Chapter X: Part III (7)

For why, extreames are haps rackt out of course,
By violent might far swinged forth perforce,
Which as they are pearcingst while they violent’st moue,
For nearst they cleaue to[1428] cause that doth them shoue:
So soonest fall from that theyr high’st[1429] extreame,
To th’other contrary that doth want of meane:
So laught[1430] he erst, who laughed out his breath:
So laught[1430] I, when I laught my selfe to death.

57.

The pleasingst meanes boade not the luckiest ends,
Not aye found treasure to like pleasure tends,
Mirth meanes not mirth all time, thrise happy hyre
Of wit, to shun th’excesse[1431] that all desire:
But this I passe: I hye to other like;
My palfrey in the playnest paued streete,
Thrise bowed his boanes, thrise kneeled on the flowre,
Thrise shond (as _Balam’s_ asse) the dreaded towre.

58.

What, should I thinke hee had sence of after haps?
As beastes foreshew the drought, or rayny drops,
As humours in them want, or else abounde,
By influence from the heauens, or chaunge of ground,
Or doe we interpret by successe ech signe?
And as wee fancy, of ech hap deuyne?
And make that cause, that kin is to th’effect?
Not hauing ought of consequence respect?

59.

Bucephalus kneeling only to his lorde,
Shewde only, hee was monarche of the worlde:
Why may not then the steede foreshewe by fall,
What casuall hap the sitter happen shall?
Darius horse by braying bought a realme:
And what letteth, why he ne is (as the asse) God’s meane,
By speaking signe to shewe his hap to come,
Who is deafe hearer of his speaking dome?

60.

But forward yet: in _Tower_ streete I stayed,
Where (could I haue seene) loe, _Haward_, all bewrayed,
For as I commond with a priest I met:
“Away, my lord,” quoth he, “your time is ne yet
To take a priest.” Loe, _Synon_ might bee seene
Had _Troyans_ eares, as they had[1432] hares foole[1433] eyen:
But, whom thou God allotted hast to dye,[1434]
Some grace it is[1435] to dy with wimpled eye.

61.

Ne[1436] was this all: for euen at _Tower_ wharfe,
Neare to those walles within whose sight[1437] I starfe,
Where earst in sorrow soust and deepe distresse,
I emparted all my pining pensiuenesse
With _Hastings_: (so my purseuaunt men call)
Euen there, the same to meete it did mee fall:
Who gan to mee most dolefully renewe,
The woefull conference had erst in that lieu.

62.

“_Hastings_,” quoth I, “according now they[1438] fare,
At _Pomfret_ this day dying, who causde that care,
My selfe haue all the world now[1439] at my will,
With pleasures cloyed, engorged with the fill:”
“God graunt it so:” quoth hee: “Why doubtst thou tho?”
Quoth I, and all in chafe to him gan shewe
In ample wise, our drift with tedious tale:
And entred so the _Tower_ to my bale.

63.

What should wee thinke of signes? they are but haps,
How may they then be signes of afterclaps?
Doth euery chaunce foreshew or cause some other?
Or ending[1440] at it selfe, extendth no furder?
As th’ouerflowing floud some mount doth choake,
But to his ayde some other floud it yoake:
So, if with signes thy sinnes once ioyne, beware,
Els wherto chaunces tend, nere curious care.[1441]

64.

Had not my sinne deserude my death as wreake,
What might my mirth haue hurt? or horses becke?
Or _Haward’s_ bitter scoffe? or _Hastings_ talke?
What meane then foole astrologers to calke?[1442]
That twinckling sterres fling down the fixed fate?
And all is guyded by the sterry state?
Perdye, a certayne charge[1443] assignd they haue
To shyne, and tymes deuyde, not fate to graue.

65.

But graunt they somwhat geue: is,[1444] at one instant,
Of euery babe the byrth in heauen so skand,
That they that restles roll, and neuer stay,
Should in his lyfe beare yet so violent swaye:
That, not his actions onely next to byrth,
But all his life and[1445] death be[1446] swayed therwith
How may one mocion make so sundry affectes?
Or one impression tend to such respectes?

66.

Some rule there is yet: els, why were deferd
Til now, these plagues, so long ere now deserude?
If for they are trifles, they ne seme of care:
But toyes with God the stateliest[1447] scepters are:
Yet in them to playne doth appeare foreset,
The certayne rule and fatal limittes set,
Yet thinke we not, this sure foresetting fate,
But God’s fast prouidence for ech princely state.

67.

And hath he erst restraind his prouidence?
Or is he nigard of his fre dispence?
Or is he vncertayne foreset driftes to dryue?
That not dame chaunce but he al goodes may giue
A heathen god they hold whom fortune kepe,
To deale them haps while God they wene asleepe:
Mocke-gods they are and many gods induce,
Who fortune fayne to father their abuse.

68.

How so it be, it mought[1448] haue warned me,
But, what I could not, that in me see ye,
Who runne in race, the honour like to win,
Whose fairest forme nought may deforme but sin:
Alas, when most I did defye all dread,
By single heare death’s word hong ouer my head,
For herke the end and listen now my fall:
This is the last, and this the fruit of all.

69.

To counsayle chamber come, a while we stayd
For him, without whom nought was done or sayde:
At last he came, and courteously excused,
That he[1449] so long our patience had abused:
And pleasauntly began to paint his cheere,
And said: “My lord of _Elye_, would we had here
Some of the strawberies, wherof you haue store:
The last delighted me so as nothing more.”

70.

“Would, what so you[1450] wish, I mought as wel commaund,
My lord,” quoth he, “as those:” and out of hand
His seruaunt sendth to _Ely_ place for them:
Out goeth from vs the restlesse deuil againe:
Belike (I thinke) scarse yet perswaded ful,
To worke the mischiefe that did mad his[1451] scul:
At last determind of his bloudy thought
And force ordaynde to worke the wyle he sought.

71.

Frowning he enters, with so chaunged cheare,
As[1452] for mylde _May_ had chopped foule _Januere_:
And lowring on me with the goggle eye,
The whetted tuske, and furrowed[1453] forehead hye,
His crooked shoulder bristellike set vp.
With frothy iawes, whose foame he chawde and supd,
With angry lookes that flamed as the fyer:
Thus gan at last to grunt the grymest syre.

72.

“What meryte they, whom me[1454], the kingdome’s stay,
Contryued haue counsayle traiterously to slay?”
Abashed all sate: I thought I mought[1455] be bold,
For conscience, clearnesse, and acquaintance old:
“Their hire is playne,” quoth I, “be death the least
To whoso seketh your grace so to molest:”
Withouten stay: “The queene and the whore _Shore’s_ wyfe,
By witchcraft,” quoth he, “seke to wast my life.

