THE fatal NVPTIALL: OR, MOURNEFULL MARRIAGE.  
Relating, The heavy and lamentable Accident lately occurring, by the drowning of 47. persons, and some of those of especial quality, in the water of Windermere, in the NORTH. October 19: 1635.  — Nova piscibus urna parata est. 
LONDON, Imprinted by Felix Kyngston, and are to be sold by Robert Bostocke, at the Kings head in Pauls Churchyard. 1636.   

 a skull with wings 
SPES ADDIDIT ALAS.  A PREAMBLE, OR INTRODUCTION to this funeral poem.  
FOR the quality of grief, none knows it, but he who hath experimentally and personally felt it. That Place, which hath hitherto been secured from the least peril, you sh●ll now see personated a spectacle of Sorrow: where those, who vowed in a Sacred and Christian manner, their vows to Hymen, the sovereign of nuptials, are now with Tethis to close in wat'ry funerals. The occasion of these sad Obits proceeded from a Marriage and a Market day, which begot to the Attendants a mournful night; yet from that Night( such was their assured expectance, and our undoubted affiance) a happy day. The place, where these drenched souls were to take boat, was that famous and renowned more of Windermere; a more no less eminent and genero●sly known for her Sole-breeding, and peculiar kind of fishes( commonly called Chares) as for those windy and labyrinthian mazes, with those curiously shaded, beauteo●sly tufted, naturally fortifide, and impregnably seated islands in every part of the more interveined. To relate the several w●ndings of it, or more historically to describe it, were fruitless, being already explained by a genuine and learned Relater. 
Cambd. in Brit.  To divert then from the Place, to the sad occasion of this Action, thus I proceed.  
Windermere, or Winandermere, streaming, or rather staying in a continuate Tract or channel, without any visible or apparent Current, and dividing the Counties of Westmerland and Lancashire, hath ever constantly kept a Boat for Passengers; especially those Inhabitants as remain or reside in the Barronry of kendal,( a place to her honour, anciently famous for Commerce and industrious Manufacture) a● all others, who may have occasion to address their course by that passage, to the Market of Haukeside, 
The Charter of which Market was procured by that industrious Agen● for his country, m. All●n Ni●holso●.  or o●her places adjoining. To this Boat, upon a nuptial but fatal occasion, sundry Passengers, and these all Inhabitants within the Barronry of kendal,( a Burroug● as I formerly observed, highly eminent, by having such near relation and general correspondence with most places of trade or traffic in this kingdom) repaired; hoping with a safe and secure gale to arrive, where no peril had ever yet approached. The Boat they entered, securely confident, with 47. in number, besides other carriages and horses, which( together with the roughness of the water,& extremity of weather) occasioned this inevitable dange●.  
launched had these scarcely to the medth of the water, being scantly a mile broad, but the Boat, either through the pressure and weight which surcharg'd her, or some violent and impetuous winds and waves that surprised her, with all her people, became drenched in the depths. 
Undae sunt ossibus urnae.  No succour, no relief afforded, for Gods definite Will had so decreed: So as, not one person of all the number was saved: Amongst which, the Brides Mother, and her Brother in this liquid regiment, equally perished.  
To aggravate the quality of this Accident, I need not; an imaginary representment of sorrow is sufficient to itself. Onely, let me rear before your eyes this Theatre; on which you are not to expect ought from this Tyringhouse of heaviness, but Scenes of passion and disconsolate anguish.  
Many of these left Wives without Husbands, other● Husbands without Wives; most of these, Children without Fathers or Mothers. Estates they had, but indisposed; because in such a moment of time prevented, as wherein they stood most secured, soonest abridged.  
What a fatal nuptial was this? when those nuptial ribbons and sprigges of Rosemary, which were given as favours for a nuptial, became Rosemary sprigges to adorn their funeral?  
What an emblem of Mortality may man see in himself, in this image of himself? A Navigator is not to be secure in three inches, nor man of his life, which is but a span. How secure were these in their temperate mirth; and with what a calm Convoy they expected to arrive at their Port? If we should consider those billows, wherewith we are daily and hourly encountered: those perilous passages, whereto we are exposed: with the difficulty of the Haven, at which we are to be landed, wee would constantly tremble, and stand in fear, least every wave, every worldly care, should endanger our shipwreck.  
What loving associates were these to Hymen? what conjugal consorts to a festive nuptial? yet see the close of their marriage melody, drown itself in a wat'ry Lachrymae! What then on Earth is here constant? or where in ought may wee be confident? A merry Evening makes an heavy Morning: and a glad going out, a sad returning. Sad to their friends, but cheerful to their dearest souls; which have called from the Depths, and are ●ssuredly heard.  

