TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
A superscript is denoted by ^x or ^{xx}, for example v^o or 4^{or}.
The yogh symbol is denoted by Ȝ or ȝ; the eth symbol is denoted
by ð; and the thorn symbol by Þ or þ. The Tironian et is denoted
by ⁊.
The translation of each song has been moved to the end of that song.
The last song in the book ‘POEM ON THE EVIL TIMES OF EDWARD II’,
at page 323, is the only one without a translation.
‘Various Readings’ and ‘Glossary’ sections were inserted into each
page of some of the songs in the original text. These have not been
moved, because they contain references to specific line numbers of
the song just above the inserted section.
There are no Footnotes in this book. The bracketed numbers in the
text, for example [70], refer to the line number of the relevant
song.
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
THE
POLITICAL SONGS
OF ENGLAND.
THE
POLITICAL SONGS
OF ENGLAND,
FROM THE REIGN OF JOHN TO THAT OF EDWARD II.
EDITED AND TRANSLATED
BY THOMAS WRIGHT, ESQ., M.A., F.S.A., &c.
OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
[Illustration: (Publisher’s colophon.)]
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE CAMDEN SOCIETY,
BY JOHN BOWYER NICHOLS AND SON, PARLIAMENT STREET.
M.DCCC.XXXIX.
COUNCIL
OF
THE CAMDEN SOCIETY,
ELECTED MAY 2, 1839.
_President_,
THE RIGHT HON. LORD FRANCIS EGERTON, M.P.
THOMAS AMYOT, ESQ. F.R.S. Treas. S.A. _Director_.
THE REV. PHILIP BLISS, D.C.L., F.S.A., Registrar of the
University of Oxford.
JOHN BRUCE, ESQ. F.S.A. _Treasurer_.
JOHN PAYNE COLLIER, ESQ. F.S.A.
C. PURTON COOPER, ESQ. Q.C., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A.
RT. HON. THOMAS PEREGRINE COURTENAY.
T. CROFTON CROKER, ESQ. F.S.A., M.R.I.A.
THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE, B.A.
SIR HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S., Sec. S.A.
THE REV. JOSEPH HUNTER, F.S.A.
JOHN HERMAN MERIVALE, ESQ. F.S.A.
JOHN GAGE ROKEWODE, ESQ. F.R.S., Director S.A.
THOMAS STAPLETON, ESQ. F.S.A.
WILLIAM J. THOMS, ESQ. F.S.A. _Secretary_.
THOMAS WRIGHT, ESQ. M.A., F.S.A.
PREFACE.
Few historical documents are more interesting or important than
the contemporary songs in which the political partizan satirised
his opponents and stirred up the courage of his friends, or in
which the people exulted over victories gained abroad against their
enemies or at home against their oppressors, or lamented over evil
counsels and national calamities. Yet, though a few specimens have
been published from time to time in collections of miscellaneous
poetry, such as those of Percy and Ritson, and have never failed to
attract attention, no book specially devoted to ancient Political
Songs has yet appeared.
The quantity of such productions has generally varied with the
character of the age. They were frequent from a very early period
in other countries of Europe, as well as England. It would be
easy to produce proofs that in our island they were very numerous
in Saxon times,--a few specimens, indeed, have escaped that
destruction which visits the monuments of popular and temporary
feeling before all others; and for years after the Norman conquest
the oppressed people continued to sing the songs of former days
at their rustic festivals or amid their everyday labours. As the
feelings which caused them to be remembered died away gradually
before the weight of a new political system, a new class of songs
also arose. From the Conquest to the end of the twelfth century,
the political songs of the Anglo-Normans were in a great measure
confined, as far as we can judge from the few specimens that are
left, to laudatory poems in Latin, or to funereal elegies on
princes and great people. Yet we can hardly doubt that, with the
turbulent barons of these troublous times, the harp of the minstrel
must have resounded frequently to subjects of greater present
excitement.
With the beginning of the thirteenth century opened a new scene
of political contention. It is amid the civil commotions of the
reign of John, that our manuscripts first present traces of the
songs in which popular opinion sought and found a vent, at the same
time that the commons of England began to assume a more active
part on the stage of history. The following reign was a period
of constant excitement. The weak government of Henry the Third
permitted every party to give free utterance to their opinions and
intentions, and the songs of this period are remarkably bold and
pointed. These effusions are interesting in other points of view
besides their connexion with historical events; they illustrate in
a remarkable manner the history of our language; they show us how
Latin, Anglo-Norman, and English were successively the favourite
instruments by which the thoughts of our ancestors were expressed;
and collaterally they show us how the clerk (or scholar) with his
Latin, the courtier with his Anglo-Norman, and the people with
their good old English, came forward in turns upon the scene. In
our Songs we see that, during the earlier part of the reign of
the third Henry, the satirical pieces which inveighed against the
corruptions of the state and demanded so loudly their amendment,
are all in Latin, which is as much as to say that they came from
the scholastic part of the people, or those who had been bred
in the universities, then no small or unimportant part of the
community. They seem to have led the way as bold reformers; and the
refectory of the monastery not less than the baronial hall rang
frequently with the outbursts of popular feeling. The remarkable
and highly interesting declaration of the objects and sentiments
of the Barons, which was published after the battle of Lewes, is
written in Latin. Amid the Barons’ wars was composed the first
political song in English that has yet been found. It is remarkable
that all the songs of this period which we know, whether in
Latin, Anglo-Norman, or English, are on the popular side of the
dispute--all with one accord agree in their praise and support of
the great Simon de Montfort.
