He brandish'd like a beir;
Boasters, braggers, and barganeris,1
After him passed into pairis,2
All bodin in feir of weir.3
In jackis, scripis, and bonnets of steel,
Their legs were chenyiet to the heel,
Froward was their affeir,5
Some upon other with brands beft,6
Some jaggit 7 others to the heft 8
With knives that sharp could shear.
Next in the dance follow'd Envy,
Fill'd full of feud and felony,
Hid malice and despite,
For privy hatred that traitor trembled ;
Him follow'd many freik dissembled,
With feigned wordis white.
And flatterers into men's faces,
And backbiters in secret places
To lie that had delight,
And rowneris 10 of false lesings; 11
Alas, that courts of noble kings
Of them can never be quite !12
Next him in dance came Covetice,
Root of all evil and ground of vice,
That never could be content,
Caitiffs, wretches, and ockerars, 18
'Barganeris:' bullies.-2 'Into pairis:' in pairs.-3 'Bodin in feir of weir:' arrayed in trappings of war.- 'Chenyiet:' covered with chain-mail.—5 ‹ Affeir:' aspect-Beft:' struck.- 'Jaggit:' stabbed. 'Heft:' hilt.-'Freik:' fellows. Rowneris:' whisperers.-"'Lesings:' lies.-12 'Quite:' quit:-13 Ockerars:'
Hood-pikes,1 hoarders, and gatherers,
All with that warlock went.
Out of their throats they shot on other
Hot molten gold, methought, a fother,2
As fire-flaucht 3 most fervènt;
Aye as they tumit them of shot,
Fiends fill'd them new up to the throat
With gold of all kind prent.5
Syne Sweirness 7 at the second bidding
Came like a sow out of a midding,8
Full sleepy was his grunyie.9
Many sweir bumbard 10 belly-huddroun,"
Many slute daw 12 and sleepy duddroun,"
Him served aye with sounyie."
He drew them forth into a chenyie,15
And Belial with a bridle-rennyie,16
Ever lash'd them on the lunyie."7
In dance they were so slow of feet
They gave them in the fire a heat,
And made them quicker of counyie.18
Then Lechery, that loathly corse,
Came bearing like a bagged horse,"
And Idleness did him lead;
There was with him an ugly sort 20
And many stinking foul tramort,2
''Hood-pikes:' misers.- Fother:' quantity.—3 'Flaucht:' flake.-^ “ Tumit:* emptied. Prent:' stamp.- 'Syne:' then.- 'Sweirness:' laziness.—8 ‹ Midding: dunghill.-9 'Grunyie:' grunt.-10 'Bumbard:' indolent.- 'Belly huddroun: gluttonous sloven.-12 Slute daw:' slovenly drab.-13 Duddroun:' sloven.-14 Sounyie:' care.-15 Chenyie:' chain.-16 Rennyie:' rein.-17 Lunyie:' back. 18'Counyie:' apprehension.-19 'Bagged horse:' stallion.-20 'Sort:' number. Tramort:' corpse.
That had in sin been dead.
When they were enter'd in the dance,
They were full strange of countenance,
Like torches burning reid.
Then the foul monster Gluttony,
Of wame1 insatiable and greedy,
To dance he did him dress;
Him followed many a foul drunkàrt
With can and collep, cop and quart,2
In surfeit and excess.
Full many a waistless wally-drag 3
With wames unwieldable did forth drag,
In creish 4 that did incress;
Drink, aye they cried, with many a gape,
The fiends gave them hot lead to laip,5
Their leveray was no less.
No minstrels play'd to them but doubt,
For gleemen there were holden out,
By day and eke by night,
Except a minstrel that slew a man;
So till his heritage he wan,8
And enter'd by brief of right.
Then cried Mahoun for a Highland padyane,
Syne ran a fiend to fetch Mac Fadyane,10
''Wame:' belly. Can and collep, cop and quart:' different names of drinking-vessels.-3 Wally-drag:' sot.-Creish:' grease.- 'Laip:' lap.-Leveray :' desire to drink.—7But:' without.-8 Wan:' got.-'Padyane:' pageant.— 'Mac Fadyane:' name of some Highland laird.
Far northward in a nook,
By he the Correnoch had done shout,1
Ersch-men2 so gather'd him about
In hell great room they took :
These termagants, with tag and tatter,
Full loud in Ersch began to clatter,
And roup like raven and rook.
The devil so deaved was with their yell,
That in the deepest pot of hell
He smored 5 them with smoke.
THE MERLE AND NIGHTINGALE.
In May, as that Aurora did upspring,
With crystal een chasing the cluddës sable,
I heard a Merle' with merry notës sing
A song of love, with voice right comfortable,
Against the orient beamis, amiable,
Upon a blissful branch of laurel green;
This was her sentence, sweet and delectable,
'A lusty life in Love's service been.'
Under this branch ran down a river bright,
Of balmy liquor, crystalline of hue,
Against the heavenly azure skyis light,
Where did upon the other side pursue
A Nightingale, with sugar'd notës new,
Whose angel feathers as the peacock shone;
This was her song, and of a sentence truc,
'All love is lost but upon God alone.'
1 'By he the Correnoch had done shout:' by the time that he had raised the Correnoch, or cry of help.-2 Ersch-men:' Highlanders.—3 Roup:' croak.'Deaved:' deafened.- Smored:' smothered.- 'Een:' eyes.- 'Merle:' blackbird.
With notës glad, and glorious harmony,
This joyful merle, so salust1 she the day,
While rung the woodis of her melody,
Saying, 'Awake, ye lovers of this May;
Lo, fresh Flora has flourish'd every spray,
As nature has her taught, the noble queen,
The fields be clothed in a new array;
A lusty life in Love's service been.'
Ne'er sweeter noise was heard with living man,
Than made this merry gentle nightingale;
Her sound went with the river as it ran,
Out through the fresh and flourish'd lusty vale;
'O Merle!' quoth she, 'O fool! stint of thy tale,
For in thy song good sentence is there none,
For both is tint,2 the time and the travail,
Of every love but upon God alone.'
'Cease,' quoth the Merle, 'thy preaching, Nightingale: Shall folk their youth spend into holiness?
grow old fiendis, but fable;
Of young saintis, grow
Fy, hypocrite, in yearis' tenderness,
Against the law of kind thou goes express,
That crooked age makes one with youth serene,
Whom nature of conditions made diverse:
A lusty life in Love's service been.'
The Nightingale said, 'Fool, remember thee,
That both in youth and eild," and every hour,
The love of God most dear to man should be;
That him, of nought, wrought like his own figour,
And died himself, from death him to succour;
1 'Salust:' saluted.- Tint:' lost.- But:' without.- 'Kind:' nature.Eild: age.
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