Here forc'd by grief, and hopeless love, These holy weeds I fought; And here amid these lonely walls To end my days I thought. But haply for my year of grace Is not yet paft away, Might I ftill hope to win thy love, No longer would I stay. 100 Now farewell grief, and welcome joy 105 Once more unto my heart: For fince I have found thee, lovely youth, We never more will part. The year of probation, or noviciate. THE END OF THE SECOND BOOK, 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 agreeable entertainment to the curious to compare them together, and to jee how far the latter bard has excelled his predeceffor, and where he has fallen fhort of him. For tho be 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 ftile ferves as a veil to hide whatever might appear too familiar or vulgar in them. Thus, for inftance, the cataf trophe of the gallant Witherington is in the modern copy expret in terms which never fail at prefent to excite ridicule : whereas in the original it is related in a plain and pathetic fimplicity, that is liable to no juch unlucky effect: See the ftanza in pog. 14. which in modern orthography, &c. would run thus, "For Witherington my heart is woe, So again the ftanza which defcribes the fall of Montgomery is fomewhat more elevated in the ancient copy, "The dint it was both fad and fore, "He on Montgomery fet: "The fwan-feathers his arrow bore "With his hearts blood were wet." 22 p. 13. We might also add, that the circumstances of the battle are. more clearly conceived, and the feveral incidents more difinetly 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 use of the pear: 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, fays be, who stood with their bows ready bent, gave a general difcharge of their arrows, which flew feven fcore Spearmen of the enemy: but notwithstanding fo fevere a lofs, Douglas Like a brave captain kept his ground. He had divided his forces into three columns, who as foon as the English had difcharged the firftvolley, bore down upon them with their spears, and breaking through their ranks reduced them to cloje fighting. The archers upon this dropt their bows and had recourfe to their words, and there followed fo fharp a conflict, that multitudes on both fides loft their lives." In the midft of this general engagement, at length the two great earls meet, and after a spirited rencounter agree to breathe; upon which a parley enfues, that would do honour to Homer bimself. Nothing can be more pleasingly diftin&t 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 misunderstood. "Yet bydys the yerl Douglas upon the BENT," evidently fignifies, yet the earl Douglas abides in the "FIELD:" Whereas the more modern bard seems to have understood by BENT, the inclination of his mind, aud accordingly runs quite off from the fubject, 66 "To drive the deer with hound and horn "Earl Douglas had the bent." *. 109. ONE may also observe a generous impartiality in the old original bard, when in the conclufion of his tale he represents both nations as quitting the field without any reproachful reflection on either: tho' he gives to his own countrymen the credit of being the fmaller number. "Of fifteen hundred archers of England "Of twenty hundred fpearmen of Scotland, 66 But even five and fifty." p. 14. He He attributes FLIGHT to neither party, as bath been done in the modern copies of this ballad, as well Scotch as English, Fer, 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 Glasgow, in which the lines are thus tranfpofed, 'Of fifteen hundred Scottish Spears And to countenance this change he has fuppreffed the two fianzas between ver. 241. and ver. 249. From this Edition I have reformed the Scottish names in pag. 244. 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 Q. Elizabeth, I think may be made appear, nor yet does it feem to be older than the latter end of her reign. Sir Philip Sidney when he complains of the antiquated phrafe of CHEVY CHACE, could never have seen this improved copy, the language of which is not more ancient than that he himself used. It is probable that the encomiums of fo admired a writer excited fome bard to revife the ballad, and to free it from thofe faults he 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. have feen it pafs uncenfured in a fonnet that was at that time in request, and where it could not fail to have been taken notice of, had it been in the leaft exceptionable: fee above p. 164, 5: Yet in about half a century after, it was become turlefque. See Hudibras, Pt. 1. c. 3. v. 95. We THIS much premifed, the reader that would fee the general beauties of this ballad fet in a juft and ftriking light may conJult the excellent criticism of Mr. Addifon.↑ With regard to In the Spectator. No. 70. 74. its |