Thomas Sackville, earl of Dorset (1536-1608)
The Mirror for Magistrates: The Induction
1The wrathful winter, 'proaching on apace,
2With blustering blasts had all ybar'd the treen,
3And old Saturnus, with his frosty face,
4With chilling cold had pierc'd the tender green;
5The mantles rent, wherein enwrapped been
6 The gladsome groves that now lay overthrown,
7 The tapets torn, and every bloom down blown.
8The soil, that erst so seemly was to seen,
9Was all despoiled of her beauty's hue;
10And soote fresh flowers, wherewith the summer's queen
11Had clad the earth, now Boreas' blasts down blew;
12And small fowls flocking, in their song did rue
13 The winter's wrath, wherewith each thing defac'd
14 In woeful wise bewail'd the summer past.
15Hawthorn had lost his motley livery,
16The naked twigs were shivering all for cold,
17And dropping down the tears abundantly;
18Each thing, methought, with weeping eye me told
19The cruel season, bidding me withhold
20 Myself within; for I was gotten out
21 Into the fields, whereas I walk'd about.
22When lo, the night with misty mantles spread,
23Gan dark the day and dim the azure skies;
24And Venus in her message Hermes sped
25To bloody Mars, to will him not to rise,
26Which she herself approach'd in speedy wise;
27 And Virgo, hiding her disdainful breast,
28 With Thetis now had laid her down to rest.
29Whiles Scorpio, dreading Sagittarius' dart,
30Whose bow prest bent in fight, the string had slipp'd,
31Down slid into the ocean flood apart;
32The Bear, that in the Irish seas had dipp'd
33His grisly feet, with speed from thence he whipp'd;
34 For Thetis, hasting from the Virgin's bed,
35 Pursu'd the Bear, that ere she came was fled.
36And Phaethon now, near reaching to his race
37With glistering beams, gold streaming where they bent,
38Was prest to enter in his resting place:
39Erythius, that in the cart first went,
40Had even now attain'd his journey's stent;
41 And, fast declining, hid away his head,
42 While Titan couch'd him in his purple bed.
43And pale Cynthia, with her borrow'd light,
44Beginning to supply her brother's place,
45Was past the noonstead six degrees in sight,
46When sparkling stars amid the heaven's face
47With twinkling light shone on the earth apace,
48 That, while they brought about the night{:e}s chair,
49 The dark had dimm'd the day ere I was ware.
50And sorrowing I to see the summer flowers,
51The lively green, the lusty leas forlorn,
52The sturdy trees so shatter'd with the showers,
53The fields so fade that flourish'd so beforn,
54It taught me well all earthly things be born
55 To die the death, for nought long time may last;
56 The summer's beauty yields to winter's blast.
57Then looking upward to the heaven's leams,
58With night{:e}'s stars thick powder'd everywhere,
59Which erst so glisten'd with the golden streams
60That cheerful Ph{oe}bus spread down from his sphere,
61Beholding dark oppressing day so near;
62 The sudden sight reduced to my mind
63 The sundry changes that in earth we find.
64That musing on this worldly wealth in thought,
65Which comes and goes more faster than we see
66The flickering flame that with the fire is wrought,
67My busy mind presented unto me
68Such fall of peers as in this realm had be;
69 That oft I wish'd some would their woes descrive,
70 To warn the rest whom fortune left alive.
71And straight forth stalking with redoubl'd pace
72For that I saw the night drew on so fast,
73In black all clad there fell before my face
74A piteous wight, whom woe had all forwaste;
75Forth from her eyne the crystal tears outbrast,
76 And sighing sore, her hands she wrung and fold,
77 Tare all her hair that ruth was to behold.
78Her body small, forwither'd and forspent,
79As is the stalk that summer's drought oppress'd;
80Her welked face with woeful tears besprent,
81Her colour pale, and, as it seem'd her best,
82In woe and plaint reposed was her rest;
