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The childe appoynted in the standing above named to open the meaning of the said Pageant, spake these wordes unto her Grace:—

‘The two Princes that sit under one cloth of state,

The Man in the Redde Rose, the Whoman in the White,

Henry the VII. and Quene Elizabeth his Mate,

By ring of marriage as Man and Wife unite.

Both heires to both their bloodes, to Lancastre the Kyng,

The Queene to Yorke, in one the two Howses did knit:

Of whom as heire to both, Henry the Eighth did spring,

In whose seat, his true heire, thou, Quene Elizabeth doth sit.

Therefore as civill warre, and fuede of blood did cease

When these two Houses were united into one,

So now that jarrs shall stint, and quietnes encrease,

We trust, O noble Quene, thou wilt be cause alone.’

The which also were written in Latin verse, and both drawn in two tables upon the forefront of the saide Pageant.

NONSUCH HOUSE

From an old print.

These verses and other pretie sentences were drawen in voide places of thys Pageant, all tending to one ende, that quietness might be mainteyned, and all dissention displaced, and that by the Quenes Majestie, heire to agrement and agreing in name with her, which tofore had joyned those Houses, which had been th’occasion of much debate and civill warre within thys Realme, as may appeare to such as will searche Cronicles, but be not to be touched in thys treatise, openly declaring her Graces passage through the Citie, and what provisyon the Citie made therfore. And ere the Quenes Majestie came wythin hearing of thys Pageaunt, she sent certaine, as also at all other Pageauntes, to require the People to be silent. For her Majestie was disposed to heare all that shoulde be sayde unto her. When the Quenes Majestie had hearde the chylde’s oration, and understoode the meanyng of the Pageant at large, she marched forward toward Cornehill, alway received with lyke rejoysing of the People: and there, as her Grace passed by the Conduit, which was curiously trimmed agaynst that tyme with riche banners adourned, and a noyse of loude instrumentes upon the top thereof, she espyed the seconde Pageant: and because she feared for the People’s noyse that she shoulde not heare the child which dyd expound the same, she enquired what that Pageant was ere that she came to it: and there understoode that there was a chylde representing her Majesties person, placed in a seate of Government, supported by certayn vertues, which suppressed their contrarie vyces under their feete, and so forthe.”... “Against Soper Lane ende was extended from th’one side of the streate to th’other a Pageant, which had three gates, all open. Over the middlemost whereof wer erected three severall stages, whereon sate eight children, as hereafter followeth: On the uppermost one childe, on the middle three, on the lowest foure, eche having the proper name of the blessing that they did represent written in a table, and placed above their heades. In the forefront of this Pageant, before the children which did represent the blessings, was a convenient standing, cast out for a chylde to stand, which did expownd the sayd Pageant unto the Quenes Majestie as was done in th’other tofore. Everie of these children wer appointed and apparelled according unto the blessing which he did represent. And on the forepart of the sayde Pageant was written, in fayre letters, the name of the said Pageant, in this maner following:—