Prince Henrie revived Or a poeme vpon the birth, and In Honor of the Hopefull yong Prince Henrie Frederick, First-Sonne and Heire apparant to the most Excellent Princes, Frederick Count Palatine of the Rhine, And the Mirrour of Ladies, Princesse Elizabeth, his Wife, only daughter to our Soueraigne Iames King of Great Brittaine, &c. By Henrie Peacham |
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 | Prince Henrie revived |  |
TO THE MIGHTIE, AND MOST Magnificent Princesse ELIZABETH, PRINCESSE
Palatine Of The Rhene, Duchesse of Bauaria, &c.
To the same most Excellent Princesse.
Deare
Henries losse, Eliza's wedding day,
The last, the first, I sorrowed and song,
When laid my reedes for euermore away,
To sleep in silence, Isis shades among:
Dead to the Muse, and many-headed throng,
Through hard constraint of fruitlesse Hope compell'd:
And Enuie rife, that kills with canckred tongue
The sacred Bay, so honoured of eld,
Though left forlorne, ne now, of Phœbus selfe vpheld.
The last, the first, I sorrowed and song,
When laid my reedes for euermore away,
To sleep in silence, Isis shades among:
Dead to the Muse, and many-headed throng,
Through hard constraint of fruitlesse Hope compell'd:
And Enuie rife, that kills with canckred tongue
The sacred Bay, so honoured of eld,
Though left forlorne, ne now, of Phœbus selfe vpheld.
Where are the Summers when the righteous Maid,
With ev'nest hand the heauenly Scale did weild,
And golden Deed with golden meed repaid:
When Vertue was in price, for Vertue, held,
When Honours daintie but desert did guild,
And Poesie in graces goodly seene,
Rais'd her high thought, with straines that Nectar still'd?
They are ascended with that glorious Queene:
And she, alas, forgot, as she had neuer beene.
With ev'nest hand the heauenly Scale did weild,
And golden Deed with golden meed repaid:
When Vertue was in price, for Vertue, held,
When Honours daintie but desert did guild,
And Poesie in graces goodly seene,
Rais'd her high thought, with straines that Nectar still'd?
They are ascended with that glorious Queene:
And she, alas, forgot, as she had neuer beene.
But dearest daughter of the greatest Ile,
Sole glorious Empresse of the Northren Maine.
Yet thou her glory: Since thou didst erewhile,
Thy bounteous hand, and sweet supportance daigne
Vnto my verse, and all vnworthie vaine:
As humblest Iute, by those armes I creep,
That gaue me growth, and first my entertaine,
Else lowly buried in Obliuion deep,
Who heere had heard me sing thy sweetest babe a sleep?
Sole glorious Empresse of the Northren Maine.
Yet thou her glory: Since thou didst erewhile,
Thy bounteous hand, and sweet supportance daigne
Vnto my verse, and all vnworthie vaine:
As humblest Iute, by those armes I creep,
That gaue me growth, and first my entertaine,
Else lowly buried in Obliuion deep,
Who heere had heard me sing thy sweetest babe a sleep?
And him againe to waken with my song,
Which thousand tunes shall variously diuide,
As Vahale by thy flowerie bankes along,
I take my pipe at morne and euentide:
Hence may it downe thy gentle bosome glide,
And going on, allay th'enraged Rheine,
Where goodly Nimphes with Muses mild abide:
Who often in his surplusage of Wine,
Doe teach him Temperance, in songs and layes diuine.
Which thousand tunes shall variously diuide,
As Vahale by thy flowerie bankes along,
I take my pipe at morne and euentide:
Hence may it downe thy gentle bosome glide,
And going on, allay th'enraged Rheine,
Where goodly Nimphes with Muses mild abide:
Who often in his surplusage of Wine,
Doe teach him Temperance, in songs and layes diuine.
