This thing by art the wise-men found,
Which truly must observed be;
Wherefore throughout the city round
A virgin pure of good degree
Was by the king's commission still
Taken up to serve the dragon's will.
Thus did the dragon every day

Against the Sarazens so rude

Fought he full long and many a day; Where many gyaunts he subdu'd,

In honour of the Christian way •
And after many adventures past
To Egypt land he came at last.

Now, as the story plain doth tell,

Within that country there did rest A dreadful dragon fierce and fell,

Whereby they were full sore opprest: Who by his poisonous breath each day, Did many of the city slay.

The grief whereof did grow so great
Throughout the limits of the land,
That they were wise men did intreat
To shew their cuLning out of hand;
What way they might this fiend destroy,
That did the country thus annoy.

The wise men all before the king
This answer fram'd incontinent;
The dragon none to death might bring
By any means they could invent:

His skin more hard than brass was found,

10

Untimely crop some virgin flowr, Till all the maids were worn away,

And none were left him to devour: Saving the king's fair daughter bright, Her father's only heart's delight.

She is, quoth he, my kingdom's heir:

O let us all be poisoned here,
Ere she should die, that is my dear.

Then rose the people presently,

And to the king in rage they went; They said his daughter dear should dye, The dragon's fury to prevent:

Our daughters all are dead, quoth they, And have been made the dragon's prey :

And by their blood we rescued were,

And thou hast sav'd thy life thereby ; And now in sooth it is but fair, For us thy daughter so sould die. O save my daughter said the king; And let ME feel the dragon's sting.

Then fell fair Sabra on her knee,
And to her father dear did say,
O father, strive not thus for me,
But let me be the dragon's prey;

Where the midge dares not venture,
Lest herself fast she lay;

If love come, he will enter,
And soon find out his way.

You may esteem him

A child for his might; Or you may deem him

A coward from his flight:

But if she, whom love doth honour,
Be conceal'd from the day,
Set a thousand guards upon her,
Love will find out the way.
Some hink to lose him,
By having him confin'd;
And some do suppose him,
Poor thing, to be blind;

This little beautiful sonnet is reprinted from a small volume of "Poems by Thomas Carew, Esq. one of the gentlemen of the privie-chamber, and sewer in ordinary to his majesty (Charles I.) Lond. 1610." This elegant and almost-forgotten writer, whose poems have been deservedly revived, died, in the prime of his age, in 1639.

In the original follows a third stanza; which, not being of general application, nor of equal merit, I have ventured to omit.

HEE, that loves a rosie cheeke,
Or a corall lip admires,

Or from star-like eyes doth seeke
Fuell to maintaine his fires,
As old time makes these decay,
So his flames must waste away.

But a smooth and stedfast mind,

Gentle thoughts, and calme desires, Hearts with equal love combin'd,

Kindle never-dying fires: Where these are not, I despise Lovely cheekes, or lips, or eyes.

The subject of this ballad is sufficiently popular from the modern play which is founded upon it. This was written by George Lillo, a jeweller of London, and first acted about 1730.-As for the ballad, it was printed at least as early as the middle of the last century.

It is here given from three old printed copies, which exhibit a strange intermixture of Roman and black letter. It is also collated with another copy in the Ashmole Collection at Oxford, which is thus intitled, "An excellent ballad of George Barnwell, an apprentice of London, who ..thrice robbed his

master and murdered his vncle in Ludlow." The tune is The Merchant."

This tragical narrative seems to relate a real fact; but when it happened I have not been able to dis

cover.

THE FIRST PART.

ALL youth of fair England That dwell both far and near, Regard my story that I tell,

And to my song give ear.