And there his duty done, and large device
Made by his page known to her majesty,
Whose gracious eye reflecting on this earl
Was like Prometheus' life-infusing fire,
Behold, he stands impatient of delay,
Awaiting there his friendly foe's approach!
Daring he stands, true knight and challenger,
And hardly brooks the time of their address
That shortly came in duty all devote,
To solace with their martial exercise
Their princely mistress, to whose worthiness
That day's device and days of all their lives
Right humbly were and purely dedicate.

The first that led, in cheerful colours clad,
In innocent white and fair carnation,
Was he whose wisdom in his younger years
And love to arms make him so far renown'd,
The noble Earl of Essex and of Ewe.

His mute approach and action of his mutes
Said that he was solicited diversely; .
One way to follow war and war's designs,-
And well he may, for skill he can full well
Of war's adventures, 'larms, and stratagems;-
Another way t' apply him to the care

Of commonweal-affairs, and show the way
To help to underbear with grave advice
The weighty beam whereon the state depends:
Well may he this way or the other take,
And both shall his nobility become;
The gravity and greatness of the one
Shall beautify the other's worthiness;
His senate-robes shall beautify his arms,
His chivalry nobilitate his name.

Then Sussex, seated on his champing steed,
Dreadful to see, and in sad tawny dight,
Came in, as if some angry man of war
Had charg'd his lance and put himself in arms,
Under an eben-tree or blasted yew:
Such show'd his plume, or like in my conceit
To ravens' feathers by the moon's reflex,
Shining where night by day doth take repose.
Mars in his wrath sitting upon his drum,
Devising tragedies, strikes no greater fear
Into the eyes and hearts of earthly men,
Than did methought this champion in his way;
Nor in his doings ever man-at-arms

So young of years more forward than this earl:
So prone, so puissant, and successful still
In all his courses was this warlike knight.
Then Bedford and Southampton made up
five,

Five valiant English earls. Southampton ran
As Bevis of Southampton, that good knight,
Had justed in the honour of the day;

And certes Bevis was a mighty man,
Valiant in arms, gentle and debonair;
And such was young Wriothesley, that came
As if in duty to his sovereign

And honour's race for all that he had done,
He would be of the noblest over-run.
Like to himself aud to his ancestors,
Ran Bedford, to express his readiness,
His love to arms, his loyalty to her
Whose burning eyeballs did retain the heat
That kindled honour's fire at their hearts;
Bravely ran Bedford, and his staves he brake
Right happily for his high mistress' sake.

Compton of Compton came in shining arms, Well mounted and appointed for the field, A gallant lord; richly array'd was he, He and his train. Clio, recount his fame; Record with me his love to learning's lore, And valiant doings on this holiday: Short will I be in process of his praise; Courageously he ran, and with the best From forth the field bare honour on his crest. Carew was well-acquainted with the place, And to the tilt proudly he made approach; His steed well-taught, himself fitted in all, Fell to his noble exercise of arms, And on his courser gan himself advance, Whose neighs and plays were princely to behold: Remembrance of this day reviv'd this knight; His turn he takes, and at the trumpet's sound Breaks at the head with many a lofty bound.

In bases and caparisons of cost Came three redoubted knights and men-at-arms, Old Knowles his offspring, gallant cavaliers; And such they show'd as were King Arthur's

knights

He whilom us'd to feast at Camelot,

Or three of great King Priam's valiant sons
Had left Elysium and the fields of Mars
To celebrate Eliza's holiday:

They ran as if three Hectors had made way
To meet Achilles, Ajax, Diomede.
Palm had the eldest branching of his crest:
'Tis hard to say which brother did the best.

Like Venus' son in Mars his armour clad,
Beset with glorious globes and golden flames,
Came Dudley in; nor shall it me become
To dive into the depth of his device;
Rich in his thoughts and valiant in his deeds,

No whit dishonour'd by his fainting horse,
That cowardlike would have held his master
back

From honour's goal,-ill-natur'd and ill-taught,
To fail him foully in so great a presence.
But as an archer with a bended bow

The farther from the mark he draws his shaft,
The farther flies it and with greater force
Wounds earth and air; so did it fare in this:
This lusty runner, thus restrain'd at first,
Now all inflam'd, soon having chang'd his steed,
And view'd the person of his princely mistress,
Whose radiant beams have power to set on
fire

*

The icy ridge of snowy Rhodope,

Flies like a bullet from a cannon's mouth.
His armèd horse made dreadful harmony,
Grating against the rails: so valiantly
He justed, that unjust it were in me
Not to admire young Dudley's chivalry.

Young Howard, ramping lion-like, came on,
Anchor of Howard's honourable house,
His noble father's hope, his mother's joy.
Loyal and lovely was this fair young knight,
Gracious in his beginnings at the tilt,
Pleasing to her to whom he did present
His person and the service of that day,
And all the days and minutes of his life:
Bravely he bare him in his mistress' eye,
And brake his staves and let the shivers fly.
Drury in flames of gold embroider'd fair,

* have] MS. "and." f brake] MS. "breakes,"

Inflam'd with love of virtue and of arms,

Came to the tilt like Phoebus,

And like a warrior there demean'd himself; Heaven's vault, earth's centre sounded of his force:

So well he ran as they that do him right,
For field and court held him a worthy knight.
Among these runners that in virtue's race
Contended, rivals of each other's praise,
Nowell and Needham, gentlemen of name,
Came mounted and appointed gallantly;
Both nobly minded, as became them well,
Resolv'd to run in honour of the day.

L'éscu d'amour, the arms of loyalty,
Lodg'd Skydmore in his heart; and on he came,
And well and worthily demean'd himself

In that day's service: short and plain to be,
Nor lord nor knight more forward than was he.
Then Ratcliffe, Reynolds, Blount, and Carey

came,

In all accoutrements fitting gentlemen;
Well mounted and appointed every man';
And gallantly and worthily they ran.

Long may they run in honour of the day!
Long may she live to do them honour's right,
To grace their sports and them as she hath
done,

England's Astræa, Albion's shining sun!
And may she shine in beauty fresh and sheen
Hundreds of years, our thrice-renowned queen!
Write, Clio, write; write, and record her story,
Dear in heaven's eye, her court and country's
glory.

* Came, &c.] A mutilated line.