Now while I shall beside this cradle sing,
Leaue Venus Queene atime thy siluer spheare,
And to mine aid thy daintie dearling bring,
With Mart appeased after death and dreare:
But from thy pure and peerelesse excellence,
Eliza mother, dreaddest Ladie deere,
Light, life, oh, lend vnto mine eine and sence,
For vigor haue I none but what I draw from hence.
Leaue Venus Queene atime thy siluer spheare,
And to mine aid thy daintie dearling bring,
With Mart appeased after death and dreare:
But from thy pure and peerelesse excellence,
Eliza mother, dreaddest Ladie deere,
Light, life, oh, lend vnto mine eine and sence,
For vigor haue I none but what I draw from hence.
And Royall child, who like another Sunne,
From Rosie bed arised'st in the East,
When that great light we saw extinct and done,
Ah Henrie, waild of euery gentle brest,
Dart one sweet smile vpon me early ghest:
And that my Muse with thine owne height may flie,
A feather shed from thy faire Phœnix nest:
So may she teach thy Fame to strike the skie,
And thee a Mirrour make to all Posteritie.
From Rosie bed arised'st in the East,
When that great light we saw extinct and done,
Ah Henrie, waild of euery gentle brest,
Dart one sweet smile vpon me early ghest:
And that my Muse with thine owne height may flie,
A feather shed from thy faire Phœnix nest:
So may she teach thy Fame to strike the skie,
And thee a Mirrour make to all Posteritie.
PRINCE HENRIE REVIVED.
Now iocund Muses to an higer stringWe tune our Lyre, a loftie Theame to sing,
And leaue a while the vale, to mounten vp
With bolder wing Pernassus heauenly top:
Where holy Virgin eldest of the nine,
Whose temples with a seuen-fold crownet shine
And glorious mantle guildes the sable night,
With manie a thousand twinckling Chrysolite:
Say, in what part we find those happie stars
That keep enrol'd, in golden Characters,
The Fate of Princes, and eternall summe
Of all; that was, and euer is to come.
To after times, I may arightly read,
The hopefull Haruest of this heauenly seed.
For, can the bloud, deriued from the veines
Of so great Princes, such imperiall Raignes,
Vnhopefull be? and Impe of richest root,
Deceiue our wishes in abundant fruit:
Or whether this beene that same goodly tree,
That nigh the fertile Rhine must planted bee:
Whose fruitfull branch, should Europe ouer-spread,
And check the Heauen with her lofty-head:
With the red Lion of old Caledon,
(Foretold by Merlin, whose one foot should presse
The vnshorne top of that vast wildernesse,
The other graspe, with farre extended power,
The Pyram of Troie-nouants highest tower)
Should as so many fatall sunnes appeare
To chase the Crescent from our Hemispheare:
Or that strong arme expected long agoe,
Should giue the Byzant beast a deadly blow:
At Collen bathing (drunke with Christian blood)
His loathed limmes in Rhenus siluer flood,
I may not rash aread; but this I wot
How Ianiuere, his bitter rage forgot,
For lustie greene y' chang'd his frostie gray:
(As if he woed the sweet and daintie May)
For ioy he brought first tidings of this birth,
And gaue the goodliest New yeares gift on earth.
When smiling Gladnesse, child of heauenly Ioue,
(Her daintie cordiall gotten from aboue)
With rosie fingers now beganne to shed
Ambrosian dewes with kisses tempered.
And drops for ioy, Loues selfe had wept full often,
Wherewith she woont, afflicted hearts to soften,
That all to mirth, each Creature melted now,
Yea Enuies selfe, though knew not why or how,
Vntill thy beeing, Fame had fully blowne:
Thrice-welcome Infant, which no sooner knowne,
But reared weare in honour of thy name,
The goodliest sights Magnificence could frame;
In euery street, of midnight made the noone.
While siluer bels, with iron tongues proclaime
A new borne Henry, to the Nymphes of Thame.
