For in the forest nowe I have purvayed me of a mayd, Another fayrère than ever ye were, I dare it wele avowe; And of you bothe eche sholde be wrothe 295 V. 278, outbrayd. Prol. and Mr. W. V. 282, ye be as. Prol. and Mr. W. V. 283, Ye were unkynde to leve me behynde. Prol. and Mr. W. For it were ruthe, that for your truthe 320 Be nat dismayed: whatsoever I sayd To you, whan I began, I wyll nat to the grene wode go; SHE. "These tydings be more gladd to me Than to be made a quene, Yf I were sure they sholde endure; V. 310, So the Editor's MS. All the printed copies read, Yet wold I be that one. V. 315, of all. Prol. and Mr. W. 325 V. 325, gladder. Prol. and Mr. W. V. 340, grete lynyage. Prol. and Mr. W. 360 V. 347, Then have. Prol. VII. A Balet by the Earl Rivers. The amiable light in which the character of Anthony Widville, the gallant Earl Rivers, has been placed by the elegant author of the Catalogue of Noble Writers, interests us in whatever fell from his pen. It is presumed, therefore, that the insertion of this little sonnet will be pardoned, though it should not be found to have much poetical merit. It is the only original poem known of that nobleman's; his more voluminous works be'ng only translations. And if we consider that it was written during his cruel confinement in Pomfret Castle, a short time before his execution in 1483, it gives us a fine picture of the composure and steadiness with which this stout earl beheld his approaching fate. This ballad we owe to Rouse, a contemporary historian, who seems to have copied it from the earl's own handwriting. In tempore, says this writer, incarcerationis apud Pontem-fractum edidit unum BALET in anglicis, ut mihi monstratum est, quod subsequitur sub his verbis: Sum what musyng, &c. Rossi.-Hist. 8vo, 2d edit. p. 213. In Rouse the second stanza, &c., is imperfect, but the defects are here supplied from a more perfect copy, printed in "Ancient Songs, from the Time of K. Henry III. to the Revolution," p. 87. This little piece, which perhaps ought rather to have been printed in stanzas of eight short lines, is written in imitation of a poem of Chaucer's, that will be found in Urry's edit. 1721, p. 555, beginning thus: "Alone walkyng, In thought plainyng, My death wishyng Both erly and late. That wote ye what, Out of mesure In such pore estate, Doe I endure," &c. SUMWHAT musyng, And more mornyng, I fere dowtles, Remediles, Is now to sese My wofull chaunce. [For unkyndness, Withouten less, And no redress, Me doth avaunce, 5 With displesaunce, To my grevaunce, My lyff was lent Me to on intent, Hytt is ny spent. Welcome fortune! 10 15 But sho hit ment; Such is her won. 20 V. 19, went, i. e. weened. Ver. 15, That fortune. Rossi Hist. VIII. Cupid's Assault: by Lord Vaur. The reader will think that infant Poetry grew apace between the times of Rivers and Vaux, though nearly contemporaries, if the following song is the composition of that Sir Nicholas (afterwards Lord) Vaux, who was the shining ornament of the court of Henry VII., and died in the year 1523. And yet to this lord it is attributed by Puttenham, in his Art of Eng. Poesie, 1589, 4to, a writer commonly well informed: take the passage at large. "In this figure [Counterfait Action] the Lord Nicholas Vaux, a noble gentleman and much delighted in vulgar making, and a man otherwise of no great learning, but having herein a marvelous facilitie, made a dittie representing the Battayle and Assault of Cupide, so excellently well, as for the gallant and propre application of his fiction in every part, I cannot choose but set downe the greatest part of his ditty, for in truth it cannot be amended, 'When Cupid scaled,' &c." p. 200. For a farther account of Nicholas Lord Vaux, see Mr. Walpole's Noble Authors, vol. i. The following copy is printed from the first edit. of Surrey's Poems, 1557, 4to. See another song of Lord Vaux's, book ii. No. 2. WHEN Cupide scaled first the fort Wherein my hart lay wounded sore, The batry was of such a sort, That I must yelde or die therfore. |