A feather'd arrow sharp, I ween, Thomas the Rhymer. PART THIRD.-MODERN. BY WALTER SCOTT. THOMAS THE RHYMER was renowned among his contemporaries, as the author of the celebrated romance of Sir Tristrem. Of this once-admired. poem only one copy is now known to exist, which is in the Advocates' Library. The Editor, in 1804, published a small edition of this curious work; which, if it does not revive the reputation of the bard of Ercildoune, is at least the earliest specimen of Scottish poetry hitherto published. Some account of this romance has already been given to the world in Mr. ELLIS's Specimens of Ancient Poetry, vol. i. p. 165, iii. p. 410; a work to which our predecessors and our posterity are alike obliged; the former, for the preservation of the bestselected examples of their poetical taste; and the latter, for a history of the English language, which will only cease to be interesting with the existence of our mother-tongue, and all that genius and learning have recorded in it. It is sufficient here to mention, that so great was the reputation of the romance of Sir Tristrem, that few were thought capable of reciting it after the manner of the author-a circumstance alluded to by Robert de Brunne, the annalist : "I see in song, in sedgeyng tale, Of Erceldoun, and of Kendale, Now thame says as they thame wroght, If men it said as made Thomas," &c. It appears, from a very curious MS. of the thirteenth century, penes Mr. Douce of London, containing a French metrical romance of Sir Tristrem, that the work of our Thomas the Rhymer was known, and referred to, by the minstrels of Normandy and Bretagne. Having arrived at a part of the romance where reciters were wont to differ in the mode of telling the story, the French bard expressly cites the authority of the poet of Ercildoune : "Plusurs de nos granter ne volent, Co que del naim dire se solent, "The burn of breid Shall run fow reid." Bannock-burn is the brook here meant. The Scots give the name of bannock to a thick round cake of unleavened bread. E entusché par grant engin, l'he tale of Sir Tristrem, as narrated in the Edinburgh MS., is totally different from the volu minous romance in prose, originally compiled on the same subject by Rusticien de Puise, and analyzed by M. de Tressan; but agrees in every essential particular with the metrical performance just quoted, which is a work of much higher antiquity. The following attempt to commemorate the Rhymer's poetical fame, and the traditional account of his marvellous return to Fairy Land, being entirely modern, would have been placed with greater propriety among the class of Modern Ballads, had it not been for its immediate connection with the first and second parts of the same story. Thomas the Rhymer. PART THIRD. WHEN seven years more were come and gone, Then all by bonny Coldingknow,2 Pitch'd palliouns took their room, The Leader, rolling to the Tweed, They roused the deer from Caddenhead, 1 Ruberslaw and Dunyon, are two hills near Jedburgh. An ancient tower near Ercildoune, belonging to a family of the name of Home. One of Thomas's prophecies is said o have run thus: "Vengeance! vengeance! when and where? On the house of Coldingknow, now and ever mair!" The spot is rendered classical by its having given name to the beautiful melody called the Broom o' the Cowdenknows. 3 Ensenzie-War-cry, or gathering word. The feast was spread in Ercildoune, In Learmont's high and ancient hall: And there were knights of great renown, And ladies, laced in pall. Nor lacked they, while they sat at dine, Nor mantling quaighs* of ale. True Thomas rose, with harp in hand, Hush'd were the throng, both limb and tongue In numbers high, the witching tale Yet fragments of the lofty strain He sung King Arthur's Table Round: How courteous Gawaine met the wound, And bled for ladies' sake. But chief, in gentle Tristrem's praise, For Marke, his cowardly uncle's right, No art the poison might withstand: No medicine could be found, Till lovely Isolde's lily hand Had probed the rankling wound. 4 Torwoodlee and Caddenhead are places in Selkirkshire; both the property of Mr. Pringle of Torwoodlee. 5 Quaighs-Wooden cups, composed of staves hooped to gether. See Introduction to this ballad. 