This was our English Surrey; one of the earliest and most elegant of our amatory poets, and the lover of the Fair Geraldine. It must be admitted that the fame of the Earl of Surrey does not rest merely on title, and that if the fair Geraldine had never existed, he would still have lived in history as an accomplished scholar, soldier, courtier, and been lamented as the noble victim of a suspicious tyrant. But if some fair object of romantic gallantry had not given the impulse to his genius, and excited him to try his powers in a style of which no models yet existed in his native language,[64]--it may be doubted whether his name would have descended to us with all those poetical and chivalrous associations which give a charm and an interest to his memory, far beyond that of a mere historical character. As for the fair-haired, blue-eyed Geraldine, the mistress of his fancy and affections, and the subject of his verse, her identity long lay _entombed_, as it were, in a poetical name; but Surrey had loved her, had maintained her beauty at the point of his lance--had made her "famous by his pen, and glorious by his sword." This was more than enough to excite the interest and the inquiries of posterity, and lo! antiquaries and commentators fell to work, archives were searched, genealogies were traced, and at length the substance of this beautiful poetical shadow was detected: she was proved to have been the Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, afterwards the wife of a certain Earl of Lincoln, of whom little is known--but that he married the woman Surrey had loved. Surrey has ingeniously contrived to compress, within the compass of a sonnet, some of the most interesting particulars of the personal and family history of his mistress. The Fitzgeralds derive their origin from the Geraldi of Tuscany,--hence From Tuscan came my ladye's worthy race, Fair Florence was sometime their ancient seat. She was born and nurtured in Ireland-- Fostered she was with milk of Irish breast. Her father was the Earl of Kildare, her mother allied to the blood royal. Her sire an Earl, her dame of Prince's blood. She was brought up (through motives of compassion, after the misfortunes of her family,) at Hunsdon, with the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, where Surrey, who frequently visited them in company with the young Duke of Richmond,[65] first beheld her. Hunsdon did first present her to mine eyes. She was then extremely young, not above fourteen or fifteen, as it appears from comparative dates; and Surrey says very clearly, She wanted years to understand The grief that he did feel. But even then her budding charms made him confess as he beautifully expresses it-- How soon a look can print a thought That never may remove! It was during the festivals held at Hampton Court, whither she accompanied the Princesses, that her conquest was completed; and Surrey being afterwards confined at Windsor,[66] was deprived of her society.