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._

Compare pp. 129, 315, of present volume, for the _Antidote_ version and note upon it. Brief references must suffice for annotation here. See Mallory’s “_Morte d’Arthur_,” the French _Lancelot du Lac_, and _Sir Tristram_. Three MSS., the Auchinlech, Cambridge University, and Caius College, preserve the romance of _Sir Bevis of Hamptoun_, with his slaying the wild boar; his sword _Morglay_ is often mentioned, like Arthur’s _Excalibur_: Ascapard, the thirty-feet-long giant, who after a fierce battle becomes page to Sir Bevis. Caius Coll. MS. and others have the story _Richard Cœur de Leon_, but the street-ballad served equally to keep alive his fame among the populace, _Coll. Old. Bds._ iii. 17. Wm. Ellis gives abstracts of romances on Arthur, Guy of Warwick, Sir Bevis, Richard Lion-heart, Sir Eglamour of Artoys, Sir Isumbras, the Seven Wise Masters, Charlemagne and Roland, &c., in his _Spec. Early English Metrical Romances_; of which J. O. Halliwell writes, in 1848:—“Ellis did for ancient romance what Percy had previously accomplished for early poetry.” In passing, we must not neglect to express the debt of gratitude due to the managers of the _E. E. Text Soc._, for giving scholarly and trustworthy prints of so many MSS., hitherto almost beyond reach. For _Orlando Inamorato_ and _Orlando Furioso_ we must go to Boiardo and Ariosto, or the translators, Sir John Harrington and W. Stewart Rose. Dunlop’s _Hist. of Fiction_ gives a slight notice of some of this ballad’s heroes, including _Huon_ of Bordeaux, the French _Livre de Jason_, Prince of the Myrmidons, the _Vie de Hercule_, the _Cléopâtre_, &c. Valentine and Orson is said to have been written in the reign of Charles VIII., and first printed at Lyons in 1495. SS. David, James, and Patrick, with the rest of the Seven Champions, like the Four Sons of Aymon, are of easy access. Cp. Warton.

ARTHUR O’BRADLEY.

(_Merry Droll., Com._, pp. 312, 395; _Antidote ag. Mel._, 16).

Here is the five years’ earlier Song of “Arthur o’ Bradley,” (_vide ante_, pp. 166-175) never before reprinted, we believe, and not mentioned by J. P. Collier, W. Chappell, &c., when they referred to “Saw ye not Pierce the Piper” of _Antidote_ and _M. D., C._, 1661. But ours is the earliest-known complete version [before 1642?]:—

A SONG. [p. 81.]

All you that desire to merry be, Come listen unto me, And a story I shall tell, Which of a Wedding befell, Between _Arthur_ of _Bradley_ And _Winifred_ of _Madly_. As _Arthur_ upon a day Met _Winifred_ on the way, He took her by the hand, Desiring her to stand, Saying I must to thee recite A matter of [great] weight, Of Love, that conquers Kings, In grieved hearts so rings, And if thou dost love thy Mother, Love him that can love no other. _Which is oh brave ~Arthur~_, &c.

For in the month of May, Maidens they will say, A May-pole we must have, [∴ date before 1642.] Your helping hand we crave. And when it is set in the earth, The maids bring Sullybubs forth; [Syllabubs] Not one will touch a sup, Till I begin a cup. For I am the end of all Of them, both great and small. Then tell me yea, or nay, For I can no longer stay. _With oh brave ~Arthur~_, &c.

Why truly _Arthur_[,] quoth she, If you so minded be, My good will I grant to you, Or anything I can do. One thing I will compell, So ask my mothers good will. Then from thee I never will flye, Unto the day I do dye. Then homeward they went with speed, Where the mother they met indeed. Well met fair Dame, quoth _Arthur_, To move you I am come hither, For I am come to crave, [p. 83.] Your daughter for to have, For I mean to make her my wife, And to live with her all my life. _With oh brave ~Arthur~_, &c.

The old woman shreek’d and cry’d, And took her daughter aside, How now daughter, quoth she, Are you so forward indeed, As for to marry he, Without consent of me? Thou never saw’st thirteen year, Nor art not able I fear, To take any over-sight, To rule a mans house aright: Why truly mother, quoth she, You are mistaken in me; If time do not decrease, I am fifteen yeares at least. _With oh brave ~Arthur~_, &c.

Then _Arthur_ to them did walk, And broke them of their talk. I tell you Dame, quoth he, I can have as good as thee; For when death my father did call, He then did leave me all His barrels and his brooms, And a dozen of wo[o]den spoones, Dishes six or seven, Besides an old spade, even A brasse pot and whimble, A pack-needle and thimble, A pudding prick and reele, And my mothers own sitting wheele; And also there fell to my lot A goodly mustard pot. _With O brave_ Arthur, &c.

The old woman made a reply, With courteous modesty, If needs it must so be, To the match I will agree. For [when] death doth me call, I then will leave her all; For I have an earthen flaggon, Besides a three-quart noggin, With spickets and fossets five, Besides an old bee-hive; A wooden ladle and maile, And a goodly old clouting paile; Of a chaff bed I am well sped, And there the Bride shall be wed, And every night shall wear A bolster stufft with haire, A blanket for the Bride, And a winding sheet beside, And hemp, if he will it break, [p. 85.] New curtaines for to make. To make all [well] too, I have Stories gay and brave. Of all the world so fine, With oh brave eyes of mine, _With oh brave ~Arthur~_, &c.

When _Arthur_ his wench obtained, And all his suits had gained, A joyfull man was he, As any that you could see. Then homeward he went with speed, Till he met with her indeed. Two neighbours then did take To bid guests for his sake; For dishes and all such ware, You need not take any care. _With oh brave ~Arthur~_, &c.

To the Church they went apace, And wisht they might have grace, After the Parson to say, And not stumble by the way; For that was all their doubt, That either of them should be out. And when that they were wed, And each of them well sped, The Bridegroom home he ran, And after him his man, [p. 86.] And after him the Bride, Full joyfull at the tyde, As she was plac’d betwixt Two yeomen of the Guests, And he was neat and fine, For he thought him at that time Sufficient in every thing, To wait upon a King. But at the doore he did not miss To give her a smacking kiss. _With oh brave ~Arthur~_, &c.

To dinner they quickly gat, The Bride betwixt them sat, The Cook to the Dresser did call, The young men then run all, And thought great dignity To carry up Furmety. Then came leaping _Lewis_, And he call’d hard for Brewis; Stay, quoth _Davy Rudding_, Thou go’st too fast with th’ pudding. Then came _Sampson Seal_, And he carry’d Mutton and Veal; The old woman scolds full fast, To the Cook she makes great hast, And him she did controul, And swore that the Porridge was cold. _With oh brave_, &c.

My Masters a while be brief, Who taketh up the Beef? Then came _William Dickins_, [p. 87.] And carries the Snipes & Chickens. _Bartholomew_ brought up the Mustard, _Caster_ he carry’d the Custard. In comes _Roger Boore_, He carry’d up Rabbets before: Quoth _Roger_, I’le give thee a Cake, If thou wilt carry the Drake. [1] Speak not more nor less, Nor of the greatest mess, Nor how the Bride did carve, Nor how the Groom did serve _With oh brave ~Arthur~_, &c.

But when that they had din’d, Then every man had wine; The maids they stood aloof, While the young men made a proof. Who had the nimblest heele, Or who could dance so well, Till _Hob_ of the hill fell over, [? oe’r] And over him three or four. Up he got at last, And forward about he past; At _Rowland_ he kicks and grins, And he [? hit] _William_ ore the shins; He takes not any offence, But fleeres upon his wench. The Piper he play’d [a] Fadding, And they ran all a gadding. _With oh brave ~Arthur [o’ Bradley]~_, &c.

(“_Wits Merriment_,” 1656, pp. 81-7.)

The often mentioned “Arthur o’ Bradley’s Wedding,” a modern version attributed to Mr. Taylor, the actor and singer, is given, not only in _Songs and Ballads of the Peasantry_, &c., (p. 139 of R. Bell’s Annot. ed.), collected by J. H. Dixon; but also in Berger’s _Red, White, and Blue Monster Songbook_, p. 394, where the music arranged by S. Hale is stated to be “at Walker’s.”

