Yet he was begyled, I wys, Syr Roger of Donkesley, Full evyll mote they thee. They toke togyder theyr counsell Robyn Hode for to sle, And how they myght best do that dede, His banis for to be. Than bespake good Robyn, In place where as he stode, To morow I muste to Kyrkesley, Craftely to be leten blode. Syr Roger of Donkestere, By the pryoresse he lay, And there they betrayed good Robyn Hode, Through theyr false playe. Cryst have mercy on his soule, 1800 1810 That dyed on the rode! 1760 No lengre, to dwell fro me." "Gramercy, lorde," then sayd Robyn, 1770 1780 1790 1 Wolwarde, dressed in wool only. So Armado in "Love's Labour's Lost:" "The naked truth of it is, I have no shirt: I go woolward for penance." Throwe (First English "thrag," or "thrah "), space of time. 3 Twenty yere and two, for all drede of King Edward (i.e. all dread ROBIN HOOD'S GRAVE.5 notwithstanding: so we can still say, "It is dangerous, but for all that I shall do it)." The Edward of the poem is King Edward I., who reigned from 1272 to 1307: twenty-two years in Barnsleydale, even if counted from the date of the king's accession, would keep Robin Hood living until 1294. 4 Banis, banes (from First English "bana"), murderers. Robin Hood went to his aunt, the Prioress of Kirklees Nunnery, in Yorkshire, to be bled, and she suffered him to bleed to death. As a later ballad says "She bleeded him in the vein of the arm, And locked him up in the room; 5 No inscription is now legible on what is said to be the gravestone of Robin Hood in Kirklees Park; but the following epitaph, once legible, was copied from it by Dr. Gale, Dean of York, and printed by Thoresby, in his "Ducat. Leod." Though mock-antique, it may represent an old tradition: "Hear undernead dis latil stean Vil England nivr si agen. Obit 24 Kal. Dekembris, 1247." "chevauchée" is the French word for a raid over the enemy's border, familiar to the English while they possessed settlements in France, and representing such attacks as were often made by the Scots, who were at that time allied with the French, against England. The famous Battle of Otterburn, fought on the 19th of August, 1388, came of a "chevauchée"- the word corrupted into "Chevy Chase" -by James, Earl of Douglas, with 3,800 men, which were met by the English under the two sons of the Earl of Northumberland. The corrupted name for a "chevauchée" was translated into the "Hunting of the Cheviot," a confusion easily made, since there are Cheviot Hills in Northumberland as well as in Otterburn. In the www A CHEVAUCHÉE. oldest extant version of "Chevy "the Chase," the name means Cheviot hunting-ground." This version is in a manuscript in the Ashmolean Collection at Oxford. It was printed by Thomas Hearne, in the year 1719, in his preface to an edition of William of Newbury's "Chronicle," and is the text here followed. Its date seems to be about 1500, and if not the original, it is much nearer to the original than the version given in Percy's "Reliques," and perhaps it may be the same of which Sir Philip Sidney said, "I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas' that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet; and yet it is sung but by some blind crowder" (fiddler) "with no rougher voice than rude style." ANW PENNON OF PERCY. (From Scott's "Border Antiquities.") 1 Let, hinder. CHEVY CHASE. The Percy out of Northumberland, and avow to God made he That he would hunt in the mountains of Cheviot within days three, In the maugré of doughty Douglas and all that ever with him be, The fattest harts in all Cheviot he said he would kill and carry them away. "By my faith," said the doughty Douglas again, “I will let that hunting, if that I may!" With fifteen hundred archers, bold of blood and bone, they were chosen out of shires three. 2 Meany. See note 2, page 69. 3 Hie, high. 4 Bickered upon the bent, skirmished over the coarse grass of the hills. 5 Shear, in different directions (from "sciran," to divide, part). 6 Glent, passed suddenly, flashed. 7 A mort, the notes of the hunter's horn at the death of the deer. 8 Sembled on sidis shear, assembled from all sides. The quarry (French "curée," from "cuir," skin), the entrails of the slaughtered deer spread on its skin for the dogs to eat. When given on the spot it was called curée chaude; when prepared with 8 10 bread, &c., and given in the kennel, it was curée froide. It is the wor used by Coriolanus, act i., scene 1, when, in contempt of the Bom... populace, he says "Would the nobility lay aside their ruth And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarry As I could pick my lance." 