Page images
PDF
EPUB

From Caxton's Mirror of the World.1481.

The Courts of Kings hear no such strains. As daily tull the rustic swains.

England's Helicon.

HISTORICAL AND NARRATIVE,

WITH SOME OF MODERN DATE;

COLLECTED FROM RARE COPIES AND MSS.

BY THOMAS EVANS.

A NEW EDITION,

REVISED AND CONSIDERABLY ENLARGED FROM PUBLIC AND
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS, BY HIS SON,

[ocr errors]

Robe H. EVANS.

[merged small][graphic][merged small]

PRINTED FOR R. H. EVANS, PALL-MALL,

BY W. BULMER AND CO. CLEVELAND-ROW.

1810.

MOY WI

ENOX LIE

LIBRARY

NEW YORK

ADVERTISEMENT.

WITH considerable diffidence I submit to the reader, a new edition of my Father's Collection of Old Ballads; and would willingly dismiss it without a single prefatory observation, did it not appear incumbent on me, to state the nature of the alterations I have presumed to make, in a work which has been honoured by the public approbation.

The repeated perusal of Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry, first suggested to the late editor, the idea of the present work. The genius and taste, which pervade that beautiful compilation, fascinated his attention, and excited his curiosity: he regretted, that the Doctor had confined his

a

work to the scanty limits of three volumes, and he resolved to collect the scattered ballads, which were yet to be found disperɛed through various libraries, in hopes they might furnish the same entertainment to others, that he had himself derived from them. I will here take the liberty of saying a few words on the Reliques of Ancient Poetry; I esteem it the most elegant compilation of the early poetry of a nation that has ever appeared in any age or country. Every page evinces the refined taste, the genius and learning of the editor; it deserved, and has received unbounded applause from men fully capable of appreciating its merits. It must be remembered to its praise, that when it first appeared, nothing had been published, that deserved the name of a history of our early poetry; the field was unexplored, and Percy threw a steady light on the subject, which first stimulated the public to the acquisition of more extensive and accurate information. His work has been attacked with unusual

« PreviousContinue »