Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume 1 (of 3)
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Title: Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume 1 (of 3)
Editor: Thomas Percy
Henry B. Wheatley
Release date: June 11, 2014 [eBook #45939]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RELIQUES OF ANCIENT ENGLISH POETRY, VOLUME 1 (OF 3) ***
[Illustration]
PERCY'S RELIQUES
[Illustration]
RELIQUES OF
ANCIENT ENGLISH
POETRY
CONSISTING OF OLD HEROIC BALLADS, SONGS AND
OTHER PIECES OF OUR EARLIER POETS
TOGETHER WITH SOME FEW
OF LATER DATE
BY
THOMAS PERCY, D.D.
BISHOP OF DROMORE
EDITED, WITH A GENERAL INTRODUCTION, ADDITIONAL
PREFACES, NOTES, GLOSSARY, ETC.
BY
HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A.
IN THREE VOLUMES
VOL. I
LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD.
RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.1
First Published by Swan Sonnenschein _April 1885_
Reprinted _August 1891_
" _August 1899_
" _December 1909_
" _January 1927_
PRINTED BY THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH
GREAT BRITAIN
[Illustration]
CONTENTS OF VOLUME THE FIRST
PAGE
Editor's Preface ix
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The Minstrels xiii
Ballads and Ballad Writers xxiv
Imitators and Forgers xliv
Authenticity of Certain Ballads xlviii
Preservers of the Ballads lviii
Life of Percy lxxi
Folio MS. and the _Reliques_ lxxxi
Ballad Literature since Percy xci
Dedications 1
Advertisement to the fourth edition 4
Preface 7
BOOK THE FIRST
1. The ancient Ballad of Chevy-chase 19
2. The Battle of Otterbourne 35
Illustration of the Names in the foregoing ballads 51
3. The Jew's Daughter. A Scottish Ballad 54
4. Sir Cauline 61
Copy from the Folio MS. 76
5. Edward, Edward. A Scottish Ballad 82
6. King Estmere 85
On the word Termagant 96
7. Sir Patrick Spence. A Scottish Ballad 98
8. Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne 102
9. An Elegy on Henry Fourth, Earl of Northumberland, by Skelton 117
10. The Tower of Doctrine, by Stephen Hawes 127
11. The Child of Elle 131
Fragment from the Folio MS. 138
12. Edom o' Gordon. A Scottish Ballad 140
Captain Carre, from the Folio MS 148
BOOK THE SECOND.
(_Containing Ballads that illustrate Shakespeare._)
1. Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudesley 153
2. The aged Lover renounceth Love, by Lord Vaux 179
3. Jephthah judge of Israel 182
4. A Robyn Jolly Robyn 185
5. A Song to the lute in musicke, by R. Edwards 187
6. King Cophetua and the Beggar-maid 189
7. Take thy old cloak about thee 195
8. Willow, Willow, Willow 199
9. Sir Lancelot du Lake 204
10. Corydon's Farewell to Phillis 209
The Ballad of constant Susanna 209
11. Gernutus the Jew of Venice 211
12. The passionate Shepherd to his Love, by Marlowe 220
The Nymph's Reply, by Sir W. Raleigh 223
13. Titus Andronicus's Complaint 224
14. Take those lips away 230
15. King Leir and his three daughters 231
16. Youth and Age, by Shakespeare 237
17. The Frolicksome Duke, or the Tinker's good Fortune 238
18. The Friar of Orders Gray, by Percy 242
BOOK THE THIRD.
1. The more modern Ballad of Chevy-chace 249
Illustration of the Northern Names 263
2. Death's final Conquest, by James Shirley 264
3. The Rising in the North 266
Copy from the Folio MS 274
4. Northumberland betrayed by Douglas 279
Copy from the Folio MS 289
5. My Mind to me a Kingdom is, by Sir Edward Dyer 294
6. The Patient Countess, by W. Warner 298
7. Dowsabell, by M. Drayton 304
8. The Farewell to Love, from Beaumont and Fletcher 310
9. Ulysses and the Syren, by S. Daniel 311
10. Cupid's Pastime, by Davison 314
11. The character of a happy life, by Sir H. Wotton. 317
12. Gilderoy. A Scottish Ballad 318
13. Winifreda 323
14. The Witch of Wokey 325
15. Bryan and Pereene. A West Indian Ballad, by Dr. Grainger 328
16. Gentle River, Gentle River. Translated from the Spanish 331
17. Alcanzor and Zayda, a Moorish Tale 338
APPENDIX I.
An Essay on the Ancient Minstrels in England 343
Notes and Illustrations 382
APPENDIX II.
On the Origin of the English Stage, &c 431
Index to Vol. I 459
ERRATA.
Page 27, Note [142], after _Fit_ read "see vol. 2, p. 182."
Page 76, add [***] at end of _Sir Cauline_.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
EDITOR'S PREFACE
In undertaking the supervision of a new edition of the _Reliques of
Ancient English Poetry_, I felt that no safer or better guidance
could be followed than that of Bishop Percy himself; and as he always
strove, in the several editions published by himself, to embody therein
the sum of the knowledge of his times, so I, following at a distance,
have endeavoured, by gathering from many quarters particulars published
since his death, to make his book still more worthy of the great
reputation it has acquired.
Each edition published during the lifetime of the author contained
large additions and corrections; but since the publication of the
fourth edition, in 1794, no changes worth mentioning have been made,
with the exception of such as occur in a revision brought out by the
Rev. R. A. Willmott in 1857. His object, however, was to form a handy
volume, and he therefore cleared away all Percy's Essays and Prefaces,
and added short notices of his own, founded on Percy's facts, and, in
some instances, on recent information.
The desire for a new edition of the _Reliques_ has more particularly
grown since the publication of the original folio MS. in 1867, and I
trust that the readers of the present edition may feel disposed to
accept it as in some degree satisfying this desire.
In the preparation of the present edition, the whole of Percy's work
has been reprinted from his fourth edition, which contains his last
touches; and in order that no confusion should be occasioned to the
reader, all my notes and additions have been placed between brackets.
The chief of these are the additional prefaces to the various pieces,
the glossarial notes at the foot of the page, and the collation of
such pieces as are taken from the folio MS. The complete glossary,
which will be appended to the third volume, might seem to render the
glossarial notes unnecessary; but there may be some readers who will
find them useful. With regard to the pieces taken from the folio
MS., the originals have been printed after Percy's copies in those
cases which had undergone considerable alterations. Readers have now,
therefore, before them complete materials for forming an opinion as to
the use the Bishop made of his manuscript.
After commencing my work, I found that to treat the Essays
interspersed throughout the book as the Prefaces had been treated,
would necessitate so many notes and corrections as to cause confusion;
and as the Essays on the English Stage, and the Metrical Romances,
are necessarily out of date, the trouble expended would not have been
repaid by the utility of the result. I have, therefore, thrown them to
the end of their respective volumes, where they can be read exactly as
Percy left them.
In concluding these explanations, I have much pleasure in expressing
my thanks to those friends who have assisted me, and to those writers
without whose previous labours mine could not have been performed,
more particularly to Messrs. Furnivall and Hales, who most kindly gave
me permission to use any part of their edition of the folio MS. To
Mr. Hales I am also indebted for many valuable hints, of which I have
gladly availed myself.
HENRY B. WHEATLEY.
[Illustration]
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Several questions of general interest have arisen for discussion by
the editor during the work of revision. Notes upon these have been
brought together, so as to form an introduction, which it is hoped
may be of some use to the readers of the _Reliques_, in the absence
of an exhaustive compilation, which has yet to be made. Here there is
no attempt at completeness of treatment, and the notes are roughly
arranged under the following headings:--
The Minstrels.
Ballads and Ballad Writers.
Imitators and Forgers.
Authenticity of certain Ballads.
Preservers of the Ballads.
Life of Percy.
Folio MS. and the _Reliques_.
Ballad Literature since Percy.
THE MINSTRELS.
When Percy wrote the opening sentence in his first sketch of that
"Essay on the Ancient English Minstrels" (1765), which was the
foundation of the literature of the subject, he little expected the
severe handling he was to receive from the furious Ritson for his
hasty utterance. His words were, "The minstrels seem to have been the
genuine successors of the ancient bards, who united the arts of poetry
and music, and sung verses to the harp of their own composing." The
bishop was afterwards convinced, from Ritson's remarks, that the rule
he had enunciated was too rigid, and in the later form of the Essay he
somewhat modified his language. The last portion of the sentence then
stood, "composed by themselves or others," and a note was added to the
effect that he was "wedded to no hypothesis."
Sir Walter Scott criticised the controversy in his interesting article
on _Romance_ in the supplement to the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, where
he wrote: "When so popular a department of poetry has attained this
decided character, it becomes time to inquire who were the composers
of these numerous, lengthened, and once-admired narratives which are
called metrical romances, and from whence they drew their authority.
Both these subjects of discussion have been the source of great
controversy among antiquarians; a class of men who, be it said with
their forgiveness, are apt to be both positive and polemical upon the
very points which are least susceptible of proof, and which are least
valuable if the truth could be ascertained; and which, therefore, we
would gladly have seen handled with more diffidence and better temper
in proportion to their uncertainty." After some remarks upon the
essays of Percy and Ritson, he added, "Yet there is so little room for
this extreme loss of temper, that upon a recent perusal of both these
ingenious essays, we were surprised to find that the reverend editor of
the _Reliques_ and the accurate antiquary have differed so very little
as in essential facts they appear to have done. Quotations are indeed
made by both with no sparing hand; and hot arguments, and on one side,
at least, hard words are unsparingly employed; while, as is said to
happen in theological polemics, the contest grows warmer in proportion
as the ground concerning which it is carried on is narrower and more
insignificant. In reality their systems do not essentially differ."
Ritson's great object was to set forth more clearly than Percy had done
that the term _minstrel_ was a comprehensive one, including the poet,
the singer, and the musician, not to mention the _fablier_, _conteur_,
_jugleur_, _baladin_, &c.
Ritson delighted in collecting instances of the degradation into which
the minstrel gradually sank, and, with little of Percy's taste, he
actually preferred the ballad-writer's songs to those of the minstrel.
Percy, on the other hand, gathered together all the material he could
to set the minstrel in a good light. There is abundant evidence that
the latter was right in his view of the minstrel's position in feudal
times, but there were grades in this profession as in others, and
law-givers doubtless found it necessary to control such Bohemians as
wandered about the country without licence. The minstrel of a noble
house was distinguished by bearing the badge of his lord attached to
a silver chain, and just as in later times the players who did not
bear the name of some courtier were the subjects of parliamentary
enactments, so the unattached minstrels were treated as vagrants.
Besides the minstrels of great lords, there were others attached to
important cities. On May 26, 1298, as appears by the Wardrobe accounts
of Edward I., that king gave 6_s._ 8_d._ to Walter Lovel, the harper
of Chichester, whom he found playing the harp before the tomb of St.
Richard in the Cathedral of Chichester.
Waits were formerly attached to most corporate towns, and were, in
fact, the corporation minstrels. They wore a livery and a badge, and
were formed into a sort of guild. No one, even were he an inhabitant
of the town, was suffered to play in public who was not free of the
guild. Besides singing out the hours of the night, and warning the town
against dangers, they accompanied themselves with the harp, the pipe,
the hautboy, and other instruments. They played in the town for the
gratification of the inhabitants, and attended the mayor on all state
occasions. At the mayor's feast they occupied the minstrels' gallery.
From the merchants' guild book at Leicester, it appears that as early
as 1314 "Hugh the Trumpeter" was made free of the guild, and in 1481
"Henry Howman, a harper," was also made free, while in 1499 "Thomas
Wylkyns, Wayte," and in 1612 "Thomas Pollard, musician," were likewise
admitted.[1]
Percy collected so many facts concerning the old minstrels, that it is
not necessary to add much to his stock of information, especially as,
though a very interesting subject in itself, it has really very little
to do with the contents of the _Reliques_.
The knightly Troubadours and Trouvères, and such men as Taillefer, the
Norman minstrel, who at the battle of Hastings advanced on horseback
before the invading host, and gave the signal for attack by singing the
Song of Roland, who died at Roncesvalles, had little in common with the
authors of the ballads in this book.
The wise son of Sirach enumerates among those famous men who are worthy
to be praised "such as found out musical tunes, and recited verses in
writing;" but, according to Hector Boece, the early Scottish kings
thought otherwise. In the Laws of Kenneth II., "bardis" are mentioned
with vagabonds, fools, and idle persons, to be scourged and burnt on
the cheek, unless they found some work by which to live; and the same
laws against them were, according to Boece, still in force in the
reign of Macbeth, nearly two centuries later. Better times, however,
came, and Scotch bards and minstrels were highly favoured in the reign
of James III.; but the sunshine did not last long. In 1574, "pipers,
fiddlers, and minstrels" are again branded with the opprobrious term of
vagabonds, and threatened with severe penalties; and the Regent Morton
induced the Privy Council to issue an edict that "nane tak upon hand
to emprent or sell whatsoever book, ballet, or other werk," without
its being examined and licensed, under pain of death and confiscation
of goods. In August, 1579, two poets of Edinburgh (William Turnbull,
schoolmaster, and William Scot, notar, "baith weel belovit of the
common people for their common offices"), were hanged for writing a
satirical ballad against the Earl of Morton; and in October of the
same year, the Estates passed an Act against beggars and "sic as
make themselves fules and are bards ... minstrels, sangsters, and
tale tellers, not avowed in special service by some of the lords of
parliament or great burghs."
The minstrels had their several rounds, and, as a general rule, did not
interfere with each other; but it is probable that they occasionally
made a foray into other districts, in order to replenish their worn-out
stock of songs.
One of the last of the true minstrels was Richard Sheale, who enjoys
the credit of having preserved the old version of _Chevy Chase_. He was
for a time in the service of Edward, Earl of Derby, and wrote an elegy
on the Countess, who died in January, 1558. He afterwards followed
the profession of a minstrel at Tamworth, and his wife was a "sylke
woman," who sold shirts, head clothes, and laces, &c., at the fairs of
Lichfield and other neighbouring towns. On one occasion, when he left
Tamworth on horseback, with his harp in his hand, he had the misfortune
to be robbed by four highwaymen, who lay in wait for him near Dunsmore
Heath. He wrote a long account of his misfortune in verse,[2] in which
he describes the grief of himself and his wife at their great loss,
and laments over the coldness of worldly friends. He was robbed of
threescore pounds--a large amount in those days--not obtained, however,
from the exercise of his own skill, but by the sale of his wife's
wares. This money was to be devoted to the payment of their debts,
and in order that the carriage of it should not be a burden to him he
changed it all for gold. He thought he might carry it safely, as no one
would suspect a minstrel of possessing so much property, but he found
to his cost that he had been foolishly bold. To add to his affliction,
some of his acquaintances grieved him by saying that he was a lying
knave, and had not been robbed, as it was not possible for a minstrel
to have so much money. There was a little sweetness, however, in the
poor minstrel's cup, for patrons were kind, and his loving neighbours
at Tamworth exerted themselves to help him. They induced him to brew a
bushel of malt, and sell the ale.
All this is related in a poem, which gives a vivid picture of the life
of the time, although the verse does not do much credit to the poet's
skill.
When the minstrel class had fallen to utter decay in England, it
flourished with vigour in Wales; and we learn that the harpers and
fiddlers were prominent figures in the Cymmortha, or gatherings of the
people for mutual aid. These assemblies were of a similar character to
the "Bees," which are common among our brethren in the United States.
They were often abused for political purposes, and they gave some
trouble to Burghley as they had previously done to Henry IV. In the
reign of that king a statute was passed forbidding rhymers, minstrels,
&c. from making the Cymmortha. The following extract from a MS. in the
Lansdowne Collection in the British Museum, on the state of Wales in
Elizabeth's reign, shows the estimation in which the minstrels were
then held:--
"Upon the Sundays and holidays the multitudes of all sorts of
men, women, and children of every parish do use to meet in sundry
places, either on some hill or on the side of some mountain, where
their harpers and crowthers sing them songs of the doings of their
ancestors."[3]
Ben Jonson introduces "Old Father Rosin," the chief minstrel of
Highgate, as one of the principal characters in his _Tale of a
Tub_; and the blind harpers continued for many years to keep up the
remembrance of the fallen glories of the minstrel's profession. Tom
D'Urfey relates how merrily _blind Tom_ harped, and mention is made
of "honest Jack Nichols, the harper," in Tom Brown's _Letters from_
_the Dead to the Living_ (Works, ii. 191). Sir Walter Scott, in the
article on _Romance_ referred to above, tells us that "about fifty
or sixty years since" (which would be about the year 1770) "a person
acquired the nickname of 'Roswal and Lillian,' from singing that
romance about the streets of Edinburgh, which is probably the very last
instance of the proper minstrel craft." Scott himself, however, gives
later instances in the introduction to the _Minstrelsy of the Scottish
Border_. He there writes: "It is certain that till a very late period
the pipers, of whom there was one attached to each border town of note,
and whose office was often hereditary, were the great depositaries of
oral, and particularly of poetical tradition. About spring-time, and
after harvest, it was the custom of these musicians to make a progress
through a particular district of the country. The music and the tale
repaid their lodging, and they were usually gratified, with a donation
of seed corn. This order of minstrels is alluded to in the comic song
of _Maggy Lauder_, who thus addresses a piper:
'Live ye upo' the border?'"[4]
To this is added the following note:--"These town pipers, an
institution of great antiquity upon the borders, were certainly
the last remains of the minstrel race. Robin Hastie, town piper of
Jedburgh, perhaps the last of the order, died nine or ten years ago;
his family was supposed to have held the office for about three
centuries. Old age had rendered Robin a wretched performer, but he
knew several old songs and tunes, which have probably died along with
him. The town-pipers received a livery and salary from the community
to which they belonged; and in some burghs they had a small allotment
of land, called the Pipers' Croft." Scott further adds:--"Other
itinerants, not professed musicians, found their welcome to their
night's quarters readily ensured by their knowledge in legendary lore.
John Græme, of Sowport, in Cumberland, commonly called the Long Quaker,
a person of this latter description, was very lately alive, and several
of the songs now published have been taken down from his recitation." A
note contains some further particulars of this worthy:--"This person,
perhaps the last of our professed ballad reciters, died since the
publication of the first edition of this work. He was by profession an
itinerant cleaner of clocks and watches, but a stentorian voice and
tenacious memory qualified him eminently for remembering accurately and
reciting with energy the border gathering songs and tales of war. His
memory was latterly much impaired, yet the number of verses which he
could pour forth, and the animation of his tone and gestures, formed
a most extraordinary contrast to his extreme feebleness of person and
dotage of mind." Ritson, in mentioning some relics of the minstrel
class, writes:--"It is not long since that the public papers announced
the death of a person of this description somewhere in Derbyshire; and
another from the county of Gloucester was within these few years to be
seen in the streets of London; he played on an instrument of the rudest
construction, which he properly enough called a _humstrum_, and chanted
(amongst others) the old ballad of _Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor_,
which, by the way, has every appearance of being originally a minstrel
song." He adds further in a note:--"He appeared again in January, 1790,
and called upon the present writer in the April following. He was
between sixty and seventy years of age, but had not been brought up to
the profession of a minstrel, nor possessed any great store of songs,
of which that mentioned in the text seemed the principal. Having, it
would seem, survived his minstrel talents, and forgot his epic, nay
Pindaric art, he has been of late frequently observed begging in the
streets."[5]
These quotations relate to the end of the last or to the very early
part of the present century, but we can add a notice of minstrels
who lived well on towards the middle of this century. Mr. J. H.
Dixon, in the preface to his _Scottish Traditional Versions of
Ancient Ballads_, printed for the Percy Society in 1845, writes as
follows:--"Although the harp has long been silent in the dales of the
north of England and Scotland, it has been succeeded by the violin,
and a class of men are still in existence and pursuing their calling,
who are the regular descendants and representatives of the minstrels
of old. In his rambles amongst the hills of the North, and especially
in the wild and romantic dales of Yorkshire, the editor has met with
several of these characters. They are not idle vagabonds who have no
other calling, but in general are honest and industrious, though poor
men, having a local habitation as well as a name, and engaged in some
calling, pastoral or manual. It is only at certain periods, such as
Christmas, or some other of the great festal seasons of the ancient
church, that they take up the minstrel life, and levy contributions
in the hall of the peer or squire, and in the cottage of the farmer
or peasant. They are in general well-behaved, and often very witty
fellows, and therefore their visits are always welcome. These minstrels
do not sing modern songs, but, like their brethren of a bygone age,
they keep to the ballads. The editor has in his possession some old
poems, which he obtained from one of these minstrels, who is still
living and fiddling in Yorkshire."
In his _Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of
England_, 1846, Mr. Dixon notices one of these relics of the past, viz.
