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 5 
 
 25G56 
 
m>is&ssmay^ 
 
 Sat on 
 
 the Cardinal's chair ! 
 Bishop, and abbot, and 
 
 prior were there ; 
 Many a monk, and many a friar, 
 Many a knight, and many a 
 squire, 
 
 With a great many more of lesser degree, — 
 In sooth, a goodly company ; 
 And they served the Lord Primate 
 on bended knee. 
 Never, I ween, 
 Was a prouder seen, 
 Read of in books, or dreamt of in dreams. 
 Than the Cardinal Lord Archbishop of Rheims! 
 
 [I] 
 
^^' 
 
<^^PP2^«90r[G 
 
 ;v 
 
 Through the motley rout, 
 That Uttle Jackdaw kept 
 
 hopping about ; 
 Here and there, 
 Like a dog in a fair. 
 Over comfits and cates, 
 And dishes and plates. 
 Cowl and cope, and rochet and pall. 
 Mitre and crosier ! he hopp'd upon all ! 
 
 [3] 
 
JLGjlI a saucy air, 
 He perch'd on the chair 
 Where, in state, the great 
 Lord Cardinal sat 
 ^ In the great Lord Cardinal's 
 great red hat; 
 And he peer'd in the face 
 Of his Lordship's Grace 
 With a satisfied look, as if he would say, 
 " We Two are the greatest folks here to-day ! " 
 And the priests, with awe, 
 As such freaks they saw. 
 Said, " The Devil must be in that little 
 Jackdaw ! ! " 
 
 [5] 
 

£I& r&lHS'5 Was over, 
 the board was clear'd, 
 The flawns and the custards 
 
 had all disappear'd, 
 And six little Singing-boys, — 
 dear little souls ! 
 In nice clean faces, and nice white stoles, 
 Came, in order due, 
 Two by two, 
 Marching that grand refectory through ! 
 A nice little boy held a golden ewer, 
 Emboss'd, and fiU'd with water, as pure 
 As any that flows between Rheims and 
 
 Namur, 
 Which a nice little boy stood ready to catch 
 In a fine golden hand-basin made to match. 
 
 [7] 
 

"^OKICfe Little boys, 
 
 rather more grown, 
 Carried lavender-water, and 
 eau de Cologne ; 
 [ And a nice little boy had a 
 nice cake of soap, 
 Worthy of washing the hands of the Pope. 
 One little boy more 
 A napkin bore, 
 Of the best white diaper, fringed with pink. 
 And a Cardinal's Hat, mark'd in *' permanent 
 ink." 
 
 [9] 
 
m 6MHI 
 
 Lord 
 Cardinal turns at the sight 
 Of these nice little boys 
 
 dress'd all in white: 
 From his finger he draws 
 His costly turquoise ; 
 And, not thinking at all about little Jackdaws, 
 Deposits it straight 
 By the side of his plate, 
 While the nice little boys on his Eminence 
 
 wait; 
 Till, when nobody 's dreaming of any such 
 
 thing, 
 That little Jackdaw hops off with the ring ! 
 
 ["] 
 

5alH&RV&-fl CK2 And a 
 
 ^ f shout, 
 
 And a deuce of a rout, 
 And nobody seems to know 
 what they 're about, 
 
 •' "^ But the monks have their 
 
 pockets all turn'd inside out; 
 The friars are kneeling. 
 And hunting, and feeling 
 The carpet, the floor, and the walls, and the 
 ceiling. 
 The Cardinal drew 
 Off each plum-colour'd shoe, 
 And left his red stockings exposed to the view ; 
 
 [13] 
 
O* X & %> Jt 5p^ And he 
 
 feels 
 In the toes and the heels ; 
 They turn up the dishes, 
 — they turn up the 
 1 ^ ^w i J ,,m^^ ^ plates, — 
 They take up the poker and poke out the 
 grates, 
 — They turn up the rugs, 
 They examine the mugs : — 
 But, no ! — no such thing ; — 
 They can't find THE RING ! 
 And the Abbot declared that, " when nobody 
 
 twigg'd it, 
 Some rascal or other had popp'd in, and 
 prigg'd it ! " 
 
