unhappy.

The Widows of the West avenged at last.

723

To

But lampooners cannot be trusted implicitly. Stephen College is accredited the lampoon on the Recorder's marriage, Feb. 17, 1679, beginning,

'Tis said, when George did Dragon slay,

He sav'd a Maid from cruel fray;

But this Sir George, whom knaves do brag on,
Miss'd of the Maid, and caught the Dragon!

Jeffereys had not been accustomed to show mercy, and he found none from his countrymen when he fell from power. One malicious versifier (John Tutchin ?) addressed to him a kind suggestion to escape the Tyburn noose by anticipating it in private, or by imitating Arthur Capell, Earl of Essex, with a razor. This poem ("I'd praise your Lordship, but you've had your share,") is "A Letter to the Lord Chancellor, Exposing to him the Sentiments of the People, with some pertinent Advice in the Conclusion: " viz., "They hope to see you soon advanc'd on high, Most sweetly dangling 'twixt the Earth and Sky This 'tis they mean, 'tis this they would have shown, But I wou'd chouse 'em ev'ry Mother's son; Troth, I'd e'en hang my self, 'tis quickly done! If you've no Halter, never make a pother, Take but a Garter, one's as good as t'other: For Lord should such a Man as you submit To be the publick laughter of each grinning Cit? Else, my Lord, take a Razor, never fear, And cut your Lordship's throat from ear to ear. 'Tis sensible enough: you know who did it,

60

[i.e. A. Capell.

And you are valiant, Sir, what need you dread it!

Cut both the Jugular veins tho', if you can,
Else they'll say Essex was the stouter man.

70

"I am your Lordship's in any thing of this Nature. "From the little house over against Tyburn, where the people are almost dead with expectation of you."

Despite the denial of John Tutchin (who visited Jeffereys in the Tower, on purpose to gloat over the misery of his former judge), it is probable that he was the sender of a barrel to the prisoner, believed to be of Colchester oysters, but which contained no comfort, beyond a halter. This was Poetic Licence, with a vengeance.

The torture of disease, the knowledge of almost universal hatred against him, intemperance in drink, and the expectation of being put to death by the now triumphant Whigs, did more to crush Jeffereys than any stings of conscience, although libellous lampooners declared that he was haunted by the ghastly spectre of Thomas Dangerfield (forsooth!) and other victims of his fury. Deserted by his old associates, in pain and misery, his corpulence reduced to emaciation, he died; aged forty, on April 18, 1689, in the Tower, where he was buried beside Monmouth, but the body was in 1693 removed to St. Mary, Aldermanbury, and laid near his first wife Sarah Neesham. Thus were avenged "The Widows of the West.".

[Pepysian Collection, II. 245.]

The Sorrowful Lamentation

of the

Widdows of the West,

For the Death of their Deceased Husbands. Wherein they disclose their hearty sorrow that ever their Husbands was led away by fait words to this foul Rebellion. Together with the kind Advice to all people, to be Loyal to their Prince.

A

TO THE TUNE OF, Russel's Farewel. [See p. 690.]

This may be Printed. R[ichard] P[ocock].

Las! we Widdows of the West, whose Husbands did Rebell,
Of Comfort we are dispossest, our sorrows did excell:
Here for their Crimes they lost their lives, Rebellion was the cause,
And we confess, that was their wives, they did oppose the Laws.
When Monmouth came ashore at Lime, it was a Fatal Day,
To carry on that base Design, which did their lives betray;
And many daily did presume to come unto his aid,

Bridge-water, Taunton-Dean, and Frome, the Nation to invade. 8
We said it was a horrid thing, and pray'd them to forbear,
To take up Arms against their King, who was the Lawful Heir:
Yet like distracted men they run to cast their lives away,
And we their Widdows are undone this is a dismal day!

Alas! we had no cause at all, our Laws was still the same,
That we should to confusion fall, and hundreds [thus be] slain:
They knew not what they went about, Confusion did attend,
The Heavens would not bear them out, since they did thus offend.

When Monmouth did the Land invade, poor men was drawn aside, To learn their bus'ness and their Trade, for which at length they dy'd: 'Tis true it was a just Reward, because they did Rebell, Against their Gracious Soveraign, though we in sorrow dwell.

Those Criminals that did oppose our Lawful Government, Did likewise prove our deadly Foes, and caus'd our Discontent; For had they never come on shore, we had been happy still, Alas! we had no thoughts before of any kind of ill.

24

We might have liv'd in happy state, in this our good King's Reign, But now, alas! it is too late, to call them back again : For they are sleeping in their Gore, laid in their Beds of Clay, Together with some hundreds more, that thus was led astray.

"This it is to be Learned and Witty!"

725

Both youth and old, and rich and poor, in multitudes they fell, Let this a warning be, therefore, let never none Rebell; That our most Renowned King may have a happy Reign! Then Subjects may rejoyce and sing, and never more Complain.

[Finis.]

Printed for J. Deacon, at the sign of the Angel, in Guilt-spur-street. [In Black-letter, with four cuts. Date, August or September, 1685.]

