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ANAGRAMS
ON THE NAMES OF THE RIGHT ILLUSTRIOUS LORDS
THOMAS EGERTON, Keeper of the Great Seal
CHARLES HOWARD, Earl of Nottingham, Admiral of England
THOMAS SACKVILLE, Lord Buckhurst, Royal Treasurer
CHARLES BLUNT, LORD MONTJOY, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
JOHN FORTESCUE, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
GILBERT TALBOT, Earl of Shrewsbury
HENRY PERCY, Earl of Northumberland
EDWARD VERE, Earl of Oxford
HENRY WRIOTHESLEY, Earl of Southampton
and also
ON THE NAMES OF THE RIGHT DISTINGUISHED KNIGHTS
JOHN STANHOPE, Vice-Chamberlain
JULIUS CAESAR, Master of the Court of Requests
GEORGE CAREW, Vice-Chamberlain of the Queen’s Household
JOHN SWINNERTON, Sheriff of London
1. ON THE SAME Your fidelity, my lords, none of whose hands anybody, imitating Hellish enterprises, has striven to arm with steel against the heir of the realm (oh would that he, to his bidding the Fates are obligated, would command that this impious crew should fall!), will be my song. But now allow that I report your names with my slender song. By your high duties, gentlemen, you approach the gods, be godlike with your friendly mind and hand. Show yourselves like the gods, insofar as with your wonted spirits you approve of a man bringing you gifts with his mind.
2. THOMAS EGERTON
by an anagram
HEROS MAGNE TOTUS (“LORD WHOLLY GREAT”)Both your father and grandsire, and the line of your divine blood, bear both Fortune’s gifts and great names. But you, as you test things in the scale’s balanced pan, rightly strive to procure praise by your own good qualities, just as you should think your stock and your forebears, the things you have not yourself accomplished, are the endowments of your ancestors rather than your own. But what need vainly to heap up lauds with words? You are great, needing no borrowed splendor. Hence anagrams (no matter how high talent may drive them) can bear nothing but the names of a great lord. Lord great in estate, but greater in ancestral blood, and greatest in the degree of the virtues with which you are heaped. As you are scarce in need of breeding or estate, so you need not fortune. Bear the great titles which virtue has granted you. Astraea will not more fittingly give any man (though he be most worthy) seals to bear forever.
3. CHARLES HOWARD
by an anagram
VALOR CHARUS SUDO (“DEAR VALOR, I SWEAT”)Sweating for your nation, you can pour forth these words, which the anagram makes of this poem’s title: “I am not dear to my nation because it claims a share of my birth, but for my merits, but for my piety and faith.” For thus for your nation’s sake you scorn every danger, so that it might rightfully say you were born for it. Hence it raised you higher and has given you justice in the extreme. Let it be safe, valor, thanks to your service!
4. THOMAS SACKVILLE
by an anagram
SIS HUMUS LOCATA (“MAY YOU BE PLACED, EARTH”)Your mind is lofty, Sackville, albeit the limbs of the human frame, prone to fall, weigh it down. But they can hardly depress it, for your spirit has raised it further, supplying an easy staircase to high duties. Not amiss with his intelligence does Phoebus proclaim you placed earth, a work placed higher than our corporeal condition. For you scorn appearances, which would be unpraised by Honesty, which ranks Fortune’s goods under uprightness. How well the crown has consulted for the affairs of the Britons when it placed the royal monies under your care! For you, prompt for the worthy, do not allow them to regret their deserving exertions, and hence fostering Grace approves you as her own. At this point the idle man grows ashamed, and he who, caring for his advantages, is wont to have earned disgrace for the sake of profit. Continue to please the goddess. That divinity will place you in the light, higher than Envy can raise her horns.
5. CHARLES MONTJOY
by an anagram
IT SEDULO COI NORMA (“BUSILY HE GOES, A MODEL FOR THE COAN”)If that old man of Cos were to paint Gradivus with his art, as once he did Venus, you, Charles, would be his model. For he would give his canvas a model to be embellished, as your image would make the pattern of Mars. But because he is hidden in your mind, averse from the Coan and his art, he hopes for one thing, to be depicted in your manners. Go, good model, may you represent Mars in your strength and in your breast. Thus you will be a painter of Mars, a child of Mars.
