Of Glory not a Beam is left 1
But her Eternal House－
The Asterisk is for the Dead,
The Living, for the Stars－
But her Eternal House－
The Asterisk is for the Dead,
The Living, for the Stars－
(F.1685/J.1647)
[1] Glory, not a Beam:: Star Chamber was notorious without glory.
[2] her:: Queen Elizabeth. Eternal House:: a chamber that sentences a life to eternity, death.
[3] Asterisk:: the stars on the ceiling of the Star Chamber.
[4] Stars:: fortune, fate, of those who survived from the Chamber.
Star Chambers, a chamber in Westminster-Hall, so called because the Ceiling of it was adorned with the Figures of Stars where the Lords Chancellor formerly kept a Court, in order to punish Routs, Riots, Forgeries, &c. ─ An Universal Etymological English Dictionary (1675)
At the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, the court of Star-Chamber was unquestionably in full operation, in the form in which it was known in the succeeding reigns; and at this period, before it had degenerated into a mere engine of state, it was by no means destitute of utility. It was the only court in which great and powerful offenders had no means of setting at defiance the administration of justice or corrupting its course. And during the reign of Elizabeth, when the jurisdiction of the Star-Chamber had reached its maturity, it seems, except in political cases, to have been administered with wisdom and discretion. ─ Political Dictionary (1846)
