recover his capital. The men of Ulster were the bravest of the Irish, yet John de Courcy, disdaining to fight within walls, advanced from the city to meet them; and a long and obstinate battle ended in the success of the English, who made so terrible a slaughter of their enemies, that Giraldus applies to them literally an old Irish prophecy, which said that the invaders of Ulster should march up to their knees in blood. The fate of Ulster was disputed in many battles, but the desperate valour of John de Courcy overcame all obstacles, and the last independent province of Ireland was placed under English law and Romish church discipline. The chronicles of the time tell us how the barbarous manners of the natives were suddenly improved and polished by the more vigorous government under which they were placed. * * All the documents of this period agree in representing Ireland as not only a land of savages, but as a den of thieves. William of Newbury, (lib. iii. c. 9,) speaking of the manners of the people of Ulster at the time of their conquest by De Courcy, says, "Hujus autem provinciæ homines præ cunctis Hyberniæ populis in celebratione paschali eatenus superstitiosi fuisse traduntur. Nam sicut quodam venerabili episcopo gentis illius referente cognovi, arbitrabantur obsequium se præstare Deo, dum per anni circulum furto et rapina congererent, quod in paschali solemnitate profusissimis tanquam ad honorem resurgentis Domini absumeretur conviviis, eratque inter eos urgens concertatio, ne forte quis ab alio immoderatissimis ferculorum præparationibus vinceretur. Verum hanc superstitiosissimam consuetudinem cum statu libertatis propriæ debellati finierunt." ESSAY XIX. ON OLD ENGLISH POLITICAL SONGS. O class of literary antiquities has progressed more rapidly with us during the last twenty years than the study of early English poetry. Until the time of War ton, it was hardly supposed that the history of English poetry could be traced back beyond the days of Chaucer; and Warton's history is very incomplete, and abounds with inaccuracies. Percy, by the popular character of his Reliques, called a little more of public attention to the subject. Ritson was certainly the first who carried any true zeal to his researches among early English poetical manuscripts, and who edited the texts with conscientiousness; but his vain pedantry and acrimony of temper, and his entire want of judgment, detract much from the utility of his labours. After Ritson's time, this class of literature dwindled again into little more than a plaything for bibliographers. In more recent times it has been taking its stand on a better footing; and more accurate philological notions have been brought to the study of our language in its earlier and middle stages. That these notions, however, are but yet in their infancy, is proved by the fact that so worthless a text as that of Tyrwhitt's Chaucer has been suffered to be reprinted more than once within the last two or three years. The supremacy of the Anglo-Norman language has created rather a wide gap between the disappearance of the pure Anglo-Saxon poetry and the commencement of the early English; for, during the long period between the conquest and the middle of the thirteenth century, we find only two poems of any magnitude, the chronicle of Layamon and the Gospel Harmony of Orm, and one or two short pieces, such as the proverbs of Alfred, a Bestiary, a fragment on the popular subject of the body and the soul, and the poem of the Owl and the Nightingale. The language of most of these is in a state of rapid transition, which has commonly received the title of Semi-Saxon. A large portion of them partake of the older Saxon form of alliteration, mixed with rhyme. The English language appears to have regained its position of supremacy after the great baronial struggle under Simon de Montfort; and from this period to the war of the Roses it has been sometimes denominated, by those who follow the nomenclature of Dr. Grimm, Middle-English. During the latter part of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth, the English poetry appears with the forms and much of the spirit of the French and Anglo-Norman poetry, of which it was taking the place. The longer poems-especially the religious poetry-of the first half of the fourteenth century, are dull and heavy. But, under Edward III, the old alliterative poetry, which had probably continued to exist orally, suddenly reappeared in the spirited and extremely popular political allegory of the "Visions of Piers Ploughman." Immediately after this work came the real father of modern English poetry, Geoffrey Chaucer. The production of those high cultivations of poetry represented by Chaucer appears to have been the result of a long age of intellectual movement, which, after his death, gave place to an age of more than ordinary intellectual darkness, when English poetry becomes, it is true, very abundant, but when it possesses very little merit. John Lydgate is the type of the poetical literature of this age. In general, during the whole of the period of which we are speaking, we find the greatest share of poetic spirit in the popular songs and ballads. The English lyric poetry of the reign of Edward I is, from the form of the language, somewhat obscure, but it is often very elegant. We have much good lyric poetry in the fourteenth century, and a few charming specimens even in the fifteenth. The political songs partake largely of this character, and they always present at least that vivacity which is the necessary consequence of popular excitement. The collection of "Political Songs" published by the Camden Society was an attempt to form a regular series of such monuments in illustration of English history. They are not only valuable in this point of view, but also as the most authentic proofs of the variations through which our language has passed. Unfortunately they are the class of which, naturally, the smallest portion has been preserved. Until the middle of the thirteenth century the political songs of this country appear to have been almost universally written in Latin or French, because it was only the grades of society which made use of those languages who took an active part in political transactions. The lower orders, till then in a state bordering on slavery, came into life in the baronial wars, after which their language-in principle the language of their Saxon forefathers—was heard loudest as the watchword of political strife. The oldest English political song preserved relates to the battle of Lewes in 1261. From notices however, which frequently occur in our old chronicles, it appears very clearly that, at all periods of English history, songs and ballads were the popular instruments equally of libel and of praise, of expressing dissatisfaction as well as of rejoicing. In Fabyan we are told, that on the death of king Henry I people were divided in their opinions, some praising his good qualities, whilst others were more inclined to censure his faults. "One other," he adds, "made these versys of hym as folowen : "Kynge Henrye is deade, bewtie of the worlde, for whom his greate dole, Goddes nowe maken for theyr kinde brother. For he is sole And when he left his crowne, then fell honour downe, for mysse of suche a kynge. Normandye than gan lowre, for losse of theyr floure, and sange wel away, Englande made mone, and Scotlande dyd grone, for to se that daye." This is probably a mere translation from a Latin poem. Songs appear also, from an early period, to have been favorite instruments in raising and organising rebellions. The two lines given by Holinshed and Lambarde, as part of those sung by the earl of Leicester's rebels in the reign of Henry II, |