An ironic poem, as the speech James gave to the English Parliament, referred to here, actually expressed his frustration at the lack of progress towards a more 'perfect' incorporating union of the kingdoms of the British Isles following the Union of the Crowns in 1603, and was just prior to the failure of the 'Union Project' after three years of attempted negotiations. See Bruce Galloway, The Union of England and Scotland, 1603-1608 (Edinburgh, 1986), passim. For the speech, see James VI: Selected Writings, ed. Neil Rhodes et al (Aldershot, 2006). Metre: elegiac couplets.
Ad regem ex occasione orationis ad regni ordines de unione regnorum ab eo habita prid. cal. April 1607
[p118]
Ad regem ex occasione orationis ad regni ordines de unione regnorum ab eo habitae prid. cal. April. 1607
Macte Leoni uni treis unus junge Leones,
ceu Rosa juncta rosae est una ab utroque atavo:
si geminas junxisse rosas res magna, leones
maxima res uni jungere tergeminos.
[p118]
To the king on the occasion of the speech to the estates of the kingdom on the union of the kingdoms, delivered by him on the first of April 1607.
You alone who is honoured, join three lions to one lion, a just as one rose has been joined to a rose by an ancestor b on both sides: if it is a great thing to have joined together the twin roses, it is the greatest thing to join the triplet lions together to one.
