E entusché par grant engin, The 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,? Pitch'd palliouns took their room, And crested helms, and spears a-rowe, Glanced gayly through the broom. The Leader, rolling to the Tweed, They roused the deer from Caddenhead, 1 Ruberslaw and Dunyon, are two hills near Jedburgh. 2 An ancient tower near Ercildoune, belonging to a family of the name of Home. One of Thomas's prophecies is said to 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' 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, And armed lords lean'd on their swords, 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, The notes melodious swell; Was none excell'd in Arthur's days, The knight of Lionelle. 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 together. 6 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 Fabliaux of Monsieur le Grand, elegantly translated by the late Gregory Way, Esq., the tale of the Knight' and the Sword. [Vol. ii. p. 3.] With gentle hand and soothing tongue She bore the leech's part; And, while she o'er his sick-bed hung, He paid her with his heart. O fatal was the gift, I ween! For, doom'd in evil tide, The maid must be rude Cornwall's queen, His cowardly uncle's bride. Their loves, their woes, the gifted bard In fairy tissue wove; Where lords, and knights, and ladies bright, In gay confusion strove. The Garde Joyeuse, amid the tale, High rear'd its glittering head; And Avalon's enchanted vale In all its wonders spread. Brangwain was there, and Segramore, Through many a maze the winning song In changeful passion led, Till bent at length the listening throng O'er Tristrem's dying bed. His ancient wounds their scars expand, With agony his heart is wrung: O where is Isolde's lilye hand, And where her soothing tongue? She comes! she comes!-like flash of flame She comes! she comes !-she only came She saw him die; her latest sigh Join'd in a kiss his parting breath; The gentlest pair, that Britain bare, United are in death. There paused the harp: its lingering sound The silent guests still bent around, Then woe broke forth in murmurs weak: 1 Selcouth-Wondrous. 2 An ancient seat upon the Tweed, in Selkirkshire. In a popular edition of the first part of Thomas the Rhymer, the Fairy Queen thus addresses him : On Leader's stream, and Learmont's tower, Lord Douglas, in his lofty tent, Dream'd o'er the woeful tale; When footsteps light, across the bent, The warrior's ears assail. He starts, he wakes;-" What, Richard, ho! What venturous wight, at dead of night, Then forth they rush'd: by Leader's tide, A hart and hind pace side by side, Beneath the moon, with gesture proud, To Learmont's tower a message sped, First he woxe pale, and then woxe red; Never a word he spake but three ;"My sand is run; my thread is spun; This sign regardeth me." The elfin harp his neck around, In minstrel guise, he hung; And on the wind, in doleful sound, Its dying accents rung. Then forth he went; yet turn'd him oft On the gray tower, in lustre soft, And Leader's waves, like silver sheen, "Farewell, my fathers' ancient tower! A long farewell," said he: "The scene of pleasure, pomp, or power, Thou never more shalt be. "Gin ye wad meet wi' me again, Gang to the bonny banks of Fairnalie." Fairnalie 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 sais 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 Thoma de Erseldoun. In a lande as I was lent, In the gryking of the day, Ay alone as I went, In Huntle bankys me for to play; I saw the throstyl, and the jay, Ye mawes movyde of her song, Undir nethe a dern tre, I was war of a lady gay, It beth neuyer discryuyd for me. A while she blew, a while she sang, Sadyll and brydil war - -; With sylk and sendel about bedone, Hyr patyrel was of a pall fyne, And hyr croper of the arase, On euery syde forsothe hang bells thre, 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 bright, 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, Man on molde you will me marre, 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; Her heyre hang down about hyr hede, That he before had sene in that stede This twelmonth sall you with me gone, I trow my dedes will werke me care, The figge and als fylbert tre; The throstylcock sang wald hafe no rest. Sees thou, Thomas, yon thyrd way, That lygges ouyr yone how? To the brynyng fyres of helle. Sees thou, Thomas, yone fayr castell, Of town and tower it beereth the belle, What so any man to you say, I toke thy speche beyone the le. And behelde that ladye gaye; 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, Sat and sang of rych array. Thomas sawe much more in that place, 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 Eldyn Tre. Thomas answerd with heuy Haf I be bot the space of dayes three. Ther breddes syng both nyzt and day. Fare wele, Thomas, I wende my way. The Elfin Queen, after restoring Thomas to earth, pours forth a string of prophecies, in which we distinguish references to the events and personages of the Scottish wars of Edward III. The battles of Dupplin and Halidon are mentioned, and also Black Agnes, Countess of Dunbar. There is a copy of this poem in the Museum of the Cathedral of Lincoln, another in the collection in Peterborough, but unfortunately they are all in an imperfect state. Mr. Jamieson, in his curious Collection of Scottish Ballads and Songs, has an entire copy of this ancient poem, with all the collations. The bacuna of the former editions have been supplied from his copy. NOTE C. ALLUSIONS TO HERALDRY.