And layd on styfly, for nothyng wold thay let, Ther were flayles al to slatred, There was clynkyng of cart-sadelys, and clatteryng of cannes; Of fele frekys in the feld brokyn were their fannes; Wyth swyppyng of swepyls: 1 Thay were so wery for-foght, 2 As thay were croked crepyls. Perkyn was so wery, that he began to loute; He styrt up as a snayle, And hent a capul be the tayle, Perkyn wan five, and Hud wan twa: Glad and blythe thay ware, that they had don sa ; But styl gon thay stond.4 Alas! quoth Hudde, my joye I lese; Mee had lever then a ston of chese, And wyst it were my sond.5 Perkyn turnyd hym about in that ych thrang, 6 Among thos wery boyes he wrest and he wrang; He threw tham doun to the erth, and thrast tham amang, When he saw Tyrry away with Tyb fang, And after hym ran; Off his horse he hym drogh, "Thus thay tugged, and rugged, tyl yt was nere nyzt: All the wyves of Tottenham came to se that syzt Wyth wyspes, and kexis, and ryschys there lyzt, To fetch hom ther husbandes, that were tham trouth plyzt; And sum brozt gret harwos, Ther husbandes hom to fetch,2 Sum on dores, and sum on hech, And sum on whele-barows. They gaderyd Perkyn about, 'on's everych syde, 4 And grant hym ther 'the gre,' the more was hys pryde: Tyb and he wyth gret 'mirth,'5 homward con thay ryde, And were al nyzt togedyr, tyl the morn tyde ; And thay 'to church went: '6 So wele hys nedys he has sped, To that ylk fest com many for the nones; Some come hyphalte, and sum trippand 'thither '9 stonys: Sum a staf in hys hand, and sum two at onys; on the Of sum where the hedes broken, of some the schulder bonys; With sorrow came thay thedyr. Wo was Hawkyn, wo was Herry, Wo was Tomkyn, wo was Terry, When thay met togedyr. 10 At that fest thay wer servyd with a ryche aray, Every fyve & fyve had a cokenay; 91 'Trippand on.' MS. 2 "Hom for to fetch." MS. 4 "The gre," is wanting in MS. 6 "And thay ifere assent.' MS. 10 In the former impressions, this concluding stanza was only given from Bedwell's printed edition; but it is here copied from the old Manuscript, wherein it has been since found separated from the rest of the poem. by several pages of a moneyaccount and other heterogeneous matter. And so thay sat in jolyte al the lung day; And at the last thay went to bed with ful gret deray: In every corner of the hous For to here precyus Of six menys song.1 V. FOR THE VICTORY AT AGINCOURT . That our plain and martial ancestors could wield their swords much better than their pens, will appear from the following homely Rhymes, which were drawn up by some poet laureat of those days to celebrate the immortal victory gained at Agincourt, Oct. 25, 1415. This song or hymn is given merely as a curiosity, and is printed from a manuscript copy in the Pepys Collection, vol. i. folio. It is there accompanied with the musical notes. Deo gratias Anglia redde pro victoria! OWRE kynge went forth to Normandy, Deo gratias Anglia redde pro victoria. He sette a sege, the sothe for to say, Then went owre kynge, with alle his oste, Deo gratias, &c. 1 "Six-men's song," i. e. a song for six voices. So Shakspeare uses "three-man song-men,' ," in his "Winter's Tale," act iii. sc. 3, to denote men that could sing catches composed for three voices. Of this sort are Weelkes's Madrigals mentioned below, Book ii. Song 9. So again Shakspeare has "three-men beetle;" i. e. a beetle or rammer worked by three men. 2 Hen. IV. a. i. sc. 3. Than for sothe that knyzt comely Ther dukys, and erlys, lorde and barone, Now gracious God he save owre kynge, Deo gratias Anglia redde pro victoria. VI. THE NOT-BROWNE MAYD The sentimental beauties of this ancient ballad have always recommended it to readers of taste, notwithstanding the rust of antiquity which obscures the style and expression. Indeed, if it had no other merit than the having afforded the ground-work to Prior's "Henry and Emma," this ought to preserve it from oblivion. That we are able to give it in so correct a manner, is owing to the great care and exactness of the accurate editor of the "Prolusions," 8vo. 1760; who has formed the text from two copies found in two different editions of Arnolde's Chronicle, a book supposed to be first printed about 1521. From the copy in the Prolusions the following is printed, with a few additional improvements gathered from another edition of Arnolde's book 1 preserved in the Public Library at Cambridge. All the various readings of this copy will be found here, either received into the text, or noted in the margin. The references to the "Prolusions" will shew where they occur. In our ancient folio manuscript, described in the preface, is a very corrupt and defective copy of this ballad, which yet afforded a great improvement in one passage. See ver. 310. It has been a much easier task to settle the text of this poem than to ascertain its date. The ballad of "The Nutbrowne Mayd" was first revived in "The Muses' Mercury for June, 1707," 4to. being prefaced with a little " Essay on the old English Poets and Poetry:" in which this poem is concluded to be “near 300 years old,” upon reasons which, though they appear inconclusive to us now, were sufficient to determine Prior, who there first met with it. However, this opinion had the approbation of the learned Wanley, an excellent judge of ancient books. For that whatever related to the reprinting of this old piece was 1 This (which my friend Mr. Farmer supposes to be the first edition) is in folio; the folios are numbered at the bottom of the leaf: the song begins at folio 75. The poem has since been collated with a very fine copy that was in the collection of the late James West, Esq.; the readings extracted thence are denoted thus, 'Mr. W.' referred to Wanley, appears from two letters of Prior's preserved in the British Museum (Harl. MSS. No. 3777]. The editor of the Prolusions thinks it cannot be older than the year 1500, because, in Sir Thomas More's Tale of "The Serjeant," &c. which was written about that time, there appears a sameness of rhythmus and orthography, and a very near affinity of words and phrases, with those of this ballad. But this reasoning is not conclusive; for if Sir Thomas More made this ballad his model, as is very likely, that will account for the sameness of measure, and in some respect for that of words and phrases, even though this had been written long before; and, as for the orthography, it is well known that the old printers reduced that of most books to the standard of their own times. Indeed, it is hardly probable that an antiquary like Arnolde would have inserted it among his historical collections, if it had been then a modern piece; at least, he would have been apt to have named its author. But to shew how little can be inferred from a resemblance of rhythmus or style, the Editor of these volumes has in his ancient folio manuscript a poem on the victory of Flodden-field, written in the same numbers, with the same alliterations, and in orthography, phraseology, and style, nearly resembling the Visions of Pierce Plowman, which are yet known to have been composed above 160 years before that battle. As this poem is a great curiosity, we shall give a few of the introductory lines: Grant, gracious God, grant me this time, That I may 'say, or I cease, thy selven to please; With regard to the date of the following ballad, we have taken a middle course, neither placed it so high as Wanley and Prior, nor quite so low as the editor of the Prolusions: we should have followed the latter in dividing every other line into two, but that the whole would then have taken up more room than could be allowed it in this volume. Be it ryght, or wrong, these men among On women1 do complayne; 2 Affyrmynge this, how that it is Á labour spent in vayne, To love them wele; for never a dele They love a man agayne: For late a man do what he can, Theyr favour to attayne, Yet, yf a newe do them persue, Theyr first true lover than Laboureth for nought; for from her 3 thought 1 "Woman." Prolusions, and Mr. West's copy. 2 My friend, Mr. Farmer, proposes to read the first lines thus as a Latinism: 3 i. e. their. Be it right or wrong, 'tis men among, On women to complayne. |