Yet it forbid my wrongs should ever die, And let the Crown be fatal that he wears, Thy curse on Percy, angry Heavens prevent, Then cease, dear Queen, my sorrows to bewail, Yet better fortunes thy fair youth may try ANNOTATIONS OF THE CHRONICLE HISTORY. a "This tongue, which then renounced my regal state." Richard the Second, at the resignation of the Crown to the Duke of Hertford in the Tower of London, delivering the same with his own hand, there confessed his disability to govern, utterly renouncing all kingly authority. b "And left great Bourbon for thy love to me." Before the Princess Isabel was married to the King, Lewis, Duke of Bourbon, sued to have had her in marriage; which was thought he had obtained, if this motion had not fallen out in the meantime. This Duke of Bourbon sued again to have received her at her coming into France, after the imprisonment of King Richard, but King Charles, her father, then crossed him, as before, and gave her to Charles, son to the Duke of Orleans. с "When Hertford had his judgment of exile." When the combat should have been at Coventry betwixt Henry, Duke of Hertford, and Thomas, Duke of Norfolk (where Hertford was adjudged to banishment for ten years), the commons exceedingly lamented, so greatly was he ever favoured of the people. Then being forced to abridge his banished years." When the Duke came to take his leave of the King, being then at Eltham, the King, to please the commons rather than for any love he bare to Hertford, repealed four years of his banishment. "But Henry boasts of our achievements done." Henry, the eldest son of John, Duke of Lancaster, at the first, Earl of Derby, then created Duke of Hertford; after the death of the Duke John, his father was Duke of Lancaster and Hertford, Earl of Derby, Leicester, and Lincoln; and after he had obtained the Crown, was called by the name of Bolingbrooke, which is a town in Lincolnshire; as usually all the Kings of England bare the name of the place where they were born. f "Seven goodly scions in their spring did flourish." Edward the Third had seven sons, Edward Prince of Wales, after called the Black Prince; William of Hatfield, the second; Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the third; John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the fourth; Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, the fifth; Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, the sixth; William of Windsor, the seventh. "Edward the top-branch of that golden tree." Truly boasting himself to be the eldest son of Edward the Black Prince. "Yet after Edward, John the youngest of three." As disabling Henry Bolingbrooke, being but the son of the fourth brother, William and Lionel being both before John of Gaunt. "He that from France brought John his prisoner home." Edward the Black Prince taking John, King of France, prisoner at the battle of Poictiers, brought him into England, where at the Savoy he died. "Whose name achieved by his fatal hand.' Called the Black Prince, not so much of his complexion, as of the famous battles he fought. "And proves our Acts of Parliament unjust." In the next Parliament, after Richard's resignation of the Crown, Henry caused to be annihilated all the laws made in the Parliament, called the wicked Parliament, held in the twentieth year of King Richard's reign. NYMPHIDIA, THE COURT OF FAIRY. OLD Chaucer doth of Topas tell, With such poor trifles playing ; Another sort there be, that will As they were wedded to them; No tales of them their thirst can slake, So much delight therein they take, And some strange thing they fain would make, Knew they the way to do them. Then since no Muse hath been so bold, Or of the later, or the old, Those elvish secrets to unfold, Which lie from others' reading; My active Muse to light shall bring Jove prosper my proceeding! G And thou, Nymphidia, gentle Fay, Which now I am in telling; This palace standeth in the air, Which way soe'er it blow it. And somewhat southward tow'rds the noon, The walls of spiders' legs are made It curiously that builded; With moonshine that are gilded. Hence Obe on him sport to make, Descendeth for his pleasure; Which plagues them out of measure. Hence shadows, seeming idle shapes, These make our girls their sluttery rue, The house for cleanly sweeping; These when a child haps to be got But listen, and I shall you tell Of Oberon that jealous grew Of one of his own Fairy crew, Too well, he feared, his Queen that knew, His love but ill requiting. |