62

No eye bewails my ill, moans thy distress,
Our grief's the more, but yet our debt the less:
We owe no tears, no mourning days are kept
For those that yet for us have never wept.
We hold no obiits, no sad exequies,
Upon the death-days of unweeping eyes.

Alas, good Nell, what should thy patience move,
T'upbraid thy kind lord with a foreign love?
Thou might'st have bid all former ills adieu,
Forgot the old, we have such store of new.
Did I omit thy love to entertain,
With mutual grief to answer grief again?
Or think'st thou I unkindly did forbear
To bandy woe for woe, and tear for tear?
Did I forget, or carelessly neglect
Those shows of love that ladies so respect?"
In mournful black was I not seen to go,
By outward signs t'express my inward woe?
Did I thy loss not publicly lament,
Nor by my looks bewray'd my discontent?
Is this the cause? if this be it, know then,
"One grief conceal'd, more grievous is than ten."
If in my breast those sorrows sometimes were,
And never utter'd, they must still be there;
And if thou know'st they many were before,
By time increasing, they must needs be more.
England to me can challenge nothing lent,
Let her cast up what is receiv'd, what spent:
If I her own, can she from blame be free,
If she but prove a step-mother to me?
That if I should with that proud bastard strive,
To plead for birth-right my prerogative,
Be that allow'd, I should not need to fear it,
For then my true nobility should bear it :
If counsel aid, that France will tell (I know)
Whose towns lie waste before the English foe,
When thrice we gave the conquer'd French the foil,
(1) At Agincourt, at Cravant, and Vernoile :
If faith avail, these arms did Henry hold,
To claim his crown, yet scarcely nine months old:
If countries care have leave to speak for me,
Gray hairs in youth my witness then may be :
If peoples tongues give splendour to my fame:
They add a title to duke Humphry's name:
If toil at home, French treason, English hate,
Shall tell my skill in managing the state;
If foreign travel my success may try,
(2) Then Flanders, Almain, Boheme, Burgundy.
That robe of Rome proud Beauford now doth wear,
In every place such sway should never bear:
(3) The crosier-staff in his imperious hand,
To be the sceptre that controuls the land;
That home to England dispensations draws,
Which are of power to abrogate our laws:

And for those sums the wealthy church should pay,
Upon the needy commonalty to lay;
His ghostly counsels only do advise

(4) The means how Langley's progeny may rise,
Pathing young Henry's unadvised ways,

A duke of York from Cambridge house to raise,
Which after may our title undermine,
Grafted since Edward in Gaunt's famous line,
Us of succession falsely to deprive,
Which they from Clarence feignedly derive,
Knowing the will old Cambridge ever bore,
To catch the wreath that famous Henry wore:
With Gray and Scroop when first he laid the plot,
From us and ours the garland to have got;
As from the March-born Mortimer to reign,
Whose title Glendour stoutly did maintain,

When the proud Percies, haughty March, and he,
Had shar'd the land by equal parts in three.
(5) His priesthood now proud Mowbray will restore,
To stir the fire that kindled was before:
Against the Yorkists shall their claim advance,
To steel the point of Norfolk's sturdy lance,
Upon the breast of Hertford's issue bent,
In just revenge of ancient banishment.
He doth advise to let our pris'ner go,
And doth enlarge the faithless Scottish foe,
(*) Giving our heirs in marriage, that their dow'
May bring invasion upon us and ours.
Ambitious Suffolk so the helm doth guide,
With Beauford's damned policies supply'd;
He and the queen in counsel still confer,
How to raise him, who hath advanced her.

But, my dear heart, how vainly do I dream,
And fly from thee, whose sorrows are my theme!
My love to thee and England thus divided,
Which hath the most, how hard to be decided?
Or thou, or that, to censure I am loth,
So near are you, so dear unto me both;
"Twixt that and thee, for equal love I find,
England ungrateful, and my El'nor kind.
But though my country justly I reprove,
Yet I for that neglected have my love;
Nevertheless, thy Humphry's to thee now,
As when fresh beauty triumph'd on thy brow;
As when thy graces 1 admired most,
Or of thy favours might the frankli'st beast:
Those beauties were so infinite before,
That in abundance I was only poor,