Pages 326, 402. _Why should we not laugh?_

The reference to “Goldsmith’s Hall” (see p. 363), where a Roundhead Committee sate in 1647, and later, for the spoliation of Royalists’ estates, levying of fines and acceptance of “Compounders” money, dates the song.

Pages 328, 402. _Now we are met._

If we are to reckon the “twelve years together by the ears” from January 4, 1641-2, the abortive attempt of Charles I. to arrest at the House “the Five Members” (Pym, Hampden, Haslerig, Denzil Holles, and Strode), we may guess the date of this ballad to be 1653-4. Verse 14 mentions Oliver breaking the Long Parliament (20th April, 1653); and verses 15, 16 refer to the Little, or “Barebones Parliament” July 4, to 2nd December, 1653, (when power was resigned into the hands of Cromwell). Shortly after this, but certainly before Sept. 3rd, 1654 (when the next Parliament, more impracticable and persecuting, met), must be the true date of the ballad. “_Robin_ the Fool” is “Robin Wisdom,” Robert Andrews. “_Fair_” is Thomas Lord Fairfax the “Croysado-General.” “Cowardly W——” is probably Philip, Lord Wharton, a Puritan, and Derby-House committee-man; of inferior renown to Atkins in unsavoury matters; but whose own regiment ran away at Edgehill: Wharton then took refuge in a saw-pit. President _Bradshaw_ died 22nd Nov., 1659. Dr. Isaac DORISLAUS, Professor of History at Cambridge, and of Gresham College, apostatized from Charles I., and was sent as agent by the Commons to the Hague, where he was in June, 1649, assassinated by some cavaliers, falsely reported to be commissioned by the gallant Montrose (see the ballad “What though lamented, curst,” &c., in King’s Pamphlets, Brit. Mus.).

“_Askew_,” is “one Ascham a Scholar, who had been concerned in drawing up the King’s Tryal, and had written a book,” &c., (Clarendon, iii. 369, 1720). This Anthony Ascham, sent as Envoy to Spain from the Parliament in 1649, was slain at Madrid by some Irish officers, (Rapin:) of whom only one, a Protestant, was executed. See _Harl. Misc._ vi. 236-47. All which helped to cause the war with Spain in 1656.

Harry Marten’s evil repute as to women, and lawyer Oliver St. John’s building his house with stones plundered from Peterborough Cathedral, were common topics. “The women’s war,” often referred to as the “bodkin and thimble army,” of 1647, was so called because the “Silly women,” influenced by those who “crept into their houses,” gave up their rings, silver bodkins, spoons and thimbles for support of Parliamentary troops.

Page 332, line 2.

We should for _Our_ read _Only_.

Page 348, line 10. “Old Lilly.”

An allusion to William Lilly’s predictive almanacks, shewing that this Catch was not much earlier in date than Hilton’s book, 1652. Lilly was the original of Butler’s “Cunning man, hight Sidrophel” in _Hudibras_, Part 2nd, Canto 3. Compare note, p. 353.

Page 361 (Appendix), line 5.

For misprint _alterem_, read _alteram_.

Page 394 (Appendix), _New England, &c._

References should be added to the _Rump_ Coll., 1662, i. 95, and _Loyal Songs_, 1731, i. 92. “Isaack,” is probably Isaac Pennington. Hampden and others were meditating this _journey to New England_, until stopped, most injudiciously, by an order in Council, dated April 6, 1638.

We here give our additional Note, on the “Sessions of the Poets,” reserved from p. 376.

§ 3.—SESSIONS OF POETS.

We believe that Sir John Suckling’s Poem, sometimes called “A Sessions of Wit,” was written in 1636-7; almost certainly before the death of Ben Jonson (6th August, 1637). Among its predecessors were Richard Barnfield’s “Remembrance of some English Poets,” 1598 (given in present volume, p. 273); and Michael Drayton’s “Censure of the Poets,” being a Letter in couplets, addressed to his friend Henry Reynolds; and the striking lines, “On the Time-Poets,” pp. 5-7 of _Choyce Drollery_, 1656. The latter we have seen to be anonymous; but they were not impossibly by that very Henry Reynolds, friend of Drayton; although of this authorship no evidence has yet arisen. Of George Daniel’s unprinted “Vindication of Poesie,” 1636-47, we have given specimens on pp. 272, 280-1, and 331-2. Later than Suckling (who died in 1642), another author gave in print “The Great Assizes Holden in Parnassus by Apollo and his Assessors:” at which Sessions are arraigned Mercurius Britannicus, &c., Feb. 11th, 1644-5. This has been attributed to George Wither; most erroneously, as we believe. The mis-appropriation has arisen, probably, from the fact of Wither’s name being earliest on the roll of Jurymen summoned:

“_Hee, who was called first in all the List,_ _~George Withers~ hight, entitled Satyrist;_ _Then ~Cary~, ~May~, and ~Davenant~ were called forth,_ _Renowned Poets all, and men of worth,_ _If wit may passe for worth: Then ~Sylvester~,_ _~Sands~, ~Drayton~, ~Beaumont~, ~Fletcher~, ~Massinger~,_ _~Shakespeare~, and ~Heywood~, Poets good and free,_ _Dramatick writers all, but the first three:_ _These were empanell’d all, and being sworne_ _A just and perfect verdict to return_,” _&c._ (p. 9.)

George Wither was quite capable of placing himself first on the list, in such a manner, we admit; but it is incredible to us that, if he had been the author, he could have described himself so insultingly as we find in the following lines, and elsewhere:—

“_he did protest_ _That ~Wither~ was a cruell Satyrist;_ _And guilty of the same offence and crime,_ _Whereof he was accused at this time:_ _Therefore for him hee thought it fitter farre,_ _To stand as a Delinquent at the barre,_ _Then to bee now empanell’d in a Jury._ _~George Withers~ then, with a Poetick fury,_ _Began to bluster, but ~Apollo’s~ frowne_ _Made him forbeare, and lay his choler downe._”

(_Ibid_, p. 11.)

Two much more sparkling and interesting “Sessions of Poets” afterwards appeared, to the tune of Ben Jonson’s “Cook Laurel.” The first of these begins:—

“_~Apollo~, concern’d to see the Transgressions_ _Our paltry Poets do daily commit,_ _Gave orders once more to summon a Sessions,_ _Severely to punish th’ Abuses of Wit._

_~Will d’Avenant~ would fain have been Steward o’ the Court,_ _To have fin’d and amerc’d each man at his will;_ _But ~Apollo~, it seems, had heard a Report,_ _That his choice of new Plays did show h’ had no skill._

_Besides, some Criticks had ow’d him a spite,_ _And a little before had made the God fret,_ _By letting him know the Laureat did write_ _That damnable Farce, ‘~The House to be Let~.’_

_Intelligence was brought, the Court being set_ _That a Play Tripartite was very near made;_ _Where malicious ~Matt. Clifford~, and spirituall ~Spratt~,_ _Were join’d with their Duke, a Peer of the Trade,” &c._

The author did not avow himself. It must have been written, we hold, in 1664-5. The second is variously attributed to John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, and to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, being printed in the works of both. It begins:—

“_Since the Sons of the Muses grew num’rous and loud,_ _For th’ appeasing so factious and clam’rous a crowd,_ _~Apollo~ thought fit in so weighty a cause,_ _T’ establish a government, leader, and laws,” &c._

Assembled near Parnassus, Dryden, Etherege, Wycherley, Shadwell, Nat Lee, Settle, Otway, Crowne, Mrs. Aphra Behn, Rawlins, Tom D’Urfey, and Betterton, are in the other verses sketched with point and vivacity; but in malicious satire. It was probably written in 1677. Clever as are these two later “Sessions,” they do not equal Suckling’s, in genial spirit and unforced cheerfulness.

