” sayes Guye,
Goode fellow, thy shooting is goode;
For an thy hart be as good as thy hands,
Thou were better than Robin Hood.
Goode fellow, thy shooting is goode;
For an thy hart be as good as thy hands,
Thou were better than Robin Hood.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v03 - Bag to Ber
Nor must we go to the other extreme.
Those high-
born people who figure in traditional ballads — Childe Waters, Lady
Maisry, and the rest — do not require us to assume composition in
aristocratic circles; for the lower classes of the people in ballad days
## p. 1307 (#97) ############################################
THE BALLAD
1307
had no separate literature, and a ballad of the folk belonged to the
community as a whole. The same habit of thought, the same stand-
ard of action, ruled alike the noble and his meanest retainer. Oral
transmission, the test of the ballad, is of course nowhere possible
save in such an unlettered community. Since all critics are at one
in regard to this homogeneous character of the folk with whom and
out of whom these songs had their birth, one is justified in removing
all doubt from the phrase by speaking not of the popular ballad but
of the communal ballad, the ballad of a community.
With regard to the making of a ballad, one must repeat a caution,
hinted already, and made doubly important by a vicious tendency in
the study of all phases of culture. It is a vital mistake to explain
primitive conditions by exact analogy with conditions of modern sav-
agery and barbarism. Certain conclusions, always guarded and cau-
tious to a degree, may indeed be drawn; but it is folly to insist that
what now goes on among shunted races, belated detachments in the
great march of culture, must have gone on among the dominant and
mounting peoples who had reached the same external conditions of
life. The homogeneous and unlettered state of the ballad-makers
is not to be put on a level with the ignorance of barbarism, nor
explained by the analogy of songs among modern savage tribes.
Fortunately we have better material. The making of a ballad by a
community can be illustrated from a case recorded by Pastor Lyngbye
in his invaluable account of life on the Faroe Islands a century ago.
Not only had the islanders used from most ancient times their tra-
ditional and narrative songs as music for the dance, but they had
also maintained the old fashion of making a ballad. In the winter,
says Lyngbye, dancing is their chief amusement and is an affair of
the entire community. At such a dance, one or more persons begin
to sing; then all who are present join in the ballad, or at least in
the refrain. As they dance, they show by their gestures and expres-
sion that they follow with eagerness the course of the story which
they are singing. More than this, the ballad is often a spontaneous
product of the occasion. A fisherman, who has had some recent mis-
hap with his boat, is pushed by stalwart comrades into the middle
of the throng, while the dancers sing verses about him and his lack
of skill, — verses improvised on the spot and with a catching and
clamorous refrain. If these verses win favor, says Lyngbye, they are
repeated from year to year, with slight additions or corrections, and
become a permanent ballad. Bearing in mind the extraordinary
readiness to improvise shown even in these days by peasants in
every part of Europe, we thus gain some definite notion about the
spontaneous and communal elements which went to the making of
the best type of primitive verse; for these Faroe islanders were
F
no
## p. 1308 (#98) ############################################
1308
THE BALLAD
savages, but simply a homeogeneous and isolated folk which still
held to the old ways of communal song.
Critics of the ballad, moreover, agree that it has little or no sub-
jective traits, an easy inference from the conditions just described.
There is no individuality lurking behind the words of the ballad, and
above all, no evidence of that individuality in the form of sentiment.
Sentiment and individuality are the very essence of modern poetry,
and the direct result of individualism in verse. Given a poet, senti-
ment- and it may be noble and precious enough — is sure to follow.
But the ballad, an epic in little, forces one's attention to the object,
the scene, the story, and away from the maker.
«The king sits in Dumferling town,
begins one of the noblest of all ballads; while one of the greatest of
modern poems opens with something personal and pathetic, keynote
to all that follows:
"My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense
Even when a great poet essays the ballad, either he puts sentiment
into it, or else he keeps sentiment out of it by a tour de force. Ad-
mirable and noble as one must call the conclusion of an artistic
ballad such as Tennyson's Revenge, it is altogether, different from
the conclusion of such a communal ballad as Sir Patrick Spens. ' That
subtle quality of the ballad which lies in solution with the story and
which -- as in “Child Maurice) or (Babylon) or (Edward' -- compels
in us sensations akin to those called out by the sentiment of the
poet, is a wholly impersonal if strangely effective quality, far removed
from the corresponding elements of the poem of art. At first sight,
one might say that Browning's dramatic lyrics had this impersonal
quality. But compare the close of Give a Rouse,' chorus and all,
with the close of Child Maurice,' that swift and relentless stroke of
pure tragedy which called out the enthusiasm of so great a critic as
Gray.
The narrative of the communal ballad is full of leaps and omis-
sions; the style is simple to a fault; the diction is spontaneous and
free. Assonance frequently takes the place of rhyme, and a word
often rhymes with itself. There is a lack of poetic adornment in the
style quite as conspicuous as the lack of reflection and moralizing in
the matter. Metaphor and simile are rare and when found are for
the most part standing phrases common to all the ballads; there is
never poetry for poetry's sake. Iteration is the chief mark of ballad
style; and the favorite form of this effective figure is what one may
call incremental repetition. The question is repeated with the an-
swer; each increment in a series of related facts has a stanza for
## p. 1309 (#99) ############################################
THE BALLAD
1309
itself, identical, save for the new fact, with the other stanzas. "Baby-
lon' furnishes good instances of this progressive iteration. Moreover,
the ballad differs from earlier English epics in that it invariably has
stanzas and rhyme; of the two forms of stanza, the two-line stanza
with a refrain is probably older than the stanza with four or six
lines.
This necessary quality of the stanza points to the origin of the
ballad in song; but longer ballads, such as those that make up the
(Gest of Robin Hood,' an epic in little, were not sung as lyrics or to
aid he dance ut were either chanted in a monotonous fashion or
else recited outright. Chappell, in his admirable work on old Eng
lish music (Music of the Olden Time,' ii. 790), names a third class of
«characteristic airs of England,” — the historical and very long bal-
lads,
invariably of simple construction, usually plaintive.
They were rarely if ever used for dancing. ” Most of the
longer ballads, however, were doubtless given by one person in a
sort of recitative; this is the case with modern ballads of Russia and
Servia, where the bystanders now and then join in a chorus. Pre-
cisely in the same way ballads were divorced from the dance, origin-
ally their vital condition; but in the refrain, which is attached to so
many ballads, one finds an element which has survived from those
earliest days of communal song.
Of oldest communal poetry no actual ballad has come down to
Hints and even fragments, however, are pointed out in ancient
records, mainly as the material of chronicle or legend. In the Bible
(Numbers xxi. 17), where “Israel sang this song. ” we are not going
too far when we regard the fragment as part of a communal ballad.
“Spring up, O well: sing ye unto it: the princes digged the well, the
nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with
their staves. ” Deborah's song has something of the communal note;
and when Miriam dances and sings with her maidens, one is reminded
of the many ballads made by dancing and singing bands of women
in mediæval Europe, — for instance, the song made in the seventh
century to the honor of St. Faro, and “sung by the women as they
danced and clapped their hands. ” The question of ancient Greek
ballads, and their relation to the epic, is not to be discussed here;
nor can we make more than an allusion to the theory of Niebuhr
that the early part of Livy is founded on old Roman ballads. A
popular discussion of this matter may be found in Macaulay's preface
to his own Lays of Ancient Rome. ) The ballads of modern Europe
are a survival of older communal poetry, more or less influenced by
artistic and individual conditions of authorship, but wholly imper-
sonal, and with an appeal to our interest which seems to come from
a throng and not from the solitary poet. Attention was early called
us.
## p. 1310 (#100) ###########################################
1310
THE BALLAD
to the ballads of Spain; printed at first as broadsides, they were
gathered into a volume as early as 1550. On the other hand, ballads
were neglected in France until very recent times; for specimens of
the French ballad, and for an account of it, the reader should consult
Professor Crane's Chansons Populaires de France,' New York, 1891.