Additional Note on the Downfall of Jeffereys, etc.

A large number of ballads were issued, and are still extant in a single exemplar, on the downfall of Lord Chancellor Jeffereys. Specimen verses are on pp. 721, 722, wherein the satirist declares "I'll sing of a Villain I cannot abuse," i.e. defame; on the principle of the American jest concerning "a Nigger who was so black that charcoal made a white mark on him." None can question the singer's sincerity, who promises "To see the Fox hanged, we will make holiday," although he adds (as though such were an offence) that of "The beheading of Russell 'twas he was the cause." ." Magdalen College, Oxford, is thus mentioned:

Of Magdalen-College he thought it most fit
To turn out the Fellows, a very fine trick,
And place Father Walker, that curst Jesuit:

[Obadiah Walker.

Sing Hey brave Chancellour! ho, fine Chancellour! etc.
Then next to the Tower our Bishops he packt,
And swore he had done a very good act,

But now shall be try'd for the matter of fact:
Sing Hey! etc.

Septem contra
Regem.

Attacks on Jeffereys were malignant. The other compliant Judges were satirized with a spice of humour. There is a delightful domesticity, with selfrevelation of conceit, and satisfaction at success, in "Sir Thomas] J[enner]'s Speech to his Wife and Children. She was Anne Poe, daughter of James Poe, by his wife Juliana, daughter of Richard Fust, of Hill Court, Gloucestershire:"Dear Wife, let me have a fire made!

I'll tell you such News will make you all glad,
The like for another is not to be had:

This it is to be Learned and Witty!

"[The King] had my opinion, that 'twas in his power
To destroy all the Laws in less time than an hour;
For which I may chance to be sent to the Tower:
This it is to be Learned and Witty!

"And now to Magdalen-College I come,
Where we turn'd out most, but kept in some,
That so a New College of Priests might have room:
This it is to be Learned and Witty!

"And so by that means we left the door ope'
To turn out the Bishops and let in the Pope :
For which we have justly deserved a rope :
This it is to be Learned and Witty!

[i.e. Oxford.

Final Song on the Times, 1686.

"Let the Court swarm with Pimps, Rogues, [fools and bores,]
And Honest Men be all turn'd out of doors;

Let Atheism and Profaneness there abound,

And not an upright man (God save the King!) be found.
"Let Men of Principle be in disgrace,

And mercenary Villains in their place;
Let free-born Cities be by treach❜ry won,
Lose their just Liberties and be undone :
Let Statesmen sudden changes undertake,
And make the Government's foundations shake:
Till strange tempestuous murmurs do arise
And show a Storm that's gath'ring in the skies.
"Let all this happen. Nay, let certain Fate
Upon the issue of their actions wait;

If you've a true, a brave undaunted mind,
Of English Principles, as well as kind
You'll on the bottom of true Honour stand,
Firm as a Rock, unshaken as the Land:
So when vast Seas of Trouble 'gainst you beat,
They'll break, and force themselves to a retreat.
No Fate, no flattery can ere controul
A steady, resolute, Heroick Soul."

-The True Englishman, 1686.

N"A Song on the Times-The Good Subject's Wish,” we end this long series of ballads (which had remained hitherto uncollected, unannotated, and almost wholly unattainable for study), devoted to The Struggle between York and Monmouth. No grand finale is here, no crowning victory or heroic withstanding of defeat; but the utterly ignominious dispersal of Monmouth's rabble of untrained followers, and the succession of hangings, fines, and banishments to the plantations, which have made infamous "the Bloody Assize" of Lord Jeffereys. Here we close our four Monmouth Groups. The ambitious stream leaps not over rocks, like the Rhine at Schaffhausen, or the St. Lawrence at Niagara; but welters half-stagnantly through a morass, like Sedgemoor, or dribbles into a thousand petty runnels.

Robert Ferguson's long-winded manifesto (originally written at Amsterdam), the "Monmouth Declaration," which was read aloud after landing at Lyme, may fairly represent his interminable pulpit harangues, that had caused the dissenting Moorfields congregation to perspire and groan. As an historical document (on pp. 731 to 737) we give the Declaration unmutilated, verbatim et literatim, save a small retrenchment of Italic type.

Readers need a cheery strain to raise their spirits. Let them accept our Editorial L'Envoi (p. 728) and Finale: if they refuse— they may.

[Fifth Edition of The Loyal Garland, 1686, Song XIX.]

A Song on the Times;

The Good Subjects' Wish.

TO THE TUNE OF, Young Phaon. [See Vol. IV. pp. 61, 640, 642.]

And still despise the factious noise of those that vainly try

To undermine our happiness, that they may by it get;
Knavery has great increase when Honesty does set.

But let us baffle all their tricks, our King and Country serve,
And may he never thrive that likes Sedition in reserve.
Then let each in his station, as all Good Subjects shou'd, rest:
And he that otherwise designs may he remain unblest.
May Traytors ever be deceiv'd, in all they undertake;
And, never by good men believ'd, may all the Plots they make
Fall heavy on themselves: and may they see themselves undone,
And never have a happy day, that wou'd their King dethrone.