We need not here linger over the whimsical Trial of Tom D’Urfey and Tom Brown (who squabbled between themselves, by the bye), in a still later “Sessions of the Poets Holden at the foot of Parnassus Hill, July the 9th, 1696: London, printed for E. Whitlock, near Stationers’ Hall, 1696”:—a mirthful squib, which does not lay claim to be called poetry. Nor need we do more than mention “A Trip to _Parnassus_; or, the Judgment of _Apollo_ on Dramatic Authors and Performers. A Poem. London, 1788”—which deals with the two George Colmans, Macklin, Macnally, Lewis, &c. Coming to our own century, it is enough to particularize Leigh Hunt’s “Feast of the Poets;” printed in his “Reflector,” December, 1811, and afterwards much altered, generally with improvement (especially in the exclusion of the spiteful attack on Walter Scott). It begins—_“’Tother day as Apollo sat pitching his darts,” &c._ In 1837 Leigh Hunt wrote another such versical review, viz., “Blue-Stocking Revels; or, The Feast of the Violets.” This was on the numerous “poetesses,” but it cannot be deemed successful. Far superior to it is the clever and interesting “Fable for Critics,” since written by James Russell Lowell in America.

Both as regards its own merit, and as being the parent of many others (none of which has surpassed, or even equalled it), Sir John Suckling’s “Sessions of Poets” must always remain famous. We have not space remaining at command to annotate it with the fulness it deserves.

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.

The type-ornaments in _Choyce Drollery_ reprint are merely substitutes for the ruder originals, and are not in _fac-simile_, as were the Initial Letters on pages 5 and 7 of our _Merry Drollery, Compleat_ reprint.

Page 42, line 6, “a Lockeram Band:” Lockram, a cheap sort of linen, see J. O. Halliwell’s valuable _Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words_, p. 525, edit. 1874. To this, and to the same author’s 1876 edition of Archdeacon _Nares Glossary_, we refer readers for other words.

Page 73-77, 297, _Marchpine_, or _Marchpane_, biscuits often made in fantastic figures of birds or flowers, of sweetened almonds, &c. _Scettuall_, or _Setiwall_, the Garden Valerian. _Bausons_, i.e. badgers. _Cockers_; boots. Verse fifth omitted from _Choyce Drollery_, runs:—

“Her features all as fresh above, As is the grass that grows by _Dove_, And lythe as lass of _Kent_; Her skin as soft as _Lemster_ wool, As white as snow on _Peakish Hull_, Or Swan that swims in _Trent_.”

A few typographical errors crept into sheet G (owing to an accident in the Editor’s final collation with original). P. 81, line 2, read _Blacke_; line 20, Shaft; p. 85, line 3, Unlesse; p. 86, line 5, Physitian; line 17, that Lawyer’s; p. 87, line 9, That wil stick to the Laws; p. 88, line 8, O that’s a companion; p. 90, first line, _basenesse_; line 23, nature; p. 91, line 13, add a comma after the word blot; p. 94, line 13, Scepter; p. 96, line 10, Of this; p. 97, line 15, For feare; p. 99, line 6, add a comma; p. 100, line 13, finde. These are all _single-letter_ misprints.

Page 269, line 14, for _encreasing_, read _encreaseth_; and end line 28 with a comma.

I. H. in line 35, are the initials of the author, “Iohn Higins.”

Page 270, line 9, add the words—“It is by Sir Wm. Davenant, and entitled ‘The Dying Lover.’”

Page 275, penultimate line, read _Poet-Beadle_. P. 277, l. 17, for 1698 read 1598.

Page 281, line 20, for _liveth_, read _lives_; _claime_.

Page 289, after line 35, add—“Page 45, ‘_As I went to_ Totnam.’ This is given with the music, in Tom D’Urfey’s _Pills to purge Melancholy_, p. 180, of 1700 and 1719 (vol. iv.) editions; beginning ‘As I came from _Tottingham_.’ The tune is named ‘Abroad as I was walking.’ Page 52, _He that a Tinker_; Music by Dr. Jn. Wilson.”

Page 330, after line 10, add—“_Fly, boy, fly_: Music by Simon Ives, in Playford’s _Select Ayres_, 1659, p. 90.”

The date of “The Zealous Puritan,” _M. D. C._, p. 95, was 1639. “He that intends,” &c., _Ibid._, p. 342, is the _Vituperium Uxoris_, by John Cleveland, written before 1658 (_Poems_, 1661, p. 169).

“Love should take no wrong,” in _Westminster-Drollery_, 1671, i. 90, dates back seventy years, to 1601: with music by Robert Jones, in his Second Book of Songs, Song 5.

Introduction to Merry Drollery (our second volume) p. xxii. lines 20, 21. Since writing the above, we have had the pleasure of reading the excellent “Memoir of Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland,” and the “Althorp Memoirs,” by G. Steinman Steinman, Esq., F. S. A., (printed for Private Circulation, 1871, 1869); by the former work, p. 22, we are led to discredit Mrs. Jameson’s assertion that the night of May 29, 1660, was spent by Charles II. in the house of Sir Samuel Morland at Vauxhall. “This knight and friend of the King’s _may_ have had a residence in the parish of Lambeth before the Restoration, but as he was an Under Secretary of State at the time, it is more probable that he lived in London; and _as he did not obtain from the Crown a lease of Vauxhall mansion and grounds until April 19, 1675_, the foundations of a very improbable story, whoever originated it, are considerably shaken.” Mr. Steinman inclines to believe the real place of meeting was Whitehall. He has given a list of Charles II.’s male companions in the Court at Bruges, with short biographies, in the _Archæologia_, xxxv. pp. 335-349. We knew not of this list when writing our Introduction to _Choyce Drollery_.

TABLE OF FIRST LINES

In “Merry Drollery,” 1661, 1670, 1691

(_Now first added._)

[The Songs and Poems _peculiar to the first edition_, 1661 (having been afterwards omitted), are here distinguished by being printed in Roman type. They are all contained _in the present volume_. Those that were added, in the later editions only, have no number attached to them in our first column of pages, viz. for 1661. The third edition, in 1691, was no more than a re-issue of the 1670 edition, with a fresh title-page to disguise it, in pretence of novelty (see p. 345, _ante_). The outside column refers to our Reprint of the “Drolleries;” but where the middle column is blank, as shewing the song was not repeated in 1670 and 1691, our Reprint-page belongs to the _present volume_. The “Reserved Pieces,” given only in Supplement, bear the letter “R” (for the extra sheet, signed R*).—ED.]