It is with ballads of the Germanic race, however, that we are now
concerned. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, the Faroe Islands;
Scotland and England; the Netherlands and Germany: all of these
countries offer us admirable specimens of the ballad. Particularly,
the great collections of Grundtvig (Danmarks Gamle Folkeviser') for
Denmark, and of Child ('The English and Scottish Popular Ballads')
for our own tongue, show how common descent or borrowing con-
nects the individual ballads of these groups. “Almost every Nor-
wegian, Swedish, or Icelandic ballad,” says Grundtvig, is found in
a Danish version of Scandinavian ballads; moreover, a larger number
can be found in English and Scottish versions than in German or
Dutch versions. " Again, we find certain national preferences in the
character of the ballads which have come down to us. Scandinavia
kept the old heroic lays (Kæmpeviser); Germany wove them into her
epic, as witness the Nibelungen Lay; but England and Scotland have
hone of them in any shape. So, too, the mythic ballad, scantily rep-
resented in English, and practically unknown in Germany, abounds
in Scandinavian collections. The Faroe Islands and Norway, as
Grundtvig tells us, show the best record for ballads preserved by oral
tradition; while noble ladies of Denmark, three or four centuries ago,
did high service to ballad literature by making collections in manu-
script of the songs current then in the castle as in the cottage.
For England, one is compelled to begin the list of known ballads
with the thirteenth century. (The Battle of Maldon, composed in
the last decade of the tenth century, though spirited enough and full
of communal vigor, has no stanzaic structure, follows in metre and
style the rules of the Old English epic, and is only a ballad by
courtesy; about the ballads used a century or two later by historians
of England, we can do nothing but guess; and there is no firm ground
under the critic's foot until he comes to the Robin Hood ballads,
which Professor Child assigns to the thirteenth century. The Battle
of Otterburn (1388) opens a series of ballads based on actual events
and stretching into the eighteenth century. Barring the Robin Hood
cycle,- an epic constructed from this attractive material lies before
us in the famous "Gest of Robin Hood, printed as early as 1489,-
the chief sources of the collector are the Percy Manuscript, «written
just before 1650,"— on which, not without omissions and additions,
the bishop based his Reliques,' first published in 1765,— and the
oral traditions of Scotland, which Professor Child refers to the last
## p. 1311 (#101) ###########################################
THE BALLAD
1311
one hundred and thirty years. ) Information about the individual
ballads, their sources, history, literary connections, and above all,
their varying texts, must be sought in the noble work of Professor
F. J. Child. For present purposes, a word or two of general infor-
mation must suffice. As to origins, there is a wide range. The
church furnished its legend, as in "Śt. Stephen'; romance contributed
the story of Thomas Rymer); and the light, even cynical fabliau is
responsible for "The Boy and the Mantle. ' Ballads which occur in
many tongues either may have a common origin or else may owe
their manifold versions, as in the case of popular tales, to a love of
borrowing; and here, of course, we get the hint of wider issues. For
the most part, however, a ballad tells some moving story, preferably
of fighting and of love. Tragedy is the dominant note; and English
ballads of the best type deal with those elements of domestic disaster
so familiar in the great dramas of literature, in the story of Orestes,
or of Hamlet, or of the Cid. Such are Edward, Lord Randal,
(The Two Brothers,' 'The Two Sisters,' Child Maurice,' Bewick
and Graham, Clerk Colven,' 'Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard,'
(Glasgerion, and many others. Another group of ballads, represented
by the Baron of Brackley' and 'Captain Car,' give a faithful picture
of the feuds and ceaseless warfare in Scotland and on the border.
A few fine ballads — (Sweet William's Ghost,' The Wife of Usher's
Well'— touch upon the supernatural.
Of the romantic ballads,
Childe Waters? shows us the higher, and Young Beichan the
lower, but still sound and communal type. Incipient dramatic ten-
dencies mark (Edward' and 'Lord Randal); while, on the other
hand, a lyric note almost carries (Bonnie George Campbell' out of
balladry. Finally, it is to be noted that in the Nut-Brown Maid,'
which many would unhesitatingly refer to this class of poetry, we
have no ballad at all, but a dramatic lyric, probably written by a
woman, and with a special plea in the background.
(
lism
nere.
## p. 1312 (#102) ###########################################
1312
THE BALLAD
ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE 1
1.
WHEN
'HEN shawes? beene sheene, and shradds * full
fayre,
And leeves both large and longe,
It is merry, walking in the fayre forrest,
To heare the small birds' songe.
2.
The woodweeleó sang, and wold not cease,
Amongst the leaves a lyne ;6
And it is by two wight? yeomen,
By deare God, that I meane.
3.
«Me thought they did me beate and binde,
And tooke my bow me fro;
If I bee Robin alive in this lande,
I'll be wrocken' on both them two. ”
10
4.
« Sweavens are swift, master, quoth John,
"As the wind that blowes ore a hill;
For if it be never soe lowde this night,
To-morrow it may be still. ”
5.
« Buske ye, bowne ye," my merry men all,
For John shall go with me;
For I'll goe seeke yond wight yeomen
In greenwood where they bee. ”
1 This ballad is a good specimen of the Robin Hood Cycle, and is remark-
able for its many proverbial and alliterative phrases. A few lines have been
lost between stanzas 2 and 3. Gisborne is a «market-town in the West Rid
ing of the County of York, on the borders of Lancashire. For the probable
tune of the ballad, see Chappell's (Popular Music of the Olden Time,) ii. 397.
2 Woods, groves. — This touch of description at the outset is common in
our old ballads, as well as in the mediæval German popular lyric, and may
perhaps spring from the old «summer-lays” and chorus of pagan times.
3 Beautiful; German, schön.
* Coppices or openings in a wood.
- In some glossaries the woodpecker, but here of course a song-bird, - per-
haps, as Chappell suggests, the woodlark.
6 A, on; lyne, lime or linden.
? Sturdy, brave.
* Robin now tells of a dream in which they” (-the two (wight yeomen,"
who are Guy and, as Professor Child suggests, the Sheriff of Nottingham)
maltreat him; and he thus foresees trouble from two quarters. ”
9 Revenged.
10 Dreams.
11 Tautological phrase, — "prepare and make ready. »
## p. 1313 (#103) ###########################################
THE BALLAD
1313
6. They cast on their gowne of greene,
A shooting gone are they,
Until they came to the merry greenwood,
Where they had gladdest bee;
There were they ware of a wight yeoman,
His body leaned to a tree,
1
7. A sword and a dagger he wore by his side,
Had beene many a man's bane,
And he was cladd in his capull-hyde,
Topp, and tayle, and mayne.
2
8. «Stand you still, master,” quoth Litle John,
“Under this trusty tree,
And I will goe to yond wight yeoman,
To know his meaning trulye. ”
9. “A, John, by me thou setts noe store,
And that's a farley' thinge;
How offt send I my men before,
And tarry myselfe behinde?
10.
“It is noe cunning a knave to ken,
And a man but heare him speake;
And it were not for bursting of my bowe,
John, I wold thy head breake. ”
II.
But often words they breeden bale,
That parted Robin and John;
John is gone to Barnesdale,
The gateshe knowes eche one.
12.
And when hee came to Barnesdale,
Great heavinesse there hee hadd;
He found two of his fellowes
Were slaine both in a slade, 5
13.
And Scarlett a foote flyinge was,
Over stockes and stone,
For the sheriffe with seven score men
Fast after him is gone.
3
1 Murder, destruction.
2 Horse's hide.
Strange.
* Paths.
5 Green valley between woods.
1-83
## p. 1314 (#104) ###########################################
THE BALLAD
1314
14.
« Yet one shoote I'll shoote,” sayes Litle John,
« With Crist his might and mayne;
I 'll make yond fellow that flyes soe fast
To be both glad and faine. ”
15. John bent up a good veiwe bow, 1
And fetteled? him to shoote;
The bow was made of a tender boughe,
And fell downe to his foote.
16.
«Woe worth 3 thee, wicked od,” sayd Litle John,
“That ere thou grew on a tree!
For this day thou art my bale,
My bootet when thou shold bee! »
17. This shoote it was but looselye shott,
The arrowe flew in vaine,
And it mett one of the sheriffe's men;
Good William a Trent was slaine.
