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LOED DELAWARE. |
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LORD DELAWARE.
No plausible foundation for this ballad has as yet been found in history. It has been suggested that Delaware is a corruption of De la Mare, a speaker of the House of Commons, and a great advocate of popular rights, in the reign of Edward the Third! But there is no accounting for the Dutch lord and the Welsh Duke of Devonshire on this or any other supposition.
The ballad is given from Lyle's Ancient Ballads and Songs, p. 135, as "noted down from the singing of a gentleman," and then ''remodelled and smoothed down " by the editor. The same copy is printed in Dixon's Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs (Percy Society, vol. xvii.), p. 80, and in Bell's volume with the same title, p. 66.
In the Parliament House,
A great rout has been there, Betwixt our good king
And the Lord Delaware: Says Lord Delaware t
To his Majesty full soon, " Will it please you, my Liege,
To grant me a boon ? "
" What's your boon ? " says the King,
" Now let me understand." io |
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