*** The word Gramarye, which occurs several times in the foregoing Poem, is probably a corruption of the French word Grimoire, which signifies a Conjuring Book in the old French Romances, if not the Art of Necromancy itself.

†† Termagaunt (mentioned above in p. 48) is the name given in the old romances to the God of the Saracens : in which he is constantly linked with Mahound or Mahomet. Thus in the legend of Syr Guy, the Soudan (Sultan) swears,

'So helpe me Mahowne of might,
And Termagaunt my God so bright.'

Sign. p. iij. b.

This word is derived by the very learned Editor of Junius from the AngloSaxon Tyn very, and Magan mighty.- -As this word had so sublime a derivation, and was so applicable to the true God, how shall we account for its being so degraded? Perhaps Tyn-magan or Termagant had been a name originally given to some Saxon idol, before our ancestors were converted to Christianity; or had been the peculiar attribute of one of their false deities; and therefore the first Christian missionaries rejected it as profane and improper to be implied to the true God. Afterwards, when the irruptions of the Saracens into Europe, and the Crusades into the East, had brought them acquainted with a new species of unbelievers, our ignorant ancestors, who thought all that did not receive the Christian law, were necessarily Pagans and Idolaters, supposed the Mahometan creed was in all respects the same with that of their Pagan forefathers, and therefore made no scruple to give the ancient name of Termagant to the God of the Saracens : just in the same manner as they afterwards used the name of Saracen to express any kind of Pagan or Idolater. In the ancient romance of Merline (in the editor's folio MS.) the Saxons themselves that came over with Hengist, because they were not Christians, are constantly called Saracens.

However that be, it is certain that, after the times of the Crusades, both Mahound and Termagaunt made their frequent appearance in the Pageants and religious Enterludes of the barbarous ages; in which they were exhibited with gestures so furious and frantic, as to become proverbial. Thus Skelton speaks of Wolsey:

'Like Mahound in a play,
No man dare him withsay.'

เ

Ed. 1736, p. 158.

In like manner Bale, describing the threats used by some Papist magistrates to his wife, speaks of them as grennyng upon her lyke Termagauntes in a playe' [Actes of Engl. Votaryes, pt. 2, fo. 83, Ed. 1550. 12mo.]-Accordingly in a letter of Edward Alleyn, the founder of Dulwich College, to his wife, who, it seems, with all her fellows (the players), had been 'by my Lorde Maiors officer [s] mad to rid in a cart,' he expresses his concern that she should fall into the hands of such Tarmagants.' [So the orig. dated May 2, 1593, preserved by the care of the Rev. Thomas Jenyns Smith, Fellow of Dullw. Coll.]-Hence we may conceive the force of Hamlet's expression in Shakspeare, where, condemning a ranting player, he says, 'I could have such a fellow whipt for ore-doing Termagant: it out-herods Herod.' A. 3, sc. 3. -By degrees the word came to be applied to an outrageous turbulent person, and especially to a violent brawling woman; to whom alone it is now con

fined, and this the rather as, I suppose, the character of Termagant was anciently represented on the stage after the eastern mode, with long robes or petticoats.

Another frequent character in the old pageants or enterludes of our ancestors, was the sowdan or soldan representing a grim eastern tyrant: This appears from a curious passage in Stow's Annals [p. 458.]—In a stage-play 'the people know right well that he that plaieth the sowdain, is percase a sowter [shoe-maker]; yet if one should cal him by his owne name, while he standeth in his majestie, one of his tormentors might hap to break his head.' The sowdain, or soldan, was a name given to the Saracen king (being only a more rude pronunciation of the word sultan), as the soldan of Egypt, the soudan of Persia, the sowdan of Babylon, &c. who were generally represented as accompanied with grim Saracens, whose business it was to punish and torment Christians.

I cannot conclude this short Memoir, without observing that the French romancers, who had borrowed the word Termagant from us, and applied it as we in their old romances, corrupted it into Tervagaunte: And from them La Fontaine took it up, and has used it more than once in his tales.This may be added to the other proofs adduced in these volumes of the great intercourse that formerly subsisted between the old minstrels and legendary writers of both nations, and that they mutually borrowed each others romances.

VII.

SIR PATRICK SPENCE,1

A SCOTTISH BALLAD,

-is given from two MS. copies transmitted from Scotland. In what age the hero of this ballad lived, or when this fatal expedition happened that proved so destructive to the Scots nobles, I have not been able to discover; yet am of opinion, that their catastrophe is not altogether without foundation in history, though it has escaped my own researches. In the infancy of navigation, such as used the northern seas were very liable to shipwreck in the wintry months: hence a law was enacted in the reign of James the III. (a law which was frequently repeated afterwards) That there be na schip frauched out of the realm with any staple gudes, fra the feast of Simons day and Jude, unto the feast of the purification of our Lady called Candelmess.' Jam. III. Parlt. 2, Ch. 15.

1

เ

There is a fuller copy of this in Scott's Border Minstrelsy. Margaret, daughter of Alexander III., was married to Eric, son of the king of Norway. Her daughter Margaret, called the Maid of Norway, fell heir to the Scottish Crown at Alexander's death; but died at Orkney on her way to Scotland. Sir P. Spence is supposed to have been sent to bring her back.-ED.

