Chapter XVI: Part I: , p. 2 our p. 195. A Puritan of late (1)

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

_To the Precisian._

_For the Precisian that dares hardly looke,_
_(Because th’ art pure, forsooth) on any booke,_
_Save Homilies, and such as tend to th’ good_
_Of thee and of thy zealous brother-hood:_
_Know my Time-noting lines ayme not at thee,_
_For thou art too too curious for mee._
_I will not taxe that man that’s wont to slay_
“His Cat for killing mise on th’ Sabbath day:[”]
_No; know my resolution it is thus,_
_I’de rather be thy foe then be thy pus:_
_And more should I gaine by’t: for I see,_
_The daily fruits of thy fraternity:_
_Yea, I perceiue why thou my booke should shun,_
_“Because there’s many faultes th’ art guiltie on:”_
_Therefore with-drawe, by me thou art not call’d,_
_Yet do not winch (good iade) when thou art gall’d,_
_I to the better sort my lines display,_
_I pray thee then keep thou thy selfe away._

(_A Strappado for the Diuell_, 1615.)

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

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

_Puss, I will curse thee, maist thou dwell_
_With some dry Hermit in a Cel,_
_Where Rat ne’re peep’d, where Mouse ne’er fed,_
_And Flies go supperlesse to bed:_
_Or with some close par’d Brother, where_
_Thou’lt fast each Sabbath in the yeare,_
_Or else, profane, be hang’d on Monday,_
_For butchering a Mouse on Sunday_, &c.

(_Musarum Deliciæ_, 1656, _p._ 53.)

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

_The Spirit still directs him how to pray,_
_Nor will he dress his meat the Sabbath day,_
_Which doth a mighty mystery unfold;_
_His zeale is hot, although his meat be cold._
_Suppose his Cat on Sunday kill’d a rat,_
_She on the Monday must be hang’d for that._

(J. P. C.’s _Bibl. Acc._, ii. 418.)

Page 11 [our 197]. _I dreamt my Love, &c._

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

Page 12 [our 198]. _Now ~Lambert’s~ sunk, &c._

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

_~John Lambert~ at ~Oliver’s~ Chair did roare,_
_And thinks it but reason upon this score,_
_That ~Cromwell~ had sitten in his before;_
_Still blessed Reformation._

(_Rump_, ii. 99.)

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

Page 32 [204]. _A young man walking all alone._

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

Page 56 [206]. _~Nick Culpepper~ and ~Wm. Lilly~._

Also in 1662 edition of the _Rump_, i. 308; and _Loyal Songs_, 1731, i. 192. The event referred to happened in June, 1653, the engagement between the English and Dutch fleets commencing on the 2nd, renewed the next day. Six of the Dutch ships were sunk, and twelve taken, with thirteen hundred prisoners. _Blake_, _Monk_, and _Dean_ were the English commanders, until _Dean_ was killed, the first day. Monk took the sole command on the next. Clarendon gives an account of the battle, and says: “_Dean_, one of the _English_ Admirals, was killed by a cannon-shot from the Rear-Admiral of the _Dutch_,” before night parted them. “The loss of the _English_ was greatest in their General _Dean_. There was, beside him, but one Captain, and about two hundred Common Sea-men killed: the number of the wounded was greater; nor did they lose one Ship, nor were they so disabled but that they followed with the whole fleet to the coast of _Holland_, whither the other fled; and being got into the _Flie_ and the _Texel_, the English for some time blocked them up in their own Harbors, taking all such Ships as came bound for those parts.” (_His. Reb._, B. iii. p. 487, ed. 1720.)

Verse 1. Nicholas Culpeper, of Spittle Fields, near London, published his _New Method of Physick_, and Alchemy, in 1654.

As to William Lilly, “the famous astrologer of those times, who in his yearly almanacks foretold victories for the Parliament with so much certainty as the preachers did in their sermons,” consult his letter written to Elias Ashmole, and the notes of Dr. Zachary Gray to Butler’s _Hudibras_, Part ii. Canto 3. “He lived to the year 1681, being then near eighty years of age, and published predicting almanacks to his death.” He was one of the close committee to consult about the King’s execution (_Echard_). He lost much of his repute in 1652; in 1655 he was indicted at Hickes Hall, but acquitted. He dwelt at Hersham, Walton-on-Thames, and elsewhere. Henry Coley followed him in almanack-making, and John Partridge next. In the Honble. Robt. Howard’s Comedy, “The Committee,” 1665, we find poor Teague has been consulting Lilly:—

“_I will get a good Master, if any good Master wou’d_
_Get me; I cannot tell what to do else, by my soul, that_
_I cannot; for I have went and gone to one LILLY’S;_
_He lives at that house, at the end of another house,_
_By the ~May-pole~ house; and tells every body by one_
_Star, and t’other Star, what good luck they shall have._
_But he cou’d not tell nothing for poor ~Teg~._”

(_The Committee_, Act i.)

Verse 12. The Master of the Rolls. This was Sir Dudley Digges, builder of Chilham Castle, near Canterbury, Kent, who had in 1627 moved the impeachment of the Duke of Buckingham, and been rewarded with this Mastership.

Verse 18. Alludes to the rigorous suppression of the Play-houses (_vide ante_ p. 285, for a descriptive Song); and as we see from verse 17, the Bear-garden, like Rope-dancers and Tumblers, met more tolerance than actors (except from Colonel Pride). Not heels were feared, but heads and hands. Bears, moreover, could not stir up men to loyalty, but tragedy-speeches might. One Joshua Gisling, a Roundhead, kept bears at Paris Garden, Southwark.

23. “Goodman _Lenthall_,” “neither wise nor witty,” (“that creeps to the house by a backdoor,” _Rump_, ii. 185,) the Speaker of the Commons from 1640 to 1653; Alderman _Allen_, the dishonest and bankrupt goldsmith, both rebuked by _Cromwell_, when he forcibly expelled the Rump. (See the ballad on pp. 62-5 of _M. D., C._, verses 9 and 10, telling how “_Allen_ the coppersmith was in great fear. He had done as [i.e. _us_] much hurt,” &c.; also 2, 15, for the dumb-foundered “Speaker without his Mace.”) This Downfall of the Rump had been on April 20th, 1653, not quite three months before the funeral of _Dean_. Whoever may have been the writer of this spirited ballad, we believe, wrote the other one also: judging solely by internal evidence.

