"Such mountains steep, such craggy hills, Did fence with fenny mire and moss. He council craved of his captains all, And take such fortune as would fall." IVANHOE, Vol. i. chap. xii. p. 242. With the spirited description of the "Field of Ashby," the reader may compare the following picture of a field of battle, by Sir Philip Sydney: "And now the often-changing fortune beganne also to chaunge the hew of the battels. For at the first, though it were terrible, yet Terror was deckt so bravelie with rich furniture, guilt swords, shining armours, pleasant pensils *, that the eye with delight had scarce leasure to be affraide: but now all universally defiled with dust, bloud, broken armour, mangled bodies, tooke away the maske, and sette foorth Horror in his owne horrible manner." Lib. iii. p. 258 of The Countesse of Pembroke's Arcadia. Written by Sir Philip Sidney, Knight. Now the third time published, with sundrie new additions of the same author. London, imprinted for William Ponsonbie. Anno Domini 1598. Of this edition, the noble library of Trinity College, Cambridge, possesses a copy in fine old red morocco, with the autograph of Mary Sydney upon the title. We find the above passage already pointed out to the notice of the modern reader by Headley, in his Beauties of Ancient English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 138, first edition, who puts the nine last words in Italics. We had transcribed the passage without being aware that he had previously availed himself of it, and are not liable to his severe remark, p. 159, that "obligations of this kind are but too commonly, to the disgrace of literature, very industriously and ungratefully suppressed."—The jesuit Hermannus Hugo †, or rather his excellent annotator, has some 66 * In Morte d'Arthur, a fair damoy sel sends Sir Palomedes a pensel," and prays him "to fyghte with Sire Corsalryn for her love, and he shold have her, and her landes of her faders that sholde falle to her." Book X. capit. xlvii. vol. ii. p. 76 of the 4to reprint from Caxton's edition of 1485. Hugo's book was first published in a small volume at Antwerp, 1618. But the best edition has the following title: Hermannus Hugo, societatis Jesu, de prima scribendi origine et universa rei literariæ antiquitate, sui notas, opusculum de scribis, apologiam pro Waechtlero, præfationem et indices adjecit C. H. TROTZ, JCtus. Traj. ad Rhen. 1738, with plates, in one vol. 8vo. The reference is to the note, p 339 of this edition. There is also a French abridgment. 66 sharp lines against plagium literarium,-" and plagium is felony," says Counsellor Pleydell in " Guy Mannering," According to Trotz, however, the criminals appear to escape by pleading benefit of clergy, for, saith he, Hoc hominum genere abundavit semper res literaria, et præter notam infamiæ pœnam habent nullam;-i. e. that the world of letters has ever been infested with ruffians of this description, who contrive to escape with no heavier punishment than a brand of infamy. But to return from this digression. With the passage in the novel it will also be worth while to compare the Bridal of Triermain, Canto II. stanzas xxiii. xxiv. THE MONASTERY. Motto to vol. ii. chap. i. p. 208. Lines 181-184 of" Christ's Kirk on the Green," written by King James V. of Scotland*, who was born in 1511, and died 1542, p. 26 of Ritson's "Caledonian Muse," already quoted. "The Millar was of manlie mak, To meit him was na mowis, Thair durst na ten cum him to tak, So nobbit he thair nowis." A former editor renders "mows" mockery, or jest. Thus Lindsay of Pitscottie, of Sinclair, when the lords seized him, "Is it mows, or earnest, my lords?" Battle of Harlaw," stanza 19. "Their was nae mowis there them amang, Naithing was hard bot heavy knocks." The French say, faire la moue, to laugh at one; and hence Chaucer, Troilus and Cressida, lib. iv. 1, of Lady Fortune; "And whan a wight is from her whele ithrow, P. 170 of that monarch's strange publication, entitled “ Two Ancient Scottish Poems: The Gaberlunzie-Man, and Christ's Kirk on the Green, with notes and observations by John Callander, Esq. of Craigforth." Edinb. 1782, 8vo. Bale, in his preface to "The Actes of Englysh Votaryes,' 1546, black letter, fol. 4, says, "The lerned allegacyons, reasons, & argumentes of Phylypp Melachton, Luther, Lambert, Pomeraine, Barnes, and soche other, * Mr. George Chalmers first 'collected the Poetic Remains of some of the Scottish Kings, in one volume post 8vo. Lond. 1824. The fourth of the above lines he reads, "So nowit he their nowis." See his note, p. 168. It is to be regretted that this editor, in the present instance, did not think it necessary to ascertain the original orthography of the poems, a task, however, of no trifling difficulty. they haue hearde, but the answere is yet to make. They moche and mowe at the like jack a napes, or lyke them which went vp & downe by the crosse whan Christ was crucyfyed, and