Part II., pp. 120, 123 (App. p. lxxii.)

_O Love if e’er, &c._ There is a parody or “Mock” to this, beginning “O _Mars_, if e’er thoult ease a blade,” and entitled “The Martial Lad,” in Wm. Hicks’ _London Drollery_, 1673, p. 116.

End of Notes to _Westminster-Drollery_.

APPENDIX. PART 4.

§ 1.—EXTRA SONGS IN THE MERRY DROLLERY, 1661.

(_Not repeated in the 1670 and 1691 Editions._)

_Falstaff._—“If Sack and Sugar be a fault, Heaven help the wicked.”

(_Henry_ IV., Pt. 1, Act ii. Sc. 4.)

Collections of Songs, depending chiefly on the popularity of such as are already in vogue, or of others that promise fairly to please the reader, are necessarily of all books the most liable to receive alterations when re-issued. Thus we ourselves possess half-a-dozen editions of _the Roundelay_, and also of the _Bullfinch_, both undated eighteenth-century songsters; each copy containing a dozen or more of Songs not to be found in the others. Our _Merry Drollery_ is a case in point. As already mentioned, there is absolutely no difference between the edition of 1670 and 1691 of _Merry Drollery, Compleat_, except the title-page. It was a well-understood trade stratagem, to re-issue the unsold sheets, those of 1670, with a freshly-dated title-page, as in 1691; so to catch the seekers after novelty by their most tempting lure. Even the two pages of “List of New Books” (reprinted conscientiously by ourselves in _M. D., C._, pp. 358, 359) are identical in both!

We take credit beforehand for the readers’ satisfaction at our providing such a _Table of First Lines_, as we hereafter give, that may enable him easily and convincedly to understand the alterations made from the 1661 edition of _Merry Drollery_, both parts, when it was re-issued in a single volume, paged consecutively, in 1670 and 1691. It is more difficult to understand _why_ the changes were made, than thus to see what they were. 1. It could not have been from modesty: although some objectionable pieces were omitted, others, quite as open to censure, were newly admitted instead. 2. Scarcely could it have been that as political satires they were out of date (except in the case of the Triumph over The Gang—England’s Woe—and Admiral Dean’s Funeral: our pp. 198, 218, 206); for in the later volume are found other songs on events contemporary with these, which, being rightly considered to be of abiding interest, were retained. 3. It was not that the songs rejected were too common, and easily attainable; for they are almost all of extreme rarity, and now-a-days not procurable elsewhere. 4. It must have been a whim that ostracised them, and accepted novelties instead! At any rate, here they are! As in the case of the sheet from _Westminster-Drollery_, 1674 (see p. 177), readers possess the Extra Songs of both early and late editions, along with all that are common to both, and this without confusion.

Almost all of these _Merry Drollery_ Extra Songs were written before the Restoration; of a few we know the precise date, as of 1653, 1650, 1623, &c. These are chiefly on political events, viz. the Funeral of Admiral Dean, so blithely commented on, with forgetfulness of the man’s courage and skill while remembering him only as an associate of rebels; the story of England’s Woe (certainly published before the close of 1648), with scorn against the cant of Prynne and Burton; the noisy, insensate revel of the song on the Goldsmith’s Committee (1647, p. 237), where we can see in the singers such unruly cavaliers as those who brought discredit and ruin; as also in the coarser “Letany” (on our page 241); and in the still earlier description of New England (before 1643), which forms a most important addition to the already rich material gathered from these contemporary records, shewing the views entertained of the nonconforming and irreconcileable zealots who held close connection with the discontented Dutchmen. Although caricatured and maliciously derisive, it is impossible to doubt that we have here a group of portraits sufficiently life-like to satisfy those who beheld the originals. As to the miscellaneous pieces, the Sham-Tinker, who comes to “Clout the Cauldron,” has genuine mirth to redeem the naughtiness. Dr. Corbet’s(?) “Merrie Journey into France” is crammed full of pleasantry, and while giving a record of sights that met the traveller, enlivens it with airy gaiety that makes us willing companions. This, with variations, may be met with elsewhere in print; but not so the delightfully sportive invitation of The Insatiate Lover to his Sweetheart, “Come hither, my own Sweet Duck” (p. 247). To us it appears among the best of these thirty-five additions: musical and fervent, without coarseness, the song of an ardent lover, who fears nothing, and is ripe for any adventure that war may offer. One of Rupert’s reckless Cavaliers may have sung this to his Mistress. Of course it would be unfair to blame him for not being awake to the higher beauty of such a sentiment as Montrose felt and inspired:—

But if thou wilt prove faithful, then, And constant of thy word, I’ll make thee glorious by my pen, And famous by my sword: I’ll serve thee in such noble ways Was never heard before; I’ll crown and deck thee all with bays, And love thee more and more.

Or, as Lovelace nobly sings:—

Tell me not, sweet, I am unkinde, That from the nunnerie Of thy chaste breast and quiet minde To warre and armes I flie.

True: a new Mistresse now I chase, The first foe in the field; And with a stronger faith embrace A sword, a horse, a shield.

Yet this inconstancy is such As you too shall adore; I could not love thee, dear, so much, Lov’d I not Honour more.

_C’est magnifique! mais ce n’est pas—L’amour._ At least, and we imply no more, Lovelace and those who act on such high principles, find their _Lux Casta_ marrying some neighbouring rival. But we may be sure that the singer of our _Merry Drollery_ ditty won _his_ Lass, literally in a canter.