The Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642 to 1684
History
The Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642 to 1684
Ballads, English; English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700
Gallant Sir Thomas, {16} bold and stout
(Brave Lunsford), children eateth;
But he takes care, where he eats one,
There he a hundred getteth;
When Harlow’s wife brings her long bills,
He wishes she were blinded;
When shee speaks loud, as loud he swears
The woman’s earthly-minded.
The King sent us, etc.
Sir Lewis {17} hath an able pen,
Can cudgell a committee;
He makes them doe him reason, though
They others do not pitty.
Brave Cleaveland had a willing minde,
Frank Wortley was not able,
But Lewis got foure pound per weeke
For’s children and his table.
The King sent us, etc.
Giles Strangwayes {18} has a gallant soul,
A brain infatigable;
What study he ere undertakes
To master it hee’s able:
He studies on his theoremes,
And logarithmes for number;
He loves to speake of Lewis Dives, {19}
And they are ne’er asunder.
The King sent us, etc.
Sir John Marlow’s {20} a loyall man
(If England ere bred any),
He bang’d the pedlar back and side,
Of Scots he killed many.
Had General King {21} done what he should,
And given the blew-caps battail,
Wee’d make them all run into Tweed
By droves, like sommer cattell.
The King sent us, etc.
Will Morton’s {22} of that Cardinal’s race,
Who made that blessed maryage;
He is most loyall to his King,
In action, word, and carryage;
His sword and pen defends the cause,
If King Charles thinke not on him,
Will is amongst the rest undone,—
The Lord have mercy on him!
The King sent us, etc.
Tom Conisby {23} is stout and stern,
Yet of a sweet condition;
To them he loves his crime was great,
He read the King’s commission,
And required Cranborn to assist;
He charged, but should have pray’d him;
Tom was so bold he did require
All for the King should aid him.
The King sent us, etc.
But I Win. Bodnam {24} had forgot,
Had suffer’d so much hardship;
There’s no man in the Towre had left
The King so young a wardship;
He’s firme both to the church and crowne,
The crown law and the canon;
The Houses put him to his shifts,
And his wife’s father Mammon.
The King sent us, etc.
Sir Henry Vaughan {25} looks as grave
As any beard can make him;
Those come poore prisoners for to see
Doe for our patriarke take him.
Old Harry is a right true-blue,
As valiant as Pendraggon;
And would be loyall to his King,
Had King Charles ne’er a rag on.
The King sent us, etc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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