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THE HONOUR OF THE HONOURABLE

ORDER OF THE GARTER.

ABOUT the time when vesper in the west
'Gan set the evening watch, and silent night,
Richly attended by his twinkling train,
Sent sleep and slumber to possess the world,
And fantasy to hauzen* idle heads;
Under the starry+ canopy of heaven

I laid me down, laden with many cares,
(My bed-fellows almost these twenty years,)

hauzen] The opening of this poem is given in England's Parnassus, 1600, p. 333, under the head Vesper. In a note on the reprint of that miscellany, p. 623, we are told that hauzen means confound or frighten. I believe it rather means embrace or surround; in which sense halse is employed by the early writers of England, and hals or hawse by those of Scotland: in the northern parts of the latter country hawse is not altogether obsolete. During a hasty conversation which I was fortunate enough to hold with Dr. Jamieson about the word hauzen in the text, he expressed his conviction of its being a form of hawse: if these pages ever meet the eye of that eminent lexicographer, I trust he will not feel offended at this unauthorized mention of his name.

+ starry] England's Parnassus (ibid.) “stately.”

VOL. II.

Fast by the stream where Thame and Isis meet,
And day by day roll to salute the sea

For more than common service it perform'd

To Albion's queen, when foemen shipt for fight,
To forage England plough'd the ocean up,
And slonk into the channel that divides

The Frenchmen's strond fro Brittain's fishy towns.
Even at that time, all in a fragrant mead,
In sight of that fair castle, that o'erlooks
The forest one way, and the fertile vale
Water'd with that renowned river Thames,
Old Windsor Castle, did I take my rest.
When Cynthia, companion of the night,
With shining brand lightening* his ebon car,
Whose axletree was jet enchas'd with stars,
And roof with shining ravens' feathers ceil'd,
Piercing mine eyelids as I lay along,†
Awak'd me through: therewith methought I saw
A royal glimmering light streaming aloft,
As Titan mounted on the lion's back
Had cloth'd himself in fiery pointed beams,

To chase the night, and entertain the morn;
Yet scarce had chanticleer rung the midnight peal,
Or Phoebe half-way gone her journey through.
Sleeping or waking as alone I lay,

* lightening] England's Parnassus (where this passage is given, p. 334, under the head Noctis initium,) "lighting."

+ Piercing mine eyelids as I lay along] England's Parnassus, (ibid.)

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Mine eyes, and ears, and senses all were serv'd
With every object perfect in his kind:

And lo, a wonder to my senses all!

For through the melting air, perfum'd with sweets, I might discern a troop of horsemen ride,

Arm'd cap de pè with shield and shivering lance,

*

As in a plash, or calm transparent brook,

We see the glistering fishes scour along;
A number numberless, appointed well
For tournament; as if the god of war
Had held a justs in honour of his love,
Or all the sons of Saturn and of Ops
Had been in arms against Enceladus.
Therewith I heard the clarions and the shalms,
The sackbuts, and a thousand instruments
Of several kinds, and, loudest of them all,
A trump more shrill than Triton's is at sea:+
The same Renown, precursor of the train,
Did sound, for who rings louder than Renown?
He mounted was upon a flying horse,

And cloth'd in faulcon's feathers to the ground:
By his escutcheon justly might you guess
He was the herald of eternity,

And pursuivant at arms to mighty Jove.

I look'd to see an end of that I saw,

And still methought the train did multiply;

And yielding clouds gave way, and men at arms

* plash] i. e. pool.

t is at sea] England's Parnassus, p. 381, (under the head Renown)" on the sea."

66

+ same] England's Parnassus, (ib.) “ said.”

Succeed as fast, one at another's heels,
As in the vast Mediterranean sea

The rolling waves do one beget another.

Those that perfum'd the air with myrrh and balm,
Dancing and singing sweetly as they went,
Were naked virgins, deck'd with garlands green,
And seem'd the Graces, for with golden chains
They linked were, three lovely countenances.
About them Cupid, as to me it seem'd,
Lay playing on his particolour'd wings;
And sometime on a horse as white as milk
I see him arm'd and mounted in the throng,
As love had right to march with men of war.
Weary of looking up, I laid me down,
Willing to rest, as sleepy souls are wont,
When of a sudden such a noise I heard
Of shot of ordnance pealing in mine ears,
As twenty thousand tire had play'd at sea,
Or Etna split had belch'd her bowels forth,
Or heaven and earth in arms thundering amain
Had bent their great artillery for war,
And weary Atlas had let fall his load,
Enough to wake Endymion from his trance.
Yet was the welkin clear, nor smoke nor dust
Annoy'd mine eyes: I gaz'd, and as I look'd,
Methought this host of aery armed men

Girt Windsor Castle round. Anon I saw

Under a canopy of crimson bysse,

*

* bysse] "sorte d'étoffe de soie." Roquefort. Gloss. de la Langue Romane, vol. i. p. 196.

Spangled with gold, and set with silver bells,
That sweetly chim'd, and lull'd me half a sleep,
A goodly king in robes most richly dight,
The upper like a Roman palliament,
Indeed a chaperon, for such it was;
And looking nearer, lo, upon his leg
An ancient badge of honour I espied,
A garter brightly glistering in mine eye,
A worthy ornament! Then I call'd to mind
What princely Edward, of that name the third,
King Edward, for his great atchievments fam'd,
What he began, the order of St. George,
That at this day is honour'd through the world,
The order of the Garter so yclept,

A great effect grown of a slender cause,
Grac'd by a king, and favour'd of his feres,
Fam'd by his followers, worthy kings and queens,
That to this day are sovereigns of the same.
The manner how this matter grew at first
Was thus. The king disposed on a time
To revel, after he had shaken France,
(O, had he bravely held it to the last!)
And deck'd his lions with their flower de lyce,
Dispos'd to revel, some say, otherwise,
Found on the ground by fortune as he went
A lady's garter, and the queen's I trow,
Lost in a dance, and took it up himself:

It was a silken ribbon weav'd of blue.

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