Chapter XXI: Part VI (3)

Henry Percy was greatly vexed and mortified at the loss of his pennon, and in the evening he represented to the knights and squires of Northumberland how much it concerned his honor to make good what he had said to Douglas, that the pennon should never be carried out of England. But these gentlemen were all convinced that Douglas was backed by the whole power of Scotland, of which they had seen only the van, by forty thousand men who could handle them at their will; at any rate, it was better to lose a pennon than two or three hundred knights and squires, and expose the country to risk. As for the loss of the pennon, it was one of the chances of arms; Douglas had won it handsomely; another time Percy would get as much from him, or more.[159] To this the Percys were fain to yield. Later there came scouts with information that Douglas was encamped at Otterburn, that the main army was not acting in conjunction with him, and that his forces, all told, did not exceed three thousand. Henry Percy was overjoyed at the news, and cried, To horse! by the faith I owe to God and my father, I will go seek my pennon, and the Scots shall be ousted before this night is over. The evening of that same day the Bishop of Durham was expected to arrive with a great many men, but Henry Percy would not wait. Six hundred lances and eight thousand foot were enough, he said, to serve the Scots, who had but three hundred lances and two thousand other folk. The English set forth as soon as they could get together, by the road which the Scots had taken, but were not able to move very fast by reason of their infantry.

Some of the Scots knights were supping, and more were asleep (for they had had hard work at the assault on the tower, and were meaning to be up betimes to renew the attack), when the English were upon the camp, crying, Percy! Percy! There was naturally great alarm. The English made their attack at that part of the camp where, as before said, the servants and foragers were lodged. This was, however, strong, and the knights sent some of their men to hold it while they themselves were arming. Then the Scots formed, each under his own earl and captain. It was night, but the weather was fair and the moon shining. The Scots did not go straight for the English, but took their way along by the marshes and by a hill, according to a plan which they had previously arranged against the case that their camp should be attacked. The English made short work with the underlings, but, as they advanced, always found fresh people to keep up a skirmish. And now the Scots, having executed a flank movement, fell upon their assailants in a mass, from a quarter where nothing was looked for, shouting their battle-cries with one voice. The English were astounded, but closed up, and gave them Percy! for Douglas! Then began a fell battle. The English, being in excess and eager to win, beat back the Scots, who were at the point of being worsted. James Douglas, who was young, strong, and keen for glory, sent his banner to the front, with the cry, Douglas! Douglas! Henry and Ralph Percy, indignant against the earl for the loss of the pennon, turned in the direction of the cry, responding, Percy! Knights and squires had no thought but to fight as long as spears and axes would hold out. It was a hand-to-hand fight; the parties were so close together that the archers of neither could operate; neither side budged, but both stood firm. The Scots showed extraordinary valor, for the English were three to one; but be this said without disparagement of the English, who have always done their duty.

As has been said, the English were so strong that they were forcing their foes back, and this James Douglas saw. To regain the ground, he took a two-handed axe, plunged into the thickest, and opened a path before him; for there was none so well armed in helmet or plate as not to fear his strokes. So he made his way till he was hit by three spears, all at once, one in the shoulder, another in the chest, another in the thigh, and borne to the ground. The English did not know that it was Earl Douglas that had fallen; they would have been so much elated that the day would have been theirs. Neither did the Scots; if they had, they would have given up in despair. Douglas could not raise himself from the ground, for he was wounded to the death. The crush about him was great, but his people had kept as close to him as they could. His cousin, Sir James Lindsay, reached the spot where he was lying, and with Lindsay Sir John and Sir Walter Sinclair, and other knights and squires. Near him, and severely wounded, they found his chaplain, William of North Berwick, who had kept up with his master the whole night, axe in hand; also Sir Robert Hart, with five wounds from lances and other weapons. Sir John Sinclair asked the earl, Cousin, how fares it with you? ‘Indifferently,’ said the earl; ‘praised be God, few of my ancestors have died in their beds. Avenge me, for I count myself dead. Walter and John Sinclair, up with my banner, and cry, Douglas! and let neither friend nor foe know of my state.’ The two Sinclairs and Sir John Lindsay did as they were bidden, raised the banner, and shouted, Douglas! They were far to the front, but others, who were behind, hearing the shout loudly repeated, charged the English with such valor as to drive them beyond the place where Douglas now lay dead, and came up with the banner which Sir John Lindsay was bearing, begirt and supported by good Scots knights and squires. The Earl of Murray came up too, and the Earl of March and Dunbar as well, and they all, as it were, took new life when they saw that they were together and that the English were giving ground. Once more was the combat renewed. The English had the disadvantage of the fatigue of a rapid march from Newcastle, by reason whereof their will was better than their wind, whereas the Scots were fresh; and the effects appeared in this last charge, in which the Scots drove the English so far back that they could not recover their lost ground. Sir Ralph Percy had already been taken prisoner. Like Douglas, he had advanced so far as to be surrounded, and being so badly wounded that his hose and boots were full of blood, he surrendered to Sir John Maxwell. Henry Percy, after a valorous fight with the Lord Montgomery, became prisoner to the Scottish knight.

It was a hard battle and well fought, but such are the turns of fortune that, although the English were the greater number, and all bold men and practised in arms, and although they attacked the enemy valiantly, and at first drove them back a good distance, the Scots in the end won the day. The losses of the English were put by their antagonists at 1040 prisoners, 1860 killed in the fight and the pursuit, and more than 1000 wounded; those of the Scots were about 100 killed and 200 captured.[160] The Scots retired without molestation, taking the way to Melrose Abbey, where they caused the Earl of Douglas to be interred, and his obsequies to be reverently performed. Over his body a tomb of stone was built, and above this was raised the earl’s banner.

Such is the story of the battle of Otterburn, fought on Wednesday, the 19th day of August,[161] in the year of grace 1388, as related by Froissart (with animated tributes to the hardihood and generosity of both parties) upon the authority of knights and squires actually present, both English and Scots, and also French.

