 | All the workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-Poet
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Queene Elizabeth. An. Dom. 1558.
A
Debora, a Iudith, a Susanna,
A Virgin, a Virago, a Diana:
Couragious, Zealous, Learned, Wise and Chaste,
With heauenly, earthly gifts, adorn'd and grac'd,
Victorious, glorious, bountious, gracious, good,
And one, whose vertues dignifi'd her bloud,
That Muses, Graces, Armes, and liberall Arts,
Amongst all Queens, proclaim'd her Queen of hearts,
She did repurifie this Land once more,
From the infection of the Romish whore.
Now Abbies, Abbots, Fri'rs, Monks, Nuns & Stews,
Masses, and Masse-priests, that mens soules abuse,
Were all cast downe, Lamps, Tapers, Relikes, Beads,
And Superstitions that mans soule misse-leads,
All Popish pardons, Buls, Confessions,
With Crossings, Cristening bels, Saints, Intercessions,
The Altars, Idols, Images downe cast,
All Pilgrimage, and Superstitious Fast,
Th'acknowledging the Pope for supreme head,
The holy water, and the god of bread,
The mumbling Mattins, and the pickpurse Masse,
These bables this good Queene did turne to grasse.
She caus'd Gods seruice to be said and sung,
In our owne vnderstanding English tongue.
In Scotland and in France, fierce warres she held,
The Irish she subdu'd when they rebeld,
The Netherlands her name doe still admire,
And Spaine her like againe doth not desire.
When forty foure yeers reigne was past and gone,
She chang'd her earthly for a heauenly Throne,
At Greenwich she was borne, at Richmond dy'd,
At Westminster she buried doth abide;
And as the fame of this Imperiall Maide,
Is through the world, (by the foure winds) displaid,
So shall her memory for euer grace
Her famous birth, her death, and buriall place.
| All the workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-Poet
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