FOOTNOTES:
[61] Chaucer quotes the old Romance of Libius Disconius, and some others, which are found in this MS. (See the Essay, vol. iii. Appendix I.) It also contains several songs relating to the civil war in the last century, but not one that alludes to the Restoration.
[62] Mr. Addison, Mr. Dryden, and the witty Lord Dorset, &c. See the Spectator, No. 70. To these might be added many eminent judges now alive. The learned Selden appears also to have been fond of collecting these old things. See below.
[63] A life of our curious collector Mr. Pepys may be seen in the continuation of Mr. Collier's Supplement to his Great Diction. 1715, at the end of vol. iii. folio. Art. Pep.[64]
[64] [In Percy's time Pepys was not known as the author of that Diary which will keep his name in remembrance so long as English literature continues to exist.]
[65] [The Society of Antiquaries have published a catalogue of this collection by Robert Lemon, 8vo. 1866.]
[66] Such liberties have been taken with all those pieces which have three asterisks subjoined, thus ⁂.
[67] That the editor hath not here under-rated the assistance he received from his friend, will appear from Mr. Shenstone's own letter to the Rev. Mr. Graves, dated March 1, 1761. See his Works, vol. iii. letter cii. It is doubtless a great loss to this work that Mr. Shenstone never saw more than about a third of one of these volumes, as prepared for the press.
[68] Who informed the editor that this MS. had been purchased in a library of old books, which was thought to have belonged to Thomas Blount, Author of the Jocular Tenures, 1679, 4to. and of many other publications enumerated in Wood's Athenæ, ii. 73; the earliest of which is The Art of making Devises, 1646, 4to. wherein he is described to be "of the Inner Temple." If the collection was made by this lawyer (who also published the Law Dictionary, 1671, folio), it should seem, from the errors and defects with which the MS. abounds, that he had employed his clerk in writing the transcripts, who was often weary of his task.
[69] To the same learned and ingenious friend, since Master of Emanuel College, the editor is obliged for many corrections and improvements in his second and subsequent editions; as also to the Rev. Mr. Bowle, of Idmistone, near Salisbury, editor of the curious edition of Don Quixote, with Annotations in Spanish, in 6 vols. 4to.; to the Rev. Mr. Cole, formerly of Blecheley, near Fenny-Stratford, Bucks; to the Rev. Mr. Lambe, of Noreham, in Northumberland (author of a learned History of Chess, 1764, 8vo. and editor of a curious Poem on the Battle of Flodden Field, with learned Notes, 1774, 8vo.); and to G. Paton, Esq., of Edinburgh. He is particularly indebted to two friends, to whom the public as well as himself, are under the greatest obligations; to the Honourable Daines Barrington, for his very learned and curious Observations on the Statutes, 4to.; and to Thomas Tyrwhitt, Esq., whose most correct and elegant edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, 5 vols. 8vo. is a standard book, and shows how an ancient English classic should be published. The editor was also favoured with many valuable remarks and corrections from the Rev. Geo. Ashby, late fellow of St. John's College, in Cambridge, which are not particularly pointed out because they occur so often. He was no less obliged to Thomas Butler, Esq., F.A.S., agent to the Duke of Northumberland, and Clerk of the Peace for the County of Middlesex, whose extensive knowledge of ancient writings, records, and history, have been of great use to the editor in his attempts to illustrate the literature or manners of our ancestors. Some valuable remarks were procured by Samuel Pegge, Esq., author of that curious work the Curialia, 4to.; but this impression was too far advanced to profit by them all; which hath also been the case with a series of learned and ingenious annotations inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1793, April, June, July, and October, 1794, and which, it is hoped, will be continued.
[70] Since Keeper of the Records in the Tower.
RELIQUES OF ANCIENT POETRY, ETC.
SERIES THE FIRST.
[BOOK I.]
I never heard the olde song of Percy and Duglas, that I found not my heart mooved more then with a trumpet: and yet is it sung but by some blinde crouder, with no rougher voyce, then rude stile; which being so evill apparelled in the dust and cobwebbes of that uncivill age, what would it worke, trymmed in the gorgeous eloquence of Pindar!—Sir Philip Sidney's Apologie for Poetrie, 1595.
I.
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.
