"Whereas your impious excellence hath had the poore tenement of my purse anytime this half year for your dancing schole, and he, notwithstanding, hath received no penye nor crosse for farme," &c.
". . . . . . . . and in his pouche, The Devil might dance therein for any crouche." P. 71.
Trusting the above will be satisfactory to D. W. S., I beg to conclude, thinking, you will say I have already made "much ado about nothing."
_Rhymes upon Places_ (Vol. vi. p. 281.).--Perhaps you will think the following rhymes upon places worth insertion:
"I stood upon Eyemouth Fort, And guess ye what I saw? Fairmiside and Furmintong, Neuhouses and Cocklaw, The fairy fouk o' Fosterland, The witches o' Edincran, The bly-rigs o' Reston; But Dunse dings a'."
Near the seaside village of Eyemouth, in Berwickshire, is a promontory marked with a succession of grassy mounds, the remains of a fort built there in the regency of Mary of Lorraine. A number of places are represented as visible from the fort: but here fact is not strictly adhered to.
Fosterland once existed in the parish of Bunkle as a small village; but even its vestiges are not now visible on the brown moor where it once stood. Edincran, properly Auchinchran, is an estate in the vicinity of Fosterland, as is Reston also. There is a variation as follows:
"The fairy fouk o' Fosterland, The witches o' Edincran, And the rye-kail o' Reston Gar'd a' the dogs die."
The rye-kail alluded to must have been a broth chiefly made from rye, which grain, it is well known, is sometimes so much tainted as to be poisonous.
[Greek: Arnion] (Vol. vi., p. 509.).--Probably your correspondent is aware of the explanation given by Dr. Wordsworth in his book on the Apocalypse, but does not think it satisfactory. Still, as he does not allude to it, I venture to transcribe it:
"The Apocalypse abounds in contrasts. For example, the LAMB, who is always called [Greek: Amnos], never [Greek: Arnion], in St. John's _Gospel_, is called [Greek: Arnion], never [Greek: Amnos], in St. John's _Apocalypse_, in which [Greek: Arnion] occurs twenty-nine times. And why does [Greek: ho Amnos] here become [Greek: to Arnion]? To _contrast_ Him more strongly with [Greek: to Thêrion], that is, to mark the _opposition_ between the LAMB and the Beast."