The poesy whereof I spake of yore;

And well I wot, since this King Edward's days,
Our kings and queens about their royal arms
Have in a garter borne this poesy.

Still as I lay I gaz'd, and guess'd at once
What was this train, and whither it did bend:
I found at last King Edward was the man,
Accompanied with kings and conquerors,
That from the spacious aery House of Fame
Set forward royally to solemnize

Th' installment of some new-created knights.]
For, lo, I saw in strange accoutrements,
Like to King Edward's and the Prince of Wales',
Full four-and-twenty knights, nor more nor less,
In robes with precious collars of Saint George;
And garters all they had buckled with gold.
Fame, in a stole of purple set with eyes
And ears and tongues, carried a golden book:
Upon the cover this I saw engrav'd;

Pauci quos æquus amarit
Jupiter, aut ardens evexit ad æthera virtus,
Dis geniti.
Methought this saying could not but import
They should be noble men of golden minds
And great account, favour'd of prince and peers,
Whose names should in that register be writ,
Consecrate to Saint George's chosen knights.
Herewith the golden book gant open fair,
And eathly I might read their names that next
Went to the king: they were no common men,
For to my seeming each one had a page
That bare a fair escutcheon after him,
Whereon his arms were drawn; I have forgot
Their several coats, but well I wot their names.
And first I saw enroll'd within this book
King Edward's name; he was the sovereign.
Their register was Fame. Renown, before
That sounded shrill, was officer-at-arms
And usher to the train; his office-badge
Was a black rod whereof he took his name.
Honour went king-at-arms, next to the knights,
Half-arm'd, like Pallas shap'd for arms and arts,
Rich in habiliments of peace and war:
Ancient and grave he was and sage to see.
Near him went Time, well-pleas'd and well-content
As if he joy'd t'accompany this train,
And in his hand a royal standard bare,

Wherein Saint George was drawn and limu'd in gold.

Under the verge, as title to the book,

* Pauci quos, &c.] Virgil, En. vi. 129.

† gan Ashmol. copy "did."

eathly] i. e. easily.

Was writ, Knights of the Order of Saint George,
Knights of the Garter. Edward Prince of Wales
Was first, then Henry Duke of Lancaster,
And Nicholas Earl of Warwick made the third.
Captaine de Buch was next, renown'd for arms.
Then the brave Earls of Stafford and Southamp-
ton;

To whose successors, for his sake that lives
And now survives in honour of that name,
To whom my thoughts are humble and devote,
Gentle Wriothesley, Southampton's star,
I wish all fortune, that in Cynthia's eye,
Cynthia the glory of the western world,
With all the stars in her fair firmament,
Bright may he rise and shine immortally.
And* Mortimer, a gentle trusty lord,
More loyal than that cruel Mortimer

That plotted Edward's death at Killingworth,†
Edward the Second, father to this king,
Whose tragic cry even now methinks I hear,
When graceless wretches murder'd him by night.
Then Lisle, and Burwash,‡ Beauchamp, and
Mohun,§

Grey, Courtney, and the Hollands worthy knights,
Fitz-simon, Wale, and Sir Hugh Wrottesley,||
Nele Loryng, Chandos, Sir Miles Stapleton,
Walter Pagannel,** Eam, and D'Audley; ++ last
Was the good knight Sir Sanchet D'Abriche.
court.++

These names I read, for they were written fair;
And, as it seem'd to me, these were the first
Created of that order by the king:

And man by man they march'd in equipage.
A many more there were than I could note,
And, sooth to say, I think the book was full;
And in the train a number infinite,
True knights of all the orders in the world,
Christians and heathens, that accompanied
This worthy king in his procession.

Cæsar himself was there; I saw him ride,
Triumphing in his three-and-twenty wounds,
Because they show'd the malice of the world.
Pompey was there, the rival of his fame,
That died a death as base and violent.
Leave I this theme: the mightiest that have liv'd
*And] Ashmol. copy "Sir."

+ Killingworth] i. e. Kenelworth.

Burwash] Written more correctly "Burghersh."

§ Mohun] Old ed. "Mahun."

Have fall'n, and headlong too; in misery
It is some comfort to have company.
Hector of Troy, and kings ere Troy was built,
Or Thrace was Thrace, were there: old Dardanus,
And Ilus, and Assaracus, came along.

For in the House of Fame what famous man,
What prince, but hath his trophy and his place?
There Joshua, David, and great Machabee,
Last anchor-hold and stay of Jacob's race,
Did march; and Macedonian Alexander;

Victorious Charles the Great, the flower of France;
Godfrey of Bullen, whom the Christian kings

Created King of great Jerusalem;

:

And Arthur, glory of the western world,
And all his knights were in this royal train.
Jason was there, Knight of the Golden Fleece;
Knights of the Tosson,* and of Saint Iago,
Knights of the Rhodes, Knights of the Sepulchre,
Were there the air was pester'dt to my thought.
Among them all a worthy man of mark,
A prince of famous memory I saw,
Henry the Eighth, that led a warlike band
Of English earls, and lords, and lusty knights,
That ware the garter sacred to Saint George.
Who was not there? I think the court of Fame
Was naked and unpeopled, in this train
There were so many emperors, lords, and kings,
Knights errant and adventurous. In the book
That on a desk lay open before Fame,-
For in a sumptuous chariot did he‡ ride
Of crystal, set with leaves of glittering gold,
And fair tralucent§ stones, that over all
It did reflect, within that glorious book
I saw a name rejoiced me to see,
Francis of Bedford; I could read it plain,
And glad I was that in that precious book
That name I found, for now, methought, I said,
Here virtue doth outlive th' arrest of death;
For dead is Bedford, virtuous and renown'd
For arms, for honour, and religious love,
And yet alive his name in Fame's records,
That held this garter dear, and ware it well.
Some worthy wight let blazon his deserts:
Only a tale I thought on by the way,
As I observ'd his honourable name.