24. _Henry Ireton_, who married Bridget Cromwell in January, 1646-7, and escaped from the Royalists after having been captured at Naseby, proved the worst foe of Charles, insatiably demanding his death, died in Ireland of the plague, 15th November, 1651. His body was brought to Bristol in December, and lay in state at Somerset House. Over the gate hung the “hatchment” with “_Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori_”—which one of the Cavaliers delightedly translated, “Good it is for his country that he is dead.” Like Dean’s, two years later, Ireton’s body was buried with ostentatious pomp in Henry VII.’s Chapel, (Feb. 6 or 7;) to be ignominiously treated at Tyburn after the Restoration. The choice of so royal a resting-place brought late insult on many another corpse. His widow was speedily married to Charles Fleetwood, before June, 1652.

In verse 26, we cannot with absolute certainty fill the blank. Yet, in the absence of disproof, we can scarcely doubt that the name suppressed was neither _Sexby_, “an active agitator,” who, in 1658, employed against Cromwell “all that restless industry which had formerly been exerted in his favour” (Hume’s _Hist. Engd._, cap. lxi.); nor “Doomsday Sedgwick;” not _Sidney_, staunch Republican, Algernon Sidney, whose condemnation was in 1687 secured most iniquitously, and whose death more disgracefully stains the time than the slaughter of Russell, although sentimentalism chooses the latter, on account of his wife. Sidney was “but a young member” at the Dissolution of 20th April, 1653. Probably the word was _Say_, the notorious “Say and Seale,” “Crafty Say,” of whom we read:—

_There’s half-witted ~Will Say~ too,_
_A right Fool in the Play too,_
_That would make a perfect Ass,_
_If he could learn to Bray too._

(“Chips of the Old Block,” 1659; _Rump_, ii. 17.)

Page 64 [213]. _I went from ~England~, &c._

A MS. assertion gives the date of this _Cantilena de Gallico itinere_ as 1623. There seems to us no good reason for doubting that the author was DR. RICHARD CORBET (1582-1635), Bishop of Oxford, afterwards of Norwich. It is signed Rich. Corbett in Harl. MS. No. 6931, fol. 32, _reverso_, and appears among his printed poems, 3rd edit. 1672, p. 129. In _Wit and Mirth_, 1684, p. 76, it is entitled “Dr. Corbet’s Journey,” &c. But it is fair to mention that we have found it assigned to R. GOODWIN, by the epistolary gossip of inaccurate old Aubrey (see Col. Franc. Cunningham’s _“Mermaid edit.” of Ben Jonson_, i. Memoirs, p. lvii. first note). In a recent edition of Sir John Suckling’s Works, 1874, it is printed as if by him (“There is little doubt that it is his”), i. 102, without any satisfactory external evidence being adduced in favour of Suckling. In fact, the external evidence goes wholly against the theory. The very MS. Harl. 367, which is used as authority, is both imperfect and corrupt throughout, as well as anonymous (_ex. gratiæ_, misreading the _Bastern_, for Bastile), and the date on it, 1623, will not suit Suckling at all: though Sir Hy. Ellis is guessed (by his supposed handwriting,) to have attributed it to him. Could it be possible that he was otherwise unacquainted with the poem?

At earlier date than our own copy we find it, by Aug. 30th, 1656, in _Musarum Deliciæ_, p. 17, and in _Parnassus Biceps_, also 1656, p. 24. From this (as well as Harl. MS. 367) we gain corrections printed as our _marginalia_, pp. 214-6: _deserv’d_, for received; _statue_ stairs, At _Nôtre Dame_; prate, _doth_ please, &c. Harl. MS. 367 reads “The Indian _Roc_” [probably it is correct]; and “As great and wise as Luisuè” [Luines, who died 1622]. _Parnassus Biceps_ has an extra verse, preceding the one beginning “His Queen,” (and Harl. 367 has it, but inferior):—

_The people don’t dislike the youth,_
_Alleging reasons. For in truth_
_Mothers should honoured be._
_Yet others say, he loves her rather_
_As well as ere she loved his father,_
_And that’s notoriously._

(A similar scandal meets us in other early French reigns: Diana de Poictiers had relations with Henry II., as well as with his father, Francis I., &c.) Compare _West. Droll._, i. 87, and its Appendix, pp. xxv-vi.

It may be a matter of personal taste, but we cannot recognize the genial Bishop in the “R. C., Gent.,” who wrote “The Times Whistle.” A reperusal of the E. E. T., 1871, almost _convinces_ us that they were not the same person. We must look elsewhere for the author.

In MS., on fly leaf, prefixed to 1672 edition of Dr. Corbet’s poems, in the Brit. Mus. (press mark, 238, b. 56), we read:—

_If flowing wit, if Verses wrote with ease,_
_If learning void of pedantry can please,_
_If much good humour, join’d to solid sense,_
_And mirth accompanied by Innocence,_
_Can give a Poet a just right to fame,_
_Then CORBET may immortal honour claim._
_For he these virtues had, & in his lines_
_Poetick and Heroick spirit shines._
_Tho’ bright yet solid, pleasant but not rude,_
_With wit and wisdom equally endued._
_Be silent Muse, thy praises are too faint,_
_Thou want’st a power this prodigy to paint,_
_At once a Poet, Prelate, and a Saint._

Signed, John Campbell.

Page 85 [218]. _I mean to speak of ~England’s~_, &c.

