Iohan þe Mullere haþ ygrounde smal, smal, smal; Þe Kynges sone of heuene schal paye for al. 10 Be war or _y_e be wo; Knoweþ ȝour freend fro ȝour foo; Haueth ynow, and seith 'Hoo'; And do wel and bettre, and fleth synne, And sekeþ pees, and hold ȝou þerinne; 15 and so biddeþ Iohan Trewman and alle his felawes. [Foot-note: 4 togidre] togidedre _MS._] [Foot-note: 11 ye] þe _MS._] E. ON THE YEAR 1390-1. St. John's College (Oxford) MS. 209, f. 57 a. The ax was sharpe, the stokke was harde, In the xiiii yere of Kyng Richarde. XV MISCELLANEOUS PIECES IN VERSE Under this head are grouped a number of short poems, representing forms of composition that survive only by fortunate chance. A is a curious little song, which has been printed from Hale MS. 135 by G. E. Woodbine in _Modern Language Review_, vol. iv, p. 236, and reconstructed by Skeat at vol. v, p. 105, of the same periodical. B and C are the best-known lyrics of the important collection edited by Böddeker, _Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harley 2253_, Berlin 1878. They are literary and rather artificial in form. D and E are minstrels' songs found, among other popular snatches, on a fly-leaf of Bodleian MS. Rawlinson D. 913, and edited by Heuser in _Anglia_, vol. xxx, p. 173. In E lines 14-16 and ll. 17-19 are to be expanded on the model of ll. 7-13. All these songs are early, and have a lightness and gaiety that become rare as the fourteenth century advances. F is one of several English scraps (ed. Furnivall in _Political, Religious, and Love Poems_, E.E.T.S., pp. 249 ff.) that are found scattered through the Latin text of MS. Harley 7322. Most of the English pieces are without poetical merit, but in this one poem the writer has attained a perfect simplicity. G, printed in Wright and Halliwell's _Reliquiae Antiquae_, 1845, vol. i, p. 144, has been recognized as the first of the English ballads. It is the only example before 1400 of the swift and dramatic movement, the sudden transitions, and the restrained expression, characteristic of the ballad style. H, first printed in _Reliquiae Antiquae_, vol. i, p. 240, is the latest of the short pieces. With onomatopoeic effects it gives a vivid if unfriendly picture of a blacksmith's forge on a busy night. I is a charm edited by Furnivall at p. 43 of the E.E.T.S. volume in which F appears. A. NOW SPRINGS THE SPRAY. Lincoln's Inn MS. Hale 135 (about 1300). _Nou sprinkes þe sprai, Al for loue icche am so seek Þat slepen I ne mai._ Als I me rode þis endre dai O mi playinge, 5 Seih I hwar a litel mai Bigan to singge: 'Þe clot him clingge! Wai es him i louue-longinge Sal libben ai!' 10 _Nou sprinkes, &c._