*Tosson] i. e. Toison d'or.-Of the different orders of knighthood mentioned here, the reader will find a particular account in Segar's Honour, &c, pp. 79, 94, 95, 106. † pester'd] i. e. crowded.

he] i. e. Fame. See note §, p. 585, first col.

§ tralucent] This word (the same as translucent) is found in several pieces before the appearance of Jonson's Masque of Hymen, where Gifford (note on his Works, vol. vii. p. 78) seems to think it was first used.

I heard it was his chance, o'erta'en with sleep,

To take a nap near to a farmer's lodge,
Trusted a little with himself belike:
This aged earl, in his apparel plain,

Wrapt in his russet cloak, lay down to rest,
His badge of honour buckled to his leg,

| Bare and unhid. There came a pilfering swad,*
And would have prey'd upon this ornament,
And say'd+t' unbuckle it, thinking him a-sleep:
The noble gentleman, feeling what he meant,

Hold, foolish lad," quoth he, "a better prey; This garter is not fit for every leg,

And I account it better than my purse."

The varlet ran away; the earl awak'd,

And told his friends, and smiling said withal,
"'A would not, had 'a understood the French
Writ on my garter, dar'd t' have stoln the
same."

This tale I thought upon, told me for truth,
The rather for it prais'd the poesy,

Right grave and honourable, that importeth much;
"Ill be to him," it saith, "that evil thinks."
O sacred loyalty, in purest hearts
Thou build'st thy bower! thy weeds of spotless
white,

Like those that stood for Rome's great offices,
Make thee renown'd, glorious in innocency.
Why stick I here? The train cast in a ring
About the castle, making melody,
Under the glorious spreading wings of Fame,
I saw a virgin queen, attir'd in white,
Leading with her a sort § of goodly knights,
With garters and with collars of Saint George:
Elizabeth" on a compartiment

Of gold in bysse was writ, and hung askew
Upon her head, under an imperial crown.
She was the sovereign of the knights she led :
Her face, methought, I knew, as if the same,
The same great empress that we here enjoy,
Had climb'd the clouds, and been in persou

And great designs of noble consequence.

bespake:

"Hail, Windsor! where I sometimes took delight

Than loyalty, the load-star of renown,
Directs; that, as thine ancestors have done,
Thine earthly race in honour thou mayst run.

horse,

And where in princely pleasure I repos'd

In my return from France," a little sigh

I heard him fetch withal; his reason why

I cannot guess; I think it was for this,
That England had given o'er their traffic there,—
"And twenty times hail, Windsor!" quoth the
king,

"Where I have stall'd so many hardy knights,
And tournaments and royal justs perform'd:
Behold, in honour of mine ancient throne,
In honour of fair England, and Saint George,
To whom this Order of the Garter first
I sacred held; in honour of my knights,
Before this day created and install'd,
But specially in honour of those five
That at this day this honour have receiv'd
Under Elizabeth, England's great sovereign,-
Northumberland and Worcester, noble earls,
Borough and Sheffield, lords of lively hope,
And honourable old Knowles fam'd for his

sons,

And for his service gracious and renown'd;
Lo, from the House of Fame, with princely

trains

Accompanied, and kings, and conquerors,
And knights of proof, loyal and valourous,
I re-salute thee here, and gratulate
To those new knights, created by a queen
Peerless for wisdom and for majesty,
The honour of the Garter: may they long
Wear them as notes of true nobility

whist] i. e. still, silent.

"That reap'st this honour in thy waning age, See what a trophy Queen Elizabeth Prepares before thy hearse: long mayst thou

live,

And die in fame, that hast well near achiev'd
The noble Norris' honour in thy sons,
Thrice-noble lord, as happy for his few,
As was the King of Troy for many more.'
With that he ceas'd, and to the foremost earl,-
For why methought I saw them every man,
Stall'd in their places and their ornaments,-
"Percy," quoth he, "thou and thy lordly peers,
Your names are in this register of Fame,
Written in leaves and characters of gold:
So live, as with a many more you may
Survive and triumph in eternity,
Out of Oblivion's reach or Envy's shot;
And that your names immortally may shine
In these records, not earthly, but divine."
Then shalms and sackbuts sounded in the air,
But shrill'st of all, the trumpet of Renown;
And by and by a loud retraite he rung.
The train retir'd, as swift as stars don shoot,
From whence they came, and day began to

break;

And with the noise and thunder in the sky,
When Fame's great double-doors fell to and shut,
And this triumphant train was vanish'd quite,
The gaudy Morn out of her golden sleep
Awak'd, and little birds uncag'd gan sing
To welcome home the bridegroom of the sea.

For why] i. c. Because. tsaw] Old ed. "see."