excels in that very difficult class of which love is the subject. There is an elegance in some of these little pieces, which deserts him in his more sublime efforts; and, very contrary to the meretricious effusions of contemporary bards, we remark, with pleasure, that the passion which his verses express, is that pure and virtuous affection which sublimes and refines all that is connected with it. The piece, upon the whole, which we are inclined to consider as decidedly unworthy of the others, is a ballad called William Lambert -a Tale, which the author seems to have suspected was too simple for publication. But, however true and pleasing the incident which it contains, the account of a boy relieved from beggary by the liberality of the Lady Margaret, and who prefers being a gardener to going to sea, cannot be considered as generally interesting. In some of the verses, the author has in fact slid into that style of tawdry and affected simplicity, which we should have thought that he who has studied popular poetry upon the manliest models, would, of all persons, have been most likely to imitate. The choice of the orphan to stay with Lady Margaret, is, for example thus expressed.

"The little boy he hied him in,

And busk'd him in the hall;
And soon he was all trimly dight,
And waxed stout withal.

'A boon (he cried), fair Lady mine!
O send me not to sea!

For thou must be mine only friend,
And I must bide with thee.

'O let me here thy garden tend,

Hard by this pleasant bower;

Here deck the lawn with careful hand,

And rear each scented flower:

'The soft primrose, the violet blue,

The glowing celandine;

And cuckoo-buds, and sorrel pale,

And luscious sweet woodbine.'"-Vol. ii, p. 86.

This is not genuine ballad poetry, which Mr. Herbert can write when he pleases; but that spurious kind, which trickles through the Sir Eldreds of the Bower,* and other legendard ditties of the eighteenth century. It is the very last refuge of those who can do nothing better in the shape of verse; and a man of genius should disdain to invade the province of these dawdling rhymers.

* [Sir Eldred was an early performance of Mrs. Hannah More.]

EVANS'S OLD BALLADS.*

[Quarterly Review, May, 1810.]

WE class these publications together, as being a species which characteristic simplicity and the powerful union of music render generally acceptable, as well to high-born dames in bower and hall, as to "the free maids that weave their thread with bones."

The reviver of minstrel poetry in Scotland was the venerable Bishop of Dromore, who, in 1765, published his elegant collection of heroic ballads, songs, and pieces of early poets, under the title of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. The plan of the work was adjusted in concert with Mr. Shenstone, but we own we cannot regret that the execution of it devolved upon Dr. Percy alone. It was divided into three volumes, each forming a distinct series of ancient poetry, selected with classical elegance, and interspersed with modern imitations and specimens of lyric composition. The various subdivisions of the work were prefaced by critical and curious dissertations upon subjects connected with or tending to elucidate the ancient ballads which they preceded. The arrangement of the specimens was so managed as to exhibit the gradation of language, the progress of popular opinions, the manners and customs of former ages, and the obscure passages of our earlier classical poets. The plan of this publication was eminently calculated to remove the principal obstacle which the taste of the period offered to its success. To bring Philosophy from heaven to dwell among men, it was necessary to divest her of some of her more awful attributes, to array her doctrines in familiar language, and ren

*Old Ballads, Historical, &c. By THOMAS EVANS. Revised, &c. by his Son, R. H. EVANS. 4 vols: And Vocal Poetry, or a select Collection of English Songs. To which is prefixed an Essay on Song Writing. By JOHN AIKIN, M. D.

der them evident by popular illustration. But Dr. Percy had a different course to pursue when conducting Legendary Lore from stalls and kitchens and cottage chimneys, or, at best, from the dust, moths, and mould of the Pepysian or Pearsonian collections, to be an inmate of the drawing-room and the study. The attempt was entirely new, and the difficulties attending it arose from the fastidious taste of an age which was accustomed to receive nothing under the denomination of poetry, unrecommended by flowing numbers and elaborate expression. To soften these difficulties, Dr. Percy availed himself, to a considerable extent, of his own poetical talent, to alter, amend, and decorate the rude popular rhymes, which, if given to the public with scrupulous fidelity, would probably have been rejected with contempt and disgust. It was not, then, so much the question whether an ancient poem was authentic according to the letter, as whether it was or could be rendered worth reading; and it might be said of Dr. Percy's labours as an editor, nihil quod tetigit non ornavit. It may be asked by the severer antiquary of the present day, why an editor, thinking it necessary to introduce such alterations, in order to bring forth a new, beautiful, and interesting sense from a meagre or corrupted original, did not, in good faith to his readers, acquaint them with the liberties he had taken, and make them judge whether in so doing he transgressed his limits. We answer, that unquestionably such would be the express duty of a modern editor, but such were not the rules of the service when Dr. Percy first opened the campaign. His avowal of alterations, additions, and conjectural emendations, at the bottom of each page, would have only led his readers to infer that his originals were good for nothing; not to mention that a great many of those additions derived their principal merit from being supposed ancient. In short, a certain conformity with the general taste was necessary to introduce a relish for the subject; accuracy and minute investigation of the original state of the ballads was likely to follow, and did follow so soon as the public ear had been won by the more elegant and polished edition of Dr. Percy. It had been well if the industrious Ritson, and other minute and accurate labourers in the mine of antiquity, had contented themselves with exhibiting specimens of the ore in its original state,