10 Brittling, dividing or "breaking" and distributing, according ta fixed rules of the hunting-field. But I wist he would fail verament "-a great oath the Percy sware. They were borne along by the water of Tweed, i'th' bounds of Tividale. "Leave off the brittling of the deer," he said, " and to your bows look ye take good heed, 66 "By my troth," said the doughty Douglas again, "therefore the tone of us shall die this day." Then said the doughty Douglas unto the Lord Percy, "To kill all these guiltless men, alas! it were great pity. But, Percy, thou art a lord of land, I am an earl7 called within my country. 40 Let all our men upon a parti stand, and do the battie of thee and of me." "Now Christ's curse on his crown," said then the Lord Percy, "whosoever thereto says nay! By my troth, doughty Douglas," he says, "thou shalt never see that day! Neither in England, Scotland, nor France, nor for no man of a woman born, But and fortune be my chance I dare meet him, one man for one." Then bespake a squire of Northumberland, Richard Witherington was his name, "It shall never be told in South England," he says, "to King Harry the Fourth, for shame. I wot 10 you ben great lordés two, I am a poor squire of land; I will never see my captain fight on a field, and stand myself and look on; But while I may my weapon wield I will fight both heart and hand." 11 That day, that day, that dreadful day: the first fytte 12 here I find,13 An you will hear any more of the hunting Cheviot, of this yet is there more behind. SECOND FYTTE. The English men had their bows ybent, their hearts were good enow; And that was seene verament, for he wrought them both wo and wough.15 The Englishmen let their bows be, and pulled out brands that were bright; It was a heavy sight to see, bright swords on basnets light.18 At last the Douglas and the Percy met, like to captains of might and of main; Till the blood out of their basnets sprent as ever did hail or rain. [60 17 Gard, made, caused. 18 On basnets light, alight or descend (First English "lihtan") on helmets. The basinet, introduced early in the fourteenth century, was a light helm, basin-shaped, which covered the head closely, and from which, at first, a tippet-like defence of mail, called the camail, hung down over the neck and shoulders. The camail gave place to a gorget of plate about the year 1408. 19 Myne ye ple. The Rev. Walter W. Skeat, in his "Specimens of English Literature from 1394 to 1579," has, I think, solved the riddle of this corruption, by suggesting "manople, a French term for a large gauntlet protecting the hand and the whole forearm." Mr. Skeat is a master in Early English, by whom and by the Rev. Dr. Morris the best aids have been provided for any reader of these pages who desires to advance to a more thorough study of our early literature. The book just cited is one of a series which will be spoken of more fully in a note to Skelton's "Colin Clout." 20 That was, "Fight ye, my merry men, whilis ye may, for my life-days ben gone!" He took the dead man by the hand, and said, "Wo is me for thee! 80 To have saved thy life I would have parted with my lands for years three, He never stinted nor never blave till he came to the good Lord Percy. With a suar spear of a mighty tree clean thorough the body he the Percy bore He bare a bent bow in his hand was made of trusty tree, An arrow that a cloth yard was long to the hard steel haled he, A dint that was both sad and sore he sat on Sir Hugh the Montgomery. The swan-feathers that his arrow bare, with his heart-blood they were wet. And when evensong bell was rang the battle was not half done. They took on either hand by the light of the moon, Many had no strength for to stand in Cheviot the hillis aboon. 90 100 Sir Roger the hinde" Hartley, Sir William the bold Herone, Sir George the worthy Lumley,12 a knight of great renown, Sir Ralph the rich Rugby, with dints were beaten down; 110 For Witherington my heart was wo, that ever he slain should be, For when both his leggis were hewen in two, yet he kneeled and fought on his knee. 1 Hight, promise. Sir Davy Lewdale, that worthy was, his sister's son was he; Sir Charles a Murray in that place that never a foot would flee; For two such captains as slain were there on the march parti 14 shall never be none. That doughty Douglas, lieutenant of the Marches, he lay slain Cheviot within. 