IT

The Unfortunate Whigs.

"You Calvinists of England, who surfeit with your ease,
And strive to make us Whigland, to breed a foul disease:
Hearken, you painted Saints, for we will let you know,
Of the cares and the fears that by the Whigs do grow!
"With furious Zeal you do enflame, and cause our Country burn,
You work confusion, but the blame on Innocents you turn;
Your holy Masque is dropping off, God grant it may do so!

And stop the cares and fears that by you Whigs do grow.

May Colledge, Rouse, and Hone, their fate on Traytors all attend;
What though it seems a little late, yet still we know your end:
Just Vengeance does not sleep, though you do think it so,
You'll have shares of the cares that by you Whigs do grow."

-The History of Whiggism.1

T will be noticed that about this time, 1682, there were many contemptuous songs and ballads on the decadence of the Whigs. They had been so arrogant, little more than a year before, and until the sudden Dissolution of the Oxford Parliament in March, 1681, that their being now crest-fallen and disarmed was in strongest contrast. Repelled at many points, conquered but not subdued, they were in reality attempting by secret plots to regain the power which had been wrested from them by force and cunning superior to their own. We desire to see their condition, their bitter spite and humiliation, before the Duke of York's return from Scotland. The fugitive poems, songs and broadside-ballads of the time enable us to mark the turn of the tide.

Among these numerous attacks on "The Unfortunate Whigs" of 1682, is "A Loyal Satyr against Whiggism," a four-paged sheet, London, Printed for C. B. [Charles Bates], and are to be sold by W. Davis, 1682, beginning thus, "As I did lately travel from the Town, Through distant roads and deserts scarcely known." It describes the Whig at that date, 1682, after enquiry and answer :

What daring Treasons were but now maintain'd

By Shaftesbury] and City, both in Faction train'd,
And how the bloudy-minded Whigs do aim
To play again their old King-killing game:
Which when the good old man heard me relate,
In flowing tears he mourn'd his Country's fate,

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1 This Court-party Loyal Song was sung in 1683 to the tune of Martin Parker's spirited old ditty" Neptune's raging Tempest," beginning "Ye Gentlemen of England, who live at home in ease (the original on which Thomas Campbell, with late acknowledgement, founded his memorable "Ye Mariners of England, who guard our native seas"). We come to the old ballad in next volume, with full Introduction. Stephen College has been mentioned on p. 35. John Rouse was a servant of Sir Thomas Player, arrested at the same time as College, and also saved by an Ignoramus jury, in October, 1681; but like the other Joiner, William Hone, he suffered death for the Rye-House Plot in 1683.

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Extracts from a Satire against Whiggism, 1682.

And gave me this Advice, "Beware, my Son,
Lest by the Wiles of Traytors thou'rt undone.
For I have known th' Experience of those times
When Loyalty was thought the worst of Crimes;
And when Rebellion with a daring eye
Was cover'd by a Veil of Sanctity.

But thou art young, therefore I'le plainly show
How thou a Monster Whig may'st safely know :-
It somewhat favours man; so I have seen
When on a Christmas Evening we have been
On frolicks bent, a thing of such like note,
With hairy Chin, diminish'd hanging Coat,
Broad Hat, stiff Band, and a malicious Eye,
Which at a distance fully seem'd to be
The very Villain that sequestred me.

It rais'd my wonder, but as 't towards us prest,
What should it prove but a Baboon well drest!
For so morose are they, and more precise;
As we're in truth, they're positive in lies:
What one but says, the other straight will swear,
Let it be right or wrong, or foul or fair,
It is all one, since they the Godly are!
Vile hypocrites, who're only good in show,
Whose whole Religion lies in seeming so:
For, were their Souls laid open to our view,
We should not find amongst 'em all one true.
Therefore beware," (again the old man said)
"Lest by their flattering tongues thou art betray'd;
But if they find you loyal, wise, and brave,

They'l leer, and smile, and smiling, dig your grave;

Such is their malice, spight, and mortal hate

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[favours resembles

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'Gainst all that love their Country, Prince and State." Etc.

Another extract from the same poem, A Satyr against Whiggism (mentioned on p. 36), deals with the hypocrisy of sham-saints, who practised secret vices, whilst the cavaliers held

Another Tenet Whig does surely hold,
Is to rail at these times and praise the old;
To cry out on the Nation's horrid pride,
And cast all sins upon the Tory side;
As if that formal looks and dress precise

open

revels:

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May'nt hide a heart more proud than ever lies

In these that wear more handsom Decencies.

Then Suoy, Drinking, Swearing, to our charge
They all impute, and lay our crimes at large;
And Crimes they are, but such with them are done:
Jenny can tell how well the Tap did run.'

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1 Jenny being one of Shaftesbury's reputed mistresses, kept for show if not for use. In those days, and a century later, it gained no credit to be like Pitt an "Immaculate Boy." John Devonshire's song of "The Immaculate Minister," beginning "Come then, be silent, and join in the ballad, A better sure never was pinn'd to a wall," which was sung to the tune of The Priest of the Parish, reads, Then what's all this nonsense and humbug about him, His chastity, purity, virtue, and pride, etc.

