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The babes unborn shall (O!) be born to bleed
In this thy quarrel, if thou do proceed."

This said, she ceas'd-When he, in troubled thought
Griev'd at this tale, and sigh'd, and thus replies:
"Dear country, O I have not hither brought
These arms to spoil, but for thy liberties:
The sin be on their head that this have wrought,
Who wrong'd me first, and thee do tyrannize.
I am thy champion; and I seek my right:
Provok'd I am to this by others spite."

"This, this pretence," saith she, "the ambitious
To smooth injustice, and to flatter wrong: [find,
Thou dost not know what then will be thy mind,
When thou shalt see thyself advanc'd and strong.
When thou hast shak'd off that which others bind,
Thou soon forgettest what thou learned'st long :
Men do not know what then themselves will be,
When as more than themselves themselves they see."

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And herewithal turning about, he wakes,
Lab'ring in spirit, troubl'd with this strange sight;
And mus'd awhile, waking advisement takes
Of what had pass'd in sleep, and silent night;
Yet hereof no important reck'ning makes,
But as a dream that vanish'd with the light:
The day-designs, and what he had in hand
Left it to his diverted thoughts unscann'd.
Doubtful at first, he wary doth proceed;
Seems not t' affect that which he did effect;
Or else perhaps seems as he meant indeed,
Sought but his own, and did no more expect.
Then, Fortune, thou art guilty of his deed,
That did'st his state above his hopes erect;
And thou must bear some blame of his great sin,
That left'st him worse than when he did begin.
Thou did'st conspire with pride, and with the time,
To make so easy an assent to wrong,
That he who had no thought so high to climb,
(With sav'ring comfort still allur'd along)
Was with occasion thrust into the crime;
Seeing others' weakness, and his part so strong.
"And who is there in such a case that will
Do good, and fear, that may live free with ill?"

We will not say nor think, O Lancaster,

But that thou then didst mean as thou didst swear:
Upon th' Evangelists at Doncaster,

In th' eye of Heaven, and that assembly there;
That thou but as an upright orderer

Sought'st to reform th' abused kingdom here,
And get thy right, and what was thine before:
And this was all; thou would'st attempt no more.
Though we might say and think that this pretence
Was but a shadow to th' intended act;
Because the event doth argue the offence,,
And plainly seems to manifest the fact.
For that hereby thou might'st win confidence
With those, whom else thy course might hap dis-
And all suspicion of thy drift remove;
"Since easily men credit whom they love."

[tract,

But God forbid we should so nearly pry
Into the low deep bury'd sins long past,
T' examine and confer iniquity,
Whereof Faith would no memory should I ast;
That our times might not have t' exemplit 'y
With aged stains; but with our own shame cast,

Might think our blot the first, not done before, That new-made sins might make us blush the more.

And let unresting Charity believe,
That then thy oath with thy intent agreed,
And others' faith thy faith did first deceive,
Thy after-fortune forc'd thee to this deed:
And let no man this idle censure give,
Because th' event proves so, 't was so decreed:
"For oft our counsels sort to other end,
Than that which frailty did at first intend.”

Whilst those that are but outward lookers on,
(Who seldom sound these mysteries of state)
Deem things were so contriv'd as they are done,
Imagining all former acts did run
And hold that policy, which was but fate;

Unto that course they see th' effects relate;
Whilst still too short they come, or cast too far,
"And make these great men wiser than they are."

But by degrees he ventures now on blood,
And sacrific'd unto the people's love
The death of those that chief in envy stood;
As th' officers, (who first these dangers prove)
The treasurer, and those whom they thought good,
Busby and Green 34 by death he must remove:
These were the men the people thought did cause
Those great exactions, and abus'd the laws.

This done, his cause was preach'd with learned skill,

By Arundel th' archbishop "; who there show'd
A pardon sent from Rome, to all that will
Take part with him, and quit the faith they ow'd
To Richard, as a prince unfit and ill,
On whom the crown was fatally bestow'd:
And easy-yielding Zeal was quickly caught,
With what the mouth of Gravity had taught.
O that this power from everlasting given,
(The great alliance made 'twixt God and us,
Th' intelligence that Earth should hold with Hea-
Sacred Religion 36! O that thou must thus
Be made to smooth our ways unjust, uneven;
Brought from above, Earth quarrels to discuss.
Must men beguile our souls to win our wills;
And make our zeal the furtherer of ills?

