Robert Herrick. To the Right Gracious Prince, Lodowick, Duke of Richmond and Lennox.

Robert Herrick

TO THE RIGHT GRACIOUS PRINCE, LODOWICK,
DUKE OF RICHMOND AND LENNOX.

OF all those three brave brothers fall'n i' th' war
(Not without glory), noble sir, you are,
Despite of all concussions, left the stem
To shoot forth generations like to them.
Which may be done, if (sir) you can beget
Men in their substance, not in counterfeit.
Such essences as those three brothers ; known
Eternal by their own production.
Of whom, from fame's white trumpet, this I'll tell,
Worthy their everlasting chronicle :
Never since first Bellona us'd a shield,
Such three brave brothers fell in Mars his field.
These were those three Horatii Rome did boast,
Rome's were these three Horatii we have lost.
One Coeur-de-Lion had that age long since ;
This, three ; which three, you make up four, brave prince.

Lodovick Stuart,
2nd Duke of Lennox and
Duke of Richmond.
Isaac Oliver, ca.1605.

Source:
Herrick, Robert. Works of Robert Herrick. vol I.
Alfred Pollard, ed.
London, Lawrence & Bullen, 1891. 212-213.

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