Chapter 15

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 waysWas never heard before;I’ll crown and deck thee all with bays,And love thee more and more.

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 nunnerieOf thy chaste breast and quiet mindeTo warre and armes I flie.True: a new Mistresse now I chase,The first foe in the field;And with a stronger faith embraceA sword, a horse, a shield.Yet this inconstancy is suchAs you too shall adore;I could not love thee, dear, so much,Lov’d I not Honour more.

Tell me not, sweet, I am unkinde,That from the nunnerieOf thy chaste breast and quiet mindeTo warre and armes I flie.

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 embraceA sword, a horse, a shield.

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 suchAs you too shall adore;I could not love thee, dear, so much,Lov’d I not Honour more.

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 theirLux Castamarrying some neighbouring rival. But we may be sure that the singer of ourMerry Drolleryditty wonhisLass, literally in a canter.

Compare John Cleveland’s “Zealous Discourse between the Independent-Parson and Tabitha,” “Hail Sister,” &c. (J. C. Revived, 1662, p. 108); and also the superior piece of humour, beginning, “I came unto a Puritan to wooe,”M. D., C., p. 77. The following description of the earlier sort of Precisian, ridiculous but not yet dangerous, is by Richard Brathwaite, and was printed in 1615:—

To the Precisian.For the Precisian that dares hardly looke,(Because th’ art pure, forsooth) on any booke,Save Homilies, and such as tend to th’ goodOf thee and of thy zealous brother-hood:Know my Time-noting lines ayme not at thee,For thou art too too curious for mee.I will not taxe that man that’s wont to slay“His Cat for killing mise on th’ Sabbath day:[”]No; know my resolution it is thus,I’de rather be thy foe then be thy pus:And more should I gaine by’t: for I see,The daily fruits of thy fraternity:Yea, I perceiue why thou my booke should shun,“Because there’s many faultes th’ art guiltie on:”Therefore with-drawe, by me thou art not call’d,Yet do not winch (good iade) when thou art gall’d,I to the better sort my lines display,I pray thee then keep thou thy selfe away.(A Strappado for the Diuell, 1615.)

To the Precisian.

For the Precisian that dares hardly looke,(Because th’ art pure, forsooth) on any booke,Save Homilies, and such as tend to th’ goodOf thee and of thy zealous brother-hood:Know my Time-noting lines ayme not at thee,For thou art too too curious for mee.I will not taxe that man that’s wont to slay“His Cat for killing mise on th’ Sabbath day:[”]No; know my resolution it is thus,I’de rather be thy foe then be thy pus:And more should I gaine by’t: for I see,The daily fruits of thy fraternity:Yea, I perceiue why thou my booke should shun,“Because there’s many faultes th’ art guiltie on:”Therefore with-drawe, by me thou art not call’d,Yet do not winch (good iade) when thou art gall’d,I to the better sort my lines display,I pray thee then keep thou thy selfe away.

For the Precisian that dares hardly looke,

(Because th’ art pure, forsooth) on any booke,

Save Homilies, and such as tend to th’ good

Of thee and of thy zealous brother-hood:

Know my Time-noting lines ayme not at thee,

For thou art too too curious for mee.

I will not taxe that man that’s wont to slay

“His Cat for killing mise on th’ Sabbath day:[”]

No; know my resolution it is thus,

I’de rather be thy foe then be thy pus:

And more should I gaine by’t: for I see,

The daily fruits of thy fraternity:

Yea, I perceiue why thou my booke should shun,

“Because there’s many faultes th’ art guiltie on:”

Therefore with-drawe, by me thou art not call’d,

Yet do not winch (good iade) when thou art gall’d,

I to the better sort my lines display,

I pray thee then keep thou thy selfe away.

(A Strappado for the Diuell, 1615.)

The sixth line offers another illustration of what has been ably demonstrated by J. O. Halliwell, commenting on the “too-toosolid flesh” ofHamlet, Act i. sc. 2, in Shakespeare Soc. Papers, i. 39-43, 1844.

