To wait on the numerous Train, Their Majesties true Dignity, all Protestants ever will own, It was by the Heavens decree, that they should be plac'd in the Throne: To govern with mercy and love, that peace in the Land may abound, O blest be the powers above, that William and Mary is Crown'd. They'll root out the Relicks of Rome, and make this a flourishing Isle, And truth in its glory shall bloom, which Romans did enjoy a while; The Mass and the Rosary too, was all but a meer empty sound, The Papists look pittiful blew, now William and Mary is Crown'd. But every Protestant Soul, was sensible of their Relief, Therefore in a full flowing bowl, they drown all the relicks of grief, And drink their good Majesties health, with reverend knees to the ground, And wishing them honour and wealth, who is with a Diadem Crown'd. We'll tender our Lives at his feet, who stood for the Protestant Cause, And made the proud Romans retreat, defending Religion and Laws. We'll Conquer or fight till we dye, to make our Monarch Renown'd, Now thanks to Heavens on high, King William and Mary is Crown'd. FINIS. Printed for 3. Deacon, in Guiltspur-street. [In Black-letter. Date, 1689.] Advice to the Ladies. "You do not think, Monsieur Huet, that there is wit in these jeux de mots-perhaps you do not admire wit at all?” "Yes, I admire wit as I do the wind. When it shakes the trees, it is fine; when it cools the wave, it is refreshing; when it steals over flowers, it is enchanting: but when, Monsieur Hamilton, it whistles through the key-hole, it is unpleasant." Bulwer Lytton's Devereux, Bk. iv. cap. 5. THE Earl of Dorset's ❝ Song written before an engagement with the Dutch," beginning "To all you Ladies now at land, we men at sea endite" (to the tune of which the following ballad, and a score beside, was written), gained an instantaneous popularity, and has retained it to this day. Pepys mentions it in his Diary, January 2, 1664-5:-"To my Lord Brouncker's, by appointment, in the Piazza in Covent Garden: where I occasioned much mirth with a ballet I brought with me, made from the Seamen at sea to their ladies in towne; saying Sir W. Pen, Sir G. Ascue, and Sir J. Lawson, made them." Yet Pepys, in the Admiralty, ought to have known that the author was Lord Dorset; Nelly's early associate, Buckhurst. It is given in Popular Music, complete, 510. Our Bagford "Advice to the Ladies," like the other pages which follow to the end of Vol. II., is of much later date than any we have yet given. It was printed in white-letter, as a quarto pamphlet. We give the group of poems in smaller type, in preference to omitting it altogether. They are somewhat incongruous with the seventeenth century ditties.2 1 It is not necessary to mention more than a few, in proof of adaptability of the tune for political squibs. "To you, dear Brothers, who in vain," is of 1712. The following belong to the earlier Jacobite insurrection of 1715. "To you, dear Jemmy, at Lorraine" (The Tories' Letter to the Pretender'); "To you, dear Osmond, cross the seas;" "To you, dear Topers, at the Court; "To you, fair Traders, now ashore" (The South-Sea Whim). A little later came Meriel and Rachel's Eloping-song, Jovial Crew, 1731, “To you, dear Father, and our home; ""To you, fair Ladies, now in Town, We Country-men do write" (An Invitation into the Country, before 1728); and "To you, gay folks in London Town," July 1778, &c. 2 But they possess interest of a different kind, somewhat gossipping and scandalous though they be. They take us to the days of Pope and Gay, the Herveys and Dean Swift: consule Planco, Sir Robert being in power. The woodcut on p. 624 appears to be a burlesque of Walpole's armorial bearings: the supporters being a gold-beater, with his hammer, and a mountebank, with a Bauble. These are to indicate his trust in bribery and buffoonery. "Aurum" is in the legend, and a fool's cap for the crest; unless it be a turtle, in allusion to civic feasts. Soft Beauteous Dames, when Virtue fails, Devested of his Trusty Jack,2 Slides cross the Park in Curtain'd Hack. 6 When Nation, State, and Great Debate, Let no Gr. n C....d empty pate 35 [p. 3] My Life, my Soul could there be Ill 7 Brisk Lady M.. g • • 42 y1 trips the Park Kind Guardian of the Fair: 49 1 There may be a special allusion to Abigail Hill, one of Queen Anne's dressers, a relation of the Duchess of Marlborough: she became Mrs. Masham, the rival of her kinswoman and introducer. It may refer to waiting-women in general. 2 Sir Robert Walpole, leaving Secretary Craggs to guide the helm. Can "trusty Jack" be the reckless Jack Hill? 3 William Pulteney, afterwards Earl of Bath, 1742. The dotted words are probably "Groom-Chamber'd." This lady is perhaps "the sweet-tongued Murray," who in 1710 had married Alexander Murray (afterwards Sir Alex.), of Stanhope. She is also known by her maiden name, as Grizel Baillie, daughter of Baillie of Jerviswood. Her mother's song "There was ance a may, and she lo'ed na men," is one of the loveliest of the time; prized and quoted, sadly, by Robert Burns, with its burden, "And were na my heart light I should die." She was sufficiently beautiful to inspire a mad passion in the footman Arthur Gray-for yielding to which he was transported. The subject was indelicately chosen by Lady Mary Wortley Montague, for a poem, and by others (if not by her) for a licentious ballad. Lady Mary outraged propriety in her own Eclogues, and when she joined Lord Hervey, 1733, in satirizing Pope. 5 Swift inventories the Furniture of a Woman's Mind, including "A set of phrases learnt by rote, A passion for a scarlet coat." |