Compare John Cleveland’s “Zealous Discourse between the
Independent-Parson and Tabitha,” “Hail Sister,” &c. (_J. C. Revived_,
1662, p. 108); and also the superior piece of humour, beginning, “I came
unto a Puritan to wooe,” _M. D., C._, p. 77. The following description of
the earlier sort of Precisian, ridiculous but not yet dangerous, is by
Richard Brathwaite, and was printed in 1615:—
_To the Precisian._
_For the Precisian that dares hardly looke,_
_(Because th’ art pure, forsooth) on any booke,_
_Save Homilies, and such as tend to th’ good_
_Of thee and of thy zealous brother-hood:_
_Know my Time-noting lines ayme not at thee,_
_For thou art too too curious for mee._
_I will not taxe that man that’s wont to slay_
“His Cat for killing mise on th’ Sabbath day:[”]
_No; know my resolution it is thus,_
_I’de rather be thy foe then be thy pus:_
_And more should I gaine by’t: for I see,_
_The daily fruits of thy fraternity:_
_Yea, I perceiue why thou my booke should shun,_
_“Because there’s many faultes th’ art guiltie on:”_
_Therefore with-drawe, by me thou art not call’d,_
_Yet do not winch (good iade) when thou art gall’d,_
_I to the better sort my lines display,_
_I pray thee then keep thou thy selfe away._
(_A Strappado for the Diuell_, 1615.)
The sixth line offers another illustration of what has been ably
demonstrated by J. O. Halliwell, commenting on the “_too-too_ solid
flesh” of _Hamlet_, Act i. sc. 2, in Shakespeare Soc. Papers, i. 39-43,
1844.
By it being printed within double quotational commas, we see that the
reference to a Puritan hanging his cat on a Monday, for having profanely
caught a mouse on the Sabbath-Sunday, was already an old and familiar
joke in 1615. James Hogg garbled a ballad in his _Jacobite Relics_,
1819, i. 37, as “_There was a ~Cameronian~ Cat, Was hunting for a
prey_,” &c., but we have a printed copy of it, dated 1749, beginning
“_A ~Presbyterian~ Cat sat watching of her prey_.” Also, in a poem “On
Lute-strings, Cat-eaten,” we read:—
_Puss, I will curse thee, maist thou dwell_
_With some dry Hermit in a Cel,_
_Where Rat ne’re peep’d, where Mouse ne’er fed,_
_And Flies go supperlesse to bed:_
_Or with some close par’d Brother, where_
_Thou’lt fast each Sabbath in the yeare,_
_Or else, profane, be hang’d on Monday,_
_For butchering a Mouse on Sunday_, &c.
(_Musarum Deliciæ_, 1656, _p._ 53.)
John Taylor, the Water-Poet, so early as 1620, writes of a Brownist:—
_The Spirit still directs him how to pray,_
_Nor will he dress his meat the Sabbath day,_
_Which doth a mighty mystery unfold;_
_His zeale is hot, although his meat be cold._
_Suppose his Cat on Sunday kill’d a rat,_
_She on the Monday must be hang’d for that._
(J. P. C.’s _Bibl. Acc._, ii. 418.)
Page 11 [our 197]. _I dreamt my Love, &c._
In the _Percy Folio MS._ (about 1650) p. 480; E. E. T. S., iv. 102, with
a few variations, one of which we have noted in margin of p. 181. The
industrious editors of the printed text of the _Percy Folio MS._ were
not aware of the fact that many of the shorter pieces were already to
be found in print; but this is no wonder. They are not easy to discover
(see next p. 352), and although we ourselves note occasionally “not found
elsewhere,” it is with the remembrance that a happy “find” may yet reward
a continuous search hereafter. We do not despair of recovering even the
lost line of “The Time-Poets.”
Page 12 [our 198]. _Now ~Lambert’s~ sunk, &c._
In the 1662 edit. of the _Rump_, i. 330, and in _Loyal Sgs._, 1731,
i. 219. It may have been written so early as Jan. 15th, 1659-60, when
Col. Lambert had submitted to the Parliament, on finding the troops
disinclined to support him unanimously. Another ballad made this inuendo:—
_~John Lambert~ at ~Oliver’s~ Chair did roare,_
_And thinks it but reason upon this score,_
_That ~Cromwell~ had sitten in his before;_
_Still blessed Reformation._
(_Rump_, ii. 99.)
Fairfax had returned to his house, and to Monk were given the thanks of
the rescued Parliament. As M. de Bordeaux writes of him to Card. Mazarin,
at this exact date, “he is now the most powerful subject in the whole
nation. Fleetwood, Desborough, and all the others of the same faction are
entirely out of employment” (Guizot’s _Monk_, 1851, p. 156). Although no
mention or definite allusion seems made in the ballad to Monk’s attack on
the London defences, Feb. 9th, we incline to think this may be nearer to
the true date: if it refers to the oath of abjuration, of Feb. 4th, which
was offered to Monk, as on March 1st. “Arthur’s Court” is an allusion to
Sir Arthur Haselrig, “a rapacious, head-strong, and conceited agitator”
(_Ibid._, p. 37). Monk had not publicly declared himself for the King
until May; but he was seen to be opposed to the Rump by 11th Feb., when
its effigies were enthusiastically burnt. Richard Cromwell’s abdication
had been, virtually, April 22nd, 1659.
Page 32 [204]. _A young man walking all alone._
This is another of the songs contained in the _Percy Folio MS_. (p. 460;
iv. 92 of print); wrongly supposed to be otherwise lost, but imperfect
there, our fourth and fifth verses being absent. We cannot accept “_if
that I may thy favour haue, thy bewtye to behold_,” as the true reading;
while we find “_If that thy favour I may win With thee for to be bold_:”
which is much more in the Lover’s line of advance. Yet we avail ourselves
of the “I am so _mad_” in 3rd verse, because it rhymes with “maidenhead,”
in _M. D._, though not suiting with the “honestye” of the _P. F. MS._ The
final half-verse is different.
Page 56 [206]. _~Nick Culpepper~ and ~Wm. Lilly~._
Also in 1662 edition of the _Rump_, i. 308; and _Loyal Songs_, 1731, i.
192. The event referred to happened in June, 1653, the engagement between
the English and Dutch fleets commencing on the 2nd, renewed the next day.
Six of the Dutch ships were sunk, and twelve taken, with thirteen hundred
prisoners. _Blake_, _Monk_, and _Dean_ were the English commanders, until
_Dean_ was killed, the first day. Monk took the sole command on the next.
Clarendon gives an account of the battle, and says: “_Dean_, one of the
_English_ Admirals, was killed by a cannon-shot from the Rear-Admiral of
the _Dutch_,” before night parted them. “The loss of the _English_ was
greatest in their General _Dean_. There was, beside him, but one Captain,
and about two hundred Common Sea-men killed: the number of the wounded
was greater; nor did they lose one Ship, nor were they so disabled but
that they followed with the whole fleet to the coast of _Holland_,
whither the other fled; and being got into the _Flie_ and the _Texel_,
the English for some time blocked them up in their own Harbors, taking
all such Ships as came bound for those parts.” (_His. Reb._, B. iii. p.
487, ed. 1720.)
Verse 1. Nicholas Culpeper, of Spittle Fields, near London, published his
_New Method of Physick_, and Alchemy, in 1654.
As to William Lilly, “the famous astrologer of those times, who in his
yearly almanacks foretold victories for the Parliament with so much
certainty as the preachers did in their sermons,” consult his letter
written to Elias Ashmole, and the notes of Dr. Zachary Gray to Butler’s
_Hudibras_, Part ii. Canto 3. “He lived to the year 1681, being then near
eighty years of age, and published predicting almanacks to his death.”
He was one of the close committee to consult about the King’s execution
(_Echard_). He lost much of his repute in 1652; in 1655 he was indicted
at Hickes Hall, but acquitted. He dwelt at Hersham, Walton-on-Thames,
and elsewhere. Henry Coley followed him in almanack-making, and John
Partridge next. In the Honble. Robt. Howard’s Comedy, “The Committee,”
1665, we find poor Teague has been consulting Lilly:—
“_I will get a good Master, if any good Master wou’d_
_Get me; I cannot tell what to do else, by my soul, that_
_I cannot; for I have went and gone to one LILLY’S;_
_He lives at that house, at the end of another house,_
_By the ~May-pole~ house; and tells every body by one_
_Star, and t’other Star, what good luck they shall have._
_But he cou’d not tell nothing for poor ~Teg~._”
(_The Committee_, Act i.)
Verse 12. The Master of the Rolls. This was Sir Dudley Digges, builder
of Chilham Castle, near Canterbury, Kent, who had in 1627 moved the
impeachment of the Duke of Buckingham, and been rewarded with this
Mastership.
Verse 18. Alludes to the rigorous suppression of the Play-houses (_vide
ante_ p. 285, for a descriptive Song); and as we see from verse 17,
the Bear-garden, like Rope-dancers and Tumblers, met more tolerance
than actors (except from Colonel Pride). Not heels were feared, but
heads and hands. Bears, moreover, could not stir up men to loyalty, but
tragedy-speeches might. One Joshua Gisling, a Roundhead, kept bears at
Paris Garden, Southwark.
23. “Goodman _Lenthall_,” “neither wise nor witty,” (“that creeps to the
house by a backdoor,” _Rump_, ii. 185,) the Speaker of the Commons from
1640 to 1653; Alderman _Allen_, the dishonest and bankrupt goldsmith,
both rebuked by _Cromwell_, when he forcibly expelled the Rump. (See the
ballad on pp. 62-5 of _M. D., C._, verses 9 and 10, telling how “_Allen_
the coppersmith was in great fear. He had done as [i.e. _us_] much hurt,”
&c.; also 2, 15, for the dumb-foundered “Speaker without his Mace.”) This
Downfall of the Rump had been on April 20th, 1653, not quite three months
before the funeral of _Dean_. Whoever may have been the writer of this
spirited ballad, we believe, wrote the other one also: judging solely by
internal evidence.
