The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Lay of Marie, by Matilda Betham, et al

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Title: The Lay of Marie

Author: Matilda Betham

Release Date: March 30, 2004 [eBook #11857]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAY OF MARIE***

E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Wilelmina Malliere,
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Bibliographical Note:

These facsimiles have been made from copies in the Yale University
Library _The Lay of Marie_ (In.B4645.816L) and the British Library
_Vignettes_ (Il642.bbb.36)

Reprint of the 1816 and 1818 eds.

THE LAY OF MARIE

and

VIGNETTES IN VERSE

MATILDA BETHAM

with an introduction for the Garland edition by Donald H. Reiman

THE LAY OF MARIE: A POEM

BY

MATILDA BETHAM.

1816

TO

LADY BEDINGFELD.

To whom,--as Fancy, taking longer flight,
With folded arms upon her heart's high swell,
Floating the while in circles of delight,
And whispering to her wings a sweeter spell
Than she has ever aim'd or dar'd before--
Shall I address this theme of minstrel lore?
To whom but her who loves herself to roam
Through tales of earlier times, and is at home
With heroes and fair dames, forgotten long,
But for romance, and lay, and lingering song?
To whom but her, whom, ere my judgment knew,
Save but by intuition, false from true,
Seem'd to me wisdom, goodness, grace combin'd;
The ardent heart; the lively, active mind?
To whom but her whose friendship grows more dear,
And more assur'd, for every lapsing year?
One whom my inmost thought can worthy deem
Of love, and admiration, and esteem!

PREFACE

As there is little, in all I have been able to collect respecting MARIE,
which has any thing to do with the Poem, I have chosen to place such
information at the end of the book, in form of an Appendix, rather than
here; where the only things necessary to state are, that she was an
Anglo-Norman Minstrel of the thirteenth century; and as she lived at the
time of our losing Normandy, I have connected her history with t