FOOTNOTES:

[1] See article on "Waits' Badges," by Llewellyn Jewitt, in Reliquary, vol. xii. p. 145.

[2] Chant of Richard Sheale, Brydges' British Bibliographer, vol. iv. p. 100.

[3] Ellis's Original Letters, Second Series, vol. iii. p. 49.

[4] See Percy's remarks on this line at p. [379] (note).

[5] Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads, ed. 1829, vol. i. p. xxvi.

[6] Marjoreybank's Annals of Scotland, Edinb. 1814, p. 5, quoted in Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. xxx. (note).

[7] Motherwell's Minstrelsy, 1827, p. xlvii.

[8] Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. xv.

[9] See below. p. [148].

[10] Vol. ii. p. 172.

[11] Vol. iii. bk. ii. art. 18.

[12] Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. xiii.

[13] See below, p. [380].

[14] See below, p. [70].

[15] See below, p. [23].

[16] See vol. ii. p. 158.

[17] Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads, ed. 1829, vol. i. p. xxxiii.

[18] See below, p. [378].

[19] Popular Music of the Olden Time, vol. i. p. 106.

[20] Pierce Penilesse, his Supplication to the Devill, 1592.

[21] Kemp's Nine Daies' Wonder, 1600, sign. d 3.

[22] Dryden's Prologue to Lee's Sophonisba.

[23] Richard of Almaigne, see vol. ii. p. 3.

[24] Notes and Queries, 5th series, vol. v. p. 524.

[25] See Ancient Scottish Poems, 1786, vol. i. p. cxxxi.

[26] Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern, 1827, p. xcvii.

[27] Scottish Ballads, vol. i. p. 46.

[28] Mr. Laing, with his usual kindness, has been so good as to answer my inquiry whether he still held the opinion he published in 1839. He writes (June 2, 1876): "I still adhere to the general inference that this ballad is comparatively a modern imitation, and although we have no positive evidence as to the authorship, I can think of no one that was so likely to have written it as Elizabeth Halket, Lady Wardlaw of Pitreavie, who died in 1727, aged fifty. Had Bishop Percy's correspondence with Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, been preserved, some interesting information would no doubt have been obtained regarding these ballads sent from Scotland."

[29] Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads (Percy Society, vol. xvii. p. xi.).

[30] Neither of these lines occur in Percy's version, but they are both in the one printed by Scott.

[31] Ballads from Scottish History, 1863, pp. 223-4.

[32] "An ingenious friend thinks the author of Hardyknute has borrowed several expressions and sentiments from the foregoing and other old Scottish songs in this collection."

[33] See vol. ii. p. 105, of the present edition.

[34] It has been necessary in the foregoing remarks to give reasons why the opinions of the late Dr. Robert Chambers on this subject are not to be taken on trust, but it is hoped that these criticisms will not be understood as written with any wish to detract from the literary character of one who did so much good work during a laborious and ever active life.

[35] Minstrelsy, p. xlvi.

[36] Parliament of Love.

[37] Queen of Corinth.

[38] Dekker's Honest W., 1604, act i. sc. 1.

[39] Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.

[40] The following is a list of these ballads:—

Vol. I. "Fair Rosamond and King Henry II.," "Queen Eleanor's Confession," "St. George and the Dragon," "The Dragon of Wantley," "Chevy Chace," "The Lamentation of Jane Shore," "Sir Andrew Barton's Death," "Prince of England's Courtship to the King of France's Daughter," "The Lady turn'd Serving-Man," "The Children in the Wood," "The Bride's Burial," "The Lady's Fall," "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor," "Gilderoy."

Vol. II. "King Leir and his Three Daughters," "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table," "King John and the Abbot of Canterbury," "The Wanton Wife of Bath," "The Spanish Lady's Love," "The Blind Beggar of Bednal Green."

Vol. III. "The Baffled Knight," "William and Margaret," "The Gaberlunzie Man."

[41] Percy communicated to Dr. Nash, for the History of Worcestershire (vol. ii. p. 318), a pedigree in which he attempted to identify his family with that of the descendants of Ralph, third Earl of Northumberland. Nash subjoined a note to the effect that he had examined the proofs of all the particulars above mentioned, and Boswell, in his Life of Johnson, expressed the opinion that, "both as a lawyer accustomed to the consideration of evidence, and as a genealogist versed in the study of pedigrees," he was fully satisfied. Mr. Furnivall is rather unjust to Percy when he suggests that the pedigree was treated like the ballads, and the gaps filled up, for the cases are not quite analogous. The pedigree may not be of greater authenticity than many other doubtful ones, but at all events his Patrons the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland acknowledged the connection between them when he was in some way distinguished.

[42] On Percy's tomb his wife's name is spelt Goodriche.

