excite them to a crime of so much horror, we may reasonably conclude the wbole charge to be groundless and malicious.

The following ballad is probably built upon fome Italian Legend, and bears a great resemblance to the Priorefle's Tale in Chaucer : the poet seems also to have had an eye to the known story of Hugh OF LINCOLN, a child said to have been there murthered by the Jews in the reign of Henry III. The conclusion of this ballad appears to be wanting : what it probably contained may be seen in Chaucer As for MIRRYLAND Toun, it is probably a corruption of MILAN ( called by the Dutch MEYLANDT) Town; since the PA is evidently the river Po. Printed from a MS. copy sent

from Scotland,

HE rain rins doun through Mirry-land toune,

Sae dois it doune the Pa:
Sae dois the lads of Mirry-land toune,

Quhan they play at the ba’.

5

Than out and cam the Jewis dochter,

Said, Will ye cum in and dine ?
I winnae cum in, I cannae cum in,

Without my play-feres nine.

Scho powd an apple reid and white

To intice the zong thing in :
Scho powd an apple white and reid,

And that the sweit bairne did win.

And scho has taine out a little pen-knife,

And low down by her gair,
Scho has twin’d the zong thing and his life ;

A word he nevir spak mair,

15

And

And out and cam the thick thick bluid,

And out and cam the thin;
And out and cam the bonny herts bluid :

Thair was nae life left in.

Scho laid him on a dressing borde,

And dreft him like a swine,
And laughing said, Gae nou and pley

With zour sweit play-feres nine.

25

Scho rowd him in a cake of lead,

Bade him lie stil and fleip.
Scho cast him in a deip draw-well,

Was fifty fadom deip.

30

Quhan bells wer rung, and mass was sung,

And every lady went hame :
Than ilka lady had her zong sonne,

Bot lady Helen had nane.

Scho rowd hir mantil hir about,

And fair fair gan fhe weip : And she ran into the Jewis castel,

Quhan they wer all asleip.

35

My bonny fir Hew, my pretty fir Hew,
I
pray

thee to me speik :
' O lady, rinn to the deip draw-well

• Gin ze zour sonne wad seik.'

40

Lady Helen ran to the deip draw-well,

And knelt upon her kne :
My bonny fir Hew, an ze be here,

I pray thee fpeik to me.

45

The lead is wondrous heavy, mither,

The well is wondrous deip,
A keen pen-knife sticks in my hert,

A word I dounae speik.

Gae hame, gae hame, my mither deir,

Fetch me my windling heet,
And at the back o' Mirry-land toun,

Its thair we twa fall meet.

50

This old romantic tale was preserved in the Editor's folie MS, but in fo defective and mutilated a condition that it was necessary to supply several stanzas in the first part, and still more in ihe second, to conneet and compleat the story.

There is something peculiar in the metre of this old ballad: it is not unusual to meet with redundant fianzas of fix lines; but the occasional infertion of a double third or fourth line, as ver. 31, 44, &c. is an irregularity I do not remember to have leen elie-where.

It

an

It may

be proper to inform the reader before he comes to Pt. 2. v. 110, 111. that the ROUND TABLE was not peculiar to the reign of K. Arthur, but was common in all the ages of Chivalry. The proclaiming

The proclaiming a great turnament (probably with some peculiar folemnities) was called “ hold“ ing a Round Table.” Dugdale tells us, that the great baron Roger de Mortimer " having procured the honour of “ knighthood to be conferred on his three fons' by K. “ Edw. I. be, at his own costs, caused a tourneament to “ be held at Kenilworth; where he sumptuously entertained

hundred knights, and as many ladies for three days s “ the like whereof was never before in England; and “ there began the ROUND TABLE, (o called by reason “ that the place wherein they practised those feats, was en“ vironed with a strong wall made in a round form :) “And upon the fourth day, the golden lion, in fign of tri

umph, being yielded to him ; he carried it (with all the

company) to Warwick.”—It may further be added, that Matthew Paris frequently calls jufts and turnamenış Hafti ludia Menfæ Rotundæ.

As to what will be observed in this ballad of the art of healing being practised by a young princess ; it is no more than what is usual in all the old romances, and was formable to real manners : it being a practice derived from the earliest times among all the Gothic and Celtic nations, for women, even of the bighest rank, to exercise the art of surgery.

In the Northern Chronicles we always find the young damsels stanching the wounds of their lovers, and the wives those of their husbands t. And even so late as the time of 2. Elizabeth, it is mentioned among the accomplishments of the ladies of her court, that the “ eldest of them are skil

IN SURGERY." See Harrison's Description of England, prefixed to Hollingshed's Chronicle, &c.

con

FUL

† See Defcript. of the ancient Danes, vol. 1. p. 318. Memoires de la Cbevalerie. Tom. I. p. 44.

The FIRST PART.

IN Ireland, ferr over the sea,

There dwelleth a bonnye kinge ;
And with him a yong and comlye knighte,

Men call him fyr Caulìne.

The kinge had a ladye to his daughter,

In fashyon she hath no peere ;
And princely wightes that ladye wooed

To be theyr wedded feere.

10

Syr Cauline loveth her best of all,

But nothing durft he faye;
Ne descreeve his counsayl to no man,

But deerlye he lovde this may.

Till on a daye it so beffell,

Great dill to him was dight;
The maydens love removde his mynd,

To care-bed went the knighte.

One while he spred his armes him fro,

One while he spred them nye:
And aye! but I winne that ladyes love,

For dole now I mun dye.

20

And whan our parish-mafie was done,

Our kinge was bowne to dyne :