24. _Henry Ireton_, who married Bridget Cromwell in January, 1646-7,
and escaped from the Royalists after having been captured at Naseby,
proved the worst foe of Charles, insatiably demanding his death, died
in Ireland of the plague, 15th November, 1651. His body was brought to
Bristol in December, and lay in state at Somerset House. Over the gate
hung the “hatchment” with “_Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori_”—which
one of the Cavaliers delightedly translated, “Good it is for his country
that he is dead.” Like Dean’s, two years later, Ireton’s body was buried
with ostentatious pomp in Henry VII.’s Chapel, (Feb. 6 or 7;) to be
ignominiously treated at Tyburn after the Restoration. The choice of so
royal a resting-place brought late insult on many another corpse. His
widow was speedily married to Charles Fleetwood, before June, 1652.
In verse 26, we cannot with absolute certainty fill the blank. Yet, in
the absence of disproof, we can scarcely doubt that the name suppressed
was neither _Sexby_, “an active agitator,” who, in 1658, employed against
Cromwell “all that restless industry which had formerly been exerted in
his favour” (Hume’s _Hist. Engd._, cap. lxi.); nor “Doomsday Sedgwick;”
not _Sidney_, staunch Republican, Algernon Sidney, whose condemnation was
in 1687 secured most iniquitously, and whose death more disgracefully
stains the time than the slaughter of Russell, although sentimentalism
chooses the latter, on account of his wife. Sidney was “but a young
member” at the Dissolution of 20th April, 1653. Probably the word was
_Say_, the notorious “Say and Seale,” “Crafty Say,” of whom we read:—
_There’s half-witted ~Will Say~ too,_
_A right Fool in the Play too,_
_That would make a perfect Ass,_
_If he could learn to Bray too._
(“Chips of the Old Block,” 1659; _Rump_, ii. 17.)
Page 64 [213]. _I went from ~England~, &c._
A MS. assertion gives the date of this _Cantilena de Gallico itinere_ as
1623. There seems to us no good reason for doubting that the author was
DR. RICHARD CORBET (1582-1635), Bishop of Oxford, afterwards of Norwich.
It is signed Rich. Corbett in Harl. MS. No. 6931, fol. 32, _reverso_,
and appears among his printed poems, 3rd edit. 1672, p. 129. In _Wit and
Mirth_, 1684, p. 76, it is entitled “Dr. Corbet’s Journey,” &c. But it
is fair to mention that we have found it assigned to R. GOODWIN, by the
epistolary gossip of inaccurate old Aubrey (see Col. Franc. Cunningham’s
_“Mermaid edit.” of Ben Jonson_, i. Memoirs, p. lvii. first note). In
a recent edition of Sir John Suckling’s Works, 1874, it is printed as
if by him (“There is little doubt that it is his”), i. 102, without any
satisfactory external evidence being adduced in favour of Suckling. In
fact, the external evidence goes wholly against the theory. The very MS.
Harl. 367, which is used as authority, is both imperfect and corrupt
throughout, as well as anonymous (_ex. gratiæ_, misreading the _Bastern_,
for Bastile), and the date on it, 1623, will not suit Suckling at all:
though Sir Hy. Ellis is guessed (by his supposed handwriting,) to
have attributed it to him. Could it be possible that he was otherwise
unacquainted with the poem?
At earlier date than our own copy we find it, by Aug. 30th, 1656, in
_Musarum Deliciæ_, p. 17, and in _Parnassus Biceps_, also 1656, p. 24.
From this (as well as Harl. MS. 367) we gain corrections printed as our
_marginalia_, pp. 214-6: _deserv’d_, for received; _statue_ stairs, At
_Nôtre Dame_; prate, _doth_ please, &c. Harl. MS. 367 reads “The Indian
_Roc_” [probably it is correct]; and “As great and wise as Luisuè”
[Luines, who died 1622]. _Parnassus Biceps_ has an extra verse, preceding
the one beginning “His Queen,” (and Harl. 367 has it, but inferior):—
_The people don’t dislike the youth,_
_Alleging reasons. For in truth_
_Mothers should honoured be._
_Yet others say, he loves her rather_
_As well as ere she loved his father,_
_And that’s notoriously._
(A similar scandal meets us in other early French reigns: Diana de
Poictiers had relations with Henry II., as well as with his father,
Francis I., &c.) Compare _West. Droll._, i. 87, and its Appendix, pp.
xxv-vi.
It may be a matter of personal taste, but we cannot recognize the genial
Bishop in the “R. C., Gent.,” who wrote “The Times Whistle.” A reperusal
of the E. E. T., 1871, almost _convinces_ us that they were not the same
person. We must look elsewhere for the author.
In MS., on fly leaf, prefixed to 1672 edition of Dr. Corbet’s poems, in
the Brit. Mus. (press mark, 238, b. 56), we read:—
_If flowing wit, if Verses wrote with ease,_
_If learning void of pedantry can please,_
_If much good humour, join’d to solid sense,_
_And mirth accompanied by Innocence,_
_Can give a Poet a just right to fame,_
_Then CORBET may immortal honour claim._
_For he these virtues had, & in his lines_
_Poetick and Heroick spirit shines._
_Tho’ bright yet solid, pleasant but not rude,_
_With wit and wisdom equally endued._
_Be silent Muse, thy praises are too faint,_
_Thou want’st a power this prodigy to paint,_
_At once a Poet, Prelate, and a Saint._
Signed, John Campbell.
Page 85 [218]. _I mean to speak of ~England’s~_, &c.
In the 1662 _Rump_, i. 39; and in _Loyal Songs_, 1731, i. 12. It is also
in _Parnassus Biceps_ so early as 1656, p. 159, where we obtain a few
peculiar readings; even in the first line, which has “of England’s fate;”
“Prin _and_ Burton;” “_wear ~Italian~ locks for their abuse_ (instead
of “Stallion locks for a bush”); They’ll only have private _keyes_ for
their use,” &c. We are inclined to accept these as correct readings,
although our text (agreeing with the _Rump_) holds an intelligible
meaning. But those who have inspected the curiosities preserved in the
Hôtel de Cluny, at Paris, can scarcely have forgotten “the Italian
[pad-] Locks” which jealous husbands imposed upon their wives, as a
preservative of chastity, whenever they themselves were obliged to leave
their fair helpmates at home; and the insinuation that Prynne and Burton
intended to introduce such rigorous precautions, nevertheless retaining
“private keyes” for their own use, has a covert satire not improbable
to have been intentional. Still, remembering the persistent war waged
by these intolerant Puritans against “the unloveliness of love-locks,”
there are sufficient claims for the text-reading: in their denunciation
of curled ringlets “as Stallion locks” hung out “for a bush,” or sign
of attraction, such as then dangled over the wine-shop door (and may
still be seen throughout Italy), although “good wine needs no bush” to
advertise it. Instead of “The brownings,” (i.e. _The Brownists_, a sect
that arose in the reign of Elizabeth, founded by Robt. Browne), in final
verse, _Parnassus Biceps_ reads “The Roundheads.” The poem was evidently
written between 1632 and 1642. Strengthening the probability of “Italian
locks” being the correct reading, we may mention in one of the _Rump_
ballads, dated 26 January, 1660-1, we find “The Honest Mens Resolution”
is to adopt this very expedient:—
“_But what shall we do with our Wives_
_That frisk up and down the Town, ..._
_For such a Bell-dam,_
_Sayes ~Sylas~ and ~Sam~,_
_Let’s have an ~Italian~ Lock!_”
(_Rump_ Coll., 1662, ii. 199.)
Page 88 [220]. _Hang Chastity, &c._
Probably refers to the New Exchange, at Durham House stables (see
Additional Note to page 134 of _M. D., C._). Certainly written before
1656. Lines 15 and 32 lend some countenance, by similarity, to the
received version in the previous song’s sixth verse.
Page 95 [222]. _It was a man, and a jolly, &c._
With some trifling variations, this re-appears as “The Old Man and Young
Wife,” beginning “_There was an old man, and a jolly old man, come love
me_,” &c., in _Wit and Mirth_, 1684, p. 17. The tune and burden of “The
Clean Contrary Way” held public favour for many years. See _Pop. Mus. O.
T._, pp. 425, 426, 781. In the 1658 and 1661 editions of _Choyce Poems_
[by John Eliot, and others], pp. 81, are a few lines of verse upon “The
Fidler’s” that were committed for singing a song called, “_The Clean
Contrary Way_”:—
_The Fidlers must be whipt the people say,_
_Because they sung ~the clean contrary way~;_
_Which if they be, a Crown I dare to lay_
_They then will sing ~the clean contrary way~._
_And he that did these merry Knaves betray,_
_Wise men will praise, ~the clean contrary way~:_
_For whipping them no envy can allay,_ [p. 82.]
_Unlesse it be ~the clean contrary way~._
_Then if they went the Peoples tongues to stay,_
_Doubtless they went ~the clean contrary way~._
Page 134 [223]. _There was a Lady in this Land._
Re-appears in _Wit and Drollery_, 1682, p. 291 (not in the 1656 and
1661 editions), as “The Jovial Tinker,” but with variations throughout,
so numerous as to amount to absolute re-casting, not by any means an
improvement: generally the contrary. Here are the second and following
verses, of _Wit and Drollery_ version:—
_But she writ a letter to him,_
_And seal’d it with her hand,_
_And bid him become a Tinker_
_To clout both pot and pan._
_And when he had the Letter,_
_Full well he could it read;_
_His Brass and eke his Budget,_ [p. 292.]
_He streight way did provide,_
_His Hammer and his Pincers_
_And well they did agree_
_With a long Club on his Back_
_And orderly came he._
_And when he came to the Lady’s Gates_
_He knock’d most lustily,_
_Then who is there the Porter said,_
_That knock’st thus ruggedly?_
_I am a Jovial Tinker, &c._
The words of a later Scottish version of “Clout the Cauldron,” beginning
“Hae ye ony pots or pans, Or ony broken Chandlers?” (attributed by
Allan Cunningham to one Gordon) retouched by Allan Ramsay, are in his
_Tea-Table Miscellany_, 1724, Pt. i. (p. 96 of 17th edit., 1788.) Burns
mentions a tradition that the song “was composed on one of the Kenmure
family in the Cavalier time.” But the disguised wooer of the later
version is repulsed by the lady. Ours is undoubtedly the earlier.
