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A PRISONER IN WINDSOR CASTLE, HE REFLECTS ON PAST HAPPINESS.

So cruel prison how could betide, alas!
As proud Windsor? Where I in lust and joy,
With a king's son, my childish years did pass,
In greater feast than Priam's sons of Troy;
Where each sweet place returns a taste full sour.
The large green courts, where we were wont to hove,
With eyes upcast unto the maiden's tower,
And easy sighs, such as folk draw in love.
The stately seats, the ladies bright of hue,
The dances short, long tales of great delight;
With words and looks that tigers could but rue,
When each of us did plead the other's right.
The palm play', where dèsported for the game,
With dazed eyes oft we, by gleams of love,
Have miss'd the ball, and got sight of our dame,
To bait her eyes, which kept the leads above.
The gravell'd ground, with sleeves tied on the helm,
On foaming horse with swords and friendly hearts;
With cheer as though one should another whelm,
Where we have fought, and chased oft with darts.
With silver drops the meads yet spread for ruth;
In active games of nimbleness and strength,
Where we did strain, trained with swarms of youth,
Our tender limbs that yet shot up in length.
The secret groves, which oft we made resound
Of pleasant plaint, and of our ladies praise;

Tennis-court.—2 Stript.

Recording soft what grace each one had found,
What hope of speed, what dread of long delays.
The wild forest, the clothed holts with green;
With reins avail'd', and swift ybreathed horse,
With cry of hounds, and merry blasts between,
Where we did chase the fearful hart of force.
The void walls eke that harbour'd us each night:
Wherewith, alas! revive within my breast
The sweet accord, such sleeps as yet delight;
The pleasant dreams, the quiet bed of rest;
The secret thoughts, imparted with such trust;
The wanton talk, the divers change of play;
The friendship sworn, each promise kept so just,
Wherewith we past the winter nights away.
And with this thought the blood forsakes the face;
The tears berain my cheeks of deadly hue:
The which, as soon as sobbing sighs, alas!
Upsupped have, thus I my plaint renew:
O place of bliss! renewer of my woes!
Give me account, where is my noble fere??
Whom in thy walls thou didst each night enclose;
To other liefs: but unto me most dear.

Echo, alas! that doth my sorrow rue,
Returns thereto a hollow sound of plaint.
Thus I alone, where all my freedom grew,
In prison pine, with bondage and restraint:
And with remembrance of the greater grief,
To banish the less, I find my chief relief.

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THAT EVERY OBJECT HE CONTEMPLATED AT WINDSOR REMINDING HIM OF HIS PAST HAPPINESS, INCREASED HIS PRESENT SORROW.

WHEN Windsor walls sustain'd my wearied arm;
My hand my chin, to ease my restless head;
The pleasant plot revested green with warm;
The blossom'd boughs with lusty ver yspread;
The flower'd meads, the wedded birds so late
Mine eyes discover; and to my mind resort
The jolly woes, the hateless short debate,
The rakehell' life that longs to love's disport.
Wherewith, alas! the heavy charge of care
Heap'd in my breast, breaks forth against my will
In smoky sighs that overcast the air.

My vapour'd eye such dreary tears distil,

The tender green they quicken where they fall;
And I half bend to throw me down withal.

1 Careless.--Rakil, or rakle, seems synonymous with reckless.

LORD VAUX.

It is now universally admitted that Lord Vaux, the poet, was not Nicholas the first peer, but Thomas, the second baron of that name. He was one of those who attended Cardinal Wolsey on his embassy to Francis the First. He received the order of the Bath at the coronation of Anne Boleyn, and was for some time Captain of the island of Jersey. A considerable number of his pieces are found in the Paradise of Dainty Devices. Mr. Park has noticed a passage in the prose prologue to Sackville's Introduction to the Mirror for Magistrates, that Lord Vaux had undertaken to complete the history of King Edward's two sons who were murdered in the Tower, but that it does not appear he ever executed his intention.

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THESE hairs of age are messengers

Which bid me fast repent and pray;
They be of death the harbingers,

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and dress the way:

Royal and Noble Authors.

Wherefore I joy that you may see
Upon my head such hairs to be.

They be the lines that lead the length
How far my race was for to run;

They say my youth is fled with strength,
And how old age is well begun ;

The which I feel, and you may see

Such lines upon my head to be.

They be the strings of sober sound,
Whose music is harmonical;

Their tunes declare a time from ground

I came, and how thereto I shall :
Wherefore I love that you may see
Upon my head such hairs to be.

God grant to those that white hairs have, No worse them take than I have meant ; That after they be laid in grave,

Their souls may joy their lives well spent God grant, likewise, that you may see Upon my head such hairs to be.

VOL. I.

K

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