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All the Nobles were well pleased,

And the Ladies frank and free ; For her Behaviour always gave her Title to her Dignity.

At length the King and Queen were laid Together in a filent Tomb;

Their Royal Son their Sceptre fway'd, Who govern'd in his Father's Room.

Long in Glory did he flourish,

Wealth and Honour to increase;

Still poffeffing fuch a Bleffing,

That he liv'd and reign'd in Peace.

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The Woeful

Lamentation of Jane

Shore, a Goldfmith's Wife in Lon

don, fometime King King

Fourth's Concubine.

Edward

the

To the Tune of Live with me, &c.

The Heroine of the following Song was a Citizen's Daughter, a young Gentlewoman whofe Youth, Beauty and Virtue were her chief Portion. Shewas fought in Marriageby one Matthew Shore, a Goldsmith in Lombardftreet, but was, they affure us, very averse to the Match, he being then an Elderly Man; but as he was vastly rich, her Friends importun'd her, and she at length marry'd him; and appearing now in an open Shop, and in feveral Parts of the City, I fuppofe, more frequently than he was wont to do, the Fame of her Beauty foon fpread Abroad, and reach'd the Ears of King Edward IV. who made his Addresses and won her. Upon which her Husband left England, and she immediately went to Court, where she liv'd in the most gay and fumptuous manner imaginable, nothing but Feafts and Dancing; and the King was wont to fay, that a merrier Harlot never lived. Several Hiftorians tell us, that during Edward's Life-time H

10

The

She never employ'd her Power to do any one an Injury or ill Office, but made it her whole Study to do all the Good she could; that he comforted the Diftrefs'd, reliev'd the Poor, cloath'd the Naked, and fuccour'd the Widow and Orphans. After the Death of Edward, he was kept by the Lord Haftings till his dying Day, after which her Houfe was rifled by the Sheriffs of London, all fhe had feiz'd upon, and fhe forc'd to do Publick Penance in a White Sheet by the Bishop of London's Order, marching to her Parish Church in her Ghoftly Drefs, with a lighted Taper in her Hand. The Writers of that Age tell us, fhe fuffer'd thus for not complying with Richard's Request in moving Haftings to forfake Edward's Children, and embrace his Caufe: But there are others who differ very much in Opinion from thefe, and who will not allow Richard to have been that Tyrant he is generally reprefented. To prove this they urge that the Nation was overwhelm'd with Ignorance, and that fcarce a Man in it was able to write, the Monks excepted, who therefore had it wholly in their Power to reprefent People just as they pleas'd; that neither Richard the Second nor the Third were great Friends to Churchmen, and that for this Reafon their Accounts cannot be look'd upon as Authentick, being more grounded upon Malice and Refentment than upon direct Fact. They add, that fome of

the

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