For Witherington needs must I wail,
As one in doleful dumps;'
For when his legs were smitten off,
He fought upon his stumps.

*

Of fifteen hundred Englishmen,

Went home but fifty-three;
The rest were slain in Chevy-Chase,
Under the greenwood tree.

Next day did many widows come,
Their husbands to bewail;

They washed their wounds in brinish tears,
But all would not prevail.

Their bodies, bathed in purple gore,

They bare with them away:

They kiss'd them dead a thousand times,
Ere they were clad in clay.

God save our king, and bless this land
With plenty, joy, and peace;

And grant henceforth, that foul debate
'Twixt noblemen may cease.

Two more ballads must suffice. The first, though not of very ancient date, has been said to be " perhaps the most poetical and picturesque of any ballad existing." It is entitled

THE TWO CORBIES.

THERE were two corbies sat on a tree
Large and black as black might be,

And one the other gan say,

Where shall we go and dine to-day?

Shall we go dine by the wild salt sea?

Shall we go dine 'neath the greenwood tree?

As I sat on the deep sea sand,

I saw a fair ship nigh at land,

I waved my wings, I bent my beak,
The ship sunk, and I heard a shriek;
There they lie, one, two, and three,
I shall dine by the wild salt sea.

1i. e. "I, as one in deep concern, must lament." The construction here has generally been misunderstood. The old MS. read woful dumps.' The corresponding verse in the old ballad of the "Battle of Otterbourne," from which many incidents in this are taken, is as follows:

"For Wetharryngton my harte was wo,

That ever he slayne shulde be;

For when both his leggis wear hewyne in to,

Yet he knyled and fought on hys kne."

Come, I will show ye a sweeter sight,
A lonesome glen, and a new-slain knight;
His blood yet on the grass is hot,

His sword half-drawn, his shafts unshot,
And no one kens that he lies there,
But his hawk, his hound, and his lady fair.

His hound is to the hunting gane,

His hawk to fetch the wild fowl hame,
HIS LADY'S AWAY WITH ANOTHER MATE,
So we shall make our dinner sweet;
Our dinner's sure, our feasting free,
Come, and dine by the greenwood tree.
Ye shall sit on his white hause-bane,1
I will pick out his bonny blue een;
Ye'll take a tress of his yellow hair,
To theak yere nest when it grows bare;
The gowden2 down on his young chin
Will do to sewe my young ones in.

O, cauld and bare will his bed be,
When winter storms sing in the tree;
At his head a turf, at his feet a stone,
He will sleep, nor hear the maiden's moan;
O'er his white bones the birds shall fly,
The wild deer bound, and foxes cry.

THE DEMON LOVER.

This fine old ballad first appeared in Sir Walter Scott's "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," and is reprinted by Mr. Motherwell in his valuable volume, entitled " 'Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern."

"O where have you been, my long, long love,

This seven long years and mair?"
"O I'm come to seek my former vows

Ye granted me before."

"O hold your tongue of your former vows,
For they will breed sad strife;

O hold your tongue of your former vows,
For I am become a wife."

He turned him right and round about,
And the tear blinded his e'e:

"I wad never hae trodden on Irish ground,
If it had not been for thee.

"I might have had a king's daughter,
Far, far beyond the sea;

I might have had a king's daughter,
Had it not been for love o' thee."

The neck bone-a phrase for the neck.

2 Golden.

"If ye might have had a king's daughter,
Yersell ye had to blame:

Ye might have taken the king's daughter,
For ye kend that I was nane."

"O false are the vows of womankind,
But fair is their false bodie;

I never would hae trodden on Irish ground,
Had it not been for love o' thee."

"If I was to leave my husband dear,
And my two babes also,

O what have you to take me to,
If with you I should go!"

"I have seven ships upon the sea,
The eighth brought me to land;
With four-and-twenty bold mariners,
And music on every hand."

She has taken up her two little babes,
Kissed them baith cheek and chin:
"O fare ye weel, my ain two babes,
For I'll never see you again."

She set her foot upon the ship,

No mariners could she behold; But the sails were o' the taffetie,

And the masts o' the beaten gold.

She had not sailed a league, a league,
A league but barely three,

When dismal grew his countenance,
And drumlie grew his e'e.

The masts that were like the beaten gold,
Bent not on the heaving seas;

And the sails, that were o' the taffetie,
Filled not in the eastland breeze.

They had not sailed a league, a league,
A league but barely three,

Until she espied his cloven foot

And she wept right bitterly.

"O hold your tongue of your weeping," says he, "Of your weeping now let me be;

I will show you how the lilies grow

On the banks of Italy."

