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| 12 | <title>Elizabeth I: Poetry</title>
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| 16 |
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| 17 | <div align="left">
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| 18 | <div align="left">
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| 19 | <div align="center"><b>I am redesigning the Elizabethan <a
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| 20 | href="eliz1-writings.html#Speeches">speeches </a>- <a href="eliz1-writings.html#Letters">letters </a>- <a
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| 21 | href="eliz1-writings.html#Poetry">poetry</a> pages - as of 15 October 2002.<br>
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| 22 | Until I'm finished, all the text is posted here. Click the above
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| 23 | links to visit the different sections.</b><br>
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| 24 | </div>
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| 25 |
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| 26 | <p><b><a name="Poetry"></a>COMPOSED 1554-5 </b></p>
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| 27 |
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| 28 | <p>Much suspected by me, <br>
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| 29 | Nothing proved can be, <br>
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| 30 | Quoth Elizabeth prisoner. </p>
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| 31 |
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| 32 | <p> </p>
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| 33 |
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| 34 | <hr width="100%">
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| 35 | <p><b>WRITTEN ON A WALL AT WOODSTOCK, 1554-5 </b></p>
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| 36 |
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| 37 | <p>Oh Fortune, thy wresting wavering state <br>
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| 38 | Hath fraught with cares my troubled wit, <br>
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| 39 | Whose witness this present prison late <br>
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| 40 | Could bear, where once was joy's loan quit. <br>
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| 41 | Thou causedst the guilty to be loosed <br>
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| 42 | From bands where innocents were inclosed, <br>
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| 43 | And caused the guiltless to be reserved, <br>
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| 44 | And freed those that death had well deserved. <br>
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| 45 | But all herein can be nothing wrought, <br>
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| 46 | So God send to my foes all they have thought. </p>
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| 47 |
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| 48 | <p> </p>
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| 49 |
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| 50 | <hr width="100%">
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| 51 | <h3><small><small> </small></small></h3>
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| 52 |
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| 53 | <h3><b><small> <font size="+0"><small>WRITTEN IN HER FRENCH PSALTER, 1554-5</small></font></small></b></h3>
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| 54 | No crooked leg, no bleared eye, <br>
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| 55 | No part deformed out of kind, <br>
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| 56 | Nor yet so ugly half can be <br>
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| 57 | As is the inward suspicious mind.<br>
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| 58 | </div>
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| 59 | </div>
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| 60 |
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| 61 | <hr width="100%">
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| 62 | <p><b>THE DOUBT OF FUTURE FOES, 1568-70</b> </p>
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| 63 |
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| 64 | <p>The doubt of future foes exiles my present joy, <br>
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| 65 | And wit me warns to shun such snares as threaten mine annoy; <br>
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| 66 | For falsehood now doth flow, and subjects' faith doth ebb, <br>
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| 67 | Which should not be if reason ruled or wisdom weaved the web. <br>
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| 68 | But clouds of joys untried do cloak aspiring minds, <br>
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| 69 | Which turn to rain of late repent by changed course of winds. <br>
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| 70 | The top of hope supposed the root upreared shall be, <br>
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| 71 | And fruitless all their grafted guile, as shortly ye shall see. <br>
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| 72 | The dazzled eyes with pride, which great ambition blinds, <br>
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| 73 | Shall be unsealed by worthy wights whose foresight falsehood finds. <br>
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| 74 | The daughter of debate that discord aye doth sow <br>
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| 75 | Shall reap no gain where former rule still peace hath taught to know.