73.

“Loe, here the wythered and bewytched arme,
That thus is spent by those two sorceresse’ charme:”
And bared his arme and shewed his swynish skinne,
Such cloaks they vse, that seke to clowd their sinne:
But out, alas, it serueth not for the rayne,
To al the house the colour was to playne:
Nature had giuen him many a maymed marke,
And it amonges to note her monstruous warke.

74.

My doubtfull harte distracted this replye:
For th’one I cared not: th’other nipt so nye
That whyst I cold not, but forthwith brake forth:
“If so it be, of death they are doubtlesse worth?”
“If, traitour?” quoth he, “playst thou with yfs and ands?
Ile on thy bodye auowe it with these hands:”
And therwithal he mightlye bounced the borde,
In rushd his byl-men, one himselfe bestird.

75.

Laying at lord _Stanley_, whose brain he had surely cleft,
Had he not downe beneathe the table crept:
But _Elye_, _Yorke_, and I, were taken straight,
Imprisoned they, I should no longer wait,
But charged was to shriue me, and shift with hast:
My lorde must dine, and now midday was past:
The bore’s first dish, not the bore’s head should be:
But _Hastinge’s_ head, the boarish beast would see.

76.

Why stay I his dinner? vnto the chappel ioyneth
A greenish hil, that body and soule oft twineth:
There on a blocke my head was striken of,
As _Baptiste’s_ head,[1456] for _Herode_ bloudy gnoffe:
Thus liued I, _Baldwin_, thus dyed I, thus I fel,
This is the summe, which al at large to tel
Would volumes fil: whence yet these lessons note
Ye noble lordes, to learne and ken by rote.

77.

By fylthy rising feare your names to stayne:
If not for vertue’s loue, for dread of payne,
Whom so the mindes vnquiet state vpheaues,
Be it for loue or feare, when fancye reaues
Reason her[1457] right, by mocking of the wyt,
If once the cause of this affection flit,
Reason preuayling on the vnbrideled thought:
Downe falth he who[1458] by fancye clymbe aloft.

78.

So hath the ryser fowle no stay from[1459] fal,
No not of those that raisde him first of al:
His suretie stands in mainteining the cause
That heaued him first, which reft by reason’s sawes,
Not onely falth he to his former state,
But liueth for euer in his prince’s hate:
And marke, my lordes, God for adultery sleath,
Though ye it thinke too sweete a sinne for death.

79.

Serue trulye your prince and feare not[1460] rebels might,
On princes halues the mightie God doth fight:
O much more then forsweare a forrein foe,
Who seeketh your realme and countrie to vndo:
Murther detest, haue handes vnstaind with bloud,
Aye with your succour do protect the good,
Chace treason where trust should be, wed to your frend
Your hart and power, to your liue’s last end.

80.

Flie tickle credit, shunne alike distrust:
To true it is, and credite it you must:
The ialous nature wanteth no stormy strife,
The simple soule aye leadeth a sower life:
Beware of flatterers, frendes in outward show:
Best is of such to make your[1461] open foe:
What al men seeke, that al men seeke to fayne,
Some such to bee, some such to seeme, them payne.

81.

Marke God’s iust iudgements, punishing sinne by sinn,
And slipperie state wherein aloft we swimme:
The prouerbe, al day vp if we ne fall,
Agreeth wel to vs hie heaued worldlinges al:
From common sort vpraisde[1462] in honour’s weede
We shine, while fortune false, whom none erst feede,
To stand with staye and forsweare ticklenesse,
Sowseth vs in myre of durtie brittlenesse.

82.

And learne ye princes by my wronged sprite,
Not to misconster what is ment aright,
The whinged wordes too oft preuent the wyt,
When silence cesseth afore the lips to sit:
Alas, what may the wordes yeld worthy death?
The wordes worst is, the speaker’s stinking breath:
Wordes are but winde, why cost they then so much
The guiltye kycke, when they to smartly touche.

83.

Forth irreturnable flyeth the spoken word,
Be hit in scoffe, in earnest, or in bourd:
Without retourne, and vnreceiued, hit hangs,
And at the taker’s mercie, or rigour, stands:
Which if he sowerly wrest with wrathful cheare,
The shiuering word turnes to the speaker’s feare:
If frendly curtesie do the word expound,[1463]
To the speaker’s comfort swetely it doth redound.[1464]

84.

Euen as the vapour which the fier repels,
Turnes not to earth, but in myd aer dwels
Where while it hangth, if _Boreas’_ frosty flawes
With rigour rattle it, not to rayne it thawes,
But thunder, lightninges, ratling hayle, or[1465] snowe,
Sendes downe to earth, whence first it rose below:
But if fayre _Phœbus_ with his countenaunce swete
Resolue it, downe the dew, or manna, sleete.[1466]

85.

(The manna dew, that in the easterne landes,
Excelth the labour of the bees small handes:)
Els for her _Memnon_ gray _Aurora’s_ teares,
On the earth it stilleth, the partener of her feares:
Or sendeth sweet showers to glad their mother earth,
Whence first they tooke their first inconstant birth:
To so great griefes, il taken wordes do[1467] grow:
Of wordes wel taken, such delightes do flow.

86.

This learned, thus be here at length an end,
What since ensued, to thee I wil commend:
Now farewel, _Baldwine_, shield my torne name,
From slaunderous trompe of blasting blacke defame:
But, ere I part, hereof thou record beare:
I claime no parte of vertues reckned here:
My vice my selfe, but God my vertues take:
So hence depart I, as I entred naked.

87.

Thus ended _Hastinges_ both his life and tale,
Contayning al his worldly blisse and bale:
Happye he liued, to happie but for sinne,
Happie hee dyed whom right his death did bring:
Thus euer happie, for there is no meane
Twixt blisseful liues and mortal deathe’s extreame:
Yet feared not his foes to staine his name,
And by these sclaunders to procure his shame.

88.

In rousty armure as in extreame shift,
They clad themselues, to cloake their diuelish drift:
And forthwith for substancial citezens sent,
Declaring to them, _Hastinges_ forged entent,
Was to haue slaine the duke: and to haue seised
The kinge’s young person, slaying whom he had pleas’d:
But God of iustice had withturnd that fate,
Which, where it ought, light on his proper pate.

89.

Then practised they by[1468] proclamation spred,
Nought to forget, that mought[1469] defame him dead:
Which was so curious, and so clerkely pend,
So long withal, that when some did attend
His death so young, they saw, that long before
The shroude was shaped, then babe to dye was bore:
So wonteth God to blinde the worldly wise,
That not to see, that al the world espies.

