Such reasons seeming plausible,

I fleeting whence I loued, By absence and new exercise Old passions were remoued.

"So did I loue, and so I left,

So many a skorne, and skoffe,
Care, cost, disgrace, and losse of time
Were and may be cut off :

"And women so lesse stand aloofe,

When men can so be wise :

So lesser sute hath lucklier speede,
Than to be too precise.

"Not women, but our wilfulnesse,

Doth worke our owne vnrest:

Though beautie, loue, and they lacke fault,
We may abuse the best.'

"SO help me, Iupiter' (quoth Mars)
'In love so may 1 speede,
As Mercurie and Pan do erre
In points of loue in deede :
"Precisians and plaine plodders (such
Is this, and so is that)

In loue do swallow cammels, whilest
They nicely straine a gnat,

"Why what be women? Women, geld
The latter siltabell,

Then are they nothing more then woe,
Their names remaine doth tell.

"Their yea, or no, euen when they sweare They loue or loue vs not,

Beleeue who list: soone be they gone,

As sodainly are got.

"What neede we creepe the crosse to give Vnto a begging saint?

Tush, tush, a flye for booke-loue, none
Be fortunate that faint.

"Not paper, pursse, or kerchiefe plea

Lets fancie sooner loase

Than at the shrine to watch the saint,
She is not coy, but cloase:

Pollitians know to cheapen, what

To offer, when to skoase.

"The clowne, no doubt, that potted Pan, Lackt art to glose and flatter,

And yeat nor Pan nor Mercurie
Went roundlier to the matter:

"He found right methode (for there is
A methode, time, and place,
Which fooles obseruing do commence
Ere wisemen haue their grace).

"For when his sudden eyes admir'd
The boan-flesht faire conuart
Derived from his side, his tongue,
Directed by his hart,
"Forthwith pronounced woman, but
A moment earst vnknoen,
So deare as flesh of his owne flesh,
And bone of his owne boen:

"Quit then, ye gods, this lad and let Your search of loue alone:

Who will in power be felt of all,

In person found of none.

"Or rather is not reall, but
Some fansie: if not, then
Fantasticall in women, but
Essentially in men.

"If love be such in women (But

Mistake me not, for whie?

I note them but fantasticall,

In fault of destinie)

"Deferre were then to erre: when all

Is done that doe we may,

Labor we sorrowing all the night,

And sewing all the day.

"The female faultie custome yeelds

Lesse merit greatest pay,

And ventrous more than vertuous meanes Doth beare the bell away.

Now touching Venus (worthie such
A pheere, not such a foe)

Vulcan, me thinkes, obserueth well
Slight proofe in yea and noe,

The court therefore is well aduis'd
To sentence not to groe.'

"The gods, that did ere while but aime
At Vulcan's wiue's sonne's father,
Saw Venus blush, and held that aime
Autentical the rather.

"End gods and goddesses,' quoth Iove, 'To argue to and fro:

Like good and bad is either sex.

Nay more, behold, than so, I view'd erewhile the destenies, And thence I thus did know.

"Zimois, when Troy must perish, shall Send downe her floods a fleete,

And world it where our father rul'd

When Create thought him vnmeet:

"But long time hence, and farre starres thence, That world shall world an isle

Enuyron'd with the Ocean waues,

Then famous in short while

I

"Through often triumphes ouer foes

And traffike enery wheare,

Howbeit thrice orerunne, and once
A conquest shall be theare.
"Those changes notwithstanding they
A people shall remaine

Vnchased thence, and of that streene
Shall fue at length re-raigne.
"Dread, terrene gods, the fift of those,
A terrene goddesse, she
Euen at the firie trigon shall

Your chiefe ascendant be:
"Right Phobe-like (Phoebe may like
A compere like to her)
Retriue her named name, to time
The tryall we refer.'

"This say'd, he bids adiorne the court,
And willed Mercurie
Thenceforth not to conuent the gods
For such a foolerie,

As loue, the idle bodie's worke,
And surfet of the eie."

And thus the queene and Tuder chat :
But thought of nothing lesse...
Than that from them loue's noted fiue
Fated to such successe

Should spring, as sprong, and part springs yet.
But cease we to digresse

And shew we how her sonne did long

And lucklesse raigne possesse.

CHAP, XXXII.

Ir rests, fifth Henrie's sonne, that made

The Henries more by one,

Did in his infancie possesse

His conquering father's throne,
And happely was rulde a child,

And rulde an happie man,
Till with his parrasites his peeres
And hee with them began
A bloodie quarrell offering so
Vnto the Yorkests spright
For to reclaime, in bold attempts,
Their discontinued right.
Richard Plantagenet the duke

Of Yorke, by Warwick's ayde,
Did get the gaole, not long enioy'd,
For he in armes decayde,

Subdued by king Henric's queene,
When as by friends and force

He had in parlament obtaynde
In euery clause his corse:

For, mounted thear the kingly throne,
That Yorkish heros sayd,

"Here should I speake, and shal, I hope:"

And so his claime conuay'd

From Clarence, his progenitor,
With reasons such among,
As, he protector of the realme,

King Henric's heires were wrung
From all reuersion: hearts and eares
Did so applaud his tung.

