e tone of his verse is sound and communal at heart. True, the metre,
afterwards a favorite with Burns, is one used by the oldest known
troubadour of Provence, Count William, as well as by the poets of
miracle plays and of such romances as the English 'Octavian'; but like
Count William himself, who built on a popular basis, our clerk or
gleeman is nearer to the people than to the schools. Indeed, Uhland
reminds us that Breton _kloer_ ("clerks") to this day play a leading
part as lovers and singers of love in folk-song; and the English
clerks in question were not regular priests, consecrated and in
responsible positions, but students or unattached followers of
theology. They sang with the people; they felt and suffered with the
people--as in the case of a far nobler member of the guild, William
Langland; and hence sundry political poems which deal with wrongs and
suffering endured by the commons of that day. In the struggle of
barons and people against Henry III., indignation made verses; and
these, too, we owe to the clerks. Such a burst of indignation is the
song against Richard of Cornwall, with a turbulent refrain which
sounds like a direct loan from the people. One stanza, with this
refrain, will suffice. It opens with the traditional "lithe and
listen" of the ballad-singer:--

Sit all now still and list to me:
The German King, by my loyalty!
Thirty thousand pound asked he
To make a peace in this country,--
And so he did and more!

REFRAIN

Richard, though thou be ever trichard,[28]
Trichen[29] shalt thou nevermore!

This, however, like many a scrap of battle-song, ribaldry exchanged
between two armies, and the like, has interest rather for the
antiquarian than for the reader. We shall leave such fragments, and
turn in conclusion to the folk-song of later times.

[28] Traitor.

[29] Betray.

The England of Elizabeth was devoted to lyric poetry, and folk-song
must have flourished along with its rival of the schools. Few of these
songs, however, have been preserved; and indeed there is no final test
for the communal quality in such survivals. Certainly some of the
songs in the drama of that time are of popular origin; but the
majority, as a glance at Mr. Bullen's several collections will prove,
are artistic and individual, like the music to which they were sung.
Occasionally we get a tantalizing glimpse of another lyrical England,
the folk dancing and singing their own lays;