[v'n)

But the ambitious, to advance their might,
Dispense with Heaven, and what religion would:
"The armed will find right, or else make right;"
If this means wrought not yet another should.
And this and other now do all incite

To strength the faction that the duke doth hold;
Who easily obtained what he sought;
His virtues and his love so greatly wrought.

The king still busied in this Irish war,
(Which by his valour there did well succeed)
Had news how here his lords revolted are,
And how the duke of Her'ford doth proceed;
In these affairs he fears are grown too far;
Hastes his return from thence with greatest speed;

34 The duke put to death William Scroope, earl of Wiltshire, treasurer of England; with sir Henry Green, and sir John Busby, for misgoverning the king and the realm.

35 Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury. 36 Bis peccat, qui pretexu religionis peccat.

But was by tempests, winds, and seas, debarr'd,
As if they likewise had against him warr'd.

But at the length (though late) in Wales he lands;
Where thoroughly inform'd of Henry's force,
And well advertis'd how his own case stands,
(Which to his grief he sees tends to the worse)
He leaves t' Aumarle ", at Milford, all those bands
He brought from Ireland; taking thence his course
To Conway (all disguis'd) with fourteen more,
To th' earl of Salisbury, thither sent before.

Thinking the earl 39 had rais'd some army there;
Whom there he finds forsaken, all alone:
The forces in those parts which levied were,
Were closely shrunk away, dispers'd and gone.
The king had stay'd too long; and they, in fear,
Resolved every man to shift for one.
At this amaz'd, such fortune he laments;
Foresees his fall, whereto each thing consents.

In this disturb'd, tumultuous, broken state,
Whilst yet th' event stood doubtful what should be;
Whilst nought but headlong running to debate,
And glitt'ring troops and armour men might see;
Fury and fear, compassion, wrath, and hate,
Confus'd through all the land, no corner free:
The strong, all mad, to strife, to ruin bent;
The weaker wail'd; the aged they lament,

And blame their many years that live so long,
To see the horrour of these miseries.

"Why had not we," say they, "dy'd with the strong
In foreign fields, in honourable wise,
In just exploits, and noble without wrong;
And by the valiant hand of enemies?
And not thus now reserved in our age,
To home-confusion, and disordered rage."

Unto the temples flock the weak, devout,
Sad wailing women; there to vow, and pray
For husbands, brothers, or their sons gone out
To bloodshed; whom nor tears nor love could stay.
Here grave religious fathers (which much doubt
The sad events these broils procure them may)
As prophets warn, exclaim, dissuade these crimes,
By the examples fresh of other times.

And "O! what do you now prepare," said they;
"Another conquest, by these fatal ways?
What, must your own hands make your selves a prey
To desolation, which these tumults raise?
What Dane, what Norman shall prepare his way,
To triumph on the spoil of your decays?
That which nor France, nor all the world could do,
In union, shall your discord bring you to?

"Conspire against us, neighbour nations all,
That envy at the height whereto w' are grown:
Conjure the barb'rous North, and let them call
Strange fury from far distant shores unknown;
And let them all together on us fall,
So to divert the ruin of our own;
That we, forgetting what doth so incense,
May turn the hand of malice to defence.

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"Calm these tempestuous spirits, O mighty Lord;
This threatning storm, that over-hangs the land:
Make them consider e're they unsheath the sword,
How vain is th' Earth, this point whereon they stand;
And with what sad calamities is stor❜d
The best of that, for which th' ambitious band;
Labour the end of labour, strife of strife,
Terrour in death, and horrour after life."

