"Our Market is done, we must shut up at Noon." 117

Later than our present ballad, WHICH BELONGS TO 1675, came a similarly jubilant strain when the Jesuits were dispersed from Occupying the Savoy, at the time of James the Second's downfall, in Dec. 1688. The title is "Religious Reliques." It begins thus, "Last Sunday, by chance, I encounter'd with Prance,

That man of Upright Conversation;

Who told me such News, that I cou'd not chuse
But laugh at his sad Declaration.

"Says he, If you'l go, you shall see such a Show

Of Reliques expos'd to be sold,

Which, from Sin and Disease, will purge all that please

To lay out their Silver and Gold.*

"Here's St. Francis' own Cord: you may take't, on my word,

Who dies in it cannot be damn'd;

Do but buy it, and try: if I tell you a Lie,
Many thousands of Heav'n are shamm'd.

...

"Our Market is done; We must shut up at Noon,
We expect 'em each hour at the door :
We are Hang'd if we stay, and we can't get away,
For none will, nor dare, carry us o're."

The ridicule cast on the sale of Pardons and Indulgences is fair game, and has been long in favour. As to the enfranchisement from Purgatory, we need only bethink us of S. T. Coleridge's "Epilogue to The Rash Conjuror; an uncomposed poem, 1805," which runs briefly thus:

WE ask and urge-here ends the story!

All Christian Papishes to pray
That this unhappy Conjuror may,

Instead of Hell, be but in Purgatory-
For then there's hope:

Long live the Pope!

Probably, one anonymous author wrote "Reflections upon the Catholic Ballad" and "The Pope's Great Year of Jubilee." Our Roxburghe original is mutilated in a few places: the lost words are recovered from a duplicate in the Rawlinson Collection at the Bodleian Library.

[Roxburghe Collection, III. 68; Rawlinson, 566, fol. 218.]

The Pope's Great Year of Jubilee ;

The Catholick's Encouragement for the Entertainment of Popery.

With an Account of an Eminent Mart or Fair, which is to be kept by his Holiness, where all sorts of Endulgencies, Pardons, Kemissions, Relicks, Trash, and Trumperies, are to be exposed to Sale, and may [be] had for ready money at any time of the day; With the usual ceremonies thereunto appertaining.

Therefore, such sons as are desirous to imbrace the kind proffers of their holy Mother, are advised in the nick of time to come all away.

TUNE IS, Have at all. (See note at end of ballad, p. 120.)

The Pope's Great Year of Jubilee.

The second part.

TO THE SAME TUNE.

Probably 1675. (See the Original Note at the end of "A Ballad for Rome," on p. 109.) Clement X., Emilio Altieri, was Pope at that date, but Innocent XI., Odescalchi, became Pontiff in the next year, 1676.

Therefore, all those that will repair,
And come to traffick at this fare;
Be sure you money with you bring,
For that we count the only thing;
His holiness must have, they say,
New cloaths most fine, against the time,
Come all away, come all away.

And now for to indulge you more,
Who ne'er was entertain'd before;
In our religion you shall find
Enough for to content your mind;
Freedom and liberty each day,
Sin to restrain, or sin again,

Come all away, come all away.

56

63

We have a place cal'd purgatory,
Though fools do count it a vain story,
In which if you be purged well,
You need not fear the jaws of hell:
I must confess 'tis hot they say,
But money will do't, and bring you out,
Come all away, come all away. 70

Good Friday's lash is but a play,
Whate're the rabble rout may say,
And quickly too it is forgot,
For on Easter-day we hang on the pot;
And with sharp stomacks then we say,
We need not fast, now Lent is past,

Come [all away, come all away]. 77
Then you which by our Churches pass,
I say come in, and hear a Mass,
And see the Priests how clear they sup
The healing sacerdotal cup;

Then if you'l not the Pope obey;
My labour's lost, and I am crost,
Go your way, go your way.

84

[Printer's Name cut off; but Rawlinson copy (added in 1834) has "Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clarke. With Allowance." In Blackletter. Three old woodcuts (the first is of 1641; used for "The Pope's Benediction," and "The Lineage of Locusts"). Date, probably, 1675.]

