This is the earliest edition of Scoggin's Jests we have yet been able to meet with, although they must have appeared half a century earlier, since "The Gestes of Skoggan gathered together in this volume" was entered in the Stationers' Register by Tho. Colwell, in 1565; and probably printed in that year. The edition now before us was in the famous Harleian Collection, Bibl. Harl. vol. iv. No. 19636; there is a copy in the British Museum, dated in 1626, purporting to be "The first and best part of Scoggin's Jestes, full of witty mirth and pleasant shifts, done by him in France and other Places; being a preservative against melancholy; and there was another, printed in quarto, without date, for William Thackery, a great vender of story books and romances, about the year 1670. " Of the author of the Jests in question, Holinshed thus writes,* "Scogan, a learned gentleman and student for a time in Oxford, of a plesant wit, and bent to merrie deuises, in respect whereof he was called into the court, where giuing himselfe to his naturall inclination of mirth and pleasant pastime, he plaied manie sporting parts, although not in such vnciuill manner as hath beene of him reported." Bale, who calls him "alter Democritus," affirms that he was educated in Oxford, where he became Master of Arts, and that, in addition to his facetious qualifications, he was admirably skilled in philosophy and all other liberal arts and sciences. The same writer places him as flourishing in 1480.† It should, however, be noted that there was another Scogan, with whom our jester has been frequently confounded. This was Henry Scogan, a poet, who lived in the reign of Henry IV. and wrote "A morall Ballade to the Kinge's Sonnes," printed in the collection of Chaucer's pieces, and another entitled "Flee from the Prese," which has been erroneously ascribed to Chaucer in Urry's edition, though given to the real author in a good manuscript in Corpus Christi College, Oxford. was to this Scogan, that the father of English poetry addressed a metrical remonstrance, extant in manuscript in the Bodleian (Fairfax, No. 16), beginning: It. To broken been the statutes hye in hevene, That creat weren eternaly to dure, &c. and Ben Jonson introduces him in one of his masques, The Fortunate Isles, as him that made disguises For the king's sons, and writ in ballad. royal Daintily well. The Jestes of Scoggin are said to have been gathered by Dr. Andrew Borde, a physician, poet, and great traveller, of whom we shall have to take notice, when we come to the mention of The merry Tales of the Madmen of Gotham, another of his popular compilations. In a preface to the latter editions (for that of In his list of learned men, in the reign of Edward IV. Chronicle iii. 710. Ed. folio, 1587. + Scriptorum Britannia Catalogus, sæc. xi. num. 70, ed. folio, 1559. This date is corroborated also in one of the Jests, where Scoggin gives a man a bond for a sum of money payable upon the feast of St. Peter, 1490, for which he ingeniously contrives to substitute 1590, and so postpones the day of payment only for one century. 2 T JUNE, 1823. 1613 has it not), Borde gives a very brief account of the author. He had (he tells us)" heard say, that Scoggin did come of an honest stock, no kindred, and that his friends did set him to schoole at Oxford, where he did continue till he was made master of art:"† and we learn a little of his history from various adventures incidentally detailed in his merry pranks. He was, it seems, banished from England on account of a deception practised on the simple daughter of a goldsmith of London, whose honesty he corrupted by a very unworthy stratagem. Clothing "himselfe like a scholler," he crosses from Dover to Calais, where he lined his purse by a wager with one of the burgo-masters, "that he would make an oration in the middle of the market place, which should make one halfe of his auditors to laugh, and the other halfe to weepe;" he effects this in no very decent manner, and then travels into Picardy, where, after long solicitation, he was made chief warrener to a noble knight. Scoggin, however, puts a practical joke on his master, which occasions his dismissal in disgrace; affording a sufficient proof, as the compiler sagely remarks, "how a man may lose that in an houre, that was not got in a yeate." He next becomes "a horse-courser's servant," but is not more fortunate in this more humble situation, for he plays divers silly pranks, and is at last turned out of his service as an ungracious knave for his pains. We next hear of him at Paris, where he "was gretly beloued for his subtill wit and crafty deceites; then at Caen in Normandy; and lastly at Rome, where, after being invited to sup with his Holiness, he is so reduced, if we may believe the tale, as to keep an ale-house upon the Cardinal rents. How to reconcile this with mention that is afterwards made of his holding a benefice, and being so merry conceited, that he would always say service quite contrary to all others," we know not; but as we conjecture many of Scoggin's residences and offices are made to suit the stories that