Thus they in zeal, whose humbl'd thoughts were
good,

Whilst in this wide-spread volume of the skies
The book of Providence disclosed stood,
Warnings of wrath, foregoing miseries,
In lines of fire, and characters of blood;
There fearful forms in dreadful flames arise,
Amazing comets, threatning monarchs might,
And new-seen stars, unknown unto the night:

Red fir'y dragons in the air do fly,

And burning meteors, pointed streaming lights;
Bright stars in midst of day appear in sky,
Prodigious monsters, ghastly fearfull sights;
Strange ghosts and apparitions terrify:
The woful mother her own birth affrights;
Seeing a wrong deformed infant born,
Grieves in her pains, deceiv'd, in shame doth mourn.

The Earth, as if afraid of blood and wounds,
Trembles in terrour of these falling blows;
The hollow concaves give out groaning sounds,
And sighing murmurs, to lament our woes:
The ocean all at discord with his bounds,
Reiterates his strange untimely flows.
Nature all out of course, to check our course,
Neglects her work, to work in us remorse.

So great a wreck unto it self doth (lo!)
Disorder'd, proud mortality prepare,
That this whole frame doth even labour so
Her ruin unto frailty to declare;
And travails to fore-signify the woe,
That weak improvidence could not beware.
"For Heav'n and earth, and air and seas, and all,
Taught men to see, but not to shun their fall."

Is man so dear unto the Heavens, that they
Respect the ways of Earth, the works of sin?
Doth this great all, this universal weigh
The vain designs that weakness doth begin?
Or doth our fear, father of zeal, give way
Unto this error ignorance lives in;

And deem our faults the cause that move these
pow'rs,

That have their cause from other cause than ours?

But these beginnings had this impious war,
Th' ungodly bloodshed that did so defile
The beauty of thy fields, and ev'n did mar
The flow'r of thy chief pride, thou fairest Isle:
These were the causes that incens'd so far
The civil-wounding hand, enrag'd with spoil;
That now the living, with afflicted eye,
Look back with grief on such calamity.

THE

HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR.

BOOK II.

THE ARGUMENT.

King Richard moans his wrong, and wails his reign;
And here betray'd, to London he is led,
Basely attir'd, attending Her'ford's train;
Where th' one is scorn'd, the other welcomed.
His wife, mistaking him, doth much complain;
And both together greatly sorrowed:
In hope to save his life, and ease his thrall,
He yields up state, and rule, and crown and all.

In dearth of faith, and scarcity of friends,
The late great mighty monarch, on the shore,
In th' utmost corner of his land attends,
To call back false Obedience, fled before;
Toils, and in vain his toil and labour spends;
More hearts he sought to gain, he lost the more:
All turn'd their faces to the rising sun,
And leave his setting fortune, night begun.

Piercy', how soon, by thy example led,
The houshold-train forsook their wretched lord!
When with thy staff of charge dishonoured,
Thou brak'st thy faith, not steward of thy word,
And took'st his part, that after took thy head;
When thine own hand had strengthen'd first his sword.
"For such great merit do upbraid, and call
For great reward, or think the great too small."

And kings love not to be beholden ought; [worst:
Which makes their chiefest friends oft speed the
For those, by whom their fortunes have been wrought,
Put them in mind of what they were at first;
Whose doubtful faith if once in question brought,
'Tis thought they will offend, because they durst;
And, taken in a fault, are never spar'd;
"Being easier to revenge than to reward."

And thus these mighty actors, sons of change,
These partizans of factions often try'd,
That in the smoke of innovations strange
Build huge uncertain plots of unsure pride;
And on the hazard of a bad exchange,
Have ventur'd all the stock of life beside;
"Whilst princes rais'd, disdain to have been rais'd
By those whose helps deserve not to be prais'd."

But thus is Richard left, and all alone,
Save with th' unarmed title of his right;
And those brave troops, his fortune-followers, gone,
And all that pomp, (the complements of might)
Th' amusing shadows that are cast upon
The state of princes, to beguile the sight;
All vanish'd clean, and only frailty left,
Himself of all besides himself bereft.

Thomas Piercy was earl of Worcester, brother to the earl of Northumberland, and steward of the king's house.