Mr. Addison has given an excellent critique[71] on this very popular 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 elogium 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 manuscript,[72] at the end of Hearne's preface to Gul. Newbrigiensis Hist. 1719, 8vo. vol. i. To the MS. copy is subjoined the name of the author, Rychard Sheale;[73] whom Hearne had so little judgement as to suppose to be the same with a R. Sheale, who was living in 1588. But whoever examines the gradation of language and idiom in the following volumes, 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 intituled, The Complaint of Scotland[74] (fol. 42), under the title of the Huntis of Chevet, where the two following lines are also quoted:—
"The Perssee and the Mongumrye mette,[75]
That day, that day, that gentil day:"[76]
which, tho' not quite the same as they stand in the ballad, yet differ not more 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,[77] with one or two anachronisms, forbids us to assign it an earlier date. King James I. who was prisoner in this kingdom at the death of his father,[78] did not wear the crown of Scotland till the second year of our Henry VI.,[79] but before the end of that long reign a third James had mounted the throne.[80] 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, altho' 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.[81] 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 rise to the ancient ballad of the Hunting a' the Cheviat.[82] 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, tho' not attended with the tragical circumstances recorded in the ballad: for these are evidently borrowed from the Battle of Otterbourn,[83] a very different event, but which after-times 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,[84] 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; but it is usual to find the distinction of stanzas neglected in ancient MSS.; where, to save room, two or three verses are frequently given in one line undivided. See flagrant instances in the Harleian Catalogue, No. 2253, s. 29, 34, 61, 70, et passim.
[Bishop Percy did well to open his book with Chevy Chase and the Battle of Otterburn, as these two are by far the most remarkable of the old historical ballads still left to us, and all Englishmen must feel peculiar interest in Chevy Chase, as it is one of the few northern ballads that are the exclusive growth of the south side of the Border. The partizanship of the Englishman is very amusingly brought out in verses 145-154, where we learn that the Scotch king had no captain in his realm equal to the dead Douglas, but that the English king had a hundred captains as good as Percy. A ballad which stirred the soul of Sidney and caused Ben Jonson to wish that he had been the author of it rather than of all his own works cannot but be dear to all readers of taste and feeling. The old version is so far superior to the modern one (see Book iii. No. 1) that it must ever be a source of regret that Addison, who elegantly analyzed the modern version, did not know of the original.
It will be well to arrange under three heads the subjects on which a few words require to be added to Percy's preface, viz. 1. the title, 2. the occasion, 3. the author. 1. In the old version the title given in the ballad itself is the hunting of the Cheviat, and in the Complaynt of Scotlande it is referred to as The Huntis of Chevot. The title of the modern version is changed to Chevy Chase, which Dr. E. B. Nicholson has suggested to be derived from the old French word chevauchée, a foray or expedition (see Notes and Queries, 3rd series, vol. xii. p. 124); but this explanation is not needed, as the original of the modern title is found in ver. 62 as Chyviat Chays, which naturally became contracted into Chevy Chase, as Teviotdale into Tevidale (ver. 50).
2. The ballad is so completely unhistorical that it is difficult to give any opinion as to the occasion to which it refers, but apparently it was written, as Bishop Percy remarks, to commemorate a defiant expedition of one of the Lords of the Marches upon the domain of another, but that the names of Percy and Douglas led the writer into a confusion with the battle of Otterburn, which was fresh in the people's memory owing to the ballad of the Battle of Otterburn. In fact Professor Child throws out the hint that possibly Sidney referred to the Battle of Otterburn and not to the Hunting of the Cheviat, as he only mentions the old song of Percie and Douglas, but it has so long been believed that Sidney spoke of Chevy Chase that we should be sorry to think otherwise now. In the note immediately following the modern version (see Book iii. No. 1.) Bishop Percy suggests the possibility that the ballad may refer to the battle of Pepperden fought in 1436, but this view is highly improbable for the following reason. In both the ancient and modern versions the battle of Humbledown is alluded to as a future event caused by the death of Percy at Chevy Chase. Now as Humbledown was fought in the year 1402, and as the battle of Otterburn was the only conflict of importance on the Borders which preceded it, and as, moreover, Otterburn is mentioned in the ballad, there cannot well be any reference to a battle fought so many years afterwards.
