[The edition of Richard Arnold's Chronicle (1521) mentioned above, is the second; and the first, which is undated, was printed at Antwerp in 1502. This edition is described in Brydges' Censurä Literaria (vol. vi. p. 114), where the Nut-Brown Maid is printed. A copy from the Balliol MS. 354, of about the same date, is printed in Percy's folio manuscript, ed. Hales and Furnivall, vol iii. p. 174. Warton will not allow that the poem was written before the beginning of the sixteenth century, but as Percy says, it is highly improbable that an antiquary would insert a modern piece in his miscellany of curiosities.
Percy has inserted the following note in his folio MS.: "From the concluding words of this last stanza—
['but men wold that men shold
be kind to them eche one,
yett I had rather, god to obay
and serve but him alone']
it should seem that the author was a woman."
Mr. Skeat remarks that the part of the fourth stanza before the woman speaks, and the first two verses, are still more conclusive on this point. On the other side it is noticeable that the author speaks as a man at line 353:
"... that we may
To them be comfortable;"
but this may only be a blind.
Few readers will agree with Percy's estimate of Prior's poem, and Henry and Emma is now only remembered because of its connection with the Nut-Brown Maid.
Warton justly points out how the simplicity of the original is decorated, dilated, and consequently spoilt by Prior, who crowds his verses with zephyrs, Chloe, Mars, the Cyprian deity, &c. Such lay figures as these are quite out of keeping with the realities of this most exquisite poem.