[317] In Herbert's Typographical Antiquities, vol. i., p. 581, will be found rather a slight notice of this raw and vulgar satire. It has, however, stamina of its kind; as the reader may hence judge:
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Mark the gesture, who that lyst; First a shorne shauelynge, clad in a clowt, Bearinge the name of an honest priest, And yet in no place a starker lowte. A whore monger, a dronkard, ye makyn him be snowte— At the alehouses he studieth, till hys witte he doth lacke. Such are your minysters, to bringe thys matter about: But guppe ye god-makers, beware your galled backe. Then wraped in a knaues skynne, as ioly as my horse, Before the aulter, in great contemplacion Confessinge the synnes of his lubbrysh corse To god and all saynctes, he counteth hys abhomination Then home to the aulter, with great saintification With crosses, and blesses, with his boy lytle Jacke: Thus forth goeth syr Jhon with all his preparation. But guppe ye god-makers, beware your galled backe. Then gloria in excelsis for ioye dothe he synge More for his fat liuinge, than for devocion: And many there be that remember another thinge Which syng not wyth mery hart for lacke of promocion Thus some be mery, some be sory according to their porcion Then forth cometh collects, bounde up in a packe, For this sainct and that sainct, for sickenes, and extorcion But guppe ye god-makers, beware your galled backe. Stanzas, 17, 18, 19. |
At the sale of Mr. Brand's books, in 1807, a copy of this rare tract, of six or seven pages, was sold for 3l. 17s. 6d. Vide Bibl. Brand, part i., no. 1300. This was surely more than both plaister and horse were worth! A poetical satire of a similar kind, entitled "John Bon and Mast Person," was printed by Daye and Seres; who struck off but a few copies, but who were brought into considerable trouble for the same. The virulence with which the author and printer of this lampoon were persecuted in Mary's reign is sufficiently attested by the care which was taken to suppress every copy that could be secured. The only perfect known copy of this rare tract was purchased at the sale of Mr. R. Forster's books, for the Marquis of Bute; and Mr. Stace, the bookseller, had privilege to make a fac-simile reprint of it; of which there were six copies struck off upon vellum. It being now rather common with book-collectors, there is no necessity to make a quotation from it here. Indeed there is very little in it deserving of republication.
Loren. I will make a memorandum to try to secure this "comical" piece, as you call it; but has it never been reprinted in our "Corpora Poetarum Anglicorum?"
Lysand. Never to the best of my recollection. Mr. Alexander Chalmers probably shewed his judgment in the omission of it, in his lately published collection of our poets. A work, which I can safely recommend to you as being, upon the whole, one of the most faithful and useful, as well as elegant, compilations of its kind, that any country has to boast of. But I think I saw it in your library, Lorenzo?—
Loren. It was certainly there, and bound in stout Russia, when we quitted it for this place.
Lis. Dispatch your "gall'd horse," and now—having placed a justly merited wreath round the brow of your poetical editor, proceed—as Lorenzo has well said—with personal anecdotes. What has become of Wyatt and Surrey—and when shall we reach Leland and Bale?
Lysand. I crave your mercy, Master Lisardo! One at a time. Gently ride your bibliomaniacal hobby-horse!
Wyatt and Surrey had, beyond all question, the most exquisitely polished minds of their day. They were far above the generality of their compeers. But although Hall chooses to notice the whistle[318] of the latter, it does not follow that I should notice his library, if I am not able to discover any thing particularly interesting relating to the same. And so, wishing every lover of his country's literature to purchase a copy of the poems of both these heroes,[319] I march onward to introduce a new friend to you, who preceded Leland in his career, and for an account of whom we are chiefly indebted to the excellent and best editor of the works of Spencer and Milton. Did'st ever hear, Lisardo, of one William Thynne?
[318] About the year 1519, Hall mentions the Earl of Surrey "on a great coursir richely trapped, and a greate whistle of gold set with stones and perle, hanging at a great and massy chayne baudrick-wise." Chronicles: p. 65, a. See Warton's Life of Sir Thomas Pope: p. 166, note o., ed. 1780. This is a very amusing page about the custom of wearing whistles, among noblemen, at the commencement of the 16th century. If Franklin had been then alive, he would have had abundant reason for exclaiming that these men "paid too much for their whistles!"