George Clapperton, 'In Bowdoun on Black Monday' (c. 1540s-1570s)
This poem is attributed to George Clapperton (d. 1574) in the Maitland Folio manuscript (a large collection of Scottish poetry written between 1570-1586, in the household of Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington). This poet was perhaps the George Clapperton who was a priest, subdean of the Chapel Royal, and provost of Trinity Church in Edinburgh. The poem belongs to the genre of the 'chanson de mal mariée', or poems against marriage. It narrates an overheard complaint, spoken by a woman, set on 'blak monunday' or Easter Monday, at the performance of a town play. The location at Bowden in Roxburghshire feels incidental as the poem seems more interested in the complaint and its tragi-comic advice against marriage, yet its incidental portrayal of toun life (cf. 'our toun', l. 39) and reference to the Bass Rock marks a mid-sixteenth century poem that is increasingly interested in portraying place.
Source of the Text
Lightly modernised from: Craigie, W.A., ed., The Maitland Folio Manuscript, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1919-27), I, 243-44
['In Bowdoun on Blak Monday']
In bowdoun on blak monunday
Quhen all was gadderit to the play
Bayth men and women semblit thair
I hard ane sweit ane sicht and say
5way worth maryage for evermair.
Madinis ye may have grit plesance
For to do Venus obseruance
Thocht I inclusit be with cair
That I dar nother sing nor dance
10wa worth maryage for euirmair.
Quhen that I was ane madein ying
lichtlie wald I dance and sing
And sport and play bayth lait and air
Now dar I nocht luik to sic thing
15way wourth maryage for evirmair.
Thus am I bundin out of blis
On to ane churle sayis I am his
That I dar nocht luik our the stair
Scantlie to gif Sir Johne ane kis
20wa worth maryage for evirmair.
Now war I ane madin as I wes
To mak me lady of the bass
And thocht that I wer never so fayr
To weddin suld I never pass
25way worth maryage for evirmair.
Thus am I thirlit on to ane schrew
quhilk dow nothing of chalmer glew
Off bowre bourding bayth bask and bair
God wayt gif I haue caus to rew
30way wourth maryage for evirmair.
All nicht I clatter vpoin my creid
prayand to god gif I wer deid
Or ellis out of this warld I wair
Than suld I se for sum remeid
35way wourth maryage for euirmair.
Ye suld heir tell and he wer gane
That I suld be ane wantoun ane
To leir the law of luiffis layr
In our toun lyk me suld be nane
40way worth maryage for evirmair
I suld put on my russet gowne
My reid kirtill my hois of broun
And lat thame se my yallow hair
vndir my curche hingand doun
45way wourth maryage for evirmair.
Luffairis bayth suld heir and se
I suld luif thame pat wald luif me
Thair hartis for me suld never be sair
Bot ay vnweddit suld I be
50way wourth maryage for evirmair.