6. JOHN FORTESCUE
by an anagram
COR SANIUS TE FOVENS (“A HEART CARING FOR YOU MORE WHOLESOMELY”)The heart, a heavenly good, than which nothing is better, the principle of life, powerful with love of the light, craven to the craven, stirring the noble breast’s cavity with hopes, stirring it with fear, urging on honorable things with hopes, forbidding the dishonorable with fear (not of punishment, but by awe of great God), an occasion of evil for reprobates, but by your office a sure guide to every good thing for the friends of divine virtue: for this, reason is your mistress, but willfulness your handmaid. So who can deny you have a wholesome heart? Yet, whether Gradivus has given your name to his shield or Virtue has given it to the brave, for me you should be called a more wholesome heart. May the heart and Mistress Reason care for you, and with these as your guides may you merit everlasting splendor.
7. GILBERT TALBOT
by an anagram
LEGIT TRIBUBUS ALTOS (“HE CHOOSES HIGH MEN FROM THE TRIBES”)There are those who seek a name for themselves from their forebears, there are those for whom the nobility of their fathers suffices, and the stock of their mothers elevates some. But this splendor exists in name only: if you weigh it more carefully, before your eyes shadows fall freely from this light. But you, Gilbert, are as far removed from this number as the earth stands from Phoebus’ orb. For you, though you are ornamented by the great tribes of your forebears, and inherit brilliant pedigrees of a lofty house, yet you, a despiser of wax, seek yourself in yourself, so that honorable Virtue herself comes before nobility. Hence this great power is granted you as a coronet, that the King requires and adores your services.
8. HENRY PERCY
by an anagram
EN HIC RUPES CURIS (“O, HERE IS A CLIFF FOR CARES”)You are a mass for your foes, an adamantine cliff for great cares. Mars has learned of your spirit, your foes of your hand.
9. EDWARD VERE
by an anagram
AURE SURDUS VIDEO (“DEAF IN MY EAR, I SEE”)Though by your zeal, Fortune, you keep perfidy’s murmurs and schemings at a distance, nonetheless I learn (at which my mind and ear quake) that our bodies have been deafened with respect to evil affairs. Indeed, I perceive men who come close to Catiline in deception, freeing other men’s fates by their death.
10. HENRY WRIOTHESLEY
by an anagram
THESEUS NIL REUS HIC RUO (“HERE I FALL, THESEUS, GUILTY OF NOTHING”)Justly you were able to pour forth this complaint from your mouth, your lot was harsh while a false accusation prevailed. “Lo, Theseus is guilty of nothing, here I fall by an unfair lot’s censure, betrayed by envy’s whim.” But now the complaint is to be altered, because of altered perils. Great man, do you take a fall with an innocent heart bearing witness? Not at all. The heir, wielding the scepter of rule conferred under Jove’s auspices, grants you to live free of this care.
11. JOHN STANHOPE
by an anagram
VANA HIS POSTPONENS (“SETTING VANITIES BEHIND THESE”)Your thrice-greatest care is of virtue and reputation. Setting vanities behind these, you can be the greatest.
12. JULIUS CAESAR
by an anagram
I, ALES IUS CURA (“GO, YOU FOSTER RIGHT WITH CARE”)Great things befit great men. Cynthius has bestowed great names on you, hence with care you foster the right and the pious. With a favoring fortune, go, you who are dedicated to Themis, and lift up the needy goddesses, no matter if they be foreign. Thus, Julius, let your reputation fly through foreign ears, and bestow a name by which your honor may increase.
13. GEORGE CAREW
by an anagram
I, EGREGIUS O HAC RE (“GO, O PREEMINENT FOR THIS THING”)If those who have pleased princes merit praise, no man can deny you are preeminent for this thing. For, Carew, your duty and loyal zeal towards your mistress freely bless you with a preeminent name.
14. JOHN SWINNERTON
by an anagram
EN, NISI USU HONOS VERNAT (“LO, UNLESS HONOR IS REFRESHED BY USE”)Honor (the fairest rewards of exertions) is refreshed by use, and you will be the greatest proof of this maxim. That as a youth you have seen various customs and various cities: that you have cultivated your spirits with the arts, your mouth with words, that you handle duties more than civic with this intelligence, surely nobody could say these things pertain to Fortune. These are all virtue’s gifts, nought has been bestowed by the other, who is constant only in her fickleness. Death destroys other things, though they be made of adamant, but the honor shared out to you in no way fears the savage fates. Swinnerton, for you honor grows by this virtue, and likewise is far refreshed by more splendid use.
Finis