90.

One hearing it cried out: “A goodly cast,
And wel contriued, foule cast away for hast:”
Whereto another gan in scoffe replie,
“First pend it was by enspiring prophecie:”
So can God reape vp secret mischiefes wrought,
To the confusion of the workers thought:
My lords, the tub, that dround the _Clarence_ duke,
Dround not his death, nor yet his deathe’s rebuke.

91.

Your politique secrets gard with trusty loyalty:
So shal they lurke in most assured secrecie:
By _Hastinge’s_ death, and after fame, ye learne
The earth for murther cryeth out vengeance sterne:
Flye from his faultes, and spare to hurt his fame,[1470]
The eager houndes forbeare their slayne game;
Dead, dead, auaunt curres from the conquered chase,
Il mought[1471] he liue who loueth the dead to race.

92.

Thus liued this lorde, thus died he, thus he slept,
Mids forward race when first to rest he stept,
Enuious death that bounceth aswel with mace
At _Keysar’s_ courtes, as at the poorest gates:[1472]
When nature seemde to slow by arts sloape[1473] meane
Conueyghde him sooner to his liue’s extreame,
Happy, in preuenting woes that after hapt,
In slumber sweete his liuing lights hee lapt.

93.

Whose thus vntymely death, if any[1474] grieue,
Know hee, hee liu’d to dye, and dyde to liue:
Untymely neuer coms the liue’s last mett,
In cradell death may rightly clayme his[1475] debt:
Straight after byrth due is the fatall beere:
By death’s permission th’aged[1476] linger heere:
Euen in the swathbands our commission goeth
To loose thy breath, that yet but yongly bloweth.

94.

Happy, thryse happy, who so loosth his breath,
As life hee gayneth by his liuing[1477] death;
As _Hastings_ here, whom tyme and truth agree
T’engraue[1478] by fame in strong eternity:
Who spareth not spitting, if hee spit but bloud?
Yet this our lord, sparde not for other’s good:
With one sweete breath his present death to speake,
Against th’vsurpour bore, that hellish freake.[1479]

95.

Worthy to lyue, but[1480] lyu’d not for himselfe,
But prisde his fame more then this worldly pelfe:
Whose name and lyne, if any yet preserue,
Wee wish they liue like honour to deserue:
Whether thou seeke by martiall prowesse prayse,
Or _Pallas_ pollicie high thy name to rayse,
Or trusty seruice iust death to[1481] attaine:
_Hastings_ foreled: trace[1482] here his bloudy trayne.

Maister D.[1483]

[When I had read this, one sayd: “It was very darke, and hard to
bee vnderstoode: except it were diligently and very leasurely
considered.” “I like it the better,” sayd[1484] another, “for
that shall cause it to bee oftner read, and the better remembred.
Considering also that it is written for the learned (for such all
magistrates are, or should bee) it cannot be to hard, so long
as it is sound and learnedly written.” Then sayd the reader:
“The next here whome I finde miserable are king _Edward’s_ two
sonnes, cruelly murdered in the tower of _London_: haue you their
tragedy?” “No, surely,” sayd[1484] I, “The lord _Vaulx_ vndertoke
to pen it, but what hee hath done therein I am not certayne, and
therefore I let it passe till I knowe farder. I haue here the
duke of _Buckingham_, king _Richard’s_ chiefe instrument, written
by maister _Thomas Sackuille_.” “Read it we pray you,” sayd they.
“With a good will,” quoth[1484] I, “but first you shall heare
his Preface or Induction.” “Hath hee made a preface,” sayd[1484]
one, “what meaneth hee thereby, seeing none other hath vsed the
like order?” “I will tell you the cause thereof,” sayd[1484]
I, “which is this: after that hee vnderstoode that some of the
counsayl would not suffer the booke to bee printed in such order
as wee had agreede and determined, hee purposed to[1485] haue
gotten at my handes all the tragedies that were before the duke
of _Buckingham’s_, which hee would haue preserued in one volume.
And from that time backward, euen to the time of _William_ the
Conquerour, he determined to continue and perfect all the story
him selfe, in such order as _Lydgate_ (following _Bochas_) had
already vsed. And therefore to make a meete induction into the
matter, hee deuised this poesie: which (in my iudgement) is so
well penned, that I would not haue any verse thereof left out
of our volume. Now that you knowe the cause and meaning of his
doing, you shall also heare what hee hath done. His induction
beginneth thus.”][1486]

THE INDVCTION.[1487]

1.

The wrathfull winter proching[1488] on apace,
With blustering blasts had all ybarde the treene,
And olde _Saturnus_ with his frosty face
With chilling cold had pearst the tender greene:
The mantles rent, wherein enwrapped beene
The gladsom groues that now lay ouerthrowne,
The tapets torne, and euery blome downe blowne.[1489]

2.

The soyle, that erst so seemly was to seene,
Was all despoyled of her beauties hewe:
And soote-fresh flowers (wherewith the sommer’s queene
Had clad the earth) now _Boreas’_ blasts downe blewe:
And small foules, flocking, in theyr song did rewe
The winter’s wrath, wherewith ech thing defaste,
In woefull wise bewayld the sommer past.

3.

Hawthorne had lost his motley liuery,
The naked twiges were shiuering all for cold:
And, dropping downe the teares aboundantly,
Ech thing, mee thought, with weeping eye mee tolde
The cruell season, bidding mee withholde
My selfe within, for I was gotten out
Into the fieldes, wheras I walkt[1490] about.

4.

When loe the night with misty mantels spred
Gan darke the day, and dim the azure skies,[1491]
And _Venus_ in her message _Hermes_ sped
To bloudy _Mars_, to will him not to rise,
While shee her selfe approacht in speedy wise:
And _Virgo_ hyding her disdaynefull brest,
With _Thetis_ now had layde her downe to rest.

5.

Whiles _Scorpio_ dreading _Sagittarius_ dart,
Whose bowe prest bent in fight, the string had slipt,
Down slide into the _Ocean_ flud aparte,
The _Beare_, that in the _Irish_ seas had dipt
His griesly feete, with speede from thence hee whipt:
For _Thetis_, hasting from the virgin’s bed,
Pursude the _Beare_, that, ere she came, was fled.

6.

And _Phaeton_ now, neare reaching to his race
With glistring beames, gold-streaming where they bent,
Was prest to enter in his resting place:
_Erythius_, that in the cart fyrst went,
Had euen now attaynd his iorney’s stent:
And, fast declining, hid away his head,
While _Titan_ coucht him in his purple bed.

