subjected were to ruinous extremes,

and accidents: which like a Rivers streames

runne ore his banke.- The Queene did sober sitt

markeinge the course of Fortunes wanton Fitt,

untill she dyed,1 lamented of us all.

205

(thus Princes answere muste, when god doth call.)

For soe she sawe the Prince her eldest sonne

pluckt like untimelie fruite,2 wich newe begunn

to apple on the tree. Oh fearefull storie

that we so suddenlie should loose our glory.

210

But blessed might, where Hymen did soe shine

and brought such honor to the Palatine.3

yet see, what times have done? the crowned Queene

besides her lives escape hath changes seene.

Then by mischance doth Arabella flye,

215

and sent a prisoner in the Tower doth dye:4

Att wich her cousen Shrewsbury5 doth storme

and for undecencies (wich wrought her harme)

must to the Tower goe, and their is still:6

for such greate women talke at randome will.

220

Then falls Lord Cooke out with his wife;7 or shee

cannot soe well with his lawe talke agree:

But howsoe’re, from the Tribunall seate

He quicklie is throwne downe:8 not halfe soe greate

as once he was. O wondrous change of times

225

unfitt (indeede) for thies poore idle rymes.

Then comes a Secretarie to the stake

I neede not name him: yet Sir Thomas Lake9

muste with the rest, the curse of Fortune trye

For, for his daughter he contriv’de a lye.10

230

But when the reckoninge is up better caste

all men exclayme; sayinge, what soe is paste

Upon thies Lordes, be dangerous woemens sinne

whoe still unto the men, theire woe begin.

But I doe saie, T’is to resolve this doubte

235

that Fortunes wheele, is quicklie turnde aboute.

Our noble James sitts wondringe at thies things

Yet with the constancie of other kinges

derides them all: and soe at further leasure

inventes devices to mainteyne his pleasure.

240

But firste he stepps to act a monarches parte

and to the Comforte of each English harte

In the Starrchamber sitts in supreame sight11

and like a sun, dispelling vapours quite

prevents the babblinge lawier, where he stands

245

keepeinge the Judge from fowleinge of his hands.

he still preserves the Statutes of the crowne

preserves the weaker from the greatter frowne:

yea, to the Contrys honor, and faire joy,

doth punish all who durst her peace annoy.

250

K1v

Quick links to other poems within this section

Select page here K0. Introduction K1i. Some would complaine K1ii. K1iii. K1iv. K1v. K1vi. K1vii. K1viii. K1ix. K1x. K2. Bridewell I come

¹   untill she dyed: Queen Anne died in 1619. <back>

²   Prince...fruite: Prince Henry died in 1612. <back>

³   Hymen...Palatine: allusion to the 1613 marriage of Princess Elizabeth to Frederick, Elector Palatine of the Rhine. <back>

⁴   Arabella...doth dye: Arabella Stuart, cousin of James, was imprisoned in the Tower in 1611 after her marriage to William Seymour, to which the King objected. She died in 1615. <back>

⁵   her cousen Shrewsbury: Mary Cavendish, Countess of Shrewsbury, aunt of Arabella Stuart. <back>

⁶   must to the Tower... goe: Mary Cavendish was committed to the Tower on suspicion of having aided Arabella Stuart in her flight after her marriage, charges which Cavendish refused to answer. Contrary to the poem’s claims, however, she was free by the time of her husband’s death in 1616. <back>

⁷   Then falls...wife: Coke and his wife, Lady Hatton, had a notoriously stormy relationship. Their most public confrontation came in 1616-17, when Coke tried to marry their fourteen-year-old daughter to John Villiers, the elder brother of George Villiers, future Duke of Buckingham, without the consent of either the daughter or her mother. <back>

⁸   He quicklie...downe: Coke fell from favour in the summer of 1616, after a series of political missteps and legal quarrels with both the King and the Lord Chancellor, Thomas Egerton, and was dismissed from the office of Lord Chief Justice later in the year. <back>

⁹   Secretarie...Lake: Sir Thomas Lake, appointed Secretary of State in 1616. <back>

¹⁰   for his daughter...lye: when Lake’s daughter was involved in a bitter property dispute with the family of her deceased (and, at the time of his death, estranged) husband, Lake was implicated with her in a defamation case, which brought about his imprisonment and political downfall (see Section J). <back>

¹¹   In the Starrchamber...sight: probably an ironic reference to James’s 1616 Star Chamber speech, in which he rebutted Coke’s ideas on the relation between royal power and the law. <back>