The taste for burlesque in composition set in at a very early period, as will become evident from a perusal of these pages, and may be regarded to some extent as a counter-movement to the practice of _moralising_ secular productions which were thought to be of an irreligious tendency, and to be susceptible of a different kind of treatment, like the _New Nutbrown Maid upon the Passion of Christ_, the _Court of Venus moralized_, the _Gude and Godly Ballets_ of our Northern neighbours, and _Come over the bourne, Bessy, to me_. Of the last, singularly enough, there are two parodies--one political, in which Queen Elizabeth is the heroine, and the other allegorical, in which the speaker is Christ, and Bessy, Mankind. But the original was of an amatory complexion. Certainly, on the whole, one of the ballads in a printed collection of the reign of James I., entitled _Deuteromelia_, 1609, affords the most powerful and diverting example of the manner in which our own ancestors handled the present class of undertaking, as well as a proof of the appreciation of the ludicrous by the readers of those days. It is an extremely clever production, which I am tempted to transfer hither entire:-- “Martin said to his man, Fie! man, fie! Oh, Martin said to his man, Who’s the fool now? Martin said to his man, Fill thou the cup, and I the can; Thou hast well drunken, man: Who’s the fool now? “I see a sheep shearing corn, Fie! man, fie! I see a sheep shearing corn; Who’s the fool now? I see a sheep shearing corn, And a cuckoo blow his horn; Thou hast well drunken, man: Who’s the fool, now? “I see a man in the moon, Fie! man, fie! I see a man in the moon, Who’s the fool now? I see a man in the moon, Clouting of St. Peter’s shoon. Thou hast well drunken, man: Who’s the fool now? “I see a hare chase a hound, Fie! man, fie! I see a hare chase a hound, Who’s the fool now? I see a hare chase a hound, Twenty mile above the ground; Thou hast well drunken, man: Who’s the fool now? “I see a goose ring a hog, Fie! man, fie! I see a goose ring a hog, Who’s the fool now? I see a goose ring a hog, And a snail that bit a dog; Thou hast well drunken, man: Who’s the fool now? “I see a mouse catch the cat, Fie! man, fie! I see a mouse catch the cat, Who’s the fool now? I see a mouse catch the cat, And the cheese to eat the rat; Thou hast well drunken, man: Who’s the fool now?”