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| 76 | <br>
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| 77 | No foreign banished wight shall anchor in this port; <br>
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| 78 | Our realm brooks not seditious sects, let them elsewhere resort. <br>
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| 79 | My rusty sword through rest shall first his edge employ <br>
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| 80 | To poll their tops that seek such change or gape for future joy. </p>
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| 81 |
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| 82 | <p> </p>
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| 83 |
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| 84 | <hr width="100%">
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| 85 | <p><b>THAT WHICH OUR SOVEREIGN LADY WROTE IN DEFIANCE OF FORTUNE, 1568-70</b>
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| 86 | </p>
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| 87 |
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| 88 | <p>Never think you fortune can bear the sway <br>
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| 89 | Where virtue's force can cause her to obey. </p>
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| 90 |
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| 91 | <p> </p>
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| 92 |
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| 93 | <hr width="100%">
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| 94 | <p><a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/eliz/poetry.html"></a></p>
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| 95 |
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| 96 | <p><b><font size="+0">ON MONSIEUR'S DEPARTURE, 1582</font></b> </p>
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| 97 |
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| 98 | <p>I grieve and dare not show my discontent, <br>
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| 99 | I love and yet am forced to seem to hate, <br>
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| 100 | I do, yet dare not say I ever meant, <br>
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| 101 | I seem stark mute but inwardly do prate. <br>
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| 102 | I am and not, I freeze and yet am burned, <br>
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| 103 | Since from myself another self I turned. <br>
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| 104 | My care is like my shadow in the sun, <br>
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| 105 | Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it, <br>
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| 106 | Stands and lies by me, doth what I have done. <br>
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| 107 | His too familiar care doth make me rue it. <br>
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| 108 | No means I find to rid him from my breast, <br>
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| 109 | Till by the end of things it be supprest. <br>
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| 110 | Some gentler passion slide into my mind, <br>
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| 111 | For I am soft and made of melting snow; <br>
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| 112 | Or be more cruel, love, and so be kind. <br>
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| 113 | Let me or float or sink, be high or low. <br>
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| 114 | Or let me live with some more sweet content, <br>
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| 115 | Or die and so forget what love ere meant. </p>
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| 116 |
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| 117 | <hr width="100%" size="2"><font size="+1"><br>
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| 118 | <a name="Speeches"></a>ELIZABETH'S MARRIAGE SPEECH TO PARLIAMENT, 1559</font>
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| 119 | <br>
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| 120 | <font size="-1">Elizabeth's Parliament thought to bully her into marriage.
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| 121 | From Henry VIII's accession in 1509 onwards, the Tudor dynasty was always
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| 122 | consumed by the problem of succession. For a hundred years, Englishmen
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| 123 | - and many Europeans - discussed the topic. It was of vital importance.
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| 124 | Elizabeth, however, would not be bullied and refused to marry. She
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| 125 | responded to Parliament's demand for her marriage with a wonderful extemporaneous
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| 126 | speech. This was in 1559, barely a year into her reign.</font>
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| 127 | <p>When the Assembly of Parliament was now to be dissolved, they all thought
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| 128 | good that the Third Estate, or Lower House, should advise the Queen to
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| 129 | marry betimes: yet would not the Temporal Lords joyn with them, lest any
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| 130 | of them might seem to propound it in hope to prefer himself. Thomas Gargrave
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| 131 | therefore, Speaker of the Lower House, with some few selected men, after
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| 132 | leave obtained, came unto the Queen, and making his excuse by his Office,
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| 133 | the Queen's Courtesie, and the Weightiness of the matter, went forward to
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| 134 | this purpose: There is nothing which with more ardent affection we beg of
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| 135 | God in our daily prayers, than that our Happiness hitherto received by your
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| 136 | most gratious Government may be perpetuated to the English Nation unto all
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| 137 | eternity, Whilstin our mind and cogitation we cast many ways how this may
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| 138 | be effected, we can find none at all, unless your Majesty should either reign
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| 139 | for ever, (which to hope for is not lawfull;) or else by Marriage bring forth
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| 140 | Children, Heirs both of their Mother's Vertue and Empire, (which God Almighty
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| 141 | grant.) This is the single, the onely, the all-comprehending Prayer of all
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| 142 | English-men. All other men, of what place and degree soever, but especially
