Can they bear angry Jove? can they refift
The parching dog-ftar, and the bleak north-east ?
When, chill'd by adverfe fnows and beating rain,
We tread with weary fteps the long fome plain;
When with hard toil we feek our evening food,
Berries and acorns from the neighbouring wood;
And find among the cliffs no other house,
But the thin covert of fome gather'd boughs;
Wilt thou not then reluctant fend thine eye
Around the dreary wafte; and weeping try
(Though then, alas! that trial be too late)
To find thy father's hofpitable gate,

And feats, where eafe and plenty brooding fate?
Those seats, whence long excluded thou must mourn;
That gate, for ever barr'd to thy return:

Wilt thou not then bewail ill-fated love,

And hate a banish'd man, condemn'd in woods to rove?

EMMA.

Thy rife of fortune did I only wed,
From it's decline determin'd to recede;
Did I but purpose to embark with thee
On the smooth surface of a fummer's fea :
While gentle Zephyrs play in profperous gales,
And Fortune's favour fills the fwelling fails;
But would forfake the ship, and make the shore,
When the winds whistle, and the tempefts roar?
No, Henry, no: one facred oath has tied
Our loves ; one destiny our life thall guide;
Nor wild nor deep our common way divide.

When from the cave thou risest with the day,
To beat the woods, and roufe the bounding prey,
The cave with mofs and branches I'll adorn,
And cheerful fit, to wait my lord's return:

}

}

And,

;

And, when thou frequent bring'ft the fmitten deer
(For feldom, archers fay, thy arrows err,)
I'll fetch quick fuel from the neighbouriug wood,
And strike the sparklng flint, and dress the food
With humble duty and officious hafte,
I'll cull the fartheft mead for thy repaft;
The choiceft herbs I to thy board will bring,
And draw thy water from the freshest spring:
And, when at night with weary toil oppreft,
Soft flumbers thou enjoy'ft, and wholesome reft;
Watchful I'll guard thee, and with midnight prayer
Weary the Gods to keep thee in their care;
And joyous afk, at morn's returning ray,
If thou haft health, and I may blefs the day.
My thoughts shall fix, my latest with depend,
On thee, guide, guardian, kinfman, father, friend:
By all these facred names be Henry known

To Emma's heart; and grateful let him own,
That she, of all mankind, could love but him alone!

poem

}

What degree of credit this maintained among our earlier ancestors, I cannot determine. I fufpect the fentiment was too refined for the general taste. Yet it is enumerated among the popular tales and ballads by Laneham, in his narrative of queen Elifabeth's entertainment at Kenilworth-castle in 1575'. I have never seen it in manufcript. I believe it was never reprinted from Arnolde's Chronicle, where it first appeared in 1521, till fo late as the year 1707. It was that year revived in a collec

tion called the MONTHLY MISCELLANY, or MEMOIRS FOR THE CURIOUS, and prefaced with a little effay on our antient poets and poetry, in which it is faid to have been three hundred old. Fortunately for modern poetry, this republication fuggefted it to the notice of Prior, who perhaps from the fame fource might

Fol. 34.

have adopted or confirmed his hypothefis, that it was coeval with the commencement of the fifteenth century.

Whoever was the original inventor of this little dramatic dialogue, he has fhewn no common skill in contriving a plan, which powerfully detains our attention, and interests the paffions, by a constant fucceffion of fufpence and pleasure, of anxiety and fatisfaction. Betwixt hopes perpetually disappointed, and folicitude perpetually relieved, we know not how to determine the event of a debate, in which new difficulties ftill continue to be raised, and are almoft as foon removed. In the midst of this viciffitude of feelings, a ftriking contrast of character is artfully formed, and uniformly supported, between the seeming unkindnefs and ingratitude of the man, and the unconquerable attachment and fidelity of the woman, whofe amiable compliance unexpectedly defeats every objection, and continually furnishes new matter for our love and compaffion. At length, our fears subside in the triumph of suffering innocence and patient fincerity. The Man, whofe hard fpeeches had given us so much pain, fuddenly furprises us with a change of fentiment, and becomes equally an object of our admiration and esteem. In the difentanglement of this distressful tale, we are happy to find, that all his cruelty was tenderness, and his inconftancy the most invariable truth; his levity an ingenious artifice, and his perversity the friendly disguise of the firmest affection. He is no longer an unfortunate exile, the profligate companion of the thieves and ruffians of the foreft, but an opulent earl of Westmoreland; and promises, that the lady, who is a baron's daughter, and whose constancy he had proved by fuch a series of embarrassing proposals, fhall inftantly be made the partner of his riches and honours. Nor should we forget to commend the invention of the poet, in imagining the modes of trying the lady's patience, and in feigning fo many new fituations: which, at the fame time, open a way to description, and to a variety of new scenes and images.