Of which, though time hath taken some again,
I ask no more but what doth yet remain.
Be patient, gentle heart, in thy distress,
Thou art a princess not a whit the less.
Whilst in these breasts we bear about this life
I am thy husband, and thou art my wife.
Cast not thine eye on such as mounted be,
But look on those cast down as low as we;
For some of them which proudly perch so high,
Ere long shall come as low as thou or I.
They weep for joy, and let us laugh in woe,
We shall exchange, when Heav'n will have it so;
We mourn, and they in after-time may mourn;
Woe past, may once laugh present woe to scorn;
And worse than hath been, we can never taste,
Worse cannot come, than is already past:
"In all extremes, the only depth of ill

Is that which comforts the afflicted still."
Ah, would to God thou could'st thy grief deny,
And on my back let all the burthen lye !
Or if thou canst resign, make them mine own,
Both in one carriage to be undergone,
Till we again our former hopes recover,

And prosp'rous times blow these misfortunes over:
For in the thought of those fore-passed years,
Some new resemblance of old joy appears.
Mutual our care, so mutual be our love,
That our affliction never can remove :

So rest in peace, where peace hath hope to live,
Wishing thee more than I myself can give.

ANNOTATIONS OF THE CHRONICLE HISTORY.

(1) At Agincourt, at Cravant, and Vernoile. The three famous battles fought by the Englishmen in France: Agincourt by Henry the Fifth, against the whole power of France: Cravant, fought by Montacute earl of Salisbury aud the duke of

Burgoin, against the Dauphin of France, and William Stuart constable of Scotland: Vernoile, fought by John duke of Bedford, against the duke of Alanson, and with him most of the nobility of France; duke Humphry an especial counsellor in all these expeditions.

(2) Then Flanders, Almaine, Boheme, Burgundy. Here remembring the ancient amity which in his embassies he had concluded betwixt the king of England, and Sigismund emperor of Almain, drawing the duke of Burgoin into the same league, giving himself as an hostage for the duke of Saint Omers, while the duke came to Calais to confirm the league with his many other employments to foreign kingdoms.

(3) The crosier staff in his imperious hand. Henry Beauford cardinal of Winchester, that proud and haughty prelate, received the cardinal's hat at Calais by the Pope's legate; which dignity, Henry the Fifth, his nephew, forbade him to take upon him, knowing his haughty and malicious spirit unfit for that robe and calling.

(*) The means how Langley's progeny may rise. As willing to show, the house of Cambridge to be descended of Edmond Langley duke of York, a younger brother to John of Gaunt his grandfather (as much as in him lay) to smother the title the Yorkists made to the crown (from Lionel of Clarence, Gaunt's eldest brother) by the daughter of Mortimer.

() His priesthood now stern Mowbray will

restore.

Noting the ancient grudge between the house of Lancaster and Norfolk, ever since Mowbray duke of Norfolk was banished, for the accusation of Henry duke of Hertford (after that, king of England, and father to duke Humphry): which accusation, he came as a combatant to have made good, in the lists at Coventry.

(*) Giving our heirs in marriage, that their

dow'rs.

James Stuart king of Scots having been long prisoner in England was released, and took to wife the daughter of John duke of Somerset, sister to John duke of Somerset, niece to the cardinal, and the duke of Exeter, and cousin-german removed to the king: this king broke the oath he had taken, and became after a great enemy to England.

Concludes a marriage; and her sire to gain,
Gives up the towns of Mons, Anjou, and Main,
To Rayner for her: for which lawless fact,
The peers him five years banishment enact.
When for his latest farewel of the queen,
These two epistles pass them two between.

In my disgrace (dear queen) rest thy content,
And Margaret's health from Suffolk's banishment:
Five years exile were not an hour to me,
But that so soon I must depart from thee;
Where thou not present, it is ever night;
All be exil'd, that live not in thy sight.
Those savages which worship the Sun's rise,
Would hate their god, if they beheld thine eyes:
The world's great light, might'st thou be seen
abroad,

Would at our noon-stead ever make abode,
And force the poor Antipodes to mourn,
Fearing lest he would never more return.
Wer't not for thee, it were my great'st exile,
To live within this sea-inviron'd isle.