83 And as the stone that drops of water wears,
84 So dented were her cheeks with fall of tears.
85Her eyes swollen with flowing streams afloat;
86Wherewith, her looks thrown up full piteously,
87Her forceless hands together oft she smote,
88With doleful shrieks that echo'd in the sky;
89Whose plaint such sighs did straight accompany,
90 That, in my doom, was never man did see
91 A wight but half so woebegone as she.
92I stood aghast, beholding all her plight,
93'Tween dread and dolour so distrain'd in heart
94That, while my hairs upstarted with the sight,
95The tears outstream'd for sorrow of her smart;
96But when I saw no end that could apart
97 The deadly dule which she so sore did make,
98 With doleful voice then thus to her I spake:
99"Unwrap thy woes, whatever wight thou be,
100And stint betime to spill thyself with plaint;
101Tell what thou art, and whence, for well I see
102Thou canst not dure, with sorrow thus attaint."
103And with that word of sorrow, all forfaint
104 She looked up, and prostrate as she lay,
105 With piteous sound, lo, thus she 'gan to say:
106"Alas, I wretch whom thus thou seest distrain'd
107With wasting woes that never shall aslake,
108Sorrow I am, in endless torments pain'd
109Among the Furies in the infernal lake,
110Where Pluto, god of hell, so grisly black
111 Doth hold his throne, and Lethe's deadly taste
112 Doth reave remembrance of each thing forepast.
113"Whence come I am, the dreary destiny
114And luckless lot for to bemoan of those
115Whom Fortune in this maze of misery
116Of wretched chance most woeful mirrors chose;
117That when thou seest how lightly they did lose
118 Their pomp, their power, and that they thought most sure,
119 Thou mayst soon deem no earthly joy may dure."
120Whose rueful voice no sooner had out bray'd
121Those woeful words wherewith she sorrow'd so,
122But out, alas, she shright and never stay'd,
123Fell down, and all to-dash'd herself for woe.
124The cold pale dread my limbs 'gan overgo,
125 And I so sorrow'd at her sorrows eft
126 That, what with grief and fear, my wits were reft.
127I stretch'd myself and straight my heart revives,
128That dread and dolour erst did so appale,
129Like him that with the fervent fever strives,
130When sickness seeks his castle health to scale;
131With gather'd spirits so forc'd I fear to avale;
132 And rearing her with anguish all fordone,
133 My spirits return'd and then I thus begun:
134"O Sorrow, alas, sith Sorrow is thy name,
135And that to thee this drear doth well pertain,
136In vain it were to seek to cease the same;
137But as a man himself with sorrow slain,
138So I, alas, do comfort thee in pain,
139 That here in sorrow art forsunk so deep
140 That at thy sight I can but sigh and weep."
141I had no sooner spoken of a sike,
142But that the storm so rumbl'd in her breast,
143As Aeolus could never roar the like,
144And showers down rain'd from her eyne so fast
145That all bedrent the place, till at the last
146 Well eased they the dolour of her mind,
147 As rage of rain doth swage the stormy wind.
148For forth she paced in her fearful tale:
149"Come, come," quoth she, "and see what I shall show;
150Come hear the plaining and the bitter bale
151Of worthy men by Fortune overthrow;
152Come thou and see them rueing all in row.
153 They were but shades that erst in mind thou roll'd;
154 Come, come with me, thine eyes shall them behold.'
155What could these words but make me more aghast,
156To hear her tell whereon I mus'd while ere?
157So was I maz'd therewith, till at the last,
158Musing upon her words and what they were,
159All suddenly well lesson'd was my fear;
160 For to my mind returned how she tell'd
161 Both what she was and where her wone she held.
162Whereby I knew that she a goddess was,
163And therewithal resorted to my mind
164My thought, that late presented me the glass
165Of brittle state, of cares that here we find,
166Of thousand woes to silly men assign'd;
167 And how she now bid me come and behold,
168 To see with eye that erst in thought I roll'd.
169Flat down I fell, and with all reverence
170Adored her, perceiving now that she,
171A goddess sent by godly providence,
172In earthly shape thus show'd herself to me,
173To wail and rue this world's uncertainty;
174 And while I honour'd thus her godhead's might,
175 With plaining voice these words to me she shright:
176"I shall thee guide first to the grisly lake
177And thence unto the blissful place of rest,
178Where thou shalt see and hear the plaint they make
179That whilom here bare swing among the best.
