Drollery

“ We find the Catch, with music by John Hilton in that composer’s Catch that Catch Can, 1652, p. 15. (Also in Playford’s Musical Companion, 1673, p. 24.)
Captain William Hicks has a dialogue of Two Parliamentary Troopers, beginning with the same first line, in Oxford Drollery, i. 21, 1671. Written before 1659, thus:
Come, come away, to the Tavern, I say,
Whilst we have time and leisure for to think;
I find our State lyes tottering of late,
And that e’re long we sha’n’t have time to drink.
Then here’s a health to thee, to thee and me,
To me and thee, to thee and me, &c. Page 151. ”

“ Twenty-five songs and poems, that had not appeared in the 1661 edition, were added to the after editions of Merry Drollery; but without important change to the book. It was essentially an offspring of the Restoration, the year 1660-61, and it thus gives us a genuine record of the Cavaliers in their festivity. Whatever is offensive, therefore, is still of historical importance. Even the bitterness of sarcasm against the Rump Parliament, under whose rule so many families had long groaned ”

“ Page 15. A Stranger coming to the town.
In Wm. Hickes his Oxford Drollery, 1671, in Part 3rd, (“Poems made at Oxford, long since”) , p. 157, this Epigram appears, with variations. The second verse reads: But being there a little while, || He met with one so right || That upon the French Disease || It was his chance to light. The final couplet is:—The French-man’s Arms are the sign without, || But the French-man’s harms are within.
Throughout the first half of the Seventeenth century the abundance of Epigrams produced is enormous ”

“ We prefer to believe that from his hand alone came the fragment, at least—this lively snatch of melody, with good philosophy, such as the Ascetics reject, to their own damage. No wrong is done in accepting the remainder of the song as genuine. The final verse is orthodox, [330] according to the Autolycusian rule of faith. It is in Windsor Drollery, p. 30; and our Introduction to Westminster-Drollery, p. xxxv.
Page 157. The parcht earth drinks, &c.
Compare, with this lame paraphrase of Anacreon’s racy Ode, the more poetic version by Abraham Cowley, printed in Merry Drollery, Compleat, p. ”

“ Not how you end, but how you spend your days.
(Athenæ Oxonienses, iii. 1243.) As to Thomas Harrison, fifth-monarchy enthusiast, firm to the end in his adversity, he who had been ruthless in [386] prosperity, we have already briefly referred to his closing hours in our Introduction to Merry Drollery, Compleat, p. xxix.
John Hewson, Cobbler and Colonel, who had sat in the illegal mockery of Judgment on King Charles, was for the after years ridiculed by ballad-singers as a one-eyed spoiler of good leather. He escaped the doom of Tyburn by flight to Amsterdam, where he died in 1662. ”

“ A cock that in fighting was shy, and a horse with a sharp wall eye, &c.
(Universal Songster, 1826, i. 368.) Even Ophelia could not ask, after Arthur sinking so low, “And will he not come again?”
J. W. E.
September, 1875.
[176]
[So far as possible, to give completeness to our Reprint of Westminster Drollery of 1671-2, and Merry Drollery, Compleat, 1670-1691, we now add the Extra Songs belonging to the former work, edition 1674; and to the latter, in its earlier edition, 1661: with their respective title-pages.]
[177]
Westminster-Drollery. ”

“ Shakspeare has here achieved, perhaps, the most difficult task which can fall to the lot of any writer; that of resuscitating a favourite and highly-wrought child of the imagination, and, with a success equal to that which attended the original production, re-involving him in a series of fresh adventures. Falstaff has not lost, in this comedy, any portion of his former power of pleasing; he returns to us in the fulness of his strength, and we immediately enter, with unabated avidity and relish, into a further developement of his inexhaustible stores of humour, wit, and drollery. ”

“ And as Comedies, which were originally very gross, grew by Use more polite and refin’d in Satire and Raillery: so the most celebrated Wits and Statesmen, and Persons of the greatest Quality, have engag’d and join’d with others in them, and performed with the greatest Success and Reputation to themselves; and have been valu’d, not only for their Talents of Irony and Drollery, which were essential to the Credit of such Performances; but applauded, as acting the virtuous Part of Droles. ”