Page 148 [230]. _Upon a Summer’s day._
The music to this is given in Chappell’s _Pop. Music of Olden Time_
[1855], p. 255, from the _Dancing Master_, 1650-65, and _Musick’s
Delight on the Cithern_, 1666, where the tune bears the title “Upon a
Summer’s day.” In Pepy’s Collection, vol. i. are two other songs to the
same tune.
Page 153 [Suppl. 3]. _Mine own sweet honey, &c._
Evidently a parody, or “Mock” of “Come hither, my own,” &c., for which,
and note, see pp. 247, 367.
Second Part of _Merry Drollery_, 1661.
Page 22 [235]. _You that in love, &c._
A different version of this same song, only half its length, in four-line
stanzas, had appeared in J. Cotgrave’s _Wit’s Interpreter_, 1655, p. 124.
It is also in the 1671 edition, p. 229; and in _Wit and Drollery_, 1682
edit., 287, entitled “The Tobacconist.” We prefer the briefer version,
although bound to print the longer one; bad enough, but not nearly so
gross as another On Tobacco, in _Jovial Drollery_, 1656, beginning “When
I do smoak my nose with a pipe of Tobacco.”
In the Collection of Songs by the Wits of the Age, appended to _Le
Prince d’Amour_, 1660, (but on broadsheet, 1641) we find the following
far-superior lyric on
TOBACCO.
_To feed on Flesh is Gluttony,_
_It maketh men fat like swine._
_But is not he a frugal Man_
_That on a leaf can dine!_
_He needs no linnen for to foul,_
_His fingers ends to wipe,_
_That hath his Kitchin in a Box,_
_And roast meat in a Pipe._
_The cause wherefore few rich mens sons_
_Prove disputants in Schools,_
_Is that their fathers fed on flesh,_
_And they begat fat fools._
_This fulsome feeding cloggs the brain,_
_And doth the stomack cloak;_
_But he’s a brave spark that can dine_
_With one light dish of smoak._
_Audi alterem partem!_ Five years earlier (May 28th, 1655), William
Winstanley had published “A Farewell to Tobacco,” beginning:—
_Farewell thou Indian smoake, Barbarian vapour,_
_Enemy unto life, foe to waste paper,_
_Thou dost diseases in thy body breed,_
_And like a Vultur on the purse doth feed._
_Changing sweet breaths into a stinking loathing,_
_And with 3 pipes turnes two pence into nothing;_
_Grim ~Pluto~ first invented it, I think,_
_To poison all the world with hellish stink_, &c.
(18 lines more. _The Muses’ Cabinet_, 1655, p. 13.)
The three pipes for two-pence was a cheapening of Tobacco since the days,
not a century before, when for price it was weighed equally against gold.
Our early friend Arthur Tennyson wrote in one of our (extant) Florentine
sketch-books the following _impromptu_ of his own:—
_I walk’d by myself on the highest of hills,_
_And ’twas sweet, I with rapture did own;_
_As fish-like I opened unto it my gills_
_And gulp’d it in ecstasy down;_
_To feel it breathe over my bacca-boiled tongue,_
_That so much of its fragrance did need,_
_And brace up completely a system unstrung_
_For months with this ~Devil’s own Weed~._
But even so early as 1639, Thomas Bancroft had printed, (written thirteen
years before) in his _First Booke of Epigrammes_, the following,
ON TOBACCO TAKING.
_The Old Germans, that their Divinations made_
_From Asses heads upon hot embers laid,_
_Saw they but now what frequent fumes arise_
_From such dull heads, what could they prophetize_
_But speedy firing of this worldly frame,_
_That seemes to stinke for feare of such a flame._
(_Two Bookes of Epigrammes_, No. 183, sign. E 3.)
We need merely refer to other Epigrams On Tobacco, as “Time’s great
consumer, cause of idlenesse,” and “Nature’s Idea,” &c., in _Wit’s
Recreations_, 1640-5, because they are accessible in the recent Reprint
(would that it, _Wit Restored_ and _Musarum Deliciæ_ had been carefully
edited, as they deserved and needed to be; but even the literal reprint
of different issues jumbled together pell-mell is of temporary service):
see vol. ii., pp. 45, 38; and 96, 97, 139, 161, 227, 271. Also p.
430, for the “Tryumph of Tobacco over Sack and Ale,” attributed to F.
Beaumont, (if so, then before 1616) telling
_Of the Gods and their symposia;_
_But Tobacco alone,_
_Had they known it, had gone_
_For their Nectar and Ambrosia;_
and vol. i. p. 195, on “A Scholler that sold his Cussion” to buy tobacco.
It is but an imperfect version on ii. 96, headed “A Tobacconist” (eight
lines), of what we gave from _Le Prince d’Amour_: it begins “All dainty
meats I doe defie, || Which feed men fat as swine.” Answered by No. 317,
“On the Tobacconist,” p. 97. By the way: “Verrinus” in _M. D., C._, pp.
10, 364, consult _History of Signboards_, p. 354—“_Puyk van Verinas en
Virginia Tabac_;” Englished, “Tip-Top Varinas,” &c.
Page 27 [237]. _Come Drawer, some Wine._
Probably written by THOMAS WEAVER, and about 1646-8. It is in his
collection entitled _Love and Drollery_, 1654, p. 13. Also in the 1662
_Rump_, i. 235; and the _Loyal Garland_, 1686 (Percy Soc. Reprint, xxix.
31). Compare a similar Song (probably founded on this one) by Sir Robt.
Howard, in his Comedy, “The Committee,” Act iv., “Come, Drawer, some
Wine, Let it sparkle and shine,”—or, the true beginning, “Now the Veil
is thrown off,” &c. The Committee of Sequestration of Estates belonging
to the Cavaliers sat at Goldsmith’s Hall, while Charles was imprisoned
at Carisbrook, in 1647. A ballad of that year, entitled “Prattle your
pleasure under the Rose,” has this verse:—
_Under the rose be it spoken, there’s a damn’d ~Committee~,_
_Sits in hell (~Goldsmith’s Hall~) in the midst of the City,_
_Only to sequester the poor Cavaliers,—_
_The Devil take their souls, and the hangmen their ears._
(As Hamlet says, “You pray not well!”—but such provocation transfers the
blame to those who caused the anger.)
Again, in another Ballad, “I thank you twice,” dated 21st August, same
year, 1647:—
_The gentry are sequestered all;_
_Our wives we find at ~Goldsmith’s Hall~,_
_For there they meet with the devil and all,_
_Still, God a-mercy, Parliament!_
On our p. 239, it is amusing to find reference to “the Cannibals of Pym,”
remembering how Lilburn and others of that party indulged in similar
accusations of cannibalism, with specific details against “Bloody Bones,
or Lunsford” (_Hudibras_, Pt. iii. canto 2), who was killed in 1644.
Thus, “From _Lunsford_ eke deliver us, || That eateth up children” (Rump
i. 65); and Cleveland writes, “He swore he saw, when _Lunsford_ fell, ||
A child’s arm in his pocket” (J. C. _Revived, Poems_, 1662, p. 110).
Page 32 [240]. _Listen, Lordings, to my story._
With the music, this reappears in _Pills to p. Mel_., 1719, iv. 84,
entitled “The Glory of all Cuckolds.” Variations few, and unimportant:
“The Man in Heaven’s” being a very doubtful reading. In the Douce
Collection, iv. 41, 42, are two broadsides, A New Summons to Horn Fair,
beginning “You horned fumbling Cuckolds, In City, court, or Town,”
and (To the women) “Come, all you merry jades, who love to play the
game,” with capital wood-cuts: Jn Pitts, printer. They recal Butler’s
description of the Skrimmington. The joke was much relished. Thus, in
_Lusty Drollery_, 1656, p. 106, is a Pastorall Song, beginning:—
_A silly poor sheepherd was folding his sheep,_
_He walked so long he got cold in his feet,_
_He laid on his coales by two and by three,_
_The more he laid on_
_The Cu-colder was he._
Three verses more, with the recurring witticism; repeated finally by his
wife.
Page 33 [Supp. 6]. _Discourses of late, &c._
Also, earlier in _Musarum Deliciæ_, 1656, (Reprint, p. 48) as “The
Louse’s Peregrinations,” but without the sixth verse. _Breda_, in the
Netherlands, was beseiged by Spinola for ten months, and taken in 1625.
_Bergen_, in our text, is a corrupt reading.
Page 38 [241]. _From ~Essex~-Anabaptist Lawes._
We do not understand whence it cometh that the most bitter non-conformity
and un-Christian crazes of enthusiasm seem always to have thriven in
Essex and the adjacent Eastern coast-counties, so far as Lincolnshire,
but the fact is undeniable. Whether (before draining the fens, see “The
Upland people are full of thoughts,” in _A Crew of kind London Gossips_,
1663, p. 65) this proceeded from their being low-lying, damp, dreary, and
dismal, with agues prevalent, and hypochondria welcome as an amusement,
we leave others to determine. Cabanis declared that Calvinism is a
product of the small intestines; and persons with weak circulation and
slow digestion are seldom orthodox, but incline towards fanaticism and
uncompromising dissent. Your lean Cassius is a pre-ordained conspirator.
Plain people, whether of features or dwelling-place, think too much
of themselves. Mountaineers may often hold superstitions, but of the
elemental forces and higher worship. They possess moreover a patriotic
love of their native hills, which makes them loth to quit, and eager to
revisit them, with all their guardian powers: the _nostalgia_ and _amor
patriæ_ are strongest in Highlanders, Switzers, Spanish muleteers, and
even Welsh milkmaids. It was from flat-coasted Essex that most of the
“peevish Puritans” emigrated to Holland, and thence to America, when
discontented with every thing at home.
The form of a Le’tanty or Litany, for such mock-petitions as those in
our text (not found elsewhere), and in _M. D., C._, p. 174, continued in
favour from the uprise of the Independents (simply because they hated
Liturgies), for more than a century. In the King’s Pamphlets, in the
various collections of _Loyal Songs_, _Songs on affairs of State_, the
_Mughouse Diversions_, _Pills to purge State Melancholly_, _Tory Pills_,
&c., we possess them beyond counting, a few being attributed to Cleveland
and to Butler. One, so early as 1600, “Good Mercury, defend us!” is the
work of Ben Johnson.