-P. 578. "The muscle is a square figure like a lozenge, but it is always voided of the field. They are carried as principal figures by the name of Learmont. Learmont of Earlstoun, in the Merss, carried or on a bend azure three muscles; of which family was Sir Thomas Learmont, who is well known by the name of Thomas the Rhymer, because he wrote his prophecies in rhime. This prophetick herauld lived in the days of King Alexander the Third, and prophesied of his death, and of many other remarkable occurrences; particularly of the union of Scotland with England, which was not accomplished until the reign of James the Sixth, some hundred years after it was foretold by this gentleman, whose prophecies are much esteemed by many of the vulgar even at this day. I was promised by a friend a sight of his prophecies, of which there is everywhere to be had an epitome, which, I suppose, is erroneous, and differs in many things from the original, it having been oft reprinted by some unskilful persons. Thus many things are amissing in the small book which are to be met with in the original, particularly these two lines concerning his neighbour, Bemerside: Tyde what may betide, Haig shall be laird of Bemerside.' And indeed his prophecies concerning that ancient family have hitherto been true; for, since that time to this day, the Haigs have been lairds of that place. They carrie, Azure a saltier cantoned with two stars in chief and in base argent, as many crescents in the flanques or; and for crest a rock proper, with this motto, taken from the above written rhyme-Tide what may.'"-NISBET on Marks of Cadency, p. 158.-He adds, "that Thomas' meaning may be understood by heraulds when he speaks of kingdoms whose insignia seldom vary, but that individual families cannot be discovered, either because they have altered their bearings, or because they are pointed out by their crests and exterior ornaments, which are changed at the pleasure of the bearer." Mr. Nisbet, however, comforts himself for this obscurity, by reflecting, that "we may certainly conclude, from his writings, that herauldry was in good esteem in his days, and well known to the vulgar."Ibid. p. 160.-It may be added, that the publication of predictions, either printed or hieroglyphical, in which noble families were pointed out by their armorial bearings, was, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, extremely common; and the influence of such predictions on the minds of the common people was so great as to occasion a prohibition, by statute, of prophecy by reference to heraldic emblems. Lord Henry Howard also (afterwards Earl of Northampton) directs against this practice much of the reasoning in his learned treatise, entitled, "A Defensation against the Poyson of pretended Prophecies." NOTE D.-P. 580. The strange occupation in which Waldhave bebolds Merlin engaged, derives some illustration from a curious passage in Geoffrey of Monmouth's life of Merlin, above quoted. The poem, after narrating that the prophet had fled to the forest in a state of distraction, proceeds to mention, that, looking upon the stars one clear evening, he discerned from his astrological knowledge, that his wife, Guendolen, had resolved, upon the next morning, to take another husband. As he had presaged to her that this would happen, and had promised her a nuptial gift (cautioning her, however, to keep the bridegroom out of his sight), he now resolved to make good his word. Accordingly, he collected all the stags and lesser game in his neighborhood; and, having seated himself upon a buck, drove the herd before him to the capital of Cumberland, where Guendolen resided. But her lover's curiosity leading him to inspect too nearly this extraordinary cavalcade Merlin's rage was awakened, and he slew him with the stroke of an antler of the stag. The original runs thus: "Dixerat: et silvas et saltus circuit omnes, For a perusal of this curious poem, accurately copied from a MS. in the Cotton Library, nearly coeval with the author, I was indebted to my learned friend, the late Mr. Ritson. There is an excellent paraphrase of it in the curious and entertaining Specimens of Early English Romances, published by Mr. Ellis. |