m^^^Bmm^^MmS^ii^^ ; 3S^ AN RNTHOIDCY OF HUMOROUS VERSE EDITED BY ThEODORE-A-OW BRENTAN05 M V/ANOSRLYN INDEX OF AUTHORS ANON. Sir Penny ... ... ... ... ... ... 10 I had both Money and a Friend ... ... 12 King Edward IV. and the Tanner of Tarn worth 23 Gossip Mine ... ... ... ... ... 54 Trust in Women ... ... ... ... ... 57 The Clown's Courtship ... ... ... ... 59 A new Courtly Sonnet, of the Lady Green- sleeves, to the new tune of " Greensleeves" 60 Captain Wedderburn's Courtship ... ... 68 Unfortunate Miss Bailey ... ... ... 95 Siege of Belgrade 175 Epigram 204 Allister M'Allister ... ... ... ... ... 224 Hock versus Falernian ... ... ... ... 236 BARHAM, REV. R H. The Forlorn One ... ... ... ... ... 250 Mr. Barney Maguire's Account of the Corona- tion 302 BOSANQUET, R. CARR. The Dean's Story .280 vi Humorous Verse PAGE BOSWELL, SIR ALEXANDER. jenny's Bawbee 205 BROWNE, SIR THOMAS 204 BURNS, ROBERT. What can a young Lassie ... ... ... 82 Whistle o'er the lave o't 84 Oh aye my wife she dang me ... ... ... 86 John Barleycorn ... ... ... ... ... 234 Tarn o' Shanter 237 BYRON, LORD. Love in Idleness 215 Money ... ... ... ... ... ... 225 Don Juan approaches London ... ... ... 300 CALVERLEY, CHARLES STUART. A Charade ... ... ... ... ... ... 163 Gemini and Virgo ... ... ... ... ... 309 Ode to Tobacco ... ... ... ... ... 316 CANNING, GEORGE. The Knife-grinder ... ... ... ... ... 177 The University of Gottingen 211 CARROLL, LEWIS. Some Hallucinations ... ... ... ... 318 CHAOCER, GEOFFREY. Chauntecleer and Pertelote i The Wife of Bath's Prologue ... ... ... 50 COLERIDGE, S. T. The Devil's Thoughts 226 Cologne 237 CONGREVE, WILLIAM. Buxom Joan ... ... ... ... ... 78 Index of Authors vii PACK COTTON, CHARLES. The Joys of Marriage ... ... ... ... 73 COUCH, ARTHUR T. QUILLER. The Famous Ballad of the Jubilee Cup ... 332 COWLEY, ABRAHAM. The Chronicle. A Ballad 64 COWPER, WILLIAM. The Diverting History of John Gilpin ... ... 267 The Retired Cat 277 CUNNINGHAM, ALLAN. John Grumlie ... ... ... ... ... 67 There dwalt a Man ... ... ... ... 232 DEANE, ANTHONY C. Here is the Tale ... ... ... ... ... 155 DILLON, VISCOUNT. The Donnybrook Jig 244 DOBSON, AUSTIN. Dora versus Rose ... ... ... ... ... 97 The Poet and the Critics 167 The Maltworm's Madrigal ... ... ... 228 DUNBAK, WILLIAM. The Devil's Inquest 28 Amends to the Tailors and boutars 35 FERRIER, Miss. Two last stanzas of " The Laird o' Cockpen " 89 GILBERT, W. S. The Story of Prince Agib 313 To the Terrestrial Globe ... 317 Etiquette 3x9 viii Humorous Verse PAGE GODLEY, A. D. After Horace no The Journalist Abroad 166 Graeculus Esuriens ... ... ... ... 195 Pensees de Noe'l ... 327 GOLDSMITH, OLIVER. An Elegy on the Glory of her Sex, Mrs. Mary Blaize 83 Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog ... ... 266 GOOGE, BARNABY. Out of Sight, out of Mind ... ... ... 22 GRAVES, ALFRED P. Father O'Flynn 223 GRAY, THOMAS. On the Death of a Favourite Cat 275 GRUBBE, J. St. George for England ... ... ... ... 290 GUTHRIE, T. ANSTEY. Burglar Bill ... ... ... ... _ ... 147 HENLEY, W. E. As like the Woman as you can ... ... ... 100 Villon's Straight Tip to all Cross Coves ... 112 Culture in the Slums ... ... ... ... 143 HENRYSON, ROBERT Tale of the Upland Mouse and the Burgess Mouse ... ... ... ... ... 31 HERRICK, ROBERT. A Ternary of Littles, upon a Pipkin of Jelly sent to a Lady 40 No Fault in Women 63 Index of Authors PAGE HEYWOOD, THOMAS. Valerius on Women ... ... 63 The way to know a Dainty Dapper Wench ... 66 The Englishman 289 HILTON, A. C. The Vulture and the Husbandman 132 Octopus ... ... ... ... ... ... 138 HOOD, THOMAS. Faithless Sally Brown 90 Mary's Ghost 93 The Double Knock ... 173 Blank Verse in Rhyme ... ... .. ... 175 Faithless Nelly Gray . 212 John Trot ... 219 I'm not a Single Man ... ... ... ... 246 HOWARD, H. NEWMAN. A Ballad of Sir Kay 201 JAMES V. OF SCOTLAND, KING. The Gaberlunzie Man ... ... ... ... 37 LANG, ANDREW. Double Ballade of Primitive Man ... ... 307 Ballade of Cricket ... ... ... ... ... 331 LEHMANN, R. C. To the Master of Trinity 261 Middle Age ... 324 LEVER, CHARLES . The Widow Malone ... 87 Bad Luck to this Marching 306 LINDESAY, SIR DAVID. A Carman's Account of a Law-Suit ... ... 36 LOCHORE, ROBERT. Marriage and the care o't 73 x Humorous Verse PAGE LOCKHART, J. G. Captain Paton 253 LYDGATE, JOHN. The London Lackpenny ... ... ... ... 