The cavalier songs and ballads of England from 1642 to 1684

Charles Mackay

Description

JNYbOl^ "^aBAIN A^t-LIBR/ :V ,AlNn-3WV "^\:OPCAll to Digitized by tine Internet Arcliive in 2008 witli funding from ^lOSANi IVIicrosoft Corporation ^^'o littp://www.arcliive.org/details/cavaliersongs^ba^O 'oiiiMv i-4C\*^ "^/n-inv .^WEUNIVER% ^OJUVD-JO"^ ^OFCAIIFO%, "^^Aavaaiii^ ,^WE•UNIVERS•//, THE CAVALIER SOWS AJfD BAILADS OF EXGIAFD TEOM 10J2 TO 1684 EDITED BT CHAELES MACKAT LL.D. LOjS'DOJ^ GRIPFIN BORN AND CO STATIONERS' HALL COURT 1863. PRINTERS.CIIILDS AND SON,JOHN 1"BU INTRODUCTION. The Cavalier Ballads of England, like the Ja- cobite Ballads of En^fland and Scotland at a later_ \ are mines of wealth for the student of theperiod, manners of our ancestors.history and social The rude but often beautiful political lyrics ofthe early days of the Stuarts were far more interesting and important to the people who heard ors repeated i them, than any similar compositions can be in our the printing press was the meretime. Wheny vehicle of polemics for the educated minority, and when the daily journal was neither a luxury of the poor, a necessity of the rich, nor an appre- formation and guidance ofciable power in the baUad appealedpublic opinion, the song and the the intellect of the masses,to the passion, if not to of theand instructed them in all the leading events In our day the people need no informationtime. 2094-18 IV INTKODUCTION. kind, for they procure it from the moreofthe readily and more copious if not more reliable,available daily weekly press.

Sujets

• English poetry
• Early modern period
• Ballads

Informations

• Publié par: les_archives_du_savoir
• Nombre de lectures: 12
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 10 Mo

Extrait

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,^WE•UNIVERS•//,THE
CAVALIER SOWS AJfD BAILADS
OF EXGIAFD
TEOM 10J2 TO 1684
EDITED BT
CHAELES MACKAT
LL.D.
LOjS'DOJ^
GRIPFIN BORN AND CO
STATIONERS' HALL COURT
1863.PRINTERS.CIIILDS AND SON,JOHN1"BU
INTRODUCTION.
The Cavalier Ballads of England, like the Ja-
cobite Ballads of En^fland and Scotland at a later_
\ are mines of wealth for the student of theperiod,
manners of our ancestors.history and social The
rude but often beautiful political lyrics ofthe early
days of the Stuarts were far more interesting and
important to the people who heard ors repeated
i them, than any similar compositions can be in our
the printing press was the meretime. Wheny
vehicle of polemics for the educated minority,
and when the daily journal was neither a luxury
of the poor, a necessity of the rich, nor an appre-
formation and guidance ofciable power in the
baUad appealedpublic opinion, the song and the
the intellect of the masses,to the passion, if not to
of theand instructed them in all the leading events
In our day the people need no informationtime.
2094-18IV INTKODUCTION.
kind, for they procure it from the moreofthe readily
and more copious if not more reliable,available
daily weekly press. Thesource of the and song
deal with public affairs.and ballad have ceased to
No new ones of the kind are made except as miser-
able parodies and burlesques that may amuse sober
costermongers and half-drunken men about town,
music saloons midnight, but whichwho frequent at
Such genuine oldare offensive to every one else.
ballads as remain in the popular memory are either
fast dying out, or relate exclusively to the never-
to-be-superseded topics of love, war, and wine. The
have little heart or appreciationpeople of our day
for song, except in Scotland and Ireland. England
and America are too prosaic and too busy, and the
masses, notwithstanding all their supposed advan-
aremuch too vulgarto delight intages in education,
eithersong or ballad that rises to the dignity ofpoet-
"ry. They appreciate the buffooneries of the Negro
Minstrelsy," and the inanities and the vapidities of
sentimental love songs, but the elegance of such
writers as Thomas Moore, and the force of such
vigorous thinkers and tender lyrists as Robert
Burns, are above their sphere, and are left to
scholars in their closets and ladies in their draw-
ing-rooms. The case was different among our ances-INTRODUCTION. V
• formemorable period of tte strugglein the
Charles I.that commenced in the reign ofiibexi/
the pulpit on their side, andThe Puritans had
powerful instrument. The Cavaliers hadfound it a
the song writers on theirs, and found them equally
ballad writers of tliateffective. And the song and
versifiers. Some ofday were not always illiterate
wits and most accomplishedthem were the choicest
gentlemen of the nation. As they could not reach
the ears of their countrjonen by the printed book,
the pamphlet, or the newspaper, nor mount the
pulpit and dispute Avith Puritanism on its own
ground and in its own precincts, they found the
song, the ballad, and the epigram more available
among amusical and song-loving people such as the
English then were, and trusted to these to keep
up the spirit of loyalty in the evil days ofthe royal
cause, to teach courage in adversity, and cheer-
fulness in all circumstances, and to ridicule the
hypocrites Avhom they could not shame, and the
tyrants whom they could not overthrow. Though
many thousands of these have been preserved in
the King's Pamphlets in the British Museum, and
in other collections which have been freely ran-
sacked for the matericils of the following pages, as
many thousands undoubtedlymore have perished.VI INTRODUCTION.
broadsides, and sold for aOriginally printed as
halfpenny at country fairs, it used to be the fashion
in cupboards, orof the peasantry to paste them up
well ason the backs of doors, and farmers' wives, as
girls who were able toservant and farm labourers,
them on the lids of theirread, would often paste
trvmks, as the best means of preserving them. This
is one reason why so many of them have been lost
Trevelyan litera-without recovery. To Sir W. C.
theseture is indebted for the restoration of a few of
found pasted in an oldwaifs and strays, which he
the of Cromwell, and which he care-trunk of days
fully detachedandpresented to the BritishMuseum.
But a sufficient number of these flying leaves of
reached our time,satire, sentiment, and loyalty have
to throw a curious and instructive light upon the
feelings of themen who resisted the progress of the
English devolution and who made loyalty to the
;
person of the monarch, even when the monarch
was wrong, the first of the civic virtues. In the
superabundance of the materials at command, as
wiU be seen from the appended list of books and
MSS. which have been consulted and drawn upon
to form this collection, the difficulty was to keep
within bounds, and to select only such specimens as
merited a place in a volume necessarily limited, by