Читать книгу English and Scottish Ballads (Vol. 1-8) - Various Authors - Страница 23

"Published from an ancient MS. copy in the Editor's old folio volume, collated with two printed ones, one of which is in black-letter in the Pepys collection." PERCY.

An inferior copy is printed in Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads, ii. 193.

From an essay on the romance of Sir Guy, read by Mr. Wright before the British Archæological Association during its meeting at Warwick, we extract the following remarks in illustration of the history of the present ballad, and other similar popular heroic traditions.

"As the Teutonic tribes progressed in their migrations, and settled in new lands—and especially when they received a new faith, and made advances in civilization—the mythic romances of their forefathers underwent remarkable modifications to adapt them to new sentiments and new manners. Among people who had forgotten the localities to which they referred, they received a new location and became identified with places and objects with which people were better acquainted, and in this manner they underwent a new historical interpretation. It would be no uninteresting task to point out how many romantic tales that are soberly related of individuals of comparatively modern history, are merely new applications of these early myths.

"Among the romances of the Anglo-Danish cycle by no means the least celebrated is that of GUY OF WARWICK. It is one, of the few, which has been preserved in its Anglo-Norman form, since which it has gone through an extraordinary number of versions, and Chaucer enumerated it among the romances of pris, or those which in the fourteenth century were held in the highest estimation. It is doubtless one of those stories in which an ancient mythic romance has undergone the series of modifications I have been describing; a legend which had become located by popular traditions in the neighbourhood we are now visiting, in which the contests between northern chieftains are changed into tilts and tournaments, but in which the combats with dragons and giants are still preserved. Whatever may have been the name of the original hero, that which he now bears, Guy, is a French name, and could not have been given till Norman times.

"From the Anglo-Norman poem, so great was its popularity, two or three different English metrical versions were made, which are still found in manuscripts, and the earliest of which, that of the well-known Auchinlech manuscript, has been printed in a very expensive form by one of the Scottish Antiquarian clubs. It was next transformed into French prose, and in that form was popular in the fifteenth century, and was printed by some of the earlier printers. It was finally reduced to a popular chap-book in prose and a broadside ballad in verse, and in these forms was hawked about the streets until a very recent period. Such has in general been the fate of the romantic literature of the middle ages; a remarkable proof of the tenacity with which it has kept its hold on the popular mind." Gentleman's Magazine, Sept. 1847, p. 300.

Was ever knight for ladyes sake

Soe tost in love, as I, Sir Guy,

For Phelis fayre, that lady bright

As ever man beheld with eye?

5 She gave me leave myself to try,

The valiant knight with sheeld and speare,

Ere that her love she would grant me;

Which made mee venture far and neare.

Then proved I a baron bold, 10 In deeds of armes the doughtyest knight That in those dayes in England was, With sworde and speare in feild to fight.

An English man I was by birthe:

In faith of Christ a christyan true:

15 The wicked lawes of infidells

I sought by prowesse to subdue.

'Nine' hundred twenty yeere and odde After our Saviour Christ his birth, When King Athelstone wore the crowne, 20 I lived heere upon the earth.

Sometime I was of Warwicke erle,

And, as I sayd, of very truth

A ladyes love did me constraine

To seeke strange ventures in my youth;

25 To win me fame by feates of armes

In strange and sundry heathen lands;

Where I atchieved for her sake

Right dangerous conquests with my hands.

For first I sayled to Normandye,

30 And there I stoutlye wan in fight

The emperours daughter of Almaine,

From manye a vallyant worthye knight.

Then passed I the seas to Greece,

To helpe the emperour in his right,

35 Against the mightye souldans hoaste

Of puissant Persians for to fight:

Where I did slay of Sarazens,

And heathen pagans, manye a man;

And slew the souldans cozen deere,

40 Who had to name doughtye Coldràn.

Eskeldered, a famous knight,

To death likewise I did pursue:

And Elmayne, King of Tyre, alsoe,

Most terrible in fight to viewe.

45 I went into the souldans hoast,

Being thither on embassage sent,

And brought his head awaye with mee;

I having slaine him in his tent.

There was a dragon in that land

50 Most fiercelye mett me by the waye,

As hee a lyon did pursue,

Which I myself did alsoe slay.

Then soon I past the seas from Greece,

And came to Pavye land aright;

55 Where I the duke of Pavye killed,

His hainous treason to requite.

To England then I came with speede,

To wedd faire Phelis, lady bright;

For love of whome I travelled farr

60 To try my manhood and my might.

But when I had espoused her,

I stayd with her but fortye dayes,

Ere that I left this ladye faire,

And went, from her beyond the seas.

65 All cladd in gray, in pilgrim sort,

My voyage from her I did take

Unto the blessed Holy-Land,

For Jesus Christ my Saviours sake.

Where I Erle Jonas did redeeme,

70 And all his sonnes, which were fifteene,

Who with the cruell Sarazens

In prison for long time had beene.

I slew the gyant Amarant

In battel fiercelye hand to hand,

75 And doughty Barknard killed I,

A treacherous knight of Pavye land.

Then I to England came againe,

And here with Colbronde fell I fought;

An ugly gyant, which the Danes

80 Had for their champion hither brought.

I overcame him in the feild,

And slewe him soone right valliantlye;

Wherebye this land I did redeeme

From Danish tribute utterlye.

85 And afterwards I offered upp

The use of weapons solemnlye

At Winchester, whereas I fought,

In sight of manye farr and nye.

'But first,' neare Winsor, I did slaye

90 A bore of passing might and strength;

Whose like in England never was

For hugenesse both in bredth and length.

Some of his bones in Warwicke yett

Within the castle there doth lye;

95 One of his sheeld-bones to this day

Hangs in the citye of Coventrye.

On Dunsmore heath I alsoe slewe

A monstrous wyld and cruell beast,

Calld the Dun-cow of Dunsmore heath;

100 Which manye people had opprest.

Some of her bones in Warwicke yett

Still for a monument doth lye,

And there exposed to lookers viewe,

As wondrous strange, they may espye.

105 A dragon in Northumberland

I alsoe did in fight destroye,

Which did bothe man and beast oppresse,

And all the countrye sore annoye.

At length to Warwicke I did come,

110 Like pilgrim poore, and was not knowne;

And there I lived a hermitts life

A mile and more out of the towne.

Where with my hands I hewed a house

Out of a craggy rocke of stone,

115 And lived like a palmer poore

Within that cave myself alone:

And daylye came to begg my bread

Of Phelis att my cattle gate;

Not knowne unto my loved wiffe,

120 Who dailye mourned for her mate.

Till att the last I fell sore sicke,

Yea, sicke soe sore that I must dye;

I sent to her a ring of golde,

By which shee knew me presentlye.

125 Then shee repairing to the cave,

Before that I gave up the ghost,

Herself closd up my dying eyes;

My Phelis faire, whom I lovd most.

Thus dreadful death did me arrest,

130 To bring my corpes unto the grave,

And like a palmer dyed I,

Wherby I sought my soule to save.

My body that endured this toyle,

Though now it be consumed to mold,

135 My statue, faire engraven in stone,

In Warwicke still you may behold.

9, The proud Sir Guy, PC.

17, Two hundred, MS. and PC.