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(") Should give away all that his father won, To back a stranger, &c.

King Edward offer'd his right in France to Charles his brother-in-law, and his right in Scotland to Robert Bruce, to be aided against the barons in the quarrel of Pierce Gaveston.

(2) Twice all was taken, twice thou all didst give,
And thus twice dead, thou mak'st me twice to live.
This double life of mine, your only due,
You gave to me, I give it back to you.

Ne'er my escape had I adventur'd thus,
As did the sky attempting Dedalus;
Aud yet to give more safety to my flight,
(1o) And did great Edward on his deathbed give. Did make a night of day, a day of night:
Edward Longshanks, on his deathbed at Carlisle, Nor had I backt the proud aspiring wall,
commanded young Edward his son, on his blessing, Which held without my hopes, within my fall,
not to call back Gaveston, who (for the misguiding) Leaving the cords to tell where I had gone,
of the prince's youth) was before banished by the
whole council of the land.

(") That after all this fearful massacre, The fall of Beauchamp, Lacy, Lancaster. Thomas earl of Lancaster, Guy earl of Warwick, and Henry earl of Lincoln, who had taken their oaths before the deceased king at his death, to withstand his son Edward, if he should call Gaveston from exile, being a thing which he much feared; now seeing Edward to violate his father's commandment, rise in arms against the king, which was the cause of the civil war, and the ruin of so many princes.

(12) And glory'd I in Gaveston's great fall, That now a Spenser should succeed in all? The two Hugh Spensers, the father aud the son, after the death of Gaveston, became the great favourites of the king, the son being created by him lord chamberlain, and the father earl of Winchester.

(1) And if they were, yet Edward doth detain Homage for Poictou, Guien, and Aquitain. Edward Longshanks did homage for those cities and territories to the French king, which Edward II. neglecting, moved the French king, by the subornation of Mortimer, to seize those countries into his hands.

(14) By ancient Wigmore's honourable crest. Wigmore, in the marches of Wales, was the ancient house of the Mortimers, that noble and courageous family.

(1) When still so long as Borough bears that

name.

The queen remembreth the great overthrow given to the barons by Andrew Herkley, earl of Carlisle, at Borough-bridge, after the battle at Burton.

(1) Torlton, that should our business direct. This was Adam Torlton, bishop of Hereford, that great politician, who so highly favoured the faction of the queen and Mortimer; whose evil counsel afterward wrought the destruction of the king.

MORTIMER TO QUEEN ISABEL
As thy salutes my sorrows do adjourn,
So back to thee their int'rest I return,
Though not in so great bounty (I confess)
As thy heroic princely lines express :
For how should comfort issue from the breath
(1)Of one condemn'd, and long lodg'd up for death?
From murther's rage thou didst me once reprieve,
Now in exile my hopes thou dost revive':

For gazers with much fear to look upon;
But that thy beauty (by a power divine)
Breath'd a new life into this spirit of mine,
Drawn by the sun of thy celestial eyes,
With fiery wings, which bare me through the skies.
The Heav'ns did seem the charge of me to take,
And sea and land befriend me for thy sake;
Thames stopp'd his tide, to make me way to go,
As thou hadst charg'd him that it should be so:
The hollow murm'ring winds their due time kept,
As they had rock'd the world, while all things
One billow bare me, and another drave me, [slept;
This strove to help me, and that strove to save me:
The brisling reeds, mov'd with soft gales, did
chide me,

As they would tell me, that they meant to hide me :
The pale-fac'd Night beheld thy heavy chear,
And would not let one little star appear,
But over all her smokey mantle hurl'd,
And in thick vapours muffled up the world:
And the sad air became so calm and still,
As it had been obedient to my will;

And every thing dispos'd it to my rest,
As on the seas when th' halcyon builds her nest.
When those rough waves, which late with fury
rush'd,

Slide smoothly on, and suddenly are hush'd:
Nor Neptune lets his surges out so long,
As Nature is in bringing forth her young.

