XVII. Hardyknute. A SCOTTISH FRAGMENT. .....................................................
As this fine morsel of heroic poetry hath generally past for ancient, it is here
thrown to the end of our earlier pieces; that such as doubt of its age, may the better
compare it with other pieces of genuine antiquity. For after all, there is more than
reason to suspect, that it owes most of its beauties (if not its whole existence) to the
pen of a lady, within the present century. One Mrs. Wardlaw, whose maiden name
was Halket (aunt to the late Sir Peter Halket, of Pitferran, in Scotland, who was killed
in America, along with General Bradock, in 1755), pretended she had found this
poem, written on shreds of paper, employed for what is called the bottoms of clues. A
suspicion arose that it was her own composition. Some able judges asserted it to be
modern. The lady did in a manner acknowledge it to he so. Being desired to shew an
additional stanza, as a proof of this, she produced the two last, beginning with
"There's nae light," &c. which were not in the copy that was first printed. The late
Lord President Forbes, and Sir Gilbert Elliot, of Minto (late Lord Justice Clerk for
Scotland) who had believed it ancient, contributed to the expence of publishing the
first edition, in folio, 1719. This account was transmitted from Scotland by Sir David
Dalrymple, the late Lord Hailes, who yet was of opinion, that part of the ballad may
be ancient; but retouched and much enlarged by the lady above-mentioned. Indeed he
had been informed, that the late William Thompson, the Scottish musician, who
published theOrpheus Caledonius, 1733, 2 vols. 8vo. declared he had heard
fragments of it repeated in his infancy, before Mrs. Wardlaw's copy was heard of.
The poem is here printed from the original edition, as it was prepared for the
press with the additional improvements.
I.STATELY stept he east the wa',
And stately stept he west,
Full seventy years he now had seen,
Wi' scarce seven years of rest.
He liv'd when Britons breach of faith
Wrought Scotland mickle wae:
And ay his sword tauld to their cost,
He was their deadlye fae.
II.High on a hill his castle stood,
With ha's and tow'rs a height,
And goodly chambers fair to se,
Where he lodged mony a knight.
His dame sae peerless anes and fair,
For chast and beauty deem'd,
Nae marrow had in all the land,
Save ELENOR, the queen.
III.Full thirteen sons to him she bare,
All men of valour stout: