RELIQUES OF ANCIENT POETRY, &c. SERIES THE SECOND. BOOK II. I. A Ballad of Luther, the Pope, a Cardinal, and a Husbandman. In the former book we brought down this second series of poems as low as about the middle of the sixteenth century. We now find the Muses deeply engaged in religious controversy. The sudden revolution wrought in the opinions of mankind by the Reformation, is one of the more striking events in the history of the human mind. It could not but engross the attention of every individual in that age, and therefore no other writings would have any chance to be read, but such as related to this grand topic. The alterations made in the established religion by Henry VIII., the sudden changes it underwent in the three succeeding reigns within so short a space as eleven or twelve years, and the violent struggles between expiring Popery and growing Protestantism, could not but inte rest all mankind. Accordingly every pen was engaged in the dispute. The followers of the Old and New Profession (as they were called) had their respective balladmakers; and every day produced some popular sonnet for or against the Reformation. The following ballad, and that entitled Little John Nobody, may serve for specimens of the writings of each party. Both were written in the time of Edward VI.; and are not the worst that were composed upon the occasion. Controversial divinity is no friend to poetic flights. Yet this ballad of "Luther and the Pope," is not altogether devoid of spirit; it is of the dramatic kind, and the characters are tolerably well sustained especially that of Luther, which is made to speak in a manner not unbecoming the spirit and courage of that vigorous Reformer. It is printed from the original black-letter copy, (in the Pepys collection, vol. i. folio,) to which is prefixed a large wooden cut, designed and executed by some eminent master. We are not to wonder that the ballad-writers of that age should be inspired with the zeal of controversy, when the very stage teemed with polemic divinity. I have now before me two very ancient quarto black-letter Plays :the one published in the time of Henry VIII., entitled Every Man; the other called Lusty Juventus, printed in the reign of Edward VI. In the former of these, occasion is taken to inculcate great reverence for old mother church and her superstitions: in the other, the 1 Take a specimen from his high encomiums on the priesthood. "There is no emperour, kyng, duke, ne baron That of God hath commissyon, As hath the leest preest in the world beynge. * God hath to them more power gyven, Goddes body in flesshe and blode to take, poet, (one R. Wever,) with great success, attacks both. So that the stage in those days literally was, what wise men have always wished it,—a supplement to the pulpit. This was so much the case, that in the play of "Lusty Juventus," chapter and verse are every where quoted as formally as in a sermon: take an instance: "The Lord by his prophet Ezechiel sayeth in this wise playnlye, As in the xxxiij chapter it doth appere: Be converted, O ye children," &c. From this Play we learn that most of the young people were new Gospellers, or friends to the Reformation, and that the old were tenacious of the doctrines imbibed in their youth for thus the Devil is introduced lamenting the downfal of superstition : "The olde people would believe stil in my lawes, But the yonger sort leade them a contrary way, They wyl not beleve, they playnly say, In olde traditions, and made by men," &c. And in another place Hypocrisy urges, "The worlde was never meri Since chyldren were so boulde: Now evry boy will be a teacher, The father a foole, the chyld a preacher." Of the plays above mentioned, to the first is subjoined the following printer's colophon, ¶ Thus endeth this moral And handeleth his maker bytwene his handes. Thou ministers all the sacramentes seven. -God gave preest that dignitè, And letteth them in his stede amonge us be, Thus be they above aungels in degre." See Hawkins's Orig. of Eng. Drama, vol. i. p. 61. playe of Every Man. Emprynted at London in Powles chyrche yarde by me John Skot. In Mr. Garrick's collection is an imperfect copy of the same play, printed by Richarde Pynson. The other is entitled, An enterlude called Lusty Jubentus: and is thus distinguished at the end: Finis. quod R. Bever. Emprynted at London in Paules churche yeard by Abraham Dele at the signe of the Lambe. Of this too Mr. Garrick has an imperfect copy of a different edition. Of these two plays the reader may find some further particulars in the former volume, book ii. See "The Essay on the Origin of the English Stage;" and the curious reader will find the plays themselves printed at large in Hawkins's "Origin of the English Drama," 3 vols. Oxford, 1773, 12mo. THE HUSBANDMAN. LET us lift up our hartes all, And prayse the Lordes magnificence, From Christes bloude dyd all us leade3, As satisfactours for the deade. For what we with our FLAYLES coulde get To kepe our house, and servauntes; 2 i. e. denied us the cup, see below, ver. 94. 5 10 That did the Freers from us fet, And with our soules played the merchauntes : And thus they with theyr false warrantes Of our sweate have easelye lyved, That for fatnesse theyr belyes pantes, So greatlye have they us deceaued. They spared not the fatherlesse, The carefull, nor the pore wydowe; For the Lorde hath them overthrowe 15 20 DOCTOR MARTIN LUTHER. Thou antichrist, with thy thre crownes, 25 As having power over realmes and townes, As do the deceatful foulers, When they theyr nettes craftelye dresse. Thou flatterest every prince, and lord, Thretening poore men with swearde and fyre; 30 |