We, in thought, will join your throng Ye that through your hearts to-day What though the radiance which was once so bright Though nothing can bring back the hour Which having been must ever be; In the faith that looks through death, In years that bring the philosophic mind. And O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves, To live beneath your more habitual sway: I love the brooks which down their channels fret Is lovely yet; The clouds that gather round the setting sun That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality; NOTES OLD BALLADS SIR PATRICK SPENS (Page 3) It is thought that this ballad may have had historical foundation in a journey taken to Norway, in the thirteenth century, to bring home a princess to her Scottish throne. But whether this is true or not, the present form of the ballad is due to the hands through which it has passed, and to them we owe the fine vigor of its tone and the simplicity of its suggested tragedy. The only words which may offer difficulty to the reader are as follows: braid: broad laith: loath shoone: shoes JOHNIE ARMSTRONG (Page 4) We have record of a historical John Armstrong, who lived a free and lawless life on the Scottish border until his king, probably by treacherous means, brought about his death. The signs of traditional ballad treatment are very evident. Not only are the dress and equipment of his eight score men all alike," but the details of their costume follow the fashion of the well-known ballad hero. The letter written by the king was "large and long," reminding us of the "braid" letter sent Sir Patrick Spens, and we are told in each case that the king signed his letter with his own hand. Even the stirring valor of Johnie's encouragement to his men in the next to the last stanza appears in different versions through ballad literature. Another version of the eleventh stanza makes the meaning a little more clear: I have asked grace of a graceless face, Goldsmith wrote that he thought the music of the finest singer of his day was "dissonance to what I felt when our old dairy-maid sung me into tears with Johnie Armstrong's Last Good-Night." THE BATTLE OF OTTERBURN (Page 7) Perhaps the most typical of the old English ballads are those that celebrate the heroic deeds of warfare on the "Border," where strove the hostile nobles with their retinues, English on the one side, Scottish on the other. And of these ballads, that of The Battle of Otterburn is certainly the most famous. It was of that or the ballad of Chevy Chase, based apparently on the same incident, that Sidney wrote: “I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet; and yet it is sung by some blind crowder (beggar), with no rougher voice than rude style." And in the various forms in which the old ballad has come down to us, it has been singularly popular ever since. The materials for the version given here were collected by Sir Walter Scott from earlier versions of the old tradition; the arrangement and wording are his own. The ballad is based on a historical battle waged between Scottish and English forces, August 19th, 1388, and recorded in Froissart's Chronicles from the accounts of those who had actually taken part in the fray. The basis of fact on which the story is built is, briefly, as follows: The Scottish party, under the Earl of Douglas, invaded the hostile country and came in conflict with an English force, including Sir Henry Percy, at the stronghold of Newcastle; the quarrel between the two leaders was interrupted by the withdrawal of the Scottish troops, and was continued some days later when the English force overtook their enemies at a point further north; the battle was ended when Douglas was killed and Percy was led away captive. This bare outline, then, is true, as is the fact that Douglas wished his death to be concealed from both friend and foe; but the rest is the picturesque element added gradually in the telling and retelling of the tale, the first haughty challenge, the appointment to meet after three days at Otterburn, the incident |