7.

And pale _Cinthea_, with her borrowed light,
Beginning to supply her brother’s place,
Was past the noonesteede sixe degrees in sight,
When sparkling stars amid the heauen’s face,
With twinkling light shone on the earth apace,
That, while they brought about the nighte’s chare,[1492]
The darke had dimd the day, ere I was ware.

8.

And sorrowing I to see the sommer flowers,
The liuely greene, the lusty lease,[1493] forlorne,
The sturdy trees so shattred with the showers,
The fieldes so fade, that florisht so beforne:
It taught mee well, all earthly things be borne
To dye the death: for nought long time may last:
The sommer’s beauty yeeldes to winter’s blast.

9.

Then looking vpward to the heauen’s leames,[1494]
With nighte’s starres[1495] thicke powdred euery where,
Which erst so glistned with the golden streames
That chearfull _Phœbus_ spred downe from his sphere
Beholding darke, oppressing day, so neare:
The sodayne sight reduced to my mynde,
The sundry chaunges that in earth wee finde.

10.[1496]

That musing on this worldly wealth in thought,
Which coms, and goes, more faster than wee see
The flickring flame that with the fyre is wrought,
My busie mynde presented vnto mee
Such fall of peeres as in the[1497] realme had bee:
That oft I wisht some would their woes descryue,
To warne the rest whome fortune left a liue.

11.

And strait forth stalking with redoubled pace,
For that I sawe the night drew on so fast,
In blacke all clad there fell before my face
A piteous wight, whom woe had all forewast,
Forth on her eyes[1498] the cristall tears out brast,
And sighing sore her hands shee wrong and folde,
Tare all her hayre, that ruth was to beholde.

12.

Her body smale, forwithred, and forspent,
As is the stalke that sommer’s drought opprest,
Her wealked face with woefull teares bee sprent,
Her colour pale, and,[1499] as it seemed her best,
In woe and plaint reposed was her rest:
And, as the stone that drops of water weares,
So dented were her chekes with fall of teares,

13.

Her eyes swollen[1500] with flowing streams aflote,
Where, with her lookes throwne vp full piteously,
Her forcelesse hands together oft shee smote,
With dolefull shrikes, that eckoed in the skye:
Whose plaint such sighes did strait accompany,
That, in my doome, was neuer man did see
A wight but halfe so woe begone as shee.

14.

I stoode agast, beholding all her plight,
Tweene dread and dolour, so distreinde in hart,
That, while my hayres vpstarted with the sight,
The teares out streamde for sorow of her smart:
But, when I sawe no end that could appart[1501]
The deadly dewle which shee soe sore did make,
With dolefull voice then thus to her I spake:

15.

“Unwrap thy woes, what euer wight thou bee,
And stint in tyme[1502] to spill thy self with playnt,
Tell what thou art, and whence, for well I see
Thou canst not dure, with sorrow thus attaynt:”
And, with that word of sorrow, all forfaynt
Shee looked vp, and, prostrate, as shee lay,
With piteous sound, lo, thus shee gan to say:

16.

“Alas, I wretch, whom thus thou seest distraynde
With wasting woes, that neuer shall aslake,
_Sorrow_ I am, in endlesse torments paynde
Among the furies in th’infernall[1503] lake,
Where _Pluto_ god of hell so griesly blacke
Doth holde his throne, and _Lætheus_[1504] deadly tast
Doth rieue remembraunce of ech thing forepast.

17.

“Whence come I am, the drery desteny,
And lucklesse lot for to bemone of those
Whome fortune, in this maze of misery,
Of wretched chaunce, most wofull mirours chose,
That, when thou seest how lightly they did lose
Their pompe, their power, and that they thought most sure
Thou mayst soone deeme no earthly ioy[1505] may dure.”

18.[1506]

Whose rufull voice no sooner had out brayed
Those wofull words, wherewith shee sorrowed so,
But out, alas, shee shright, and neuer stayed,
Fell downe, and al to dasht her selfe for wo:
The cold pale dread my limmes gan ouergo,
And I so sorrowed at her sorrowes eft,
That, what with griefe, and feare, my wits were reft.

19.

I stretcht my selfe, and strayt my hart reuiues,
That dread and dolour erst did so appale,
Like him that with the feruent feuer striues,
When sicknesse seekes his castell[1507] health to skale:
With gathred sprites[1508] so forst I feare to auale:[1509]
And, rearing her, with anguish all foredone,
My sprits returnd,[1510] and then I thus begon:

20.

“O _Sorrow_, alas, sith _Sorrow_ is thy name,
And that to thee this drere doth well pertayne,
In vayne it were to seeke to cease the same:
But, as a man himselfe with sorrow slayne,
So I, alas, doe comfort thee in payne,
That here in sorrow art forsunke so deepe,
That at thy sight I can but sigh and weepe.”

21.

I had no sooner spoken of a syke,[1511]
But that the storme so rumbled in her brest,
As _Eölus_ could neuer roare the like,
And showers downe raynde from her eyes[1512] so fast,
That all bedreint the place, till, at the last,
Well eased they the dolour of her minde,
As rage of rayne doth swage the stormy winde:

22.

For forth shee paced in her fearefull tale:
“Come, come,” quod shee, “and see what I shall showe,[1513]
Come, heare the playning and the bitter bale
Of worthy men, by fortune’s[1514] ouerthrowe:
Come thou, and see them rewing all in rowe,
They were but shades, that erst in minde thou rolde:
Come, come with mee, thine eyes shall them beholde.”

23.

What coulde these wordes but make mee more agast,
To heare her tell whereon I musde while ere?
So was I mazde therewith, till, at the last,
Musing vpon her words, and what they were,
All sodaynly well lessoned was my feare:
For to my minde retourned, how shee teld
Both what shee was, and where her wun shee helde.

24.

Whereby I knewe that she a goddesse was,
And, therewithall, resorted to my minde
My thought, that late presented mee the glas
Of brittle state, of cares that here wee finde,
Of thousand woes to seely[1515] men assynde:
And how shee now bid mee come and beholde,[1516]
To see with eye that earst in thought I rolde.

25.

Flat downe I fell, and with all reuerence
Adored her, perceiuing now, that shee,
A goddesse, sent by godly prouidence,
In earthly shape thus shewd her selfe to mee,
To wayle and rue this world’s vncertainty:[1517]
And, while I honourd thus her godhead’s might,
With plaining voyce these words to mee shee shright.

26.

