Classic Poem

Great Britaines welcome to her great friends, and deare Brethren, the Danes .

Y E Angels which (in Soule-inchaunting Quires)
Do celebrate your Soueraignes holy praise,
Who euer burne in loues refyning fires,
& Cocords Tones to highest Thrones do raise,
Descend (by Swarmes, on wings of Loues desires)
Discords to drowne with Loues harmonious Layes:
And ope Heauens Casements wherthrough fly ye do,
Right ore the place where one King lyues in two.

And, were yee ignorant where that should be,
But ope those wind-dores and yee soone should know:
For, to the Heauens the fame thereof doth flee,
From now great Britaine (highest Heauen below)
There shall yee finde two great Kings so agree,
As if the one, the others Heart did owe:
Sith Loues great Lord, and yours, doth ioy in this,
His ioy to you (his Guard) is highest blisse.

Then, come (Celestiall Soldiers) make a Ring,
About the Kings, wherein your King doth ioy:
A twofold Guard make for this twofold King,
Of Men, and Angels, from what would anoy:
Let Enuie in your Targets leaue hir Sting,
That she may not anoy, much lesse destroy:
And whatsoere impugnes their peacefull plight,
On your resistance let their rancour light:

Britaine , thou once didst stretch thy conquering Armes
Where ere the fower Seas with thy wings do warre:
And though, through hurts, receiu'd in hot Alarmes,
(As main'd) thou couldst not reach scarse halfe so farre;
Yet now thou hast recouered thy harmes,
Thine Armes those Seas embrace, but cannot barre:
For, had'st thou will, as thou hast power obtain'd,
By Sea, nor Land thine Armes could be containd.

The rather, sith a King so gracefully great,
(Graced by Greatnesse as he It doth grace)
Is one with ours, to make ours more compleat,
As ours with Him makes Him in better case:
What forraine Pow'r to shunne their Angers heat,
Will not speake coldly, with a fawning face:
Whose Armes, together ioynd, can compasse all
That stands betweene the great Turke and his fall.

Denmarke exult, sith what thou hadst, thou hast:
Thou didst of yore (thou wotst) command this Land
That now againe is present, which is past:
In Loue, thou maist the Land (inlargd) command:
For, it to thee is So vnited fast ,
That one to other cannot choose but stand:
Withstand you whoso will, you both, as one,
Must stand or fall, by force of Vnion.

O VNION! that enclaspest in thyne armes,
All that in Heau'n and Earth is great, or good,
(Thou Heaun'ly Harbour from all earthly harmes)
Thou Damm , that staist the Streames of humane bloud)
What humane Heart but (maugre Hatreds Charms)
Will not desire thee, as the Angells food?
Sith through thy powr thou makst mans powr so strog
As not to offer, much lesse suffer wrong.

Thou Isle (which Thetis in hir lap doth lull,
And with Indulgence makes thee wantonize)
Now maist thou feathers from thy Peacocks pull,
To set thee out, in eie-attracting wise;
Triumph with ioy: for, now if thou be dull
The world, as base, will iustly thee despise:
Sith neere thy Forehead stand two Kings of pow'r
To smooth it, maugre all that makes it low'r.

Arches tryumphall to the Heauens erect,
Whereunder threefold-Maiestie may passe,
Where beames on It, true Eyes may so reflect,
As do the Sunnes from clearest christall glasse:
Let all thy streetes with Obiectes deere bee deckt
To show thy State is more then ere it was:
For, in no moderne memorie hath beene,
Two such warriors worthy to valorize

O could Canutus (that victorious Dane,
That whilome did thy great State Signiorize,
Whose sword, through men, to thy Crowne made a lane)
Now see his Offspring in thy Paradise,
Ador'd of all thine, holy, or prophane,
He would bee readie to forsake the skyes,
And come, with heauenly glorie, to augment,
Great Britaines glorie, worlds great wonderment!

Yee noble Blouds to Honours Taske assign'd,
Let now your mounting Spirits make you mount,
Such Pegasses as may out-fly the winde,
And Shiuer Staues, at Tilt (beyond your wont)
That Times to come in Poets Staues, may finde,
Yee did great Arthurs Minions farre surmount:
Proclame a Chalenge through the world to make,
Your valours knowne, for Kingly honors sake.

Yee read of many Chalenges proclaim'd,
By Keysors past, that present Time admires;
And how the Victors haue their Daughters claim'd,
As the proposed Prizes by their Sires:
Out-run those Runners, sith their fame is maim'd
That runne but through effeminate desires:
Runne yee for glorie, and your Soueraignes grace,
So shall your fames runne farre beyond your Race.

