The Oxford Book of Ballads - online book

A Selection Of The Best English Lyric Ballads Chosen & Edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch

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128.                Chevy Chase
Fytte I
' I 'HE Percy out of Northumberland,
An avow to God made he That he would hunt in the mountains
Of Cheviot within days three, In the maugre of doughty Douglas,
And all that e'er with him be.
ii The fattest harts in all Cheviot
He would kill and carry away.— ' By my faith,' said the doughty Douglas again,
'I will let that hunting if I may ! '
in Then the Percy out of Banborowe came,
With him a mighty meinye, With fifteen hundred archers bold
Chosen out of shires three.
ry
This began on a Monday at morn,
In Cheviot the hills so hye ; The child may rue that is unborn,
It was the more pitye.
v The drivers through the woodes went
[All] for to raise the deer, Bowmen bicker'd upon the bent
With their broad arrows clear.
maugre] despite.             let] hinder.            meinye] company,
bicker'd] attacked, skirmished.            bent] rough grass.
664
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