And forth she calles this truftye knighte, In an unhappy houre; Who with his clue of twined thread, Came from this famous bower. And when that they had wounded him, And went where ladye Rosamonde 140 But when the queene with ftedfaft eye 145 Beheld her beauteous face, She was amazed in her minde At her exceeding grace. Caft off from thee thofe robes, the faid, 150 "Take pitty on my youthfull yeares, Faire Rofamonde did crye ; And lett mee not with poison stronge Enforced bee to dye. I will renounce my finfull life, And for the fault which I have donę, 165 Preferve my life, and punish mee As you thinke meet to doc.” And with these words, her lillie handes She wrunge full often there ; And downe along her lovelye face Did trickle many a teare, But nothing could this furious queeņe Therewith appeased bee; The cup of deadlye poyfon ftronge, As the knelt on her knee, Shee gave this comelye dame to drinke; Who tooke it in her hand, And from her bended knee arose, And on her feet did stand: And casting up her eyes to heaven, And drinking up the poifon ftronge, Her life fhe loft withalle, And 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, At Godstowe, neare to Oxford towne, As may be seene this day. 190 VIII. QUEEN ELEANOR'S CONFESSION. "Eleanor, the daughter and heiress of William duke of Guienne, and count 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 loft the affections of her husband, and even fallen under fome fufpicions of gallantry with a handsome Saracen, Louis, more delicate than politic, procured a divorce from her, and restored her thofe 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 discouraged by the difparity of age, nor by the reports of Eleanor's gallantry, made fuck fuccessful courtship to that princess, that he married her fix weeks after her divorce, and got Poffeffion of all her dominions as a dowery. A marriage thus founded upon intereft was not likely to be very happy: it bappened happened accordingly. Eleanor, who had difgufted her firft bufband by her gallantries, was no less offenfive to her fecond by her jealoufy: thus carrying to extremity, in the different parts of her life, every circumftance of female weakness. She had feveral fons by Henry, whom the Spirited up to rebel against him; and endeavouring to escape to them difguifed in man's apparel in 1173, she was discovered and thrown into a confinement, which feems to have contitinued 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. 4to. Vol. 1. p. 260. 307. Speed, Stow, &c. It is needless 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 bufband, none are imputed to her in that of her fecond. UEENE Elianor was a ficke woman, QUEEN And afraid that she should dye: Then she fent for two fryars of France The king calld downe his nobles all, queene, A boone, a boone; quoth earl marshall, And fell on his bended knee ; 10. Te Ile pawne my landes, the king then cryd, Thus both attired then they goe: The bells did ring, and the quirifters fing, When that they came before the queene A boone, a boone, our gracious queene, Are you two fryars of France, fhe fayd, As I fuppofe you bee? 20 25 30 But if you are two Englishe fryars, You fhall hang on the gallowes tree. We are two fryars of France, they fayd, As you fuppofe we bee, We have not been at any maffe Sith we came from the fea. -35 The |