"He struck the harp with his hand, And the fish leapt out upon the strand." GRUNDTVIG, No. 40. 17-20. This stanza is found in the opening of _Brown Robin_, which commences thus:-- "The king but and his nobles a' Sat birling at the wine, [_bis_] He would hae nane but his ae daughter To wait on them at dine. "She served them but, she served them ben, Intill a gown o' green; But her e'e was ay on Brown Robin, That stood low under the rain," &c. J. 25-28. The following stanza occurs in one of the editor's copies of _The Gay Gosshawk_:-- "O first he sang a merry song, And then he sang a grave; And then he pecked his feathers gray, To her the letter gave." J. 64, at the chin. Sic. 120. This stanza has been altered, to introduce a little variety, and prevent the monotonous tiresomeness of repetition. J. THE OLD BALLAD OF LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND THE LADY BARNARD. The popularity of this ancient ballad is evinced by its being frequently quoted in old plays. In Beaumont and Fletcher's _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, (produced in 1611,) the fourteenth stanza is cited, thus: "And some they whistled and some they sung, _Hey, down, down!_ And some did loudly say, Ever as the lord Barnet's horn blew, Away, Musgrave, away." _Act V. Scene 3._ The oldest known copy of this piece is found in _Wit Restor'd_, (1658,) p. 174, and from the reprint of that publication we have taken it, (p. 293.) Dryden seems to have adopted it from the same source into his _Miscellanies_, and Ritson has inserted Dryden's version in _Ancient Songs and Ballads_, ii. 116. Percy's copy (_Reliques_, iii. 106,) was inferior to the one here used, and was besides somewhat altered by the editor. A Scottish version, furnished by Jamieson, is given in the Appendix to this volume, and another, extending to forty-eight stanzas, in _Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads_, Percy Society, vol. xvii. p. 21. Similar incidents, with a verbal coincidence in one stanza, occur in the ballad immediately succeeding the present. As it fell one holy-day, _hay downe_, As manybe in the yeare, When young men and maids together did goe, Their mattins and masse to heare, Little Musgrave came to the church dore, 5 The preist was at private masse; But he had more minde of the faire women, Then he had of our ladys[L8] grace. The one of them was clad in green, Another was clad in pall;[L10] 10 And then came in my lord Barnards[L11] wife, The fairest amonst them all.