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410 CAVALIEKS AND ROUNDHEADS. |
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" What creature's that, with his short hairs, What's he that doth high treason say,
His little band and huge long ears, As often as his yea and nay,
That this new faith hath founded ? And wish the King confounded;
The saints themselves were never such, And dares maintain that Mr. Pirn
The prelates ne'er rul'd half so mnch ; Is fitter for a crown than him ?
Oh ! such a rogue's a Soundhead. Oh ! such a rogue's a Roundhead.
What's lie that doth the bishops hate, • What's he that if he chance to hear And counts their calling reprobate, A little piece of Common Prayer,
'Cause by the Pope propounded ; Doth think his conscience wounded ;
And thinks a zealous cobbler better Will go five miles to preach and pray,
Than learned Usher in ev'ry letter ? And meet a sister by the way ?
Oh ! such a rogue's a Roundhead. Oh ! such a rogue's a Roundhead."
This is printed in Butler's Posthumous Works, 1732, p. 105, and a copy is among Ashmole's MSS., No. 36, 37. The manuscript contains a similar song on the Cavaliers, beginning " What monster's that, that thinks it good."
The closely cut crown was the badge of all the lower order of Puritans. Wood says, " the generality of Puritans had mortified countenances, puling voices, and eyes commonly (when in discourse) lifted up, with hands lying on their breasts. They mostly had short hair, which at this time was commonly called the Committee cut." (Fasti Oxon., ii. 61.) It was not a new practice, for, according to Aubrey, in 1619, when Milton the poet was ten years of age, " his schoolmaster was a Puritan in Essex, who cut his hair short." This carries it back to the reign of James I. Although Milton was Latin Secretary to the Commonwealth, he preserved his own "clustering locks" throughout the rule of the Roundheads. Aubrey, in his manuscript Collections for the Life of Milton, tells us th'at "he had a delicate, tuneable voice, and good skill in music." After dinner it was his habit to " play on the organ, and either he or his wife sang. He made his nephews songsters, teaching them to sing from the time they were with him; and although, towards his latter end, he was visited with the gout, he would be cheerful, even in his gout fits, and sing." (Aubrey MSS., No. 10, Ashm. Mus.) In his Tractate on Education, Milton says, that after athletic exercise, " the interval of unsweating, and that of a convenient rest before meat, may, both with profit and delight, be taken up in recreating and composing the travailed spirits with the solemn and divine harmonies of music, heard or learned. Either while the skilful organist plies his grave and fancied descant on lofty fugues, or with artful touches adorns and graces the well-studied chords of some choice composer; sometimes the lute or soft organ-stop waiting on elegant voices, either to religious, martial, or civil ditties; which, if wise men and prophets be not extremely out, have a great power over dispositions and manners, to smooth and make them gentle from rustic harshness, and distempered passions. The like also would not be unexpedient after meat, to assist and cherish nature in her first concoction; and send the mind back to study in good tune and satisfaction." Milton imbibed his love of music, in all probability, from his father,a who made
Edward Phillips (nephew of the poet) says Milton's he followed the vocation of scrivener for many years, at father was -disinherited " for embracing, when young, the his house in Bread Street, with success suitable to his Protestant faith,-and abjuring the Popish tenets : that industry and prudent conduct of his affairs. Yet he did |
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