B
a. Percy MS., p. 188, Hales and Furnivall, II, 7. b. Pepys Ballads, I, 92, No 45, broadside printed for M. G. c. Douce Ballads, fol. 27b, and Roxburghe Ballads, III, 66, broadside printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright. d. Wood’s Ballads, 401, 48, broadside printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and W. Gilbertson. e. Bagford Ballads, I, No 32, broadside printed by and for W. Onley. f. A Scottish copy, without printer.
1
God prosper long our noble king,
our liffes and saftyes all!
A woefull hunting once there did
in Cheuy Chase befall.
2
To driue the deere with hound and horne
Erle Pearcy took the way:
The child may rue that is vnborne
the hunting of that day!
3
The stout Erle of Northumberland
a vow to God did make
His pleasure in the Scottish woods
three sommers days to take,
4
The cheefest harts in Cheuy C[h]ase
to kill and beare away:
These tydings to Erle Douglas came
in Scottland, where he lay.
5
Who sent Erle Pearcy present word
he wold prevent his sport;
The English erle, not fearing that,
did to the woods resort,
6
With fifteen hundred bowmen bold,
all chosen men of might,
Who knew ffull well in time of neede
to ayme their shafts arright.
7
The gallant greyhound swiftly ran
to chase the fallow deere;
On Munday they began to hunt,
ere daylight did appeare.
8
And long before high noone the had
a hundred fat buckes slaine;
Then hauing dined, the drouyers went
to rouze the deare againe.
9
The bowmen mustered on the hills,
well able to endure;
Theire backsids all with speciall care
that day were guarded sure.
10
The hounds ran swiftly through the woods
the nimble deere to take,
That with their cryes the hills and dales
an eccho shrill did make.
11
Lord Pearcy to the querry went
to veiw the tender deere;
Quoth he, Erle Douglas promised once
this day to meete me heere;
12
But if I thought he wold not come,
noe longer wold I stay.
With that a braue younge gentlman
thus to the erle did say:
13
‘Loe, yonder doth Erle Douglas come,
hys men in armour bright;
Full twenty hundred Scottish speres
all marching in our sight.
14
‘All men of pleasant Tiuydale,
fast by the riuer Tweede:’
‘O ceaze your sportts!’ Erle Pearcy said,
‘and take your bowes with speede.
15
‘And now with me, my countrymen,
your courage forth advance!
For there was neuer champion yett,
in Scottland nor in Ffrance,
16
‘That euer did on horsbacke come,
[but], and if my hap it were,
I durst encounter man for man,
with him to breake a spere.’
17
Erle Douglas on his milke-white steede,
most like a baron bold,
Rode formost of his company,
whose armor shone like gold.
18
‘Shew me,’ sayd hee, ‘whose men you bee
that hunt soe boldly heere,
That without my consent doe chase
and kill my fallow deere.’
19
The first man that did answer make
was noble Pearcy hee,
Who sayd, Wee list not to declare
nor shew whose men wee bee;
20
‘Yett wee will spend our deerest blood
thy cheefest harts to slay.’
Then Douglas swore a solempne oathe,
and thus in rage did say:
21
‘Ere thus I will outbraued bee,
one of vs tow shall dye;
I know thee well, an erle thou art;
Lord Pearcy, soe am I.
22
‘But trust me, Pearcye, pittye it were,
and great offence, to kill
Then any of these our guiltlesse men,
for they haue done none ill.
23
‘Let thou and I the battell trye,
and set our men aside:’
‘Accurst bee [he!]’ Erle Pearcye sayd,
‘by whome it is denyed.’
24
Then stept a gallant squire forth—
Witherington was his name—
Who said, ‘I wold not haue it told
to Henery our king, for shame,
25
‘That ere my captaine fought on foote,
and I stand looking on.
You bee two Erles,’ quoth Witheringhton,
and I a squier alone;
26
‘I’le doe the best that doe I may,
while I haue power to stand;
While I haue power to weeld my sword,
I’le fight with hart and hand.’