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| 143 | Princes, must have a care, that though themselves be mortal, yet the Commonwealth
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| 144 | may continue immortal. This immortality may your Majesty give to the English,
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| 145 | if (as your humane nature, Age, Beauty and Fortune do require,) you will
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| 146 | take some man to your Hus band, who may be a Comfort and Help unto you,
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| 147 | and a Consort in Prosperity and Adversity. For (questionless) more availeth
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| 148 | the Help of one onely Husband for the effecting of matters, than the joynt
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| 149 | Industry of many men. Nothing can be more contrary to the publick Respects,
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| 150 | than that such a Princess, in whose Marriage is comprehended the Safety
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| 151 | and Peace of the Commonwealth, should live unmarried, and as it were a Vestal
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| 152 | Virgin. A Kingdom received from Ancestours is to be left to Children, who
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| 153 | will be both an Ornament and Strength to the Realm. The Kings of England
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| 154 | have never been more carefull of any thing, than that the Royal Family might
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| 155 | not fail of Issue. Hence it was, that within our fresh memory Henry the
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| 156 | VII. your Grandfather, provided his Sons Arthur and Henry of Marriage even
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| 157 | in their tender years. Hence it was that your Father sought to procure Mary
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| 158 | Queen of Scots to be a Wife for his young Son Prince Edward, then scarce
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| 159 | eight years old: and very lately your Sister, Queen Mary, being well in
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| 160 | years, married Philip of Spain . If lack of Children use to be inflicted
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| 161 | by God as a great Punishment as well upon Royal as private Families; what
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| 162 | and how great a Sin may it be, if the Prince voluntarily pluck it upon himself,
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| 163 | whereby an infinite heap of Miseries must needs overwhelm the Commonwealth
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| 164 | with all Calamities which the mind even dreadeth to remember? Which that it
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| 165 | may not come to pass, not onely we few that are here to present, but even
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| 166 | all England , yea all English men, do prostrate our selves at your feet, and
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| 167 | with humble voice and frequent Sighs do from the bottom of our hearts most
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| 168 | submissively pray and beseech you. These things spake he eloquently and more
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| 169 | amply. </p>
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| 170 |
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| 171 | <p><font size="+1"><small>ELIZABETH'S REPLY:<small> <big>(</big></small></small></font><small>She
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| 172 | answered briefly:)</small> In a matter most unpleasing, most pleasing to
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| 173 | me is the apparent Good will of you and my People, as proceeding from a very
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| 174 | good mind towards me and the Commonwealth. Concerning Marriage, which ye so
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| 175 | earnestly move me to, I have been long since perswaded, that I was sent into
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| 176 | this world by God to think and doe those things chiefly which may tend to
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| 177 | his Glory. Hereupon have I chosen that kind of life which is most free from
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| 178 | the troublesome Cares of this world, that I might attend the Service of God
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| 179 | alone. From which if either the tendred Marriages of most Potent Princes,
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| 180 | or the danger of Death intended against me, could have removed me, I had long
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| 181 | agone enjoyed the honour of an Husband. And these things have I thought upon
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| 182 | when I was a private person. But now that the publick Care of governing the
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| 183 | Kingdom is laid upon me, to draw upon me also the Cares of Marriage may seem
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| 184 | a point of inconsiderate Folly. Yea, to satisfie you, I have already joyned
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| 185 | my self in Marriage to an Husband, namely, the Kingdom of England. And behold
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| 186 | (said she which I marvell ye have forgotten,) the Pledge of this my Wedlock
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| 187 | and Marriage with my Kingdom. (And therewith she drew the Ring from her Finger,
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| 188 | and shewed it, wherewith at her Coronation she had in a set form of words
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| 189 | solemnly given her self in Marriage to her Kingdom.) Here having made a pause,
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| 190 | And do not (saith she) upbraid me with miserable lack of Children: for every
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| 191 | one of you, and as many as are Englishmen, are Children and Kinsmen to me;
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| 192 | of whom if God deprive me not, (which God forbid) I cannot without injury
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| 193 | be accounted Barren. But I commend you that ye have not appointed me an Husband,
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| 194 | for that were most unworthy the Majesty of an absolute Princess, and unbeseeming
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| 195 | your Wisedom, which are Subjects born. Nevertheless if it please God that
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| 196 | I enter into another course of life, I promise you I will doe nothing which
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| 197 | may be prejudicial to the Commonwealth, but will take such a Husband, as
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| 198 | near as may be, as will have as great a Care of the Commonwealth as my self.
