The Eay of the East Minstrel. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES EARL OF DALKEITH THIS POEM IS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. THE Poem is intended to illustrate the customs and manners which anciently prevailed on the Borders of England and Scotland. The inhabitants, living in a state partly pastoral and partly warlike, and combining habits of constant depredation with the influence of a rude spirit of chivalry, were often engaged in scenes highly susceptible of poetical ornament. As the description of scenery and manners was more the object of the author than a combined and regular narrative, the plan of the Ancient Metrical Romance was adopted, which allows greater latitude in this respect than would be consistent with the dignity of a regular Poem. The same model offered other facilities, as it permits an occasional alteration of measure, which, in some degree, authorises the change of rhythm in the text. The machinery, also, adopted from popular belief, would have seemed puerile in a poem which did not partake of the rudeness of the old Ballad, or Metrical Romance. For these reasons the poem was put into the mouth of an ancient Minstrel, the last of the race, who, as he is supposed to have survived the Revolution, might have caught somewhat of the refinement of modern poetry, without losing the simplicity of his original model. The date of the tale itself is about the middle of the sixteenth century, when most of the personages actually flourished. The time occupied by the action is Three Nights and Three Days. INTRODUCTION. THE way was long, the wind was cold, And he, neglected and oppress'd, Old times were changed, old manners A stranger fill'd the Stuarts' throne; B The bigots of the iron time He pass'd where Newark's stately tower Looks out from Yarrow's birchen bower: The Minstrel gazed with wishful eye- The embattled portal arch he pass'd, For she had known adversity, Though born in such a high degree; In pride of power, in beauty's bloom, Had wept o'er Monmouth's bloody tomb! When kindness had his wants sup- And the old man was gratified, Of good Earl Francis, dead and gone, He thought even yet, the sooth to speak, That, if she loved the harp to hear, The humble boon was soon obtain'd; The aged Minstrel audience gain'd. But, when he reach'd the room of state, Where she with all her ladies sate, And gave him heart, and gave him time, Till every string's according glee When he kept court in Holyrood; wild, The old man rais'd his face, and smil'd; And lighten'd up his faded eye In varying cadence, soft or strong, |