18. It had beene better for William a Trent
To hange upon a gallowe
Then for to lye in the greenwoode,
There slaine with an arrowe.
19.
And it is sayed, when men be mett,
Six can doe more than three:
And they have tane Litle John,
And bound him fast to a tree.
20.
“Thou shalt be drawen by dale and downe,
quoth the sheriffe, 5
“And hanged hye on a hill:)
“But thou may fayle, quoth Litle John,
“If it be Christ's owne will. )
21.
Let us leave talking of Litle John,
For hee is bound fast to a tree,
i Perhaps the yew-bow.
2 Made ready.
3 « Woe be to thee. ” Worth is the old subjunctive present of an exact
English equivalent to the modern German werden.
*Note these alliterative phrases. Boote, remedy.
5 As Percy noted, this «quoth the sheriffe," was probably added by some
explainer. The reader, however, must remember the license of slurring or
contracting the syllables of a word, as well as the opposite freedom of expan-
sion. Thus in the second line of stanza 7, man's is to be pronounced man-ës.
## p. 1315 (#105) ###########################################
THE BALLAD
1315
And talke of Guy and Robin Hood
In the green woode where they bee.
22.
How these two yeomen together they mett,
Under the leaves of lyne,
To see what marchandise they made
Even at that same time.
23.
“Good morrow, good fellow,” quoth Sir Guy;
«Good morrow, good fellow," quoth hee;
«Methinkes by this bow thou beares in thy hand,
A good archer thou seems to bee. "
24. “I am wilfull of my way,” i quoth Sir Guy,
«And of my morning tyde:)
“I'll lead thee through the wood,” quoth Robin,
“Good fellow, I'll be thy guide. ”
25. "I seeke an outlaw,” quoth Sir Guy,
Men call him Robin Hood;
I had rather meet with him upon a day
Then forty pound of golde. ”
26. “If you tow mett, it wold be seene whether were better
Afore yee did part awaye;
Let us some other pastime find,
Good fellow, I thee pray.
27.
“Let us some other masteryes make,
And we will walke in the woods even;
Wee may chance meet with Robin Hood
At some unsett steven.
> 2
28. They cutt them downe the summer shroggs 3
Which grew both under a bryar,
And sett them three score rood in twinn,
To shoote the prickes: full neare.
29.
« Leade on, good fellow,” sayd Sir Guye,
«Leade on, I doe bidd thee:))
“Nay, by my faith,” quoth Robin Hood,
«The leader thou shalt bee. ”
1 I have lost my way.
? At some unappointed time,- by chance.
3 Stunted shrubs.
* A part.
5« Prickes seem to have been the long-range targets, butts the near. ” —
Furnivall.
## p. 1316 (#106) ###########################################
1316
THE BALLAD
30.
The first good shoot that Robin ledd,
Did not shoote an inch the pricke froe,
Guy was an archer good enoughe,
But he could neere shoote soe.
31. The second shoote Sir Guy shott,
He shott within the garlande,
But Robin Hoode shott it better than hee,
For he clove the good pricke-wande.
32.
«God's blessing on thy heart!
” sayes Guye,
Goode fellow, thy shooting is goode;
For an thy hart be as good as thy hands,
Thou were better than Robin Hood.
33.
« Tell me thy name, good fellow," quoth Guye,
« Under the leaves of lyne:)
“Nay, by my faith," quoth good Robin,
« Till thou have told me thine. "
34.
“I dwell by dale and downe,” quoth Guye,
“And I have done many a curst turne;
And he that calles me by my right name,
Calles me Guye of good Gysborne. ”
35. “My dwelling is in the wood,” sayes Robin;
“By thee I set right nought;
My name is Robin Hood of Barnesdale,
A fellow thou hast long sought. ”
36. He that had neither beene a kithe nor kin
Might have seene a full fayre sight.
To see how together these yeomen went,
With blades both browne and bright.
37. To have seene how these yeomen together fought
Two howers of a summer's day;
It was neither Guy nor Robin Hood
That fettled them to flye away.
38. Robin was reacheles' on a roote,
And stumbled at that tyde,
And Guy was quicke and nimble with-all,
And hitt him ore the left side.
"Garlande, perhaps the ring within which the prick was set »; and the
pricke-wande perhaps a pole or stick. The terms are not easy to understand
clearly.
? Reckless, careless.
## p. 1317 (#107) ###########################################
THE BALLAD
1317
39. «Ah, deere Lady! ” sayd Robin Hoode,
«Thou art both mother and may! 1
I thinke it was never man's destinye
To dye before his day. ”
40. Robin thought on Our Lady deere,
And soone leapt up againe,
And thus he came with an awkwarde? stroke;
Good Sir Guy hee has slayne.
41. He tooke Sir Guy's head by the hayre,
And sticked it on his bowe's end:
« Thou has beene traytor all thy life,
Which thing must have an ende. ”
42. Robin pulled forth an Irish kniffe,
And nicked Sir Guy in the face,
That he was never ons a woman borne
Could tell who Sir Guye was.
43. Saies, Lye there, lye there, good Sir Guye,
And with me not wrothe;
If thou have had the worse stroakes at my hand,
Thou shalt have the better cloathe.
44. Robin did off his gowne of greene,
Sir Guye he did it throwe;
And he put on that capull-hyde
That clad him topp to toe.
45.
« Tis bowe, the arrowes, and litle horne,
And with me now I'll beare;
For now I will goe to Barnesdale,
To see how my men doe fare. ”
46. Robin sett Guye's horne to his mouth,
A lowd blast in it he did blow;
That beheard the sheriffe of Nottingham,
As he leaned under a lowe.
47.
« Hearken! hearken! ” sayd the sheriffe,
“I heard noe tydings but good;
For yonder I heare Sir Guye's horne blowe,
For he hath slaine Robin Hoode.
"Maiden.
· Dangerous, or perhaps simply backward, backhanded.
On is frequently used for of.
* Hillock.
## p. 1318 (#108) ###########################################
1318
THE BALLAD
48.
“For yonder I heare Sir Guye's horne blowe,
It blowes soe well in tyde,
For yonder comes that wighty yeoman
Cladd in his capull-hyde.
49.
« Come hither, thou good Sir Guy,
Aske of mee what thou wilt have :)
«I'll none of thy gold,” sayes Robin Hood,
"Nor I'll none of it have.
50.
“But now I have slaine the master,” he sayd,
“Let me goe strike the knave;
This is all the reward I aske,
Nor noe other will I have. ”
51.
« Thou art a madman,” said the sheriffe,
« Thou sholdest have had a knight's fee;
Seeing thy asking hath beene soe badd,
Well granted it shall be. ”
52. But Litle John heard his master speake,
Well he knew that was his steven;'
“Now shall I be loset,” quoth Litle John,
“With Christ's might in heaven. ”
53.
But Robin hee hyed him towards Litle John,
Hee thought hee wold loose him belive;
The sheriffe and all his companye
Fast after him did drive.
54.
«Stand abacke! stand abacke! ” sayd Robin;
«Why draw you mee soe neere?
It was never the use in our countrye
One's shrift another should heere. »
55.
But Robin pulled forth an Irysh kniffe,
And losed John hand and foote,
And gave him Sir Guye's bow in his hand,
And bade it be his boote.
56. But John tooke Guye's bow in his hand
(His arrowes were rawstye? by the roote);
The sherriffe saw Litle John draw a bow
And fettle him to shoote.
57. Towards his house in Nottingham
He fled full fast away,
i Voice.
2 Rusty
## p. 1319 (#109) ###########################################
THE BALLAD
1319
And so did all his companye,
Not one behind did stay.
58. But he cold neither soe fast goe,
Nor away soe fast runn,
But Litle John, with an arrow broade,
Did cleave his heart in twinn.
THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT
[This is the older and better version of the famous ballad. The younger
version was the subject of Addison's papers in the Spectator. ]
I.
THE
HE Percy out of Northumberlande,
and a vowe to God mayd he
That he would hunte in the mountayns
of Cheviot within days thre,
In the magger' of doughty Douglas,
and all that ever with him be.
