Turning now to the origin of the poem, it may safely be said that its author is unknown. That it does not owe its origin to Thomas of Ercildoune, either father or son, may be taken as certain for first of all, that the so-called predictions were written after the events there can be no manner of doubt; and as many, and indeed all of the events, except one, occurred long after both the father and son were in the grave, even if either of them can be credited with being the author of a part of the poem, neither of them can have been the author of it in its present form. Secondly, there is the well known fact that authors of this species of writings did not affix their own names to their compositions, but endeavoured to pass them off as the predictions of some one or other who had for a longer or shorter time enjoyed the esteem and reverence of the people, because of his sanctity or supposed prophetical gifts. Instances of this are numerous. The oldest of the Irish prophecies a prophecy contained in the Dialogue of the Two Sages -professes to have been uttered in the Fourth Century of the Christian Era, but was not written earlier than the Tenth Century.* The prophecy which passes under the name of St. Berchan, who lived during the Seventh Century, is with good reason assigned to the last decade of the Eleventh Century. The Metrical Prophecy, again, which professes to record the prophecies of Merlin, Gildas, and a certain ancient Sibyll, who may probably be identified with the Queen of Sheba, the friend of Solomon, by its reference to the conquest of the Western Isles by Magnus Barefoot, the Princeps Noricus of the oracle, and the mention of the interregnum of twice three years and nine months, is a witness against itself that it was not written till the first quarter of the Twelfth Century. But perhaps the most convincing illustration of the practice is afforded by the Prophecies of John of Bridlington, sometimes attributed to John Ergome of York. The author of these, whether Ergome or another, expressly states that he purposely hides his own name and uses that of Bridlington in its stead, giving O'Curry's Lectures, p. 384, et seq. + Chronicles of Picts and Scots, pp. xxxix, xlii, etc. as his reasons, that he feared the tongues of the censorious, was afraid of the power of the rulers, and dreaded the indignation of the discreet, who, he believed, would be offended at one so young adventuring such interpretations.* That the author of Thomas of Erceldoune was influenced by any such reasons, there is no need to suppose; but there can be little doubt that he followed the custom of his school, and used the name of Erceldoune, not because it was his own, but in order to attract attention to his work, and give greater weight to his predictions. Thirdly, the poem does not profess to have been written by Thomas. After the first stanza of the first Fytt, the first person singular is dropped, and the poem becomes a narrative of what happened to Thomas, what he did and said, and what was said to him. Such passages as the following leave no doubt on the subject: 'Thomas laye and sawe that syghte Undirnethe ane semly tree. 'Thomas rathely upe he rase And rane over that mountayne hye. 'Gyff it be, als the story sayes He her mette at Eldon Tree. 'He knelyde downe appone his knee 'Thomas stode upe in that stede. And by-helde that ladye gaye. 'Scho blewe hir horne on hir palfraye, 'Of swilke ane hirdman wolde I here *Wright's Political Poems, &c., I. 123. Against the argument furnished by these passages, any which may be based on the few in which the first person is used is of no avail. The wonder is that any one who has read the poem has ever thought of ascribing it to Thomas of Erceldoune. Dr. Murray is disposed to hold to the traditional opinion that the author of the poem was a native of Scotland. Dr. Brandl is of opinion that he was an Englishman living near the Tweed, or in some part of Northumberland. Of external evidence there is none either one way or the other. The MSS. afford no clue, all of them being copies, though it is not a little remarkable that they are all written in dialects spoken south of the Tweed, and that not a single distinctively Scottish MS. of the has yet poem been found. The Prologue is addressed to Englishmen (lines 1324) and is evidently the work of an Englishman; but whether he belonged to the North or to the South of the Tweed, there is nothing, at least in the Prologue itself, to show. At the time it was written, the designation would suit an inhabitant of the South-east of Scotland just as well as one living in the North of England. Similarly also with the dialect of the best, the Thornton MS. When this transcript was made the dialect in which it is written, was spoken, with slight variations, from the Humber to the Forth. On the other hand, there are indications in the poem which seem to leave no doubt that the origin and sympathies of its author were Scottish. Briefly put they are these: 1. The selection of Huntley Bank as the scene of meeting between Thomas and the Fairy Queen. 2. The poet's acquaintance with the topography of the South of Scotland. 3. The mistake in the oldest or Thornton MS. as to the issue of the battle of Halidon Hill, a mistake which the later and more Southern Cambridge and Sloane MSS. correct. And 4, the general drift of feeling throughout the poem, which is unmistakeably Scottish. These, together with the testimony of tradition, afford a sufficiently strong reason, in the absence of any direct evidence to the contrary, for assigning the poem to an author living to the North of the Tweed and in the South of Scotland. The date of the poem is uncertain. That it was composed before the middle of the Fifteenth Century, when the Thornton Copy was made, is certain. The probability is that at least the First and portions of the Second and Third Fytts were written before the middle of the Fourteenth Century. This would seem to be put beyond all question by the prominence given in the Second Fytt to the battle of Halidon Hill, and by the fact that in the earliest MS. the victory in that battle is assigned to the wrong side. Still to form any final opinion on the subject would be extremely hazardous. But difficult as it is to assign a date for the first origin of the poem, the date when it assumed its present form may be more closely and surely approximated to. The last of the historical events or predictions enumerated is the invasion of Scotland by Henry IV. in 1401, or, if that be doubtful, the battle of Otterburn in 1388; and as the Thornton copy was made not later than 1430 or 1440, the poem must have come into existence in its present form some time during the first thirty or forty years of the Fifteeenth Century. It is not at all unlikely, in fact it is almost, if not altogether, certain, that before it assumed its present shape and dimensions it was subjected to numerous revisions and passed through the hands of more than one editor. Mr. Jamieson and Professor Child regard the Fairy Tale contained in the First Fytt as altogether distinct from the 'prophetical rhapsody.' But we fail to discover any sufficient reason for adopting their opinion. The prophetic vein is struck in the last stanza but one of the First Fytt; and, besides, the Prologue prepares the reader not only for the marvellous, but also for the prophetic. 'Bot Jhesu Crist that sytts in trone, Safe Ynglysche mene bothe ferre and nere; Of batells donne sythene many a yere; And of battells that done sall bee; Wha sall takk the flyghte and flee, Bot Jhesu Crist, that dyed on tre, Saue Inglysche mene whare-so thay fare.' On the other hand, naturally as the prophecies, as a whole, flow from the tale as a response to Thomas's request for a token of his intercourse with the Fairy Queen, it is necessary to admit that the suspicion of any of them having been tacked on afterwards is not precluded. The fact that the battle of Halidon Hill occurs where it does, and not in its chronological order suggests, and indeed confirms the suspicion. The probability is that the poem has grown by accretions or additions-a mode of growth to which the form of the poem easily lends itself, but little art being required to avoid the appearance of 'patching or awkward joining.' The First Fytt, containing the narrative of Thomas's advenventures with the Fairy Queen, and indeed the whole poem is so well known that a detailed analysis of it is scarcely necessary, yet before we conclude it may be as well to sketch briefly the outline of the story, and to set down the events predicted in the Second Fytt in the order in which they occur with their respective dates. On a bright May morning when the throstles and woodlarks were filling the air with their music and he alone was sad, Thomas lay pondering 'undyrnethe a semely tree,' when suddenly he became aware of a lady coming riding alone across the lea. VOL, IX. 'Hir palfraye was a dappil graye, Swylke one ne saghe I neuer none; A whylle scho blewe, a-nother scho sange. Hir garthes of nobyll sylke thay were, The bukylls were of berelle stone, And als clere golde hir brydill it schone, Y |