[576] [Bessie of Bednall, Percy folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, vol. ii. p. 279.]
[577] He was one of Q. Elizabeth's gent. pensioners, at a time when the whole band consisted of men of distinguished birth and fortune. Vid. Ath. Ox.
[578] Perhaps "blythe."
XI.
FANCY AND DESIRE.
By the Earl of Oxford.
Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford, was in high fame for his poetical talents in the reign of Elizabeth; perhaps it is no injury to his reputation that few of his compositions are preserved for the inspection of impartial posterity. To gratify curiosity, we have inserted a sonnet of his, which is quoted with great encomiums for its "excellencie and wit," in Puttenham's Arte of Eng. Poesie,[579] and found intire in the Garland of Good-will. A few more of his sonnets (distinguished by the initial letters E. O.), may be seen in the Paradise of Daintie Devises. One of these is intitled The Complaint of a Lover, wearing blacke and tawnie. The only lines in it worth notice are these:—
"A crowne of baies shall that man 'beare'
Who triumphs over me;
For black and tawnie will I weare,
Which mourning colours be."
We find in Hall's Chronicle, that when Q. Catharine of Arragon dyed, Jan. 8, 1536, "Queen Anne (Bullen) ware yellowe for the mourning." And when this unfortunate princess lost her head, May 19, the same year, "on the ascencion day following, the kyng for mourning ware whyte." Fol. 227, 228.