Francis King, who was well known in the western dales of Yorkshire as
"the Skipton Minstrel:"--"This poor minstrel, from whose recitation two
of our ballads were obtained, met his death by drowning in December,
1844. He had been at a merry meeting at Gargrave in Craven, and it is
supposed that owing to the darkness of the night he had mistaken his
homeward road, and walked into the water. He was one in whose character
were combined the mimic and the minstrel, and his old jokes and older
ballads and songs ever insured him a hearty welcome. His appearance
was peculiar, and owing to one leg being shorter than its companion,
he walked in such a manner as once drew from a wag the remark, 'that
few _kings_ had had more ups and downs in the world!' As a musician his
talents were creditable, and some of the dance tunes that he was in the
habit of composing showed that he was not deficient in the organ of
melody. In the quiet churchyard of Gargrave may be seen the minstrel's
grave."
Percy wrote an interesting note upon the division of some of the long
ballads into fits (see vol. ii. p. 182). The minstrel's payment for
each of these fits was a groat; and so common was this remuneration,
that a groat came to be generally spoken of as "fiddler's money."
Puttenham describes the blind harpers and tavern minstrels as giving
a fit of mirth for a groat; and in Ben Jonson's _masque of the
Metamorphosed Gipsies_, 1621, Townshead, the clown, cries out, "I
cannot hold now; there's my groat, let's have a fit for mirth sake."
The payment seems to have remained the same, though the money became
in time reduced in value, so that, as the minstrel fell in repute, his
reward became less. In 1533, however, a Scotch eighteen-penny groat
possessed a considerable buying power, as appears from the following
extract:--
"Sir Walter Coupar, chaplaine in Edinburghe, gate a pynte of vyne, a
laiffe of 36 vnce vaight, a peck of aite meill, a pynte of aill, a
scheipe head, ane penny candell and a faire woman for ane xviii. penny
grotte."[6]
After the Restoration, the sixpence took the place of the groat; and it
is even now a current phrase to say, when several sixpences are given
in change, "What a lot of fiddlers' money!"
BALLADS AND BALLAD WRITERS.
One of the most important duties of the old minstrel was the chanting
of the long romances of chivalry, and the question whether the ballads
were detached portions of the romances, or the romances built up from
ballads, has greatly agitated the minds of antiquaries. There seems
reason to believe that in a large number of instances the most telling
portions of the romance were turned into ballads, and this is certainly
the case in regard to several of those belonging to the Arthurian
cycle. On the other side, such poems as Barbour's _Bruce_ and Blind
Harry's _Wallace_ have, according to Motherwell, swept out of existence
the memory of the ballads from which they were formed. When Barbour
wrote, ballads relative to Bruce and his times were common, "for the
poet, in speaking of certain 'thre worthi poyntis of wer,' omits the
particulars of the 'thrid which fell into Esdaill,' being a victory
gained by 'Schyr Johne the Soullis,' over 'Schyr Andrew Hardclay,' for
this reason:--
'I will nocht rehers the maner,
For wha sa likes thai may her,
Young wemen quhen thai will play,
Syng it amang thaim ilk day.'"[7]
Another instance of the agglutinative process may be cited in the
gradual growth of the Robin Hood ballads into a sort of epic, the first
draught of which we may see in the _Merrye Geste_. The directness and
dramatic cast of the minstrel ballad, however, form a strong argument
in favour of the theory that they were largely taken from the older
romances and chronicles, and the fragmentary appearance of some of them
gives force to this view. Without preface, they go at once straight
to the incident to be described. Frequently the ballad opens with a
conversation, and some explanation of the position of the interlocutors
was probably given by the minstrel as a prose introduction. Motherwell,
in illustration of the opinion that the abrupt transitions of the
ballads were filled up by the explanations of the minstrels, gives the
following modern instance:--
"Traces of such a custom still remain in the lowlands of Scotland
among those who have stores of these songs upon their memory. Reciters
frequently, when any part of the narrative appears incomplete, supply
the defect in prose.... I have heard the ancient ballad of _Young
Beichan and Susan Pye_ dilated by a story-teller into a tale of very
remarkable dimensions--a paragraph of prose, and then a _screed_ of
rhyme, alternately given. From this ballad I may give a short specimen,
after the fashion of the venerable authority from whom I quote: 'Well
ye must know that in the Moor's castle there was a massymore, which is
a dark, deep dungeon for keeping prisoners. It was twenty feet below
the ground, and into this hole they closed poor Beichan. There he
stood, night and day, up to his waist in puddle water; but night or
day, it was all one to him, for no ae styme of light ever got in. So he
lay there a long and weary while, and thinking on his heavy weird, he
made a mournfu' sang to pass the time, and this was the sang that he
made, and grat when he sang it, for he never thought of ever escaping
from the massymore, or of seeing his ain country again:
'My hounds they all ran masterless,
My hawks they flee from tree to tree;
My youngest brother will heir my lands,
And fair England again I'll never see.
Oh were I free as I hae been,
And my ship swimming once more on sea;
I'd turn my face to fair England,
And sail no more to a strange countrie.'
'Now the cruel Moor had a beautiful daughter, called Susan Pye, who was
accustomed to take a walk every morning in her garden, and as she was
walking ae day she heard the sough o' Beichan's sang, coming, as it
were, from below the ground,'" &c.[8]
The contrast between the construction of minstrel ballads and those
of the ballad-mongers who arose as a class in the reign of Elizabeth
is very marked. The ballad-singers who succeeded the minstrels were
sufficiently wise not to reject the treasures of their predecessors,
and many of the old songs were rewritten and lengthened to suit
their purpose. _Sir Patrick Spence_ would perhaps be the best
of the minstrel ballads to oppose to one of the best of the later
ballads, such as the _Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green_; but as its
authenticity has been disputed, it will be well to choose another,
and _Captaine Carre_, which Ritson allows to have been one of the few
minstrel ballads he acknowledges, will do well for the purpose. As both
these poems are before our readers, it will only be necessary to quote
the first stanzas of each. The version in the folio MS. of _Captain
Carre_ commences abruptly thus:--
"ffaith maister, whither you will,
whereas you like the best,
unto the castle of Bitton's borrow,
and there to take your rest."[9]
This is a remarkable contrast to the opening of the _Beggar's
Daughter_:--
"Itt was a blind beggar, had long lost his sight,
He had a faire daughter of bewty most bright;
And many a gallant brave suiter had shee,
For none was soe comelye as pretty Bessee."[10]
Some may think, however, that this ballad is an adaptation by the
ballad-monger from an older original, so that perhaps a still better
instance of the great change in form that the ballads underwent will
be found in the _Children in the Wood_.[11] This favourite ballad is
one of the best specimens of that didactic style which is so natural in
the hands of the master, but degenerates into such tedious twaddle when
copied by the pupil. The first stanza is:--
"Now ponder well, you parents deare,
These wordes, which I shall write;
A doleful story you shall heare,
In time brought forth to light.
A gentleman of good account
In Norfolke dwelt of late,
Who did in honour far surmount
Most men of his estate."
To put the matter simply, we may say that the writer of the old
minstrel ballad expected an unhesitating belief for all his statements.
"If fifteen stalwart foresters are slain by one stout knight,
single-handed, he never steps out of his way to prove the truth of
such an achievement by appealing to the exploits of some other notable
manslayer."[12] On the other hand the professional ballad-writer
gives a reason for everything he states, and in consequence fills
his work with redundancies. Percy understood the characteristics
of the older ballads, and explained the difference between the two
classes of ballads in his _Essay on the Ancient Minstrels_,[13] but
unfortunately he did not bear the distinction in mind when he altered
some of the ballads in the folio MS. So that we find it to have been
his invariable practice to graft the prettinesses and redundancies of
the later writers upon the simplicity of the earlier. For instance,
in his version of _Sir Cauline_ he inserts such well-worn saws as the
following:--
"Everye white will have its blacke,
And everye sweete its sowre:
This founde the ladye Cristabelle
In an untimely howre."[14]
Ritson also remarks upon the distinctive styles of the ancient and
modern writers, but, as observed above, he had the bad taste to prefer
the work of the later ballad-writer. His opinion is given in the
following passage:--"These songs [of the minstrels] from their wild
and licentious metre were incapable of any certain melody or air; they
were chanted in a monotonous stile to the harp or other instrument,
and both themselves and the performers banished by the introduction of
ballad-singers without instruments, who sung printed pieces to fine and
simple melodies, possibly of their own invention, most of which are
known and admired at this day. The latter, owing to the smoothness of
their language, and accuracy of their measure and rime, were thought
to be more poetical than the old harp or instrument songs; and though
critics may judge otherwise, the people at large were to decide, and
did decide: and in some respects, at least, not without justice, as
will be evident from a comparison of the following specimens.
"The first is from the old _Chevy Chase_, a very popular minstrel
ballad in the time of Queen Elizabeth:--
'The Persé owt of Northombarlande,
And a vowe to God mayd he,' &c.[15]
How was it possible that this barbarous language, miserably chanted
'by some blind crowder with no rougher voice than rude stile,' should
maintain its ground against such lines as the following, sung to a
beautiful melody, which we know belongs to them?--
'When as king Henry rul'd the land,
The second of that name,
Besides the queen he dearly lov'd,
A fair and comely dame,' &c.[16]
The minstrels would seem to have gained little by such a contest. In
short, they gave up the old _Chevy Chase_ to the ballad-singers,
who, desirous, no doubt, to avail themselves of so popular a subject,
had it new written, and sung it to the favourite melody just mentioned.
The original, of course, became utterly neglected, and but for its
accidental discovery by Hearne, would never have been known to
exist."[17]
Percy held the view, which was afterwards advocated by Scott, that
the Borders were the true home of the romantic ballad, and that the
chief minstrels originally belonged either to the north of England or
the south of Scotland;[18] but later writers have found the relics of
a ballad literature in the north of Scotland. The characteristics of
the ballad doubtless varied to some extent in different parts of the
country, but there is no reason to believe that the glory of being
its home can be confined to any one place. Unfortunately this popular
literature was earlier lost in the plains than among the hills, while
the recollection of the fatal fields of Otterburn, Humbledon, Flodden,
Halidon, Hedgeley, Hexham, &c., would naturally keep it alive longer
among the families of the Border than elsewhere.
Before proceeding further, it may be as well to say a few words upon
the word _ballad_. The strong line of demarcation that is now drawn
between an ordinary song and a ballad is a late distinction, and even
Dr. Johnson's only explanation of the word "ballad" in his _Dictionary_
is "a song." One of his quotations is taken from Watts, to the effect
that "ballad once signified a solemn and sacred song, as well as
trivial, when Solomon's Song was called the ballad of ballads; but now
it is applied to nothing but trifling verse." The "balade" as used by
Chaucer and others was a song written in a particular rhythm, but later
writers usually meant by a ballad a song that was on the lips of the
people.
It is not necessary to enlarge here upon the change of meaning that the
word has undergone, nor to do more than mention the relation that it
bears to the word ballet. As a _ballad_ is now a story told in verse,
so a _ballet_ is now a story told in a dance. Originally the two were
one, and the ballad was a song sung while the singers were dancing.
When Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun wrote, "I knew a very wise man, so much
of Sir Christopher's sentiment that he believed if a man were permitted
to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a
nation," he referred to the popular songs of the people, but, in point
of fact, a nation makes its own ballads, which do not become current
coin until stamped with public approval. No song will change a people's
purpose, but the national heart will be found written in a country's
songs as a reflection of what has happened.
The successful ballad-writer requires a quick eye and ear to discern
what is smouldering in the public mind, and then if his words
fall in with the humour of the people his productions will have a
powerful influence, and may set the country in a blaze. _Ça ira_
and the _Carmagnole_ had much influence on the progress of the great
French Revolution, as _Mourir pour la Patrie_ had upon that of 1848.
_Lilliburlero_ gave the finishing stroke to the English Revolution of
1688, and its author (Lord Wharton) boasted that he had rhymed King
James out of his dominions.
The old ballad filled the place of the modern newspaper, and history
can be read in ballads by those who try to understand them; but the
type is often blurred, and in attempting to make out their meaning,
we must be careful not to see too much, for the mere fact of the
existence of a ballad does not prove its popularity or its truth.
Literature is often presumed to assert a larger influence over a nation
than it really does, and there is little doubt that literature is more
a creation of the people than the people are a creation of literature.
Where a healthy public opinion exists, people are less affected to
action by what is written than is sometimes supposed, but still there
is an important reflex action, and--
"Words are things, and a small drop of ink
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think."
There are recorded instances of the powerful influence of ballads, and
we know how much Dibdin's sea songs did for the British navy, when they
placed before the sailor an ideal of his own feelings, and painted men
he wished to be like.
The songs of a country are the truly natural part of its poetry, and
really the only poetry of the great body of the people. Percy, in the
dedication to his _Reliques_, calls ballads the "barbarous productions
of unpolished ages." Nevertheless they are instinct with life, and live
still, while much of the polished poetry of his age, which expelled
nature from literature, is completely dead. Nature is the salt that
keeps the ballad alive, and many have maintained a continuance of
popularity for several centuries.
A good ballad is not an easy thing to write, and many poets who have
tried their hand at composition in this branch of their art have
signally failed, as may be seen by referring to some of the modern
pieces in this book, which Percy hoped would "atone for the rudeness of
the more obsolete poems."
The true ballad is essentially dramatic, and one that is to make
itself felt should be all action, without any moralizing padding, for
it is a narrative in verse meant for the common people. James Hogg,
himself a successful ballad-writer, has something to say about a good
song: "A man may be sair mista'en about many things, sic as yepics,
an' tragedies, an' tales, an' even lang set elegies about the death
o' great public characters, an' hymns, an' odes, an' the like, but he
canna be mista'en about a sang. As sune as it's down on the sclate I
ken whether it's gude, bad, or middlin'. If any of the two last I dight
it out wi' my elbow; if the first, I copy it o'er into writ and then
get it aff by heart, when it's as sure o' no' being lost as if it war
engraven on a brass plate. For though I hae a treacherous memory about
things in ordinar', a' my happy sangs will cleave to my heart to my
dying day, an' I should na wonder gin I war to croon a verse or twa
frae some o' them on my deathbed."
All ballads are songs, but all songs are not ballads, and the
difference between a ballad and a song is something the same as that
between a proverb and an apophthegm, for the ballad like the proverb
should be upon many lips. A poet may write a poem and call it a ballad:
but it requires the public approval before it becomes one in fact.
The objects of the minstrel and the ballad-singer were essentially
different: thus the minstrel's stock of ballads usually lasted him his
lifetime, and as his living depended upon them they were jealously
guarded by him from others. Nothing he objected to more than to see
them in print. The chief aim of the ballad-singer, on the other hand,
was to sell his collection of printed broadsides, and to obtain
continually a new stock, so as to excite the renewed attention of his
customers.
Henry Chettle mentions in his _Kind Hart's Dream_, 1592, the sons of
one Barnes, who boasted that they could earn twenty shillings a day by
singing ballads at Bishop's Stortford and places in the neighbourhood.
The one had a squeaking treble, the other "an ale-blown bass."
One of the most popular singers of the early time was a boy named
Cheeke, and nicknamed "Outroaring Dick." He was originally a mechanic,
but renounced that life for ballad-singing, by which occupation he
earned ten shillings a day. He was well known in Essex, and was not
missed for many years from the great fair at Braintree. He had a rival
in Will Wimbars, who sung chiefly doleful tragedies. Mat Nash, a man
from the "North Countrie," made the Border ballads his own by his
manner of singing them, in which he accompanied his voice by dramatic
action. _Chevy Chase_ was his _tour de force_. Lord Burghley was
so pleased with his singing that he enabled him to retire from his
occupation. The gipsies have furnished many female singers, and one
of them, named Alice Boyce, who came to London in Elizabeth's reign,
paid the expenses of her journey up to London by singing the whole way.
She had the honour of singing, "O, the broom" and "Lady Green Sleeves"
before the queen. Gravelot, the portrait painter in the Strand, had
several sittings from ballad-singers; and Hogarth drew the famous
"Philip in the Tub" in his Wedding of the _Industrious Apprentice_.
Street singing still continues, and one of the songs of thirty years
ago tells of "the luck of a cove wot sings," and how many friends he
has. One of the verses is as follows:--
"While strolling t'other night,
I dropped in a house, d'ye see;
The landlord so polite,
Insisted on treating me;
I called for a glass of port,
When half-a-bottle he brings;
'How much?'--'Nothing of the sort,'
Says he, 'you're a cove wot sings.'"
Mr. Chappell gives a large number of early quotations relating to
ballad-singing, in his interesting _History of Ballad Literature_,
and observes that "some idea of the number of ballads that were printed
in the early part of the reign of Elizabeth may be formed from the
fact that seven hundred and ninety-six ballads left for entry at
Stationers' Hall remained in the cupboard of the Council Chamber of
the Company at the end of the year 1560, to be transferred to the new
Wardens, and only forty-four books."[19] Some of the old writers, like
Shakspere's Mopsa, loved "a ballad in print;" but more of them disliked
the new literature that was rising up like a mushroom, and took every
opportunity of having a fling at it.
Webbe, in his _Discourse of English Poetrie_ (1586), refers to "the
un-countable rabble of ryming ballet-makers and compylers of senseless
sonnets;" and Chettle complains in _Kind Hart's Dream_ (1592), that
"now ballads are abusively chanted in every street; and from London,
this evil has overspread Essex and the adjoining counties. There is
many a tradesman of a worshipful trade, yet no stationer, who after a
little bringing up apprentices to singing brokery, takes into his shop
some fresh men, and trusts his servants of two months' standing with
a dozen groats' worth of ballads, in which, if they prove thrifty, he
makes them pretty chapmen, able to spread more pamphlets by the State
forbidden than all the booksellers in London." Bishop Hall (1597) does
not forget to satirize ballad-writing among other things more worthy of
censure.
"Some drunken rhymer thinks his time well spent,
If he can live to see his name in print;
Who, when he is once fleshed to the presse,
And sees his handsell have such faire successe
Sung to the wheele and sung unto the payle,
He sends forth thraves of ballads to the sale."
That is, by the spinsters and milkmaids. Shakspere also refers to the
love which women at work have for a ballad in _Twelfth Night_ (act i.
sc. 4):
"The spinsters and knitters in the sun,
And the free maids that weave their thread with bones
Do use to chant it."
The larger number of ballads are anonymous, but we are told that in the
reign of Henry VIII., "the most pregnant wits" were employed in writing
them, and that the king himself set the example. The ballad, however,
here referred to probably only meant an ordinary song. In course of
time rhymesters succeeded poets, because, as the world becomes more
educated, the poet confines himself to the refined, and the people
have to content themselves with poor poetasters. Stirring times will,
however, always give birth to some real poetry among the masses,
because whatever is true and earnest must find an echo in many hearts.
In Elizabeth's reign, as we have already seen, the ballad-writer had
sunk very low in public esteem. In further illustration of this we
find in _Martin Mar-sixtus_ (1592) the following diatribe: "I lothe to
speak it, every red-nosed rhymester is an auther, every drunken man's
dream is a book; and he whose talent of little wit is hardly worth a
farthing, yet layeth about him so outrageously as if all Helicon had
run through his pen. In a word, scarce a cat can look out of a gutter,
but out starts a halfpenny chronicler, and presently a proper new
ballet of a strange sight is indited." The producer and the product
had not greatly changed in forty years, for we find the following
character in the curious little book, entitled _Whimzies, or a New Cast
of Characters_ (1631):
"A ballad-monger is the ignominious nickname of a penurious poet, of
whom he partakes in nothing but in povertie. He has a singular gift of
imagination, for he can descant on a man's execution long before his
confession. Nor comes his invention far short of his imagination. For
want of truer relations, for a neede, he can finde you out a Sussex
dragon, some sea or inland monster, drawne out by some Shoe-lane man in
a Gorgon-like feature, to enforce more horror in the beholder."
The chief of the ballad-writers were William Elderton, Thomas Deloney,
Richard Johnson, and Anthony Munday. Elderton was known as the prince
of ballad-mongers; but, unfortunately, he was as notorious for his love
of the bottle, and he is said to have drunk himself to death before the
year 1592. Camden tells us that "he did arm himself with ale (as old
Father Ennius did with wine) when he ballated," and two epitaphs made
upon him are registered in the _Remaines_, the Latin one of which is
also printed at p. 221 of vol. ii., with Oldys's translation, and the
following:--
"Here is Elderton lying in dust,
Or lying Elderton; chuse which you lust.
Here he lies dead, I do him no wrong,
For who knew him standing, all his life long?"
Nash asserts that "Elderton consumed his alecrammed nose to nothing
in bear-bayting" an enemy "with whole bundells of ballets;"[20] and
Gabriel Harvey attacks "Father Elderton and his son Greene as the
ringleaders of the riming and scribbling crew."
According to Stow, Elderton was an attorney in the Sheriffs' Courts of
the City of London, and wrote some verses on the new porch and stone
statues at Guildhall. Ritson does not think that his poetical powers
are to be compared with those of Deloney and Johnson. Drayton also
appears to have had a low opinion of him, for he writes:--
"I scorn'd your ballad then, though it were done
And had for finis, William Elderton,"
but Benedick, in _Much Ado about Nothing_ (act v. sc. 2) does him the
honour of singing one of his songs:--
"The god of love
That sits above,
And knows me, and knows me
How pitiful I deserve."