27
Our English archers bent their bowes;
their harts were good and trew;
Att the first flight of arrowes sent,
full foure score Scotts the slew.
28
To driue the deere with hound and horne,
Dauglas bade on the bent;
Two captaines moued with mickle might,
their speres to shiuers went.
29
They closed full fast on euerye side,
noe slacknes there was found,
But many a gallant gentleman
lay gasping on the ground.
30
O Christ! it was great greeue to see
how eche man chose his spere,
And how the blood out of their brests
did gush like water cleare.
31
At last these two stout erles did meet,
like captaines of great might;
Like lyons woode they layd on lode;
the made a cruell fight.
32
The fought vntill they both did sweat,
with swords of tempered steele,
Till blood downe their cheekes like raine
the trickling downe did feele.
33
‘O yeeld thee, Pearcye!’ Douglas sayd,
‘and in faith I will thee bringe
Where thou shall high advanced bee
by Iames our Scottish king.
34
‘Thy ransome I will freely giue,
and this report of thee,
Thou art the most couragious knight
[that ever I did see.]’
35
‘Noe, Douglas!’ quoth Erle Percy then,
‘thy profer I doe scorne;
I will not yeelde to any Scott
that euer yett was borne!’
36
With that there came an arrow keene,
out of an English bow,
Which stroke Erle Douglas on the brest
a deepe and deadlye blow.
37
Who neuer sayd more words then these:
Fight on, my merry men all!
For why, my life is att [an] end,
lord Pearcy sees my fall.
38
Then leauing liffe, Erle Pearcy tooke
the dead man by the hand;
Who said, ‘Erle Dowglas, for thy life,
wold I had lost my land!
39
‘O Christ! my verry hart doth bleed
for sorrow for thy sake,
For sure, a more redoubted knight
mischance cold neuer take.’
40
A knight amongst the Scotts there was
which saw Erle Douglas dye,
Who streight in hart did vow revenge
vpon the Lord Pearcye.
41
Sir Hugh Mountgomerye was he called,
who, with a spere full bright,
Well mounted on a gallant steed,
ran feircly through the fight,
42
And past the English archers all,
without all dread or feare,
And through Erle Percyes body then
he thrust his hatfull spere.
43
With such a vehement force and might
his body he did gore,
The staff ran through the other side
a large cloth-yard and more.
44
Thus did both those nobles dye,
whose courage none cold staine;
An English archer then perceiued
the noble erle was slaine.
45
He had [a] good bow in his hand,
made of a trusty tree;
An arrow of a cloth-yard long
to the hard head haled hee.
46
Against Sir Hugh Mountgomerye
his shaft full right he sett;
The grey-goose-winge that was there-on
in his harts bloode was wett.
47
This fight from breake of day did last
till setting of the sun,
For when the rung the euening-bell
the battele scarse was done.
48
With stout Erle Percy there was slaine
Sir Iohn of Egerton,
Sir Robert Harcliffe and Sir William,
Sir Iames, that bold barron.
49
And with Sir George and Sir Iames,
both knights of good account,
Good Sir Raphe Rebbye there was slaine,
whose prowesse did surmount.
50
For Witherington needs must I wayle
as one in dolefull dumpes,
For when his leggs were smitten of,
he fought vpon his stumpes.
51
And with Erle Dowglas there was slaine
Sir Hugh Mountgomerye,
And Sir Charles Morrell, that from feelde
one foote wold neuer flee;
52
Sir Roger Heuer of Harcliffe tow,
his sisters sonne was hee;
Sir David Lambwell, well esteemed,
but saved he cold not bee.
53
And the Lord Maxwell, in like case,
with Douglas he did dye;
Of twenty hundred Scottish speeres,
scarce fifty-fiue did flye.
54
Of fifteen hundred Englishmen
went home but fifty-three;
The rest in Cheuy Chase were slaine,
vnder the greenwoode tree.
