Awake! awake! I bring, lufar, I bring The newis glad, that blissfull ben and sure And vnto me the flouris faire did present; Ane hundred tymes, or I forthir went, I have it red, with hertfull glaidnesse, And half with hope and half with dred it hent And at my beddis hed, with gud entent, I haue it fayr pynit vp, and this First takyn was of all my help and blisse. To James I. is to be ascribed the style of plaintive music unknown before him. It was during the reign of James I, towards the year 1446, that Henry the Minstrel, or blind Harry, celebrated in his songs the warrior Wallace, so popular in Scotland By some critics a preference is given given to Henry the Minstrel over Barbour and Chaucer. Dumbard and Douglas likewise flourished in Scotland. In England, the Earl of Worcester and the Earl of Rivers, both patrons and promoters of literature, perished on the scaffold. Rivers and Caxton his printer and panegyrist, are the first authors whose writings have been handed down to us by the English press. The productions of Rivers consisted in translations from the French; one, in particular, of Christina de Pisan's Proverbs. Under Henry VII, the first of the Tudors, there existed many poets destitute of genius one of the servants of that king who put an end to the war between the houses of York and Lancaster, possessed some talent for satirical compositions. POPULAR BALLADS AND SONGS. THE popular ballads and songs, whether Scotch, English, or Irish, of the 14th and 15th. centuries, possess, without being wholly unaffected, a character of simplicity. Unaffectedness is of Gallic growth, plainness proceeds from the heart, unaffectedness from the mind; a plain man is usually a good man; an unaffected may not always be a good man; unaffectedness, however, is always natural: plainness is often the effect of art. The most celebrated of English and Scotch ballads are The Children in the Wood and the Song of the Willow altered by Shakespeare. The original exhibits the despair of a deserted lover. A poor soule sat sighing under a sicamore tree O willow, willow, willow! With his hand on his bosom, his head on his knee: O willow, willow, willow! O willow, willow, willow! Sing, O the green willow shall be my garland! This song so powerfully captivated the imagination of English poets, that Rowe has not hesitated to imitate it from Shakespeare. Robin Hood, a renowned robber, figures as a favourite personage in ballads: there are a score of songs respecting his birth, his pretended fight with King Richard, and his exploits with Little John: his long history in rhyme, and that of Adam Bell, resembled the Latin complaints of the Jacquerie, or the dying confessions which the people recited in our streets. Or prions le doux Rédempteur Lady Ann Bothwell's Lament is the Dors mon enfant of Berquin; the Friar is the adventure of Father Arsène, which latter is derived from the Count de Comminges. The Hunting in Chevy Chase, a very fine ballad, describes the fight between Earl Douglas and Earl Percy in a forest on the Scottish border. The two ballads which, in my opinion, are least of a common-place character, are Sir Cauline and Childe Waters: a knowledge of English is not requisite to appreciate their rhythm; their measure is as distinct as that of a waltz; each stanza consists of four lines alternately of eight and six syllables: some redundant verses are added to the stanzas of Sir Cauline. The language of these ballads is not altogether that of the period in which they were composed; they seem to be clothed in a modern style. Sir Cauline, a knight attached to the court of an Irish king, has fallen in love with Christabel, only daughter of that monarch; Christabel, like all the well educated princesses of that period, is acquainted with the virtue of simples. Sir Cauline is love-sick. On a certain Sunday, the king, after having heard mass, repairs to dinner. He enquires for Sir Cauline, whose duty it is with serve him with drink; a courtier replies that the cupbearer is in bed. The king desires his daughter to visit the knight and to carry him wine and bread. Fair Christabelle to his chaumber goes, Her maidens following nye : O well, she sayth, how doth my lord? O sicke, thou fayre ladye, Now rise up wightlye, man, for shame, Never lye soe cowardlee; For it is told in my father's halle You dye for love of mee. |