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And we wyll do the same;
And kepe not style

That nought ye wyle

That haith so evell a name.

V.

CAPTAIN CAR.

The elegant editor of the "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry" has inserted in that collection a Scotish ballad, entitled "Edom o' Gordon," printed at Glasgow in 1755; but "improved, and enlarged with several fine stanzas, recovered from a fragment of the same ballad in 'his' folio MS." and by him "clothed in the Scotish orthography and idiom." Of the ballad to which the above fragment appears to have belonged, the reader is here presented with an entire ancient copy, the undoubted original of the Scotish ballad, and one of the few specimens now extant of the genuine proper Old English Ballad, as composed-not by a Grub-street author for the stalls of London, but to be chanted up and down the kingdom by the wandering minstrels of "the North Countrie." This curiosity is preserved in a miscellaneous collection in the Cotton Library, marked Vespasian, A. xxv. At the top of the original stands the word Jhus (Jesus), and at the end is Finis P me Willm Asheton Clericu: the name and quality, we may presume, of the original author. The MS. having received numerous alterations or corrections, all or most of which are evidently for the better, they are here adopted as part of the text. The historical fact which gave occasion to, and forms the subject of, the following ballad, and which happened in the year 1571, may be found both in archbishop Spotswoods History (an extract of which is given in the later editions of Percy), and in the Memoirs published by Crawford of Drumsoy.

Dr. Percy is of opinion, that "from the different titles of this ballad

the old strolling bards or minstrels made no scruple of changing

the names of the personages they introduced, to humour the hearers." If such a practice ever prevailed, it is very certain that the present ballad affords no instance of it, as in fact CAR (or, according to the Scotish orthography, KER) was actually sent with a party by sir ADAM GORDON, who commanded for the Queen, as deputy to his brother the earl of Huntley, to summon the castle of Towy or Tavoy (here called Crecrynbroghe), belonging to Alexander Forbes (here called the lord Hamleton), and which, instead of surrendering, was resolutely defended by his lady, who gave Car very injurious language. Now though it does not appear that his barbarity-for he actually set fire to the castle, and burnt therein the lady and her whole family, to the amount in all of thirty-seven persons was authorised (if indeed it could have been authorised) by any previous orders, yet as he was never called to any account for it, the infamy of the transaction naturally extended to Gordon, who from the superiority of his station might even be considered as the greater criminal; and as he was, at the same time, better known, his name was naturally substituted by the Scotish minstrels for that of his subordinate officer.

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"To the castle of Crecrynbroghe,

And there we will take our reste."

"I knowe wher is a gay castle,
Is build of lyme and stone,
Within there' is a gay ladie,
Her lord is ryd from hom."

10

The ladie lend on her castle-walle,

She loked upp and downe,

There was she ware of an host of men,
Come riding to the towne.

"Com yow hether, my meri men all,

And look what I do see;

Yonder is ther an host of men,

I musen who they bee."

She thought he had been her own wed lord,

That had comd riding home;

Then was it traitour captaine Care,

The lord of Ester-towne.

They were no soner at supper sett,
Then after said the grace,

Or captaine Care and all his men

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Wer lighte aboute the place.

Gyve over thi howsse, thou lady gay,
And I will make the a bande,
To-nighte thoust ly wythin my arm[es],
To-morrowe thou shall ere my lan[de].”

Then bespacke the eldest sonne,

That was both whitt and redde,

O mother dere, geve over your howsse,
Or elles we shal be deade.

20

30

I will not geve over my hous, she saithe,
Not for feare of my lyffe,

It shal be talked throughout the land

The slaughter of a wyffe.

"Fetche me my pestilett,

And charge me my gonne,

That I

may shott at 'the' bloddy butcher,

The lord of Easter-towne."

She styfly stod on her castle-wall,

And lett the pellettes flee,

She myst the blody bucher,

And slew other three.

"I will not geve over my hous," she saithe, "Netheir for lord nor lowne,

Nor yet for traitour captaine Care,

The lord of Easter-towne.

I desire of captaine Care,

And all his bloddye band,

That he would save my eldest sonne,
The eare of all my lande."

"Lap him in a shete," he sayth,

"And let him downe to me,

And I shall take him in my armes,

His waran wyll I be."

40

50

60

The captayne sayd unto himselfe,
Wyth sped before the rest :
He cut his tonge out of his head,
His hart out of his brest.

He lapt them in a handkerchef,
And knet it of knotes three,
And cast them over the castell-wall
At that gay ladye.

"Fye upon thee, captayne Care,

And all thy bloddy band,

For thou hast slayne my

eldest sonne,

The ayre of all my land."

Then bespake the yongest sonn,

That sat on the nurses knee,

Sayth, mother gay, geve over your house,
[The smoke] it smoldereth me.

I wold geve my gold, she saith,
And so I wolde my fee,

For a blaste of the western' wind
To dryve the smoke from thee.

"Fy upon the, John Hamleton,
That ever I paid the hyre,

For thou hast broken my castle-wall,

And kyndled in 'it' fyre."

[V. 79. wesleyn.]

[V. 84. thee.]

70

80

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