Wyntoun, ix, 840–54, 900f (Laing, III, 36f) says that the alarm was given the Scots by a young man that came right fast riding (cf. #A# 20, 21, #B# 4, #C# 17), and that many of the Scots were able to arm but imperfectly; among these Earl James, who was occupied with getting his men into order and was “reckless of his arming,” and the Earl of Murray, who forgot his basnet (cf. #C# 20). Earl James was slain no man knew in what way. Bower, Scotichronicon, II, 405, agrees with Wyntoun. English chroniclers, Knyghton, col. 2728, Walsingham (Riley, II, 176[162]), Malverne, the continuator of Higden (Polychronicon, Lumby, IX, 185), assert that Percy killed Douglas with his own hand, Knyghton adding that Percy also wounded the Earl of Murray to the point of death.

That a Scots ballad of Otterburn was popular in the sixteenth century appears from The Complaynte of Scotlande, 1549, where a line is cited, The Perssee and the Mongumrye met, p. 65, ed. Murray: cf. #B# 9^1, #C# 30^1.[163] In the following century Hume of Godscroft writes:[164] The Scots song made of Otterburn telleth the time, about Lammasse, and the occasion, to take preyes out of England; also the dividing of the armies betwixt the Earles of Fife and Douglas, and their severall journeys, almost as in the authentick history. It beginneth thus:

It fell about the Lammas tide,
When yeomen wonne their hay,
The doughtie Douglas gan to ride,
In England to take a prey.

Motherwell maintains that the ballad which passes as English is the Scots song altered to please the other party. His argument, however, is far from conclusive. “That The Battle of Otterbourne was thus dealt with by an English transcriber appears obvious, for it studiously omits dilating on Percy’s capture, while it accurately details his combat with Douglas;” that is to say, the ballad as we have it is just what a real English ballad would have been, both as to what it enlarges on and what it slights. “Whereas it would appear that in the genuine Scottish version the capture of Percy formed a prominent incident, seeing it is the one by which the author of The Complaynt refers to the ballad [The Perssee and the Mongumrye met]:” from which Motherwell was at liberty to deduce that #B# and #C# represent the genuine Scottish version, several stanzas being given to the capture of Percy in these; but this he would not care to do, on account of the great inferiority of these forms. A Scotsman could alter an English ballad “to suit political feeling and flatter national vanity,” as Motherwell says the Scots _did_ with Chevy Chace. (See further on, p. 303.) There is no reason to doubt that a Scots ballad of Otterburn once existed, much better than the two inferior, and partly suspicious, things which were printed by Herd and Scott, and none to doubt that an English minstrel would deal freely with any Scots ballad which he could turn to his purpose; but then there is no evidence, positive or probable, that this particular ballad was “adapted” from the Scots song made of Otterburn; rather are we to infer that the few verses of #B# and #C# which repeat or resemble the text of #A# were borrowed from #A#, and, as likely as not, Hume’s first stanza too.[165]

#A#, in the shape in which it has come down to us, must have a date long subsequent to the battle, as the grammatical forms show; still, what interested the borderers a hundred years or more after the event must have interested people of the time still more, and it would be against the nature of things that there should not have been a ballad as early as 1400. The ballad we have is likely to have been modernized from such a predecessor, but I am not aware that there is anything in the text to confirm such a supposition, unless one be pleased to make much of the Wednesday of the eighteenth stanza. The concluding stanza implies that Percy is dead, and he was killed at Shrewsbury, in 1403.

#A.# 3. Hoppertope hyll, says Percy, is a corruption for Ottercap Hill (now Ottercaps Hill) in the parish of Kirk Whelpington, Tynedale Ward, Northumberland. Rodclyffe Cragge (now Rothley Crags) is a cliff near Rodeley, a small village in the parish of Hartburn, in Morpeth Ward, south-east of Ottercap; and Green Leyton, corruptly Green Lynton, is another small village, south-east of Rodeley, in the same parish. Reliques, 1794, I, 22.

8. Henry Percy seems to have been in his twenty-third year. As for his having been a march-man “all his days,” he is said to have begun fighting ten years before, in 1378, and to have been appointed Governor of Berwick and Warden of the Marches in 1385: White, History of the Battle of Otterburn, p. 67 f. Walsingham calls both Percy and Douglas young men, and Froissart speaks at least twice of Douglas as young. Fraser, The Douglas Book, 1885, I, 292, says that Douglas was probably born in 1358. White, as above, p. 91, would make him somewhat older.

17. The chivalrous trait in this stanza, and that in the characteristic passage 36–44, are peculiar to this transcendently heroic ballad.

26, 27. The earldom of Menteith at the time of this battle, says Percy, following Douglas’s Peerage, was possessed by Robert Stewart, Earl of Fife, third son of King Robert II; but the Earl of Fife was in command of the main body and not present. (As Douglas married a daughter of King Robert II, the Earl of Fife was not his uncle, but his brother-in-law.) The mention of Huntley, says Percy, shows that the ballad was not composed before 1449; for in that year Alexander, Lord of Gordon and Huntley, was created Earl of Huntley by King James II. The Earl of Buchan at that time was Alexander Stewart, fourth son of the king. Reliques, 1794, I, 36.

35^2. ‘The cronykle will not layne.’ So in ‘The Rose of England,’ No 166, st. 22^4, ‘The cronickles of this will not lye,’ and also 17^2; and in ‘Flodden Field,’ appendix, p. 360, st. 121^4.

43, 49. It will be remembered that the archers had no part in this fight.

45, 46. “The ancient arms of Douglas are pretty accurately emblazoned in the former stanza, and if the readings were, The crowned harte, and, Above stode starres thre, it would be minutely exact at this day. As for the Percy family, one of their ancient badges or cognizances was a white lyon statant, and the silver crescent continues to be used by them to this day. They also give three luces argent for one of their quarters.” Percy, as above, p. 30.

