At the beginning of this volume we gave the old original Song of CHEVY CHACE. The reader has here the more improved edition of that fine Heroic ballad. It will afford

an

en agreeable entertainment to the curious to compare them together, and to fee how far the latter bard has excelled his predeceffor, and where he has fallen fhort of him. For tho he has every where improved the verfification, and generally the fentiment and diction; yet fome few paffages retain more dignity in the ancient copy; at least the obfoleteness of the ftyle ferves as a veil to hide whatever might appear too familiar or vulgar in them. Thus, for inftance, the cataAtrophe of the gallant Witherington is in the modern copy expreft in terms which never fail at prefent to excite ridicule: whereas in the original it is related with a plain and pathetic fimplicity, that is liable to no fuch unlucky effect: See the flanza in page 14, which, in modern orthography, &c.

would run thus:

"For Witherington my heart is woe,
"That ever he flain should be:
"For when his legs were hewn in two,
"He knelt and fought on his knee."

So again the fianza which defcribes the fall of Montgo mery is somewhat more elevated in the ancient copy:

"The dint it was both fad and fore,
"He on Montgomery Set:

"The fwan-feathers his arrow bore
"With his hearts blood were wet."

P. 13.

WE might alfo add, that the circumftances of the battle are more clearly conceived, and the feveral incidents more diftinctly marked in the old original, than in the improved copy. It is well known that the ancient English weapon was the long bow, and that this nation excelled all others in archery; while the Scottish warriours chiefly depended on the ufe of the fpear: this characteristic difference never efcapes our ancient bard, whofe defcription of the first onfet (p. 9.) is to the following effect:

"The

"The propofal of the two gallant earls to determine the difpute by fingle combat being over-ruled; the English, Says he, who stood with their bows ready bent, gave a general difcharge of their arrows, which flew feven Score Spearmen of the enemy: but, notwithflanding fo fevere a lofs, Douglas like a brave captain kept his ground. He had divided his forces into three columns, who, at foon as the English had difcharged the first volley, bore down upon them with their Spears, and breaking through their ranks reduced them to clofe fighting. The archers upon this dropt their bows and had recourfe to their fwords, and there followed fo sharp a conflict, that multitudes on both fides loft their lives." the midst of this general engagement, at length, the two great earls meet, and after a fpirited rencounter agree to breathe; upon which a parley enfues, that would do honour to Homer himself.

In

Nothing can be more pleasingly distinct and circumftantial than this: whereas, the modern copy, tho' in general it has great merit, is here unluckily both confused and obfcure. Indeed the original words feem here to have been totally misunderflood. "Yet byays the yerl Douglas upon the BENT," evidently fignifies, "Yet the earl Douglas abides in the FIELD:" Whereas the more modern bard feems to have understood by BENT, the inclination of his mind, and accordingly runs quite off from the fubject*:

"To drive the deer with bound and horn
"Earl Douglas had the bent.”

V. 109.

ONE may alfo obferve a generous impartiality in the old original bard, when in the conclufion of his tale he reprefents both nations as quitting the field without any reproachful reflection on either: though he gives to his own countrymen the credit of being the smaller number.

In the prefent Edition, instead of the unmeaning lines here cenfured, an infertion is made of four ftanzas modernized from the ancient copy.

Of fifteen hundred archers of England.
"Went away but fifty and three;
"Of twenty hundred Spearmen of Scotland,
But even five and fifty."

P. 14,

He attributes FLIGHT to neither party, as hath been done in the modern copies of this ballad, as well Scotch as English. For, to be even with our latter bard, who makes the Scots to FLEE, fome revifer of North Britain has turned his own arms against him, and printed an edition at Glafgow, in qwhich the lines are thus tranfpofed:

And to countenance this change he has fuppreffed the twe Hanzas between ver. 240 and ver. 249. From that Edition I have here reformed the Scottish names, which in the modern English ballad appeared to be corrupted.

When I call the prefent admired ballad modern, I only mean that it is comparatively fo; for that it could not be writ much later than the time of 2. Elizabeth, I think may be made appear; nor yet does it feem to be older than the beginning of the last century *. Sir Philip Sidney, when he com

*A late writer has ftarted a notion that the more modern copy quas "quritten to be fung by a party of English, beaded by a Douglas in the year 1524; which is the true reafon why, at the fame time that it gives the advantage to the English Soldiers above the Scotch, it gives yet fo lovely and fo manifeftly fuperior a character to the Scotch com"mander above the English." See Say's Effay on the Numbers of Par "radife Loft, 4to. 1745, p. 167.

This appears to me a groundless conjecture: the language feems too modern for the date above-mentioned; and, bad it been painted even fo early as Queen Elizabeth's reign, I think I should have met with some copy wherein the first line could have been,

God profper long our noble queen,

as was the c..fe with the Blind Beggar of Bequal Green; see Vol. II. Book II. No. X. ver. 23.

7

plains

plains of the antiquated phrafe of CHEVY CHASE, could never have feen this improved copy, the language of which is not more ancient than that he himself ufed. It is proba ble that the encomiums of fo admired a writer excited fome bard to revise the ballad, and to free it from those faults be had objected to it. That it could not be much later than that time, appears from the phrafe DOLEFUL DUMPS; which in that age carried no ill found with it, but to the next generation became ridiculous. We have feen it pass uncensured in afonnet that was at that time in request, and where it could not fail to have been taken notice of, bad it been in the leaft exceptionable: fee above, B. II. Song V. ver. 2: Yet, in about half a century after, it was become burlesque. Vide Hudibras, Pt. I. c. 3, v.95.

If

THIS much premifed, the reader that would fee the general beauties of this ballad fet in a juft and friking light, may confult the excellent criticifm of Mr. Addifon. With regard to its fubject: it has already been confidered in page 3. The conjectures there offered will receive confirmation from a paffage in the Memoirs of Carey Earl of Monmouth, Svo. 1759, p. 165; whence we learn that it was an ancient custom with the borderers of the two kingdoms, avhen they were at peace, to fend to the Lord Wardens of the oppofite Marches for leave to hunt within their difirits. leave was granted, then towards the end of fummer they would come and hunt for feveral days together" with their GREY-HOUNDS FOR DEER :" but if they took this liberty unpermitted, then the Lord Warden of the border fo invaded, would not fail to interrupt their Sport and chaflife their boldnefs. He mentions a remarkable inftance that happened while be was Warden, when fome Scotch Gentlemen coming to hunt in defiance of him, there must have enfued fuch an action as this of Chevy Chace, if the intruders had been proportionably numerous and well-armed; for, upon their being attacked by his men at arms, he tells us, fome hurt was done, tho'

* In the Spectator, No. 70. 74:

be