In the 1662 _Rump_, i. 39; and in _Loyal Songs_, 1731, i. 12. It is also in _Parnassus Biceps_ so early as 1656, p. 159, where we obtain a few peculiar readings; even in the first line, which has “of England’s fate;” “Prin _and_ Burton;” “_wear ~Italian~ locks for their abuse_ (instead of “Stallion locks for a bush”); They’ll only have private _keyes_ for their use,” &c. We are inclined to accept these as correct readings, although our text (agreeing with the _Rump_) holds an intelligible meaning. But those who have inspected the curiosities preserved in the Hôtel de Cluny, at Paris, can scarcely have forgotten “the Italian [pad-] Locks” which jealous husbands imposed upon their wives, as a preservative of chastity, whenever they themselves were obliged to leave their fair helpmates at home; and the insinuation that Prynne and Burton intended to introduce such rigorous precautions, nevertheless retaining “private keyes” for their own use, has a covert satire not improbable to have been intentional. Still, remembering the persistent war waged by these intolerant Puritans against “the unloveliness of love-locks,” there are sufficient claims for the text-reading: in their denunciation of curled ringlets “as Stallion locks” hung out “for a bush,” or sign of attraction, such as then dangled over the wine-shop door (and may still be seen throughout Italy), although “good wine needs no bush” to advertise it. Instead of “The brownings,” (i.e. _The Brownists_, a sect that arose in the reign of Elizabeth, founded by Robt. Browne), in final verse, _Parnassus Biceps_ reads “The Roundheads.” The poem was evidently written between 1632 and 1642. Strengthening the probability of “Italian locks” being the correct reading, we may mention in one of the _Rump_ ballads, dated 26 January, 1660-1, we find “The Honest Mens Resolution” is to adopt this very expedient:—

“_But what shall we do with our Wives_
_That frisk up and down the Town, ..._
_For such a Bell-dam,_
_Sayes ~Sylas~ and ~Sam~,_
_Let’s have an ~Italian~ Lock!_”

(_Rump_ Coll., 1662, ii. 199.)

Page 88 [220]. _Hang Chastity, &c._

Probably refers to the New Exchange, at Durham House stables (see Additional Note to page 134 of _M. D., C._). Certainly written before 1656. Lines 15 and 32 lend some countenance, by similarity, to the received version in the previous song’s sixth verse.

Page 95 [222]. _It was a man, and a jolly, &c._

With some trifling variations, this re-appears as “The Old Man and Young Wife,” beginning “_There was an old man, and a jolly old man, come love me_,” &c., in _Wit and Mirth_, 1684, p. 17. The tune and burden of “The Clean Contrary Way” held public favour for many years. See _Pop. Mus. O. T._, pp. 425, 426, 781. In the 1658 and 1661 editions of _Choyce Poems_ [by John Eliot, and others], pp. 81, are a few lines of verse upon “The Fidler’s” that were committed for singing a song called, “_The Clean Contrary Way_”:—

_The Fidlers must be whipt the people say,_
_Because they sung ~the clean contrary way~;_
_Which if they be, a Crown I dare to lay_
_They then will sing ~the clean contrary way~._
_And he that did these merry Knaves betray,_
_Wise men will praise, ~the clean contrary way~:_
_For whipping them no envy can allay,_ [p. 82.]
_Unlesse it be ~the clean contrary way~._
_Then if they went the Peoples tongues to stay,_
_Doubtless they went ~the clean contrary way~._

Page 134 [223]. _There was a Lady in this Land._

Re-appears in _Wit and Drollery_, 1682, p. 291 (not in the 1656 and 1661 editions), as “The Jovial Tinker,” but with variations throughout, so numerous as to amount to absolute re-casting, not by any means an improvement: generally the contrary. Here are the second and following verses, of _Wit and Drollery_ version:—

_But she writ a letter to him,_
_And seal’d it with her hand,_
_And bid him become a Tinker_
_To clout both pot and pan._

_And when he had the Letter,_
_Full well he could it read;_
_His Brass and eke his Budget,_ [p. 292.]
_He streight way did provide,_

_His Hammer and his Pincers_
_And well they did agree_
_With a long Club on his Back_
_And orderly came he._

_And when he came to the Lady’s Gates_
_He knock’d most lustily,_
_Then who is there the Porter said,_
_That knock’st thus ruggedly?_

_I am a Jovial Tinker, &c._

The words of a later Scottish version of “Clout the Cauldron,” beginning “Hae ye ony pots or pans, Or ony broken Chandlers?” (attributed by Allan Cunningham to one Gordon) retouched by Allan Ramsay, are in his _Tea-Table Miscellany_, 1724, Pt. i. (p. 96 of 17th edit., 1788.) Burns mentions a tradition that the song “was composed on one of the Kenmure family in the Cavalier time.” But the disguised wooer of the later version is repulsed by the lady. Ours is undoubtedly the earlier.

Page 148 [230]. _Upon a Summer’s day._

The music to this is given in Chappell’s _Pop. Music of Olden Time_ [1855], p. 255, from the _Dancing Master_, 1650-65, and _Musick’s Delight on the Cithern_, 1666, where the tune bears the title “Upon a Summer’s day.” In Pepy’s Collection, vol. i. are two other songs to the same tune.

Page 153 [Suppl. 3]. _Mine own sweet honey, &c._

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

Second Part of _Merry Drollery_, 1661.

Page 22 [235]. _You that in love, &c._

A different version of this same song, only half its length, in four-line stanzas, had appeared in J. Cotgrave’s _Wit’s Interpreter_, 1655, p. 124. It is also in the 1671 edition, p. 229; and in _Wit and Drollery_, 1682 edit., 287, entitled “The Tobacconist.” We prefer the briefer version, although bound to print the longer one; bad enough, but not nearly so gross as another On Tobacco, in _Jovial Drollery_, 1656, beginning “When I do smoak my nose with a pipe of Tobacco.”

In the Collection of Songs by the Wits of the Age, appended to _Le Prince d’Amour_, 1660, (but on broadsheet, 1641) we find the following far-superior lyric on

TOBACCO.

_To feed on Flesh is Gluttony,_
_It maketh men fat like swine._
_But is not he a frugal Man_
_That on a leaf can dine!_

_He needs no linnen for to foul,_
_His fingers ends to wipe,_
_That hath his Kitchin in a Box,_
_And roast meat in a Pipe._

_The cause wherefore few rich mens sons_
_Prove disputants in Schools,_
_Is that their fathers fed on flesh,_
_And they begat fat fools._

_This fulsome feeding cloggs the brain,_
_And doth the stomack cloak;_
_But he’s a brave spark that can dine_
_With one light dish of smoak._

_Audi alterem partem!_ Five years earlier (May 28th, 1655), William Winstanley had published “A Farewell to Tobacco,” beginning:—

_Farewell thou Indian smoake, Barbarian vapour,_
_Enemy unto life, foe to waste paper,_
_Thou dost diseases in thy body breed,_
_And like a Vultur on the purse doth feed._
_Changing sweet breaths into a stinking loathing,_
_And with 3 pipes turnes two pence into nothing;_
_Grim ~Pluto~ first invented it, I think,_
_To poison all the world with hellish stink_, &c.

