UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT LOS ANGELES
RELIQUES OF
iicicnt l^^nnliolj l^nEttp,
CONSISTING OF
OLD HEROIC BALLADS, SONGS, AND OTHER
PIECES OF OUR EARLIER POETS,
TOGETHER WITH SOME FEW
OF LATER DATE,
B V T H () MAS PERCY. D. D ,
BISHOP OF DROMORE,
EDITED, WITH A GENERAL INTRODUCTION, ADDITIONAL
PREFACES, NOTES, ETC., BY
HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
L O N D O iN :
BICKERS AND SON, I, LFJCESTER SQUARE.
1876.
CHISWICK PRESS : —PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKINS,
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.
./
CONTENTS OF VOLUME THE FIRST.
gniTOR'S Preface ....
GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
The Minstrels
Ballads and Ballad Writers
Imitators and Forgers
Authenticity of Certain Ballads
Preservers of the Ballads .
Life of Percy .
Folio MS. and the Rcliques
Ballad Literature since Percy
Dedications ....
Advertisement to the fourth edition
Preface .....
Page
ix
Xlll
xxiv
xliv
xlviii
Iviii
Ixxi
Ixxxi
xci
I
4
7
BOOK THE FIRST.
1. The ancient Ballad of Chevy-chase
2. The Battle of Otterbourne
Illustration of the Names in the foregoing ballads
The Jew's Daughter. A Scottish Ballad
Sir Cauline ........
Copy from the Folio MS. ....
Edward, Edward. A Scottish Ballad .
6. King Estmere .......
On the word Termagant ....
Sir Patrick Spence. A Scottish Ballad
Robin Hood and Guy of Cisborne
9. An Elegy on Henry Fourth, Earl of Northumberland
by Skelton .......
10. The Tower of Doctrine, by Stephen Hawes .
7-
8.
19
35
51
54
61
76
82
85
96
98
102
"7
127
vi CONTENTS.
11. The Child of Elle . . . .
Fragment from the FoHo MS.
12. Edom o' Gordon. A Scottish Ballad .
Captain Carre, from the Folio MS.
Page
131
138
140
148
BOOK THE SECOND.
( Containing Ballads that illustrate Shakespeare)
1. Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of
Cloudesley .......
2. The aged Lover renounceth Love, by Lord Vaux
—3. Jephthah judge of Israel ....
4. A Robyn Jolly Robyn ....
5. A Song to the lute in musicke, by R. Edwards
6. King Cophetua and the Beggar-maid .
7. Take thy old cloak about thee
8. Willow, Willow, Willow
9. Sir Lancelot du Lake .
10. Corydon's Farewell to Phillis
The Ballad of constant Susanna
11. Gernutus the Jew of Venice
12. The passionate Shepherd to his Love, by Marlowe
The Nymph's Reply, by Sir W. Raleigh
iT^. Titus Andronicus's Complaint
14. Take those lips away ....
15. King Leir and his three daughters
16. Youth and Age, by Shakespeare .
17. The Frolicksome Duke, or the Tinker's good Fortune
18. The Friar of Orders Gray, by Percy .
153
179
182
185
187
189
195
199
204
209
209
211
220
223
224
230
231
237
238
242
5-
6.
1-
BOOK THE THIRD.
The more modern Ballad of Chevy-chace . . . 249
Illustration of the Northern Names . . . 263
Death's final Conquest, by James Shirley . . . 264
The Rising in the North . . . . . .266
Copy from the Folio MS 274
Northumberland betrayed by Douglas . . -279
Copy from the Folio MS. ..... 289
My Mind to me a Kingdom is, by Sir Edward Dyer . 294
The Patient Countess, by W. Warner . . . .298
Dowsabell, by M. Drayton ..... 304
CONTENTS. vii
Page
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 Lallad . . . . .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 33 1
17. ^Vlcanzor 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 43 1
Index to Vol. 1 459
ERRATA.
Page 27, Note f, after Fit read " see vol. 2, p. 182."
Page 76, add *.;^* at end oi Sir Cauline.
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
kJ-?^J^^^^ undertakin<T^ the supervision of a new
^S^ ^^^) ^^itic)n of the Reliqiics of Ancie?it Eng-
7^}^^ lish 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 em-
body 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 there-
X EDITOR'S PREFACE.
fore 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.
I 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 glos-
sarial 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
EDITOR'S PREFACE. xi
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 EngHsh 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 with-
out whose previous labours mine could not have
been performed, more particularly to Messrs. Fur-
nivall and Hales, who most kindly gave me per-
mission 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. Wiieatley.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
EVERAL questions of general interest
have arisen for discussion by the editor
durinor 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
Reliqiies, 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.
P^olio MS. and the Reliqiies.
Ballad Literature since Percy.
Tin: MiNSTRKLS.
When Percy wrote the opening sentence in his
first sketch of that " Essay on the Ancient ICnglish
xlv THE MINSTRELS.
Minstrels" (1765), which was the foundation of
the Hterature of the subject, he Httle expected the
severe handhng 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 Encyclopaedia Britannica, where he wrote :
" When so popular a department of poetry has at-
tained 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 dis-
cussion 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 dif-
fidence and better temper in proportion to their un-
certainty." 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
THE MINSTRELS. xv
Rcligucs and the accurate antiquary have differed
so very Httle 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 em-
ployed ; while, as is said to happen in theological
polemics, the contest grows warmer in proportion as
the cfround concerninir 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
Perc)- had done that the term minstrel was a com-
prehensive one, including the poet, the singer, and
the musician, not to mention the fahlicr, contcicr,
jiiglnir, haladin, &c.
Ritsondelii-dited in collectinir instances of the deera-
dation 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 mate-
rial he could to set the minstrel in a eood lieht.
There is abundant evidence that the latter was rieht
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 con- \
trol such Bohem^ns as wandered about the country '
without lic'enceT The minstrel of a noble house wa^
distinguished by bearing the badge of his lord at-
tached 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 enact-
ments, so the unattached minstrels were treated as
vagrants. Besides the minstrels of great lords, there
were others attached to important cities. On May 26,
I 298, as appears by the Wardrobe accounts of lul-
ward I., that king gave 6^. '^d. to Walter Lovel, the
harper of Chichester, whom he found jjlaxing the
xvi THE MINSTRELS.
harp before the tomb of St. Richard in the Cathedral
of Chichester.
Waits were formerly attached to most corpo-
rate towns, and were, in fact, the corporation min-
strels. 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 sing-
ing out the hours of the night, and warning the
town against dangers, they accompanied themselves
with the harp, the pipe, the hautboy, and other in-
struments. They played in the town for the gratifi-
cation of the inhabitants, and attended the mayor on
all state occasions. At the mayor's feast they occu-
pied the minstrels' gallery. From the merchants'
guild book at Leicester, it appears that as early as
1 3 14 " 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 161 2 "Thomas Pollard, musician,"
were likewise admitted.*
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 Rcliques.
The knightly Troubadours and Trouveres, 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.
* See article on " Waits' Badges," by Llewellyn Jewitt, in Reli-
qua7y, vol. xii. p. 145.
THE MINSTRELS. xvii
The wise son of Sirach enumerates amonor those
famous men who are worthy to be praised " such as
found out musical tunes, and recited verses in writ-
ing ;" but, according to Hector Boece, the early
Scottish kings thought otherwise. In the Laws of
Kenneth II., ''bardis" are mentioned with vaga-
bonds, fools, and idle persons, to be scourged andi''
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 Mac-
beth, nearly two centuries later. Better times, how-
ever, 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,N
and minstrels " are again branded with the opprobri- j
ous 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 beg-
gars 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 par-
liament 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
b
xviii THE MINSTRELS.
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 pro-
fession 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 highway-
men, who lay in wait for him near Dunsmore Heath.
He wrote a long account of his misfortune in verse,*
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, how-
ever, 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
* Chant of Richard Sheale, Brydges' British Bibliographer, vol.
iv. p. 100.
THE MINSTRELS. xix
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 Eng-land, it flourished with vigour in Wales ; and
we learn that the harpers and fiddlers were promi-
nent 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 Eliza-
beth's reign, shows the estimation in which the min-
strels 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
doincjs of their ancestors." *
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 re-
membrance of the fallen glories of the minstrel's pro-
fession. 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,
* Ellis's Original Letters, Second Series, vol. iii. p. 49.
XX THE MINSTRELS.
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 \.q\\\^ 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 dona-
tion of seed corn. This order of minstrels is alluded
to in the comic song of Maggy Lauder, who thus ad-
dresses a piper :
' Live ye upo' the border ? ' " *
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 min-
strel 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 aee 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 be-
longed ; and in some burghs they had a small allot-
ment of land, called the Pipers' Croft." Scott further
adds : — " Other itinerants, not professed musicians,
* See Percy's remarks on this Hne at p. 379 (note).
THE MINSTRELS. xxi
found their welcome to their night's quarters readily
ensured by their knowledge in legendary lore. John
Grceme, 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 par-
ticulars 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 con-
trast to his extreme feebleness of person and dotage
of mind." Ritson, in mentioning some relics of
the minstrel class, writes : — " It is not lonof 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
luimstrum, 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 brouglit u[; to the profession of a minstrel, nor
possessed any great store of songs, of which that
mentioned in the text seemed the principal. Havinj
xxli THE MINSTRELS.
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."*
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 Traditio7ial
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 de-
scendants 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 in-
dustrious, though poor men, having a local habita-
tion 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
llare 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."
* Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads, ed. 1829, vol. i. p. xxvi.
THE MINSTRELS. xxiii
In his A^iciejit Poems, Ballads, and So7igs of tJic
Peasafitry 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 INIinstrel : " — " This poor minstrel,
from whose recitation two of our ballads were ob-
tained, met his death by drowning in December,
1844. He had been at a merry meeting at Gar-
grave in Craven, and it is supposed that owing to
the darkness of the nieht 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 wel-
come. 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 kmgs had had more ups and
downs in the w^orld!' 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 crrave."
O
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 Metamorplioscd Gipsies,
162 1, Townshcad, 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,
xxiv BALLADS AND
though the money became in time reduced in value,
so that, as the minstrel fell in repute, his reward be-
came 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."*
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 min-
strel was the chanting of the long romances of chiv-
± airy, 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 por-
tions 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,
* Marjoreybank's Annals of Scotland, Edinb. 1814, p. 5, quoted
in Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. xxx. (note).
BALLAD WRITERS. xxv
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.' " *
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 Mcrrye 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 de-
scribed. Frequently the ballad opens with a con-
versation, 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 low-
lands 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 Yoting Bcichan ajid Susan Pyc
dilated by a story-teller into a tale of very remark-
able dimensions — a paragraph of prose, and then a
* Motherwell's Minstrelsy, 1827, p. xlvii.
xxvi BALLADS AND
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 keep-
ing 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 run 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.*
The contrast between the construction of minstrel
Y 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 suf-
ficiently wise not to reject the treasures of their pre-
decessors, and many of the old songs were rewritten
* Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. xv.
BALLAD WRITERS. xxvii
and lengthened to suit their purpose. Sir Patrick
Spencc would perhaps be the best of the minstrel
ballads to oppose to one of the best of the later bal-
lads, such as the Beggar s Daughter of Bediiall Green ;
but as its authenticity has been disputed, it will be
well to choose another, and Captainc 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 com-
mences 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."*
This is a remarkable contrast to the opening of
the Beggar's Daiighter : —
" 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. " t
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 under-
went will be found in the CJiilciren in the Wooci.X
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 dcare,
These wordes, which 1 shall write ;
See below, p. 148. t "^'ol- ii- P- ^72- + Vol. iii. bk. ii. art. 18.
xxviii BALLADS AND
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."
VTo put the matter simply, we may say that the
writer of the old minstrel ballad expected an un-
hesitating 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 appeal-
ing to the exploits of some other notable man-
slayer."* On the other hand the professional
ballad-writer gives a reason for everything he
states, and in consequence fills his work with_re-^
dundancies, 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,'^ 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
Tiave been his invariable practice to graft the pretti-
nesses 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." \
'^ 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
* Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. xiii.
t See below, p. 380. j See below, p. 70.
BALLAD WRITERS. xxix
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 instru-
ments, 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 with-
out 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 Eliza-
beth : —
' The Perse owt of Northombarlande,
And a vowe to God mayd he,' &c.*
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 cjueen he dearly lov'd,
A fair and comely dame,' &c.t
The minstrels would seem to have gained little by
such a contest. I n short, they gave up the old Chevy
♦ See below, p. 23. t See vol. ii. p. 158.
XXX BALLADS AND
Chase to the ballad-singers, who, desirous, no doubt,
to avail themselves of so popular a subject, had it
new vTitten, 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."*
Percy held the view, which was afterwards advo-
cated 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 ;f but later writers have found
the relics of a ballad literature in the north of Scot-
land. 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, Hum-
bledon, 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
* Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads, ed. 1829, vol. i, p. xxxiii.
t See below, p. 378.
^ ^
BALLAD WRITERS. xxxi
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 i
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 re-
flection 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. Ca
ira and the Carmagnole had much influence on
the progress of the great French Revolution, as
Motirir pour la Patrie had upon that of 1848.
Lillibiirlcro 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.
xxxii BALLADS AND
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 litera-
ture. 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 Dib-
din'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
Reliqties, 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 litera-
ture, 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
y \ I that is to make itself felt should be all action, with-
BALLAD WRITERS. xxxiii
out any moralizing padding, for it is a narrative in
v^erse 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 mis-
ta'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."
Allballads are songs, but all songs are not ballads, y
and the difference between a ballad and a soncf is l^
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 \J
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 H art's Dream,
1592, the sons of one Barnes, who boasted that they
c
xxxiv BALLADS AND
could earn twenty shillings a day by singing ballads
at Bishop's Stortford and places in the neighbour-
hood. 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 " Out-
roaring 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
traofedies. 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 Jorce. 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 Lon-
don 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 Indus-
trious 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 ;
BALLAD WRITERS. xxxv
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 quota-
tions relating to ballad-singing, in his interesting His-
tory 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 Com-
pany at the end of the year 1560, to be transferred to
the new Wardens, and only forty-four books."* 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 0/ 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.
* Popular Music of the Olden Time, vol. i. p. 106.
xxxvl BALLADS AND
" 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 Eliza-
beth's reign, as we have already seen, the ballad-
writer had sunk very low in public esteem. In fur-
ther 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 pro-
BALLAD WRITERS, xxxvii
duct had not greatly changed in forty years, for we
find the following character in the curious little book,
entitled Whimzics, or a New Cast of Characters
(1631):
" A ballad-monorer is the io^nominious nickname of
a penurious poet, of whom he partakes in nothing
but in povertie. He has a singular gift of imagina-
tion, 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 Elder-Pi
ton, 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 Re-
maines, 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 ale-
crammed nose to nothing in bear-bayting " an enemy
"with whole bundells of ballets;"* and Gabriel Har-
vey attacks " Father Elderton and his son Greene,
as the ringleaders of the riming and scribbling crew."
Pierce J'cniiessc, his Supplication to the Baill, 1592.
xxxviii BALLADS AND
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 Mtich Ado about NotJiing (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 Nor-
wich ;" 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 Garla7id 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 Jo Jin for the
King, not one merry ditty will come from him ; nothing
but The Thu7iderbolt agai^ist Swearers ; Repent, Eng-
land, Repent, and the Strange ftidgments of God"
Kemp, the comic actor and morris-dancer, was par-
ticularly angry with the ballad-makers in general, and
BALLAD WRITERS. xxxix
Deloney in particular, and addresses them in the fol-
lowins: terms -. —
" Kemp's humble request to the impudent genera-
tion 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 deservino- writers."*
Richard Johnson, the author of the Seven Cham-
pions of Christendoni,\[\^c: Deloney, collected his own
ballads into a book, and his Crowji Gai'land of Golde^i
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. lo, 1633, and was buried in St. Stephen's,
Coleman-street, where a monument with an inscrip-
tion in praise of his knowledge as an antiquary was
* Kemp's Nine Daks' Wonder, 1600, sign, d 3.
xl BALLADS AND
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 pro-
duced the Lord Mayor's pageant for the mayoralty
of his namesake. Sir Thomas Middleton {The
Triumphs of TrutJi), in 1613, attacks poor Munday
most viciously. On the title-page he declares his
pageant to have been " directed, written, and re-
deem'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 com-
mon 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 dark-
nesse 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 volumi-
nous writer of royalist songs, but Martin Parker, the
BALLAD WRITERS. xli
writer of The King shall enjoy Jiis oivn 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 Jllusic 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
So?igs, in which he ridiculed the Puritans so effec-
tually 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 ap-
pointed 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 re-
moved 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. Killigrcw, the
Master of the Revels to Charles II., licensed all
xlii BALLADS AND
singers and sellers of ballads, and John Clarke, a
London bookseller, rented of Killigrew this privi-
lege 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
1 69 1, 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 Eng-
land, 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 Alba7iy.
Ballad-singing was very much out of favour among
the authorities in the eighteenth century, and in
1 716 the Middlesex grand jury denounced the sing-
ing 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 "yes-
terday 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," *
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
* Dryden's Prologue to Lee's SopJionisba.
BALLAD WRITERS. xliii
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 off ^-^^
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 i
of Robin Hood was at one time so great that Dray-
ton 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 Finder, who
was one of Robin Hood's company —
" In Wakefield there lives a jolly Finder ;
In Wakefield all on a green,"
and one of the thoroughfares of that place is now
called Finder Field Road. Robin Hood was a purely
xliv IMITATORS AND FORGERS.
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 1 11.,''^ 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 con-
noisseurs was Lady Wardlaw, who was highly success-
ful in her object when she gave Hardykmtte 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
* Richard of Almaigne, see vol. ii. p. 3.
IMITATORS AND FORGERS, xlv
old Elspeth's fragment of a chant (the Battle of
Harlaw) in the Antiquary. \V. J. Mickle, the trans-
lator of the Liisiad, 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 Trclawjiy,
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 j
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 manu-
scripts, 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 m. 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 impres-
sion, 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." * Hawker was fond of these mysti-
fications, and although he did not care to lose the
* Notes and Queries, 5th series, vol. v. p. 524.
xlvi IMITATORS AND FORGERS.
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 Hardykmite is
Auld Robin Gray, in which a lady of rank caught
the spirit of the tender songs of peasant life with ex-
cellent 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, how-
ever, when a forgery is foisted in among genuine
works, because when a discovery is made of its un-
trustworthiness, 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 (t 783), 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.'""
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
* See Ancie?it Scottish Poems, 1786, vol. i. p. cxxxi.
IMITATORS AND FORGERS, xlvii
1826 a collection of the So7igs 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 soncr, 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."* These are by no means
the hardest words used by Motherwell in respect to
the Songs of Scotla^id.
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 His-
tory 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 Bartranis 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 Surtces's imagination.
Each of the ballads was accompanied by hctitious
historical incidents, to give it an extra appearance of
authenticity. Feathersto}ihaugh\N:xs,^:nd\.o be "taken
down from the recitation of a woman eighty years of
age, mother of one of the miners in Alston Moor;"
• Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern, 1827, p. xcvii.
xlviii AUTHENTICITY OF
Lord Ewrie was obtained from " Rose Smith, of
Bishop Middleham, a woman aged upwards of ninety-
one ;" and Bartrams Dirge ixom. "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 Tay-
lor makes the following excuse in his Lifeof 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 183 1, the ballad of the Death
of Feather stonhaugh retains its place (vol. i. p. 240)
with the same expressions of obligation to Mr. Sur-
tees for the communication of it, and the same com-
mendation 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 forge-
ries 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
CERTAIN BALLADS. xlix
us to infer that some stanzas are interpolated, or that
its composition is of a comparatively modern date;"*
and, in 1839, the veteran ballad-collector, Mr. David
Lainor, wrote as follows : " Notwithstandine the o-reat
antiquit)'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 {Sien-
houscs I/lustrations of the Lyric Poetry and Music
of Scotland, with additional notes to Johnson's Scots
Musical Musetwt, p. 320*). At p. 457* 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 foreoroinof and other old Scottish
sonofs 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 oi Hardy -
knute is now universally attributed." f
Mr. J. H. Dixon, in 1845, considered that the sus-
picion had become a certainty, and wrote of Lady
Wardlaw as one " who certainly appears to have been
* Scottish Ballads, vol. i. p. 46.
t 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 Dalrymplc,
Lord Hailes, been preserved, some interesting information would
no doubt have been obtained regarding these ballads sent from
Scotland."
d
1 AUTHENTICITY OF
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 Hardy knute.""^ 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 Author-
ship. 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 Hardy-
knute 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 Pit-
reavie."
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 con-
sider each part separately.
* Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads (Percy Society,
vol. xvii. p. xi.).
CERTAIN BALLADS. li
I. Certain ballads, generally supposed to be genu-
ine, were really written by one person, in imitation of
the antique.
II. The author of this deceit was Lady Wardlaw,
the writer of Hardykjiutc.
I, The ballads in the Reliques, which are instanced
by Chambers, are as follows : —
1. Sir Patrick Spejice.
2. Gil Morricc.
3. Ediuard I Edward!
4. yews Datightcr.
5. Gilderoy.
6. Yo7i7ig JVaters.
7. Edom d Gordon.
8. Bonny Earl of Mtirray.
Two of these (2 and 7) are in the Folio MS., which
was written before Lady Wardlaw was born ; Edom
d Gordoji also exists in another old MS. copy ; Gilde-
roy (5) is known to have been a street ballad, and the
remainder are found in other copies. It is not neces-
sary to discuss each of these cases separately, and we
shall therefore reserve what we have to say for the
special consideration of Sir Patj'ick Spcncc.
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 Collcctioji of
Scottish Songs, he actually attributes Wotton's Ye
Aleaner Beatcties to Darnley, and supposes Mary
Queen of Scots to have been the subject of the au-
thor'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 : —
lii AUTHENTICITY OF
" It is now to be remarked of the ballads published
by the successors of Percy, as of those which he pub-
lished, that there is not a particle of positive evidence
for their having existed before the eighteenth cen-
tury. Overlooking the one given by Ramsay in his
Tea-table Miscellany, we have neither print nor manu-
script 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 Banna-
tyne. James Watson, who published a collection of
Scottish poetry in 1706-1 71 1, wholly overlooks them.
Ramsay, as we see, caught up only one."
Mr. Norval Clyne {Ballads from Scottish His-
tory, 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 col-
lected 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 Everg7'-een 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 per-
centage of them only were ever committed to writing,
CERTAIN BALLADS. liii
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 obHvion,
It is not probable that any fresh ballads will be
obtained from recitation, but it is in some degree pos-
sible, 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 oi 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 ;'* and in the description of the consequences of
his shipwreck, we find ' Mony was the feather-bed
that flattered on the faem.'* 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
love to use in that sense." In the first place, we
should be justified in saying that this test is not a
• Neither of these lines occur in Percy's versiun, but they are
both in the one printed by Scott.
liv AUTHENTICITY OF
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 trans-
lation of Virgil's ^neid on 22nd July, 15 13, 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 re-
marked, 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 ex-
ample from an ' old poet' One of the Tales of the
Three Priests of Feb lis assigned to the early part
of the sixteenth century, describes in homely verse
the career of a thrifty burgess, and contains these
lines {Siddald's Chronicle 0/ Scottish Foetry, 1802): —
' Then bocht he wool, and Avyselie couth it wey ;
And efter that sone saylit he the sey.' " *
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
* Ballads from Scottish History , 1863, pp. 223-4.
CERTAIN BALLADS. Iv
these recur in ballads that have little or no connection
with each other. Chambers, followintr David Laing,
uses Percy's note at the end of Sir Patrick Spence *
as an engine of attack against the authenticity of
the ballad, but there is really no reason for the con-
clusion 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 Speiice 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 Hardykmite 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 whole-
sale manufacture have been concealed for a century
it would be a greater mystery than the vexed ques-
tion, who was Junius ? The other point, whether
the author of the indistinct and redundant Ilardy-
* "An ingenious friend thinks the author of Hardyknutc has
borrowed several expressions and sentiments from the foregoing
and other old Scottish songs in this collection."
Ivi AUTHENTICITY OF
knute 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 con-
trasted 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 sailor
To sail this schip of mine ?
Up and spak an eldern knicht,
Sat at the kings richt kne :
Sir Patrick Spence is the best sailor,
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 bHnded 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.
CERTAIN BALLADS. Ivii
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,
\Vi' the Scots lords at his feit."
from the feeble conckision of Hardyhmtc : —
" ' 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 Pat7'ick Spence gives us a clear picture that a
painter could easily reproduce, but Hardyknute is so
vao'ue 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 (i 767) gives the
following statement, ' There is more than reason,'
&c.,* to which he adds the note: ' It is rather remark-
able that Percy was not informed of these particulars
in 1765 ; but in 1767, Sir JoJin Hope Bruce having
died in the interval (June, 1766), they were communi-
cated 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 cdi-
See vol. ii. p. 105, of the present edition.
Iviii PRESERVERS OF
tion (1765), and that Chambers's remarks fall to the
ground because they are founded on a gross blun-
der.*
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 some-
times collected together in bundles. Motherwell had
" heard it as a by-word in some parts of Stirling-
shire 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 selec-
tion indicative of no mean taste in these grim mold-
warps of humanity." f
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 sonof he wrote himself. When ballads were in-
* 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.
t Minstrelsy, p. xlvi.
THE BALLADS. lix
tended 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 com-
menced 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 171 2 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 Cor-
coran 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 s[)ecial class of
literature.
Although, thanks to the labours of far-sighted
men, our stock of old ballads and songs is large, we
Ix PRESERVERS OF
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
Cockelbies 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 Henry-
son'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
Sail hav nocht when he wald.' "
To the prologues of Gawin Douglas's transla-
tion of Virgil's yEneid, we are indebted for a know-
ledge 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 ap-
peared in England.
In the Catalogue of Captain Cox's Library, printed
in Laneham's letter on the Kenilworth entertain-
ments, 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 ex-
plained 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
THE BALLADS Ixi
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 ex-
pected 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,
bo7iny 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
yovial 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." *
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." \
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."J
Shakspere was not behind his contemporaries in
his contemptuous treatment of " odious ballads," or
of " these same metre ballad-mongers," but he has
* Parliament of Loi'e. f Queen of Corinth.
\ Dckkcr's Honest IF., 1 604, act i. sc. i .
Ixii PRESERVERS OF
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 Advo-
vocates' 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 in-
fection, 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 con-
siderable 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
THE BALLADS. Ixii
111
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 pur-
pose.
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 Roxbtirghe
Ballads. The Pepysian collection deposited in
the library of Magdalene College, Cambridge, con-
sisting 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 con-
tinued 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, Oxlord, possesses three collec-
tions, viz. Anthony Wood's 279 ballads and collec-
tion 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. Chap-
pell, without counting the Roxburghe Ballads, gives
the number as i 292 in 1 864. They are as follows : —
Kaf^ford Collection 355
Volume of Miscellaneous Ballads and Poems, 17th century 31
Volume, mostly poliliral, from 1641 . . . . . 250
Volume in King's Library, principally relating to London,
from 1659 to 1711 ....... 60
Ixlv PRESERVERS OF
The Thomason Collection of Tracts ..... 304
Satirical Ballads on the Popish Plot, from Strawberry Hill
ocL-L^ • • • • • ■ • • • • ^ i
Luttrell Collection, vol. ii. . . . . . -255
Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . 10
1292
The celebrated Roxburorhe collection was boug-ht
by Rodd at Benjamin Hey wood Bright's sale in
1845 fo'' t^^ 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 col-
lector 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 ^36 145-. 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 15^., 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 55.
Some early ballads are included in the collection
of broadsides in the library of the Society of Anti-
quaries, 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
THE BALLADS. Ixv
is supposed to have come from Helmingham Hall,
Suffolk, where it had lain unnoticed or fo rs^otten 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, Pre-
sident 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 ap- ,
proved by a multitude, though they are only the 1
rabble of a nation, which hath not in it some peculiar
aptness to please and gratify the mind oi man."
Rowc was another appreciator of this poi)ular
literature, and his example and teaching may have
had its influence in the publication of the first Col-
lection of Old Ballads, for the motto to the first
e
Ixvi PRESERVERS OF
volume is taken from the prologue to Rowe's Jane
Shore (first acted in 1 7 1 3) : —
" 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 unfashion-
able old ballad. Prior says of himself in a MS.
essay quoted by Disraeli in the Calaviities of Authors:
" I remember nothingf 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. Wag-
staffe, 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 Els-
pats of the Craigburnfoot remain to repeat to grand-
children 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
THE BALLADS. b
XVI 1
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." * 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 Edin-
burgh, " by Walter Chepman and Androw Myllar, in
the year 1508," which was reprinted in facsimile
by David Laing in 1827. The next work of in-
terest in the bibliography of ballads is " Ane Com-
pendious Booke of Godly and Spirituall Songs, col-
lected 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 1 590 and 162 1, and reprinted by J. G. Dalzell in
1 80 1, and by David Laing in 1868. It contains
parodies of some of the songs mentioned in the Com-
plaint of Scotland, and is supposed to be the work of
three brothers — James, John, and Robert Wedder-
burn, 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
* Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.
Ixviii PRESERVERS OF
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 Col-
lection of Comic and Serious Scots Poems, both
ancient and modern, by several hands. Edinburgh,
printed by James Watson." In three parts, 1706,
1709, 1 710. 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 pub-
lished 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 preten-
sions was Dryden's Miscellany Poems, published in
1 684- 1 708, which was shortly after followed by Tom
D'Urfey's Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melan-
choly, 1719-20. But the first attempt to bring to-
gether a large number of popular ballads, as distin-
1:
4
THE BALLADS. Ixb
X
guished 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 receiv^e the Rcliqiics. This collection con-
tains one hundred and fifty-nine ballads, out of which
number twenty- three are also in the Rcliqiics.'^ 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 Eng-
lish collection were published, Allan Ramsay issued
* 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
Alibot of Canterbury," " The Wanton Wife of Bath," " The
Spanish Lady's Love," " The Blind Beggar of Bednal (}reen."
Vol. III. " The ]3affled Knight," " William and Margaret," " The
Gaberlunzie NLan."
Ixx PRESERVERS OF THE BALLADS.
' 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 Col-
lection of choice Songs, Scots and English," a work
which is frequently referred to by Percy in the follow-
ing pages. In neither of these works was Ramsay
very particular as to the liberties he allowed himself
in altering his originals. I n 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 pre-
sumably 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, WiUiam Thomson, a teacher of music in
London, brought out a collection of Scottish songs,
which he had chiefly taken from the Tea-table Mis-
cellany 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 sio-ns that miMit 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 na-
LIFE OF PERCY. 1
XXI
ture. The man who arose to supply the want (which
was none the less a want that it was an unrecoi^nized
one) was Thomas Percy, a clergyman living in a re-
tired 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 Northumber-
land.* His early education was received at the
grammar school of Bridgnorth, and in r 746, being then
in his eighteenth year, and having obtained an ex-
hibition, 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
* Percy communicated to Dr. Nash, for the History of Worces-
tershire (vol. ii. p. 318), a pedigree in which he attempted to
identify his family with that of the descendants of Ralph, third
Karl of Northumberland. Nash subjoined a note to the eftect
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 Ijallads,
and the gaps filled \x\), for the cases are not cjuite analogous. Tlie
Ijcdigree may not Ijc of greater autlienti( ily 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.
Ixxii LIFE OF PERCY.
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,* 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
Lastitia Hawkins stated in her Memoirs, that these
charming verses were intended by Percy as a wel-
come 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 1 758 in the sixth volume of Dods-
ley'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 ?
* On Percy's tomb his wife's name is spelt Goodriche.
LIFE OF PERCY. kxiii
" 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, toiin for tozun, &c., "Oh Nanny, wilt thou gang-
with me ?" was transposed into a Scotch song, and
printed as such in Johnson's Musical Mtisctc7)i.
Burns remarked on this insertion : " It is too bare-
faced 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* that Percy may have had
in view the song called The yoimg Laird and Edin-
bu7'gh Kate, printed in Ramsay's Tea-Tablc Mis-
cdiajiy, the second stanza of which is somewhat
similar —
" O Katy, mltu gang wi' me,
And leave the dinsome town awhile?
The blossom's sprouting from the tree,
And a' the simmer's gawn to smile."
* lllustratiotu of the Lyric Poetry and Music of Scot hind, 1853,
p. 29.
Ixxiv LIFE OF PERCY.
Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, however, hinted *
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 Foixe 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 fol-
lows : —
" 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 ? " f
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 1 76 1 Percy commenced his literary career by
the publication of a Chinese novel, Hau Kiau Chooan,
in four volumes, which he translated from the Portu-
guese, and in the same year he undertook to edit
* Stenhouse's Illustrations, p. 112.
t Bishop Percy's Folio MS. vol. i. p. xli. (note).
LIFE OF PERCY, 1
XXV
the works of the Duke of Buckingham. In 1762
he pubHshed " 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 Lancruaee," 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-pro-
mised visit to the Vicarage of Easton Maudit in the
summer of i 764, where he stayed for some months,
and the little terrace in the fjarden is still called after
him. " Dr. Johnson's Walk." At this time Percy
must have been full of anxiety about his Rcliques,
which were shortly to be published, and in the pre-
paration 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 i, 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 larofe 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 my-
self, 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 tlu; corre-
spondence in the beginning of winter."
In I'ebruary, 1765, aj^jjeared the first edition of
the Rcliqiics, which gave Percy a name, and oJjlained
Ixxvi LIFE OF PERCY.
for him the patronage of the great. He became
Chaplain and Secretary to the Duke of Northumber-
land, with whose family he kept up intimate relations
throughout his life. The Northumberland House-
hold Book, which he compiled in accordance with the
wishes of his patron, was privately printed in the
year 1768.* 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 Hotisehold 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
* The book was reprinted entire in the fourth volume of the
Antiquarian Repertory, 1809 3 and a second edition was published
by Pickering in 1827.
LIFE OF PERCY. Ixxvii
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 Cam-
bridge, having incorporated himself at Emmanuel
College, the master of which was his friend. Dr. Far-
mer, to be remembered as the Shakspere commen-
tator. 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 Her-
7nit of ll\irkzi'or//i, which exhibited his continued
interest in the subject of the Rc/iqucs, 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 glos-
sary. It was in 1778 that the memorable quarrel be-
tween Percy and Johnson occurred which is graphi-
cally 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 recon-
ciliation was brought about Johnson's contribution
to the peace was, " My dear sir, I am willing you
shall hanor 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
Rcliqiics for him, but in April, 1783, soon after he
had settled at Dromore, a great sorrow fell uj)on
him, and this only and much-loved son died at the
early age of twenty. In 1780 a large portion ol
Northumberland 1 louse, Strand, was consumed by
Ixxviii LIFE OF PERCY.
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
AthencBuni for [848 (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 resig-
nation, and ere five more years had passed by, he
himself was borne to the tomb. On the 30th of
September, 181 1, he died in the eighty-third year of
his age, having outlived nearlyall his contemporaries.*
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.f
" 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.
* In 1 8 1 o he was the only survivor of the original members of
the Literary Club, founded by Johnson and Reynolds in 1764.
t Percy Folio MS., vol. i. p. Iv.
LIFE OF PERCY. Ixxix
" Yet all in vain the tempest roars,
And whirls tlie 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 re-
lations, 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
Ixxx LIFE OF PERCY.
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 "re-
vered 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 Ilhistrations of Literature, and one also
ornaments the present volume. In the third volume
of Dibdin's Bibliographical Decameron is a beautiful
engraving from a water-colour drawing, which repre-
sents the bishop in his garden at Dromore, when
totally blind, feeding his swans.*
* 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.
THE FOLIO MS. Ixxxi
The Folio MS. and the " Reliques."
What were the sources from which Percy obtained
the chief contents of his celebrated work ? They
were : — i. The foHo MS. ; 2. Certain other MS. col-
lections, 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 poejns he extracted from
the old printed collections of fugitive poetry — The
Paradise of Dainty Devices, Enghnid's Helicon, &c.
In considering the above sources, it will be neces-
sary 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, 1 769.
It is as follows : —
/
Ixxxii THE FOLIO MS. AND
" 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 sum-
^mer 1 769). I saw it lying dirty on the floor, under a
Bureau in y^ Parlour : being used by the maids to
light the fire. It was afterwards sent, most unfortu-
nately, 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
Temtres, &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 2^^ escape in-
titled Boscodel,8ic., Lond. 1660, 1 2mo, which has been
so often reprinted. As also the Law Dictionary,
1 67 1, folio, and many other books which maybe seen
in Wood's A thence, ii. ']'^, &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. Humph^ Pitt : who bought it for the
use of his nephew, my ever-valued friend Rob* Binnel.
Mr. Binnel accordingly had all the printed books, but
this MS. which was amone them was nesflected 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.
THE ^'RELIQUESr Ixxxiii
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.""" 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 Gazuaync for the Banna-
tyne 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 18 15. 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
* Anciejit So figs, 1 790, p. xix.
Ixxxiv THE FOLIO MS. AND
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* 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. Mad-
den at after 1650 a.d. ; by two authorities at the
Record Office whom I consulted, in the reign of
* Bishop Percy Folio Manuscript : Ballads and Romances. Edited
by John W. Hales, M.A., and Frederick J. Furnivall, M.A., Lon-
don (Triibner and Co.), 1867-68, 3 vols.
THE ''RELIQUESr Ixxxv
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 inioycs his rights againe, which con-
tains a passage* 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 Lan-
cashire, as is shown by the frequent use of the final
st, thoust for tJioii shall, 1st for / ivill, yousl for yotc
will, unbctho2ight for umbcthought, and the occur-
rence of the northern terms, like sirang, gauge, &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 Fcilde,
Bosworth Feilde, Earlcs 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, rougJU for ivrought, knight for night (once), me
fancy for my {^ncy, Jtistine {or justing." '\
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
* "ffull 40 yeeres his royall crowne
hath bcene his fathers and his owne."
Fercy Folio MS. (ii. 25/17-18.)
t Furnivall's Forewords, p. xiii.
Ixxxvi THE FOLIO MS. AND
an ancient MS. in the editor's possession, which
contains near two hundred poems, songs, and metri-
cal romances." The fact is that only one-fourth
were so taken. The Reliques contain i8o pieces,
and of these only forty-five* 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
* The following is a list of these, taken from Mr. Furnivall's
Fo7'ewords : —
Sir Cauline. The Winning of Cales.
King Estmere. The Spanish Lady's Love.
Robin Hood and Guy of Gis- The Complaint of Conscience.
borne. K. John and the Abbot of Can-
The Child of EUe. terbury.
Edom O'Gordon (or Captaine The Heir of Lynne.
Carre). To Althea from Prison (When
Adam Bell, Clym o' the Clough, Love with unconfined wings).
and William of Cloudesly. Old Tom of Bedlam.
Take thy old Cloak about thee The Boy and the Mantle.
(or Bell my wife). The Marriage of Sir Gawaine.
Sir Lancelot du Lake. King Arthur's Death.
The more modern Ballad of The Legend of King Arthur.
Chevy Chase. Glasgerion.
The Rising in the North. Old Robin of Portingale.
Northumberland betrayed by Child Waters.
Douglas. Litde Musgrave and Lady Bar-
The Not-browne Mayd. nard.
Sir Aldingar. Gil Morrice.
Gentle Heardsman, tell to me. Legend of Sir Guy.
The Beggar's Daughter of Bed- Guy and Amarant.
nal Green. The Shepherd's Resolution.
Sir Andrew Barton. The Lady's Fall.
Lady Bothwell's Lament. The King of France's Daughter.
The Murder of the King of A Lover of Late.
Scots. The King and Miller of Mans-
The King of Scots and Andrew field.
Browne, though in the Folio, Dulcina.
was printed by Percy from The Wandering Prince of Troy.
the Antiquaries' copy. The Aspiring Shepherd.
Mary Ambree.
THE '^ RELIQUESr Ixxxvii
book, and he proposed to publish a fourth volume
of the Rcliqucs at some future period that never
came.
Mr. Furnivall has the following- remarks on the
gains to literature by the publication of the manu-
script : " It is more that we have now for the first
time Egcr and Gi'inie in its earlier state, Sir Lam-
bcwell, besides the Cavilcrcs praise of his hawking,
the complete versions of Scottish Fcildc and Kinge
Arthur s Death, the fullest of Floddcn Fcilde and
the verse Jllerliiic, the Earle of Wcstmo7'landc, Bos-
li'orth Fcildc, the curious poem of John de Rccvc,
and the fine alliterative one of Death and Liffc, 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 Eng-
lish and Scottish poems in the manner of my
Reliqncsr 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 1 801 he wrote as follows to Jamicson, 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 dis-
appoint your wishes and expectations altogether.
By it you will sec the defective and incorrect state
of the old text in the ancient folio MS., and the
Ixxxviii THE FOLIO MS. AND
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 altera-
tions he made in his manuscript authorities; and Rit-
son has attempted to consider his conduct as a ques-
tion 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 Rit-
son's attacks (and right was sometimes on his side),
the Reliques remain to the present day unsuper-
seded.
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 conver-
sation 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 ereater than I could have ex-
pected,' said my old friend, with a shrug of the
shoulders."
Of the other sources from which Percy drew his
materials litde 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
THE -RELIQUESr Ixxxix
are chiefly taken from the Pepys Collection at Cam-
bridge. 5. When the Rcliqtics were first published,
the elegant poems in X\\e. Paradysc of Dayiity Droises,
England's Helico7i, 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 be-
lieved 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 Rcliques was printed,
and before it was published, Percy made a great
alteration in its arrancrement. 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 Arthu7'- 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 I, 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 1 1 ; but in the Douce
copy, Nos. 9, 10, and 11 are Cock LorrelTs 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
xc THE FOLIO MS.
the following year a surreptitious edition was pub-
lished 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 18 12,
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 alehouse, 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 produc-
tions 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.
BALLAD LITERATURE. xci
Few books have exerted such extended influence
over EngHsh literature as Y^xzysRcliqucs. Beattie's
Mi?istrel was inspired by a perusal of the Essay on
the A7icinit Minstrels ; and man)' authors have ex-
pressed 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 ac-
quaintance with the Rcliqncs 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 admira-
tion 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
Reliipies. 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 thttRcliqucs 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 Kincar-
L
xcn BALLAD LITERATURE
dineshire, who had spent most of his Hfe as clerk in
an accountant's office in Edinburgh, pubHshed his
Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads,
&c., a work which was enlarged into two volumes in
1776.* He was a most successful and faithful col-
lector, and not being a poet, he was preserved from
the temptation of tampering with his stores. Mother-
well 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., 18 10.
In 1 78 1 Pinkerton published his Scottish T^^agic
Ballads, which was followed in 1 783 by Select Scottish
Ballads. These volumes contained several fabrica-
tions 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 Collec-
tion of English Songs. The Bishopric Garland, or
Durham Minstrel, followed, in 1 784 ; The Yorkshire
Garland, in 1788; the Pieces of Ancient Popular
Poetry, in 1 79 1 ; Ancient Songs and Ballads from
the reign of Henry II. to the Revo hit ion, in 1787;
The NortJmmberland Garland, in 1 793 ; Scottish
Songs, in 1794 ; and Robin Hood, in 1795.
In 1787 was commenced The Scots Musical Mu-
seum, by James Johnson. Johnson was a music-seller
and engraver in Edinburgh, and the work was really
* This work was reprinted twice during the year 1869 : i. at
Edinburgh under the editorial care of Mr. Sidney Gilpin ; 2. at
Glasgow.
SINCE PERCY. xciii
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 " beofOfinof and
borrowing" old songs, wrote many new songs him-
self.
In I So I was published at Edinburgh, Scottish
Poems of the XV Ith Century, edited by J. G. Dalzell,
which contains a reprint of Ane Compeitdiotis Booke
of Godly and Spiritnall 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
Rcliqiics. Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scot-
tish 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 Traditioji,
Manuscripts, aiid scarce editions. H e was working upon
this book at the same time that Scott was en^acred
upon his Minstrelsy, and he obtained much of his ma-
terial 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 follow-
ing 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
xciv BALLAD LITERATURE
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 181 5)
is a carefully edited work, compiled from former
books.
In 1822 David Laing published his valuable
Select Remains of the Ancient Poptdar Poetry of Scot-
land, and in 1824 C. K.Sharpe printed privately a little
volume which he entitled A Ballad Book. James
Maidment printed also privately A North Conntrie
Garland m 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 Aber-
deenshire." 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 con-
signed 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 pro-
nounced by Scott to be " decidedly and indubitably
original." The two folio MS. volumes in which they
SINCE PERCY. xcv
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 com-
posed 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, A ncient and Hlodern, 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 Eng-
la7id 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 Bal-
lads until 1852.
William Chappell published in 1840 his valuable
Collection of National English Airs, consisting of
Anciefit Song, Ballad, and Dance Tunes, which
xcvi BALLAD LITERATURE
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 yeo-
man."
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 Illust7'ations of Bishop Percy s Reliques,
which are so frequently quoted in the following
pages.
Professor Francis James Child, of Harvard Col-
lege, 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 ver-
sions of one hundred and thirty-nine ballads, with
short introductions.
The year 1867 was memorable as seeing the pub-
lication of the first instalment of the Folio Manuscript
under the editorship of J. W. Hales and F. J. Fur-
nivall.
SINCE PERCY. xcvii
In 1868 appeared "Scottish Ballads and Songs,
historical and traditionar)', edited by James Maid-
ment, Edinburgh, 1868," 2 vols. The number of
pieces is small but select, and the introductions are
full and elaborate.
In 1 87 1 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 His-
torical. Collated and Annotated."
Upon the completion of the Percy Folio, Mr. Fur-
nivall started the Ballad Society, for the publication
of the various collections of ballads that exist. Mr.
Chappell has edited half of the Roxburghe liJallads
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 des-
pised 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.
i
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
ELIZABETH,
countess of northumberland ;
in her own right,
baroness percy, lucy, toynings, fitz-payne,
bryan, and latimer.
Madam, —
SS^,^3^ HOSE writers, who solicit the protec-
/;-
tion of the noble and the ereat, are
often exposed to censure by the impro-
priety of their addresses : a remark
that will, perhaps, be too readily ap-
plied to him, who, having nothing better to offer
than the rude songs of ancient minstrels, aspires to
the patronage of the Countess of Northumljerland,
and hopes that the barbarous productions of un-
polished 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 dis-
appear, 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
•b
B
2 DEDICA TION.
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 grada-
tions 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 propa-
gated, 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 Lady-
ship 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 conscious-
ness of merit makes it their interest to be long
remembered.
I am,
Madam,
Your Ladyship's
Most humble.
And most devoted Servant,
Thomas Percy.*
* [This dedication is prefixed to the first edition of the Reliques^
(1765), the second edition (1767), and the third edition (1775).]
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.*
• [The Duchess of Northumberland died in the year 1776, and
the above inscription appears in the fourth echtion (1794) and the
fifth edition (1812), besides many sul)se(]uent editions.]
ADVERTISEMENT
TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
*
IWENTY 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 un-
published, 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 -men-
tioned in the following pages, where any variation
* [Published in three volumes small octavo in 1794.
by John Nichols for F. and C. Rivington."]
" Printed
A D VER TI SEMEN T. 5
occurs from the former impression, it will be un-
derstood 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 gen-
tlemen of eminence in literature. At the first publi-
cation 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 after-
wards 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 suf-
ficient 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 repre-
sentation.
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 [kuI
6 ADVERTISEMENT.
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 non-
sense 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 ; * even pan
and zuale for zvan and pale, ^ &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.
* [Fol. MS.] Page 130, ver. 117. (This must have been copied
from a reciter.)
t [Fol. MS.] Page 139, ver. 164, viz.
" his visage waxed pan and wale."
THE PREFACE.
HE reader is here presented widi 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.*
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 simpli-
city, and seem to have been merely written for the
people, he was long in doubt, whether, in the present
state of im[)roved literature, they could be deemed
* Chaucer quotes the old Romance of Libius Disconius, and
some others, which arc found in this MS. (Sec the Essay, vol. iii.
Appendix I.) It also contains several songs relating to the civil
war in the last century, l)Ul not one tliat alUulcs XX) the Resto-
ration.
8 PREFACE.
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
ao-es, or throw light on our earlier classical poets.
They are here distributed into volumes, each of
which contains an independent series of poems, ar-
rano-ed 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 distinguish-
ing 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* 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.
* 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. X^e learned Selden appears also to have been
fond of collecting these old things. See below.
PRE FA CE. 9
they are everywhere intermincrled with Httle 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 contfemporary
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 parti-
culars relating to their history in an Essay subjoined.
(iVppendix 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 ex-
plored 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.,* Secretary of the
Admiralty in the reigns of Charles II. and James II.
had made a large collection of ancient English
* A life of our curious collector Mr. Pepys may be seen in the
continuation of Mr. Collier's Supi)lement to his Great Diction.
17 15, at the end of vol. iii. folio. Art. Pep-t
t Ww 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.]
lo PREFA CE.
ballads, near 2,000 in number, which he has left
pasted in five volumes in folio ; besides Garlands
and other smaller rniscellanies. 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 1 700 ;
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. VIIL, Edw. VL, Mary, Elizabeth,
James L, &c.*
In the British Museum is preserved a large trea-
sure 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 ac-
curate hks 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
* [The Society of Antiquaries have pubUshed a catalogue of this
collection by Robert Lemon, 8vo. 1866.]
PREFACE. II
give some account of the old copies ; thouoh often,
for the sake of brevity, one or two of these only are
mentioned, where yet assistance w^as received from
several. Where any thing was altered that deserved
particular notice, the passage is generally distin-
guished 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 ex-
pected, been handed down to us with less care than
any other writings in the world. And the old
copies, whether ]\IS. or printed, were often so defec-
tive 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 interestinof 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 JModcrn Copy, or the like. Yet it has
been his desi({n to orive sufficient intimation where
any considerable liberties* 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 anticjuary,
and the reader of taste ; and he hath endeavoured to \
gratify both without offending either. /
* Such liberties have been taken with all those pieces which
liave three asterisks subjoined, thus *<,>*.
12 PREFACE.
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 pre-
vented him*: 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 Hum-
phrey Pitt, Esq., of Prior's-Lee, in Shropshire,t 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 Mac-
Gowan, Esq., of Edinburgh ; and many curious ex-
planations 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 Wor-
* 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 i, 1761. See his
Wo7-ks, 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.
t 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 Atheiice, 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 col-
lection was made by this lawyer (who also published the Law
Dictionary, 167 1, 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.
PREFACE. 13
cester College, contributed some curious pieces from
the Oxford libraries. Two inorenious 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.* Many
extracts from ancient MSS. in the British Museum,
and other repositories, were owing to the kind ser-
* To the same learned and ingenious friend, since Master of
Emanuel College, the editor is obliged for many con-ections
and improvements in his second and subsequent editions ; as also
to the Rev. Mr. Eowle, of Idmistone, near Salisbury, editor of the
curious edition of Don Quixote, \vith 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 Foetn 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 Hon-
ourable Daines Barrington, for his very learned and curious Obser-
vations on the Statutes, 4to. ; and to Thomas Tynvhitt, 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 witli
many valuable remarks and corrections from the Rev. Geo. Ashl)y,
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, re-
cords, 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 Gefitlcman's Magazine for August, 1793, April, June, July,
and October, 1794, and which, it is hoped, will be continued.
14 PREFACE.
vices of Thomas Astle, Esq., to whom the public is
indebted for the curious Preface and Index annexed
to the Harleyan Catalogue.* 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 in-
debted 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 Jwiiuss Etymologicwn, and of the Gothic
Gospels.
The names of so many men of learning and char-
acter 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 re-
tirement of rural life, and hath only served as a re-
laxation 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
* Since Keeper of the Records in the Tower.
PRE FA CE.
15
has occasioned some inconsistencies and repetitions,
which the candid reader will pardon. As great care
has been taken to admit nothing immoral and in-
decent, the editor hopes he need not be ashamed of
havine bestowed some of his idle hours on the
ancient literature of our own country, or in rescuing-
from oblivion some pieces (though but the amuse-
ments of our ancestors) which tend to place in a
striking light their taste, genius, sentiments, or man-
ners.
Except in one paragraph, this Preface is given with little varia-
tion from the first edition in MDCCLXV.
I
RELIOUES 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 bHnde 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 I — Sir PJiilip Sidney's Apologie for Poetrie, 1595.
I.
THE ANCIENT BALLAD OF CHEVY
CHASE.
HE fine heroic song of C/iay-C/iasc 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.
iSIr. Addison has given an excellent critique* 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 Ehzabeth, and was probably
written after the elogium of Sir Philip Sidney : perhaps in conse-
quence 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 nigged garb of antiquity.
This curiosity is printed, from an old manuscript,! at the end of
Heame's preface to Gul. Newbrigiensis Hist. 1719, 8vo. vol. i.
To the MS. copy is subjoined the name of the author, Rychard
Sheale;! whom Hearne had so little judgement as to supjiose to
Le the same with a R. Sheale, who was living in 158S. But
whoever examines the gradation of language and idiom in the
following volumes, will be convinced that this is the production
• Spectator, Nos. 70, 74.
t [MS. Ashmole, 48, in the Bodleian Library. The Rev. W. W.
Skeat has printed the ballad from the MS. in his Specimens
of Eu^lisli Literature, 1394-1579. Clarendon Press Series, 187!.]
\ Subscribed, after the usual manner of our old poets, expliceth
(explicit) quoth Rychard Sheale.
20 ANCIENT BALLAD
of an earlier poet. It is indeed expressly mentioned among some
very ancient songs in an old book intituled, The Complaint of Scot-
land* (fol. 42), under the tide of the Hiintis of Chevet, where
the two following lines are also quoted: —
" The Perssee and the Mongumrye mette, f
That day, that day, that gentil day : " |
which, tho' not quite the same as they stand in the ballad, yet
difter 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, § 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, || did not wear the crown of
Scotland till the second year of our Henry VI. ,11 but before the
end of that long reign a third James had mounted the throne.**
A succession of two or three Jameses, and the long detention of
one of them in England, would render the name familiar to the
Enghsh, 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 sub-
ject, 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. ft There had long been a
* 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.]
t See Pt. ii. v. 25. J See Pt. i. v. 99.
§ Pt. ii. V. 36, 140.
11 Who died Aug. 5, 1406, in the 7th year of our Hen. IV.
H James I. was crowned May 22, 1424; murdered Feb. 21,
1436-7-
** In 1460.— Hen. VI. was deposed 1461 : restored and slain
1471.
tj- Item. . . . Concordatum est, quod, . . . nullus unius partis
vel alterius ingrediatur terras, boschas, forrestas, warrenas, loca,
dominia quacunque alicujus partis alterius subditi, causa venandi,
piscandi, aucupandi, disportum aut solatium in eisdem, aliave
quacunque d© causa, absque licentia ejus ... ad quem . . . loca
OF CHEVY CHASE. 21
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. Some-
thing of this kind, we may suppose, gave rise to the ancient ballad
of the Hunting a! the C/ia'iat* 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 th^se are CAidently borrowed from the Battle of Otter-
l>ourn,-\ a very different event, but ^^■hich aftertimes would easily
confound with it. That battle might be owing to some such pre-
vious affront as this of Chevy Chase, though it has escaped the
notice of historians. Our poet has evidently jumbled the two sub-
jects together : if indeed the lines.]: 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 C/iay 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 CJievy 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
. . . pertinent, aut de deputatis suis prius capt. et obtent. Vid.
Bp. Nicolson's Leges Marchianini, 1705, 8vo. pp. 27, 51.
* This was the original title. See the ballad, Pt. i. v. 101 ;
Pt. ii. V. 165.
t Sec the next ballad. \ Vid. Pt. ii. v. 167.
22 ANCIENT BALLAD
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. i) 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.
I. the title, 2. the occasion, 3. the author, i. In the old version
the title given in the ballad itself is the hunting of the Cheznat, 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 chevauchee, 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, a.^ ^Teviotdale vaXo Tevidale (ver. 50).
2. The ballad is so completely unliistorical that it is difficult to
give any opinion as to the occasion to which it refers, but appa-
rently 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. I.) 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
Heame, as that learned antiquary was probably correct in identi-
fying 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
OF CHEVY CHASE. 23
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 sup-
posed him to be its maker. Sheale really flourished (or withered,
as j\Ir. Hales has it) at a rather earher 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.
Chexy Chase was long a highly popular song, and Bishop
Corbet, in his Journey into Franee, 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 IVifs Inter-
preter, 167 1, 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 C/iay C/iace." 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
modem 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." * The wTiter here
probably referred to any song sung to this tune.]
THE FIRST FIT.t
^^^■^^^^HE Pers6 owt of Northombarlande.
And a vowe^ to God mayd he,
That he wolde hunte in the mountayns
Off Chyviat within dayes thre,
In the mauger"^ of doughte Dogles,
And all that ever with him be.
Ver. 5, niagger in Hearne's PC [Printed Copy.]
♦ fChappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, vol. i. p. 198 ;
vol. ii. p. 774. J
t Fit. see ver. 100.
[1 should bu " an avowe," a vow (see v. 157, Fit. 2). - in spite of.]
24 ANCIENT BALLAD
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^ that hontyng yf that I may. lo
Then the Perse owt of Banborowe cam,
With him a myghtye meany ;^
With fifteen hondrith archares bold ;
The wear chosen out of shyars thre.*
This begane on a monday at morn 15
In Cheviat the hillys so he ;^
The chyld may rue that ys un-born.
It was the mor pitte.
The dryvars thorowe the woodes went
For to reas'* the dear ; 20
Bomen bickarte uppone the bent^
With ther browd aras^ cleare.
Then the wyld^ thorowe the woodes went
On every syde shear f
Grea-hondes thorowe the greves glent" 25
For to kyll thear dear.
The begane in Chyviat the hyls abone^"
Yerly^^ on a monnyn-day ;^^
Ver. II. The the Perse. PC. V. 13. archardes bolde off blood
and bone. PC. V. 19. throrowe. PC.
* 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 : JVorehamshire, so called
from the town and castle of Noreham (or Norham) : and Pam-
boroughshire, the ward or hundred belonging to Bamborough
castle and town.
[^ hinder. 2 company. ^ high. "* rouse.
' bowmen skirmished in the long grass. ^ broad arrows.
^ wild deer. ^ entirely. ^ the bushes glanced.
'" above. ^^ early. 12 Monday.]
OF CHEVY CHASE. 25
Be' that it drewe to the oware off none'^
A hondrith fat hartes ded ther lay. 30
The blewe a mort uppone the bent, '
The semblyd on sydis shear ; ^
To the quyrry^^ then the Perse went
To se the bryttlynge^ off the deare.
He sayd, It was the Duglas promys 35
This day to meet me hear ;
But I wyste he wold faylle verament 'J
A gret oth the Perse swear.
At the laste a squyar of Northombelonde
Lokyde at his hand full ny, 40
He was war ath*^ the douQfhetie Doo^las comvnire :
With him a myghte meany,
Both with spear, * byll,' and brande :'-^
Yt was a myghti sight to se.
Hardyar men both off hart nar hande 45
Wear not in Christiante.
The wear twenty hondrith spear-men good
Withouten any fayle ;
The wear borne a-long be the watter a Twyde,
Yth '" bowndes of Tividale. so
Leave off the brytlyng of the dear, he sayde,
And to your bowys look ye tayk good heed ;
For never sithe^' ye wear on your mothars borne
Had ye never so mickle need.
Ver. 31. blwe a mot. PC. V. 42. niyglittc. PC. passim.
V. 43. brylly. PC. V. 48. withowte feale. PC. V. 52. boys.
PC. V. 54. ned. PC.
[ ' by. 2 hour of noon.
^ they blew a note over the dead stag on the grass.
* on all sides. •'' slaughtered game. '' quartering.
' truly. " aware of. '-^ battle axe and sword.
'" in the. " since, j
26 ANCIENT BALLAD
The dougheti Dogglas on a stede 55
He rode all his men beforne ;
His armor glytteryde as dyd a glede ;^
A bolder barne"'* was never born.
Tell me ' what ' men ye ar, he says,
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 Perse :
We wyll not tell the * what ' men we ar, he says, 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^ to carry them a- way. 70
Be my troth, sayd the doughte Dogglas agayn,
Ther-for the ton^ of us shall de this day.
Then sayd the doughte Doglas
Unto the lord Perse :
To kyll all thes giltless men, 7S
A-las ! it wear great pitte.
But, Perse, thowe art a lord of lande,
I am a yerle^ callyd within my contre ;
Let all our men uppone a parti ^ stande ;
And do the battell off the and of me. 80
Nowe Cristes cors^ on his crowne,^sayd the lord Perse.
Who-soever ther-to says nay.
[Ver. 56. Percy and Hearne print, "att his men."J Ver. 59.
whos. PC. V. 65. whoys. PC. V. 71. agay. PC. V. 81. sayd
the the. PC.
[^ glowing coal. ^ man. ^ niean, ^ the one of us shall die.
* earl. ^ apart or aside. ' curse. ^ head.]
OF CHEVY CHASE. 27
Be my troth, doughtc 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^ fortune be my chance,
I dar met him on man for on.^
Then bespayke a squyar off Northombarlonde,
Ric. Wytharynton* was his nam ; 90
It shall never be told in Sothe-Ynglonde, he says.
To kyng Herry the fourth for sham.
I wat^ youe byn great lordes twaw,*
I am a poor squyar of lande ;
I wyll never se my captayne fyght on a fylde, 9s
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 Fitf here I fynde. 100
And youe° wyll here any mor athe hountyng a the
Yet ys ther mor behynde. [Chyviat,
Ver. 88. on i.e. one.
* This is probably corrupted in the MS. for Ro:^. Widdruighm,
who was at the head of the family in the reign of K. Edw. III.
There were several successively of the names of Roi::,cr and Ralph,
but none of the name of Richard^ as appears from the genealogies
in the Heralds' office.
t Fit.
[1 l)ut if. 2 one man for one. ^ for wot, know.
■• two. ^ if you.J
28 ANCIENT BALLAD
THE SECOND FIT.
I^HE Yngglishe men hade ther bowys yebent,
^^ Ther hartes were good yenoughe ;
The first of arros that the shote off,
Seven skore spear-men the sloughe.^
Yet bydys^ the yerle Doglas uppon the bent, 5
A captayne good yenoughe,
And that was sene verament.
For he wrought hom both woo and wouche."'
The Dogglas pertyd his ost in thre,
Lyk a cheffe cheften off pryde, 10
With suar^ speares off myghtte tre
The cum^ in on every syde.
Thrughe our YnggHshe archery
Gave many a wounde full wyde ;
Many a doughete the garde to dy,^ 15
Which ganyde them no pryde.
The Yngglishe men let thear bowys be,
And pulde owt brandes that wer bright ;
It was a hevy syght to se
Bryght swordes on basnites^ tyght. 20
Thorowe ryche male, and myne-ye-ple^
Many sterne^ the stroke downe streght :
Ver. 3. first, z>./zV/2/. V. 5. byddys. PC. V. 17. boys. PC.
V. 18. briggt. PC. V. 21. throrowe. PC. V. 22. done. PC.
[* slew. 2 abides. ^ mischief, wrong. * sure.
5 they come. ^ many a doughty one they made to die.
' helmets.
^ Mr. Skeat suggests that this is a corruption for manople, a
large gauntlet.
'^ many fierce ones they struck down.]
6
OF CHEVY CHASE. 29
Many a fre^ke/ that was full free,
Ther undar foot dyd lyght.
At last the Duglas and the Perse met, 25
Lyk to capta)'ns of myght and mayne ;
The swapte""^ togethar tyll the both swat"
With swordes, that w^ear of fyn myllan.^
Thes worthe freckys^ for to fyght
Ther-to the wear full fayne,
Tyll the bloode owte off thear basnetes sprente.
As ever dyd heal or rayne.
Holde the, Perse, sayd the Doglas,
And i' feth I shall the brynge
Wher thowe shake have a yerls wagis 35
Of J amy our Scottish kynge.
Thoue shake have thy ransom fre, *
I hight^ the hear this thinge,
For the manfully ste man yet art thowe.
That ever I conqueryd in filde fightyng. 40
Nay ' then' sayd the lord Perse,
I tolde it the beforne,
That I wolde never yeldyde be
To no man of a woman born.
With that ther cam an arrowe hastely 45
Forthe off a mightie wane,*
Hit hathc strekene the yerle Duglas
In at the brcst bane.
Ver. 26. to, i.e. two. Ibid, and of. PC. V. 32. ran. J^C.
V. 33. helde. PC.
* JVa;ie, i.e. a//e, one, &c. man, an arrow came from a mighty
one : from a mighty man. [misreading for ma;ie (?) see v. 63, fit. i . |
[' strongman. ^ exchanged blows. ^ did sweat.
* Milan steel. ''' men. *^ spurted out. '' promise.)
30 ANCIENT BALLAD
Thoroue lyvar and longs bathe
The sharp arrowe ys gane, so
That never after in all his lyffe days,
He spayke mo wordes but ane,
That was,* Fyghte ye, my merry men, whyllys ye may.
For my lyff days ben gan.
The Perse leanyde on his brande, 5S
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 countre.
Off all that se a Skottishe knyght.
Was callyd Sir Hewe the Mongon-byrry,
He sawe the Duglas to the deth was dyght' ; 65
He spendyd^ a spear a trusti tre :
He rod uppon a corsiare^
Throughe a hondrith archery ;
He never styntyde, nar never blane,*
Tyll he came to the good lord Perse. 70
He set uppone the lord Perse
A dynte,^ that was full soare ;
With a suar spear of a myghte tre
Clean thorow the body he the Perse bore,
Ver. 49. throroue. PC. V. 74. ber. PC.
* This seems to have been a Gloss added.
[' put. 2 grasped. ^ course
■' he never lingered nor stopped. ^ blow.]
OF CHEVY CHASE. 31
A the tothar syde, that a man myght se, 75
A large cloth yard and mare :
Towe bettar captayns wear nat in Christiante,
Then that day slain wear then
An archar off Northomberlonde
Say slean was the lord Perse, So
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 ;
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,^
That he of Mongon-byrry sete ;
The swane-fethars, that his arrowe bar,
With his hart blood the wear wete.* 90
Ther was never a freake wone foot wolde flc,
But still in stour'^ dyd stand,
Heawyng on yche othar,^ whyll the myght dre,*
With many a bal-fiil brande.
This battell begane in Chyviat 9S
An owar bcfor 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
MQx.ZQ.^^y,i.e. Sawe. V. 84. haylde. /T. V. 87. far. PC.
* This incident is taken from the l)attle of Ottcrbourn ; in
which Sir Hugh Montgomery, Knt. (son of John l,ord Mont-
gomery) was slain with an arrow. Vid. CnnvfonVs Pccnii^c.
\ ' sore. - fight. ^ hewing at each other. '' suffer. J
^2 ANCIENT BALLAD
3
Many hade no strenght for to stande,
In Chyviat the hyllys aboun.^
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 ;
The chylde may rue that ys un-borne,
It was the mor pitte. no
Thear was slayne with the lord Pense
Sir John of Agerstone,
Sir Roger the hinde'^ Hartly,
Sir Wyllyam the bolde Hearone.
Sir J org the worthe Lovele^ 115
A knyght of great renowen,
Sir Raff the ryche Rugbe
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,
Yet he knyled and fought on hys kne.
Ther was slayne with the dougheti Douglas
Sir Hewe the Mongon-byrry,
Sir Davye Lwdale, that worthe was, 125
His sistars son was he :
Sir Charles a Murre, in that place.
That never a foot wolde fie ;
Ver. 102. abou. FC. V. 108. strenge .... hy. J^C. V. 115.
loule. jPC V. 121. in to, i.e. in two. V. 122. kny. FC.
[' hills above. ^ gentle. ^ ]yij-. Skeat reads Louwbe.]
OF CHEVY CHASE.
JO
Sir Hewe Maxwell, a lorde he was,
With the Duglas dyd he dey. 130
So on the morrowe the mayde them byears
Offbyrch, and hasell so ' gray ;'
Many wedous^ with wepyng tears,*
Cam to fach ther makys"^ a-way.
Tivydale may carpe"^ off care, 13s
Northombarlond may mayk grat mone,
For towe such captayns, as slayne wear thear.
On the march perti* shall never be none.
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 weaP and wryng,
He sayd, Alas, and woe ys me !
Such another captayn Skotland within, 145
He sayd, y-feth shuld never be.
Worde ys commyn to lovly Londone
Till^ the fourth Harry our kyng,
Ver. 132. gay. PC V. 136. mon. PC. V. 138. non. PC
V. 146. ye feth. PC
For the names in this and the foregoing page, see the Remarks
at the end of the next ballad.
* 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 repHed with weeping
teares," (S:c.
[1 widows. "^ mates. ' comi)lain.
■• on the marches (see ver. 173). * wail. * to, unlo.J
D
34 ANCIENT BALLAD
That lord Perse, leyff-tennante of the Merchis,
He lay slayne Chyviat within. 150
God have mercl on his soil, 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 Perse, and I brook^ my lyffe, 155
Thy deth well quyte''' shall be.
As our noble kyng made his a-vowe,
Lyke a noble prince of renowen,
For the deth of the lord Perse,
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 •?
Old men that knowen the grownde well yenoughe,
Call it the Battell of Otterburn.
At Otterburn began this spurne
Uppon a monnyn day :* 170
Ther was the dougghte Doglas slean.
The Perse never went away.
Ther was never a tym on the march partes
Sen the Doglas and the Perse met.
But yt was marvele, and the redde blude ronne not,
As the reane doys in the stret. 176
Ver. 149. cheyff tennante. PC.
[^ if I enjoy. 2 requited,
that tearing or pulling began this kick. ■* Monday.]
.3
OF CHEVY CHASE. 35
Jhesue Christ our balys bete/
And to the blys us brynge !
Thus was the hountynge of the Chevyat :
God send us all orood endincj! 180
o o
*#* 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 Hum-
bledon 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 Rcd-Riggs.
Humbledon is in Glendale Ward, a district so named in this
county, and mentioned above in ver. 163.
II.
THE BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE.
_ HE only battle wherein an Earl of Douglas was slain
,^;y fighting with a Percy was that of Otterbourn, which is
P'"^ '^^ ^^^^ subject of this ballad. It is here related with the
v^kS^^^l allowable partiality of an English poet, and much in
the same manner as it is recorded in the English Chronicles.
The Scottish \vriters have, with a partiality at least as excusable,
related it no less in their own favout. Luckily we have a very cir-
cumstantial 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
[' better our bales, or remedy our evils.]
36 THE BATTLE
carried off 300 prisoners. It was with a much greater force,
headed by some of the principal nobility, that, in the beginning of
August,* they invaded Northumberland ; and, having wasted part
of the county of Durham,! advanced to the gates of Newcastle ;
where, in a skirmish, they took a * penon ' or colours J belonging
to Henry lord Percy, sumamed Hotspur, son to the Earl of
Northumberland. In their retreat home, they attacked a castle
near Otterboum : and, in the evening of Aug. 9 (as the English
writers say, or rather, according to Froissart, Aug. 15), after an un-
successful 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 : § the earl Douglas
himself being slain on the spot ; || the Earl of Murrey mortally
wounded ; and Hotspur, ^ 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)** affirming that the Scots
* 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.
t 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.
I This circumstance is omitted in the ballad. Hotspur and
Douglas were two young warriors much of the same age.
§ 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.
II 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.
\ 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.
** Froissart (according to the EngHsh transladon) says he had
his account from two squires of England, and from a knight and
squire of Scotland, soon after the battle.
OF OTTERBOURNE. 37
remained masters of the field ; and the Enghsh Avriters insinuating
the contrary. These last maintain that the Enghsh 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* betwene them as long
as speares, swordes, axes, or dagers Avyll 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 joyfuU, that suche as be taken, they shall be
ransomed or they go out of the felde ;t so that shortely cche of
them is so contcntc with other, that at their departynge curtoysly they
7i<ili saye, God thanke you. But in fyghtynge one with another
there is no playe, nor sparynge." Froissart's Chronicle (as trans-
lated by Sir Johan Bourchier Lord Bemers), cap. cxlii.
The following Ballad is (in this present edition) printed from an
old MS. in the Cotton Library J {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 Otterbiir?ie, betweene Lord Henry Percye earle
of Northotnberlande and the carle Douglas of Scotlande, Anno 13SS.
* So in Langham's Lctte?- concerning Queen Elizabeth's entertain-
ment at Killini^worth Castle, 1575, 12°. p. 61. " Heer was no ho in
devout drinkyng."
t i.e. They scorn to take the advantage, or to keep them
lingering in long captivity.
\ The notice of this MS. I must acknowledge with many other
obligations, owing to the friendship of Thomas Tynuhitt, Escp, late
Clerk of the House of Commons.
cyfi
38 THE BATTLE
But this title is erroneous, and added by some ignorant tran-
scriber of after-times: for, i. 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 Z^r^ 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
Ft. 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 earUer. 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 Otterbum," 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 Enghsh, 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 Crony kil of
Scotland. In 1857, Robert White pubHshed an interesting
History of the Battle of Otterbum, fought in 1388, with Memoirs
of the Warriors who engaged in that fnemorable 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
WeUington.
The exact date of the battle is an open question, for the
OF OTTERBOURNE.
39
authorities disagree as to this particular ; thus Buchanan fixes it on
July 2ist, and other writers name, respectively, August 5th, 9th,
loth, 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
13S8 the new moon fell on the 6th of August, and Douglas is not
likely to have chosen a period of dark evenings for his expedi-
tion. 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 attend-
ants ; 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 :
I St, 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 " ^vinning 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 Alinstrclsy
of the Scottish Border, and the one in Herd's Collection, are very
different from the English ballad.]
k
40
THE BATTLE
T felle abowght the Lamasse tyde,
Whan husbonds wynn ther haye,
The dowghtye Dowglasse bowynd^ hym
to ryde,
In Ynglond to take a praye :
The yerlle'' of Fyffe,* withowghten stryffe, 5
He bowynd hym over Sulway if
The grete wolde ever together ryde ;
That race they may rue for aye.
Over * Ottercap' hyll they J came in,
And so dowyn by Rodelyffe cragge, ic
Upon Grene * Leyton' they lyghted dowyn,
Styrande ^ many a stagge :
Ver. 2. winn their heaye. Harl. MS. This is the Northumber-
land phrase to this day : by which they always express " getting in
their hay."
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.
* Robert Stuart, second son of K. Robert II.
t 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 Boicnde him ; i. e. hied him.
\ 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 Rodcley)
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 Rodcley-castle, Green Ieyto7i
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.
\} prepared. ^ e^rl. ^ stirring.]
OF OTTERBOURNE. 41
And boldely brente' Northombcrlonde,
And har)'ed^ many a towyn ;
They dyd owr Ynglyssh men grete wrange,' 15
To battell that were not bowyn.*
Than spake a berne^ upon the bent,*
Of com forte that was not colde,
And sayd, We have brent Northombcrlond,
We have all welth in holde.
20
Now we have haryed all Bamboroweshyre,
All the welth in the worlde have wee ;
I rede^ we ryde to Newe Castell,
So styll and stalwurthlye."
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* all hys dayes.
And kepte Barwyke upon Twede.
To the Newe Castell when they cam,
The Skottes they cryde on hyght,"
Syr Harye Percy, and thow byste ^" 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.
With my brande dubbyd many a knyght. 40
Ver. 39. Syne seems here to mean since.
* Marche-7fian, i. e. a scourer of the marches.
f burnt. 2 pillaged. ' wrong. ■• ready. '' man.
♦• field. ' advise. ** stoutly. ^ aloud. ,'" art. I
42 THE BATTLE
Sir Harry Percy cam to the walks,
The Skottyssh oste for to se ;
" And thow hast brente Northomberlond,
Full sore it rewyth^ me.
Yf thou hast haryed all Bambarowe shyre, 45
Thow hast done me grete envye '^^
For the trespasse thow hast me done,
The tone^ 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,*
Ther maist thow well logeed be.
The roo^ full rekeles ther sche rinnes,
To make the game and glee :
The fawkon and the fesaunt ' both, 55
Amonge the holtes on ' hee.'^
Ther maist thow have thy welth at wyll.
Well looged ther maist be.
Yt schall not be long, or I com the tyll," ^
Sayd Syr Harry Percy e. 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.
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.
V. 56. hye, MSS.
* 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.
[^ regrets. ^ injury. ^ ^^ Q^e. ^ roe.
5 falcon and pheasant. ^ woods on high. ' come unto thee.]
OF OTTERBOURNE. 43
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* withowghten naye, 70
He tooke his logeyng at Oterborne
Uppon a Wedyns-day :
And ther he pyght^ hys standerd dowyn,
Hys gettyng' more and lesse,
And syne* he warned hys men to goo 75
To chose ther geldyngs gresse.
A Skottysshe knyght hoved^ upon the bent,
A wache^ I dare well saye :
So was he ware^ on the noble Percy
In the dawnynge of the daye. 80
He prycked^ to his pavyleon dore,
As faste as he myght ronne,
Awaken, Dowglas, cryed the knyght,
For hys love, that syttes yn trone.'-'
Awaken, Dowglas, cryed the knyght, 85
For thow maiste waken wyth wynne : *"
Vender 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" banner,
For all Ynglonde so haylle/"^
Ver. 77. upon the best bent. MS.
\} truth. 2 pitched. ^ booty. "* then. ^ hovered.
" spy. ■^ aware. * spurred. '•• enthroned. ^" joy.
^^ broad. '^'^ strong.]
1
'44 THE BATTLE
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^ 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.* 100
The yerle of Mentaye,* thow arte my eme,^
The forwarde^ I gyve to the :
The yerlle of Huntlay cawte^ and kene,
He schall wyth the be.
The lorde of Bowghanf in armure bryght 105
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 :^ no
Syr Davy Scotte, Syr Walter Stewarde,
Syr Jhon of Agurstone.
A FYTTE.
HE Perssy came byfore hys oste,
Wych was ever a gentyll knyght.
Upon the Dowglas lowde can he crye,
I wyll holde that I have hyght : '
Ver. I, 13. Fearcy, all MSS. V. 4. I will hold to what I have
promised.
* The Earl of Menteith. f The Lord Buchan.
[^ force. 2 peace. ^ uncle. '^ van. ^ cautious.
* ready. ^ promised or engaged.]
OF OTTERBOURNE. 45
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,' 10
And sayd, I have twenty agaynst 'thy' one/''
Byholde and thow maiste see.
Wyth that the Percye was grevyd sore,
For sothe as I yow saye :
[f He lyghted dowyn upon his fote, 15
And schootc^ his horsse clenc away.
Every man sawe that he dyd soo.
That r^'air^ was ever in rowght ;^
Every man schoote hys horsse him froo,
And l}'ght 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 ; as
The cronykle wyll not layne :"*
Forty thowsande Skottes and fowre
That day fowght them agayne.
But when the batell byganne to joyne,
In hast ther came a knyght, 30
Ver. 10. hyc, MSS. V. ii. the one, MS.
• He probably magnifies his strength to induce him to surrender,
t All that follows, included in brackets, was not in the first
edition.
\} let go. 2 royal. ^ rout. ■• deceive.]
.1
46 THE BATTLE
' 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. 4°
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 :
My trowth ys plyght to yonne Skottysh knyght, 45
It nedes me not to layne,'^
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, 5°
He wolde me call but a kowarde knyght
In hys londe another daye.
Yet had I lever ^ to be rynde ^ and rente,
By Mary that mykel maye ; ^
Then ever my manhod schulde be reprovyd 55
Wyth a Skotte another daye.
Wherfore schote, archars, for my sake,
And let scharpe arowes flee :
Mynstrells, playe up for your waryson,^
And well quyt it schall be. 60
[^ eye. ^ break my word. ^ rather.
■* flayed? * great maid. * reward.]
OF OTTERBOURNE. 47
Every man thynke on hys trewe love,
And marke hym to the Trenlte : ^
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 ; ^ 70
The Lucetts and the Cressawnts both :
The Skotts faught them agayne.*]
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 f 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 ancient arms of Douglas are pretty accurately emblazoned
in the former stanza, and if the readings were. The crotvncd harte,
and Above stode starres thre, it would be minutely exact at this
day. As for the Percy family, one of their ancient badges or
cognizances was a whyte lyon statant, and the silver crescent con-
tinues to be used by them to this day. They also give three
luces ardent for one of their quarters.
t i.e. the English.
\} commit himself to God by a sign. '^ SAy to you.]
48 THE BATTLE
The Percy and the Dowglas mette, 85
That ether of other was fayne ;
They schapped' together, whyll that the swette,
With swords of fyne Collayne ; ^
Tyll the bloode from ther bassonetts' ranne,
As the roke^ doth in the rayne.^ 90
Yelde the to me, sayd the Dowglas,
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,^ 95
Thow art an yerle, or ells a knyght.*
By my good faythe, sayd the noble Percy,
Now haste thou rede ^ 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,^
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 ; "o
To the harte, he cowde hym smyte,
Thus was the Dowglas slayne.
* Being all in armour he could not know him.
S} swapped ? /. e. smote. ^ Cologne steel. ^ helmets.
■* steam. ^ sword. ^ guessed. ' time.]
OF OTTERBOURNE. 49
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.'
Ther was ho freke,' that ther wolde flye,
But styffly in stowre ' can stond,
Ychone ^ hewyng on other whyll they myght drye,^
Wyth many a bayllefull bronde. izo
Ther was slayne upon the Skottes syde,
For soth and sertenly,
Syr James a Dowglas ther was slayne,
That daye that he cowde dye.
The yerlle Mentaye of he was slayne, 125
Grysely ^ groned uppon the growynd ;
Syr Davy Scotte, Syr Walter Steward,
Syr ' John ' of Agurstonne.*
Syr Charlies 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 ^ as I yow saye,
Of fowre and forty thowsande Scotts 135
Went but eyghtene awaye.
Ver. 116. slayne. MSS. V. 124, i.e. He died that day.
* Our old minstrel repeats these names, as Homer and Virgil
do those of their heroes :
" fortemque Gyam, fortcmque Cloanthuni," &c. &c.
