| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
THE SPANISH LADY'S LOVE. |
||
|
Prom The Garland of Good-Will, as reprinted by the Percy Society, xxx. 125. Other copies, slightly different, in A Collection of Old Ballads, ii. 191, and in Percy's JReliques, ii. 246.
Percy conjectures that this ballad " took its rise from one of those descents made on the Spanish coasts in the time of Queen Elizabeth." The weight of tradition is decidedly, perhaps entirely, in favor of the hero's having been one of Essex's comrades in the Cadiz expedition, but which of his gallant captains achieved the double conquest of the Spanish Lady is by no means satisfactorily determined. Among the candidates put forth are Sir Richard Levison of Trentham, Staffordshire, Sir John Popham of Little-cot, Wilts, Sir Urias Legh of Adlington, Cheshire, and Sir John Bolle of Thorpe Hall, Lincolnshire. The right of the last to this distinction has been recently warmly contended for, and, as is usual in similar cases, strong circumstantial evidence is urged in his favor. The reader will judge for himself of its probable authenticity.
" On Sir John Bolle's departure from Cadiz," it is said, " the Spanish Lady sent as presents to his |
||