9 We came to Paris, on the Seine,
'Tis wondrous fair,'tis nothing clean,
'Tis Europe's greatest town;
How strong it is I need not tell it,
For all the world may easily smell it,
That walk it up and down.
10 There many strange things are to see,
The palace and great gallery,
The Place Royal doth excel,
The New Bridge, and the statutes there,
At Notre Dame St Q. Pater,
The steeple bears the bell.
11 For learning the University,
And for old clothes the Frippery,
The house the queen did build.
St Innocence, whose earth devours
Dead corps in four-and-twenty hours,
And there the king was kill'd.
12 The Bastille and St Denis Street,
The Shafflenist like London Fleet,
The Arsenal no toy;
But if you'll see the prettiest thing,
Go to the court and see the king—
Oh, 'tis a hopeful boy!
13 He is, of all his dukes and peers,
Reverenced for much wit at's years,
Nor must you think it much;
For he with little switch doth play,
And make fine dirty pies of clay,
Oh, never king made such!
14 A bird that can but kill a fly,
Or prate, doth please his majesty,
Tis known to every one;
The Duke of Guise gave him a parrot,
And he had twenty cannons for it,
For his new galleon.
15 Oh that I e'er might have the hap
To get the bird which in the map
Is call'd the Indian ruck!
I'd give it him, and hope to be
As rich as Guise or Liviné,
Or else I had ill-luck.
16 Birds round about his chamber stand,
And he them feeds with his own hand,
'Tis his humility;
And if they do want anything,
They need but whistle for their king,
And he comes presently.
17 But now, then, for these parts he must
Be enstyled Lewis the Just,
Great Henry's lawful heir;
When to his style to add more words,
They'd better call him King of Birds,
Than of the great Navarre.
18 He hath besides a pretty quirk,
Taught him by nature, how to work
In iron with much ease;
Sometimes to the forge he goes,
There he knocks and there he blows,
And makes both locks and keys;