Verse 1.—The “Brownist’s Veal” refers to Essex calves, and the scandal of
one Green, who is said to have been a Brownist. 4.—“From her that creeps
up Holbourne hill:” the cart journey from Newgate to the “tree with three
corners” at Tyburn. _Sic itur ad astra._ When, Oct. 1654, Cromwell was
thrown from the coach-box in driving through Hyde park, a ballad on “The
Jolt on Michaelmas Day, 1654,” took care to point the moral:—
_Not a day nor an hour_
_But we felt his power,_
_And now he would show us his art;_
_His first reproach_
_Is a fall from a coach,_
And his last will be from a cart.
(_Rump_ Coll. i. 362.)
Thus also in _M. D., C._ p. 255:
Then _Oliver, Oliver_, get up and ride, ...
Till thou plod’st along to the _Paddington tree_.
5.—“Duke Humphrey’s hungry dinner” refers to the tomb popularly supposed
to be of “the good Duke” Humphrey of Gloucester (murdered 1447), but
probably of Sir John Beauchamp (Guy of Warwick’s son), in Paul’s Walk,
where loungers whiled away the dinner-hour if lacking money for an
Ordinary, and “dined with Duke Humphrey.” See Dekker’s _Gulls Horn Book_,
1609, cap. iv. And Robt. Hayman writes:—
_Though a little coin thy purseless pockets line,_
_Yet with great company thou’rt taken up;_
_For often with Duke ~Humfray~ thou dost dine,_
_And often with Sir ~Thomas Gresham~ sup._
(R. H.’s _Quodlibets_, 1628.)
“An old Aunt”—this term used by Autolycus, had temporary significance
apart from kinship, implying loose behaviour; even as “nunkle” or uncle,
hails a mirthful companion. In Roxb. Coll., i. 384, by L[aur.] P[rice],
printed 1641-83, is a description of three Aunts, “seldom cleanly,” but
they were genuine relations, though “the best of all the three” seems
well fitted by the _Letany_ description: which _may_ refer to her.
Page 46 [Supp. p. 7]. _If you will give ear._
A version of this, slightly differing, is given with the music in _Pills
to p. Mell._, iv. 191. It has the final couplet; which we borrow and add
in square brackets.
Page 61 [Supp. 9]. _Full forty times over._
Earlier by six years, but without the Answer, this had appeared in _Wit
and Drollery_, 1656, p. 58; 1661, p. 60. It is also, as “written at
Oxford,” in second part of _Oxford Drollery_, 1671, p. 97.
Page 62 [Supp. 11]. _He is a fond Lover_, &c.
This, and the preceding, being superior to the other reserved songs might
have been retained in the text but for the need to fill a separate sheet.
This Answer is in _Love and Mirth_ (i.e. _Sportive Wit_) 1650, p. 51.
Page 64 [Supp. 12]. _If any one do want a House._
Virtually the same (from the second verse onward) as “A Tenement to Let,”
beginning “I have a Tenement,” &c., in _Pills to p. Mel._, 1720, vi. 355;
and _The Merry Musician_ (n. d. but about 1716), i. 43. Music in both.
Page 81 [Supp. 13]. _Fair Lady, for your New, &c._
Resembling this is “_Ladies, here I do present you, With a dainty dish of
fruit_,” in _Wit and Drollery_, 1656, p. 103.
Page 103 [244]. _Among the Purifidian Sect._
In Harl. MS. No. 6057, fol. 47. There it is entitled “The Puritans of New
England.”
Page 106 [248]. _Come hither, my own sweet Duck._
We come delightedly, as a relief, upon this racy and jovial Love-song,
which redeems the close of the volume. It has the gaiety and _abandon_ of
John Fletcher’s and Richard Brome’s. We have never yet met it elsewhere.
It was probably written about 1642. The reserved song in Part i., p.
153 (Supplement, p. 3), seems to be a vile parody on it, in the coarse
fashion of those persons who disgraced the cause of the Cavaliers. The
rank and file were often base, and their brutality is evidenced in the
songs which we have been obliged to degrade to the Supplement.
It was certainly popular before 1659, for we find it quoted as furnishing
the tune to “A proper new ballad (25 verses) on the Old Parliament,”
beginning “Good Morrow, my neighbours all,” with a varying burden:—
_Hei ho, my hony,_
_My heart shall never rue,_
_Four and twenty now for your Mony,_
_And yet a hard penny worth too._
(_Rump_, 1662 ii, 26.)
The music is in Playford’s _English Dancing Master_, 1686.
Page 116 [Supp. 14]. _She lay up to, &c._
Five years earlier, in _Wit and Drollery_, 1656, p. 56; 1661, p. 58. With
the original, in _M. D., C._, p. 300, compare the similar disappointment,
by Cleveland, “The Myrtle-Grove” (_Poems_, p. 160, edit. 1661.)
Page 149 [253]. _If that you will hear, &c._
This is the same, except a few variations, as “Will you please to hear
a new ditty?” in our _Westminster-Drollery_, 1671, i. 88; Appendix to
ditto, pp. xxxvi-vii (compare the coarser verses, p. 368 in present
volume, and “Upon the biting of Fleas,” in _Musarum Deliciæ_, 1656;
Reprint, p. 64.)
[We here close our Notes to the “Extra Songs” of _Merry Drollery_,
1661. But we have still some Additional Notes, on what is common to the
editions of 1661, 1670, and 1691 (as promised in _M. D., C._, p. 363).]
§ 2.—ADDITIONAL NOTES TO THE MERRY DROLLERY, COMPLEAT.
(_Common to all editions, 1661, ’70, ’91, and 1875._)
“A pretty slight Drollery.”
(_Henry IV._, pt. 2. Act ii. Sc. 1.)
MERRY
DROLLERY,
Complete.
OR,
A COLLECTION
{ Jovial POEMS,
Of { Merry SONGS,
{ Witty DROLLERIES,
Intermixed with Pleasant _Catches_.
The First Part.
Collected by
_W.N._ _C.B._ _R.S._ _J.G._
LOVERS of WIT.
LONDON,
Printed for _Simon Miller_, at the Star, at
the West End of St. _Pauls_, 1670.
_Title-page to 1670 Edition._
We here give the title-page of the 1670 Edition of _Merry Drollery,
Compleat_, Part 1st. As mentioned on our p. 231, the 1670 edition was
reissued as a new edition in 1691, but with no alteration except the
fresh title-page, with its date and statement of William Miller’s stock
in trade.
Of the four “Lovers of Wit,” 1661, we believe we have unearthed one, viz.
“R. S.,” in RALPH SLEIGH, who wrote a song beginning, “_Cupid, Cupid_,
makes men stupid; I’ll no more of such boys’ play;” (_Sportive Wit_,)
_Jovial Drollery_, 1656, p. 22.
_M. D., C._, p. 11 [13].
Verse 6. “Mahomet’s pidgeon,” that was taught to pick seeds from out his
ear, so that it might be thought to whisper to him. The “mad fellow clad
alwaies in yellow,” i.e., in his military Buff-coat—“And somewhat his
nose is blew, boys,” certainly alludes to Oliver Cromwell: His being
“King and no King,” to his refusing the Crown offered by the notables
whom he had summoned in 1657. As the “New Peers,” his sons Henry and
Richard among them, insulted and contemned by the later and mixed
Parliament of January 20th, 1658, were “turned out” along with their
foes the recalcitrant Commons, on Feb. 4th, we have the date of this
ballad established closely.
Page 29. _Nonsense. Now Gentlemen, if, &c._
Two other “Messes of Nonsense” may be found in _Recreations for Ingenious
Headpieces_, 1645 (Reprint, _Wit’s Recreations_, pp. 400, 401); beginning
“When _Neptune’s_ blasts,” and “Like to the tone of unspoke speeches.”
The latter we believe to have been written by Bishop Corbet. In _Wit’s
Merriment_ (i.e. _Sportive Wit_), 1656, is the following: A FANCY:—
_When Py crust first began to reign,_
_Cheese parings went to warre._
_Red Herrings lookt both blew and wan,_
_Green leeks and Puddings jarre._
_Blind Hugh went out to see_
_Two Cripples run a race,_
_The Ox fought with the Humble Bee,_
_And claw’d him by the face._
Page 36, lines 21, 22. _“Honest Dick;” and “L.”_
These lines furnish a clue to the date of this ballad, (and its
“Answer” quickly followed): “Honest Dick” being Richard Cromwell, whose
Protectorate lasted only eight months, beginning in September, 1658.
“The name with an L—” refers to his unscrupulous rival Lambert; with his
spasmodic attempts at supremacy, urged on by his own ambition and that
of his wife (accustomed too long to rule Oliver himself, during a close
intimacy, not without exciting scandal, while she insisted on displacing
Lady Dysart). For an account of Lambert’s twenty-one years of captivity,
first at Guernsey and later at Plymouth, see _Choice Notes on History,
from N. and Q._, 1858, pp. 155-163. Lambert played a selfish game, lost
it, and needs no pity for having had to pay the stakes. But for “Honest
Dick,” “Tumble down Dick,” who had warmly pleaded with his father to save
the king’s life in the fatal January of 1649, we keep a hearty liking.
Carlyle stigmatizes him as “poor, idle, trivial,” &c., but let that pass.
Had Richard been crafty or cruel, like those who removed him from power,
his reign might have been prolonged. But “what a wounded name” he would
have then left behind, compared with his now stainless character: and, in
any case, his ultimate fall was certain.
Page 43, line 16th, “_Call for a constable blurt._”
An allusion to Middleton’s Comedy, “Blurt, Master Constable,” 1602.
Page 62, 368. _Will you hear a strange thing._
The important event here described took place April 20th, 1653, and the
ballad immediately followed. (Compare “Cheer up, kind country men,” by
S. S., “Rebellion hath broken up house,” and “This Christmas time,”
in the Percy Soc. Pol. Bds., iii. 126; 180 _Loyal Songs_, 149, 1694;
_Rump_, ii. 52.) At this date the strife between the fag-end of the Rump
and Oliver, who was supported by his council of officers, came to open
violence. Fearing his increased power, it was proposed to strengthen
the Parliamentarians by admitting a body of “neutrals,” Presbyterians,
to act in direct opposition against the army-leaders. With a pretence
of dissolving themselves there would have ensued a virtual extension of
rule. Anxious and lengthy meetings had been held by Cromwell’s adherents
at Whitehall, one notably on the 19th, and continued throughout the
night. Despite a promise, or half promise, of delay made to him, the Rump
was meantime hurrying onward the objectionable measure, clearly with
intention of limiting his influence: among the leaders being Sir Hy.
