Reliques of ancient English poetry, by T. Percy

IX.-JEALOUSY, TYRANT OF THE MIND.

THIS song is by Dryden, being inserted in his tragi-comedy of Love Triumphant, etc. On account of the subject, it is inserted here.

THE ladies are indebted for the following notable documents to the Pepys Collection, where the original is preserved in black letter, and is entitled, A Looking-glass før Ladies, or A Mirrour for Married Women. Tune, "Queen Dido, or Troy town."

WHEN Greeks and Trojans fell at strife, And lords in armour bright were seen; When many a gallant lost his life

About fair Hellen, beauty's queen; Ulysses, general so free,

Did leave his dear Penelope.

When she this wofull news did hear,
That he would to the warrs of Troy;
For grief she shed full many a tear,
At parting from her only joy:
Her ladies all about her came,
To comfort up this Grecian dame.

Ulysses, with a heavy heart,

Unto her then did mildly say,
The time is come that we must part;

My honour calls me hence away;
Yet in my absence, dearest, be
My constant wife, Penelope.

Let me no longer live, she sayd,

Then to my lord I true remain ; My honour shall not be betray'd

Until I see my love again; For I will ever constant prove, As is the loyal turtle-dove.

Thus did they part with heavy chear,

And to the ships his way he took ; Her tender eyes dropt many a tear;

Still casting many a longing look: She saw him on the surges glide, And unto Neptune thus she cry'd :

Thou god, whose power is in the deep,
And rulest in the ocean main,
My loving lord in safety keep

'Till he return to me again:
That I his person may behold,
To me more precious far than gold.

XI. TO LUCASTA, ON GOING TO THE WARS.

BY Colonel Richard Lovelace, from the volume of his poems, entitled Lucasta, Lond. 1649, 12mo.

TELL me not, sweet, I am unkinde,

That from the nunnerie

Of thy chaste breast and quiet minde,
To warre and armes I flie.

True, a new mistresse now I chase,
The first foe in the field;

And with a stronger faith imbrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.

Yet this inconstancy is such,

As you too shall adore;

I could not love thee, deare, so much,
Lov'd I not honour more.

XII. VALENTINE AND URSINE.

THE old story-book of Valentine and Orson (which suggested the plan of this tale, but it is not strictly followed in it) was originally a translation from the French, being one of their earliest attempts at romance. See Le Bibliothèque de Romans, etc.

The circumstance of the bridge of bells is taken from the old metrical legend of Sir Bevis, and has also been copied in the Seven Champions. The original lines are,

In the Editor's folio MS. was an old poem on this subject, in a wretched corrupt state, unworthy the press, from which were taken such particulars as could be adopted.*

PART THE FIRST.

WHEN Flora 'gins to decke the fields
With colours fresh and fine,
Then holy clerkes their mattins sing
To good Saint Valentine!

The king of France that morning fair
He would a hunting ride:

To Artois forest prancing forth
In all his princelye pride.

To grace his sports a courtly train

Of gallant peers attend ;
And with their loud and cheerful cryes
The hills and valleys rend.

Through the deep forest swift they pass,

Through woods and thickets wild;
When down within a lonely dell
They found a new-born child;

All in a scarlet kercher lay'd
Of silk so fine and thin:

*The title given to it there is, The Emperour and Childe,

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