Both the MSS. read here, ^^ Sir James" but see above, Pt. I.,
ver. 1 12.
[^ man. ^ fight. ^ each one. ' endure.
^ dreadfully. " truth.]
E
50 THE BATTLE
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,
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
Of byrch, and haysell graye ;
Many a wydowe with wepyng teyres 155
Ther makes ^ they fette'^ awaye.
Thys fraye bygan at Otterborne,
Bytwene the nyghte and the day :
Ther the Dowglas lost hys lyfe,
And the Percy was lede awaye.* 160
Then was ther a Scottyshe prisoner tayne,
Syr Hughe Mongomery was hys name.
Ver. 143. Covelle. MS. For the names in this page, see the
remarks at the end of this ballad. V. 153. one, i.e. on.
* sc. captive.
[' mates. 2 fetch.]
OF OTTERDOURNE. 51
For soth as I yow saye,
He borowed the Percy home agayne.*
Now let us all for the Percy praye 165
To Jesu most of myght.
To bryng h)-s 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.
'ECOND Fit, ver. 112. As;crstoncr\ The family oi Haggcr-
ston of Haggerston, near Berwick, has been seated there
for many centuries, and still remains. Thomas Haggaston
was among the commissioners returned for Northumberland in
12 Hen. 6, 1433. (Fuller's IVort/iics, p. 310.) The head of this
family at present is Sir Thomas Haggerston, Bart., of Haggerston
above-mentioned.
N.B. The name is spelt Agcrstonc, as in the text, in Leland's
Itinerary, vol. vii. p. 54.^
Ver. 113. Hartly.^ Hartley is a village near the sea in the
barony of Tinemouth, about 7 m. from North-Shields. It pro-
bably 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. Iladdesto/i, the
Caput Baroniae of Heron, was their ancient residence. It descended
Ver. 165. Percyes. — Ilarl. MS.
* 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."
[' Sir Walter Scott suggests that the person here alluded to was
one of the Rulherfords, barons of Fdgerstane or I'^dgcrston, who
at this time were retainers of the house of Douglas, but in Chay
Chase Sir John of Agerstone was on Percy's side.J
52 THE BATTLE
25 Edw. I. to the heir general Emiline Heron, afterwards Baroness
Darcy. — Ford, &=c., and Bockenficld (in com. eodem) went at the
same time to Roger Heron, the heir male ; whose descendants
were summoned to Parliament : Sir William Hejvn 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 Ric/iard 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 Heions of
Chip-Chase, another branch of the Herons of Ford Castle.
Ver. 115. Lovele.~\ Joh. de Lav ale, miles, was sheriff of North-
umberland 34 Hen. VIII. Joh. de Lavele, ?7iil. in the i Edw. VI.
and afterwards. (Fuller, 313.) In Nicholson this name is spelt
Da Lovel, p. 304. This seems to be the ancient family oi Delaval,
of Seaton Delaval, in Northumberland, whose ancestor was one of
the 25 Barons appointed to be guardians oi Magna Charta. *
Ver. 117. Rugbe.'] The ancient family o{ Rokeby, in Yorkshire,
seems to be here intended. In Thoresby's Ducat. Lcod., 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?
Ver. 119. Wetharrington.'] Rog. de Widrington was sheriff of
Northumberland in 36 of Edw. III. (Fuller, p. 311.) — Joh. de
Widrington in 1 1 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. Mo?igonberfy.'] Sir Hugh Monfgofnery was son oijohn
Lord Montgomery, the lineal ancestor of the present Earl of
Eglington. '
Ver. 125. Lwdale.'] The ancient family of the Liddels were origi-
nally 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.^
[1 This is a misreading, as the person intended was a Lumley.
'^ Sir W. Scott supposes " Sir Rafife the ryche Rugbe" to be Sir
Ralph Neville of Raby Castle, son of the first Earl of Westmore-
land, and cousin-german to Hotspur. He is called Sir Ralph
Raby in the modern version of the ballad.
^ More probably the Sir David Lambwell of the modern version.]
OF OTTERBOURNE.
IN THE BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE.
Ver. loi. McntayeP\ At the time of this battle the Earldom of
ATenteith was possessed by Robert Stewart, Earl of Fife, third sou
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 tlie
ballad was >\Titten. See Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, 1764, fol.
Ver. 103. Hiintleye?^ This shews this ballad was not composed
before 1449; for in that year Alexander Lord of Gordon and
Huntley, was created Earl oi Huntley, by K. James II.
Ver. 105. Boii'ghan?^ The Earl of Bitchan at that time was
Alexander Stacart, fourth son of K. Robert II.
Ver. lo"]. Jhonstonc — Ma-xwell.'] These two families oi John-
stone Lord of Johnston, and Maxwell Lord of Maxwell, were
always very powerful on the borders. Of the former family was
Johnston Alarquis 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 ori-
ginally written Sir H. Alaxwell, and by transcribers converted
into Sir Hugh. So above, in No. I. v. 90. Ricluird is contracted
into Ric.
Ver. 109. SwtntoneS\ i.e. The Laird of Swintone; a small vil-
lage Avithin the Scottish border, 3 miles from Norham. This
family still subsists, and is very ancient.
Ver. III. Scotte.'] The illustrious family oi Scot, ancestors of
the Duke of Buccleugh, always made a great figure on the borders.
Sir Walter Scot was at thg^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. Steiuarde.'\ The person here designed was probably Sir
Walter Stc7vart, Lord of Dalswinton and Oairlies, who was
eminent at that time. (See Doug.) From him is descended the
Ijresent Earl of Galloway.
Ver. 112. Agurstonne.] The seat of this family was sometimes
subject to the kings of Scotland. Thus Richardus Haggerstoiin,
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.
54 THE JEW'S DAUGHTER.
Ver. 129. Miirreyr\ 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) in-
forms us \hzlJohn, son of Henry Lord Fitz/mgh, was killed at the
battle of Otterbourne. This was a Northumberland family. Vid.
Dugd. p. 403, col. I, 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 Gidschard Harbottle, Esq., married Sir
Thomas Percy, Knt., son of Henry the fifth, — and father of
Thomas seventh, Earls of Northumberland.
III.
THE JEW'S DAUGHTER,
A Scottish Ballad,
fS 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 prac-
_ tice 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 con-
sider, 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 HI. The conclusion of this ballad
appears to be wanting : what it probably contained may be seen
THE JEW'S DAUGHTER. 55
in Chaucer. As for AFirryland Toiin, it is probably a corruption
of Milan (called by the Dutch Mcylandt) Town : the Pa is evi-
dently the river Po; although the Adige, not the Po, runs through
IMilan.
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 litera-
ture of its own. INIons. Francisc^ue 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-Nomiande et Ecossoises relatives au meurtre de cet enfant
commis par les Juifs en mcclv." The Rev. Dr. A. Hume commu-
nicated 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. HaUiwell printed, in 1S49, a small volume containing
" Ballads and Poems respecting Hugh of Lincoln." In the
Athc7iieiim for Dec. 15, 1849, there is a condemnatory review of
Dr. Hume's work, to which the reviewer has added some valuable
infomiation of his own. Percy's remark that Alirryland town is a
corruption of Milan town, and Pa of tlie 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 Maitkmd 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 jnerc-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 ob-
tained from oral tradition at Godalming, in Surrey, to Mr. HaUiwell,
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 garilen.
And the Jews were all below.
" Oh ! then out came the Jew's daughter,
She was dressed all in green :
* Come hither, come hither, my sweet pretty fellow,
And fetch your ball again.'"
56 THE JEWS DAUGHTER.
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. Eisen-
menger* refers to a case which occurred at Inmestar, in Syria, so
early as the year 419, but the earliest case recorded as having oc-
curred 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 mil 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 fridai) 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 (mr), 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,! 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 Eng-
land 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 un-
fortunate 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 Lin-
[* Entdecktcs Judetithum, vol. ii. p. 220.
I Ttvo of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, 1865, p. 371-]
THE JEW'S DAUGHTER. 57
coin 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."* Any such explanation as this, how-
ever, 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, Avho was in high favour with Henry IH., and
from his pages the account is transferred to the Chronicles of
Grafton, Fabyan, and Holinshed. Chaucer most probably con-
sulted the same source when he included the story in his Canter-
bury Talcs, 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 litcl ivhile ago)."
Tyrvvhitt, 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. Tynvhitt 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. t
[* History of the Jews, ed. 1863, vol. iii. [). 249.
t Mr. Hales points out to me the following reference to the
superstition in Marlowe s y^rc' of Malta, acl iii. : —
58 THE JEW'S DAUGHTER.
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 locaUties with the object of obtain-
ing redress for his people, and he was successful. On November
6, 1840, a firman for the protection of the Jews was given at Con-
stantinople, 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 Israehtes enjoy shed-
ding 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."
" Friar Jaco7no. Why, what has he done ?
Friar Barnardinc. 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 Anglia
Judaica, where instances of such crucifixion are given.]
THE JEW'S DAUGHTER. 59
The superstition, however, still lives on, and according to the
Levant Herald {x^lAr), the Mahometans are beginning to fell into
the delusion that the sacrificial knife is applied by the Jews to
young Turks as well as to young Christians.]
HE rain rins doun through Mirry-land
toune,
Sae dois it doune the Pa :
Sae dois the lads of Mirry-land toune,
Ouhan they play at the ba'.'
Than out and cam the Jewis dochter, 5
Said, Will ye cum in and dine ?
" I winnae cum in, I cannae cum in,
Without my play-feres'^ nine."
Scho' powd^ 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,^
Scho has twin'd'^ the yong thing and his life ; 15
A word he nevir spak main
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.
[1 ball. 2 play-fellows. ^ she.
•♦ pulled. ^ dress. * parted in two.]
6o THE JEW'S DAUGHTER.
Scho rowd^ him in a cake of lead, 25
Bade him He 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 castel, 3S
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^ ye your sonne wad seik." 40
Lady Helen ran to the deip draw-well,
And knelt upon her kne :
My bonny sir Hew, an^ 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^ 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."
* * * *
\} she rolled. ^ if. ^ jf 4 cannot]
S/R CAULINE. 61
IV.
SIR CAULINE.
'HIS old romantic tale was preserved in the Editor's
^^^j. 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 de-
serve, 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 wliich 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. no, III, that the Round Table was not peculiar to the reign of
K. Arthur, but was common in all the ages of chivalry. The pro-
claiming a great turnament (probably with some peculiar solem-
nities) 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 toumeament 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 Men sec Rotundcc.
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 man-
ners : 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 C'hronirlos
we always find the young damsels stanching the wounds of their
62 SIR CAULINE.
lovers, and the wives those of their husbands.* And even so late
as the time of Q. Elizabeth, it is mentioned among the accom-
plishments of the ladies of her court, that the " eldest of them are
skilful in surgery." See Harrison's Description of England, pre-
fixed to Hollinshed's Chronicle, ^^c.
[This story of Sir Caidine furnishes one of the most flagrant
instances of Percy's manipulation of his authorities. In the fol-
lowing 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. auke-
ward 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 Colvln,
which is more Hke the original than Percy's version, but Mr. Hales
is of opinion that this was one of that collector's fabrications.]
THE FIRST PART.
Ireland, ferr over the sea,
There dwelleth a bonnye kinge ;
And with him a yong and comlye knighte,
Men call him syr Cauline.
* See Northern Antiquities, &'c. vol. i. p. 318; vol. ii. p. 100.
Memoires de la Chevalcrie, torn. i. p. 44.
J
lO
S//^ CAULINE. 6
The kinge had a ladye to his daughter,
In fashyon she hath no peere ;
And princely wightes that ladye wooed
To be theyr wedded feere. *]
Syr CauHne loveth her best of all,
But nothing durst he saye ;
Ne descreeve'^ his counsayl to no man,
But deerlye he lovde this may.''
Till on a daye it so beffell,
Great dill^ to him was dight ;^
The maydens love removde his mynd, 15
To care-bed went the kniijhte.
One while he spred his armes him fro,
One while he spred them nye :
And aye ! but I winne that ladyes love.
For dole^ now I mun^ dye. 20
And whan our parish-masse was done,
Our kinge was bowne^ to dyne :
He sayes. Where is syr Cauline,
That is wont to serve the wyne ?
Then aunswcrde him a courteous knighte, 25
And fast his handes gan wringe :
Sir Cauline is sicke, and like to dye
Without a good leechinge."
Fetche me downe my daughter deere,
She is a leeche fulle fine : 30
Goe take him doughe,^° and the baken bread,
\} mate. ^ describe. ^ maiden. "• grief.
* wrought. ''' sorrow. '^ must. ^ made ready.
^ medical care.
^^^ This is an odd misreading of Percy's. The MS. has " I and
take you doe and the baken bread," where doe is the auxihary verb
and the a«^ redundant.]
64 SIR CAULINE.
I.
And serve him with the wyne soe red ;
Lothe I were him to tine/
Fair Christabelle to his chaumber goes,
Her may dens followyng nye : ss
O well, she sayth, how doth my lord ?
0 sicke, thou fayr ladye.
Nowe ryse up wightlye,^ 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 •?
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,
1 am his onlye heire ;
Alas ! and well you knowe, syr knighte,
I never can be youre fere. 5°
O ladye, thou art a kinges daughter,
And I am not thy peere.
But let me doe some deedes of armes
To be your bacheleere.*
Some deedes of armes if thou wilt doe, 55
My bacheleere to bee,
( But ever and aye my heart wold rue,
Giff^ harm shold happe to thee,)]
Upon Eldridge^ hill there groweth a thorne.
Upon the mores brodinge ;^ 60
[1 lose. ^ swiftly. ^ pain I suffer. "^ knight.
5 if. ^ spectral, lonesome. ^ wide moors.]
S/R CAULINE. 65
And dare ye, syr knighte, wake there all nighte
Until the fayre morninge ?
For the Eldridge knighte, so mickle' of mighte,
Will examine you beforne :"^
And never man bare life awaye, 65
But he did him scath' and scorne.
[That knighte he is a foul paynim/
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 He walke,*
For thy sake, fair ladie ;]
And He either bring you a ready token,
Or He never more you see.
The lady is gone to her own chaumbere, 75
Her maydens following bright :
[Syr Cauline lope^ from care-bed soone,
And to the Eldridge hills is gone,]
F'or to wake there all nigrht.
Unto midnicrht, that the moone did rise, 80
He walked up and downe ;
Then a lightsome bugle heard he blowe
Over the bents ^' soe browne ;
Quoth hee, If cryance come tilF my heart,
I am ffar from any good towne. 85
And soone he spyde on the mores so broad,
A furyous wight and fell f
A ladye bright his brydle led.
Clad in a fayre kyrtell :
* Pcrliaps loakr, as abo\'C in vcr. 61.
[' great. '^ before. ^ harm. * pagan. '' leaped.
" ficld.s. ' if fear rome to. ** fierce.]
66 SIR CAULINE.
And soe fast he called on syr Cauline, 90
0 man, I rede' thee flye,
For ' but ' if cryance comes till thy heart,
1 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"^ 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* bare
Soe soone in sunder slode.^
Then tooke they out theyr two good swordes.
And layden^ on full faste,
[Till helme and hawberke, mail and sheelde, 105
They all were well-nye brast.^]
The Eldridge knight was mickle of might.
And stiffe in stower^ did stande,
But syr Cauline with a ' backward ' stroke,
He smote off his right hand ; no
That soone he with paine and lacke of bloud
Fell downe on that lay-land.^
[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.
Ver. 109, aukeward. MS.
* /. e. Knights. See the Preface to Child Waters, vol. iii.
[1 advise. ^ mentioned. ^ gpijj.^ 4 j^jj^
* burst. ^ battle. "^ green sward.]
S/J^ CAULINE. 67
Then up and came that ladye brighte,
Fast wrinoinor of her hande :
For the maydens love, that most you love,
Withold that dcadlye 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' obaye.
Now sweare to mee, thou Eldridge kni'ohte, 125
And here on this lay-land.
That thou wilt believe on Christ his layc,^
And therto plight thy hand :
And that thou never on Eldrido^e come
To sporte, gamon,' or playe : n©
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 larg-e of bone.
'fe
And on it he founde five rincfes of cfold
f>
Of knic^htes that had be slone.^
-*>
Then he tooke up the Eldridge sworde, us
As hard as any Hint :
[» commands. "^ law. •' ri;,'hl. ' slain.]
68 SIR CAULINE.
And he tooke off those ringes five,
As bright as fyre and brent-
Home then pricked^ syr CauHne
As Hght as leafe on tree : 150
I-wys he neither stint ne blanne,*''
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 Cauline,
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'^ a gentill sighe :
Alas ! syr knight, how may this bee.
For my degree's soe highe ?
But sith thou hast hight,* thou comely youth.
To be my batchilere, 170
He promise if thee I may not wedde
I will have none other fere.^
Then shee held forthe her lilly-white hand
Towards that knighte so free ;
He gave to it one gentill kisse, 175
[' spurred. ^ neither stopped nor lingered. ^ fetched.
■* since thou hast engaged. ''' mate.]
SIR CAULINE. 69
His heart was brought from bale to blisse,
The teares sterte^ from his ee.
But keep my counsayl, syr CauRne,
Ne let no man it knowe ;
For and ever my father sholde it ken, 180
I wot he wolde us sloe."^
From that daye forthe that ladye fayre
Lovde syr Cauhne the knighte :
From that daye forthe he only joyde
Whan shee was in his sieht.
?:>'
185
Yea and oftentimes they mette
Within a fayre arboure,
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 Sigismmtda 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 7ohitc,'^ &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.
[1 started. ^ I know he would sla^ us.]
70 SIR CAULINE.
PART THE SECOND.
|VERYE white will have its blacke,
And everye sweete its sowre :
I^HI This founde the ladye Christabelk
In an untimely howre.
For so it befelle, as syr Cauline 5
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, lo
He found his daughter and syr Cauhne
There sette in daliaunce sweet.
The kinge hee sterted forthe, i-wys,^
And an angrye man was hee :
Nowe, traytoure, thou shalt hange or drawe, is
And re we shall thy ladle.
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 sent 25
Across the salt sea fome :
But here I will make thee a band,^
If ever he come within this land,
A foule deathe is his doome.
\} verily. 2 bond or covenant.]
SIR CAULINE. 71
All woe-begone was that gentil knight 30
To parte from his ladye ;
And many a time he sighed sore,
And cast a wistfulle eye :
Faire Christabelle, from thee to parte,
Farre lever^ had I dye. 3S
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^ 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."^
When manye a daye was past and gone,
Ne comforte she colde finde, so
The kynge proclaimed a tourneament,
To cheere his dauijhters mind :
And there came lords, and there came knights,
Fro manye a farre countrye.
To break a spere for theyr ladycs love 55
Before that faire ladye.
And many a ladye there was sette
In purple and in palle :^
But faire Christabelle soe woe-begone
Was the fay rest of them all. 60
\} ratlier. '^ lose.
^ nigh. ^ fine cloth. |
72 S/J^ CAULINE.
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^ it was all of blacke, 65
His hewberke,*"^ 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^ past 70
In feates of chivalrye,
When lo upon the fourth morninge
A sorrowfulle sight they see.
A hugye giaunt stiffe and starke,
All foule of limbe and lere ;* 75
Two goggling eyen like fire farden,^
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.^
Sir, quoth the dwarffe, and louted^ lowe,
Behold that hend« Soldain !
Behold these heads I beare with me !
They are kings which he hath slain. 85
The Eldridge knight is his own cousine.
Whom a knight of thine hath shent :^
And hee is come to avenge his wrong.
And to thee, all thy knightes among.
Defiance here hath sent. 90
[^ leather jacket. ^ (-gat of mail. ^ quickly. "* countenance.
^ flashed. ^ complexion. '' bowed. ^ courteous. ^ injured.]
S/R CAULINE. 73
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.^
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.]"^
The king he turned him round aboute,
And in his heart was woe : 100
Is there never a knighte of my round table,
This matter will underofoe ?
[Is there never a knighte amongst yee all
Will fight for my daughter and mee ?
Whoever will fight yon grimme soldan, 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. no
But every knighte of his round table
Did stand both still and pale ;
For whenever they lookt on the grim soldan,
It made their hearts to quail.
All woe-begone was that fayre ladye, us
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
He fight for thee with this grimme soldan,
Thoughe he be unmacklye ' made.
\} bum. 2 equal. ^ mis-shapen.]
74 SIR CAULINE.
And if thou wilt lend me the Eldridge sworde,
That lyeth within thy bowre,
I truste in Christe for to slay this fiende 125
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/ 130
The gyaunt he stepped into the lists,
And sayd, Awaye, awaye :
I sweare, as I am the hend soldan.
Thou lettest '^ me here all daye.
Then forthe the stranger knight he came 135
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.^
The soldan strucke the knighte a stroke.
That made him reele asyde ;
Then woe-begone was that fayre ladye, 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 kniofhte on his knee :
Sad sorrow pierced that ladyes heart,
And she shriekt loud shriekings three.
\} reward. ^ detainest. ^ give blows.]
SIR CAULINE. 75
The knighte he leapt upon his feete, 155
All recklesse of the pain :
Quoth hee, But^ heaven be now my speedc,
Or else'^ 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.^
And nowe the kino-e with all his barons
Rose uppe from offe his seate.
And downe he stepped into the listes,
That curteous knighte to greete. 170
But he for payne and lacke of bloude
Was fallen into 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 ^ had I lose halfe my landes.
Than this good knighte sholde spille.^
Downe then steppeth that fayre ladye.
To helpe him if she maye ; iSo
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
[' unless.
2 " or else," redundant from a misunderstanding of the word but.
^ captivity. ' rather. '" come to harm.)
76 S/J^ CAULINE.
i
O ladye, I am thine owne true love ;
For thee I wisht to dye. I
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 ; ^
'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 ^ sighe,
That burst her gentle hearte in twayne,
Fayre Christabelle did dye.]
[f^^^^HE following is the original ballad from which Percy con-
Iv^lly^ cocted his own. It is reprinted from Bishop Percy i Folio
^^i^^ MS.,ed. Hales and Fiirtiivall, vol. iii. p. i.
lesus : lord mickle of might,
that dyed fifor vs on the roode
to maintaine vs in all our right,
that loues true English blood.
ffor by a ILnight I say my song, - 5
was bold & ffull hardye ;
S/r Robert Briuse wold fforth to fhght
in-to Ireland ouer the sea ;
[' mate. 2 deep-drawn.]
S/J^ CAULINE. 77
10
& in t}ia\ land dwells a king
w^/ch ouer all does beare the bell,
& w/th him there dwelled a curteous K///>//t,
men call him S/r Cawline.
And he hath a Ladyc to his daughter,
of ftashyon shee hath noe peere ;
Y^nighh, & lordes they woed her both, 1 5
trusted to haue beene her peere.
S/r Cawline loues her best of one,
but nothing durst hee say
to discreeue his councell to noe man,
but deerlye loued this mayd. 20
till itt beftell 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 thaX. I haue most minde,
this day may comfort mee,
or else ere noone I shalbe dead ! "
thus can S/r Cawline say. 30
when our p^rrish masse thai itt was done,
& our king was bowne to dine,
he sayes, " where is S/r Cawline
thaX. was wont to serue me w/th ale and wine ?
but then answered a curteous Y^iiighX. 35
ffast -wTinginge his hands,
" S/r Cawlines sicke, & like to be dead
w/thout and a good leedginge."
" ffeitch yee downe my daughter deerc,
shee is a Leeche fifull ffine ; 40
I, and take you doe & the baken breads
and eene on the wine soe red,
& looke no day[ njtinesse ffor him to deare,
for ffuU loth I wold him teene."
this Ladye is gone to his chamber, 45
her maydens ffollowing Nye,
" () well," shee sayth, " how doth my T-ord?"
" O sicke ! " againe saith hee.
78 SIJ^ CAULINE.
'* 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 yma Loue, ffayre Ladye,
tha\. all this dill I drye.
ffor if you wold comfort me w/th a Kisse, 55
then were I brought ffrom bale to blisse ;
noe longer here wold I lye."
" alas ! soe well you know, S/r Y^nighi,
I cannott bee joux peere."
" ffor some deeds of armes ffaine wold I doe 60
to be yo?/r Bacheeleere."
" vpon Eldridge hill there growes a thorne
vpon the mores brodinge ;
& wold you, S/r Knight, wake there all night
to day of the other Morninge ? 65
" ffor the Eldrige Y^iitg thai is mickle of Might
will examine you beforne ;
& there was neuer man thai 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,
& lie either bring you a readye token
or He neuer come to you againe."
but this Ladye is gone to her Chamber,
her Maydens ffollowing bright ; 75
& S/r Cawlins gone to the mores soe broad,
ffor to Avake there all night.
vnto midnight they Moone did rise,
he walked vp and downe,
& a lightsome bugle then heard he blow 80
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 ;
SIR CAULINE. 79
& soe fast hee called vpon S/r 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 fteare not thee ;
ffor because thou minged not christ before.
Thee lesse me dreadeth thee." 95
but S/r Cawline he shooke a speare,
the '^ing 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 l^ing was mickle of might,
& stiffly to the ground did stand ;
but S/r Cawline w/th an aukeward stroke
he brought him ftrora his hand, 105
I, & fflying ouer his head soe hye,
ffell downe of thai Lay land :
& his lady stood a litle thereby,
flast ringing her hands :
" for they maydens loue that you haue most meed, no
smyte you my Lord no more,
& heest neu(?r come vpon Eldrige [hill]
him to sport, gamon, or play,
& to meete noe man of middle earth,
& tluiX. Hues on christs his lay. 1 15
but he then vp, and tha\. Eldryge Y^ing
sett him in his sadle againe,
& t}ia\. ?Lldryge Y^ing & his Ladye
to their castle are they gone.
& hee tooke then vp & thai Eldryge sword 120
as hard as any fflynt,
& soe he did those ringes 5,
harder than ffyer, and brent.
ffirst he i)rrsented to the K//;^^s daughter
they hand, & then they sword. '25
" Init a serrett buffett you haue him giuen,
the Y^ing & the crowne ! " she sayd.
*' I, but 34 stripes
corncn beside the rood."
8o SIR CAULINE.
& a Gyant that was both stifife [&] strong, 1 30
he lope now them amonge,
& vpon his squier 5 heads he bare,
vnmackley made was hee.
& he dranke then on the Kz/z^s wine,
& hee put the cup in his sleeue; 135
& all the trembled & were wan
ftbr feare he shold them greeffe.
" He tell thee mine Arrand, K//zf," he sayes,
" mine errand what I doe heere ; |
ffor I will bren thy temples hye, 140 |
or He haue thy daughter deere ;
in, or else vpon, yond more soe brood
thou shalt ffind mee a ppeare."
i
the Y^ing he turned him round about,
(Lor^, in his heart he was woe !), 145
says, " is there noe Y^night of the round table
this matter will vndergoe ?
" I, & hee shall haue my broad Lands,
& keepe them well his line ;
I, and soe hee shall my daughter deere, 150
to be his weded wiffe."
& then stood vp S/r CawHne
his o\vne errand ffor to say :
" ifaith, I wold to god, S/r," sayd S/r Cawline,
" thaX. 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 S/r Cawline 160
the ffought a sum;/;ers day :
now has hee slaine that hend Soldan,
& brought his 5 heads away.
& the Ydng has betaken him his broade lands
& all his venison. 165
" but take you too & youx Lands [soe] broad,
& brooke them well yo?/r lifife,
ffor you premised mee yoia daughter deere
to be my weded wiffe."
SIR CAULINE. 8 1
" now by my ffaith,' then sayes our K;«^, 170
" ffor thaX. wee will not striffe ;
ffor thou shalt haue my daughter dere
to be thy weded witte."
the other mominge S/'r Cawline rose
by the dawning of the day, 175
& vntill a garden did he goe
his Mattins ffor to say ;
& thaX. bespyed a ffalse steward —
a shames death thai he might dye ! —
& he lett a lyon out of a bande, 180
S/r 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, " S/r Cawlines slaine !
and w/th a beast is not ffuU litle, 19°
a Lyon of Mickle mayne."
then the K/;7^s daughter shee ffell downe,
" for peerlesse is my payne ! "
" O peace, my Lady ! " sayes S/r Cawline,
" I haue bought thy loue ffuU deere. i95
O peace, my Lady ! " sayes S/r Cawline,
" peace, Lady, ffor I am heere ! "
then he did marry this K///^s daughter
w/'th gold & siluer bright,
& 15 sonnes this Ladye beere 200
to S/r Cawline the Knight.
ffins.
82 EDWARD, EDWARD.
V.
EDWARD, EDWARD.
A Scottish Ballad.
From a MS. copy tra7isinitted from Scotland.
*HE afifectedly antique orthography of this ballad has
caused some to suppose that it was a modern inven-
tion, probably by Lady Wardlaw, the author of Hardy-
knute, 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 a7id Dialogue 7uith 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 he^iX 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 joUie young man?
The tow and the halter for to hang on yon tree.
And lat her hang there for the poysoning o' me."]
EDWARD, EDWARD. 8-,
o
UHY dois your brand sae drop wi' bluid,'
Edward, Edward ?
Ouhy dois your brand sae drop wi' bluid?
And quhy sae sad gang yee. O ? "^
O, I hae killed my hauke sae guid, 5
Midler, mither :
O, I hae killed my hauke sae guid :
And I had nae mair bot hee,"' 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,^ 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 ^ for that, 25
Edward, Edward ?
And quhatten penance will ye drie for that ?
My deir son, now tell me, O.
[^ why does your sword so drop with blood.
2 and why so sad go ye. ' no other but he.
* some other grief you suffer. * undergo.]
84 EDWARD, EDWARD.
He set my feit in yonder boat,
Mither, mither : 30
He set my feit in yonder boat,
And He fare ^ ovir the sea, O.
And quhat wul ye doe wi' your towirs and your ha',*
Edward, Edward ?
And quhat wul ye doe wi' your towirs and your ha', 35
That were sae fair to see, O ?
He let thame stand til they doun fa^^
Mither, mither :
He let thame stand til they doun fa,'
For here nevir mair maun I bee, O. 4.0
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,^ let thame beg throw life, 4.5
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 sail ye beir,
Mither, mither :
The curse of hell frae me sail 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.
[^ pass. ^ hall. ' fall. * the world's large.]
KING ESTMERE. 85
VI.
KING ESTMERE.
'HIS old Romantic Legend (which is given from two
copies, one of them in the editors folio MS., but
^S^ 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 ]\Iahometans are spoken of in v. 49, &c., just in
the same terms as in all other old romances. The author of the
ancient Legend o{ Sir Brcis represents his hero, upon all occasions,
breathing out defiance against
" Mahoimd and Termagaunte ; '' *
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."t
Indeed they return the compliment by calling him elsewhere
" A christen hounde. 'J
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 deconim 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.^ So little ought we to judge of ancient manners
by our own.
Before 1 conclude this article, I cannot help observing, that the
• See a short Memoir at the end of this Ballad, Note fit-
t Sign C. ii. b. \ Sign C. i. b. ^ Odyss. n. 105.
86 KING ESTMERE.
reader will see, in this ballad, the character of the old Minstrels
(those successors of the Bards) placed in a very respectable light :*
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)t made no scruple to enter
the Danish camp, and was at once admitted to the king's head-
quarters.J 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 ofticers 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. §
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.||
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 compo-
sition, 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 foot notes. The readings in the fourth edition are changed
in several places from those printed in the first edition.]
* See vol. ii., note subjoined to ist part of Beggar of Bednal, &c.
t See the Essay on the Antient Minstrels (Appendix I.)
J 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.
§ Bartholini Antiq. Dan. p. 173. Northerji Antiquities, &c.,
vol. i. pp. 386, 389, &c.
II See also the account of Edw. II. in the Essay on the Minstrels,
and note (x).
KING ESTMERE. %y
/?^EARKEN to me, orentlemen.
1^ Come and you shall heare ;
He tell you of two of the boldest brethren
That ever borne y-were.
The tone ' of them was Adler younge, 5
The tother was kyng Estmere ;
The were as bolde men in their deeds,
As any w^ere farr and neare.
As they were drinking- ale and wine
Within kyng Estmeres halle : 10
When will ye marry a wyfe, brother,
A wyfe to glad us all ?
Then bespake him kyng Estmere,
And answered him hastilee :
I know not that ladye in any land 15
That's able '"' to marrye with mee.
Kyng Adland hath a daughter, brother,
Men call her bright and sheene ;"^
If I were kyng here in your stead,
That ladye shold be my queene. 20
Saies, Reade me,' reade me, deare brother.
Throughout merry England,
Where we might find a messenger
Betwixt us towe to sende.
Ver. 3. brother, f. MS. V. 10. his brother's hall, f. MS.
V. 14. hartilye, f. MS.
* He means fit, suitable.
[■^ the one. ' shining. ' advise inc.]
88 KING ESTMERE.
Saies, You shal ryde yourselfe, brother, 25
He beare you companye ;
Many throughe fals messengers are deceived,
And I feare lest soe shold wee.
Thus the renisht ^ them to ryde
Of twoe good renisht ^ steeds, 30
And when the came to king Adlands halle,
Of redd gold shone their weeds."
And when the came to kyng Adlands hall
Before the goodlye gate,
There they found good kyng Adland 35
Rearing ^ himselfe theratt.
Now Christ thee save, good kyng Adland;
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 daughter 4.5
Syr Bremor the kyng of Spayne ;
And then she nicked ^ him of naye,
And I doubt sheele^ do you the same.
The kyng of Spayne is a foule paynim,^
And 'leeveth ^ on Mahound ; 50
, And pitye it were that fayre ladye
Shold marrye a heathen hound.
x*
Ver. 27. many a man ... is, f. MS. V. 46. the king his
Sonne of Spayn, f. MS.
[^ they got ready ? ^ harnessed. ■' garments. ^ leaning.
^ refused. ® she will. "^ pagan. ^ believeth.]
KING ESTMERE. 89
But grant to me, sayes kyng Estmere,
For my love I you praye ;
That I may see your daughter deere 55
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 guestes alle. 60
Downe then came that mayden fayre,
With ladyes laced in pall/
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 Qfolde were on her head sette,
Hanged low downe to her knee ;
And everye ring on her small finger,
Shone of the chrystall free. ' 70
Saies, God you save, my deere madam ;
Sales, God you save and see.
Said, You be welcome, kyng Estmere,
Ricrht welcome unto mee.
And if you love me, as you saye, 75.
Soe well and hartilee.
All that ever you are comen about
Soone sped now itt shal bee.
Then bespake her father deare :
My daughter, I saye naye ; £0
Remember well the kyng of Spayne,
What he sayd yesterdaye.
He wold pull downe my halles and castles,
And reave '^ me of my lyfe
I cannot blame him if he doe, 85
If I reave him of his wyfe.
[' robe of state. ' bereave.]
90 KING ESTMERE.
Your castles and your towres, father,
Are stronglye built aboute ;
And therefore of the king of Spaine
Wee neede not stande in doubt. 9°
Plight me your troth, nowe, kyng Estmere,
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 troth 95
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 kempes^ many one.
But in did come the kyng of Spayne,
With manye a bold barone,
Tone day to marrye kyng Adlands daughter,
Tother daye to carrye her home. no
Shee sent one after kyng Estmere
In all the spede might bee.
That he must either turne againe and fighte,
Or goe home and loose his ladye.
One whyle then the page he went, 115
Another while he ranne ;
Ver. 89. of the King his sonne of Spaine, f. MS.
\} soldiers or knights.]
KING ESTMERE. 91
Till he had oretaken king Estmere,
I wis, he never blanne.'
Tyding-s, tydings, kyng Estmere !
What tydinges nowe, my boye ? no
0 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 Spayne 125
With kempes many a one :
But in did come the kyng of Spayne
With manye a bold barone.
Tone daye to marrye king Adlands daughter.
Tother daye to carry her home. 130
My lad)e fayre she greetes you well,
And ever-more well by mee :
You must either turne againe and fighte.
Or goe home and loose your ladye.
Sales, Reade me, reade me, deere brother, 135
My reade shall ryde * at thee,
Whether it is better to turne and fighte,
Or goe home and loose my ladye.
Now hearken to me, sa}'es Adler yonge,
And your reade must rise f at me, i+o
1 quicklye will devise a waye
To sette thy ladye free.
My mother was a westerne woman,
And learned in gramarye,:}:
•
j/V MS. It should probably be ryse, i.e. my counsel shall
arise from thee. See ver. 140.
t sic MS. } See at the end of this ballad, note * ^* .
[^ stopped.]
92 KING ESTMERE.
And when I learned at the schole, i+s
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 He be your boy, soe faine of fighte,*^
And beare your harpe by your knee.
And you shal be the best harper,
That ever tooke harpe in hand ; 160
And I wil be the best singer.
That ever sunof in this lande.
Itt shal be written in our forheads
All and in grammarye.
That we towe are the boldest men, 165
That are in all Christentye.
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,"'*
There they found a proud porter
Rearing himselfe thereatt.
[^ fond of fighting. ^ gate.]
KING ES THERE. 93
Sayes, Christ thee save, thou proud porter; 175
Sayes, Christ thee save and see.
Nowe you be welcome, sayd the porter,
Of what land soever ye bee.
Wee beene harpers, sayd Adler younge,
Come out of the northe countrye ; iSo
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 brother 185
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 porter,
Thow wilt saye us no harme. 190
Sore he looked on kyng Estmere,
And sore he handled the ryng,
Then opened to them the fayre hall yates.
He lett^ for no kind of thyng,
Kyng Estmere he stabled his steede 195
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 harper,
Saies, Stable him in the stalle ; 200
It doth not beseeme a proud harper
To stable ' him' in a kyngs halle.
Ver. 202. to stable his steede, f. MS.
\ ' he left ? or he let be opened ?J
94 KING ESTMERE.
My ladde he is so lither/ he said,
He will doe nought that's meete ;
And is there any man in this hall 205
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,^ 215
And looked him in the eare ;
For all the gold, that was under heaven,
He durst not neigh him neare.^
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 gramarye,
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 harper,
For Gods love I pray thee 230
For and thou playes as thou beginns,
Thou'lt till * my bryde from mee.
* i.e. entice.
[' lazy or wicked. ^ soldier or fighting man. ^ approach him near.]
KING EST MERE. 95
He stroake upon his harpe agalne,
And playd a pretty thinge ;
The ladye lough ^ a loud laughter, 235
As shee sate by the king.
Sales, sell me thy harpe, thou proud harper,
And thy stringes 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,*
When abed together wee bee."
Now sell me, quoth hee, thy bryde soe gay, ^45
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,
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 play nl ye thou mayest see ;
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.
• /. e. a tune, or strain of music.
[' laughed. J
96 KING EST ME RE,
And He rid thee of that foule paynim,
Who partes thy love and thee." a6o
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 ^ he drew his brand f z7o
And Estmere he, and Adler yonge
Right stiffe in stour^ can stand.
And aye their swordes soe sore can byte,
Throughe help of Gramarye
That soone they have slayne the kempery men, 275
Or forst them forth to flee.
Kyng Estmere tooke that fay re ladye,
And marryed her to his wifife,
And brought her home to merry England
With her to leade his life. a8o
*^* The word Gratnarye,^ 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.
-t4-t Termagaunt (mentioned above, p. 85) is the name given in
the old romances to the god of the Saracens, in which he is con-
\} quickly. ^ sword. ' fight.
* or grammar, and hence used for any abstruse learning.]
KING ESTMERE. 97
stantly linked with Alahound or Mahomet. Thus, in the legend
of Syr Guy, the Soudan (Sultan), swears
" So helpe me Mahouine of might,
And Tennagautit my god so bright."
Sign. p. iii. b.
This word is derived by the very learned editor of Junius from
the Anglo-Saxon Tyfi very, and ClOajan mighty. As this word had
so sublime a derivation, and was so applicable to the true Clod,
how shall we account for its being so degraded? Perhaps Typ-
majan 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 rejectetl it as profane and
improper to be applied to the tnie God. After^vards, when the
irruptions of the Saracens into Europe, and the Crusades into the
East, had brought them acquainted with a new species of unbe-
lievers, 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 scniple 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 Alcrlinc (in the editor's folio ISIS.) 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 Cru-
sades, both Maliound and 'Tcrmagaunt made their frequent appear-
ance 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 Wol-
sey : —
" 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." {Ades of Engl. Votary es, pt. ii. fo. 83,
Kd. 1550, i2mo.) 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 Eorde Maiors
officer[sl 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
Jcnyns Smith, Fellow of Dulw. Coll.) Hence we may conceive
n
98 KING ESTMERE.
the force of Hamlet's expression in Shakspeare, where, con-
demning 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 soldati, 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
majestic, 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 stdtan), 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 Terva-
gaiinte ; 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.
VII.
SIR PATRICK SPENCE,
A Scottish Ballad,
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 destruc-
tive to the Scots nobles, I have not been able to dis-
cover ; yet am of opinion, that their catastrophe is not altogether
without foundation in history, though it has escaped my own
S//^ PATRICK SPENCE.
99
researches. In the infancy of navigation, such as used the northern
seas were very liable to ship\\Teck 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 modem copies, instead of Patrick Sjience 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 176:^, 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 Zf'i?n/i'/Cv////t'. It was thought
that the likeness in expression and sentiment there mentioned
might easily be explained if the two poems were both by Lady
AVardlaw. This view, advocated by Robert Chambers in his general
attack on the authenticity of all The Romantic Scottish Balhids
(1859), has not met with much favour, and Professor Child thinks
that the arguments against the genuineness of .5'/> Patrick Spcncc
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."' Cole-
ridge, 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 wTong, for Professor Aytoun found it
in a charter of Robert III. and also in Wyntoun's Chronic/c.
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 settle-
ment 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 hamc."
[' Eni^/ish and Scottish BaUads, vol. iii. p. 149.
loo SIR PATRICK SPENCE.
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 con-
veyed 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 Nor-
way, 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 illustra-
tion of line I, 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.~\
HE king sits in Dumferling toune,
Drinkine the blude-reid wine :
O quhar will I get guid sailor,
To sail this schip of mine ?
Up and spak an eldern knicht,
Sat at the kings richt kne :
Sir Patrick Spence is the best sailor,
That sails upon the se.
SIR PATRICK SPENCE. loi
The king has written a braid letter,*
And signd it wi' his hand ; lo
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/
O say na sac, my master deir.
For I feir a deadlie storme.
Late late yestreen I saw the new moone -^ 25
Wi' the auld moone in hir arme ;
And I feir, I feir, my deir master,
That we will com to harme.
c
O our Scots nobles wer richt laith'^
To weet their cork-heild schoone ; ' 30
Bot lang owre ^ a' the play wer playd,
Thair hats they swam aboone/
O lang, lang, may thair ladies sit
Wi' thair fans into their hand,
Or eir they se Sir Patrick Spence 3s
Cum sailinof to the land.
't.
• A braid letter, i.e. open, or patent ; in opposition to close rolls.
[' to-morrow morning. '^ lotii.
3 to wet their cork-heeled shoes. ' loiij; ere.
* above the water.]
I02 S/R PATRICK SPENCE.
O lang, lang, may the ladies stand
Wi' thair gold kerns ^ in their hair,
Waiting for thair ain deir lords,
For they'll se thame na main 40
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.f
))
VIII.
ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE,
,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 com-
mon popular songs on this subject.
The severity of those tyrannical forest laws that were intro-
duced 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 shoot-
ing, must constantly have occasioned great numbers of outlaws,
* A village lying upon the river Forth, the entrance to which is
sometimes denominated De niortiio 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.]
t An ingenious friend thinks the author of Hardyknute has bor-
rowed several expressions and sentiments from the foregoing and
other old Scottish songs in this collection.
[• combs. "^ half over.]
ROBIN HOOD. 103
and especially of such as were the best marksmen. These na-
turally fled to the woods for shelter, and, forming into troops, en-
deavoured by their numbers to protect themselves from the dread-
ful penalties of their delinquency. The ancient punishment for
killing the king's deer was loss of eyes and castration, a punish-
ment 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.
Amoncj all those, none was ever more famous than the hero of
this ballad, whose chief residence was m Shirewood forest, m Not-
tinghamshire, and the heads of whose story, as collected by Stow,
are briefly these.
" In this time [about the year 11 90, in the reign of Richard I.]
were many robbers, and outlawes, among the which Robin Hood,
and Little John, reno^\•ned 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 tail 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 afiirmeth 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 ren-
dered 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 impos-
sible 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 ])hlebotomy : —
" Hear undernead dis laitl stean
laij robert earl of huntingtun
nea arcir ver aj hie sac geud
an pipl kauld im Robin Heud
I04 ROBIN HOOD A^ND
sick utlaw^ as hi an is men
vil England nivir si agen.
obiit 24 kal. dekembris. 1247."*
This epitaph appears to me suspicious ; however, a late an-
tiquary 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 Robcft Fitz-ooth.\ Yet the most
ancient poems on Robin Hood make no mention of this earldom.
He is expressly asserted to have been a yeoman j in a very old
legend in verse, preserved in the archives of the public library at
Cambridge, § in €\^\.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 yenian,
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.
Gan'ick's Collection |1 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 sub-
ject 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
Floiuman, 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 Thoresby's Ducat. Leod. p. 576. Biog. Brit. vi. 3933.
t Stukeley, in his Palaographia Britannica, No. II. 1746.
X See also the following ballad, v. 147. § Num. D. 5. 2.
II Old Plays, 4to. K. vol, x.
GUY OF GISnORNE. 105
See also in Bishop Latimer's Sermons* a very curious and charac-
teristic 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 robber}' on Arbor-hill, Dublin (with some curious particulars
relating to his skill in archery), see ]\Ir. 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 foUo MS.
[Robin Hood is first mentioned in literature in Piers FlotviJian,
the earliest of the three fomis of which poem was %\Tittcn 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 IL, com-
mences:—
" 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 i)lace is men-
tioned by William Dunbar in a satirical piece on " Schir Thomas
Nory," where he is named in company with Adam Bell and other
well-kno\vn 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
( 1 847) Collections oi Robin Hood Ballads, Child's Ballads, vol. v. and
Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, vol. i. pp. 3S7-400.
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.]
• Ser. 6th before K. Ed. Apr. 12. fol. 75. Gilpin's Life of Lat.y
p. 122.
io6 ROBIN HOOD AND
HEN shaws beene sheene/ and shradds^
full fayre,
And leaves both large and longe,
Itt is merrye walking in the fayre forrest
To heare the small birdes songe.
The woodweele^ sang, and wold not cease, 5
[Sitting upon the spraye,
Soe lowde, he wakened Robin Hood,
In the greenwood where he lay.
Now by my faye,^ sayd jollye Robin,
A sweaven^ I had this night ; 10
I dreamt me of tow wighty'' yemen,
That fast with me can fight.]
Methought they did mee beate and binde.
And tooke my bow mee froe ; ^
If I be Robin alive in this lande, 15
He be wroken'' 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
[Ver. I. shales, f. MS. V. 4. birds singe, f. MS. V. 5. wood-
weete, f. MS. In place of ver. 6-12 between brackets the f. MS.
has —
" Amongst the leaves a lyne
r* * * *"|
And it is by two wight yeomen
By deare God that I meane."
^ when woods are bright. ^ twigs. ^ woodpecker or thrush. I)
^ faith. * dream. *• strong. ' from me. (
^ revenged.]
GUY OF GISBORNE. 107
Buske yee, bowne yee,^ my merry men all,
And John shall goe with mee,
For He goe seeke yond wight yeomen,
In greenwood where the bee.
The cast on their gownes of grene, 25
[And tooke theyr bowes each one ;
And they away to the greene forrest]
A shooting forth are gone ;
Untill they came to the merry greenwood.
Where they had gladdest bee, 30
There were the ware"^ of a wight yeoman,
His body leaned to a tree.
A sword and a dagger he wore by his side,
Of manye a man the bane ;
And he was clad in his capull hyde'^ 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. 40
Ah ! John, by me thou settest noe store.
And that I farley^ finde :
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 ;
[Vcr. 28. a shooting gone are they, f. MS. V. 34. had bccnc
many a mans bane, f. MS. V. 40. to know his meaning trulyc,
f. MS. V. 42. and thats a ffluley tliinge, f. MS.
' dress ye, get ye ready. "^ were they aware.
' horse-liide. ^ strange.J
io8 ROBIN HOOD AND
And itt were not for bursting of my bowe,
John, I thy head wold breake.
As often wordes they breeden bale/
So they parted Robin and John ; 50
And John is gone to Barnesdale :
The gates* he knoweth eche one.
But when he came to Barnesdale,
Great heavinesse there hee hadd,
For he found tow of his owne fellowes
Were slaine both in a slade."^
55
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,
With Christ his might and mayne ;
He make yond fellow that flyes soe fast.
To stopp he shall be fayne.
Then John bent up his long bende-bowe, 65
And fetteled^ him to shoote :
The bow was made of a tender boughe.
And fell downe to his foote.
Woe worth, woe worth thee, wicked wood,
That ere thou grew on a tree ; 70
[Ver. 61. yet one shoote Tie shoote, says Little John, f. MS.
V. 64. to be both glad & ffaine, f. MS. V. 65. John bent up a
good veiwe bowe, f. MS. V. 69. woe worth thee, wicked wood,
says litle John, f. MS.]
* /. e. ways, passes, paths, ridings. Gate is a common word in
the north for way.
[^ breed mischief. 2 greensward between two woods.
3
prepared.]
GUY OF GISBORNE. 109
For now this day thou art my bale,
My boote ^ when thou shold bee.
His shoote it was but loosely shott,
Yet flewe not the arrowe in vaine,
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,
Than to be that day in the green wood slade
To meet with Little Johns arrowe. 80
But as it is said, when men be mett
Fyve can doe more than three,
The sheriffe hath taken little John,
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,
If itt be Christ his will.
Let us leave talking of Litle John,
And thinke of Robin Hood, 90
How he is gone to the wight yeoman,
Where under the leaves he stood.
[Ver. 74. the arrowe flew in vaine, f. MS. V. 78. to hange
upon a gallowe, f. MS. V. 79. then for to lye in the green-woode,
f. MS. V. 80. there slaine with an arrowe, f. MS. V. 82. 6 can
doe more then 3, f. MS. V. 83. and they have tane litle John, f.
MS. V. 87. But thou may ffayle, quoth litle John, f. MS. V. 88.
If itt be Christ's own will, f. MS. V. 90-92. in place of these three
verses the f. MS. has : —
" for hee is bound fast to a tree,
and talkc of (]uy and Robin Hood
In they green woode where they bee
' help.]
no ROBIN HOOD AND
Good morrowe, good fellowe, sayd Robin so fayre,
" Good morrowe, good fellow, quoth he :"
Methinkes by this bowe thou beares in thy hande 95
A eood archere thou sholdst bee.
I am wilfull ^ of my waye, quo' the yeman,
And of my morning tyde.
He lead thee through the wood, sayd Robin ;
Good fellow, He be thy guide. 100
I seeke an outlawe, the straunger sayd,
Men call him Robin Hood ;
Rather Hd meet with that proud outlawe
Than fortye pound soe good.
[Now come with me, thou wighty yeman, 105
And Robin thou soone shalt see :
But first let us some pastime find
Under the oreenwood tree.1
First let us some masterye^ make
Among the woods so even, no
[how these two yeomen together they mett
under the leaves of Lyne,
to see what marchandise they made
even at that same time."
Ver. 93. good morrow, good fellow! quoth Sir Guy, f. MS.-
V. 96. a good archer thou seems to bee, f. MS. V. 97. quoth Sir,
Guye, i. MS. V. 10 1. I seeke an outlaw, quoth Sir Guye, f. MS.
V. 103-4.—
" I had rather meet with him upon a day
Then 4oli. of golde."
V. 105-8. in place of these four verses the f. MS. has —
" Iff you tow mett itt wold be scene whether were better
afore yee did part awaye ;
Let us some other pastime find,
good ffellow, I thee pray."
V. 109-10. " Let us some other masteryes make,
and wee will walke in the woods even," f. MS.
^ ignorant. ^ trial of skill.]
GUY OF GISBORNE. in
Wee may chance to meet with Robin Hood
Here att some unsett Steven/
They ciitt them downe two summer shroggs,'^
That orew both under a breere/
And sett them threescore rood in twaine 115
To shoote the prickes^ y-fere.
Leade on, good fellowe, quoth Robin Hood,
Leade on, I doe bidd thee.
Nay by my faith, good fellowe, hee sayd.
My leader thou shalt bee. 120
The first time Robin shot at the pricke,
He mist but an inch it froe :
The yeoman he was an archer good.
But he cold never shoote soe.
The second shoote had the wightye yeman, 125
He shote within the garlande :^
But Robin he shott far better than hee,
For he clave the good pricke w^ande.^'
A blessing upon thy heart, he sayd ;
Good fellowe, thy shooting is goode ; 130
For an thy hart be as good as thy hand.
Thou wert better then Robin Hoode.
[Ver. 116. prickes full near, f. MS. V. 117. sayd Sir CTiiye, f.
MS. V. 119. nay by my faith, quoth Robin Hood, f. MS. V. 120.
the leader, f. MS. V. 121-23 • —
" the first good shoot that Robin ledd
did not shoote an inch the pricke ffroe.
Guy was an archer good enoughe."
V. 125. the 2nd shoote Sir Guy shott. V. 129. gods blessing on
thy heart ! sayes Guye.
^ at a time not previously appointed. '^ slirubs.
^ briar. ' mark in the centre of the target.
*" the ring within whicli the ])rick was set. •* pole.]
112 ROBIN HOOD AND
Now tell me thy name, good fellowe, sayd he,
Under the leaves of lyne/
Nay by my faith, quoth bolde Robin, 135
Till thou have told me thine.
I dwell by dale and downe, quoth hee.
And Robin to take I me sworne ;
And when I am called by my right name
I am Guye of good Gisborne. 140
My dwelling is in this wood, sayes Robin,
By thee I set right nought :
I am Robin Hood of Barnesdale,
Whom thou so lono- hast souo;'ht.
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* and brieht.
[Ver. 133. tell me thy name, good fellow, quoth Guy. V. 135.
good robin. 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."
V. 144. a ffellow thou hast long sought.]
* 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 rusiiem the same sense ;
thus he describes the reve : —
" And by his side he bare a rusty blade."
Frol. 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
[1 lime.]
GC/V OF GISBORNE. 113
To see how these yeomen together they fought
Two howres of a summers day : 150
Yett neither Robin Hood nor sir Guy
Them fettled to flye away.
Robin was reachles^ 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',"^
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,
And he sir Guy hath slayne.
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 thinfj must have an ende.
o
Obscrv. 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.
Ver. 1 49. " to have seen how these yeomen together fought."
V. 151-2:—
" itt was neither Guy nor Robin Hood
that ffctlled ihcm to llye away."J
V. 163. awkwarde, MS. [V. 164. " good sir Guy hee has slayne,"
f. MS.
' careless. ^ maid. J
1
I80
114 RODIN HOOD AND
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.
Saies, Lye there, lye there, now sir Guye,
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.
The bowe, the arrowes, and little home,
Now with me I will beare ;
For I will away to Barnesdale,
To see how my men doe fare.
Robin Hood sett Guyes home to his mouth.
And a loud blast in it did blow.
That beheard the sheriffe of Nottingham,
As he leaned under a lowe.^
Hearken, hearken, sayd the sheriffe,
I heare nowe tydings good, 190
For yonder I heare sir Guyes home blowe,
And he hath slaine Robin Hoode.
Yonder I heare sir Guyes home blowe,
Itt blowes soe well in tyde,
And yonder comes that wightye yeoman, 195
Cladd in his capull hyde.
[Ver. 172. cold tell who Sir Guye was. V. 173. good Sir Guye.
V. 182 :—
" and with me now He beare
ffor now I will goe to Barnesdale," f. MS.
1 small hill]
185
GUY OF GISBORNE. 115
Come hyther, come hyther, thou good sir Guy,
Aske what thou wilt of mee.
O I will none of thy gold, sayd Robin,
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 •} 210
Now shall I be looset, quoth Litle John,
With Christ his mieht in heaven.
t)
Fast Robin hee hyed him to Little John,
He thought to loose him belive ;^
The sheriffe and all his companye 215
Fast after him did drive.
Stand abacke, stand abacke, sayd Robin ;
Why draw you mee soe neere ?
Itt was never the use in our countrye.
Ones shrift another shold heere. 220
But Robin pulled forth an Irysh kniffe,
And losed John hand and foote.
And gave him sir Guycs bow into his hand,
And bade it be his boote.'
[Vcr. 199: —
" He none of thy gold, sayes Robin Hood
nor lie none of itt have," f MS.
' voice. 2 quickly. ■* help.]
ii6 ROBIN HOOD.
Then John he took Guyes bow in his hand, 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,
He fled full fast away ; 230
And soe did all his companye :
Not one behind wold stay.
But he cold neither runne soe fast,
Nor away soe fast cold ryde,
But Litle John with an arrowe soe broad, 235
He shott him into the * backe'-syde.
*,* 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."
[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."
V. 229. Towards his house in Nottingham. 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.]
EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 117
IX.
AN ELEGY ON HENRY FOURTH EARL
OF NORTHUMBERLAND.
*HE subject of this poem, which was written by Skelton,
^^P is ^^^^ death of Henry Percy, fourth earl of Northumber-
/• 9^ land, who fell a victim to the avarice of Henry VII. In
14S9 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 Nor-
thumberland, then lord lieutenant for Yorkshire, %vrote to inform the
king of the discontent, and praying an abatement. But nothing is
so unrelenting as avarice : the king wTote 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 Avith
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 liere as having, among
his menial serva.nts, htig/ih', s//uires, and even barons: see v. 32.
183. &:c. which, however different from modern manners, was for-
merly not unusual with our greater barons, whose castles had all the
splendour and offices of a royal court before the laws against re-
tainers abridged and limited the number of their attendants.
John Sliclton, who commonly styled himself Poet Layreat, died
June 21, 1529. The following poem, which ajjpears to have been
\\Titten 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 \x\ 1)1. let. i2mo. 1568.— It is
addressed to Henry Percy, fifth earl of Northumberland, and is pre-
faced, &c. in the following manner :
ii8 AN ELEGY ON THE EARL
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,
Qujeque suo patri tristia justa cano.
Ast ubi perlegit, dubiam sub mente volutet
Fortunam, cuncta quae 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 ^vith fierce
invective, in his "Why come ye nat to courte?" His Boke of
Phyllyp Span-owe 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 Brjdges' British Bibliographer (vol. iv. p. 389), taken
from one on the back of the title of A ryght delectable tratyse upon
a goodly Garlatide or Chaplet of Latcrell by Mayster Skelton, Foete
laiireat.
The Rev. Alexander Dyce published the first complete collected
edition of Skelton's Poetical Works in 1843 (2 vols. 8vo.)]
OF NORTHUMBERLAND.
119
SKELTON LAUREAT UPON THE DOLORUS DETHE
AND MUCH LAMENTABLE CHAUNCE OF THE
MOOST HONORABLE ERLE OF
NORTHUMBERLANDE.
7^(^ 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* royall descendinge nobelly;
Whos lordshepe doutles was slayne lamentably 5
Thorow treson ageyn^ 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 lame
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^ welle.
10
Of noble actes auncyently enrolde.
Of famous princis and lordes of astate,^
By thy report ar wonte to be extold,
IS
* 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 HL — The mother and wife of the second
Earl of Northumberland were both lineal descendants of K. Edward
HL — 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
tlie name of Percy on marrying the heiress of that house in the reign
of Hen. H. Vid. Camden ISritan., Edmondson, &c.
\} against
2 Helicons.
"* estate.]
I20 AN ELEGY ON THE EARL
Regestringe trewly every formare date ;
Of thy bountie after the usiiall rate,
Kyndle in me suche plenty of thy nobles/ ^o
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^ in ther furious tene/
Fulfyld with malice of fro ward entente, 25
Confeterd^ togeder of commoun concente
Falsly to slo^ 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^
To slotheirownelorde? 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^ not till the rekening were discust. 40
What shuld I flatter ? what shulde I glose^ or paynt ?
Fy, fy for shame, their harts wer to faint.
In Englande and Fraunce, which gretlywas redouted;^
Of whom both Flaunders and Scotland stode in
drede ;
To whome grete astates obeyde and lowttede i^" 45
A mayny^^ of rude villayns made him for to blede :
Unkindly they slew hym, that holp them oft at nede :
[^ nobleness. ^ rough fellows. ^ wrath. "* confederated.
^ slay. ^ churls by nature. '^ abode. ^ gloss over.
° dreaded. *" , crouched. ^^ a number.]
OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 121
He was their bulwark, their paves/ and their wall,
Yet shamfully they slew hym; that shame mot'^ them
befal.
I sa}-, ye commoners, why wer ye so stark mad ? 50
What frantyk frensy fyll'' in youre brayne ?
Where was your wit and reson, ye shuld have had ?
What willfull foly made yow to ryse agayne^
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^ 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 h)m 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 with-
stand ;
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 thcr was fals packinge,** or els I am begylde : -
How-be-it the matter was evident and playne,
For yf they had occupied^ 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.
[^ large shield. ^ may. ^ fell. ■* against.
' honour. * false dealing. '* used.]
122 AN ELEGY ON THE EARL
The commouns renyed^ 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^ themself in baile^
to bringe :
Agayne the kings plesure to wrastle or to wringe,*
Bluntly as bestis withe boste^ and with cry
They saide, they forsede^ 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 fiye; 95
Take up whos wolde for them, they let hym ly.
Alas ! his golde, his fee, his annuall rente
Upon suche a sort' was ille bestowde and spent.
He was envyronde aboute on every syde
Withe his enemys, that were stark mad and
wojde \^ 100
Yet whils he stode he gave them woundes wyde :
Alas . for routhe ! ^ 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
S} refused. 2 thgy prepared themselves for an ambush.
^ trouble. ^ contend. ^ pride. ^ heeded. ' set.
** wild. '-^ pity-]
OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 123
Alas for pite ! that Percy thus was spylt/
The famous erle of Northumberlande :
Of knightly prowes the sworde pomel and hylt,
The myghty lyoun*" doutted'^ by se and lande !
O dolorous chaunce of fortuns fruward hande ! no
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'' 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 pite !
O homycide, whiche sleest* all that thou kan,
So forcibly upon this erle thow ran,
That with thy sworde enharpid^ of mortall drede, 125
Thou kit^ asonder his perhght^ vitall threde !
My wordis unpullysht be nakide and playne,
Of aureat" poems they want ellumynynge ; ^
Bot by them to knoulege ye may attayne
Of this lordis dethe and of his murdrynge. 130
Which whils helyvyd had fuyson^" of every thing.
Of knights, of squyers, chef lord of toure and toune,
Tyl fykkilP^ fortune began on hym to frowne.
* Alluding to his crest and supporters. Doutted is contracted
for redoubted.
\} destroyed. "^ dreaded.
^ misused, applied to a bad purpose. ' slayest.
^ hooked or edged. " cut. ^ perfect. * golden.
^ embellishing. ^"^ abundance. '' fickle.]
124 AN ELEGY ON THE EARL
ParegalP to dukis, with kings he myght compare,
Surmountinge in honor all erls he did excede, 135
To all cuntreis aboute hym reporte^ 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 extoU 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,^ 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^ 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^ of the musis nyne 155
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,^
Grow and encrese, remembre thyn astate,
God the assyst unto thyn herytage,
[^ equal. ^ refer. ^ overpowered with hearty desire.
"* treachery. * whole choir.
* the earl's son was only eleven years old at the time of his
father's death.]
OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 125
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^ 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,
Th)'s lords death, whose pere is hard to fynd
Allgyf^ Englond and Fraunce were thorow saught.
Al kings, all princes, all dukes, well they ought iSo
Bothe temporal! 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 thinsf of nou^hte;
Hevyn, hell, and erth obey unto thi kail ;
Which to thy resemblance wondcrsly hast wrought
All mankynd, whom thou full dere hast boght.
With thy blode precious our finaunce'' thou dyd pay,i95
And us redemed, from the fendys pray ; '
[^ deceivers. ^ although. ^ fine or forfeiture.
^ prey of the fiends.]
126 EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND.
To the pray we, as prince Incomperable,
As thou art of mercy and pite the well,
Thou bringe unto thy joye etermynable^
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 queue 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 fioure 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,'^
With all the hole sorte ^ of that glorious place,
His soule mof* 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.
tit I have placed the foregoing poem of Skelton's before the fol-
lowing extract from Halves, 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 h^{o\t Halves' s
Graunde Amour.
\} interminable. 2 hierarchy.
2 whole company. ^ may.]
THE TOWER OF DOCTRINE. 127
X.
THE TOWER OF DOCTRINE.
' ^^HE reader has here a specimen of the descriptive powers
.,^y of StcpJun Hawcs, a celebrated poet in the reign of
Hen. VII. tho' now little known. It is extracted from
an allegorical poem of his (^mtten in 1505.) intitled,
History of Graunde Amour e and La Bel Pucell, called the
Pastime of Pleasure, o^c. 4to. 1555. See more of Hawes in Ath.
Ox. V. I. p. 6. and Warton's Ohserv. v. 2. p. 105. He was also
author of a book, intitled, The Temple of Glass. IVrote by Stephen
Hazces, gentle /nan 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 \nth Governaunce and Grace, and how he
went to the Tower of Doctrine, &c." — As we are able to give no
small l}Tic piece of Hawes's, the reader will excuse the insertion of
this extract.
[Most readers unll probably be satisfied Avith the seventy-four lines
that Percy has extracted from Hawes's long didactic poem, but
those who \vish 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,* speaks of it
in very extravagant terms, and regrets that it had not then found
an editor, as he regarded it " as one of tlie finest poems in our own
or any other language." Warton describes Hawes as the only writer
deser\'ing 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 foreflitliers, but
which can now only be looked upon as monuments of the bad taste
[' Nichols' Illustrations of Literature, vol. viii. p. 344-]
128
THE TOWER
of a bad age." Hawes was a native of Suffolk, but the dates of his
birth and death are not kno\vn. He studied in the University of
Oxford and afterwards travelled much, becoming "a complete
master of the French and Italian poetry,"]
Cap. III.
*
ik
LOKED about and saw a craggy roche,
Farre in the west, neare to the element,
And as I dyd then unto it approche,
Upon the toppe I sawe refulgent
The royal tower of Morall Document, 5
Made of fine copper with turrettes fayre and hye,
Which against Phebus shone so marveylously,
That for the very perfect bryghtnes
What of the tower, and of the cleare sunne,
I could nothyng behold the goodlines
Of that palaice, whereas Doctrine did wonne
Tyll at the last, with mysty wyndes donne,
The radiant brightnes of golden Phebus
Auster gan cover with clowde tenebrus.*
Then to the tower I drewe nere and nere, 15
And often mused of the great hyghnes
Of the craggy rocke, which quadrant did appeare :
But the fayre tower, so much of ryches
Was all about, sexangled doubtles ;
Gargeyld^ with grayhoundes, and with manylyons,2o
Made of fyne golde ; with divers sundry dragons.*
10
1
* Greyhounds, Lions, Dragons, were at that time the royal sup-
porters.
\} dwell.
dark.
from gargoyle the spout of a gutter.]
OF DOCTRINE. 129
The little turrets with ymages of golde
About was set, whiche with the wynde aye moved.
Wyth propre vices/ that I did well iDeholde
About the towers, in sundry wyse they hoved'^ 25
With goodly pypes, in their mouthes i-tuned.
That with the wynde they pyped a daunce,
I -clipped^ Amour de la hault plcsauncc.
Cap. IV.
The toure was great and of marvelous wydnes,
To whyche ther was no way to passe but one, 30
Into the toure for to have an intres :^
A grece^ there was y-chesyled all of stone
Out of the rocke, on whyche men dyd gone
Up to the toure, and in lykewyse dyd I
Wyth bothe the Grayhoundes in my company :* 35
Tyll that I came unto a ryall gate,
\\ here I sawe stondynge the goodly Portres,
Whiche axed me, from whence I came a-late '^.
To whome I gan in every thynge expresse
All myne adventure, chaunce, and busynesse, 40
And eke my name ; I tolde her every dell :
Whan she herde this, she lyked me right well.
Her name, she sayd, was called Countenaunce ;
Into the besy*" courte she dyd me then lede,
Where was a fountayne depured^ of pleasance, 45
A noble sprynge, a ryall conduyte hede.
Made of fyne golde enameled with reed ;
And on the toppe four dragons blewe and stoute
Th)s dulcet water in foure partyes dyd spout.
♦ This alludes to a former part of the Poem.
r' devices. 2 heaved. ■' called. ^ entrance.
''_ a flight of steps. ^ busy. Percy reads base or lower court.
" purified.]
K
I30 THE TOWER OF DOCTRINE.
Of whyche there flowed foure ryvers ryght clere, 50
Sweter than Nylus* or Ganges was theyr odoure;
Tygrys or Eufrates unto them no pere :
I dyd than taste the aromatyke lycoure,
Fragraunt of fume, swete as any floure ;
And in my mouthe it had a marveylous cent^ 55
Of divers spyces, I knewe not what it ment.
And after thys farther forth me brought
Dame Countenaunce into a goodly Hall,
Of jasper stones it was wonderly wrought :
The wyndowes cleare depured all of crystall, 60
And in the roufe on hye over all
Of golde was made a ryght crafty vyne ;
In stede of grapes the rubies there did shyne.
The flore was paved with berall clarified,
With pillers made of stones precious, 65
Like a place of pleasure so gayely glorified.
It myght be called a palaice glorious.
So muche delectable and solacious ;^
The hall was hanged hye and circuler
With cloth of arras in the rychest maner. 70
That treated well of a ful noble story,
Of the doubty waye to the Tower Perillous ;t
Howe a noble knyght should wynne the victory
Of many a serpente fowle and odious.
*****
• Nysus. PC. t The story of the poem.
\} scent. 2 affording solace.]
THE CHILD OF ELLE. 131
XI.
THE CHILD OF ELLE,
^7^-^ S given from a fragment in tlie Editor's folio MS. which,
tho' extremely defective and mutilated, ay)peared to have
"^ so much merit, that it excited a strong desire to attempt
a completion of the story. The Reader will easily dis-
cover the supplemental stanzas by their inferiority, and at the same
time be inclined to pardon it, when he considers how difficult it
must be to imitate the aftecting simplicity and artless beauties of
the original.
Child was a title sometimes given to a knight.
[The Child of EH, as it appears in the folio j\IS., is a fragment
\\-ithout beginning or ending, so that Percy was forced to add some
verses in order to fit it for his book, but the above note does not
give any adequate notion of his contributions to the ballad. The
verses that arc entirely due to the bishop's pen are placed between
brackets, and it will be seen from the copy of the original printed
at the end that the remaining thirty lines are much altered from it.
It is unfortunate that Percy's taste was not sufficient to save him
from adding sentimental verses so out of character with the direct-
ness of the original as —
" Fair Emmeline sighed, fair Emmeline wept,
And aye her heart was woe :
At length he seized her lilly-white hand.
And downe the ladder he drewe."
On the other hand, the poem as it stands is certainly elegant, and
Sir Walter Scott was justified in his high praise when he pointed
out the beauty of verses 181 — 184.
" The baron he stroked his dark brown cheek,
And turned his head aside
To wipe away the starting tear,
He proudly strave to hide."
Scott published a ballad called " ErHnton " for the first time in
his Border Minstrelsy, which he says " seems to be the rude original,
or ])crhaps a corrujjt and imperfect copy of The Child of Elle."
The original fragment from the M.S. is worth reading for its own
sake as a genuine antique, which must outweigh in interest all
manufactured imitations.]
132 THE CHILD OF ELLE.
N yonder hill a castle standes
With walks and towres bedight/
And yonder lives the Child of Elle,
A younge and comely knighte.
The Child of Elle to his garden wente, s
And stood at his garden pale,
Whan, lo ! he beheld fair Emmelines page
Come trippinge downe the dale.
The Child of Elle he hyed him thence,
Y-wis he stoode not stille, lo
And soone he mette faire Emmelines page
Come climbing up the hille.
Nowe Christe thee save, thou little foot-page,
Now Christe thee save and see !
Oh telle me how does thy ladye gaye, 15
' And what may thy tydinges bee ?
My lady shee is all woe-begone.
And the teares they falle from her eyne ;
And aye she laments the deadlye feude
Betweene her house and thine. 20
And here shee sends thee a silken scarfe
Bedewde with many a teare.
And biddes thee sometimes thinke on her.
Who loved thee so deare.
And here shee sends thee a ring of golde 25
The last boone thou mayst have,
And biddes thee weare it for her sake,
Whan she is layde in grave.
\} bedecked.]
THE CHILD OF ELLE. i r.
0 0
For, ah ! her gentle heart is broke,
And in grave soone must shee bee. 30
Sith her father hath chose her a new new love,
And forbidde her to think of thee. .
Her father hath brought her a carlish^ knight,
Sir John of the north countraye,
And within three dayes shee must him wedde, 35
Or he vowes he will her slaye.
Nowe hye thee backe, thou little foot-page.
And greet thy ladye from mee,
And telle her that I her owne true love
Will dye, or sette her free. 40
Nowe hye thee backe, thou little foot-page,
And let thy fair ladye know
This niofht will I bee at her bowre-windowe,
Betide me weale or woe.
The boye he tripped, the boye he ranne, 4S
He neither stint ne stayd
Untill he came to fair Emmelines bowre,
Whan kneeling downe he sayd,
O ladye, I've been with thy own true lot^e,
And he greets thee well by mee ; 5°
This night will he bee at thy bowre-windowe,
And dye or sette thee free.
Nowe daye was gone, and night was come,
And all were fast asleepe,
All save the ladye Emmeline, 55
Who sate in her bowre to weepe :
And soone shee heard her true loves voice
Lowe whispering at the walle,
1^ churlish.]
134 THE CHILD OF ELLE.
Awake, awake, my deare ladye,
Tis I thy true love call. 60
Awake, awake, my ladye deare,
Come, mount this faire palfraye :
This ladder of ropes will lette thee downe,
He carry e thee hence awaye.
Nowe nay, nowe nay, thou gentle knight, 65
Nowe nay, this may not bee ;
For aye shold I tint my maiden fame,
If alone I should wend with thee.
O ladye, thou with a knighte so true
Mayst safelye wend alone, 70
To my ladye mother I will thee bringe,
Where marriage shall make us one.
" My father he is a baron bolde,
Of lynage proude and hye ;
And what would he saye if his daughter 75
Awaye with a knight should fly ?
Ah ! well I wot, he never would rest,]
Nor his meate should doe him no goode,
Until he had slayne thee, Child of EUe,
And seene thy deare hearts bloode." 80
0 ladye, wert thou in thy saddle sette,
And a little space him fro,
1 would not care for thy cruel father.
Nor the worst that he could doe.
0 ladye, wert thou in thy saddle sette, 85
And once without this walle,
1 would not care for thy cruel father,
Nor the worst that might befalle.
[Faire Emmeline sighed, fair Emmeline wept,
And aye her heart was woe : 90
THE CHILD OF ELLE. 135
At length he seized her lilly-white hand,
And downe the ladder he drewe :
And thrice he clasped her to his breste,
And kist her tenderlie :
The teares that fell from her fair eyes, 95
Ranne like tlie fountayne free,]
Hee mounted himselfe on his steede so talle,
And her on a fair palfraye,
And slunor his buole about his necke,
And roundlye they rode awaye. 100
[All this beheard her owne damselle,
In her bed whereas shee ley,
Quoth shee. My lord shall knowe of this,
See I shall have golde and fee.
Awake, awake, thou baron bolde ! 105
Awake, my noble dame !
Your daughter is fledde with the Child of Elle,
To doe the deede of shame.
The baron he woke, the baron he rose,
And called his merrye men all : no
" And come thou forth. Sir John the knighte.
Thy ladye is carried to thrall."^]
Faire Emmeline scant had ridden a mile,
A mile forth of the towne,
When she was aware of her fathers men 115
Come galloping over the downe :
[And foremost came the carlish knight.
Sir John of the north countraye :
" Nowe stop, no we stop, thou false traitoure,
Nor carry that ladye awaye. 120
f^ into captivity.]
136 THE CHILD OF ELLE.
For she is come of hye lineage,
And was of a ladye borne,
And ill it beseems thee a false churl's sonne
To carrye her hence to scorne."]
Nowe loud thou lyest, Sir John the knight, 125
Nowe thou doest lye of mee ;
A knight mee gott, and a ladye me bore,
Soe never did none by thee.
But light nowe downe, my ladye faire,
Light downe, and hold my steed, 130
While I and this discourteous knighte
Doe trye this arduous deede.
But light now downe, my deare ladye,
Light downe, and hold my horse ;
While I and this discourteous knight 135
[Doe trye our valour's force.
Fair Emmeline sighed, fair Emmeline wept,
And aye her heart was woe.
While twixt her love and the carlish knight
Past many a baleful blowe. 140
The Child of File hee fought soe well,
As his weapon he waived amaine.
That soone he had slaine the carlish knight,
And layd him upon the plaine.
And nowe the baron, and all his men 145
Full fast approached nye :
Ah ! what may ladye Emmeline doe ?
Twere nowe no boote^ to flye.
Her lover he put his home to his mouth,
And blew both loud and shrill, 150
And soone he saw his owne merry men
Come ryding over the hill.
["' no advantage.]
THE CHILD OF ELLE. i^l
" Nowe hold thy hand, thou bold baron,
I pray thee hold thy hand,
Nor ruthless rend two gentle hearts, 15s
Fast knit in true love's band.
Thy daughter I have dearly loved
Full long and many a day ;
But with such love as holy kirke
Hath freelye sayd wee may. i6o
O give consent, shee may be mine,
And blesse a faithfull paire :
My lands and livings are not small,
My house and lineage faire :
My mother she was an earl's daughter, 165
And a noble knyght my sire—
The baron he frowned, and turn'd away
With mickle dole and ire.
Fair Emmeline sighed, faire Emmeline wept,
And did all tremblinge stand : 170
At lengthe she sprang upon her knee.
And held his lifted hand.
Pardon, my lorde and father deare.
This faire yong knyght and mee :
Trust me, but for the carlish knyght, 175
I never had fled from thee.
Oft have you called your Emmeline
Your darling and your joye ;
O let not then your harsh resolves
Your Emmeline destroye. 180
The baron he stroakt his dark-brown cheeke,
And turned his heade asyde
To whipe awaye the starting teare,
I Ic ])r()udly stravc to hydc.
138 THE CHILD OF ELLE.
In deepe revolving thought he stoode, 185
And mused a little space ;
Then raised faire Emmeline from the grounde,
With many a fond embrace.
Here take her, Child of Elle, he sayd,
And gave her lillye white hand ; 190
Here take my deare and only child,
And with her half my land :
Thy father once mine honour wrongde
In dayes of youthful pride ;
Do thou the injurye repayre 195
In fondnesse for thy bride.
And as thou love her, and hold her deare,
Heaven prosper thee and thine :
And nowe my blessing wend wi' thee,
My lovelye Emmeline.] 200
* *
*
\\\ From the word kirke in ver, 159, this hath been thought
to be a Scottish Ballad, but it must be acknowledged that the line
referred to is among the additions supplied by the Editor : besides,
in the Northern counties of England, kirk is used in the common
dialect for churchy as well as beyond the Tweed.
[The following thirty-nine lines are the whole of the fragment
which Percy used as the groundwork of his poem. They are taken
from Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript^ vol. i. p. 133.
Sayes, Christ thee save, good child of Ell !
Christ saue thee and thy steede !
My father sayes he will noe meate.
Nor his drinke shall doe him noe good,
till he have slaine the Child of Ell
And have seene his harts blood.
I wold I were in my sadle sett,
And a mile out of the towne,
I did not care for your father
And all his merry men !
THE CHILD OF ELLE. 139
I wold I were in my sadle sett,
And a little space him froe,
I did not care for your father
And all that long him to !
He leaned ore his saddle bow
To kisse this Lady good ;
The teares that went them two betweene
Were blend water and blood.
He sett himselfe on one good steed
This lady of one palfray
And sett his litle home to his mouth
And roundlie he rode away.
He had not ridden past a mile
A mile out of the to^\Tle,
Her father was readye with her seven brether
He said, sett thou my daughter downe !
For itt ill iDeseemes thee, thou false churles sonne,
To carry her forth of this towne !
But lowd thou lyest, Sir John the Knight !
That now doest lye of me ;
A knight me gott and a lady me bore ;
Soe never did none by thee.
But light now downe, my lady gay,
Light downe and hold my horsse
Whitest I and your father and your brether
Doe play us at this crosse \
But light now downe, my owne trew loue,
And meeklye hold my steede,
Whilest your father [and your brether] bold.]
\_IIa/f a page missing.']
HO EDOM 6>' GORDON.
XII.
EDOM O' GORDON,
A Scottish Ballad,
JAS printed at Glasgow, by Robert and Andrew Foulis,
MDCCLV. 8vo. 12 pages. We are indebted for its
publication (with many other valuable things in these
«^^^^^} volumes) to Sir David Dalrymple, Bart., who gave it as
it was preserved in the memory of a lady that is now dead.
The reader will here find it improved and enlarged with several
fine stanzas, recovered from a fragment of the same ballad, in the
Editor's foHo MS. It is remarkable that the latter is entitled
Captain Adam Carre^ and is in the English idiom. But whether
the author was English or Scotch, the difference originally was not
great. The English Ballads are generally of the North of England,
the Scottish are of the South of Scotland, and of consequence the
country of ballad-singers was sometimes subject to one crown, and
sometimes to the other, and most frequently to neither. Most of the
finest old Scotch songs have the scene laid within twenty miles of
England, which is indeed all poetic ground, green hills, remains
of woods, clear brooks. The pastoral scenes remain : of the rude
chivalry of former ages happily nothing remains but the ruins of
the castles, where the more daring and successful robbers resided.
The house or castle of the Rodcs stood about a measured mile
south from Duns, in Berwickshire : some of the ruins of it may be
seen to this day. The Gordons were anciently seated in the same
county : the two villages of East and West Gordon lie about
ten miles from the castle of the Rodes.* The fact, however, on
which the ballad is founded, happened in the north of Scotland,!
