II.

While in England verse was made the vehicle of controversy, and Popery was attacked in it by logical argument, or stinging satire; we may be sure the zeal of the Scottish Reformers would not suffer their pens to be idle, but many a pasquil was discharged at the Romish priests, and their enormous encroachments on property. Of this kind perhaps is the following, (preserved in Maitland's MS Collection of Scottish poems in the Pepysian library :)

Tak a Wobster, that is leill,

And a Miller, that will not steill,
With ane Priest, that is not gredy,
And lay ane deid corpse thame by,
And, throw virtue of thame three,

That deid corpse sall qwyknit be."

Thus far all was fair: but the furious hatred of Popery led them to employ their rhymes in a still more licentious manner. It is a received tradition in Scotland, that at the time of the Reformation, ridiculous and obscene songs were composed to be sung by the rabble to the tunes of the most favourite hymns in the Latin service. Green sleeves and pudding pies (designed to ridicule the popish clergy) is said to have been one of these metamorphosed hymns: Maggy Lauder was another: John Anderson my jo was a third. The original music of all these burlesque sonnets was very fine. To give a specimen of their manner, we have inserted one of the least offensive. The Reader will pardon the meanness of the composition for the sake of the

anecdote, which strongly marks the spirit of the times.

In the present Edition this song is much improved by some new readings communicated by a friend; who thinks by the "Seven Bairns," in st. 2d. are meant the Seven Sacraments; five of which were the spurious offspring of Mother Church as the first stanza contains a satirical allusion to the luxury of the popish clergy.

The adaptation of solemn church music to these ludicrous pieces, and the jumble of ideas, thereby occasioned, will account for the following fact.— From the Records of the General Assembly in Scotland, called, "The Book of the Universal Kirk," p. 90, 7th July, 1568, it appears, that Thomas Bassendyne, printer in Edinburgh, printed "a psalme buik, in the end whereof was found printit ane baudy sang, called Welcome Fortunes."

WOMAN.

JOHN Anderson my jo, cum in as ze gae bye,
And ze sall get a sheips heid weel baken in a pye;
Weel baken in a pye, and the haggis in a pat;
John Anderson my jo, cum in, and ze's get that.

MAN.

And how doe ze, Cummer? and how hae ze threven? And how mony bairns hae ze? Woм. Cummer, I hae

seven.

MAN. Are they to zour awin gude man? Woм. Na, Cummer, na;

For five of tham were gotten, quhan he was awa'.

We have here a witty libel on the Reformation under King Edward VI. written about the year 1550, and preserved in the Pepys collection, British Museum, and Strype's Memoirs of Cranmer. The author artfully declines entering into the merits of the cause, and wholly reflects on the lives and actions of many of the reformed. It is so easy to find flaws and imperfections in the conduct of men, even the best of them, and still easier to make general exclamations about the profligacy of the present times, that no great point is gained by arguments of that sort, unless the author could have proved that the principles of the reformed religion had a natural tendency to produce a corruption of manners; whereas he indirectly owns, that their Reverend Father [Archbishop Cranmer] had used the most proper means to stem the torrent, by giving the people access to the Scriptures, by teaching them to pray with understanding, and by publishing homilies, and other religious tracts. It must however be

acknowledged, that our libeller had at that time sufficient room for just satire. For under the banners of the reformed had enlisted themselves, many concealed papists, who had private ends to gratify; many that were of no religion; many greedy courtiers, who thirsted after the possessions of the church; and many dissolute persons, who wanted to be exempt from all ecclesiastical censures and as these men were loudest of all others in their cries for Reformation, so in effect none obstructed the regular progress of it so much, or by their vicious lives brought vexation and shame more on the truly venerable and pious Reformers.

The reader will remark the fondness of our satirist for alliteration in this he was guilty of no affectation or singularity: his versification is that of Pierce Plowman's Visions, in which a recurrence of similar letters is essential to this he has only

:

See also Biograph. Briant. Ist. edit. vol. i p. 177.

The original of this Ballad is found in the Editor's folio MS. the breaches and defects in which, rendered the insertion of supplemental stanzas necessary. These it is hoped the Reader will pardon, as indeed the completion of the story was suggested by a modern ballad on a similar subject.

From the Scottish phrases here and there discernible in this poem, it would seem to have been originally composed beyond the Tweed.

The Heir of Linne appears not to have been a Lord of Parliament, but a Laird, whose title went along with his estate.

Which was the unthrifty heire of Linne

That lonesome lodge thou'lt never spend; For when all the world doth frown on thee, Thou there shalt find a faithful friend.

And come with me, my friends, sayd hee, Let's drinke, and rant, and make, merry And he that spares, ne'er mote he thee.

His house, and landes, and all his rent.

20

For when I was the Lord of Linne,

I never wanted gold nor fee.

His father had a keen stewàrde,

And John o' the Scales was called hee:

But John is become a gentel-man,

But many a trustye friend have I,

And why shold I feel dole or care? Ile borrow of them all by turnes, Soe need I not be never bare.

To ride, to runne, to rant, to roare, To alwaye spend and never spare, I wott, an' it were the king himselfe, Of gold and fee he mote be bare.

Soe fares the unthrifty Lord of Linne Till all his gold is gone and spent ; And he maun sell his landes so broad,

15

And John has gott both gold and fee.

