Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642 to 1684 Part 7

Why kept your train-bands such a stirre?

Why sent you them by cl.u.s.ters?

Then went into Saint James's Parke?

Why took you then their musters?

Why rode my Lord up Fleet-street With coaches at least twenty, And fill'd they say with aldermen, As good they had been empty?

London is a brave towne, Yet I their cases pitty; Their mayor and some few aldermen Have cleane undone the city.

The 'prentices are gallant blades, And to the king are clifty; But the lord mayor and aldermen Are scarce so wise as thrifty.

I'le pay for the apprentices, They to the King were hearty; For they have done all that they can To advance their soveraignes party.

London, etc.

What's now become of your brave Poyntz?

And of your Generall Ma.s.sey? (29) If you pet.i.tion for a peace, These gallants they will slash yee.

Where now are your reformadoes?

To Scotland gone together: 'Twere better they were fairly trusst Then they should bring them thither.

London, etc.

But if your aldermen were false, Or Glyn, that's your recorder! (30) Let them never betray you more, But hang them up in order.

All these men may be coach't as well As any other sinner Up Holborne, and ride forwarde still, To Tyburne to their dinner.

London, &c.

G.o.d send the valiant General may Restore the King to glory! (31) Then that name I have honour'd so Will famous be in story; While if he doe not, I much feare The ruine of the nation, And (that I should be loth to see) His house's desolation.

London, etc.

Ballad: The Lawyers' Lamentation For The Loss Of Charing-Cross

From a Collection of Loyal Songs, 1610 to 1660.

Undone! undone! the lawyers cry, They ramble up and down; We know not the way to WESTMINSTER Now CHARING-CROSS is down.

Now fare thee well, old Charing-Cross, Then fare thee well, old stump; It was a thing set up by a King, And so pull'd down by the RUMP.

And when they came to the bottom of the Strand They were all at a loss: This is not the way to WESTMINSTER, We must go by CHARING-CROSS.

Then fare thee well, etc.

The Parliament did vote it down As a thing they thought most fitting, For fear it should fall, and so kill 'em all In the House as they were sitting.

Then fare thee well, etc.

Some letters about this CROSS were found, Or else it might been freed; But I dare say, and safely swear, It could neither write nor read.

Then fare thee well, etc.

The WHIGs they do affirm and say To POPERY it was bent; For what I know it might be so, For to church it never went, Then fare thee well, etc.

This cursed RUMP-REBELLIOUS CREW, They were so d.a.m.n'd hard-hearted; They pa.s.s'd a vote that CHARING-CROSS Should be taken down and carted: Then fare thee well, etc.

Now, WHIGS, I would advise you all, 'Tis what I'd have you do; For fear the King should come again, Pray pull down TYBURN too.

Then fare thee well, etc.

Ballad: The Downfal Of Charing-Cross

Charing-Cross, as it stood before the civil wars, was one of those beautiful Gothic obelisks, erected to conjugal affection by Edward I., who built such a one wherever the hea.r.s.e of his beloved Eleanor rested in its way from Lincolns.h.i.+re to Westminster. But neither its ornamental situation, the beauty of its structure, nor the n.o.ble design of its erection (which did honour to humanity), could preserve it from the merciless zeal of the times; for in 1647 it was demolished by order of the House of Commons, as Popish and superst.i.tious. This occasioned the following not unhumorous sarcasm, which has been often printed among the popular sonnets of those times.

The plot referred to in ver. 3 was that entered into by Mr Waller the poet, and others, with a view to reduce the city and Tower to the service of the King; for which two of them, Nath. Tomkins and Richard Chaloner, suffered death, July 5, 1643. Vid. Ath. Ox. 11.

24. - PERCY'S RELIQUES OF ANCIENT ENGLISH POETRY.

Undone! undone! the lawyers are, They wander about the towne, Nor can find the way to Westminster Now Charing-Cross is downe: At the end of the Strand they make a stand, Swearing they are at a loss, And chaffing say, that's not the way, They must go by Charing-Cross.

The Parliament to vote it down Conceived it very fitting, For fear it should fall, and kill them all In the House as they were sitting.

They were told G.o.d-wot, it had a plot, Which made them so hard-hearted, To give command it should not stand, But be taken down and carted.

Men talk of plots, this might have been worse, For anything I know, Than that TOMKINS and CHALONER Were hang'd for long agoe.

Our Parliament did that prevent, And wisely them defended, For plots they will discover still Before they were intended.

But neither man, woman, nor child Will say, I'm confident, They ever heard it speak one word Against the Parliament.

An informer swore it letters bore, Or else it had been freed; In troth I'll take my Bible oath It could neither write nor read.

The Committee said that verify To Popery it was bent: For ought I know, it might be so, For to church it never went.

What with excise, and such device, The kingdom doth begin To think you'll leave them ne'er a cross Without doors nor within.

Methinks the Common-council should Of it have taken pity, 'Cause, good old cross, it always stood So firmly to the city.

Since crosses you so much disdain, Faith, if I were as you, For fear the King should rule again I'd pull down Tiburn too.

Whitlocke says, "May 3rd, 1643, Cheapside Cross and other crosses were voted down," &c. When this vote was put in execution does not appear; probably not till many mouths after Tomkins and Chaloner had suffered.

We had a very curious account of the pulling down of Cheapside Cross lately published in one of the Numbers of the GENTLEMEN'S MAGAZINE, 1766. - PERCY'S RELIQUES.

Ballad: The Long Parliament

By John Cleveland.

Most gracious and omnipotent, And everlasting Parliament, Whose power and majesty Are greater than all kings by odds; And to account you less than G.o.ds Must needs be blasphemy.

Mosses and Aaron ne'er did do More wonder than is wrought by you For England's Israel; But though the Red Sea we have past, If you to Canaan bring's at last, Is't not a miracle - ?