2.
The fattiste hartes in all Cheviot
he sayd he would kyll, and cary them away:
«Be my feth,” sayd the doughty Douglas agayn,
“I will let? that hontyng if that I may. ”
3. Then the Percy out of Banborowe cam,
with him a myghtee meany,
With fifteen hondred archares bold of blood and bone;
they were chosen out of shyars thre.
4. This began on a Monday at morn,
in Cheviot the hillys so he;
The chyld may rue that ys unborn,
it was the more pittë.
5. The dryvars thorowe the woodës went,
for to reas the deer;
Bowmen byckarte uppone the bent*
with their browd arrows cleare.
6. Then the wyld thorowe the woodës went,
on every sydë shear;
Greahondës thorowe the grevis glent,5
for to kyll their deer.
7. This begane in Cheviot the hyls abone,
yerly on a Monnyn-day:
1 (Maugre, in spite of. ? Hinder. 3 Company.
*Skirmished on the field. 5 Ran through the groves.
## p. 1320 (#110) ###########################################
1320
THE BALLAD
Be that it drewe to the hour of noon,
a hondred fat hartës ded ther lay.
8. They blewe a mort? uppone the bent,
they semblyde on sydis shear;
To the quyrry then the Percy went,
to see the bryttlynge? of the deere.
9. He sayd, “It was the Douglas promys
this day to met me hear;
But I wyste he wolde faylle, verament;"
a great oth the Percy swear.
IO.
At the laste a squyar of Northumberlande
lokyde at his hand full ny;
He was war a the doughtie Douglas commynge,
with him a myghtë meany.
II.
Both with spear, bylle, and brande,
yt was a myghtë sight to se;
Hardyar men, both of hart nor hande,
were not in Cristiantë.
12.
They were twenty hondred spear-men good,
withoute any fail;
They were borne along be the water a Twyde,
yth bowndës of Tividale.
13. “Leave of the brytlyng of the deer,” he said,
«and to your bows look ye tayk good hede;
For never sithe ye were on your mothers borne
had ye never so mickle nede. ”
14.
The doughty Douglas on a stede,
he rode alle his men beforne;
His armor glytteyrde as dyd a glede;'
a boldar barne was never born.
15. «Tell me whose men ye are,” he says,
(or whose men that ye be:
Who gave youe leave to hunte in this Cheviot chays,
in the spyt of myn and of me. ”
16. The first man that ever him an answer mayd,
yt was the good lord Percy:
“We wyll not tell the whose men we are,” he says,
(nor whose men that we be;
1 Blast blown when game is killed.
? Quartering, cutting.
3 Flame.
## p. 1321 (#111) ###########################################
THE BALLAD
1321
But we wyll hounte here in this chays,
in spyt of thyne and of the.
17.
« The fattiste hartës in all Cheviot
we have kyld, and cast to carry them away:
Be my troth,” sayd the doughty Douglas agayn,
“therefor the tone of us shall die this day. ”
18.
Then sayd the doughtë Douglas
unto the lord Percy,
« To kyll alle thes giltles men,
alas, it wear great pittë!
19. “But, Percy, thowe art a lord of lande,
I am a yerle callyd within my contrë;
Let all our men uppone a parti stande,
and do the battell of the and of me. ”
20.
“Nowe Cristes curse on his crowne," sayd the lord!
Percy,
« whosoever thereto says nay;
Be my troth, doughty Douglas," he says,
thow shalt never se that day.
21.
“Nethar in Ynglonde, Skottlonde, nor France,
nor for no man of a woman born,
But, and fortune be my chance,
I dar met him, one man for one. ”
22.
Then bespayke a squyar of Northumberlande,
Richard Wytharyngton was his name:
« It shall never be told in Sothe-Ynglonde,” he says,
“To Kyng Herry the Fourth for shame.
23. “I wat youe byn great lordës twa,
I am a poor squyar of lande:
I wylle never se my captayne fyght on a fylde,
and stande my selffe and looke on,
But whylle I may my weppone welde,
I wylle not fayle both hart and hande. )
24. That day, that day, that dredfull day!
the first fit here I fynde;?
And you wyll hear any more a the hountyng a the
Cheviot
yet ys ther mor behynde.
Perhaps “finish. »
## p. 1322 (#112) ###########################################
1322
THE BALLAD
25.
The Yngglyshe men had their bowys ybent,
ther hartes were good yenoughe;
The first of arrows that they shote off,
seven skore spear-men they sloughe.
26. Yet bides the yerle Douglas upon the bent,
a captayne good yenoughe,
And that was sene verament,
for he wrought hem both wo and wouche.
27. The Douglas partyd his host in thre,
like a chief chieftain of pryde;
With sure spears of myghtty tre,
they cum in on every syde:
28. Throughe our Yngglyshe archery
gave many a wounde fulle wyde;
Many a doughty they garde to dy,
which ganyde them no pryde.
29.
The Ynglyshe men let ther bowës be,
and pulde out brandes that were brighte;
It was a heavy syght to se
bryght swordes on basnites lyght.
1
30.
Thorowe ryche male and myneyeple,
many sterne they strocke down straight;
Many a freyke? that was fulle fre,
there under foot dyd lyght.
31.
At last the Douglas and the Percy met,
lyk to captayns of myght and of mayne;
The swapte together tylle they both swat,
with swordes that were of fine milan.
32. These worthy freckys for to fyght,
ther-to they were fulle fayne,
Tylle the bloode out off their basnetes sprente,
as ever dyd hail or rayn.
33.
« Yield thee, Percy,” sayd the Douglas,
(and i faith I shalle thee brynge
Where thowe shalte have a yerls wagis
of Jamy our Scottish kynge.
34. “Thou shalte have thy ransom fre,
I hights the here this thinge;
«A gauntlet covering hand and forearm. ) 2 Man. 3Promise.
## p. 1323 (#113) ###########################################
THE BALLAD
1323
For the manfullyste man yet art thow
that ever I conqueryd in fielde fighttynge. ”
35. "Nay,” sayd the lord Percy,
«I tolde it thee beforne,
That I wolde never yeldyde be
to no man of a woman born. ”
36. With that ther came an arrow hastely,
forthe off a myghtty wane;1
It hath strekene the yerle Douglas
in at the brest-bane.
37. Thorowe lyvar and lungës bothe
the sharpe arrowe ys gane,
That never after in all his lyfe-days
he spayke mo wordës but ane:
That was, “Fyghte ye, my myrry men, whyllys ye
may,
for my lyfe-days ben gane. ”
The Percy leanyde on his brande,
and sawe the Douglas de;
He tooke the dead man by the hande,
and said, “Wo ys me for thee!
38.
39. "To have savyde thy lyfe, I would have partyde
with
my landes for years three,
For a better man, of hart nor of hande,
was not in all the north contrë. ”
40.
Of all that see a Scottish knyght,
was callyd Sir Hewe the Monggombyrry;
He saw the Douglas to the death was dyght,
he spendyd a spear, a trusti tree.
He rode upon a corsiare
throughe a hondred archery:
He never stynttyde nor never blane, a
till he came to the good lord Percy.
41.
42.
He set upon the lorde Percy
a dynte that was full sore;
With a sure spear of a myghttë tree
clean thorow the body he the Percy ber,'
43. A the tother syde that a man might see
a large cloth-yard and mare:
Meaning uncertain. 2 Stopped. 3Pierced.
## p. 1324 (#114) ###########################################
1324
THE BALLAD
Two better captayns were not in Cristiantë
than that day slain were there.
44.
An archer off Northumberlande
saw slain was the lord Percy;
He bore a bende bowe in his hand,
was made of trusti tree;
45.
An arrow, that a cloth-yarde was long,
to the harde stele halyde he;
A dynt that was both sad and soar
he set on Sir Hewe the Monggombyrry.
46. The dynt yt was both sad and sore,
that he of Monggombyrry set;
The swane-fethars that his arrowe bar
with his hart-blood they were wet.
47.
There was never a freak one foot wolde flee,
but still in stouri dyd stand,
Hewyng on eache other, whyle they myghte dree,
with many a balefull brande.