“ Another Fire-ballad (in addition to the coarse squib in present vol., pp. 33-7,) is “Zeal over-heated;” telling of a fire at Oxford, 1642; tune, Chivey Chace; and beginning, “Attend, you brethren every one.” It is not [378] improbably by Thomas Weaver, being in his Love and Drollery, 1654, p. 21.
Page 92, 370. Cast your caps and cares away.
Of this song, from Beaumont and Fletcher’s “Beggar’s Bush,” bef. 1625, the music set by Dr. John Wilson is in his Cheerfull Ayres, 1659-60, p. 22.
Pages 97, 371. Come, let us drink.
“Mahomet’s Pigeon,” a frequent allusion: compare M. D. C., pp. ”

“ Sing, Hony soit qui mal y pense. A Ballad call’d Blew Cap for me.
Come hither thou merriest of all the Nine, [p. 29.]
Come, sit you down by me, and let us be jolly;
And with a full Cup of Apollo’s wine,
Wee’l dare our Enemy mad Melancholly;
And when we have done, wee’l between us devise
A pleasant new Dity by Art to comprise:
And of this new Dity the matter shall be,
If ever I have a man, blew cap for me.
There dwells a blith Lass in Falkland Town
And she hath Suitors I know not how many,
And her resolution she had set down
That she’l have a Blew Cap, if ever she have any. ”

“ Such glimpses as we gain of Puritans (Bishop Corbet’s Hot-headed Zealot, Cleveland’s “Rotundos rot,”) are only suggestive of playful ridicule. The Sectaries, being no longer dangerous, are here laughed at, not calumniated. The odd jumble of nations brought together in those disturbed times is seen in the crowd of lovers around the “blith Lass of Falkland town” (p. 133) who is constant in her love of a Scottish blue bonnet:—“If ever I have a man, blew-Cap for me!” ”

“ Page 43, line 16th, “Call for a constable blurt.”
An allusion to Middleton’s Comedy, “Blurt, Master Constable,” 1602.
Page 62, 368. Will you hear a strange thing.
The important event here described took place April 20th, 1653, and the ballad immediately followed. (Compare “Cheer up, kind country men,” by S. S., “Rebellion hath broken up house,” and “This Christmas time,” in the Percy Soc. Pol. Bds., iii. 126; 180 Loyal Songs, 149, 1694; Rump, ii. 52.) At this date the strife between the fag-end of the Rump and Oliver, who was supported by his council of officers, came to open violence. ”

“ Told in the Drooling Ward Me? I'm not a drooler. I'm the assistant, I don't know what Miss Jones or Miss Kelsey could do without me. There are fifty-five low-grade droolers in this ward, and how could they ever all be fed if I wasn't around? I like to feed droolers. They don't make trouble. They can't. Something's wrong with most of their legs and arms, and they can't talk. They're very low-grade. I can walk, and talk, and do things. You must be careful with the droolers and not feed them too fast. Then they choke. Miss Jones says I'm an expert. When a new nurse comes I show her how to do it. ”

“ Dolores laughed contemptuously, flung the torch aside and bade Milo trample it out, then she, too, ascended to the deck to view her victory. The sea was dotted with swimming men, the beach was full of running men, terrified men made the cliff resound with their cries. Then, sure that the schooner was free of foes, Dolores looked toward the sloop, now within hail of the schooner and coming fast with sail and sweeps, while her crew stared over the low bulwarks in puzzlement as to the reason for the hasty exodus from the strange craft. ”

“ In an ague of undefined terror, Dolores felt herself further shaken by the clutch on her arm; heard the Prince of the Power of the Air again give himself over to mirth.
“Fool fiends, they hear my voice and think it is That Day! Not bad for an impromptu practice drive, eh? Once all fear is drilled out of them, once their numbers are complete, once the full force of that gas is turned on—Ah, nothing and none may stand against the hate of Hell!” ”

“ The dark hulls of the enemy were hidden in the blinding glare of their searchlights and the incessant sparkle and spurting of bright golden flame as their guns were fired as fast as they could be loaded. Filmy streamers of smoke from the discharges wreathed and eddied fantastically through the blue-white rays of the lights. The air suddenly began to reverberate with a succession of ear-splitting crashes, the screeching whistle of shell passing overhead, and the dull plop of others as they pitched in the water to raise their shimmering, ghostly spray fountains. ”

