Since nothing bot Gill Morice head Thy jelous rage could quell, To me nae after days nor nichts I'll fill the air with heavy fighs, And greet till I am blind. Enouch of blood by me's bin fpilt, Seek not zour death frae mee; I rather lourd it had been my Than eather him or thee. 185 190 fel With waefo wae I hear zour plaint; Sair, fair I rew the deid, That eir this curfed hand of mine Had gard his body bleid. Dry up zour tears, my winfome dame, Ze neir can heal the wound; Ze fee his head upon the speir, I curfe the hand that did the deid, The feet that bore me wi' filk fpeid, The comely zouth to kill. 195 200 I'll ay lament for Gill Morice, As gin he were mine ain; 205 I'll neir forget the dreiry day On which the zouth was flain. ** This little pathetic tale fuggefted the plot of the tragedy of DOUGLAS. Since it was firft printed, the Editor has been affured that the foregoing Ballad is ftill current in many parts of Scotland, where the hero is univerfally known by the name of CHILD MAURICE, pronounced by the common people CHEILD or CHEELD; which occafioned the mistake. It may be proper to mention that other copies read ver. 110. thus: "Shot frae the golden fun." And ver. 116. as follows : "His een like azure fheene." RELIDUES OF ANCIENT POETRY, &c. SERIES THE THIRD. BOOK II. I. THE LEGEND OF SIR GUY contains a short fummary of the exploits of this famous champion, as recorded in the old ftory books; and is commonly intitled, "A pleafant fong of the valiant deeds "of chivalry atchieved by that noble knight fir Guy of "Warwick, who, for the love of fair Phelis, became a hermit, "hermit, and dyed in a cave of craggy rocke, a mile "diftant from Warwick." The biftory of fir Guy, tho' now very properly refigned to children, was once admired by all readers of it and tafte: for tafte and wit had once their childhood. Although of English growth, it was early a favourite with other nations: it appeared in French in 1525; and is a'luded in the old Spanish romance Tirante el blanco, which, it is believed, was written not long after the year 1430. See advertifement to the French translation, 2 vols. 12mo. to The original whence all thefe ft ries are extracted is a very ancient romance in old English verfe, which is quoted by Chaucer as a celebrated piece even in his time, (viz. "Men fpeken of romances of price, 66 Of Horne childe and [ppotis, 66 Of Bevis, and fir Guy, &c. R of Thop.) and was ufually fung to the harp at Christmas dinners and brideales, as we learn from Puttenham's Art of Poetry, 4to. 1589. This ancient romance is not wholly loft. copy in black letter, "Imprynted at London 66 An imperfect for Wylliam Copland," in 34 Sheets 4to. without date, is ftill preferved among Mr. Garrick's collection of old plays. As a fpecimen of the poetry of this antique rhymer, take his defcription of the dragon mentioned in ver. 10s of the following ballad: "A meffenger came to the king. 66 Syr king, he fayd, lyften me now, "For there dare no man route, "By twenty myle rounde aboute, "For doubt of a fowle dragon, "That fleath men an beaftes done. “He is blacke as any cole, "His bodye from the navill upwarde H 3 "His "His neck is great as any fummere; "All that he toucheth he fleath dead downe. Ywis of none never heard ye.' Sir William Dugdale is of opinion that the ftory of Guy is not wholly apocryphal, tho' he acknowledges the monks have founded out his praifes too hyperbolically. In particular, he gives the duel fought with the Danish champion as a real historical truth, and fixes the date of it in the year 926, Etat. Guy, 67. See his Warwickshire. The following is written upon the fame plan as ballad V, Book I. but which is the original and which the copy, cannot be decided. This fong is ancient, as may be inferred from the idiom preferved in the margin, ver. 94. 102: and was once popular, as appears from Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Peftle, Act 2.fc. ult. It is here published from an ancient MS. copy in the Editor's old folio volume, collated with two printed ones, one of which is in black letter in the Pepys collection. W 'AS ever knight for ladyes fake For Phelis fayre, that lady bright As ever man beheld with eye? |