LIX. Edward Hake. Stanzas from "The Commemoration." Edward Farr, ed. 1845. Select Poetry, Chiefly Devotional, of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth

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Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1845.

Stanzas from “The Commemoration”

LIX. Edward Hake


NOW 1 blessed be these dayes of thine;
Thrise blessed be our God,
By whom our Queene Elizabeth
Those vertuous steppes hath trod.

Not force of fleshe hath held her vp,	5
Not sharp devise of man:
Not crafte, not skill, not worldly thrifte,
Her blessed state began.

Before her raigne bereft of peace,
Bereft of outwarde joy;	10
Pursued to death by Romishe beastes,
Still seeking her annoy:

Whose foamy, frothy, murthrous jawes,
With stomacks stuft with guile,
Each day devised her grace’s death,	15
And sacred state to foyle.

Whom high Jehove preserved hath,
In spite of Sathan’s rage,
To live a queen in blessed peace,
To lyve an happy age. * * * * *	20
No drift, devise, no devill’s deede,
No falshood fetcht from hell,
Hath yet tane place: in safetie yet
Her noble grace doth dwell.

Thine hand, Jehove, hath found them out;	25
Thine owne right hand hath brought
Each darke deuise to open view,
And treason’s guile to nought.

Thine hand hath held her kingdome fast;
Thine owne right hand hath stay’d	30
The running rage of rancour bent,
And made her foes afrayde.

Of wisdome hast thou lent her store,
To guide thy folke aright:
What giftes of grace have princes more	35
Obtayned in thy sight?

Graue counsaile. guiding all by truth,
Thou, Lorde, with her hast plaste:
Whose careful workes for commonwealth
Can never be defaste.	40

Note 1. LIX. Edward Hake.—He was educated under John Hopkins, the metrical associate of Sternhold, and afterwards became an attorney in the Common Pleas. He was the author of several prose and poetical works, and among others the following, from which the specimens of his poetry are derived. 1. “Newes out of St. Powle’s Churchyard.” 2. “A Commemoration of the most prosperous and peaceable Raigne of our gratious and deere Soueraigne, Lady Elizabeth, by the grace of God, of England, Fraunce, and Irelande, Queene, etc. now newly set foorth this xviii day of Nouember, beying the first day of the xviii yeere of her Majestie’s sayd raigne, 1575.” 3. “Of Gold’s Kingdome and this vnhelping age. Described in sundry poems intermixedly placed after certaine other poems of more speciall respect, etc.” 1604. [back]

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