Elizabeth I Poem: Written on a Wall at Woodstock.

Woodstock Manor

WRITTEN ON A WALL AT WOODSTOCK.
by Elizabeth I, Queen of England

O FORTUNE! how thy restless wavering State
     Hath fraught with Cares my troubled Wit!
Witness this present Prison whither Fate
     Hath borne me, and the Joys I quit.
Thou causedest the Guilty to be loosed
From Bands, wherewith are Innocents inclosed;
     Causing the Guiltless to be strait reserved,
     And freeing those that Death had well deserved:
But by her Envy can be nothing wrought,
So God send to my Foes all they have thought.
                                  ELIZABETH PRISONER.
A.D. M.D.LV.

  Source:
  Hentzner, Paul. A Journey Into England, (1598). Horace Walpole, ed. 1757.
  Fugitive Pieces on Various Subjects. Vol II. Robert Dodsley, ed.
  London: J. Dodsley, 1771. 258.

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