Edward his sonne, then earle of March, (The duke his father slaine)

Wonne, by the earle of Warwick's ayde,
In double battell raigne.

King Henry filed to Scotland, and

The queene and prince their sonne,
From France sollicet succors, which
Vnto their losse they wonne.
Henry was taken, they and their
Confedrates were subdu'd:
Yeat still the queene escaped, and
She armour still pursu'd.

But, Warwicke pleased, all attempts
Did faile to Edward's foes:
Displeased, Edward fayled, and
Declined Henry rose:

He crowned either, and the same
Discrowned them againe,
Admyrd of all, belou'd of all:
Howbeit lastly slaine

By Edward, whilst he did vphold
Vnchancie Henrie's raigne.

So Warwicke perisht, Henry so
Refalne from king's estate
Was reimprison'd, and his queene

Did land her aydes too late:
But landing, when of Barnet field
She heard the luckles fate,
(Albeit knights, Lancastrian's store,
Did flocke in her defence)
She stoode a second Niobe,

Bereft of speech and sence:
Aud whilst the duke of Somerset,
An ouer-bardie knight,

Did brauely marshall out her force
To quer-matched fight,

Hers and king Henrie's sonne, the prince
Of Wales, a proper lad,

In comforting his mother did
Continue her more sad.

"Ah, sonne!" quoth she, "through oft mishaps Mishaps I can disgest:

I feare for thee, for thee, the hope
That to our house doth rest.
"Now all are tryed we can trust,
If now we faile, we fall:
Thy death is in the same request
As is thy father's thrall:

"And (which I would it were the worst)
The foe doth thirst my life,

To end his triumph in the deaths
Of husband, sonne, and wife.

"Though thy great-grandsier, grandsier, and
Thy father, wonne and more
The king-ring, which thy father hild
Yeares thirtie eight and more,

"Though by the cappitall remote
Of Lancaster withstood,

Yeat fayle prescription and discents,
Now Jacke they but our blood:
"Then learne against thou proue a man,
(Ah, hardly hope Iso!)

The line Lancastrian naturally

Doth labour of that foe."
The queene, concluding thus in teares,
Did then to armor goe.

Fierce was the field, and either part
Did valiantly offend:

But, Edward ouercomming, when

The battell was at end,

The queene was carried captiue thence,
And Edward's men did bring

Her sonne, the prince, (sole sonne and heire
Vnto the captiue king)

Before the victor, whose demaunds

Receiving answers stout,

He thrusts the manly boy from him,
Whom Glocester about

The king (churle that he was) did stab.
(So tragicke was the spight
Betwixt those linages, that oft
Each others so requite.)

His death was more than death vnto
His parents: but not long 1
His father moned vndispatcht
Alike for death and wrong
By foresaid duke of Glocester,

Of whom succeedes our song,

THUS won the Yorkestes ancient raigne:
Sixe bloodie fields did seate

Edward the Fourth in England's throne,
Possest a while in queate.

He wonne his subiects' loue, and loue

Was debt to his desarts,

But, as must ours, so lastly his
Vn-bodied soule departs.

He left his kingdome to his sonne,
His sonne to be protected
By Richard, duke of Glocester,
Who, pietie reiected,

Grew treble-wise tyrannicall,
Malicious to the bloodTM

Of his deceased brother's queene,
And what so Yorkest stood
Betwixt the scepter and himselfe,
Aliue, he pricked dead,
A foe to all Lancastrians, as

The same by nature bread.

This common death's-man of those kinnes,
And euery noble's fall,
Whom he but gest coriuall, or

Might crosse him near so small,

This stoope-frog Esop's storke, alike
Tyrannous vnto all,

To giltie, giltlesse, friend, or foe,
Was not secure one day,

But either dyes as cither's death
Might fit him any way.

Yea, euen whilst his brother rulde,
When all Lancastrians, and

His brothers twaine, his nephewes twaine,
1 And neeces three, did stand
Betwixt himselfe and home, euen then
By blood he hunted raine:
For when his owne and ruthles hands
King Henrie's heire had slayne,
Then Henrie's selfe, Henric the Sixt,
A giltles king in bands,

He stab'd his brother Clarence dide
Through him, by other hands.
But, now protector, as doe wolues
The lambes protected he,

And fared as if fearing that'

One wickedder might be.