●o ●s this might bee their proper impreze:" Mergimur immersi, rapida sub gurgite tui●:" Per mere, per terras, Semita recta bonis.  It is a good Prayer, to deliver us from sudden Death; yet there is no sudden Death to them that die well. Gods mercy is betwixt the bridge and the brink; Nor are wee to despair of their help, who in God repose their sole hope. Abyssus abyssum invocat: These in the depth of their misery, called upon the depth of Gods mercy: and though they could not reach to land with the hand of their body; they reached with their hand of faith to the Haven of Glory. As no man valves the place of his Birth, so is he not to disvalue the place of his Death. Wee have a sacred President; to whom neither place of Birth nor Death became an Ornament.  
Wee are here to pass the waters of tribulation; our barks are weak, our passage dangerous: Shelves wee have full of peril; presumption to transport us, despair to deject us. If wee surcharge our vessel, what may wee expect but drowning? if wee ballase it not enough, what may wee look for but floating? Wee have an Anchor; it is our Saviour: wee cannot fail, if through him wee suffer. he, who can command the winds and the Sea●, will wast us o'er these troublesone Seas, and conduct us to the Port of rest.  
It is true, that while wee are here embarked, there is no security; merchant venturers wee are all, hazarding our state, stock and store in crazy and leeking vessels. Wee hicker with waves, storms and tempests: even our own dissorting passions; which like so many billows, mutiny in us, and threaten shipwreck. 
Hor.  Neptunum procul à terra; wee eye, and eyeing, sigh for our Haven.  
poor Sea-fairing souls, what a do wee make with our distempered Motions,( which to use the w●rds of that Divine Father) swarm like so many Bees about us; 
Basil.  and while they sting us, wee hold them dear unto us!  
environed wee are with danger on the main; and perillou● Sands and Shelv's oppose us in our landing. Though the Course of our Navigation be passing short; the continued Current of our dangerous passage appears long.  
We account him foolishly merry, and insensible of peril, who, when the winds rage, the Waves rise,& nothing but fear and horror become Objects to the weakened Ship, carrouseth and drinks healths to the wind, as One secure of his approaching sate. And what less do wee, when in these weak barks of our Bodies, wee expose ourselves to all sensual pleasures, as if wee were a shore and secure from danger, when wee are surrounded with peril, and for●e divided from our Harbour?  
The Philosophers question implied a Divine moral: Quanta spissitudo navium? 
Anach.  4. digitorum. And that Sacred Light of the oriental Church might seem to answer this, 
Aug.  no less positively then pithily: trees cubiti terrae te expectant.  

Arist.  That surviving glory of Stagyrus reports, that about the River Hypanis, which runneth through a part of Europe into the Sea Pontus, are bread certain beasts which live but one day; and surely, if wee should compare this straite confined limit or period of our age with immortality,( the souls sole-harbour after her disbarking from this Sea of misery) we shall be found in regard of our frailty every way as transi●o●y, as these day-dying Beasts.  
Death is such a discursive sergeant, and so serious in the discharge of his Errand, as there is no place of privilege to exclude him, or rescue he party arrested by him. he has a Mace for the Sea, as well as Land. Which may bee instanced in no pattern more clearly, no Object more truly, than in this tragic Scene of Sorrow, which wee have now in action: Where, of 47●ut wee have formerly related, not one secured, not one from Death rescued: And this happened the 19. of October.  
But as waves follow waves, so it oftimes falleth in the progress of woes: for no l●sse remarkable is it, that upon the 6. of November, a Graves end Barge was by report cast away, seconding thi● former very nearly, if not wholly, in number: but the apparancy of their danger begot this report( as wee have since heard) without any other actual disaster.  
The use of these should necessary conduce to our selv's: on Water and Land to recommend ●s in our passage and conduct to his Sacred direction and protection, by whom wee breath and have our being. In aquis& terris and Deo meditari, 
Malum est mo●● in naufragio,& bonum est mori febre Aug. in Psal. c. 48.  & coelesti ejus custodiae no●-ipsos commendare, est neque ab aquis nec à terris, motu vel metu discriminis imminentis, periclitari. And withall, to retain a charitable opinion of such, as by these premature and adventitious ends, are translated from us. Pauli naufragium ainae salus fuit: Let us apply this, though in another sense addressed, to these hopeful souls now departed. he, who is the LORD of the Depths, can extend his unbounded mercy to the Depths; and put an hook in the nose-●hrills of that Leviathan, who reigneth, ruleth and rageth in the Depths.  
This Preamble hath enlarged itself to so extensive a measure, as it may seem to some, to resemble a Mindian Structure: but as arguments give light to Subjects; so Preambles, by way of Introduction, have ever given life to refinedst Poems.   