180This shalt thou see, but great is the unrest
181 That thou must bide before thou canst attain
182 Unto the dreadful place where these remain."
183And with these words, as I upraised stood,
184And 'gan to follow her that straight forth pac'd,
185Ere I was ware, into a desert wood
186We now were come, where, hand in hand embrac'd,
187She led the way and through the thick so trac'd
188 As, but I had been guided by her might,
189 It was no way for any mortal wight.
190But lo, while thus amid the desert dark
191We passed on with steps and pace unmeet,
192A rumbling roar, confus'd with howl and bark
193Of dogs, shook all the ground under our feet,
194And stroke the din within our ears so deep
195 As, half distraught, unto the ground I fell,
196 Besought return, and not to visit hell.
197But she, forthwith uplifting me apace,
198Remov'd my dread, and with a steadfast mind
199Bade me come on, for here was now the place,
200The place where we our travail end should find.
201Wherewith I arose, and to the place assign'd
202 Astoin'd I stalk, when straight we 'proached near
203 The dreadful place, that you will dread to hear.
204An hideous hole all vast, withouten shape,
205Of endless depth, o'erwhelm'd with ragged stone,
206With ugly mouth and grisly jaws doth gape,
207And to our sight confounds itself in one.
208Here enter'd we, and yeding forth, anon
209 An horrible loathly lake we might discern,
210 As black as pitch, that cleped is Averne:
211A deadly gulf where nought but rubbish grows,
212With foul black swelth in thicken'd lumps that lies,
213Which up in the air such stinking vapours throws
214That over there may fly no fowl but dies,
215Chok'd with the pestilent savours that arise;
216 Hither we come, whence forth we still did pace,
217 In dreadful fear amid the dreadful place.
218And first, within the porch and jaws of hell,
219Sat deep Remorse of conscience, all besprent
220With tears; and to herself oft would she tell
221Her wretchedness, and cursing never stent
222To sob and sigh; but ever thus lament
223 With thoughtful care as she that, all in vain,
224 Would wear and waste continually in pain.
225Her eyes unsteadfast, rolling here and there,
226Whirl'd on each place, as place that vengeance brought,
227So was her mind continually in fear,
228Toss'd and tormented with the tedious thought
229Of those detested crimes which she had wrought;
230 With dreadful cheer and looks thrown to the sky,
231 Wishing for death, and yet she could not die.
232Next saw we Dread, all trembling how he shook,
233With foot uncertain proffer'd here and there,
234Benumb'd of speech, and with a ghastly look
235Search'd every place, all pale and dead for fear,
236His cap borne up with staring of his hair,
237 'Stoin'd and amaz'd at his own shade for dread,
238 And fearing greater dangers than was need.
239And next, within the entry of this lake,
240Sat fell Revenge, gnashing her teeth for ire,
241Devising means how she may vengeance take,
242Never in rest till she have her desire;
243But frets within so far forth with the fire
244 Of wreaking flames, that now determines she
245 To die by death, or veng'd by death to be.
246When fell Revenge with bloody foul pretence
247Had show'd herself as next in order set,
248With trembling limbs we softly parted thence,
249Till in our eyes another sight we met,
250When from my heart a sigh forthwith I fet,
251 Rueing, alas, upon the woeful plight
252 Of Misery, that next appear'd in sight.
253His face was lean and somedeal pin'd away,
254And eke his hands consumed to the bone,
255But what his body was I cannot say,
256For on his carcass raiment had he none,
257Save clouts and patches, pieced one by one;
