A Chain of Pearl, or a Memorial of the peerless Graces, and heroic Virtues of Queen Elizabeth, of glorious memory, composed by the noble lady, Diana Primrose, London, 1630,-is a tract of twelve pages. The Pearls which form the Chain are, the Religion, Chastity, Prudence, Temperance, Clemency, Justice, Fortitude, Science, Patience, and Bounty of her majesty.
THE golden bridle of Bellerophon
Is Temperance, by which our Passion
And Appetite we conquer and subdue
To Reason's regiment; else may we rue
Our yielding to men's siren-blandishments,
Which are attended with so foul events.
This Pearl in her was so conspicuous,
As that the king her brother still did use
To style her his sweet sister Temperance;
By which her much-admired self-governance,
Her Passions still she check'd; and still she made
The world astonish'd, that so undismay'd
She did with equal tenor still proceed
In one fair course, not shaken as a reed;
But built upon the rock of Temperance:
Not daz'd with fear, not maz'd with any chance;
Not with vain hope (as with an empty spoon)
Fed or allur'd to cast beyond the moon:
Not with rash anger too precipitate,
Not fond to love, nor too too prone to hate:
Not charm'd with Parasites, or Sirens' songs
Whose hearts are poison'd, though their sugred
tongues
Swear, vow, and promise all fidelity,
When they are brewing deepest villainy.
Not led to vain or too profuse expence,
Pretending thereby state-magnificence:
Not spending on these momentary pleasures
Her precious time; but deeming her best treasures
Her subjects' love, which she so well preserv'd
By sweet and mild demeanour, as it serv'd
To guard her surer than an army royal;
So true their loves were to her, and so loyal:
O golden age! O blest and happy years!
O music sweeter than that of the spheres!
When Prince and People mutually agree
In sacred concord, and sweet symphony!
AMONG the virtues intellectual
The van is led by that we Science call;
A Pearl more precious than th' Egyptian queen
Quaft off to Anthony: of more esteem
Than Indian gold, or most resplendent gems,
Which ravish us with their translucent beams.
How many arts and sciences did deck
This Heroina! who still had at beck
The Muses and the Graces, when that she
Gave audience in state and majesty:
Then did the goddess Eloquence inspire
Her royal breast: Apollo with his lyre
Ne'er made such music; on her sacred lips
Angels enthron'd, most heavenly manna sips.
Then might you see her nectar-flowing vein
Surround the hearers: in which sugred stream
She able was to drown a world of men,
And drown'd, with sweetness to revive again.
Alasco, the embassador Polonian,
Who perorated like a mere Slavonian,
And in rude rambling Rhetoric did roll,
She did with Attic eloquence control.
Her speeches to our Academians
Well shew'd she knew among Athenians,
How to deliver such well-tuned words
As with such places punctually accords.
But with what Oratory-ravishments
Did she imparadise her Parliaments?
Her last most princely speech doth verify,
How highly she did England dignify.
Her loyal Commons how did she embrace,
And entertain with a most royal grace!*
To the Chain of Pearl are prefixed the following
To the excellent Lady, the Composer of this Work.
Shine forth (Diana), dart thy golden rays
On her blest life and reign, whose noble praise
Deserves a quill pluckt from an angel's wing,
And none to write it but a crowned king.
She, she it was, that gave us golden days,
And did the English name to heaven raise:
Blest be her name, blest be her memory,
That England crown'd with such felicity!
And thou the Prime-rose of the Muses nine,
(In whose sweet verse Eliza's fame doth shine
Like some resplendent star in frosty night,)
Hast made thy native splendor far more bright;
Since all thy Pearls are peerless-orient
And to thyself a precious ornament.
This is my censure of thy Royal Chain,
Which a far better censure well may claim.
Note. The poor play on words in the thirteenth line
appears less forced in the old orthography;
Since all thy Pearles are peerles-orient.
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