Shalt thou never more breke foreward,
Ant that reweth sore;
Edward, thou dudest ase a shreward,
Forsoke thyn emes lore.
These stanzas are from the famous ballad on the battle of Lewes, in 1264, and come from the same Herefordshire manuscript: they smack strongly of the South. We have here the first instance of our corrupt Imperative, Let him habbe, instead of the old hœbbe he (habeat).[1] We also find the word bost (our boast) for the first time; this is Celtic. In another Southern poem of this date, the Proverbs of Hending, we see that ue replaced e or eo; as bue for be, hue for heo. I give some of the homely bywords of the time, when Englishmen were drawing their swords upon each other at Lewes and Evesham.[2]
God biginning makeþ god endyng.
Wyt ant wysdom is god warysoun.
Betere is eyesor þen al blynd.
Wel fyþt þat wel flyþ.
Sottes bolt is sone shote.
Tel þou never þy fo þat þy fot akeþ.
Betere is appel y-ʓeve þen y-ete.
- ↑ But we still sometimes use the older form: ‘Come weal, come woe, we'll gather and go.’ ‘Be Thine the glory, and be mine the shame.’ How much more pith is there in these phrases, than in the cumbrous compound with let, as in the Lewes Ballad! This I have taken from the Camden Society's Edition of the Political Songs of England, p. 69.
- ↑ The Proverbs of Hending may be found in Kemble's Anglo-Saxon Dialogues (Ælfric Society), No. 14, p. 270.
