century is the sixteenth century; it is useless to apply twentieth
century conceptions as explanations of events then. The fact
is that on the 19th of January, 1547, there was beheaded on Tower
Hill the most brilliant, the most spectacular, the most cultivated
noble in England, in the last analysis because he was descended
from kings.

By the facts of his life Surrey is a romantic figure; it needed very
little to make of him a figure in a romance. Two generations later
this was done by Thomas Nash in his novel The Unfortunate Trav-
eller, or the Life of Iacke Wilton. ¹ The hero, encountering the Earl
of Surrey in Holland, where Cornelius Agrippa shows him a like-
ness of his love Geraldine in a mirror, travels to Italy with him and
enjoys the tournament held by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in
which Surrey sustains the honor of his lady against all comers.
This yarn apparently was made up out of whole cloth. ² Nash's
novel has had the exceptional record of having been accepted as
fact by scholars of repute for two centuries. It was accepted by
Drayton and endorsed by Warton. When Nott published his
great edition of Surrey in 1815, as in the case of Wyatt, he was
strongly stirred by the whole romantic story. From Nott inevi-
tably it spread broadcast. It may be disproved, as does Courthope,
by showing the inconsistencies in the dating,--very large inconsis-
tencies,--or as does Bapst by proving that in Surrey's record there
is no time-interval sufficient to allow any series of such events.
Today, surely, there is no necessity for more than a bare state-
ment. The basis of the story is to be found in the sonnet.

Ffrom Tuscan cam my ladies worthi race
faire fflorence was sometime her auncient seate
the westorne Ile (whose pleasaunt showre cloth face
wylde Chambares cliffes) did geve her lyvely heate
ffostred she was with mylke of Irishe brest
her Syer (an) erle, hir dame, of princes bloud
from tender yeres in britaine she doth rest
with a kinges child where she tastes gostly foode
honsdon did furst present her to myn eyen
bryght ys her hew and Geraldine shee highte

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