CHEVY CHACE.'

GOD prosper long our noble king,
Our lives and safeties all;
A woeful hunting once there did
In Chevy Chace2 befal:

To drive the deer with hound and horn
Earl Percy took his way:

The child may rue that is unborn,

The hunting of that day.3

The stout earl of Northumberland
A vow to God did make,

His pleasure in the Scottish woods

Three summer days to take;

(1) This fine old ballad, which is in fact a modernised edition of a more ancient one, received its present form, it is thought, about the beginning of James the First's reign. The name of the author of the ancient song is Richard Sheale; that of the moderniser is unknown.

"The fine heroic song of Chevy Chace," writes Bishop Percy, "has ever been admired by competent judges. Those genuine strokes of natural 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."

Sir Philip Sidney, in his "Defense of Poesy," writes thus respecting this ancient ballad:-"I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet; and yet is sung (i. e. even when it is sung) but by some blind crowder (fiddler), with no rougher voice than rude style."

Addison, too, has eulogized the beauties of this poem-the modern version-in two numbers (70 and 74) of the "Spectator."

As it may interest some readers to see a specimen of the ancient ballad, the following lines, which form the first stanza, are subjoined

"The Perse owt off Northombarlande,
And a bowe to God mayd he,

That he wolde hunte in the mountagns

Off Chybiat within dayes iii.,
In the magger of doughte Dogles,

And all that eber with him be."

(2) Chevy Chace-or Cheviot Chace, a preserve for game on the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland, then within the Scottish boundary.

(3) Addison invites us to admire this couplet, for the simple manner in which the remote consequences are suggested.

The chiefest harts in Chevy Chace
To kill and bear away.-

These tidings to Earl Douglas came,
In Scotland where he lay;

Who sent Earl Percy present word'
He would prevent his sport:
The English earl not fearing that,
Did to the woods resort,

With fifteen hundred bowmen bold,
All chosen men of might,
Who knew full well, in time of need,
To aim their shafts aright.
The gallant greyhounds swiftly ran,
To chase the fallow deer;
On Monday they began to hunt,
When daylight did appear;

And long before high noon, they had
A hundred fat bucks slain;
Then, having dined, the drovers went
To rouse the deer again.

The bowmen mustered on the hills,
Well able to endure ;3

And all their rear, with special care,
That day was guarded sure.

The hounds ran swiftly through the woods,

The nimble deer to take,

And with their cries the hills and dales

An echo shrill did make.

Lord Percy to the quarry went,

To view the slaughtered deer;

(1) Sent present word-sent word at once, or immediately.

(2) Fallow-from Anglo-Saxon fealo, yellow.

(3) Endure-to go on with their sport, and yet be ready for the foe they expected.

(4) Quarry-The etymology of this word is doubtful. Some derive it from the Latin quæro, to seek or pursue, and thus quarry would mean the prey or game aimed at; others connect it with the verb to carry, and consider it as the booty carried off (the field); others again trace it to the French quarrée or carrée, the square or inclosure into which the game was driven, hence it might afterwards signify the prey thus caught, then game of every kind. The last derivation best suits the present passage, which evidently refers to an inclosure of some sort.

Quoth he, "Earl Douglas promised

This day to meet me here:

"But if I thought he would not come,
No longer would I stay."-
With that, a brave young gentleman
Thus to the Earl did say:

"Lo! yonder doth Earl Douglas come,
His men in armour bright:
Full twenty hundred Scottish spears
All marching in our sight;

"All men of pleasant Tividale,'

Fast by the river Tweed.”–

"Then cease your sports," Earl Percy said,
"And take your bows with speed:

"And now with me, my countrymen,
Your courage forth advance;
For never was there champion yet,'
In Scotland or in France,

"That ever did on horseback come,
But if my hap it were,

I durst encounter, man for man,
With him to break a spear."

Earl Douglas on his milk-white steed,

Most like a baron bold,

Rode foremost of the company,
Whose armour shone like gold.2

"Show me," said he,

"whose men you be,

That hunt so boldly here;

That, without my consent, do chase
And kill my fallow deer."

The first man that did answer make,
Was noble Percy, he;

Who said, "We list3 not to declare,
Nor show whose men we be :

(1) Tividale-Teviotdale. The Teviot is a tributary of the Tweed.

(2) Whose armour-i. e. and his armour; who is, in old English, often used for and he, or and they. The Latin qui is constantly employed in the same way. (3) We list not-we care not-we are not disposed.

"Yet will we spend our dearest blood,
Thy chiefest harts to slay."
Then Douglas swore a solemn oath,
And thus in rage did say :—

"Ere thus I will out-braved be,
One of us two shall die :

I know thee well, an earl thou art,
Lord Percy, so am I.

"But trust me, Percy, pity it were,
And great offence, to kill
Any of these our guiltless men,
For they have done no ill.

"Let thou and I the battle try,
And set our men aside."
"Accursed be he," Earl Percy said,
"By whom this is denied.

Then stepped a gallant squire forth,
Witherington was his name,
Who said, "I would not have it told
To Henry our king, for shame,

"That e'er my captain fought on foot, And I stood looking on.

You be two earls," quoth Witherington, "And I a squire alone :

"I'll do the best that do I may,

While I have strength to stand; While I have power to wield my sword, I'll fight with heart and hand.”

Our English archers bent their bows,
Their hearts were good and true;
At the first flight of arrows sent,
Full fourscore Scots they slew.

Yet bides Earl Douglas on the bent,'
As chieftain stout and good;

As valiant captain, all unmoved,
The shock he firmly stood.

(1) Bent-hill-side, declivity, field of battle.

His host he parted had in three,

As leader ware1 and tried;
And soon his spearmen on their foes
Bore down on every side.

Throughout the English archery
They dealt full many a wound;
But still our valiant Englishmen
All firmly kept their ground;

And throwing straight their bows away,
They grasped their swords so bright:
And now sharp blows, a heavy shower,
On shields and helmets light.2

They closed full fast on every side,
No slackness there was found;
And many a gallant gentleman
Lay gasping on the ground.

And oh! it was a grief to see,
And likewise for to hear
The cries of men lying in their gore,
And scattered here and there.

At last these two stout earls did meet,
Like captains of great might:
Like lions wode,3 they laid on load,*
And made a cruel fight.

They fought until they both did sweat,
With swords of tempered steel;
Until the blood, like drops of rain,
They trickling down did feel.

(1) Ware-wary, cautious.

(2) The four preceding stanzas, somewhat altered from the ancient ballad, were introduced by Bishop Percy, in the place of "the unmeaning lines" of the modernised edition, which are given here as a puzzle for the ingenious:

"To drive the deer, with hound and horn,

Douglas bade on the bent;

Two captains moved with mickle might,
Their spears to shivers went."

(3) Wode-mad, fierce, wild; connected with Woden, the Anglo-Saxon god of war, who is identical with the Scandinavian Odin.

(4) They laid on load-they struck violently and repeatedly.