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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=346119" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The More Modern Ballad of Chevy Chace</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">God prosper long our noble king,<br>Our liffes and safetyes all;<br>A woefull hunting once there did<br>In Chevy-Chace befall.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To drive the deere with hound and horne,<br>Erle Percy took his way;<br>The child may rue that is unborne<br>The hunting of that day.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The sout Erle of Northumberland<br>A vow to God did make,<br>His pleasure in the Scottish woods<br>Three summers days to take;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The cheefest harts in Chevy-Chase <br>To kill and beare away:<br>These tydings to Erle Douglas came,<br>In Scotland where he lay.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Who sent Erle Percy present word,<br>He wold prevent his sport;<br>The English Erle not fearing that,<br>Did to the woods resort,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With fifteen hundred bow-men bold,<br>All chosen men of might,<br>Who knew full well in time of neede<br>To ayme their shafts arright.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The gallant greyhounds swiftly ran,<br>To chase the fallow deere;<br>On Munday they began to hunt,<br>Ere day-light did appeare;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And long before high noone they had<br>An hundred fat buckes slaine;<br>Then having din'd, the drovyers went<br>To rouze the deare againe.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The bow-men mustered on the hills,<br>Well able to endure;<br>Theire backsides all, with speciall care, <br>That day were guarded sure.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The hounds ran swiftly through the woods,<br>The nible deere to take,<br>That with their cryes the hills an dales<br>An eccho shrill did make.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Lord Percy to the quarry went,<br>To view the tender deere;<br>Quoth he, 'Erle Douglas promised <br>This day to meet me heere;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'But if I though he wold not come,<br>Noe longer wold I stay.'<br>With that, a brave younge gentleman<br>Thus to the Erle did say:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Loe, yonder doth Erle Douglas come,<br>His men in armour bright;<br>Full twenty hundred Scottish speres,<br>All marching in our sight.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'All men of pleasant Tivydale,<br>Fast by the river Tweede:'<br>'O cease your sport,' Erle Percy said,<br>'And take your bowes with speede.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'And now with me, my countrymen,<br>Your courage forth advance;<br>For never was there champion yett<br>In Scotland or in France,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'That ever did on horseback come, <br>But, if my hap it were,<br>I durst encounter man for man,<br>With him to breake a spere.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Erle Douglas on his milke-white steede,<br>Most like a baron bold,<br>Rode formost of his company,<br>Whose armour shone like gold.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Show me,' sayd hee, 'whose men you bee,<br>That hunt soe boldly heere,<br>That, without my consent, doe chase<br>And kill my fallow-deere.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The man that first did answer make <br>Was noble Percy hee;<br>Who sayd, 'Wee list not to declare,<br>Nor shew whose men wee bee.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Yet will wee spend our deerest blood,<br>Thy cheefest harts to slay;'<br>Then Douglas swore a solempne oathe,<br>And thus in rage did say;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Ere thus I will out-braved bee,<br>One of us two shall dye:<br>I know thee well, an erle thou art,<br>Lord Percy, soe am I.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'But trust me, Percy, pittye it were,<br>And great offence, to kill<br>Any of these our guiltlesse men,<br>For they have done no ill.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Let thou and I the battell trye,<br>And set our men aside.'<br>'Accurst bee he,' Erle Percy sayd,<br>'By whome this is denyed.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then stept a gallant squier forth,<br>Witherington was his name,<br>Who said, 'I wold not have it told<br>To Henry our king for shame,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'That ere my captaine fought on foote,<br>And I stood looking on:<br>You bee two erles,' sayd Witherington,<br>'And I a squier alone.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'He doe the best that doe I may,<br>While I have power to stand;<br>While I have power to weeld my sword,<br>Ile fight with hart and hand.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Our English archers bent their bowes,<br>Their harts were good and trew;<br>Att the first flight of arrowes sent,<br>Full four-score Scots they slew.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yet bides Earl Douglas on the bent,<br>As Chieftain stout and good,<br>As valiant Captain, all unmov'd<br>The shock he firmly stood.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">His host he parted had in three,<br>As Leader ware and try'd,<br>And soon his spearmen on their foes<br>Bare down on every side.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Throughout the English archery<br>They dealt full many a wound;<br>But still our valiant Englishmen<br>All firmly kept their ground.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And throwing strait their bows away,<br>They grasp'd their swords so bright;<br>And now sharp blows, a heavy shower,<br>On shields and helmets light.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They clos'd full fast on everye side,<br>Noe slacknes there was found,<br>And many a gallant gentleman<br>Lay gasping on the ground.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O Christ! it was a griefe to see,<br>And likewise for to heare,<br>The cries of men lying in their gore,<br>And scattered here and there.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At last these two stout erles did meet,<br>Like captaines of great might;<br>Like lyons wood they layd on lode,<br>And made a cruell fight.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They fought, untill they both did sweat,<br>With swords of tempered steele;<br>Until the blood, like drops of rain,<br>They trickling downe did feele.