For as you are a Crew Selected,
'Tis pity you should be Inspected.
'If any shall your Power despise,
I will his Insolence chastise;
'If Poor, and do's my Passion rouse,
'I'll lay him in the Wooden House;1
For you my Masters, with my Noddle,
'When we're enliven'd with a Bottle,
'Which shall be at the Parish Charge,

"Twill our Capacities enlarge,

Dangers to shun, and to defend us,
"'Gainst all that do desire to mend us:
'For as we are a blessed Brood,
'Our Meeting's for the Parish Good,
'And Wardens have a Mighty Power,
"The Parish Money to devour;
'If any ask what we are doing,
'And say 'tis to the Parish Ruin,
'And shall endeavour to abuse you,
'I'll do my utmost to excuse you,
I (who was never whipt for Lying),
Can cover all things by denying.

And as I'm for our Publick Weal,
'I also am as full of Zeal;
"The Church, as 'tis secur'd by Laws,
'I will support with both my Paws,
And you shall have no cause of Grief,
For chusing me, Your Brother

2

Which having said, the Subtle S -r,
Went with his Brethren to Dinner.

[In White-letter: exceptions imitated. No printer's name, or date; probably, 1730.]

1 The wooden house was a coffin; the Speaker, an Undertaker.

2 In original, line 74, the blank follows without any final quotational mark, or any indication of the suggested word. As Horatio said, "You might have rhymed!" but Hamlet, and the writer of this squib knew that nothing was lost if they left the rhyme to be supplied by the lookers-on.

The End of Volume I.

of the original

Bagford Collection

of

Ballads.

Entr'Acte:

Deuxieme.

ERE there any dissatisfied members
Of our renown'd" Ballad-Society" ?—
May this Editor fan well the embers

W

Of their warmth, by old Bagford's variety.
Surely, they'll grant a full swing to him,
Letting him mix well his Olio!

A twelvemonth he's labour'd, to bring to 'em
The Brit. Mus. three volumes, in folio.

No claim here is enter'd for Kûdos,

Yet we've done all we promis'd, and cheerily :
(Wing'd Pegasus trots like our shoe'd'Oss,)

We who frolic'd with dead Wits, and merrily.
Faction (let's own it,) we hate to see,

Whether to-day's, or of limes past;
We flog the rogues all round!—nor wait to see
Which side folks choose, while the rhymes last.

Come, a few ballads to finish, yet

Protestant! Plottish!! Political!!!

No one can call ours a thinnish set ;
(Notice one group Jesuitical!)

The scribblers were scamps, beyond question,

But read this concluding third lot of ours;

Own, then (if right's your digestion),

That we've brought you a Garland, or knot of flowers.

July 4th, 1877.

BAGFORD.

J. W. E.

2 T

Here beginneth

the

Third Folio Volume

of the Collection of

Bagford Ballads.

"That old and antique song we heard last night,
Methought it did relieve my passion much,
More than light airs and recollected terms

Of these most brisk and giddy-paced times."-Twelfth Night.

HE third volume of the original Bagford Collection, folio, has 102 insertions of broadside poems and ballads. They are all, or nearly all, in Whiteletter, generally without woodcuts, printed on stouter paper than those of the previous volumes, or of the Roxburghes, and almost entirely on political subjects. A large proportion of them belongs to the time of the Civil War, the Commonwealth, and the Restoration; consequently they are reserved for our future series. Others are occasional verses, in no sense to be considered ballads or songs; therefore they can be excluded here. The remainder, some twenty-four, we now reprint. Several of them, as will be seen, are closely connected with the so-called " Popish Plot," on which our nation became mad in the last decade of Charles II. Like almost all the political ballads of the century, there is not only party-malice but coarseness in them, to an extent which might perhaps justify their omission. But it is quite as well for students to thoroughly recognize the vileness of thought and of speech characterizing these satirists and reformers, these wirepulling men and women; whose zeal for Protestantism, and the destruction of its enemies, led them to employ the foulest words in accusations of those whom they made their foes. In later days, also, we find similar Members of Parliament, unscrupulous and bigoted, no less prone to indulge in rancorous quarrels, and eager to instigate ruinous prosecutions, employing spies and

informers. It may be useful to remember what depths of degradation our Commons reached between 1678 and 1683, during the terror excited by Titus Oates and his perjured accomplices.

We here indicate the order of succession. The Votive Song, on arrival of Queen Catharine, belongs to 1662, and is a tribute to James Duke of York, then popular. The slanderous invective against Buckingham is not earlier than 1671-2, and the Geneva Ballad, with its Answer, not later than 1673-4. The rollicking Cavalier ditty, Jordan's "Careless Gallant," is of 1675; as are also the two Inamorato verses, and the "Quaker's Farewel to England." We then come to the beginning of the Plot-terrorism, in the exultant ballad on Coleman's execution, iii. 50; and a counter-blast on the licence of the Press-gang, in iii. 52, and the series of mockeries against the Oates-forgeries, in iii. 49. "The Sale of Esau's Birthright" belongs to the year 1679. One of the many fierce Protestant "Letanies" meets us in iii. 41; and, from the opposite side, an Essex ballad against the Petitioners in 1680. "The Wiltshire Ballad" and "The University Ballad " are of the same date. Also, in iii. 51, a triumphant verse on the disgrace of Dangerfield, who had sworn away so many lives, belongs to 1685, when the tide had turned, and cruel injustice had swung round full-circle. The remainder, mingling politics with social topics, reveal the evil spirit of a disturbed time. Characteristically, the last in the collection is a lampoon on matrimony, and on wanton wives who rule tyrannically. Such coarse contempt against women was plainly the result of profligacy, their own and their satirists'. Both sexes share the blame. Who runs may read.

We feel justified in suppressing a few inadmissible words, substituting counted dots for letters, in this third volume. The reader may rest assured that nothing is lost which cannot be well relinquished. We had struck out more, on our own choice.