FIRST LINES. [In Editions] 1661 1670 1875

_A Brewer may be a Burgess_ ii. 70 252 252

_A fig for Care, why should we_ 217 217

_A Fox, a Fox, up gallants_ 29 38 38

_A Maiden of late, whose name_ 160 170 170

_A Pox on the Jaylor, and on his_ 289 289

A Puritan of late 2 195

_A Session was held the other day_ 68 72 72

_A Story strange I will you tell_ ii. 12 200 200

A young man of late 27 201

_A young man that’s in love_ 34 42 42

A young man walking all alone 32 204

_After so many sad mishaps_ 112 118 118

_After the pains of a desperate Lover_ 171 171

_Ah, ah, come see what’s_ 30 40 40

_All in the Land of ~Essex~_ 48 56 56

_Am I mad, O noble ~Festus~?_ ii. 50 234 234

_~Amarillis~ told her swain_ 8 10

Among the Purifidian sect ii. 103 243

_Are you grown so melancholy?_ ii. 101 286 286

_Aske me no more why there appears_ 62 70 70

_~Bacchus~ I am, come from_ 61 69 69

_Be merry in sorrow_ 1^b 6 8

_Be not thou so foolish nice_ 61 69 69

_Blind Fortune, if thou want’st_ 163 172 172

_Bring forth your Cunny-skins_ ii. 8 196 196

_But since it was lately enacted_ ii. 24 212 212

_Call for the Master, oh, this_ 9 11

_Call ~George~ again, boy_ ii. 118 304 304

_Calm was the evening, and clear_ 220 220

_Calm was the evening, and clear_ 292 292

_Cast your caps and cares aside_ 87 92 92

_Come, Drawer, and fill us about_ ii. 80 263 263

Come, Drawer, some wine ii. 29 237

_Come, Drawer, turn about the b._ ii. 86 268 268

_Come, Drawer, come, fill us_ ii. 3 190 190

_Come, faith, let’s frolick_ ii. 65 246 246

Come, hither, my own sweet ii. 106 247

_Come, Imp Royal, come away_ ii. 45 231 231

_Come, ~Jack~, let’s drink a pot of Ale_ 45 52 52

_Come, let us drink, the time invites_ 93 97 97

_Come, let’s purge our brains_ 114 121 121

_Come, my dainty Doxies, my Dove_ ii. 44 230 230

_Come, my ~Daphne~, come away_ 86 91 91

_Come, my delicate, bonny sweet_ 23 34 34

_Cook ~Laurel~ would needs have_ ii. 26 214 14

Discoveries of late have been ii. 33 R^f

_Doctors, lay by your irkesome_ 41 48 48

Fair Lady, for your New Year’s ii. 81 R^n

_Fetch me ~Ben Johnson’s~ scull_ 293 293

From _Essex_ Anabaptist Laws ii. 38 241

_From hunger and cold, who lives_ ii. 9 197 197

_From ~Mahomet~ and Paganisme_ 164 174 174

_From the fair ~Lavinian~ shore_ 291 291

_From what you call’t Town_ 191 182 182

Full forty times over I have, &c. ii. 61 R^i

_Gather your rosebuds while_ ii. 11 199 199

_Go, you tame Gallants_ ii. 57 242 242

_God bless my good Lord Bishop_ 166 176 176

_Good Lord, what a pass is this_ 75 79 79

_Had she not care enough_ 211 211

_Hang Chastity! it is_ 88 220

_Have you observed the Wench_ ii. 141 332 332

He is a fond Lover, that doateth ii. 62 R^l

_He that a happy life would lead_ ii. 147 339 339

_He that intends to take a wife_ ii. 153 342 342

_Heard you not lately of a man_ 169 180 180

_Here’s a health unto his Majesty_ 212 212

Hey, ho, have at all! 168 R^e

_Hold, quaff no more_ ii. 19 210 210

_How happy is the Prisoner_ 101 107 107

_How poor is his spirit_ ii. 48 232 232

_I am a bonny ~Scot~, Sir_ 119 127 127

_I am a Rogue, and a stout one_ ii. 16 204 204

_I came unto a Puritan to woo_ 73 77 77

_I doat, I doat, but am a sot_ ii. 53 237 237

I dreamt my Love lay in her bed 11 197

_I have reason to fly thee_ ii. 97 281 281

_I have the fairest Non-perel_ ii. 99 283 283

I loved a maid—she loved not me ii. 151 R^p

_I marvel, ~Dick~, that having been_ 46 54 54

I mean to speak of _England’s_ 85 218

_I met with the Divel in the shape_ 103 109 109

_I pray thee, Drunkard, get thee_ ii. 119 306 306

_I tell thee, ~Kit~, where I have been_ 317 317

I went from _England_ into _France_ 64 213

If any one do want a House ii. 64 R^m

_If any so wise is, that Sack_ ii. 157 348 348

_If every woman were served in her_ 80 85 85

_If none be offended with the scent_ ii. 77 259 259

If that you will hear of a ditty ii. 149 253

_If thou wilt know how to chuse_ 21 32 32

If you will give ear ii. 46 R^g

_I’ll go no more to the Old Exchange_ 126 134 134

_I’ll sing you a sonnet, that ne’er_ 66 66

_I’ll tell thee, ~Dick~, where I have_ 97 101 101

_I’ll tell you a story, that never w. t._ 123 131 131

_In Eighty-eight, e’er I was born_ 77 82 82

_In the merry month of ~May~_ 99 99

_It chanced not long ago, as I was_ ii. 82 264 264

It was a man, and a jolly old man 95 222

_Ladies, I do here present you_ ii. 55 240 240

_Lay by your pleading, Law_ 118 125 125

_Lay by your pleading, Love lies a_ ii. 4 191 191

_Let dogs and divels die_ 31 41 41

_Let Souldiers fight for praise_ ii. 31 218 218

_Let the Trumpet sound_ ii. 142 333 333

_Let’s call, and drink the cellar dry_ 130 138 138

Listen, lordings, to my story ii. 32 240

Mine own sweet honey bird 153 R^c

_My bretheren all attend_ 91 95 95

_My Lodging is on the cold ground_ 290 290

_My Masters, give audience_ ii. 91 275 275

_My Mistris is a shittle-cock_ 51 60 60

_My Mistris is in Musick_ 154 163 163

_My Mistris, whom in heart_ 107 113 113

_Nay, out upon this fooling_ 79 84 84

_Nay, prithee, don’t fly me_ 25 36 36

_Ne’er trouble thy self at the times_ 219 219

_Nick Culpepper_ and _William Lilly_ 56 190

_No man Love’s fiery passion_ ii. 1 187 187

_No sooner were the doubtful people_ ii. 58 243 243

_Now, gentlemen, if you will hear_ 18 29 29

_Now I am married, Sir ~John~_ ii. 96 280 280

_Now, I confess, I am in love_ 1 5 7

Now _Lambert’s_ sunk, and gallant 12 198

_Now thanks to the Powers below_ 156 166 166

_Now that the Spring has filled_ ii. 110 296 296

_Now we are met in a knot_ ii. 138 328 328

O that I could by any Chymick ii. 31 239

_O the wily, wily Fox_ ii. 114 300 300

_Of all the Crafts that I do know_ 7 17 17

_Of all the rare juices_ 178 178

_Of all the Recreations, which_ 146 146

_Of all the Sciences beneath the Sun_ ii. 129 319 319

_Of all the Sports the world doth_ ii. 111 296 296

_Of all the Trades that ever I see_ ii. 40 225 225

_Of an old Souldier of the Queen’s_ 20 31 31

_~Oliver~, ~Oliver~, take up thy Crown_ ii. 72 254 254

_Once was I sad, till I grew to be_ 2^b 10 12

_Pox take you, Mistris, I’ll be gone_ ii. 118 304 304

_Pray, why should any man_ ii. 87 270 270

Riding to _London_, in _Dunstable_ 14 200

_Room for a Gamester_ ii. 10 197 197

_Room for the best Poets heroick!_ 96 100 100

_Saw you not ~Pierce~ the piper_ ii. 124 312 312

_She lay all naked in her bed_ ii. 115 300 300

She lay up to the navel bare ii. 116 R^o

_She that will eat her breakfast_ ii. 120 308 308

_Shew a room, shew a room_ ii. 145 337 337

_Sir ~Eglamore~, that valiant knight_ ii. 75 257 257

_Some Christian people all give ear_ 81 87 87

_Some wives are good, and some_ 302 302

_Stay, shut the gate!_ ii. 18 207 207

_Sublimest discretions have club’d_ 287 287

_The Aphorisms of ~Galen~_ ii. 94 277 277

_The best of Poets write of F._ 141 153 153

_The Hunt is up, the Hunt is up_ 20 30 30

_The Proctors are two, and no more_ 105 111 111

_The Spring is coming on_ 40 47 47

_The thirsty Earth drinks up_ 22 22

_The ~Turk~ in linnen wraps_ 13 25 25

_The Wise Men were but seven_ 232 232

_The World’s a bubble, and the life_ 104 110 110

_There dwelt a Maid in the C. g._ 37 46 46

_There is a certain idle kind of cr._ 140 152 152

_There was a jovial Tinker_ 17 27 27

There was a Lady in this land 134 223

_There was an old man had an acre_ 44 52 52

There was three birds that built 139 R^a

_There was three Cooks in C_ ii. 129 318 318

_There’s a lusty liquor which_ 132 140 140

_There’s many a blinking verse_ ii. 35 221 221

_Three merry Boys came out_ 220 220

_Three merry Lads met at the Rose_ 143 143

