Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642 to 1684 Part 41

(50) Col. John Ireton was the brother of the more celebrated Henry Ireton, and was an alderman of London. He appears to have been clerk of the Council of Officers at Wallingford House.

(51) Col. Robert Tichbourne was also an alderman, and had been Lord Mayor in 1658. He was an enthusiast in religion of the Independent party, and published several books, among which one was very celebrated, and is often referred to in the tracts of this period, ent.i.tled, "A Cl.u.s.ter of Canaan's Grapes. Being severall experimented truths received through private communion with G.o.d by his Spirit, grounded on Scripture, and presented to open view for publique edification." London, 4to, Feb. 16, 1649. In a satirical tract of the year 1660 he is made to say, "I made my mother, the city, drunk with the cl.u.s.ters which I brought from Canaan, and she in her drink made me a colonel." After the return of the secluded members to the House, and the triumph of the city and the Presbyterian party, Ireton and Tichbourne were committed to the Tower, charged with aiming at the overthrow of the liberties of the city, and other grave misdemeanours. There are in the British Museum two satirical tracts relating to their imprisonment: 1.

"The Apology of Robert Tichborn and John Ireton. Being a serious Vindication of themselves and the Good old Cause, from the imputations cast upon them and it by the triumphing city and nation in this their day of desertion. Printed for everybody but the light-heeled apprentices and head-strong masters of this wincing city of London." (March 12, 1659-60.) 2. "Brethren in Iniquity: or, a Beardless Pair; held forth in a Dialogue betwixt Tichburn and Ireton, Prisoners in the Tower of London." 4to. (April 30, 1660.)

(52) George Monk and John Lambert.

(53) The eleventh of February was the day on which Monck overthrew the Rump, by declaring for the admission of the secluded members.

(54) On the tenth of February Monk, by order of the Parliament, had entered the city in a hostile manner. "Mr f.a.ge told me," says Pepys, "what Monck had done in the city, how he had pulled down the most parts of the gates and chains that he could break down, and that he was now gone back to Whitehall. The city look mighty blank, and cannot tell what in the world to do." The next day he turned from the Parliament, and took part with the city.

(55) Thomas Scot and Luke Robinson were sent by the Parliament to expostulate with Monk, but without effect.

(56) Pepys gives the following description of the rejoicings in the city on the evening of the eleventh of February:- "In Cheapside there were a great many bonfires, and Bow bells and all the bells in all the churches as we went home were a-ringing. Hence we went homewards, it being about ten at night. But the common joy that was everywhere to be seen! The number of bonfires! there being fourteen between St Dunstan's and Temple Bar, and at Strand Bridge I could at one time tell thirty-one fires. In King-street seven or eight; and all along burning, and roasting, and drinking for Rumps, there being rumps tied upon sticks and carried up and down. The butchers at the May Pole in the Strand rang a peal with their knives when they were going to sacrifice their rump. On Ludgate Hill there was one turning of a spit that had a rump tied upon it, and another basting of it. Indeed it was past imagination, both the greatness and the suddenness of it. At one end of the street you would think there was a whole lane of fire, and so hot that we were fain to keep on the further side."

(57) In a satirical tract, ent.i.tled "Free Parliament Quaeries,"

4to, April 10, 1660, it is inquired "Whether Sir Arthur did not act the Raging Turk in Westminster Hall, when he saw the admission of the secluded members?" Pepys gives the following account of the reception of Monck's letter from the city on the 11th of February:- "So I went up to the lobby, where I saw the Speaker reading of the letter; and after it was read Sir A. Haselrigge came out very angry, and Billing, standing by the door, took him by the arm and cried, 'Thou man, will thy beast carry thee no longer? thou must fall!'"

(58) Haselrigge was accused of having been a dupe to Monck's cunning intrigues.

(59) The celebrated Praise-G.o.d Barebone, at the head of a body of fanatics, had (February 9th) presented a strong pet.i.tion to the House in support of the Good old Cause, which gave great offence to the Presbyterian party and the citizens, although it was received with thanks. According to Pepys, one of Monck's complaints against the Parliament was, "That the late pet.i.tion of the fanatique people presented by Barebone, for the imposing of an oath upon all sorts of people, was received by the House with thanks." The citizens did not omit to show their hostility against the presenter of the pet.i.tion. On the 12th, Pepys says, "Charles Glasc.o.c.ke. . . told me the boys had last night broke Barebone's windows." And again, on the 22nd, "I observed this day how abominably Barebone's windows are broke again last night."

