The Woful Lamentation of Mrs. JANE SHORE, a Gold-smiths Wife
of London, sometime King Edward the Fourths Cancubine, who for her Wanton Life came t[o]
a Miserable End. Set Forth for the Example of all wicked Livers.
To the Tune of, Live with me.
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IF Rosamond that was so fair,
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Had cause her sorrows to declare,
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Then let Jane Shore with sorrow sing,
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That was beloved of a King:
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Then wanton Wives in time amend,
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For love and beauty will have end.
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In maidens years my beauty bright
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Was loved dear of Lord and Knight,
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But yet the love that they requird,
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It was not as my friends desird;
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My Parents they for thirst of gain,
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A husband for me did obtain;
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And I their pleasure to fulfil,
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Was forcd to wed against my will
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To Matthew Shore, I was a wife,
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Till lust brought ruine to my life.
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And then my life so lewdly spent,
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Which makes my soul for to lament:
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In Lumbard-street I once did dwell,
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As London yet can witness well,
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Where many Gallants did behold
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My beauty in a shop of Gold:
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I spread my plumes as wantons do,
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Some sweet and secret friend to wooe,
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Because my love I did not find
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Agreeing to my wanton mind.
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At last my name in Court did ring,
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Into the ears of Englands King,
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Who came and likd and love required,
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But I made coy what he desired:
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Yet mistress Blague a neighbour near,
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Whose friendship I esteemed dear
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Did say it was a gallant thing,
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To be beloved of a King.
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By her perswasions I was led
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For to defile my marriage-bed,
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And wrong my wedded husband Shore,
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Whom I had lovd ten years before;
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In heart and mind I did rejoyce,
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That I had made so sweet a choice,
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And therefore did my state resign
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To be King Edwards Concubine;
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From City then to Court I went,
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To reap the pleasures of content,
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And had the Joys that love could bring
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And knew the secrets of a King:
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When I was thus advancd on high,
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Commanding Edward with mine eye,
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For mistress Blague I in short space
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Obtaind a living of his Grace.
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No friend I had but in short time
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I made unto promortion climb:
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But yet for all this costly pride;
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My husband could not me abide:
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His bed though wronged by a King,
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His heart with grief did deadly sting,
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From England then he goes away,
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To end his life upon the Sea,
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He could not live to see his name
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Impared by my wanton shame,
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Although a Prince of Peerless might,
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Did reap the pleasure of his right.
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Long time I lived in the court
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With Lords and Ladies of great sort,
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For when I smild all men were glad,
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But when I mournd my prince grew sad.
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But yet an honest mind I bore
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To helpless people that were poor,
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I still redrest the Orphans cry,
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And savd their lives condemnd to die.
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I still had ruth on widows tears,
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I succourd babes of tender years,
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And never lookt for other gain,
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But love and thanks for all my pain.
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At last my Royal King did dye,
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And then my days of woe grew nigh,
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When Crook-back Rich got the crown,
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K Edwards friends were soon put down,
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I then was punisht for my sin,
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That I so long had lived in.
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Yea, every one that was his friend,
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This tyrant brought to shameful end.
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Then for my rude and wanton life,
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That made a Strumpet of a wife,
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I pennance did in Lumbard-street,
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In shameful manner in a sheet.
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Where many thousands did me view,
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Who late in Court my credit knew,
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Which made the tears run down my face,
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To think upon my foul disgrace:
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Not thus content they took from me
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My goods my livings and my fee;
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& chargd that none should me relieve,
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Nor any succour to me give.
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Then unto mistress Blague I went,
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To whom my Jewels I had sent,
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In hope thereby to ease my want,
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when riches faild, and love grew scant
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But she denyd to me the same,
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When in my need for them I came.
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To recompence my former love,
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Out of her doors she did we shove;
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So love did vanish with my state,
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Which now my soul repents too late,
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Therefore example take by me,
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For friendship parts in poverty.
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But yet one friend among the rest,
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Whom I before had seen distrest,
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And savd his life condemnd to die,
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Did give me food to succour me,
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For which by law it was decreed,
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That he was hanged for that deed:
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His death did grieve me so much more
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Then had I dyed my self therefore:
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Then those to whom I had done good
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Durst not restore me any food;
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Whereby in vain I begd all day,
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And still in streets by night I lay.
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My Gowns beset with pearl and gold,
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Are turnd to simple garments old.
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My chains and jems and golden Ring
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To filthy rags and loathsome things,
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Thus was I scornd of maid and wife,
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For leading such a wicked life;
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Both sucking babes and children small
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Did make a pastime at my fall;
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I could not get one bit of bread
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Whereby my hunger might be fed:
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Nor drink but such as channels yield,
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Or stinking ditches in the field:
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Thus weary of my life at length,
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I yielded up my vital strength,
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Within a Ditch of loathsome scent,
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Where carrion dogs do much frequent,
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The which now since my dying day,
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Is Shoreditch calld as writers say:
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Which is a witness of my sin,
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For being Concubine to a king:
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You wanton wives that fall to lust;
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Be you assured that God is just,
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Whoredom shall not escape his hand,
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Nor Pride unpunisht in this land;
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If God to me such shame should bring,
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That yielded only to a king:
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How shall they scape that daily run
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to practice sin with every man?
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You Husbands match not but for love,
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Lest some disliking after prove!
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women be warnd when you are wives,
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What plagues are due to sinful lives;
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Then maids and wives in time amend
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For love and beauty will have end.
