Classic Poem

You little madd Philip & Cheyney youths
That lie most when you vtter most In-truths
To whom rime smells ranke Popery & to whom
Papers of verses are all raggs of Rome
Who when roasting & crackling bout the throat
Instruction wheezeth from you piping hote
Whose whining pigg-voice fayning quack or pose
Quavers out indignation through the nose
Make doctrines flush, and long-billd reasons sing
A Covie then of vselesse vses spring;
And crie marke, marke, as if some Buzzard were
To flie the retriue of whats scatterd there
Shrowd not in prose and Rhume this noble Herse
Nor Silly Samson though in printed verse
PRophane or touch hir glad enamour'd sheet
With his affrighting and defiling feet.
Bid all theise withering girlonds stand aloofe
My Lawrell comes, that is right thunder proofe
Scorning all blasts; & fitts th'illustrious fame
Of this still fresh & everlasting Dame.
Poore Chirping things vnfledg'd, you goe about
To tune hir praise tis I must sing hir out,
Your lines are reprobate, in desperate case
Myne iustified, & Full, in state of Grace
Yours were pr ae destinate to flames vnseene
Myne sau'd and lookt on by the Poits queene
Blest Mary queen of witt far brauer thing
Then all hir fower Relations to a king,
A stile she conquering weares, & merits it
By selfe inherent, not imputed witt.
I craue no helpe but hir fair eyes, to raise
An ample stately funerall pile of praise
To which Ægyptian tombs and Romane toyes
Wrens eggshells are, or bubbles blowne by boys
Rich Ovids built for Phoebus, & for Fame
Greate Chaucers house: stand voyd without a name
Nor earth nor seas afford things faire enough
Gold Christall, Iewells darke & drowsie stuffe
Come lab'ring angells bring Æ theriall blew
Substance for walls, and floring to my new
S t Katherines monument, transparent, sound
Large as our Isles confines, but perfect round
In midst with fair ascendings of the same
Matter, a temples sides & bases frame
Raise Pillars huge And Pyramids orelayd
With that rich plate, wherof the sun is made
To such an height that starrs wher theise advance
Like waveing Phanes vpon their heads may danse
An altar then Fedd with immortall fire
And pure coelestiall Light to fill the quire,
Leave me Arche-Flamen here till I preferre
What dames I list to this high sepulcher.
Come glorious Drury Donns eternall mayde,
Those three Franke Beaumount buried here be layd,
Hither transporte their Vrnes, and gladly meet,
Rutland the fayre, Markham & Clifton sweet.
With famous Arden late enterrd too low
Whom thus I raise and here with theise bestow.
Then lift on high amidst theise heavenly Cells
My owne two soveraigne sister Paralells
(Such grace then had, such power has now my pen n
By this deuice to make them mine agen,)
Who liu'd a pair of smiling Angells sent
To glad mankind along the banks of Trent
Who each to other was of force a freind
Because they knew not where themselues to mend
My farr fam'd Huntingdon, faire wise & free
My Chesterfeild in all another shee
Whose life devout and gratious strove to advance
Hir blouds true badge, the Hastings Cognizance
Humilitie, which in hir highest dresse
When more it cou'd not be, wou'd not be lesse
Whose sweet and gracefull light was held so high
It blasted all the winds of infamie
So earths shade blacks the moone but ere the sunn
It reach, his point doth in=to nothing run n
Whose every virtue chas'd out ev'ry sin
And on such perfect circles still came in
Hir words and workes in motion right diuine
Nothing excentricke was; no spirall line!
Bow pilgrimes to theise tombes for here shall rise
Cleare dropps to purge all redd disdainfull eyes,
Restore health, beauty bounty, fame & witt
Aboue all spawes, a potent water fitt
To wash S t Winefride, false Crossed cure
Make Nunneries, pipers, theiues, ranke Pur'tans pure.
Haile you fresh Hallowes, in whose names we now
Double our Rubriques, double Feasts allow,
And you whose bloods matchd theise two Royall things
Scorne not the Muses Hymne, nor him that sings
And will be thus your preist to 'embalme & shrine
S t Elsabeth, & holy Katherine.