Than fum they rade, and fum they rin,

Fou faft out-owr the bent;

But eir the foremost could get up,

135

Baith lady and babes were brent.

He wrang his hands, he rent his hair,

And foon i' the Gordon's foul hartis bluid,
He's wroken his dear ladie.

+++ Since the foregoing Ballad was first printed, the fubject of it has been found recorded in Abp. Spotfwood's Hiftory of the Church of Scotland, p. 259: who informs us, that

"Anno 1771. In the north parts of Scotland, ADAM "GORDON (who was deputy for his brother the earl of "Huntley) did keep a great fir; and under colour of the "queen's authority, committed divers oppreffions, especially 66 upon the Forbes's Having killed Arthur Forbes, "brother to the lord Forbes Not long after he fent to "fummon the house of Tavoy pertaining to Alexander Forbes. The LADY refufing to yield without direction from "her husband, he put fire unto it, and burnt her therein, "with children and fervants, being twenty-feven perfons " in all.

....

"This inhuman and barbarous cruelty made his name "odious, and ftained all his former doings; otherwife be was held very active and fortunate in his enterprizes.' This fact, which had escaped the Editor's notice, was in the most obliging manner pointed out to him, by an ingenious writer who figns his name H. H. (Newcastle, May 9.) in the Gentleman's Magazine for May, 1775.

RELIDUES

OF ANCIENT POETRY,

&c.

SERIES THE FIRST.
BOOK II.

I.

BALLADS THAT ILLUSTRATE SHAKESPEARE.

Our great dramatic poet having occafionally quoted many ancient ballads, and even taken the plot of one, if not more, of his plays from among them, it was judged proper to pre

ferve as many of thefe as could be recovered, and that they might be the more eafily found, to exhibit them in one collective view. This SECOND BOOK is therefore fet apart for the reception of fuch ballads as are quoted by SHAKSPEARE, or contribute in any degree to illuftrate his writings: this be ing the principal point in view, the candid reader will pardon the admiffion of fome pieces, that have no other kind of merit.

The defign of this BOOK being of a Dramatic tendency, it may not be improperly introduced with a few obfervations ON THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH STAGE, and ON THE CONDUCT OF OUR FIRST DRAMATIC POETS: a fubject, which though not unsuccessfully handled by feveral good writers already*, will yet perhaps admit of fome further illuftration.

ΟΝ

THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH STAGE,

&c.

It is well known that dramatic poetry in this and most other nations of Europe owes its origin, or at least its revival, to those religious fhows, which in the dark ages were ufually exhibited on the more folemn feftivals. At thofe times they were wont to reprefent in the churches the lives and miracles of the faints, or fome of the more important ftories of fcripture. And as the most mysterious fubjects were frequently chofen, fuch as the Incarnation, Paffion, and Refurrection of Chrift, &c. thefe exhibitions acquired the general name of MYSTERIES. At first they were probably a kind of dumb fhews, intermingled, it may be, with a few fhort fpeeches; at length they grew into a regular feries of connected dialogues, formally divided into acts and fcenes. Specimens of these in their most im

*Bp. Warburton's Shakesp. vol. V. p. 338.-Pref. to Dodfley's Old Plays.-Riccoboni's Acct. of Theat. of Europe, &c. &c. Thefe were all the Author bad feen when he first drew up this Effay.

proved ftate (being at beft but poor artlefs compofitions) may be feen among Dodfley's OLD PLAYS and in Ofborne's HARLEYAN MISCEL. How they were exhibited in their moft fimple form, we may learn from an ancient novel, often quoted by our old dramatic poets, (a) intitled.. a merye Jest of a man that was called Howleglas (b) &c. being a tranflation from the Dutch language, in which he is named Ulenspiegle. Howleglafs, whofe waggifh tricks are the subject of this book, after many adventures comes to live with a priest, who makes him his parifh-clerk. This priest is defcribed as keeping a LEMAN or concubine, who had but one eye, to whom Howleglafs owed a grudge for revealing his rogueries to his mafter. The story thus proceeds, "And than in the meane feason, "while Howleglas was paryfh clarke, at Eafter they "fhould play the Refurrection of our Lorde: and for "because than the men wer not learned, nor could "not read, the priest toke his leman, and put her in "the grave for an Aungell: and this feing Howleglas, "toke to hym iij of the fympleft perfons that were in "the towne, that played the iij Maries; and the Per"fon [i.e. Parfon or Rector] played Chrifte, with a "baner in his hand. Than faide Howleglas to the "fymple perfons. Whan the Aungel afketh you, "whome you feke, you may faye, The parfons leman

with one iye. Than it fortuned that the tyme was "come that, they must playe, and the Aungel afked "them whom they fought, and than fayd they, as

Howleglas had fhewed and lerned them afore, and "than anfwered they, We feke the priests leman with 66 one iye. And than the prieste might heare that he 66 was mocked. And whan the priestes leman herd

(a) See Ben Jonfon's Poetaster, A&t 3, fc. 4, and his Masque of the Fortunate Ines. Whalley's Edit. vol. II. p. 49, vol. VI. p. 190. (b) Howleglafs is faid in the Preface to have died in M, cccc, L. At the end of the book, in M,ccc,L.

VOL. I.

K

"that,