48. So far as I know, St George does not appear as Our Lady’s knight in any legendary, though he is so denominated or described elsewhere in popular tradition. So in the spell for night-mare, which would naturally be of considerable antiquity,

S. George, S. George, Our Ladies knight,
He walkt by day, so did he by night, etc.:

Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, as reprinted by Nicholson, p. 68, ed. 1665, p. 48; and Fletcher’s Monsieur Thomas, iv. 6, Dyce, VII, 388. In Nicholas Udall’s ‘Roister Doister,’ known to be as old as 1551, Matthew Merrygreek exclaims, “What then? sainct George to borow, Our Ladie’s knight!” Ed. W. D. Cooper, p. 77, Shakespeare Society, 1847. The Danish ballad of St George, ‘St Jørgen og Dragen,’ Grundtvig, No 103, II, 559 ff, the oldest version of which is from a 16th century MS., begins, “Knight St George, thou art my man” (svend); and in the second version, George, declining the princess whom he has rescued, says he has vowed to Mary to be her servant.[166] In the corresponding Swedish ballad, of the same age as the Danish, George is called Mary’s knight (Maria honom riddare gjorde, st. 2): Geijer and Afzelius, ed. Bergström, II, 402. This is also his relation in German ballads: Meinert, p. 254; Ditfurth, I, 55, No 68.[167]

#B.# 1, 9, 14 nearly resemble #A# 1, 50, 68, and must have the same origin. In #B# 9 Douglas is changed to Montgomery; in 14 Douglas is wrongly said to have been buried on the field, instead of at Melrose Abbey, where his tomb is still to be seen.

7 is founded upon a tradition reported by Hume of Godscroft: “There are that say that he was not slain by the enemy, but by one of his owne men, a groome of his chamber, whom he had struck the day before with a truncheon in the ordering of the battell, because hee saw him make somewhat slowly to; and they name this man John Bickerton of Luffenesse, who left a part of his armour behinde unfastned, and when hee was in the greatest conflict, this servant of his came behinde his back and slew him thereat.” Ed. 1644, p. 105.

11. The summons to surrender to a braken-bush is not in the style of fighting-men or fighting-days, and would justify Hotspur’s contempt of metre-ballad-mongers.

12, 13. #B# agrees with Froissart in making a Montgomery to be the captor of Henry Percy, whereas #A# represents that Montgomery was taken prisoner and exchanged for Percy. In The Hunting of the Cheviot Sir Hugh Montgomery kills Percy, and in return is shot by a Northumberland archer.

#C.# Scott does not give a distinct account of this version. He says that he had obtained two copies, since the publication of the earlier edition, “from the recitation of old persons residing at the head of Ettrick Forest, by which the story is brought out and completed in a manner much more correspondent to the true history.” #C# is, in fact, a combination of four copies; the two from Ettrick Forest, #B a#, and the MS. copy used in #B b# to “correct” Herd.

8, it scarcely requires to be said, is spurious, modern in diction and in conception.

19. Perhaps derived from Hume of Godscroft rather than from tradition. When Douglas was dying, according to this historian,[168] he made these last requests of certain of his kinsmen: “First, that yee keep my death close both from our owne folke and from the enemy; then, that ye suffer not my standard to be lost or cast downe; and last, that ye avenge my death, and bury me at Melrosse with my father. If I could hope for these things,” he added, “I should die with the greater contentment; for long since I heard a prophesie that a dead man should winne a field, and I hope in God it shall be I.” Ed. 1644, p. 100.

22 must be derived from the English version. As the excellent editor of The Ballad Minstrelsy of Scotland, Glasgow, 1871, remarks, “no Scottish minstrel would ever have dreamt of inventing such a termination to the combat between these two redoubted heroes ... as much at variance with history as it is repulsive to national feeling:” p. 431.

Genealogical matters, in this and the following ballad, are treated, not always to complete satisfaction, in Bishop Percy’s notes, Reliques, 1794, I, 34 ff; Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1833, I, 351, 363 ff: White’s History of the Battle of Otterburn, p. 67 ff; The Ballads and Songs of Ayrshire, I, 66 f.

#A# is translated by Doenniges, p. 87; #C# by Grundtvig, Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, No 12, p. 74, and by Talvj, Charakteristik, p. 537.

A

#a.# Cotton MS. Cleopatra, C. iv, leaf 64, of about 1550. #b.#
Harleian MS. 293, leaf 52.

1
Yt fell abowght the Lamasse tyde,
Whan husbond_es_ wynnes ther haye,
The dowghtye Dowglasse bowynd hym to ryde,
In Ynglond to take a praye.

2
The yerlle of Fyffe, w_y_t_h_owghten stryffe,
He bowynd hym over Sulway;
The grete wolde ever to-gether ryde;
That raysse they may rewe for aye.

3
Over Hoppertope hyll they cam in,
And so down by Rodclyffe crage;
Vpon Grene Lynton they lyghted dowyn,
Styrande many a stage.

4
And boldely brente Northomberlond,
And haryed many a towyn;
They dyd owr Ynglyssh men grete wrange,
To batell that were not bowyn.

5
Than spake a berne vpon the bent,
Of comforte that was not colde,
And sayd, We haue brente Northomberlond,
We haue all welth in holde.

6
Now we haue haryed all Bamborowe schyre,
All the welth in the worlde haue wee,
I rede we ryde to Newe Castell,
So styll and stalworthlye.

7
Vpon the morowe, when it was day,
The standerds schone full bryght;
To the Newe Castell the toke the waye,
And thether they cam full ryght.

8
S_yr_ Henry Perssy laye at the New Castell,
I tell yow w_y_t_h_owtten drede;
He had byn a march-man all hys dayes,
And kepte Barwyke vpon Twede.

9
To the Newe Castell when they cam,
The Skottes they cryde on hyght,
‘Syr Hary Perssy, and thou byste w_i_t_h_in,
Com to the fylde, and fyght.

10
‘For we haue brente Northomberlonde,
Thy erytage good and ryght,
And syne my logeyng I haue take
W_y_t_h_ my brande dubbyd many a knyght.’

11
S_yr_ Harry Perssy cam to the wall_es_,
The Skottyssch oste for to se,
And sayd, And thou hast brente Northomberlond
Full sore it rewyth me.

12
Yf thou hast haryed all Bamborowe schyre,
Thow hast done me grete envye;
For the trespasse thow hast me done,
The tone of vs schall dye.

13
‘Where schall I byde the?’ sayd the Dowglas,
‘Or where wylte thow com to me?’
‘At Otterborne, in the hygh way,
[T]her mast thow well logeed be.

14
‘[T]he roo full rekeles ther sche rinnes,
[T]o make the game a[nd] glee;
[T]he fawken and the fesaunt both,
Among the holtes on hye.

