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Lenten Stuff - a 16th Century ballad by William Elderton. From MS Ashmole 48. Lent was a time for penitence, prayer and fasting, and the ballad gives a good description of Lent in Tudor England, with complaints (among other things) about an excess of fish, leeks and nettles. It also mentions the traditional figure of Jack-a-Lent, a stuffed effigy, usually made of straw, which was dragged through the streets during Lent, and burned on Palm Sunday. Richard de Winter: baritone Catherine Groom: harp Robin Jeffrey: lute Alison Kinder: bass viol Tamsin Lewis: renaissance violin A newe ballad entytuled, Lenton stuff, for a lyttell munny ye maye have inowghe: To the tune of the Crampe. Lenton stuff ys cum to the towne, The clensynge weeke cums quiklye, You knowe well inowghe you must kneele downe ; Cum on, take asshes trykly, That nether are good fleshe nor fyshe, But dyp with Judas in the dyshe, And keepe a rowte not woorthe a ryshe. Herrynge, herrynge, whyte and red, Seeke owt suche as be rotten; Thowghe sum be hanged, and sum be dede, And sum be yet forgotten, The tyme wyll cum the displynge rod, Thowghe idolls dum make many od, Wyll fyrk owt som that feare not God. Walflet oysters, salt and greene, Are trym metes to be eaten ; Trusty subjects to there queene Neede never to be beten. And a sallet, sure as God, exceedes, And must procure dysgestion needes, Thats pyct so pure yt hathe no weedes. Newe place, newe, at every tyde, Thys ys the common cravynge ; In every place let them be tryde, That are of yll behavynge. For suche as of beyond say smell, The cum to far to savor well, As I here the common people tell. And as thys lent tyme many seekes For yerbs and sallets dayntye, I never in my lyf sawe lyekes In every place so plentye. For every man lykes what he lust, And as he lykes he puts hys trust, So fewe or non belyke be just. Of nettells lykwyse there be store In sallets at thys season ; ' For men be nettled more and more, With palltryse passynge reson ; And sum uppon a nettell pysse, That see not where the nettell ys ; And many a on fynds fault at thys. Then Jake-a-lent comes justlynge in, With the hedpeece of a herynge, And saythe, "repent yowe of yower syn, For shame, syrs, leve yower swerynge." And to Palme Sonday doethe he ryde, With sprots and herryngs by hys syde, And makes an end of Lenton tyde. The ballad is set to the tune of "the cramp", a popular dance tune of the time, which is found among the Three Country Dances in Thomas Ravenscroft's Pammelia. Image: Peter Brueghel the Elder - The Battle between Shrovetide and Lent, c1559