that is ynough for them." The word occurs at a much later period in L'Estrange's translation of Quevedo's Visions; and there still remains the vulgar phrase scarcely to be named to ears polite—of making mouths at a person. iii. chap. xi. p. 234. The four last lines of the seventh stanza of " Gil Morrice," a ballad, consisting of twenty-six stanzas of eight and ten lines, printed in vol. ii. 157, of Ritson's Scotish Songs, Lond. 1794. Also in vol. iii. of Percy's Reliques. "And quhen he came to broken brigue, He bent his bow and swam; And quhen he came to grass growing, Set down his feet and ran.' So also in stanza vii. of "The Knight and Shepherd's daughter," quoted in Fletcher's comedy of the Pilgrim, Act IV. Sc. 1. and printed at length by Percy, Reliques, vol. iii. p. 115, ed. 1812. "But when she came to the brode water, She sett her brest and swamme; And when she was got out againe, She tooke to her heels and ranne." THE ABBOT. Motto to vol. i. chap. vii. p. 241, is the first stanza of "Todlen Home;" four stanzas printed in "Ancient and Modern Scotish Songs," &c. Edinb. 1791, vol. ii. p. 218. my "Whan I've a saxpence under thum, But ay whan I'm poor, they bid me gang by; O! poverty parts good company. Todlen hame, todlen hame, Cou'dna my love come todlen hame ?" Ritson explains "Todlen, todling, walking with a rolling short step, like a child, rolling, tottering.' The air, i. chap. xiv. p. 245. "Hey trix trim go trix under the grene wode tree,” * Of which the eleventh edition, corrected, was printed at London, 1715. Others they call'd apes (and we mimicks); these were perpetually making of mopps, and mowes, and a thousand antick ridiculous gestures, in derision and imitation of others. '—p 18, 19. is preserved in the " Specimen of a Book called 'Ane Compendious Boke of Godlie Songs,""&c. Edinb. 1765, 12mo. "These Godlie Songs," says Pinkerton, "Ancient Scotish Poems," p. 495, are written to the tunes of profane ballads, common in 1597, when the publication appeared. From it we therefore learn the stanza of the several songs imitated:" for specimens, see Pinkerton as above, and p. li. of the Historical Essay prefixed to vol. i. of Ritson's Scotish Songs. p. 252. From the ballad of " Lord Thomas and fair Annet," in Percy's Reliques, vol. iii. p. 296, edit. 1812. "My maides, gae to my dressing-roome, And dress to me my hair; Whair-eir yee laid a plait before, See yee lay ten times mair." p. 258. In the fifth verse of "The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter," which has been just mentioned, as printed in Percy's Reliques, iii. p. 115. "Some do call mee Jacke, sweet heart, And some do call mee Jille; But when I come to the kings faire courte Motto to iii. chap. ix. p. 260, is, perhaps, the fifth verse from the end of the ballad last quoted, which consists altogether, as given in the Reliques, of twenty-five stanzas. "He sett her on a milk-white steede, And himself upon a graye; He hung a bugle about his necke, And soe they rode awaye." Some other ballad will very probably supply a stanza more completely similar. THE PIRATE. Motto to vol. i. chap. iii. p. 282. "O Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, They war twa bonny lasses, They bigg'd a bower on yon burn brae, And theeked o'er wi rashes. Fair Bessy Bell I loo'ed yestreen, is the first of four stanzas, vol. i. 270, of "Antient and Modern Scotish Songs, Edinb. 1791." Pawky, means witty, sly. Motto to iii. chap. x. p. 344. is the first stanza of an excellent old song printed in the "Reliques," iii. p. 294. "Over the mountains, And over the waves; And under the graves; With four other stanzas. Motto to iii. chap. xiii. p. 345. The first four lines of the thirteenth stanza of "The Notbrowne Maid," first published in Arnolde's Chronicle, and which afforded the groundwork of Prior's "Henry and Emma." A corrected copy is given in the "Reliques," vol. ii. p. 28, and in Capel's" Prolusions." "For an outlawe this is the lawe, And waver with the wynde. KENILWORTH, vol. iii. chap. v. p. 85. The original of the incident here given to Michael Lambourne is published from one of the Harleian MSS. in Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes," p. xxxi. and in the notes to the reprint of Gascoigne's "Princely Pleasures," in Nichols' " Progresses of Queen Elizabeth." PEVERIL OF THE PEAK, vol. iv. chap. ii. p. 42. "Now," thought Jerningham within himself, "if Christian knew the Duke as well as I do, he would sooner stand the leap of a lion, like the London 'prentice bold, than venture on my master at this moment, who is even now in a humour nearly as dangerous as the animal." In the third volume of Evans's "Old Ballads," Lond. 1810, p. 178, is printed "The honour of a London 'Prentice. Being an account of his matchless manhood and brave adventures done in Turkey, and by what means he married the king's daughter."From a black letter copy by Coles, Vere, and Wright. |