The circumstance of our finding no songs in English of an earlier
date does not, however, prove that they did not exist. On the
contrary, it is probable that they were equally abundant with the
others; but the Latin songs belonged to that particular party
who were most in the habit of committing their productions to
writing, and whose manuscripts also were longest preserved. It
is probable that a very small portion of the earlier English
popular poetry was ever entered in books--it was preserved in
people’s memory until, gradually forgotten, it ceased entirely to
exist except in a few instances, where, years after the period
at which it was first composed, it was committed to writing by
those who heard it recited. The English song on the battle of
Lewes is found in a manuscript written in the reign of Edward
II.; when, perhaps, the similar character of the time led people
to give retrospective looks to the doings of Earl Simon and his
confederate barons. They were sometimes written on small rolls of
parchment, for the convenience of the minstrel, who thus carried
them about with him from house to house, and chanted them at the
will of his entertainers. From these rolls and loose scraps they
were occasionally copied into books, long after they had ceased to
possess any popular interest, by some “clerk” who loved to collect
antiquities; for in those days, too, there were antiquaries. One
of the Anglo-Norman songs printed in this collection is taken
from the original roll; and the Latin songs on the death of Peter
de Gaveston were found in a manuscript written in the fifteenth
century.
The constant wars of the reign of Edward I.--the patriotic hatred
of Frenchman and Scot, which then ran at the highest--furnished
the groundwork of many a national song during the latter years of
the thirteenth century and the first years of the fourteenth. The
English song becomes at this period much more frequent, though
many were still written in Latin. Popular discontent continued
to be expressed equally in Latin, Anglo-Norman (a language the
influence of which was now fast declining), and English. In the
“Song against the King’s Taxes,” composed towards the end of the
thirteenth century, we have the first specimen of that kind of
song wherein each line began in one language and ended in another;
and which, generally written in hexameters, seems to have been
extremely popular during the two centuries following. One song, in
the reign of Edward II. presents in alternate succession all the
three languages which were then in use. The political songs during
this last-mentioned reign are not very numerous, but they are by no
means devoid of interest.
It was the Editor’s original intention to continue the series of
songs in the present volume to the deposition of Richard II. But,
having adopted the suggestion of giving a translation, with the
hope of making them more popular, and finding that in consequence
the volume was likely to extend to a much greater length than
was at first calculated upon, it has been thought advisable to
close the present collection with another convenient historical
period, the deposition of his grandfather Edward II.; and it is his
intention at some future period to form a second volume, which will
be continued to the fall of the house of York in the person of the
crook-backed Richard III.
The wars of Edward III. produced many songs, both in Latin and in
English, as did also the troubles which disturbed the reign of
his successor. With the end of the reign of Edward II. however,
we begin to lose sight of the Anglo-Norman language, which we
shall not again meet with in these popular effusions. During the
fifteenth century political songs are less numerous and also less
spirited. With it we are introduced to a dark period of literature
and science. It was the interval between the breaking up of the old
system, and the formation of the new one which was to be built upon
its ruins. When we come to the wars of the Roses, so fatal to the
English nobility and gentry, the page even of history becomes less
interesting, because it is less intellectual:--the great mental
workings which had influenced so much the political movements of
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, were replaced by the
reckless and short-sighted bitterness of personal hatred, and the
demoralizing agency of mere animal force. As it had required a
long age of barbarism and ignorance to sweep away even the latest
remnants of ancient pagan splendour, before the site was fit to
build up the beautiful edifice of Christian civilization; so it
seemed as though another, though a shorter and comparatively less
profound, age of barbarism was required to turn men’s minds from
the defective learning of the schools, and the imperfect literature
to which they had been habituated, and to break down old prejudices
and privileges, which were but impediments in the way of the new
system that came in with the Reformation.
The nature of the following collection of Songs requires little
explanation. They have been brought together from scattered
sources. It was the Editor’s desire to make it as complete as
possible; but further researches will probably bring to light other
songs of no less interest, and these, if they become sufficiently
numerous, he hopes will be collected together as a supplement to
the present volume. He has also omitted a few Anglo-Irish songs,
because he expects they will, ere long, receive more justice
than he is capable of doing them, at the hands of Mr. Crofton
Croker. It is hoped that the texts will be found as correct as
the manuscripts would allow. The translation is offered with
diffidence, and requires many excuses; the variety of languages
and dialects in which they are written, their dissimilarity in
style of composition, the cramped constructions which were rendered
necessary in the Latin Songs to allow the multiplicity of rhymes,
the allusions which cannot now be easily explained, and above all,
the numerous corruptions which have been introduced by the scribes
from whose hands the different manuscripts came (for the greater
part of these songs have been printed from unique copies), are
the cause of so many difficulties, that in some instances little
more has been done than to guess at the writer’s meaning. The
translation is in general as literal as possible--the Anglo-Norman,
French, and English Songs are rendered line for line; but the
Editor is almost inclined to regret that he did not give a freer
version.