48. This battell begane in Cheviot
an hour before the none,
And when even-songe bell was rang,
the battell was not half done.
.
•
49.
born people who figure in traditional ballads — Childe Waters, Lady
Maisry, and the rest — do not require us to assume composition in
aristocratic circles; for the lower classes of the people in ballad days
## p. 1307 (#97) ############################################
THE BALLAD
1307
had no separate literature, and a ballad of the folk belonged to the
community as a whole. The same habit of thought, the same stand-
ard of action, ruled alike the noble and his meanest retainer. Oral
transmission, the test of the ballad, is of course nowhere possible
save in such an unlettered community. Since all critics are at one
in regard to this homogeneous character of the folk with whom and
out of whom these songs had their birth, one is justified in removing
all doubt from the phrase by speaking not of the popular ballad but
of the communal ballad, the ballad of a community.
With regard to the making of a ballad, one must repeat a caution,
hinted already, and made doubly important by a vicious tendency in
the study of all phases of culture. It is a vital mistake to explain
primitive conditions by exact analogy with conditions of modern sav-
agery and barbarism. Certain conclusions, always guarded and cau-
tious to a degree, may indeed be drawn; but it is folly to insist that
what now goes on among shunted races, belated detachments in the
great march of culture, must have gone on among the dominant and
mounting peoples who had reached the same external conditions of
life. The homogeneous and unlettered state of the ballad-makers
is not to be put on a level with the ignorance of barbarism, nor
explained by the analogy of songs among modern savage tribes.
Fortunately we have better material. The making of a ballad by a
community can be illustrated from a case recorded by Pastor Lyngbye
in his invaluable account of life on the Faroe Islands a century ago.
Not only had the islanders used from most ancient times their tra-
ditional and narrative songs as music for the dance, but they had
also maintained the old fashion of making a ballad. In the winter,
says Lyngbye, dancing is their chief amusement and is an affair of
the entire community. At such a dance, one or more persons begin
to sing; then all who are present join in the ballad, or at least in
the refrain. As they dance, they show by their gestures and expres-
sion that they follow with eagerness the course of the story which
they are singing. More than this, the ballad is often a spontaneous
product of the occasion. A fisherman, who has had some recent mis-
hap with his boat, is pushed by stalwart comrades into the middle
of the throng, while the dancers sing verses about him and his lack
of skill, — verses improvised on the spot and with a catching and
clamorous refrain. If these verses win favor, says Lyngbye, they are
repeated from year to year, with slight additions or corrections, and
become a permanent ballad. Bearing in mind the extraordinary
readiness to improvise shown even in these days by peasants in
every part of Europe, we thus gain some definite notion about the
spontaneous and communal elements which went to the making of
the best type of primitive verse; for these Faroe islanders were
F
no
## p. 1308 (#98) ############################################
1308
THE BALLAD
savages, but simply a homeogeneous and isolated folk which still
held to the old ways of communal song.
Critics of the ballad, moreover, agree that it has little or no sub-
jective traits, an easy inference from the conditions just described.
There is no individuality lurking behind the words of the ballad, and
above all, no evidence of that individuality in the form of sentiment.
Sentiment and individuality are the very essence of modern poetry,
and the direct result of individualism in verse. Given a poet, senti-
ment- and it may be noble and precious enough — is sure to follow.
But the ballad, an epic in little, forces one's attention to the object,
the scene, the story, and away from the maker.
«The king sits in Dumferling town,
begins one of the noblest of all ballads; while one of the greatest of
modern poems opens with something personal and pathetic, keynote
to all that follows:
"My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense
Even when a great poet essays the ballad, either he puts sentiment
into it, or else he keeps sentiment out of it by a tour de force. Ad-
mirable and noble as one must call the conclusion of an artistic
ballad such as Tennyson's Revenge, it is altogether, different from
the conclusion of such a communal ballad as Sir Patrick Spens. ' That
subtle quality of the ballad which lies in solution with the story and
which -- as in “Child Maurice) or (Babylon) or (Edward' -- compels
in us sensations akin to those called out by the sentiment of the
poet, is a wholly impersonal if strangely effective quality, far removed
from the corresponding elements of the poem of art. At first sight,
one might say that Browning's dramatic lyrics had this impersonal
quality. But compare the close of Give a Rouse,' chorus and all,
with the close of Child Maurice,' that swift and relentless stroke of
pure tragedy which called out the enthusiasm of so great a critic as
Gray.
The narrative of the communal ballad is full of leaps and omis-
sions; the style is simple to a fault; the diction is spontaneous and
free. Assonance frequently takes the place of rhyme, and a word
often rhymes with itself. There is a lack of poetic adornment in the
style quite as conspicuous as the lack of reflection and moralizing in
the matter. Metaphor and simile are rare and when found are for
the most part standing phrases common to all the ballads; there is
never poetry for poetry's sake. Iteration is the chief mark of ballad
style; and the favorite form of this effective figure is what one may
call incremental repetition. The question is repeated with the an-
swer; each increment in a series of related facts has a stanza for
## p. 1309 (#99) ############################################
THE BALLAD
1309
itself, identical, save for the new fact, with the other stanzas. "Baby-
lon' furnishes good instances of this progressive iteration. Moreover,
the ballad differs from earlier English epics in that it invariably has
stanzas and rhyme; of the two forms of stanza, the two-line stanza
with a refrain is probably older than the stanza with four or six
lines.
This necessary quality of the stanza points to the origin of the
ballad in song; but longer ballads, such as those that make up the
(Gest of Robin Hood,' an epic in little, were not sung as lyrics or to
aid he dance ut were either chanted in a monotonous fashion or
else recited outright. Chappell, in his admirable work on old Eng
lish music (Music of the Olden Time,' ii. 790), names a third class of
«characteristic airs of England,” — the historical and very long bal-
lads,
invariably of simple construction, usually plaintive.
They were rarely if ever used for dancing. ” Most of the
longer ballads, however, were doubtless given by one person in a
sort of recitative; this is the case with modern ballads of Russia and
Servia, where the bystanders now and then join in a chorus. Pre-
cisely in the same way ballads were divorced from the dance, origin-
ally their vital condition; but in the refrain, which is attached to so
many ballads, one finds an element which has survived from those
earliest days of communal song.
Of oldest communal poetry no actual ballad has come down to
Hints and even fragments, however, are pointed out in ancient
records, mainly as the material of chronicle or legend. In the Bible
(Numbers xxi. 17), where “Israel sang this song. ” we are not going
too far when we regard the fragment as part of a communal ballad.
“Spring up, O well: sing ye unto it: the princes digged the well, the
nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with
their staves. ” Deborah's song has something of the communal note;
and when Miriam dances and sings with her maidens, one is reminded
of the many ballads made by dancing and singing bands of women
in mediæval Europe, — for instance, the song made in the seventh
century to the honor of St. Faro, and “sung by the women as they
danced and clapped their hands. ” The question of ancient Greek
ballads, and their relation to the epic, is not to be discussed here;
nor can we make more than an allusion to the theory of Niebuhr
that the early part of Livy is founded on old Roman ballads. A
popular discussion of this matter may be found in Macaulay's preface
to his own Lays of Ancient Rome. ) The ballads of modern Europe
are a survival of older communal poetry, more or less influenced by
artistic and individual conditions of authorship, but wholly imper-
sonal, and with an appeal to our interest which seems to come from
a throng and not from the solitary poet. Attention was early called
us.
## p. 1310 (#100) ###########################################
1310
THE BALLAD
to the ballads of Spain; printed at first as broadsides, they were
gathered into a volume as early as 1550. On the other hand, ballads
were neglected in France until very recent times; for specimens of
the French ballad, and for an account of it, the reader should consult
Professor Crane's Chansons Populaires de France,' New York, 1891.