"O what are yon, yon pleasant bills, The sun shines sweetly on?"

"O yon are the hills of heaven!" he said, "Where you will never win."

"O whaten a mountain is yon," she said,
"All so dreary wi' frost and snow?"
"O yon is the mountain of hell," he cried,
"Where you and I will go."

And aye, when she turned her round about,
Aye taller he seemed to be;

Until the tops of the gallant ship

Nae taller were than he.

The clouds grew dark, and the wind grew loud,
And the levin filled her e'e:

And waesome wailed the snow-white sprites,
Upon the gurlie sea.

He struck the topmast wi' his hand,

The foremast wi' his knee;

And he brake that gallant ship in twain,

And sank her in the sea.

TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE.

No literary undertaking in any age of English Literature has proved to be so important in its results, as the Translation of the Bible under the direction of King James I. Of the labors of Wiclif in translating the Bible from the Latin Vulgate, and of the successful exertions of Tyndale, in face of every danger and even of death, in giving to his countrymen a version of the New Testament in their vernacular tongue, short accounts are given under the lives of those scholars, together with specimens of their respective translations. Subsequently, very many versions appeared, each differing in some respects from its predecessors, until, at the accession of James I. complaints of these discrepancies became general, and a new translation was desired. At the great conference held in 1604, at Hampton Court, between the established and puritan clergy, all parties agreeing in their disapprobation of the version of the scriptures then most generally used, the king commissioned fifty-four men, the most learned in the universities and other places, to commence a new translation. At the same time he required the bishops to inform themselves of all the learned men within their several dioceses, who had acquired especial skill in the Greek and Hebrew languages, and who had taken great pains in their private studies to investigate obscure passages and to correct mistakes in former English translations,

1 Milton makes part of the torments of the damned to

"feel by turns the bitter change

Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine

Immovable, infix'd, and frozen round,

Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire."

Paradise Lost, ii. 598.

1603-1625.]

TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE.

113

and to charge them to communicate their observations to the persons thus employed to translate the whole scriptures.

Before the work was begun, seven of the persons nominated for it were either dead or declined to engage in the task: the remaining forty-seven were classed under six divisions, a certain portion of scripture being assigned to each. They proceeded to their task at Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster, each individual translating the portion assigned to his division, and when all in any one division had finished, they met together, compared their several translations, and decided all differences, and settled upon what they deemed the best translation. When the several divisions had finished they all met together, and one and another by turns read the new version, whilst all the rest held in their hands either copies of the original, or some valuable version. If any one objected to the translation of any passage, the reader stopped to allow time for discussion, comparison, and final decision.

The labor appears to have commenced in the spring of 1604, and the result was published in 1611, under the following title. "The Holy Bible, conteyning the Old Testament and the New, newly translated out of the Originall Tongues, and with the former Translations diligently compared and revised by his Majesties speciall Commandement." As a translation this is generally most faithful and an excellent specimen of the language of the time. Dr. Adam Clarke remarks, "The translators have seized the very spirit and soul of the original, and expressed this, almost every where, with pathos and energy: they have not only made a standard translation, but have made this translation the standard of our language." This is eminently true, for in all human probability this translation will never be changed.

Still, strict truth and justice require us to say that there are some defects and errors, in our present version, which a more advanced state of biblical science enables us to detect. The translators had not access to the various sources of biblical criticism and elucidation which we enjoy at the present day; such as the collation of ancient manuscripts and versions; the multiplication of grammars and lexicons; the enlarged comparison of kindred dialects; and the researches of travellers into the geography, manners, customs, and natural history of the East.' But after all, instead of dwelling upon errors and discrepancies, which are really unimportant, we must ever wonder that there are so few, and admire the fidelity, the learning, and the wisdom of the great and good men that executed the work.2

1 For some very able remarks on our present version, see Professor Bush's Introduction to his Notes on Genesis.

2 One of the greatest defects in our translation is a want of uniformity in rendering, both in regard to single words and to phrases. To give a few instances of what I mean. The Greek adverb suvs (euthus), which means "directly," ‚” “immediately," is translated in Matt. iii. 16, by "straightway," xiii. 20, by anon :" xiii. 21, by "by and by:" Mark i. 12, by "immediately:" John xix. 34, by " forthwith." In all these places "immediately" would have better expressed the original: " by and by" is peculiarly infelicitous. So the verb uguuvare (merimnáte) in Matt. vi. 25, is rendered "take no thought;" in Phil. iv. 6, "be careful." The latter comes nearer the true