Songs of Mourning:

John Coprario

1613

TO THE MOST SACRED
King James

I.

O Griefe, how diuers are thy shapes wherein men languish ?
          The face sometime with teares thou fil' st,
          Sometime the hart thou kill' st
                                    With vnseene anguish.
Sometime thou smil' st to view how Fate
                  Playes with our humane state:
So farre from surety here
                  Are all our earthly ioyes,
That what our strong hope buildes, when least wee feare,
                  A stronger power destroyes.

II.

O Fate, why shouldst thou take from K I N G S their ioyes, and treasure ?
          Their image if men should deface
          'Twere death, which thou dost race
                                    Euen at thy pleasure.
Wisedome of holy Kings yet knowes
                  Both what it hath, and owes.
Heau' ns hostage which you bredd
                  And nurst with such choyce care
Is rauisht now great K I N G, and from vs ledd
                  When wee were least aware.

THO. CAMPION

Songs of Mourning:

John Coprario

1613

TO THE MOST SACRED King James

TO THE MOST SACRED
King James