[431] Collection of Historical Ballads in 3 vol. 1727.
[432] See above, pp. [108], 216.
[433] Ver. 29. were to him gorse and birches. Other Copies.
[434] [Wharncliffe is about six miles from Rotherham.]
XIV.
ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND.
The First Part.
As the former song is in ridicule of the extravagant incidents in old ballads and metrical romances; so this is a burlesque of their style; particularly of the rambling transitions and wild accumulations of unconnected parts, so frequent in many of them.
This ballad is given from an old black-letter copy in the Pepys collection, "imprinted at London, 1612." It is more ancient than many of the preceding; but we place it here for the sake of connecting it with the Second Part.