22 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[2nd s. No 106., Jan. 9. '68. 



and would seem to intimate a depth of affection 

 inspired only by a youthful passion ; but this ro- 

 mantic interpretation is put to flight by the fact 

 that both parties had been married previously. 

 The Lady Isabel Despenser was born in 1400 (if 

 we may trust the date in Leland's Itinei-ary, vol. 

 vi. p. 85.), and wedded (betrothed ?) July 27, 

 1411 (according to the same authority and to 

 Dugdale), to Richard Beauchamp, Baron Berga- 

 venny, cousin of the Earl of Warwick, after- 

 wards created, in 1420, Earl of Worcester. He 

 died in 1422, leaving one daughter (born in 

 1415) by Isabel his wife, who was then, as his 

 widow, in the fulness of her " womanhood " and 

 " lusty chere " or beauty. Probably this lady 

 affords the ordy instance of a marriage with two 

 cousins, both bearing the same name. The Earl 

 of Warwick was himself a widower, and from the 

 nearness of the connexion he was obliged to ob- 

 tain a papal dispensation to marry the Countess 

 of Worcester. Dugdale indeed says that it was 

 not so much from love, as from his observing the 

 lady " to be a very great heir," that the marriage 

 took place ; but let us hope, that had the severe 

 genealogist read the Earl's plaintive Ballad, he 

 would not so have misjudged him. By this union 

 the large estates of Despenser and the title of 

 Bergavenny were added to those of AVarwick. 

 This marriage must have taken place in 1423, for 

 his son and heir, Henry Beauchamp (subsequently 

 created Duke of Warwick), was born in March, 

 1424, and we are hence enabled to fix with certainty 

 the date of the composition of this Ballad, since it 

 could not have been composed before 1422 (the 

 period of the decease of Isabel's first husband), 

 nor later than 1423. In 1437 the Earl of War- 

 wick was appointed Lieutenant-General of France 

 (Rynier, vol. v. pt. i. p. 42.), and having em- 

 barked for Normandy, accompanied by his wife 

 and son, a storm arose, the representation of 

 which forms one of the series of wonderful ar- 

 tistic pictorial illustrations of the life of this noble- 

 man by John Rous, the historian of Guy's Cliff, 

 preserved in the Cottonian MS. Julius E. IV., 

 engraved so inadequately by Strutt. The legend 

 over the picture says : — 



«* Here shewes how Erie Richard, when he w' his navy 

 toke the salt water, in short space rose a grevous tempest, 

 and drofe the shippes into diverse coostes, in so moche 

 that they al fered to be perisshed. And the noble Erie, 

 for-castynge *, lete bynde hym self aud his lady, and 

 Henr3'^ his sone and beire, after due of Warrevvik, to the 

 mast of the vessel, to th' entent that where ever they were 

 founde, they niyghte have beene buried togedres wor- 

 shipfully, by the knowlege of his cote armour and other 

 signcs appone him, but yet God preserved hem al, and 

 so retourned to Englond, and after to Normandy." 



The Earl died at Rouen, April 30, 1439, aud his 

 widow Isabel did not long survive him, for her 

 will is dated December 1st following, and was 



* Looking forward to the event. 



proved February 4th, 1439-40. An abstract of 

 it is given by Dugdale {Baronage, i. 247.), and in 

 it occurs the singular direction as to her monu- 

 ment at Tewkesbury, that her statue should be 

 made " al naked," with her hair cast backward, 

 according to the model in the hands of Thomas 

 Porchalion. At the end of John Rous's pictorial 

 history, referred to above, are half-length por- 

 traits of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, 

 and of his two wives, and their descendants to 

 about the year 1484, when his work was probably 

 completed. 



Before I conclude, I may remark that John 

 Shirley, the compiler of the volume which has 

 furnished me with the above Ballad, deserves to 

 be better known as an indefatigable collector of 

 the poetry of the fifteenth century, and somewhat 

 earlier. ^ Several of his manuscripts, containing 

 pieces chiefly by Chaucer and Lydgate, appear to 

 have belonged to John Stowe ; and I have my- 

 self examined four of them, namely, one in the 

 Ashmolean Museum, No. 59.; a second in Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, R. 3. 20. ; a third in the 

 Harleian Collection, No. 2251., and a fourth, the 

 subject of the present notice. Ritson incidentally 

 notices Shirley by name under the article of 

 " Richard Sellyng," in his Bibliographia Poetica, 

 but he was ignorant that Shirley was intitled to 

 admittance among the poets of that period. This 

 is proved by some verses (eleven stanzas of various 

 lengths) prefixed by him to the MS. 16,165, 

 enumerating the pieces contained in the volume. 

 His poetical genius, however, is not very striking, 

 as may be judged of by the following lines, wheli 

 speaking of Chaucer's prose translation of Bo- 

 ethius : — 



" Of Boece the hole translacyoun, 

 And phylosofyes consolac3'oun, 

 Laboured by Geffrey Chaucier, 

 Whiclie in oure wolgare hade never his pere, 

 Of eloquence retorryke 

 In Englisshe was never noon hym lyke." 



His testimony, however, is valuable as to the 

 estimation in which Chaucer was then held. Rit- 

 son says that Shirley died In 1456, at the age of 

 ninety, but he does not state whence he derives 

 this information. F. MADDiiN. 



British Museum. 



WALPOLIANA. 



Foote and the Duchess of Kingston. — There are 

 few heroines who figure more prominently in 

 Horace AValpole's amusing gossip than the Duchess 

 of Kingston. In Walpole's Letter to Mann, dated 

 Paris, Sept. 7, 1775, Walpole speaks of her con- 

 troversy with Foote on its being supposed that 

 the character of Lady Kitty Crocodile, in his 

 play of The Trip to Calais, was intended for the 

 Duchess. The play was interdicted by Lord Hert- 



