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Title: Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume 1 (of 3)

Editor: Thomas Percy
Henry B. Wheatley

Release date: June 11, 2014 [eBook #45939]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RELIQUES OF
ANCIENT ENGLISH POETRY, VOLUME 1 (OF 3) ***

PERCY'S RELIQUES.

RELIQUES OF
ANCIENT ENGLISH
POETRY
CONSISTING OF OLD HEROIC BALLADS, SONGS AND OTHER

PIECES OF OUR EARLIER POETS TOGETHER WITH SOME

FEW OF LATER DATE

BY
THOMAS PERCY, D.D.
BISHOP OF DROMORE

EDITED, WITH A GENERAL INTRODUCTION, ADDITIONAL PREFACES, NOTES,
GLOSSARY, ETC.
BY
HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A.

IN THREE VOLUMES
VOL. I

LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD.
RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.1

First Published by Swan Sonnenschein April 1885
Reprinted August 1891
" August 1899
" December 1909
" January 1927

Printed by the Riverside Press Limited, Edinburgh
Great Britain

CONTENTS OF VOLUME THE FIRST
PAGE
E ditor's Preface

ix

GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The Minstrels xiii
Ballads and Ballad Writers xxiv
Imitators and Forgers xliv
Authenticity of Certain Ballads xlviii
Preservers of the Ballads lviii
Life of Percy lxxi
Folio MS. and the Reliques lxxxi
Ballad Literature since Percy xci

Dedications 1
Advertisement to the fourth edition 4
Preface 7
BOOK THE FIRST
1. The ancient Ballad of Chevy-chase 19
2. The Battle of Otterbourne 35
Illustration of the Names in the foregoing ballads 51
3. The Jew's Daughter. A Scottish Ballad 54
4. Sir Cauline 61
Copy from the Folio MS. 76
5. Edward, Edward. A Scottish Ballad 82
6. King Estmere 85
On the word Termagant 96
7. Sir Patrick Spence. A Scottish Ballad 98
8. Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne 102
9. An Elegy on Henry Fourth, Earl of Northumberland, by Skelton 117
10. The Tower of Doctrine, by Stephen Hawes 127
11. The Child of Elle 131
Fragment from the Folio MS. 138
12. Edom o' Gordon. A Scottish Ballad 140

Captain Carre, from the Folio MS 148
BOOK THE SECOND.
(Containing Ballads that illustrate Shakespeare.)
1. Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudesley 153
2. The aged Lover renounceth Love, by Lord Vaux 179
3. Jephthah judge of Israel 182
4. A Robyn Jolly Robyn 185
5. A Song to the lute in musicke, by R. Edwards 187
6. King Cophetua and the Beggar-maid 189
7. Take thy old cloak about thee 195
8. Willow, Willow, Willow 199
9. Sir Lancelot du Lake 204
10. Corydon's Farewell to Phillis 209
The Ballad of constant Susanna 209
11. Gernutus the Jew of Venice 211
12. The passionate Shepherd to his Love, by Marlowe 220
The Nymph's Reply, by Sir W. Raleigh 223
13. Titus Andronicus's Complaint 224
14. Take those lips away 230
15. King Leir and his three daughters 231
16. Youth and Age, by Shakespeare 237
17. The Frolicksome Duke, or the Tinker's good Fortune 238
18. The Friar of Orders Gray, by Percy 242
BOOK THE THIRD.
1. The more modern Ballad of Chevy-chace 249
Illustration of the Northern Names 263
2. Death's final Conquest, by James Shirley 264
3. The Rising in the North 266
Copy from the Folio MS 274
4. Northumberland betrayed by Douglas 279
Copy from the Folio MS 289
5. My Mind to me a Kingdom is, by Sir Edward Dyer 294
6. The Patient Countess, by W. Warner 298
7. Dowsabell, by M. Drayton 304
8. The Farewell to Love, from Beaumont and Fletcher 310
9. Ulysses and the Syren, by S. Daniel 311
10. Cupid's Pastime, by Davison 314
11. The character of a happy life, by Sir H. Wotton. 317
12. Gilderoy. A Scottish Ballad 318
13. Winifreda 323
14. The Witch of Wokey 325
15. Bryan and Pereene. A West Indian Ballad, by Dr. Grainger 328

16. Gentle River, Gentle River. Translated from the Spanish 331
17. Alcanzor and Zayda, a Moorish Tale 338
APPENDIX I.
An Essay on the Ancient Minstrels in England 343
Notes and Illustrations 382
APPENDIX II.
On the Origin of the English Stage, &c. 431
Index to Vol. I 459

ERRATA.

Page 27, Note [142], after Fit read "see vol. 2, p. 182."
Page 76, add ⁂ at end of Sir Cauline.

EDITOR'S PREFACE

I n undertaking the supervision of a new edition of the Reliques
of Ancient English Poetry, I felt that no safer or better
guidance could be followed than that of Bishop Percy himself;
and as he always strove, in the several editions published by
himself, to embody therein the sum of the knowledge of his
times, so I, following at a distance, have endeavoured, by gathering from

many quarters particulars published since his death, to make his book still
more worthy of the great reputation it has acquired.
Each edition published during the lifetime of the author contained large
additions and corrections; but since the publication of the fourth edition, in
1794, no changes worth mentioning have been made, with the exception of
such as occur in a revision brought out by the Rev. R. A. Willmott in 1857.
His object, however, was to form a handy volume, and he therefore cleared
away all Percy's Essays and Prefaces, and added short notices of his own,
founded on Percy's facts, and, in some instances, on recent information.
The desire for a new edition of the Reliques has more particularly grown
since the publication of the original folio MS. in 1867, and I trust that the
readers of the present edition may feel disposed to accept it as in some
degree satisfying this desire.
In the preparation of the present edition, the whole of Percy's work has been
reprinted from his fourth edition, which contains his last touches; and in
order that no confusion should be occasioned to the reader, all my notes and
additions have been placed between brackets. The chief of these are the
additional prefaces to the various pieces, the glossarial notes at the foot of
the page, and the collation of such pieces as are taken from the folio MS.
The complete glossary, which will be appended to the third volume, might
seem to render the glossarial notes unnecessary; but there may be some
readers who will find them useful. With regard to the pieces taken from the
folio MS., the originals have been printed after Percy's copies in those cases
which had undergone considerable alterations. Readers have now, therefore,
before them complete materials for forming an opinion as to the use the
Bishop made of his manuscript.
After commencing my work, I found that to treat the Essays interspersed
throughout the book as the Prefaces had been treated, would necessitate so
many notes and corrections as to cause confusion; and as the Essays on the
English Stage, and the Metrical Romances, are necessarily out of date, the
trouble expended would not have been repaid by the utility of the result. I
have, therefore, thrown them to the end of their respective volumes, where
they can be read exactly as Percy left them.
In concluding these explanations, I have much pleasure in expressing my
thanks to those friends who have assisted me, and to those writers without

whose previous labours mine could not have been performed, more
particularly to Messrs. Furnivall and Hales, who most kindly gave me
permission to use any part of their edition of the folio MS. To Mr. Hales I
am also indebted for many valuable hints, of which I have gladly availed
myself.
Henry B. Wheatley.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION
S everal questions of general interest have arisen for discussion
by the editor during the work of revision. Notes upon these
have been brought together, so as to form an introduction,
which it is hoped may be of some use to the readers of the
Reliques, in the absence of an exhaustive compilation, which
has yet to be made. Here there is no attempt at completeness of treatment,
and the notes are roughly arranged under the following headings:—

The Minstrels.
Ballads and Ballad Writers.
Imitators and Forgers.
Authenticity of certain Ballads.
Preservers of the Ballads.
Life of Percy.
Folio MS. and the Reliques.
Ballad Literature since Percy.

The Minstrels.

When Percy wrote the opening sentence in his first sketch of that "Essay on
the Ancient English Minstrels" (1765), which was the foundation of the
literature of the subject, he little expected the severe handling he was to
receive from the furious Ritson for his hasty utterance. His words were,
"The minstrels seem to have been the genuine successors of the ancient
bards, who united the arts of poetry and music, and sung verses to the harp
of their own composing." The bishop was afterwards convinced, from
Ritson's remarks, that the rule he had enunciated was too rigid, and in the
later form of the Essay he somewhat modified his language. The last
portion of the sentence then stood, "composed by themselves or others,"
and a note was added to the effect that he was "wedded to no hypothesis."
Sir Walter Scott criticised the controversy in his interesting article on
Romance in the supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, where he

wrote: "When so popular a department of poetry has attained this decided
character, it becomes time to inquire who were the composers of these
numerous, lengthened, and once-admired narratives which are called
metrical romances, and from whence they drew their authority. Both these
subjects of discussion have been the source of great controversy among
antiquarians; a class of men who, be it said with their forgiveness, are apt to
be both positive and polemical upon the very points which are least
susceptible of proof, and which are least valuable if the truth could be
ascertained; and which, therefore, we would gladly have seen handled with
more diffidence and better temper in proportion to their uncertainty." After
some remarks upon the essays of Percy and Ritson, he added, "Yet there is
so little room for this extreme loss of temper, that upon a recent perusal of
both these ingenious essays, we were surprised to find that the reverend
editor of the Reliques and the accurate antiquary have differed so very little
as in essential facts they appear to have done. Quotations are indeed made
by both with no sparing hand; and hot arguments, and on one side, at least,
hard words are unsparingly employed; while, as is said to happen in
theological polemics, the contest grows warmer in proportion as the ground
concerning which it is carried on is narrower and more insignificant. In
reality their systems do not essentially differ." Ritson's great object was to
set forth more clearly than Percy had done that the term minstrel was a
comprehensive one, including the poet, the singer, and the musician, not to
mention the fablier, conteur, jugleur, baladin, &c.
Ritson delighted in collecting instances of the degradation into which the
minstrel gradually sank, and, with little of Percy's taste, he actually
preferred the ballad-writer's songs to those of the minstrel. Percy, on the
other hand, gathered together all the material he could to set the minstrel in
a good light. There is abundant evidence that the latter was right in his view
of the minstrel's position in feudal times, but there were grades in this
profession as in others, and law-givers doubtless found it necessary to
control such Bohemians as wandered about the country without licence.
The minstrel of a noble house was distinguished by bearing the badge of his
lord attached to a silver chain, and just as in later times the players who did
not bear the name of some courtier were the subjects of parliamentary
enactments, so the unattached minstrels were treated as vagrants. Besides
the minstrels of great lords, there were others attached to important cities.
On May 26, 1298, as appears by the Wardrobe accounts of Edward I., that

king gave 6s. 8d. to Walter Lovel, the harper of Chichester, whom he found
playing the harp before the tomb of St. Richard in the Cathedral of
Chichester.
Waits were formerly attached to most corporate towns, and were, in fact,
the corporation minstrels. They wore a livery and a badge, and were formed
into a sort of guild. No one, even were he an inhabitant of the town, was
suffered to play in public who was not free of the guild. Besides singing out
the hours of the night, and warning the town against dangers, they
accompanied themselves with the harp, the pipe, the hautboy, and other
instruments. They played in the town for the gratification of the inhabitants,
and attended the mayor on all state occasions. At the mayor's feast they
occupied the minstrels' gallery. From the merchants' guild book at Leicester,
it appears that as early as 1314 "Hugh the Trumpeter" was made free of the
guild, and in 1481 "Henry Howman, a harper," was also made free, while in
1499 "Thomas Wylkyns, Wayte," and in 1612 "Thomas Pollard, musician,"
were likewise admitted.[1]
Percy collected so many facts concerning the old minstrels, that it is not
necessary to add much to his stock of information, especially as, though a
very interesting subject in itself, it has really very little to do with the
contents of the Reliques.
The knightly Troubadours and Trouvères, and such men as Taillefer, the
Norman minstrel, who at the battle of Hastings advanced on horseback
before the invading host, and gave the signal for attack by singing the Song
of Roland, who died at Roncesvalles, had little in common with the authors
of the ballads in this book.
The wise son of Sirach enumerates among those famous men who are
worthy to be praised "such as found out musical tunes, and recited verses in
writing;" but, according to Hector Boece, the early Scottish kings thought
otherwise. In the Laws of Kenneth II., "bardis" are mentioned with
vagabonds, fools, and idle persons, to be scourged and burnt on the cheek,
unless they found some work by which to live; and the same laws against
them were, according to Boece, still in force in the reign of Macbeth, nearly
two centuries later. Better times, however, came, and Scotch bards and
minstrels were highly favoured in the reign of James III.; but the sunshine
did not last long. In 1574, "pipers, fiddlers, and minstrels" are again

branded with the opprobrious term of vagabonds, and threatened with
severe penalties; and the Regent Morton induced the Privy Council to issue
an edict that "nane tak upon hand to emprent or sell whatsoever book,
ballet, or other werk," without its being examined and licensed, under pain
of death and confiscation of goods. In August, 1579, two poets of
Edinburgh (William Turnbull, schoolmaster, and William Scot, notar, "baith
weel belovit of the common people for their common offices"), were
hanged for writing a satirical ballad against the Earl of Morton; and in
October of the same year, the Estates passed an Act against beggars and "sic
as make themselves fules and are bards ... minstrels, sangsters, and tale
tellers, not avowed in special service by some of the lords of parliament or
great burghs."
The minstrels had their several rounds, and, as a general rule, did not
interfere with each other; but it is probable that they occasionally made a
foray into other districts, in order to replenish their worn-out stock of songs.
One of the last of the true minstrels was Richard Sheale, who enjoys the
credit of having preserved the old version of Chevy Chase. He was for a
time in the service of Edward, Earl of Derby, and wrote an elegy on the
Countess, who died in January, 1558. He afterwards followed the profession
of a minstrel at Tamworth, and his wife was a "sylke woman," who sold
shirts, head clothes, and laces, &c., at the fairs of Lichfield and other
neighbouring towns. On one occasion, when he left Tamworth on
horseback, with his harp in his hand, he had the misfortune to be robbed by
four highwaymen, who lay in wait for him near Dunsmore Heath. He wrote
a long account of his misfortune in verse,[2] in which he describes the grief
of himself and his wife at their great loss, and laments over the coldness of
worldly friends. He was robbed of threescore pounds—a large amount in
those days—not obtained, however, from the exercise of his own skill, but
by the sale of his wife's wares. This money was to be devoted to the
payment of their debts, and in order that the carriage of it should not be a
burden to him he changed it all for gold. He thought he might carry it
safely, as no one would suspect a minstrel of possessing so much property,
but he found to his cost that he had been foolishly bold. To add to his
affliction, some of his acquaintances grieved him by saying that he was a
lying knave, and had not been robbed, as it was not possible for a minstrel
to have so much money. There was a little sweetness, however, in the poor

minstrel's cup, for patrons were kind, and his loving neighbours at
Tamworth exerted themselves to help him. They induced him to brew a
bushel of malt, and sell the ale.
All this is related in a poem, which gives a vivid picture of the life of the
time, although the verse does not do much credit to the poet's skill.
When the minstrel class had fallen to utter decay in England, it flourished
with vigour in Wales; and we learn that the harpers and fiddlers were
prominent figures in the Cymmortha, or gatherings of the people for mutual
aid. These assemblies were of a similar character to the "Bees," which are
common among our brethren in the United States. They were often abused
for political purposes, and they gave some trouble to Burghley as they had
previously done to Henry IV. In the reign of that king a statute was passed
forbidding rhymers, minstrels, &c. from making the Cymmortha. The
following extract from a MS. in the Lansdowne Collection in the British
Museum, on the state of Wales in Elizabeth's reign, shows the estimation in
which the minstrels were then held:—
"Upon the Sundays and holidays the multitudes of all sorts of men, women,
and children of every parish do use to meet in sundry places, either on some
hill or on the side of some mountain, where their harpers and crowthers sing
them songs of the doings of their ancestors."[3]
Ben Jonson introduces "Old Father Rosin," the chief minstrel of Highgate,
as one of the principal characters in his Tale of a Tub; and the blind harpers
continued for many years to keep up the remembrance of the fallen glories
of the minstrel's profession. Tom D'Urfey relates how merrily blind Tom
harped, and mention is made of "honest Jack Nichols, the harper," in Tom
Brown's Letters from the Dead to the Living (Works, ii. 191). Sir Walter
Scott, in the article on Romance referred to above, tells us that "about fifty
or sixty years since" (which would be about the year 1770) "a person
acquired the nickname of 'Roswal and Lillian,' from singing that romance
about the streets of Edinburgh, which is probably the very last instance of
the proper minstrel craft." Scott himself, however, gives later instances in
the introduction to the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. He there writes: "It
is certain that till a very late period the pipers, of whom there was one
attached to each border town of note, and whose office was often hereditary,
were the great depositaries of oral, and particularly of poetical tradition.

About spring-time, and after harvest, it was the custom of these musicians
to make a progress through a particular district of the country. The music
and the tale repaid their lodging, and they were usually gratified, with a
donation of seed corn. This order of minstrels is alluded to in the comic
song of Maggy Lauder, who thus addresses a piper:

'Live ye upo' the border?'"[4]

To this is added the following note:—"These town pipers, an institution of
great antiquity upon the borders, were certainly the last remains of the
minstrel race. Robin Hastie, town piper of Jedburgh, perhaps the last of the
order, died nine or ten years ago; his family was supposed to have held the
office for about three centuries. Old age had rendered Robin a wretched
performer, but he knew several old songs and tunes, which have probably
died along with him. The town-pipers received a livery and salary from the
community to which they belonged; and in some burghs they had a small
allotment of land, called the Pipers' Croft." Scott further adds:—"Other
itinerants, not professed musicians, found their welcome to their night's
quarters readily ensured by their knowledge in legendary lore. John Græme,
of Sowport, in Cumberland, commonly called the Long Quaker, a person of
this latter description, was very lately alive, and several of the songs now
published have been taken down from his recitation." A note contains some
further particulars of this worthy:—"This person, perhaps the last of our
professed ballad reciters, died since the publication of the first edition of
this work. He was by profession an itinerant cleaner of clocks and watches,
but a stentorian voice and tenacious memory qualified him eminently for
remembering accurately and reciting with energy the border gathering
songs and tales of war. His memory was latterly much impaired, yet the
number of verses which he could pour forth, and the animation of his tone
and gestures, formed a most extraordinary contrast to his extreme
feebleness of person and dotage of mind." Ritson, in mentioning some
relics of the minstrel class, writes:—"It is not long since that the public
papers announced the death of a person of this description somewhere in
Derbyshire; and another from the county of Gloucester was within these
few years to be seen in the streets of London; he played on an instrument of
the rudest construction, which he properly enough called a humstrum, and
chanted (amongst others) the old ballad of Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor,

which, by the way, has every appearance of being originally a minstrel
song." He adds further in a note:—"He appeared again in January, 1790,
and called upon the present writer in the April following. He was between
sixty and seventy years of age, but had not been brought up to the
profession of a minstrel, nor possessed any great store of songs, of which
that mentioned in the text seemed the principal. Having, it would seem,
survived his minstrel talents, and forgot his epic, nay Pindaric art, he has
been of late frequently observed begging in the streets."[5]
These quotations relate to the end of the last or to the very early part of the
present century, but we can add a notice of minstrels who lived well on
towards the middle of this century. Mr. J. H. Dixon, in the preface to his
Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, printed for the Percy
Society in 1845, writes as follows:—"Although the harp has long been
silent in the dales of the north of England and Scotland, it has been
succeeded by the violin, and a class of men are still in existence and
pursuing their calling, who are the regular descendants and representatives
of the minstrels of old. In his rambles amongst the hills of the North, and
especially in the wild and romantic dales of Yorkshire, the editor has met
with several of these characters. They are not idle vagabonds who have no
other calling, but in general are honest and industrious, though poor men,
having a local habitation as well as a name, and engaged in some calling,
pastoral or manual. It is only at certain periods, such as Christmas, or some
other of the great festal seasons of the ancient church, that they take up the
minstrel life, and levy contributions in the hall of the peer or squire, and in
the cottage of the farmer or peasant. They are in general well-behaved, and
often very witty fellows, and therefore their visits are always welcome.
These minstrels do not sing modern songs, but, like their brethren of a
bygone age, they keep to the ballads. The editor has in his possession some
old poems, which he obtained from one of these minstrels, who is still
living and fiddling in Yorkshire."
In his Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England,
1846, Mr. Dixon notices one of these relics of the past, viz. Francis King,
who was well known in the western dales of Yorkshire as "the Skipton
Minstrel:"—"This poor minstrel, from whose recitation two of our ballads
were obtained, met his death by drowning in December, 1844. He had been
at a merry meeting at Gargrave in Craven, and it is supposed that owing to

the darkness of the night he had mistaken his homeward road, and walked
into the water. He was one in whose character were combined the mimic
and the minstrel, and his old jokes and older ballads and songs ever insured
him a hearty welcome. His appearance was peculiar, and owing to one leg
being shorter than its companion, he walked in such a manner as once drew
from a wag the remark, 'that few kings had had more ups and downs in the
world!' As a musician his talents were creditable, and some of the dance
tunes that he was in the habit of composing showed that he was not
deficient in the organ of melody. In the quiet churchyard of Gargrave may
be seen the minstrel's grave."
Percy wrote an interesting note upon the division of some of the long
ballads into fits (see vol. ii. p. 182). The minstrel's payment for each of
these fits was a groat; and so common was this remuneration, that a groat
came to be generally spoken of as "fiddler's money."
Puttenham describes the blind harpers and tavern minstrels as giving a fit of
mirth for a groat; and in Ben Jonson's masque of the Metamorphosed
Gipsies, 1621, Townshead, the clown, cries out, "I cannot hold now; there's
my groat, let's have a fit for mirth sake."
The payment seems to have remained the same, though the money became
in time reduced in value, so that, as the minstrel fell in repute, his reward
became less. In 1533, however, a Scotch eighteen-penny groat possessed a
considerable buying power, as appears from the following extract:—
"Sir Walter Coupar, chaplaine in Edinburghe, gate a pynte of vyne, a laiffe
of 36 vnce vaight, a peck of aite meill, a pynte of aill, a scheipe head, ane
penny candell and a faire woman for ane xviii. penny grotte."[6]
After the Restoration, the sixpence took the place of the groat; and it is even
now a current phrase to say, when several sixpences are given in change,
"What a lot of fiddlers' money!"

Ballads and Ballad Writers.

One of the most important duties of the old minstrel was the chanting of the
long romances of chivalry, and the question whether the ballads were
detached portions of the romances, or the romances built up from ballads,
has greatly agitated the minds of antiquaries. There seems reason to believe

that in a large number of instances the most telling portions of the romance
were turned into ballads, and this is certainly the case in regard to several of
those belonging to the Arthurian cycle. On the other side, such poems as
Barbour's Bruce and Blind Harry's Wallace have, according to Motherwell,
swept out of existence the memory of the ballads from which they were
formed. When Barbour wrote, ballads relative to Bruce and his times were
common, "for the poet, in speaking of certain 'thre worthi poyntis of wer,'
omits the particulars of the 'thrid which fell into Esdaill,' being a victory
gained by 'Schyr Johne the Soullis,' over 'Schyr Andrew Hardclay,' for this
reason:—

'I will nocht rehers the maner,
For wha sa likes thai may her,
Young wemen quhen thai will play,
Syng it amang thaim ilk day.'"[7]

Another instance of the agglutinative process may be cited in the gradual
growth of the Robin Hood ballads into a sort of epic, the first draught of
which we may see in the Merrye Geste. The directness and dramatic cast of
the minstrel ballad, however, form a strong argument in favour of the theory
that they were largely taken from the older romances and chronicles, and
the fragmentary appearance of some of them gives force to this view.
Without preface, they go at once straight to the incident to be described.
Frequently the ballad opens with a conversation, and some explanation of
the position of the interlocutors was probably given by the minstrel as a
prose introduction. Motherwell, in illustration of the opinion that the abrupt
transitions of the ballads were filled up by the explanations of the minstrels,
gives the following modern instance:—
"Traces of such a custom still remain in the lowlands of Scotland among
those who have stores of these songs upon their memory. Reciters
frequently, when any part of the narrative appears incomplete, supply the
defect in prose.... I have heard the ancient ballad of Young Beichan and
Susan Pye dilated by a story-teller into a tale of very remarkable
dimensions—a paragraph of prose, and then a screed of rhyme, alternately
given. From this ballad I may give a short specimen, after the fashion of the
venerable authority from whom I quote: 'Well ye must know that in the
Moor's castle there was a massymore, which is a dark, deep dungeon for

keeping prisoners. It was twenty feet below the ground, and into this hole
they closed poor Beichan. There he stood, night and day, up to his waist in
puddle water; but night or day, it was all one to him, for no ae styme of light
ever got in. So he lay there a long and weary while, and thinking on his
heavy weird, he made a mournfu' sang to pass the time, and this was the
sang that he made, and grat when he sang it, for he never thought of ever
escaping from the massymore, or of seeing his ain country again:

'My hounds they all ran masterless,
My hawks they flee from tree to tree;
My youngest brother will heir my lands,
And fair England again I'll never see.

Oh were I free as I hae been,
And my ship swimming once more on sea;
I'd turn my face to fair England,
And sail no more to a strange countrie.'

'Now the cruel Moor had a beautiful daughter, called Susan Pye, who was
accustomed to take a walk every morning in her garden, and as she was
walking ae day she heard the sough o' Beichan's sang, coming, as it were,
from below the ground,'" &c.[8]
The contrast between the construction of minstrel ballads and those of the
ballad-mongers who arose as a class in the reign of Elizabeth is very
marked. The ballad-singers who succeeded the minstrels were sufficiently
wise not to reject the treasures of their predecessors, and many of the old
songs were rewritten and lengthened to suit their purpose. Sir Patrick
Spence would perhaps be the best of the minstrel ballads to oppose to one
of the best of the later ballads, such as the Beggar's Daughter of Bednall
Green; but as its authenticity has been disputed, it will be well to choose
another, and Captaine Carre, which Ritson allows to have been one of the
few minstrel ballads he acknowledges, will do well for the purpose. As both
these poems are before our readers, it will only be necessary to quote the
first stanzas of each. The version in the folio MS. of Captain Carre
commences abruptly thus:—

"ffaith maister, whither you will,

whereas you like the best,
unto the castle of Bitton's borrow,
and there to take your rest."[9]
This is a remarkable contrast to the opening of the Beggar's Daughter:—

"Itt was a blind beggar, had long lost his sight,
He had a faire daughter of bewty most bright;
And many a gallant brave suiter had shee,
For none was soe comelye as pretty Bessee."[10]

Some may think, however, that this ballad is an adaptation by the ballad-
monger from an older original, so that perhaps a still better instance of the
great change in form that the ballads underwent will be found in the
Children in the Wood.[11] This favourite ballad is one of the best specimens
of that didactic style which is so natural in the hands of the master, but
degenerates into such tedious twaddle when copied by the pupil. The first
stanza is:—

"Now ponder well, you parents deare,
These wordes, which I shall write;
A doleful story you shall heare,
In time brought forth to light.
A gentleman of good account
In Norfolke dwelt of late,
Who did in honour far surmount
Most men of his estate."

To put the matter simply, we may say that the writer of the old minstrel
ballad expected an unhesitating belief for all his statements. "If fifteen
stalwart foresters are slain by one stout knight, single-handed, he never
steps out of his way to prove the truth of such an achievement by appealing
to the exploits of some other notable manslayer."[12] On the other hand the
professional ballad-writer gives a reason for everything he states, and in
consequence fills his work with redundancies. Percy understood the
characteristics of the older ballads, and explained the difference between
the two classes of ballads in his Essay on the Ancient Minstrels,[13] but
unfortunately he did not bear the distinction in mind when he altered some

of the ballads in the folio MS. So that we find it to have been his invariable
practice to graft the prettinesses and redundancies of the later writers upon
the simplicity of the earlier. For instance, in his version of Sir Cauline he
inserts such well-worn saws as the following:—

"Everye white will have its blacke,
And everye sweete its sowre:
This founde the ladye Cristabelle
In an untimely howre."[14]

Ritson also remarks upon the distinctive styles of the ancient and modern
writers, but, as observed above, he had the bad taste to prefer the work of
the later ballad-writer. His opinion is given in the following passage:
—"These songs [of the minstrels] from their wild and licentious metre were
incapable of any certain melody or air; they were chanted in a monotonous
stile to the harp or other instrument, and both themselves and the
performers banished by the introduction of ballad-singers without
instruments, who sung printed pieces to fine and simple melodies, possibly
of their own invention, most of which are known and admired at this day.
The latter, owing to the smoothness of their language, and accuracy of their
measure and rime, were thought to be more poetical than the old harp or
instrument songs; and though critics may judge otherwise, the people at
large were to decide, and did decide: and in some respects, at least, not
without justice, as will be evident from a comparison of the following
specimens.
"The first is from the old Chevy Chase, a very popular minstrel ballad in the
time of Queen Elizabeth:—

'The Persé owt of Northombarlande,
And a vowe to God mayd he,' &c.[15]

How was it possible that this barbarous language, miserably chanted 'by
some blind crowder with no rougher voice than rude stile,' should maintain
its ground against such lines as the following, sung to a beautiful melody,
which we know belongs to them?—

'When as king Henry rul'd the land,

The second of that name,
Besides the queen he dearly lov'd,
A fair and comely dame,' &c.[16]
The minstrels would seem to have gained little by such a contest. In short,
they gave up the old Chevy Chase to the ballad-singers, who, desirous, no
doubt, to avail themselves of so popular a subject, had it new written, and
sung it to the favourite melody just mentioned. The original, of course,
became utterly neglected, and but for its accidental discovery by Hearne,
would never have been known to exist."[17]
Percy held the view, which was afterwards advocated by Scott, that the
Borders were the true home of the romantic ballad, and that the chief
minstrels originally belonged either to the north of England or the south of
Scotland;[18] but later writers have found the relics of a ballad literature in
the north of Scotland. The characteristics of the ballad doubtless varied to
some extent in different parts of the country, but there is no reason to
believe that the glory of being its home can be confined to any one place.
Unfortunately this popular literature was earlier lost in the plains than
among the hills, while the recollection of the fatal fields of Otterburn,
Humbledon, Flodden, Halidon, Hedgeley, Hexham, &c., would naturally
keep it alive longer among the families of the Border than elsewhere.
Before proceeding further, it may be as well to say a few words upon the
word ballad. The strong line of demarcation that is now drawn between an
ordinary song and a ballad is a late distinction, and even Dr. Johnson's only
explanation of the word "ballad" in his Dictionary is "a song." One of his
quotations is taken from Watts, to the effect that "ballad once signified a
solemn and sacred song, as well as trivial, when Solomon's Song was called
the ballad of ballads; but now it is applied to nothing but trifling verse." The
"balade" as used by Chaucer and others was a song written in a particular
rhythm, but later writers usually meant by a ballad a song that was on the
lips of the people.
It is not necessary to enlarge here upon the change of meaning that the word
has undergone, nor to do more than mention the relation that it bears to the
word ballet. As a ballad is now a story told in verse, so a ballet is now a
story told in a dance. Originally the two were one, and the ballad was a
song sung while the singers were dancing.

When Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun wrote, "I knew a very wise man, so
much of Sir Christopher's sentiment that he believed if a man were
permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the
laws of a nation," he referred to the popular songs of the people, but, in
point of fact, a nation makes its own ballads, which do not become current
coin until stamped with public approval. No song will change a people's
purpose, but the national heart will be found written in a country's songs as
a reflection of what has happened.
The successful ballad-writer requires a quick eye and ear to discern what is
smouldering in the public mind, and then if his words fall in with the
humour of the people his productions will have a powerful influence, and
may set the country in a blaze. Ça ira and the Carmagnole had much
influence on the progress of the great French Revolution, as Mourir pour la
Patrie had upon that of 1848. Lilliburlero gave the finishing stroke to the
English Revolution of 1688, and its author (Lord Wharton) boasted that he
had rhymed King James out of his dominions.
The old ballad filled the place of the modern newspaper, and history can be
read in ballads by those who try to understand them; but the type is often
blurred, and in attempting to make out their meaning, we must be careful
not to see too much, for the mere fact of the existence of a ballad does not
prove its popularity or its truth.
Literature is often presumed to assert a larger influence over a nation than it
really does, and there is little doubt that literature is more a creation of the
people than the people are a creation of literature. Where a healthy public
opinion exists, people are less affected to action by what is written than is
sometimes supposed, but still there is an important reflex action, and—

"Words are things, and a small drop of ink
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think."

There are recorded instances of the powerful influence of ballads, and we
know how much Dibdin's sea songs did for the British navy, when they
placed before the sailor an ideal of his own feelings, and painted men he
wished to be like.

The songs of a country are the truly natural part of its poetry, and really the
only poetry of the great body of the people. Percy, in the dedication to his
Reliques, calls ballads the "barbarous productions of unpolished ages."
Nevertheless they are instinct with life, and live still, while much of the
polished poetry of his age, which expelled nature from literature, is
completely dead. Nature is the salt that keeps the ballad alive, and many
have maintained a continuance of popularity for several centuries.
A good ballad is not an easy thing to write, and many poets who have tried
their hand at composition in this branch of their art have signally failed, as
may be seen by referring to some of the modern pieces in this book, which
Percy hoped would "atone for the rudeness of the more obsolete poems."
The true ballad is essentially dramatic, and one that is to make itself felt
should be all action, without any moralizing padding, for it is a narrative in
verse meant for the common people. James Hogg, himself a successful
ballad-writer, has something to say about a good song: "A man may be sair
mista'en about many things, sic as yepics, an' tragedies, an' tales, an' even
lang set elegies about the death o' great public characters, an' hymns, an'
odes, an' the like, but he canna be mista'en about a sang. As sune as it's
down on the sclate I ken whether it's gude, bad, or middlin'. If any of the
two last I dight it out wi' my elbow; if the first, I copy it o'er into writ and
then get it aff by heart, when it's as sure o' no' being lost as if it war
engraven on a brass plate. For though I hae a treacherous memory about
things in ordinar', a' my happy sangs will cleave to my heart to my dying
day, an' I should na wonder gin I war to croon a verse or twa frae some o'
them on my deathbed."
All ballads are songs, but all songs are not ballads, and the difference
between a ballad and a song is something the same as that between a
proverb and an apophthegm, for the ballad like the proverb should be upon
many lips. A poet may write a poem and call it a ballad: but it requires the
public approval before it becomes one in fact.
The objects of the minstrel and the ballad-singer were essentially different:
thus the minstrel's stock of ballads usually lasted him his lifetime, and as his
living depended upon them they were jealously guarded by him from
others. Nothing he objected to more than to see them in print. The chief aim
of the ballad-singer, on the other hand, was to sell his collection of printed

broadsides, and to obtain continually a new stock, so as to excite the
renewed attention of his customers.
Henry Chettle mentions in his Kind Hart's Dream, 1592, the sons of one
Barnes, who boasted that they could earn twenty shillings a day by singing
ballads at Bishop's Stortford and places in the neighbourhood. The one had
a squeaking treble, the other "an ale-blown bass."
One of the most popular singers of the early time was a boy named Cheeke,
and nicknamed "Outroaring Dick." He was originally a mechanic, but
renounced that life for ballad-singing, by which occupation he earned ten
shillings a day. He was well known in Essex, and was not missed for many
years from the great fair at Braintree. He had a rival in Will Wimbars, who
sung chiefly doleful tragedies. Mat Nash, a man from the "North Countrie,"
made the Border ballads his own by his manner of singing them, in which
he accompanied his voice by dramatic action. Chevy Chase was his tour de
force. Lord Burghley was so pleased with his singing that he enabled him to
retire from his occupation. The gipsies have furnished many female singers,
and one of them, named Alice Boyce, who came to London in Elizabeth's
reign, paid the expenses of her journey up to London by singing the whole
way. She had the honour of singing, "O, the broom" and "Lady Green
Sleeves" before the queen. Gravelot, the portrait painter in the Strand, had
several sittings from ballad-singers; and Hogarth drew the famous "Philip in
the Tub" in his Wedding of the Industrious Apprentice.
Street singing still continues, and one of the songs of thirty years ago tells
of "the luck of a cove wot sings," and how many friends he has. One of the
verses is as follows:—

"While strolling t'other night,
I dropped in a house, d'ye see;
The landlord so polite,
Insisted on treating me;
I called for a glass of port,
When half-a-bottle he brings;
'How much?'—'Nothing of the sort,'
Says he, 'you're a cove wot sings.'"

Mr. Chappell gives a large number of early quotations relating to ballad-
singing, in his interesting History of Ballad Literature, and observes that
"some idea of the number of ballads that were printed in the early part of
the reign of Elizabeth may be formed from the fact that seven hundred and
ninety-six ballads left for entry at Stationers' Hall remained in the cupboard
of the Council Chamber of the Company at the end of the year 1560, to be
transferred to the new Wardens, and only forty-four books."[19] Some of the
old writers, like Shakspere's Mopsa, loved "a ballad in print;" but more of
them disliked the new literature that was rising up like a mushroom, and
took every opportunity of having a fling at it.
Webbe, in his Discourse of English Poetrie (1586), refers to "the un-
countable rabble of ryming ballet-makers and compylers of senseless
sonnets;" and Chettle complains in Kind Hart's Dream (1592), that "now
ballads are abusively chanted in every street; and from London, this evil has
overspread Essex and the adjoining counties. There is many a tradesman of
a worshipful trade, yet no stationer, who after a little bringing up
apprentices to singing brokery, takes into his shop some fresh men, and
trusts his servants of two months' standing with a dozen groats' worth of
ballads, in which, if they prove thrifty, he makes them pretty chapmen, able
to spread more pamphlets by the State forbidden than all the booksellers in
London." Bishop Hall (1597) does not forget to satirize ballad-writing
among other things more worthy of censure.

"Some drunken rhymer thinks his time well spent,
If he can live to see his name in print;
Who, when he is once fleshed to the presse,
And sees his handsell have such faire successe
Sung to the wheele and sung unto the payle,
He sends forth thraves of ballads to the sale."

That is, by the spinsters and milkmaids. Shakspere also refers to the love
which women at work have for a ballad in Twelfth Night (act i. sc. 4):

"The spinsters and knitters in the sun,
And the free maids that weave their thread with bones
Do use to chant it."

The larger number of ballads are anonymous, but we are told that in the
reign of Henry VIII., "the most pregnant wits" were employed in writing
them, and that the king himself set the example. The ballad, however, here
referred to probably only meant an ordinary song. In course of time
rhymesters succeeded poets, because, as the world becomes more educated,
the poet confines himself to the refined, and the people have to content
themselves with poor poetasters. Stirring times will, however, always give
birth to some real poetry among the masses, because whatever is true and
earnest must find an echo in many hearts. In Elizabeth's reign, as we have
already seen, the ballad-writer had sunk very low in public esteem. In
further illustration of this we find in Martin Mar-sixtus (1592) the following
diatribe: "I lothe to speak it, every red-nosed rhymester is an auther, every
drunken man's dream is a book; and he whose talent of little wit is hardly
worth a farthing, yet layeth about him so outrageously as if all Helicon had
run through his pen. In a word, scarce a cat can look out of a gutter, but out
starts a halfpenny chronicler, and presently a proper new ballet of a strange
sight is indited." The producer and the product had not greatly changed in
forty years, for we find the following character in the curious little book,
entitled Whimzies, or a New Cast of Characters (1631):
"A ballad-monger is the ignominious nickname of a penurious poet, of
whom he partakes in nothing but in povertie. He has a singular gift of
imagination, for he can descant on a man's execution long before his
confession. Nor comes his invention far short of his imagination. For want
of truer relations, for a neede, he can finde you out a Sussex dragon, some
sea or inland monster, drawne out by some Shoe-lane man in a Gorgon-like
feature, to enforce more horror in the beholder."
The chief of the ballad-writers were William Elderton, Thomas Deloney,
Richard Johnson, and Anthony Munday. Elderton was known as the prince
of ballad-mongers; but, unfortunately, he was as notorious for his love of
the bottle, and he is said to have drunk himself to death before the year
1592. Camden tells us that "he did arm himself with ale (as old Father
Ennius did with wine) when he ballated," and two epitaphs made upon him
are registered in the Remaines, the Latin one of which is also printed at p.
221 of vol. ii., with Oldys's translation, and the following:—

"Here is Elderton lying in dust,

Or lying Elderton; chuse which you lust.
Here he lies dead, I do him no wrong,
For who knew him standing, all his life long?"
Nash asserts that "Elderton consumed his alecrammed nose to nothing in
bear-bayting" an enemy "with whole bundells of ballets;"[20] and Gabriel
Harvey attacks "Father Elderton and his son Greene as the ringleaders of
the riming and scribbling crew."
According to Stow, Elderton was an attorney in the Sheriffs' Courts of the
City of London, and wrote some verses on the new porch and stone statues
at Guildhall. Ritson does not think that his poetical powers are to be
compared with those of Deloney and Johnson. Drayton also appears to have
had a low opinion of him, for he writes:—

"I scorn'd your ballad then, though it were done
And had for finis, William Elderton,"

but Benedick, in Much Ado about Nothing (act v. sc. 2) does him the honour
of singing one of his songs:—

"The god of love
That sits above,
And knows me, and knows me
How pitiful I deserve."

