This Minstrel, the author tells us a little below, "after three lowly curtsies, cleared his voice with a hem... and . . . wiped his lips with the hollow of his hand for 'filing his napkin, tempered a string or two with his Wrest, and after a little warbling on his Harp for a prelude, came forth with a solemn song, warranted for story out of King Arthur's Acts, etc." This song the reader will find printed in this work. " Towards the end of the sixteenth century this class of men had lost all credit, and were sunk so low in the public opinion, that in the thirty-ninth year of Elizabeth, a statute was passed by which 'Minstrels, wandering abroad," were included among "rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars," and were adjudged to be punished as such. This Act seems to have put an end to the profession. VII. I cannot conclude this account of the ancient English Minstrels, without remarking that they are most of them represented to have been of the north of England. There is scarce an old historical song or ballad wherein a Minstrel or Harper appears, but he is characterized by way of eminence to have been "of the North Countrye;" and indeed the prevalence of the northern dialect in such compositions, shows that this representation is real. On the other hand, the scene of the finest Scottish ballads is laid in the south of Scotland, which should seem to have been peculiarly the nursery of Scottish Minstrels. In the old song of Maggy Lawder, a Piper is asked, by way of distinction, "Come ze frae the Border?" The martial spirit constantly kept up and exercised near the frontier of the two kingdoms, as it furnished continual subjects for their songs, so it inspired the inhabitants of the adjacent counties on both sides with the powers of poetry. Besides, as the southern metropolis must have been ever the scene of novelty and refinement, the northern countries, as being most distant, would preserve their ancient manners longest, and of course the old poetry, in which those manners are peculiarly described. The reader will observe in the more ancient ballads of this collection, a cast of style and measure very different from that of contemporary poets of a higher class; many phrases and idioms, which the Minstrels seem to have appropriated to themselves, and a very remarkable licence of varying the accent of words at pleasure, in order to humour the flow of the verse, particularly in the rhymes; as Countrie harpèr singèr battèl damsèl morning instead of country, lády, hárper, singer, etc. This liberty is but sparingly assumed by the classical poets of the same age, or even by the later composers of heroical ballads; I mean, by such as professedly wrote for the press. For it is to be observed, that so long as the Minstrels subsisted, they seem never to have designed their rhymes for literary publication, and probably never committed them to badge of the family (a silver crescent on the right arm), and are thus distributed, viz, one for the barony of Prudhoe, and two for the barony of Rothbury. These attend the court leets and fairs held for the lord, and pay their annual suit and service at Alnwick Castle; their instrument being the ancient Northumberland bagpipe (very different in form and execution from that of the Scots, being smaller, and blown, not with the breath, but with a small pair of bellows). This, with many other venerable customs of the ancient Lords Percy, was revived by their illustrious representatives, the late Duke and Duchess of Northumberland. writing themselves: what copies are preserved of them were doubtless taken down from their mouths. But as the old Minstrels gradually wore out, a new race of Ballad-writers succeeded, an inferior sort of minor poets, who wrote narrative songs merely for the press. Instances of both may be found in the reign of Elizabeth. The two latest pieces in the genuine strain of the old Minstrelsy that I can discover, are Nos. III. and IV. of Book III. in this volume. Lower than these I cannot trace the old mode of writing. The old Minstrel ballads are in the northern dialect, abound with antique words and phrases, are extremely incorrect, and run into the utmost licence of metre; they have also a romantic wildness, and are in the true spirit of chivalry. The other sort are written in exacter measure, have a low or subordinate correctness, sometimes bordering on 'the insipid, yet often well adapted to the pathetic; these are generally in the southern dialect, exhibit a more modern phraseology, and are commonly descriptive of more modern manners. To be sensible of the difference between them, let the reader compare in this volume No. III. of Book III. with No. XI. of Book II. Towards the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign (as is mentioned above), the genuine old Minstrelsy seems to have become extinct, and thenceforth the Ballads that were produced were wholly of the latter kind, and these came forth in such abundance, that in the reign of James I. they began to be collected into little miscellanies, under the name of Garlands, and at length to be written purposely for such collections. RELIQUES OF ANCIENT POETRY, ETC. SERIES THE FIRST.-BOOK I. "I never heard the old song of Percie and Douglas, that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet: and yet 'it' is sung but by some blinde crowder, with no rougher voice, than rude style; which beeing so evill apparelled in the dust and cobweb of that uncivill age, what would it work, trimmed in the gorgeous eloquence of Pindare!" SIR PHILIP SIDNEY'S Defence of Poetry. 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. Addison has given an excellent critique* on this 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 eulogium 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 MS. at the end of Hearne's Gul. Newbrigiensis Hist. 1719, 8vo, vol. i. To the MS. copy is subjoined the name of the author Rychard Sheale; whom Hearne supposed to be the same with a R. Sheale, who was living in 1588. But whoever examines the gradation of language and idiom in this volume, 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, The Complaint of Scotland,† under the title of the Huntis of Chevet, where the two following lines are also quoted: "The Perssee and the Mongumrye mette, That day, that day, that gentil day,"§ which, though not quite the same as they stand in the ballad, yet differ not more *Spectator, Nos. 70, 74. + One of the earliest productions of the Scottish press. It is supposed to have been printea in 1540. See Fit ii. v. 25. 39 See Fit i. v. 99. 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,* with one or two anachronisms, forbids us to assign it an earlier date. James I., who was a prisoner in this kingdom at the death of his father,† did not wear the crown of Scotland till the second year of our Henry VI.,‡ but before the end of that long reign a third James had mounted the throne. 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, although 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. 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 se to the ancient ballad of the Hunting a' the Cheviat.§ 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, though not attended with the tragical circumstances recorded in the ballad; for these are evidently borrowed from the Battle of Otterbourn (see the next ballad),- -a very different event, but which aftertimes 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 || 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. *Fitt ii. v. 36, 140. † Who died Aug. 5, 1406, in the seventh year of our Henry IV. James I. was crowned 1424, murdered Feb. 1436-37. § This was the original title. Viae Fitt ii. v. 167. See the ballad, Fitt i. v. 101; Fitt ii. v. 165. |