(*) Ne'er let the Spensers glory in my chance,
In that I live an exile here in France,
That I from England banished should be,
But England rather banished from me:
More were her want, France our great blood
should bear,

Than England's loss can be to Mortimer.
(5) My grandsire was the first, since Arthur's reign,
That the round-table rectify'd again;
To whose great court at Kenelworth did come
The peerless knighthood of all Christendom,
Whose princely order honour'd England more,"
Than all the conquests she achiev'd before.

Never durst Scot set foot on English ground,
Nor on his back did English bear a wound,
Whilst Wigmore flourish'd in our princely hopes,
And whilst our ensigns march'd with Edward's
[scorn)
troops:
(") Whilst famous Longshanks' bones (in fortune's
As sacred reliques to the field were borne:
Nor ever did the valiant English doubt,
Whilst our brave battles guarded them about;
Nor did our wives and woful mothers mourn,
(2) The English blood that stained Banocks-bourn,
Whilst with his minions sporting in his tent,
Whole days and nights in banqueting were spent,
Until the Scots (which under safeguard stood)
Made lavish havoc of the English blood:
Whose batter'd helms lay scatter'd on the shore,
Where they in conquest had been borne before.

A thousand kingdoms will we seek from far, As many nations waste with civil war,

Where the dishevell'd thastly sea-nymph sings,
Or well-rigg'd ships shall stretch their swelling
wings,

And drag their anchors through the sandy foam,
About the world in ev'ry clime to roam,

And those unchristen'd countries call our own,
Where scarce the name of England hath been
known:

(2) And in the Dead Sea sink our house's fame,
(From whose vast depth we first deriv'd our name)
Before foul black-mouth'd Infamy shall sing,
That Mortimer ere stoop'd unto a king.
And we will turn stern-visag'd Fury back,
To seek his spoil, who sought our utter sack;
And come to beard him in our native isle,
Ere he march forth to follow our exile:
And after all these boist'rous stormy shocks,
Yet will we grapple with the chalky rocks;
Nor will we steal, like pirates or like thieves,
From mountains, forests, or sea-bord'ring cleeves,
But fright the air with terror (when we come)
Of the stern trumpet, and the bellowing drum:
And in the field advance our plumy crest,
And march upon fair England's flow'ry breast.
And Thames, which once we for our life did swim,
Shaking our dewy tresses on his brim,--
Shall bear my navy vaunting in her pride,
Falling from Tanet with the pow'rful tide
Which fertile Essex, and fair Kent, shall see,
Spreading her flags along the pleasant Lee,
When on her stemming poop she proudly bears
The famous ensigns of the Belgic peers.
(') And for that hateful sacrilegious sin,
Which by the pope he stands accursed in,
The canon text shall have a common gloss,
Receipts in parcels shall be paid in gross:
This doctrine preach'd, "who from the church
At least shall treble restitution make." [doth take,
For which Rome sends her curses out from far,
Through the stern throat of terrour-breathing War;
Till to th' unpeopled shores she brings supplies,
(10) Of those industrious Roman colonies;
And for his homage, by the which of old,
Proud Edward, Guien, and Aquitain, doth hold,
(") Charles by invasive arms again shall take,
And send the English forces o'er the lake.
When Edward's fortune stands upon this chance,
To lose in England, or to forfeit France;
And all those towns great Longshanks left his son,
Now lost, which once he fortunately won,
Within their strong portculliz'd ports shall lie,
And from their walls his sieges shall defy:
And by that firm and undissolved knot,
Betwixt their neighb'ring French and bord'ring Scot,
Bruce shall bring his Redshanks from the seas,
From th' isled Orcads and the Eubides,
And to his western havens give free pass,
To land the Kern and Irish Galloglass,
Marching from Tweed to swelling Humber's sands,
Wasting along the northern nether-lands.
And wanting those which should his pow'r sustain,
Cousum'd with slaughter in bis bloody reign,
Our warlike sword shall drive him from his throne,
Where he shall lie for us to tread upon.
(13) And those great lords, now after their attaints,
Canonized amongst the English saints,
And by the superstitious people thought,
That by their reliques miracles are wrought;