The Appendix consists of extracts from the inedited metrical
chronicle of Peter Langtoft, which are here introduced, because
they contain fragments in what was then termed “_ryme cowée_,” or
tailed rhyme, which are apparently taken from songs of the time.
The text is printed from a transcript made by the Editor several
years ago; and it contains many lines of the English songs which
are not found in the manuscripts preserved at the British Museum.
The Editor introduces these extracts the more willingly, as it is
not very probable that the Chronicle itself will be published at
present. As a monument of the Anglo-Norman language, it is far
inferior to many others that remain still inedited; and, as a
historical document, it is already well known through the English
version of Robert de Brunne, which was printed by Thomas Hearne.
The collations have been made chiefly with a philological view; the
comparison of the different manuscripts shows us how entirely the
grammatical forms of the Anglo-Norman language were at this time
neglected. To these extracts, the Editor has been enabled to add
a very curious English poem from the Auchinleck MS. at Edinburgh,
by the extreme kindness of David Laing, Esq., to whom the Camden
Society owes the transcript and collation of the proofs of this
poem.
It only remains for the Editor to fulfil the agreeable task of
expressing his gratitude for the assistance which, in the course
of the work, he has derived from the kindness of his friends:
to Mons. d’Avezac, of Paris, so well known by his valuable
contributions to geographical science, to whom he has had recourse
in some of the greater difficulties in the French and Anglo-Norman
songs, and who collated with the originals those which were taken
from foreign manuscripts before they were sent to press; to Sir
Frederick Madden, from whom he has derived much assistance in
the English songs, and whose superior knowledge in everything
connected with early literature and manuscripts has been of the
greatest use to him; to James Orchard Halliwell, Esq., for many
services, and for collating with the originals the songs taken from
Cambridge Manuscripts; and to John Gough Nichols, Esq., for the
great attention which he has paid to the proofs, and for various
suggestions, which have freed this volume from very many errors
that would otherwise have been overlooked.
THOMAS WRIGHT.
CONTENTS.
REIGN OF KING JOHN. PAGE
Song on the Siege of Thouars (_French_) 1
Sirvente on King John (_Provençal_) 3
Song on the Bishops (_Latin_) 6
Song on the Times (_Latin_) 14
REIGN OF HENRY III.
The Taking of Lincoln (_Latin_) 19
Song on the Corruptions of the Time (_Latin_) 27
Sirvente against King Henry (_Provençal_) 36
Another Sirvente (_Provençal_) 39
The Song of the Church (_Anglo-Norman_) 42
Song against the Bishops (_Latin_) 44
Song on the Times (_Latin_) 46
Song upon the Tailors (_Latin and Anglo-Norman_) 51
Song of the Welsh (_Latin_) 56
Song of the Barons (_Anglo-Norman_) 59
Song of the Peace with England (_French_) 63
Song against the King of Almaigne (_English_) 69
The Battle of Lewes (_Latin_) 72
Song upon the Divisions among the Barons (_Latin_) 121
Lament of Simon de Montfort (_Anglo-Norman_) 125
REIGN OF EDWARD I.
Praise of the Young Edward (_Latin_) 128
Song on the Times (_Latin, with an Anglo-Norman version_) 133
The Order of Fair-Ease (_Anglo-Norman_) 137
Song of the Husbandman (_English_) 149
Against the Pride of the Ladies (_English_) 153
Satire on the Consistory Courts (_English_) 155
Song on the Scottish Wars (_Latin_) 160
On the Deposition of Baliol (_Latin_) 180
Song against the King’s Taxes (_Anglo-Norman and Latin_) 182
Song on the Flemish Insurrection (_English_) 187
Song on the Times (_English_) 195
Song against the Scholastic Studies (_Latin_) 206
Song of “Nego” (_English_) 210
Song on the Execution of Sir Simon Fraser (_English_) 212
Song on the Venality of the Judges (_Latin_) 224
The Outlaw’s Song of Trailebaston (_Anglo-Norman_) 231
Song against the Retinues of the Great People (_English_) 237
REIGN OF EDWARD II.
Lament on the Death of Edward I. (_Anglo-Norman_) 241
Elegy on the Death of Edward I. (_English_) 246
Song on the Times (_Anglo-Norman, Latin, and English_) 251
On the King’s Breaking his Confirmation of Magna Charta
(_Anglo-Norman and English_) 253
Two Songs on the Death of Peter de Gaveston (_Latin_) 258, 259
The Battle of Bannockburn (_Latin_) 262
Office of St. Thomas of Lancaster (_Latin_) 268
APPENDIX.
Extracts from Peter Langtoft’s Chronicle (_Anglo-Norman and
English_):--
1. Edward I.’s War with Scotland 273
2. The Trailebastons, and Execution of Wallace 318
Poem on the Evil Times of Edward II. (_English_) 323
NOTES 347
INDEX 403
THE
POLITICAL SONGS
OF ENGLAND,
FROM KING JOHN TO KING EDWARD II.
