and so down under the arm, with this posy or sentence written upon it, both before and behind, Sic nos non nobis.
Then came Master FULK GREVIL[1] in gilt armour with rich and fair comparisons and furniture; having four spare horses with four pages riding upon them; and four trumpeters sounding before him: and a twenty gentlemen and yeomen attending upon him; who with the pages and trumpeters were all apparelled in loose jerkins of tawny taffety cut and lined with yellow sarsenet and laid with gold lace and cut down the arm and set with loops and buttons of gold; Venetian hose of the same lined as aforesaid, laid with gold lace down the side with loops and buttons of gold; with each a pair of yellow worsted stockings; and hats of tawny tatiety with gold bands and yellow feathers.
If any date in the series of Sonnets can be fixed with certainty, this jousting on May 1581, is that referred to in the following one, and therefore establishes the presence thereat of the Lady PENELOPE DEVEREUX.
Having this day, my horse, my hand, my lance
Guided so well; that I obtained the prize:
Both by the judgment of the English eyes;
And of some sent by that sweet enemy, France!
Horsemen, my skill in horsemanship advance;
Townsfolk, my strength; a daintier judge applies
His praise to sleight, which, from good use doth rise;
Some lucky wits impute it but to chance;
Others, because, of both sides, I do take
My blood from them who did excel in this;
Think Nature me a man-at-arms did make.
How far they shoot awry! The true cause is,
STELLA lookt on, and from her heavenly face
Sent forth the beams which made so fair my race.
Doubtless, this was one of the happiest days in the Writer's life.
- ↑ FULK GREVIL was to PHILIP SIDNEY what JONATHAN was to DAVID. His epitaph in St. Mary's Church, Warwick, runs thus:— FULK GREVIL, SERVANT TO QUEEN ELIZABETH, COUNCILLOR TO KING JAMES, AND FRIEND TO SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.