Pool's courage brooks not limiting in bands,
But that (great queen) thy sov'reignty commands:
(1) Our falcons kind cannot the cage endure,
Nor buzzard like doth stoop to ev'ry lure;
Their mounting brood in open air doth rove,
Nor will with crows be coop'd within a grove.
We all do breathe upon this earthly ball,
Likewise one Heaven incompasseth us all.
"No banishment can be to him assign'd,
Who doth retain a true-resolved mind.
Man in himself a little world doth bear,
His soul the monarch, ever ruling there:
Wherever then his body both remain,
He is a king, that in himself doth reign;
And never feareth fortune's hott'st alarms,
That bears against her patience for his arms."
(2) This was the mean proud Warwick did invent,
To my disgrace, at Lei'ster parliament,
(3) That only I, by yielding up of Main,
Should cause the loss of fertile Aquitain,
(4) With the base vulgar sort to win him fame,
To be the heir of good duke Humphry's name;
And so by treason spotting my pure blood,
Make this a mean to raise the Nevils' brood.
(5) With Sal'sbury his vile ambitious sire,
In York's stern breast kindling long-hidden fire;
By Clarence' title working to supplant
The eagle-airy of great John of Gaunt:
And to this end did my exile conclude,
Thereby to please the rascal multitude;

(") Urg'd by these envious lords to spend their
Crying revenge for the protector's death: [breath,

WILLIAM DE LA POOL, DUKE OF SUFFOLK, That since the old decrepit duke is dead,

TO QUEEN MARGARET.

THE ARGUMENT.

The duke of Suffolk, William, to advance
A lady long belov'd of him in France,
His mistress Marg’ret, that duke Rayner's child,
Himself who of Jerusalem instil'd

The king: this Pool, his darling to prefer
Betwixt young Henry nam'd the sixth, and her,

By me, of force, he must be murthered.

(7) If they would know who robb'd him of his life,
Let them call home dame Elenor his wife,
Who with a taper walked in a sheet,

To light her shame at noon through London street;
And let her bring her necromantic book,
That foul hag Jordan, Hun, and Bullenbrook,
And let them call the spirits from Hell again,
To know how Humphry dy'd, and who shall reign.

(3) For twenty years and have I serv'd in France, (9) Against great Charles and bastard Orleance, And seen the slaughter of a world of men, Victorious now, as hardly conquer'd then?

(10) And have I seen Vernoila's batful fields,
Strew'd with ten thousand helms, ten thousand
shields,

Where famous Bedford did our fortune try,
Or France, or England, for the victory?
The sad investing of so many towns,
Scor'd on my breast in honourable wounds;
When Montacute, and Talbot of much name,
Under my ensign both first won their fame:
In heat and cold all these have I endur'd,
To rouse the French, within their walls immur'd;
Through all my life these perils have I past,
And now to fear a banishment at last?

Thou know'st how I (thy beauty to advance)
For thee refus'd the infanta of France,
Brake the contract duke Humphry first did make
'Twixt Henry and the princess Arminac:
Only that here thy presence I might gain,

I

gave duke Rayner Anjou, Mons, and Main;
Thy peerless beauty for a dower to bring,
As of itself sufficient for a king:

(1) And from Aumerle withdrew my warlike pow'rs,
(12) And came myself in person first to Tours,
Th' embassadors for truce to entertain,
From Belgia, Denmark, Hungary, and Spain:
And to the king, relating of thy story,
My tongue flow'd with such plenteous oratory,
As the report by speaking did indite,
Begetting still more ravishing delight.
And when my speech did cease (as telling all)
My look show'd more, that was angelical;
And when I breath'd again, and paused next,'
I left mine eyes dilating on the text:
Then coming of thy modesty to tell,
In music's numbers my voice rose and fell:
And when I came to paint thy glorious style,
My speech in greater cadences to file,
(13) By true descent to wear the diadem
Of Naples, Sicil, and Jerusalem,

As from the gods thou didst derive thy birth,

If those of Heaven could mix with these of Earth,
Gracing each title that I did recite,
With some mellifluous pleasing epithet:
Nor left him not, till he for love was sick,
Beholding thee in my sweet rhetoric.
(14) A fifteen's tax in France I freely spent
In triumphs, at thy nuptial tournament ;
And solemnis'd thy marriage in a gown,
Valu'd at more than was thy father's crown:
And only striving how to honour thee,
Gave to my king what thy love gave to me.
Judge if his kindness have not pow'r to move,
Who for his love's sake gave away his love.