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| 199 | But if I continue in this kind of life I have begun, I doubt not but God
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| 200 | will so direct mine own and your Counsels, that ye shall not need to doubt
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| 201 | of a Successour which may be more beneficial to the Commonwealth than he
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| 202 | which may be born of me, considering that the Issue of the best Princes many
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| 203 | times degenerateth. And to me it shall be a full satisfaction, both for the
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| 204 | memorial of my Name, and for my Glory also, if when I shall let my last breath,
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| 205 | it be ingraven upon my Marble Tomb, Here lieth Elizabeth, which Reigned a
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| 206 | Virgin, and died a Virgin. <br>
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| 207 | </p>
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| 208 |
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| 209 | <hr width="100%" size="2"><br>
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| 210 | <font size="+1">ELIZABETH'S SPEECH AT TILBURY, 1588</font> <br>
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| 211 | <font size="-1">The English forces were gathered to fight the Spanish
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| 212 | Armada; their unlikely victory was one of the great highlights of Elizabeth's
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| 213 | reign.</font> <br>
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| 214 | <br>
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| 215 | My loving people, <br>
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| 216 | We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take
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| 217 | heed how we commit our selves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery;
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| 218 | but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving
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| 219 | people. Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God,
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| 220 | I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and
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| 221 | good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see,
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| 222 | at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the
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| 223 | midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down
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| 224 | for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even
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| 225 | in the dust. I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I
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| 226 | have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think
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| 227 | foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade
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| 228 | the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by
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| 229 | me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and
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| 230 | rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already, for your
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| 231 | forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and We do assure you in
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| 232 | the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean time, my lieutenant
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| 233 | general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble
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| 234 | or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your
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| 235 | concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a
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| 236 | famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.
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| 237 | <br>
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| 238 | <br>
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| 239 |
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| 240 | <hr width="100%" size="2"><b><br>
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| 241 | <a name="Letters"></a>To King Edward VI, 15th May 1546.</b> <br>
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| 242 | <font size="-1"></font>
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| 243 | <p>Like as the rich man daily gathereth riches to riches, and one bag of
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| 244 | money layeth a great sort till it come to infinite, so methinks your Majesty,
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| 245 | not being sufficed with many benefits and gentleness showed to me afore this
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| 246 | time, doth now increase them in asking and desiring where you may bid and
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| 247 | command, requiring a thing not worthy the desiring for itself, but made worthy
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| 248 | for your Highness's request. My picture, I mean, in which if the inward
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| 249 | good mind toward your Grace might as well be declared as the outward face
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| 250 | and countenance shall be seen, I would not have tarried the commandment but
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| 251 | prevent it, nor have been the last to grant but the first to offer it. For
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| 252 | the face, I grant, I might well blush to offer, but the mind I shall never
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| 253 | be ashamed to present. For though from the grace of the picture the colours
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| 254 | may fade by time, may give you weather, may be spotted by chance; yet the
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| 255 | other nor time with her swift wings shall overtake, nor the misty clouds
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| 256 | with their lowerings may darken, nor chance with her slippery foot may overthrow.