13 LYSAGHT, EDWARD. Kitty of Coleraine 96 MAGINN, DOCTOR. The Lady's Pocket Adonis .... ... ... 207 Saint Patrick 298 MAXWELL, J. C. Rigid Body Sings 258 MILTON, JOHN. On the Oxford Carrier 40 MOORE, THOMAS. To Fanny ... ... ... ... ... ... 95 NAIRNE, LADY. The Laird o' Cockpen ... 88 PAIN, BARRY. The Poets at Tea 135 Martin Luther at Potsdam 145 Bangkolidye ... ... ... ... ... 340 PEACOCK, T. LOVE. The War-song of Dinas Vawr ... ... ... 200 PlGOTT, MOSTYN T. The Hundred Best Books 171 " You are young, Kaiser William " ... ... 194 PLANCHE, J. R. The Collegian and the Porter 258 Index of Authors xi PAGE POLLOCK, SIR FREDERICK. The Hound's Tail's Case 169 Lines on the Death of a College Cat 283 PRAFD, W. M. The Lay of the Cheese 179 The London University ... ... ... ... 181 A Song of Impossibilities 184 Utopia 186 The New Order of Things 190 Pledges 192 PRIOR, MATTHEW. Epistle to Fleetwood Shephard, Esq. ... 41 The Chameleon ... ... ... ... ... 47 A Simile ... ... ... ... ... ... 48 Bibo and Charon 49 PROUT, FATHER. The Sabine Farmer's Serenade... ... ... 209 RODGER, ALEXANDER. Behave yoursel' before Folk ... 80 Robin Tamson's Smiddy ... 84 ROPES, ARTHUR REED. The Lost Pleiad 330 SEAMAN, OWEN. A Plea for Trigamy 99 At the Sign of the Cock 140 To Mr. Alfred Austin 158 To the Lord of Potsdam 198 SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM. From " A Midsummer Night's Dream " ... 102 SKKLTON, JOHN. The Complaint of a Rustic against the Clergy 7 SMITH, JAMES. Surnames ... ... ... ... ... ... 251 xil Humorous Verse PAGE SMITH, J. AND H. CuiBono? 113 The Rebuilding ... ... ... ... ... 117 Playhouse Musings ... ... ... ... 123 The Living Lustres ... ... ... ... 126 The Theatre 129 STEVENSON, R. L. Not 1 315 STEPHEN, J. K. Sincere Flattery of F. W. H. Myers ... ... 342 ToR. K 343 STILL, JOHN. Jolly Good Ale and Old 6 SUCKLING, SIR JOHN. A Wedding ... ... ... ... ... .. 74 SWIFT, DEAN. A Gentle Echo on Woman ... ... ... 79 SYKES, ARTHUR A. The Tour that never was ... ... ... 328 SYMONDS, J. A. The Confession of Golias ... ... ... 16 THACKERAY, W. M. When Moonlike ore the Hazure Seas ... ... 214 The Sorrows of Werther ... ... ... ... 218 The Ballad of Bouillabaisse ... ... ... 229 Little Billee 233 The Crystal Palace 284 TREVELYAN, SIR GEO. O. Advertisements ... ... ... ... ... 256 TYTLER, JAMES. 1 hae Laid a Herring in Saut ... ... ... 204 INDEX TO FIRST LINES PAGE " A Captain bold from Halifax " ... 92 ' A fig for St. Dennis of France " . . . 298 " A little saint best fits a little shrine " . . 40 " A poet's cat, sedate and grave " . . . 277 ' A povre widwe, somdel stape in age " . . I " A soldier and a sailor " ..... 7^ " A street there is in Paris famous" . . . 220 " Ah ! why those piteous sounds of woe ? " . 250 " An Austrian army awfully arrayed " . .175 " As beautiful Kitty one morning was tripping; 1 " . 96 " As like the woman as you can" . . . too " As once a twelvemonth to the priest " . . 41 " As some Peter-house fellows, one da}', I have heard" 236 " As the chameleon, who is known " ... 47 " At Trin. Coll. Cam., which means . . . 258 " Bad luck to this marching " .... 306 " Behave yoursel' before folk " .... 89 xiv Humorous Verse PAGE " Ben Battle was a soldier bold " . . 212 " Between now and my holidays "... 328 " Betwixt twal' hours and eleven " 35 " Boiling in my spirit's veins" 16 ' Dear Thomas, did'st thou never pop " . . 48 " Did ye hear of the Widow Malone " . . 87 " Dr. Butler, may I venture " .... 261 " Echo, I ween, will in the wood reply " . 79 " Esop, mine author, makes mention " . . 31 " Even is come ; and from the dark Park, hark " . 175 " From his brimstone bed at break of day " . . 226 " First, there's the Bible " . . . . 171 " First, when Maggie was my care " . . . 84 " From the tragic-est novels of Mudie's " . . 97 " Gimme my scarlet tie " ..... 340 " Gin a body meet a body " .... 258 " Good people all, of every sort" . . . 266 " Good people all with one accord " . . . 83 " Greensleeves was all my joy " .... 60 " He lived in a cave by the seas " . . -307 " Here lieth one who did most truly prove " . 40 " He thought he saw an elephant " . . . 318 " How uneasy is his life " . . . . 73 " How beauteous are rouleaus ! " . . . . 