AN EPITAPH ON HENRY THE FOURTH, THE LAST
FRENCH KING.
THAT We should more bewail the hap of kings,
Great Henry Bourbon's death occasion brings:
To Henry Valois next crown'd king of France,
Next both in blood, in name, in reign, in chance.
Perils, his youth; wars, did his manhood spend,
His old age, peace, till murder his life did end:
His conquests, glory; his wisdom, peace did win,
His faith, Heaven; Christ, pardon for his sin.
AN EPITAPH ON QUEEN ELIZABETH.
ELIZA, that great maiden Queen, lies here,
Who govern'd England four and forty year;
Our coins refin❜d in; Ireland tam'd; Belgia protected;
Friended France; foiled Spain; and Pope rejected:
As Henry IV. was not assassinated until 14th May, 1610, this Epitaph must have been written a very short time before the third edition of the Rhapsody was printed.
Princes found her powerful; the world virtuous:
Her subjects wise and just; and God religious :
God hath her soul, the world her admiration,
Subjects her good deeds, Princes her imitation.
DIVERS rare gems in thee, Oh Union! shine:
First seven Margarets in thy jewel stand;
Matildas three, three Janes of regal line,
Two royal Marys, two Elizas, and
One Is'bell, Anne, Sybill, and Margery,
All royal gems, set princely shine in thee.
But first in it doth Agasia shine,
Who first with Durstus it began to make;
Then Margret next, of our king Edgar's line,
Whom Malcolm, King of Scots, to wife did take;
Whose grandchild Maud, our Emp'ress, did conjoin,
Scots, Saxon, Norman blood in our King's line.
For their child Maud, our first Henry did marry ;
Of them Matild', our said Emp'ress, did spring;
By whose second husband our kings did carry,
Name of great Plantagenet: then Scots' king,
First Alexander, did Sybilla wed,
Who sprang from our William Conqueror's bed.
The third Matild' their first king David married,
Earl Waldoff's daughter, niece to great king William :
Jane, our king John's daughter, thither was carried,
By their second Alexander: after came
Their third king Alexander, who did marry
Another Margret, daughter of our third Harry.
From them two did another Margret spring,
Who, by Norway's prince, a fourth Margret had,
Scots' infant queen, whom, first Edward our king
To have married to his son would have been glad.
So Scotland's peers would too: her death said,
Which only this great Union then did stay.
Though that most noble and victorious king,
This natural Union could not then advance;
Another he as great t' effect did bring
When he his son married to th' heir of France,
Is'bell; by whom since all our kings have claimed The crown of France, which some of them have gained.
Though this, our second Edward did prevent,
That he from Scotland did not take his wife:
His daughter Jane performed his intent,
With second David; spending there her life.
He did the child of second Edward marry,
As third Alexander did of our third Harry.
Without issue they died; then Margery,
Their first king Robert's daughter, Bruce by name,
Scots' queen by birth, must needs remember'd be :
By whom Lord Stewart did increase his fame.
From them second Robert; and James Stewart from him
Third Robert nam'd, whence first James did begin.
A valiant prince, who spent his youthful prime,
In martial deeds with our fifth Henry in France :
To whom our sixth king Henry in his time,
Jane, our third Edward's grandchild, did advance
In marriage; she of Henry Beaufort sprung,
Somerset's earl; was virtuous, fair, and young.
Fifth Margaret, Richmond's countess, forth did bring
Our seventh Henry, who one division ended,
With Eliza, heir of our fourth Edward king:
From both whom great'st Margret of all descended :
From whom and fourth James, fifth James Scottish
king,
And from him Mary, Scots' last queen, did spring.
Fourth James being dead, Margʼret did Douglas marry;
They a daughter Marg'ret had, Earl Lennox' wife,
Whose son, Lord Darnley, married their last Mary,
Of whom comes Charles James,a finisher of strife.
a It is not a little singular that in this poem king James the First should be described as Charles James: he is not recorded to have had any other baptismal name than James.
Who with Anne makes Union, by the childless death
Of our Queens, Mary and Elizabeth.
The rarest pearls, and richest Margaretes all,
Which ever did in any jewel stand:
The rarest jewel too, and most angelical,
Almost made up by God and Nature's hand,
By men to be finish'd, to this Isle sent:
Then to be worn for her best ornament.
A PANEGYRICK TO MY SOVEREIGN LORD THE KING.
GREAT King, since first this Isle by Jove's own hand, Was set apart within great Ocean's arms;
And was appointed by her self to stand,
Fenc'd round about with rocks from foreign harms :
She into sundry parts hath oft been torn,
And greatest wounds by her own blows hath borne.
But all the fractions now which man did make,
Since it in one whole number Nature gave,
Are added up, and brought to one great stake;
And being all summ'd up, one total have.
For Britain now to all the dividend,
In one whole quotient, all doth comprehend.
a James the First, who ascended the throne 24th March, 1603; and as this "Panegyrick" appeared in the edition of 1608, we are enabled to fix the period when it was written very closely.
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