_’Tis not the Silver nor Gold_ 109 115 115

_To friend and to foe_ 38 23 23

_Tobacco that is wither’d quite_ 16 26 26

_~Tom~ and ~Will~ were Shepherd_ 149 149

Upon a certain time 146 R^b

Upon a Summer’s day 148 230

_Wake all you Dead, what ho!_ 151 151

_Walking abroad in the m._ 76 81 81

_We Seamen are the honest boys_ 152 162 162

_What an Ass is he, Waits, &c._ ii. 90 273 273

_What Fortune had I, poor Maid_ ii. 152 341 341

_What is that you call a Maid._ ii. 68 249 249

_What though the ill times do run_ 116 124 124

What though the times produce 161 R^d

_When blind god ~Cupid~, all in an_ ii. 2 188 188

_When first ~Mardike~ was made_ 4 12 12

_When first the ~Scottish~war_ 89 93 93

_When I a Lady do intend to flatter_ ii. 158 348 348

_When I do travel in the night_ ii. 73 255 255

_When I’se came first to ~London~_ ii. 133 323 323

_When ~Phœbus~ had drest_ ii. 69 250 250

_When the chill ~Charokoe~ blows_ 155 164 164

_White bears have lately come_ 149 159 159

_Why should a man care_ ii. 146 337 337

_Why should we boast of_ Arthur ii. 122 309 309

_Why should we not laugh_ ii. 136 326 326

_Will you hear a strange thing_ 53 62 62

You Gods, that rule upon ii. 21 233

_You talk of ~New England~_ ii. 84 266 266

You that in love do mean to sport ii. 22 235

First Lines of the “Antidote” Songs:

GIVEN IN THIS VOLUME (AND NOT IN _M. D. C._).

[Present Reprint,] Page

_A Man of ~Wales~, a little before ~Easter~_ 157

_An old house end_ 153

_Bring out the [c]old Chyne_ 146

_Come, come away to the Tavern, I say_ 150

_Come hither, thou merriest of all the Nine_ 133

_Come, let us cast dice who shall drink_ 151

_Drink, drink, all you that think_ 158

_Fly boy, fly boy, to the cellar’s bottom_ 157

_Good ~Symon~, how comes it_ 154

_Hang Sorrow, and cast away Care_ 152

_Hang the ~Presbyter’s~ Gill_ 144

_He that a Tinker, a tinker will be_ 52

_In love? away! you do me wrong_ 147

_I’s not come here to tauke of ~Prut~_ 141

_Jog on, jog on the foot-path-way_ 156

_Let’s cast away Care_ 152

_Mongst all the pleasant juices_ 150

_My Lady and her Maid_ 152

_Never let a man take heavily_ 151

_Not drunken nor sober_ 113

_Of all the birds that ever I see_ 155

_Old Poets ~Hypocrin~ admire_ 143

_Once I a curious eye did fix_ 139

_The parcht earth drinks the rain_ 157

_The wit hath long beholden been_ 135

_There was an old man at ~Walton~ Cross_ 151

_This Ale, my bonny lads_ 155

_’Tis Wine that inspires_ 145

_Welcome, welcome, again to thy wit_ 159

_What are we met? Come, let’s see_ 156

_Why should we boast of ~Arthur~_ 129

_Wilt thou be fat? I’ll tell thee how_ 154

_Wilt thou lend me thy mare_ 153

_With an old song made by an old a. p._ 125

_You merry Poets, old boyes_ 149

_Your mare is lame, she halts outright_ 153

Here the Editor closes his willing toil, (after having added a _Table of First Lines_, and a _Finale_,) and offers a completed work to the friendly acceptance of Readers. They are no vague abstractions to him, but a crowd of well-distinguished faces, many among them being renowned scholars and genial critics. To approach them at all might be deemed temerity, were it not that such men are the least to be feared by an honest worker. On the other hand, it were easy for ill-natured persons to insinuate accusations against any one who meddles with Re-prints of _Facetiæ_. Blots and stains are upon such old books, which he has made no attempt to disguise or palliate. Let them bear their own blame. There are dullards and bigots in the world, nevertheless, who decry all antiquarian and historical research. A defence is unnecessary: “Let them rave!”

_Fama di loro il mondo esser non lassa,_ _Misericordia e giustizia gli sdegna,_ _Non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa._

He thanks those who heartily welcomed the earlier Volumes, and trusts that no unworthy successor is to be found in the present Conclusion, which holds many rare verses. Hereafter may ensue another meeting. Our olden Dramatists and Poets open their cellars, full of such vintage as Dan Phœbus had warmed. Leaving these “_Drolleries of the Restoration_” behind him, as a Nest-Egg, the Editor bids his Readers cheerfully

_FAREWELL!_

FINALE.

_“Laudator temporis acti” cantat_:—

1.

Closed now the book, untrimmed the lamp, Flung wide the lattice-shutter; The night-breeze strikes in, chill and damp, The fir-trees moan and mutter: Lo, dawn is near! pale Student, thou No count of time hast reckon’d; Go, seek a rest for weary brow From dreams of Charles the Second.

2.

Sad grows the world: those hours are past When, jovially convivial, Choice Spirits met, and round them cast Such glow as made cares trivial; When nights prolonged through following days Found night still closing o’er us, While Youth and Age exchanged their lays, Or intertwined in chorus.

3.

Our gravest Pundits of the Bench, Most reverend Sirs of Pulpit, Smiled at the praise of some coy wench, Or—if too warm—could gulp it. Loyal to King, faithful to Church, And firm to Constitution, No friend, no foe they left in lurch, Or sneaked to Revolution.

4.

There, many a sage Physician told Fresh facts of healing knowledge; There, the dazed Bookworm could grow bold, And speak of pranks at College: There, weary Pamphleteers forgot Faction, debates, and readers, But helped to drain the clinking-pot With punning Special-pleaders.

5.

How oft some warrior, famed abroad For valour in campaigning, Exchanged the thrust with foes he awed For hob-a-nob Champaigning! While some Old Salt, an Admiral And Circumnavigator, Joined in the revel at our call, Nor sheer’d-off three days later.

6.

Who lives to thrill with jest and song, Like those whose memories haunt us?— Who never knew a night too long, Or head-ache that could daunt us. The weaklings of a later day Win neither Mirth nor Thinking; They mix, and spoil, both work and play: They’ve lost the art of Drinking!

7.

For me, I lonely grow, and shy, No one seems worth my courting; Though girls have still a laughing eye, And tempt to May-day sporting: For sillier youth, or richer Lord, Or some staid prig, and colder, “Neat-handed Phillis” spreads the board, And Chloe bares her shoulder.

8.

In days gone by, light grew the task, For holidays were glorious; It was the _talk_ sublimed the flask, That now is deemed uproarious. We’ve so much Methodistic cant, Abstainers’ Total drivel, And, worse, Utilitarian rant— One scarcely can keep civil.

9.

Our politics are insincere, For Statesmen cog and shuffle; They hit not from the shoulder clear, But dodge, and spar with muffle. How Bench and Bar sink steeped in mire, Avails not here recording: While Prelates cannot now look higher Than to mere self-rewarding.

10.

Friends of old days, ’tis well you died Before, like me, you sickened Amid the rottenness and pride That in this world have quickened: You passed, ere yet your hopes grew dim, While Love and Friendship warmed you: I look but to th’ horizon’s rim, For all that erst had charmed you.

11.

Not here, amid a lower crew, I seek to fill your places; For men no more have hearts as true, Nor maids,—though fair their faces. My thoughts flit back to earlier days, Where Pleasure’s finger beckon’d, Cheered with the Beauty, Love, and Lays That warmed our Charles the Second.

J. W. E.

_Biblioth. Ashmol., Cantium_, 1876.

[End of “The ‘Drolleries’ of the Restoration.”]

Drollery Reprints.

_Uniform with “Choice Drollery.”_

Published at 10s. 6d. to Subscribers, _now raised_ to 21s; large paper, published at £1 1s, _now raised_ to £2 2s.

A RE-PRINT

OF THE

Westminster Drollery,

1671, 1672.