By it being printed within double quotational commas, we see that the reference to a Puritan hanging his cat on a Monday, for having profanely caught a mouse on the Sabbath-Sunday, was already an old and familiar joke in 1615. James Hogg garbled a ballad in hisJacobite Relics, 1819, i. 37, as “There was aCameronianCat, Was hunting for a prey,” &c., but we have a printed copy of it, dated 1749, beginning “APresbyterianCat sat watching of her prey.” Also, in a poem “On Lute-strings, Cat-eaten,” we read:—

Puss, I will curse thee, maist thou dwellWith some dry Hermit in a Cel,Where Rat ne’re peep’d, where Mouse ne’er fed,And Flies go supperlesse to bed:Or with some close par’d Brother, whereThou’lt fast each Sabbath in the yeare,Or else, profane, be hang’d on Monday,For butchering a Mouse on Sunday, &c.(Musarum Deliciæ, 1656,p.53.)

Puss, I will curse thee, maist thou dwell

With some dry Hermit in a Cel,

Where Rat ne’re peep’d, where Mouse ne’er fed,

And Flies go supperlesse to bed:

Or with some close par’d Brother, where

Thou’lt fast each Sabbath in the yeare,

Or else, profane, be hang’d on Monday,

For butchering a Mouse on Sunday, &c.

(Musarum Deliciæ, 1656,p.53.)

John Taylor, the Water-Poet, so early as 1620, writes of a Brownist:—

The Spirit still directs him how to pray,Nor will he dress his meat the Sabbath day,Which doth a mighty mystery unfold;His zeale is hot, although his meat be cold.Suppose his Cat on Sunday kill’d a rat,She on the Monday must be hang’d for that.(J. P. C.’sBibl. Acc., ii. 418.)

The Spirit still directs him how to pray,

Nor will he dress his meat the Sabbath day,

Which doth a mighty mystery unfold;

His zeale is hot, although his meat be cold.

Suppose his Cat on Sunday kill’d a rat,

She on the Monday must be hang’d for that.

(J. P. C.’sBibl. Acc., ii. 418.)

In thePercy Folio MS.(about 1650) p. 480; E. E. T. S., iv. 102, with a few variations, one of which we have noted in margin of p. 181. The industrious editors of the printed text of thePercy Folio MS.were not aware of the fact that many of the shorter pieces were already to be found in print; but this is no wonder. They are not easy to discover (see next p. 352), and although we ourselves note occasionally “not found elsewhere,” it is with the remembrance that a happy “find” may yet reward a continuous search hereafter. We do not despair of recovering even the lost line of “The Time-Poets.”

In the 1662 edit. of theRump, i. 330, and inLoyal Sgs., 1731, i. 219. It may have been written so early as Jan. 15th, 1659-60, when Col. Lambert had submitted to the Parliament, on finding the troops disinclined to support him unanimously. Another ballad made this inuendo:—

John LambertatOliver’sChair did roare,And thinks it but reason upon this score,ThatCromwellhad sitten in his before;Still blessed Reformation.(Rump, ii. 99.)

John LambertatOliver’sChair did roare,And thinks it but reason upon this score,ThatCromwellhad sitten in his before;Still blessed Reformation.

John LambertatOliver’sChair did roare,

And thinks it but reason upon this score,

ThatCromwellhad sitten in his before;

Still blessed Reformation.

(Rump, ii. 99.)

Fairfax had returned to his house, and to Monk were given the thanks of the rescued Parliament. As M. de Bordeaux writes of him to Card. Mazarin, at this exact date, “he is now the most powerful subject in the whole nation. Fleetwood, Desborough, and all the others of the same faction are entirely out of employment” (Guizot’sMonk, 1851, p. 156). Although no mention or definite allusion seems made in the ballad to Monk’s attack on the London defences, Feb. 9th, we incline to think this may be nearer to the true date: if it refers to the oath of abjuration, of Feb. 4th, which was offered to Monk, as on March 1st. “Arthur’s Court” is an allusion to Sir Arthur Haselrig, “a rapacious, head-strong, and conceited agitator” (Ibid., p. 37). Monk had not publiclydeclared himself for the King until May; but he was seen to be opposed to the Rump by 11th Feb., when its effigies were enthusiastically burnt. Richard Cromwell’s abdication had been, virtually, April 22nd, 1659.