225 " I am a blessed Glendoveer " . . . . 117 ' ' I cannot eat but little meat " . . . 6 " I drink of the Ale of Southwark " . . . 228 " If I could scare the light away " . . . 186 " If those who wield the rod forget " . . . 167 " If we offend, it is with our goodwill " . . 102 Index to First Lines xv HACK ' ' 1 had both money and a friend " . . . 12 " I hae laid a herring in saut " . . . . 204 ' I met four chaps yon birks amang " . . . 205 ' In earth it is a little thing " 10 In summer time, when leaves grow greene " . 23 " In Koln, a town of monks and bones " . . 237 " I tell thee, Dick, where I have been " . . 74 " I've been trying to fashion a wifely ideal " . 99 "I will you tell a full good sport" . 54 John Gil pin was a citizen'' .... 267 " John Grumlie swore by the light o' the moon " 67 " John Trot he was as tall a lad " . . .219 King George, observing with judicious eyes." . 204 ' Lady, I loved you all last year " . . . 184 " Let her eye be clear, and her brow severe " . 69 " Majestic Monarch, whom the other gods " . 198 " Margarita first possessed " .... 64 " Marry, I lent my gossip iny mare " . . . 36 " Men once were sumamed for their shape or estate" 251 " My mither men't my auld breeks " . . . 84 ' My pensive public, wherefore look you sad ? " . 123 " Needy knife-grinder, whither are you going ? " 177 " Never mind how the pedagogue proses " . . 95 " Xo fault in women to refuse " . . . . 63 "Now Jack looked up, it was time to sup " . 155 " O Allister M'Allister " 224 " O crikey Bill ! She ses to me, she ses " . . 143 " Och ! the Coronation !" 302 " Of priests we can offer a charmin' variety " . 223 xvi Humorous Verse PAGE " Oh, aye, my wife she dang me "... 86 "Oh! 'twas Dermot O'Nolan M'Figg '' . . 244 '' On Balaclava's fatal plain " .... 256 ' O where, O where is my leetle hound's tail " . 169 " O why should our dull retrospective addresses " 126 " Pour, varlet, pour the water " .... 135 " Quoth John to Joan, wilt thou have me ? " . 59 ' Quoth Rab to Kate, my sonsy dear' 1 . . 73 " Rat-tat it went upon the lion's chin " . 173 " Roll on, thou ball, roll on ! " . . . . 317 " Rooster her sign " 140 " Sated with home, of wife, of children, tired " . 113 " See where the K., in sturdy self-reliance " . 342 ' She that denies me I would have" ... 63 " Sikes, housebreaker, of Houndsditch " . . 163 " Some like drink " 315 " Some vast amount of years ago " . . . 309 " Strange beauty, eight-limbed and eight-handed " 138 " Strike the concertina's melancholy string " . 313 " Suppose you screeve, or go cheapjack ? " . . 112 " That cat, sir, black and yellow" . . . 280 " The Ballyshannon foundered '' . . . 319 " The burden of hard hitting " .... 331 " The children of Mercuric and of Venu.s . . 5 " The early bird got up and whet his beak " . 158 " The Junior Fellow's vows were said " . . 283 "The King to Oxford sent a troop of horse " . 204 "The Laird o' Cockpen he's proud and he's great" 88 " The Laird of Roslin's daughter "... 68 Index to First Lines xvii PAGE " The mountain sheep are sweeter " . . . 200 " The oftener seen the more I lust " . . . 22 " The pawky auld carle came o'er the lee " . . 37 " The Pope, that pagan full of pride " . .179 " The rain was raining cheerfully " . . . 132 " There came a Grecian admiral " . . . 195 ' There dwalt a man into the West " . . 232 ' ' There is an awkward thing which much per- plexes " 215 " There was a lady lived at Leith " . . 207 " The Spaniard loves his ancient slop " . . 289 " The Story of King Arthur old " . . . 291 ' There were three sailors of Bristol City " . . 233 " There were three Kings into the East " . . 235 " This night in my sleep I was aghast " . . 28 " Thou who, when fears attack " . . . 316 " Through a window in the attic " . . . 147 " Through groves so call'd as being void of trees " 300 " 'Tis sweet to view, from half-past five to six " . 129 " To London once my steps I bent " . . . 13 " Touch once more a sober measure" . . -253 " 'Twas a pretty little maiden " .... 330 " 'Twas in the middle of the night " ... 93 " 'Twas on a lofty vase's side " .... 275 " 'Twas on a windy night " . . . . 009 " Well I confess I did not guess "... 246 " We're sick of this distressing state" . . 190 " Werther had a love for Charlotte " . . . 