AN ELEGY Upon the most deplorable death of Prince Henry Eldest son to the King of Bohemia: Who upon the 9th of january last passing to Harlem, most unfortunately perished.  

Eternal Tears, Griefs, that shall never end,  
With murmurs uttered in lamenting verse;  
Sad accents, and such lines that forth may send  
Sounds, such as Widows howl about the hearse  
Of their dead Husbands; words whose force may bend  
Relentless hearts, and flinty bowels pierce:  
Come to my plaints, bring Characters of woe,  
That endless grief, unvalued loss may show.   

Me thinks my hand as with a Fever shakes,  
Which when I to the trembling leaf apply,  
More ghastly white then erst, for grief it quakes,  
And seems with us to have a Sympathy:  
But willingly this mournful die it takes  
Badge of our passions, sorrow's livery,  
Which as it drops from my unsteadfast pen,  
Seems to lament the general loss of men,   

In this young Prince most likely to revive  
The glorious Triumphs of his ancestry;  
This flower of youth, in whom did Nature strive  
With Education for the victory:  
Each seeming Conqueress, so they both did thrive,  
And grew so soon to such an excellency,  
Whom angry Fortune scarcely taught to fear,  
Nor hopes vain breath aloft could ever bear.   

Drenched in the Sea, lest the enamoured Earth  
Love-burnt might chance to prove Trinacrias' loss,  
And from her burning Entrails send a breath  
Like that which comes from Aetna's sulphury fossae;  
Or lest a flower should from his Urn have birth  
That might have power, the power of Fate to cross:  
And like th' immortal Nectar of the sky,  
Enfranchize men to immortality.   

Batavia, rather should thy shores down fall,  
And the fierce waves their ancient Lordship fill;  
Rather should time back summon and recall  
The bloody Actors in thy former ill:  
Rather in former seats should Fate install  
Proud Austria, D'Alva, Parma, Longeville  
In this revenge back to reduce a flood,  
And make where once was Sea, a Sea of blood.   

What profits it though Nereus did resign  
Some of his Kingdom to the Continent,  
When he his general forces did combine,  
And froth-immantled all in rage he went  
Against that strait which Albion did confine,  
Which with his boisterous fury down he rend;  
And broke that Isthmus that did join before  
Our chalky cliffs unto the Belgic shore?   

If like a cruel Lord he doth demand  
Such chief, such duties for the unnatural soil;  
And doth exact a due for barren sand  
Of greater worth than was the richest spoil  
His waves could ever gain, or the bright strand  
Of the fair East, sought with so dangerous toil,  
Did ever vie against the Sun, or gold  
Pactolus streams, or Tagus' sands enfold.   

Rather should braved Iberia keep the Ore  
Brought from the ransacked India's wealthy ground;  
Better our joys were disannulled before  
Report did ever such a prize resound,  
Rather should Holland back again restore  
The riches in that conquered fleet she found,  
Then that it more should hurt when it was gained,  
Then had it in our enemy's hand remained.   

Thus by our gain we lost, our joy's our woe,  
So th' angry heavens our hopes still countermand,  
Our Conquest proves our fatal overthrow;  
The Nerves of war bring weakness to our Land,  
Thus while we most do rise, most down we go,  
Ever residing on the tottering sand  
Of expectation, which each blast doth cross,  
And every gale can turn to greater loss.   

High Providence, could humane wit but sound  
The deep abyssus of thy mysteries:  
How soon should we on Heaven our Comfort ground  
Not on conjectures, possibilities,  
Which then most vain, when trusted most are found  
But broken reeds are all our policies.  
The heaven's will have our hearts, and take away  
Those things the soonst that cause them most to stray.   

Thus both our Henry's soon away did go,  
Shown to the earth, not suffered to remain,  
Now in the Heaven, more bright then ere did show  
Proud Cyllarus riders o'er the liquid plain  
Of the vast Ocean's Empire, Fa●es bestow  
On them by turns to shine upon the main,  
Ours both together glister, jointly live  
To Heaven and Earth their light at once they give.   

Did Silver footed Thetis cause thee dye,  
In thee the Pelian stem to contemplate,  
Or Pallas weary of Virginity,  
T'enjoy thy love compact with envious Fate,  
To bring thee up above the golden sky:  
She worth thy love, thou worthy such a mate,  
And lead thee up, sith all the world denied  
A match for her like thee, thou such a bride!   

Or did those Heroes that in Paradise  
Enjoy those sweets th'enameled plains do yield;  
Or masking in their Robes of greatest prize,  
In gentle ranks pass o'er the flowery field:  
Where every Vale, each mount, each fall, each rise,  
With thousand kinds of rarities is filled:  
Where noiselesse floods do branch the youthful mead,  
Birds sweetly dumb eternal silence lead;   

As hence secure of Fate they cast their eyes  
(Their eyes all seeing, passing all they see)  
In this sweet Prince they view those qualities  
That brought their souls to such felicity,  
When envying us, they with the Fates devise  
To bring him, (worthy of their company)  
Which as they found him, took him strait away:  
Their strong desires admitting no delay.   

Arion, thou hadst power to charm with string  
A fish to bear thee safe unto the shore:  
Can not thy plaints (sweet Prince) have power to bring  
Something amidst the waves to pass thee o'er  
Whose voice was better Music? Did what bore  
So sweet a burden fear abandoning,  
And with the traitorous winds and air agree  
To keep thee still, to deal so cruelly.   

Enjoy sweet Spirit thine eternal rest,  
Our loss, not thine, is cause of this our woe;  
Above the golden spheres live ever blest,  
Possess the Crown the Heavens on thee bestow,  
In stead of earthly diadem; possessed  
By glorious Saints, so mayst thou ever show  
Thy light, not set a feigned Star in sky,  
But placed a Saint in greater dignity.    

This most hopeful young Prince passing with his Father, and some few Attendants to Harlem to view the Plate-fleet lately surprised by the Hollander, being in a small Passage-boat, was ouer-set with a ship of greater burden from Amsterdam. His Father, with two or three Followers were saved by entering ropes cast out of the greater ship, which take't instantly about for their relief. The Prince himself labouring to save his life, attained some height upon the mast of the small vessel that was sunk, where calling for succour, & none coming to his aid, he was for some space heard crying: from which part of the ship the next morning they took him starved and frozen to death, whose corpses his Father brought to the Court the day following, being for the circumstance of his death, as well as for his hopeful parts infinitely lamented.  
FINIS.  
R. ABBEY.   

LONDON, Printed for Richard Roystore. 1629.