This is another of the songs contained in thePercy Folio MS. (p. 460; iv. 92 of print); wrongly supposed to be otherwise lost, but imperfect there, our fourth and fifth verses being absent. We cannot accept “if that I may thy favour haue, thy bewtye to behold,” as the true reading; while we find “If that thy favour I may win With thee for to be bold:” which is much more in the Lover’s line of advance. Yet we avail ourselves of the “I am somad” in 3rd verse, because it rhymes with “maidenhead,” inM. D., though not suiting with the “honestye” of theP. F. MS.The final half-verse is different.

Also in 1662 edition of theRump, i. 308; andLoyal 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, andDeanwere the English commanders, untilDeanwas killed, the first day. Monk took the sole command on the next. Clarendon gives an account of the battle, and says: “Dean, one of theEnglishAdmirals, was killed by a cannon-shot from the Rear-Admiral of theDutch,” before night parted them. “The loss of theEnglishwas greatest in their GeneralDean. 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 ofHolland, whither the other fled; and being got into theFlieand theTexel, the English for some time blocked themup 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 hisNew 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’sHudibras, 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’dGet me; I cannot tell what to do else, by my soul, thatI cannot; for I have went and gone to oneLilly’s;He lives at that house, at the end of another house,By theMay-polehouse; and tells every body by oneStar, and t’other Star, what good luck they shall have.But he cou’d not tell nothing for poorTeg.”(The Committee, Act i.)

“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 oneLilly’s;

He lives at that house, at the end of another house,

By theMay-polehouse; 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 poorTeg.”

(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 antep. 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, butheads 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. “GoodmanLenthall,” “neither wise nor witty,” (“that creeps to the house by a backdoor,”Rump, ii. 185,) the Speaker of the Commons from 1640 to 1653; AldermanAllen, the dishonest and bankrupt goldsmith, both rebuked byCromwell, when he forcibly expelled the Rump. (See the ballad on pp. 62-5 ofM. D., C., verses 9 and 10, telling how “Allenthe 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 ofDean. 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 neitherSexby, “an active agitator,” who, in 1658, employed against Cromwell “all that restless industry which had formerly been exerted in his favour” (Hume’sHist. Engd., cap. lxi.);nor “Doomsday Sedgwick;” notSidney, 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 wasSay, the notorious “Say and Seale,” “Crafty Say,” of whom we read:—

There’s half-wittedWill Saytoo,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.)

There’s half-wittedWill Saytoo,A right Fool in the Play too,That would make a perfect Ass,If he could learn to Bray too.

There’s half-wittedWill Saytoo,

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.)

A MS. assertion gives the date of thisCantilena de Gallico itinereas 1623. There seems to us no good reason for doubting that the author wasDr. 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. InWit 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 toR. 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 theBastern, for Bastile), and the date on it, 1623, will not suit Suckling at all: though Sir Hy. Ellis is guessed (by his supposed handwriting,) tohave 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, inMusarum Deliciæ, p. 17, and inParnassus Biceps, also 1656, p. 24. From this (as well as Harl. MS. 367) we gain corrections printed as ourmarginalia,pp. 214-6:deserv’d, for received;statuestairs, AtNôtre Dame; prate,dothplease, &c. Harl. MS. 367 reads “The IndianRoc” [probably it is correct]; and “As great and wise as Luisuè” [Luines, who died 1622].Parnassus Bicepshas 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 truthMothers should honoured be.Yet others say, he loves her ratherAs well as ere she loved his father,And that’s notoriously.

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.) CompareWest. 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, almostconvincesus 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,ThenCorbetmay immortal honour claim.For he these virtues had, & in his linesPoetick 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.

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,

ThenCorbetmay 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.

