Thursday, September 8, 2022

To the Queen, by the prayers



As the dial hand tells o'er
The same hours it had before,

Still beginning in the ending,
Circular account still lending,

So, most mighty Queen we pray,
Like the dial day by day

You may lead the seasons on,
Making new when old are gone,

That the babe which now is young
And hath yet no use of tongue

Many a Shrovetide here may bow
To that empress I do now,

That the children of these lords,
Sitting at your council boards,

May be grave and aged seen
Of her that was their fathers' queen.

Once I wish this wish again,
Heaven subscribe it with "Amen."

-- attributed to William Shakespeare (1564-1616) discovered in 1972 in a notebook belonging to Elizabeth I's servant Henry Stanford.

Today Queen Elizabeth II passed away at the age of 96.

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