(18 lines more. _The Muses’ Cabinet_, 1655, p. 13.)

The three pipes for two-pence was a cheapening of Tobacco since the days, not a century before, when for price it was weighed equally against gold. Our early friend Arthur Tennyson wrote in one of our (extant) Florentine sketch-books the following _impromptu_ of his own:—

_I walk’d by myself on the highest of hills,_
_And ’twas sweet, I with rapture did own;_
_As fish-like I opened unto it my gills_
_And gulp’d it in ecstasy down;_
_To feel it breathe over my bacca-boiled tongue,_
_That so much of its fragrance did need,_
_And brace up completely a system unstrung_
_For months with this ~Devil’s own Weed~._

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

ON TOBACCO TAKING.

_The Old Germans, that their Divinations made_
_From Asses heads upon hot embers laid,_
_Saw they but now what frequent fumes arise_
_From such dull heads, what could they prophetize_
_But speedy firing of this worldly frame,_
_That seemes to stinke for feare of such a flame._

(_Two Bookes of Epigrammes_, No. 183, sign. E 3.)

We need merely refer to other Epigrams On Tobacco, as “Time’s great consumer, cause of idlenesse,” and “Nature’s Idea,” &c., in _Wit’s Recreations_, 1640-5, because they are accessible in the recent Reprint (would that it, _Wit Restored_ and _Musarum Deliciæ_ had been carefully edited, as they deserved and needed to be; but even the literal reprint of different issues jumbled together pell-mell is of temporary service): see vol. ii., pp. 45, 38; and 96, 97, 139, 161, 227, 271. Also p. 430, for the “Tryumph of Tobacco over Sack and Ale,” attributed to F. Beaumont, (if so, then before 1616) telling

_Of the Gods and their symposia;_
_But Tobacco alone,_
_Had they known it, had gone_
_For their Nectar and Ambrosia;_

and vol. i. p. 195, on “A Scholler that sold his Cussion” to buy tobacco. It is but an imperfect version on ii. 96, headed “A Tobacconist” (eight lines), of what we gave from _Le Prince d’Amour_: it begins “All dainty meats I doe defie, || Which feed men fat as swine.” Answered by No. 317, “On the Tobacconist,” p. 97. By the way: “Verrinus” in _M. D., C._, pp. 10, 364, consult _History of Signboards_, p. 354—“_Puyk van Verinas en Virginia Tabac_;” Englished, “Tip-Top Varinas,” &c.

Page 27 [237]. _Come Drawer, some Wine._

Probably written by THOMAS WEAVER, and about 1646-8. It is in his collection entitled _Love and Drollery_, 1654, p. 13. Also in the 1662 _Rump_, i. 235; and the _Loyal Garland_, 1686 (Percy Soc. Reprint, xxix. 31). Compare a similar Song (probably founded on this one) by Sir Robt. Howard, in his Comedy, “The Committee,” Act iv., “Come, Drawer, some Wine, Let it sparkle and shine,”—or, the true beginning, “Now the Veil is thrown off,” &c. The Committee of Sequestration of Estates belonging to the Cavaliers sat at Goldsmith’s Hall, while Charles was imprisoned at Carisbrook, in 1647. A ballad of that year, entitled “Prattle your pleasure under the Rose,” has this verse:—

_Under the rose be it spoken, there’s a damn’d ~Committee~,_
_Sits in hell (~Goldsmith’s Hall~) in the midst of the City,_
_Only to sequester the poor Cavaliers,—_
_The Devil take their souls, and the hangmen their ears._

(As Hamlet says, “You pray not well!”—but such provocation transfers the blame to those who caused the anger.)

Again, in another Ballad, “I thank you twice,” dated 21st August, same year, 1647:—

_The gentry are sequestered all;_
_Our wives we find at ~Goldsmith’s Hall~,_
_For there they meet with the devil and all,_
_Still, God a-mercy, Parliament!_

On our p. 239, it is amusing to find reference to “the Cannibals of Pym,” remembering how Lilburn and others of that party indulged in similar accusations of cannibalism, with specific details against “Bloody Bones, or Lunsford” (_Hudibras_, Pt. iii. canto 2), who was killed in 1644. Thus, “From _Lunsford_ eke deliver us, || That eateth up children” (Rump i. 65); and Cleveland writes, “He swore he saw, when _Lunsford_ fell, || A child’s arm in his pocket” (J. C. _Revived, Poems_, 1662, p. 110).

Page 32 [240]. _Listen, Lordings, to my story._

With the music, this reappears in _Pills to p. Mel_., 1719, iv. 84, entitled “The Glory of all Cuckolds.” Variations few, and unimportant: “The Man in Heaven’s” being a very doubtful reading. In the Douce Collection, iv. 41, 42, are two broadsides, A New Summons to Horn Fair, beginning “You horned fumbling Cuckolds, In City, court, or Town,” and (To the women) “Come, all you merry jades, who love to play the game,” with capital wood-cuts: Jn Pitts, printer. They recal Butler’s description of the Skrimmington. The joke was much relished. Thus, in _Lusty Drollery_, 1656, p. 106, is a Pastorall Song, beginning:—

_A silly poor sheepherd was folding his sheep,_
_He walked so long he got cold in his feet,_
_He laid on his coales by two and by three,_
_The more he laid on_
_The Cu-colder was he._

Three verses more, with the recurring witticism; repeated finally by his wife.

Page 33 [Supp. 6]. _Discourses of late, &c._

Also, earlier in _Musarum Deliciæ_, 1656, (Reprint, p. 48) as “The Louse’s Peregrinations,” but without the sixth verse. _Breda_, in the Netherlands, was beseiged by Spinola for ten months, and taken in 1625. _Bergen_, in our text, is a corrupt reading.

