In the following ballad will be found perhaps some few deviations from the truth of history: to atone for which it has probably recorded many lesser facts, which history hath not condescended to relate. I take many of the little circumstances of the story to be real, because I find one of the most unlikely to be not very remote from the truth. In Pt. 2, v. 156, it is said, that England had before one ship of war. Now the Great Harry had been built only seven years before, viz. in 1504: which was properly speaking the first ship in the English navy. Before this period, when the prince wanted a fleet, he had no other expedient but hiring ships from the merchants.' Hume.

This ballad, which appears to have been written in the reign of Elizabeth, has received great improvements from the Editor's folio MS. wherein was an ancient copy, which, though very incorrect, seemed in many respects superior to the common ballad; the latter being evidently modernized and abridged from it. The following text is however in some places amended and improved by the latter (chiefly from a black-letter copy in the Pepys collection) as also by conjecture.

THE FIRST PART.

[WHEN Flora with her fragrant flowers
Bedeckt the earth so trim and gaye,
And Neptune with his daintye showers
Came to present the monthe of Maye;]1
King Henrye rode to take the ayre,
Over the river of Thames past hee;
When eighty merchants of London came,
And downe they knelt upon their knee.

yee are welcome, rich merchants; Good saylors, welcome unto mee.'

They swore by the rood, they were saylors good, But rich merchants they could not bee: "To France nor Flanders dare we pass:

Nor Bourdeaux voyage dare we fare;

And all for a rover that lyes on the seas,
Who robbs us of our merchant ware.'

5

10

15

King Henrye frownd, and turned him rounde,
And swore by the Lord, that was mickle of might,

Ver. 15, 83, robber, MS.

1 From the pr. copy.

'I thought he had not beene in the world, Durst have wrought England such unright.' The merchants sighed, and said, alas!

And thus they did their answer frame, 'He is a proud Scott, that robbs on the seas, And Sir Andrewe Barton is his name.'

The king lookt over his left shouldèr,
And an angrye look then looked hee:
'Have I never a lorde in all my realme,
Will feitch yond traytor unto mee?'
'Yea, that dare I;' lord Howard sayes;

'Yea, that dare I with heart and hand; If it please your grace to give me leave, Myselfe wil be the only man.'

Thou art but yong;' the kyng replyed :

6

Yond Scott hath numbred manye a yeare.'

'Trust me, my liege, Ile make him quail,

Or before my prince I will never appeare.'
"Then bowemen and gunners thou shalt have,
And chuse them over my realme so free;
Besides good mariners, and shipp-boyes,
To guide the great shipp on the sea.'

The first man, that lord Howard chose,

Was the ablest gunner in all the realm,
Thoughe he was threescore yeeres and ten:
Good Peter Simon was his name.
'Peter,' sais hee, I must to the sea,

To bring home a traytor live or dead:
Before all others I have chosen thee;
Of a hundred gunners to be the head.
Ver. 29, lord Charles Howard, MS.

'If you, my lord, have chosen mee

Of a hundred gunners to be the head, Then hang me up on your maine-mast tree, If I misse my marke one shilling bread.'1 My lord then chose a boweman rare,

Whose active hands had gained fame.2 In Yorkshire was this gentleman borne,

And William Horseley was his name.3

'Horseley,' sayd he, 'I must with speede
Go seeke a traytor on the sea,
And now of a hundred bowemen brave
To be the head I have chosen thee.
'If you,' quoth hee, 'have chosen mee

Of a hundred bowemen to be the head;
On your maine-màst Ile hanged bee,

If I miss twelvescore one penny bread.'

With pikes and gunnes, and bowemen bold,
This noble Howard is gone to the sea;
With a valyant heart and a pleasant chearc,
Out at Thames mouth sayled he.

And days he scant had sayled three,

Upon the [voyage], he tooke in hand, But there he mett with a noble shipp,

And stoutely made itt stay and stand.

'Thou must tell me,' lord Howard said,

'Now who thou art, and what's thy name; And shewe me where thy dwelling is:

And whither bound, and whence thou came.'

Ver. 70, Journey, MS.

1 An old Eng. word for Breadth.-2 Pr. copy.— Mr. Lambe, in his Notes to the Poem on the Battle of Flodden Field, contends, that this expert bowman's name was not Horseley, but Hustler, of a family long seated near Stockton, in Cleveland, Yorkshire. Vid. p. 5.

'My name is Henry Hunt,' quoth hee
With a heavye heart, and a carefull mind;
'I and my shipp doe both belong

To the Newcastle, that stands upon Tyne.'

'Hast thou not heard, nowe, Henrye Hunt, As thou hast sayled by daye and by night, Of a Scottish rover on the seas;

Men call him sir Andrew Barton, knight?' Then ever he sighed, and sayd alas!

With a grieved mind, and well away! 'But over-well I knowe that wight, I was his prisoner yesterday.

As I was sayling uppon the sea,

A Burdeaux voyage for to fare;

To his hach-borde he clasped me,

80

85

90

And robd me of all my merchant ware:

And mickle debts, God wot, I owe,

And every man will have his owne; And I am nowe to London bounde,

Of our gracious king to beg a boone.'

'That shall not need,' lord Howard sais; 'Lett me but once that robber see,

For every penny tane thee froe

It shall be doubled shillings three.' 'Nowe God forefend,' the merchant said,

'That thou shold seek soe far amisse! God keepe you out of that traitors hands! Full litle ye wott what a man hee is.

Hee is brasse within, and steele without,

With beames on his topcastle stronge;

Ver. 91, The MS. has here Archborde, but in Pt. II. ver. 5. Hachebord.

95

100

105

And eighteen pieces of ordinance
He carries on each side along:
And he hath a pinnace deerlye dight,
St. Andrewes crosse that is his guide;
His pinnace beareth ninescore men,

And fifteen canons on each side.

Were ye twentye shippes, and he but one;
I sweare by kirke, and bower, and hall;
He wold overcome them everye one,

If once his beames they doe downe fall." 'This is cold comfort,' sais my lord,

To wellcome a stranger thus to the sea: Yet Ile bring him and his shipp to shore,

Or to Scottland hee shall carrye mee.'

'Then a noble gunner you must have,

And he must aim well with his ee,
And sinke his pinnace into the sea,
Or else hee never orecome will bee:
And if

you chance his shipp to borde,

This counsel I must give withall,

Let no man to his topcastle goe

To strive to let his beams downe fall.

And seven pieces of ordinance,

I pray your honour lend to mee,

110

115

120

125

130

1 It should seem from hence, that before our marine artillery was brought to its present perfection, some naval commanders had recourse to instruments or machines, similar in use, though perhaps unlike in construction, to the heavy Dolphins made of lead or iron used by the ancient Greeks; which they suspended from beams or yards fastened to the masts, and which they precipitately let fall on the enemies ships, in order to sink them, by beating holes through the bottoms of their undecked Triremes, or otherwise damaging them. These are mentioned by Thucydides, Lib. 7, p. 256, Ed. 1564, folio, and are more fully explained in Schefferi de Militiâ Navali, Lib. 2, cap, 5, p. 136, Ed. 1653, 4to. N.B. It every where in the MS. seems to be written 'Beanes.'