some light verse

MANY simple folk, (it’s queer)

Used to patronise the seer

And pay cash down for magic spell

Perchance a Horoscope as well.

Or open wide at special rate

That musty tome the Book of Fate;

Or seek the Philtre’s subtle aid

To win the hand of some fair maid.

We mus’nt miss the Troubadours

Who went forth on their singing tours,

Twanging harps and trilling lays

To maids of medieval days.

And Oh! the right good merry times

With Maskers, Mummers and the Mimes,

Hobby horses gaily prancing,

Bats and Bowls and Maypole dancing.

When folks would take a lengthy journey

To see the Knights at Joust or Tourney:

Or watch the early English ‘Knuts’

Show their skill at Archery butts.

Then come gloomy History pages

On torture of the Middle ages;

The clanking fetters grim and black,

The thumbscrew and the awful rack,

The horrors of the dungeon deep

Beneath the moat or castle keep,

Rusty locks and heavy keys

And—let us change the subject, please.

--from A Humorous History of England, by Charles Harrison