Francis Blomefield

“ The proofs I speak by us have oft been seen, The proofs I speak to thee are not unknown, Thy God thou know'st most dread and sovereign Queen, A world of foes of thine hath overthrown, And hither now triumphantly doth call Thy noble grace, the comfort of us all.
Dost thou not see the joy of all this flock? Vouchsafe to view their passing gladsome chear, Be still (good Queen) their refuge and their rock, As they are thine to serve in love and fear: So fraud nor force, nor foreign foe may stand Against the strength of thy most puissant hand. ”

“ For as the Queen's Highness was appointed to come unto her coach, and the lords and courtiers were ready to mount on horseback, there fell such a shower of rain (and in the neck thereof came such a terrible thunder) that every one of us were driven to seek for covert and most comfort, insomuch that some of us in boat stood under a bridge, and were all so dashed and washed, that it was a greater pastime to see us look like drowned rats, than to have beheld the uttermost of the shews rehearsed. ”

“ Which homage, mighty Queen, accept, The realm and right is thine, The crown, the scepter, and the sword, To thee we do resign, And wish to God, that thou mayest reign, Twice Nestor's years in peace, Triumphing over all thy foes, To all our joys increase. ”

“ It seemeth strange to see such strangers here, Yet not so strange but strangers know you well, Your vertuous thoughts to gods do plain appear, Your acts on earth bewray how you excel: You cannot die, love here hath made your lease, Which gods have sent, and God saith shall not cease.
Vertuous desire desired me to sing, No subjects suit, tho' suitors they were all, Apollo's gilts are subject to no king, Rare are thy gifts that did Apollo call, Then still rejoice sith god and man say so, This is my gift, thou never shalt have woe. ”

“ Farewell O Queen, farewell O mother dear, Let Jacob's God thy sacred body guard: All is thine own that is possessed here, And all in all is but a small reward.
For thy great grace, God length thy life like Noy, To govern us, and eke thy realm in joy. ”

“ The Mayor's Oration to the Queen, Englished.
If our wish should be granted unto us by the Almighty, what humane thing we would chiefly detire: we would account nothing more precious (most royal Prince) than that the bright beam of your most chaste eye which doth so chear us, might peirce the secret and strait corners of our hearts. ”

“ Our grace or foile doth in your judgement lye, If you mislike, our griefs do grow on heap: If for small things we do great favour find, Great is the joy that Norwich feels this day: If well we weigh'd the greatness of your mind, Few words would serve, we had but small to say.
But knowing that your goodness takes things well, That well are meant, we boldly did proceed: And so, good Queen, both welcome and farewell, Thy own we are, in heart, in word, in deed.
The boy thereupon flung up his garland, and the Queen's Highness said, This devise is fine. ”

“ And tho', O Queen, thou be'st a Prince of peace, Yet shalt thou have me fastly sure at need, The storms of strife, and blustering broils to cease, Which forreign foes or faithless friends may breed, To conquer, kill, to vanquish and subdue, Such feigned folk as love, to live untrue. ”

“ The fretting heads of furious foes have skill, As well by fraud, as force to find their prey, In smiling looks doth lurk a lot as ill, As where both sterne and sturdy streams do sway, Thy self, O Queen, a proof hast seen of this, So well as I poor Hester have I wis. ”

“ The which we hope will be so much the more acceptable to your Majesty, because the goodness of God towards your Majesty is most lively drawn out of the history of the innocent and most godly Joseph, whom neither policy nor desire of bearing rule, but constant faith, godliness of a Christian heart, and heavenly vertue by God's singular mercy delivered from the bloody conspiracy of his bretheren and fear of death, brought unto high dignity and royall kingdom. ”

“ Thus you see, a shew in the open field, is always subject to the sudden change of weather, and a number of more inconveniences. But what should be said of that which the city lost by this cause, velvets, silks, tinsels, and some cloth of gold, being cut out for these purposes, that could not serve to any great effect after? Well there was no more to say but an old adage, that man doth purpose, but God doth dispose, to whose disposition and pleasure the guide of great matters is committed. ”

“ Whom as he acknowledgeth the vessels of his mercy, so by his goodness together with the consolation and strength of his spirit, he doth bring them to the happiness of eternal life. Which our petition that good and merciful God grant may be ratified, in establishing your Majesty and governance of your kingdom with spiritual wisdom and understanding, in preserving the same full many years, and induing your Majesty's subjects more and more with true knowledge of him, for his Son's sake, our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. ”

“ In lieu whereof, receive thy subjects hearts, In fixed faith continually thine own: Who ready rest to loose their vital parts, In thy defence, when any blast is blown, Thou art our Queen, our rock and only stay, We are thine own to serve by night and day. ”

“ And therewithall the black infernal spreets, Ran out of hell, the earth so trembling then, And like young lads they hop'd about the streets, The satirs wild, in forme and shape of man, Crept thro' the woods, and thickets full of briars, The water nymphs and fraries straight appears, In uncouth forms and fashions strange to view:
The hags of hell that hatefull are of kind, To please the time had learned a nature new, And all those things that men can call to mind, Were glad to come and do their duty thro'. ”

“ We therefore (according to our bounden duty) first give thanks unto God Almighty, unto whose goodness only with thanks we refer all this our happiness, how great soever it be, and pray that he would vouchsafe to make the same proper and perpetual unto us. And afterwards unto your Highness (O most gracious Queen) by whose study, care and diligence we confess this blessedness to be gotten, and so many years preserved unto us. We are glad in this beholding you, and we rejoice with desire more than may be believed, so also all your subjects of Norwich desire me to say the same in their behalf. ”