(60) Miles Corbet, as well as Tichbourn, had sat upon the King in judgment. In a satirical tract, published about the same time as the present ballad, Tichbourn is made to say, "They say I am as notorious as Miles Corbet the Jew." In another, ent.i.tled "The Private Debates, etc., of the Rump," 4to, April 2, 1660, we read, "Call in the Jews, cryes Corbet, there is a certain sympathy (quoth he), methinks, between them and me. Those wandering pedlers and I were doubtless made of the same mould; they have all such blote- herring faces as myself, and the devil himself is in 'um for cruelty." He was one of those who fled on the Restoration, but he was afterwards taken treacherously in Holland, and, being brought to London, was executed as a regicide. In another satirical tract, ent.i.tled "A Continuation of the Acts and Monuments of our late Parliament" (Dec. 1659), it is stated that, "July 1, This very day the House made two serjeants-at-law, William Steele and Miles Corbet, and that was work enough for one day." And, in a fourth, "Resolved, That Miles Corbet and Robert Goodwin be freed from the trouble of the Chief Register Office in Chancery." MERCURIUS HONESTUS, No. 1. (March 21, 1659-60.)

(61) William Lord Monson, Viscount Castlemaine, was member for Ryegate in the Long Parliament. He was degraded from his honour at the Restoration, and was condemned to be drawn on a sledge with a rope round his neck from the Tower to Tyburn, and back again, and to be imprisoned there for life. It appears, by the satirical tracts of the day, that he was chiefly famous for being beaten by his wife. In one, ent.i.tled "Your Servant, Gentlemen," 4to, 1659, it is asked, "Whether that member who lives nearest the church ought not to ride Skimmington next time my Lady Mounson cudgels her husband?" And in another ("The Rump Despairing," 4to, London, March 26, 1660) we find the following pa.s.sage:- "To my Lord Monson.

A sceptre is one thing, and a ladle is another, and though his wife can tell how to use one, yet he is not fit to hold the other."

(62) Pudding John, or Jack Pudding, was a proverbial expression of the times for a Merry Andrew. In an old English-German Dictionary it is explained thus:- "JACK-PUDDING, un buffon de theatre, deliciae populi, ein Hanswurst, Pickelhering." The term was applied as a soubriquet to any man who played the fool to serve another person's ends. "And first Sir Thomas Wrothe (JACK PUDDING to Prideaux the post-master) had his cue to go high, and feele the pulse of the hous." History of Independency, p. 69 (4to, 1648).

(63) An allusion to James Harrington's "Oceana."

(64) James Harrington, a remarkable political writer of this time, had founded a club called the Rota, in 1659, for the debating of political questions. This club met at Miles's Coffee-house, in Old Palace Yard, and lasted a few mouths. At the beginning of the present year was published the result of their deliberations, under the t.i.tle of "The Rota: or, a Model of a Free State, or Equall Commonwealth; once proposed and debated in brief, and to be again more at large proposed to, and debated by, a free and open Society of ingenious Gentlemen." 4to, London, 1660 (Jan. 9).

(65) William Prynne, the lawyer, who had been so active a member of the Long Parliament when the Presbyterians were in power, was one of the secluded members. He returned to the House on the 21st of January, this year. Pepys says, "Mr Prin came with an old basket-hilt sword on, and had a great many shouts upon his going into the hall."

(66) John Wilde was one of the members for Worcesters.h.i.+re in the Long Parliament. In Cromwell's last Parliament he represented Droitwich, and was made by the Protector "Lord Chief Baron of the publick Exchequer." In a satirical pamphlet, contemporary with the present ballad, he is spoken of as "Sarjeant Wilde, best known by the name of the Wilde Serjeant." Another old song describes his personal appearance:

"But, Baron Wild, come out here, Show your ferret face and snout here, For you, being both a fool and a knave, Are a monster in the rout here."

Loyal songs II. 55.

(67) See footnote (60).

(68) Alderman Atkins.

(69) Ludlow was well known as a staunch Republican. The incident alluded to was a subject of much merriment, and exercised the pen of some of the choicest poets of the latter half of the seventeenth century. - T. W.

(70) Lambert, with his army, was in the North, and amid the contradictory intelligence which daily came in, we find some people who, according to Pepys, spread reports that Lambert was gaining strength. - T. W.

(71) Marchamont Nedham.

(72) Lambert and "his bears" are frequently mentioned in the satirical writings of this period. Cromwell is said to have sworn "by the living G.o.d," when he dissolved the Long Parliament. - T. W.