To those who are already acquainted with the two parts of the _Westminster Drollery_, published in 1671 and 1672, it must have appeared strange that no attempt has hitherto been made to bring these delightful volumes within reach of the students of our early literature. The originals are of extreme rarity, a perfect copy seldom being attainable at any public sale, and then fetching a price that makes a book-hunter almost despair of its acquisition. So great a favourite was it in the Cavalier times, that most copies have been literally worn to pieces in the hands of its many admirers, as they chanted forth a merry stave from the pages. _There is no collection of songs surpassing it in the language_, and as representative of the lyrics of the first twelve years after the Restoration it is unequalled: by far the greater number are elsewhere unattainable.

The WESTMINSTER DROLLERIES are reprinted with the utmost fidelity, page for page, and line for line, not a word being altered, or a single letter departing from the original spelling.

DROLLERY RE-PRINTS.

NOW READY.

“_Merry Drollery, Complete_,”

1661, 1691.

MERRY DROLLERY, COMPLETE is not only amusing, but as an historical document is of great value. It is here reproduced, with the utmost exactitude, for students of our old literature, from the edition of 1691. The few rectifications of a corrupt text are invariably held within square brackets, when not reserved for the Appendix of Notes, Illustrations, and Emendations. Thirty-four Songs, additional, that appeared only in the 1661 edition, will be given separately; the intermediate edition of 1670 being also collated. A special Introduction has been prefixed, drawing attention to the political events of the time referred to, and some account of the authors of the Songs in this _Merry Drollery_.

The work is quite distinct in character from the _Westminster Drolleries_, 1671-72, but forms an indispensable companion to that ten-years-later volume. Twenty-five songs and poems, that had not appeared in the 1661 edition, were added to the after editions of _Merry Drollery_; but without important change to the book. It was essentially an offspring of the Restoration, the year 1660-61, and it thus gives us a genuine record of the Cavaliers in their festivity. Whatever is offensive, therefore, is still of historical importance. Even the bitterness of sarcasm against the Rump Parliament, under whose rule so many families had long groaned; the personal invective, and unsparing ridicule of leading Republicans and Puritans; were such as not unnaturally had found favour during the recent Civil War and Usurpation. The preponderance of Songs in praise of Sack and loose revelry is not without significance. A few pieces of coarse humour, _double entendre_, and breaches of decorum attest the fact that already among the Cavaliers were spread immorality and licentiousness. The fault of an impaired discipline had home evil fruit, beyond defeat in the field and exile from positions of power. Mockery and impurity had been welcomed as allies, during the warfare against bigotry, hypocrisy, and selfish ambition. We find, it is true, few of the sweeter graces of poetry in _Choice Drollery_ and in _Merry Drollery_; but, instead, much that helps us to a sounder understanding of the social, military, and political life of those disturbed times immediately preceding the Restoration.

Of the more than two hundred pieces, contained in _Merry Drollery_, fully a third are elsewhere unattainable, and the rest are scarce. Among the numerous attractions we may mention the rare Song of “Love lies a bleeding” (p. 191), an earnest protest against the evils of the day; the revelations of intolerant military violence, such as The Power of the Sword (125), Mardyke (12), Pym’s Anarchy (70), The Scotch War (93), The New Medley of the Country-man, Citizen, and Soldier (182), The Rebel Red-Coat (190), and “Cromwell’s Coronation” (254), with the masterly description of Oliver’s Routing the Rump (62). Several Anti-Puritan Songs about New England are here, and provincial descriptions of London (95, 275, 323). Rollicking staves meet us, as from the Vagabond (204), The Tinker of Turvey (27), The Jovial Loyallist, with the Answer to it, in a nobler strain, by one who sees the ruinous vileness of debauchery (pp. 207, 209); and a multitude of Bacchanalian Catches. The two songs on the Blacksmith (225, 319), and both of those on The Brewer (221, 252), referring to Cromwell, are here; as well as the ferocious exultation over the Regicides in a dialogue betwixt Tower-hill and Tyburn (131). More than a few of the spirited Mad-songs were favourites. Nor are absent such ditties as tell of gallantry, though few are of refined affection and exalted heroism. The absurd impossibilities of a Medicine for the Quartan Ague (277, cf. 170), the sly humour of the delightful “How to woo a Zealous Lady” (77), the stately description of a Cock-fight (242), the Praise of Chocolate (48), the Power of Money (115), and the innocent merriment of rare Arthur o’ Bradley’s Wedding (312), are certain to please. Added, are some of the choicest poems by Suckling, Cartwright, Ben Jonson, Alexander Brome, Fletcher, D’Avenant, Dryden, Bishop Corbet, and others. “The Cavalier’s Complaint,” with the Answer to it, has true dramatic force. The character of a Mistress (60), shows one of the seductive Dalilahs who were ever ready to betray. The lampoons on D’Avenant’s “Gondibert” (100, 118) are memorials of unscrupulous ridicule from malicious wits. “News, that’s No News” (159), with the grave buffoonery of “The Bow Goose” (153), and the account of a Fire on London Bridge (87), in the manner of pious ballad-mongers (the original of our modern “Three Children Sliding on the Ice”), are enough to make Heraclitus laugh. Some of the dialogues, such as “Resolved not to Part” (113), “The Bull’s Feather” (i.e. the Horn, p. 264), and that between a Hare and the hounds that are chasing him (296), lend variety to the volume; which contains, moreover, some whimsical stories in verse, (one being “A Merry Song” of a Husbandman whose wife gets him off a bad bargain, p. 17: compare p. 200), told in a manner that would have delighted Mat Prior in later days.

It is printed on Ribbed Toned paper, and the Impression is limited to 400 copies, fcap. 8vo. 10s. 6d.; and 50 copies large paper, demy 8vo. 21s. Subscribers’ names should be sent at once to the Publisher,

ROBERT ROBERTS, BOSTON, LINCOLNSHIRE.

_Every copy is numbered and sent out in the order of Subscription._

☞ This series of Re-prints from the rare _Drolleries_ is now completed in Three Volumes (of which the first published was the _Westminster Drollery_): that number being sufficient to afford a correct picture of the times preceding and following the Restoration 1660, without repetition. The third volume contains “_Choice Drollery_,” 1656, and all of the “_Antidote against Melancholy_,” 1661, which has not been already included in the two previous volumes; with separate Notes, and Illustrations drawn from other contemporary Drolleries.

_OPINIONS OF THE PRESS, &c._

“Strafford Lodge, Oatlands Park, Surrey, Feb. 4, 1875.

DEAR SIR,

I received the “Westminster Drolleries” yesterday evening. I have spent nearly the whole of this day in reading it. I can but give unqualified praise to the editor, both for his extensive knowledge and for his admirable style. The printing and the paper do great credit to your press.... I enclose a post-office order to pay for my copy.

Yours truly,

WM. CHAPPELL.”

Mr. Robert Roberts.

* * * * *

_From J. O. Halliwell, Esqre._

“No. 11, Tregunter Road, West Brompton, London, S. W., 25th Feby. 1875.

DEAR SIR,

I am charmed with the edition of the “Westminster Drollery.” One half of the reprints of the present day are rendered nearly useless to exact students either by alterations or omissions, or by attempts to make eclectic texts out of more than one edition. By all means let us have introductions and notes, especially when as good as Mr. Ebsworth’s, but it is essential for objects of reference that one edition only of the old text be accurately reproduced. The book is certainly admirably edited.

Yours truly,

J. O. PHILLIPPS.”

To Mr. R. Roberts.

* * * * *

_From F. J. Furnivall, Esq._

“3, St. George’s Square, Primrose Hill, London, N.W., 2nd February, 1875.

MY DEAR SIR,

I have received the handsome large paper copy of your “Westminster Drolleries.” I am very glad to see that the book is really _edited_, and that well, by a man so thoroughly up in the subject as Mr. Ebsworth.

Truly yours,

F. J. F.”

* * * * *

_From the Editor of the “Fuller’s Worthies Library,” “Wordsworth’s Prose Works,” &c._

“Park View, Blackburn, Lancashire, 13th July, 1875.

DEAR SIR,

I got the “Westminster Drolleries” _at once_, and I will see after the “Merry Drollery” when published.

Go on and prosper. Mr. Ebsworth is a splendid fellow, evidently.