 [ 15 1 
 
S[& CaSS>mtrk Rose 
 
 with a dignified look, 
 He call'd for his candle, his 
 bell, and his book ! 
 [ In holy anger, and pious 
 grief. 
 He solemnly cursed that rascally thief! 
 He cursed him at board, he cursed him in bed ; 
 From the sole of his foot to the crown of his 
 
 head ; 
 He cursed him in sleeping, that every night 
 He should dream of the devil, and wake in 
 
 a fright ; 
 He cursed him in eating, he cursed him in 
 
 drinking. 
 He cursed him in coughing, in sneezing, in 
 
 winking ; 
 He cursed him in sitting, in standing, in lying ; 
 He cursed him in walking, in riding, in flying. 
 He cursed him living, he cursed him dying ! — 
 Never was heard such a terrible curse ! ! 
 But, what gave rise 
 To no little surprise, 
 Nobody seem'd one penny the worse ! 
 
 [17] 
 
That's him. . 
 
iit> ^jfVS Was gone, 
 
 ^f The night came on, 
 
 The Monks and the Friars 
 
 i. ' ' they search'd till dawn ; 
 When the Sacristan saw, 
 * On crumpled claw, 
 Come limping a poor little lame Jackdaw ! 
 No longer gay. 
 As on yesterday ; 
 His feathers all seem'd to be turn'd the wrong 
 
 way; — 
 His pinions droop'd, — he could hardly 
 
 stand, — 
 His head was as bald as the palm of your 
 hand ; 
 His eye so dim. 
 So wasted each limb, 
 That, heedless of grammar, they all cried, 
 "That's him! — 
 
 [ 19] 
 
that has done this scandalous 
 thing ! 
 \ That 's the thief that has got 
 
 my Lord Cardinal's Ring! " — 
 ^ The poor little Jackdaw, 
 When the monks he saw, 
 Feebly gave vent to the ghost of a caw ; 
 And turn'd his bald head, as much as to say, 
 *' Pray, be so good as to walk this way ! " 
 
 [21] 
 
liOWt% 
 
 And 
 
 slower 
 He limp'd on before, 
 Till they came to the back of 
 
 the belfry-door, 
 Where the first thing they 
 saw. 
 
 Midst the stocks and the straw. 
 Was the RING, in the nest of that little 
 Jackdaw ! 
 
 [23] 
 
^ I Lord Cardinal call'd for his 
 book, 
 And off that terrible curse he 
 
 took; 
 The mute expression 
 Served in lieu of confession, 
 And, being thus coupled with full restitution, 
 The Jackdaw got plenary absolution ! 
 — When those words were heard, 
 That poor little bird 
 Was so changed in a moment, 't was really 
 absurd : 
 
 [25] 
 
t^ (5R^^rW Sleek, and 
 
 fat; 
 In addition to that, 
 A fresh crop of feathers came 
 
 thick as a mat! 
 His tail waggled more 
 Even than before ; 
 But no longer it wagg'd with an impudent air, 
 No longer he perch'd on the Cardinal's chair. 
 
 [27] 
 
& JlOPP*i> Now 
 
 about 
 With a gait devout ; 
 At Matins, at Vespers, he 
 
 never was out ; 
 And, so far from any more 
 pilfering deeds, 
 He always seem'd telling the Confessor's 
 
 beads. 
 If any one lied, — or if any one swore, — 
 Or slumber'd in pray'r-time and happen'd 
 to snore. 
 That good Jackdaw 
 Would give a great "Caw! " 
 As much as to say, " Don't do so any more ! " 
 While many remark'd, as his manners they 
 
 saw. 
 That they " never had known such a pious 
 Jackdaw ! " 
 
 [29] 
 
pride 
 
 Lived the 
 
 Of that country side, 
 And at last in the odour of 
 K sanctity died ; 
 ""^ When, as words were too 
 faint 
 His merits to paint, 
 The Conclave determined to make him a 
 
 Saint ; 
 And on newly-made Saints and Popes, as you 
 
 know. 
 It 's the custom, at Rome, new names to 
 
 bestow, 
 So they canonized him by the name of Jem 
 Crow! 
 
