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Be not dismayed; whatsoever I sayd to you whan I began, I wyl not too the grene wod goo; I am no noo banysshyd

man.

She.

Theis tidingis be more glad to me than to be made a quene, Yf I were sure they shuld endure; but it is often seen, When men wyl breke promyse, they speke the wordis on the splene. 165

Ye shape some wyle me to begyle, and stele fro me I wene ; Then were the case wurs than it was, and I more woo

begone;

For, in my mynde, of all mankynde I love but you alone.

He.

Ye shal not nede further to drede: I wyl not dispage;
You God defende, sith you descende of so grete a lynage; 170
Now understonde, to Westmerlande, whiche is my herytage,
I wyl you bringe, and wyth a rynge, be wey of maryage,
I wyl you take, and lady make, as shortly as I can ;
Thus have ye wone an erles son, and not a banysshyd man.

Here may ye see, that wymen be in love, meke, kinde, and stable:

175

Late never man repreve them than, or calle them variable; But rather prey God that we may to them be comfort

able,

Whiche somtyme provyth suche as loveth, yf they be charitable.

Ver. 169. Dysparage.
Ver. 178. As he loveth.

For sith men wolde that wymen sholde be meke to them

eche on,

Moche more ought they to God obey, and serve but hym alone *.

It is highly probable that this fine old poem was written very shortly after the scene which it commemorates took place, and whilst its singularly interesting result was yet rife amongst the inhabitants of the adjacent district. It may, therefore, without deviating perhaps much from the mark, be attributed to the year 1485, when Henry of Lancaster mounted the throne of these kingdoms. But who the minstrel was, who has thus, in strains of exquisite feeling, so sweetly sung of female truth and constancy, has hitherto escaped all research. he was certainly a stranger to Arnold in 1502, we may conclude him to have been some obscure and nameless bard of the north of England-some

66

As

youth to fortune and to fame unknown;" but

It will be immediately perceived, that not only occasionally in its readings, but throughout in its spelling, this first edition of the Nut-brown Maid differs from the copy which Dr. Percy followed in his Reliques. With the exception of marking the speakers at the head of each stanza, and now and then interposing a comma, I have faithfully adhered to the original.

who evidently possessed not only great knowledge of the human heart, but skill to picture what he knew.

There is, indeed, so much fidelity to nature in this ballad, in accordance with the situation of the parties, such as the hypothesis I have adopted represents them to be, as to afford strong internal evidence of its direct relation to the peculiar circumstances and character of the Henry lord Clifford who is the subject of the present paper.

We must recollect that this heir of the Cliffords, though from necessity deprived of the education due to his rank, was yet no stranger to the nobility of his birth, a consciousness which would, almost inevitably, give to his bearing and carriage a certain degree of self-confidence and elevation. We also know that he frequently, though secretly, enjoyed the society of his mother, lady Margaret, and of his father-in-law, sir Lancelot; an intercourse which, to those who had the opportunity of familiarly observing him, would insensibly give a polish to his manners that could not fail to be favourably contrasted with the rudeness and rusticity of those who were his daily companions or attendants. If to these features we add, what danger and the ne

cessity of varied disguise and frequent change of place would certainly bring on, a habit of adventure and romantic expedient, and mingle them with what we know him to have possessed, an amiable disposition and a tender heart, we shall have before us a character of no common interest, and in a high degree calculated to make an indelible impression on a bosom so susceptible, faithful, and affectionate, as that of the Nut-brown Maid.

It has been affirmed by a writer in the Censura Literaria, whom I have quoted in a former part of this paper, that to modernize the Nut-brown Maid appeared to him a desideratum; and he tells sir Egerton Brydges, to whom he addresses his remarks, that he should like to see it done by his pen *. I am persuaded, however, that the attempt, whoever might venture upon the task, would not succeed; for who could improve, for instance, such a stanza as is the twentieth of this poem? and there are several others in the same predicament. Prior, we all know, notwithstanding the harmony of his couplets, and the elegancy of his diction, has preserved in his "Henry and Emma," avowedly

* Censura Literaria, vol. vii. p. 98.

founded on this ballad, little or nothing of that exquisite naïveté, and of those touching strokes of nature, which have rendered his original so truly valuable to every lover of simplicity; and such, I have no doubt, will be the result of any future effort to polish and refine what must necessarily, under such a process, fade away, like the fresh dew of morning on the flower when smitten by a scorching sun.

[To be continued.]

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