3. Bishop Percy is unnecessarily severe in his remark upon Hearne, as that learned antiquary was probably correct in identifying the Richard Sheale of the old ballad with Richard Sheale the minstrel. Whether, however, the latter was the author, as is argued by C. in Brydges' British Bibliographer (vol. 4, pp. 95-105), is another matter. The other examples of the minstrel's muse are so inferior to this ballad that it is impossible to believe him to be the author. Doubtless it was recited by him, and being associated with his name the transcriber may naturally have supposed him to be its maker. Sheale really flourished (or withered, as Mr. Hales has it) at a rather earlier period than the date 1588 mentioned by Percy would lead us to imagine, for he appears to have been writing before 1560, nevertheless the language is of a much earlier date than this, and, moreover, a ballad of the Borders is not likely to have been invented at Tamworth, where Sheale lived.
Chevy Chase was long a highly popular song, and Bishop Corbet, in his Journey into France, speaks of having sung it in his youth. The antiquated beau in Davenant's play of the Wits also prides himself on being able to sing it, and in Wit's Intepreter, 1671, a man when enumerating the good qualities of his wife, cites after the beauties of her mind and her patience "her curious voice wherewith she useth to sing Chevy Chace." Many other ballads were sung to the same tune, so that we are not always sure as to whether the original is referred to or some more modern song. The philosopher Locke, when Secretary to the Embassy sent by Charles II. to the Elector of Brandenburg, wrote home a description of the Brandenburg church singing, in which he says, "He that could not though he had a cold make better music with a chevy chace over a pot of smooth ale, deserved well to pay the reckoning and to go away athirst."[85] The writer here probably referred to any song sung to this tune.]
THE FIRST FIT.[86]
The Persé owt of Northombarlande.
And a vowe[87] to God mayd he,
That he wolde hunte in the mountayns
Off Chyviat within dayes thre,
In the mauger[88] of doughtè Dogles,[89]5
And all that ever with him be.
The fattiste hartes in all Cheviat
He sayd he wold kill, and cary them away:
Be my feth, sayd the dougheti Doglas agayn,
I wyll let[90] that hontyng yf that I may.10
Then the Persé owt of Banborowe cam,[91]
With him a myghtye meany;[92]
With fifteen hondrith archares bold;[93]
The wear chosen out of shyars thre.[94]
This begane on a monday at morn15
In Cheviat the hillys so he;[95]
The chyld may rue that ys un-born,
It was the mor pitté.
The dryvars thorowe the woodes went[96]
For to reas[97] the dear;20
Bomen bickarte uppone the bent[98]
With ther browd aras[99] cleare.
Then the wyld[100] thorowe the woodes went
On every syde shear;[101]
Grea-hondes thorowe the greves glent[102]25
For to kyll thear dear.
The begane in Chyviat the hyls abone[103]
Yerly[104] on a monnyn-day;[105]
Be[106] that it drewe to the oware off none[107]
A hondrith fat hartes ded ther lay.30
The blewe a mort uppone the bent,[108][109]
The semblyd on sydis shear;[110]
To the quyrry[111] then the Persè went
To se the bryttlynge[112] off the deare.
He sayd, It was the Duglas promys35
This day to meet me hear;
But I wyste he wold faylle verament:[113]
A gret oth the Persè swear.
At the laste a squyar of Northombelonde
Lokyde at his hand full ny,40
He was war ath[114] the doughetie Doglas comynge:
With him a myghtè meany,[115]
Both with spear, 'byll,' and brande:[116][117]
Yt was a myghti sight to se.
Hardyar men both off hart nar hande45
Wear not in Christiantè.
The wear twenty hondrith spear-men good
Withouten any fayle;[118]
The wear borne a-long be the watter a Twyde,
Yth[119] bowndes of Tividale.50
Leave off the brytlyng of the dear, he sayde,
And to your bowys look ye tayk good heed;[120]
For never sithe[121] ye wear on your mothars borne
Had ye never so mickle need.[122]
The dougheti Dogglas on a stede55
He rode all his men beforne;[123]
His armor glytteryde as dyd a glede;[124]
A bolder barne[125] was never born.
Tell me 'what' men ye ar, he says,[126]
Or whos men that ye be:60
Who gave youe leave to hunte in this
Chyviat chays in the spyt of me?
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 says,[127]65
Nor whos men that we be;
But we wyll hount hear in this chays
In the spyte of thyne, and of the.
The fattiste hartes in all Chyviat
We have kyld, and cast[128] to carry them a-way.70
Be my troth, sayd the doughtè Dogglas agayn,[129]
Ther-for the ton[130] of us shall de this day.
Then sayd the doughtè Doglas
Unto the lord Persè:
To kyll all thes giltless men,75
A-las! it wear great pittè.