In some modern copies, instead of Patrick Spence hath been substituted the name of Sir Andrew Wood, a famous Scottish admiral who flourished in the time of our Edw. IV. but whose story hath nothing in common with this of the ballad. As Wood was the most noted warrior of Scotland, it is probable that, like the Theban Hercules, he hath engrossed the renown of other heroes.

THE king sits in Dumferling toune,
Drinking the bluid-reid wine:

Up and spak an eldern knicht,
Sat at the king's richt kne:

'Sir Patrick Spence is the best sailòr,
That sails
upon the se.'

The king has written a braid letter,1
And signed it wi' his hand;

And sent it to Sir Patrick Spence,

Was walking on the sand.

5

10

The first line that Sir Patrick red,

A loud lauch lauched he:

The next line that Sir Patrick red,

The teir blinded his ee.

O, quha is this has don this deid,

This ill deid don to me;

To send me out this time o' the yeir,
To sail upon the se?

Mak hast, mak haste, my mirry men all,
Our guid schip sails the morne.'

'O say na sae, my master deir,

For I feir a deadlie storme.

1 1 A braid Letter, i.e. open, or patent; in opposition to close Rolls.

Late, late yestreen I saw the new moone
Wi' the auld moone in hir arme;
And I feir, I feir, my deir mastèr,
That we will com to harme.'

O our Scots nobles wer richt laith
To weet their cork-heild schoone;
Bot lang owre a' the play wer playd,
Thair hats they swam aboone.

O lang, lang, may thair ladies sit
Wi' thair fans into their hand,
Or eir they se Sir Patrick Spence
Cum sailing to the land.

O lang, lang, may the ladies stand
Wi' thair gold kems in their hair,
Waiting for thair ain deir lords,

For they'll se thame na mair.

Have owre, have owre to Aberdour,1
It's fiftie fadom deip:

And thair lies guid Sir Patrick Spence,
Wi' the Scots lords at his feit.2

25

30

35

40

VIII.

ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE.

WE have here a ballad of Robin Hood (from the Editor's folio MS.) which was never before printed, and carries marks of much greater antiquity than any of the common popular songs on this subject.

1 A village lying upon the river Forth, the entrance to which is sometimes denominated De mortuo mari.-2 An ingenious friend thinks the Author of Hardyknute has borrowed several expressions and sentiments from the foregoing, and other old Scottish songs in this collection.

The severity of those tyrannical forest-laws, that were introduced by our Norman kings, and the great temptation of breaking them by such as lived near the royal forests, at a time when the yeomanry of this kingdom were every where trained up to the long-bow, and excelled all other nations in the art of shooting, must constantly have occasioned great numbers of outlaws, and especially of such as were the best marksmen. These naturally fled to the woods for shelter; and, forming into troops, endeavoured by their numbers to protect themselves from the dreadful penalties of their delinquency. The ancient punishment for killing the king's deer was loss of eyes and castration, a punishment far worse than death. This will easily account for the troops of banditti which formerly lurked in the royal forests, and, from their superior skill in archery and knowledge of all the recesses of those unfrequented solitudes, found it no difficult matter to resist or elude the civil power.

Among all those, none was ever more famous than the hero of this ballad, whose chief residence was in Shirewood forest, in Nottinghamshire; and the heads of whose story, as collected by Stow, are briefly these.

'In this time [about the year 1190, in the reign of Richard I.] were many robbers, and outlawes, among the which Robin Hood, and Little John, renowned theeves, continued in woods, despoyling and robbing the goods of the rich. They killed none but such as would invade them; or by resistance for their own defence.

'The saide Robert entertained an hundred tall men and good archers with such spoiles and thefts as he got, upon whom four hundred (were they ever so strong) durst not give the onset. He suffered no woman to be oppressed, violated, or otherwise molested: poore mens goods he spared, abundantlie relieving them with that which by theft he got from abbeys and the houses of rich earles whom Maior (the historian) blameth for his rapine and theft, but of all theeves he affirmeth him to be the prince, and the most gentle theefe.' Annals, p. 159.

The personal courage of this celebrated outlaw, his skill in archery, his humanity, and especially his levelling principle of taking from the rich and giving to the poor, have in all ages rendered him the favourite of the common people, who, not content to celebrate his memory by innumerable songs and stories, have erected him into the dignity of an earl. Indeed, it is not impossible, but our hero, to gain the more respect from his followers, or they to derive the more credit to their profession, may have given rise to such a report themselves for we find it recorded in an epitaph, which, if genuine, must have been inscribed on his tombstone near the nunnery of Kirklees in Yorkshire; where (as the story goes) he was bled to death by a treacherous nun to whom he applied for phlebotomy.

:

1 Hear undernead dis laitl stean
laiz robert earl of huntingtun
nea arcir ver az hie sae geud
an pipl kauld im Robin Heud
sick utlawz as hi an is men
vil England nivir si agen,

obiit 24 kal. dekembris, 1247.

This Epitaph appears to me suspicious; however, a late Antiquary has

1 See Thoresby's Ducat. Leod. p. 576. Biog. Brit. VI. 3933.