4

Of tails I will no more indite,
[A Carman's Account of a Law-suit.]

For dread some duddron? me despite :
Marry, I lent my gossip my mare, to fetch hame coals, Notwithstanding, I will conclude,
And he her drounit into the quarry holes ;

That of side tails can come nae gude,
And I ran to the consistory, for to pleinyie,

Sider nor may their ankles hide, And there I happenit amang ane greedie meinyie. The remanent proceeds of pride, They gave me first ane thing they call citandum; And pride proceeds of the devil, Within aucht days I gat but libellandum;

Thus alway they proceed of evil. Within ane month I gat ad opponendum ;

Ane other fault, Sir, may be seen, In half ane year I gat inter-loquendum,

They hide their face all bot the een ; And syne I gat-how call ye it kad replicandum ;

When gentlemen bid them gude day, Bot I could never ane word yet understand him :

Without reverence they slide away. And then they gart me cast out mony placks, Without their faults be soon amended, And gart me pay for four-and-twenty acts.

My flyting,2 Sir, shall never be ended; Bot or they caine half gate to concludendum,

But wald your grace my counsel tak, The fiend ane plack was left for to defend him.

Ane proclamation ye should mak, Thus they postponed me twa year with their train,

Baith through the land and burrowstouns, Syne, hodie ad octo, bade me come again :

To shaw their face and cut their gowns. And then thir rooks they rowpit wonder fast

Women will say, this is nae bourds, 3 For sentence, silver, they cryit at the last.

To write sic vile and filthy words ; Of pronunciandum they made me wonder fain,

But wald they clenge their filthy tails, Boi I gat never my gude grey mare again.

Whilk over the mires and middings trails,

Then should my writing clengit be, Supplication in Contemption of Side Tails.? None other mends they get of me. (1538.)

Quoth Lindsay, in contempt of the side tails, Sovereign, I mean? of thir side tails,

That duddrons and duntibours through the dubs trails. Whilk through the dust and dubs trails, Three quarters lang behind their heels,

[The Building of the Tower of Babel, and Express again' all commonweals.

Confusion of Tongues.) Though bishops, in their pontificals,

(From the Monarchie.) Have men for to bear up their tails, For dignity of their office ;

Their great fortress then did they found, Richt so ane queen or ane emprice;

And cast till they gat sure ground. Howbeit they use sic gravity,

All fell to work both man and child, Conformand to their majesty,

Some howkit clay, some burnt the tyld. Though their robe-royals be upborne,

Nimron, that curious champion, I think it is ane very scorn,

Deviser was of that dungeon. That every lady of the land

Nathing they spared their labours, Should have her tail so side trailand;

Like busy bees upon the flowers, Howbeit they been of high estate,

Or emmets travelling into June; The queen they should not counterfeit.

Some under wrocht, and some aboon,

With strang ingenious masonry, Wherever they go it may be seen

Upward their wark did fortify; How kirk and causay they soop clean.

The land about was fair and plain, The images into the kirk

And it rase like ane heich montane. May think of their side tails irk ;4

Those fulish people did intend,
For when the weather been maist fair,

That till the heaven it should ascend :
The dust flies highest into the air,
And all their faces does begary,

Sae great ane strength was never seen

Into the warld with men's een. Gif they could speak, they wald them wary.

The wallis of that wark they made, But I have maist into despite

Twa and fifty fathom braid: Poor claggocks5 clad in Raploch white,

Ane fathom then, as some men says, Whilk has scant twa merks for their fees,

Micht been twa fathom in our days; Will have twa ells beneath their knees.

Ane man was then of mair stature
Kittock that cleckit6 was yestreen,

Nor twa be now, of this be sure.
The morn, will counterfeit the queen.
In barn nor byre she will not bide,

The translator of Orosius
Without her kirtle tail be side.

Intil his chronicle writes thus; In burghs, wanton burgess wives

That when the sun is at the hicht, Wha may have sidest tails strives,

At noon, when it doth shine maist bricht, Weel bordered with velvet fine,

The shadow of that hideous strength But followand then it is ane pyne :

Sax mile and mair it is of length: In summer, when the streets dries,

Thus may ye judge into your thocht, They raise the dust aboon the skies ;

Gif Babylon be heich, or nocht. Nane may gac near them at their ease,

Then the great God omnipotent, Without they cover mouth and neege.

To whom all things been present, I think maist pane after ane rain,

He seeand the ambition, To see them tuckit up again ;

And the prideful presumption, Then when they step furth through the street,

How thir proud people did pretend, Their fauldings flaps about their feet;

Up through the heavens till ascend, They waste mair claith, within few years,

Sic languages on them he laid, Nor wald cleid fifty score of freirs.

