"He is either himsell a (diel from Hell ;)
Or else his mother a witch maun be;

I wadna' hae' ridden that wan water

For a' the gowd in Christentie.""

As fine a specimen of the ancient minstrelsy as can be given is what Coleridge called "the grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spens." It is one of the historical ballads the precise occasion of which is wrapped, however, in mystery, except that it has some relation to the Scottish princess who was seated on the throne of Norway, thus occasioning an intercourse between those two countries.

It is a noble example of the unknown minstrel's powers of description:

"The king sits in Dunfermline town,

Drinking the blude-red wine;
'Oh, where will I get a skeely skipper
To sail this new ship of mine ?'

"Oh, up and spake an eldern knight
Sat at the king's right knee :-
'Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor
That ever sailed the sea.'

"Our king has written a braid letter,
And sealed it with his hand,
And sent it to Sir Patrick Spens
Was walking on the strand.

"To Norroway, to Norroway
To Norroway o'er the faem;
The king's daughter of Norroway,
'Tis thou maun bring her hame.'

"The first word that Sir Patrick read,
Sae loud, loud laughéd he;
The neist word that Sir Patrick read,
The tear blinded his e'e.

SIR PATRICK SPENS.

"Oh, wha is this has done this deed,
And tauld the king o' me,

To send us out, at this time o' the year
To sail upon the sea?

"Be it wind, be it weet, be it hail, be it sleet, Our ship must sail the faem;

The king's daughter of Norroway,'Tis we must fetch her hame.'

"They hoysed their sails on Monenday morn,
Wi' a' the speed they may;

They ha'e landed in Norroway,
Upon a Wodensday.

"They had na' been a week, a week,

In Norroway, but twae,

When that the lords of Norroway

Began aloud to say,

"Ye Scottishmen spend a' our king's gowd,

And a' our queenis fee.'

'Ye lie, ye lie, ye liars loud,

Fu' loud I hear ye lie.

"For I brought as much white monie

As gane my men and me;

And I brought a half-fou of gude red gowd
Out ower the sea wi' me.

66 Make ready, make ready, my merry men a',
Our gude ship sails the morn ;'
'Now ever alack, my master dear!
I fear a deadly storm.

"I saw the new moon, late yestre'en
Wi' the auld moon in her arm;
And if we gang to sea, master,
I fear we'll come to harm.'

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"They had na' sailed a league, a league,

A league but barely three,

When the lift grew dark, and the wind blew loud, And gurly grew the sea.

"The ankers brake and the topmasts lap,

It was sic a deadly storm;

And the waves cam o'er the broken ship
Till a' her sides were torn.

"Oh, where will I get a gude sailor,
To take my helm in hand
Till I get up to the tall topmast
To see if I can spy land?'

"Oh, here am I, a sailor gude,
To take the helm in hand,
Till you go up to the tall topmast:
But I fear you'll ne'er spy land.'

"He had na' gane a step, a step,—
A step but barely ane,—

When a bout flew out of (our) goodly ship,
And the salt sea it came in.

"Gae fetch a web o' the silken claith,

Another o' the twine,

And wap them into our ship's side,
And let na' the sea come in.'

"They fetched a web o' the silken claith,

Another o' the twine,

And they wapped them round that gude ship's side,

But still the sea cam in.

"Oh, laith, laith were our gude Scots lords

To weet their cork-heeled shoon;

But lang or a' the play was played

They wat their hats aboon.

ARMSTRONG'S GOOD-NIGHT.

"And mony was the feather-bed

That fluttered on the faem;

And mony was the gude lord's son
That never mair cam hame.

"The ladyes wrang their fingers white,
The maidens tore their hair,
A' for the sake of their true loves,-
For them they'll see nae mair.

"Half ower, half ower to Heberdom
"Tis fifty fathoms deep,

And there lies gude Sir Patrick Spens,
Wi' the Scots lords at his feet."

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Let me take leave of these ancient strains with one very short fragment,-Armstrong's "Good-night,"in which, if I have been presuming too much upon your patience, you may find a wish of your own expressed for you :

"This night is my departing night;

For here nae longer must I stay;
There's neither friend nor foe o' mine
But wishes me away.

"What I have done through lack of wit
I never, never can recall;

I hope ye're a' my friends as yet:

Good-night, and joy be with you all."

LECTURE V.

Shakspeare.

Spenser's death and Shakspeare's birth-Influence of the age-Independence of his imaginary creations-Small knowledge of the individual-Unselfishness of Genius-A spiritual voice in all time -Shakspeare traditions-His birth, A.D. 1564-Death, A.D. 1616— Cervantes's death-Epitaph-Education-Ben Jonson-Power over language-The Dramatic Art congenial to his genius-Kenilworth and Queen Elizabeth-Shakspeare in London-The Armada-His patriotism and loyalty-Subjectiveness of the modern European mind-Shakspeare and Bacon-Venus and Adonis-Lucrece-The Dramas-The Sonnets-Dramatic Art in England-Sacred Dramas -Mysteries and Moralities-Heywood-Minor Dramatists-"The gentle Shakspeare"-The acting drama- Primitive Theatres— Modern adaptations-Lear and Richard III.—The supernatural of the Drama-Macbeth-The Tempest his last poem.

Ar the very time when, in an obscure lodging in London, the gentle spirit of Edmund Spenser was passing away from its fresh sorrows and the worldly troubles so meekly complained of in various passages of his poems, there was dwelling under some humble roof of the same city the mightiest of his many contemporaries among the poets,-WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. The beginning of his dramatic career dates about the time of the publication of the "Fairy Queen," not far from the close of the sixteenth century. The term of his authorship belongs not, like Spenser's, exclusively to the reign of

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