The author pretends to overhear three gossips sitting in an arbour, and
revealing all their secret methods of alluring and governing the other sex. It is a severe
and humorous satire on bad women, and nothing inferior to Chaucer's Prologue to his
Wife of Bath'sTale. As Dunbar lived till about the middle of the sixteenth century,
this poem was probably composed afterScottish Field(described above), which is the
latest specimen I have met with written in England. This poem contains about 500
lines.
But the current use of the alliterative metre in Scotland, appears more
particularly from those popular vulgar prophecies, which are still printed for the use
of the lower people in Scotland, under the names of Thomas the Rymer, Marvellous
Merling, &c. This collection seems to have been put together after the accession of
James I. to the crown of England, and most of the pieces in it are in the metre of
Pierce Plowman's Visions. The first of them begins thus:
"Merling sayes in his book, who willReadRight,
Although hisSayings be uncouth, theyShall be true found,
In the seventh chapter, readWhosoWill,
One thousand and more after Christ's birth," &c.And theProphesie of Beid:
"Betwixt the chief ofSummer and theSad winter;
Before theHeat of summerHappen shall a war
ThatEurop's landsEarnestly shall be wrought
AndEarnestEnvy shall last but a while," &c.So again theProphesie of Berlington:
"When theRuby isRaised,Rest is there none,
But muchRancour shallRise inRiver and plain,
MuchSorrow isSeen through aSuth-hound
That bearesHornes in hisHead like a wyldHart," &c.In like metre is theProphesie of Waldhave:
"UponLowdonLaw alone as ILay,
Looking to theLennox, as meLief thought,
The firstMorning ofMayMedicine to seek
ForMalice andMelody thatMoved me sore," &c.And lastly, that intitled, theProphesie of Gildas:
"When holy kirk isWracked andWill has noWit
AndPastors arePluckt, andPil'd withoutPity
WhenIdolatryIsIn ENS and RE
And spiritual pastours are vexed away," &c.
It will be observed in the foregoing specimens, that the alliteration is
extremely neglected, except in the third and fourth instances; although all the rest are
written in imitation of the cadence used in this kind of metre. It may perhaps appear
from an attentive perusal, that the poems ascribed to Berlington and Waldhave are
more ancient than the others: indeed the first and fifth appear evidently to have been
new-modelled, if not entirely composed about the beginning of the last century, and
are probably the latest attempts ever made in this species of verse.
In this and the foregoing Essay are mentioned all the specimens I have met
with of the alliterative metre without rhyme: but instances occur sometimes in old
manuscripts, of poems written both with final rhymes and the internal cadence and
alliterations of the metre of Pierce Plowman.