“The Branding of Elgvira” by Frederick A. Heath after Edward H. Corbould

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The Branding of Elgvira

Edward H. Corbould, painter

Frederick A. Heath, engraver

1851

Engraving

Source: the 1851 The Keepsake: 219.

The picture serves as an illustration to Albert Smith’s “The Woeful Ballad of Queen Elgvira.”

The image of this grisly tale about monks branding a queen’s face to destroy her looks and her influence over her husband is quite unlike the usual sentimental pictures of beautiful women in The Keepsake.

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Details & Related Material

Edward Courbould (homepage)

The Keepsake (homepage)

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the Princeton University Library and the Hathi Trust Digital Library and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one. — George P. Landow

"Shee is a witch, and by her face
Can hold him in her thralle:
What ho, my men! to spoyle her charmes,
And see her power falle."

King Edwy went out to the chase,
The conyng priests went in,
They seized upon the lovelie queen
And did foule werke begin.

With irons hot they seared her face —
That face so bright of blee,
(It was as pitiful a sight
As any man mought see).

And all her soft and vermeil cheek
Against the iron hiss'd;
And brent and barred were her lips,
That Edwy late had kiss'd.

And that poor ladye's crie for aide
Had melted heart of stone
To see her in such dolorous plighte,
But Odo he had none.

They bore her into Irelande,
And there across the sea
They kept her sorrowing and lone;
And when she tryed to flee,

They sent their spies all round about
And caught her on the road,
And maim'd her that her rudd red blood
From out its vessels flowed. [219-20]

Bibliography

Smith, Albert. “The Woeful Ballad of Queen Elgvira. After the Old Fashion” The Keepsake. Ed. Miss Power. London: David Bogue, 1851. 216-20. Hathi Trust Digital Library version of a copy in the Princeton University Library. Web. 29 July 2020.

Created 29 July 2020