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| 257 | Of this although yet the proof could not be great because the occasion hath
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| 258 | been but small, notwithstanding as a dog hath a day, so may I perchance have
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| 259 | time to declare it in deeds where now I do write them in words. And further
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| 260 | I shall most humbly beseech your Majesty that when you shall look on my picture,
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| 261 | you will vouchsafe to think that as you have but the outward shadow of the
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| 262 | body before you, so my inward mind wisheth that the body itself were oftener
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| 263 | in your presence; howbeit because both my so being I think could do your
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| 264 | Majesty little pleasure, though myself great good; and again because I see
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| 265 | as yet not the time agreeing thereunto, I shall learn to follow this saying
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| 266 | of Horace, ' Feras non culpes quod vitari non potest.' And thus I will (troubling
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| 267 | your Majesty I fear) end with my most humble thanks. <br>
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| 268 | Beseeching God long to preserve you to His Honour,
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| 269 | to your comfort, to the Realm's profit, and to my joy. From Hatfield
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| 270 | this 15th day of May. <br>
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| 271 | Your Majesty's most humble sister and servant, <br>
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| 272 | Elizabeth. </p>
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| 273 |
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| 274 | <hr width="100%" size="2"><br>
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| 275 | <b>To the Dowager Queen Katharine Parr, 31st July 1548.</b> <br>
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| 276 | <font size="-1">This was written after Elizabeth had left Katharine's
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| 277 | home (after the Thomas Seymour debacle.) Katharine was due to deliver
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| 278 | her first child soon; she died shortly after childbirth.</font> Although
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| 279 | your Higness's letters be most joyful to me in absence, yet, considering
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| 280 | what pain it is for you to write, your Grace being so sickly, your commendations
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| 281 | were enough in my Lord's letter. I much rejoice at your health, with the well
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| 282 | liking of the country, with my humble thanks that your Grace wished me with
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| 283 | you till you were weary of that country. Your Highness were like to be cumbered,
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| 284 | if I should not depart till I were weary of being with you; although it were
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| 285 | the worst soil in the world, your presence would make it pleasant. I cannot
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| 286 | reprove my Lord for not doing your commendations in his letter, for he did
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| 287 | it; and although he had not, yet I will not complain on him; for he shall
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| 288 | be diligent to give me knowledge from time to time how his busy child doth;
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| 289 | and if I were at his birth, no doubt I would see him beaten, for the trouble
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| 290 | he hath put you to. Master Denny and my lady, with humble thanks, prayeth
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| 291 | most entirely for your Grace, praying the Almighty God to send you a most
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| 292 | lucky deliverance, and my mistress wisheth no less, giving your Highness
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| 293 | most humble thanks for her commendations. <br>
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| 294 | Written with very little leisure this last day of July.
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| 295 | <br>
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| 296 | Your humble daughter, <br>
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| 297 | Elizabeth. <br>
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| 298 | <br>
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| 299 |
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| 300 | <hr width="100%" size="2"><br>
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| 301 | <b>To Princess Mary, 27th October 15--.</b> Good Sister, as to hear of
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| 302 | your sickness is unpleasant to me, so is it nothing fearful; for that I understand
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| 303 | it is your old guest that is wont oft to visit you, whose coming though
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| 304 | it be oft, yet is it never welcome, but notwithstanding it is comfortable
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| 305 | for that iacula præuisa minus feriunt. And as I do understand your
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| 306 | need of Jane Russel's service, so am I sorry that it is by my man's occasion
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| 307 | letted, which if I had known afore, I would have caused his will give place
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| 308 | to need of her service. For as it is her duty to obey his commandment, so
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| 309 | is it his part to attend your pleasure; and, as I confess, it were meeter
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| 310 | for him to go to her, since she attends upon you, so indeed he required the
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| 311 | same, but for that divers of his fellows had business abroad that made his
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| 312 | tarrying at home. <br>
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| 313 | Good Sister, though I have good cause to thank you for your oft sending
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| 314 | to me, yet I have more occasion to render hearty thanks for your gentle
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| 315 | writing, which how painful it is to you, I may well guess by myself; and
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| 316 | you may well see by my writing so oft, how pleasant it is to me. And thus
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| 317 | I end to trouble you, desiring God to send you as well to do, as you can
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| 318 | think and wish, or I desire or pray. From Ashridge, scribbled this 27th
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| 319 | of October. <br>
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| 320 | Your loving sister, <br>
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| 321 | Elizabeth. <br>
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| 322 | <br>
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| 323 |
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| 324 | <hr width="100%" size="2"><br>