Thomas Deloney, the shoemaker's historiographer, was a voluminous writer
of ballads, which he himself collected into Garlands, with different taking
titles. Several of his pieces are printed in these volumes. Nash calls him
"the balleting silk-weaver of Norwich;" and in his Have with you to Saffron
Walden, he remarks on the ballad-maker's change of style: "He hath rhyme
enough for all miracles, and wit to make a Garland of Good Will, &c., but
whereas his muse, from the first peeping forth, hath stood at livery at an
ale-house wisp, never exceeding a penny a quart, day or night—and this
dear year, together with the silencing of his looms, scarce that—he is
constrained to betake himself to carded ale, whence it proceedeth that, since
Candlemas, or his jigg of John for the King, not one merry ditty will come
from him; nothing but The Thunderbolt against Swearers; Repent, England,
Repent, and the Strange Judgments of God." Kemp, the comic actor and

morris-dancer, was particularly angry with the ballad-makers in general,
and Deloney in particular, and addresses them in the following terms:—
"Kemp's humble request to the impudent generation of Ballad-makers and
their coherents, that it would please their rascalities to pitty his paines in the
great journey he pretends, and not fill the country with lyes of his never
done actes as they did in his late Morrice to Norwich. I knowe the best of
ye, by the lyes ye writ of me, got not the price of a good hat to cover your
brainless heds. If any of ye had come to me, my bounty should have
exceeded the best of your good masters the ballad-buiers. I wold have
apparrelled your dry pates in party-coloured bonnets, and bestowed a leash
of my cast belles to have crown'd ye with cox-combs.
"I was told it was the great ballet-maker, T. D., alias Tho. Deloney,
chronicler of the memorable lives of the 6 yeamen of the West, Jack of
Newbery, the Gentle-Craft, and such like honest men, omitted by Stow,
Hollinshead, Grafton, Hal, Froysart, and the rest of those wel deserving
writers."[21]
Richard Johnson, the author of the Seven Champions of Christendom, like
Deloney, collected his own ballads into a book, and his Crown Garland of
Golden Roses was once highly popular.
Anthony Munday, a draper in Cripplegate, and a member of the Drapers'
Company, has the fame of being a voluminous writer of ballads, but none of
his productions are known to exist. Kemp calls him "Elderton's immediate
heir," but he does not seem to have walked in his predecessor's disreputable
steps, but to have lived respected to the good age of eighty. He died Aug.
10, 1633, and was buried in St. Stephen's, Coleman-street, where a
monument with an inscription in praise of his knowledge as an antiquary
was erected. He wrote many of the annual city pageants, besides plays,
which caused Meres to call him "the best plotter" of his age.
Chettle disguised Munday as Anthony Now-Now, and Ben Jonson ridiculed
him in The Case is Altered, as Antonio Balladino, the pageant poet. To the
question, "You are not the pageant poet to the city of Milan, are you?" he is
made to answer, "I supply the place, sir, when a worse cannot be had, sir."
He had several enemies who ran him down, but he also had friends who
stood up for him. William Webbe, in his Discourse of English Poetrie,
describes Munday as "an earnest traveller in this art," and says that he wrote

"very excellent works, especially upon nymphs and shepherds, well worthy
to be viewed and to be esteemed as rare poetry."
Thomas Middleton, the dramatic poet, who produced the Lord Mayor's
pageant for the mayoralty of his namesake, Sir Thomas Middleton (The
Triumphs of Truth), in 1613, attacks poor Munday most viciously. On the
title-page he declares his pageant to have been "directed, written, and
redeem'd into forme, from the ignorance of some former times and their
common writer," and in his book he adds:—"The miserable want of both
[art and knowledge] which in the impudent common writer hath often
forced from me much pity and sorrow, and it would heartily grieve any
understanding spirit to behold many times so glorious a fire in bounty and
goodness offering to match itselfe with freezing art, sitting in darknesse
with the candle out, looking like the picture of Blacke Monday."
When the civil war broke out, the majority of the poets were ready to range
themselves on the side of the King. Alexander Brome was the most
voluminous writer of royalist songs, but Martin Parker, the writer of The
King shall enjoy his own again, must take rank as the leading ballad-writer
of his time. This was one of those songs that cheer the supporters of a losing
cause, and help them to win success in the end. It is supposed to have
formed a by no means unimportant item in the causes that brought about the
Restoration. Parker is said to have been the leading spirit in a society of
ballad-writers; he certainly was not the "Grub Street scribbler" that Ritson
has called him. The Puritans hated this "ballad-maker laureat of London,"
and lost no opportunity of denouncing him and his works. Mr. Chappell has
written an interesting notice of him in his Popular Music of the Olden Time,
where he mentions some other royalist ballad writers, as John Wade, the
author of The Royal Oak, Thomas Weaver, the author of a Collection of
Songs, in which he ridiculed the Puritans so effectually that the book was
denounced as a seditious libel against the Government, and John Cleveland,
who, according to Anthony Wood, was the first to come forth as a champion
of the royal cause. The last of these was one of the very few ballad writers
whose names are enrolled in the list of British poets.
In December, 1648, Captain Betham was appointed Provost Marshal, with
power to seize upon all ballad-singers, and five years from that date there
were no more entries of ballads at Stationers' Hall, but when Cromwell
became Protector he removed the ban against ballads and ballad-singers.

After the Restoration, the courtier poets wrote for the streets, and therefore
most of the ballads were ranged on the side of the Court. After a time,
however, the Court fell into popular disfavour, and it was then discovered
that ballad-singers and pamphleteers had too much liberty. Killigrew, the
Master of the Revels to Charles II., licensed all singers and sellers of
ballads, and John Clarke, a London bookseller, rented of Killigrew this
privilege for a period, which expired in 1682. Besides licensers of the
singers and sellers, there were licensers of the ballads themselves. These
were Sir Roger L'Estrange, from 1663 to 1685, Richard Pocock, from 1685
to 1688, J. Fraser, from 1689 to 1691, and Edmund Bohun, who died in
1694, the year that the licensing system also expired.
When James, Duke of York, went to Scotland to seek for that popularity
which he had lost in England, he is supposed to have taken with him an
English ballad-maker to sing his praises, and this man is believed to have
produced The Banishment of Poverty by H. R. H. James, Duke of Albany.
Ballad-singing was very much out of favour among the authorities in the
eighteenth century, and in 1716 the Middlesex grand jury denounced the
singing of "scandalous" ballads about the streets as a common nuisance,
tending to alienate the minds of the people. In July, 1763, we are told that
"yesterday evening two women were sent to Bridewell by Lord Bute's order
for singing political ballads before his lordship's door in South Audley
Street."
Ballads were then pretty much the same kind of rubbish that they are now,
and there was little to show that they once were excellent. The glorious days
when—

"Thespis, the first professor of our art,
At country wakes sung ballads from a cart,"[22]

had long ago departed. There are but few instances of true poets writing for
the streets in later times, but we have one in Oliver Goldsmith. In his early
life in Dublin, when he often felt the want of a meal, he wrote ballads,
which found a ready customer at five shillings each at a little bookseller's
shop in a by-street of the city. We are informed that he was as sensitive as to
the reception of these children of his muse as in after years he was of his
more ambitious efforts; and he used to stroll into the street to hear his

ballads sung, and to mark the degrees of applause with which they were
received. Most of the modern ballad-writers have been local in their fame,
as Thomas Hoggart, the uncle of Hogarth the painter, whose satiric lash
made him a power in his native district of Cumberland, dreaded alike by
fools and knaves.
The chief heroes of the older ballads were King Arthur and his knights,
Robin Hood, and Guy of Warwick. The ballads relating to the first of these
appear to have been chiefly chipped off from the great cycle of Arthurian
romances. The popularity of Robin Hood was at one time so great that
Drayton prophesied in his Polyolbion:—

"In this our spacious isle I think there is not one
But he hath heard some talk of him, and little John,
And to the end of time the tales shall ne'er be done
Of Scarlock, George a Green, and Much the Miller's son.
Of Tuck the merry Friar, which many a sermon made
In praise of Robin Hood, his outlaws, and their trade."

From a local hero he grew into national fame, and superseded Arthur in
popular regard. He then sunk into a mere highwayman, to be again raised
into fame by literary men, Ritson being the chief of these. Wakefield is still
proud of its Pinder, who was one of Robin Hood's company—

"In Wakefield there lives a jolly Pinder;
In Wakefield all on a green,"

and one of the thoroughfares of that place is now called Pinder Field Road.
Robin Hood was a purely English hero, but Guy of Warwick was almost as
popular in foreign countries as in his own land. The earliest of English
political ballads was an outcome of the Barons' wars in the reign of Henry
III.,[23] and each period of political excitement since then has been
represented in ballads. The controversies between Protestant and Papist
were carried on in verse, and Laud and his clergy were attacked by the
ballad-writers of the Puritan party.

Imitators and Forgers.

No attempt was made to produce false antique ballads until the true
antiques had again risen in public esteem, and one of the first to deceive the
connoisseurs was Lady Wardlaw, who was highly successful in her object
when she gave Hardyknute to the world (see vol. ii. p. 105). She seems to
have been quite contented with the success which attended the
mystification, and does not appear to have taken any particular pains to
keep her secret close. Suspicions were rife long before the publication of
the Reliques, but when they appeared the whole truth came out. With regard
to the other ballads, to which she had added verses, there does not appear to
have been any attempt at concealment. The recent endeavour to attribute a
large number of the romantic ballads of Scotland to her pen will be
considered further on.
A large number of poets have imitated the old ballad, but very few have
been successful in the attempt to give their efforts the genuine ring of the
original. Tickell and Goldsmith entered into the spirit of their models, but
Scott succeeded best in old Elspeth's fragment of a chant (the Battle of
Harlaw) in the Antiquary. W. J. Mickle, the translator of the Lusiad,
contributed several imitations to Evans's Collection of Old Ballads, but
although these are beautiful poems in themselves, their claim to antiquity
was made to rest chiefly upon a distorted spelling. One of the most
remarkably successful imitations of modern times is the ballad of Trelawny,
which the late Rev. R. S. Hawker, of Morwenstow, wrote to suit the old
burden of "And shall Trelawny die." This spirited ballad deceived Scott,
Macaulay, and Dickens, who all believed it to be genuine, and quoted it as
such. In 1846 it was actually printed by J. H. Dixon in his "Ancient Poems,
Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England, taken down from oral
tradition, and transcribed from private manuscripts, rare broadsides, and
scarce publications," published by the Percy Society. Mr. Dixon was
probably deceived by Davies Gilbert, who sent the ballad to the
Gentleman's Magazine in 1827, and said that it formerly "resounded in
every house, in every highway, and in every street." In 1832 Hawker had,
however, himself acknowledged the authorship. He wrote in his Records of
the Western Shore (p. 56), "With the exception of the chorus contained in
the last two lines, this song was written by me in the year 1825. It was soon
after inserted in a Plymouth paper. It happened to fall into the hands of
Davies Gilbert, Esq., who did me the honour to reprint it at his private press
at East Bourne, under the impression, I believe, that it is an early

composition of my own. The two lines above-mentioned formed, I believe,
the burthen of the old song, and are all that I can recover."[24] Hawker was
fond of these mystifications, and although he did not care to lose the credit
of his productions, he was amused to see another of his ballads, Sir Beville,
find its way into a collection of old ballads.
A far more beautiful ballad than Hardyknute is Auld Robin Gray, in which a
lady of rank caught the spirit of the tender songs of peasant life with
excellent effect. Lady Anne Barnard kept her secret for fifty years, and did
not acknowledge herself the author of it until 1823, when she disclosed the
fact in a letter to Sir Walter Scott.
These were harmless attempts to deceive, such as will always be common
among those who take a pleasure in reducing the pride of the experts; and
when they were discovered no one was found to have been injured by the
deceit. It is far different, however, when a forgery is foisted in among
genuine works, because when a discovery is made of its untrustworthiness,
the reputation of the true work is injured by this association with the false.
Pinkerton inserted a large number of his own poems in his edition of Select
Scottish Ballads (1783), which poems he alleged to be ancient. He was
taken severely to task by Ritson on account of these fabrications, and he
afterwards acknowledged his deceit.[25]
One of the most barefaced of literary deceptions was the work published in
1810 by R. H. Cromek, under the title of Remains of Nithsdale and
Galloway Song. Although the ballads contained in these volumes are very
varied in their subject, they were almost entirely composed by Allan
Cunningham, who produced whatever was required of him by his employer.
Poets are often the worst of editors, as they find the temptation to "improve"
their originals too strong to resist. Allan Cunningham published in 1826 a
collection of the Songs of Scotland, in which he availed himself so largely
of this license that Motherwell felt called upon to reprobate the work in the
strongest terms. He observes: "While thus violating ancient song, he seems
to have been well aware of the heinousness of his offending. He might
shudder and sicken at his revolting task indeed! To soothe his own alarmed
conscience, and, if possible, to reconcile the mind of his readers to his
wholesale mode of hacking and hewing and breaking the joints of ancient
and traditionary song; and to induce them to receive with favour the

conjectural emendations it likes him to make, he, in the course of his
progress, not unfrequently chooses to sneer at those, and to underrate their
labours, who have used their best endeavours to preserve ancient song in its
primitive and uncontaminated form."[26] These are by no means the hardest
words used by Motherwell in respect to the Songs of Scotland.
The worst among the forgers, however, was a man who ought to have been
above such dishonourable work, viz., Robert Surtees, the author of the
History of the County Palatine of Durham, in whose honour the Surtees
Society was founded. In Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border will be
found three ballads—The Death of Featherstonhaugh, Lord Ewrie, and
Bartram's Dirge, which are treated by Sir Walter as true antiques, and of the
genuine character of which he never had a doubt. They are all three,
however, mere figments of Surtees's imagination. Each of the ballads was
accompanied by fictitious historical incidents, to give it an extra appearance
of authenticity. Featherstonhaugh was said to be "taken down from the
recitation of a woman eighty years of age, mother of one of the miners in
Alston Moor;" Lord Ewrie was obtained from "Rose Smith, of Bishop
Middleham, a woman aged upwards of ninety-one;" and Bartram's Dirge
from "Anne Douglas, an old woman who weeded in his (Surtees's) garden."
On other occasions Sir Walter Scott was deluded by his friend with false
information. Mr. George Taylor makes the following excuse in his Life of
Surtees (p. 25): "Mr. Surtees no doubt had wished to have the success of his
attempt tested by the unbiassed opinion of the very first authority on the
subject, and the result must have been gratifying to him. But at a later
period of their intimacy, when personal regard was added to high
admiration for his correspondent, he probably would not have subjected
him to the mortification of finding that he could be imposed on in a matter
where he had a right to consider himself as almost infallible. And it was
most likely from this feeling that Mr. Surtees never acknowledged the
imposition: for so late as the year 1830, in which Scott dates his
introduction to the edition of the Minstrelsy, published in 1831, the ballad
of the Death of Featherstonhaugh retains its place (vol. i. p. 240) with the
same expressions of obligation to Mr. Surtees for the communication of it,
and the same commendation of his learned proofs of its authenticity." In
spite of this attempted justification, we cannot fail to stigmatize Surtees's
forgery as a crime against letters which fouls the very wells of truth.

Authenticity of Certain Ballads

As was to be expected, the existence of the forgeries just referred to caused
several persons to doubt the genuineness of many of the true ballads. Finlay
wrote, in 1808, "the mention of hats and cork-heeled shoon (in the ballad of
Sir Patrick Spence) would lead us to infer that some stanzas are
interpolated, or that its composition is of a comparatively modern date;"[27]
and, in 1839, the veteran ballad-collector, Mr. David Laing, wrote as
follows: "Notwithstanding the great antiquity that has been claimed for Sir
Patrick Spence, one of the finest ballads in our language, very little
evidence would be required to persuade me but that we were also indebted
for it to Lady Wardlaw (Stenhouse's Illustrations of the Lyric Poetry and
Music of Scotland, with additional notes to Johnson's Scots Musical
Museum, p. 320[27])." At p. 457[27] of the same book, Mr. Laing, after
quoting from Finlay, made the following further observations: "Bishop
Percy also remarks that 'an ingenious friend thinks the author of Hardyknute
has borrowed several expressions and sentiments from the foregoing and
other old Scottish songs in this collection.' It was this resemblance with the
localities Dunfermline and Aberdour, in the neighbourhood of Sir Henry
Wardlaw's seat, that led me to throw out the conjecture, whether this much-
admired ballad might not also have been written by Lady Wardlaw herself,
to whom the ballad of Hardyknute is now universally attributed."[28]
Mr. J. H. Dixon, in 1845, considered that the suspicion had become a
certainty, and wrote of Lady Wardlaw as one "who certainly appears to have
been a great adept at this species of literary imposture." "This celebrated
lady is now known to be the author of Edward! Edward! and of Sir Patrick
Spence, in addition to Hardyknute."[29] Mr. Dixon and the late Mr. Robert
Chambers have also thrown out hints of their disbelief in the authenticity of
the recitations of Mrs. Brown of Falkland.
These, however, were mere skirmishing attacks, but in 1859 Robert
Chambers marshalled his forces, and made a decisive charge in his
publication entitled The Romantic Scottish Ballads, their Epoch and
Authorship. He there explains his belief as follows:—
"Upon all these considerations I have arrived at the conclusion that the
high-class romantic ballads of Scotland are not ancient compositions—are

not older than the early part of the eighteenth century—and are mainly, if
not wholly, the production of one mind. Whose was this mind is a different
question, on which no such confident decision may, for the present, be
arrived at; but I have no hesitation in saying that, from the internal
resemblance traced on from Hardyknute through Sir Patrick Spence and Gil
Morrice to the others, there seems to be a great likelihood that the whole
were the composition of the authoress of that poem, namely, Elizabeth Lady
Wardlaw of Pitreavie."
Scotsmen were not likely to sit down tamely under an accusation by which
their principal ballad treasures were thus stigmatized as false gems, and we
find that several writers immediately took up their pens to refute the
calumny. It will be seen that the charge is divided into two distinct parts,
and it will be well to avoid mixing them together, and to consider each part
separately.
I. Certain ballads, generally supposed to be genuine, were really written by
one person, in imitation of the antique.
II. The author of this deceit was Lady Wardlaw, the writer of Hardyknute.
I. The ballads in the Reliques, which are instanced by Chambers, are as
follows:—

1. Sir Patrick Spence.
2. Gil Morrice.
3. Edward! Edward!
4. Jew's Daughter.
5. Gilderoy.
6. Young Waters.
7. Edom o' Gordon.
8. Bonny Earl of Murray.

Two of these (2 and 7) are in the Folio MS., which was written before Lady
Wardlaw was born; Edom o' Gordon also exists in another old MS. copy;
Gilderoy (5) is known to have been a street ballad, and the remainder are
found in other copies. It is not necessary to discuss each of these cases
separately, and we shall therefore reserve what we have to say for the
special consideration of Sir Patrick Spence.

Before proceeding, we must first consider how far Chambers's previous
knowledge of ballad literature prepared him for this inquiry; and we cannot
rate that knowledge very highly, for in his Collection of Scottish Songs, he
actually attributes Wotton's Ye Meaner Beauties to Darnley, and supposes
Mary Queen of Scots to have been the subject of the author's praises. At this
period also his scepticism had not been aroused, for all the ballads that he
thought spurious in 1859 had been printed by him in 1829 as genuine
productions.
To return to the main Point at issue. Chambers writes:—
"It is now to be remarked of the ballads published by the successors of
Percy, as of those which he published, that there is not a particle of positive
evidence for their having existed before the eighteenth century. Overlooking
the one given by Ramsay in his Tea-table Miscellany, we have neither print
nor manuscript of them before the reign of George III. They are not in the
style of old literature. They contain no references to old literature. As little
does old literature contain any references to them. They wholly escaped the
collecting diligence of Bannatyne. James Watson, who published a
collection of Scottish poetry in 1706-1711, wholly overlooks them. Ramsay,
as we see, caught up only one."
Mr. Norval Clyne (Ballads from Scottish History, 1863, p. 217) gives a
satisfactory answer to the above. He writes:—
"The want of any ancient manuscript can be no argument against the
antiquity of a poem, versions of which have been obtained from oral
recitation, otherwise the great mass of ballads of all kinds collected by
Scott, and by others since his time, must lie under equal suspicion.
Bannatyne, in the sixteenth century, and Allan Ramsay, in the early part of
the eighteenth, were not collectors of popular poetry in the same sense as
those who have since been so active in that field. The former contented
himself, for the most part, with transcribing the compositions of Dunbar,
Henrysone, and other "makers," well known by name, and Ramsay took the
bulk of his Evergreen from Bannatyne's MS. That a great many poems of
the ballad class, afterwards collected and printed, must have been current
among the people when the Evergreen was published, no one that knows
anything of the subject will deny." The old ballads lived on the tongues of
the people, and a small percentage of them only were ever committed to

writing, so that a fairer test of authenticity is the existence of various
versions. Of known forgeries no varieties exist, but several versions of Sir
Patrick Spence have been rescued from oblivion.
It is not probable that any fresh ballads will be obtained from recitation, but
it is in some degree possible, as may be seen from an instance of a kindred
nature in the field of language. We know that local dialects have almost
passed away, and yet some of the glossaries of them lately issued contain
words that explain otherwise dark passages in manuscripts of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries.
Chambers further affirms that the sentiment of these ballads is not
congenial to that of the peasantry—"it may be allowably said, there is a
tone of breeding throughout these ballads, such as is never found in the
productions of rustic genius." This, however, is begging the question, for it
does not follow that the songs of the peasantry were written by the
peasantry. It is they who have remembered them, and held to them with
greater tenacity than the educated classes.
We now come to the text that bears specially upon Sir Patrick Spence, and
we will give it in Chambers's own words:—"The Scottish ladies sit
bewailing the loss of Sir Patrick Spence's companions 'wi' the gowd kaims
in their hair.' Sir Patrick tells his friends before starting on his voyage, 'Our
ship must sail the faem;'[30] and in the description of the consequences of
his shipwreck, we find 'Mony was the feather-bed that flattered on the
faem.'[30] No old poet would use faem as an equivalent for the sea; but it
was just such a phrase as a poet of the era of Pope would use in that sense."
In the first place, we should be justified in saying that this test is not a fair
one, because no one will contend that the ballads have not been altered in
passing from hand to hand, and new words inserted; but Mr. Norval Clyne
has a complete answer for this particular objection; he writes: "Bishop
Gawin Douglas completed his translation of Virgil's Æneid on 22nd July,
1513, and in his Prologue to the twelfth book are these lines:—

'Some sang ring-sangs, dancis, ledis, roundis,
With vocis schil, quhil all the dale resounds,
Quhareto they walk into their karoling,
For amourous layis dois all the rochis ring:
Ane sang 'The schip salis over the salt fame,

Will bring thir merchandis and my lemane hame.'
Here we have the expression, to which attention is called, occurring in a
popular song in common use before the battle of Flodden. I have seen it
remarked, however, that it is the elliptical use of 'sail the faem' for 'sail over
the faem,' which indicates an authorship not older than the day of Queen
Anne. My answer to this objection shall also be an example from an 'old
poet.' One of the Tales of the Three Priests of Peblis assigned to the early
part of the sixteenth century, describes in homely verse the career of a
thrifty burgess, and contains these lines (Sibbald's Chronicle of Scottish
Poetry, 1802):—

'Then bocht he wool, and wyselie couth it wey;
And efter that sone saylit he the sey.'"[31]

These quotations completely set aside one portion of the charge, and the
other, in which an attempt is made to show that a similar form of expression
is constantly occurring in the several poems, is really of little weight,
pressed as it is with some unfairness. We have already seen that the old
minstrels used certain forms of expression as helps to memory, and these
recur in ballads that have little or no connection with each other. Chambers,
following David Laing, uses Percy's note at the end of Sir Patrick
Spence[32] as an engine of attack against the authenticity of the ballad, but
there is really no reason for the conclusion he comes to, "that the parity he
remarked in the expressions was simply owing to the two ballads being the
production of one mind," for a copyist well acquainted with ballad literature
would naturally adopt the expressions found in them in his own
composition.
II. The consideration of the opinion that Lady Wardlaw was the author of
Sir Patrick Spence and other ballads, need not detain us long, because the
main point of interest is their authenticity, and the question of her
authorship is quite a secondary matter: that falls to the ground if the grand
charge is proved false, and need not stand even if that remains unrefuted.
The only reason for fixing upon Lady Wardlaw appears to have been that as
these ballads were transmitted to Percy by Lord Hailes, and one of them
was an imitation of the antique by Lady Wardlaw, and another was added to
by the same lady, therefore if a similarity between the ballads could be

proved, it would follow that all were written by her. Now the very fact that
the authorship of Hardyknute was soon discovered is strong evidence
against any such supposition, because none of her associates had any
suspicion that she had counterfeited other ballads, and could such a
wholesale manufacture have been concealed for a century it would be a
greater mystery than the vexed question, who was Junius? The other point,
whether the author of the indistinct and redundant Hardyknute could have
written the clear and incisive lines of Sir Patrick Spence may be left to be
decided by readers who have the two poems before them in these volumes.
A few particulars may, however, be mentioned. The openings of these
ballads form excellent contrasted examples of the two different styles of
ballad writing. Sir Patrick Spence commences at once, like other minstrel
ballads, with the description of the king and his council:—

"The king sits in Dumferling toune,
Drinking the blude-reid wine:
O quhar will I get guid sailòr
To sail this schip of mine?

Up and spak an eldern knicht,
Sat at the kings richt kne:
Sir Patrick Spence is the best sailòr,
That sails upon the se."

The king then sends a letter to Spence. There is no description of how this
was sent, but we at once read:—

"The first line that Sir Patrick red,
A loud lauch lauched he;
The next line that Sir Patrick red,
The teir blinded his ee."

Hardyknute, on the other hand, is full of reasons and illustrative instances in
the true ballad-writer's style:—

"Stately stept he east the wa',
And stately stept he west,

Full seventy years he now had seen
Wi' scarce seven years of rest.
He liv'd when Britons breach of faith
Wrought Scotland mickle wae:
And ay his sword tauld to their cost,
He was their deadlye fae."
Having placed the openings of the two poems in opposition, we will do the
same with the endings. How different is the grand finish of Sir Patrick
Spence—

"Have owre, have owre to Aberdour,
It's fiftie fadom deip,
And thair lies guid Sir Patrick Spence,
Wi' the Scots lords at his feit."

from the feeble conclusion of Hardyknute:—

"'As fast I've sped owre Scotlands faes,'—
There ceas'd his brag of weir,
Sair sham'd to mind ought but his dame,
And maiden fairly fair.
Black fear he felt, but what to fear
He wist nae yet; wi' dread
Sai shook his body, sair his limbs,
And a' the warrior fled."

Sir Patrick Spence gives us a clear picture that a painter could easily
reproduce, but Hardyknute is so vague that it is sometimes difficult to
follow it with understanding, and if the same author wrote them both she
must have been so strangely versatile in her talents that there is no difficulty
in believing that she wrote all the romantic ballads of Scotland.
How little Chambers can be trusted may be seen in the following passage,
where he writes: "The first hint at the real author came out through Percy,
who in his second edition of the Reliques (1767) gives the following
statement, 'There is more than reason,' &c.,[33] to which he adds the note: 'It
is rather remarkable that Percy was not informed of these particulars in
1765; but in 1767, Sir John Hope Bruce having died in the interval (June,

1766), they were communicated to him. It looks as if the secret had hung on
the life of this venerable gentleman." Who would suspect, what is the real
fact of the case, that Percy's quoted preface was actually printed in his first
edition (1765), and that Chambers's remarks fall to the ground because they
are founded on a gross blunder.[34]

Preservers of the Ballads.

Printed broadsides are peculiarly liable to accidents which shorten their
existence, and we therefore owe much to the collectors who have saved
some few of them from destruction. Ballads were usually pasted on their
walls by the cottagers, but they were sometimes collected together in
bundles. Motherwell had "heard it as a by-word in some parts of
Stirlingshire that a collier's library consists but of four books, the
Confession of Faith, the Bible, a bundle of Ballads, and Sir William
Wallace. The first for the gudewife, the second for the gudeman, the third
for their daughter, and the last for the son, a selection indicative of no mean
taste in these grim mold-warps of humanity."[35]
The love of a good ballad has, however, never been confined to the
uneducated. Queen Mary II., after listening to the compositions of Purcell,
played by the composer himself, asked Mrs. Arabella Hunt to sing Tom
D'Urfey's ballad of "Cold and Raw," which was set to a good old tune, and
thereby offended Purcell's vanity, who was left unemployed at the
harpsichord. Nevertheless, the composer had the sense afterwards to
introduce the tune as the bass of a song he wrote himself. When ballads
were intended for the exclusive use of the ordinary ballad-buyers they were
printed in black letter, a type that was retained for this purpose for more
than a century after it had gone out of use for other purposes. According to
Pepys the use of black letter ceased about the year 1700, and on the title-
page of his collection he has written "the whole continued down to the year
1700, when the form till then peculiar thereto, viz. of the black letter with
pictures, seems (for cheapness sake) wholly laid aside for that of the white
letter without pictures." White-letter printing of non-political street ballads
really commenced about 1685, and of political ballads about half a century
earlier. The saving referred to by Pepys as being made by the omission of
woodcuts could not have been great, for they seldom illustrated the

letterpress, and were used over and over again, so that cuts which were
executed in the reign of James I. were used on ballads in Queen Anne's
time.
Until about the year 1712 ballads were universally printed on broadsides,
and those intended to be sold in the streets are still so printed, but after that
date such as were intended to be vended about the country were printed so
as to fold into book form.
The great ballad factory has been for many years situated in Seven Dials,
where Pitts employed Corcoran and was the patron of "slender Ben," "over
head and ears Nic," and other equally respectably named poets. The
renowned Catnach lived in Seven Dials, and left a considerable business at
his death. He was the first to print yards of songs for a penny, and his fame
was so extended, that his name has come to be used for a special class of
literature.
Although, thanks to the labours of far-sighted men, our stock of old ballads
and songs is large, we know that those which are irrevocably lost far exceed
them in number. It is therefore something to recover even the titles of some
of these, and we can do this to a considerable extent by seeking them in
some of the old specimens of literature. In Cockelbie's Sow, a piece written
about 1450, which was printed in Laing's Select Remains of the Ancient
Popular Poetry of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1822), there is a list of the songs
sung at a meeting. In Henryson's curious old pastoral, Robin and Makyne
(vol. 2, p. 85), reference is made to the popular tales and songs, which were
even then old:—

"Robin, thou hast heard sung and say,
In gests and storys auld,
'The man that will not when he may
Sall hav nocht when he wald.'"

To the prologues of Gawin Douglas's translation of Virgil's Æneid, we are
indebted for a knowledge of four old songs, a fact that outweighs in the
opinion of some the merits of the work itself, which was the first translation
of a classic that ever appeared in England.
In the Catalogue of Captain Cox's Library, printed in Laneham's letter on
the Kenilworth entertainments, there is a short list of some of the popular

ballads of his time, but it is sorely tantalizing to read of "a bunch of ballets
and songs all auncient," "and a hundred more he hath fair wrapt in
parchment, and bound with a whipcord." We learn the names of ballads
which were popular in old Scotland from the Complaynt of Scotland, a most
interesting list, which Mr. Furnivall has fully illustrated and explained in his
edition of Laneham. Another source of information for learning the names
of songs no longer known to exist are the medleys, which are made up of
the first lines of many songs. The extreme popularity of ballads in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is reflected in the literature of the time,
which is full of allusions to them. Burton, the anatomist of melancholy, who
put a little of almost everything into his book, could not be expected to
overlook ballads. He says: "The very rusticks and hog-rubbers ... have their
wakes, whitson ales, shepherds' feasts, meetings on holy dayes, countrey
dances, roundelayes ... instead of odes, epigrams and elegies, &c., they have
their ballads, countrey tunes, O the Broom, the bonny, bonny Broom, ditties
and songs, Bess a Bell she doth excel." The favourite songs of Father Rosin,
the minstrel in Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub (act i. sc. 2), are Tom Tiler, the
Jolly Joiner, and the Jovial Tinker. The old drama is full of these references,
and one of the most frequent modes of revenge against an enemy was to
threaten that he should be balladed. Thus Massinger writes:—

"I will have thee
Pictur'd as thou art now, and thy whole story
Sung to some villainous tune in a lewd ballad,
And make thee so notorious in the world,
That boys in the street shall hoot at thee."[36]

Fletcher sets side by side as equal evils the having one's eyes dug out, and
the having one's name sung

"In ballad verse, at every drinking house."[37]

The ballad-writers are called base rogues, and said to "maintaine a St.
Anthonie's fire in their noses by nothing but two-penny ale."[38]
Shakspere was not behind his contemporaries in his contemptuous
treatment of "odious ballads," or of "these same metre ballad-mongers," but
he has shown by the references in King Lear and Hamlet his high

appreciation of the genuine old work, and there is no doubt that the creator
of Autolycus loved "a ballad but even too well."
There have been two kinds of collectors, viz. those who copied such
fugitive poetry as came in their way, and those who bought up all the
printed ballads they could obtain.
Of the manuscript collections of old poetry, the three most celebrated are
the Maitland MS. in the Pepysian Library, Cambridge, the Bannatyne MS.
presented by the Earl of Hyndford to the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh,
and the famous folio MS. which formerly belonged to Percy, and is now in
the British Museum. The Maitland MS., which contains an excellent
collection of Scotch poetry, was formed by Sir Richard Maitland, of
Lethington, Lord Privy Seal and Judge in the Court of Session (b. 1496, d.
1586). Selections from this MS. were printed by Pinkerton in 1786.
In the year 1568, when Scotland was visited by the Plague, a certain George
Bannatyne, of whom nothing is known, retired to his house to escape
infection, and employed his leisure in compiling his most valuable
collection of Scottish poetry. This MS. was lent out of the Advocates'
Library to Percy, and he was allowed to keep it for a considerable time. Sir
David Dalrymple published "Some ancient Scottish Poems" in 1770, which
were taken from this MS.
The great Lord Burghley was one of the first to recognize the value of
ballads as an evidence of the popular feeling, and he ordered all broadsides
to be brought to him as they were published. The learned Selden was also a
collector of them, but the Chinese nation was before these wise men, and
had realized an idea that has often been suggested in Europe. One of their
sacred books is the Book of Songs, in which the manners of the country are
illustrated by songs and odes, the most popular of which were brought to
the sovereign for the purpose.
The largest collections of printed ballads are now in Magdalene College,
Cambridge, in the Bodleian at Oxford, and in the British Museum. Some
smaller collections are in private hands. In taking stock of these collections,
we are greatly helped by Mr. Chappell's interesting preface to the
Roxburghe Ballads. The Pepysian collection deposited in the library of
Magdalene College, Cambridge, consisting of 1,800 ballads in five vols., is
one of the oldest and most valuable of the collections. It was commenced

by Selden, who died in 1654, and continued by Samuel Pepys till near the
time of his own death in 1703. Tradition reports that Pepys borrowed
Selden's collection, and then "forgot" to return it to the proper owner.
Besides these five volumes, there are three vols. of what Pepys calls penny
merriments. There are 112 of these, and some are garlands that contain
many ballads in each.
Cambridge's rival, Oxford, possesses three collections, viz. Anthony Wood's
279 ballads and collection of garlands, Francis Douce's 877 in four vols.,
and Richard Rawlinson's 218.
Previously to the year 1845, when the Roxburghe collection was purchased,
there were in the British Museum Library about 1,000 ballads, but Mr.
Chappell, without counting the Roxburghe Ballads, gives the number as
1292 in 1864. They are as follows:—
Bagford Collection 355
Volume of Miscellaneous Ballads and Poems, 17th century 31
Volume, mostly political, from 1641 250
Volume in King's Library, principally relating to London, from 1659 to 1711 60
The Thomason Collection of Tracts 304
Satirical Ballads on the Popish Plot, from Strawberry Hill sale 27
Luttrell Collection, vol. ii. 255
Miscellaneous 10
1292

The celebrated Roxburghe collection was bought by Rodd at Benjamin
Heywood Bright's sale in 1845 for the British Museum, the price being
£535. It was originally formed by Robert Harley, first Earl of Oxford, and
as John Bagford was one of the buyers employed by the Earl, he is the
reputed collector of the ballads. At the sale of the Harleian Library, this
collection became the property of James West, P.R.S., and when his books
were sold in 1773, Major Thomas Pearson bought it for, it is said, £20. This
gentleman, with the assistance of Isaac Reed, added to the collection, and
bound it in two volumes with printed title-pages, indexes, &c. In 1788,
John, Duke of Roxburghe, bought it at Major Pearson's sale for £36 14s.
6d., and afterwards added largely to it, making a third volume. At the
Duke's sale in 1813, the three volumes were bought for £477 15s., by
Harding, who sold them to Mr. Bright for, it is supposed, £700. The
collection consists of 1335 broadsides, printed between 1567 and the end of
the eighteenth century, two-thirds of them being in black letter. Bright

added a fourth volume of eighty-five pages, which was bought for the
British Museum for £25 5s.
Some early ballads are included in the collection of broadsides in the library
of the Society of Antiquaries, and a collection of proclamations and ballads
was made by Mr. Halliwell Phillipps, and presented by him to the Chetham
Library at Manchester.
The late George Daniel picked up a valuable collection of ballads at an old
shop in Ipswich, which is supposed to have come from Helmingham Hall,
Suffolk, where it had lain unnoticed or forgotten for two centuries or more.
It originally numbered 175 to 200 ballads, but was divided by Daniel, who
sold one portion (consisting of eighty-eight ballads) to Thorpe, who
disposed of it to Heber. At Heber's sale it was bought by Mr. W. H. Miller,
of Britwell, and from him it descended to Mr. S. Christie Miller. Twenty-
five ballads known to have belonged to the same collection were edited by
Mr. Payne Collier for the Percy Society in 1840. The portion that Daniel
retained was bought at the sale of his library by Mr. Henry Huth, who has
reprinted seventy-nine of the best ballads. Other known private collections
are five volumes belonging to Mr. Frederic Ouvry, President of the Society
of Antiquaries, which contain Mr. Payne Collier's collection of Black-letter
Ballads, the Earl of Jersey's at Osterley Park, and one which was formed by
Mr. Halliwell Phillipps, who printed a full catalogue of the ballads
contained in it, and then disposed of it to the late Mr. William Euing of
Glasgow.
We owe our gratitude to all these collectors, but must also do honour to
those writers who in advance of their age tried to lead their contemporaries
to fresher springs than those to which they were accustomed. The first of
these was Addison, who commented on the beauties of Chevy Chase and
the Children in the Wood in the Spectator. He wrote: "it is impossible that
anything should be universally tasted and approved by a multitude, though
they are only the rabble of a nation, which hath not in it some peculiar
aptness to please and gratify the mind of man."
Rowe was another appreciator of this popular literature, and his example
and teaching may have had its influence in the publication of the first
Collection of Old Ballads, for the motto to the first volume is taken from
the prologue to Rowe's Jane Shore (first acted in 1713):—

"Let no nice sir despise the hapless dame
Because recording ballads chaunt her name;
Those venerable ancient song enditers
Soar'd many a pitch above our modern writers.
They caterwauled in no romantic ditty,
Sighing for Philis's or Cloe's pity;
Justly they drew the Fair and spoke her plain,
And sung her by her Christian name—'twas Jane.
Our numbers may be more refined than those,
But what we've gain'd in verse, we've lost in prose;
Their words no shuffling double meaning knew,
Their speech was homely, but their hearts were true."

