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Whais bruckle banes we may sair ban,
That gard us lose our awn Gudeman.

The specimen which succeeds was in all probability formed upon some older version of the song, included in this Collection under the title of, "Wha's at my window, wha, wha?" It is quoted by Beaumont and Fletcher, in "The Knight of the Burning Pestle."

Who is at my windo, who, who?
Goe from my windo, goe, goe.

Wha callis there, so lyke ane strangere ?
Goe from my windo, goe, goe.

Lord, I am here, ane wratchit mortail,

That for thy mercie does cry and call
Unto thee, my Lord celestiall;
Sie who is at my windo, who, who.

O gracious Lord celestiall,

As thou art Lord and King eternall,
Grant us grace, that we may enter all,
And in at thy doore let me goe.

Who is at my windo, who, who?
Goe from my windo, goe;

Cry no more there, like ane strangere,
But in at my doore thou goe!

Extravagant as this nonsense is, the reader will be surprised to learn, that a modern sect adopted the same idea within the last sixty years, and produced a volume of similar parodies, such as,

And,

Wat ye wha I met yestreen,

Lying in my bed, mama?

An angel bright, &c.

Haud awa, bide awa,

Haud awa frae me, deilie!

To laugh, were want of godliness and grace;
Yet to be grave exceeds all power of face.

The Complaynt of Scotland, besides affording us all the preceding illustrations of the condition of Scottish song at the middle of the sixteenth century, contains one or two other passages, which almost equally reflect light on this obscure subject. There is one, in which we get a list of the musical instruments then in use among the populace. "There was eight shepherdis," says the author, "and ilk ane of them had ane sundrie instrument, to plai to the laif, [rest.] The fyrst had ane drone bag-pipe, the nyxt had ane pipe maid of ane bleddir and ane reid, the thrid playit on ane trump, the feird on ane corne pipe, the fyft playit on ane pipe maid of ane gait horne, the sext playit on ane recorder, the sevint playit on ane fiddil, and the last playit on ane quhissil."

Afterwards, the author, in describing a tumultuous dance, which was performed by the shepherds, gives us an extensive list of tunes. "It was ane celest recreatione," he says, " to behald their lycht loupane, galmonding, stendling bakuart and forduart, dansand base dansis, pannans, galyardis, turdions, braulis and branglis, buffons, with mony uther lycht dancis, the quhilk are ower prolixt to be rehersit. Yit, nochtheles, I sal rehers sa mony as ma ingyne can put in memorye. In the fyrst, thay dancit, All Chrystin mennis dance, The north of Scotland, Huntis up, The comont entray, Lang plat fut of Gariau, Robene Hude, Thom of Lyn, Freiris al, Enuernes, The Loch of Slene, The gossip's dance, Leuis grene, Makky, The speyde, The flail, The Lemmes wynd, Soutra, Cum kyttil me nakyt wantounly, Schayke leg fut before gossep, Rank at the rute, Baglap and al, Johne Ermestrangis dance, The alman haye, The bace of Voragon, Dangeir, The beye, The dede dance, The dance of Kylrynne, The vod and the val, Schaik a trot."

Al Chrystin mennis dance appears to have been the air appropriate to the song in the Book of Godly Ballads," beginning,

Be blythe, all Christian men, and sing.

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Huntis up is an air and song of some distinction. According to an old author, "one Gray acquired the favour of Henry VIII., and afterwards that of the Duke of Somerset, Protector, for making certaine merry ballades,' whereof one chiefly was, The Hunte is up, the Hunte is up.'" It is mentioned in a poem on May by the Scottish Anacreon, Alexander Scott; in the "Muses' Threnodie," we hear of "Saint Johnston's Hunts up." The poem, which is a very ingenious allegory of the power and evil influence of the Pope, ran as follows:

With huntis up, with huntis up,
It is now perfect day:

Jesus our king is gone a-hunting;
Who likes to speed, they may.

Ane cursed fox lay hid in rocks,
This long and many a day,
Devouring sheep, while he might creep;
None might him 'schape away.

It did him good to lap the blood
Of young and tender lambs:
None could him miss; for all was his,
The young ones with their dams.

The hunter is Christ, that hunts in haste;
The hounds are Peter and Paul;

The Pope is the fox; Rome is the rocks,
That rubs us on the gall.

That cruel beast, he never ceased,
By his usurped power,

Under dispence, to get our pence,
Our souls to devour.

Who could devise such merchandise,
As he had there to sell,
Unless it were proud Lucifer,
The great master of hell?

He had to sell the Tautonie bell,
And pardons therein was,
Remission of sins in old sheep-skins,
Our souls to bring from grace.

With balls of lead, white wax and red,
And other whiles with green,
Closed in a box; this use the fox;

Such paultrie was never seen.

Such were the satirical ballads with which the reformers assailed the strongholds of the Roman Catholic faith; and surely no missiles, however substantial, could have well been more effective.*

Robin Hude, Thom of Lyn, and Johnne Ermestrangis dance, in the opinion of Mr Leyden, [Notes to Complaynt of Scotland,] were the tunes appropriate to ballads which we still possess under nearly the same names. Thom of Lyn could be no other than "Tamlane," the well-known and most beautiful fairy story, first recovered, in an entire shape, by Sir Walter Scott, and here reprinted. This story, though now reduced to the narrow limits of an ordinary ballad, was formerly an extensive romance, or metrical tale, which was sung by minstrels to lords and ladies gay. The circumstance of Johnne Ermestrangis dance being mentioned in a work published in 1549, proves that this unfortunate hero had, immediately after his death, become a theme of popular poetry and music.

Enuernes must have been a tune attached to some song in praise of the town of Inverness.

Cum kyttil me nakyt wantounly is perhaps an early version of the following ludicrous song, which is from "a Ballad Book" printed in 1827.

*So sensible were the Catholic clergy of the severity of this war, that, at a council held by them in 1549, the very year of the publication of the Complaynt of Scotland, they denounced all those who kept in their possession "aliquos libros rythmorum seu cantilenarum vulgarium, scandalosa ecclesiasticorum, aut quamcunque hoeresim in se continentia."

Johnie cam to our toun,
To our toun, to our toun;
Johnie cam to our toun,
The body wi' the tye.
And O as he kittled me,
Kittled me, kittled me;
And O as he kittled me-
But I forgot to cry.

He gaed through the fields wi' me,
The fields wi' me, the fields wi' me;
He gaed through the fields wi' me,
And doun among the rye.
Then O as he kittled me,
Kittled me, kittled me;
Then O as he kittled me
But I forgot to cry.

The Gossip's dance and Schayke leg fut before gossip were probably, one or both, the same with the witch-song quoted in an account of the witches who met the devil at North Berwick Kirk in 1591:

Cummer, goe ye before, cummer, goe ye;

Gif ye will not goe before, cummer, let me ;

Cummer and gossip signifying the same thing.
Bag lap and al, is a well-known air, preserved in
Oswald's Collection.

The Vace of Voragon, was probably the tune to which the minstrels sung a romance called Vernager, or Ferragus, formerly popular in Britain, and also in Ireland.

After the era of " the Complaynt of Scotland," there occurs no other grand landmark in the history of Scottish song, for a considerable length of time. Here and there, however, throughout the interval, we find traces of its continued florescence, and even specimens of its productions. For instance, in the Bannatyne MS., 1568, we find "The Wowing of Jok and Jynney,"

* Entitled, in the present Collection, "The Woɔing of Jenny d

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