"Let my feet the bailiffs win,
Nostrils the tobacco-men,
And fat canons take my skin.
"Voice to singing boys I give,
Throat to topers, may they live!
**** to students amative.
"*** on shepherds I bestow,
Thistles on divines, and lo!
To the law my shade shall go.
"Elders have my tardy pace,
Boys my rude and rustic grace,
Monks my simple open face."
He who saith this testament
Will not hold, let him be shent;
He's an ass by all consent.
La sol fa,
He's an ass by all consent,
La sol fa mi re ut.
As a third specimen I select a little bit of mixed prose and verse from the Carmina Burana, which is curious from its allusion to the Land of Cockaigne. Goliardic literature, it may be parenthetically observed, has some strong pieces of prose comedy and satire. Of these, the Mass of Topers and Mass of Gamesters, the Gospel according to Marks, and the description of a fat monk's daily life deserve quotation.[34] They are for the most part, however, too profane to bear translation.
FOOTNOTES:
[34] Wright's Rel. Ant., ii.; Carm. Bur., pp. 248 and 22; Wright's Mapes, p. xl.