In the 1662Rump, i. 39; and inLoyal Songs, 1731, i. 12. It is also inParnassus Bicepsso early as 1656, p. 159, where we obtain a few peculiar readings; even in the first line, which has “of England’s fate;” “PrinandBurton;” “wearItalianlocks for their abuse(instead of “Stallion locks for a bush”); They’ll only have privatekeyesfor their use,” &c. We are inclined to accept these as correct readings, although our text (agreeing with theRump) 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 Bicepsreads “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 theRumpballads, dated 26 January, 1660-1, we find “The Honest Mens Resolution” is to adopt this very expedient:—

“But what shall we do with our WivesThat frisk up and down the Town, ...For such a Bell-dam,SayesSylasandSam,Let’s have anItalianLock!”(RumpColl., 1662, ii. 199.)

“But what shall we do with our WivesThat frisk up and down the Town, ...For such a Bell-dam,SayesSylasandSam,Let’s have anItalianLock!”

“But what shall we do with our Wives

That frisk up and down the Town, ...

For such a Bell-dam,

SayesSylasandSam,

Let’s have anItalianLock!”

(RumpColl., 1662, ii. 199.)

Probably refers to the New Exchange, at Durham House stables (see Additional Note to page 134 ofM. 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.

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., inWit and Mirth, 1684, p. 17. The tune and burden of “The Clean Contrary Way” held public favour for many years. SeePop. Mus. O. T., pp. 425, 426, 781. In the 1658 and 1661 editions ofChoyce 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 sungthe clean contrary way;Which if they be, a Crown I dare to layThey then will singthe 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 bethe clean contrary way.Then if they went the Peoples tongues to stay,Doubtless they wentthe clean contrary way.

The Fidlers must be whipt the people say,

Because they sungthe clean contrary way;

Which if they be, a Crown I dare to lay

They then will singthe 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 bethe clean contrary way.

Then if they went the Peoples tongues to stay,

Doubtless they wentthe clean contrary way.

Re-appears inWit 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, ofWit and Drolleryversion:—

But she writ a letter to him,And seal’d it with her hand,And bid him become a TinkerTo 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 PincersAnd well they did agreeWith a long Club on his BackAnd orderly came he.And when he came to the Lady’s GatesHe knock’d most lustily,Then who is there the Porter said,That knock’st thus ruggedly?I am a Jovial Tinker, &c.

But she writ a letter to him,And seal’d it with her hand,And bid him become a TinkerTo clout both pot and pan.

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,

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 PincersAnd well they did agreeWith a long Club on his BackAnd orderly came he.

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 GatesHe knock’d most lustily,Then who is there the Porter said,That knock’st thus ruggedly?

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 hisTea-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.

The music to this is given in Chappell’sPop. Music of Olden Time[1855], p. 255, from theDancing Master,1650-65, andMusick’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.

Evidently a parody, or “Mock” of “Come hither, my own,” &c., for which, and note, see pp.247,367.

A different version of this same song, only half its length, in four-line stanzas, had appeared in J. Cotgrave’sWit’s Interpreter, 1655, p. 124. It is also in the 1671 edition, p. 229; and inWit 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, inJovial 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 toLe 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 ManThat 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 sonsProve 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 dineWith one light dish of smoak.

TOBACCO.

To feed on Flesh is Gluttony,It maketh men fat like swine.But is not he a frugal ManThat on a leaf can dine!

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.

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 sonsProve disputants in Schools,Is that their fathers fed on flesh,And they begat fat fools.

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 dineWith one light dish of smoak.

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;GrimPlutofirst invented it, I think,To poison all the world with hellish stink, &c.(18 lines more.The Muses’ Cabinet, 1655, p. 13.)

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;

GrimPlutofirst 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 followingimpromptuof 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 gillsAnd 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 unstrungFor months with thisDevil’s own Weed.

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 thisDevil’s own Weed.

But even so early as 1639, Thomas Bancroft had printed, (written thirteen years before) in hisFirst Booke of Epigrammes, the following,

ON TOBACCO TAKING.The Old Germans, that their Divinations madeFrom Asses heads upon hot embers laid,Saw they but now what frequent fumes ariseFrom such dull heads, what could they prophetizeBut 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.)

ON TOBACCO TAKING.

