A Lawde And Prayse Made For Our Souereigne Lord The Kyng.[4]

The Rose both White and Rede In one Rose now dothe grow; Thus thorow every stede Thereof the fame dothe blow: Grace the sede did sow: England, now gaddir flowris, Exclude now all dolowrs.

Noble Henry the eight, Thy loving souereine lorde, Of kingis line moost streight, His titille dothe recorde: In whome dothe wele acorde Alexis yonge of age, Adrastus wise and sage.

Astrea, Justice hight, That from the starry sky Shall now com and do right, This hunderd yere scantly A man kowd not aspy That Right dwelt vs among, And that was the more wrong:

Right shall the foxis chare, The wolvis, the beris also, That wrowght have moche care, And browght Englond in wo: They shall wirry no mo, Nor wrote the Rosary By extort trechery:

Of this our noble king The law they shall not breke; They shall com to rekening; No man for them wil speke: The pepil durst not creke Theire grevis to complaine, They browght them in soche paine:

Therfor no more they shall The commouns ouerbace, That wont wer ouer all Both lorde and knight to face; For now the yeris of grace And welthe ar com agayne, That maketh England faine.

Adonis of freshe colour, Of yowthe the godely flour, Our prince of high honour, Our paves, our succour, Our king, our emperour, Our Priamus of Troy, Our welth, our worldly joy;

Vpon vs he doth reigne, That makith our hartis glad, As king moost soueraine That ever Englond had; Demure, sober, and sad, And Martis lusty knight; God save him in his right!

Amen.

Bien men souient.

Per me laurigerum Britonum Skeltonida vatem.

A lawde and prayse made for our souereigne lord the kyng] Such (in a different handwriting from that of the poem) is the endorsement of the MS., which consists of two leaves, bound up in the volume marked B. 2. 8 (pp. 67-69), among the Records of the Treasury of the Receipt of the Exchequer, now at the Rolls House.—Qy. is this poem the piece which, in the catalogue of his own writings, Skelton calls “The Boke of the Rosiar,” Garlande of Laurell, v. 1178, vol. i. 408?

stede] i. e. place.

chare] i. e. chase, drive away (see Prompt. Parv. i. 70. Camden Soc. ed.).

mo] i. e. more.

wrote] i. e. root.

Rosary] i. e. Rose-bush.

face] See Notes, vol. ii. 216.

faine] i. e. glad.

paves] i. e. shield (properly, a large shield covering the body).

sad] i. e. grave—discreet.

Bien men souient] These words are followed in the MS. by a sort of flourished device, which might perhaps be read—“Deo (21ͦ) gratias.”

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.