But, Persè, thowe art a lord of lande,
I am a yerle[131] callyd within my contre;
Let all our men uppone a parti[132] stande;
And do the battell off the and of me.80
Nowe Cristes cors[133] on his crowne,[134] sayd the lord Persè.[135]
Who-soever ther-to says nay.
Be my troth, doughtè Doglas, he says,
Thow shalt never se that day;
Nethar in Ynglonde, Skottlonde, nar France,85
Nor for no man of a woman born,
But and[136] fortune be my chance,
I dar met him on man for on.[137][138]
Then bespayke a squyar off Northombarlonde,
Ric. Wytharynton[139] was his nam;90
It shall never be told in Sothe-Ynglonde, he says,
To kyng Herry the fourth for sham.
I wat[140] youe byn great lordes twaw,[141]
I am a poor squyar of lande;
I wyll never se my captayne fyght on a fylde,95
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[142] here I fynde.100
And youe[143] wyll here any mor athe hountyng a the 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,[144]
Seven skore spear-men the sloughe.[145]
Yet bydys[146] the yerle Doglas uppon the bent,[147]5
A captayne good yenoughe,
And that was sene verament,
For he wrought hom both woo and wouche.[148]
The Dogglas pertyd his ost in thre,
Lyk a cheffe cheften off pryde,10
With suar[149] speares off myghttè tre
The cum[150] in on every syde.
Thrughe our Yngglishe archery
Gave many a wounde full wyde;
Many a doughete the garde to dy,[151]15
Which ganyde them no pryde.
The Yngglishe men let thear bowys be,[152]
And pulde owt brandes that wer bright;[153]
It was a hevy syght to se
Bryght swordes on basnites[154] lyght.20
Thorowe ryche male, and myne-ye-ple[155][156]
Many sterne[157] the stroke downe streght:[158]
Many a freyke,[159] that was full free,
Ther undar foot dyd lyght.
At last the Duglas and the Persè met,25
Lyk to captayns of myght and mayne;[160]
The swapte[161] togethar tyll the both swat[162]
With swordes, that wear of fyn myllàn.[163]
Thes worthè freckys[164] for to fyght
Ther-to the wear full fayne,30
Tyll the bloode owte off thear basnetes sprente,[165]
As ever dyd heal or rayne.[166]
Holde the, Persè, sayd the Doglas,[167]
And i' feth I shall the brynge
Wher thowe shalte have a yerls wagis35
Of Jamy our Scottish kynge.
Thoue shalte have thy ransom fre,
I hight[168] the hear this thinge,
For the manfullyste man yet art thowe,
That ever I conqueryd in filde fightyng.40
Nay 'then' sayd the lord Persè,
I tolde it the beforne,
That I wolde never yeldyde be
To no man of a woman born.
With that ther cam an arrowe hastely45
Forthe off a mightie wane,[169]
Hit hathe strekene the yerle Duglas
In at the brest bane.
Thoroue lyvar and longs bathe[170]
The sharp arrowe ys gane,50
That never after in all his lyffe days,
He spayke mo wordes but ane,
That was,[171] Fyghte ye, my merry men, whyllys ye may,
For my lyff days ben gan.
The Persè leanyde on his brande,55
And sawe the Duglas de;
He tooke the dede man be the hande,
And sayd, Wo ys me for the!
To have savyde thy lyffe I wold have pertyd with
My landes for years thre,60
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 Mongon-byrry,
He sawe the Duglas to the deth was dyght[172];65
He spendyd[173] a spear a trusti tre:
He rod uppon a corsiare[174]
Throughe a hondrith archery;
He never styntyde, nar never blane,[175]
Tyll he came to the good lord Persè.70
He set uppone the lord Persè
A dynte,[176] that was full soare;
With a suar spear of a myghtè tre
Clean thorow the body he the Persè bore,[177]
Athe tothar syde, that a man myght se,75
A large cloth yard and mare:
Towe bettar captayns wear nat in Christiantè,
Then that day slain wear ther.
An archar off Northomberlonde
Say slean was the lord Persè,[178]80
He bar a bende-bow in his hande,
Was made off trusti tre:
An arow, that a cloth yarde was lang,
To th' hard stele halyde he;[179]
A dynt, that was both sad and soar,85
He sat on Sir Hewe the Mongon-byrry.
