With one most desp'rate fatal effort more, The unsubdued, tho' often conquer'd Queen, The fields of TEWKESBURY imbues with gore. And, wou'd some kinder duty mine had been, Than tell how EDWARD, royal MARGARET's son, Gracing the train of him the day who won, With words, becoming such a Prince, address'd Proud " EDWARD, CLARENCE, GLOS'TER, and the rest," Who (gall'd, the glorious filial lad should dare Speak like his honor'd father's rightful heir), "Buried their fatal daggers in his breast," And, hapless HENRY! now thine hour is come, Relentless RICHARD has pronounced thy doom; Destroy'd by him, as most historians tell, "After life's fitful fever he sleeps well," And, kinder hearted monarch never fell! greatest subject under Henry VI. and reduced to begging in his cause, perished in attempting to escape. FABIAN, who lived at this period, says, he was by the King's servants incontinently slain. HALL says, that they who stood about, viz. Clarence, Gloucester, Dorset, and Hastings, suddenly murdered the Prince. FABIAN also says, from "common fame," that Ilenry was killed by the Duke of Gloucester; while HORACE WALPOLE observes, Mob stories, or Lancasterian forgeries, ought to be rejected from sober history. Vide B. DE MOLEVILLE. For MARGARET-permit that here The Muse should claim an honest tear; Unyielding matron in thine infants cause! Great Queen! had HAL possessed but half thy nerve, Thou had'st not needed gain that sound applause, Thy princely actions ever will deserve. Imprison'd, shame on't, 'till her ransom paid, Unkingly souls! who cou'd a price demand; Heroic MARGARET, by foreign aid, Return'd in sorrow to her native land. Returned to mourn the sad mistaken day, Ambition taught her tow'ring soul to stray, And charmed her from her household gods away. EDWARD takes Berwick from the Scot, But, at Pecquigni, quarrels are forgot, And England, rare to say, has truce from blood; Save where his arts intriguing GLO'STER tries, And CLARENCE, victim of a brother, dies. 'Tis strange in NED, who loved the fair, we find, At once a tender and terrific mind, Lib'ral Lib'ral in love, and brave,-upon the whole Some fancied prophet cries G shall succeed The King, and lo! he makes GEORGE CLARENCE bleed. EDWARD, in hunting, kills a fav'rite buck, *Thomas Burdett, a Warwickshire Gentleman. † Walter Walker, a Grocer of London. Of whom he was wont to say, one was the merriest, one the wittiest, and a third the holiest, man ever boasted. MEDULLA HISTORIE ANGLICANE. Now Now EDWARD's days bid masks and shows entwine Their charms, no roses now to strife invite; Or if they mention make of red or white, 'Tis only when they're speaking of their wine. By some excess, the King at last o'erta'en, (If not by poison), terminates his reign; GLO'STER attended him, and some suspicion Attach'd of course to such a kind physician. The art of Printing first with us was known This reign; from Germany it found it's way; And CAXTON's* press the prototype we own, Of all that since has gilded learning's way. Caxton, who was employed to print a work of Antony Widville, Earl Rivers, thus oddly concludes it in his own words: "Go, thou little Quayer, and recommaund me "Unto the good grace of my precious Lord "Th'erle Ryveris; for I have emprinted thee "At his commandement, following ev'ry worde "His copye, as his Secretarie can recorde; "At Westmestre, of Feverer the XX Day, "And of King Edwarde the XVII. Yere viaye, "Emprinted by Caxton, "In Feverer, the colde season." SUMMARY SUMMARY OF THE REIGN OF EDWARD THE FIFTH. Born in Westminster Abbey, A. D. 1470. Reigned Two Months. Supposed to have been murdered, and buried in the Tower, 1483. His bones were sought for, and, with those of his brother, removed to Westminster, in 1674. PRINCIPAL EVENTS. The deaths of most of the young King's relatives on the scaffold. EMINENT PERSONS. Thomas Borlieur, Archbishop of Canterbury. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Protector. Edward, Earl of Warwick, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, (Children of George, Duke of Clarence). Earl Grey; Marquis of Dorset; William, Lord Hastings. |