How by the Normane conquest here

An other world befell.

New lawes (not labyrinths as now
Through wrested quirkes) came in :
New lords also, at whom, for most,
Our auncient crests begin.

The English sinke, the Normanes swimme,
All topsie turuie was,
Vntill the conquerour had brought

His whole command to pas.
Then was one Edgar, sonne vnto
The out-law Edward, he
To holy Edward had been heire,
Had not king Harold be:
And William pleading too by sword
Admits no milder law !

So Edgar in his soonest flight

His safest issue saw:

Who, with his mother (daughter to
The king of Hungarie)
And sisters, did attempt into

His grandsier's realme to flie.

Thus England's hope with England's heir
In one same barke did sayle:
When desprate from their villenage
Was English blood of baile.

But God, that to the hopeles is

Not helples, if he please,

Did driue the storm-beate English ship
Into the Scottish seas:

Wheare, cast a shore, king Malcome soone

Had notice of the wracke,

And did become a gracious lord
Vnto their present lacke.

And (Agatha a votarisse)

Tooke Margaret to queene:

Protects her brother, euen by armes,
Against king William's teene:
Vntill by warre and wise conuay
He so to passe did bring,

That Edgar reconciled was
Vnto the English king:

In credit, though withheld his crowne,
And thus at least did good:

His flight Scotch-queen'd his sister, she
Regraded England's blood.

For let we Edgar 'gainst the haer
Preserued, as exprest,

And either William, luckie knight
At armes, interred rest,

And set first William's youngest sonne,
First Henry, on the throne,
Through him the royall English and

The Normane bloods grew one.

On Mawd, Scotch Malcome's daughter by
The foresaid Margaret, he

Had Mawd, that solie did suruiue

Her drowned brothers three :

Her, empresse to the emperour

Then newly being ded,

Did Geffrey Plantaganet,
The earle of Anioy, wed,

And she vnto Plantaganet
Did second Henry beire,

Of England; Angeo, Gascoyne, and
Of Normandie, the heire.

VOL. IV.

Yeat Stephen, first William's daughter's son,
Whom th' earle of Bloys did marrie,
Did with the empresse and her son

Now king, now captiue, varrie:
But lastly, tyred, and inter'd,
All England by his death
Was quietly second Henrie's, who
Was lawfulst heire by birth.

With Hengest's blood our droupen Muse
It also now reuiues:

For harshly sounds our poeame, saue
In matter where it thriues.

Let be your bitten vine, we here
A blisfull vintage gayne,
That did, and doth, and euermore
Vnblasted may remaine :
For this coriual seede begot
England English againe.

From whence we note what scepters, what
Discents, and turnes, befel:

Lesse pleasing vnto some, perhaps,
Than toyes which many tell,

That but of phansies, women, loues,

And wantonnes, can sing:

From which their tunes but pip their toungs,
And then they hang the wing.

THIS second Henry, mightie both
In empire and in armes,
Was onely by his cleargie crost
With vnbeseeming harmes.
Perplexed, therefore, at th' apeales
That waiward Becket made,
To some, demaunding his disease
At Normandie, he sayd:

"Our popes, that seeme (they do but seeme)
S. Peter to succeede,

Who did denie, although deserue,

High styles to him decree'd, "Are quite vnlike to Peter, and

Popes thirty three fore-past, Who liu'd in miserie, and died

4

By martyrdom at last. "Now neede not tyrants: popes to popes Be tyrants: and they all

Doe wrest euen principalities

Submissiue to their pall.

"Peter did sinne, and, sinning, to

Repentant teares did flye:

Popes sinne not, but to others' sinnes
Giue pardon (els they lye.)

"Christ washed feete, kings kisse their feet;

Christ gaue to Cæsar his,

They take, and say that either sword

In their subiection is.

"The pope did so our mother's pheare
The emperour, intreate,

As that his proud attempts I shame
And sorrow to repeate.

"What cite I forraine matters, when
Our natiue stories yeeld

Of myters medling with our sword
An ouerplenteous feeld?

