XVI. The King of Scots and Andrew Browne. .........................................................
This ballad is a proof of the little intercourse that subsisted between the Scots
and English, before the accession of James I. to the crown of England. The tale which
is here so circumstantially related does not appear to have had the least foundation in
history, but was probably built upon some confused hearsay report of the tumults of
Scotland during the minority of that prince, and of the conspiracies formed by
different factions to get possession of his person. It should seem, from ver. 97, to have
been written during the regency, or at least before the death, of the Earl of Morton,
who was condemned and executed June 2, 1581; when James was in his fifteenth
year.
The original copy (preserved in the archives of the Antiquarian Society,
London) is intitled, "A new Ballad, declaring the great treason conspired against the
young King of Scots, and how one Andrew Browne, an Englishman, which was the
king's chamberlaine, prevented the same. To the tune ofMilfield, or els toGreen
Sleeves." At the end is subjoined the name of the author, W. Elderton. "Imprinted at
London for Yarathe James, dwelling in Newgate Market, over against Ch. Church," in
black-letter, folio.
This Elderton, who had been originally an attorney in the sheriff's courts of
London, and afterwards (if we may believe Oldys) a comedian, was a facetious
fuddling companion, whose tippling and rhymes rendered him famous among his
contemporaries. He was author of many popular songs and ballads; and probably
other pieces in these volumes, besides the following, are of his composing. He is
believed to have fallen a victim to his bottle before the year 1592. His epitaph has
been recorded by Camden, and translated by Oldys:--
HIC SITUS EST SITIENS, ATQUE EBRIUS ELDERTONUS,
QUID DICO HIC SITUS EST? HIC POTIUS SITIS EST.
Dead drunk here Elderton doth lie;
Dead as he is, he still is dry;
So of him it may well be said,
Here he, but not his thirst, is laid.See Stow's Lond. [Guild-hall.]-- Biogr. Brit. [Drayton, by Oldys, Note B.-- Camden's
Remains.-- The Exale-tation of Ale, among Beaumont's Poems, 8vo. 1653.
OUT, alas! what a griefe is this
That princes subjects cannot be true,
But still the devill hath some of his,
Will play their parts whatsoever ensue;
Forgetting what a grievous thing
It is to offend the anointed king!
Alas for woe, why should it be so,
This makes a sorrowful heigh-ho.
In Scotland is a bonnie kinge,
As proper a youth as neede to be,
Well given to every happy thing
That can be in a kinge to see:
Yet that unluckie country still
Hath people given to craftie will.
Alas for woe, &c.