Like when some great Colossus, whose strong base
Or mighty props are shrunk, or sunk away,
Foreshowing ruin, threatning all the place
That in the danger of his fall doth stay;
All straight to better safety flock apace,
None rest to help the ruin while they may:
"The peril great, and doubtfull the redress,
Men are content to leave right in distress."

And look how Thames, enrich'd with many a flood,
And goodly rivers, (that have made their graves,
And bury'd both their names, and all their good,
Within his greatness, to augment his waves)
Glides on with pomp of waters, unwithstood,
Unto the ocean, (which his tribute craves)
And lays up all his wealth within that pow'r,
Which in it self all greatness doth devour.

So flock the mighty, with their following train,
Unto the all-receiving Bolingbroke;
Who wonders at himself, how he should gain
So many hearts as now his party took ;
And with what ease, and with how slender pain,
His fortune gives him more than he could look :
What he imagin'd never could be wrought,
Is pour'd upon him far beyond his thought.

So, often, things which seem at first in show, Without the compass of accomplishment, Once ventur'd on, to that success do grow, That ev❜n the authors do admire th' event: So many means which they did never know, Do second their designs, and do present Strange unexpected helps; and chiefly then, When th' actors are reputed worthy men,

And Richard, who look'd Fortune in the back,
Sees headlong Lightness running from the right,
Amazed stands, to note how great a wreck
Of faith his riots caus'd; what mortal spite
They bear him, who did law and justice lack:
Sees how concealed Hate breaks out in sight,
And fear-depressed Envy, (pent before)
When fit occasion, thus unlock'd the door.

Like when some mastiff-whelp, dispos'd to play,
A whole confused herd of beasts doth chase,
Which with one vile consent run all away;
If any hardier than the rest, in place
But offer head that idle fear to stay,

Back straight the daunced chaser turns his face;
And all the rest (with bold example led)
As fast run on him, as before they fled:

So, with this bold opposer rushes on
This many-headed monster, Multitude:
And he, who late was fear'd, is set upon,
And by his own (Actæon-like) pursu'd;
His own, that had all love and awe forgone:
Whom breath and shadows only did delude,
And newer hopes, which promises persuade;
Though rarely men keep promises so made.

The duke of York, left governor of the realm in the absence of the king, having levied a great army, as if to have opposed against Bolingbroke, brought most of the nobility of the kingdom to take his part.

Which when he saw, thus to himself complains;
"O why do you, fond, false-deceived, so
Run headlong to that change that nothing gains,
But gain of sorrow, only change of woe?
Which is all one; if he be like who reigns:
Why will you buy with blood what you forego?
Tis nought but shows that ignorance esteems:
The thing possess'd is not the thing it seems.

"And when the sins of Bolingbroke shall be
As great as mine, and you unanswered

In these your hopes; then may you wish for me,
Your lawful sov'reign, from whose faith you fled;
And, grieved in your souls, the errour see
That shining promises had shadowed:
As th' hum'rous sick removing, find no ease,
When changed chambers change not the disease.

"Then shall you find this name of liberty,
(The watch-word of rebellion ever us'd;
The idle echo of uncertainty,

That evermore the simple hath abus'd)
But new-turn'd servitude, and misery;
And ev❜n the same, and worse, before refus'd.
Th' aspirer once attain'd unto the top,
Cuts off those means by which himself got up.

"And with a harder hand, and straiter rein,
Doth curb that looseness he did find before;
Doubting th' occasion like might serve again:
His own example makes him fear the more.
Then, O injurious land! what dost thou gain,
To aggravate thine own afflictions' store?
Since thou must needs obey kings government;
And no rule ever yet could all content.

"What if my youth hath offer'd up to lust
Licentious fruits of indiscreet desires,
When idle heat of vainer years did thrust
That fury on? Yet now when it retires
To calmer state, why should you so distrust
To reap that good whereto mine age aspires?
The youth of princes have no bounds for sin,
Unless themselves do make them bounds within.

