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"Oh, father, father, draw your dam!

Binnorie, O Binnorie!

There's either a mermaid or a milk-white swan, By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.”

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You could not see her yellow hair,
Binnorie, O Binnorie!

For gowd and pearls that were so rare,
By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

You could not see her middle sma',
Binnorie, O Binnorie !

Her gowden girdle was so bra',

By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

A famous harper passing by,

Binnorie, O Binnorie !

The sweet pale face he chanced to spy,
By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

And when he looked that lady on,
Binnorie, O Binnorie!

He sighed and made a heavy moan,
By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

He made a harp of her breast-bone,
Binnorie, O Binnorie!

Whose sounds would melt a heart of stone,
By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

The strings he framed of her yellow hair,
Binnorie, O Binnorie!

Whose notes made sad the listening ear,

By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

He brought it to her father's hall;
Binnorie, O Binnorie!

And there was the court assembled all,
By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

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"And yonder stands my brother Hugh,
Binnorie, O Binnorie!

And by him my William, sweet and true!"
By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

But the last tune that the harp played then,
Binnorie, O Binnorie!

Was, "Woe to my sister, false Helen!"

By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, as the old minstrel art gradually wore out, a new race of ballad-writers succeeded who wrote narrative songs merely for the press. "These later ballads have an exacter measure, a low and subordinate correctness, sometimes bordering on the insipid, yet often well adapted to the pathetic." In the reign of James I. the ballads produced, which were wholly of this kind, came forth in such abundance that they began to be collected into little miscellanies, called Garlands. In the Pepysian and other libraries are preserved a great number of these in black-letter, a term applied to the old English, or modern Gothic letter, in which the early

manuscripts were written and the first English books were printed; many of them have the quaint and affected titles peculiar to the age, and as little religious tracts of the same size were called Penny-Godlinesses, this sort of petty publication had anciently the name of Penny-Merriments. With the decline of the minstrels and the establishment of their legitimate successors, the ballad-writers, ends the history of these

"... skylarks in the dawn of years,

The poets of the morn."

CHAPTER II.

EARLIEST REMAINS OF ANGLO-SAXON VERSE.

URSUING the history of the ancient bards and min

PURSU

strels, we have rambled down to the reign of James I. Retracing our steps, we return to the seventh century and begin a formal history of English poetry with the earliest recorded "Remains of Anglo-Saxon Verse."

"Fragments of mutilated remains," Longfellow calls them, which the human mind has left of itself, coming down to us through the times of old, step by step, and every step a century. Old men and venerable," he continues," accompany us through the Past, and pausing at the threshold of the Present, put into our hands at parting such written record of themselves as they have. We should receive these things with reverence; we should respect old age."

It is conjectured that as schools were established and maintained throughout the Roman empire in general, there were doubtless public seminaries in all the principal towns of Roman Britain, though no account of them in particular has been preserved.

To the ancient Britons a stirring and adventurous life had long been habitual. The departure of the Romans before the spirit of a new and unaccustomed intellectual activity had been sufficiently diffused among them, left them in comparative ease and quiet; and sunk in sloth and silence, the love of learning was gradually extin

guished in the island. It is affirmed that at that time "absolute illiteracy, even among the higher classes of the English, was no uncommon thing."

In the sixth century the controversies between the Greek and Latin churches awoke the minds of men to literary activity, and insensibly taught the graces of style and habits of composition. It is to the faint sparks of knowledge kept alive at that time in the monasteries that we owe the preservation of letters and the liberal arts from total extinction.

The first Anglo-Saxon writer of note who composed in his own language, and of whom there are any remains, is Cadmon, a monk of Whitby, who died about 680.

Cædmon was, like Burns, a poet of Nature's own making. The circumstances under which his talents were first developed are thus related: He was, says the historian, so much less instructed than most of his equals that he had not even learned any poetry; so that he was frequently obliged to retire, in order to hide his shame, when the harp was moved toward him in the hall, where at supper it was customary for each person to sing in turn. On one of these occasions it happened to be Cadmon's turn to keep guard at the stables during the night; and overcome with vexation, he quitted the table and retired to his post of duty, where, laying himself down, he fell into a sound slumber. In the midst of his sleep, a stranger appeared to him, and saluting him by name, said, "Cædmon, sing me something."

Cadmon answered, "I know nothing to sing, for my incapacity in this respect was the cause of my leaving the hall to come hither."

"Nay," said the stranger, "but thou hast something to sing."

"What must I sing?" said Cadmon.

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