The armes, the which that Cupide bare,
Were pearced hartes with teares befprent,
In filver and fable to declare

The ftedfast love, he alwayes ment.

There might you fe his band all dreft
In colours like to white and blacke,
With powder and with pelletes prest
To bring the fort to fpoile and facke.

Good-wyll, the maifter of the shot,
Stode in the rampire brave and proude,
For fpence of pouder he spared not
Affault! affault! to crye aloude.

There might you heare the cannons rore;
Eche pece discharged a lovers loke;
Which had the power to rent, and tore
In any place whereas they toke.

Then pushed fouldiers with their pikes,

And halberders with handy ftrokes ; The argabushe in fleshe it lightes,

And duns the ayre with mifty smokes.

And, as it is the fouldiers ufe.

When fhot and powder gins to want,
I hanged up my flagge of truce,
And pleaded for my livès grant.

When Fanfy thus had made her breche,
And Beauty entred with her band,
With bagge and baggage, fely wretch,
I yelded into Beauties hand.

Then Beautie bad to blow retrete,
And every fouldier to retire,

And Mercy wyll'd with spede to fet

Me captive bound as prisoner.

Madame, quoth I, fith that this day

Hath ferved you at all affayes,

I yeld to you without delay

Here of the fortreffe all the kayes.

And fith that I have ben the marke,
At whom you shot at with your eye;
Nedes must you with your handy warke
Or falve my fore, or let me die.

35

40

45

50

55

66

66

*** SINCE the foregoing Song was first printed off, reas fons have occurred, which incline me to believe that Lord VAUX the poet, was not the Lord NICHOLAS VAUX, who died in 1523, but rather a fucceffor of his in the title.For in the first place it is remarkable that all the old writers mention Lord Vaux the poet, as contemporary or rather pofterior to Sir THOMAS WYAT, and the E. of SURREY, neither of which made any figure till long after the death of the firft Lord Nicholas Vaux. Thus Puttenham in his "Art of English Poefie, 1589." in p. 48. having named SKELTON, adds, "In the latter end of the fame kings raigne [Henry VIII.] Sprong up a new company of courtly Makers, poets] of whom Sir THOMAS WYAT "th' elder, and Henry Earl of SURREY were the two chieftaines, who having travailed into Italie, and there tafted the feet and stately measures and ftile of the "Italian poefie.. greatly polished our rude and homely manner of vulgar poefie ... In the SAME TIME, or NOT LONG AFTER was the Lord NICHOLAS VAUX, a man of much facilitie in vulgar makings †."-Webbe in his Difcourfe of English Poetrie, 1586. ranges them in the following order, "The E. of Surrey, the Lord VAUX, Norton, Briftow." And Gascoigne in the place quoted in the 1ft vol. of this work, [B. II. No. II.] mentions Lord VAUX after Surrey. Again, the file and measure of Lord VAUX's pieces feem too refined and polished for the age of Henry VII. and rather refemble the fmoothness and harmony of Surrey and Wyat, than the rude metre of Skelton and Hares:- -But what puts the matter out of all doubt, in the British Mufeum is a copy of his poem, Ilothe that I did love, [vid. vol. 1. ubi fupra] with this title, “ Adyttye or fonet "made by the Lord VAUS, in the time of the noble Queene "Marye, reprefenting the image of Death." Harl. MSS. No. 1703. §. 25.

66

It is evident then that Lord VAUX the poet was not he that flourished in the reign of Henry vij. but either his fon, or grandjon: and yet according to Dugdale's Baronage, the former

ti. e. Compofitions in English.

was

was named THOMAS, and the latter WILLIAM: but this difficulty is not great, for none of the old writers mention the chriftian name of the poetic Lord Vaux*, except Puttenham; and it is more likely that he might be mistaken in that Lord's name, than in the time in which he lived, who was fo nearly his contemporary.

THOMAS Lord VAUX of Harrowden in Northamptonshire was fummoned to parliament in 1531. When he died, does not appear; but he probably lived till the latter end of Queen Mary's reign, fince his fun

WILLIAM was not fummoned to parl. till the last year of that reign, in 1558. This Lord died in 1595. See Dugdale, V. 2. p. 304.— -Upon the whole I am inclined to

believe that Lord THOMAS was the POET.

In the Paradife of Dainty Devises, 1596, he is called fimply "Lord Vaux the elder."

IX.

SIR ALDINGAR.

This old fabulous legend is given from the Editor's folia MS, with a few conjectural emendations, and the infertion of 3 or 4 ftanzas to fupply defects in the original copy.

It has been fuggefted to the Editor, tha: the Author of this Poem feems to have had in his eye the ftory of Gunhilda, who is fometimes called Eleanor, and was married to the Emperor (bere called King) Henry.

Ο

UR king he kept a false stewàrde,

Sir Aldingar they him call;

A falfer steward than he was one,

Servde not in bower nor hall.

VOL. II.

E

He

He wolde have layne by our comelye queene,

Her deere worshippe to betraye:

Our queene fhe was a good woman,
And evermore fayd him naye.

Sir Aldingar was wrothe in his mind,
With her hee was never content,
Till traiterous meanes he colde devyse,
In a fyer to have her brent.

There came a lazar to the kings gate,

A lazar both blinde and lame: He took the lazar upon his backe,

And on the queenes bed him layne.

“Lye still, lazàr, wheras thou lyest,

"Looke thou

go not hence away;

"Ile make thee a whole man and a found

"In two howers of the day."

Then went him forth fir Aldingar,

And hyed him to our king:

"If I might have grace, as I have space,

"Sad tydings I could bring."

15.

20

Saye on, faye on, fir Aldingar,

25

Saye on the foothe to mee.

"Our queene hath chosen a new new love,

"And thee will have none of thee.

"If