If Pompe to Prowesse ere were kindly knit,
Now to your Prowesse add ye pompe, sans pride:
And to your pompe the richest show of wit,
For, oft such showes, do showes more simple hide,
And to the Showers glorie gaine by it,
That els perhaps (in gold) might not be eyde:
As Heauen hath Starres her face to beautifie,
So be you Starres, to make Earths Heauenly.

And like the Starres opposed, and dispos'd,
Produce ye wonders, mankinde to amaze:
Let Denmarke see great Brittaine, with her clos'd,
Makes the world stand in wonderment at gaze;
Sith of their Mould it sees halfe-Gods compos'd,
That doe the memorie of others raze:
The manner of your motions fetch from thence,
From whence the Starres deriue their influence.

So shall they be all glorious, like the Sunne,
That runnes oblikelie to the Heauens Race:
So, though your deeds for Pompe, and praise be donne,
It is dispenc't with, by the Heauenly grace:
Sith Princes they alow a Race to runne,
As may, with pompe, deuide them from the Base:
" The Time, and Place, and Persons may be such,
" That Pompe may show her All , yet not too much.

For, Charge is measur'd by Hability,
Not by the Cost, what ere the Charges are;
Showes most maiestick, fit most Maiestie;
Which is in Earth, where Kings as one appeare:
Vniting so their Raies of Roialty,
Which needs must make it great, as it is rare:
Then spare no Cost, sith gold for glori's made,
And glory now is got, which cannot fade.

For, Honors Chalenge now is on her wings,
Flying (from Hence) through all the Continent;
Lighting no where but in the Courts of Kings:
Inciting all (in earnest meriment)
To proue their force, by Armes, which glorie brings
Against the brauest British hardiment:
If therefore now ye shrinke (sith gold is deere)
Y are farre from Glorie, sith ye are so neere.

If many Worlds ye seek, or Ages liue,
Perhaps ye should not find occasion such,
As now rich Opportunity doth giue
To make you Fame-full though it empt your Pouche:
Two Kings thus met, make Kingdomes richly thriue
Though it vnlines their Purse with wearing much:
Then, sith but seld, or ne're Kings consort thus,
Be glorious now, or still inglorious.

Get Phaenix-feathers to adorne your Crests,
Wherein imparadize the Soule of Wit,
With such deuice as onelie Wit digests;
Yet fills him head-full with receiuing it:
Your Launces tip with Diamonds; your Rests
Of Rubies make, this pretious time to fit:
Arme ye in gold, that golden worlds may view,
Great Britain's metamorphos'd to Peru.

Let not the Sawes of eache neere niggard friend,
Regarded be, that euer speakes to spare;
Sith there are times to spare, and times to spend:
According as our times, and fortunes are:
No Charge so great as Highnes back can bend,
When its vpheld by Props, as ritch, as rare;
Though Money be the sinewes of the warres,
It must be spent too, to preuent those Iarres.

Great Britaines Denmarke, Denmarkes Britaine is,
By transmigration one int' other gon;
Which doth increase their beauty, strength, and blisse,
And firmes their forme by transformation:
Then shall we not (as glad) triumph in this,
Sith their two heads are now (or neuer) one:
Like horses, we our owne strength do not know,
If when our strengths increase, no ioy we show.

Looke on the faces of these Danes, our kin,
How like they are to vs; as if we were
Borne of eache other, as we erst haue bin;
If likenesse then begets affection deere,
We may exceed in showing (without sinne)
Our Loues to them, as theirs to vs appeare:
We haue a Pledge of theirs, their deerest bloud,
Our deerest Queen, whence our deere Princes bud.

Then wel-fare yee, by whom so well we fare:
And welcome ye, through whome we well are come
Vnto that greatnesse, that we are as square
As any Potentate of Christendome:
All yours and ours conioyned as they are
Gainst other force inuincible become:
Then are ye welcome for these deer respects,
To vs, who you embrace with deer'st affects.

Though one hath writ that well Historifies
Much hurt ensues the interuiew of Kings,
Because their Traines each other oft despise:
For, men in strife for Pompe, are diuelish Things:
Yet where great Pompe is shown, in louing wise,
To show great welcome, no hurt from it springs:
Then what our pompe perswades, or we performe
Is yours, and ours, sith loue doth vs conforme.

