There might you se his band all drest In colours like to white and blacke, With powder and with pelletes prest

To bring the fort to spoile and sacke.

Good-wyll, the maister of the shot,

Stode in the rampire brave and proude, For spence of pouder he spared not Assault! assault! to crye aloude.

There might you heare the cannons rore;
Eche pece discharged a lovers loke;
Which had the power to rent, and tore
In any place whereas they toke.

And even with the trumpettes sowne
The scaling ladders were up set,
And Beautie walked up and downe,
With bow in hand, and arrowes whet.

Then first Desire began to scale,

And shrouded him under 'his' targe; As one the worthiest of them all, And aptest for to geve the charge.

Then pushed souldiers with their pikes, And halberdes with handy strokes ; The argabushe in fleshe it lightes,

And duns the ayre with misty smokes.

And, as it is the souldiers use

When shot and powder gins to want, I hanged up my flagge of truce,

And pleaded up for my livès grant.

When Fansy thus had made her breche,
And Beauty entred with her band,
With bagge and baggage, sely wretch,
I yelded into Beauties hand.

Then Beautie bad to blow retrete,
And every souldier to retire,
And mercy wyll'd with spede to fet
Me captive bound as prisoner.

Madame, quoth I, sith that this day Hath served you at all assayes,

I yeld to you without delay

Here of the fortresse all the kayes.

And sith that I have ben the marke,
At whom you shot at with your eye;
Nedes must you with your handy warke
Or salve my sore, or let me die.

15

20

25

SO

35

40

45

50

55

101

Since the foregoing song was first printed off, reasons have occurred, which incline me to believe that Lord Vaux the poet was not the Lord Nicholas Vaux, who died in 1523, but rather a successor of his in the title.-For in the first place it is remarkable that all the old writers mention Lord Vaux, the poet, as contemporary or rather posterior to Sir Thomas Wyat, and the Earl of Surrey, neither of which made any figure till long after the death of the first Lord Nicholas Vaux. Thus Puttenham, in his "Art of English Poesie, 1589," in p, 48, having named Skelton, adds, "In the latter end of the same kings raigne [Henry VIII.] sprong up a new company of courtly makers [poets], of whom Sir Thomas Wyat th' elder, and Henry Earl of Surrey, were the two chieftaines, who having travailed into Italie, and there tasted the sweet and stately measures and stile of the Italian poesie..greatly polished our rude and homely manner of vulgar poesie..In the same time, or not long after, was the Lord Nicholas Vaux, a man of much facilitie in vulgar making." -Webbe, in his Discourse of English Poetrie, 1586, ranges them in the following order, "The Earl of Surrey, the Lord Vaux, Norton, Bristow." And Gascoigne, in the place quoted in the 1st vol. of this work [B. II. No. II.] mentions Lord Vaux after Surrey.-Again, the stile and measure of Lord Vaux's pieces seem too refined and polished for the age of Henry VII. and rather resemble the smoothness and harmony of Surrey and Wyat, than the rude metre of Skelton and Hawes.-But what puts the matter out of all doubt, in the British Museum is a copy of his poem, I lothe that I did love, [vid. vol. I. ubi supra] with this title, "A dyttye or sonet made by the Lord Vaus, in the time of the noble Quene Marye, representing the image of Death." Harl. MSS. No. 1703, § 25.

:

It is evident then that Lord Vaux the poet was not he that flourished in the reign of Henry VII. but either his son, or grandson and yet according to Dugdale's Baronage, the former was named Thomas, and the latter William: but this difficulty is not great, for none of the old writers mention the Christian name of the poetic Lord Vauxt, except Puttenham; and it is more likely that he might be mistaken in that lord's name, than in the time in which he lived, who was so nearly his contemporary.

Thomas Lord Vaux, of Harrowden in Northamptonshire, was summoned to parliament in 1531 When he died does not appear; but he probably lived till the latter end of Queen Mary's reign, since his son

William was not summoned to parliament till the last year of that reign, in 1558. This Lord died in 1595. See Dugdale, vol. ii. p. 304.-Upon the whole I am inclined to believe that Lord Thomas was the poet.

This old fabulous legend is given from the editor's folio MS. with conjectural emendations, and the insertion of sone additional stanzas to supply and tomplete the stry.

It has been suggested to the editor, that the

→ 28 ber, Ed. 1557, so, Ed. 1585.

author of this poem seems to have had in his eye the story of Gunhilda, who is sometimes called Eleanor, and was married to the emperor (here called King) Henry.

i. e. Compositions in English.

+ In the Paradise of Dainty Devises, 1596, he is called mply "Lord Vaux the elder."

X.

