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THE LEGEND OF SIR GUY. (Percy's Heliques, iii. 143.)
"Published from an ancient MS. copy in the Editor's old folio volume, collated with two printed ones, one of which is in black-letter in the Pepys collection." Percy.
An inferior copy is printed in Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads, ii. 193.
From an essay on the romance of Sir Guy, read by Mr. Wright before the British Archaeological Association during its meeting at Warwick, we extract the following remarks in illustration of the history of the present ballad, and other similar popular heroic traditions.
" As the Teutonic tribes progressed in their migrations, and settled in new lands — and especially when they received a new faith, and made advances in civilization, — the mythic romances of their forefathers underwent remarkable modifications to adapt them to new sentiments and new manners. Among people who had forgotten the localities to which they referred, they received a new location and became identified with places and objects with which people were better acquainted, and in this manner they underwent |
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