APPENDIX. NOTE A. THE BATTLE OF HARLAW.-P. 544. THAT there was such an ancient ballad is certain, and the tune, adapted to the bagpipe, was long extremely popular, and, within the remembrance of man, the first which was played at kirns and other rustic festivals. But there is a suspicious phrase in the ballad as it is published by Allan Ramsay. When describing the national confusion, the bard says, "Sen the days of auld King Harie, Such slauchter was heard or seen." Query, Who was the "auld King Harie" here meant? If Henry VIII. be intended, as is most likely, it must bring the date of the poem, at least of that verse, as low as Queen Mary's time. The ballad is said to have been printed in 1668. A copy of that edition would be a great curiosity. See the preface to the reprint of this ballad, in the volume of " Early Metrical Tales," ante referred to. NOTE B. ALLAN RAMSAY'S "EVERGREEN."-P. 544. Green be the pillow of honest Allan, at whose lamp Burns lighted his brilliant torch! It is without enmity to his memory that we record his mistake in this matter. But it is impossible not to regret that such an affecting tale as that of Bessie Bell and Mary Gray should have fallen into his hands. The southern reader must learn (for what northern reader is ignorant?) that these two beautiful women were kinsfolk, and so strictly united in friendship, that even personal jealousy could not interrupt their union. They were visited by a handsome and agreeable young man, who was acceptable to them both, but so captivated with their charms, that, while confident of a preference on the part of both, he was unable to make a choice between them. While this singular situation of the three persons of the tale continued, the breaking out of the plague forced the two ladies to take refuge in the beautiful valley of Lynedoch, where they built themselves a bower, in order to avoid human intercourse and the danger of infection. The lover was not included in their renunciation of society. He visited their retirement, brought with him the fatal disease, and unable to return to Perth, which was his usual residence, was nursed by the fair friends with all the tenderness of affection. He died, however, having first communicated the infection to his lovely attendants. They followed him to the grave, lovely in their lives, and undivided in their death Their burial-place, in the vicinity of the bower which they built, is still visible, in the romantic vicinity of Lord Lyndoch's mansion, and prolongs the memory of female friendship, which even rivalry could not dissolve. Two stanzas of the original ballad alone survive: Another song, of which Ramsay chose a few words for the theme of a rifacimento, seems to have been a curious specimen of minstrel recitation. It was partly verse, partly narra tive, and was alternately sung and repeated. The story was the escape of a young gentleman, pursued by a cruel uncle, desirous of his estate; or a bloody rival, greedy of his life; or the relentless father of his lady-love, or some such remorseless character, having sinister intentions on the person of the fugitive. The object of his rapacity or vengeance being nearly overtaken, a shepherd undertakes to mislead the pursuer, who comes in sight just as the object of his pursuit disappears, and greets the shepherd thus: "PURSUER. Good morrow, shepherd, and my friend, THE SHEPHERD. Yes, I did see him this way riding, And what did rauch surprise my wit, The man and the mare Jew up in the air And I see, and I see, and I see her yet. Behind yon white cloud I see her tail wave, And I see, and I see, and I see her yet." The tune of these verses is an extremely good one, and Allan Ramsay has adapted a bacchanalian song to it with some success; but we should have thanked him much had he taken the trouble to preserve the original legend of the old minstrel. The valuable and learned friend' to whom we owe this mutilated account of it, has often heard it sung among the High Jinks of Scottish lawyers of the last generation. 1 The late Right Honorable William Adam, Lord Cuief Comm:ssioner of the Scotch Jury Court.-ED. of the profession. The reverend editor thus translates tirs closing lines: "Ille est carissimus Terræ incolis Qui Deus addidit Hominum imperium gerendam, Ita comeantes cum cantilenis feruntur Simul eos remuneratur ob cantilenas pulchras, Mr. Coney beare contrasts this "flattering picture" with the following melancholy specimen" of the Minstrel life of later times-contained in some verses by Richard Sheale (the alleged author of the old Chevy Chase), which are preserved in one of the Ashmolean MSS. "Now for the good cheere that I have had here, I give you hearty thanks with bowing of my shankes, Το you may resort sum tyme for my comforte. I can be contente, if hyt be out of Lent, A piece of beefe to take my honger to aslake, I can fynde in my hearte, with my friendis to take a parte NOTE F. WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE.