VI. The Not-Browne Mayd........................................................................................
The sentimental beauties of this ancient ballad have always recommended it to
readers of taste, notwithstanding the rust of antiquity which obscures the style and
expression. Indeed, if it had no other merit than the having afforded the ground-work
to Prior'sHenry and Emma, this ought to preserve it from oblivion. That we are able
to give it in so correct a manner, is owing to the great care and exactness of the
accurate editor of theProlusions, 8vo. 1760; who has formed the text from two copies
found in two different editions ofArnolde's Chronicle,a book supposed to be first
printed about 1521. From the copy in the Prolusions the following is printed, with a
few additional improvements gathered from another edition of Arnolde's book[1]
preserved in the Public Library at Cambridge. All the various readings of this copy
will be found here, either received into the text, or noted in the margin. The references
to the Prolusions will shew where they occur. In our ancient folio manuscript,
described in the preface, is a very corrupt and defective copy of this ballad, which yet
afforded a great improvement in one passage.-- See ver. 310.
It has been a much easier task to settle the text of this poem than to ascertain
its date. The ballad ofThe Nut Browne Maydwas first revived inThe Muses' Mercury
for June, 1707, 4to, being prefaced with a little "Essay on the old English Poets and
Poetry:" in which this poem is concluded to be "near 300 years old," upon reasons
which, though they appear inconclusive to us now, were sufficient to determine Prior,
who there first met with it. However, this opinion had the approbation of the learned
Wanley, an excellent judge of ancient books. For that whatever related to the
reprinting of this old piece was referred to Wanley, appears from two letters of Prior's
preserved in the British Museum [Harl. MSS. No. 3777]. The editor of the Prolusions
thinks it cannot be older than the year 1500, because, in Sir Thomas More's tale of
The Serjeant, &c. which was written about that time, there appears a sameness of
rhythmus and orthography, and a very near affinity of words and phrases, with those
of this ballad. But this reasoning is not conclusive; for if Sir Thomas More made this
ballad his model, as is very likely, that will account for the sameness of measure, and
in some respect for that of words and phrases, even though this had been written long
before; and, as for the orthography, it is well known that the old printers reduced that
of most books to the standard of their own times. Indeed, it is hardly probable that an
antiquary like Arnolde would have inserted it among his historical collections, if it
had been then a modern piece; at least, he would have been apt to have named its
author. But to shew how little can be inferred from a resemblance of rhythmus or
style, the Editor of these volumes has in his ancient folio manuscript a poem on the
victory of Flodden-field, written in the same numbers, with the same alliterations, and
in orthography, phraseology, and style, nearly resembling the Visions of Pierce
Plowman, which are yet known to have been composed above 160 years before that
battle. As this poem is a great curiosity, we shall give a few of the introductory lines:
"Grant, gracious God, grant me this time,
That I may say, or I cease, thy selven to please;
And Mary his mother, that maketh this world;
And all the seemlie saints, that sitten in heaven;
I will carpe of kings, that conquered full wide,
That dwelled in this land, that was alyes noble;
Henry the seventh, that soveraigne lord, &c."