Sayes, Welcome, welcome, Lord of Linne,
Let nought disturb thy merry cheere;
Iff thou wilt sell thy landes soe broad,
Good store of gold Ile give thee heere

My gold is gone, my money is spent,
My lande nowe take it unto thee:
Give me the golde, good John o' the Scales,
And thine for aye my lande shall bee.

Then John he did him to record draw,

And John he cast him a gods-pennie* ; But for every pounde that John agreed,

The lande, I wis, was well worth three.

Then bespake the heire of Linne,

To John o' the Scales wife then spake he : Madame, some almes on me bestowe,

I pray for sweet saint Charitìe.

Away, away, thou thriftless loone,

I swear thou gettest no almes of mee; For if we shold hang any losel heere, The first we wold begin with thee.

Then bespake a good fellowe,

Which sat at John o' the Scales his bord; Sayd, Turn againe, thou heire of Linne;

Some time thou wast a well good lord:

Some time a good fellow thou hast been
And sparedst not thy gold and fee;
Therefore lle lend thee forty pence
And other forty if need bee.

And ever, I pray thee, John o' the Scales,
To let him sit in thy companie:
For well I wot thou hadst his laud,
And a good bargain it was to thee.

Up then spake him John o' the Scales,
All wood he answer'd him againe :
Now Christs curse on my head, he sayd,
But I did lose by that bargaine.

75

89

80

He took the bill, and lookt it on,

I drawe you to record, lords, he said. With that he cast him a gods pennie Now by my fay, sayd the heire of Linne, And here, good John, is thy money.

And he pull'd forth three bagges of gold,
And layd them down upon the bord:
All woe begone was John o' the Scales,
Soe shent he cold say never a word.

He told him forth the good red gold,
He told it forth mickle dinne.
The gold is thine, the land is mine,

And now Ime againe the Lord of Linne.

Sayes, Have thou here, thou good fellowe,
Forty pence thou didst lend mee :

Now I am againe the Lord of Linne,
And forty pounds I will give thee.

GEORGE GASCOIGNE was a celebrated poet in the early part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and appears to great advantage among the miscellaneous writers of that age. He was author of three or four plays, and of many smaller poems; one of the most remarkable of which is a satire in blank verse, called the "Steele-glass," 1576, 4to.

Gascoigne was born in Essex, educated in both universities, whence he removed to Gray's-inn; but, disliking the study of the law, became first a dangler at court, and afterwards a soldier in the wars of the Low Countries. He had no great success in any of these pursuits, as appears from a poem of his, intitled,

Gascoigne's Wodmanship, written to Lord Gray of Wilton." Many of his epistles dedicatory are dated in 1575, 1576, from "his poore house in Walthamstoe" where he died a middle-aged man in 1578, according to Anth. Wood: or rather in 1577, if he is the person meant in an old tract, intitled, "A remembrance of the well employed life and godly end of George Gascoigne, Esq. who deceased at Stamford in Lincolnshire, Oct. 7, 1577, by Geo. Whetstone, Gent. an eye-witness of his godly and charitable end in this world," 4to. no date.-[From a MS. of Oldys.]

Mr. Thomas Warton thinks "Gascoigne has much exceeded all the poets of his age, in smoothness and harmony of versification." But the truth is, scarce any of the earlier poets of Queen Elizabeth's time are found deficient in harmony and smoothness, though those qualities appear so rare in the writings of their successors. In the "Paradise of Dainty Devises t." (the Dodsley's Miscellany of those times) will hardly be found one rough, or inharmo

Ver. 34, of Part I. and 102, of Part II. cast is the reading of the MS.

• Observation on the Faerie Queen, Vol. II. p. 168. + Printed in 1578, 1596, and perhaps oftener, in 4to. blackletter.

nious line*: whereas the numbers of Jonson Donne, and most of their contemporaries, frequently offend the ear, like the filing of a saw.-Perhaps this is in some measure to be accounted for from the growing pedantry of that age, and from the writers affecting to run their lines into one another after the manner of the Latin and Greek poets.

The following poem (which the elegant writer above quoted hath recommended to notice, as possessed of a delicacy rarely to be seen in that early state of our poetry), properly consists of alexandrines of twelve and fourteen syllables, and printed from two quarto black-letter collections of Gascoigne's pieces; the first intitled, "A hundreth sundrie flowres, bounde up in one small posie, &c. London, imprinted for Richarde Smith :" without date, but from a letter of H. W. (p. 202.) compared with the printer's epist. to the reader, it appears to have been published in 1572, or 3. The other is intitled, "The Posies of George Gascoigne, Esq. corrected, perfected, and augmented by the author, 1575.— Printed at London, for Richard Smith, &c." No year, but the epist. dedicat. is dated 1576.

In the title page of this last (by way of printer's or bookseller's device) is an ornamental wooden cut, tolerably well executed, wherein Time is represented drawing the figure of Truth out of a pit or cavern, with this legend, "Occulta veritas tempore patet" [R. S.] This is mentioned because it is not improbable but the accidental sight of this or seme other title page containing the same device, suggested to Rubens that well-known design of a similar kind, which he has introduced into the Luxemburgh gallery, and which has been so justly censured for the unnatural manner of its execution.