POLITICAL SONGS.
KING JOHN. 1199-1216.
The thirteenth century opens amid the violence of party feelings,
and the few political songs which we find during the reign of King
John are full of keenness. Early in his reign the English Monarch
suffered himself to be robbed of his possessions in Normandy, and
the poetry of the Troubadours contains many expressions of regret
at their separation from England, and bitter reflections on the
King’s cowardice and weakness. The following song seems to have
been written when Thouars was in danger, during Philippe Auguste’s
incursions into Poitou, in 1206. Savary of Mauleon is famous in
contemporary history, and was himself a poet of no small renown. He
was a firm adherent to the English party.
SONG ON THE SIEGE OF THOUARS.
[Royal Library at Paris, MS. du fonds de St. Germain, No. 1989,
fol. 111, v^o. 13th cent.]
Mors est li siècles briemant,
Se li rois Touwairs sormonte;
De ceu li vait malement
Ke li faillent li troi conte,
Et li vieillairs de Bouaing
I averait grant honte,
C’après la mort à vifconte
Morrait à si mauté.
Savaris de Maliéon,
Boens chiveliers à cintainne,
Se vos fals à ces besons,
Perdue avons nostre poinne;
Et vos, xanexals
Asi d’Anjow et dou Mainne,
Xanexal ont an Torainne
Atre ke vos mist.
Et vos, sire xanexals,
Vos et Dan Jehan dou Mainne,
Et Ugues, antre vos trois
Mandeis à roi d’Alemaigne,
Ke cist rois et cil Fransois
C’ameir ne nos d[a]ignent,
Cant por .j. mulet d’Espaigne
Laxait Bordelois.
Et vos, signors bacheleirs,
Ki ameis lois et proeses,
Cant vos souliez garreir
Touwairs iert vos forteresce.
Jà Deus ne vos doust porteir
Ne mainche ne treses,
Se Touwairt au teil tristesce
Laixiez oblieir.
TRANSLATION.--The world will shortly come to nought,--if the king
overcome Thouars.--On this account it fares ill with it,--that
the three earls desert it,--and the old man of Bouaing--would
have there great shame,--that after the death of the viscount--he
should die in such evil case.
Savary of Mauleon,--a good knight at the quintain,--if you
fail us in this need,--we have lost our labour;--and you,
Seneschal,--both of Anjou and of Maine,--they have placed a
seneschal in Touraine--other than you.
And you, Sir Seneschal,--you and Sir John of Maine,--and Hugh,
between you three,--send word to the King of Almain,--that this
king and him of France,--deign not to love us,--when for a mule
of Spain--he left the Bordelois.
And you, Sir bachelors,--who love praise and prowess,--when you
were wont to war--Thouars was your fortress.--Now God hinder
you from bearing--sleeves or tresses,--if Thouars in such
distress--you allow to be forgotten.
* * * * *
John’s own friends, disgusted with his weakness, began to desert
him; and the following bitter song was addressed by the younger
Bertrand de Born, to Savary de Mauleon, to persuade him to follow
their example.
A SIRVENTE ON KING JOHN.
[Raynouard, Choix, tom. iv. p. 201.]
Quant vei lo temps renovellar,
E pareis la fueill’ e la flors,
Mi dona ardimen amors
E cor e saber de chantar;
E doncs, pois res no m’ en sofraing,
Farai un Sirvent escozen,
Que trametrai lai par presen
Al rei Joan que s n’a vergoing.
E deuria s’ be’n vergoignar,
Si l’ membres de sos ancessors,
Com laissa sai Peitieus e Tors
Al rei Felip ses demandar;
Per que tota Guiana plaing
Lo rei Richard, qu’ en deffenden
En mes mant aur e mant argen;
Mas acest no m’ par ’n aia soing.
Mais ama l’ bordir e l’ cassar,
E bracs e lebriers et austors,
E sojorn; per que il faill honors,
E s’ laissa vius deseretar;
Mal sembla d’ardimen Galvaing,
Que sai lo viram plus soven;
E pois autre cosseil non pren,
Lais sa terra al seignor del Groign.
Miels saup Lozoics desliurar
Guillelme, e l’ fes ric secors
Ad Aurenga, quan l’Almassors
A Tibaut l’ac fait asetjar:
Pretz et honor ’n ac ab gazaing;
Jeu o dic per chastiamen
Al rei Joan que pert sa gen,
Que non lor secor pres ni loing.
Baron, sai vir mon chastiar
A vos, cui blasme las follors
Que us vei far, e pren m’en dolors,
Car m’ aven de vos a parlar,
Que pretz avetz tombat e’ l’ faing,
Et avetz apres un fol sen,
Que non doptas chastiamen,
Mas qui us ditz mal, aquel vos oing.
Domna, cui dezir e tenc car
E dopt e blan part las meillors,
Tant es vera vostra lauzors
Qu’ieu non la sai dir ni comtar;
C’aissi com aurs val mais d’estaing,
Valetz mais part las meillors cen,
Et ez plus leials vas joven
Non son a Dieu cill de Cadoing.