Vane, Harry Marten, and Algernon Sidney. They knew it to be a struggle
for life or death. From the beginning, this Long Parliament cherished the
mistaken idea that they were everything supreme: providence, strength,
virtue, and wisdom, etc., etc. If mere empty talk could be all this,
such representative wind-bags might deserve some credit. Their doom was
sealed; not alone for their incompetence, but also for proved malignity,
and the attempt to perpetuate their own mischief, destroying the only
power that seemed able to bring order out of chaos.
Cromwell received intelligence, from his adherents within the house,
of the efforts being made to hurry the measure for settling the new
representation, and then to dissolve for re-election. Major Harrison
talked against time; until Cromwell could arrive after breaking up the
Whitehall meeting. Ingoldsby, as the second or third messenger, had
shown to him the urgent need of action. Followed by Lambert and some
half-dozen officers, the General took with him a party of soldiers,
reached the house, and found himself not too soon. Surrounding the
chamber, and guarding the doors, the troopers remained outside. Clad
in plain black, unattended and resolute, Oliver entered, stood looking
on his discomfitted foes, and then sat down, speaking to no one except
“dusky tough St. John, whose abstruse fanaticisms, crabbed logics, and
dark ambitions issue all, as was natural, in decided avarice” (Carlyle’s
_Cromwell_, iii. 168, 1671 edit.). Vane must have felt the peril, but
held on unflinchingly, imploring the house to dispense with everything
that might delay the measure, such as engrossing. The Speaker had risen
at last to put the question, before the General started up, uncovered,
and began his address. Something of stately commendation for past work
he gave them. Perhaps at first his words were uttered solely to obtain a
momentary pause, the whilst he gathered up his strength, and measured all
the chances, before he broke with them for ever. Soon the tone changed
into that of anger and contempt. He heaped reproaches on them: Ludlow
says: “He spoke with so much passion and discomposure of mind, as if he
had been distracted.” “Your time is come!” he told them: “The Lord has
done with you. He has chosen other instruments for the carrying on his
work, that are more worthy.”
Vane, Marten, and Sir Peter Wentworth tried to interrupt him, but it was
almost beyond their power. Wentworth could but irritate him by indignant
censure. He crushed his hat on, sprang from his place, shouting that
he would put an end to their prating, and, while he strode noisily
along the room, railed at them to their face, not naming them, but with
gestures giving point to his invectives. He told them to begone: “I say
you are no Parliament! I’ll put an end to your sitting. Begone! Give way
to honester men.” A stamp of his foot followed, as a signal; the door
flies open, “five or six files of musqueteers” are seen with weapons
ready. Resistance (so prompt, with less provocation, in 1642) is felt
to be useless, and, except mere feminine scolding, none is attempted.
Not one dares to struggle. Afraid of violence, their swords hang idly
at their side. As they pass out in turn, they meet the scathing of
Oliver’s rebuke. His control of himself is gone. Their crimes are not
forgotten. He denounces Challoner as a drunkard, Wentworth for his
adultery, Alderman Allen for his embezzlement of public military money,
and Bulstrode Whitelock of injustice. Harry Marten is asked whether
a whore-master is fit to sit and govern. Vane is unable to resist a
feeble protest, availing nothing—“This is not honest: Yea! it is against
morality and honesty.” In the absence of such crimes or flagrant sins
of his companions, as his own frozen nature made him incapable of
committing, there are remembered against him his interminable harangues,
his hair-splitting, his self-sufficiency; and all that early deliberate
treachery in ransacking his father’s papers, which he employed to cause
the death of Strafford. To all posterity recorded, came the ejaculation
of Cromwell: “Sir Harry Vane, Sir Harry Vane—the Lord deliver me from Sir
Harry Vane!” And, excepting a few dissentient voices, the said posterity
echoes the words approvingly. The “bauble” mace had been borne off
ignominiously, the documents were seized, including that of the unpassed
measure, the room was cleared, the doors were locked, and all was over.
The Long Parliament thus fell, unlamented.
Page 66. _I’le sing you a Sonnet._
Written and published in 1659; as we see by the references to “_Dick_
(_Oliver’s_ Heir) that pitiful slow-thing, Who was once invested with
purple clothing,”—his retirement being in April, 1659. Bradshaw, the
bitter Regicide (whose harsh vindictiveness to Charles I. during the
trial has left his memory exceptionally hateful), died 22nd November,
1659. Hewson the Cobbler was one of Oliver’s new peers, summoned in
January, 1658.
Pages 69, 368. _Be not thou so foolish nice._
The music to this, by Dr. John Wilson, is in his _Chearfull Ayres_,
1659-60, p. 126.
Pages 70, 369. _Aske me no more._
Gule is misprint for “Goal,” and refers to the Bishops who, having been
molested and hindered from attending to vote among the peers, were, on
30th December, 1642, committed to the Tower for publishing their protest
against Acts passed during their unwilling absence. Finch, Lord Keeper;
who, to save his life, fled beyond sea, and did not return until after
the Restoration.
Pages 72, 369. _A Sessions was held, &c._
To avoid a too-long interruption, our Additional Note to the “Sessions of
the Poets” is slightly displaced from here, and follows later as Section
Third.
Pages 87, 369. _Some Christian people all, &c._
We have traced this burlesque narrative of the Fire on London Bridge ten
years earlier than _Merry Drollery_, 1661, p. 81. It appeared (probably
for the first time in print) on April 28th, 1651, at the end of a volume
of _facetiæ_, entitled _The Loves of Hero and Leander_ (in the 1677
edition, following _Ovid de Arte Amandi_, it is on p. 142). The event
referred to, we suspect, was a destructive fire which broke out on London
Bridge, 13th Feb. 1632-3. It is thus described:—“At the latter end of the
year 1632, viz., on the 13th Feb., between eleven and twelve at night,
there happened in the house of one Briggs, a needle-maker, near St.
Magnus Church, at the north end of the bridge, by the carelessness of a
maid-servant, setting a tub of hot sea-coal ashes under a pair of stairs,
a sad and lamentable fire, which consumed all the buildings before eight
of the clock the next morning, from the north end of the bridge, to the
first vacancy on both sides, containing forty-two houses; _water being
then very scarce, the Thames being almost frozen over_. Beneath, in
the vaults and cellars, the fire remained burning and glowing a whole
week after. After which fire, the north end of the bridge lay unbuilt
for many years; only deal boards were set up on both sides, to prevent
people’s falling into the Thames, many of which deals were, by high
winds, blown down, which made it very dangerous in the nights, although
there were lanthorns and candles hung upon all the cross-beams that held
the pales together.” (Tho. Allen’s _Hist. and Antiq. of London_, vol.
ii. p. 468, 1828.) Details and list of houses burnt are given (as in
_Gent. Mag._ Nov. 1824), from the MS. _Record of the Mercies of God; or,
a Thankfull Remembrance_, 1618-1635 (since printed), kept by the Puritan
Nehemiah Wallington, citizen and turner, of London, a friend of Prynn and
Bastwick. He gives the date as Monday, 11th February, 1633. Our ballad
mentions the river being frozen over, and “all on the tenth of January;”
but nothing is more common than a traditional blunder of the month,
so long as the rhythm is kept. (Compare _Choyce Drollery_, p. 78, and
Appendix p. 297).
Another Fire-ballad (in addition to the coarse squib in present vol., pp.
33-7,) is “Zeal over-heated;” telling of a fire at Oxford, 1642; tune,
Chivey Chace; and beginning, “Attend, you brethren every one.” It is not
improbably by Thomas Weaver, being in his _Love and Drollery_, 1654, p.
21.
Page 92, 370. _Cast your caps and cares away._
Of this song, from Beaumont and Fletcher’s “Beggar’s Bush,” bef. 1625,
the music set by Dr. John Wilson is in his _Cheerfull Ayres_, 1659-60, p.
22.
Pages 97, 371. _Come, let us drink._
“Mahomet’s Pigeon,” a frequent allusion: compare _M. D. C._, pp. 11, 192;
and present appendix, p. 356.
Pages 100, 108 (App.) 371. _Satires on Gondibert._
See Additional Note in this vol. § 3, _post_, for a few words on
D’Avenant. Since printing _M. D. C._, we have been enabled (thanks to W.
F. Fowle, Esq., possessor of) to consult the very rare Second Satire,
1655, mentioned on p. 371. It is entitled, “The Incomparable Poem
GONDIBERT VINDICATED from the Wit-Combats of Four ESQUIRES, _Clinias_,
_Dametas_, _Sancho_, and _Jack Pudding_.” [With this three-fold motto:—]
Χοτέει καὶ ἀοίδ τω ἀοίδω.
_Vatum quoque gratia rara est._
Anglicè,
_One Wit-Brother_ || _Envies another_.
Printed in the year 1655.” It begins on p. 3, with a poetical address to
Sir Willm. Davenant, asking pardon beforehand in case his “yet-unhurt
Reputation” should suffer more through the champion than from the
attack made by the four “Cyclops, or Wit-Centaurs,” two of whom he
unhesitatingly names as “Denham and Jack Donne,” or “Jack Straw.” But
even thus early we notice the sarcasm against D’Avenant himself: when
in reference to the never-forgotten “flaws” in his face, the Defender
writes:—
Will _shew thy face_ (be’t what it will),
_We’l push ’um yet a quill for quill_.
The third poem, p. 8, again to the Poet, mocks him as well as his
assailants’ lines (our _M. D. C._, p. 108) with twenty triplets:—
_After so many poorer scraps_
_Of Playes which nere had the mishaps_
_To passe the stage without their claps, &c._
Next comes a poem “Upon the continuation of Gondibert,” “Ovid to Patmos
pris’ner sent.” (Later, we extract the chief lines for the “Sessions”
Add. Note.) He is told,
_Wash thee in ~Avon~, if thou flie,_
_My wary ~Davenant~ so high,_
_Yet ~Hypernaso~ now you shall_
_Ore fly this Goose so Capitall._ (p. 14.)