It is with ballads of the Germanic race, however, that we are now
concerned. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, the Faroe Islands;
Scotland and England; the Netherlands and Germany: all of these
countries offer us admirable specimens of the ballad. Particularly,
the great collections of Grundtvig (Danmarks Gamle Folkeviser') for
Denmark, and of Child ('The English and Scottish Popular Ballads')
for our own tongue, show how common descent or borrowing con-
nects the individual ballads of these groups. “Almost every Nor-
wegian, Swedish, or Icelandic ballad,” says Grundtvig, is found in
a Danish version of Scandinavian ballads; moreover, a larger number
can be found in English and Scottish versions than in German or
Dutch versions. " Again, we find certain national preferences in the
character of the ballads which have come down to us. Scandinavia
kept the old heroic lays (Kæmpeviser); Germany wove them into her
epic, as witness the Nibelungen Lay; but England and Scotland have
hone of them in any shape. So, too, the mythic ballad, scantily rep-
resented in English, and practically unknown in Germany, abounds
in Scandinavian collections. The Faroe Islands and Norway, as
Grundtvig tells us, show the best record for ballads preserved by oral
tradition; while noble ladies of Denmark, three or four centuries ago,
did high service to ballad literature by making collections in manu-
script of the songs current then in the castle as in the cottage.
For England, one is compelled to begin the list of known ballads
with the thirteenth century. (The Battle of Maldon, composed in
the last decade of the tenth century, though spirited enough and full
of communal vigor, has no stanzaic structure, follows in metre and
style the rules of the Old English epic, and is only a ballad by
courtesy; about the ballads used a century or two later by historians
of England, we can do nothing but guess; and there is no firm ground
under the critic's foot until he comes to the Robin Hood ballads,
which Professor Child assigns to the thirteenth century. The Battle
of Otterburn (1388) opens a series of ballads based on actual events
and stretching into the eighteenth century. Barring the Robin Hood
cycle,- an epic constructed from this attractive material lies before
us in the famous "Gest of Robin Hood, printed as early as 1489,-
the chief sources of the collector are the Percy Manuscript, «written
just before 1650,"— on which, not without omissions and additions,
the bishop based his Reliques,' first published in 1765,— and the
oral traditions of Scotland, which Professor Child refers to the last
## p. 1311 (#101) ###########################################
THE BALLAD
1311
one hundred and thirty years. ) Information about the individual
ballads, their sources, history, literary connections, and above all,
their varying texts, must be sought in the noble work of Professor
F. J. Child. For present purposes, a word or two of general infor-
mation must suffice. As to origins, there is a wide range. The
church furnished its legend, as in "Śt. Stephen'; romance contributed
the story of Thomas Rymer); and the light, even cynical fabliau is
responsible for "The Boy and the Mantle. ' Ballads which occur in
many tongues either may have a common origin or else may owe
their manifold versions, as in the case of popular tales, to a love of
borrowing; and here, of course, we get the hint of wider issues. For
the most part, however, a ballad tells some moving story, preferably
of fighting and of love. Tragedy is the dominant note; and English
ballads of the best type deal with those elements of domestic disaster
so familiar in the great dramas of literature, in the story of Orestes,
or of Hamlet, or of the Cid. Such are Edward, Lord Randal,
(The Two Brothers,' 'The Two Sisters,' Child Maurice,' Bewick
and Graham, Clerk Colven,' 'Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard,'
(Glasgerion, and many others. Another group of ballads, represented
by the Baron of Brackley' and 'Captain Car,' give a faithful picture
of the feuds and ceaseless warfare in Scotland and on the border.
A few fine ballads — (Sweet William's Ghost,' The Wife of Usher's
Well'— touch upon the supernatural.
Of the romantic ballads,
Childe Waters? shows us the higher, and Young Beichan the
lower, but still sound and communal type. Incipient dramatic ten-
dencies mark (Edward' and 'Lord Randal); while, on the other
hand, a lyric note almost carries (Bonnie George Campbell' out of
balladry. Finally, it is to be noted that in the Nut-Brown Maid,'
which many would unhesitatingly refer to this class of poetry, we
have no ballad at all, but a dramatic lyric, probably written by a
woman, and with a special plea in the background.
(
lism
nere.
## p. 1312 (#102) ###########################################
1312
THE BALLAD
ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE 1
1.
WHEN
'HEN shawes? beene sheene, and shradds * full
fayre,
And leeves both large and longe,
It is merry, walking in the fayre forrest,
To heare the small birds' songe.
2.
The woodweeleó sang, and wold not cease,
Amongst the leaves a lyne ;6
And it is by two wight? yeomen,
By deare God, that I meane.
3.
«Me thought they did me beate and binde,
And tooke my bow me fro;
If I bee Robin alive in this lande,
I'll be wrocken' on both them two. ”
10
4.
« Sweavens are swift, master, quoth John,
"As the wind that blowes ore a hill;
For if it be never soe lowde this night,
To-morrow it may be still. ”
5.
« Buske ye, bowne ye," my merry men all,
For John shall go with me;
For I'll goe seeke yond wight yeomen
In greenwood where they bee. ”
1 This ballad is a good specimen of the Robin Hood Cycle, and is remark-
able for its many proverbial and alliterative phrases. A few lines have been
lost between stanzas 2 and 3. Gisborne is a «market-town in the West Rid
ing of the County of York, on the borders of Lancashire. For the probable
tune of the ballad, see Chappell's (Popular Music of the Olden Time,) ii. 397.
2 Woods, groves. — This touch of description at the outset is common in
our old ballads, as well as in the mediæval German popular lyric, and may
perhaps spring from the old «summer-lays” and chorus of pagan times.
3 Beautiful; German, schön.
* Coppices or openings in a wood.
- In some glossaries the woodpecker, but here of course a song-bird, - per-
haps, as Chappell suggests, the woodlark.
6 A, on; lyne, lime or linden.
? Sturdy, brave.
* Robin now tells of a dream in which they” (-the two (wight yeomen,"
who are Guy and, as Professor Child suggests, the Sheriff of Nottingham)
maltreat him; and he thus foresees trouble from two quarters. ”
9 Revenged.
10 Dreams.
11 Tautological phrase, — "prepare and make ready. »
## p. 1313 (#103) ###########################################
THE BALLAD
1313
6. They cast on their gowne of greene,
A shooting gone are they,
Until they came to the merry greenwood,
Where they had gladdest bee;
There were they ware of a wight yeoman,
His body leaned to a tree,
1
7. A sword and a dagger he wore by his side,
Had beene many a man's bane,
And he was cladd in his capull-hyde,
Topp, and tayle, and mayne.
2
8. «Stand you still, master,” quoth Litle John,
“Under this trusty tree,
And I will goe to yond wight yeoman,
To know his meaning trulye. ”
9. “A, John, by me thou setts noe store,
And that's a farley' thinge;
How offt send I my men before,
And tarry myselfe behinde?
10.
“It is noe cunning a knave to ken,
And a man but heare him speake;
And it were not for bursting of my bowe,
John, I wold thy head breake. ”
II.
But often words they breeden bale,
That parted Robin and John;
John is gone to Barnesdale,
The gateshe knowes eche one.
12.
And when hee came to Barnesdale,
Great heavinesse there hee hadd;
He found two of his fellowes
Were slaine both in a slade, 5
13.
And Scarlett a foote flyinge was,
Over stockes and stone,
For the sheriffe with seven score men
Fast after him is gone.
3
1 Murder, destruction.
2 Horse's hide.
Strange.
* Paths.
5 Green valley between woods.
1-83
## p. 1314 (#104) ###########################################
THE BALLAD
1314
14.
« Yet one shoote I'll shoote,” sayes Litle John,
« With Crist his might and mayne;
I 'll make yond fellow that flyes soe fast
To be both glad and faine. ”
15. John bent up a good veiwe bow, 1
And fetteled? him to shoote;
The bow was made of a tender boughe,
And fell downe to his foote.
16.
«Woe worth 3 thee, wicked od,” sayd Litle John,
“That ere thou grew on a tree!
For this day thou art my bale,
My bootet when thou shold bee! »
17. This shoote it was but looselye shott,
The arrowe flew in vaine,
And it mett one of the sheriffe's men;
Good William a Trent was slaine.
18. It had beene better for William a Trent
To hange upon a gallowe
Then for to lye in the greenwoode,
There slaine with an arrowe.
