XXI. SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S PETITION TO THE QUEEN (ANNE OF DENMARK).1 (1618.) HAD truth power, the guiltless could Malice win glory, or revenge triumph; Mercy is fled to God, which mercy made ; Friends know not those who sit in sorrow's shade. For what we sometime were, we are no more: Fortune hath changed our shape, and destiny Defaced the very form we had before. All love, and all desert of former times, Malice hath covered from my sovereign's eyes, And largely laid abroad supposed crimes. But kings call not to mind what vassals were, But know them now, as envy hath described them: So can I look on no side from despair. Hawthornden MSS. in the Library of the Antiquarian Society of Scotland; vol. viii. "Drummond Miscellanies," II. First printed by Mr. D. Laing in "Archæol. Scot.," vol. iv. pp. 236-8. The original title runs: "S. W. Raghlies Petition to the Queene. 1618." Cold walls! to you I speak; but you are senseless: Celestial Powers! you hear, but have determined, And shall determine, to my greatest happiness. Then unto whom shall I unfold my wrong, Cast down my tears, or hold up folded hands? To Her, to whom remorse doth most belong; To Her who is the first, and may alone Be justly called the Empress of the Bretanes. Who should have mercy if a Queen have none? Save those that would have died for your defence! Save him whose thoughts no treason ever tainted! For lo destruction is no recompense. If I have sold my duty, sold my faith But if both God and Time shall make you know That I and mine may never mourn the miss Of Her we had, but praise our living Queen, Who brings us equal, if not greater, bliss. XXII. SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S VERSES, FOUND IN HIS BIBLE IN THE GATE-HOUSE AT VEN such is time, that takes in trust But from this earth, this grave, this dust, W. R. Printed with Raleigh's "Prerogative of Parliaments," 1628, and probably still earlier; also with "To-day a Man, To-morrow none," 1643-4; in Raleigh's "Remains," 1661, &c., with the title given above; and in "Rel. Wotton." 1651, &c., with the title, "Sir Walter Raleigh the night before his death." Also found with several variations in many old MS. copies. XXIII. FRAGMENTS AND EPIGRAMS. I. HIS made him write in a glass window, obvious to the Queen's eye “Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.' Her Majesty, either espying or being shown it, did under-write "If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.'" 1 II. "SIR WA. RAWLEY made this rhyme upon the name of a gallant, one Mr. Noel: "Noe. L. "The word of denial and the letter of fifty Makes the gentleman's name that will never be thrifty.' "And Noel's answer :- "The foe to the stomach and the word of disgrace Shews the gentleman's name with the bold face.""? Fuller, "Worthies of England," Devonshire, p. 261. 2 Manningham's "Diary," under date Dec. 30, 1602; Camden Society edition, p. 109; and Collier's "Hist. Dram. Poetry," i. 336, note. Somewhat different in MS. Malone 19, p. 42. III. In vain mine eyes, in vain you waste your tears; IV. WITH Wisdom's eyes had but blind fortune seen, Then had my love, my love for ever been.2 V. EPITAPH ON THE EARL OF LEICESTER.3 (Died Sept. 4, 1588.) HERE lies the noble warrior that never blunted sword; Here lies the noble courtier that never kept his word; Here lies his excellency that governed all the state; Here lies the L. of Leicester that all the world did hate. VI. WA. RA. EPITAPH ON THE EARL OF SALISBURY.* HERE lies Hobbinol, our pastor whilere, That once in a quarter our fleeces did sheer. 1 Puttenham's "Art of English Poesie," 1589, p. 165, as this written by Sir Walter Raleigh of his greatest mistress in most excellent verses.' "" 2 Puttenham, ibid., p. 167, as "that of Sir Walter Raleigh's very sweet." 3 Collier's " Bibliographical Catalogue," vol. ii. p. 222, from a Bridgewater MS. It is anonymous in the Hawthornden MSS.; and in a shorter form in MS. Ashm. 38, p. 181. 4 Shirley's "Life of Raleigh," p. 28, folio. |