Copy 1, Volume 1
Essays on subjects connected with the literature, popular superstitions, and history of England in the Middle Ages / By Thomas Wright.
- Thomas Wright
- Date:
- 1846
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Essays on subjects connected with the literature, popular superstitions, and history of England in the Middle Ages / By Thomas Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.
175/324 page 159
![3 Saxon lampooners.”’ We are the more inclined to acquiesce in Mr. Ker’s decision on this point, because it is the only instance wherein we find the hard-hearted monks suscep- tible of compassion. How different is the spirit of the following, evidently sung by the monks over their cups, when exulting at a successful excursion of their provider, the begging friar ! “ Little Boo-peep ! His food is good liquor : When his cup’s drained out, Why, he begs all the quicker. A fig for their grumbling ! Live the jolly old dog! Who procures for us all Good swipes and good prog.” Mr. Ker gives the following explanation of the name which occurs in the first line of this ditty : ‘‘Boo-peep is here the limitour; the friar employed by the monastery in begging about for its support, was for- merly [so] called amongst us. Bod is the contraction of bode, a messenger ; and the limitour was he who intruded himself into every man’s home to procure provisions for his convent, and pick up all the idle gossip he could besides.”’ When the monks, wishing to destroy the remembrance of the commons’ discontents, and not foreseeing the pene- tration of Mr. Ker, changed this song into the following tetrastich ; the name thus given to the friar was retained, but not understood. “Little Boo-peep has lost his sheep, And cannot tell where to find ’em; Let him alone, they’ll [all] come home, And bring their tails behind ’em.” (p. 261.)](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33097963_0001_0175.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
