Lyndsay's Satyre
Older Scots Reading 1
Chapter 6 · Lyndsay's Satyre
📜 Lyndsay's Satyre
So far the course has read documents and poems. This chapter reads people talking. It is a scene from a Scots play in which a guard bars the way to a ragged farmer, and the farmer tells his story. The page tool gave me thirty lines of the dialogue; I read the first twenty-six. The lines come in rhyming pairs, which makes the speech easy to follow, and the rhymes are a help when a word is unfamiliar.
The text
| Line | Older Scots | Gloss (mine) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | DILIGENCE: Swyith begger bogill, haist the away, | Quick, beggar bogle, hasten thyself away, |
| 2 | Thow art over pert to spill our play. | thou art too forward to spoil our play. |
| 3 | PAUPER: I wil not gif for al ȝour play worth an sowis fart, | I will not give for all your play the worth of a sow's fart, |
| 4 | For thair is richt lytill play at my hungrie hart. | for there is very little play at my hungry heart. |
| 5 | DILIGENCE: Quhat Devill ails this cruckit carle? | What devil ails this crooked fellow? |
| 6 | PAUPER: Marie Meikill sorrow : | Marry! Much sorrow: |
| 7 | I can not get, thocht I gasp, to beg, nor to borrow | I cannot get, though I gasp, by begging nor by borrowing |
| 8 | DILIGENCE: Quhair deuill is this thou dwels or quhats thy intent? | Where the devil is this (that) thou dwellest, or what's thy intent? |
| 9 | PAUPER: I dwell into Lawthiane ane myle fra Tranent. | I dwell in Lothian, a mile from Tranent. |
| 10 | DILIGENCE: Quhair wald thou be, carle, the suth to me shaw? | Where wouldst thou be, fellow? Show me the truth. |
| 11 | PAUPER: Sir, evin to Sanct-Androes for to seik law. | Sir, even to St Andrews, to seek law. |
| 12 | DILIGENCE: For to seik law in Edinburgh was the neirest way. | To seek law in Edinburgh was the nearest way. |
| 13 | PAUPER: Sir I socht law thair this monie deir day; | Sir, I sought law there these many dear days; |
| 14 | Bot I culd get nane at sessioun nor Seinȝe : | but I could get none at session nor Senyie: |
| 15 | Thairfoir the mekill dum Deuill droun all the meinȝe. | therefore may the great dumb Devil drown all the company. |
| 16 | DILIGENCE: Shaw me thy mater, man, with al the circumstances, | Show me thy matter, man, with all the circumstances, |
| 17 | How that thou hes happinit on thir vnhappie chances. | how thou hast happened upon these unhappy chances. |
| 18 | PAUPER: Gude-man will ȝe gif me ȝour Charitie, | Goodman, will ye give me your charity, |
| 19 | And I sall declair how the black veritie. | and I shall declare how the black truth. |
| 20 | My father was ane auld man and ane hoir, | My father was an old man and a hoar, |
| 21 | And was of age fourscoir of ȝeirs and moir; | and was of age fourscore of years and more; |
| 22 | And Mald, my mother was fourscoir and fyfteine : | and Mald, my mother, was fourscore and fifteen: |
| 23 | And with my labour I did thame baith sustein. | and with my labour I did them both sustain. |
| 24 | Wee had ane Meir, that caryit salt and coill, | We had a mare that carried salt and coal, |
| 25 | And everie ilk ȝeir scho brocht vs hame ane foill. | and every single year she brought us home a foal. |
| 26 | Wee had thrie ky that was baith fat and fair, | We had three cows that were both fat and fair, |
Source: Wikipedia, Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, the 1602 excerpt (the Diligence and Pauper scene), lines 1 to 26 of the thirty the page tool gave me, with the speaker labels as printed. The article prints no translation, so every gloss is mine and unverified. Lines 7, 14 and 15 are the least certain.
Nearly every line pair rhymes: away / play, fart / hart, borrow / sorrow, intent / Tranent, shaw / law, way / day, Seinȝe / meinȝe, circumstances / chances, Charitie / veritie, hoir / moir, fyfteine / sustein, coill / foill. That is my observation.
Walking through it
- Thou and ye. Diligence says thou and thy to the Pauper (lines 2, 8, 10, 16, 17). The Pauper says ȝe and ȝour to Diligence (lines 3, 18). Middle English Grammar 1, Chapter 5 found no source explaining when to use thou or ye. This scene shows a pattern in twenty-six lines, but I cannot say it is a rule: it may be about rank, or about the speaker's manner.