-P. 548. In evidence of what is stated in the text, the author wonki quote the introductory stanza to a forgotten poem of Mickle, originally published under the injudicious and equivocal title of The Concubine," but in subsequent editions called, "Sir Martyn, or The Progress of Dissipation." "Awake, ye west winds, through the lonely dale, And, Fancy, to thy faery bower betake ;* Even now, with balmy sweetness breathes the gale, Dimpling with downy wing the stilly lake; Through the pale willows faltering whispers wake, And evening comes with locks bedropp'd with dew; On Desmond's mouldering turrets slowly shake The wither'd ryegrass, and the harebell blue, And ever and anon sweet Malla's plaints renew." Mickle's facility of versification was so great, that, being a printer by profession, he frequently put his lines into types without taking the trouble previously to put them into writing; thas uniting the composition of the author with the mechanica! operation which typographers call by the same name. ESSAY ON IMITATIONS OF THE ANCIENT BALLAD.' THE invention of printing necessarily occasioned the downfall of the Order of Minstrels, already reduced to contempt by their own bad habits, by the disrepute attached to their profession, and by the laws calculated to repress their license. When the Metrical Romances were very many of them in the hands of every one, the occupation of those who made their living by reciting them was in some degree abolished, and the minstrels either disappeared altogether, or sunk into mere musicians, whose utmost acquaintance with poetry was being able to sing a ballad. Perhaps old Anthony, who acquired, from the song which he accounted, his masterpiece, the name of Authony Now Now, was one of the last of this class in the capital; nor does the tenor of his poetry evince whether it was his own composition or that of some other.2 But the taste for popular poetry did not decay with the class of men by whom it had been for some generations practised and preserved. Not only did the simple old ballads retain their ground, though circulated by the new art of printing, instead of being preserved by recitation; but in the Garlands, and similar collections for general sale, the authors aimed at a more ornamental and regular style of poetry than had been attempted by the old minstrels, whose composition, if not extemporaneous, was seldom committed to writing, and was not, therefore, susceptible of accurate revision. This was the more necessary, as even the popular poetry was now feeling the effects arising from the advance of knowledge, and the revival of the study of the learned languages, with all the elegance and refinement which it induced. In short, the general progress of the country led t: an improvement in the department of popular poetry, tending both to soften and melodize the language employed, and to ornament the diction beyond that of the rude minstrels, to whom such topics of composition had been originally aban 1 This essay was written in April, 1830, and forms a continnation of the Remarks on Popular Poetry."-ED. 2 He might be supposed a contemporary of Henry VIII., if the greeting which he pretends to have given to that monarch of his own composition, and spoken in his own person. doned. The monotony of the ancient recitals was for the same causes, altered and improved upon The eternal descriptions of battles, and of love di lemmas, which, to satiety, filled the old romances with trivial repetition, was retrenched. If any one wishes to compare the two eras of lyrical poetry, a few verses taken from one of the latest minstrel ballads, and one of the earliest that were written for the press, will afford him, in some de gree, the power of doing so. The rude lines from Anthony Now Now, which we have just quoted, may, for example, be compared, as Ritson requests, with the ornamented commencement of the ballad of Fair Rosamond : "When as King Henry ruled this land "Most peerless was her beauty found, "Her crisped locks, like threads of gold "The blood within her crystal cheeks Did such a color drive, As though the lily and the rose It may be rash to affirm, that those who lived by singing this more refined poetry, were a class of men different from the ancient minstrels; but it appears, that both the name of the professors, and the character of the Minstrel poetry, had sunk in reputation. The facility of versification, and of poetical dic tion, is decidedly in favor of the moderns, as might reasonably be expected from the improved taste, "Good morrow to our noble king, quoth 1; 3 PERCY'S Reliques, vol. ii. p. 147. and enlarged knowledge, of an age which abounded