15
‘Ther mast thow haue thy welth at wyll,
Well looged ther mast be;
Yt schall not be long or I com the tyll,’
Sayd Syr Harry Perssye.

16
‘Ther schall I byde the,’ sayd the Dowglas,
‘By the fayth of my bodye:’
‘Thether schall I com,’ sayd S_yr_ Harry Perssy,
‘My trowth I plyght to the.’

17
A pype of wyne he gaue them over the walles,
For soth as I yow saye;
Ther he mayd the Dowglasse drynke,
And all hys ost that daye.

18
The Dowglas turnyd hym homewarde agayne,
For soth w_i_t_h_owghten naye;
He toke hys logeyng at Oterborne,
Vpon a Wedynsday.

19
And ther he pyght hys standerd dowyn,
Hys gettyng more and lesse,
And syne he warned hys men to goo
To chose ther geldyng_es_ gresse.

20
A Skottysshe knyght hoved vpon the bent,
A wache I dare well saye;
So was he ware on the noble Perssy,
In the dawnyng of the daye.

21
He prycked to hys pavyleon-dore,
As faste as he myght ronne;
‘Awaken, Dowglas,’ cryed the knyght,
‘For hys love that syttes in trone.

22
‘Awaken, Dowglas,’ cryed the knyght,
‘For thow maste waken wyth wynne;
Yender haue I spyed the prowde Perssye,
And seven stondardes wyth hym.’

23
‘Nay by my trowth,’ the Dowglas sayed,
‘It ys but a fayned taylle;
He durst not loke on my brede banner
For all Ynglonde so haylle.

24
‘Was I not yesterdaye at the Newe Castell,
That stond_es_ so fayre on Tyne?
For all the men the Perssy had,
He coude not garre me ones to dyne.’

25
He stepped owt at his pavelyon-dore,
To loke and it were lesse:
‘Araye yow, lordyng_es_, one and all,
For here bygynnes no peysse.

26
‘The yerle of Mentaye, thow arte my eme,
The fowarde I gyve to the:
The yerlle of Huntlay, cawte and kene,
He schall be w_y_t_h_ the.

27
‘The lorde of Bowghan, in armure bryght,
On the other hand he schall be;
Lord Jhonsto_u_ne and Lorde Maxwell,
They to schall be w_y_t_h_ me.

28
‘Swynton, fayre fylde vpon yo_u_r pryde!
To batell make yow bowen
S_yr_ Davy Skotte, S_yr_ Water Stewarde,
S_yr_ Jhon of Agurstone!’

29
The Perssy cam byfore hys oste,
Wych was ever a gentyll knyght;
Vpon the Dowglas lowde can he crye,
‘I wyll holde that I haue hyght.

30
‘For thou haste brente Northomberlonde,
And done me grete envye;
For thys trespasse thou hast me done,
The tone of vs schall dye.’

31
The Dowglas answerde hym agayne,
W_y_t_h_ grett wurd_es_ vpon hye,
And sayd, I haue twenty agaynst thy one,
Byholde, and thou maste see.

32
Wyth th_a_t the Perssy was grevyd sore,
For soth as I yow saye;
He lyghted dowyn vpon his foote,
And schoote hys horsse clene awaye.

33
Eu_e_ry man sawe that he dyd soo,
That ryall was euer in rowght;
Eu_e_ry man schoote hys horsse hym froo,
And lyght hym rowynde abowght.

34
Thus S_yr_ Hary Perssye toke the fylde,
For soth as I yow saye;
Jh_es_u Cryste in hevyn on hyght
Dyd helpe hym well that daye.

35
But nyne thowzand, ther was no moo,
The cronykle wyll not layne;
Forty thowsande of Skottes and fowre
That day fowght them agayne.

36
But when the batell byganne to ioyne,
In hast ther cam a knyght;
The letters fayre furth hath he tayne,
And thus he sayd full ryght:

37
‘My lorde yo_u_r father he gretes yow well,
Wyth many a noble knyght;
He desyres yow to byde
That he may see thys fyght.

38
‘The Baron of Grastoke ys com out of the west,
Wyth hym a noble companye;
All they loge at yo_u_r fathers thys nyght,
And the batell fayne wolde they see.’

39
‘For Jh_es_us love,’ sayd Syr Harye Perssy,
‘That dyed for yow and me,
Wende to my lorde my father agayne,
And saye thow sawe me not w_y_t_h_ yee.

40
‘My trowth ys plyght to yonne Skottysh knyght,
It nedes me not to layne,
That I schulde byde hym vpon thys bent,
And I haue hys trowth agayne.

41
‘And if that I w[e]ynde of thys growende,
For soth, onfowghten awaye,
He wolde me call but a kowarde knyght
In hys londe another daye.

42
‘Yet had I lever to be rynde and rente,
By Mary, that mykkel maye,
Then ever my manhood schulde be reprovyd
Wyth a Skotte another day.

43
‘Wherfore schote, archars, for my sake,
And let scharpe arowes flee;
Mynstrells, playe vp for yo_u_r waryson,
And well quyt it schall bee.

44
‘Eu_e_ry man thynke on hys trewe-love,
And marke hym to the Trenite;
For to God I make myne avowe
Thys day wyll I not flee.’

45
The blodye harte in the Dowglas armes,
Hys standerde stode on hye,
That eu_e_ry man myght full well knowe;
By syde stode starrës thre.

46
The whyte lyon on the Ynglyssh perte,
For soth as I yow sayne,
The lucett_es_ and the cressawnt_es_ both;
The Skott_es_ favght them agayne.

47
Vpon Sent Androwe lowde can they crye,
And thrysse they schowte on hyght,
And syne m_er_ked them one owr Ynglysshe men,
As I haue tolde yow ryght.

48
Sent George the bryght, owr ladyes knyght,
To name they were full fayne;
Owr Ynglyssh men they cryde on hyght,
And thrysse the schowtte agayne.

49
Wyth that scharpe arowes bygan to flee,
I tell yow in sertayne;
Men of armes byganne to joyne,
Many a dowghty man was ther slayne.

