The Woful Lamentation of Mistris Jane Shore, a Goldsmiths Wife
in London, sometime King Edward the Fourths Concubine, who for her wanton life, came to a miserable end. Set
forth for the example of all lewd Livers. The Tune is, 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 Maiden 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 Mathew 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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Now 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 woe,
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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 requird,
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But I made coy what he desird:
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Yet Mistress Blague a neighbour ner,
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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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& wrongd 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 Estate 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 Mistriss 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 promotion 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 pleasures of his right
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Long time I lived in the Court,
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With Lords and Ladies of great port,
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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 dye,
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I still had ruth on Widdows 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 Crookback Richard got the Crown;
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King Edward 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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And chargd that none should me relieve
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Nor any succor to me give.
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Then unto Mistriss 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 denid 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 me 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 exomple 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 died myself 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 rings,
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To filthy rags and loathsom 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 sticking 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 cald 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 assurd 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 escape 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
Wives wantonness, the wrong of Marriage, the fall of Pride, being a warning for all women to take
heed by. To the same Tune.
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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 swan-like 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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Ah 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 yeild,
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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 Rosse 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 publique 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 sore 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 be to lewdness brought,
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But women now I well espy,
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Are subject to inconstancy;
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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 out 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 ner had seen,
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But yet I grieve and mourn full sore,
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To think what plagues are left in store
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For such as careless tread awry,
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The modest path of constancy:
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Ah 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 came 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 advancd 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 grievd 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 skild in Magick Art,
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Who in a Glass did truly show,
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Such things as I desire 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 arm 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 Penance 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 she went 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 Princes 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 die,
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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 decaid.
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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 all women may,
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Take heed how they the wanton play.
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The Description
OF
Jane Shore.
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THis womans
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beauty hath
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been highly prais-
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ed by a famous
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writer that lived
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in her time named
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Thomas Moor,
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who described 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 hair
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of a dark yellow,
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her face round and
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full, her eyes gray,
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her body fat white
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and smooth,
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her countenance
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cheerful, like to
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her conditions.
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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 Pa-
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rentage, wealth
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and behaviour, a-
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bandoned her bed
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after the King had
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made her his Con-
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cubine.
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