to such a degree in poetry, and of a character so imaginative as was the Elizabethan era. The poetry addressed to the populace, and enjoyed by them alone, was animated by the spirit that was breathed around We may cite Shakspeare's unquestionable and decisive evidence in this respect. In Twelfth Night he describes a popular ballad, with a beauty and precision which no one but himself could have affixed to its character; and the whole constitutes the strongest appeal in favor of that species of poetry which is written to suit the taste of the public in general, and is most naturally preserved by oral tradition. But the remarkable part of the circumstance is, that when the song is actually sung by Festé the clown, it differs in almost all particulars from what we might have been justified in considering as attributes of a popular ballad of that early period. It is simple, doubtless, both in structure and phraseology, but is rather a love song than a minstrel ballad-a love song, also, which, though its imaginative figures of speech are of a very simple and intelligible character, may nevertheless be compared to any thing rather than the boldness of the preceding age, and resembles nothing less than the ordinary minstrel ballad. The original, though so well known, may be here quoted, for the purpose of showing what was, in Shakspeare's time, regarded as the poetry of "the old age." Almost every one has the passage by heart, yet I must quote it, because there seems a marked difference between the species of poem which is described, and that which is sung. "Mark it, Cæsario; it is old and plain : The spinsters and the knitters in the sun, The song, thus beautifully prefaced, is as follows: "Come away, come away, death, And in sad cypress let me be laid; Fly away, fly away, breath; I am slain by a fair cruel maid. My shroud of white, stuck all with yew, My part of death no one so true On comparing this love elegy, or whatever it may be entitled, with the ordinary, anu especially the earlier popular poetry, I cannot help thinking that a great difference will be observed in the structure of the verse, the character of the sentiments, the ornaments and refinement of the language. Neither, indeed, as might be expected from the progress of human affairs, was the change in the popular style of poetry achieved without some disadvantages, which counterbalanced, in a certain degree, the superior art and exercise of fancy which had been introduced of late times. The expressions of Sir Philip Sidney, an unquestionable judge of poetry, flourishing in Elizabeth's golden reign, and drawing around him, like a magnet, the most distinguished poets of the age, amongst whom we need only name Shakspeare and Spenser, still show something to regret when he compared the highly wrought and richly ornamented poetry of his own time, with the ruder but more energetic diction of Chevy Chase. His words, often quoted, cannot yet be dispensed with on the present occasion. They are a chapter in the history of ancient poetry. "Certainly says the brave knight, "I must confess my own barbarousness; I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas, that I found not my heart more moved than with a trumpet. And yet it is sung by some blind crowder, with no rougher voice than rude style, which being so evil apparelled in the dust and cobwebs of that uncivil age, what would it work, trimmed in the gorgeous eloquence of Pindar.” If we inquire more particularly what were the peculiar charms by which the old minstrel ballad produced an effect like a trumpet-sound upon the bosom of a real son of chivalry, we may not be wrong in ascribing it to the extreme simplicity with which the narrative moves forward, neglecting all the more minute ornaments of speech and diction, to the grand object of enforcing on the hearer a striking and affecting catastrophe. The author seems too serious in his wish to affect the audience, to allow himself to be drawn aside by any thing which can, either by its tenor, or the manner in which it is spoken, have the perverse effect of distracting attention from the catastrophe. Such grand and serious beauties, however, occurred but rarely to the old minstrels; and in order to find them, it became necessary to struggle through long passages of monotony, languor, and inanity. Unfortunately it also happened, that those who, like Sidney, could ascertain, feel, and do full justice to the beauties of the heroic ballad, were few, compared to the numbers who could he sensible of the trite verbiage of a bald passage, r 2 Sir Philip Sidney's Defence of Poesy. the ludicrous effect of an absurd rhyme. In England, accordingly, the popular ballad fell into contempt during the seventeenth century; and al- | though in remote counties' its inspiration was occasionally the source