Thomas Deloney, the shoemaker's historiographer, was a voluminous
writer of ballads, which he himself collected into Garlands, with
different taking titles. Several of his pieces are printed in these
volumes. Nash calls him "the balleting silk-weaver of Norwich;" and in
his _Have with you to Saffron Walden_, he remarks on the ballad-maker's
change of style: "He hath rhyme enough for all miracles, and wit to
make a _Garland of Good Will_, &c., but whereas his muse, from the
first peeping forth, hath stood at livery at an ale-house wisp, never
exceeding a penny a quart, day or night--and this dear year, together
with the silencing of his looms, scarce that--he is constrained
to betake himself to carded ale, whence it proceedeth that, since
Candlemas, or his jigg of _John for the King_, not one merry ditty
will come from him; nothing but _The Thunderbolt against Swearers_;
_Repent, England, Repent_, and the _Strange Judgments of God_." Kemp,
the comic actor and morris-dancer, was particularly angry with the
ballad-makers in general, and Deloney in particular, and addresses
them in the following terms:--
"Kemp's humble request to the impudent generation of Ballad-makers
and their coherents, that it would please their rascalities to pitty
his paines in the great journey he pretends, and not fill the country
with lyes of his never done actes as they did in his late _Morrice to
Norwich_. I knowe the best of ye, by the lyes ye writ of me, got not
the price of a good hat to cover your brainless heds. If any of ye
had come to me, my bounty should have exceeded the best of your good
masters the ballad-buiers. I wold have apparrelled your dry pates in
party-coloured bonnets, and bestowed a leash of my cast belles to have
crown'd ye with cox-combs.
"I was told it was the great ballet-maker, T. D., alias Tho. Deloney,
chronicler of the memorable lives of the 6 yeamen of the West, Jack
of Newbery, the Gentle-Craft, and such like honest men, omitted by
Stow, Hollinshead, Grafton, Hal, Froysart, and the rest of those wel
deserving writers."[21]
Richard Johnson, the author of the _Seven Champions of Christendom_,
like Deloney, collected his own ballads into a book, and his _Crown
Garland of Golden Roses_ was once highly popular.
Anthony Munday, a draper in Cripplegate, and a member of the Drapers'
Company, has the fame of being a voluminous writer of ballads,
but none of his productions are known to exist. Kemp calls him
"Elderton's immediate heir," but he does not seem to have walked in
his predecessor's disreputable steps, but to have lived respected to
the good age of eighty. He died Aug. 10, 1633, and was buried in St.
Stephen's, Coleman-street, where a monument with an inscription in
praise of his knowledge as an antiquary was erected. He wrote many of
the annual city pageants, besides plays, which caused Meres to call him
"the best plotter" of his age.
Chettle disguised Munday as Anthony Now-Now, and Ben Jonson ridiculed
him in _The Case is Altered_, as Antonio Balladino, the pageant poet.
To the question, "You are not the pageant poet to the city of Milan,
are you?" he is made to answer, "I supply the place, sir, when a worse
cannot be had, sir." He had several enemies who ran him down, but he
also had friends who stood up for him. William Webbe, in his _Discourse
of English Poetrie_, describes Munday as "an earnest traveller in this
art," and says that he wrote "very excellent works, especially upon
nymphs and shepherds, well worthy to be viewed and to be esteemed as
rare poetry."
Thomas Middleton, the dramatic poet, who produced the Lord Mayor's
pageant for the mayoralty of his namesake, Sir Thomas Middleton (_The_
_Triumphs of Truth_), in 1613, attacks poor Munday most viciously. On
the title-page he declares his pageant to have been "directed, written,
and redeem'd into forme, from the ignorance of some former times and
their common writer," and in his book he adds:--"The miserable want of
both [art and knowledge] which in the impudent common writer hath often
forced from me much pity and sorrow, and it would heartily grieve any
understanding spirit to behold many times so glorious a fire in bounty
and goodness offering to match itselfe with freezing art, sitting in
darknesse with the candle out, looking like the picture of Blacke
Monday."
When the civil war broke out, the majority of the poets were ready to
range themselves on the side of the King. Alexander Brome was the most
voluminous writer of royalist songs, but Martin Parker, the writer of
_The King shall enjoy his own again_, must take rank as the leading
ballad-writer of his time. This was one of those songs that cheer the
supporters of a losing cause, and help them to win success in the end.
It is supposed to have formed a by no means unimportant item in the
causes that brought about the Restoration. Parker is said to have been
the leading spirit in a society of ballad-writers; he certainly was not
the "Grub Street scribbler" that Ritson has called him. The Puritans
hated this "ballad-maker laureat of London," and lost no opportunity of
denouncing him and his works. Mr. Chappell has written an interesting
notice of him in his _Popular Music of the Olden Time_, where he
mentions some other royalist ballad writers, as John Wade, the author
of _The Royal Oak_, Thomas Weaver, the author of a _Collection of_
_Songs_, in which he ridiculed the Puritans so effectually that the
book was denounced as a seditious libel against the Government, and
John Cleveland, who, according to Anthony Wood, was the first to come
forth as a champion of the royal cause. The last of these was one of
the very few ballad writers whose names are enrolled in the list of
British poets.
In December, 1648, Captain Betham was appointed Provost Marshal, with
power to seize upon all ballad-singers, and five years from that
date there were no more entries of ballads at Stationers' Hall, but
when Cromwell became Protector he removed the ban against ballads
and ballad-singers. After the Restoration, the courtier poets wrote
for the streets, and therefore most of the ballads were ranged on
the side of the Court. After a time, however, the Court fell into
popular disfavour, and it was then discovered that ballad-singers and
pamphleteers had too much liberty. Killigrew, the Master of the Revels
to Charles II., licensed all singers and sellers of ballads, and John
Clarke, a London bookseller, rented of Killigrew this privilege for a
period, which expired in 1682. Besides licensers of the singers and
sellers, there were licensers of the ballads themselves. These were Sir
Roger L'Estrange, from 1663 to 1685, Richard Pocock, from 1685 to 1688,
J. Fraser, from 1689 to 1691, and Edmund Bohun, who died in 1694, the
year that the licensing system also expired.
When James, Duke of York, went to Scotland to seek for that popularity
which he had lost in England, he is supposed to have taken with him
an English ballad-maker to sing his praises, and this man is believed
to have produced _The Banishment of Poverty by H. R. H. James, Duke
of Albany_. Ballad-singing was very much out of favour among the
authorities in the eighteenth century, and in 1716 the Middlesex grand
jury denounced the singing of "scandalous" ballads about the streets
as a common nuisance, tending to alienate the minds of the people. In
July, 1763, we are told that "yesterday evening two women were sent to
Bridewell by Lord Bute's order for singing political ballads before his
lordship's door in South Audley Street."
Ballads were then pretty much the same kind of rubbish that they are
now, and there was little to show that they once were excellent. The
glorious days when--
"Thespis, the first professor of our art,
At country wakes sung ballads from a cart,"[22]
had long ago departed. There are but few instances of true poets
writing for the streets in later times, but we have one in Oliver
Goldsmith. In his early life in Dublin, when he often felt the want
of a meal, he wrote ballads, which found a ready customer at five
shillings each at a little bookseller's shop in a by-street of the
city. We are informed that he was as sensitive as to the reception
of these children of his muse as in after years he was of his more
ambitious efforts; and he used to stroll into the street to hear his
ballads sung, and to mark the degrees of applause with which they
were received. Most of the modern ballad-writers have been local in
their fame, as Thomas Hoggart, the uncle of Hogarth the painter, whose
satiric lash made him a power in his native district of Cumberland,
dreaded alike by fools and knaves.
The chief heroes of the older ballads were King Arthur and his knights,
Robin Hood, and Guy of Warwick. The ballads relating to the first of
these appear to have been chiefly chipped off from the great cycle of
Arthurian romances. The popularity of Robin Hood was at one time so
great that Drayton prophesied in his _Polyolbion_:--
"In this our spacious isle I think there is not one
But he hath heard some talk of him, and little John,
And to the end of time the tales shall ne'er be done
Of Scarlock, George a Green, and Much the Miller's son.
Of Tuck the merry Friar, which many a sermon made
In praise of Robin Hood, his outlaws, and their trade."
From a local hero he grew into national fame, and superseded Arthur in
popular regard. He then sunk into a mere highwayman, to be again raised
into fame by literary men, Ritson being the chief of these. Wakefield
is still proud of its Pinder, who was one of Robin Hood's company--
"In Wakefield there lives a jolly Pinder;
In Wakefield all on a green,"
and one of the thoroughfares of that place is now called Pinder Field
Road. Robin Hood was a purely English hero, but Guy of Warwick was
almost as popular in foreign countries as in his own land. The earliest
of English political ballads was an outcome of the Barons' wars in
the reign of Henry III.,[23] and each period of political excitement
since then has been represented in ballads. The controversies between
Protestant and Papist were carried on in verse, and Laud and his clergy
were attacked by the ballad-writers of the Puritan party.
IMITATORS AND FORGERS.
No attempt was made to produce false antique ballads until the true
antiques had again risen in public esteem, and one of the first to
deceive the connoisseurs was Lady Wardlaw, who was highly successful
in her object when she gave _Hardyknute_ to the world (see vol. ii. p.
105). She seems to have been quite contented with the success which
attended the mystification, and does not appear to have taken any
particular pains to keep her secret close. Suspicions were rife long
before the publication of the _Reliques_, but when they appeared the
whole truth came out. With regard to the other ballads, to which she
had added verses, there does not appear to have been any attempt at
concealment. The recent endeavour to attribute a large number of the
romantic ballads of Scotland to her pen will be considered further on.
A large number of poets have imitated the old ballad, but very few have
been successful in the attempt to give their efforts the genuine ring
of the original. Tickell and Goldsmith entered into the spirit of their
models, but Scott succeeded best in old Elspeth's fragment of a chant
(the Battle of Harlaw) in the _Antiquary_. W. J. Mickle, the translator
of the _Lusiad_, contributed several imitations to Evans's _Collection
of Old Ballads_, but although these are beautiful poems in themselves,
their claim to antiquity was made to rest chiefly upon a distorted
spelling. One of the most remarkably successful imitations of modern
times is the ballad of _Trelawny_, which the late Rev. R. S. Hawker,
of Morwenstow, wrote to suit the old burden of "And shall Trelawny
die." This spirited ballad deceived Scott, Macaulay, and Dickens, who
all believed it to be genuine, and quoted it as such. In 1846 it was
actually printed by J. H. Dixon in his "Ancient Poems, Ballads, and
Songs of the Peasantry of England, taken down from oral tradition,
and transcribed from private manuscripts, rare broadsides, and scarce
publications," published by the Percy Society. Mr. Dixon was probably
deceived by Davies Gilbert, who sent the ballad to the _Gentleman's
Magazine_ in 1827, and said that it formerly "resounded in every house,
in every highway, and in every street." In 1832 Hawker had, however,
himself acknowledged the authorship. He wrote in his _Records of the
Western Shore_ (p. 56), "With the exception of the chorus contained
in the last two lines, this song was written by me in the year 1825.
It was soon after inserted in a Plymouth paper. It happened to fall
into the hands of Davies Gilbert, Esq., who did me the honour to
reprint it at his private press at East Bourne, under the impression,
I believe, that it is an early composition of my own. The two lines
above-mentioned formed, I believe, the burthen of the old song, and are
all that I can recover."[24] Hawker was fond of these mystifications,
and although he did not care to lose the credit of his productions, he
was amused to see another of his ballads, _Sir Beville_, find its way
into a collection of old ballads.
A far more beautiful ballad than _Hardyknute_ is _Auld Robin Gray_, in
which a lady of rank caught the spirit of the tender songs of peasant
life with excellent effect. Lady Anne Barnard kept her secret for fifty
years, and did not acknowledge herself the author of it until 1823,
when she disclosed the fact in a letter to Sir Walter Scott.
These were harmless attempts to deceive, such as will always be common
among those who take a pleasure in reducing the pride of the experts;
and when they were discovered no one was found to have been injured by
the deceit. It is far different, however, when a forgery is foisted
in among genuine works, because when a discovery is made of its
untrustworthiness, the reputation of the true work is injured by this
association with the false. Pinkerton inserted a large number of his
own poems in his edition of _Select Scottish Ballads_ (1783), which
poems he alleged to be ancient. He was taken severely to task by Ritson
on account of these fabrications, and he afterwards acknowledged his
deceit.[25]
One of the most barefaced of literary deceptions was the work published
in 1810 by R. H. Cromek, under the title of _Remains of Nithsdale and
Galloway Song_. Although the ballads contained in these volumes are
very varied in their subject, they were almost entirely composed by
Allan Cunningham, who produced whatever was required of him by his
employer.
Poets are often the worst of editors, as they find the temptation
to "improve" their originals too strong to resist. Allan Cunningham
published in 1826 a collection of the _Songs of Scotland_, in which
he availed himself so largely of this license that Motherwell felt
called upon to reprobate the work in the strongest terms. He observes:
"While thus violating ancient song, he seems to have been well aware
of the heinousness of his offending. He might shudder and sicken at
his revolting task indeed! To soothe his own alarmed conscience, and,
if possible, to reconcile the mind of his readers to his wholesale
mode of hacking and hewing and breaking the joints of ancient and
traditionary song; and to induce them to receive with favour the
conjectural emendations it likes him to make, he, in the course of his
progress, not unfrequently chooses to sneer at those, and to underrate
their labours, who have used their best endeavours to preserve ancient
song in its primitive and uncontaminated form."[26] These are by no
means the hardest words used by Motherwell in respect to the _Songs of
Scotland_.
The worst among the forgers, however, was a man who ought to have been
above such dishonourable work, viz., Robert Surtees, the author of
the _History of the County Palatine of Durham_, in whose honour the
Surtees Society was founded. In Scott's _Minstrelsy of the Scottish
Border_ will be found three ballads--_The Death of Featherstonhaugh_,
_Lord Ewrie_, and _Bartram's Dirge_, which are treated by Sir Walter
as true antiques, and of the genuine character of which he never had
a doubt. They are all three, however, mere figments of Surtees's
imagination. Each of the ballads was accompanied by fictitious
historical incidents, to give it an extra appearance of authenticity.
_Featherstonhaugh_ was said to be "taken down from the recitation of a
woman eighty years of age, mother of one of the miners in Alston Moor;"
_Lord Ewrie_ was obtained from "Rose Smith, of Bishop Middleham,
a woman aged upwards of ninety-one;" and _Bartram's Dirge_ from
"Anne Douglas, an old woman who weeded in his (Surtees's) garden."
On other occasions Sir Walter Scott was deluded by his friend with
false information. Mr. George Taylor makes the following excuse in
his _Life of Surtees_ (p. 25): "Mr. Surtees no doubt had wished to
have the success of his attempt tested by the unbiassed opinion of
the very first authority on the subject, and the result must have
been gratifying to him. But at a later period of their intimacy, when
personal regard was added to high admiration for his correspondent,
he probably would not have subjected him to the mortification of
finding that he could be imposed on in a matter where he had a right to
consider himself as almost infallible. And it was most likely from this
feeling that Mr. Surtees never acknowledged the imposition: for so late
as the year 1830, in which Scott dates his introduction to the edition
of the _Minstrelsy_, published in 1831, the ballad of the _Death of
Featherstonhaugh_ retains its place (vol. i. p. 240) with the same
expressions of obligation to Mr. Surtees for the communication of it,
and the same commendation of his learned proofs of its authenticity."
In spite of this attempted justification, we cannot fail to stigmatize
Surtees's forgery as a crime against letters which fouls the very wells
of truth.
AUTHENTICITY OF CERTAIN BALLADS
As was to be expected, the existence of the forgeries just referred
to caused several persons to doubt the genuineness of many of the
true ballads. Finlay wrote, in 1808, "the mention of _hats_ and
_cork-heeled shoon_ (in the ballad of _Sir Patrick Spence_) would
lead us to infer that some stanzas are interpolated, or that its
composition is of a comparatively modern date;"[27] and, in 1839,
the veteran ballad-collector, Mr. David Laing, wrote as follows:
"Notwithstanding the great antiquity that has been claimed for _Sir
Patrick Spence_, one of the finest ballads in our language, very
little evidence would be required to persuade me but that we were
also indebted for it to Lady Wardlaw (_Stenhouse's Illustrations
of the Lyric Poetry and Music of Scotland_, with additional notes
to Johnson's _Scots Musical Museum_, p. 320[27])." At p. 457[27]
of the same book, Mr. Laing, after quoting from Finlay, made the
following further observations: "Bishop Percy also remarks that 'an
ingenious friend thinks the author of _Hardyknute_ has borrowed
several expressions and sentiments from the foregoing and other old
Scottish songs in this collection.' It was this resemblance with the
localities Dunfermline and Aberdour, in the neighbourhood of Sir Henry
Wardlaw's seat, that led me to throw out the conjecture, whether
this much-admired ballad might not also have been written by Lady
Wardlaw herself, to whom the ballad of _Hardyknute_ is now universally
attributed."[28]
Mr. J. H. Dixon, in 1845, considered that the suspicion had become a
certainty, and wrote of Lady Wardlaw as one "who certainly appears to
have been a great adept at this species of literary imposture." "This
celebrated lady is _now known_ to be the author of _Edward! Edward!_
and of _Sir Patrick Spence_, in addition to _Hardyknute_."[29] Mr.
Dixon and the late Mr. Robert Chambers have also thrown out hints of
their disbelief in the authenticity of the recitations of Mrs. Brown of
Falkland.
These, however, were mere skirmishing attacks, but in 1859 Robert
Chambers marshalled his forces, and made a decisive charge in his
publication entitled _The Romantic Scottish Ballads, their Epoch and
Authorship_. He there explains his belief as follows:--
"Upon all these considerations I have arrived at the conclusion
that the high-class romantic ballads of Scotland are not ancient
compositions--are not older than the early part of the eighteenth
century--and are mainly, if not wholly, the production of one mind.
Whose was this mind is a different question, on which no such
confident decision may, for the present, be arrived at; but I have no
hesitation in saying that, from the internal resemblance traced on
from _Hardyknute_ through _Sir Patrick Spence_ and _Gil Morrice_ to
the others, there seems to be a great likelihood that the whole were
the composition of the authoress of that poem, namely, Elizabeth Lady
Wardlaw of Pitreavie."
Scotsmen were not likely to sit down tamely under an accusation by
which their principal ballad treasures were thus stigmatized as false
gems, and we find that several writers immediately took up their pens
to refute the calumny. It will be seen that the charge is divided into
two distinct parts, and it will be well to avoid mixing them together,
and to consider each part separately.
I. Certain ballads, generally supposed to be genuine, were really
written by one person, in imitation of the antique.
II. The author of this deceit was Lady Wardlaw, the writer of
_Hardyknute_.
I. The ballads in the _Reliques_, which are instanced by Chambers, are
as follows:--
1. _Sir Patrick Spence._
2. _Gil Morrice._
3. _Edward! Edward!_
4. _Jew's Daughter._
5. _Gilderoy._
6. _Young Waters._
7. _Edom o' Gordon._
8. _Bonny Earl of Murray._
Two of these (2 and 7) are in the Folio MS., which was written before
Lady Wardlaw was born; _Edom o' Gordon_ also exists in another old
MS. copy; _Gilderoy_ (5) is known to have been a street ballad, and the
remainder are found in other copies. It is not necessary to discuss
each of these cases separately, and we shall therefore reserve what we
have to say for the special consideration of _Sir Patrick Spence_.
Before proceeding, we must first consider how far Chambers's previous
knowledge of ballad literature prepared him for this inquiry; and
we cannot rate that knowledge very highly, for in his _Collection
of Scottish Songs_, he actually attributes Wotton's _Ye Meaner
Beauties_ to Darnley, and supposes Mary Queen of Scots to have been the
subject of the author's praises. At this period also his scepticism had
not been aroused, for all the ballads that he thought spurious in 1859
had been printed by him in 1829 as genuine productions.
To return to the main Point at issue. Chambers writes:--
"It is now to be remarked of the ballads published by the successors
of Percy, as of those which he published, that there is not a particle
of positive evidence for their having existed before the eighteenth
century. Overlooking the one given by Ramsay in his _Tea-table
Miscellany_, we have neither print nor manuscript of them before the
reign of George III. They are not in the style of old literature. They
contain no references to old literature. As little does old literature
contain any references to them. They wholly escaped the collecting
diligence of Bannatyne. James Watson, who published a collection of
Scottish poetry in 1706-1711, wholly overlooks them. Ramsay, as we see,
caught up only one."
Mr. Norval Clyne (_Ballads from Scottish History_, 1863, p. 217) gives
a satisfactory answer to the above. He writes:--
"The want of any ancient manuscript can be no argument against the
antiquity of a poem, versions of which have been obtained from oral
recitation, otherwise the great mass of ballads of all kinds collected
by Scott, and by others since his time, must lie under equal suspicion.
Bannatyne, in the sixteenth century, and Allan Ramsay, in the early
part of the eighteenth, were not collectors of popular poetry in the
same sense as those who have since been so active in that field. The
former contented himself, for the most part, with transcribing the
compositions of Dunbar, Henrysone, and other "makers," well known by
name, and Ramsay took the bulk of his _Evergreen_ from Bannatyne's MS.
