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152 THE WANTON "WIFE OP BATH. |
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Borrowit -with Chrystis angell cleir,
Hend men, -will ye nocht herk ? For his lufe that bocht us deir,
Think on the Bludy Serk! 120 |
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THE WANTON WIFE OF BATH.
Evans's Old BaUads, i. 277; Collection of 1723, ii. 173.
This excellent ballad, to adopt the encomium of Addison, {Spectator, No. 247,) was admitted by Percy into the earlier editions of the Reliques, (iii. 146, 1st ed.) though excluded from the revised edition of 1794. The same story circulates among the peasantry of England and Scotland in the form of a penny tract or chap-book; Notices of Popular Histories, p. 16, Percy Soc. vol. xxiii., Notes and Queries, New Series, vol. iii. p. 49. The jest is an old one. Mr. Halliwell refers to a fabliau in Barbazan's collection, which contains the groundwork of this piece; Du Vilain qui cotiquist Paradis par Plait, Meon's ed. iv. 114.
In Bath a wanton wife did dwell,
As Chaucer he doth write, Who did in pleasure spend her days,
In many a fond delight.
Upon a time love sick she was, 5
And at the length did die; |
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