"And for the fault which I have done, 165 And with these words, her lillie handes 170 cup of deadlye poyson stronge, As she knelt on her knee, She gave this comelye dame to drinke; Who tooke it in her hand, And on her feet did stand, 175 And from her bended knee arose, 180 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 Arjou, 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, Stow, &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 womàn, The king calld downe his nobles all, "Earl Marshall, Ile go shrive the queene, "A boone, a boone;" quoth Earl Marshall, And fell on his bended knee; 10 "That whatsoever Queene Elianor saye, No harme therof may bee." "Ile pawne my landes," the king then cryd, 66 My sceptre, crowne, and all, That whatsoere Queen Elianor sayes, No harme thereof shall fall. 15 "Do thou put on a fryars coat, And Ile put on another; And we will to Queen Elianor goe, 20 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, "A boone, a boone, our gracious queene, "Are you two fryars of France," she sayd, "As I suppose you bee? 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, I will to you unfolde; Earl Marshall had my maidenhed, "Thats a vile sinne," then sayd the king; "May God forgive it thee! "Amen, amen," quoth Earl Marshall; With a heavye heart spake hee. 335 40 30 25 "The next vile thing that ever I did, To you Ile not denye; I made a boxe of poyson strong, 45 "Thats a vile sinne," then sayd the king, "May God forgive it thee!" 50 "Thats a vile sinne," then sayd the king; 55 66 'May God forgive it thee!" A catching of the balle? That is King Henryes youngest sonne, "His head is fashyon'd like a bull, His nose is like a boare, وو 70 "No matter for that," King Henrye cryd, "I love him the better therfore." The king pulled off his fryars coate, And appeared all in redde; She shrieked, and cryd, and wrung her hands, 75 And sayd she was betrayde. Ver. 63, 67. She means that the eldest of these two was by the Earl Marshall, the youngest by the king. The king lookt over his left shoulder, And a grimme look looked hee; "Earl Marshall," he sayd, "but for my oathe, 80 IX. The Sturdy Rock. This poem, subscribed M. T. [perhaps invertedly for T. Marshall'] is preserved in The Paradise of Daintie Devises. 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." 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 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. 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 1 Vide Athen. Ox. pp. 152, 316. |