Nowe sell me thy harpe, sayd the kyng of Spayne,

Thy harpe and stryngs eche one,

And as many gold nobles thou shalt have,

As there be stryngs thereon.

240

And what wold ye doe with my harpe, he sayd,

Iff I did sell it yee?

"To playe my wiffe and me a FITT,

When abed together we bee."

*

Now sell me, quoth hee, thy bryde soe gay, 245

As shee sitts laced in pall,

And as many gold nobles I will give,

As there be rings in the hall.

And what wold ye doe with my bryde soe gay,

"O ladye, this is thy owne true love; Noe harper, but a kyng.

255

O ladye, this is thy owne true love,

As playnlye thou mayest see;

* i. e. a tune, or strain of music. See Gloss.

And Ile rid thee of that foule paynìm,
Who partes thy love and thee."

The ladye looked, the ladye blushte,
And blushte and lookt agayne,

While Adler he hath drawne his brande,

And hath the Sowdan slayne.

Up then rose the kemperye men,

And loud they gan to crye:

Ah! traytors, yee have slayne our kyng,
And therefore yee shall dye.

Kyng Estmere threwe the harpe asyde,

And swith he drew his brand; And Estmere he, and Adler yonge Right stiffe in stour can stand.

And aye their swordes soe sore can byte,

Throughe help of Gramaryè

260

265

270

That soone they have slayne the kempery men,

Or forst them forth to flee.

276

Kyng Estmere tooke that fayre ladyè,

And marryed her to his wyfe,

And brought her home to merrye Englànd

With her to leade his lyfe.

280

The word Gramarye, which occurs several times in the foregoing poem, is probably a corruption of the French word Grimoire, which signifies a conjuring-book in the old French romances, if not the art of necromancy itself.

Termagaunte (mentioned above in p. 63) is the name given in the old romances to the god of the Saracens: in which he is constantly linked with Mahound, or Mahomet. Thus, in the legend of Syr Guy the Soudan (Sultan)

swears,

"So helpe me Muhowne of might,
And Termagaunt my God so bright."

Sign. p. iij. b.

This word is derived by the very learned editor of Junius from the Anglo-Saxon Tyn very, and Mazan mighty. As this word had so sublime a derivation, and was so applicable to the true God, how shall we account for its being so degraded? Perhaps Typ-mazan or Termagant, had been a name originally given to some Saxon idol, before our ancestors were converted to Christianity; or had been the peculiar attribute of one of their false deities; and therefore the first Christian missionaries rejected it as profane and improper to be applied to the true God. Afterwards, when the irruptions of the Saracens into Europe, and the Crusades into the East, had brought them acquainted with a new species of unbelievers, our ignorant ancestors, who thought all that did not receive the Christian law were necessarily Pagans and Idolaters, supposed the Mahometan creed was in all respects the same with that of their Pagan forefathers, and therefore made no scruple to give the ancient name of Termagant to the god of the Saracens; just in the same manner as they afterwards used the name of Sarazen to express any kind of Pagan or Idolater. In the ancient romance of Merline (in the Editor's folio MS.) the Saxons themselves that came over with Hengist, because they were not Christians, are constantly called Sarazens.

However that be, it is certain that, after the times of the Crusades, both Mahound and Termagaunt made their frequent appearance in the Pageants and religious Enterludes of the barbarous ages; in which they were exhibited with gestures so furious and frantic, as to become proverbial. Thus Skelton speaks of Wolsey,

"Like Mahound in a play,

No man dare him withsay."

Ed. 1736, p. 158.

66

And Bale, describing the threats used by some Papist magistrates to his wife, speaks of them as grennyng upon her lyke Termagauntes in a playe." [Actes of Engl. Votaryes, pt. 2. fo. 83. ed. 1550. 12mo.] Hence we may conceive the force of Hamlet's expression in Shakspeare, where, condemning a ranting player, he says, "I could have such a fellow whipt for ore-doing Termagant: it outherods Herod." A. 3. sc. 3. By degrees the word came to be applied to an outrageous turbulent person, and especially to a violent brawling woman, to whom alone it is now confined: and this the rather as, I suppose, the character of Termagant was anciently represented on the stage after the eastern mode, with long robes or petticoats.

Another frequent character in the old Pageants or Enterludes of our ancestors, was the Sowdan or Soldan, representing a grim eastern tyrant. This appears from a curious passage in Stow's Annals, (p. 458.) In a stage-play "the people know right well that he that plaieth the Sowdain, is percase a sowter [shoe-maker], yet if one should cal him by his owne name, while he standeth in his majestie, one of his tormentors might hap to break his head." The Sowdain or Soldan, was a name given to any Sarazen king (being only a more rude pronunciation of the word Sultan,) as the Soldan of Egypt, the Soudan of Persia, the Sowdan of Babylon, &c., who were generally represented as accom

panied with grim Sarazens, whose business it was to punish and torment Christians.

I cannot conclude this short memoir, without observing that the French romancers, who had borrowed the word Termagant from us, and applied it, as we in their old romances, corrupted it into Tervagaunte: and from them La Fontaine took it up, and has used it more than once in his tales. This may be added to the other proofs adduced in these volumes, of the great intercourse that formerly subsisted between the old minstrels and legendary writers of both nations, and that they mutually borrowed each other's romances.

VII.

Sir Patrick Spence,

A SCOTTISH BALLAD,

Is given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland. In what age the hero of this ballad lived, or when this fatal expedition happened that proved so destructive to the Scots nobles, I have not been able to discover; yet am of opinion that their catastrophe is not altogether without foundation in history, though it has escaped my own researches. In the infancy of navigation, such as used the northern seas were very liable to shipwreck in the wintry months: hence a law was enacted in the reign of James the Third, (a law which was frequently repeated afterwards,) "That there be na schip frauched out of the realm with any staple gudes, fra the feast of Simons day and Jude, unto the feast of the purification of our Lady, called Candelmess." Jam. III. Parlt. 2. ch. 15.