* This ballad is well known in that neighbourhood, where it is
intitled Adam O' Gordon. It may be observed, that the famous
free-booter whom Edward I. fought with, hand to hand, near
Farnham, was named Adam Gordon.
t Since this ballad was first printed, the subject of it has been
found recorded in Abp. Spotswood's History of the Church of Scot-
land, p. 259, who informs us that,
"Anno 157 1. In the north parts of Scodand, Adam Gordon
(who was deputy for his brother the earl of Huntley) did keep a
EDOM O' CORDON. 141
yet it is but too faithful a specimen of the violences practised in
tlie feudal times in every part of this Island, and indeed all over
Europe.
From the different titles of this ballad, it should seem that the
old strolling bards or minstrels (who gained a livelihood by reciting
these poems) made no scruple of changing the names of the per-
sonages they introduced, to humour their hearers. For instance,
if a Gordon's conduct was blameworthy in the opinion of that age,
the obsequious minstrel would, when among Gordons, change the
name to Car, whose clan or sept lay furtlier west, and vur TcrsA.
The foregoing observation, which I owed to Sir David Dalrymple,
will appear the more perfectly well founded, if, as I have since
been infonned (from Crawford's Memoirs), the principal Com-
mander of the expedition was a Gordon, and the immediate agent
a Car, or Ker ; for then the reciter might, upon good grounds, im-
pute the barbarity here deplored, either to a Gordon or a Car, as
best suited his purpose. In the third volume the reader will find
a similar instance. See the song of Gil Morris, wherein the prin-
cipal character introduced had difterent names given him, perhaps
from the same cause.
It may be proper to mention that, in the folio MS., instead
of the " Castle of the Rodes," it is the " Castle of Bittons-
borrow," and also " Dractons-borrow," and " Capt. Adam Carre "
is called the " Lord of Westerton-town." Uniformity required\
that the additional stanzas supplied from that copy should be
clothed in the Scottish orthography and idiom : this has therefore
been attempted, though perhaps imperfectly.
[Percy's note, which goes to prove that the historical event re-
ferred to in tliis ballad occurred in the north of Scotland, negatives
the view which is expressed just before, that the borders are the
great stir ; and under colour of the queen's authority, committed
divers oppressions, especially upon the Forbes's Having
killed Arthur Forbes, brother to the lord Forbes. • ■ • • Not long
after he sent to summon the house of Tavoy pertaining to Alex-
ander Forbes. The Lady refusing to yield without direction from
her husband, he put fire unto it, and burnt her therein, with children
and servants, being twenty-seven persons in all.
" This inhuman and barbarous cruelty made his name odious,
and stained all his former doings ; otherwise he was held very active
and fortunate in his enterprizes."
'J'his fact, which had escaped tlie Editor's notice, was in the
most obliging manner pointed out to him by an ingenious writer
who signs his name H. H. (Newcastle, May 9) in the Gcnilcmatis
Afa,i;azi//e (or 'Ma.y, 1775.
142 EDOM (9' GORDON.
exclusive country of the ballad singers, at all events in this par-
ticular instance. Sir David Dalrymple appears to have altered the
place of action from Towie to Rodes under a misconception. An
extract from Crawford's Memoirs (an. 15 71, p. 240, ed. 1706), is
a proper companion to the passage from Spotswood, and explains
the title in the folio MS. The person sent was " one Captain Ker
with a party of foot. . . . Nor was he ever so much as cashiered
for this inhuman action, which made Gordon share in the scandal
and the guilt." Gordon, in his History of the Family of Gordon,
informs us that, in the true old spirit of Scottish family feuds, the
Forbes's afterwards attempted to assassinate Gordon in the streets
of Paris.
Percy showed good taste in rejecting the termination given in
Dalrymple's version, which certainly does not improve the ballad,
and has moreover a very modern flavour. The husband is there
made to end his days as follows : —
" And round and round the wa's he went
Their ashes for to view.
At last into the flames he flew
And bad the world adieu."
This ballad is found in various versions, which proves how wide-
spread was the popularity of the striking story which it relates. In
the version given from the Cotton MS. by Ritson in his Ancient
Songs (vol. ii. p. 38, ed. 1829) the husband takes no vengeance on
Captain Car. Another version, entitled Lotidoun Castle, is reprinted
in Child'' s E?tglish and Scottish Ballads (vol. vi. p. 254), from the
Ballads afid Songs of Ayrshire, where the scene is changed to
Loudoun Castle, which is supposed to have been burnt about three
hundred and sixty years ago by the clan Kennedy. In Ritson's
version the castle is called Crechcrynbroghe, and in the Genealogy
of the Forbes, by Matthew Lumsden, of Tullikerne, written in 1580
(Inverness, 1819, p. 44), the name is changed to Cargaffe. From
this latter source we learn that the lady of Towie was Margaret
Campbell, daughter of Sir John Campbell, of Calder, and that
the husband, far from flying into the flames, married a second wife, a
daughter of Forbes of Reires, who bare him a son named Arthur.]
EDOM (9' GORDON. 14-
T fell about the Martinmas, /
Ouhen the wind blew shril and cauld, "^
Said Edom o' Gordon to his men,
We maun draw till a hauld/
And quhat a hauld sail we draw till, 5
My mirry men and me ?
We wul gae to the house o' the Rodes,
To see that fair ladle.
The lady stude on hir castle wa',
Beheld baith dale and down : 10
There she was ware of a host of men
Cum r)^ding towards the toun.'^
O see ye nat, my mirry men a' ?
0 see ye nat quhat I see ?
Methinks I see a host of men : 15
1 marveil quha they be.
She weend"* it had been hir luvely lord,
As he cam ryding hame ;
It was the traitor Edom o' Gordon,
Ouha reckt nae sin nor shame. 20
She had nae sooner buskif* hirsel.
And putten on hir goun,
But Edom o' Gordon and his men
Were round about the toun.
They had nae sooner supper sett. 25
Nae sooner said the grace,
But Edom o' Gordon and his men.
Were light about the place.
[' to a hold. 2 dwelling-house. ' thought. '' dressed.]
144 EDOM (9' GORDON.
The lady ran up to hir towir head,
Sa fast as she could hie, 30
To see if by hir fair speeches
She could wi' him agree.
Buj; quhan he see this lady saif.
And hir yates^ all locked fast,
He fell intb a rage of wrath, 35
And his look was all aghast.
Cum doun to me, ye lady gay,
Cum doun, cum doun to me :
This night sail ye lig'^ within mine armes,
To-morrow my bride sail be. 40
I winnae^ cum doun, ye fals Gordon,
I winnae cum doun to thee ;
I winnae forsake my ain dear lord,
That is sae far frae me.
Give owre your house, ye lady fair, 45
Give owre your house to me.
Or I sail brenn^ yoursel therein,
Bot and^ your babies three.
I winnae give owre, ye false Gordon,
To nae sik traitor as yee ; 50
And if ye brenn my ain dear babes.
My lord sail make ye drie.*^
But reach my pistoll, Glaud, my man,*
And charge ye weil my gun :*
For, but an' I pierce that bluidy butcher, 55
My babes we been undone.
She stude upon hir castle wa'.
And let twa bullets flee : *
* These three hnes are restored from Foulis's edition, and the
fol. MS., which last reads the bullets^ in ver. 58.
[1 gates. 2 iig_ 3 ^^-^ j^Qj-_ 4 \y^x\\.
^ and also. " suffer. '^ unless.]
EDOM 0' GORDON. 145
She mist that bkiidy butchers hart,
And only raz'd his knee. 60
Set fire to the house, quo' fals Gordon,
All wood \\'\ dule^ and ire :
Fals lady, ye sail rue this deid,
As ye bren in the fire.
Wae worth,"^ wae worth ye, Jock my man, 65
I paid ye weil your fee ;
Quhy pu' ye out the ground-wa' stane.''
Lets in the reek^ to me ?
And ein^ wae worth ye, Jock my man, .
I paid ye weil your hire ; 70
Quhy pu' ye out the ground-wa stane.
To me lets in the fire ?
Ye paid me weil my hire, lady ;
Ye paid me weil my fee :
But now I'm Edom o' Gordons man, 75
Maun either doe or die.
0 than bespaik hir little son,
Sate on the nurses knee :
Sayes, Mither deare, gi' owre this house,
For the reek it smithers me. 80
1 wad gie a' my gowd,^ my childe,
Sae wald I a' my fee,
For ane blast o' the western wind.
To blaw the reek frae thee.
O then bespaik hir dochter dear, 85
She was baith jimp'^ and sma :
O row" me in a pair o' sheits,
And tow me" owre the wa.
I ' mad with sorrow. ^ woe betide. ^ ground-wall stone.
* smoke. ^ even. " goU-
' slender. " roll. " let me down.J
L
146 EDOM (9' GORDON.
They rowd hir in a pair o' sheits,
And towd hir owre the wa : 90
But on the point of Gordons spear,
She gat a deadly fa.
0 bonnie bonnie was hir mouth,.
And cherry were hir cheiks,
And clear clear was hir yellow hair, 95
Whereon the reid bluid dreips.
Then wi' his spear he turnd hir owre,
0 gin hir face was wan !
He sayd, ye are the first that eir
1 wisht alive again. 100
He turnd hir owre and owre againe,
O gin hir skin was whyte !
1 might ha spared that bonnie face
To hae been sum mans delyte.
Busk and boun,^ my merry men a', 105
For ill dooms I doe guess ;
I cannae luik in that bonnie face,
As it lyes on the grass.
Thame, luiks to freits, my master deir,
Then freits wil follow thame : no
Let it neir be said brave Edom o' Gordon
Was daunted by a dame.
But quhen the ladye see the fire
Cum flaming owre hir head,
She wept and kist her children twain, 115
Sayd, Bairns, we been but dead.
Ver. 98, 102. O ^in, g^c. a Scottish idiom to express great
admiration. V. 109, no. Thame, 6^r. i.e. Them that look after
omens of ill luck, ill luck will follow.
\} make ready to go.]
EDOM 6>' GORDON. 147
The Gordon then his bougill ^ blew,
And said, Awa*, awa' ;
This house o' the Rodes is a' in flame,
I hauld it time to ea'.
I70
O then bespyed hir ain dear lord,
As hee cam owr the lee ;
He sied^ his castle all in blaze
Sa far as he could see.
Then sair, O sair his mind misgave, 125
And all his hart was wae ;
Put on, put on, my wighty men,
So fast as ye can gae.
Put on, put on, my wighty^ men,
Sa fast as ye can drie ;^ 130
For he that is hindmost of the thrang,
Sail neir get guid o' me.
Than sum they rade, and sum they rin,
Fou fast out-owr the bent ; ^
But eir the foremost could get up, 135
Baith lady and babes were brent.
He wrang his hands, he rent his hair.
And wept in teenefu' muid : ^
O traitors, for this cruel deid
Ye sail weep teirs o'bluid. 14.0
And after the Gordon he is gane,
Sa fast as he might drie ; ^
And soon i' the Gordon's foul hartis bluid,
He's wroken" his dear ladie.
[' bugle. "^ saw. ^ nimble. '' endure.
*'• full fast over the meadows. " in wrathful mood.
' bear. ^ revenged.]
148 EDOM O' GORDON.
[The following is the version of the ballad in the Percy Folio,
which is entitled Captainc Carre. Bishop Percy's Folio MS., ed. J.
W. Hales and F. J. Furnivall, 1867, vol. i., pp. 79-83-
ffaith. Master, whither you will,
whereas you like the best,
Unto the castle of Bittons borrow,
and there to take your rest.
But yonder stands a Castle faire,
is made of lyme and stone,
Yonder is in it a fayre lady,
her lord is ridden and gone.
The lady stood on her castle wall,
she looked upp and downe.
She was ware of an hoast of men
came rydinge towards the towne.
See you not my merry men all,
and see you not what I doe see ?
Methinks I see a hoast of men
I muse who they shold be.
She thought it had beene her lovly Lord,
he had come ryding home :
it was the traitor, Captaine Carre
the Lord of Westerton towne
They had noe sooner super sett,
and after said the grace
but the traitor Captaine Carre '
was light about the place.
Give over thy house, thou lady gay
I will make thee a band [/. e. bond]
all night within mine armes thoust lye,
to-morrow be the heyre of my land.
He not give over my house, shee said
neither for ladds nor man,
nor yet for traitor Captaine Carre,
Untill my lord come home
But reach me my pistoll pee [/. e. piece]
and charge you well my gunne.
He shoote at the bloody bucher
the lord of westerton.
EDOM O' GORDON. 149
She stood uppon her castle wall
and let the bulletts tlee,
and where shee mist ....
\Half a page missing.']
But then bespake the little child
that sate on the nurses knee,
saies, mother deere, give ore this house
for the smoake it smoothers me.
I wold give all my gold, my childe,
soe wold I doe all my fee,
for one blast of the westerne -vvind
to blow the smoke from thee
But when shee saw the fier
came flaming ore her head,
She tooke them upp her children two
Sayes, babes we all beene dead !
But Adam then he fired the house,
a sorrowfuU sight to see :
now hath he burned this lady faire
and eke her children three
Then Captain Carre he rode away,
he staid noe longer at that tide,
he thought that place it was to warme
soe neere for to abide
He calld unto his merry men all
bidd them make hast away
for we have slaine his children three
all, and his lady gay.
Word came to lovly loudon ^
to loudon ^ wheras her lord lay,
his castle and his hall was burned
all and his lady gay.
Soe hath he done his Children three.
More dearer unto liini \
then either the silver or the gold
that men soe faine wold win.
But when he looket this writing on.
Lord in is hart he was woe !
saies, I will find thee. Captain Carre,
wether thou ryde or goc !
\} printed London in the edition of the MS.]
I50 EDOM O' GORDON.
Buff yee, bowne yee, my merry men all
with tempered swords of Steele,
for till I have found out Captaine Carre,
My hart it is nothing weele.
But when he came to dractons Borrow,
soe long ere it was day,
and ther he found him, Captaine Carre ;
that night he ment to stay.]
{Half a page missing.']
THE END OF THE FIRST BOOK.
RELIOUES OF ANCIENT POETRY, ETC.
SERIES THE FIRST.
BOOK 11.
BALLADS THAT ILLUSTRATE
SHAKESPEARE.
r
Our great dramatic poet having occasionally quoted
many ancient ballads, and even taken the plot of one,
if not more, of his plays from among them, it was judged
proper to preserve as many of these as could be re-
covered, and, that they might be the more easily found,
to exhibit them in one collective view. This Second
Book is therefore set apart for the reception of such
ballads as are quoted by Shakespeare, or contribute in
any degree to illustrate his writings : this being the prin-
cipal point in view, the candid reader will pardon the
admission of some pieces that have no other kind of
merit.
I.
ADAM BELL, CLYM OF THE CLOUGH,
AND WILLIAM OF CLOUDESLEY,
-ERE three noted outlaws, whose skill in archery rendered
them formerly as famous in the north of England, as
Robin Hood and his fellows were in the midland coun-
ties. Their place of residence was in the forest of Engle-
wood, not far from Carlisle (called corruptly in the ballad English-
wood, whereas Engle, or Ingle-wood, signifies wood for firing). At
what time they Hved does. not appear. The author of the common
ballad on " The Pedigree, Education and Marriage of Robin Hood,"
makes them contemporary with Robin Hood's father, in order to
give him the honour of beating them, viz. :
" The father of Robin a Forester was,
and he shot in a lusty long-bow,
Two north-country miles and an inch at a shot,
as the Finder of Wakefield does know :
For he brought Adam Bell, and Clim of the Clugh,
and William a Clowdeslee,
To shoot with our Forester for forty mark ;
and the P'orester beat them all three."
Collect, of Old Ballads, vol. i. (1723), p. 67.
This seems to prove that they were commonly thought to have
lived before the popular hero of Sherwood.
Our northern archers were not unkno\vn to their southern
countrymen : their excellence at the longbow is often alluded to
by our ancient poets. Shakespeare, in liis comedy of Much adoc
about nothing, act i., makes licncdick confirm his resolves of
not yielding to love, by this protestation, " If I do, hang me in a
154 ADAM BELL,
bottle like a cat,* and shoot at me, and he that hits me, let him be
clapt on the shoulder, and called Adam .-" meaning Adam Bell, as
Theobald rightly observes, who refers to one or two other passages
in our old poets wherein he is mentioned. The Oxford editor has
also well conjectured, that " Abraham Cupid" in Romeo and Juliet ,
act ii. sc. I, should be " Adam Cupid," in allusion to our archer.
Ben Jonson has mentioned Clym d the Cloiigh in his Alchemist,
act i, sc. 2. And Sir William Davenant, in a mock poem of his,
called " The long vacation in London^' describes the Attorneys and
Proctors, as making matches to meet in Finsbury fields.
" With loynes in canvas bow-case tyde if
^ Where arrowes stick with mickle pride ; . . •
Like ghosts of Adam Bell and Clymme.
Sol sets for fear they'l shoot at him."
Works, 1673, fol. p. 291.
I have only to add further concerning the principal hero of this
Ballad, that the Bells were noted rogues in the North so late as the
time of Q. Elizabeth. See in Rymer's Fcedera, a letter from lord
William Howard to some of the officers of state, wherein he men-
tions them.
As for the following stanzas, which will be judged from the style,
orthography, and numbers, to be of considerable antiquity, they were
here given (corrected in some places by a MS. copy in the Editor's
old folio) from a black-letter 4to. Ijnprinted at London in Lothburye
by Wyllyam Copland (no date). That old quarto edition seems to
be exactly followed in Pieces of Anciejii Popular Poetry, 6^r. Lond.
1791,1 8vo., the variations from which that occur in the following
copy, are selected from many others in the foho MS. above-men-
tioned, and when distinguished by the usual inverted * comma,'
have been assisted by conjecture.
In the same MS. this Ballad is followed by another, intitled
Younge Cloudeslee, being a continuation of the present story, and re-
citing the adventures of William of Cloudesly's son : but greatly
inferior to this both in merit and antiquity.
* Bottles formerly were of leather; though perhaps a wooden
bottle might be here meant. It is still a diversion in Scotland to
hang up a cat in a small cask or firkin, half filled with soot : and then
a parcel of clowns on horseback try to beat out the ends of it, in
order to show their dexterity in escaping before the contents fall
upon them.
t /. ^. Each with a canvas bow-case tied round his loins.
it Ritson's book.] ,
CLYM OF THE C LOUGH, ETC. 155
[The version here printed differs but slightly from the one in the
Folio MS. (ed. Hales and Furnivall, 1868, vol. iii. p. 76), and as
the latter is of no critical value it has been thought unnecessary to
point out the various readings. A fragment of an older edition
than Copland's mentioned above has been recovered by Mr. Payne
Collier, which is attributed to the press of Wynkyn de Worde by
Mr. W. C. HazHtt.
This spirited ballad is mentioned by Laneham in his Catalogue
of Captain Cox's ballads, and the various editions it has passed
through, and the frequent references to it in literature, prove its
great and deserved popularity.
The circumstances of the second Fit resemble closely the rescue
of Robin Hood by Little John, as related in ''Robin Hood and
the Monk," and the incident of the shot at the apple in the third
Fit bears a curious likeness to the very ancient myth which is
associated with William Tell. "Allane Bell" is mentioned by
Dunbar in company with Robin Hood, Guy of Gisborne, and
others, which proves that in his time these names had become
mere abstractions.]
PART THE FIRST.
ERY it was in the grene forest
Amonge the levcs grene,
Wheras men hunt east and west
Wyth bowes and arrowes kene ;
To raise the dere out of theyr denne ; s
Suche fiofhtes hath ofte bene sene ;
As by thre yemen of the north countrey,
By them it is I meane.
The one of them hight Adam Bel,
The other Clym of the Clough,* 10
The thyrd was WilHam of Cloudesly,
An archer good ynough.
♦ Clym pf the Clough, means Clem. [Clement] of the Cliff: for
so Clough signifies in the North.
156 ADAM BELL,
They were outlawed for venyson,
These yemen everych-one ;
They swore them brethren upon a day, 15
To Englyshe wood for to gone.
Now Hth^ and lysten, gentylmen,
That of myrthes loveth to here :
Two of them were single men,
The third had a wedded fere.^ 20
Wyllyam was the wedded man,
Muche more then was hys care :
He sayde to hys brethren upon a day,
To Carleile he would fare ;
For to speke with fayre Alyce his wife, 25
And with hys chyldren thre.
By my trouth, sayde Adam Bel,
Not by the counsell of me :
For if ye go to Carlile, brother.
And from thys wylde wode wende,^ 30
If that the justice may you take.
Your lyfe were at an ende.
If that I come not to-morowe, brother,
By pryme^ to you agayne,
Truste you then that I am ' taken,' 35
Or else that I am slayne.
He toke hys leave of hys brethren two,
And to Carlile he is gon :
There he knocked at his owne windowe
Shortlye and anone. 40
Ver. 24. Caerlel, in PC. passim. V. 35. take, PC. tanc, MS.
[' attend. ^ companion or wife. ^ from this wild wood depart.
"* six o'clock in the morning.] -
CLYM OF THE C LOUGH. ETC. 157
Wher be you, fayre Alyce, he sayd,
INIy wife and chyldren three ?
Lyghtly let in thyne owne husbande,
Wyllyam of Cloudeslee.
Alas ! then sayde fayre Alyce, 45
And syghed wonderous sore,
Thys place hath ben besette for you
Thys halfe a yere and more.
Now am I here, sayde Cloudeslee,
I would that in I were. 50
Now fetche us meate and drynke ynoughe,
And let us make good chere.
She fetched hym meate and drynke plentye,
Lyke a true wedded wyfe ;
And pleased hym with that she had, 55
Whome she loved as her lyfe.
There lay an old wyfe in that place,
A lytle besyde the fyre,
W'hych Wyllyam had found of charytye
More than seven yere. 60
Up she rose, and forth shee goes,
Evill mote^ shee speede therfore ;
For shee had sett no foote on ground
In seven yere before.
She went unto the justice hall, 65
As fast as she could hye :
Thys night, shee sayd, is come to town
\\'}llyam of Cloudeslye,
Thereof the justice was full fayne,*
And so was the shirife also : 70
[' might. '^ glad.]
158 ADAM BELL,
Thou shalt not trauaile hither, dame, for nought.
Thy meed thou shalt have ere thou go.
They gave to her a ryght good goune,
Of scarlate, ' and of graine ' :
She toke the gyft, and home she wente, 7.5
And couched her doune agayne.
They raysed the towne of mery Carleile
In all the haste they can ;
And came thronging to Wyllyames house,
As fast as they might gone. 80
There they besette that good yeman
Round about on every syde :
Wyllyam hearde great noyse of folkes.
That thither-ward fast hyed.
Alyce opened a backe wyndowe, 85
And loked all aboute.
She was ware of the justice and shirife bothe,
Wyth a full great route. ^
Alas ! treason, cryed Alyce,
Ever wo may thou be ! 90
Goe into my chamber, my husband, she sayd,
Swete Wyllyam of Cloudeslee.
He toke hys sword and hys bucler,
Hys bow and hys chyldren thre.
And wente into hys strongest chamber, 95
Where he thought surest to be.
Fayre Alyce, like a lover true.
Took a pollaxe in her hande :
Said, He shall dye that cometh in
Thys dore, whyle I may stand. 100
Ver. 85. sic MS. shop window, PC.
\} company.]
CLYM OF THE C LOUGH, ETC. 159
Cloudeslee bente a right good bowe,
That was of a trusty tre,
He smot the justise on the brest,
That hys arowe burst in three.
'A' curse on his harte, saide WilHam, 105
Thys day thy cote dyd on !
If it had ben no better then myne,
It had gone nere thy bone.
Yelde the Cloudesle, sayd the justise,
And thy bowe and thy arrowes the fro." no
' A ' curse on hys hart, sayd fair Alyce,
That my husband councclleth so.
Set fyre on the house, saide the sherife,
Syth it wyll no better be,
And brenne'^ we therin William, he saide, 115
Hys wyfe and chyldren thre.
They fyred the house in many a place,
The fyre flew up on hye :
Alas ! then cryed fayre Ahce,
I se we here shall dye. 120
William openyd a backe wyndow,
That was in hys chamber hie.
And there with sheetes he did let downe
His wyfe and children three.
Have you here my treasure, sayde William, 125
My wyfe and my chyldren thre :
For Christes love do them no harme,
But wreke you all on me.
Wyll)am shot so wonderous well,
Tyll hys arrowes were all agoe, 130
[^ from thee. ^ burn.]
i6o ADAM BELL,
And the fyre so fast upon hym fell,
That hys bowstryng brent ^ in two.
The sparkles brent and fell upon
Good Wyllyam of Cloudesle :
Than was he a wofull man, and sayde, 135
Thys is a cowardes death to me.
Leever'^ had I, sayde Wyllyam,
With my sworde in the route to renne,"^
Then here among myne enemyes wode*
Thus cruelly to bren. 140
He toke hys sword and hys buckler,
And among them all he ran.
Where the people were most in prece,^
He smot downe many a man.
There myght no man abyde hys stroakes, 145
So fersly^ on them he ran :
Then they threw wyndowes, and dores on him,
And so toke that good yeman.
There they hym bounde both hand and fote.
And in a deepe dungeon him cast : 150
Now Cloudesle, sayd the justice,
Thou shalt be hanged in hast.
' A payre of new gallowes, sayd the sherife,
Now shal I for thee make ; '
And the gates of Carleil shal be shutte : 155
No man shal come in therat.
Then shall not helpe Clym of the Cloughe,
Nor yet shall Adam Bell,
Ver, 151. Sic MS. hye Justice, PC. V. 153, 4, are contracted
from the folio MS. and PC.
[^ burnt. 2 sooner. ^ in the crowd to run. "^ wild.
^ in a crowd. " fiercely.]
CLYM OF THE C LOUGH, ETC. i6i
Though they came with a thousand mo,
Nor all the devels in hell. 160
Early in the mornynge the justice uprose,
To the o-ates first can he irone,
And commaunded to be shut full close
Lightile^ evcrych-one.
Then went he to the markett place, 165
As fast as he coulde hye ;
There a payre of new gallowes he set up
Besyde the pyllorye.
A lytle boy ' among them asked,'
What meaned that gallow-tre ? 170
They sayde to hange a good yeman,
Called Wyllyam of Cloudesle.
That lytle boye was the towne swyne-heard,
And kept fayre Alyces swyne ;
Oft he had seene William in the wodde, 175
And geuen hym there to dyne.
He went out att a crevis of the wall, »
And lightly to the woode dyd gone ;
There met he with these wightye'^ yemen
Shortly and anone.
ISO
Alas ! then sayde the lytle boye,
Ye tary here all too longe ;
Cloudeslee is taken, and dampned^ to death.
And readye for to honge.^
Alas ! then sayd good Adam Bell, 185
That ever we saw thys daye !
He had better have tarryed with us,
So ofte as we dyd hym praye,
Ver. 179. yonge men, PC.
[} quickly. ^ lusty. '' condemned. ' Jibing-]
M
i62 ADAM BELL,
He myght have dwelt in grene foreste,
Under the shadowes greene, 190
And have kepte both hym and us att reste,
Out of all trouble and teene.^
Adam bent a ryght good bow,
A great hart sone hee had slayne :
Take that, chylde, he sayde, to thy dynner, 19s
And bryng me myne arrowe agayne.
Now go we hence, sayed these wightye yeomen,
Tarry we no longer here ;
We shall hym borowe*^ by God his grace,
Though we buy itt full dere. 200
(
To Caerleil wente these bold yemen,
All in a mornyng of maye.
Here is a fyt of Cloudeslye,
And another is for to saye.
PART THE SECOND.
ND when they came to mery Carleile,
All in * the' mornyng tyde,
They founde the gates shut them untyll
About on every syde.
Alas ! then sayd good Adam Bell,
That ever we were made men !
These gates be shut so wonderous fast,
We may not come therein.
Ver. 190. sic MS. shadowes sheene, PC. V. ig"]. Jolly yeomen,
MS. zvight yong juen, PC.
[' vexation. ^ redeem. ^ unto.]
CLYM OF THE C LOUGH, ETC. i6
Then bespake him Clym of the Clough,
Wyth a wyle we wyl us in bryng ; lo
Let us saye we be messengers,
Streyght come nowe from our king.
Adam said, I have a letter written,
Now let us wysely werke,
We wyl saye we have the kynges seale ; i s
I holde the porter no clerke. )
Then Adam Bell bete on the orates
With strokes Q^reat and stronore :
The porter marvelled, who was therat,
And to the gates he thronge.^ 20
Who is there now, sayde the porter,
That maketh all thys knockinge ?
We be tow messengers, quoth Clim of the Clough,
Be come ryght from our kyng.
We have a letter, sayd Adam Bel, 25
To the justice we must itt bryng;
Let us in our message to do.
That we were agayne to the kyng.
Here commeth none in, sayd the porter,
By hym that dyed on a tre, 30
Tyll a false thefe be hanged.
Called Wyllyam of Cloudesle.
Then spake the good yeman Clym of the Clough,
And swore by Mary fre.
And if that we stande long wythout, 35
Lyke a thefe hanged shalt thou be.
Lo ! here we have the kynges seale :
What, Lurden,'^ art thou wode V
Ver. 38. Lordeyne, PC.
[' hastened. ^ sluggard or stupid fellow. •* mad.]
i64 ADAM BELL,
The porter went* it had ben so,
And lyghtly dyd off hys hode/ 40
Welcome is my lordes seale, he saide ;
For that ye shall come in.
He opened the gate full shortlye :
/ An euyl openyng for him.
Now are we in, sayde Adam Bell, 45
Wherof we are full faine f
But Christ he knowes, that harowed^ hell.
How we shall com out agayne.
Had we the keys, said Clim of the Clough,
Ryght wel then shoulde we spede, 50
Then might we come out wel ynough
When we se tyme and nede.
They called the porter to counsell,
And wrang his necke in two,
And caste hym in a depe dungeon, 55
And toke hys keys hym fro.
Now am I porter, sayd Adam Bel,
Se brother the keys are here.
The worst porter to merry Carleile
That ' the' had thys hundred yere. 60
And now wyll we our bowes bend.
Into the towne wyll we go,
For to delyuer our dere brother,
That lyeth in care and wo.
* i. e. weened, thought (which last is the reading of the folio
MS.) Calais, or Rouen was taken from the English by showing
the governor, who could not read, a letter with the king's seal,
which was all he looked at.
\} doffed his hood. ^ glad. ^ despoiled.]
CLYM OF THE CLOUGH, ETC. 165
Then they bent theyr g-ood ewe bowes, 65
And loked the}T stringes were round,"'^
The markett place in mery Carleile
They beset thatstound/
And, as they loked them besyde,
A paire of new galowes ' they' see, 70
And the justice with a quest ■^ of squyers,
That judged William hanged to be.
And Cloudesle lay redy there in a cart,
Fast bound both fote and hand ;
And a stronge rop about hys necke, 75
All readye for to hange.
The justice called to him a ladde,
Cloudeslees clothes hee shold have,
To take the measure of that yeman,
Therafter to make hys grave. 80
I have sene as great mervaile, said Cloudesle,
As betweyne thys and pryme.
He that maketh a grave for mee,
Hymselfe may lye therin.
Thou speakest proudlye, said the justice, 85
I will thee hange with my hande.
Full wel herd this his brethren two,
There styll as they dyd stande.
Then Cloudesle cast his eyen asyde,
And saw hys ' brethren twaine' 90
At a corner of the market place,
Redy the justice for to slaine.
* So Ascham in his Toxophilus gives a precept ; " The Stringe
must be rounde" (p. 149- Ed. 1761) : otherwise, we may conclude
from mechanical principles, the Arrow will not fly true.
[' hour. 2 imjuest.]
i66 ADAM BELL,
I se comfort, sayd Cloudesle,
Yet hope I well to fare,
If I might have my handes at wyll 95
Ryght lytle wolde I care.
Then spake good Adam Bell
To Clym of the Clough so free,
Brother, se you marke the justyce wel ;
Lo ! yonder you may him se : 100
And at the shyrife shote I wyll
Strongly wyth an arrowe kene ;
A better shote in mery Carleile
Thys seven yere was not sene.
They loosed their arrowes both at once, 105
Of no man had they dread ;
The one hyt the justice, the other the sheryfe,
That both theyr sides gan blede.
All men voyded,^ that them stode nye.
When the justice fell to the grounde, no
And the sherife nye hym by ;
Eyther had his deathes wounde.
All the citezens fast gan flye.
They durst no longer abyde :
There lyghtly they losed Cloudeslee, 115
Where he with ropes lay tyde.
Wyllyam start to an officer of the towne,
Hys axe ' from' hys hand he wronge,
On eche syde he smote them downe,
Hee thought he taryed to long. 120
Wyllyam sayde to hys brethren two,
Thys daye let us lyve and die,
Ver. 105. loivsed thre, PC. V. 108. can bled, MS.
[' went off.]
CLVJ/ OF THE CLOUGH, ETC. 167
If ever you have nede, as I have now,
The same shall you finde by me.
They shot so well in that tyde, 125
Theyr stringes were of silke ful sure,
That they kept the stretes on every side ;
That batayle did long endure.
They fought together as brethren true,
Lyke hardy men and bolde, 130
Many a man to the ground they threw,
And many a herte made colde.
But when their arrowes were all gon,
Men preced ^ to them full fast.
They drew theyr swordes then anone, 135
And theyr bowes from them cast.
They went lyghtlye on theyr way,
Wyth swordes and buclers round ;
By that it was mydd of the day,
They made many a wound. 140
There was an out-horne* in Carleil blowen.
And the belles backward dyd ryng.
Many a woman sayde, Alas !
And many theyr handes dyd wryng.
The mayre of Carleile forth com was, 145
Wyth hym a ful great route :^
These yemen dred hym full sore.
Of theyr lyves they stode in great doute.^
* Outhorne, is an old term signifying the calling forth of subjects
to arms by the sound of a horn. See Cole's Lat. Diet., Bailey, &c.
[Perhaps " a nouthome," or neat's horn, from nowt, cattle.]
Vcr. 148. For of, MS.
[' pressed. '^ company. -^ fear.]
i68 ADAM BELL,
The mayre came armed a full great pace,
With a poUaxe in hys hande ; 150
Many a strong man wyth him was,
There in that stowre^ to stande.
The mayre smot at Cloudeslee with his bil,^
Hys bucler he brast^ in two.
Full many a yeman with great evyll, 155
Alas ! Treason they cryed for wo.
Kepe well the gates fast, they bad.
That these traytours therout not go.
But al for nought was that they wrought.
For so fast they downe were layde, 160
Tyll they all thre, that so manfulli fought,
I Were gotten without, abraide."*
Have here your keys, sayd Adam Bel,
Myne office I here forsake.
And yf you do by my counsel! 165
A new porter do ye make.
He threw theyr keys at theyr heads.
And bad them well to thryve,*
And all that letteth any good yeman
To come and comfort his wyfe. 170
Thus be these good yeman gon to the wod
As lyghtly, as lefe on lynde ; ^
The lough and be mery in theyr mode,
Theyr enemyes were ferr behynd.
When they came to Englyshe wode, 175
Under the trusty tre,
* "^his is spoken ironically.
Ver. 175. merry green wood, MS.
\} fight. ^ pike or halbert. ' burst.
^ abroad. ^ lime tree.]
CLVM OF THE C LOUGH, ETC. 169
There they found bowes full good,
And arrowes full great plentye.
So God me help, sayd Adam Bell,
And Clym of the Clough so fre, 180
I would we were in mery Carleile,
Before that fayre meynye/
They set them downe, and made good chere,
And eate and dranke full well.
A second fyt of the wightye yeomen : 185
Another I wyll you tell.
PART THE THIRD.
S they sat in Englyshe wood,
Under the grecn-wode tre.
They thought they herd a woman wepe.
But her they mought^ not se.
Sore then syghed the fayre Alyce : 5
' That ever I sawe thys day !'
For nowe is my dere husband slayne :
Alas ! and wel-a-way !
Myght I have spoken wyth hys dere brethren.
Or with eyther of them twayne, 10
To show them what him befell,
]\Iy hart were out of payne.
Cloudesle walked a lytle beside,
He looked under the grene wood lynde.
Vcr. 185. see Parti, ver. 197.
\} company. ' might.]
I70 ADAM BELL,
He was ware of his wife, and cliyldren three, 15
Full wo in harte and mynde.
/ Welcome, wyfe, then sayde Wyllyam,
Under ' this' trusti tre :
I had wende^ yesterday, by swete saynt John,
Thou sholdest me never * have' se. 20
" Now well is me that ye be here,
My harte is out of wo."
Dame, he sayde, be mery and glad.
And thanke my brethren two.
Herof to speake, said Adam Bell, as
I -wis it is no bote :
/ The meate, that we must supp withall.
It runneth yet fast on fote.
Then went they downe into a launde,^
These noble archares all thre ; 30
Eche of them slew a hart of greece,'
The best that they cold se.
Have here the best, Alyce, my wyfe,
Sayde Wyllyam of Cloudeslye ;
By cause ye so bouldly stode by me 35
When I was slayne full nye.
Then went they to suppere
Wyth suche meate as they had ;
And thanked God of ther fortune :
They were both mery and glad. 40
And when they had supped well,
Certayne withouten lease,^
/ Cloudesle sayd, We wyll to our kyng,
V To get us a charter of peace.
Ver. 20. never had se, PC. and MS.
[' thought. ^ clear space in a forest.
■'' fat hart. ■* without lying.]
CLYM OF THE C LOUGH, ETC. 171
Alyce shal be at our sojournyng 4.5
In a nunnery here besyde ;
My tow sonnes shall wyth her go,
And there they shall abyde.
Myne eldest son shall go wyth me ;
For hym have 'you' no care : 50
And he shall bring you worde agayn,
How that we do fare.
Thus be these yemen to London gone,
As fast as they myght ' he,'*
Tyll they came to the kynges pallace, 55
Where they woulde nedes be.
And whan they came to the kynges courte,
Unto the pallace gate,
Of no man wold they aske no leave,
But boldly went in therat. 60
They preced prestly^ into the hall, s
Of no man had they dreade :
The porter came after, and dyd them call.
And with them began to chyde.
The usher sayde, Yemen, what wold ye have ? 65
I pray you tell to me :
You myght thus make offycers shent:*
Good syrs, of whence be ye ?
Syr, we be out-lawes of the forest
Ccrtayne withouten lease ; 70
And hether we be come to the kyng,
To get us a charter of peace.
And whan they came before the kyng,
As it was the lawe of the lande,
Ver. 50. have I no care, PC. * i.e. hie, hasten.
[' pressed (juickly. ' blamed.]
172 ADAM BELL,
The kneled downe without lettyng, 75
And eche held up his hand.
The sayed, Lord, we beseche the here,
That ye wyll graunt us grace ;
For we have slayne your fat falow dere
In many a sondry place. 80
What be your nams, then said our king,
Anone that you tell me ?
They sayd, Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough,
And Wyllyam of Cloudesle.
Be ye those theves, then sayd our kyng, 85
That men have tolde of to me ?
Here to God I make an avowe.
Ye shal be hanged al thre.
Ye shal be dead without mercy,
As I am kynge of this lande. 90
He commanded his officers everlch-one.
Fast on them to lay hande.
There they toke these good yemen.
And arested them al thre :
So may I thryve, sayd Adam Bell, 95
Thys game lyketh not me.
But, good lorde, we beseche you now,
That yee graunt us grace,
Insomuche as 'frely' we be to you come,
' As frely' we may fro you passe, 100
With such weapons, as we have here,
Tyll we be out of your place ;
And yf we lyve this hundreth yere.
We wyll aske you no grace.
Ye speake proudly, sayd the kynge ; 105
Ye shall be hanged all thre.
CLYM OF THE C LOUGH, ETC. 173
That were great pitye, then sayd the quene,
If any grace myght be.
]\Iy lorde, whan I came fyrst into this lande
To be your wedded wyfe, no
The fyrst boone that I wold aske,
Ye would graunt it me belyfe •}
And I asked you never none tyll now ;
Therefore good lorde, graunt it me,
Now aske it, madam, sayd the kynge, 115
And graunted it shal be.
Then, good my lord, I you beseche,
These yemen graunt ye me. '
Madame, ye myght have asked a boone,
That shuld have been worth them all thre. 120
Ye myght have asked towres, and townes,
Parkes and forestes plente.
None soe pleasant to my pay,^ shee sayd ;
Nor none so lefe^ to me.
Madame, sith it is your desyre, 125
Your askyng graunted shal be ;
But I had lever have geven you
Good market townes thre.
The quene was a glad woman,
And sayde. Lord, gramarcy :* 130
I dare undertake for them,
That true men shal they be.
But good my lord, speke som mery word,
That comfort they may se.
I graunt you grace, then sayd our king; 135
Washe, felos, and to meate go ye.
Ver. Ill, 119. sic. MS. bowne, PC. V. 130. God a tnenye, MS.
[' at once. ^ satisfaction. ^ dear. "* I thank you.]
174 ADAM BELL,
They had not setten but a whyle
Certayne without lesynge/
There came messengers out of the north
With letters to our kyng. 140
And whan the came before the kynge,
They knelt downe on theyr kne ;
And sayd, Lord, your officers grete you well,
\ Of Carleile in the north cuntre.
How fareth my justice, sayd the kyng, 14.5
And my sherife also ?
Syr, they be siayne without leasynge,
And many an officer mo.
Who hath them siayne, sayd the kyng ;
Anone that thou tell me ? 150
" Adam Bell, and Clime of the Clough,
And Wyllyam of Cloudesle."
Alas for rewth !^ then sayd our kynge :
My hart is wonderous sore ;
I had lever^ than a thousande pounde, 155
I had knowne of thys before ;
For I have graunted them grace,
And that forthynketh^ me :
But had I knowne all thys before,
They had been hanged all thre. 160
The kyng hee opened the letter anone,
Himselfe he red it thro.
And founde how these outlawes had slain
Thre hundred men and mo :
Fyrst the justice, and the sheryfe, 165
And the mayre of Carleile towne ;
[' lying. 2 pity. '' rather. * vexeth.]
CLYM OF THE C LOUGH, ETC. 175
Of all the constables and catchlpolles
Alyve were 'scant' left one :
The baylyes, and the bedyls both,
And the sergeauntes of the law, 170
And forty fosters of the fe,^
These outlawes had yslaw :'
And broke his parks, and slayne his dere ;
Of all they chose the best ;
So perelous out-lawes, as they were, 175
Walked not by easte nor west.
When the kynge this letter had red,
In hys harte he syghed sore :
Take up the tables anone he bad,
For I may eat no more. 180
The kyng called hys best archars
To the buttes wyth hym to go :
I wyll se these felowes shote, he sayd,
In the north have wrouo^ht this wo.
The kynges bowmen buske them blyve,'' 185
And the quenes archers also ;
So dyd these thre wyghtye yemen ;
With them they thought to go.
There twyse, or thryse they shote about
For to assay theyr hande ; 190
There was no shote these yemen shot,
That any prycke* myght stand.
Then spake Wyllyam of Cloudesle ;
By him that for me dyed,
Ver. 168. left but one, MS. not om\ PC V. 185. blythc, MS.
* i.e. mark.
[^ foresters of the king's demesnes. ^ slain.
•' get them ready insUmtly.J
176 ADAM BELL,
I hold hym never no good archar, 195
That shoteth at buttes so wyde.
* At what a butte now wold ye shote,'
I pray thee tell to me ?
At suche a but, syr, he sayd,
As men use in my countree. 200
Wyllyam wente into a fyeld,
And ' with him' his two brethren :
There they set up two hasell roddes^
'. Twenty score paces betwene.
I hold him an archar, said Cloudesle, 205
That yonder wande cleveth in two.
Here is none suche, sayd the kyng.
Nor no man can so do.
I shall assaye, syr, sayd Cloudesle,
Or that I farther gro. 210
Cloudesly with a bearyng arowe^
Clave the wand in two.
Thou art the best archer, then said the king,
Forsothe that ever I se.
And yet for your love, sayd Wyllyam, 215
I wyll do more maystery.^
I have a sonne is seven yere olde,
/ He is to me full deare ;
\ I wyll hym tye to a stake ;
All shall se, that be here ;
220
And lay an apple upon hys head,
And go syxe score paces hym fro,
Ver. 202, 203, 212. to, PC. V. 204. i.e. 400 yards. V. 208.
sic MS. none that can, PC. V. 222. i.e. 120 yards.
\} hazel rods. "^ an arrow that carries well. ^ tj-ial of skill.]
CLYM OF THE C LOUGH, ETC. 177
And I my selfe with a brode arow '
Shall cleve the apple in two.
Now haste the, then sayd the kyng,
By hym that dyed on a tre,
But yf thou do not, as thou hest sayde,
Handed shalt thou be.
t>
22c
And thou touche his head or gowne,
In fyght that men may se, 230
By all the sayntes that be in heaven,
I shall hange you all thre.
That I have promised, said William,
That I wyll never forsake.
And there even before the kynge 235
In the earth he drove a stake :
And bound thereto his eldest sonne,
And bad hym stand styll thereat ;
And turned the childes face him fro,
Because he should not start. 24.0
An apple upon his head he set,
And then his bowe he bent:
Syxe score paces they were meaten,
And thether Cloudesle went.
There he drew out a fayr brode arrowe, 2+5
Hys bowe was great and longe,
He set that arrowe in his bowe.
That was both styffe and stronge.
He prayed the people, that wer there.
That they ' all still wold ' stand, 250
For he that shoteth for such a wager,
Bchovcth a stedfast hand.
Vcr. 243. sic, MS. out met, PC. V. 252. steedyc, MS.
N
178 ADAM BELL,
Muche people prayed for Cloudesle,
That his lyfe saved myght be,
And whan he made hym redy to shote, 255
There was many weeping ee.
' But ' Cloudesle clefte the apple in two,
* His Sonne he did not nee.' ^
Over Gods forbode, sayde the kinge,
That thou shold shote at me. a6o
I geve thee eightene pence a day,
^ And my bo we shalt thou bere,
( And over all the north countre
V I make the chyfe rydere.^
And I thyrtene pence a day, said the quene, 265
By God, and by my fay ; *
Come feche thy payment when thou wylt,
No man shall say the nay.
Wyllyam, I make the a gentleman
Of clothyng, and of fe : 270
And thy two brethren, yemen of my chambre,
For they are so semely to se.
Your Sonne, for he is tendre of age,
Of my wyne-seller he shall be ;
And when he commeth to mans estate, 275
Better avaunced shall he be.
And, Wyllyam,bring me your wife, said the quene.
Me longeth her sore to se :
She shall be my chefe gentlewoman.
To governe my nurserye. 280
The yemen thanked them all curteously.
To some byshop wyl we wend,
Ver. 265. And I geve the xvij pence, PC. V. 282. And say d to
some Bishopp wee will wend, MS.
[^ nigh. 2 ranger. ^ faith.]
CLYM OF THE C LOUGH, ETC. 179
Of all the synnes, that we have done,
To be assoyld^ at his hand.
So forth be gone these good yemen, 285
As fast as they might ' he * ' ;
And after came and dwelled with the kynge,
And dyed good men all thre.
Thus endeth the lives of these good yemen ;
God send them eternall blysse; 290
And all, that with a hand-bowe shoteth :
That of heven may never mysse. Amen.
II.
THE AGED LOVER RENOUNCETH
LOVE.
'he Grave-digger's song in Hamlet, act v. is taken from
three stanzas of the following poem, though greatly
altered and disguised, as the same were corrupted by the
ballad-singers of Shakespeare's time ; or perhaps so de-
signed by the poet himself, the better to suit the character of an illi-
terate clown. The original is preserved among Surrey's Poems, and
is attributed to Lord Vaux, by George Gascoigne, who tells us, it
"was thought by some to be made upon his death-bed j" a popular
error which he laughs at. (See his Epist. to Yong Gent, prefixed
to his Posies, 1575, 4to.) It is also ascribed to Lord Vaux in a
manuscript copy preserved in the British Museum.f This Lord
* /le, i.e. hie, hasten.
t Harl. .\LSS. num. 1703, § 25. [Called in that MS. ''The
Image of Death:' There is another copy in the Ashmolean Library
(MS. Ashm. No. 48.)] The readings gathered from that cojjy arc
distinguished here by inverted commas. The text is printed from
the " Songs, c^c. of the Earl of Surrey and others, 1557, 4to."
\} absolved.]
i8o THE AGED LOVER
was remarkable for his skill in drawing feigned manners, &c. for
so I understand an ancient writer. " The Lord Vaux his com-
mendation lyeth chiefly in the facilitie of his meetre, and the apt-
nesse of his descriptions such as he taketh upon him to make,
namely in sundry of his Songs, wherein he showeth the coimterfait
axtion very lively and pleasantly." Arte of Eng. Poesie, 1589,
p. 51. See another Song by this Poet in vol. ii. No. viii.
[Thomas second Lord Vaux, the author of this poem, was born
in the year 15 10. He wrote several small pieces of the same
character which evince taste and feeling, and his contributions to
the Paradise of Dainty Devices exceed in number those of Richard
Edwards himself, whose name appears upon the original title-page
as the chief author. Lord Vaux was a courtier as well as a poet,
and was one of the splendid retinue which attended Wolsey in his
embassy, in the 19th Henry VIIL, 1527, to the Court of France
to negotiate a peace. He took his seat in the House of Lords in
the 22nd Henry VIH., and two years afterwards, 1532, waited on
the king to Calais and thence to Boulogne. He was rewarded with
the Order of the Bath at the Coronation of Anne Boleyn, and was
also appointed Captain of the Island of Jersey, which office he
surrendered in the 28th Henry VIIL]
LOTH that I did love,
In youth that I thought swete,
As time requires : for my behove ^
Me thinkes they are not mete.^
My lustes they do me leave, 5
My fansies all are fled ;
And tract of time begins to weave
Gray heares upon my hed.
For Age with steling steps,
Hath clawde me with his crowch,^ 10
Ver. 6. he, PC. (printed copy in 1557.) V. 10. Croivch perhaps
should be clouch, clutch, grasp.
[^ behoof 2 meet or fit. ^ crutch.]
RENOUNCETH LOVE. i8i
And lusty ' Youthe ' awaye he leapes,
As there had bene none such.
My muse doth not delight
Me, as she did before :
My hand and pen are not in plight, 15
As they have bene of yore.
For Reason me denies,
* All ' youthly idle rime ;
And day by day to me she cries,
Leave off these toyes in tyme. 20
The wrinkles in my brow,
The furrowes in my face
Say. Limping age will ' lodge ' him now.
Where youth must geve him place.
The harbenger of death, 25
To me I se him ride.
The cough, the cold, the gasping breath,
Doth bid me to provide
A pikeax and a spade.
And eke a shrowding shete, 30
A house of clay for to be made
For such a guest most mete.
Me thinkes I heare the clarke.
That knoles the carefull knell ;
And bids me leave my ' wearye ' warke, 35
Ere nature me compell.
My kepers * knit the knot,
Tluit youth doth laugh to scorne.
Ver. II. Life away she, PC, V. 18. This, PC. V. 23. So Ed.
1583 'tis hed^e in Ed. 1557. hath cam^hi him, MS. V. 30. 7C'y/id-
yn^e-sheek, MS. V. 34. bell, MS. V. 35. wofull, PC. V. 38.
did, PC.
* Alluding perhaps to Eccles. xii. 3.
i82 JEPHTHAH JUDGE
Of me that ' shall bee cleane ' forgot,
As I had ' ne'er ' bene borne. 40
Thus must I youth geve up,
Whose badge I long did weare :
To them I yeld the wanton cup,
That better may it beare.
Lo here the bared skull ; 45
■ By whose balde signe I know,
That stouping age away shall pull
* What ' youthful yeres did sow.
For Beautie with her band.
These croked cares had wrought, 50
And shipped me into the land,
From whence I first was brought.
And ye that bide behinde.
Have ye none other trust :
As ye of claye were cast by kinde, • 55
So shall ye ' turne ' to dust.
III.
JEPHTHAH JUDGE OF ISRAEL.
^N Shakespeare's Hamlet, act ii. the hero of the play takes
occasion to banter Polonius with some scraps of an old
Ballad, which has never appeared yet in any collection :
for which reason, as it is but short, it will not perhaps
be unacceptable to the reader; who will also be diverted with the
pleasant absurdities of the composition. It was retrieved from
Ver. 39. cle?ie shal be, PC. V. 40. not, PC. V. 45. bare-hedde,
MS. and some PCC. V. 48. Which, PC. That, MS. What is
conject. V. 56. wast, PC.
OF ISRAEL. 183
utter oblivion by a lady, who A\TOte it down from memory as she
had formerly heard it sung by her father. I am indebted for it to
the friendship of jMr. Stcrans.
It has been said, that the original Ballad, in black-letter, is
among Anthony a Wood's Collections in the Ashmolean Museum.
But, upon application lately made, the volume which contained this
Song was missing, so that it can only now be given as in the former
Edition.
The Banter of Hamlet is as follows :
" Hamld. ' O Jeptha, Judge of Israel,' what a treasure hadst
thou?
Polonius. "What a treasure had he, my Lord ?
Ham. Why, ' One faire daughter, and no more, the which
he loved passing well.'
Polon. Still on my daughter.
Ham. Am not I i' th' right, old Jeptha ?
Polon. If you call me Jeptha, my Lord, I have a daughter,
that I love passing well.
Ham. Nay, that follows not.
Polon. ^^^•lat follows then, my Lord ?
Ham. Why, 'As by lot, God wot :' and then you know, 'It came
to passe, As most like it was.' The first row of the pious chanson
will shew you more." — Act ii. sc. 2.
[A more perfect copy of this ballad was reprinted by Evans in
his Collection of Old Ballads from a black-letter broadside, and
is included by Child in his Collection of English and Scottish
Balloiis (vol. viii. p. 198).
The wording is rather different in the two versions, and Evans's
has tAvo additional stanzas. It does not appear that anything is
left out at line 18 of Percy's version, but in place of the stars at
line 41 Evans's copy reads —
" A sacrifice to God on high ;
INIy promise must be finished."]
AVE you not heard these many years ago
Jeptha was judij^e of Israel ?
Me had one only daui^hter and no mo.
The which he loved passing well :
i84 JEPHTHAH JUDGE
And, as by lott, 5
God wot,
It so came to pass,
As Gods will was,
That ereat wars there should be.
And none should be chosen chief but he. lo
And when he was appointed judge,
And chieftain of the company,
A solemn vow to God he made ;
If he returned with victory,
At his return 15
To burn
The first live thing,
He * * * *
That should meet with him then,
Off his house, when he should return agen. 20
It came to pass, the wars was oer,
And he returned with victory ;
His dear and only daughter first of all
Came to meet her father foremostly :
And all the way a;
She did play
On tabret and pipe.
Full many a stripe.
With note so high,
For joy that her father is come so nigh. 30
But when he saw his daughter dear
Coming on most foremostly,
He wrung his hands, and tore his hair,
And cryed out most piteously ;
Oh ! it's thou, said he, 35
That have brought me
Low,
And troubled me so.
That I know not what to do.
OF ISRAEL. 185
For I have made a vow, he sed,
The which must be replenished: 40
******
" What thou hast spoke
Do not revoke :
What thou hast said,
Be not aftraid ; 4S
Altho' it be I ;
Keep promises to God on high.
But, dear father, grant me one request,
That I may go to the wilderness,
Three months there with my friends to stay ; 50
There to bewail my virginity;
And let there be.
Said she,
Some two or three
Young maids with me." 55
So he sent her away,
For to mourn, for to mourn, till her dying day.
IV.
A ROBYN JOLLY ROBYN.
N his Twelfth Ni^ht, Shakespeare introduces the clown
singing part of the two first stanzas of the following Song,^
which has been recovered from an antient MS. of Dr.
Harrington's at Bath, preserved among the many literary
treasures transmitted to the ingenious and worthy possessor by a
long line of most respectable ancestors. Of these only a small part
hath been printed in the Nugcc Antiqiice, 3 vols. i2mo; a work
which the publick impatiently wishes to see continued.
The song is thus given by Shakespeare, act iv. sc. 2 : —
" Clown. ' Hey Robin, jolly Robin, [singing.]
Tell me how thy lady does.'
Malvolio. Fool
i86 A ROBYN, JOLLY ROBYN.
Clown. '■ My lady is unkind, perdy.'
Malvolio. Fool
Clown. ' Alas, why is she so ? '
Malvolio. Fool, I say
Clown. ' She loves another.' — Who calls, ha ? "
Dr. Farmer has conjectured that the song should begin thus :
" Hey, jolly Robin, tell to me
How does thy lady do ?
My lady is unkind perdy —
Alas, why is she so ? "
But this ingenious emendation is now superseded by the proper
readings of the old song itself, which is here printed from what ap-
pears the most ancient of Dr. Harrington's poetical MSS.and which
has, therefore, been marked No. I. (Soil. p. 68.) That volume
seems to have been written in the reign of King Henry VIII. and,
as it contains many of the Poems of Sir Thomas Wyat, hath had
almost all the contents attributed to him by marginal directions
written with an old but later hand, and not always rightly, as, I
think, might be made appear by other good authorities. Among
the rest this song is there attributed to Sir Thomas Wyat also ; but
the discerning reader will probably judge it to belong to a more
obsolete writer.
In the old MS. to the 3rd and 5th stanzas is prefixed this title,
Responce, and to the 4th and 6th, Le Plaintif; but in the last in-
stance so evidently wrong, that it was thought better to omit these
titles, and to mark the changes of the Dialogue by inverted commas.
In other respects the MS. is strictly followed, except where noted
in the margin. — Yet the first stanza appears to be defective, and it
should seem that a line is wanting, unless the four first words were
lengthened in the tune.
ROBYN,
Joliy Robyn,
Tell me how thy leman^ doeth,
And thou shalt knowe of myn.
' My lady is unkynde perde.'^
Alack ! why is she so ?
Ver. 4. shall, MS.
\} mistress. ^ verily.]
A ROBViV, JOLLY ROBYN. 187
' She loveth an other better than me ;
And yet she will say no,'
I fynde no such doublenes :
I fynde women true. 10
My lady loveth me dowtles,
And will chano^e for no newe.
'Thou art happy while that doeth last;
But I say, as I fynde,
That women's love is but a blast, 15
And torneth with the wynde.'
Suche folkes can take no harme by love,
That can abide their torn.^
' But I alas can no way prove
In love but lake and morn.' 20
But if thou wilt avoyde thy harme
Lerne this lessen of me,
At others fieres thy selfe to warme,
And let them warme with the.
V.
A SONG TO THE LUTE IN MUSICKE.
A
HIS sonncft (which is ascribed to Richard Eihuards* in
^■)P the Paradise of Daintie Dci'iscs, fo. 31, b.) is by Shake-
'9^ speare made the subject of some pleasant ridicule in his
<*^ Romeo andjiiiiet, act iv. sc. 5, where he introduces Peter
^.
puuing this question to the musicians.
" Peter . . . why 'Silver Sound?' why ' Musicke with her silver
sound ? ' what say you, Simon Catling ?
I . Afus. Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.
* Concerning him see \Vood's Athcn. Oxon. and Tanner's Pib-
lioth. also Sir John Hawkins's Hist, of Music, &'C.
[' turn.]
i88 A SONG TO THE LUTE
Pet. Pretty ! what say you, Hugh Rebecke ?
2. Mt(s. I say, silver sound, because musicians sound for silver.
Pet. Pretty too ! what say you, James Sound-post.
3. Mus. Faith, I know not what to say.
Fef. ... I will say for you : It is ' Musicke with her silver
sound,' because musicians have no gold for sounding."
This ridicule is not so much levelled at the song itself (which for
the time it was written is not inelegant) as at those forced and un-
natural explanations often given by us painful editors and expositors
of ancient authors.
This copy is printed from an old quarto MS. in the Cotton
Library (Vesp. A. 25), intitled, " Divers things of Hen. viij's time :"
with some corrections from The Paradise of Dainty Devises, 1596.
[Richard Edwards, one of the chief contributors to the Paradise
of Dainty Devises, was a facile and elegant poet much appreciated
by his contemporaries but unjustly neglected now. Meres in his
Wits Treasmy, 1598, praises him, as "one of the best for comedy,"
and Puttenham gives him the same commendation. Thomas
Twyne and George Turberville, wrote epitaphs upon him, and the
latter says in the terms of unmeasured eulogy then fashionable —
" From Plautus he the palme and learned Terence won."
Edwards was born in Somersetshire about 1523, was educated
at Oxford, and, in 1561, was constituted by Queen Elizabeth a
Gentleman of the Royal Chapel and Master of the Singing Boys
there. He attended the Queen on her visit to Oxford in 1566, and
was employed to compose a play called Pala7non and Arcite, which
was acted before her Majesty in Christ Church Hall.]
-HERE gripinge grefes the hart would
wounde,
And dolefulle dumps ^ the mynde op-
presse.
There musicke with her silver sound
With spede is wont to send redresse :
Of trobled mynds, in every sore, 5 |
Swete musicke hathe a salve in store.
[^ sorrowful gloom.]
IN MUSICKE. 189
In joye yt maks our mirthe abounde,
In woe yt cheres our hevy sprites ;
Be-strawghted^ heads relyef hath founde,
By musickes pleasaunt swete deHghtes : 10
Our senses all, what shall I say more ?
Are subjecte unto musicks lore.
The Gods by muslcke have theire prayse ;
The lyfe, the soul therein doth joye :
For, as the Romayne poet sayes, is
In seas, whom pyrats would destroy,
A dolphin saved from death most sharpe
Arion playing on his harpe.
O heavenly g}'ft, that rules the mynd.
Even as the sterne dothe rule the shippe ! 20
O musicke, whom the gods assinde
To comforte manne, whom cares would nippe !
Since thow both man and beste doest move,
What beste ys he, wyll the"^ disprove ?
VI.
KING COPHETUA AND THE BEGGAR-
MAID
S a story often alluded to by our old Dramatic Writers.
.Shakespeare, in his Romeo and Julid, act ii. sc. i, makes
Mercutio say,
" Her (Venus's) ])urblind son and heir,
Young Adam* Cupid, he that shot so true.
When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid."
• See above. Preface to Song I. IJook II. of this vol.
[' distracted. '■* what beast is he, will thee.]
I90 KING COPHETUA AND
As the 13th line of the following ballad seems here particularly
alluded to, it is not improbable but Shakespeare wrote it shot so
trim, which the players or printers, not perceiving the allusion, might
- alter to true. The former, as being the more humorous expression,
seems most likely to have come from the mouth of Mercutio.*
In the 2d Part of Hen. IV. A. 5, Sc. 3, Falstaff is introduced
affectedly saying to Pistoll,
" O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news ?
Let king Cophetua know the truth thereof."
These lines, Dr. Warburton thinks, were taken from an old bombast
play of King Cophetua. No such play is, I believe, now to be
found ; but it does not therefore follow that it never existed. Many
dramatic pieces are referred to by old writers,! which are not now
extant, or even mentioned in any list. In the infancy of the stage,
plays were often exhibited that were never printed.
It is probably in allusion to the same play that Ben Jonson says,
in his Comedy of Every Man in his Humour, A. 3, Sc. 4 :
" I have not the heart to devour thee, an' I might be made as
rich as King Cophetua."
At least there is no mention of King Cophetua's riches in the pre-
sent ballad, which is the oldest I have met with on the subject.
It is printed from Rich. Johnson's Crown Garlatui of Goulden
Roses, 1612,1 i2mo. (where it is intitled simply A Song of a Beggar
and a King .-) corrected by another copy.
[In the Collection of Old Ballads, 1723 (vol. i. p. 138) there is a
ballad on the same subject as the following popular one. It is en-
titled " Cupid's Revenge, or an account of a king who slighted all
women, and at length was constrained to marry a beggar, who
proved a fair and virtuous queen."]
* Since this conjecture first occurred, it has been discovered that
shot so trim was the genuine reading.
t See Meres Wits Trcas. i. 283 ; Arte of Eng. Foes. 1589, p. 51,
III, 143, 169.
[J Reprinted by the Percy Society in the sixth volume of their
publications,]
THE BEGGAR-MAID. 191
READ that once in Affrica
A princely wight ^ did raine,
Who had to name Cophetua,
As poets they did faine:
From natures lawes he did decHne, 5
For sure he was not of my mind,
He cared not for women-kinde,
But did them all disdaine.
But, marke, what hapned on a day.
As he out of his window lay, 10
He saw a beggar all in gray,
The which dkl cause his paine.
The blinded boy, that shootes so trim,^
From heaven downe did hie ;
He drew a dart and shot at him, 15
In place where he did lye :
Which soone did pierse him to the quicke.
And when he felt the arrow pricke,
Which in his tender heart did sticke.
He looketh as he would dye. 20
What sudden chance is this, quoth he.
That I to love must subject be,
Which never thereto would agree.
But still did it defie ?
Then from the window he did come, 25
And laid him on his bed,
A thousand heapes of care did runne
Within his troubled head :
For now he meanes to crave her love,
And now he seekes which way to proove 30
How he his fancie might remoove,
[' man. ^ exact.]
192 KING COPHETUA AND
And not this beggar wed.
But Cupid had him so in snare,
That this poor begger must prepare
A salve to cure him of his care, 35
Or els he would be dead.
And, as he musing thus did lye.
He thought for to devise
How he might have her companye,
That so did 'maze his eyes. 40
In thee, quoth he, doth rest my life ;
For surely thou shalt be my wife.
Or else this hand with bloody knife
The Gods shall sure suffice.
Then from his bed he soon arose, 45
And to his pallace gate he goes ;
Full little then this begger knowes
When she the king espies.
The gods preserve your majesty,
The beggers all gan cry : 50
Vouchsafe to give your charity
Our childrens food to buy.
The king to them his pursse did cast,
And they to part it made great haste ;
This silly woman was the last 55
That after them did hye.
The king he cal'd her back againe,
And unto her he gave his chaine ;
And said. With us you shal remaine
Till such time as we dye : 60
For thou, quoth he, shalt be my wife.
And honoured for my queene ;
With thee I meane to lead my life.
As shortly shall be scene :
Our wedding shall appointed be, 65
And every thing in its degree :
Come on, quoth he, and follow me,
THE BEGGAR-MAID. 193
Thou shalt ^o shift thee cleane.
What is thy name, faire maid ? quoth he.
Penelophon,* O king, quoth she : 70
With that she made a lowe courtsey ;
A trim one as I weene.
Thus hand in hand along they walke
Unto the king's pallace :
The king with courteous comly talke 75
This beof^er doth imbrace :
00
The becrcrer bkisheth scarlet red,
And straight againe as pale as lead,
But not a word at all she said,
She was in such amaze. 80
At last she spake with trembling voyce,
And said, O king, I doe rejoyce
That you wil take me for your choyce,
And my degree's so base.
And when the wedding day was come, 85
The kinor commanded strait
The noblemen both all and some
Upon the queene to wait.
And she behaved herself that day,
As if she had never walkt the way ; 90
She had forgot her gowne of gray,
Which she did weare of late.
The proverbe old is come to passe,
The priest, when he begins his masse,
Forgets that ever clerke he was ; 95
He knowth not his estate.
* Shakespeare (who alludes to this ballad in his Love's Labour's
lost, act iv. sc. I.) gives the beggar's name Zenelophon, according
to all the old editions : but this seems to be a corruption ; for Pene-
lophon, in the text, sounds more like the name of a woman. — The
story of the King and the Beggar is also alluded to in K. Rich. H.
act V. sc. 3.
Ver. 90. i.e. tramped the streets.
O
194 KING COPHETUA,
Here you may read, Cophetua,
Though long time fancie-fed,
Compelled by the blinded boy
The begger for to wed : loo
He that did lovers lookes disdaine,
To do the same was glad and faine,
Or else he would himselfe have slaine,
In storie, as we read.
Disdaine no whit, O lady deere, 105
But pitty now thy servant heere,
Least that it hap to thee this yeare.
As to that king it did.
And thus they led a quiet life
During their princely raigne ; no
And in a tombe were buried both,
As writers sheweth plaine.
The lords they tooke it grievously.
The ladies tooke it heavily,
The commons cryed pitiously, 115
Their death to them was paine,
Their fame did sound so passingly,
That it did pierce the starry sky,
And throughout all the world did flye
To every princes realme.* 120
* An ingenious friend thinks the two last stanzas should change
place.
Ver. 105. Here the poet addresses himself to his mistress. V.
112. Sheweth was anciently the plur. numb.
TAKE THY OLD CLOAK. 195
VII.
TAKE THY OLD CLOAK ABOUT THEE,
; S supposed to have been originally a Scotch ballad. The
reader here has an ancient copy in the English idiom,
with an additional stanza (the 2d.) never before printed.
This curiosity is preserved in the Editor's folio MS. but
not without corruptions, which are here removed by the assistance
of the Scottish Edit. Shakespeare, in his Othello, act ii. has quoted
one stanza, with some variations, which are here adopted : the old
MS. readings of that stanza are however given in the margin.
[The Scottish version referred to above was printed in Ramsay's
Tea Tabic Miscellany, and the king mentioned on line 49 is there
named Robert instead of Stephen. He is King Harry in the
folio MS.
The '^ corruptions " to which Percy alludes are all noted at the
foot of the page, and in one instance at least (line 15) the MS.
gives an important new reading. Mr. Hales thinks that the MS. ver-
sion is the oldest form of the ballad, because the definite mention
of the court looks more original than the use of the general term
of town, and he says, *' the poem naturally grew vaguer as it grew
generally popular."*
Besides the reference to this ballad in Othello mentioned by
Percy above, Mr. Hales has pointed out to me another evident
allusion in the Tempest, act iv. sc. i, where Trinculo says,
" O King Stephano, O Peere : O worthy Stephano,
Looke what a wardrobe here is for thee."
(Folio 1623, Booth's ed. p. 15, col. 2.)
The cloak that had been in wear for forty-four years was likely to
be a sorry clout at the end of that time, but the clothes of all
classes were then expected to last from year to year without renewal.
Woollen cloths were of old the chief material of male and female
attire. When new the nap was very long, and after being worn for
some time, it was customary to have it shorn, a process which was
repeated as often as the stuff would bear it. Thus we find the
Countess of Leicester (Eleanor third daughter of King John, and
wife of Simon de Montfort) in 1265, sending Hicque the tailor to
London to get her robes re-shorn. fj
f* Folio MS. ed. Hales and Furnivall, vol. ii. p. 320.
t Botfield's Manners and Household Expenses of England, 1 84 1 .]
196 TAKE THY OLD CLOAK
^^^^^HIS winters weather itt waxeth cold,
And frost doth freese on every hill,
And Boreas blowes his blasts soe bold.
That all our cattell are like to spill ;^
Bell my wiffe, who loves noe strife, 5
She sayd unto me quietlye.
Rise up, and save cow Crumbockes liffe,
Man, put thine old cloake about thee.
He.
0 Bell, why dost thou flyte"^ ' and scorne ' ?
Thou kenst my cloak is very thin : 10
Itt is soe bare and overworne
A cricke^ he theron cannot renn :^
Then He noe longer borrowe nor lend,
' For once He new appareld bee.
To-morrow He to towne and spend,' 15
For He have a new cloake about mee.
She.
Cow Crumbocke is a very good cowe,
Shee ha beene alwayes true to the payle,
Shee has helpt us to butter and cheese, I trow,
And other things shee will not fayle ; 20
1 wold be loth to see her pine,^
Good husband, councell take of mee,
It is not for us to go soe fine,
Man, take thine old cloake about thee.
[Ver. 9. O Bell my wiffe, why dost thou fiflyte. V. 10. itt is soe
sore over worne. V. 14-15. in place of these two the MS. has
" He goe fifind the court within." V. 22. Therefore good husband
ffollow my councell now. V. 23. Forsake the court and follow
the ploughe.
' spoil or come to harm. ^ scold. ^ insect.
^ run. ^ starve.]
ABOUT THEE. 197
He.
JNIy cloake it was a verry good cloake, 25
Itt hath been alwayes true to the weare.
But now it is not worth a groat ;
I have had it four and forty yeere :
Sometime itt was of cloth in graine/
"Tis now but a sigh clout*^ as you may see, 30
It will neither hold out winde nor raine ;
And He have a new cloake about mee.
She.
It is four and fortye yeeres agoe
Since the one of us the other did ken,
And we have had betwixt us towe 35
Of children either nine or ten ;
Wee have brought them up to women and men ;
In the feare of God I trow they bee ;
And why wilt thou thyselfe misken?^
Man, take thine old cloake about thee. 4-0
He.
O Bell my wiffe, why dost thou ' floute !'
Now is no we, and then was then :
Seeke now all the world throughout,
Thou kenst not clownes from gentlemen.
They are cladd in blacke, greene, yellowe, or 'gray,' 4-s
Soe far above their owne degree :
Once in my life He 'doe as they,'
For He have a new cloake about mee.
[Vcr. 27. Itt hath cost mee many a groat.] V. ^x.JIytc, MS.
[V. 45. yellow and blew. V. 47. once in my life He take a vew.
' scarlet. '^ a cloth to strain milk through. ^ mistake.]
198 TAKE THY OLD CLOAK.
She.
King Stephen was a worthy peere,
His breeches cost him but a crowne, 50
He held them sixpence all too deere ;
Therefore he calld the taylor Lowne.^
He was a wight of high renowne,
And thouse^ but of a low degree :
Itt's pride that putts this countrye downe, 55
Man, take thine old cloake about thee.
He.
' Bell my wife she loves not strife,
Yet she will lead me if she can ;
And oft, to live a quiet life,
I am forced to yield, though I me good-man :' 60
Itt's not for a man with a woman to threape,^
Unlesse he first give oer the plea :
As wee began wee now will leave,
And He take mine old cloake about mee.
Ver. 49. King Harry . . a verry good king, MS. V. 50. I
trow his hose cost but, MS. V. 51. He thought them i2d.^over
to deere, MS. V. 52. clowne, MS. V. 53. He was king, and
wore the crowne, MS. [V. 57-60: —
" O Bell my wiffe ! why dost thou fiflyte
now is now and then was then ;
wee will live now obedyent lyffe
thou the woman and I the man."
V. 63. wee will live nowe as wee began. V. 64. He have.
^ rascal. 2 ^^q^j ^rt. ^ argue.]
IVIL L O IV, JVIL LOW. 1 99
VIII.
WILLOW, WILLOW, WILLOW.
tT is from the following stanzas that Shakespeare has
taken his song of the IVillow, in his Othello, act iv. sc. 3,
though somewhat varied and applied by him to a female
character. He makes Desdemona introduce it in this
pathetic and afiecting manner :
" My mother had a maid call'd Barbara :
She was in love ; and he, she lov'd, prov'd mad,
And did forsake her. She had a Song of — Willow.
.\n old thing 'twas, but it express'd her fortune.
And she died singing it."
This is given from a black-letter copy in the Pepys collection, thus
intitled, A Lover's Complaint, being forsaken of his Love. To a
pleasant tune.
['' Willow, willow" was a favourite burden for songs in the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries, and one of John Hey^vood's
songs has the following—
" All a grene wyllow ; ^vyllow, wyllow, ^vyllow,
All a grene wyllow is my garland.''
In the Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Itivcntions (1578) there is a
slightly different burden —
" Willow, willow, willow, sing all of green willow.
Sing all of green willow, shall be my garland."
There is another copy of the following song in the Roxburghe
Collection (i. 54, 55) printed m -Roxburghe Ballads (ed. W. Chap-
pell, 1869, Part I. p. 171). Both these are of the first half of the
seventeenth century, and an earlier copy than either is printed by
Mr. Chappell in his Popular Music of the Olden Time, i. 206.
Dr. Rimbault' has drawn attention to the following parody,
dated 1668—
[• Rimbault's Musical Illustrations of Percy's Reliqucs, 1850,
p. 9.]
200 WILLOW, WILLOW.
" A poore soule sat sighing near a ginger-bread stall,
O ginger-bread O, ginger-bread O !
With his hands in his pockets, his head on the wall,
O ginger-bread O, ginger-bread O !
You pye-wifes of Smithfield, what would ye be at !
Who talks of plum-pudding? here's better than that,
For here's ginger-bread O, ginger-bread O ! "]
POORE soule sat sighing under a sicamore
tree ;
O willow, willow, willow !
With his hand on his bosom, his head on
his knee :
O willow, willow, willow !
O willow, willow, willow ! 5
Sing, O the greene willow shall be my garland.
He sigh'd in his singing, and after each grone,
Come willow, &c.
I am dead to all pleasure, my true-love is gone ;
O willow, &c. 10
Sing, O the greene willow shall be my garland.
My love she is turned ; untrue she doth prove :
O willow, &c.
She renders me nothing but hate for my love.
O willow, &c. 15
Sing, O the greene willow, &c.
O pitty me, (cried he) ye lovers, each one ;
O willow, &c.
Her heart's hard as marble ; she rues not my mone.
O willow, &c. ao
Sing, O the greene willow, &c.
The cold streams ran by him, his eyes wept apace ;
O willow, &;c.
WIL LOU: IV I L L O TV. 201
The salt tears fell from him, which drowned his face :
O willow, »S:c. 25
Sing", O the greene willow, Sec.
The mute birds sate by him, made tame by his mones :
O willow, ttc.
The salt tears fell from him, which softened the stones.
O willow, &c. 30
Sing-, O the greene willow shall be my garland !
Let nobody blame me, her scornes I do prove ;
O willow, &c.
She was borne to be faire ; I, to die for her love.
O willow, &:c. 35
Sing, O the greene willow shall be my garland.
0 that beauty should harbour a heart that's so hard ! "^
Sing willow, &c.
]\Iy true love rejecting without all regard.
O willow, See. 40
Sing, O the greene willow, &c.
Let love no more boast him in palace, or bower ;
O willow, &c.
For women are trothles,^ and flote"^ in an houre.
O willow, &c. 45
Sing, O the greene willow, Sec.
But what helps complaining ? In vaine I complaine :
O willow, &c.
1 must patiently suffer her scorne and disdaine.
O willow, &c. 50
Sing, O the greene willow, &;c.
Come, all you forsaken, and sit down by me,
O willow, &c.
He that 'plaincs of his false love, mine's falser than she.
O willow, Sic. 55
Sing, O the greene willow, &c.
[' faithless. - change.]
202 WILLOW, WILLOW.
The willow wreath weare I, since my love did fleet ;
O willow, &c.
A Garland for lovers forsaken most meete.
O willow, &c. 60
Sing, O the greene willow shall be my garland !
Part the Second.
\ OWE lay'd by my sorrow, begot by disdalne;
O willow, willow, willow !
Against her too cruell, still still I complaine,
O willow, willow, willow !
O willow, willow, willow! 5
Sing, O the greene willow shall be my garland !
O love too injurious, to wound my poore heart !
O willow, &c.
To suffer the triumph, and joy in my smart :
O willow, &c. 10
Sing, O the greene willow, &c.
O willow, willow, willow ! the willow garland,
O willow, &c.
A sign of her falsenesse before me doth stand :
O willow, &c. 15
Sing, O the greene willow, &c.
As here it doth bid to despair and to dye,
O willow, &c.
So haf g it, friends, ore me in grave where I lye :
O wiilow, &c. 20
Sing, O the greene willow shall be my garland.
In grave where I rest mee, hang this to the view
O willow, &c.
Of all that doe knowe her, to blaze her untrue.
O willow, &c. 25
Sing, O the greene willow, &c.
WILLOW, JVILLOW. 203
With these words engraven, as epitaph meet,
O willow, &c.
" Here lyes one, drank poyson for potion most sweet."
O willow, &c. 30
Sing, O the greene willow, &c.
Though she thus unkindly hath scorned my love,
O willow, &.C.
And carelesly smiles at the sorrowes I prove ;
O willow, (jsic. 35
Sing, O the greene willow, &c.
I cannot against her unkindly exclaim,
O willow, &c.
Cause once well I loved her, and honoured her name :
O willow, &:c. 4c
Sing, O the greene willow, &;c.
The name of her sounded so sweete in mine eare,
O willow, &c.
It rays'd my heart lightly, the name of my deare ;
O willow, &c. 45
Sing, O the greene willow shall be my garland.
As then 'twas my comfort, it now is my griefe ;
O willow, &c.
It now brings me anguish, then brought me reliefe.
O willow, &c. 50
Sing, O the greene willow, &c.
Farewell, fairefalsehearted: plaintsendwithm^ oreath!
O willow, willow, willow!
Thou dost loath me, I love thee, though cause of my
death.
O willow, willow, willow! 55
O willow, willow, willow !
Sing, O the greene willow shall be my garland.
X
204
SIR LANCELOT
IX.
SIR LANCELOT DU LAKE.
HIS ballad is quoted in Shakespeare's second Part ot
Henry IV. act ii. The subject of it is taken from the
ancient romance of K. Arthur (commonly called Morte
Arthur) being a poetical translation of ehap. cviii. cix.
ex. in Pt. ist, as they stand in ed. 1634, 4to. In the older editions
the chapters are differently numbered. — This song is given from a
printed copy, corrected in part by a fragment in the Editor's folio
MS.
In the same play of 2 Hen. IV. Silence hums a scrap of one of
the old ballads of Robin Hood. It is taken from the following
stanza of Robin Hood and the Pindar of Wakefield.
" All this beheard three wighty yeomen,
Twas Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John :
With that they espy'd the jolly Pindkr
As he sate under a thorne."
That ballad may be found on every stall, and therefore is not
here reprinted.
[This is a rhymed version of some chapters in Malory's Mort
d'A7'tht(r (Book vi. of Caxton's edition), said to have been written
by Thomas Deloney towards the end of EUzabeth's reign. It first
occurs in the Garland of Good Will, reprinted by the Percy Society
(vol. XXX.)
The ballad appears to hav£ been highly popular, and it is quoted
by Marston in the Alalcojitent and by Beaumont and' Fletcher in the
Little Fj-ench Lawyer, as well as by Shakspere.