50
The Perssy and the Dowglas mette,
That ether of other was fayne;
They swapped together whyll that the swette,
W_y_t_h_ sword_es_ of fyne collayne:

51
Tyll the bloode from ther bassonnett_es_ ranne,
As the roke doth in the rayne;
‘Yelde the to me,’ sayd the Dowglas,
‘Or ell_es_ thow schalt be slayne.

52
‘For I see by thy bryght bassonet,
Thow arte su_m_ man of myght;
And so I do by thy burnysshed brande;
Thow arte an yerle, or ell_es_ a knyght.’

53
‘By my good faythe,’ sayd the noble Perssye,
‘Now haste thow rede full ryght;
Yet wyll I never yelde me to the,
Whyll I may stonde and fyght.’

54
They swapped together whyll that they swette,
Wyth swordës scharpe and long;
Ych on other so faste thee beette,
Tyll ther helmes cam in peyses dowyn.

55
The Perssy was a man of strenghth,
I tell yow in thys stounde;
He smote the Dowglas at the swordës length
That he felle to the growynde.

56
The sworde was scharpe, and sore can byte,
I tell yow in sertayne;
To the harte he cowde hym smyte,
Thus was the Dowglas slayne.

57
The stonderd_es_ stode styll on eke a syde,
Wyth many a grevous grone;
Ther the fowght the day, and all the nyght,
And many a dowghty man was slayne.

58
Ther was no freke that ther wolde flye,
But styffely in stowre can stond,
Ychone hewyng on other whyll they myght drye,
Wyth many a bayllefull bronde.

59
Ther was slayne vpon the Skottës syde,
For soth and sertenly,
S_yr_ James a Dowglas ther was slayne,
That day that he cowde dye.

60
The yerlle of Mentaye he was slayne,
Grysely groned vpon the growynd;
S_yr_ Davy Skotte, S_yr_ Water Stewarde,
S_yr_ Jhon of Agurstoune.

61
S_yr_ Charllës Morrey in that place,
That never a fote wold flee;
S_yr_ Hewe Maxwell, a lorde he was,
W_y_t_h_ the Dowglas dyd he dye.

62
Ther was slayne vpon the Skottës syde,
For soth as I yow saye,
Of fowre and forty thowsande Scott_es_
Went but eyghtene awaye.

63
Ther was slayne vpon the Ynglysshe syde,
For soth and sertenlye,
A gentell knyght, S_yr_ Jhon Fechewe,
Yt was the more pety.

64
S_yr_ James Hardbotell ther was slayne,
For hym ther hartes were sore;
The gentyll Lovell ther was slayne,
That the Perssys standerd bore.

65
Ther was slayne vpon the Ynglyssh perte,
For soth as I yow saye,
Of nyne thowsand Ynglyssh men
Fyve hondert cam awaye.

66
The other were slayne in the fylde;
Cryste kepe ther sowlles from wo!
Seyng ther was so fewe fryndes
Agaynst so many a foo.

67
Then on the morne they mayde them beerys
Of byrch and haysell graye;
Many a wydowe, w_y_t_h_ wepyng teyres,
Ther makes they fette awaye.

68
Thys fraye bygan at Otterborne,
Bytwene the nyght and the day;
Ther the Dowglas lost hys lyffe,
And the Perssy was lede awaye.

69
Then was ther a Scottysh p_ri_soner tayne,
S_yr_ Hewe Mongomery was hys name;
For soth as I yow saye,
He borowed the Perssy home agayne.

70
Now let vs all for the Perssy praye
To Jh_es_u most of myght,
To bryng hys sowlle to the blysse of heven,
For he was a gentyll knyght.

B

#a.# Herd’s MS., I, 149, II, 30; Herd’s Scottish Songs, 1776, I,
153. #b.# Scott’s Minstrelsy, I, 31, 1802, “corrected” from Herd,
1776, “by a MS. copy.”

1
It fell and about the Lammas time,
When husbandmen do win their hay,
Earl Douglass is to the English woods,
And a’with him to fetch a prey.

2
He has chosen the Lindsays light,
With them the gallant Gordons gay,
And the Earl of Fyfe, withouten strife,
And Sir Hugh Montgomery upon a grey.

3
They have taken Northumberland,
And sae hae they the north shire,
And the Otter Dale, they hae burnt it hale,
And set it a’into fire.

4
Out then spake a bonny boy,
That servd ane o Earl Douglass kin;
Methinks I see an English host,
A-coming branken us upon.

5
‘If this be true, my little boy,
And it be troth that thou tells me,
The brawest bower in Otterburn
This day shall be thy morning-fee.

6
‘But if it be fase, my little boy,
But and a lie that thou tells me,
On the highest tree that’s in Otterburn
With my ain hands I’ll hing thee high.’

7
The boy’s taen out his little penknife,
That hanget low down by his gare,
And he gaed Earl Douglass a deadly wound,
Alack! a deep wound and a sare.

8
Earl Douglas said to Sir Hugh Montgomery,
Take thou the vanguard o the three,
And bury me at yon braken-bush,
That stands upon yon lilly lee.

9
Then Percy and Montgomery met,
And weel a wot they warna fain;
They swaped swords, and they twa swat,
And ay the blood ran down between.

10
‘O yield thee, yield thee, Percy,’ he said,
‘Or else I vow I’ll lay thee low;’
‘Whom to shall I yield,’ said Earl Percy,
‘Now that I see it maun be so?’

11
‘O yield thee to yon braken-bush,
That grows upon yon lilly lee;
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .

12
‘I winna yield to a braken-bush,
Nor yet will I unto a brier;
But I would yield to Earl Douglass,
Or Sir Hugh Montgomery, if he was here.’

13
As soon as he knew it was Montgomery,
He stuck his sword’s point in the ground,
And Sir Hugh Montgomery was a courteous knight,
And he quickly broght him by the hand.

14
This deed was done at Otterburn,
About the breaking of the day;
Earl Douglass was buried at the braken-bush,
And Percy led captive away.

C

Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1833, I, 345. #B# completed by
two copies “obtained from the recitation of old persons residing at
the head of Ettrick Forest.”

1
It fell about the Lammas tide,
When the muir-men win their hay,
The doughty Douglas bound him to ride
Into England, to drive a prey.

