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THE LADY ISABELLA'S TRAGEDY.
" This ballad is given from an old black-letter copy in the Pepys Collection, collated with another in the British Museum, H. 263, folio. It is there entitled, The Lady Isabella's Tragedy, or the Step-Mother's CruÂelty ; being a relation of a lamentable and cruel mur-ther, committed on the body of the Lady Isabella, the only daughter of a noble Duke, §"c. To the tune of The Lady's Fall. To some copies are annexed eight more modern stanzas, entitled, The Dutchess's and Cook's Lamentation." Percy's Reliques, iii. 199.
The copy in Durfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy, v. 53, is nearly verbatim the same.
There was a lord of worthy fame,
And a hunting he would ride, Attended by a noble traine
Of gentrye by his side.
And while he did in chase remaine, »
To see both sport and playe, His ladye went, as she did feigne,
Unto the church to praye.
This lord he had a daughter deare,
Whose beauty shone so bright, JO
She was belov'd, both far and neare,
Of many a lord and knight. |
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