My Rofe fhall fafely here abide, With muficke passe the daye; Whilft I, amonge the piercing pikes, My Rose shall shine in pearle, and golde, Gay galliards here my love fhall dance, And you, fir Thomas, whom I truste To bee my loves defence; Be carefull of my gallant Rofe 115 120 And therewithall hee fetcht a figh, 125 As though his heart would breake; And Rofamonde, for very griefe, Not one plaine word could fpeake. And at their parting well they mighte 130 After that daye faire Rofamonde The king did fee no more, For when his grace had paft the feas, And into France was gone; With envious heart, queene Ellinor, To Woodstocke came anone, 135 And And forth fhe calles this truflye knighte, In an unhappye houre; Who with his clue of twined thread, Came from this famous bower. And when that they had wounded him, And went where ladye Rofamonde 140 But when the queene with stedfast eye 145 Beheld her beauteous face, She was amazed in her minde At her exceeding grace, Caft off from thee thofe robes, fhe faid, "Take pitty on my youthfull yeares, Faire Rofamonde did crye ; 150 I will I will renounce my finfull life, To range the world foe wide. And for the fault, which I have done, 165 Though I was forc'd theretoe, Preferve my life and punish mee As you thinke meet to doe." And with thefe words, her lillie handes And downe along her lovelye face Did trickle many a teare. Shee gave this comelye dame to drinke; Who tooke it in her hand, And from her bended knee arose, And on her feet did ftand: And cafting up her eyes to heaven, And drinking up the poifon ftronge, Her life the loft withalle. And when that death through everye limbe Had fhowde its greatest spite, 185 Her chiefeft foes did plaine confeffe Shee was a glorious wight, Her body then they did entomb, When life was fled away, At Godstowe, near to Oxford towne, As may be feene this day. 190 VI. QUEEN ELEANOR'S CONFESSION, "Eleanor the daughter and heiress of William duke of Guienne, and earl of Poitou, had been married fixteen years to Louis VII. king of France, and had attended him in a croifade, which that monarch commanded against the infidels; but having left the affections of her bufand, and even fallen under fome fufpicions of gallantry with a han jone faracen, Louis more delicate, than politic, procured a divorce from her, and restored her those rich provinces, which by her marriage fhe had annexed to the crown of France The young count of Anjou, afterwards Henry II. king of England, tho' at that time but in his nineteenth year, neither difcouraged by the dif parity of age, nor by the reports of Eleanor's gallantry, made Such fuccessful courtship to that princess, that be married her fix weeks after her divorce, and got poffien of all her dominions as a dowry. A marriage thus founded upon intereft was not likely to be very happy it happened accordingly. EleaVOL. II. K nora nor, cir who had difgufted her first husband by her gallantries, was no less offenfive to her fecond by her jealousy thus carrying to extremity, in the different parts of her life, every cumftance of female weakness. She had ferviral fons by Henry, whom he fpirited up to rebel against him; and endeavouring to escape to them disguised in man's apparel in 1173, fhe vas difcovered and thrown into a confinement, which seems to have continued till the death of her husband in 1189. She however furvived him many years: dying in 1204, in the fixth year of the reign of her youngest fon, John. See Hume's Hift. I. 260, 307. Speed, Stow, c. It is needlefs to obferve, that the following ballad (given from an old printed copy) is altogether fabulous; whatever gallantries Eleanor encouraged in the time of her first hus band, none are imputed to her in that of her fecond. Q UEENE Elianor was a ficke woman, The king calld downe his nobles all, queene, A boone, a boone; quoth earl marshall, And fell on his bended knee ; |