ELEGIA IN COMITISSAM DE DERBY.
This illustrious and excellent lady, born in 1441, was Margaret, the only child of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset. Her first husband was Edmund, Earl of Richmond, who died in 1456, a little more than a year after their marriage, the sole issue of which was Henry, afterwards King Henry the Seventh. Her second husband was Sir Henry Stafford, second son of Humphrey, the great Duke of Buckingham. Her third husband was Thomas Lord Stanley, afterwards the first Earl of Derby of his name. Having survived him, as also her son King Henry, she died June 29, 1509, in her 69th year, and was buried in the magnificent chapel then lately erected in Westminster Abbey.
Page 195. v. 5. polyandro] Polyandrum or polyandrium, (properly, multorum commune sepulchrum—πολυάνδριον)—“Interdum et sæpius apud ævi inferioris scriptores sumitur pro monumento aut sepulcro unius hominis.” Du Cange’s Gloss.—Here it means, of course, the tomb of Henry vii.—Whiting has anglicised the word in a poem appended to his Albino and Bellama, 1638;
“King Ethelbert’s clos’d in his Poliander.”
Sig. H 7.
v. 7. Titus hanc, &c.] i. e. Livy, who gives an account of Tanaquil, wife of Tarquinius Priscus: see his Hist. i. 34, &c.—“Tanaquilem Sidonius Apollinaris et Ausonius pro egregia uxore.” Cassellii Var. lib. i. c. xiii. p. 210 (Gruteri Lampas, iii.).
v. 19. Abyron] i. e. Abiram: see Numbers, ch. xvi.
Page 196. v. 25. perituræ parcere chartæ] Juvenal, Sat. i. 18.
—— phagolœdoros] i. e. (φαγολοιδόρους) convicia et maledicta devorantes.
WHY WERE YE CALLIOPE, &c.
were, i. e. wear: concerning this dress, worn, it would seem, by Skelton as Laureat, see Account of his Life and Writings.
Page 197. v. 16. somdele sere] i. e. somewhat dry, withered.
v. 17. fayne] i. e. glad, willing.