The copy in the Percy MS. (ed. Hales and Furnivall, 1867,
vol. i. p. 84) is imperfect in two places, and lines 30 to 60, 73 to 76,
and 95 to 124 are not to be found there, but with these exceptions
it is much the same as the ballad printed here.]
DU LAKE. 205
HEN Arthur first in court began,
And was approved king,
By force of armes great victorys wanne,
And conquest home did bring.
Then into England straight he came s
With fifty good and able
Knights, that resorted unto him,
And were of his round table :
And he had justs and turnaments,
Whereto were many prest,^ 10
Wherin some knights did farr excell
And eke surmount the rest.
But one Sir Lancelot du Lake,
Wlio was approved well.
He for his deeds and feats of armes, 15
All others did excell.
When he had rested him a while, ,
In play, and game, and sportt,
He said he wold goe prove himselfe
In some adventurous sort. 20
He armed rode in a forrest wide.
And met a.damsell faire'.
Who told him of adventures great,
Wherto he gave great eare.
Such wold I find, quoth Lancelott : 25
For that cause came I hither.
Thou seemst, quoth shee, a knight full good,
And I will bring thee thither.
Vcr. 18. to sportt, MS.
\} ready.]
2o6 SIR LANCELOT
Wheras a mighty knight doth dwell,
That now is of great fame : 30
Therfore tell me what wight thou art,
And what may be thy name.
" My name is Lancelot du Lake."
Quoth she, it likes me than •}
Here dwelles a knight who never was 35
Yet matcht with any man :
Who has in prison threescore knights
And four, that he did wound ;
Knights of king Arthurs court they be,
And of his table round. 4.0
She brought him to a river side.
And also to a tree,
Whereon a copper bason hung,
And many shields to see.
He struck soe hard, the bason broke ; 45
And Tarquin soon he spyed :
Who drove a horse before him fast.
Whereon a knight lay tyed.
Sir knight, then sayd Sir Lancelott,
Bring me that horse-load hither, 50
And lay him downe, and let him rest ;
Weel try our force together :
For, as I understand, thou hast,
Soe far as thou art able.
Done great despite and shame unto 55
The knights of the Round Table.
If thou be of the Table Round,
Quoth Tarquin speedilye,
Ver. 29. Where\'=, often used by our old writers for whereas: here
it is just the contrary.
[1 then.]
DU LAKE. 207
Both thee and all thy fellowship
I utterly defye. 60
That's over much, quoth Lancelott tho/
Defend thee by and by.
They sett their speares'"^ unto their steeds,
And eache att other flie.
They coucht theire speares, (their horses ran, 65
As though there had beene thunder)
And strucke them each immidst their shields,
Wherewith they broke in sunder.
Their horsses backes brake under them,
The knights were both astound :'' 70
To avoyd their horsses they made haste
And light upon the ground.
They tooke them to their shields full fast,
Their swords they drew out than,
With mighty strokes most eagerlye 7s
Each at the other ran.
They wounded were, and bled full sore,
They both for breath did stand.
And leaning on their swords awhile,
Quoth Tarquine, Hold thy hand, 80
And tell to me what I shall aske.
Say on, quoth Lancelot tho.
Thou art, quoth Tarquine, the best knight
That ever I did know ;
And like a knight, that I did hate : 85
Soe that thou be not hee,
I will deliver all the rest,
And eke accord with thee.
[' then. ' spurs? ^ stunned.]
2o8 SIR LANCELOT
That is well said, quoth Lancelott ;
But sith it must be soe, 90
What knight is that thou hatest thus ?
I pray thee to me show.
His name is Lancelot du Lake,
He slew my brother deere ;
Him I suspect of all the rest: 95
I would I had him here.
Thy wish thou hast, but yet unknowne,
I am Lancelot du Lake,
Now kniofht of Arthurs Table Round ;
fc.
Kine Hauds son of Schuwake
t>
100
And I desire thee do thy worst.
Ho, ho, quoth Tarquin tho.
One of us two shall end our lives
Before that we do go.
If thou be Lancelot du Lake, 105
Then welcome shalt thou bee :
Wherfore see thou thyself defend,
For now defye I thee.
They buckled then together so.
Like unto wild boares rashing ;*
no
* Rashing seems to be the old hunting term to express the stroke
made by the wild boar with his fangs. To ?-ase has apparently a
meaning something similar. See Mr. Steevefis's Note on K. Lear,
act iii. sc. 7, (ed. 1793, vol. xiv. p. 193) where the quartos read,
" Nor thy fierce sister
In his anointed flesh rash boarish fangs."
So in K. Richard III. act iii. sc. 2, (vol. x. p. 567, 583.)
" He dreamt
To night the Boar had rased off his helm."
[Ver. 100. " King Ban's son of Benwick." Malory.']
DU LAKE. 209
And with their swords and shields they ran
At one another slashing :
The ground besprinkled was with blood :
Tarquin began to yield ;
For he gave backe for wearinesse, us
And lowe did beare his shield.
This soone Sir Lancelot espyde,
He leapt upon him then,
He pull'd him downe upon his knee,
And rushine off his helm.
t>
120
Forthwith he strucke his necke in two,
And, when he had soe done,
From prison threescore knights and four
Delivered everye one.
X.
CORYDON'S FAREWELL TO PHILLIS,
S an attempt to paint a lover's irresolution, but so poorly
executed, that it would not have been admitted into
this collection, if it had not been quoted in Shake-
speare's Twelfth- Night, act ii. sc. 3. — It is found in a
little ancient miscellany, intituled, The Golden Garland of Princely
Delights, i2mo. bl. let.
In the same scene of the Tiuclfth- Night, Sir Toby sings a scrap
of an old ballad, which is preserved in the Pepys Collection (vol. i.
PP- ZZi 49*^)) but as it is not only a poor dull performance, but also
very long, it will be sufficient here to give the first stanza :
The Ballad of" Constant Susanna.
There dwelt a man in Babylon
Of reputation great by fome ;
He took to wife a faire womiin,
Susanna she was callde by name :
P
2IO CORYDON'S FAREWELL
A woman fair and vertuous ;
Lady, lady :
Why should we not of her learn thus
To live godly ?
If this song of Corydon, &c. has not more merit, it is at least an
evil of less magnitude.
[Dr. Rimbault refers to an earlier copy of this song in a rare
musical volume entitled The First Booke of Ayres, composed by Robert
Jones, 1 60 1, where it is accompanied by the original music for
four voices. This tune appears to have been a very popular one,
and several Scottish songs are to be sung to the " toon of sal I let
her go." The air is also to be found in a Dutch collection of
Songs published at Haarlem in 1626.
In Brome's comedy of The Jovial Crciv, acted in 1641 at the
Cockpit in Drury Lane, there is an allusion perhaps to this song :
" Let her go, let her go,
I care not if I have her, I have her or no."]
JAREWELL, dear love; since thou wilt
needs be gone.
Mine eyes do shew, my life is almost done.
Nay I will never die, so long as I can spie
There be many mo, though that she doe goe,
There be many mo, I fear not : 5
Why then let her goe, I care not.
Farewell, farewell ; since this I find is true,
I will not spend more time in wooing you :
But I will seek elsewhere, if I may find love there :
Shall I bid her goe ? what and if I doe } 10
Shall I bid her goe and spare not ?
O no, no, no, I dare not.
Ten thousand times farewell ; — yet stay a while : —
Sweet, kiss me once ; sweet kisses time beguile : 14.
TO P HILL IS. 211
I have no power to move. How now am I in love ?
Wilt thou needs be gone ? Go then, all is one.
Wilt thou needs be gone ? Oh, hie thee !
Nay stay, and do no more deny me.
Once more adieu, I see loath to depart
Bids oft adieu to her, that holds my heart. 20
But seeing I must lose thy love, which I did choose,
Goe thy way for me, since that may not be.
Goe thy ways for me. But whither ?
Goe, oh, but where I may come thither.
What shall I doe ? my love is now departed. 25
She is as fair, as she is cruel-hearted.
She would not be intreated, with prayers oft re-
peated,
If she come no more, shall I die therefore ?
If she come no more, what care I .'*
Faith, let her goe, or come, or tarry. 30
XI.
GERNUTUS THE JEW OF VENICE.
;N the "Z//^ of Pope Sixtus V. translated from the Italian
of Greg. Leti, by the Rev. Mr. Fameworth, folio," is a
remarkable passage to the following effect :
"It was reported in Rome, that Drake had taken and
plundered St. Domingo in Hispaniola, and carried off an immense
booty. This account came in a private letter to Paul Secchi, a very
considerable merchant in the city, who had large concerns in those
parts, which he had insured. Upon receiving this news, he sent
for the insurer Sampson Ceneda, a Jew, and acquainted him with
it. The Jew, whose interest it was to have such a report thought
false, gave many reasons why it could not j)Ossibly be true, and at
last worked himself into such a passion, that he said, I'll lay you a
pound of flesh it is a lye. Secchi, who was of a fiery hot temper,
212 GERNUTUS THE
replied, I'll lay you a thousand crowns against a pound of your
flesh that it is true. The Jew accepted the wager, and articles
were immediately executed betwixt them, That, if Secchi won, he
should himself cut the flesh with a sharp knife from whatever part
of the Jew's body he pleased. The truth of the account was soon
confirmed ; and the Jew was almost distracted, when he was
informed, that Secchi had solemnly swore he would compel him
to an exact performance of his contract. A report of this trans-
action was brought to the Pope, who sent for the parties, and,
being informed of the whole affair, said, When contracts are made,
it is but just they should be fulfilled, as this shall : Take a knife,
therefore, Secchi, aftd cut a pound of flesh from any part you please
of the Jew's body. We advise you, however, to be very careful ;
for, if you cut but a scruple more or less than your due, you shall
•certainly be hanged."
The editor of that book is of opinion that the scene between
Shylock and Antonio in the Maxhant of Venice is taken from this
incident. But Mr. Warton, in his ingenious ObservatioJis on the
Faerie Queen, vol. i. p. 128, has referred it to the following ballad.
Mr. Warton thinks this ballad was written before Shakespeare's
play, as being not so circumstantial, and having more of the naked-
ness of an original. Besides, it differs from the play in many
circumstances, which a meer copyist, such as we may suppose the
ballad-maker to be, would hardly have given himself the trouble to
alter. Indeed he expressly informs us that he had his story from
the Italian writers. See the Connoissmr, vol. i. No. 16.
After all, one would be glad to know what authority Leti had for
the foregoing fact, or at least for connecting it with the taking of
St. Domingo by Drake ; for this expedition did not happen till 1585,
and it is very certain that a play of the Jewe, " representing the
greedinesse of worldly chusers, and bloody minds of usurers," had
been exhibited at the play-house called the Bull before the year
1579, being mentioned in Steph. Gosson's Schoole of Abuse* which
was printed in that year.
As for Shakespeare's Moxhant of Venice, the earliest edition
known of it is in quarto 1600 ; though it had been exhibited in the
year 1598, being mentioned, together with eleven others of his
plays, in Meres's Wits Treasury, &c. 1598, i2mo. fol. 282.
Since the first edition of this book was printed, the editor hath
had reason to believe that both Shakespeai-e and the author of
this ballad are indebted for their story of the Jew (however they
came by it) to an Italian novel, which was first printed at Milan in
the year 1558, in a book intitled, // Pecorone, nel quale si conten-
gono Cinqua7ita Novelle antiche, &^c. republished at Florence about
* Warton, ubi supra.
yElV OF VENICE. 21
J
the year 174S, or g.* The author was Ser. Gicn'anni Fioraitino,
who wTote in 1378; thirty years after the time in which the scene
of Boccace's Decameron is laid. (Vid. Manni, Istoria del Deca-
merone di Gicn'. Boccac. 4to. Fior. 1744.)
That Shakespeare had his plot from the novel itself, is evident
from his having some incidents from it, which are not found in the
ballad : and I think it will also be found that he borrowed from
the ballad some hints that were not suggested by the novel. (See
pt. ii. ver. 25, &c. where, instead of that spirited description
of the 7C'/ietfed blade, &c. the prose narrative coldly says, " The
Jew had prepared a razor, &c.'' See also some other passages in
the same piece.) This however is spoken with diffidence, as I have
at present before me only the abridgement of the novel which
Mr. Johnson has given us at the end of his Commentary on Shake-
speare's Play. The translation of the Italian story at large is not
easy to be met with, having I believe never been published, though
it was printed some years ago \\ith this title, — " Tfie Novel, from
which the Merchant of Venice \\Titten by Shakespeare is taken,
translated from the Italian. To which is added a translation of a
novel from the Dccamerone of Boccaccio. London, Printed for
M. Cooper, 1755, 8vo."
The followng is printed from an ancient black-letter copy in the
Pepys collection,! intitled, "^ Neiu Song, shcAving the crueltie of
Gernutus, dijeioe, whq, lending to a merchant an hundred cro\vns,
would have a pound of his fleshe, because he could not pay him
at the time appointed. To the tune of Black and Yellow."
[This is the first of four ballads printed by Percy as probable
sources for the plots of four of Shakspere's plays, but as we are
unable to fix any satisfactory date for the first appearance of the
ballads, it is well-nigh impossible to settle their claim to such dis-
tinction.
The stor}' of the Jew who bargained for a pound of a Christian's
flesh in payment of his debt is so widely spread, that there is no
necessity for us to believe that Shakspere used this rather poor
ballad, more especially as it is probable from the extract from
Gosson mentioned above that Shakspere found the two plots of
the bond and the caskets already joined together. There is, how-
ever, something in Percy's note about the whetting of the knife in
verses 25-26, and it would be quite in accordance with the j^oet's
constant practice for him to take this one point from the ballad of
Gernutus. The ballad was probably versified from one of the
many stories extant, because, even if it be later than Shakspere's
[• This book has been frequently reprinted.]
t Compared with the Ashmole Copy.
214
GERNUTUS THE
play, it is impossible to believe that the ballad-uTiter could have
■written so bald a narration had he had the Merchant of Venice
before him.
Some forms of the story are to be found in Persian, and there is
no doubt that the original tale is of Eastern origin. The oldest
European forms are in the English Cursor Micndi and Gesta
Romanorum, and the French romance of Dolopathos. See Miss
Toulmin Smith's paper " On the Bond-story in the Merchant of
Venice" "Transactions of the New Shakspere Society," 1875-6
p. 181. Professor Child prints a ballad entitled The Northern
Lord and Criieijctv {English and Scottish Ballads, vol. viii. p. 270),
which contains the same incident of the " bloody minded Jew."
Leti's character as an historian stands so low that his story may
safely be dismissed as a fabrication.]
The First Part.
N Venice towne not long agoe
A cruel Jew did dwell,
Which lived all on usurie,
As Italian writers tell.
Gernutus called was the Jew,
Which never thought to dye,
Nor ever yet did any good
To them in streets that lie.
His life was like a barrow hogge,^
That liveth many a day,
Yet never once doth any good.
Until men will him slay.
Or like a filthy heap of dung.
That lyeth in a whoard ; ^
Which never can do any good,
Till it be spread abroad.
So fares it with the usurer.
He cannot sleep in rest.
10
15
\} a castrated hog.
2 hoard or heap. ]
JEJV OF VENICE. 215
For feare the thiefe will him pursue
To plucke him from his nest. 20
His heart doth thinke on many a wile,
How to deceive the poore ;
His mouth is almost ful of mucke,
Yet still he gapes for more.
His wife must lend a shilling, 25
For every weeke a penny.
Yet bring a pledge, that is double worth.
If that you will have any.
And see, likewise, you keepe your day.
Or else you loose it all : 30
This was the livinof of the wife,
Her cow she did it call.
Within that citie dwelt that time
A marchant of great fame,
Which being distressed in his need, 35
Unto Gernutus came :
Desiring him to stand his friend
For twelve month and a day,
To lend to him an hundred crownes :
And he for it would pay 4.0
Whatsoever he would demand, of him.
And pledges he should have.
No, (quoth the Jew with flcaring^ lookes)
Sir, aske what you will have.
Ver. 32. Her Cow, &c. seems to have suggested to Shakespeare
Shylock's argument for usury taken from Jacob's management of
Laban's sheep, act i. to which Antofiio rci)Hcs,
"Was this inserted to make interest good?
Or are your gold and silver E^ves and rams ?
Shy. I cannot tell, I make it breed^as fast."
[' sneering.]
/
2i6 GERNUTUS THE .
No penny for the loane of it 45
For one year you shall pay ;
You may doe me as good a turne, \
Before my dying day.
But we will have a merry jeast,
For to be talked long : 50
You shall make me a bond, quoth he,
That shall be large and strong :
And this shall be the forfeyture ;
Of your owne fleshe a pound.
If you agree, make you the bond, 55
And here is a hundred crownes.
With right good will ! the marchant says:
And so the bond was made.
When twelve month and a day drew on
That backe it should be payd, 60
The marchants ships were all at sea.
And money came not in ;
Which way to take, or what to doe
To thinke he doth beein :
'&
And to Gernutus strait he comes 65
With cap and bended knee,
And sayde to him, Of curtesie
I pray you beare with mee.
My day is come, and I have not
The money for to pay : 70
And little good the forfeyture
Will doe you, I dare say.
With all my heart, Gernutus sayd,
Commaund it to your minde :
In thinges of bigger waight then this 75
You shall me ready finde.
yEW OF VENICE. 217
He goes his way ; the day once past
Gernutus doth not slacke
To get a sergiant presently ;
And clapt him on the backe : 80
And layd him into prison strong,
And sued his bond withall ;
And when the judgement day was come.
For judgement he did call.
The marchants friends came thither fast, 85
With many a weeping eye.
For other means they could not find,
But he that day must dye.
The Second Part.
" Of the Jews crueltie ; setting foorth the mercifulnesse of the
Judge towards the Marchant. To the tune of Blacke atid Yel-
OME offered for his hundred crownes
Five hundred for to pay ;
And some a thousand, two or three,
Yet still he did denay.^
And at the last ten thousand crownes s
They offered, him to save,
Gernutus sayd, I will no gold :
My forfeite I will have.
A pound of fleshe is my demand,
And that shall be my hire. 10
Then sayd the judge, Yet, good my friend,
Let me of you desire
[1 refuse.]
2i8 GERNUTUS THE
To take the flesh from such a place,
As yet you let him live :
Do so, and lo ! an hundred crownes 15
To thee here will I give.
No : no : quoth he ; no : judgment here :
For this it shall be tride,
For I will have my pound of fleshe
From under his right side. ao
It grieved all the companie
His cruel tie to see,
For neither friend nor foe could helpe
But he must spoyled bee.
The bloudie Jew now ready is as
With whetted blade in hand,*
To spoyle the bloud of innocent,
By forfeit of his bond.
And as he was about to strike
In him the deadly blow : 30
Stay (quoth the judge) thy crueltie ;
I charge thee to do so.
Sith needs thou wilt thy forfeit have ;
Which is of flesh a pound :
/ See that thou shed no drop of bloud, 35
( Nor yet the man confound.'^
For if thou doe, like murderer.
Thou here shalt hanged be :
Likewise of flesh see that thou cut
No more than longes^ to thee : 40
* The passage in Shakespeare bears so strong a resemblance to
this, as to render it probable that the one suggested the other.
See act iv. sc. 2.
" Bass. Why doest thou whet thy knife so earnestly ? " &c.
\} destroy. ^ belongs.]
yEW OF VENICE. 219
For if thou take either more or lesse
To the vakie of a mite,
Thou shak be hanged presently,
As is both law and right.
Gernutus now waxt franticke mad, 45
And wotes^ not what to say ;
Quoth he at last, Ten thousand crownes,
I will that he shall pay ;
And so I graunt to set him free.
The judge doth answere make ; 50
You shall not have a penny given ;
Your forfeyture now take.
At the last he doth demaund
But for to have his owne.
No, quoth the judge, doe as you list, 55
Thy judgement shall be showne.
Either take your pound of flesh, quoth he.
Or cancell me your bond.
O cruell judge, then quoth the Jew,
That doth ao^ainst me stand ! 60
And so with griping grieved mind
He biddeth them fare-well.
' Then ' all the people prays'd the Lord,
That ever this heard tell.
Good people, that doe heare this song, 65
For trueth I dare well say.
That many a wretch as ill as hee
Doth live now at this day ;
That seckcth nothing but the spoyle
Of many a wealthey man, 70
Ver. 6 1 . griped, Ashmol. copy.
[^ knows.]
220 GERNUTUS THE JEW.
And for to trap the innocent
Deviseth what they can.
From whome the Lord deliver me,
And every Christian too,
And send to them Hke sentence eke
That meaneth so to do.
75
XII.
THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS
LOVE.
HIS beautiful sonnet is quoted in the Merry Wives of
^Windsor, act iii. sc. i, and hath been usually ascribed
(together with the Reply) to Shakespeare himself by the
modern editors of his smaller poems. A copy of this
madrigal, containing only four stanzas (the 4th and 6th being
wanting), accompanied with the first stanza of the answer, being
printed in " The Fasstotmte Pi/grime, and Sonnets to stmdry fiotes of
Musicke, by Mr. William Shakespeare, Lond. printed for W.Jaggard,
1599." Thus was this sonnet, &c. published as Shakespeare's in
his life-time.
And yet there is good reason to believe that (not Shakespeare,
but) Christopher Marloiv wrote the song, and Sir Walter Raleigh
the Nytnph's Reply: For so we are positively assured by Isaac
Walton, a writer of some credit, who has inserted them both in his
Compleat Angler * under the character of " that smooth song, which
was made by Kit. Marlow, now at least fifty years ago ; and ....
an Answer to it, which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh in his
younger days .... Old-fashioned poetry, but choicely good." —
It also passed for Marlow's in the opinion of his contemporaries ;
for in the old poetical miscellany, intitled England's Helicon, it is
printed with the name of Chr. Marlow subjoined to it; and the
Reply is subscribed Ignoto, which is known to have been a signa-
ture of Sir Walter Raleigh. With the same signature Ignoto, in that
collection, is an imitation of Marlow's beginning thus :
* First printed in the year 1653, but probably written some time
before.
THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD. 221
" Come live with me, and be my dear,
And we will revel all the year,
In plains and, groves, &c."
Upon the whole I am inclined to attribute them to Marloiv, and
Raleigh ; notwithstanding the authority of Shakespeare's Book of
Sonnets. For it is well known that as he took no care of his owni
compositions, so was he utterly regardless what spurious things
were fathered upon him. 'Sax John 0/dcast/e, The London Prodigal,
and The Yorkshire Tragedy, were printed with his name at full
length in the title-pages, while he was living, which yet were after-
wards rejected by his first editors Heminge and Condell, who were
his intimate friends (as he mentions both in his will), and therefore
no doubt had good authority for setting them aside.*
The following sonnet appears to have been (as it deserved) a
groat favourite with our earlier poets : for, besides the imitation
above-mentioned, another is to be found among Donne $ Poems,
intitled The Bait, beginning thus :
" Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands, &c."
As for Chr. Marhm.', who was in high repute for his dramatic
\\Titings, he lost his life by a stab received in a brothel, before the
year 1593. See A. Wood, i. 138.
[These exquisite poems by Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter
Raleigh at once became popular favourites, and were often re-
printed. The earliest appearance of the first was in Marlowe's
Je'cu of Malta. An imperfect copy was printed by W. Jaggard with
the Passionate Pilgrim in 1599, and the first stanza of the Reply
was then added to it. In the following year both poems were
correctly printed in England's Helieon, the first being signed " Chr.
Marlow" and the second " Ignoto." When Walton introduced the
poems into his Angler he attributed the Reply to Raleigh, and
printed an additional stanza to each as follows : —
Passionate Shepherd (after verse 20).
" Thy silver dishes for thy meat
As precious as the gods do eat
Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me."
♦ Since the above was ^vritten, Mr. Malone, with his usual dis-
cernment, hath rejected the stanzas in (jueslion from the other
sonnets, iVc. of Shakespeare, in his correct edition of the Passionate
Pilgrim, &c. See his Shakesp. vol. x. p. 340.
222
THE PASSIONATE
NympHs Reply {after verse 20).
" What should we talk of dainties then
Of better meat than's fit for men ?
These are but vain, that's only good
Which God hath blest and sent for food."
In the Roxburghe Collection of Ballads (i. 205) is a street ballad
in which these two songs are united and entitled A most excelk^it ditty
of the Lover's promises to his beloved, with the Lady' s prudent answer
to her Love. The verses referred to above as added by Walton are
here printed, but they take the place of verses 17 to 20 of each
song respectively.
Mr. Chappell and Dr. Rimbault have both drawn attention to
the proofs of the popularity of Marlowe's song to be found in out
V of the way places. In Choice^ Chance^ and Chafige, or Conceits in their
Colours (1606), Tidero being invited to live with his friend, replies,
"Why, how now? do you take me for a woman, that you come
upon me with a ballad of Come live with me and be my love V In
The World's Folly, 1609, there is the following passage : " But
there sat he, hanging his head, lifting up the eyes, and with a
deep sigh singing the ballad of Co7ne live with me and be my love,
to the tune of Adew my deere." Nicholas Breton refers to it in 1637
as " the old song," but Walton considered it fresh enough to insert
in his Angler in 1653, although Marlowe had then been dead sixty
years.]
OME live with me, and be my love,
And we wil all the pleasures prove
That hils and vallies, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.
There will we sit upon the rocks.
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
There will I make thee beds of roses
With a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Imbrodered all with leaves of mirtle ;
10
SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE. 223
A eown made of the finest wool,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull ;
Slippers lin'd choicely for the cold ; 15
With buckles of the purest gold ;
A belt of straw, and ivie buds,
With coral clasps, and amber studs :
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Then live with me, and be my love. 20
The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning :
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.
The Nymph's Reply.
^f^f^§j^F that the World and Love were young,
^^ And truth in every shepherd's toung,
^ These pretty pleasures might me move
U To live with thee, and be thy love.
But time drives flocks from field to fold, 5
When rivers rage, and rocks grow cold,
And Philomel becometh dumb.
And all complain of cares to come.
The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yield : 10
A honey tongue, a heart of gall.
Is fancies spring, but sorrows fall.
Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies.
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten, 15
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.
Thy belt of straw, and ivie buds,
Thy coral clasps, and amber studs ;
224 TITUS ANDRONICUS'S
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee, and be thy love. zo
But could youth last, and love still breed,
Had joyes no date, nor age no need ;
Then those delights my mind might move
To live with thee, and be thy love.
XIII.
TITUS ANDRONICUS'S COMPLAINT.
*HE reader has here an ancient ballad on the same sub-
ject as the play of Titus Androntcus, and it is probable
that the one was borrowed from the other : but which of
them was the original it is not easy to decide. And yet,
if the argument offered above for the priority of the ballad of the
Jew of Ve?iice may be admitted, somewhat of the same kind may be
urged here ; for this ballad differs from the play in several particulars,
which a simple ballad- writer would be less likely to alter than an in-
ventive tragedian. Thus in the ballad is no mention of the contest
for the empire between the two brothers, the composing of which
makes the ungrateful treatment of Titus afterwards the more flagrant :
neither is there any notice taken of his sacrificing one of Tamora's
sons, which the tragic poet has assigned as the original cause of all
her cruelties. In the play Titus loses twenty-one of his sons in
war, and kills another for assisting Bassianus to carry off Lavinia :
the reader will find it different in the ballad. In the latter she is
betrothed to the emperor's son : in the play to his brother. In the
tragedy only two of his sons fall into the pit, and the third being
banished returns to Rome with a victorious army, to avenge the
wrongs of his house : in the ballad all three are entrapped and suffer
death. In the scene the emperor kills Titus, and is in return stabbed
by Titus's surviving son. Here Titus kills the emperor, and after-
wards himself
Let the reader weigh these circumstances and some others wherein
he will find them unlike, and then pronounce for himself After all,
there is reason to conclude that this play was rather improved by
Shakespeare with a few fine touches of his pen, than originally
written by him ; for, not to mention that the style is less figurative
COMPLAINT. 225
than his others generally are, this tragedy is mentioned with discredit
in the Induction to Ben Jonsons BartJwlomew Fair, in 1614, as
one that had then been exhibited " five and twenty or thirty
years :" whicli, if we take the lowest number, throws it back to the
year 1589, at which time Shakespeare was but 25 : an earlier date
than can be found for any other of his pieces :* and if it does not
clear him entirely of it, shews at least it was a first attempt.f
The follo\\'ing is given from a copy in The Golden Garland
intitled as above; compared with three others, two of them in
black letter in the Pepys Collection, intitled. The Lamentable and
Tragical History of Titus Andronicus, &>€. To the tune of, Fortune.
Printed for E. Wright. Unluckily none of these have any dates.
[No original from which the plot of the play of Titus Andronicus
could be taken has yet been discovered, and it is just possible that
this ballad may have given the hint, but the Registers of the
Stationers' Company go some way towards proving a negative to
this supposition, for on the 6th of February, 1593-4, John Danter
registered A noble Roman Historye of Tytus A?idronicus, and also
t/i€ ballad thereof.^
OU noble minds, and famous martiall wights,
That in defence of native country fights,
Give eare to me, that ten yeeres fought for
Rome,
Yet reapt disgrace at my returning home.
* Mr. Malone thinks 1591 to be the oera when our author com-
menced a \vTiter for the stage. See in his Shakcsp. the ingenious
Attempt to ascertain the order in which the plays of Shakespeare were
written.
t Since the above was ^vritten, Shakespeare's memory has been
fully vindicated from the charge of writing the above play by the
best criticks. See what has been urged by Steevens and Malone in
their excellent editions of Shakespeare, &c. [The question of
Shakspere's authorship is not by any means so comi)Ietcly settled
in the negative as this note would imply. The external evidence for
its authenticity is as strong as for most of the other plays. See Ne7u
Shakspere Society's Transactions, Part i. p. 126, for a list of pas-
sages which seem to bear evidence of Shakspere's hand in their
composition.]
Q
2 26 TITUS ANDRONICUS'S
In Rome I lived in fame fulle threescore yeeres, 5
My name beloved was of all my peeres ;
Full five and twenty valiant sonnes I had,
Whose forwarde vertues made their father glad.
For when Romes foes their warlike forces bent,
Against them stille my sonnes and I were sent ; 10
Against the Goths full ten yeeres weary warre
We spent, receiving many a bloudy scarre.
Just two and twenty of my sonnes were slaine
Before we did returne to Rome aeaine :
Of five and twenty sonnes, I brought but three 15
Alive, the stately towers of Rome to see.
When wars were done, I conquest home did bring,
And did present my prisoners to the king.
The queene of Goths, her sons, and eke a moore,
Which did such murders, like was nere before. 20
The emperour did make this queene his wife.
Which bred in Rome debate and deadlie strife ;
The moore, with her two sonnes did growe soe proud,
That none like them in Rome might bee allowd.
The moore soe pleas'd this new-made empress' eie, 25
That she consented to him secretlye
For to abuse her husbands marriage bed,
And soe in time a blackamore she bred.
Then she, whose thoughts to murder were inclinde.
Consented with the moore of bloody minde 30
Against myselfe, my kin, and all my friendes,
In cruell sort to bring them to their endes.
Soe when in age I thought to live in peace,
Both care and griefe began then to increase :
Amongst my sonnes I had one daughter bright, 35
Which joy'd, and pleased best my aged sight ;
COMPLAINT. 227
My deare Lavinia was betrothed than
To Cesars sonne, a young and noble man :
Who in a hunting by the emperours wife,
And her two sonnes. bereaved was of Hfe. 40
He being slaine, was cast in cruel wise,
Into a darksome den from light of skies :
The cruell moore did come that way as then
With my three sonnes, who fell into the den.
The moore then fetcht the emperour with speed, 45
For to accuse them of that murderous deed ;
And when my sonnes within the den were found,
In wrongfuU prison they were cast and bound.
But nowe, behold ! what wounded most my mind,
The empresses two sonnes of savage kind 50
My daughter ravished without remorse,
And took away her honour, quite perforce.
When they had tasted of soe sweete a flowre,
Fearing this sweete should shortly turne to sowre,
They cutt her tongue, whereby she could not tell 55
How that dishonoure unto her befell.
Then both her hands they basely cutt off quite.
Whereby their wickednesse she could not write ;
Nor with her needle on her sampler so we
The bloudye workers of her direfull woe. 60
My brother Marcus found her in the wood,
Staining the grassie ground with purple bloud.
That trickled from her stumpcs, and bloudlesse armes:
Noe tongue at all she had to tell her harmes.
But wlicn I sawe her in that woefull case, 65
With teares of bloud I wet mine acred face :
For my Lavinia I lamented more
Then for my two and twenty sonnes before.
228 TITUS ANDRONICUS'S
When as I sawe she could not write nor speake,
With grief mine aged heart began to breake ; 70
We spred an heape of sand upon the ground,
Whereby those bloudy tyrants out we found.
For with a staffe, without the helpe of hand,
She writt these wordes upon the plat of sand :
" The lustfull sonnes of the proud emperesse 75
Are doers of this hateful wickednesse."
I tore the milk-white hairs from off mine head,
I curst the houre, wherein I first was bred,
I wisht this hand, that fought for countrie's fame,
In cradle rockt, had first been stroken lame. 80
The moore delighting still in villainy
Did say, to sett my sonnes from prison free
I should unto the king my right hand give.
And then my three imprisoned sonnes should live.
The moore I caus'd to strike it off with speede, 85
Whereat I grieved not to see it bleed,
But for my sonnes would willingly impart,
And for their ransome send my bleeding heart.
But as my life did linger thus in paine.
They sent to me my bootlesse hand againe, 90
And therewithal the heades of my three sonnes,
Which filld my dying heart with fresher moanes.
Then past reliefe I upp and downe did goe,
And with my tears writ in the dust my woe :
I shot my arrowes* towards heaven hie, 95
And for revenge to hell did often crye.
The empresse then, thinking that I was mad,
Like furies she and both her sonnes were clad,
* If the ballad was written before the play, I should suppose this
to be only a metaphorical expression, taken from that in the Psalms,
" They shoot out their arrows, even bitter words." Ps. 64. 3.
COMPLAINT. 229
(She nam'd Revenge, and Rape and Murder they)
To undermine and heare what I would say.
100
I fed their fooHsh veines* a certaine space,
Untill my friendes did find a secret place,
Where both her sonnes unto a post were bound,
And just revenge in cruell sort was found.
I cut their throates, my daughter held the pan 105
Betwixt her stumpes, wherein the bloud it ran :
And then I ground their bones to powder small.
And made a paste for pyes streight therewithall.
Then with their fleshe I made two mighty pyes.
And at a banquet servde in stately wise : no
Before the empresse set this loathsome meat ;
So of her sonnes own flesh she well did eat.
Myselfe bereav'd my daughter then of life,
The empresse then I slewe with bloudy knife.
And stabb'd the emperour immediatelie, ns
And then myself: even soe did Titus die.
Then this revenge against the Moore was found,
Alive they sett him halfe into the ground,
Whereas he stood untill such time he starv'd.
And soe God send all murderers may be serv'd. 120
* i.e. encouraged them in their foolish humours, or fancies.
230 TAKE THOSE LIPS AWAY.
XIV.
TAKE THOSE LIPS AWAY.
fHE first stanza of this little sonnet, which an eminent
critic* justly admires for its extreme sweetness, is found
in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, act iv. sc. i. Both
the stanzas are preserved in Beaum. and Fletcher's
Bloody Brother, act v. sc. 2. Sewel and Gildon have printed it
among Shakespeare's smaller poems, but they have done the same
by twenty other pieces that were never writ by him ; their book being
a wretched heap of inaccuracies and mistakes. It is not found in
Jaggard's old edition of Shakespeare's Fassiotiate Pilgrim,\ &c.
[The second stanza is an evident addition by another and inferior
hand, so that Percy's expression above — " both the stanzas are
preserved" — gives a false impression.]
i^g^^AKE, oh take those lips away,
That so sweetlye were forsworne ;
And those eyes, the breake of day.
Lights, that do misleade the morne :
But my kisses bring againe,
Scales of love, but seal'd in vaine.
Hide, oh hide those hills of snowe,
Which thy frozen bosom beares.
On whose tops the pinkes that growe,
Are of those that April wears :
But first set my poor heart free,
Bound in those icy chains by thee.
10
* Dr. Warburton in his Shakesp.
f Mr. Malone, in his improved edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets,
&c. hath substituted this instead of Marlow's Madrigal, printed
above ; for which he hath assigned reasons, which the reader may
see in his vol. x. p. 340.
KING LEIR.
XV.
KING LEIR AND HIS THREE
DAUGHTERS.
^^HE reader has here an ancient ballad on the subject of
.^V King Lear, which (as a sensible female critic has well
^^S^ obser\-ed*) bears so exact an analogy to the argument of
Shakespeare's play, that his having copied it could not
be doubted, if it were certain that it was written before the tragedy.
Here is found the hint of Lear's madness, which the old chro-
niclesf do not mention, as also the extravagant cruelty exercised on
him by his daughters. In the death of Lear they likewise very exactly
coincide. The misfortune is, that there is nothing to assist us in
ascertaining the date of the ballad but what little evidence arises
from within ; this the reader must weigh and judge for himself.
It may be proper to observe, that Shakespeare was not the first
of our dramatic poets who fitted the story of Leir to the stage. His
first 4to. edition is dated 1608: but three years before that had
been printed a play intitled, T/te true CJu-onidc History of Leir and
his three daughters Gonorill, Ragan, and Cordelia, as it hath been
divers and sundry times lately acted, 1605, ^to. — This is a very poor
and dull perfomiance, but happily excited Shakespeare to under-
take the subject, which he has given with very different incidents.
It is remarkable, that neither the circumstances of Leir's madness,
nor his retinue of a select number of knights, nor the affecting deaths
of Cordelia and Leir, are found in that first dramatic piece : in all
which Shakespeare concurs with this ballad.
But to form a true judgement of Shakespeare's merit, the curious
reader should cast his eye over that previous sketch ; which he
will find printed at the end of The Twenty Flays of Shakespeare,
repubhshed from the quarto impressions by George Steevens, Esq. ;
with such elegance and exactness as led us to expect that fine edi-
tion of all the works of our great dramatic poet, which he hath
since published.
The following ballad is given from an ancient copy in the Golden
♦ Mrs. I^nnox. Shakespeare illustrated, vol. iii. p. 302.
t See Jeffcry of Monmouth, Holinshcd, (Sic. who relate Leir's
history in many respects the same as the ballad.
232 KING LEIR AND HIS
Garland, bl. let. intitled, A lamentable song of the Death of King
Leir and his Three Daughters. To the tune of When flying Fame.
[The old play referred to above, although printed as late as the
year 1605, was probably only a re-impression of a piece entered in
the Stationers' Register in 1594, as it was a frequent practice of the
publishers to take advantage of the popularity of Shakspere's plays
on the stage, by publishing dramas having somewhat the same titles
as his.
The Cordelia of the play is softened in the ballad to Cordelia,
the form used by Shakspere and Spenser, but the name Ragan is
retained in place of Shakspere's Regan.]
ING Leir once ruled in this land
With princely power and peace ;
And had all things with hearts content,
That might his joys increase.
Amongst those things that nature gave, 5
Three daughters fair had he,
So princely seeming beautiful,
As fairer could not be.
So on a time it pleas'd the king
A question thus to move, 10
Which of his daughters to his grace
Could shew the dearest love :
For to my age you bring content,
Ouoth he, then let me hear.
Which of you three in plighted troth 15
The kindest will appear.
To whom the eldest thus began ;
Dear father, mind, quoth she,
Before your face, to do you good.
My blood shall render'd be : ao
And for your sake my bleeding heart
Shall here be cut in twain.
Ere that I see your reverend age
The smallest grief sustain.
THREE DAUGHTERS. 233
And so will I, the second said; 25
Dear father, for your sake,
The worst of all extremities
I'll gently undertake :
And serve your highness night and day
With diligence and love ; 30
That sweet content and quietness
Discomforts may remove.
In doing so, you glad my soul,
The aged king reply'd ;
But w^hat sayst thou, my youngest girl, 35
How is thy love ally'd ?
My love (quoth young Cordelia then)
Which to your grace I owe,
Shall be the duty of a child.
And that is all I'll show. 40
And wilt thou shew no more, quoth he,
Than doth thy duty bind ?
I well perceive thy love is small.
When as no more I find.
Henceforth I banish thee my court, 45
Thou art no child of mine ;
Nor any part of this my realm
By favour shall be thine.
Thy elder sisters loves are more
Than well I can demand, 50
To whom I equally bestow
My kingdome and my land,
My pompal state and all my goods,
That lovingly I may
With those thy sisters be maintain'd 55
Until my dying day.
Thus flattering speeches won renown,
By these two sisters here ;
The third had causeless banishment,
Yet was her love more dear : 60
234 KING LEIR AND HIS
For poor Cordelia patiently
Went wandring up and down,
Unhelp'd, unpity'd, gentle maid,
Through many an English town :
Untill at last in famous France 65
She gentler fortunes found ;
Though poor and bare, yet she was deem'd
The fairest on the ground :
Where when the king her virtues heard.
And this fair lady seen, 70
With full consent of all his court
He made his wife and queen.
Her father king Leir this while
With his two daughters staid :
Forgetful of their promis'd loves, 75
Full soon the same decay'd ;
And living in queen Ragan's court.
The eldest of the twain,
She took from him his chiefest means.
And most of all his train. ^°
For whereas twenty men were wont
To wait with bended knee :
She gave allowance but to ten.
And after scarce to three :
Nay, one she thought too much for him ; 85
So took she all away,
In hope that in her court, good king,
He would no longer stay.
Am I rewarded thus, quoth he.
In giving all I have 9©
Unto my children, and to beg
For what I lately gave ?
I'll go unto my Gonorell :
My second child, I know,
Will be more kind and pitiful, 95
And will relieve my woe.
THREE DAUGHTERS. 235
Full fast he hies then to her court ;
Where when she heard his moan
Return'd him answer, That she griev'd,
That all his means were o;one : 100
But no way could relieve his wants ;
Yet if that he would stay
Within her kitchen, he should have
What scullions gave away.
When he had heard, with bitter tears, 105
He made his answer then ;
In what I did let me be made
Example to all men.
I will return again, quoth he,
Unto my Ragan's court ; no
She will not use me thus, I hope,
But in a kinder sort.
Where when he came, she gave command
To drive him thence away :
When he was well within her court 115
(She said) he would not stay.
Then back again to Gonorell,
The woeful king did hie,
That in her kitchen he micjht have
What scullion boys set by. 120
But there of that he was deny'd,
W^hich she had promis'd late :
For once refusing, he should not
Come after to her gate.
Thus twixt his daughters, for relief 125
He wandred up and down ;
Being glad to feed on beggars food,
That lately wore a crown.
And calling to remembrance then
His youngest daughters words, *3o
That said the duty of a child
Was all that love affords :
2-,6 KING LEIR AND HIS
■0
But doubting to repair to her,
Whom he had banish'd so,
Grew frantick mad; for in his mind 135
He bore the wounds of woe :
Which made him rend his milk-white locks,
And tresses from his head,
And all with blood bestain his cheeks,
With age and honour spread. 140
To hills and woods and watry founts.
He made his hourly moan,
Till hills and woods, and sensless things,
Did seem to sigh and groan.
Even thus possest with discontents, 145
He passed o're to France,
In hopes from fair Cordelia there.
To find some gentler chance ;
Most virtuous dame ! which when she heard
Of this her father's grief, 150
As duty bound, she quickly sent
Him comfort and relief:
And by a train of noble peers.
In brave and gallant sort,
She gave in charge he should be brought 155
To Aganippus' court ;
Whose royal king, with noble mind
So freely gave consent.
To muster up his knights at arms,
To fame and courage bent. 160
And so to England came with speed.
To repossesse king Leir,
And drive his daughters from their thrones
By his Cordelia dear.
Where she, true-hearted noble queen, 165
Was in the battel slain :
Yet he good king, in his old days,
Possest his crown again.
THREE DAUGHTERS.
1 1 *7
170
But when he heard CordeHa's death,
Who died indeed for love
Of her dear father, in whose cause
She did this battle move ;
He swooning fell upon her breast,
From whence he never parted :
But on her bosom left his life, 175
That was so truly hearted.
The lords and nobles when they saw
The end of these events.
The other sisters unto death
They doomed by consents ;
And being dead, their crowns they left
Unto the next of kin :
Thus have you seen the fall of pride,
And disobedient sin.
ISO
XVI.
YOUTH AND AGE,
^S found in the little collection of Shakespeare's Sonnets,
intitled the Passionate Fi/gri'ine* tlie greatest part of
which seems to relate to the amours of Venus and
Adonis, being little effusions of fancy, probably written
while he was composing his larger poem on that subject. The
following seems intended for the mouth of Venus, weighing the
comparative merits of youthful Adonis and aged Vulcan. In the
Gar/ami of Good Will it is reprinted, with the addition of four
more such stanzas, but evidently written by a meaner pen.
* Mentioned above, Song XL B. II.
238
YOUTH AND AGE.
'RABBED Age and Youth
Cannot live together ;
Youth is full of pleasance,
Agfe is full of care :
Youth like summer morn,
Age like winter weather,
Youth like summer brave,
Age like winter bare :
Youth is full of sport.
Ages breath is short ;
Youth is nimble, Age is lame :
Youth is hot and bold.
Age is weak and cold ;
Youth is wild, and Age is tame.
Age, I do abhor thee.
Youth, I do adore thee ;
O, my love, my love is young :
Age, I do defie thee ;
Oh sweet shepheard, hie thee,
For methinks thou stayst too long.
lO
15
20
XVII.
THE FROLICKSOME DUKE, OR THE
TINKER'S GOOD FORTUNE.
*HE following ballad is upon the same subject as the
Induction to Shakespeare's Taming of the Shreiv : whe-
ther it may be thought to have suggested the hint to
the dramatic Doet, or is not rather of later date, the
reader must determine.
The story is told* of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy; and
is thus related by an old English writer : " The said Duke, at the
* By Ludov. Vives in Epist., and by Pont. Heuter. Rerum Bur-
gund. 1. 4.
THE FROLICKSOME DUKE. 239
marriage of Eleonora, sister to the king of Portugall, at Bruges in
Flanders, which was solemnised in the deepe of winter ; when as by
reason of unseasonable weather he could neither hawke nor hunt,
and was now tired Anth cards, dice, &c. and such other domestick
sports, or to see ladies dance ; with some of his courtiers, he would
in the evening walke disguised all about the towne. It so fortuned,
as he was walking late one night, he found a countrey fellow dead
drunke, snorting on a bulke ; he caused his followers to bring him
to his palace, and there stripping him of his old clothes, and
att}Ting him after the court fashion, when he wakened, he and
they were all ready to attend upon his excellency, and persuade
him that he was some great Duke. The poor fellow admiring how
he came there, was served in state all day long : after supper he
saw them dance, heard musicke, and all the rest of those court-
like pleasures : but late at night, when he was well tipled, and
again fast asleepe, they put on his old robes, and so conveyed him
to the place, where they first found him. Now the fellow had not
made them so good sport the day before, as he did now, when he
returned to himself: all the jest was to see how he looked upon it.
In conclusion, after some little admiration, the poore man told his
friends he had seen a vision ; constantly believed it ; would not
othen\ise be persuaded, and so the jest ended." Burton's Anatomy
of Melancholy, pt. ii. sect. 2. Memb. 4, 2nd ed. 1624, fol.
This ballad is given from a black-letter copy in the Pepys Col-
lection, which is intitled as above. " To the tune of Fo7id Boy:'
[The story of this ballad is of Eastern origin, and is the same as
the tale of the Sleeper aivakened in the Arabian Nights. The story
crops up in many places, some of which are pointed out in Prof,
Child's English and Scottish Ballads (vol. viii. p. 54). The question,
however, of its origin is not of immediate interest in the discussion
of Shakspere's plots, because the author of the old play, Taming
of a Shrcii', had already used the subject and named the tinker
Slie, so that we have not far to seek for Shakspere's original.]
[OW as fame does report a young duke
keeps a court,
One that please his fancy with froHcksome
sport :
But amoncrst all the rest, here is one I protest,
Which will make you to smile when you hear the
true jest :
240 THE FROLICKSOME DUKE.
A poor tinker he found, lying drunk on the ground, s
As secure in a sleep as if laid in a swound.
The duke said to his men, William, Richard, and Ben,
Take him horrie to my palace, we'll sport with him then.
O'er a horse he was laid, and with care soon convey'd
To the palace, altho' he was poorly arrai'd : lo
Then they stript off his cloaths, both his shirt, shoes
and hose.
And they put him to bed for to take his repose.
Having pull'd off his shirt, which was all over durt,
They did give him clean holland, this was no great
hurt :
On a bed of soft down, like a lord of renown, 15
They did lay him to sleep the drink out of his crown.
In the morning when day, then admiring he lay.
For to see the rich chamber both gaudy and gay.
'Now he lay something late, in his rich bed of state.
Till at last knights and squires they on him did wait ; 20
And the chamberling bare, then did Hkewise declare,
He desir'd to know what apparel he'd ware :
The poor tinker amaz'd, on the gentleman gaz'd,
And admired how he to this honour was rais'd.
Tho' he seem'd something mute, yet he chose a rich
suit, 25
Which he straitways put on without longer dispute ;
With a star on his side, which the tinker offt ey'd,
And it seem'd for to swell him ' no ' little with pride ;
For he said to himself. Where is Joan my sweet wife ?
Sure she never did see me so fine in her life. 3°
From a convenient place, the right duke his good
grace
Did observe his behaviour in every case
To a garden of state, on the tinker they wait,
Trumpets sounding before him : thought he, this is
great :
THE FROLICKSOME DUKE. 241
Where an hour or two, pleasant walks he did view, 35
With commanders and squires in scarlet and blew.
A fine dinner was drest, both for him and his guests,
He was plac'd at the table above all the rest,
In a rich chair ' or bed,' lin'd witli fine crimson red,
With a rich golden canopy over his head : 40
As he sat at his meat, the musick play'd sweet,
With the choicest of singing his joys to compleat.
While the tinker did dine, he had plenty of wine,
Rich canary with sherry and tent superfine.
Like a right honest soul, faith, he took off his bowl, 45
Till at last he beo^an for to tumble and roul
From his chair to the floor, where he sleeping did snore,
Beinof seven times drunker than ever before.
&
Then the duke did ordain, they should strip him
amain.
And restore him his old leather garments again : 50
'Twas a point next the worst, yet perform it they must.
And they carry'd him strait, where they found him at
first ;
Then he slept all the night, as indeed well he might ;
But when he did waken, his joys took their flight.
For his glory ' to him ' so pleasant did seem, 55
That he thought it to be but a meer golden dream ;
Till at length he was brought to the duke, where he
sought
For a pardon, as fearing he had set him at nought ;
But his highness he said, Thou'rt a jolly bold blade.
Such a frolick before I think never was plaid. 60
Thc-n his highness bespoke him a new suit and cloak,
Which he gave for the sake of this frolicksome joak;
Nay, and five-hundred pound, with ten acres of ground,
Thou shalt never, said he, range the counteries round,
R
242 THE FROLICKSOME DUKE.
Crying old brass to mend, for I'll be thy good friend, 65
Nay, and Joan thy sweet wife shall my duchess attend.
Then the tinker reply'd, What! must Joan my sweet
bride
Be a lady in chariots of pleasure to ride ?
Must we have gold and land ev'ry day at command ?
Then I shall be a squire I well understand : 70
Well I thank your good grace, and your love I em-
brace,
I was never before in so happy a case.
XVIII.
THE FRIAR OF ORDERS GRAY.
ISPERSED . thro' Shakespeare's plays are innumerable
Httle fragments of ancient ballads, the entire copies of
which could not be recovered. Many of these being
of the most beautiful and pathetic simplicity, the Editor
was tempted to select some of them, and with a few supplemental
stanzas to connect them together, and form them into a little tale^
which is here submitted to the reader's candour.
One small fragment was taken from Beaumont and Fletcher.
[Ritson exhibits a bit of grim humour in his Anciejit Songs, vol.'
ii. ed. 1829, p. 64, where he prints a parody of Pe7-cy's Friar of
Orders Gray, under the title of iht/ovial Tmker, and prefixes to it
the exact words that Percy uses above. The parody commences —
" It was a jovial tinker,
All of the north countrie.
As he walk'd forth, along the way
He sung right merrily."]
T was a friar of orders gray
Walkt forth to tell his beades ;
And he met with a lady faire
Clad in a pilgrime's weedes.
FRIAR OF ORDERS GRAY. 243
Now Christ thee save, thou reverend friar, 5
I pray thee tell to me,
If ever at yon holy shrine
]\Iy true love thou didst see.
And how should I know your true love
From many another one ? 10
O by his cockle hat, and staff,
And by his sandal shoone.*
But chiefly by his face and mien,
That were so fair to view ;
His flaxen locks that sweetly curl'd, 15
And eyne of lovely blue.
O lady, he is dead and gone !
Lady, he's dead and gone !
And at his head a green grass turfe,
And at his heels a stone.
20
Within these holy cloysters long
He languisht, and he dyed.
Lamenting of a ladyes love,
And 'playning of her pride.
Here bore him barefac'd on his bier 25
Six proper youths and tall,
And many a tear bedew'd his grave
Within yon kirk-yard wall.
And art thou dead, thou gentle youth !
And art thou dead and gone ! 30
And didst thou dye for love of me !
Break, cruel heart of stone !
* These are the distinguishing marks of a pilgrim. The chief
places of devotion being beyond sea, the pilgrims were wont to put
cockle-shells in their hats to denote the intention or performance
of their devotion. Warb. Shakesp. vol. viii., p. 224.
244 THE FRIAR OF
O weep not, lady, weep not soe ;
Some ghostly comfort seek :
Let not vain sorrow rive thy heart, 35
Ne teares bedew thy cheek.
O do not, do not, holy friar.
My sorrow now reprove ;
For I have lost the sweetest youth.
That e'er wan ladyes love. 4-0
And nowe, alas ! for thy sad losse,
I'll evermore weep and sigh ;
For thee I only wisht to live.
For thee I wish to dye.
Weep no more, lady, weep no more, 45
Thy sorrowe is in vaine :
For violets pluckt the sweetest showers
Will ne'er make grow againe.
Our joys as winged dreams doe fiye,
Why then should sorrow last ? 50
Since grief but aggravates thy losse.
Grieve not for what is past.
O say not soe, thou holy friar ;
I pray thee, say not soe :
For since my true-love dyed for mee, 55
'Tis meet my tears should flow.
And will he ne'er come again ?
Will he ne'er come again ?
Ah ! no, he is dead and laid in his grave,
For ever to remain. 60
His cheek was redder than the rose ;
The comliest youth was he !
But he is dead and laid in his grave : -
Alas, and woe is me !
ORDERS GRAY. 245
Sigh no more, lady, sigh no more, 65
Men were deceivers ever :
One foot on sea and one on land, v
To one tiling constant never.
Hadst thou been fond, he had been false,
And left thee sad and heavy ; 70
For young men ever were fickle found,
Since summer trees were leafy.
Now say not so, thou holy friar,
I pray thee say not soe ;
My love he had the truest heart : 75
O he was ever true !
And art thou dead, thou much-Iov'd youth,
And didst thou dye for mee ?
Then farewell home ; for ever-more
A pilgrim I will bee. 80
But first upon my true-loves grave
My weary limbs I'll lay,
And thrice I'll kiss the green-grass turf,
That wraps his breathless clay.
Yet stay, fair lady ; rest awhile 85
Beneath this cloyster wall :
See through the hawthorn blows the cold wind.
And drizzly rain doth fall.
O stay me not, thou holy friar ;
O stay me not, I pray ; 90
No drizzly rain that falls on me,
Can wash my fault away.
Yet sta)', fair lady, turn again.
And dry those pearly tears ;
For see beneath tliis gown of gray 95
Thy owne true-love appears.
246 FRIAR OF ORDERS GRAY,
Here forc'd by grief, and hopeless love,
These holy weeds I sought ;
And here amid these lonely walls
To end my days I thought. ^ loo
But haply for my year of grace *
Is not yet past away,
Might I still hope to win thy love,
No longer would I stay.
Now farewell grief, and welcome joy 105
Once more unto my heart ;
For since I have found thee, lovely youth,
We never more will part.
*^* As the foregoing song has been thought to have suggested
to our late excellent Poet Dr. Goldsmith, the plan of his beautiful
ballad of Edwin and Emma (first printed in his Vicar of Wakefield')
it is but justice to his memory to declare, that his poem was
written first, and that if there is any imitation in the case, they will be
found both to be indebted to the beautiful old ballad Gentle Herds-
man, &c. printed in the second volume of this Work, which the
Doctor had much admired in manuscript, and has finely improved.
See vol. ii. book i. song xiv. ver. 37.
The year of probation, or noviciate.
THE END OF THE SECOND BOOK.
\
RELIOUES OF ANCIENT POETRY, ETC.
SERIES THE FIRST.
BOOK III.
^=^P2^
I.
THE MORE MODERN BALLAD OF
CHEVY CHACE.
' T the beginning of this volume we gave the old original
Song of Chrvy Chacc. The reader has here the more
improved edition of that fine heroic ballad. It will
aftbrd an agreeable entertainment to the curious to
compare them together, and to see how far the latter bard has ex-
celled his predecessor, and where he has fallen short of him. For
tho' he has every where improved the versification, and generally
the sentiment and diction; yet some few passages retain more
dignity in the ancient copy ; at least the obsoleteness of the style
serves as a veil to hide whatever might appear too familiar or vul-
gar in them. Thus, for instance, the catastrophe of the gallant
Witherington is in the modem copy exprest in terms which never
fail c-tt present to excite ridicule : whereas in the original it is re-
lated with a plain and pathetic simplicity, that is hable to no such
unlucky effect : See the stanza in page 32, which, in modern ortho-
graphy, &:c. would run thus.
" For Witherington my heart is woe,
That ever he slain should be :
For when his legs were hewn in two,
He knelt and fought on his knee."
So again the stanza which describes the fall of Montgomery is
somewhat more elevated in the ancient copy :
"The dint it was both sad and sore,
He on Montgomery set :
The swan-feathers his arrow bore
With his hearts blood were wet." V- Z^-
We might also add, that the circumstances of the battle are
more clearly conceived and the several incidents more distinctly
250 MODERN BALLAD
marked in the old original, than in the improved copy. It is well
known that the ancient English weapon was the long bow, and
that this nation excelled all others in archery ; while the Scottish
warriours chiefly depended on the use of the spear : this charac-
teristic difference never escapes our ancient bard, whose description
of the first onset is to the follomng effect :
" The proposal of the two gallant earls to determine the dispute
by single combat being over-ruled; the English, says he, who
stood with their bows ready bent, gave a general discharge of their
arrows, which slew seven score spearmen of the enemy .- but, not-
withstanding so severe a loss, Douglas like a brave captain kept
his ground. He had divided his forces into three columns, who,
as soon as the English had discharged the first volley, bore down upon
them with their spears, and breaking through their ranks reduced
them to close fighting. The archers upon this dropt their bows
and had recourse to their swords, and there followed so sharp a
conflict, that multitudes on both sides lost their lives." In the midst
of this general engagement, at length, the two great earls meet,
and after a spirited rencounter agree to breathe; upon which a
parley ensues, that would do honour to Homer himself.
Nothing can be more pleasingly distinct and circumstantial than
this : whereas, the modern copy, tho' in general it has great merit,
is here unluckily both confused and obscure. Indeed the original
words seem here to have been totally misunderstood. " Yet bydys
the yerl Douglas upon the Beiit" evidently signifies, " Yet the earl
Douglas abides in the Field:" whereas the more modern bard
seems to have understood by Bent, the inclination of his mind,
and accordingly runs quite off from the subject* :
" To drive the deer with hound and horn
Earl Douglas had the bent." v. 109.
One may also observe a generous impartiality in the old ori-
ginal bard, when in the conclusion of his tale he represents both
nations as quitting the field without any reproachful reflection on
either : though he gives to his own countrymen the credit of being
the smaller number.
" Of fifteen hundred archers of England
Went away but fifty and three ;
Of twenty hundred spearmen of Scotland,
But even five and fifty." p. 32.
* In the present Edition, instead of the unmeaning lines here
censured, an insertion is made of four stanzas modernized from the
ancient copy.
OF CHEVY CHACE. 251
He attributes Flight to neither party, as hath been done in the
modem copies of this ballad, as well Scotch as English. For, to
be even ^vith our latter bard, who makes the Scots X.o flee^ some '
re\iser of North Britain has turned his own arms against him, and
printed an edition at Glasgow, in which the lines are thus trans-
posed :
"Of fifteen hundred Scottish speirs
Went hame but fifty-three :
Of twenty hundred Englishmen
Scarce fifty-five did flee."
And to countenance this change he has suppressed the two stanzas
between ver. 240 and ver. 249. — From that Fldition I have here
reformed the Scottish names, which in the modern English ballad
appeared to be corrupted.
When I call the present admired ballad modern, I only mean
that it is comparatively so ; for that it could not be WTit much
later than the time of Q. Elizabeth, I think may be made appear ;
nor yet does it seem to be older than the beginning of the last
centur}'.* Sir Philip Sidney, when he complains of the antiquated
phrase of Chciy Chase, could never have seen this improved copy,
the language of which is not more ancient than that he himself
used. It is probable that the encomiums of so admired a writer
excited some bard to revise the ballad, and to free it from those
faults he had objected to it. That it could not be much later than
that time, appears from the phrase doleful dumps : which in that
age carried no ill sound -with it, but to the next generation became
ridiculous. We have seen it pass uncensured in a sonnet that was
at that time in request, and where it could not fail to have been
* A late \\Titer has started a notion that the more modern copy
" was \\Titten to be sung by a party of English, headed by a Doug-
las in the year 1524; which is the true reason why, at the same
time that it gives the advantage to the English soldiers above the
Scotch, it gives yet so lovely and so manifestly superior a character
to the Scotch commander above the English." See Sa/s Essay on
tlie Numbers of Paradise Lost, 4to. 1745, p. 167.
This appears to me a groundless conjecture : the language seems
too^modern for the date above-mentioned ; and, had it been jjrinted
even so early as Queen Elizabeth's reign, 1 think I should have
met with some copy wherein the first line would have been,
*' God prosper long our noble queen,"
as was the case with the Blind Beggar oi Bednal Green; see vol.
ii. book ii. No. x. ver. 23.
252 MODERN BALLAD
taken notice of, had it been in the least exceptionable : see above,
book ii. song v. ver. 2. Yet, in about half a century after, it was
become burlesque. Vide Hudibras, Part I. c. 3, v. 95.
This much premised, the reader that would see the general
beauties of this ballad set in a just and striking light, may consult
the excellent criticism of Mr. Addison.* With regard to its subject :
it has already been considered in page 20. The conjectures there
offered will receive confirmation from a passage in the Me??ioirs of
Carey Earl of Monmouth, 8vo. 1759, p. 165 ; whence we learn
that it was an ancient custom with the borderers of the two king-
doms, when they were at peace, to send to the Lord Wardens of
the opposite Marches for leave to hunt within their districts. If
leave was granted, then towards the end of summer they would
come and hunt for several days together "with \!ci.€ix grey-hotmds
for deer : " but if they took this liberty unpermitted, then the Lord
Warden of the border so invaded, would not fail to interrupt their
sport and chastise their boldness. He mentions a remarkable in-
stance that happened while he was Warden, when some Scotch
gentlemen coming to hunt in defiance of him, there must have
ensued such an action as this of Chevy Chace, if the intruders had
been proportionably numerous and well-armed; for, upon their
being attacked by his men at arms, he tells us, " some hurt was
done, tho' he had given especiall order that they should shed as
little blood as possible." They were in effect overpowered and taken
prisoners, and only released on their promise to abstain from such
licentious sporting for the future.
Since the former impression of these volumes hath been pub-
lished, a new edition of Collins'' s Peerage, 1779, &c., 9 Vols. 8vo.
which contains, in volume ii. p. 334, an historical passage, which
may be thought to throw considerable hght on the subject of the
preceding ballad : viz.
"In' this . . . year, 1436, according to Hector Boethius, was
fought the Battle of Pepperden, not far from the Cheviot Hills,
between the Earl of Northumberland (lid Earl, son of Hotspur,)
and Earl William Douglas, of Angus, Avith a small army of about
four thousand men each, in which the latter had the advantage.
As this seems to have been a private conflict between these two
great chieftains of the Borders, rather than a national war, it has
been thought to have given rise to the celebrated- old Ballad of
Chevy-Chase; which, to render it more pathetic and interesting,
has been heightened with tragical incidents wholly fictitious." See
RidpatKs Border Hist. 4to, p. 401. -
The following text is given from a copy in the Editor's folio MS.
In the Spectator, Nos. 70, 74.
OF CHEVY CHACE. 253
compared \nth two or three others printed in black-letter. — In the
second volume of Drydcti's Misailanics may be found a translation
of Chevy-Chace into Latin rhymes. The translator, Mr. Henry
Bold, of New College, undertook it at the command of Dr. Comjv
ton, bishop of London ; wlio thought it no derogation to his epis-
copal character, to avow a fondness for this excellent old ballad.
See the preface to Bald's Latin Songs, 1685, 8vo.
[The folloA\'ing version varies in certain particulars from the one
in the MS. folio (ed. Hales and Furnivall, 1867, vol. ii. p. i), and
the most important variations are noted at the foot of the page.
Some of the alterations in the arrangement of the words are im-
provements, but others are the reverse, for instance verses 129-132.
Percy follows the copy printed in the Collection of Old Ballads,
1723 (vol. i. p. 108), much more closely than the MS.]
OD prosper long our noble king,
Our lives and safetyes all !
A woefull hunting- once there did
In Chevy-Chace befall ;
To drive the deere with hound and home, s
Erie Percy took his way ;
The child may rue that is unborne,
The hunting of that day.
The stout Erie of Northumberland
A vow to God did make, 10
His pleasure in the Scottish woods
Three summers days to take ;
The cheefest harts in Chevy-Chace
To kill and beare away.
These tydings to Erie Douglas came, 15
In Scottland where he lay :
[Vcr. 3. there was, f. MS. V. 6. took the way, f. MS. ]
254 MODERN BALLAD
Who sent Erie Percy present word,
He wold prevent his sport.
The English Erie, not fearing that,
Did to the woods resort 20
With fifteen hundred bow-men bold ;
All chosen men of might,
Who knew full well in time of neede
To ayme their shafts arright.
The gallant greyhounds swiftly ran, 25
To chase the fallow deere :
On munday they began to hunt.
Ere day-light did appeare ;
And long before high noone they had
An hundred fat buckes slaine ; 30
Then having dined, the drovyers went
To rouze the deare againe.
The bow-men mustered on the hills,
Well able to endure ;
Theire backsides all, with speciall care, 35
That day were guarded sure.
The hounds ran swiftly through the woods.
The nimble deere to take,*
Ver. 36. That they were, f. MS.
* The Chiviot Hills and circumjacent wastes are at present void
of deer, and almost stript of their woods : but formerly they had
enough of both to justify the description attempted here and in
the Ancient Ballad of Chevy-Chase. Leland, in the reign of Hen.
VIH. thus describes this county: "In Northumberland, as I heare
say, be no Forests, except Chivet Hills ; where is much Brushe-
Wood^ and some Okke ; Grownde ovargrowne with Linge, and
some with Mosse. I have harde say that Chivet Hilles stretchethe
XX miles. There is greate Plente oi Redde-Dere, and Roo-Bukkes."
Itin. vol. vii. page 56. — This passage, which did not occur when
pages 40, 42 were printed off, confirms the accounts there given of
the Stagge and the Roe.
OF CHEVY CHACE. 255
That with their cr^^es the hills and dales
An eccho shrill did make.
40
Lord Percy to the quarry ^ went,
To view the slaughter'd deere ;
Quoth he, Erie Douglas promised
This day to meet me heere :
But if I thought he wold not come, 45
Noe longer wold I stay.
With that, a brave younge gentleman
Thus to the Erie did say :
Loe, yonder doth Erie Douglas come,
His men in armour bright ; 50
Full twenty hundred Scottish speres
All marching in our sight ;
All men of pleasant Tivydale,
Fast by the river Tweede :
0 cease your sports, Erie Percy said, 55
And take your bowes with speede ;
And now with me, my countrymen.
Your courage forth advance ;
For there was never champion yett,
In Scotland or in F" ranee, 60
That ever did on horsebacke come,
But if my hap'^ it were,
1 durst encounter man for man,
With him to break a spere.
Erie Douglas on his milke-white stecde, 65
Most like a baron bold.
Rode formost of his company,
Whose armour shone like <^old.
[Vcr. 42. the tender deere, f. MS.
' slaughtered game. - fortune]
256 MODERN BALLAD
Show me, sayd hee, whose men you bee,
That hunt soe boldly heere, 70
That, without my consent, doe chase
And kill my fallow-deere.
The first man that did answer make.
Was noble Percy hee ;
Who sayd. Wee list not to declare, 75
Nor shew whose men wee bee :
Yet wee will spend our deerest blood,
Thy cheefest harts to slay.
Then Douglas swore a solempne oathe,
And thus in rage did say, 80
Ere thus I will out-braved bee.
One of us two shall dye :
I know thee well, an erle thou art ;
Lord Percy, soe am I.
But trust me, Percy, pittye it were, 85
And great offence to kill
Any of these our guiltlesse men.
For they have done no ill.
Let thou and I the battell trye,
And set our men aside. 90
Accurst bee [he], Erie Percy sayd,
By whome this is denyed.
Then stept a gallant squier forth,
Witherington was his name.
Who said, I wold not have it told 95
To Henry our king for shame,
That ere my captaine fought on foote.
And I stood looking on.
You bee two erles, sayd Witherington,
And I a squier alone : 100
[Ver. 92. it is, f. MS. V. 98. I stand, f. MS.]
OF CHEVY CHACE. 257
He doe the best that doe I may,
While I have power to stand :
While I have power to weeld my sword,
He fieht with hart and hand.
105
no
Our English archers bent their bowes,
Their harts were orood and trew ;
Att the first flio-ht of arrowes sent,
Full four-score Scots they slew.
*[Yet bides Earl Douglas on the bent/
As Chieftain stout and crood.
As valiant Captain, all unmov'd
The shock he firmly stood.
His host he parted had in three,
As Leader ware and try'd,
As soon his spearmen on their foes 115
Bare down on every side.
Throughout the English archery
They dealt full many a wound :
But still our valiant Englishmen
All firmly kept their ground : 120
And throwing strait their bows away,
They grasp'd their swords so bright :
And now sharp blows, a heavy shower,
On shields and helmets light.]
* The 4 stanzas here inclosed in brackets, which are borrowed
chiefly from the ancient copy, are offered to the reader instead of
the following lines, which occur in the Editor's folio MS.
To drive the deere with hound and home,
Douglas bade on the bent ;
Two captaines moved with mickle might
Their speres to shivers went.
[Vcr. 105. bend their bowes, f. MS.
1 f^eld.]
S
258 MODERN BALLAD
They closed full fast on everye side, 125
Noe slacknes there was found;
And many a gallant gentleman
Lay gasping on the ground.
O Christ ! it was a griefe to see,
And likewise for to heare, * 130
The cries of men lying in their gore,
And scattered here and there.
At last these two stout erles did meet,
Like captaines of great might :
Like lyons wood,^ they layd on lode, 135
And made a cruell fieht :
"t5'
They fought untill they both did sweat,
With swords of tempered Steele ;
Until the blood, like drops of rain.
They trickling downe did feele. 140
Yeeld thee, O Percy, Douglas sayd ;
In faith I will thee bringe.
Where thou shalt high advanced bee
By James our Scottish king :
Thy ransome I will freely give, 14.5
And this report of thee,
Thou art the most couragious knight,
That ever I did see.
[Ver. 129-132. This stanza in the MS. is far superior to the poor I
one in the text.
" O Christ ! it was great greeve to see
how eche man chose his spere
and how the blood out of their brests
Did gush like water cleare."
1 furious.]
OF CHEVY CHACE.
259
Noe, Douglas, quoth Erie Percy then,
Thy proffer I doe scorne ; 150
I will not yeelde to any Scott,
That ever yett was borne.
With that, there came an arrow keene
Out of an English bow.
Which struck Erie Douglas to the heart, 155
A deepe and deadlye blow :
Who never spake more words than these,
Fight on, my merr}^ men all ;
For why, my life is at an end ;
Lord Percy sees my fall. 160
Then leaving liffe, Erie Percy tooke
The dead man by the hand ;
And said, Erie Douglas, for thy life
Wold I had lost my land.
O Christ ! my verry hart doth bleed 165
With sorrow for thy sake ;
For sure, a more redoubted knight
Mischance cold never take.
A knight amono^st the Scotts there was,
Which saw Erie Douglas dye, 170
Who streight in wrath did vow revenge
Upon the Lord Percye :
Sir Hugh Mountgomery was he call'd,
Who, with a spere most bright,
Well-mounted on a gallant steed, 175
Ran fiercely through the fight ;
[Ver. 155. who scorkc Eric Douglas on the brcst, f. MS.
V. 157. who never say d, f. MS. V. 163. who said, Erie Dowglas,
for thy sake, f. MS. |
26o MODERN BALLAD
And past the English archers all,
Without all dread or feare ;
And through Earl Percyes body then
He thrust his hateful! spere ; iSo
With such a vehement force and might
He did his body gore,
The staff ran through the other side
A large cloth-yard, and more.
So thus did both these nobles dye, 185
Whose courage none could staine :
An English archer then perceiv'd
The noble erle was slaine ;
He had a bow bent in his hand,
Made of a trusty tree ; 190
An arrow of a cloth-yard long
Up to the head drew hee :
Against Sir Hugh Mountgomerye,
So right the shaft he sett,
The grey goose-winge that was thereon, 195
In his harts bloode was wett. '
This fight did last from breake of day,
Till setting of the sun ;
For when they rung the evening-bell,*
The battel scarce was done. 200
With stout Erie Percy, there was slaine
Sir John of Egerton,f
* Sc. the Curfew bell, usually rung at 8 o'clock, to which the
moderniser apparently alludes, instead of the "Evensong Bell," or
Bell for vespers, of the original author before the Reformation.
See p. 31, Ver. 97.
f For the surnames, see the Notes at the end of the ballad.
[Ver. 189. he had a good bow in his hand, f. MS. V. 192. to
the hard head haled hee, f. MS.]
OF CHEVY CHACE. 261
Sir Robert RatcUff, and Sir John,
Sir James that bold barren :
And with Sir George and stout Sir James, 205
Both knights of good account,
Good Sir Ralph Raby there was slaine,
Whose prowesse did surmount.
For Witherington needs must I wayle,
As one in doleful dumpes ; * 210
For when his leggs were smitten off,
He fought upon his stumpes.
And with Erie Douglas, there was slaine
Sir Hugh Mountgomerye,
Sir Charles Murray, that from the feeld 215
One foote wold never flee.
Sir Charles Murray, of Ratcliff, too.
His sisters sonne was hee ;
Sir David Lamb, so well esteem'd.
Yet saved cold not bee. 220
And the Lord Maxwell in like case
Did with Erie Douglas dye :
Of twenty hundred Scottish speres.
Scarce fifty-five did llye.
Of fifteen hundred Englishmen, 225
Went home but fifty-three ;
The rest were slaine in Chevy-Chase,
Under the grecne woode tree.
[Ver. 203. Sir Robert Harcliffe and Sir William, f. MS. V. 215. Sir
Charles Morrcll, f. MS. V. 217. Sir Roger Hcvcr, of Ilarclille,
f. MS. V, 219. Sir David LambwcU well esteem'd. J
* i.e. "I, as one in deep concern, must lament." The con-
.slruction here has generally been misunderstood. The old MS.
reads "toofull dumpes."
262 MODERN BALLAD
Next day did many widdowes come,
Their husbands to bewayle ; 230
They washt their wounds in brinish teares,
But all wold not prevayle.
Theyr bodyes, bathed in purple gore,
They bare with them away :
They kist them dead a thousand times, 235
Ere they were cladd in clay.
The newes was brought to Eddenborrow,
Where Scottlands king did raigne.
That brave Erie Douglas suddenlye
Was with an arrow slaine : 240
0 heavy newes, King James did say,
Scottland may witnesse bee,
1 have not any captaine more
Of such account as hee.
Like tydings to King Henry came, 245
Within as short a space.
That Percy of Northumberland
Was slaine in Chevy-Chese :
-Isiow God be with him, said our king,
Sith it will noe better bee ; 250
I trust I have, within my realme.
Five hundred as good as hee :
Yett shall not Scotts nor Scotland say,
But I will vengeance take :
I'll be revenged on them all, 255
For brave Erie Percyes sake.
This vow full well the king perform'd
After, at Humbledowne ;
In one day, fifty knights were slayne.
With lords of great renowne : 260
[Ver. 233. purple blood, f. MS.]
OF CHEVY CHACE. 263
And of the rest, of small account,
Did many thousands dye :
Thus endeth the hunting of Chevy-Chase,
Made by the Erie Percy.
God save our king, and bless this land 265
With plentye, joy, and peace ;
And grant henceforth, that foule debate
'Twixt noblemen may cease.
c£^^
The surnames in the foregoing Ballad are altered, either by
accident or design, from the old original copy, and in common
editions extremely corrupted. They are here rectified, as much as
they could be. Thus,
Ver. 202, Egcftivi.'] This name is restored (instead of Ogerion,
com. ed.) from the Editor's folio MS. The pieces. in that MS.
appear to have been collected, and many of them composed
(among which might be this ballad) by an inhabitant of Cheshire ;
who was willing to pay a compliment here to one of his countr)'-
men, of the eminent family De or Of Egcrioti (so the name was
first written) ancestors of the present Duke of Bridgwater : and this
he could do with the more propriety, as the Percics had fomierly
great interest in that county. At the fatal battle of Shrewsbur}'
all the flower of the Cheshire gentlemen lost their lives fighting in
the cause of Hotspur.
Ver. 203, Ratcliff.'\ This was a family much distinguished in
Northumberland. Edw. Raddiffc, mil. was sherift" of that count)'
in the 17 of Hen. VII. and others of the same surname aftenvards.
(See Fuller^ p. 313.) Sir Gcotge Ratdiff, Knt. was one of the
commissioners of inclosure in 1552. (See Nidwlson, p. 330.) Of
this family was the late Earl of Dcrwentwatcr, who was beheaded
in 1 7 15. The Editor's folio MS. however, reads here, Sir Robert
Hardiffe and Sir Williinn.
'Vhcl/ardiys were an eminent family in Cumberland. (See Fuller,
p. 224.) Whether this may be thought to be the same name, I do
not determine.
[Ver. 262. hundreds dye, f. MS.]
264 BALLAD OF CHEVY CHACE.
Ver. 204. Baron^ This is apparently altered, (not to say cor-
rupted) from Hearone, in p. 32, ver. 114.
Ver. 207. Raby.~\ This might be intended to celebrate one of
the ancient possessors of Raby Castle, in the county of Durham.
Yet it is written Rebbye, in the fol. MS. and looks like a corruption
oi Rugby or Rokeby, an eminent family in Yorkshire, see pp. 32, 52,
It will not be wondered that the Percies should be thought to bring
followers out of that county, where they themselves were originally
seated, and had always such extensive property and influence.*
Ver. 215. Murray. '\ So the Scottish copy. In the com. edit,
it is Carrel or Currel; and Morrell in the fol. MS.
Ver. 217. Murray.'] So the Scot. edit. — The common copies
read Murrel. The fol. MS. gives the hne in the following peculiar
manner,
" Sir Roger Heuer of Harcliffe too."
Ver. 219. Lamb.'] The folio MS. has
" Sir David Lambwell, well esteemed."
This seems evidently corrupted from Lwdale or Liddell, in the old
copy, see ver. 125. (pp. 32, 52).
II.
DEATH'S FINAL CONQUEST.
' HESE fine moral stanzas were originally intended for a
solemn funeral song, in a play of James Shirley's, in-
titled, "The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses :"t no date,
8vo. — Shirley flourished as a dramatic writer early in
the reign of Charles I. : but he outlived the Restoration. His
death happened October 29, 1666. Mx. 72.
[* See note controverting the above on p. 52.
t Acted for the first time " at the Military Ground in Leicester
Fields" in 1659.]
DEATH'S FINAL CONQUEST. 265
This little poem was \\Titten long after many of these that follow,
but is inserted here as a kind of Dirge to the foregoing piece. It
is said to have been a favourite song with K. Charles II. [to whom,
according to Oldys, it was often sung by " old " Bo^v^llan.]
"^^^^^HE orlories of our birth and state
' '^ §^ "^^^ shadows, not substantial things ;
n./'^' ^"vj There is no armour against fate :
^^^^ Death lays his icy hands on kings :
Scepter and crown 5
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made ^
With the poor crooked scythe and s^Dade.
Some men with swords may reap the field,
And plant fresh laurels where they kill : 10
But their strong nerves at last must yield ;
They tame but one another still.
Early or late
They stoop to fate, '
And must give up their murmuring breath, 15
When they pale captives creep to death.
The garlands wither on your brow,
Then boast no more your mighty deeds ;
Upon death's purple altar now
See where the victor victim bleeds : »o
All heads must come
To the cold tomb.
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust.
266 THE RISING
III.
THE RISING IN THE NORTH.
'HE subject of this ballad is the great Northern Insur-
rection in the 12th year of Elizabeth, 1569; which
proved so fatal to Thomas Percy, the seventh Earl of
.«™^^, Northumberland.
