IV. Q. ELIZABETH's VERSES, WHILE PRISONER AT WOODSTOCK, WRIT WITH CHARCOAL ON A SHUTTER, -are preferved by Hentzner, in that part of his Travels, which has lately been reprinted in fo elegant a manner at STRAWBERRY-HILL. In Hentzer's book they were wretchedly corrupted, but are here given as emended by his ingenious Editor. The old orthography, and one or two ancient readings of Hentzner's copy are here restored. H, Fortune! how thy reftleffe wavering state Hath fraught with cares my troubled witt! Witnes this prefent prifonn, whither fate Could beare me, and the joys I quitt. A.D.M,D,LV. ELIZABETHE, PRISONNER. V. FAIR • Ver. 4. Could beare, is an ancient idiom, equivalent to Did bear or Hath borne. See below the Beggar of Bednal Green, ver. 57. Could fay. V. FAIR ROSAMON D. Most of the circumstances in this popular story of king Henry II and the beautiful Rafamond have been taken for fact by our English Hiftorians; who unable to account for the unnatural conduct of queen Eleanor in ftimulating her fons to rebellion, have attributed it to jealousy, and fuppofed that Henry's amour with Rofamond was the object of that paffion. 66 Our old English annalists feem, most of them, to have followed Higden the monk of Chester, whofe account with fome enlargements is thus given by Stow. "Rofamond the fayre daughter of Walter, lord Clifford, concubine to Henry II. (poisoned by queen Elianor, as fome thought) dyed at "Woodstocke [A. D. 1177.] where king Henry had made for her a house of wonderfull working; fo that no man or woman might come to her, but he that was inftructed by the king, or fuch as were right fecret with him touching the matter. This houfe after fome was named Labyrinthus, or Dedalus worke, which was wrought like unto knot in a garden, called a Maze*; but it was commonly faid, that laftly the queene came to her by a clue of thridde, "or filke, and jo dealt with her, that she lived not long af"ter: but when shee was dead he was buried at Godfow in "an houfe of nunnes, befide Oxford, with thefe verfes upon " her tombe, 66 a "Hic jacet in tumba, Rofa mundi, non Rosa munda; "Non redolet, fed olet, quæ redolere folet. * Confifting of vaults under ground, arched and walled with brick and Alone, according to Drayton. See note on his Epift. of Rofam. "In English thus: "The rofe of the world, but not the cleane flowre, Though he were feweete, now foully doth free flinke. "Amirrour good for all men, that on her thinke." Store's Annals, Ed. 1631. p. 154′′ How the queen gained admittance into Rofamond's bower is differently related. Hollingshed fpeaks of it, as "the "common report of the people, that the queene.... founde "bir out by a filken thread, which the king had drave after him out of hir chamber with his foot, and deak "with hir in fuch sharpe and cruell wife, that she lived "not long after." Vol. I. p. 115. On the other hand, in Speede's hift. we are told that the jealous queen found her out by a clew of filke, fallen from Rofamunds lappe, as fee fate to take ayre, and fuddenly fleeing from the fight of the fearcher, the end of her filke fastened to her foot, and the "clew ftillunwinding, remained behinde: which the followed, till fee had found what shee fought, and upon Rofamund fo vented her spleene, as the lady lived not long after." 3d Edit. p. 509. Our ballad-maker with more ingenuity, and probably, as much truth, tells us the clue was gained, by furprife, from the knight, who was left to guard her bower. 66 queene It is obfervable that none of the old writers attribute Rofamond's death to poifon, (Stow, above, mentions it meerly as a flight conjecture); they only give us to underfand, that the queen treated her harshly; with furious menaces, we may fuppofe, and sharp expoftulations, which had juch effec on her spirits, that fee did not long furvive it. Indeed on ber ber tombstone, as we learn from a perfon of credit, among other fine fculptures, was engraven the figure of a cup. This, which perhaps at first was an accidental ornament, might in after times fuggeft the notion that he was poisoned; at leaft this conftruction was put upon it, when the ftone came to be demolished after the nunnery was diffolved. The account is, that the tombstone of Rofamund Clifford was "taken up at Godftow, and broken in pieces, and that upon "it were interchangeable weavings drawn out and decked "with rofes red and green, and the picture of the CUP, out of which she drank the poyfon given her by the queen, carved "in ftone. Rofamond's father having been a great benefactor to the nunnery of Godstow, where she had also refided herself in the innocent part of her life, her body was conveyed there, and buried in the middle of the choir; in which place it remained till the year 1191, when Hugh bishop of Lincoln caufed it to be removed. The fact is recorded by Hoveden, a cotemporary writer, whofe words are thus tranflated by Stor. 66 Hugh bishop of Lincolne came to the abbey of 66 nunnes, called Godftow, and when he had entred "the church to pray, he faw a tombe in the middle of the quire, covered with a pall of filke, and fet about with lights of waxe and demanding whofe tombe it was, he was answered, that it was the tombe of Rojamond, that was fome time lemman to Henry II. . who for the "love of her had done much good to that church. Then quoth "the bishop, take out of this place the harlot, and bury her "without the church, left chriftian religion fhould grow "in contempt, and to the end, that through example of her, "other women being made afraid may beware, and keepè themselves from unlawfull and advouterous company with "men." Annals, p. 159. 66 66 *Tho. Allen of Gloc. Hall, Oxon. who died in 1632, aged 90. See Hearne's rambling difcourfe concerning Rofamond, at the end of Gul. Neubrig Hift. Vol. 3. p. 739. 66 Hiftory farther informs us, that king John repaired Godftow nunnery, and endowed it with yearly revenues, “that thefe holy virgins might releeve with their prayers, the "foules of his father king Henrie, and of lady Rojamund "there interred." * In what fituation her remains were found at the diffolution of the nunnery we learn from Leland, " Rofamundes tumbe at Godstowe nunnery was "taken up [of] late; it is a flone with this infcription TUMBA ROSAMUNDE. Her bones were clofid in lede, "and withyn that bones were clofyd yn lether. When it was opened a very wete Smell came out of it." See Hearne's difcourfe above quoted, written in 1718; at which time, he tells us, were fill feen by the pool at Woodstock the foundations of a very large building, which were believed to be the remains of Refamond's labyrinth. To conclude this (perhaps too prolix) account, Henry had trvo fons by Rofamond, from a computation of whofe ages, a modern hiftorian has endeavoured to invalidate the received fory. These were William Longue-efpè (or Long-sword) earl of Salisbury, and Gefferey bishop of Lincolnet. Gefferey was the younger of Rofamond's fons, and yet is faid to bare been twenty years old at the time of his election to that fee in 1173. Hence this writer concludes, that king Henry fell in love with Rofamond in 1149, when in king Stephen's reign he came over to be knighted by the king of Scots; he aljo thinks it probable that Henry's commerce with this lady "broke off upon his marriage with Eleanor [in 1152.] and "that the young lady by a natural effect of grief and refentment at the defection of her lover, entered on that occafior "into the nunnery of Godftowe, where she died probably before the rebellion of Henry's fons in 1173." [Carte's hist. Vol. I. p. 652.] But let it be obferved, that Henry was but hixteen old when he came over to be knighted; that he Aaid but eight months in this ifland, and was almost all the time with the king of Scots; that he did not return back to England R. of Henry II. in Speed's Hift. writ by Dr. Barcham, Dean † Afterwards archb. of York. years of Bocking. |