Parnell, Tickell, and Prior belonged to the small band who had the taste to
appreciate the unfashionable old ballad. Prior says of himself in a MS.
essay quoted by Disraeli in the Calamities of Authors: "I remember nothing
further in life than that I made verses: I chose Guy Earl of Warwick for my
first hero, and killed Colborne the giant before I was big enough for
Westminster school." The few were, however, unable to convert the many,
and Dr. Wagstaffe, one of the wits of the day, ridiculed Addison for his good
taste, and in a parody of the famous essay on Chevy Chase he commented
upon the History of Tom Thumb, and pretended to point out the congenial
spirit of this poet with Virgil.
There is still another class of preservers of ballads to be mentioned, viz.
those whose tenacious memories allow them to retain the legends and songs
they heard in their youth, but as Prof. Aytoun writes: "No Elspats of the
Craigburnfoot remain to repeat to grandchildren that legendary lore which
they had acquired in years long gone by from the last of the itinerant
minstrels." The most celebrated of these retailers of the old ballads was
Mrs. Brown of Falkland, wife of the Rev. Dr. Brown, for from her both
Scott and Jamieson obtained some of their best pieces. Her taste for the
songs and tales of chivalry was derived from an aunt, Mrs. Farquhar, "who
was married to the proprietor of a small estate near the sources of the Dee in
Braemar, a good old woman, who spent the best part of her life among
flocks and herds, [but] resided in her latter years in the town of Aberdeen.
She was possest of a most tenacious memory, which retained all the songs
she had heard from nurses and countrywomen in that sequestered part of the

country."[39] Doubts have been expressed as to the good faith of Mrs.
Brown, but they do not appear to be well grounded. Another of these ladies
from whose mouths we have learnt so much of the ever-fading relics of the
people's literature was Mrs. Arrot.
The earliest printed collection of Scottish popular poetry known to exist is a
volume printed at Edinburgh, "by Walter Chepman and Androw Myllar, in
the year 1508," which was reprinted in facsimile by David Laing in 1827.
The next work of interest in the bibliography of ballads is "Ane
Compendious Booke of Godly and Spirituall Songs, collected out of sundrie
partes of the Scripture, with sundrie of other ballates, chainged out of
prophaine songs for avoiding of Sinne and Harlotrie," printed in 1590 and
1621, and reprinted by J. G. Dalzell in 1801, and by David Laing in 1868. It
contains parodies of some of the songs mentioned in the Complaint of
Scotland, and is supposed to be the work of three brothers—James, John,
and Robert Wedderburn, of Dundee. To the last of the three Mr. Laing
attributed the Complaint, but Mr. Murray, the latest editor of that book, is
unable to agree with him.
The first book of "prophane" songs published in Scotland was a musical
collection entitled "Cantus Songs and Fancies to several musicall parts,
both apt for voices and viols: with a brief introduction to musick, as it is
taught by Thomas Davidson in the Musick School of Aberdeen. Aberdeen,
printed by John Forbes." 1662, 1666, and 1682.
The next work in order of time is "A Choise Collection of Comic and
Serious Scots Poems, both ancient and modern, by several hands.
Edinburgh, printed by James Watson." In three parts, 1706, 1709, 1710.
Supposed to have been compiled by John Spottiswood, author of Hope's
Minor Practicks.
All these works emanated from Scotchmen, and the only works of the same
character that were published in England were small collections of songs
and ballads, called Garlands and Drolleries. These are too numerous to be
noticed here; but that they were highly popular may be judged from the fact
that a thirteenth edition of The Golden Garland of Princely Delight is
registered. The Garlands are chiefly small collections of songs on similar
subjects. Thus, there were Love's Garlands, Loyal Garlands, Protestant

Garlands, &c. Considerable pains seem to have been taken in order to
obtain attractive titles for these little brochures. Thus, on one we read:—

"The sweet and the sower,
The nettle and the flower,
The thorne and the rose,
This garland compose."

Drolleries were collections of "jovial poems" and "merry songs," and some
of them were confined to the songs sung at the theatres.
One of the first English collections of any pretensions was Dryden's
Miscellany Poems, published in 1684-1708, which was shortly after
followed by Tom D'Urfey's Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy,
1719-20. But the first attempt to bring together a large number of popular
ballads, as distinguished from songs, was made in "A Collection of Old
Ballads, corrected from the best and most ancient copies extant, with
Introductions historical, critical, or humorous." London. Vols I. and II.
1723. Vol. III. 1725.
The object of most of the works referred to above was the publication of
songs to be sung; the object of this one was the presentment of ballads to be
read. It had a large sale, and the editor (who is said to have been Ambrose
Phillips) expresses his satisfaction in the Preface to Vol. II.: "Though we
printed a large edition for such a trifle, and in less than two months put it to
the press again, yet could we not get our second edition out before it was
really wanted." In spite, however, of its satisfactory reception, it does not
appear to have taken any permanent position in literature, although it must
have prepared the public mind to receive the Reliques. This collection
contains one hundred and fifty-nine ballads, out of which number twenty-
three are also in the Reliques.[40] Many of the others are of considerable
interest, but some had better have been left unprinted, and all are of little
critical value.
In the year after the first two volumes of the English collection were
published, Allan Ramsay issued in Edinburgh "The Evergreen, being a
collection of Scots poems wrote by the ingenious before 1600," the
principal materials of which were derived from the Bannatyne MS. This
was followed in the same year (1724) by "The Tea-Table Miscellany: a

Collection of choice Songs, Scots and English," a work which is frequently
referred to by Percy in the following pages. In neither of these works was
Ramsay very particular as to the liberties he allowed himself in altering his
originals. In order to make the volumes fit reading for his audience, which
he hoped would consist of

"Ilka lovely British lass,
Frae ladies Charlotte, Ann, and Jean,
Down to ilk bonnie singing lass
Wha dances barefoot on the green,"

Ramsay pruned the songs of their indelicacies, and filled up the gaps thus
made in his own way. The Tea-table Miscellany contains upwards of twenty
presumably old songs, upwards of twelve old songs much altered, and about
one hundred songs written by the editor himself, Crawford, Hamilton, and
others.
In 1725, William Thomson, a teacher of music in London, brought out a
collection of Scottish songs, which he had chiefly taken from the Tea-table
Miscellany without acknowledgment. He called his book Orpheus
Caledonius.
For some years before Percy's collection appeared, the Foulises, Glasgow's
celebrated printers, issued from their press, under the superintendence of
Lord Hailes, various Scottish ballads, luxuriously printed with large type, in
a small quarto size.
These were the signs that might have shown the far-sighted man that a
revival was at hand. At last the time came when, tired out with the dreary
and leaden regularity of the verse-writers of the day, the people were ready
to receive poetry fresh from nature. The man who arose to supply the want
(which was none the less a want that it was an unrecognized one) was
Thomas Percy, a clergyman living in a retired part of the country, but
occasionally seen among the literati of the capital.

Life of Percy.

Thomas Percy was born on April 13th, 1729, at Bridgnorth in Shropshire, in
a street called the Cartway. His father and grandfather were grocers, spelt

their name Piercy, and knew nothing of any connection with the noble
house of Northumberland.[41] His early education was received at the
grammar school of Bridgnorth, and in 1746, being then in his eighteenth
year, and having obtained an exhibition, he matriculated as a commoner at
Christ Church, Oxford.
He took the degree of B.A. on May 2nd, 1750, that of M.A. on July 5th,
1753, and shortly after was presented by his college to the living of Easton
Maudit, in the county of Northampton. In this poor cure he remained for
twenty-five years, and in the little vicarage his six children (Anne, Barbara,
Henry, Elizabeth, Charlotte, and Hester), were all born. Percy's income was
increased in 1756 by the gift of the rectory of Wilby, an adjacent parish, in
the patronage of the Earl of Sussex, and on April 24th, 1759, he married
Anne, daughter of Barton Gutteridge,[42] who was his beloved companion
for forty-seven years. It was to this lady, before his marriage to her, that
Percy wrote his famous song, "O Nancy, wilt thou go with me?" Miss
Matilda Lætitia Hawkins stated in her Memoirs, that these charming verses
were intended by Percy as a welcome to his wife on her release from a
twelve-month's confinement in the royal nursery, and Mr. Pickford follows
her authority in his Life of Percy, but this is an entire mistake, for the song
was printed as early as the year 1758 in the sixth volume of Dodsley's
Collection of Poems. Anyone who reads the following verses will see, that
though appropriate as a lover's proposal, they are very inappropriate as a
husband's welcome home to his wife.

"O Nancy, wilt thou go with me,
Nor sigh to leave the flaunting town?
Can silent glens have charms for thee,
The lowly cot and russet gown?
No longer drest in silken sheen,
No longer deck'd with jewels rare,
Say, canst thou quit each courtly scene,
Where thou wert fairest of the fair?

"O Nancy, when thou'rt far away,
Wilt thou not cast a wish behind?
Say, canst thou face the parching ray,
Nor shrink before the wintry wind?
O, can that soft and gentle mien
Extremes of hardship learn to bear,
Nor, sad, regret each courtly scene,
Where thou wert fairest of the fair?

"O Nancy, canst thou love so true,
Through perils keen with me to go?
Or, when thy swain mishap shall rue,
To share with him the pang of woe?
Say, should disease or pain befall,
Wilt thou assume the nurse's care?
Nor wistful, those gay scenes recall,
Where thou wert fairest of the fair?

"And when at last thy love shall die,
Wilt thou receive his parting breath?
Wilt thou repress each struggling sigh,
And cheer with smiles the bed of death?
And wilt thou o'er his breathless clay
Strew flowers, and drop the tender tear?
Nor then regret those scenes so gay,
Where thou wert fairest of the fair?"

By the alteration of a few words, such as gang for go, toun for town, &c.,
"Oh Nanny, wilt thou gang with me?" was transposed into a Scotch song,
and printed as such in Johnson's Musical Museum. Burns remarked on this
insertion: "It is too barefaced to take Dr. Percy's charming song, and by the
means of transposing a few English words into Scots, to offer it to pass for a
Scots song. I was not acquainted with the editor until the first volume was
nearly finished, else had I known in time I would have prevented such an
impudent absurdity." Stenhouse, suggested[43] that Percy may have had in
view the song called The young Laird and Edinburgh Kate, printed in
Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, the second stanza of which is somewhat
similar—

"O Katy, wiltu gang wi' me,
And leave the dinsome town awhile?
The blossom's sprouting from the tree,
And a' the simmer's gawn to smile."

Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, however, hinted[44] that "perhaps both the
author of The Young Laird and Edinburgh Katy, and the Bishop, took the
idea of their ballads from a song in Lee's beautiful tragedy of Theodosius,
or the Force of Love."
Dr. Rimbault communicated this poem to the editors of the folio MS. from a
MS. dated 1682, or fifteen years earlier than Lee's version. It is called The
Royal Nun, and the first stanza is as follows:—

"Canst thou, Marina, leave the world,
The world that is devotion's bane,
Where crowns are toss'd and sceptres hurl'd,
Where lust and proud ambition reign?
Canst thou thy costly robes forbear,
To live with us in poor attire;
Canst thou from courts to cells repair
To sing at midnight in the quire?"[45]

The likeness in this stanza to Percy's song is not very apparent, and the
subject is very different. The other three stanzas have nothing in common
with O Nancy. Even could it be proved that Percy had borrowed the

opening idea from these two poems, it does not derogate from his
originality, for the charm of the song is all his own.
A portrait of Mrs. Percy holding in her hand a scroll inscribed Oh Nancy, is
preserved at Ecton House, near Northampton, the seat of Mr. Samuel Isted,
husband of Percy's daughter Barbara.
The song was set to music by Thomas Carter, and sung by Vernon at
Vauxhall in 1773.
In 1761 Percy commenced his literary career by the publication of a
Chinese novel, Hau Kiau Chooan, in four volumes, which he translated
from the Portuguese, and in the same year he undertook to edit the works of
the Duke of Buckingham. In 1762 he published "Miscellaneous Pieces
relating to the Chinese," and in 1763 commenced a new edition of Surrey's
Poems, with a selection of early specimens of blank verse. The
"Buckingham" and "Surrey" were printed, but never published, and the
stock of the latter was destroyed by fire in 1808. In 1763 were published
"Five Pieces of Runic Poetry—translated from the Icelandic Language,"
and in the following year appeared "A New Translation of the Song of
Solomon from the Hebrew, with Commentary and Notes," and also "A Key
to the New Testament." Dr. Johnson paid a long-promised visit to the
Vicarage of Easton Maudit in the summer of 1764, where he stayed for
some months, and the little terrace in the garden is still called after him,
"Dr. Johnson's Walk." At this time Percy must have been full of anxiety
about his Reliques, which were shortly to be published, and in the
preparation of which he had so long been engaged. The poet Shenstone was
the first to suggest the subject of this book, as he himself states in a letter to
a friend, dated March 1, 1761. "You have heard me speak of Mr. Percy; he
was in treaty with Mr. James Dodsley for the publication of our best old
ballads in three volumes. He has a large folio MS. of ballads, which he
showed me, and which, with his own natural and acquired talents, would
qualify him for the purpose as well as any man in England. I proposed the
scheme to him myself, wishing to see an elegant edition and good collection
of this kind. I was also to have assisted him in selecting and rejecting, and
fixing upon the best readings; but my illness broke off the correspondence
in the beginning of winter."

In February, 1765, appeared the first edition of the Reliques, which gave
Percy a name, and obtained for him the patronage of the great. He became
Chaplain and Secretary to the Duke of Northumberland, with whose family
he kept up intimate relations throughout his life. The Northumberland
Household Book, which he compiled in accordance with the wishes of his
patron, was privately printed in the year 1768.[46] In 1769 he was appointed
Chaplain to George III., and in the following year appeared his translation
of Mallet's Northern Antiquities. Each of these three works was the first of
its class, and created a taste which produced a literature of the same
character. The Household Book gave rise to a large number of publications
which have put us in possession of numerous facts relating to the domestic
expenses and habits of the royal and noble families of old England. The
mythology of the Eddas was first made known to English readers by Percy,
and in his Preface to Mallet's work he clearly pointed out the essential
difference between the Celtic and Teutonic races, which had previously
been greatly overlooked.
The remuneration which Percy received for his labours was not large. Fifty
pounds was the pay for the Chinese novel, and one hundred guineas for the
first edition of the Reliques. The agreements he made with the Tonsons
were fifty guineas for Buckingham's Works and twenty guineas for Surrey's
Poems. He also agreed to edit the Spectator and Guardian, with notes, for
one hundred guineas, but was obliged to abandon his intention on account
of the engrossing character of his appointments in the Northumberland
family.
About this time Mrs. Percy was appointed nurse to Prince Edward, the
infant son of George III., afterwards Duke of Kent, and father of her present
Majesty, who was born in 1767.
In 1770 Percy took his degree of D.D. at Cambridge, having incorporated
himself at Emmanuel College, the master of which was his friend, Dr.
Farmer, to be remembered as the Shakspere commentator. Later on in the
year he lost his eldest daughter, and in January, 1771, yet another child was
buried in the village church. In 1771 he printed the Hermit of Warkworth,
which exhibited his continued interest in the subject of the Reliques, and we
find him for many years after this date continually writing to his literary
correspondents for information relating to old ballads.

In 1778 Percy obtained the Deanery of Carlisle, which four years
afterwards he resigned on being appointed to the bishopric of Dromore,
worth £2,000 a year. He did not resign his vicarage and rectory until the
same time, and he was succeeded in the first by Robert Nares, the compiler
of the well-known glossary. It was in 1778 that the memorable quarrel
between Percy and Johnson occurred which is graphically described by
Boswell. The cause of the heat was the different views held by the two
disputants as to the merits of the traveller Pennant. When the reconciliation
was brought about Johnson's contribution to the peace was, "My dear sir, I
am willing you shall hang Pennant."
In this same year Percy was writing about his son Henry, then a tall youth
of fifteen, who he hoped in a few years would be able to edit the Reliques
for him, but in April, 1783, soon after he had settled at Dromore, a great
sorrow fell upon him, and this only and much-loved son died at the early
age of twenty. In 1780 a large portion of Northumberland House, Strand,
was consumed by fire, when Percy's apartments were burnt. The chief part
of his library, was, however, saved. Four very interesting letters of the
bishop's, written to George Steevens in 1796 and 1797, are printed in the
Athenæum for 1848 (pp. 437 and 604). The first relates to his edition of
Goldsmith's works, which was published in 1801 in four volumes octavo.
His object in undertaking the labour was to benefit two surviving relations
of Goldsmith, and he complains to Steevens that the publishers had
thwarted him in his purpose. The second letter is on the same subject, and
the third and fourth relate to his work on blank verse before Milton,
attached to Surrey's Poems. In 1798 the Irish Rebellion broke out, and
Percy sent a large quantity of correspondence and valuable books to his
daughter, Mrs. Isted, for safe preservation at Ecton House. In 1806 his long
and happy union with Mrs. Percy was abruptly brought to a close, and to
add to his afflictions he became totally blind. He bore his trials with
resignation, and ere five more years had passed by, he himself was borne to
the tomb. On the 30th of September, 1811, he died in the eighty-third year
of his age, having outlived nearly all his contemporaries.[47]
That his attachment to "Nancy" was fervent as well as permanent, is shown
by many circumstances. One of these is a little poem printed for the first
time in the edition of the folio MS.[48]
"On leaving —— on a Tempestuous Night, March 22, 1788, by Dr. Percy.

"Deep howls the storm with chilling blast,
Fast falls the snow and rain,
Down rush the floods with headlong haste,
And deluge all the plain.

"Yet all in vain the tempest roars,
And whirls the drifted snow;
In vain the torrents scorn the shore,
To Delia I must go.

"In vain the shades of evening fall,
And horrid dangers threat,
What can the lover's heart appal,
Or check his eager feet?

"The darksome vale he fearless tries,
And winds its trackless wood;
High o'er the cliff's dread summit flies,
And rushes through the flood.

"Love bids atchieve the hardy task,
And act the wondrous part;
He wings the feet with eagle's speed,
And lends the lion-heart.

"Then led by thee, all-powerful boy,
I'll dare the hideous night;
Thy dart shall guard me from annoy,
Thy torch my footsteps light.

"The cheerful blaze—the social hour—
The friend—all plead in vain;
Love calls—I brave each adverse power
Of peril and of pain."

Percy had naturally a hot temper, but this cooled down with time, and the
trials of his later life were accepted with Christian meekness. One of his
relations, who as a boy could just recollect him, told Mr. Pickford "that it

was quite a pleasure to see even then his gentleness, amiability, and
fondness for children. Every day used to witness his strolling down to a
pond in the palace garden, in order to feed his swans, who were accustomed
to come at the well-known sound of the old man's voice." He was a pleasing
companion and a steady friend. His duties, both in the retired country
village and in the more elevated positions of dean and bishop, were all
performed with a wisdom and ardour that gained him the confidence of all
those with whom he was brought in contact. The praise given to him in the
inscription on the tablet to his memory in Dromore Cathedral does not
appear to have gone beyond the truth. It is there stated that he resided
constantly in his diocese, and discharged "the duties of his sacred office
with vigilance and zeal, instructing the ignorant, relieving the necessitous,
and comforting the distressed with pastoral affection." He was "revered for
his piety and learning, and beloved for his universal benevolence, by all
ranks and religious denominations."
There are three portraits of Percy. The first and best known was painted by
Reynolds in May, 1773. It represents him habited in a black gown and
bands, with a loose black cap on his head, and the folio MS. in his hand. It
is not known whether the original is still in existence, but engravings from
it are common. The next was painted by Abbot in 1797, and hangs at Ecton
Hall. Percy is there represented as a fuller-faced man, in his episcopal dress,
and wearing a wig. We have Steevens's authority for believing this to be an
excellent likeness. An engraving from it is prefixed to the "Percy
Correspondence," in Nichols's Illustrations of Literature.
In the third volume of Dibdin's Bibliographical Decameron is a beautiful
engraving from a watercolour drawing, which represents the bishop in his
garden at Dromore, when totally blind, feeding his swans.[49]

The Folio MS. and the "Reliques."

What were the sources from which Percy obtained the chief contents of his
celebrated work? They were:—1. The folio MS.; 2. Certain other MS.
collections, the use of which he obtained; 3. The Scotch ballads sent to him
by Sir David Dalrymple (better known by his title of Lord Hailes, which he
assumed on being appointed one of the Judges of the Court of Session in
Edinburgh); 4. The ordinary printed broadsides; 5. The poems he extracted

from the old printed collections of fugitive poetry—The Paradise of Dainty
Devices, England's Helicon, &c.
In considering the above sources, it will be necessary to give some little
space to the discussion of the connection between the folio MS. and the
Reliques, as it is not generally understood by the ordinary readers of the
latter.
The folio MS. came into Percy's hands early in his life, and the interest of
its contents first caused him to think of forming his own collection. One of
the notes on the covers of the MS. is as follows:—
"When I first got possession of this MS. I was very young, and being no
degree an antiquary, I had not then learnt to reverence it; which must be my
excuse for the scribble which I then spread over some parts of its margin,
and, in one or two instances, for even taking out the leaves to save the
trouble of transcribing. I have since been more careful. T. P."
He showed it to his friends, and immediately after the publication of the
Reliques he deposited it at the house of his publishers, the Dodsleys, of Pall
Mall. In spite of all this publicity, Ritson actually denied the very existence
of the MS. Another memorandum on the cover of the folio was written on
Nov. 7, 1769. It is as follows:—
"This very curious old manuscript, in its present mutilated state, but
unbound and sadly torn, &c., I rescued from destruction, and begged at the
hands of my worthy friend Humphrey Pitt, Esq., then living at Shiffnal, in
Shropshire, afterwards of Priorslee, near that town; who died very lately at
Bath (viz., in summer 1769). I saw it lying dirty on the floor, under a
Bureau in ye Parlour: being used by the maids to light the fire. It was
afterwards sent, most unfortunately, to an ignorant Bookbinder, who pared
the margin, when I put it into Boards in order to lend it to Dr. Johnson. Mr.
Pitt has since told me that he believes the transcripts into this volume, &c.,
were made by that Blount who was author of Jocular Tenures, &c., who he
thought was of Lancashire or Cheshire, and had a remarkable fondness for
these old things. He believed him to be the same person with that Mr.
Thomas Blount who published the curious account of King Charles the 2ds
escape intitled Boscobel, &c., Lond. 1660, 12mo, which has been so often
reprinted. As also the Law Dictionary, 1671, folio, and many other books
which may be seen in Wood's Athenæ, ii. 73, &c. A Descendant or Relation

of that Mr. Blount was an apothecary at Shiffnal, whom I remember myself
(named also Blount). He (if I mistake not) sold the Library of the said
predecessor Thos. Blount to the above-mentioned Mr. Humphy Pitt: who
bought it for the use of his nephew, my ever-valued friend Robt Binnel. Mr.
Binnel accordingly had all the printed books, but this MS. which was
among them was neglected and left behind at Mr. Pitt's house, where it lay
for many years. T. Percy."
Mr. Furnivall believes that the copier of the MS. must have been a man
greatly inferior to Thomas Blount, who was a barrister of the Middle
Temple, of considerable learning.
Percy afterwards kept the volume very much to himself, and Ritson
affirmed that "the late Mr. Tyrwhitt, an excellent judge and diligent peruser
of old compositions, and an intimate friend of the owner, never saw it."[50]
Although Jamieson was obliged by receiving a copy of three of the pieces
in the MS., he was not allowed a sight of the volume, and no one else was
permitted to make any use of it. This spirit of secrecy was kept up by the
bishop's descendants, who refused all who applied to see it. Sir Frederic
Madden alone was allowed to print some pieces in his Syr Gawayne for the
Bannatyne Club, 1839. The public obtained a glimpse of its contents
through Dr. Dibdin, who copied from Percy's list the first seventy-two
entries, and would have finished the whole, had he not been stopped by his
entertainers (Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Isted, of Ecton Hall), when they found
out what he was about. He gave in his Bibliographical Decameron a
description of the MS. which he thus handled in the winter of 1815. Mr.
Furnivall writes as follows of his several attempts to get the MS. printed,
and of his success at last: "The cause of the printing of Percy's MS., of the
publication of the book, was the insistence time after time by Professor
Child, that it was the duty of English antiquarian men of letters to print this
foundation document of English balladry, the basis of that structure which
Percy raised, so fair to the eyes of all English-speaking men throughout the
world. Above a hundred years had gone since first the Reliques met men's
view, a Percy Society had been born and died, but still the Percy manuscript
lay hid in Ecton Hall, and no one was allowed to know how the owner who
had made his fame by it had dealt with it, whether his treatment was foul or
fair. No list even of its contents could be obtained. Dibdin and Madden, and
many a man less known had tried their hands, but still the MS. was kept

back, and this generation had made up its mind that it was not to see the
desired original in type.... I tried to get access to the MS. some half-a-dozen
years ago. Repulsed, I tried again when starting the Early English Text
Society. Repulsed again, I tried again at a later date, but with the like result.
Not rebuffed by this, Professor Child added his offer of £50 to mine of
£100, through Mr. Thurstan Holland, a friend of his own and of the owners
of the MS., and this last attempt succeeded." The less said the better about
the conduct of these owners who were only to be tempted to confer a public
benefit by the increased offers of two private gentlemen, but there cannot be
two opinions about the spirited conduct of Mr. Furnivall and Professor
Child. The three volumes[51] that the printed edition of the MS. occupy,
form a handsome monument of well-directed labour. The text is printed
with the most careful accuracy under the superintendence of Mr. Furnivall,
and the elaborate prefaces which exhibit that union of judgment and taste
for which Mr. Hales is so well known, leave nothing to be desired.
"The manuscript itself is a 'scrubby, shabby paper' book, about fifteen and a
half inches long by five and a half wide, and about two inches thick, which
has lost some of its pages both at the beginning and end.... The handwriting
was put by Sir F. Madden at after 1650 A.D.; by two authorities at the
Record Office whom I consulted, in the reign of James I. rather than that of
Charles I., but as the volume contains, among other late pieces, one on the
siege of Newark in Charles I.'s time (ii. 33), another on the taking of
Banbury in 1642 (ii. 39), and a third, The King inioyes his rights againe,
which contains a passage[52] that (as Mr. Chappell observes in Pop. Mus. ii.
438, note 2) fixes the date of the song to the year 1643, we must make the
date about 1650, though rather before than after, so far as I can judge. I
should keep it in Charles I.'s reign, and he died Jan. 30, 1649, but within a
quarter of a century one can hardly determine.... The dialect of the copier of
the MS. seems to have been Lancashire, as is shown by the frequent use of
the final st, thoust for thou shalt, Ist for I will, youst for you will,
unbethought for umbethought, and the occurrence of the northern terms,
like strang, gange, &c. &c. Moreover, the strong local feeling shown by the
copier in favour of Lancashire and Cheshire, and the Stanleys, in his choice
of Flodden Feilde, Bosworth Feilde, Earles of Chester, Ladye Bessiye,
confirms the probability that he was from one of the counties named. That
much, if not all, of the MS. was written from dictation and hurriedly is

almost certain, from the continual miswriting of they for the, rought for
wrought, knight for night (once), me fancy for my fancy, justine for justing."
[53]

A very erroneous impression has grown up as to the proportion of pieces in
the Reliques which were taken from the MS. This is owing to a misleading
statement made by Percy in his preface, to the effect that "the greater part of
them are extracted from an ancient MS. in the editor's possession, which
contains near two hundred poems, songs, and metrical romances." The fact
is that only one-fourth were so taken. The Reliques contain 180 pieces, and
of these only forty-five[54] are taken from the manuscript. We thus see that a
very small part of the manuscript was printed by Percy. He mentions some
of the other pieces in various parts of his book, and he proposed to publish a
fourth volume of the Reliques at some future period that never came.
Mr. Furnivall has the following remarks on the gains to literature by the
publication of the manuscript: "It is more that we have now for the first
time Eger and Grime in its earlier state, Sir Lambewell, besides the
Cavilere's praise of his hawking, the complete versions of Scottish Feilde
and Kinge Arthur's Death, the fullest of Flodden Feilde and the verse
Merline, the Earle of Westmorlande, Bosworth Feilde, the curious poem of
John de Reeve, and the fine alliterative one of Death and Liffe, with its
gracious picture of Lady dame Life, awakening life and love in grass and
tree, in bird and man, as she speeds to her conquest over death."
In 1774 Percy wrote: "In three or four years I intend to publish a volume or
two more of old English and Scottish poems in the manner of my Reliques."
And again in 1778: "With regard to the Reliques, I have a large fund of
materials, which when my son has compleated his studies at the University,
he may, if he likes it, distribute into one or more additional volumes." The
death of this son put an end to his hopes, but before the fourth edition was
required, the bishop had obtained the assistance of his nephew, the Rev.
Thomas Percy. In 1801 he wrote as follows to Jamieson, who had asked for
some extracts from the folio: "Till my nephew has completed his collection
for the intended fourth volume it cannot be decided whether he may not
wish to insert himself the fragments you desire; but I have copied for you
here that one which you particularly pointed out, as I was unwilling to
disappoint your wishes and expectations altogether. By it you will see the
defective and incorrect state of the old text in the ancient folio MS., and the

irresistible demand on the editor of the Reliques to attempt some of those
conjectural emendations, which have been blamed by one or two rigid
critics, but without which the collection would not have deserved a
moment's attention."
Percy has been very severely judged for the alterations he made in his
manuscript authorities; and Ritson has attempted to consider his conduct as
a question of morality rather than one of taste. As each point is noticed in
the prefaces to the various pieces, it is not necessary to discuss the question
here. It may, however, be remarked that, in spite of all Ritson's attacks (and
right was sometimes on his side), the Reliques remain to the present day
unsuperseded.
Mr. Thoms communicated to the Notes and Queries (5th series, v. 431) the
following note, which he made upwards of forty years ago, after a
conversation with Francis Douce:—
"Mr. Douce told me that the Bishop (Percy) originally intended to have left
the manuscript to Ritson; but the reiterated abuse with which that irritable
and not always faultless antiquary visited him obliged him to alter his
determination. With regard to the alterations (? amendments) made by
Percy in the text, Mr. Douce told me that he (Percy) read to him one day
from the MS., while he held the work in his hand to compare the two; and
'certainly the variations were greater than I could have expected,' said my
old friend, with a shrug of the shoulders."
Of the other sources from which Percy drew his materials little need be
said. 2. Some of the ballads were taken from MSS. in public libraries, and
others from MSS. that were lent to him. 3. The Scotch ballads supplied by
Sir David Dalrymple have already been referred to. 4. The printed ballads
are chiefly taken from the Pepys Collection at Cambridge. 5. When the
Reliques were first published, the elegant poems in the Paradyse of Daynty
Devises, England's Helicon, were little known, and it was a happy thought
on the part of Percy to intersperse these smaller pieces among the longer
ballads, so as to please the reader with a constant variety.
The weak point in the book is the insertion of some of the modern pieces.
The old minstrel believed the wonders he related; but a poet educated in
modern ideas cannot transfer himself back to the times of chivalry, so that

his attempts at imitating "the true Gothic manner" are apt to fill his readers
with a sense of unreality.
After the first edition of the Reliques was printed, and before it was
published, Percy made a great alteration in its arrangement. The first
volume was turned into the third, and the third into the first, as may be seen
by a reference to the foot of the pages where the old numbering remains. By
this means the Arthur Ballads were turned off to the end, and Chevy Chase
and Robin Hood obtained the place of honour. Several ballads were also
omitted at the last moment, and the numbers left vacant. These occur in a
copy of two volumes at Oxford which formerly belonged to Douce. In Vol.
III. (the old Vol. I.), Book 1, there is no No. 19; in the Douce copy this is
filled by The Song-birds. In Vol. II., Book 3, there are no Nos. 10 and 11;
but in the Douce copy, Nos. 9, 10, and 11 are Cock Lorrell's Treat, The
Moral Uses of Tobacco, and Old Simon the Kinge. Besides these omissions
it will be seen that in Book 3 of Vol. III. there are two Nos. 2; and that
George Barnwell must have been inserted at the last moment, as it occupies
a duplicate series of pages 225-240, which are printed between brackets. In
1765 the volumes were published in London. In the following year a
surreptitious edition was published in Dublin, and in 1767 appeared a
second edition in London. In 1775 was published the third edition, which
was reprinted at Frankfort in 1790. The fourth edition, ostensibly edited by
the Rev. Thomas Percy, but really the work of the bishop himself, was
published in 1794. Many improvements were made in this edition, and it
contains Percy's final corrections; the fifth edition, published in 1812, being
merely a reprint of the fourth.
The year 1765 was then a memorable one in the history of literature. The
current ballads which were bawled in the street, or sung in the ale-house,
were so mean and vulgar that the very name of ballad had sunk into
disrepute. It was therefore a revelation to many to find that a literature of
nature still existed which had descended from mother to child in remote
districts, or was buried in old manuscripts, covered with the dust of
centuries. It is necessary to realize this state of things in order to understand
Percy's apologetic attitude. He collected his materials from various sources
with great labour, and spared no pains in illustrating the poetry by
instructive prose. Yet after welding with the force of genius the various
parts into an harmonious whole, he was doubtful of the reception it was

likely to obtain, and he called the contents of his volumes "the barbarous
productions of unpolished ages." He backed his own opinion of their
interest by bringing forward the names of the chiefs of the republic of
letters, and ill did they requite him. Johnson parodied his verses, and
Warburton sneered at him as the man "who wrote about the Chinese." Percy
looked for his reward where he received nothing but laughter; but the
people accepted his book with gladness, and the young who fed upon the
food he presented to them grew up to found new schools of poetry.
Few books have exerted such extended influence over English literature as
Percy's Reliques. Beattie's Minstrel was inspired by a perusal of the Essay
on the Ancient Minstrels; and many authors have expressed with gratitude
their obligations to the bishop and his book.
How profoundly the poetry of nature, which lived on in the ballads of the
country, stirred the souls of men is seen in the instance of two poets of
strikingly different characteristics. Scott made his first acquaintance with
the Reliques at the age of thirteen, and the place where he read them was
ever after imprinted upon his memory. The bodily appetite of youth was
unnoticed while he mentally devoured the volumes under the huge leaves of
the plantain tree. Wordsworth was not behind Scott in admiration of the
book. He wrote: "I have already stated how much Germany is indebted to
this work, and for our own country, its poetry has been absolutely redeemed
by it. I do not think there is an able writer in verse of the present day who
would not be proud to acknowledge his obligation to the Reliques. I know
that it is so with my friends; and for myself, I am happy in this occasion to
make a public avowal of my own." After such men as these have spoken,
who can despise our old ballads?

Ballad Literature since Percy.

The impetus given to the collection of old ballads by the publication of
Reliques showed itself in the rapid succession of volumes of the same class
which issued from the press. Most of these were devoted to the publication
of Scottish ballads exclusively. In 1769, David Herd, a native of St. Cyrus,
in Kincardineshire, who had spent most of his life as clerk in an
accountant's office in Edinburgh, published his Ancient and Modern
Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, &c., a work which was enlarged into two

volumes in 1776.[55] He was a most successful and faithful collector, and
not being a poet, he was preserved from the temptation of tampering with
his stores. Motherwell mentions twenty ballads which had not appeared in a
collected form before the publication of this work. Herd was assisted in his
editorial labours by George Paton.
In 1777 appeared the first edition of Evans's Old Ballads, Historical and
Narrative, in two volumes. The best edition of this work, edited by the son
of the original compiler, was published in 4 vols., 1810.
In 1781 Pinkerton published his Scottish Tragic Ballads, which was
followed in 1783 by Select Scottish Ballads. These volumes contained
several fabrications by the editor, as already stated on a previous page.
In 1783 Ritson commenced the publication of that long series of volumes
which is of such inestimable value to the literary antiquary, with A Select
Collection of English Songs. The Bishopric Garland, or Durham Minstrel,
followed, in 1784; The Yorkshire Garland, in 1788; the Pieces of Ancient
Popular Poetry, in 1791; Ancient Songs and Ballads from the reign of
Henry II. to the Revolution, in 1787; The Northumberland Garland, in
1793; Scottish Songs, in 1794; and Robin Hood, in 1795.
In 1787 was commenced The Scots Musical Museum, by James Johnson.
Johnson was a music-seller and engraver in Edinburgh, and the work was
really projected by William Tytler of Woodhouselee, Dr. Blacklock, and
Samuel Clark. The first volume was partly printed, when Burns became
acquainted with the object of the work. He then entered into the scheme
with enthusiasm, and besides "begging and borrowing" old songs, wrote
many new songs himself.
In 1801 was published at Edinburgh, Scottish Poems of the XVIth Century,
edited by J. G. Dalzell, which contains a reprint of Ane Compendious Booke
of Godly and Spirituall Songs, already referred to above.
In 1802 appeared the first two volumes of the only work which is worthy to
stand side by side with the Reliques. Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the
Scottish Border is a book that can be read through, and it and the Reliques
are the only works of the class in which the materials are welded into a
whole, so as no longer to appear a collection of units.

In 1806, Robert Jamieson published at Edinburgh his Popular Ballads and
Songs, from Tradition, Manuscripts, and scarce editions. He was working
upon this book at the same time that Scott was engaged upon his Minstrelsy,
and he obtained much of his material from the same source as Scott, viz.
Mrs. Brown, of Falkland; but he, nevertheless, was able to print seventeen
ballads that had not before appeared in any published collection. Jamieson
has the following remarks on himself in the Introduction to the first volume:
—
"Being obliged to go, at a few weeks' warning, to a distant part of the world,
and to seek, on the shores of the frozen Baltic, for (which his own country
seems to deny him) the means of employing his talents and industry in
some such manner as may enable him to preserve (for a time, at least) his
respectability and a partial independence in the world, the following sheets
have been prepared for the press, amidst all the anxiety and bustle of getting
ready and packing up for a voyage." (Vol. i. p. xvii.)
John Finlay of Glasgow published in 1808 his Scottish Historical and
Romantic Ballads. These volumes only contain twenty-six ballads in all.
John Gilchrist's Collection of Ancient and Modern Scottish Ballads, Tales,
and Songs, (Edinburgh 1815) is a carefully edited work, compiled from
former books.
In 1822 David Laing published his valuable Select Remains of the Ancient
Popular Poetry of Scotland, and in 1824 C. K. Sharpe printed privately a
little volume which he entitled A Ballad Book. James Maidment printed also
privately A North Countrie Garland in the same year (1824).
In 1825 E. V. Utterson printed "Select Pieces of Early English Poetry,
republished principally from early printed copies in Black Letter."
Peter Buchan commenced his ballad career by publishing at Peterhead, in
1825, a little volume entitled "Gleanings of Scotch, English, and Irish
scarce old ballads, chiefly tragical and historical, many of them connected
with the localities of Aberdeenshire." In 1828 he published his "Ancient
Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland, hitherto unpublished." He
affirmed that his materials were faithfully and honestly transcribed, and
"they have suffered no change since they fortunately were consigned to me
by their foster parents." A portrait is given in this book, which represents

the compiler as a wild-looking, unkempt, man. Besides these two books
Buchan made a large collection of ballads, songs, and poems, which he took
down from the oral recitation of the peasantry. These were pronounced by
Scott to be "decidedly and indubitably original." The two folio MS.
volumes in which they were contained came into the possession of the
Percy Society, and a selection was made from them by J. H. Dixon, in 1845,
who entitled his work Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads
(Percy Society Publications, vol. xvii.).
In 1826 Allan Cunningham published The Songs of Scotland, to which
reference has already been made.
George R. Kinloch published in 1827, "Ancient Scottish Ballads, recovered
from tradition, and never before published." He states in his introduction
that "the present collection is almost entirely composed of ballads obtained
in the 'North Countrie,' a district hitherto but little explored, though by no
means destitute of traditional poetry."
In this same year appeared William Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Ancient and
Modern, a work of the most sterling character, which contains the best
account of ballad literature extant.
In 1829 Robert Chambers published his collection of Scottish Ballads,
which contains eighty pieces, of which number twelve are modern, or
imitations. At this period the editor had not elaborated his theory that Sir
Patrick Spence and certain other ballads were modern imitations.
Peter Cunningham published The Songs of England and Scotland, in 1835,
and Thomas Wright printed The Political Songs of England from the reign
of John to that of Edward II. in 1839, for the Camden Society.
In 1840 was founded, in honour of Bishop Percy, the Percy Society, which
continued to print some of the old Garlands and various collections of old
Ballads until 1852.
William Chappell published in 1840 his valuable Collection of National
English Airs, consisting of Ancient Song, Ballad and Dance Tunes, which
work was re-arranged and enlarged, and issued in 1855 as Popular Music of
the Olden Time. This work is a mine of wealth concerning both the airs and
the words of our ballad treasures. It was a truly national undertaking, and
has been completed with great skill. No ballad lover can get on without it.

