Volume 3

The Percy anecdotes / collected and edited by Reuben and Sholto Percy [pseud.].

Date:
pref. 1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Percy anecdotes / collected and edited by Reuben and Sholto Percy [pseud.]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    S4» The Fair Geraldine. Many damsels of antiquity have been by various writers supposed to be the fair idol of the accomplished but ill-fated Earl of Surrey, whom he thus celebrates under the name of Geraldine: ‘ From Tuscany came my lady’s worthy race. Fair Florence was sometyme their aungient seate ; The western yle, whose pleasant shore doth face Wild Camber’s cliffs, did geve her lyvely heate. Fostered she was with milke of Irish brest; Her sire an earl: her dame of prince’s blood : From tender yeres in Britaine she doth rest With hinge’s childe, where she tasteth cdstly food. Honsdon did first present her to myne yien ; Bright in her hewe, and Geraldine she hight ; Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine, And Windsor, alas ! doth chase me from her sight. Her beauty ofkinde, her virtue from above ; Happy is he that can obtain her love !’ Anthony Wood, giving a large interpretation to the expression, that ‘ Florence was some- tyme their auncient seate,’ states that Geral- dine was born at Florence. He adds that Surrey, travelling to the emperor’s court, grew acquainted with Cornelius Agrippa, famous for natural magic, who showed him the image of his Geraldine in a glass, sick, weep- ing on her bed, and resolved all into devout religion for the absence of her lord ; that from thence he went to Florence, her native city, where he published an universal challenge in honour of her beauty, and was victorious in the tournament on that occasion. The chal- ■ lenge and tournament are true ; for the shield presented to the earl by the great duke for the purpose is represented in Vertue’s print of the Arundel family. But the place of her birth is altogether gratuitously assumed. The Earl of Orford, who has applied himself with more success than any other writer to the solution of this lady’s history, makes out pretty clearly that she was the Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, daughter of Gerald Fitzgerald, ninth Earl of Kildare, in the reign of Henry VII1. ‘ Henry, Earl of Surrey,’ says his lordship, ‘ who had at least as much taste for women as letters, and was fond of splendour and feats of arms, con- tributed to give a romantic turn to composi- tion ; and Petrarch, the poet of the fair, was naturally a pattern to a court of the complexion of that of Henry VIII. In imitation of Laura, our earl had his Geraldine. Who she was we are not told directly ; himself mentions several particulars relating to her, but not her name. I think I have very nearly discovered who this fair person was. ‘ I am inclined (continues Lord Orford) to think that her poetical appellation was her real name, as every one of the circumstances tally. Gerald Fitzgerald, ninth Earl of Kil- dare, in the time of Henry VIII., married to his second wife, the Lady Margaret Gray, daughter of Thomas Gray, Marquess of Dorset, by whom he had three daughters ; Lady Mar- garet, who was born deaf and dumb (probably not the fair Geraldine); Lady Elizabeth, third wife of Edward Clinton, Earl of Lincoln ; and the Lady Cicely. Our genealogists say, that the house of Fitzgerald derives its origin from Otho, descended from the dukes of Tuscany, who, in the reign of King Alfred, settled m England, and from thence to Ireland : thus ‘ “ From Tuscane came his lady’s noble race.” ‘ Her sire, an earl, and her being fostered with milk of Irish breast, follow of course. Her dame being of prince’s blood is as exact: Thomas, Marquess of Dorset, being son of Queen Elizabeth Gray, daughter of the Duchess of Bedford, of the princely house of Luxembourgh. The only question is, whether I the Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, or her sister, j Lady Cicely, was the fair Geraldine; I. should think the former, as it is evident she was settled in England ; the circumstance of his first seeing her at Hunsdon, indifferent as it seems, leads to a confirmation of this conjec- ture. Sir Henry Chauncey says that Hunsdon House, in Hertfordshire, was built by Henry VIII., and destined to the education of his children. The Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald was second cousin to the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, and it was very natural for her to I be educated with them, as the sonnet expressly 1 says the fair Geraldine was. The Earl of jj Surrey was in like manner brought up with I the Duke of Richmond at Windsor ; here the | two circumstances clearly correspond to the . earl’s account of his first seeing his mistress at Hunsdon, and being deprived of her by Wind-; sor; when he attended the young duke to i visit the princesses, he got sight of their com- panion ; when he followed him to Windsor, he lost that opportunity. If this assumption, wanted any corroborating incidents, here is ai stronger one : the Lord Leonard Gray, uncle to the Fitzgeralds, was deputy of Ireland for the Duke of Richmond, and that connexion] alone would easily account for the earl’s ac- quaintance with a young lady, bred up withi the royal family.’ Mrs. Anne Askew. The death of Mrs. Anne Askew, one of tkei victims to the cruelty of Henry VIII., hadl this aggravation, that it was excited by hen own husband, who, after driving her from hisi house, betrayed her to her persecutors. Upon! his information, she was seized and examined for her attachment to the principles of the Re-j formation ; her answers were modest and dig-] nified, yet completely unreserved; and thej result was, that she was recommitted to New-J gate, and thence sent to the Tower. An interesting record is still preserved fcftiel inhuman cruelties which were inflicted on this! admirable young woman in the secret of the* prison-house, where no eye pitied her, aWjl where no friendly hand composed her achingl limbs, ‘ I saw her,’ said Mr. Loud,