“I shall thee guyde first to the griesly lake,
And thence vnto the blissfull place of rest,
Where thou shalt see, and heare, the playnt they make
That whilome here bare swinge among the best:
This shalt thou see: but greate is the vnrest
That thou must byde, before thou canst attayne
Unto the dreadfull place where these remayne.”

27.

And, with these words, as I vpraysed stood,
And gan to followe her that straight forth paste,[1518]
Ere I was ware, into a desert woode
Wee now were come: where, hand in hand imbraste,[1519]
Shee led the way, and through the thicke so traste,[1520]
As, but I had bene guided by her might,
It was no way for any mortall wight.

28.

But, loe, while thus amid the desert darke
Wee passed on, with steps and pace vnmeete,
A rumbling roare, confusde with howle and barke
Of dogs, shoke all the ground vnder our feete,
And stroke the din within our eares so deepe,
As, halfe distraught, vnto the ground I fell,
Besought retourne, and not to visite hell.

29.

But shee, forthwith, vplifting mee a pace,
Remoude my dread, and, with a stedfast minde,
Bad mee come on, for here was now the place,
The place where wee our trauail’s end[1521] should finde:
Wherewith I rose,[1522] and to the place assignde
Astoinde I stalkt, when strayght wee approached nere
The dreadfull place, that you will dread to here.

30.

An[1523] hideous hole, all vaste, withouten shape,
Of endles depth, orewhelmde with ragged stone,
With ougly mouth, and griesly iawes doth gape,
And to our sight confounds it selfe in one:
Here entred wee, and, yeeding forth, anone
An horrible lothly[1524] lake wee might discerne,
As blacke as pitch that cleped is _Auerne_.

31.

A deadly gulfe: where nought but rubbish grows,
With fowle blacke swelth in thickned lumps that lies,
Which vp in th’ayre[1525] such stinking vapors throws
That ouer there, may flie no fowle, but dyes
Choakt with the pestilent[1526] sauours that arise:
Hither wee come, whence forth wee still did pace,
In dreadfull feare amid the dreadfull place:

32.

And, first, within the porch and iawes of hell
Sate deepe _Remorse of Conscience_, all bee sprent
With teares: and to her selfe oft would shee tell
Her wretchednes, and, cursing, neuer stent
To sob and sighe: but euer thus lament,
With thoughtfull care, as shee that, all in vaine,
Would weare, and waste continually in payne.

33.

Her[1527] eyes vnstedfast, rolling here and there,
Whurld on each place, as place that vengeaunce brought,
So was her minde continually in feare,
Tossed[1528] and tormented with the[1529] tedious thought
Of those detested crymes which shee had wrought:
With dreadfull cheare, and lookes throwne to the skie,
Wishing for death, and yet shee could not die.

34.

Next, sawe wee _Dread_, all trembling how hee shooke,
With foote, vncertayne, profered here and there:
Benomd of speach, and, with a ghastly looke,
Searcht euery place, all pale and dead for feare,
His cap borne vp with staring of his heare,
Stoynde and amazde at his owne shade for dreede,
And fearing greater daungers then was neede.

35.

And, next, within the entry of this lake,
Sate fell _Reuenge_, gnashing her teeth for ire,
Deuising meanes how shee may vengeaunce take,
Neuer in rest, till shee haue her desire:
But frets within so farforth with the fire
Of wreaking flames, that now determines shee
To dy by death, or vengde by death to bee.

36.

When fell reuenge, with bloudy foule pretence
Had showde her selfe, as next in order set,
With trembling lims wee softly parted thence,
Till in our eyes another sight wee met:
When fro my heart a sigh forthwith I fet,
Rewing, alas, vpon the woefull plight
Of _Misery_, that next appeard in sight.

37.

His face was leane, and somedeale pynde away
And eke his hands consumed to the bone,
But what his body was, I cannot say,
For on his carkas rayment had hee none,
Saue clouts and patches pieced one by one,
With staffe in hand, and scrip on shoulder[1530] cast,
His chiefe defence agaynst the winter’s blast.

38.

His foode, for most, was wilde fruites of the tree,
Unlesse sometime some crums fell to his share,
Which in his wallet long, God wot, kept hee,
As one the which full daintely would fare:[1531]
His drinke, the running streame, his cup, the bare
Of his palme cloasde, his bed, the hard cold ground:
To this poore life was _Misery_ ybound.

39.

Whose wretched state when wee had well beheld,
With tender ruth on him, and on his feres,
In thoughtfull cares forth then our pace wee held:
And, by and by, another shape apperes
Of greedy _Care_, still brushing vp the breres,
His knuckles knobde, his flesh deepe dented in,
With tawed hands, and hard ytanned skin.

40.

The morrowe gray no sooner hath begon
To spreade his light, euen peping in our eyes,
When[1532] hee is vp, and to his worke yrun:
But let the night’s blacke misty mantles rise,
And with foule darke neuer so mutch disguise
The fayre bright day, yet ceasseth hee no while,
But hath his candels to prolong his toyle.

41.

By him lay heauy _Sleepe_, the[1533] cosin of _Death_,
Flat on the ground, and still as any stone,
A very corps, saue yelding forth a breath:
Smale kepe tooke hee, whome fortune frowned on,
Or whom shee lifted vp into the throne
Of high renoune, but, as a liuing death,
So, dead aliue, of life hee drew the breath.

42.

The bodie’s rest, the quiet of the hart
The trauailes ease, the still night’s feere was hee:
And of our life in earth the better part,
Reuer of sight, and yet in whom wee see
Things oft that tyde,[1534] and oft that neuer bee:
Without respect, esteming[1535] equally
King _Crœsus’_ pompe, and _Irus’_ pouertie.

43.

And next, in order sad, _Old Age_ wee found,
His beard all hoare, his eyes hollow and blind,
With drouping chere still poring on the ground,
As on the place where nature him assinde
To rest, when that the sisters had vntwynde
His vitall thred, and ended with their knyfe
The fleting course of fast declyning lyfe.

44.

There heard wee him with broke[1536] and hollow plaint
Rewe with him selfe his end approching fast,
And all for nought his wretched mind torment,
With sweete remembraunce of his pleasures past,
And fresh delytes of lusty youth forewast:
Recounting which, how would hee sob and shrike?
And to bee yong agayne of loue beseke.

45.

But, and[1537] the cruell fates so fixed bee,
That tyme forepast cannot retourne agayne,
This one request of Ioue yet prayed hee:
That, in such withred plight, and wretched paine,
As eld, accompanied with his[1538] lothsome trayne,
Had brought on him, all were it woe and griefe,
Hee might a while yet linger forth his liefe.