Queene mother and her kindred hild
The orphant king a while,

Her kinne hee murdred, and from her
He got the king by gile,
Whom (though vncrowned, tituled
Fift Edward) reft his mother,
He made be murdred, with the duke
Of Yorke, the younger brother...
When neither Yorkest, his allies,

And of Lancastrians none,
Were left to let it, who should let

But he might leape the throne?
He wore in deede the wrested palme -
But yeat, to better bad,

By murder of his wife he sought
New marriage to be had

With that Elizabeth that was

The eldest daughter to

Edward the Fourth: but all in vaine
The king his neece did wowe,

For Henrie earle of Richmond's friends
Such doings did vndoe.

Which Henry and Elizabeth
By secrete agents were
Contracted, he of Lancaster,
And she of Yorke the heire:

Of which letigious famelies

Heer mapped be the lines,

Euen till the heire of these two heires Both stockes in one combines.

CHAP. XXXIII.

HENRIE (as if by myracle

Preseru'd by forraines long
From hence-ment treasons) did arriue
To right his natiues' wrong:

And chiefly to lord Stanlie, and

Some other succors, as

Did wish and worke for better dayes,
The riuall welcome was.

Now Richard heard that Richmond was
Assisted and a shore,

And, like vnkenneld Cerberus,
The crooked tyrant swore,
And all complexions act at once
Confusedly in him :

He studieth, striketh, threates, intreates,
And looketh mildly grim,
Mistrustfully he trusteth, and
He dreadingly did dare,
And fortie passions in a trice

In him consort and square.
But when, by his conuented force,
His foes increased more,
He hastned battell, finding his
Coriuall apt therefore.

When Richmond orderly in all
Had battelled his ayde,
Inringed by his complices,

Their chearefull leader sayde:

"Now is the time and place, (sweete frends)

And we the persons be

That must give England breath, or els
Vnbreath for her must we.

"No tyrannie is fabled, and

No tyrant was in deede

Worse than our foe, whose workes wil act

My words, if wel he speede:
"For ill to ills superlatiue
Are easely intist,
But intertaine amendment as

The Gergesites did Christ.
"Be valiant then, he biddeth so

That would not be out-bid
For courage, yeat shall honor him,
Though bace, that better did.
"I am right heire Lancastrian, he
In Yorke's destroyed right
Vsurpeth but, through either ours,
For neither claime I fight,

"But for our countrie's long-lackt weale,
For England's peace I warre:
Wherein he speed vs vnto whom
I all euents refarre."

Meane while had furious Richard set
His armies in array,

And then, with lookes euen like himselfe,
This or the like did say:

"Why, lads, shall yonder Welshman with
His straglers ouer-match?
Disdaine ye not such riualles, and
Deferre yee their dispatch?

Shall Tuder from Plantagenet

The crowne by craking snatch?

"Know Richard's very thoughts" (he toucht The diademe he wore)

"Be mettall of this mettall: then

Beleeue I loue it more

"Than that for other law than life

To supersead my clame,
And lesser must not be his plea
That counter-pleads the same."
The weapons oper-tooke his words,
And blowes they brauely change,
When, like a lion thirsting bloud,
Did moody Richard range,

And made large slaughters where he went,
Till Richmond he espied,
Whom singling, after doubtfull swords,
The valerous tyrant died.

THUS ended England's warre and wos,
Vsurping Richard dead,
When Henry and Elizabeth,
Vniting titles, wed:

Of which two heires th' vndoubted heire
Of either line did cum,
The epilogue vnto these wounds,
Digested in this sum.

Fourth Henry, first Lancastrian king,
Put second Richard downe :
Fourth Edward, of the house of Yorke,
Re-seazd sixt Henrie's crowne:
Lad-princes twaine were stabd in field,
Of either linage one:
Foure kings did perish: sundry times

Now kings anon were none:
Sixe, three of either faction, helde
Successiuely the throne:

But from the second Richard to
Seventh Henry we pretend
Eight kings this faction to begin,
Continue, and to end.

The princes, carles, barons, and knights,
This quarrell did deuour,
Exceede the tale of gentry best

And bacest at this houre:
So plagueth ciuill warre, and so

From robe to ragge dooth scoure.
Then luckiest of the planets weare
Predominants, say we,

When by this bedmatch either heire
That bloud-mart did agree:
When seventh begot the eight, and eight
The first and last for like

Our now Pandora: nor till her

Our humbled sailes we strike.
For should we at her grandsier reare
Our colome, yet too poore,
We could not write (as Hercules

On his) "Beyond no more:"
For he lackt search, our Muse hath kend
An ocean is in store,
Euen matter that importeth worth
Coparing all before.

THE

SEVENTH BOOKE OF ALBION'S ENGLAND,

CHAP. XXXIV.

Now let vs poste-alone to Mars

And Mercury repaer,

At least so far forth as wee maye
Without controwlment daer.

