Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth

“ It is meant to be serious, beginning 'The World is all on fire in Jesus' name, By quick nosed Jesuites who hunt for game,' and ends with an acrostic on 'William Bedlowe.' An 'Elegie on the Death of Captain William Bedloe' begins:–
Could Bedlow fall so softly to his tomb, Without a comet to foretell his doom ? But the shortest and severest epitaph is this, from an early manuscript:–
The Lord is pleas'd when man does cease to sin; The divil is pleas'd when he a soul do's win ”

“ Blood avowed that the plan was his own, but threatened that his confederates would avenge his death; refused to impeach others, but avowed his share in the capture of Ormonde, and that awe of his majesty’s sacred person had hindered him from perpetrating assassination when the king was bathing at Battersea. He not only escaped punishment, but obtained the forfeited Irish estates of 500l. annual value, and seemed to have interest at court, being often seen in the presence-chamber. ”

“ He said, ‘The Town may da-da-da-m me as a poet, but they sing my songs for all that.’ Writing to Henry Cromwell, 10 April 1710, Alexander Pope mentions the having ‘learned without book a song of Mr. D'Urfey's, who is your only poet of tolerable reputation in this country. He makes all the merriment in our entertainments. Any man of any quality is heartily welcome to the best toping-table of our gentry who can roundly hum out some fragments or rhapsodies of his works. ... Dares any one despise him who has made so many men drink? ”

“ In 1828 Egan, rebuking the pirates and plagiarists, produced his 'Finish to the Adventures of Tom, Jerry, and Logic, in their Pursuits through Life in and out of London, with numerous coloured illustrations by Robert Cruikshank' (n. d.) In this he introduced far more of the country sports and misadventures, anticipating, and no doubt suggesting, much of the character of Dickens's 'Pickwick Papers,' which were soon to follow and to excel it. ”

“ The alternate scenes of high life and low life, the contrasted characters, and revelations of misery side by side with prodigal waste and folly, attracted attention, while the vivacity of dialogue and description never flagged. ”

“ After being stopped by the man who kept watch, young Edwards went to his mother and sister; while the conspirators, receiving notice of danger, made off with their plunder. The old man regained consciousness, gave the alarm, and was heard by his daughter, who rushed out, crying, ‘Treason, the crown is stolen!’ Blood and Parrot were hastening away, but young Edwards and Captain Beckman on hearing the cry pursued them, so that, despite resistance, they were captured with the jewels still in their possession. ”

“ Lord William Russell and Lady Berkeley showed him imprudent kindness, considering him to be 'a man of more enlarged understanding than is commonly found in mechanics.' He made himself notorious by his declamations against the papists, by writing and singing political ballads, and by inventing a weapon resembling the modern life-preserver, which he called 'the protestant flail,' consisting of a short staff, loaded with lead, and attached to the wrist by a leathern thong, to be used with deadly force at close quarters. ”

“ He was buried in the cemetery at Blandford on 15 March, and a monument has been erected by his friends. Few comedians have been better loved, or, on the whole, passed through life so successfully. Collections of ‘Sam Cowell's Songs,’ and photographic portraits of him in character, used to be enormously numerous, and popular. Wherever he went he was loved, and by all who had known him he was mourned. His only fault was improvidence. An excellent full-length portrait of him as ‘Billy Barlow’ was painted in oils by Richard Alexander, Edinburgh, 1842. ”

“ The prisoner claimed, as a freeman of London, that he should be tried there, but he was told that for offences committed at Oxford he could be tried at Oxford. He pleaded hard for restoration of his papers, which would have guided him whom to challenge of the jury, and how to conduct his defence. He kept arguing in a circle, and at last pleaded not guilty. Aaron Smith had next to submit to be browbeaten and to enter into recognisances for appearance, while Henry Starkey was summoned for attempted bribery. ”

“ From this date onward, until long after he published his clever and amusing autobiography in 1844, his career was prosperous, and he was a favourite in all the chief cities of the Union. Clever as he was, a delightful companion, brimming with anecdote, mirth, and song, sarcastic but not revengeful, he was frequently in quarrels owing to quick temper. ”

“ COLLEGE, STEPHEN (1635?–1681) , the protestant joiner, was born about 1635, and probably in London. He worked at the trade of carpentry, and became known as a political speaker, denouncing what he called the superstitions of popery. He had been a presbyterian for twenty years, until the Restoration, when he conformed to the church of England. His ingenuity as a joiner brought him into contact with many persons of rank, who treated him with familiarity, encouraging him so far that he became ambitious of distinction. ”

“ A partial reconciliation with his grandfather, Sir John Curson, enabled John Gadbury to be educated at Oxford. He joined a merchant adventurer named Thorn, living near Strand bridge, London, and married about 1648. He joined successively the presbyterians, the independents, and the ‘family of love,’ then under Abiezer Coppe [q. v.] Gadbury appears to have left him in 1651, by which time he was intimate with William Lilly [q. v.] , Butler's ‘Sidrophel.’ In 1652 he returned to Oxfordshire to visit his grandfather, Sir John, and settled to study astrology under Dr. N. Fiske. ”