“ If we attribute so much importance to the rigorous carrying out of movements, if we push to the point of mania our fondness for these drill-ground evolutions which you regard as useless and ridiculous, it is because they break down thought, rout it, weary it, put it to sleep, and annihilate it; because they reduce the human being to the level of a pure automaton. Show me a man who, by persistent drilling, has been emptied of thought, and I will show you a good soldier!
“On the battlefield, automatic obedience and fear of the superior officer take the place of courage. ”

“ Of course they cannot! For destroyers, like delicate children prone to catch mumps, whooping-cough, and measles, cannot thrive without careful nursing, particularly in war time.
And so, if the depôt ship receives a plaintive wail by signal to say that one of her children has been punctured through the bows by a projectile from a belligerent Hun, or that another, in a slight altercation at sea with one of her sisters, has developed a "slight dent" in herself to the accompaniment of leaky rivets and seams, she merely says, "Come alongside!" ”

“ As if to echo or confirm their fears, a booming sound pealed from a distance over the sea.
"What noise is that?" asked Lady Rohallion, starting up, while her pale cheek grew paler still.
"A gun—a cannon shot to seaward!" exclaimed the old soldier, pricking up his ears, while his eyes sparkled on recognising the once too familiar sound.
"'Tis that vessel in distress," said Lady Rohallion, as they hurried once more to the windows which overlooked the sea. "Away to the clachan, John; get all our people together, and have the boats launched." ”

“ From the great chamber the angry voice of Dolores rang out.
"Milo! Where art thou, slave!"
And the giant tenderly laid Pascherette down again, and ran in answer.
"Sultana?"
"Blind, idle dolt! While thou art fondling that serpent of thine, thy mistress's affairs may go hang! Haste with the treasure, or feel my anger. While thy useless eyes were mooning on nothing, the strangers have escaped. They are even now getting sail on the white vessel. Carry the chests down to the Point as soon as ye may. I will stay them yet, and they shall learn the cost of flouting Dolores! ”

“ She would fade away in the mist, to be followed presently by a fleeting vision of two light cruisers, one British and the other German, their sides a quivering spangle of gun-flashes as they mutually hammered each other. They also would disappear, swallowed up in the haze; and a British destroyer, steaming at full speed, would dash across the horizon on some errand of destruction, with smoke pouring from her funnels and an immense white wave piled up in her wake. ”

“ Further conversation was rudely interrupted by the crash of a gun from ashore, and a thin trail of dim light climbed skywards in a curve as a tracer shell [37] hurtled its way through the air.
More guns roared out. More trails of light in the air, rather like the sparks from the tails of rockets!
The sky to the eastward suddenly began to flash and twinkle with momentary spurts of vivid orange flame as the shell started to burst; the searchlights swung round and became stationary, with their beams all pointed at one particular spot in the heavens. ”

“ Dorle said dryly. "We'll be leaving about three day-periods from now. We'll fix the ship, then take off. Soon we'll be home, that is, if nothing happens. Like being shot down by that—"
"Oh, stop it!" Nasha said impatiently. "Leave him alone. He's right: all this must be taken back home, sooner or later. We'll have to solve the problem of the gun. We have no choice."
Dorle nodded. "What's your solution, then? As soon as we leave the ground we'll be shot down." His face twisted bitterly. "They've guarded their treasure too well. Instead of being preserved it will lie here until it rots. ”

“ Her decks were as clean as scrubbers, holystones, sand, and perspiring blue-jackets could make them, and woe betide the careless sailor who defiled their sacred whiteness with a spot of paint, or the stoker who left the imprint of a large and greasy foot on emerging into the fresh air from his labours in the engine-room or stokehold.
Her guns, steel, and brass-work winked and shimmered in the sun. ”

“ Crouching down under the thwarts, with the water washing over them, were many more men in the last stages of misery. Some showed signs of life; some looked almost dead. Another melancholy party were clustered in the stern, huddling together to get some warmth into their numbed limbs. All sorts and conditions of men were there—stokers in their grimy flannel shirts and fearnought trousers, just as they had come up out of the stokehold; bluejackets in jerseys and blue serge trousers; some marines; and a ship's steward's assistant with nothing but a swimming-collar and a sodden white cotton shirt. ”