The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1888-08-25

ano urged in excavation that it was
done after dinner, he was but tempo
rar1ly imprisoned at Windsor.
This shows that the Earl was ga gay
spark''-a young man about town, as
we'll as capital spinner Of sonnets and
an ardent lover. We see him in the lat
ter role little later on. At the COM
mand Of his mistress, The Fair Geral-
dine, he proceeded according to the old
chroniciers) to Florence TO defy on the
lists the world to produce such charms
as hers, in the fashion of the chiyalry OF
old. Wherever he went he proclaimed
the peerless beauty Of the Lady Geral-
dine, and challenged all corners in its de-
fence. A tournament was held at Flor
ence to decide the point before the Duke,
and after encountering and defeating
several opponents Surrey was declared
the victor, and the palm Of beauty was
awarded to his fair mistress. He visited
Cornelius Agrippa, the alchenist TO the
Court, to discover through the aid Of
magic if his love were true or false to
him. Imagine his delight when the
alchemist. showed him through q magic
mirror The Fair Geraldine 'lounging on
couch, reading one Of his sonnets, with
passion of grief on her face for his alb
sence."
suppose my readers Will be rather
surprised when I tell them now that
there is very great probability -in fact
certainty almost-that without any
foundation whatever is the story that
Surrey went to Florence to proclaim
with lance in hand the supremacy of The
Fair Geraldine's charms over the charms
Of all the ladies OF creation. Indeed he
meyer was in Italy. The names of The
Fair Geraldine and the Earl OF Surrey
are inseparably connected in poetic and
romantic literature, thanks, IN O. great
measure, to Horace Walpole, on whose
authority mainly have given 81 descrip-
ton of Surveys chivalrous mission to
Florence. But DIR. Notts-a veritable
literary Vandal-came along, and after
deyoting nearly lifetime to researches
for life Of Surrey declared that the
whole story was very pretty, but untrue.
The fact is that Lady Elizabeth Fitzger-
aid Ill 1536the year in which it is said
Surrey went to Florence-,was only eight
years of age, and we must admit, no
matter how we may regret TO stick q pin
IN such pretty romance, that young
lady Of eight would much rather ask her
to bring her nice doll or
a package of sweetmeats than tog so forth
and proclaim her beauty to the world;
and even if she had commanded him to
do so. is it likely that young married
man like Surrey (his first child was Dorm
in that Year,, with the fear os a jealous
mate before him, would have gone gala-
wanting oyer the world, fighting for the
charms Of child Of eight, while he HIM
self was scarcely twenty? Horace Wal
pole will have to go down before Dr.
Motifs.
The Earl Of Surrey. however, may
lave met The Fair Geraldine a short
time before his imprisonment in Wind |
sor. Lady Elizabeth was then fifteen
years old, ana her beauty may have left
all impression on the heart of the Earl,
who was quite young himself, and who,
moreover, had been separated for some
time from his wife, the marriage having |
been not at all happy one. Any way,
we find the Fair Geraldine in that year
--1543-a tender girl Of fifteen years,
marrying SIR Anthony Browne, K. G.,
who was so years Of age. This event also
helps to dispel the romance which hung
round the name of The Fair Geraldine.
One biographer of the Earl of Surrey
Ellis love for the Geraldine
can only he regarded as poetical exag-
geration-an affection OF the Imagination,
the day dream Of an ardent fancy"
The Earl met with tragic end. He
was arrested in his thirtieth year for
treason-felony. Some evidence to sup
port the charge was concocted with the
aid Of his wife and his sister. He was
condemned TO death by Henry VIII, and
was executed in the Tower. He is de-
scribed by the editor of the Aldine Ed
ton of the British Poets as "the first
writer who attempted to refine our Ian
guage and to rescue English poetry
from the coarseness for which the pro-
auctions of his predecessors were re-
To return to The Fair Geraldine. We |
find that her husband died i'll 1548, and
that she subsequently became the third
wife of the Earl of Lincoln, She sur
vived him couple of years, and, dying
without issue, in March, 1859, in the 31st
= I,