There had not long before been a secret negotiation entered into
between some of the Scottish and English nobihty, to bring about
a marriage between Mary Q. of Scots, at that time a prisoner in
England, and the Duke of Norfolk, a nobleman of excellent cha-
racter, and firmly attached to the Protestant religion. This match
was proposed to all the most considerable of the English nobility,
and among the rest to the Earls of Northumberland and West-
moreland, two noblemen very powerful in the North. As it seemed
to promise a speedy and safe conclusion of the troubles in Scotland,
with many advantages to the crown of England, they all consented
to it, provided it should prove agreeable to Q. EUzabeth. The
Earl of Leicester (Elizabeth's favourite) undertook to break the
matter to her, but before he could find an opportunity, the_ affair
had come to her ears by other hands, and she was thrown into a
violent flame. The Duke of Norfolk, with several of his friends,
was committed to the Tower, and summons were sent to the
Northern Earls instantly to make their appearance at court. It is
said that the Earl of Northumberland, who was a man of a mild
and gentle nature, was dehberating with himself whether he should
not obey the message, and rely upon the queen's candour and
clemency, when he was forced into desperate measures by a
sudden report at midnight, Nov. 14, that a party of his enemies
were come to seize on his person.* The Earl was then at his
house at Topcliffe in Yorkshire. When rising hastily out of bed,
he withdrew to the Earl of Westmoreland, at Brancepeth, where
the country came in to them, and pressed them to take arms in
their own defence. They accordingly set up their standards, de-
claring their intent was to restore the ancient religion, to get the
succession of the crown firmly settled, and to prevent the destruc-
tion of the ancient nobiUty, &c. Their common bannerf (on
* This circumstance is overlooked in the ballad,
t Besides this, the ballad mentions the separate banners of the
two noblemen.
IN THE NORTH. 267
which was displayed the cross, togedier with the five wounds of
Christ) was borne by an ancient gentleman, Ricliard Norton, Esq.,
of Norton-cony ers ; who, with his sons (among whom, Christopher,
Mamiaduke, and Thomas, are expressly named by Camden), dis-
tinguished himself on this occasion. Having entered Durham,
they tore the Bible, &c., and caused mass to be said there : they
then marched on to Clifford-moor near \\'etherbye, where they mus-
tered their men. Their intention was to have proceeded on to York,
but, altering their minds, they fell upon Barnard's castle, which
Sir George Bowes held out against them for eleven days. The
two earls, who spent their large estates in hospitality, and were ex-
tremely beloved on that account, were masters of little ready
money ; the E. of Northumberland bringing with him only 8000
crowns, and the E. of Westmoreland nothing at all for the sub-
sistence of their forces, they were not able to march to London, as
they had at tirst intended. In these circumstances, Westmoreland
began so visibly to despond, that many of his men slunk away,
tho' Northumberland still kept up his resolution, and was master
of the field till December 13, when the Earl of Sussex, accompanied
with Lord Hunsden and others, having marched out of York at
the head of a large body of forces, and being followed by a still
larger army under the command of Ambrose Dudley, Earl of War-
wick, the insurgents retreated northward towards the borders, and
there dismissing their followers, made their escape into Scotland.
Tho' this insurrection had been suppressed with so little bloodshed,
the Earl of Sussex and Sir George Bowes, marshal of the army, put
vast numbers to death by martial law, without any regular trial.
The former of these caused sixty-three constables to be hanged at
once. And the latter made his boast, that, for sixty miles in length,
and forty in breadth, betwixt Newcastle and \Vetherby, there was
hardly a town or village wherein he had not executed some of
the inhabitants. This exceeds the cruelties practised in the West
after Monmouth's rebellion : but that was not the age of tenderness
and humanity.
Such is the account collected from Stow, Speed, Camden, Guth-
rie, Carte, and Rapin ; it agrees in most particulars with the
following ballad, which was apparently the production of some
northern minstrel, who was well affected to the two noblemen. It is
here printed from two MS. copies, one of them in the Editor's folio
collection. They contained considerable variations, out of which
such readings were chosen as seemed most poetical and consonant
to history.
[The Northern Rebellion of 1569 has been nobly commemorated
in verse. Besides the two following ballads there is the one entitled
the Earlc of Westmorlande, in the folio MS. which was printed for
268 THE RISING ,
the first time in 1867, and also Wordsworth's matchless poem of
the White Doe of Rylstone. Those readers who wish for further
particulars respecting^this ill-starred insurrection, should see Mr.
Hales's interesting introduction to the Earl of Westmoreland (Folio
MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, vol. i. p. 292).
Percy acknowledges above that he has not followed the folio MS.
very closely, and his variations will be seen by comparing his ver-
sion with the copy now printed at the end.]
ISTEN, lively lordings all,
Lithe and listen unto mee,
And I will sing of a noble earle,
The noblest earle in the north countrie.
Earle Percy is into his garden gone, 5
And after him walkes his faire ladle :*
I heard a bird sing in mine eare.
That I must either fight, or flee.
Now heaven forefend, my dearest lord,
That ever such harm should hap to thee : 10
But goe to London to the court,
And faire fall truth and honestie.
Now nay, now nay, my ladye gay,
Alas ! thy counsell suits not mee ;
Mine enemies prevail so fast, 15
That at the court I may not bee.
O goe to the court yet, good my lord.
And take thy gallant men with thee :
If any dare to doe you wrong,
Then your warrant they may bee. ^o
* This lady was Anne, daughter of Henry Somerset, E. of
Worcester.
IN THE NORTH. 269
Now nay, now nay, thou lady faire,
The court is full of subtiltie ;
And if I goe to the court, lady,
Never more I may thee see.
Yet goe to the court, my lord, she sayes, 25
And I myselfe will ryde wi' thee :
At court then for my dearest lord,
His faithfull borrowe' I will bee
Now nay, now nay, my lady deare :
Far lever'^ had I lose my life, 30
Than leave among my cruell toes
JMy love in jeopardy and strife.
But come thou hither, my little foot-page.
Come thou hither unto mee,
To maister Norton thou must goe , 35
In all the haste that ever may bee.
Commend me to that gentleman,
And beare this letter here fro mee ;
And say that earnestly I praye,
He will ryde in my companie. 40
One while the little foot-page went,
And another while he ran ;
Untill he came to his journeys end,
The little foot-page never blan.'*
When to that gentleman he came, 45
Down he kneeled on his knee ;
And tooke the letter betwixt his hands,
And lett the gentleman it see.
And when the letter it was redd
7\ftore that goodl)'e compan^-e, 50
I wis, if you the truthe wold know,
Tlierc was many a weeping eye.
[' surety. - rather. ^ lingered.]
2 70 THE RISING
He sayd, Come thither, Christopher Norton,
A gallant youth thou seemst to bee ;
What doest thou counsell me, my sonne, 55
Now that good erle's in jeopardy ?
Father, my counselle's fair and free ;
That erle he is a noble lord,
And whatsoever to him you hight,
I wold not have you breake your word. 60
Gramercy, Christopher, my sonne,
Thy counsell well it liketh mee.
And if we speed and scape with life,
Well advanced shalt thou bee.
Come you hither, my nine good sonnes,* 65
Gallant men I trowe you bee :
How many of you, my children deare,
Will stand by that good erle and mee ?
Eight of them did answer make,
Eight of them spake hastllie, 70
O father, till the daye we dye
We'll stand by that good erle and thee.
Gramercy now, my children deare.
You showe yourselves right bold and brave ;
And whethersoe'er I live or dye, 75
A fathers blessing you shal have.
But what sayst thou, O Francis Norton,
Thou art mine eldest sonn and heire :
Somewhat lyes brooding in thy breast ;
Whatever it bee, to mee declare. 80
* [" The Act of Attainder 13th Elizabeth, only mentions
Richard Norton, the father and seven sons, and in ' a list of the
rebels in the late northern rebellion, that are fled beyond the seas,'
the same seven sons are named. Richard Norton, the father,
was living long after the rebellion in Spanish Flanders. See
Sharp's BisJwprick Garland, p. lo." — Child's Eng. and Scot.
Ballads, Vol. 7, p. 87 (note).]
IN THE NORTH. 271
Father, you are an aged man,
Your head is white, your bearde is gray ;
It were a shame at these your yeares
For you to ryse in such a fray.
Now fye upon thee, coward Francis, 85
Thou never learnedst this of mee :
When thou wert yong and tender of age.
Why did I make soe much of thee ?
But, father, I will wend with you,
Unarm'd and naked will I bee ; 90
And he that strikes against the crowne,
Ever an ill death may he dee.
Then rose that reverend gentleman,
And with him came a goodlye band
To join with the brave Erie Percy, 95
And all the flower o' Northumberland.
With them the noble Nevill came.
The erle of Westmorland was hee :
At Wetherbye they mustred their host,
Thirteen thousand faire to see. loo
Lord Westmorland his ancyent^ raisde,
The Dun Bull he rays'd on hye.
And three DoQfs with orolden collars
Were there sett out most royallye.*
* Ver. 102. Dun Bull, &'cl\ The supporters of the Na'ilks,
Earls of Westmoreland, were Two Bulls Argent, ducally collar'd
Gold, armed Or, ik.c. But I have not discovered the device men-
tioned in the ballad, among the badges, <S:c. given by that house.
This, however, is certain, that among those of the Aa'illfs, Lords
Abergavenny (who were of the same family) is a Dun Ccnv with a
golden Collar : and the NtTtllcs of Chyte in Yorkshire (of the
Westmoreland branch) gave for their crest, in 15 13, a Doi^'s (CJrey-
\} standard.]
272 THE RISING
Erie Percy there his ancyent spred, 105
The Halfe-Moone shining all soe faire : *
The Nortons ancyent had the crosse,
And the five wounds our Lord did beare.
Then Sir George Bowes he straitwaye rose,
After them some spoyle to make : no
Those noble erles turn'd backe againe,
And aye they vowed that knight to take.
hound's) Head erased. So that it is not improbable but Charles
Neville, the unhappy Earl of Westmoreland here mentioned, might
on this occasion give the above device on his banner. After all
our old minstrel's verses here may have undergone some cor-
ruption ; for, in another Ballad in the same folio MS. and appa-
rently written by the same hand, containing the sequel of this
Lord Westmoreland's history, his banner is thus described, more
conformable to his known bearings :
" Sett me up my faire Dun Bull,
With Gilden Homes, hee beares all soe hye."
* Ver. 106. Tlie Half-Moone, dN^.] The Silver Crescent is a
well-known crest or badge of the Northumberland family. It was
probably brought home from some of the Cruzades against the
Sarazens. In an ancient Pedigree in verse, finely illuminated on
a roll of vellum, and written in the reign of Henry VII. (in pos-
session of the family) we have this fabulous account given of its
original. The author begins with accounting for the name of
Gernon or Algernon, often born by the Percies ; who, he says, were
" . . . . Gernons fyrst named of Brutys blonde of Troy :
Which valHantly fyghtynge in the land of Perse \Persia\
At pointe terrible ayance the miscreants on nyght.
An hevynly mystery was schewyd hym, old bookys reherse ;
In hys scheld did schyne a Mone veryfying her lyght,
Which to all the ooste yave a perfytte fyght.
To vaynquys his enemys, and to deth them persue ;
And therefore the Perses [Percies] the Cressant doth renew."
in the dark ages no family was deemed considerable that did not
derive its descent from the Trojan Brutus; or that was not dis-
tinguished by prodigies and miracles.
IN THE NORTH. 273
The baron he to his castle fled,
To Barnard castle then fled hee.
The uttermost walles were eathe^ to win, 115
The earles have wonne them presentlie.
The uttermost walles were lime and bricke ;
But thoughe they won them soon anone,
Long e'er they wan the innermost walles,
For they were cut in rocke of stone. 120
Then newes unto leeve'^ London came
In all the speede that ever might bee,
And word is brought to our royall queene
Of the rysing in the North countrie.
Her grace she turned her round about, 125
And like a royall queene shee swore,'"
I will ordayne them such a breakfast.
As never was in the North before.
Shee caus'd thirty thousand men berays'd,
With horse and harneis ' faire to see ; 130
She caused thirty thousand men be raised,
To take the earles i'th' North countrie.
\Vi' them the false Erie Warwick went,
Th' erle Sussex and the lord Hunsden ;
Untill they to Yorke castle came 13s
I wiss, they never stint ne blan.'*
Now spred thy ancyent, Westmorland,
Thy dun bull faine would we spye :
And thou, the Erie o' Northumberland,
Now rayse thy half moone up on hye. 140
* This is quite in character : her majesty would sometimes swear
at her nobles, as well as box their ears.
[1 easy. - dear. ^ armour. * lingered.]
274 THE RISING
But the dun bulle is fled and gone,
And the halfe moone vanished away :
The Erles, though they were brave and bold,
Against soe many could not stay.
Thee, Norton, wi' thine eight good sonnes, 14.5
They doom'd to dye, alas ! for ruth !
Thy reverend lockes thee could not save.
Nor them their faire and blooming youthe.
Wi' them full many a gallant wight
They cruellye bereav'd of life : 150
And many a childe made fatherlesse.
And widowed many a tender wife.
HE following version of this ballad is from the Folio MS.
(ed. Hales and Furnivall, 1867, vol. ii. p. 210.)
Listen liuely lordings all,
and all that beene this place within !
if youle giue eare vnto my songe,
I will tell you how this geere did begin. 4
It was the good Erie of Westmorlande,
a noble Erie was called hee ;
and he wrought treason against the crowne ;
alas, itt was the more pittye ! 8
and soe itt was the Erie of Northumberland,
another good Noble Erie was hee,
they tooken both Vpon on part,
against their crowne they wolden bee. . 12
Earle Pearcy is into his garden gone,
and after walks his awne ladye ;
" I heare a bird sing in my eare
that I must either flight or ffiee." 16
IN THE NORTH. 275
" God ftbrbidd," shee sayd, " good my Lord,
that euer see that it shalbee !
but goe to London to the court,
and faire ffall truth and honestye ! " 20
" but nay, now nay, my Ladye gay,
that euer it shold soe bee ;
my treason is knowen well enoughe ;
att the court I must not bee." 24.
" but goe to the Court ! yet, good my Lord,
take men enowe with thee ;
if any man will doe you wronge,
your warrant they may bee." 28
" but nay, now nay, my Lady gay,
for soe itt must not bee ;
If I goe to the court, Ladye,
death will strike me, and I must dye." 32
" but goe to the Court ! yett, [good] my Lord,
I my-selfe will ryde Nvith thee ;
if any man will doe you wronge,
your borrow I shalbee." 36
" but nay, now nay, my Lady gay,
for soe it must not bee ;
for if I goe to the Court, Ladye,
thou must me neuer see. 40
" but come hither, thou litle footpage,
come thou hither vnto mee,
for thou shalt goe a Message to Master Norton
in all the hast that euer may bee : 44
" comend me to that gentleman ;
bring him here this letter from mee,
and say, ' I pray him earnestlye
that hee will ryde in my companye.' " 48
but one while the foote page went,
another while he rann ;
vntill he came to Master Norton,
the ffoot page neuer blanne ; 52
and when he came to Master Nortton,
he kneeled on his knee,
and tooke ilie letter betwixt his hands,
and lett the gentleman it see. 56
2 76 THE RISING ,
and when the letter itt was reade
afifore all his companye,
I-wis, if you wold know the truth,
there was many a weeping eye. 60
he said, " come hither, Kester Nortton,
a ffine ffellow thou seemes to bee ;
some good councell, Kester Nortton,
this day doe thou giue to mee." 64
" Marry, lie giue you councell, ffather,
if youle take councell att me,
that if you haue spoken the word, father,
that backe againe you doe not flee." 68
" god amercy, Christopher Nortton,
I say, god amercye !
if I doe Hue and scape with liffe,
well advanced shalt thou bee ; 72
"but come you hither, my nine good sonnes,
in mens estate I thinke you bee ;
how many of you, my children deare,
on my part that wilbe ?" 76
but eight of them did answer soone,
and spake ffull hastilye,
sayes "we willbe on your part, ffather,
till the day that we doe dye." 80
" but god amercy, my children deare,
and euer I say god amercy !
and yett my blessing you shall have,
whether-so euer I Hue or dye. 84
-" but what sayst thou, thou fifrancis Nortton,
mine eldest sonne and mine heyre trulye ?
some good councell, ffrancis Nortton,
this day thou giue to me." 88
" but I will giue you councell, ffather,
if you will take councell att mee ;
for if you wold take my councell, father,
against the crowne you shold not bee." 92
" but ffye vpon thee, ffrancis Nortton !
I say ffye vpon thee !
when thou was younge and tender of age
I made ffull much of thee." 96
IN THE NORTH.
- 1 1
" but your head is white, ftather," he sayes,
" and your beard is wonderous gray ;
itt were shame ftbr your countrye
if you shold rise and fflee away." loo
"but ffye vpon thee, thou coward fifrancis !
thou neuer tookest that of mee !
when thou was younge and tender of age
I made too much of thee." 104
"but I ^vill goe with you, father," Quoth hee ;
" like a naked man will I bee ;
he that strikes the first stroake against the crowne,
an ill death may hee dye ! " ic3
but then rose vpp Master Nortton that Esquier,
with him a hull great companye ;
and then the Erles they comen downe
to ryde in his companye. "2
att whethersbye the mustered their men
vpon a ffuU fayre day ;
13000 there were scene
to stand in battel ray. i ' 6
the Erie of Westmoreland, he had in his ancyeni
the Dume bull in sight most hye,
and 3 doggs with golden collers
were sett out royallye. 120
the Erie of Northumberland, he had in his ancyent
the halfe moone in sight soe hye,
as the Lord was crucifyed on the crosse,
and sett forthe pleasantlye, «:4
and after them did rise good Sir George Bowes,
after them a spoyle to make ;
the Erles returned backe againe,
thought euer that Knight to take. n^
this Barron did take a Castle then,
was made of lime and stone ;
the vttcrmost walls were ese to be woon ;
the Erles haue woon them anon ; '3^
but tho they woone the vttcrmost walls
quickly and anon,
the innermost walles th(^ cold not winn,
the were made of a rocke of stone. '3<^
278 RISING IN THE NORTH. >
but newes itt came to leeue London
in all they speede that euer might bee ;
and word it came to our royall Queene
of all the rebells in the north countrye. 14°
shee turned her grace then once about,
and like a royall Queene shee sware,
sayes, " I will ordaine them such a breake-fast
as was not in the North this 1000 yeere ! " 144
shee caused 30000 men to be made
with horsse and harneis all quicklye ;
and shee caused 30000 men to be made
to take the rebells in the North countrye. 148
they took with them the false Erie of Warwicke,
soe did they many another man ;
vntill they came to yorke Castle,
I-wis they neuer stinted nor blan. 1 5^
" spread thy ancyent, Erie of Westmoreland !
The halfe moone ffaine wold wee see ! "
but the halfe moone is fled and gone,
and the Dun bull vanished awaye ; 156
and ffrancis Nortton and his 8 sonnes
are filed away most cowardlye.
Ladds with mony are counted men
men without mony are counted none ; 160
but hold your tounge ! why say you soe ?
men wilbe men when mony is gone.
ffins.]
2 79
IV.
NORTHUMBERLAND BETRAYED BY
DOUGLAS.
HIS ballad may be considered as the sequel of the pre-
ceding. After the unfortunate Earl of Northumberland
f^^^ had seen himself forsaken of his followers, he en-
deavoured to withdraw into Scotland, but falling into
the hands of the thievish borderers, was stript and otherwise ill-
treated by them. At length he reached the house of Hector, of
Harlaw, an Armstrong, with whom he hoped to lie concealed : for,
Hector had engaged his honour to be true to him, and was under
great obligations to this unhappy nobleman. But this faithless
WTCtch betrayed his guest for a sum of money to Murray the Re-
gent of Scotland, who sent him to the castle of Lough-leven, then
belonging to William Douglas. All the writers of that time assure
us that Hector, who was rich before, fell shortly after into poverty,
and became so infamous, that to take Hector's cloak, grew into a
proverb to express a man who betrays his friend. See Camden,
Carleton, Holinshed, &:c.
Lord Northumberland continued in the castle of Lough-leven
till the year 1572 ; when James Douglas, Earl of Morton, being
elected Regent, he was given up to the Lord Hunsden at Benvick,
and being carried to York suffered death. As Morton's party de-
pended on Elizabeth for protection, an elegant historian thinks
" it was scarce possible for them to refuse putting into her hands
a person who had taken up arms against her. But, as a sum of
money was paid on that account, and shared between Morton and
his kinsman Douglas, the former of whom, during his exile in
England, had been much indebted to Northumberland's friendship,
the abandoning this unhappy nobleman to inevitable destniction
was deemed an ungrateful and mercenary act." Robertson's Hist.
So far history coincides with this ballad, which was a])parently
written by some Northern bard soon after the event. The inter-
posal of the witch-lady (v. 53) is probably his own invention : yet,
even this hath some countenance from history ; for about 25 years
before, the Lady Jane Douglas, Lady Glamis, sister of the earl of
Angus, and nearly related to Douglas of Lough-leven, had suffered
28o NORTHUMBERLAND
death for the pretended crime of witchcraft ; who, it is presumed,
is the Witch-lady aUuded to in verse 133.
The following is selected (like the former) from two copies,
which contained great variations ; one of them in the Editor's folio
MS. In the other copy some of the stanzas at the beginning of
this Ballad are nearly the same with what in that MS. are made to
begin another Ballad on the escape of the E. of Westmoreland,
who got safe into Flanders, and is feigned in the ballad to have
undergone a great variety of adventures.
[Percy wrote the following note on the version of this ballad in
his foHo MS. "To correct this by my other copy which seems
more modern. The other copy in many parts preferable to this."
It will be seen by comparing the text with the foHo MS. copy, now
printed at the end, that the alterations are numerous. The first
three stanzas are taken with certain changes from the ballad of
" The Erie of Westmoreland " (Folio MS. vol. i. p. 300). The
alterations made in them are not improvements, as, for instance,
the old reading of verse 2 is —
" And keepe me heare in deadlye feare," .
which is preferable to the Hne below —
" And harrowe me with fear and dread."]
OW long shall fortune faile me nowe,
And harrowe ^ me with fear and dread ?
How long shall I in bale^ abide,
In misery my life to lead ?
To fall from my bliss, alas the while ! s
It was my sore and heavy e lott :
And I must leave my native land,
And I must live a man forgot.
One gentle Armstrong I doe ken,
A Scot he is much bound to mee : 10
He dwelleth on the border side,
To him I'll goe right privilie.
" \} harass. ^ evil.]
»s
BETRAYED BY DOUGLAS. 28 1
Thus did the noble Percy 'plaine,
\\\\\\ a heavy heart and wel-awa)-,
When he with all his orallant men
On Bramham moor had lost the da}-.
But when he to the Armstrongs came,
They dealt with him all treacherouslye ;
For they did strip that noble earle :
And ever an ill death may they dye. 20
False Hector to Earl Murray sent,
To shew him where his cfuest did hide :
Who sent him to the Louirh-leven,
With William DouMas to abide.
And when- he to the Douglas came, as
He halched' him riofht curteouslie :
Say'd, Welcome, welcome, noble earle.
Here thou shalt safelye bide with mee.
When he had in Lou^di-leven been
Many a month and many a day ; 30
To the regent* the lord warden f sent.
That bannisht earle for to betray.
He offered him great store of gold,
And wrote a letter fair to see : /
Saying, Good my lord, grant me my boon, 35
And yield that banisht man to mee.
Earle Percy at the supper sate
With many a goodly gentleman :
The wylie Douglas then bespake,
And thus to fiyte"^ with him began : 40
* James Douglas, Earl of Morton, elected regent of Scotland
.N'ovember 24, 1572.
t Of one of the English marches. Lord Hunsdcn.
(/ saluted. "^ contend.]
\
282 NORTHUMBERLAND
What makes you be so sad, my lord,
And in your mind so sorrowfullye ?
To-morrow a shootinge will bee held
Among the lords of the North countrye.
The butts are sett, the shooting's made, 45
And there will be great royaltye :
And I am sworne into my bille,^
Thither to bring my lord Percye.
I'll give thee my hand, thou gentle Douglas,
And here by my true faith, quoth hee, 50
If thou wilt ryde to the worldes end,
I will ryde in thy companye.
And then bespake a lady faire,
Mary a Douglas was her name :
You shall byde here, good English lord, 55
My brother is a traiterous man.
He is a traitor stout and stronge,
As I tell you in privitie :
For he hath tane liverance"^ of the erle,*
Into England nowe to 'liver thee. 60
Now nay, now nay, thou goodly lady,
The regent is a noble lord :
Ne for the gold in all England,
The Douglas wold not break his word.
When the regent was a banisht man, 65
With me he did faire welcome find ;
And whether weal or woe betide,
I still shall find him true and kind.
* Of the Earl of Morton, the Regent.
[' sworn in writing. ^ money for deUvering you up.]
BETRAYED BY DOUGLAS. 28
o
Betweene England and Scotland it wold breake truce,
And friends againe they wold never bee, 70
If they shold 'liver a banisht erle
Was driven out of his own countrie.
Alas ! alas ! my lord, she sayes,
Nowe mickle is their traitorie ;
Then lett my brother ryde his wayes, 75
And tell those English lords from thee,
How that you cannot with him ryde,
Because you are in an ile of the sea,*
Then ere my brother come againe
To Edenborow castle f Ile carry thee. 80
To the Lord Hume I will thee bring,
He is well knowne a true Scots lord,
And he will lose both land and life,
Ere he with thee will break his word.
Much is my woe, Lord Percy sayd, 85
When I thinki'e on my own countrie.
When I thinke on the heavye happe'
My friends have suffered there for mee.
Much is my woe. Lord Percy sayd,
And sore those wars my minde distresse ; 90
Where many a widow lost her mate.
And many a child was fatherlesse.
And now that I a banisht man,
Shold bring such evil happe with mee.
To cause my faire and noble friends 95
To be suspect of treacherie :
• /. €. Lake of Leven, which hath communication with the sea.
t At that time in the hands of the opposite faction.
[' fortune.]
284 NORTHUMBERLAND
This rives ^ my heart with double woe ;
And lever had I dye this day,
Than thinke a Douglas can be false,
Or ever he will his guest betray. loo
If you'll give me no trust, my lord.
Nor unto mee no credence yield ;
Yet step one moment here aside.
He showe you all your foes in field.
Lady, I never loved witchcraft, 105
Never dealt in privy wyle ;
But evermore held the high-waye
Of truth and honour, free from guile.
If you'll not come yourselfe my lorde,
Yet send your chamberlaine with mee; no
Let me but speak three words with him,
And he shall come again to thee.
James Swynard with that lady went,
She showed him through the weme" of her ring
How many English lords there were ns
Waitine for his master and him.
'i>
And who walkes yonder, my good lady,
So royallye on yonder greene ?
O yonder is the lord Hunsden :*
Alas ! he'll doe you drie and teene.' 120
And who beth yonder, thou gay ladye.
That walkes so proudly him beside ?
That is Sir William Drury,t shee sayd,
A keene captaine hee is and tryde.
* The Lord Warden of the East marches,
t Governor of Berwick.
\} rends. ^ hollow. ^ ill and injury.]
BETRAYED BY DOUGLAS. 2S5
How many miles is itt, madamc, 125
Betwixt )-ond English lords and mee ?
Marry it is thrice fifty miles,
To saile to them upon the sea.
I never was on English ground,
Ne never sawe it with mine eye, 130
But as my book it sheweth mee,
And through my ring I may descrye.
My mother shee was a witch ladye.
And of her skille she learned^ mee ;
She wold let me see out of Lough-leven 135
What they did in London citie.
But who is yond, thou lady faire,
That looketh with sic an austerne^ face ?
Yonder is Sir John Foster,* quoth shee,
Alas ! he'll do ye sore disgrace. 140
He pulled his hatt down over his browe ;
He wept; in his heart he was full of woe :
And he is gone to his noble Lord,
Those sorrowful tidino-s him to show.
t>'
Now nay, now nay, good James Swynard, £+5 ^
I may not believe that witch ladle : ^J
The Douglasses were ever true,
And they can ne'er prove false to mee.
I have now in Lou^h-leven been
The most part of these years three, 150
Yett have I never had noe outrake,^
Ne no good games that I cold see.
♦ Warden of the Middle-march.
[• taught. - austere. ^ an outride or expedition.]
286 NORTHUMBERLAND
Therefore I'll to yond shooting wend,
As to the Douglas I have hight : ^
Betide me weale, betide me woe, 15s
He ne'er shall find my promise light.
He writhe^ a gold ring from his finger,
And gave itt to that gay ladle :
Sayes, It was all that I cold save.
In Harley woods where I cold bee.* 160
And wilt thou goe, thou noble lord,
Then farewell truth and honestie ;
And farewell heart and farewell hand ;
For never more I shall thee see.
The wind was faire, the boatmen call'd, 165
And all the saylors were on borde ;
Then William Douglas took to his boat.
And with him went that noble lord.
Then he cast up a silver wand,
Says, Gentle lady, fare thee well ! 170
The lady fett^ a sigh soe deep,
And in a dead swoone down shee fell.
Now let us goe back, Douglas, he sayd,
A sickness hath taken yond faire ladle ;
If ought befall yond lady but good, 175
Then blamed for ever I shall bee.
Come on, come on, my lord, he sayes ;
Come on, come on, and let her bee :
There's ladyes enow in Lough-leven
For to cheere that gay ladle. 180
* /. e. Where I was. An ancient idiom.
[^ promised. ^ twisted. ^ fetched.]
BETRAYED BY DOUGLAS. 2S7
If you'll not turne yourself, my lord,
Let me goe with my chamberlaine ;
We will but comfort that faire lady,
And wee will return to you againe.
Come on, come on, my lord, he sayes, 185
Come on, come on, and let her bee :
My sister is craftye, and wold beguile
A thousand such as you and mee.
When they had sayled * fifty myle,
Now fifty mile upon the sea ; 190
Hee sent his man to ask the Douglas,
When they shold that shooting see.
Faire words, quoth he, they make fooles faine,'
And that by thee and thy lord is seen :
You may hap'^ to thinke itt soone enough, 195
Ere you that shooting reach, I ween.
Jamye his hatt pulled over his browe.
He thought his lord then was betray'd ;
And he is to Erie Percy againe.
To tell him what the Douglas sayd. 200
Hold upp thy head, man, quoth his lord ;
Nor therefore lett thy courage fayle,
He did it but to prove thy heart,
To see if he cold make it quail.
When they had other fifty sayld, 205
Other fifty mile upon the sea,
Lord Percy called to Douglas himselfe,
Sayd, What wilt thou nowe doe with mee ?
* There is no navigable stream between Lough-Leven and the
sea : but a ballad-maker is not obliged to understand geography.
[' glad. 2 chance.]
288 NORTHUMBERLAND
Looke that your brydle be wight/ my lord,
And your horse goe swift as shipp att sea :
Looke that your spurres be bright and sharpe,
That you may pricke her while she'll away.
What needeth this, Douglas, he sayth ;
What needest thou to flyte^ with mee ?
For I was counted a horseman g-ood
Before that ever I mett with thee.
21
A false Hector hath my horse,
Who dealt with mee so treacherouslie :
A false Armstrong hath my spurres.
And all the geere belongs to mee. 220
When they had sayled other fifty mile,
Other fifty mile upon the sea ;
They landed low by Berwicke side,
A deputed ' laird ' landed Lord Percye.
Then he at Yorke was doomde to dye, 225
It was, alas ! a sorrowful sight :
Thus they betrayed that noble earle.
Who ever was a orallant wio^ht.
Ver. 224. Fol. MS. reads land, and has not the following stanza.
\} strong. 2 contend.]
BETRAYED BY DOUGLAS, 2S9
HE following version of the Betrayal of Northumberland
is from the Folio MS. (ed. Hales and Fumivall, vol. ii.
p. 218.)
Now list and lithe you gentlemen,
and 1st tell you the veret}e,
how they haue delt with a Vanished man,
driuen ou»: of his countrye. 4
when as hee came on Scottish ground
as woe and wonder be them amonge,
ffuU much was there traitorye
the wrought the Erie of Northumberland. 8
when they were att the supper sett,
beffore many goodly gentlemen
the ftell a fflouting and mocking both,
and said to the Erie of Northumberland, iz
" What makes you be soe sad, my Lord,
and in your mind soe sorrowfifuUye ?
in the North of Scotland to-morrow theres a shooting,
and thither thoust goe, my Lord Percye. i6
" the buttes are sett, and the shooting is made,
and there is like to be great royaltye,
and I am sworne into my bill
thither to bring ray Lord Pearcy." to
"He giue thee my land, Douglas," he sayes,
"and be the faith in my bodye,
if that thou wilt ryde to the worlds end,
He ryde in thy companye." 24
and then bespake the good Ladye, —
Marry a Douglas was her name, —
" you shall byde here, good English Lord ;
my brother is a traiterous man ; 28
" he is a traitor stout and stronge,
as 1st tell you the veretye,
for he hath tanc liuerance of the Erie,
and into England he will liuor thee." y-
"Now hold thy toungc, thou goodlye Ladye,
and let all this talking bee ;
ffor all the gold thats in Loug Leucn,
william wold not Liuor mee ! '-^
U
290 NORTHUMBERLAND
" it wold breake truce betweene England & Scottland,
and friends againe they wold neuer bee
if he shold liuor a bani[s]ht Erie
was driuen out of his owne countrye." 40
" hold your tounge, my Lord," shee sayes,
" there is much fifalsehood them amonge;
when you are dead, then they are done,
soone they will part them friends againe. 44
" if you will giue me any trust, my Lord,
He tell you how you best may bee ;
youst lett my brother ryde his wayes,
and tell those English Lords trulye 48
" how that you cannot with them ryde
because you are in an lie of the sea,
then, ere my Brother come againe,
to Edenborrow castle He carry thee, 52-
" lie liuor you vnto the Lord Hume,
and you know a trew Scothe Lord is hee,
for he hath lost both Land and goods
in ayding of your good bodye." 56
" Marry ! I am woe ! woman," he sayes,
" that any freind fares worse for mee ;
for where one saith ' it is a true tale,'
then two will say it is a Lye. 60
"when I was att home in my [reahne]
amonge my tennants all trulye,
in my time of losse, wherin my need stoode,
they came to ayd me honestlye ; 64
*' therfore I left many a child ffatherlese,
and many a widdow to looke wanne ;
and therfore blame nothing, Ladye,
but the woefifull warres which I began." 68
" If you will giue me noe trust, my Lord,
nor noe credence you will give mee,
and youle come hither to my right hand,
indeed, my Lord, He lett you see." 7^
saies, *' I neuer loued noe witchcraft,
nor neuer dealt with treacherye,
but euermore held the hye way ;
alas ! that may be scene by mee ! " 76
BETRAYED BY DOUGLAS. 291
" if you will not come your selfe, my Lord,
youle lett your chamberlaine goe with mee,
three words that I may to him speake,
and soone he shall come againe to thee." 80
when James SA\'}Tiard came that Lady before,
shee let him see thorrow the weme of her ring
how many there was of English lords
to wayte there for his Master and him. 84
" but who beene yonder, my good Ladye,
that walkes soe royallye on yonder greene ? ''
" yonder is Lord Hunsden, Jamye," she saye ;
" alas ! heele doe you both tree and teene !" 88
" and who beene yonder, thou gay Ladye,
that walkes soe royallye him beside ? "
" yond is Sir William Drurye, Jamy," shee sayd,
*' and a keene Captain hee is, and tryde." 93
" how many miles is itt, thou good Ladye,
betvvixt yond English Lord and mee ? "
"marry thrise fifty mile, Jamy," shee sayd,
" and euen to seale and by the sea : 96
" I neuer was on English ground,
nor neuer see itt with mine eye,
but as my witt and "vnsedome serues,
and as [the] booke it telleth mee. ico
" my mother, shee was a witch woman,
and part of itt shee learned mee ;
shee wold let me see out of Lough Leuen
what they dyd in London cytye." 104
" but who is yond, thou good Layde,
that comes yonder with an Osterne fface?"
" yonds Sir John fforster, Jamye," shee sayd ;
" methinks thou sholdest better know him then I." loS
" Euen soe I doe, my goodlye Ladye,
and euer alas, soe woe am I ! "
he pulled his hatt ouer his eyes,
and, lord, he wept soe tenderlye ! 112
he is gone to his ^Iaster againe,
and euen to tell him the veretye.
292 NOR THUMBERLAND
"Now hast thou beene with Marry, Jamy," he sayd,
" Euen as thy tounge will tell to mee ; ii6
but if thou trust in any womans words,
thou must refraine good companye."
" It is noe words, my Lord," he sayes,
" yonder the men shee letts mee see, 120
how many English Lords there is
is wayting there for you and mee ;
" yonder I see the Lord Hunsden,
and hee and you is of the third degree ; 124
a greater enemye, indeed, my Lord,
in England none haue yee,"
" and I haue beene in Lough Leven
the most part of these yeeres three : 128
yett had I neuer noe out-rake,
nor good games that I cold see ;
" and I am thus bidden to yonder shooting
by William Douglas all trulye ; 132
therfore speake neuer a word out of thy mouth
That thou thinkes will hinder mee."
then he writhe the gold ring of his ffingar
and gaue itt to that Ladye gay ; 136
sayes, " that was a Legacye left vnto mee
in Harley woods where I cold bee."
" then ffarewell hart, and farewell hand,
and fifarwell all good companye ! 140
that woman shall neuer beare a sonne
shall know soe much of your privitye."
" now hold thy tounge, Ladye," hee sayde,
" and make not all this dole for mee, 144
for I may well drinke, but 1st neuer eate,
till againe in Lough Leuen I bee."
he tooke his boate att the Lough Leuen
for to sayle now ouer the sea, 148
and he hath cast vpp a siluer wand,
saies " fare thou well, my good Ladye ! "
the Ladye looked ouer her left sholder ;
in a dead swoone there fell shee. 152
BETRAYED BY DOUGLAS. 293
" goe backe againe, Douglas ! " he sayd,
" and I will goe in thy companye,
for sudden sicknesse yonder Lady has tane,
and euer, alas, shee will but dye! 156
" if ought come to yonder Ladye but good,
then blamed fore that I shall bee,
because a banished man I am,
and driuen out of my owne countrye." i6o
" come on, come on, my Lord," he sayes,
" and lett all such talking bee ;
theres Ladyes enow in Lough Leuen,
and for to cheere yonder gay Ladye." 164
" and you will not goe your selfe, my Lord,
you will lett my chamberlaine goe with me ;
wee shall now take our boate againe,
and soone wee shall ouertake thee." 168
" come on, come on, my Lord," he sayes,
" and lett now all this talking bee !
Ifor my sister is craftye enoughe
for to beguile thousands such as you and mee." 172
When they had sayled fifty myle,
now fifty mile vpon the sea,
hee had fforgotten a message that hee
shold doe in lough Leuen trulye : 176
hee asked ' how ftar it was to that shooting,
that WiUiam Douglas promised me.'
now faire words makes fooles faine ;
and that may be scene by thy Master and thee ; i So
ffor you may happen think itt soone enoughe
when-euer you that shooting see."
Jamye pulled his hatt now ouer his browe ;
1 wott the teares fell in his eye ; ii>4
and he is to his Master againe,
and ffor to tell him the veretye :
he sayes, " fayre words makes fooles faine,
and that may be scene by you and mcc, J 88
ffor wcc may happen thinke itt soone enoughe
whcn-cuer wee that shooting see."
294 NORTHUMBERLAND.
"hold vpp thy head, Jamye," the Erie sayd,
" and neuer lett thy hart fayle thee ; 192
he did itt but to prove thee with,
and see how thow wold take with death trulye."
when they had sayled other fifty mile,
other fifty mile vpon the sea, 196
Lord Peercy called to him, himselfe,
and sayd, " Douglas what wilt thou doe with mee ? "
" looke that your brydle be wight, my Lord,
that you may goe as a shipp att sea ; 200
looke that your spurres be bright and sharpe,
that you may pricke her while sheele awaye."
" what needeth this, Douglas," he sayth.
" that thou needest to fifloute mee ? 204
for I was counted a horsseman good
before that euer I mett with thee.
" A ffalse Hector hath my horsse ;
and euer an euill death may hee dye ! 208
and Willye Armestronge hath my spurres
and all the geere belongs to mee."
when the had sayled other fifty mile,
other fifty mile vpon the sea, 212
the landed low by Bar\vicke side ;
a deputed land Landed Lord Percy e.
fiin[s] ]
V.
MY MIND TO ME A KINGDOM IS.
fHIS excellent philosophical song appears to have been
famous in the sixteenth century. It is quoted by Ben
Jonson in his play of Every Man out of his Huvioiir,
first acted in 1599, act i. sc. i, where an impatient
person says —
"I am no such pil'd cynique to believe
That beggery is the onely happinesse.
Or, with a number of these patient fooles,
To sing, ' My minde to me a kingdome is,'
When the lanke hungrie belly barkes for foode."
Jl/V MIND A KINGDOM IS. 295
It is here chiefly printed from a thin quarto Music book, intitled,
" Psalmes, Sonets, and Songs of sadnes and pietie, made into
Musicke of five parts : v\:c. By William Eyrd, one of the Gent, of
the Queenes Majesties honorable Chappell. — Printed by Thomas
East, &c." 4to. no date : but Ames in his Typo^:;. has mentioned
another edit, of the same book, dated 15SS, which I take to have
been later than this.
Some improvements and an additional stanza (sc. the 5th), were
had from two other ancient copies ; one of them in black letter in
the Pepys Collection, thus inscribed, "A sweet and pleasant sonet,
intitled, ' My Minde to me a Kingdom is.' To the tune of, In
Crete, &c."
Some of the stanzas in this poem were printed by Byrd separate
from the rest : they are here given in what seemed the most natural
order.
[The longest and apparently earliest version of this favourite
poem is signed " E. Dier," in MS. Rawl. Poet. 85, fol. 17 in the
Bodleian Library', and Dr. Hannah* attributes it to Sir Edward
Dyer, the friend of Spenser and Sidney, whose little pieces were
chiefly printed in Efigland's Helicon. Sir Edward Dyer, of Sharp-
ham Park, Somersetshire, was born about the year 1540. He was
educated at Oxford, and afterwards was employed in several em-
bassies. On the death of Sir John WoUey he was made Chancellor
of the Order of the Garter, and at the same time knighted. He
was an alchemist and dupe of Dr. Dee and Edward Kelly. Sir
Egerton Brydges quotes from Aubrey the statement that he had
four thousand pounds a year, and had fourscore thousand pounds
left to him, which he wasted almost all, but Sir Egerton considers
the sums almost incredible for the time.
In " Posthumi or Sylvesters Remains, revived out of the ashes of
that silver-tongued translatour and divine Poet Laureat," at the
end of the translation of the Divine Weekes of Du Bartas, 1641,
there is the following parody of this favourite poem :
" A Contented Minde.
" I waigh not Fortunes frowne or smile,
I joy not much in earthly joyes,
I seeke not state, I reake not stile,
I am not fond of fancies Toyes :
I rest so pleased with what I have,
I wish no more, no more I crave.
* \The Courtly Poets, from Ralei\:;h to Montrose. Edited by J.
Hannah, D.C.L., London, 1S70. (Aldine Poets.)]
296 MY MIND TO ME
" I quake not at the Thunders crack,
I tremble not at noise of warre,
I swound not at the newes of wrack,
I shrink not at a Blazing Starre ;
I feare not losse, I hope not gaine,
I envie none, I none disdaine.
" I see ambition never pleas'd,
I see some Tantals starv'd in store,
I see golds dropsie seldome eas'd,
I see even Midas gape for more :
I neither want, nor yet abound.
Enough's a feast, content is crown'd.
" I faine not friendship where I hate,
I fawne not on the great (in show)
I prize, I praise a meane estate,
Neither too lofty nor too low :
This, this is all my choice, my cheere,
A minde content, a conscience cleere."]
[^^^5' Y minde to me a kingdome is ;
Such perfect joy therein I finde
As farre exceeds all earthly blisse,
That God or Nature hath assignde ;
Though much I want, that most would have, 5
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.
Content I live, this is my stay ;
I seek no more than may suffice :
I presse to beare no haughtie sway ;
Look what I lack my mind supplies. 10
Loe ! thus I triumph like a king,
Content with that my mind doth bring.
I see how plentie surfets oft,
And hastie clymbers soonest fall :
I see that such as sit aloft 15
Mishap doth threaten most of all :
A KINGDOM IS. 297
These get with toile, and keep with feare :
Such cares my mind could never beare.
No princely pompe, nor welthie store,
No force to winne the victorie, -o
No wylie wit to salve a sore,
No shape to winne a lovers eye ;
To none of these I yeeld as thrall,
For why my mind despiseth all.
Some have too much, yet still they crave, 25
I little have, yet seek no more :
They are but poore, tho' much they have ;
And I am rich with litde store :
They poor, I rich ; they beg, I give ;
They lacke, I lend ; they pine, 1 live. 30
I laugh not at anothers losse,
I grudge not at anothers gaine ;
No worldly wave my mind can tosse,
I brooke that is anothers bane :
I feare no foe, nor fawne on friend ; 35
I lothe not life, nor dread mine end.
I joy not in no earthly blisse ;
I weigh not Cresus' welth a straw ;
For care, I care not what it is ;
I feare not fortunes fatall law : 40
My mind is such as may not move
For beautie briofht or force of love.
I wish but what I have at will ;
I wander not to seeke for more ;
I like the plaine, I clime no hill ; 45
In greatest stormes I sitte on shore,
And laugh at them that toile in vaine
To get what must be lost againe.
298 MY MIND A KINGDOM IS.
I kisse not where I wish to kill ;
I feigne not love where most I hate ; 50
I breake no sleep to winne my will ;
I wayte not at the mighties gate ;
I scorne no poore, I feare no rich ;
I feele no want, nor have too much.
The court, ne cart, I like, ne loath ; 55
Extreames are counted worst of all :
The golden meane betwixt them both.
Doth surest sit, and fears no fall :
This is my choyce, for why I finde.
No wealth is like a quiet minde. 60
My welth is health, and perfect ease ;
My conscience clere my chiefe defence :
I never seeke by brybes to please,
Nor by desert to give offence :
Thus do I live, thus will I die ; Cs
Would all did so as well as I !
VI.
THE PATIENT COUNTESS.
'HE subject of this tale is taken from that entertaining
Colloquy of Erasmus, intitled, " Uxor Ms^i^iyajuoe, sive
Conjugium : " which has been agreeably modernized
by the late Mr. Spence, in his little Miscellaneous Pub-
lication, intitled, ^'' Moralities, &c. by Sir Harry Beaumont," 1753,
8vo. pag. 42.
The following stanzas are extracted from an ancient poem in-
titled Albion's England, written by W. Warner, a celebrated poet
in the reign of Q. Elizabeth, though his name and works are now
equally forgotten. The reader will find some account of him in
vol. ii. book ii. song 24.
I
THE PATIENT COUNTESS. 299
The following stanzas are printed from the author's improved
edition of his work, printed in 1602, 4to. ; the third impression of
which appeared so early as 1592, in bl. let. 4to. The edition in
1602 is in thirteen books; and so it is reprinted in 1612, 4to. ;
yet, in 1606, was i)ublished "A Continuance of Albion's England,
by the first author, W. W. Lond. 4to. : "' this contains Books xiv.
x\". xvi. There is also extant, under the name of Warner, " Syrinx,
or a seven-fold Historie, pleasant, and profitable, comical, and
tragical," 4to.
[The title of this poem challenges comparison with Patient
Grisclda, but it is in flict a totally difterent story, and as ]\Ir. Hales
says, "represents rather tact and management than patience in the
\\ife of an unfaithful (not a tempting and essaying) husband." The
first edition of Warner's poem was published in 1586, and the
numerous impressions of it prove its popularity. The full title is
as follows: "Albion's England, a continued History of the same
Kingdome from the Originals of the first inhabitants thereof, unto
the raigne of Queen Elizabeth."]
I^MPATIENCE chaungeth smoke to flame,
but jelousie is hell ;
Some wives by patience have reduc'd ill
husbands to live well :
As did the ladie of an earle, of whom I now shall tell.
An earle ' there was ' had wedded, lov'd ; was lov'd,
and lived lono;
Full true to his fayre countesse ; yet at last he did her
wrong. 5
Once hunted he untill the chace, long fasting, and
the heat
Did house him in a peakish graunge^ within a forest
great.
Where knowne and welcom'd (as the place and per-
sons might afforde)
Browne bread, whig,'^ bacon, curds and milke were set
him on the borde.
\} rude and lone country house. '^ buttermilk or sour whey.]
300 THE PATIENT COUNTESS.
A cushion made of lists, a stoole halfe backed with a
hoope lo
Were brought him, and he sitteth down besides a
sorry coupe. ^
The poore old couple wisht their bread were wheat,
their whig were perry.
Their bacon beefe, their milke and curds were creame,
to make him merry.
Meane while (in russet neatly clad, with linen white
as swanne,
Herselfe more white, save rosie where the ruddy
colour ranne : 15
Whome naked nature, not the aydes of arte made to
excell)
The good man's daughter sturres to see that all were
feat^ and well ;
The earle did marke her, and admire such beautie
there to dwell.
Yet fals he to their homely fare, and held him at a feast :
But as his hunger slaked, so an amorous heat increast.
When this repast was past, and thanks, and welcome
too ; he sayd 21
Unto his host and hostesse,in the hearing of the mayd :
Yee know, quoth he, that I am lord of this, and many
townes ;
I also know that you be poore, and I can spare you
pownes."
Soe will I, so yee will consent, that yonder lasse and I 25
May bargaine for her love ; at least, doe give me leave
to trye.
Who needs to know it ? nay who dares into my doings
First theymislike,yetatthelengthforlucrewere misled;
And then the gamesome earle did wowe^ the damsell
for his bed.
[^ pen for poultry. ^ ni^e qj- neat. ^ pounds. ■* woo.]
THE PATIENT COUNTESS. 301
He took her in his armes, as yet so coyish to be kist, 30
As mayds that know themselves belov'd, and yieldingly
resist.
In few, his offers were so large she lastly did consent ;
With whom he lodged all that night, and early home
he went.
He tooke occasion oftentimes in such a sort to hunt.
Whom when his lady often mist,contrary to his wont, 35
And lastly was informed of his amorous haunt else-
where ;
It greev'd her not a little, though she seem'd it well
to beare.
And thus she reasons with herselfe, some fault per-
haps in me ;
Somewhat is done, that so he doth : alas ! what ma)-
it be ?
How may I winne him to myself? he is a man, and
men 40
Have imperfections ; itbehooves me pardon nature then.
To checke him were to make him checke,* althouy-h
hee now were chaste :
A man controuled of his wife, to her makes lesser haste,
If dut)' then, or daliance may prevayle to alter him ;
I will be dutifulfand make my selfe for daliance trim, ^s
So was she, and so lovingly did entertaine her lord,
As fairer, or more faultles none could be for bed or bord.
Yet still he loves his leiman,^ and did still pursue that
game.
Suspecting nothing less, than that his lady knew the
same :
Wherefore to make him know she knew, she this de-
vise did frame : 50
• To check is a term in falconry, applied when a hawk stops and
turns away from his proper pursuit : to check also signifies to re-
prove or chide. It is in this verse used in Ijoth senses.
(^ mistress.]
302 THE PATIENT COUNTESS.
When long she had been wrong'd, and sought the
foresayd meanes in vaine,
She rideth to the simple graunge, but with a slender
traine.
She lighteth, entreth, greets them well, and then did
looke about her :
The guiltie houshold knowing her, did wish them-
selves without her ;
Yet, for she looked merily, the lesse they did mis-
doubt^ her. 5^
When she had seen the beauteous wench (then blush-
ing fairnes fairer)
Such beauty made the countesse hold them both ex-
cus'd the rather.
Who would not bite at such a bait ? thought she : and
who (though loth)
So poore a wench, but gold might tempt ? sweet
errors lead them both.
Scarse one in twenty that had bragg'd of proffer'd
gold denied, 60
Or of such yeelding beautie baulkt, but, tenne to one,
had lied.
Thus thought she : and she thus declares her cause
of coming thether ;
My lord, oft hunting in these partes, through travel,
night or wether,
Hath often lodged in your house; I thanke you for
the same ;
For why ? it doth him jolly ease to lie so neare his
game. ^ 65
But, for you have not furniture beseeming such a guest,
I bring his owne, and come myselfe to see his lodg-
ing drest.
With that two sumpters were discharg'd, in which
were hangings brave,
\} suspect]
THE PATIENT COUNTESS, ^o^
Silke coverings, ciirtens, carpets, plate, and al such
turn should have.
When all was handsomly dispos'd, she prayes them
to have care 70
That nothing hap in their default/ that might his
health impair :
And, Damsell, quoth shee, for it seemes this hous-
hold is but three,
And for thy parents age, that this shall chiefely rest
on thee ;
Do me that good, else would to God he hither come
no more.
So tooke she horse, and ere she went bestowed ofould
good store. 7S
Full little thought the countie"' that his countesse had
done so ;
Who now return'd from far affaires did to his sweet-
heart go.
No sooner sat he foote within the late deformed cote,^
But that the formall chancre of thincys his wondrinof
eies did note.
But when he knew those goods to be his proper
goods ; though late, 80
Scarce taking leave, he home returnes the matter to
debate.
The countesse was a-bed, and he with her his lodging
tooke ;
Sir, welcome home (quoth shee) ; this night for you
I did not looke.
Then did he question her of such his stuffe bestowed
soe.
Forsooth, quoth she, because I did )our love and
lodging knowe ; 85
Your love to be a proper wench, your lodging nothing
lesse ;
\} happen from their neglect. - earl. ^ cottage]
04 THE PATIENT COUNTESS.
I held it for your health, the house more decently to
dresse.
Well wot I, notwithstanding her, your lordship loveth
me ; •
And greater hope to hold you such by quiet, then
brawles, ' you ' see.
Then for my duty, your delight, and to retaine your
favour, 90
All done I did, and patiently expect your wonted
'haviour.
Her patience, witte and answer wrought his gentle
teares to fall :
When (kissing her a score of times) amend, sweet
wife, I shall :
He said, and did it ; * so each wife her husband may'
recall.
vn.
DOWSABELL.
HE following stanzas were written by Michael Drayton,
a poet of some eminence in the reigns of Q. Elizabeth,
James I. and Charles I.* They are inserted in one of
his Pastorals, the first edition of which bears this
whimsical title, " Idea. The Shepheards Garland fashioned in
nine Eglogs. Rowlands sacrifice to the nine muses. Lond. 1593-"
4to. They are inscribed with the author's name at length " To
the noble and valerous gentleman master Robert Dudley, &c." It
is very remarkable that when Drayton reprinted them in the first
folio edit, of his works, 16 19, he had given those Eclogues so
thorough a revisal, that there is hardly a line to be found the
same as in the old edition. This poem had received the fewest
* He was born in 1563, and died in 1631.
.Biog. Brit.
DOWSABELL. 305
corrections, and therefore is chiefly given from the ancient copy,
where it is thus introduced by one of his Shepherds :
"Listen to mee, my lovely shepheards joye,
And thou shalt heare, with mirth and mickle glee,
A pretie tale, which when 1 was a boy.
My toothles grandame oft hath tolde to me."
The author has professedly imitated the style and metre of
some of the old metrical romances, particularly that of Sir
Isenbras* (alluded to in v. 3), as the reader may judge from the
following specimen :
" Lordynges, lysten, and you shal here, &c.
tt^ ^^ ^K ^ ^
Ye shall well heare of a knight,
That was in warre full wyght.
And doughtye of his dede :
His name was Syr Isenbras,
Man nobler then he was
Lp'ed none with breade.
He was lyvely, large, and longe,
With shoulders broade, and armes stronge.
That myghtie was to se :
He was a hardye man, and hye.
All men hym loved that hym se,
For a gentyll knight was he :
Harpers loved him in hall,
With other minstrells all,
For he gave them golde and fee," &c.
This ancient legend was printed in black-letter, 4to. by Wyllyam
Copland; no date.f In the Cotton Library (Calig. A 2) is a MS.
copy of the same romance containing the greatest variations.
They are probably two different translations of some French
original.
* As also Chaucer's Rhyme of Sir Topas, v. 6.
t [Reprinted by Utterson. The Romance of Sir Isiimbras was
printed from the MS. by Mr. Hallivvell in the T/iornton Romances
(Camden Society, 1844).]
3o6 DOWSABELL.
^^^^^^ARRE in the countrey of Arden,
There won'd^ a knight, hight Cassemen,
As bolde as Isenbras :
Feir^ was he, and eger bent.
In battell and in tournament, 5
As was the good Sir Topas.
He had, as antique stories tell,
A daughter cleaped^ Dowsabel,
A mayden fayre and free :
And for she was her fathers heire, 10
Full well she was y-cond the leyre^
Of mickle curtesie.
The silke well couth she twist and twine,
And make the fine march-pine,^
And with the needle werke : 15
And she couth helpe the priest to say ,
His mattins on a holy-day, *
And sing a psalme in kirke.
She ware a frock of frolicke greene.
Might well beseeme a mayden queene, 20
Which seemly was to see ;
A hood to that so neat and fine,
In colour like the colombine,
Y-wrought full featously.^
Her features all as fresh above, 25
As is the grasse that growes by Dove ;
And lyth^ as lasse of Kent.
\} dwelt. ^ keen. ^ named. ^ she was taught the
learning. ^ march-pane, a kind of biscuit. ^ dexterously.
^ gentle or tender.]
DOWSABELL. 307
Her skin as soft as Lemster wooll/
As white as snow on Peakish Hull,"
Or swanne that swims in Trent. 30
This mayden in a morne betime
Went forth, when May was in her prime.
To get sweete cctywall, '
The honey-suckle, the harlocke,^
The lilly and the lady-smocke, 35
To deck her summer hall.
Thus, as she wandred here and there,
Y-picking of the bloomed breere,
She chanced to espie
A shepheard sitting on a bancke, 4.0
Like chanteclere he crowed crancke,^
And pip'd full merrilie.
He lear'd° his sheepe as he him list,
When he would whistle in his fist,
To feede about him round ; 4S
Whilst he full many a carroll sung,
Untill the fields and medowes rung,
And all the woods did sound.
In favour this same shepheards swayne
W^as like the bedlam Tamburlayne,* 50
WHiich helde prowd kings in awe :
• Alluding to Tamburlainc the ^reat, or the Scythian Shepheard,
1590, 8vo. an old ranting play ascribed to Marlowe.
\} Leominster, or Lemster, was long famous for its wool, and
Skelton refers to " good Lemster wool " in his Elynour Rummin.
- Peakish hill ; this may refer to the well-known Derbyshire
mountain called the Peak.
^ herb valerian, or mountain spikenard.
^ perhaps charlock, or wild rape.
^ exultingly. * pastured.
3o8 DOWSABELL.
But meeke he was as lamb mought be ;
An innocent of ill as he *
Whom his lewd brother slaw.
The shepheard ware a sheepe-gray cloke, 55
Which was of the finest loke,^
That could be cut with sheere :
His mittens were of bauzens^ skinne,
His cockers^ were of cordiwin,^
His hood of meniveere.^ 60
His aule and lingell^ in a thong,
His tar-boxe on his broad belt hong,
His breech of coyntrie^ blewe :
Full crispe and curled were his lockes,
His browes as white as Albion rocks : 65
So like a lover true,
And pyping still he spent the day,
So merry as the popingay ; ^
Which liked Dowsabel :
That would she ought, or would she nought, 70
This lad would never from her thought ;
She in love-longing fell.
At length she tucked up her frocke,
White as a lilly was her smocke.
She drew the shepheard nye ; 75
But then the shepheard pyp'd a good,
That all his sheepe forsooke their foode.
To heare his melodye.
* Sc. Abel.
\} fleece of wool. - sheepskin gloves with the wool on the
inside. ^ short boots. * leather.
^ mixed fur. ^ rosined thread. " Coventry.
8
parrot.]
DOWSABELL, 309
Thy sheepe, quoth she, cannot be leane,
That have a jolly shepheards swayne, 80
The which can pipe so well :
Yea but, sayth he, their shepheard may,
If pyping thus he pine away
In love of Dowsabel.
Of love, fond boy, take thou no keepe,' 85
Quoth she ; looke thou unto thy sheepe,
Lest they should hap to stray.
Quoth he, so had I done full well,
Had I not seen fayre Dowsabell
Come forth to gather maye. 90
With that she gan to vaile her head,
Her cheeks were like the roses red.
But not a word she sayd :
With that the shepheard gan to frowne,
He threw his pretie pypes adowne, 95
And on the ground him layd.
Sayth she, I may not stay till night,
And leave my summer-hall undight,'*
And all for lono- of thee.
My coate,^ sayth he, nor yet my fouldc 100
Shall neither sheepe nor shepheard hould,
Except thou favour mee.
Sayth she, Yet lever were I dead.
Then I should lose my mayden-head,
And all for love of men. 105
Sayth he, Yet are you too unkind.
If in your heart you cannot fmde
To love us now and then.
[' heed. '-' undecked. ^ cot.J
3IO DOWSABELL.
And I to thee will be as kinde
As Colin was to Rosalinde, no
Of curtesie the flower.
Then will I be as true, quoth she,
As ever mayden yet might be
Unto her paramour.
With that she bent her snow-white knee, 115
Downe by the shepheard kneeled shee,
And him she sweetely kist :
With that the shepheard whoop'd for joy,
Quoth he, ther's never shepheards boy
That ever was so blist. 120
VIII.
THE FAREWELL TO LOVE.
From Beaumont and Fletcher's play, intitled The Lovei^s Progress.
act iii. sc. i.
:DIEU, fond love, farewell you wanton
powers ;
I am free again.
Thou dull disease of bloud and idle hours,
Bewitching pain,
Fly to fools, that sigh away their time : 5
My nobler love to heaven doth climb,
And there behold beauty still young.
That time can ne'er corrupt, nor death destroy.
Immortal sweetness by fair angels sung,
And honoured by eternity and joy : 10
There lies my love, thither my hopes aspire.
Fond love declines, this heavenly love grows higher.
UL YSSES AND THE S YREN. 3 1 1
IX.
ULYSSES AND THE SYREN,
(FFORDS a pretty poetical contest bet\veen Pleasure
and Honour. It is found at the end of Hymai's
Triumph : a pastoral tragicomcdic, written by Daniel,
and printed among his works, 4to. 1623.* Daniel, who
was a contemporary of Drayton's, and is said to have been poet
laureat to Queen Elizabeth, was bom in 1562, and died in 1619.
Anne, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery (to whom
Daniel had been tutor), has inserted a small portrait of him in a
full-length picture of herself, preserved at Appleby Castle, in Cum-
berland.
This little poem is the rather selected for a specimen of Daniel's
poetic powers, as it is omitted in the later edition of his works,
2 vols. i2mo. 1 7 18.
[Samuel Daniel was born in Somersetshire, and educated at
Magdalen Hall, O.xford. He left college without a degree, " his
geny being," according to Ant. ^ Wood, "more prone to easier
and smoother subjects than in pecking and hewing at logic. " He
was tutor to Lady Anne Clifford, subsequently Countess of Pem-
broke, and aftenvards groom of the privy chamber to Anne, queen
of James I. Browne calls him in Britannia's Pastorals, " Wel-
languaged Daniel," and the union of power of thought with sweet-
ness and grace of expression exhibited by him is highly praised by
Southey and Coleridge. He was free from indelicacy in his writ-
ings, and Fuller says of him that " he carried in his Christian and
surname two holy prophets, his monitors, so to qualify his raptures
that he abhorred all profaneness."]
• In this edition it is collated with a copy printed at the enH of
his " Tragedic of Cleopatra. London, 1607, 12 mo."
312 ULYSSES AND
Syren.
OME, worthy Greeke, Ulysses come,
Possesse these shores with me,
The windes and seas are troublesome.
And here we may be free.
Here may we sit and view their toyle, 5
That travaile in the deepe.
Enjoy the day in mirth the while,
And spend the night in sleepe.
Ulysses.
Faire nymph, if fame or honour were
To be attain'd with ease, 10
Then would I come and rest with thee,
And leave such toiles as these :
But here it dwels, and here must I
With danger seek it forth ;
To spend the time luxuriously 15
Becomes not men of worth.
Syren.
Ulysses, O be not deceiv'd
With that unreall name :
This honour is a thing conceiv'd,
And rests on others' fame. ?o
Begotten only to molest
Our peace, and to beguile
(The best thing of our life) our rest.
And give us up to toyle !
i
THE SYREN. 313
Ulysses.
Delicious nymph, suppose there were 25
Nor honor, nor report,
Yet manHnesse would scorne to weare
The time in idle sport :
For toyle doth give a better touch
To make us feele our joy ; 30
And ease findes tediousnes, as much
As labour yeelds annoy.
Syren.
Then pleasure likewise seemes the shore,
Whereto tendes all your toyle ;
Which you forego to make it more, 35
And perish oft the while.
Who may disport them diversly.
Find never tedious day ;
And ease may have variety.
As well as action may. 40
Ulysses.
But natures of the noblest frame
These toyles and dangers please ;
And they take comfort in the same,
As much as you in ease :
And with the thought of actions past 45
Are recreated still :
When pleasure leaves a touch at last
To shew that it was ill.
Syren.
That doth opinion only cause,
That's out of custom bred ; 50
Which makes us many other laws,
Than ever nature did.
314 ULYSSES AND THE SYREN.
No widdowes waile for our delights,
Our sports are without blood ;
The world we see by warlike wights 55
Receives more hurt than good.
Ulysses.
But yet the state of things require
These motions of unrest,
And these great spirits of high desire
Seem borne to turne them best : 60
To purge the mischiefes, that increase
And all orood order mar :
For oft we see a wicked peace,
To be well chang'd for war.
Syren.
Well, well, Ulysses, then I see 65
I shall not have thee here ;
And therefore I will come to thee,
And take my fortune there.
I must be wonne that cannot win.
Yet lost were I not wonne : 70
For beauty hath created bin
T' undoo or be undone.
X.
CUPID'S PASTIME.
HIS beautiful poem, which possesses a classical elegance
hardly to be expected in the age of James I. is printed
from the 4th edition of Davison's Poems,* &c. 162 1.
It is also found in a later miscellany, intitled, " Le
Prince d' Amour," 1660, 8vo. Francis Davison, editor of the poems
* See the full title in Vol. ii. Book iii. No. iv.
CUPID'S PASTIME. 315
above referred to, was son of that unfortunate secretary' of state
who suti'ered so much from the afi'air of Mary Q. of Scots. These
poems, he tells us in his preface, were written by himself, by his
brother [Walter], who was a soldier in the wars of the Low Coun-
tries, and by some dear friends "anonymoi." Among them are
found some pieces by Sir J. Davis, the Countess of Pembroke, Sir
Philip Sidney, Spenser, and other wits of those times.
In the fourth vol. of Drydcn's Miscellanies, this poem is attri-
buted to Sydney Godolphin, Esq. ; but erroneously, being pro-
bably written before he was born. One edit, of Davisons book
was published in 1608. Godolphin was born in 1610, and died
in 1642-3. Ath. Ox. ii. 23.
i
^^ T chanc'd of late a shepherd swain.
That went to seek his straying- sheep,
Within a thicket on a plain
Espied a dainty nymph asleep.
Her golden hair o'erspred her face ; s
Her careless arms abroad were cast ;
Her quiver had her pillows place ;
Her breast lay bare to every blast.
The shepherd stood and gaz'd his fill ;
Nought durst he do; nought durst he say ; 10
Whilst chance, or else perhaps his will.
Did guide the god of love that way.
The crafty boy that sees her sleep,
Whom if she wak'd he durst not see ;
Behind her closely seeks to creep, is
Before her nap should ended bee.
There come, he steals her shafts away,
And puts his own into their place ;
Nor dares he any longer stay,
But, ere she wakes, hies thence apace. 20
3i6 CUPID'S PASTIME.
Scarce was he gone, but she awakes,
And spies the shepherd standing by :
Her bended bow in haste she takes,
And at the simple swain lets flye.
Forth flew the shaft, and pierc'd his heart, 25
That to the ground he fell with pain :
Yet up again forthwith he start.
And to the nymph he ran amain.
Amazed to see so strange a sight.
She shot, and shot, but all in vain ; 30
The more his wounds, the more his might.
Love yielded strength amidst his pain.
Her angry eyes were great with tears,
She blames her hand, she blames her skill ;
The bluntness of her shafts she fears, 35
And try them on herself she will.
Take heed, sweet nymph, trye not thy shaft,
Each little touch will pierce thy heart :
Alas ! thou know'st n5t Cupids craft ;
Revenge is joy ; the end is smart. +0
Yet try she will, and pierce some bare ;
Her hands were glov'd, but next to hand
Was that fair breast, that breast so rare.
That made the shepherd senseless stand.
That breast she pierc'd ; and through that breast 45
Love found an entry to her heart ; ij
At feeling of this new-come guest.
Lord ! how this gentle nymph did start .-*
She runs not now ; she shoots no more ;
Away she throws both shaft and bow : 50
She seeks for what she shunn'd before.
She thinks the shepherds haste too slow.
CUPID'S PASTIME.
317
Though mountains meet not, lovers may
What other lovers do, did they :
The god of love sate on a tree,
And laught that pleasant sight to see.
55
XI.
THE CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE.
HIS little moral poem was writ by Sir Henry Wotton,
"UK^'*' ^^^^^ ^^^^ Provost of Eton in 1639. J^t. 72. It is
^ ^^^ printed from a little collection of his pieces, intitled,
Jieliquuv Wotioniame, 1651, i2mo. ; compared with one
or two other copies. [Ben Jonson is said to have greatly admired
these verses, and to have known them by heart.]
OW^ happy is he born or taught,
That serveth not anothers will ;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his highest skill :
W^hose passions not his masters are ;
Whose soul is still prepar'd for death ;
Not ty'd unto the world with care
Of princes ear, or vulgar breath :
Who hath his life from rumours freed ;
Whose conscience is his strong retreat :
Whose state can neither flatterers feed.
Nor ruine make oppressors great :
Who envies none, whom chance doth raise,
Or vice : Who never understood
How deepest wounds are given with praise ;
Nor rules of state, but rules of good ;
10
15
3i8 A HAPPY LIFE.
Who God doth late and early pray
More of his grace than gifts to lend ;
And entertaines the harmless day
With a well-chosen book or friend.
This man is freed from servile bands
Of hope to rise, or feare to fall ;
Lord of himselfe, though not of lands ;
And having nothing, yet hath all.
20
XII.
GILDEROY
-^^^'^AS a famous robber, who lived about the middle of the
last century, if we may credit the histories and story-
books of highwaymen, which relate many improbable
feats of him, as his robbing Cardinal Richelieu, Oliver
Cromwell, &c. But these stories have probably no other authority
than the records of Grub-street. At least the Gilderoy, who is the
hero of Scottish songsters, seems to have lived in an earlier age ;
for, in Thompson's' Orpheus Caledonius, vol. ii. 1733, 8vo. is a
copy of this ballad, which, tho' corrupt and interpolated, contains
some lines that appear to be of genuine antiquity : in these he is
represented as contemporary with Mary Q. of Scots : ex. gr.
"The Queen of Scots possessed nought.
That my love let me want :
For cow and ew he to me brought,
And een whan they were scant.
All these did honestly possess
He never did annoy.
Who never fail'd to pay their cess
To my love Gilderoy."
These lines perhaps might safely have been inserted among the
following stanzas, which are given from a written copy, that appears
to have received some modern corrections. Indeed, the common
popular ballad contained some indecent luxuriances that required
the pruning-hook.
GILDEROY. 319
[The subject of this ballad was a ruffian totally unworthy of the
poetic honours given to him, and the poem itself can in no
way be looked upon as historic. To mention but one instance
of its departure from truth — the song is said to have been written
by a young woman of a superior station in society who had been
induced to live with the freebooter, but the fact was that one
thousand marks having been offered for his apprehension, he was
betrayed by his mistress Peg Cunningham, and captured after killing
eight of the men sent against him, and stabbing the woman.
He was one of the proscribed clan Gregor, and a notorious lifter
of cattle in the Highlands of Perthshire for some time before
1636. In February of that year seven of his accompHces were
taken, tried, condemned, and executed at Edinburgh. These
men were apprehended chiefly through the exertions of the Stewarts
of Athol, and in revenge Gilderoy burned several of the houses
belonging to the Stewarts. In a few months, however, he was
captured, as before mentioned, and in July, 1636, was hanged
with five accomplices at the Gallowlee, between Leith and Edin-
burgh. As a mark of unenviable distinction, Gilderoy was hanged
on a gallows higher than the rest. It is curious that this wretched
miscreant, who robbed the poor and outraged all women who
came in his way, should have become popular in the south of
Britain. His adventures, with the various details noticed above
by Percy, are related in Captain Alexander Smith's History of
Hig/ncaymen, &c., 17 19, and in Johnson's Lives and Exploits of
Higincaymcn, 1734.
The earliest known version of this song was printed in London
in 1650, and another is included in Westminster Drollery, 1671.
The latter consists of five stanzas, the first being :
" Was ever grief so great as mine
Then speak dear beam, I prethee,
That thus must leave my Gilderoy,
O my benison gang with thee.
Good speed be with you then Sir she said
For gone is all my joy :
And gone is he whom I love best,
My handsome Gilderoy."
The second stanza is Percy's fifth, with some of the ''luxuriances"
he refers to. The third stanza is a variation of Percy's first.
" Now Gilderoy was bonny boy
Would needs to th' King be gone
With his silken garters on his legs,
And the roses on his shoone.
320 GILDEROY.
But better he had staid at home
With me his only joy,
For on a gallow tree they hung
My handsome Gilderoy."
The fourth stanza is a variety of Percy's eleventh, and the fifth
of his ninth.
There is another version of this song in the Collection of Old
Ballads, 1723 (vol. i.), entitled " The Scotch Lover's Lamentation,
or Gilderoy's last farewell," which contains some few "luxuriances,"
but is on the whole superior to the " improved " one here printed.
This was altered by Lady Wardlaw, who added the stanzas be-
tween brackets, besides the one quoted above by Percy.
Gilderoy is now, perhaps, better known by Campbell's song
than by this ballad. The name is a corruption of the Gaelic gillc
roy, red-haired boy.]
ILDEROY was a bonnie boy,
Had roses tuW his shoone,
His stockings were of silken soy,^
Wi' garters hanging doune :
It was, I weene, a comeHe sight, s
To see sae trim a boy ;
He was my jo^ and hearts deHght,
My handsome Gilderoy.
Oh ! sike twa charming een he had,
A breath as sweet as rose, lo
He never ware a Highland plaid.
But costly silken clothes ;
He gain'd the luve of ladies gay,
Nane eir tull him was coy :
Ah ! wae is mee ! I mourn the day 15
For my dear Gilderoy.
[^ for ////, to. - silk. 3 sweetheart.
3^1
20
GILDEROY.
My Gilderoy and I were born,
Baith in one toun together.
We scant were seven years beforn,
We gan to luve each other ;
Our dadies and our mammies thay,
Were fill'd wi' mickle joy,
To think upon the bridal day,
Twixt me and Gikieroy.
For Gilderoy that luve of mine, 25
Gude faith, I freely bought
A wedding sark^ of holland fine,
Wi' silken flowers wrought :
And he gied me a wedding ring,
Which I receiv'd wi' joy, 30
Nae lad nor lassie eir could sing,
Like me and Gilderoy.
Wi' mickle joy we spent our prime,
Till we were baith sixteen.
And aft we past the langsome time, 35
Among the leaves sae green ;
Aft on the banks we'd sit us thair,
And sweetly kiss and toy,
Wi' garlands gay wad deck my hair
My handsome Gilderoy. 40
[Oh ! that he still had been content,
Wi' me to lead his life ;
But, ah ! his manfu' heart was bent,
To stir in feates of strife :
And he in many a venturous deed, 45
His courage bauld wad try ;
And now this gars^ mine heart to bleed,
Vov my dear Gilderoy.
r^ shift. 2 makes.]
322 GILDEROY.
And when of me his leave he tuik,
The tears they wat mine ee, 50
I gave tull him a parting luik,
" My benison gang \vi' thee ;
God speed thee weil, mine ain dear heart,
For gane is all my joy ;
My heart is rent sith we maun part, 55
My handsome Gilderoy."]
My Gilderoy baith far and near.
Was fear'd in every toun.
And bauldly bare away the gear,^
Of many a lawland loun : 60
Nane eir durst meet him man to man,
He was sae brave a boy ;
At length wi' numbers he was tane,
My winsome"^ Gilderoy.
Wae worth ^ the loun that made the laws, 65
To hang a man for gear,
To 'reave of life for ox or ass,
For sheep, or horse, or mare :
Had not their laws been made sae strick,
I neir had lost my joy, 70
Wi' sorrow neir had wat my cheek.
For my dear Gilderoy.
Giff Gilderoy had done amisse.
He mought hae banisht been ;
Ah ! what fair cruelty is this, 75
To hang sike handsome men :
( To hang the flower o' Scottish land,
Sae sweet and fair a boy ;
Nae lady had sae white a hand.
As thee, my Gilderoy. 80
[1 property. - winning. ^ woe betide.]
GILD E ROY. 32^
J
Of Gilderoy sae fraid they were,
They bound him mickle strong,
Tull Edenburrow they led him thair.
And on a trallows hunsf:
They hung him high aboon the rest, 85
He was sae trim a boy ;
Thair dyed the youth whom I kied best,
My handsome Gilderoy.
Thus having yielded up his breath,
I bare his corpse away, 90
Wi' tears, that trickled for his death,
I washt his comelye clay ;
And siker^ in a grave sae deep,
I laid the dear-lued boy.
And now for evir maun I weep, 95
]\Iy winsome Gilderoy.
*
XIII.
WINIFREDA.
HIS beautiful address to conjugal love, a subject too
much neglected by the libertine Muses, was, I believe,
first printed in a volume of Miscellaneous Poems, by
several hands, published by D. [David] Lewis, 1726,
8vo.
It is there said, how truly I know not, to be "a translation from
the ancient British language."
[^ secure.]
324 WINIFREDA.
|WAY ; let nought to love displeasing,
My Winifreda, move your care ;
Let nought delay the heavenly blessing,
Nor squeamish pride, nor gloomy fear.
What tho' no grants of royal donors 5
With pompous titles grace our blood ;
We'll shine in more substantial honors,
And to be noble we'll be Qf-ood.
Our name, while virtue thus we tender,
Will sweetly sound where-e'er 'tis spoke : 10
And all the great ones, they shall wonder
How they respect such little folk.
What though from fortune's lavish bounty
No mighty treasures we possess ;
We'll find within our pittance plenty, 15
And be content without excess.
Still shall each returning season
Sufficient for our wishes give ;
For we will live a life of reason,
And that's the only life to live. 20
Through youth and age in love excelling.
We'll hand in hand together tread ;
Sweet-smiling peace shall crown our dwelling,
And babes, sweet-smiling babes, our bed.
How should I love the pretty creatures, 15
While round my knees they fondly clung ;
To see them look their mothers features,
To hear them lisp their mothers tongue.
WINIFREDA,
And when with envy time transported,
Shall think to rob us of our joys,
You'll in your girls again be courted,
And I'll go a wooing in my boys.
325
30
XIV.
THE WITCH OF WOKEY
:AS published in a small collection of poems, intitled
Euthcmia,or the Pcnver of Hannony^ &c. 1756, written
in 1 748, by the ingenious Dr. Harrmgton, of Bath, who
never allowed them to be published, and withheld his
name till it could no longer be concealed. The following copy-
was furnished by the late Mr. Shensto7ie, with some variations and
corrections of his own, which he had taken the liberty to propose,
and for which the author's indulgence was intreated. In this
edition it was intended to reprint the author's ovrcv original copy ;
but, as that may be seen correctly given in Fcarc/is Collection,
vol. i. 1783, p. 161, it was thought the reader of taste would
wish to have the variations preserved, they are, therefore, still
retained here, which it is hoped the worthy author will excuse with
his wonted liberality.
Wokey-hole is a noted cavern in Somersetshire, which has given
birth to as many wild fanciful stories as the Sybils Cave, in Italy.
Thro' a very narrow entrance, it opens into a very large vault, the
roof whereof, either on account of its height, or the thickness of
the gloom, cannot be discovered by the light of torches. It goes
winding a great way underground, is crossed by a stream of very
cold water, and is all horrid with broken pieces of rock : many of
these are evident petrifactions ; which, on account of their singular
forms, have given rise to the fables alluded to in this poem.
-,26 THE WITCH OF WO KEY.
o
'N aunciente days tradition showes
A base and wicked elfe arose,
The Witch of Wokey hight :
Oft have I heard the fearful! tale
From Sue, and Roger of the vale, s
On some long winter's night.
Deep in the dreary dismall cell,
Which seem'd and was ycleped hell.
This blear-eyed hag did hide :
Nine wicked elves, as legends sayne, lo
She chose to form her guardian trayne,
And kennel near her side.
Here screeching owls oft made their nest,
While wolves its craggy sides possest,
Night-howling thro' the rock : 15
No wholesome herb could here be found ;
She blasted every plant around.
And blister'd every flock.
Her haggard face was foull to see ;
Her mouth unmeet a mouth to bee ; 20
Her eyne of deadly leer,
She nought devis'd, but neighbour's ill ;
She wreak'd on all her wayward will,
And marr d all goodly chear.
All in her prime, have poets sung, 25
No gaudy youth, gallant and young.
E'er blest her longing armes ;
And hence arose her spight to vex.
And blast the youth of either sex, \
By dint of hellish charms. 30
THE WITCH OF WO KEY. 327
From Glaston came a lerned wiorht,
F"ull bent to marr her fell despight,
And well he did, I ween :
Sich mischief never had been known,
And, since his mickle lerninge shown, 35
Sich mischief ne'er has been.
He chaimtede out his godlie booke,
He crost the water, blest the brooke,
Then — pater noster done, —
The ghastly hag he sprinkled o'er ; 40
When lo ! where stood a hag before,
Now stood a ghastly stone.
Full well 'tis known adown the dale :
Tho' passing strange indeed the tale.
And doubtfull may appear. ■ ^^
I'm bold to say, there's never a one,
That has not seen the witch in stone,
With all her household gear.
But tho' this lernede clerke did well ;
W^ith grieved heart, alas ! I tell, 50
She left this curse behind :
That Wokey-nymphs forsaken quite,
Tho' sense and beauty both unite,
Should find no leman kind.
