[Roxburghe Collection, II. 478; and III. 362, 363.] A Turn-coat of the Times. Who doth by experience profess, and protest, TUNE IS, The King's Delight; or, True Love is a gift for a Queen. AS S I was walking through Hide Park, as I us'd to do, Some two or three months ago, I laid me all along, without any fear of wrong, It came from a powdered thing, He knew not that I was got so nigh, And thus he began to sing. "I am a Turn-coat Knave! I can, with tongue and pen, court every sort of men, With Zealots I can pray, With Shop-keepers I can cogg and lye, And couzen as fast as they. 9 18 "When first the Wars began, "Twas I that did set them on; When they cry'd Bishops down, in Country, Court, and Town, Quoth I, and have at the Crown!' The Covenant I did take, For form and fashion's sake; But when it would not support my Plot, 'Twas like an old Almanack. "When Independency I was of the same degree; When Keepers did command, I then had a holy hand Protectorship drew nigh, And Keepers were thrown o're the Bar, Old Oliver!' then cry'd I. "When Sectaries got the day, To flatter and then betray; In Parliament I gat, and there a Member sat, For I was a trusty trout In all that I went about, And there we did vow to sit till now: But Oliver turn'd us out. "We put down the House of Peers, And tippl'd the Widows' tears. 27 36 45 We sequestred men's Estates, and made 'em pay monthly rates To trumpeters and their mates. Rebellion we did print, And altered all the Mint;1 No knavery then was done by men, But I had a finger in 't. 54 1 See woodcut of Commonwealth coin, known as "Oliver's Breeches," on p. 525. A Turn-Coat of the Times. "When Charles was put to flight, At that most fatal fall, I killed and plundered all: Whilst my merry mates fell on, There is many,' thought I, will come by and by, And why should not I be one?' "We triumphed like the Turk, When Cromwell did but frown, they yielded every Town, But when old Nol did dye, And Richard his son [was] put by, I knew not how to guide my plow, 'Where now shall I be?' thought I. "I must confess, the Rump Did put me in a dump, I knew not what would be trump. When Dick had lost the day, my gaming was at a stay, When Monk was upon that score I did not think what he would be at; "But now, I am at Court, And purchase a good report. I have the eyes and ears of many brave noble Peers, And slight the poor Cavileers. Poor knaves! they know not how To flatter, cringe, and bow; For he that is wise, and means to rise, He must be a Turn-Coat too." 519 63 72 81 [Printer's name cut off from first Roxburghe copy, but the Pepysian, II. 210, and Douce, II. 218, were printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright: in Black-letter. Roxburghe Coll. III. 362 is modern, n.p.n., with two geometrical cuts, a solid parallelogram and a cylinder. Date probably 1661.] Confusions of a Wasted Youth.” The Haymarket Hectors. "Could such inordinate and low desires, Such poore, such bare, such lewd, such meane attempts, Such barren pleasures, rude societie, As thou art matcht withall, and grafted too, And hold their leuell with thy princely heart?" -First Part of King Henry IV., iii. 1. So early as December 19th, 1666, the reputation was evil of James 66 Crofts; as our Duke of Monmouth had been commonly called, before he assumed the name of Scott borne by his wife Anne. William Lord Viscount Brouncker spoke of him to Pepys as an enemy of the Duke of York, and he is recorded in the Diary as one who spends his time the most viciously and idle of any man, nor will be fit for any thing." Two events, strikingly characteristic of the swashbuckler companionships affected by the gay young Duke of Monmouth belong to the close of the year 167. One was the assault on Sir John Coventry (who richly deserved to be punished, for his insolence regarding Charles II., and holding him up to ridicule as a patron of "women-players"). This was on December 21st; the Duke, accompanied or represented by Lieutenant Sandys, by O'Brien, son of Lord Inchiquin, and others, assaulted a member of parliament, Sir John Coventry, in Suffolk Street, Haymarket, as he was returning from the adjournment of the House over the Christmas holidays. The Commons acted with great heat and lack of dignity, as usual; not leaving the matter to be dealt with by the law-courts, after Sir Thomas Clarges made his statement of examination, but banished four of the offenders for life, unless they surrendered their persons by February 16th, and declared them unpardonable except by special declaration of Parliament. The "Coventry Act" was passed, to make maiming and disfiguring a felony without benefit of clergy: and all this puddle in a storm solely because of Sir John being one of themselves! A Member of Parliament, unless he happened to be a loyal courtier of his Majesty, was to be defended more zealously than a mere king. We give the ballad entitled "The Haymarket Hectors," which was circulated by the discontented opposers of the Court; but are tempted to turn a cloak upside-down, to avoid needless mire, as was done on a celebrated occasion. "Please your Majesty, here's a nasty puddle!" said Lord Burleigh. Queen Bess answered: "I know it, you fool! but my faithful Raleigh will help me over." The first verse of our Hay-Market Hectors parodies the burden of Ben Jonson's Song of the Cut-Purse, in Bartholomew Fair, 1614:Youth, youth, thou had'st better been starv'd by thy nurse, Than live to be hang'd for cutting a Purse! I A Ballad, call'd The Hay-Market Hectors. Upon the cutting of Sir John Coventry's nose. SING a woful ditty, of a wound that long will smart-a; And giv'n (the more's the pity) in the realm of Magna Charta. 6 Our good King Charles] the Second, too flippant of treasure and moisture, 12 Stoop'd from the Queen infecund, to a Wench of Orange and Oyster; That, to equal her Lover, the Baggage must dare 18 And he, our am'rous Jove, while she lay dry-bobb'd under, Thunder: And for one night prostitutes to her commands 24 1 From the Italian, an opprobrious term for a knavish companion, used in Wyly Beguily, and by Ben Jonson in Every Man out of his Humour, ii. 1, for an affected traveller who has picked up evil words and actions from foreigner and neighbour: "These be our nimble-spirited catsos, that have their evasions at pleasure, will run over a bog like your wild Irish." There are other ill-meanings. 2 The 1776 version (Captain Thompson's), "from Marvell's writing," reads, "And for sweet variety, thought it expedient To ingender Don Johns on," etc. 3 Nell Gwynne, or Gwyn. "Sir John Coventry, having moved for an imposition on the playhouses, Sir John Berkenhead, to excuse them, sayed they had been of great service to the King. Upon which Sir John Coventry desired that gentleman to explain whether he meant the men or women players." (Andrew Marvell's Letter to Willm. Ramsden, undated, of Feb. 167.) Nell Gwynne is made answerable for the outrage, by the libellous satirist in our text, but she had no further connection with it than having been alluded to by Coventry. The 1872 edition of Marvell (i. 457) misprints the true word "lim'd," which is modernized as "loin'd." Compare our p. 281, line 71 of poem. 4 They were Sir Thomas Sands, Lieutenant or Captain O'Brian (son of Lord Inchiquin), Parry, Reeves, with little Wroth and Lake. "Whoever after the 16th of February next (167) shall put out the eye, cut the lip, nose, or tongue of any of his Majesty's liege people, upon malice 'forethought, or without provocation, shall be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy. And whoever shall in any other manner wound or maime any Parliament man, or any of the House of Lords, during their attendance, or their coming or returning from Parliament, shall be |