Mirror for Magistrates, Volume 2, Part 1

Great Britain -- History -- Poetry; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Sources

That time lay I at _Ludloe_, _Wales_ his border,
        For, with the prince, the king had sent me thyther
        To stay the robberies, spoyle, and foule disorder,
        Of diuers outlawes gathered there together:
        Whose banding tended no man wist well whither,
          When these by wisdome safely were suppressed,
          Came wofull newes, our souerayne was deceassed.

    54.

        The griefe whereof, when reason had[1274] asswaged,
        Because the prince remayned in my guyde,
        For his defence[1275] great store of men I waged:
        Doubting the stormes which at such tyme betyde:
        But while I there thus warely did prouide,
          Commaundement came to send them home agayne,
          And bring the king thence with his houshold trayne.

    55.

        This charge sent from the counsell and the queene,
        Though much agaynst my mynde I beast obayed:
        The deuill himselfe wrought all the drift I weene,
        Because he would haue innocents betrayed:
        For ere the king were halfe his way conuayed,
          A sort of traytors falsly him betrapt,
          I caught afore, and close in prison clapt.

    56.

        The duke of _Glocester_, that incarnate deuill,
        Confedred with the duke of _Buckingham_,
        With eke lord _Hastings_, hasty both to euill,
        To meete the king in mourning habit came,
        (A cruell wolfe though clothed like a lambe)
          And at _Northampton_, where as then I bayted,
          They tooke theire inne, as they on mee had wayted.

    57.

        The king that night at _Stonystratford_ lay,
        A towne to small to harboure all his trayne:
        This was the cause why he was gone away,
        While I with other did behinde remaine:
        But will yow see how falsly frendes[1276] can faine?
          Not _Synon_ sly, whose fraude best fame rebukes,
          Was halfe so suttle as these double dukes.

    58.

        First to myne inne commeth in my brother false,
        Embraceth me: “Well met, good brother _Scales_:”
        And weepes withall, the other me enhalse
        With, “welcome cosin, now welcome out of _Wales_:
        O happy day, for now all stormy gales
          Of strife and rancour, vtterly are swaged,
          And we your[1277] owne to liue, or dye, vnwaged.”

    59.

        This proferd seruice, saust with salutations
        Immoderate, might cause me to suspect:
        For, commonly, in all dissimulations,
        Th’xcesse[1278] of glauering doth the guile detect:
        Reason refuseth falsehode to dyrect:
          The will therfore, for feare of being spied,
          Exceedeth meane, because it wanteth guyde.

    60.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

Mirror for Magistrates, Volume 2, Part 1

Great Britain -- History -- Poetry; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Sources

That time lay I at _Ludloe_, _Wales_ his border,
        For, with the prince, the king had sent me thyther
        To stay the robberies, spoyle, and foule disorder,
        Of diuers outlawes gathered there together:
        Whose banding tended no man wist well whither,
          When these by wisdome safely were suppressed,
          Came wofull newes, our souerayne was deceassed.

    54.

        The griefe whereof, when reason had[1274] asswaged,
        Because the prince remayned in my guyde,
        For his defence[1275] great store of men I waged:
        Doubting the stormes which at such tyme betyde:
        But while I there thus warely did prouide,
          Commaundement came to send them home agayne,
          And bring the king thence with his houshold trayne.

    55.

        This charge sent from the counsell and the queene,
        Though much agaynst my mynde I beast obayed:
        The deuill himselfe wrought all the drift I weene,
        Because he would haue innocents betrayed:
        For ere the king were halfe his way conuayed,
          A sort of traytors falsly him betrapt,
          I caught afore, and close in prison clapt.

    56.

        The duke of _Glocester_, that incarnate deuill,
        Confedred with the duke of _Buckingham_,
        With eke lord _Hastings_, hasty both to euill,
        To meete the king in mourning habit came,
        (A cruell wolfe though clothed like a lambe)
          And at _Northampton_, where as then I bayted,
          They tooke theire inne, as they on mee had wayted.

    57.

        The king that night at _Stonystratford_ lay,
        A towne to small to harboure all his trayne:
        This was the cause why he was gone away,
        While I with other did behinde remaine:
        But will yow see how falsly frendes[1276] can faine?
          Not _Synon_ sly, whose fraude best fame rebukes,
          Was halfe so suttle as these double dukes.

    58.

        First to myne inne commeth in my brother false,
        Embraceth me: “Well met, good brother _Scales_:”
        And weepes withall, the other me enhalse
        With, “welcome cosin, now welcome out of _Wales_:
        O happy day, for now all stormy gales
          Of strife and rancour, vtterly are swaged,
          And we your[1277] owne to liue, or dye, vnwaged.”

    59.

        This proferd seruice, saust with salutations
        Immoderate, might cause me to suspect:
        For, commonly, in all dissimulations,
        Th’xcesse[1278] of glauering doth the guile detect:
        Reason refuseth falsehode to dyrect:
          The will therfore, for feare of being spied,
          Exceedeth meane, because it wanteth guyde.

    60.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Mirror for Magistrates, Volume 2, Part 1

Mirror for Magistrates, Volume 2, Part 1

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