or saunt, subs. phr. (old).—A burlesque hymn or anthem, performed with all kinds of discord; any confused or hideous noise; rough music.

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  1546.  HEYWOOD, Epigrams.

                And she hath leisure now,
(By tying fast her garters to a bow)
Her selfe to strangle. There she dangling hung;
At which the curre a new BLACKE SANTUS sung.

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  1578.  T. LUPTON, A Moral and Pitieful Comedie intituled All for Money. I will make him sing the BLACK SANCTUS, I hold you a groat.

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  1591.  J. LYLY, Endymion, iv., 2. It is set to the tune of the BLACKE SAUNCE, ratio est, because Dipsas is a blacke saint.

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  1598.  MARSTON, Satires, ii., 7. 205.

                The language that they speake
Is the pure barbarous BLACKSAUNT of the Geate.

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  1609.  ROWLEY, A Search for Money. At the entrie we heare a confused noise, like a BLACKE SANCTUS, or a house haunted with spirits, such hollowing, shouting, dauncing, and clinking of pots, etc.

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  1611.  COTGRAVE, Dictionarie, s.v. Tintamarre:… a BLACKE SANTUS, the lowd wrangling or jangling outcryes of scoulds, or scoulding fellowes; any extreame or horrible dinne.

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  1617.  BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, The Mad Lover, iv. 1.

        Prithee,
Let’s sing him a BLACK SANTIS; then, let’s all howl
In our own beastly voices.

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  1620.  TARLETON, News out of Purgatory, 7. Upon this there was a general mourning through all Rome, the cardinals wept, the abbots howled, the monks rored, the friars cried, the nuns puled, the curtezans lamented, the bells rang, the tapers were lighted, that such a BLACK SANCTUS was not seene a long time afore in Rome.

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  1635.  HEYWOOD, The Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells, Lib. ix. 576.

        Others more terrible, like Lions rore:
Some grunt like hogs, the like ne’re heard before.
Like Bulls these bellow, those like Asses bray;
Some barke like ban-dogs, some like horses ney:
Some howle like Wolves, others like Furies yell,
Scarce that BLACKE SANTUS could be match’d in hell.

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  16[?].  JONSON, Masque of Time [Works, vi., 144].

        Let’s have the giddy world turn’d the heels upward,
And sing a rare BLACK SANCTUS on his head,
Of all things out osf order.

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