For lo ! even, as the fiend did say, 55
The sex have found it to this day,
That men are wondrous scant :
Here's l^eauty, wit, and sense combin'd,
With all that's good and virtuous join'd,
Yet liardly one gallant. 60
Shall then sich maids unpitied moane ?
They might as well, like her, be stone.
As thus forsaken dwell.
J
2S BRYAN AND PEREENE.
Since Glaston now can boast no clerks ;
Come down from Oxenford, ye sparks, 65
And, oh ! revoke the spelL
Yet stay — nor thus despond, ye fair ;
Virtue's the gods' pecuHar care ;
I hear the gracious voice :
Your sex shall soon be blest agen, 70
We only wait to find sich men,
As best deserve your choice.
XV.
BRYAN AND PEREENE,
A West Indian -Ballad,
' S founded on a real fact, that happened in the island of
St. Christophers about the beginning of the present
reign. The Editor owes the following stanzas to the
friendship of X)x. James Grainger* who was an eminent
physician in that island when this tragical incident happened, and
died there much honoured and lamented in 1767. To this inge-
nious gentleman the pubUc are indebted for the fine Ode on So-
litude, printed in the fourth vol. of Dodsley's Miscel. p. 229, in
which are assembled some of the sublimest images in nature.
The reader will pardon the insertion of the first stanza here, for
the sake of rectifying the two last lines, which were thus given by
the author :
" O Solitude, romantic maid,
Whether by nodding towers you tread.
Or haunt the desart's trackless gloom,
Or hover o'er the yawning tomb.
Or climb the Andes' clifted side,
Or by the Nile's coy source abide,
* Author of a poem on the Culture of the Sugar- Cane, &c.
BRYAN AND PEREENE. 329
Gr starting from your half-year's sleep
From Hecla view the thawing deep,
Or at the purple dawn of day
Tadmor's marble wastes survey," &:c.
alluding to the account of Palmyra published by some late inge-
nious travellers, and the manner in which they were struck at the
first sight of those magnificent ruins by break of day.*
HE north-east wind did briskly blow,
The ship was safely moor'd ;
Young Bryan thought the boat's-crew slow,
And so leapt over-board.
Pereene, the pride of Indian dames, 5
His heart long held in thrall ;
And whoso his impatience blames,
I wot, ne'er lov'd at all.
A long long year, one month and day.
He dwelt on English land, 10
Nor once in thought or deed would stray,
Tho' ladies sought his hand.
For Bryan he was tall and strong,
Right blythsome roll'd his een.
Sweet was his voice whene'er he sung, 15
He scant had twenty seen.
But who the countless charms can draw,
That grac'd his mistress true ;
Such charms the old world seldom saw,
Nor oft I ween the new. ao
♦ So in p. 235, it should be, Tiirtid her magic ray.
330 BRYAN AND PEREENE.
Her raven hair plays round her neck,
Like tendrils of the vine ;
Her cheeks red dewy rose-buds deck,
Her eyes like diamonds shine.
Soon as his well-known ship she spied, 25
She cast her weeds away,
And to the palmy shore she hied,
All in her best array.
In sea-green silk so neatly clad,
She there impatient stood ; 30
The crew with wonder saw the lad
Repell the foaming flood.
Her hands a handkerchief display'd.
Which he at parting gave ;
Well pleas'd the token he survey'd, 35
And manlier beat the wave.
Her fair companions one and all.
Rejoicing crowd the strand ;
For now her lover swam in call,
And almost touch'd the land. 40
Then through the white surf did she haste,
To clasp her lovely swain ;
When, ah ! a shark bit through his waste :
His heart's blood dy'd the main !
He shriek'd! his half sprang from the wave, 45
Streaming with purple gore.
And soon it found a living grave.
And ah ! was seen no more.
Now haste, now haste, ye maids, I pray.
Fetch water from the spring : 50
She falls, she swoons, she dies away,
And soon her knell they ring.
GENTLE RIVER. v.i
jj
Now each May morning round her tomb
Ye fair, fresh flowerets strew,
So may your lovers scape his doom, 55
Her hapless fate scape you.
XVI.
GENTLE RIVER, GENTLE RIVER,
Translated from the Spanish.
ALTHOUGH the English are remarkable for the number
and variety of their ancient ballads, and retain perhaps
a greater fondness for these old simple rhapsodies of
their ancestors, than most other nations ; they are not
the only people who have distinguished themselves by compositions
of this kind. The Spaniards have great multitudes of them, many
of which are of tlie highest merit. The}' call them in their lan-
guage Romances^ and have collected them into volumes under the
titles of El Roitiajicero, El Caiuionero* &c. Most of them relate
to their conflicts ^\^th the Moors, and display a spirit of gallantry
peculiar to that romantic people. But of all the Spanish ballads
none exceed in poetical merit those inserted in a little Spanish
History of the civil wars of Gratiada, describing the dissensions
which raged in that last seat of Moorish empire before it was con-
quered in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, in 149 1. In this
history (or perhaps romance) a great number of heroic songs are
inserted and appealed to as authentic vouchers for the truth of
facts. In reality the prose narrative seems to be drawn uj) for no
other end, but to introduce and illustrate tliose beautiful pieces.
The Spanish editor pretends (how truly 1 know not) that they
are translations from the Arabic or Morisco language. Indeed,
from the plain unadorned nature of the verse, and the native sim-
plicity of the language and sentiment, which runs through these
poems, one would judge them to have been composed soon after
the conquest of Granadaf above mentioned; as the prose narrative
i.e. The ballad-singer. f See vol. iii. Aj)pendix.
332 GENTLE RIVER,
in which they are inserted was published about a centuiy after.
It should seem, at least, that they were written before the Cas-
tillians had formed themselves so generally, as they have done
since, on the model of the Tuscan poets, or had imported from
Italy that fondness for conceit and refinement, which has for near
two centuries past so much infected the Spanish poetry, and
rendered it so frequently affected and obscure.
As a specimen of the ancient Spanish manner, which very much
resembles that of our English bards and minstrels, the reader is
desired candidly to accept the two folloAving poems. They are
given from a small collection of pieces of this kind, which the
Editor some years ago translated for his amusement when he was
studying the Spanish language. As the first is a pretty close trans-
lation, to gratify the curious it is accompanied with the original.
The metre is the same in all these old Spanish ballads : it is of the
most simple construction, and is still used by the common people
in their extemporaneous songs, as we learn from Baretti's Travels.
It nms in short stanzas of four lines, of which the second and
fourth alone correspond in their terminations; and in these it is
only required that the vowels should be alike, the consonants may
be altogether different, as
pone casa meten arcos
noble canas muere gamo
Yet has this kind of verse a sort of simple harmonious flow, which
atones for the imperfect nature of the rhyme, and renders it not
impleasing to the ear. The same flow of numbers has been
studied in the following versions. The first of them is given from
two different originals, both of which are printed in the Hist, de las
civiles guerras de Granada, Mad. 1694. One of them hath the
rhymes ending in aa, the other in ia. It is the former of these
that is here reprinted. They both of them begin with the same
line :
" Rio verde, rio verde,"*
which could not be translated faithfully :
" Verdant river, verdant river,"
would have given an affected stiffness to the verse ; the great merit
* Literally, Green river, green river. [Percy found out, after
writing this, that Rio Verde is the name of a river in Spain, a fact,
which he writes, " ought to have been attended to by the trans-
lator, had he known it."]
GENTLE RIVER. 333
of which is easy simplicity ; and therefore a more simple epithet
was adopted, though less poetical or expressive.
[The two following Spanish ballads are peculiarly out of place in
a collection of English ballads, and they are not very good speci-
mens of the class from which they are taken. Those who wish for
information on Spanish ballads must refer to Ticknor's History of
Spanish Literature ; T. Rodd's Ancient Spanish Ballads, relating
to the Tii'clve Peers of France mentioned in Don Quixote, 2 vols.
London, 1821; and J. G. Lockhart's Ancient Spanish Ballads,
historical and romantic, 1823.]
334
GENTLE RIVER.
lO verde, rio verde,
Ouanto cuerpo en ti se bana
De Christianos y de Moros
Muertos por la dura espada !
Y tus ondas cristalinas
De roxa sangre se esmaltan :
Entre Moros y Christianos
Muy gran batalla se trava.
Murieron Duques y Condes,
Grandes seiiores de salva:
Murio gente de valia
De la nobleza de Espafia.
En ti murio don Alonso,
Que de Aguilar se Ilamaba ;
El valeroso Urdiales,
Con don Alonso acababa.
Por un ladera arriba
El buen Sayavedra marcha ;
Naturel es de Sevilla,
De la gente mas granada.
Tras el iba un Renegado,
Desta manera le habla ;
Date, date, Sayavedra,
No huyas de la Batalla.
Yo te conozco muy bien,
Gran tiempo estuve en tu casa ;
Y en la Pla9a de Sevilla
Bien te vide jugar cafias.
lO
IS
20
*5
GENTLE RIVER. 335
ENTLE river, gentle river,
Lo, thy streams are stain'd with gore,
Many a brave and noble captain
Floats along thy willow'd shore.
All beside thy limpid waters, 5
All beside thy sands so bright,
Moorish Chiefs and Christian Warriors
Join'd in fierce and mortal fight.
Lords, and dukes, and noble princes
On thy fatal banks were slain : 10
Fatal banks that gave to slaughter
All the pride and flower of Spain.
There the hero, brave Alonzo
Full of wounds and glory died :
There the fearless Urdiales 15
Fell a victim by his side.
Lo ! where yonder Don Saavedra
Thro' their squadrons slow retires ;
Proud Seville, his native city.
Proud Seville his worth admires. 20
Close behind a renegado
Loudly shouts with taunting cry ;
Yield thee, yield thee, Don Saavedra,
Dost thou from the battle fly ?
Well I know thee, haughty Christian, 25
Long 1 liv'd beneath thy roof;
Oft I've in the lists of glory
Seen thee win the prize of proof.
136 GENTLE RIVER,
Conozco a tu padre y madre,
Y a tu muger dona Clara ; 30
Siete anos fui tu cautivo,
Malamente me tratabas.
Y aora lo seras mio,
Si Mahoma me ayudara ;
Y tambien te tratare, 35
Como a mi me tratabas.
Sayavedra que lo oyera,
Al Moro bolvio la cara ;
Tirole el Moro una flecha,
Pero nunca le acertaba. 40
Hiriole Sayavedra
De una herida muy mala :
Muerto cayo el Renegado
Sin poder hablar palabra.
Sayavedra fue cercado 45
De mucha Mora canalla,
Y al cabo cayo alii muerto
De una muy mala lan9ada.
Don Alonso en este tiempo
Bravamente peleava, 50
Y el cavallo le avian muerto,
Y le tiene por muralla.
Mas cargaron tantos Moros
Que mal le hieren y tratan :
De la sangre, que perdia, 55
Don Alonso se desmaya.
Al fin, al fin cayo muerto
Al pie de un pena alta.
Muerto queda don Alonso,
Eterna fama ganara. 60
^n ^K ^S Jf* ^^
GENTLE RIVER. 337
Well I know thy aged parents,
Well thy blooming bride I know ; 30
Seven years I was thy captive.
Seven years of pain and woe.
May our prophet grant my wishes,
Haughty chief, thou shalt be mine :
Thou shalt drink that cup of sorrow, 35
Which I drank when I was thine.
Like a lion turns the warrior,
Back he sends an angry glare :
Whizzing came the Moorish javelin,
Vainly whizzing thro' the air. 40
Back the hero full of fury
Sent a deep and mortal wound :
Instant sunk the Renegado,
Mute and lifeless on the orround.
With a thousand Moors surrounded, 4.5
Brave Saavedra stands at bay :
Wearied out but never daunted,
Cold at length the warrior lay.
Near him fiorhtino; areat Alonzo
Stout resists the Paynirn bands ; 50
From his slaughter'd steed dismounted
Firm intrench'd behind him stands.
Furious press the hostile squadron,
Furious he repels their rage :
Loss of blood at length enfeebles : 55
Who can war with tliousands wage !
Where yon rock the plain o'ershadows
Close beneath its foot retir'd,
Fainting sunk the bleeding hero,
And without a groan expir'd. 60
338 GENTLE RIVER.
*^* In the Spanish original of the foregoing ballad follow a few
more stanzas, but being of inferior merit were not translated.
Renegado properly signifies an Apostate; but it is sometimes
used to express an Infidel in general ; as it seems to do above in
ver. 21, &c.
The image of the Lion, &c. in ver. 37, is taken from the other
Spanish copy, the rhymes of which end in ia, viz.
" Sayavedra, que lo oyera,
" Como un leon rebolbia."
XVII.
ALCANZOR AND ZAYDA,
A MOORISH TALE;,
Imitated from the Spanish.
I' HE foregoing version was rendered as literal as the"^'
nature of the two languages would admit. In the fol- ') ^
lowing a wider compass hath been taken. The Spanish
poem that was chiefly had in view is preserved in the
same history of the Civil Wars of Granada, f. 22, and begins with
these lines :
" For la calle de su dama
" Passeando se anda," &c.
OFTLY blow the evening breezes,
Softly fall the dews of night ;
Yonder walks the Moor Alcanzor,
Shunning every glare of light.
In yon palace lives fair Zaida,
Whom he loves with flame so pure :
ALCANZOR AND ZAYDA. 339
Loveliest she of Moorish ladies ;
He a young and noble IMoor.
Waiting for the appointed minute,
Oft he paces to and fro ; 10
Stopping now, now moving forwards,
Sometimes quick, and sometimes slow.
Hope and fear alternate teize him,
Oft he sighs with heart-felt care.
See, fond youth, to yonder window 15
Softly steps the timorous fair.
Lovely seems the moon's fair lustre
To the lost beniorhted swain.
When all silvery bright she rises.
Gilding mountain, grove, and plain. 20
Lovely seems the sun's full glory
To the fainting seaman's eyes,
When some horrid storm dispersing
O'er the wave his radiance flies.
But a thousand times more lovely 25
To her lon^-ino; lover's sio^ht
Steals half-seen the beauteous maiden
Thro' the glimmerings of the night.
Tip-toe stands the anxious lover,
Whispering forth a gentle sigh : 30
Alia* keep thee, lovely lady ;
Tell me, am I doom'd to die ?
Is it true the dreadful story,
Whicli thy damsel tells my page,
That seduc'd by sordid riches 35
Thou wilt sell thy bloom to age ?
♦ Alia is the Mahometan name of God.
340 ALCANZOR AND ZAYDA.
An old lord from Antiquera
Thy stern father brings along ;
But canst thou, inconstant Zaida,
Thus consent my love to wrong ? 4.0
If 'tis true now plainly tell me,
Nor thus trifle with my woes ;
Hide not then from me the secret,
Which the world so clearly knows.
Deeply sigh'd the conscious maiden, 4.5
While the pearly tears descend :
Ah ! my lord, too true the story ;
Here our tender loves must end.
Our fond friendship is discover'd,
Well are known our mutual vows : 50
All my friends are full of fury ;
Storms of passion shake the house.
Threats, reproaches, fears surround me ;
My stern father breaks my heart :
Alia knows how dear it costs me, 55
Generous youth, from thee to part.
Ancient wounds of hostile fury
Long have rent our house and thine ;
Why then did thy shining merit
Win this tender heart of mine ? 60
Well thou know'st how dear I lov'd thee
Spite of all their hateful pride,
Tho' I fear'd my haughty father
Ne'er would let me be thy bride.
Well thou know'st what cruel chidings 65
Oft I've from my mother borne ;
ALCANZOR AND ZAYDA. 341
What I've suffered here to meet thee
Still at eve and early morn.
I no longer may resist them ;
All, to force my hand combine ; 70
And to-morrow to thy rival
This weak frame I must resign.
Yet think not thy faithful Zaida
Can survive so great a wrong ;
Well my breaking heart assures me 75
That my woes will not be long.
Farewell then, my dear Alcanzor !
Farewell too my life with thee !
Take this scarf a parting token ;
When thou wear'st it think on me. 80
Soon, lov'd youth, some worthier maiden
Shall reward thy generous truth ;
Sometimes tell her how thy Zaida
Died for thee in prime of youth.
— To him all amaz'd, confounded, 85
Thus she did her woes impart :
Deep he sigh'd, then cry'd, — O Zaida !
Do not, do not break my heart.
Canst thou think I thus will lose thee ?
Canst thou hold my love so small ? 90
No ! a thousand times I'll perish !
My curst rival too shall fall.
Canst thou, wilt thou yield thus to them ?
O break forth, and lly to me !
This fond heart shall bleed to save thee, 95
These fond arms shall shelter thee.
342 ALCANZOR AND ZAYDA.
'Tis in vain, in vain, Alcanzor,
Spies surround me, bars secure :
Scarce I steal this last dear moment,
While my damsel keeps the door. loo
Hark, I hear my father storming!
Hark, I hear my mother chide!
I must go : farewell for ever !
Gracious Alia be thy guide !
THE END OF THE THIRD BOOK.
APPENDIX I.
AN ESSAY ON THE ANCIENT
MINSTRELS IN ENGLAND.
<'
APPENDIX I.
AN ESSAY ON THE ANCIENT
MINSTRELS IN ENGLAND.
<ag<c;<3to<^>^
I.
HE Minstrels (a) were an order of men
in the middle ages, who subsisted by
the arts of poetry and music, and sang
to the harp verses composed by them-
selves, or others.* They also appear to have ac-
companied their songs with mimicry and action ;
and to have practised such various means of divert-
ing as were much admired in those rude times, and
(a) The larger Notes and Illustrations referred to by the capital
letters (a) (b) &c. are thrown together to the end of this essay.
* Wedded to no hypothesis, the author hath readily corrected
any mistakes which have been proved to be in this essay ; and con-
sidering the novelty of the subject, and the time and place when
and where he first took it up, many such had been excusable. —
That the term Minstrel was not confined, as some contend, to a
meer musician in this country, any more than on the Continent, will
be considered more fully in the last note (C> g) at the end of this
essay.
346 AN ESSAY ON
supplied the want of more refined entertainment. (b)
These arts rendered them extremely popular and
acceptable in this and all the neighbouring countries ;
where no high scene of festivity was esteemed com-
plete, that was not set off with the exercise of their
talents ; and where, so long as the spirit of chivalry
subsisted, they were protected and caressed, because
their songs tended to do honour to the ruling passion
of the times, and to encourage and foment a martial
spirit.
The Minstrels seem to have been the genuine
successors of the ancient Bards, (c) who under dif-
ferent names were admired and revered, from the
earliest ages, among the people of Gaul, Britain,
Ireland, and the North ; and indeed by almost all
the first inhabitants of Europe, whether of Celtic or
Gothic race ; * but by none more than by our own
Teutonic ancestors,! particularly by all the Danish
tribes.:}: Among these they were distinguished by
the name of Scalds, a word which denotes "Smoothers
and Polishers of language." § The origin of their
art was attributed to Odin or Woden, the father of
their gods ; and the professors of it were held in the
highest estimation. Their skill was considered as
something divine; their persons were deemed sacred;
their attendance was solicited by kings ; and they
were everywhere loaded with honours and rewards.
In short, Poets and their art were held among them
' * Vid. Pelloutier, Hist, des Celtes, torn. i. 1. 2. c. 6. lo.
t Tacit, de Mor. Gentt. cap. 2.
\ Vid. Bartholin, de Causis contemptce a Danis Jttorfis, lib. i. cap.
10. — WormiJ Literatura Rtmic. ad finem. — See also Northern
Antiquities, or, A Descriptioji of the Mariners, Custo?ns, 6^^. of the
ancie?it Danes a?id other northern nations : from the French of M.
Mallet. London, printed for T. Caman, 1770, 2 vols. 8vo.
§ Torfcei Frafat. ad Oread. Hist. — Pref. to Five Pieces of Runic
Poetry, &c.
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS. 347
in that rude admiration, which is ever shewn by an
ignorant people to such as excel them in intellectual
accomplishments.
As these honours were paid to Poetry and Song,
from the earliest times, in those countries which our
Anolo-Saxon ancestors inhabited before their removal
into Britain, we may reasonably conclude that they
would not lay aside all their regard for men of this
sort immediately on quitting their German forests.
At least so long as they retained their ancient man-
ners and opinions, they would still hold them in high
estimation. But as the Saxons, soon after their es-
tablishment in this island, were converted to Chris-
tianity ; in proportion as literature prevailed among
them, this rude admiration would begin to abate, and
Poetry would be no longer a peculiar profession.
Thus the Poet and the Minstrel early with us be-
came two persons, (d) Poetry was cultivated by
men of letters indiscriminately, and many of the most
popular rhymes were composed amidst the leisure
and retirement of monasteries. But the Minstrels
continued a distinct order of men for many ages after
the Norman Conquest, and got their livelihood by
singing verses to the harp at the houses of the
great. (e) There they were still hospitably and re-
spectfully receiv^ed, and retained many of the honours
shewn to their predecessors, the Bards and Scalds. (f)
And though, as their art declined, many of them only
recited the compositions of others, some of them still
composed songs themselves, and all of them could
probably invent a few stanzas on occasion. I have
no doubt but most of the old heroic ballads in this
collection were composed by this order of men ; for
although some of the larger metrical romances might
come from the pen of the monks or others, yet the
smaller narratives were probably composed by the
minstrels who sang them. P>om the amazing varia-
348 AN ESSAY ON
tions which occur in different copies of the old pieces,
it is evident they made no scruple to alter each
other's productions ; and the reciter added or omitted
whole stanzas according to his own fancy or conve-
nience.
In the early ages, as was hinted above, the profes-
sion of oral itinerant poet was held in the utmost
reverence among all the Danish tribes ; and therefore
we might have concluded that it was not unknown or
unrespected among their Saxon brethren in Britain,
even if history had been altogether silent on this
subject. The original country of our Anglo-Saxon
ancestors is well known to have lien chiefly in the
Cimbric Chersonese, in the tracts of land since dis-
tinguished by the name of Jutland, Angelen, and Hol-
stein.* The Jutes and Angles in particular, who
composed two-thirds of the conquerors of Britain,
were a Danish people, and their country at this day
belongs to the crown of Denmark;! so that when the
Danes again infested England, three or four hundred
years after, they made war on the descendants of
their own ancestors.]: From this near affinity we
might expect to discover a strong resemblance be-
tween both nations in their customs, manners, and
even language ; and, in fact, we find them to differ
no more than would naturally happen between a
parent country and its own colonies, that had been
severed in a rude, uncivilized state, and had dropt all
w * Vid. Chronic. Saxon, a Gibson, pp. 12, 13, 4to. — Bed. Hist.
Ecdes. a Smith, lib. i, c. 15. — " Ealdsexe [Regio antiq. Saxonum]
in cervice Cimbricae Chersonesi, Holsatiam proprie dictam, Dith-
marsiam, Stormariam, et Wagriam, complectens." — Annot. in Bed.
a Sfnith, p. 52. Et vid. Camdeni Britan.
t " Anglia Vetus, hodie etiam Anglen, sita est inter Saxones et
Giotes [Jutos], habens oppidum capitale . . . Sleswick." — Ethel-
werd, lib. i.
\ ^tt Northern Antiquities, S^c. vol. i. pp. 7, 8, 185, 259, 260, 261.
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS. 349
intercourse for three or four centuries, especially if we
reflect that the colony here settled had adopted a
new religion, extremely opposite in all respects to the
ancient paganism of the mother country ; and that
even at first, along with the original Angli, had been
incorporated a large mixture of Saxons from the
/_neighbouring parts of Germany ; and afterwards,
among the Danish invaders, had come vast multi-
tudes of adventurers from the more northern parts of
Scandinavia. But all these were only different tribes
of the same common Teutonic stock, and spoke only
different dialects of the same Gothic language.*
From this sameness of original and similarity of
manners we might justly have wondered if a charac-
ter so difrnified and distintruished amonc^^ the ancient
Danes as the Scald or Bard, had been totally un-
known or unregarded in this sister nation. And,
indeed, this argument is so strong, and, at the same
time, the early annals of the Anglo-Saxons are so
scanty and defective, (g) that no objections from
their silence could be sufficient to overthrow it. For
if these popular bards were confessedly revered and
admired in those very countries which the Anglo-
Saxons inhabited before their removal into Britain,
and if they were afterwards common and numerous
among the other descendants of the same Teutonic
ancestors, can we do otherwise than conclude that
men of this order accompanied such tribes as mi-
grated hither, that they afterwards subsisted here,
though perhaps with less splendor than in the
North, and that there never was wanting a succes-
sion of them to hand down the art, though some par-
ticular conjunctures may have rendered it more re-
spectable at one time than another ? And this was
evidently the case ; for though much greater honours
* See Northern Antiquities^ Preface, p. xxvi.
350 AN ESSAY ON
seem to have been heaped upon the northern Scalds,
in whom the characters of historian, genealogist, poet,
and musician were all united, than appear to have
been paid to the minstrels and harpers(H) of the
Anglo-Saxons, whose talents were chiefly calculated
to entertain and divert, while the Scalds professed to
inform and instruct, and were at once the moralists
and theologues of their pagan countrymen. Yet the
Anglo-Saxon minstrels continued to possess no small
portion of public favour, and the arts they professed
were so extremely acceptable to our ancestors that
the word " Glee," which particularly denoted their
art, continues still in our own language to be of all
others the most expressive of that popular mirth and
jollity, that strong sensation of delight, which is felt
by unpolished and simple minds, (i)
II. Having premised these general considerations,
I shall now proceed to collect from history such par-
ticular incidents as occur on this subject ; and,
whether the facts themselves are true or not, they
are related by authors who lived too near the Saxon
times, and had before them too many recent monu-
ments of the Anglo-Saxon nation, not to know what
was conformable to the genius and manners of that
people ; and therefore we may presume that their
relations prove at least the existence of the customs
and habits they attribute to our forefathers before
the Conquest, whatever becomes of the particular in-
cidents and events themselves. If this be admitted,
we shall not want sufficient proofs to show that min-
strelsy and song were not extinct among the Anglo-
Saxons, and that the professor of them here, if not
quite so respectable a personage as the Danish Scald,
was yet highly favoured and protected, and continued
still to enjoy considerable privileges.
Even so early as the first invasion of Britain by
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS. 351
the Saxons an incident is recorded to have happened,
which, if true, shews that the minstrel or bard was
not unknown among this people, and that their
princes themselves could, upon occasion, assume that
character. Colgrin, son of that Ella who was elected
kino- or leader of the Saxons in the room of Heneist,*
was shut up in York, and closely besieged by Ar-
thur and his Britons. Baldulph, brother of Colgrin,
wanted to gain access to him, and to apprize him of
a reinforcement which was coming from Germany.
He had no other way to accomplish his design but
to assume the character of a minstrel. He therefore
shaved his head and beard, and dressing himself in
the habit of that profession, took his harp in his hand.
In this disguise he walked up and down the trenches
without suspicion, playing all the while upon his
instrument as an harper. By little and little he ad-
vanced near to the walls of the city, and, making
himself known to the centinels, was in the niofht
drawn up by a rope.
Although the above fact comes only from the sus-
picious pen of Geoffry of Monmouth, (k) the judicious
reader will not too hastily reject it, because, if such a
fact really happened, it could only be known to us
throucrh the medium of the British writers : for the
first Saxons, a martial but unlettered people, had no
historians of their own ; and Geoffry, with all his
fables, is allowed to have recorded many true events
that have escaped other annalists.
We do not, however, want instances of a less fabu-
lous tera, and more indubitable authority : for later
history affords us two remarkable facts,(L) which I
think clearly shew that the same arts of poetry and
song, which were so much admired among the Danes,
* See Rafiin's Hist, (by 'J'indal, fol. 1732, vol. i. p. 36) who
places the incident here related under the year 495.
352 AN ESSAY ON
were by no means unknown or neglected in this sister
nation, and that the privileges and honours which
were so lavishly bestowed upon the northern Scalds,
were not wholly withheld from the Anglo-Saxon
minstrels.
Our great King Alfred, who is expressly said to
have excelled in music,* being desirous to learn the
true situation of the Danish army, which had invaded
his realm, assumed the dress and character of a min-
strel, (m) when, taking his harp, and one of the most
trusty of his friends disguised as a servant f (for in
the early times it was not unusual for a minstrel to
have a servant to carry his harp), he went with the
utmost security into the Danish camp ; and, though
he could not but be known to be a Saxon by his dia-
lect, the character he had assumed procured him a
hospitable reception. He was admitted to entertain
the king at table, and staid among them long enough
to contrive that assault which afterwards destroyed
them. This was in the year 878.
About fifty years after,! a Danish king made use
of the same disguise to explore the camp of our king
Athelstan. With his harp in his hand, and dressed
like a minstrel, (n) Aulaff,§ king of the Danes, went
among the Saxon tents ; and, taking his stand near
the king's pavilion, began to play, and was imme-
diately admitted. There he entertained Athelstan
and his lords with his singing and his music, and was
* By Bale and Spelman. See Note (M).
t Ibid.
% Anno 938. Vid. Rapin, &c.
§ So I think the name should be printed, rather then Anlaff,
the more usual form (the same traces of the letters express both
names in MS.), Aulaff being evidently the genuine northern name
Olaff, or Olave. Lat. Olaus. In the old Romance of Honi'
Childe (see vol. iii. Appendix), the name of the king his father is
AUof, which is evidently Ollaf, with the vowels only transposed.
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS. 353
at length dismissed with an honourable reward,
though his songs must have discovered him to have
been a Dane,(o) Athelstan was saved from the
consequences of this stratagem by a soldier, who had
observed Aulaff bury the money which had been
given him, either from some scruple of honour or
motive of superstition. This occasioned a discovery.
Now, if the Saxons had not been accustomed to
have minstrels of their own, Alfred's assuming so new
and unusual a character would have excited suspicions
among the Danes. On the other hand, if it had not
been customary with the Saxons to shew favour and
respect to the Danish Scalds, Aulaff would not have
ventured himself among them, especially on the eve
of a battle.(p) From the uniform procedure, then, of
both these kings, we may fairly conclude that the
same mode of entertainment prevailed among both
people, and that the minstrel was a privileged cha-
racter with each.
But if these facts had never existed, it can be
proved from undoubted records that the minstrel was
a reofular and stated officer in the court of our Ano^lo-
Saxon kings: for in Doomesday book, "Joculator
Regis," the king's minstrel, is expressly mentioned in
Gloucestershire, in which county it should seem that
he had lands assigned him for his maintenance. (q)
III. We have now brought the inquiry down to
the Norman Conquest; and as the Normans had
been a late colony from Norway and Denmark,
where the Scalds had arrived to the highest pitch of
credit before Rollo's expedition into France, we
cannot doubt but this adventurer, like the other
northern princes, had many of these men in his train,
who settled with him in his new duchy of Normandy,
and left behind them successors in their art ; so that
when his descendant, William the Bastard, invaded
A A
354 AN ESSAY ON
this kingdom in the following century,* that mode of
entertainment could not but be still familiar with the
Normans. And that this is not mere conjecture will
appear from a remarkable fact, which shews that the
arts of poetry and song were still as reputable among
the Normans in France as they had been among
their ancestors in the north ; and that the profession
of Minstrel, like that of Scald, was still aspired to by
the most gallant soldiers. In William's army was a
valiant warrior, named Taillefer, who was distin-
guished no less for the minstrel-arts, (r) than for his
courage and intrepidity. This man asked leave of
his commander to begin the onset, and obtained it.
He accordingly advanced before the army, and with
a loud voice animated his countrymen with songs in
praise of Charlemagne and Roland, and other heroes
of France ; then rushing among the thickest of the
English, and valiantly fighting, lost his life.
Indeed, the Normans were so early distinguished
for their minstrel-talents, that an eminent French
writer (s) makes no scruple to refer to them the
origin of all modern poetry, and shews that they
were celebrated for their songs near a century before
the troubadours of Provence, who are supposed to
have led the way to the poets of Italy, France, and
Spain, f
We see then that the Norman Conquest was rather
likely to favour the establishment of the minstrel
profession in this kingdom, than to suppress it : and
although the favour of the Norman conquerors would
be probably confined to such of their own country-
* Rollo was invested in his new duchy of Normandy, a. d. 912.
William invaded England, a.d. 1066.
f Vid. Hist, des Troubadours, 3 torn, passim, & vid. Fableaux ou
Contes du XII. 6^ du XIII. Siede, traduits, &^c. avec des Notes his-
toriques &= critiques, ^'c. par M. le Grand. Paris, 1781, 5 tom. i2mo.
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS. 355
men as excelled in the minstrel arts — and in the
first ages after the Conquest, no other songs would
be listened to by the great nobility but such as were
composed in their own Norman French — yet as the
cfreat mass of the orio-inal inhabitants were not ex-
tirpated, these could only understand their own native
gleemen or minstrels ; who must still be allowed
to exist, unless it can be proved that they were all
proscribed and massacred, as, it is said, the Welsh
Bards were afterwards by the severe policy of King
Edward I. But this we know was not the case;
and even the cruel attempts of that monarch, as we
shall see below, proved ineffectual. (s 2)
The honours shewn to the Norman or French
minstrels by our princes and great barons, would
naturally have been imitated by their English
vassals and tenants, even if no favour or dis-
tinction had ever been shewn here to the same
order of men, in the Anglo-Saxon and Danish
reigns. So that we cannot doubt but the English
harper and songster would, at least in a subordinate
degree, enjoy the same kind of honours, and be
received with similar respect among the inferior
English gentry and populace, I must be allowed,
therefore, to consider them as belonging to the
same community, as subordinate members at least
of the same colleofe ; and therefore, in ofleanino" the
scanty materials for this slight history, I shall collect
whatever incidents I can find relating to minstrels
and their art, and arrange them, as they occur in
our own annals, without distinction, as it will not
always be easy to ascertain, from the slight mention
of them by our regular historians, whether the artists
were Norman or iMii/lish ; for it need not be re-
marked that subjects of this trivial nature are but
incidentally mentioned by our ancient annalists, and
were fastidiously rejected by other grave and serious
356 AN ESSAY ON
writers ; so that, unless they were accidentally con-
nected with such events as became recorded in his-
tory, they would pass unnoticed . through the lapse
of ages, and be as unknown to posterity as other
topics relating to the private life and amusements
of the greatest nations.
On this account it can hardly be expected that we
should be able to produce regular and unbroken
annals of the minstrel art and its professors, or
have sufficient information whether every minstrel'
or harper composed himself, or only repeated, the
songs he chanted. Some probably did the one,
( and some the other : and it would have been
wonderful indeed if men whose peculiar profession
it was, and who devoted their time and talents
to entertain their hearers with poetical composi-
tions, were peculiarly deprived of all poetical genius
themselves, and had been under a physical inca-
pacity of composing those common popular rhymes
which were the usual subjects of their recitation.
Whoever examines any considerable quantity of
these, finds them in style and colouring as different
from the elaborate production of the sedentary com-
poser at his desk or in his cell, as the rambling
harper or minstrel was remote in his modes of life
and habits of thinking from the retired scholar, or
the solitary monk, (t)
It is well known that on the Continent, whence
our Norman nobles came, the bard who composed,
the harper who played and sang, and even the
dancer and the mimic, were all considered as of one
community, and were even all included under the
common name of Minstrels.* I must therefore be
allowed the same application of the term here
without being expected to prove that every singer
* See Notes (B.) and (A a.)
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS. 357
composed, or every composer chanted, his own song;
much less that every one excelled in all the arts,
which were occasionally exercised by some or other
of this fraternity.
IV. After the Norman Conquest, the first occur-
rence which I have met with relatincr to this order
of men is the founding of a priory and hospital by
one of them : scil. the Priory and Hospital of St.
Bartholomew, in Smithfield, London, by Royer or
Raherus, the King's Minstrel, in the third year of
King Henr)' I. a.d. 1102. He was the first prior
of his own establishment, and presided over it to
the time of his death, (t 2)
In the reign of K. Henry II. we have upon
record the name of Galfrid or Jeffrey, a harper,
who in 1 180 received a corrody or annuity from
the Abbey of Hide, near Winchester : and, as in
the early times every harper was expected to sing,
we cannot doubt but this reward was given to him
for his music and his songs ; which, if they were for
the solace of the monks there, we may conclude
would be in the English language. (u)
Under his romantic son, K. Richard I., the min-
strel profession seems to have acquired additional
splendor. Richard, who was the great hero of
chivalry, was also the distinguished patron of poets
and minstrels. He was himself of their number,
and some of his poems are still extant.* They were
no less patronized by his favourites and chief officers.
His Chancellor, William Bishop of Ely, is expressly
* See a pathetic song of his in Mr. Walpole's Catalogue of Royal
Authors, vol. i. p. 5. The reader will find a translation of it into
modern French, in Hist, littcraire dcs I'roubadours, 1774, 3 torn.
i2mo. .See vol. i. (p. 58) where some more of Richard's poetry is
translated. In Dr. Burney's I/ist. of Music, vol. ii. p. 238, is a
poetical version of it in English.
358 AN ESSAY ON
mentioned to have invited singers and minstrels
from France, whom he loaded with rewards ; and
they in return celebrated him as the most accom-
plished person in the world, (u 2) This high
distinction and regard, although confined, perhaps,
in the first instance to poets and songsters of the
French nation, must have had a tendency to do
honour to poetry and song among all his subjects,
and to encourage the cultivation of these arts among
the natives, as the indulgent favour shewn by the
monarch or his great courtiers to the Froven9al
TroubadotiT, or Norman Ry7noti7% would naturally
be imitated by their inferior vassals to the English
gleeman or minstrel. At more than a century after
the Conquest, the national distinctions must have
begun to decline, and both the Norman and English
languages would be heard in the houses of the great
(u ' 3) ; so that probably about this sera, or soon
after, we are to date that remarkable intercommunity
and exchange of each other's compositions which we
discover to have taken place at some early period
between the French and Eno-lish minstrels : the
same set of phrases, the same species of characters,
incidents, and adventures, and often the same iden-
tical stories being found in the old metrical romances
of both nations. (v)
The distinguished service which Richard received
from one of his own minstrels, in rescuing him from
his cruel and tedious captivity, is a remarkable fact,
which ought to be recorded for the honour of poets
and their art. This fact I shall relate in the follow-
ing words of an ancient writer.*
* Mons. Favine's Theatre of Honour and Knighthood, translated
from the French. London, 1623, fol. torn. ii. p. 49. An elegant
relation of the same event (from the French of Presid. Fauchet's
Rccueil, &c. ) may be seen in Miscellanies i?i prose and verse : by
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS. 359
"■ The Eno^lishmen were more then a whole yeare,
without hearing any tydings of their king, or in what
place he was kept prisoner. He had trained up in
his court a Rimer or Minstrill,* called Blondell de
Nesle : who (so saith the Manuscript of old Poesies, f
and an auncient manuscript French Chronicle) being
so long- without the sicjht of his lord, his life seemed
wearisome to him, and he became confounded with
melancholly. Knowne it was, that he came backe
from the Holy Land : but none could tell in what
countrey he arrived. Whereupon this Blondel, re-
solving to make search for him in many countries,
but he would heare some newes of him ; after ex-
pence of divers dayes in travaile, he came to a
towne X (by good hap) neere to the castell where
his maister king Richard was kept. Of his host
he demanded to whom the castell appertained, and
the host told him, that it belonged to the duke
of Austria. Then he enquired whether there were
Anna Williams, London, 1766, 4to. p. 46. It will excite the
reader's admiration to be infonned that most of the pieces of that
collection were composed under the disadvantage of a total depri-
vation of sight.
* Favine's words are, " Jongleur appelle Blondiaux de Nesle,"
Paris, 1620, 4to. p. 1106. But Fauchet, who has given the same
story', thus expresses it, " Or ce roy ayant nourri un Menestrel
aj^)pelle' Blondel, &c." llv. 2, p. 92. Dcs anciens Poctes Franpis.
He is however said to have been another Blondel, not Blondel (or
lilondiaux) de Nesle : but this no way aftects the circumstances of
the stor)'.
t This the author calls in another place, Aji ancient MS. of old
Poesies, written about those 7'cry times. From this MS. Favine gives
a good account of the taking of Richard by the duke of Austria,
who sold him to the emperor. As for the MS. chronicle, it is evi-
dently the same that sup])lied Fauchet with this story. See his
Reciteil de rOrii^ine de la Langue (^ Pocsic Fran^oisc, Ryme, &>
Romans, <^c. Par. 1581.
X Tribales. " Retrudi cum prxcepit in Triballis : a quo carcere
nullus ante dies istos cxivit." — Lat. Citron, of Otlio of Austria : apud
Favin.
^oo AN ESSAY ON
o
any prisoners therein detained or no : for alwayes
he made such secret questionings wheresoever he
came. And the hoste gave answer, there was one
onely prisoner, but he knew not what he was, and
yet he had bin detained there more then the space
of a yeare. When Blondel heard this, he wrought
such meanes, that he became acquainted with them
of the castell, as Minstrels doe easily win acqtcaint-
ance any where -."^ but see the king he could not,
neither understand that it was he. One day he sat
chrectly before a window of the castell, where king
Richard was kept prisoner, and began to sing a song
in French, which king Richard and Blondel had
sometime composed together. When king Richard
heard the song, he knew it was Blondel that sung
it : and when Blondel paused at halfe of the song,
the king 'began the other half and completed it.'f
Thus Blondel won knowledge of the king his
maister, and returning home into England, made
the barons of the countrie acquainted where the
king was." This happened about the year 1193.
The following old Provencal lines are given as
the very original song : J which I shall accom-
* Comme Menestrels s^ accointeiit legeremeni. — Favine. (Fauchet
expresses it in the same manner.)
t I give this passage corrected, as the English translator of
Favine's book appeared here to have mistaken the original : — Scil.
" Et quant Blondel eut dit la moitie de la Chanson, le Roy Richart
se prist a dire I'autre moitie et I'acheva." — Favine, p. i i 06. Fauchet
has also expressed it in nearly the same words. Recucil, p. 93.
I In a little romance or novel, intitled. La Tour Tejiebreuse, d
les Jours lujuineux, Contes Angloises, accovipagnez d'' Historiettes , 6~
tirez ahine ancicnne Chronique coviposcc par Richard, s2irnovime
Coetir de Lion, Roy d'Angleterre, dr^c. Paris, 1705, izmo. In the
Preface to this Romance the editor has given another song of
Blondel de Nesle, as also a copy of the song written by K. Richard,
and pubhshed by Mr. Walpole, mentioned above (in Note *, p. 357),
yet the two last are not in Provencal like the sonnet printed here ;
but in the old French, called Langage Roman.
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS. 361
pany with an imitation offered by Dr. Burney.
(ii. 237.)
BLONDEL.
Domna rostra beutas Your beauty, lady fair,
Elas bellas faissos None views ^^'ithOut delight ;
Els bcis oils amoros But still so cold an air
Els gens corsybcn taillats No passion can excite :
Don sieu empresenats Yet this I patient see
£>e rostra amor que mi lia. "\^'hile all are shun'd like me.
RICHARD.
Si bel trop affansia No nymph my heart can wound
Ja de ros non portrai If favour she divide,
Qite tnajor honorai And smiles on all around
Sol en rotre ilemafi Unwilling to decide :
Que sautra des beisan I'd rather hatred bear
Tot tan de ros rolria. Than love with others share.
The access Avhich Blondel so readily obtained in
the privileged character of a minstrel, is not the
only instance upon record of the same nature,
(v 2) In this very reign of K. Richard I. the
young heiress of D'Evreux, Earl of Salisbury, had
been carried abroad and secreted by her French
relations in Normandy. To discover the place of
her concealment, a knight of the Talbot family spent
two years in exploring that province : at first under
the disguise of a pilgrim, till having found where
she was confined, in order to gain admittance he
assumed the dress and character of a harper, and
being a jocose person exceedingly skilled in " the
Gests of the ancients"'" — so they called the ro-
mances and stories which were the delight of that
age — he was gladly received into the family, whence
* The words of the original, viz. " Citharisator homo jocosus in
Gestis anticjuorum valde peritus," I conceive to give the precise
idea of the ancient minstrel. See Note V. 2. That desta was
appropriated to romantic stories, see Note I, Part iv. (i.)
"s
362 AN ESSAY ON
he took an opportunity to carry off the young lady,
whom he presented to the king ; and he bestowed
her on his natural brother William Longespee (son
of fair Rosamond), who became in her right Earl of
Salisbury, (v 3)
The next memorable event which I find in his-
tory, reflects credit on the English minstrels ; and
this was their contributing to the rescue of one of
the great Earls of Chester when besieged by the
Welsh. This happened in the reign of K. John,
and is related to this effect : * —
Hugh the first Earl of Chester, in his charter of
foundation of St. Werburg's Abbey in that city, had
granted such a privilege to those, who should come
to Chester fair, that they should not be then appre-
hended for theft or any other misdemeanor, except
the crime were committed during the fair. This
special protection, occasioning a multitude of loose
people to resort to that fair, was afterwards of signal
benefit to one of his successors. For Ranulph the
last Earl of Chester, marching into Wales with a
slender attendance, was constrained to retire to his
castle of Rothelan (or Rhuydland) to which the
Welsh forthwith laid siege. In this distress he
sent for help to the Lord De Lacy, Constable of
Chester : " Who, making use of the minstrells of all
sorts, then met at Chester fair, by the allurement of
their musick, got together a vast number of such
loose people, as, by reason of the before specified
priviledge, were then in that city ; whom he forth-
with sent under the conduct of Dutton (his steward),"
a gallant youth, who was also his son in law. The
Welsh, alarmed at the approach of this rabble.
* See Dugdale (Bar. i. 42, loi), who places it after 13 John,
A.D. 1 2 12. See also Plot's Staffordsh. Camden's Britann.
(Cheshire).
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS. x6
0^0
supposing them to be a regular body of armed and
disciplined veterans, instantly raised the siege and
retired.
For this good service Ranulph is said to have
granted to De Lacy by charter the patronage and
authority over the minstrels and the loose and inferior
people ; who, retaining to himself that of the lower
artificers, conferred on Dutton the jurisdiction of the
minstrels and harlots :* and under the descendants of
this family the minstrels enjoyed certain privileges,
and protection for many ages. For even so late as ~i
the reign of Elizabeth, when this profession had fallen
into such discredit that it was considered in law as a
nuisance, the minstrels under the jurisdiction of the
family of Dutton are expressly excepted out of all
acts of parliament made for their suppression ; and
have continued to be so excepted ever since, (w) -'
The ceremonies attending the exercise of this juris-
diction are thus described by Dugdalef as handed
down to his time, viz. " That at midsummer fair
there, all the minstrels of that countrey resorting to
Chester, do attend the heir of Dutton, from his lodging
to St. John's church (he being then accompanied by
many gentlemen of the countrey) one of 'the minstrels'
walking before him in a surcoat of his arms depicted
on taffata ; the rest of his fellows proceeding (two and
two) and playing on their several sorts of musical
instruments. And after divine service ended, give
the like attendance on him back to his lodging ; where
a court being kept by his (Mr. Dutton's) Steward,
and all the minstrels formally called, certain orders
and laws are usually made for the better govern-
ment of that Societ)', with penalties on those who
transgress."
* See the ancient record in Blount's Laic Dictionary. (Art.
Minstrel.) t J^'i^i- P- lo'-
364 AN ESSAY ON
In the same reign of K. John we have a remark-
able instance of a minstrel, who to his other talents
superadded the character of Soothsayer, and by his
skill in drugs and medicated potions was able to
rescue a knight from imprisonment. This occurs in
Leland's Narrative of the Gestes of Guarine (or
Warren) and his sons, which he " excerptid owte
of an old Englisch boke yn ryme," * and is as
follows :
Whitington Castle, in Shropshire, which together
with the coheiress of the original proprietor had been
won in a solemn turnament by the ancestor of the
Guarines,t had in the reign of K. John been seized
by the Prince of Wales, and was afterwards possessed
by Morice, a retainer of that Prince, to whom the
king out of hatred to the true heir Fulco Guarine
(with whom he had formerly had a quarrel at Chess) J
not only confirmed the possession, but also made
him governor of the marches, of which Fulco himself
had the custody in the time of K. Richard. The
Guarines demanded justice of the king, but obtaining
no gracious answer, renounced their allegiance and
fled into Bretagne. Returning into England, after
various conflicts, " Fulco resortid to one John of
Raumpayne, a Sothsayer and Jocular and Minstrelle,
* Leland's Collectanea, vol. i. p. 261, 266, 267.
I" This old feudal custom of marrying an heiress to the knight
who should vanquish all his opponents in solemn contest, &c.
appears to be burlesqued in the Turnament of Totenhani (see
vol. ii. book i. No. 4), as is well observed by the learned author of
Ronarks, &c. in Gent. Mag. for July, 1794, p. 613.
\ " John, sun to K. Henry, and Fulco felle at variance at Chestes
[r. Chesse] ; and John brake Fulco[s] hed with the Chest borde :
and then Fulco gave him such a blow, that he had almost killid
hym." — Lei. Coll i, p. 264. A curious picture of courtly manners
in that age ! Notwithstanding this fray, we read in the next para-
graph, that " K. Henry dubbid Fulco & 3 of his bretherne knightes
at Winchester." — Il^ul.
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS. 365
and made hym his spy to IMorice at Whitington."
The privileges of this character we have already seen,
and John so well availed himself of them, that in
consequence of the intelligence which he doubtless
procured, " Fulco, and his brethrene laide waite for
Morice, as he went toward Salesbyri, and Fulco
ther wound id hym : and Bracy" (a knight, who was
their friend and assistant), " cut of Morice['s] hedde."
This sir Bracy being in a subsequent rencounter
sore wounded, was taken and brought to K. John;
from whose vengeance he was however rescued by
this notable minstrel ; for " John Rampayne founde
the meanes to cast them, that kepte Bracy, into a
deadely slepe ; and so he and Bracy cam to Fulco to
Whitington," which on the death of Morice had been
restored to him by the Prince of Wales, As no fur-
ther mention occurs of the minstrel, I might here
conclude this narrative ; but I shall just add, that
Fulco was obliged to flee into France, where assum-
ing the name of Sir Amice, he distinguished himself
in justs and turnaments ; and, after various romantic
adventures by sea and land (having in the true stile
of chivalry rescued " certayne ladies owt of prison"),
he finally obtained the king's pardon, and the quiet
possession of Whitington Castle.
In the reign of K. Henry III. we have mention of
Master Richard the King's harper, to whom in his
36th year (1252) that monarch gave not only forty
shillings, and a pipe of wine, but also a pipe of wine
to Beatrice his wife.* The title of inagistej% or mas-
ter, given to this minstrel deserves notice, and shews
liis respectable situation.
* Bumey's Hist. ii. p. 355. Rot. Pip. An. 36, H. 3. " Kt in
uno dolio vini empto & dato Magistro Ricardo CitharisUv Regis, xl
sol. per ijr. Reg. Et in uno dolio enipto c\: dato Beatrici uxori
ejusdem Ricardi."
366 AN ESSAY ON
V. The harper, or minstrel, was so necessary an
attendant on a royal personage, that Prince Edward
(afterwards K. Edward I.) in his Crusade to the
Holy Land, in 1271, was not without his harper,
who must have been officially very near his person,
as we are told by a contemporary historian* that, in
the attempt to assassinate that heroic prince, when he
had wrested the poisoned knife out of the Sarazen's
hand and killed him with his own weapon, the
attendants, who had stood apart while he was whis-
pering to their master, hearing the struggle, ran to
his assistance, and one of them, to wit his harper,
seizing a tripod or trestle, struck the assassin on the
head and beat out his brains. f And though the
Prince blamed him for striking- the man after he was
dead, yet his near access shews the respectable
situation of this officer ; and his affectionate zeal
should have induced Edward to entreat his brethren
the Welsh Bards afterwards with more lenity.
Whatever was the extent of this great monarch's
severity towards the professors of music and of song
in Wales ; whether the executing by martial law such
of them as fell into his hands was only during the
heat of conflict, or was continued afterwards with more
systematic rigor ; J yet in his own court the minstrels
* Walter Hemmingford {vixit temp. Edw. I.) in Chronic, cap.
35, inter V. Hist. Ang. Scriptores, vol. ii. Oxon. 1687, fol. p. 591.
t " Accurrentes ad hgec Ministri ejus, qui a longe stetenmt, in-
venerunt eum (scil. Nuntium) in terra mortuum, et apprehendit
unus eorum tripodem, scilicet Cithareda suus & percussit eum in
capite, et effundit cerebrum ejus. Increpavitque eum Edwardus
quod hominem mortuum percussisset." — Jbid. These mi /listn must
have been upon a very confidential footing, as it appears above in
the same chapter that they had been made acquainted with the
contents of the letters, which the assassin had delivered to the
prince from his master.
I See Gray's Ode ; and the Hist, of the Gwedir Family in Mis-
cellanies by the Hon. Daines Barrington, 1781, 4to. p. 386 ; who in
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS. 367
appear to have been highly favoured ; for when,
in 1306, he conferred the order of knighthood on
his son, and many others of the young nobihty, a
multitude of minstrels were introduced to invite
and induce the new knights to make some military
vow.(x) And
Under the succeedincr reiorn of K. Edward II.
such extensive privileges were claimed by these
men, and by dissolute persons assuming their charac-
ter, that it became a matter of public grievance, and
was obliged to be reformed by an express regulation
in A.D. I3i5.(v) Notwithstanding which, an inci-
dent is recorded in the ensuing year, which shews
that minstrels still retained the liberty of entering
at will into the royal presence, and had something
peculiarly splendid in their dress. It is thus related
by Stow.(z).
" In the year 13 16, Edward the second did solem-
nize his feast of Pentecost at Westminster, in the
great hall : where sitting royally at the table with his
peers about him, there entered a woman adorned like
a 7nmstrcl, sitting on a great horse trapped, as viin-
strels then used ; who rode round about the tables,
shewing pastime; and at length came up to the king's
table, and laid before him a letter, and forthwith turn-
ing her horse saluted every one and departed."
The subject of this letter was a remonstrance to the
king on the favours heaped by him on his minions,
to the neglect of his knicrhts and faithful servants.
The privileged character of a minstrel was em-
ployed on this occasion, as sure of gaining an easy
admittance ; and a female the rather deputed to assume
it, that in case of detection, her sex might disarm the
the laws, &c. of this monarch couhl find no instances of severity
against the \Velsh. See his Observations on tlie Statutes, 4to. 4tli
edit. p. 358.
368 AN ESSAY ON
king's resentment. This is offered on a supposition,
that she was not a real minstrel ; for there should
seem to have been women of this profession, (a a)
as well as of the other sex ; and no accomplish-
ment is ' so constantly attributed to females, by our
ancient bards, as their singing to and playing on
the harp, (a a 2)
In the fourth year of K. Richard II. John of Gaunt
erected at Tutbury in Staffordshire, a court of min-
strels, similar to that annually kept at Chester (p. 363),
and which, like a Court- Leet or Court-Baron, had a
legal jurisdiction, with full power to receive suit and
service from the men of this profession within five
neighbouring countries, to enact laws, and determine
their controversies ; and to apprehend and arrest such
of them as should refuse to appear at the said court,
annually held on the i6th of August. For this they
had a charter by which they were empowered to
appoint a king of the minstrels, with four officers to
preside over them, (b b) These were every year
elected with great ceremony ; the whole form of which
as- observed in 1 680, is described by Dr. Plott :* in
whose time however they appear to have lost their
singing talents, and to have confined all their skill to
" wind and string music."t
The minstrels seem to have been in many respects
upon the same footing as the heralds ; and the king
of the minstrels, like the king at arms, was both here
* Hist, of Staffordshire, Ch. 10, § 69 — 76, p, 433, & seqq. of
which see extracts in Sir J. Hawkins's Hist, of Music, vol. ii. p. 64,
and Dr. Bumey's Hist. vol. ii. p. 360 & seqq.
N.B. The barbarous diversion of Bull-running was no part of
the original institution, &c. as is fully proved by the Rev. Dr. Pegge
in Archceologia, vol. ii. No. xiii. p. 86.
t See the charge given by the steward, at the time of the elec-
tion, in Plot's Hist, ubi supra; and in Hawkins, p. 67, Burney, p.
363-4-
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS. 369
and on the Continent an usual officer in the courts of
princes. Thus we have in the reign of K. Edward
I. mention of a King Robert, and others. And in
16 Edw. II. is a (jrant to Wilhani de Morlee "the
king's Minstrel, stiled Roy dc NortJi''* of houses
which had belonged to another king, John le Boteler.
(h b 2) Rymer hath also printed a licence granted
by K. Richard II. in 13S7, to John Caumz, the king
of his minstrels, to pass the seas, recommending him
to the protection and kind treatment of all his sub-
jects and allies.f
In the subsequent reign of K. Henry IV. we meet
with no particulars relating to the minstrels in Eng-
land, but we find in the Statute Book a severe law
passed against their brethren the Welsh bards ; whom
our ancestors could not distino-uish from their own
Rimoiu's, Alinistralx ; for by these names they de-
scribe them.(B b 3) This act plainly shews that far
from being extirpated by the rigorous policy of K.
Edward I., this order of men were still able to
alarm the Enorlish orovernment, which attributed to
them " many diseases and mischiefs in Wales," arid
prohibited their meetings and contributions.
When his heroic son K. Henry V. was preparing
his great voyage for France in 141 5, an express
order was given for his minstrels, fifteen in number, to
attend him : ;|; and eighteen are afterwards mentioned,
to each of whom he allowed y^nd. a day, when that
sum must have been of more than ten times the value
it is at present.§ Yet when he entered London in
triumph after the battle of Agincourt, he, from a prin-
* .So among the heralds Norrey was anciently stiled Roy (VArmes
ite North (Anstis, ii. 300). And the kings at amies in general
were originally called Ref^es Jlerah/orum {Ibid. 302), as these were
Reives Minstralloriim.
t Rymer's Fauiera, torn. vii. p. 555.
X Rynier, ix. 255. § Ibid. p. 260.
}', li
370 AN ESSAY ON
ciple of humility, slighted the pageants and verses
which were prepared to hail his return ; and, as we
are told by Holinshed,* would not suffer "any Dities
to be made and song by minstrels, of his glorious
victorie ; for that he would whollie have the praise
and thankes altogether given to God."(B b 4) But
this did not proceed from any disregard for the pro-
fessors of music or of song ; for at the feast of
Pentecost which he celebrated in 141 6, having the
Emperor and the Duke of Holland for his guests, he
ordered rich gowns for sixteen of his minstrels, of
which the particulars are preserved by Rymer.f And
having before his death orally granted an annuity of
100 shillings to each of his minstrels, the grant was
confirmed in the first year of his son K. Henry VI.,
A.D. 1423, and paytnent ordered out of the Exche-
quer.J
The unfortunate reign of K. Henry VI. affords
no occurrences respecting our subject ; but in his 34th
year, a.d. 1456, we have in Rymer§ a commission
for impressing boys or youths, to supply vacancies by
death among the king's minstrels ; in which it is ex-
pressly directed that they shall be elegant in their
* See his Chronicle, sub anno 141 5 (p. 1170). He also gives
this other instance of the king's great modesty, " that he would not
suffer his helmet to be carried with him, and shewed to the people,
that they might behold the dintes and cuttes, whiche appeared in
the same, of such blowes and stripes, as hee received the daye of
the battell." — Ihid. Vid. T. de Elmham, c. 29, p. 72.
The prohibition against vain and secular songs would probably
not include that inserted in our 2nd vol. No. v. which would be
considered as a hymn. The original notes may be seen reduced
and set to score in Mr. Stafford Smith's Collection of English Songs
for 3 and 4 voices, and in Dr. Burney's Hist, of Music, ii. p. 384.
t T. ix. 336.
% Ibid. X. 287. They are mentioned by name, being ten in num-
ber : one of them was named Thomas Chatterton.
§ Tom. xi. 375.
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS. 371
limbs, as well as instructed in the minstrel art, wher-
ever they can be found, for the solace of his Majesty.
In the following reign, K. Edward IV. (in his 9th
year. 1469) upon a complaint that certain rude hus-
bandmen and artificers of various trades had assumed
the title and livery of the king's minstrels, and under
that colour and pretence had collected money in di-
verse parts of the kingdom and committed other dis-
orders, the king grants to Walter Haliday, Marshal,
and to seven others his own minstrels whom he names,
a charter,* by which he creates, or rather restores a
fraternity or perpetual Gild (such, as he understands,
the brothers ancl sisters of the fraternity of minstrels
had in times past) to be governed by -a Marshal ap-
pointed for life and by two wardens to be chosen
annually ; who are impowered to admit brothers and
sisters into the said Gild, and are authorized to ex-
amine the pretensions of all such as affected to exercise
the minstrel profession ; and to regulate, govern, and
punish them throughout the realm (those of Chester
excepted). — This seems to have some resemblance
to the Earl Marshal's Court among the heralds, and
is another proof of the great affinity and resemblance
which the minstrels bore to the members of the
Colleofe of Arms.
It is remarkable that Walter Haliday, whose name
occurs as marshal in the foregoing charter, had been
retained in the service of the two preceding monarchs,
K. Henry V.f and VI. ; J nor is this the first time he
is mentioned as marshal of the king's minstrels, for
in the third year of this reign, 1464, he had a grant
* See it in Rymer, t. xi. 642, and in Sir J. Hawkins, vol. iv.
p. 3C6, note. The above charter is recited in letters patent of K.
Charles I. 15 July (11 Anno Rcgni) for a corporation of musi-
cians, &c. in Westminster, which may be seen, thitl.
t Rymer, ix. 255. t ^^i^^- xi- 375-
372 AN ESSAY ON
from K. Edward of ten marks per annum during life
directed to him with that title. *
But besides their marshal, we have also in this
reign mention of a Sergeant of the minstrels, who
upon a particular occasion was able to do his royal
master a singular service, wherein his confidential
situation and ready access to the king at all hours is
very apparent; for "as he [K. Edward IV.] was in
the north contray in the monneth of Septembre, as
he lay in his bedde, one namid Alexander Carlile,
that was Sariaunt of the Mynsti^ellis, cam to him in
grete hast, and badde hym aryse for he hadde enemyes
cummyng for to take him, the which were within vi.
or vii. mylis, of the which tydinges the king gretely
marveylid, &c."f This happened in the same year,
1469, wherein the king granted or confirmed the
charter for the fraternity or Gild above-mentioned ;
yet this Alexander Carlisle is not one of the eight
minstrels to whom that charter is directed.;];
The same charter was renewed by K. Henry VIII.
in 1520, to John Oilman his then marshal, and to
seven others his minstrels ; § and on the death of
Oilman he granted in 1529 this office of Marshal of
his minstrels to HuQ;h Wodehouse,|| whom I take to
have borne the office of his serjeant over them.^
* Rymer, xi. 512.
f Here unfortunately ends a curious fragment (an. 9, E. IV.),
ad calcem Sprotti C/iron. Ed. Hearne, Oxon. 17 19, 8vo. Vid. T.
Warton's Hist. ii. p. 134, note (c).
X Rymer, xi. 642. § Ibid. xiii. 705. || Ibid. xiv. 2. 93.
IT So I am inclined to understand the term Serviens noster Hugo
Wodchous, in the original Grant (see Rymer, ubi supra). It is
needless to observe that Serviens expressed a serjeant as well as a
servant. If this interpretation of Serviens be allowed, it Avill account
for his placing Wodehouse at the head of his Gild, although he
had not been one of the eight minstrels who had had the general
direction. The serjeant of his minstrells, we may presume, was
next in dignity to the marshal, although he had no share in the
government of the Gild.
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS.
v5/ O
VI. In all the establishments of royal and noble
households, we find an ample provision made for the
minstrels ; and their situation to have been both
honourable and lucrative. In proof of this it is
sufficient to refer to the Household Book of the Earl
of Northumberland, a.d. 1512.(0 c) And the re-
wards they received so frequently recur in ancient
writers that it is unnecessary to crowd the page with
them here, (c c 2)
The name of minstrel seems however to have been
gradually appropriated to the musician only, especially
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ; yet we oc-
casionally meet with applications of the term in its
more enlarged meaning as including the singer, if
not the composer of heroic or popular rhymes.*
In the time of K. Henry VIII. we find it to have
been a common entertainment to hear verses recited,
or moral speeches learned for that purpose, by a set
of men who got their livelihood by repeating them, and
who intruded without ceremony into all companies ;
not only in taverns, but in the houses of the nobility
themselves. This we learn from Erasmus, whose ar-
gument led him only to describe a species of these
men who did not smg their compositions ; but the
others that did, enjoyed without doubt the same
privileges, (d d)
For even long after, in the reign of Queen Eliza-
beth, it was usual "in places of assembly" for the
company to be " desirous to heare of old adventures
and valiaunces of noble knights in times past, as
those of king Artliur, and his knights of the round
table, Sir Bevys of Southampton, Guy of Warwicke
and others like" in " short and long meetres, and by
breaches or divisions (sc. Fits)f to be more com-
* See below, and Note o g.
t See vol. ii. bcjok 2, No. 10.
374 AN ESSAY ON
modiously sung to the harpe," as the reader may be
informed by a courtly writer in 1589.* Who him-
self had "written for pleasure a litle brief romance
or historicall ditty . . . of the Isle of Great Britaine"
in order to contribute to such entertainment. And
he subjoins this caution : " Such as have not pre-
monition hereof" (viz. that his poem was written in
short metre, &c. to be sung to the harpe in such
places of assembly), "and consideration of the
causes alledged, would peradventure reprove and
disgrace every romance, or short historicall ditty for
that they be not written in long meeters or verses
Alexandrins," which constituted the prevailing versi-
fication among the poets of that age, and which no
one now can endure to read.
And that the recital of such romances sung to the
harp was at that time the delight of the common
people, we are told by the same writer,! who mentions
that " common rimers" were fond of usinof rimes at
short distances, " in small and popular musickes song
by these Cantabanqui " (the said common rimers)
" upon benches and barrels heads," &c. " or else by
blind harpers or such like Taverne minstrels that
give a fit of mirth for a groat ; and their matter being
for the most part stories of old time, as the Tale of
Sir Topas, the reportes of Bevis of Southampton, Guy
of Warwicke, Adam Bell, and Clymme of the Clough,
and such other old romances, or historicall rimes,"
&c. " also they be used in carols and rounds, and such
light or lascivious poemes, which are commonly more
commodiously uttered by these buffons, or vices in
playes, then by any other person. Such were the
rimes of Skelton (usurping the name of a poet lau-
* Puttenham in his Arte of English Poesie, 1589, 4to. p. 33. See
the quotation in its proper order in vol. ii. book ii. No. 10.
t Ibid. p. 69. See vol. ii. book 2, No. 10.
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS, 375
reat) being in deede but a rude railing rimer, and all
his doings ridiculous."*
But althouLrh we find here that the minstrels had
lost much of their dignity, and were sinking into con-
tempt and neglect : yet that they still sustained a
character far superior to anything we can conceive at
present of the singers of old ballads, I think, may be
inferred from the following representation.
When Oueen Elizabeth was entertained at Killino^-
worth Castle by the Earl of Leicester in 1575, among
the many devices and pageants which were contrived
for her entertainment, one of the personages intro-
duced was to have been that of an ancient minstrel ;
whose appearance and dress are so minutely described
by a writer there present, f and give us so distinct
an idea of the character, that I shall quote the pas-
sage at large, (e e)
" A person very meet seemed he for the purpose,
of a xlv years old, apparelled partly as he would him-
self His cap off; his head seemly rounded Tonsler
wise : \ fair kembed, that with a sponge daintily dipt
in a little capon's greace was finely smoothed, to
make it shine like a mallard's winof. His beard
smugly shaven : and yet his shirt after the new trink,
with ruffs fair starched, sleeked and glistering like a
pair of new shoes, marshalled in good order with a
setting stick, and strut, that every ruff stood up like
a wafer. A side (/. e. long) gown of Kendal green,
* Puttenham, &c. p. 69.
t See a very curious " Letter : whearin, i)art of the entertain-
ment untoo the Queenz Maiesty, at Killingwoorth Castl, in War-
wick Sheer, in this soomerz Progress 1575, iz signified," &c. bl. 1.
4to. vid. p. 46, & secjq. (Printed in Nichols's Colhxtion of Qmxn
Elizahetlis Progresses, &c. in 2 vols. 4to.) We have not followed
above the peculiar and affected orthography of this writer, who was
named Ro. Laneham, or rather Langhain.
\ I sujjpose " Tonsure-wise," after the manner of the monks.
376 AN ESSAY ON
after the freshness of the year now, gathered at the
neck with a narrow gorget, fastened afore with a
white clasp and a keeper close up to the chin ; but
easily, for heat to undo when he list. Seemly
begirt in a red caddis girdle : from that a pair of
capped Sheffield knives hanging a' two sides. Out
of his bosom drawn forth a lappet of his napkin*
edged with a blue lace, and marked with a true love,
a heart, and a D for Damian, for he was but a bat-
chelor yet.
" His gown had side {i. e. long) sleeves down to
mid-leg, slit from the shoulder to the hand, and
lined with white cotton. His doublet-sleeves of black
worsted : upon them a pair of poynetsf of tawny
chamlet laced alono; the wrist with blue threaden
points, a wealt towards the hand of fustian-a-napes.
A pair of red neather stocks. A pair of pumps on his
feet, with a cross cut at the toes for corns : not new
indeed, yet cleanly blackt with soot, and shining as a
shoing horn.
" About his neck a red ribband suitable to his
girdle. His harp in good grace dependent before
him. His wrest^! tyed to a green lace and hanging
by. Under the gorget of his gown a fair flaggon
chain (pewter,§ for) silver, as a squire minstrel of
Middlesex, that travelled the country this summer
season, unto fairs and worshipful mens houses.
From his chain hung a scutcheon, with metal and
colour, resplendant upon his breast, of the ancient
arms of Islington."
Tiiis minstrel is described as belong-inof to that
_: \ ,, _
* /. <?. 'handkerchief. So in Shakspear's Othello, passim.
t Perhaps, points.
\ The key, or screw, with which he tuned his harp.
§ The reader will remember that this was not a real minstrel,
but only one personating that character ; his ornaments therefore
were only such as outwardly represented those of a real minstrel.
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS. 377
village. I suppose such as were retained by noble
families wore the arms of their patrons hanging
down by a silver chain as a kind of badge.* From
the expression of squire minstrel above, we may
conclude there were other inferior orders, as yeomen
minstrels or the like.
This minstrel, the author tells us a little below,
" after three lowly courtsies, cleared his voice Avith a
hem . . . and . . . wiped his lips with the hollow
of his hand for 'filing his napkin, tempered a string
or two with his wrest, and after a little warbling on
his harp for a prelude, came forth with a solemn
song, warranted for story out of King Arthur's acts,
&c." This song the reader will find printed in this
work, vol. iii. book i. No. 3.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century this
class of men had lost all credit, and were sunk so
low in the public opinion, that in the 39th year of
Elizabeth,t a statute was passed by which "minstrels,
wandering abroad," were included among " rogues,
vagabonds, and sturdy beggars," and were adjudged
to be punished as such. This act seems to have put
an end to the profession, (e e 2)
* As the house of Northumberland had anciently three minstrels
attending on them in their castles in Yorkshire, so they still retain
three in their service in Northumberland, who wear the badge of
the family (a silver crescent on the right arm), and are thus dis-
tributed; viz. one for the barony of Prudhoe, and two for the
barony of Rothbury. These attend the court leets and fairs held
for the Lord, and jjay their annual suit and service at Alnwick
castle; their instrument being the ancient Northumberland bagpipe
(very different in form and execution from that of the Scots, being
smaller; and blown, not with the breath, but with a small pair of
bellows).
This, with many other venerable customs of the ancient Lord
Percys, was revived by their illustrious representatives the late Duke
and Dutchess of Northumberland.
t Anno Dom. 1597. Vid. riilt. Stal. p. 1 1 lo, 39 Eli/..
378 AN ESSAY ON
VII. I cannot conclude this account of the ancient
English minstrels, without remarking that they are
most of them represented to have been of the North
of England. There is scarce an old historical song
or ballad (f f) wherein a minstrel or harper appears,
but he is characterized by way of eminence to have
been "of the North countreye :"* and, indeed, the
prevalence of the Northern dialect in such composi-
tions shews that this representation is real.f On
the other hand, the scene of the finest Scottish bal-
lads is laid in the south of Scotland ; which should
seem to have been peculiarly the nursery of Scottish
minstrels. In the old song of Maggy Lawder, a
piper is asked, by way of distinction, " Come ye frae
* See this vol. Song 6, v. 156, 180, &c.
t Giraldus Cambrensis, writing in the reign of K. Henry II.
mentions a very extraordinary habit or propensity, which then pre-
vailed in the north of England, beyond the Humber, for " sym-
phonious harmony," or singing " in two parts, the one murmuring
n the base, and the other warbling in the acute or treble." (I use
Dr. Burney's version, vol. ii. p. 108.) This he describes as prac-
tised by their very children from the cradle ; and he derives it
from the Danes (so Daci signifies in our old writers) and Norwe-
gians, who long over-run and in effect new-peopled the northern
parts of England, where alone this manner of singing prevailed.
(Vide Cambricz Description cap. 13, and in Burney, ubi supra?)
Giraldus is probably right as to the origin or derivation of this
practise, for the Danish and Icelandic scalds had carried the arts
of poetry and singing to great perfection at the time the Danish
settlements were made in the north. And it will also help to
account for the superior skill and fame of our northern minstrels
and harpers afterwards : who had preserved and transmitted the
arts of their scaldic ancestors. See Northern Antiquities, vol. i. c.
13, p. 386, and Five pieces of Runic poetry , 1763, 8vo. Compare
the original passage in Giraldus, as given by Sir John Hawkins, i.
408, and by Dr. Burney, ii. 108, who are both at a loss to account
for this peculiarity, and therefore doubt the fact. The credit of
Giraldus, which hath been attacked by some partial and bigotted
antiquaries, the reader will find defended in that learned and curious
work. Antiquities of Ireland, by Edward Ledwich, LL.D. &c. Dub-
lin, 1790, 4to. p. 207, & seqq.
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS. 379
the Border?"* The martial spirit constantly kept
up and exercised near the frontier of the two king-
doms, as it furnished continual subjects for their
songs, so it inspired the inhabitants of the adjacent
counties on both sides with the powers of jDoetry.
Besides, as our southern metropolis must have been
ever the scene of novelty and refinement, the north-
ern countries, as being most distant, would preserve
their ancient manners longest, and, of course, the
old poetry, in which those manners are peculiarl)-
described.
The reader will observe in the more ancient bal-
lads of this collection, a cast of style and measure
very different from that of contemporary poets of a
higher class ; many phrases and idioms, which the
minstrels seem to have apj^ropriated to themselves,
and a ver)' remarkable licence of varying the accent
* This line being quoted from memory, and given as old Scottish
poetr}', would have been readily corrected by the copy published
in Scottish Songs, 1794, 2 vols. i2mo. i. p. 267, thus (though appa-
rently corrupted from the Scottish idiom) :
" Live you upo' the Border ? "
had not all confidence been destroyed by its being altered in the
Historical Essay, prefixed to that publication (p. ex.) to
" Ye live upo' the Border,"
the better to favour a position, that many of the pipers " might live
upon the border, for the conveniency of attending fairs, &c. in both
kingdoms." But whoever is acquainted with that part of England
knows that on the English frontier rude mountains and barren
wastes reach almost across the island, scarcely inhaljited by any
but solitary shepherds ; many of whom durst not venture into the
opi^ositc border on account of the ancient feuds and subsequent
disputes concerning the Debatable Lands, which separated the
boundaries of the two kingdoms, as well as the estates of the tvvo
great families of Percy and Douglas ; till these disi)utes were settled,
not many years since, by arbitration between the present Lord
Doughs, and the late Duke and Dutchess of Northumberland.
38o AN ESSAY ON
of words at pleasure, in order to humour the flow of
the verse, particularly in the rhimes ; as
Coiintrie harper battel viorntng
Laitie singer damsel loving^
instead of country, lady, harper, singer, &c. This
liberty is but sparingly assvimed by the classical
poets of the same age ; or even by the latter com-
posers of heroical ballads, I mean by such as pro-
fessedly wrote for the press. For it is to be ob-
served, that so long as the minstrels subsisted, they
seem never to have designed their rhymes for liter-
ary publication, and probably never committed them
to writing themselves , what copies are preserved of
them were doubtless taken down from their mouths.
But as the old minstrels gradually wore out, a new
race of ballad-writers succeeded, an inferior sort of
minor poets, who wrote narrative songs merely for
the press. Instances of both may be found in the
reign of Elizabeth. The two latest pieces in the
genuine strain of the old minstrelsy that I can dis-
cover are No. 3 and 4 of book iii. in this volume.
Lower than these I cannot trace the old mode of
writing.
The old minstrel ballads are in the northern
dialect, abound with antique words and phrases, are
extremely incorrect, and run into the utmost licence
of metre ; they have also a romantic wildness, and
are in the true spirit of chivalry. The other sort
are written in exacter measure, have a low or subor-
dinate correctness, sometimes bordering on the in-
sipid, yet often well adapted to the pathetic ; these
are generally in the southern dialect, exhibit a more
modern phraseology, and are commonly descriptive
of more modern manners. To be sensible of the
difference between them, let the reader compare
THE ANCIENT MINSTRELS. 381
in this volume No. 3 of book iii. with No. 1 1 of
book ii.
Towards the end of Oueen EHzabeth's reiofn (as
is mentioned above), the genuine old minstrelsy
seems to have been extinct, and henceforth the bal-
lads that were produced were wholly of the latter
kind, and these came forth in such abundance that
in the reign of James I. they began to be collected
into little miscellanies, under the name of Garlands,
and at length to be written purposely for such col-
lections, (f f 2)
P.S. By way of postscript should follow here the discussion of
the question whether the term Minstrels was applied in English to
singers and composers of songs, &c. or confined to musicians only.
But it is reserved for the concluding note, (c g)
THE END OF THE ESSAY,
382
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
REFERRED TO IN THE FOREGOING ESSAY.
(a) The Minstrels, &'c^
r~ H^^r^^ HE word minstrel does not appear to have been in use
here before the Norman Conquest : whereas it had
long before that time been adopted in France.* Mene-
strel, so early as the eighth century, was a title given
to the Maestro di Capclla of K. Pepin, the father of Charlemagne ;
and afterwards to the Coryphaeus, or leader of any band of mu-
sicians (v. Bume/s Hist, of Music, ii. 268). This term menestrel,
menestrier was thus expressed in Latin, ministellus, ministrellus,
viinistr alius, menesterellus, &c. (Vid. Gloss. Die Cange, and Supple-
ment.)
Menage derives the French words above mentioned from minis-
terialis or ministeriarius, barbarous Latin terms, used in the middle
ages to express a workman or artificer (still called in Languedoc
ministral), as if these men were styled artificers or performers by
way of excellence (vid. Diction. Etym.) But the origin of the
name is given perhaps more truly by Du Cange, " Ministelli . . .
quos vulgo menestreux vel mencstricrs appellamus, quod minoribus
aulse ministris accenserentur." {Gloss, iv. p. 769.) Accordingly,
we are told, the word '•'■minister" is sometimes used "pro minis-
tellus'''' {Ibid.), and an instance is produced which I shall insert at
lar^e in the next paragraph.
// Minstrels sometimes assisted at divine service, as appears from
^ the record of the ninth of Edw. IV. quoted above in p. 37 1 by which
r"' * The Anglo-Saxon and primary English name for this character
was Gleeman (see below, note i, sect, i), so that wherever the
term minstrel is in these pages applied to it before the Conquest,
it must be understood to be only by anticipation. Another early
name for this profession in English was jogeler, or jocular, Lat.
joculator. (See p. 353, as also note v 2 and note Q.) To prevent
confusion, we have chiefly used the more general word minstrel,
which (as the author of the Observ. on the Statutes hath suggested
to the editor) might have been originally derived from a diminutive
of the Lat. minister, scil. minister ellus, ministrellus.
NOTES ON THE ESSAY. i^2>
Haliday and others are erected into a perpetual Gild, &c. See the
original in Rjmer, xi. 642. By part of this record it is recited to
be their duty to pray {exorarc : which it is presumed they did by
assisting in the chant, and musical accompaniment, &c.) The
same also appears from the passage in the Supplem. to Du Cange,
alluded to above. " Minister . . . pro Ministcllus Joculator* —
Vetus ceremoniale MS. B. M. deauratae Tolos. Item, etiam congre-
gabuntur Piscatores, qui debent interesse isto die in processione
cum Ministris seu Joculatoribus : quia ipsi Piscatores tenentur
habere isto die Joculaiores, seu Mimos ob honorem Criccis — et
vadunt primi ante processionem cum Ministris seu Joculatoribus
semper pulsantibus usque ad ecclesiam S. Stephani" {G/oss. TJs)-
This may perhaps account for the clerical appearance of the
minstrels, who seem to have been distinguished by the tonsure,
which was one of the inferior marks of the clerical character.!
Thus Jeft'ery of Monmouth, speaking of one who acted the part of
a minstrel, says, Hasit capillos sues cv barbam (see note k).
Again, a writer in the reign of Elizabeth, describing the habit of
an ancient minstrel, speaks of his head as " rounded tonster-wise "
(which I venture to read tonsure-wise), " his beard smugly
shaven." See above, p. 375.
It must, however, be observed, that notwithstanding such
clerical appearance of the minstrels, and though they might be
sometimes countenanced by such of the clergy as were of more
relaxed morals, their sportive talents rendered them generally ob-
noxious to the more rigid ecclesiastics, and to such of the religious
orders as were of more severe discipline ; whose writings commonly
* Ministers seems to be used for minstrels in the account of the
Inthronization of Abp. Neville (An. 6, Edw. IV.). " Then all the
Chaplyns must say grace, and the ministers do sing." Vid. Lelandi
Collectanea, by Heame, vol. vi. p. 13.
t It has, however, been suggested to the editor by the learned
and ingenious author of Irish Antiquities, 4to. that the ancient
mimi among the Romans had their heads and beards shaven, as is
shown by Salmasius in Notis ad Hist. August. Scriptorcs VI. Paris,.