Conformd by loue, informd by wit, and grace
(As Nations ciuill, eache alide to eache)
We, as your Hosts, will giue your (guests) the place,
Whiles our Prouisions do your welcome preache;
And you accept it with a ioyfull face;
So, in our Vnitie shall be no breache:
The Master of a feast the more he spends,
The more it seems, he loues th' inuited friends.

You do vs honor by this visitation,
And make our State more stately by the same:
Wee'l honor you againe in selfsame fashion,
So to corroborate your force, and fame;
And enuie grieue with our congratulation,
Or make hir grone within our Angers flame:
Be we stil enui'd, neuer pittied be,
One comes of might, the other misery,
And enui'd be wee shall, while wee agree.

Thou Royall Seat of farre-renowned Kings,
( Britaines great Monarks, Kings of great Britaine ,
Whose name from L VD , thy much-inlarger Springs)
Be brave, thy best friends now to intertaine:
Make all thy Swannes on thy faire Thames to sing,
No dying Songs, but songs that life sustaine:
And in thy bright Streetes be such song, or sed,
That make the dead, aliue: the liuing, dead.

Thine out-side hang with costly cloath of State,
And let thine insides be as faire, as fine:
Thy sacred Head, which no head ere can rate,
In an Emperiall Crowne (past price) confine:
With all thine All, thine All Condecorate,
That all may be in loue with thee, and thine:
For, where Magnificence consorteth Loue,
It Hatred makes Loues hottest passions proue.

Ring Bels, sound Trumps, sweete Bone-fires make to burne
With all that may delight, or Sight, or Sent:
Raise shouts for ioy, while Spight therat doth moorne:
And bend, with Loues good cheere, the backward bent:
Let all from high'st to lowest, in their turne,
Show some true token of a kinde intent:
Loue can do all things: then, when all our loues
Are ioyn'd in one, both Heauen, and Earth it moues.

Top thy Church Battlements with Streamers white,
To show thou peace enioy'st, and offrest peace
To all that do in ciuill strife delight,
If from Contention, they would so surcease:
" Sweete Loue to loue alures the bitter'st Spight:
" And in the life of Vnion, Ods decrease:
O let no Dane haue cause to say, or thinke,
We, at our ods, made their loues eyes to winke.

Inuest thy Church-men in the Costliest Copes,
Though bitter zeale it stiles, Spots of the Beast:
And in Procession let them goe by troopes,
To sanctifie the ground by Heauen blest,
(Sith with our loues it doth increase our hopes)
That beares the Body of our Kingly Ghest:
And if blinde zeale doe call it Papistry,
Say (though it stab) it tels an holy lye.

O Z EALE , deere Vertue! (that deuour'st the Soules
Yea Soules and Bodies of true holy ones)
How art thou now abus'd by busie fooles
Vsing thy name to pull Kings from their Thrones,
And in erecting of Schismatick Schooles,
Whiles Charitie, to see thy damage, grones?
No erring Church misleads her Common-weale:
But still it vndergoes the name of zeale.

Throwe from thy face the Maske which Fraud puts on;
They keepe not, but distaine thy beautie bright:
For, on it (onely) shines Gods glorious Sonne;
That makes the wrongest beautie, rightest right:
Then, Masks do marre the sweete Complexion,
That's made by Iustice Sonnes adorning light:
Be thou thy selfe then, and thou so wilt shine,
That all the world, in loue, will straight be thine.

Trans-Alpine Faith (that Workes dost much embrace.)
Worke while thou wilt, so thy Workes show that Creed
That sets foorth Faith: for Faith, too bare, is base:
Yet, let no faire Worke prooue so fowle a Deede
(To blot thy Browe with such, too black, disgrace)
As, for thy health, to make the Sacred bleede:
Win (if thou canst) by reasoning Plaints, and Teares,
Not lose (alas) by powd'ring Prince, and Peeres

" Looke what thou wouldst bee done vnto, so do,
" Is true Loues Law , which wee are tyde vnto.
Loe, by the way (prouoked by the wrong)
From mine intention haue I thus digrest:
And sharply warbled on it in my song,
But yet (I hope) the relish likes the best:
Now to thee L ONDON , and thy louely Throng
Will I returne: for in thee is my rest:
Yet rest I in thee, restlesse; Idly too
Which being crosse, crosse Fortune makes me do.

