And for the fault which I have done, And with these words, her lillie handes But nothing could this furious queene Shee gave this comelye dame to drinke; And on her feet did stand: And casting up her eyes to heaven, And drinking up the poison stronge, And when that death through everye limbe Her chiefest foes did plaine confesse Shee was a glorious wight. Her body then they did entomb, When life was fled away, At Godstowe, neare to Oxford towne, As may be seene this day. VIII. QUEEN ELEANOR'S CONFESSION Eleanor, the daughter and heiress of William Duke of Guienne, and Count of Poictou, had been married sixteen years to Louis VII. King of France, and had attended him in a croisade, which that monarch commanded against the infidels: but having lost the affections of her husband, and even fallen under some suspicions of gallantry with a handsome Saracen, Louis, more delicate than politic, procured a divorce from her, and restored her those rich provinces, which by her marriage she had annexed to the crown of France. The young Count of Anjou, afterwards Henry II. King of England, though at 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 dowry. 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, The king calld downe his nobles all, "Earl marshall, Ile goe shrive the queene, A boone, a boone; quoth earl marshàll, Ile pawne my landes, the king then cryd, Do thou put on a fryars coat, And we will to Queen Elianor goe Thus both attired then they goe: When they came to Whitehall, The bells did ring, and the quiristers sing, When that they came before the queene Are you two fryars of France, she sayd, But if you are two Englishe fryars, You shall hang on the gallowes tree. We are two fryars of France, they sayd, As you suppose we bee, We have not been at any masse Sith we came from the sea. The first vile thing that ever I did Earl marshall had my maidenhed, Thats a vile sinne, then sayd the king, The next vile thing that ever I did, I made a boxe of poyson strong, Thats a vile sinne, then sayd the king, And I wish it so may bee. The next vile thing that ever I did, I poysoned fair Rosamonde, All in fair Woodstocke bower. Thats a vile sinne, then sayd the king; Amen, amen, quoth earl marshall Do you see yonders little boye, That is earl marshalls eldest sonne,1 And I love him the best of all. Do you see yonders little boye, That is King Henryes youngest sonne,1 His head is fashyon'd like a bull; No matter for that, King Henrye cryd, The king pulled off his fryars coate. She shrieked, and cryd, and wrung her hands, The king lookt over his left shoulder, And a grimme look looked hee, Earl marshall, he sayd, but for my oathe, IX. THE STURDY ROCK This poem, subscribed M. T. [perhaps invertedly for T. Marshall 2] is preserved in "The Paradise of Daintie Devises," quoted above in page 16. 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 Tho. Weelkes," Lond. 1597, 1600, 1608, 4to. Öne 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 These things seeme wondrous, yet more wondrous I, 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. 1 She means that the eldest of these two was by the earl marshal, the youngest by the king. Vid. Athen. Ox. p. 152. 316. II 149 *B 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 The stately stagge, that seemes so stout, Is caught at length in fowlers net : Yea, man himselfe, unto whose will Doth fade at length, and fall away. But vertue sits triumphing still Upon the throne of glorious fame: X. THE BEGGAR'S DAUGHTER OF BEDNALL GREEN 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," Series II. Book ii. No. 19. 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 |