Yours,

A. B. GROSART.”

* * * * *

J. P. COLLIER, Esqre., has also written warmly commending the work, in private letters to the Editor, which he holds in especial honour.

* * * * *

_From the “Academy” July 10th, 1875._

“It would be a curious though perhaps an unprofitable speculation, how far the ‘Conservative reaction’ has been reflected in our literature.... Reprints are an important part of modern literature, and in them there is a perceptible relaxation of severity. Their interest is no longer mainly philological. Of late, the Restoration has been the favourite period for revival. Its dramatists are marching down upon us from Edinburgh, and the invasion is seconded by a royalist movement in Lincolnshire. A Boston publisher has begun a series of drolleries—intended, not for the general public, but for those students who can afford to pay handsomely for their predilection for the byways of letters.

“The Introduction is delightful reading, with quaint fancies here and there, as in the ‘imagined limbo of unfinished books.’ ... There is truth and pathos in his excuses for the royalist versifiers who ‘snatched hastily, recklessly, at such pleasures as came within their reach, heedless of price or consequences.’ We may not admit that they were ‘outcasts without degradation,’ but we can hardly help allowing that ‘there is a manhood visible in their failures, a generosity in their profusion and unrest. They are not stainless, but they affect no concealment of faults. Our heart goes to the losing side, even when the loss has been in great part deserved.’ ... The fact is, that in his contemplation of the follies and vices of ‘that very distant time’ he loses all apprehension of their grosser elements, and retains only an appreciation of their wit, their elegance, and their vivacity. Without offence be it said, in Lancelot’s phrase, ‘he does something smack, something grow to; he has a kind of taste,’—and so have we too, as we read him. These trite and ticklish themes he touches with so charming a liberality that his generous allowance is contagious. We feel in thoroughly honest company, and are ready to be heartily charitable along with him. For his is no unworthy tolerance of vice, still less any desire to polish its hardness into such factitious brilliancy as glistens in Grammont. It is a manly pity for human weakness, and an unwillingness to see, much less to pry into, human depravity. ‘It would have been a joy for us to know that these songs were wholly speck must go hungry through many an orchard, even unobjectionable; but he who waits to eat of fruit without past the apples of the Hesperides.’ ... The little book is well worth the attention of any one desirous to have a bird’s-eye view of the Restoration ‘Society.’ Its scope is far wider than its title would indicate. The ‘Drolleries’ include not only the rollicking rouse of the staggering blades who ‘love their humour well, boys,’ the burlesque of the Olympian revels in ‘Hunting the Hare,’ the wild vagary of Tom of Bedlam, and the gibes of the Benedicks of that day against the holy estate, but lays of a delicate and airy beauty, a dirge or two of exquisite pathos, homely ditties awaking patriotic memories of the Armada and the Low Country wars, and ‘loyal cantons’ sung to the praise and glory of King Charles. The ‘late and true story of a furious scold’ might have enriched the budget of Autolycus, and Feste would have found here a store of ‘love-songs,’ and a few ‘songs of good life.’ The collection is of course highly miscellaneous. After the stately measure may come a jig with homely ‘duck and nod,’ or even a dissonant strain from the ‘riot and ill-managed merriment’ of Comus,

‘Midnight shout, and revelry, Tipsy dance, and jollity.’”

_From the “Bookseller,” March, 1875._

“If we wish to read the history of public opinion we must read the songs of the times: and those who help us to do this confer a real favour. Mr. Thomas Wright has done enormous service in this way by his collections of political songs. Mr. Chappell has done better by giving us the music with them; but much remains to be done. On examining the volume before us, we are surprised to find so many really beautiful pieces, and so few of the coarse and vulgar. Even the latter will compare favourably with the songs in vogue amongst the fast men in the early part of the present century.

The “_Westminster Drolleries_” consist of two collections of poems and songs sung at Court and theatres, the first published in 1671, and the second in 1672. Now for the first time reprinted. The editor, Mr. J. Woodfall Ebsworth, has prefaced the volume with an interesting introduction ... and, in an appendix of nearly eighty pages at the end, has collected a considerable amount of bibliographical and anecdotical literature. Altogether, _we think this may be pronounced the best edited of all the reprints of old literature_, which are now pretty numerous. A word of commendation must also be given to Mr. Roberts, of Boston, the publisher and printer—the volume is a credit to his press, and could have been produced in its all but perfect condition only by the most careful attention and watchful oversight.”

_From the “Athenæum,” April 10th, 1875._

“Mr. Ebsworth has, we think, made out a fair case in his Introduction for reprinting the volume without excision. The book is not intended _virginibus puerisque_, but to convey to grown men a sufficient idea of the manners and ideas which pervaded all classes in society at the time of the reaction from the Puritan domination.... Mr. Ebsworth’s Introduction is well written. He speaks with zest of the pleasant aspects of the Restoration period, and has some words of praise to bestow upon the ‘Merry Monarch’ himself.... Let us add that his own “Prelude,” “Entr’ Acte,” and “Finale” are fair specimens of versification.”

FOOTNOTES

[1] ELIZABETH CROMWELL.—A contemporary writes, “How many of the Royalist prisoners got she not freed? How many did she not save from death whom the Laws had condemned? How many persecuted Christians hath she not snatched out of the hands of the tormentors; quite contrary unto that [daughter of] Herodias who could do anything with her [step] father? She imployed her Prayers even with Tears to spare such men whose ill fortune had designed them to suffer,” &c. (S. Carrington’s _History of the Life and Death of His most Serene Highness OLIVER, Late Lord Protector_. 1659. p. 264.)

Elizabeth Cromwell, here contrasted with Salome, more resembled the Celia of _As you Like It_, in that she, through prizing truth and justice, showed loving care of those whom her father treated as enemies.

By the way, our initial-letter W. on opening page 11 (representing Salome receiving from the Σπεκουλάτωρ, sent by Herod, the head of S. John the Baptist)—is copied from the Address to the Reader prefixed to Part II. of _Merry Drollery_, 1661. _Vide postea_, p. 232.

Our initial letters in M. D., C., pp. 3, 5, are in _fac simile_ of the original.

[2] Cromwell “seemed much afflicted at the death of his Friend the Earl of _Warwick_; with whom he had a fast friendship, though neither their humours, nor their natures, were like. And the Heir of that House, who had married his youngest Daughter [Frances], died about the same time [or, rather, two months earlier]; so that all his relation to, or confidence in that Family was at an end; the other branches of it abhorring his Alliance. His domestick delights were lessened every day; he plainly discovered that his son [in-law, who had married Mary Cromwell,] Falconbridge’s heart was set upon an Interest destructive to his, and grew to hate him perfectly. _But that which chiefly broke his Peace was the death of his daughter [Elizabeth] Claypole_; who had been always his greatest joy, and who, in her sickness, which was of a nature the Physicians knew not how to deal with, had several Conferences with him, which exceedingly perplexed him. Though no body was near enough to hear the particulars, yet her often mentioning, in the pains she endured, the blood her Father had spilt, made people conclude, that she had presented his worst Actions to his consideration. And though he never made the least show of remorse for any of those Actions, it is very certain, that _either what she said, or her death_, affected him wonderfully.” (Clarendon’s _Hist. of the Rebellion_. Book xv., p. 647, edit. 1720.)

[3] John Cleveland wrote a satirical address to Mr. Hammond, the Puritan preacher of Beudley, who had exerted himself “for the Pulling down of the Maypole.” It begins, in mock praise, “The mighty zeal which thou hast put on,” &c.; and is printed in _Parnassus Biceps_, 1656, p. 18; and among “_J. Cleveland Revived: Poems_,” 1662, p. 96.

[4] Here the thought is enveloped amid tender fancies. Compare the more passionate and solemn earnestness of the loyal churchman, Henry King, Bishop of Chichester, in his poem of _The Exequy_, addressed “To his never-to-be-forgotten Friend,” wherein he says:—

“Sleep on, my Love, in thy cold bed, Never to be disquieted! My last good-night! Thou wilt not wake, Till I thy fate shall overtake; Till age, or grief, or sickness, must Marry my body to that dust It so much loves; and fill the room My heart keeps empty in thy Tomb. _Stay for me there; I will not faile_ _To meet thee in that hollow Vale._ And think not much of my delay; I am already on the way, And follow thee with all the speed Desire can make, or sorrows breed,” &c.

