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, 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, 200 205 210 215 220 Then Then clasping both her new-found fons, She bath'd their cheeks with tears; Her joyful course she steers. What pen can paint king Pepin's joy, 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: 230 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, Than was he glad without fayle, Out of his mouthe of venim ftrong, It was venymous y-wis. *See above pag. 104 & p. 214. This feems to be meant by the dragon of Wantley's flink, Ever free as whan he began: He thought he would, wyth fome wyle, 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, This dragon had two furious wings, 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 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. |