19.
And it is sayed, when men be mett,
Six can doe more than three:
And they have tane Litle John,
And bound him fast to a tree.
20.
“Thou shalt be drawen by dale and downe,
quoth the sheriffe, 5
“And hanged hye on a hill:)
“But thou may fayle, quoth Litle John,
“If it be Christ's owne will. )
21.
Let us leave talking of Litle John,
For hee is bound fast to a tree,
i Perhaps the yew-bow.
2 Made ready.
3 « Woe be to thee. ” Worth is the old subjunctive present of an exact
English equivalent to the modern German werden.
*Note these alliterative phrases. Boote, remedy.
5 As Percy noted, this «quoth the sheriffe," was probably added by some
explainer. The reader, however, must remember the license of slurring or
contracting the syllables of a word, as well as the opposite freedom of expan-
sion. Thus in the second line of stanza 7, man's is to be pronounced man-ës.
## p. 1315 (#105) ###########################################
THE BALLAD
1315
And talke of Guy and Robin Hood
In the green woode where they bee.
22.
How these two yeomen together they mett,
Under the leaves of lyne,
To see what marchandise they made
Even at that same time.
23.
“Good morrow, good fellow,” quoth Sir Guy;
«Good morrow, good fellow," quoth hee;
«Methinkes by this bow thou beares in thy hand,
A good archer thou seems to bee. "
24. “I am wilfull of my way,” i quoth Sir Guy,
«And of my morning tyde:)
“I'll lead thee through the wood,” quoth Robin,
“Good fellow, I'll be thy guide. ”
25. "I seeke an outlaw,” quoth Sir Guy,
Men call him Robin Hood;
I had rather meet with him upon a day
Then forty pound of golde. ”
26. “If you tow mett, it wold be seene whether were better
Afore yee did part awaye;
Let us some other pastime find,
Good fellow, I thee pray.
27.
“Let us some other masteryes make,
And we will walke in the woods even;
Wee may chance meet with Robin Hood
At some unsett steven.
> 2
28. They cutt them downe the summer shroggs 3
Which grew both under a bryar,
And sett them three score rood in twinn,
To shoote the prickes: full neare.
29.
« Leade on, good fellow,” sayd Sir Guye,
«Leade on, I doe bidd thee:))
“Nay, by my faith,” quoth Robin Hood,
«The leader thou shalt bee. ”
1 I have lost my way.
? At some unappointed time,- by chance.
3 Stunted shrubs.
* A part.
5« Prickes seem to have been the long-range targets, butts the near. ” —
Furnivall.
## p. 1316 (#106) ###########################################
1316
THE BALLAD
30.
The first good shoot that Robin ledd,
Did not shoote an inch the pricke froe,
Guy was an archer good enoughe,
But he could neere shoote soe.
31. The second shoote Sir Guy shott,
He shott within the garlande,
But Robin Hoode shott it better than hee,
For he clove the good pricke-wande.
32.
«God's blessing on thy heart!
” sayes Guye,
Goode fellow, thy shooting is goode;
For an thy hart be as good as thy hands,
Thou were better than Robin Hood.
33.
« Tell me thy name, good fellow," quoth Guye,
« Under the leaves of lyne:)
“Nay, by my faith," quoth good Robin,
« Till thou have told me thine. "
34.
“I dwell by dale and downe,” quoth Guye,
“And I have done many a curst turne;
And he that calles me by my right name,
Calles me Guye of good Gysborne. ”
35. “My dwelling is in the wood,” sayes Robin;
“By thee I set right nought;
My name is Robin Hood of Barnesdale,
A fellow thou hast long sought. ”
36. He that had neither beene a kithe nor kin
Might have seene a full fayre sight.
To see how together these yeomen went,
With blades both browne and bright.
37. To have seene how these yeomen together fought
Two howers of a summer's day;
It was neither Guy nor Robin Hood
That fettled them to flye away.
38. Robin was reacheles' on a roote,
And stumbled at that tyde,
And Guy was quicke and nimble with-all,
And hitt him ore the left side.
"Garlande, perhaps the ring within which the prick was set »; and the
pricke-wande perhaps a pole or stick. The terms are not easy to understand
clearly.
? Reckless, careless.
## p. 1317 (#107) ###########################################
THE BALLAD
1317
39. «Ah, deere Lady! ” sayd Robin Hoode,
«Thou art both mother and may! 1
I thinke it was never man's destinye
To dye before his day. ”
40. Robin thought on Our Lady deere,
And soone leapt up againe,
And thus he came with an awkwarde? stroke;
Good Sir Guy hee has slayne.
41. He tooke Sir Guy's head by the hayre,
And sticked it on his bowe's end:
« Thou has beene traytor all thy life,
Which thing must have an ende. ”
42. Robin pulled forth an Irish kniffe,
And nicked Sir Guy in the face,
That he was never ons a woman borne
Could tell who Sir Guye was.
43. Saies, Lye there, lye there, good Sir Guye,
And with me not wrothe;
If thou have had the worse stroakes at my hand,
Thou shalt have the better cloathe.
44. Robin did off his gowne of greene,
Sir Guye he did it throwe;
And he put on that capull-hyde
That clad him topp to toe.
45.
« Tis bowe, the arrowes, and litle horne,
And with me now I'll beare;
For now I will goe to Barnesdale,
To see how my men doe fare. ”
46. Robin sett Guye's horne to his mouth,
A lowd blast in it he did blow;
That beheard the sheriffe of Nottingham,
As he leaned under a lowe.
47.
« Hearken! hearken! ” sayd the sheriffe,
“I heard noe tydings but good;
For yonder I heare Sir Guye's horne blowe,
For he hath slaine Robin Hoode.
"Maiden.
· Dangerous, or perhaps simply backward, backhanded.
On is frequently used for of.
* Hillock.
## p. 1318 (#108) ###########################################
1318
THE BALLAD
48.
“For yonder I heare Sir Guye's horne blowe,
It blowes soe well in tyde,
For yonder comes that wighty yeoman
Cladd in his capull-hyde.
49.
« Come hither, thou good Sir Guy,
Aske of mee what thou wilt have :)
«I'll none of thy gold,” sayes Robin Hood,
"Nor I'll none of it have.
50.
“But now I have slaine the master,” he sayd,
“Let me goe strike the knave;
This is all the reward I aske,
Nor noe other will I have. ”
51.
« Thou art a madman,” said the sheriffe,
« Thou sholdest have had a knight's fee;
Seeing thy asking hath beene soe badd,
Well granted it shall be. ”
52. But Litle John heard his master speake,
Well he knew that was his steven;'
“Now shall I be loset,” quoth Litle John,
“With Christ's might in heaven. ”
53.
But Robin hee hyed him towards Litle John,
Hee thought hee wold loose him belive;
The sheriffe and all his companye
Fast after him did drive.
54.
«Stand abacke! stand abacke! ” sayd Robin;
«Why draw you mee soe neere?
It was never the use in our countrye
One's shrift another should heere. »
55.
But Robin pulled forth an Irysh kniffe,
And losed John hand and foote,
And gave him Sir Guye's bow in his hand,
And bade it be his boote.
56. But John tooke Guye's bow in his hand
(His arrowes were rawstye? by the roote);
The sherriffe saw Litle John draw a bow
And fettle him to shoote.
57. Towards his house in Nottingham
He fled full fast away,
i Voice.
2 Rusty
## p. 1319 (#109) ###########################################
THE BALLAD
1319
And so did all his companye,
Not one behind did stay.
58. But he cold neither soe fast goe,
Nor away soe fast runn,
But Litle John, with an arrow broade,
Did cleave his heart in twinn.
THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT
[This is the older and better version of the famous ballad. The younger
version was the subject of Addison's papers in the Spectator. ]
I.
THE
HE Percy out of Northumberlande,
and a vowe to God mayd he
That he would hunte in the mountayns
of Cheviot within days thre,
In the magger' of doughty Douglas,
and all that ever with him be.
2.