55
Next day did many widdowes come
their husbands to bewayle;
They washt their wounds in brinish teares,
but all wold not prevayle.
56
Theyr bodyes, bathed in purple blood,
the bore with them away;
They kist them dead a thousand times
ere the were cladd in clay.
57
The newes was brought to Eddenborrow,
where Scottlands king did rayne,
That braue Erle Douglas soddainlye
was with an arrow slaine.
58
‘O heauy newes!’ King Iames can say;
‘Scottland may wittenesse bee
I haue not any captaine more
of such account as hee.’
59
Like tydings to King Henery came,
within as short a space,
That Pearcy of Northumberland
was slaine in Cheuy Chase.
60
‘Now God be with him!’ said our king,
‘sith it will noe better bee;
I trust I haue within my realme
fiue hundred as good as hee.
61
‘Yett shall not Scotts nor Scottland say
but I will vengeance take,
And be revenged on them all
for braue Erle Percyes sake.’
62
This vow the king did well performe
after on Humble-downe;
In one day fifty knights were slayne,
with lords of great renowne.
63
And of the rest, of small account,
did many hundreds dye:
Thus endeth the hunting in Cheuy Chase,
made by the Erle Pearcye.
64
God saue our king, and blesse this land
with plentye, ioy, and peace,
And grant hencforth that foule debate
twixt noble men may ceaze!
A.
Without division of stanzas, and in long lines, in the MS., and so printed by Hearne, Wright, and Skeat.
“The MS. is a mere scribble, and the spelling very unsatisfactory:” Skeat.
12. and A vowe: for avowe, see 631.
14. days iij.
32. xv. C archardes.
34. iij.
51. 301, 371. throrowe.
71. Ther: cf. 41.
81. mot.
103. war ath the.
111. brylly and.
121. xx. C.
224. Herry the iiij..
243. mor athe: athe chyviat.
271. in iii..
361. A narrowe.
392. years iij..
431. athe.
441. A narchar.
452. haylde.
482. A nowar.
501. xvC.
502. vijx.
503. xxC.
603. A-nothar.
612. the iiij..
613. cheyff tenante.
623. a C..
681. ballys.
And for & always.
Expliceth quoth Rychard Sheale.
B. a.
13. there was.
34. 3.
61. 1500.
81. a 100.
94. that they.
133. 20.
141. pleasant men of.
253. 2.
271. bend.
283, 311. 2.
313. Lyons moods.
363. who scorke Erle.
383. thy sake; but compare A 411. b, c, have life; sake was caught from 392.
41. 2d parte.
432. that his body.
481. slaine. There is a dot for the i, but nothing more in the MS.: Furnivall.
493. & good.
502. in too full; perhaps wofull.
533. 20.
534. 55.
541. 1500.
542. 53.
553. They washt they.
563. a 1000.
591. in Cheuy chase was slaine.
604. 500.
623. 50.
And always for &.
b, c, d, e.
b, c, d (and I suppose e), in stanzas of eight lines.
b.
A memorable song vpon the vnhappy hunting in Cheuy Chase betweene the Earle Pearcy of England and Earle Dowglas of Scotland. To the tune of Flying Fame.
London, Printed for M. G. Error for H. G.? Henry Gosson (1607–41).
c.
A Memorable song on the unhappy Hunting in Chevy-Chase between Earl Piercy of England and Earl Dowglas of Scotland. Tune of Flying Fame.
Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere and J. Wright. (1655–80?)
d.
Title as in c. To the tune, etc.
Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere and W. Gilbertson. (1648–61?)
e.
An Unhappy Memorable Song of the Hunting; the rest as in d.
Licensd and Enterd according to Order.
London, Priented by and for W. Onley, and are to be sold by C. Bates, at the Sun and Bible in Pye-corner, (1650–1702?)
13. d. The woful.
14. there did.
22. his way.
43. e. The tidings.
53. fearing this.
71. gray-hounds.