“ On 5 Nov. 1842 he married Emilie Marguerite Ebsworth, daughter of a highly esteemed dramatist and teacher of music. Nine children were the fruit of the union, of whom two daughters, Sydney and Florence, with one of the six sons, Joseph, afterwards adopted the stage professionally, and with success. After remaining four years in Edinburgh he went to London on an engagement for three years, with Benjamin Webster, at the Adelphi, but soon abandoned this, and made his first appearance on 15 July 1844 as Alessio in ‘La Sonnambula’ at the Surrey Theatre. ”

“ He knew that the laugh was always on his side against the heavier hand. Both D'Urfey and Tom Brown were represented as subjected to a mock-trial in the ‘Sessions of the Poets, holden at the foot of Parnassus Hill, before Apollo, July the 9th, 1696.’ It was only by Jeremy Collier [q. v.] that he could be provoked to reply, and even then it was chiefly in a song, ‘New Reformation begins through the nation!’ which he embedded in the preface to his ‘Campaigners,’ a comedy of 1698. ”

“ If Blood had not left his men, going on in advance to arrange the rope on the allows, the duke could not have been saved. It was believed that George Villiers, second duke of Buckingham, had engaged Blood to perpetrate this crime, and Ormonde's son, Lord Ossory, in the king's presence distinctly charged Buckingham with the baseness of such private revenge. ”

“ On the voyage home a French ship was met, and he begged to be allowed to lose his life honourably in action. He did his duty so bravely that on arriving at Plymouth the admiral obtained his ante-dated ‘discharge by sick-list.’ Hence the change of name from Hawkins-Witchett. He took to painting portraits, but on 11 Jan. 1812 he wrote to George Sandford of New York, at the Plymouth Theatre, a short letter telling of his wish to become an actor, content with a small salary, and gave his name as Leathley Irving. ”

“ A vain, meddling man, of shallow intellect, prodigal expenditure, inordinate conceit, and strong ambition, his strength was early wasted in enforced fasts. His sad, sunken eyes, and his lean, withered countenance, showing more ghastly pale while surrounded by his black peruke, gave him at least the appearance of one zealously affected towards ecclesiastical discipline. ”

“ With the wit he seems to have shared the dissoluteness of the times.’ Among the works by Duke, which have not been claimed for him, was the caustic satire on Titus Oates, printed by Nathanael Thompson, ‘A Panegyrick upon Oates,’ which is referred to in Duke's acknowledged companion poem, ‘An Epithalamium upon the Marriage of Captain William Bedloe,’ issued at Christmas 1679, and this was followed, near the end of August 1680, by ‘Funeral Tears upon the Death of Captain William Bedloe.’ He complimented the queen at Cambridge, September 1681. ”

“ COLEMAN, EDWARD (d. 1678) , conspirator, was probably born before 1650. Brought up as a protestant, with extreme strictness, he revolted against the puritans, embraced Romanism, and is always supposed to have been admitted to the society of the Jesuits, several of whom held a correspondence with him from St. Omer and Paris, and held secret meetings with him in London. ”

“ In 1847 he opposed the ultra-sabbatarianism of those who strove to stop all Sunday travelling or ‘Sunday walks.’ Gilfillan persistently opposed the project of union between the united presbyterians, to which body he belonged, and the free kirk that had seceded.
Gilfillan actively promoted mechanics' institutes, popular lectures, and free libraries. He brought distinguished men, such as Professor John Nicol, the astronomer, R. W. Emerson, and Dr. Samuel Brown, to lecture at Dundee and at mechanics' institutes elsewhere. ”

“ William Smith, late schoolmaster of Islington (who had educated Oates) , asked him the reason. He replied, 'I believe he'll be 'quitted, and I am undone; but let what will come out I am ruined.' He was understood to be willing to appear against Shaftesbury, and gave evidence against Stephen College at the Old Bailey, when a verdict of Ignoramus was returned, 8 July 1681. ”

“ Have you any Work for a Cooper? or A Comparison between a Cooper's (Shaftesbury's) and a Joyner' s Trade, beginning 'The Cooper and the Joyner are two famous Trades,' 1681; most of these ballads and elegies are reproduced in the Bagford Ballads and the Roxburghe Ballads, iv. 262, 263, and v. 34 to 40, of the Ballad Society, including 'The Protestant Flail' and 'The Oxford Health;' Poems on Affairs of State, iii. ”

“ In 1677 Dugdale was steward to Lord Aston at Tixall, Staffordshire, where he cheated the workmen of their wages, and was regarded as 'the wickedest man that ever lived on the face of the earth' (Sambridge's testimony at Lord Stafford's trial) . In July or August letters arrived connected with the plot. The Jesuits and the catholic lords were said to be deeply implicated. Meetings at Tixall followed in August and September 1678 ”

“ This was a favoured rival to 'Life in London,' and there was a suspicion that Egan was its author, but this is improbable. Other imitations were David Carey's 'Life in Paris, the Rambles of Dick Wildfire,' &c., illustrated by George Cruikshank,' 1821; 'The Sprees of Tom, Jerry, and Logick [sic] ;' 'A New Song of Flash, Fashion, Frolic, and Fun,' with general heading of 'Life in London,' and clumsy woodcut copies of groups after Cruikshank. ”

“ He was for forty years teacher of music, not only to private pupils, but at such public institutions as the Merchant Maidens' Hospital, Watson's, the Normal School, &c., and enjoyed universal esteem. He was an accomplished linguist, not only in living but dead languages, Hebrew, Sanscrit, &c., and left behind him voluminous compilations of Egyptian hieroglyphics, and astrological documents from every available source. ”