Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1845.
Lachrimæ LachrimarvmLXXVI. Joshua Sylvester
H
I knowe my powers for such a part unfitt;
And shall but light my candle in the sunne,
To doe a work shalbe so better donne:
Could teares and feares give my distractions leave
Of sobbing words a sable webbe to weave,—
Could sorrowe’s fulnes give my voice a vent,
How would, how should my saddest verse lament
(In deepest sighs, instead of sweetest songs,)
This losse (alas!) which unto all belongs;
To all the godly now, and future, farr,
To all the world (except
That liues, and loves religion, armes, or art:
To all abroad, but to us most of all,
That nearest stood to my high cedar’s fall;
But more than most to mee, that had no prop
But Henry’s hand, and, but in him, no hope.
O cleerest beame of vertue’s rising bright!
O purist spark of pious princely zeale!
O surest ark of justice’ sacred weale!
O grauest presage of a prudent kinde!
O bravest message of a valliant mynde!
O, all-admired, benign and bounteous!
O all-desired (right) Panaretus!
Panaretus (all-vertuous) was thy name,
Thy nature such; such ever be thy fame.