without abusing the artist who had made the vein worth digging, by showing to what its produce might be refined

The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry seem, shortly after their publication, to have exceeded even the expectation of the editor in giving a strong and determined impulse to public taste and curiosity, the effects of which have only abated within these very few years. Mr. Thomas Evans, bookseller, was the first who endeavoured to avail himself of the taste which they had excited, by publishing the collection of which his son has now given us a second edition.

This publication, although intended as a supplement to the Reliques of Ancient Poetry, cannot be considered as continued upon the same plan. There are no dissertations prefixed, and the preliminary matter which prefaces the ballads is but meagre. The ballads themselves are chiefly such as the more cautious taste of Dr. Percy had left unpublished, either because their rude structure was incapable of decoration, or because they were so well known as to render decoration unadvisable. The principal source from which they were taken is a small publication in three volumes, 12mo, entitled A Collection of old Ballads, corrected from the best and most ancient copies extant, with Introductions, historical, critical, or humorous: illustrated with copperplates. It is now, we believe, extremely rare, and sells at a price very disproportionate to its size. The volumes appeared separately, and from the edition now before us, the first seems to have been reprinted in 1723, the second in the same year, the third in 1725. The editor was an enthu siast in the cause of old poetry, and selected his matter without much regard to decency, as will appear from the following singular preface to one or two indelicate pieces of humour. "One of the greatest complaints made by the ladies against the first volume of our collection, and indeed the only one which has reached my ears, is the want of merry songs. I believe I may give a pretty good guess at what they call mirth in such pieces as these, and shall endeavour to satisfy them, though I have very little room to spare." From this fountain the late Mr. Evans seems to have drawn such supplies as it afforded. Most of his historical ballads are taken from it, and many of the tales of Robin Hood, although he probably used some of the Gar

lands respecting the hero of Sherwood, in correcting and completing that series. In the present edition these are materially improved by comparison with and reference to the black-letter copies.

But although Mr. Evans did not imitate Dr. Percy in the more learned and critical department of his labour, and although he stands acquitted of having taken the same license with originals of acknowledged antiquity; yet he not only followed his plan in admitting the compositions of modern authors in imitation of the ancient ballad, but the third and fourth volumes of his works contain some pieces presented as ancient which, from the orthography, language, sentiments and numbers, are evidently spurious. These ballads, which we have always considered as the most valuable part of Mr. Evans's collection, as far as poetry is concerned, are Bishop Thurston and the King of Scots, Battle of Cuton Moor, Murder of Prince Arthur, Prince Edward and Adam Gordon, Cumner Hall, Arabella Stuart, Anna Bullen, The Lady and the Palmer, The Fair Maniac, the Bridal Bed, The Lordling Peasant, The Red-Cross Knight, the Wandering Maid, The Triumph of Death, Julia, The Fruits of Jealousy, The Death of Allen. These seventeen ballads, which we believe have never been published, except in this work, have a sort of family resemblance which indicates a common parent. The antique colouring in all of them originally consisted in the adoption of a species of orthography embarrassed with an unusual number of letters, and regularly exchaungynge the i for the y in the participle, which is, for further dignity, graced uniformly with a final e. These injudicious marks of imitation, which can no more render a modern ballad like an ancient than a decoction of walnuts can convert the features of an European into those of an Asiatic, are rejected by the present editor, Mr. R. H. Evans, who thus leads us to infer that he does not consider the poems we have enumerated as authentic remnants of antiquity. We wish he had favoured us with some light upon their history. They appear to us to be the work of an author endowed with no small portion of poetical genius. Many marks of haste appear in the composition, which the writer probably considered as of little importance, since he never intended to be responsible for his offspring. But there are touches of great beauty of description, and an expression of sentiment peculiarly soft,