- Verb endings with thou. thou dwels (line 8) and thou hes (line 17) end in -s, not the 2nd singular -(e)st of Middle English Grammar 1, Chapter 6, though Thow art (line 2) matches Chapter 7. The sources do not say why.
- Questions. Line 10, Quhair wald thou be, puts the pronoun after the modal, and line 18, will ȝe gif me, does the same. Neither uses do. Chapter 8 of Middle English Grammar 1 found no source on question order, so I describe these two and give no rule.
- did in line 23. I did thame baith sustein uses did with the infinitive. I cannot say from my sources whether this did is a plain past or carries some extra shade; the sense is just "I sustained them both".
- Negatives. I wil not gif and I can not get use not with no ne, the third stage of Chapter 8. nane and nor are "none" and "nor".
- Verb forms. ails (line 5) and hes (line 17) end in -s with singular subjects. happinit and caryit end in the past -it (Chapter 1). droun in line 15 has no ending and expresses a wish ("may the Devil drown ..."); Chapter 6 of Middle English Grammar 1 did not cover the subjunctive, so I give no label. wald, culd, sall are the Scots modals, "would", "could", "shall".
- Pronouns. scho in line 25 is "she", and Chapter 5's table listed scheo / scho / ȝho. thame ("them") and thir ("these") begin with th, like the Norse line there and þir in the charter. vs is "us".
- Nouns. ky in line 26 is "cows". Middle English Grammar 1, Chapter 2 listed kine among the survivals of older plurals, so ky is probably the same word; that match is my reading. ȝeirs carries a plural -s.
- Letters. ȝour, ȝe and ȝeir use yogh for the sound of y (as Chapter 1 said). Seinȝe and meinȝe use it after n, and I do not know what sound that stands for. quh- in Quhat and Quhair; u for v in deuill and vs; ane for "a" in ane myle, ane Meir and ane foill.
- Spellings to watch. thair is "there" in line 4 and 13, and is probably "their" elsewhere in the full text; both are spelled alike. Mald is a personal name as printed, and I do not alter it.
The stage and the printed texts
| Older Scots | What the article gives |
|---|---|
| he brocht in ane Bischop, ane Persone (Parson), ane Freir, and ane Nun | From Henry Charteris's 1568 summary of the 1554 Edinburgh performance. The gloss in brackets is the article's. |
| spulzeit (deprived) of their offices | The same summary: King Correction strips the clergy of office. The gloss is the article's. |
| Heir thay feight togeddir and the puir man sall cast doun the burd and cast the rillickis in the watter. | A stage direction in the Bannatyne manuscript, for the Poor Man and Pardoner scene. No gloss is printed; my reading is "Here they fight together, and the poor man shall cast down the board and cast the relics in the water". |
| the samyne abuse is weill reformit in Scotland. | George Bannatyne's note on why he omitted the grave matter from the 1554 performance, since the church had been reformed in 1560. |
New words
| Older Scots | Meaning | Modern English relative |
|---|---|---|
| carle | fellow, man | churl (my guess) |
| cruckit | crooked, bent (my reading) | crooked |
| meikill / mekill | much, great | mickle (archaic) |
| gif | give; also "if" in Chapter 2 | give |
| seik | seek | seek |
| fra | from | fro |
| fourscoir | eighty | fourscore |
| foill | foal | foal |
| baith | both | both |
Try It Yourself
Say the answer first, then click to check.
1. Who wrote the play, and when was the 1602 text printed?
Show answer
Sir David Lyndsay; the full text was printed in 1602.
2. Where was the complete play first performed, and when?
Show answer
Outdoors at Cupar, Fife, in June 1552.
3. Translate I dwell into Lawthiane ane myle fra Tranent.
Show answer
"I dwell in Lothian, a mile from Tranent."
4. Which pronoun does Diligence use to the Pauper, and which does the Pauper use to Diligence?
Show answer
Diligence uses thou/thy; the Pauper uses ȝe/ȝour. The sources give no rule.
5. What is odd about thou dwels beside Chapter 6's table?
Show answer
It ends in -s, not the 2nd singular -(e)st.
6. How is the negative made in I wil not gif?
Show answer
With not alone, no ne: the third stage in Chapter 8.
7. What does scho mean?
Show answer
"She", a spelling listed in Chapter 5's pronoun table.
8. What does ky mean, and which Middle English Grammar 1 word is it like?
Show answer
"Cows"; like kine in Chapter 2.
9. Name three words in the passage with yogh.
Show answer
Any three of ȝour, ȝe, ȝeirs, ȝeir, Seinȝe, meinȝe.
10. Why does Bannatyne's note say the abuse is "weill reformit"?
Show answer
He is explaining why he left out the grave matter of the 1554 performance, since the church had been reformed in 1560.