a castle, or chamber, in which a woman dwelt with her mother." James is thus proved, from the records of his own country, to have been a writer of songs in his own language to have been fond of singing-and to have been a most accomplished instrumental musician. It may not be amiss, in the eyes of some, to add the testimony of a historian, who, being a foreigner, must, of course, be held as beyond the suspicion of prejudice. This foreigner is Alessandro Tassoni, an Italian, the author of a work published more than two hundred years ago, under the title of Pensieri Diversi. In the twenty-third chapter of his tenth book, Tassoni thus distinguishes James I. of Scotland: "Noi ancora possiamo connumerar tra nostri, Jacopo Re di Scozia, che non pur cose sacre compose in Canto, ma trova da se stesso una nuova musica, lamentevole e mesta, differente da tutte l'altre. Nel che poi è stato imitato da Carlo Gesualdo Principe di Venosa, che in questa nostra età ha illustrato anch' egli la musica con nuove mirabili invenzioni."- "We may reckon among us moderns, James, King of Scotland, who not only composed many pieces of sacred music, but also of himself invented a new kind of music, plaintive and melancholy, different from all others; in which he has been imitated by Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, who, in our age, has improved music with many new and admirable inventions." This passage goes far to prove, moreover, that although every memorial of James's musical talents is now lost in his own country, he was, for nearly two centuries after his death, in enjoyment of a European reputation on that account. James has been the means of supplying us with one farther historically certain fact regarding Scottish song. It may be recollected by many of my readers, that, after the first five stanzas of Peeblis to the Play, (which five stanzas are occupied by a description of the gathering, or confluence, of the people towards the place of sport,) the poet proceeds Ane young man stert into that steid, As cant as ony colt, Ane birken hat upon his heid, Of Peblis to the Play. Another allusion occurs in the twenty-fifth stanza : He fippilit like ane fatherless foal, I may nocht rest for greiting. To mak her blythe that meiting: Of Peblis to the Play. It is thus established, that songs were common matters among the peasantry in the earlier half of the fifteenth century; and also that there were, in particular, two songs, now lost, one beginning, "There fure ane man to the holt," and another, "There shall be mirth at our meeting yet." But by far the most valuable illustration of the state of song about the era of King James, [1424-37,] is to be found in a ludicrous vernacular poem, called Cockelby's Sow, which is known, from internal and external evidence, to have been written before the middle of the fifteenth century, although the earliest copy of it is in the Bannatyne Manuscript, dated only 1568. Cockelby's Sow, in language, and style of description, makes a much nearer approach to the modern productions of the Scottish muse, than any other work produced before the days of Semple and Ramsay. On this account, and as it describes a scene of coarse rustic festivity, there is the strongest probability that the names of tunes contained in the following extract, refer expressly to those ballads and songs which were popular at the time when the poem was composed. * Went. + Wood. And his cousin Copyn Cull Sum trottit Tras and Trenass, Sum Perdolly, sum Trolly lolly, Sum Lincolne, sum Lindsay, Sum Be yon rodsyd singis, Sum Lait lait in evinnynis, Sum Joly Martene with a mok, Sum Lulalow lute cok. Sum bakkit, sum beingit, Sum crakkit, sum cringit; Sum movit Most mak revell, Sum Ourfute, sum Orliance, Sum counterfeitit the gyis of Spane, Bot quhen thay had all done, "Of the airs mentioned in this poem," says Mr Leyden, in his Notes to " The Complaynt of Scotland," "I suspect Twysbank to be the appropriate tune of a song preserved in the Bannatyne MS., which com mences When Tayis bank wes blomit brycht. Owirfute and Orliance are mentioned, in a curious poem on the Laying of a Ghaist,' in the Bannatyne MS., which begins Listis, lordis, I sall you tell. Lutecok is mentioned in Mr Constable's Cantus of the end of the 17th century, as likewise My deir derling, which is there termed My dayes darling." I may further venture to express a conjecture, that Trolly lolly is the same song with Trollee lollee lemman-dow, which is mentioned in the Complaynt of Scotland, 1549, and also with that which Mr Ritson has printed in his "Ancient Songs," under the title of Trolley lollee. Cok craw thou all day, may be the same with the well-known song called "Saw ye my Father?" in which a lover, entering his mistress's bower, gives direction to the cock, as follows: Flee up, flee up, my bonnie gray cock, And craw when it is day; And your neck sall be like the bonnie beaten gowd, Upwards of half a century elapses after the period of Cockelby's Sow, before any other traces of the existence of song are to be found in authentic memoirs. The prologues to Gawin Douglas's translation of Virgil, written at latest in 1513, contain the names or first lines of a few, as follow: On salt stremis walk Dorida and Thetis, Some sang ring sangs,* dances, ledes, and rounds,+ For amorous lays does all the rockis ring: Ane sang, "The ship sails ower the aut faem, In the same prologue-the twelfth-another oc curs: Our awin native bird, gentil dow, Singand on her kynd, "I come hither to wow." Could this be a primitive version of the well-known song, "Rob's Jock cam to woo our Jenny," which was written down in the Bannatyne manuscript anno 1568, or of, "I hae laid a herring in saut ?" Allusion is made, in the thirteenth prologue, to a song which is fortunately preserved : Thereto thir birdis singis in their schawis, As menstralis playis, "The joly day now dawis." The song here mentioned must unquestionably be the same with one which is found in a collection of musical pieces written about the year 1500, out of compliment to Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., and consort of Henry VII., and which is preserved in the Fairfax MS. This day day dawes, In a glorious garden grene, She gathered a flowir and set betwene. The lilye-white rose methought I saw, * Probably songs with which the ring dance was accompanied. + Rounds is one of the denominations of song enumerated by Fabyan, in regard to a transaction already mentioned. Elizabeth was herself called the White Rose, because she represented the House of York, whose cognizance it was, and might be said metaphorically to have added that flower to the Red Rose of the House of Lancaster, borne by her husband. |