Savarics, reis cui cors sofraing
Greu fara bon envasimen,
E pois a flac cor recrezen,
Jamais nuls hom en el non poing.
TRANSLATION.--When I see the fair weather return,--and leaf and
flower appear,--love gives me hardiesse--and heart and skill to
sing;--then, since I do not want matter,--I will make a stinging
sirvente,--which I will send yonder for a present,--to King John,
to make him ashamed.
And well he ought to be ashamed,--if he remember his
ancestors,--how he has left here Poitou and Touraine--to
King Philip, without asking for them.--Wherefore all Guienne
laments--King Richard, who in its defence--would have laid out
much gold and much silver;--but this man does not appear to me to
care much for it.
He loves better fishing and hunting,--pointers, greyhounds, and
hawks,--and repose, wherefore he loses his property,--and his
fief escapes out of his hands;--Galvaing seems ill-furnished with
courage,--so that we beat him here most frequently;--and since he
takes no other counsel,--let him leave his land to the lord of
the Groing.
Louis knew better how to deliver--William, and gives him rich
succour--at Orange, when the Almassor--had caused Tiebald to
besiege him;--glory and honour he had with profit;--I say it for
a lesson--to King John who loses his people,--because he succours
them not near or far off.
Barons, on this side my lesson of correction aims--at you, whose
delinquencies it blames--that I have seen you do, and I am
grieved thereat,--for it falls to me to speak of you,--who have
let your credit fall into the mud,--and afterwards have a foolish
sentiment,--that you do not fear correction,--but he who told you
ill, it is he who disgraces you.
Lady, whom I desire and hold dear,--and fear and flatter above
the best,--so true is your praise,--that I know not how to say it
or to relate it;--that, as gold is more worth than tin,--you are
worth more than the best hundred,--and you are better worth to a
young man,--than are they (the monks) of Caen to God.
Savary, a king without a heart,--will hardly make a successful
invasion,--and since he has a heart soft and cowardly,--let no
man put his trust in him.
* * * * *
The dishonours which John suffered abroad, were, however, soon
forgotten in the troubles which broke out at home. The following
virulent libel on the three bishops of Norwich, Bath, and
Winchester, who adhered to the King in his quarrel with the Pope
about the presentation to the see of Canterbury, was no doubt the
work of one of his ecclesiastical opponents.
SONG ON THE BISHOPS.
[Flacius Illyricus, p. 161.]
_Planctus super Episcopis._
Complange tui, Anglia,
Melos suspendens organi;
Et maxime tu, Cantia,
De mora tui Stephani.
Thomam habes sed alterum,
Secundum habes iterum
Stephanum, qui trans hominem
Induens fortitudinem
Signa facit in populo.
Dolos dolens metropolis
Quos subdoli parturiunt,
Orbata tuis incolis,
Dolose quos ejiciunt,
Largos emittis gemitus,
Patre privata penitus.
Sed cum habebis Stephanum,
Assumes tibi tympanum,
Chelym tangens sub modulo.
Ubi es, quæso, Moyses,
Per quem cedat confractio?
Ubi legem zelans Phinees,
Per quem cesset quassatio?
Quis natum David arguens?
Quis Thaü signum statuens
In limine et postibus,
Ut sic confusis hostibus
Liberetur Israel?
Abraham, pater gentium
Multarum, surge, domine,
Agar expelle filium,
Saræ ancillæ dominæ;
Nam post subducet aliam.
Jam adversus ecclesiam
Prævalent portæ Tartari:
Jam ludo ludunt impari
Isaac et Ismael.
Balthasar bibit iterum
De vasis templi Domini:
Vasa rapit vas scelerum
Dei dicata nomini.
Scribentem cerno digitum,
Et literis implicitum
Scriptis, “Mane, Tecchel, Phares;”
Quid sibi velit ea res,
Rei probabit exitus.
Jam patet in prætorio,
Et infimis et arduis,
Quod regni jam divisio
Et finis est in januis.
Crescit malorum cumulus,
Est sacerdos ut populus,
Currunt ad illicitum,
Uterque juxta libitum
Audax et imperterritus.
Plebs in Ægypti cophino
Servit, et sudat anxia
Sub Pharaone domino:
Edicta currunt varia:
Exactor opus exigit,
Israel lutum colligit.
Non est qui eum eruat,
Vel Pharaonis subruat
Equos cum ascensoribus.
Spargit Assur ac dejicit
Lapides Sanctuarii.
Quare? quia non objicit
Se lapis adjutorii.
Imo qui se objicere
Deberent, et effundere
Sanguinem pro justitia,
Tractant de avaritia,
Quos his noto apicibus.
Si præsuli Bathoniæ
Fiat quandoque quæstio,
Quot marcæ bursæ regiæ
Accedant in scaccario:
Respondet voce libera,
Mille, centum, et cætera,
Ad bursam regis colligo,
Doctus in hoc decalogo,
Cæcus in forma canonis.
Tu, Norwicensis bestia,
Audi quid dicat veritas:
Qui non intrat per ostia
Fur est. An de hoc dubitas?
