Oh heavy news, King James did say:

Scotland can witness be,
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

Was slain in Chevy-Chase.
Now God be with him, said our King,

Sith 'twill no better be,
I trust I have within

my

realm
Five hundred as good as he.'
Yet shall not Scot nor Scotland say

But I will vengeance take,
And be revenged on them all

For brave Lord Piercy's sake.
This vow full well the King perform’d

After on Humble-down;
In one day fifty knights were slain,

With lords of great renown.
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 un. becoming so bold and brave a people.

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 your. self, 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,

Lord Piercy, so am I.
But trust me, Piercy, pity it were,

And great offence, to kill
Any of these our harmless inen,

For they have done no ill.

Let thou and I the battle try,

And set our men aside.
Accurst be he, Lord Piercy said,'

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

A deep and deadly blow.
Who never spoke more words than these,

Fight on my merry men all,
For why, my life is at an end,

Lord Piercy sees me fall.?

' An improvement upon the old poem.-G.

? Here the original poem is very spirited; but the beautiful thoughiu which Addison admires so much, belongs to the modern poet.-G.

Merry Men, in the language of those times, is no more than a cheerful word for companions and fellow-soldiers. A passage in the eleventh book of Virgil's Æneid is very much to be admired, where Camilla, in her last agonies, instead of weeping over the wound she had received, as one might have expected from a war rior of her sex, considers only (like the hero of whom we are now speaking) how the battle should be continued after her death.

Tum sic expirans, &c.
A gathering mist o'erclouds her cheerful eyes,
And from her cheeks the rosy colour flies;
Then turns to her, whom, of her female train,
She trusted most, and thus she speaks with pain.
Acca, 'tis past! he swims before my sight,
Inexorable death; and claims his right.
Bear my last words to Turnus : fly with speed,
And bid him timely to my charge succeed:
Repel the Trojans, and the town relieve,
Farewel.

Turnus did not die in so heroic a manner; though our poet seems to have had his eye upon Turnus's speech in the last verse,

Lord Piercy sees me fall.

Vicisti, et victum tendere palmas
Ausonii videre-
The Latian chiefs have seen me beg my life.

DRYDEN.

Earl Piercy's lamentation over his enemy is

generous,

beautiful and passionate; I must only caution the reader not to let the simplicity of the style, which one may well pardon in so old a poet, prejudice him against the greatness of the thought.

Then leaving life, Earl Piercy took

The dead man by the hand,
And said, Earl Douglas, for thy life

Would I had lost my land."

Here the old peem has a picture, which is entirely lost in the modern

O Christ ! my very heart doth bleed

With sorrow for thy sake ;
For sure a more renowned knight

Mischance did never take.

That beautiful line, taking the dead man by the hand, will put the reader in mind of Æneas's behaviour towards Lausus, whom he himself had slain as he came to the rescue of his aged father

At vero ut vultum vidit morientis, et ora,
Ora modis Anchisiades pallentia miris :
Ingemuit miserans graviter, dextramque tetendit, &c.
The pious prince beheld young Lausus dead;
He grieved, he wept; then grasp'd his hand, and said,
Poor hapless youth | what praises can be paid
To worth so great

! I shall take another opportunity to consider the other parts of

C.

this old song.

No. 72. WEDNESDAY, MAY 23.

Genus immortale manet, multosque per annos
Stat fortuna domus, et avi numerantur avorum.

Virg. Georg. iv., 208.
Th'immortal line in sure succession reigns,
The fortune of the family remains.
And grandsires grandsons the long list contains.

DRYDEN.

Having already given my reader an account of several extraordinary clubs, both ancient and modern, I did not design to have troubled him with any more narratives of this nature : but I have lately received information of a club which I can call neither an

though the beautiful incident of taking the dead man by the hand has been preserved.

The Persd leanyde on his brande,

And saw the Duglas de;
He tooke the dede man be the bande,

And sayd, Wo ys me for thel-G.

cient nor modern, that I dare say will be no less surprising to my reader than it was to myself; for which reason I shall communicate it to the public as one of the greatest curiosities in its kind.

A friend of mine complaining of a tradesman who is related to him, after having represented him as a very idle, worthless fellow, who neglected his family, and spent most of his time over a bottle, told me, to conclude his character, that he was a mem ber of the Everlasting Club. So very odd a title raised my curi. osity to inquire into the nature of a club that had such a sounding name; upon

which

my

friend gave me the following account. The Everlasting Club consists of a hundred members, who divide the whole twenty-four hours among them in such a manner, that the club sits day and night from one end of the year to another; no party presuming to rise till they are relieved by those who are in course to succeed them. By this means a member of the Everlasting Club never wants company; for though he is not upon duty himself, he is sure to find some who are; so that if he be disposed to take a whet, a nooning, an evening's draught, or a bottle after midnight, he goes to the club, and finds a knot of friends to his mind.

It is a maxim in this club, that the steward never dies; for as they succeed one another by way of rotation, no man is to quit the great elbow-chair which stands at the upper end of the table, till his successor is in a readiness to fill it; insomuch, that there has not been a Sede vacante in the

of man. * This club was instituted towards the end (or, as some of them say, about the middle) of the Civil Wars, and continued without interruption till the time of the Great Fire,' which burnt them out, and dispersed them for several weeks. The steward at that time maintained his post till he had like to have been blown up with a neighboring house, (which was demolished in or