Alas Englonde, that somtyme was so wyse ! Other nacyons refuse, hast bought so dere, That thou may wayle that ever it came here.

1

Som tyme we had Fraunce in grete derysyon,

For theyr hatefull pryde and lothesome unclennes;
Use we not nowe the same in our regyon,

And have permuted our welthe for theyr gladnes?
Lechery of our people is become a maystres,
Our gentylnes, for galantyse have we lefte there,
Englonde may wayle that ever it came heere.

Yf ye beholde the galantes progenye vyperius,

That out of Fraunce be fledde for theyr intoxicacyon, Hathe nowe vengeau ce consumed that realme gloryus, For theyr pryde and synfull abhomynacyon, That all the worlde may wayle theyr desolacyon. O Fraunce why ne had these galauntes byden there, Englonde may wayle that ever it came here.

For in this name galaunt ye may expresse

Seven lettres for some cause in especyall."

The remainder of this, sixteen others, and beginning of the next stanza, wanting.

"Good makynge of man is nowe layde on syde, This newe araye is brought up in this londe so wyde, And yet for all that it may not last a yere, Englonde may wayle that ever it came here.

Beholde the rolled hodes stuffed with flockes,

The newe broched doublettes open at the brestes, Stuffed with pectoll of theyr loves smockes, Theyr gownes and theyr cotes shredde all in lystes, many capes as now be, and so few good prestes.

So

I can not reken halfe the route of theyr marde gere:
Englond may wayle that ever it came here.

These galauntes use also full abhomynable,
Theyr typpettes be wrythen lyke to a chayne,
And they go haltred in them as hors in the stable,
It is a peryllous pronostycacyon certayne ;
For synful soules shall be bounde in payne,
Hande and fote in perpetuall fyre:

They shall curse the tyme that ever it came here.

All these newe bulwarkes they weare at theyr knees,
They laboure sore in theyr wyttes fantasyes to finde,
No man holdeth hym contente with his degrees,

Pryde gothe before and shame cometh behynde;
Alas that Englyshe men sholde be so blynde,
So moche sorowe amonge us and so lytell fere,
We may wayle the tyme that ever it came here.

Forgete not lyghtly how many straungers,

Have entred this kyngdome and kepte the possessyon, Fyve tymes as wryteth olde cronyclers,

And chaunged our tonges in sondry dyvysyon;

O clergy praye for our Englysshe nacyon,

That God for his mercy of this synne make us clere,
Elles shall we wayle that ever it came here.

Effectually pray God for his reformacyon,

Of welthe, manhode, and of marchaundyse,
And tresory of peas, that Cryste in his passyon

Lefte bytwene God and man whan he sholde dye;
The comynalte in love, conserue perseverauntlye,
With charyte bothe hyghe and lowe to joyne in fere,
In voydynge of synne that tourmenteth us here.
O Englonde, remembre thyn olde sadnes,
That thou may resorte agayne to thy gladnes;

Exyle pryde, relyeve to thy goodnes,

Synne hath consumed this worldes humanyte;

Praye God thou may rejoyse thyn olde felycyte; And his blessyd moder, as this londe is her dowere, We have no cause to wayle that ever it came here."

FINIS.

Here endeth his treatyse made of a galaunt. "Enprynted at London, in the Flete strete, at the sygne of the Sonne, by Wynkyn de Worde."

This fragment of a poem, printed in black letter, was found pasted within the fly leaf, on the oak board binding, of an imperfect volume of Pynson's Statutes, and purchased from the Nash-Court collection. The first side having the printer's letter, A j, connected with the end, seems conclusive that it did not form a portion of any particular work, or extend beyond a sheet ballad, or poem, folding in quarto, of which the above is the contents of the first and last leaf; the stanzas wanting, calculated for a deficiency of four pages. The title, as customary at that period, is on a ribband. No mention of such a tract occurs in Herbert.

Conduit Street.

ART. XVII. A pore helpe.

The bukler and defence

Of mother holy Kyrke,
And weapen to drive hence
Al that against her wircke.

J. H.

[Surrounded by a rude wood cut representing the fall of Adam, &c.] b. l. one sheet, small 8vo. without name of place or printer.

HERBERT registered this little tract in his general history of printing, from Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, but seems to have confounded the opening of the book with its title, which runs as above, in the only ancient copy now supposed to exist. Mr. Warton has added the date of 1550, but his authority for so doing is not apparent. The style is highly Skeltonical, if not the pettish production of that coarse satirist himself. I cite two extracts, as specimens, from the commencement and the close.

Wyll none in all this lande
Step forth and take in hande
These felowes, to withstande,
In nombre lyke the sande;
That with the Gospell melles,
And wyll do nothynge elles,
But tratlynge tales telles
Agaynst our holy prelacie
And holy churches dygnitie,
Sayinge it is but papistrie,
Yea fayned, and hipocrisy
Erronious, and heresye :
And taketh theyr authoritie

Out of the holy evangelie," &c.

Is it possible that "Sir Harry," in the followinglines, should have reference to Henry the Eighth, who received the title of Defender of the Faith in .1521?

"Because I maye not tary,

I

praye to swete Syr Harry,

A man that will not vary,

And one that is no sculker,

But kan knyghte of the sepulchre.

That he maye stande fast

And be not over cast,
Or els to be the last

Of all them that do yelde
In cyte, towne, or fielde.
For yf he styke therein,
No doubt he shall not blyn
Tyll he come to eternytie
With all his whole fraternyte.

Amen, therefore saye ye

That his partakers be.

Ye get no more of me.
Finis."

T. P.

ART. XVIII. Here beginneth a lytle Boke named The Schole House of Women: wherein every man may rede a goodly prayer of the condytyons of weomen. Imprinted at London, in Paules Churchyarde, at the sygne of the Maydenhead, by Thomas Petyt. MDLXI.*

Comprized in 32 folios of poetry, in black letter.

* See Herbert, I. 553. Editor.