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 subject 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 10 battle, the Scotch two thousand. The English keep the field with fifty-three; the Scotch retire with fifty-five; all the rest on each side being slain in the 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 commanded in it.

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This news was brought to Edinburgh,
Where Scotland's king did reign,
That brave Earl Douglas suddenly
Was with an arrow slain.

O 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 die, etc.

At the same time that the poet shews a laudable partiality to his

countrymen, 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.

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: o however, says he, it is 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.

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Ere thus I will outbraved 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 men,
For they have done no ill.

Let thou and I the battle try,

And set our men aside;

Accurs'd 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 parley, 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 circumstance of 30 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 spake more words than these,
Fight on my merry men all,

For why, my life is at an end,

Lord Piercy sees my fall.

Merry men, in the language of those times, is no more than a 40 chearful word for companions and fellow-soldiers. A passage in the eleventh book of Virgil's Æneid is very much to be admired,

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where Camilla in her last agonies, instead of weeping over the wound she had received, as one might have expected from a warrior 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, etc.

A gathering mist o'erclouds her chearful 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:
Farewell.-

DRYDEN.

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

20 verse,

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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.

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, etc.

N. X. 822.

CHEVY CHASE.

The pious prince beheld young Lausus dead;

He griev'd, he wept; then grasp'd his hand, and said,
Poor hapless youth! what praises can be paid

To worth so great!

DRYDEN.

383

I shall take another opportunity to consider the other parts of this old song.

No. 74. Criticism of the Ballad of Chevy Chase continued ; illustrations from Virgil and Horace.

Pendent opera interrupta.-VIRG. Æn. iv. 88.

In my last Monday's paper I gave some general instances of those beautiful strokes which please the reader in the old song of 10 Chevy-chase: I shall here, according to my promise, be more particular, and shew that the sentiments in that ballad are extremely natural and poetical, and full of the majestic simplicity we admire in the greatest of the ancient poets; for which reason I shall quote several passages of it, in which the thought is altogether the same with what we meet in several passages of the Æneid; not that I would infer from thence, that the poet (whoever he was) proposed to himself any imitation of those passages, but that he was directed to them in general by the same kind of poetical genius, and by the same copyings after

20 nature.

Had this old song been filled with epigrammatical turns and points of wit, it might perhaps have pleased the wrong taste of some readers; but it would never have become the delight of the common people, nor have warmed the heart of Sir Philip Sidney like the sound of a trumpet; it is only nature that can have this effect, and please those tastes which are the most unprejudiced or the most refined. I must however beg leave to dissent from so great an authority as that of Sir Philip Sidney, in the judgment which he has passed as to the rude style and evil 30 apparel of this antiquated song; for there are several parts in it where not only the thought, but the language is majestic, and the numbers sonorous; at least, the apparel is much more gorgeous than many of the poets made use of in Queen Elizabeth's time, as the reader will see in several of the following quotations".

mellow; but as this might not have been distinguished from the music of a kettle-drum, the project was laid aside.

In the mean while, I cannot but take notice of the great use it is to an audience, that a person should thus preside over their heads like the director of a concert, in order to awaken their attention, and beat time to their applauses; or, to raise my simile, I have sometimes fancied the trunk-maker in the upper gallery to be like Virgil's ruler of the wind, seated upon the top of a mountain, who, when he struck his sceptre upon the side 10 of it", roused an hurricane, and set the whole cavern in an uproar.

It is certain the trunk-maker has saved many a good play, and brought many a graceful actor into reputation, who would not otherwise have been taken notice of. It is very visible,— as the audience is not a little abashed, if they find themselves betrayed into a clap, when their friend in the upper gallery does not come into it, so the actors do not value themselves upon the clap, but regard it as a mere brutum fulmen, or empty noise, when it has not the sound of the oaken plant in it. I know 20 it has been given out by those who are enemies to the trunk

maker, that he has sometimes been bribed to be in the interest of a bad poet or a vicious player; but this is a surmise which has no foundation; his strokes are always just, and his admonitions seasonable; he does not deal about his blows at random, but always hits the right nail upon the head. The inexpressible force wherewith he lays them on sufficiently shows the evidence and strength of his conviction. His zeal for a good author is indeed outrageous, and breaks down every fence and partition, every board and plank, that stands within the expression of his 30 applause.

As I do not care for terminating my thoughts in barren speculations, or in reports of pure matter of fact, without drawing something from them for the advantage of my countrymen, I shall take the liberty to make an humble proposal, that whenever the trunk-maker shall depart this life, or whenever he shall have lost the spring of his arm by sickness, old age, infirmity, or the like, some able-bodied critic should be advanced to this post, and have a competent salary settled on him for life, to be furnished with bamboos for operas, crab-tree cudgels for comedies, and 40 oaken plants for tragedy, at the public expence. And to the end