1

"In English thus :

"The rofe of the world, but not the cleane flowre,
"Is now here graven; to whom beauty was lent
"In this grave full darke nowe is her bowre,
"That by her life was fwecte and redolent :
But now that he is from this life blent,
Though he were fweete, now foully doth she flinke.
“A mirrour good for all men, that on her thinke.”

Stowe's Annals, Ed. 1631. p. 154.

How the queen gained admittance into Rofamond's bower is differently related. Hollinghed Speaks of it, as "the common report of the people, that the queene • . founde hir out by a filken thread, which the king had drawne after him out of hir chamber with his foot, and dealt with bir in fuch sharpe and cruell wife, that she lived not long after." Vol. III. p. 115. On the other hand, in Speede's Hift. we are told that the jealous queen found Ber out" by a clew of filke, fallen from Rofamund's lappe, as fhee fate to take ayre, and fuddenly fleeing from the fight of the fearcher, the end of her filke faftened to her foot, and the clew ftill unwinding, remained bebinde "which the queene followed, till free bad found what he fought, and upon Rojamund fo vented her spleene, as the lady lived not long after." 3d Edit. p. 509. Our ballad maker with more ingenuity, and probably as much truth, tells us the clue was gained, by furprife, from the knight, who was left to guard her bwer.

It is obfervable, that none of the old writers attributeRofamond's death to poifon, (Stow, above, mentions it meerly as a flight conjecture); they only give us to underftand, that queen treated her barfbly; with furious menaces, we may juppofe, and sharp expoftulations, which had fuch effect on her fpirits, that he did not long furvive it. Indeed on ber

the

A

ANCIENT POEMS.

145

her tombstone, as we learn from a perfon of credit, among
other fine fculptures, was engraven the figure of a cup.
This, which perhaps at first was an accidental ornament,
PA
might in after times fuggeft the notion that she was poisoned
at least this construction was put upon it, when the ftene
came to be demolished after the nunnery was diffolved. The
account is, that "the tombstone of Rofamund Clifford was
"taken up at Gòdftow, and broken in pieces, and that upon
"it were interchangeable weavings drawn out and decked
"with rofes red and green, and the picture of the CUP, out
of which he drank the poifon given her by the queen,
"carved in ftone."

Rofamond's father having been a great benefactor to the nunnery of Godflow, where the bad alfo refided herself in the innocent part of her life, her body was conveyed there, and buried in the middle of the choir; in which place it remained till the year 1191, when Hugh bishop of Lincoln caused it to be removed. The fact is recorded by Hoveden, a contemporary writer, whofe words are thus tranflated by Storv. 66 Hugh bishop of Lincolne came to the abbey of "nunnes, called Godflow, and when he had entred "the church to pray, he faw a tombe in the middle of the quire, covered with a pall of filke, and Jet about with lights of waxe: and demanding whofe tombe it was, he was answered, that it was the tombe of Rosamond, that was fome time lemman to Henry II. who for the "love of her had done much good to that church. Then quoth the bishop, take out of this place the harlot, and bury her without the church, left chriftian religion fhould grow in contempt, and to the end that, through example of "her, other women being made afraid may beware, and keepe themselves from unlawfull and advouterous company " with men." Annals, p. 159.

66

"that

Hiftory further informs us, that king John repaired Godftow nunnery, and endowed it with yearly revenues, VOL. II.

L

"these

+ Tho. Allen of Gloc. Hall, Oxon. who died in 1632, aged 90. See Hearne's rambling difcourfe concerning Rofamond, at the end of Gul. Neubrig Hift. vol. 3. p. 739.

perhaps only

the Chalice

66

....

thefe holy virgins might releeve with their prayers, the "foules of his father king Henrie, and of lady Rosamund "there interred." In what fituation her remains were found at the diffolution of the nunery, we learn from Leland, Rofamundes tumbe at Godftowe nunnery was "taken up [of] late; it is a fione with this infcription, "TUMBA ROSAMUNDÆ. Her bones were clofid in lede, "and withyn that bones were clofyd yn lether. When it was opened a very frete smell came out of it.|| Hearne's difcourfe above quoted, written in 1718; at which time he tells us, were ftill feen by the pool at Woodstock the foundations of a very large building, which were believed to be the remains of Rofamond's labyrinth.

66

See

To conclude this (perhaps too prolix) account, Henry had two fons by Rofamond, from a computation of whofe ages, a modern hiftorian has endeavoured to invalidate the received flory. These were William Longue-efpè; (or Long-fword) earl of Salisbury, and Geoffrey bishop of Lincolne . Geoffrey was the younger of Refamond's fons, and yet is faid to have been twenty years old at the time of his election to that fee in 1173. Hence this writer concludes, that king Henry fell in love with Rofamond in 1149, when in king Stephen's reign he came over to be knighted by the king of Scots; he alfo thinks it probable that Henry's commerce with this lady "broke off upon his marriage with Eleanor [in 1152} and "that the young lady, by a natural effect of grief and refentment at the defection of her lover, entered on that occafion "into the nunnery of Godftowe, where she died probably before the rebellion of Henry's fans in 1173." [Carte's hift. Vol. I. p. 652.] But let it be observed, that Henry was but fixteen years old when he came over to be knighted; that he faid but eight months in this island, and was almost all the time with the king of Scots; that he did not return back to England till 1153,the year after his marriage with Eleanor; and that no writer drops the leaft hint of Rofamond's having ever been abroad with her lover, nor indeed is it probabie that a boy of fixteen fhould venture to carry over a mistress to

66

bis

↑ Vid. Reign of Henry II. in Speed's Hift. writ ly Dr. Barcham Dean of Bocking. || Afterwards Archbishop of Yuk, temp. Rich. I.

additional Note

"This would have passed for miraculous, if it happened in the tomb of any clinical person, & a proof of his diing a Saint. Ital

-printed (with conjectural cmendations) from four....