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Yeeld thee, Lord Percy,' Douglas sayd;<br>'In faith I will thee bringe,<br>Where thou shalt high advanced bee<br>By James our Scottish king.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Thy ransome I will freely give,<br>And thus report of thee,<br>Thou art the most couragious knight<br>That ever I did see.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Noe, Douglas,' quoth Erle Percy then,<br>'Thy proffer I doe scorne;<br>I will not yeelde to any Scott,<br>That ever yett was borne.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With that, there came an arrow keene<br>Out of an English bow,<br>Which strucke Erle Douglas to the heart,<br>A deepe and deadlye blow:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Who never spake more words than these,<br>'Fight on, my merry men all;<br>For why, my life is at an end:<br>Lord Percy sees my fall.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then leaving liffe, Erle Percy tooke<br>The dead man by the hand;<br>And said, 'Erle Douglas, for thy life<br>Wold I had lost my land!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'O Christ! my verry hart doth bleed<br>With sorrow for thy sake;<br>For sure, a more renowned knight<br>Mischance cold never take.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A knight amongst the Scotts there was, <br>Which saw Erle Douglas dye,<br>Who streight in wrath did vow revenge<br>Upon the Lord Percye;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sir Hugh Mountgomerye was he call'd,<br>Who, with a spere most bright,<br>Well-mounted on a gallant steed,<br>Ran fiercely through the fight;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And past the English archers all,<br>Without all dread or feare,<br>And through Erle Percyes body then<br>He thrust his hatefull spere</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With such a vehement force and might<br>He did his body gore,<br>The speare ran through the other side<br>A large cloth-yard, and more.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So thus did both these nobles dye,<br>Whose courage none could staine;<br>An English archer then perceiv'd<br>The noble erle was slaine.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He had a bow bent in his hand,<br>Made of a trusty tree;<br>An arrow of a cloth-yard long<br>Up to the head drew hee.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Against Sir Hugh Mountgomerye,<br>So right the shaft he sett,<br>The grey goose-wing that was thereon<br>In his harts bloode was wett.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This fight did last from breake of day<br>Till setting of the sun;<br>For when they rung the evening bell,<br>The battel scarce was done.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With stout Erle Percy, there was slaine,<br>Sir John of Egerton, <br>Sir Robert Ratcliff, and Sir John,<br>Sir James, that bold Baron.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And with Sir George and stout Sir James,<br>Both knights of good account,<br>Good Sir Ralph Rabby there was slaine,<br>Whose prowesse did surmount.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For Witherington needs must I wayle,<br>As one in doleful dumpes; <br>For when his legs were smitten off,<br>He fought upon his stumpes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And with Erle Douglas, there was slaine<br>Sir Hugh Mountgomerye,<br>Sir Charles Murray, that from the feeld<br>One foote wold never flee.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sir Charles Murray of Ratcliff, too,<br>His sisters sonne was hee;<br>Sir David Lamb, so well esteem'd,<br>Yet saved cold not bee.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And the Lord Maxwell in like case<br>Did with Erle Douglas dye;<br>Of twenty hundred Scottish speres,<br>Scarce fifty-five did flye.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Of fifteen hundred Englishmen,<br>Went home but fifty-three;<br>The rest were slaine in Chevy-Chace,<br>Under the greene wood tree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Next day did many widowes come,<br>Their husbands to bewayle;<br>They washt their wounds in brinish teares,<br>But all wold not prevayle.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Theyr bodyes, bathed in purple blood,<br>They bore with them away:<br>They kist them dead a thousand times, <br>Ere they were cladd in clay.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This newes was brought to Eddenborrow,<br>Where Scotlands king did raigne,<br>That brave Erle Douglas suddenlye<br>Was with an arrow slaine.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'O heavy newes,' King James did say;<br>'Scotland can witnesse bee,<br>I have not any captaine more<br>Of such account as hee.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Like tydings to King Henry came,<br>Within as short a space,<br>That Percy of Northumberland<br>Was slaine in Chevy-Chace.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Now God be with him,' said our king,<br>'Sith it will noe better bee;<br>I trust I have, within my realme,<br>Five hundred as good as hee.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Yett shall not Scotts nor Scotland say,<br>But I will vengeance take,<br>I'll be revenged on them all,<br>For brave Erle Perceys sake.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This vow full well the king perform'd <br>After, at Humbledowne;<br>In one day, fifty knights were slayne,<br>With lordes of great renowne.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And of the rest, of small account,<br>Did many thousands dye:<br>Thus endeth the hunting in Chevy-Chase,<br>Made by the Erle Percy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">God save our king, and bless this land<br>In plentye, joy, and peace;<br>And grant henceforth, that foule debate<br>'Twixt noblemen may cease!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Anonymous+Olde+English">Anonymous Olde English</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=346119" data-title="The More Modern Ballad of Chevy Chace de Anonymous Olde English" data-description="God prosper long our noble king,
Our liffes and safetyes all;
A woefull hunting once there did
In Chevy-Chace befall.

To drive the deere with hound and horne,
Erle Percy took his way;
The child may rue that is unborne
The hunting of that day.

Th..."></div>
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