Song of _Chevey Chase_ is the favourite Ballad of the common
People of _England_; and _Ben Johnson_ used to say he had rather have
been the Author of it than of all his Works. Sir _Philip Sidney_ in his
'Discourse of Poetry' [4] speaks of it in the following Words;

_I never heard the old Song of_ Piercy _and_ Douglas, _that I found
not my Heart more moved than with a Trumpet; and yet it is sung by
some blind Crowder with no rougher Voice than rude Stile; which being
so evil apparelled in the Dust and Cobweb of that uncivil Age, what
would it work trimmed in the gorgeous Eloquence of_ Pindar?

For my own part I am so professed an Admirer of this antiquated Song,
that I shall give my Reader a Critick upon it, without any further
Apology for so doing.

The greatest Modern Criticks have laid it down as a Rule, that an
Heroick Poem should be founded upon some important Precept of Morality,
adapted to the Constitution of the Country in which the Poet writes.
_Homer_ and _Virgil_ have formed their Plans in this View. As _Greece_
was a Collection of many Governments, who suffered very much among
themselves, and gave the _Persian_ Emperor, who was their common Enemy,
many Advantages over them by their mutual Jealousies and Animosities,
_Homer_, in order to establish among them an Union, which was so
necessary for their Safety, grounds his Poem upon the Discords of the
several _Grecian_ Princes who were engaged in a Confederacy against an
_Asiatick_ Prince, and the several Advantages which the Enemy gained by
such their Discords. At the Time the Poem we are now treating of was
written, the Dissentions of the Barons, who were then so many petty
Princes, ran very high, whether they quarrelled among themselves, or
with their Neighbours, and produced unspeakable Calamities to the
Country: [5] The Poet, to deter Men from such unnatural Contentions,
describes a bloody Battle and dreadful Scene of Death, occasioned by the
mutual Feuds which reigned in the Families of an _English_ and _Scotch_
Nobleman: That he designed this for the Instruction of his Poem, we may
learn from his four last Lines, in which, after the Example of the
modern Tragedians, he draws from it a Precept for the Benefit of his
Readers.

_God save the King, and bless the Land
In Plenty, Joy, and Peace;
And grant henceforth that foul Debate
'Twixt Noblemen may cease._

The next Point observed by the greatest Heroic Poets, hath been to
ce