I wift, from Robin Hood: The Sheriff is gone; his doughty Men O ftay, O ftay, Will. Stutly faid; O ill betide you, faid Robin Hood, I little thought, Will. Stutly faid, For to have met with Little John, Thus Stutly he was at Liberty set, And once again, my Fellows dear, We shall in the green Woods meet; Where we will make our Bow-strings twan Mufick for us moft sweet: Hey down, derry, derry down. X XIII. A Warning-Piece to England, against Pride and Wickedness: Being the Fall of Queen Eleanor, wife to Edward the First, King of England; who, for her Pride, by God's Judgments, funk into the Ground at Charing-Cross,and rofe at Queen-Hithe. To the Tune of, Gentle and Courteous. I never was more furprized, than at the Sight of the following Ballad; little expecting to fee Pride and Wickedness laid to the Charge of the moft Affable and most Virtuous of Women: Whofe glorious Actions are not recorded by our Hiftorians only; for no Foreign Writers, who have touch'd upon those Early Times, have in Silence pass'd over this Illuftrious Princefs; and every Nation rings with the Praife of Eleonora Isabella, of Caftile, King Edward's Queen. Father Le Moine, who (in his Gallerie des Femmes Fortes) has fearch'd all ChriftenF 7 dom dom round, (from its very Infancy, to the laft Age) for Five Heroines, very partially beftows the first Place upon one of his own Country-Women; but gives the Second, with a far fuperior Character, to this Queen. That my Readers may have fome Idea of her, I shall take notice of one Action, in which her Virtue,her Conjugal Fidelity, and her Heroick Bravery, will at once appear. This Lady, who was Sifter to the King of Caftile, was married to Prince Edward, Son to King Henry the Third. The English, fome Timeafter, undertaking the Holy War, Prince Edward went thither in Perfon, accompanied by his Princefs, (who never forfook him) his Brother Edmund, and feveral of the Chief Nobility. There he was wounded with a poifon'd Arrow, as fome relate; or, as our own Hiftorians tell it, he was ftabb'd in feveral Places with a poifon'd Knife, by a treacherous Saracen. Upon examining his Wounds, his Phyficians judg'd 'em mortal, unless somebody would refolve to die, to fave his Life; which might be effected, by their fucking the Poifon out of the Wounds. At the hearing of this, Eleonora flew towards her Husband, with all the eager Hafte of an impatient Lover; and unbinding his Wounds, he began to fuck 'em her felf; unwilling, when her Husband's Safety might be wrought, to trust the im portant portant Tafktoamy oneelfe, left they should do their Work by Halves. Heaven, doubtless, pleaf'd with this pious Act, took the Princefs under itsimmediate Protection; nor had the Poifon, which fhe fuck'd, the leaft Effect upon her; but he return'd with her Huf band, and reign'd in England feveral Years. There are many Things befides in this Ballad, which, if we believe 'em faid of Queen Eleanor, must appear ridiculous: As, her Inventing of Coaches; which were not known in England, till above Two Hundred and Fifty Years after her Death: Her beingjealous of the Lord-Mayor's Wife, because she had a Child; which Eleanor could no ways be fuppos'd to be, having Thirteen by King Edward: And the Manner and Place of her Dying; which, in fact, was at Herdeley in Lincolnshire, as he was accompanying the King her Husband towards Scotland; for he always was the Kind Com-. panion of his Travels. Her Behaviour at her Death, is recommended as an Example to Pofterity: And this feems confirm'd by her Epitaph; which, I believe, may be no difagreeable Entertainment to my Learned Readers. Hic Soror inclyta Regis, EDWARDI Primi Wallorum Cui Pater HENRICUS Tertius Hanc ille Uxorem gnato petit: Legati Munus Sufcepit ipfe bono. Germanam EDWARDO Dos præclara fuit Munere dives erat: Pia, Prole beata, DISCE MORI. |