"God have merci on his soll," sayd kyng Harry, "Good lord, yf thy will it be! I have a hondrith captayns in Ynglonde," he sayd, "As good as ever was he: But Persè, and I brook my lyffe, 155 Thy deth well quyte shall be."
As our noble kyng mayd his a-vowe, Lyke a noble prince of renowen, For the deth of the lord Persè He dyde the battell of Hombyll-down: 160
Wher syx and thritté Skottishe knyghtes On a day wear beaten down: Glendale glytteryde on ther armor bryght,[L163] Over castill, towar, and town.
This was the Hontynge off the Cheviat; 165 That tear begane this spurn: Old men that knowen the grownde well yenoughe, Call it the Battell of Otterburn.
At Otterburn began this spurne Uppon a Monnyn day:[L170] 170 Ther was the dougghtè Doglas slean, The Persè never went away.
Ther was never a tym on the March-partes Sen the Doglas and the Persè met, But yt was marvele, and the rede blude ronne not, 175 As the reane doys in the stret.
Jhesue Christ our ballys bete, And to the blys us brynge! Thus was the Hountynge of the Chivyat: God send us all good endyng! 180
1-4. 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 warriors chiefly depended on the use of the spear. This characteristic difference never escapes our ancient bard.--PERCY.
45. a narrowe. So again in v. 83, and a nowar in v. 96. This transference of final n to the succeeding word is of common occurrence in old poetry.
163. Glendale is one of the seven wards of Northumberland. In this district the village of Homildown is situated, about a mile from Wooler. On the 14th of September, 1402, a battle was fought at this place between the Percys and Archibald, Earl of Douglas, in which the Scots were totally routed, and Douglas taken prisoner.
The text of this later ballad of _Chevy-Chace_ is given as it appears in _Old Ballads_ (1723), vol. i. p. 111, and in Durfey's _Pills to Purge Melancholy_, vol. iv. p. 289, and differs very slightly from that of the _Reliques_ (i. 265), where the ballad was printed from the folio MS., compared with two other black-letter copies.
The age of this version of the story is not known, but it is certainly not later, says Dr. Rimbault, than the reign of Charles the Second. Addison's papers in the _Spectator_ (Nos. 70 and 74) evince so true a perception of the merits of this ballad, shorn as it is of the most striking beauties of the grand original, that we cannot but deeply regret his never having seen the ancient and genuine copy, which was published by Hearne only a few days after Addison died. Well might the Spectator dissent from the judgment of Sidney, if _this_ were the rude and ill-apparelled song of a barbarous age.