e ioyfull I should
bee of them. These floures I say shall of me right humbly be
presented to your maiesty, not bicause you be a Queene and of a
royal Race (whych notwythstandinge is a great vertue) but
bicause you bee a Phoenix, a rare Lady, and of all the troupe the
fayrest, garnished with infinit gifts, and passinge vertues, for
your merites worthy to be honoured wyth farr more excellent
gifts, than these simple floures be, as she that (aboue all
other Ladyes that liue at this day) is the honour and onely
glory of all womanhoode of our age, as shee that is the Paragon
peerelesse of the vniuersal worlde." when he had sayd those
words, he held his peace. The Queene with great delight hearing
the ready aunswere of the yong Gentleman, sayd vnto hym: "And we
do giue you thanks for the great honor and commendation done
vnto vs." When she had sayd so, without further talke, she went
forth vsing pleasant talke and sport with diuers that wayted
vpon hir. Queene Anne now vnderstode, and so likewise Queene
Mary, which of them the yong Lumbard Gentleman did accept for
his soueraign Lady, whose loue she disdayned not, but in her
mynde rather commended, esteeming him better than euer she did
before: and lyke a discreet and wyse Lady gaue him infinite
prayse. She did not now as other women wont to do, who when they
see themselues of birth more noble, or of degree more ample than
their louers be (whych gift they receyue through the fauor of
the heauens) do not only despise them, but mock them, and their
faythfull seruice, and many tymes with fayned countenance and
dissembled words do extol them and set them vp aloft, and by and
by almost with one breath, exchanging their fayned prayse into
rebuke, they thrust them downe headlong from the tipe of hope
and comfort, to the bottomlesse pit of despayre: and the fuller
she is of floutes, the finer Girle esteemed. But farre better is
she to be regarded, that not findinge in hir hart to loue hir
suter, will frankly tell him at the first, that she cannot like
hym, nor fashion hir mynde to loue him, and requiring him not to
feede his minde with vayne hope, or contriue the tyme with words
and lookes, and pray him to seeke some other that can better
fansy his person than she: And although perchance a man do very
feruently loue a woman, and that it wer great sorrow and grief
vnto him to bee cast of, and receiue such refusall, yet in myne
opinion it were lesse griefe openly to receiue that repul