258 With staff in hand and scrip on shoulders cast,
259 His chief defence against the winter's blast.
260His food, for most, was wild fruits of the tree,
261Unless sometime some crumbs fell to his share,
262Which in his wallet long, God wot, kept he
263As on the which full daintily would he fare;
264His drink, the running stream; his cup, the bare
265 Of his palm clos'd; his bed, the hard cold ground;
266 To this poor life was Misery ybound.
267Whose wretched state when we had well beheld,
268With tender ruth on him and on his fears,
269In thoughtful cares forth then our pace we held;
270And by and by another shape appears,
271Of greedy Care, still brushing up the breres,
272 His knuckles knobb'd, his flesh deep dented in,
273 With tawed hands and hard ytanned skin.
274The morrow gray no sooner hath begun
275To spread his light, even peeping in our eyes,
276When he is up and to his work yrun;
277But let the night's black misty mantles rise,
278And with foul dark never so much disguise
279 The fair bright day, yet ceaseth he no while,
280 But hath his candles to prolong his toil.
281By him lay heavy Sleep, the cousin of Death,
282Flat on the ground and still as any stone,
283A very corpse, save yielding forth a breath.
284Small keep took he whom Fortune frowned on
285Or whom she lifted up into the throne
286 Of high renown; but as a living death,
287 So, dead alive, of life he drew the breath.
288The body's rest, the quiet of the heart,
289The travail's ease, the still night's fere was he,
290And of our life in earth the better part;
291Reaver of sight, and yet in whom we see
292Things oft that tide, and oft that never be;
293 Without respect esteeming equally
294 King Croesus' pomp and Irus' poverty.
295And next in order sad Old Age we found,
296His beard all hoar, his eyes hollow and blind,
297With drooping cheer still poring on the ground,
298As on the place where nature him assign'd
299To rest, when that the sisters had untwin'd
300 His vital thread and ended with their knife
301 The fleeting course of fast declining life.
302There heard we him with broken and hollow plaint
303Rue with himself his end approaching fast,
304And all for nought his wretched mind torment
305With sweet remembrance of his pleasures past,
306And fresh delights of lusty youth forewaste;
307 Recounting which, how would he sob and shriek,
308 And to be young again of Jove beseek!
309But, and the cruel fates so fixed be
310That time forepast cannot return again,
311This one request of Jove yet prayed he,
312That in such wither'd plight and wretched pain
313As eld, accompanied with his loathsome train,
314 Had brought on him, all were it woe and grief,
315 He might a while yet linger forth his life;
316And not so soon descend into the pit
317Where Death, when he the mortal corpse hath slain,
318With reckless hand in grave doth cover it,
319Thereafter never to enjoy again
320The gladsome light, but in the ground ylain,
321 In depth of darkness waste and wear to nought,
322 As he had never into the world been brought.
323But who had seen him sobbing, how he stood
324Unto himself and how he would bemoan
325His youth forepast, as though it wrought him good
326To talk of youth, all were his youth foregone,
327He would have mus'd and marvell'd much, whereon
328 This wretched Age should life desire so fain,
329 And knows full well life doth but length his pain.
330Crookback'd he was, tooth-shaken, and blear-ey'd,
331Went on three feet, and sometime crept on four,
332With old lame bones that rattled by his side,
333His scalp all pill'd and he with eld forlore;
334His wither'd fist still knocking at Death's door,
335 Fumbling and drivelling as he draws his breath;
336 For brief, the shape and messenger of Death.
337And fast by him pale Malady was plac'd,
338Sore sick in bed, her colour all foregone,
339Bereft of stomach, savour, and of taste,
340Ne could she brook no meat but broths alone;
341Her breath corrupt, her keepers every one
342 Abhorring her, her sickness past recure,
343 Detesting physic and all physic's cure.
344But oh, the doleful sight that then we see!
