LEGAL RHYMES.
(For the Mirror.)
According to Goguet, "the first laws of any people were composed in verses, which they sang;" and why should it not be so when Apollo was one of the first of legislators? and under his auspices they were published to the sound of the harp. Pittacus, one of the seven sages of Greece, formed a code of laws in verse, that they might be the easier remembered. The ancient laws of Spain also were chanted in verse, and the custom was preserved a long time among many nations. Mio. Psellus, who lived in the reign of Constantine Ducas, published a synopsis of the law, in verse, and in 1701, Gumaro, a civilian of Naples, taught the dry and intricate system of civil law, in a novel. Coke's Reports have been "done into verse" by an anonymous author; and Cowper, the poet, tells us, that a relation of his who had studied the law, "a gentleman of sprightly parts," began to versify Coke's Institutes; he gives the following specimen of the performance:
"Tenant in fee
Simple is he,
And need neither quake nor quiver,
Who hath his lands,
Free from demands,
To him and his heirs for ever."
Records, charters, and wills, and many other legal documents, have been written in verse. The following grant was made by Edward the Confessor to Randolf Peperking:
"Iche Edward konyng (king)
Have given of my forest the keping,
Of the Hundred of Cholmer and Daucing,
To Randolph Peperking and to his kindling, (heirs)
With heart and hynd, doe and bock, (buck)
Hare and fox, cat and brock, (badger)
Wild fowell and his flock,
Partridge, fesant hen, and fesant cock,
With green and wyld stob and stock,
To kepen and to yemen (hold) by all his might,
Both by day and eke by night:
And hounds for to holde,
Gode and swift and bolde,
Four greyhounds and six beaches, (hound bitches)
For hare and fox, and wild cats,
And thereof Iche made him my booke,
Witness the Bishop Wolston,
And book ycleped many on,
And Sweyne of Essex, our brother,
And token him many other,
And our steward Hamelyn,
That bysought me for him."
The Dunmow matrimonial flitch of bacon is a well known custom; the oath is in verse, and as follows:
"You shall swear by the custom of your confession,
That you never made any nuptial transgression,
Since you were married to your wife,
By household brawls, or contentious strife,
Or otherwise, in bed or at board,
Offended each other in deed or in word—
Or since the parish clerk said Amen,
Wish'd yourselves unmarried again;
Or in a twelvemonth and a day,
Repented not in thought, any way,
But continued true, and in desire,
As when you join'd hands in holy quire.
If to these conditions, without all fear,
Of your own accord you will freely swear,
A gammon of bacon you shall receive,
And beare it hence with love and good leave,
For this is our custom at Dunmow well known,
Though the sport be ours, the bacon's your own."
For the custom of riding the black ram, and the penal rhyme thereto attached, we refer the reader to the Spectator, No. 614.
The following rhyming wills have been proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury:
"The fifth of May,
Being airy and gay
And to hip not inclined,
But of vigorous mind,
And my body in health.
I'll dispose of my wealth,
And all I'm to leave
On this side the grave,
To some one or other,
And I think to my brother;
Because I foresaw
That my brethren in law,
If I did not take care,
Would come in for their share,
Which I nowise intended,
'Till their manners are mended,
And of that God knows there's no sign.
I do therefore enjoin,
And do strictly command,
Of which witness my hand,
That naught I have got
Be brought into hotchpot:
But I give and devise,
As much as in me lies,
To the son of my mother,
My own dear brother.
And to have and to hold
All my silver and gold,
As th' affectionate pledges
Of his brother, JOHN HEDGES."
In the next, the items are more curious and particular:
"What I am going to bequeath
When this frail part submits to death—
But still I hope the spark divine,
With its congenial stars shall shine,
My good executors fulfill,
And pay ye fairly my last will,
With first and second codicil.
And first I give to dear Lord Hinton,
At Twyford school now, not at Winton,
One hundred guineas and a ring,
Or some such memorandum thing,
And truly much I should have blunder'd,
Had I not given another hundred
To dear Earl Paulett's second son,
Who dearly loves a little fun.
Unto my nephew, Stephen Langdon,
Of whom none says he e'er has wrong done,
The civil laws he loves to hash,
I give two hundred pounds in cash.
One hundred pounds to my niece, Tudor,
(With luring eyes one Clark did view her,)
And to her children just among 'em,
A hundred more—and not to wrong 'em,
In equal shares I freely give it,
Not doubting but they will receive it.
To Betsy Mudford and Mary Lee,
If they with Mrs. Mudford be,
Because they round the year did dwell
In Davies-street, and serv'd full well.
The first ten pounds, the other twenty,
And girls, I hope that will content ye.
In seventeen hundred and sixty-nine,
This with my hand I write and sign,
The sixteenth day of fair October,
In merry mood, but sound and sober.
Past my threescore and fifteenth year,
With spirits gay and conscience clear—
Joyous and frolicksome, though old,
And like this day, serene, but cold;
To foes well wishing, and to friends most kind,
In perfect charity with all mankind.
For what remains I must desire,
To use the words of Matthew Prior.
Let this my will be well obey'd,
And farewell all, I'm not afraid,
For what avails a struggling sigh.
When soon, or later, all must die?
M. DARLEY."
Joshua West, who was known in his sphere "as the poet of the Six Clerks' Office," made his will in rhyme; it is dated 13th December, 1804:
"Perhaps I die not worth a groat,
But should I die worth somewhat more,
Then I give that, and my best coat,
And all my manuscripts in store,
To those who will the goodness have
To cause my poor remains to rest,
Within a decent shell and grave,
This is the will of JOSHUA WEST."
In 1654, Henry Phillips published the "Purchasers' Pattern," in which he gives advice to purchasers of estates of inheritance, in verse.
There is also a long article in verse, "On the Distribution of Intestates' Effects: it begins—
"By the laws of the land,
It is settled and planned,
That intestates' effects shall be spread,
At the end of the year,
When the debts are all clear,
'Mong the kindred as here may be read."
Before the conclusion, the author says,
"To the rest that succeed,
We need not proceed,
Enough has already been penn'd,
And now it's high time,
For our doggrel rhyme
To come, lest it err, to an end."
This hint I shall apply to myself, lest my article become as dry and uninteresting as my subject, and conclude with a declaration in which I heartily concur:
"Fee simple, and a simple fee,
And all the fees in tail,
Are nothing when compared to thee,
Thou best of fees—female."
W.A.R.