Yee Nymphes of Thame, whose louely shape excels
So far the fairest of each Beautie els,
That you may boast both modell and the mould
Of her perfection. What we doe behold
In stranger Countries, read in antique lines,
Are pourtraies, but of sunburnt Abissines,
To you compar'd; that Paphos seemes to me,
From Greece transported into Britannie.
And while I blazon broad this beautious crew;
Faire Sisters, let me draw the veile from you:
Who though yee liue, retir'd from worldes eye,
Estrang'd from Court, and Cities vanitie,
For louelie feature doe giue place to none.
Whereto, your birth (as some high prized stone)
Though addes more lustre, yet the goodly care
Of vertuous life, wherein yee nourtred are,
Giues freer wing abroad vnto your Fame,
Then your braue Beauties, or great Dudleies name.
They dedicate with one accord the day,
To all disport, and merriment they may;
For thy, thy stars foretell them happie peace,
And giue their half-dead Hopes a new increase,
Faire morning bud of Englands white-red Rose,
And seuenth Henry in her strifes compose:
If euer (God forbid) her breast should feele,
The bitter edge of her owne conquering steele:
The proudest head that durst her ouertop.
Who com'st another anchor to her state,
For it she lost by wofull wreck alate;
That hate of Hell; nor Traytor Heauen-abhor'd
Doe what they may shall breake our triple cord,
Who sheildest, sleeping euen in Mothers arme,
Thy Grandsire, vncle Prince, more safe from harme,
Then Axes, Tasters, Groomes about the bed,
Then strongest holdes, or gards twice doubled.
Who comet-like dost suddenly amaze
The stricken foe, who standing at the gaze
Amused, reads ore what vnhappie Realme,
The bloudie Meteor shakes his fierie streame.
But as ore Hæmus, when the morne hath drawne
Her purple Curtaines, after early dawne,
To lay to view her goodly golden pawne,
Her new borne sonne y'wrapt in Rosie lawne:
Who now awearie of his watrie bed
Off shakes the dew from his bright burnish'd head;
And with Ambrosian smile, and gentle cheare
Reuiues the world that wanted him whileare,
So vs thine owne thou gladdest with thy birth,
The welcome-welcomst stranger vpon earth;
New come into thine age, where all things smile
By peace compos'd, (that Chaos-like erewhile
Lay rude, confused) discords indigest,
Whose formelesse forme may no where be exprest.
Like as into some goodly garden plot,
And lay an heape defac'd with filthie soile,
Oregrowne with bryars, abus'd by beastly spoile:
By Art and Nature now embellished
Smiles with a thousand daintie beauties spred,
Vaunting vnto the greedie gazing eye
By Sun-rise her perfum'd embroderie.
When Mother-feared Warre, that long hath rent
The bodie of our Christian continent;
And like the in-breach of a mightie flood,
Orethrowne our houses, drown'd our streetes with blood:
Cōsum'd our Cities, laid our Countrie waft,
Deuour'd our people, holy things defac'd:
Shall prostrate at thy foot in deep disdaine,
Lie raging bound in hundred double chaine,
Vntill his heart-strings breake for fell despight,
Or his owne armes doe kil him with their weight.
Why braue Heroes yee that Eglets bee,
And high-borne sonnes of Cæsars Monarchie,
Who haue so oft your puissant forces tride,
Against the common foe, doe yee diuide
Your selues and safeties, while ye entertaine
Huge Armies in your home-bred quarrels vaine?
Or factious Schisme that some dissentious head,
By night (his Cockle) hath dissemined?
Or erst as Suizze and Burgundie begin,
An endlesse war about an vntoll'd skinne?
While Eagle Eagle cruelly pursues,
And brother brother with his bloud embrues.
Not weeting how to set your selues a worke,
Turne your keen steele against the hateful Turk.
Enough, enough, our guilt (oh gratious God)
If be thy will, hath felt thy bitter rod.
Oh turne that sword againe into his sheath
That hath so long chastised vs beneath:
Let not our selues our executioners bee,
While foes are fatted with the Tragedie.
