Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Lo, yonder doth Earl Douglas come,
His men in armor bright;
Full twenty hundred Scottish spears
All marching in our sight;

All men of pleasant Tivydale,
Fast by the river Tweed:
O cease your sports, Earl Percy said,
And take your bows with speed:
And now with me, my countrymen,
Your courage forth advance;
For there was never champion yet,
In Scotland or in France,

That ever did on horseback come,
But if my hap it were,

I durst encounter man for man,
With him to break a spear.

Earl Douglas on his milk-white steed,
Most like a baron bold,

Rode foremost of his company,

Whose armor shone like gold.

Show me,

said he, whose men you be

That hunt so boldly here,

That, without my consent, do chase
And kill my fallow-deer.

The first man that did answer make,
Was noble Percy he;

Who said, We list not to declare,
Nor show whose men we be:

Yet we will spend our dearest blood
Thy chiefest harts to slay.
Then Douglas swore a solemn oath,
And thus in rage did say,

Ere thus I will out-braved be,
One of us two shall die:

I know thee well, an earl thou art;
Lord Percy, so am I.

But trust me, Percy, pity it were,
And great offence to kill
Any of these our guiltless men,
For they have done no ill.

Let thou and I the battle try,
And set our men aside,
Accurst be he, Earl Percy said,
By whom this is denied.

Then stepp'd a gallant squire forth,
Witherington was his name,
Who said, I would not have it told
To Henry our king for shame,

That e'er my captain fought on foot,
And I stood looking on;

You be two earls, said Witherington,
And I a squire alone:

I'll do the best that do I may,
While I have power to stand:
While I have power to wield my sword,
I'll fight with heart and hand.

Our English archers bent their bows,
Their hearts were good and true;

At the first flight of arrows sent,
Full fourscore Scots they slew.

They closed full fast on every side,
No slackness there was found;
And many a gallant gentleman
Lay gasping on the ground.

O dear! it was a grief to see,
And likewise for to hear,

The cries of men lying in their gore,
And scatter'd here and there.

This fight did last from break of day
Till setting of the sun;

For when they rung the evening-bell,
The battle scarce was done.

With stout Earl Percy, there was slain

Sir John of Egerton,

Sir Robert Ratcliff, and Sir John,

Sir James that bold baron:

And with Sir George and stout Sir James,
Both knights of good account,

Good Sir Ralph Raby there was slain,
Whose prowess did surmount.

For Witherington needs must I wail,
As one in doleful dumps;1
For when his legs were smitten off,
He fought upon his stumps.

Of fifteen hundred Englishmen,
Went home but fifty-three;

11. e. "I, as one in deep concern, must lament." The construction here has generally been mis understood. The old MSS. read "woful dumps." The corresponding verse in the old ballad 18 a follows:

"For Wetharryngton my harte was wo,

That ever he slayne shulde be;

For when both his leggis wear hewyne in to,

Yet he knyled and fought on bys kne."

The rest were slain in Chevy-Chase,
Under the greenwood tree.

Next day did many widows come,
Their husbands to bewail;

They washed their wounds in brinish tears,
But all would not prevail.

Their bodies, bathed in purple gore,

They bare with them away:

They kiss'd them dead a thousand times,

Ere they were clad in clay.

God save our king, and bless this land
With plenty, joy, and peace;

And grant henceforth, that foul debate
"Twixt noblemen may cease.

THE TWO CORBIES.1

There were two corbies sat on a tree
Large and black as black might be;
And one the other gan say,

Where shall we go and dine to-day?
Shall we go dine by the wild salt sea?
Shall we go dine 'neath the greenwood tree?

As I sat on the deep sea sand,

I saw a fair ship nigh at land,

I waved my wings, I bent my beak,
The ship sunk, and I heard a shriek;
There they lie, one, two, and three,
I shall dine by the wild salt sea.

Come, I will show ye a sweeter sight,
A lonesome glen, and a new-slain knight;
His blood yet on the grass is hot,

His sword half-drawn, his shafts unshot,
And no one kens that he lies there,

But his hawk, his hound, and his lady fair.

His hound is to the hunting gane,
His hawk to fetch the wild fowl hame,
His lady's away with another mate,
So we shall make our dinner sweet;
Our dinner's sure, our feasting free,
Come, and dine by the greenwood tree.
Ye shall sit on his white hause-bane,
I will pick out his bony blue een;
Ye'll take a tress of his yellow hair,
To theak yere nest when it grows bare;
The gowden3 down on his young chin
Will do to sewe my young ones in.

1 One of the most poetical and picturesque ballads existing.
2 The neck-bone-a phrase for the neck.
8 Golden.

[blocks in formation]

THE pretensions of Queen Elizabeth to poetic genius are about as valid as her pretensions to beauty; yet she loved to be flattered for both, as much as for her classical attainments, which she really possessed. The desire of shining as a poetess was one of her weaknesses; and her vanity, no doubt, made her regard as tributes justly paid, the extravagant praises which the courtiers and writers of her age lavished on her royal ditties.