In 1844 Alexander Whitelaw published The Book of Scottish Ballads, and
The Book of Scottish Song. An edition of the former was printed in 1875,
and one of the latter in 1866, which contains about twelve hundred and
seventy songs.
In 1847 John Matthew Gutch published "A Lytell Geste of Robin Hode, with
other Ancient and Modern Ballads and Songs relating to this celebrated
yeoman."
In the same year appeared Frederick Sheldon's Minstrelsy of the English
Border, but it is a work of very little value.
Dr. Rimbault printed in 1850 those valuable Musical Illustrations of Bishop
Percy's Reliques, which are so frequently quoted in the following pages.
Professor Francis James Child, of Harvard College, one of our greatest
authorities on Ballad lore, published at Boston, U.S., a very complete
collection of English and Scottish Ballads, in eight volumes. The first
volume contains a full list of the principal collections of Ballads and Songs.
In 1858 William Edmondstoune Aytoun published his Ballads of Scotland,
which contain collated versions of one hundred and thirty-nine ballads, with
short introductions.
The year 1867 was memorable as seeing the publication of the first
instalment of the Folio Manuscript under the editorship of J. W. Hales and
F. J. Furnivall.
In 1868 appeared "Scottish Ballads and Songs, historical and traditionary,
edited by James Maidment, Edinburgh, 1868," 2 vols. The number of pieces
is small but select, and the introductions are full and elaborate.
In 1871 Messrs. Ogle of Glasgow published a well edited collection of
Scottish Ballads, with an interesting introduction and notes, entitled "The
Ballad Minstrelsy of Scotland. Romantic and Historical. Collated and
Annotated."
Upon the completion of the Percy Folio, Mr. Furnivall started the Ballad
Society, for the publication of the various collections of ballads that exist.
Mr. Chappell has edited half of the Roxburghe Ballads in several parts, and
Mr. Furnivall himself has printed some interesting ballads from

manuscripts. All these have been presented to readers with a wealth of
illustrative notes.
The books referred to above form but a portion of the literature of the
subject. So mighty has been the growth of the small seed set by Percy, that
the despised outcasts which the literary leaders attempted to laugh out of
existence have made good their right to a high position among the poetry of
the nation, and proved that they possessed the germs of a long and vigorous
life.
H. B. W.

FOOTNOTES:
[1] See article on "Waits' Badges," by Llewellyn Jewitt, in
Reliquary, vol. xii. p. 145.
[2] Chant of Richard Sheale, Brydges' British Bibliographer,
vol. iv. p. 100.
[3] Ellis's Original Letters, Second Series, vol. iii. p. 49.
[4] See Percy's remarks on this line at p. 379 (note).
[5] Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads, ed. 1829, vol. i. p. xxvi.
[6] Marjoreybank's Annals of Scotland, Edinb. 1814, p. 5,
quoted in Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. xxx. (note).
[7] Motherwell's Minstrelsy, 1827, p. xlvii.
[8] Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. xv.
[9] See below. p. 148.
[10] Vol. ii. p. 172.
[11] Vol. iii. bk. ii. art. 18.
[12] Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. xiii.
[13] See below, p. 380.
[14] See below, p. 70.
[15] See below, p. 23.
[16] See vol. ii. p. 158.
[17] Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads, ed. 1829, vol. i. p.
xxxiii.
[18] See below, p. 378.
[19] Popular Music of the Olden Time, vol. i. p. 106.
[20] Pierce Penilesse, his Supplication to the Devill, 1592.

[21] Kemp's Nine Daies' Wonder, 1600, sign. d 3.
[22] Dryden's Prologue to Lee's Sophonisba.
[23] Richard of Almaigne, see vol. ii. p. 3.
[24] Notes and Queries, 5th series, vol. v. p. 524.
[25] See Ancient Scottish Poems, 1786, vol. i. p. cxxxi.
[26] Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern, 1827, p. xcvii.
[27] Scottish Ballads, vol. i. p. 46.
[28] Mr. Laing, with his usual kindness, has been so good as to
answer my inquiry whether he still held the opinion he
published in 1839. He writes (June 2, 1876): "I still adhere to the
general inference that this ballad is comparatively a modern
imitation, and although we have no positive evidence as to the
authorship, I can think of no one that was so likely to have
written it as Elizabeth Halket, Lady Wardlaw of Pitreavie, who
died in 1727, aged fifty. Had Bishop Percy's correspondence
with Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, been preserved, some
interesting information would no doubt have been obtained
regarding these ballads sent from Scotland."
[29] Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads (Percy
Society, vol. xvii. p. xi.).
[30] Neither of these lines occur in Percy's version, but they are
both in the one printed by Scott.
[31] Ballads from Scottish History, 1863, pp. 223-4.
[32] "An ingenious friend thinks the author of Hardyknute has
borrowed several expressions and sentiments from the foregoing
and other old Scottish songs in this collection."
[33] See vol. ii. p. 105, of the present edition.
[34] It has been necessary in the foregoing remarks to give
reasons why the opinions of the late Dr. Robert Chambers on
this subject are not to be taken on trust, but it is hoped that these
criticisms will not be understood as written with any wish to
detract from the literary character of one who did so much good
work during a laborious and ever active life.
[35] Minstrelsy, p. xlvi.
[36] Parliament of Love.
[37] Queen of Corinth.
[38] Dekker's Honest W., 1604, act i. sc. 1.
[39] Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.
[40] The following is a list of these ballads:—
Vol. I. "Fair Rosamond and King Henry II.," "Queen Eleanor's
Confession," "St. George and the Dragon," "The Dragon of

Wantley," "Chevy Chace," "The Lamentation of Jane Shore,"
"Sir Andrew Barton's Death," "Prince of England's Courtship to
the King of France's Daughter," "The Lady turn'd Serving-Man,"
"The Children in the Wood," "The Bride's Burial," "The Lady's
Fall," "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor," "Gilderoy."
Vol. II. "King Leir and his Three Daughters," "King Arthur and
the Knights of the Round Table," "King John and the Abbot of
Canterbury," "The Wanton Wife of Bath," "The Spanish Lady's
Love," "The Blind Beggar of Bednal Green."
Vol. III. "The Baffled Knight," "William and Margaret," "The
Gaberlunzie Man."
[41] Percy communicated to Dr. Nash, for the History of
Worcestershire (vol. ii. p. 318), a pedigree in which he attempted
to identify his family with that of the descendants of Ralph, third
Earl of Northumberland. Nash subjoined a note to the effect that
he had examined the proofs of all the particulars above
mentioned, and Boswell, in his Life of Johnson, expressed the
opinion that, "both as a lawyer accustomed to the consideration
of evidence, and as a genealogist versed in the study of
pedigrees," he was fully satisfied. Mr. Furnivall is rather unjust
to Percy when he suggests that the pedigree was treated like the
ballads, and the gaps filled up, for the cases are not quite
analogous. The pedigree may not be of greater authenticity than
many other doubtful ones, but at all events his Patrons the Duke
and Duchess of Northumberland acknowledged the connection
between them when he was in some way distinguished.
[42] On Percy's tomb his wife's name is spelt Goodriche.
[43] Illustrations of the Lyric Poetry and Music of Scotland,
1853, p. 29.
[44] Stenhouse's Illustrations, p. 112.
[45] Bishop Percy's Folio MS. vol. i. p. xli. (note).
[46] The book was reprinted entire in the fourth volume of the
Antiquarian Repertory, 1809; and a second edition was
published by Pickering in 1827.
[47] In 1810 he was the only survivor of the original members
of the Literary Club, founded by Johnson and Reynolds in 1764.
[48] Percy Folio MS., vol. i. p. lv.
[49] The chief particulars of the above sketch of Percy's life are
taken from the interesting life by the Rev. J. Pickford in Hales
and Furnivall's edition of the Folio MS., vol. i. p. xxvii.
[50] Ancient Songs, 1790, p. xix.
[51] Bishop Percy Folio Manuscript: Ballads and Romances.
Edited by John W. Hales, M.A., and Frederick J. Furnivall,
M.A., London (Trübner and Co.), 1867-68, 3 vols.

[52]

"ffull 40 yeeres his royall crowne
hath beene his fathers and his owne."

Percy Folio MS. (ii. 25/17-18.)
[53] Furnivall's Forewords, p. xiii.
[54] The following is a list of these, taken from Mr. Furnivall's
Forewords:—

Sir Cauline.
King Estmere.
Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne.
The Child of Elle.
Edom O'Gordon (or Captaine Carre).
Adam Bell, Clym o' the Clough, and William of Cloudesly.
Take thy old Cloak about thee (or Bell my wife).
Sir Lancelot du Lake.
The more modern Ballad of Chevy Chase.
The Rising in the North.
Northumberland betrayed by Douglas.
The Not-browne Mayd.
Sir Aldingar.
Gentle Heardsman, tell to me.
The Beggar's Daughter of Bednal Green.
Sir Andrew Barton.
Lady Bothwell's Lament.
The Murder of the King of Scots.
The King of Scots and Andrew Browne, though in the Folio, was printed
by Percy from the Antiquaries' copy.
Mary Ambree.
The Winning of Cales.
The Spanish Lady's Love.
The Complaint of Conscience.
K. John and the Abbot of Canterbury.
The Heir of Lynne.
To Althea from Prison (When Love with unconfined wings).
Old Tom of Bedlam.
The Boy and the Mantle.
The Marriage of Sir Gawaine.
King Arthur's Death.
The Legend of King Arthur.
Glasgerion.
Old Robin of Portingale.
Child Waters.
Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard.
Gil Morrice.
Legend of Sir Guy.
Guy and Amarant.
The Shepherd's Resolution.

The Lady's Fall.
The King of France's Daughter.
A Lover of Late.
The King and Miller of Mansfield.
Dulcina.
The Wandering Prince of Troy.
The Aspiring Shepherd.
[55] This work was reprinted twice during the year 1869: 1. at
Edinburgh under the editorial care of Mr. Sidney Gilpin; 2. at
Glasgow.

TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
ELIZABETH,
COUNTESS OF NORTHUMBERLAND;
IN HER OWN RIGHT,
BARONESS PERCY, LUCY, POYNINGS, FITZ-
PAYNE, BRYAN, AND LATIMER.
Madam,—
T hose writers, who solicit the protection of the noble and the
great, are often exposed to censure by the impropriety of their
addresses: a remark that will, perhaps, be too readily applied
to him, who, having nothing better to offer than the rude songs
of ancient minstrels, aspires to the patronage of the Countess
of Northumberland, and hopes that the barbarous productions of unpolished
ages can obtain the approbation or notice of her, who adorns courts by her
presence, and diffuses elegance by her example.
But this impropriety, it is presumed, will disappear, when it is declared that
these poems are presented to your Ladyship, not as labours of art, but as
effusions of nature, showing the first efforts of ancient genius, and
exhibiting the customs and opinions of remote ages: of ages that had been
almost lost to memory, had not the gallant deeds of your illustrious
ancestors preserved them from oblivion.
No active or comprehensive mind can forbear some attention to the reliques
of antiquity. It is prompted by natural curiosity to survey the progress of life
and manners, and to inquire by what gradations barbarity was civilized,
grossness refined, and ignorance instructed; but this curiosity, Madam, must
be stronger in those who, like your Ladyship, can remark in every period
the influence of some great progenitor, and who still feel in their effects the
transactions and events of distant centuries.

By such bonds, Madam, as I am now introducing to your presence, was the
infancy of genius nurtured and advanced, by such were the minds of
unlettered warriors softened and enlarged, by such was the memory of
illustrious actions preserved and propagated, by such were the heroic deeds
of the Earls of Northumberland sung at festivals in the hall of Alnwick; and
those songs, which the bounty of your ancestors rewarded, now return to
your Ladyship by a kind of hereditary right; and, I flatter myself, will find
such reception as is usually shown to poets and historians, by those whose
consciousness of merit makes it their interest to be long remembered.
I am,
Madam,
Your Ladyship's
Most humble,
And most devoted Servant,
Thomas Percy.[56]
TO
ELIZABETH,
LATE DUCHESS AND COUNTESS OF NORTHUMBERLAND,
IN HER OWN RIGHT BARONESS PERCY,
ETC. ETC. ETC.
WHO, BEING SOLE HEIRESS TO MANY GREAT FAMILIES OF OUR
ANCIENT NOBILITY, EMPLOYED THE PRINCELY FORTUNE, AND
SUSTAINED THE ILLUSTRIOUS HONOURS, WHICH SHE DERIVED
FROM THEM, THROUGH HER WHOLE LIFE WITH THE GREATEST
DIGNITY, GENEROSITY, AND SPIRIT; AND WHO FOR HER MANY
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE VIRTUES WILL EVER BE REMEMBERED AS
ONE OF THE FIRST CHARACTERS OF HER TIME, THIS LITTLE
WORK WAS ORIGINALLY DEDICATED; AND, AS IT SOMETIMES
AFFORDED HER AMUSEMENT, AND WAS HIGHLY
DISTINGUISHED BY HER INDULGENT APPROBATION, IT IS NOW,
WITH THE UTMOST REGARD, RESPECT, AND GRATITUDE,
CONSECRATED TO HER BELOVED AND HONOURED
MEMORY.[57]

FOOTNOTES:
[56] This dedication is prefixed to the first edition of the
Reliques, (1765), the second edition (1767), and the third edition
(1775).
[57] The Duchess of Northumberland died in the year 1776, and
the above inscription appears in the fourth edition (1794) and
the fifth edition (1812), besides many subsequent editions.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FOURTH
EDITION.[58]
T wenty years have near elapsed since the last edition of this
work appeared. But, although it was sufficiently a favourite
with the public, and had long been out of print, the original
editor had no desire to revive it. More important pursuits had,
as might be expected, engaged his attention; and the present
edition would have remained unpublished, had he not yielded to the
importunity of his friends, and accepted the humble offer of an editor in a
nephew, to whom, it is feared, he will be found too partial.
These volumes are now restored to the public with such corrections and
improvements as have occurred since the former impression; and the text in
particular hath been emended in many passages by recurring to the old
copies. The instances, being frequently trivial, are not always noted in the
margin; but the alteration hath never been made without good reason; and
especially in such pieces as were extracted from the folio manuscript so
often mentioned in the following pages, where any variation occurs from
the former impression, it will be understood to have been given on the
authority of that MS.
The appeal publicly made to Dr. Johnson in the first page of the following
Preface, so long since as in the year 1765, and never once contradicted by
him during so large a portion of his life, ought to have precluded every
doubt concerning the existence of the MS. in question. But such, it seems,
having been suggested, it may now be mentioned, that, while this edition
passed through his press, the MS. itself was left for near a year with Mr.
Nichols, in whose house, or in that of its possessor, it was examined with
more or less attention by many gentlemen of eminence in literature. At the
first publication of these volumes it had been in the hands of all, or most of,
his friends; but, as it could hardly be expected that he should continue to
think of nothing else but these amusements of his youth, it was afterwards
laid aside at his residence in the country. Of the many gentlemen above-
mentioned, who offered to give their testimony to the public, it will be

sufficient to name the Honourable Daines Barrington, the Reverend Clayton
Mordaunt Cracherode, and those eminent Critics on Shakespeare, the
Reverend Dr. Farmer, George Steevens, Esq., Edmund Malone, Esq., and
Isaac Reed, Esq., to whom I beg leave to appeal for the truth of the
following representation.
The MS. is a long narrow folio volume, containing 195 Sonnets, Ballads,
Historical Songs, and Metrical Romances, either in the whole or in part, for
many of them are extremely mutilated and imperfect. The first and last
leaves are wanting; and of fifty-four pages near the beginning half of every
leaf hath been torn away, and several others are injured towards the end;
besides that through a great part of the volume the top or bottom line, and
sometimes both have been cut off in the binding.
In this state is the MS. itself: and even where the leaves have suffered no
injury, the transcripts, which seem to have been all made by one person
(they are at least all in the same kind of hand), are sometimes extremely
incorrect and faulty, being in such instances probably made from defective
copies, or the imperfect recitation of illiterate fingers; so that a considerable
portion of the song or narrative is sometimes omitted; and miserable trash
or nonsense not unfrequently introduced into pieces of considerable merit.
And often the copyist grew so weary of his labour as to write on without the
least attention to the sense or meaning; so that the word which should form
the rhyme is found misplaced in the middle of the line; and we have such
blunders as these, want and will for wanton will;[59] even pan and wale for
wan and pale,[60] &c., &c.
Hence the public may judge how much they are indebted to the composer of
this collection; who, at an early period of life, with such materials and such
subjects, formed a work which hath been admitted into the most elegant
libraries; and with which the judicious antiquary hath just reason to be
satisfied, while refined entertainment hath been provided for every reader of
taste and genius.
Thomas Percy,
Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford.

FOOTNOTES:

[58] Published in three volumes small octavo in 1794. "Printed
by John Nichols for F. and C. Rivington."
[59] [Fol. MS.] Page 130, ver. 117. (This must have been copied
from a reciter.)
[60] [Fol. MS.] Page 139, ver. 164, viz.

"his visage waxed pan and wale."

THE PREFACE
T he reader is here presented with select remains of our ancient
English bards and minstrels, an order of men, who were once
greatly respected by our ancestors, and contributed to soften
the roughness of a martial and unlettered people by their
songs and by their music.
The greater part of them are extracted from an ancient folio manuscript, in
the editor's possession, which contains near 200 poems, songs, and metrical
romances. This MS. was written about the middle of the last century; but
contains compositions of all times and dates, from the ages prior to
Chaucer, to the conclusion of the reign of Charles I.[61]
This manuscript was shewn to several learned and ingenious friends, who
thought the contents too curious to be consigned to oblivion, and
importuned the possessor to select some of them, and give them to the
press. As most of them are of great simplicity, and seem to have been
merely written for the people, he was long in doubt, whether, in the present
state of improved literature, they could be deemed worthy the attention of
the public. At length the importunity of his friends prevailed, and he could
refuse nothing to such judges as the author of the Rambler and the late Mr.
Shenstone.
Accordingly such specimens of ancient poetry have been selected, as either
shew the gradation of our language, exhibit the progress of popular
opinions, display the peculiar manners and customs of former ages, or
throw light on our earlier classical poets.
They are here distributed into volumes, each of which contains an
independent series of poems, arranged chiefly according to the order of
time, and shewing the gradual improvements of the English language and
poetry from the earliest ages down to the present. Each volume, or series, is
divided into three books, to afford so many pauses, or resting-places to the
reader, and to assist him in distinguishing between the productions of the
earlier, the middle, and the latter times.

In a polished age, like the present, I am sensible that many of these reliques
of antiquity will require great allowances to be made for them. Yet have
they, for the most part, a pleasing simplicity, and many artless graces, which
in the opinion of no mean critics[62] have been thought to compensate for
the want of higher beauties, and, if they do not dazzle the imagination, are
frequently found to interest the heart.
To atone for the rudeness of the more obsolete poems, each volume
concludes with a few modern attempts in the same kind of writing: and, to
take off from the tediousness of the longer narratives, they are everywhere
intermingled with little elegant pieces of the lyric kind. Select ballads in the
old Scottish dialect, most of them of the first-rate merit, are also
interspersed among those of our ancient English minstrels; and the artless
productions of these old rhapsodists are occasionally confronted with
specimens of the composition of contemporary poets of a higher class; of
those who had all the advantages of learning in the times in which they
lived, and who wrote for fame and for posterity. Yet perhaps the palm will
be frequently due to the old strolling minstrels, who composed their rhymes
to be sung to their harps, and who looked no farther than for present
applause, and present subsistence.
The reader will find this class of men occasionally described in the
following volumes, and some particulars relating to their history in an
Essay subjoined. (Appendix I.)
It will be proper here to give a short account of the other collections that
were consulted, and to make my acknowledgements to those gentlemen
who were so kind as to impart extracts from them; for, while this selection
was making, a great number of ingenious friends took a share in the work,
and explored many large repositories in its favour.
The first of these that deserved notice was the Pepysian library at Magdalen
College, Cambridge. Its founder, Sam. Pepys, Esq.,[63] Secretary of the
Admiralty in the reigns of Charles II. and James II. had made a large
collection of ancient English ballads, near 2,000 in number, which he has
left pasted in five volumes in folio; besides Garlands and other smaller
miscellanies. This collection he tells us was "begun by Mr. Selden;
improved by the addition of many pieces elder thereto in time; and the
whole continued down to the year 1700; when the form peculiar till then

thereto, viz., of the black letter with pictures, seems (for cheapness sake)
wholly laid aside for that of the white letter without pictures."
In the Ashmole Library at Oxford is a small collection of ballads made by
Anthony Wood in the year 1676, containing somewhat more than 200.
Many ancient popular poems are also preserved in the Bodleyan library.
The archives of the Antiquarian Society at London contain a multitude of
curious political poems in large folio volumes, digested under the several
reigns of Hen. VIII., Edw. VI., Mary, Elizabeth, James I., &c.[65]
In the British Museum is preserved a large treasure of ancient English
poems in MS. besides one folio volume of printed ballads.
From all these some of the best pieces were selected; and from many
private collections, as well printed, as manuscript, particularly from one
large folio volume which was lent by a lady.
Amid such a fund of materials, the editor is afraid he has been sometimes
led to make too great a parade of his authorities. The desire of being
accurate has perhaps seduced him into too minute and trifling an exactness;
and in pursuit of information he may have been drawn into many a petty
and frivolous research. It was, however, necessary to give some account of
the old copies; though often, for the sake of brevity, one or two of these
only are mentioned, where yet assistance was received from several. Where
any thing was altered that deserved particular notice, the passage is
generally distinguished by two inverted 'commas.' And the editor has
endeavoured to be as faithful as the imperfect state of his materials would
admit. For, these old popular rhymes being many of them copied only from
illiterate transcripts, or the imperfect recitation of itinerant ballad-singers,
have, as might be expected, been handed down to us with less care than any
other writings in the world. And the old copies, whether MS. or printed,
were often so defective or corrupted, that a scrupulous adherence to their
wretched readings would only have exhibited unintelligible nonsense, or
such poor meagre stuff, as neither came from the bard, nor was worthy the
press; when, by a few slight corrections or additions, a most beautiful or
interesting sense hath started forth, and this so naturally and easily, that the
editor could seldom prevail on himself to indulge the vanity of making a
formal claim to the improvement; but must plead guilty to the charge of
concealing his own share in the amendments under some such general title,

as a Modern Copy, or the like. Yet it has been his design to give sufficient
intimation where any considerable liberties[66] were taken with the old
copies, and to have retained either in the text or margin any word or phrase
which was antique, obsolete, unusual, or peculiar, so that these might be
safely quoted as of genuine and undoubted antiquity. His object was to
please both the judicious antiquary, and the reader of taste; and he hath
endeavoured to gratify both without offending either.
The plan of the work was settled in concert with the late elegant Mr.
Shenstone, who was to have borne a joint share in it had not death
unhappily prevented him[67]: most of the modern pieces were of his
selection and arrangement, and the editor hopes to be pardoned if he has
retained some things out of partiality to the judgment of his friend. The old
folio MS. above-mentioned was a present from Humphrey Pitt, Esq., of
Prior's-Lee, in Shropshire,[68] to whom this public acknowledgement is due
for that, and many other obliging favours. To Sir David Dalrymple, Bart., of
Hailes, near Edinburgh, the editor is indebted for most of the beautiful
Scottish poems with which this little miscellany is enriched, and for many
curious and elegant remarks with which they are illustrated. Some obliging
communications of the same kind were received from John MacGowan,
Esq., of Edinburgh; and many curious explanations of Scottish words in the
glossaries from John Davidson, Esq., of Edinburgh, and from the Rev. Mr.
Hutchinson, of Kimbolton. Mr. Warton, who has twice done so much
honour to the Poetry Professor's chair at Oxford, and Mr. Hest, of Worcester
College, contributed some curious pieces from the Oxford libraries. Two
ingenious and learned friends at Cambridge deserve the editor's warmest
acknowledgements: to Mr. Blakeway, late fellow of Magdalen College, he
owes all the assistance received from the Pepysian library: and Mr. Farmer,
fellow of Emanuel, often exerted, in favour of this little work, that extensive
knowledge of ancient English literature for which he is so distinguished.[69]
Many extracts from ancient MSS. in the British Museum, and other
repositories, were owing to the kind services of Thomas Astle, Esq., to
whom the public is indebted for the curious Preface and Index annexed to
the Harleyan Catalogue.[70] The worthy Librarian of the Society of
Antiquaries, Mr. Norris, deserved acknowledgement for the obliging
manner in which he gave the editor access to the volumes under his care. In
Mr. Garrick's curious collection of old plays are many scarce pieces of

ancient poetry, with the free use of which he indulged the editor in the
politest manner. To the Rev. Dr. Birch he is indebted for the use of several
ancient and valuable tracts. To the friendship of Dr. Samuel Johnson he
owes many valuable hints for the conduct of the work. And, if the
Glossaries are more exact and curious than might be expected in so slight a
publication, it is to be ascribed to the supervisal of a friend, who stands at
this time the first in the world for northern literature, and whose learning is
better known and respected in foreign nations than in his own country. It is,
perhaps, needless to name the Rev. Mr. Lye, editor of Junius's
Etymologicum, and of the Gothic Gospels.
The names of so many men of learning and character the editor hopes will
serve as an amulet to guard him from every unfavourable censure, for
having bestowed any attention on a parcel of old ballads. It was at the
request of many of these gentlemen, and of others eminent for their genius
and taste, that this little work was undertaken. To prepare it for the press has
been the amusement of now and then a vacant hour amid the leisure and
retirement of rural life, and hath only served as a relaxation from graver
studies. It has been taken up at different times, and often thrown aside for
many months, during an interval of four or five years. This has occasioned
some inconsistencies and repetitions, which the candid reader will pardon.
As great care has been taken to admit nothing immoral and indecent, the
editor hopes he need not be ashamed of having bestowed some of his idle
hours on the ancient literature of our own country, or in rescuing from
oblivion some pieces (though but the amusements of our ancestors) which
tend to place in a striking light their taste, genius, sentiments, or manners.

Except in one paragraph, this Preface is given with little
variation from the first edition in MDCCLXV.

FOOTNOTES:
[61] Chaucer quotes the old Romance of Libius Disconius, and
some others, which are found in this MS. (See the Essay, vol. iii.
Appendix I.) It also contains several songs relating to the civil

war in the last century, but not one that alludes to the
Restoration.
[62] Mr. Addison, Mr. Dryden, and the witty Lord Dorset, &c.
See the Spectator, No. 70. To these might be added many
eminent judges now alive. The learned Selden appears also to
have been fond of collecting these old things. See below.
[63] A life of our curious collector Mr. Pepys may be seen in the
continuation of Mr. Collier's Supplement to his Great Diction.
1715, at the end of vol. iii. folio. Art. Pep.[64]
[64] [In Percy's time Pepys was not known as the author of that
Diary which will keep his name in remembrance so long as
English literature continues to exist.]
[65] [The Society of Antiquaries have published a catalogue of
this collection by Robert Lemon, 8vo. 1866.]
[66] Such liberties have been taken with all those pieces which
have three asterisks subjoined, thus ⁂.
[67] That the editor hath not here under-rated the assistance he
received from his friend, will appear from Mr. Shenstone's own
letter to the Rev. Mr. Graves, dated March 1, 1761. See his
Works, vol. iii. letter cii. It is doubtless a great loss to this work
that Mr. Shenstone never saw more than about a third of one of
these volumes, as prepared for the press.
[68] Who informed the editor that this MS. had been purchased
in a library of old books, which was thought to have belonged to
Thomas Blount, Author of the Jocular Tenures, 1679, 4to. and
of many other publications enumerated in Wood's Athenæ, ii. 73;
the earliest of which is The Art of making Devises, 1646, 4to.
wherein he is described to be "of the Inner Temple." If the
collection was made by this lawyer (who also published the Law
Dictionary, 1671, folio), it should seem, from the errors and
defects with which the MS. abounds, that he had employed his
clerk in writing the transcripts, who was often weary of his task.
[69] To the same learned and ingenious friend, since Master of
Emanuel College, the editor is obliged for many corrections and
improvements in his second and subsequent editions; as also to
the Rev. Mr. Bowle, of Idmistone, near Salisbury, editor of the
curious edition of Don Quixote, with Annotations in Spanish, in
6 vols. 4to.; to the Rev. Mr. Cole, formerly of Blecheley, near
Fenny-Stratford, Bucks; to the Rev. Mr. Lambe, of Noreham, in
Northumberland (author of a learned History of Chess, 1764,
8vo. and editor of a curious Poem on the Battle of Flodden
Field, with learned Notes, 1774, 8vo.); and to G. Paton, Esq., of
Edinburgh. He is particularly indebted to two friends, to whom
the public as well as himself, are under the greatest obligations;
to the Honourable Daines Barrington, for his very learned and
curious Observations on the Statutes, 4to.; and to Thomas

Tyrwhitt, Esq., whose most correct and elegant edition of
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, 5 vols. 8vo. is a standard book, and
shows how an ancient English classic should be published. The
editor was also favoured with many valuable remarks and
corrections from the Rev. Geo. Ashby, late fellow of St. John's
College, in Cambridge, which are not particularly pointed out
because they occur so often. He was no less obliged to Thomas
Butler, Esq., F.A.S., agent to the Duke of Northumberland, and
Clerk of the Peace for the County of Middlesex, whose
extensive knowledge of ancient writings, records, and history,
have been of great use to the editor in his attempts to illustrate
the literature or manners of our ancestors. Some valuable
remarks were procured by Samuel Pegge, Esq., author of that
curious work the Curialia, 4to.; but this impression was too far
advanced to profit by them all; which hath also been the case
with a series of learned and ingenious annotations inserted in the
Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1793, April, June, July, and
October, 1794, and which, it is hoped, will be continued.
[70] Since Keeper of the Records in the Tower.

RELIQUES OF ANCIENT POETRY,
ETC.
SERIES THE FIRST.

BOOK I.

I never heard the olde song of Percy and Duglas, that I found not
my heart mooved more then with a trumpet: and yet is it sung
but by some blinde crouder, with no rougher voyce, then rude
stile; which being so evill apparelled in the dust and cobwebbes
of that uncivill age, what would it worke, trymmed in the
gorgeous eloquence of Pindar!—Sir Philip Sidney's Apologie for
Poetrie, 1595.

I.

THE ANCIENT BALLAD OF CHEVY CHASE.

T he fine heroic song of Chevy-Chase has ever been admired by
competent judges. Those genuine strokes of nature and
artless passion, which have endeared it to the most simple
readers, have recommended it to the most refined; and it has
equally been the amusement of our childhood, and the
favourite of our riper years.
Mr. Addison has given an excellent critique[71] on this very popular ballad,
but is mistaken with regard to the antiquity of the common-received copy;

for this, if one may judge from the style, cannot be older than the time of
Elizabeth, and was probably written after the elogium of Sir Philip Sidney:
perhaps in consequence of it. I flatter myself, I have here recovered the
genuine antique poem; the true original song, which appeared rude even in
the time of Sir Philip, and caused him to lament, that it was so evil-
apparelled in the rugged garb of antiquity.
This curiosity is printed, from an old manuscript,[72] at the end of Hearne's
preface to Gul. Newbrigiensis Hist. 1719, 8vo. vol. i. To the MS. copy is
subjoined the name of the author, Rychard Sheale;[73] whom Hearne had so
little judgement as to suppose to be the same with a R. Sheale, who was
living in 1588. But whoever examines the gradation of language and idiom
in the following volumes, will be convinced that this is the production of an
earlier poet. It is indeed expressly mentioned among some very ancient
songs in an old book intituled, The Complaint of Scotland[74] (fol. 42),
under the title of the Huntis of Chevet, where the two following lines are
also quoted:—

"The Perssee and the Mongumrye mette,[75]
That day, that day, that gentil day:"[76]

which, tho' not quite the same as they stand in the ballad, yet differ not
more than might be owing to the author's quoting from memory. Indeed
whoever considers the style and orthography of this old poem will not be
inclined to place it lower than the time of Henry VI.: as on the other hand
the mention of James the Scottish King,[77] with one or two anachronisms,
forbids us to assign it an earlier date. King James I. who was prisoner in this
kingdom at the death of his father,[78] did not wear the crown of Scotland
till the second year of our Henry VI.,[79] but before the end of that long
reign a third James had mounted the throne.[80] A succession of two or three
Jameses, and the long detention of one of them in England, would render
the name familiar to the English, and dispose a poet in those rude times to
give it to any Scottish king he happened to mention.
So much for the date of this old ballad: with regard to its subject, altho' it
has no countenance from history, there is room to think it had originally
some foundation in fact. It was one of the Laws of the Marches frequently

renewed between the two nations, that neither party should hunt in the
other's borders, without leave from the proprietors or their deputies.[81]
There had long been a rivalship between the two martial families of Percy
and Douglas, which heightened by the national quarrel, must have produced
frequent challenges and struggles for superiority, petty invasions of their
respective domains, and sharp contests for the point of honour; which
would not always be recorded in history. Something of this kind, we may
suppose, gave rise to the ancient ballad of the Hunting a' the Cheviat.[82]
Percy earl of Northumberland had vowed to hunt for three days in the
Scottish border without condescending to ask leave from earl Douglas, who
was either lord of the soil, or lord warden of the marches. Douglas would
not fail to resent the insult, and endeavour to repel the intruders by force;
this would naturally produce a sharp conflict between the two parties:
something of which, it is probable, did really happen, tho' not attended with
the tragical circumstances recorded in the ballad: for these are evidently
borrowed from the Battle of Otterbourn,[83] a very different event, but
which after-times would easily confound with it. That battle might be owing
to some such previous affront as this of Chevy Chase, though it has escaped
the notice of historians. Our poet has evidently jumbled the two subjects
together: if indeed the lines,[84] in which this mistake is made, are not rather
spurious, and the after-insertion of some person, who did not distinguish
between the two stories.
Hearne has printed this ballad without any division of stanzas, in long lines,
as he found it in the old written copy; but it is usual to find the distinction of
stanzas neglected in ancient MSS.; where, to save room, two or three verses
are frequently given in one line undivided. See flagrant instances in the
Harleian Catalogue, No. 2253, s. 29, 34, 61, 70, et passim.

[Bishop Percy did well to open his book with Chevy Chase and
the Battle of Otterburn, as these two are by far the most
remarkable of the old historical ballads still left to us, and all
Englishmen must feel peculiar interest in Chevy Chase, as it is
one of the few northern ballads that are the exclusive growth of
the south side of the Border. The partizanship of the Englishman

is very amusingly brought out in verses 145-154, where we
learn that the Scotch king had no captain in his realm equal to
the dead Douglas, but that the English king had a hundred
captains as good as Percy. A ballad which stirred the soul of
Sidney and caused Ben Jonson to wish that he had been the
author of it rather than of all his own works cannot but be dear
to all readers of taste and feeling. The old version is so far
superior to the modern one (see Book iii. No. 1) that it must ever
be a source of regret that Addison, who elegantly analyzed the
modern version, did not know of the original.
It will be well to arrange under three heads the subjects on
which a few words require to be added to Percy's preface, viz. 1.
the title, 2. the occasion, 3. the author. 1. In the old version the
title given in the ballad itself is the hunting of the Cheviat, and
in the Complaynt of Scotlande it is referred to as The Huntis of
Chevot. The title of the modern version is changed to Chevy
Chase, which Dr. E. B. Nicholson has suggested to be derived
from the old French word chevauchée, a foray or expedition (see
Notes and Queries, 3rd series, vol. xii. p. 124); but this
explanation is not needed, as the original of the modern title is
found in ver. 62 as Chyviat Chays, which naturally became
contracted into Chevy Chase, as Teviotdale into Tevidale (ver.
50).
2. The ballad is so completely unhistorical that it is difficult to
give any opinion as to the occasion to which it refers, but
apparently it was written, as Bishop Percy remarks, to
commemorate a defiant expedition of one of the Lords of the
Marches upon the domain of another, but that the names of
Percy and Douglas led the writer into a confusion with the battle
of Otterburn, which was fresh in the people's memory owing to
the ballad of the Battle of Otterburn. In fact Professor Child
throws out the hint that possibly Sidney referred to the Battle of
Otterburn and not to the Hunting of the Cheviat, as he only
mentions the old song of Percie and Douglas, but it has so long
been believed that Sidney spoke of Chevy Chase that we should
be sorry to think otherwise now. In the note immediately

following the modern version (see Book iii. No. 1.) Bishop
Percy suggests the possibility that the ballad may refer to the
battle of Pepperden fought in 1436, but this view is highly
improbable for the following reason. In both the ancient and
modern versions the battle of Humbledown is alluded to as a
future event caused by the death of Percy at Chevy Chase. Now
as Humbledown was fought in the year 1402, and as the battle
of Otterburn was the only conflict of importance on the Borders
which preceded it, and as, moreover, Otterburn is mentioned in
the ballad, there cannot well be any reference to a battle fought
so many years afterwards.
3. Bishop Percy is unnecessarily severe in his remark upon
Hearne, as that learned antiquary was probably correct in
identifying the Richard Sheale of the old ballad with Richard
Sheale the minstrel. Whether, however, the latter was the author,
as is argued by C. in Brydges' British Bibliographer (vol. 4, pp.
95-105), is another matter. The other examples of the minstrel's
muse are so inferior to this ballad that it is impossible to believe
him to be the author. Doubtless it was recited by him, and being
associated with his name the transcriber may naturally have
supposed him to be its maker. Sheale really flourished (or
withered, as Mr. Hales has it) at a rather earlier period than the
date 1588 mentioned by Percy would lead us to imagine, for he
appears to have been writing before 1560, nevertheless the
language is of a much earlier date than this, and, moreover, a
ballad of the Borders is not likely to have been invented at
Tamworth, where Sheale lived.
Chevy Chase was long a highly popular song, and Bishop
Corbet, in his Journey into France, speaks of having sung it in
his youth. The antiquated beau in Davenant's play of the Wits
also prides himself on being able to sing it, and in Wit's
Intepreter, 1671, a man when enumerating the good qualities of
his wife, cites after the beauties of her mind and her patience
"her curious voice wherewith she useth to sing Chevy Chace."
Many other ballads were sung to the same tune, so that we are
not always sure as to whether the original is referred to or some

more modern song. The philosopher Locke, when Secretary to
the Embassy sent by Charles II. to the Elector of Brandenburg,
wrote home a description of the Brandenburg church singing, in
which he says, "He that could not though he had a cold make
better music with a chevy chace over a pot of smooth ale,
deserved well to pay the reckoning and to go away athirst."[85]
The writer here probably referred to any song sung to this tune.]

THE FIRST FIT.[86]

The Persé owt of Northombarlande.
And a vowe[87] to God mayd he,
That he wolde hunte in the mountayns
Off Chyviat within dayes thre,
In the mauger[88] of doughtè Dogles,[89]5
And all that ever with him be.

The fattiste hartes in all Cheviat
He sayd he wold kill, and cary them away:
Be my feth, sayd the dougheti Doglas agayn,
I wyll let[90] that hontyng yf that I may.10

Then the Persé owt of Banborowe cam,[91]
With him a myghtye meany;[92]
With fifteen hondrith archares bold;[93]
The wear chosen out of shyars thre.[94]

This begane on a monday at morn15

In Cheviat the hillys so he;[95]
The chyld may rue that ys un-born,
It was the mor pitté.

The dryvars thorowe the woodes went[96]
For to reas[97] the dear;20
Bomen bickarte uppone the bent[98]
With ther browd aras[99] cleare.

Then the wyld[100] thorowe the woodes went
On every syde shear;[101]
Grea-hondes thorowe the greves glent[102]25
For to kyll thear dear.

