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

The following ballad is probably built upon fome Italian Legend, and bears a great refemblance to the Prioreffe's Tale in Chaucer: the poet seems also to have had an eye to the known ftory of HUGH OF LINCOLN, a child faid to have been there murthered by the Jews in the reign of Henry III. The conclufion of this ballad appears to be wanting: what it probably contained may be feen in Chaucer As for MIRRYLAND TOUN, it is probably a corruption of MILAN (called by the Dutch MEYLANDT) TOWN; fince the Pa is evidently the river Po.

Printed from a MS. copy fent from Scotland.

HE rain rins doun through Mirry-land toune

TH

Sae dois it doune the Pa:

Sae dois the lads of Mirry-land toune,
Quhan they play at the ba'.

Than out and cam the Jewis dochtèr,
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 fweit bairne did win.

5

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;

15

A word he nevir spak mair.

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 dreffing borde,

And dreft him like a swine,

And laughing faid, Gae nou and pley
With zour fweit play-feres nine.

20

Scho rowd him in a cake of lead,

25

Bade him lie ftil and fleip.

Scho caft him in a deip draw-well,

Was fifty fadom deip.

Quhan bells wer rung, and mass was fung,

And every lady went hame:

Than ilka lady had her zong fonne,

Bot lady Helen had nane.

Scho rowd hir mantil hir about,

And fair fair gan fhe weip:

And she ran into the Jewis caftèl,
Quhan they wer all afleip.

My bonny fir Hew, my pretty fir Hew,

30

35

40

Lady

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.

The lead is wondrous heavy, mither,

45

The well is wondrous deip,

A keen pen-knife fticks in my hert,
A word I dounae speik.

Gae hame, gae hame, my mither deir,
Fetch me my windling sheet,

And at the back o' Mirry-land toun,

Its thair we twa fall meet.

50

IV.

SIR CAULINE.

This old romantic tale was preferved in the Editor's folie MS, but in fo defective and mutilated a condition that it was neceffary to fupply feveral ftanzas in the first part, and ftill more in the fecond, to connect and compleat the story.

There is Jomething peculiar in the metre of this old ballad: it is not unufual to meet with redundant ftanzas of fix lines; but the occafional infertion of a double third or fourth line, as ver. 31, 44, &c. is an irregularity I do not remember to bave feen eliewhere.

It

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 a great turnament (probably with fome peculiar folemnities) was called "bolding 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 cofts, caufed a tourneament to "be held at Kenilworth; where he fumptuously entertained

66

an hundred knights, and as many ladies for three days "the like whereof was never before in England; and "there began the ROUND TABLE, (fo called by reafon "that the place wherein they practifed thofe feats, was en"vironed with a strong wall made in a round form :) "And upon the fourth day, the golden lion, in fign of triumph, being yielded to him; he carried it (with all the 66 company) to Warwick.”—It may further be added, that Matthew Paris frequently calls jufts and turnameniş Hafti ludia Menfæ Rotundæ.

As to what will be observed in this ballad of the art of healing being practifed by a young princess; it is no more than what is ufual in all the old romances, and was conformable to real manners: it being a practice derived from the earliest times among all the Gothic and Celtic nations, for women, even of the highest rank, to exercise the art of furIn the Northern Chronicles we always find the young damfels franching the wounds of their lovers, and the wives thofe of their husbands †. And even fo late as the time of 2. Elizabeth, it is mentioned among the accomplishments of the ladies of her court, that the " eldeft of them are SKIL66 FUL IN SURGERY." See Harrifon's Defcription of England, prefixed to Hollingfhed's Chronicle, c.

gery.

+ See Defcript. of the ancient Danes, vol. 1. p. 318. Memoires de

ta Chevalerie. 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 fhe hath no peere ;

And princely wightes that ladye wooed
To be theyr wedded feere.

One while he fpred his armes him fro,
One while he fpred them nye :

And aye! but I winne that ladyes love,

For dole now I mun dye.

And whan our parish-maffe was done,

Our kinge was bowne to dyne:

20

He