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But, madam, faid fir Valentine,

And knelt upon his knee;

Know the cloak that wrapt your babe,

If

you

you the fame fhould 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? she said;

He much resembles thee:

The bear devour'd my younger son,

Or fure that fon were he,

Madam, this youth with beares was bred,

And rear'd within their den.

But recollect ye any mark

To know your fon agen?

Upon his little fide, quoth fhe,
Was ftampt 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,
His fifter thus reftor'd;

225

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

230

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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' the fatire is thus general; the fubject of this ballad feems local and peculiar: So that many of the finest strokes of humour are loft for want of our knowing the particular facts T 3

† Collection, 3 vol. 1727.

to which they allude. Thefe we have in vain endeavoured to recover; and are therefore obliged to acquiefce in the common account; namely, that this ballad alludes to a conteft at law between an overgrown Yorkshire attorney and a neighbouring gentleman. The former, it seems, bad ftript three orphans of their inheritance, and by his incroachments and rapacioufnefs was become a nufance to the whole country when the latter generously efpoufed the cause of the oppressed, and gained a complete victory over his antagonist, who with meer Spite and vexation broke his heart.

*

In handling this fubject the Author has brought in moft of the common incidents which occur in Romance. The defcription of the dragon his outrages the people flying to the knight for fuccour his care in chufing his armour-his being dreft for fight by a young damfell—and most of the circumstances of the battle and victory (allowing for the burlefque turn given to them) are what occur in every book of chivalry whether in proje or verse.

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 have I wynne,
And Bevis ftumbled ryght therein.

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Than was he glad without fayle,
And refted a whyle for his avayle;
And dranke of that water his fyll ;
And than be lepte out, with good wyll,
And with Morglay his brande,
He affayled the dragon, I understande:
On the dragon he fmote fo fafte,
Where that he hit 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. 104 & p. 214.

This feems to be meant by the dragon of Wantley's flink,
ver. 110. As the politick knight's creeping out, and attack-
ing the dragon &c. Seems evidently to allude to the following,
Bevis bleffed himselfe, and forth yode,
And lepte out with hafte full good;
And Bevis unto the dragon gone is;
And the dragon alfo to Bevis.
Longe, and harde was that fight
Betwene the dragon, and that knyght:
But ever whan fyr Bevis was hurt fore,
He went to the well, and washed him thore;
He was as hole as any man,

Ever free 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.

Sign. M. jv. L. j. Sc. 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 Some particulars in the defcription of the dragon, &c. feem evidently borrowed from the latter, See Book, 1. Canto 11. where the dragon's two wynges like fayls-huge long tayl— " with ftings his cruel-rending clares -and yron "teeth-his breath of Smothering smoke and fulphur”—and the duration of the fight for upwards of two days, bear a great refemblance to paffages in the following ballad; tho' it must be confeffed that theje particulars are common to all old writers of Romance.

The following ballad appears to have been written late in the last century: at least we have met with none but modern copies; the text is given from one in Roman letter in the Pepys collection, collated with two or three others.

T 4

OLD

ΟΙ

LD ftories tell, how Hercules

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're don't, 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 shoulder;

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 feventy men in his belly?

This dragon was not quite so 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.

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