Sweet William with a smiling Face,
Said to the King, If't please your Grace,
To Thew such Favour unto me,
Your Chamberlain I fain would be.

The King then did the Nobles call,
To ask the Counsel of them all;
Who gave Consent sweet William he,
The King's own Chamberlain should be.

Now mark what strange thing came to pass,
As the King one Day a Hunting was,
With all his Lords and Noble Train,
Sweet William did at Home remain.

Sweet William had no Company then With him at Home but an old Man; And when he saw the House was clear, He took a Lute which he had there :

Upon the Lute sweet William play'd,
And to the same he sung, and said,
With a sweet and noble Voice,
Which made the old Man to rejoyce :

My Father was as brave a Lord,
As ever Europe did afford;
My Mother was a Lady bright,
My Husband was a valiant Knight.

And I my self a Lady gay,
Bedeck'd with gorgeous rich Array,
The bravest Lady in the Land
Had not more Pleasure at Command :

I had my Mufick every Day, Harmonious Lessons for to play; I had my Virgins fair and

free, Continually to wait on me.

L 2

But

But now, alas ! my Husband's dead,
And all my Friends are from me fled;
My former Foys are past and gone,
For I am now a Serving-Man.

At last the King from Hunting came,
And presently upon the same,
He called for this good old Man,
And thus to speak the King began.

What News, what News, old Man, quoth he,
What News hast thou to tell to me?
Brave News, the old Man he did say,
Sweet William is a Lady gay.

If this be true thou tell'st to me,
I'll make thee a Lord of high Degree;
But if thy Words do prove a Lye,
Thou shalt be hang'd up presently.

But when the King the Truth had found,
His Joys did more and more abound:
According as the old Man did say,
Sweet William was a Lady gay.

Therefore the King without delay,
Put on her glorious rich Array;
And upon her Head a Crown of Gold,
Which was most famous to behold.

And then for fear of further Strife,
He took sweet William for his Wife :
The like before was never seen,
A Serving Man to be a Queen.

XXX. The

SOOSSOSSO xxx. The Children in the Wood;

Or, The Norfolk Gentleman's laft Will and Testament.

To the Tune of, Rogero, &c.

I can by no means joinin Opinion with thosewho

believe this Song written on the Murder of King Edward the 5thand his young

Brother in the Tower. Richard III. was succeeded by his inveterate Foe King Henry VII, whose Descendants

have ever since sway'd the Scepe ter; and a Poet need not have had recourse to Fiction to have recorded this Story, he might safely have namd the cruel Tyrant; and had it been early after this Reign, it would have been a Complement to the Sovereign. The blacker Richard appear'd, the more the Nation thought themselves obliged to their great Deliverer Henry. They have but one Plea then left, and that is, this old Ballad may perhaps have been written during the Reign of Richard; but I can affure'em from the little Acquaintance I have with old Songs, that it was not written of above a hundred Years after his Death, and I am apt to think the Poet had some private Story in view, but no publick one I dare swear.

Now