As to the Tune named, at beginning of this ballad:-"Have at all!" is the burden of a "Drollery" ballad, sung before 1671, entitled "The New Courtier," a copy of which is in Roxburghe Collection, II. 378: others are in the Rawlinson, fol. 206; Pepys, II. 212, 222; Wood's, E. 25, fol. 89, etc. It begins, "Upon the 'Change, where merchants meet." The tune is there named, "Chloris, since thou art fled away." The latter title indicates the first line of a Pastoral Song by Dr. Henry Hughes (but wrongly attributed sometimes to Sir Robert Aytoun), called "Amintor's Well-a-day," or, " Chloris and Amyntas -"On a Shepherd that died for Love." The music is by Henry Lawes, and is preserved in Lawes's Ayres, 1699, Book ii. 16, and Book iii. p. 10; also in Playford's Select Ayres, 1669, Book ii. P. 4. The words, from Choyce Drollery, 63, are given in our Drolleries of the Restoration, iii. 63, where is also "The Answer," from Sportive Wit, 1656, p. 15, and The Loyal Garland.

1 These garments also figure in the ballad on "Religious Reliques: ".

Here's St. Joseph's old Coat, tho' scarce worth a groat,
Its plainness does shew he'd no pride;

Yet this he had on, For besides it he'd none,

The day that he marry'd his Bride.

His Breeches are there, a plain leather Pair:
Come buy the whole Suit, if you please;

They'll defend you from th' Itch, From Hag, and from Witch,
And preserve you from bugs and from fleas.

Coleman, and the Popish Plot: 1678.

"His Holiness, that Patriot of Strife,

Tho' he can grant you Pardons, cannot Life."

-The Muse's Farewel to Popery, 1689.

WITHOUT careful consideration of the deep convictions at work

in some, the rooted prejudices in others, the blind passions and heated intolerance in the mob, who were acted on by selfish leaders to further their own ambitious schemes and private malice, it would be impossible to arrive at a just balance of the right and wrong directing those public acts against the Catholics, which so markedly distinguish the closing years of Parliament in Charles the Second's reign. Obedient to the demands of a terrified London rabble, both Commons and Lords lost their sanity of judgment; but as usual the Commons were by far the worse in madness and injustice.

Before giving two fresh ballads on Edward Coleman's execution, it may be well to briefly recapitulate the story which was told to incriminate him by Titus Oates. Its outrageous absurdity and incredibility are now apparent to us, but it found a public so well prepared by terror against Popery, and proneness to believe evil, that even the self-contradictions of Oates, with his ever-increasing "Narrative," and the discordant evidence of the later spies and informers, Bedloe, Turberville, Dangerfield, etc., failed to awaken public doubt that the whole of the so-called "Popish Plot" was an imposture. Inordinate conceit, cruel malice, selfish greed, immeasurable treachery, and systematic practice of lying, with other depravity, had inured Oates to the course he adopted. The man was fitted to the work: the work was worthy of the man. But if his villainy had not also suited the ambitious schemes of Earl Shaftesbury, and his party, no large amount of success could have been possible. It was to play once more the game of rebellion, as it had been played by Pym, with Thomas Beale the tailor for his tool, in 1641, and, by exciting horror against the Catholics, to extend the odium against the Court, that the wily "Achitophel" may have seen his opportunity to assume in time the dictatorship. But the baleful result of the former experiment had, of itself, formed an obstacle to a repetition of the triumph. Except a few desperate intriguers, the remnants of the old Commonwealth-Cause men, and some desperadoes who expected advancement or plunder in the general confusion, the country shrank from any renewal of Civil War. Moreover, despite his vassalage to wantons, whose insatiable demands impoverished the Exchequer, and whose secret connivance with French ambition often led to injury of the national honour, Charles the Second continued to be held in affectionate regard by his people. He was personally loved, more warmly and generally than his father had ever been, even by devoted political adherents.