Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

VILCHEVY CHASE.It isnot easy to assign the right date to this composition, butit almost certainly belonged originally to the fifteenth century,and is therefore inserted here. The oldest form in which itexists is here given, carefully reproduced from MS. Ashmole 48,in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. From the name at the end,it appears that this particular copy was dictated, or possiblywritten out, by Richard Sheale, a ballad-singer of the reigns ofMary and Elizabeth. He certainly was not the author, but hadprobably recited it very frequently, and has preserved it to us inwriting. The more modern version of the poem is in ' Percy'sReliques of Ancient Poetry,' since reprinted in ' Bishop Percy'sFolio MS.,' edited by Hales and Furnivall, 1868. The reader isreferred to Mr. Hales' Introduction to Chevy Chase, in thesecond volume of that work, for further information.Che'vy Chasemeans the Chase or Hunting-ground upon the Cheviot Hills,invaded by Percy, Earl of Northumberland, the consequenceof the invasion being a combat between him and Earl Douglas.*The general spirit of the ballad,' says Mr. Hales, ' is historicalbut the details are not authentic'[Fytte the first.']the p^rse owt off northombarlonde an avowe ^ to god maydhe,that he wold hunte In the mowntayns off chyviat w/t/^Indays iij,^ MS. ' and A vowe'; see note.F 2 «