That with the cries they make
The very earth did shake:
Trumpet to trumpet spake,
Thunder to thunder.

Well it thine age became,
O noble Erpingham,
Which didst the signal aim

To our hid forces!

When from a meadow by,
Like a storm suddenly

The English archery

Stuck the French horses.

With Spanish yew so strong,
Arrows a cloth-yard long
That like to serpents stung,
Piercing the weather;

None from his fellow starts,
But playing manly parts,
And like true English hearts

Stuck close together.

When down their bows they threw,

And forth their bilbos drew,

And on the French they flew,

Not one was tardy;

Arms were from shoulders sent,

Scalps to the teeth were rent,
Down the French peasants went-
Our men were hardy.

This while our noble king,
His broadsword brandishing,

bilbos] swords, from Bilboa.

G 3

169

Down the French host did ding
As to o'erwhelm it;

And many a deep wound lent,
His arms with blood besprent,
And many a cruel dent
Bruised his helmet.

Gloster, that duke so good,
Next of the royal blood,
For famous England stood

With his brave brother;
Clarence, in steel so bright,
Though but a maiden knight,
Yet in that furious fight
Scarce such another.

Warwick in blood did wade,

Oxford the foe invade,

And cruel slaughter made

Still as they ran up;

Suffolk his axe did ply,
Beaumont and Willoughby
Bare them right doughtily,
Ferrers and Fanhope.

Upon Saint Crispin's Day
Fought was this noble fray,
Which fame did not delay
To England to carry.
O when shall English men
With such acts fill a pen?
Or England breed again

Such a King Harry?

120.

To the Virginian Voyage

OU

You brave heroic minds
YOU

Worthy your country's name,
That honour still pursue;

Go and subdue!

Whilst loitering hinds

Lurk here at home with shame.

Britons, you stay too long:
Quickly aboard bestow you,
And with a merry gale
Swell your stretch'd sail

With vows as strong

As the winds that blow you.

Your course securely steer,

West and by south forth keep!
Rocks, lee-shores, nor shoals
When Eolus scowls

You need not fear;

So absolute the deep.

And cheerfully at sea
Success you still entice

To get the pearl and gold,
And ours to hold

Virginia,

Earth's only paradise.

Where nature hath in store

Fowl, venison, and fish,
And the fruitfull'st soil

Without your toil

Three harvests more,

All greater than your wish.

And the ambitious vine
Crowns with his purple mass
The cedar reaching high
To kiss the sky,

The cypress, pine,

And useful sassafras.

To whom the Golden Age

Still nature's laws doth give,
No other cares attend,

But them to defend

From winter's rage,

That long there doth not live.

When as the luscious smell
Of that delicious land

Above the seas that flows
The clear wind throws,

Your hearts to swell

Approaching the dear strand;

In kenning of the shore.
(Thanks to God first given)
O you the happiest men,
Be frolic then!

Let cannons roar,

Frighting the wide heaven.

And in regions far,

Such heroes bring ye forth

As those from whom we came;

And plant our name

Under that star

Not known unto our North.

OME live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
Or woods or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,
And see the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies;
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.