Addison, in Number 85 of the _Spectator_, also commends that beautiful and touching ballad denominated "The Children in the Wood." He observes, "This song is a plain, simple copy of nature, destitute of the helps and ornaments of art. The tale of it is a pretty, tragical story and pleases for no other reason than because it is a copy of nature." It is known to every child as a nursery song or a pleasant story. A stanza or two will reveal its pathos and rhythm. The children had been committed by their dying parents to their uncle: The parents being dead and gone The children home he takes, And brings them straite unto his house Where much of them he makes. He had kept these pretty babes A twelve month and a daye But for their wealth he did desire To make them both away An assassin is hired to kill them; he leaves them in a deep forest: These pretty babes with hand in hand Went wandering up and downe; But never more could see the man Approaching from the town: Their pretty lippes with black-berries Were all besmeared and dyed And when they saw the darksome night They sat them down and cried. Thus wandered these poor innocents Till death did end their grief, In one another's armes they dyed As wanting due relief; No burial this pretty pair Of any man receives Till robin red-breast piously Did cover them with leaves. There is a famous story book written by Richard Johnson in the reign of Elizabeth, entitled, "The Seven Champions of Christendom."[6] The popular English ballad of "St. George and the Dragon," is founded on one of the narratives of this book, and the story in the book on a still older ballad, or legend, styled "Sir Bevis of Hampton." This, too, resembles very much Ovid's account of the slaughter of the dragon by Cadmus. In the legend of Sir Bevis the fight is thus described: "Whan the dragon that foule is Had a sight of Sir Bevis, He cast yo a loud cry As it had thondered in the sky, He turned his belly toward the sun It was greater than any tonne; His scales was brighter than the glas, And harder they were than any bras Betwene his sholder and his tayle Was 40 fote without fayle, He woltered out of his denne, And Bevis pricked his stede then, And to him a spere he thraste That all to shivers he it braste. The dragon then gan Bevis assayle And smote Syr Bevis with his tayle Then down went horse and man And two rybbes of Bevis brused than." Suffice it to say the knight at last conquered and the monster was slain. The same story is repeated in the ballad of "St. George and the Dragon," with variations. There a fair lady is rescued: "For, with his lance that was so strong, As he came gaping in his face, In at his mouth, he thrust along, For he could pierce no other place; And thus within the lady's view This mighty dragon straight he slew."