As when there beene in Erimanthus met
Two saluage Bores, with tuskes deadly whet,
Who eyther each with fiercest fury gore,
For rangership the spacious forrest ore,
Vntill around the grassie veluet sted
With bloudie filth bee all discolored;
A slily lurking Lionesse beneath,
When sees them wearie, wounded, out of breath,
Leapes from her lare to arbitrate the fray,
With hungry teeth, and both become her pray.
What flood, the bloud of Christians not infects?
What Seas haue not bin couered with our wrecks?
What fields not tainted with our scattered bones?
What towers not turn'd to wastful heaps of stones?
That foes are filled with the piteous view,
And Discords selfe our Misery doth rue.
But (happie Prince) thy time foretels thee peace,
And restfull dayes, with Honors large increase.
Now Germanie, and Brittanie, shall be one,
In League, in Lawes, in Loue, Religion:
Twixt Dane, and English, English and the Scot,
The Hebrid Red shanke shall not dare too rout,
Or inland Rebell double wall'd about:
But shaftlike all one bundle, be too strong
For mightiest foe to doe the meanest wrong.
While forraine Princes from remotest shore,
Thy cradle shall by Embassies adore,
The Sun-burn'd Niger shall present thee plumes,
Sweet Arabie delicious perfumes:
Sarmatian Ister many a costly skin,
And Armenie her daintie Ermelin.
Ægypt the Balme, or bloud of Myrrha's wound,
And Persis, pearles within her channels found,
With Orientall Gemmes, t'embosse arowne,
(In time perhaps) a Cæsars triple crowne:
When Mother Earth shall to thee, incompell'd,
Her treasures, pleasures in abundance yeeld.
The hardie Oake shall melting honie sweat,
And bushes bend with Bacchus clusters great:
The Lion couch him by the Lambe in loue,
And Eagle perch beside the gentle Doue:
The ripened graine shall yellow veile the ground,
No Serpent hurt, or harmefull hearbe bee found.
Wood-Nymphes the shadie violets shall pull,
And bring thee Lillies by whole baskets full;
Some crop the Rose, to shew thee how in graine,
That crimson, Venus bleeding hand did staine;
How from that daintie daughter of the morne,
And silken leaues, thy louely selfe art borne:
Or Primrose, with the Kings enamell'd cup,
The Amaranth arraied in veluet still,
Sweet Rhododaphne, and the Daffadill:
Soft Marjoram, the yong Ascanius bed,
While Cupid kist and courted in his sted:
The fraile Anemon, Hyacinthus soft,
The Ladie-gloue, Coronis weeping oft,
And whatsoeuer else the pleasant spring
Throwes from her bosome formost flourishing.
When Pietie no more with sword in hand
Shal need beside her smoakie Altar stand,
Or make her wonne from sight of liuing men
Some wastfull wood or solitary den;
But euery where her holy things professe
Reside in Courts, high Heauens Embassadresse,
And as the Lilly free from cumbrous brire,
To heauenward, homeward, in her heigth aspire.
When arts, that now for nouriture doe sterue,
Or (which is worse) as common subject serue
Of scorne or pitie, to the golden Asse,
That for his Isis must adored passe,
Shall lay their rich inuentions to the view,
Bee mates with Majestie and reape their dew:
Had I the tongues of Angels and of men,
An endlesse memorie, Fames golden pen,
Far I vnable (Peace) were to pourtray
Thy louely face, and downe in order lay
Those blessings which from heauen thou dost cōvay.
But if braue Impe, by Mars thou shalt be hent
From thy soft Pallace, to a warlike tent,
In common, or thine owne particular.
Then shine in glorious armes Heauen be thy speed,
And endlesse Fame thy euerlasting meed.