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The second part of Jane Shore, wherein her sorrowful Husband bewaileth his own Estate,
and Wifes Wantonness, the wrong of Marriage, the Fall of Pride; being a warning for Women.
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If she that was fair Londons pride
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For beauty famd both far and wide
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With swanli[k]e song in sadness told,
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Her deep distresses manifold.
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Then in the same let me also,
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Now bear a part of such like woe:
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Kind Matthew Shore-men called me,
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A goldsmith once of good degree,
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And might have lived long therein,
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Had not my wife been wed to sin,
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Oh gentle Jane thy wanton race
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Hath brought me to this foul disgrace:
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Thou hadst all things at wish and will,
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Thy wanton fancy to fulfill,
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No London Dame nor Merchants wife
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Did lead so sweet and pleasant life,
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Then gentle Jane the truth Report,
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Why leftst thou me to live in Court?
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Thou hadst both gold and silver store,
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No wife in London then had more
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And once a week to walk in field
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To see what pleasure it would yield.
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But woe to me that liberty,
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Hath brought me to this misery:
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I married thee whilst thou wert young
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Before thou knewst what did belong
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To husbands love or marriage state,
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Which now my soul repents too late:
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Thus wanton pride made thee unjust,
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And so deceived was my trust.
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But when the king possest my room,
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And cropt my Rosie gallant bloom,
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Fair Londons blossom and my joy
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My heart was drownd in deep annoy:
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To think how unto publick shame
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Thy wicked life brought my good name.
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And then I thought each man & wife,
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In jesting sort accusd my life,
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And every one to the other said.
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That Shores fair wife the wanton plaid.
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Thereby in mind I grew to change,
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My dwelling in some country strange.
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My lands and goods I sold away,
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And so from England went to Sea;
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Opprest with grief and woful mind,
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But left my cause of grief behind.
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My loving wife whom I once thought
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Would never me to lewdness brought
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But women now I well espy,
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Are subject to unconstancy;
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And few there be so true of love,
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But by long suit will wanton prove.
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For flesh is frail and women weak
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When kings for love long suit do make
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But yet from England my depart
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Was with a sad and heavy heart,
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Whereat when as my leave I took,
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I sent back many a heavy look,
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Desiring God if it might be,
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To send one sigh sweet Jane to thee.
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For if thou hadst but constant been,
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These days of woe I nere had seen,
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But yet I mourn and grief full sore,
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The Description
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OF
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Jane Shore.
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THis womans
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beauty hath
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been highly prai-
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sed by a famous
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Writer that livd
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in her time, namd
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Thomas Moor,
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who describd her
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in this manner.
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Before her death
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she was poor and
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aged, her stature
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was mean, her
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hair of a dark
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yellow, her face
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round & full, her
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eyes gray, her bo-
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dy fat, white and
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smooth, her cour-
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tenance chearful,
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like to her condi-
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tions.
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There is a picture
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of hers to be seen
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in London, it is
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such as she was
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when she rose out
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of, her bed in the
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morning, having
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nothing on but a
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Rich Mantle cast
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under her arm, o-
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ver which her na-
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ked arm did lye.
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What her Fa-
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thers name is, or
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where she was
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Born, is not cer-
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tainly known, but
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her husband Ma-
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thew Shore, a
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Young Man of
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-right good Paren-
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tage, wealth, and
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behaviour, aban-
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dond her bed af-
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ter the King had
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made her his
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Concubine.
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To think what plagues ere left in store,
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For such as careless tread awry,
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The modest paths of constancy:
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All gentle Jane if thou didst know,
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The uncouth paths I daily go,
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And woful tears for thee I shed,
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For wronging thus my marriage-bed.
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Then sure I am thou wouldst confess,
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My love was sure though in distress:
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Both Flanders, France and Spain I past,
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And come to Turky at the last:
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And there within that mighty Court,
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I lived long in honest sort;
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Desiring God that sits in heaven,
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That lovers sins might be forgiven:
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And there advanced thy loving name,
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Of living wights the fairest dame?
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The praise of Englands beauty stain,
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All which thy husband did maintain,
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And set thy Picture there in gold,
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For Kings and Princes to behold,
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But when I thought upon thy sin,
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Thy wanton thoughts delighted in,
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I griev[]d that such a comely face,
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Should hold true honour in disgrace,
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And counted it a luckless day,
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When as thou first didst go astray,
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Desiring then some news to hear,
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Of her my soul did love so dear,
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My secrets then I did impart
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To one well skilld in Magick-art,
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Who in a Glass did truely show,
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Such things as I desired to know,
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I there did see thy Courtly state,
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Thy Pomp, thy Pride, thy Glory great,
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And likewise there I did behold,
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My Jane in Edwards arms infold:
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Thy secret love I there espyd,
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Thy rice, thy fall, and how thou died,
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Thy naked body in the street,
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I saw do pennance in a sheet:
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Barefoot before the Beadles wand,
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With burning taper in thy hand,
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And babes not having use of tongue,
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Stood pointing as thou wentst along,
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Thus ended was the shame of thine,
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Though God gave yet no end to mine.
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When I supposd my name forgot,
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And time had washt away my blot,
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And in another Princess reign,
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I came to England back again:
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But staying there my friends decayd,
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My Princes laws I disobeyd.
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And by true Justice judgd to dye.
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For clipping Gold in secresie.
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By Gold was my best living made,
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And so by Gold my life decayd:
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Thus have you heard the woful strife
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That came by my unconstant wife,
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Her Fall, my Death, wherein is shewd
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The story of a Strumpet lewd,
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In hope thereby some women may,
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Take heed how they the wanton play.
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