Great Britain -- History -- Poetry; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Sources
But as the pacient’s griefe and scholer’s payne,
Cause them deme bad such things as sure be best,
So want of wisdome causeth vs complaine
Of euery hap, wherby we seme opprest:
The poore doe pine for pelfe, the rich for rest,
And when as losse or sicknesse vs assayle
We curse our fate, our fortune we bewayle.
22.
Yet for our good, God worketh euery thing:
For, through the death of these two noble peres,
My brother liu’d and raynde a quiet king,
Who, had they liued, perchaunce in course of years
Would haue deliuered _Henry_ fro the breres,
Or holpe his sonne t’[1189]enioy the carefull crowne,
Wherby our line should haue bene quite put downe.
23.
A carefull crowne it may be iustly named,
Not onely for the cares thereto annext,[1190]
To see the subiect well and duly framed,
With which good care few kings are greatly vext,
But for the dred wherwith they are perplext,
Of losing lordship, liberty, or life:
Which wofull wracks in kingdoms happen ryfe.
24.
The which to shun while some to sore haue sought,
They haue not sparde all persons to suspect:
And to destroy such as they gilty thought,
Though no apparaunce proued them infect.
Take me for one of this wrong punisht sect,
Imprisonde first, accused without cause,
And done to death, no processe had by lawes.
25.
Wherin I note how vengeaunce doth acquite
Like yll for yll, how vices vertue quell:
For as my mariage loue did me excite
Agaynst the king my brother to rebell,
So loue to haue his children prosper well,
Prouoked him, agaynst both law and right,
To murder me, his brother, and his knight.
26.
For by his queene two princelyke sonnes he had,
Borne to be punisht for their parent’s synne:
Whose fortunes kalked made the father sad,
Such wofull haps were found to be therin:
Which to auouch, writ in a rotten skin,
A prophesie was found, which sayd, a G
Of _Edward’s_ children should destruction bee.
27.
Mee to bee G, because my name was _George_,
My brother thought, and therefore did mee hate,
But woe be to the[1191] wicked heads that forge
Such doubtfull dreames to breede vnkinde debate:
For God, a gleue, a gibbet, grate, or gate,
A Gray, a Griffeth, or a Gregory,
As well as George, are written with a G.
28.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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