"Who sees not, that sees ought, (woe worth the while)
The easy way, that greatness hath to fall?
Environ'd with deceit, hemm'd in with guile;
Sooth'd up in flatt'ry, fawned on of all;
Within his own living as in exile;
Hears but with others ears, or not at all;
And ev'n is made a prey unto a few,
Who lock up grace, that would to other shew.

"And who (as let in lease) do farm the crown,
And joy the use of majesty and might;
Whilst we hold but the shadow of our own,
Pleas'd with vain shows, and dallied with delight:
They, as huge unproportion'd mountains grown,
Between our land and us, shadowing our light,
Bereave the rest of joy, and us of love,

And keep down all, to keep themselves above.

"Which wounds, with grief, poor unrespected zeal,
When grace holds no proportion in the parts;
When distribution in the common-weal
Of charge and honour, due to good deserts,
Is stopt; when others' greedy hands must deal
The benefit that majesty imparts;

What good we meant, comes gleaned home but light;
Whilst we are robb'd of praise, they of their right."
VOL. IIL

Thus he complain'd-When lo, from Lancaster,
(The new entitl'd duke) with order sent
Arriv'd Northumberland, as to confer,
And make relation of the duke's intent :
And offer'd there, if that he would refer
The controversy unto parli'ment,
And punish those that had abus'd the state,
As causers of this universal hate;

And also see that justice might be had
On those the duke of Gloc'ster's death procur'd,
And such remov'd from council as were bad;
His cousin Henry would, he there assur'd,
On humble knees before his grace be glad
To ask him pardon, to be well secur'd,
And have his right and grace restor'd again:
The which was all he labour'd to obtain.
And therefore doth an enterparle exhort;
Persuades him leave that unbeseeming place,
And with a princely hardiness resort
Unto his people, that attend his grace.
They meant his public good, and not his hurt;
And would most joyful be to see his face.
He lays his soul to pledge, and takes his oath,
The host of Christ, an hostage for his troth.

This proffer, with such protestations, inade
Unto a king that so near danger stood,
Was a sufficient motive to persuade,
When no way else could show a face so good:
Th' unhonourable means of safety bad
Danger accept, what majesty withstood.
"When better choices are not to be had,
We needs must take the seeming best of bad."
Yet stands h' in doubt awhile what way to take;
Conferring with that small-remaining troop
Fortune had left; which never would forsake
Their poor, distressed lord; nor ever stoop
To any hopes the stronger part could make :
Good Carlisle 4, Ferby, and sir Stephen Scroope,
With that most worthy Montague, were all
That were content with majesty to fall.

Time, spare; and make not sacrilegious theft
Upon so memorable constancy :
Let not succeeding ages be bereft
Of such examples of integrity.

Nor thou, magnan'mous Leigh 6, must not be left
In darkness, for thy rare fidelity;

To save thy faith, content to lose thy head;
That rev'rent head, of good men honoured.

Nor will my conscience I should injury
Thy memory, most trusty Jenico?,
For b'ing not ours; though wish that Gascony
Claim'd not for hers the faith we rev'rence so;
That England might have this small company
Only to her alone, having no mo.

But let's divide this good betwixt us both;
Take she thy birth, and we will have thy troth.

3 The earl of Northumberland sent to the king, from Henry Bolingbroke, now duke of Lancaster. 4 The bishop of Carlisle.

5 Montague, earl of Salisbury.

6 This was sir Peter Leigh's ancestor, (of Lyme in Cheshire) that now is.

7 Jenico d'Artois, a Gascoign.

H h

Grave Montague, whom long experience taught
In either fortune, thus advis'd his king:
"Dear sov'reign, know, the matter that is sought
Is only how your majesty to bring
(From out of this poor safety you have got)
Into their hands, that else hold ev'ry thing.
For now, but only you they want of all;
And wanting you, they nothing theirs can call.

"Here have you craggy rocks to take your part,
That never will betray their faith to you;
These trusty mountains here will never start,
But stand t' upbraid their shame that are untrue.
Here may you fence your safety with small art,
Against the pride of that confused crew:
If men will not, these very cliffs will fibgt,
And be sufficient to defend your right.