Goe looke about the spacious earth, and see
The triumphs, trophees of thine ancestrie;
(Ne let thine eye on meaner Glories feed,
But imitate the best, and best exceed)
What court or coast so ere thou commest in,
There Grandsire, vncle or thy Cousins bin;
Euen Enuie, search thy fathers Pedigree,
From Charles, and she shall find allied to thee
Eleuen Great Cæsars, twentie crowned Kings,
That bloud contribute like so many springes
Into thy veines:—
Great Charlemaigne, who taught his Eagle flie,
Aboue the tops of loftie Pyranie:
(Bathing his plumes in stremes of Pagan blood,
From Ronceuall, t'Iberos golden flood)
Subduēd the Saxon, Italy did free,
From Longobards, and Gothish Tyrannie,
Subiected wholly, by an holy war,
The Hunne, the Sclaue, the Sorabe, and Auar.
To that braue Lord, that held Vienne so long,
Gainst Soliman, three hundred thousand strong:
Yet all these honors, are but common, new,
To those, that by thy Mothers side accrew,
From warlike Britons, and that braue remaine
Of ancient Troie (who once as great did raigne)
Of whom discended, boldly vaunt thy birth,
From Brute, to Brennus (and the braue Belline)
That ransackt Greece, and ore thy fertile Rhine
Victorious troupes of Britons did aduance,
Sack'd periur'd Rome, and conquered all France,
Vnto Cassiuelan that twice did foile,
The mightie Cæsar entering this Ile.
By Aruirage, that was the Romane dread,
Till Claudius daughter afterwards did wed
To Greatest Arthur, whose immortall name,
Bright'st Glories dampes, and euen amazeth Fame.
But needs me not, in infinite extent,
Draw downe these Images, or that discent
From Holy Edward, and the Saxon line,
To later Norman Ancestors of thine:
From Scottish Kings, or Denmarke, sin' they stand
So daintie limned by a later hand;
I sooner (eeke) the Lights of heauen should count,
The Ocean Sand, or if ought that surmount,
Then them or their braue deedes to viewen lay,
Or as I ought their worthinesse display.
Yet note they all be drown'd in Lethe quite,
Or thou depriued of some glorious light,
Of later times, reuealing to thy view,
Our English sears, yet almost bleeding new:
Though known, and cōmon to the world they be,
What then? Sweet Henrie it is newes to thee.
Imagine in some goodly Gallerie,
Such as in Hampton thou maist one day see,
Who knowes not Hampton? Mansion fitting Ioue,
His Court of sparkie Gemmes, and Ivorie, built,
On Columnes rais'd, and by his raions guilt:
Thou to the life, their legend didst behold
On Arras, in the silke enwouen gold,
So sweetly done, by needle on the frame,
That Pallas selfe, nor Enuie mought it blame:
And saw'st heere valiant Cordelion come,
Fore Acon, marching with an English Drumme,
Third Edward, there in triumph leading France,
An humble Captiue to his puissance:
Forcing the faire De-luce vpon her shield,
Quit the French Garden, for an English field.
Heere youthfull Edward, his victorious son,
At Poiteirs, hand to hand encountring Ion,
That haile of arrowes seeme to cloud the skie;
While English follow, and the French doe flie,
Some take that Riuer, other yonder wood,
VVhich so the daintie vermill dies in blood,
Vpon the siluer waue, and silken greene,
As if no semblance, but the thing were seene.
There Lancaster inflicts a deadly blow
On bastard Pedro, that vsurped so,
Heere Henrie Monmouths beacon giues alarme,
At Agencourt, that makes all France to arme:
And shee, there shee, whom bleeding hearts inter,
Rather then those few stones at Westminster:
Whose name, euē now my rauish'd sēce doth peirce,
And with sweet Nectar sprinkleth my verse,
Eliza Queene, the Maiden conqueresse,
Like Thomyre, or that braue Semiramis)
From hundred handed Gerions defeat,
And his proud Castles fall in eightie eight.
