attended with the tragical circumstances recorded in the ballad: for
these are evidently borrowed from the Battle of Otterbourn, a very
different event, but which aftertimes would easily confound with it."
The date of the ballad cannot, of course, be strictly ascertained. It
was considered old in the middle of the sixteenth century, being
mentioned in _The Complaynt of Scotland_ (1548) among the "sangis of
natural music of the antiquite." Not much can be said for its
"natural music," yet despite its roughness of form and enviable
inconsistencies of spelling, it has always found grace with the poets.
Rare Ben Jonson used to say that he would rather have been the author
of _Chevy Chase_ than of all his works; Addison honored the broadside
version with two critiques in the _Spectator_; and Sir Philip Sidney,
though lamenting that the ballad should be "so evil apparrelled in the
dust and cobwebs of that uncivill age," breaks out with the ingenuous
confession: "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 voice then rude stile."
Mauger, despite. _Let_, hinder. _Meany_, company. _Shyars_,
shires. _Bomen_, bowmen. _Byckarte_, moved quickly, rattling their
weapons. _Bent_, open field. _Aras_, arrows. _Wyld_, wild creatures,
as deer. _Shear_, swiftly. _Grevis_, groves. _Glent_, glanced, flashed
by. _Oware off none_, hour of noon. _Mart_, death-signal (as used in
hunting.) _Quyrry_, quarry, slaughtered game. _Bryttlynge_, cutting
up. _Wyste_, knew. _Byll and brande_, axe and sword. _Glede_, live
coal. _The ton_, the one. _Yerle_, earl. _Cars_, curse. _Nam_, name.
_Wat_, wot, know. _Sloughe_, slew. _Byddys_, abides. _Wouche_, injury.
_Ost_, host. _Suar_, sure. _Many a doughete the garde to dy_, many a
doughty (knight) they caused to die. _Basnites_, small helmets.
_Myneyeple_, maniple (of many folds), a coat worn under the armor.
_Freyke_, warrior. _Swapte_, smote. _Myllan_, Milan. _Hight_,