345We turn'd our look and on the other side
346A grisly shape of Famine mought we see,
347With greedy looks and gaping mouth that cried
348And roar'd for meat, as she should there have died;
349 Her body thin and bare as any bone,
350 Whereto was left nought but the case alone.
351And that, alas, was gnawn on everywhere,
352All full of holes, that I ne mought refrain
353From tears to see how she her arms could tear,
354And with her teeth gnash on the bones in vain,
355When all for nought she fain would so sustain
356 Her starven corpse, that rather seem'd a shade
357 Than any substance of a creature made.
358Great was her force, whom stone wall could not stay,
359Her tearing nails snatching at all she saw;
360With gaping jaws that by no means ymay
361Be satisfied from hunger of her maw,
362But eats herself as she that hath no law;
363 Gnawing, alas, her carcass all in vain,
364 Where you may count each sinew, bone, and vein.
365On her while we thus firmly fix'd our eyes,
366That bled for ruth of such a dreary sight,
367Lo, suddenly she shright in so huge wise,
368As made hell gates to shiver with the might;
369Wherewith a dart we saw, how it did light
370 Right on her breast, and therewithal pale Death
371 Enthrilling it, to reave her of her breath.
372And by and by a dumb dead corpse we saw,
373Heavy and cold, the shape of Death aright,
374That daunts all earthly creatures to his law;
375Against whose force in vain it is to fight;
376Ne peers, ne princes, nor no mortal wight,
377 No towns, ne realms, cities, ne strongest tower,
378 But all perforce must yield unto his power.
379His dart, anon, out of the corpse he took,
380And in his hand, a dreadful sight to see,
381With great triumph eftsoons the same he shook,
382That most of all my fears affrayed me;
383His body dight with nought but bones, perdy,
384 The naked shape of man there saw I plain,
385 All save the flesh, the sinew, and the vein.
386Lastly stood War, in glittering arms yclad,
387With visage grim, stern looks, and blackly hu'd;
388In his right hand a naked sword he had,
389That to the hilts was all with blood imbru'd;
390And in his left, that kings and kingdoms ru'd,
391 Famine and fire he held, and therewithal
392 He razed towns and threw down towers and all.
393Cities he sack'd and realms, that whilom flower'd
394In honour, glory, and rule above the best,
395He overwhelm'd and all their fame devour'd,
396Consum'd, destroy'd, wasted, and never ceas'd,
397Till he their wealth, their name, and all oppress'd;
398 His face forhew'd with wounds, and by his side
399 There hung his targe, with gashes deep and wide.
400In midst of which, depainted there, we found
401Deadly Debate, all full of snaky hair,
402That with a bloody fillet was ybound,
403Out-breathing nought but discord everywhere.
404And round about were portray'd, here and there,
405 The hugy hosts, Darius and his power,
406 His kings, princes, his peers, and all his flower:
407Whom great Macedo vanquish'd there in sight
408With deep slaughter, despoiling all his pride,
409Pierc'd through his realms and daunted all his might.
410Duke Hannibal beheld I there beside,
411In Canna's field victor how he did ride,
412 And woeful Romans that in vain withstood,
413 And consul Paulus cover'd all in blood.
414Yet saw I more: the fight at Thrasimene,
415And Trebeie field, and eke when Hannibal
416And worthy Scipio last in arms were seen
417Before Carthago gate, to try for all
418The world's empire, to whom it should befall;
419 There saw I Pompey and Caesar clad in arms,
420 Their hosts allied and all their civil harms;
421With conquerors' hands, forbath'd in their own blood,
422And Caesar weeping over Pompey's head.
423Yet saw I Sulla and Marius where they stood,
424Their great cruelty and the deep bloodshed
425Of friends; Cyrus I saw and his host dead,
426 And how the queen with great despite hath flung
427 His head in blood of them she overcome.
428Xerxes, the Persian king, yet saw I there
429With his huge host that drank the rivers dry,
430Dismounted hills, and made the vales uprear,
431His host and all yet saw I plain, perdy!
