Rosʹamond (Fair)

Higden, monk of Chester, says: “She was the fayre daughter of Walter, Lord Clifford, concubine of Henry II., and poisoned by Queen Elianor, A.D. 1177. Henry made for her a house of wonderfull working, so that no man or woman might come to her. This house was named Labyrinthus, and was wrought like unto a knot in a garden called a maze. But the queen came to her by a clue of thredde, and so dealt with her that she lived not long after. She was buried at Godstow, in an house of nunnes, with these verses upon her tombe:—

“Hic jacet in tumba Rosa mundi, non Rosa munda:

Non redolet, sed olet, quæ redoleʹrë solet.”

Here Rose the graced, not Rose the chaste, reposes;

The smell that rises is no smell of roses.

E. C. B.

⁂ Rosamond Clifford is introduced by Sir Walter Scott in two of his novels—The Talisman and Woodstock.

“Jane Clifford was her name, as books aver;

Fair Rosamond was but her nom de guerre.”

Dryden: Epilogue to Henry II.

· ·

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

Rosʹamond (Fair)

Linking here: