Off a Puritane. [Page 182 of MS.] THERE are several other ballads of this kind extant, about Puritans and holy sisters. They were a favourite topic with the Cavaliers, more especially after the Puritans came into power.-W. C. 8 12 16 IT was a puritanicall ladd that was called Mathyas, & he wold goe to Amsterdam he had not gone past halfe a mile, "Alas! what wold they wicked say?" "but peace, Sweet hart, or ere wee part,— I speake itt out of pure devotion, Mathias, going to Amsterdam, meets his sister, and kisses her. "What would the wicked say if they'd seen it?" Before we part, you must feel my spirit's motion. Thé huft & puft with many heaues, till that the both were tyred, "alas!" quoth shee, "youle spoyle the leaues; She does. Cooke Laurell.1 [Page 182 of MS.] THIS song is from Ben Jonson's "Masque of the Metamorphosed Gipsies, as it was thrice presented to King James-first at Burleigh-on-the-Hill, next at Belvoir, and lastly at Windsor, August, 1621." (Ben Jonson's Works, ed. Procter (after Gifford), 1838, p. 618.) Puppy the Clown terms it "an excellent song,' and of its singer says, "a sweet songster, and would have done rarely in a cage, with a dish of water and hemp-seed! a fine breast of his own!" Gifford also says: "This song' continued long in favour. It is mentioned with praise not only by the poets of Jonson's age, but by many of those who wrote after the Restoration." The present copy contains eight more stanzas than Jonson's own MS. printed by Gifford, and (after him) by Mr. Procter at p. 626 of his edition of Jonson's Works. The presence of these additional stanzas may be explained by Gifford's remarks on the Masque itself: "This Masque, as the title tells us, was performed before James and his Court at three several places. As the actors, as well as the spectators, varied at each, it became necessary to vary the language; and Jonson, who always attended the presentation of his pieces, was called on for additions adapted to the performers and the place. These unfortunately are not very distinctly marked either in the MS. or the printed copies, though occasional notices of them appear in the former. As everything that was successively written for the new characters is not come down to us, the Gipsies Metamorphosed 1 By Ben Jonson. See Dryden's Misc. vol. 2. page 142. See also Ben Jonson's Works, vol. 6. p. 103. See Pepys Collection, vol. 4. page 284.-P. See Chappell's Popular Music, p. 160-1. Another copy of this Ballad is in the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 445. Percy's reference to Dryden's Miscellanies is to the fourth edi tion of 1716, where Cook Laurel is called "A Song on the Devil's Arse of the Peak. By Ben Jonson." It is reprinted from the folio edition, as it has the three extra verses at the end, and slirted for flirted in the stanza before them. This poem is not in the original edition of the Miscellanies, Part II., in 1685.-F. |