46.

And not so soone discend into the pit:
Where _Death_, when hee the mortall corps hath slayne,
With retchlesse hand in graue doth couer it,
Therafter neuer to enioy agayne
The gladsome light, but, in the ground ylayne,
In depth of darknesse wast and weare to nought,
As hee had nere[1539] into the world bene brought.

47.

But who had seene him, sobbing, how hee stoode,
Unto himselfe, and how hee would bemone
His youth forepast, as though it wrought him good
To talke of youth, all were his youth foregone,
Hee would haue musde, and meruaylde much, whereon
This wretched _Age_ should life desire so fayne,
And knowes full well lyfe doth but length his payne.

48.

Crookebackt hee was, toothshaken, and blere eyde,
Went on three feete, and somtyme,[1540] crept on fowre,
With olde lame boanes, that ratled by his syde,
His scalpe all pild, and hee with eld forlore:
His withred fist still knocking at _Death’s_ dore,
Fumbling, and driueling, as hee drawes his breath,[1541]
For briefe, the shape and messenger of _Death_.

49.

And fast by him pale _Malady_ was plaste,
Sore sicke in bed, her coulour all foregone,
Bereft of stomacke, sauour, and of taste,
Ne could shee brooke no meate, but broths alone:
Her breath corrupt, her kepers euery one
Abhorring her, her sicknes past recure,
Detesting phisicke, and all phisicke’s cure.

50.

But, oh,[1542] the dolefull sight that then wee see,
Wee tournd our looke, and, on the other side,
A griesly shape of _Famine_ mought wee see,
With greedy lookes, and gaping mouth, that cryed
And roarde for meate, as shee should there haue dyed,
Her body thin, and bare as any bone,
Whereto was left nought but the case alone.

51.

And that, alas, was gnawne on euery where,
All full of holes, that I ne mought refrayne
From tears, to see how shee her armes could teare,
And with her teeth gnash on the bones in vayne:
When, all for nought, shee fayne would so sustayne
Her staruen corps, that rather seemde a shade,
Then any substaunce of a creature made.

52.

Great was her force, whome stone wall could not stay,
Her tearing nayles snatching at all shee sawe:
With gaping iawes, that by no[1543] meanes ymay
Be satisfide from hunger of her mawe,
But eates herselfe as shee that hath no lawe:
Gnawing, alas, her carkas all in vayne,
Where you may count ech sinew, bone, and veyne.

53.

On her while wee thus firmly fixt our eyes,
That bled for ruth of such a drery sight,
Loe, sodaynly shee shrikt[1544] in so huge wise,
As made hell gates to shiuer with the might:
Wherewith, a dart wee sawe, how it did light
Right on her brest, and, therewithall, pale _Death_
Enthrilling it, to reue her of her breath.

54.

And, by and by, a dum dead corps wee sawe,
Heauy, and colde, the shape of death aright:
That daunts all earthly creatures to his lawe:
Against whose force in vaine it is to fight:
Ne peeres, ne princes, nor no mortall wyght,
No townes, ne realmes, cittyes, ne strongest tower,
But all, perforce, must yeelde vnto his power.

55.

His dart, anon, out of the corps hee tooke,
And in his hand (a dreadfull sight to see)
With great tryumph eftsones the same hee shooke;
That most of all my feares affrayed mee:
His body dight with nought but bones, perdye,
The naked shape of man there saw I plaine,
All saue the flesh, the sinow, and the vaine.

56.

Lastly, stoode _Warre_, in glittering[1545] armes yclad,
With visage grym, sterne lookes,[1546] and blackly hewed
In his right hand a naked sworde hee had,
That to the hilts was all with bloud embrued:
And in his left (that king[1547] and kingdomes rewed)
Famine and fyer he held, and therewithall
He razed townes, and threw downe towres and all.

57.

Cities hee sakt, and realmes (that whilome flowred
In honour, glory, and rule, aboue the best)
Hee ouerwhelmde, and all theire fame deuoured,
Consumde, destroyde, wasted and neuer ceast,
Tyll hee theire wealth, theire name, and all opprest:
His face forehewde with wounds, and by his side
There hung his targ, with gashes deepe and wide.

58.

In mids of which, depainted there, wee founde
Deadly _Debate_, all full of snaky heare,
That with a bloudy fillet was ybound,
Out breathing nought but discord euery where:
And round about were portrayde, here and there,
The hugy hostes, _Darius_ and his power,
His kings, princes, his peeres,[1548] and all his flower.

59.[1549]

Whom great _Macedo_ vanquisht there in sight,
With deepe slaughter, despoyling all his pryde,
Pearst through his realmes, and daunted all his might:
Duke _Hanniball_ beheld I there besyde,
In _Canna’s_ field, victor how hee did ryde,
And woefull _Romaynes_ that in vayne withstoode,
And consull _Paulus_ couered all in blood.

60.

Yet sawe I more the sight at _Trasimene_,
And _Treby_[1550] field, and eke when _Hanniball_
And worthy _Scipio_ last in armes were sene
Before _Carthago_ gate, to try for all
The world’s empyre, to whom it should befall:
There saw I _Pompey_, and _Cæsar_ clad in arms,
Their hoasts allied and all their ciuill harms:

61.

With conquerers hands, forbathde in their owne bloud,
And _Cæsar_ weeping ouer _Pompey’s_ head:
Yet saw I _Scilla_ and _Marius_ where they stood,
Their greate crueltie, and the deepe bloudshed
Of frends: _Cyrus_ I saw and his host dead,
And howe the queene with greate despite hath flong
His head in bloud of them shee ouercome.

62.

_Xerxes_, the _Percian_ king, yet sawe I there,
With his huge host, that dranke the riuers drye,
Dismounted hills, and made the vales vprere,
His hoste and all yet sawe I slayne, perdye:
_Thebes_ I sawe,[1551] all razde how it did lye
In heapes of stones, and _Tyrus_ put to spoyle,
With walls and towers flat euened with the soyle.

63.

But _Troy_, alas, mee thought, aboue them all,
It made myne eyes in very teares consume:
When I behelde the woefull werd befall,
That by the wrathfull will of gods[1552] was come:
And _Ioue’s_ vnmoued sentence and foredoome
On _Priam_ king, and on his towne so bent,
I could not lin, but I must there lament.

64.

And that the more sith desteny was so sterne
As, force perforce,[1553] there might no force auayle,
But shee must fall: and, by her fall, wee learne,
That cities, towers, welth, world, and all shall quaile:
No manhood, might, nor nothing mought preuayle,
All were there prest full many a prince, and peere,
And many a knight that solde his death full deere.