Page 38 [241]. _From ~Essex~-Anabaptist Lawes._

We do not understand whence it cometh that the most bitter non-conformity and un-Christian crazes of enthusiasm seem always to have thriven in Essex and the adjacent Eastern coast-counties, so far as Lincolnshire, but the fact is undeniable. Whether (before draining the fens, see “The Upland people are full of thoughts,” in _A Crew of kind London Gossips_, 1663, p. 65) this proceeded from their being low-lying, damp, dreary, and dismal, with agues prevalent, and hypochondria welcome as an amusement, we leave others to determine. Cabanis declared that Calvinism is a product of the small intestines; and persons with weak circulation and slow digestion are seldom orthodox, but incline towards fanaticism and uncompromising dissent. Your lean Cassius is a pre-ordained conspirator. Plain people, whether of features or dwelling-place, think too much of themselves. Mountaineers may often hold superstitions, but of the elemental forces and higher worship. They possess moreover a patriotic love of their native hills, which makes them loth to quit, and eager to revisit them, with all their guardian powers: the _nostalgia_ and _amor patriæ_ are strongest in Highlanders, Switzers, Spanish muleteers, and even Welsh milkmaids. It was from flat-coasted Essex that most of the “peevish Puritans” emigrated to Holland, and thence to America, when discontented with every thing at home.

The form of a Le’tanty or Litany, for such mock-petitions as those in our text (not found elsewhere), and in _M. D., C._, p. 174, continued in favour from the uprise of the Independents (simply because they hated Liturgies), for more than a century. In the King’s Pamphlets, in the various collections of _Loyal Songs_, _Songs on affairs of State_, the _Mughouse Diversions_, _Pills to purge State Melancholly_, _Tory Pills_, &c., we possess them beyond counting, a few being attributed to Cleveland and to Butler. One, so early as 1600, “Good Mercury, defend us!” is the work of Ben Johnson.

Verse 1.—The “Brownist’s Veal” refers to Essex calves, and the scandal of one Green, who is said to have been a Brownist. 4.—“From her that creeps up Holbourne hill:” the cart journey from Newgate to the “tree with three corners” at Tyburn. _Sic itur ad astra._ When, Oct. 1654, Cromwell was thrown from the coach-box in driving through Hyde park, a ballad on “The Jolt on Michaelmas Day, 1654,” took care to point the moral:—

_Not a day nor an hour_
_But we felt his power,_
_And now he would show us his art;_
_His first reproach_
_Is a fall from a coach,_
And his last will be from a cart.

(_Rump_ Coll. i. 362.)

Thus also in _M. D., C._ p. 255:

Then _Oliver, Oliver_, get up and ride, ...
Till thou plod’st along to the _Paddington tree_.

5.—“Duke Humphrey’s hungry dinner” refers to the tomb popularly supposed to be of “the good Duke” Humphrey of Gloucester (murdered 1447), but probably of Sir John Beauchamp (Guy of Warwick’s son), in Paul’s Walk, where loungers whiled away the dinner-hour if lacking money for an Ordinary, and “dined with Duke Humphrey.” See Dekker’s _Gulls Horn Book_, 1609, cap. iv. And Robt. Hayman writes:—

_Though a little coin thy purseless pockets line,_
_Yet with great company thou’rt taken up;_
_For often with Duke ~Humfray~ thou dost dine,_
_And often with Sir ~Thomas Gresham~ sup._

(R. H.’s _Quodlibets_, 1628.)

“An old Aunt”—this term used by Autolycus, had temporary significance apart from kinship, implying loose behaviour; even as “nunkle” or uncle, hails a mirthful companion. In Roxb. Coll., i. 384, by L[aur.] P[rice], printed 1641-83, is a description of three Aunts, “seldom cleanly,” but they were genuine relations, though “the best of all the three” seems well fitted by the _Letany_ description: which _may_ refer to her.

Page 46 [Supp. p. 7]. _If you will give ear._

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

Page 61 [Supp. 9]. _Full forty times over._

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

Page 62 [Supp. 11]. _He is a fond Lover_, &c.

This, and the preceding, being superior to the other reserved songs might have been retained in the text but for the need to fill a separate sheet. This Answer is in _Love and Mirth_ (i.e. _Sportive Wit_) 1650, p. 51.

Page 64 [Supp. 12]. _If any one do want a House._

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

Page 81 [Supp. 13]. _Fair Lady, for your New, &c._

Resembling this is “_Ladies, here I do present you, With a dainty dish of fruit_,” in _Wit and Drollery_, 1656, p. 103.

Page 103 [244]. _Among the Purifidian Sect._

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

Page 106 [248]. _Come hither, my own sweet Duck._

We come delightedly, as a relief, upon this racy and jovial Love-song, which redeems the close of the volume. It has the gaiety and _abandon_ of John Fletcher’s and Richard Brome’s. We have never yet met it elsewhere. It was probably written about 1642. The reserved song in Part i., p. 153 (Supplement, p. 3), seems to be a vile parody on it, in the coarse fashion of those persons who disgraced the cause of the Cavaliers. The rank and file were often base, and their brutality is evidenced in the songs which we have been obliged to degrade to the Supplement.

It was certainly popular before 1659, for we find it quoted as furnishing the tune to “A proper new ballad (25 verses) on the Old Parliament,” beginning “Good Morrow, my neighbours all,” with a varying burden:—

_Hei ho, my hony,_
_My heart shall never rue,_
_Four and twenty now for your Mony,_
_And yet a hard penny worth too._

(_Rump_, 1662 ii, 26.)

The music is in Playford’s _English Dancing Master_, 1686.

Page 116 [Supp. 14]. _She lay up to, &c._

Five years earlier, in _Wit and Drollery_, 1656, p. 56; 1661, p. 58. With the original, in _M. D., C._, p. 300, compare the similar disappointment, by Cleveland, “The Myrtle-Grove” (_Poems_, p. 160, edit. 1661.)

Page 149 [253]. _If that you will hear, &c._

This is the same, except a few variations, as “Will you please to hear a new ditty?” in our _Westminster-Drollery_, 1671, i. 88; Appendix to ditto, pp. xxxvi-vii (compare the coarser verses, p. 368 in present volume, and “Upon the biting of Fleas,” in _Musarum Deliciæ_, 1656; Reprint, p. 64.)

[We here close our Notes to the “Extra Songs” of _Merry Drollery_, 1661. But we have still some Additional Notes, on what is common to the editions of 1661, 1670, and 1691 (as promised in _M. D., C._, p. 363).]

