Now when the faire companye everye one, 128 Had heard the strange tale in the fong he had showne, With that the faire bride they all did embrace, 125 Saying, Sure thou art come of an honourable race, And thou art well worthy a lady to bee. Thus was the feast ended with joye and delighte, A bridegroome moft happy then was the young knighté, In joy and felicitie long lived hee, All with his faire ladye, the pretty Beffee. 131 +++ The word FIT, for PART, often occurs in our an: cient ballads, and metrical romances; which being divided into feveral parts for the convenience of finging them at public entertainments, were in the intervals of the feast fung by FITS, or intermiffions. So Puttenham in bis Art of English Poefie, 1589, Jays, "the Epithalamic was divided by "breaches into three partes to jerve for three several FITS, 66 or times to be fung.” p. 41. From the fame writer we learn fome curious particulars relative to the fate of ballad-finging in that age, that will throw light on the prefent fubject: Speaking of the quick re turns of one manner of tune in the short measures used by common rhymers; thefe, he fays, "glut the eare, unless it be "in fmall and popular mufickes, fung by thefe Cantàbanqui, upon benches and barrels heads, where they have none "other audience then bays or countrey fellowes, that paffe by "them in the freete; cr elfe by BLIND HARPERS, or fuch 66 "like taverne Minstrels, that give a FIT of mirth for a 66 GROAT,. their matter being for the most part flories 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 fuch other old romances or hiftorical 66 rimes, made purposely for recreation of the common people at "Chriftmaffe dinners and brideales, and in tavernes and 16 aleboufes, and fuch other places of base reforte." p. 69. 66 This fpecies of entertainment, which feems to have been banded down from the ancient bards, was in the time of Puttenham falling into neglect; but that it was not, even then, wholly excluded more genteel affemblies, he gives us room to infer from another paffage, "We ourselves, fays "this courtlywriter, have written for pleasure a little "brief romance, or hiftorical ditty in the English tong of "the Ile of Great Britaine in fhort and long meetres, and by breaches or divifions [i. e FITS ] to be more commo"diously fung to the harpe in places of affembly, where "the company fhal be defirous to heare of old adventures, "and valiaunces of noble knights in times paft, as are "thofe of king Arthur and his knights of the Round table, "Sir Bevys of Southampton, Guy of Warwicke, and others "like." p. 33: 66 In more ancient times no grand scene of feftivity was compleat without one of thefe reciters to entertain the company with feats of arms, and tales of knighthood, or, as one of thefe old minstrels fays, in the beginning of an ancient romance in the Editor's folio MS. "When meate and drinke is great plentyè, "Then itt is time for mee to Speake "Such carping for to kythe.” § Perhaps 66 • blythe." ‡ Ile was one of Q. Elizabeth's gent. penfioners, at a time when the whole band confifle.l of men of dftinguished birth and fortune. Vid. Ath, Ox. If If we confider that a GROAT in the age of Elizabeth was more than equivalent to a Shilling now, we shall find that the old harpers were even then, when their art was on the decline, upon a far more reputable footing than the ballad fingers of our time. The reciting of one fuch ballad as this of the Beggar of Bednal green, in 2 parts, was rewarded with half a crown of our money. And that they made a very refpectable appearance, we may learn from the dress of the old beggar, in the preceding Ballad, p. 170, where he comes into company in the habit and character of one of these. minstrels, being not known to be the bride's father, till after her fpeech, ver. 63. The exordium of his fong, and his claiming a GROAT for his reward, v. 7b, are peculiarly characteristic of that profeffion -Meft of the old ballads begin in a pompous manner, in order to captivate the attention of the audience, and induce them to purchase a recital of the Jong: and they feldom conclude the FIRST part without large promifes of fill greater entertainment in the SECOND. This was a neceffary piece of art to incline the hearers to be at the expence of a fecond groat's-worth.-Many of the old romances extend to eight or nine FITS, which would afford a confiderable profit to the reciter. To return to the word FIT; it feems at one time to have peculiarly fignified the paufe, or breathing-time, between the feveral parts, (anfwering to PASSus in the vifions of Fierce Plowman): thus in the ancient Ballad of CHEVY-CHASE, (Vol. I. p. 9.) the firft Part ends with this line, "The first FIT here I fynde :" i. e. here I come to the firfi paufe or intermiffion. (See also Vol. I. p. 26.) By degrees it came to fignify the whole part or divifion preceding the paufe. (See Vol. I. pp. 164, 173.) This fenfe it had obtained jo early as the time of Chaucer: who thus concludes the first part of his rhyme of Sir Thopas (writ in ridicule of the old ballad romances): "Lo! lordis mine, here is a FITT; If ye 66 wvoll any more of it, To tell it woll I fonde." The The word FIT indeed appears originally to have fignified a Poetic Strain, Verfe, or Poem: for in these fenfes it is used by the Anglo Saxon writers Thus K. Ælfred in his Boetius, having given a verfion of lib. 3, metr. 5, adds, Ɖare pirdom tha thar fizze arunjen hærde, p. 65, i.e. "When wisdom had fung these [FITTS] verses." And in the Proem to the fame book Fon on firre, "Put into [FITT] "verfe." So in Cedmon, p. 45. Feond on fire, feems to mean compofed a fong, or "poem."-The Reader will trace this old Saxon phrafe, in the application of the word fond, in the foregoing paffage of Chaucer. See Glo Spencer has ufed the word FIT to denote a ftrain of "mufic:"fee his poem, intitled, "COLLIN Clout's come home again," where he fays, 66 66 The Shepherd of the ocean [Sir Walt. Raleigh] And when he heard the mufic which I made It is alfo ufed in the old Ballad of K. ESTMERE, Vd. I. p. 74, v. 243. From being applied to Mufic, this word was easily transferred to Dancing; thus in the old play of Lufty Juventus (defcribed in p. 114.), Juventus fays, By the maffe I would fayne go daunce a FITTE. And from being used as a Part or Divifion in a Ballad, Poem, &c. it is applied by BALE to a Section or Chapter in a Book, (though I believe in a fenfe of ridicule or farcafm) for thus he intitles two Chapters of his English No. taryes pt. 2d. viz. -fol. 49, "The fyrit FYIT of "Anfelme with Kynge Wyllyam Rufus."fol. 50, "An other FYTT of Anfelme with kynge Wyllyam "Rufus." VOL. II. N XI. FANCY FANCY XI. AND DESIRE. BY THE EARL OF OXFORD. Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford, was in high fame for his poetical talents in the reign of Elizabeth: perhaps it is no injury to his reputation that few of his compofitions are preferved for the infpection of impartial pofterity. To gratify curiofity, we have inferted a fonnet of his, which is quoted with great encomiums for its "excellencie and wit," in Puttenham's Arte. of Eng Poefie *, and found intire in the Garland of Good-will: A few more of his fonnets (diftinguished by the initial letters E. O.) may be feen in the Paradife of Daintie Devifes. One of thefe is intitled, "The Complaint "of a Lover, wearing blacke and tawnie." The only lines in it worth notice are thefe, 66 A crowne of baies fhall that man 'beare' Who triumphs over me; For black and tawnie will I weare, Which mourning colours be. We find in Hall's Chronicle, that when 2. Catharine of Arragon dyed, Jan. 8, 1536; "Queen Anne [Bullen] ware YELLOWE for the mourning." And when this unfortunate princefs loft her head, May 19, the fame year, "on the afcen"cion day following, the kyng for mourning ware WHYTE." Fol. 227, 228. * Lond. 1589, p. 172. Edward, |