But what shall need examples from a far;
Edge thy high courage to a glorious war
Some selfe high-priz'd Italian, Squire of France,
Instruct thee ride, and how to beare thy lance:
Or learned Lipsius, by his reading shew,
The antique practize, postures long agoe,
Of Greatest Cæsar, or that haughtie Greeke,
Who other worlds bewail'd he mote not seeke;
All these, and far much more comprized bee,
In that braue ofspring, of the Orange tree,
Thy gallant Vncle (whose resounded name
Hath fill'd all eares, and spent the voyce of Fame)
Victorious Maurice, worthie bee enroll'd,
Mong those great worthies, and Heroes old,
Whose conquests earth hath bounded, thoughts & fame,
Find no dimension but the heauenly frame.
But grow sweet Infant, grow, and grow apace,
Vnto thy height, in goodnesse, and in grace,
For Europe on thee gins to fixe her eye,
And note thy tender towardnesse busily.
Perhaps (somewhere) consulteth with the stars,
How thou inclinest, to laborious wars,
Or restfull peace, how milde thy gouernment,
How long the Fatall Sisters in extent
Shall draw thy dayes, (Yee Princes Mirrors are
Reflecting your impressions as farre,
Most eminent in flourish, or your fall)
And with thy Mothers milke, from her faire breast,
Draw those sweet vertues that therein doe nest,
Whereby her heart is dewed from aboue;
With gracious goodnesse, and all heauenly loue:
True Pietie; the fairest vertue Gem,
That may adorne a Princes Diadem:
Best Goodnesse, that Vaine Glories foile reiects,
But rather shewes the value by effects,
That Modestie, which Maiestie allaies,
Yet Royall Type, beyond it selfe doth rayse:
Her Curtesie, wherewith she leades enchain'd,
Euen foes, and friends, by millions hath gain'd;
Her Bountie, mirrour of her Royall heart,
To skill, and euery generous desert:
But stay my Muse, why does our ruder quill,
Attempt a taske, that craues Appelles skill?
Yet thus the Sun we view, through shadowes light;
VVhen cannot els behold his beames bright,
And (Pearle of Princes) thus the shore I keep,
When cannot sound thy prayses Sea so deep:
Now yee who euer that shall hold in trust,
This precious iewell, and his nonage must
VVith tender care, and timely tendance breed,
Be vertuous guides, vnto this hopefull seed:
His weaker age with all vprightnesse prop,
Vntill he hath attain'd to goodnesse top:
For Infancie like vnto water spilt,
Is with a finger drawen where thou wilt:
Or as an Aprill Impe that late did shoot,
From the warme bosome of its Mother root:
To take his course, to climbe, or lie aloft,
Or clip with friendly twine the shadie bower,
That shendes true louers, in the siluer shower,
Or grow a Nymphe, that naked seemes to blush,
When white and red haue clad the bloosmed bush.
Then like a rampant Lion, or to beene
A branch-horn'd Hart, or forrester in greene,
Euen so this Age we worke vnto our will,
Thus waxie-pliant vnto good or ill.
Religion, then first ground worke lay below
Which inward though it lies, and makes least show,
All other Vertues it doth strong sustaine,
As weaker peeces resting on the maine;
This shall his life establish and assure,
Heigthen content, and make his seat secure.
Then as strōg Colums, that must beare the weight,
And raise this Princely modell to his height,
Let other Vertues take their order, place.
First Temperance, that aie with goodly grace
Doth rule the mind, and with her golden bit
Curbe head-strong passion, ouermaistring it:
Then Prudence, the soules eye, although she bee
Daughter of Vse, and strongest Memorie,
And seldome settles in a growing braine,
Vnapt her grauer lesson to retaine,
But borne with fancies, like a troubled Sea,
From Card and Compasse makes contrary waie:
Acquaint him though betimely with her name,
How shee it is must his Liues Action frame,
Direct, and end; and, like that golden spray,
Lead through this Vale of wretchednesse his way,
(Like twinkling stars) while all the world doth sleep:
Now Iustice, that with her bright golden beames
Enlights the world, & calmes the state of Realmes,
Preserues the Citie, safer and more sure
Then wall of brasse, or that same triple mure,
Wherewith th'Assyrian Empresse long agone
Encompassed her mightie Babilon.