§ 2.—ADDITIONAL NOTES TO THE MERRY DROLLERY, COMPLEAT.

(_Common to all editions, 1661, ’70, ’91, and 1875._)

“A pretty slight Drollery.”

(_Henry IV._, pt. 2. Act ii. Sc. 1.)

MERRY
DROLLERY,
Complete.

OR,
A COLLECTION

{ Jovial POEMS,
Of { Merry SONGS,
{ Witty DROLLERIES,

Intermixed with Pleasant _Catches_.

The First Part.

Collected by
_W.N._ _C.B._ _R.S._ _J.G._
LOVERS of WIT.

LONDON,
Printed for _Simon Miller_, at the Star, at
the West End of St. _Pauls_, 1670.

_Title-page to 1670 Edition._

We here give the title-page of the 1670 Edition of _Merry Drollery, Compleat_, Part 1st. As mentioned on our p. 231, the 1670 edition was reissued as a new edition in 1691, but with no alteration except the fresh title-page, with its date and statement of William Miller’s stock in trade.

Of the four “Lovers of Wit,” 1661, we believe we have unearthed one, viz. “R. S.,” in RALPH SLEIGH, who wrote a song beginning, “_Cupid, Cupid_, makes men stupid; I’ll no more of such boys’ play;” (_Sportive Wit_,) _Jovial Drollery_, 1656, p. 22.

_M. D., C._, p. 11 [13].

Verse 6. “Mahomet’s pidgeon,” that was taught to pick seeds from out his ear, so that it might be thought to whisper to him. The “mad fellow clad alwaies in yellow,” i.e., in his military Buff-coat—“And somewhat his nose is blew, boys,” certainly alludes to Oliver Cromwell: His being “King and no King,” to his refusing the Crown offered by the notables whom he had summoned in 1657. As the “New Peers,” his sons Henry and Richard among them, insulted and contemned by the later and mixed Parliament of January 20th, 1658, were “turned out” along with their foes the recalcitrant Commons, on Feb. 4th, we have the date of this ballad established closely.

Page 29. _Nonsense. Now Gentlemen, if, &c._

Two other “Messes of Nonsense” may be found in _Recreations for Ingenious Headpieces_, 1645 (Reprint, _Wit’s Recreations_, pp. 400, 401); beginning “When _Neptune’s_ blasts,” and “Like to the tone of unspoke speeches.” The latter we believe to have been written by Bishop Corbet. In _Wit’s Merriment_ (i.e. _Sportive Wit_), 1656, is the following: A FANCY:—

_When Py crust first began to reign,_
_Cheese parings went to warre._
_Red Herrings lookt both blew and wan,_
_Green leeks and Puddings jarre._
_Blind Hugh went out to see_
_Two Cripples run a race,_
_The Ox fought with the Humble Bee,_
_And claw’d him by the face._

Page 36, lines 21, 22. _“Honest Dick;” and “L.”_

These lines furnish a clue to the date of this ballad, (and its “Answer” quickly followed): “Honest Dick” being Richard Cromwell, whose Protectorate lasted only eight months, beginning in September, 1658. “The name with an L—” refers to his unscrupulous rival Lambert; with his spasmodic attempts at supremacy, urged on by his own ambition and that of his wife (accustomed too long to rule Oliver himself, during a close intimacy, not without exciting scandal, while she insisted on displacing Lady Dysart). For an account of Lambert’s twenty-one years of captivity, first at Guernsey and later at Plymouth, see _Choice Notes on History, from N. and Q._, 1858, pp. 155-163. Lambert played a selfish game, lost it, and needs no pity for having had to pay the stakes. But for “Honest Dick,” “Tumble down Dick,” who had warmly pleaded with his father to save the king’s life in the fatal January of 1649, we keep a hearty liking. Carlyle stigmatizes him as “poor, idle, trivial,” &c., but let that pass. Had Richard been crafty or cruel, like those who removed him from power, his reign might have been prolonged. But “what a wounded name” he would have then left behind, compared with his now stainless character: and, in any case, his ultimate fall was certain.

Page 43, line 16th, “_Call for a constable blurt._”

An allusion to Middleton’s Comedy, “Blurt, Master Constable,” 1602.

Page 62, 368. _Will you hear a strange thing._

The important event here described took place April 20th, 1653, and the ballad immediately followed. (Compare “Cheer up, kind country men,” by S. S., “Rebellion hath broken up house,” and “This Christmas time,” in the Percy Soc. Pol. Bds., iii. 126; 180 _Loyal Songs_, 149, 1694; _Rump_, ii. 52.) At this date the strife between the fag-end of the Rump and Oliver, who was supported by his council of officers, came to open violence. Fearing his increased power, it was proposed to strengthen the Parliamentarians by admitting a body of “neutrals,” Presbyterians, to act in direct opposition against the army-leaders. With a pretence of dissolving themselves there would have ensued a virtual extension of rule. Anxious and lengthy meetings had been held by Cromwell’s adherents at Whitehall, one notably on the 19th, and continued throughout the night. Despite a promise, or half promise, of delay made to him, the Rump was meantime hurrying onward the objectionable measure, clearly with intention of limiting his influence: among the leaders being Sir Hy. Vane, Harry Marten, and Algernon Sidney. They knew it to be a struggle for life or death. From the beginning, this Long Parliament cherished the mistaken idea that they were everything supreme: providence, strength, virtue, and wisdom, etc., etc. If mere empty talk could be all this, such representative wind-bags might deserve some credit. Their doom was sealed; not alone for their incompetence, but also for proved malignity, and the attempt to perpetuate their own mischief, destroying the only power that seemed able to bring order out of chaos.

