478 REVIEWS — ROMANTIC SCOTTISH BALLADS. 



current jingle of the age just as clearly as what is Percy's own, in his 

 Friar of Orders Grey, an olio penned, or rather patched up, after 

 hearing Goldsmith read his " Hermit." Corn-pare, for example, stan- 

 zas xxxvi, xxxvii, xxxviii, of Hardyknute — two of which are quoted 

 above in the extract from our author, — with the ruling idea in Percy's 

 and Goldsmith's ballads, and the reader will find curious evidence of 

 the prevailing uniformity of thought, which the most ingenious efforts 

 at an antique disguise cannot conceal ; yet the original of the whole 

 is the genuine old ballad, "Gentle Herdsmmi, tell to me!'' 



Very different in all respects from any characteristics oi Hardyknute 

 here referred to, is the beautiful fragment of S?r Patrick Spence. In 

 the ampler form in which we now have that fine ballad, it has undoubt- 

 edly been patched by more than one modern hand ; and, if such ana- 

 chronisms as the " cork-heeled shoon," be not mere vulgar misreadings 

 like the blue-gilt horn, manufactured out of the bugelet horn in The 

 Douglas Tragedy ; they are likely enough corruptions of very recent 

 origin, rather testifying to the honest transcription of some contem- 

 porary oral version, than to the ingenious attempt at manufacturing 

 an antique. As to the identity of authorship which Mr. Chambers 

 discovers between the tedious common-places of Hardyknute and the 

 terse vigour of Sir Patrick Spence, I am at a loss to discover any evi- 

 dence, excepting that the manufacturer of the former was probably 

 already acquainted with the latter, — which, unless altogether a forgery, 

 was then treasured in some Scottish memories, — and had tact enough 

 to borrow from it, but not skill or judgment enough to imitate it. 



As to the additions supplied to Sir Walter Scott, and printed above 

 in brackets, some of them betray a most suspicious correspondence, — 

 two of them at least almost an identity, — with stanzas in " The Bcemon 

 Lover ;" and that that ballad owes nearly all its present complete- 

 ness to some modern hand, we presume no genuine lover of ancient 

 ballad literature has ever doubted. It is in the bracketed stanzas 

 of this mint that the objectionable "faem" and "feather bed" of the 

 critic occur. 



As to the supposed discrepancies between the ballad and any histo- 

 rical narrative of the era of Alexander III, or of any later period; Mr. 

 Chambers is fully justified in his criticisms by the comments and even 

 the emendations of previous editors of the ballad ; but the argument 

 can only affect any attempts at assigning a precise date to the ballad. 

 .'Should it turn out that Sir Patrick Spence has no counterpart in real 



