Then will the Nation rest in peace, both Church and State will be [Finis.] 80 [Imperfect in Roxb. Coll. Black-letter. Five woodcuts. Date, probably, 1680-81.] * In 1685 reproduction line 68 reads "JAMES's," to adapt it to the later reign. *** There are three tune-names given, on p. 460, referring to ballads :— 1. "When busie Fame o're all the plain Parthenia's praises rung;" of which Thomas Farmer composed the music. It is entitled "Coridon and Parthenia: the languishing Shepherd made happy; or, Faithful Love Rewarded." This has been already reprinted in Mr. William Chappell's Roxburghe Ballads, iii. 568. 2. Young Phaon. There are two ballads that begin thus, but probably both went to one tune, 1st, "Young Phaon sate upon the brink, to view the silver stream." This also has been already reprinted in Mr. Chappell's Roxburghe Ballads, iii. 557, entitled "The Constant Lover's Mortal Mistake." It probably had the same tune as "Young Phaon strove the bliss to taste, but Sappho still deny'd." This two-verse song was written by Dr. Charles Davenant, for his "Circe," Act iv. scene 2, and the music was composed by John Bannister (given in Playford's Choice Ayres, ii. 10, 1679, and Pills to Purge Melancholy, iv. 287). It is sung by one of Circe's women. 3. The Father's Exhortation: which we cannot at once identify. It is not "The Father's Wholesome Admonition, or "The Father's Good Counsel," or yet "The Religious Man's Exhortation" (all three of which are in Roxb. Coll., II. viz. 165, 166, and 400; and to be reproduced in our next volume). We here give the song mentioned on p. 635. A New Song of the King's Health. Ome, my Hearts, play your parts • Come With your Quarts; see none starts: For the King's Health is a drinking. Then to His Highness: See there Wine is, [The Duke of York. That has past the Test: For these Healths require the Best. Of Treasons are a thinking! Pox upon 'em, Let us shun 'em, As we would Cut-throats, or the pious Doctor Oates. Could they but bend the Laws What Old Cause, Should we have on And our Nobles, and our Bishops! But Heaven will cont Princes, [and the shrines,] Designs. Amen. ound 'em, And their p սառը The Claret-Drinker's Song. "While the pious grave Sot does amuse half the Nation, -Tom Brown's Good Fellow. If it be a wise child that knows its own father (and the Duke of F Monmouth, being a spoilt favourite of Fortune, was incapable of answering such difficult inquiries), what shall we say of the following song, elsewhere entitled "The Careless Good-Fellow," or, "The Claret-Bottle"? For it has two clever men claiming the authorship; even as handsome Robert Sidney and Carolus Rex disputed over the paternity of little James Crofts, alias Waters, alias Barlow, alias Scot, alias etcetera. One is John Oldham, in whose Works, and not amongst his Posthumous Remains, it appears (p. 408 of the sixth edition, 1703). He was probably the author, for it is distinctly declared to have been "written March 9, 1680." The other candidate for immortality was the facetious Tom Brown, in whose posthumous fifth volume (p. 11, 1721) the same ditty reappears. The best test in such cases is this inquiry: In spite of its resemblance to Tom Brown's "Praise of the Bottle," did John Oldham claim our Roxburghe Ballad "Claret Drinker" during his own lifetime? Or did Tom Brown himself claim it? We are too familiar with the blunders made by mere book-selling Resurrectionists of dead men's waifs and strays to attach value to their doubtful affiliation. With music attached, it had appeared in Playford's Choice Ayres, iii. 28, in 1681, and must have been written shortly before. John Oldham died of small-pox in December, 1683. The self-same spirit, of contemptuous scorn to politicians, appears in Mistress Aphara Behn's two-verse song, written for her play of "The Roundheads; or, the Good Old Cause, " 1682. It has a sly hit at Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury : A The Cabal at Nickey-Nacky's. Pox of the Statesman that's witty, Who watches and plots all the sleepless Night, For seditious Harangues to the Whiggs of the City, Let him wear and torment