432Theb{:e}s I saw, all raz'd how it did lie
433 In heaps of stones, and Tyrus put to spoil,
434 With walls and towers flat even'd with the soil.
435But Troy, alas, methought, above them all,
436It made mine eyes in very tears consume,
437When I beheld the woeful weird befall
438That by the wrathful will of gods was come;
439And Jove's unmoved sentence and foredoom
440 On Priam king and on his town so bent,
441 I could not lin, but I must there lament.
442And that the more, sith destiny was so stern
443As, force perforce, there might no force avail,
444But she must fall; and by her fall we learn
445That cities, towers, wealth, world, and all shall quail.
446No manhood, might, nor nothing mought prevail;
447 All were there prest full many a prince and peer,
448 And many a knight that sold his death full dear.
449Not worthy Hector, worthiest of them all,
450Her hope, her joy; his force is now for nought.
451O Troy, Troy, Troy, there is no boot but bale;
452The hugy horse within thy walls is brought;
453Thy turrets fall, thy knights, that whilom fought
454 In arms amid the field, are slain in bed,
455 Thy gods defil'd, and all thy honour dead.
456The flames upspring and cruelly they creep
457From wall to roof till all to cinders waste;
458Some fire the houses where the wretches sleep,
459Some rush in here, some run in there as fast;
460In every where or sword or fire they taste;
461 The walls are torn, the towers whirl'd to the ground;
462 There is no mischief but may there be found.
463Cassandra yet there saw I how they hal'd
464From Pallas' house, with spercled tress undone,
465Her wrists fast bound, and with Greeks' rout empal'd;
466And Priam eke, in vain how he did run
467To arms, whom Pyrrhus with despite hath done
468 To cruel death, and bath'd him in the baign
469 Of his son's blood, before the altar slain.
470But how can I describe the doleful sight
471That in the shield so lifelike fair did shine?
472Sith in this world I think was never wight
473Could have set forth the half, not half so fine.
474I can no more but tell how there is seen
475 Fair Ilium fall in burning red gledes down,
476 And from the soil great Troy, Neptunus' town.
477Herefrom when scarce I could mine eyes withdraw,
478That fill'd with tears as doth the springing well,
479We passed on so far forth till we saw
480Rude Acheron, a loathsome lake to tell,
481That boils and bubs up swelth as black as hell;
482 Where grisly Charon, at their fixed tide,
483 Still ferries ghosts unto the farther side.
484The aged god no sooner Sorrow spied,
485But hasting straight unto the bank apace,
486With hollow call unto the rout he cried
487To swerve apart and give the goddess place;
488Straight it was done, when to the shore we pace,
489 Where, hand in hand as we then linked fast,
490 Within the boat we are together plac'd.
491And forth we launch full fraughted to the brink,
492When with the unwonted weight, the rusty keel
493Began to crack as if the same should sink;
494We hoise up mast and sail, that in a while
495We fet the shore, where scarcely we had while
496 For to arrive, but that we heard anon
497 A three-sound bark confounded all in one.
498We had not long forth pass'd but that we saw
499Black Cerberus, the hideous hound of hell,
500With bristles rear'd and with a three-mouth'd jaw
501Fordinning the air with his horrible yell,
502Out of the deep dark cave where he did dwell;
503 The goddess straight he knew, and by and by,
504 He peas'd and couch'd while that we passed by.
505Thence come we to the horror and the hell,
506The large great kingdoms and the dreadful reign
507Of Pluto in his throne where he did dwell,
508The wide waste places and the hugy plain,
509The wailings, shrieks, and sundry sorts of pain,
510 The sighs, the sobs, the deep and deadly groan,
511 Earth, air, and all, resounding plaint and moan.
512Here pul'd the babes, and here the maids unwed
513With folded hands their sorry chance bewail'd,
514Here wept the guiltless slain, and lovers dead,
515That slew themselves when nothing else avail'd;