The begane in Chyviat the hyls abone[103]
Yerly[104] on a monnyn-day;[105]
Be[106] that it drewe to the oware off none[107]
A hondrith fat hartes ded ther lay.30

The blewe a mort uppone the bent,[108][109]
The semblyd on sydis shear;[110]
To the quyrry[111] then the Persè went
To se the bryttlynge[112] off the deare.

He sayd, It was the Duglas promys35
This day to meet me hear;
But I wyste he wold faylle verament:[113]
A gret oth the Persè swear.

At the laste a squyar of Northombelonde
Lokyde at his hand full ny,40
He was war ath[114] the doughetie Doglas comynge:
With him a myghtè meany,[115]

Both with spear, 'byll,' and brande:[116][117]
Yt was a myghti sight to se.

Hardyar men both off hart nar hande45
Wear not in Christiantè.

The wear twenty hondrith spear-men good
Withouten any fayle;[118]
The wear borne a-long be the watter a Twyde,
Yth[119] bowndes of Tividale.50

Leave off the brytlyng of the dear, he sayde,
And to your bowys look ye tayk good heed;[120]
For never sithe[121] ye wear on your mothars borne
Had ye never so mickle need.[122]

The dougheti Dogglas on a stede55
He rode all his men beforne;[123]
His armor glytteryde as dyd a glede;[124]
A bolder barne[125] was never born.

Tell me 'what' men ye ar, he says,[126]
Or whos men that ye be:60
Who gave youe leave to hunte in this
Chyviat chays in the spyt of me?

The first mane that ever him an answear mayd,
Yt was the good lord Persè:
We wyll not tell the 'what' men we ar, he says,[127]65
Nor whos men that we be;
But we wyll hount hear in this chays
In the spyte of thyne, and of the.

The fattiste hartes in all Chyviat
We have kyld, and cast[128] to carry them a-way.70
Be my troth, sayd the doughtè Dogglas agayn,[129]
Ther-for the ton[130] of us shall de this day.

Then sayd the doughtè Doglas

Unto the lord Persè:
To kyll all thes giltless men,75
A-las! it wear great pittè.

But, Persè, thowe art a lord of lande,
I am a yerle[131] callyd within my contre;
Let all our men uppone a parti[132] stande;
And do the battell off the and of me.80

Nowe Cristes cors[133] on his crowne,[134] sayd the lord
Persè.[135]
Who-soever ther-to says nay.
Be my troth, doughtè Doglas, he says,
Thow shalt never se that day;

Nethar in Ynglonde, Skottlonde, nar France,85
Nor for no man of a woman born,
But and[136] fortune be my chance,
I dar met him on man for on.[137][138]

Then bespayke a squyar off Northombarlonde,
Ric. Wytharynton[139] was his nam;90
It shall never be told in Sothe-Ynglonde, he says,
To kyng Herry the fourth for sham.

I wat[140] youe byn great lordes twaw,[141]
I am a poor squyar of lande;
I wyll never se my captayne fyght on a fylde,95
And stande my-selffe, and looke on,
But whyll I may my weppone welde,
I wyll not 'fayl' both harte and hande.

That day, that day, that dredfull day:
The first Fit[142] here I fynde.100
And youe[143] wyll here any mor athe hountyng a the
Chyviat,
Yet ys ther mor behynde.

THE SECOND FIT.

The Yngglishe men hade ther bowys yebent,
Ther hartes were good yenoughe;
The first of arros that the shote off,[144]
Seven skore spear-men the sloughe.[145]

Yet bydys[146] the yerle Doglas uppon the bent,[147]5
A captayne good yenoughe,
And that was sene verament,
For he wrought hom both woo and wouche.[148]

The Dogglas pertyd his ost in thre,
Lyk a cheffe cheften off pryde,10
With suar[149] speares off myghttè tre
The cum[150] in on every syde.

Thrughe our Yngglishe archery
Gave many a wounde full wyde;
Many a doughete the garde to dy,[151]15
Which ganyde them no pryde.

The Yngglishe men let thear bowys be,[152]
And pulde owt brandes that wer bright;[153]
It was a hevy syght to se
Bryght swordes on basnites[154] lyght.20

Thorowe ryche male, and myne-ye-ple[155][156]
Many sterne[157] the stroke downe streght:[158]
Many a freyke,[159] that was full free,
Ther undar foot dyd lyght.

At last the Duglas and the Persè met,25
Lyk to captayns of myght and mayne;[160]
The swapte[161] togethar tyll the both swat[162]
With swordes, that wear of fyn myllàn.[163]

Thes worthè freckys[164] for to fyght
Ther-to the wear full fayne,30
Tyll the bloode owte off thear basnetes sprente,[165]
As ever dyd heal or rayne.[166]

Holde the, Persè, sayd the Doglas,[167]
And i' feth I shall the brynge
Wher thowe shalte have a yerls wagis35
Of Jamy our Scottish kynge.

Thoue shalte have thy ransom fre,
I hight[168] the hear this thinge,
For the manfullyste man yet art thowe,
That ever I conqueryd in filde fightyng.40

Nay 'then' sayd the lord Persè,
I tolde it the beforne,
That I wolde never yeldyde be
To no man of a woman born.

With that ther cam an arrowe hastely45
Forthe off a mightie wane,[169]
Hit hathe strekene the yerle Duglas
In at the brest bane.

Thoroue lyvar and longs bathe[170]
The sharp arrowe ys gane,50
That never after in all his lyffe days,
He spayke mo wordes but ane,
That was,[171] Fyghte ye, my merry men, whyllys ye may,
For my lyff days ben gan.

The Persè leanyde on his brande,55
And sawe the Duglas de;
He tooke the dede man be the hande,
And sayd, Wo ys me for the!

To have savyde thy lyffe I wold have pertyd with
My landes for years thre,60
For a better man of hart, nare of hande
Was not in all the north countrè.

Off all that se a Skottishe knyght,
Was callyd Sir Hewe the Mongon-byrry,
He sawe the Duglas to the deth was dyght[172];65
He spendyd[173] a spear a trusti tre:

He rod uppon a corsiare[174]
Throughe a hondrith archery;
He never styntyde, nar never blane,[175]
Tyll he came to the good lord Persè.70

He set uppone the lord Persè
A dynte,[176] that was full soare;
With a suar spear of a myghtè tre
Clean thorow the body he the Persè bore,[177]

Athe tothar syde, that a man myght se,75
A large cloth yard and mare:
Towe bettar captayns wear nat in Christiantè,
Then that day slain wear ther.

An archar off Northomberlonde
Say slean was the lord Persè,[178]80
He bar a bende-bow in his hande,
Was made off trusti tre:

An arow, that a cloth yarde was lang,
To th' hard stele halyde he;[179]

A dynt, that was both sad and soar,85
He sat on Sir Hewe the Mongon-byrry.

The dynt yt was both sad and sar,[180][181]
That he of Mongon-byrry sete;
The swane-fethars, that his arrowe bar,
With his hart blood the wear wete.[182]90

Ther was never a freake wone foot wolde fle,
But still in stour[183] dyd stand,
Heawyng on yche othar,[184] whyll the myght dre,[185]
With many a bal-ful brande.

This battell begane in Chyviat95
An owar befor the none,
And when even-song bell was rang
The battell was nat half done.

The tooke 'on' on ethar hand
Be the lyght off the mone;100
Many hade no strenght for to stande,
In Chyviat the hyllys aboun.[186][187]

Of fifteen hondrith archars of Ynglonde
Went away but fifti and thre;
Of twenty hondrith spear-men of Skotlonde,105
But even five and fifti:

But all wear slayne Cheviat within:
The hade no strengthe to stand on hie;[188]
The chylde may rue that ys un-borne,
It was the mor pittè.110

Thear was slayne with the lord Persè
Sir John of Agerstone,
Sir Roger the hinde[189] Hartly,
Sir Wyllyam the bolde Hearone.

Sir Jorg the worthè Lovele[190][191]115
A knyght of great renowen,
Sir Raff the ryche Rugbè
With dyntes wear beaten dowene.

For Wetharryngton my harte was wo,
That ever he slayne shulde be;120
For when both his leggis wear hewyne in to,[192]
Yet he knyled and fought on hys kne.[193]

Ther was slayne with the dougheti Douglas
Sir Hewe the Mongon-byrry,
Sir Davye Lwdale, that worthè was,125
His sistars son was he:

Sir Charles a Murrè, in that place,
That never a foot wolde fle;
Sir Hewe Maxwell, a lorde he was,
With the Duglas dyd he dey.130

So on the morrowe the mayde them byears
Off byrch, and hasell so 'gray;'[194]
Many wedous[195] with wepyng tears,[196]
Cam to fach ther makys[197] a-way.

Tivydale may carpe[198] off care,135
Northombarlond may mayk grat mone,[199]
For towe such captayns, as slayne wear thear,
On the march perti[200] shall never be none.[201]

Word ys commen to Edden-burrowe,
To Jamy the Skottishe kyng,140
That dougheti Duglas, lyff-tenant of the Merches,
He lay slean Chyviot with-in.

His handdes dyd he weal[202] and wryng,
He sayd, Alas, and woe ys me!

Such another captayn Skotland within,145
He sayd, y-feth shuld never be.[203]

Worde ys commyn to lovly Londone
Till[204] the fourth Harry our kyng,[205]
That lord Persè, leyff-tennante of the Merchis,[206]
He lay slayne Chyviat within.150

God have merci on his soll, sayd kyng Harry,
Good lord, yf thy will it be!
I have a hondrith captayns in Yynglonde, he sayd,
As good as ever was hee:
But Persè, and I brook[207] my lyffe,155
Thy deth well quyte[208] shall be.

As our noble kyng made his a-vowe,
Lyke a noble prince of renowen,
For the deth of the lord Persè,
He dyd the battel of Hombyll-down:160

Wher syx and thritte Skottish knyghtes
On a day wear beaten down:
Glendale glytteryde on ther armor bryght,
Over castill, towar, and town.

This was the hontynge off the Cheviat;165
That tear begane this spurn:[209]
Old men that knowen the grownde well yenoughe,
Call it the Battell of Otterburn.

At Otterburn began this spurne
Uppon a monnyn day:[210]170
Ther was the dougghté Doglas slean,
The Persè never went away.

Ther was never a tym on the march partes
Sen the Doglas and the Persè met,

But yt was marvele, and the redde blude ronne not,
As the reane doys in the stret.176

Jhesue Christ our balys bete,[211]
And to the blys us brynge!
Thus was the hountynge of the Chevyat:
God send us all good ending!180

⁂ The style of this and the following ballad is uncommonly
rugged and uncouth, owing to their being writ in the very
coarsest and broadest northern dialect.
The battle of Hombyll-down, or Humbledon, was fought Sept.
14, 1402 (anno 3 Hen. IV.), wherein the English, under the
command of the Earl of Northumberland and his son Hotspur,
gained a complete victory over the Scots. The village of
Humbledon is one mile northwest from Wooler, in
Northumberland. The battle was fought in the field below the
village, near the present Turnpike Road, in a spot called ever
since Red-Riggs. Humbledon is in Glendale Ward, a district so
named in this county, and mentioned above in ver. 163.

FOOTNOTES:

[71] Spectator, Nos. 70, 74.
[72] [MS. Ashmole, 48, in the Bodleian Library. The Rev. W. W.
Skeat has printed the ballad from the MS. in his Specimens of
English Literature, 1394-1579. Clarendon Press Series, 1871.]
[73] Subscribed, after the usual manner of our old poets,
expliceth (explicit) quoth Rychard Sheale.
[74] One of the earliest productions of the Scottish press, now to
be found. The title-page was wanting in the copy here quoted;
but it is supposed to have been printed in 1540. See Ames. [It is
now believed to have been printed in 1549. See the new edition
by J. A. H. Murray, printed for the Early English Text Society
(Extra Series), 1872.]
[75] See Pt. ii. v. 25.
[76] See Pt. i. v. 99.
[77] Pt. ii. v. 36, 140.
[78] Who died Aug. 5, 1406, in the 7th year of our Hen. IV.
[79] James I. was crowned May 22, 1424; murdered Feb. 21,
1436-7.
[80] In 1460.—Hen. VI. was deposed 1461: restored and slain
1471.
[81] Item.... Concordatum est, quod, ... nullus unius partis vel
alterius ingrediatur terras, boschas, forrestas, warrenas, loca,
dominia quæcunque alicujus partis alterius subditi, causa

venandi, piscandi, aucupandi, disportum aut solatium in eisdem,
aliave quacunque de causa, absque licentia ejus ... ad quem ...
loca ... pertinent, aut de deputatis suis prius capt. et obtent. Vid.
Bp. Nicolson's Leges Marchiarum, 1705, 8vo. pp. 27, 51.
[82] This was the original title. See the ballad, Pt. i. v. 101; Pt. ii.
v. 165.
[83] See the next ballad.
[84] Vid. Pt. ii. v. 167.
[85] [Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, vol. i. p. 198;
vol. ii. p. 774.]
[86] Fit. see ver. 100.
[87] [should be "an avowe," a vow (see v. 157, Fit. 2).]
[88] [in spite of.]
[89] Ver. 5, magger in Hearne's PC. [Printed Copy.]
[90] [hinder.]
[91] Ver. 11. The the Persé. PC.
[92] [company.]
[93] Ver. 13. archardes bolde off blood and bone. PC.
[94] By these "shyars thre" is probably meant three districts in
Northumberland, which still go by the name of shires, and are
all in the neighbourhood of Cheviot. These are Island-shire,
being the district so named from Holy-Island: Norehamshire, so
called from the town and castle of Noreham (or Norham): and
Bamboroughshire, the ward or hundred belonging to
Bamborough castle and town.
[95] [high.]
[96] Ver. 19. throrowe. PC.
[97] [rouse.]
[98] [bowmen skirmished in the long grass.]
[99] [broad arrows.]
[100] [wild deer.]
[101] [entirely.]
[102] [the bushes glanced.]
[103] [above.]
[104] [early.]
[105] [Monday.]
[106] [by.]
[107] [hour of noon.]

[108] [they blew a note over the dead stag on the grass.]
[109] Ver. 31. blwe a mot. PC.
[110] [on all sides.]
[111] [slaughtered game.]
[112] [quartering.]
[113] [truly.]
[114] [aware of.]
[115] V. 42. myghtte. PC. passim.
[116] [battle axe and sword.]
[117] V. 43. brylly. PC.
[118] V. 48. withowte ... feale. PC.
[119] [in the.]
[120] V. 52. boys PC.
[121] [since.]
[122] V. 54. ned. PC.
[123] [Ver. 56. Percy and Hearne print, "att his men."]
[124] [glowing coal.]
[125] [man.]
[126] Ver. 59. whos. PC.
[127] Ver. 65. whoys. PC.
[128] [mean.]
[129] Ver. 71. agay. PC.
[130] [the one of us shall die.]
[131] [earl.]
[132] [apart or aside.]
[133] [curse.]
[134] [head.]
[135] Ver. 81. sayd the the. PC.
[136] [but if.]
[137] [one man for one.]
[138] Ver. 88. on i.e. one.
[139] This is probably corrupted in the MS. for Rog.
Widdrington, who was at the head of the family in the reign of
K. Edw. III. There were several successively of the names of
Roger and Ralph, but none of the name of Richard, as appears
from the genealogies in the Heralds' office.

[140] [for wot, know.]
[141] [two.]
[142] Fit. see vol. 2, p. 182.
[143] [if you.]
[144] Ver. 3. first, i.e. flight.
[145] [slew.]
[146] [abides.]
[147] V. 5. byddys. PC.
[148] [mischief, wrong.]
[149] [sure.]
[150] [they come.]
[151] [many a doughty one they made to die.]
[152] V. 17. boys. PC.
[153] V. 18. briggt. PC.
[154] [helmets.]
[155] [Mr. Skeat suggests that this is a corruption for manople, a
large gauntlet.]
[156] V. 21. throrowe. PC.
[157] [many fierce ones they struck down.]
[158] V. 22. done. PC.
[159] [strong man.]
[160] Ver. 26. to, i.e. two. Ibid. and of. PC.
[161] [exchanged blows.]
[162] [did sweat.]
[163] [Milan steel.]
[164] [men.]
[165] [spurted out.]
[166] V. 32. ran. PC.
[167] V. 33. helde. PC.
[168] [promise.]
[169] Wane, i.e. ane, one, &c. man, an arrow came from a
mighty one: from a mighty man. [misreading for mane (?) see v.
63, fit. i.]
[170] Ver. 49. throroue. PC.
[171] This seems to have been a Gloss added.
[172] [put.]

[173] [grasped.]
[174] [courser.]
[175] [he never lingered nor stopped.]
[176] [blow.]
[177] V. 74. ber. PC.
[178] Ver. 80. Say, i. e. Sawe.
[179] V. 84. haylde. PC.
[180] [sore.]
[181] V. 87. far. PC.
[182] This incident is taken from the battle of Otterbourn; in
which Sir Hugh Montgomery, Knt. (son of John Lord
Montgomery) was slain with an arrow. Vid. Crawford's Peerage.
[183] [fight.]
[184] [hewing at each other.]
[185] [suffer.]
[186] [hills above.]
[187] Ver. 102. abou. PC.
[188] V. 108. strenge ... hy. PC.
[189] [gentle.]
[190] [Mr. Skeat reads Loumbe.]
[191] V. 115. lóule. PC.
[192] V. 121. in to, i.e. in two.
[193] V. 122. kny. PC.
[194] Ver. 132. gay. PC.
[195] [widows.]
[196] A common pleonasm, see the next poem, Fit. 2d. V. 155;
so Harding in his Chronicle, chap. 140, fol. 148, describing the
death of Richard I. says,

"He shrove him then unto Abbots thre
With great sobbyng ... and wepyng teares."

So likewise Cavendish in his Life of Cardinal Wolsey, chap. 12,
p. 31, 4to.: "When the Duke heard this, he replied with weeping
teares," &c.
[197] [mates.]
[198] [complain]
[199] V. 136. mon. PC.

[200] [on the marches (see ver. 173).]
[201] V. 138. non. PC.
[202] [wail.]
[203] V. 146. ye feth. PC.
[204] [to, unto]
[205] For the names in this and the foregoing page, see the
Remarks at the end of the next ballad.
[206] Ver. 149. cheyff tennante. PC.
[207] [if I enjoy.]
[208] [requited.]
[209] [that tearing or pulling began this kick.]
[210] [Monday.]
[211] [better our bales, or remedy our evils.]

II.

THE BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE.

T he only battle wherein an Earl of Douglas was slain fighting
with a Percy was that of Otterbourne, which is the subject of
this ballad. It is here related with the allowable partiality of an
English poet, and much in the same manner as it is recorded
in the English Chronicles. The Scottish writers have, with a
partiality at least as excusable, related it no less in their own favour. Luckily
we have a very circumstantial narrative of the whole affair from Froissart, a
French historian, who appears to be unbiassed. Froissart's relation is prolix;
I shall therefore give it, with a few corrections, as abridged by Carte, who
has, however, had recourse to other authorities, and differs from Froissart in
some things, which I shall note in the margin.
In the twelfth year of Richard II., 1388, "The Scots taking advantage of the
confusions of this nation, and falling with a party into the West-marches,
ravaged the country about Carlisle, and carried off 300 prisoners. It was
with a much greater force, headed by some of the principal nobility, that, in

the beginning of August,[212] they invaded Northumberland; and, having
wasted part of the county of Durham,[213] advanced to the gates of
Newcastle; where, in a skirmish, they took a 'penon' or colours[214]
belonging to Henry lord Percy, surnamed Hotspur, son to the Earl of
Northumberland. In their retreat home, they attacked a castle near
Otterbourn: and, in the evening of Aug. 9 (as the English writers say, or
rather, according to Froissart, Aug. 15), after an unsuccessful assault were
surprised in their camp, which was very strong, by Henry, who at the first
onset put them into a good deal of confusion. But James Earl of Douglas
rallying his men, there ensued one of the best-fought actions that happened
in that age; both armies showing the utmost bravery:[215] the earl Douglas
himself being slain on the spot;[216] the Earl of Murrey mortally wounded;
and Hotspur,[217] with his brother Ralph Percy, taken prisoners. These
disasters on both sides have given occasion to the event of the engagement's
being disputed. Froissart (who derives his relation from a Scotch knight,
two gentlemen of the same country, and as many of Foix)[218] affirming that
the Scots remained masters of the field; and the English writers insinuating
the contrary. These last maintain that the English had the better of the day:
but night coming on, some of the northern lords, coming with the Bishop of
Durham to their assistance, killed many of them by mistake, supposing
them to be Scots; and the Earl of Dunbar, at the same time falling on
another side upon Hotspur, took him and his brother prisoners, and carried
them off while both parties were fighting. It is at least certain, that
immediately after this battle the Scots engaged in it made the best of their
way home: and the same party was taken by the other corps about Carlisle."
Such is the account collected by Carte, in which he seems not to be free
from partiality: for prejudice must own that Froissart's circumstantial
account carries a great appearance of truth, and he gives the victory to the
Scots. He, however, does justice to the courage of both parties; and
represents their mutual generosity in such a light, that the present age might
edify by the example. "The Englyshmen on the one partye, and Scottes on
the other party, are good men of warre, for whan they mete, there is a hard
fighte without sparynge. There is no hoo[219] betwene them as long as
speares, swordes, axes, or dagers wyll endure; but lay on eche upon other:
and whan they be well beaten, and that the one party hath obtayned the
victory, they than glorifye so in their dedes of armes, and are so joyfull, that

suche as be taken, they shall be ransomed or they go out of the felde;[220] so
that shortely eche of them is so contente with other, that at their departynge
curtoysly they will saye, God thanke you. But in fyghtynge one with another
there is no playe, nor sparynge." Froissart's Chronicle (as translated by Sir
Johan Bourchier Lord Berners), cap. cxlii.
The following Ballad is (in this present edition) printed from an old MS. in
the Cotton Library[221] (Cleopatra, c. iv.), and contains many stanzas more
than were in the former copy, which was transcribed from a MS. in the
Harleian Collection [No. 293, fol. 52.] In the Cotton MS. this poem has no
title, but in the Harleian copy it is thus inscribed, A songe made in R. 2. his
tyme of the battele of Otterburne, betweene Lord Henry Percye earle of
Northomberlande and the earle Douglas of Scotlande, Anno 1388.
But this title is erroneous, and added by some ignorant transcriber of after-
times: for, 1. The battle was not fought by the Earl of Northumberland, who
was absent, but by his son, Sir Henry Percy, Knt., surnamed Hotspur (in
those times they did not usually give the title of Lord to an Earl's eldest
son). 2. Altho' the battle was fought in Richard II.'s time, the song is
evidently of later date, as appears from the poet's quoting the chronicles in
Pt. II., ver. 26; and speaking of Percy in the last stanza as dead. It was,
however, written in all likelihood as early as the foregoing song, if not
earlier. This, perhaps, may be inferred from the minute circumstances with
which the story is related, many of which are recorded in no chronicle, and
were probably preserved in the memory of old people. It will be observed
that the authors of these two poems have some lines in common; but which
of them was the original proprietor must depend upon their priority; and
this the sagacity of the reader must determine.

[We have here a ballad founded upon a true historical event, in
which the writer attempts to be as truthful as his national bias
will allow him. In Chevy Chase, Percy is the aggressor, but in
the "Battle of Otterburn," Douglas commences the encounter by
his action. At the period under notice the king of England
(Richard II.) was occupied in dissension with his uncle, the

Duke of Gloucester, and the Parliament, while Robert II., King
of Scotland, was very old, and his eldest son lame and inactive,
so that the Border chieftains were pretty much left to their own
devices. The Earl of Fife, a younger son of King Robert, and
certain of the great nobles, arranged among themselves that an
inroad should be made into England as a reprisal for the injuries
the Scotch had at various times sustained from the English, and
the expedition was placed under the command of James, Earl of
Douglas.
Besides the ballad we are now considering there are metrical
accounts of the battle in John Hardyng's Chronicle, Joannes de
Fordun's Scoti-Chronicon, and Wyntoun's Orygynal Cronykil of
Scotland. In 1857, Robert White published an interesting
History of the Battle of Otterburn, fought in 1388, with Memoirs
of the Warriors who engaged in that memorable conflict. This
book is written in an enthusiastic spirit by one who was born
and bred on the Borders, and who kept alive in his soul the true
old Border spirit. He listened on his mother's knee to the stanzas
of the modern ballad of Chevy Chase, which she chanted to him,
and he grew up with a feeling which he retained through life,
that Percy and Douglas were far greater men than Napoleon and
Wellington.
The exact date of the battle is an open question, for the
authorities disagree as to this particular; thus Buchanan fixes it
on July 21st, and other writers name, respectively, August 5th,
9th, 10th, 15th, and 19th. White thinks that the battle was fought
on the evening of Wednesday and morning of Thursday, 19th
and 20th of August, immediately before the full moon. In the
year 1388 the new moon fell on the 6th of August, and Douglas
is not likely to have chosen a period of dark evenings for his
expedition. Another disputed point is the number of men in the
Scottish army, under Douglas. Froissart gives the numbers at
three or four hundred men-at-arms, and two thousand infantry;
Wyntoun, at near seven thousand men; Buchanan, at three
hundred horse and two thousand foot, besides servants and
attendants; Godscroft, at four thousand horsemen; Ridpath, at

three thousand men; and Scott, at three hundred men-at-arms,
who, with their followers, made up from a thousand to fifteen
hundred men, with two thousand chosen infantry. White makes
the following statement as the result of his sifting of the
conflicting accounts:—
Men-at-arms 400
Attendants on ditto, footmen, lackeys, and grooms 1,200
Infantry mounted 2,000
Attendants on ditto, boys to take care of horses, sutlers, &c. 3,000
6,600

It has been supposed that the first part of this ballad down to
verse 112 was originally of Scottish manufacture, for two
reasons: 1st, because Hume, of Godscroft, refers to "a Scots
song," which begins as this does; and 2nd, because haymaking
has been over at least a month in England at Lammas, when
Scotch husbandmen are still busy "winning their hay." This last
reason, however, cannot be considered a very conclusive one, as
the seasons must be much alike on the two sides of the Border.
The second part is written from a thoroughly English stand-
point. The two Scottish versions, viz. the one given by Scott in
his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and the one in Herd's
Collection, are very different from the English ballad.]

Yt felle abowght the Lamasse tyde,
Whan husbonds wynn ther haye,[222]
The dowghtye Dowglasse bowynd[223] hym to ryde,
In Ynglond to take a praye:

The yerlle[224] of Fyffe,[225] withowghten stryffe,5

He bowynd hym over Sulway:[226]
The grete wolde ever together ryde;
That race they may rue for aye.

Over 'Ottercap' hyll they[227] came in,
And so dowyn by Rodelyffe cragge,10
Upon Grene 'Leyton' they lyghted dowyn,
Styrande[228] many a stagge:[229]

And boldely brente[230] Northomberlonde,
And haryed[231] many a towyn;
They dyd owr Ynglyssh men grete wrange,[232]15
To battell that were not bowyn.[233]

Than spake a berne[234] upon the bent,[235]
Of comforte that was not colde,
And sayd, We have brent Northomberlond,
We have all welth in holde.20

Now we have haryed all Bamboroweshyre,
All the welth in the worlde have wee;
I rede[236] we ryde to Newe Castell,
So styll and stalwurthlye.[237]

Uppon the morowe, when it was daye,25
The standards schone fulle bryght;
To the Newe Castelle the toke the waye,
And thether they cam fulle ryght.

Sir Henry Percy laye at the Newe Castelle,
I telle yow withowtten drede;30
He had byn a march-man[238] all hys dayes,
And kepte Barwyke upon Twede.

To the Newe Castell when they cam,
The Skottes they cryde on hyght,[239]

Syr Harye Percy, and thow byste[240] within,35
Com to the fylde, and fyght:

For we have brente Northomberlonde,
Thy eritage good and ryght;
And syne my logeyng I have take,[241]
With my brande dubbyd many a knyght.40

Sir Harry Percy cam to the walles,
The Skottyssh oste for to se;
"And thow hast brente Northomberlond,
Full sore it rewyth[242] me.

Yf thou hast haryed all Bambarowe shyre,45
Thow hast done me grete envye;[243]
For the trespasse thow hast me done,
The tone[244] of us schall dye."

Where schall I byde the, sayd the Dowglas?
Or where wylte thow come to me?50
"At Otterborne in the hygh way,[245]
Ther maist thow well logeed be.

The roo[246] full rekeles ther sche rinnes,[247]
To make the game and glee:
The fawkon and the fesaunt[248] both,55
Amonge the holtes on 'hee.'[249][250]

Ther maist thow have thy welth at wyll,
Well looged ther maist be.
Yt schall not be long, or I com the tyll,"[251]
Sayd Syr Harry Percye.60

Ther schall I byde the, sayd the Dowglas,
By the fayth of my bodye.
Thether schall I com, sayd Syr Harry Percy;
My trowth I plyght to the.

A pype of wyne he gave them over the walles,65
For soth, as I yow saye:
Ther he mayd the Douglas drynke,
And all hys oste that daye.

The Dowglas turnyd him homewarde agayne,
For soth[252] withowghten naye,70
He tooke his logeyng at Oterborne
Uppon a Wedyns-day:

And ther he pyght[253] hys standerd dowyn,
Hys gettyng[254] more and lesse,
And syne[255] he warned hys men to goo75
To chose ther geldyngs gresse.

A Skottysshe knyght hoved[256] upon the bent,[257]
A wache[258] I dare well saye:
So was he ware[259] on the noble Percy
In the dawnynge of the daye.80

He prycked[260] to his pavyleon dore,
As faste as he myght ronne,
Awaken, Dowglas, cryed the knyght,
For hys love, that syttes yn trone.[261]

Awaken, Dowglas, cryed the knyght,85
For thow maiste waken wyth wynne:[262]
Yender have I spyed the prowde Percy,
And seven standardes wyth hym.

Nay by my trowth, the Douglas sayed,
It ys but a fayned taylle:90
He durste not loke on my bred[263] banner,
For all Ynglonde so haylle.[264]

Was I not yesterdaye at the Newe Castell,
That stonds so fayre on Tyne?

For all the men the Percy hade,95
He cowde not garre[265] me ones to dyne.

He stepped owt at hys pavelyon dore,
To loke and it were lesse;
Arraye yow, lordyngs, one and all,
For here bygynnes no peysse.[266]100

The yerle of Mentaye,[267] thow arte my eme,[268]
The forwarde[269] I gyve to the:
The yerlle of Huntlay cawte[270] and kene,
He schall wyth the be.

The lorde of Bowghan[271] in armure bryght105
On the other hand he schall be:
Lorde Jhonstone, and lorde Maxwell,
They to schall be with me.

Swynton fayre fylde upon your pryde
To batell make yow bowen:[272]110
Syr Davy Scotte, Syr Walter Stewarde,
Syr Jhon of Agurstone.
A FYTTE.

The Perssy came byfore hys oste,[273]
Wych was ever a gentyll knyght,
Upon the Dowglas lowde can he crye,
I wyll holde that I have hyght:[274][275]

For thow haste brente Northumberlonde.5
And done me grete envye;
For thys trespasse thou hast me done,
The tone of us schall dye.

The Dowglas answerde hym agayne
With grete wurds up on 'hee,'[276]10
And sayd, I have twenty agaynst 'thy' one,[277][278]
Byholde and thow maiste see.

Wyth that the Percye was grevyd sore,
For sothe as I yow saye:
[279]
[ He lyghted dowyn upon his fote,15
And schoote[280] his horsse clene away.

Every man sawe that he dyd soo,
That ryall[281] was ever in rowght;[282]
Every man schoote hys horsse him froo,
And lyght hym rowynde abowght.20

Thus Syr Hary Percye toke the fylde,
For soth, as I yow saye:
Jesu Cryste in hevyn on hyght
Dyd helpe hym well that daye.

But nyne thowzand, ther was no moo;25
The cronykle wyll not layne:[283]
Forty thowsande Skottes and fowre
That day fowght them agayne.

But when the batell byganne to joyne,
In hast ther came a knyght,30
'Then' letters fayre furth hath he tayne
And thus he sayd full ryght:

My lorde, your father he gretes yow well,
Wyth many a noble knyght;

He desyres yow to byde
That he may see thys fyght.

The Baron of Grastoke ys com owt of the west,
Wyth hym a noble companye;
All they loge at your fathers thys nyght,
And the Battel fayne wold they see.40

For Jesu's love, sayd Syr Harye Percy,
That dyed for yow and me,
Wende to my lorde my Father agayne,
And saye thow saw me not with yee:[284]

My trowth ys plyght to yonne Skottysh knyght,45
It nedes me not to layne,[285]
That I schulde byde hym upon thys bent,
And I have hys trowth agayne:

And if that I wende off thys grownde
For soth unfoughten awaye,50
He wolde me call but a kowarde knyght
In hys londe another daye.

Yet had I lever[286] to be rynde[287] and rente,
By Mary that mykel maye;[288]
Then ever my manhod schulde be reprovyd55
Wyth a Skotte another daye.

Wherfore schote, archars, for my sake,
And let scharpe arowes flee:
Mynstrells, playe up for your waryson,[289]
And well quyt it schall be.60

Every man thynke on hys trewe love,
And marke hym to the Trenite:[290]
For to God I make myne avowe
Thys day wyll I not fle.

The blodye Harte in the Dowglas armes,65
Hys standerde stode on hye;
That every man myght full well knowe:
By syde stode Starres thre.

The whyte Lyon on the Ynglysh parte,
Forsoth as I yow sayne;[291]70
The Lucetts and the Cressawnts both:
The Skotts faught them agayne.[292]]

Uppon sent Andrewe lowde cane they crye,
And thrysse they schowte on hyght,
And syne marked them one owr Ynglysshe men,75
As I have tolde yow ryght.

Sent George the bryght owr ladyes knyght,
To name they[293] were full fayne,
Owr Ynglysshe men they cryde on hyght,
And thrysse the schowtte agayne.80

Wyth that scharpe arowes bygan to flee,
I tell yow in sertayne;
Men of armes byganne to joyne;
Many a dowghty man was ther slayne.

The Percy and the Dowglas mette,85
That ether of other was fayne;
They schapped[294] together, whyll that the swette,
With swords of fyne Collayne;[295]

Tyll the bloode from ther bassonetts[296] ranne,
As the roke[297] doth in the rayne.90
Yelde the to me, sayd the Dowglàs,
Or ells thow schalt be slayne:

For I see, by thy bryght bassonet,
Thow arte sum man of myght;

And so I do by thy burnysshed brande,[298]95
Thow art an yerle, or ells a knyght.[299]

By my good faythe, sayd the noble Percy,
Now haste thou rede[300] full ryght,
Yet wyll I never yelde me to the,
Whyll I may stonde and fyght.100

They swapped together, whyll that they swette,
Wyth swordes scharpe and long;
Ych on other so faste they beette,
Tyll ther helmes cam in peyses dowyn.

The Percy was a man of strenghth,105
I tell yow in thys stounde,[301]
He smote the Dowglas at the swordes length,
That he felle to the growynde.

The sworde was scharpe and sore can byte,
I tell yow in sertayne;110
To the harte, he cowde hym smyte,
Thus was the Dowglas slayne.

The stonderds stode styll on eke syde,
With many a grevous grone;
Ther the fowght the day, and all the nyght,115
And many a dowghty man was 'slone.'[302]

Ther was no freke,[303] that ther wolde flye,
But styffly in stowre[304] can stond,
Ychone[305] hewyng on other whyll they myght drye,[306]
Wyth many a bayllefull bronde.120

Ther was slayne upon the Skottes syde,
For soth and sertenly,
Syr James a Dowglas ther was slayne,
That daye that he cowde dye.[307]

The yerlle Mentaye of he was slayne,125
Grysely[308] groned uppon the growynd;
Syr Davy Scotte, Syr Walter Steward,
Syr 'John' of Agurstonne.[309]

Syr Charlles Morrey in that place,
That never a fote wold flye;130
Sir Hughe Maxwell, a lorde he was,
With the Dowglas dyd he dye.

Ther was slayne upon the Skottes syde,
For soth[310] as I yow saye,
Of fowre and forty thowsande Scotts135
Went but eyghtene awaye.

Ther was slayne upon the Ynglysshe syde,
For soth and sertenlye,
A gentell knyght, Sir John Fitz-hughe,
Yt was the more petye.140

Syr James Harebotell ther was slayne,
For hym ther hartes were sore,
The gentyll 'Lovelle' ther was slayne,[311]
That the Percyes standerd bore.

Ther was slayne uppon the Ynglyssh perte,145
For soth as I yow saye;
Of nyne thowsand Ynglyssh men
Fyve hondert cam awaye:

The other were slayne in the fylde,
Cryste kepe ther sowles from wo,150
Seyng ther was so fewe fryndes
Agaynst so many a foo.

Then one the morne they mayd them beeres[312]
Of byrch, and haysell graye;

Many a wydowe with wepyng teyres155
Ther makes[313] they fette[314] awaye.

Thys fraye bygan at Otterborne,
Bytwene the nyghte and the day:
Ther the Dowglas lost hys lyfe,
And the Percy was lede awaye.[315]160

Then was ther a Scottyshe prisoner tayne,
Syr Hughe Mongomery was hys name,
For soth as I yow saye,
He borowed the Percy home agayne.[316]

Now let us all for the Percy praye[317]165
To Jesu most of myght,
To bryng hys sowle to the blysse of heven,
For he was a gentyll knyght.

⁂ Most of the names in the two preceding ballads are found to
have belonged to families of distinction in the North, as may be
made appear from authentic records. Thus in

THE ANCIENT BALLAD OF CHEVY CHASE.

[S econd Fit, ver. 112. Agerstone.] The family of Haggerston of
Haggerston, near Berwick, has been seated there for many
centuries, and still remains. Thomas Haggerston was among
the commissioners returned for Northumberland in 12 Hen.
6, 1433. (Fuller's Worthies, p. 310.) The head of this family
at present is Sir Thomas Haggerston, Bart., of Haggerston above-
mentioned.

N.B. The name is spelt Agerstone, as in the text, in Leland's Itinerary, vol.
vii. p. 54.[318]
[Ver. 113. Hartly.] Hartley is a village near the sea in the barony of
Tinemouth, about 7 m. from North-Shields. It probably gave name to a
family of note at that time.
[Ver. 114. Hearone.] This family, one of the most ancient, was long of great
consideration in Northumberland. Haddeston, the Caput Baroniæ of Heron,
was their ancient residence. It descended 25 Edw. I. to the heir general
Emiline Heron, afterwards Baroness Darcy.—Ford, &c., and Bockenfield
(in com. eodem) went at the same time to Roger Heron, the heir male;
whose descendants were summoned to Parliament: Sir William Heron of
Ford Castle being summoned 44 Edw. III.—Ford Castle hath descended by
heirs general to the family of Delaval (mentioned in the next article).—
Robert Heron, Esq., who died at Newark in 1753, (father of the Right Hon.
Sir Richard Heron, Bart.) was heir male of the Herons of Bockenfield, a
younger branch of this family.—Sir Thomas Heron Middleton, Bart., is heir
male of the Herons of Chip-Chase, another branch of the Herons of Ford
Castle.
[Ver. 115. Lovele.] Joh. de Lavale, miles, was sheriff of Northumberland 34
Hen. VIII. Joh. de Lavele, mil. in the 1 Edw. VI. and afterwards. (Fuller,
313.) In Nicholson this name is spelt Da Lovel, p. 304. This seems to be the
ancient family of Delaval, of Seaton Delaval, in Northumberland, whose
ancestor was one of the 25 Barons appointed to be guardians of Magna
Charta.[319]
[Ver. 117. Rugbè.] The ancient family of Rokeby, in Yorkshire, seems to be
here intended. In Thoresby's Ducat. Leod., p. 253, fol., is a genealogy of
this house, by which it appears that the head of the family, about the time
when this ballad was written, was Sir Ralph Rokeby, Knt., Ralph being a
common name of the Rokebys.[320]
[Ver. 119. Wetharrington.] Rog. de Widrington was sheriff of
Northumberland in 36 of Edw. III. (Fuller, p. 311.)—Joh. de Widrington in
11 of Hen. IV. and many others of the same name afterwards.—See also
Nicholson, p. 331.—Of this family was the late Lord Witherington.