Cromwell received intelligence, from his adherents within the house, of the efforts being made to hurry the measure for settling the new representation, and then to dissolve for re-election. Major Harrison talked against time; until Cromwell could arrive after breaking up the Whitehall meeting. Ingoldsby, as the second or third messenger, had shown to him the urgent need of action. Followed by Lambert and some half-dozen officers, the General took with him a party of soldiers, reached the house, and found himself not too soon. Surrounding the chamber, and guarding the doors, the troopers remained outside. Clad in plain black, unattended and resolute, Oliver entered, stood looking on his discomfitted foes, and then sat down, speaking to no one except “dusky tough St. John, whose abstruse fanaticisms, crabbed logics, and dark ambitions issue all, as was natural, in decided avarice” (Carlyle’s _Cromwell_, iii. 168, 1671 edit.). Vane must have felt the peril, but held on unflinchingly, imploring the house to dispense with everything that might delay the measure, such as engrossing. The Speaker had risen at last to put the question, before the General started up, uncovered, and began his address. Something of stately commendation for past work he gave them. Perhaps at first his words were uttered solely to obtain a momentary pause, the whilst he gathered up his strength, and measured all the chances, before he broke with them for ever. Soon the tone changed into that of anger and contempt. He heaped reproaches on them: Ludlow says: “He spoke with so much passion and discomposure of mind, as if he had been distracted.” “Your time is come!” he told them: “The Lord has done with you. He has chosen other instruments for the carrying on his work, that are more worthy.”

Vane, Marten, and Sir Peter Wentworth tried to interrupt him, but it was almost beyond their power. Wentworth could but irritate him by indignant censure. He crushed his hat on, sprang from his place, shouting that he would put an end to their prating, and, while he strode noisily along the room, railed at them to their face, not naming them, but with gestures giving point to his invectives. He told them to begone: “I say you are no Parliament! I’ll put an end to your sitting. Begone! Give way to honester men.” A stamp of his foot followed, as a signal; the door flies open, “five or six files of musqueteers” are seen with weapons ready. Resistance (so prompt, with less provocation, in 1642) is felt to be useless, and, except mere feminine scolding, none is attempted. Not one dares to struggle. Afraid of violence, their swords hang idly at their side. As they pass out in turn, they meet the scathing of Oliver’s rebuke. His control of himself is gone. Their crimes are not forgotten. He denounces Challoner as a drunkard, Wentworth for his adultery, Alderman Allen for his embezzlement of public military money, and Bulstrode Whitelock of injustice. Harry Marten is asked whether a whore-master is fit to sit and govern. Vane is unable to resist a feeble protest, availing nothing—“This is not honest: Yea! it is against morality and honesty.” In the absence of such crimes or flagrant sins of his companions, as his own frozen nature made him incapable of committing, there are remembered against him his interminable harangues, his hair-splitting, his self-sufficiency; and all that early deliberate treachery in ransacking his father’s papers, which he employed to cause the death of Strafford. To all posterity recorded, came the ejaculation of Cromwell: “Sir Harry Vane, Sir Harry Vane—the Lord deliver me from Sir Harry Vane!” And, excepting a few dissentient voices, the said posterity echoes the words approvingly. The “bauble” mace had been borne off ignominiously, the documents were seized, including that of the unpassed measure, the room was cleared, the doors were locked, and all was over. The Long Parliament thus fell, unlamented.

Page 66. _I’le sing you a Sonnet._

Written and published in 1659; as we see by the references to “_Dick_ (_Oliver’s_ Heir) that pitiful slow-thing, Who was once invested with purple clothing,”—his retirement being in April, 1659. Bradshaw, the bitter Regicide (whose harsh vindictiveness to Charles I. during the trial has left his memory exceptionally hateful), died 22nd November, 1659. Hewson the Cobbler was one of Oliver’s new peers, summoned in January, 1658.

Pages 69, 368. _Be not thou so foolish nice._

The music to this, by Dr. John Wilson, is in his _Chearfull Ayres_, 1659-60, p. 126.

Pages 70, 369. _Aske me no more._

Gule is misprint for “Goal,” and refers to the Bishops who, having been molested and hindered from attending to vote among the peers, were, on 30th December, 1642, committed to the Tower for publishing their protest against Acts passed during their unwilling absence. Finch, Lord Keeper; who, to save his life, fled beyond sea, and did not return until after the Restoration.

Pages 72, 369. _A Sessions was held, &c._

To avoid a too-long interruption, our Additional Note to the “Sessions of the Poets” is slightly displaced from here, and follows later as Section Third.

Pages 87, 369. _Some Christian people all, &c._

We have traced this burlesque narrative of the Fire on London Bridge ten years earlier than _Merry Drollery_, 1661, p. 81. It appeared (probably for the first time in print) on April 28th, 1651, at the end of a volume of _facetiæ_, entitled _The Loves of Hero and Leander_ (in the 1677 edition, following _Ovid de Arte Amandi_, it is on p. 142). The event referred to, we suspect, was a destructive fire which broke out on London Bridge, 13th Feb. 1632-3. It is thus described:—“At the latter end of the year 1632, viz., on the 13th Feb., between eleven and twelve at night, there happened in the house of one Briggs, a needle-maker, near St. Magnus Church, at the north end of the bridge, by the carelessness of a maid-servant, setting a tub of hot sea-coal ashes under a pair of stairs, a sad and lamentable fire, which consumed all the buildings before eight of the clock the next morning, from the north end of the bridge, to the first vacancy on both sides, containing forty-two houses; _water being then very scarce, the Thames being almost frozen over_. Beneath, in the vaults and cellars, the fire remained burning and glowing a whole week after. After which fire, the north end of the bridge lay unbuilt for many years; only deal boards were set up on both sides, to prevent people’s falling into the Thames, many of which deals were, by high winds, blown down, which made it very dangerous in the nights, although there were lanthorns and candles hung upon all the cross-beams that held the pales together.” (Tho. Allen’s _Hist. and Antiq. of London_, vol. ii. p. 468, 1828.) Details and list of houses burnt are given (as in _Gent. Mag._ Nov. 1824), from the MS. _Record of the Mercies of God; or, a Thankfull Remembrance_, 1618-1635 (since printed), kept by the Puritan Nehemiah Wallington, citizen and turner, of London, a friend of Prynn and Bastwick. He gives the date as Monday, 11th February, 1633. Our ballad mentions the river being frozen over, and “all on the tenth of January;” but nothing is more common than a traditional blunder of the month, so long as the rhythm is kept. (Compare _Choyce Drollery_, p. 78, and Appendix p. 297).

