CHORUS

myzt of Chyvahy, the God for hym wrouzt marvelully

Wherefore Englande may call and cry, Deo Gratias.

V.

FOR THE VICTORY AT AGINCOURT. That our plain and martial ancestors could wield their fwords much better than their pens, will appear from the following homely Rhymes, which were drawn up by fome poet laureat of thofe days to celebrate the immortal victory gained at Agincourt, Oct 25, 1415. This fong or hymn is given meerly as a curiofity, and is printed from a MS. copy in the Pepys collection, vol. I. folio. It is there accompanied with the mufical notes, which are copied in a small plate at the end of this volume.

Ο

Deo gratias Anglia redde pro victoria!

WRE kynge went forth to Normandy,

With grace and myzt of chivalry;
The God for hym wrouzt marvelously,
Wherefore Englonde may calle, and cry
Deo gratias:

Deo gratias Anglia redde pro victoria.

He fette a fege, the fothe for to say,
To Harflue toune with ryal aray;
That toune he wan, and made a fray,
That Fraunce fall rywe tyl domes day.

Deo gratias, &c.

Then went owre kynge, with alle his ofte,
Thorowe Fraunce for all the Frenfhe boste ;
He fpared for' drede of lefte, ne most,
Tyl he come to Agincourt cofte.

Deo gratias, &c.

Than for fothe that knyzt comely
In Agincourt feld he fauzt manly,
Thorow grace of God most myzty
He had bothe the felde, and the victory.

Deo gratias, &c.

Ther dukys, and erlys, lorde and barone,
Were take, and flayne, and that wel fone,
And fome were ledde in to Lundone
With joye, and merthe, and grete renone.
Deo gratias, &c.

Now gracious God he fave owre kynge,
His peple, and all his wel wyllynge,
Gef him gode lyfe, and gode endynge,
That we with merth mowe favely fynge

Deo gratias:

Deo gratias Anglia redde pro victoria.

15

20

25

30

VI. THE

VI.

THE

NOT-BROWNE

MAY D.

The fentimental beauties of this ancient ballad have always recommended it to Readers of tafte, notwithstanding the ruft of antiquity which obfcures the ftyle and expreffion. Indeed if it had no other merit than the having afforded the groundwork to Prior's HENRY AND EMMA. this ought to preferve it from oblivion. That we are able to give it in fo correct à manner, is owing to the great care and exactness of the accurate Editor of the PROLUSIONS, 8vo. 1700; who has formed the text from two copies found in two different edi tions of Arnolde's Chronicle, a book supposed to be first printed about 1521. From the copy in the Prolufions the following is printed with a few additional improvements gathered from another edition of Arnolde's book preferved in the public Library at Cambridge. All the various readings of this Copy will be found here, either received into the text, or noted in the margin The references to the Prolufions will her where they occur. In our ancient folio MS.. deJcribed in the preface, is a very corrupt and defective copy of this ballad, which yet afforded a great improvement in one pallage See v. 310.

It has been a much eafter talk to fettle the text of this poem, than to afcertain its date The Ballad of the NUTBROWNE MAYD was first revived in "The Mufes Mercury for June, 1707." 4to. being prefaced with a litle "Efay on the "old English Poets and Poetry:" in which this poem is concluded to be near 300 years old," upon reafons aubich, though they appear inconclufive to us now, were fufficient to determine Prior; who there firft met with it. However, this opinion had the approbation of the learned WANLEY, an excellent judge of ancient books. For that whatever related to the reprinting of this old piece was referred to

*This (which my friend Mr. Farmer fuppofes to be the first Edition) is in folio: the folios are numbered at the bottom of the leaf: the Song begins at folio 75. The Poem has fince been collated with a very fine copy that quas in the collection of the late James Weft, Efq; the readings extracted thence are denoted thus Mr. W Wanley,

Wanley, appears from two letters of Prior's preferved in the British Museum [Harl. MSS. N° 3777-] The Editor of the Prolufions thinks it cannot be older than the year 1500, becaufe, in Sir Thomas More's Tale of THE SERJEANT, &c. which was written about that time, there appears a fameness of rythmus and orthography, and a very near affinity of words and phrafes, with th fe of this ballad. But this reafoning is not conclufive; for if Sir Thomas More made this ballad his model, as is very likely, that will account for the fameness of measure, and in fome refpect for that of words and phrafes, even tho' this had been written long before: and, as for the orthography, it is well known that the old Printers reduced that of moft books to the fandard of their own times. Indeed it is hardly probable that an antiquary like Arnolde would have inferted it among his hiftorical Collections, if it had been then a modern piece; at least he would have been apt to have named its author. But to fhew how little can be inferred from a refemblance of rhythmus or ftyle, the editor of thefe volumes has in his ancient folio MS. a poem on the victory of Flodden· field, written in the fame numbers, with the fame allitera· tions, and in orthography, phraseology, and ftyle nearly refembling the Vifions of Pierce Plowman, which are yet known to have been composed above 160 years before that battle. As this poem is a great curiofity, we shall give a few of the introductory lines :

"Grant gracious God, grant me this time,

"That I may fay, or I cease, thy felven to please; "And Mary his mother, that maketh this world; "And all the feemlie faints, that fitten in heaven ; "I will carpe of kings, that conquered full wide, "That dwelled in this land, that was alyes noble; "Henry the feventh, that foveraigne lord, &c." With regard to the date of the following ballad, we have taken a middle course, neither placed it fo high as Wanley and Prior, nor quite fo low as the editor of the Prolufions: we fhould have followed the latter in dividing every other line into two, but that the whole would then have taken up more room than could be allowed it in this volume.

BE