are related of him, we must be content to follow our authority, without very minutely canvassing the probable authenticity of the account. The little volume of 1613, which we believe to be only the first part of the whole collection, leaves its hero in the humble capacity of "serving man to a certaine squire that tooke great delight to trauell into strange countries to see fashions, the which pleased Scoggin wondrous well;" and here we also must bid him farewell, giving our readers a specimen or two of the wit which is said to have rendered our hero so popular at court, in the days of king Edward IV. How Scoggin made the country people of fer their money to a dead man's head. Vpon a time when Scoggin lacked mainhis former acquaintance by reason of his tenance, and had gotten the displeasure of thought himselfe in what manner he might crafty dealings and vnhappy tricks, he beget money with a litle labour; so trauelling vp into Normandie, he got him a prieste's gowne, and clothed himselfe like a scholler, and after went into a certaine churchyard, where hee found the scull of a dead man's head, the which hee tooke vp and made very cleane, and after bore it to a goldsmith, and hired him to set it in a stud of siluer, which being done, he departed to a village thereby, and came to the parthen told him that he had a relique, and son of the church, and saluted him, and desired him that he would do so much for him, as to shew it vnto the parish, that they may offer to it; and withall promised the parson that hee should haue the one halfe of the offeringes. The parson, moued with couetousnesse, granted his request, and so vppon the Sunday following told his parishioners thereof, saying that there was a certaine religious scholler come to the towne that had brought with him a prethereunto should haue a generall pardon cious relique; and hee that would offer for all his forepassed sinnes, and that the scholler was there present himselfe to shew it them. With that Scoggin went vp into the pulpit, and shewed the people the re Meaning, of no great family, although of honest parents. + It is mentioned in one of the Jests, that his degree of M.A. had great weight with his holiness the Pope, when Scoggin desired to be made a priest: "considering with himselfe that hee was a maister of arte, and sufficient enough to performe any office of the church, whereupon he made sute to the Pope to be made a priest, the which was done immediately." Sign. D. 7. lique that he had, and said to them that the head spake to him, and that it bad him that hee should build a church ouer him, and that the money that the church should be builded withall should be well gotten. But when the people came to offer to it, Scoggin said vnto them, "Al you women that have made your husbands cuckolds, I pray you sit still and come not to offer, for the head bad mee that I should not receiue your offerings;" whereupon the poore men and their wiues came thicke and three fould to this offering, and there was not a woman but she offered liberally, because that hee had said so, and he gaue them the blessing with the head. And there was some that had no money that offered their rings, and some of them that offered twice or thrice because they would bee seene. Thus receiued he the offrings both of the good and the bad, and by this practise got a great summ of money. How Scoggin sate at the Pope's Table. VVithin a month after Scoggin's arriuall in Rome, he got so much fauour that he was vpon a time bidden to supper by the Pope himselfe, and being in the midst of their junkets, the Pope asked his seruitors for the peacocke that was dressed for his dinner, which he comanded to be kept for his supper, which not beeing done according, he grew into a great rage for it. Scoggin, sitting then by him at board, perswaded his holinesse not to be angry: To whom the Pope replyed, saying," If God were so highly offended in Paradice for casting out our old father Adam from thence, and onely for eating an apple, why should not I (being his vicar on earth) be more furious for a peacocke, knowing how farre it is in value aboue a rotten apple?" How Scoggin answered a Popish Priest. It was Scoggin's chance vpon a time to be in a church in Rome, whilst a holy frier was casting about his holy water, wherevpon there came a priest vnto Scoggin and reprooued him because hee did not put off his cap, when the frier sprinkled him with holy water, who answered; "If it haue power (as you say) to passe to purgatorie, surely it must haue easier passage through my cap." How Scoggin for one day serued in a Scoggin beeing at Rome, and lodged in a priest's house there, where an old churchman that on a sonday could not performe his dutie to the parish. Whereupon Scoggin, taking vpon him the prieste's office, and as though he had bene another curate dwelling hard by, went to the church and said seruice both forenoon and afternoone : but, as the order was then, the parishioners came before seruice and confessed them to the priest; but amongst the rest there came to Scoggin a poore blacksmith to be con-' fessed, to whom he said: