18 204 208 1 "These tydings to me are gladder," shee saies, "then tho I were a Queene, If I were sure itt wold endure ; but itt is often seene men will break promise [tho] thé speake words vpon the plaine. you shape some wyle, me to beguile, & steale ffrom me, I weene; then were the case worsse then euer itt was, a banished man." "I'm gladder than if I were Queen. But are not you beguiling me? If you leave me I am lost; for I love but you alone." 216 2" You shall not neede soe ffar to dreed, [you, (God defend !) sith you descend of so gret a linage ;] for westmoreland, as I vnderstand, itt is my owne heritage; "No, truly, Westmoreland is mine. I will thee bring in with a ringe; I'll wed you Thomas. The rose of Englande :' [page 423] Come hither, fiddler; What ballads are you seen in best? Be short, Sir. Fiddler. Under your mastership's correction, I can sing "Jonas his Crying-out against Coventry." Thom. Rare matters all! Excellent! Fid. "Maudlin the Merchant's Daughter," "The Devil and ye Dainty Dames." Thom. Rare still! Fid. "The landing of the Spaniards at Bow, Monsieur Thomas, act iii. sc. 3. THIS is one of the many pieces that compose the Bosworth Field and Stanley cycle. It relates in an allegorical manner how the Earl of Richmond returned to claim his right, and how he claimed it. There is some little confusion in this as in most other allegories; for indeed, to speak the language of parables coherently and with consistence is a matter of no ordinary difficulty. Nor is the allegorical treatment always maintained; the Rose suddenly becomes Earl Richmond. The piece is characterised by a certain vigour and earnestness. The writer gives himself up to his subject; he feels that that is great and grand. No doubt he was some Lancashire or Cheshire man, a vehement admirer of the Stanleys. Percy says that the song was written in "Henry 8th's lifetime." From the last stanzas it would 1 An allegorical Song on the Landing & Victory of King Henry 7th, with the brave Conduct of the Bailiff of Shrews bury, written in Henry 8th's lifetime. N.B. This song is quoted in Beaum Mons. Tho: p. 397.-P. seem to have been written earlier- we should suspect before the execution of Sir William Stanley in 1495. But the present copy is, we may be sure, much modernised. Vv. 57-90.-This incident is told, with additions, in "Dr. Taylor's MS." quoted apud Phillips' History and Antiquity of Shrewsbury. Thys yeare [runs the MS.] in the monthe of August 1485, Henry Earle of Rychemoonde came out of Bryttane towards England wyth a small companye & landyd at Mylford Haven in Wales nygh Pembrooke the 7th daye of August, having help Inoughe in England & so marchyng forward being stayed at no place untyll he came to the towne of Shrosberie, where the gates were shutt egainst by him, & the pullys let downe: so the Earle's messengers came to the gate to say the Welsh gate, commandynge them to open the gates to theyre right Kynge, and Maister Myttoon made answere being head bayley, & a stoute royste gentilman sayinge that he knew no kynge, but only Kynge Richard, whose lyffetenants he & hys fellows were; & before he should enter there, he should goe ouer hys belly: meaninge thereby that he would be slayne to the grounde, and so to roon over hym before he entird, and that he protestyd vehementlye uppon the Othe he had tacken. So the sayd Erle returnyd wyth hys companye backe agayne to a vylledge callyd Forton, 3 Myles and a halfe from Shrosberie, where he lay that night, & in the mornynge followynge there came Embassadors to speake with the Baylyff, requesting to passe quyetlye, and that the Erle theyre master dyd not meane to hurt the towne nor none therein, but to go to trye hys right, & that he promysed further that he would save his othe & hym & hys fellows harmless ; uppon thys they entered, and the sayd Mytton laye alonge the grounde, & hys belly uppwardes, & soe the sayd Erl stepped over him & saved hys othe; and so passing forthe & marching forwarde he came to Bosworth, whar the Battel was fought betwyxt hym & Kynge Richard, in which Kynge Richard was slayne. The difficulty in which the poor mayor found himself placed was of course of no rare occurrence in a period when the occupancy of the throne was perpetually disturbed. It was of so common occurrence, that a statute was passed in the eleventh year of Henry the Seventh's reign declaring that "subjects are bounden to serve their prince and sovereign lord for the time being in his wars for the defence of him and his land against every rebellion, power and might reared against him," and proceeding to enact that no person for the same "true service of allegiance" shall be "convict or attaint of high treason nor of other offences for that cause." The answer which the distressed official here makes is pretty much the same with that made by Herod under somewhat similar circumstances-made by him to Octavius after the fall of Antony, whose firm friend the Idumæan prince had been. (See Jos. Ant. xv. vi. 6; Bell. Jud. I. xx. 1.) Vv. 107, 108.-Compare in Theocritus' account of the combat between Amycus and Pollux (ed. Ahrens): ἔνθα πολύς σφισι μόχθος ἐπειγομένοισιν ετύχθη, THROUGHOUT: a garden greene & gay, a seemlye sight itt was to see how fflowers did flourish fresh and gay, In a gay garden, grew gay flowers. 4 & birds doe sing Melodiouslye 12 in the midst of a garden there sprange1 a tree & there vppon sprang the rose soe redd, this rose was ffaire, ffresh to behold, springing with many a royall Lance; a crowned King, with a crowne of gold this garden sprang.-P. 2 bough.-F. and in the the King of |