“And also the vicar, as I trow,
    Will not fail to take a cow,
    And uppermost cloths, though babes them an,
    From a poor seely husbandman,
    When he lyes ready to dy,
    Having small children two or three,
    And his three kine withouten mo,—­
    The vicar must have one of tho,
    With the gray cloke that covers the bed,
    Howbeit that they be poorly cled;
    And if the wife die on the morn,
    And all the babes should be forlorn,
    The other cow he takes away,
    With her poor cote and petycote gray: 
    And if within two days or three
    The eldest child shall happen to dy,
    Of the third cow he shall be sure,
    When he hath under his cure;
    And father and mother both dead be,
    Beg must the babes without remedy. 
    They hold the corse at the church style,
    And thare it must remain awhile,
    Till they get sufficient surety
    For the church right and duty. 
    Then comes the landlord perforce,
    And takes to him the fattest horse;
    Poor labourers would that law were down,
    Which never was founded by reason. 
    I heard them say, under confession,
    That this law was brother to oppression.”

As it drew on towards eventide, the mirth increased.  The rude legendary ballads of Sir Lancelot of the Lake, Beavois of Southampton, Robin Hood, The Pindar of Wakefield, and the Friar of Fountain’s Abbey, Clim of the Clough, Ranulph of Chester, his Exploits in the Holy Land, together with the wondrous deeds of war and love performed by Sir Roger of Calverly, had been sung and recited to strange and uncouth music.  Carols, too, were chanted between whiles in a most unreverend fashion.  A huge Christmas pie, made in the shape of a cratch or cradle, was placed on the board.  This being accounted a great test of orthodoxy, every one was obliged to eat a slice, lest he should be suspected of favouring the heretical tenets then spreading widely throughout the land.  Blind-man’s-buff and hot-cockles had each their turn; but the sport that seemed to afford the most merriment was a pendulous stick having an apple at one end, and on the other a lighted candle, so that the unfortunate and liquorish wight who bit at this tempting bait generally burnt his nose on the rebound, as the stick bounced to and fro on its pivot.  The hall was now cleared for the masks.  In this play, the Black Knight himself generally joined, laughing heartily at and hurrying on the mis-haps of the revellers.  Many horrible and grotesque-looking shapes and disguises soon made their appearance; but one, more especially than the rest, excited no slight degree of distress and alarm.  His antics proved a continual source of annoyance to the rest of the company.  He singed Will the Arrowsmith’s beard, poured a whole flagon of hot liquor in the wide hosen of Hobbe Adamson; but the enactor of St George in a more especial manner attracted his notice; he crept between his legs, and bore him right into the middle of the pig-sty, before he could be stayed; from whence the heroic champion of England issued, sorely shent with the admixtures and impurities of the place.