65.

Not worthy _Hector_, worthyest of them all,
Her hope, her ioy, his force is now for nought:
O _Troy_, _Troy_,[1554] there is no boote but bale,
The hugie horse within thy walls is brought:
Thy turrets fall, thy knights, that whilome fought
In armes amid the field, are slayne in bed,
Thy gods defylde, and all thy honour dead.

66.

The flames vpspring,[1555] and cruelly they creepe
From wall to roofe, till all to cinders waste,
Some fyre the houses where the wretches sleepe,
Some rush in here, some run in there as fast:
In euery where or sword, or fyre, they tast:
The walls are torne, the towers whourld to the ground,
There is no mischiefe, but may there bee found.

67.

_Cassandra_ yet there sawe I how they haled
From _Pallas_ house, with spercled tresse vndone,
Her wrists fast bound, and with _Greekes_[1556] rout empaled:
And _Priam_ eke, in vayne how hee did ronne
To arms, whom _Pyrrhus_ with dispite hath donne
To cruell death, and bathde him in the bayne
Of his sonne’s bloud, before the altare slayne.

68.

But how can I descriue the dolefull sight,
That in the shield so liuely[1557] fayre did shine?
Sith in this world, I thinke was neuer wight
Could haue set forth the halfe, not halfe so fyne:
I can no more, but tell how there is seene
Fayre Ilium fall in burning red gledes downe,
And, from the soile, great _Troy_, _Neptunus’_ towne.

69.

Here from when scarce I could mine[1558] eyes withdrawe
That fylde with teares as doth the springing well,
We passed on so far forth till we sawe
Rude _Acheron_, a lothsome lake to tell,
That boyles and bubs vp swelth as blacke as hell,
Where griesly _Charon_, at theyr fixed tyde,
Still ferries ghostes vnto the farder side.

70.

The aged god no sooner _Sorrow_ spyed,
But, hasting straight vnto the bancke apace,
With hollowe call vnto the rout hee cryed,
To swarue apart, and gieue the goddesse place:
Strayt it was done, when to the shoare wee pace,
Where, hand in hand as wee than linked fast,
Within the boate[1559] wee are together plaste.

71.

And forth wee launch full fraughted to the brinke,
Whan, with th’vnwonted[1560] waight, the rusty keele
Began to cracke as if the same should sinke,
Wee hoyse vp maste and sayle, that in a while
Wee fet the shoare, where scarsely wee had while
For to ariue, but that wee heard anone
A three sound barke confounded all in one.

72.

Wee had not long forth past, but that wee sawe
Blacke _Cerberus_, the hydeous hound of hell,
With bristles reard, and with a three mouth’d jawe,
Foredinning th’ayre[1561] with his horrible yell:
Out of the deepe darke caue where hee did dwell,
The goddesse straight hee knewe, and, by and by,
Hee peast, and couched, while[1562] that wee past by.[1563]

73.

Thence come wee to the horrour and the hell,
The large great kingdoms, and the dreadfull raigne
Of _Pluto_ in his throne where hee did dwell,
The wide waste places, and the hugie playne:
The waylings, shrikes, and sondry sorts of payne,
The sighes, the sobs, the deepe and deadly groane,
Earth, ayre, and all, resounding playnt and moane.

74.[1564]

Heare pewled[1565] the babes, and here the maydes vnwed,
With folded hands theyr sory chaunce bewayld:
Here wept the guiltles slayne, and louers dead,
That slew them selues when nothing els auayld:
A thousand sorts of sorrows here, that waylde
With sighs, and teares, sobs, shrikes, and all yfeare,
That, oh,[1566] alas, it was a hell to heare.[1567]

75.[1568]

Wee staide vs strait, and with a rufull feare,
Beheld this heauy sight, while from myne eyes,
The vapored tears downe stilled here and there,
And _Sorrowe_ eke in far more wofull wise,
Tooke on with plaint, vp heauing to the skies
Her wretched hands, that, with her cry, the rout
Gan all in heapes to swarme vs round about.

76.

“Loe here,” quoth _Sorrow_, “princes of renoune,
That whilom sate on top of fortune’s wheele,
Now layde full low, like wretches whurled downe,[1569]
Euen with one frowne, that slayde but with a smyle,
And now beholde the thing that thou, erewhile,
Saw onely in thought, and, what thou now shalt heere,
Recompt the same to kesar, king, and peere.”

77.

Then first came _Henry_ duke of _Buckingham_,
His cloake of blacke all pilde, and quite forworne,[1570]
Wringing his hands, and fortune oft doth blame,
Which of a duke hath made him now her skorne:
With gastly lookes, as one in maner lorne,
Oft spred his armes, stretcht hands hee ioynes as fast,
With rufull cheare, and vapored eyes vpcast.

78.

His cloake hee rent, his manly brest hee beat,
His hayre all torne, about the place it lay,[1571]
My heart so molt to see his griefe so great,
As felingly me thought, it dropt away:
His eyes they whurld about withouten stay,
With stormy sighes the place did so complayne,
As if his heart at ech had burst in twayne.

79.

Thrise hee began to tell his dolefull tale,
And thrise the sighes did swallow vp his voyce,
At ech of which hee shriked so withall,
As though the heauens riued with the noyse:
Tyll at the last, recouering his voyce,
Supping the teares that all his brest beraynde,
On cruell fortune, weeping, thus hee playnde.

The Complaynt of _Henry_ Duke of Buckingham.

1.

Who trusts too much to[1572] honour’s highest throne,
And warely[1573] watch not sly dame fortune’s snares:
Or who in court will beare the swinge[1574] alone,
And wisely weigh not how to wield the care,
Behold hee mee, and by my death beware:
Whome flattering fortune falsely so beguylde,
That, loe, she slewe, where erst full smooth she smilde.

2.

And, _Sackuille_, sith in purpose now thou hast
The wofull fall of princes to descryue,
Whom fortune both vplift, and eke[1575] downe cast,
To shew thereby th’vnshurty[1576] in this life,
Marke well my fall, which I shall shew belyue,
And paynt it forth, that all estates may knowe:
Haue they the warning, and be mine the woe.

3.

For noble bloud made mee both prince and peere,
Yea peereles too, had reason[1577] purchast place,
And God with giftes endowde mee largely heere:
But what auayles his giftes where fayles his grace?
My mother’s sire sprong of a kingly race,
And cald was _Edmund_ duke of _Somerset_,
Bereft of life ere time by nature set.

4.

