[984] [cottage.]
[VII]
DOWSABELL.
The following stanzas were written by Michael Drayton, a poet of some eminence in the reigns of Q. Elizabeth, James I. and Charles I.[985] They are inserted in one of his Pastorals, the first edition of which bears this whimsical title, "Idea. The Shepheards Garland fashioned in nine Eglogs. Rowlands sacrifice to the nine muses. Lond. 1593." 4to. They are inscribed with the author's name at length "To the noble and valerous gentleman master Robert Dudley, &c." It is very remarkable that when Drayton reprinted them in the first folio edit. of his works, 1619, he had given those Eclogues so thorough a revisal, that there is hardly a line to be found the same as in the old edition. This poem had received the fewest corrections, and therefore is chiefly given from the ancient copy, where it is thus introduced by one of his Shepherds:
"Listen to mee, my lovely shepheards joye.
And thou shall heare, with mirth and mickle glee,
A pretie tale, which when I was a boy,
My toothles grandame oft hath tolde to me."
The author has professedly imitated the style and metre of some of the old metrical romances, particularly that of Sir Isenbras[986] (alluded to in v. 3), as the reader may judge from the following specimen:
"Lordynges, lysten, and you shal here, &c.
* * * * *
Ye shall well heare of a knight,
That was in warre full wyght,
And doughtye of his dede:
His name was Syr Isenbras,
Man nobler then he was
Lyved none with breade.
He was lyvely, large, and longe,
With shoulders broade, and armes stronge,
That myghtie was to se:
He was a hardye man, and hye,
All men hym loved that hym se,
For a gentyll knight was he:
Harpers loved him in hall,
With other minstrells all,
For he gave them golde and fee," &c.
This ancient legend was printed in black-letter, 4to. by Wyllyam Copland; no date.[987] In the Cotton Library (Calig. A 2) is a MS. copy of the same romance containing the greatest variations. They are probably two different translations of some French original.