That a great many poems of the ballad class, afterwards collected and
printed, must have been current among the people when the _Evergreen_
was published, no one that knows anything of the subject will deny."
The old ballads lived on the tongues of the people, and a small
percentage of them only were ever committed to writing, so that a
fairer test of authenticity is the existence of various versions.
Of known forgeries no varieties exist, but several versions of _Sir
Patrick Spence_ have been rescued from oblivion.
It is not probable that any fresh ballads will be obtained from
recitation, but it is in some degree possible, as may be seen from an
instance of a kindred nature in the field of language. We know that
local dialects have almost passed away, and yet some of the glossaries
of them lately issued contain words that explain otherwise dark
passages in manuscripts of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Chambers further affirms that the sentiment of these ballads is not
congenial to that of the peasantry--"it may be allowably said, there is
a tone of _breeding_ throughout these ballads, such as is never found
in the productions of rustic genius." This, however, is begging the
question, for it does not follow that the songs of the peasantry were
written by the peasantry. It is they who have remembered them, and held
to them with greater tenacity than the educated classes.
We now come to the text that bears specially upon _Sir Patrick Spence_,
and we will give it in Chambers's own words:--"The Scottish ladies sit
bewailing the loss of Sir Patrick Spence's companions 'wi' the gowd
kaims in their hair.' Sir Patrick tells his friends before starting on
his voyage, 'Our ship must sail the faem;'[30] and in the description
of the consequences of his shipwreck, we find 'Mony was the feather-bed
that flattered on the faem.'[30] No old poet would use _faem_ as an
equivalent for the sea; but it was just such a phrase as a poet of the
era of Pope would use in that sense." In the first place, we should
be justified in saying that this test is not a fair one, because no
one will contend that the ballads have not been altered in passing
from hand to hand, and new words inserted; but Mr. Norval Clyne has a
complete answer for this particular objection; he writes: "Bishop Gawin
Douglas completed his translation of Virgil's Æneid on 22nd July, 1513,
and in his Prologue to the twelfth book are these lines:--
'Some sang ring-sangs, dancis, ledis, roundis,
With vocis schil, quhil all the dale resounds,
Quhareto they walk into their karoling,
For amourous layis dois all the rochis ring:
Ane sang 'The schip salis over the salt fame,
Will bring thir merchandis and my lemane hame.'
Here we have the expression, to which attention is called, occurring in
a popular song in common use before the battle of Flodden. I have seen
it remarked, however, that it is the elliptical use of 'sail the faem'
for 'sail over the faem,' which indicates an authorship not older than
the day of Queen Anne. My answer to this objection shall also be an
example from an 'old poet.' One of the _Tales of the Three Priests of
Peblis_ assigned to the early part of the sixteenth century, describes
in homely verse the career of a thrifty burgess, and contains these
lines (_Sibbald's Chronicle of Scottish Poetry_, 1802):--
'Then bocht he wool, and wyselie couth it wey;
And efter that sone saylit he the sey.'"[31]
These quotations completely set aside one portion of the charge, and
the other, in which an attempt is made to show that a similar form of
expression is constantly occurring in the several poems, is really
of little weight, pressed as it is with some unfairness. We have
already seen that the old minstrels used certain forms of expression
as helps to memory, and these recur in ballads that have little or
no connection with each other. Chambers, following David Laing, uses
Percy's note at the end of _Sir Patrick Spence_[32] as an engine of
attack against the authenticity of the ballad, but there is really no
reason for the conclusion he comes to, "that the parity he remarked
in the expressions was simply owing to the two ballads being the
production of one mind," for a copyist well acquainted with ballad
literature would naturally adopt the expressions found in them in his
own composition.
II. The consideration of the opinion that Lady Wardlaw was the author
of _Sir Patrick Spence_ and other ballads, need not detain us long,
because the main point of interest is their authenticity, and the
question of her authorship is quite a secondary matter: that falls to
the ground if the grand charge is proved false, and need not stand
even if that remains unrefuted. The only reason for fixing upon Lady
Wardlaw appears to have been that as these ballads were transmitted to
Percy by Lord Hailes, and one of them was an imitation of the antique
by Lady Wardlaw, and another was added to by the same lady, therefore
if a similarity between the ballads could be proved, it would follow
that all were written by her. Now the very fact that the authorship of
_Hardyknute_ was soon discovered is strong evidence against any such
supposition, because none of her associates had any suspicion that she
had counterfeited other ballads, and could such a wholesale manufacture
have been concealed for a century it would be a greater mystery than
the vexed question, who was Junius? The other point, whether the author
of the indistinct and redundant _Hardyknute_ could have written the
clear and incisive lines of _Sir Patrick Spence_ may be left to be
decided by readers who have the two poems before them in these volumes.
A few particulars may, however, be mentioned. The openings of these
ballads form excellent contrasted examples of the two different styles
of ballad writing. _Sir Patrick Spence_ commences at once, like other
minstrel ballads, with the description of the king and his council:--
"The king sits in Dumferling toune,
Drinking the blude-reid wine:
O quhar will I get guid sailòr
To sail this schip of mine?
Up and spak an eldern knicht,
Sat at the kings richt kne:
Sir Patrick Spence is the best sailòr,
That sails upon the se."
The king then sends a letter to Spence. There is no description of how
this was sent, but we at once read:--
"The first line that Sir Patrick red,
A loud lauch lauched he;
The next line that Sir Patrick red,
The teir blinded his ee."
_Hardyknute_, on the other hand, is full of reasons and illustrative
instances in the true ballad-writer's style:--
"Stately stept he east the wa',
And stately stept he west,
Full seventy years he now had seen
Wi' scarce seven years of rest.
He liv'd when Britons breach of faith
Wrought Scotland mickle wae:
And ay his sword tauld to their cost,
He was their deadlye fae."
Having placed the openings of the two poems in opposition, we will do
the same with the endings. How different is the grand finish of _Sir
Patrick Spence_--
"Have owre, have owre to Aberdour,
It's fiftie fadom deip,
And thair lies guid Sir Patrick Spence,
Wi' the Scots lords at his feit."
from the feeble conclusion of _Hardyknute_:--
"'As fast I've sped owre Scotlands faes,'--
There ceas'd his brag of weir,
Sair sham'd to mind ought but his dame,
And maiden fairly fair.
Black fear he felt, but what to fear
He wist nae yet; wi' dread
Sai shook his body, sair his limbs,
And a' the warrior fled."
_Sir Patrick Spence_ gives us a clear picture that a painter could
easily reproduce, but _Hardyknute_ is so vague that it is sometimes
difficult to follow it with understanding, and if the same author wrote
them both she must have been so strangely versatile in her talents that
there is no difficulty in believing that she wrote all the romantic
ballads of Scotland.
How little Chambers can be trusted may be seen in the following
passage, where he writes: "The first hint at the real author came out
through Percy, who in his second edition of the _Reliques_ (1767) gives
the following statement, 'There is more than reason,' &c.,[33] to which
he adds the note: 'It is rather remarkable that Percy was not informed
of these particulars in 1765; but in 1767, _Sir John Hope Bruce having_
_died in the interval_ (June, 1766), they were communicated to him.
It looks as if the secret had hung on the life of this venerable
gentleman." Who would suspect, what is the real fact of the case,
that Percy's quoted preface was actually printed in his first edition
(1765), and that Chambers's remarks fall to the ground because they
are founded on a gross blunder.[34]
PRESERVERS OF THE BALLADS.
Printed broadsides are peculiarly liable to accidents which shorten
their existence, and we therefore owe much to the collectors who have
saved some few of them from destruction. Ballads were usually pasted
on their walls by the cottagers, but they were sometimes collected
together in bundles. Motherwell had "heard it as a by-word in some
parts of Stirlingshire that a collier's library consists but of four
books, the Confession of Faith, the Bible, a bundle of Ballads, and
Sir William Wallace. The first for the gudewife, the second for the
gudeman, the third for their daughter, and the last for the son, a
selection indicative of no mean taste in these grim mold-warps of
humanity."[35]
The love of a good ballad has, however, never been confined to the
uneducated. Queen Mary II., after listening to the compositions of
Purcell, played by the composer himself, asked Mrs. Arabella Hunt
to sing Tom D'Urfey's ballad of "Cold and Raw," which was set to a
good old tune, and thereby offended Purcell's vanity, who was left
unemployed at the harpsichord. Nevertheless, the composer had the
sense afterwards to introduce the tune as the bass of a song he wrote
himself. When ballads were intended for the exclusive use of the
ordinary ballad-buyers they were printed in black letter, a type that
was retained for this purpose for more than a century after it had
gone out of use for other purposes. According to Pepys the use of
black letter ceased about the year 1700, and on the title-page of his
collection he has written "the whole continued down to the year 1700,
when the form till then peculiar thereto, viz. of the black letter with
pictures, seems (for cheapness sake) wholly laid aside for that of the
white letter without pictures." White-letter printing of non-political
street ballads really commenced about 1685, and of political ballads
about half a century earlier. The saving referred to by Pepys as being
made by the omission of woodcuts could not have been great, for they
seldom illustrated the letterpress, and were used over and over again,
so that cuts which were executed in the reign of James I. were used on
ballads in Queen Anne's time.
Until about the year 1712 ballads were universally printed on
broadsides, and those intended to be sold in the streets are still so
printed, but after that date such as were intended to be vended about
the country were printed so as to fold into book form.
The great ballad factory has been for many years situated in Seven
Dials, where Pitts employed Corcoran and was the patron of "slender
Ben," "over head and ears Nic," and other equally respectably
named poets. The renowned Catnach lived in Seven Dials, and left a
considerable business at his death. He was the first to print yards of
songs for a penny, and his fame was so extended, that his name has come
to be used for a special class of literature.
Although, thanks to the labours of far-sighted men, our stock of old
ballads and songs is large, we know that those which are irrevocably
lost far exceed them in number. It is therefore something to recover
even the titles of some of these, and we can do this to a considerable
extent by seeking them in some of the old specimens of literature. In
_Cockelbie's Sow_, a piece written about 1450, which was printed in
Laing's _Select Remains of the Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland_
(Edinburgh, 1822), there is a list of the songs sung at a meeting. In
Henryson's curious old pastoral, _Robin and Makyne_ (vol. 2, p. 85),
reference is made to the popular tales and songs, which were even then
old:--
"Robin, thou hast heard sung and say,
In gests and storys auld,
'The man that will not when he may
Sall hav nocht when he wald.'"
To the prologues of Gawin Douglas's translation of Virgil's _Æneid_, we
are indebted for a knowledge of four old songs, a fact that outweighs
in the opinion of some the merits of the work itself, which was the
first translation of a classic that ever appeared in England.
In the Catalogue of Captain Cox's Library, printed in Laneham's letter
on the Kenilworth entertainments, there is a short list of some of the
popular ballads of his time, but it is sorely tantalizing to read of
"a bunch of ballets and songs all auncient," "and a hundred more he
hath fair wrapt in parchment, and bound with a whipcord." We learn the
names of ballads which were popular in old Scotland from the _Complaynt
of Scotland_, a most interesting list, which Mr. Furnivall has fully
illustrated and explained in his edition of Laneham. Another source of
information for learning the names of songs no longer known to exist
are the medleys, which are made up of the first lines of many songs.
The extreme popularity of ballads in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries is reflected in the literature of the time, which is full
of allusions to them. Burton, the anatomist of melancholy, who put a
little of almost everything into his book, could not be expected to
overlook ballads. He says: "The very rusticks and hog-rubbers ... have
their wakes, whitson ales, shepherds' feasts, meetings on holy dayes,
countrey dances, roundelayes ... instead of odes, epigrams and elegies,
&c., they have their ballads, countrey tunes, _O the Broom, the bonny,_
_bonny Broom_, ditties and songs, _Bess a Bell she doth excel_." The
favourite songs of Father Rosin, the minstrel in Ben Jonson's _Tale of
a Tub_ (act i. sc. 2), are _Tom Tiler_, the _Jolly Joiner_, and the
_Jovial Tinker_. The old drama is full of these references, and one of
the most frequent modes of revenge against an enemy was to threaten
that he should be _balladed_. Thus Massinger writes:--
"I will have thee
Pictur'd as thou art now, and thy whole story
Sung to some villainous tune in a lewd ballad,
And make thee so notorious in the world,
That boys in the street shall hoot at thee."[36]
Fletcher sets side by side as equal evils the having one's eyes dug
out, and the having one's name sung
"In ballad verse, at every drinking house."[37]
The ballad-writers are called base rogues, and said to "maintaine a St.
Anthonie's fire in their noses by nothing but two-penny ale."[38]
Shakspere was not behind his contemporaries in his contemptuous
treatment of "odious ballads," or of "these same metre ballad-mongers,"
but he has shown by the references in _King Lear_ and _Hamlet_ his
high appreciation of the genuine old work, and there is no doubt that
the creator of Autolycus loved "a ballad but even too well."
There have been two kinds of collectors, viz. those who copied such
fugitive poetry as came in their way, and those who bought up all the
printed ballads they could obtain.
Of the manuscript collections of old poetry, the three most celebrated
are the Maitland MS. in the Pepysian Library, Cambridge, the Bannatyne
MS. presented by the Earl of Hyndford to the Advocates' Library,
Edinburgh, and the famous folio MS. which formerly belonged to Percy,
and is now in the British Museum. The Maitland MS., which contains
an excellent collection of Scotch poetry, was formed by Sir Richard
Maitland, of Lethington, Lord Privy Seal and Judge in the Court of
Session (b. 1496, d. 1586). Selections from this MS. were printed by
Pinkerton in 1786.
In the year 1568, when Scotland was visited by the Plague, a certain
George Bannatyne, of whom nothing is known, retired to his house to
escape infection, and employed his leisure in compiling his most
valuable collection of Scottish poetry. This MS. was lent out of the
Advocates' Library to Percy, and he was allowed to keep it for a
considerable time. Sir David Dalrymple published "Some ancient Scottish
Poems" in 1770, which were taken from this MS.
The great Lord Burghley was one of the first to recognize the value
of ballads as an evidence of the popular feeling, and he ordered all
broadsides to be brought to him as they were published. The learned
Selden was also a collector of them, but the Chinese nation was before
these wise men, and had realized an idea that has often been suggested
in Europe. One of their sacred books is the _Book of Songs_, in
which the manners of the country are illustrated by songs and odes, the
most popular of which were brought to the sovereign for the purpose.
The largest collections of printed ballads are now in Magdalene
College, Cambridge, in the Bodleian at Oxford, and in the British
Museum. Some smaller collections are in private hands. In taking
stock of these collections, we are greatly helped by Mr. Chappell's
interesting preface to the _Roxburghe Ballads_. The Pepysian
collection deposited in the library of Magdalene College, Cambridge,
consisting of 1,800 ballads in five vols., is one of the oldest and
most valuable of the collections. It was commenced by Selden, who
died in 1654, and continued by Samuel Pepys till near the time of his
own death in 1703. Tradition reports that Pepys borrowed Selden's
collection, and then "forgot" to return it to the proper owner. Besides
these five volumes, there are three vols. of what Pepys calls penny
merriments. There are 112 of these, and some are garlands that contain
many ballads in each.
Cambridge's rival, Oxford, possesses three collections, viz. Anthony
Wood's 279 ballads and collection of garlands, Francis Douce's 877 in
four vols., and Richard Rawlinson's 218.
Previously to the year 1845, when the Roxburghe collection was
purchased, there were in the British Museum Library about 1,000
ballads, but Mr. Chappell, without counting the _Roxburghe Ballads_,
gives the number as 1292 in 1864. They are as follows:--
Bagford Collection 355
Volume of Miscellaneous Ballads and Poems, 17th century 31
Volume, mostly political, from 1641 250
Volume in King's Library, principally relating to London,
from 1659 to 1711 60
The Thomason Collection of Tracts 304
Satirical Ballads on the Popish Plot, from Strawberry Hill sale 27
Luttrell Collection, vol. ii. 255
Miscellaneous 10
-----
1292
The celebrated Roxburghe collection was bought by Rodd at Benjamin
Heywood Bright's sale in 1845 for the British Museum, the price being
_£_535. It was originally formed by Robert Harley, first Earl of
Oxford, and as John Bagford was one of the buyers employed by the Earl,
he is the reputed collector of the ballads. At the sale of the Harleian
Library, this collection became the property of James West, P.R.S.,
and when his books were sold in 1773, Major Thomas Pearson bought it
for, it is said, _£_20. This gentleman, with the assistance of Isaac
Reed, added to the collection, and bound it in two volumes with printed
title-pages, indexes, &c. In 1788, John, Duke of Roxburghe, bought it
at Major Pearson's sale for _£_36 14_s._ 6_d._, and afterwards added
largely to it, making a third volume. At the Duke's sale in 1813, the
three volumes were bought for _£_477 15_s._, by Harding, who sold them
to Mr. Bright for, it is supposed, _£_700. The collection consists of
1335 broadsides, printed between 1567 and the end of the eighteenth
century, two-thirds of them being in black letter. Bright added a
fourth volume of eighty-five pages, which was bought for the British
Museum for _£_25 5_s._
Some early ballads are included in the collection of broadsides
in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, and a collection of
proclamations and ballads was made by Mr. Halliwell Phillipps, and
presented by him to the Chetham Library at Manchester.
The late George Daniel picked up a valuable collection of ballads at an
old shop in Ipswich, which is supposed to have come from Helmingham
Hall, Suffolk, where it had lain unnoticed or forgotten for two
centuries or more. It originally numbered 175 to 200 ballads, but was
divided by Daniel, who sold one portion (consisting of eighty-eight
ballads) to Thorpe, who disposed of it to Heber. At Heber's sale
it was bought by Mr. W. H. Miller, of Britwell, and from him it
descended to Mr. S. Christie Miller. Twenty-five ballads known to
have belonged to the same collection were edited by Mr. Payne Collier
for the Percy Society in 1840. The portion that Daniel retained was
bought at the sale of his library by Mr. Henry Huth, who has reprinted
seventy-nine of the best ballads. Other known private collections
are five volumes belonging to Mr. Frederic Ouvry, President of the
Society of Antiquaries, which contain Mr. Payne Collier's collection
of Black-letter Ballads, the Earl of Jersey's at Osterley Park, and
one which was formed by Mr. Halliwell Phillipps, who printed a full
catalogue of the ballads contained in it, and then disposed of it to
the late Mr. William Euing of Glasgow.
We owe our gratitude to all these collectors, but must also do
honour to those writers who in advance of their age tried to lead
their contemporaries to fresher springs than those to which they
were accustomed. The first of these was Addison, who commented on
the beauties of _Chevy Chase_ and the _Children in the Wood_ in
the _Spectator_. He wrote: "it is impossible that anything should be
universally tasted and approved by a multitude, though they are only
the rabble of a nation, which hath not in it some peculiar aptness to
please and gratify the mind of man."
Rowe was another appreciator of this popular literature, and his
example and teaching may have had its influence in the publication of
the first _Collection of Old Ballads_, for the motto to the first
volume is taken from the prologue to Rowe's _Jane Shore_ (first acted
in 1713):--
"Let no nice sir despise the hapless dame
Because recording ballads chaunt her name;
Those venerable ancient song enditers
Soar'd many a pitch above our modern writers.
They caterwauled in no romantic ditty,
Sighing for Philis's or Cloe's pity;
Justly they drew the Fair and spoke her plain,
And sung her by her Christian name--'twas Jane.
Our numbers may be more refined than those,
But what we've gain'd in verse, we've lost in prose;
Their words no shuffling double meaning knew,
Their speech was homely, but their hearts were true."
Parnell, Tickell, and Prior belonged to the small band who had the
taste to appreciate the unfashionable old ballad. Prior says of himself
in a MS. essay quoted by Disraeli in the _Calamities of Authors_: "I
remember nothing further in life than that I made verses: I chose Guy
Earl of Warwick for my first hero, and killed Colborne the giant before
I was big enough for Westminster school." The few were, however, unable
to convert the many, and Dr. Wagstaffe, one of the wits of the day,
ridiculed Addison for his good taste, and in a parody of the famous
essay on _Chevy Chase_ he commented upon the _History of Tom Thumb_,
and pretended to point out the congenial spirit of this poet with
Virgil.
There is still another class of preservers of ballads to be mentioned,
viz. those whose tenacious memories allow them to retain the legends
and songs they heard in their youth, but as Prof. Aytoun writes: "No
Elspats of the Craigburnfoot remain to repeat to grandchildren that
legendary lore which they had acquired in years long gone by from
the last of the itinerant minstrels." The most celebrated of these
retailers of the old ballads was Mrs. Brown of Falkland, wife of the
Rev. Dr. Brown, for from her both Scott and Jamieson obtained some of
their best pieces. Her taste for the songs and tales of chivalry was
derived from an aunt, Mrs. Farquhar, "who was married to the proprietor
of a small estate near the sources of the Dee in Braemar, a good old
woman, who spent the best part of her life among flocks and herds,
[but] resided in her latter years in the town of Aberdeen. She was
possest of a most tenacious memory, which retained all the songs she
had heard from nurses and countrywomen in that sequestered part of the
country."[39] Doubts have been expressed as to the good faith of Mrs.
