II.

JOHN ANDERSON MY JO.

A SCOTTISH SONG.

ZHILE in England verse was made the vehicle of controversy, and popery was attacked in it by logical argument, or stinging satire; we may be sure the zeal of the Scottish Reformers would not suffer their pens to be idle, but many a pasquil was discharged at the Romish priests, and their enormous encroachments on property. Of this kind perhaps is the following, (preserved in Maitland's MS. Collection of Scottish poems in the Pepysian library :)

"Tak a Wobster, that is leill,
And a Miller, that will not steill,
With ane Priest, that is not gredy,
And lay ane deid corpse thame by,
And, throw virtue of thame three,

That deid corpse sall qwyknit be."

Thus far all was fair: but the furious hatred of popery led them to employ their rhymes in a still more licentious manner. It is a received tradition in Scotland, that at the time of the Reformation, ridiculous and obscene songs were composed to be sung by the rabble to the tunes of the most favourite hymns in the Latin service. Green sleeves and pudding pies (designed to ridicule the popish clergy) is said to have been one of these metamorphosed hymns: Maggy Lauder was another: John Anderson my jo was a third. The original music of all these burlesque sonnets was very fine. To give a specimen of their manner, we have inserted one of the least offensive. The reader will pardon the meanness of the composition for the sake of the anecdote, which strongly marks the spirit of the times.

In the present Edition this song is much improved by some new readings communicated by a friend; who thinks by the "Seven Bairns," in st. 2d. are meant the Seven Sacraments; five of which were the spurious offspring of Mother Church: as the first stanza contains a satirical allusion to the luxury of the popish clergy.

The adaptation of solemn church music to these ludicrous pieces,

and the jumble of ideas thereby occasioned, will account for the following fact. From the Records of the General Assembly in Scotland, called, The Book of the Universal Kirk, p. 90, 7th July, 1568, it appears, that Thomas Bassendyne printer in Edinburgh, printed "a psalme buik, in the end whereof was found printit ane baudy sang, called, Welcome Fortunes."

[In the first edition of the Reliques the number of the bairns is fixed at five instead of seven, and the rhyme to five is thrive instead of threven. The last line is

"For four of them were gotten, quhan Willie was awa."

The present copy has thus been altered to support the untenable position that the seven bairns were meant to represent the seven

sacraments.

According to tradition John Anderson was formerly the town crier of Kelso, and the song is not of any great antiquity, for it is first found in the Skene MS., the date of which Dauney (Ancient Scottish Melodies, p. 219) fixes at the beginning of the seventeenth century, but which includes, according to Mr. Chappell, an English country dance that first appeared in 1698 (Popular Music of the Olden Time, vol. ii. p. 770).

Burns wrote his song

"John Anderson my jo John

When we were first acquent,"

to the old tune, for Johnson's Musical Museum.]

WOMAN.

OHN Anderson my jo, cum in as ye gae

And

ye

bye,

sall get a sheips heid weel baken in a pye;

Weel baken in a pye, and the haggis in a pat:
John Anderson my jo, cum in, and ye's get that.

* See also Biograph. Britan. 1st edit. vol. i. p. 177.

ΜΑΝ.

And how doe ye, Cummer?1 and how hae ye threven? And how mony bairns hae ye? WOм. Cummer, I hae

seven.

MAN. Are they to your awin gude man? Woм. Na, Cummer, na;

For five of tham were gotten, quhan he was awa.'

III.

LITTLE JOHN NOBODY.

E have here a witty libel on the Reformation under king Edward VI. written about the year 1550, and preserved in the Pepys collection, British Museum, and Strype's Mem. of Cranmer. The author artfully declines entering into the merits of the cause, and wholly reflects on the lives and actions of many of the Reformed. It is so easy to find flaws and imperfections in the conduct of men, even the best of them, and still easier to make general exclamations about the profligacy of the present times, that no great point is gained by arguments of that sort, unless the author could have proved that the principles of the Reformed Religion had a natural tendency to produce a corruption of manners: whereas he indirectly owns, that their reverend father [archbishop Cranmer] had used the most proper means to stem the torrent, by giving the people access to the Scriptures, by teaching them to pray with understanding, and by publishing homilies, and other religious tracts. It must however be acknowledged, that our libeller had at that time sufficient room for just satire. For under the banners of the Reformed had enlisted themselves, many concealed papists, who had private ends to gratify; many that were of no religion; many greedy courtiers, who thirsted after the possessions of the church; and many dissolute persons, who wanted to be exempt from all ecclesiastical censures. And as these men were loudest of all others in their cries for Reformation, so in effect, none obstructed the regular progress of it so much, or by their vicious lives brought

['gossip.]

vexation and shame more on the truly venerable and pious Reformers.

The reader will remark the fondness of our satirist for alliteration in this he was guilty of no affectation or singularity; his versification is that of Pierce Plowman's Visions, in which a recurrence of similar letters is essential: to this he has only superadded rhyme, which in his time began to be the general practice. See an Essay on this very peculiar kind of metre, in the appendix to this Volume.

N december, when the dayes draw to be

short,

After november, when the nights wax noy-
some and long;

As I past by a place privily at a port,
I saw one sit by himself making a song:
His last talk of trifles, who told with his tongue
That few were fast i'th' faith. I 'freyned't that freake,'
Whether he wanted wit, or some had done him wrong.
He said, he was little John Nobody, that durst not

speake.

John Nobody, quoth I, what news? thou soon note and tell

What maner men thou meane, thou are so mad. He said, These gay gallants, that wil construe the

gospel,

As Solomon the sage, with semblance full sad;

To discusse divinity they nought adread;

More meet it were for them to milk kye at a fleyke.*

Thou lyest, quoth I, thou losel,3 like a leud lad. He said, he was little John Nobody, that durst not speake.

* Perhaps "he left talk."

+ feyned, MSS. and PC.

[1 asked that man.

2

cows at a hurdle. 3 worthless fellow.]

Its meet for every man on this matter to talk,
And the glorious gospel ghostly to have in mind;
It is sothe said, that sect but much unseemly skalk,
As boyes babble in books, that in scripture are
blind:

Yet to their fancy soon a cause will find;
As to live in lust, in lechery to leyke:1
Such caitives count to be come of Cains kind;
But that I little John Nobody durst not speake.

For our reverend father hath set forth an order,
Our service to be said in our seignours tongue;
As Solomon the sage set forth the scripture ;
Our suffrages, and services, with many a sweet song,
With homilies, and godly books us among,
That no stiff, stubborn stomacks we should freyke :2
But wretches nere worse to do poor men wrong;

But that I little John Nobody dare not speake.

For bribery was never so great, since born was our Lord,

And whoredom was never les hated, sith Christ harrowed" hel,

And poor men are so sore 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 so quel,*

That if a man do amisse, with mischiefe they wil him. wreake; 5

Ver. 3. Cain's kind.] So in Pierce the Plowman's Creed, the proud friars are said to be

"Of Caymes kind."-Vid. Sig. C ii. b.

2 humour.

['play.
5 pursue revengefully.]

3 harassed.

4 cruel.