flow no more from Aganippe well:
But since this Ladies soule is vanished,
Out of this world (her corps to death enthrald)
She to a starre is metamorphosed
And with the golden Twinns in heauen enstald
Or like the Pleiades enthron'd on high
She may be term'd a Phœnix in the skie.
QVATORZAIN. 8. Vrania.
I sawe no fearefull comet in the Skye,Nor firie Meteors lately did I viewe,
Whose dread aspect threatens mortalitie,
And losse of some great Princes to insue:
Nor by Astrologie did I deuine,
That death so soone this Paragon should slay,
That she who did in grace and vertue shine,
Aboue her Peeres before them should decay,
I thinke while all the Gods in counsell sate,
To canonize some Saint, that late did die,
Not being mindfull of this Ladies state,
Whose fatall howre did then approach so nigh,
Death stole vppon her with his Eben darte
And vnwares did strike her to the heart.
QVATORZAIN. 9. Polyhymnia.
Sith I am tearm'd the Muses Oratrix,My pen shall wright the Iliades of my greefe,
My tearefull eyes vppon her beare ile fixe,
My tongue shall tell a wofull tale in breefe:
My hands shall act the passions of my minde,
My ruthfull lookes bewray my pensiue thought,
I will complaine the Fates are too vnkinde,
Frō bad to worse the world still growes to nought:
Wherefore I thinke that Plato's wondrous yeare,
(When as the Orbs of Heauen shalbe reuolu'd,
To their first course) approcheth very neare
The bands of th' Elements shalbe dissolu'd:
And till those daies of consummation come,
Cares make me passionate & sorrowes dombe.
The Authors Conclusion.
Now Goddesses and Muses giue me leaue,In this sad Tragedie to acte a part,
I haue more cause for her decease to greeue,
Though you more wit to shew your sorrows smart:
Yee for affection doe extoll her praise,
And for mere pittie doe her death lament,
I both for loue and duetie striue to raise
Her fame aboue the starrie firmament:
And death for enuie did abridge her daies
T'enritch his kingdome with this vertuous dame
But I for griefe that death the Tyrant plaies,
Impouerisht haue my wit t'enrich her fame
While I performe these rites which are most fit,
Death waxeth rich in spoyle, I spoild of witte.
Annotations vpon the Celestiall Elegies of the Muses.
The nine Muses which are the presidents of Poets and first authors of Poetry Musicke & other sciences, are the daughters of Iupiter & mnemosyne alias memoria whose names are Clio, Melpomine, Thalia, Eutepre, Terpsichore, Erato, Calliope, Vrania & Polihimnia. Clio exerciseth her wit & skill chiefely in Histories and recording the actes & monumēts of worthie persons, Melpomine in Tragedies, and lamentable Elegies, Thalia in Comedies, comely gestures, and sweete speeches, Euterpe in the pipe & such like instruments, Terpsichore in the Citterne or Lute, Erato in Geometrie, or Chosmographie, Calliope in heroicke verses, Vrania in Astrologie and contemplation of the starres, and Polihimnia in Rhetorick and Eloquence.
| Celestiall Elegies of the Goddesses and the Muses, deploring the death of the right honourable and vertuous Ladie the Ladie Fravnces Countesse of Hertford | |