218 " What asks the Bard ? He pra s for nought . no " What can a young lassie " 82 x viii Humorous Verse PAGE " What can it avail ? " ..... 7 "What Ho" 201 " What lightning shall light it .- " . . . 145 "When Bibo thought fit from the world to retreat " . 49 "When a gentleman comes" .... 192 ' When Chapman billies leave the street " . . 237 " When Moonlike ore the Hazure Seas " . . 214 " When Parson, Doctor, Don, ' . . .166 " When that my years were fewer " . . .324 " When the landlord wants the rent " . . 327 " When these things following be done to our intent" ....... 57 " Whene'er with haggard eyes I view " . . 211 " Will there never come a season " . . . 343 " With ganial foire " 284 " Ye dons and ye doctors " ..... 181 " You are young, Kaiser William " . . .194 " You may lift me up in your arms, lac! " . . 332 " Young Ben he was a nice young man " . . 90 THE EDITOR'S FOREWORD. 'Tis mirth that fills the veins with blood, More than wine, or sleep, or food ; Let each man keep his heart at ease, No man dies of that disease. He that would his body keep From diseases must not weep ; But whoever laughs and sings Never he his body brings Into fevers, gouts, and rheums, Or lingeringly his lungs consumes, Or meets with ache's in the bone, Or catarrhs, or griping stone ; But contented lives for aye, The more he laughs the more he may. {Beaumont and Fletcher. I. A COLLECTION of verse which stood in need of lengthy, preliminary disquisitions would hardly justify the epithet of Humorous which is placed on the title-page of this little Anthology. I do not propose therefore to restrain my readers very long, by any dilatory passages of prose, from the pleasure xx Humorous Verse they may legitimately anticipate in perusing the more sprightly pages which follow. I have been wandering of late in a smiling pleasure garden, where there are blooms for every fancy, and flowers of every hue. Though I have pillaged here and there, the parterres and the paths seem just as bright now that I look back at them ; and the bouquet that was my spoil I lay very modestly at your feet. It is more representa- tive, perhaps, of my choice in such matters than of your own. Yet you may take what consolation may be possible from the thought that the taste of the most catholic editor, edited he never so wisely, would be no more likely to reproduce all you may wish to see. I could not recommend the remedy of gathering in one mighty volume all the verses that might be described as humorous since English rhymed at all. The faint aroma of their wit would disappear beneath the load of ink and paper ; and there would still remain the supreme difficulty of stating precisely what may be defined as Humour. As will be seen later on, I have preferred to let my Poets explain their own ideas of Humour for themselves ; but if Rabelais be right, the definition should present scant diffi- culty to the average mortal : " Mieulx est de ris que de larmes escripre Pource que rire est le propre de 1'homme : " and if you consider the subject philosophically, it is no doubt your possession of this volume that constitutes one of the great claims of mankind to his superiority over the brutes that perish from sheer lack of laughter. Unfortunately the nation for which Rabelais wrote has not always shovwi herself willing to be saved by the sense of humour he possessed ; and it has been sometimes levelled as a national reproach at England that she took The Editor's Foreword xxi her pleasures much too sadly. But anyone who cares to look at the earlier examples of English humour in these pages must confess that if their fun was sometimes a thought robust our fore- fathers were very soon and very easily moved to merriment : and if I may apply the moral a little more directly, I should recommend all the most melancholy and morose of modern critics to take the instant antidote of this collection ; for never has that unjust phrase about genus irritabile vatum received more patent refutation. Certainly none of the living authors represented here proved irritable when they were asked to increase the gaiety of the nation by sending me their verses for this book. I have made my particular acknow- ledgments elsewhere, both to authors and to pub- lishers, but if there should be any involuntary omissions, I hereby confess my obligations, and beg to convey my