The Old Germans, that their Divinations madeFrom Asses heads upon hot embers laid,Saw they but now what frequent fumes ariseFrom such dull heads, what could they prophetizeBut speedy firing of this worldly frame,That seemes to stinke for feare of such a flame.

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., inWit’s Recreations, 1640-5, because they are accessible in the recent Reprint (would that it,Wit RestoredandMusarum Deliciæhad 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 goneFor their Nectar and Ambrosia;

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 fromLe 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” inM. D., C., pp. 10, 364, consultHistory of Signboards, p. 354—“Puyk van Verinas en Virginia Tabac;” Englished, “Tip-Top Varinas,” &c.

Probably written byThomas Weaver, and about 1646-8. It is in his collection entitledLove and Drollery, 1654, p. 13. Also in the 1662Rump, i. 235; and theLoyal 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 thrownoff,” &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’dCommittee,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.

Under the rose be it spoken, there’s a damn’dCommittee,

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 atGoldsmith’s Hall,For there they meet with the devil and all,Still, God a-mercy, Parliament!

The gentry are sequestered all;

Our wives we find atGoldsmith’s Hall,

For there they meet with the devil and all,

Still, God a-mercy, Parliament!

On ourp. 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, “FromLunsfordeke deliver us, || That eateth up children” (Rump i. 65); and Cleveland writes, “He swore he saw, whenLunsfordfell, || A child’s arm in his pocket” (J. C.Revived, Poems, 1662, p. 110).

With the music, this reappears inPills 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 capitalwood-cuts: Jn Pitts, printer. They recal Butler’s description of the Skrimmington. The joke was much relished. Thus, inLusty 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 onThe Cu-colder was he.

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.

Also, earlier inMusarum 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.

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,” inA 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 possessmoreover a patriotic love of their native hills, which makes them loth to quit, and eager to revisit them, with all their guardian powers: thenostalgiaandamor patriæare 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 inM. 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 ofLoyal Songs,Songs on affairs of State, theMughouse 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 hourBut we felt his power,And now he would show us his art;His first reproachIs a fall from a coach,And his last will be from a cart.(RumpColl. i. 362.)

Not a day nor an hourBut we felt his power,And now he would show us his art;His first reproachIs a fall from a coach,And his last will be from a cart.

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.

(RumpColl. i. 362.)

Thus also inM. D., C.p. 255:

ThenOliver, Oliver, get up and ride, ...Till thou plod’st along to thePaddington tree.

ThenOliver, Oliver, get up and ride, ...

Till thou plod’st along to thePaddington 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’sGulls 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 DukeHumfraythou dost dine,And often with SirThomas Greshamsup.(R. H.’sQuodlibets, 1628.)

Though a little coin thy purseless pockets line,Yet with great company thou’rt taken up;For often with DukeHumfraythou dost dine,And often with SirThomas Greshamsup.

Though a little coin thy purseless pockets line,

Yet with great company thou’rt taken up;

For often with DukeHumfraythou dost dine,

And often with SirThomas Greshamsup.

(R. H.’sQuodlibets, 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 theLetanydescription: whichmayrefer to her.

A version of this, slightly differing, is given with the music inPills to p. Mell., iv. 191. It has the final couplet; which we borrow and add in square brackets.

Earlier by six years, but without the Answer, this had appeared inWit and Drollery, 1656, p. 58; 1661, p. 60. It is also, as “written at Oxford,” in second part ofOxford Drollery, 1671, p. 97.

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 inLove and Mirth(i.e.Sportive Wit) 1650, p. 51.

Virtually the same (from the second verse onward) as “A Tenement to Let,” beginning “I have a Tenement,” &c., inPills to p. Mel., 1720, vi. 355; andThe Merry Musician(n. d. but about 1716), i. 43. Music in both.

Resembling this is “Ladies, here I do present you, With a dainty dish of fruit,” inWit and Drollery, 1656, p. 103.

In Harl. MS. No. 6057, fol. 47. There it is entitled “The Puritans of New England.”

We come delightedly, as a relief, upon this racy and jovial Love-song, which redeems the close of the volume. It has the gaiety andabandonof 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:—

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