SIR PATRICK SPENCE. THE King sits in Dunfermlin town, Will sail this ship of mine? Then up bespake a bonny boy, Sat just at the king's knee,— The king has written a braid letter, To Norroway! to Norroway! O wha is this, or wha is that, For I was never a good seaman, Nor ever intend to be. Be 't wind, be 't wet,-be 't snow, be 't sleet, Our ship maun sail, the morn. Ever alack! my master dear, For I fear a deadly storm. * * In Percy's copy, Sir Patrick complains of being sent out "at this time They mounted sail on Munenday morn And they have landed in Norraway, They hadna' been a month, a month, Till lads of Norraway began to say, Ye spend a' our good king's gold, Ye lie, ye lie, ye liars loud, Sae loud's I hear you lie ; For I brought as much white money I brought half a fou* of good red gold Be 't wind or wet,-be 't snow or sleet, I saw the new moon late yestʼreen, They hadna' sailed a league on sea, of year;" which the Dr. explains by quoting an ordinance forbidding, on account of the unskilfulness of the Scotch sailors, and the dangers of their seas, any ship to leave this country between St. Simon and Jude (Oct. 28th) and Candlemas-day (Feb. 2d).-This ballad is not so much worthy of insertion for its intrinsic excellence, as for its genuine antiquity. * Half-a-peck.-JAMEISON. Till anchors brake, and topmasts lap; Where will I find a bonny boy Will take their sails in hand; Loth, loth were our good Scots lords Many was the feather-bed + That flottered on the faem; And many was the good Scots lord It's forty miles to Aberdeen, And there lie a' our good Scots lords, The ladies wrang their hands sae white, A' for the sake of their true loves, Long, long may our ladies stand Wi' their fans in their hand, Ere they see Sir Patrick and his men JAMIESON. * Above. + This is probably introduced to shew their luxury, as feather-beds were very rare articles in those days. Weeping. ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE.* Most of the readers of this selection have doubtless met with the general particulars of the life of this celebrated outlaw and his principal companions. He and his " merry men" of Sherwood Forest, had obtained a greater hold on the traditional lore and provincial feelings of the populace, than even the most celebrated conquerors; and the victories of Cressy or Agincourt were less esteemed than the exploits of Robin Hood. Indeed, if we suffer the feelings of true equity and honour to sleep, there are few subjects better calculated to excite the pleasing romance of imagination, than the adventures of this popular chief. He possessed, in an eminent degree, the qualities of heroic daring and savage magnanimity: he was accustomed to venturous ambushes and hair-breadth escapes. By a rather more civilized demeanour than might be expected from a robber, and by occasional acts of generosity to those who fell in his power, he gained the reputation of a "gentel theefe;" and by his levelling principle of taking from the rich, and giving some part of it to the poor, he became the darling of the common people. At the same time, when we find an author of talent, like Mr. Ritson, seriously holding this eccentric character up, as a man perfectly fulfilling all the duties required of a subject and citizen, and comparing him, with low and mean ribaldry, to respectable classes of men in the present day, then it is time to pause, and express, in the strongest terms, our reprobation and detestation of such pernicious opinions, and such a prostitution of learning and genius. But it is to be hoped that in most of his opinions, Mr. Ritson has few imitators. Robin Hood held his abode in Sherwood Forest, which is now dismantled, but which then comprehended nearly the whole of the north part of Nottinghamshire. He entertained a hundred men, who, being picked men, both for corporeal strength and skill in archery, were considered a match for four times their number of ordinary assailants. They were clad in (Lincoln) green, for a curious reason, which the reader would scarcely guess; viz., that this, as most resembled to the colour of the fern and grass, they * A market-town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and on the borders of Lancashire. would have the better chance of being unseen when they lay in ambush, either for herds, or for men. His principal companions were Maid Marian, his mistress, or, it is not absolutely certain that she might not have been ultimately his wife; Little John, whose simple appellation is sufficient to introduce him to the reader; Friar Tuck, a libertine and drunken friar, a kind of monkish Falstaff; Scarlet, Scatchlock, Much the Miller, and others. Wonderful stories are related of his skill in archery;—as, that he or his man Little John could shoot an arrow to the distance of a measured mile; of which, perhaps, we are scarcely fair judges in the present day; but it certainly seems utterly incredible. We are told, however, that it was by no means uncommon to kill a deer with an arrow at the distance of two hundred yards. Robin Hood's constant opponent seems to have been, the Sheriff of Nottingham; an official, who would no doubt be anxious to distinguish himself by the subversion of this celebrated enemy of the law, and who was probably strengthened with additional powers by the government for the occasion. Several meetings and contests between these two, are among the subjects of the numerous ballads of Robin Hood. The detestable severity of the Norman Forest Laws, which occasioned a man to flee for his life after one single transgression, and the great temptation to good archers living on the borders of the royal forests, are said to have been the predominant causes of the assemblage of outlawed troops, who endeavoured by their numbers to protect themselves from the consequences of their delinquency.— And, that we may not be too hard upon Robin Hood, we must allow him, with Camden and Fuller, to have been "one of the mildest of thieves,"* — never robbing the poor, but occasionally giving them a part of his spoil, and treating the weaker sex with great respect. He was a bitter enemy to the persons, or rather to the wealth, of the monks and friars; and yet, according to his ideas and those of the age, he shewed some deference to religion, always respecting the rites of the Catholic church, and having founded a chapel in the forest, with other acts of this kind. Robin Hood was born in the year 1160, and died in the year 1247, aged 87. He is said to have had, from ancestral connexion, some claims on the earldom of Huntingdon,-a point on which antiquaries are not agreed; he was styled however as such in an epitaph formerly to be seen on his tomb, at Kirkleys, in Yorkshire. Hear undernead dis laitl stean Obiit 24 Kal: dekembris 1247. |