"What wold ye doe with my harpe," he sayd,' "To playe my wiffe and me a FITT,* "Now sell me," quoth hee, "thy bryde soe gay, As shee sitts by thy knee, And as many gold nobles I will give, "And what wold ye doe with my bryde soe gay, Iff I did sell her thee? More seemlye it is for her fayre bodye To lye by mee then thee." Hee played agayne both loud and shrille, And Adler he did syng, "O ladye, this is thy owne true love; Noe harper, but a kyng. O ladye, this is thy owne true love, 245 250 255 260 The ladye looked, the ladye blushte, While Adler he hath drawne his brande, Up then rose the kemperye men, "Ah! traytors, yee have slayne our kyng, Kyng Estmere threwe the harpe asyde, And Estmere he, and Adler yonge 265 270 * i. e. a tune, or strain of music. See Gloss. Ver. 253. Some liberties have been taken in the following stanzas; but wherever this edition differs from the preceding, it hath been brought nearer to the folio MS. And aye their swordes soe sore can byte, Throughe help of Gramaryè That soone they have slayne the kempery men, Or forst them forth to flee. Kyng Estmere tooke that fayre ladyè, And marryed her to his wiffe, And brought her home to merry Englànd 275 280 The word Gramarye, which occurs several times in the foregoing Poem, is probably a corruption of the French word Grimoire, which signifies a Conjuring Book in the old French Romances, if not the Art of Necromancy itself. ttt Termagaunt (mentioned above in p. 46,) is the name given in the old romances to the God of the Saracens: in which he is constantly linked with Mahound or Mahomet. Thus in the legend of "Syr Guy" the Soudan (Sultan) swears, "So helpe me Mahowne of might, And Termagaunt my God so bright." Sign. p. iij. b. This word is derived by the very learned Editor of Junius from the Anglo-Saxon Týn very, and Magan mighty.-As this word had so sublime a derivation, and was so applicable to the true God, how shall we account for its being so degraded? Perhaps Tyn-mazan or Termagant had been a name originally given to some Saxon idol, before our ancestors were converted to Christianity; or had been the peculiar attribute of one of their false deities; and therefore the first Christian missionaries rejected it as profane and improper to be applied to the true God. Afterwards, when the irruptions of the Saracens into Europe, and the Crusades into the East, had brought them acquainted with a new species of unbelievers, our ignorant ancestors, who thought all that did not receive the Christian law, were necessarily Pagans and Idolaters, supposed the Mahometan creed was in all respects the same with that of their Pagan forefathers, and therefore made no scruple to give the ancient name of Termagant to the God of the Saracens just in the same manner as they afterwards used the name of Sarazen to express any kind of Pagan or Idolater. In the ancient romance of "Merline" (in the editor's folio MS.) the Saxons themselves that came over with Hengist, because they were not Christians, are constantly called Sarazens. However that be, it is certain that, after the times of the Crusades, both Mahound and Termagaunt made their frequent appearance in the Pageants and religious Enterludes of the barbarous ages; in which they were exhibited with gestures so furious and frantic, as to become proverbial. Thus Skelton speaks of Wolsey: "Like Mahound in a play, 66 Ed. 1736, p. 158. In like manner Bale, describing the threats used by some Papist magistrates to his wife, speaks of them as grennyng upon her lyke Termagauntes in a playe." [Actes of Engl. Votaryes, pt. 2. fo. 83. Ed. 1550, 12mo.]-Accordingly in a letter of Edward Alleyn, the founder of Dulwich College, to his wife or sister,* who, it seems, with all her fellows (the players), had been "by my Lorde Maiors officer[s] mad to rid in a cart," he expresses his concern that she should "fall into the hands of suche Tarmagants." [So the orig. dated May 2, 1593, preserved by the care of the Rev. Thomas Jenyns Smith, Fellow of Dulw. Coll.]-Hence we may conceive the force of Hamlet's expression in Shakspeare, where, condemning a ranting player, he says, "I could have such a fellow whipt for ore-doing Termagant: it out-herods Herod." A. 3. sc. 3.-By degrees the word came to be applied to an outrageous turbulent person, and especially to a violent brawling woman; to whom alone it is now confined, and this the rather as, I suppose, the character of Termagant was anciently represented on the stage after the eastern mode, with long robes or petticoats. Another frequent character in the old pageants or enterludes of our ancestors, was the Sowdan or Soldan representing a grim eastern tyrant: This appears from a curious passage in Stow's Annals [p. 458.]-In a stage-play "the people know right well that he that plaieth the Sowdain, is percase a sowter [shoemaker]; yet if one should cal him by his owne name, while he standeth in his majestie, one of his tormentors might hap to break his head." The sowdain, or soldan, was a name given to the Sarazen king (being only a more rude pronunciation of the word sultan), as the soldan of Egypt, the soudan of Persia, the sowdan of Babylon, &c. who were generally represented as accompanied with grim Sarazens, whose business it was to punish and torment Christians. I cannot conclude this short Memoir, without observing that the French romancers, who had borrowed the word Termagant from us, and applied it as we in their old romances, corrupted it into Tervagaunte: And from them La Fontaine took it up, and has used it more than once in his tales.-This may be added to the other proofs adduced in these volumes of the great intercourse that formerly subsisted between the old minstrels and legendary writers of both nations, and that they mutually borrowed each others romances. * See Lysons's "Environs of London," 4to., vol. i. VII. SIR PATRICK SPENCE, A SCOTTISH BALLAD, is given from two MS. copies transmitted from Scotland. In what age the hero of this ballad lived, or when this fatal expedition happened that proved so destructive to the Scots nobles, I have not been able to discover; yet am of opinion, that their catastrophe is not altogether without foundation in history, though it has escaped my own researches. In the infancy of navigation, such as used the northern seas were very liable to shipwreck in the wintry months: hence a law was enacted in the reign of James the III. (a law which was frequently repeated afterwards) "That there be na schip frauched out of the realm with any staple gudes, fra the feast of Simons day and Jude, unto the feast of the purification of our Lady called Candelmess." Jam. III. Parlt. 2. Ch. 15. In some modern copies, instead of Patrick Spence hath been substituted the name of Sir Andrew Wood, a famous Scottish admiral who flourished in the time of our Edw. IV., but whose story hath nothing in common with this of the ballad. As Wood was the most noted warrior of Scotland, it is probable that, like the Theban Hercules, he hath engrossed the renown of other heroes. THE king sits in Dumferling toune, Up and spak an eldern knicht, Sat at the kings richt kne : "Sir Patrick Spence is the best sailòr, 5 The king has written a braid letter,* The first line that Sir Patrick red, The next line that Sir Patrick red, "O, quha is this has don this deid, To send me out this time o' the zeir, Mak hast, mak haste, my mirry men all, Our guid schip sails the morne." "O say na sae, my master deir, Late, late yestreen I saw the new moone O our Scots nobles wer richt laith O lang, lang may thair ladies sit Wi' thair fans into their hand, O lang, lang may the ladies stand Waiting for thair ain deir lords, 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 "A braid Letter," i. e. open, or patent; in opposition to close Rolls. |