The Badger's' buckling up his Legs

For the next Summer, peeps through the Hedge,
And hopes there's Brood in all the Eggs,

That are Baptizing.

The Tribe compos'd of Jew and Turk,
And Irish Tories of great worth,
Stand like a solemn Holding forth,

Conning their Lessons.

The Senate swarms like cast out Bees,

And Squoils like Rooks i' th' tops of Trees,
The Nests as near each other lyes,

Plotting Petitions.

Striving still to rouze the Rout,

3

With many a dangerous senceless Doubt,
And make them ready to help out,
When Lying fails 'um,

Pretended Griefs they do devise,
And Judas-like their looks disguise,
Beg for redress upon their knees,

When nothing ayls 'um.

Fears of the French they do deplore,
The native Papists ten times more,
Yet still to keep their Soveraign poor,
They do endeavour.

This shews that they no credit give
To what they would have him believe,
This begging's for Prerogative,

Sir, under favour.

But when it comes, great comfort brings,

Poor Subjects Slaves, and Members Kings;

Rebels be quiet.

But Heaven, I hope, stops such damn'd things,

Or by that Loyalty I swear,

Which to my Soveraign Prince I bear,

I'le tell the World what Rogues you are,

Can you deny it?

24

23

32

36

40

44

48

52

56

This alludes to Shaftesbury, it being one of the nicknames applied to him.

See notes on p. 785 and p. 821.

2" It is the Caws!" (Othello, v. 2) a word for the Seven-Dialects Society. 3 See pp. 749, 750, 769.

Come, never threaten to Rebel,
Nor damn your Souls to stingy Hell,'
After your Bones are basted well,

You must be Conquer'd.
Think not on forty one, nor eight,
That President gives us such light,
Tho' few dare speak, yet all dare fight,
Till you be hamper'd.

Let not your guilt o' th' guiltless fall,
Nor Loyal Prelates Papists call,
As if all were Rebels like you all,

But Papists

Trust not too much to Tony's Wit,3
Because the Devil Licens'd it,
To draw you all into this Fit,

Frenzy and Apish.

If he like Luxemburg with's Art,1
Should let the Devil spoil his part,
His Wit is all not worth a F..

Then where's his Followers ? 5
Mouthe not so much against the Duke,
Nor feed black hopes with vain dispute,
What God decrees none can confute,

Nor Tony Hollowers.

FINIS.

[White-letter: dbl. cols. No woodcuts. We borrow on p. 869 and below from Roxb Coll., ii. 9, 22. No p. n., or date. Prob. about end of March, 1681.]

1 Meaning "Stinging;" not stingy, as to parsimoniousness of torment. 2 Id est, Precedent. 3 Again alluding to the first Earl of Shaftesbury. Supposed to be implicated in Lavoisin's poisonings: see note, p. 868. Misprinted" Fololwers."

Amie.-"To marry me under a Hedge, as the old Couple were to-day, without Book or Ring, by the Chaplain of the Beggar's Regiment, your

Patrico..

....

Rachel.-How solemnly they were joyn'd and admonish'd by our Parson Underhedge, to live together in the fear of the Lash, and give good example to the younger Reprobates, to beg within Compasse, to escape the jaws of the Justice, the clutch of the Constable, the hooks of the Headborough, and the biting blows of the Beadle. Meriel.-O but Poet Scribble's Epithalamium :

....

To the blinde Virgin of fourscore,
And the lame Batchelour of more,
How Cupid gave her Eyes to see,
And Vulcan lent him Legs:

How Venus caus'd their Sport to be
Prepar'd with butter'd Eggs."

A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars, iv. 2. 1641.

WE have given several ballads on Beggars in former pages

(189, 214, 216). We need not reprint the entire poem of "The

At top we read "Printed with Allowance, Octob. 19, 1676." No woodcuts. We give two from Roxb. Coll., i. 42 (above), and i. 542 (on p. 876).

Beggars' Wedding, or The Jovial Crew," although two copies of this white-letter rhymed-verse are included in the Bagford Collection (iii. 67, and 95); London, Printed for R[obt]. C[lavill], Anno Dom. 1676. It has 116 lines, and begins:

His head all frozen, beard long, white as Snow,
With a Staffs prop, on nought else might he go.
With blear'd Ey'n, all parched, dry and cold,
Shaking with Palsie, little could he hold;
His cloaths so tatter'd, for they were so worn,
Older than he, in many pieces Torn:

The prying'st Eye, and subtil'st brain, though seen,
Could never guess what stuff they e're had been :
On's Cloak more several patches there did stick,
Then labouring Algebra's Arithmetick
Could once tell how to number; and was fuller,
Then is the Rain-bow of each various colour,
But not so fresh; so faded they were seen,

None could guess which was Blue, or Red, or Green.
His Turf house lean'd on an old stump of Ouk,

A hole a top, there to avoid the Smoak

Of sticks and scatter'd bones. He still was fed
By daily begging of his daily bread.

There on a little Bench I'le leave him then,
Within a while I'le speak of him agen.

A wither'd Begger-woman, little sundred

From him, whom all the Town said was a hundred :
Toothless she was, nay, had worn out her gums,
And all her Fingers now were worn to Thumbs:
[W]Rincles, like Graves, to bury all delight,
Eyes once, now holes, little she had of sight;

Little could speak, as little could she smell,

She seldom heard, sometimes, the great Town bell.

A long forgetfulness her leggs had seiz'd,

For many years her Crutches them had eas'd;

Cloaths, thousand Raggs, torn with the wind and weather,
Her houswifry long since had tackt together.

No livelihood, but Charity grown cold,

As she was, more by cares than years made old.
In a hot Summers day they out did creep,
Enliven'd just like Flies, for else they sleep.
Creeping along at last, each other met, etc.

Then, after five lines, follows a description of their courtship :

His heat and kindness made him try to kiss her
Her Palsied head so shook, he still did miss her.
He thought it modesty, she 'gainst her will
(Striving to please him) could not hold it still.

Ten lines here intervene. Then follows,

This Marriage was divulged every where
Among the beggars, beggars far and near;
The day appointed, and the Marriage set,

The lame, the blind, the deaf, they all were met,

8

12

197

16

20

20

77

24

28

32

38

36

39

48

60

Such throngs of beggars, Women, Children, seen
Muster'd upon the Towns fair Grassie Green,
The Bridegroom led between two Lame men so,
Because our Bridegroom single could not go:
The Bride was led by blind Men, him behind,
Because you know that Love was always blind.

64

68

The Hedg[e]-Priest then was call'd, Fame did him bring,

Married they were with an old Curtain Ring;
No Father there was found, nor could be ever,
She was so old, no man was fit to give her.

72

After two more lines, we are saucily told that

1 It was a cow's-horn, worn by the Tom o' Bedlam, to hold drink given by charitable persons. Thus, in King Lear, iii. 6, "Poor Tom, thy horn is dry! We give an early woodcut (from Roxb. Coll. i. 352) in illustration, with the horn slung round the wandering Bedlamite.