7 This stanza was quoted by the Edinburgh Reviewer, of 1804, as a noble contrast to the ordinary humility of the gen uine ballad diction.-ED. See, in the Fabliaur of Monsieur le Grand, elegantly trans lated by the late Gregory Way, Esq., the tale of the Knight and the Sword. [Vol. ii. p. 3.] "Gin ye wad meet wi' me again, Gang to the bonny banks of Fairnalie." Farnalie is now one of the seats of Mr. Pringle of Clifton M. P. for Selkirkshire. 1833. NOTE A.-P. 574. APPENDIX. From the Chartulary of the Trinity House of Soltra. OMNIBUS has literas visuris vel audituris Thomas de Ercildoun filius et heres Thomæ Rymour de Ercildoun salutem in Domino., Noveritis me per fustem et baculum in pleno judicio resignasse ac per presentes quietem clamasse pro me et heredibus meis Magistro domus Sanctæ Trinitatis de Soltre et fratribus ejusdem domus totam terram meam cum omnibus pertinentibus suis quam in tenemento de Ercildoun hereditarie tenui renunciando de toto pro me et heredibus meis omni jure et clameo quæ ego seu antecessores mei in eadem terra alioque tempore de perpetuo habuimus sive de futuro habere possumus. In cujus rei testimonio presentibus his sigillum meum apposui data apud Ercildoun die Martis proximo post festum Sanctorum Apostolorum Symonis et Jude Anno Domini Millesimo cc. Nonagesimo Nono. NOTE B.-P. 576. The reader is here presented, from an old, and unfortunately an imperfect MS, with the undoubted original of Thomas the Rhymer's intrigue with the Queen of Faery. It will afford great amusement to those who would study the nature of traditional poetry, and the changes effected by oral tradition, to compare this ancient romance with the foregoing ballad. The same incidents are narrated, even the expression is often the same; yet the poems are as different in appearance, as if the older tale had been regularly and systematically modernized by a poet of the present day. Incipit Prophesia Thome de Erseldoun. In a lande as I was lent, In the gry king of the day, Ay alone as I went, In Huntle bankys me for to play; I saw the throstyl, and the jay, Undir nethe a dern tre, I was war of a lady gay, It beth neuyer discryuyd for me. She rode ouer the farmyle, A while she blew, a while she sang, Her girths of nobil silke they were, Her boculs were of beryl stone, Sadyll and brydil war - - ; With sylk and sendel about bedone, Hyr patyrel was of a pall fyne, On euery syde forsothe hang bells thr A semly syzt Crop and patyrel In every joynt She led thre grew houndes in a leash, In the bankes of He sayd Yonder is Mary of Might, That bar the child that died for me, Certes bot I may speke with that lady brigh, Myd my hert will breke in three; I schal me hye with all my might, He met her euyn at Eldyn Tre. And sayd, Lovely lady, thou rue on me, I ride after the wild fee, My ratches rinnen at my devys. And euer more I shall with ye dwell, Trow you well, Thomas, you cheuyst ye warre She sayd, Man, you lyst thi play. What berde in bouyr may dele with thee, That maries me all this long day; I pray ye, Thomas, let me be. Thomas stode up in the stede, And behelde the lady gay, Her heyre hang down about hyr hede, That he before had sene in that stede I trow my dedes will werke me care, It was as derke as at midnizt, The figge and als fy.bert tre; The nyghtyngale bredyng in her neste, The throstylcock sang wald hafe no rest. Sees thou, Thomas, yone fayr castell, payne. Of town and tower it beereth the belle, I pray thee curteis man to be; I shall say syttyng on the dese, I toke thy speche beyone the le. Thomas stode as still as stone, Than was sche fayr, and ryche anone, And also ryal on hir palfreye. The grewhoundes had fylde thaim on the dere, The raches coupled, by my fay, She blewe her horne Thomas to chere, To the castell she went her way. Lut and rybid ther gon gan, And kokes standyng with dressyng knyfe, And rewell was thair wonder. Sat and sang of rych array. Thomas sawe much more in that place, Than I can descryve, Til on a day, alas, alas, My lovelye ladye sayd to me, Busk ye, Thomas, you must agayn, Here you may no longer be: Hy then zerne that you were at hame, I sal ye bryng to Eldy Tre |