2
He chose the Gordons and the Græmes,
With them the Lindesays, light and gay;
But the Jardines wald not with him ride,
And they rue it to this day.

3
And he has burnd the dales of Tyne,
And part of Bambrough shire,
And three good towers on Reidswire fells,
He left them all on fire.

4
And he marchd up to Newcastle,
And rode it round about:
‘O wha’s the lord of this castle?
Or wha’s the lady o’t? ’

5
But up spake proud Lord Percy then,
And O but he spake hie!
I am the lord of this castle,
My wife’s the lady gay.

6
‘If thou’rt the lord of this castle,
Sae weel it pleases me,
For, ere I cross the Border fells,
The tane of us shall die.’

7
He took a lang spear in his hand,
Shod with the metal free,
And for to meet the Douglas there
He rode right furiouslie.

8
But O how pale his lady lookd,
Frae aff the castle-wa,
When down before the Scottish spear
She saw proud Percy fa.

9
‘Had we twa been upon the green,
And never an eye to see,
I wad hae had you, flesh and fell;
But your sword sall gae wi me.’

10
‘But gae ye up to Otterbourne,
And, wait there dayis three,
And, if I come not ere three dayis end,
A fause knight ca ye me.’

11
‘The Otterbourne’s a bonnie burn;
’Tis pleasant there to be;
But there is nought at Otterbourne
To feed my men and me.

12
‘The deer rins wild on hill and dale,
The birds fly wild from tree to tree;
But there is neither bread nor kale
To fend my men and me.

13
‘Yet I will stay at Otterbourne,
Where you shall welcome be;
And, if ye come not at three dayis end,
A fause lord I’ll ca thee.’

14
‘Thither will I come,’ proud Percy said,
‘By the might of Our Ladye;’
‘There will I bide thee,’ said the Douglas,
‘My troth I plight to thee.’

15
They lighted high on Otterbourne,
Upon the bent sae brown;
They lighted high on Otterbourne,
And threw their pallions down.

16
And he that had a bonnie boy,
Sent out his horse to grass;
And he that had not a bonnie boy,
His ain servant he was.

17
But up then spake a little page,
Before the peep of dawn:
‘O waken ye, waken ye, my good lord,
For Percy’s hard at hand.’

18
‘Ye lie, ye lie, ye liar loud!
Sae loud I hear ye lie:
For Percy had not men yestreen
To dight my men and me.

19
‘But I have dreamd a dreary dream,
Beyond the Isle of Sky;
I saw a dead man win a fight,
And I think that man was I.’

20
He belted on his guid braid sword,
And to the field he ran,
But he forgot the helmet good,
That should have kept his brain.

21
When Percy wi the Douglas met,
I wat he was fu fain;
They swakked their swords, till sair they swat,
And the blood ran down like rain.

22
But Percy with his good broad sword,
That could so sharply wound,
Has wounded Douglas on the brow,
Till he fell to the ground.

23
Then he calld on his little foot-page,
And said, Run speedilie,
And fetch my ain dear sister’s son,
Sir Hugh Montgomery.

24
‘My nephew good,’ the Douglas said,
‘What recks the death of ane!
Last night I dreamd a dreary dream,
And I ken the day’s thy ain.

25
‘My wound is deep; I fain would sleep;
Take thou the vanguard of the three,
And hide me by the braken-bush,
That grows on yonder lilye lee.

26
‘O bury me by the braken-bush,
Beneath the blooming brier;
Let never living mortal ken
That ere a kindly Scot lies here.’

27
He lifted up that noble lord,
Wi the saut tear in his ee;
He hid him in the braken-bush,
That his merrie men might not see.

28
The moon was clear, the day drew near,
The spears in flinders flew,
But mony a gallant Englishman
Ere day the Scotsmen slew.

29
The Gordons good, in English blood
They steepd their hose and shoon;
The Lindsays flew like fire about,
Till all the fray was done.

30
The Percy and Montgomery met,
That either of other were fain;
They swapped swords, and they twa swat,
And aye the blood ran down between.

31
‘Now yield thee, yield thee, Percy,’ he said,
‘Or else I vow I’ll lay thee low!’
‘To whom must I yield,’ quoth Earl Percy,
‘Now that I see it must be so?’

32
‘Thou shalt not yield to lord nor loun,
Nor yet shalt thou yield to me;
But yield thee to the braken-bush,
That grows upon yon lilye lee.’

33
‘I will not yield to a braken-bush,
Nor yet will I yield to a brier;
But I would yield to Earl Douglas,
Or Sir Hugh the Montgomery, if he were here.’

34
As soon as he knew it was Montgomery,
He struck his sword’s point in the gronde;
The Montgomery was a courteous knight,
And quickly took him by the honde.

35
This deed was done at the Otterbourne,
About the breaking of the day;
Earl Douglas was buried at the braken-bush,
And the Percy led captive away.

D

Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, I, xviii f; from recitation.

1
Then out an spak a little wee boy,
And he was near o Percy’s kin:
Methinks I see the English host
A coming branking us upon.

2
Wi nine waggons scaling wide,
And seven banners bearing high;
It wad do any living gude
To see their bonny colours fly.

E

Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. lxxi, note 30; from a recited copy.

‘O yield thee to yon braken-bush,
That grows upon yon lilly lie;
For there lies aneth yon braken-bush
What aft has conquerd mae than thee.’

* * * * *

#A. a.#

3^4. many a styrande. “The reading of the MS. is, I suspect,
right; for stage, or staig, in Scotland means a young horse
unshorn of its masculine attributes, and the obvious intention
of the poet is merely to describe that the Scottish alighted
from many a prancing steed, in order to prepare for action.”
_Motherwell, Minstrelsy, p. lxxi, note 30, who would read
accordingly_, [Off] many a styrande stage. _The fourth line, as
amended by Motherwell, would be a superfluity, whereas Percy’s
reading, here adopted, adds a pleasing incident, the rousing of
the deer as the troopers passed their haunts._

20^1. beste, _corrected_ to bent.

22^1. _repeated at the top of fol. 65 back._

31^3. the one; #b#, thy one.

34^2. soth soth.

41^1. #b#, weynde.

46^3. cressawtt#es#.

50^3. schapped: _cf._ 54^1.

