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THE OLD BALLAD OF LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND THE LADY BARNARD. |
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The popularity of this ancient ballad is evinced by its being frequently quoted in old plays. In Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, (produced in 1611,) the fourteenth stanza is cited, thus:
" And some they whistled and some they snug, Hey, down, down ! And some did loudly say, Ever as the lord Earnet's horn blew, Away, Musgrave, away."
Act V. Scene 3.
The oldest known copy of this piece is found in Wit Restor'd, (1658,) p. 174, and from the reprint of that publication we have taken it, (p. 293.) Dryden seems to have adopted it from the same source into his Miscellanies, and Ritson has inserted Dryden's version in Ancient Songs and Ballads, ii. 116. Percy's copy (Reliques, iii. 106,) was inferior to the one here used, and was besides somewhat altered by the editor.
A Scottish version, furnished by Jamieson, is given in the Appendix to this volume, and another, extend- |
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