Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

Psalme LXXII

VI. Sir Philip Sidney and the Countess of Pembroke

TEACH the king’s sonne, who king hym self shall be,

Thy judgmentes, Lord, thy justice make hym learn;

To rule thy realme as justice shall decree,

And poore men’s right in judgment to discern.

Then fearelesse peace

With rich encrease

The mountaynes proud shall fill:

And justice shall

Make plenty fall

On ev’ry humble hill.

Make him the weake support, th’ opprest relieve,

Supply the poore, the quarrell-pickers quaile:

So ageless ages shall thee reverence give,

Till eyes of heav’n, the sun and moone, shall faile.

And thou againe

Shalt blessings rayne,

Which down shall mildly flow,

As showres thrown

On meades new mown

Wherby they freshly grow.

During his rule the just shall ay be greene,

And peacefull plenty joine with plenteous peace;

While of sad night the many-formed queene

Decreas’d shall grow, and grown, again decrease.

From sea to sea

He shall survey

All kingdoms as his own;

And from the trace

Of Perah’s race,

As far as land is known.

The desert-dwellers at his beck shall bend,

His foes them suppliant at his feete shall fling:

The kinges of Tharsis homage guifts shall send;

So Seba, Saba, ev’ry island king.

Nay all, ev’n all

Shall prostrate fall,

That crownes and scepters weare;

And all that stand

At their command,

That crownes and scepters beare.

For he shall heare the poore when they complaine,

And lend them help, who helplesse are opprest:

His mercy shall the needy sort sustaine;

His force shall free their lives that live distrest.

From hidden sleight,

From open might,

Hee shall their soules redeeme:

His tender eyes

Shall highly prise,

And deare their bloud esteeme.

So shall he long, so shall he happy live;

Health shall abound, and wealth shall never want:

They gold to hym, Arabia gold shall give,

Which scantnes deare, and dearenes maketh scant.

They still shall pray

That still he may

So live, and flourish so:

Without his praise

No nights, no daies,

Shall pasport have to go.

Looke how the woods, where enterlaced trees

Spread frendly armes each other to embrace,

Joyne at the head, though distant at the knees,

Waving with wind, and lording on the place:

So woods of corne

By mountaynes borne

Shall on their shoulders wave:

And men shall passe

The numerous grasse;

Such store each town shall have.

Looke how the sunne, so shall his name remayne;

As that in light, so this in glory one:

All glories this, as that all lights, shall stayne:

Nor that shall faile, nor this be overthrowne.

The dwellers all

Of earthly ball

In hym shall hold them blest:

As one that is

Of perfect blisse

A patterne to the rest.

O God who art, from whom all beings be;

Eternall Lord, whom Jacob’s stock adore,

And wondrous works are done by only thee,

Blessed be thou, most blessed evermore.

And lett thy name,

Thy glorious fame,

No end of blessing know:

Lett all this round

Thy honor sound:

So, Lord, O be it so!