But, madam, faid fir Valentine,

And knelt upon his knee;

Know you the cloak that wrapt your babe,
If you the fame should fee?

And pulling forth the cloth of gold,

In which himself was found;

The lady gave a fudden shriek,
And fainted on the ground.

But by his pious care reviv'd,

His tale fhe heard anon ;
And foon by other tokens found,

He was indeed her fon.

But who's this hairy youth? fhe faid;

He much refembles thée :

The bear devour'd my younger fon,

Or fure that fon were he.

Madam, this youth with bears was bred,

And rear'd within their den.

But recollect ye any mark

To know your fon agen?

Upon his little fide, quoth the,
Was stampt a bloody rose.

Here, lady, fee the crimfon mark
Upon his body grows!

200

205

210

215

220

Then

Then clasping both her new-found fons

She bath'd their cheeks with tears;
And foon towards her brother's court
Her joyful course she steers.

What pen can paint king Pepin's joy,

225

His fifter thus restor'd!

And foon a meffenger was fent

To chear her drooping lord:

Who came in hafte with all his peers,
To fetch her home to Greece;

230

Where many happy years they reign'd
In perfect love and peace.

*

This humorous fong (as a former Editor has well obferved) is to old metrical romances and ballads of chivalry, what Don Quixote is to profe narratives of that kind: a lively fatire on their extravagant fictions. But altho' *Collection of Hiftorical Ballads in 3 vol. 1727.

the

the fatire is thus general, the fubject of this ballad is local and peculiar; fo that many of the finest strokes of humour are loft for want of our knowing the minute circumftances to which they allude. Many of them can hardly now be recovered, altho' we have been fortunate enough to learn the gcneral fubject to which the fatire referred, and fhall detail the information, with which we have been favoured, in a Separate memoir at the end of the poem.

*

In handling his fubject, the Author has brought in most of the common incidents which occur in Romance. The defeription of the dragon his outrages the people fying to the knight for fuccour-his care in chufing his armour-his being dreft for fight by a young damfel-and moft of the circumftances of the battle and victory (allowing for the burlefque turn given to them) are what occur in every book of chivalry, whether in profe or verfe.

If any one piece, more than other, is more particularly levelled at, it feems to be the old rhiming legend of fir Bevis. There a DRAGON is attacked from a WELL in a manner not very remote from this of the ballad:

There was a well, fo bave I wynne,

And Bevis ftumbled ryght therein.

Than was he glad without fayle,
And refied a whyle for his avayle;
And dranke of that water his fyll;
And than be lette out, with good wyll,
And with Morglay his brande
He affayled the dragon, I underftande:
On the dragon he fmote fo fafte,
Where that he bit the fcales brafte:
The dragon then faynted fore,
And caft a galon and more
Out of his mouthe of venim ftrong,
And on fyr Bevis he it flong:

It was venymous y-wis.

*See above pag. 100, 101. & p.217.

is ;

This feems to be meant by the Dragon of Wantley's flink,
ver. 110. As the politick knight's creeping out, and attacking
the dragon &c. feems evidently to allude to the following:
Bevis blefed himselfe, and forth yode,
And lepte out with bafte full good;
And Bevis unto the dragon gone
And the dragon also to Bevis.
Longe, and harde was that fyght
Betwene the dragon, and that knyght:
But ever whan fyr Bevis was hurt fore,
He went to the well, and washed him there;
He was as hole as any man,

Ever freshe as whan he began.
The dragon fawe it might not avayle
Befyde the well to hold batayle;
He thought he would wyth fome wyle,
Out of that place Bevis begyle;
He woulde have flowen then awaye,
But Bevis lepte after with good Morglaye,
And byt him under the wynge,
As he was in his flyenge, &c.

66

Sign. M. jv. L. j. &c. After all, perhaps the writer of this ballad was acquainted with the above incidents only thro' the medium of Spenfer, who has affumed most of them in his Faery Queen. At leaft fome particulars in the defcription of the Dragon, &c. feem evidently borrowed from the latter. See Book I. Canto 11. where the Dragon's to wynges like fayls-buge long tayl-with ftings-his cruel rending claves--and yron teeth-his breath of finothering Smoke and fulphur" and the duration of the fight for upwards of two days, bear a great refemblance to paffages in the following ballad; though it must be confelfed that thefe particulars are common to all old writers of Romance.

66

Altho' this Ballad muft have been written early in the laft century, we have met with none but fuch as were comparatively modern copies. It is here printed from one in Roman letter, in the Pepys Collection, collated with fuch others as could be procured.

OLD

5

LD ftories tell, how Hercules

ΟΙ

A dragon flew at Lerna,

With feven heads, and fourteen eyes,

To fee and well difcern-a:

But he had a club, this dragon to drub,
Or he had ne'er done it, I warrant ye:
But More of More-Hall, with nothing at all,
He flew the dragon of Wantley.

This dragon had two furious wings,

Each one upon each fhoulder;

With a fting in his tayl, as long as a flayl,

Which made him bolder and bolder.

He had long claws, and in his jaws

Four and forty teeth of iron;

10

With a hide as tough, as any buff,

15

Which did him round environ.

Have you not heard how the Trojan horse
Held seventy men in his belly?

This dragon was not quite fo big,

But very near, I'll tell ye.

Devoured he poor children three,

That could not with him grapple; And at one fup he eat them up,

As one would eat an apple.