Brown, but they do not appear to be well grounded. Another of these
ladies from whose mouths we have learnt so much of the ever-fading
relics of the people's literature was Mrs. Arrot.
The earliest printed collection of Scottish popular poetry known to
exist is a volume printed at Edinburgh, "by Walter Chepman and Androw
Myllar, in the year 1508," which was reprinted in facsimile by David
Laing in 1827. The next work of interest in the bibliography of ballads
is "Ane Compendious Booke of Godly and Spirituall Songs, collected out
of sundrie partes of the Scripture, with sundrie of other ballates,
chainged out of prophaine songs for avoiding of Sinne and Harlotrie,"
printed in 1590 and 1621, and reprinted by J. G. Dalzell in 1801, and
by David Laing in 1868. It contains parodies of some of the songs
mentioned in the _Complaint of Scotland_, and is supposed to be the
work of three brothers--James, John, and Robert Wedderburn, of Dundee.
To the last of the three Mr. Laing attributed the _Complaint_, but Mr.
Murray, the latest editor of that book, is unable to agree with him.
The first book of "prophane" songs published in Scotland was a musical
collection entitled "Cantus Songs and Fancies to several musicall
parts, both apt for voices and viols: with a brief introduction to
musick, as it is taught by Thomas Davidson in the Musick School of
Aberdeen. Aberdeen, printed by John Forbes." 1662, 1666, and 1682.
The next work in order of time is "A Choise Collection of Comic and
Serious Scots Poems, both ancient and modern, by several hands.
Edinburgh, printed by James Watson." In three parts, 1706, 1709, 1710.
Supposed to have been compiled by John Spottiswood, author of _Hope's
Minor Practicks_.
All these works emanated from Scotchmen, and the only works of the
same character that were published in England were small collections
of songs and ballads, called Garlands and Drolleries. These are too
numerous to be noticed here; but that they were highly popular may be
judged from the fact that a thirteenth edition of _The Golden Garland
of Princely Delight_ is registered. The Garlands are chiefly small
collections of songs on similar subjects. Thus, there were Love's
Garlands, Loyal Garlands, Protestant Garlands, &c. Considerable pains
seem to have been taken in order to obtain attractive titles for these
little brochures. Thus, on one we read:--
"The sweet and the sower,
The nettle and the flower,
The thorne and the rose,
This garland compose."
Drolleries were collections of "jovial poems" and "merry songs," and
some of them were confined to the songs sung at the theatres.
One of the first English collections of any pretensions was Dryden's
_Miscellany Poems_, published in 1684-1708, which was shortly
after followed by Tom D'Urfey's _Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge
Melancholy_, 1719-20. But the first attempt to bring together a large
number of popular ballads, as distinguished from songs, was made in
"A Collection of Old Ballads, corrected from the best and most ancient
copies extant, with Introductions historical, critical, or humorous."
London. Vols I. and II. 1723. Vol. III. 1725.
The object of most of the works referred to above was the publication
of songs to be sung; the object of this one was the presentment of
ballads to be read. It had a large sale, and the editor (who is said to
have been Ambrose Phillips) expresses his satisfaction in the Preface
to Vol. II.: "Though we printed a large edition for such a trifle, and
in less than two months put it to the press again, yet could we not get
our second edition out before it was really wanted." In spite, however,
of its satisfactory reception, it does not appear to have taken any
permanent position in literature, although it must have prepared the
public mind to receive the _Reliques_. This collection contains one
hundred and fifty-nine ballads, out of which number twenty-three are
also in the _Reliques_.[40] Many of the others are of considerable
interest, but some had better have been left unprinted, and all are of
little critical value.
In the year after the first two volumes of the English collection were
published, Allan Ramsay issued in Edinburgh "The Evergreen, being a
collection of Scots poems wrote by the ingenious before 1600," the
principal materials of which were derived from the Bannatyne MS. This
was followed in the same year (1724) by "The Tea-Table Miscellany:
a Collection of choice Songs, Scots and English," a work which is
frequently referred to by Percy in the following pages. In neither of
these works was Ramsay very particular as to the liberties he allowed
himself in altering his originals. In order to make the volumes fit
reading for his audience, which he hoped would consist of
"Ilka lovely British lass,
Frae ladies Charlotte, Ann, and Jean,
Down to ilk bonnie singing lass
Wha dances barefoot on the green,"
Ramsay pruned the songs of their indelicacies, and filled up the gaps
thus made in his own way. The _Tea-table Miscellany_ contains upwards
of twenty presumably old songs, upwards of twelve old songs much
altered, and about one hundred songs written by the editor himself,
Crawford, Hamilton, and others.
In 1725, William Thomson, a teacher of music in London, brought out
a collection of Scottish songs, which he had chiefly taken from the
_Tea-table Miscellany_ without acknowledgment. He called his book
_Orpheus Caledonius_.
For some years before Percy's collection appeared, the Foulises,
Glasgow's celebrated printers, issued from their press, under the
superintendence of Lord Hailes, various Scottish ballads, luxuriously
printed with large type, in a small quarto size.
These were the signs that might have shown the far-sighted man that a
revival was at hand. At last the time came when, tired out with the
dreary and leaden regularity of the verse-writers of the day, the
people were ready to receive poetry fresh from nature. The man who
arose to supply the want (which was none the less a want that it was
an unrecognized one) was Thomas Percy, a clergyman living in a retired
part of the country, but occasionally seen among the _literati_ of the
capital.
LIFE OF PERCY.
Thomas Percy was born on April 13th, 1729, at Bridgnorth in Shropshire,
in a street called the Cartway. His father and grandfather were
grocers, spelt their name Piercy, and knew nothing of any connection
with the noble house of Northumberland.[41] His early education was
received at the grammar school of Bridgnorth, and in 1746, being
then in his eighteenth year, and having obtained an exhibition, he
matriculated as a commoner at Christ Church, Oxford.
He took the degree of B.A. on May 2nd, 1750, that of M.A. on July 5th,
1753, and shortly after was presented by his college to the living
of Easton Maudit, in the county of Northampton. In this poor cure he
remained for twenty-five years, and in the little vicarage his six
children (Anne, Barbara, Henry, Elizabeth, Charlotte, and Hester),
were all born. Percy's income was increased in 1756 by the gift of
the rectory of Wilby, an adjacent parish, in the patronage of the
Earl of Sussex, and on April 24th, 1759, he married Anne, daughter of
Barton Gutteridge,[42] who was his beloved companion for forty-seven
years. It was to this lady, before his marriage to her, that Percy
wrote his famous song, "O Nancy, wilt thou go with me?" Miss Matilda
Lætitia Hawkins stated in her _Memoirs_, that these charming verses
were intended by Percy as a welcome to his wife on her release from
a twelve-month's confinement in the royal nursery, and Mr. Pickford
follows her authority in his _Life of Percy_, but this is an entire
mistake, for the song was printed as early as the year 1758 in the
sixth volume of Dodsley's _Collection of Poems_. Anyone who reads
the following verses will see, that though appropriate as a lover's
proposal, they are very inappropriate as a husband's welcome home to
his wife.
"O Nancy, wilt thou go with me,
Nor sigh to leave the flaunting town?
Can silent glens have charms for thee,
The lowly cot and russet gown?
No longer drest in silken sheen,
No longer deck'd with jewels rare,
Say, canst thou quit each courtly scene,
Where thou wert fairest of the fair?
"O Nancy, when thou'rt far away,
Wilt thou not cast a wish behind?
Say, canst thou face the parching ray,
Nor shrink before the wintry wind?
O, can that soft and gentle mien
Extremes of hardship learn to bear,
Nor, sad, regret each courtly scene,
Where thou wert fairest of the fair?
"O Nancy, canst thou love so true,
Through perils keen with me to go?
Or, when thy swain mishap shall rue,
To share with him the pang of woe?
Say, should disease or pain befall,
Wilt thou assume the nurse's care?
Nor wistful, those gay scenes recall,
Where thou wert fairest of the fair?
"And when at last thy love shall die,
Wilt thou receive his parting breath?
Wilt thou repress each struggling sigh,
And cheer with smiles the bed of death?
And wilt thou o'er his breathless clay
Strew flowers, and drop the tender tear?
Nor then regret those scenes so gay,
Where thou wert fairest of the fair?"
By the alteration of a few words, such as _gang_ for _go_, _toun_ for
_town_, &c., "Oh Nanny, wilt thou gang with me?" was transposed into a
Scotch song, and printed as such in Johnson's _Musical Museum_. Burns
remarked on this insertion: "It is too barefaced to take Dr. Percy's
charming song, and by the means of transposing a few English words into
Scots, to offer it to pass for a Scots song. I was not acquainted with
the editor until the first volume was nearly finished, else had I known
in time I would have prevented such an impudent absurdity." Stenhouse,
suggested[43] that Percy may have had in view the song called _The
young Laird and Edinburgh Kate_, printed in Ramsay's _Tea-Table
Miscellany_, the second stanza of which is somewhat similar--
"O Katy, wiltu gang wi' me,
And leave the dinsome town awhile?
The blossom's sprouting from the tree,
And a' the simmer's gawn to smile."
Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, however, hinted[44] that "perhaps both
the author of _The Young Laird and Edinburgh Katy_, and the Bishop,
took the idea of their ballads from a song in Lee's beautiful tragedy
of _Theodosius, or the Force of Love_."
Dr. Rimbault communicated this poem to the editors of the folio MS.
from a MS. dated 1682, or fifteen years earlier than Lee's version. It
is called _The Royal Nun_, and the first stanza is as follows:--
"Canst thou, Marina, leave the world,
The world that is devotion's bane,
Where crowns are toss'd and sceptres hurl'd,
Where lust and proud ambition reign?
Canst thou thy costly robes forbear,
To live with us in poor attire;
Canst thou from courts to cells repair
To sing at midnight in the quire?"[45]
The likeness in this stanza to Percy's song is not very apparent, and
the subject is very different. The other three stanzas have nothing in
common with _O Nancy_. Even could it be proved that Percy had borrowed
the opening idea from these two poems, it does not derogate from his
originality, for the charm of the song is all his own.
A portrait of Mrs. Percy holding in her hand a scroll inscribed _Oh
Nancy_, is preserved at Ecton House, near Northampton, the seat of Mr.
Samuel Isted, husband of Percy's daughter Barbara.
The song was set to music by Thomas Carter, and sung by Vernon at
Vauxhall in 1773.
In 1761 Percy commenced his literary career by the publication of a
Chinese novel, _Hau Kiau Chooan_, in four volumes, which he translated
from the Portuguese, and in the same year he undertook to edit the
works of the Duke of Buckingham. In 1762 he published "Miscellaneous
Pieces relating to the Chinese," and in 1763 commenced a new edition
of Surrey's Poems, with a selection of early specimens of blank verse.
The "Buckingham" and "Surrey" were printed, but never published, and
the stock of the latter was destroyed by fire in 1808. In 1763 were
published "Five Pieces of Runic Poetry--translated from the Icelandic
Language," and in the following year appeared "A New Translation of the
Song of Solomon from the Hebrew, with Commentary and Notes," and also
"A Key to the New Testament." Dr. Johnson paid a long-promised visit to
the Vicarage of Easton Maudit in the summer of 1764, where he stayed
for some months, and the little terrace in the garden is still called
after him, "Dr. Johnson's Walk." At this time Percy must have been full
of anxiety about his _Reliques_, which were shortly to be published,
and in the preparation of which he had so long been engaged. The poet
Shenstone was the first to suggest the subject of this book, as he
himself states in a letter to a friend, dated March 1, 1761. "You have
heard me speak of Mr. Percy; he was in treaty with Mr. James Dodsley
for the publication of our best old ballads in three volumes. He has a
large folio MS. of ballads, which he showed me, and which, with his own
natural and acquired talents, would qualify him for the purpose as well
as any man in England. I proposed the scheme to him myself, wishing to
see an elegant edition and good collection of this kind. I was also to
have assisted him in selecting and rejecting, and fixing upon the best
readings; but my illness broke off the correspondence in the beginning
of winter."
In February, 1765, appeared the first edition of the _Reliques_, which
gave Percy a name, and obtained for him the patronage of the great.
He became Chaplain and Secretary to the Duke of Northumberland, with
whose family he kept up intimate relations throughout his life. The
Northumberland _Household Book_, which he compiled in accordance with
the wishes of his patron, was privately printed in the year 1768.[46]
In 1769 he was appointed Chaplain to George III., and in the following
year appeared his translation of Mallet's _Northern Antiquities_. Each
of these three works was the first of its class, and created a taste
which produced a literature of the same character. The _Household
Book_ gave rise to a large number of publications which have put us
in possession of numerous facts relating to the domestic expenses and
habits of the royal and noble families of old England. The mythology
of the Eddas was first made known to English readers by Percy, and
in his Preface to Mallet's work he clearly pointed out the essential
difference between the Celtic and Teutonic races, which had previously
been greatly overlooked.
The remuneration which Percy received for his labours was not large.
Fifty pounds was the pay for the Chinese novel, and one hundred guineas
for the first edition of the _Reliques_. The agreements he made with
the Tonsons were fifty guineas for Buckingham's _Works_ and twenty
guineas for Surrey's _Poems_. He also agreed to edit the _Spectator_
and _Guardian_, with notes, for one hundred guineas, but was obliged
to abandon his intention on account of the engrossing character of his
appointments in the Northumberland family.
About this time Mrs. Percy was appointed nurse to Prince Edward, the
infant son of George III., afterwards Duke of Kent, and father of her
present Majesty, who was born in 1767.
In 1770 Percy took his degree of D.D. at Cambridge, having incorporated
himself at Emmanuel College, the master of which was his friend, Dr.
Farmer, to be remembered as the Shakspere commentator. Later on in the
year he lost his eldest daughter, and in January, 1771, yet another
child was buried in the village church. In 1771 he printed the _Hermit_
_of Warkworth_, which exhibited his continued interest in the subject
of the _Reliques_, and we find him for many years after this date
continually writing to his literary correspondents for information
relating to old ballads.
In 1778 Percy obtained the Deanery of Carlisle, which four years
afterwards he resigned on being appointed to the bishopric of Dromore,
worth _£_2,000 a year. He did not resign his vicarage and rectory until
the same time, and he was succeeded in the first by Robert Nares, the
compiler of the well-known glossary. It was in 1778 that the memorable
quarrel between Percy and Johnson occurred which is graphically
described by Boswell. The cause of the heat was the different views
held by the two disputants as to the merits of the traveller Pennant.
When the reconciliation was brought about Johnson's contribution to the
peace was, "My dear sir, I am willing you shall hang Pennant."
In this same year Percy was writing about his son Henry, then a tall
youth of fifteen, who he hoped in a few years would be able to edit
the _Reliques_ for him, but in April, 1783, soon after he had settled
at Dromore, a great sorrow fell upon him, and this only and much-loved
son died at the early age of twenty. In 1780 a large portion of
Northumberland House, Strand, was consumed by fire, when Percy's
apartments were burnt. The chief part of his library, was, however,
saved. Four very interesting letters of the bishop's, written to George
Steevens in 1796 and 1797, are printed in the _Athenæum_ for 1848
(pp. 437 and 604). The first relates to his edition of Goldsmith's
works, which was published in 1801 in four volumes octavo. His object
in undertaking the labour was to benefit two surviving relations
of Goldsmith, and he complains to Steevens that the publishers had
thwarted him in his purpose. The second letter is on the same subject,
and the third and fourth relate to his work on blank verse before
Milton, attached to Surrey's Poems. In 1798 the Irish Rebellion broke
out, and Percy sent a large quantity of correspondence and valuable
books to his daughter, Mrs. Isted, for safe preservation at Ecton
House. In 1806 his long and happy union with Mrs. Percy was abruptly
brought to a close, and to add to his afflictions he became totally
blind. He bore his trials with resignation, and ere five more years had
passed by, he himself was borne to the tomb. On the 30th of September,
1811, he died in the eighty-third year of his age, having outlived
nearly all his contemporaries.[47]
That his attachment to "Nancy" was fervent as well as permanent, is
shown by many circumstances. One of these is a little poem printed for
the first time in the edition of the folio MS.[48]
"ON LEAVING ---- ON A TEMPESTUOUS NIGHT,
MARCH 22, 1788, BY DR. PERCY.
"Deep howls the storm with chilling blast,
Fast falls the snow and rain,
Down rush the floods with headlong haste,
And deluge all the plain.
"Yet all in vain the tempest roars,
And whirls the drifted snow;
In vain the torrents scorn the shore,
To Delia I must go.
"In vain the shades of evening fall,
And horrid dangers threat,
What can the lover's heart appal,
Or check his eager feet?
"The darksome vale he fearless tries,
And winds its trackless wood;
High o'er the cliff's dread summit flies,
And rushes through the flood.
"Love bids atchieve the hardy task,
And act the wondrous part;
He wings the feet with eagle's speed,
And lends the lion-heart.
"Then led by thee, all-powerful boy,
I'll dare the hideous night;
Thy _dart_ shall guard me from annoy,
Thy _torch_ my footsteps light.
"The cheerful blaze--the social hour--
The friend--all plead in vain;
Love calls--I brave each adverse power
Of peril and of pain."
Percy had naturally a hot temper, but this cooled down with time, and
the trials of his later life were accepted with Christian meekness.
One of his relations, who as a boy could just recollect him, told Mr.
Pickford "that it was quite a pleasure to see even then his gentleness,
amiability, and fondness for children. Every day used to witness his
strolling down to a pond in the palace garden, in order to feed his
swans, who were accustomed to come at the well-known sound of the old
man's voice." He was a pleasing companion and a steady friend. His
duties, both in the retired country village and in the more elevated
positions of dean and bishop, were all performed with a wisdom and
ardour that gained him the confidence of all those with whom he was
brought in contact. The praise given to him in the inscription on the
tablet to his memory in Dromore Cathedral does not appear to have gone
beyond the truth. It is there stated that he resided constantly in his
diocese, and discharged "the duties of his sacred office with vigilance
and zeal, instructing the ignorant, relieving the necessitous, and
comforting the distressed with pastoral affection." He was "revered for
his piety and learning, and beloved for his universal benevolence, by
all ranks and religious denominations."
There are three portraits of Percy. The first and best known was
painted by Reynolds in May, 1773. It represents him habited in a black
gown and bands, with a loose black cap on his head, and the folio
MS. in his hand. It is not known whether the original is still in
existence, but engravings from it are common. The next was painted by
Abbot in 1797, and hangs at Ecton Hall. Percy is there represented as
a fuller-faced man, in his episcopal dress, and wearing a wig. We have
Steevens's authority for believing this to be an excellent likeness.
An engraving from it is prefixed to the "Percy Correspondence," in
Nichols's _Illustrations of Literature_.
In the third volume of Dibdin's _Bibliographical Decameron_ is a
beautiful engraving from a watercolour drawing, which represents the
bishop in his garden at Dromore, when totally blind, feeding his
swans.[49]
THE FOLIO MS. AND THE "RELIQUES."
What were the sources from which Percy obtained the chief contents of
his celebrated work? They were:--1. The folio MS.; 2. Certain other
MS. collections, the use of which he obtained; 3. The Scotch ballads
sent to him by Sir David Dalrymple (better known by his title of Lord
Hailes, which he assumed on being appointed one of the Judges of the
Court of Session in Edinburgh); 4. The ordinary printed broadsides; 5.
The poems he extracted from the old printed collections of fugitive
poetry--_The Paradise of Dainty Devices, England's Helicon_, &c.
In considering the above sources, it will be necessary to give some
little space to the discussion of the connection between the folio MS.
and the _Reliques_, as it is not generally understood by the ordinary
readers of the latter.
The folio MS. came into Percy's hands early in his life, and the
interest of its contents first caused him to think of forming his own
collection. One of the notes on the covers of the MS. is as follows:--
"When I first got possession of this MS. I was very young, and being
no degree an antiquary, I had not then learnt to reverence it; which
must be my excuse for the scribble which I then spread over some parts
of its margin, and, in one or two instances, for even taking out the
leaves to save the trouble of transcribing. I have since been more
careful. T. P."
He showed it to his friends, and immediately after the publication of
the _Reliques_ he deposited it at the house of his publishers, the
Dodsleys, of Pall Mall. In spite of all this publicity, Ritson actually
denied the very existence of the MS. Another memorandum on the cover of
the folio was written on Nov. 7, 1769. It is as follows:--
"This very curious old manuscript, in its present mutilated state, but
unbound and sadly torn, &c., I rescued from destruction, and begged
at the hands of my worthy friend Humphrey Pitt, Esq., then living at
Shiffnal, in Shropshire, afterwards of Priorslee, near that town; who
died very lately at Bath (viz., in summer 1769). I saw it lying dirty
on the floor, under a Bureau in ye Parlour: being used by the maids
to light the fire. It was afterwards sent, most unfortunately, to an
ignorant Bookbinder, who pared the margin, when I put it into Boards
in order to lend it to Dr. Johnson. Mr. Pitt has since told me that
he believes the transcripts into this volume, &c., were made by that
Blount who was author of _Jocular Tenures_, &c., who he thought was of
Lancashire or Cheshire, and had a remarkable fondness for these old
things. He believed him to be the same person with that Mr. Thomas
Blount who published the curious account of King Charles the 2ds escape
intitled _Boscobel_, &c., Lond. 1660, 12mo, which has been so often
reprinted. As also the _Law Dictionary_, 1671, folio, and many other
books which may be seen in Wood's _Athenæ_, ii. 73, &c. A Descendant
or Relation of that Mr. Blount was an apothecary at Shiffnal, whom I
remember myself (named also Blount). He (if I mistake not) sold the
Library of the said predecessor Thos. Blount to the above-mentioned Mr.