2 Wone, or wane, crowd (from First English" wuna," custom, frequency), a great number, as in the "Chester Plays "— "Rosted fish and honey infere, 3 Montgomery, Monggon berry. 4 Blare (First English "belaf "), stayed. 5 Out on the other side, athe tothar syde. 7 Stour (Icelandic "styrr "), battle. 120 9 An hour, a nower. So also in the original spelling, a narow for an arrow. 10 Hy, high. First English "heah" and "híh.” 12 Lumley. Mr. Skeat points out that this has hitherto been printed Lorele through misreading of a MS. contraction. Dree, endure, suffer. First English "dreógan." 13 Makis, mates. First English maca," a mate or husband; mace," a wife. 14 March parti, border side. 15 Weal, twist. First English "wealwian," to roll. Word is comen to lovely London, to the fourth Harry our king, That Lord Percy, chief tenant of the Marches, he lay slain Cheviot within. I have a hundred captains in England," he said, "as good as ever was he; Old men that knowen the ground well enough call it the battle of Otterburn. 130 The extant copy of this old ballad ends with the signature, "Expliceth quoth Rychard Sheale," but Richard Sheal was living in 1588, and wrote some bad verse of his own. Of this old poem, which appears to date from the close of the fifteenth century, he could have been only the transcriber. The modernised version of it, probably not older than the time of James I., was that known to Addison, and praised by him. It is also the received version, Some vigour has been smoothed out of the old lines by 1 Quite, requited, atoned for. The Scots were beaten at Homildon, September 14, 1402. Wooler, in Northumberland, is the chief town of the Cheviot district. Near it is Homildon, or Humbledown, in Glendale ward. 3 That rent caused this kick. 4 Sen, since. 5 Stret, street. Our balis bete, amend our ills. First English "bealu," bale, evil; "bétan," to amend, remedy, from "bót," a remedy. 7" The old song of Chevy Chase is the favourite ballad of the common people of England; and Ben Jonson used to say he had rather been the author of it than of all his works. . . . For my own part I am so professed an admirer of this antiquated song that I shall give my reader a critick upon it, without any further apology for so doing. The greatest modern criticks have laid it down as a rule, that an heroick poem should be founded upon some important precept of morality, adapted to the constitution of the country in which the poet writes. Homer and Virgil have formed their plans in this view. As Greece was a collection of many governments, who suffered very much among themselves, and gave the Persian emperor, who was their common enemy, many advantages over them by their mutual jealousies and animosities, Homer, in order to establish among them an union, which was so necessary for their safety, grounds his poem upon the discords of the several Grecian princes who were engaged in a confederacy against an Asiatick prince, and the several advantages the later workman, whose version it may be pleasant to compare with the original. Addison's comments shall be given with it in the form of notes. CHEVY CHASE.7 God prosper long our noble king, A woeful hunting once there did In Chevy Chase befall. which the enemy gained by such their discords. At the time the poem we are now treating of was written, the dissentions of the barons, who were then so many petty princes, ran very high, whether they quarrelled among themselves, or with their neighbours, and produced unspeakable calamities to the country. The poet, to deter men from such unnatural contentions, describes a bloody battle and dreadful scene of death, occasioned by the mutual feuds which reigned in the families of an English and Scotch nobleman. That he designed this for the instruction of his poem, we may learn from his four last lines, in which, after the example of the modern tragedians, he draws from it a precept for the benefit of his readers. 'God save the King, and bless the land The next point observed by the greatest heroick poets, hath been to celebrate persons and actions which do honour to their country. Thus Virgil's hero was the founder of Rome, Homer's a prince of Greece; and for this reason Valerius Flaccus and Statius, who were both Romans, might be justly derided for having chosen the expedition of the Golden Fleece and the Wars of Thebes for the subjects of their epic writings. The poet before us has not only found out an |