The Doleful Death of Queen Jane,

WIFE TO KING HENRY VIII., AND THE MANNER OF PRINCE EDWARD'S BEING CUT OUT OF HER

WOMB.

ONE would think it almost impossible that | luit fallut fendre le Costé par lequel on tira there should be the least doubt amongst wri- son fruit le douzieme Jour d' Octobre a Winters, in any point so modern as the fact on desore- -Elle mourut douze jours aprés et which this ballad is founded, and yet if we fut enterré au Chateau de Windsore." search our historians, we shall hardly find any of them agreeing in the story of queen Jane. We shall not therefore pretend to advance anything concerning the manner of her death, but shall quote the opinions of some of our writers, that every one may be at liberty to judge for themselves.

WHEN as king Henry rul'd this land,
He had a queen I understand;
Lord Seymour's daughter fair and bright,
King Henry's comfort and delight:
Yet death, by his remorseless pow'r,
Did blast the bloom of this sweet Flow'r;
O mourn, mourn, mourn, fair ladies;
Jane your queen, the flower of England's

dead.

His former queen being wrapt in lead,
This gallant dame possess'd his bed;
Where rightly from her womb did spring
A joyful comfort to her king,
A welcome blessing to the land,
Preserv'd by God's most holy hand.
O mourn, &c.

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Anne of Bullen, Henry VIIIth's second
queen, being beheaded in the tower for adul-
tery, king Henry was married the very next
day to lady Jane; who, on the 12th of Octo-
ber (according to the opinion of a vast majo-
rity), was delivered of a son at Hampton-
court. But notwithstanding this, Sir John
Hayward asserts, that prince Edward was
not born until the 17th; and adds, "All re-
ports do constantly run, that he was not by
natural passage delivered into the world, but
that his mother's belly was opened for his
birth; and that she died of the incision the
fourth day following." Echard, in his history
of England, is of a very different opinion;
where talking of prince Edward's birth, he
tells us,
"That the joy of it was much allayed
by the departure of the admirable queen,
who, contrary to the opinion of many writers,
died twelve days after the birth of this prince,
having been well delivered, and without any
incision, as others have maliciously reported."
Lord Herbert of Cherbury, in his history of
Henry VIII., asserts, "That the queen died
two days after her delivery." And indeed he
has the authorities of Hollingshead and Stow
to support the assertion. Du Chesne, a na-
tive of France, who in his history of England
has undertaken to clear up this point, does
but perplex us the more: talking of these
times, he goes on thus: "La royne Jeanne
estoit alors enceinte & preste a enfanter, mais | If she cannot deliver'd be,
quand ce vint au terme de l'accouchement Yet save the flow'r, tho' not the tree.
elle eut tant de tourment & de peine, qu'il
O mourn, &c.

The queen in travail, pained sore
Full thirty woful days and more,
And no ways could deliver'd be,
As every lady wish'd to see:
Wherefore the king made greater moan, 20
Than ever yet his grace had shown.
O mourn, &c.

Then being something eas'd in mind,
His eyes a slumbering sleep did find;
Where dreaming he had lost a rose,
But which he could not well suppose;
A ship he had, a rose by name;
Oh, no! It was his royal Jane.
O mourn, &c.

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Being thus perplex'd with grief and care,
A lady to him did repair,

And said, O king! show us thy will;
The queen's sweet life to save or spill.

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BEING AN ACCOUNT OF HIS MATCHLESS MANHOOD AND BRAVE ADVENTURES DONE IN TURKEY, AND BY WHAT MEANS HE MARRIED THE KING'S Daughter, etc.

So taking up this young man,

He pardon'd him his life, And gave his daughter to him, To be his wedded wife:

Where then they did remain,
And live in quiet peace,
In spending of their happy days
In joy and love's increase.