[Ver. 124. Mongonberry.] Sir Hugh Montgomery was son of John Lord
Montgomery, the lineal ancestor of the present Earl of Eglington.
[Ver. 125. Lwdale.] The ancient family of the Liddels were originally from
Scotland, where they were lords of Liddel Castle, and of the Barony of Buff.
(Vid. Collins's Peerage.) The head of this family is the present Lord
Ravensworth, of Ravensworth Castle, in the county of Durham.[321]

IN THE BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE.

[Ver. 101. Mentaye.] At the time of this battle the Earldom of Menteith was
possessed by Robert Stewart, Earl of Fife, third son of K. Robert II., who,
according to Buchanan, commanded the Scots that entered by Carlisle. But
our minstrel had probably an eye to the family of Graham, who had this
earldom when the ballad was written. See Douglas's Peerage of Scotland,
1764, fol.
[Ver. 103. Huntleye.] This shews this ballad was not composed before 1449;
for in that year Alexander Lord of Gordon and Huntley, was created Earl of
Huntley, by K. James II.
[Ver. 105. Bowghan.] The Earl of Buchan at that time was Alexander
Stewart, fourth son of K. Robert II.
[Ver. 107. Jhonstone—Maxwell.] These two families of Johnstone Lord of
Johnston, and Maxwell Lord of Maxwell, were always very powerful on the
borders. Of the former family was Johnston Marquis of Annandale: of the
latter was Maxwell Earl of Nithsdale. I cannot find that any chief of this
family was named Sir Hugh; but Sir Herbert Maxwell was about this time
much distinguished. (See Doug.) This might have been originally written
Sir H. Maxwell, and by transcribers converted into Sir Hugh. So above, in
No. I. v. 90. Richard is contracted into Ric.
[Ver. 109. Swintone.] i. e. The Laird of Swintone; a small village within the
Scottish border, 3 miles from Norham. This family still subsists, and is very
ancient.
[Ver. 111. Scotte.] The illustrious family of Scot, ancestors of the Duke of
Buccleugh, always made a great figure on the borders. Sir Walter Scot was
at the head of this family when the battle was fought; but his great-

grandson, Sir David Scot, was the hero of that house when the ballad was
written.
[Ibid. Stewarde.] The person here designed was probably Sir Walter
Stewart, Lord of Dalswinton and Gairlies, who was eminent at that time.
(See Doug.) From him is descended the present Earl of Galloway.
[Ver. 112. Agurstonne.] The seat of this family was sometimes subject to the
kings of Scotland. Thus Richardus Haggerstoun, miles, is one of the
Scottish knights who signed a treaty with the English in 1249, temp. Hen.
III. (Nicholson, p. 2, note).—It was the fate of many parts of
Northumberland often to change their masters, according as the Scottish or
English arms prevailed.
[Ver. 129. Murrey.] The person here meant was probably Sir Charles
Murray of Cockpoole, who flourished at that time, and was ancestor of the
Murrays sometime Earls of Annandale. See Doug. Peerage.
[Ver. 139. Fitz-hughe.] Dugdale (in his Baron. v. i. p. 403) informs us that
John, son of Henry Lord Fitzhugh, was killed at the battle of Otterbourne.
This was a Northumberland family. Vid. Dugd. p. 403, col. 1, and
Nicholson, pp. 33, 60.
[Ver. 141. Harbotle.] Harbottle is a village upon the river Coquet, about 10
m. west of Rothbury. The family of Harbottle was once considerable in
Northumberland. (See Fuller, pp. 312, 313.) A daughter of Guischard
Harbottle, Esq., married Sir Thomas Percy, Knt., son of Henry the fifth,—
and father of Thomas seventh, Earls of Northumberland.

FOOTNOTES:

[212] Froissart speaks of both parties (consisting in all of more
than 40,000 men) as entering England at the same time: but the
greater part by way of Carlisle.
[213] And, according to the ballad, that part of Northumberland
called Bamboroughshire; a large tract of land so named from the
town and castle of Bamborough; formerly the residence of the
Northumbrian kings.
[214] This circumstance is omitted in the ballad. Hotspur and
Douglas were two young warriors much of the same age.

[215] Froissart says the English exceeded the Scots in number
three to one, but that these had the advantage of the ground, and
were also fresh from sleep, while the English were greatly
fatigued with their previous march.
[216] By Henry L. Percy, according to this ballad, and our old
English historians, as Stow, Speed, &c., but borne down by
numbers, if we may believe Froissart.
[217] Hotspur (after a very sharp conflict) was taken prisoner by
John, Lord Montgomery, whose eldest son, Sir Hugh, was slain
in the same action with an arrow, according to Crawford's
Peerage (and seems also to be alluded to in the foregoing ballad,
p. 31), but taken prisoner and exchanged for Hotspur, according
to this ballad.
[218] Froissart (according to the English translation) says he had
his account from two squires of England, and from a knight and
squire of Scotland, soon after the battle.
[219] So in Langham's Letter concerning Queen Elizabeth's
entertainment at Killingworth Castle, 1575, 12o. p. 61. "Heer
was no ho in devout drinkyng."
[220] i. e. They scorn to take the advantage, or to keep them
lingering in long captivity.
[221] The notice of this MS. I must acknowledge with many
other obligations, owing to the friendship of Thomas Tyrwhitt,
Esq., late Clerk of the House of Commons.
[222] Ver. 2. winn their heaye. Harl. MS. This is the
Northumberland phrase to this day: by which they always
express "getting in their hay."
[223] [prepared.]
[224] [earl.]
[225] Robert Stuart, second son of K. Robert II.
[226] i. e. "over Solway frith." This evidently refers to the other
division of the Scottish army, which came in by way of Carlisle.
Bowynd, or Bounde him; i. e. hied him.
[227] They: sc. the Earl of Douglas and his party. The several
stations here mentioned are well-known places in
Northumberland. Ottercap-hill is in the parish of Kirk
Whelpington, in Tynedale-ward. Rodeliffe (or as it is more
usually pronounced Rodeley) Cragge is a noted cliff near
Rodeley, a small village in the parish of Hartburn, in Morpeth-
ward. It lies south-east of Ottercap, and has, within these few
years, been distinguished by a small tower erected by Sir Walter
Blacket, Bart., which in Armstrong's map of Northumberland is
pompously called Rodely-castle. Green Leyton is another small
village in the same parish of Hartburn, and is south-east of

Rodeley. Both the original MSS. read here corruptly, Hoppertop
and Lynton.
[228] [stirring.]
[229] V. 12. This line is corrupt in both the MSS., viz. "Many a
styrande stage." Stags have been killed within the present
century on some of the large wastes in Northumberland.
[230] [burnt.]
[231] [pillaged.]
[232] [wrong.]
[233] [ready.]
[234] [man.]
[235] [field.]
[236] [advise.]
[237] [stoutly.]
[238] Marche-man, i. e. a scourer of the marches.
[239] [aloud.]
[240] [art.]
[241] Ver. 39. Syne seems here to mean since.
[242] [regrets.]
[243] [injury.]
[244] [the one.]
[245] Otterbourn is near the old Watling Street road, in the
parish of Elsdon. The Scots were encamped in a grassy plain
near the river Read. The place where the Scots and English
fought, is still called Battle Riggs.
[246] [roe.]
[247] Ver. 53. Roe-bucks were to be found upon the wastes not
far from Hexham in the reign of Geo. I.—Whitfield, Esq., of
Whitfield, is said to have destroyed the last of them.
[248] [falcon and pheasant.]
[249] [woods on high.]
[250] V. 56. hye, MSS.
[251] [come unto thee.]
[252] [truth.]
[253] [pitched.]
[254] [booty.]
[255] [then.]

[256] [hovered.]
[257] Ver. 77. upon the best bent. MS.
[258] [spy.]
[259] [aware.]
[260] [spurred.]
[261] [enthroned.]
[262] [joy.]
[263] [broad.]
[264] [strong.]
[265] [force.]
[266] [peace.]
[267] The Earl of Menteith.
[268] [uncle.]
[269] [van.]
[270] [cautious.]
[271] The Lord Buchan.
[272] [ready.]
[273] Ver. 1, 13. Pearcy, all MSS.
[274] [promised or engaged.]
[275] V. 4. I will hold to what I have promised.
[276] Ver. 10. hye, MSS.
[277] He probably magnifies his strength to induce him to
surrender.
[278] V. 11. the one, MS.
[279] All that follows, included in brackets, was not in the first
edition.
[280] [let go.]
[281] [royal.]
[282] [rout.]
[283] [deceive.]
[284] [eye.]
[285] [break my word.]
[286] [rather.]
[287] [flayed?]
[288] [great maid.]

[289] [reward.]
[290] [commit himself to God by a sign.]
[291] [say to you.]
[292] The ancient arms of Douglas are pretty accurately
emblazoned in the former stanza, and if the readings were, The
crowned harte, and Above stode starres thre, it would be
minutely exact at this day. As for the Percy family, one of their
ancient badges of cognizances was a whyte lyon statant, and the
silver crescent continues to be used by them to this day. They
also give three luces argent for one of their quarters.
[293] i. e. the English.
[294] [swapped? i.e. smote.]
[295] [Cologne steel.]
[296] [helmets.]
[297] [steam.]
[298] [sword.]
[299] Being all in armour he could not know him.
[300] [guessed.]
[301] [time.]
[302] Ver. 116. slayne. MSS.
[303] [man.]
[304] [fight.]
[305] [each one.]
[306] [endure.]
[307] V. 124, i.e. He died that day.
[308] [dreadfully.]
[309] Our old minstrel repeats these names, as Homer and Virgil
do those of their heroes:

"——fortemque Gyam, fortemque Cloanthum," &c. &c.

Both the MSS. read here, "Sir James," but see above, Pt. I., ver.
112.
[310] [truth.]
[311] Ver. 143. Covelle. MS. For the names in this page, see the
remarks at the end of this ballad.
[312] V. 153. one, i.e. on.
[313] [mates.]
[314] [fetch.]

[315] sc. captive.
[316] In the Cotton MS. is the following note on ver. 164, in an
ancient hand:—
"Syr Hewe Mongomery takyn prizonar, was delyvered for the
restorynge of Perssy."
[317] Ver. 165. Percyes.—Harl. MS.
[318] [Sir Walter Scott suggests that the person here alluded to
was one of the Rutherfords, barons of Edgerstane or Edgerston,
who at this time were retainers of the house of Douglas, but in
Chevy Chase Sir John of Agerstone was on Percy's side.]
[319] [This is a misreading, as the person intended was a
Lumley.]
[320] Sir W. Scott supposes "Sir Raffe the ryche Rugbè" to be
Sir Ralph Neville of Raby Castle, son of the first Earl of
Westmoreland, and cousin-german to Hotspur. He is called Sir
Ralph Raby in the modern version of the ballad.
[321] More probably the Sir David Lambwell of the modern
version.

III.

THE JEW'S DAUGHTER,

A Scottish Ballad,
I s founded upon the supposed practice of the Jews in crucifying
or otherwise murdering Christian children, out of hatred to the
religion of their parents: a practice which has been always
alledged in excuse for the cruelties exercised upon that
wretched people, but which probably never happened in a
single instance. For, if we consider, on the one hand, the ignorance and
superstition of the times when such stories took their rise, the virulent
prejudices of the monks who record them, and the eagerness with which
they would be catched up by the barbarous populace as a pretence for
plunder; on the other hand, the great danger incurred by the perpetrators,
and the inadequate motives they could have to excite them to a crime of so

much horror; we may reasonably conclude the whole charge to be
groundless and malicious.
The following ballad is probably built upon some Italian legend, and bears a
great resemblance to the Prioresse's Tale in Chaucer: the poet seems also to
have had an eye to the known story of Hugh of Lincoln, a child said to have
been there murdered by the Jews in the reign of Henry III. The conclusion
of this ballad appears to be wanting: what it probably contained may be
seen in Chaucer. As for Mirry-land Toun, it is probably a corruption of
Milan (called by the Dutch Meylandt) Town: the Pa is evidently the river
Po; although the Adige, not the Po, runs through Milan.
Printed from a MS. copy sent from Scotland.

[This ballad, which is also known under the title of Sir Hugh of
Lincoln, was at one time so widely popular that it is preserved in
six different versions, besides fragments, and has originated a
literature of its own. Mons. Francisque Michel discovered a
Norman-French version in the Royal Library at Paris, which is
supposed to date back to the period when the murder of Sir
Hugh was to have been committed. This was first published in
the year 1834 under the title, "Hugues de Lincoln: Recueil de
Ballades Anglo-Normande et Ecossoises relatives au meurtre de
cet enfant commis par les Juifs en MCCLV." The Rev. Dr. A.
Hume communicated a very full paper on the subject of the
tradition to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool,
on November 13, 1848, which is published in the Proceedings
(No. 5), and Mr. J. O. Halliwell printed, in 1849, a small volume
containing "Ballads and Poems respecting Hugh of Lincoln." In
the Athenæum for Dec. 15, 1849, there is a condemnatory
review of Dr. Hume's work, to which the reviewer has added
some valuable information of his own. Percy's remark that
Mirry-land town is a corruption of Milan town, and Pa of the
river Po, seems far-fetched, as there is no reason for supposing
that the ballad was in any way connected with Italy. Jamieson's
version reads Merry Lincoln, and in Motherwell's the scene is

changed to Maitland town. In some parts of England the ballad
has degenerated into a sort of nursery rhyme, the
Northamptonshire version reading "Merry Scotland," and the
Shropshire one, "Merry-cock land." Mr. J. H. Dixon suggests
mere-land town, from the mere or fen lakes, and reads wa' for
Pa'. (Notes and Queries, 3rd Series, vol. ix. p. 30, note.)
Miss Agnes Strickland communicated the following lines
obtained from oral tradition at Godalming, in Surrey, to Mr.
Halliwell, who printed them in his tract:—

"He toss'd the ball so high, so high,
He toss'd the ball so low;
He toss'd the ball in the Jew's garden,
And the Jews were all below.

"Oh! then out came the Jew's daughter,
She was dressèd all in green:
'Come hither, come hither, my sweet pretty fellow,
And fetch your ball again.'"

The tradition upon which this ballad is founded—that the Jews
use human blood in their preparation for the Passover, and are in
the habit of kidnapping and butchering Christian children for the
purpose—is very widely spread and of great antiquity.
Eisenmenger[322] refers to a case which occurred at Inmestar, in
Syria, so early as the year 419, but the earliest case recorded as
having occurred in Europe is that of William of Norwich, in
1137. The following is a translation from a passage in the
Peterborough Chronicle (which ends with the death of Stephen
and the accession of Henry the Second), relating to this
remarkable superstition:—"Now we will say something of what
happened in King Stephen's time. In his time the Jews of
Norwich bought a Christian child before Easter, and tortured
him with all the same torturing that our Lord was tortured. And
on Good Friday (lang fridæi) they hanged him on a cross, for
our Lord's love; and afterwards buried him. They thought
(wenden) that it should be concealed, but our Lord showed that

he was a holy martyr (m̃ r), and the monks took him and buried
him solemnly in the monastery (minst). And he maketh through
our Lord wonderful and manifold miracles. And he was called
Saint William." Mr. Earle, in his note to this passage,[323] says
that "S. William seems to have retained his celebrity down to the
time of the Reformation, at least in Norfolk. In Loddon church,
which is advanced perpendicular of about 1500, there is a
painting of his crucifixion on a panel of the rood-screen, still in
fair preservation."
St. William's fame, however, was eclipsed in other parts of
England by that of Sir Hugh of Lincoln, whose death was
celebrated by historians and poets. Henry III. being often in
want of money, was glad to take any opportunity of extorting it
from the unfortunate Jews, and in 1255 his exchequer
particularly required replenishing on account of the expected
arrival in England of his son Edward's newly married wife,
Eleanor of Castile. In this year a young boy was murdered, and,
opportunely for the king, the crime was charged to the Jews. It
was asserted that the child had been stolen, fattened on bread
and milk for ten days, and crucified with all the cruelties and
insults of Christ's passion, in the presence of all the Jews in
England, who had been summoned to Lincoln for the purpose.
The supposed criminals were brought to justice, and the king's
commission for the trial, and the warrant to sell the goods of the
several Jews who were found guilty, are still preserved. The Jew
into whose house the child had gone to play, tempted by the
promise of his life, made a full confession, and threw the guilt
upon his brethren. Ninety-one Jews of Lincoln were sent to
London as accomplices, and thrown into dungeons. Eighteen of
the richest were hanged on a gallows, and twenty more
imprisoned in the Tower of London. The king was enriched by
the spoils, and the clergy of Lincoln did not lose their
opportunity, for the minster was made famous by the possession
of the martyr's tomb. Dean Milman, in relating these
circumstances, says: "Great part of the story refutes itself, but I
have already admitted the possibility that among the ignorant
and fanatic Jews there might be some who, exasperated by the

constant repetition of the charge, might brood over it so long, as
at length to be tempted to its perpetration."[324] Any such
explanation as this, however, does not seem necessary, for the
wide-spread existence of the superstition goes far to prove the
entire falsehood at least of the later cases, and the story of Sir
Hugh was but a revival of that of St. William. It is worth
mentioning, in passing, that this calumny was in fact a recoil
upon the Jews themselves of a weapon they had used against the
Christians. As early as the third century they affirmed that
Christians in celebrating their mysteries used to kill a child and
eat its flesh. Pagans probably learnt the calumny from the Jews,
and also charged the Christians with eating children.
The whole proceedings in the case of Sir Hugh are chronicled
by Matthew Paris, who was in high favour with Henry III., and
from his pages the account is transferred to the Chronicles of
Grafton, Fabyan, and Holinshed. Chaucer most probably
consulted the same source when he included the story in his
Canterbury Tales, although he shifts the scene to Asia, and
makes his Prioress say, when ending her tale with a reference to
Sir Hugh:—

"O younge Hughe of Lyncoln; slayn also
With cursed Jewes (as it is notable,
For it nys but a litel while ago)."

Tyrwhitt, in his edition of Chaucer, notes that he found in the
first four months of the Acta Sanctorum of Bollandus the names
of five children canonized as having been murdered by the Jews,
and he supposes that the remaining eight months would furnish
at least as many more. Tyrwhitt accepts Percy's interpretation of
Mirry-land as a corruption of the name of Milan, and under this
erroneous impression he suggests that the real occasion of the
ballad may have been the murder of the boy Simon, at Trent, in
1475.[325]
The superstition upon which all these stories are founded is said
still to prevail among the ignorant members of the Greek

Church, and it was revived at Damascus in 1840 in consequence
of the disappearance of a priest named Thomaso. Two or three
Jews were put to death before a proper judicial examination
could be made, and the popular fury was so excited that severe
persecution extended through a large part of the Turkish empire.
Sir Moses Montefiore visited the various localities with the
object of obtaining redress for his people, and he was successful.
On November 6, 1840, a firman for the protection of the Jews
was given at Constantinople, which contained the following
passage:—"An ancient prejudice prevailed against the Jews. The
ignorant believed that the Jews were accustomed to sacrifice a
human being, to make use of his blood at the Passover. In
consequence of this opinion the Jews of Damascus and Rhodes,
who are subjects of our empire, have been persecuted by other
nations.... But a short time has elapsed since some Jews
dwelling in the isle of Rhodes were brought from thence to
Constantinople, where they had been tried and judged according
to the new regulations, and their innocence of the accusations
made against them fully proved." The calumny, however, was
again raised in October, 1847, and the Jews were in imminent
peril when the missing boy, who had been staying at Baalbec,
reappeared in good health.
Within the last few years the Greek Patriarch at Constantinople
has issued a pastoral letter, in which he points out the
wickedness of the Christian persecution of the Jews. He says:
"Superstition is a detestable thing. Almost all the Christian
nations of the East have taken up the extravagant idea that the
Israelites enjoy shedding Christian blood, either to obtain
thereby a blessing from heaven, or to gratify their national
rancour against Christ. Hence conflicts and disturbances break
out, by which the social harmony between the dwellers in the
same land, yea, the same fatherland, is disturbed. Thus a report
was lately spread of the abduction of little Christian children in
order to give a pretext for suspicion. We on our side abhor such
lying fancies; we regard them as the superstitions of men of
weak faith and narrow minds; and we disavow them officially."

The superstition, however, still lives on, and according to the
Levant Herald (1874), the Mahometans are beginning to fall
into the delusion that the sacrificial knife is applied by the Jews
to young Turks as well as to young Christians.]

The rain rins doun through Mirry-land toune,
Sae dois it doune the Pa:
Sae dois the lads of Mirry-land toune,
Quhan they play at the ba'.[326]

Than out and cam the Jewis dochtèr,5
Said, Will ye cum in and dine?
"I winnae cum in, I cannae cum in,
Without my play-feres[327] nine."

Scho[328] powd[329] an apple reid and white
To intice the yong thing in:10
Scho powd an apple white and reid,
And that the sweit bairne did win.

And scho has taine out a little pen-knife,
And low down by her gair,[330]
Scho has twin'd[331] the yong thing and his life;15
A word he nevir spak mair.

And out and cam the thick thick bluid,
And out and cam the thin;
And out and cam the bonny herts bluid:
Thair was nae life left in.20

Scho laid him on a dressing borde,
And drest him like a swine,
And laughing said, Gae nou and pley
With your sweit play-feres nine.

Scho rowd[332] him in a cake of lead,25
Bade him lie stil and sleip.
Scho cast him in a deip draw-well,
Was fifty fadom deip.

Quhan bells wer rung, and mass was sung,
And every lady went hame:30
Than ilka lady had her yong sonne,
Bot lady Helen had nane.

Scho rowd hir mantil hir about,
And sair sair gan she weip:
And she ran into the Jewis castèl,35
Quhan they wer all asleip.

My bonny sir Hew, my pretty sir Hew,
I pray thee to me speik.
"O lady, rinn to the deip draw-well,
Gin[333] ye your sonne wad seik."40

Lady Helen ran to the deip draw-well,
And knelt upon her kne:
My bonny sir Hew, an[334] ye be here,
I pray thee speik to me.

"The lead is wondrous heavy, mither,45
The well is wondrous deip,
A keen pen-knife sticks in my hert,
A word I dounae[335] speik.

Gae hame, gae hame, my mither deir,
Fetch me my windling sheet,50
And at the back o' Mirry-land toun,

Its thair we twa fall meet."
* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[322] Entdecktes Judenthum, vol. ii. p. 220.
[323] Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, 1865, p. 371.
[324] History of the Jews, ed. 1863, vol. iii. p. 249.
[325] Mr. Hales points out to me the following reference to the
superstition in Marlowe's Jew of Malta, act iii.:—

"Friar Jacomo. Why, what has he done?
Friar Barnardine. A thing that makes me tremble to unfold.
Jac. What, has he crucified a child?
Bar. No, but a worse thing; 'twas told me in shrift;
Thou know'st 'tis death, an if it be reveal'd."

Dyce in his note quotes from Reed a reference to Tovey's Anglio
Judaica, where instances of such crucifixion are given.
[326] [ball.]
[327] [play-fellows.]
[328] [she.]
[329] [pulled.]
[330] [dress.]
[331] [parted in two.]
[332] [she rolled.]
[333] [if.]
[334] [if.]
[335] [cannot.]

IV.

SIR CAULINE.

T his old romantic tale was preserved in the Editor's folio MS.
but in so very defective and mutilated a condition (not from
any chasm in the MS. but from great omission in the
transcript, probably copied from the faulty recitation of some
illiterate minstrell), and the whole appeared so far short of the
perfection it seemed to deserve, that the Editor was tempted to add several
stanzas in the first part, and still more in the second, to connect and
compleat the story in the manner which appeared to him most interesting
and affecting.
There is something peculiar in the metre of this old ballad: it is not unusual
to meet with redundant stanzas of six lines; but the occasional insertion of a
double third or fourth line, as ver. 31, &c. is an irregularity I do not
remember to have seen elsewhere.
It may be proper to inform the reader before he comes to Pt. ii. v. 110, 111,
that the Round Table was not peculiar to the reign of K. Arthur, but was
common in all the ages of chivalry. The proclaiming a great turnament
(probably with some peculiar solemnities) was called "holding a Round
Table." Dugdale tells us, that the great baron Roger de Mortimer "having
procured the honour of knighthood to be conferred 'on his three sons' by K.
Edw. I. he, at his own costs, caused a tourneament to be held at Kenilworth;
where he sumptuously entertained an hundred knights, and as many ladies,
for three days; the like whereof was never before in England; and there
began the Round Table, (so called by reason that the place wherein they
practised those feats was environed with a strong wall made in a round
form:) And upon the fourth day, the golden lion, in sign of triumph, being
yielded to him; he carried it (with all the company) to Warwick."—It may
further be added, that Matthew Paris frequently calls justs and turnaments
Hastiludia Mensæ Rotundæ.
As to what will be observed in this ballad of the art of healing being
practised by a young princess; it is no more than what is usual in all the old
romances, and was conformable to real manners: it being a practice derived
from the earliest times among all the Gothic and Celtic nations, for women,
even of the highest rank, to exercise the art of surgery. In the Northern
Chronicles we always find the young damsels stanching the wounds of their
lovers, and the wives those of their husbands.[336] And even so late as the
time of Q. Elizabeth, it is mentioned among the accomplishments of the

ladies of her court, that the "eldest of them are skilful in surgery." See
Harrison's Description of England, prefixed to Hollinshed's Chronicle, &c.

[This story of Sir Cauline furnishes one of the most flagrant
instances of Percy's manipulation of his authorities. In the
following poem all the verses which are due to Percy's invention
are placed between brackets, but the whole has been so much
altered by him that it has been found necessary to reprint the
original from the folio MS. at the end in order that readers may
compare the two. Percy put into his version several new
incidents and altered the ending, by which means he was able to
dilute the 201 lines of the MS. copy into 392 of his own. There
was no necessity for this perversion of the original, because the
story is there complete, and moreover Percy did not sufficiently
indicate the great changes he had made, for although nearly
every verse is altered he only noted one trivial difference of
reading, viz. aukeward for backward (v. 109).
Motherwell reprinted this ballad in his Minstrelsy, and in his
prefatory note he made the following shrewd guess, which we
now know to be a correct one:—"We suspect too that the ancient
ballad had a less melancholy catastrophe, and that the brave Syr
Cauline, after his combat with the 'hend Soldan' derived as much
benefit from the leechcraft of fair Cristabelle as he did after
winning the Eldridge sword." Professor Child has expressed the
same view in his note to the ballad.
Buchan printed a ballad entitled King Malcolm and Sir Colvin,
which is more like the original than Percy's version, but Mr.
Hales is of opinion that this was one of that collector's
fabrications.]

THE FIRST PART.

[In Ireland, ferr over the sea,
There dwelleth a bonnye kinge;
And with him a yong and comlye knighte,
Men call him syr Caulìne.

The kinge had a ladye to his daughter,5
In fashyon she hath no peere;
And princely wightes that ladye wooed
To be theyr wedded feere.[337]]

Syr Cauline loveth her best of all,
But nothing durst he saye;10
Ne descreeve[338] his counsayl to no man,
But deerlye he lovde this may.[339]

Till on a daye it so beffell,
Great dill[340] to him was dight;[341]
The maydens love removde his mynd,15
To care-bed went the knighte.

One while he spred his armes him fro,
One while he spred them nye:
And aye! but I winne that ladyes love,
For dole[342] now I mun[343] dye.20

And whan our parish-masse was done,
Our kinge was bowne[344] to dyne:
He sayes, Where is syr Cauline,
That is wont to serve the wyne?

Then aunswerde him a courteous knighte,25
And fast his handes gan wringe:

Sir Cauline is sicke, and like to dye
Without a good leechìnge.[345]

Fetche me downe my daughter deere,
She is a leeche fulle fine:30
Goe take him doughe,[346] and the baken bread,
And serve him with the wyne soe red;
Lothe I were him to tine.[347]

Fair Christabelle to his chaumber goes,
Her maydens followyng nye:35
O well, she sayth, how doth my lord?
O sicke, thou fayr ladyè.

Nowe ryse up wightlye,[348] man, for shame,
Never lye soe cowardlee;
For it is told in my fathers halle,40
You dye for love of mee.

Fayre ladye, it is for your love
That all this dill I drye:[349]
For if you wold comfort me with a kisse,
Then were I brought from bale to blisse,45
No lenger wold I lye.

[Sir knighte, my father is a kinge,
I am his onlye heire;
Alas! and well you knowe, syr knighte,
I never can be youre fere.50

O ladye, thou art a kinges daughtèr,
And I am not thy peere,
But let me doe some deedes of armes
To be your bacheleere.[350]

Some deedes of armes if thou wilt doe,55
My bacheleere to bee,

(But ever and aye my heart wold rue,
Giff[351] harm shold happe to thee,)]

Upon Eldridge[352] hill there groweth a thorne,
Upon the mores brodinge;[353]60
And dare ye, syr knighte, wake there all nighte
Until the fayre mornìnge?

For the Eldridge knighte, so mickle[354] of mighte,
Will examine you beforne:[355]
And never man bare life awaye,65
But he did him scath[356] and scorne.

[That knighte he is a foul paynìm,[357]
And large of limb and bone;
And but if heaven may be thy speede,
Thy life it is but gone.70

Nowe on the Eldridge hilles Ile walke,[358]
For thy sake, fair ladìe;]
And He either bring you a ready tokèn,
Or He never more you see

The lady is gone to her own chaumbère,75
Her maydens following bright:
[Syr Cauline lope[359] from care-bed soone,
And to the Eldridge hills is gone,]
For to wake there all night.

Unto midnight, that the moone did rise,80
He walked up and downe;
Then a lightsome bugle heard he blowe
Over the bents[360] soe browne;
Quoth hee, If cryance come till[361] my heart,
I am ffar from any good towne.85

And soone he spyde on the mores so broad,

A furyous wight and fell;[362]
A ladye bright his brydle led,
Clad in a fayre kyrtèll:
And soe fast he called on syr Caulìne,90
O man, I rede[363] thee flye,
For 'but' if cryance comes till thy heart,
I weene but thou mun dye.

He sayth, 'No' cryance comes till my heart,
Nor, in faith, I wyll not flee;95
For, cause thou minged[364] not Christ before,
The less me dreadeth thee.

[The Eldridge knighte, he pricked his steed;
Syr Cauline bold abode:
Then either shooke his trustye speare,]100
And the timber these two children[365] bare
Soe soone in sunder slode.[366]

Then tooke they out theyr two good swordes,
And layden[367] on full faste,
[Till helme and hawberke, mail and sheelde,105
They all were well-nye brast.[368]]

The Eldridge knight was mickle of might,
And stiffe in stower[369] did stande,
But syr Cauline with a 'backward' stroke,[370]
He smote off his right hand;110
That soone he with paine and lacke of bloud
Fell downe on that lay-land.[371]

[Then up syr Cauline lift his brande
All over his head so hye:
And here I sweare by the holy roode,115
Nowe, caytiffe, thou shalt dye.

Then up and came that ladye brighte,

Fast wringing of her hande:
For the maydens love, that most you love,
Withold that deadlye brande:120

For the maydens love, that most you love,
Now smyte no more I praye;
And aye whatever thou wilt, my lord,
He shall thy hests[372] obaye.

Now sweare to mee, thou Eldridge knighte,125
And here on this lay-land,
That thou wilt believe on Christ his laye,[373]
And therto plight thy hand:

And that thou never on Eldridge come
To sporte, gamon,[374] or playe:130
And that thou here give up thy armes
Until thy dying daye.

The Eldridge knighte gave up his armes
With many a sorrowfulle sighe;
And sware to obey syr Caulines hest,135
Till the tyme that he shold dye.]

And he then up and the Eldridge knighte
Sett him in his saddle anone,
And the Eldridge knighte and his ladye
To theyr castle are they gone.140

[Then he tooke up the bloudy hand,
That was so large of bone,
And on it he founde five ringes of gold
Of knightes that had be slone.[375]

Then he tooke up the Eldridge sworde,145
As hard as any flint:
And he tooke off those ringès five,
As bright as fyre and brent.

Home then pricked[376] syr Cauline
As light as leafe on tree:150
I-wys he neither stint ne blanne,[377]
Till he his ladye see.

Then downe he knelt upon his knee
Before that lady gay:
O ladye, I have bin on the Eldridge hills:155
These tokens I bring away.

Now welcome, welcome, syr Caulìne,
Thrice welcome unto mee,
For now I perceive thou art a true knighte,
Of valour bolde and free.160

O ladye, I am thy own true knighte,
Thy hests for to obaye:
And mought I hope to winne thy love!—
Ne more his tonge colde say.

The ladye blushed scarlette redde,165
And fette[378] a gentill sighe:
Alas! syr knight, how may this bee,
For my degree's soe highe?

But sith thou hast hight,[379] thou comely youth,
To be my batchilere,170
Ile promise if thee I may not wedde
I will have none other fere.[380]

Then shee held forthe her lilly-white hand
Towards that knighte so free;
He gave to it one gentill kisse,175
His heart was brought from bale to blisse,
The teares sterte[381] from his ee.

But keep my counsayl, syr Caulìne,

Ne let no man it knowe;
For and ever my father sholde it ken,180
I wot he wolde us sloe.[382]

From that daye forthe that ladye fayre
Lovde syr Caulìne the knighte:
From that daye forthe he only joyde
Whan shee was in his sight.185

Yea and oftentimes they mette
Within a fayre arbòure,
Where they in love and sweet daliaunce
Past manye a pleasaunt houre.]

⁂ In this conclusion of the First Part, and at the beginning of
the Second, the reader will observe a resemblance to the story of
Sigismunda and Guiscard, as told by Boccace and Dryden. See
the latter's description of the lovers meeting in the cave; and
those beautiful lines, which contain a reflection so like this of
our poet, "everye white," &c., viz.:

"But as extremes are short of ill and good,
And tides at highest mark regorge their flood;
So Fate, that could no more improve their joy,
Took a malicious pleasure to destroy
Tancred, who fondly loved," &c.

PART THE SECOND.

Everye white will have its blacke,
And everye sweete its sowre:
This founde the ladye Christabelle
In an untimely howre.

For so it befelle, as syr Caulìne5
Was with that ladye faire,
The kinge her father walked forthe
To take the evenyng aire:

And into the arboure as he went
To rest his wearye feet,10
He found his daughter and syr Caulìne
There sette in daliaunce sweet.

The kinge hee sterted forthe, i-wys,[383]
And an angrye man was hee:
Nowe, traytoure, thou shalt hange or drawe,15
And rewe shall thy ladìe.

Then forthe syr Cauline he was ledde,
And throwne in dungeon deepe:
And the ladye into a towre so hye,
There left to wayle and weepe.20

The queene she was syr Caulines friend,
And to the kinge sayd shee:
I praye you save syr Caulines life,
And let him banisht bee.

Now, dame, that traitor shall be sent25
Across the salt sea fome:

But here I will make thee a band,[384]
If ever he come within this land,
A foule deathe is his doome.

All woe-begone was that gentil knight30
To parte from his ladyè;
And many a time he sighed sore,
And cast a wistfulle eye:
Faire Christabelle, from thee to parte,
Farre lever[385] had I dye.35

Faire Christabelle, that ladye bright,
Was had forthe of the towre;
But ever shee droopeth in her minde,
As nipt by an ungentle winde
Doth some faire lillye flowre.40

And ever shee doth lament and weepe
To tint[386] her lover soe:
Syr Cauline, thou little think'st on mee,
But I will still be true.

Manye a kynge, and manye a duke,45
And lorde of high degree,
Did sue to that fayre ladye of love;
But never shee wolde them nee.[387]

When manye a daye was past and gone,
Ne comforte she colde finde,50
The kynge proclaimed a tourneament,
To cheere his daughters mind:

And there came lords, and there came knights,
Fro manye a farre countryè,
To break a spere for theyr ladyes love55
Before that faire ladyè.

And many a ladye there was sette

In purple and in palle:[388]
But faire Christabelle soe woe-begone
Was the fayrest of them all.60

Then manye a knighte was mickle of might
Before his ladye gaye;
But a stranger wight, whom no man knewe,
He wan the prize eche daye.

His acton[389] it was all of blacke,65
His hewberke,[390] and his sheelde,
Ne noe man wist whence he did come,
Ne noe man knewe where he did gone,
When they came from the feelde.

And now three days were prestlye[391] past70
In feates of chivalrye,
When lo upon the fourth mornìnge
A sorrowfulle sight they see.

A hugye giaunt stiffe and starke,
All foule of limbe and lere;[392]75
Two goggling eyen like fire farden,[393]
A mouthe from eare to eare.

Before him came a dwarffe full lowe,
That waited on his knee,
And at his backe five heads he bare,80
All wan and pale of blee.[394]

Sir, quoth the dwarffe, and louted[395] lowe,
Behold that hend[396] Soldàin!
Behold these heads I beare with me!
They are kings which he hath slain.85

The Eldridge knìght is his own cousìne,
Whom a knight of thine hath shent:[397]

And hee is come to avenge his wrong,
And to thee, all thy knightes among,
Defiance here hath sent.90

But yette he will appease his wrath
Thy daughters love to winne:
And but thou yeelde him that fayre mayd,
Thy halls and towers must brenne.[398]

Thy head, syr king, must goe with mee;95
Or else thy daughter deere;
Or else within these lists soe broad
Thou must finde him a peere.[399]

The king he turned him round aboute,
And in his heart was woe:100
Is there never a knighte of my round tablè,
This matter will undergoe?

[Is there never a knighte amongst yee all
Will fight for my daughter and mee?
Whoever will fight yon grimme soldàn,105
Right fair his meede shall bee.

For hee shall have my broad lay-lands,
And of my crowne be heyre;
And he shall winne fayre Christabelle
To be his wedded fere.110

But every knighte of his round table
Did stand both still and pale;
For whenever they lookt on the grim soldàn,
It made their hearts to quail.

All woe-begone was that fayre ladyè,115
When she sawe no helpe was nye:
She cast her thought on her owne true-love,
And the teares gusht from her eye.

Up then sterte the stranger knighte,
Sayd, Ladye, be not affrayd:120
Ile fight for thee with this grimme soldàn,
Thoughe he be unmacklye[400] made.

And if thou wilt lend me the Eldridge sworde,
That lyeth within thy bowre,
I truste in Christe for to slay this fiende125
Thoughe he be stiff in stowre.

Goe fetch him downe the Eldridge sworde,
The kinge he cryde, with speede:
Nowe heaven assist thee, courteous knighte;
My daughter is thy meede.[401]130

The gyaunt he stepped into the lists,
And sayd, Awaye, awaye:
I sweare, as I am the hend soldàn,
Thou lettest[402] me here all daye.

Then forthe the stranger knight he came135
In his blacke armoure dight:
The ladye sighed a gentle sighe,
"That this were my true knighte!"

And nowe the gyaunt and knighte be mett
Within the lists soe broad;140
And now with swordes soe sharpe of steele,
They gan to lay on load.[403]

The soldan strucke the knighte a stroke,
That made him reele asyde;
Then woe-begone was that fayre ladyè,145
And thrice she deeply sighde.

The soldan strucke a second stroke,
And made the bloude to flowe:
All pale and wan was that ladye fayre,

And thrice she wept for woe.150

The soldan strucke a third fell stroke,
Which brought the knighte on his knee:
Sad sorrow pierced that ladyes heart,
And she shriekt loud shriekings three.

The knighte he leapt upon his feete,155
All recklesse of the pain:
Quoth hee, But[404] heaven be now my speede,
Or else[405] I shall be slaine.

He grasped his sworde with mayne and mighte,
And spying a secrette part,160
He drave it into the soldan's syde,
And pierced him to the heart.

Then all the people gave a shoute,
Whan they sawe the soldan falle:
The ladye wept, and thanked Christ,165
That had reskewed her from thrall.[406]

And nowe the kinge with all his barons
Rose uppe from offe his seate,
And downe he stepped intò the listes,
That curteous knighte to greete.170

But he for payne and lacke of bloude
Was fallen intò a swounde,
And there all walteringe in his gore,
Lay lifelesse on the grounde.

Come downe, come downe, my daughter deare,175
Thou art a leeche of skille;
Farre lever[407] had I lose halfe my landes,
Than this good knighte sholde spille.[408]

Downe then steppeth that fayre ladyè,

To helpe him if she maye;180
But when she did his beavere raise,
It is my life, my lord, she sayes,
And shriekte and swound awaye.

Sir Cauline juste lifte up his eyes
When he heard his ladye crye,185
O ladye, I am thine owne true love;
For thee I wisht to dye.