74. when day light.
82. b, c, d. an.
84. c, d, e. rouze them up.
93. d. The.
94. that day.
103. c, d, e. And with.
113. c, d, e. once wanting.
121. e. If that I.
141. b. pleasant men of. c, d, e. men of pleasant.
143. Then cease your sport.
153. c, d, e. For never was their (there).
154. or in.
162. b, c. but if. d. but since.
163. d. I wanting.
171. c, d, e. on a.
173. c, d, e. of the.
181. c, d, e. he said.
191. The man that first.
194. c, d. now shew.
201. b, c, d. Yet will we.
223. b, c, d. Then wanting. e. And for any. c, e. harmless.
224. c, d, e. no ill.
233. be he. c, d, e. Lord P.
234. c, d, e. this is.
243. c, d. said he would.
251. d. ever.
252. c, d, e. I stood.
253. d. two be. b. quod W. c, d, e. said W.
271. bent.
274. c, e. threescore.
282. c, d, e. Earl D. c. had the bent. d. bad the bent.
283. A captain: mickle pride.
284. The spears. e. sent for went.
293. And many.
301. b. a for great.
302. b. each one chose. c, d, e. and likewise for to hear.
303,4. c, d, e. The cries of men lying in their gore, and scattered here and there.
313. lions mov’d.
314. and made.
323. Vntill the blood like drops of raine.
331. Yeeld thee Lord Piercy.
332. and wanting.
333. shalt.
334. b. with Iames. d. the for our.
341. c, d. will I.
342. and thus.
344. that ever I did see.
351. e. To for Noe.
363. b. And stroke E. D. to the heart. c, d, e. Which struck E. D. to the heart.
364. e. and a.
371. c, d, e. never spake (spoke).
373. at an end.
383. c, d, e. And said. b, c, d, e. thy life.
392. with sorrow.
393. c, d, e. more renowned.
394. c, d. did. e. did ever.
401. b. among.
403. in wrath.
404. the Earl.
412. c, e. most bright.
432. b. his body he did. c, d, e. he did his body.
433. c, d, e. The spear went.
441. c, d, e. So thus. b. both these two. c, e. these.
451. b. a good bow in. c, d, e. a bow bent in.
454. c, d, e. unto the head drew he.
461. d. Montgomery then.
462. so right his shaft.
464. heart.
471. fight did last from break of day.
481. c, d, e. With the Earl.
482. Ogerton.
483. c, d, e. Ratcliff and Sir Iohn.
491. and good.
493. And (of a) wanting.
502. b. wofull. c, d, e. doleful.
504. b. still vpon.
513. And wanting: the field. c, e. Charles Currel.
514. flye.
521. b. Sir Robert. c, d, e. Sir Charles Murrel of Ratcliff too.
522. d. sisters sisters.
523. c, d, e. Lamb so well.
524. yet saved could.
531. Markwell: c, d, e. in likewise.
532. did with E. Dowglas dye.
533. b, d. peers for speeres.
543. c, d, e. rest were slain in C. C.
564. c, d, e. when for ere.
571. c, d, e. This news.
581. did say.
582. can for may.
594. was slain in Chevy Chase.
602. twill.
611. c, e. Scot.
614. e. Lord for Erle.
621. c, d, e. vow full well the king performd.
624. b. of high.
633. ended. d. of for in.
634. b. Lord for Erle.
641. c, d, e. the king: the land.
642. c, d, e. in plenty.
f.
The copy reprinted by Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs Historical and Traditionary, 1868, I, 80. This copy was given Maidment by Mr Gibb, “for many years one of the sub-librarians in the library of the Faculty of Advocates. It had belonged to his grandmother, and was probably printed in Edinburgh about the beginning of the last or end of the preceding century.”
53. fearing him.
61. twenty hundred.
133. fifteen hundred.
141. All pleasant men, as in a, b.
271. Our Scotish archers bent.
274. they four score English slew.