After five others, came one Upon the Author, beginning,
_~Daphne~, secure of the buff,_
_Prethee laugh,_
_Yet at these four and their riff raff;_
_Who can hold_
_When so bold?_
_And the trim wit of ~Coopers~ green hill_, ...
Ending thus:—
_~Denham~, thou’lt be shrewdly shent_
_To invent_
_Such Drawlery for merriment, &c...._
_A Drawing ~Donne~ out of the mire._
A burlesque of Gondibert on same p. 18, as “Canto the Second, or rather
Cento the first;” begins “_All in the Land of ~Bembo~ and of ~Bubb~_.”
One stanza partly anticipates Sam. Butler:—
_The Sun was sunk into the watery lap_
_Of her commands the waves, and weary there,_
_Of his long journey, took a pleasing nap_
_To ease his each daies travels all the year._
P. 23 gives “To _Daphne_ on his incomparable (and by the Critick
incomprehended) Poem, _Gondibert_,” this consolation: “Chear up, dear
friend, a _Laureat_ thou must be,” &c. Hobbes comes in for notice, on p.
24, and Denham with his Cooper’s Hill has another slap. The final poem,
on p. 27, is “Upon the Author’s writing his name, as in the Title of his
Booke, D’Avenant:”—
1.
“_Your Wits have further than you rode,_
_You needed not to have gone abroad._
_~D’avenant~ from ~Avon~ comes,_
_Rivers are still the Muses Rooms._
_~Dort~, knows our name, no more Durt on’t;_
_An’t be but for that ~D’avenant~._
2.
_And when such people are restor’d_
_(A thing belov’d by none that whor’d)_
_My noches then may not appeare,_
_The gift of healing will be near._
_Meane while Ile seeke some ~Panax~ (salve of clowns)_
_Shall heal the wanton Issues and crackt Crowns._
_I will conclude, Farewell Wit Squirty ~Fegos~_
_And drolling gasmen ~Wal-Den-De-Donne-Dego~._
(Finis.)”
Here, finally, are Waller, Denham, [Bro]de[rick], and Donne clearly
indicated. They receive harder measure, on the whole, than D’avenant
himself; so that the Second Volume of Satires, 1655, is neither by the
author of “Gondibert,” nor by those who penned the “Certain Verses” of
1653. Q. E. D.
Pages 101, 372. _I’ll tell thee, Dick, &c._
As already mentioned, the popularity of Suckling’s “Ballad on a Wedding”
(probably written in 1642) caused innumerable imitations. Some of these
we have indicated. In _Folly in Print_, 1667, is another, “On a Friend’s
Wedding,” to the same tune, beginning, “Now _Tom_, if _Suckling_ were
alive, And knew who _Harry_ were to wive.” In D’Urfey’s _Pills to Purge
Melancholy_, 1699, p. 81: ed. 1719, iii, 65, is a different “New Ballad
upon a Wedding” [at Lambeth], with the music, to same tune and model,
beginning, “The sleeping _Thames_ one morn I cross’d, By two contending
_Charons_ tost.” Like Cleveland’s poem, as an imitation it possesses
merit, each having some good verses.
Pages 111, 112. _The Proctors are two._
Among the references herein to Cambridge Taverns is one (3rd verse) to
the Myter: part of which fell down before 1635, and was celebrated in
verse by that “darling of the Muses,” Thomas Randolph. His lines begin
“Lament, lament, ye scholars all!” He mentions other Taverns and the
Mitre-landlord, Sam:—
_Let the ~Rose~ with the ~Falcon~ moult,_
_While ~Sam~ enjoys his wishes;_
_The ~Dolphin~, too, must cast her crown:_
_Wine was not made for fishes._
Pages 115, 374. _’Tis not the silver, &c._
The mention, on pp. 116, of “our bold Army” turning out the “black
Synod,” refers less probably to Colonel “_Pride’s Purge_” of the
Presbyterians, on 6th December, 1648, than to the events of April 20,
1653; and helps to fix the date to the same year. In 6th verse the blanks
are to be thus filled, “Arms of the _Rump_ or the _King_;” “C. R., or O.
P.;” the joke of “the breeches” being a supposed misunderstanding of the
Commonwealth-Arms on current coin (viz., the joined shields of England
and Ireland) for the impression made by Noll’s posteriors. Compare “Saw
you the States-Money,” in _Rump_ Coll., i. 289. On one side they marked
“God with us!”
“_~Common-wealth~ on the other, by which we may guess_
_~God~ and the ~States~ were not both of a side._”
Pages 121, 375. _Come, let’s purge our brains._
This song is almost certainly by THOMAS JORDAN, the City-Poet. With many
differences he reprints it later in his _London in Luster_, as sung at
the Banquet given by the Drapers Company, October 29th, 1679; where it
is entitled “The Coronation of Canary,” and thus begins (in place of our
first verse):—
_Drink your wine away,_
_’Tis my Lord Mayor’s day,_
_Let our Cups and Cash be free._
_Beer and Ale are both || But the sons of froth,_
_Let us then in wine agree._
_To taste a Quart || Of every sort,_
_The thinner and the thicker;_
_That spight of Chance || We may advance,_
_The Nobler and the Quicker._
_Who shall by Vote of every Throat_
_Be crown’d the King of Liquor._
2.
_~Muscadel~ Avant, Bloody ~Alicant~,_
_Shall have no free vote of mine;_
_~Claret~ is a Prince, And he did long since_
_In the Royal order shine._
_His face, &c._, (as in _M. D. C._ p. 112.)
In sixth verse, “_If a ~Cooper~ we With a red nose see_,” refers to
Oliver Cromwell; and proves it to have been written before September,
1658.
Pages 125, 315. _Lay by, &c., Law lies a-bleeding._
The date of this ballad seems to have been 1656, rather than 1658. The
despotism of the sword here so powerfully described, was under those
persons who are on p. 254 of _M. D. C._ designated “Oliver’s myrmidons,”
meaning, probably, chiefly the major-generals of the military districts,
into which the country was divided after Penruddock’s downfall in 1655.
They were Desborough, Whalley, Goffe, Fleetwood, “downright” Skippon,
Kelsey, Butler, Worseley, and Berry; to these ten were added Barkstead.
Compare Hallam’s account:—“These were eleven in number, men bitterly
hostile to the royalist party, and insolent to all civil authority. They
were employed to secure the payment of a tax of ten per cent., imposed
by Cromwell’s arbitrary will on those who had ever sided with the King
during the late wars, where their estates exceeded £100 per annum. The
major-generals, in their correspondence printed among Thurloe’s papers,
display a rapacity and oppression greater than their master’s. They
complain that the number of those exempted is too great; they press
for harsher measures; they incline to the unfavourable construction in
every doubtful case; they dwell on the growth of malignancy and the
general disaffection. It was not indeed likely to be mitigated by this
unparalleled tyranny. All illusion was now gone as to the pretended
benefits of the civil war. It had ended in a despotism, compared to which
all the illegal practices of former kings, all that had cost Charles his
life and crown, appeared as dust in the balance. For what was Ship-money,
a general burthen, by the side of the present decimation of a single
class, whose offence had long been expiated by a composition and effaced
by an act of indemnity? or were the excessive punishments of the Star
Chamber so odious as the capital executions inflicted without trial by
peers, whenever it suited the usurper to erect his high court of justice
[by which Gerard and Vowel in 1654, Slingsby and Dr. Hewit in 1658 fell]?
A sense of present evils not only excited a burning desire to live again
under the ancient monarchy, but obliterated, especially in the new
generation, that had no distinct remembrance of them, the apprehension of
its former abuses.” (_Constitutional Hist. England_, cap. x. vol. ii. p.
252, edit. 1872.) This from a writer unprejudiced and discriminating.
Pages 131, 376. _I’ll tell you a story._
TOWER HILL AND TYBURN. The date of this ferocious ballad is not likely to
have been long before the execution of the regicides Harrison, Hacker,
Cook, and Hew Peters, in October, 1660; some on the 13th, others on the
16th. Probably, shortly before the trial of Harry Marten, on the 10th
of the same month. The second verse indicates a considerable lapse of
time since Monk’s arrival and the downfall of the Rump (burnt in effigy,
Febr. 11, 1659-60); so we may be certain that it was written late, about
September, if not actually at beginning of October.
Sir Robert TICHBOURNE, Commissioner for sale of State-lands, Alderman,
Regulator of Customs, and Lord Mayor in 1658, was named in the King’s
Proclamation, 6th June, 1660, as one of those who had fled, and who were
summoned to appear within fourteen days, on penalty of being exempted
from any pardon. His name occurs again, among the exceptions to the
Act of Indemnity; along with those of Thos. Harrison, Hy. Marten, John
Hewson, Jn. Cook, Hew Peters, Francis Hacker, and other forty-five.
Nineteen of these fifty-one surrendered themselves: Tichbourne and Marten
among them. None of them were executed; although Scoop was, who also had
yielded. The trial of the regicides commenced on 9th October, at Hick’s
Hall, Clerkenwell.
HUGH PETERS suffered, along with JOHN COOK (the Counsel against Charles
I.) “that read the King’s charge,” on the 16th October. He was depressed
in spirits at the last, but there was dignity in his reply to one who
insulted him in passing—“Friend, you do not well to trample on a dying
man;” and his sending a token to his daughter awakens pity. Physically
he had failed in courage, and no wonder, to face all that was arrayed
to terrify him: or he might have justified anticipations and “made a
pulpit of the place.” His last sermon at Newgate is said to have been
“incoherent.”
HARRY MARTEN’S private life is so generally declared to have been
licentious (dozens of ballads referring to his “harem,” “Marten’s girl
that was neither sweet nor sound,” “Marten, back and leave your wench,”
&c.), and his old friend Cromwell when become a foe openly taxing him as
a “whoremaster,” that it is better for us to think of him with reference
to his unswerving faithfulness in Republican opinions; his gay spirit
(more resembling the reckless indifference of Cavaliers than his own
associates can have esteemed befitting); his successful exertions on
many occasions to save the shedding of blood; and his gallant bearing in
the final hours of trial. The living death to which he was condemned,
of his twenty years imprisonment at Chepstow Castle, has been recorded
(mistakenly as _thirty_) by that devoted student Robert Southey, _clarum
et venerabilem nomen!_ in a poem which can never pass into oblivion,
although cleverly mocked by Canning in the Anti-Jacobin, Nov. 20, 1797:—
For twenty years secluded from mankind
Here MARTEN lingered. Often have these walls
Echo’d his footsteps, as with even tread
He paced around his prison; not to him
Did Nature’s fair varieties exist:
He never saw the sun’s delightful beams
Save when through yon high bars it pour’d a sad
And broken splendour. Dost thou ask his crime?