How sayest thou, friend, art thou not a fornicator? The poore man said, No. Quoth Scoggin againe, art thou not a glutton? Art thou not superbious? He said still no. Scoggin perceiuing he said still no, to euery thing, began to wonder, asking againe : Art thou not concupicent? No, Sir, said hee. Why what art thou then, quoth Scoggin? I am, said hee, a poore blacksmith, for, beholde, here is my hammer. There was also another that answered in like manner-It was a sheepeheard, whom Scoggin did aske: Friend, how sayest thou hast thou kept the commandements of the church? No, never. Then, said Scoggin ynto him, What hast thou then kept? I neuer kept any thing but sheepe in all my life, quoth the shepheard. there was another who, after hee had declared all his faults, was asked if any thing else stucke in his conscience? He answered nothing, but that vpon a time he had stolen a halter. Well (said Scoggin), to steale a halter is no great matter. Yea, but (said the man) there was a horse tyed at the end thereof. I, marry (qd Scoggin) that is another manner of matter: there is difference betweene a horse and a halter; you must therefore restore backe the horse, and the next time that yee come againe I will absolue you for the halter, Yet How Scoggin iested with a Boy in the street. A wag-halter boy met Scoggin in the longest? Marry boy, saies Scoggin, he streete and said Maister Scoggin, who liues that dieth latest. And why die men so fast? said the boy: Because they want breath, said Scoggin. No, rather (said the boy) because their time is come, they die. Then thy time is come, said Scoggin, see, who comes yonder? Who? said the boy, Marry, said Scoggin, Swag the hangman. Nay, hang me then, if I imploy him at this time; sayes the boy. Well, said Scoggin, then thou wilt be hanged another time by thy owne confession. And so they departed. Of Scoggin and a countrey Milke-maide. Scoggin upon a time beeing in a countrey village, came to Rome in the company of a merrie conceited milke maide, carrying vpon her head a paile of milke to the market, thinking to sell it. To passe the time away to maister Scoggin, shee made her reckoning aforehand in this manner. "First (quoth the maide) I will sell my milke for two pence, and then with this two pence, buy eight egges, which I will set a-brood vnder a hen, and shee will haue eight chickens: which chickens being growne vp, I will cramme them, and by that meanes they will bee capons: These capons being young, will bee woorth twelue pence a peece, that is iust eight shillings, with the which I will buy two pigs, a sowpig, and a boare-pig, and they growing great, will bring forth twelue others, the which I will sell (after I haue kept them a while) for halfe a crowne peece, that is just thirty shillings. Then I will buy a mare that will bring foorth a faire foale: the which will grow vp, and be gentle and faire, that she will play, skip, leape and fling and cry weehee after euery beast that shall passe by. But now for the ioy this milke-maide tooke of her supposed foale, and in her iollity counterfetting to shew her foale's lustinesse, her paile of milke fell downe from her head, and was all spilt. Then Scoggin laughing, said vnto her: "there now lies all your egges, your chickens, your capons, your pigges, your mare, her colt and all vpon the ground"! so, by this meanes was she depriued of all her purposes. This tale cannot fail to remind the reader of a similar story told of the man and his basket of crockery, in the Arabian Nights, a work of which no English translation appeared till long after the Jests of Scoggin had been collected and given to the public. It is besides curious to gather from some of the maiden's calculations, what were the prices of provisions at that period. That valuable old English historian Holinshed tells us, that in his time (in 1574, which was a year of great scarcity,) wheat was sold at London, about Lammas, for three shillings the bushell," but shortlie after it was raised to foure shillings, fiue shillings, six shillings; and before Christmas to a noble, and seuen shillings, which so continued long after. Beefe was sold for twentie pence, and two and twentie pence the stone, and all other flesh and white meats at an excessiue price, all kind of salt fish verie deare, as fiue herings two pence: pease at foure shillings the bushell, otemeale at foure shillings eight pence; baie salt at three shillings the bushell &c: All this dearth notwithstanding (he continues) there was no want of anie thing to them that wanted not money." It is pretty evident, from some of the passages we have now given, that the Jests of Scoggin must have been collected after the Reformation; at no other time would allusions so dero gatory to the papal dignity, nor such sarcasms on the ceremony of absolution, have been tolerated. The time, therefore, well agrees with the supposition that Andrew Borde was the collector, although we cannot trace the first appearance of the volume till some years after his decease. Borde had himself been a Carthusian friar in early life. We meet with some amusing instances of the