Humphy Pitt: who bought it for the use of his nephew, my ever-valued
friend Robt Binnel. Mr. Binnel accordingly had all the printed books,
but this MS. which was among them was neglected and left behind at Mr.
Pitt's house, where it lay for many years. T. PERCY."
Mr. Furnivall believes that the copier of the MS. must have been a man
greatly inferior to Thomas Blount, who was a barrister of the Middle
Temple, of considerable learning.
Percy afterwards kept the volume very much to himself, and Ritson
affirmed that "the late Mr. Tyrwhitt, an excellent judge and diligent
peruser of old compositions, and an intimate friend of the owner, never
saw it."[50] Although Jamieson was obliged by receiving a copy of three
of the pieces in the MS., he was not allowed a sight of the volume,
and no one else was permitted to make any use of it. This spirit of
secrecy was kept up by the bishop's descendants, who refused all who
applied to see it. Sir Frederic Madden alone was allowed to print some
pieces in his _Syr Gawayne_ for the Bannatyne Club, 1839. The public
obtained a glimpse of its contents through Dr. Dibdin, who copied from
Percy's list the first seventy-two entries, and would have finished
the whole, had he not been stopped by his entertainers (Mr. and Mrs.
Samuel Isted, of Ecton Hall), when they found out what he was about. He
gave in his _Bibliographical Decameron_ a description of the MS. which
he thus handled in the winter of 1815. Mr. Furnivall writes as follows
of his several attempts to get the MS. printed, and of his success at
last: "The cause of the printing of Percy's MS., of the publication of
the book, was the insistence time after time by Professor Child, that
it was the duty of English antiquarian men of letters to print this
foundation document of English balladry, the basis of that structure
which Percy raised, so fair to the eyes of all English-speaking men
throughout the world. Above a hundred years had gone since first the
_Reliques_ met men's view, a Percy Society had been born and died,
but still the Percy manuscript lay hid in Ecton Hall, and no one was
allowed to know how the owner who had made his fame by it had dealt
with it, whether his treatment was foul or fair. No list even of its
contents could be obtained. Dibdin and Madden, and many a man less
known had tried their hands, but still the MS. was kept back, and this
generation had made up its mind that it was not to see the desired
original in type.... I tried to get access to the MS. some half-a-dozen
years ago. Repulsed, I tried again when starting the Early English Text
Society. Repulsed again, I tried again at a later date, but with the
like result. Not rebuffed by this, Professor Child added his offer of
_£_50 to mine of _£_100, through Mr. Thurstan Holland, a friend of his
own and of the owners of the MS., and this last attempt succeeded." The
less said the better about the conduct of these owners who were only to
be tempted to confer a public benefit by the increased offers of two
private gentlemen, but there cannot be two opinions about the spirited
conduct of Mr. Furnivall and Professor Child. The three volumes[51]
that the printed edition of the MS. occupy, form a handsome monument
of well-directed labour. The text is printed with the most careful
accuracy under the superintendence of Mr. Furnivall, and the elaborate
prefaces which exhibit that union of judgment and taste for which Mr.
Hales is so well known, leave nothing to be desired.
"The manuscript itself is a 'scrubby, shabby paper' book, about fifteen
and a half inches long by five and a half wide, and about two inches
thick, which has lost some of its pages both at the beginning and
end.... The handwriting was put by Sir F. Madden at after 1650 A.D.; by
two authorities at the Record Office whom I consulted, in the reign of
James I. rather than that of Charles I., but as the volume contains,
among other late pieces, one on the siege of Newark in Charles I.'s
time (ii. 33), another on the taking of Banbury in 1642 (ii. 39),
and a third, _The King inioyes his rights againe_, which contains a
passage[52] that (as Mr. Chappell observes in _Pop. Mus._ ii. 438, note
2) fixes the date of the song to the year 1643, we must make the date
about 1650, though rather before than after, so far as I can judge. I
should keep it in Charles I.'s reign, and he died Jan. 30, 1649, but
within a quarter of a century one can hardly determine.... The dialect
of the copier of the MS. seems to have been Lancashire, as is shown by
the frequent use of the final _st, thoust_ for _thou shalt, Ist_ for
_I will, youst_ for _you will_, _unbethought_ for _umbethought_, and
the occurrence of the northern terms, like _strang_, _gange_, &c. &c.
Moreover, the strong local feeling shown by the copier in favour of
Lancashire and Cheshire, and the Stanleys, in his choice of _Flodden
Feilde_, _Bosworth Feilde_, _Earles of Chester_, _Ladye Bessiye_,
confirms the probability that he was from one of the counties named.
That much, if not all, of the MS. was written from dictation and
hurriedly is almost certain, from the continual miswriting of _they_
for _the_, _rought_ for _wrought_, _knight_ for _night_ (once), _me_
fancy for _my_ fancy, _justine_ for _justing_."[53]
A very erroneous impression has grown up as to the proportion of pieces
in the _Reliques_ which were taken from the MS. This is owing to a
misleading statement made by Percy in his preface, to the effect that
"the greater part of them are extracted from an ancient MS. in the
editor's possession, which contains near two hundred poems, songs, and
metrical romances." The fact is that only one-fourth were so taken. The
_Reliques_ contain 180 pieces, and of these only forty-five[54] are
taken from the manuscript. We thus see that a very small part of the
manuscript was printed by Percy. He mentions some of the other pieces
in various parts of his book, and he proposed to publish a fourth
volume of the _Reliques_ at some future period that never came.
Mr. Furnivall has the following remarks on the gains to literature by
the publication of the manuscript: "It is more that we have now for
the first time _Eger and Grime_ in its earlier state, _Sir Lambewell_,
besides the _Cavilere's_ praise of his hawking, the complete versions
of _Scottish Feilde_ and _Kinge Arthur's Death_, the fullest of
_Flodden Feilde_ and the verse _Merline_, the _Earle of Westmorlande_,
_Bosworth Feilde_, the curious poem of _John de Reeve_, and the fine
alliterative one of _Death and Liffe_, with its gracious picture of
Lady dame Life, awakening life and love in grass and tree, in bird and
man, as she speeds to her conquest over death."
In 1774 Percy wrote: "In three or four years I intend to publish a
volume or two more of old English and Scottish poems in the manner of
my _Reliques_." And again in 1778: "With regard to the _Reliques_, I
have a large fund of materials, which when my son has compleated his
studies at the University, he may, if he likes it, distribute into
one or more additional volumes." The death of this son put an end to
his hopes, but before the fourth edition was required, the bishop
had obtained the assistance of his nephew, the Rev. Thomas Percy. In
1801 he wrote as follows to Jamieson, who had asked for some extracts
from the folio: "Till my nephew has completed his collection for the
intended fourth volume it cannot be decided whether he may not wish
to insert himself the fragments you desire; but I have copied for you
here that one which you particularly pointed out, as I was unwilling to
disappoint your wishes and expectations altogether. By it you will see
the defective and incorrect state of the old text in the ancient folio
MS., and the irresistible demand on the editor of the _Reliques_ to
attempt some of those conjectural emendations, which have been blamed
by one or two rigid critics, but without which the collection would not
have deserved a moment's attention."
Percy has been very severely judged for the alterations he made in
his manuscript authorities; and Ritson has attempted to consider his
conduct as a question of morality rather than one of taste. As each
point is noticed in the prefaces to the various pieces, it is not
necessary to discuss the question here. It may, however, be remarked
that, in spite of all Ritson's attacks (and right was sometimes on his
side), the _Reliques_ remain to the present day unsuperseded.
Mr. Thoms communicated to the _Notes and Queries_ (5th series, v.
431) the following note, which he made upwards of forty years ago,
after a conversation with Francis Douce:--
"Mr. Douce told me that the Bishop (Percy) originally intended to have
left the manuscript to Ritson; but the reiterated abuse with which that
irritable and not always faultless antiquary visited him obliged him to
alter his determination. With regard to the alterations (? amendments)
made by Percy in the text, Mr. Douce told me that he (Percy) read to
him one day from the MS., while he held the work in his hand to compare
the two; and 'certainly the variations were greater than I could have
expected,' said my old friend, with a shrug of the shoulders."
Of the other sources from which Percy drew his materials little need be
said. 2. Some of the ballads were taken from MSS. in public libraries,
and others from MSS. that were lent to him. 3. The Scotch ballads
supplied by Sir David Dalrymple have already been referred to. 4.
The printed ballads are chiefly taken from the Pepys Collection at
Cambridge. 5. When the _Reliques_ were first published, the elegant
poems in the _Paradyse of Daynty Devises, England's Helicon_, were
little known, and it was a happy thought on the part of Percy to
intersperse these smaller pieces among the longer ballads, so as to
please the reader with a constant variety.
The weak point in the book is the insertion of some of the modern
pieces. The old minstrel believed the wonders he related; but a poet
educated in modern ideas cannot transfer himself back to the times of
chivalry, so that his attempts at imitating "the true Gothic manner"
are apt to fill his readers with a sense of unreality.
After the first edition of the _Reliques_ was printed, and before it
was published, Percy made a great alteration in its arrangement. The
first volume was turned into the third, and the third into the first,
as may be seen by a reference to the foot of the pages where the old
numbering remains. By this means the _Arthur Ballads_ were turned off
to the end, and _Chevy Chase_ and _Robin Hood_ obtained the place of
honour. Several ballads were also omitted at the last moment, and the
numbers left vacant. These occur in a copy of two volumes at Oxford
which formerly belonged to Douce. In Vol. III. (the old Vol. I.),
Book 1, there is no No. 19; in the Douce copy this is filled by _The
Song-birds_. In Vol. II., Book 3, there are no Nos. 10 and 11; but in
the Douce copy, Nos. 9, 10, and 11 are _Cock Lorrell's Treat_, _The
Moral Uses of Tobacco_, and _Old Simon the Kinge_. Besides these
omissions it will be seen that in Book 3 of Vol. III. there are two
Nos. 2; and that _George Barnwell_ must have been inserted at the last
moment, as it occupies a duplicate series of pages 225-240, which are
printed between brackets. In 1765 the volumes were published in London.
In the following year a surreptitious edition was published in Dublin,
and in 1767 appeared a second edition in London. In 1775 was published
the third edition, which was reprinted at Frankfort in 1790. The fourth
edition, ostensibly edited by the Rev. Thomas Percy, but really the
work of the bishop himself, was published in 1794. Many improvements
were made in this edition, and it contains Percy's final corrections;
the fifth edition, published in 1812, being merely a reprint of the
fourth.
The year 1765 was then a memorable one in the history of literature.
The current ballads which were bawled in the street, or sung in the
ale-house, were so mean and vulgar that the very name of ballad had
sunk into disrepute. It was therefore a revelation to many to find
that a literature of nature still existed which had descended from
mother to child in remote districts, or was buried in old manuscripts,
covered with the dust of centuries. It is necessary to realize this
state of things in order to understand Percy's apologetic attitude.
He collected his materials from various sources with great labour,
and spared no pains in illustrating the poetry by instructive prose.
Yet after welding with the force of genius the various parts into
an harmonious whole, he was doubtful of the reception it was likely
to obtain, and he called the contents of his volumes "the barbarous
productions of unpolished ages." He backed his own opinion of their
interest by bringing forward the names of the chiefs of the republic
of letters, and ill did they requite him. Johnson parodied his verses,
and Warburton sneered at him as the man "who wrote about the Chinese."
Percy looked for his reward where he received nothing but laughter; but
the people accepted his book with gladness, and the young who fed upon
the food he presented to them grew up to found new schools of poetry.
Few books have exerted such extended influence over English literature
as Percy's _Reliques_. Beattie's _Minstrel_ was inspired by a perusal
of the _Essay on the Ancient Minstrels_; and many authors have
expressed with gratitude their obligations to the bishop and his book.
How profoundly the poetry of nature, which lived on in the ballads of
the country, stirred the souls of men is seen in the instance of two
poets of strikingly different characteristics. Scott made his first
acquaintance with the _Reliques_ at the age of thirteen, and the place
where he read them was ever after imprinted upon his memory. The bodily
appetite of youth was unnoticed while he mentally devoured the volumes
under the huge leaves of the plantain tree. Wordsworth was not behind
Scott in admiration of the book. He wrote: "I have already stated how
much Germany is indebted to this work, and for our own country, its
poetry has been absolutely redeemed by it. I do not think there is
an able writer in verse of the present day who would not be proud to
acknowledge his obligation to the _Reliques_. I know that it is so
with my friends; and for myself, I am happy in this occasion to make a
public avowal of my own." After such men as these have spoken, who can
despise our old ballads?
BALLAD LITERATURE SINCE PERCY.
The impetus given to the collection of old ballads by the publication
of _Reliques_ showed itself in the rapid succession of volumes of the
same class which issued from the press. Most of these were devoted to
the publication of Scottish ballads exclusively. In 1769, David Herd,
a native of St. Cyrus, in Kincardineshire, who had spent most of his
life as clerk in an accountant's office in Edinburgh, published his
_Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads_, &c., a work which
was enlarged into two volumes in 1776.[55] He was a most successful
and faithful collector, and not being a poet, he was preserved from
the temptation of tampering with his stores. Motherwell mentions
twenty ballads which had not appeared in a collected form before the
publication of this work. Herd was assisted in his editorial labours by
George Paton.
In 1777 appeared the first edition of Evans's _Old Ballads,
Historical and Narrative_, in two volumes. The best edition of this
work, edited by the son of the original compiler, was published in 4
vols., 1810.
In 1781 Pinkerton published his _Scottish Tragic Ballads_, which
was followed in 1783 by _Select Scottish Ballads_. These volumes
contained several fabrications by the editor, as already stated on a
previous page.
In 1783 Ritson commenced the publication of that long series of volumes
which is of such inestimable value to the literary antiquary, with _A
Select Collection of English Songs_. _The Bishopric Garland, or_
_Durham Minstrel_, followed, in 1784; _The Yorkshire Garland_, in
1788; the _Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry_, in 1791; _Ancient Songs
and Ballads from the reign of Henry II. to the Revolution_, in 1787;
_The Northumberland Garland_, in 1793; _Scottish Songs_, in 1794; and
_Robin Hood_, in 1795.
In 1787 was commenced _The Scots Musical Museum_, by James Johnson.
Johnson was a music-seller and engraver in Edinburgh, and the work was
really projected by William Tytler of Woodhouselee, Dr. Blacklock, and
Samuel Clark. The first volume was partly printed, when Burns became
acquainted with the object of the work. He then entered into the scheme
with enthusiasm, and besides "begging and borrowing" old songs, wrote
many new songs himself.
In 1801 was published at Edinburgh, _Scottish Poems of the XVIth
Century_, edited by J. G. Dalzell, which contains a reprint of _Ane
Compendious Booke of Godly and Spirituall Songs_, already referred to
above.
In 1802 appeared the first two volumes of the only work which is
worthy to stand side by side with the _Reliques_. Sir Walter Scott's
_Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_ is a book that can be read
through, and it and the _Reliques_ are the only works of the class in
which the materials are welded into a whole, so as no longer to appear
a collection of units.
In 1806, Robert Jamieson published at Edinburgh his _Popular Ballads
and Songs, from Tradition, Manuscripts, and scarce editions_. He was
working upon this book at the same time that Scott was engaged upon
his _Minstrelsy_, and he obtained much of his material from the same
source as Scott, viz. Mrs. Brown, of Falkland; but he, nevertheless,
was able to print seventeen ballads that had not before appeared in any
published collection. Jamieson has the following remarks on himself in
the Introduction to the first volume:--
"Being obliged to go, at a few weeks' warning, to a distant part of the
world, and to seek, on the shores of the frozen Baltic, for (which his
own country seems to deny him) the means of employing his talents and
industry in some such manner as may enable him to preserve (for a time,
at least) his respectability and a partial independence in the world,
the following sheets have been prepared for the press, amidst all the
anxiety and bustle of getting ready and packing up for a voyage." (Vol.
i. p. xvii.)
John Finlay of Glasgow published in 1808 his _Scottish Historical and
Romantic Ballads_. These volumes only contain twenty-six ballads in all.
John Gilchrist's _Collection of Ancient and Modern Scottish Ballads,
Tales, and Songs_, (Edinburgh 1815) is a carefully edited work,
compiled from former books.
In 1822 David Laing published his valuable _Select Remains of the
Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland_, and in 1824 C. K. Sharpe printed
privately a little volume which he entitled _A Ballad Book_. James
Maidment printed also privately _A North Countrie Garland_ in the
same year (1824).
In 1825 E. V. Utterson printed "Select Pieces of Early English Poetry,
republished principally from early printed copies in Black Letter."
Peter Buchan commenced his ballad career by publishing at Peterhead,
in 1825, a little volume entitled "Gleanings of Scotch, English,
and Irish scarce old ballads, chiefly tragical and historical, many
of them connected with the localities of Aberdeenshire." In 1828 he
published his "Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland,
hitherto unpublished." He affirmed that his materials were faithfully
and honestly transcribed, and "they have suffered no change since they
fortunately were consigned to me by their foster parents." A portrait
is given in this book, which represents the compiler as a wild-looking,
unkempt, man. Besides these two books Buchan made a large collection of
ballads, songs, and poems, which he took down from the oral recitation
of the peasantry. These were pronounced by Scott to be "decidedly
and indubitably original." The two folio MS. volumes in which they
were contained came into the possession of the Percy Society, and a
selection was made from them by J. H. Dixon, in 1845, who entitled
his work _Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads_ (Percy
Society Publications, vol. xvii.).
In 1826 Allan Cunningham published _The Songs of Scotland_, to which
reference has already been made.
George R. Kinloch published in 1827, "Ancient Scottish Ballads,
recovered from tradition, and never before published." He states in his
introduction that "the present collection is almost entirely composed
of ballads obtained in the 'North Countrie,' a district hitherto but
little explored, though by no means destitute of traditional poetry."
In this same year appeared William Motherwell's _Minstrelsy, Ancient
and Modern_, a work of the most sterling character, which contains the
best account of ballad literature extant.
In 1829 Robert Chambers published his collection of _Scottish Ballads_,
which contains eighty pieces, of which number twelve are modern, or
imitations. At this period the editor had not elaborated his theory
that _Sir Patrick Spence_ and certain other ballads were modern
imitations.
Peter Cunningham published _The Songs of England and Scotland_, in
1835, and Thomas Wright printed _The Political Songs of England from
the reign of John to that of Edward II._ in 1839, for the Camden
Society.
In 1840 was founded, in honour of Bishop Percy, the Percy Society,
which continued to print some of the old Garlands and various
collections of old Ballads until 1852.
William Chappell published in 1840 his valuable _Collection of
National English Airs, consisting of Ancient Song, Ballad and Dance
Tunes_, which work was re-arranged and enlarged, and issued in 1855
as _Popular Music of the Olden Time_. This work is a mine of wealth
concerning both the airs and the words of our ballad treasures. It was
a truly national undertaking, and has been completed with great skill.
No ballad lover can get on without it.
In 1844 Alexander Whitelaw published _The Book of Scottish Ballads_,
and _The Book of Scottish Song_. An edition of the former was printed
in 1875, and one of the latter in 1866, which contains about twelve
hundred and seventy songs.
In 1847 John Matthew Gutch published "_A Lytell Geste of Robin Hode_,
with other Ancient and Modern Ballads and Songs relating to this
celebrated yeoman."
In the same year appeared Frederick Sheldon's _Minstrelsy of the
English Border_, but it is a work of very little value.
Dr. Rimbault printed in 1850 those valuable _Musical Illustrations
of Bishop Percy's Reliques_, which are so frequently quoted in the
following pages.
Professor Francis James Child, of Harvard College, one of our greatest
authorities on Ballad lore, published at Boston, U.S., a very complete
collection of _English and Scottish Ballads_, in eight volumes. The
first volume contains a full list of the principal collections of
Ballads and Songs.
In 1858 William Edmondstoune Aytoun published his _Ballads of
Scotland_, which contain collated versions of one hundred and
thirty-nine ballads, with short introductions.
The year 1867 was memorable as seeing the publication of the first
instalment of the Folio Manuscript under the editorship of J. W. Hales
and F. J. Furnivall.
In 1868 appeared "Scottish Ballads and Songs, historical and
traditionary, edited by James Maidment, Edinburgh, 1868," 2 vols. The
number of pieces is small but select, and the introductions are full
and elaborate.