gratitude, to all who have so kindly given their assistance, and more particu- larly to one friendly critic who has saved me from innumerable sins and suggested the most valuable of my editorial virtues. II. It is necessary that I should explain some reasons for the arrangement of this volume. There may be omissions which will be obvious to each observer ; but I have endeavoured, at least, to give a typical example in each kind, even if some particular instances are lacking. The author of the most beautiful poem upon pure, light-hearted happiness might well have been suspected of a vein of kindly humour ; and those who remember L Allegro, will not be surprised to find the Lines on the Oxford Carrier written by the author of Paradise Lost. Humour might, no doubt, be dis- xxiv Humorous Verse poet. I have been more influenced by the treat- ment and occasionally by the subject of a poem than by its authorship or date. In the early days, soon after Chaucer, we are in an epoch of rough physical humour, of drinking songs, of simple fables ; when law-suits and money, the unknown king and his outspoken subject, the Church and the Devil, provided the stock elements of laughter. There was a directness and a vital strength about these singers which I seem to see reflected in the bold detail-carvings of the Gothic Cathedrals, where Humour treads upon the heels of the Grotesque, and laughter is sometimes very near akin to tears. Not until the spacious days of Elizabethan literature does this weight of inevitable realism begin to lift. Soon afterwards, the Cavaliers were among the most delightful lyrists in the world, but rather in the passionate than the humorous vein ; and after these again there is an interval, an interregnum, in which it may be recognised that the old style is dead, and the new one has not been born. Of this is the long newsletter, meant to be witty, and occasionally humorous. But the charm of the ancient days had vanished, without being as yet replaced by any compensating skill. The old stories had all been told, and there was no one to touch them with a new life or to find fresh sub- jects for his verse. The unfortunate repetition which comes from lack of ideas became common, and the " Primitive Jest " flourished in the land, only not perishing outright because, in Rabelais' phrase, it was in one form or another an essential human attribute. As Mr. Andrew Lang has sung : " I am an early Jest ! Man delved, and built, and span ; The Editors Foreword xxv Then wandered South and West The peoples Aryan, /journeyed in their van ; The Semites, too, confessed, From Beersheba to Dan, I am a Merry Jest ! " I am an ancient Jest, Through all the human clan, Red, black, white, free, oppressed, Hilarious I ran ! I'm found in Lucian, In Poggio, and the rest, I'm dear to Moll and Nan ! I am a Merry Jest ! " So then, the First Division of my Anthology is devoted to what may be described as old-fashioned humour out of which, for good or evil, we have grown with the growth of a veneer of refinement, with the spread of the elements of knowledge, and with the increase of intercommunication. The Second Division is of perennial interest ; for in it I have collected a small sheaf from the mighty harvest of witticisms written round about the Eternal Feminine. Some of these may not be accepted as " humorous " in the stricter sense, inasmuch as they only give a touch of pleasant merriment to a prettily descriptive episode. Of such are " Greensleeves " and " Dowsabel," though I could only print the first. Sometimes such verses as those of Ovid, on his catholic affection for all ladies, seem to have appealed to the fancy of later xxiv Humorous Verse poet. I have been more influenced by the treat- mentand occasionally by the subject of a poem than by its authorship or date. In the early days, soon after Chaucer, we are in an epoch of rough physical humour, of drinking songs, of simple fables ; when law-suits and money, the unknown king and his outspoken subject, the Church and the Devil, provided the stock elements of laughter. There was a directness and a vital strength about these singers which I seem to see reflected in the bold detail-carvings of the Gothic Cathedrals, where Humour treads upon the heels of the Grotesque, and laughter is sometimes very