The Devonshire Boys' Courage.

We will advance King William's fame,
And add new Glorys to his name;
The hawghty Monsieur we'll pluck down,
For to advance Old England's Crown.

Now England is so powerful grown,
Poor Monsieur Totters in his Throne;
Brave Boys, with Courage let's proceed,
No English-man will fear to bleed.

Then let proud French-men all bewail,
That e're they did to England Sail,
Not words but blows shall make it out,
When we with them have 'tother bout.

Printed for P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, and J. Back.

[In Black-letter. Date, almost certainly, 1690, the end of July, soon after Tourville had cannonaded Teignmouth, and nearly destroyed it. The original has, in addition to the two small cuts (one given here, the other on p. 331), a seven-figure portion of a military procession (including the three figures already given on p. 7). Two copies of this ballad are in the Roxburghe Collection by the same printers; in both cases, at the back of "The Devonshire Damsels' Frollick," which will be given hereafter, as the end of the D. initialed Group, Roxb. Coll., II. 136, 137 verso.]

The Thanksgiving, November, 1711.

"And, I hope, here is a Play fitted.”—A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act i. sc. 2.

W

ITH "Rome in an Uproar as a finale we might have appropriately closed our Anti-Papal Group; and thus have given it more dramatic completeness, than by prolonging the action with an after-piece. For truly the whole of this Group, to the Editor's mind, bears a striking resemblance to the evolution of an historical play, with mingled tragedy and comedy; but the serious interest of human suffering and dishonour outweighs the farcical buffoonery of such hired mummers as Settle, Tutchin, and College. Let us call it THE PAPAL DRAMA; or, The Sham-Plot turned into a Reality.

In the First Act we see the sham Popish-Plot denounced by Titus Oates, "the Salamanca Doctor," exulting over the unjust slaughter of Coleman and the Jesuits, who die on the scaffold. In Act Second the interest enlarges and deepens; for the intriguing Shaftesbury appears as deus ex machind, and the action becomes a personal contest between the rebellious parliament and monarchy itself, over the Exclusion Bill against the " apostate" Duke of York. The temporary triumph of faction is marked in the last scene, showing the execution of Viscount Stafford on Tower Hill. In Act Third the reaction is progressing, with Charles II. now thoroughly roused, and offering a powerful resistance to the embittered fanatics. Their imprudence in conspiracy finds punishment, when "The Rye-House Plot" yields them over to the laws they themselves had invoked wrongfully against others. Again the act-drop falls on a scaffold-the death of Sidney, Armstrong, and Russell. [These executions, and the whole of Act Fourth, we have purposely left for a separate "Group of Ballads," which serve to illustrate Monmouth's Rebellion after the accession of James II.] The vain attempt of the Protestant insurrection to make way against the compact force of loyalty and government soon brings us to the death of the unfortunate "England's Darling." With the flowing of Monmouth's blood on the scaffold this Act ends, and leaves the King triumphant. The Fifth Act therefore opens upon James in full power, dispensing places of public trust to his own favourites, with reckless haste. The rapid melting away of his forces, the desertion which follows on his bigotry and obstinacy, form the action of the few shifting scenes; are heard in the rude ballads. In the universal confusion is more of burlesque than tragic pathos, for the curtain falls not this time on a scaffold, as had been desired and expected, but on the flight of James-the downfall of Popery.

Such is the PAPAL DRAMA, which we have here tried to sketch; honestly, without undue favour to the Romanist or Protestant cause.

[Roxburghe Collection, III. 556.]

The Thanksgiving:

A New Protestant Ballad.1

TO AN EXCELLENT ITALIAN TUNE.

Et's sing the New M[inistr]y's Praise
With Hearts most thankful and glad,
For the S[tate]smen of these our Days
Are the wisest that ever we had.

But not to wander too far

In the Maze of their endless Merit;

1 Since History is not all silenced when the fifth act ends, we find some movement still, in the two "Protestant Courage" ballads of 1690. Two other Roxburghe Ballads, of a strongly pronounced Protestant flavour, remain. They both refer to one event, in November, 1711, viz. the interruption to an intended renewal of Anti-Papal demonstration and Pope-Burning. One is "The Thanksgiving"; the companion ballad is entitled "Queen Elizabeth's Day." We reserve the introductory account of both to p. 332, preceding the latter ballad.

2 From Perkin Warbeck, the Pretender to the throne in Henry VII.'s time, the name of Perkin had been most scandalously misapplied to the lawful son of James II., the Prince of Wales, James Frederick Edward Stuart, born at St. James's Palace, on the 10th of June, 1688. But even in 1682, when the Duchess of York was enceinte, the Whigs endeavoured to circulate a report that an imposture was intended. The child was a daughter, and L'Estrange in the Observator of August 23, 1682, declares-"If it had pleased God to give his Royal Highness the blessing of a son, as it proved a daughter, you were prepared to make a Perkin of him." William's adherents forged the calumny of 1688, and it helped to poison the mind of the public. (Compare note 2, on p. 306.) The wet-nurse's name was Judith Wilk, and the child is called derisively "Simnel" by the disaffected, in some contemporary verses.

1 This alludes to the proposal of Peace, consolidated by the Treaty of Utrecht, 11 April, 1713,"by which Spain and the Indies were left to King Philip." Burnet declared to the Queen that, this "must in a little while deliver up all Europe into the hands of France; and if any such peace should be made, she was betrayed, and we were all ruined: in less than three years' time she would be murdered, and the fires would be again raised in Smithfield."—History of His Own Times, ed. 1875, p. 874.

2 The impeachment of the Doctor began in February, and sentence was given at the end of March, 1710. See our brief introduction to these two ballads, p. 332. 3 No doubt of it; and, even now, Northampton can rally for them and return both members. It was not for nothing that the town was burned in 1677.

The Earl of Dartmouth issued the warrant, and on the night of the 16th some of the Queen's messengers, supported by a detachment of foot-guards, seized the figures, which had been lodged in an uninhabited house in Drury Lane. They were carried to the Earl's office in the Cockpit.

A New Protestant Ballad, of 1711.

Besides, that no Harm might come nigh us,
The Bands so well Train'd were drawn out,
And, as long as those Heroes stand by us,
The Devil himself we may rout.
What tho' some People did sneer,

And call 'em the Pope's Life-Guard;
They stood to their arms-and their Beer-
All Night, and kept Watch and Ward.1

So God save our Gracious Queen,
And Her Ministers every one.
And he that don't say Amen,

Is a Churl, and may let it alone.
The Hanover House God preserve,

And blast the Pretender's Hope :
The Protestant Cause let's serve,
And give to the Devil the Pope.

London, Printed in the year 1711.

331

60

64

68

72

[In White-letter. Date, November 17th, 1711. No woodcut, or printer's names.]

1 The Trained Bands continued under arms for three days. Appropriately, at this place, we now give a woodcut representing a much earlier London TrainBand (which had been first used in the Civil-War tracts of 1642), belonging to the foregoing ballad of "Devonshire Boys' Courage," removed hither from p. 327. The single horseman, on that page, is not identical with the original, which is reversed, and may have been intended to represent William of Orange.