| |
| MARGARITA first possessed, | |
| If I remember well, my breast, | |
| Margarita first of all; | |
| But when awhile the wanton maid | |
| With my restless heart had played, | 5 |
| Martha took the flying ball. | |
| |
| Martha soon did it resign | |
| To the beauteous Catharine. | |
| Beauteous Catharine gave place | |
| (Though loath and angry she to part | 10 |
| With the possession of my heart) | |
| To Eliza’s conquering face. | |
| |
| Eliza till this hour might reign, | |
| Had she not evil counsels ta’en; | |
| Fundamental laws she broke, | 15 |
| And still new favorites she chose, | |
| Till up in arms my passions rose, | |
| And cast away her yoke. | |
| |
| Mary then, and gentle Anne, | |
| Both to reign at once began; | 20 |
| Alternately they swayed; | |
| And sometimes Mary was the fair, | |
| And sometimes Anne the crown did wear, | |
| And sometimes both I obeyed. | |
| |
| Another Mary then arose, | 25 |
| And did rigorous laws impose; | |
| A mighty tyrant she! | |
| Long, alas! should I have been | |
| Under that iron-sceptred queen, | |
| Had not Rebecca set me free. | 30 |
| |
| When fair Rebecca set me free, | |
| ’T was then a golden time with me: | |
| But soon those pleasures fled; | |
| For the gracious princess died | |
| In her youth and beauty’s pride, | 35 |
| And Judith reignèd in her stead. | |
| |
| One month, three days and half an hour | |
| Judith held the sovereign power: | |
| Wondrous beautiful her face! | |
| But so weak and small her wit, | 40 |
| That she to govern was unfit, | |
| And so Susanna took her place. | |
| |
| But when Isabella came, | |
| Armed with a resistless flame, | |
| And the artillery of her eye; | 45 |
| Whilst she proudly marched about, | |
| Greater conquests to find out, | |
| She beat out Susan, by the by. | |
| |
| But in her place I then obeyed | |
| Blackeyed Bess, her viceroy maid, | 50 |
| To whom ensued a vacancy: | |
| Thousand worse passions then possessed | |
| The interregnum of my breast; | |
| Bless me from such anarchy! | |
| |
| Gentle Henrietta then, | 55 |
| And a third Mary, next began; | |
| Then Joan, and Jane, and Audria; | |
| And then a pretty Thomasine, | |
| And then another Catharine, | |
| And then a long et cætera. | 60 |
| |
| But I will briefer with them be, | |
| Since few of them were long with me. | |
| An higher and a nobler strain | |
| My present emperess does claim. | |
| Heleonora, first o’ th’ name, | 65 |
| Whom God grant long to reign! | |
| |
