with it, will meet with admirers amongst readers of all qualities and conditions. Moliere, as we are told by Monsieur Boileau, used to read all his comedies to an old woman who was his housekeeper, as she sat with him at her work by the chimney-corner; and could foretell the success of his play in the theatre, from the reception it met at his fire-side: for he tells us the audience always followed the old woman, and never failed to laugh in the same place. I know nothing which more shews the essential and inherent perfection of simplicity of thought,' above that which I call the Gothic manner in writing, than this; the first pleases all kinds of palates, and the latter only such as have formed to themselves a wrong artificial taste upon little fanciful authors and writers of epigram. Homer, Virgil, or Milton, so far as the language of their poems is understood, will please a reader of plain common sense, who would neither relish nor comprehend an epigram of Martial, or a poem of Cowley: so, on the contrary, an ordinary song or ballad, that is the delight of the common people, cannot fail to please all such readers as are not unqualified for the entertainment by their affectation or ignorance; and the reason is plain, because the same paintings of nature which recommend it to the most ordinary reader, will appear beautiful to the most refined. The old song of Chevy-Chase is the favourite ballad of the common people of England; and Ben Jonson used to say, he had rather have been the author of it than of all his works. Sir Philip Sidney, in his Discourse of Poetry, speaks of it in the following words: 'I never heard the old song of Piercy and Douglas, that I found not my heart more moved than with a trumpet; and yet it is sung by some blind Crowder with no rougher voice than rude style; which being so evil apparelled in 1 See Dennis's Original Letters, Fam. Mor. and Crit. 8vo. 1721, p. 166, & seq.-Letter to Henry Cromwell, Esq. on Simplicity in Poetical Composition.-C, the dust and cobweb of that uncivil age, what would it work, trimmed in the gorgeous eloquence of Pindar?' For my own part I am so professed an admirer of this antiquated song, that I shall give my reader a critic upon it, without any further apology for so doing. The greatest modern critics have laid it down as a rule, that an heroic poem should be founded upon some important precept of morality, adapted to the constitution of the country in which the poet writes. Homer and Virgil have formed their plans in this view. As Greece was a collection of many governments, who suffered very much among themselves, and gave the Persian Emperor, who was their common enemy, many advantages over them by their mutual jealousies and animosities, Homer, in order to establish among them an union, which was so necessary for their safety, grounds his poem upon the discords of the several Grecian Princes who were engaged in a confederacy against an Asiatic Prince, and the several advantages which the enemy gained by such their discords. At the time the poem we are now treating of was written, the dissensions of the barons, who were then so many petty princes, ran very high, whether they quarrelled among themselves, or with their neighbours, and produced unspeakable calamities to the country: the poet, to deter men from such unnatural contentions, describes a bloody battle, and dreadful scene of death, occasioned by the mutual feuds which reigned in the families of an English and Scotch nobleman that he designed this for the instruction of his poem, we may learn from his four last lines, in which, after the example of the modern tragedians, he draws from it a precept for the benefit of his readers. 1 Eight different epochs are assigned to Homer, covering a space of 460 years. The whole of this theory is untenable; the moral of the epic being, as with Tasso, a pure afterthought.-G. God save the King, and bless the land In plenty, joy, and peace; And grant henceforth that foul debate The next point observed by the greatest heroic poets, hath been to celebrate persons and actions which do honour to their country: thus Virgil's hero was the founder of Rome, Homer's a Prince of Greece; and for this reason Valerius Flaccus and Statius, who were both Romans, might be justly derided for having chosen the expedition of the Golden Fleece, and the wars of Thebes, for the subjects of their epic writings. The poet before us has not only found out an hero in his own country, but raises the reputation of it by several beautiful incidents. The English are the first who take the field, and the last who quit it. The English bring only fifteen hundred to the battle, and the Scotch two thousand. The English kept the field with fifty-three: the Scotch retire with fifty-five all the rest on each side being slain in battle. But the most remarkable circumstance of this kind, is the different manner in which the Scotch and English Kings receive the news of this fight, and of the great men's deaths who command it.2 This news was brought to Edinburgh, 'This stanza is an addition of the modern editor, or rather rewriter. The old poem closes with Ihesue Christ our balys bete, And to the blys us brynge! Thus was the hountynge of the Chevyat. God send us all good ending!-G. According to the old ballad, neither party flies, though the English are made to lose two men less than the Scotch. A Scottish editor of the new version has turned the tables upon the Englishman, by a transposition of the first line, which makes the English flee, while the Scotch keep the field. V. Percy ut sup. pp. 271, 272.-G. Oh heavy news, King James did say; I have not any captain more Of such account as he. Like tidings to King Henry came Within as short a space, That Piercy of Northumberland Now God be with him, said our King, I trust I have within my realm Yet shall not Scot nor Scotland say This vow full well the King perform'd In one day fifty knights were slain, And of the rest of small account Did many thousands dye, &c. At the same time that our poet shews a laudable partiality to his country-men, he represents the Scots after a manner not unbecoming so bold and brave a people. Earl Douglas on a milk-white steed, Most like a baron bold, Rode foremost of the company, Whose armour shone like gold.2 1 The old version reads with far more effect: Hys handdes dyd he weal and wryng, He sayd, Alas, and woe ys me! Such another captayn Skotland within, He sayd y-feth should never be, &c.-G. 2 The dougheti Dogglas on a stede He rode att his men beforne; His armor glytteryde as dyd a Glede; A bolder barne was never born. OLD COPY.-G. His sentiments and actions are every way suitable to an hero. One of us two, says he, must die: I am an earl as well as yourself, so that you can have no pretence for refusing the combat: however, says he, 'tis pity, and indeed would be a sin, that so many innocent men should perish for our sakes, rather let you and I end our quarrel in single fight. Ere thus I will out-braved be, One of us two shall die. I know thee well, an Earl thou art, But trust me, Piercy, pity it were, For they have done no ill. Let thou and I the battle try, And set our men aside. Accurst be he, Lord Piercy said,1 By whom this is deny'd. When these brave men had distinguished themselves in the battle, and in single combat with each other, in the midst of a generous parly, full of heroic sentiments, the Scotch earl falls; and with his dying words encourages his men to revenge his death, representing to them as the most bitter circumstances of it, that his rival saw him fall. With that there came an arrow keen Out of an English bow, Which struck Earl Douglas to the heart Who never spoke more words than these, Fight on my merry men all, For why, my life is at an end, 1 An improvement upon the old poem.-G. 2 Here the original poem is very spirited; but the beautiful thought, which Addison admires so much, belongs to the modern poet.-G. |