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These songs resemble those of our own ancient mummers, who to this day, in honour of Bishop Blaize, the Saint of Woolcombers, go about chanting on the eves of their holidays.[9] A custom long existed in this country to elect a Boy-Bishop in almost every parish;[10] the Montem at Eton still prevails for the Boy-Captain; and there is a closer connexion, perhaps, between the custom which produced the “Songs of the Crow and the Swallow,” and our Northern mummeries, than may be at first suspected. The Pagan Saturnalia, which the Swallow song by its pleasant menaces resembles, were afterwards disguised in the forms adopted by the early Christians; and such are the remains of the Roman Catholic religion, in which the people were long indulged in their old taste for mockery and mummery. I must add in connexion with our main inquiry, that our own ancient beggars had their songs, in their old cant language, some of which are as old as the Elizabethan period, and many are fancifully characteristic of their habits and their feelings.

[Footnote 1:
Dr. Clarke’s Travels, vol. iv. p. 56. ]

[Footnote 2:
In the poem on the entrenchment of New Ross, in Ireland, in 1265 (Harl. MS., No. 913), is a similar account of the minstrelsy which accompanied the workers. The original is in Norman French; the translation we use is that by the late Miss Landon (L.E.L.):–

Monday they began their labours,
Gay with banners, flutes, and labours;
Soon as the noon hour was come,
These good people hastened home,
With their banners proudly borne.
Then the youth advanced in turn,
And the town, they make it ring,
With their merry carolling;
Singing loud, and full of mirth,
A way they go to shovel earth.
“]

[Footnote 3:
Deip. lib. xiv. cap. iii. ]

[Footnote 4:
The Lords of the Admiralty a few years ago issued a revised edition of these songs, for the use of our navy. They embody so completely the idea “of a true British sailor,” that they have developed and upheld the character. ]

[Footnote 5:
In Durfey’s whimsical collection of songs, “Wit and Mirth,” 1682, are several trade songs. One on the blacksmiths begins:–

Of all the trades that ever I see,
There’s none to a blacksmith compared may be,
With so many several tools works he;
Which nobody can deny!”

The London companies also chanted forth their own praises. Thus the Mercers’ Company, in 1701, sang in their Lord Mayor’s Show, alluding to their arms, “a demi-Virgin, crowned”:–

“Advance the Virgin–lead the van–
Of all that are in London free,
The mercer is the foremost man
That founded a society;
Of all the trades that London grace,
We are the first in time and place.”
]

[Footnote 6:
Dr. Burney subsequently observed, that “this rogue Autolycus is the true ancient Minstrel in the old Fabliaux;” on which Steevens remarks, “Many will push the comparison a little further, and concur with me in thinking that our modern minstrels of the opera, like their predecessor Autolycus, are pickpockets as well as singers of nonsensical ballads.”–Steevens’s Shakspeare, vol. vii. p. 107, his own edition, 1793. ]

[Footnote 7:
Mr. Roscoe has printed this very delightful song in the Life of Lorenzo, No. xli. App. ]

[Footnote 8:
The late Rowland Hill constantly sang at the Surrey Chapel a hymn to the tune of “Rule Britannia,” altered to “Rule Emmanuel.” There was published in Dublin, in 1833, a series of “Hymns written to favourite tunes.” They were the innocent work of one who wished to do good by a mode sufficiently startling to those who see impropriety in the conjunction of the sacred and the profane. Thus, one “pious chanson” is written to Gramachree, or “The Harp that once through Tara’s Halls,” of Moore. Another, describing the death of a believer, is set to “The Groves of Blarney.” ]

[Footnote 9:
The festival of St. Blaize is held on the 3rd of February. Percy notes it as “a custom in many parts of England to light up fires on the hills on St. Blaize’s Night.” Hone, in his “Every-day Book,” Vol. I. p. 210, prints a detailed account of the woolcombers’ celebration at Bradford, Yorkshire, in 1825, in which “Bishop Blaize” figured with the “bishop’s chaplain,” surrounded by “shepherds and shepherdesses,” but personated by one John Smith, with “very becoming gravity.” ]

[Footnote 10:
The custom was made the subject of an Essay by Gregory, in illustration of the tomb of one of these functionaries at Salisbury. They were elected on St. Nicholas’ Day, from the boys of the choir, and the chosen one officiated in pontificals, and received large donations, as the custom was exceedingly popular. Even royalty listened favourably to “the chylde-bishop’s” sermon. ]