When deed of danger was to do. He grieved that day their games cut short, V SOLDIER'S SONG.' Our vicar still preaches that Peter and Poule Our vicar he calls it damnation to sip Our vicar thus preaches-and why should he not? VI. The warder's challenge, heard without, A soldier to the portal went,- Bacchanalian interjection, borrowed from the Dutch. ["The greatest blemish in the poem, is the ribaldry and dull vulgarity which is put into the mouths of the soldiery in the guard-room. Mr. Scott has condescended to write a song for them, which will be read with pain, we are persuaded, even by his warmest admirers; and his whole genius, and even his power of versification, seems to desert him when he attempts to repeat their conversation. Here is some of the stuff which has dropped, in this inauspicious attempt, from the pen of one of the first poets of his age or country," etc. etc.-JEFFREY.] A harper with him, and in plaid . All muffled close, a mountain maid, Who backward shrunk to 'scape the view "What news?" they roar'd:-"I only know, As wild and as untameable As the rude mountains where they dwell; "But whence thy captives, friend? such spoil VII.. 66 [The MS. reads after this : "Get thee an ape, and then at once Thou mayst renounce the warder's lance, And trudge through borough and through land, The leader of a juggler band."] The jongleurs, or jugglers, as we learn from the elaborate work of the late Mr. Strutt, on the sports and pastimes of the people of England, used to call in the aid of various assistants, to render these performances as captivating as possible. The glee-maiden was a necessary attendant. Her duty was tumbling and dancing; and therefore the Anglo-Saxon version of Saint Mark's Gospel states Herodias to have vaulted or tumbled before King Herod. In Scotland, these poor creatures seem, even at a late period, to have been bondswomen to their masters, as appears from a case reported by Fountainhall. "Reid the mountebank pursues Scot of Harden and his lady, for stealing away from him a little girl, called the tumbling-lassie, that danced upon his stage: and he claimed damages, and produced a contract, whereby he bought her from her mother for 301. Scots. But we have no slaves in Scotland, and mothers cannot sell their bairns; and physicians attested, the employment of tumbling would kill her; and her joints were now grown stiff, and she declined to return; though she was at least a 'prentice, and so could not run away from her master: yet some cited Moses's law, that if a servant shelter himself with thee, against his master's cruelty, thou shalt surely not deliver him up. The Lords, renitente cancellario, assoilzied Harden, on the 27th of January, (1687.) "—FOUNTAINHALL'S Decisions, vol. i. p. 439.* The facetious qualities of the ape soon rendered him an acceptable addition to the strolling band of the jongleur. Ben Jonson, in his splenetic introduction to the comedy of "Bartholomew Fair," is at pains to inform the audience "that he has ne'er a sword-and-buckler man in his Fair, nor a juggler, with a well-educated ape, to come over the chaine for the King of England, and back again for the prince, and sit still on his haunches for the Pope and the King of Spaine." Though less to my purpose, I cannot help noticing a circumstance respecting another of this Mr. Reid's attendants, which occurred during James II.'s zeal for Catholic proselytism, and is told by Fountainhall, with dry Scottish irony. "January 17th, 1687.-Reid the mountebank is received into the Popish church, and one of his blackamores was persuaded to accept of baptism from the Popish priests, and to turn Christian papist; which was a great trophy: he was called James, after the king and chancellor, and the Apostle James."-Ibid. p. 440. And, having audience of the Earl, I'll have my share howe'er it be, Even hardy Brent, abash'd and tamed, - He wiped his iron eye and brow,“Must bear such age, I think, as thou.— Their Captain came, a gallant young,- Does thy high quest a knight require, Or may the venture suit a squire ? Her dark eye flash'd;-she paused and sigh'd,"O what have I to do with pride! -Through scenes of sorrow, shame, and strife, I crave an audience of the King. X. The signet-ring young Lewis took, 1 [MS." The Monarch gave to James Fitz-James." ] In semblance mean obscurely veil'd, Soon as the day flings wide his gates, She bade her slender purse be shared The rest with thanks their guerdon took; Forced bluntly back the proffer'd gold;- The vacant purse shall be my share, ' Which in my barret-cap I'll, bear, Perchance, in jeopardy of war, Where gayer crests may keep afar." With thanks,-'twas all she could,-the maid His rugged courtesy repaid. XI. When Ellen forth with Lewis went, Allan made suit to John of Brent : 66 My lady safe, O let your grace Give me to see my master's face! |