near akin to tears. Not until the spacious days of Elizabethan literature does this weight of inevitable realism begin to lift. Soon afterwards, the Cavaliers were among the most delightful lyrists in the world, but rather in the passionate than the humorous vein ; and after these again there is an interval, an interregnum, in which it may be recognised that the old style is dead, and the new one has not been born. Of this is the long newsletter, meant to be witty, and occasionally humorous. But the charm of the ancient days had vanished, without being as yet replaced by any compensating skill. The old stories had all been told, and there was no one to touch them with a new life or to find fresh sub- jects for his verse. The unfortunate repetition which comes from lack of ideas became common, and the " Primitive Jest " flourished in the land, only not perishing outright because, in Rabelais' phrase, it was in one form or another an essential human attribute. As Mr. Andrew Lang has sung : - " I am an early Jest ! Man delved, and built, and span ; The Editors Foreword xxv Then wandered South and West The peoples Aryan, /journeyed in their van , The Semites, too, confessed, From Beersheba to Dan, I am a Merry Jest ! " I am an ancient Jest, Through all the human clan, Red, black, white, free, oppressed, Hilarious I ran ! I'm found in Lucian, In Poggio, and the rest, I'm dear to Moll and Nan ! I am a Merry Jest ! " So then, the First Division of my Anthology is devoted to what may be described as old-fashioned humour out of which, for good or evil, we have grown with the growth of a veneer of refinement, with the spread of the elements of knowledge, and with the increase of intercommunication. The Second Division is of perennial interest ; for in it I have collected a small sheaf from the mighty harvest of witticisms written round about the Eternal Feminine. Some of these may not be accepted as " humorous " in the stricter sense, inasmuch as they only give a touch of pleasant merriment to a prettily descriptive episode. Of such are " Greensleeves " and " Dowsabel," though I could only print the first. Sometimes such verses as those of Ovid, on his catholic affection for all ladies, seem to have appealed to the fancy of later xxvi Humorous Verse ages, as in the lines of Cowley, or of Suckling. Sometimes exactly the reverse is fashionable, and we get a catalogue of the many faults which the Man was obliged to find throughout the ages in the Woman, if only to assert a general superiority which stood occasionally in need of better proot than mere abuse. The lines on " Trust in Women" are a good example of this. Though it is not my business here to suggest literary criticism, or to discuss origins, I cannot forbear pointing out the ingenious turn given by King James the Sixth of Scotland and First of Great Britain to this same subject, in his poem " Of Women" just unearthed by Mr. Robert Rait from the Bodleian Manuscripts. After detailing the many faults of womankind and giving parallels in almost every realm of natural history, the royal poet concludes by thinking that these feminine weaknesses are only the result of the woman being " nearer nature " than the man. " for uemen bad helrby are'lesse to blame for that thay follou nature eueryquhayre, & ye most uorthie prayse quhose reason dantis that nature quhilk into youre sexe so hantis." This subject, a particular favourite with the Scotch, was of course common in England from the days of Chaucer, and before him, in the Mystery Plays ; and I have thought that this division might even have a separate value of its own, apart from its strictly poetical contents, as indicating the pro- gress of the various opinions of women held by British poets during a long period of time. It has been suggested that the fashion of vers de society has an intimate connection with the contemporary position of women. Locker was thinking of them when he said that in such verses "sentiment never surges into passion, humour never overflows into The Editor's Foreword xxvii boisterous merriment." So we find little of the kind in Greek Poets, though Mr. Andrew Lang detects a trace of it in Theocritus and Alcman. The only deliberate humour I can recall in the fragments of Sappho the Divine are not of this order : 0vp