Then giving her one partinge looke,
He closed his eyes in death,
Ere Christabelle, that ladye milde,190
Begane to drawe her breathe.

But when she found her comelye knighte
Indeed was dead and gone,
She layde her pale cold cheeke to his,
And thus she made her moane.195

O staye, my deare and onlye lord,
For mee thy faithfulle feere;[409]
'Tis meet that I shold followe thee,
Who hast bought my love soe deare.

Then fayntinge in a deadlye swoune,200
And with a deepe-fette[410] sighe,
That burst her gentle hearte in twayne,
Fayre Christabelle did dye.]
⁂

[T he following is the original ballad from which
Percy concocted his own. It is reprinted from
Bishop Percy's Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall,
vol. iii. p. 1.

Iesus: lord mickle of might,
that dyed ffor vs on the roode
to maintaine vs in all our right,
that loues true English blood.

ffor by a Knight I say my song,5
was bold & ffull hardye;
Sir Robert Briuse wold fforth to ffight
in-to Ireland ouer the sea;

& in that land dwells a king
which ouer all does beare the bell,10
& with him there dwelled a curteous Knight,
men call him Sir Cawline.

And he hath a Ladye to his daughter,
of ffashyon shee hath noe peere;
Knights & lordes they woed her both,15
trusted to haue beene her peere.

Sir Cawline loues her best of oné,
but nothing durst hee say
to discreeue his councell to noe man,
but deerlye loued this mayd.20

till itt beffell vpon a day,
great dill to him was dight;
the maydens loue remoued his mind,
to care bed went the Knight;

& one while he spread his armes him ffroe,25
& cryed soe pittyouslye
"ffor the maydens loue that I haue most minde,

this day may comfort mee,
or else ere noone I shalbe dead!"
thus can Sir Cawline say.30

when our parish masse that itt was done,
& our king was bowne to dine,
he sayes, "where is Sir Cawline
that was wont to serue me with ale and wine?"

but then answered a curteous Knight35
ffast wringinge his hands,
"Sir Cawlines sicke, & like to be dead
without and a good leedginge."

"ffeitch yee downe my daughter deere,
shee is a Leeche ffull ffine;40
I, and take you doe & the baken bread,
and eene on the wine soe red,
& looke no day[n]tinesse ffor him to deare,
for ffull loth I wold him teene."

this Ladye is gone to his chamber,45
her maydens ffollowing Nye,
"O well," shee sayth, "how doth my Lord?"
"O sicke!" againe saith hee.

"I, but rise vp wightlye, man, for shame:
neuer lye soe cowardlye here!50
itt is told in my ffathers hall,
ffor my loue you will dye."

"itt is ffor your Loue, ffayre Ladye,
that all this dill I drye.
ffor if you wold comfort me with a Kisse,55
then were I brought ffrom bale to blisse,
noe longer here wold I lye."

"alas! soe well you know, Sir Knight,

I cannott bee your peere."
"ffor some deeds of armes ffaine wold I doe60
to be your Bacheeleere."

"vpon Eldridge hill there growes a thorne
vpon the mores brodinge;
& wold you, Sir Knight, wake there all night
to day of the other Morninge?65

"ffor the Eldrige King that is mickle of Might
will examine you beforne;
& there was neuer man that bare his liffe away
since the day that I was borne."

"but I will ffor your sake, ffaire Ladye,70
walke on the bents [soe] browne,
& Ile either bring you a readye token
or Ile neuer come to you againe."

but this Ladye is gone to her Chamber,
her Maydens ffollowing bright;75
& Sir Cawlins gone to the mores soe broad,
ffor to wake there all night.

vnto midnight they Moone did rise,
he walked vp and downe,
& a lightsome bugle then heard he blow80
ouer the bents soe browne.
saies hee, "and if cryance come vntill my hart,
I am ffarr ffrom any good towne;"

& he spyed ene a litle him by,
a ffuryous King and a ffell,85
& a ladye bright his brydle led,
that seemlye itt was to see;

& soe fast hee called vpon Sir Cawline,
"Oh man, I redd thee fflye!

ffor if cryance come vntill thy hart,90
I am a-feard least thou mun dye."

he sayes, "[no] cryance comes to my hart,
nor ifaith I ffeare not thee;
ffor because thou minged not christ before,
Thee lesse me dreadeth thee."95

but Sir Cawline he shooke a speare,
the King was bold, and abode,
& the timber these 2 Children bore
soe soone in sunder slode,
ffor they tooke & 2 good swords,100
& they Layden on good Loade.

but the Elridge King was mickle of might,
& stiffly to the ground did stand;
but Sir Cawline with an aukeward stroke
he brought him ffrom his hand,105
I, & fflying ouer his head soe hye,
ffell downe of that Lay land:

& his lady stood a litle thereby,
ffast ringing her hands:
"for they maydens loue that you haue most meed,110
smyte you my Lord no more,

& heest neuer come vpon Eldrige [hill]
him to sport, gamon, or play,
& to meete noe man of middle earth,
& that liues on christs his lay."115

but he then vp, and that Eldryge King
sett him in his sadle againe,
& that Eldryge King & his Ladye
to their castle are they gone.

& hee tooke then vp & that Eldryge sword120

as hard as any fflynt,
& soe he did those ringes 5,
harder than ffyer, and brent.

ffirst he presented to the Kings daughter
they hand, & then they sword.125
"but a serrett buffett you haue him giuen,
the King & the crowne!" she sayd,
"I, but 34 stripes
comen beside the rood."

& a Gyant that was both stiffe [&] strong,130
he lope now them amonge,
& vpon his squier 5 heads he bare,
vnmackley made was hee.

& he dranke then on the Kings wine,
& hee put the cup in his sleeue;135
& all thé trembled & were wan
ffor feare he shold them greeffe.

"Ile tell thee mine Arrand, King," he sayes,
"mine errand what I doe heere;
ffor I will bren thy temples hye,140
or Ile haue thy daughter deere;
in, or else vpon, yond more soe brood
thou shalt ffind mee a ppeare."

the King he turned him round about,
(Lord, in his heart he was woe!),145
says, "is there noe Knight of the round table
this matter will vndergoe?

"I, & hee shall haue my broad Lands,
& keepe them well his liue;
I, and soe hee shall my daughter deere,150
to be his weded wiffe."

& then stood vp Sir Cawline
his owne errand ffor to say.
"ifaith, I wold to god, Sir," sayd Sir Cawline,
"that Soldan I will assay.155

"goe, ffeitch me downe my Eldrige sword,
ffor I woone itt att [a] ffray."
"but away, away!" sayd the hend Soldan,
"thou tarryest mee here all day!"

but the hend Soldan and Sir Cawline160
thé ffought a summers day:
now has hee slaine that hend Soldan,
& brought his 5 heads away.

& the King has betaken him his broade lands
& all his venison.165

"but take you too & your Lands [soe] broad,
& brooke them well your liffe,
ffor you promised mee your daughter deere
to be my weded wiffe."

"now by my ffaith," then sayes our King,170
"ffor that wee will not striffe;
ffor thou shalt haue my daughter dere
to be thy weded wiffe."

the other morninge Sir Cawline rose
by the dawning of the day,175
& vntill a garden did he goe
his Mattins ffor to say;
& that bespyed a ffalse steward—
a shames death that he might dye!—

& he lett a lyon out of a bande,180
Sir Cawline ffor to teare;
& he had noe wepon him vpon,

nor noe wepon did weare.

but hee tooke then his Mantle of greene,
into the Lyons mouth itt thrust;185
he held the Lyon soe sore to the wall
till the Lyons hart did burst.

& the watchmen cryed vpon the walls
& sayd, "Sir Cawlines slaine!
and with a beast is not ffull litle,190
a Lyon of Mickle mayne."
then the Kings daughter shee ffell downe,
"for peerlesse is my payne!"

"O peace, my Lady!" sayes Sir Cawline,
"I haue bought thy loue ffull deere.195
O peace, my Lady!" sayes Sir Cawline,
"peace, Lady, ffor I am heere!"

then he did marry this Kings daughter
with gold & siluer bright,
& 15 sonnes this Ladye beere200
to Sir Cawline the Knight.
ffins.]

FOOTNOTES:

[336] See Northern Antiquities, &c. vol. i. p. 318; vol. ii. p. 100.
Memoires de la Chevalerie, tom. i. p. 44.
[337] [mate.]
[338] [describe.]
[339] [maiden.]
[340] [grief.]
[341] [wrought.]
[342] [sorrow.]
[343] [must.]

[344] [made ready.]
[345] [medical care.]
[346] [This is an odd misreading of Percy's. The MS. has "I and
take you doe and the baken bread," where doe is the auxiliary
verb and the and redundant.]
[347] [lose.]
[348] [swiftly.]
[349] [pain I suffer.]
[350] [knight.]
[351] [if.]
[352] [spectral, lonesome.]
[353] [wide moors.]
[354] [great.]
[355] [before.]
[356] [harm.]
[357] [pagan.]
[358] Perhaps wake, as above in ver. 61.
[359] [leaped.]
[360] [fields.]
[361] [if fear come to.]
[362] [fierce.]
[363] [advise.]
[364] [mentioned.]
[365] i. e. Knights. See the Preface to Child Waters, vol. iii.
[366] [split.]
[367] [laid.]
[368] [burst.]
[369] [battle.]
[370] Ver. 109, aukeward. MS.
[371] [green sward.]
[372] [commands.]
[373] [law.]
[374] [fight.]
[375] [slain.]
[376] [spurred.]

[377] [neither stopped nor lingered.]
[378] [fetched.]
[379] [since thou hast engaged.]
[380] [mate.]
[381] [started.]
[382] [I know he would slay us.]
[383] [verily.]
[384] [bond or covenant.]
[385] [rather.]
[386] [lose.]
[387] [nigh.]
[388] [fine cloth.]
[389] [leather jacket.]
[390] [coat of mail.]
[391] [quickly.]
[392] [countenance.]
[393] [flashed.]
[394] [complexion.]
[395] [bowed.]
[396] [courteous.]
[397] [injured.]
[398] [burn.]
[399] [equal.]
[400] [mis-shapen.]
[401] [reward.]
[402] [detainest.]
[403] [give blows.]
[404] [unless.]
[405] ["or else," redundant from a misunderstanding of the word
but.]
[406] [captivity.]
[407] [rather.]
[408] [come to harm.]
[409] [mate.]
[410] [deep-drawn.]

V.

EDWARD, EDWARD.

A Scottish Ballad.
From a MS. copy transmitted from Scotland.
[T he affectedly antique orthography of this ballad
has caused some to suppose that it was a modern
invention, probably by Lady Wardlaw, the author
of Hardyknute, but Motherwell obtained another
version from the recitation of an old woman,
which he printed in his Minstrelsy under the title of "Son Davie,
son Davie." He there says that there is reason to believe that
Lord Hailes "made a few slight verbal improvements in the copy
he transmitted, and altered the hero's name to Edward, a name
which, by the bye, never occurs in a Scottish ballad except
where allusion is made to an English king."
There is a Swedish ballad of the same character entitled The
Fratricide's Lament and Dialogue with his Mother before he
wanders away from home for ever.
The form of a dialogue between a mother and her son is a
favourite one in the old ballads, and "Lord Donald" in Kinloch's
Scottish Ballads and "Lord Randal" in Scott's Minstrelsy bear
some likeness to the ballad of "Edward." The hero is supposed
to have been poisoned by eating toads prepared as a dish of
fishes, and the last stanza of Kinloch's ballad is as follows:—

"What will ye leave to your true love, Lord Donald,
My son?
What will ye leave to your true love,
My jollie young man?
The tow and the halter for to hang on yon tree,
And lat her hang there for the poysoning o' me."]

Quhy dois your brand sae drop wi' bluid,[411]
Edward, Edward?
Quhy dois your brand sae drop wi' bluid?
And quhy sae sad gang yee, O?[412]
O, I hae killed my hauke sae guid,5
Mither, mither:
O, I hae killed my hauke sae guid:
And I had nae mair bot hee,[413] O.

Your haukis bluid was nevir sae reid,
Edward, Edward.10
Your haukis bluid was nevir sae reid,
My deir son I tell thee, O.
O, I hae killed my reid-roan steid,
Mither, Mither:
O, I hae killed my reid-roan steid,15
That erst was sae fair and free, O.

Your steid was auld, and ye hae gat mair,
Edward, Edward:
Your steid was auld, and ye hae gat mair,
Sum other dule ye drie,[414] O.20
O, I hae killed my fadir deir,
Mither, mither:
O, I hae killed my fadir deir,
Alas! and wae is me, O!

And quhatten penance wul ye drie[415] for that,25
Edward, Edward?
And quhatten penance will ye drie for that?

My deir son, now tell me, O.
Ile set my feit in yonder boat,
Mither, mither:30
Ile set my feit in yonder boat,
And Ile fare[416] ovir the sea, O.

And quhat wul ye doe wi' your towirs and your ha',[417]
Edward, Edward?
And quhat wul ye doe wi' your towirs and your ha',35
That were sae fair to see, O?
Ile let thame stand til they doun fa',[418]
Mither, mither:
Ile let thame stand til they doun fa',
For here nevir mair maun I bee, O.40

And quhat wul ye leive to your bairns and your wife,
Edward, Edward?
And quhat wul ye leive to your bairns and your wife,
Quhan ye gang ovir the sea, O?
The warldis room,[419] let thame beg throw life,45
Mither, mither:
The warldis room, let thame beg throw life,
For thame nevir mair wul I see, O.

And quhat wul ye leive to your ain mither deir,
Edward, Edward?50
And quhat wul ye leive to your ain mither deir?
My deir son, now tell me, O.
The curse of hell frae me sall ye beir,
Mither, mither:
The curse of hell frae me sall ye beir,55
Sic counseils ye gave to me, O.

This curious song was transmitted to the editor by Sir David Dalrymple,
Bart., late Lord Hailes.

FOOTNOTES:

[411] [why does your sword so drop with blood.]
[412] [and why so sad go ye.]
[413] [no other but he.]
[414] [some other grief you suffer.]
[415] [undergo.]
[416] [pass.]
[417] [hall.]
[418] [fall.]
[419] [the world's large.]

VI.

KING ESTMERE.

T his old Romantic Legend (which is given from two copies, one
of them in the editor's folio MS., but which contained very
great variations), bears marks of considerable antiquity, and,
perhaps, ought to have taken place of any in this volume. It
would seem to have been written while part of Spain was in
the hands of the Saracens or Moors: whose empire there was not fully
extinguished before the year 1491. The Mahometans are spoken of in v. 49,
&c., just in the same terms as in all other old romances. The author of the
ancient Legend of Sir Bevis represents his hero, upon all occasions,
breathing out defiance against

"Mahound and Termagaunte;"[420]

and so full of zeal for his religion, as to return the following polite message
to a Paynim king's fair daughter, who had fallen in love with him, and sent
two Saracen knights to invite him to her bower,

"I wyll not ones stirre off this grounde,
To speake with an heathen hounde.
Unchristen houndes, I rede you fle.
Or I your harte bloud shall se."[421]

Indeed they return the compliment by calling him elsewhere "A christen
hounde."[422]
This was conformable to the real manners of the barbarous ages: perhaps
the same excuse will hardly serve our bard, for that Adland should be found
lolling or leaning at his gate (v. 35) may be thought, perchance, a little out
of character. And yet the great painter of manners, Homer, did not think it
inconsistent with decorum to represent a king of the Taphians leaning at the
gate of Ulysses to inquire for that monarch, when he touched at Ithaca as he
was taking a voyage with a ship's cargo of iron to dispose in traffic.[423] So
little ought we to judge of ancient manners by our own.
Before I conclude this article, I cannot help observing, that the reader will
see, in this ballad, the character of the old Minstrels (those successors of the
Bards) placed in a very respectable light:[424] here he will see one of them
represented mounted on a fine horse, accompanied with an attendant to bear
his harp after him, and to sing the poems of his composing. Here he will see
him mixing in the company of kings without ceremony: no mean proof of
the great antiquity of this poem. The farther we carry our inquiries back, the
greater respect we find paid to the professors of poetry and music among all
the Celtic and Gothic nations. Their character was deemed so sacred, that
under its sanction our famous king Alfred (as we have already seen)[425]
made no scruple to enter the Danish camp, and was at once admitted to the
king's headquarters.[426] Our poet has suggested the same expedient to the
heroes of this ballad. All the histories of the North are full of the great
reverence paid to this order of men. Harold Harfagre, a celebrated King of
Norway, was wont to seat them at his table above all the officers of his
court: and we find another Norwegian king placing five of them by his side
in a day of battle, that they might be eye-witnesses of the great exploits they

were to celebrate.[427] As to Estmere's riding into the hall while the kings
were at table, this was usual in the ages of chivalry; and even to this day we
see a relic of this custom still kept up, in the champion's riding into
Westminster Hall during the coronation dinner.[428]
Some liberties have been taken with this tale by the editor, but none without
notice to the reader in that part which relates to the subject of the harper and
his attendant.

[Percy refers to two copies of this ballad, but there is every
reason to believe that one of these was the bishop's own
composition, as it was never seen by others and has not since
been found. The copy from the folio MS. was torn out by Percy
when he was preparing the fourth edition of the Reliques for the
press, and is now unfortunately lost, so that we have no means
of telling what alterations he made in addition to those which he
mentions in the footnotes. The readings in the fourth edition are
changed in several places from those printed in the first edition.]

Hearken to me, gentlemen,
Come and you shall heare;
Ile tell you of two of the boldest brethren[429]
That ever borne y-were.

The tone[430] of them was Adler younge,5
The tother was kyng Estmere;
The were as bolde men in their deeds,

As any were farr and neare.

As they were drinking ale and wine
Within kyng Estmeres halle:[431]10
When will ye marry a wyfe, brothèr,
A wyfe to glad us all?

Then bespake him kyng Estmere,
And answered him hastilee:[432]
I know not that ladye in any land15
That's able[433] to marrye with mee.

Kyng Adland hath a daughter, brother,
Men call her bright and sheene;[434]
If I were kyng here in your stead,
That ladye shold be my queene.20

Saies, Reade me,[435] reade me, deare brother,
Throughout merry Englànd,
Where we might find a messenger
Betwixt us towe to sende.

Saies, You shal ryde yourselfe, brothèr,25
Ile beare you companye;
Many throughe fals messengers are deceived,[436]
And I feare lest soe shold wee.

Thus the renisht[437] them to ryde
Of twoe good renisht[438] steeds,30
And when the came to king Adlands halle,
Of redd gold shone their weeds.[439]

And when the came to kyng Adlands hall
Before the goodlye gate,
There they found good kyng Adlànd35
Rearing[440] himselfe theratt.

Now Christ thee save, good kyng Adlànd;
Now Christ you save and see.
Sayd, You be welcome, king Estmere,
Right hartilye to mee.40

You have a daughter, said Adler younge,
Men call her bright and sheene,
My brother wold marrye her to his wiffe,
Of Englande to be queene.

Yesterday was att my deere daughtèr45
Syr Bremor the kyng of Spayne;[441]
And then she nicked[442] him of naye,
And I doubt sheele[443] do you the same.

The kyng of Spayne is a foule paynim,[444]
And 'leeveth[445] on Mahound;50
And pitye it were that fayre ladyè
Shold marrye a heathen hound.

But grant to me, sayes kyng Estmere,
For my love I you praye;
That I may see your daughter deere55
Before I goe hence awaye.

Although itt is seven yeers and more
Since my daughter was in halle,
She shall come once downe for your sake
To glad my guestès alle.60

Downe then came that mayden fayre,
With ladyes laced in pall,[446]
And halfe a hundred of bold knightes,
To bring her from bowre to hall;
And as many gentle squiers,65
To tend upon them all.

The talents of golde were on her head sette,
Hanged low downe to her knee;
And everye ring on her small fingèr,
Shone of the chrystall free.70

Saies, God you save, my deere madàm;
Saies, God you save and see.
Said, You be welcome, kyng Estmere,
Right welcome unto mee.

And if you love me, as you saye,75
Soe well and hartilèe,
All that ever you are comen about
Soone sped now itt shal bee.

Then bespake her father deare:
My daughter, I saye naye;80
Remember well the kyng of Spayne,
What he sayd yesterdaye.

He wold pull downe my halles and castles,
And reave[447] me of my lyfe
I cannot blame him if he doe,85
If I reave him of his wyfe.

Your castles and your towres, father,
Are stronglye built aboute;
And therefore of the king of Spaine[448]
Wee neede not stande in doubt.90

Plight me your troth, nowe, kyng Estmère,
By heaven and your righte hand,
That you will marrye me to your wyfe,
And make me queene of your land.

Then kyng Estmere he plight his troth95
By heaven and his righte hand,
That he wolde marrye her to his wyfe,

And make her queene of his land.

And he tooke leave of that ladye fayre,
To goe to his owne countree,100
To fetche him dukes and lordes and knightes,
That marryed the might bee.

They had not ridden scant a myle,
A myle forthe of the towne,
But in did come the kyng of Spayne,105
With kempès[449] many one.

But in did come the kyng of Spayne,
With manye a bold baròne,
Tone day to marrye kyng Adlands daughter,
Tother daye to carrye her home.110

Shee sent one after kyng Estmère
In all the spede might bee,
That he must either turne againe and fighte,
Or goe home and loose his ladyè.

One whyle then the page he went,115
Another while he ranne;
Till he had oretaken king Estmere,
I wis, he never blanne.[450]

Tydings, tydings, kyng Estmere!
What tydinges nowe, my boye?120
O tydinges I can tell to you,
That will you sore annoye.

You had not ridden scant a mile,
A mile out of the towne,
But in did come the kyng of Spayne125
With kempès many a one:

But in did come the kyng of Spayne

With manye a bold baròne,
Tone daye to marrye king Adlands daughter,
Tother daye to carry her home.130

My ladye fayre she greetes you well,
And ever-more well by mee:
You must either turne againe and fighte,
Or goe home and loose your ladyè.

Saies, Reade me, reade me, deere brothèr,135
My reade shall ryde[451] at thee,
Whether it is better to turne and fighte,
Or goe home and loose my ladye.

Now hearken to me, sayes Adler yonge,
And your reade must rise[452] at me,140
I quicklye will devise a waye
To sette thy ladye free.

My mother was a westerne woman,
And learned in gramaryè.[453]
And when I learned at the schole,145
Something shee taught itt mee.

There growes an hearbe within this field,
And iff it were but knowne,
His color, which is whyte and redd,
It will make blacke and browne:150

His color, which is browne and blacke,
Itt will make redd and whyte;
That sworde is not in all Englande,
Upon his coate will byte.

And you shal be a harper, brother,155
Out of the north countrye;
And Ile be your boy, soe faine of fighte,[454]
And beare your harpe by your knee.

And you shal be the best harpèr,
That ever tooke harpe in hand;160
And I wil be the best singèr,
That ever sung in this lande.

Itt shal be written in our forheads
All and in grammaryè,
That we towe are the boldest men,165
That are in all Christentyè.

And thus they renisht them to ryde,
On tow good renish steedes:
And when they came to king Adlands hall,
Of redd gold shone their weedes.170

And whan the came to kyng Adlands hall,
Untill the fayre hall yate,[455]
There they found a proud portèr
Rearing himselfe thereatt.

Sayes, Christ thee save, thou proud portèr;175
Sayes, Christ thee save and see.
Nowe you be welcome, sayd the portèr,
Of what land soever ye bee.

Wee beene harpers, sayd Adler younge,
Come out of the northe countrye;180
Wee beene come hither untill this place,
This proud weddinge for to see.

Sayd, And your color were white and redd,
As it is blacke and browne,
I wold saye king Estmere and his brother185
Were comen untill this towne.

Then they pulled out a ryng of gold,
Layd itt on the porters arme:
And ever we will thee, proud portèr,

Thow wilt saye us no harme.190

Sore he looked on kyng Estmère,
And sore he handled the ryng,
Then opened to them the fayre hall yates,
He lett[456] for no kind of thyng.

Kyng Estmere he stabled his steede195
Soe fayre att the hall bord;
The froth, that came from his brydle bitte,
Light in kyng Bremors beard.

Saies, Stable thy steed, thou proud harpèr,
Saies, Stable him in the stalle;200
It doth not beseeme a proud harpèr
To stable 'him' in a kyngs halle.[457]

My ladde he is so lither,[458] he said,
He will doe nought that's meete;
And is there any man in this hall205
Were able him to beate.

Thou speakst proud words, sayes the king of Spaine,
Thou harper here to mee:
There is a man within this halle,
Will beate thy ladd and thee.210

O let that man come downe, he said,
A sight of him wold I see;
And when hee hath beaten well my ladd,
Then he shall beate of mee.

Downe then came the kemperye man,[459]215
And looked him in the eare;
For all the gold, that was under heaven,
He durst not neigh him neare.[460]

And how nowe, kempe, said the kyng of Spaine,

And how what aileth thee?220
He saies, It is writt in his forhead
All and in gramaryè,
That for all the gold that is under heaven,
I dare not neigh him nye.

Then kyng Estmere pulld forth his harpe,225
And plaid a pretty thinge:
The ladye upstart from the borde,
And wold have gone from the king.

Stay thy harpe, thou proud harpèr,
For Gods love I pray thee230
For and thou playes as thou beginns,
Thou'lt till[461] my bryde from mee.

He stroake upon his harpe againe,
And playd a pretty thinge;
The ladye lough[462] a loud laughter,235
As shee sate by the king.

Saies, sell me thy harpe, thou proud harper,
And thy stringès all,
For as many gold nobles 'thou shalt have'
As heere bee ringes in the hall.240

What wold ye doe with my harpe, 'he sayd,
If I did sell itt yee?
"To playe my wiffe and me a Fitt,[463]
When abed together wee bee."

Now sell me, quoth hee, thy bryde soe gay,245
As shee sitts by thy knee,
And as many gold nobles I will give,
As leaves been on a tree.

And what wold ye doe with my bryde soe gay,
Iff I did sell her thee?250

More seemelye it is for her fayre bodye
To lye by mee then thee.

Hee played agayne both loud and shrille,[464]
And Adler he did syng,
"O ladye, this is thy owne true love;255
Noe harper, but a kyng.

"O ladye, this is thy owne true love,
As playnlye thou mayest see;
And Ile rid thee of that foule paynim,
Who partes thy love and thee."260

The ladye looked, the ladye blushte,
And blushte and lookt agayne,
While Adler he hath drawne his brande,
And hath the Sowdan slayne.

Up then rose the kemperye men,265
And loud they gan to crye:
Ah! traytors, yee have slayne our kyng,
And therefore yee shall dye.

Kyng Estmere threwe the harpe asyde,
And swith[465] he drew his brand;[466]270
And Estmere he, and Adler yonge
Right stiffe in stour[467] can stand.

And aye their swordes soe sore can byte,
Throughe help of Gramaryè
That soone they have slayne the kempery men,275
Or forst them forth to flee.

Kyng Estmere tooke that fayre ladyè,
And marryed her to his wiffe,
And brought her home to merry Englànd
With her to leade his life.280

⁂ The word Gramaryè,[468] which occurs several times in the
foregoing poem, is probably a corruption of the French word
Grimoire, which signifies a conjuring book in the old French
romances, if not the art of necromancy itself.
†‡† Termagaunt (mentioned above, p. 85) is the name given in
the old romances to the god of the Saracens, in which he is
constantly linked with Mahound or Mahomet. Thus, in the
legend of Syr Guy, the Soudan (Sultan), swears

"So helpe me Mahowne of might,
And Termagaunt my god so bright."

Sign. p. iii. b.
This word is derived by the very learned editor of Junius from the Anglo-
Saxon Tẏꞃ very, and Maᵹan mighty. As this word had so sublime a
derivation, and was so applicable to the true God, how shall we account for
its being so degraded? Perhaps Tẏꞃ-maᵹan or Termagant had been a name
originally given to some Saxon idol, before our ancestors were converted to
Christianity; or had been the peculiar attribute of one of their false deities;
and therefore the first Christian missionaries rejected it as profane and
improper to be applied to the true God. Afterwards, when the irruptions of
the Saracens into Europe, and the Crusades into the East, had brought them
acquainted with a new species of unbelievers, our ignorant ancestors, who
thought all that did not receive the Christian law were necessarily pagans
and idolaters, supposed the Mahometan creed was in all respects the same
with that of their pagan forefathers, and therefore made no scruple to give
the ancient name of Termagant to the god of the Saracens, just in the same
manner as they afterwards used the name of Sarazen to express any kind of
pagan or idolater. In the ancient romance of Merline (in the editor's folio
MS.) the Saxons themselves that came over with Hengist, because they
were not Christians, are constantly called Sarazens.

However that be, it is certain that, after the times of the Crusades, both
Mahound and Termagaunt made their frequent appearance in the pageants
and religious interludes of the barbarous ages; in which they were exhibited
with gestures so furious and frantic, as to become proverbial. Thus Skelton
speaks of Wolsey:—

"Like Mahound in a play,
No man dare him withsay."

Ed. 1736, p. 158.
In like manner Bale, describing the threats used by some papist magistrates
to his wife, speaks of them as "grennyng upon her lyke Termagauntes in a
playe." (Actes of Engl. Votaryes, pt. ii. fo. 83, Ed. 1550, 12mo.) Accordingly
in a letter of Edward Alleyn, the founder of Dulwich College, to his wife or
sister, who, it seems, with all her fellows (the players), had been "by my
Lorde Maiors officer[s] mad to rid in a cart," he expresses his concern that
she should "fall into the hands of suche Tarmagants." (So the orig. dated
May 2, 1593, preserved by the care of the Rev. Thomas Jenyns Smith,
Fellow of Dulw. Coll.) Hence we may conceive the force of Hamlet's
expression in Shakspeare, where, condemning a ranting player, he says, "I
could have such a fellow whipt for ore-doing Termagant: it out-herods
Herod" (Act iii. sc. 3). By degrees the word came to be applied to an
outrageous turbulent person, and especially to a violent brawling woman; to
whom alone it is now confined, and this the rather as, I suppose, the
character of Termagant was anciently represented on the stage after the
eastern mode, with long robes or petticoats.
Another frequent character in the old pageants or interludes of our
ancestors, was the sowdan or soldan, representing a grim eastern tyrant.
This appears from a curious passage in Stow's Annals (p. 458). In a stage-
play "the people know right well that he that plaieth the sowdain, is percase
a sowter [shoe-maker]; yet if one should cal him by his owne name, while
he standeth in his majestie, one of his tormenters might hap to break his
head." The sowdain, or soldan, was a name given to the Sarazen king
(being only a more rude pronunciation of the word sultan), as the soldan of
Egypt, the soudan of Persia, the sowdan of Babylon, &c., who were

generally represented as accompanied with grim Sarazens, whose business
it was to punish and torment Christians.
I cannot conclude this short memoir, without observing that the French
romancers, who had borrowed the word Termagant from us, and applied it
as we in their old romances, corrupted it into Tervagaunte; and from them
La Fontaine took it up, and has used it more than once in his tales. This may
be added to the other proofs adduced in these volumes of the great
intercourse that formerly subsisted between the old minstrels and legendary
writers of both nations, and that they mutually borrowed each other's
romances.

FOOTNOTES:

[420] See a short Memoir at the end of this Ballad, Note †‡†.
[421] Sign C. ii. b.
[422] Sign C. i. b.
[423] Odyss. a. 105.
[424] See vol. ii., note subjoined to 1st part of Beggar of Bednal,
&c.
[425] See the Essay on the Antient Minstrels (Appendix I.)
[426] Even so late as the time of Froissart, we find minstrels and
heralds mentioned together, as those who might securely go into
an enemy's country. Cap. cxl.
[427] Bartholini Antiq. Dan. p. 173. Northern Antiquities, &c.,
vol. i. pp. 386, 389, &c.
[428] See also the account of Edw. II. in the Essay on the
Minstrels, and Note [X].
[429] Ver. 3. brether, f. MS.
[430] [the one.]
[431] V. 10. his brother's hall f. MS.
[432] V. 14. hartilye, f. MS.
[433] He means fit, suitable.
[434] [shining.]
[435] [advise me.]
[436] Ver. 27. many a man ... is, f. MS.
[437] [they got ready?]

[438] [harnessed.]
[439] [garments.]
[440] [leaning.]
[441] V. 46. the king his sonne of Spayn, f. MS.
[442] [refused.]
[443] [she will.]
[444] [pagan.]
[445] [believeth.]
[446] [robe of state.]
[447] [bereave.]
[448] Ver. 89. of the King his sonne of Spaine, f. MS.
[449] [soldiers or knights.]
[450] [stopped.]
[451] sic MS. It should probably be ryse, i.e. my counsel shall
arise from thee. See ver. 140.
[452] sic MS.
[453] See at the end of this ballad, note ⁂.
[454] [fond of fighting.]
[455] [gate.]
[456] [he left? or he let be opened?]
[457] Ver. 202. to stable his steede, f. MS.
[458] [lazy or wicked.]
[459] [soldier or fighting man.]
[460] [approach him near.]
[461] i.e. entice.
[462] [laughed.]
[463] i.e. a tune, or strain of music.
[464] Ver. 253. Some liberties have been taken in the following
stanzas; but wherever this edition differs from the preceding, it
hath been brought nearer to the folio MS.
[465] [quickly.]
[466] [sword.]
[467] [fight.]
[468] [or grammar, and hence used for any abstruse learning.]

VII.

SIR PATRICK SPENCE,

A Scottish Ballad,
I s given from two MS. copies transmitted from Scotland. In
what age the hero of this ballad lived, or when this fatal
expedition happened that proved so destructive to the Scots
nobles, I have not been able to discover; yet am of opinion,
that their catastrophe is not altogether without foundation in
history, though it has escaped my own researches. In the infancy of
navigation, such as used the northern seas were very liable to shipwreck in
the wintry months: hence a law was enacted in the reign of James III. (a law
which was frequently repeated afterwards), "That there be na schip frauched
out of the realm with any staple gudes, fra the feast of Simons day and Jude,
unto the feast of the purification of our Lady called Candelmess." Jam. III.
Parlt. 2, ch. 15.
In some modern copies, instead of Patrick Spence hath been substituted the
name of Sir Andrew Wood, a famous Scottish admiral who flourished in the
time of our Edward IV., but whose story has nothing in common with this of
the ballad. As Wood was the most noted warrior of Scotland, it is probable
that, like the Theban Hercules, he hath engrossed the renown of other
heroes.

[The fact that this glorious ballad was never heard of before
Percy printed it in 1765, caused some to throw doubts upon its
authenticity, and their scepticism was strengthened by the note
at p. 102, which refers to the author of Hardyknute. It was
thought that the likeness in expression and sentiment there
mentioned might easily be explained if the two poems were both
by Lady Wardlaw. This view, advocated by Robert Chambers in
his general attack on the authenticity of all The Romantic
Scottish Ballads (1859), has not met with much favour, and

Professor Child thinks that the arguments against the
genuineness of Sir Patrick Spence are so trivial as hardly to
admit of statement. He writes, "If not ancient it has been always
accepted as such by the most skilful judges, and is a solitary
instance of a successful imitation in manner and spirit of the
best specimens of authentic minstrelsy."[469] Coleridge, no mean
judge of a ballad, wrote—

"The bard be sure was weather-wise who framed
The grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spens."

Antiquaries have objected that Spence is not an early Scottish
name, but in this they are wrong, for Professor Aytoun found it
in a charter of Robert III. and also in Wyntoun's Chronicle.
There has been considerable discussion as to the historical event
referred to in the ballad, and the present version does not contain
any mention of one of the points that may help towards a
settlement of the question. The version in Scott's Minstrelsy
contains the following stanza:—

"To Noroway, to Noroway
To Noroway o'er the faem
The king's daughter of Noroway
'Tis thou maun bring her hame."

Professor Aytoun would change the third line to

"The king's daughter to Noroway,"

as he agrees with Motherwell in the view that the ballad refers to
the fate of the Scottish nobles who in 1281 conveyed Margaret,
daughter of Alexander III., to Norway, on the occasion of her
nuptials with King Eric.
Fordun relates this incident as follows:—"In the year 1281
Margaret, daughter of Alexander III., was married to the King of
Norway, who, leaving Scotland in the last day of July, was
conveyed thither in noble style in company with many knights

and nobles. In returning home after the celebration of her
nuptials, the Abbot of Balmerinoch, Bernard of Monte-alto, and
many other persons, were drowned." As to the scene of the
disaster, Aytoun brings forward an interesting illustration of the
expression "half over to Aberdour," in line 41. He says that in
the little island of Papa Stronsay one of the Orcadian group
lying over against Norway, there is a large grave or tumulus
which has been known to the inhabitants from time immemorial
as "the grave of Sir Patrick Spens," and he adds, that as the
Scottish ballads were not early current in Orkney, it is unlikely
that the poem originated the name.
The other suggestions as to an historical basis for the ballad are
not borne out by history. It is well, however, to note in
illustration of line 1, that the Scottish kings chiefly resided in
their palace of Dunfermline from the time of Malcolm Canmore
to that of Alexander III.
The present copy of the ballad is the shortest of the various
versions, but this is not a disadvantage, as it gains much in force
by the directness of its language.
Buchan prints a ballad called Young Allan, which is somewhat
like Sir Patrick Spence.]

The king sits in Dumferling toune,
Drinking the blude-reid wine:
O quhar will I get guid sailòr,
To sail this schip of mine?

Up and spak an eldern knicht,5

Sat at the kings richt kne:
Sir Patrick Spence is the best sailòr,
That sails upon the se.

The king has written a braid letter,[470]
And signd it wi' his hand;10
And sent it to Sir Patrick Spence,
Was walking on the sand.

The first line that Sir Patrick red,
A loud lauch lauched he:
The next line that Sir Patrick red,15
The teir blinded his ee.

O quha is this has don this deid,
This ill deid don to me;
To send me out this time o'the yeir,
To sail upon the se?20

Mak hast, mak haste, my mirry men all,
Our guid schip sails the morne.[471]
O say na sae, my master deir,
For I feir a deadlie storme.

Late late yestreen I saw the new moone25
Wi' the auld moone in hir arme;
And I feir, I feir, my deir mastèr,
That we will com to harme.

O our Scots nobles wer richt laith[472]
To weet their cork-heild schoone;[473]30
Bot lang owre[474] a' the play wer playd,
Thair hats they swam aboone.[475]

O lang, lang, may thair ladies sit
Wi' thair fans into their hand,
Or eir they se Sir Patrick Spence35

Cum sailing to the land.

O lang, lang, may the ladies stand
Wi' thair gold kems[476] in their hair,
Waiting for thair ain deir lords,
For they'll se thame na mair.40

Have owre,[477] have owre to Aberdour,[478]
It's fiftie fadom deip:
And thair lies guid Sir Patrick Spence,
Wi' the Scots lords at his feit.[479]

FOOTNOTES:

[469] [English and Scottish Ballads, vol. iii. p. 149.]
[470] A braid letter, i.e. open, or patent; in opposition to close
rolls.
[471] [to-morrow morning.]
[472] [loth.]
[473] [to wet their cork-heeled shoes.]
[474] [long ere.]
[475] [above the water.]
[476] [combs.]
[477] [half over.]
[478] A village lying upon the river Forth, the entrance to which
is sometimes denominated De mortuo mari.
[Finlay observes that Percy's note is incorrect. The truth is that
De Mortuo Mari is the designation of a family (Mortimer) who
were lords of Aberdour. They are believed to have received their
name from the Dead Sea, in Palestine, during the times of the
Crusades.]
[479] An ingenious friend thinks the author of Hardyknute has
borrowed several expressions and sentiments from the foregoing
and other old Scottish songs in this collection.

VIII.

ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE.