 sunburst surrounded by cloud and containing a Hebrew word in the centre THE fatal NVPTIALL; OR, MOVRNEFVLL MARRIAGE.  

poem.  

HYmen, put out thy lights; thyself confounded  
With grief, to see thy teare-swolne consorts drowned,  
Thy late Attendants: See of forty seven  
None rescued from death, but wholly driven  
From hope, help, harbour! recollect it thus,  
And join in mournful Elegies with us.  
Husbands of Wives, Wives of their Husbands rest,  
Parents of Babes, Babes of their Parents left.  
here Widdow's tears, and there poor Orphans cries,  
These fill the cisterns of distilling eyes  
With confluence of tears. What a sad Night  
Hath damp't the beauty of a nuptial light  
With universal sorrow?— Pray thee stay,  
And sail along with me in this same way,  
This wat'ry Region, where the curled waves  
Afford us tears, and to their bodies graves:  
— See, see the leeking vessel how it strives  
And combats with the waves, to save their lives!  
It sighs and seeks for Land, but pressed with weather,  
And her surcharged burden both together,  
While surging billows mount above the brink,  
Shee's forced to yield, and with her fraught to sink.  
To sink! O silence that perplexing word,  
It will a Deluge of new grief afford  
To the relenting Reader, who with teare●  
Will rinse each comme and period that he hears  
And wooe th'inraged waves, and chide them too,  
When he in milder terms shall cease to woe;  
And in such home bread Dialect as this,  
tax them and tell them, that they did amiss.   

O should you now see how Child clings on Mother, 
☜   
Husband on Wife, Wife Husband, one on other,  
Grasping the yielding streams, who in remorse  
With wat'ry veils shrowded their inchanneld coarse;  
Should you conceit these Objects, you with me  
Would close in one-united Lachrymae.   

O WINDERMERE, who art renowned afar  
For thy sole breeding there unvalued Charre,  
And with thy spacious channel dost divide  
Two ancient Counties seated on each side;  

☞  May thy fresh waters salt and brackish turn,  
And in their changed condition henceforth mourn;  
May those distilling conduits of thine,  
losing their native sweetness flow with brine:  
Tuning each accent of this accident  
To Swanlike Odes of dying dreriment.  
What did incense thee thus? what furious fate?  
Tethis and Hymen were they at debate?  
Did any impious one this shipwreck cause,  
Some high Delinquent to Heav'ns sacred laws,  
Whose deep dyde sin did so the State infest  
As it became a Scourge unto the rest  
That were his hapless Consorts? or some wretch,  
Some hideous hag, or late-reprived Witch  
Sprung from those desert Concaves, forlorn Cells,  
Raising these storms with their infernal Spells?  
No; No; nor this, nor that, nor any these  
Gave life to those expiring miseries.  
It was that fixed decree, to which 'tis fit  
That wee who are his Creatures should submit.   

The sacred Scriptures they will plainly tell  
How those, on whom the Tower of Shilo fell,  
Were not the greatest sinners; Nor ought we  
To judge, but by the rule of charity  
To measure all our Censures: for who art,  
That liv'st so free from act, so pure in hart,  
Who canst in judgement with th' Almighty stand,  
Or prove good weight when balanced by his hand?  
If he do spare then, 'tis his mercy to us,  
And if he scourge, he doth but justice do us.   

