And now with me, my countrymen, That ever did on horseback come, I durst encounter, man for man, Earl Douglas on a milk-white steed, Rode foremost of the company, Shew me, said he, whose men ye be, That, without my consent, do chace The man that first did answer make, Who said, We list + not to declare, Yet will we spend our dearest blood, Thy chiefest harts to slay. Norhamshire, from Norham town and castle; and Bamboroughshire, from Bamborough Castle. In the old ballad, v. 3.-" Then the Perse owt of Banborowe came."-" The country of the Scotch warriors described in these two last verses, has a fine romantic situation, and affords a couple of smooth words for verse."-ADDISON. * There are no deer now in the Cheviot, and the wood is almost entirely destroyed; but it formerly abounded with both. Dr. Percy has transcribed a passage from Leland, who wrote at the beginning of the sixteenth century. "In Northumberland, as I heare say, be no forests, except Chivet Hills, where is much brusshe wood, and some okke (oak); grownde overgrowne with linge, and some with mosse. I have harde say that Chivet Hills stretcheth XX miles. There is great plente of redde-deer and roo bukkes.” * Choose. Then Douglas swore a solemn oath, : Ere thus I will out-braved be, One of us two shall die: I know thee well; an Earl thou art, But trust me, Percy, pity it were, * Any of these our guiltless men, Let thou and I the battle try, Then stepped a gallant 'Squire forth, Who said, I would not have it told That e'er my Captain fought on foot, You be two Earls, said Witherington, * Mr. Addison speaks of this as a sentiment suitable to a hero. It does indeed shew a bright glimmering of virtuous and Christian charity. It is a pity that personal disputes of ambitious and selfish leaders, like Charles XII. or Napoleon Buonaparte, could not always thus be settled (if there must be bloodshed) by themselves alone. We should not then have "Quicquid delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi." Of which, the reader, if he is content to smile at it, may take the following doggrel translation:- Whate'er mad antic foolish kings commit, Their luckless subjects always pay for it. "We meet with the same heroic sentiments in Virgil.-See Eneid, xii. 229."-ADDISON. I'll do the best that do I may, Our English archers bent their bows, To drive the deer with hound and horn, They closed full fast on every side, O Christ! it was a grief to see, The cries of men lying in their gore, At last these two stout Earls did meet, * This, in the old ballad, is the beginning of the second fytte, or fit, an old term for the division of a song. These two lines, as they stand here alone, are absolute nonsense. Dr. Percy has admirably elucidated the mistake of the more modern composer, who took the word bent to mean disposition of mind; whereas, in the old copy, it is "Yet bides the Earl Doglas upon the bent;" i. e. grass, or field. "Still Earl Douglas keeps the field." The first line, "to drive the deer," &c. is particularly absurd, occurring, as it does, in the midst of the description of a fight. Dr. Percy has here added three stanzas of his own composition, modernised from the old ballad--Reliques, i. 279. They fought until they both did sweat, Yield thee, Lord Percy, Douglas said, By James our Scottish King. Thy ransom I will freely give, Thou art the most courageous knight That ever I did see. No, Douglas, quoth Earl Percy then, Thy proffer I do scorn; I will not yield to any Scot That ever yet was born. With that there came an arrow keen Out of an English bow, Which struck Earl Douglas to the heart, Who never spoke more words than these: Fight on, my merry men all; For why? my life is at an end: Then leaving life, Earl Percy took Would I had lost my land! * " Æneas was wounded after the same manner by an unknown hand, in the midst of a parley.-Æneid, xii. 318."-ADDISON. + "Turnus did not die after so heroic a manner; though our poet seems to have his eye upon Turnus's speech, in the last verse.-Æn. xii. 936.”— ADDISON. There is no mention of Percy made by Douglas, in the old ballad. With O Christ! my very heart doth bleed * For sure a more redoubted knight A knight amongst the Scots there was, Who straight in wrath did vow revenge, Sir Hugh Mountgomery he was called; And passed the English archers all, And through Earl Percy's body then With such a vehement force and might He did his body gore, The staff ran through the other side A large cloth-yard, and more. respect to the imitation of Virgil by the respective authors, there can be little doubt that the second was able to read it in the original; nor, perhaps, will any reader impute a lower degree of learning to the first. The Editor believes the first translation of Virgil into English to have been that of Gawain Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, in Scotland, about the year 1510. * "Earl Piercy's lamentation over his enemy is generous, beautiful, and passionate. I must only caution the reader not to let the simplicity of the *** That beaustyle prejudice him against the greatness of the thought. tiful line Taking the dead man by the hand,' will put the reader in mind of Æneas's behaviour towards Lausus, whom he himself had slain, as he came to the rescue of his aged father. "At vero ut vultum vidit morientis, et ora Ora modis Anchisiades pallentia miris, Ingemuit, miserans graviter, dextramque tetendit." En. x. 822.-ADDISON. |