Bring out thy Tables to thy open Streetes:
Be open-handed, as th' art hearted now:
In priuate eate no more thy daintie meates,
But, with thy Company, thy Cates allow
In Common, to the Danes, with kinde intreats,
To make their hearts in kindnesse ouerflow:
That by that inundation both may be,
Floted to Heau'ns of earths felicitie.

Bountie brings Honour, Honour blisse doth bring
To those whome Honours holy hand doth blesse:
Then, as thou would'st haue blisse, let euery thing
Thou dost, of Bountie taste: yea, touch Excesse:
There, hold thy hand, sith more grieues God, and King;
Who Bountie loues, yet hateth Riotousnesse:
But yet when Bounti's great by great Good-will,
She is deliurd of Aboundance still.

Then let thy Conduits runne with rarest wines,
That all may freely drinke all health to thee:
And to those Kings, their Heires, and their Assignes,
By whom thou art, or maist the better bee:
Yet, O beware of Drunkards fowle designes,
Take healthes, while thou from surfet maist be free:
" For 'tis no glorie, but a foule reproach,
" To take (like Tuns) the wine that Shame doth broch:

And, let thy Muses so in Pageants speake,
That they may make the clamorous Crowde attend:
Although their voice, through wants, become so weake,
That they may seeme to speake to little end:
Sith the rude Multitude will silence breake,
Though speake there may an Angell, or a Feind:
Yet what they speake, in Print, in Print may be
Conuai'd aloft, downe to Posteritie.

Thy Senators (in wel-beseene aray,
With all the pompe that pow'r may well effect)
Make them, for these great Monarches, to make way
Through thy choyce Streetes (with gaudy glory deckt)
And let thy Denizens their parts so play,
That forraine lookers on may it affect:
In Summe, let some, and all on thee, and them,
Resemble all in new Ierusalem .

O! that my Muse were wing'd with Angels Plumes,
That she might mount aboue the Roofe of Heauen,
To viewe that glorie which no time consumes,
It to relate, in sacred numbers euen,
For thine example: that, as now, assumes
But glories shape, by Arte, and Nature geu'n,
I blessed were, and thou wert blest in mee,
By whom thou shouldst beheauen all that see.

But ah (alas) my short-wing'd Muse doth hant
None but the obscure corners of the Earth;
Where she with naught, but care, is conuersant:
Which makes her curse her case, and ban her birth:
Where she (except she would turne ignorant)
Must liue, till die she must, in mournfull-mirth;
Which is the cherishing the World doth giue
To those that muse to die, not muse to liue.

Our Braines, wherein our Soules do exercize
Their chiefest Functions, wonders to effect,
If, while they worke, the thoughts of wants arise,
The worke stands still: sith our Soules more respect
The Bodies wants, still crying for Supplies,
Then they doe Wits superfluous pompe affect;
Or, if they worke, and those wants cry out still,
The worke is wondrous, but, it's wondrous ill.

For, when the Braines with crosse-Cares are distracted
(They being the Instruments, Wit workes withall
What Thoughts, by them, can possibly be acted
But such as (in Commotion) rise, to fall?
For, then the thoughts are so, in Sydes, compacted
That they do runne aside in generall:
Then, crosse World wonder not though Wit, in want,
Be, in his largenesse (like thy Largesse) scant.

This double-deskent single skill bewraies;
Its harsh, and most discordant to the Ground:
And Poesie, on this Point, too often plaies,
Aswell in This, as other Worlds around:
For, Poets of all Times their Times dispraise;
But through the Times Sides, so, themselues they wound:
And wounded so (sith so the Times they harme)
The Times forsake them, or them quite disarme.

Well, be it so, (though Well it cannot be
That is so ill with those that meane but well)
A weake Pen holds the heauiest part of me
(Which is my heart) from death; and doth expell
The cares that kill it, by sweet Poesie,
Whereby, in griefe, it seemes in heau'n to dwell:
Then, though it be a Portion for the poore:
Let me be ritch in that, I seeke no more.

And all my store (though ritch beyond compare)
I would powre out, to bid you B IEN V ENV ,
Most welcome Danes: naie, I would nothing spare
To entertaine my selfe; but all for you
Should out, as one that had no other care,
But with full measure, to giue you your due:
And if I did Hyperboles affect
And should discharge theyr M VCH on loues effect.

Sith many welcomes may Suspect incurre,
( " For, fluent words the faithful'st friends do vse)
On welcomes Declaration to demurre
More than I haue, I might my Wit abuse:
Which held it meete my lynes should reach thus farre,
To raise the Sprits of some more happie Muse:
That may (as Mistresse of Loues Complements)
Giue you your welcome to your hearts contents.

