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NOTE C.

JOSEPH RITSON.

Neglecting, in literary debate, the courtesies of ordinary society."-P. 545.

For example, in quoting a popular song, well known by the name of Maggie Lauder, the editor of the Reliques had given a line of the Dame's address to the merry minstrel, thus:

"Gin ye be Rob, I've heard of you,
You dwell upon the Border."

Ritson insisted the genuine reading was,

"Come ye frae the Border?"

And he expatiates with great keenness on the crime of the Bishop's having sophisticated the text (of which he produces no evidence), to favor his opinion, that the Borders were a favorite abode of the minstrels of both kingdoms. The fact, it is believed, is undoubted, and the one reading seems to support it as well as the other.-[Joseph Ritson died in 1803.]

NOTE D.

MERE CROWDER UPON AN UNTUNED FIDDLE."-P. 547. In Fletcher's comedy of "Monsieur Thomas," such a fiddler is questioned as to the ballads he is best versed in, and replies,

"Under your mastership's correction I can sing,

The Duke of Norfolk,' or the merry ballad

Of Divins and Lazarus;' The Rose of England ;'
In Crete, where Dedimus first began ;'

Jonas his crying out against Coventry.'
Thomas. Excellent!

Rare matters all.

Fiddler. Mawdlin the Merchant's Daughter;' The Devil and ye Dainty Dames.'

Thomas. Rare still.

Fiddler. The Landing of the Spaniards, at Bow,
With the bloody battle at Mile-end.'"

The poor minstrel is described as accompanying the young rake in his revels. Launcelot describes

"The gentleman himself, young Monsieur Thomas, Errant with his furious myrmidons;

The fiery fiddler and myself-now singing,
Now beating at the doors," &c.

NOTE E.

MINSTRELS.-P. 547.

The "Song of the Traveller," an ancient piece lately discovered in the Cathedral Library at Exeter, and published by the Rev. Mr. Coney beare, in his Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry (1826), furnishes a most curious picture of the life of the Northern Scald, or Minstrel, in the high and palmy state

of the profession. The reverend editor thus translates the closing lines:

"Ille est carissimus Terræ incolis

Gui Deus addidit Hominum imperium gerendam,
Quum ille eos [bardos] habeat caros.

Ita comeantes cum cantilenis feruntur
Bardi hominum per terras multas;

Simul eos remuneratur ob cantilenas pulchras,
Muneribus immensis, ille qui ante nobiles
Vult judicium suum extollere, dignitatem sustinere.
Habet ille sub cælo stabilem famam."-P. 2.

Mr. Coneybeare 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,
Desiring you by petition to grant me such commission-
Because my name is Sheale, that both for meat and meale,
To you I may resort sum tyme for my comforte.
For I perceive here at all tymes is good cheere,
Both ale, wyne, and beere, as hyt doth now appere,
I perceive without fable ye keepe a good table.
I can be contente, if hyt be out of Lent,
A piece of beefe to take my honger to aslake,
Both mutton and veale is goode for Rycharde Sheale;
Though I look so grave, I were a veri knave,
If I wold thinke skorne ether evenynge or morne,
Beyng in honger, of fresshe samon or kongar,

I can fynde in my hearte, with my friendis to take a parte
Of such as Godde shal sende, and thus I make an ende.
Now farewel, good myn Hoste, I thank youe for youre costs
Untyl another tyme, and thus do I ende my ryme."-P..

NOTE F.

WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE.-P. 548.

In evidence of what is stated in the text, the author would quote the introductory stanza to a forgotten poem of Mikle, originally published under the injudicious and equivocal title of "The Concubine," but in subsequent editions cala, “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 Mulla's plaints renew." Mickle's facility of versification was so great, that, being a printer by profession, he frequently put his lines into typ without taking the trouble previously to pat them into writing: thus uniting the composition of the author with the mechanical 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 Anthony 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.?

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 to 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 continuation of the Remarks on Popular Poetry."-ED.

He might be supposed a contemporary of Henry VIII., if the greeting which he pretends to have given to that monarch a 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 dilemmas, 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 degree, 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
The second of that name,
Besides his queen he dearly loved
A fair and comely dame.

"Most peerless was her beauty found,
Her favor, and her face;
A sweeter creature in the world,
Could never prince embrace.

"Her crisped locks, like threads of gold
Appear'd to each man's sight;
Her sparkling eyes, like orient pearls,
Did cast a heavenly light.

"The blood within her crystal cheeks Did such a color drive,

As though the lily and the rose
For mastership did strive."3

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 I;
Good morrow, quoth he, to thou:
And then he said to Anthony,
O Anthony now now now."

3 PERCY's Reliques, vol. ii. p. 147.

may be entitled, with the ordinary, and 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 unques tionable 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 orna

and enlarged knowledge, of an age which abound- On comparing this love elegy, or whatever it ed 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 phrase-mented poetry of his own time, with the ruder ology, 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,

And the free maids, that weave their thread with bones,
Do use to chant it; it is silly sooth,

And dallies with the innocence of love,
Like the old age."

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

The song, thus beautifully prefaced, is as follows: diction, to the grand object of enforcing on the

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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, oocurred but rarely to the old minstrels; and in or der 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 be sensible of the trite verbiage of a bald passage, or

* Sir Philip Sidney's Defence of Poesy.