But let me now divert my doleful Scene,  
And pencyle these who now have drowned been,  
In their own native feature!" These were such  
Who, to relieve their Meniey, laboured much  
In their industrious Wool-worke; justly famed,  
And for their manual labour Sheare-men named.  
An useful mystery! which though it make  
Course clothes, and such as ne're did Alnage take,  
Yet 'tis commodious to the commonweal,  
And fit for Sale, although unfit for seal.  
For if th' poor work-man scarcely can supply  
With late and early toil his Family  
Now when his Trading is exempt and freed,  
In paying Alnage how should he succeed?  
But Heav'ns be blessed for our dread sovereign,  
Who cheers with freedom such an honest gain,   

Most then of these wract Passengers were such  
Whom never yet ambition did touch,  
Grinding oppression, gripping avarice,  
" Conscience their praise, and competence their prise,  
Much comfort( sure) crowns such wheres'ere they die,  
Though drenched below, their thoughts are fixed on hye,   

But amongst these, both love and blood do urge  
An higher strain of passion for my 
Mr. George Wilson, attorney in the Common Law:' one of pregnant conceit, and sincere in the course of his practise.  GEORGE.  
Of pregnant ripe conceit, firm to his friends,  
And ne're soak't Clients purse with endless ends;  
Young, yet well-read in houres; fixing his love  
On laws Divine and on the Land above.  
Such dispositions make a good attorney,  
And wing his passage for an heavenly journey:  
Where he this see may for his labour earn,  
peaceful Eternity without a term.   


☞  A just week after, and same hour oth' day,  
His Corpes were found, that he was thrown away,  
Untouch't and undisfigur'd; to imply  
Mans face i'th Depths retains a Majesty.   

Next Him, those nursing fosters of my Three,  
Three little ones, whom they so carefully  
tendered, exact of me their funeral tears,  
With such a Monument as virtue rears  
On her true-meaning followers: for to show  
How their industrious Master and these two  
expressed their love and zeal to me and mine,  
Would ask a lasting-living-loving-line:  
And Gratitude keeps somewhat to requited;  
" To Him my love, to Them my last goodnight.  
Yet recollect those latest words She said,  
When shee that fatal vessel entered,  
While thrice she launched forward to the main,  
Thrice she stepped in, and thrice retyr'd again,  
As one divining what would after fall,  
With trickling tears thus on the oars did call;   

Oh stay thy Boat, secure me and my Mate!  
" One may foresee, but not prevent their fate.   

Next these, His loss, who at my Table fed,  
And as one of mine own, was sometimes bread,  
I mone; One may their duty far forgit,  
Yet God forbid, wee should not this remit,  
As wee hope for remission: he is dead,  
And with him my distastes are butted.  
To wast him o'er( no doubt) it did Heav'ns please,  
From th' waters of Contention unto Peace.   

For th' rest, I knew them onely by report,  
Of honest famed, though of obscurer sort.  
And these with those I confidently trust  
Are now enrowl'd ith' number of the just.   

Now to ourselves let something be applied,  
And then these papers shall be laid aside.  
" ist so, that wee in hourly danger stand  
Whether wee sail by Sea, or go by Land?  
" That wee to th' World but one entrance have,  
But thousand means of passage to our grave?  
" That all our ways are hedged about with fear,  
While wee are Pilgrims in this desert here?  
" That none shall be exempted, but must go  
Unto the place where they're confined to?  
" And that the wise shall no more fruit receive  
Of all his Labours, then the fool shall have?  
" And that their end's alike, for both shall die  
To prove them Cöheirs of Mortality?  
" For th' politic Hun must yield to swelling Humber,  
As well as th' least of his inferior number;  
" And Archie that rich fool, when he least dreams,  
For purchased lands, must be possessed of streams:  
" What can wee practise, project or device,  
When ther's no privilege for fool nor Wise?   

Let's like wise Marchants then, make it our care  
To look unto our Faith, our Fraught, our Fare;  
Like Prudent Pilots, on our guard let's stand,  
That with safe prise wee may return to Land.  
For even me thinks, before they yield to Fate,  
Their case they seem thus to expostulate.   

Spare me, insulting waves, the Father cries,  
Take pitty of my poor parental eyes,  
In me ye shall drown many; for my life  
Supports a Family, Children, and Wife.  
These perish if I fall; then pitty take  
If not for me, yet for mine Infants sake.  
I have industrious been, and given relief  
Out of my little store, to ease the grief  
Of hungry souls; Nor do I boast of this,  
For Heav'ns you know, I've done too much amiss:  
Nor in those works of mercy that were wrought,  
Have I performed my duty as I ought.  
Give me some longer respite, that I may  
redeem the time wherein I went astray.  
Thou who commandest the winds and waves, and went  
Upon the waters, calm this Element;  
steer our weak bark, for it is in thine hand,  
To still this storm, and bring us safe a land:  
But let not our will but thy Will be done;  
And as he ends, another streight begun.   

