AS I CAME FROM WALSINGHAM.
From The Garland of Good Will, as reprinted by the Percy Society, vol. XXX. p. 111. Percy's copy was communicated to him by Shenstone, and was retouched by that poet.
"The pilgrimage to Walsingham," remarks the Bishop, "suggested the plan of many popular pieces. In the Pepys collection, vol. i. p. 226, is a kind of interlude in the old ballad style, of which the first stanza alone is worth reprinting.
As I went to Walsingham,
To the shrine with speede,
Met I with a jolly palmer
In a pilgrimes weede.
'Now God you save, you jolly palmer!'
'Welcome, lady gay!
Oft have I sued to thee for love.'
'Oft have I said you nay.'
The pilgrimages undertaken on pretence of religion were often productive of affairs of gallantry, and led the votaries to no other shrine than that of Venus.[1]"
"The following ballad was once very popular; it is quoted in Fletcher's 'Knight of the Burning Pestle,' Act ii. sc. ult., and in another old play, called "Hans Beer-pot, his invisible Comedy, &c. 4to 1618, Act i."
"As I went to Walsingham is quoted in Nashe's Have with you to Saffron-Walden, 1596, sign. L."—Chappell.