Heu! cecidisti gravius
Quam Cato quondam tertius:
Cum præsumpta electio
Justo ruat judicio,
Empta per dolum Simonis.
Wintoniensis armiger
Præsidet ad Scaccarium,
Ad computandum impiger,
Piger ad Evangelium,
Regis revolvens rotulum;
Sic lucrum Lucam superat,
Marco marcam præponderat,
Et libræ librum subjicit.
Hi Belphegor prænunciant,
Et sedem Baal subjiciunt;
Ut melius proficiant,
Baal sibi præficiunt,
Complectuntur pro niveis
Nigra, stercus pro croceis.
Hi tres insatiabiles,
Sanguisugis persimiles,
“Affer,” dicunt, “non sufficit.”
Tres tribus his appositi
Sunt, sed longe dissimiles,
Virtutum flore præditi,
Morum vigore nobiles,
Noe, David, et Daniel,
Quos depingit Ezechiel.
Justitiam hi sitiunt,
Ob hæc sese objiciunt
Murum pro domo Domini.
Joannes nostri temporis
Surgit Decanus Angliæ,
Canus mente, vi roboris
Stratam vadit justiciæ,
Canit laudum præco nia
Qui jure de Ecclesia
Mariæ nomen accipit,
Dum conflictum hunc suscipit
Sacræ devotus Virgini.
Heliensis progreditur,
Huïc datur discrimini,
_Heli_ ut _ensis_ dicitur,
Parcens paucis, vel nemini.
Helia, ensem exere,
Et impios tres contere,
Ac Babylonis principem
Hujus doli participem
Ictu prosterne simplici.
Tu, Wolstani subambule,
Es in conflictu tertius,
Robustus insta sedule
Triumphi veri conscius.
Hæres Wolstani diceris,
Si vere sit, tu videris:
Prius resigna baculum,
Et ephod et annulum,
Quam Baal velis subjici.
De Roffensi episcopo
Nil scio mali dicere.
Mentior et rem syncopo:
Hic est, et hic a latere
Est pauper Sarisburiæ,
Qui dormit usque hodie,
Ignem et aquam bajulat,
Nec causatur, nec ejulat
Pro desolata vinea.
I Romam, liber parvule,
Nec remeare differas,
Saluta quosque sedule,
Et Papæ salve differas.
Dic quid de tribus sentiam.
Ipse promat sententiam,
Utrum suo judicio
Sint liberi a vitio;
Et michi detur venia.
TRANSLATION.--Complain, O England! and suspend the melody of
thine organ, and more especially thou, Kent, for the delay of
thy Stephen. But thou hast another Thomas; thou hast again a
second Stephen, who putting on a fortitude beyond that of man,
performs signs among the people. O metropolis! who grievest over
the plots which the cunning people bring forth, bereaved of thine
inhabitants, whom they treacherously have ejected, thou givest
vent to heavy groans, being utterly deprived of thy father. But
when thou shalt have Stephen, thou wilt take up the timbrel, and
touch the harp to measure.
Where art thou, I ask, O Moses! through whom may the rupture
cease? Where Phineas, zealous for the law, through whom the
scourging may have an end? Who is there to accuse the son
of David? Who is there that may set the sign of Thau on the
threshold and the door-posts, that thus, her enemies being
confused, Israel may be liberated? Abraham, father of many
people, arise, lord, expel the son of Agar, the waiting-maid of
her mistress Sarah; for after she shall deceive the other. Now
the gates of Tartarus prevail against the Church: now Isaac and
Ismael play at an unequal game.
Balthasar drinks again out of the vessels of the Lord’s temple:
the vessel of iniquities carries away the vessels dedicated
to God’s name. I perceive the hand, writing, and involved in
the written letters, “Mane, Techel, Phares;” what this thing
may mean, the event of the thing will prove. Now it appears in
the court, both to the low and the high, that at present the
division and end of the kingdom is at the gate. The mass of evils
increases; the priest is as the people; they, bold and fearless,
hasten to that which is unlawful, each according to his will.
The people serves in the coffer of Egypt, and anxiously sweats
under the rule of Pharaoh: various edicts fly about: the
collector exacts the work, Israel collects clay. There is no one
who may rescue him, or who may overwhelm the horses of Pharaoh
with their riders. Assur scatters and overthrows the stones of
the Sanctuary. Why? because the Stone of Help does not oppose
itself. Nay, they who ought to oppose, and to shed their blood
for justice’s sake, are occupied with avarice, whom I signalise
by these marks.
If the question were perchance asked of the bishop of Bath,
“How many marks come in to the King’s purse in the Exchequer?”
he would answer readily, “A thousand, a hundred, and so on,
I collect into the King’s purse,” learned as he is in this
decalogue, blind in the form of the canon. Thou, beast of
Norwich! hear what the Truth saith: “He who enters not by the
door is a thief.” Dost thou doubt of this? Alas! thou hast
fallen more heavily than once the third Cato, since thy presumed
election falls by just judgment, having been bought by the craft
of Simon.