He had rebelled against his King, and sat
In judgment on him: _&c._
John Forster has written his memoir, and, in one of his best moments,
Wallis painted him. Here are his own last words, sad yet firm, the old
humour still apparent, if only in the choice of verse, it being the
anagram of his name:—
Here, or elsewhere (all’s one to you—to me!)
Earth, air, or water, gripes my ghostless dust,
None knowing when brave fire shall set it free.
Reader, if you an oft-tried rule will trust,
You’ll gladly do and suffer what you must.
My life was worn with serving you and you,
And death is my reward, and welcome too:
Revenge destroying but itself. While I
To birds of prey leave my old cage and fly.
Examples preach to th’ eye—care, then, mine says,
Not how you end, but how you spend your days.
(_Athenæ Oxonienses_, iii. 1243.)
As to Thomas HARRISON, fifth-monarchy enthusiast, firm to the end in
his adversity, he who had been ruthless in prosperity, we have already
briefly referred to his closing hours in our Introduction to _Merry
Drollery, Compleat_, p. xxix.
JOHN HEWSON, Cobbler and Colonel, who had sat in the illegal mockery
of Judgment on King Charles, was for the after years ridiculed by
ballad-singers as a one-eyed spoiler of good leather. He escaped the doom
of Tyburn by flight to Amsterdam, where he died in 1662. In default of
his person, his picture was hung on a gibbet in Cheapside, 25th January,
1660-61. (See _Pepys’ Diary_ of that date.) His appearance was not
undignified. One ballad specially devoted to him, at his flight, is “A
Hymne to the Gentle Craft; or, _Hewson’s_ Lamentation”:—
Listen a while to what I shall say
Of a blind cobbler that’s gone astray
Out of the Parliament’s High-way,
Good people, pity the blind!
[verse 17.]
And now he has gone to the Lord knows whether,
He and this winter go together,
If he be caught he will lose his leather,
Good people, pity the blind!
(_Rump_, Coll. 1662 edit., ii. 151-4.)
Verse 14. Dr. John HEWIT with Sir Harry Slingsby had been executed for
conspiracy against Cromwell, 8th June, 1658. The Earl of Strafford’s
death was May 12th, 1641; and that of Laud, January 10th, 1644.
Verse 15. DUN was the name of the Hangman at this time, frequently
mentioned in the _Rump_ ballads. Jack Ketch was his successor: Gregory
had been Hangman in 1652.
Pages 134, 376. _I’ll go no more to the Old Exchange._
The _first_ Royal Exchange, Sir Thomas Gresham’s Bourse, was opened by
Queen Elizabeth, January 23rd, 1570, and destroyed in the Great Fire of
1666. The _second_ was commenced on May 6th, 1667, and burnt on January
10th, 1838. The present building, the _third_, was opened by Queen
Victoria Oct., 28th, 1844. The “Old Exchange,” often referred to in
ballads, was Gresham’s. But the “New Exchange” was one, erected where
the stables of Durham House in the Strand had stood: opened April 11th,
1609, and removed in 1737. King James I. had named it “Britain’s Bourse.”
Built on the model of the established Royal Exchange, it had “cellars,
a walk, and a row of shops, filled with milliners, seamstresses, and
those of similar occupations; and was a place of fashionable resort.
What, however, was intended to rival the Royal Exchange, dwindled into
frivolity and ruin, and the site is at present [1829] occupied by a range
of handsome houses facing the Strand” (T. Allen’s _Hist. and Antiq. of
London_, iv. 254). In the ballad it is sung of as “Haberdashers’ Hall.”
Cp. Roxb. Coll., ii., 230.
Pages 152, 378. _There is a certain, &c._
This is an imperfect version of “A Woman’s Birth,” merely the beginning,
four stanzas. The whole fifteen (eleven following ours) are reprinted by
Wm. Chappell, in the Ballad Society’s _Roxburghe Bds._, iii. 94, 1875,
from a broadside in Roxb. Coll., i. 466, originally printed for Francis
Grove [1620-55]. 2nd verse reads:—Her husband _Hymen_; 4th. _Wandring
~eye~; insatiate_. The gifts of Juno, Flora, and Diana follow; with
woman’s employment of them.
Page 172. _Blind Fortune, if thou, &c._
We find this in MS. Harleian, No. 6396, fol. 13. Also two printed copies,
in _Parnassus Biceps_, 1656, 124; and in _Sportive Wit_, same year, p.
39. We gained the corrections, which we inserted as _marginalia_, from
the MS.; “_Ceres_ in _hir_ Garland” having been corrupted into “_Cealus_
in _his_.” “_Aglaura_,” Sir John Suckling’s play, (printed originally in
4to. 1639, with a broad margin of blank, on which the wits made merry
with epigrammes, “By this wide margent,” &c.), appeared on April 18th,
1638, and is here referred to. Probably the date of the poem is nearly as
early. On p. 175 the “Pilgrimage up _Holborn_ Hill” refers to a journey
from Newgate to Tyburn. (See p. 365).
Pages 180, 379. _Heard you not lately of a man._
The Mad-Man’s Morrice; written by HUMFREY CROUCH: For the second part
of the broad-sheet version we must refer readers to vol. ii. page 153,
of the Ballad Society’s reprint of the _Roxburghe Ballads_ (now happily
arrived at completion of the first massive folio vol. of Major Pearson’s
original pair; the bulky third and slim fourth vols. being afterwards
added). We promised to give it, and gladly would have done so, if we had
space: for it is a trustworthy picture of a Bedlamite’s sufferings, under
the harsh treatment of former days. Date about 1635-42.
To our enumeration of mad songs (_Westm. Droll._ App. p. 9) we may add
Thomas Jordan’s “I am the woefullest madman.”
_M. D., C._, p. 198, lines 22, 23. _True Hearts._
“I’ll drink to thee a brace of quarts || Whose Anagram is called _True
Hearts_.” The Anagram of True Hearts gives us “Stuart here!” which, like
drinking “to the King—_over the water_!” in later days by the Jacobites,
would be well understood by suspected cavaliers.
In March 1659-60 appeared the anagram “Charles Stuart: Arts Chast Rule.”
Later: Awld fool, Rob the Jews’ Shop.
Pages 255, 287. _When I do travel in the night._
Like “How happy’s the prisoner,” _Ibid._ p. 107, we trace this so early
as 1656. It is in _Sportive Wit_, p. 12, as “When I go to revel in the
night,” The Drunkard’s Song.
Pages 153 (and Introduction, ix). _The best of Poets, &c._
THE BOW GOOSE. We have found this, (15 verses of our 18,) five years
earlier, in _Sportive Wit_, 1656, p. 35. It there begins, “The best of
Poets write of Hogs, And of _Ulysses_ barking Dogs; Others of Sparrows,
Flies, and Hogs.” Our text, though later, seems to be the better, and
has three more verses: “Frogs,” in connection with “the Best of Poets,”
referring to Homer and to _Batrachomyomachia_; supposed to be his, and
translated by George Chapman, about 1623 (of whom A. C. Swinburne has
recently written so glowing a eulogium, coupling with it the noblest
praise of Marlowe).
_M. D., C._, pp. 166, 376. _Now, thanks to, &c._
Of course, the words displayed by dashes are _Crown_, _Bishop_, _King_.
To this same tune are later songs (1659-60) in the Rump, ii. 193-200,
“What a reprobate crew is here,” &c. Wilkins prints an inferior version
of 7th line in 3rd verse, as “Take _Prynne_ and his clubs, or _Say_ and
his tubs,” referring to William, Viscount “Say and Seal.” Ours reads
“club, or _Smec_ and his tub,” the allusion being to _Smectymnuus_, a
name compounded, like the word _Cabal_ in Charles II.’s time, of the
initials of five personal names: Ste. Marshall, Edm. Calamy, Thos. Young,
Matth. Newcomen, and Willm. Spurstow; all preachers, who united in a
book against Episcopacy and the Liturgy. Milton, in 1641 published his
_Animadversions upon the Remonstrants Defence against Smectymnuus_; and
in 1642, _An Apology for Smectymnuus_. John Cleveland devotes a poem to
“The Club Divines,” beginning “Smectymnuus! the Goblin makes me start.”
(_Poems_, p. 38, 1661; also in the _Rump_ Coll., i. 57.)
Pages 200, 382. _A Story strange, &c._
Correction:—Instead of the words “_Choyce Drollery_, p. 31,” in first
line of note (M. D., C., p. 382), read “_Jovial Drollery_ (i.e.,
_Sportive Wit_), p. 59.” The same date, viz. 1656.
Pages 210-11, 384. “_To ~Virginia~ for Planters._”
The reference here is to the proposed expedition of disheartened
Cavaliers (among whom was Wm. D’Avenant) from France and England to the
Virginian plantations. It was defeated in 1650, the vessels having been
intercepted in the channel by the Commonwealth’s fleet. By the way, the
infamous sale into slavery of the royalist prisoners during the war
in previous years by the intolerant Parliament, deserves the sternest
reprobation.
Page 226. “_Sea-coal Lane._”
An appropriate dower, as Sea-coal Lane in the Old Bailey bore a similar
evil repute to Turnball Street, Drury Lane, and Kent Street, for the
_bona-roba_ tribe: as “the suburbs” always did.
Pages 232, 390. _How poor is his spirit._
Written when Oliver rejected the title of King, 8th May, 1657. (See next
note, on p. 254.)
Pages 254, 393. Oliver, Oliver, _take up thy Crown_.