Whose faythfull heart to _Henry_ sixt so wrought,
That neuer hee him in[1578] weale, or woe, forsooke,
Till lastly hee at _Tewkesbury_ fielde was cought,
Where with an axe his violent death hee tooke:
Hee neuer could king _Edward’s_ party brooke,
Tyll by his death hee voucht that quarell good,
In which his sire and graundsire spilt theyr bloud.

5.

And such was erst my father’s cruell chaunce,
Of _Stafforde_ earle, by name that _Humfrey_ hight,
Who euer prest did _Henrye’s_ part auaunce,
And neuer ceast, till at _S. Albane’s_ fight
Hee lost his life, as then[1579] did many a knight:
Where eke my graundsire, duke of _Buckingham_,
Was wounded sore, and hardly scapt vntane.

6.

But what may boote to stay the sisters three?
When _Atropos_ perforce will cut the thred:
The dolefull day was come, when you might see
_Northampton_ fielde with armed men orespred,
Where fate would algates haue my graundsire dead:
So, rushing forth amids the fiercest fight,
Hee liu’d[1580] and dyde there in his maister’s right.

7.

In place of whom, as it befell my lot,
Like on a stage, so stept I in straite way,
Enioying there, but woefully, God wot,
As hee that had a slender part to play:
To teach thereby, in earth no state may stay,
But as our partes abridge, or length our age,
So passe wee all, while others fill the stage.

8.

For of my selfe the drery fate to playne,
I was sometime a prince withouten peere,
When _Edward_ fift began his rufull raigne,
Ay me, then I began that hatefull yeere,
To compasse that which I haue bought so deere:
I bare the swinge, I and that wretched wight
The duke of _Glocester_, that _Richard_ hight.

9.

For when the fates had reft that royall prince
_Edward_ the fourth, cheife miroure of that name,
The duke and I, fast ioyned euer since
In faithfull loue, our secret drifts to frame,
What hee thought best, to mee so seemde the same,
My selfe not bent so much for to aspyre,
As to fulfill that greedy duke’s desyre.

10.

Whose restlesse mynd, sore thirsting after rule,
When that hee sawe his nephewes both to bene
Through tender years as yet vnfit to rule,
And rather ruled by their mother’s kin,
There sought hee first his mischiefe to begin,
To plucke from them theire mother’s frends assynde,
For well hee wist they would withstand[1581] his mynde.

11.

To follow which hee ran so headlong swyft,
With egre thirst of his desired draught,
To seeke their deaths that sought to dash his drift,
Of whome the chief the queene’s allies hee thought,
That bent therto with mounts of mischief fraught,
Hee knew their liues would bee so sore his let,
That in their deaths his onely help hee set.

12.

And I, most cursed caytife that I was,
Seeing the state vnstedfast how it stoode,
His chiefe complice to bring the same to passe,
Unhappy wretch consented to their blood:
Yea kings and peeres that swim in worldly good,
In seeking bloud the end aduert you playne,
And see if bloud ey aske not bloud agayne.

13.

Consider _Cyrus_ in your cruell thought,
A makelesse[1582] prince in riches, and in might,
And weigh in mynd the bloudy deeds hee wrought,
In sheading which hee set his whole delight:
But see the guerdon lotted to this wight,
Hee, whose huge powre no man might ouerthrowe,
_Tomyris_ queene with greate dispite hath slowe.

14.

His head dismembred from his mangled corps,
Her selfe shee cast into a vessell fraught
With clottered bloud of them that felt her force,
And with these words a iust reward shee taught:
“Drinke now thy fill of thy desired draught:”
Loe, marke the fine that did this prince befall:
Marke not this one, but marke the end of all.

15.

Behold _Cambises_, and his fatall day,
Where murder’s mischiefe, mirour like, is left,
While hee his brother _Mergus_ cast to slay,
A dreadfull thing, his wits were him bereft:
A sword hee caught, wherewith hee perced eft
His body gored, which hee of life benooms:
So iust is God in all his dreadfull dooms.

16.

O, bloudy _Brutus_, rightly didst thou rue,
And thou, O[1583] _Cassius_, iustly came thy fall,
That with the sword, wherewith thou _Cæsar_ slue,
Murdredst thyselfe, and reft thy life withall:
A miroir let him bee vnto you all
That murdrers bee, of murder to your meede:
For murder cryes[1584] out vengeaunce on your seede.

17.

Loe, _Bessus_, hee that armde with murdrer’s[1585] knife,
And traytrous[1586] heart agaynst his royall king,
With bloudy hands bereft his maister’s life,
Aduert the fine his foule offence did bring:
And lothing murder as most lothly thing,
Behold in him the iust deserued fall
That euer hath, and shall betyde them all.

18.

What booted him his false vsurped raygne?
Wherto by murder hee did so ascend,
When like a wretch, led in an yron chayne,
He was presented, by his chiefest frend,
Unto the foes of him whom hee had slayne:
That euen they should venge[1587] so foule a gilt,
That rather sought to haue his bloud yspilt.

19.

Take heede ye princes and ye prelates all
Of this outrage, which though it sleepe a while
And not disclosde, as it doth seeld befall,
Yet God, that suffreth[1588] silence to beguile
Such gilts, wherewith both earth and ayre ye file,
At last discryes them to your fowle deface,
You see th’examples[1589] set before your face.

20.

And deeply graue within your stony harts,
The drery dewle that mighty _Macedo_,
With teares vnfoulded, wrapt in deadly smarts,
When hee the death of _Clitus_ sorrowed so,
Whom erst hee murdred[1590] with the deadly blowe
Raught in his rage vpon his frend so deare,
For which beholde, loe, how his panges appeare.

21.

The launsed speare hee wrythes out of the wound,
From which the purple bloud spins in[1591] his face:
His heynous gilt when hee returned found,
Hee throwes himselfe vpon the corps, alas,
And in his armes how oft doth hee imbrace
His murdred frend? and kissing him, in vayne
Forth flowe the fluds of salt repentant rayne.

22.

His frends amazde at such a murder done,
In fearefull flocks begin to shrinke away,
And hee therat, with heapes of grief fordone,
Hateth him selfe, wishing his later day:
Now hee likewise perceiued in lyke stay,
As is the wylde beast in the desert bred,
Both dreading others and him selfe a dred.

23.

Hee calles for death, and loathing lenger[1592] lyfe,
Bent to his bane, refuseth kindely foode:
And plungd in depth of death and dolour’s strife,
Had queld him selfe, had not his frends withstoode:
Loe, hee that thus hath shed the guiltles bloud,
Though hee were king and kesar ouer all,
Yet chose hee death to guerdon death withall.

24.