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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=346126" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Story Of Ill May Day, In The Reign Of King Henry VIII</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Story of Ill May Day, in the reign of king Henry the Eighth, and why it was so called; and how Queen Katherine begged the lives of two thousand London Apprentices. -- To the Tune of Essex Good Night.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Peruse the stories of this land, <br>And with advisement mark the same,<br>And you shall justly understand<br>How Ill May Day first got the name.<br>For when king Henry th' eighth did reign<br>And rul'd our famous kingdom here,<br>His royal queen he had from Spain,<br>With whom he liv'd full many a year.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Queen Katherine nam'd, as stories tell,<br>Some time his elder brother's wife;<br>By which unlawful marriage fell<br>An endless trouble during life:<br>Of his fair queen, and of her friends,<br>Which being by Spain and France perceiv'd,<br>Their journeys fast for England bends.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And with good leave were suffered<br>Within our kingdom here to stay,<br>Which multitude made victuals dear,<br>And all things else from day to day;<br>For strangers then did so increase,<br>And privileg'd in many a place<br>To dwell, as was in London seen.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Poor tradesmen had small dealing then,<br>And who but strangers bore the bell?<br>Which was a grief to English men,<br>To see them here in London dwell:<br>Wherefore (God-wot) upon May-eve,<br>The 'prentices a-maying went,<br>Who made the magistrates believe,<br>At all to have no other intent:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But such a May-game it was known,<br>As like in London never were;<br>For by the same full many a one<br>With loss of life did pay full dear:<br>For thousands came with Bilboe blade,<br>As with an army they could meet,<br>And such a bloody slaughter made<br>Of foreign strangers in the street,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">That all the channels ran with blood.<br>In every street where they remain'd;<br>Yea, every one in danger stood,<br>That any of their part maintain'd:<br>The rich, the poor, the old, the young,<br>By 'prentices they suffer'd wrong,<br>When armed thus they gather'd head.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Such multitudes together went,<br>No warlike troops could them withstand,<br>Nor could by policy prevent,<br>What they by force thus took in hand:<br>Till, at the last, king Henry's power<br>This multitude encompass'd round,<br>Where, with the strength of London's tower,<br>They were by force suppress'd and bound.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And hundreds hang'd by martial law,<br>On sign-posts at their masters' doors,<br>By which the rest were kept in awe,<br>And frighted from such loud uproars;<br>And others which the fact repented<br>(Two thousand 'prentices at least)<br>Were all unto the king presented,<br>As mayor and magistrates thought best.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With two and two together tied,<br>Through Temple-bar and Strand they go,<br>To Westminster, there to be tried,<br>With ropes about their necks also:<br>But such a cry in every street,<br>Till then was never heard or known,<br>By mothers for their children sweet,<br>Unhappily thus overthrown;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Whose bitter moans and sad laments,<br>Possess'd the court with trembling fear;<br>Whereat the queen herself relents,<br>Though it concern'd her country dear:<br>What if (quoth she) by Spanish blood,<br>Have London's stately streets been wet,<br>Yet will I seek this country's good,<br>And pardon for these young men get;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Or else the world will speak of me,<br>And say queen Katherine was unkind,<br>And judge me still the cause to be,<br>These young men did these fortunes find:<br>And so, disrob'd from rich attires,<br>With hair hang'd down, she sadly hies,<br>And of her gracious lord requires<br>A boon, which hardly he denies.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The lives (quoth she) of all the blooms<br>Yet budding green, these youths I crave;<br>O let them not have timeless tombs,<br>For nature longer limits gave:<br>In saying so, the pearled tears<br>Fell trickling from her princely eyes;<br>Whereat his gentle queen he cheers,<br>And says, stand up, sweet lady, rise;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The lives of them I freely give,<br>No means this kindness shall debar,<br>Thou hast thy boon, and they may live<br>To serve me in my Bullen war.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">No sooner was this pardon given,<br>But peals of joy rung through the halls,<br>As though it thundered down from heaven,<br>The queen's renown amongst them all.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For which (kind queen) with joyful heart,<br>She gave to them both thanks and praise,<br>And so from them did gently part,<br>And lived beloved all her days:<br>And when king Henry stood in need<br>Of trusty soldiers at command,<br>These 'prentices prov'd men indeed,<br>And fear'd no force of warlike band.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For, at the siege of Tours, in France,<br>They show'd themselves brave Englishmen;<br>At Bullen, too, they did advance<br>Saint George's ancient standard then;<br>Lest Tourine, Tournay, and those towns<br>That good king Henry nobly won,<br>Tell London's 'prentices' renowns,<br>And of their deeds by them there done.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For Ill May-day, and Ill May-games,<br>Perform'd in young and tender days,<br>can be no hindrance to their fames,<br>But now it is ordain'd by law,<br>We see on May-day's eve, at night,<br>To keep unruly youths in awe,<br>By London's watch, in armour bright</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Still prevent the like misdeed,<br>Which once through headstrong young men came:<br>And that's the cause that I do read,<br>May-day doth get so ill a name.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Anonymous+Olde+English">Anonymous Olde English</a><div class=q>
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