If it be true, as in other cases, that when things are at the worst they must mend, it was certainly time to expect an amelioration in the department in which such doggerel passed current.

the ludicrous effect of an absurd rhyme. In England, accordingly, the popular ballad fell into contempt during the seventeenth century; and although in remote counties' its inspiration was occasionally the source of a few verses, it seems Accordingly, previous to this time, a new speto have become almost entirely obsolete in the cies of poetry seems to have arisen, which, in some capital. Even the Civil Wars, which gave so much cases, endeavored to pass itself as the production occasion for poetry, produced rather song and sa- of genuine antiquity, and, in others, honestly avowtire, than the ballad or popular epic. The curious ed an attempt to emulate the merits and avoid the reader may satisfy himself on this point, should he errors with which the old ballad was encumbered; wish to ascertain the truth of the allegation, by and in the effort to accomplish this, a species of looking through D'Urfey's large and curious col-composition was discovered, which is capable of lection, 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. Skirving3 (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 he dearly loved;

By whom six children had, we hear;
This story fatal proved.

"A clergyman, O wicked one,
In Covent Garden shot her;

No time to cry upon her 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 not disdained the trouble of preserving it from oblivion. ? Pills to Purge Melancholy.

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 ancient simplicity, is extremely beautiful, both from the words, and the simple and affecting melody to 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;
No knight in all the land more famed,
Or more deserved renown.

"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 attain for themselves a certain degree of literary reputation.

Before, however, treating of the professed imitators 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

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I have only met, in my researches into these matters, with one poem, which, if it had been produced as ancient, could not have been detected on internal evidence. It is the "War Song upon the victory at Brunnanburg, translated from the An

invectives with which impostors of this nature have been assailed. In fact, the case of each is special, and ought to be separately considered, according to its own circumstances. If a young, perhaps a female author, chooses to circulate a beautiful poem, we will suppose that of Hardy-glo-Saxon into Anglo-Norman," by the Right Houknute, under the disguise of antiquity, the public is surely more enriched by the contribution than injured by the deception. It is hardly possible, indeed, without a power of poetical genius, and acquaintance with ancient language and manners possessed by very few, to succeed in deceiving those who have made this branch of literature their study. The very desire to unite modern refinement with the verve of the ancient minstrels, will itself betray the masquerade. A minute acquaintance with ancient customs, and with ancient history, is also demanded, to sustain a part which, as it must rest on deception, cannot be altogether an honorable one.

orable John Hookham Frere. See Ellis's Speci-
mens of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i. p. 32. The
accomplished Editor tells us, that this very sing
lar poem was intended as an imitation of the style
and language of the fourteenth century, and was
written during the controversy occasioned by the |
poems attributed to Rowley. Mr. Ellis adds,
"the reader will probably hear with some sur-
prise, that this singular instance of critical inge
nuity was the composition of an Eton schoolboy.”

The author may be permitted to speak as an artist on this occasion (disowning, at the same time, all purpose of imposition), as having written, at the request of the late Mr. Ritson, one or two | things of this kind; among others, a continuation! of the romance of Thomas of Ercildoune, the only! one which chances to be preserved. And he thinks himself entitled to state, that a modera poet engaged in such a task, is much in the situstion of an architect of the present day, who if acquainted with his profession, finds no difficulty in copying the external forms of a Gothic castle ↑ abbey; but when it is completed, can hardly, by any artificial tints or cement, supply the spots, weath

time alone had invested the venerable fabric which he desires to imitate.

Two of the most distinguished authors of this class have, in this manner, been detected; being deficient in the knowledge requisite to support their genius in the disguise they meditated. Hardyknute, for instance, already mentioned, is irreconcilable with all chronology, and a chief with a Norwegian name is strangely introduced as the first of the nobles brought to resist a Norse invasion, at the battle of Largs: the "needlework so rare," introduced by the fair authoress, must have been certainly long posterior to the reign of Alex-er-stains, and hues of different kinds, with which ander III. In Chatterton's ballad of "Sir Charles Baudwin," we find an anxious attempt to represent the composition as ancient, and some entries in the public accounts of Bristol were appealed to in corroboration. But neither was this ingenious but most unhappy young man, with all his powers of poetry, and with the antiquarian knowledge which he had collected with indiscriminating but astonishing research, able to impose on that part of the public qualified to judge of the compositions, which it had occurred to him to pass off as those of a monk of the 14th century. It was in vain that he in each word doubled the consonants, like the sentinels of an endangered army. The art used to disguise and misspell the words only overdid what was intended, and afforded sure evidence that the poems published as antiques had been, in fact, tampered with by a modern artist, as the newly forged medals of modern days stand convicted of imposture from the very touches of the file, by which there is an attempt to imitate the cracks and fissures produced by the hammer upon the original.'

1“Hardyknute was the first poem that I ever learnt-the last that I shall forget.”—MS. note of Sir Walter Scott on a leaf of Allan Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany.

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Leaving this branch of the subject, in which the i difficulty of passing off what is modern for what is ancient cannot be matter of regret, we may bestow with advantage some brief consideration on the fair trade of manufacturing modern antiques, not for the purpose of passing them as contraband goods on the skilful antiquary, but in order to obtain the credit due to authors as successful ini tators of the ancient simplicity, while their system admits of a considerable infusion of modern refinement. Two classes of imitation may be referred to as belonging to this species of composition. When they approach each other, there may be some difficulty in assigning to individual poems their peculiar character, but in general the difference is distinctly marked. The distinction lies Le twixt the authors of ballads or legendary poems, who have attempted to imitate the language, the manners, and the sentiments of the ancient poems which were their prototypes; and those, on the contrary, who, without endeavoring to do so, have

2 See Appendix, Note A.

See Sir Tristrem, Scott's Poetical Works, vol. v.: edition 1833.

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