The Arts In Berwick -- Ballads and Poems
Lusty Friars

By 15th.Century all four orders of Friars had set up in Berwick, making the town an ideal setting for the anonymous comic poem The Friars of Berwick. Dating from c.1480 when Berwick was still Scots, it tells how two roving friars beg lodgings from Alison, a housewife, while her husband, Simon, is away. They spy on her assignation with another lecherous friar, until Simon's unexpected return. A knockabout farce, it ends with the lecherous friar hit with a cudgel. Probably based on a performance piece, the poem was copied out in 1568 by George Bannatyne (1545-1605), while he was sheltering from the Edinburgh plague. It used to be attributed to William Dunbar, but this is not now accepted.



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