W e have here a ballad of Robin Hood (from the editor's folio
MS.) which was never before printed, and carries marks of
much greater antiquity than any of the common popular songs
on this subject.
The severity of those tyrannical forest laws that were introduced by our
Norman kings, and the great temptation of breaking them by such as lived

near the royal forests at a time when the yeomanry of this kingdom were
everywhere trained up to the long-bow, and excelled all other nations in the
art of shooting, must constantly have occasioned great numbers of outlaws,
and especially of such as were the best marksmen. These naturally fled to
the woods for shelter, and, forming into troops, endeavoured by their
numbers to protect themselves from the dreadful penalties of their
delinquency. The ancient punishment for killing the king's deer was loss of
eyes and castration, a punishment far worse than death. This will easily
account for the troops of banditti which formerly lurked in the royal forests,
and, from their superior skill in archery and knowledge of all the recesses of
those unfrequented solitudes, found it no difficult matter to resist or elude
the civil power.
Among all those, none was ever more famous than the hero of this ballad,
whose chief residence was in Shirewood forest, in Nottinghamshire, and the
heads of whose story, as collected by Stow, are briefly these.
"In this time [about the year 1190, in the reign of Richard I.] were many
robbers, and outlawes, among the which Robin Hood, and Little John,
renowned theeves, continued in woods, despoyling and robbing the goods
of the rich. They killed none but such as would invade them; or by
resistance for their own defence.
"The saide Robert entertained an hundred tall men and good archers with
such spoiles and thefts as he got, upon whom four hundred (were they ever
so strong) durst not give the onset. He suffered no woman to be oppressed,
violated, or otherwise molested: poore mens goods he spared, abundantlie
relieving them with that which by theft he got from abbeys and the houses
of rich carles: whom Maior (the historian) blameth for his rapine and theft,
but of all theeves he affirmeth him to be the prince, and the most gentle
theefe."—Annals, p. 159.
The personal courage of this celebrated outlaw, his skill in archery, his
humanity, and especially his levelling principle of taking from the rich and
giving to the poor, have in all ages rendered him the favourite of the
common people, who, not content to celebrate his memory by innumerable
songs and stories, have erected him into the dignity of an earl. Indeed, it is
not impossible but our hero, to gain the more respect from his followers, or
they to derive the more credit to their profession, may have given rise to

such a report themselves: for we find it recorded in an epitaph, which, if
genuine, must have been inscribed on his tombstone near the nunnery of
Kirklees in Yorkshire; where (as the story goes) he was bled to death by a
treacherous nun to whom he applied for phlebotomy:—

"Hear undernead dis laitl stean
laiȝ robert earl of huntingtun
nea arcir ver aȝ hie sae geud
an pipl kauld im Robin Heud
sick utlaws as hi an is men
vil England nivir si agen.
obiit 24 kal. dekembris. 1247."[480]

This epitaph appears to me suspicious; however, a late antiquary has given a
pedigree of Robin Hood, which, if genuine, shows that he had real
pretensions to the Earldom of Huntingdon, and that his true name was
Robert Fitz-ooth.[481] Yet the most ancient poems on Robin Hood make no
mention of this earldom. He is expressly asserted to have been a
yeoman[482] in a very old legend in verse, preserved in the archives of the
public library at Cambridge,[483] in eight fyttes, or parts, printed in black
letter, quarto, thus inscribed: "¶ Here begynneth a lytell geste of Robyn
hode and his meyne, and of the proude sheryfe of Notyngham." The first
lines are—

"Lithe and lysten, gentylmen,
That be of fre-bore blode:
I shall you tell of a good yeman,
His name was Robyn hode.

"Robyn was a proude out-lawe,
Whiles he walked on grounde;
So curteyse an outlawe as he was one,
Was never none yfounde," &c.

The printer's colophon is, "¶ Explicit Kinge Edwarde and Robin hode and
Lyttel Johan. Enprented at London in Flete-strete at the sygne of the sone
by Wynkin de Worde." In Mr. Garrick's Collection[484] is a different edition

of the same poem, "¶ Imprinted at London upon the thre Crane wharfe by
Wyllyam Copland," containing at the end a little dramatic piece on the
subject of Robin Hood and the Friar, not found in the former copy, called,
"A newe playe for to be played in Maye games very plesaunte and full of
pastyme. ¶(∴)⁋."
I shall conclude these preliminary remarks with observing, that the hero of
this ballad was the favourite subject of popular songs so early as the time of
King Edward III. In the Visions of Pierce Plowman, written in that reign, a
monk says:—

"I can rimes of Roben Hod, and Randal of Chester,
But of our Lorde and our Lady, I lerne nothyng at all."

Fol. 26, ed. 1550.
See also in Bishop Latimer's Sermons[485] a very curious and characteristic
story, which shows what respect was shown to the memory of our archer in
the time of that prelate.
The curious reader will find many other particulars relating to this
celebrated outlaw, in Sir John Hawkins's Hist. of Music, vol. iii. p. 410, 4to.
For the catastrophe of Little John, who, it seems, was executed for a
robbery on Arbor-hill, Dublin (with some curious particulars relating to his
skill in archery), see Mr. J. C. Walker's ingenious Memoir on the Armour
and Weapons of the Irish, p. 129, annexed to his Historical Essay on the
Dress of the Ancient and Modern Irish. Dublin, 1788, 4to.
Some liberties were, by the editor, taken with this ballad; which, in this
edition, hath been brought nearer to the folio MS.

[Robin Hood is first mentioned in literature in Piers Plowman,
the earliest of the three forms of which poem was written
probably about the year 1362. The ballad of Robin Hood and the
Monk, printed in Child's English and Scottish Ballads, as the

oldest of its class, and possibly as old as the reign of Edward II.,
commences:—

"In somer when the shawes be sheyne
And leves be large and longe
Hit is full mery in feyre foreste
To here the foulys song."

Verses which bear a strong likeness to the opening lines of the
present ballad.
Gisborne is a market town in the West Riding of the county of
York on the borders of Lancashire, and Guy of that place is
mentioned by William Dunbar in a satirical piece on "Schir
Thomas Nory," where he is named in company with Adam Bell
and other well-known worthies.
It is not needful to extend this note with any further particulars
of Robin Hood, as he possesses, in virtue of his position as a
popular hero, a literature of his own. Those who wish to know
more of his exploits should consult Ritson's (1795) and Gutch's
(1847) Collections of Robin Hood Ballads, Child's Ballads, vol.
v. and Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, vol. i. pp.
387-400.
There are several Robin Hood Ballads in the folio MS., but
Percy only chose the one containing an account of the encounter
with Guy for printing. Ritson copied this ballad from Percy's
book, but indulged at the same time in a tirade against the
bishop's treatment of his original.]

When shaws beene sheene,[486] and shradds[487] full fayre,
[488]
And leaves both large and longe,
Itt is merrye walking in the fayre forrèst
To heare the small birdes songe.[489]

The woodweele[490] sang, and wold not cease,[491]5
[Sitting upon the spraye,[492]
Soe lowde, he wakened Robin Hood,[492]
In the greenwood where he lay.[492]

Now by my faye,[493] sayd jollye Robìn,[492]
A sweaven[494] I had this night;[492]10
I dreamt me of tow wighty[495] yemen,[492]
That fast with me can fight.][492]

Methought they did mee beate and binde,
And tooke my bow mee froe;[496]
If I be Robin alive in this lande,15
Ile be wroken[497] on them towe.

Sweavens are swift, Master, quoth John,
As the wind that blowes ore a hill;
For if itt be never so loude this night,
To-morrow itt may be still.20

Buske yee, bowne yee,[498] my merry men all,
And John shall goe with mee,
For Ile goe seeke yond wight yeomen,
In greenwood where thé bee.

Thé cast on their gownes of grene,25
[And tooke theyr bowes each one;
And they away to the greene forrèst]
A shooting forth are gone;[499]

Untill they came to the merry greenwood,
Where they had gladdest bee,30
There were thé ware[500] of a wight yeomàn,
His body leaned to a tree.

A sword and a dagger he wore by his side,
Of manye a man the bane;[501]
And he was clad in his capull hyde[502]35
Topp and tayll and mayne.

Stand you still, master, quoth Litle John,
Under this tree so grene,
And I will go to yond wight yeoman
To know what he doth meane.[503]40

Ah! John, by me thou settest noe store,
And that I farley[504] finde:[505]
How offt send I my men beffore,
And tarry my selfe behinde?

It is no cunning a knave to ken,45
And a man but heare him speake;
And itt were not for bursting of my bowe,
John, I thy head wold breake.

As often wordes they breeden bale,[506]
So they parted Robin and John;50
And John is gone to Barnesdale:
The gates[507] he knoweth eche one.

But when he came to Barnesdale,
Great heavinesse there hee hadd,
For he found tow of his owne fellòwes55
Were slaine both in a slade.[508]

And Scarlette he was flyinge a-foote
Fast over stocke and stone,

For the sheriffe with seven score men
Fast after him is gone.60

One shoote now I will shoote, quoth John,[509]
With Christ his might and mayne;
Ile make yond fellow that flyes soe fast,
To stopp he shall be fayne.[510]

Then John bent up his long bende-bowe,[511]65
And fetteled[512] him to shoote:
The bow was made of a tender boughe,
And fell downe to his foote.

Woe worth, woe worth thee, wicked wood,[513]
That ere thou grew on a tree;70
For now this day thou art my bale,
My boote[514] when thou shold bee.

His shoote it was but loosely shott,
Yet flewe not the arrowe in vaine,[515]
For itt mett one of the sherriffes men,75
Good William a Trent was slaine.

It had bene better of William a Trent
To have bene abed with sorrowe,[516]
Than to be that day in the green wood slade[517]
To meet with Little Johns arrowe.[518]80

But as it is said, when men be mett
Fyve can doe more than three,[519]
The sheriffe hath taken little John,[520]
And bound him fast to a tree.

Thou shalt be drawen by dale and downe,85
And hanged hye on a hill.
But thou mayst fayle of thy purpose, quoth John,[521]

If itt be Christ his will.[522]

Let us leave talking of Litle John,
And thinke of Robin Hood,[523]90
How he is gone to the wight yeomàn,
Where under the leaves he stood.

Good morrowe, good fellowe, sayd Robin so fayre,[524]
"Good morrowe, good fellow, quoth he:"
Methinkes by this bowe thou beares in thy hande95
A good archere thou sholdst bee.[525]

I am wilfull[526] of my waye, quo' the yeman,[527]
And of my morning tyde.
Ile lead thee through the wood, sayd Robin;
Good fellow, Ile be thy guide.100

I seeke an outlàwe, the straunger sayd,[528]
Men call him Robin Hood;
Rather Ild meet with that proud outlàwe[529]
Than fortye pound soe good.[529]

[Now come with me, thou wighty yeman,[530]105
And Robin thou soone shalt see:[530]
But first let us some pastime find[530]
Under the greenwood tree.][530]

First let us some masterye[531] make[532]
Among the woods so even,[532]110
Wee may chance to meet with Robin Hood
Here att some unsett steven.[533]

They cutt them downe two summer shroggs,[534]
That grew both under a breere,[535]
And sett them threescore rood in twaine115
To shoote the prickes[536] y-fere.[537]

Leade on, good fellowe, quoth Robin Hood,[538]
Leade on, I doe bidd thee.
Nay by my faith, good fellowe, hee sayd,[539]
My leader thou shalt bee.[540]120

The first time Robin shot at the pricke,[541]
He mist but an inch it froe:[541]
The yeoman he was an archer good,[541]
But he cold never shoote soe.

The second shoote had the wightye yeman,[542]125
He shote within the garlànde:[543]
But Robin he shott far better than hee,
For he clave the good pricke wande.[544]

A blessing upon thy heart, he sayd;[545]
Good fellowe, thy shooting is goode;130
For an thy hart be as good as thy hand,
Thou wert better then Robin Hoode.

Now tell me thy name, good fellowe, sayd he,[546]
Under the leaves of lyne.[547]
Nay by my faith, quoth bolde Robìn,[548]135
Till thou have told me thine.[549]

I dwell by dale and downe, quoth hee,
And Robin to take Ime sworne;
And when I am called by my right name
I am Guye of good Gisbòrne.140

My dwelling is in this wood, sayes Robin,
By thee I set right nought:
I am Robin Hood of Barnèsdale,
Whom thou so long hast sought.[550]

He that had neither beene kithe nor kin,145

Might have seene a full fayre sight,
To see how together these yeomen went
With blades both browne[551] and bright.

To see how these yeomen together they fought[552]
Two howres of a summers day:150
Yett neither Robin Hood nor sir Guy[553]
Them fettled to flye away.

Robin was reachles[554] on a roote,
And stumbled at that tyde;
And Guy was quicke and nimble with-all,155
And hitt him ore the left side.

Ah deere Lady, sayd Robin Hood, tho
That art both mother and may',[555]
I think it was never mans destinye
To dye before his day.160

Robin thought on our ladye deere,
And soone leapt up againe,
And strait he came with a "backward" stroke,[556]
And he sir Guy hath slayne.[557]

He took sir Guys head by the hayre,165
And sticked itt on his bowes end:
Thou hast beene a traytor all thy liffe,
Which thing must have an ende.

Robin pulled forth an Irish kniffe,
And nicked sir Guy in the face,170
That he was never on woman born,
Cold tell whose head it was.[558]

Saies, Lye there, lye there, now sir Guye,[559]
And with me be not wrothe;
If thou have had the worse strokes at my hand,175

Thou shalt have the better clothe.

Robin did off his gowne of greene,
And on sir Guy did it throwe,
And hee put on that capull hyde,
That cladd him topp to toe.180

The bowe, the arrowes, and little horne,
Now with me I will beare;[560]
For I will away to Barnèsdale,
To see how my men doe fare.

Robin Hood sett Guyes home to his mouth,185
And a loud blast in it did blow.
That beheard the sheriffe of Nottingham,
As he leaned under a lowe.[561]

Hearken, hearken, sayd the sheriffe,
I heare nowe tydings good,190
For yonder I heare sir Guyes horne blowe,
And he hath slaine Robin Hoode.

Yonder I heare sir Guyes horne blowe,
Itt blowes soe well in tyde,
And yonder comes that wightye yeoman,195
Cladd in his capull hyde.

Come hyther, come hyther, thou good sir Guy,
Aske what thou wilt of mee.
O I will none of thy gold, sayd Robin,[562]
Nor I will none of thy fee:200

But now I have slaine the master, he sayes,
Let me go strike the knave;
This is all the rewarde I aske;
Nor noe other will I have.

Thou art a madman, said the sheriffe,205

Thou sholdest have had a knights fee:
But seeing thy asking hath beene soe bad,
Well granted it shale be.

When Litle John heard his master speake,
Well knewe he it was his steven:[563]210
Now shall I be looset, quoth Litle John,
With Christ his might in heaven.

Fast Robin hee hyed him to Little John,
He thought to loose him belive;[564]
The sheriffe and all his companye215
Fast after him did drive.

Stand abacke, stand abacke, sayd Robin;
Why draw you mee soe neere?
Itt was never the use in our countryè,
Ones shrift another shold heere.220

But Robin pulled forth an Irysh kniffe,
And losed John hand and foote,
And gave him sir Guyes bow into his hand,
And bade it be his boote.[565]

Then John he took Guyes bow in his hand,[566]225
His boltes and arrowes eche one:
When the sheriffe saw Little John bend his bow,
He fettled him to be gone.

Towards his house in Nottingham towne,[567]
He fled full fast away;230
And soe did all his companye:
Not one behind wold stay.

But he cold neither runne soe fast,[568]
Nor away soe fast cold ryde,[568]
But Litle John with an arrowe soe broad,[568]235

He shott him into the 'backe'-syde.[568]

⁂ The title of Sir was not formerly peculiar to knights, it was
given to priests, and sometimes to very inferior personages.
Dr. Johnson thinks this title was applied to such as had taken the
degree of A. B. in the universities, who are still stiled, Domini,
"Sirs," to distinguish them from Undergraduates, who have no
prefix, and from Masters of Arts, who are stiled Magistri,
"Masters."

FOOTNOTES:

[480] See Thoresby's Ducat. Leod. p. 576. Biog. Brit. vi. 3933.
[481] Stukeley, in his Palæographia Britannica, No. II. 1746.
[482] See also the following ballad, v. 147.
[483] Num. D. 5. 2.
[484] Old Plays, 4to. K. vol. x.
[485] Ser. 6th before K. Ed. Apr. 12. fol. 75, Gilpin's Life of Lat.,
p. 122.
[486] [when woods are bright.]
[487] [twigs.]
[488] [Ver. 1. shales, f. MS.]
[489] [V. 4. birds singe, f. MS.]
[490] [woodpecker or thrush.]
[491] [V. 5. woodweete, f. MS.]
[492] [In place of ver. 6-12 between brackets the f. MS. has—

"Amongst the leaves a lyne
[* * * * *]
And it is by two wight yeomen
By deare God that I meane."]

[493] [faith.]
[494] [dream.]

[495] [strong.]
[496] [from me.]
[497] [revenged.]
[498] [dress ye, get ye ready.]
[499] [Ver. 28. a shooting gone are they, f. MS.]
[500] [were they aware.]
[501] [V. 34. had beene many a mans bane, f. MS.]
[502] [horse-hide.]
[503] [V. 40. to know his meaning trulye, f. MS.]
[504] [strange.]
[505] [V. 42. and thats a ffarley thinge, f. MS.]
[506] [breed mischief.]
[507] i.e. ways, passes, paths, ridings. Gate is a common word
in the north for way.
[508] [greensward between two woods.]
[509] [Ver. 61. yet one shoote I'le shoote, says Little John, f.
MS.]
[510] [V. 64. to be both glad & ffaine, f. MS.]
[511] [V. 65. John bent up a good veiwe bowe, f. MS.]
[512] [prepared.]
[513] [V. 69. woe worth thee, wicked wood, says litle John, f.
MS.]
[514] help.
[515] [Ver. 74. the arrowe flew in vaine, f. MS.]
[516] [V. 78. to hange upon a gallowe, f. MS.]
[517] [V. 79. then for to lye in the green-woode, f. MS.]
[518] [V. 80. there slaine with an arrowe, f. MS.]
[519] [V. 82. 6 can doe more then 3, f. MS.]
[520] [V. 83. and they have tane litle John, f. MS.]
[521] [V. 87. But thou may ffayle, quoth litle John, f. MS.]
[522] [V. 88. If itt be christ's own will, f. MS.]
[523] [V. 90-92. in place of these three verses the f. MS. has:—

"for hee is bound fast to a tree,
and talke of Guy and Robin Hood
In they green woode where they bee
[how these two yeomen together they mett
under the leaves of Lyne,

to see what marchandise they made
even at that same time."]]
[524] [Ver. 93. good morrow, good fellow! quoth Sir Guy, f.
MS.]
[525] [V. 96. a good archer thou seems to bee, f. MS.]
[526] [ignorant.]
[527] [V. 97. quoth Sir Guye, f. MS.]
[528] [V. 101. I seeke an outlaw, quoth Sir Guye, f. MS.]
[529] [V. 103-4.—

"I had rather meet with him upon a day
Then 40li. of golde."]

[530] [V. 105-8. in place of these four verses the f. MS. has—

"Iff you tow mett itt wold be seene whether were better
afore yee did part awaye;
Let us some other pastime find,
good ffellow, I thee pray:"]

[531] [trial of skill.]
[532] [V. 109-10.

"Let us some other masteryes make,
and wee will walke in the woods even," f. MS.]

[533] [at a time not previously appointed.]
[534] [shrubs.]
[535] [briar.]
[536] [mark in the centre of the target.]
[537] [Ver. 116. prickes full near, f. MS.]
[538] [V. 117. sayd Sir Guye, f. MS.]
[539] [V. 119. nay by my faith, quoth Robin Hood, f. MS.]
[540] [V. 120. the leader, f. MS.]
[541] [V. 121-23:—

"the first good shoot that Robin ledd
did not shoote an inch the pricke ffroe.
Guy was an archer good enoughe."]

[542] [V. 125. the 2nd shoote Sir Guy shott.]
[543] [the ring within which the prick was set.]
[544] [pole.]

[545] [V. 129. gods blessing on thy heart! sayes Guye.]
[546] [Ver. 133. tell me thy name, good fellow, quoth Guy.]
[547] [lime.]
[548] [V. 135. good robin.]
[549] [V. 136-140:—

"I dwell by dale and downe, quoth Guye,
and I have done many a curst turne;
and he that calles me by my right name,
calles me Guy of good Gysborne."]

[550] V. 144. a ffellow thou hast long sought.
[551] The common epithet for a sword or other offensive
weapon, in the old metrical romances is Brown, as "brown
brand," or "brown sword," "brown bill," &c., and sometimes
even "bright brown sword." Chaucer applies the word rustie in
the same sense; thus he describes the reve:—

"And by his side he bare a rusty blade."
Prol. ver. 620.

And even thus the God Mars:—

"And in his hand he had a rousty sword."
Test. of Cressid. 188

Spenser has sometimes used the same epithet. See Warton's
Observ. vol. ii. p. 62. It should seem, from this particularity, that
our ancestors did not pique themselves upon keeping their
weapons bright: perhaps they deemed it more honourable to
carry them stained with the blood of their enemies. [As the
swords are here said to be bright as well as brown, they could
not have been rusty. The expression nut-brown sword was used
to designate a Damascus blade.]
[552] [Ver. 149. "to have seen how these yeomen together
fought."]
[553] [V. 151-2:—

"itt was neither Guy nor Robin Hood
that ffettled them to flye away."]

[554] [careless.]
[555] [maid.]
[556] V. 163. awkwarde, MS.
[557] [V. 164. "good sir Guy hee has slayne," f. MS.]
[558] [Ver. 172. cold tell who Sir Guye was.]

[559] [V. 173. good Sir Guye.]
[560] [V. 182:—

"and with me now Ile beare
ffor now I will goe to Barnesdale," f. MS.]

[561] [small hill.]
[562] [Ver. 199:—

"Ile none of thy gold, sayes Robin Hood
nor Ile none of itt have," f. MS.]

[563] [voice.]
[564] [quickly.]
[565] [help.]
[566] [Ver. 225-8:—

"But John tooke Guyes bow in his hand,
his arrowes were rawstye by the roote;
the sherriffe saw little John draw a bow
and ffettle him to shoote."]

[567] [V. 229. Towards his house in Nottingham.]
[568] [V. 233-6:—

"But he cold neither soe fast goe,
nor away soe fast runn,
but litle John with an arrow broade
did cleave his head in twinn," f. MS.]

IX.

AN ELEGY ON HENRY FOURTH EARL OF
NORTHUMBERLAND.

he subject of this poem, which was written by Skelton, is the death of Henry
Percy, fourth earl of Northumberland, who fell a victim to the avarice of

Henry VII. In 1489 the parliament had granted the king a
subsidy for carrying on the war in Bretagne. This tax was
found so heavy in the North, that the whole country was in a
flame. The E. of Northumberland, then lord lieutenant for
Yorkshire, wrote to inform the king of the discontent, and
praying an abatement. But nothing is so unrelenting as avarice: the king
wrote back that not a penny should be abated. This message being delivered
by the earl with too little caution, the populace rose, and, supposing him to
be the promoter of their calamity, broke into his house, and murdered him,
with several of his attendants, who yet are charged by Skelton with being
backward in their duty on this occasion. This melancholy event happened at
the earl's seat at Cocklodge, near Thirske, in Yorkshire, April 28, 1489. See
Lord Bacon, &c.
If the reader does not find much poetical merit in this old poem (which yet
is one of Skelton's best), he will see a striking picture of the state and
magnificence kept up by our ancient nobility during the feudal times. This
great earl is described here as having, among his menial servants, knights,
squires, and even barons: see v. 32. 183. &c. which, however different from
modern manners, was formerly not unusual with our greater barons, whose
castles had all the splendour and offices of a royal court before the laws
against retainers abridged and limited the number of their attendants.
John Skelton, who commonly styled himself Poet Laureat, died June 21,
1529. The following poem, which appears to have been written soon after
the event, is printed from an ancient MS. copy preserved in the British
Museum, being much more correct than that printed among Skelton's Poems
in bl. let. 12mo. 1568.—It is addressed to Henry Percy, fifth earl of
Northumberland, and is prefaced, &c. in the following manner:
Poeta Skelton Laureatus libellum suum metrice alloquitur.

Ad dominum properato meum mea pagina Percy,
Qui Northumbrorum jura paterna gerit,
Ad nutum celebris tu prona repone leonis,
Quæque suo patri tristia justa cano.
Ast ubi perlegit, dubiam sub mente volutet
Fortunam, cuncta quæ male fida rotat.
Qui leo sit felix, & Nestoris occupet annos;

Ad libitum cujus ipse paratus ero.

[Percy does not do justice to Skelton's poetical powers in the
above note, as this Elegy is written in a style not at all
characteristic of him and is also far from being one of his best
poems. Skelton was one of the earliest personal satirists in our
language, and he flew at high game when he attacked the
powerful Wolsey with fierce invective, in his "Why come ye nat
to courte?" His Boke of Phyllyp Sparrowe is described by
Coleridge as "an exquisite and original poem," and its subject
entitles him to the designation of the modern Catullus. It was
very popular in his day, and the nursery rhyme of Who killed
Cock robin? was probably paraphrased from the portion of the
poem in which the funeral of the sparrow is related. Skelton was
a distinguished scholar and his earlier poems are written in the
serious strain of the Elegy, but curiously enough about the time
that he took orders (1498) and became rector of Diss in Norfolk,
he began to write in a more natural, frolicsome and satirical
vein, and adopted the metre now known as Skeltonian. He was
not very particular as to the words he used, but he does not
deserve the opprobrious epithet that Pope applies to him in the
couplet—

"Chaucer's worst ribaldry is learned by rote,
And beastly Skelton heads of houses quote."

Skelton graduated as poet laureate at the two Universities of
Oxford and Cambridge, and the King allowed him to wear an
appropriate decoration at court. There is a full length portrait of
the poet in Brydges' British Bibliographer (vol. iv. p. 389), taken
from one on the back of the title of A ryght delectable tratyse
upon a goodly Garlande or Chaplet of Laurell by Mayster
Skelton, Poete laureat.

The Rev. Alexander Dyce published the first complete collected
edition of Skelton's Poetical Works in 1843 (2 vols. 8vo.)]

SKELTON LAUREAT UPON THE DOLORUS DETHE AND MUCH
LAMENTABLE CHAUNCE OF THE MOOST HONORABLE ERLE
OF NORTHUMBERLANDE.

I wayle, I wepe, I sobbe, I sigh ful sore
The dedely fate, the dolefulle destenny
Of him that is gone, alas! withoute restore,
Of the blode[569] royall descendinge nobelly;
Whos lordshepe doutles was slayne lamentably5
Thorow treson ageyn[570] hym compassyd and wrought;
Trew to his prince, in word, in dede, and thought.

Of hevenly poems, O Clyo calde by name
In the college of musis goddess hystoriall,
Adres the to me, whiche am both halt and lame10
In elect uteraunce to make memoryall:
To the for soccour, to the for helpe I call
Myne homely rudnes and drighnes to expelle
With the freshe waters of Elyconys[571] welle.

Of noble actes auncyently enrolde,15
Of famous princis and lordes of astate,[572]
By thy report ar wonte to be extold,
Regestringe trewly every formare date;
Of thy bountie after the usuall rate,
Kyndle in me suche plenty of thy noblès,[573]20

Thes sorrowfulle dities that I may shew expres.

In sesons past who hathe harde or sene
Of formar writinge by any presidente
That vilane hastarddis[574] in ther furious tene,[575]
Fulfyld with malice of froward entente,25
Confeterd[576] togeder of commoun concente
Falsly to slo[577] ther moste singular goode lorde?
It may be registerde of shamefull recorde.

So noble a man, so valiaunt lorde and knight,
Fulfilled with honor, as all the worlde dothe ken;30
At his commaundement, whiche had both day and night
Knyghtis and squyers, at every season when
He calde upon them, as menyall houshold men:
Were no thes commones uncurteis karlis of kynde[578]
To slo their owne lorde? God was not in their minde.35

And were not they to blame, I say also,
That were aboute hym, his owne servants of trust,
To suffre hym slayn of his mortall fo?
Fled away from hym, let hym ly in the dust:
They bode[579] not till the rekening were discust.40
What shuld I flatter? what shulde I glose[580] or paynt?
Fy, fy for shame, their harts wer to faint.

In Englande and Fraunce, which gretly was redouted;[581]
Of whom both Flaunders and Scotland stode in drede;
To whome grete astates obeyde and lowttede;[582]45
A mayny[583] of rude villayns made him for to blede:
Unkindly they slew hym, that holp them oft at nede:
He was their bulwark, their paves,[584] and their wall,
Yet shamfully they slew hym; that shame mot[585] them
befal.

I say, ye commoners, why wer ye so stark mad?50

What frantyk frensy fyll[586] in youre brayne?
Where was your wit and reson, ye shuld have had?
What willfull foly made yow to ryse agayne[587]
Your naturall lord? alas! I can not fayne.
Ye armed you with will, and left your wit behynd;55
Well may you be called comones most unkynd.

He was your chyfteyne, your shelde, your chef defence,
Redy to assyst you in every tyme of nede:
Your worship[588] depended of his excellence:
Alas! ye mad men, to far ye did excede:60
Your hap was unhappy, to ill was your spede:
What movyd you agayn hym to war or to fight?
What aylde you to sle your lord agyn all right?

The grounde of his quarel was for his sovereyn lord,
The welle concernyng of all the hole lande,65
Demaundyng soche dutyes as nedis most acord
To the right of his prince which shold not be withstand;
For whos cause ye slew hym with your awne hande:
But had his nobill men done wel that day,
Ye had not been hable to have saide him nay.70

But ther was fals packinge,[589] or els I am begylde:
How-be-it the matter was evident and playne,
For yf they had occupied[590] ther spere and ther shelde,
This noble man doutles had not be slayne.
Bot men say they wer lynked with a double chayn,75
And held with the commouns under a cloke,
Whiche kindeled the wyld fyre that made all this smoke.

The commouns renyed[591] ther taxes to pay
Of them demaunded and asked by the kinge;
With one voice importune, they playnly said nay:80
They buskt them on a bushment[592] themself in baile[593]
to bringe:
Agayne the kings plesure to wrastle or to wringe,[594]

Bluntly as bestis withe boste[595] and with cry
They saide, they forsede[596] not, nor carede not to dy.

The noblenes of the northe this valiant lorde and knyght,85
As man that was innocent of trechery or trayne,
Presed forthe boldly to witstand the myght,
And, lyke marciall Hector, he fauht them agayne,
Vigorously upon them with myght and with mayne,
Trustinge in noble men that wer with hym there:90
Bot all they fled from hym for falshode or fere.

Barons, knights, squyers, one and alle,
Togeder with servaunts of his famuly,
Turnid their backis, and let ther master fall,
Of whos [life] they counted not a flye;95
Take up whos wolde for them, they let hym ly.
Alas! his golde, his fee, his annuall rente
Upon suche a sort[597] was ille bestowde and spent.

He was envyronde aboute on every syde
Withe his enemys, that were stark mad and wode;[598]100
Yet whils he stode he gave them woundes wyde:
Alas for routhe![599] what thouche his mynde were goode,
His corage manly, yet ther he shed his bloode!
All left alone, alas! he fawte in vayne;
For cruelly amonge them ther he was slayne.105

Alas for pite! that Percy thus was spylt,[600]
The famous erle of Northumberlande:
Of knightly prowès the sworde pomel and hylt,
The myghty lyoun[601] doutted[602] by se and lande!
O dolorous chaunce of fortuns fruward hande!110
What man remembring how shamfully he was slayne,
From bitter weepinge hymself kan restrayne?

O cruell Mars, thou dedly god of war!
O dolorous teusday, dedicate to thy name,

When thou shoke thy sworde so noble a man to mar!115
O grounde ungracious, unhappy be thy fame,
Whiche wert endyed with rede blode of the same!
Moste noble erle! O fowle mysuryd[603] grounde
Whereon he gat his fynal dedely wounde!

O Atropos, of the fatall systers thre,120
Goddes mooste cruell unto the lyf of man,
All merciles, in the ys no pitè!
O homycide, whiche sleest[604] all that thou kan,
So forcibly upon this erle thow ran,
That with thy sworde enharpid[605] of mortall drede,125
Thou kit[606] asonder his perfight[607] vitall threde!

My wordis unpullysht be nakide and playne,
Of aureat[608] poems they want ellumynynge;[609]
Bot by them to knoulege ye may attayne
Of this lordis dethe and of his murdrynge.130
Which whils he lyvyd had fuyson[610] of every thing,
Of knights, of squyers, chef lord of toure and toune,
Tyl fykkill[611] fortune began on hym to frowne.

Paregall[612] to dukis, with kings he myght compare,
Surmountinge in honor all erls he did excede,135
To all cuntreis aboute hym reporte[613] me I dare.
Lyke to Eneas benygne in worde and dede,
Valiaunt as Hector in every marciall nede,
Provydent, discrete, circumspect, and wyse,139
Tyll the chaunce ran agyne him of fortunes duble dyse.

What nedethe me for to extoll his fame
With my rude pen enkankerd all with rust?
Whos noble actis shew worsheply his name,
Transcendyng far myne homely muse, that must
Yet sumwhat wright supprisid with hartly lust,[614]145
Truly reportinge his right noble astate,

Immortally whiche is immaculate.

His noble blode never disteynyd was,
Trew to his prince for to defende his right,
Doublenes hatinge, fals maters to compas,150
Treytory[615] and treson he bannesht out of syght,
With trowth to medle was all his hole delyght,
As all his kuntrey kan testefy the same:
To slo suche a lord, alas, it was grete shame.

If the hole quere[616] of the musis nyne155
In me all onely wer sett and comprisyde,
Enbrethed with the blast of influence dyvyne,
As perfightly as could be thought or devysyd;
To me also allthouche it were promysyde
Of laureat Phebus holy the eloquence,160
All were to litill for his magnyficence.

O yonge lyon, bot tender yet of age,[617]
Grow and encrese, remembre thyn astate,
God the assyst unto thyn herytage,
And geve the grace to be more fortunate,165
Agayne rebellyouns arme to make debate.
And, as the lyoune, whiche is of bestis kinge,
Unto thy subjectis be kurteis and benyngne.

I pray God sende the prosperous lyf and long,
Stabille thy mynde constant to be and fast,170
Right to mayntein, and to resist all wronge:
All flattringe faytors[618] abhor and from the cast,
Of foule detraction God kepe the from the blast:
Let double delinge in the have no place,
And be not light of credence in no case.175

Wythe hevy chere, with dolorous hart and mynd,
Eche man may sorrow in his inward thought,
Thys lords death, whose pere is hard to fynd

Allgyf[619] Englond and Fraunce were thorow saught.
Al kings, all princes, all dukes, well they ought180
Bothe temporall and spirituall for to complayne
This noble man, that crewelly was slayne.

More specially barons, and those knygtes bold,
And all other gentilmen with hym enterteynd
In fee, as menyall men of his housold,185
Whom he as lord worsheply manteynd:
To sorowfull weping they ought to be constreynd,
As oft as thei call to ther remembraunce,
Of ther good lord the fate and dedely chaunce.

O perlese prince of hevyn emperyalle,190
That with one worde formed al thing of noughte;
Hevyn, hell, and erth obey unto thi kall;
Which to thy resemblance wondersly hast wrought
All mankynd, whom thou full dere hast boght,
With thy blode precious our finaunce[620] thou dyd pay,195
And us redemed, from the fendys pray;[621]

To the pray we, as prince incomperable,
As thou art of mercy and pite the well,
Thou bringe unto thy joye etermynable[622]
The sowle of this lorde from all daunger of hell,200
In endles blis with the to byde and dwell
In thy palace above the orient,
Where thou art lorde, and God omnipotent.

O quene of mercy, O lady full of grace,
Maiden moste pure, and goddis moder dere,205
To sorowfull harts chef comfort and solace,
Of all women O floure withouten pere,
Pray to thy son above the starris clere,
He to vouchesaf by thy mediatioun
To pardon thy servant, and bringe to salvacion.210

In joy triumphaunt the hevenly yerarchy,[623]
With all the hole sorte[624] of that glorious place,
His soule mot[625] receyve into ther company
Thorowe bounte of hym that formed all solace:
Well of pite, of mercy, and of grace,215
The father, the son, and the holy goste
In Trinitate one God of myghts moste.

† ‡ † I have placed the foregoing poem of Skelton's before the
following extract from Hawes, not only because it was written
first, but because I think Skelton is in general to be considered as
the earlier poet; many of his poems being written long before
Hawes's Graunde Amour.

FOOTNOTES:

[569] The mother of Henry, first Earl of Northumberland, was
Mary daughter to Henry E. of Lancaster, whose father Edmond
was second son of K. Henry III.—The mother and wife of the
second Earl of Northumberland were both lineal descendants of
K. Edward III.—The Percys also were lineally descended from
the Emperour Charlemagne and the ancient Kings of France, by
his ancestor Josceline de Lovain (son of Godfrey Duke of
Brabant), who took the name of Percy on marrying the heiress
of that house in the reign of Hen. II. Vid. Camden Britan.,
Edmondson, &c.
[570] [against.]
[571] [Helicons.]
[572] [estate.]
[573] [nobleness.]
[574] [rough fellows.]
[575] [wrath.]
[576] [confederated.]
[577] [slay.]
[578] [churls by nature.]

[579] [abode.]
[580] [gloss over.]
[581] [dreaded.]
[582] [crouched.]
[583] [a number.]
[584] [large shield.]
[585] [may.]
[586] [fell.]
[587] [against.]
[588] [honour.]
[589] [false dealing.]
[590] [used.]
[591] [refused.]
[592] [they prepared themselves for an ambush.]
[593] [trouble.]
[594] [contend.]
[595] [pride.]
[596] [heeded.]
[597] [set.]
[598] [wild.]
[599] [pity.]
[600] [destroyed.]
[601] Alluding to his crest and supporters. Doutted is contracted
for redoubted.
[602] [dreaded.]
[603] [misused, applied to a bad purpose.]
[604] [slayest.]
[605] [hooked or edged.]
[606] [cut.]
[607] [perfect.]
[608] [golden.]
[609] [embellishing.]
[610] [abundance.]
[611] [fickle.]
[612] [equal.]

[613] [refer.]
[614] [overpowered with hearty desire.]
[615] [treachery.]
[616] [whole choir.]
[617] [the earl's son was only eleven years old at the time of his
father's death.]
[618] [deceivers.]
[619] [although.]
[620] [fine or forfeiture.]
[621] [prey of the fiends.]
[622] [interminable.]
[623] [hierarchy.]
[624] [whole company.]
[625] [may.]

X.

THE TOWER OF DOCTRINE.

T he reader has here a specimen of the descriptive powers of
Stephen Hawes, a celebrated poet in the reign of Hen. VII.
tho' now little known. It is extracted from an allegorical poem
of his (written in 1505.) intitled, The History of Graunde
Amoure and La Bel Pucell, called the Pastime of Pleasure,
&c. 4to. 1555. See more of Hawes in Ath. Ox. v. 1. p. 6. and Warton's
Observ. v. 2. p. 105. He was also author of a book, intitled, The Temple of
Glass. Wrote by Stephen Hawes, gentleman of the bedchamber to K. Henry
VII. Pr. for Caxton, 4to. no date.
The following Stanzas are taken from Chap. III. and IV. of the Hist. above-
mentioned. "How Fame departed from Graunde Amoure and left him with
Governaunce and Grace, and how he went to the Tower of Doctrine, &c."—
As we are able to give no small lyric piece of Hawes's, the reader will
excuse the insertion of this extract.

[Most readers will probably be satisfied with the seventy-four
lines that Percy has extracted from Hawes's long didactic poem,
but those who wish to read the whole will find it reprinted by
Mr. Thomas Wright in the fifteenth volume of the Percy
Society's publications. The account of Rhetorick and the other
allegorical nullities is weary reading, but the chapter in
commendation of Gower, Chaucer and the author's master
Lydgate, "the chefe orygynal of my lernyng," is interesting from
a literary point of view. The poem was very popular in its own
day and passed through several editions, and it has found
admirers among critics of a later age. The Rev. Dr. Hodgson in a
letter to Percy, dated Sept. 22, 1800,[626] speaks of it in very
extravagant terms, and regrets that it had not then found an
editor, as he regarded it "as one of the finest poems in our own
or any other language." Warton describes Hawes as the only
writer deserving the name of a poet in the reign of Henry VII.
and says that "this poem contains no common touches of
romantic and allegoric fiction." Mr. Wright however looks at it
as "one of those allegorical writings which were popular with
our forefathers, but which can now only be looked upon as
monuments of the bad taste of a bad age." Hawes was a native
of Suffolk, but the dates of his birth and death are not known.
He studied in the University of Oxford and afterwards travelled
much, becoming "a complete master of the French and Italian
poetry."]

Cap. III.