1622, fol. p. 385. So that this peculiarity had a classical origin,
though it aftenvards might make the minstrels sometimes pass for
ecclesiastics, as appears from the instance given below. Dr. Bur-
ney tells us that histriones and ;;////// abounded in France in the
time of Charlemagne (ii. 221), so that their profession was handed
down in reguhr succession from the time of the Romans, and
therewith some leading distinctions of their habit or appearance ;
yet with a change in their arts of pleasing, wliich latterly were
most confined to singing and music.
384 AW TBS ON THE
abound with heavy complaints of the great encouragement shewn
to those men by the princes and nobles, and who can seldom
afford them a better name than that of sciirra;, famelici, nebulones,
&c. of which innumerable instances may be seen in Du Cange. It
was even an established order in some of the monasteries, that no
minstrel should ever be suffered to enter their gates.*
We have, however, innumerable particulars of the good cheer
and great rewards given to the minstrels in many of the convents,
which are collected by T. Warton (i. 91, &c.) and others. But
one instance, quoted from Wood's Hist. Antiq. Univ. Ox. i. 67.
(Sub. An. 1224) deserves particular mention. Two itinerant
priests, on a supposition of their being minii or minstrels, gained
admittance. But the cellarer, sacrist, and others of the brethren,
who had hoped to have been entertained with their diverting arts,
&:c. when they found them to be only two indigent ecclesiastics,
who could only administer spiritual consolation, and were conse-
quently disappointed of their mirth, beat them and turned them
out of the monastery. {Ibid. p. 92.) This passage furnishes an ad-
ditional proof that a minstrel might by his dress or appearance be
mistaken for an ecclesiastic.
(b) The minstrels tise mimicry and actioji, and other means
of diverting, &^c.'\ It is observable that our old monkish historians
do not use the words cantator, citharcedus, musicus, or the like,
to express a minstrel in Latin, so frequently as mimus, hist?'io,
Jociilator, or some other word that implies gesture. Hence it
might be inferred that the minstrels set off their songs with all the
\' arts of gesticulation, &c. or according to the ingenious hypothesis
of Dr. Brown, united the powers of melody, poem, and dance.
(See his History of the Rise of Poetry, &c.)
But indeed all the old writers describe them as exercising
various arts of this kind. Joinville, in his Life of S. Lewis, speaks
of some Armenian minstrels, who were very dextrous tumblers and
posture masters. " Avec le Prince vinrent trois Menestriers de la
Grande Hyermenie (Armenia) . . . . et avoient trois cors — Quand
ils encommenceoient a corner, vous dissiez que ce sont les voix
de cygnes, .... et fesoient les plus douces melodies. — lis
fesoient trois merveilleus saus, car on leur metoit une touaille de-
sous les piez, et tournoient tout debout. . . . Les deux tournoients
* Yet in St. Mary's church at Beverley, one of the columns hath
this inscription: " Thys Pillar made the Mynstrylls;" having its
capital decorated with figures of five men in short coats ; one of
whom holds an instrument resembling a lute. See Sir J. Hawkins'
Hist. ii. 298.
FOREGOING ESSAY. 385
les testes arieres," &c. (See the extract at large, in the Hon. D.
Barrington's Obsert<ations onthe Anc. Statutes ^ 4to. 2nd edit. p. 273,
omitted in the last impression.)
This may also account for that remarkable clause in the press
warrant of Henry VI. " De Ministrallis propter solatium regis pro-
ru/em/i's," by which it is required, that the boys, to be provided ;>/
arte Ministrallatus instructos, should also be membris naturalibus
elegantes. Seeabove,p. 370. ((9^jrrz'.w/M^^//r.6'/<7/. 4thedit. p.337.) ^
Although by minstrel was properly understood, in English, one
who sung to the harp, or some other instrument of music, verses
composed by himself or others ; yet the term was also applied by
our old \vTiters to such as professed either music or singing sepa-
rately, and perhaps to such as practised any of the sportive arts
connected with these.* Music, however, being the leading idea,
was at length peculiarly called minstrelsy, and the name of minstrel .
at last confined to the musician only. ^
In the French language all these arts were included under the
general name of menestraudie, menestraudise, Jofiglerie, &c. (Med.
Lat. menestellorum ars, ars joeulatoria, &c.) " On pent com-
prendre sous le nom de jonglerie tout ce qui appartient aux anciens
chansonniers Provengaux, Normands, Picards, &c. Le corps de
la jonglerie etoit forme des trouveres, ou troubadours, qui com-
posoient les chansons, et parmi lesquels il y avoit des improrisateurs,
comme on en trouve en Itahe; des chanteurs ou ehanteres qui
executoient ou chantoient ces compositions ; des conteurs qui i
faisoient en vers ou en prose les contes, les recits, les histoires;
des jongleurs ou i?ienestrels qui accompagnoient de leurs instru-
mens, — L'art de ces chantres ou chansonniers, etoit nomme la
Science Gaie, Gay Saber!' (Pref. Anthologie Fran{. 1765, 8vo. p.
17.) See also the curious Fauchet {De i'Orig. de la Lang. Fr.
p. 72, &c.) " Bien tost apres la division de ce grand empire
Francois en tant de petits royaumes, duchez, & comtez, au lieu
des Poetes commencerent a se faire cognoistre les trouverres, et
chanterres, conteours, et jugleours : qui sont trouveurs, chantres,
conteurs, jongleurs, ou jugleurs, c'est \ dire, menestriers chantans
avec la viole." .-_^^
We see then Xh^X jongleur, Jugleur, {\.zX. joailator,juglator) was j
a peculiar name appropriated to the minstrels. " Les jongleurs '
ne faisoient que chanter les poesies sur leurs instrumens. On les
appelloit aussi Menestrels," says Fontenelle, in his Hist, du Theat.
Franc, prefixed to his Life of Corneille.
(C) Successors of the ancient bards.^ That the minstrels in
many respects bore a strong resemblance both to the British bards
* Vid. infra, not. A a.
C C
386 NOTES ON THE
and to the Danish scalds, appears from this, that the old monkish
writers express them all without distinction by the same names in
Latin. Thus Geoffrey of Monmouth, himself a Welshman, speak-
ing of an old pagan British King, who excelled in singing and
music so far as to be esteemed by his countr}'men the patron deity
of the bards, uses the phrase Deus Joculatorum; which is the pe-
culiar name given to the English and French minstrels.* In like
manner, William Malmesbury, speaking of a Danish king's assum-
ing the profession of a scald, expresses it by professus mimum ;
which was another name given to the minstrels in middle latinity.f
Indeed, Du Cange, in his Glossary, quotes a writer who positively
asserts that the minstrels of the middle ages were the same with the
ancient bards. I shall give a large extract from this learned glosso-
grapher, as he relates many curious particulars concerning the pro-
fession and arts of the minstrels ; whom, after the monks, he stig-
matizes by the name of scurrce ; though he acknowledges their
songs often tended to inspire virtue.
" Ministelli, dicti prsesertim scurrce, Mimi, joculatores." ....
" Ejusmodi scurrarum munus erat principes non suis duntaxat
ludicris oblectare, sed et eorum aures variis avorum, adeoque
ipsorum principum laudibus, non sine assentatione, cum cantilenis
& musicis instrumentis demulcere
" Interdum etiam virorum insignium & heroum gesta, aut ex-
plicata & jocunda narratione commemorabant, aut suavi vocis
inflexione, fidibusque decantabant, quo sic dominorum, caetero-
rumque qui his intererant ludicris, nobilium animos ad virtutem
capessendam, et summorum virorum imitationem accenderent :
quod fuit olim apud Gallos bardorum ministerium, ut auctor est
Tacitus. Neque enim alios a mmistellis, veterum Gallorum bardos
fuisse pluribus probat Henricus Valesius ad 15 Ammiani
Chronicon Bertrandi Guesclini.
" Qui veut avoir renom des bons & des vaillans
II doit aler souvent a la pluie & au champs
Et estre en la bataille, ainsy que fu Rollans,
Les Quatre Fils Haimon, & Charlon li plus grans,
Li dus Lions de Bourges, & Guions de Connans
Perceval li Galois, Lancelot, & Tristans,
Alixandres, Artus, Godfroi li Sachans,
De quoy cils menestriers font les nobles Romans."
" Nicolaus de Braia describens solenne convivium, quo post
inaugurationem suam proceres excepit Lud. VIII. rex Francorum,
* Vid. Not. B. K. Q. t Vid. Note N.
FOREGOING ESSAY. 387
ait inter ipsius convivii apparatum, in medium prodiisse mimum,
qui regis laudes ad cytharam decantavit."
Our author then gives the hnes at length, which begin thus,
" Dumque fovent genium geniaH munere Bacchi,
Nectare commixto curas removente Ly?eo
Principis a facie, citharae celeberrimus arte
Assurgit mimus, ars musica quem decoravit.
Hie ergo chorda resonante subintuht ista :
Inclyte rex regum, probitatis stemmate vernans,
Quem vigor & virtus extolHt in Kthera famae," &c.
The rest may be seen in Du Cange, who thus proceeds, " Mitto
rehqua simiha, ex quibus omnino patet ejusmodi mimorum &
ministellorum cantilenas ad virtutem principes excitasse
Id prsesertim in pugnse praecinctu, dominis suis occinebant, ut
martium ardorem in eomm animis concitarent : cujusmodi cantum
Canti/cnam Rollandi appellat Will. Malmesb. lib. 3. Aimoinus,
lib. 4. de Mirac. S. Bened. c 37. Tanta vero illis securitas ....
ut scurram se precedere facerent, qui musico instrumento res
fortiter gestas et priorum bella praecineret, quatenus his acrius
incitarentur, &:c.' As the writer was a monk, we shall not wonder
at his calling the minstrel, sairram.
This word scurra, or some one similar, is represented in the
Glossaries as the proper meaning of Icccator (Fr. leccoiir) the an-
cient term by which the minstrel appears to be expressed in the
Grant to Button, quoted above in page 363. On this head I shall
produce a very curious passage, which is twice quoted in Du
Cange's Glossary. (Sc. ad verb. Menestellus & ad verb. Lecator.)
" Philippus Mouskes in Philip. Aug. fingit Carolum M. Provincie
comitatum scurris & mimis suis olim donasse, indeque postea
tantum in hac regione poetarum numerum excrevisse.
" Quar quant li buens Rois Karlemaigne
Ot toute mise a son dcmaine
Provence, qui mult icrt plentive
De vins, de bois, d'aigue, de rive,
As leccoiirs as menestreus
Qui sont auques luxuricus
Lc donna toute et departi."
(D) The poet and the minstrel early with us became tivo per-
sons. The word scald comprehended both characters among the
Danes, nor do I know that they had any peculiar name for either
of them separate. But it was not so with the Anglo-Saxons. They
called a poet 8ceop, and LeoSpypta : the last of these comes from
388 NOTES ON THE
Leo^, a song ; and the former answers to our old word maker
(Gr. t\oLr}TriQ), being derived from Scippan or Sceopan, formare,
facere, fingere, creare (Ang. to shape). As for the minstrel, they
distinguished him by the peculiar appellation of Elijman, and per-
haps by the more simple title of ^eajnpejie, harper : (See below,
notes H, I.) This last title, at least, is often given to a minstrel by
our most ancient English rhymists. See in this work vol. i. book i.
No. 6, vol. iii. book i. No. 7.
A (E) Minstrels . . . at the houses of the great, 6^^.] Du
Cange affirms, that in the middle ages the courts of princes
swarmed so much with this kind of men, and such large sums were ex-
pended in maintaining and rewarding them, that they often drained
the royal treasures : especially, he adds, of such as were delighted
with their flatteries {prcesertim qui ejusmodi ministellorum assentation-
ibus delcctabantur). He then confirms his assertion by several pas-
sages out of monastic writers, who sharply inveigh against this
extravagance. Of these I shall here select only one or two, which
show what kind of rewards were bestowed on these old songsters.
"Rigordus de Gestis Philippi Aug. an. 1185. 'Cum in curiis
regum seu aliorum principum, frequens turba histrionuro. convenire
soleat, ut ab eis aurum, argentum, equos, seu vestes,* quos perssepe
mutare consueverunt principes, ab eis extorqueant, verba jocula-
toria variis adulationibus plena proferre nituntur. Et ut magis
. placeant, quicquid de ipsis principibus probabiliter fingi potest,
videlicet omnes delitias et lepores, et visu dignas urbanitates et
cseteras ineptias, trutinantibus buccis in medium eructare non
erubescunt. Vidimus quondam quosdam principes, qui vestes diu
excogitatas, et variis florum picturationibus artificiose elaboratas,
pro quibus forsan 20 vel. 30 marcas argenti consumpserant, vix re-
volutis septem diebus, histrionibus, ministris diaboli, ad primam
vocem dedisse, &c."
The curious reader may find a similar, though at the same time
a more candid account, in that most excellent writer, Presid.
Fauchet {Recueil de la-Lang. Fr. p. 73), who says, that, like the
* The minstrels in France were received with great magnificence
in the fourteenth century. "Froissart describing a Christmas enter-
tainment given by the Comte de Fpix, tells us, that " there were
many mynstrels, as well of hys own, as of straungers, and cache of
them dyd their devoyre in their faculties. The same day the Erie
of Foix gave to haraulds and minstrelles the som of fyve hundred
frankes : and gave to the Duke of Tourayns mynstreles gownes of
clothe of gold, furred with ermyne, valued at two hundred frankes."
B. iii. c. 31. Eng. Trans. Lond. 1525. (Mr. C.)
FOREGOING ESSAY. 389
ancient Greek Aot^ot, " Nos trouverres, ainsi que ceux la, prenans
leur subject sur les faits des vaillans (qu'ils appelloyent geste,
venant de gesta Latin) alloy ent . . . par les cours rejouir les
princes . . . Remportans des grandes recompences des seigneurs,
qui bien souvent leur donnoyent jusques aux robes qu'ils avoyent
vestues : & lesquelles ces jugleours ne failloyent de porter aux
autres cours, h. fin d'inviter les seigneurs a pareille liberalite. Ce
qui a dure si longuement, qu'il me souvient avoir veu Martin
Baraton (ja viel menestrier d'Orleans) lequel aux festes et nopces
batoit un tabourin d'argent, semd des plaques aussi d'argent gravees
des armoiries de ceux a qui il avoit appris a danser." Here we see
that a minstrel sometimes performed the function of a dancing-
master.
Fontenelle even gives us to understand, that these men were
often rewarded \vith favours of a still higher kind. " Les princesses
& les plus grandes dames y joignoient souvent leurs faveurs.
Elles etoient fort foibles contreles beaux esprits." [Hist.du T/icat.)
We are not to wonder then that this profession should be followed
by men of the first quality, particularly the younger sons and
brothers of great houses. " Tel qui par les partages de sa famille
n'avoit que la moitie ou le quart d'une vieux chateaux bien seig-
neurial, alloit quelque temps courir le monde en rimant, et revenoit
acquerir le reste de Chateau.' {Fontenelle, Hist, du T/ieat.) We
see then, that there was no improbable fiction in those ancient
songs and romances, which are founded on the story of minstrels
being beloved by kings' daughters, &c., and discovering themselves
to be the sons of some sovereign prince, &c.
(F) The honours and rewards lavished upon the minstrels were
not confined to the continent. Our own countryman Johannes
Sarisburiensis (in the time of Henry H.) declaims no less than the
monks abroad, against the extravagant favour shown to these men.
Non enim more nugatorum ejus seculi in histriones & mimos, et
hujusmodi monstra hominum, ob famae redemptionem & dilata-
tionem nominis cffunditis opes vestras, &c. {Epist. 247.*)
The monks seem to grudge every act of munificence that was
not applied to the benefit of themselves and their convents. They
therefore bestow great applauses upon the Emperor Henry, who,
at his marriage with Agnes of Poictou, in 1044, disappointed the
poor minstrels, and sent them away empty. " Infinitam histrionum,
& joculatorum multitudinem sine cibo & muneribus vacuam
& m(i;rentem abire permisit." {Chronic. Virtziburg.) For which
I doubt not but he was sufficiently stigmatized in the sougs and
Et vid. Policraticon, cap. 8, &c.
390 NOTES ON THE
ballads of those times. Vid. Du Cange, Gloss, torn, iv, p.
771, &c.
(G) The annals of the Afiglo-Saxons are scanty and defec-
tive.'] Of the few histories now remaining that were written be-
fore the Norman Conquest, almost all are such short and naked
sketches and abridgements, giving only a concise and general rela-
tion of the more remarkable events, that scarce any of the minute
circumstantial particulars are to be found in them : nor do they
hardly ever descend to a description of the customs, manners, or
domestic economy of their countrymen. The Saxon Chronicle, for
instance, which is the best of them, and upon some accounts ex-
tremely valuable, is almost such an epitome as Lucius Florus and
Eutropius have left us of the Roman history. As for Ethelward,
his book is judged to be an imperfect translation of the Saxon
Chronicle;* and the Pseudo Asser, or Chronicle of St. Neot, is a
poor defective performance. How absurd would it be then to
argue against the existence of customs or facts, from the silence of
such scanty records as these ! Whoever would carry his researches
deep into that period of history, might safely plead the excuse of a
learned writer, who had particularly studied the Ante-Norman his-
torians. "Conjecturis (licet nusquam sine verisimili fundamento)
aliquoties indulgemus . . . utpote ab historicis jejune nimis &
indiligenter res nostras tractantibus coacti . . . Nostri . . . nuda
factorum commemoratione plerumque contenti, reliqua omnia, sive
ob ipsarum rerum, sive meliorum literarum, sive historicorum officii
ignorantiam, fere intacta pr^tereunt." Vide plura in Frcefat. ad
yElfr. Vitayn a Spelttian. Ox. 1678, fol.
(H) Mi?istrels and harpers.'] That the harp (cithard) was
the common musical instrument of the Anglo-Saxons, might be in-
ferred from the very word itself, which is not derived from the
British, or any other Celtic language, but of genuine Gothic original,
and current among every branch of that people : viz. Ang.-Sax.
peajipe, ^eappa; Iceland, harpa, haurpa; Dan. and Belg.
harpe ; Germ, harpffe, harpfifa ; Gal. harpe ; Span, harpa ; Ital.
arpa. (yid./un. Etym., Menage Etym. &c.) As also from this, that
the word J>ea;ipe is constantly used, in the Anglo-Saxon versions,
to express the Latin words cithara, lyra, and even cymbalum : the
vfoxd psalmus itself being sometimes translated peajip j'anj, harp
song. {Gloss, Jim. R. apnd Lye Anglo-Sax. Lexic.)
/ But the fact itself is positively proved by the express testimony
of Bede, who tells us that it was usual at festival meetings for this
* Vid. Nicolson's E?ig. Hist. Lib. &c.
FOREGOING ESSAY. 391
instrument to be handed round, and each of the company to sing
to it in his turn. See his Hist. Ecdcs. Anglor. Hb. iv. c. 24, where
speaking of their sacred poet CKdmon, who lived in the times of
the Heptarchy {ob. arc. 680) he says :
" Nihil unquam frivoli & supervacui poematis facere potuit ;
sed ea tantummodo, quK ad religionem pertinent, religiosam ejus
linguam decebant. Siquidem in habitu sxculari, usque ad tempora
provectioris aetatis constitutus, nil carminum aHquando didicerat.
Unde nonnunquam in convivio, cum esset la^titiai causa ut omnes
per ordinem cantare deberent, ille ubi appropinquare sibi citharam
cemebat, surgebat a media coena, et egressus ad suam domum
repedabat."
I shall now subjoin King Alfred's own Anglo-Saxon translation
of this passage, with a literal interlineary English version.
Pe . . nspjie noht leaj-unja. ne ibelej' leo'Sej' pypcean ne mihre.
Ife . . never no /casings, nor idle songs compose ne might ;
ac epne ^a an Sa "Se ro nepej-cnej'j-e belumpon. •]
but lo ! only those things 7uhich to religion {^icty\ belong, and
hij- ^a a^pej'tan runjan jebapenobe j-injan : jjajj* he j-e man
his then pious tongue became to sing : He was the [a] man
in peojnolr-habe jej-eteb o'S Sa ribe Se he paep op
in worldly [secular'] state set to the time in which he was of an
jelypeojie ylbe. -3 he naeppe aeni5 leof geleofinobe. -] he
advanced age; and he never any song learmd. And he
pojijjon opr m jebeoppcipe Sonne Soep psep bhppe mrmja
therefore oft in an entertainment when there 7vas for merriment
jebemeb. ■f hi ealle pceolban "Suph enbeby-
sake adjudged [or decreed], that they all should through their
fibneppe be heafipan pmjan. Sonne he jepeah Sa heafipan
turns by [to the] harp sing ; K'hen he sara the harp
him nealaecan. Sonne ajiap he pop pceome pfiam Sam pymle
him approach, then arose he FOR shame frotn the supper
-] ham eobe ro hip hupe.
and home y ode {luent] to his house.
Bed. Hist. Eccl. a Smith. Cantab. 1722, fol. p. 597
In this version of Alfred's it is observable, (i) that he has ex-
pressed the Latin word cantare, by the Anglo-Saxon words *' be
heappan pinjan," sing to the harp ; as if they were synonymous, or
392 NOTES ON THE
as if his countrymen had no idea of singing unaccompanied with
the harp : (2) That when Bede simply says, surgebat a media coena,
he assigns a motive, " apaj' poji j-ceome," arose for shame : that
is, either from an austerity of manners, or from his being deficient
in an accomplishment which so generally prevailed among his
countrymen.
(I) The word glee which peculiarly denoted their art, &'c^
This word glee is derived from the Anglo-Saxon trligs, (Gligg)
musica, music, minstrelsy (Somn). This is the common radix,
whence arises such a variety of terms and phrases relating to the
minstrel-art, as affords the strongest internal proof, that this pro-
fession was extremely common and popular here before the Nor-
man Conquest. Thus we have
I.
(i) Elip (Gliw.), mimus, a minstrel.
Iihjman, ^ligmon, jliman, (glee-man*) histrio, mimus, panto-
mimus ; all common names in middle latinity for a minstrel ; and
Somner accordingly renders the original by a minstrel — a player
on a timbrel or taber. He adds, a fidler ; but although the fythel
ox fiddle, was an ancient instrument, by which the Jogelar or min-
* Gleeman continued to be the name given to a minstrel both
in England and Scotland almost as long as this order of men con-
tinued.
In De Brunne's metrical version of Bishop Grosthead's Manuel
de Feche, a.d. 1303 (see Warton, i. 61), we have this,
Gode men, ye shall lere
When ye any gleman here."
Fabyan (in his Chronicle, 1533, f. 32.) translating the passage
from Geoffrey of Monmouth, quoted below in p. 397 note (K)
renders Deus Joailatomm, by God of Gleemen. (Warton's Hist.
Eng. Poet. Diss, i.) Fabyan died in 1592.
Dunbar, who lived in the same century, describing in one of his
poems, intitled, The Daunce what passed in the infernal regions
'* amangis the Feyndis," says :
" Na menstralls playit to thame, but dowt.
For gle-men thaire wer haldin out.
Be day and eke by nycht."
See Poems from Bannatyne's MS. Edinb. 1770, i2mo. p. 30.
Maitland's MS. at Cambridge reads here gleive-men.
FOREGOING ESSAY. 393
strel sometimes accompanied his song (see Warton, i. 17), it is
probable that Somner annexes here only a modem sense to the
word, not having at all investigated the subject.
Irhimen, shismen, (Glee-men), histriones, minstrels. Hence,
Ijlismanna-yppe. Orchestra, vel pidpitus. The place where
the minstrels exhibited their performances.
(2) But their most proper and expressive name was
Chphleojjjiienb, musicus, a minstrel ; and
lihphleojjjuenbhca, musiais, musical.
These two words include the full idea of the minstrel character,
expressing at once their music and singing, being compounded of
Clip, musicus, mimus, a musician, minstrel; and LeoS, carmen,
a song.
(3) From the above word diss, the profession itself was
called.
Dhjcp^pr (glig or glee-craft), musica, histrionia, mitnica
gesticulatio : which Somner rightly gives in English, ministrelsy,
mimical gesticulation, mummery. He also adds stage-playing :
but here again I think he substitutes an idea too modem, induced
by the word histrionia, which in middle latinity only signifies the
minstrel-art.
However, it should seem that both mimical gesticulation and a
kind of rude exhibition of characters were sometimes attempted by
the old minstrels : but
(4) As musical performance was the leading idea, so
Chopian, is Canius musicos edere; and
Dlijbeam, jhpbeam (glig or glee-beam), tytnpanum ; a timbrel
or taber. (So Somn.) Hence
Clypan. Tympatium puisare ; and
Dlip-meben ; jhypienbe-maben ; (glee-maiden), tyfnpanistria :
which Somner renders a she-minstrel ; for it should seem that they
had females of this profession ; one name for which was also
Elypbybenej-rpa.
(5) Of congenial derivation to the foregoing is
Jjlypc. (CAywc), Tibia, a pipe or flute.
Both this and the common radix Elij^ are with great appear-
ance of truth derived by Junius from the Icelandic Gliggur,y/a/«j;
as supposing that the first attemj>ts at music among our Gothic an-
cestors were with wind-instruments. Vid. Jun. Etym. Ang. v.
Glee.
II.
But the minstrels, as is hinted above, did not confine themselves
to the mere exercise of their primary arts of music and song, but
L.-
r
394 NOTES ON THE
occasionally used many other modes of diverting. Hence, from the
above root was derived, in a secondary sense :
(i) Gleo, and pmj'um -^i^, facetia.
ij\e:0])ia.n, j'ocari ; to jest, or, be merry (Somn.), and
hlioyienb, j'ocans ; jesting, speaking merrily. (Somn.)
lilijman, also signified /(^^j/a, a jester.
Hhg-gamen, (glee-games), /(?;:/. Which Somner renders, merri-
ments, or merry jests, or tricks, or sports, gamboles.
(2) Hence, again, by a common metonymy of the cause for the
effect :
Irlie, gaudiiim, alacritas, Icetitia, faceticB ; joy, mirth, gladness,
cheerfulness, glee. (Somner.) Which last application of the word
still continues, though rather in a low debasing sense.
III.
But however agreeable and delightful the various arts of the
minstrels might be to the Anglo-Saxon laity, there is reason to be-
lieve, that before the Norman Conquest, at least, they were not
much favoured by the clergy; particularly by those of monastic
profession. For, not to mention that the sportive talents of these
men would be considered by those austere ecclesiastics, as tending
to levity and licentiousness, the pagan origin of their art would
excite in the monks an insuperable prejudice against it. The
Anglo-Saxon harpers and gleemen were the immediate successors
and imitators of the Scandinavian scalds, who were the great
promoters of Pagan superstition, and fomented that spirit of
cruelty and outrage in their countrymen the Danes, which fell
with such peculiar severity on the religious and their convents.
Hence arose a third application of words derived from Irlijs,
minstrelsy, in a very unfavourable sense, and this chiefly prevails
in books of religion and ecclesiastic discipline. Thus :
(i) dig is ludibrium, laughing to scorn.* So in S. Basil.
Regul. II. ^1 haspbon him to jlije halpenbe mmegunje.
ludibrio hahebant sahitarern ejus admonitiomn. (10.) This sense of
the word was perhaps not ill-founded, for as the sport of rude un-
cultivated minds often arises from ridicule, it is not improbable but
the old minstrels often indulged a vein of this sort, and that of no
very delicate kind. So again.
* To gleek is used in Shakespeare for " to make sport, to
jest," &c.
FOREGOING ESSAY. 395
Dlij-man was also used to signify scurra, a saucy jester (Somn.)
Dlij-jeorin, dicax, scurrilcs jocos supra qiicim par est amans.
Officium Episcopale, 3.
Ijhpian. Sairrilibus oblectafnentis indulgere; satrram agere. Ca-
non. Edgar. 58.
(2) Again, as the various attempts to please, practised by an
order of men who owed their support to the public favour, might
be considered by those grave censors, as mean and debasing :
Hence came from the same root,
Dlipep. Parasitus, assefitator; a fawner, a togger, a parasite, a
flatterer.* (Somn.)
IV.
To return to the Anglo-Saxon word Ch^s : notwithstanding
the various secondary senses in which this word (as we have seen
above) was so early applied ; yet
The derivative ^/(f^ (though now chiefly used to express merriment
and joy) long retained its first simple meaning, and is even appUed
by Chaucer to signify music and minstrelsy. (Vid. Jun. Etym.)
Kg.
" For though that the best harper upon live
Would on the best sounid jolly harpe
That evir was, with all his fingers five
Touch aie o string, or aie o warble harpe
Were his nailes pointed nevir so sharpe
It shoulde makin every wight to dull
To heare isg/ee, and of his strokes full."
Troy/. L. ii.
Junius interprets glees by musica instrumenia, in the following
passages of Chaucer's third boke of Fame : —
* The preceding hst of Anglo-Saxon words, so full and copious
beyond any thing that ever yet appeared in print on this subject,
was extracted from Mr. Lye's curious Anglo-Saxon Lexicon, in
MS. but the arrangement here is the Editor's own. It had how-
ever received the sanction of Mr. Lye's approbation, and would
doubtless have been received into his printed copy, had he lived
to publish it himself
it should also be observed, for the sake of future researches,^
that without the assistance of the old English interi)retations given
by Somner, in his Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, the J^ditor of the book
never could have discovered \.\\di\. glee signified minstrelsy, or glig
man a minstrel.
396 NOTES ON THE
" . . Stoden . . the castell all aboutin
Of all maner of tnynstrales
Kn^jestours that tellen tales
Both of wepyng and of game,
And of all that longeth unto fame :
There herde I play on a harpe
That sowned both well and sharpe
Hym Orpheus full craftily ;
And on this syde fast by
Sate the harper Orion ;
And Eacides Chirion ;
And other harpers many one,
And the Briton Glaskyrion."
After menti oning these, the great masters of the art, he proceeds : —
" And small harpers with her glees
Sat under them in divers sees.''
*****
Again, a little below, the poet having enumerated the performers
on all the different sorts of instruments, adds : —
" There sawe I syt in other sees
Playing upon other sundry glees,
Which that I cannot neven *
More than starres ben in heven," &c.
Upon the above lines I shall only make a few observations :
(i) That by jestours, I suppose we are to understand gestours ;
scil. the relaters of gests (Lat. gestd) or stories of adventures both
comic and tragical ; whether true or feigned ; I am inclined to add,
whether in prose or verse. (Compare the record below, in marginal
note, subjoined to v. 2.) Of the stories in prose, I conceive we
have specimens in that singular book the Gesta Romanoriim, and
this will account for its seemingly improper title. These were
evidently what the French called conteours, or story-tellers, and to
them we are probably indebted for the first prose romances of
chivalry, which may be considered as specimens of their manner.
(2) That the " Briton Glaskeryon," whoever he was, is apparently
the same person with our famous harper Glasgerion, of whom the
* Neven, i.e. name.
FOREGOING ESSAY. 397
reader will find a tragical ballad, ia vol. iii. book i, No. 7. In
that song may be seen an instance of what was advanced above in
note (E) of the dignity of the minstrel profession, or at least of
the artifice with which the minstrels endeavoured to set off its im-
portance.
Thus '• a king's son is represented as appearing in the character
of a harper or minstrel in the court of another king. He wears a
collar (or gold chain) as a person of illustrious rank ; rides on
horseback, and is admitted to the embraces of a king's daughter."
The minstrels lost no opportunity of doing honour to their art.
(3) As for the word glees, it is to this day used in a musical
sense, and applied to a peculiar piece of composition. Who has
not seen the advertisements, proposing a reward to him who should
produce the best catch, canon, or glee ?
(K) Comes from the pen of Geoffrey of Monmouth.'] Geof-
frey's own words are : " Cum ergo alterius modi aditum [Baldul-
phus] non haberet, rasit capillos suos et barbam,* cultumque
joculatoris cum cythara fecit. Deinde intra castra deambulans,
modulis quos in lyra componebat, sese cytharistam exhibebat."
Galf Monum.Hist. 4to. 1508, lib. vii. c. i. — That><r«/d!/«7r signifies
precisely a minstrel, appears not only from this passage, where it
is used as a word of like import to eitharista or harper (which was
the old English word for minstrel), but also from another passage
of the same author, where it is applied as equivalent to cantor.
See lib. i. cap. 22, where, speaking of an ancient (perhaps fabulous)
* Geoffrey of Monmouth is probably here describing the appear-
ance of the foculatores or minstrels, as it was in his own time.
For they apparently derived this part of their dress, &c. from the
mimi of the ancient Romans, who had their heads and beards
shaven (see above p. 383 notef), as they likewise did the mimickry,
and other arts of diverting, which they superadded to the compos-
ing and singing to the harp heroic songs, &c. which they inherited
from their own progenitors the bards and scalds of the ancient
Celtic and Gothic nations. The Longobardi had, like other
northern people, brought these with them into Italy. For " in the
year 774, when Charlemagne entered Italy and found his passage
impeded, he was met by a minstrel of Lombardy, whose song pro-
mised him success and victory. Contigit joculatorem ^.v Longo-
bardorum gente ad Carolum venire, et cantiunculam a se composi-
tam, rotando in conspectu siiorum, cantare.'' Tom. ii. j). 2. Chron.
Monast. Noval. lib. iii. cap. x. p. 717. (T. Warlon's Hist. vol. ii.
Emend, of vol. i. p. 113)
398 NOTES ON THE
British king, he says : " Hie omnes cantores quos praecedens aetas
habuerat & in moduHs & in omnibus musicisinstrumentis excedebat;
ita ut Deus Joculatorum videretur." Whatever credit is due to
Geofifrey as a relater of facts, he is certainly as good authority as any
for the signification of words.
(L) Two remarkable facts.'] Both these facts are recorded
by William of Malmesbury ; and the first of them, relating to
Alfred, by Ingulphus also. Now Ingulphus (afterwards abbot of
Croyland) was near forty years of age at the time of the Conquest,*
and consequently was as proper a judge of the Saxon manners, as
if he had actually written his history before that event : he is there-
fore to be considered as an Anti-Norman writer ; so that whether
the fact concerning Alfred be true or not, we are assured from his
testimony, that \hQ joculator or minstrel was a common character
among the Anglo-Saxons. The same also may be inferred from the
relation of William of Malmesbury, who outlived Ingulphus but
thirty-three years.f Both these writers had doubtless recourse to
innumerable records and authentic memorials of the Anglo-Saxon
times, which never descended down to us ; their testimony there-
fore is too positive and full to be overturned by the mere silence
of the two or three slight Anglo-Saxon epitomes, that are now
remaining (vid. note (G).
As for Asser Menevensis, who has given a somewhat more parti-
cular detail of Alfred's actions, and yet takes no notice of the fol-
lowing story ; it will not be diflficult to account for his silence, if
we consider that he was a rigid monk, and that the minstrels, how-
ever acceptable to the laity, were never much respected by men of
the more strict monastic profession, especially before the Norman
Conquest, when they would be considered as brethren of the Pagan
scalds. I Asser therefore might not regard Alfred's skill in min-
strelsy in a very favourable light ; and might be induced to drop
the circumstance related below, as reflecting in his opinion no
great honour on his patron.
The learned editor of Alfred's life in Latin, after having exa-
mined the scene of action in person, and weighed all the circum-
stances of the event, determines from the whole collective evidence,
that Alfred could never have gained the victory he did, if he had
* Natiis, 1030; scripsit, 1091 ; obit, 1109. Tanner.
t Obit, Anno 1142. Tanner.
\ See above, p. 394. Both Ingulph. and Will, of Malmesb. had
been very conversant among the Normans ; who appear not to
have had such prejudices against the minstrels as the Anglo-Saxons
had.
FOREGOING ESSAY. 399
not with his ovii eyes previously seen the disposition of the enemy
by such a stratagem as is here described. Vid. An not. in Ailfr.
Mag. VHam, p. n, Oxon. 1678. fol.
(M) Alfred assumed the dress and character of a
minstrff]. Fingens se joculatorem, assumpta cithara, c^-c. In-
gulphi Hist. p. 869. — Sub specie mimi . . . ut joculatoriae professor
artis. Gul. Malmesb. 1. 2, c. 4, p. 43. That both joculator and
mimus signify literally a minstrel, see proved in notes B, K, N, Q,
&c. See also note G g.
Malmesbury adds, Unius tantum fidclissimi fruebatur consciaitia.
As this confidant does not appear to have assumed the disguise of
a minstrel himself, I conclude that he only appeared as the minstrel's
attendant. Now that the minstrel had sometimes his servant or
attendant to carr>' his harp, and even to sing to his music, we
have many instances in the old metrical romances, and even some
in this present collection. See vol. i. song vi., vol. iii. song vii.,
&c. Among the French and Provencal bards, the trouverre, or
inventor, was generally attended with his singer, who sometimes
also played on the harp, or other musical instrument. " Quelque
fois durant le repas d'un prince on voyoit arriver un trouverre
inconnu avec ses menestrels ou jongleours^ et il leurfaisoit chanter
sur leurs harpes ou vielles les vers qu'il avoit composes. Ceux
qui faisoient les sons aussi bien qui les 7nots etoient les plus
estimds." Fontenel/e, Hist, du Theatr.
That Alfred excelled in music is positively asserted by Bale,
who doubtless had it from some ancient MS. many of which sub-
sisted in his time, that are now lost ; as also by Sir J. Spelman,
who we may conclude had good authority for this anecdote, as he
is known to have compiled his life of Alfred from authentic materials
collected by his learned father ; this writer informs us that
Alfred " provided himself of musitians, not common, or such as
knew but the practick part, but men skilful in the art itself, whose
skill and service he yet further improved with his own instruction."
p. 199. This proves Alfred at least to have understood the theory
of music \ and how could this have been acquired without practis-
ing on some instrument? Which, we have seen above, note (H),
was so extremely common with the Anglo-Saxons, even in much
ruder times, that Alfred himself plainly tells us, it was shameful to
be ignorant of it. And this commonness might be one reason,
why Asser did not think it of consequence enough to be particularly
mentioned in his short life of that great monarch. This rigid
monk may also have esteemed it a slight and frivolous accomplish-
ment savouring only of worldly vanity. I le has however particularly
recorded Alfred's fondness for the oral Anglo-.Saxon poems and
songs. {Saxonica puematu die noctcque . . . audiens . . . memoritcr
400 NOTES ON THE
retinebat, p. i6. Carmina Saxonica memoriter discere, &c. p. 43, and ib^
Now the poems learnt by rote, among all ancient unpolished
nations, are ever songs chanted by the reciter, and accompanied
with instrumental melody.*
(N) With his harp in his hand, and dressed like a minstrel.
Assumpta manu cithara . . . professus mimum, qui hujusmodi arte
stipem quotidianam mercaretur . . . Jussus abire pretium cantus
accepit. Malmesb. 1. 2, c. 6. We see here that which was rewarded
was (not any mimicry or tricks, but) his singing {cantus); this proves
beyond dispute, what was the nature of the entertainment Aulaff
afforded them. Perhaps it is needless by this time to prove to the
reader, that mimus in middle latinity signifies a minstrel, and
mimia, minstrelsy, or the minstrel-art. Should he doubt it, let him
cast his eye over the two following extracts from Du Cange.
" Mimus : Musicus qui instrumentis musicis canit. Leges Pa-
latinae Jacobi II. Reg. Majoric. In domibus principum, ut tradit
antiquitas mimi seu joculatores licite possunt esse. Nam illorum
officiam tribuit lutitiam . . . Quapropter volumus et ordinamus,
quod in nostra curia mimi debeant esse quinque, quorum duo sint
tubicinatores, et tertius sit tabelerius (i. e. a player on the tabor.) f
* Thus Leob, the Saxon word for a poem, is properly a song,
and its derivative lied signifies a ballad to this day in the German
tongue. And cantare we have seen above is by Alfred himself
rendered, Be heajipan f msan.
t The tabour or tabourin was a common instrument with the
French minstrels, as it had also been with the Anglo-Saxon {vid.
p. 393) : thus in an ancient Fr. MS. in the Harl. collection (2253,
75), a minstrel is described as riding on horseback, and bearing
his tabour.
" Entour son col porta son tabour,
Depeynt de Or, e riche Agour,"
See also a passage in Menage's Diction. Etym. (v. inenestriers,')
where labours is used as synonymous to menestriers.
Another frequent instrument with them was the viele. This, I
am told, is the name of an instrument at this day, which differs
from a guitar, in that the player turns round a handle at the top
of the instrument, and with his other hand, plays on some keys,
that touch the chords, and produce the sound.
See Dr. Burney's account of the veille, vol. ii. p. 263, who thinks
it the same with the rote or wheel. See p. 270 in the note.
" II ot un Jougleor a Sens,
Qui navoit pas sovent robe entiere ;
Sovent estoit sans sa viekr — Fabliaux 6^ Cont. ii. 184, 5.
FOREGOING ESSAY. 401
Lit. remiss, ann. 1374. Ad mimos comicitantes, seu bucinantes
accesserunt."
Mimia, Ludus Mimicus, Instrumentum (potius, Ars Joculatoria).
Ann. 1482. ..." Mimia <Sc cantu victum acquire."
Du Cange, Gloss, tom. iv. 1762. Supp. c. 1225.
(O) To have been a Danc^ The northern historians pro-
duce such instances of the great respect shewn to the Danish
scalds in the courts of our Anglo-Saxon kings, on account of their
musical and poetic talents (notwithstanding they were of so hateful
a nation), that, if a similar order of men had not existed here before,
we cannot doubt but the profession would have been taken up by
such of the natives as had a genius for poetry and music.
" Extant Rhythmi hoc ipso (Islandico) idiomate Anglire, Hyber-
niaeque Regibus oblati »& HberaUter compensati, &c. Itaque hinc
coUigi potest linguam Danicam in aulis vicinorum regum, princi-
pumque familiarem fuisse, non secus ac hodie in aulis principum
peregrina idiomata in deliciis haberi cernimus. Imprimis Vita
Egilli Skallagrimii id invicto argumento adstruit. Quippe qui in-
terrogatus ab Adalsteino, Anglic rege, quomodo manus Eirici
Blodoxii, Northumbrioe regis, postquam in ejus potestatem venerat,
evasisset, cujus filium propinquosque occiderat, . . . rei statim
ordinem metro, nunc satis obscuro, exposuit, nequaquam ita nar-
raturus non intelligenti." — Vid. phira apud Torfceii Prccfat. ad
Oread. Hist. fol.
This .same Egill was no less distinguished for his valour and skill
as a soldier, than for his poetic and singing talents as a scald ; and
he was such a favourite with our king Athelstan that he at one time
presented him with " duobus annulis & scriniis duobus bene mag-
nis argento repletis. . . . Quinetiam hoc addidit, ut Egillus quidvis
praeterea a se petens, obtineret; bona mobilia, sive immobilia,
praebendam vel prnefecturas. Egillus porro regiam munificentiam
gratus excipiens, Carmen Encomiasticon, \ se, lingua Norvcgica,
(quae turn his regnis communis), compostum, regi dicat ; ac pro eo,
duas Marcas auri puri (pondus Marcae ... 8 uncias aetjuabat)
honorarii loco retulit.' — Arngr. Jon. Rcr. Islandic. lib. 2, p. 129.
See more of Egill, in The Five Pieces of Runic Poetry, p. 45, whose
poem, there translated, is the most ancient piece all in rhime,
that is, I conceive, now to be found in any European language,
except I^tin. See Egill's Islandic original, printed at the end of
the English version in the said Five Pieces, &c.
(!'; IJ the Saxons had not been accustomed to have minstrels of
their own .... and to shew favour and respect to the J)anish
scalds.^ If this had not been the case, we may be assured, at least,
that the stories given in the text could never have been recorded
D D
402 NOTES ON THE
by writers who lived so near the Anglo-Saxon times as Malmesbury
and Ingulphus, who, though they might be deceived as to particular
facts, could not be so as to the general manners and customs, which
prevailed so near their own times among their ancestors.
(Q) In Doomesday Book" &'c.'\ Extract, ex Libro Domesday:
et vid. Anstis, Ord. Gart. ii. 304.
" Glowecesterscire.
Fol. 162. col. 1. Berdic Jocidator Regis habet iii. villas, et ibi v. car.
nil r eddy
IhzX joculator is properly a minstrel might be inferred from the
two foregoing passages of Geoffery of Monmouth (v. Note K.),
where the word is used as equivalent to citharista in one place,
and to cantor in the other : this union forms the precise idea of
the character.
But more positive proofs have already offered, vid. supra, pp. 385,
399. See also p. 409 note Du Cange's Gloss, vol. iii. c. 1543 :
"Jogulator pro Joculator. — Consilium Masil. an, 1381. NuUus
Ministreys, seu Jogulator, audeat pinsare vel sonare instrumen-
tum cujuscumque generis," &c. &c.
As the minstrel was termed in French jongleur and jugleur ;
so he was called in Spanish jutglar and juglar. " Tenemos can-
ciones y versos para recitar muy antiguos y memorias ciertas de los
Juglares, que assistian en los banquetes, como los que pinta
Homero." — Prolog, a las Corned, de Cervantes, 1749, 4to.
" El anno 1328, en las siestas de la Coronacion del Rey, Don
Alonso el IV. de Aragon, ... * el Juglar Ramaset canto una
Villanesca de la Composicion del . . infante (Don Pedro) : y otro
Juglar, llamado Novellet, recito y representb en voz y sin cantar
mas de 600 versos, que hizo el Infante en el metro, que Uamaban
Rima vulgar." — Ibid.
" Los Trobadores inventaron la Gaya Ciencia . . . estos Tro-
badores, eran casi todos de la primera Nobleza. Es verdad, que
ya entonces se havian entrometido entre las diversiones Cortesanos,
los Contadores, los Can tores, los Juglares, los Truanes, y los
Bufones."— /^/i/.
In England the king's juglar continued to have an estabhsh-
ment in the royal household down to the reign of Henry VIII. (vid.
Note c c). But in what sense the title was there applied does not
* " Romanset Jutglar canta alt veux . . . devant lo senyor Rey."
-Chron. d' Aragon, apud Du Cange, iv. 771.
FOREGOING ESSAY. 403
appear. In Barklay's Egloges, written circ. 1 5 14, jugglers and pipers
are mentioned together. Egl. iv. (vid. T. Warton's Hist. ii. 254).
(R) A valliant warrior, named Taillcfcr, 6^f.] See Du Cange,
who produces this as an instance, " Quod Ministellorum munus in-
terduni praestabant miUtes probatissimi. Le Roman De Vacce, MS.
" ' Quant il virent Normanz venir
Mout veissiez Engleiz fremir. . . .
Taillefer qui mout bien chantoit,
Sur un cheval, qui tost alloit,
Devant euls aloit chantant
De Kallemaigne & de RouUant,
Et d' OUvier de Vassaux,
Qui mourruent en Rainschevaux.'
" Qui quidem Taillefer a Gulielmo obtinuit ut primus in hostes ir-
rueret, inter quos fortiter dimicando occubuit." — Gloss, torn. iv. 769,
770, 771.
" Les anciennes chroniques nous apprennent, qu'en premier rang
de I'Armde Normande, un ecuyer nommd Taillefer, monte sur un
cheval arme, chanta la Chanson De Roland, qui fut si long tems
dans les bouches des Francois, sans qu'il soit rest^ le moindre
fragment. Le Taillefer apres avoir entonne le chanson que les sol-
dats repetoient, se jetta le premier parmi les Anglois, et fut tue."
— Voltaire, Add. Hist. Univ. p. 69.
The reader will see an attempt to restore the Chanson de Roland,
with musical notes, in Dr. MnxnQy's Hist. ii. p. 276. See more con-
cerning the Song of Roland, vol. iii. appendix, sect. ii. note M.
(S) An eminent French writer, &'c.'\ " M. I'Eveque de la
Ravaliere, qui avoit fait beaucoup de recherches sur nos anciennes
Chansons, pretend que c'est ^ la Normandie que nous devons nos
premiers Chansonnicrs, non i la Provence, et qu'il y avoit parmi
nous des Chansons en langue vulgaire avant cclles des Provengaus,
mais posterieurement au Regne de Philippe I. ou h. I'an 11 00." —
v. Revolutions de la Langue Fran(oise, a la suite des Poesies du Roi
de Navarre. " Ce seroit une antcriorite de plus d'un demi siccle ii
r<*poc}ue des premiers Troubadours, que leur historien Jean de
Nostredame fixe k I'an 1162, &c." — Prcf. a rAntholoi:,ie Franf.
8vo. 1765.
This subject hath been since taken up and prosecuted at length
in the Prefaces, &c. to M. Le (brand's Fabliaux ou Contcs du XII.
&* du XIII. Siecle, Paris, 1788, 5 tom. 12 mo. who .seems pretty
clearly to have established the priority and sujjcrior excellence of
404 NOTES ON THE
the old rimeurs of the north of France, over the troubadours of
Provence, &c.
(S 2) TTietr own native gleemen or ftiinstrels must be allowed
to exist.'] Of this we have proof positive in the old metrical
romance of Horn-Child, (vol. iii. appendix), which, although
from the mention of Sarazens, &c. it must have been written at
least after the first Crusade in 1096, yet from its Anglo-Saxon lan-
guage or idiom, can scarce be dated later than within a century-
after the Conquest. This, as appears from its very exordium, was
intended to be sung to a popular audience, whether it was com-
posed by, or for, a gleeman, or minstrel. But it carries all the in-
ternal marks of being the production of such a composer. It appears
of genuine English growth, for after a careful examination, I cannot
discover any allusion to French or Norman customs, manners, com-
position or phraseology : no quotation " As the Romance sayth :"
not a name or local reference which was likely to occur to a French
rimeur. The proper names are all of northern extraction. Child
Horn is the son of Allof (/. e. Olaf or Olave), king of Sudenne (I
suppose Sweden), by his queen Godylde, or Godylt. Athulf and
Fykenyld are the names of subjects. Eylmer or Aylmere is king
of Westnesse (a part of Ireland), Rymenyld is his daughter ; as
Erminyld is of another king Thurstan ; whose sons are Athyld and
Beryld. Athelbrus is steward of K. Aylmer, &c. &c. All these
savour only of a northern origin, and the whole piece is exactly
such a performance as one would expect from a gleeman or minstrel
of the north of England, who had derived his art and his ideas
from his scaldic predecessors there. So that this probably is the
original, from which was translated the old French fragment of
Dan Horn, in the Harleyan MS. 527, mentioned by Tyrwhitt
(Chaucer iv. 68), and by T. Warton (Hist. i. 38), whose extract
from Horn-Child \^ extremely incorrect.
Compare the stile of Child-Horn with the Anglo-Saxon specimens
in short verses and rhime, which are assigned to the century suc-
ceeding the Conquest, in Hickes's Thesaurus, torn. i. cap. 24, pp.
224 and 231.
(T) The different production of the sedentary composer and the
rambling minstrel^ Among the old metrical romances, a very
few are addressed to readers, or mention reading : these appear to
have been composed by writers at their desk, and exhibit marks of
more elaborate structure and invention. Such is Eglamour of Artas
(No. 20, vol. iii. appendix), of which I find in a MS. copy in the
Cotton Library, A. 2, folio 3, the 11. Fitte thus concludes :
" . . . . thus ferr have I red."
FOREGOING ESSAY, 405
Such is Ipoynydon (No. 23, iii. appendix), of which one of the
divisions (Sign. E. ii. b. in pr. copy) ends thus :
" Let h)iii go, God him spede
Tyll efte-soone we of him reed {i.e. read)"
So in Amys and Amylion* (No. 31. iii. appendix) in sta. 3d.
we have
" In Geste as we rede,"
and similar phrases occur in stanzas 34, 125, 140, 196, &c.
These are all studied compositions, in which the story is invented
%\-ith more skill and ingenuity, and the style and colouring are of
superior cast, to such as can with sufficient probability be attributed
to the minstrels themselves.
Of this class I conceive the romance of Horn Child (mentioned
in the last note, S 2, and in No. i, vol. iii. appendix), which,
from the naked unadorned simplicity of the stor}^, I would attribute
to such an origin.
But more evidently is such the Squire of Lowe Degree (No. 24,
iii. appendix), in which is no reference to any French original,
nothing like the phrase which so frequently occurs in others,
" As the Romance sayth," t or the like. And it is just such a ram-
* It ought to have been observed in its proper place in No. 31,
vol. iii. appendix, that Amys and Amylion were no otherwise
" Brothers " than as being fast friends: as was suggested by the
learned Dr. Samuel Pegge, who was so obliging as to favour the
essayist formerly with a curious transcript of this poem accom-
panied with valuable illustrations, &c. : and that it was his opinion
tliat both the fragment of the Lady Bellcsent mentioned in the
same No. 31, and also the mutilated tale No. 37, were only im-
perfect copies of the above romance of Amys and Amylion, which
contains the two lines quoted in No. 37.
t Whenever the word Roma7ice occurs in these metrical narra-
tives, it hath been thought to afford decisive proof of a translation
from the Romance, or French language. Accordingly it is so urged
by T. Warton (i. 146, note), from two passages in the pr. copy of
Sir Eglamour, viz., Sign. E. i.
" In Romaunce as we rede."
Again in fol. ult.
" In Romaunce this cronycle is."
But in the Cotton MS. of the original the first passage is :
"As I herd a Gierke rede."
4o6 NOTES ON THE
bling performance, as one would expect from an itinerant bard.
And
Such also is A lytell Geste of Robyn Hode, &'c. in eight fyttes, of
which are extant two editions, 4to. in black letter, described more
fully in this volume, book i. No. 8. This is not only of undoubted
EngUsh growth, but, from the constant satire aimed at abbots and
their convents, &c. could not possibly have been composed by
any monk in his cell.
Other instances might be produced ; but especially of the former
kind is Syr Launfal (No. ii, iii. appendix), the 121st st. of
which has
" In Romances as we rede."
This is one of the best invented stories of that kind, and I believe
the only one in which is inserted the name of the author.
(T 2) Royer or Raherus, the kin^s minstrel. He is re-
corded by Leland under both these names, in his Collectanea, scil.
vol. i. p. 61.
"Hospitale S. Bartholomsei in West-Smithfelde in London."
Royer Mimus Regis fundator."
" Hosp. Sti. Barthol. Londini. Raherus Mimus Regis H. r. pri-
mus fundator, an. 1102, 3. H. I. qui fundavit etiam Priorat. Sti.
Barthol." — Ibid. p. 99.
That mimus is properly a minstrel in the sense affixed to the
word in this essay, one extract from the accounts (Lat. computis)
of the priory of Maxtock near Coventry, in 1441, will sufficiently
show, scil. : " Dat. Sex. Mimis Dni. Clynton cantantibus, cithari-
santibus, ludentibus, &c. iiii. s." (T. Warton, ii. 106, note q.) The
same year the prior gave to a doctor prcedicans for a sermon preached
to them only dd.
In the Monasticon, tom. ii. p. 166, 167, is a curious history of
the founder of this priory, and the cause of its erection : which
seems exactly such a composition as one of those which were
manufactured by Dr. Stone, the famous legend-maker, in 1380 ;
(see T. Warton's curious account of him, in vol. ii. p. 190, note),
who required no materials to assist him in composing his narra-
And the other thus :
" In Rome this Gest cronycled ys."
So that I believe references to " the Romaunce," or the like, were
often meer expletive phrases inserted by the oral reciters ; one of
whom, I conceive, had altered or corrupted the old Syr Eglamour in
the manner that the copy was printed.
FOREGOING ESS A Y. 407
tives, &c. For in this legend are no particulars given of the
founder, but a recital of miraculous visions exciting him to this
pious work, of its having been before revealed to K. Edward the
Confessor, and predicted by three Grecians, (Sec. Even his minstrel
profession is not mentioned, whether from ignorance or design, as
the profession was perhaps faUing into discredit when this legend
was written. There is only a general indistinct account that he
frequented royal and noble houses, where he ingratiated himself
siiavitate joculari. (This last is the only word that seems to have
any appropriated meaning.) This will account for the indistinct, in-
coherent account given by Stow : " Rahere, a pleasant-witted
gentleman, and therefore in his time called the King's Minstrel."
— Survey of Lond. ed. 159S, p. 308.
(U) /// the tarly times rcery harper loas expected to sing.']
See on this subject K. Alfred's version of Cosdman, above in note
(H) p. 391.
So in Horn-Child, K. Allof orders his steward Athelbrus to
" — teche him of harpe and of song."
In the Squire of Lowe Degree the king offers to his daughter,
"Ye shall have harpe, sautry,* and song."
And Chaucer, in his description of the limitour or mendicant
friar, speaks of harping as inseparable from singing (i. p. 11, ver.
268):—
" — in his harping, whan that he hadde songe."
(U 2) At the most accomplished, e^^.J See Hoveden, p. 103,
in the following passage, which had erroneously been applied
to K. Richard him.self, till Mr. Tyrwhitt ("Chaucer," iv. p. 62)
shewed it to belong to his Chancellor : " Hie ad augmentum et
famam sui nominis, emendicata carmina, et rhythmos adulatorios
comparabat ; ct de regno Francorum Cantores et Joculatores mu-
neribus allexerat, ut de illo canerent in plateis : et jam dicebatur
ubique, ([uod non erat talis in orbe." For other particulars relat-
ing to this chancellor, see T. Warton's Hist. vol. ii. addit. to p. 1 13
of vol. i.
* The harp (Lat. cithara) differed from the sautry, or psaltry
{L:i\.. psalierium) in that the former was a stringctl instrument, anil
the latter was mounted with wire : there was also some ilillerencc
in the construction of the bellies, ike. See Bartholomteus de pro-
prietatibus rerum, as Englished by Trevisa and Batman, ed. 1584,
in Sir J. Hawkins's Hist. ii. ]). 285.
4o8 NOTES ON THE
(U 3) Both the JVonnan and English languages would be
heard at the houses of the great.'] A remarkable proof of this is
that the most dihgent inquirers after ancient English rhimes find
the earliest they can discover in the mouths of the Norman nobles,
such as that of Robert, Earl of Leicester, and his Flemings in 11 73,
temp. Hen. II. (little more than a century after the Conquest), re-
corded by Lambarde in his Dictionary of England, P- 36 :
" Hoppe Wyliken, hoppe Wyliken
Ingland is thine and myne," &c.
and that noted boast of Hugh Bigot, Earl of Norfolk, in the same
reign of K. Henry II. vid. Camdeni Britannia (art. Suffolk), 1607,
folio
" Were I in my castle of Bungey
Vpon the riuer of Waueney
I would ne care for the king of Cockeney."
Indeed, many of our old metrical romances, whether originally
English, or translated from the French to be sung to an English
audience, are addressed to persons of high rank, as appears from
their beginning thus : " Listen, Lordings," and the like. These
were prior to the time of Chaucer, as appears from vol. iii. appen-
dix (sect. ii.). And yet to his time our Norman nobles are supposed
to have adhered to their French language.
(V) That intercommunity, &=€. between the French and English
Minstrels, ^c] This might, perhaps, in a great measure be re-
referred even to the Norman Conquest, when the victors brought
with them all their original opinions and fables ; which could not
fail to be adopted by the English minstrels and others who soli-
cited their favour. This interchange, &c. between the minstrels ot
the two nations would be afterwards promoted by the great inter-
course produced among all the nations of Christendom in the
general crusades, and by that spirit of chivalry which led knights,
and their attendants the heralds, and minstrels, &c. to ramble about
continually from one court to another in order to be present at
solemn tuniaments, and other feats of amis.
(V 2) Is not the only instaitce, 6^^.] The constant admission
granted to minstrels was so established a privilege, that it be-
came a ready expedient to writers of fiction. Thus, in the old
romance of Horn-Child, the Princess Rymenyld being confined in
an inaccessible castle, the prince, her lover, and some assistant
knights with concealed arms assume the minstrel character, and
approaching the castle with their " gleyinge " or minstrelsy, are
FOREGOING ESSAY. 409
heard by the lord of it, who being informed they were " harpeirs,
jogelers, and fythelers," * has them admitted, when
" Horn sette him abenche {i.e. on a bench).
Is {i.e. his) harpe he gan clenche
He made Rymenild a lay."
This sets the princess a weeping and leads to the catastrophe, for
he immediately advances to " the Borde " or table, kills the ravisher,
and releases the lady.
(\^ 3) . • • Assumed t/ie dress and character of a harper, o^r.]
We have this curious historietie in the records of Lacock Nunnery
in Wiltshire, which had been founded by this Countess of Salisbury.
See Vincent's Z>/!>YW<77 of Errors in Brooke s Catalogue of Nobility,
&c. folio, pp. 445-6, (Sec. Take the following extract, and see Dug-
dale's Baron, i. p. 175.
" Ela uxor Gullielmi Longespee primi, nata fuit apud Ambresbi-
riam, patre et matre Normannis.
" Pater itaque ejus defectus senio migravit ad Christum, a.d. i 196.
Mater ejus ante biennium obiit Interea Domina charissima
clam per cognatos adducta fuit in Normanniani, & ibidem sub
tuta et arcta custodia nutrita. Eodem tempore in Anglia fuit qui-
dam miles nomine Gulielmus Talbot, qui induit se habitum Pere-
grini {Anglice, a Pilgrim) in Normanniani transfretavit & moratus
per duos annos, hue atque illuc vagans, ad explorandam dominam
Elam Sarum. Et ilia inventa, exuit habitum Peregrini, & induit
se quasi Cytharisator & curiam ubi morabatur intravit. Et ut
erat homo Jocosus, in Gestis Antiquorum valde peritus, ibidem
* Jogeler (Lat. Joculator) was a very ancient name for a min-
strel. Of what nature the performance of the joculator was, we
may learn from the register of St. Swithin's Priory at Winchester
(T. Warton, i. 69) : " Et cantabat Joculator quidam nomine Here-
bertus Canticum Colbrondi, necnon Gestum Emme regine a judicio
ignis liberate, in aula Prioris." His instrument was sometimes the
fythele, or fiddle, Lat. fidicula : which occurs in the Anglo-
Saxon lexicon. On this subject we have a curious passage from a
MS. of the LiTCS of the Saints in metre, sujjposed to be earlier than
the year 1200 (T. Warton's Hist. i. \). 17), viz. :
'• Christofre him served longe
The kynge loved melodye much of fithele and of songe :
So that his Jogeler on a day beforcn liini gon to pleye fasle,
And in a tyme he nemped in his song the devil at laste."
4IO NOTES ON THE
gratanter fuit acceptus quasi familiaris. Et quando tempus aptum
invenit, in Angliam repatriavit, habens secum istam venerabilem
dominam Elam & hseredem Comitatus Sarum; & earn Regi
Richardo praesentavit. Ac ille laetissime earn suscepit, & Fratri
suo Guillelmo Longespee maritavit ....
A.D. 1226 Dominus Guill. Longespee primus nonas Martii obiit.
Ela vero uxor ejus 7 annis supervixit .... Una die Duo
monasteria fundavit primo mane xvi Kal. Maii. a.d. 1232. apud
Lacock, in quo sanctse degunt Canonissas . . . Et Henton post
nonam, anno vero aetatis suae, xlv. &c."
(W) For the preceding account Dugdale refers to Monast. Angl.
i. (r. ii.) p. 185, but gives it as enlarged by D. Powel, in his Hist.
of Cambria, p. 196, who is known to have followed ancient Welsh
MSS. The words in the Monasticon are : " Qui accersitis Sutoribus
Cestrije et Histrionibus, festinanter cum exercitu suo venit domino
suo facere succursum. Walenses vero videntes multitudinem mag-
nam venientem, relicta obsidione fugerunt Et propter hoc
dedit comes antedictus .... Constabulario dominationem Suto-
rum et Histrionum. Constabularius vero retinuit sibi et haeredi-
bus suis dominationem Sutorum : et Histrionum dedit vero Sene-
schallo." So the passage should apparently be pointed; but either
et or vero seems redundant.
We shall see below in note (Z) the proper import of the word
htstrwnes ; but it is very remarkable that this is not the word used
in the grant of the constable De Lacy to Button, but " magisterium
omnium leccatorum tX. meretricium totius Cestreshire, sicut liberius
ilium {sic) magisterium teneo de comite" {vid. Blount's Ancient Ten-
ures, p. 156). Now, as under this grant the heirs of Button con-
fessedly held for many ages a magisterial jurisdiction over all
the minstrels and musicians of that county, and as it could not
be conveyed by the word meretrices, the natural inference is, that
the minstrels were expressed by the term leccatores. It is true, Bu
Cange compiling his Glossary could only find in the writers he
consulted this word used in the abusive sense, often applied to
every synonyme of the sportive and dissolute minstrel, viz. Sciirra,
vaniloquus, parasitus, epido, &c. (This I conceive to be the
proper arrangement of these explanations, which only express the
character given to the minstrel elsewhere : see Bu Cange, passim,
and notes, C. E. F. L iii. 2, &c.) But he quotes an ancient MS.
in French metre, wherein the leccour (Lat. ieccator) and the
minstrel are joined together, as receiving from Charlemagne a
grant of the territory of Provence, and from whom the Provencal
troubadours were derived, &c. See the passage above in note C.
P- 387-
The exception in favour of the family of Button is thus ex-
FOREGOING ESSAY. 411
pressedin the statute, Anno 39, YX\z. chap. iv. entitled, " An Act
for punshment of Rogues, Vagabonds, and Sturdy Beggars."
" § I . . . . All fencers, bearwards, common players of enter-
ludes, aid minstrels, wandering abroad (other than players of
enterluces belonging to any baron of this realm, or any other
honounole personage of greater degree, to be authorised to play
under tie hand and seal of arms of such baron or personage) : all
juglers, inkers, pedlers, &c. . . . shall be adjudged and deemed
rogues, agabonds, and sturdy beggars, &c.
" § X Provided always that this act, or any thing therein con-
tained, a any authority thereby given, shall not in any wise extend
to disinherit, prejudice, or hinder John Dutton of Dutton, in the
county d" Chester, Esquire, his heirs or assigns, for, touching or
concemhg any liberty, preheminence, authority, jurisdiction, or
inheritarre, which the said John Dutton now lawfully useth, or
hath, or lawfully may or ought to use within the county-palatine
of Chestr, and the county of the city of Chester, or either of
them, by reason of any ancient charters of any kings of this land,
or by rea:on of any prescription, usage, or title whatsoever."
The sane clauses are renewed in the last act on this subject,
passed in he present reign of George III.
(X) Eiward I. .... at the knighting of his son, &'c.'] See
Nic. Trirdi Anna/cs, Oxon. 1719, 8vo. p. 342.
" In fesb Pentecostes Rex filium suum armis militaribus cinxit,
(S: cum ec Comites Warenniae & Arundeliae, aliosque, quorum
numerus cucentos & quadraginta dicitur excessisse. Eodem die
cum sedissit Rex in mensa, novis militibus circumdatus, ingressa
MinistreHo-um Multitudo, portantium multiphci omatu amictum,
ut milites pra^cipue novos invitarent, & inducerent, ad vovcndum
factum arniDrum aliquod coram signo."
(Y) By in express regulation, 6-v.] See in Heame's Append/,
ad Lelandi Zollcctari. vol. vi. p. 36. " A Dietarie, Writtes published
after the OrJinance of Earles and Barons, Anno Dom. 13 15."
*' Edwaro by the grace of God, (ic. to sheriffes, 6i:c., greetyng.
Forasmuch is . . . many idle persons, under colour of mynstrelsie,
and going w messages, and other faigned busines, have ben and
yet be receai^ed in other mens houses to meate and drynke, and be
not therwith contented yf they be not largely consydered with gyftes
of the Lordei of the houses, &c. . . . We wyllyng to restrayne .such
outrageous tnterpriscs and idlencs, &c. have ordeyned . . . that
to the house; of prelates, earles, and barons, none resort to meate
and drynke, unless he be a mynstrel, and of these minstrels that
there come none except it be three or four minstrels ol honour at
the most in one day, unlesse he be desired of the Lorde of the
412 NOTES ON THE
house. And to the houses of meaner men that none comeunlesse
he be desired, and that such as shall come so, holde thenselves
contented with meate and drynke, and with such curtesE as the
maister of the house wyl shewe unto them of his owne gcod wyll,
without their askyng of any thyng. And yf any one doagaynst
this ordinaunce, at the firste tyme he to lose his minstresie, and
at the second tyme to forsweare his craft, and neve to be
receaved for a minstrell in any house . . . Yeven at Laigley the
vi. day of August, in the ix yere of our reigne."
These abuses arose again to as great a height as evei in little
more than a century after ; in consequence, I suppost, of the
licentiousness that crept in during the civil wars of York md Lan-
caster. This appears from the charter, 9 E. IV. referred to in p.
xlv. " Ex querulosa insinuatione . . . Ministrallorum rostrorum
accepimus qualiter nonnuUi rudes agricolse & artifices dversarum
misterarum regni nostri Angliae, finxerunt se fore ministrdlos, quo-
rum aliqui liberatam nostram eis minime datam portarert, seipsos
etiam fingentes esse minstrallos nostros proprios, cujiB quidem
liberatas ac dictee artis sive occupationis ministrallorum ;olore, in
diversis partibus regni nostri prsedicti grandes pecunia^um exac-
tiones de ligeis nostris deceptive coUigunt, &c."
Abuses of this kind prevailed much later in Wales, is appears
from the famous commission issued out in 9 Eliz. (1567) for be-
stowing the silver harp on the best minstrel, rythmer, ir bard, in
the principality of North Wales : of which a fuller accomt will be
given below in note (b b 3).
(Z) // is thus related by Stow.] See his Survey )f London,
&c. fol. 1633, p. 521 (Ace. of Westm. Hall). Stow had this pass-
age from Walsingham's Hist. A/fg. ..." Intravit quaadam mulier
ornata histrionali habitu, equum bonum insidens listrionaliter
phaleratum, quae mensas more histrionum circuivit; & tandem
ad Regis mensam per gradus ascendit, & quandam lit;ram coram
rege posuit, & retracto fraeno (salutatis ubique discimbentibus)
prout venerat ita recessit," &c. Anglic. Norm. Script &c. Franc.
1603, fol. p. 109.
It may be observed here, that minstrels and others cften rode on
horseback up to the royal table, when the kings were feasting in
their great halls. See in this vol. book i. No. 6.
The answer of the porters (when they were afterwards blamed
for admitting her) also deserves attention. " Non essemoris domus
regiae histriones ab ingressu quomodolibet prohibeie, &c." Wal-
singh.
That Stow rightly translated the Latin word Iwtrio here by
minstrel., meaning a musician that sung, and whose subjects were
stories of chivalry, admits of easy proof; for in the Gest& Romanorum,
FOREGOING ESSAY. 41
'\
chap. Lxi. jMercur>- is represented as coming to Argus in the cha-
racter 3f a minstrel; when he " incepit, more liistrionico {zkya\:x%
dicere et plerumque cantare." (T. Warton, iii. p, li.) And
Muratri cites a passage, in an old Italian chronicle, wherein men-
tion iimade of a stage erected at Milan: "Super quo histriones
cantibjit, sicut modo cantatur de Rolando et Oliverio." Antich.
Ital. i p. 6. {Observ. on the Statutes, 4th edit. p. 362.)
Seedso (E) p. 388. (F) p. 389.
(A 3 T/icre should seem to have been womcfi of this professioti.']
This lay be inferred from the variety of names appropriated to
them n the Middle Ages, viz. Anglo-Sax. Dlip-meben(Glee-
maide), &c. slypienbemaben, glypbybenej'tjia. (vid. supra, p.
393.) Yx. Jengleresse, •M.td.. \j3X. joculatrix, mimstralissa, fcemina
ministrialis, &c. (vid. Du Cange, Gloss. &= Suppl.)
Seevhat is said in p. 371 concerning the "sisters of the fraternity
of mintrels;" see also a passage quoted by Dr. Bumey (ii. 315)
from luratori, of the chorus of women singing thro' the streets
accomanied -with musical instruments in 1268.
Ha( the female described by Walsingham been a tofnbestere, or
dancii^-woman (see Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, iv. 307, and v. Gloss.) that
historin would probably have used the word saltatrix (see T.
Warto, i. 240, note ;«.)
Thee saltatrices were prohibited from exhibiting in churches
and chrch-yards along w\.\h joculatores, histriones, with whom they
were smetimes classed, especially by the rigid ecclesiastics, who
censurd, in the severest terms, all these sportive characters (vid.
T. Wion in loco citato, and vide supra (not. E, F, &c.).
Andhere I would observe, that although Fauchet and other
subseqent writers affect to arrange the several members of the
minstn profession under the different classes oitrovcrres {or trouba-
(iours)yhanterres, conteours, and jugleurs, &c. (vid. p. 385) as if
they w^e distinct and separate orders of men, clearly distinguished
from edi other by these appropriate terms, we find no sufficient
ground for this in the oldest writers ; but the general names in
Latin, t'strio, mimus, joculator, ministrallus, &c. in French, niene-
strier, tencstrel, jongleur, jugleur, &c. and in English, joQ;clciir,
vigler, instrels, and the like, seem to be given them indiscrimi-
nately, ind one or other of these names seem to have been some-
times aplied to every species of men, whose business it was to
entertai or divert {joculari) whether with poesy, singing, music,
or gestiilation, singly, or with a mixture of all these. Yet as all
men of is sort were considered as belonging to one class, orilcr
or comrjnity (many of the above arts being sometimes exercised
by the une person), they had all of them doublkss the same
privilege and it ecjually throws light upon the general history of
414 NOTES ON THE
the profession to shew what favour or encouragement was gven, at
any particular period of time, to any one branch of it. I h,ve not
therefore thought it needful to inquire whether, in the various
passages quoted in these pages, the word minstrel, &c. isilways
to be understood in its exact and proper meaning of a singei to the
harp, &c.
That men of very different arts and talents were include( under
the common name of minstrels, &c. appears from a vaiety of
authorities. Thus we have metiestrels de trompes and fnaesfrels
deboiiche in the suppl. to Du Cange, c. 1227, and it appars still
more evident from an old French rhymer, whom I shall aote at
large :
" Le Quens* manda les Menestrels;
Et si a fet f crier entre els.
Qui la meillor trufife % sauroit
Dire, ne faire, qu'il auroit
Sa robe d'escarlate nueve.
L'uns Menestrels a I'autre reuve
Fere son mestier, tel qu'il sot,
Li uns fet I'yvre, I'autre sot ;
Li uns chante, li autre note ;
Et li autres dit la riote ;
Et li autres la jenglerie ;||
Cil qui sevent de jonglerie
Vielent par devant le Conte ;
Aucuns ja qui fabliaus conte
II i ot dit mainte risee," &c.
Fabliaux et Conies, 12 mo. torn. iip. 161.
And what species of entertainment was afforded by th(ancient
juggleurs we learn from the following citation from an old jmance,
written in 1230:
" Quand les tables ostees furent
C'W juggleurs in pies esturent
S'ont vielles, et harpes prisees
Chansons, sons, vers, et reprises
Et gestes chante nos ont."
Sir J. Hawkins, ii. 44, from Andr. du Chetie. See also 'yrwhitt's
Chaucer, iv. p. 299.
All the before mentioned sports went by the genen name of
* Le Compte. t f^it-
Sornette, a gibe, a jest, or flouting
II y angler ie, babillage, raillerie.
FOREGOING ESSAY. 415
ministralcia ministellorum /utiicra, &c. — Charta an. 1377, apud
Rymer, vii. p. 160. " Peracto autem prandio, ascendebat 1). Rex in
cameram suam cum Praelatis Magnatibus & Proceribus praedictis :
& deinceps Magnates, Milites & Domini, aliique Generosi diem
ilium, usque ad tempus ccKUDe, in tripudiis, coreis & solempnibus
Ministralciis, prce gaudio solempnitatis illius continuarunt." (Du
Cange, Gloss. 773.) This was at the coronation of K. Richard II.
It was common for the minstrels to dance, as well as to harp and
sing (see above, note E, p. 389) ; thus in the old Romance of Tirantf
f/ BIanio,Y3.\. 1 511, the 14th cap. lib. 2, begins thus : "Despuesqui
las Mesas fueron algadas vinieron los Ministriles; y delante del rey,
y de la Reyna dan^:aron un rato : y despues truxeron colacion."
They also probably, among their other feats, played tricks of
slight of hand, hence the word jugler came to signify a performer
of legerdemain ; and it was sometimes used in this sense (to
which it is now appropriated) even so early as the time of Chaucer,
who in his Squire's Tale, (ii. 108) speaks of the horse of brass, as :
" like
An apparence ymade by som magike,
As/ogelours plaien at thise festes grete."
See also the Frere's Tale, i. p. 279, v. 7049.
(a a 2.) Females playing on the harp.'] Thus in the old
romance of "Syr Degore (or Degree," No. 22, iii. appendix) we
have (Sign. D. i.):
" The lady, that was so faire and bright,
Upon her bed she sate down ryght ;
She harped notes swete and fine.
(Her mayds filled a piece of wine.)
And Syr Degore, sate him downe,
For to hear the harpes sowne."
The 4th line being omitted in the pr. copy, is supplied from the
folio MS.
In the Squyr of lowe Degree (No. 24, iii. appendix) the
king says to his daughter (Sign. D. i.):
" Ye were wont to harpe and syng.
And be the meryest in chamber comyng."
In the Carle of Carlisle, (No. 10. iii. appendix) we have
the following passage (folio MS. p. 451, v. 217).
" Downe came a lady faire and free.
And sett her on the Carles knee :
One whiles shec harjjcd another whiles song,
IJoth of paramours anfl louinge amonge."
4i6 NOTES ON THE
And in the Romance of Eger and Grime (No. 1 2, iii. appendix),
we have {ibid. p. 127, col. 2) in part i. v. 263 :
" The ladye fayre of hew and hyde
Shee sate downe by the bed side
Shee laid a souter (psaltry) vpon her knee
Theron shee plaid full lovesomelye.
.... And her 2 maydens sweetlye sange."
A similar passage occurs in part iv. v. 129 (p. 136.) — But these
instances are sufficient.
(Bb.) A charter . ... to appoint a king of the minstrels.']
Intitled Carta Le Roy de ministraulx (in Latin histriones vid.
Plott. p. 437.) A copy of this charter is printed in Monast.
Anglic, i. 355, and in Blount's Law Diction. 1717 (art. king).
That this was a most respectable officer, both here and on the
continent, will appear from the passages quoted below, and there-
fore it could only have been in modern times, when the proper
meaning of the original terms ministraulz, and histriones was for-
got, that he was called king of the fidlers ; on which subject see
below, note (e e 2)
Concerning the king of the minstrels we have the following
curious passages collected by Du Cange, Gloss, iv. 773 :
" Rex Ministellorum ; supremus inter ministellos: de cujus mu-
nere, potestate in cseteros ministellos agit Charta Henrici IV. Regis
Anghae in Monast. Anglicano, tom. i. p. 355. Charta originaHs an.
^2>Z^- Jc Robert Caveron Roy des Menestreuls du Royaume de
France. Aliae ann. 1357. & 1362. Copin de Brequin Roy des
.Menestres du Royaume de France. Computum de auxiliis pro
redemptione Regis Johannis, ann. 1367. Pour une couronne
d'argent qu'il donna le jour de la Tiphaine au roy des menestrels.
" Regestum Magnorum Dierum Trecensium an. 1296. Super
quod Joannes dictus Charmillons Juglator, cui dominus Rex per
suas literas tanquam Regem Juglatorum in civitate Trecensi
Magisterium Juglatorum, quemadmodum suae placeret voluntati,
concesserat." Gloss, c. 1587.
There is a very curious passage in Pasquier's Recherches de la
France., Paris, 1633, folio, liv. 7. ch. 5, p. 611, wherein he appears
to be at a loss how to account for the title of Le Roy assumed by
the old composers of metrical romances ; in one of which the author
expressly declares himself to have been a minstrel. The solution
of the difficulty, that he had been Le Roy des Menestrels, will be
esteemed more probable than what Pasquier here advances ; for I
have never seen the title of prince given to a minstrel, &c. scil. —
" A nos vieux Poetes . . . comme . . fust qu'ils eussent certain jeux
de prix en leurs Poesies, ils . . honoroient du nome, tantot de
FOREGOING ESSAY, 417
roy, tantot de prince, celuy qui avoit le mieux faict comme nous
voyons entre les archers, arbalestiers, & harquebusiers estre fait
le semblable. Ainsi I'autheur du Roman d'Oger le Danois, s'ap-
pelle Roy.
" Icy endroict est cil Livre finez
Qui des enfans Oger est appellez
Or vueille Diex qu'il soit parachevez
En tel maniere kestre n'en puist blamez
Le Roy Adams (r. Adenes) ki il' est rimez.
" Et en celuy de Cleomades,
" Ce Livre de Cleomades
Rime-je le Roy Adenes
Menestre au bon Due Henry.
" Mot de Roy, qui seroit tres-mal approprie' a un menestrier, si
d'ailleurson ne le rapportoit a un jeu du priz : Et de faict il semble
que de nostre temps, il y en eust encores quelque remarques, en ce
que le mot de jouingleur s'estant par succession de temps tourn^
en batelage nous avons veu en nostre jeunesse les Jouingleurs se
trouver a certain jour tous les ans en la ville de Chauny en Picardie,
pour faire monstre de leur mestrier devant le monde, a qui mieux.
Et ce que j'en dis icy n'est pas pour vilipender ces anciens
Rimeurs, ainsi pour monstrer qu'il n'y a chose si belle qui ne
s'aneantisse avec le temps."
We see here that in the time of Pasquier the poor minstrel was
sunk into as low estimation in France, as he was then or after-
wards in England : but by his apology for comparing the jouin-
gleurs, who assembled to exercise their faculty, in his youth, to the
ancient rimeurs, it is plain they exerted their skill in rhyme.
As for king Adenes^ or Adencz (whose name in the first passage
above is corruptly printed Adams), he is recorded in the Bibliothhiue
des Romans, Amst. 1734, i2mo. vol. i. p. 232, to have composed
the two romances in verse above-mentioned, and a third intided
Le Roman de Berlin: all three being preserved in a MS. written
about 1270. His Bon Due Henry I conceive to have been Henry
Duke of Brabant.
