X. Che Tower of Doctrine. lyons, 20 Made of fyne golde; with divers sundry dra- The little turrets with ymages of golde THE reader has here a specimen of the de- | Gargeyld with grayhoundes, and with many scriptive powers of Stephen Hawes, a celebrated poet in the reign of Henry VII., though now little known. It is extracted from an allegorical poem of his (written in 1505), entitled, “The Hist. of Graunde Amoure & La Belle Pucel, called the Palace of Pleasure, &c." 4to, 1555. See more of Hawes in Ath. Ox. v. 1, p. 6, and Warton's Observ. v. 2, p. 105. He was also author of a book, entitled, "The Temple of Glass. Wrote by Stephen Hawes, gentleman of the bedchamber to K. Henry VII." Pr. for Caxton, 4to., no date. moved With propre vices, that I did well beholde hoved 25 With goodly pypes, in their mouthes ituned, That with the wynd they piped a daunce one, Into the toure for to have an intres: A grece there was ychesyld all of stone Tyll that I came unto a ryall gate, 35 Where I sawe stondynge the goodly portres, Whyche axed me, from whence I came a-late; To whome I gan in every thynge expresse All myne adventure, chaunce, and busy40 nesse, Which against Phebus shone soe marveyl- And eke my name; I told her every dell: ously. Whan she herde this she lyked me right well. stoute Then to the tower I drewe nere and nere, 15 Thys dulcet water in four partes dyd spoute. And often mused of the great hyghnes Of the craggy rocke which quadrant did peare: But the fayre tower, (so much of ryches ap V. 25, towers, P. C. V. 44, besy courte, P. C. V. 49, partyes, P. C. Greyhounds, Lions, Dragons, were at that time the royal supporters. This alludes to a former part of the Poem. Of whyche there flowed foure ryvers ryght | Of golde was made a ryght crafty vyne; Instede of grapes the rubies there did shyne. 50 clere, Sweter than Nylus* or Ganges was ther odoure: Tygrys or Eufrates unto them no pere: I dyd than taste the aromatyke lycoure, Fragraunt of fume, and swete as any floure; And in my mouth it had a marveylous scent Of divers spyces, I knewe not what it ment. And after thys further forth me brought Dame Countenaunce into a goodly Hall, Of jasper stones it was wonderly wrought: 65 The flore was paved with berall clarified, Of the doubty waye to the Tower Perillous ;* Thy wyndowes cleare depured all of crys-Howe a noble knyght should wynne the vic tall, And in the roufe on hye over all Her father hath brought her a carlish knight, | Ah! well I wot, he never would rest, Sir John of the north countràye, Nowe hye thee backe, thou little foot-page, Nowe hye thee backe, thou little foot-page, 36 40 Nor his meate should doe him no goode, Until he had slayne thee, Child of Elle, And seene thy deare hearts bloode." O ladye wert thou in thy saddle sette, I would not care for thy cruel father, O ladye, wert thou in thy saddle sette, This knight will I bee at her bowre windowe, I would not care for thy cruel father, Nor the worst that might befalle. 80 85 90 The boye he tripped, the boye he ranne, 45 Faire Emmeline sighed, fair Emmeline wept, And aye her heart was woe: Hee mounted himselfe on his steede so talle, 55 And slung his bugle about his necke, 60 All this beheard her owne damsèlle, Awake, awake, thou baron bolde! Awake, my noble dame! 100 105 Your daughter is fledde with the Child of Elle Nowe nay, nowe nay, thou gentle knight, 65 The baron he woke, the baron he rose, XII. Edom O' Gordon, A SCOTTISH BALLAD, was printed at Glasgow, by Robert and Andrew Foulis, mdeclv. 8vo., 12 pages, We are indebted for its publication (with many other valuable things in these volumes) to Sir David Dalrymple, Bart., who gave it as it was preserved in the memory of a lady, that is now dead. The reader will here find it improved, and enlarged with several fine stanzas, recovered from a fragment of the same ballad, in the Editor's folio MS. It is remarkable that the latter is entitled Captain Adam Carre, and is in the English idiom. But whether the author was English or Scotch, the difference originally was not great. The English Ballads are generally of the North of England, the Scottish are of the South of Scotland, and of consequence the country of Ballad singers was sometimes subject to one crown, and sometimes to the other, and most frequently to neither. Most of the finest old Scotch songs have the scene laid within twenty miles of England, which is indeed all poetic ground, green hills, remains of woods, clear brooks. The pastoral scenes remain : of the rude chivalry of former ages happily nothing remains but the ruins of the castles, where the more daring and successful robbers resided. The House or Castle of the Rodes stood about a measured mile south from Duns, in Berwickshire: some of the ruins of it may be seen to this day. The Gordons were anciently seated in the same county: the two villages of East and West Gordon lie about ten miles from the castle of the Rodes. The fact, however, on which the ballad is founded, happened in the North of Scotland, (see below), yet it is but too faithful a specimen of the violences practised in the feudal times in every part of this Island, and indeed all over Europe. This Ballad is well known in that neighbourhood, where it is entitled Adam o'Gordon. It may be observed, that the famous freebooter, whom Edward I. fought with hand to hand, near Farnham, was named Adam Gordon. From the different titles of this Ballad, it should seem that the old strolling bards or Minstrels (who gained a livelihood by reciting these poems) made no scruple of changing the names of the personages they introduced, to humour their hearers. For instance, if a Gordon's conduct was blame-worthy in the opinion of that age, the obsequious minstrel would, when among Gordons, change the name to Car, whose clan or sept lay further West, and vice versa.-The foregoing observation, which I owed to Sir David Dalrymple, will appear the more perfectly well founded, if, as I have since been informed (from Crawford's Memoirs), the principal Commander of the expedition was a Gordon, and the immediate Agent a Car, or Ker; for then the reciter might, upon good grounds, impute the barbarity here deplored, either to a Gordon or a Car, as best suited his purpose. In the third volume the reader will find a similar instance. See the song of Gil Morris, wherein the principal character introduced had different names given him, perhaps from the same cause. It may be proper to mention, that in the folio MS. instead of the "Castle of the Rodes,” it is the "Castle of Britton's-borrow," and also "Diactors" or "Draitours-borrow," (for it is very obscurely written,) and “ Capt. Adam Carre" is called the "Lord of Westerton-town." Uniformity required that the Additional stanzas supplied from that copy should be clothed in the Scottish orthography and idiom: this has therefore been attempted, though perhaps imperfectly. |