(73) Speaker of the Long Parliament.

(74) Harry Marten, member for Berks.h.i.+re, a man of equivocal private character. In the heat of the civil wars he had been committed to the Tower for a short time by the Parliament, for speaking too openly against the person of the King. When he attempted to speak against the violent dissolution of the Long Parliament by Cromwell, the latter reproached him with the licentiousness of his life. - T. W.

(75) William Lord Monson, Viscount Castlemaine, was member for Ryegate. He was degraded from his honours at the Restoration, and was condemned to be drawn on a sledge with a rope round his neck from the Tower to Tyburn, and back again, and to be imprisoned there for life. It appears, by the satirical tracts of the day, that he was chiefly famous for being beaten by his wife. - T. W.

(76) Sir Arthur Haselrigge, member for Leicesters.h.i.+re.

(77) Noise or disturbance.

(78) Dr John Hewit, an episcopal clergyman, executed for high treason in 1658, for having held an active correspondence with the Royalists abroad, and having zealously contributed to the insurrection headed by Penruddock.

(79) John Lowry, member for Cambridge.

(80) Sir Edmund Prideaux, Bart., member for Lyme Regis. He was Cromwell's Attorney-General.

(81) Oliver St John, member for Totness, and Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.

(82) John Wilde, one of the members for Worcesters.h.i.+re. In Cromwell's last Parliament he represented Droitwich, and was made by the Protector "Lord Chief Baron of the Public Exchequer."

(83) Sir Henry Slingsby and Dr Hewet were executed for treason against the government of Oliver Cromwell in 1658. Colonel John Gerard was brought to the block at the beginning of the Protectorate, in 1654, for being engaged in a plot to a.s.sa.s.sinate Cromwell.

(84) John Lord Lisle represented Yarmouth in the Long Parliament.

He sat for Kent in the Parliament of 1653, and was afterwards a member of Cromwell's "other House," and held the office of Lord Commissioner of the Great Seal. He was president of the High Courts of Justice which tried Gerard, Slingsby, and Hewet.

(85) Nathaniel Fiennes, member for Banbury. In the Parliament of 1654 he represented Oxfords.h.i.+re. He was afterwards, as Nathaniel Lord Fiennes, a member of Cromwell's "other House." Fiennes was accused of cowardice in surrendering Bristol (of which he was governor) to Prince Rupert, somewhat hastily, in 1643. His father, Lord Say and Sele, opposing Cromwell, was obliged to retire to the Isle of Lundy.

(86) John Lord Glynn, member of Cromwell's "other House," was "Chief Justice a.s.signed to hold pleas in the Upper Bench." He was engaged in the prosecution of the Earl of Strafford. He was one of the eleven members impeached by the army in 1647. In the Long Parliament, as well as in Cromwell's Parliaments, he was member for Carnarvon. - T. W.

(87) Henry Nevil, member for Abingdon. In Cromwell's last Parliament he represented Reading. In a satirical tract, he is spoken of as "religious Harry Nevill;" and we find in Burton's Diary, that some months before the date of the present song (on the 16th Feb. 1658-9) there was "a great debate" on a charge of atheism and blasphemy which had been brought against him. - T. W.

(88) In the satirical tract ent.i.tled "England's Confusion," this member is described as "hastily rich Cornelius Holland." He appears to have risen from a low station, and is characterized in the songs of the day as having been a link-bearer. - T. W.

(89) Major Salwey was an officer in the Parliamentary array. On the 17th January, 1660, he incurred the displeasure of the House, and was sequestered from his seat and sent to the Tower. He is described as "a smart, prating apprentice, newly set for himself."

He appears to have been originally a grocer and tobacconist; a ballad of the time speaks of him as,

"Salloway with tobacco Inspired, turned State quack-o; And got more by his feigned zeal Then by his, WHAT D'YE LACK-O?"

In another he is introduced thus,

"The tobacco-man Salway, with a heart tall of gall Puffs down bells, steeples, priests, churches and all, As old superst.i.tions relicks of Baal."

A third ballad, alluding to his att.i.tude in the House, couples together

"Mr William Lilly's astrological lyes, And the meditations of Salloway biting his thumbs." - T. W.

(90) Roger Hill was member for Bridport, in Dorsets.h.i.+re. He bought a grant of the Bishop of Winchester's manor of Taunton Dean, valued at 1200 pounds a year. A ballad written towards the end of 1659 says of him,