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XVI.

AS YE CAME FROM THE HOLY LAND.

DIALOGUE BETWEEN A PILGRIM AND TRAVELLER.

The Scene of this fong is the fame, as in num. XIV, The pilgrimage to Walfingham fuggefted the plan of many popular pieces. In the Pepys collection, Vol. I. p. 226, is a kind of Interlude in the old ballad ftyle, of which the first ftanza alone is worth reprinting,

As I went to Walfingham,
To the fhrine with speede,
Met I with a jolly palmer
In a pilgrimes weede.

Now God you fave, you jolly palmer!
"Welcome, lady gay,

"Oft have. I fued to thee for love."
-Oft have I faid you nay.

The pilgrimages undertaken on pretence of religion, were often productive of affairs of gallantry, and led the votaries to no other forine than that of Venus

*

The following ballad was once very popular; it is quoted in Fletcher's "Knt. of the burning pestle," Act 2. c. ult. and in another old play, called, "Hans Beer-pot, his invifible Comedy, c." 4to, 1618; At I.-The copy below was communicated to the Editor by the late Mr. Shenstone as corrected by him from an ancient MS, and fupplied with a concluding stanza.

We

Even in the time of Langland, pilgrimages to Wallingham were not unfavourable to the rites of Venus. Thus in bis Vifions of Pierce Plowman, fo. I.

Wermets on a heape. with hoked staves,

Wenten so Walsingham and her I wenches after.

ti. e. their.

We have placed this, and GENTLE HERDSMAN, C. thus early in the volume, upon a prefumption that they must have been written, if not before the diffolution of the monafteries, yet while the remembrance of them was fresh in the minds of the people.

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"How fhould I know your true love,

"That have met many a one, "As I came from the holy land, "That have both come, and gone ?”

My love is neither white *, nor browne,
But as the heavens faire;

There is none hath her form divine,

Either in earth, or ayre,

"Such an one did I meet, good fir,

"With an angelicke face; "Who like a nymphe, a queene appeard "Both in her gait, her grace."

Yes: The hath cleane forfaken me,

And left me all alone;

Who fome time loved me as her life,

And called me her owne.

* fc. pale.

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"What is the caufe fhe leaves thee thus,

"And a new way doth take,

"That fome time loved thee as her life,

"And thee her joy did make ?"

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XVII.

HARDY KNUT E.

A SCOTTISH

FRAGMENT.

As this fine morfel of heroic poetry hath generally paft for ancient, it is here thrown to the end of our earliest pieces; that fuch as doubt of its age, may the better compare it with other pieces of genuine antiquity. For after all, there is more than reafon to fufpect, that most of its beauties are of modern date; and that thefe at least (if not its whole exiftence) have flowed from the pen of a lady, within this prefent century. The following particulars may be depended on. One Mrs. Wardlaw, whose maiden name was Halket (aunt to the late Sir Peter Halket of Pitferran in Scotland, who was killed in America along with general Bradock in 1755) pretended fhe had found this poem, written on freds of paper, employed for what is called the bottoms of clues. A fufpicion arofe that it was her own compofition. Some able judges afferted it to be modern. The lady did in a manner acknowledge it to be fo. Being defired to fhew an additional ftanza, as a proof of this, he produced the three laft beginning with "Loud and fchrill," &c. which were not in the copy that was firft printed, The late Lord Prefident Forbes, and Sir Gilbert Elliot of Minto (late Lord Justice Clerk for Scotland) who had believed it ancient, contributed to the expence of publishing the firft Edition, which came out in folio about the year 1720.-This account is tranfmitted from Scotland by a gentleman of diftinguished rank, learning, and genius, who yet is of opinion, that part of the ballad may be ancient; but retouched and much enlarged by the lady abovementioned. Indeed he hath been informed, that the late William Thompson, the Scottish musician, who published

published the ORPHEUS CALEDONIUS, 1733, 2 vols. 8vo. declared he had heard fragments of it repeated during his infancy; before ever Mrs. Wardlaw's copy was heard

of.

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Full thirtein fons to him scho bare,

All men of valour flout;

In bluidy ficht with fword in hand
Nyne loft their lives bot doubt:
Four zit remain, lang may they live

To ftand by liege and land;

Hie was their fame, hie was their micht,

And hie was their command.

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