John Day the printer, sitting at a side-board, after dinner was bidden to go home; who had else gone to prison.' This passage shows that neither Cardinal Wolsey nor Cardinal Pole had anything to do with the suppression of "John Bon"; the one had died in 1530, the other was in England only from 1554 to 1558. The work seems rather to have been worn out in the pocket as a favourite, than wilfully destroyed as heterodox: for Protestantism was in the ascendant at its publication. With the Editor," John Bon" hath ever been a favourite; and he is confident that few will agree in the opinion of it already quoted from Dr. Dibdin. "John Bon" is the PIERS PloughMAN of the sixteenth century. So characteristic and spirited in his part in the Dialogue,—so popular and forcible is his argument, so justly severe are the rebukes administered to the Parson, that "John Bon" may be read more than once without disrelish; and the scarceness both of the original and of the black-letter reprint will justify the re-issue of it, as a parting gift, to the Members of the PERCY SOCIETY,-a small but not unapt conclusion of the interesting series of old English * Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol. 11. p. 116 (pp. 182-3, ed. Oxford, 1822, 8vo). poctical and popular literature which they have recalled into existence. Mill Yard, 27 May, 1852. W. H. BLACK. ALASSE, poore fooles! so sore ye be lade, And betwen two irons printed it is and bake. And loke, where idolatrye is, Christe wyl not be there; Wherfore, ley downe your burden, an idole ye do beare. Alasse, poore fooles! [DIALOGUE BETWEEN JOHN BON AND MAST PERSON.] THE PARSON. What, John Bon! good morowe to the! JOHN BON. Nowe good morowe, mast Parson, so mut I thee. PARSON. What meanest thou, John, to be at worke so sone? JOHN. The zoner I begyne, the zoner shall I have done; PARSON. Mary, John, for that God's blessinge on thy herte; JOHN. They aer the more to blame, I swere by saynt Steven. But tell me, mast Parson, one thinge, and you can; 10 What saynt is Copsi Cursty, a man, or a woman? |