282. Douglas bade on the bent.
301. O but it was a grief to see; and again, 391, O but for O Christ.
463. wings that were.
464. were.
504. fought still on the stumps.
533. Of fifteen hundred.
534. went hame but fifty three.
541. twenty hundred.
542. scarce fifty five did flee.
554. could.
564. when they were cold as clay.
581. 60 is substituted here.
60. 58 is substituted, with change of James to Henry, and, in the next line, of Scotland to England.
61, 62 are omitted.
631. Now of.
643. debates.
163
THE BATTLE OF HARLAW
A. a. Communicated by Charles Elphinstone Dalrymple, Esq., of Kinaldie, Aberdeenshire. b. Notes and Queries, Third Series, VII, 393, communicated by A. Ferguson.
B. The Thistle of Scotland, 1823, p. 92.
The copy of this ballad which was printed by Aytoun, 1858, I, 75, was derived by Lady John Scott from a friend of Mr Dalrymple’s, and when it left Mr Dalrymple’s hands was in the precise form of A a. Some changes were made in the text published by Aytoun, and four stanzas, 14–16, 18, were dropped, the first three to the advantage of the ballad, and quite in accordance with the editor’s plan. Mr Dalrymple informs me that in his younger days he had essayed to improve the last two lines of stanza 7 by the change,
We’d best cry in our merry men
And turn our horses’ head,
and had rearranged stanzas 18, 19, “which were absolutely chaotic,” adhering, however, closely to the sense. A b, given in Notes and Queries, from a manuscript, as “the original version of this ballad,” exhibits the changes made by Mr Dalrymple, and was therefore, one would suppose, founded upon his copy. Half a century ago the ballad was familiar to the people, and the variations of b, which are not few, may be traditional, and not arbitrary; for this reason it has been thought best not to pass them over. The Great North of Scotland Railway, A Guide, by W. Ferguson, Edinburgh, 1881, contains, p. 8 f, a copy which is evidently compounded from A b and Aytoun. It adds this variation of the last stanza:
Gin ony body spier at ye
For the men ye took awa,
They’re sleepin soun and in their sheen
I the howe aneath Harlaw.
The editor of The Thistle of Scotland treats the ballad as a burlesque, and “not worth the attention of the public,” on which ground he refrains from printing more than three stanzas, one of these being 15; and certainly both this and that which follows it have a dash of the unheroic and even of the absurd. Possibly there were others in the same strain in the version known to Laing, but all such may fairly be regarded as wanton depravations, of a sort which other and highly esteemed ballads have not escaped.
The battle of Harlaw was fought on the 24th July, 1411. Donald of the Isles, to maintain his claim to the Earldom of Ross,[[181]] invaded the country south of the mountains with ten thousand islanders and men of Ross (ravaging everywhere as he advanced) in the hope of sacking Aberdeen, and reducing to his power the country as far as the Tay. There was universal alarm in those parts. He was met at Harlaw, eighteen miles northwest of Aberdeen, by Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar, and Alexander Ogilby, sheriff of Angus, with the forces of Mar, Garioch, Angus, and The Mearns, and his further progress was stayed. The Celts lost more than nine hundred, the Lowlanders five hundred, including nearly all the gentry of Buchan. (Scotichronicon, II, 444 f.) This defeat was in the interest of civilization against savagery, and was felt, says Burton, “as a more memorable deliverance even than that of Bannockburn.” (History of Scotland, 1883, II, 394.)
