Laneham's Letter Describing the Magnificent Pageants Presented Before Queen Elizabeth, at Kenilworth Castle in 1575: Repeatedly Referred to in the Romance of Kenilworth

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J.H. Burn, 1821 - English drama - 114 pages
 

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Page xiii - Silver'd the walls of Cumnor Hall, And many an oak that grew thereby. Now nought was heard beneath the skies, The sounds of busy life were still, Save an unhappy lady's sighs, That issued from that lonely pile. 'Leicester...
Page xiv - Mong rural beauties I was one, Among the fields wild flowers are fair; Some country swain might me have won, And thought my beauty passing rare. "But, Leicester, (or I much am wrong,) Or 'tis not beauty lures thy vows; Rather ambition's gilded crown Makes thee forget thy humble spouse. "Then, Leicester, why, again I plead, (The injured surely may repine,)— Why didst thou wed a country maid, When some fair princess might be thine?
Page 101 - ... being acted with mighty state and reverence by the friars of this house, had theaters for the several! scenes, very large and high, placed upon wheels, and drawn to all the eminent parts of the city, for the better advantage of spectators : and contain'd the story of the New Testament, composed into old English Rithme, as appeareth by an ancient MS.
Page xvi - ... on the green ; Woe was the hour — for never more That hapless Countess e'er was seen ! And in that Manor now no more Is cheerful feast and sprightly ball ; For ever since that dreary hour Have spirits haunted Cumnor Hall. The village maids, with fearful glance Avoid the ancient moss-grown wall ; Nor ever lead the merry dance Among the groves of Cumnor Hall. Full many a traveller oft hath sigh'd, And pensive wept the Countess' fall, As wandering onwards they've espied The haunted towers of Cumnor...
Page x - Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, a very goodly personage, and singularly well featured, being a great favourite to Queen Elizabeth, it was thought, and commonly reported, that had he been a bachelor or widower the Queen would have made him her husband ; to this end, to free himself of all obstacles, he commands, or perhaps, with fair flattering...
Page 90 - I can be as lively too. Sometimes I foot it with dancing ; now with my gittern and else with my cittern ; then at the virginals ; ye know nothing comes amiss to me ; then carol I up a song withal, that by and by they come flocking about me like bees to honey, and ever they cry, ' Another, good Laneham, another.
Page viii - They have great and monstrous ruffes, made either of cambricke, holland, lawne, or els of some other the finest cloth that can be got for money, whereof some be a quarter of a yarde deepe ; yea, some more, very few lesse ; so that they stande a full quarter of a yarde (and more) from their neckes, hanging over their shoulder-points, insteade of a vaile.
Page xvi - In Cumnor Hall, so lone and drear. Full many a piercing scream was heard, And many a cry of mortal fear. The death-bell thrice -was heard to ring, — An aerial voice was heard to call, — And thrice the raven flapp'd its wing Around the towers of Cumnor Hall.
Page xiv - No lark more blithe, no flower more gay ; And like the bird that haunts the thorn, So merrily sung the livelong day. " If that my beauty is but small, Among court ladies all despised, Why didst thou rend it from that hall, Where, scornful Earl, it well was prized?
Page 96 - Now put me in to the barge, sayd the kyng and so he dyd softelye. And there receyued hym thre quenes wyth grete mornyng and soo they sette hem doun, and in one of their lappes kyng Arthur layed hys heed, and than that quene sayd, a dere broder why...

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