The Delights of the Bottle.

With a flood of Obrian, we fill up each vein,
All the Spirits of which love's Limbeck must drain;
While the soberer Sot has no motion of blood,
For his fancy is nothing but puddle and Mud.

He's a slave to his soul who, in spight of his sence,
With a Clog of his own putting on can dispence,
For he Fetters himself, when at large he might rove,
So he's ty'd from the sweets of good drinking and love;
Yet he's satisfied well, that he's thought to be wise
By the Dull and [the] foolish: I mean the precise.

For my part, whatever the consequence be,

To my will and my fancy i'le always be free;
They are mad that do wilfully run upon shelves,
Since dangers, and troubles, will come of themselves;
For whoever desireth to live like a man,

47

54

60

He must be without trouble as long as he can.
And these are the pleasures true Gallants do find,
To which, if you are not, you should be enclin'd;
If you follow my counsel, you take off the curse,
And if you do not, we are never the worse:
Yet none will refuse, but a Begger or Cit,
Who to car[r]y on the humour, wants Money or Wit.

66

72

[In Black-letter. From Roxburghe copy the printer's name has been cut off; Euing's, Rawlinson's, and Wood's have, "London, Printed for P. Brooksby and R. Burton, and are to be sold at their shops in West-Smithfield." Date, 1675.] •,• The original woodcut at the beginning of "The Delights of the Bottle was mutilated, little remaining except the smoking Cavalier, a part of the table, and one Cupid bearing the wreath. The outside Cupid, the Royal Crown lying on the ground, and the broken sword on the table, had been shorn away. reproduce the complete cut, with its fullness of symbolical allusion, as it appeared earlier, in the 1656 edition of The Melancholy Cavalier, 4to., unblushingly attributed to J. C. (i.e. John Cleaveland): but it was simply a piratical printer's adaptation from Samuel Rowlands's Melancholie Knight, 1615, viz. :

Apier, lye there, and there my Hat and Feather;
Draw my silke Curtaine to obscure the light;
Goose-quill and I must joine a while together:
Lady, forbeare, I pray: keep out of sight!

Call Pearle away, let one remove him hence:
Your Shrieking Parrot will distract my sense.

Would I were neere the Rogue that cryeth "Blacke!"
"Buy a new Almanacke” doth vexe me too :
Forbid the maid shee wind not up the Iacke;
Take hence my Watch, it makes too much adoe:

Let none come at me, dearest friend or kin;
Who ere it be, I am not now within.

We

DELIGHTS OF THE BOTTLE.-2.

The Prodigal Son Converted.

"Full of deep bumpers and of raptures, they
Are somewhat sick and sorry the next day."

-Byron's MS., Don Juan, Canto iii.

In its rollicking mirth, its playful scoffing at matrimonial bondage,

"with a clog of his own putting on," yet an acceptance of female companionship for shorter duration, the previous ballad gave a truthful account of the jovial tavern-life during Stuart days. This tavern-life caused dolorous groaning among the Conventiclers, who secretly envied each sinful wassailer, while they denounced him with pious horror. They dared not imitate him in these public carousals, but confined themselves to secret tippling, slanderous invective, groping after money, and such veiled unchastity as could be kept comparatively private. There are no reasons to doubt the truth of many a Cavalier's specific accusation, that these Puritanical railers were merely "veneer'd with sanctimonious honesty," who remained rogues in grain, with rotten and tindery touchwood at heart. The coarse freedom of speech in old-fashioned ditties is so far useful, that it gives forth no uncertain sound to guide us in an estimate of character. Persons might have been misled into admiring too keenly the easy-going morals, and the cheerful companionship of such exceedingly naughty boys, who sang these delights of the bottle and charms of good wine." But in the numerous ballads forthcoming, on Good-Fellows, we see a portraiture of the deboshed roysters, painted by themselves. They ruined their own health in drinking that of others; even as Rosalind's traveller spent his own land in visiting distant countries. A wise man laughs at the nonsense talked by Parliamentary praters, who, like the copper-nosed Protector's Law-son, would enforce national sobriety under heavy penalties; or by crotchetty El Hakim, who wasted a cellar-full of choicest Xeres, on pretence of conscientious scruples (it being forbidden by the Prophet of Mecca), on purpose to be talked of by the Giaours, lest he fell out of fashion. Laughing at such weaklings, we accept the warning given by these old ballads.

The writer of "The Prodigal Son Converted; or, The Young Man returned from his Rambles," had tried both experiences, acting on the well-known prescription,

"Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter:

Sermons and soda-water the day after."

His burden changes after each couple of verses, used only twice.

[Roxburghe Collection, III. 188, 189; Douce Collection, II. 179 verso.]

The Prodigal Son Converted;

Dr, The Poung-man return'd from his Rambles. Wit ne're till now, was cry'd about the street,

At the low rate of a poor Penny sheet;

Sharp times will make sharp wits, not fear sharp tongues, 'Tis we who money want which suffer wrongs;

You can't command a Poet with a frown

To write new Songs: but [he's] yours, for a Crown:
Here's that will please you sure, and much befreind ye,
You'll thank the Author, if the Devil be n't in ye.

To▲ PLEASANT NEW PLAY-HOUSE TUNE, CALL'D, The Delights of the Bottle, &c.

Printed for R. Burton, at the Horse-shooe in West-Smithfield.

[In Black-letter. Date, probably 1675, or 1676, quickly following on the original song and the broadside ballad of "The Delights of the Bottle,' 1675.]

Delights of the Bottle.—3.

The Wine-Cooper's Delight.

Charon (to Pluto).—“ Scylla, Sejanus, Cataline, and Noll,
Must give our Politician the wall.

They, cruel wretches, sought Imperial sway
By fire and slaughter: our's a milder way.
They fought e'ne like your Furies for a Crown,
He by Petitions softly bowls it down.
Kings may be fell'd, and never hurt a limb,
And Pluto's self fall gently under him.

But Sir, you're safe, for e're he came at Styx,
He drew and rack'd off all his Politicks."

Fluto. "I can't tell that: Coopers are cunning blades,
We Devils scarce can dive into their Trades;
The lees of one rich Pipe may ferment more,
And I am plaguy loath to lose my Power."

Charon.-"Fy, Pluto! y'are too jealous of your Peer,
He that hath been your Drudge this fifty year!"

The King of Poland's Ghost,' 1683.

ALTHOUGH we have advanced the following ditty from its

remote position (far on in the bulky third volume of the Roxburghe Collection, p. 244), to join two of the other Songs with the same tune of "The Delights of the Bottle," they are all three distinct in character. Shadwell's, the original, brimmed over with jovial conviviality. Next, "The Prodigal Son Converted" assumed a tone of sanctimonious morality, suitable for any Total-Abstinence hireling lecturer, when making a market out of his former depravity. He exultingly records what a very shocking Sinner he has hitherto been, to induce a charitable public (if any such auditory could be found) to give him present credit as a model of goodness, by the force of self-contrast.

No doubt this history of a Converted Sinner was accepted as edifying and nutritious, among a class of religionists who would have felt horrified by Shadwell's original. Whatever were their opinion, we are free to inquire whether this particular Prodigal Son did not become worse instead of better in his latter state, when he added spiritual pride and self-conceit to his former vices.

One copy of this Loyal Poem, beginning "Hold, Stugian sculler, what hast brought me here?" is in Mr. Ouvry's Collection, vol. iii. pp. 19, 20. Another is in the Editor's own possession. It is a dialogue between Pluto and Charon on the Reception below of Lord Shaftesbury, after death.

E 2