ENGLISH MINSTRELSY. Lo, yonder doth Earl Douglas come, All men of pleasant Tivydale, O cease your sports, Earl Percy said, That ever did on horseback come, I durst encounter man for man, Earl Douglas on his milk-white steed, Rode foremost of his company, Whose armor shone like gold. Show me, said he, whose men you be That, without my consent, do chase The first man that did answer make, Who said, We list not to declare, Nor show whose men we be: Yet we will spend our dearest blood 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, Let thou and I the battle try, Then stepp'd a gallant squire forth, [ELIZABETH, That e'er my captain fought ou foot, You be two earls, said Witherington, I'll do the best that do I may, Our English archers bent their bows, At the first flight of arrows sent, They closed full fast on every side, O dear! it was a grief to see, The cries of men lying in their gore, This fight did last from break of day For when they rung the evening-bell, With stout Earl Percy, there was slain Sir Robert Ratcliff, and Sir John, Sir James that bold baron: And with Sir George and stout Sir James, Good Sir Ralph Raby there was slain, For Witherington needs must I wail, For when his legs were smitten off, 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 is as 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 hys kne." The rest were slain in Chevy-Chase, Next day did many widows come, They washed their wounds in brinish tears, 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 And grant henceforth, that foul debate THE TWO CORBIES. There were two corbies sat on a tree Where shall we go and dine to-day? 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, Come, I will show ye a sweeter sight, 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, 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, 1 It would of course be impossible here to give a mere outline of Elizabeth's life, so full of import- 2 These verses first appeared in print in "Headley's Anc. Eng. Poet." They were transcribed "As dead queens rank but with meaner mortals, we may assert, without much fear of contradic. 1 No means I find to rid him from my breast, Signed, "Finis, Eliza. Regina, upon 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 Wielif 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 nonor 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 great names in literature, Hazlitt, in his "Literature of the Age of Elizabeth," thus writes:-"The translation 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. Their hearts burnt within them as they read. It gave a mind to the people, by giving them common subjects of thought and feeling. 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 consequences attached to them, to exert the utmost eagerness in the pursuit of truth, and the most daring Intrepidity in maintaining it." |