A web-based edition of early seventeenth-century political poetry from manuscript sources. It brings into the public domain over 350 poems, many of which have never before been published.
E6 When Scotland was Scotland and England it selfe
Notes. This is one of two satirical attacks on the Scots that focuses on the sartorial transformation of coarsely dressed Scotsmen into silken-backed courtiers. Although the poem is undated, two allusions help to narrow down, at least provisionally, the earliest date of composition to c.1613-14. Lines 23-24, for instance, closely echo the opening two lines of the summer 1612 libel, “They beg our goods, our lands, and our lives”. There is, however, one significant difference. Here the Scots “begin to get our fair wives”, rather than merely “lie” with Englishmen’s wives. This may allude to the December 1613 marriage of the Scot Robert Carr with Frances Howard who, before her September 1613 annulment, had been married to the English noble Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex. In addition, stanza three of this poem has “Jocky...caper as high as an Earle”, which may allude to the first elevations of Scotsmen to English earldoms late in 1613, when Ludovick Stuart became Earl of Richmond, and Robert Carr Earl of Somerset. Using the poem as a frame through which to explore English attitudes to Carr, Bellany (Politics 70) places the libel's sartorial politics in the context of fears of status transgression and ambition at the Jacobean court.
“On the Scots”
When Scotland was Scotland and England it selfe
Then England was troubled wth no Scottish elfe
But since bonny jocky1 in England bare sway
The English are vanquisht the Scots goe their way
with begging with begging &c
5For now every Scotshman, that was lately wont
To weare the cow hide of an old Scottish runt
His bonny blew bonnet,2 is now layd aside
In velvet and scarlet proud Jocky must ride
A begging a begging &c
10His py’de motly jerkin3 al threadbare and old
Is now turnd to scarlet and ore lac’t with gold
His straw hat to bever, his hat band to perle
And Jocky can caper as high as an Earle.
A begging. &c
15You quarreling gallants looke wel to your hands
Least by fighting and brawling you forfet your lands4
For then be assured as soone as ’tis spyed
To get them, abegging proud Jocky wil ride
A gallop a gallop &c
20I think if the divel of hel could be got
That Jocky would beg him or some other Scot,
They beg al our money lands livings & lives
Nay more they beginne to get our fayre wives
With begging &c
25Our beggers on ten toes do trot up and downe
From doore to doore begging, in every towne
But jocky wel mounted on horseback on pride
To Court like a courtier a begging must ride
A gallop &c
30Theres n’ere an English begger that carryes a scrip5
But often for begging tasts wel of the whip6
But Jocky for whoring and playing the knave
Nay almost for treason his pardon can have7
with begging &c
35God save our king James and keep him from evil
And send al such Scotch men away to the devil
Or els into Scotland there stil to remaine
send home with a vengeance these scots men agane
A gallop a gallop a gallop a gallop
40Source. Folger MS V.a.345, pp. 287-88
E6
1 jocky: diminutive of John (Jack)—as in the 1604 libel on John Whitgift “The prelats pope”—and, in this case, an ethnic nickname for a Scotsman. <back>
2 blew bonnet: the blue bonnet or cap was a distinctive sartorial marker of Scottishness. <back>
4 forfet your lands: lose your lands to the Crown as a penalty, and have those lands then given by the Crown to a Scots courtier. The most famous Englishman to forfeit his lands to the Crown, and subsequently to a Scot, was Walter Ralegh, whose Sherborne estate was granted to Robert Carr late in 1608. <back>
5 scrip: small bag carried by beggars. <back>
6 whip: beggars and vagrants were routinely whipped as punishment. <back>
7 his pardon can have: this may refer to specific cases of Scots pardoned for punishable offences. According to Osborne (82-83), the Scotsman Murray who killed a London sergeant (see “They beg our goods, our lands, and our lives”) was pardoned while his servant accomplices were hanged. <back>
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