An English Garner
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An English Garner Volume 2 Page 52
Nicholas Udall. English Verses and Ditties at the Coronation Procession of Queen Anne Boleyn. [Royal MS. 18. A. Lxiv.]
At the Pageant representing the Progeny of Saint ANNE, exhibited at Cornhill, besides Leadenhall.
Were pronounced unto the Queen's Grace, these words following.
Most excellent Queen, and bounteous Lady !
Here now to see your gracious Goodness,
With such honour entering this City ;
What joy we take, what hearty gladness, No pen may write, nor any tongue express! For of you, depend the sure felicity And hope, both of us and our posterity.
For like as from this devout Saint ANNE
Issued this holy generation,
First CHRIST, to redeem the soul of man ;
Then JAMES th'apostle, and th'evangelist JOHN ;
With these others, which in such fashion
By teaching and good life, our faith confirmed,
That from that time yet to, it hath not failed:
Right so, dear Lady ! our Queen most excellent !
Highly endued with all gifts of grace,
As by your living is well apparent ;
We, the Citizens, by you, in short space,
Hope such issue and descent to purchase ;
Whereby the same faith shall be defended,
And this City from all dangers preserved.
Which time that we may right shortly see,
To our great comfort, joy and solace ;
Grant the most high and blessed Trinity !
Most humbly beseeching your noble Grace,
Our rude simpleness showed in this place To pardon ;
and, the brief time considering,
To esteem our good minds, and not the thing.
This spoken, opened a cloud, and let down a White Falcon, in the descending of which was pronounced, as followeth :
By Another Child.
BEHOLD and see the Falcon White !
How she beginneth her wings to spread,
And for our comfort to take her flight.
But where will she cease, as you do read ?
A rare sight ! and yet to be joyed,
On the Rose ; chief flower that ever was,
This bird to 'light, that all birds doth pass !
Then out of the same cloud descended an Angel, and crowned the same Falcon with a Crown Imperial : at which doing, was pronounced as followeth :
By Another Child.
Honour and grace be to our Queen ANNE ! For whose cause an Angel celestial Descendeth, the Falcon as white as swan, To crown with a Diadem Imperial ! In her honour rejoice we all. For it cometh from GOD, and not of man. Honour and grace be to our Queen ANNE !
Letters and Papers 1533. 31 May 1533. R. MS. 18, A. LXIV. B. M. 564. Queen Anne Boleyn.
Verses composed by Nic. Udall, and spoken at the pageants in Cornhill, Leadenhall, and Cheapside, at queen Anne's procession through the city.
"Hereafter ensueth a copy of divers and sundry verses, as well in Latin as in English1, devised and made partly by John Leland, and partly by Nicholas Vuedale, whereof some were set up and some other were spoken and pronounced unto the most high and excellent Queen the lady Anne, wife unto our sovereign lord king Henry the Eight, in many goodly and costely pageants exhibited and showed by the mayor and citizens of the famous city of London at such time as her Grace rode from the Tower of London through the said city to her most glorious coronation at the monastery of Westminster, on Whitson eve in the xxvth year of the reign of our said sovereign lord." Latin and English, pp. 29. Endorsement pasted on: Versis and dities made at the coronation of Quene Anne.
Note 1. Several of the English verses are printed by Arber in his "English Garner," ii. 52.