Quhilk, throuch the ardent lufe he had to France, Of Floddoun Feilde the rewyne to revolve, FROM 'ANE SATYRE OF THE THREI ESTAITIS.' Veritie. For our Christ's saik, I am richt weill content To suffer all thing that sall pleis his grace, Howbeit, ye put ane thousand till torment, Ten hundreth thowsand sall ryse into thair place. [Veritie sits down on hir knies and sayis:] Yet up, thow slepis all too lang, O Lord, And mak sum ressonabill reformatioun, On thame that dois tramp down thy gracious word, And hes ane deidlie indignatioun, At them, quha maks maist trew narratioun : Gude Loid, I mak the supplicatioun, My patent pardouns, ye may se, With help of buiks and bellis. With teith and al togidder: Of Colling's cow, heir is ane horne, Heir is ane coird, baith great and lang, The culum of Sanct Bryd's kow, Quhilk buir his haly bell; Quha ever he be heiris this bell clinck, Gif me ane dacat for till drink, He sall never gang to hell. * Pauper. Marie! I lent my gossop my mear to fetch hame coills, And he hir drounit into the Querrell hollis ; And I ran to the Consistorie, for to pleinze3, And thair I happinit amang ane greidie meinze ‘. And syne, I gat, how call ye it? ad Replicandum. Syne, Hodie ad octo, bad me cum againe, Bot I got never my gude gray meir againe. FROM THE MONARCHIE.' Christ, efter his glorious Ascentioun, Tyll his Disciplis send the Holy Spreit, In toungis of fyre, to that intentioun, Thay, beand of all languages repleit, Throuch all the warld, with wordis fair and sweit, Tyll every man the faith thay suld furth schaw In thare owin leid1, delyverand thame the Law. Tharefore I thynk one gret dirisioun, To heir thir Nunnis and Systeris nycht and day Syngand and sayand Psalmes and Orisoun, Nocht understandyng quhat thay syng nor say. Rycht so childreyng and ladyis of honouris Sanct Jerome in his propir toung Romane The Law of God he trewlie did translait, Had Sanct Jerome bene borne in tyll Argyle Twycheyng the divers leid of every land, In fyve wordis that folk doith understand, THE HOPE OF IMMORTALITY. All creature that ever God creat, As wryttis Paull, thay wys to se that day Sall do appeir in thare new fresche array; And, moreattour, all dede thyngis corporall, Sone, mone, and sterris, erth, walter, air, and fyre, We sé the gret Globe of the Firmament And all the Angellis of the Ordouris Nyne, 2 And clengit frome thir gret calamiteis ' end. • cleaned. known. ENGLISH BALLADS. In treating of the Ballads, or old popular poetry of England, it is impossible to follow the plan generally adopted in this collection. We cannot arrange them by date of composition, for, while the plots and situations are often of immemorial age, the language is sometimes that of the last century. They are therefore inserted here, as they were first committed to the press and sold as broad-sheets not much later than the period at which we have arrived. About the authors of the ballads, and their historical date, we know nothing. Like the Volks-lieder of other European countries, the popular poems of England were composed by the people for the people. Again, the English ballads, and those of the Lowland Scotch, deal with topics common to the peasant singers of Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, and the Slavonic countries. The wide distribution of these topics is, like the distribution of märchen or popular tales, a mark of great antiquity. We cannot say when they originated, or where, or how; we only know that, in one shape or other, the themes of romantic ballads are very ancient. There are certain incidents, like that of the return of the dead mother to her oppressed children; like the sudden recovery of a fickle bridegroom's heart by the patient affection of his first love; like the adventure of May Colvin with a lover who has slain seven women, and tries to slay her; like the story of the bride who pretends to be dead that she may escape from a detested marriage, which are in all European countries the theme of popular song. Again, the pastimes and labours of the husbandmen and shepherd were, long ago, a kind of natural opera. Each task had its old song,-ploughing, harvest, seed-time, marriage, burial, had appropriate ballads or dirges Aubrey, the antiquary, mentions 'a song sung in the ox-house when they wassel the oxen.' A similar chant survives in Berry. Further, each of the rural dance-tunes had its ballad-accompani ment, and the dance was sometimes a rude dramatic representation of the action described in the poem. Many of the surviving |