This illustrious and excellent lady, born in 1441, was Margaret, the only
child of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset. Her first husband was Edmund,
Earl of Richmond, who died in 1456, a little more than a year after
their marriage, the sole issue of which was Henry, afterwards King Henry
the Seventh. Her second husband was Sir Henry Stafford, second son of
Humphrey, the great Duke of Buckingham. Her third husband was Thomas Lord
Stanley, afterwards the first Earl of Derby of his name. Having survived
him, as also her son King Henry, she died June 29, 1509, in her 69th
year, and was buried in the magnificent chapel then lately erected in
Westminster Abbey.
Page 195. v. 5. _polyandro_] _Polyandrum_ or _polyandrium_, (properly,
_multorum commune sepulchrum_—πολυάνδριον)—“Interdum et sæpius apud
ævi inferioris scriptores sumitur pro monumento aut sepulcro unius
hominis.” Du Cange’s _Gloss_.—Here it means, of course, the tomb of Henry
vii.—Whiting has anglicised the word in a poem appended to his _Albino
and Bellama_, 1638;
“King Ethelbert’s clos’d in his _Poliander_.”
Sig. H 7.
v. 7. _Titus hanc, &c._] i. e. Livy, who gives an account of Tanaquil,
wife of Tarquinius Priscus: see his _Hist._ i. 34, &c.—“Tanaquilem
Sidonius Apollinaris et Ausonius pro egregia uxore.” Cassellii _Var._
lib. i. c. xiii. p. 210 (Gruteri _Lampas_, iii.).
v. 19. _Abyron_] i. e. Abiram: see _Numbers_, ch. xvi.
Page 196. v. 25. _perituræ parcere chartæ_] Juvenal, _Sat._ i. 18.
—— _phagolœdoros_] i. e. (φαγολοιδόρους) _convicia et maledicta
devorantes_.
WHY WERE YE CALLIOPE, &c.
_were_, i. e. wear: concerning this dress, worn, it would seem, by
Skelton as Laureat, see _Account of his Life and Writings_.
Page 197. v. 16. _somdele sere_] i. e. somewhat dry, withered.
v. 17. _fayne_] i. e. glad, willing.