The arm-bearer of Winchester presides at the Exchequer, diligent
in computing, sluggish at the Gospel, turning over the King’s
roll; thus lucre overcomes Luke; he makes a marc weigh heavier
than Mark, and subjects the bible to the scales. These are they
who fore-show Belphegor; they subject the seat to Baal; that
they may profit better, they make Baal their lord; they embrace
black for white, dung instead of saffron. These three are
insatiable--very like unto leeches; they cry, “Give! there is not
enough!”
There are three opposed to these, but very unlike them,
endowed with the flower of virtues, noble in the vigour of
good-breeding--Noah, David, and Daniel, whom Ezechiel paints.
These thirst after justice; for this they oppose themselves
as a wall for God’s house. John arises the dean of England of
our time, hoary in mind: with the might of oak, he proceeds
on the way of justice; he sings the proclamations of praises,
who rightly takes his name from the church of Mary, while he
undertakes this conflict in devotion to the Holy Virgin.
He of Ely advances; he is given to this battle, as he is called
the Sword of Hely, sparing few or none. Helias, draw forth the
sword, and bruise the three impious ones, and lay prostrate the
prince of Babylon, the participater in this plot, with a single
blow. Thou, who walkest in the place of Wolstan, art the third in
the conflict: robust as thou art, press on sedulously, certain of
a true triumph. Thou art called the heir of Wolstan; if thou be
truly so, thou art seen: sooner resign the staff, and the ephod,
and the ring, than be willing to bow to Baal.
I know nothing ill to say of the bishop of Rochester. I lie,
and cut the matter short; he is here, and here by his side the
poor man of Salisbury also, who sleeps till to-day; he carries
about fire and water, nor pleads for, nor bewails, the desolated
vineyard. Go to Rome, little book, nor delay thy return; salute
them all diligently; and carry a salutation to the Pope: tell
what I think of the three: let him give judgment, whether in his
opinion they be free from vice; and let pardon be granted to me.
* * * * *
It was during these religious dissensions that arose up, or at
least became strong, that powerful spirit of opposition to the
papal tyranny, which produced during the whole of this century so
much satirical poetry; much of it attributed, perhaps with little
reason, to Walter Mapes. The following song is supposed to have
been written during the interdict. In the fourth line the lion is
said to designate King John, and the asses the Bishops, and at the
end the King is represented by Jupiter, whilst the Pope receives
the contemptuous designation of Pluto.
SONG ON THE TIMES.
[MS. Harl. 978, fol. 108, r^o. Reign of Hen. III.]
_Invectio contra avaritiam._
Utar contra vitia carmine rebelli;
Mel proponunt alii, fel supponunt melli,
Pectus subest ferreum deauratæ pelli,
Et leonis spolium induunt aselli.
Disputat cum animo facies rebellis,
Mel ab ore defluit, mens est plena fellis;
Non est totum melleum quod est instar mellis;
Facies est alia pectoris quam pellis.
Vitium est in opere, virtus est in ore,
Picem tegunt animi niveo colore:
Membra dolent singula capitis dolore,
Et radici consonat pomum in sapore.
Roma mundi caput est, sed nil capit mundum:
Quod pendet a capite totum est inmundum;
Transit enim vitium primum in secundum,
Et de fundo redolet quod est juxta fundum.
Roma capit singulos et res singulorum;
Romanorum curia non est nisi forum.
Ibi sunt venalia jura senatorum,
Et solvit contraria copia nummorum.
Hic in consistorio si quis causam regat
Suam, vel alterius, hoc in primis legat,--
Nisi det pecuniam Roma totum negat,
Qui plus dat pecuniæ melius allegat.
Romani capitulum habent in decretis,
Ut petentes audiant manibus repletis:
Dabis, aut non dabitur, petunt quia petis;
Qua mensura seminas, et eadem metis.
Munus et petitio currunt passu pari,
Opereris munere si vis operari:
Tullium ne timeas si velit causari,
Nummus eloquentia gaudet singulari.
Nummis in hac curia non est qui non vacet;
Crux placet, rotunditas, et albedo placet,
Et cum totum placeat, et Romanis placet,
Ubi nummus loquitur, et lex omnis tacet.
Si quo grandi munere bene pascas manum,
Frustra quis objiciet vel Justinianum,
Vel sanctorum canones, quia tanquam vanum
Transferunt has paleas, et inbursant granum.
Solam avaritiam Roma novit parca,
Parcit danti munera, parco non est parca:
Nummus est pro numine, et pro Marco marca,
Et est minus celebris ara, quam sit arca.
Cum ad papam veneris, habe pro constanti,
Non est locus pauperi, soli favet danti;
Vel si munus præstitum non est aliquanti,
Respondet hic tibi sic, Non est michi tanti.
Papa, si rem tangimus, nomen habet a re,
Quicquid habent alii, solus vult papare;
Vel si verbum Gallicum vis apocopare,--
_Paez_, _Paez_, _dit li mot_, si vis impetrare.
Papa quærit, chartula quærit, bulla quærit,
Porta quærit, cardinalis quærit, cursor quærit,
Omnes quærunt: et si quod des uni deerit,
Totum jus falsum est, tota causa perit.
Das istis, das aliis, addis dona datis,
Et cum satis dederis, quærunt ultra satis.
O vos bursæ turgidæ, Romam veniatis;
Romæ viget physica bursis constipatis.
