“‘Now into the sack, as I’m Richard Malvine, Or thy blood, Sir Priest, I will take! O good my lady and gentleman, I heard what you both did say, The parson I’ll dip in the mill-pond quick Before that I let him away, And my wife with a rope about her neck I’ll sell next market-day.’” The waggoner then hoists the sack with the parson in it on his back, and carries him forth to be ducked in the mill-pond. Another such an Interlude was one, not more edifying, in which occur snatches of a song:-- “Oh the wind and the rain, They have sent him back again, So you cannot have a lodging here!” and:-- “Oh, the wind is in the west, And the cuckoo’s in his nest, So you cannot have a lodging here!” and finally:-- “Oh, the devil is in the man, That he cannot understan’ That he cannot have a lodging here!” The half play half game of “Jenny-Jan” is common in the West of England and in Scotland, alike. A young man enters the room, when a woman acting the mother asks:-- “Come to see Jenny, Jan? Jenny, Jan? Jenny Jan? Come to see Jenny?” _He._ “Can I see her now?” _She._ “Jenny is washing, washing, washing, Jan. Jenny is washing, Jan, you can’t see her now.” _Then all say_:-- “Morning, ladies and gentlemen, too! Morning, ladies and gentlemen, too! Come to see Jenny, Jan? Jenny, Jan? Jenny, Jan? Come to see Jenny, and can’t see her now.” Next the youth is informed that Jenny is married, then that she is dead, then that she is buried, and lastly that her grave is green. “Jenny’s grave is green with the tears that flow.” The principal performer has to simulate various emotions at the information given to him. Now the first of these trifles is certainly derived from the old prose romance of _Friar Rush_, the earliest English printed copy of which is dated 1620, but which was taken from the German, and this was printed at Strasburg in 1515. The story, however, dates, in all probability, from a much earlier period. The second is remarkable because the music is almost note for note as sung not very many years ago, with the air to the same words as given in Queen Elizabeth’s _Virginal Book_. That Jenny-Jan must have been common all over England seems to be implied by the fact of its existing in Devon as well as in Scotland, though to different melodies.