Hee sayd, "Rise up, my little foot-page, And give him nowe the good black oates, 140 Up then rose the faire Ellen, And gave his steede corne and haye; And soe shee did the good black oates, To carry him the better awaye. She leaned her back to the manger side, 145 She leaned her back to the manger side, And that beheard his mother deare, Shee heard her woefull woe: 150 Shee sayd, "Rise up, thou Childe Waters, "For in thy stable is a ghost, That grievouslye doth grone; Or else some woman laboures with childe, 155 She sayd, "Lullabye, mine own dear childe, I wolde thy father were a kinge, Thy mothere layde on a biere." V. 164. i. e. moaning, bemoaning, &c. 165 "Peace nowe," hee sayd, "good, faire Ellen, And the bridale and the churchinge bothe 170 We are informed that the German poet Bürger has translated this poem with much grace, and entitles it Graf Walter. Bürger has also translated "King John and the Abbot of Canterbury " as Der Kaiser und der Abt, and "The Child of Elle" as Die Entführung.-Editor. X. Phillida and Corydon. This sonnet is given from a small quarto MS. in the Editor's possession, written in the time of Queen Elizabeth. Another copy of it, containing some variations, is reprinted in the Muses Library, p. 295, from an ancient miscellany entitled England's Helicon, 1600, 4to. The author was Nicholas Breton, a writer of some fame in the reign of Elizabeth, who also published an interlude entitled "An old man's lesson and a young man's love," 4to, and many other little pieces in prose and verse, the titles of which may be seen in Winstanley, Ames' Typog., and Osborne's Harl. Catalog., &c. He is mentioned with great respect by Meres, in his second part of Wit's Commonwealth, 1598, f. 283, and is alluded to in Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornfui Lady, act ii., and again in Wit without Money, act iii.-See Whalley's Ben Jonson, vol. iii. p. 103. The present edition is improved by a copy in England's Helicon, edit. 1614, 8vo. IN the merrie moneth of Maye, When anon by a wood side, Where that Maye was in his pride, Phillida and Corydon. Ver. 4, the wode. MS. 5 He sayde, hee had lovde her longe; ; 10 15 She sayes, "Maydes must kisse no men, "Tyll they doe for good and all.” Then with manie a prettie othe, Love, that had bene long deluded, 20 25 25 **The foregoing little Pastoral of Phillida and Corydon is one of the songs in "The Honourable Entertainment gieven to the Queenes Majestie in Progresse at Elvetham in Hampshire, by the R. H. the Earle of Hertford, 1591," 4to. [Printed by Wolfe. No name of author.] See in that pamphlet, "The thirde daies Entertainment. "On Wednesday morning about 9 o'clock, as her Majestie opened a casement of her gallerie window, ther were 3 excellent musicians, who being disguised in auncient country attire, did greet her with a pleasant song of Corydon and Phillida, made in 3 parts of purpose. The song, as well for the worth of the dittie, as the aptnesse of the note therto applied, it pleased her Highnesse after it had been once sung to command it againe, and highly to grace it with her cheerefull acceptance and commendation. "THE PLOWMAN'S SONG. "In the merrie month of May," &c. The splendour and magnificence of Elizabeth's reign is nowhere more strongly painted than in these little diaries of some of her summer excursions to the houses of her nobility; nor could a more acceptable present be given to the world than a republication of a select number of such details as this of the entertainment at Elvetham, that at Killingworth, &c., &c., which so strongly mark the spirit of the times, and present us with scenes so very remote from modern manners. Since the above was written the public hath been gratified with a most complete work on the foregoing subject, entitled, The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, &c. By John Nichols, F.A.S., Edinb. and Perth, 1788, 2 vols. 4to. XI. Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard. This ballad is ancient, and has been popular; we find it quoted in many old plays.-See Beaum. and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, 4to, 1613, act v. The Varietie, a comedy, 12mo, 1649, act iv., &c. In Sir William Davenant's play, The Witts, act iii., a gallant thus boasts of himself: "Limber and sound! besides I sing Musgrave, And for Chevy-chace no lark comes near me." In the Pepys Collection, vol. iii. p. 314, is an imitation of this old song, in thirty-three stanzas, by a more modern pen, with many alterations, but evidently for the worse. This is given from an old printed copy in the British Museum, with corrections; some of which are from a fragment in the Editor's folio MS. It is also printed in Dryden's Collection of Miscellaneous Poems As it fell out on a highe holye daye, When young men and maides together do goe, Little Musgrave came to the church door, The priest was at the mass; But he had more mind of the fine women, 5 And some of them were clad in greene, And others were clad in pall; 10 And then came in my Lord Barnardes wife, The fairest among them all. Shee cast an eye on little Musgrave As bright as the summer sunne : Quoth she, "I have loved thee, little Musgrave, "So have I loved you, ladye faire, Yet word I never durst saye." "I have a bower at Bucklesford-Bury,1 If thoult wend thither, my little Musgrave, Quoth hee, "I thanke yee, ladye faire, 25 And whether it be to my weale or woe, All this beheard a litle foot-page, By his ladyes coach as he ranne: 30 Quoth he, "Thoughe I am my ladyes page, Yet Ime my Lord Barnardes manne. 66 My Lord Barnard shall knowe of this, And ever whereas the bridges were broke, 35 "Asleep or awake, thou Lord Barnard, As thou art a man of life; Lo! this same night at Bucklesford-Bury Little Musgrave's abed with thy wife." 40 "If it be trew, thou litle foote-page, This tale thou hast told to mee, Then all my lands in Bucklesford-Bury I freelye will give to thee. “But and it be a lye, thou litle foot-page, On the highest tree in Bucklesford-Bury 1 Bucklefield-berry. fol. MS. 45 |