The first is, of William the Conqueror. The second, of Edward III.
(I need not say any thing of the eminency of these two; every one
knows what great things they did.) And making reflection upon the
auspicious birth-day of His Royal Highness the Duke of York, I
adventured upon the following composure. (I cannot be proud of my
poetry; but I cannot but be glad of my Bon Heur, "d'avoir (en lisant)
tombe si fortuement sur les evenements d'un si Bon Jour".)
Ad Illustrissimum & Celsissimum Principem, Jacobum Ducem Eboracensem,
de Natali suo Auspicatissimo Octobris XIV. Anno 1633.
"--Deus
Anna nefasto te posuit die?" Hor. lib. 2. ode 13.
Oct. "Decimo quarto Normannus Haraldum
Dux superavit, & Hinc Regia sceptra tulit.
Tertius Edwardus, capto pernice Caleto,
(Gallica quo Regna sunt resarata sibi)
Ire domum tentans, diris turbinibus actus
In pelago, Vitae magna pericla subit."
Oct. Decimo quarto, tamen appulit Oras
Nativas. (His quam prosperus ille dies !)
Natali laetare tuo, guam Maxime Princeps;
Fausta velut sunt haec, Omnia semper habe."
October's fourteenth gave the Norman Duke
That victory, whence he Englands sceptre took.*
Third Edward, after he had Calais won,
(The mean whereby he France did over-run)
Returning home, by raging tempests tost,
(And near his life (so fortunes) to have lost)+
Arrived safe on shore the self-same date.
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