For he thinketh onely thereby

To fubdue the popes high honoure.

Receive ye this PARDON devoutely,

And loke that ye agaynft him fight; Plucke up youre herts, and be manlye,

For the pope fayth ye do but ryght: And this be fure, that at one flyghte, Allthough ye be overcome by chaunce,

Ye fhall to heaven go with greate myghte; God can make you no refiftaunce.

But these heretikes for their medlynge

Shall go down to hel every one;

For they have not the popes bleffynge,

Nor regarde his holy pardòn: They thinke from all deftruction By Chriftes bloud to be faved,

Fearynge not our excommunicacion, Therefore fhall they al be dampned.

80

85

90

95

II. JOHN

II.

JOHN ANDERSON MY JO.

A SCOTTISH SONG.

While in England verfe was made the vehicle of controverfy, and Popery was attacked in it by logical argument, or ftinging fatire; we may be fure the zeal of the Scottish Reformers would not suffer their pens to be idle, but many a pafquil was discharged at the Romish priests, and their enormous encroachments on property. Of this kind perhaps is the following, (preferved in an ancient MS. Collection of Scottish poems in the Pepyfian library :)

Tak a Wobfter, that is leill,

And a Miller, that will not fteill,
With ane Prieft, that is not gredy,
And lay ane deid corpfe thame by,
And, throw virtue of thame three,

That deid corpfe fall qwyknit be.

Thus far all was fair: but the furious hatred of popery led them to employ their rhymes in a ftill more licentious manner. It is a received tradition in Scotland, that at the time of the Reformation, ridiculous and obfcene fongs were compofed to be fung by the rabble to the tunes of the most favourite hymns in the Latin fervice. Greene fleeves and pudding pies (defigned to ridicule the popish clergy) is Said to have been one of thefe metamorphofed hymns: Maggy Lauder was another: John Anderson my jo was a third. The original mufic of all these burlesque fonnets was very fine. To give a specimen of their manner, we have inferted

one

one of the leaf offenfive. The Reader will pardon the meanness of the compofition for the fake of the anecdote, which trongly marks the Spirit of the times.

In the prefent Edition this fong is much improved by fome new readings communicated by a friend; who thinks the "Seven Bairns,' " in ft. 2d. allude to the Seven Sacraments ; five of which were the fpurious offspring of Mother Church: ae the firft ft. contains a fatirical allufion to the luxury of the popifo clergy.

The adaptation of folemn church mufic to these ludicrous pieces, and the jumble of ideas, thereby occafioned, will account for the following fact.-From the Records of the General Affembly in Scotland, called, "The Book of the Univerfal Kirk," p. 90. 7th July, 1568, it appears, that Thomas Baffendyne printer in Edinburgh, printed "a pfalme "buik, in the end whereof was found printit ane baudy "fang, called, "Welcome Fortunes *."

WOMAN.

WOHN Anderfon my jo, cum in as ze gae bye,

JOHN

And ze fall get a fheips 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.

ΜΑΝ.

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'.

*See alfo Biograph. Britan. vol. 1. p. 177.

5

III. LITTLE

III.

O D Y.

LITTLE JOHN NOBODY.

We have here a witty libel on the Reformation under king Edward VI. written about the year 1550, and preferved in the Pepys collection, British Mujeum, and Strype's Mem. of Cranmer. The author artfully declines entering into the merits of the caufe, and wholly reflects on the lives and actions of many of the Reformed. It is fo easy to find flaws and imperfections in the conduct of men, even the best of them, and fill eafier to make general exclamations about the profligacy of the present times, that no great point is gained by arguments of that fort, 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 ufed the most proper means to flem the torrent, by giving the people access to the fcribtures, 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 jufficient room for just fatire. For under the banners of the Reformed bad inlifted themselves, many concealed papifts, who had private ends to gratify; many that were of no religion; many greedy courtiers, who thirfted after the poffeffions of the church; and many diffolute perfons, who wanted to be exempt from all ecclefiaftical cenfures: And as theje men were loudest of all others in their cries for Reformation, so in effect none obftructed the regular progress of it so much, or by their vicinus lives brought vexation and shame more on the truly venerable and pious Reformers.

The

The reader will remark the fondness of our Satirift for alliteration in this he was guilty of no affectation or fingularity; his verfification is that of Pierce Plowman's Vifions, in which a recurrence of fimilar letters is effential: to this he has only fuperadded rhyme, which in his time began to be the general practice. See farther remarks on this kind of metre in the preface to Book 111. BALLAD I.

N december, when the dayes draw to be short,

IN

After november, when the nights wax noyfome and

As I paft by a place privily at a port,

I faw one fit by himfelf making a fong:

*

His laft talk of trifles, who told with his tongue

[long;

That few were faft i'th' faith. I'freyned †' that freake,
Whether he wanted wit, or fome had done him wrong.
He faid, he was little John Nobody, that durft not speake.

John Nobody, quoth I, what news? thou foon note and
What maner men thou meane, that are fo mad. [tell
He faid, Thefe gay gallants, that wil conftrue the gospel,
As Solomon the fage, with femblance full fad ;
To difcuffe divinity they nought adread;

More meet it were for them to milk kye at a fleyke.
Thou lyeft, quoth I, thou lofel, like a leud lad. [speake.
He said, he was little John Nobody, that durft not

Its meet for every man on this matter to talk,
And the glorious gospel ghoftly to have in mind;
It is fothe faid, that fect but much unfeemly fkalk,
As boyes babble in books, that in fcripture are blind:

Yet

* Perhaps He left talk.

† feyned. MSS. and P. C.