Marguerite Lemon, Angloise (Margaret Lemon, Englishwoman)
Not on view
Portrait of Margaret Lemon, half length to right, holding flowers. Etched after an earlier portrait by Anthony van Dyck of Margaret Lemon, the painter’s most famous mistress
The first four lines, below the title are a paean to the youth and beauty for which Lemon was celebrated among the greatest of the English nobility. They may be translated:
Flora, Thisbe, Lucretia, and Porcia and Cypris
Cannot dispute with me the prize for love.
In the isle of Albion I was almost worshipped,
By a thousand great lords I saw myself honoured . . .