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434 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC. |
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When at the bottom of the Strand, The Whigs they do affirm and say
They all are at a loss; To Popery it was bent;
" That's not the way to Westminster, For aught I know, it may be so,
We must go by Charing Cross." For to church it never went.
Then fare thee well, &c. Then fare you well, &c.
The Parliament did vote it down, The lawless Rump—rebellious crew — A thing they thought most fitting, They were so damn'd hard-hearted,
For fear its fall should kill them all, They pass'd a vote that Charing Cross In the House as they were sitting. Should be taken down and carted.
Then fare thee well, &c. Then fare thee well, &c.
Some letters about this Cross were found. Now, Whigs, I will advise you all Or else it had been freed; What I would have you do :
But I'll declare, and even swear, For fear the King should come again, It could not write nor read. Pray pull down Tyburn, too!
Then fare thee well, &c. Then fare thee well, &c.
A different version of the above song will be found in Pills to purge Melancholy, entitled "A Song made on the Downfall or pulling down of Charing Cross, An. Dom. 1642 " (a wrong date,—it should be 1647) ; and in Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry. The music in the Pills is not a popular tune, but a composition by Mr. Farmeloe.
WHEN THE KING ENJOYS HIS OWN AGAIN.
This tune is in Elizabeth Rogers' Virginal Book (Add. MSS., 10,337, Brit. Mus.) ; in Musictfs Recreation on the Lyra Viol, 1652 ; in Musick's Delight on the Oithren, 1666; in A Choice Collection of 180 Loyal Songs, 1685 and 1694; and in the third volume of The Dancing Master, n.d.
The words are ascertained to be Martin Parker's, by the following extract from The Gossips' Feast; or Morall Tales, 1647:—" The gossips were well pleased with the contents of this ancient ballad, and Gammer Gowty-legs replied, ' By my faith, Martin Parker never got a fairer brat: no, not when he penn'd that sweet ballad, When, the King injoyes his own again.'" In The Poet's Blind Man's Bough, 1641, Martin Parker says— " Whatever yet was published by me, Was known by ' Martin Parker,' or ' M. P.;' " but this song was printed at a time when it would have been dangerous to give either his own name or that of the publisher. Ritson calls this " the most famous and popular air ever heard of in this country." Invented to support the declining interest of Charles I., " it served afterwards," he says, " with more success, to keep up the spirits of the Cavaliers, and promote the restoration of his son,—an event it was employed to celebrate all over the kingdom. At the Revolution" [of 1688] "it of course became an adherent of the exiled family, whose cause it never deserted. And as a tune is said to have been a principal mean of depriving King James of the crown," [see Lilliburlero'] " this very air, upon two memorable occasions, was very near being equally instrumental in replacing it on the head of his son. It is believed to be a fact, that nothing fed the enthusiasm of the Jacobites, down almost to the present reign, in every corner of Great Britain, more than The King shall enjoy his own |
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