The notes, which have been partly abridged from the Authors themselves, and otherwise gleaned from at few common works of History and Antiquities, are added for the convenience of such readers as are not particularly conversant with the subjects in question. To the "Esoteric" disciples of Antiquity, to whom the Editor himself is as one of the uninitiated, this will doubtless be a sufficient excuse; and should there be any Readers to whom they are no objects of interest, they may, at all events, pass them over, without notice or interruption. It should not be here suppressed, that a charge of want of fidelity and undue alteration has been made against Dr. PERCY, in his publication of these ancient. pieces of Poetry. In the treatment, however, which they received at his hands, they have no farther been removed from originality, than Dr. WARTON describes all the Metrical Romances now to be. "They have been divested of their original form, polished in their styles, adorned with new incidents, successively modernized by repeated transcription and recitation, and retaining little more than the outlines of the original." And a small portion only of this process is attributable to Dr. PERCY. He became possessed, from the gift of a friend, of a manuscript folio of ballads, the contents of which fortunately falling into the hands of a man whose taste and elegance have rarely been exceeded, they underwent a certain degree of polish, which yet did not impair their primary lineaments; and the breaches made by time were so carefully repaired, that the additions are scarcely discernible. Had there been no envy or malice in the case, this would have been deemed an excellence; but the heart of his great opponent, Mr. RITSON, had in it unfortunately a very large proportion of these ingredients, to which were superadded much grossness and impiety. A few others of the Ancient Ballads remain unaltered, as they were written-from the era of Queen Elizabeth to about the middle of the seventeenth century. In order to make this a National Selection, all compositions (with one or two exceptions only) have been excluded in which the scene is laid in foreign countries; and also translations from foreign languages, which are now numerous, and some of them very beautiful. Nor was it possible to include in this volume half the beauties of British Ballads. Should, therefore, the Public receive with favour this one of the novitiatory efforts of a young Author, it may probably lead to the production of a Second Volume, from these united sources, as a sequel to the present, and of the same size and character. JAN. 1829. THE SAXON ODE, On the Victory of King Athelstan, at Brunanburgh. A. D. 938. BY THE EDITOR. THIS ODE, which is generally supposed to have been the composition of some Saxon bard cotemporary with the event it celebrates, is here versified from the text of the original, given in Ellis's Ancient Romances, v. i, 14; to which is annexed, an exactly literal prose translation. This copy, which Mr. Ellis received from a learned friend, was taken from two MSS. in the Cotton. Lib., British Museum,-Tiberius, B. IV. and A. VI.; and it differs materially from the version given in Hickes' Saxon Grammar, and that in the Saxon Chronicle, which latter appears now in the garb of prose. On the respective merits of these, and on the points of difference, the Editor will not presume to give any opinion. His object has been, simply to offer a close and literal version of Mr. Ellis's copy, with no other interpolations than were absolutely necessary in giving it a metrical form and he deemed it more advisable, in this manner, to shew the precise character and genius of the original, and the intimate connexion between the two languages, than to attempt investing it with the artificial decorations of modern refinement. The reader will, therefore, not expect any of that romantic beauty which is to be found in Gray's imitations of ancient Northern Poetry. An account of the circumstances of the battle, may be seen in Hume's or in Goldsmith's History, or any similar work. KING ATHELSTAN of warlike mould, * Ætheling signifies "the young noble :"-Æthel-stan, "the very noble." B |