There tender ladyes in darke dungeons With diligence he takes them from the lay, That were surprised in the desart wood, And had noe other dyett everye day, But flesh of humane creatures for their food: Some with their lovers bodyes had beene fed, walle, With lybertye their thraldome to acquaint: Then the perplexed knight their father calls, And sayes, Receive thy sonnes though poore and faint: And in their wombes their husbands I promisd you their lives, accept of that; buryed. But did not warrant you they shold be fat. Now he bethinkes him of his being there, To enlarge the wronged brethren from their woes: And, as he searcheth, doth great clamours heare, By which sad sound's direction on he goes, Untill he findes a darksome obscure gate, Arm'd strongly ouer all with iron plate. That he unlockes, and enters, where appeares The strangest object that he ever saw ; Men that with famishment of many yeares, Were like deathes picture, which the painters draw; Divers of them were hanged by eche thombe; The castle I doe give thee, heere's the keyes, Where tyranye for many yeeres did dwell: Procure the gentle tender ladyes ease, For pittyes sake, use wronged women well: Men easilye revenge the wrongs men do; But poore weake women have not strength thereto. The good old man, even overjoyed with this, Fell on the ground, and wold have kist Guys feete: Father, quoth he, refraine soe base a kiss, For age to honor youth I hold unmeete: Others head-downward: by the middle Ambitious pryde hath hurt me all it can, I goe to mortifie a sinfull man. some. III. THE AULD GOOD-MAN. A SCOTTISH SONG. I HAVE not been able to meet with a more ancient copy of this humorous old song than that printed in the Tea-Table Miscellany, etc., which seems to have admitted some corruptions. LATE in an evening forth I went A little before the sun gade down, And there I chanc't, by accident, To light on a battle new begun : A man and his wife wer fawn in a strife, I canna weel tell ye how it began; But aye she wail'd her wretched life, Cryeng, Evir alake, mine auld goodnan! HE. Thy auld goodman, that thou tells of, The country kens where he was born, IV. FAIR MARGARET AND SWEET WILLIAM. THIS seems to be the old song quoted in Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, Acts ii. and iii., although the six lines there preserved are somewhat different from those in the ballad as it stands at present. The reader will not wonder at this, when he is informed that this is only given from a modern printed copy picked up on a stall. Its full title is, Fair Margaret's Misfortunes; or Sweet William's frightful dreams on his wedding night, with the sudden death and burial of those noble lovers. The lines preserved in the play are this distich: and the following star.za: "You are no love for me, Margaret, I am no love for you;" "When it was grown to dark midnight, In came Margaret's grimly ghost These lines have acquired an importance by giving birth to one of the most beautiful ballads in our own or any language. See the song entitled Margaret's Ghost at the end of this volume. As it fell out on a long summer's day, Two lovers they sat on a hill; He called up his merry men all, By one, by two, and by three; They sat together that long summer's day, Saying, I'll away to fair Marg'ret's bower, They grew till they grew unto the church top, And then they could grow no higher; And there they tyed in a true lovers knot, Which made all the people admire. Then came the clerk of the parish, V.-BARBARA ALLEN'S CRUELTY. GIVEN, with some corrections, from an old black-letter copy, entitled Barbara Allen's Cruelty, or the Young Man's Tragedy. |