his lean Carrion, To bring his Sham-Plots about, Till Religion, King, Bishop, and Baron, [Al. lect. "piously." "For the Publick Good" he has quite rooted out. But we who are no Politicians, But Rogues that are resolute, bare-fac'd and great, And bear all down before us, in Church and in State. And he that by Law means to rule, Let his History with ours be related, And, tho' we are the Knaves, we know who's the Fool. In The Roundheads, Act iv. scene 2, it is supposed to be sung by my Lord Lambert; but the audience would understand the double allusion, and readily apply it to the sickly Shaftesbury; whom Otway had caricatured earlier in his Venice Preserved, April, 1682, as Antonio, while the term "Nicky-Nacky" was used by him in the play, and reproduced by Mrs. Behn in her Poems on Several Occasions, 1684. There could be no mistake, since Venice Preserved was dedicated to the Duchess of Portsmouth, and its own special Prologue emphatically referred to the contemporary anxieties and plots: In these distracted Times, when each man dreads When we have fear'd three years we know not what, What made our Poet meddle with a Plot? Was't that he fancy'd for the very sake And name of Plot his trifling play would take? [See p. 232. The Duke of York listened to the Prologue, Play, and Epilogue, on April 21st, 1682. The last is mentioned in the Satyr beginning "I who from drinking ne'er could spare," with the "NickyNacky scene: He cries, "Sir, Mr. Otway's last new Play! With th' Epilogue, which for the Duke he writ, So lik'd at Court by all the Men of Wit. I heard an Ensign of the Guards declare That with him Shadwell was not to compare;' Shaftesbury's very name of Anthony being retained as "Antonio, a fine Speaker in the Senate," his rival Pierre describes him as A haggard Owl, a worthless Kite of Prey, With his foul wings sail'd in, and spoil'd my Quarry. The light wench contended for is Aquilina, at whose house the conspirators meet, and whom Antonio continually calls "Nicky Nacky." Thus in Activ. sc. 2: Duke.-The Paper intimates their Rendezvous To be at the House of a fam'd Grecian Courtezan, Antonio.-What, my Nicky Nacky! Hurry Durry, Nicky Nacky in the Plot? [Roxburghe Collection, III. 82.] The Claret-Drinker's Song; Or, The Good-Fellow's Design. BEING A PLEASANT NEW SONG TO THE TIMES. WRITTEN Wine the most powerfull'st of all things on Earth, No Treason in it harbors, nor can Hate Creep in where it bears sway, to hurt the State : Though Storms grow high, so Wine is to be got, TO THE TUNE OF, Let Cæsar live long. [See p. 389.] A Pox of the Fooling and Plotting of late, What a pudder and stir has it kept in the State! What Coxcombs were those, who would ruine their case, Had they been but true Subjects to drink and their King. H' as no room for Treason that's top-full of Wine. 6 12 I mind not the Members, and makers of Laws, 18 I mind not grave Asses, who idly debate About Right and Successions, the trifles of State; We've a good King already, and he deserves laughter That will trouble his head with "who shall come after?" Come, here's to his Health, and I wish he may be As free from all care and all troubles as we. 24 hat care I how Leagues with the Hollander go, What Or Intrigues between Sidney and Monsieur d'Avaux ? 1 ["Cities" 30 [Louis XIV. What concerns it my drinking if Cassall be sold, I'le drink in defiance of Naskin 2 or Halter: 36 Tho' Religion turn round still, yet mine shall ne'r alter.3 42 1 Henry Sidney, and Count D'Avaux, at the Hague. Cf. p. 610. Al. lect., in text, is this: "Or Intreagues 'twixt Monsieur or Dons for to know ?" Next line reads "Cities," with "takes them" in the following; variations in the next, "From whence Claret comes is the place that I mind." 2 The original has "Napkin," a misprint for Naskin: cant-word for Prison. 3 This verse reads thus in the original Song, of which it forms the Finale : Come he or the Pope, or the Devil to boot, Or come Faggot or Stake, I care not a Groat: N.B. This verse is not printed in the Roxburghe Broadside, except with variations. But there are five verses additional, only found on the broadside. |