I cannot help obferving here, by the way, that Prior has mifconceived

conceived and effentially marred his poet's defign, by softening the fternness of the Man, which could not be intended to admit of any degree of relaxation. Henry's hypocrify is not characteristically nor confiftently sustained. He frequently talks in too respectful and complaifant a ftyle. Sometimes he calls Emma my tender maid, and my beauteous Emma; he fondly dwells on the ambrofial plenty of her flowing ringlets gracefully wreathed with variegated ribbands, and expatiates with rapture on the charms of her snowy bofom, her flender waist, and harmony of shape. In the antient poem, the concealed lover never abates his affectation of rigour and reserve, nor ever drops an expreffion which may tend to betray any traces of tenderness. He retains his severity to the last, in order to give force to the conclufion of the piece, and to heighten the effect of the final declaration of his love. Thus, by diminishing the oppofition of interests, and by giving too great a degree of uniformity to both characters, the diftrefs is in fome measure destroyed by Prior. For this reafon, Henry, during the course of the dialogue, is less an object of our averfion, and Emma of our pity. But these are the unavoidable confequences of Prior's plan, who presupposes a long connection between the lovers, which is attended with the warmest profeffions of a reciprocal paffion. Yet this very plan fuggefted another reafon, why Prior should have more closely copied the caft of his original. After so many mutual promises and proteftations, to have made Henry more obdurate, would have enhanced the fufferings and the fincerity of the amiable Emma.

It is highly probable, that the metrical romances of RICHARD CUER DE LYON, GUY EARL OF WARWICK, and SYR BEVYS OF SOUTHAMPTON, were modernised in this reign from more antient and fimple narrations. The first was printed by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1528. The fecond without date, but about the fame time, by William Copland. I mean that which begins thus,

In quarto. See fupr. Vol. i. p, 150. feq.

Ithen the tyme that God was borne,

And crystendome was fet and fworne.

With this colophon. "Here endeth the booke of the most "victoryous prynce Guy earle of Warwyk. Imprinted at Lon"don in Lothbury, over against faynt Margaret's church by Wyllyam Copland." Richard Pinfon printed SIR BEVYS without date. Many quarto profe romances were printed between the years 1510 and 1540*. Of thefe, KYNGE APPOLYN OF THYRE is not one of the worst.

66

In the year 1542, as it feems, Robert Wyer printed, "Here "begynneth a lytell boke named the SCOLE Hows E. wherein every man may rede a goodly Prayer of the condycyons of "women." Within the leaf is a border of naked women. This is a satire against the female fex. The writer was wife enough to fupprefs his name, as we may judge from the following paffage.

Trewly fome men there be,

That lyve alwaye in greate horroure ;

And fay, it goth by destenye

To hange or wed, both hath one houre:
And whether it be, I am well fure,
Hangynge is better of the twayne,
Sooner done, and shorter payne.

In the year 1521, Wynkyn de Worde printed a fett of Christmas Carols'. I have seen a fragment of this fcarce book, and it preferves this colophon. "Thus endeth the Christmaffe "carolles newly imprinted at London in the Flete-strete at the fygne of the fonne by Wynkyn de Worde. The yere of our "Lorde, M. D. XXI "." These were feftal chanfons for enli

In octavo,

* See fupr. p. 58.

For many fmall mifcellaneous pieces under the reign of Henry viii, the more

inquifitive reader is referred to MSS. Cott. VESP. A. 25.

m In quarto.

.vening