“ The first was the city of Norwich; the second Debora; the third Judith; the fourth Hester; the fifth Martia, sometime Queen of England. At the first sight of the Prince, and till her Majesty's coming to the pageant, the musicians used their loud musick, and then ceased; wherewith her Highness staid, to whom the personages representing the city of Norwich, did speak in these words,
Whom fame resounds with thund'ring trump, That rends the ratling skies, And peirceth to the haughty heavens, And thence descending flies, Through flickering air ”

“ God hath indued us abundantly, we come not therefore but for that which in right is our own, the hearts and true allegiance of our subjects, which are the greatest riches of our kingdom; whereof, as we assure ourselves in you, so do you assure yourselves in us of a loving and gracious Sovereign. Wherewith was delivered to the mayor, a mace or scepter, which he carried before her to her lodging, which was in the Bishop of Norwich his palace, about two miles distant from that place. ”

“ If the mayor sends any scholar unfit to be admitted, the college shall certify their refusal of him, but must have him examined first by the proctors, who must also declare his unfitness, and no scholarship shall be longer vacant than six weeks; the fellows to have two weeks to certify, and the city to have a month to elect and send up such scholars, and the profits in the vacancies to go to the naperye of the college common table, and no scholar is to absent himself in visiting his friends more than a month in a year, and that with the license of the master or president. ”

“ All the faith, study, and obedience, which are due to so great a Prince, as hitherto we have most willingly imployed, so will we always most diligently perform the same; and if at any time any chance should happen (which fortune, God turn from us) that the state of thy blessed Majesty, or of this flourishing realm should come in danger, or the worthiness thereof be in hazard, we do not only profess the effusion of all our goods and substance, but also the putting forth and brunt of our strengths and bodies therein. ”

“ This Hospital of poor men is most famous, which will be a monument of princely vertue and beneficence amongst all posterity, instituted by the most mighty King Henry your Highness's father, confirmed with the great seal by the most noble King Edward your brother, but by your Majesty, which deserveth no less praise, of late notably increased and amplified by the lands and possessions of Cringleford, that you may not now worthily rejoice so much in other's ornaments, as in your own vertues. ”

“ Such a Lord is our great God, that can frame all things to the best, and such a sovereign Lady we have, that can make the crooked paths streight where she cometh, and draw the hearts of the people after her wheresoever she travelleth. So from Master Revet's her Highness came to my Lord North's, who was no whit behind any of the best for a frank house, a noble heart, and weil ordered entertainment. And there was an oration made by a gentleman of Cambridge, with a stately and a fair cup presented from the University, all the ambassadors of France beholding the same. ”

“ The coach that Mercury came in unto the Queen, was closely kept in secret a long season, and when the time came it must pass towards the court, it had a trumpeter with it, and the coachman was made to drive so fast, as the horses should seem to fly; which was so well observed, as the people wondered at the swiftness thereof, and followed it in such flocks and multitudes, that scarce in a great green (where the preaching place is) might be found room for any more people. ”

“ Where Princes sitting in their thrones, Set God before their sight, And live according to his law, And guide their people right, There doth his blessed gifts abound, There kingdoms firmly stand, There force of foes cannot prevail, Nor fury fret the land. ”

“ But now to speak a little by the way of God's mighty hand and power, that framed men's hearts so well in many parts, before the Queen's Highness came to Cambridgeshire, and to tell how blessedly our great and good God did deal with our dear and sovereign Lady, in causing every person to shew their duty, is a matter of great discourse, and of no little weight and comfort to all good minds that shall consider of the same. ”

“ The other six pounds of the annuity, is to found two other Norwich scholarships, which scholars are to be named by the mayor and majority of the aldermen, out of any of the schools in the city of Norwich, to be qualified in like manner as the other three Norwich scholars, and to be subject in all things as they are, except that if there be no such scholars within the said city meet to be sent to college from time to time, as the rooms are void, that then they shall nominate the said scholar or scholars, first, out of the grammar school at Windham ”

“ For these thy singular benefits of godliness towards us, and that we live under so good a tutor, as the magistrate in this thy city of Norwich, which thy Majesty hath of clemency granted unto us for a mansion place, which were banished for Christ's religion: and moreover for that we find the minds of the people favourable towards us, first we give immortall thanks, not such as we ought, but such as we are able unto God the father, and the Lord our only Saviour Jesus Christ: and then unto thee most mercifull Queen. ”

“ Give thine, whilst thine they are, for when once dead, They then arn't thine, for you from them art fled; Another owner now supplies thy place, Who says' tis his, no thine, as once it was, Use time and do much good, whilst time is thine, In future ages then, thy name will shine. ”

“ Thus when they had once marched about the chamber, Mercury dischargeth his message in these words to the Queen; the good meaning Mayor and all his bretheren, with the rest, have not rested from praying unto the gods to prosper thy coming hither; and the gods themselves moved by their unfeigned prayers, are ready in person to bid thee worthily welcome; and I Mercury the god of merchants and merchandise, and therefore a favourer of the Citizens, being thought meetest am chosen fittest to signify the same. ”

“ The other side called for their friends, at the which stir should appear both their strengths; but good Fortune should far in power exceed his enemies. And yet to shew that destiny (and who best can conquer) shall governe all, Fortune should make an offer, that six to six with sword and target, should end the brawll and business. ”

“ In 1578, the City was acquainted that her Majesty designed a progress through Norfolk and Suffolk, and to visit this city; upon which, at a court held on the 20th of June, the houses, streets, and lanes, were ordered to be repaired and beautified: and the mayor sent letters to the mayors of Lyn, Yarmouth, &c. to desire them to send workmen to assist, who should be well paid for their journeys and work: the cross in the market was painted, the posts in timber colour, and the rest white ”