The original whence all these stories are extracted is a very ancient romance in old English verse, which is quoted by Chaucer as a celebrated piece even in his time (viz.:--
"Men speken of romances of price, Of Horne childe and Ippotis, Of Bevis, and sir Guy," &c.--_R. of Thop._)
and was usually sung to the harp at Christmas dinners and brideales, as we learn from Puttenham's _Art of Poetry_, 4to. 1589.
This ancient romance is not wholly lost. An imperfect copy in black letter, "Imprynted at London----for Wylliam Copland," in 34 sheets 4to. without date, is still preserved among Mr. Garrick's collection of old plays. As a specimen of the poetry of this antique rhymer, take his description of the dragon mentioned in v. 105 of the following ballad:--
"----A messenger came to the king. Syr king, he sayd, lysten me now, For bad tydinges I bring you, In Northumberlande there is no man, But that they be slayne everychone: For there dare no man route, By twenty myle rounde aboute, For doubt of a fowle dragon, That sleath men and beastes downe. He is blacke as any cole, Rugged as a rough fole; His bodye from the navill upwarde No man may it pierce it is so harde; His neck is great as any summere; He renneth as swifte as any distrere; Pawes he hath as a lyon: All that he toucheth he sleath dead downe. Great winges he hath to flight, That is no man that bare him might. There may no man fight him agayne, But that he sleath him certayne: For a fowler beast then is he, Ywis of none never heard ye."
Sir William Dugdale is of opinion that the story of Guy is not wholly apocryphal, tho' he acknowledges the monks have sounded out his praises too hyperbolically. In particular, he gives the duel fought with the Danish champion as a real historical truth, and fixes the date of it in the year 926, Ætat. Guy, 67. See his _Warwickshire_.
The following is written upon the same plan as ballad v. book i., but which is the original and which the copy cannot be decided. This song is ancient, as may be inferred from the idiom preserved in the margin, v. 94, 102: and was once popular, as appears from Fletcher's _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, act 2, sc. ult.
It is here published from an ancient MS. copy in the editor's old folio volume, collated with two printed ones, one of which is in black letter in the Pepys collection.