XVI.
AS YE CAME FROM THE HOLY LAND.
DIALOGUE BETWEEN A PILGRIM AND TRAVELLER.
The scene of this song is the same as in Num. XIV. The pilgrimage to Walsingham suggested the plan of many popular pieces. In the Pepys collection, vol. i. p. 226, is a kind of Interlude in the old ballad style, of which the first stanza alone is worth reprinting.
"As I went to Walsingham, To the shrine with speede, Met I with a jolly palmer In a pilgrimes weede. Now God you save, you jolly palmer! 'Welcome, lady gay, Oft have I sued to thee for love.' --Oft have I said you nay."
The pilgrimages undertaken on pretence of religion, were often productive of affairs of gallantry, and led the votaries to no other shrine than that of Venus.[464]
The following ballad was once very popular; it is quoted in Fletcher's _Knt. of the burning pestle_, act ii. sc. ult. and in another old play, called, _Hans Beer-pot, his invisible Comedy, &c._ 4to. 1618;
## act i.--The copy below was communicated to the Editor by the late Mr.
Shenstone as corrected by him from an ancient copy, and supplied with a concluding stanza.
We have placed this, and _Gentle Herdsman_, &c. thus early in the volume, upon a presumption that they must have been written, if not before the dissolution of the monasteries, yet while the remembrance of them was fresh in the minds of the people.
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[Although Percy does not mention his folio MS. this song is there, and a copy from it is now printed at the end of Percy's version. With the exception of the last three lines there are little but verbal differences, but these are numerous. The ending is strikingly inferior to that of the MS. and does very little credit to Shenstone's poetical taste. A copy of the song in the Bodleian library (MS. Rawl. 85 fol. 124) is signed W. R., and Dr. Bliss in consequence claimed it for Sir Walter Raleigh in his edition of Wood's _Athenæ_. It is inserted in the Oxford edition of Raleigh's Works, vol. viii. p. 733, with the title--_False Love and True Love_. Dr. Hannah also includes it in his edition of the _Courtly Poets_, but believes it highly improbable that Raleigh wrote the song.
Mr. Chappell points out that the first line of the ballad quoted above is introduced in Nashe's _Have with you to Saffron Walden_, 1596. In _The Weakest goes to the Wall_, 1600, we read
"King Richard's gone to Walsingham, to the Holy Land."
The tune of _Walsingham_ was highly popular, and numerous songs have been set to it.]
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As ye came from the holy land Of blessed Walsingham, O met you not with my true love As by the way ye came?
"How should I know your true love, 5 That have met many a one, As I came from the holy land, That have both come and gone?"
My love is neither white[466], nor browne, But as the heavens faire; 10 There is none hath her form divine, Either in earth, or ayre.
"Such an one did I meet, good sir, With an angelicke face; Who like a nymphe, a queene appeard 15 Both in her gait, her grace."
Yes: she hath cleane forsaken me, And left me all alone; Who some time loved me as her life, And called me her owne. 20
"What is the cause she leaves thee thus, And a new way doth take, That some times loved thee as her life, And thee her joy did make?"
I that loved her all my youth, 25 Growe old now as you see; Love liketh not the falling fruite, Nor yet the withered tree.
For love is like a carelesse childe, Forgetting promise past: 30 He is blind, or deaf, whenere he list; His faith is never fast.
His fond desire is fickle found, And yieldes a trustlesse joye; Wonne with a world of toil and care, 35 And lost ev'n with a toye.
Such is the love of womankinde, Or Loves faire name abusde, Beneathe which many vaine desires, And follyes are excusde. 40
But true love is a lasting fire, [Which viewless vestals[467] tend, That burnes for ever in the soule, And knowes nor change, nor end.']
[***]
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[The following version is reprinted from the Folio MS. (ed. Hales and Furnivall, vol. iii. p. 471.)
"As: yee came ffrom the holy Land of Walsingham, Mett you not with my true loue by the way as you came?" 4 "how shold I know your true loue, that haue mett many a one as I cam ffrom the holy Land, that haue come, that haue gone?" 8
"Shee is neither white nor browne, but as the heauens ffaire; there is none hathe their fforme diuine on the earth or the ayre." 12 "such a one did I meete, good Sir, with an angellike fface, who like a nimph, like a queene, did appeare in her gate, in her grace." 16
"Shee hath left me heere alone, all alone as vnknowne, who sometime loued me as her liffe and called me her owne." 20 "What is the cause shee hath left thee alone, and a new way doth take, that sometime did loue thee as her selfe, and her ioy did thee make?" 24
"I haue loued her all my youth, but now am old, as you see. loue liketh not the ffalling ffruite nor the whithered tree; 28 for loue is like a carlesse child, and fforgetts promise past: he is blind, he is deaffe when he list, and infaith neuer ffast; 32
"his desire is ffickle, ffond, and a trustles ioye; he is won with a world of dispayre, and lost with a toye. 36
such is the [fate of all man] kind, or the word loue abused, under which many childish desires and conceipts are excused." 40
"But loue is a durabler ffyer in the mind euer Burninge, euer sicke, neuer dead, neuer cold, ffrom itt selfe neuer turninge." 44
ffinis.]
FOOTNOTES:
[464] Even in the time of Langland, pilgrimages to Walsingham were not unfavourable to the rites of Venus. Thus in his _Visions of Pierce Plowman_, fo. 1.
"Hermets on a heape, with hoked staves, Wenten to Walsingham, and her[465] wenches after."
[465] _i.e._ their.
[466] sc. pale.
[467] sc. angels.