How kirk and causay they soop (1) clean. May think of their syde taillis irk; (2) Nor wald cleid fifty score of freirs. . Gif them could speak, they wald them The remanant proceeds of pride, warie. (3) But I have maist into despite Poor claggocks (4) clad in raploch white, yowes, Claggit with clay aboon the hows, (6) Their fauldings flaps about their feet; And pride proceeds of the devil, Ane other fault, sir, may be seen- To shaw their face and cut their gowns Quoth Lyndsay, in contempt of the syde That duddrons and duntibours (12) through the dubs trails. We subjoin a few passages from the Satire of the Three Estates,' partly modernising the spelling: 1Sweep. 6 Houghs. Abuses of the Clergy. Pauper. Gude man, will ye give me of your charity, My father was ane old man and ane hoar, And was of age fourscore of years and more. And Maid, my mother, was fourscore and fifteen, And with my labour I did them baith sustein. We had ane mare that carried salt and coal, And every ilk (13) year she brocht us hame ane foal. We had three kye, that was baith fat and fair, Nane tidier into the toun of Air. My father was so weak of blude and bane, That he died, wherefore my mother made great mane; And there began my poverty and woe. Our gude gray mare was battened on the field, And our land's laird took her for his hyreild. (14) Incontinent, when my father was dead. 10 Scoff's, jests. 2 Be annoyed. 7 Slut. 3 Curse or cry out. 4 Draggle-tails. 14 A-fine extorted by a superior on the death of his tenant. 5 Hatched. 13 Each. And when the vicar heard tell how that my mother Then Meg, my wife, did mourn baith even and morrow, And when the vicar heard tell my wife was dead, The third cow he cleekit (1) by the head. Their umest (2) claithes, that was of raploch gray, (3) The vicar gart his clerk bear them away. When all was gane, I might mak na debate, But with my bairns passed for till beg my meat. Now, have I tauld you the black verity, How I am brocht into this misery. Diligence. How did the parson? was he not thy friend? Pauper. The devil stick him! he cursed me for my tiend, (4) That gart me want the sacrement at Pasche. (5) In gude faith, sir, though he would cut my throat, I have na gear, except ane English groat, Whilk I purpose to give ane man of law. Diligence. Thou art the daftest (6) fuil that ever I saw; Trow'st thou, man, by the law, to get remead Of men of kirk? Na, nocht till thou be dead. Pauper. Sir, by what law, tell me, wherefore or why Pauper. Ane consuetude against the common weal, Speech of the Pardoner. My patent pardons ye may see, Here is ane relic, lang and braid, Give me ane ducat for till drink, Without he be of Belial born: Wha loves their wives nocht with their Of Fin-mac-Coul the right chaft blade, (8) I have power them for till part, With teeth and all togidder; Of Colin's cow here is ane horn, Here is ane cord, baith great and lang, The culum (9) of Sanct Bride's cow, 1 Catched hold of. 2 Uppermost 6 Maddest. 9 The tail, the fundament. Methink you deaf and dumb. Has nane of your curst wicked wives Come win the pardon! Now let see, For cock, hen, goose, or grise, (11) I trow ye be nocht wise. The Law's Delay. Marry, I lent my gossip my mare, to fetch hame coals, And I ran to the Consistory, for to pleinzie, (1) In half ane year I inter-loquendum, And syne I gat-how call ye it?-ad replicandum; Of pronunciandum they made me wonder fain, There were several other Scottish poets of this period, one of whom, WALTER KENNEDY, has obtained some notoriety from having carried on a flyting or altercation with Dunbar in rhyme. The productions on both sides are coarse and scurrilous, though there was probably as much mirth as malice at the bottom of the affair. Most of these pieces, with several anonymous poems of no small merit, were preserved in the Maitland and Bannatyne manuscripts of the sixteenth century. The first was begun in 1555 by Sir Richard Maitland, and consists of a collection of miscellaneous poetry, in two volumes, ending with the year 1585. These precious volumes were preserved in the Pepysian Library, in Magdalene College, Cambridge. The Bannatyne manuscript contains a similar collection made by George Bannatyne, a merchant of Edinburgh, in the year 1568, when the prevalence of the plague compelled men in business to forsake their usual employments and retire to the country. In a valedictory address at the end of this compilation (containing upwards of 800 pages), Bannatyne says: Heir endis this Buik written in tyme of pest, A judicious selection from Bannatyne's manuscript was published by Lord Hailes in 1770, accompanied with valuable notes and a glos sary. BALLAD POETRY. The early ballads of England and Scotland have justly been admired for their rude picturesque energy and simple pathos. Some of them as those relating to King Arthur, St. George of England, Sir 1 Complain. 