To be remembred of pofteritie,

Save One, that maugre Fortunes iniurie,
And Times decay, and Envies cruell tort,
Hath writ my record in true-feeming fort.

165

170

"Cambden! the nourice of antiquitie,
And lanterne unto late fucceding age,
To fee the light of fimple veritie
Buried in ruines, through the great outrage
Of her owne people led with warlike rage:
Cambden! though Time all moniments obfcure,
Yet thy iuft labours ever fhall endure.

175

"But whie (unhappie wight!) doo I thus crie,
And grieve that my remembrance quite is raced
Out of the knowledge of pofteritie,
And all my antique moniments defaced?
Sith I doo dailie fee things highest placed, 180
So foone as Fates their vitall thred have fhorne,
Forgotten quite as they were never borne.

"It is not long, fince these two eyes beheld
A mightie Prince, of moft renowmed race,
Whom England high in count of honour held, 185
outrage] The same
accent on this word occurs in The most pleasant Comedie of
Mucedorus, 4to. 1598. Sign. E. 2. b.

Ver. 172.

"As men thus liued in his great outrage,

"Behould one Orpheus came, &c." TODD. Ver. 184.

A mightie prince, &c.] Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicefter. OLDYS.

And greatest ones did fue to gaine his grace;
Of greatest ones he greatest in his place,
Sate in the bofome of his Soveraine,

And Right and Loyall did his word maintaine.

"I faw him die, I faw him die, as one

190

Of the meane people, and brought foorth on

beare;

I faw him die, and no man left to mone
His dolefull fate, that late him loved deare:
Scarfe anie left to close his eylids neare;
Scarfe anie left upon his lips to laie
The facred fod, or Requiem to faie.

195

Ver. 189. Right and Loyall] His motto. OLDYS. Ver. 190. I jaw him die, &c.] If Verulam fpeaks this in her own perfon, Ralph Brook must be wrong, to say his Lordthip died at Cornbury Lodge in Oxfordshire; and fo is Mr. Arthur Collins, who likewise says that the Earl died there, in his way to Killingworth Castle, 4. Sept. 1588. Spenfer could not say it in his own perfon, for he was then in Ireland.

OLDYS.

Sir Robert Naunton, in his Fragmenta Regalia, or Obfervations on the late queen Elizabeth, her times and favourites, published in 1641, confirms the account that the Earl died at Cornbury; and relates that his death was believed to be occafioned by that poifon which he prepared for others, wherein they report him a rare artist." Abraham Darcie, in his Hift. and Annals of Elizabeth, relates that he died “of a continuall burning feaver; as hee was on his way to go to Killingworth:" And Camden mentions the circumstance of his dying on his journey. It is not improbable that the Earl might difcover fymptoms of the malady, by which he fell, at St. Alban's, which is in the direct road to Warwickshire; and that the report of his illness from this place, having reached Spenfer who was then in Ireland, might occafion the poet, without making further inquiry as to the real place of the Earl's death, to apply this lamentation to the person of Verulam. TODD.

"O truftleffe ftate of miferable men,
That builde your blis on hope of earthly thing,
And vainly thinke your felves halfe happie then,
When painted faces with smooth flattering 200
Doo fawne on you, and your wide praises fing;
And, when the courting masker louteth lowe,
Him true in heart and truftie to you trow!

"All is but fained, and with oaker dide,
That everie fhower will wash and wipe away; 205
All things doo change that under heaven abide,
And after death all friendship doth decaie.
Therefore, what ever man bearft worldlie fway,
Living, on God and on thy felfe relie;

For, when thou dieft, all shall with thee die. 210

"He now is dead, and all is with him dead,
Save what in heavens ftorehouse he uplaid:
His hope is faild, and come to paffe his dread,
And evill men (now dead) his deedes upbraid:
Spite bites the dead, that living never baid.
He now is gone, the whiles the Foxe is crept
Into the hole, the which the Badger fwept.

Ver. 214.

215

his deedes upbraid:] So Speed relates of this nobleman: "Leicefter ended his dayes, hauing been a peere of great eftate, but lyable to the common destiny of moft Great Ones, whom all men magnifie in their life time, but few fpeake well of after their death." Hift. of Gr. Brit. fol. 1185. TODD.

220

"He now is dead, and all his glorie gone,
And all his greatnes vapoured to nought,
That as a glaffe upon the water shone,
Which vanisht quite, fo foone as it was fought:
His name is worne alreadie out of thought,
Ne anie Poet feekes him to revive;
Yet manie Poets honourd him alive.

"Ne doth his Colin, careleffe Colin Cloute, 225 Care now his idle bagpipe up to raise,

Ne tell his forrow to the liftning rout Of shepheard groomes, which wont his fongs to praise :

Praise who so lift, yet I will him dispraise, Untill he quite him of this guiltie blame: 230 Wake, fhepheards boy, at length awake for fhame.

Ver. 224. Yet manie Poets honourd him alive.] In a publication, entitled Leycefters Ghost, printed in 1641, this nobleman is represented as having particularly countenanced the poets:

"To learned Schollers I was fomething franck,
"Not for the love that I to learning bore,
"But either to get praife or pick a thank
"Of fuch as could the Mufes aide implore:
"For hee is bleft, that so be-friended dies,
"Whose praise the Muses will immortalize.

"You mortals that would have your fame furvive,
"When you within your grave entomb'd shall lie,
"Cherish thofe facred Sifters while you live;
"For they be daughters of Dame Memory:
"They have the guift to register with penne
"Th'eternall fame or infamy of men.'

TODD.

"And who fo els did goodnes by him gaine, And who fo els his bounteous minde did trie, Whether he fhepheard be, or fhepheards fwaine, (For manie did, which doo it now denie,) Awake, and to his Song a part applie: And I, the whileft you mourne for his decease, Will with my mourning plaints your plaint

increase.

235

"He dyde, and after him his brother dyde,
His brother Prince, his brother noble Peere, 240
That whileft he lived was of none envyde,
And dead is now, as living, counted deare,
Deare unto all that true affection beare:
But unto thee most deare, O dearest Dame,
His noble Spouse, and Paragon of Fame.

245

"He, whileft he lived, happie was through thee, And, being dead, is happie now much more; Living, that lincked chaunft with thee to bee, And dead, because him dead thou doft adore As living, and thy loft deare Love deplore. 250 So whilft that thou, faire flower of chastitie, Doft live, by thee thy Lord shall never die.

Ver. 239. and after him his brother dyde,] Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, died without iffue Feb. 20, 1589. OLDYS. Ver. 244. But unto thee &c.] Anne, the eldest daughter of Francis Lord Ruffel Earl of Bedford, was his last wife.

OLDYS.