[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,
The second of that name,

Besides the queene, he dearly lovde
A faire and comely dame.

Most peerlesse was her beautye founde,
Her favour, and her face;

A sweeter creature in this worlde
Could never prince embrace.

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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 :

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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,
And afraid that she should dye;

Then she sent for two fryars of France
To speke with her speedilye.

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;

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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

A catching of the balle?

No harme thereof shall fall.

That is king Henryes youngest sonne

And I love him the worst of all.

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IX.

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,
By yalping hounds at bay is set :
The swiftest bird, that flies about,

Is caught at length in fowler's net :
The greatest fish, in deepest brooke,
Is soon deceived by subtill hooke.

Yea man himselfe, unto whose will
All things are bounden to obey,
For all his wit and worthie skill,

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.

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X.

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;
And on his aged temples grewe

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,
He had a faire daughter of bewty most bright:
And many a gallant brave suiter had shee,
For none was soe comelye as pretty Besson,

I

Then Bessy shee sighed, and thus shee did say,
My father and mother I meane to obey;
First gett there good will, and be faithfull to mee,
And you shall enjoye your prettye Bessee.

To every one this answer shee made,
Wherefore unto her they joyfullye sayd,
This thing to fulfill wee all doe agree;
But where dwells thy father, my prettye Bessee?

My father, shee said, is soone to be seene:
The seely blind beggar of Bednall-greene,

That daylye sits begging for charitie,
He is the good father of pretty Bessee.

His markes and his tokens are knowen very well;
He alwayes is led with a dogg and a bell:
A seely olde man, God knoweth, is hee,
Yett hee is the father of pretty Bessee.

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