Had he, which once the prize to Greece did
bring,

(Of whom th' old poets long ago did sing)
(15) Seen thee for England but imbark'd at Diep,
Would over-board have cast his golden sheep,
As too unworthy ballast to be thought,
To pester room with such perfection fraught.
The briny seas, which saw the ship infold thee,
Would vault up to the hatches to behold thee,
And falling back, themselves in thronging smother,
Breaking for grief, envying one another :
When the proud bark for joy thy steps to feel,
Scorn'd that the brack should kiss her furrowing
And trick'd in all her flags, herself she braves, [keel,
Cap'ring for joy upon the silver waves:
When like a bull from the Phoenician strand,
with Europa rushing from the land,

Upon the bosom of the main doth scud,
And with his swannish breast cleaving the flood,
Tow'rd the fair fields, upon the other side,
Beareth Agenor's joy, Phoenicia's pride:
All heavenly beauties join themselves in one,
To show their glory in thine eye alone,
Which when it turneth that celestial ball,
A thousand sweet stars rise, a thousand fall.

Who justly saith, mine, banishment to be,
When only France for my recourse is free?
To view the plains where I have seen so oft
England's victorious ensigns rais'd aloft;
When this shall be a comfort in my way,
To see the place, where I may boldly say,
Here mighty Bedford forth the vaward led;
Here Talbot charg'd, and here the Frenchmen fled;
Here with our archers valiant Scales did lye,
Here stood the tents of famous Willoughby;
Here Montacute rang'd his unconquer'd band;
Here march'd we out, and here we made a stand.
What should we sit to mourn and grieve all day,
For that which time doth eas❜ly take away ?
What fortune hurts, let suff'rance only heal,
'No wisdom with extremities to deal."

To know ourselves to come of human birth,
These sad afflictions cross us here on Earth;
A punishment from the eternal law,

To make us still of Heaven to stand in awe.
"In vain we prize that at so dear a rate,
Whose long'st assurance bears a minute's date,
Why should we idly talk of our intent,
When Heav'n's decree no counsel can prevent?
When our foresight not possibly can shun,
That which the fates determine shall be done."
Henry hath pow'r, and may my life depose,
Mine honour's mine, that none hath power to lose.
Then be as cheerful (beauteous royal queen)
As in the court of France we oft have been;
(16) As when arriv'd in Porchester's fair road,
(Where, for our coming, Henry made abode)
When in mine arms I brought thee safe to land,
And gave my love to Henry's royal hand:
The happy hours we passed with the king
At fair South-hamton long in banquetting;
With such content as lodg'd in Henry's breast,
When he to London brought thee from the West
Through golden Cheap, when he in pomp did ride
To Westminster, to entertain his bride.

ANNOTATIONS OF THE CHRONICLE HISTORY.

(') Our falcons kind cannot the cage endure.

He alludes in these verses to the falcon, which was the ancient device of the Pools, comparing the greatness and haughtiness of his spirit to the nature of this bird.

(2) This was the mean proud Warwick did invent To my disgrace, &c.

The commons at this parliament, through Worwick's means, accused Suffolk of treason, and urged the accusation so vehemently, that the king was forced to exile him for five years.

(3) That only I, by yielding up of Main,
Should be the loss of fertile Aquitain.

The duke of Suffolk being sent into France o conclude a peace, chose duke Rayner's daughter, the lady Margaret, whom he espoused for Henry VI. delivering for her to her father the countries

cursions.

of Anjou and Main, and the city of Mons. Where- | Englishmen, daily infesting them with divers inupon the earl of Arminac (whose daughter was before promised to the king) seeing himself to be deluded, caused all the Englishmen to be expulsed Aquitain, Gascoine, and Guien.

(") With the base vulgar sort to win him fame,
To be the heir of good duke Humphry's name.
This Richard, that was called the great earl of
Warwick, when duke Humphry was dead, grew
into exceeding great favour with the commons.
· (3) With Sal'sbury, his vile ambitious sire,

In York's stern breast kindling long-hidden fire,
By Clarence' title working, to supplant
The eagle-airy of great John of Gaunt.