The fattiste hartes in all Cheviot
he sayd he would kyll, and cary them away:
«Be my feth,” sayd the doughty Douglas agayn,
“I will let? that hontyng if that I may. ”
3. Then the Percy out of Banborowe cam,
with him a myghtee meany,
With fifteen hondred archares bold of blood and bone;
they were chosen out of shyars thre.
4. This began on a Monday at morn,
in Cheviot the hillys so he;
The chyld may rue that ys unborn,
it was the more pittë.
5. The dryvars thorowe the woodës went,
for to reas the deer;
Bowmen byckarte uppone the bent*
with their browd arrows cleare.
6. Then the wyld thorowe the woodës went,
on every sydë shear;
Greahondës thorowe the grevis glent,5
for to kyll their deer.
7. This begane in Cheviot the hyls abone,
yerly on a Monnyn-day:
1 (Maugre, in spite of. ? Hinder. 3 Company.
*Skirmished on the field. 5 Ran through the groves.
## p. 1320 (#110) ###########################################
1320
THE BALLAD
Be that it drewe to the hour of noon,
a hondred fat hartës ded ther lay.
8. They blewe a mort? uppone the bent,
they semblyde on sydis shear;
To the quyrry then the Percy went,
to see the bryttlynge? of the deere.
9. He sayd, “It was the Douglas promys
this day to met me hear;
But I wyste he wolde faylle, verament;"
a great oth the Percy swear.
IO.
At the laste a squyar of Northumberlande
lokyde at his hand full ny;
He was war a the doughtie Douglas commynge,
with him a myghtë meany.
II.
Both with spear, bylle, and brande,
yt was a myghtë sight to se;
Hardyar men, both of hart nor hande,
were not in Cristiantë.
12.
They were twenty hondred spear-men good,
withoute any fail;
They were borne along be the water a Twyde,
yth bowndës of Tividale.
13. “Leave of the brytlyng of the deer,” he said,
«and to your bows look ye tayk good hede;
For never sithe ye were on your mothers borne
had ye never so mickle nede. ”
14.
The doughty Douglas on a stede,
he rode alle his men beforne;
His armor glytteyrde as dyd a glede;'
a boldar barne was never born.
15. «Tell me whose men ye are,” he says,
(or whose men that ye be:
Who gave youe leave to hunte in this Cheviot chays,
in the spyt of myn and of me. ”
16. The first man that ever him an answer mayd,
yt was the good lord Percy:
“We wyll not tell the whose men we are,” he says,
(nor whose men that we be;
1 Blast blown when game is killed.
? Quartering, cutting.
3 Flame.
## p. 1321 (#111) ###########################################
THE BALLAD
1321
But we wyll hounte here in this chays,
in spyt of thyne and of the.
17.
« The fattiste hartës in all Cheviot
we have kyld, and cast to carry them away:
Be my troth,” sayd the doughty Douglas agayn,
“therefor the tone of us shall die this day. ”
18.
Then sayd the doughtë Douglas
unto the lord Percy,
« To kyll alle thes giltles men,
alas, it wear great pittë!
19. “But, Percy, thowe art a lord of lande,
I am a yerle callyd within my contrë;
Let all our men uppone a parti stande,
and do the battell of the and of me. ”
20.
“Nowe Cristes curse on his crowne," sayd the lord!
Percy,
« whosoever thereto says nay;
Be my troth, doughty Douglas," he says,
thow shalt never se that day.
21.
“Nethar in Ynglonde, Skottlonde, nor France,
nor for no man of a woman born,
But, and fortune be my chance,
I dar met him, one man for one. ”
22.
Then bespayke a squyar of Northumberlande,
Richard Wytharyngton was his name:
« It shall never be told in Sothe-Ynglonde,” he says,
“To Kyng Herry the Fourth for shame.
23. “I wat youe byn great lordës twa,
I am a poor squyar of lande:
I wylle never se my captayne fyght on a fylde,
and stande my selffe and looke on,
But whylle I may my weppone welde,
I wylle not fayle both hart and hande. )
24. That day, that day, that dredfull day!
the first fit here I fynde;?
And you wyll hear any more a the hountyng a the
Cheviot
yet ys ther mor behynde.
Perhaps “finish. »
## p. 1322 (#112) ###########################################
1322
THE BALLAD
25.
The Yngglyshe men had their bowys ybent,
ther hartes were good yenoughe;
The first of arrows that they shote off,
seven skore spear-men they sloughe.
26. Yet bides the yerle Douglas upon the bent,
a captayne good yenoughe,
And that was sene verament,
for he wrought hem both wo and wouche.
27. The Douglas partyd his host in thre,
like a chief chieftain of pryde;
With sure spears of myghtty tre,
they cum in on every syde:
28. Throughe our Yngglyshe archery
gave many a wounde fulle wyde;
Many a doughty they garde to dy,
which ganyde them no pryde.
29.
The Ynglyshe men let ther bowës be,
and pulde out brandes that were brighte;
It was a heavy syght to se
bryght swordes on basnites lyght.
1
30.
Thorowe ryche male and myneyeple,
many sterne they strocke down straight;
Many a freyke? that was fulle fre,
there under foot dyd lyght.
31.
At last the Douglas and the Percy met,
lyk to captayns of myght and of mayne;
The swapte together tylle they both swat,
with swordes that were of fine milan.
32. These worthy freckys for to fyght,
ther-to they were fulle fayne,
Tylle the bloode out off their basnetes sprente,
as ever dyd hail or rayn.
33.
« Yield thee, Percy,” sayd the Douglas,
(and i faith I shalle thee brynge
Where thowe shalte have a yerls wagis
of Jamy our Scottish kynge.
34. “Thou shalte have thy ransom fre,
I hights the here this thinge;
«A gauntlet covering hand and forearm. ) 2 Man. 3Promise.
## p. 1323 (#113) ###########################################
THE BALLAD
1323
For the manfullyste man yet art thow
that ever I conqueryd in fielde fighttynge. ”
35. "Nay,” sayd the lord Percy,
«I tolde it thee beforne,
That I wolde never yeldyde be
to no man of a woman born. ”
36. With that ther came an arrow hastely,
forthe off a myghtty wane;1
It hath strekene the yerle Douglas
in at the brest-bane.
37. Thorowe lyvar and lungës bothe
the sharpe arrowe ys gane,
That never after in all his lyfe-days
he spayke mo wordës but ane:
That was, “Fyghte ye, my myrry men, whyllys ye
may,
for my lyfe-days ben gane. ”
The Percy leanyde on his brande,
and sawe the Douglas de;
He tooke the dead man by the hande,
and said, “Wo ys me for thee!
38.
39. "To have savyde thy lyfe, I would have partyde
with
my landes for years three,
For a better man, of hart nor of hande,
was not in all the north contrë. ”
40.
Of all that see a Scottish knyght,
was callyd Sir Hewe the Monggombyrry;
He saw the Douglas to the death was dyght,
he spendyd a spear, a trusti tree.
He rode upon a corsiare
throughe a hondred archery:
He never stynttyde nor never blane, a
till he came to the good lord Percy.
41.
42.
He set upon the lorde Percy
a dynte that was full sore;
With a sure spear of a myghttë tree
clean thorow the body he the Percy ber,'
43. A the tother syde that a man might see
a large cloth-yard and mare:
Meaning uncertain. 2 Stopped. 3Pierced.
## p. 1324 (#114) ###########################################
1324
THE BALLAD
Two better captayns were not in Cristiantë
than that day slain were there.
44.
An archer off Northumberlande
saw slain was the lord Percy;
He bore a bende bowe in his hand,
was made of trusti tree;
45.
An arrow, that a cloth-yarde was long,
to the harde stele halyde he;
A dynt that was both sad and soar
he set on Sir Hewe the Monggombyrry.
46. The dynt yt was both sad and sore,
that he of Monggombyrry set;
The swane-fethars that his arrowe bar
with his hart-blood they were wet.
47.
There was never a freak one foot wolde flee,
but still in stouri dyd stand,
Hewyng on eache other, whyle they myghte dree,
with many a balefull brande.
48. This battell begane in Cheviot
an hour before the none,
And when even-songe bell was rang,
the battell was not half done.
.
•
49.
