FOOTNOTES:
[893] In the present Edition, instead of the unmeaning lines here censured, an insertion is made of four stanzas modernized from the ancient copy.
[894] A late writer has started a notion that the more modern copy "was written to be sung by a party of English, headed by a Douglas in the year 1524; which is the true reason why, at the same time that it gives the advantage to the English soldiers above the Scotch, it gives yet so lovely and so manifestly superior a character to the Scotch commander above the English." See Say's Essay on the Numbers of Paradise Lost, 4to. 1745, p. 167.
This appears to me a groundless conjecture: the language seems too modern for the date above-mentioned; and, had it been printed even so early as Queen Elizabeth's reign, I think I should have met with some copy wherein the first line would have been,
"God prosper long our noble queen,"
as was the case with the Blind Beggar of Bednal Green; see vol. ii. book ii. No. x. ver. 23.
[895] In the Spectator, Nos. 70, 74.
[896] [Ver. 3. there was, f. MS.]
[897] [V. 6. took the way, f. MS.]
[898] Ver. 36. That they were, f. MS.
[899] The Chiviot Hills and circumjacent wastes are at present void of deer, and almost stript of their woods: but formerly they had enough of both to justify the description attempted here and in the Ancient Ballad of Chevy-Chase. Leland, in the reign of Hen. VIII. thus describes this county: "In Northumberland, as I heare say, be no Forests, except Chivet Hills; where is much Brushe-Wood, and some Okke; Grownde ovargrowne with Linge, and some with Mosse. I have harde say that Chivet Hilles stretchethe xx miles. There is greate Plenté of Redde-Dere, and Roo-Bukkes." Itin. vol. vii. page 56.—This passage, which did not occur when pages 40, 42 were printed off, confirms the accounts there given of the Stagge and the Roe.
[900] [slaughtered game.]
[901] [Ver. 42. the tender deere, f. MS.]
[902] [fortune.]
[903] [Ver. 92. it is, f. MS.]
[904] [V. 98. I stand, f. MS.]
[905] [Ver. 105. bend their bowes, f. MS.]
[906] The 4 stanzas here inclosed in brackets, which are borrowed chiefly from the ancient copy, are offered to the reader instead of the following lines, which occur in the Editor's folio MS.
To drive the deere with hound and horne,
Douglas bade on the bent;
Two captaines moved with mickle might
Their speres to shivers went.
[907] [field.]
[908] [Ver. 129-132. This stanza in the MS. is far superior to the poor one in the text.
"O Christ! it was great greeve to see
how eche man chose his spere
and how the blood out of their brests
Did gush like water cleare.">[
[909] [furious.]
[910] [Ver. 155. who scorke Erle Douglas on the brest, f. MS.]
[911] [V. 157. who never sayd, f. MS.]
[912] [V. 163. who said, Erle Dowglas, for thy sake, f. MS.]
[913] [Ver. 189. he had a good bow in his hand, f. MS.]
[914] [V. 192. to the hard head haled hee, f. MS.]
[915] Sc. the Curfew bell, usually rung at 8 o'clock, to which the moderniser apparently alludes, instead of the "Evensong Bell," or Bell for vespers, of the original author before the Reformation. See p. [31], Ver. 97.
[916] For the surnames, see the Notes at the end of the ballad.
[917] [Ver. 203. Sir Robert Harcliffe and Sir William, f. MS.]
[918] i.e. "I, as one in deep concern, must lament" The construction here has generally been misunderstood. The old MS. reads "toofull dumpes."
[919] [V. 215. Sir Charles Morrell, f. MS.]
[920] [V. 217. Sir Roger Hever, of Harclifte, f. MS.]
[921] [V. 219. Sir David Lambwell well esteem'd.]
[922] [Ver. 233. purple blood, f. MS.]
[923] [Ver. 262. hundreds dye, f. MS.]
[924] See note controverting the above on p. [52].
II.
DEATH'S FINAL CONQUEST.
These fine moral stanzas were originally intended for a solemn funeral song, in a play of James Shirley's, intitled, "The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses:"[925] no date, 8vo.—Shirley flourished as a dramatic writer early in the reign of Charles I.: but he outlived the Restoration. His death happened October 29, 1666. Æt. 72.
This little poem was written long after many of these that follow, but is inserted here as a kind of Dirge to the foregoing piece. It is said to have been a favourite song with K. Charles II. [to whom, according to Oldys, it was often sung by "old" Bowman.]
The glories of our birth and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armour against fate:
Death lays his icy hands on kings:
Scepter and crown5
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.
Some men with swords may reap the field,
And plant fresh laurels where they kill:10
But their strong nerves at last must yield;
They tame but one another still.
Early or late
They stoop to fate,
And must give up their murmuring breath,15
When they pale captives creep to death.
The garlands wither on your brow,
Then boast no more your mighty deeds;
Upon death's purple altar now
See where the victor victim bleeds:20
All heads must come
To the cold tomb,
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust.