![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/Leighton-The_King_and_the_Beggar-maid.jpg/640px-Leighton-The_King_and_the_Beggar-maid.jpg&w=640&q=50)
The King and the Beggar-maid
Painting / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"The King and the Beggar-maid" is a 16th-century broadside ballad[1] that tells of an African king, Cophetua, and his love for the beggar Penelophon (Shakespearean Zenelophon). Artists and writers have referenced the story, and King Cophetua has become a byword for "a man who falls in love with a woman instantly and proposes marriage immediately".[2]
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/Leighton-The_King_and_the_Beggar-maid.jpg/640px-Leighton-The_King_and_the_Beggar-maid.jpg)