Tradition informs us that the author of this song was King James V. of Scotland. This prince (whose character for wit and libertinism bears a great resemblance to that of his gay successor Charles II.) was noted for strolling about his dominions in disguise, and for his frequent gallantries with country girls. Two adventures of this kind he hath celebrated with his own pen, viz. in this ballad of "The Gaberlunzie Man;" and in another, entitled "The Jolly Beggar," beginning thus:

"Thair was a jollie beggar, and a begging he was boun,

And he tuik up his quarters into a land'art toun.
Fa, la, la, &c."

It seems to be the latter of these ballads (which was too licentious to be admitted into this collection) that is meant in the Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authorst, where the ingenious writer remarks, that there is something very ludicrous in the young woman's distress when she thought her first favour had been thrown away upon a beggar.

Bishop Tanner has attributed to James V. the celebrated ballad of "Christ's Kirk on the Green," which is ascribed to King James I. in Bannatyne's MS. written in 1568: and notwithstanding that authority, the editor of this book is of opinion that Bishop Tanner was right.

King James V. died Dec. 13th, 1542, aged 33.
THE pauky auld Carle came ovir the lee
Wi' mony good-eens and days to mee,
Saying, Goodwife, for zour courtesie,

Will ze lodge a silly poor man?
The night was cauld, the carle was wat,
And down azout the ingle he sat;
My dochters shoulders he gan to clap,
And cadgily ranted and sang.

O wow! quo he, were I as free,
As first when I saw this countrie,
How blyth and merry wad I bee!
And I wad nevir think lang.
He grew canty, and she grew fain;
But little did her auld minny ken
What thir slee twa togither were say'n,
When wooing they were sa thrang.

And O! quo he, ann ze were as black,
As evir the crown of your dadyes hat,
Tis I wad lay thee by my back,

5

10

The priving was gude, it pleas'd them baith,
To lo'e her for ay, he gae her his aith.
Quo she, to leave thee, I will be laith,
My winsome gaberlunzie-man.

15

And awa wi' me thou sould gang.

20

And O! quoth she, ann I were as white,

As evir the snaw lay on the dike,

Aftir the gaberlunzie-mon.

My dear, quo he, zee're zet owre zonge;
And bae na learnt the beggars tonge,
To follow me frae toun to toun,

And carrie the gaberlunzie on.

Wi' kauk and keel, Ill win zour bread,

And spindles and whorles for them wha need
Whilk is a gentil trade indeed

The gaberlunzie to carrie-o.
Ill bow my leg and crook my knee,
And draw a black clout owre my ee,
A criple or blind they will cau me:
While we sall sing and be merrie—o.

Ver. 29, The Carline. Other copies.

105

It is ever the fate of a disgraced minister to be forsaken by his friends, and insulted by his enemies, always reckoning among the latter the giddy inconstant multitude. We have here a spurn at fallen greatness from some angry partisan of declining Popery, who could never forgive the downfall of their Diana, and loss of their craft. The ballad seems to have been composed between the time of Cromwell's commitment to the Tower, June 11, 1540, and that of his being beheaded July 28, following. A short interval! but Henry's passion for Catharine Howard would admit of no delay. Notwithstanding our libeller, Cromwell had many excellent qualities: his great fault was too much obsequiousness to the arbitrary will of his master; but let it be considered that this master had raised him from obscurity, and that the high-born nobility had shewn him the way in every kind of mean and servile compliance. The original copy printed at London in 15 10, is intitled, " A newe ballade made of Thomas Crumwel, called Trolle on away." To it is prefixed this distich by way of burthen,

Trolle on away, trolle on awaye.

Synge heave and howe rombelowe trolle on away. BOTI man and chylde is glad to here tell Of that false traytoure Thomas Crumwell, Now that he is set to learne to spell.

Synge trolle on away.

Synge, &c.

25

30

31

Thou myghtest have learned thy cloth to flocke 40 Upon thy gresy fullers stocke;

Wherfore lay downe thy heade vpon this blocke.

Synge, &c.

Yet saue that soule, that God hath bought,
And for thy carcas care thou nought,
Let it suffre payne, as it hath wrought.

45

Synge, &c.

God saue kyng Henry with all his power,
And prynce Edwarde that goodly flowre,
With al hys lordes of great honoure.

Synge trolle on awaye, syng trolle on away.
Hevye and how rombelowe trolle on awaye.

tt The foregoing Piece gave rise to a poetic controversy, which was carried on through a succession of seven or eight Ballads written for and against Lord Cromwell. These are all preserved in the archives of the Antiquarian Society, in a large folio Collection of Proclamations, &c., make in the reigns of King Henry VIII., King Edward VI., Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, King James I, &c.

Ver. 32, i. e. Cain or Ishmael. V. 41. Cromwell's father is generally said to have been a blacksmith at Putney: but the author of this Ballad wonld insinuate that either he him self or some of his ancestors were Pullers by trade.