516A thousand sorts of sorrows here, that wail'd
517 With sighs and tears, sobs, shrieks, and all yfere,
518 That oh, alas, it was a hell to hear.
519We stay'd us straight, and with a rueful fear,
520Beheld this heavy sight, while from mine eyes
521The vapour'd tears down stilled here and there,
522And Sorrow eke, in far more woeful wise,
523Took on with plaint, upheaving to the skies
524 Her wretched hands, that with her cry the rout
525 Gan all in heaps to swarm us round about.
526"Lo here," quoth Sorrow, "Princes of renown,
527That whilom sat on top of fortune's wheel,
528Now laid full low, like wretches whirled down,
529Even with one frown, that stay'd but with a smile;
530And now behold the thing that thou, erewhile,
531 Saw only in thought, and what thou now shalt hear,
532 Recount the same to kesar, king, and peer."
533Then first came Henry, Duke of Buckingham,
534His cloak of black all pill'd and quite forworn,
535Wringing his hands, and fortune oft doth blame,
536Which of a duke hath made him now her scorn;
537With ghastly looks, as one in manner lorn,
538 Oft spread his arms, stretch'd hands he joins as fast
539 With rueful cheer, and vapour'd eyes upcast.
540His cloak he rent, his manly breast he beat,
541His hair all torn, about the place it lay;
542My heart so molt to see his grief so great,
543As feelingly methought it dropp'd away;
544His eyes they whirl'd about withouten stay,
545 With stormy sighs the place did so complain,
546 As if his heart at each had burst in twain.
547Thrice he began to tell his doleful tale,
548And thrice with sighs did swallow up his voice,
549At each of which he shrieked so withal,
550As though the heavens rived with the noise;
551Till at the last, recovering his voice,
552 Supping the tears that all his breast berain'd,
553 On cruel fortune, weeping thus he plain'd.
Notes
1] A series of poems by various authors, issued with successive expansions in numerous editions from 1559 to 1620. Two leaves of an apparent suppressed edition of 1555 (?) also exist. It constitutes "a memorial of such princes as since the time of King Richard the Second have been unfortunate in the realm of England." The first edition (1559). the work of William Baldwin, George Ferrers, Thomas Churchyard and Thomas Phaer, related the fall of eleven prominent Englishmen, including Mortimer, Warwick, and Henry VI. A second edition (1563) included six additional narratives, one of which, The Complaint of Buckingham, with the Induction preceding it, was the work of Thomas Sackville, afterwards Lord Buckhurst. According to Baldwin's account, Sackville intended to revise the whole series, using the Induction as a general prologue, but he never had leisure to carry out this design. The poem is essentially mediaeval in plan and conception, setting forth as it does the fall of great men from prosperity to adversity through the enmity of Fortune. It was originally intended as a continuation of Lydgate's Fall of Princes (1430-1440) which is a translation of Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium (c. 1350).
2] treen: trees.
ybar'd: bared. Sackville occasionally retains the medieval prefix to the past participle.
3] Saturnus: the Roman god of agriculture, associated with late autumn, the time of seeding.
7] tapets: tapestries; figuratively for foliage.
10] soote: sweet.
11] Boreas: north wind.
12] fowls: birds.
24] Venus: the evening star.
27-28] The constellation Virgo had sunk in the sea.
28] Thetis: a daughter of Nereus' the sea-god.
29] Sagittarius: the constellation known as the Archer; hence dart.
30] prest: ready.
32-35] The constellation Ursa Major, having just touched the northwest horizon, over the Irish sea, now rose clear.
36] Phaethon: the sun.
39] Erythius: one of the horses of the sun's chariot.
40] stent: stopping-place.
42] Titan: the sun; not distinguished from Phaethon here.
43] pale Cynthia: the moon.
44] her brother's: i.e., the sun's.
45] noonstead. The position of the sun at noon.
48] nightës: ME. genitive.
chair: car: a reference to the Big Dipper.
57] leams: gleams.
69] descrive: describe.
70] wight: person.
74] forwaste: wasted utterly.
75] eyne: eyes.
outbrast: outburst.
78] forwither'd: utterly withered.
forspent: exhausted.
80] welked: wrinkled.
besprent: besprinkled.
81] seem'd: beseemed.