This doth adorne the Maiestie of Kings
Boue euery grace, and all their rarest things,
Resembling the Diuine Creator right,
When borroweth from Pietie her light.
Next Clemencie, who from th'Almighties seate
Deriues her linage, or by milde extreate
From Iustice drawne, in readinesse doth stand,
And stretcheth out her soueraigne helping hand;
VVho rankor doth of deepest wound allay,
And takes the smart of punishment away,
The Moone of Empires that with milde aspect
Doth cooly temper, graciously affect:
And as in Heauen shee; so in a Prince,
This claimes the second glorious eminence.
What worldly Empire long hath euer stood,
Whose Tyran-Scepter was distain'd with blood?
Or Prince, that long in Peace possest his state,
Whose law was will, and whom the most did hate?
This crownes with Immortalitie his Fame,
And sheds abroad, as Balme, his precious name.
The lesser Vertues let the front adorne;
And as in pleasing Parergie be worne,
Arightly teach him vse of Maiestie,
The sweet effects of manly Modestie,
He kils the pithie substance of the mind.
Let Pompe and Pride with those weake iudgments sute,
That haue no other way to winne repute:
And let him hate the name of Nigardise
The rust of Greatnesse, with base Couetise.
More Honour vanquish'd of a foe to be,
Then ouercome in Liberalitie.
And that he may the better, as by line,
Run this faire course, and fowler way decline;
Oh timely teach him the abundant vse
Of all good Learning, and to loue the Muse,
Who giues the boundlesse Intellect her eye,
Conuersing with her Maker most on high,
Who meanest doth to mightie Rule aduance,
Still waging war with brutish Ignorance.
She safest with dead counsell will avise,
And guard his eare from liuing flatteries:
In after age she shall reviue his Name,
And crowne with Honour his admired Fame.
Hence could the wisest Salomon dispute,
From the tall Cedar to the Hysope root.
Hence Cæsars star did gather first her flame;
And Philips sonne, the Earths sole Lord became.
Eeke those old warriours with astondement,
That made the Earth to tremble where they went,
Those fairest flowers within their girlonds worne,
Doe owe to skill, that fram'd their mindes beforne.
That goodly fount of Grecian Eloquence,
Whose Cyrus shapes vs so vnmatch'd a Prince;
Themistocles that beat at Salamine
The greatest Armie that was euer seene;
Thunder, and peircing lightning, while he spake;
Miltiades, that Marathon did staine
With bloud of hundred thousand Persians slaine;
Epaminondas, in whom liu'd and died
The Theban Glorie; those braue spirits beside
Of antique Rome (that whilome in her pride
Euen Victorie held pineond, forced Mart
And drew perforce the Fates to take her part)
Were goodly learned, who will it denie?
And liu'd the fathers of Philosophie:
When rather skill the head-peice did adorne,
Then wanton plumes, that hold her now in scorne.
How often doe I meditate vpon
That of Alphonsus, King of Aragon;
Avowing it the sentence of a beast,
Who said, That Princes had small interest
In Learning: who as well may want their eyes,
Their tongues to speake, or Vse to make them wise.
But neerest patterne place before thine eie,
Thy Grandsire Iames, our Royall Mercurie:
Who with his wand all tumult caus'd to cease,
Fulfill'd our wishes, gaue our daies their peace.
Without it doe thou Greatnesse but account
That golden Calfe ador'd in Horeb mount,
Or Winter-Sun, whose beames doe feebly glance,
Wrapt in the mists of foggie Ignorance.
Oh sacred skill whose fruit (as from that tree
Of Eden) feedes vs with felicitie;
And goodly branches stretch themselues so farre,
That all too weake my wit and senses are
To comprehend their compasse, as Fought,
Thrice happie me the meanest of the rest,
Were I but with her onely shadow blest!