"We offer tapers, pay our tythes
And vowes, we pilgrimes goe

To euery saint, at euery shrine

We offerings doe bestoe,

"We kisse the pix, we creepe the crosse,
Our beades we ouer-runne,
The couent hath a legacie,

Who so is left vndone.

"We fast the eaue, we feast the day

Of euery saint they make,
Their houslings, shrifts, and sacraments,
Most reuerently we take.

"By tale we say orysons, and

To words vnknowne Amen:

The quier doth chaunt, we knock our brests,
We bow, and crosse vs then.

"Their skaer-spright water, boxed boans,
Their hoasts, and what not brings
The priest, the frier, or pardoner,
We count not holy things.

"We seat them in our fattest soyles
For pasture, wood, and spring,
We lodge them safe in stately walles,
We sorrowing when they sing.
"Their belles call them from easie beds

To sing in gownes as warme,
But larums vs from restles campes,
By wounds to heale their harme.
"And meete is so: but meete also
That they, protected thus,

Be not vnquiet, but for their quiet
Pray for and further vs.

"When our great grandsicr thought this isle

By conquest cleerly wonne,

And entred Kent, what earst he did,

Did seeme in Kent vndone.

"A moouing wood stole marching on, And hem'd his armie round,

When, al at once, their boughes cast downe,
Was heard a warlike sound,

"That to the Normanes did disclose
An armie ordered well,
Resolu'd to die, rather than leaue

The lawes where they did dwell: (For so, in way of parlie, did

Their mytred Stygand tell.)
"Their bishop, their contriuer, and
Their chiefe conduct was he,
By whose deuise the conqueror,
Intrapped, did agree

To ratifie the lawes of Kent,
Such as they were, and be.
"But bearing in a common good

With crosiers crossing crownes,
Proud Anselme in our vncle's raigne
Did farre exceede the bownes
"Of prelacie or pietie

(For church-men should be meeke:
Yeat some in practise leaue what they
Of vs in preaching secke :
"For they that bid me doe, and doe
Themselues the good they bid,
Doe leade me to the substantiue,
And leave me not in quid)
"Yea, either of our vncles thriu'd

In forraine conquests more,

Than 'gainst their church-men, setting al
Their kingdome in vprore.

"One prelate wrought the pope to curse
And crosse his prince with foes:
Twixt others long ambition's pleas
For primacie aroes:

And now, through Becket, to our selfe
No lesser damage groes.

"I haue had hardy knights for warres,
And helpfull friends in peace,
Yeat helples friends, and hartles knights,
This cleargie-pride to ceace."
These words heard diuers present knights,
Who, vexed at the wrong,
Did, cleane vnwitting to the king,
Ariue in Kent ere long,
And at S. Bennit's altar, in
The minster of his sea,
At sacring for a sacrifice,

The sawcie clerke did slea.
Which heard, the pope canonized
The stir-strif priest a saint,
Insencing kings against our king,
Till warres made Henry faynt.
Then humbled vnto haughty priest,
As legats sent from Rome,
He basely bowes: and they to him
For begged pennance dome,
Purse-payne, and heathen battels, and
(Which worser was decreed)

Barefoote he went, whom monkes did whip
Till feete and bodie bleede.
Barefoote to Iurie fare the knights,

So dying for their deede :

Nor might they mend it, for as bad
Euen emperors did speede.

CHAP. XXIV.

THE king's fayre leiman Rosamund,
And how his sonnes rebell,

I ouer-passe. To Richard next
The dyadem befel.

He did in Cypris, Sycil, and

In Syria, warre and winne:
Whose glory his confederate peeres
To enuy did beginne:

And, warring with the souldan, left
The English king behinde :

Who left not fighting till he forst
Conditions to his minde,

And of Ierusalem was king.