of a few verses, it seems to have become almost entirely obsolete in the capital. Even the Civil Wars, which gave so much occasion for poetry, produced rather song and satire, than the ballad or popular epic. The curious reader may satisfy himself on this point, should he wish to ascertain the truth of the allegation, by, looking through D'Urfey's large and curious collection, when he will be aware that the few ballads which it contains are the most ancient productions in the book, and very seldom take their date after the commencement of the seventeenth century. In Scotland, on the contrary, the old minstrel ballad long continued to preserve its popularity. Even the last contests of Jacobitism were recited with great vigor in ballads of the time, the authors of some of which are known and remembered; nor is there a more spirited ballad preserved than that of Mr. Skirving (father of Skirving the artist), upon the battle of Prestonpans, so late as 1745. But this was owing to circumstances connected with the habits of the people in a remote and rude country, which could not exist in the richer and wealthier provinces of England. On the whole, however, the ancient Heroic ballad, as it was called, seemed to be fast declining among the more enlightened and literary part of both countries; and if retained by the lower classes in Scotland, it had in England ceased to exist, or degenerated into doggerel of the last degree of vileness. Subjects the most interesting were abandoned to the poorest rhymers, and one would have thought that, as in an ass-race, the prize had been! destined to the slowest of those who competed for the prize. The melancholy fate of Miss Ray, who fell by the hands of a frantic lover, could only inspire the Grub Street muse with such verses as these, that is, if I remember them correctly: "A Sandwich favorite was this fair, And her be dearly loved; By whom six children had, we hear; "A clergyman, O wicked one, In Covent Garden shot her; No time to cry upon hev God, It's hoped He's not forgot her." 1 A curious and spirited specimen occurs in Cornwall, as late as the trial of the Bishops before the Revolution. The President of the Royal Society of London (Mr. Davies Gilbert) has rot disdained the trouble of preserving it from oblivion. Pills to Purge Melancholy. If it be true, as in other cases, that when things at at the worst they must mend, it was certainly time to expect an amelioration in the department in which such doggerel passed current. Accordingly, previous to this time, a new species of poetry seems to have arisen, which, in some cases, endeavored to pass itself as the production of genuine antiquity, and, in others, honestly avowed an attempt to emulate the merits and avoid the errors with which the old ballad was encumbered and in the effort to accomplish this, a species of composition was discovered, which is capable of being subjected to peculiar rules of criticism, and of exhibiting excellences of its own. In writing for the use of the general reader, rather than the poetical antiquary, I shall be readily excused from entering into any inquiry respecting the authors who first showed the way in this peculiar department of modern poetry, which I may term the imitation of the old ballad, especially that of the latter or Elizabethan era. One of the oldest, according to my recollection, which pretends to engraft modern refinement upon ar cient simplicity, is extremely beautiful, both from the words, and the simple and affecting melody tr which they are usually sung. The title is, “Lord Henry and Fair Catherine." It begins thus: "In ancient days, in Britain's isle, Lord Henry well was known: "His thoughts were all on honor bent, He ne'er would stoop to love: No lady in the land had power His frozen heart to move." Early in the eighteenth century, this peculiar species of composition became popular. We find Tickell, the friend of Addison, who produced the beautiful ballad, "Of Leinster famed for maidens fair," Mallet, Goldsmith, Shenstone, Percy, and many others, followed an example which had much to recommend it, especially as it presented considerable facilities to those who wished, at as little exertion of trouble as possible, to at tain for themselves a certain degree of literary reputation. Before, however, treating of the professed imi tators of Ancient Ballad Poetry, I ought to say a word upon those who have written their imitations with the preconceived purpose of passing them for ancient. There is no small degree of cant in the violent 3 See Hogg's Jacobite Relics, vol. i.-ED. 4 Miss Ray, the beautiful mistress of the Earl of Sandwich, then First Lord of the Admiralty, was assassinated by Mr. Hackman, in a fit of frantic jealous love," as Boswell ex presses it, in 1779. See Croker's Boswell vol. iv. p 254.-ED |