[5] For special reasons, the Editor felt it nearly impossible to avoid the omission of a few letters in one of the most objectionable of these pieces, the twelfth in order, of _Choyce Drollery_. He mentions this at once, because he holds to his confirmed opinion that in Reprints of scarce and valuable historical memorials _no tampering with the original is permissible_. (But see Appendix, Part IV. and pp. 230, 288.) He incurs blame from judicious antiquaries by even this small and acknowledged violation of exactitude. Probably, he might have given pleasure to the general public if he had omitted much more, not thirty letters only, but entire poems or songs; as the books deserved in punishment. But he leaves others to produce expurgated editions, suitable for unlearned triflers. Any reader can here erase from the Reprint what offends his individual taste (as we know that Ann, Countess of Strafford, cut out the poem of “Woman” from our copy of Dryden’s _Miscellany Poems_, Pt. 6, 1709). _No Editor has any business to thus mutilate every printed copy._

[6] _H_aut _goust._

[7] Prefixed to “The Ex-Ale-tation of Ale” is given a Table of Contents (on page 112), enlarged from the one in the original “_Antidote against Melancholy, made up in Pills_,” 1661, by references to such pages of “_Merry Drollery, Compleat_,” 1670, 1691, as bear songs or poems in common with the “_Antidote_.”

[8] _George Thomason._ It was in 1640 that this bookseller commenced systematically to preserve a copy of every pamphlet, broadside, and printed book connected with the political disturbances. Until after the Restoration in 1660, he continued his valuable collection, so far as possible without omission, but not without danger and interruption. In his will he speaks of it as “not to be paralleled,” and it was intact at Oxford when he died in 1666. Charles II. had too many feminine claimants on his money and time to allow him to purchase the invaluable series of printed documents, as it had been desired that he should do. The sum of £4,000 was refused for this collection of 30,000 pamphlets, bound in 2,000 volumes; but, after several changes of ownership, they were ultimately purchased by King George the Third, for only three or four hundred pounds, and were presented by him to the nation. They are in the British Museum, known as the King’s Pamphlets, and the _Antidote against Melancholy_ is among the small quartos. See Isaac D’Israeli’s _Amenities of Literature_, for an interesting account of the difficulties and perils attending their collection: article _Pamphlets_, pp. 685-691, edition 1868.

[9] J. P. Collier, in his invaluable “_Bibliographical and Critical Account of the Rarest Books in the English Language_,” 1865, acknowledges, in reference to “_An Antidote against Melancholy_,” that “We are without information by whom this collection of Poems, Ballads, Songs, and Catches was made; but Thomas Durfey, about sixty years afterwards, imitated the title, when he called his six volumes ‘_Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy_,’ 8vo., 1719-20.” (_Bibliog. & Crit. Account_, vol. i. p. 26.) Again, “If N. D., whose initials are at the end of the rhyming address ‘to the Reader,’ were the person who made the selection, we are without any other clue to his name. There is no ground for imputing it to Thomas Jordan, excepting that he was accustomed to deal in productions of this class; but the songs and ballads he printed were usually of his own composition, and not the works of anterior versifyers.” (_Ibid._, i. 27.)

[10] It was a week of supreme rejoicing and frollic, being five days before the Coronation of Charles II. in Westminster Abbey, April 23rd. On the 19th were the ceremonies of the Knights of the Bath, at the Painted Chamber, and in the Chapel at Whitehall. On the 22nd, Charles went from the Tower to Whitehall, through well-built triumphal arches, and amid enthusiasm.

[11] These are the Blacksmith, the Brewer, Suckling’s Parley between two West Countrymen concerning a Wedding, St. George and the Dragon, the Gelding of the Devil, the Old and Young Courtier, the Welchman’s Praise of Wales, Ben Jonson’s Cook Lorrel, “Fetch me Ben Jonson’s scull,” a Combat of Cocks, “Am I mad, O noble Festus?” “Old Poets Hypocrin admire,” and “’Tis Wine that inspires.” The Catches are “Drink, drink, all you that think;” “If any so wise is,” “What are we met?” and “The thirsty earth drinks up the rain.”

[12] _Ball at Court._—“31st. [December, 1662.] Mr. Povy and I to White Hall; he taking me thither on purpose to carry me into the ball this night before the King. He brought me first to the Duke [of York]’s chamber, where I saw him and the Duchesse at supper; and thence into the room where the ball was to be; crammed with fine ladies, the greatest of the Court. By and by, comes the King and Queene, the Duke and Duchesse, and all the great ones; and after seating themselves, the King takes out the Duchesse of York; and the Duke, the Duchesse of Buckingham; the Duke of Monmouth, my Lady Castlemaine; and so other lords other ladies: and they danced the Brantle [? _Braule_]. After that the King led a lady a single Coranto; and then the rest of the lords, one after another, other ladies: very noble it was, and great pleasure to see. Then to country dances; the King leading the first, which he called for, which was, says he, ‘Cuckolds all awry [a-row],’ the old dance of England. Of the ladies that danced, the Duke of Monmouth’s mistress, and my Lady Castlemaine, and a daughter of Sir Harry de Vicke’s, were the best. The manner was, when the King dances, all the ladies in the room, and the Queene herself, stand up: and indeed he dances rarely, and much better than the Duke of York. Having staid here as long as I thought fit, to my infinite content, it being the greatest pleasure I could wish now to see at Court, I went home, leaving them dancing.”—(_Diary of Samuel Pepys, Esq., F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty, &c._)

[13] [In margin, a later-inserted line reads:

“_~Godolphin~, ~Cartwright~, ~Beaumont~, ~Montague~._”]

Transcriber’s Note

In a book of this kind, it can be hard to tell when something is a misprint or misspelling, and for the most part this e-text errs on the side of caution and preserves the original printing with all its inconsistencies. Only the following probable errors have been corrected.

We do not have the _Supplement_ containing the songs the editor thought too immodest to include.

Page 4, duplicate word “him” removed (Oh do not censure him for this)

Page 14, duplicate word “am” removed (And all shall say when I am dead)

Page 40, stanza number “3.” added

Page 46, “Aed” changed to “And” (And took her up with speed)

Page 79, “tewelfth” changed to “twelfth” (On the twelfth day all in the morn)

Page 101, “keeep” changed to “keep” (I keep my horse)

Page 102, “Gysie” changed to “Gypsie” (No Gypsie nor no Blackamore)

Page 108, “befitingly” changed to “befittingly” (befittingly in his notes and comments)

Page 125, “and” changed to “an” (With an old Lady whose anger)

Page 168, “stifly” changed to “stiffly” (dancing somewhat stiffly)

Page 189, the original page number [p. 121] has been added in what seems closest to the correct place.

Pages 240 and 243, reference to “p. 213” changed to “p. 230”, where the matter referenced will actually be found; it is the paragraph starting “[A song follows, beginning”

Page 241, “domine” changed to “Domine” in second verse (Libera nos Domine)

Page 244, duplicate word “as” removed (As big as Estriges)

Page 284, “8th.” changed to “9th.” (Verse 9th. _Gondomar_ was)

Page 330, “encouragment” changed to “encouragement” (encouragement is given to gambling)

Page 360, “Collectiom” changed to “Collection” (In Pepy’s Collection, vol. i.)

Page 364, “sheephcrd” changed to “sheepherd” (A silly poor sheepherd was folding his sheep)

Page 384, “fify” changed to “fifty” (Nineteen of these fifty-one surrendered)

Page 384, “refering” changed to “referring” (dozens of ballads referring to)

Page 387, “Viotcria” changed to “Victoria” (was opened by Queen Victoria)

Page 397, “trustworty” changed to “trustworthy” (trustworthy prints of so many MSS.)

Evident errors such as u for n were changed without further note.

End of Project Gutenberg's Choyce Drollery: Songs and Sonnets, by Various