60^4. S_yr_ James: _cf._ 28^4.

64^3. Covell.

_Crossed final_ ll, _in_ all, styll, Castell, schall, well, _etc.,
has not been rendered_ ll_e_.

#b.#

A Songe made in R. 2. his tyme of the Battelle at Otterburne
betweene the Lord Henry Percye, Earle of Northomberland, and the
Earle Douglas of Scotland, Anº. 1388.

_Either #b# is a transcript of #a#, or both are from the same
source._

3^2. Redclyffe.

3^4. Many a stirande.

4^4. bound.

7^4. they ranne.

11^1. S^r Henry came.

13^2. wille.

14^2. game and.

15^2. maiste thou.

15^4. Henrye.

20^1. houered vppon the beste bent.

24^4. gare me oute to.

28^4. Aguiston.

31^3. thy one.

35^1. no more.

35^2. cronicles.

37^3. abyde.

39^4. w^{th} thie eye.

40^1. yonde Skotes.

41^1. Ffor yf I weynde.

44^3. my avowe.

46^2. I _wanting_.

49^1. arrowes gan vpe to.

50^3. schapped: swatte.

51^1. from the.

54^1. swotte.

57^1. stonderes; elke syde.

59^3. a _wanting_.

60^4. S^r James.

63^3. Ffitzhughe.

64^1. Harbotle.

64^3. Covelle.

66^4. a _wanting_.

67^1. the morowe.

70^1. Percyes.

_A pencil note on the first leaf of #b# (signed F. M., Sir F.
Madden) states that it is in Ralph Starkey’s hand._

#B. a.#

2^3. Fuife _in my transcript of_ Herd, I; Fyfe in II.

3^3. hae _is omitted in_ II _and the printed copy_.

3^4. _printed_ into a fire.

5^3. bravest _in my transcript of_ Herd, I; brawest, II; _printed_
brawest.

7^3. _The second MS. has_ gae; _printed_ gae.

8^3. bring me _in my transcript of_ Herd, I; bury _in the second
MS., and so printed_.

12^2. II, into.

#b.#

1^1. and _wanting_.

2^4. Hugh the.

3^1. have harried.

3^2. they Bambroshire.

3^3. And _wanting_.

3^4. a’in a blaze o fire.

5^1. true, thou little foot-page.

5^2. If this be true thou tells to me.

5^4. This day _wanting_; morning’s.

6^1. thou little.

6^2. lie thou tells to.

6^3. that’s _wanting_.

6^4. hang.

7^1. boy has.

7^2. hung right low.

7^3. gave Lord.

7^4. I wot a.

8^1. Douglas to the Montgomery said.

8^3. me by the.

8^4. that grows.

9^1. The Percy.

9^2. That either of other were fain.

10^1. Yield thee, O yield.

10^4. it must.

11
Thou shalt not yield to lord nor loun,
Nor yet shalt thou yield to me;
But yield thee to the braken-bush,
That grows upon yon lilye lee.

12^1. I will not.

12^2. I to.

12^4. Hugh the: he were.

13^{1,3}. And the Montgomery.

13^4. And quickly took him.

14^4. the Percy.

#C.#

34^1. _In one copy_: As soon as he knew it was Sir Hugh.

162

THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT

#A.# MS. Ashmole, 48, 1550 or later, Bodleian Library, in Skeat’s
Specimens of English Literature, etc., third edition, 1880, p.
67.[169]

#B. a.# ‘Chevy Chase,’ Percy MS., p. 188, Hales and Furnivall, II, 7.
#b.# Pepys Ballads, I, 92, No 45, Magdalene College, Cambridge,
broadside, London, printed for M. G. #c.# Douce Ballads, fol. 27^b,
Bodleian Library, and Roxburghe Ballads, III, 66, British Museum,
broadside, printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright, #d.# Wood
Ballads, 401, 48, Bodleian Library, broadside, printed for F. Coles,
T. Vere, and W. Gilbertson. #e.# Bagford Ballads, I, No 32, British
Museum, broadside, printed by and for W. Onley. #f.# A Scottish
copy, without printer, Harvard College Library.

#A# was first printed by Hearne in Guilielmi Neubrigensis Historia, I, lxxxii ff, 1719; then by Percy, Reliques, I, 1, 1765, with a judicious preface. The whole manuscript, in which this piece is No 8, was edited by Thomas Wright for the Roxburghe Club in 1860: Songs and Ballads, with other short Poems, chiefly of the Reign of Philip and Mary.

#B# may probably be found in any of the larger sets of broadsides. It is included in such collections as Dryden’s Miscellanies, II, 238, 1702; Pills to purge Melancholy, IV, 289, 1719; Old Ballads, I, 111, 1723; Percy’s Reliques, I, 235, 1765. #b# has many readings of #a#, the copy in the Percy MS. There is a second Bagford copy, II, No 37, printed like #e#, for W. Onley. #f#, the Scottish copy, is probably of a date near 1700. Like the edition printed at Glasgow, 1747, it is, in the language of Percy, “remarkable for the wilful corruptions made in all the passages which concern the two nations”: Folio Manuscript, Hales and Furnivall, II, 1, note, and Reliques, 1765, I, 234. The Scots are made fifteen hundred, the English twenty, in 6, 13, 53, 54; the speeches of King James and King Henry are interchanged in 58, 60; 62, 63, are dropped.

The ‘Hunttis of Chevet’ is among the “sangis of natural music of the antiquite” mentioned as sung by the “shepherds” in The Complaynt of Scotland, a book assigned to 1549. It was an old and a popular song at the middle of the sixteenth century. The copy in the Ashmolean manuscript is subscribed Expliceth, quod Rychard Sheale, upon which ground Sheale has been held to be the author,[170] and not, as Percy and Ritson assumed, simply the transcriber, of the ballad. Sheale describes himself as a minstrel living at Tamworth, whose business was to sing and talk, or to chant ballads and tell stories. He was the author of four pieces of verse in the same manuscript, one of which is of the date 1559 (No 56). This and another piece (No 46), in which he tells how he was robbed of above three score pound, give a sufficient idea of his dialect and style and a measure of his ability. This ballad was of course part of his stock as minstrel; the supposition that he was the author is preposterous in the extreme.

