"Now help me up, thou fine fellòwe, 'Tis time that I were gone; When I come home to Gyllian my wife, 115 Sheel say I am a gentilmon." The king he tooke him up by the legge; The tanner a f** lett fall. Nowe marrye, good fellowe, sayd the kyng, Thy courtesye is but small. 120 When the tanner he was in the kinges sadèlle, He marvelled greatlye in his minde, But when his steede saw the cows toile wagge, And eke the blacke cowe-horne ; He stamped, and stared, and awaye he ranne, As the devill had him borne. The tanner he pulld, the tanner he sweat, And held by the pummil fast: At length the tanner came tumbling downe; His necke he had well-nye brast. 126 130 Take thy horse again with a vengeance, he sayd, With mee he shall not byde. "My horse wolde have borne thee well enoughe, But he knewe not of thy cowe-hide. 136 Yet if againe thou faine woldst change, As change full well may wee, By the faith of my bodye, thou jolly tannèr, I will have some boote of thee." What boote wilt thou have, the tanner replyd, "No pence nor half-pence, sir, by my faye, 140 "Here's twentye groates out of my purse; And twentye I have of thine: 145 And I have one more, which we will spend The king set a bugle horne to his mouthe, And blewe both loude and shrille : And soone came lords, and soone came knights, Fast ryding over the hille. Nowe, out alas! the tanner he cryde, That ever I sawe this daye! 150 Thou art a strong thiefe, yon come thy fellowes Will beare my cowe-hide away. They are no thieves, the king replyde, I sweare, soe mote I thee: But they are the lords of the north countrèy, Here come to hunt with mee. 156 160 And soone before our king they came, A coller, a coller, here: sayd the king, Then woulde he lever then twentye pound, He had not beene so nighe. A coller, a coller, the tanner he sayd, After a coller commeth a halter, I trowe I shall be hang'd to-morrowe. Be not afraid tanner, said our king; I tell thee, so mought I thee, Lo here I make thee the best esquire 165 170 175 6 This stanza is restored from a quotation of this ballad in Selden's Titles of Honour, who produces it as a good authority to prove, that one mode of creating Esquires at that time was by the imposition of a collar. His words are," Nor is that old pamphlet of the Tanner of Tamworth and King Edward the Fourth so contemptible, but that wee may thence note also an observable passage, wherein the use of making Esquires, by giving Collars, is expressed." (Sub. Tit. Esquire; and vide in Spelmanni Glossar. Armiger.) This form of creating Esquires actually exists at this day among the Sergeants at Arms, who are invested with a Collar (which they wear on Collar days) by the king himself. This information I owe to Samuel Pegge, Esq., to whom the public is indebted for that curious work the Curialia, 4to. For Plumpton-parke I will give thee, 'Tis worth three hundred markes by the yeare, To maintaine thy good cowe-hide. Gramercye, my liege, the tanner replyde, 180 XVI. As Ye came from the Holy Land. DIALOGUE BETWEEN A PILGRIM AND A TRAVELLER. THE scene of this song is the same as in No. xiv. The pilgrimage to Walsingham suggested the plan of many. popular pieces. In the Pepys collection, vol. i. p. 226, is a kind of Interlude in the old ballad style, of which the first stanza alone is worth reprinting. As I went to Walsingham, To the shrine with speede, Met I with a jolly palmer Now God you save, you jolly palmer; "Welcome, lady gay, Oft have I sued to thee for love " -Oft have I said you nay. The pilgrimages undertaken on pretence of religion VOL. II. H were often productive of affairs of gallantry, and led the votaries to no other shrine than that of Venus1. The following ballad was once very popular; it is quoted in Fletcher's Knight of the burning Pestle, act ii. sc. ult., and in another old play, called Hans Beer-pot, his invisible Comedy, &c. 4to, 1618, act i. The copy below was communicated to the Editor by the late Mr. Shenstone, as corrected by him from an ancient copy, and supplied with a concluding stanza. We have placed this, and Gentle Herdsman, &c., thus early in the volume, upon a presumption that they must have been written, if not before the dissolution of the monasteries, yet while the remembrance of them was fresh in the minds of the people. Hermets on a heape, with hoked staves, As ye came from the holy land Of blessed Walsingham, O met you not with my true love As by the way ye came? "How should I know your true love, That have met many a one, 5 1 Even in the time of Langland, pilgrimages to Walsingham were not unfavourable to the rites of Venus. Thus, in his Visions of Pierce Plowman, fo. 1. 2 i, e. their. |