3 Plack, a Scotch coin equal to the third of an English penny. 2 Company. crew. 4 Cried, shouted. Gawaine, &c.—are of great antiquity, and refer to a period before the formal institution of chivalry. Others of later date, whether embodying historical events, traditional romance, or domestic tragedies, illustrate the times in which they were composed, though often altered and vulgarised in their progress downwards by recitation. Sir Philip Sidney said the old ballad of Chevy Chase' stirred him up like the sound of a trumpet; and the classic Addison devoted two papers in the Spectator to a critique on a more modern version of the same artless but heroic metrical story. The ballads on the famous outlaw, Robin Hood, fill a volume. Another, 'The Nut-brown Maid,' was imitated by Prior, who failed to excel the simple original Sir Lancelot du Lake, the Heir of Linne,' 'King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid,' Tak your Auld Cloak about ye,' and numerous others, have enjoyed great popularity. Sir Walter Scott drew his first and strongest poetical inspiration from the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,' which he carefully collected and edited. Most of these must be assigned to the 16th and 17th centuries, but many are older, including what Coleridge termed 'the grand old ballad' of' Sir Patrick Spens." James V. of Scotland is the reputed author of two excellent ballads, describing his own roving adventures. In Shakspeare and Beaumont and Fletcher are many fragments of ballads popular in their day, most of which have been collected and published in Percy's 'ReJiques of Ancient English Poetry. To this valuable repository and to Scott's Minstrelsy' we must refer the reader. The Deaths of Douglas and Percy. The ballad of 'Chevy Chase' is supposed to have been written in the time of Henry VI. or between 1422 and 1461. The oldest MS. is in the Bodleian Library, with the name attached of 'Richard Sheale,' a ballad-singer or reciter of the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth. In the following extract, we have simplified the spelling, which in the original is careless and uncouth. At last the Douglas and the Percy met, Like to captains of might and of main; These worthy freckys (1) for to fight Till the blood out of their basnets sprent (2) "Yield thee, Percy!' said the Douglas, And i' faith I shall thee bring Where thou shalt have an earl's wages. "Thou shalt have thy ransom free, I hight thee hear this thing; For the manfullest man yet art thou 1 Mon (Ang.-Sax, freca, a man). 2 Out of their helmets spirted. 'Nay,' said the Lord Percy, I told it thee beforn, That I wou'd never yielded be To no man of a woman born." With that there cam an arrow hastily Thorough liver and lungs baith That never after in all his life-days He spake no words but ane: That was: Fight ye, my merry men, whiles ye may, The Percy leaned on his brand, And saw the Douglas dee; He took the dead man be the hand, And said: Wo is me for thee! To have saved thy life, I would have parted with For a better man of heart nor of hand Was not in all the north countrie.' Of all that saw, a Scottish knight, Was called Sir Hugh the Montgomery, He rode upon a courser, through A hundred archery, Ile never stinted nor never blame (?) He set upon the Lord Percy A dint that was full sore, With a sure spear of a mighty tree Clean thorough the body he Fercy bore, At the other side that a man might see A large cloth-yard and mair: Two better captains were not in Christiantie Than that day slain were there. As a specimen of the modernised ballad, supposed to be of the time of Elizabeth or James, we quote a few stanzas, describing the death of Douglas; the line we have printed in italics is a touch of genius not in the old ballad: With that there came an arrow keen Out of an English bow, Which struck Earl Douglas to the heart, A deep and deadly blow: Who never spoke more words than these- For why, my life is at an end, 1 Ane, one man. Lord Percy sees my fall. 2 Ceased (Ang. -Sax. blinnan, linnan, to cease). |