larity; his verfification is that of Pierce Plowman's Vifions, in which a recurrence of fimilar letters is effential: to this be has only Supperadded rhyme, which in his time began to be the general practice. See farther remarks on this kind of metre in the preface to Book III. BALLAD I.

IN december, when the dayes draw to be fhort,

After november, when the nights wax noysome and long;

As I paft by a place privily at a port,

I faw one fit by himself making a fong:

His last * talk of trifles, who told with his tongue
That few were faft i'th' faith. I 'freyned **' that freake,
Wheter he wanted wit, or some had done him wrong.

He faid, he was little John Nobody, that durft not fpeake."

John Nobody, quoth I, what news? thou foon note and tell.
What maner men thou meane, that are fo mad.
He faid, Thefe gay gallants, that will conftrue the gospel,
As Solomon the fage, with femblance full fad;

To difcuffe divinity they nought adread:

More meet it were for them to milk kye at a fleyke.
Thou lyeft, quoth I, thou lofel, like a leud lad.

He faid, he was little John Nobody, that durft not fpeake.

Its meet for every man on this matter to talk,
And the glorious gospel ghoftly to have in mind;
It is fothe faid, that fect but much unfeemly fkalk,
As boyes babble in books, that in scripture are blind:

G 5

Yet

*Perhaps He left talk.

** feyned MS. and P. C.

Yet to their fancy foon a caufe wil find;
As to live in luft, in lechery to leyke :

Such caitives count to be come of Cains kind;

1

But that I little John Nobody durft not speake.

For our reverend father hath fet forth an order,
Our fervice to be faid in our feignours tongue;
As Solomon the sage set forth the fcripture;
Our fuffrages, and fervice, with many a sweet song,
With homilies, and godly books us among,
That no stiff, ftubborn ftomacks we fhould freyke:
But wretches nere worfe to do poor men wrong;
But that I little John Nobody dare not speake.

For bribery was never fo great, fince born was our

Lord,

Andwhoredom was never les hated, fith Christ harro

wedhel,

And poor men are fo fore punished commonly through the world,

That it would grieve any one, that good is, to hear tel: For al the homilies and good books, yet their hearts be

fo quel,

That if a man do amiffe, with mischiefe they wil him

wreake;

The fashion of thefe new fellows it is fo vile and fell: But that I little John Nobody dare not speake.

Thus to live after their luft, that life would they have,

And in lechery to leyke al their long life;

For al the preaching of Paul, yet many a proud knave Wil move mischiefe in their mind both to maid and wife

1

To bring them in advoutry, or elfe they wil ftrife,
And in brawling about baudery, Gods commandments

breake:

But of these frantic il fellowes, few of them do thrife; Though I little John Nobody dare not speake.

If thou company with them, they wil currifhly carp, and not care

According to their foolish fantacy; but faft wil they

naught:

Prayer with them is but prating; therefore they it forbear: Both almes deeds, and holiness, they hate it in their

thought:

Therefore pray we to that prince, that with his bloud us

bought,

t

That he wil mend that is amifs: for many a manful freyke Is forry for these fects, though they fay little or nought; And that I little John Nobody dare not once speake.

Thus in NO place, this NOBODY, in No time I met,! Where NO man, * NOUCHT was nor NOTHING

ne

did appear;

2

Through the found of a fynagogue for forrow I fwett,
That 'Aeolus **' through the eccho did caufe me to hear,
Then I drew me down into a dale, wheras the dumb deer
Did shiver for a fhower; but I fhunted from a freyke:
For I would no wight in this world wift who I were,
But little John Nobody, that dare not once fpeake.

* then, MSS. and P. C. ** Hercules, MSS. and P. C.

WRIT WITH CHARCOAL ON A SHUTTER,

are preferved by Hentzner, in that part of his Travels, which has lately been reprinted in fo elegant a manner at STRAWBERRY - HILL. In Hentzer's book they were wretchedly corrupted, but are here given as emended by his ingenious Editor. The old orthography, and one or two ancient readings of Hentzner's copy are here restored.

H, Fortune! how thy reftleffe wavering state

OH

Hath fraught with cares my troubled witt!

Witnes this prefent prisonn, whither fate

Could beare me, and the joys I quitt.
Thou caufedeft the guiltie to be lofed
From bandes, wherein are innocents inc'ofed :
Caufing the guiltles to be ftraite reserved,
And freeing those that death had well deferved.
But by her envie can be nothing wroughte,
So God fend to my foes all they have thoughte.

A. D. M, D, LV.

ELIZABETHE, PRISONNER.

* Ver. 4. Could beare, is an ancient idiom, equivalent to Did bear or Hath borne. See below the Beggar of Bednal Green, ver. 57. Could say.

V.

FAIR ROSAMON D.

Most of the circumstances in this popular story of king Henry II and the beautiful Rosamond have been taken for fact by our English Hiftorians; who unable to account for the unnatural conduct of queen Eleanor in stimulating her fons tò rebellion, have attributed it to jealousy, and supposed that Henry's amour with Rosamond was the object of that paffion.

1

Our old English annalists seem, most of them, to have followed Higden the monk of Chester, whose account with Some enlargements is thus given by Stow. "Rofamond the

fayre daughter of Walter, lord Clifford, concubine to Henry II. (poisoned by queen Elianor as fome thought) dyed at Woodstocke [A. D. 1177.] where king Henry had made for her a house of wonderfull working; so that no man or woman might come to her, but he that was instructed "by the king, or such as were right secret with him tou"ching the matter. This house after some was named La“byrinthus, or Dedalus worke, which was wrought like unto

66

+

a knot in a garden, called a Maze *; but it was commonly faid, that lastly the queene came to her by a clue of "thridde, or filke, and so dealt with her, that She lived "not long after: but when Shee was dead she was buried “ at Godstow in an house of nunnes, beside Oxford, with thefe verses upon her tombe,

"Hie jacet in tumba, Rofa mundi, non Rofa munda: "Non redolet, fed olet, quæ redolere folet.

"In

*Confifting of vaults under ground, arched and walled with brick and stone, according to Drayton.

See note

on bis Epift. of Rofam.