wad ye think? He's no content yet; but out he sings again : 'Come, tak me to your bosom, my hinnie, my heart, • Lord have a care o' us!' says the lassie, wad I tak a filthy padda to my bosom, d'ye think ?'- Ou, ay,' quo' the mother, 'just be ye doing your gudeman's biddin, and tak him to your bosom.' Sae the lassie did tak the padda to her bosom. After that, he sings out: 'Now fetch me an aix, my hinnie, my heart, She brought the axe in a minute, and he then sang again : Now chap aff my head, my hinnie, my heart, I'se warrant she was na lang o' obeying him in this requeist! for, ye ken, what kind of a gudeman was a bit padda likely to be? But, lock-an-daysie, what d'ye think?-she had na weel chappit aff his head, as he askit her to do, before he starts up, the bonniest young prince that ever was seen. And, of course, they leeved happy a' the rest o' their days." Of such simple tales as this do the earliest fictions of all nations appear to have consisted. It will strongly remind the reader of the common fable of Beauty and the Beast, which, I believe, is of Eastern origin. In illustration of the same subjects, Mr Leyden mentions a rhyming narrative, which he himself heard in the nursery. It begins The frog sat in the mill-door, spin-spin-spinning, The mouse proposes to join in the spinning, and enquires But where will I get a spindle, fair lady mine? When the frog desires him to take The auld mill lewer, (or lever.) God sen the duc had bidden in France, and Delabaute had nevyr cum hame. This was probably the first half-stanza of a ballad on the unhappy regency of the Duke of Albany, (during the minority of James V.,) and the murder of the Signor de la Bauté, his proregent, by the Laird of Wedderburn, in 1517. A ballad, beginning, God sen the Duke had bidden in France, must have borne some resemblance to Jock o' the Syde, and other compositions of the kind, produced within the same century. Al musing of meruellis a mys hef I gone. A verse of this song, according to Mr Leyden's report, occurs in the manuscript Cantus belonging to the late Mr Constable. All musing of mervelles in the mid morne, Through a slunk in a slaid, amisse have I gone: I heard a song me beside, that reft from me my sprite, But through my dream, as I dream'd, this was the effect. It is further to be remarked, that this is in the same style of poetry, and the same rhythm of versification, with the strange alliterative rhapsodies which pass under the name of the Prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer, Merlin, &c. O lusty Maye, with Flora quene, is fortunately preserved entire. It was first printed by Chepman and Myllar, the fathers of Scottish typography, in 1508; and was afterwards incorporated with the Bannatyne MS. On account, probably, of its great merit and continued popularity, it also appears in Forbes's Aberdeen Cantus, a work published so lately as 1666. It is given at length in this place, as the most favourable specimen that can now be found, of the fashionable songs of the sixteenth century. O, lusty May, with Flora queen, Then Aurora, that is so bright, Birds on their boughs, of every sort, And lovers all that are in care, In fresh mornings before the day; Of every moneth in the year, Through gladness of this lusty May! The Perssee and Mongumrye met, that day, that gentil day. This, in Mr Leyden's opinion, was probably a Scottish copy of the ordinary historical ballad of the Battle of Otterbourne, not exactly the same with any edition extant. The Battel of the Hayrlaw, and The Huntis of Cheuet, are two historical ballads, the first of which is ge nerally supposed to be that which was first printed in Ramsay's Evergreen, and which is to be found in the present collection, while the second is printed in Percy's Reliques of English Poetry. Allone I veip in grit distres-Rycht sorely musing in my mynde―O mine hart, ay this is my song-Greuit (grievous) is my sorrow- —Allace, that samyn sweit face-In ane mirthful morou, are all found, parodied into sacred songs, in the strange work called "A Compendious Book of Godly and Spiritual Songs, collectit out of sundrie parts of the Scripture, with sundrie of other Ballats, chainged out of profaine Sanges, for avoiding of Sinne and Harlotrie;" which was printed by Andro Hart in 1590. The existence and nature of this curious old book form one of the strongest proofs we can now have, of the prevalence of popular songs at the era of the Reformation. The conscientious, but Puritanical clergy of that time, were, it seems, anxious to win the people from their ordinary amusements, which they thought were calculated only to excite their worst passions; they indulged a fond hope-one not altogether exploded in our own day-that religion might be made to come in place of all other recreations. Observing, accordingly, that the singing of rude familiar songs constituted a great portion of the entertainment of the populace, they adopted the idea, that, if they could but substitute a set of divine songs for those in use, they would be advancing one great step in their project of national reformation. It does not appear that they ever formed any calculation, as to the probability of the people adopting the new-modelled songs which should be presented to them. They seem to have had an idea, that mere saltation of voice, so to speak, was all that the people wanted, and that it did not at all matter what was the subject or style of their songs. The only deference they paid to the vulgar taste, was to make the sacred archetypes as like the profane originals as possible, in structure of verse, and in style of imagery. The tunes, moreover, were the same, whether of that irreverent kind which may be said to express a significant blackguardism in every note, or of the more pensive sort, which are now found attached to our best sentimental songs. Thus, no kind of composition, perhaps, could possibly be so ridicu lous as one of these "godly and spiritual ballads." It happens, that those which correspond with the titles mentioned in the Complaynt of Scotland, are, upon the whole, less outré than the greater part; but, by way of a fair specimen, the following may be quoted: John, come kiss me now, John, come kiss me now; The Lord thy God I am, That John does thee call; John represents the man 1 My prophets call, my preachers cry, Other specimens, equally quaint, but not just so ludicrous, may be given. The following seems to have been composed in reference to the capital old song, (given in this Collection,) beginning with "Late in an evening, forth I went," and all the verses of which end with, Ye'll never be like my auld gudeman." Till our Gudeman, till our Gudeman, Where angels ever sing, Osan! Adame, our fore-father that was, |