In 1871 Messrs. Ogle of Glasgow published a well edited collection of
Scottish Ballads, with an interesting introduction and notes, entitled
"The Ballad Minstrelsy of Scotland. Romantic and Historical. Collated
and Annotated."
Upon the completion of the Percy Folio, Mr. Furnivall started the
Ballad Society, for the publication of the various collections of
ballads that exist. Mr. Chappell has edited half of the Roxburghe
Ballads in several parts, and Mr. Furnivall himself has printed some
interesting ballads from manuscripts. All these have been presented to
readers with a wealth of illustrative notes.
The books referred to above form but a portion of the literature of
the subject. So mighty has been the growth of the small seed set by
Percy, that the despised outcasts which the literary leaders attempted
to laugh out of existence have made good their right to a high position
among the poetry of the nation, and proved that they possessed the
germs of a long and vigorous life.
H. B. W.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See article on "Waits' Badges," by Llewellyn Jewitt, in
_Reliquary_, vol. xii. p. 145.
[2] Chant of Richard Sheale, Brydges' _British Bibliographer_, vol. iv.
p. 100.
[3] Ellis's _Original Letters_, Second Series, vol. iii. p. 49.
[4] See Percy's remarks on this line at p. 379 (note).
[5] Ritson's _Ancient Songs and Ballads_, ed. 1829, vol. i. p. xxvi.
[6] Marjoreybank's _Annals of Scotland_, Edinb. 1814, p. 5, quoted in
Motherwell's _Minstrelsy_, p. xxx. (note).
[7] Motherwell's _Minstrelsy_, 1827, p. xlvii.
[8] Motherwell's _Minstrelsy_, p. xv.
[9] See below. p. 148.
[10] Vol. ii. p. 172.
[11] Vol. iii. bk. ii. art. 18.
[12] Motherwell's _Minstrelsy_, p. xiii.
[13] See below, p. 380.
[14] See below, p. 70.
[15] See below, p. 23.
[16] See vol. ii. p. 158.
[17] Ritson's _Ancient Songs and Ballads_, ed. 1829, vol. i. p. xxxiii.
[18] See below, p. 378.
[19] _Popular Music of the Olden Time_, vol. i. p. 106.
[20] _Pierce Penilesse, his Supplication to the Devill_, 1592.
[21] Kemp's _Nine Daies' Wonder_, 1600, sign. d 3.
[22] Dryden's _Prologue_ to Lee's _Sophonisba_.
[23] _Richard of Almaigne_, see vol. ii. p. 3.
[24] _Notes and Queries_, 5th series, vol. v. p. 524.
[25] See _Ancient Scottish Poems_, 1786, vol. i. p. cxxxi.
[26] _Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern_, 1827, p. xcvii.
[27] _Scottish Ballads_, vol. i. p. 46.
[28] Mr. Laing, with his usual kindness, has been so good as to answer
my inquiry whether he still held the opinion he published in 1839.
He writes (June 2, 1876): "I still adhere to the general inference
that this ballad is comparatively a modern imitation, and although
we have no positive evidence as to the authorship, I can think of no
one that was so likely to have written it as Elizabeth Halket, Lady
Wardlaw of Pitreavie, who died in 1727, aged fifty. Had Bishop Percy's
correspondence with Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, been preserved,
some interesting information would no doubt have been obtained
regarding these ballads sent from Scotland."
[29] _Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads_ (Percy Society,
vol. xvii. p. xi.).
[30] Neither of these lines occur in Percy's version, but they are both
in the one printed by Scott.
[31] _Ballads from Scottish History_, 1863, pp. 223-4.
[32] "An ingenious friend thinks the author of _Hardyknute_ has
borrowed several expressions and sentiments from the foregoing and
other old Scottish songs in this collection."
[33] See vol. ii. p. 105, of the present edition.
[34] It has been necessary in the foregoing remarks to give reasons why
the opinions of the late Dr. Robert Chambers on this subject are not
to be taken on trust, but it is hoped that these criticisms will not
be understood as written with any wish to detract from the literary
character of one who did so much good work during a laborious and ever
active life.
[35] _Minstrelsy_, p. xlvi.
[36] _Parliament of Love._
[37] _Queen of Corinth._
[38] Dekker's _Honest W._, 1604, act i. sc. 1.
[39] Scott's _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_.
[40] The following is a list of these ballads:--
Vol. I. "Fair Rosamond and King Henry II.," "Queen Eleanor's
Confession," "St. George and the Dragon," "The Dragon of Wantley,"
"Chevy Chace," "The Lamentation of Jane Shore," "Sir Andrew Barton's
Death," "Prince of England's Courtship to the King of France's
Daughter," "The Lady turn'd Serving-Man," "The Children in the Wood,"
"The Bride's Burial," "The Lady's Fall," "Lord Thomas and Fair
Ellinor," "Gilderoy."
Vol. II. "King Leir and his Three Daughters," "King Arthur and the
Knights of the Round Table," "King John and the Abbot of Canterbury,"
"The Wanton Wife of Bath," "The Spanish Lady's Love," "The Blind Beggar
of Bednal Green."
Vol. III. "The Baffled Knight," "William and Margaret," "The
Gaberlunzie Man."
[41] Percy communicated to Dr. Nash, for the _History of
Worcestershire_ (vol. ii. p. 318), a pedigree in which he attempted
to identify his family with that of the descendants of Ralph, third
Earl of Northumberland. Nash subjoined a note to the effect that
he had examined the proofs of all the particulars above mentioned,
and Boswell, in his _Life of Johnson_, expressed the opinion that,
"both as a lawyer accustomed to the consideration of evidence, and
as a genealogist versed in the study of pedigrees," he was fully
satisfied. Mr. Furnivall is rather unjust to Percy when he suggests
that the pedigree was treated like the ballads, and the gaps filled
up, for the cases are not quite analogous. The pedigree may not be of
greater authenticity than many other doubtful ones, but at all events
his Patrons the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland acknowledged the
connection between them when he was in some way distinguished.
[42] On Percy's tomb his wife's name is spelt _Goodriche_.
[43] _Illustrations of the Lyric Poetry and Music of Scotland_, 1853,
p. 29.
[44] Stenhouse's Illustrations, p. 112.
[45] Bishop Percy's Folio MS. vol. i. p. xli. (note).
[46] The book was reprinted entire in the fourth volume of the
_Antiquarian Repertory_, 1809; and a second edition was published by
Pickering in 1827.
[47] In 1810 he was the only survivor of the original members of the
Literary Club, founded by Johnson and Reynolds in 1764.
[48] Percy Folio MS., vol. i. p. lv.
[49] The chief particulars of the above sketch of Percy's life are
taken from the interesting life by the Rev. J. Pickford in Hales and
Furnivall's edition of the Folio MS., vol. i. p. xxvii.
[50] Ancient Songs, 1790, p. xix.
[51] _Bishop Percy Folio Manuscript: Ballads and Romances._ Edited by
John W. Hales, M.A., and Frederick J. Furnivall, M.A., London (Trübner
and Co.), 1867-68, 3 vols.
[52]
"ffull 40 yeeres his royall crowne
hath beene his fathers and his owne."
_Percy Folio MS_. (ii. 25/17-18.)
[53] Furnivall's Forewords, p. xiii.
[54] The following is a list of these, taken from Mr. Furnivall's
_Forewords_:--
Sir Cauline.
King Estmere.
Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne.
The Child of Elle.
Edom O'Gordon (or Captaine Carre).
Adam Bell, Clym o' the Clough, and William of Cloudesly.
Take thy old Cloak about thee (or Bell my wife).
Sir Lancelot du Lake.
The more modern Ballad of Chevy Chase.
The Rising in the North.
Northumberland betrayed by Douglas.
The Not-browne Mayd.
Sir Aldingar.
Gentle Heardsman, tell to me.
The Beggar's Daughter of Bednal Green.
Sir Andrew Barton.
Lady Bothwell's Lament.
The Murder of the King of Scots.
The King of Scots and Andrew Browne, though in the Folio, was
printed by Percy from the Antiquaries' copy.
Mary Ambree.
The Winning of Cales.
The Spanish Lady's Love.
The Complaint of Conscience.
K. John and the Abbot of Canterbury.
The Heir of Lynne.
To Althea from Prison (When Love with unconfined wings).
Old Tom of Bedlam.
The Boy and the Mantle.
The Marriage of Sir Gawaine.
King Arthur's Death.
The Legend of King Arthur.
Glasgerion.
Old Robin of Portingale.
Child Waters.
Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard.
Gil Morrice.
Legend of Sir Guy.
Guy and Amarant.
The Shepherd's Resolution.
The Lady's Fall.
The King of France's Daughter.
A Lover of Late.
The King and Miller of Mansfield.
Dulcina.
The Wandering Prince of Troy.
The Aspiring Shepherd.
[55] This work was reprinted twice during the year 1869: 1. at
Edinburgh under the editorial care of Mr. Sidney Gilpin; 2. at Glasgow.
[Illustration]
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
ELIZABETH,
COUNTESS OF NORTHUMBERLAND;
IN HER OWN RIGHT,
BARONESS PERCY, LUCY, POYNINGS, FITZ-PAYNE,
BRYAN, AND LATIMER.
MADAM,--
Those writers, who solicit the protection of the noble and the great,
are often exposed to censure by the impropriety of their addresses: a
remark that will, perhaps, be too readily applied to him, who, having
nothing better to offer than the rude songs of ancient minstrels,
aspires to the patronage of the Countess of Northumberland, and hopes
that the barbarous productions of unpolished ages can obtain the
approbation or notice of her, who adorns courts by her presence, and
diffuses elegance by her example.
But this impropriety, it is presumed, will disappear, when it is
declared that these poems are presented to your Ladyship, not as
labours of art, but as effusions of nature, showing the first efforts
of ancient genius, and exhibiting the customs and opinions of remote
ages: of ages that had been almost lost to memory, had not the gallant
deeds of your illustrious ancestors preserved them from oblivion.
No active or comprehensive mind can forbear some attention to the
reliques of antiquity. It is prompted by natural curiosity to survey
the progress of life and manners, and to inquire by what gradations
barbarity was civilized, grossness refined, and ignorance instructed;
but this curiosity, Madam, must be stronger in those who, like your
Ladyship, can remark in every period the influence of some great
progenitor, and who still feel in their effects the transactions and
events of distant centuries.
By such bonds, Madam, as I am now introducing to your presence, was
the infancy of genius nurtured and advanced, by such were the minds of
unlettered warriors softened and enlarged, by such was the memory of
illustrious actions preserved and propagated, by such were the heroic
deeds of the Earls of Northumberland sung at festivals in the hall of
Alnwick; and those songs, which the bounty of your ancestors rewarded,
now return to your Ladyship by a kind of hereditary right; and, I
flatter myself, will find such reception as is usually shown to poets
and historians, by those whose consciousness of merit makes it their
interest to be long remembered.
I am,
Madam,
Your Ladyship's
Most humble,
And most devoted Servant,
THOMAS PERCY.[56]
TO
ELIZABETH,
LATE DUCHESS AND COUNTESS OF NORTHUMBERLAND,
IN HER OWN RIGHT BARONESS PERCY,
ETC. ETC. ETC.
WHO, BEING SOLE HEIRESS TO MANY GREAT FAMILIES
OF OUR ANCIENT NOBILITY, EMPLOYED THE PRINCELY
FORTUNE, AND SUSTAINED THE ILLUSTRIOUS
HONOURS, WHICH SHE DERIVED FROM THEM,
THROUGH HER WHOLE LIFE WITH THE
GREATEST DIGNITY, GENEROSITY, AND SPIRIT; AND
WHO FOR HER MANY PUBLIC AND PRIVATE VIRTUES
WILL EVER BE REMEMBERED AS ONE OF THE
FIRST CHARACTERS OF HER TIME, THIS
LITTLE WORK WAS ORIGINALLY
DEDICATED; AND, AS IT SOMETIMES AFFORDED HER
AMUSEMENT, AND WAS HIGHLY DISTINGUISHED
BY HER INDULGENT APPROBATION, IT IS
NOW, WITH THE UTMOST REGARD,
RESPECT, AND GRATITUDE, CONSECRATED
TO HER BELOVED AND HONOURED
MEMORY.[57]
FOOTNOTES:
[56] This dedication is prefixed to the first edition of the
_Reliques_, (1765), the second edition (1767), and the third edition
(1775).
[57] The Duchess of Northumberland died in the year 1776, and the above
inscription appears in the fourth edition (1794) and the fifth edition
(1812), besides many subsequent editions.
[Illustration]
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FOURTH EDITION.[58]
Twenty years have near elapsed since the last edition of this work
appeared. But, although it was sufficiently a favourite with the
public, and had long been out of print, the original editor had no
desire to revive it. More important pursuits had, as might be expected,
engaged his attention; and the present edition would have remained
unpublished, had he not yielded to the importunity of his friends, and
accepted the humble offer of an editor in a nephew, to whom, it is
feared, he will be found too partial.
These volumes are now restored to the public with such corrections and
improvements as have occurred since the former impression; and the text
in particular hath been emended in many passages by recurring to the
old copies. The instances, being frequently trivial, are not always
noted in the margin; but the alteration hath never been made without
good reason; and especially in such pieces as were extracted from the
folio manuscript so often mentioned in the following pages, where any
variation occurs from the former impression, it will be understood to
have been given on the authority of that MS.
The appeal publicly made to Dr. Johnson in the first page of the
following Preface, so long since as in the year 1765, and never once
contradicted by him during so large a portion of his life, ought to
have precluded every doubt concerning the existence of the MS. in
question. But such, it seems, having been suggested, it may now be
mentioned, that, while this edition passed through his press, the MS.
itself was left for near a year with Mr. Nichols, in whose house, or
in that of its possessor, it was examined with more or less attention
by many gentlemen of eminence in literature. At the first publication
of these volumes it had been in the hands of all, or most of, his
friends; but, as it could hardly be expected that he should continue
to think of nothing else but these amusements of his youth, it was
afterwards laid aside at his residence in the country. Of the many
gentlemen above-mentioned, who offered to give their testimony to the
public, it will be sufficient to name the Honourable Daines Barrington,
the Reverend Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode, and those eminent Critics on
Shakespeare, the Reverend Dr. Farmer, George Steevens, Esq., Edmund
Malone, Esq., and Isaac Reed, Esq., to whom I beg leave to appeal for
the truth of the following representation.
The MS. is a long narrow folio volume, containing 195 Sonnets, Ballads,
Historical Songs, and Metrical Romances, either in the whole or in
part, for many of them are extremely mutilated and imperfect. The first
and last leaves are wanting; and of fifty-four pages near the beginning
half of every leaf hath been torn away, and several others are injured
towards the end; besides that through a great part of the volume the
top or bottom line, and sometimes both have been cut off in the binding.
In this state is the MS. itself: and even where the leaves have
suffered no injury, the transcripts, which seem to have been all made
by one person (they are at least all in the same kind of hand), are
sometimes extremely incorrect and faulty, being in such instances
probably made from defective copies, or the imperfect recitation of
illiterate fingers; so that a considerable portion of the song or
narrative is sometimes omitted; and miserable trash or nonsense not
unfrequently introduced into pieces of considerable merit. And often
the copyist grew so weary of his labour as to write on without the
least attention to the sense or meaning; so that the word which should
form the rhyme is found misplaced in the middle of the line; and we
have such blunders as these, _want and will_ for _wanton will_;[59]
even _pan and wale_ for _wan and pale_,[60] &c., &c.
Hence the public may judge how much they are indebted to the composer
of this collection; who, at an early period of life, with such
materials and such subjects, formed a work which hath been admitted
into the most elegant libraries; and with which the judicious antiquary
hath just reason to be satisfied, while refined entertainment hath been
provided for every reader of taste and genius.
THOMAS PERCY,
FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD.
FOOTNOTES:
[58] Published in three volumes small octavo in 1794. "Printed by John
Nichols for F. and C. Rivington."
[59] [Fol. MS.] Page 130, ver. 117. (This must have been copied from a
reciter.)
[60] [Fol. MS.] Page 139, ver. 164, viz.
"his visage waxed pan and wale."
[Illustration]
THE PREFACE
The reader is here presented with select remains of our ancient English
bards and minstrels, an order of men, who were once greatly respected
by our ancestors, and contributed to soften the roughness of a martial
and unlettered people by their songs and by their music.
The greater part of them are extracted from an ancient folio
manuscript, in the editor's possession, which contains near 200 poems,
songs, and metrical romances. This MS. was written about the middle of
the last century; but contains compositions of all times and dates,
from the ages prior to Chaucer, to the conclusion of the reign of
Charles I.[61]
This manuscript was shewn to several learned and ingenious friends,
who thought the contents too curious to be consigned to oblivion, and
importuned the possessor to select some of them, and give them to the
press. As most of them are of great simplicity, and seem to have been
merely written for the people, he was long in doubt, whether, in the
present state of improved literature, they could be deemed worthy
the attention of the public. At length the importunity of his friends
prevailed, and he could refuse nothing to such judges as the author of
the _Rambler_ and the late Mr. Shenstone.
Accordingly such specimens of ancient poetry have been selected, as
either shew the gradation of our language, exhibit the progress of
popular opinions, display the peculiar manners and customs of former
ages, or throw light on our earlier classical poets.
They are here distributed into volumes, each of which contains an
independent series of poems, arranged chiefly according to the order
of time, and shewing the gradual improvements of the English language
and poetry from the earliest ages down to the present. Each volume,
or series, is divided into three books, to afford so many pauses, or
resting-places to the reader, and to assist him in distinguishing
between the productions of the earlier, the middle, and the latter
times.
In a polished age, like the present, I am sensible that many of these
reliques of antiquity will require great allowances to be made for
them. Yet have they, for the most part, a pleasing simplicity, and many
artless graces, which in the opinion of no mean critics[62] have been
thought to compensate for the want of higher beauties, and, if they do
not dazzle the imagination, are frequently found to interest the heart.
To atone for the rudeness of the more obsolete poems, each volume
concludes with a few modern attempts in the same kind of writing:
and, to take off from the tediousness of the longer narratives, they
are everywhere intermingled with little elegant pieces of the lyric
kind. Select ballads in the old Scottish dialect, most of them of the
first-rate merit, are also interspersed among those of our ancient
English minstrels; and the artless productions of these old rhapsodists
are occasionally confronted with specimens of the composition of
contemporary poets of a higher class; of those who had all the
advantages of learning in the times in which they lived, and who wrote
for fame and for posterity. Yet perhaps the palm will be frequently due
to the old strolling minstrels, who composed their rhymes to be sung to
their harps, and who looked no farther than for present applause, and
present subsistence.
The reader will find this class of men occasionally described in the
following volumes, and some particulars relating to their history in an
Essay subjoined. (Appendix I.)
It will be proper here to give a short account of the other collections
that were consulted, and to make my acknowledgements to those gentlemen
who were so kind as to impart extracts from them; for, while this
selection was making, a great number of ingenious friends took a share
in the work, and explored many large repositories in its favour.
The first of these that deserved notice was the Pepysian library
at Magdalen College, Cambridge. Its founder, Sam. Pepys, Esq.,[63]
Secretary of the Admiralty in the reigns of Charles II. and James II.
had made a large collection of ancient English ballads, near 2,000
in number, which he has left pasted in five volumes in folio; besides
Garlands and other smaller miscellanies. This collection he tells us
was "begun by Mr. Selden; improved by the addition of many pieces elder
thereto in time; and the whole continued down to the year 1700; when
the form peculiar till then thereto, viz., of the black letter with
pictures, seems (for cheapness sake) wholly laid aside for that of the
white letter without pictures."
In the Ashmole Library at Oxford is a small collection of ballads made
by Anthony Wood in the year 1676, containing somewhat more than 200.
Many ancient popular poems are also preserved in the Bodleyan library.
The archives of the Antiquarian Society at London contain a multitude
of curious political poems in large folio volumes, digested under the
several reigns of Hen. VIII., Edw. VI., Mary, Elizabeth, James I.,
&c.[65]
In the British Museum is preserved a large treasure of ancient English
poems in MS. besides one folio volume of printed ballads.
From all these some of the best pieces were selected; and from many
private collections, as well printed, as manuscript, particularly from
one large folio volume which was lent by a lady.
Amid such a fund of materials, the editor is afraid he has been
sometimes led to make too great a parade of his authorities. The
desire of being accurate has perhaps seduced him into too minute and
trifling an exactness; and in pursuit of information he may have been
drawn into many a petty and frivolous research. It was, however,
necessary to give some account of the old copies; though often,
for the sake of brevity, one or two of these only are mentioned,
where yet assistance was received from several. Where any thing was
altered that deserved particular notice, the passage is generally
distinguished by two inverted 'commas.' And the editor has endeavoured
to be as faithful as the imperfect state of his materials would
admit. For, these old popular rhymes being many of them copied only
from illiterate transcripts, or the imperfect recitation of itinerant
ballad-singers, have, as might be expected, been handed down to us
with less care than any other writings in the world. And the old
copies, whether MS. or printed, were often so defective or corrupted,
that a scrupulous adherence to their wretched readings would only
have exhibited unintelligible nonsense, or such poor meagre stuff,
as neither came from the bard, nor was worthy the press; when, by a
few slight corrections or additions, a most beautiful or interesting
sense hath started forth, and this so naturally and easily, that the
editor could seldom prevail on himself to indulge the vanity of making
a formal claim to the improvement; but must plead guilty to the charge
of concealing his own share in the amendments under some such general
title, as a _Modern Copy_, or the like. Yet it has been his design to
give sufficient intimation where any considerable liberties[66] were
taken with the old copies, and to have retained either in the text
or margin any word or phrase which was antique, obsolete, unusual,
or peculiar, so that these might be safely quoted as of genuine and
undoubted antiquity. His object was to please both the judicious
antiquary, and the reader of taste; and he hath endeavoured to gratify
both without offending either.
