HI. A barons chylde to be begylde! It were a curfed dede; To be felàwe with an outlawe! Almighty God forbede! Yet beter were, the pore fquyère Alone to foreft yede, Than ye fholde fay another day, That, by my curfed dede, Ye were betray'd: Wherfore, good mayd, The beft rede that I can, Is, that I to the grene wode go, Alone, a banyfhed man. Than have ye me betrayd. For, yf ye, as ye fayd, Be fo unkynde, to leve behynde, Your love, the not-browne mayd, Sone after ye be gone; 265 270 275 289 dele; For, in my mynde, of all mankynde I love but you alone. 285 HE. Ver. 282. ye be as. Prol. and Mr. W. Ver. 283. Ye were unkynde to leve me behynde Prol, and Mr. W. Ver. 278. outbrayd. Prol. and Mr. W. HE. Yf that ye went, ye fholde repent ; For in the forest nowe I have purvayed me of a mayd, Whom I love more than you; 290 All this may nought remove my thought, And she shall fynde me foft, and kynde, 300 Ver. 310. So the Editor's MS. All the printed copies read, Yet wolde I be that one. HE. HE. Myne owne dere love, I fe the prove Of mayde, and wyfe, in all my lyfe, Be mery and glad, be no more fad, The cafe is chaunged newe; For it were ruthe, that, for your truthe, Be nat difmayed; whatfoever I fayd To you, whan I began; I wyll nat to the grene wode go, I am no banyfhed man. 315 320 Than, were the cafe worse than it was, And I more wo-begone: HE. Ye fhall nat nede further to drede; I wyll nat dyfparàge You, (God defend !) fyth ye defcend Of fo grete a lynàge. Nowe undyrftande; to Weftmarlande, Which is myne herytage, I wyll you brynge; and with a rynge, 349 345 "Here may ye fe, that women be 350 Late never man reprove them than, Or call them variable; But, rather, pray God, that we may To them be comfortable; Which fometyme proveth fuch, as he loveth, 355 Yf they be charytable. For fyth men wolde that women sholde Be meke to them each one; Moche more ught they to God obey, And ferve but hym alone. Ver. 340. grete lynyage. Prol. and Mr. W. Prol. 360 VII. A Ver. 347. Then have. Ver. 348. And no banyshed. Prol. and Mr. W. This line wanting in Prol. and Mr. W. V. 352. Ver. 355. proved-loved. V. 357. Forsoth. Prol. and VII. A BALET BY THE EARL RIVERS. The amiable light, in which the character of Anthony Widville the gallant Earl Rivers has been placed by the elegant Author of the Catal. of Noble Writers, interefts us in whatever fell from his pen. It is prefumed therefore that the infertion of this little Sonnet will be pardoned, tho' it should not be found to have much poetical merit. It is the only original Poem known of that nobleman's; his more voluminous works being only tranflations. And if we confider that it was written during his cruel confinement in Pomfret caftle a fhort time before his execution in 1483, it gives us a fine picture of the compofure and fteadiness with which this ftout earl beheld his approaching fate. The verfes are preferved by Rouse a contemporary hifto- . rian, who seems to have copied them from the Earl's own hand writing. In tempore, fays this writer, incarcerationis apud Pontem-fractum edidit unum BALET in anglicis, ut mihi monftratum eft, quod fubfequitur fub his verbis: Hum what mulyng, &c. "Roffi Hift. 8vo. 2 Edit. p. 213." The 2d Stanza is, notwithstanding, imperfect, and we have inferted afterifks, to denote the defect. This little piece, which perhaps ought rather to have been printed in flanzas of eight short lines, is written in imitation of a poem of Chaucer's, that will be found in Urry's Edit. 1721. pag. 555. beginning thus, "Alone walkyng, in thought plainyng, 66 And fore fighying, All defolate. My remembrying Of my livyng "My death wifhyng Bothe erly and late. "Infortunate Is fo my fate That wote ye what, Out of mefure "My life I hate; Thus defperate "In fuck pore eftate, Doe I endure, &c." SUM |