But as he did returne,

The Austrich dake (whose reared flagge
Our wronged king did spurne
From Acon walles, his victorie)
Did Richard intercept,
And him in easelesse prison for

Reuenge and raunsome kept.
The duke his daughter, as the king
Did theare a captiue lie,
Did labour strongly in the loue

She would but could not flie:

And sighing wept, and weeping spake,
And speaking thus shee sayd:
"Richard through hate, through loue am 1,
In diffring bands betrayd

"My haruest hangeth in the grasse,

And ere the proofe may blast:
Or clew-led Theseus, from the denne
Of Minotaurus past,

"To farre more harder starres than was
Poore Ariadne left,

Leaue me he may, of all, yea, more
Than all, of him bereft.

"Sweet Loue, saint Loue, or rather I
Thy saint, and thou my god,
In such desarts let such deceite
Be, as should be, forbod."

The gailor, bribed with his keyes

To stay or free him sent her.

"Loue (louely Richard) makes," quoth she,
"That I this hell-house enter :
Hence make escape, remembring me,
That thus for thee doe venter."
Attentiue to her speech, but more
Retentiue of her shape,

The king, awaking to her forme,
Did sleepe his owne escape:
And giuing her a meeting kisse,

Quoth he, "So God me keepe,
As true desire to quite this good
In mee shall neuer sleepe.

"Yeat ransomelesse I will not hence:
But fetching backe the lone,
When as thy father shall repay

To England tenne for one,
"I vow thy loue a recompence,
Till when I liue to thee."

:

Thus seuer they and raunsome him
Ere many weekes did free.

Soone after on the Belgick:2 towers

He English flags did reare:
Austric and all the empire of
His prowesse stoode in feare:
Vntill a desperate stragler with
An arrow pierst his head,
And sent the wofull English home,
Their worthie leader dead:
Thus Lyon's-hart (his courage got.
That surname) lastly sped.

To whom king John, in courage not
Inferior to the other,

Succeeded, but in life and death

More tragicke than his brother.

IN Scotland, France, Ireland, and Wales,
He warred, wearied lesse,

Than by the pope and English priests
Wronged without redresse.

Nor was, saue from their soueraigne's death,
Their malice out of date:

Yeat Iobn, faine they, but they, felt lohn,
Did trouble church and state.
When (for as gaylers with conuicts,

So popes deale with a faulter:
Their sin-salue like the setting loose
From shackles to the haulter)
When masse and all the sacraments
Were strangers many a day,
And that, so farreforth as it in
The triple myter lay,

Euen God himselfe was barred hence,

And that, prostrate before
His vassall bishop Langton's feete,
The king did grace implore,
When Peter pence were graunted, and
The English crowne to hold

By rent and homage of the pope,
And that for sums of gold

The French king's son was cursed hence,
Who els had wore the crowne,
And that the reconciled king

Did seeme on surest ground,
Then he, whil'st he in progresse did
At Swinshed Abbey lye,
Was poysned by a monke, that baend
Himselfe that Iohn might dye.

The monke, more solemnely inter'd
And song for than the king,
Was cause that diuers diuersly
Did consture of the thing.
Some charg'd the popes of auarice,
For that when kings offend,

They sell them peace: of pride, for that
To them euen monarks bend:

Of meere incharitie, for that

To wreake their priuate spight
'Gainst kingdomes kingdomes they incense,
And, worser, do acquite

Euen subiects to allegiance sworne
Against their lords to fight:

Of treason, for that to intrap

Such as from them discent

With othes and al things they dispence:
Some bid vs thus preuent

Their sinnes and sleights, doe not as they,
Nor deale with them, for why?
Who doth must liue their vassal, or
Their victorie must die.

A merrie máte amongst the rest,
Of cloysterers thus told:

"THIS cloystring and fat feeding of
Religious is not old,"

(Quoth he.) "Not long since was a man That did his deuoire giue

To kill the passions of his flesh,

And did in penance liue :

"And, though beloued of the king,
He liued by his sweat :

Affirming men that would not worke
Vnworthy for to eate.

"He told the erring their amisse,

And taught them to amend.
He counselled the comfortlesse,
And all his daies did spend
"In prayer and in pouertie.