The dynt yt was both sad and sar,[180][181]
That he of Mongon-byrry sete;
The swane-fethars, that his arrowe bar,
With his hart blood the wear wete.[182]90
Ther was never a freake wone foot wolde fle,
But still in stour[183] dyd stand,
Heawyng on yche othar,[184] whyll the myght dre,[185]
With many a bal-ful brande.
This battell begane in Chyviat95
An owar befor the none,
And when even-song bell was rang
The battell was nat half done.
The tooke 'on' on ethar hand
Be the lyght off the mone;100
Many hade no strenght for to stande,
In Chyviat the hyllys aboun.[186][187]
Of fifteen hondrith archars of Ynglonde
Went away but fifti and thre;
Of twenty hondrith spear-men of Skotlonde,105
But even five and fifti:
But all wear slayne Cheviat within:
The hade no strengthe to stand on hie;[188]
The chylde may rue that ys un-borne,
It was the mor pittè.110
Thear was slayne with the lord Persè
Sir John of Agerstone,
Sir Roger the hinde[189] Hartly,
Sir Wyllyam the bolde Hearone.
Sir Jorg the worthè Lovele[190][191]115
A knyght of great renowen,
Sir Raff the ryche Rugbè
With dyntes wear beaten dowene.
For Wetharryngton my harte was wo,
That ever he slayne shulde be;120
For when both his leggis wear hewyne in to,[192]
Yet he knyled and fought on hys kne.[193]
Ther was slayne with the dougheti Douglas
Sir Hewe the Mongon-byrry,
Sir Davye Lwdale, that worthè was,125
His sistars son was he:
Sir Charles a Murrè, in that place,
That never a foot wolde fle;
Sir Hewe Maxwell, a lorde he was,
With the Duglas dyd he dey.130
So on the morrowe the mayde them byears
Off byrch, and hasell so 'gray;'[194]
Many wedous[195] with wepyng tears,[196]
Cam to fach ther makys[197] a-way.
Tivydale may carpe[198] off care,135
Northombarlond may mayk grat mone,[199]
For towe such captayns, as slayne wear thear,
On the march perti[200] shall never be none.[201]
Word ys commen to Edden-burrowe,
To Jamy the Skottishe kyng,140
That dougheti Duglas, lyff-tenant of the Merches,
He lay slean Chyviot with-in.
His handdes dyd he weal[202] and wryng,
He sayd, Alas, and woe ys me!
Such another captayn Skotland within,145
He sayd, y-feth shuld never be.[203]
Worde ys commyn to lovly Londone
Till[204] the fourth Harry our kyng,[205]
That lord Persè, leyff-tennante of the Merchis,[206]
He lay slayne Chyviat within.150
God have merci on his soll, sayd kyng Harry,
Good lord, yf thy will it be!
I have a hondrith captayns in Yynglonde, he sayd,
As good as ever was hee:
But Persè, and I brook[207] my lyffe,155
Thy deth well quyte[208] shall be.
As our noble kyng made his a-vowe,
Lyke a noble prince of renowen,
For the deth of the lord Persè,
He dyd the battel of Hombyll-down:160
Wher syx and thritte Skottish knyghtes
On a day wear beaten down:
Glendale glytteryde on ther armor bryght,
Over castill, towar, and town.
This was the hontynge off the Cheviat;165
That tear begane this spurn:[209]
Old men that knowen the grownde well yenoughe,
Call it the Battell of Otterburn.
At Otterburn began this spurne
Uppon a monnyn day:[210]170
Ther was the dougghté Doglas slean,
The Persè never went away.
Ther was never a tym on the march partes
Sen the Doglas and the Persè met,
But yt was marvele, and the redde blude ronne not,
As the reane doys in the stret.176
Jhesue Christ our balys bete,[211]
And to the blys us brynge!
Thus was the hountynge of the Chevyat:
God send us all good ending!180
⁂ The style of this and the following ballad is uncommonly rugged and uncouth, owing to their being writ in the very coarsest and broadest northern dialect.
The battle of Hombyll-down, or Humbledon, was fought Sept. 14, 1402 (anno 3 Hen. IV.), wherein the English, under the command of the Earl of Northumberland and his son Hotspur, gained a complete victory over the Scots. The village of Humbledon is one mile northwest from Wooler, in Northumberland. The battle was fought in the field below the village, near the present Turnpike Road, in a spot called ever since Red-Riggs. Humbledon is in Glendale Ward, a district so named in this county, and mentioned above in ver. 163.