[1179.] Elect. in Episcop. Lincoln, 28° Henry II, [1182.]" Vid Chron. de Kirkstall, (Domitian XII.) Drake's Hist. of York, p. 422. The Ballad of Fair Rosamond appears to have been first published in "Strange Histories or Songs and Sonnets, of Kinges, Princes, Dukes, Lords, Ladyes, Knights, and Gentlemen. &c. By Thomas Delone. Lond. 1612." 4to. It is now printed (with conjectural emendations) from four ancient copies in blackletter; two of them in the Pepys library. WHEN as King Henry rulde this land, Besides the queene, he dearly lovde Most peerlesse was her beautye founde, A sweeter creature in this worlde 10 70 15 Her name was called so, To whom our queene, dame Ellinor, Was known a deadlye foe. He kist her tender cheeke, Of stone and timber strong, Until he had revivde againe An hundered and fifty doors Her senses milde and meeke. But fortune, that doth often frowne Your sworde and target beare, Where she before did smile, The kinges delighte and ladyes joy Which would offend you there. Full soon shee did beguile : 40 128 that time but in his nineteenth year, neither discouraged by the disparity of age, nor by the reports of Eleanor's gallantry, made such successful courtship to that princess, that he married her six weeks after her divorce, and got possession of all her dominions as a dowery. A marriage thus founded upon interest was not likely to be very happy: it happened accordingly. Eleanor, who had disgusted her first husband by her gallantries, was no less offensive to her second by her jealousy: thus carrying to extremity, in the different parts of her life, every circumstance of female weakness. She had several sons by Henry, whom she spirited up to rebel against him; and endeavouring to escape to them disguised in man's apparel in 1173, she was discovered and thrown into a confinement, which seems to have continued till the death of her husband in 1189. She however survived him many years; dying in 1204, in the sixth year of the reign of her youngest son, John." See Hume's History, 4to. vol. I. pp. 260, 307. Speed, Stowe. &c. It is needless to observe that the following ballad (given, with some corrections, from an old printed copy) is altogether fabulous; whatever gallantries Eleanor encouraged in the time of her first husband, none are imputed to her in that of her second. QUEENE Elianor was a sicke woman, Then she sent for two fryars of France And I wish it so may bee. And thou shalt wend with mee." A boone, a boone; quoth earl marshall, Do you see yonders little boye, And fell on his bended knee; 10 A tossing of the balle? That whatsoever Queene Elianor save, That is earl marshalls eldest sonne, No harme therof may bee. And I love him the best of all. Ile pawne my landes, the king then cryd, My sceptre, crowne, and all, That whatsoere Queen Elianor sayes 15 A catching of the balle? No harme thereof shall fall. That is king Henryes youngest sonne And I love him the worst of all. 50 45 40 35 THE BEGGAR'S DAUGHTER OF BEDNALL-GREEN. IX. THE STURDY ROCK. This poem, subscribed M. T. [perhaps invertedly for T. Marshall] is preserved in "The Paradise of daintie Devises," quoted above in page 123. The two first stanzas may be found accompanied with musical notes in "An Howres Recreation in Musicke," &c. by Richard Alison, Lond. 1606, 4to: usually bound up with three or four sets of " Madrigals set to Music by Thomas Weelkes, Lond. 1597, 1600, 1608, 4to." One of these madrigals is so complete an example of the Bathos that I cannot forbear presenting it to the reader. Thule, the period of cosmographie, Doth vaunt of Hecla, whose sulphureous fire Doth melt the frozen clime, and thaw the skie, Trinacrian Ætna's flames ascend not hier: These things seeme wondrous, yet more wondrous I, Whose heart with feare doth freeze, with love doth fry. The Andelusian merchant, that returnes Laden with cutchinele and china dishes, Reports in Spaine, how strangely Fogo burnes Amidst an ocean full of flying fishes: These things seeme wondrous, yet more wondrous I, Whose heart with feare doth freeze, with love doth fry. Mr. Weelkes seems to have been of opinion with many of his brethren of later times, that nonsense was best adapted to display the powers of musical composure. THE sturdy rock for all his strength By raging seas is rent in twaine : The marble stone is pearst at length, With little drops of drizling rain : The oxe doth yeeld unto the yoke, The steele obeyeth the hammer stroke. The stately stagge, that seemes so stout, Is caught at length in fowler's net : Yea man himselfe, unto whose will Doth fade at length and fall away. There is nothing but time doeth waste, The heavens, the earth consume at last. But vertue sits triumphing still Upon the throne of glorious fame : Though spiteful death mans body kill, Yet hurts he not his vertuous name. By life or death what so betides, The state of vertue never slides. 19. 10 1.5 20 66 X. THE BEGGAR'S DAUGHTER OF BEDNALL-GREE This popular old ballad was written in the reign of Elizabeth, as appears not only from ver. 23, where the arms of England are called the " Queenes armes;" but from its tune's being quoted in other old pieces, written in her time. See the ballad on Mary Ambree," in this work. The late Mr. Guthrie assured the editor, that he had formerly seen another old song on the same subject, composed in a different measure from this; which was truly beautiful, if we may judge from the only stanza he remembered. In this it was said of the old beggar, that "down his neck his reverend lockes In comelye curles did wave; The blossomes of the grave." The following Ballad is chiefly given from the Editor's folio MS. compared with two ancient printed copies the concluding stanzas, which contain the old Beggar's discovery of himself, are not however • Vid. Athen. Ox. p. 152, 316. given from any of these, being very different from those of the vulgar ballad. Nor yet does the Editor offer them as genuine, but as a modern attempt to remove the absurdities and inconsistencies, which so remarkably prevailed in this part of the song, as it stood before: whereas, by the alteration of a few lines, the story is rendered much more affecting, and is reconciled to probability and true history. For this informs us, that at the decisive battle of Evesham, (fought August 4, 1265,) when Simon de Montfort, the great Earl of Leicester, was slain at the head of the barons, his eldest son, Henry, fell by his side, and, in consequence of that defeat, his whole family sunk for ever, the king bestowing their great honours and possessions on his second son, Edmund, Earl of Lancaster. PART THE FIRST. ITT was a blind beggar, had long lost his sight, I Then Bessy shee sighed, and thus shee did say, To every one this answer shee made, My father, shee said, is soone to be seene: That daylye sits begging for charitie, His markes and his tokens are knowen very well; 65 70 75 40 |