At length reftor'd to life and fenfe

He nourisht endless woe,

No future joy his heart could taste,
No future comfort know.

So withers on the mountain top
A fair and ftately oake,

Whose vigorous arms are torne away,
By fome rude thunder-ftroke.

180

At length, all wearied, down in death

He laid his reverend head.

Meantime amid the lonely wilds

His little fon was bred.

There the weird lady of the woods

Had borne him far away,

And train'd him up in feates of armes,

And every martial play.

Q 2

195

200

II. ST.

II.

ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON.

The following ballad is given (with fome corrections) from two ancient black-letter copies in the Pepys collection: one of which is in 1 2mo, the other in folio.

F Hector's deeds did Homer fing;

OF

And of the fack of ftately Troy,

What griefs fair Helena did bring,
Which was fir Paris' only joy:.

And by my pen I will recite

St. George's deeds, and English knight.

Against the Sarazens fo rude

Fought he full long and many a day;
Where many gyants he subdu'd,

In honour of the christian way:

And after many adventures past
To Egypt land he came at last.

Now, as the flory plain doth tell,

Within that countrey there did rest

A dreadful dragon fierce and fell,

Whereby they were full fore oppreft:

Who by his poisonous breath each day,
Did many of the city flay.

5

10

15

The

The grief whereof did grow fo great

Throughout the limits of the land, That they their wife-men did intreat

To fhew their cunning out of hand; What way they might this fiend destroy, That did the countrey thus annoy.

The wife-men all before the king

This answer fram'd incontinent;

The dragon none to death might bring
By any means they could invent:

His (kin more hard than brass was found,

20

25

That sword nor spear could pierce nor wound. 30

When this the people understood,

They cryed out most piteouslye,

The dragon's breath infects their blood,
That every day in heaps they dye:

Among them fuch a plague it bred,

35

The living scarce could bury the dead.

No means there were, as they could hear,
For to appease the dragon's rage,

This thing by art the wife-men found,

Which truly must observed be;

Wherefore throughout the city round

45

A virgin pure of good degree Was by the king's commiffion ftill Taken up to serve the dragon's will.

Thus did the dragon every day

Untimely crop fome virgin flowr,

And none were left him to devour :

Till all the maids were worn away,

Saving the king's fair daughter bright,

50

Her father's only heart's delight.

Then came the officers to the king

That heavy meffage to declare,

Which did his heart with forrow fting;

She is, quoth he, my kingdom's heir:

O let us all be poifoned here,

Ere the fhould die, that is my

dear.

Then rofe the people presently,

And to the king in rage they went ;
They faid his daughter dear fhould dye,

The dragon's fury to prevent :
Our daughters all are dead, quoth they,
And have been made the dragon's prey:

55

60

65

And

And by their blood we rescued were,

And thou haft fav'd thy life thereby; And now in footh it is but faire,

For us thy daughter fo fhould die. O fave my daughter, faid the king; And let me feel the dragon's fting.

Then fell fair Sabra on her knee,

And to her father dear did say,

O father, strive not thus for me,

But let me be the dragon's prey;

It may be, for my fake alone

This plague upon the land was thrown.

Tis better I fhould dye, she said,

Than all your fubjects perifh quite;

Perhaps the dragon here was laid,

For my offence to work his spite:

And after he hath fuckt my gore,

70

75

80

Your land fhall feel the grief no more.

What haft thou done, my daughter dear,
For to deserve this heavy scourge ?

85

It is my fault, as may appear,

Which makes the gods our state to purge;

Then ought I die, to stint the ftrife,

And to preferve thy happy life.

Q4

90

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