The plan of the work was settled in concert with the late elegant Mr.
Shenstone, who was to have borne a joint share in it had not death
unhappily prevented him[67]: most of the modern pieces were of his
selection and arrangement, and the editor hopes to be pardoned if he
has retained some things out of partiality to the judgment of his
friend. The old folio MS. above-mentioned was a present from Humphrey
Pitt, Esq., of Prior's-Lee, in Shropshire,[68] to whom this public
acknowledgement is due for that, and many other obliging favours. To
Sir David Dalrymple, Bart., of Hailes, near Edinburgh, the editor is
indebted for most of the beautiful Scottish poems with which this
little miscellany is enriched, and for many curious and elegant remarks
with which they are illustrated. Some obliging communications of the
same kind were received from John MacGowan, Esq., of Edinburgh; and
many curious explanations of Scottish words in the glossaries from
John Davidson, Esq., of Edinburgh, and from the Rev. Mr. Hutchinson,
of Kimbolton. Mr. Warton, who has twice done so much honour to the
Poetry Professor's chair at Oxford, and Mr. Hest, of Worcester
College, contributed some curious pieces from the Oxford libraries.
Two ingenious and learned friends at Cambridge deserve the editor's
warmest acknowledgements: to Mr. Blakeway, late fellow of Magdalen
College, he owes all the assistance received from the Pepysian library:
and Mr. Farmer, fellow of Emanuel, often exerted, in favour of this
little work, that extensive knowledge of ancient English literature
for which he is so distinguished.[69] Many extracts from ancient MSS.
in the British Museum, and other repositories, were owing to the kind
services of Thomas Astle, Esq., to whom the public is indebted for
the curious Preface and Index annexed to the Harleyan Catalogue.[70]
The worthy Librarian of the Society of Antiquaries, Mr. Norris,
deserved acknowledgement for the obliging manner in which he gave the
editor access to the volumes under his care. In Mr. Garrick's curious
collection of old plays are many scarce pieces of ancient poetry, with
the free use of which he indulged the editor in the politest manner.
To the Rev. Dr. Birch he is indebted for the use of several ancient
and valuable tracts. To the friendship of Dr. Samuel Johnson he owes
many valuable hints for the conduct of the work. And, if the Glossaries
are more exact and curious than might be expected in so slight a
publication, it is to be ascribed to the supervisal of a friend, who
stands at this time the first in the world for northern literature, and
whose learning is better known and respected in foreign nations than
in his own country. It is, perhaps, needless to name the Rev. Mr. Lye,
editor of _Junius's Etymologicum_, and of the _Gothic Gospels_.
The names of so many men of learning and character the editor hopes
will serve as an amulet to guard him from every unfavourable censure,
for having bestowed any attention on a parcel of old ballads. It was at
the request of many of these gentlemen, and of others eminent for their
genius and taste, that this little work was undertaken. To prepare it
for the press has been the amusement of now and then a vacant hour
amid the leisure and retirement of rural life, and hath only served as
a relaxation from graver studies. It has been taken up at different
times, and often thrown aside for many months, during an interval of
four or five years. This has occasioned some inconsistencies and
repetitions, which the candid reader will pardon. As great care has
been taken to admit nothing immoral and indecent, the editor hopes he
need not be ashamed of having bestowed some of his idle hours on the
ancient literature of our own country, or in rescuing from oblivion
some pieces (though but the amusements of our ancestors) which tend to
place in a striking light their taste, genius, sentiments, or manners.
* * * * *
Except in one paragraph, this Preface is given with little
variation from the first edition in MDCCLXV.
FOOTNOTES:
[61] Chaucer quotes the old Romance of _Libius Disconius_, and some
others, which are found in this MS. (See the _Essay_, vol. iii.
Appendix I.) It also contains several songs relating to the civil war
in the last century, but not one that alludes to the Restoration.
[62] Mr. Addison, Mr. Dryden, and the witty Lord Dorset, &c. See the
_Spectator_, No. 70. To these might be added many eminent judges now
alive. The learned Selden appears also to have been fond of collecting
these old things. See below.
[63] A life of our curious collector Mr. Pepys may be seen in the
continuation of Mr. Collier's Supplement to his _Great Diction._ 1715,
at the end of vol. iii. folio. Art. Pep.[64]
[64] [In Percy's time Pepys was not known as the author of that _Diary_
which will keep his name in remembrance so long as English literature
continues to exist.]
[65] [The Society of Antiquaries have published a catalogue of this
collection by Robert Lemon, 8vo. 1866.]
[66] Such liberties have been taken with all those pieces which have
three asterisks subjoined, thus [***].
[67] That the editor hath not here under-rated the assistance he
received from his friend, will appear from Mr. Shenstone's own letter
to the Rev. Mr. Graves, dated March 1, 1761. See his _Works_, vol.
iii. letter cii. It is doubtless a great loss to this work that Mr.
Shenstone never saw more than about a third of one of these volumes, as
prepared for the press.
[68] Who informed the editor that this MS. had been purchased in a
library of old books, which was thought to have belonged to Thomas
Blount, Author of the _Jocular Tenures_, 1679, 4to. and of many other
publications enumerated in Wood's _Athenæ_, ii. 73; the earliest
of which is _The Art of making Devises_, 1646, 4to. wherein he is
described to be "of the Inner Temple." If the collection was made by
this lawyer (who also published the _Law Dictionary_, 1671, folio),
it should seem, from the errors and defects with which the MS. abounds,
that he had employed his clerk in writing the transcripts, who was
often weary of his task.
[69] To the same learned and ingenious friend, since Master of Emanuel
College, the editor is obliged for many corrections and improvements
in his second and subsequent editions; as also to the Rev. Mr. Bowle,
of Idmistone, near Salisbury, editor of the curious edition of _Don
Quixote_, with Annotations in Spanish, in 6 vols. 4to.; to the Rev. Mr.
Cole, formerly of Blecheley, near Fenny-Stratford, Bucks; to the Rev.
Mr. Lambe, of Noreham, in Northumberland (author of a learned _History
of Chess_, 1764, 8vo. and editor of a curious _Poem on the Battle of
Flodden Field_, with learned Notes, 1774, 8vo.); and to G. Paton, Esq.,
of Edinburgh. He is particularly indebted to two friends, to whom the
public as well as himself, are under the greatest obligations; to
the Honourable Daines Barrington, for his very learned and curious
_Observations on the Statutes_, 4to.; and to Thomas Tyrwhitt, Esq.,
whose most correct and elegant edition of Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_,
5 vols. 8vo. is a standard book, and shows how an ancient English
classic should be published. The editor was also favoured with many
valuable remarks and corrections from the Rev. Geo. Ashby, late fellow
of St. John's College, in Cambridge, which are not particularly pointed
out because they occur so often. He was no less obliged to Thomas
Butler, Esq., F.A.S., agent to the Duke of Northumberland, and Clerk
of the Peace for the County of Middlesex, whose extensive knowledge of
ancient writings, records, and history, have been of great use to the
editor in his attempts to illustrate the literature or manners of our
ancestors. Some valuable remarks were procured by Samuel Pegge, Esq.,
author of that curious work the _Curialia_, 4to.; but this impression
was too far advanced to profit by them all; which hath also been the
case with a series of learned and ingenious annotations inserted in
the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for August, 1793, April, June, July, and
October, 1794, and which, it is hoped, will be continued.
[70] Since Keeper of the Records in the Tower.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
RELIQUES OF ANCIENT POETRY, ETC.
SERIES THE FIRST.
BOOK I.
[Illustration]
I never heard the olde song of Percy and Duglas, that I found not
my heart mooved more then with a trumpet: and yet is it sung but
by some blinde crouder, with no rougher voyce, then rude stile;
which being so evill apparelled in the dust and cobwebbes of
that uncivill age, what would it worke, trymmed in the gorgeous
eloquence of Pindar!--_Sir Philip Sidney's Apologie for Poetrie_,
1595.
[Illustration]
I.
THE ANCIENT BALLAD OF CHEVY CHASE.
The fine heroic song of _Chevy-Chase_ has ever been admired by
competent judges. Those genuine strokes of nature and artless passion,
which have endeared it to the most simple readers, have recommended
it to the most refined; and it has equally been the amusement of our
childhood, and the favourite of our riper years.
Mr. Addison has given an excellent critique[71] on this very
popular ballad, but is mistaken with regard to the antiquity of the
common-received copy; for this, if one may judge from the style, cannot
be older than the time of Elizabeth, and was probably written after the
elogium of Sir Philip Sidney: perhaps in consequence of it. I flatter
myself, I have here recovered the genuine antique poem; the true
original song, which appeared rude even in the time of Sir Philip, and
caused him to lament, that it was so evil-apparelled in the rugged garb
of antiquity.
This curiosity is printed, from an old manuscript,[72] at the end of
Hearne's preface to Gul. Newbrigiensis _Hist._ 1719, 8vo. vol. i. To
the MS. copy is subjoined the name of the author, Rychard Sheale;[73]
whom Hearne had so little judgement as to suppose to be the same with a
R. Sheale, who was living in 1588. But whoever examines the gradation
of language and idiom in the following volumes, will be convinced that
this is the production of an earlier poet. It is indeed expressly
mentioned among some very ancient songs in an old book intituled, _The
Complaint of Scotland_[74] (fol. 42), under the title of the _Huntis of
Chevet_, where the two following lines are also quoted:--
"The Perssee and the Mongumrye mette,[75]
That day, that day, that gentil day:"[76]
which, tho' not quite the same as they stand in the ballad, yet differ
not more than might be owing to the author's quoting from memory.
Indeed whoever considers the style and orthography of this old poem
will not be inclined to place it lower than the time of Henry VI.: as
on the other hand the mention of James the Scottish King,[77] with
one or two anachronisms, forbids us to assign it an earlier date.
King James I. who was prisoner in this kingdom at the death of his
father,[78] did not wear the crown of Scotland till the second year of
our Henry VI.,[79] but before the end of that long reign a third James
had mounted the throne.[80] A succession of two or three Jameses, and
the long detention of one of them in England, would render the name
familiar to the English, and dispose a poet in those rude times to give
it to any Scottish king he happened to mention.
So much for the date of this old ballad: with regard to its subject,
altho' it has no countenance from history, there is room to think it
had originally some foundation in fact. It was one of the Laws of the
Marches frequently renewed between the two nations, that neither party
should hunt in the other's borders, without leave from the proprietors
or their deputies.[81] There had long been a rivalship between the
two martial families of Percy and Douglas, which heightened by the
national quarrel, must have produced frequent challenges and struggles
for superiority, petty invasions of their respective domains, and sharp
contests for the point of honour; which would not always be recorded
in history. Something of this kind, we may suppose, gave rise to the
ancient ballad of the _Hunting a' the Cheviat_.[82] Percy earl of
Northumberland had vowed to hunt for three days in the Scottish border
without condescending to ask leave from earl Douglas, who was either
lord of the soil, or lord warden of the marches. Douglas would not
fail to resent the insult, and endeavour to repel the intruders by
force; this would naturally produce a sharp conflict between the two
parties: something of which, it is probable, did really happen, tho'
not attended with the tragical circumstances recorded in the ballad:
for these are evidently borrowed from the _Battle of Otterbourn_,[83]
a very different event, but which after-times would easily confound
with it. That battle might be owing to some such previous affront as
this of Chevy Chase, though it has escaped the notice of historians.
Our poet has evidently jumbled the two subjects together: if indeed the
lines,[84] in which this mistake is made, are not rather spurious, and
the after-insertion of some person, who did not distinguish between the
two stories.
Hearne has printed this ballad without any division of stanzas, in long
lines, as he found it in the old written copy; but it is usual to find
the distinction of stanzas neglected in ancient MSS.; where, to save
room, two or three verses are frequently given in one line undivided.
See flagrant instances in the _Harleian Catalogue_, No. 2253, s. 29,
34, 61, 70, _et passim_.
* * * * *
[Bishop Percy did well to open his book with _Chevy Chase_ and the
_Battle of Otterburn_, as these two are by far the most remarkable
of the old historical ballads still left to us, and all Englishmen
must feel peculiar interest in _Chevy Chase_, as it is one of the
few northern ballads that are the exclusive growth of the south
side of the Border. The partizanship of the Englishman is very
amusingly brought out in verses 145-154, where we learn that the
Scotch king had no captain in his realm equal to the dead Douglas,
but that the English king had a hundred captains as good as Percy.
A ballad which stirred the soul of Sidney and caused Ben Jonson to
wish that he had been the author of it rather than of all his own
works cannot but be dear to all readers of taste and feeling. The
old version is so far superior to the modern one (see Book iii.
No. 1) that it must ever be a source of regret that Addison, who
elegantly analyzed the modern version, did not know of the original.
It will be well to arrange under three heads the subjects on which
a few words require to be added to Percy's preface, viz. 1. the
title, 2. the occasion, 3. the author. 1. In the old version the
title given in the ballad itself is _the hunting of the Cheviat_,
and in the _Complaynt of Scotlande_ it is referred to as _The
Huntis of Chevot_. The title of the modern version is changed
to _Chevy Chase_, which Dr. E. B. Nicholson has suggested to
be derived from the old French word _chevauchée_, a foray or
expedition (see _Notes and Queries_, 3rd series, vol. xii. p. 124);
but this explanation is not needed, as the original of the modern
title is found in ver. 62 as _Chyviat Chays_, which naturally
became contracted into _Chevy Chase_, as _Teviotdale_ into
_Tevidale_ (ver. 50).
2. The ballad is so completely unhistorical that it is difficult
to give any opinion as to the occasion to which it refers, but
apparently it was written, as Bishop Percy remarks, to commemorate
a defiant expedition of one of the Lords of the Marches upon the
domain of another, but that the names of Percy and Douglas led the
writer into a confusion with the battle of Otterburn, which was
fresh in the people's memory owing to the ballad of the _Battle_
_of Otterburn_. In fact Professor Child throws out the hint that
possibly Sidney referred to the _Battle of Otterburn_ and not to
the _Hunting of the Cheviat_, as he only mentions the old song
of _Percie and Douglas_, but it has so long been believed that
Sidney spoke of _Chevy Chase_ that we should be sorry to think
otherwise now. In the note immediately following the modern version
(see Book iii. No. 1.) Bishop Percy suggests the possibility that
the ballad may refer to the battle of Pepperden fought in 1436, but
this view is highly improbable for the following reason. In both
the ancient and modern versions the battle of Humbledown is alluded
to as a future event caused by the death of Percy at Chevy Chase.
Now as Humbledown was fought in the year 1402, and as the battle
of Otterburn was the only conflict of importance on the Borders
which preceded it, and as, moreover, Otterburn is mentioned in the
ballad, there cannot well be any reference to a battle fought so
many years afterwards.
3. Bishop Percy is unnecessarily severe in his remark upon Hearne,
as that learned antiquary was probably correct in identifying the
Richard Sheale of the old ballad with Richard Sheale the minstrel.
Whether, however, the latter was the author, as is argued by C.
in Brydges' _British Bibliographer_ (vol. 4, pp. 95-105), is
another matter. The other examples of the minstrel's muse are so
inferior to this ballad that it is impossible to believe him to be
the author. Doubtless it was recited by him, and being associated
with his name the transcriber may naturally have supposed him to
be its maker. Sheale really flourished (or withered, as Mr. Hales
has it) at a rather earlier period than the date 1588 mentioned by
Percy would lead us to imagine, for he appears to have been writing
before 1560, nevertheless the language is of a much earlier date
than this, and, moreover, a ballad of the Borders is not likely to
have been invented at Tamworth, where Sheale lived.
_Chevy Chase_ was long a highly popular song, and Bishop Corbet,
in his _Journey into France_, speaks of having sung it in his
youth. The antiquated beau in Davenant's play of the _Wits_ also
prides himself on being able to sing it, and in _Wit's Intepreter_,
1671, a man when enumerating the good qualities of his wife, cites
after the beauties of her mind and her patience "her curious voice
wherewith she useth to sing _Chevy Chace_." Many other ballads
were sung to the same tune, so that we are not always sure as to
whether the original is referred to or some more modern song. The
philosopher Locke, when Secretary to the Embassy sent by Charles
II. to the Elector of Brandenburg, wrote home a description of the
Brandenburg church singing, in which he says, "He that could not
though he had a cold make better music with a chevy chace over a
pot of smooth ale, deserved well to pay the reckoning and to go
away athirst."[85] The writer here probably referred to any song
sung to this tune.]
* * * * *
THE FIRST FIT.[86]
The Persé owt of Northombarlande.
And a vowe[87] to God mayd he,
That he wolde hunte in the mountayns
Off Chyviat within dayes thre,
In the mauger[88] of doughtè Dogles,[89] 5
And all that ever with him be.
The fattiste hartes in all Cheviat
He sayd he wold kill, and cary them away:
Be my feth, sayd the dougheti Doglas agayn,
I wyll let[90] that hontyng yf that I may. 10
Then the Persé owt of Banborowe cam,[91]
With him a myghtye meany;[92]
With fifteen hondrith archares bold;[93]
The wear chosen out of shyars thre.[94]
This begane on a monday at morn 15
In Cheviat the hillys so he;[95]
The chyld may rue that ys un-born,
It was the mor pitté.
The dryvars thorowe the woodes went[96]
For to reas[97] the dear; 20
Bomen bickarte uppone the bent[98]
With ther browd aras[99] cleare.
Then the wyld[100] thorowe the woodes went
On every syde shear;[101]
Grea-hondes thorowe the greves glent[102] 25
For to kyll thear dear.
The begane in Chyviat the hyls abone[103]
Yerly[104] on a monnyn-day;[105]
Be[106] that it drewe to the oware off none[107]
A hondrith fat hartes ded ther lay. 30
The blewe a mort uppone the bent,[108][109]
The semblyd on sydis shear;[110]
To the quyrry[111] then the Persè went
To se the bryttlynge[112] off the deare.
He sayd, It was the Duglas promys 35
This day to meet me hear;
But I wyste he wold faylle verament:[113]
A gret oth the Persè swear.
At the laste a squyar of Northombelonde
Lokyde at his hand full ny, 40
He was war ath[114] the doughetie Doglas comynge:
With him a myghtè meany,[115]
Both with spear, 'byll,' and brande:[116][117]
Yt was a myghti sight to se.
Hardyar men both off hart nar hande 45
Wear not in Christiantè.
The wear twenty hondrith spear-men good
Withouten any fayle;[118]
The wear borne a-long be the watter a Twyde,
Yth[119] bowndes of Tividale. 50
Leave off the brytlyng of the dear, he sayde,
And to your bowys look ye tayk good heed;[120]
For never sithe[121] ye wear on your mothars borne
Had ye never so mickle need.[122]
The dougheti Dogglas on a stede 55
He rode all his men beforne;[123]
His armor glytteryde as dyd a glede;[124]
A bolder barne[125] was never born.
Tell me 'what' men ye ar, he says,[126]
Or whos men that ye be: 60
Who gave youe leave to hunte in this
Chyviat chays in the spyt of me?
The first mane that ever him an answear mayd,
Yt was the good lord Persè:
We wyll not tell the 'what' men we ar, he says,[127] 65
Nor whos men that we be;
But we wyll hount hear in this chays
In the spyte of thyne, and of the.
The fattiste hartes in all Chyviat
We have kyld, and cast[128] to carry them a-way. 70
Be my troth, sayd the doughtè Dogglas agayn,[129]
Ther-for the ton[130] of us shall de this day.
Then sayd the doughtè Doglas
Unto the lord Persè:
To kyll all thes giltless men, 75
A-las! it wear great pittè.
But, Persè, thowe art a lord of lande,
I am a yerle[131] callyd within my contre;
Let all our men uppone a parti[132] stande;
And do the battell off the and of me. 80
Nowe Cristes cors[133] on his crowne,[134] sayd the lord Persè.[135]
Who-soever ther-to says nay.
Be my troth, doughtè Doglas, he says,
Thow shalt never se that day;
Nethar in Ynglonde, Skottlonde, nar France, 85
Nor for no man of a woman born,
But and[136] fortune be my chance,
I dar met him on man for on.[137][138]
Then bespayke a squyar off Northombarlonde,
Ric. Wytharynton[139] was his nam; 90
It shall never be told in Sothe-Ynglonde, he says,
To kyng Herry the fourth for sham.
I wat[140] youe byn gr
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