[43] Illustrations of the Lyric Poetry and Music of Scotland, 1853, p. 29.

[44] Stenhouse's Illustrations, p. 112.

[45] Bishop Percy's Folio MS. vol. i. p. xli. (note).

[46] The book was reprinted entire in the fourth volume of the Antiquarian Repertory, 1809; and a second edition was published by Pickering in 1827.

[47] In 1810 he was the only survivor of the original members of the Literary Club, founded by Johnson and Reynolds in 1764.

[48] Percy Folio MS., vol. i. p. lv.

[49] The chief particulars of the above sketch of Percy's life are taken from the interesting life by the Rev. J. Pickford in Hales and Furnivall's edition of the Folio MS., vol. i. p. xxvii.

[50] Ancient Songs, 1790, p. xix.

[51] Bishop Percy Folio Manuscript: Ballads and Romances. Edited by John W. Hales, M.A., and Frederick J. Furnivall, M.A., London (Trübner and Co.), 1867-68, 3 vols.

[52]

"ffull 40 yeeres his royall crowne
hath beene his fathers and his owne."

Percy Folio MS. (ii. 25/17-18.)

[53] Furnivall's Forewords, p. xiii.

[54] The following is a list of these, taken from Mr. Furnivall's Forewords:—

[55] This work was reprinted twice during the year 1869: 1. at Edinburgh under the editorial care of Mr. Sidney Gilpin; 2. at Glasgow.

TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
ELIZABETH,
COUNTESS OF NORTHUMBERLAND;
IN HER OWN RIGHT,
BARONESS PERCY, LUCY, POYNINGS, FITZ-PAYNE, BRYAN, AND LATIMER.

Madam,—

Those writers, who solicit the protection of the noble and the great, are often exposed to censure by the impropriety of their addresses: a remark that will, perhaps, be too readily applied to him, who, having nothing better to offer than the rude songs of ancient minstrels, aspires to the patronage of the Countess of Northumberland, and hopes that the barbarous productions of unpolished ages can obtain the approbation or notice of her, who adorns courts by her presence, and diffuses elegance by her example.

But this impropriety, it is presumed, will disappear, when it is declared that these poems are presented to your Ladyship, not as labours of art, but as effusions of nature, showing the first efforts of ancient genius, and exhibiting the customs and opinions of remote ages: of ages that had been almost lost to memory, had not the gallant deeds of your illustrious ancestors preserved them from oblivion.

No active or comprehensive mind can forbear some attention to the reliques of antiquity. It is prompted by natural curiosity to survey the progress of life and manners, and to inquire by what gradations barbarity was civilized, grossness refined, and ignorance instructed; but this curiosity, Madam, must be stronger in those who, like your Ladyship, can remark in every period the influence of some great progenitor, and who still feel in their effects the transactions and events of distant centuries.

By such bonds, Madam, as I am now introducing to your presence, was the infancy of genius nurtured and advanced, by such were the minds of unlettered warriors softened and enlarged, by such was the memory of illustrious actions preserved and propagated, by such were the heroic deeds of the Earls of Northumberland sung at festivals in the hall of Alnwick; and those songs, which the bounty of your ancestors rewarded, now return to your Ladyship by a kind of hereditary right; and, I flatter myself, will find such reception as is usually shown to poets and historians, by those whose consciousness of merit makes it their interest to be long remembered.

I am,

Madam,

Your Ladyship's

Most humble,

And most devoted Servant,

Thomas Percy.[56]

TO
ELIZABETH,
LATE DUCHESS AND COUNTESS OF NORTHUMBERLAND,
IN HER OWN RIGHT BARONESS PERCY,
ETC. ETC. ETC.
WHO, BEING SOLE HEIRESS TO MANY GREAT FAMILIES OF OUR ANCIENT NOBILITY, EMPLOYED THE PRINCELY FORTUNE, AND SUSTAINED THE ILLUSTRIOUS HONOURS, WHICH SHE DERIVED FROM THEM, THROUGH HER WHOLE LIFE WITH THE GREATEST DIGNITY, GENEROSITY, AND SPIRIT; AND WHO FOR HER MANY PUBLIC AND PRIVATE VIRTUES WILL EVER BE REMEMBERED AS ONE OF THE FIRST CHARACTERS OF HER TIME, THIS LITTLE WORK WAS ORIGINALLY DEDICATED; AND, AS IT SOMETIMES AFFORDED HER AMUSEMENT, AND WAS HIGHLY DISTINGUISHED BY HER INDULGENT APPROBATION, IT IS NOW, WITH THE UTMOST REGARD, RESPECT, AND GRATITUDE, CONSECRATED TO HER BELOVED AND HONOURED
MEMORY.[57]