Burnt Child doth feare aswell the Sparke, as Flame
Your welcomes to our Wassels , and our Bordes
Were heretofore (as knaves the world) to blame:
But then (perhaps) yee were our heauie Lords;
And we no Scruple made of our defame,
To ease our selues, by double Deeds, and Words:
But, now ye come, our Hearts to yours to binde,
Your welcomes are as true, as you are kinde.

True: for, your kindnesse now doth grace vs much:
True: for, we Brethren are by our Queene Mother:
True: sith in Loue and likenesse we are such,
True: for the ones case now becomes the other:
True: for, you make our hollow friends to grutch:
Though they (dissemblingly) the same do smother:
And, in a word, true, for you graund our blisse:
Then thinke your welcome kinde, as sure it is.

While Seas, on either side, this Land shall bound
Your comming thus, and welcome shall appeare:
In faire eternall Lines which shall be found
In our best Histories, and Poems cleere,
The fame wherof through all worlds so shall sound,
That it shall ring in Times eternall eare:
Didoes deer welcome to the Troian Knight,
Shall, through this welcoms lustre, lose their light.

For, what made that in glory shine so long,
But Poets Pens, pluckt from Archangels wings:
And some we haue can sing as sweet a Song
As any Tuskane, though with him he brings
The Queen of Art, to right him, being wrong;
For, some can say their Muse was made for Kings:
But be it made for Kings, or Gods, or men,
Soule-pleasing Helicon flowes from their Pen.

And let none Tax them for this selfe-conceite,
Sith such conceite to euery Maker is
Their Shade; which, as their Substance still doth waite:
Most Makers marre, yet make they none amisse:
Because their words haue measure (though not waight)
Which makes them meet, how euer meane, by this:
Though some will say, ther's more hope of a foole,
Then of the self-conceited in each Schoole.

But what is this to that we haue in hand?
How do these Strains concerne our welcome Ghests?
No whit; but, hereby they may understand
That we haue Reeds, and Pipes, and Harpes, and Wrests
To make them merrie, and their Eares command:
As wel as those, to whose Notes listen beasts:
By which we can so note their being here,
That in Fames Book it euer shall appeare.

In golden Capitalls all Times shall spell
(As they passe by (in Thought out-flying) flight)
How we desire those swift-wingd Times to tell
The Danes , and ours made one vnited Might;
Vnited by a Match that made vs dwell
In safetie, from the rage of worlds despight;
And how they came to vs, the same to show,
That all the world might know it to be so.

Then drop downe cleer gold from your Pens apace
Ye braine-bred Goddesses most sacred Scribes;
I often ye inuoke to show your grace
To glorifie our Soueraignes, and their Tribes:
That now so heau'nlie make our earthly case,
As scarse the perfectest Pen aright describes:
No moderne Muse had ere such cause to mount,
Or line her head at Aganippaes Fount.

On what poore Grounds did richest wits of yore
Bestow such descant as men yet admire?
Naso , lou'd Nuts, and praised them therefore
With Lines, wherein they burne in quenchlesse fire:
Virgills proude Numbers did a Gnat adore:
Homers , the fight of Frogges made to aspire:
These were the Gods of Poesie, and yet
They on these Plainesongs did rich descant set.

Then, how may moderne Homers , and the rest,
Vpon this Ground (that of itselfe doth rise
To roiall meetings of Kings highlie blest)
Make all their Straines rebound against the skies,
Sending their Echoes so from East to West
With such an accent shrill, as neuer dies:
The skil's but base to Cynthia to aspire
If he that mounts, be in the Spheare of fire.

Then, ├┤ how my dull Muse doth (like a Swanne
Which blushes at her feet, though white she be)
Blush, sith her feet are Ethiopian
Fovle, in the eies of twice faire Maiestie:
For whose sake I this Balladrie began,
Prouokt by ioy to see what now I see.
But eache Epistle in each Pamphlets front,
Can tell that Kings t' accept meane Guifts were wont.

Yet least I should offend (as well I may)
I write the lesse, the lesse so to offend:
For, Breuitie doth Iudgement oft betraie:
That weens that well done, roundly brought to end:
Then, heere my creeking Pen Ile force to staie,
(Though nere so forward) till the same I mend:
Which when I do, perhaps hereon Ile write,
That saddest Kings shall reade it with delight