"Then keep you here; and here you shall behold,
Within short space, the sliding faith of those
That cannot long their resolution hold,
Repent the course their idle rashness chose.
For that same mercenary faith they sold,
With least occasions discontented grows,
And insolent those voluntary bands;
Presuming how by them he chiefly stands.

"And how can he those mighty troops sustain
Long time, where now he is, or any where?
Besides, what discipline can he retain,
Whereas he dares not keep them under fear,
For fear to have them to revolt again?
So that itself when greatness cannot bear,
With her own weight, must needs confus'dly fall,
Without the help of other force at all.

"And hither to approach he will not dare;
Where deserts, rocks, and hills, no succours give;
Where desolation, and no comforts are;
Where few can do no good, many not live.
Besides, we have, the ocean, to prepare
Some other place, if this should not relieve:
So shall you tire his force, consume his strength,
And weary all his followers out at length.

"Do but refer to time, and to small time;
And infinite occasions you shall find,
To quell the rebel, even in the prime
Of all his hopes, beyond all thought of mind.
For many (with the conscience of the crime)
In colder blood will curse what they design'd;
And bad success upbraiding their ill fact,
Draws them (whom others draw) from such an act.
"For if the least imagin'd overture

But of conceiv'd revolt men once espy,
Straight shrink the weak; the great will not endure;
Th' impatient run; the discontented fly:
The friend bis friend's example doth procure;
And all together haste them presently,
Some to their home, some hide; others that stay
To reconcile themselves, the rest betray.
"What hope have you that ever Bolingbroke
Will live a subject, that hath try'd his fate?
Or what good reconcilement can you look,
Where he must always fear, and you must hate?
And never think that he this quarrel took,
To re-obtain thereby his private state:

The earl of Salisbury, his speech to king Richard.

'Twas greater hopes that hereto him did call; And he will thrust for all, or else lose all.

"Nor trust this subtle agent, nor his oath.
You know his faith-you try'd it beforehand.
His fault is death and now to lose his troth,
To save his life, he will not greatly stand.
Nor trust your kinsman's proffer; since you both
Show, blood in princes is no stedfast band.
What though he hath no title?-he hath might:
That makes a title, where there is no right."

Thus he.. -When that good bishop thus replies,
Out of a mind that quiet did affect:
"My lord, I must confess, as your case lies,
You have great cause your subjects to suspect,
And counterplot against their subtilties,
Who all good care and honesty neglect;
And fear the worst what insolence may do,
Or armed fury may incense them to.

"But yet, my lord, fear may as well transport
Your care, beyond the truth of what is meant;
As otherwise neglect may fall too short,
In not examining of their intent:

But let us weigh the thing, which they exhort;
'Tis peace, submission, and a parli❜ment:
Which, how expedient 'tis for either part,
"Twere good we judg'd with an impartial heart.

"And first, for you my lord, in grief we see
The miserable case wherein you stand;
Void here of succour, help, or majesty,
On this poor promontory of your land:
And where how long a time your grace may be
(Expecting what may fall into your hand)
We know not; since th' event of things do lie
Clos'd up in darkness, far from mortal eye.

"And how unfit it were you should protract
Long time, in this so dangerous disgrace?
As though that you good spir't and courage lack
To issue out of this opprobrious place:
When ev'n the face of kings do oft exact
Fear and remorse in faulty subjects base;
And longer stay a great presumption draws,
That you were guilty, or did doubt your canse.

"What subjects ever so enrag'd would dare
To violate a prince; t' offend the blood
Of that renowned race, by which they are
Exalted to the height of all their good?
What if some things by chance misguided were,
Which they have now rebelliously withstood?
They never will proceed with that despite,
To wreck the state, and to confound the right.

"Nor do I think that Bolingbroke can be
So blind-ambitious to affect the crown;
Having himself no title, and doth see
Others, if you should fail, must keep him down
Besides, the realm, though mad, will never 'gret
To have a right succession overthrown;
To raise confusion upon them and theirs,
By prejudicing true and lawful heirs.

The bishop of Carlisle.

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