power claimed by the Holy Pontiff in Cellini's Memoirs, lately published by Mr. Roscoe.forms some acts of heroic valour, Benvenuto (who, by the way, perequalled only by Jack the Giant Killer), having cut a man into two pieces at the siege of the castle of St. Angelo, and in the presence of the Pope, falls upon his knees, and entreats his holiness to absolve him from the guilt of homicide, &c. "The Pope (says Cellini), lifting up his hands, and making the sign of the cross over me, said that he blessed me, and gave me his absolution for all the homicides that I had ever committed, or ever should commit, in the service of the apostolic church." Benvenuto makes the most of this absolution a few years afterwards, by which time he had quarrelled with, and killed, some half-dozen people, for he thus quiets his conscience when in confinement: "Though I had sometimes been guilty of manslaughter, yet as God's vicar upon earth had confirmed my pardon by his authority, and all that I had done was in defence of the body which his Divine Majesty had given me, I did not see how I could, in any sense, be thought to deserve death." He gets out of prison in consequence of a papal debauch, which is no bad parallel to the story of the peacock; but for this we refer to the original. The following monkish epitaph on Scogan occurs in a manuscript in the Harleian Collection, No. 1587, written about the year 1483, and containing the autograph of Cardinal Pole: Hic jacet in tumulo corpus SCOGAN ecce JOHANNIS Sit tibi pro speculo, letus fuit ejus in annis. Leti transibunt, transitus vitare nequi bunt; Quo nescimus ibunt, vinosi cito peribunt. ON THE TRAGIC DRAMA OF GREECE. INTRODUCTORY TO A SERIES OF SCENES FROM THE GREEK TRAGIC POETS. AMONG the numerous degrading misapprehensions of the moderns relative to points of ancient history, arts, and customs, may perhaps be classed the popular notions, countenanced and consecrated by many a grave archeologist, on the origin and progress towards perfection of the Grecian drama. At the festival of Bacchus, it is matter of notoriety that, on the principle of the heathen sacrifices, the goat, as an enemy to the vine, was immolated to its patron God. Hymns were sung on this occasion, and solemn dances performed. There was also a poetic contest, of which a goat was constituted the prize: the poem sung was named the song of the goat; the origin of the term of tragedy. The dance, the hymn, and the prize-poem, in time received the addition of gesticular imitation, and the assumption by the reciter of the character of Bacchus, or some other God or hero connected with the Dionysian legends. That the subject of this acted recitation was thus restricted, seems probable from the remark of Plutarch in the Symposiacs: who observes, "that Phrynicus and Eschylus first diverted tragedy from its original purpose to fictions and representations directed to move the passions; and that people began to say, what is all this to the purpose when the subject is Bacchus?" But the honour of applying tragedy to representative fiction seems rather due to Thespis himself, with the sole restriction of Bacchus being his hero. As the vulgar tradition runs, a set of tippling clowns met, after their labour at the vintage, to sing and dance in honour of Bacchus, and bandy jests with each other. Somebody, we are told, took it into his head to accompany the songs with piping; and this was the beginning of the tragic chorus. Then came Thespis, who chose out of this embryo chorus a set of persons, whom he placed in a cart, and employed to chant some story or adventure, having their faces disguised with wine-stains: the exhibition ended, it is thought, with pleasant gibes on the spectators; as if the tragedy must needs have a farce tacked on to it: and so we have the rise of comedy. To this wretched burlesque of circumstances, we may oppose the fact, that sacrificial rites and processions were not, even in the most barbarous times, performed by drunken peasants: the festival of Bacchus was not a revel or a wake; nor were the Greek bards and minstrels jesters and ballad-singers. Tragic fiction and action arose out of Orphic hymns and Homeric tales of Troy. Thespis was probably a rhapsodist, who, on the occasion of the Bacchic solemnities, conceived the idea of personating by gesture the heroes or Gods whose exploits he narrated. He was perhaps, at first, the only gesticulator and reciter, and afterwards sought assistants to relieve the exhaustion of his single efforts: it is most likely they were rhapsodists like himself. It is not credible that the Grecian people, who had been accustomed to listen to the recitations of Homer, would have been satisfied with the carols of Bowzibees* and boors. Horace describes a band of tragedians; and Dr. Francis, with the Vagrant Act before his eyes, contributes to sink O Bowzibee! why didst thou stay so long? Of raree-shows he sung, and punch's feats; Of pockets pick'd in crowds, and various cheats: What woeful woes in chevy chase befell. Then he was seized with a religious qualm, Gay's Shepherd's Week. Saturday, The Flights. |