RELIQUES OF ANCIENT POETRY, ETC. SERIES THE FIRST.-BOOK I. "I never heard the old song of Percie and Douglas, that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet: and yet 'it' is sung but by some blinde crowder, with no rougher voice, than rude style; which beeing so evill apparelled in the dust and cobweb of that uncivill age, what would it work, trimmed in the gorgeous eloquence of Pindare!" SIR PHILIP SIDNEY'S Defence of Poetry. 1. THE ANCIENT BALLAD OF CHEVY-CHASE. THE fine heroic song of Chevy-Chase 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. Addison has given an excellent critique* on this 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 Elizabeth, and was probably written after the eulogium of Sir Philip Sidney; perhaps in consequence 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 rugged garb of antiquity. This curiosity is printed from an old MS. at the end of Hearne's Gul. Newbrigiensis Hist. 1719, 8vo, vol. i. To the MS. copy is subjoined the name of the author Rychard Sheale; whom Hearne supposed to be the same with a R. Sheale, who was living in 1588. But whoever examines the gradation of language and idiom in this volume, will be convinced that this is the production of an earlier poet. It is indeed expressly mentioned among some very ancient songs in an old book, The Complaint of Scotland,† under the title of the Huntis of Chevet, where the two following lines are also quoted : "The Perssee and the Mongumrye mette, That day, that day, that gentil day,"§ which, though not quite the same as they stand in the ballad, yet differ not more * Spectator, Nos. 70, 74. † One of the earliest productions of the Scottish press. It is supposed to have been printea in 1540. See Fit ii. v. 25. 39 See Fit i. v. 99. 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. James I., who was a 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., 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 English, 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 subject, although 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. There had long been a 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. Something of this kind, we may suppose, gave se to the ancient ballad of the Hunting a' the Cheviat.§ 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, though not attended with the tragical circumstances recorded in the ballad; for these are evidently borrowed from the Battle of Otterbourn (see the next ballad),- -a very different event, but which aftertimes would easily confound with it. That battle might be owing to some such previous affront as this of Chevy-Chase, though it has escaped the notice of historians. Our poet has evidently jumbled the two subjects 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. * Fitt ii. v. 36, 140. † Who died Aug. 5, 1406, in the seventh year of our Henry IV. James I. was crowned 1424, murdered Feb. 1436-37. § This was the original title. Viae Fitt ii. v. 167. See the ballad, Fitt i. v. 101; Fitt ii. v. 165. THE FIRST FIT.* THE Persè owt of Northombarlande, The fattiste hartes in all Cheviat He sayd he wold kill, and carry them away: Be my feth, sayd the dougheti Doglas agayn, I wyll let that hontyng yf that I may. This begane on a Monday at morn The dryvars thorowe the woodès went With ther browd aras cleare. Then the wyld thorowe the woodès went The begane in Chyviat the hyls above Yerly on a Monynday; Be that it drewe to the oware off none *Fit, fyt, fytte, a part of a poem or a Bong. + Three districts in Northumberland, which still go by the name of shires, and are all in the neighbourhood of Cheviot. These areIslandshire, so named from Holy Island; Norhamshire, so called from the town and castle of Norham; and Bamboroughshire, the ward or hundred belonging to Bamborough Castle. The blewe a mort uppone the bent, The semblyd on sydis shear; To se the bryttlynge off the deare. He sayd, It was the Duglas promys At the laste a squyar of Northombelonde Lokyde at his hand full ny, He was war ath the doughetie Doglas comynge: With him a mightè meany, Both with spear, "byll," and brande : The wear twenty hondrith spearmen good The wear borne along be the watter a Twyde, Yth bowndes of Tividale. 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. The dougheti Dogglas on a stede He rode att his men beforne; Tell me "what" men ye are, he says, The first mane that ever him an answear mayd, Yt was the good lord Persè : We wyll not tell the what men we ar, he sayd, Nor whos men that we be; But we wyll hount hear in this chays We have kyld, and cast to carry them a-way. Be my troth, sayd the doughtè Dogglas agayn, Ther-for the ton of us shall de this day. Then sayd the doughtè Doglas Unto the lord Persè : But, Persè, thowe art a lord of lande, Nowe Cristes cors on his crowne, sayd the lord Persè, Who-soever ther-to says nay. Nethar in Ynglonde, Skottlonde nar France, 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; It shall never be told in Sothe-Ynglonde, he says, To kyng Herry the fourth for sham. * Man to man. + This is probably corrupted in the MS. for Rog. Widdrington, who was at the head of the family in the reign of King Edward III. There were several successively of the names of Roger and Ralph, but none of the name of Richard, as appears from the genealogies in the Heralds' Office. I wat youe byn great lordes twaw, I wyll never se my captayne fyght on a fylde, 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 fit here I fynde. And youe wyll here any mor athe hountyng athe Chyviat, Yet ys ther mor behynde. THE SECOND FIT. The 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, For he wrought hom both woo and The Dogglas pertyd his ost in thre, Lyk a cheffe cheften off pryde, With suar speares off myghttè tre The cum in on every syde. Thrughe our Yngglishe archery Gave many a wounde full wyde ; Many a doughete the garde to dy, Which ganyde them no pryde. The Yngglyshe men let thear bowys be, And pulde owt brandes that wer bright; It was a hevy syght to se Bryght swordes on basnites lyght. Thorowe ryche male, and myne-ye-ple Many sterne* the stroke downe streght: *Why should not sterne (star) be heroes or shining men of valour, even as Degen, sword or blade, stands in German for champion or hero? Blucher in the song is called the alte Degen, aged champion. To have savyde thy lyffe I wold have pertyd with My landes for years thre, For a better man of hart, nare of hande, Was not in all the north countrè, Off all that se a Skottishe knyght, Was callyd Sir Hewe the Mongonbyrry, He sawe the Duglas to the deth was dyght; He spendyd a spear a trusti tre: Throughe a hondrith archery; A dynte, that was full soare; Athe tothar syde, that a man myght se, Then that day slain wear ther. An archar off Northomberlonde Say slean was the lord Persè, He bar a bende-bow in his hande, Was made off trusti tre : nat in An arow, that a cloth yarde was lang, A dynt, that was both sad and soar, 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.† †This incident is taken from the Battle of Otterbourne, in which Sir Hugh Montgomery, knight (son of John, Lord Montgomery), was slain with an arrow. See Crawford's Peerage. |