(B b 2.) Khig of the minstrels, 6^^.] See Anstis's Rea^ster of
the Order of the Garter, ii. p. 303, who tells us: " The President
or Governour of the minstrels had tlie like denomination oi roy in
France and Burgundy : and in England, John of Gaunt constituted
such an officer by a patent ; and long before his time i)a\incnts
were made by the crown, to [a] king of the minstrels by Kdw. L
' Regi Roberto Ministrallo scutifero ad armacommoranti ad vadia
Regis anno 5to.' {Bibl. Cotton. Vespas. c. 16, f 3), as likewise
EE
4i8 NOTES ON THE
{Libra Garderob. 25, e. i): ' Ministrallis in die nuptiarum comitissae
Holland filise Regis, Regi Pago, Johanni Vidulatori &c. Morello
Regi, &c. Druetto Monthaut, and Jacketto de Scot. Regibus, cuilibet
eorum xls.' Regi Pagio de Hollandia, &c. under Ed. II. We like-
wise find other entries, ' Regi Roberto et aliis ministrallis facientibus
menistrallias (ministralcias, qu.) suas coram Rege. {Bibl. Cotton.
Nero. c. 8, p. 84 b. Comp. Garderob?) That king granted, 'Willielmo
de Morlee dicto Roy de North, Ministrallo Regis, domos quae
fuerunt' Johannis le Boteler dicti Roy Brunhaud {Pat. de terr.
forisfad. 16. E. 3)." He adds below, (p. 304) a similar instance of
a rex juglatoriim, and that the " king of the minstrels" at length
was styled in France roy des violons, (Furitiere, Diction. Univers.)
as with us " king of the fidlers," on which subject see below, note
(EC 2)
(B b 3.) The statute 4 Hen. IV. (1402) c. 27, runs in these terms :
" Item, pur eschuir plusieurs diseases et mischiefs qont advenuz de-
vaunt ces heures en la terre de Gales par plusieurs westours
rymours, minstrabc et autres vacabondes, ordeignez est et establiz
qe nul westour, rymour ministral ne vacabond soit aucunement
sustenuz en la terre de Gales pur faire kymorthas ou coillage sur la
commune poeple illoeques." This is among the severe laws against
the Welsh, passed during the resentment occasioned by the out-
rages committed under Owen Glendour; and as the Welsh bards
had excited their countrymen to rebellion against the English
government, it is not to be wondered that the act is conceived in
terms of the utmost indignation and contempt against this class of
men, who are described as rymours, ministralx, which are apparently
here used as only synonymous terms to express the Welsh bards
with the usual exuberance of our acts of parliament ; for if their
ministralx had been mere musicians, they would not have required
the vigilance of the English legislature to suppress them. It was
their songs exciting their countrymen to insurrection which pro-
duced " les diseases & mischiefs en la terre de Gales."
It is also submitted to the reader, whether the same appHcation
of the terms does not still more clearly appear in the commission
issued in 1567, and printed in Evan Evans's Specimens of Welsh
Poetry, 1764, 4to. p. v. for bestowing the silver harp oij "the chief
of that faculty." For after setting forth " that vagrant and idle
persons, naming themselves minstr-els, rytJwiers, and bards, had
lately grown into such intolerable multitude within the Principa-
lity in North Wales, that not only gentlemen and others by their
shameless disorders are oftentimes disquieted in their habitations,
but also expert mi?istrels and musicians in tongue and cunynge there-
by much discouraged, &c." and " hindred [of] livings and prefer-
ment," &c. it appoints a time and place, wherein all " persons that
FOREGOING ESSAY. 419
intend to maintain their living by name or colour of viiustnis,
rythmers, or bards within five shires of North ^^^'^les, shall appear
to show their learnings accordingly," &c. And tlie commissioners
are required to admit such as shall be found worthy, into and
under the degrees heretofore in use, so that they may " use, exer-
cise, and follow the sciences and faculties of their professions in
such decent order as shall appertain to each of their degrees."
And the rest are to return to some honest labour, &:c. upon pain to
be taken as sturdy and idle vagabonds, &c.
(B b 4.) Holinshed translated this passage from Tho. de Elm-
ham's Vita ct Gesta Henrici V. scil. : " Soli Omnipotenti Deo se
velle ^•ictoriam imputari ... in tantum, quod cantus de sue
triumpho fieri, seu per Citharistas vel alios quoscuncjue cantari
penitus prohibebat,"' (Edit. Heamii, 1727, p. 72). As in his version
Holinshed attributes the making, as well as singing ditties to
minstrels, it is plain he knew that men of this profession had been
accustomed to do both.
(C c.) The Houshold Book, (S^^.] See Section v.
" Of the noumbre of all my lords servaunts."
"Item, ■M\Tistrals in Houshold iii. viz. a taberet, a luyte, and a
Rebecc." (The rebeck was a kind of fiddle with three strings).
"Sect. XLIV. 3.
" Rewardes to his lordship's Servaunts, &c.
" Item, My lord usith ande accustomith to gyf yerly, when his
lordschipp is at home, to his minstrallis that be daily in his hous-
hold, as his tabret, lute, ande Rebeke, upon New Yeresday in the
momynge when they do play at my lordis chamber dour for his
lordschip and my lady, xxi". viz. xiii^r. \\d. for my lord ; and
\\s. \\\\ii. for my lady, if sche be at my lords fyndynge, and not
at hir owen ; And for playing at my lordis sone and heire's cham-
ber doure, the lord Percy, \\s. And for playinge at the cliamber
doures of my lords yonger sonnes, my yonge masters, after \\\\d.
the pecc for every of them. — xxiiij-. \\\\d.
" Sect. XLIV. 2.
" Rewards to be geven to strangers, as Players,
Mynstralls, or any other, &c.
" Furst, my lorde usith and accustomyth to gif to the kings
jugler; .... when they custome to come unto hym yerly, vij-.
viii</.
" Item, my lorde usith and accustomyth to gif ycrely to the
420 NOTES ON THE
kings or queenes Bearwarde, if they have one, when they custom
to come imto hym yeriy, vi^'. viii^.
" Item, my lorde usith and accustomyth to gyfe yerly to every
erles mynstrelHs, when they custome to come to hym yerely, iiix.
iiii^. And if they come to my lorde seldome, ones in ii or iii yeres,
than \\s. Yiixd.
" Item, my lorde usith and accustomedeth to gife yerely to an
erls mynstralls, if he be his speciall lorde, friende, or kynsman, if
they come yerely to his lordschip .... And, if they come to my
' lord' seldome, ones in ii or iii years "
* * * * * *
" Item, my lorde usith and accustomyth to gyf yerely a dookes
or erlis trumpetts, if they come vi together to his lordschipp, viz.
if they come yerly, vis. viiirt'. And, if they come but in ii or iii
yeres, than xs."
" Item, my lorde usith and accustometh to gife yerly, when his
lordschip is at home, to gyf to the kyngs shawmes, when they com
to my lorde yerely, xs."
******
I cannot conclude this note without observing that in this enu-
meration the family minstrels seem to have been musicians only,
and yet both the earl's trumpets and the king's shawmes are
evidently distinguished from the earl's minstrels, and the king's
jugler. Now we find jugglers still coupled with pipers in Barklay's
-Eg/oges, arc. 15 14. (Warton, ii. 254.)
(C c 2.) The honours and rewards conferred on minstrels, &c.
in the middle ages were excessive, as will be seen by many in-
stances in these volumes; v. note E, F. &c. But more particu-
larly with regard to English minstrels, &c. See T. Warton's Ht'sf.
of Eng. Poetry, i. p. 89-92, 116, &c., ii. 105, 106, 254, &c. Dr.
Bumey's Hist, of Music, ii. p. 316-319, 397-399, 427-428.
On this head, it may be sufficient to add the following passage
from the Fleta, lib. ii. c. 23 : "Officium Elemosinarij est . . .
Equos relictos, Robas, Pecuniam, et alia ad Elemosinam largiter
recipere et fidelitur distribuere ; debet etiam Regem super Elemo-
sinse largitione crebris summonitionibus stimulare & praecipue
diebus sanctorum, et rogare ne Robas suas quae magni sunt
precij histrionibus, blanditoribus, adulatoribus, accusatoribus, vel
menestrallis, sed ad Elemosinae suae incrementum jubeat largiri."
Et in c. 72 : " ministralli, vel adulatoris."
(D d.) A species of mer^ who did not sing, &^c.'] It appears
from the passage of Erasmus here referred to, that there still existed
in England of that species of jongleurs or minstrels, whom the
FOREGOING ESSAY. 421
French called by the peculiar name oicontcours, or reciters in prose.
It is in his Eccksiastes, where he is speaking of such preachers as
imitated the tone of beggars or mountebanks : " Apud Anglos est
simile genushominum, qualesapud Italossunt circulatores [mounte-
banks] de quibus modo dictum est ; qui irrumpunt in convivia
magnatum, aut in Cauponas Vinarias ; et argumentum alicjuod, quod
edidicerunt, recitant ; puta mortem omnibus dominari, aut laudeni
matrimonii. Sed quoniam ea lingua monosyllabis fere constat,
quemadmodum Germanica ; atque illi (sc. this peculiar species of
reciters) studio \-itant cantuni, nobis (sc. Erasmus, who did not
understand a word of English) latrare videntur verius quam loqui."
—Opera, tom. v. c. 958 (Jortin, vol. ii. p. 193). As Erasmus was
correcting the vice of preachers, it was more to his point to bring
an instance from the moral reciters of prose, than from chanters
of rhime ; though the latter would probably be more popular, and
therefore more common.
(Ee.) This character is supposed to have been suggested by de-
scriptions of minstrels in the romance of Morte Art/iur ; but none,
it seems, have been found which come nearer to it than the follow-
ing, which I shall produce, not only that the reader may judge of
the resemblance, but to shew how nearly the idea of the minstrel
character given in this essay corresponds with that of our old
writers.
Sir Lancelot, having been affronted by a threatening abusive let-
ter which Mark, king of Comwal, had sent to Queen Guenever,
wherein he " spake shame by her and Sir Lancelot, " is comforted
by a knight, named Sir Dinadan, who tells him "I will make a lay
for him, and when it is made, I shall make an harper to sing it be-
fore him. So anon he went and made it, and taught it an harper,
that hyght Elyot ; and when hee could it, hee taught it to many
harpers. And so . . . the harpers went straight unto Wales and
Comwaile to sing the lay . . . which was the worst lay that ever
harper sung with harpe, or with any other instrument. And [at a]
great feast that king Marke made for joy of[aJ victorie which hee
had . . . came Eliot the harper ; . . . and because he was a
curious harper, men heard him sing the same lay that Sir Dinadan
had made, the which spake the most vilanie by king Marke of
his treason, that ever man heard. When the harper had sung
his song to the end, king Marke was wonderous wroth with him,
and said. Thou harper, how durst thou be so bold to sing this
song before me ? Sir, said Eliot, wit you wel I am a minstrel), and
I must doe as I am commanded of these lords that I bear the
amies of. And Sir king, wit you well that Sir Dinadan a knight
of the Round Table made this song, and he made me to sing it
before you. Thou saiest well, said king Marke, I charge thee liiat
422 NOTES ON THE
thou hie thee fast out of my sight. So the harper departed, &c."
(Part ii. c. 113, ed. 1634. See also part iii. c. 5.)
(E e 2.) This art seems to have put an end to the profession,
&^c.'\ Although I conceive that the character ceased to exist, yet
the appellation might be continued, and applied to fidlers, or other
common musicians : which will account for the mistakes of Sir
Peter Leicester, or other modern writers. (See his Historical
Antiquities of Cheshire, 1673, P- i4i-)
In this sense it is used in an ordinance in the times of Cromwell
(1656), wherein it is enacted that if any of the "persons com-
monly called fidlers or minstrels shall at any time be taken play-
ing, fidling, and making music in any inn, ale-house, or tavern, or
shall be taken proffering themselves, or desiring, or intreating any
... to hear them play or make music in any of the places afore-
said " they are to be " adjudged and declared to be rogues,
vagabonds, and sturdy beggars."
This will also account why John of Gaunt's king of the
minstrels at length came to be called, like le ivy des violons
in France (v. note Bb 2.), king of the fidlers. See the common
ballad intitled The Pedigree, Education, and Marriage of Robin-
hood with Clorinda, queen of Tutbuiy Feast : which, though prefixed
to the modem collection on that subject,* seems of much later date
than most of the others ; for the writer appears to be totally
ignorant of all the old traditions concerning this celebrated outlaw,
and has given him a very elegant bride instead of his old noted
Lemman, " Maid Marian : " who together with his chaplain '' Frier
Tuck," were his favourite companions, and probably on that account
figured in the old morice dance, as may be seen by the engraving
in Mr. Steevens's and Mr. Malone's edition of Shakespeare: by
whom she is mentioned, i Hen. IV. act iii. sc. 3. (See also Warton^
i. 245, ii. 237.) Whereas from this ballad's concluding with an
exhortation to " pray for the king," and " that he may get children,"
* Of the 24 songs in what is now called Robin Hood's Garland,
many are so modern as not to be found in Pepys's collection com-
pleted only in 1700. In the folio MS. are ancient fragments of
the following, viz. : Robin Hood and the Beggar, Robin Hood
and the Butcher, Robin Hood and Fryer lucke, Robin Hood and
the Pindar, Robin Hood and Queen. Cathaiiiic, in two parts, Little
John and the four Beggars, and Robinc Hoode his Death. This
last, which is very curious, has no resemblance to any that have
been published ; and the others are extremely different from the
printed copies ; but they unfortunately are in the beginning of the
MS. where half of every leaf hath been torn away.
FOREGOING ESSAY. 423
&c. it is evidently posterior to the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and
can scarce be older than the reign of K. Charles I. for K. James
1. had no issue after his accession to the throne of England. It
may even have been \\Titten since the Restoration, and only express
the wishes of the nation for issue on the marriage of their favourite
K. Charles 11., on his marriage with the Infonta of Portugal. I
think it is not found in the Pepys collection.
(F f.) Historical song or ballad. '\ The English word ballad is
evidently from the French baladc, as the latter is from the Italian
ballata ; which the Crusca Dictionary defines, canzone che si canta
ballando : " a song which is sung during a dance." So Dr. Bur-
ney (ii. 343,) who refers to a collection of balletic, pubHshed by
Gastaldi, and printed at Antwerp in 1596 (iii. 226.)
But the word appears to have had an earlier origin : for in the
decline of the Roman empire, these trivial songs were called
ballistca and saltatiunculce. Ballisteiifn, Salmasius says, is pro-
perly ballistiiim, Gr. 'QaWiaraiov. " otTro -« BaWi'^'w . . . BaWiortn
saltatio . . . ^a/Z/j/zV/w igitur est quod vulgo vocamus /'<///:'/'; nam
inde deducta vox nostra." Salmas. Not. in Hist. Ang. Scriptores,
iv. p. 349-
In the life of the Emperor Aurelian by Fl. Vopiscus may be
seen two of these ballistca, as sung by the boys skipping and
dancing, on account of a great slaughter made by the emperor
vith his own hand in the Sarmatic war. The first is :
" Mille, mille, mille decollavimus,
Unas homo mille decollavimus,
Mille vivat, qui mille occidit.
Tantum vini habet nemo
Quantum fudit sanguinis."
The other was :
" Mille Samiatas, mille Francos
Semel & semel occidimus.
Mille Persas qua^rimus."
Salmasius {in loc.) shows that the trivial poets of that time were
wont to form their metre of trochaic tetramctre catalectics, divided
into distichs. {Ibid. p. 350.) This becoming the metre of the hymns
in the church service, to which the monks at length superadded
rhyming terminations, was the origin of the common trochaic
metre in the modern languages. This observation I owe to the
learnetl author of Irish Antiquities, 4to.
(F f 2.) Little Miscellanies ?ianicd Garlands, 6-r.] In the
Pepysian and other libraries are preserved a great number of these
424 NOTES ON THE
in black letter, J2mo. under the following quaint and affected
titles, viz. :
I. A Crowjie Garland of Goulden Roses gathered out of England^ s
Royal Garden, &^e., by Richard Johnson, 1612. [In the Bodleyan
Library.] 2. T/ie Golden Garland of Fri?icely Delight. 3. The
Garland of Good-will, hy T. D., 1631. 4. The Royal Garland of
Love and Delight, byT. D. 5. The Garland of Delight, 6^^., by
Tho. Delone. 6. The Garla?id of Love and Mirth, by Thomas
Lanfier. ']. Cupid's Gatiafid set roimdivith Guilded Roses. 8. The
Garland of Withered Roses, by Martin Parker, 1656. 9. The
Shepherd^ s Garland of Love, Loyalty, &=€. 10. The Country Gar-
land. II. The Golde7i Garland of Mirth and Merriment. 12. The
Lover's Garland. 13. Neptune's fair Garland. 14. England's
fair Garland. 15. Robin LLood's Garland. 16. The Maiden! s
Garland, i^. A Loyal Garland of Mirth and Pastime. 18. ^
Royal Garland of Neiu Songs. 19. The Jovial Garland, Z\}i\ 0.6x1.
1 69 1, &c. &c. &c.
This sort of petty publications had anciently the name of Penny
Merriments : as little religious tracts of the same size were called
Penny Godlinesses. In the Pepysian Library are multitudes of
both kinds.
(G g.) The term minstrel was not confined to a 77ieer musician in
this country any more than on the Cofiti?ie?it.'] The discussion
of the question, whether the term minstrel was applied in England
to singers and composers of songs, &c. or confined to the perfor-
mers on musical instruments, was properly reserved for this place,
because much light hath already been thrown upon the subject in
the preceding notes, to which it will be sufficient to refer the reader.
That on the Continent the minstrel was understood not to be a
meer musician but a singer of verses, hath been shown in notes
B, c, R, A a, &c.* And that he was also a maker of them is evident
from the passage in (c.) p. 386, where the most noted romances
are said to be of the composition of these men. And in (b b.)
p. 417, we have the titles of some of which a minstrel was the
author, who has himself left his name upon record.
* That the French minstrel was a singer and composer, &c.
appears from many passages translated by M. Le Grand, in Fa-
bliaux ou Contes, 6^c. see tom. i. p. 37, 47, ii. 306, 313, 6^ se^^.
iii. 266, &c. Yet this writer, like other French critics, endeavours
to reduce to distinct and separate classes the men of this profession
under the precise names of fablier, cofiteur, menetrier, menestrel,
and jongleur (tom. i. pref p. xcviii.) whereas his own tales con-
fute all these nice distinctions, or prove at least that the title of
menetrier or minstrel was applied to them all.
FOREGOING ESSAY. 425
The old English names for one of this profession were glee-
man,* jogelerj and latterly minstrel ; not to mention harper, &c.
In French he was calledycv/^/tv/r ory/zi^/tv/r, tncmstrdox ))icncstricr.\
The writers of the middle ages expressed the character in Latin
by the woxd^ Joculator, /m'inus, /listrio, ini/iistfei/us, &c. These
tenns, however modem critics may endeavour to distinguish and
apply them to different classes, and although they may be some-
times mentioned as if they were distinct, I cannot find after a
very strict research to have had any settled appropriate difference,
but they appear to have been used indiscriminately by the oldest
writers, especially in England, where the most general and com-
prehensive name was latterly minstrel, Lat. iiiinistni/ies, &c.
Th.M'i.JoLuIator (Eng. jogeler, orjuglar) is used as synonymous to
citharista (note k. p. 397), and to cantor (p. 397), and to minstrel
(vid. infra, p. 425). We have also positive proof that the sub-
ject of his songs were gestes and romantic tales (v. 2. note).
So mimus is used as synonymous \o joadaior (m. p. 399). He
was rewarded for his singing (n. p. 400) and he both sang, harped,
and dealt in that sport (t. 2) which is elsewhere called arsjoai-
latoria (m. ubi supra).
Again histrio is also proved to have been a singer (z. p. 412)
and to have gained rewards by his verbajociilatoria (e. p. 388). And
histriones is the term by which the Fr. word viinistraulx is most
frequently rendered into Latin (w. p. 410, ub. p. 416, &c.)
The fact therefore is sufficiently estabhshed that this order of
men were in England, as well as on the Continent, singers : so that
it only becomes a dispute about words, whether here under the
more general name of minstrels, they are described as having sung.
But in proof of this w^e have only to turn to so common a book
as T. Warton's History of Eng. Poetry : where we shall find ex-
tracted from records the following instances: —
"Ex Registr. Priorat. S. Swithin Winton(sub anno 1374)- In
festo Alwyni Epi. . . . Et durante pietancia in Aula Convcntus
sex ministralli, cum quatuor citharisatoribus, faciebant ministralcias
suas. Et post cenam, in magna camera arcuata dom. prions can-
tabant idem Gestum in qua Camera suspendebatur, ut moris est,
magnum dorsale Prioris habens picturas trium Regum Colein.
Veniebant autem dicti joculatores a Castello domini Regis & ex
familia Epi." (vol. ii. p. 174). Here the minstrels and harpers are
expressly c?i}Aiti\. joculatores. and as the harpers had musical instru-
ments, the singing must have been by the minstrels, or by both
conjointly.
For that minstrels sang we have undeniable proof in the following
♦ See p. 392. t '"^t-*-- P- 409- \ See p. 359, note.*
426 NOTES ON THE
entry in the Accompt Roll of the Priory of Bicester, in Oxford-
shire (under the year 1432). " Dat. 6'dr ministralUs dQ Bokyngham
cantantibus in refedorio Martyrium Septem Doniientium infesto Epi-
pJianie, ivi"." (vol. ii. p. 175).
In like manner our old English writers abound with passages
wherein the minstrel is represented as singing. To mention only
a few :
In the old romance oi Efuare (No. 15, vol. iii. appendix), which
from the obsoleteness of the style, the nakedness of the story,
the barrenness of incidents, and some other particulars, I should
judge to be next in point of time to Hornchild, we have :
"I have herd menstrelles syng yn sawe." — Stanza 27.
In a poem of Adam Davie (who flourished about 1312) we have
this distich : —
" Merry it is in halle to here the harpe,
The Minstrelles synge, the jogelours carpe."
T. Warton, i. p. 225.
So William of Nassyngton (circ. 1480) as quoted by Mr. Tyrwhitt
{Chaucer^ iv. 319) : —
" I will make no vain carpinge
Of dedes of armys ne of amours
As dus Mynstrelles and Jestours [Gestours]
That makys carpinge in many a place
Of Octaviane and Isembrase,
And of many other Jestes [Gestes]
And namely whan they come to festes." *
See also the description of the minstrel in note e e. from Morte
Arthur, which appears to have been compiled about the time of
this last writer. (See T. Warton, ii. 235).
By proving that minstrels were singers of the old romantic songs
and gestes, &c. we have in effect proved them to have been the
makers at least of some of them. For the names of their authors
being not preserved, to whom can we so probably ascribe the com-
position of many of these old popular rhimes, as to the men who
* The fondness of the English (even the most illiterate) to hear
tales and rimes, is much dwelt on by Rob. de Brunne, in 1330
(Warton, i. p. 59, 65, 75). All rimes were then sung to the harp:
even Troilus and Cresseide, though almost as long as the yEneid,
was to be "redde ... or else songe." 1. ult. (Warton, i. 388).
FOREGOING ESSAY. 427
devoted all their time and talents to the recitation of them : espe'
cially as in the rhimes themselves minstrels are often represented
as the makers or composers.
Thus in the oldest of all, Horn-child having assumed the charac-
ter of a harper or jogeler, is in consequence said (fo. 92). to have
'• made Rymenild [his mistress] a lay.''
In the old romance of Emare, we have this exhortation to
minstrels, as composers, otherwise they could not have been at
Hberty to chuse their subjects (st. 2) : —
" Menstrelles that walken fer and \\yde
Her and ther in every a syde
In mony a dyverse londe
Sholde ut her bygynnyng
Speke of that rj^ghtwes kyng
That made both see and sonde," &c.
And in the old song or geste of Guy and Colbronde (No. 4,
vol. iii. appendix), the minstrel thus speaks of himself in the first
person :
'' When meate and drinke is great plentye
Then lords and ladyes still wil be
And sitt and solace lythe
Then itt is time for ?nee to speake
Of keene knights and kempes great
Such carping for to kythe."
We have seen already that the Welsh bards, who were undoubt-
edly composers of the songs they chanted to the harp, could not
be distinguished by our legislators from our own rimers, minstrels
(vid. note b b. 3, p. 418).
And that the Provengal troubadour of our King Richard, who is
called by M. Favine jongleur, and by M. Fauchet mcncstrcl, is by
the old English translator termed a rimer or minstrel, when he is
mentioning the fact of his composing some verses (p. 359).
And lastly, that Holinshed, translating the prohibition of K.
Henry V., forbidding any songs to be comi)Osc(l on his victory, or to
be sung by harpers or others, roundly gives it, he would not permit
" any ditties to be made and sung by minstrels on his glorious vic-
tory',' (S:c. (vid. p. 370 and note B b. 4).
Now that this order of men, at first called gleemcn, then juglers,
and afterwards more generally minstrels, existed here from the
Conquest, who entertained their liearers with chanting to the harp
or other instruments, songs and tales of chivalry, or as they were
428 NOTES ON THE
called, gests* and romances in verse in the English language, is
proved by the existence of the very compositions they so chanted,
which are still preserved in great abundance, and exhibit a regular
series from the time our language was almost Saxon, till after its
improvements in the age of Chaucer, who enumerates many of
them. And as the Norman French was in the time of this bard
still the courtly language, it shows that the English was not there-
by excluded from affording entertainment to our nobihty, who are
so often addressed therein by the title of lordings : and sometimes
more positively "lords and ladies " (p. 427).
And tho' many of these were translated from the French, others
are evidently of English origin f which appear in their turns to have
afforded versions into that language ; a sufficient proof of that in-
tercommunity between the French and English minstrels, which
hath been mentioned in a preceding page. Even the abundance
of such translations into English being all adapted for popular re-
citation, sufficiently establishes the fact that the English minstrels
had a great demand for such compositions, which they were glad
to supply, whether from their own native stores or from other lan-
guages.
We have seen above that the joculator, mimus, histrio, whether
these characters were the same, or had any real difference, were all
called minstrels ; as was also the harper, J when the term implied
a singer, if not a composer of songs, &c. By degrees the name of
minstrel was extended to vocal and instrumental musicians of every
kind : and as in the establishment of royal and noble houses, the
latter would necessarily be most numerous, so we are not to wonder
that the band of music (entered under the general name of min-
strels) should consist of instrumental performers chiefly, if not al-
* Gests at length came to signify adventures or incidents in
general. So in a narrative of the journey into Scotland of Queen
Margaret and her attendants, on her marriage with K. James IV.
in 1503 (in appendix to Leland. Collect, iv. p. 265), we are pro-
mised an account "of their gestys and manners during the said
voyage."
t The romance of Richard Coeur de Lion (No. 25) I should
judge to be of English origin, from the names Wardrewe and
Eldrede, &c. iii. appendix (sect. ii.). As is also Eger and Grime
(No. 12), wherein a knight is named Sir Gray Steel, and a lady
who excells in surgery is called Loosepaine or Losepain ; these
surely are not derived from France.
X See the romance of Sir Isenbras (No. 14) sign. a.
" Harpers loved him in Hall
With other Minstrels all."
FOREGOING ESSA Y. 429
together ; for as the composer or singer of heroic tales to the harp
would necessarily be a solitary performer, we must not expect to
find him in the band along with the trumpeters, fluters, &c.
However, as we sometimes find mention of " Minstrels of Mu-
sic : "* so at other times we hear of "expert minstrels and musicians
of tongue and cunning" CB b. iii. p. 4iS)t, meaning doubtless by
the former singers, and probably by the latter phrase composers of
songs. Even " minstrels music" seems to be ajjplied to the species
of verse used by minstrels in the passage quoted below. J
But although from the predominancy of instrumental music min-
stralsy was at length chiefly to be understood in this sense, yet it
was still applied to the poetry of minstrels so late as the time of
Queen Elizabeth, as appears in the follo\ving extract from Putten-
ham's Arte of E/ig. Foesic, p. 9, who, speaking of the first com-
posers of Latin verses in ryme, says, " all that they wrote to the
favour or prayse of princes, they did it in such manner of min-
stralsie ; and thought themselves no small fooles, when they could
make their verses go all in ryme."
I shall conclude this subject with the following description of
minstrelcy given by John Lidgate at the beginning of the fifteenth
century, as it shows what a variety of entertainments were then
* T. Warton, ii. 258, note (a) from Leland's Coilect. vol. iv. ap-
pend, edit. 1774, p. 267.
t The curious author of the Toiir in Wales, 1773, 4to. p. 435, I
find to have read these words, " in toune and contrey ; " which I
can scarce imagine to have been applicable to ^Vales at that time.
Nor can I agree with him in the representation he has given (p.
367) concerning the Cymmorth or meeting, wherein the bards
exerted their powers to excite their countrymen to war ; as if it
were by a deduction of the particulars he enumerates, and, as it
should seem, in the way of harangue, &c. After which, " the band
of minstrels .... struck up ; the harp, the cnvth, and the \^\\)t
filled the measures of enthusiasm, which the others had begun to
inspire." \VTiereas it is well known that the bard chanted his en-
thusiastic effusions to the harp ; and as for the term minstrel, it
was not, I conceive, at all used by the Welsh ; and in English it
comprehended both the bard and the musician.
\ " Your ordinarie rimers use very much their measures in the
odde, as nine and eleven, and the sharpe accent upon the last sil-
lable, which therefore makes him go ill favouredly and like a min-
strels musickc." (Puttenham's Ar/e of Ew^. JWsie, 1589, p. 59.)
This must mean his vocal music, otherwise it appears not applicable
to the subject.
430 NOTES, &c.
comprehended under this term, together with every kind of instru-
mental music then in use.
" Al maner Mynstralcye,
That any man kan specifye.
Ffor there were Rotys of Ahnayne,
And eke of Arragon, and Spayne :
Songes, Stampes, and eke Daunces ;
Divers plente of plesaunces :
And many unkouth notys new
Of swiche folke as lovid treue.*
And instrumentys that did excelle,
Many moo than I kan telle.
Harpys, Fythales, and eke Rotys
Well according to her \t.e. their] notys,
Lutys, Ribibles, and Getemes,
More for estatys, than tavemes :
Orgay[n]s, Cytolis, Monacordys. —
There were Trumpes, and Trumpettes,
Lowde Shall[m]ys, and Doucettes."
T. Warton, ii. 225, note (*).
1^ The foregoing essay on the ancient minstrels has been very
much enlarged and improved since the first edition, with respect
to the Anglo-Saxon minstrels, in consequence of some objections
proposed by the reverend and learned Mr. Pegge, which the reader
may find in the second volume of the Archccologia, printed by the
Antiquarian Society : but which that gentleman has since retracted
in the most liberal and candid manner in the third volume of the
ArchcEologia, No. xxxiv. p. 310.
And in consequence of similar objections respecting the English
minstrels after the Conquest, the subsequent part hath been much
enlarged, and additional light thrown upon the subject ; which, to
prevent cavil, hath been extended to minstrelsy in all its branches,
as it was established in England, whether by natives or for-
eigners.
[Ritson made a searching examination of this essay, and dis-
sented from many of the propositions contained in it. His essay
'' On the Ancient English Minstrels" will be found in his collection
of Ancient Songs and Ballads^
* By this phrase I understand new tales or narrative rymes
composed by the minstrels on the subject of true and faithful
lovers, &c.
43^
APPENDIX II.
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH
STAGE, cSic.
I.
^^^^f^"^ is well known that dramatic poetry in
^^ this and most other nations of Europe
^1 f^J owes its origin, or at least its revival, to
S^l;^ those religious shows which in the dark
ages were usually exhibited on the more solemn
festivals. At those times they were wont to repre-
sent in the churches the lives and miracles of the
saints, or some of the more important stones of
scripture. And as the most mysterious subjects
were frequendy chosen, such as the Incarnation,
Passion, and Resurrection of Christ, &c., these exhi-
bitions acquired the general name of mysteries. At
first they were probably a kind of dumb shews, in-
termingled, it may be, with a few short speeches ; at
length they grew into a regular series of connected
dialogues, formally divided into acts and scenes.
Specimens of these in their most improved state
(being at best but poor artless compositions) may be
seen among Dodsley's 0/d Plays and in Osborne's
Ilarlcyan Misccl. How they were exhibited in their
most simple form we may learn from an ancient novel,
often quoted by our old dramatic poets {a) intitled
. ..." a merye jest of a man that was callctl Howle-
a See Ben Jonson's Poetaster, act iii. sc. 4, and his AfaS(/ue of
the Fortunate Isles. Whalkys edit. vol. ii. p. 49, vol. vi. \). 190.
432 ON THE ORIGIN OF
glas" {6), &c., being a translation from the Dutch
language, in which he is named Ulenspiegle. Howie-
glass, whose waggish tricks are the subject of this
book, after many adventures comes to live with a
priest, who makes him his parish clerk. This priest is
described as keeping a leman or concubine, who had
but one eye, to whom Howleglass owed a grudge
for revealing his rogueries to his master. The story
thus proceeds :...." And than in the meane season,
while Howleglas was parysh clarke, at Easter they
should play the Resurrection of our Lorde : and for
because than the men wer not learned, nor could
not read, the priest toke his leman, and put her in
the grave for an Aungell : and this seing Howle-
glas, toke to hym iij of the symplest persons that
were in the towne, that played the iij Maries ; and
the Person \i.e. Parson or Rector] played Christe,
with a baner in his hand. Than saide Howleglas to
the symple persons. Whan the Aungel asketh you,
whome you seke, you may saye, The parsons leman
with one iye. Than it fortuned that the tyme was
come that they must playe, and the Aungel asked
them whom they sought, and than sayd they, as
Howleglas had shewed and lerned them afore, and
than answered they. We seke the priests leman with
one iye. And than the prieste might heare that he
was mocked. And whan the priestes leman herd
that, she arose out of the grave, and would have
smyten with her fist Howleglas upon the cheke, but
she missed him and smote one of the simple persons
that played one of the thre Maries ; and he gave her
another ; and than toke she him by the heare [hair] ;
and that seing his wyfe, came running hastely to
smite the priestes leaman ; and than the priest see-
b Howleglass is said in the Preface to have died in mccccl.
At the end of the book, in mcccl.
THE ENGLISH STAGE.
433
ing this, caste down hys baner and went to helpe his
woman, so that the one gave the other sore strokes;
and made great noyse in the churche. And than
Howleglas se)'ng them lyinge together by the eares
in the bodi of the churche, went his way out of the
village, and came no more there. "(r)
As the old mysteries frequently required the repre-
sentation of some allegorical personage, such as
Death, Sin, Charity, Faith, and the like, by degrees
the rude poets of those unlettered ages began to
form compleat dramatic pieces consisting entirely of
such personifications. These they intitled moral
plays, or moralities. The mysteries were very inarti-
ficial, representing the scripture stories simply ac-
cording to the letter. But the moralities are not
devoid of invention : they exhibit outlines of the
dramatic art ; they contain something of a fable or
plot, and even attempt to delineate characters and
manners. I have now before me two that were
printed early in the reign of Henry VIII., in which,
I think, one may plainly discover the seeds of
tragedy and comedy, for which reason I shall give a
short analysis of them both.
One of them is intitled Every Man. {d) The
subject of this piece is the summoning of man out
of the world by death ; and its moral, that nothing
will then avail him but a well-spent life and the com-
forts of religion. This subject and moral are
opened in a monologue spoken by the Messenger
(for that was the name generally given by our ances-
tors to the prologue on their rude stage) ; then God
(0 Imprynted ... by VVyllyani Copland : without date, in 4to.
bl. let. among Mr. Garrick's old plays, K. vol. x.
{d) This play has been reprinted by Mr. Hawkins in his three
vols, of old i)Iays, intitled. The On)^in of the English Drama,
i2rao. Oxford, 1773. See vol. i. p. 27.
F \
434 ON THE ORIGIN OF
{e) is represented, who, after some general com-
plaints on the degeneracy of mankind, calls for Deth,
and orders him to bring before his tribunal Every-
man, for so is called the personage who represents
the human race. Every-man appears, and receives
the summons with all the marks of confusion and
terror. When Death is withdrawn Every-man ap-
plies for relief in this distress to Fellowship, Kindred,
Goods, or Riches, but they successively renounce
and forsake him. In this disconsolate state he be-
takes himself to Good-dedes, who, after upbraiding
him with his long neglect of her,(y) introduces him
to her sister Knowledge, and she leads him to the
"holy man Confession," who appoints him penance ;
this he inflicts upon himself on the stage, and then
withdraws to receive the sacraments of the priest.
On his return he begins to wax faint, and after
Strength, Beauty, Discretion, and Five Wits {g)
have all taken their final leave of him, gradually ex-
pires on the stage, Good-dedes still accompanying
him to the last. Then an Aungell descends to sing
his requiem, and the epilogue is spoken by a person
called Doctour, who recapitulates the whole and
delivers the moral : —
" C. This memoriall men may have in mynde,
Ye herers, take it of worth old and yonge,
And forsake Pryde, for he disceyveth you in thende,
And remembre Beaute, Five Witts, Strength and Discretion,
They all at last do Every-man forsake ;
Save his Good Dedes there dothe he take ;
But beware, for and they be small,
Before God he hath no helpe at all," &c.
(<?) The second person of the Trinity seems to be meant.
(/) The before-mentioned are male characters.
(^) /. e. The five senses. These are frequently exhibited as
five distinct personages upon the Spanish stage (see Riccoboni, p.
98), but our moralist has represented them all by one character.
THE ENGLISH STAGE. 435
From this short analysis it may be observed that
Every Man is a grave, solemn piece, not ^vithout
some rude attempts to excite terror and pity, and
therefore may not improperly be referred to the class
of tragedy. It is remarkable that in this old simple
drama the fable is conducted upon the strictest
model of the Greek tragedy. The action is simply
one, the time of action is that of the performance,
the scene is never chanored, nor the stacre ever
empty. Every-man, the hero of the piece, after his
first appearance never withdraws, except when he
goes out to receive the sacraments, which could not
well be exhibited in public, and during his absence
Knowledge descants on the excellence and power of
the priesthood, somewhat after the manner of the
Greek chorus. And, indeed, except in the circum-
stance of Every-man's expiring on the stage, the
Sampson Agonistes of Milton is hardly formed on a
severer plan.(//)
The other play is intitled Hick Scorner,{i) and
bears no distant resemblance to comedy ; its chief
aim seems to be to exhibit characters and manners,
its plot being much less regular than the foregoing.
The prologue is spoken by Pity, represented under
the character of an aged pilgrim ; he is joined by
Contemplacyon and Perseverance, two holy men,
who, after lamenting the degeneracy of the age,
declare their resolution of stemming the torrent.
Pity then is left upon the stage, and presently found
by Prewyll, representing a lewd debauchee, who,
with his dissolute companion Imaginacion, relate
their manner of life, and not without humour de-
(/t) See more of Every Man in vol. ii. pref. to IJ. ii., note.
0) " Impryntcd by me Wynkyn dc \Vorde,"nodate ; in 4to. hi.
let. This play has also been rcjirintcd by Mr. Hawkins in liis
Origin of the English Dratna, vol. i. p. 69.
436 ON THE ORIGIN OF
scribe the stews and other places of base resort.
They are presently joined by Hick-Scorner, who is
drawn as a libertine returned from travel, and, agree-
ably to his name, scoffs at religion. These three are
described as extremely vicious, who glory in every
act of wickedness ; at length two of them quarrel,
and Pity endeavours to part the fray ; on this they
fall upon him, put him in the stocks, and there leave
him. Pity, thus imprisoned, descants in a kind of
lyric measure on the profligacy of the age, and in
this situation is found by Perseverance and Contem-
placion, who set him at liberty, and advise him to go
in search of the delinquents. As soon as he is gone
Frewill appears again, and, after relating in a very
comic manner some of his rogueries and escapes
from justice, is rebuked by the two holy men, who,
after a long altercation, at length convert him and
his libertine companion Imaginacioun from their
vicious course of life, and then the play ends with a
few verses from Perseverance by way of epilogue.
This and every morality I have seen conclude with
a solemn prayer. They are all of them in rhyme, in
a kind of loose stanza, intermixed with distichs.
It would be needless to point out the absurdities
in the plan and conduct of the foregoing play ; they
are evidently great. It is sufficient to observe that
bating the moral and religious reflection of Pity, etc.,
the piece is of a comic cast, and contains a humorous
display of some of the vices of the age. Indeed,
the author has generally been so little attentive to
the allegory, that we need only substitute other names
to his personages, and we have real characters and
living manners.
We see then that the waiters of these moralities
were upon the very threshold of real tragedy and
comedy, and therefore we are not to wonder that
tragedies and comedies in form soon after took place,
THE ENGLISH STAGE. 437
especially as the revival of learning about this time
brought them acquainted with the Roman and
Grecian models.
II. At what period of time the moralities had
their rise here it is difficult to discover, but plays
of miracles appear to have been exhibited in Eng-
land soon after the Conquest. Matthew Paris tells
us that Geoffrey, afterwards Abbot of St. Albans, a
Norman, who had been sent for over by Abbot
Richard to take upon him the direction of the school
of that monastery, coming too late, went to Dun-
stable and taught in the Abby there, where he
caused to be acted (probably by his scholars) a mir-
acle-play of St. Catharine, composed by himself, {a)
This was long before the year 11 19, and probably
within the eleventh century. The above play of
St. Catharine was, for aught that appears, the first
spectacle of this sort that was exhibited in these
kingdoms, and an eminent French writer thinks it
was even the first attempt towards the revival of
dramatic entertainments in all Europe, being long
before the representations of mysteries in France,
for these did not begin till the year i398.(<^)
But whether they derived their origin from the
above exhibition or not, it is certain that holy plays,
representing the miracles and sufferings of the
{a) "Apud Dunestapliam .... quendam luduni de sancta
Katcrina ((luem miracula vulgariter ap])el]amus) fecit. Ad quae de-
coranda, |)otiit a sacrista sancti Albani, lit sibi Capa; Chorales ac-
commodarentur, et obtinuit. Kt fuit Indus ille de sancta Katcrina.'
VitcE Abbat. ad fin. Hist. Mat. Paris, fol. 1639, p. 56. We see here
that plays of miracles were become common enough in the time
of Mat. Paris, who flourished about i 240. But that indeed ajjpears
from the more early writings of Fitz-Stephens : (juoted below.
{b) Vid. Abrcge Chron. de mist, de France, par M. Henault, .^
I'ann. 1 179.
438 ON THE ORIGIN OF
saints, were become common in the reign of Henry
II., and a lighter sort of interludes appear not to
have been then unknown. (^) In the subsequent
age of Chaucer, " Plays of Miracles " in Lent were
the common resort of idle gossips. (^)
They do not appear to have been so prevalent on
the Continent, for the learned historian of the Coun-
cil of Constance (^) ascribes to the English the in-
troduction of plays into Germany. He tells us that
the Emperor, having been absent from the Council
for some time, was at his return received with great
rejoicings, and that the English fathers in particular
did upon that occasion cause a sacred comedy to be
acted before him on Sunday, Jan. 31, 141 7, the
subjects of which were : — " The Nativity of our
Saviour;" "The Arrival of the Eastern Magi;"
and " The Massacre by Herod." Thence it appears,
says this writer, that the Germans are obliged to the
English for the invention of this sort of spectacles,
unknown to them before that period.
The fondness of our ancestors for dramatic exhi-
bitions of this kind, and some curious particulars
{c) See Fitz-Stephens's description of London, preserved by Stow
(and reprinted with notes, &c., by the Rev. Mr. Pegge, in 1774,
4to.) : " Londonia pro spectacuhs theatraUbus, pro ludis scenicis,
ludos habet sanctiores, representationes miraculorum," &c. He
is thought to have written in the reign of Henry H. and to have
died in that of Richard I. It is true at the end of this book we
find mentioned Henricum regent terthim ; but this is doubtless
Henry II. 's son, who was crowned during the life of his father, in
1 1 70, and is generally distinguished as Rexjuvenis, Rexjilius,a.nd
sometimes they were jointly named Reges Afiglice. From a pas-
sage in his chap. De Reltgiofie, it should seem that the body of St.
Thomas Becket was just then a new acquisition to the church of
Canterbury.
{d) See prologue to Wife of Bath's Tale, v. 6137, Tyrwhitt's
ed.
{e) M. L'enfant, vid. Hist, du Cone, de Constance, vol. ii. p.
440.
THE ENGLISH STAGE. 439
relating to this subject, will appear from the Hotis-
hold Book of the fifth Earl of Northumberland, a.d.
1 5 1 2,(y") whence I shall select a few extracts which
show that the exhibiting Scripture dramas on the
ereat festivals entered into the re^rular establishment,
and formed part of the domestic regulations of our
ancient nobility, and, what is more remarkable, that
it was as much the business of the chaplain in those
days to compose plays for the family as it is now for
him to make sermons.
" My Lordes Chapleyns in Household vj. viz.
The Almonar, and if he be a maker of Interludys,
than he to have a servaunt to the intent for writynge
of the parts ; and ells to have non. The maister of
gramer, &c." Sect. v. p. 44.
" Item, my lorde usith and accustomyth to gyf
yerely if his lordship kepe a chapell and be at home,
them of his lordschipes chapell, if they doo play the
Play of the Nativitc uppon cristynmes day in the
mornnynge in my lords chapell befor his lordship —
xxJ." Sect. xliv. p. 343.
" Item, .... to them of his lordship chappell
and other his lordshipis servaunts that doith play
the Play befor his lordship uppon Shrof-Tewsday at
night yerely in reward — xj." Ibid. p. 345.
"Item, ... to them .... that playth the Play
of Resurrection upon estur day in the mornnynge in
my lordis 'chapell' befor his lordshipe — xxj."
Ibid.
(/) The Re^Jilations and Establishments of the Hoiishold of
Hen. Al^. Percy, ^th Earl of Northutnb. I.ond. 1770, 8vo.
whereof a small impression was printed by order of the late Duke
and Duchess of Northumberland to bestow in presents to their
friends. Although begun in 15 12, some of the regulations were
composed so late as 1525.
440 ON THE ORIGIN OF
" Item, My lorde useth and accustomyth yerly to
gyf hym which is ordynede. to be the Master of the
Revells yerly in my lordis hous in cristmas for the
overseyinge and orderinge of his lordschips Playes,
Interludes and Dresinge that is plaid befor his lord-
ship in his hous in the xijth dayes of Cristenmas and
they to have in rewarde for that caus yerly — xxj."
Ibid. p. 346.
"Item, My lorde useth and accustomyth to gyf
every of the iiij Parsones that his lordschip admyted
as his Players to com to his lordship yerly at
Cristynmes ande at all other such tymes as his lord-
ship shall comande them for playing of Playe and
Interludes affor his lordship in his lordshipis hous
for every of their fees for an hole yere. ..."
Ibid. p. 351.
" Item, to be payd ... for rewards to Players
for Playes playd in Christynmas by Stranegeres in
my house after xxd.(£-) every play, by estimacion
somme — xxxiijV. iiij. (//)." Sect. i. p. 22.
" Item, My Lorde usith, and accustometh to gif
yerely when his Lordshipp is at home, to every erlis
Players that comes to his Lordshipe betwixt Cristyn-
mas ande Candelmas, if he be his special Lorde &
Frende & Kynsman — xxs." Sect, xliiii. p. 340.
" Item, My Lorde usith and accustomyth to gyf
yerely, when his Lordship is at home to every
Lordis Players, that comyth to his Lordshipe be-
twixt Crystynmas and Candilmas — xs." Ibid.
The reader will observe the great difference in the
{g) This was not so small a sum then as it may now appear.;
for, in another part of this MS. the price ordered to be given for a
fat ox is but 13J. \d. and for a lean one 8^-.
(Ji) At this rate the number of plays acted must have been
twenty.
THE ENGLISH STAGE. 441
rewards here given to such players as were retainers
of noble personages and such as are stiled strangers,
or, as we may suppose, only strolers.
The profession of a common player was about
this time held by some in low estimation. In an old
satire intitled Cock Lorrcles Bote{i) the author,
enumerating the most common trades or callings, as
" carpenters, coopers, joyners," &c., mentions —
" Players, purse-cutters, money-batterers,
Golde-washers, tomblers, jogelers,
Pardoners, &c." Sign. B. vj.
Ill, It hath been observed already th^t plays of
miracles, or mysteries, as they were called, led to the
introduction of moral plays, or moralities, which pre-
vailed so early and became so common that towards
the latter end of K. Henry VI I. 's reign John Rastel,
brother-in-law to Sir Thomas More, conceived a
'design of making them the vehicle of science and
natural philosophy. With this view he published.
A new interlude and a mery of the nature of the
iiii. elements declarynge many proper poiyits of phi-
losophy naturall, and of dyvers straunge landys {a),
(J) Pr. at the Sun in Fleet-str. by W. do Worde, no date, b. 1.
4to.
((/) Mr. Garrick has an imperfect copy {Old Plays, i. vol. iii.).
The Dramatis Personns are : " The Messenger [or Prologue].
Nature naturate. Humanyte. Studyous Desire. Sensuall Appe-
tyte. The Tavemer. Experyence. Ygnoraunce. (Also yf ye
lyste ye may brynge in a dysgysynge.)" Afterwards follows a table
of the matters handled in the interlude ; among which are : "Of
certeyn conclusions prouvynge the yerthe must nedes be rounde,
and that yt is in circumference above xxi. M. myle." " Of
certeyne points of rosmographye — and of dyvers straunge regyons,
— and of the new founde landys and the maner of the people."
This part is extremely curious, as it shews what notions were en-
tertained of the new American discoveries by our own country-
men.
442
ON THE ORIGIN OF
&c. It is observable that the poet speaks of the
discovery of America as then recent :
" Within this xx yere
Westwarde be founde new landes
That we never harde tell of before this," &c.
The West Indies were discovered by Columbus
in 1492, which fixes the writing of this play to about
1 5 10 (two years before the date of the above Hous-
hold Book). The play of Hick-Scorner was pro-
bably somewhat more ancient, as he still more im-
perfecdy alludes to the American discoveries, under
the name of "the Newe founde Ilonde." [Sign. A.
vij.]
It is observable that in the older moralities, as in
that last mentioned. Every -man, &c., is printed no
kind of stage direction for the exits and entrances of
the personages, no division of acts and scenes. But
in the moral interlude of Lusty Juventus,{b) written
under Edward VI. the exits and entrances begin to
be noted in the margin. (^) At length in O. Eliza-
beth's reign moralities appeared formally divided
into acts and scenes with a regular prologue, &c.
One of these is reprinted by Dodsley.
Before we quit this subject of the very early
printed plays, it may just be observed that although
so few are now extant it should seem many were
printed before the reign of Q. Elizabeth, as at the
beginning of her reign her injunctions in 1559 are
particularly directed to the suppressing of "many
(J}) Described in vol. ii. preface to book ii. The Dramatis
Personse of this piece are : " Messenger, Lusty Juventus, Good
Counsail, Knowledge, Sathan the devyll, Hypocrisie, Fellowship,
Abominable-lyving [an Harlot], God's-merciful-promises."
{c) I have also discovered some few exeats and intrats in the
very old interlude of the Four Elements.
THE ENGLISH STAGE. 443
Pamphlets, Playes, and Ballads ; that no manner of
person shall enterprize to print any such, &c." but
under certain restrictions. Vid. Sect. V.
In the time of Hen. VIII. one or two dramatic
pieces had been published under the classical names
of comedy and tragedy, (^/) but they appear not to
have been intended for popular use. It was not till
the religious ferments had subsided that the public
had leisure to attend to dramatic poetry. In the
reien of Elizabeth tragedies and comedies began to
11
appear in form, and could the poets have persevered
the hrst models were good. Gorboduc, a regular
traL,^edy, was acted in 1561 ;(^) and Gascoigne, in
1566, exhibited Jocasta, a translation from Euri-
pides, as also The Supposes, a regular comedy from
Ariosto, near thirty years before any of Shake-
speare's were printed.
The people, however, still retained a relish for their
old mysteries and moralities, (/) and the popular
dramatic poets seem to have made them their
models. From the graver sort of moralities our
modern tragedy appears to have derived its origin,
as our comedy evidently took its rise from the
{(i) Bp. Bale had applied the name of tragedy to his mystery
of Gods Promises, in 1538. In 1540 John Palsgrave, B.D., had
republished a Latin comedy, called Acolastiis, with an English ver-
sion. Holinshed tells us (vol. iii. p. 850), that so early as 1520,
the king had "a good comedie of Plautus plaied" before hnn at
Greenwich ; but this was in Latin, as Mr. Farmer informs us in his
curious Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare, 8vo. p. 31-
(e) See Ames, p. 316. This play appears to have been first
printed under the name of Gorboduc, then under that of Ferrex
and Porrex,m 1569; and again under Gorboduc, 1590. Ames
calls the first edition quarto ; Langbaine, octavo : and Tanner,
1 2mo.
(/) The general recei)tion the old moralities had ujion the
stage will account for the fondness of all our first poets for alle-
gory. Subjects of this kind were familiar with every one.
444 ON THE ORIGIN OF
lighter interludes of that kind. And as most of
these pieces contain an absurd mixture of religion
and buffoonery, an eminent critic (^) has well de-
duced from thence the origin of our unnatural tragi-
comedies. Even after the people had been accus-
tomed to tragedies and comedies moralities still
kept their ground. One of them, intitled The New
Custom,{k) was printed so late as 1573. At length
they assumed the name of masques, (e) and with
some classical improvements, became in the two
following reigns the favourite entertainments of the
Court.
IV. The old mysteries, which ceased to be acted
after the Reformation, appear to have given birth to
a third species of stage exhibition, which, though
now confounded with tragedy and comedy, were by
our first dramatic writers considered as quite dis-
tinct from them both. These were historical plays
or histories, a species of dramatic writing which re-
sembled the old mysteries in representing a series
of historical events simply in the order of time in
which they happened, without any regard to the
three great unities. These pieces seem to differ
from tragedies just as much as historical poems do
from epic : as the Pharsalia does from the ^Eneid.
What might contribute to make dramatic poetry
take this form was, that soon after the mysteries
ceased to be exhibited, was published a large collec-
tion of poetical narratives, called The Mirrour for
Magistrates, (a) wherein a great number of the
(g) Bp. Warburt. Shakesp. vol. v.
ih) Reprinted among Dodsle/s Old Flays, vol. i.
{i) In some of these appeared characters full as extraordinary
as in any of the old moraHties. In Ben Jonson's masque of
Christmas, 161 6, one of the personages is Minced Pye.
{a) The first part of which was printed in 1559.
THE ENGLISH STAGE. 445
most eminent characters in English history are
drawn relating their own misfortunes. This book
was popular, and of a dramatic cast ; and therefore,
as an elegant writer {I?) has well observed, might
have its influence in producing historical plays.
These narratives probably furnished the subjects,
and the ancient mysteries suggested the plan.
There appears indeed to have been one instance
of an attempt at an historical play itself, which was
perhaps as early as any mystery on a religious
subject, for such, I think, we may pronounce the
representation of a memorable event in English
history, that was expressed in actions and rhimes.
This was the old Coventry play of Hock-Tues-
day,(r) founded on the story of the massacre of the
Danes, as it happened on St. Brice's night, Novem-
ber 13, 1002. (rtf) The play in question was per-
formed by certain men of Coventry, among the
other shews and entertainments at Kenelworth
Castle, in July, 1575, prepared for Queen Eliza-
beth, and this the rather " because the matter
mentioneth how valiantly our English women, for
the love of their country, behaved themselves."
The writer, whose words are here quoted, (r) hath
given a short description of the performance, which
seems on that occasion to have been without recita-
{b) Catal. of Royal and Noble authors, vol. i. p. 166-7.
{c) This must not be confounded with the mysteries acted on
Corpus Christi Day by the Franciscans at Coventry, which were
also called Coventry Plays, and of which an account is given from
T. Warton's Hist, of Eng. Poetry, Sec, in Malone's S/iakesp. vol.
ii. part ii. p. 13-14.
{d) Not 1012, as printed in Laneham's Letter, mentioned below.
(e) Ro. Laneham, whose letter, containing a full description of
the shows, &c., is reprinted at large in Nichols's Proi^resscs of Q.
Elizabeth, &c., vol. i. 410. 1788. That writer's orthography being
peculiar and affected, is not here followed.
446 ON THE ORIGIN OF
tion or rhimes, and reduced to meer dumb-show ;
consisting of violent skirmishes and encounters, first
between Danish and English " lance-knights on
horseback," armed with spear and shield, and after-
wards between " hosts" of footmen, which at length
ended in the Danes being " beaten down, overcome,
and many led captive by our English women. "(/")
This play, it seems, which was wont to be ex-
hibited in their city yearly, and which had been of
great antiquity and long continuance there,(^) had
of late been suppressed at the instance of some well-
meaning but precise preachers, of whose " sour-
ness " herein the townsmen complain, urging that
their play was " without example of ill-manners, pa-
pistry, or any superstition ;" (//) which shews it to
have been entirely distinct from a religious mys-
tery. ('") But having been discontinued, and, as
appears from the narrative, taken up of a sudden
after the sports were begun, the players apparently
had not been able to recover the old rhimes, or to
procure new ones to accompany the action : which,
if it originally represented " the outrage and im-
portable insolency of the Danes, the grievous com-
plaint of Huna, king Ethelred's chieftain in wars,"(t)
(/) Laneham, p. 37. {g) Ibid. p. t,^.
(k) 3id.
(*) Laneham describes this play of ITock Tuesday, which was
" presented in an historical cue by certain good-hearted men of
Coventry" (p. 32), and which was "wont to be play'd in their
citie yearly " (p. 33), as if it were peculiar to them, terming it
"their old storial show" (p. 32). And so it might be as repre-
sented and expressed by them " after their manner " (p. 2,2>) '• ^1"
though we are also told by Bevil Higgons, that St. Brice's Eve was
still celebrated by the northern English in commemoration of this
massacre of the Danes, the women beating brass instruments, and
singing old rhimes, in praise of their cruel ancestors. See his
Short View of Eng. History, 8vo. p. 1 7. (The preface is dated
1734.) (t) /<5/^. p. 32.
THE ENGLISH STAGE. 447
his counselling and contriving the plot to dispatch
them, concluding with the contiicts above mentioned,
and their final suppression — " expressed in actions
and rhimes after their manner,"(/) one can hardly
conceive a more regular model of a compleat drama;
and, if taken up soon after the event, it must have
been the earliest of the kind in Europe. (f)
Whatever this old play, or " storial show," (/•) was
at the time it was exhibited to O. Elizabeth, it had
probably our young Shakespeare for a spectator, who
was then in his twelfth year, and doubtless attended
with all the inhabitants of the surrounding country at
these " princely pleasures of Kenelworth,"(/) whence
Stratford is only a few miles distant. And as the
Queen was much diverted with the Coventry play,
" whereat her Majestic laught well," and rewarded the
performers with two bucks, and five marks in money,
who, " \vhat rejoicing upon their ample reward, and
what triumphing upon the good acceptance, vaunted
their play was never so dignified, nor ever any
players before so beatified ;" but especially if our
young bard afterwards gained admittance into the
castle to see a play, which the same evening, after
supper, was there " presented of a very good theme,
but so set forth by the actors' well handling, that
pleasure and mirth made it seem very short, though
it lasted two good hours and xnorQ'Xm) we may
imagine what an impression was made on his infant
mind. Indeed the dramatic cast of many parts of
that superb entertainment which continued nineteen
(/) T..ineham, p. 33.
(t) The Rhiiitcs, &c., prove this play to have been in English :
whereas Mr. Tho. Warton thinks the mysteries composed before
1328 were in Latin. Malone's Shakesp. vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 9.
(k) Laneham, p. 32.
(/) See Nichols's Progresses, vol. i. p. 57.
\rn) Laneham, p. 38-39. This was on Sunday evening, July 9.
448 ON THE ORIGIN OF
days, and was the most splendid of the kind ever
attempted in this kingdom ; the addresses to the
Queen in the personated characters of a sybille, a
savage man, and Sylvanus, as she approached or
departed from the castle, and on the water by Arion,
a Triton, or the Lady of the Lake, must have had a
very great effect on a young imagination whose
dramatic powers were hereafter to astonish the
world.
But that the historical play was considered by our
old writers, and by Shakespeare himself, as distinct
from tragedy and comedy, will sufficiently appear
from various passages in their works. *' Of late
days," says Stow, " in place of those stage-playes
{f^ hath been used comedies, tragedies, enterludes,
and histories both true and fayned."(d?) Beaumont
and Fletcher, in the prologue to The Captain, say :
" This is nor Comedy, nor Tragedy,
Nor History."
Polonius in Hamlet commends the actors as the
best in the world, " either for tragedie, comedie, his-
toric, pastorall," &c. And Shakespeare's friends,
Heminge and Condell, in the first folio edit, of
his plays, in i62 3,(/') have not only intitled their
book " Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, His-
tories, and Tragedies," but in their table of con-
tents have arranged them under those three several
heads ; placing in the class of histories " K. John,
Richard IL Henry IV. 2 pts. Henry V. Henry
(m) The Creation of the World, acted at Skinner's-well in 1409.
(0) See Stow's Survey of London, 1603, 4to. p. 94 (said in the
title-page to be "written in the year 1598"). See also Warton's
Observations on Spenser, vol. ii. p. 109.
(/) The same distinction is continued in the second and third
folios, &c.
THE ENGLISH STAGE. 449
VI. 3 pts. Rich. III. and Henry VIII.", to which
they might have added such of his other plays as
have their subjects taken from the old chronicles, or
Plutarch's Lives.
Although Shakespeare is found not to have been
the first who invented this species of drama,(^) yet
he cultivated it with such superior success, and
threw upon this simple inartificial tissue of scenes
such a blaze of genius, that his histories maintain
their ground in defiance of Aristotle and all the
critics of the classic school, and will ever continue
to interest and instruct an English audience.
Before Shakespeare wrote, historical plays do not
appear to have attained this distinction, being not
mentioned in O. Elizabeth's licence in I574(;') to
James Burbage and others, who are only impowered
" to use, exercyse, and occupie the arte and facul-
tye of playenge Commedies, Tragedies, Enterludes,
Stage-Playes, and such other like." But when
Shakespeare's histories had become the ornaments
of the stage, they were considered by the publick, and
by himself, as a formal and necessary species, and
are thenceforth so distinguished in public instru-
ments. They are particularly inserted in the licence
granted by K. James I. in 1603,(5) to W. Shake-
speare himself, and the players his fellows ; who are
authorized " to use and exercise the arte and faculty
of playing Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Inter-
ludes, Morals, Pastorals, Stage- Plaies, and such
like."
The same merited distinction they continued to
maintain after his death, till the theatre itself was
extinguished : for they are expressly mentioned in a
warrant in 1622, for licensing certain " late Come-
{q) See Malone's Shakesp. vol. i. pari ii. p. 31
(r) Ibid. p. 37. {.s) Ibid. p. 40.
G G
450 ON THE ORIGIN OF
dians of Q. Anne deceased, to bring up children in
the qualitie and exercise of playing Comedies, His-
tories, Interludes, Morals, Pastorals, Stage-Plaies, and
such like."(") The same appears in an admonition
issued in 1637 if) by Philip, Earl of Pembroke and
Montgomery, then Lord Chamberlain, to the master
and wardens of the Company of Printers and Sta-
tioners, wherein is set forth the complaint of his
Majesty's servants the players, that " diverse of
their books of Comedyes and Tragedyes, Chronicle-
Historyes, and the like," had been printed and pub-
lished to their prejudice, &c.
This distinction, we see, prevailed for near half
a century ; but after the Restoration, when the
stage revived for the entertainment of a new race
of auditors, many of whom had been exiled in
France, and formed their taste from the French
theatre, Shakespeare's histories appear to have
been no longer relished ; at least the distinction
respecting them is dropt in the patents that were
immediately granted after the king's return.
This appears not only from the allowance to
Mr. William Beeston in June, i66o,(?/;) to use
the house in Salisbury-court " for a Play-house,
wherein Comedies, Tragedies, Tragi-comedies, Pas-
toralls, and Interludes, may be acted," but also from
the fuller grant (dated August 21, i76o),(z/) to
(*) See Malone's Shakesp. vol. i. part ii. p. 49. Here histories,
or historical plays, are found totally to have excluded the mention
of tragedies ; a proof of their superior popularity. In an order for
the King's comedians to attend King Charles I. in his summer's
progress, 1636 {ibid. p. 144), histories are not particularly men-
tioned ; but so neither are tragedies : they being briefly directed
to " act playes, comedyes, and interludes, without any lett," &c.
if) Ibid. p. 139.
{u) This is beheved to be the date by Mr. Malone, vol. ii.
part ii. p. 239.
{v) Ibid. p. 244.
THE ENGLISH STAGE. 451
Thomas Kllligrew, Esq., and Sir William Davenant,
Knt., by which they have authority to erect two
companies of players, and to fit up two theatres " for
the representation of Tragydies, Comedyes, Playes,
Operas, and all other entertainments of that nature."
But while Shakespeare was the favourite dramatic
poet, his histories had such superior merit that he
might well claim to be the chief, if not the only his-
toric dramatist that kept possession of the English
stage ; which gives a strong support to the tradition
mentioned by Gildon,(ec') that, in a conversation
with Ben Jonson, our bard vindicated his his-
torical plays by urging, that as he had found " the
nation in general very ignorant of history, he wrote
them in order to instruct the people in this par-
ticular." This is assigning not only a good motive,
but a ver)^ probable reason for his preference of this
species of composition ; since we cannot doubt but
his illiterate countrymen would not only want such
instruction when he first began to write, notwith-
standing the obscure dramatic chroniclers who pre-
ceded him, but also that they would highly profit
by his admirable lectures on English history so long
as he continued to deliver them to his audience.
And as it implies no claim to his being \\\^ first who
introduced our chronicles on the stage, I see not
why the tradition should be rejected.
Upon the whole we have had abundant proof that
both Shakespeare and his contemporaries considered
his histories, or historical plays, as of a legitimate
distinct species, sufficiently separate from tragedy
and comedy, a distinction which deserves the |)ar-
ticular attention of his critics and commentators ;
(w) See Malone's Shakesp. vol. vi. \^. 427. This ingenious
writer will, with his known lilicnility, cxnise the (iiffLTcncc of
opinion here entertained concerning the above tradition.
452 ON THE ORIGIN OF
who, by not adverting to it, deprive him of his
proper defence and best vindication for his neglect
of the unities, and departure from the classical
dramatic forms. For, if it be the first canon of
sound criticism to examine any work by whatever
rule the author prescribed for his own observance,
then we ought not to try Shakespeare's histories
by the general laws of tragedy or comedy. Whether
the rule itself be vicious or not is another inquiry :
but certainly we ought to examine a work only by
those principles according to which it was composed.
This would save a deal of impertinent criticism.
V. We have now brought the inquiry as low as
was intended, but cannot quit it without entering
into a short description of what may be called the
ceconomy of the ancient English stage.
Such was the fondness of our forefathers for
dramatic entertainments, that not fewer than nine-
teen playhouses had been opened before the year
1633, when Prynne published his Histrioviastix.{a)
From this writer it should seem that " tobacco, wine,
and beer,"(<5) were in those days the usual accom-
{d) He speaks in p. 492 of the playhouses in Bishopsgate-street
and on Ludgate-hill, which are not among the seventeen enu-
merated in the preface to Dodsley's Old Plays. Nay, it appears
from Rymer's MSS. that twenty-three playhouses had been at
different periods open in London ; and even six of them at one
time. See Malone's Shakesp. vol. i. pt. ii. p. 48.
(b) So, I think, we may infer from the following passage, viz. :
"■ How many are there, who, according to their several qualities,
spend 2d. 2,d. 4^- 6^. i2d. iSd. 2s. and sometimes 4^'. or 5^-. at a
play-house, day by day, if coach-hire, boat-hire, tobacco, wine,
beere, and such like vaine expences, which playes doe usually
occasion, be cast into the reckoning ? " Prynne's Histriom. p.
322. ■
But that tobacco was smoaked in the play-houses appears fi-om
Taylor the Water-poet, in his Proclamation for Tobacco's Propaga-
THE ENGLISH STAGE. 453
modations in the theatre, as within our memory
at Sadler's Wells.
With regard to the players themselves, the several
companies were (as hath been already shewn), {c) re-
tainers or menial servants to particular noblemen, (^f)
who protected them in the exercise of their profes-
sion : and many of them were occasionally strollers,
that travelled from one gentleman's house to another.
Yet so much were they encouraged, that, notwith-
standing their multitude, some of them acquired
large fortunes. Edward Allen, who founded Dul-
wich College, is a known instance. And an old
writer speaks of the very inferior actors, whom he
calls the hirelings, as living in a degree of splen-
iion : " Let play-houses, drinking-schools, taverns, &c. be con-
tinually haunted with the contaminous vapours of it ; nay (if it be
possible) bring it into the churches, and there choak up their
preachers."' ( Works, p. 253.) And this was really the case at
Cambridge: James I. sent a letter in 1607 against "taking To-
bacco" in St. Mary's. So I learn from my friend Dr. Farmer.
A gentleman has informed me that once, going into a church in
Holland, he saw the male part of the audience sitting with their
hats on, smoking tobacco, while the preacher was holding forth in
his morning-gown.
{c) See the extracts above, in p. 439, from the E. of Norlhumb.
Hoiishold Book.
(d) See the Preface to Dodsley's 0/d Plays. The author of an
old invective against the stage, called A third Blast of Rdrait
from Plates, &c., 1580, i2mo., says: " Alas ! that private affection
should so raigne in the nobilitie, that to pleasure their servants,
and to upholde them in their vanitye, they should restrainc the
magistrates from executing their office I . . . They [the nobilityj
are thought to be covetous by permitting their servants ... to
live at the devotion or almes of other men, passing from countrie
to countrie, from one gentleman's house to another, offering their
service, which is a kind of beggerie. Who indeede, to speakc
more trulie, are become beggers for their servants. For comonlie
the good-wil, men beare to their Lordes, makes them draw the
strings of their purses to extend their liberalilie." Vid. p. 75, 76,
&c.
454 ON THE ORIGIN OF
dour which was thought enormous in that frugal
age.(^)
At the same time the ancient prices of admission
were often very low. Some houses had penny-
benches. (/*) The "two-penny gallery" is men-
tioned in the prologue to Beaumont and Fletcher's
Woman Hater ; {^j and seats of three-pence and
(e) Stephen Gosson, in his Schoole of Abuse, 1579, i2mo., fol.
23, says thus of what he terms in his margin Players-men : '"'Over
lashing in apparel is so common a fault, that the very hyerlings of
some of our Players, which stand at revirsion of \\s. by the week,
jet under gentlemens noses in sutis of silke, exercising themselves
to prating on the stage, and common scoffing when they come
abrode, where they look askance over the shoulder at every man,
of whom the Sunday before they begged an almes. I speake not
this, as though everye one that professeth the qualitie so abused
himselfe, for it is well knowen, that some of them are sober, dis-
creete, properly learned, honest housholders and citizens, well-
thought on among their neighbours at home." [he seems to mean
Edw. Allen above mentioned] " though the pryde of their sha-
dowes (I mean those hangbyes, whom they succour with stipend)
cause them to be somewhat il-talked of abroad."
In a subsequent period we have the following satirical fling at
the shewy exterior and supposed profits of the actors of that time.
Vid. Greene's Groatszvorth of Wit, 1625,410. : "What is your
profession?" — " Truly, Sir, ... I am a Player." "A Player?
... I took you rather for a Gentleman of great living; for, if by
outward Habit men should be censured, I tell you, you would be
taken for a substantial man." " So I am where I dwell ....
What, though the world once went hard with me, when I was
fayne to carry my playing-fardle a foot-backe : Tevipora ?nutantnr
.... for my very share in playing apparrell will not be sold for
two hundred pounds .... Nay more, I can serve to make a
pretty speech, for I was a country Author, passing at a Moral,"
&c. See Roberto's Tale, sign. D. 3. b.
(_/) So a MS. of Oldys, from Tom Nash, an old pamphlet-writer.
And this is confirmed by Taylor the Water-poet, in his Praise of
Beggerie, p. 99 :
" Yet have I seen a beggar with his many, [sc. vermin]
Come at a play-house, all in for one penny."
{g) So in the Belman's Night- Walks by Decker, 16 16, 4to. :
" Pay thy two-pence to a player, in this gallery thou mayest sit by
a harlot."
THE ENGLISH STAGE. 455
a groat seem to be intended in the passage of
Prynne above referred to. Yet different liouses
varied in their prices : that playhouse called the
"Hope" had seats of five several rates, from six-
pence to half-a-crown.(//) But a shilling seems to
have been the usual price if) of what is now called
the pit, which probably had its name from one of
the playhouses having been a cock-pit.(/')
The day originally set apart for theatrical exhibi-
tion appears to have been Sunday, probably because
the first dramatic pieces were of a religious cast.
During a great part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the
pla}houses were only licensed to be opened on that
day :(/) but before the end of her reign, or soon
after, this abuse was probably removed.
(//) Induct, to Ben Jonson's Barthohnneii'-fair. An ancient sa-
tirical piece called The Blacke Book, Lond, 1604, 4to., talks of
" The six-penny roomcs in play-houses ;" and leaves a legacy to
one whom he calls " Arch-tobacco-taker of England, in ordinaries,
upon stages both common and private."
(/) Shakesp. Prol. to Hen. P7//.— Beaum. and Fletch. Prol. to
the Captain, and to the Mad-lover.
{k) This etymology hath been objected to by a very ingenious
writer (see Malone's Shakesp. vol. i. part ii. p. 59), who thinks it
questionable, because, in St. Mary's church at Cambridge, the
area that is under the pulpit, and surrounded by the galleries, is
{no7c>) called the pit ; which, he says, no one can suspect to have
been a Cock-pit, or that a playhouse phrase could be applied to a
church. But whoever is acquainted with the licentiousness of
boys, will not think it impossible that they should thus ai)ply a
name so peculiarly expressive of its situation : which from frccjucnt
use might at length prevail among the senior members of the
University ; especially when those young men became seniors
themselves. The name of Pit, so apjjlied at Cambridge, must be
deemed to have been a cant phrase, until it can be shewn that the
area in other churches was usually so called.
(/) .So Ste. Gosson, in his Schoole of Abuse, 1579, i2mo., speak-
ing of the players, says, " These, because they are allowed to i)lay
every Sunday, make iiii. or v. Sundayes at least every week," fol.
24. So the author of A Second and Third Blast of Retrait from
456 ON THE ORIGIN OF
The usual time of acting was early in the after-
noon, (^i^^) plays being generally performed by day-
light. (72) All female parts were performed by men,
no English actress being ever seen on the public
stage {0) before the civil wars.
Plaies, 1580, i2mo. "Let the magistrate but repel them from
the libertie of plaeing on the Sabboth-daie To plaie on
the Sabboth is but a priviledge of sufferance, and might with ease
be repelled, were it thoroughly followed.'"' P. 61-62. So again:
" Is not the Sabboth of al other dales the most abused ? . . . .
Wherefore abuse not so the Sabboth-daie, my brethren ; leave not
the temple of the Lord." .... "Those unsaverie morsels of
unseemehe sentences passing out of the mouth of a ruffenhe plaier,
doth more content the hungrie humors of the rude multitude, and
carrieth better rellish in their mouthes, than the bread of the
worde, &c." Vid. p. 63, 65, 69, &c. I do not recollect that ex-
clamations of this kind occur in Prynne, whence I conclude that
this enormity no longer subsisted in this time.
It should also seem, from the author of the Third Blast above
quoted, that the churches still continued to be used occasionally
for theatres. Thus, in p. 77, he says, that the players (who, as
hath been observed, were servants of the nobility), "under the
title of their maisters, or as reteiners, are priviledged to roave
abroad, and permitted to publish their mametree in everie temple
of God, and that throughout England, unto the horrible contempt
of praier."
{in) " He entertaines us" (says Overbury in his Character of an
Actor) " in the best leasure of our Hfe, that is, betweene meales ;
the most unfit time either for study or bodily exercise." Even so
late as in the reign of Charles II. plays generally began at three in
the afternoon.
{ti) See Biogr. Brit. i. 1 1 7, n. D.
{p) I say " no English actress ... on the public stage," because
Prynne speaks of it as an unusual enormity, that " they had French-
women actors in a play not long since personated in Blackfriars
playhouse." This was in 1629, vid. p. 215. And tho' female
parts were performed by men or boys on the pubHc stage, yet in
masques at Court, the Queen and her ladies made no scruple to
perform the principal parts, especially in the reigns of James 1.
and Charles I.
Sir William Davenant, after the restoration, introduced women,
scenery, and higher prices. See Cibber's Aplogy for his own Life.
THE ENGLISH STAGE. 457
Lastly, with regard to the playhouse furniture and
ornaments, a writer of King- Charles II.'s time,(y^)
who well remembered the preceding age, assures us
that in general " they had no other scenes nor de-
corations of the stage, but only old tapestry, and
the stage strewed with rushes, with habits accord-
ingly." (^)
Yet Coryate thought our theatrical exhibitions,
&c,, splendid when compared with what he saw
abroad. Speaking of the Theatre for Comedies
at Venice, he says : " The house is very beggarly
and base in comparison of our stately playhouses
in England, neyther can their actors compare with
ours for apparrell, shewes, and musicke. Here
I observed certaine things that I never saw before :
For I saw women act, a thing that I never saw
before, though I have heard that it hath been some-
times used in London ; and they performed it with
as good a grace, action, gesture, and whatsoever
convenient for a player, as ever I saw any mascu-
line actor."(r)
It ouofht, however, to be observed, that amid such
a multitude of playhouses as subsisted in the metro-
(/) See A Short Discourse on the English Stage, subjoined to
Flecknoe's Love's Kingdofn, 1674, i2mo.
{q) It appears from an ei)igram of Taylor the Water-poet, that
one of the principal theatres in his time, viz. the Globe on the
Bankside, Southwark (which Ben Jonson calls the " Glory of the
Bank, and Fort of the whole Parish"), had been covered with
thatch till it was burnt down in 16 13. (See Taylor's Sculler, Epig.
22, p. 31. ]onsovv% Execration on Vulcan.)
Puttenham tells us they used vizards in his time, "partly to
supply the want of players, when there were more parts tlian llicre
were persons, or that it was not thought meet to trouble ....
jjrinces chambers with too many folkes." \Art of Eng. Foes.
1589, p. 26.1 Prom the last clause, it should seem that they were
chielly used in the masfjues at Gourt.
(r) Coryate's Crudities, 4to. 1611, p. 247.
458 THE ENGLISH STAGE.
polis before the Civil Wars, there must have been a
great difference between their several accommoda-
tions, ornaments, and prices ; and that some would
be much more shewy than others, though probably
all were much inferior in splendor to the two great
theatres after the Restoration.
1^ The preceding Essay, although some of the materials are
new arranged, hath received no alteration deserving notice, from
what it was in the second edition, 1767, except in section IV, which
in the present impression hath been much enlarged.
This is mentioned, because, since it was first published, the
history of the English stage hath been copiously handled by Mr.
Tho. Warton in his History of English Poetry, 1774, &c., 3 vols.
4to. (wherein is inserted whatever in these volumes fell in Avith his
subject) ; and by Edmond Malone, Esq., who, in his Historical
Account of the English Stage {Shakesp. vol. i. part ii. 1790), hath
added greatly to our knowledge of the oeconomy and usages of
our ancient theatres.
[This Essay is now entirely out of date, on account of the mass
of new material for a complete history of the English stage, which
has been printed since it was written. Information on the subject
must be sought in the prefaces of the various editions of the
dramatists and of the collections of mysteries and miracle plays,
or in Collier's History of English Dramatic Poetry, and Halliwell's
New Materials for the Life of Shakespeare.~]
INDEX OF BALLADS AND POEMS IN
THE FIRST VOLUME.
DAM BELL, Clym of the Clough, and William of
Cloudesley, 153.
Aged Lover renounceth Love, 179.
Alcanzor and Zayda, 338.
Bryan and Pereene, 328.
Carre, Captain, 148.
Cauline, Sir, 61.
Character of a Happy Life, 317.
Chevy Chase, Ancient Ballad of, ig.
Chevy Chace, Modern Ballad of, 249.
Child of Elle, 131.
Cophetua, King, and the Beggar Maid, 189.
Corj'don's Farewell to Phillis, 209.
Cupid's Pastime, 314.
Death's Final Conquest, 264.
Dowsabell, 304.
Edom o' Gordon, 140.
Edward, Edward, 82.
Estmere, King, 85.
Farewell to Love, 310.
Friar of (Jrders Gray, 242.
PYolicksome Duke, or the Tinker's Good Fortune, 238.
Gentle River, Gentle River, ^^t.
Gernutus, the Jew of Venice, 211.
Gilderoy, 318.
46o INDEX.
Jephthah, Judge of Israel, 182.
Jew's Daughter, 54.
Lancelot du Lake, Sir, 204.
Leir, King, and his Three Daughters, 231.
My Mind to me a Kingdom is, 294.
Northumberland (Henry, 4th Earl of), Elegy on, 117.
Northumberland betrayed by Douglas, 279.
Otterbourne, Battle of, 35.
Passionate Shepherd to his Love, 220.
Patient Countess, 298.
Rising in the North, 266.
Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, 102.
Robyn, Jolly Robyn, 185.
Song to the Lute in Musicke, 187.
Spence, Sir Patrick, 98.
Take those Lips away, 230.
Take thy old Cloak about thee, 195.
Titus Andronicus's Complaint, 224.
Tower of Doctrine, 127.
Ulysses and the Syren, 311.
Willowj Willow, Willow, 199.
Winifreda, 323.
Witch of Wokey, 325.
Youth and Age, 237.
END OF VOLUME THE FIRST.
CHISWICK PRESS : — PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKfNS,
TOOKS COURT, CHANCBRY LANE,
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