90] doom: opinion.
93] distrain'd: distressed.
96] apart: remove, set aside.
97] dule: woe, lamentation.
100] stint: cease.
spill: destroy.
102] dure: endure.
103] forfaint: utterly faint, very weak.
109] the infernal lake: Avernus (210).
112] reave: rob.
forepast: past before.
122] shright: shrieked (also 175).
123] to-dash'd: beat herself hard.
125] eft: again.
131] avale: sink.
132] fordone: overcome.
134] sith: since.
139] forsunk: deeply sunk.
141] sike: sigh.
143] Aeolus: god of the winds.
145] bedrent: drenched.
147] swage: assuage.
149] Sorrow will guide the poet through the lower world like the Cumean Sibyl in the Æneid and Virgil in The Divine Comedy.
161] wone: abode.
166] silly: innocent.
179] swing: sway.
191] unmeet: unequal.
200] travail: labour.
202] Astoin'd: astounded, confounded.
204 ff.] This description of hell is modelled on Virgil's Æneid, VI, 237 ff. Also cf. Spenser, Faerie Queene, I, v, xxxi-v. Hell is traditionally depicted as a mouth with a jaws (206, 218).
208] yeding: going; a pseudo-mediaeval form, based on the past tense of "go," which is "yode" or "yede."
210] cleped: named.
212] swelth: whirlpool.
219] besprent: besprinkled.
221] stent: cease.
230] cheer: countenance.
236] staring of his hair: his hair standing on end.
237] 'Stoined: confounded.
244] wreaking: avenging.
250] fet: fetched.
253] somedeal: somewhat.
254] eke: also.
258] scrip: satchel.
262] wot: knows.
271] still: continually.
breres: briars.
273] tawed: hardened by severe beating.
289] fere: companion.
291] Reaver: robber, thief.
294] Irus: the beggar of Ithaca in the Odyssey, who is slain by Odysseus.
297] cheer: countenance.
299] sisters: the sisters of fate.
306] forewaste: utterly wasted.
308] beseek: beseech.
309] and: if.
310] forepast: past.
311] Jove: Jupiter.
313] eld: old age.
329] length: lengthen.
333] pill'd: bald.
342] recure: recovery.
346] mought: might.
352] ne mought: could not.
361] maw: stomach.
371] Enthrilling: piercing.
reave: rob.
376] ne: not.
381] eftsoons: soon afterwards.
393] whilom: once, formerly.
398] forhew'd: severely cut.
399] targe: shield.
406] flower: best (persons).
407] Macedo: Alexander of Macedon.
413] consul Paulus: Lucius Paulus who was slain in the battle of Cannae.
415] Trebeie: Trebia, a river in Italy, where Hannibal defeated the Romans; pronounced as two syllables.
417] try: test.
421] forbath'd: bathed deeply.
437] weird: destiny.
441] lin: cease.
442] sith: since.
447] prest: ready.
462] mischief: fatal end.
464] spercled: sparkling, glittering.
465] rout: large number of people.
empal'd: surrounded.
468] baign: bath.
475] gledes: glowing ashes.
481] bubs up: throws up in bubbles.
swelth: whirlpool; filthy water.
490] plac'd: "plast" in the original, which furnishes an eye-rhyme with "fast."
495] fet: fetched, arrived at.
501] Fordinning: making a dreadful din in.
504] peas'd: was appeased, became still.
517] yfere: together.
521] stilled: fell in drops.
523] took on: raved.
532] kesar: emperor, caesar.
534] pill'd: threadbare.
536] of: from.
537] lorn: lost.
542] molt: melted.
544] withouten: without.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: William Baldwin, [A Mirror for Magistrates], 3rd edn. (T. Marshe, 1563). STC 1248.
First publication date:
1563
RPO poem editor: F. D. Hoeniger
RP edition: 3RP 1.21.
Recent editing: 2:2002/4/3
Rhyme: ababbcc
Other poems by Thomas Sackville, earl of Dorset
