AN "ANCIENT MARKET-TO WNE " 179 



" I saw young Harry, with his beaver on, 

 His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd, 

 Rise from the ground like featherM Mercury, 

 And vaulted with such ease into his seat 

 As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds, 

 To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus, 

 And witch the world with noble horsemanship." 



But Southampton's love for his " faire Elizabeth/' 

 whom he is reported to have " courted with too much 

 familiarity," cost him the favour of the Queen, who, 

 after her usual manner, bitterly opposed the marriage. 

 At length one Sunday afternoon the lovers waited 

 on the Queen to know her resolution in the matter, 

 who, after the space of two hours, sent out the curt 

 message that she was " sufficiently resolved." The 

 Earl was further ordered to leave the Court, and the 

 lovers parted in grief and indignation. " My Lord 

 of Southampton," writes a Court gossip, "is much 

 troubled at her Majesty's strangest usage of him. 

 Mr. Secretary hath procured him licence to travel. 

 His fair mistress doth wash her fairest face with too 

 many tears." After a few years' absence the Earl 

 returned, and finding the Queen still implacable, the 

 lovers were married secretly, without her Majesty's 

 consent. On hearing the news, about a week after 

 the event, the Queen, it is needless to add, was furious, 

 and threatened them both with the Tower, and even 

 appears to have carried her threat into execution. 



Now, turning to the earlier sonnets of Shakespeare, 

 we find, first of all, the poet advising his young friend 

 to marry : 



" Who lets so fair a house fall to decay, 

 Which husbandry in honour might uphold," 