That nane wist what ane other said ;

Where was but ane language afore, * Company : The over-long skirts of the ladies' dresses God send them languages three score ; of thoke days

с

to prove,

Afore that time all spak Hebrew,

How might I do to get a graff Then some began for to speak Grew,

Of this unspotted trec? Some Dutch, some language Saracen,

For all the rest are plain but chaff And some began to speak Latin.

Which seem good corn to be. The maister men gan to ga wild,

This gift alone I shall her give: Cryand for trees, they brocht them tylu.

When Death doth what he can, Some said, Bring mortar here at ance,

Her honest fame shall ever live
Then brocht they to them stocks and stanes ;

Within the mouth of man.
And Nimrod, their great champion,
Ran ragand like ane wild lion,
Menacing them with words rude,

Amantium Iræ amoris redintegratio est.
But never ane word they understood. *

(By Richard Edwards, a court musician and poet, 1523-1566.) for final conclusion, Constrained were they for till depart,

In going to my naked bed, as one that would have

slept, Ilk company in ane sundry airt.

I heard a wife sing to her child, that long before had

wept. MISCELLANEOUS PIECES OF THE PERIOD 1400-1558. She sighed sore, and sang full sweet, to bring the

babe to rest. A few pieces of the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., some of which are by uncertain authors, That would not cease, but cried still, in sucking at

her breast. may be added, as further

illustrative of the literary She was full weary of her watch, and grieved with history of that period. The first two are amongst

her child, the earliest verses in which the metaphysical re- She rocked it, and rated it, until on her it smild ; finements, so notable in the subsequent period, are Then did she say, 'Now have I found the proverb true observable.

The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of A Praise of his (the Poet's) Lady.

love.' Give place, you ladies, and be gone.

Then took I paper, pen, and ink, this proverb for to Boast not yourselves at all !

write, For here at hand approacheth one,

In register for to remain of such a worthy wight. Whose face will stain you all !

As she procecded thus in song unto her little brat, The virtue of her lively looks

Much matter utter'd she of weight in place whereas Excels the precious stone:

she sat; I wish to have none other books

And proved plain, there was no beast, nor creature To read or look upon.

bearing life,

Could well be known to live in love without discòrd In each of her two crystal eyes

and strife : Smileth a naked boy:

Then kissed she her little babe, and sware by God It would you all in heart suffice

above, To see that lamp of joy.

"The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of I think Nature hath lost the mould,

love.'
Where she her shape did take;
Or else I doubt if Nature could

'I marvel much, pardie,' quoth she, 'for to behold So fair a creature make.

the rout, She may be well compared

To see man, woman, boy, and beast, to toss the world Unto the phoenix kind,

about; Whose like was never seen nor heard, Some kneel, some crouch, some beck, some check, and That any man can find.

some can smoothly smile,
In life she is Diana chaste,

And some embrace others in arms, and there think
In troth Penelope,
In word and eke in deed steadfast:

Some stand aloof at cap and knee, some humble, and
What will you more we say!

some stout,

Yet are they never friends indeed until they once fall Her roseal colour comes and goes

out.' With such a comely grace,

Thus ended she her song, and said, before she did More ruddier too than doth the rose,

remove, Within her lively face.

• The falling out of faitlıful friends renewing is of

love,'
At Bacchus' feast none shall her meet,
Ne at no wanton play ;

(Characteristic of an Englishman.)
Nor gazing in an open street,
Nor gadding as a stray.

(By Andrew Bourd, physician to Henry VIII. The lines

form an inscription under the picture of an Englishman, naked, The modest mirth that she doth use

with a roll of cloth in one hand, and a pair of scissors in the Is mix'd with shamefac'dness;

other.]
All vice she doth wholly refuse,
And hateth idleness.

I am an Englishman, and naked I stand here,
O Lord, it is a world to see

Musing in my mind what garment I shall wear,

For now I will wear this, and now I will wear that,
How virtue can repair,

Now I will wear I cannot tell what :
And deck in her such honesty

All new fashions bc pleasant to me,
Whom Nature made so fair!

I will have them whether I thrive or thee :
Truly she doth as far exceed

Now I am a fisher, all men on me look
Our women now-a-days,

What should I do but set cock on the hoop ?
As doth the gilly flower a weed,

What do I care if all the world me fail,
And more a thousand ways.
I will have a garment reach to my tail.

many a wile.