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FROM HENRY VII. TO MARY. |
9.5 |
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Which when the brave archbishop bold . Of Canterbury knew, The abbot of Saint Augustines eke, With all their gallant crew,
They set themselves iu armour bright,
These mischiefs to prevent, With all the yeomen brave and bold
That were in fruitful Kent.
At Canterbury did they meet s
Upon a certain day, With sword and spear, with bill and bow,
And stopt the conqueror's way.
Let us not live like bond-men poor To Frenchmen in their pride,
But keep our ancient liberty, What chance so e'er betide,
And rather die in bloody field, In manlike courage prest (ready),
Than toendure the servile yoke, Which we so much detest.
Thus did the Kentish commons cry
Unto their leaders still, And so march'd forth in warlike sort,
And stand at Swanscomb hill:
Where in the woods they hid themselves,
Under the shady green, Thereby to get them vantage good,
Of all their foes unseen.
And for the conqueror's coming there,
They privily laid wait, And thereby suddenly appal'd
His lofty high conceit;
For when they spied his approach,
In place as they did stand, Then marched they, to hem hiin in,
Each one. a bough in hand,
So that unto the conqueror's sight, .
Amazed as he stood, They seem'd to be a walking grove,
Or else a moving wood. |
The shape of men he could not see, The boughs did hide them so :
And now his heart for fear did quake, To see a forest go;
Before, behind, and on each side,
As he did cast his eye, He spied those woods with sober pace
Approach to him full nigh :
But when the Kentish-men had thus Enclos'd the conqueror round,
Most suddenly they drew their swords, And threw the boughs to ground ;
Their banners they display'd in sight, Their trumpets sound a charge,
Their rattling drums strike up alarms, Their troops stretch out at large.
The conqueror, and all his train,
Were hereat sore aghast, And most in peril, when they thought
All peril had been past.
Unto the Kentish men he sent,
The cause to understand, For what intent, and for what cause,
They took this war in hand ;
To whom they made this short reply,
For liberty we fight, And to enjoy king Edward's laws,
The which we hold our right.
Then said the dreadful conqueror, You shall have what you will,
Your ancient customs and your laws, So that you will be still:
And each thing else that you will crave
With reason, at my hand, So you will but acknowledge me
Chief king of fair England.
The Kentish men agreed thereon,
And laid their arms aside, And by this means king Edward's laws
In Kent do still abide ; |
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And in no place in England else
These customs do remain, Which they by manly policy
Did of duke William gain.
TUKKEYLONEY. The figure of the dance called Turkeyloney is described with others in a manuÂscript in the Bodleian Library (MS. Eawl. Poet. 108), which was written about 1570. Stephen Gosson, in his Sclwole of Abuse, containing a pleasant Invective against Poets, Pipers, Players, Jesters, &c, 1579, alludes to the tune as one of |
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