The song “which is commonly sung of the Hunting of Chiviot,” says Hume of Godscroft, “seemeth indeed poeticall and a meer fiction, perhaps to stirre up vertue; yet a fiction whereof there is no mention, neither in the Scottish nor English chronicle”: p. 104. To this the general replication may be made that the ballad can scarcely be a deliberate fiction. The singer is not a critical historian, but he supposes himself to be dealing with facts; he may be partial to his countrymen, but he has no doubt that he is treating of a real event; and the singer in this particular case thought he was describing the battle of Otterburn, the Hunting of the Cheviot being indifferently so called: st. 65. The agreement to meet, in #A#, st. 9, corresponds with the plight in Otterburn, st. 16; 17^4 corresponds to Otterburn 12^4, 30^4; 47, 56, 57, are the same as Otterburn 58, 61, 67; 31, 32, 66, are variants of Otterburn 51, 52, 68; Douglas’s summons to Percy to yield, Percy’s refusal, and Douglas’s death, 33^1, 35–37^2, may be a variation of Otterburn, 51^3, 55–56; Sir John of Agarstone is slain with Percy in 52, and with Douglas in Otterburn 60; Sir Hugh Montgomery appears in both.

The differences in the story of the two ballads, though not trivial, are still not so material as to forbid us to hold that both may be founded upon the same occurrence, the Hunting of the Cheviot being of course the later version,[171] and following in part its own tradition, though repeating some portions of the older ballad. According to this older ballad, Douglas invades Northumberland in an act of public war; according to the later, Percy takes the initiative, by hunting in the Scottish hills without the leave and in open defiance of Douglas, lieutenant of the Marches. Such trespasses,[172] whether by the English or the Scots, were not less common, we may believe, than hostile incursions, and the one would as naturally as the other account for a bloody collision between the rival families of Percy and Douglas, to those who consulted “old men” instead of histories: cf. stanza 67. The older and the later ballad concur (and herein are in harmony with some chroniclers, though not with the best) as to Percy’s slaying Douglas. In the older ballad Percy is taken prisoner, an incident which history must record, but which is somewhat insipid, for which reason we might expect tradition to improve the tale by assigning a like fate to both of the heroic antagonists.

The singer all but startles us with his historical lore when he informs us in 63 that King Harry the Fourth “did the battle of Hombylldown” to requite the death of Percy; for though the occasion of Homildon was really another incursion on the part of the Scots, and the same Percy was in command of the English who in the ballad meets his death at Otterburn, nevertheless the battle of Homildon was actually done fourteen years subsequent to that of Otterburn and falls in the reign of Henry Fourth. The free play of fancy in assigning the cause of Homildon must be allowed to offset the servility to an accurate chronology; and such an extenuation is required only in this instance.[173] Not only is the fourth Harry on the throne of England at the epoch of Otterburn, but Jamy is the Scottish king, although King James I was not crowned until 1424, the second year of Henry VI.

But here we may remember what is well said by Bishop Percy: “A succession of two or three Jameses, and the long detention of one of them in England, would render the name familiar to the English, and dispose a poet in those rude times to give it to any Scottish king he happened to mention.” The only important inference from the mention of a King James is that the minstrel’s date is not earlier than 1424.

The first, second, and fourth James were contemporary with a Henry during the whole of their reign, and the third during a part of his; with the others we need not concern ourselves. It has given satisfaction to some who wish to reconcile the data of the ballad with history to find in a Scottish historiographer a record of a fight between a Percy and a Douglas in 1435 or 1436, at the very end of the reign of James I. Henry Percy of Northumberland, says Hector Boece, made a raid into Scotland with four thousand men (it is not known whether of his own motion or by royal authority), and was encountered by nearly an equal force under William Douglas, Earl of Angus, and others, at Piperden, the victory falling to the Scots, with about the same slaughter on both sides: Scotorum Historia, 1526, fol. ccclxvi, back. This affair is mentioned by Bower, Scotichronicon, 1759, II, 500 f, but the leader of the English is not named,[174] wherefore we may doubt whether it was a Percy. Very differently from Otterburn, this battle made but a slight impression on the chroniclers.

Sidney’s words, though perhaps a hundred times requoted since they were cited by Addison, cannot be omitted here: “Certainly I must confesse my own barbarousnes. I never heard the olde song of Percy and Duglas that I found not my heart mooved more then with a trumpet; and yet is it sung but by some blinde crouder, with no rougher voyce then rude stile: which, being so evill apparrelled in the dust and cobwebbes of that uncivill age, what would it worke trymmed in the gorgeous eloquence of Pindar!”[175] Sidney’s commendation is fully justified by the quality of The Battle of Otterburn, but is merited in even a higher degree by The Hunting of the Cheviot, and for that reason (I know of no other) The Hunting of the Cheviot may be supposed to be the ballad he had in mind. The song of Percy and Douglas, then, was sung about the country by blind fiddlers about 1580 in a rude and ancient form, much older than the one that has come down to us; for that, if heard by Sidney, could not have seemed to him a song of an uncivil age, meaning the age of Percy and Douglas, two hundred years before his day. It would give no such impression even now, if chanted to an audience three hundred years later than Sidney.[176]

#B# is a striking but by no means a solitary example of the impairment which an old ballad would suffer when written over for the broadside press. This very seriously enfeebled edition was in circulation throughout the seventeenth century, and much sung (says Chappell) despite its length.[177] It is declared by Addison, in his appreciative and tasteful critique, Spectator, Nos 70, 74, 1711, to be the favorite ballad of the common people of England.[178] Addison, who knew no other version, informs us that Ben Jonson used to say that he had rather have been the author of Chevy Chase than of all his works. The broadside copy may possibly have been the only one known to Jonson also, but in all probability the traditional ballad was still sung in the streets in Jonson’s youth, if not later.

#A# 3. By these “shyars thre” is probably meant three districts in Northumberland which still go by the name of _shires_ and are all in the neighborhood of Cheviot. These are Islandshire, being the district so named from Holy Island; Norehamshire, so called from the town and castle of Noreham or Norham; and Bamboroughshire, the ward or hundred belonging to Bamborough castle and town. Percy’s Reliques, 1794, I, 5, note.