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158 THE GENTLEMAN IN THEACIA.
" So I forgive thy soul," he said, " Through thy repenting cry;
Come you therefore into my joy, I will not thee deny." |
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THE GENTLEMAN IN THKACIA.
From Collier's Roxburghe Ballads, p. 17.
This ballad is founded on a tale in the Gesta, Roma-norum, (Old English Versions, &e. p. 140.) Nearly the same story occurs in Barbazan's Fabliaux, ii. 440, and also, says Madden, in the Contes Tartares of Gueulette, iii. 157, and many other places. The model for all these is of course the Judgment of Solomon, in 1 Kings, iii. 16-27. See Douce, ii. 385.
Mr. Collier remarks that this ballad is without date, but was undoubtedly written late in the sixteenth, or early in the seventeenth, century.
In searching ancient chronicles,
It was my chance to finde A story worth the writing out,
In my conceit and mind. It is an admonition good »
That children ought to have, With reverence for to thinke upon
Their parents laid in grave. |
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In Thracia liv'd a gentleman,
Of noble progeny, 10 |
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