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THE COMMONWEALTH. |
425 |
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HEY, THEN, UP GO WE.
This song, which describes with some humour the taste of the Puritans, might pass for a Puritan song if it were not contained in The Shepherd's Oracles, by Francis'Quarles, 1646. Quarles was cup-bearer to Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, the daughter of James I.; was afterwards Secretary to Archbishop Usher (Primate of Ireland), and Chronologer to the city of London. He died in 1644, and The Shepherd's Oracles were a posthumous publication.
Other copies of the words will be found in MSS. Ashmole, 36 and 37, fol. 96; in Loyal Songs written against the Rump Parliament, i. 14; in Ellis's Specimens ; and in Stafford Smith's Musica Antigua. The music in the last named is not a popular tune, but the work of some composer unknown. It is there printed from a manuscript once in the possession of Dr. William Boyce.
Some differences will be found in the various copies; for instance, in The Shepherd's Oracles, the line, " Then Barrow shall be sainted," is, in Musica Antiqua, " Then Burton shall be sainted," and in Loyal Songs, " Then Burges," &c. In-the last, there are two additional stanzas, and the tune is changed to one already printed (ante p. 341). In Ashmole's manuscript, the song is entitled " The Triumph of the Boundheads; or the Bejoicing of the Saints."
D'Urfey calls this " an old ballad tune of forty-one"—i.e., 1641. He wrote a song to the air, for his play of Tlie Royalist, which was acted at the Duke's Theatre in 1682. D'Urfey borrowed about five of the seven verses of Quarles' song, making only a few verbal alterations. The last line of each stanza is, " Hey, then, up go we," both in his play and in Quarles' song; but in Pills to purge Melancholy, and some other copies, " Hey, boys, up go we." Hey, then, up go we is quoted in A Satyr against Hypocrites, 4to., 1661.
Two other names for the tune are Tlie clean contrary way, and The good old cause. " The good old cause" meant the maintenance of the rights of the subject against the encroachments of the king.
[n A Choice Collection of 120 Loyal Songs, &c, 12mo,, 1684, is " An excellent new Hymn, exalting the Mobile to Loyalty," &c., " To the tune of Forty-one;" commencing—
" Let us advance the good old cause, 'Tis we must perfect this great work,
Fear not Tantivitiers, And all the Tories slay,
Whose threat'nings are as senseless as And make the King a glorious Saint—
Our jealousies and fears. The clean contrary tvay."
This is a mere alteration of a song by Alexander Brome, entitled " The Saint's Encouragement; written in 1643," and printed in his Songs and other Poems, 12iao., 1644, (p. 164). It commences thus:—
" Fight on, brave soldiers, for tlie cause, 'Tis you must perfect this brave work, Fear not the Cavaliers; And all malignants slay,
Their threat'nings are as senseless as You must bring back the King again—
Our jealousies and fears. . Tlie clean contrary way."
In the collection of Loyal Songs written against the Rump Parliament, instead of " The Saint's Encouragement," &c, Brome's song is headed " On Colonel Venne's Encouragement to his Soldiers: A Song" (i. 104, edit. 1731.) |
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