My earnestness, which might at first offend,
Forgive me, for the duty it implies:
I am the convoy to the cloudy end
Of a most bright and regal enterprise;
Which under angry constellations, ill-
Mounted and under-rationed and unspurred,
Set forth to find if any country still
Might do obeisance to an honest word.
Duped and delivered up to rascals; bound
And bleeding, and his mouth stuff; on his knees;
Robbed and imprisoned; and adjudged unsound;
I have behled my master, if you please.
Forgive my earnestness, who at his side
Received his swift instructions, till he died.