"Yea fuch an one, as fuch was none, "Save only fhe was fuch : "Of Argentile to say the moft, I knew the lady very well, But worthles of fuch praife, The neatreffe faid: and mufe I do, A fhepheard thus fhould blaze 255 260 The coate' of beautie *. Credit me, "In troth, quoth he, I am not fuch, "As feeming I professe : "But then for her, and now for thee, * i. e. emblazon beauty's coat. Ed. 1597, 1602, 1612, read, Coote. « In Edels court fometimes in pompe, "Till love contrould the fame : "But now-what now ?-deare heart, how now? "What aileft thou to weepe ?" The damfell wept, and he was woe, And both did filence keepe. 280 I graunt, quoth fhe, it was too much His force could none withstand: Whofe fheep-hooke laid apart, he then ** During the Saxon heptarchy, the kingdom of Northum berland (confifting of 6 northern counties, befides part of Scotland) was for a long time divided into two leffer jovereignties, viz. Deira (called here Diria) which contained the fouthern parts, and Bernicia, comprehending those which Lay north. Only the three firft ftanzas of this fong are ancient; thefe are extracted from a small quarto MS. in the editor's poffeffion, written in the time of 2 Elizabeth. As they feemed to want application, this has been attempted by a modern hand, COR ORIN, moft unhappie fwaine, Little foode is on the plaine; Full of danger is the rocke: Wolfes and beares doe kepe the woodes; Yet to fhun all plaine, and hill, Hunger will as furely kill: How may then reliefe be found? Such is hapless Corins fate : LA 10 Spare to fpeke, and spare to speed; Yet her fight augments my paine. What may then poor Corin doe? For to linger thus in woe Is the lover's fharpest hell. 20 XXVI. JANE XXVI. JANE SHORE. Tho' fo many vulgar errors have prevailed concerning this celebrated courtezan, no character in hiftory has been more perfectly handed down to us. We have her portrait drawn by two masterly pens; the one has delineated the features of ber perfon, the other thofe of her character and story. Sir Thomas More drew from the life, and Drayton has copied an original picture of her. The reader will pardon the length of the quotations, as they ferve to correct many popular mistakes relating to her catastrophe. The first is from Sir Thomas MORE's hiftory of Rich. III. written in 1513, about thirty years after the death of Edw. IV. Now then by and by, as it wer for anger, not for cove"tife, the protector fent into the boufe of Shores wife (for "her bufband dwelled not with her) and spoiled her of al that ever he had, above the value of 2 or 3 thousand marks) "and fent her body to prifon. And when he had a while laide unto her, for the maner fake, that she went about to bewitch "him, and that she was of counsel with the lord chamberlein deftroy him: in conclufion when that no colour could faf“ten upon these matters, then he layd heinously to her charge "the thing that herselfe could not deny, that al the world wift was true, and that natheles every man laughed at to here "it then fo fodainly fo highly taken,—that he was naught of her body. And for thys caufe (as a goodly continent prince, clene and fautles of himself, fent cute of heaven into "this vicious world for the amendment of mens maners) be caufed the bishop of London to put her to open penance, going before the croffe in proceffion upon a fonday with a taper 66 66 |