Amongst his doings well,
High waies he mended: doing which
This accident befell.

"A dosen theeues to haue beene hang'd

Were lead this hermite by,

To whom he went, exhorting them
As Christian-men to dye.

So penitent they were, and he
So pitifull (good man)

As to the king for pardon of

The prisoners he rah:

"Which got, he gaue it them. But this Prouiso did he add,

That they should euer worke as he.

They graunt, poore soules, and glad. "He got them gownes of countrey gray, And hoods for rainé and cold, And hempen girdles, which (besides Themselues) might burthens hold, "Pick-axe and spade: and hard to worke The couent fell together,

With roabes, and ropes, and eu❜rie toole

For eu❜rie worke and weather.

“So did they toyle as thereabout
No causie was vnwrought:
Wherefore new labours for his men
The holie hermite sought:
"But at departure prayed them

To fast, to watch, and pray,
And liue remote from worldly men,
And goeth so his way.

"The holy theetes (for now in them
Had custome wrought content)
Could much of scripture, and, indeede,
Did hartely repent.

"But when the countrey folke did heare
Of these same men deuout,
Religiously they haunt their celles,
And lastly brought about,

"That from the woods to buildings braue

They wound the hermit's crew, Who was from found-out worke returnde, And their aposta knew.

"He going to their stately place,
Did finde in euery dish

Fat beefe and brewis, and great store
Of daintie fowle and fish.

"Who seeing their saturitie,

And practising to winne

His puples thence, Excesse,' he sayd, 'Doth worke accesse to sinne.

"Who fareth finest doth but feed,

And ouer-feedeth oft:

Who sleepeth softest doth but sleepe,
And sometimes ouer-soft:

"Who clads him trimmest is but clad:

The fairest is but faire:

And all but liue: yea, if so long,

Yeat not with lesser care

Than formes, backs, boanes, and bellies, that
More homely cherisht are.
"Learne freedome and felicitie,
Hawkes, flying where they list,

Be kindlier and more sound than hawkes
Best tended on the fist.'

"Thus preacht he promist abstinence,
And bids them come away.

No hast but good: well weare they, and
So well, as they would stay.

"The godly hermit, when all meanes
In vaine he did perceine,
Departing sayd: I found you kuaues,
And knanes I doe you leaue.'

"A FOWLE ill on their weazens, for
The carles garre syke a dinne,
That more we member of their iapes
Than mend vs of our sinne.

"At ewle we wonten gambole, daunce,
To carrole, and to sing,

To haue gud spiced sewe, and roste,
And plum-pies for a king:

"At fasts-eue pan-puffes: gang tide gaites Did alie masses bring:

At paske begun our morrise: and
Ere penticost our May:

"Tho Roben hood, liell Iohn, frier Tucke, And Marian, deftly play,

And lard and ladie gang till kirke
With lads and lasses gay:

"Fra masse and eensong sa gud cheere

And glee on ery greene,

As, saue our wakes twixt eames and sibbes,
Like gam was neuer seene:

"At baptis-day with ale and cakes
Bout bon-fires neighbors stood:
At Martelmasse wa turnd a crabbe,
Thilke told of Roben hood,

"Till after long time myrke, when blest
Were windowes, dares, and lights,

And pails were fild, and hathes were swept,
'Gainst fairie-elues and sprits:
Rock, and plow mondaies gams sal gang,
With saint-feasts and kirk sights.

"Iis tell yee, clearkes earst racked not
Of purpoe ne of pall:

Ylke yeoman fed moe poore tume wambes Than gentiles now in hall..

"Yea, ledge they nere sa hally writ,
Thilke tide was greater wrang

Than heretoforne: tho words hath sooth,
Na writing now so strang:

I is na wizard, yet I drad

It will be warse ere lang.

"Belyue doone lyther kirk-men reaue
The crop, and we the tythe,
And mykell bukish ben they gif
They tache our lakines blithe.

