Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

88 MINSTRELSY OF
"that shame hasted marriage betwixt John Serapill,
" called the Dancer, and Mary Levingston,* sirnamed
" the liusty. What bruit the Maries, and the rest of
" the dancers of the court had, the ballads of that age
" do witnesse, which we for modestie's sake omit :
but
" this was the common complaint of all godly and wise
*' men, that, if they thought such a court could long con-
"tinue, and if they looked for no better life to come,
" they would have wished their sonnes and daughters
" rather to have been brought up with fiddlers and
" dancers, and to have been exercised with flinging upon
" a floore, and in the rest that thereof foUowes, than to
" have been exercised in the company of the godly, and
" exercised in virtue, which in that court was hated, and
" filthenesse not only maintained, but also rewarded :
" witnesse the Abbey of Abercorne, the Barony of
" Auchvermuchtie, and divers others, pertaining to the
" patrimony of the crown, given in heritage to skippers
" and dancers, and dalliers with dames. This was the
" beginning of the regiment of Mary, Queen of Scots,
" and these were the fruits that she brought forth of
• " John Seniple, son of Robert, Lord Semple, (by Elizabeth
" Carlisle, a daughter of the Lord Torthorald) was ancestor of the
" Semples of Btltrees. He was married to Mary, sister to William
'• Livingston, and one of the maids of honour to Queen Mary ; by
" whom he had Sir James Semple of Beltrees, his son and heir,"
&.C. i afterwards ambassador to England, for King James VL ia
1599
—
Cpawfokd's JIhtoni ofRcnfrcv, p. 101.