wife a profusion of jewels and other valuables, among which was her portrait drawn in green; plate, money, and other treasures." Some of these articles are maintained to be still in possession of the family, and also a portrait of Sir John, drawn in 1596, at the age of thirty-six, in which he wears the gold chain given him by his enamored prisoner. See The Times newspaper of April 30 and May 1, 1846, (the latter article cited in Notes and Queries, ix. 573,) and the Quarterly Review, Sept. 1846, Art. III. The literary merits of the ballad are also considered in the Edinburgh Review, of April, 1846.
Shenstone has essayed in his Moral Tale of Love and Honour to bring out "the Spanish Ladye and her Knight in less grovelling accents than the simple guise of ancient record," while Wordsworth, in a more reverential spirit, has taken this noble old romance as the model of his Armenian Lady's Love.
Will you hear a Spanish lady,
How she woo'd an English man?
Garments gay as rich as may be,
Decked with jewels, had she on;
Of a comely countenance and grace was she,5
And by birth and parentage of high degree.
As his prisoner there he kept her,
In his hands her life did lie;
Cupid's bands did tie her faster,
By the liking of an eye;10
In his courteous company was all her joy,
To favour him in any thing she was not coy.
At the last there came commandment
For to set the ladies free,
With their jewels still adorned,15
None to do them injury:
"Alas," then said this lady gay, "full woe is me;
O let me still sustain this kind captivity!
"O gallant captain, shew some pity
To a lady in distress;20
Leave me not within the city,
For to die in heaviness;
Thou hast set this present day my body free,
But my heart in prison strong remains with thee."
"How should'st thou, fair lady, love me,25
Whom thou know'st thy country's foe?
Thy fair words make me suspect thee;
Serpents are where flowers grow."
"All the evil I think to thee, most gracious knight,
God grant unto myself the same may fully light!30
"Blessed be the time and season,
That you came on Spanish ground;
If you may our foes be termed,
Gentle foes we have you found.
With our city, you have won our hearts each one;35
Then to your country bear away that is your own."
"Rest you still, most gallant lady,
Rest you still, and weep no more;