Another Fire-ballad (in addition to the coarse squib in present vol., pp. 33-7,) is “Zeal over-heated;” telling of a fire at Oxford, 1642; tune, Chivey Chace; and beginning, “Attend, you brethren every one.” It is not improbably by Thomas Weaver, being in his _Love and Drollery_, 1654, p. 21.

Page 92, 370. _Cast your caps and cares away._

Of this song, from Beaumont and Fletcher’s “Beggar’s Bush,” bef. 1625, the music set by Dr. John Wilson is in his _Cheerfull Ayres_, 1659-60, p. 22.

Pages 97, 371. _Come, let us drink._

“Mahomet’s Pigeon,” a frequent allusion: compare _M. D. C._, pp. 11, 192; and present appendix, p. 356.

Pages 100, 108 (App.) 371. _Satires on Gondibert._

See Additional Note in this vol. § 3, _post_, for a few words on D’Avenant. Since printing _M. D. C._, we have been enabled (thanks to W. F. Fowle, Esq., possessor of) to consult the very rare Second Satire, 1655, mentioned on p. 371. It is entitled, “The Incomparable Poem GONDIBERT VINDICATED from the Wit-Combats of Four ESQUIRES, _Clinias_, _Dametas_, _Sancho_, and _Jack Pudding_.” [With this three-fold motto:—]

Χοτέει καὶ ἀοίδ τω ἀοίδω.
_Vatum quoque gratia rara est._
Anglicè,
_One Wit-Brother_ || _Envies another_.

Printed in the year 1655.” It begins on p. 3, with a poetical address to Sir Willm. Davenant, asking pardon beforehand in case his “yet-unhurt Reputation” should suffer more through the champion than from the attack made by the four “Cyclops, or Wit-Centaurs,” two of whom he unhesitatingly names as “Denham and Jack Donne,” or “Jack Straw.” But even thus early we notice the sarcasm against D’Avenant himself: when in reference to the never-forgotten “flaws” in his face, the Defender writes:—

Will _shew thy face_ (be’t what it will),
_We’l push ’um yet a quill for quill_.

The third poem, p. 8, again to the Poet, mocks him as well as his assailants’ lines (our _M. D. C._, p. 108) with twenty triplets:—

_After so many poorer scraps_
_Of Playes which nere had the mishaps_
_To passe the stage without their claps, &c._

Next comes a poem “Upon the continuation of Gondibert,” “Ovid to Patmos pris’ner sent.” (Later, we extract the chief lines for the “Sessions” Add. Note.) He is told,

_Wash thee in ~Avon~, if thou flie,_
_My wary ~Davenant~ so high,_
_Yet ~Hypernaso~ now you shall_
_Ore fly this Goose so Capitall._ (p. 14.)

After five others, came one Upon the Author, beginning,

_~Daphne~, secure of the buff,_
_Prethee laugh,_
_Yet at these four and their riff raff;_
_Who can hold_
_When so bold?_
_And the trim wit of ~Coopers~ green hill_, ...

Ending thus:—

_~Denham~, thou’lt be shrewdly shent_
_To invent_
_Such Drawlery for merriment, &c...._
_A Drawing ~Donne~ out of the mire._

A burlesque of Gondibert on same p. 18, as “Canto the Second, or rather Cento the first;” begins “_All in the Land of ~Bembo~ and of ~Bubb~_.” One stanza partly anticipates Sam. Butler:—

_The Sun was sunk into the watery lap_
_Of her commands the waves, and weary there,_
_Of his long journey, took a pleasing nap_
_To ease his each daies travels all the year._

P. 23 gives “To _Daphne_ on his incomparable (and by the Critick incomprehended) Poem, _Gondibert_,” this consolation: “Chear up, dear friend, a _Laureat_ thou must be,” &c. Hobbes comes in for notice, on p. 24, and Denham with his Cooper’s Hill has another slap. The final poem, on p. 27, is “Upon the Author’s writing his name, as in the Title of his Booke, D’Avenant:”—

1.

“_Your Wits have further than you rode,_
_You needed not to have gone abroad._
_~D’avenant~ from ~Avon~ comes,_
_Rivers are still the Muses Rooms._
_~Dort~, knows our name, no more Durt on’t;_
_An’t be but for that ~D’avenant~._

2.

_And when such people are restor’d_
_(A thing belov’d by none that whor’d)_
_My noches then may not appeare,_
_The gift of healing will be near._
_Meane while Ile seeke some ~Panax~ (salve of clowns)_
_Shall heal the wanton Issues and crackt Crowns._
_I will conclude, Farewell Wit Squirty ~Fegos~_
_And drolling gasmen ~Wal-Den-De-Donne-Dego~._

(Finis.)”

Here, finally, are Waller, Denham, [Bro]de[rick], and Donne clearly indicated. They receive harder measure, on the whole, than D’avenant himself; so that the Second Volume of Satires, 1655, is neither by the author of “Gondibert,” nor by those who penned the “Certain Verses” of 1653. Q. E. D.

Pages 101, 372. _I’ll tell thee, Dick, &c._

As already mentioned, the popularity of Suckling’s “Ballad on a Wedding” (probably written in 1642) caused innumerable imitations. Some of these we have indicated. In _Folly in Print_, 1667, is another, “On a Friend’s Wedding,” to the same tune, beginning, “Now _Tom_, if _Suckling_ were alive, And knew who _Harry_ were to wive.” In D’Urfey’s _Pills to Purge Melancholy_, 1699, p. 81: ed. 1719, iii, 65, is a different “New Ballad upon a Wedding” [at Lambeth], with the music, to same tune and model, beginning, “The sleeping _Thames_ one morn I cross’d, By two contending _Charons_ tost.” Like Cleveland’s poem, as an imitation it possesses merit, each having some good verses.

Pages 111, 112. _The Proctors are two._

Among the references herein to Cambridge Taverns is one (3rd verse) to the Myter: part of which fell down before 1635, and was celebrated in verse by that “darling of the Muses,” Thomas Randolph. His lines begin “Lament, lament, ye scholars all!” He mentions other Taverns and the Mitre-landlord, Sam:—

_Let the ~Rose~ with the ~Falcon~ moult,_
_While ~Sam~ enjoys his wishes;_
_The ~Dolphin~, too, must cast her crown:_
_Wine was not made for fishes._

Pages 115, 374. _’Tis not the silver, &c._