Читать книгу The Political Songs of England: From the Reign of John to That of Edward II - Various - Страница 20

[MS. Harl. 978. fol. 99, v^o. reign of Hen. III.]

In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas Corpora, Dii cœptis, nam vos mutastis et illas, Aspirate meis.

Ego dixi, dii estis;

Quæ dicenda sunt in festis

Quare prætermitterem?

Dii, revera, qui potestis

In figuram novæ vestis

Transmutare veterem.

Pannus recens et novellus

Fit vel capa vel mantellus,

Sed secundum tempora

Primum capa, post pusillum

Transmutatur hæc in illum;

Sic mutatis corpora.

Antiquata decollatur,

Decollata mantellatur,

Sic in modum Proteos

Demutantur vestimenta;

Nec recenter est inventa

Lex metamorphoseos.

Cum figura sexum mutant;

Prius ruptam clam reclutant

Primates ecclesiæ;

Nec donatur, res est certa,

Nisi prius sit experta

Fortunam Tiresiæ.

Bruma tandem revertente,

Tost unt sur la chape enté

Plerique capucium;

Alioquin dequadratur,

De quadrato retundatur,

Transit in almucium.

Si quid restat de morsellis

Cæsi panni sive pellis,

Non vacat officio:

Ex hiis fiunt manuthecæ,

Manutheca quidem Græcè

Manuum positio.

Sic ex veste vestem formant,

Engleis, Tyeis, Franceis, Normant,

Omnes generaliter;

Ut vix nullus excludatur.

Ita capa declinatur,

Sed mantellus aliter.

Adhuc primo recens anno,

Nova pelle, novo panno,

In arca reconditur;

Recedente tandem pilo,

Juncturarum rupto filo,

Pellis circumciditur.

Sic mantellus fit apella;

Ci git li drap, e la pel là,

Post primum divortium;

A priore separata

Cum secundo reparata

Transit in consortium.

Quod delictum dices majus?

Istud palam est contra jus:

Nam si nupsit alteri,

Conjugium est violatum,

Dum fit novo copulatum

Reclamante veteri.

N’est de concille, ne de sene,

Deus dras espuser à une pene,

E si nus le juggium;

Permittunt hoc decreta? non:

Sed reclamat omnis canon

Non esse conjugium.

Pannus primum circumcisus,

Viduatus et divisus

A sua pellicula,

Jam expertus Judaismum,

Emundatur per baptismum

A quacumque macula.

Circumcisus mundatusque,

Est adeptus utriusque

Legis testimonium;

Quem baptismus emundavit,

Cum secunda secundavit

Pelle matrimonium.

Pilis expers, usu fractus,

Ex Esaü Jacob factus,

Quant li peil en est chaü,

Inversatur vice versa,

Rursus idem ex conversa

Ex Jacob fit Esaü.

Pars pilosa foris paret,

Sed introrsus pilis caret

Vetustas abscondita;

Datur tamen, k’il n’i eit perte,

Servienti, pur deserte,

Mantellus hypocrita.

Translation.—I have said, ye are gods; why should I omit the service which should be said on festival days? Gods certainly ye are, who can transform an old garment into the shape of a new one.—The cloth, while fresh and new, is made either a cape or mantle; but, in order of time, first it is a cape, after a little space this is transformed into the other; thus ye “change bodies.”—When it becomes old, the collar is cut off; when deprived of the collar, it is made a mantle: thus, in the manner of Proteus, are garments changed; nor is the law of metamorphosis a new discovery.—With their shape they change their sex; the primates of the church privately close up again what was before torn; nor is it given, assuredly, till it has first undergone the fortune of Tiresias.—When, at length, winter returns, many engraft immediately upon the cape a capuce; then it is squared; after being squared it is rounded; and so it becomes an aumuce.—If there remain any morsels of the cloth or skin which is cut, it does not want a use: of these are made gloves; a glove is called in Greek “the placing of the hands.”—This is the general manner they all make one robe out of another, English, Germans, French, and Normans, with scarcely an exception. Thus cape is declined; but mantle otherwise.—In the first year, while it is still fresh, the skin and the cloth being both new, it is laid up in a box; when, however, the fur begins to be worn off, and the thread of the seams broken, the skin is circumcised.—Thus the mantle is made a Jew; here lays the cloth, there the skin, after the first divorce: being separated from its former husband, after separation it passes in reparation to marriage with a second husband.—But what will you say is a greater crime? this is clearly against right; for if she have married a second, the marriage is broken, when a new conjunction is made in spite of the reclamations of the old partner.—It is neither canonic nor wise to marry two cloths to one fur, and so we judge it. Do the decretals permit this? No: on the contrary, every canon declares, that it is no marriage.—The cloth having been first circumcised, then widowed and separated from its skin, now having experienced Judaism, is cleansed by baptism, from every stain (i. e. it is dyed).—Being circumcised and cleaned, and having obtained the testimony of both laws, he whom baptism has cleansed, contracts a new marriage with a second skin.—Being devoid of hair, and worn by use, from Esau having become Jacob, when the hair is fallen from it, the process is inverted, and again conversely from Jacob it becomes Esau.—The hairy part is turned out, but the old part, concealed inwardly, is bare of hairs. Now the hypocritical mantle, in order that there may be nothing lost, is given to the servant for his wages.

We are now approaching the eventful period of the Barons’ wars. The turbulent Welshmen were ever ready to seize an opportunity of invading the Marches; and the following song, whether it were composed by one of them, or be the work of one of the English who took the opportunity of satirising them, gives us a fair picture of the spirit in which they interfered.