"Some egge vs sla the prince and shewe
A bullocke fra the pape,

Whilke, gif it guds the sawle, I is sure
The cragge gangs till the rape:
Syke votion gyles the people, sa
But sylde gud princes scape :

Sa teend our king his life, and song
Is requiem for the monke:
Gud king God rest thy sawle, but feends
Reaue him bath sawle and tronke."
Such talke was long on foote, and still
Was quittance tale for tale.

1

"Dunstore," quod one, "u ade Edgar, earst

An English monarke, quale

For matter of lesse moment, euen

For wedding of a nunne,
Whom in her cell the king espi'de,
Lou'de, wooed, and thus wonne.”

"THE same," quod he, "that rules this land The same intreateth thee:

Thou maist, sweet wench, vnto thyself

Deriue a queene from me.

"What lets, since none may loue thee more,
Vnles perhaps this cell,

Too strict a place wherein thy selfe,
Euen beautie's selfe, shouldst dwell.
"Let Nature hide her barren formes
And imperfections thus,
And in such puritanes as thou
Commend her skill to vs.

Thou wrongest Nature, molding thee
To molde by thee as faer:
Thou wrongest men, that would beget

The fruit which thou sholdst baer:
"Thou wrong'st thy countrie of increase:

Thou wrong'st me in like sort:

Thou wrong'st thy kin of kindred and
Thou wrong'st thy selfe of sport.

"Shouldst thou but dreame, what marriage were,

Thou wou'd'st not liue a maid:

One heart of two, two soules to one

By wedlock is conuaid.

"An husbands open kissings, and

His secret coyings, nay,

The very soule of loue, more sweet

Then thou or I can say,

"The joy of babes which thou should'st beare, The seruice at thy becke,

The sweet consorted common weale

Of houshold at thy checke,

"Would make thee seeme a goddesse; who,
Because thou art not such,
Offendest God in hiding of
Thy tallent. Too too much
"Thou dotest on virginitie,
Permitted, not impos'd
On any, saue on such as for

No such thy selfe thou knoest.

"Els what should meane this penning vp,
Such vowing, and these vailes,
Since vessels onely are of worth

That beare in stormes their sailes.
"The seedsters of thine essence had
They been as thou would'st be,
Thou hadst not been: then gratifie
The same, thy selfe, and me,
"And leaue these superstitious walles :
Thou profitst not hereby,
Nor are we male and female borne
That fruitlesse we should dye:
Then loue me, for, beleeue me, so
Will proue a iubilie."

Her red disperst in shadowed white,
Did adde to either more,
To her of beautie, and to him
Loue greater than before.

CHAP. XXV.

JOHN's murther bred such murmure.
Third Henry, Iohn his sonne,
Assisted chiefly by the pope,
His father's scepter wonne :

Who interdited Lewis, till
Hee curst him into France,
And left to Henry prosperous raigne,
Till hapned this mischance.

A parliament at Oxenford

Did derogate so much

From his prerogatiue, as that
The quarrell grew to such,

That ciuill warres betwixt the king,
And barronage began:

and

But

Not ending, but with tragicke ends
Of many a worthy man,
Brother to brother, sire to sonne,
And friend to friend was foe:
Al labouring (which they should vphold)
Their countries ouerthrow.

Now was the king a captiue, and

The barrons by and by
His conquest, and the ciuill strife
Too fast begot supply.

My heart vnapts mine hand to write
The troth of it too trew:

Euen warres Idea, more than tongue
Or eye can say or view.

But to conclude (which still concludes)
The king he did subdue:

And shewes himselfe a gentle foe
Thus hauing wonne his peace:
And after liu'd in honour, and
Did happily decease.

Whose death (then warring with renowme
In Syria) being knowne

To Edward, he resailed and

Possest his father's throne.

THE hansell of his scepter was,
The Welchmen did rebell:

Of whom to Edward, though with losse,
The victorie befell.

Then on the French he warred, and
A winner did resayle:

And for that Balioll, whom he made
The king of Scots, did faile