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| 325 | <b>To Queen Mary, 16th March 1554.</b> <br>
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| 326 | <font size="-1">This was written when the order came that Elizabeth was
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| 327 | to be sent to the Tower, on suspicion that she was implicated by Wyatt's
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| 328 | rebellion. Wyatt's correspondence with Elizabeth was seized, and amongst
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| 329 | the evidence produced was an alleged copy of a letter written by Elizabeth
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| 330 | to Henri II of France. It was a forgery.</font>
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| 331 | <p>If any ever did try this old saying, 'that a king's word was more than
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| 332 | another man's oath,' I most humbly beseech your Majesty to verify it to
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| 333 | me, and to remember your last promise and my last demand, that I be not not
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| 334 | condemned without answer and due proof, which it seems that I now am; for
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| 335 | without cause proved, I am by your council from you commanded to go to the
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| 336 | Tower, a place more wanted for a false traitor than a true subject, which
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| 337 | though I know I desire it not, yet in the face of all this realm it appears
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| 338 | proved. I pray to God I may die the shamefullest death that any ever died,
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| 339 | if I may mean any such thing; and to this present hour I protest before God
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| 340 | (Who shall judge my truth, whatsoever malice shall devise), that I never
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| 341 | practised, counselled, nor consented to anything that might be prejudicial
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| 342 | to your person anyway, or dangerous to the state by any means. And therefore
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| 343 | I humbly beseech your Majesty to let me answer afore yourself, and not suffer
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| 344 | me to trust to your Councillors, yea, and that afore I go to the Tower, if
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| 345 | it be possible; if not, before I be further condemned. Howbeit, I trust assuredly
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| 346 | your Highness will give me leave to do it afore I go, that thus shamefully
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| 347 | I may not be cried out on, as I now shall be; yea, and that without cause.
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| 348 | Let conscience move your Highness to pardon this my boldness, which innocency
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| 349 | procures me to do, together with hope of your natural kindness, which I trust
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| 350 | will not see me cast away without desert, which what it is I would desire
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| 351 | no more of God but that you truly knew, but which thing I think and believe
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| 352 | you shall never by report know, unless by yourself you hear. I have heard
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| 353 | of many in my time cast away for want of coming to the presence of their
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| 354 | Prince; and in late days I heard my Lord of Somerset say that if his brother
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| 355 | had been suffered to speak with him he had never suffered; but persuasions
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| 356 | were made to him so great that he was brought in belief that he could not
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| 357 | live safely if the Admiral lived, and that made him give consent to his death.
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| 358 | Though these persons are not to be compared to your Majesty, yet I pray to
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| 359 | God the like evil persuasions persuade not one sister against the other,
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| 360 | and all for that they have heard false report, and the truth not known. Therefore,
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| 361 | once again, kneeling with humbleness of heart, because I am not suffered
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| 362 | to bow the knees of my body, I humbly crave to speak with your Highness, which
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| 363 | I would not be so bold as to desire if I knew not myself most clear, as I
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| 364 | know myself most true. And as for the traitor Wyatt, he might peradventure
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| 365 | write me a letter, but on my faith I never received any from him. And as
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| 366 | for the copy of the letter sent to the French King, I pray God confound me
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| 367 | eternally if ever I sent him word, message, token, or letter, by any means,
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| 368 | and to this truth I will stand in till my death. <br>
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| 369 | Your Highness's most faithful subject, that hath been
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| 370 | from the beginning, and will be to my end, <br>
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| 371 | Elizabeth. </p>
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| 372 | I humbly crave but only one word of answer from yourself. <font
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| 373 | size="-1">(added as a postscript)</font> <br>
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| 374 |
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| 375 | <hr width="100%" size="2"><a
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| 376 | href="scot-letters.html"><br>
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| 377 | Read Elizabeth's last letter to Mary, queen of Scots and her letter to
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| 378 | King James VI informing him of Mary's execution.<br>
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| 379 | </a><br>
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| 380 | <br>
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| 381 |
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| 382 | <div align="center"><small><a
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| 383 | href="primary.html">to Primary Sources</a><br>
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| 384 | <a href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor.html">to Tudor England</a></small><br>
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| 385 | <br>
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| 386 | </div>
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| 387 |
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| 388 | <p> </p>
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| 389 | <br>
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| 390 | <br>
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| 391 | <br>
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| 392 | <br>
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| 393 | </body>
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| 394 | </html>
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