After Cromwell’s designating the Battle of Worcester, 3rd September,
1651, his “crowning victory” many of his more uncompromising Republicans
kept a stealthy eye upon him. Our ballad evidently refers itself to the
date of the “purified” Parliament’s “Petition and Advice,” March 26,
1656, when Cromwell hesitated before accepting or declining the offered
title of King; thinking (mistakenly, as we deem probable) that his
position would become more unsafe, from the jealousy and prejudices of
the army, than if he seemed contented with the name of Protector to the
Commonwealth, while holding the actual power of sovereignty. His refusal
was in April, 1657. Hallam thinks it was not until after Worcester fight
that “he began to fix his thoughts, if not on the dignity of royalty,
yet on an equivalent right of command. Two remarkable conversations, in
which Whitelock bore a part, seem to place beyond controversy the nature
of his designs. About the end of 1651, Whitelock himself, St. John,
Widdrington, Lenthall, Harrison, Desborough, Fleetwood, and Whalley met
Cromwell, at his own request to consider the settlement of the nation,”
&c. (_Constit. Hist. England_, cap. x. p. 237, edit. 1872.) “Twelve
months after this time in a more confidential discourse with Whitelock
alone, the general took occasion to complain both of the chief officers
of the army and of the parliament,” &c. (_Ibid._ p. 238). The conference
not being satisfactory to Cromwell, on each occasion ended abruptly; and
Whitelock (if we may trust his own account, which perhaps is asking too
much) was little consulted afterwards. When they had conferred the title
of Lord Protector, the right of appointing his successor was added on
22nd May.
Pages 255, 393. _When I do travel, &c._
“With upsie freeze I line my head,” of our text, is in the play
“Cromwell’s Coronation” printed “With _tipsy_ frenzie.” But we often
find the other phrase; sometimes, as in the ballad of “The Good Fellow’s
Best Beloved” (i.e. strong drink) varied thus, “With good _ipse he_,”
(about 1633). See Bd. Soc. _Roxb. Bds._ iii. 248, where is W. Chappell’s
note, quoting Nares:—“It has been said that _op-zee_, in Dutch, means
‘over sea,’ which cones near to another English phrase for drunkenness,
being ‘half-seas over.’ But _op-zyn-fries_ means, ‘in the Dutch fashion,’
or _à la mode de Frise_, which perhaps is the best interpretation of
the phrase.” In Massinger and Decker’s “Virgin Martyr,” 1622, Act ii.
sc. 1, we find the vile Spungius saying, “_Bacchus_, the God of brewed
wine and sugar, grand patron of rob-pots, _upsie freesie_ tipplers, and
_super-naculum_ takers,” &c. Probably Badham’s conjecture is right, and
in Hamlet, i. 4, we should read not “up-spring,” but
“_Keeps wassail, and the swaggering ~upsy freeze~._”
(_Cambr. Essays_, 1656; _Cambr. Shakesp._ viii. 30). T. Caldecott had
so early as 1620 (in _Spec. new edit. Shakesp._ Hamlet) anticipated
the guess, but not boldly. He brings forward from T. Lodge’s _Wit’s
Miserie_, 4to, 1596, p. 20, “Dance, leap, sing, drink, _upsefrize_.” And
again:—
_For ~Upsefreeze~ he drunke from four to nine,_
_So as each sense was steeped well in wine:_
_Yet still he kept his ~rouse~, till he in fine_
_Grew extreame sicke with hugging ~Bacchus~ shrine._
[_The Shrift._]
A new Spring shadowed in sundrie pithie Poems by _Musophilus_, 4to.
1619, signat. l. b., where “_Upsefreese_” is the name of the frier. Like
“Wassael” and “Trinkael,” the phrase upsie-friese, or vrijster, seems to
have been used as a toast, perhaps for “To your sweetheart.”
Pages 259, 354. _If none be offended._
The exact date of this ballad’s publication was 31st December, 1659: in
_Thomason Collection_, Numero xxii., folio, Brit. Mus.
Page 270. _Pray why should any, &c._
Probably written in 1659-60, when Monk was bridling the Commons. “Cooks”
alludes to John Cook, the Solicitor for the Commonwealth, who at the
trial of Charles Ist. exhibited the charge of high treason. After the
Restoration, Cook was executed along with Hugh Peters, 16th Oct., 1660,
at Charing Cross.
Pages 283 (line 22), 395. _I have the finest Nonperel._
“_Hyrens_” (as earlier printed in _Wit and Drollery_, 1656, p. 26),
instead of “Syrens” of our text, is probably correct. Ancient Pistol
twice asks “Have we not _Hirens_ here?” (_Henry_ IV., Part 2nd, Act ii.
sc. 4). George Peele had a play, now lost, on “The Turkish Mahomet and
Hiren the fair Greek” [1594?] In the _Spiritual Navigator_, 1615, we
learn, is a passage, “There be Syrens in the sea of the world. _Syrens?_
_Hirens_, as they are now called. What a number of these syrens, hirens,
cockatrices, courteghians—in plain English, harlots—swimme amongst us!”
Page 287. Title, “_Oxford Feasts._”
An unfortunate misprint crept in, detected too late: for “_Feasts_” read
properly “_Jeasts_:” the old fashioned initial _J_ being barred across
like _F_.
Page 293, line 11. “_Heresie in hops._”
This must have been an established jest. Compare Introd. to _M. D., C._,
pp. xxxi-ii. and T. Randolph’s “Fall of the Mitre Tavern,” Cambridge,
before 1635,
“_The zealous students of that place_
_Change of religion bear:_
_That this mischance may soon bring in_ || _A heresy of beer._”
Page 295, line 24. “_A hundred horse._”
“He that gave the King a hundred horse,” refers, no doubt, to Sir John
Suckling and his loyal service in 1642. See introduction to _M. D.,
C._, pp. xix. xx. The Answer to “I tell thee, Jack, thou gavest the
King,” there mentioned, and probably referring to Sir John Mennis, a
carping rival although a Cavalier, has a smack of Cleveland about it (it
certainly is not Suckling’s):—
_I tell thee, fool, who ere thou be,_
_That made this fine sing-song of me,_
_Thou art a riming sot:_
_These very lines do thee betray,_
_This barren wit makes all men say_
_’Twas some rebellious Scot._
_But it’s no wonder if you sing_
_Such songs of me, who am no King,_
_When every blew-cap swears_
_Hee’l not obey King ~James~ his Barn,_
_That huggs a Bishop under’s Arme,_
_And hangs them in his ears._
_Had I been of your Covenant,_
_You’d call me th’ son of ~John~ of ~Gaunt~,_
_And give me t’ great renown;_
_But now I am ~John~ [f]or the King,_
_You say I am but poor ~Suckling~,_
_And thus you cry me down._
_Well, it’s no matter what you say_
_Of me or mine that run away:_
_I hold it no good fashion_
_A Loyal subjects blood to spill,_
_When we have knaves enough to kill_
_By force of Proclamation._
_Commend me unto ~Lesley~ stout,_
_And his Pedlers him about,_
_Tell them without remorse_ [p. 151.]
_That I will plunder all their packs_
_Which they have got with their stoln knick knacks,_
_With these my hundred horse._
_This holy War, this zealous firke_
_Against the Bishops and the Kirk_
_Is a pretended bravery;_
_Religion, all the world can tell,_
_Amongst Highlanders nere did dwell,_
_Its but to cloak your knavery._
_Such desperate Gamesters as you be,_
_I cannot blame for tutoring me,_
_Since all you have is down,_
_And every Boor forsakes his Plow,_
_And swears that he’l turn Gamester now_
_To venture for a Crown._
(_Le Prince d’Amour_, 1660, pp. 150, 151.)
Pages 296, 398 (Cp. this vol. p. 149, line 8). _Now that the Spring._
This is by WILLM. BROWNE, author of “Britannia’s Pastorals.” The date
is probably about fifteen years before 1645. It is one among the “Odes,
Songs, and Sonnets of Wm. Browne,” in the Lansdowne MS. 777, fol. 4
_reverso_ and 5, with extra verses not used in the Catch.
_A Rounde._ [1st verse sung by] All.
_Now that the Spring hath fill’d our veynes_
_With kinde and actiue fire,_
_And made green Liu’ryes for the playnes,_
_and euery grove a Quire,_
_Sing we a Song of merry glee_
_and ~Bacchus~ fill the bowle:_
_1. Then heres to thee; 2. And thou to mee_
_and euery thirsty soule._
_Nor Care nor Sorrow ere pay’d debt_
_nor never shall doe myne;_
_I haue no Cradle goeing yet,_
_[?2.] nor I, by this good wyne._
_No wyfe at home to send for me,_
_noe hoggs are in my grounde,_
_Noe suit at Law to pay a fee,_
_Then round, old Jockey, round._
All.
_Sheare sheepe that haue them, cry we still,_
_But see that noe man scape_
_To drink of the Sherry_
_That makes us so merry_
_and plumpe as the lusty Grape._
(_Lansdowne MS._, No. 777.)
“Noe hoggs are in my grounds” may refer to the Catch (if it be equally
old):—
_Whose three Hogs are these, and whose three Hoggs are these,_
_They are ~John Cook’s~, I know by their look, for I found them in my
pease._
_Oh! pound them: oh pound them! But I dare not, for my life;_
_For if I should pound ~John Cook’s~ Hoggs, I should never kiss ~John
Cook’s~ wife, &c._
(_Catch Club_, 1705, iii. 46.)
Pages 293, 358. _Fetch me ~Ben Jonson’s~ scull._
In 1641 this was printed separately and anonymously as “_A Preparative
to Studie; or, the Vertue of Sack_,” 4to. Ben Jonson had died in August,
1637. Line 9 reads: dull _Hynde_; 21, Genius-making; 28, Welcome, by;
after the word “scapes” these additional lines:—
_I would not leave thee, Sack, to be with ~Jove~,_
_His Nectar is but faign’d, but I doe prove_
_Thy more essentiall worth; I am (methinks), &c._
Line 46, instead of “long since,” reads “_of late_” (referring to whom?);
38, tempt a _Saint_; 44, _farther_ bliss; 53, against thy _foes_ (N.B.);
That _would_; and, additional, after “horse,” in line 56, this historical
allusion to David Lesley, of the Scotch rebellion:—
_I’me in the North already, ~Lasley’s~ dead,_
_He that would rise, carry the King his head,_
_And tell him (if he aske, who kill’d the Scot)_
_I knock’t his Braines out with a pottle pot._
_Out ye Rebellious vipers; I’me come back_
_From them againe, because there’s no good Sack,_
_T’other odd cup, &c._
By this we are guided to the true date: between May, 1639, and August,
1640.
Pages 309, 399. _Why should we boast._