120

125

130

135

Till the suns retourning,

And bright day was coming on.

In this great distresse
Weeping, wayling ever,

Oft shee cryed, alas!

What will become of mee?

To my fathers court

I returne will never:

But in lowlye sort

Will a servant bee.

While thus she made her mone,

Weeping all alone,

In this deepe and deadlye feare:
A for'ster all in greene,

Most comelye to be seene,

Ranging the woods did find her there.
Moved with her sorrowe,

Maid, quoth he, good morrowe,

5

10

15

What hard happ has brought thee here?
Harder happ did never

20

335

30

15

10

5

Long was his heart inflamed,

At length her love he gained,

And fortune crown'd his future dayes.

160

Thus unknowne he wedde

With a kings faire daughter;
Children seven they had,

Ere she told her birth.
Which when once he knew,
Humblye he besought her
He to the world might shew,

Her rank and princelye worth.
He cloath'd his children then,
[The 168] (Not like other men)

In partye-colours strange to see;
The right side cloth of gold,
The left side to behold,

Of woollen cloth still framed hee.
Men thereatt did wonder;

Golden fame did thunder

165

170

175

Must of force come bye:
Their mothers riche array,
Was of crimson velvet:
Their fathers all of gray,
Seemelye to the eye.
Then this famous king,

185

Noting every thing,

190

M 4

200

205

210

215

*

[Well 169] And the cause descrying,
To the king these words did say,
Well may they, by their mother,
Weare rich clothes with other,
Being by birth a princesse gay.

The king aroused thus,

More heedfullye beheld them,
Till a crimson blush

His remembrance crost.
The more I fix my mind
On thy wife and children,
The more methinks I find

The daughter which I lost.
I am that child, quoth shee,
Falling on her knee,

Pardon mee, my soveraine liege.

The king perceiving this,

His daughter deare did kiss,

While joyfull teares did stopp his speeche.
With his traine be tourned,

And with them sojourned.

Strait he dubb'd her husband knight,

Then made him erle of Flanders,

And chiefe of his commanders,

From Ben Johnson's Silent Woman, Act. I. Sc. I. First acted in 1609. [Vgl. hiezu ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS in Vol. III.

p. 345.]

STILL to be neat, still to be drest,

As you were going to a feast;

Still to be pou'dred, still perfum'd:
Lady, it is to be presum'd,

* i. e. describing. See Gloss.

5

10

15

Though arts hid causes are not found,
All is not sweet, all is not sound.

Give me a looke, give me a face; (7.,)
That makes simplicitie a grace;
Robes loosely flowing, haire as free:
Such sweet neglect more taketh me,
Than all th' adulteries of art,

They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.

XVIII.

THE CHILDREN IN THE WOOD.

5

10

The subject of this very popular ballad (which has been set in so favourable a light by the Spectator, No. 85.) seems to be taken from an old play, intitled, "Two lamentable ["Tragedies, 171] "Tragedies, The one of the murder of "Maister Beech, a chandler in Thames-streete, &c. The other "of a young child murthered in a wood by two ruffins, with "the consent of his unkle. By Rob. Yarrington, 1601, 4to." Our ballad-maker has strictly followed the play in the description of the father and mother's dying charge: in the 20 uncle's promise to take care of their issue: his hiring two ruffians to destroy his ward, under pretence of sending [him] to school: their chusing a wood to perpetrate the murder in: one of the ruffians relenting, and a battle ensuing, &c. In other respects he has departed from the play. In the latter 25 the scene is laid in Padua: there is but one child: which is murdered by a sudden stab of the unrelenting ruffin: he is slain himself by his less bloody companion, but ere he dies gives the other a mortal wound; the latter living but just long enough to impeach the uncle; who in consequence of this 30 impeachment is arraigned and executed by the hand of justice, &c. Whoever compares the play with the ballad, will have no doubt but the former is the original: the language is far more obsolete, and such a vein of simplicity runs thro' the whole performance, that had the ballad been written first, 35 there is no doubt but every circumstance of it would have been received into the drama: whereas this was probably built on some Italian novel.