"Give them Rope and Hanging, since it is their due." 139

Of the following year, 1683, is the song of "The Couragious Loyalist; or, A Health to the Royal Family," beginning "Drown Melancholy in a Glass of Wine." It was sung to the tune of London's Loyalty (="Rouse up, great Genius of this potent Land"). We give it complete hereafter, but here is one of the verses exulting over "the Unfortunate Whigs:

Boys, we'll be merry, whatsoe'er ensue;

Drink Sack and Sherry, till the sky look blue :
Let the Whigs lament, and whiningly complain,
We, with one consent, drink to the Royal Train;
Heaven bless great Charles, and the Duke of York;
All the Lords and Earls, and every Royal Spark:
Down with every factious, shamming, whining Crew,
Give them Rope and hanging, since it is their due!

Martin Parker's hope-inspiring ditty of "When the King enjoys his own again!" (beginning, "What Booker can prognosticate?" Roxb. Coll., III. 256) is cited as furnishing the tune of the following ballad; the same tune as that of Marry me, marry me, quoth the bonny Lass, as Mr. Wm. Chappell has shown (Popular Music, p. 435). But there is, in the words of "The Unfortunate Whigs," especially at the beginning, a strong imitation of Tom D'Urfey's song (already mentioned in our Vol. IV. pp. 80, 81), beginning thus,

Sawney was tall and of noble race,

And lov'd me better than any ane;

But now he loves another Lass,

And Sawney 'll ne'er be my Love again.

I gave him a fine Scotch Sark and Band,

I put 'em on with mine own hand;

I

gave him House, and I gave him Land:

Yet Sawney will ne'er be my Love again.

We need not add the two remaining verses here, as we return to the D'Urfey song in a later page, where we give the sequel to it, beginning "When Sawney left me he had store of gilt" (i.e. gold-gelt; not that he was in that unenviable condition). It is entitled " Jenny's Answer to Sawney, wherein Love's cruelty is requited; Or, The Inconstant Lover justly despised." The music was probably by Thomas Farmer. Printed for Philip Brooksby. It is in the Roxburghe Collection, II. 223.

The following Roxburghe Ballad is printed in White-letter, without any woodcut (but we introduce one of a Whig revel in a Wapping booth), and probably belongs to May, 1682.

[Roxburghe Collection, III. 914.]

An Excellent New Song

of

The Unfortunate Whigs.

TO THE TUNE OF, [When] The King enjoys his own again.

[Shaftesbury.

[i.e. colour.

He Whigs are but small, and of no good Race,
and are belov'd by very few;

Old Tony broach'd his Tap in e'ry place,
to encourage all his Factious Crew,

At some great Houses in this Town,
The Whiggs of High Renown;

And all with a True-Blue was their Stain:
For since it is so,

They have wrought their overthrow,

Old Tony will ne'r enjoy his own again.

They all owne Duty to their Lawful Prince,

and Loyal Subjects should have been;

But their Duty is worn out long since,
[as was] by the Association seen:
But these are the Whiggs,
That have cut off some Legs,

And fain would be at that Sport amain;
For since it is so,

They have wrought their overthrow,
Old Tony will ne'r enjoy his own again.

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[sic.

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A New Song on the Unfortunate Whigs.

And yet they are the Sham-pretenders,
and they swear they'll support our Laws!
These be the great Defenders

of Ignoramus and the Old Cause:
They'll defend the King,

By swearing of the thing,

These are the cursed Rogues in grain;
For since it is so,

They have wrought their overthrow,

Old Tony will ne'r enjoy his own again.

The True Religion that shall [they cast] down,
which so long a [time] has won the day,
And Common-Prayer i' th' Church of e'ry Town,
if that the Whiggs could but bear the Sway:
For Oats he does begin

Now for to bring them in,

As when he came mumping from Spain;
For since it [is] 80,

They have wrought their overthrow,

Old Tony will ne'r enjoy his own again.

How all their Shamming Plots they would hide,

yet they are Ignorant they say,2

When as Old Tony he was Try'd

and brought off with Ignoramus Sway:
Then Oats he was Dumb,

And could not use his Tongue,3

This is the Shamming Ro- in Grain ;4
For since it is so,

They have wrought their overthrow,

Old Tony will ne'r enjoy his own again.

1 Titus Oates, of course; see vol. iv. pp. 156 to 162.

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2 Ignoramus," the beginning of the legal form of throwing out the True His proposed "Protestant Bill of Indictment against "Tony Shaftesbury. Association" was mentioned in line 14. Compare pp. 76 to 80, and later. 3 An allusion to his employer or dupe, Dr. Ezrael Tongue.

a

4 See the poem by Richard Duke, vol. iv. p. 160, and the allusion to Oates as "Rogue in Grain," 1681, vol. iv. pp. 157-8. Whilst so generally outspoken in virulent language, it is noteworthy here, as on p. 17, how generally pamphleteers shrank from fully spelling the words "Rogue" or "Knave," especially applied to Commons Members of Parliament, who frequently deserved the appellations. But "privilege" had been asserted vehemently and malignantly, consequently a wholesome fear of the pillory and cart's-tail sufficiently explained this avoidance of the word; not any moral scrupulosity. Since "The greater is the truth, the greater is the libel," they only hinted what they thought, confined to initials.