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The Story of Ill May-day,

IN THE TIME OF KING HENRY VIII., AND WHY IT WAS SO CALLED; AND HOW QUEEN CATHERINE BEGGED THE LIVES OF TWO THOUSAND LONDON APPRENTICES.

THE following song is founded upon a fact; | their recorder, and was very much beloved by nor has the writer taken many liberties in them, could not with all their persuasions altering it, having only magnified and illus-restrain them, and force they had not suffitrated the story. The thing happened on the cient to oppose them; but furiously rushing May-eve, of the year 1517, the eighth of Henry on to the house of a very rich foreigner, VIIIth's reign. Numbers of foreigners were whom, as he was a great trader, they particuat that time settled in England, with particu- larly hated, they broke open his doors, killed lar privileges; and our author observes, ran every one they met with there, and rifled all away with the greatest part of the trade, the goods; and in other places they comwhilst several of the natives wanted. Exas- mitted divers other outrages. At length the perated at this, several were for encouraging news of this disorder reached the ears of the a tumult, but particularly one Lincolne, a earls of Shrewsbury and Surrey: they rose, broker, who hired a certain preacher, called and taking with them all the inns-of-court Dr. Bele, to inflame the people by his ser- men, they cleared the streets of the rioters, mons. The court perceived what the citizens and took numbers of them prisoners. Shortly would fain be at, but to prevent them, an after, the duke of Norfolk, and the earl of order was sent by the king and his privy- Surrey, with 1300 soldiers, came into the council to the lord-mayor and aldermen, that city, and joining the lord-mayor and alderthey required every housekeeper, under very men, proceeded against the criminals. Two severe penalties, to take care that all his ser- hundred and seventy-eight were found guilty, vants and his whole family should be within- but whether through the intercession of doors by nine at night; and this the magis- queen Catherine, or through a merciful distrates were to see punctually performed. This position of king Henry, not above twelve or order was for some time very well observed, fifteen suffered; Lincolne, with three or four but still they wanted only an opportunity of more of the most guilty were hanged, drawn rising, which an accident gave them. Two and quartered; about ten more were hanged apprentices playing in the streets about eleven on gibbets in the streets, and the lord-mayor, o-clock on the May-eve, the alderman of the aldermen and recorder appearing on the beward came to arrest them; but they thinking half of the rest at court, they received a check, they had more privilege on that night than as if some of the magistracy had connived at any other, began to call out to their fellows the riot; and the rest of the criminals were for assistance, and so many came running ordered to appear before the king at Westout of doors from the neighbourhood, that the minster in white shirts, and halters about alderman was forced to fly. Encouraged by their necks; and with them mixed a great this, and seeing their numbers increase as number of people, who were not before susthe rumour of their being up spread, they pected, that they might be entitled to a parhastened to the prisons where some had been don; which the king having granted, he also committed for abusing strangers, and these ordered the gibbets which had been erected, they first delivered. The lord-mayor and to be taken down, and the citizens were again sheriffs, and Sir Thomas Moore, who had been restored to favour.

PERUSE the stories of this land,

And with advisement mark the same,

And you shall justly understand

How ill May-day first got the name.

Such multitudes together went,

No warlike troops could them withstand,
Nor yet by policy them prevent,
What they by force thus took in hand:

For when king Henry th' eighth did reign, 5 Till at the last king Henry's power,

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This multitude encompass'd round,
Where with the strength of London's tower,
They were by force suppress'd and bound,

Or else the world will speak of me, And say queen Catherine was unkind, 35 And judge me still the cause to be,

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These young men did these fortunes find:
And so disrob'd from rich attires,
With hairs hang'd down, she sadly hies,
And of her gracious lord requires

A boon, which hardly he denies.

The lives (quoth she) of all the blooms
Yet budding green, these youths I crave;
O let them not have timeless tombs,
For nature longer limits gave:

45 In saying so, the pearled tears

Fell trickling from her princely eyes; Whereat his gentle queen he chears, And says, Stand up, sweet lady rise.

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