We have but very little of her poetry: the best piece, perhaps, is one which shows that, notwithstanding her maidenly stateliness and prudery, she was not altogether a stranger to the tender passion.

VERSES ON HER OWN FEELINGS.

I GRIEVE, and dare not show my discontent,
I love, and yet am forced to seem to hate;

1 It would of course be impossible here to give a mere outline of Elizabeth's life, so full of important events. Any good history of England may be read for the requisite information. Of the smaller histories, Keightley's is the best. Read, also, a well-written life in Mrs. Strickland's "Lives of the Queens of England." In Dr. Drake's "Shakspeare and his Times," will be found some interesting particulars of her attainments, domestic habits, love of dress, vanity, jealousy, and her fondness for the drama and the brutal show of bear-baiting, &c. &c.

These verses first appeared in print in "Headley's Anc. Eng. Poet." They were transcribed from a manuscript in the Ashmolean Museum. Unfortunately, the most important word is half obliterated-"upon Moun-s departure;" but the following account from the old chronicler Stow shows pretty conclusively that it refers to the Duke of Alencon. "These Lords (the Ambassadors from France,) after divers secret conferences amongst themselves, and return of sundry letters into France, signifying the queen's declination from marriage, and the people's unwillingness to natch that way, held it most convenient that the duke should come in proper person, whose presence they thought in such affairs might prevail more than all their oratory: and, thereupon, the first of November, the said prince came over in person, very princely accompanied and attended, though not in such glorious manner as were the above-named commissioners, whose entertainment, in all spects, was equivalent unto his estate and dignity. By this time his picture, state, and titles were advanced in every stationer's shop, and many other public places, by the name of Frauncis of Varow, Duke of Alanson, heir apparent of France, and brother to the French king: but he was better known by the name of Monsieur, unto all sorts of people, than by all his other titles. During his abode in England, he used all princely means to prefer his suit, and in his carriage demeaned himself like a true born prince, and the heir of France: and when he had well observed the queen's full determi nation to continue a single life, he pacified himself, admiring her rare virtues and high perfections. The queen in all respects showed as great kindness unto the duke and all his retinue, at their de parture, as at any time before, and for period of her princely favors, in that behalf, she, with great state, accompanied the duke in person to Canterbury; where she feasted him and all his train very royally, and then returned. The next day, being the sixth of February, the duke, with his French lords and others, embarked at Sandwich."

"As dead queens rank but with meaner mortals, we may assert, without much fear of contradio tion, that little else can now be gratified by the perusal of Elizabeth's poetry than mere curiosity."— Headley,

I do, yet dare not say I ever meant,
I seem stark mute, but inwardly do prate:
I am, and not, I freeze, and yet am burn'd,
Since from myself my other self I turn'd.
My care is like my shadow in the sun,
Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it;
Stands and lies by me, does what I have done,
This too familiar care does make me rue it.

No means I find to rid him from my breast,
Till by the end of things it be suppress'd.
Some gentler passions slide into my mind,
For I am soft, and made of melting snow;
Or be more cruel, Love, and so be kind,
Let me or float or sink, be high or low.

Or let me live with some more sweet content,
Or die, and so forget what love e'er meant.

Signed, "Finis, Eliza. Regina, upon
Moun-s departure."

TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE.1

No literary undertaking in any age of English Literature has proved to be as important in its results, as the Translation of the Bible under the direction of King James I. Of the labors of Wiclif in translating the Bible from the Latin Vulgate, and of the successful exertions of Tyndale, in face of every danger and even of death, in giving to his countrymen a version of the New Testament in their vernacular tongue, short accounts are given under the lives of those scholars, together with specimens of their respective transla tions. Subsequently, very many versions appeared, of which the following are the most important:

1. COVERDALE'S BIBLE. This was printed in Zurich, in 1535, because the translator, Miles Coverdale, a native of Yorkshire, was obliged to fly from his native land. To him, therefore, must be awarded the honor of being the first to give the whole Bible in English, translated out of the original tongues. It was printed in double columns, folio.

2. MATTHEWE'S BIBLE. This appeared in 1537. But the name, Thomas Matthewe, which appeared in the title-page, and from which it has received its name, was undoubtedly fictitious, and the real editor was John Rogers, who was burned at the stake in the reign of Mary.

1 In mentioning the several causes that made the age of Elizabeth so distinguished for its grea names in literature, Hazlitt, in his "Literature of the Age of Elizabeth," thus writes:-"The trans lation of the Bible was the chief engine in the great work. It threw open, by a secret spring, the rich treasures of religion and morality which had been there locked up as in a shrine. It revealed the visions of the prophets, and conveyed the lessons of inspired teachers to the meanest of the people. It gave them a common interest in a common cause. they read. It gave a mind to the people, by giving them common subjects of thought and feeling. Their hearts burnt within them as it cemented their union of character and sentiment; it created endless diversity and collision of opinion. They found objects to employ their faculties, and a motive in the magnitude of the conse quences attached to them, to exert the utmost eagerness in the pursuit of truth, and the most daring ntrepidity in maintaixing it.”

« AnteriorContinuar »