(The text is taken from the edition by
J. H. Ellis, 1867.)

To her most Honoured Father
THOMAS DUDLEY ESQ;

THESE HUMBLY PRESENTED.

Dear Sir of late delighted with the sight Of your four Sisters cloth'd' in black and white,

Of fairer Dames the Sun, ne'r saw the face;

Though made a pedestal for Adams Race; Their worth so shines in these rich lines you show

Their paralels to finde I scarcely know To climbe their Climes, I have nor strength nor skill

To mount so high requires an Eagles quill; Yet view thereof did cause my thoughts to

soar;

9

My lowly pen might wait upon these four I bring my four times four, now meanly clad

To do their homage, unto yours, full glad: Who for their Age, their worth and quality Might seem of yours to claim precedency: But by my humble hand, thus rudely pen'd They are, your bounden handmaids to attend

These same are they, from whom we being have

These are of all, the Life, the Nurse, the Grave,

These are the hot, the cold, the moist, the dry,

That sink, that swim, that fill, that upwards fly,

20

Of these consists our bodies, Cloathes and

In Honour of that High and Mighty Princess

QUEEN ELIZABETH

OF HAPPY MEMORY

THE PROEME

Although great Queen thou now in silence lye

Yet thy loud Herald Fame doth to the sky Thy wondrous worth proclaim in every Clime,

And so hath vow'd while there is world or time.

So great's thy glory and thine excellence,

20

No Phonix pen, nor Spencers poetry, No Speeds nor Cambdens learned History, Elizahs works, warrs, praise, can e're compact,

The World's the Theatre where she did act. No memoryes nor volumes can contain The 'leven Olympiads of her happy reign: Who was so good, so just, so learn'd so wise,

From all the Kings on earth she won the prize.

Nor say I more then duly is her due,
Millions will testifie that this is true.
She hath wip'd off th' aspersion of her Sex,
That women wisdome lack to play the
Rex:

30

Spains Monarch, sayes not so, nor yet his host:

1 "THE HISTORIE OF GREAT BRITAINE UNDER THE CONQUESTS OF THE ROMANS, SAXONS, DANES AND NORMANS. Their Originals, Manners, Habits, Warres, Coines, and Seales: with the Successions, Liues, Acts, and Issues of the English Monarchs, from Julius Cæsar, to our most_gra cious Soueraigne, King JAMES." "By JOHN SPEED." London, 1623.

"ANNALES RERUM ANGLICARUM ET HIBERNICARUM, REGNANTE ELIZABETHA, Ad ANNUM SALUTIS M.D.LXXXIX. Guilielmo Camdeno Authore. Londini, M. DC. XV."

"ANNALES OR, THE HISTORY OF THE MOST RENOWNED and Victorious Princesse ELIZABETH, Late Queen of England. Contayning all the Important and Remarkable Passages of State, both at Home and Abroad, during her Long and Prosperous Reigne. Written in Latin by the learned Mr. WILLIAM CAMDEN. Translated into English by R. N. Gent. Together with divers Additions of the Authors never before published. The third Edition." London, 1635.

She was a Phoenix Queen, so shall she be, Her ashes not reviv'd, more Phoenix she. Her personal perfections, who would tell, Must dip his pen in th' Heleconian Well, Which I may not, my pride doth but aspire

To read what others write, and so admire. Now say, have women worth? or have they none?

Or had they some, but with our Queen is't gone?

Nay Masculines, you have thus taxt us long,

But she, though dead, will vindicate our

But when my wondring eyes and envious heart

Great Bartas sugar'd lines, do but read o're

Fool I do grudg the Muses did not part
'Twixt him and me that overfluent store;
A Bartas can, do what a Bartas will
But simple I according to my skill.

3

II

From school-boyes tongue no rhet❜rick we expect

Nor yet a sweet Consort from broken strings,

Nor perfect beauty, where's a main de

fect:

1 To the long poems The Four Elements, The Four Humours, The Four Ages, and The Four Seasons.