Deal on, deal on, my merry men all, HE BIRTH OF ST. GEORGE. This ballad, copied from the "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry," Dr. Percy confesses to be "for the most part modern." He probably derived some hints for the composition from his "folio MS.; " but the greater portion of it bears evidence of being the production of his own pen. The incidents are chiefly taken from the old story-book of "The Seven Champions of Christendome," which, though now "the plaything of children," was once in high repute. It was written by "one Richard Johnson, who lived in the reigns of Elizabeth and James." So much doubt exists concerning the early history of this patron saint of the Order of the Garter, that his very existence has been questioned. Dr. Pettingal, in a "Dissertation on the original of the figure of St. George and the Dragon," published in 1753, discourses very learnedly on its symbolic meaning; declaring that it anciently typified the "malignity of the air (under the form of a serpent) purified and made wholesome by the action of the sun" (symbolized by the mounted horseman). He asserts that the Egyptian gnostics used this symbol of the sun, in its propitious influences, as a device on their amulets, in expectation of victory, and that from them it descended to the Christians. He engraves one of these antique amulets, from Montfaucon, which certainly bears a singular resemblance to St. George and the Dragon, and affirms it to be no saint, but an Arian of that name, and he thinks it unlikely that the orthodox Western world should confer any distinction upon one they must have considered as a "pestilent heretic." Constantine, he says, placed on his coins a figure of himself, mounted on horseback, and destroying a serpent, to signify his triumph over the devil, or paganism. He combats the idea of charms or amulets being worn in England down to the ordination of the Garter, by an allusion to the laws which regulated trial by battle in the time of Edward III. and Richard II., when the duellists were sworn not to retain about their persons any "majicall" stone, or herb, or charm, &c., by which they might overcome their enemies. Butler, in his "Lives of the Saints," says that the Saint became the patron of the military because he had been military himself, having been "tribune or colonel in the army," under the Emperor Diocletian, who still further promoted him; all which posts he resigned when that emperor persecuted the Christians, and for which he was beheaded. His apparition appeared to encourage the Christian army under Godfrey of Bouilloigne and Richard I., in their expedition against the Saracens; and hence he was chosen as their patron saint, from the interest thus taken in the crusades. He adds, "St. George is usually painted on horseback, and tilting at a dragon under his feet; but this is no more than an emblematical figure, purporting, that, by faith and Christian fortitude, he conquered the devil, called the dragon in the Apocalypse. Others imagine that St. Michael destroying the dragon is the origin of this representation of St. George. The story of a saint, or deity, spearing a dragon, was known in the East from the earliest periods: among the Mahometans, a person called Gergis, or George, was revered as a prophet, and was so represented. Similar emblems have been discovered 2 E among other nations of the East. Whether these nations took it from the Greeks, or the latter from them, cannot be ascertained; for, of the real existence of such a person as St. George, no positive proofs have ever been advanced. Chanceler, the first Englishman who discovered Russia, speaking of a dispatch sent from Ivan Vassilievitch to Queen Mary, says that it had appended to it a seal "much like the broad seal of England, having on one side the image of a man on horseback, in complete armour, fighting with a dragon; " and this figure appears to have been in common use by the Russian princes on their coins, &c., long before the institution of the Garter, in England, which took place on St. George's Day, April 23. 1350. The representation of St. George, here copied, is from an illumination in a thick folio volume of Romanus, most splendidly ornamented, which was presented to King Henry VI. by Talbot, the great Earl of Shrewsbury, and which is now among the royal manuscripts in the British Museum. It shows us St. George, in complete armour, spearing the dragon; while behind stands the king's daughter, who was about to be sacrificed to the monster, dressed in the costume of a lady of rank in the reign of Henry VI., and holding a lamb, typical, perhaps, of her purity, or innocence. To this circumstance reference is made in the old ballad of "St. George and the Dragon: " "Farewell, my father dear," quoth she; Since for my country's good I dye, The king and queen, and all their train, Dr. Percy, in his "Introduction" to the ballad, says, "the equestrian figure worn by the Knights of the Garter, has been understood to be an emblem of the Christian warrior, in his spiritual armour, vanquishing the old serpent." Independent of the figure of St. George and the Dragon, appended to the collar of the Order of the Garter, is the badge, worn on ordinary occasions by the knights, called "The George," and which was constantly worn in former times by the companions of the order. It was the figure of the Saint, on horseback, spearing the dragon, and was hung round the neck by a blue ribbon. There is an engraving, by Hollar, of the "George worn by Charles I., and which that monarch gave to Bishop Juxon, on the scaffold, at his execution: it was made to open by a spring, like a locket, and contained a portrait of the Queen Henrietta Maria. Our engraving is a copy from the representation of this interesting relic. The Birth of St. George. Distresséd ladies to relieve He travelled many a day; In Coventry sometime did dwell He had to wife a princely dame, For thirty nights, no sooner sleep She dreamt a dragon fierce and fell All woe-begone, and sad was she, In vain she strove; her tender lord, And soon that pain partook. And when to him the fearful cause She weeping did impart, With kindest speech he strove to heal |