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52 CHEVY-CHACE. |
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For "Witherington needs must I wail,
As one in doleful dumps ; For when his legs were smitten off,
He fought upon his stumps. 200
And with Earl Douglas, there was slain
Sir Hugh Montgomery, Sir Charles Currel, that from the field
One foot would never fly.
Sir Charles Murrel, of Ratcliff, too, a»
His sister's son was he ; Sir David Lamb, so well esteem'd,
Yet saved could not bee.
And the Lord Maxwell in like wise
Did with Earl Douglas dye ; 210
Of twenty hundred Scottish spears Scarce fifty-five did fly.
Of fifteen hundred Englishmen,
"Went home but fifty-three; The rest were slain in Chevy-Chace, 215
Under the green-wood tree.
198. " I, as one in deep concern, must lament." The construction here has generally been misunderstood.—P.
This phrase may help us to determine the date of the authorship of the ballad. " Doleful dumps" suggested nothing ludicrous to a writer of the age of Elizabeth, bnt not long after became burlesque. The observation is Percy's. |
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