I am a Mother, O deliver me  
From these enclosing dangers which I see;  
A tender Infant hangs upon my breast,  
And onely in my bosom takes sweet rest;  
How will it cry, if it his mother lack!  
Then for the Babes sake shield me from this wrack.  
If shuddring horror now surprise mine heart,  
Oh what an anguish will it be to part  
A Mother from the fruit of her own womb,  
And in the wat'ry depths, to have a tomb?  
Excuse my fear, dear Lord, it is not common  
For virile Spirits to be in a Woman.  
Where my Lord is, my thoughts are fixed there,  
Yet flesh and blood their dissolution fear.  
To thee then I direct my sole request,  
In whom I put my trust, in whom I rest:  
Incline thine ear to a poor Womans cry,  
And be thou mine, whether I live or die.   

The feare-surprized child, who sighs for shore,  
And ne're knew well what danger ment before;  
Sends forth a shriek or two, yet knows not why,  
For alas he knows not what it is to die.   

O save me, Mother! when shall wee get home?  
I have desire that wee to land may come.  
I'l go no more by Water, by your leave,  
Nor shall a Cock-boat e're your Boy receive.  
What mean these swelling bubbles that arise,  
And with their sprinklings wash mine head and eyes?  
I cannot tell, but they affright me sore,  
Get I to land, I'l trouble these no more.  
At duck and Drake I'd rather safely play,  
On our own pool upon the holiday.  
— Ay me! that last wave, Mother, washed my coat,  
An other such would throw me out o'th Boat.  
fain would I sleep, but yet I cannot here,  
Take any rest, I'm taken so with fear.  
— Oh save me, Mother! thus her Lambkin cried;  
And she with teare-swolne eyes again replied.  
fear nothing, child: Heaven shield us from mishap;  
sleep pretty Ape, I'l shrowded thee with my lap.  
'Twixt fear and love such mutual conflicts bee,  
The waves rock her, she him upon her knee.   

Weigh these surprised souls who rightly can,  
And shares not in these miseries of man  
With joint compassion? wdo can eye this shelf  
Of danger, and reflect not on himself?   

Of the whole substance of our merchandise, 
{αβγδ}.   
One onely Pearle's of unvalued prise:  
Which got, wee gain; which lost, it is in vain  
To have possessed the Indies for our gain.   

Let's then contemplate Him, where wee may rest,  
For all things else are loss, hows'ere possessed.  
If wee have wealth, perchance, wee have not health;  
If wee have health, perhaps, wee have not wealth;  
If health and wealth, yet friendship may be scant;  
If health, wealth, friendship, wee may honour want;  
If health, wealth, honour wee injoyers be,  
Yet what are these, if wee want liberty?  
But God is all in one, for it is he  
Who with a girdle bounds the surging Sea:  
Nought may oppose his Empire, whose command  
Reacheth from Sea to Sea, from Land to Land.  
Some Marchants for silks, Sables, golden oar,  
Dive in the depths, before they vent a shore;  
But wee run no such hazard: for wee seize  
On Him, who in Him seizeth wholly these.   

Draw in thy sails, my Muse; and muse on Him,  
Who free from stain, assoiles our souls from sin.  
Who, when the Waters compass us half dead, 
Jonah. 2.5.6.   
The Depths enclose us, weeds enwrappe our head;  
When wee to th' bottom of the mountaines go,  
And th' Earth with bars immures our bodies too;  
Yet from the Pit will he our Spirits raise,  
To whom bee still the sacrifice of Praise.   
FINIS.   

SONNET.  
WHAT is this WORLD, but a Sea,  
Or Flood-gate of calamity?  
What LIFE, but a continued Wave,  
That wafts Man o'er unto his Grave?  
What bee these billows swollen with wind,  
But Passions of a troubled mind?  
What bee these winds that beate our bark,  
sins that confined NOAH to his ark.  
What be these Sands on which wee run,  
These Shelves wee seek, but seldom shun;  
But uncoth Paths, where mortals find  
gravel to satisfy their mind?  
What bee these Straits by which wee pass,  
But thoughts of what Man is and was?  
What be these barks wherein wee go,  
But Bodies ballaced with woe?  
What is this Port where wee arrive,  
But Death, which wee would fain reprieve?  
Since life Sea, Wave, wind, Billow, Sand, Shelve, Straite,  
Let Earth be our retreat, heaven our Reccite.   
FINIS.