No. 3.
I, a wandering scholar lad,
Born for toil and sadness,
Oftentimes am driven by
Poverty to madness.
Literature and knowledge I
Fain would still be earning,
Were it not that want of pelf
Makes me cease from learning.
These torn clothes that cover me
Are too thin and rotten;
Oft I have to suffer cold,
By the warmth forgotten.
Scarce I can attend at church,
Sing God's praises duly;
Mass and vespers both I miss,
Though I love them truly.
Oh, thou pride of N----,
By thy worth I pray thee
Give the suppliant help in need,
Heaven will sure repay thee.
Take a mind unto thee now
Like unto St. Martin;
Clothe the pilgrim's nakedness,
Wish him well at parting.
So may God translate your soul
Into peace eternal,
And the bliss of saints be yours
In His realm supernal.
The second is a jovial _Song of the Open Road_, throbbing with the
exhilaration of young life and madcap impudence. We must imagine that
two vagabond students are drinking together before they part upon
their several ways. One addresses the other as _frater catholice, vir
apostolice_, vows to befriend him, and expounds the laws of loyalty
which bind the brotherhood together. To the rest of the world they are
a terror and a nuisance. Honest folk are jeeringly forbidden to beware
of the _quadrivium_, which is apt to form a fourfold rogue instead of
a scholar in four branches of knowledge.
The Latin metre is so light, careless, and airy, that I must admit an
almost complete failure to do it justice in my English version. The
refrain appears intended to imitate a bugle-call.