Quote#World
Suffolk his axe did ply
Quote byMichael Drayton · 1563–1631
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: To the Cambro-Britons and their Harp, His Ballad of Agincourt (1619), Lines 109-120.
English (original)
Suffolk his axe did ply; Beaumont and Willoughby Bare them right doughtily; Ferrers and Fanhope.Upon Saint Crispin’s Day Fought was this noble fray, Which fame did not delay To England to carry. O when shall English men With such acts fill a pen? Or England breed again Such a King Harry?
— Michael Drayton
More from Michael Drayton
To my mild tutor merrily I came (For I was then a proper goodly page Much like a pigmy, scarce ten years of age) Clasping my slender arms about his thigh. O my dear master! cannot you (quoth I) Make me a poet? Do it, if you can,
Marlowe, bathed in Thespian springs Had in him those brave translunary things, That the first poets had.
Crave the tuneful nightingale to help you with her lay, The ousel and the throstlecock, chief music of our May.
That shire which we the Heart of England well may call.
Ill news hath wings, and with the wind doth go, Comfort’s a cripple and comes ever slow.
For that fine madness still he did retain Which rightly should possess a poet’s brain.