The children then they bring, So their mother will'd it, Where the royall king Must of force come bye: Askt how he durst be so bold In costly robes of pearl and gold. To the king these words did say, Being by birth a princesse gay. The king aroused thus, More heedfullye beheld them, His remembrance crost. On thy wife and children, 'I am that child,' quoth shee; His daughter deare did kiss, While joyfull teares did stopp his speeche. Strait he dubb'd her husband knight; Thus were their sorrowes put to flight. XVII. THE SWEET NEGLECT. THIS little madrigal (extracted from Ben Jonson's Silent Woman) is in imitation of a Latin poem beginning Semper munditias, semper Basilissa, decoras, etc. STILL to be neat, still to be drest, As you were going to a feast: Still to be poud'red, still perfum'd: Though art's hid causes are not found, Give me a looke, give me a face, That strike mine eyes, but not my heart. XVIII. THE CHILDREN IN THE WOOD. THE subject of this very popular ballad (which has been set in so favourable a light by the Spectator, No. 85) scems to be taken from an old play, entitled, Two lamentable Tragedies; the one of the murder of Maister Beech, a chandler in Thames-streete, etc. The other of a young child murthered in a wood by two ruffians, with the consent of his unkle. By Rob. Yarrington, 1601, 4to. Our ballad-maker has strictly followed the play in the description of the father and mother's dying charge: in the uncle's promisc to take care of their issue: his hiring two ruffians to destroy his ward, under pretence of sending him to school: their choosing a wood to perpetrate the murder in: one of the ruffians relenting, and a battle ensuing, etc. In other respects he has departed from the play. In the latter the scene is laid in Padua: there is but one child: which is murdered by a sudden stab of the unrelenting ruffian: he is slain himself by his less bloody companion; but ere he dies gives the other a mortal wound: the latter living just long enough to impeach the uncle; who, in consequence of this impeachment, is arraigned and executed by the hand of justice, etc. Whoever compares the play with the ballad, will have no doubt but the former is the original: the language is far more obsolete, and such a vein of simplicity runs through the whole performance, that, had the ballad been written first, there is no doubt but every circumstance of it would have been received into the drama: whereas this was probably built on some Italian novel. Printed from two ancient copies, one of them in black letter in the Pepys Collection. Its title at large is, The Children in the Wood; or, The Norfolk Gentleman's Last Will and Testament. To the tune of "Rogero," etc. God never prosper me nor mine, Nor aught else that I have, If I do wrong your children deare, When you are layd in grave. The parents being dead and gone, The children home he takes, He bargain'd with two ruffians strong, That they should take these children young, And slaye them in a wood. He would the children send Away then went those pretty babes, They should on cock-horse ride. As they rode on the waye, To those that should their butchers be, And work their lives decaye: So that the pretty speeche they had, Made Murder's heart relent; And they that undertooke the deed, Full sore did now repent. Yet one of them more hard of heart, Did vowe to do his charge, Because the wretch, that hired him, Had paid him very large. The other won't agree thereto, Within an unfrequented wood; The babes did quake for feare! He took the children by the hand, These pretty babes, with hand in hand, Went wandering up and downe; But never more could see the man Approaching from the town: Their prettye lippes with black-berries, And when they sawe the darksome night, Thus wandered these poor innocents, Did cover them with leaves. And now the heavy wrathe of God Upon their uncle fell; Yea, fearfull fiends did haunt his house, His barnes were fir'd, his goodes consum'd, And nothing with him stayd. And in a voyage to Portugal Two of his sonnes did dye; He pawn'd and mortgaged all his land Did by this meanes come out : The fellowe, that did take in hand These children for to kill, Such was God's blessed will: You that executors be made, And overseers eke And infants mild and meek; XIX.-A LOVER OF LATE. PRINTED, with a few slight corrections, from the Editor's folio MS. A LOVER of late was I, For Cupid would have it soe, The boy that hath never an eye, As every man doth know : I sighed and sobbed, and cryed, alas! Then knew not I what to doe, When I saw itt was in vaine Who gave me the asse soe plaine : An' I were as faire as shee, Or shee were as kind as I, I was as kind as shee was faire, Paire with her that will for mee, For being a little faire. The asse Ile leave to her disdaine; XX. THE KING AND MILLER OF MANSFIELD. IT has been a favourite subject with our English ballad-makers to represent our kings conversing, either by accident or design, with the meanest of their subjects. Of the former kind, besides this song of The King and the Miller, we have King Henry and the Soldier; King James I. and the Tinker; King William III. and the Forester, etc. Of the latter sort, are King Alfred and the Shepherd; King Edward IV. and the Tanner; King Henry VIII. and the Cobbler, etc. A few of the best of these are admitted into this collection. Both the author of the following ballad, and others who have written on the same plan, seem to have copied a very ancient poem, entitied John the Recve, which is built on an adventure of the same kind, that happened between King Edward Longshanks and one of his reeves or bailiffs. This is a piece of great antiquity, being written before the time of Edward IV., and for its genuine humour, diverting incidents, and faithful picture of rustic manners, is infinitely superior to all that have been since written in imitation of it. The Editor has a copy in his ancient folio MS., but its length rendered it improper for this volume, it consist ing of more than 900 lines. It contains also some corruptions, and the Editor chooses to defer its publication, in hopes that some time or other he shall be able to remove them. The following is printed, with corrections, from the Editor's folio MS., collated with an old black-letter copy in the Pepys Collection, entitied, A pleasant ballad of King Henry II. and the Miller of Mansfield, etc. |