acaronic verse is properly a system of Latin inflections joined to words of a modern vernacular, such as English, French, German, &c.; some writers, however, choose to disregard the strictness of this definition, and consider everything macaronic which is written with the aid of more than one language or dialect. Dr. Geddes (born 1737; died 1802), considered one of the greatest of English macaronic writers, says: “It is the characteristic of a Macaronic poem to be written in Latin hexameters; but so as to admit occasionally vernacular words, either in their native form, or with a Latin inflection—other licenses, too, are allowed in the measure of the lines, contrary to the strict rules of prosody.” Broad enough reservations these, of which Dr. Geddes in his own works was not slow in availing himself, and as will be seen in the specimens given, his example has been well followed, for the strict rule that an English macaronic should consist of the vernacular made classical with Latin terminations has been as much honoured in the breach as in the observance. Another characteristic in macaronics is that these poems recognise no law in orthography, etymology, syntax, or prosody. The examples which here follow are confined exclusively to those which have their basis, so to speak, in the English language, and, with the exception of a few of the earlier ones, the majority of the selections in this volume have their origin in our own times.
“The earliest collection of English Christmas carols supposed to have been published,” says Hone’s “Every Day Book,” “is only known from the last leaf of a volume printed by Wynkyn Worde in 1521. There are two carols upon it: ‘A Carol of Huntynge’ is reprinted in the last edition of Juliana Berners’ ‘Boke of St. Alban’s;’ the other, ‘A carol of bringing in the Bore’s Head,’ is in Dibdin’s edition of ‘Ames,’ with a copy of the carol as it is now sung in Queen’s College, Oxford, every Christmas Day.” Dr. Bliss of Oxford printed a few copies of this for private circulation, together with Anthony Wood’s version of it. The version subjoined is from a collection imprinted at London, “in the Poultry, by Richard Kele, dwelling at the long shop vnder Saynt Myldrede’s Chyrche,” about 1546:
A Carol Bringing in the Bore’s Head.
| “Caput apri defero Reddens laudes Domino. The bore’s heed in hande bring I, With garlands gay and rosemary, I pray you all synge merelye Qui estis in convivio. The bore’s heed I understande Is the thefte service in this lande, Take wherever it be fande, Servite cum cantico. Be gladde lordes both more and lasse, For this hath ordeyned our stewarde, To cheere you all this Christmasse, The bore’s heed with mustarde. Caput apri defero Reddens laudes Domino.” |
Another version of the last verse is:
| “Our steward hath provided this In honour of the King of Bliss: Which on this clay to be served is, In Regimensi Atrio. Caput apri defero Reddens laudes Domino.” |
Skelton, who was the poet-laureate about the end of the fifteenth century, has in his “Boke of Colin Clout,” and also in that of “Philip Sparrow,” much macaronic verse, as in “Colin Clout,” when he is speaking of the priests of those days, he says:
| “Of suche vagabundus Speaking totus mundus, How some syng let abundus, At euerye ale stake With welcome hake and make, By the bread that God brake, I am sory for your sake. I speake not of the god wife But of their apostles lyfe, Cum ipsis vel illis Qui manent in villis Est uxor vel ancilla, Welcome Jacke and Gilla, My prety Petronylla, An you wil be stilla You shall haue your willa, Of such pater noster pekes All the world speakes,” &c. |
In Harsnett’s “Detection” are some curious lines, being a curse for “the miller’s eeles that were stolne”:
| “All you that stolne the miller’s eeles, Laudate dominum de cœlis, And all they that have consented thereto, Benedicamus domino.” |