Choyce Drollery: Songs and Sonnets: Being a Collection of Divers Excellent Pieces of Poetry, of Several Eminent Authors.
History
Choyce Drollery: Songs and Sonnets: Being a Collection of Divers Excellent Pieces of Poetry, of Several Eminent Authors.
English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700; English wit and humor; Songs, English -- Texts
To our enumeration of mad songs (_Westm. Droll._ App. p. 9) we may add
Thomas Jordan’s “I am the woefullest madman.”
_M. D., C._, p. 198, lines 22, 23. _True Hearts._
“I’ll drink to thee a brace of quarts || Whose Anagram is called _True
Hearts_.” The Anagram of True Hearts gives us “Stuart here!” which, like
drinking “to the King—_over the water_!” in later days by the Jacobites,
would be well understood by suspected cavaliers.
In March 1659-60 appeared the anagram “Charles Stuart: Arts Chast Rule.”
Later: Awld fool, Rob the Jews’ Shop.
Pages 255, 287. _When I do travel in the night._
Like “How happy’s the prisoner,” _Ibid._ p. 107, we trace this so early
as 1656. It is in _Sportive Wit_, p. 12, as “When I go to revel in the
night,” The Drunkard’s Song.
Pages 153 (and Introduction, ix). _The best of Poets, &c._
THE BOW GOOSE. We have found this, (15 verses of our 18,) five years
earlier, in _Sportive Wit_, 1656, p. 35. It there begins, “The best of
Poets write of Hogs, And of _Ulysses_ barking Dogs; Others of Sparrows,
Flies, and Hogs.” Our text, though later, seems to be the better, and
has three more verses: “Frogs,” in connection with “the Best of Poets,”
referring to Homer and to _Batrachomyomachia_; supposed to be his, and
translated by George Chapman, about 1623 (of whom A. C. Swinburne has
recently written so glowing a eulogium, coupling with it the noblest
praise of Marlowe).
_M. D., C._, pp. 166, 376. _Now, thanks to, &c._
Of course, the words displayed by dashes are _Crown_, _Bishop_, _King_.
To this same tune are later songs (1659-60) in the Rump, ii. 193-200,
“What a reprobate crew is here,” &c. Wilkins prints an inferior version
of 7th line in 3rd verse, as “Take _Prynne_ and his clubs, or _Say_ and
his tubs,” referring to William, Viscount “Say and Seal.” Ours reads
“club, or _Smec_ and his tub,” the allusion being to _Smectymnuus_, a
name compounded, like the word _Cabal_ in Charles II.’s time, of the
initials of five personal names: Ste. Marshall, Edm. Calamy, Thos. Young,
Matth. Newcomen, and Willm. Spurstow; all preachers, who united in a
book against Episcopacy and the Liturgy. Milton, in 1641 published his
_Animadversions upon the Remonstrants Defence against Smectymnuus_; and
in 1642, _An Apology for Smectymnuus_. John Cleveland devotes a poem to
“The Club Divines,” beginning “Smectymnuus! the Goblin makes me start.”
(_Poems_, p. 38, 1661; also in the _Rump_ Coll., i. 57.)
Pages 200, 382. _A Story strange, &c._
Correction:—Instead of the words “_Choyce Drollery_, p. 31,” in first
line of note (M. D., C., p. 382), read “_Jovial Drollery_ (i.e.,
_Sportive Wit_), p. 59.” The same date, viz. 1656.
Pages 210-11, 384. “_To ~Virginia~ for Planters._”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account