 [31] 
 
[eDtoryoftfie 
 
 The story of the Jackdaw of Rheims is to be found in 
 "Johan. Wolfi Lectionum Memorabilium Centenarii," 
 vol. 1, p. 216. The same volume contains the original 
 story of Southey's " Pilgrims of Compostella " ; and on 
 the same page with the latter there is given a legend of 
 St. Patrick, who, when a man had stolen some mut- 
 ton, detected the thief by making the sheep bleat in 
 his inside. (T. L.) 
 
 [33] 
 
In writing to Mrs. Hughes on the 29th of April, 1837, 
 Mr. Barham refers to this, probably the most popular 
 of legends, in the following terms: " I have no time to do 
 more for this number [of " Bentley's Miscellany "] than 
 scratch off a doggerel version of an old Catholic legend 
 that I picked up out of a high Dutch author. I am 
 afraid the poor 'Jackdaw ' will be sadly pecked at. Had 
 I more time I meant to have engrafted on it a story I 
 have heard Cannon tell of a magpie of his acquaint- 
 ance." The story is given at length in the " Life and 
 Letters," vol, 2, p. 21. 
 
 In a subsequent letter to Mr. Bentley he says: "I 
 am glad you like the 'Jackdaw ' ; it was struck off at a 
 heat and almost in despair, when I found it impossible 
 to finish the other article [ "The Spectre of Tapping- 
 ton" ?] in time." 
 
 Happily for the present generation, the memory of 
 Mr. Rice, the great American comedian, and his in- 
 terminable "nigger" song, "Jim Crow," has passed 
 away. The time was, some thirty years ago, when this 
 fearful composition seemed to pervade all space. It was 
 sung, shouted, howled, and danced — semper ubique 
 et ab omnibus ! A certain clever scholar of the Father 
 Prout variety pronounced it a plagiarism, and pro- 
 fessed to have discovered the original in a French 
 chanson, which is given at length in "Bentley's Mis- 
 cellany," April, 1839. A stanza may suffice as a speci- 
 men: — 
 
 En Amerique j'ai fait des sauts, 
 
 En Angleterre aussi; 
 En France j'irai s'il le faut, 
 
 Pour sauter quand je cris, — 
 Je tourne, re-toume, je caracole, 
 
 Je fais des sauts; 
 Chacque fois je fais la tour, 
 
 Je saute "Jim Crow." 
 
 [34] 
 
The audacity of the famous Jackdaw of Rheims has 
 been equalled if not excelled at Monkton in Kent. Dur- 
 ing the divine service a jackdaw (now belonging to Mr. 
 Stapleton Cotton) made its way into the church with 
 the other portion of the congregation, and not only 
 took a lively part in the responses, but also became 
 exceedingly talkative at other times. The whole con- 
 gregation were disposed to explode with merriment; 
 the clergyman himself with difficulty kept a serious 
 face; while the school children present broke out into 
 open laughter. Things became so bad that the clergy- 
 man had to order the children out of the church. Then 
 an effort was made to capture the intruder, who 
 had perched himself boldly upon the reading-desk. 
 The bird, however, was not to be caught, and 
 flew to the rafters above, where it remained 
 until the end of the service, still continu- 
 ing to deliver itself of more or less 
 pertinent expressions of opinion. 
 (" St. James's Gazette," 25th 
 August, 1888.) 
 
 [35] 
 

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