And think that flood much virtue doth retain,
Which took the blood of famous Bohun slain;
Continuing the remembrance of the thing,
Shall make the people more abhor their king.
Nor shall a Spenser (be he ne'er so great)
Possess our Wigmore, our renowned seat,
To raze the ancient trophies of our race,
With our deserts their monuments to grace:
Nor shall he lead our valiant Marchers forth,
To make the Spensers famous in the North;
Nor be the guardians of the British pales,
Defending England, and preserving Wales.

At first our troubles easily recul'd,

But now grown head-strong, hardly to be rul'd;
"Deliberate counsel needs us to direct,
Where not ev'n plainness frees us from suspect :"
By those mishaps our errours that attend,
Let us our faults ingenuously amend.
Then (dear) repress all pe emptory spleen
Be more than woman, as you are a queen:
Smother those sparks, which quickly else would
burn,

Till time produce what now it doth adjourn,
Till when, great queen, I leave you (though awhile)
Live you in rest, nor pity my exile.

ANNOTATIONS OF THE CHRONICLE HISTORY.

(1) Of one condemn'd and long lodg'd up for death. Roger Mortimer, lord of Wigmore, had stood publicly condemned for his insurrection with Thomas earl of Lancaster, and Bohun earl of Hertford, by the space of three months: and, as the report went, the day of his execution was determined to have been shortly, which he prevented by his escape.

(2) Twice all was taken, twice thou all didst give.

of Wigmore, and his uncle Roger Mortimer the At what time the two Mortimers, this Roger lord by means of Torlton, bishop of Hereford, and elder, were apprehended in the West, the queen, Becke, bishop of Durham and patriarch of Jerusalem, being then both mighty in the state, upon the submission of the Mortimers, somewhat pacified the king: and now secondly she wrought means for his escape.

(3) Leaving the cords to tell where I had

gone.

With strong ladders made of cords, provided him for the purpose, he escaped out of the Tower; which when the same were found fastened to the walls in such a desperate attempt, they bred astonishment in the beholders.

(*) Ne'er let the Spensers glory in my chance.

The two Hugh Spensers, the father and the son, then being so highly favoured of the king, knew that their greatest safety came by his exile, whose high and turbulent spirit could never brook any corrival in greatness.

(") My grandsire was the first since Arthur's reign, That the round table rectify'd again.

Roger Mortimer, called the great lord Mortimer, grandfather to this Roger, who was afterward the first earl of March, erected again the round table at Kenelworth, after the ancient order of king Arthur's table, with the retinue of an hundred knights and an hundred ladies in his house, for

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the entertaining of such adventurers as came thither from all parts of Christendom.

(") Whilst famous Longshanks' bones (in fortune's scorn.)

Edward Longshanks willed at his death, that his body should be boiled the flesh from the boncs,

and that the bones should be borne to the wars in Scotland, which he was persuaded unto by a prophesy, which told, that the English should still be fortunate in conquest, so long as his bones were carried in the field.

(2) The English blood that stained Banocks-bourn.

But the Scots hearing that he was away,
Besieg'd the castle where his lady lay.
Edward the Black Prince, with an army sent
T' remove the foe, beholding from his tent
Her walking on the battlement above,
With the fair countess strangely falls in love.
Her noble husband not long after dy'd;
When he, who thought he should not be deny'd,
Courts her by letters, and thus writeth to her:
She in her answer checks him so to woo her.

In the great voyage Edward the second made RECEIVE (') these papers from thy woful lord,

against the Scots, at the battle of Stirling, near unto the river of Banocks-bourn in Scotland, there was in tite English camp such banqueting and excess, such riot and misorder, that the Scots (who in the meantime laboured for advantage) gave to the English a great overthrow.

(8) And in the Dead Sea sink our house's fame, From whose, &c.

