I must, however, beg leave to dissent from so great an
authority as that of Sir Philip Sidney, in the judgment which he has
passed as to the rude style and evil apparel of this antiquated
song; for there are several parts in it where not only the thought
but the language is majestic, and the numbers sonorous; at least the
apparel is much more gorgeous than many of the poets made use of in
Queen Elizabeth's time, as the reader will see in several of the
following quotations.
What can be greater than either the thought or the expression in
that stanza,
To drive the deer with hound and horn
Earl Percy took his way;
The child may rue that is unborn
The hunting of that day!
This way of considering the misfortunes which this battle would
bring upon posterity, not only on those who were born immediately
after the battle, and lost their fathers in it, but on those also
who perished in future battles which took their rise from this
quarrel of the two earls, is wonderfully beautiful and conformable
to the way of thinking among the ancient poets.
Audiet pugnas vitio parentum.
Rara juventus.
HOR., Od. i. 2, 23.
Posterity, thinn'd by their fathers' crimes,
Shall read, with grief, the story of their times.
What can be more sounding and poetical, or resemble more the
majestic simplicity of the ancients, than the following stanzas?--
The stout Earl of Northumberland
A vow to God did make,
His pleasure in the Scottish woods
Three summer's days to take.
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