Prædantur marsupium singuli paulatim;
Magna, major, maxima, præda fit gradatim.
Quid irem per singula? colligam summatim,--
Omnes bursam strangulant, et expirat statim.
Bursa tamen Tityi jecur imitatur,
Fugit res, ut redeat, perit, ut nascatur,
Et hoc pacto loculum Roma deprædatur,
Ut cum totum dederit, totus impleatur.
Redeunt a curia capite cornuto:
Ima tenet Jupiter, cœlum tenet Pluto,
Et accedit dignitas animali bruto,
Tanquam gemma stercori et pictura luto.
Divites divitibus dant, ut sumant ibi,
Et occurrunt munera relative sibi:
Lex est ista celebris, quam fecerunt scribi,
Si tu michi dederis, ego dabo tibi. _Finit._
TRANSLATION.--I will use against vices rebelling song; others
put forward honey, while under the honey they lay on gall; the
iron breast is concealed under the gilt skin, and asses put on
the lion’s spoil.--The rebelling face disputes with the soul
within; honey flows from the mouth, the mind is full of gall;
it is not all sweet that looks like honey; the breast has a
different countenance from the skin.--While vice is in the
work, virtue is in the face; they cover the pitchy blackness
of the mind with a white colour; each of the members suffers
by the pain of the head, and the flavour of the apple depends
upon the root from whence it springs.--Rome is the head of the
world; but it receives nothing clean; all that depends from the
head is unclean; for the first vice passes on into the second,
and that which is near the bottom smells of the bottom.--Rome
receives all, and the goods of all; the court of the Romans
is but a market. There are offered for sale the rights of the
senators, and abundance of money dissolves all differences of
opinion.--Here, in the consistory, if any body plead a cause, be
it his own or another’s, let him first read this,--“Unless he
give money, Rome denies every thing; he who gives most money will
come off the best.”--The Romans have a chapter in the decretals,
that they should listen to petitions from those who come with
their hands full; thou shalt give, or nothing shall be granted
thee; they ask because thou askest; by the same measure as you
sow, you shall reap.--A bribe and a petition go side by side, and
it is with a bribe that you must work if you wish to succeed:
then you need have no fear, even of Tully, were he pleading
against you; for money possesses a singular eloquence.--There is
nobody in this court who does not look after money: the cross on
the coin pleases them; the roundness of it, and the whiteness
thereof, pleases them; and since every part of it pleases, and
it is the Romans whom it pleases, where money speaks, there all
law is silent.--If you only feed the hand well with some goodly
bribe, it will be in vain even to quote Justinian against you,
or the canons of the saints, because they would throw them away
as vanity and chaff, and pocket the grain.--Penurious Rome
claims acquaintance with nothing but avarice; she spares to him
who brings gifts, but she spares not to him who is penurious:
money stands in the place of God, and a marc for Mark, and the
altar is less attended than the coffer.--When you come to the
Pope, take it as a rule, that there is no place for the poor, he
favours only the giver; or if there is not a bribe of some value
or another forthcoming, he answers you, “I am not able.”--The
Pope, if we come to the truth of the matter, has his name from
the fact, that, whatever others have, he alone will suck the pap;
or if you like to apocopate a French word, “pay, pay,” saith the
word, if you wish to obtain anything.--The Pope begs, the brief
begs, the bull begs, the gate begs, the cardinal begs, the cursor
begs,--all beg! and if you have not wherewith to bribe them all,
your right is wrong, and the whole cause comes to nothing.--You
give to these, you give to the others, you add gifts to those
already given, and when you should have given enough, they seek
as much more. O, you full purses, come to Rome! at Rome there
is choice medicine for costive pockets.--They all prey upon
the purse by little and little; great, greater, or greatest,
gradually becomes a prey to them. Why should I go through all
the particulars? I will put it in a few words; they all choke
the purse, and it expires immediately.--Yet the purse imitates
the liver of Tityus; the substance flies in order to return;
dies that it may be born: and on this condition Rome preys upon
the pocket, that when it has given all, it may all be filled
again.--They return from the court with mitred heads; Jupiter is
placed in the Infernal Regions, Pluto holds Heaven, and dignity
is given to a brute animal, as a jewel to the dung and a picture
to the mud.--The rich give to the rich, that they may receive
again, and gifts mutually meet one another: that law is most in
use, which they have caused to be written, “If you give to me, I
will give to you.”
KING HENRY III. 1216-1272.
The death of King John offered an opportunity of putting an end to
the distractions that had become so universal during the latter
years of his reign, which most of the belligerents were glad
to embrace. The following short, but highly spirited poem, was
probably written immediately after the pacification which followed
the taking of Lincoln, apparently by a churchman, and certainly
a partizan of King Henry. Some of the expressions in it, such as
“the iron-girt bees of war,” and the like, remind us of the lofty
metaphors of Saxon verse.
THE TAKING OF LINCOLN.
[From MS. Cotton. Vespas. B. XIII. fol. 130, v^o. in a hand of the
beginning of the 14th Cent.]
¶ _Incipiunt versus de Guerra Regis Johannis._