Thus in the Circle that thou hast to run,
Display thy glory with the rising Sun:
Thus to thy Solstice, climbing by degree,
Exemplar let thy lifes whole patterne bee
To such, as from thee must deriue their light
By thousands, and are dim'd without thy sight.
The winged vessell is not by her helme
So much commanded, as a potent Realme
Is by her Princes life example lead,
To frugall course, or vile vnthriftihead.
Edicts, nor Axes, Prison, Tyran-law,
Doe not so much the stubborne vulgar draw,
As doth (the glasse of Honor) Innocence,
And Vertues parts, exemplar in a Prince.
Heerein they see, loue, imitate, admire,
And are enkindled from his all-seene fire.
This Cæsar knew, when formost did assay
Each deepest streame, to teach his troupes the way:
And that great Cato, whose command was none
By word, but his owne personall action.
No engine like to that of heartie loue,
Or faire example; able sooner moue
The massie Earth, then that rare Instrument
The Syracusian boasted to inuent.
This is that Adamant, whose Character
Stirres vp with counter-motion nigh and farre
All Hearts the Cyphars, who (conioyntly met)
Doe turne or tarrie by her Alphabet.
Thus pious Numa ouer Rome did raigne,
(By where Euphrates with his siluer source
A thousand palmets on his shore cloth nurse)
Whose Scepters, Swords nor Armies did assure,
But iustest Lawes, with liues vnblam'd and pure;
When that proud Easterne Conquerour (the sonne
Of Fortune, rather then of Macedon)
Together with his father, and the rew
Of Romane Cæsars that did most embrew
Their Baies in bloud, or else with hands vniust
Dealt wrong for right, or drowned lay in lust,
Out-breath'd their soules by poison at the boord,
Or suddaine fell vpon a villaines sword.
This end had Nero's beastly life in fine:
Thus died Domitian, and thus Maximine.
Vnhappie Pyrrhus was pursued by Fate,
On Sea and Land, vnto his liues last date:
By loathsome lice Antiochus did die:
And Attalon euen scorn'd of Miserie:
A Sheaperdesse sent Cyrus downe to hell:
Vpon his owne swords point Cambyses fell:
And cruell Aristobulus, at last,
His heart at once vp with his vomit cast.
Thus vengeance tracks thē by the bloud they spilt,
Till their own mouthes giues sentence of the guilt.
Oh heauens! to men yee giue no worldly thing
More pretious then the instant pious King:
Vpon whose brow we may enstamped see
The Image of the highest Maiestie;
And sparkling graces, that doe sweetly shine
With something (what I know not) that's diuine:
Which if themselues through filthy vice deface,
As Traitors Heauen adiudgeth them alike;
And last or first will in auengement strike.
Oh timely let these things engrauen be
Vpon the tablet of thy memorie:
And thus let vertues golden linked chaine
A bracelet on thy tender wrist remaine.
So shalt thou not giue thy Elector voice,
And of some mightie make the formost choice;
But raigne thy selfe more absolute and free,
An Emperour in thought and dignitie,
Then if thou shouldst with mightie arme adioine
All Persis to thy Countie Palatine,
The Gades with Lybia, & couldst claime thine owne
What from the South been to the Arcticke knowne.
Oh that the Fates would lengthen my extent,
And let me draw so long this Element,
That I the footsteps of thy praise mought presse
In riper yeares, How should my song addresse
Thy Honours Triumphs! not the Thracian Lyre,
That death in deepest slumber could inspire,
In stately numbers should our Muse excell,
While she did on thy loftie Glories dwell.
Then grow (sweet Infant) grow and grow apace,
And liue the Phœnix of thy royall race,
For Courage, Bountie, guarded by our vowes,
Till foes thy feet, and Laurell kisse thy browes,
That Cæsar Henrie thou maist one day raigne,
As good, as great, as euer Charlemaigne.
FINIS.
| Prince Henrie revived | |