Richard the Third, Henry the Seauenth,
(Last subiects of our pen)

Was slaine, was crownde, with hate, with love,
As worste, as best of men:

So not with Yorke and Lancaster
Doth wonted enuie raigne,
Nor can Æneas' off-springs pow
Of orphansie complaine.
But that Cadwallader's fore-doomes
In Tuder's should effect
Was vnexpected, saue that God
Doth destinies direct,

Els Owen Tuder had not wiu'd

Fift Henrie's noble queene:"
Nor had they of their bodies earles

Pembroke and Richmond seene:
Nor Margrét, Somerset's sole heire,
To Richmond had beene weade:
Nor they the heire of Lancaster,

Henry the Seventh, had bread;
Nor he of York's inheritrix,
Elizabeth, had sped:
Nor they vnited either house
All other titles dead.

Yeat, eare this vnion, either so

Ariued to their right,

As Psiches on an errant sent

To Hell by Venus' spight.
Worse ferrymen than Charon, floods
Contagious more than Styx,
Worse porters than fowle Cerberus
Were pleas'd, past, stood betwix,
How therefore either dangerously
Their labyrinth did passe
Shall not be ouerpassed: thus
Their seuerall fortune was.

Henries the Fourth, the Fifte, ard Sixt,
Successiuely did raigne,

Vntill fourth Edward's sword to him
Did lawfull empier gaine:
Lancastrians droupe, the Yorkests had
Their long expected day:

Sixt Henry, and the prince his sonne,
By stabbes were made away:
The foresaid Margaret, sole heire
Of Somerset, earst wife

Of Tuder, earle of Richmond, had
By him a sonne in life,

To whom, from her, the crowne-right of
Lancastrians did accrewe:

He from his English foes himselfe
By secrete stealth withdrewe

To little Brutaine, wheare he found
The duke a frendfull trewe.

This Henry earle of Richmond, now
Poore Lancaster's remaine,
Was by fourth Edward practis'd home
By many a subtell traine :

Whome once the gentle duke (beguilde
With promises vnment)
Deliuered to the English-men,

With whome he homewards went.
Forsaken ladd, (for yet he was

A ladd) what did remaine
But certain death, so to assure
His foe's vncertaine raine?

Which to establish many a prince
Of his allies weare slaine.

But him eare brought a-boorde, the duke (Aduised better) stayd,

And him (as if by chaunce escapte)
To sanctuarie conuaid.

The lambe so rescued from the wolfe,
That priuiledged place
Assured him till Edward's death,
And then he hoped grace.
But he that was protector of
His murthered nephewes than
Vsurped England, and became
A monsture, not a man:
Richard the Third (omitting all
His tyrannies beside)
To be possessed of the earle
By many a message tride.

Great wealth was sent, greater assumde,
• But nothing might preuaile:
The gracious duke abhorde to set
His guiltles freud to sayle:

But furnished with money, men, and
Armor, shipt him thence

To winne his right: yeat churlish seas
Did lett such kind pretence.
Full hardly Richmond's threatned ship
Escapt our armed shoore,

For Richard of the riuall got
Intelligence before.

Return'de, the duke did sicken, and
Landoise did beare the sway:

And he for masses great was brib'de
Earle Henry to betray,

Yeat through wise bishop Murton's meanes
By stealth he scap'te away.

In tranell then from Brutaine to
His grome himselfe was grome,
By interchaunged rayment, till
To Angers they weare come.
The French king, pittying his distresse,
Pretended asked aide:

And secrete platformes for his weale
His English friends had laide.

Henry in France, at home his friends

Bester them, and the foe

Meane time with hope, with fraud, with feare, Imployed his witts also.

Now of the earle's conspiracy

The totall drift was this:
Elizabeth, the daughter of
Fourth Edward, vow'd he his,
And she was vow'd to him, if God
With victory him blisse:

Our wounded England's healing balme,
For thus thereof ensew'de:
The factious families vnite,

The tyrant was subdew'de,
And thence the surname Tuder doth
Plantagenet include.

AS hardly as her husband did
Elizabeth escape:

For why? like stratageme for both
Did bloody Richard shape.
Whilste that her father liued, now

A king, and now exilde,
Her crosses then did happen from
Such victors as weare milde.

But now the same that murthered
Her brothers to be king,
That did with fraud begin, and then

With bloud conclude ech thing,

That flattred friends to serue his turne,
And then destroyde the same,
That was her vncle, yeat did hate

Her mother's very name,

That thought he lived not because
His neeces weare vndead,
Theis now (and blame her not) in her
A world of terror bread.

But of vnpriuiledged bloud
Yet had he store to spill,

Yet sanctuaries weare not forc'te,
Yet but expecting ill.

Theare oft the queene her mother, shee,

And sisters, would reporte

Their happie and vnhappie daies,
The fewer of first sorte.