Mortimer, so called of Mare mortuum, and in French Mortimer, in English the Dead Sea, which is said to be where Sodom and Gomorrha once were, before they were destroyed with fire from Heaven. (') And for that hateful sacrilegious sin, Which by the pope he stands accursed in. Gaustellinus and Lucas, two cardinals, sent into England from pope Clement to appease the ancient hate between the king and Thomas earl of Lancaster; to whose embassy the king seemed to yield, but after their departure he went back from his promises, for the which he was accursed at Rome.

(10) Of those industrious Roman colonies.

A colony is a sort or number of people, that come to inbabit a place before not inhabited; whereby he seems here to prophesy of the subversion of the land, the pope joining with the power of other princes against Edward, for the breach of his promise.

(1) Charles by invasive arms again shall take.

Charles the French king, moved by the wrong done unto his sister, seizeth the provinces which belonged to the king of England into his hands, stirred the rather thereto by Mortimer, who solicited her cause in France, as is expressed before in the other epistle, in the gloss upon this point. (") And those great lords, now after their attaints, Canonized among the English saints.

After the death of Thomas carl of Lancaster at Pomfret, the people imagined great miracles to be done by his reliqnes; as they did of the body of Bohun earl of Hertford, slain at Boroughbridge.

EDWARD THE BLACK PRINCE TO ALICE,
COUNTESS OF SALISBURY.

THE ARGUMENT.

Count Sal'sbury a grave and prudent lord,
Dispatch'd for Frauce, was scarcely gone aboard,

With far more woes than they with words are stor❜d,
Which if thine eye for rashness do reprove,
They'll say they came from that imperious love.
In ev'ry line well may'st thou understand,
Which love hath sign'd and sealed with his hand;
And where to farther process he refers,
In blots set down to thee for characters.
This cannot blush, altho' you do refuse it,
Nor will reply, however you shall use it:
All's one to this, though you should bid despair,
This still entreats you, this still speaks you fair.

Hast thou a living soul, a human sense,
To like, dislike, prove, order, and dispense?
The depth of reason soundly to advise,
To love things good, things hurtful to despise?
The touch of judgment, which should all things

prove,

Hast thou all this, yet not allow'st my love?
Sound moves a sound, voice doth beget a voice,
One echo makes another to rejoice;
One well-tun'd string set truly to the like,
Struck near at hand, doth make another strike.
How comes it then, that our affections jar?
What opposition doth beget the war?

I know that Nature fraukly to thee gave
That measure of her bounty that I have;
And as to me, she likewise to thee lent
For ev'ry sense a several instrument:
But ev'ry one, because it is thine own,
Doth prize itself unto itself alone.
Thy dainty hand, when it itself doth touch,
That feeling tells it, that there is none such :
When in thy glass thine eye itself doth see,
That thinks there's none like to self can be;
And ev'ry one doth judge itself divine,
Because that thou dost challenge it for thine:
And each itself, Narcissus like, doth smother,
Loving itself, nor cares for any other.
Fie! be not burn'd thus in thine own desire,
'Tis needless beauty should itself admire :
"The Sun, by which all creatures light'ned be,
And seeth all, itself yet cannot see ;
And his own brightness his own foil is made,
And is to us the cause of his own shade."
When first thy beauty by mine eye was prov'd,
I saw not then so much to be belov'd;
But when it came a perfect view to take,
Each look of one doth many beauties make:
In little circlets there it doth arise,
Then somewhat larger seeming in mine eyes:
And in this gyring compass as it goes,

So more and more the same in greatness grows;
And as it yet at liberty is let,

The motion still doth other forms beget:
Until at length, look any way I could,
Nothing there was but beauty to behold.

ANNOTATIONS OF THE CHRONICLE HISTORY.

(1) Receive these papers from thy woful lord. Bandello, by whom this history was made famous, being an Italian, as it is the people's custom in that clime, rather to fail sometimes in the | truth of circumstance, than to forego the grace of their conceit in like manner as the Grecians, of whom the satyrist:

Et quicquid Græcia mendax

Andet in historia.