As might be expected, the Lowlanders made a ballad about this hard fight. ‘The battel of the Hayrlau’ is noted among other popular songs, in immediate connection with ‘The Hunttis of Chevet,’ by the author of The Complaint of Scotland, 1549 (Murray’s edition, p. 65), but most unfortunately this ancient song, unlike Chevy Chase, has been lost. There is a well-known poem upon the battle, in thirty-one eight-line stanzas, printed by Ramsay, in his Ever Green, 1724, I, 78.[[182]] David Laing believed that it had been printed long before. “An edition,” he says, “printed in the year 1668, was in the curious library of old Robert Myln” (Early Metrical Tales, p. xlv.) In the catalogue of Myln’s books there is entered, apparently as one of a bundle of pamphlets, “Harlaw, The Battle yrof, An. 1411 ... 1668,”[[183]] and the entry may reasonably be taken to refer to the poem printed by Ramsay. This piece is not in the least of a popular character. It has the same artificial rhyme as The Raid of the Reid Swyre and The Battle of Balrinnes, but in every other respect is prose. Mr Norval Clyne, Ballads from Scottish History, p. 244 ff, has satisfactorily shown that the author used Boece’s History, and even, in a way, translated some of Boece’s phrases.
The story of the traditional ballad is, at the start, put into the mouth of a Highlander, who meets Sir James the Rose and Sir John the Gryme, and is asked for information about Macdonell; but after stanza 8, these gentlemen having gone to the field, the narrator describes what he saw as he went on and further on. It is somewhat surprising that John Highlandman should be strolling about in this idle way when he should have been with Macdonell. The narrator[[184]] in the Ever Green poem reports at second hand: as he is walking, he meets a man who, upon request, tells him the beginning and the end.[[185]] Both pieces have nearly the same first line. The borrowing was more probably on the part of the ballad, for a popular ballad would be likely to tell its tale without preliminaries.
A ballad taken down some four hundred years after the event will be apt to retain very little of sober history. It is almost a matter of course that Macdonell should fall, though in fact he was not even routed, but only forced to retire. It was vulgarly said in Major’s time that the Highlanders were beaten: they turned and ran awa, says the ballad. Donaldum non fugarunt, says Major, and even the ballad, inconsistently, ‘Ye’d scarce known who had won.’ We are not disconcerted at the Highland force being quintupled, or the battle’s lasting from Monday morning till Saturday gloaming: diuturna erat pugna, says Major. But the ignoring of so marked a personage as Mar, and of other men of high local distinction that fell in the battle,[[186]] in favor of the Forbeses, who, though already of consequence in Aberdeenshire, are not recorded to have taken any part in the fight, is perhaps more than might have been looked for, and must dispose us to believe that this particular ballad had its rise in comparatively recent times.
Dunidier is a conspicuous hill on the old road to Aberdeen, and Netherha is within two miles of it. (Overha and Netherha are only a mile apart, and the one reading is as good as the other.) Harlaw is a mile north from Balquhain (pronounced Bawhyne), and precisely at a right angle to John Highlandman’s route from the West. Drumminor (to which Brave Forbes sends for his mail-coat in stanza 15) was above twenty miles away, and the messenger would have to pass right through the Highland army. The fact that Drumminor ceased to be the head-castle of that powerful name in the middle of the last century tells in some degree in favor of the age of the ballad. (Notes of Mr Dalrymple.)
“The tune to which the ballad is sung, a particularly wild and simple one, I venture to believe,” says Mr Dalrymple, “is of the highest antiquity.” A tune of The Battle of Harlaw, as Motherwell pointed out, Minstrelsy lxii, is referred to in Polemo Middiana;[[187]] and a “march, or rather pibroch,” held to be this same air, is given in the Lute Book of Sir William Mure of Rowallan, p. 30, and is reproduced in Dauney’s Ancient Scotish Melodies, p. 349 (see the same work, p. 138 f, note b.) Sir William Mure is said to have died in 1657. The Ever Green Harlaw is adapted to an air in Johnson’s Museum, No 512, and “The Battle of Hardlaw, a pibroch,” is given in Stenhouse’s Illustrations, IV, 447, 1853, “from a folio MS. of Scots tunes, of considerable antiquity.” This last air occurs, says Maidment, in the rare Collection of Ancient Scots Music (c. 1776) by Daniel Dow, “The Battle of Hara Law,” p. 28: Scotish Ballads, etc., I, 200.