O fay not foe, thou holy friar ;
I pray thee, fay not foe:

For fince my true-love dyed for mee, 'Tis meet my tears fhould flow.

55

And will he ne'er come again?

Will he ne'er come again ?

Ah! no, he is dead and laid in his grave,

For ever to remain.

His cheek was redder than the rofe;

The comlieft youth was he!

But he is dead and laid in his

grave:

Alas, and woe is me!

Sigh no more, lady, figh no more,

Men were deceivers ever:

One foot on fea and one on land,

To one thing constant never.

Hadft thou been fond, he had been falfe,
And left thee fad and heavy;

For young men ever were fickle found,
Since fummer trees were leafy.

Now fay not fo, thou holy friar,

I pray thee fay not foe:

60

65

7༠

My love he had the trueft heart

75

O he was ever true!

And

And art thou dead, thou much-lov'd youth,

And didst thou dye for mee?

Then farewell home; for ever-more

A pilgrim I will bee.

But first upon my true-loves grave
My weary limbs I'll lay,

And thrice I'll kifs the green-grafs turf,
That wraps his breathlefs clay.

Yet ftay, fair lady; reft awhile
Beneath this cloyfter wall:

See through the hawthorn blows the cold wind,
And drizzly rain doth fall.

85

Here forc'd by grief, and hopeless love,

Thefe holy weeds I fought;

And here amid these lonely walls

To end my days I thought.

100

But

But haply for my year of grace t

Is not yet past away,

Might I still hope to win thy love,

No longer would I stay.

Now farewell grief, and welcome joy
Once more unto my heart:

105

For fince I have found thee, lovely youth,
We never more will part.

The year of probation, or noviciate.

THE END OF THE SECOND BOOK.

At the beginning of this volume we gave the old original Song of CHEVY CHACE. The reader has here the more improved edition of that fine Heroic ballad. It will afford

an

an agreeable entertainment to the curious to compare them together, and to fee how far the latter bard has excelled his predeceffor, and where he has fallen fhort of him. For tho he has every where improved the verfification, and generally the fentiment and diction: yet fome few paffages retain more dignity in the ancient copy; at leaft the obfoleteness of the Style ferves as a veil to hide whatever might appear too familiar or vulgar in them. Thus, for instance, the cataStrophe of the gallant Witherington is in the modern copy expreft in terms which never fail at présent to excite ridicule: whereas in the original it is related with a plain and pathetic fimplicity, that is liable to no fuch unlucky effect: See the Stanza in pag. 14. which in modern orthography, S6, would run thus,

"For Witherington my heart is woe,
"That ever he flain fhould be:
"For when his legs were hewn in two,
"He knelt and fought on his knee."

So again the ftanza which defcribes the fall of Montgomery is fomewhat more elevated in the ancient copy,

"The dint it was both fad and fore,
"He on Montgomery fet:
"The fan-feathers his arrow bore
"With his hearts blood were wet."

p. 13.

WE might also add, that the circumstances of the battle are more clearly conceived, and the feveral incidents more diftinely marked in the old original, than in the improved copy. It is well known that the ancient English weapon was the long bow, and that this nation excelled all others in archery; while the Scottish warrieurs chiefly depended on the use of the fpear: this characteristic difference never elcapes our ancient bard, whofe description of the firft onfet (p. g.) is to the following effect.

"The