Richard Plantagenet duke of York, in, the time of Henry the Sixth, claimed the crown (being assisted by this Richard Nevill earl of Salisbury and father to the great earl of Warwick, who favoured exceedingly the house of York) in open parliament, as heir to Lionel duke of Clarence, the third son of Edward III. making his title by Ann his mother, wife to Richard earl of Cambridge, son to Edmond of Langley duke of York; which Ann was daughter to Roger Mortimer earl of March; which Roger was son and heir to Lionel duke of Clarence, the third son of king Edward, to whom the crown, after king Richard the Second's death lineally descended, he dying without issue; and not to the heirs of the duke of Lancaster, that was younger brother to the duke of Clarence. Hall. cap. 1. tit. Yor. & Lanc.

(*) Urg'd by these envious lords to spend their breath,

Crying revenge on the protector's death. Humphry duke of Glocester, and lord protector, in the five and twentieth year of Henry VI by the means of the queen and the duke of Suffolk, was arrested by the lord Beaumont, at the parliament holden at Bury, and the same night after murthered in his bed.

(7) If they wou'd know who robb'd him, &c, to [reign.

this verse,

To know how Humphry dy'd, and who shall In these verses he jests at the protector's wife, who (being accused and convicted of treason, because with John Hun a priest, Roger Bullenbrook a necromancer, and Margery Jordan, called the witch of Eye, she had consulted by sorcery to kill the king) was adjudged to perpetual prison in the isle of Man, and to do penance openly in three public places in London.

(*) For twenty years and have I serv'd in France? In the sixth year of Henry VI. the duke of Bedford being deceased, then lieutenant general and regent of France, this duke of Suffolk was promoted to that dignity, having the lord Talbot, lord Scales, and the lord Montacute to assist him.

(*) Against great Charles and bastard Orleance. This was Charles VII. who after the death of Henry V. obtained the crown of France, and recovered again much of that his father had lost. Bastard Orleance was son to the duke of Orleance, begotten of the lord Cawny's wife, preferred highly to many notable offices, because he being a most valiant captain, was a continual enemy to the

(10) And have I seen Vernoila's batful fields.

Vernoile is that noted place in France, where the great battle was fought in the beginning of Henry the sixth's reign, where most of the French chivalry were overcome by the duke of Bedford.

(1) And from Aumerle withdrew my warlike powers.

Aumerle is that strong defenced town in France, which the duke of Suffolk got after four and twenty great assaults given unto it.

(12) And came myself in person rst to Tours,
Th' embassadors for truce to entertain,
From Belgia, Denmark, Hungary and Spain.

Tours is a city in France built by Brutus as he came into Britain; where, in the one and twentieth year of the reign of Henry VI, was appointed a great diet to be kept, whither came embassadors of the empire, Spain, Hungary, and Denmark, to entreat for a perpetual peace to be made between the two kings of England and France.

(13) By true descent to wear the diadem
Of Naples, Sicil, and Jerusalem.

Rayner, duke of Anjou, father to queen Margaret, called himself king of Naples, Sicily, and Jerusalem, having the title alone of the king of those countries.

(14) A fifteen's tax in France I freely spent.

The duke of Suffolk, after the marriage concluded between king Henry and Margaret daughter to duke Rayner, asked in open parliament a whole fifteenth to fetch her into England.

(3) Seen thee for England but embark'd at Diep.

Diep is a town in France bordering upon the sea, where the duke of Suffolk with queen Margaret took ship for England.

(16) As when arriv'd in Porchester's fair road.

Porchester, a haven-town in the southwest part of England, near where Portsmouth now stands, which owes its rise to the decay of Port Poris, or Porcester, once a sea-port of great note, till the harbour was almost abandon'd by the sea, and the greatest part of the inhabitants removed into the little island of Portsea, and built the town of Portsmouth at this Porchester, where the king tarried, expecting the queen's arrival, whom from thence he conveyed to Southhampton.

QUEEN MARGARET TO WILLIAM DE LA
POOL, DUKE OF SUFFOLK.

WHAT news (Sweet Pool) look'st thou my lines
But like the tolling of the doleful bell, [should tell,
Bidding the deaths-man to prepare the grave?
Expect from me no other news to have.
My breast, which once was mirth's imperial throne,
A vast and desert wilderness is grown: