[Bagford Collection, II. 96.] Jockie's Lamentation, Whose Seditious Work, Was the loss of his Country and Kirk. TO A STATELY NEW Scottish TUNE. [With the same woodcut as at the beginning of previous ballad, our p. 326; víz. of soldiers marching, three and three and two.] 1 David Leslie; August 20th, 1640. 2 Compare verses given on p. 77, ante. 22 32 36 36 1 Dunbar of 3rd Sept. 1650, with David Leslie: not of 1644. 2 Preston, &c.; August, 1648. 3 Marston-Moor, 2nd July, 1644. Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven, who had fought against Wallenstein. 6 Taffies. 7 Not the first Civil War, 1638, but the second, 1650–1. 5 Hull. 1 1661 version reads: "And the Smock that his Chaplain did wear." 2 Burntisland, in Fifeshire, surrendered to Cromwell, July, 1651. 5 3rd September, 1651, Battle of Worcester. 6 An allusion to the £200,000 bribe, paid as "part of arrears," to the Scots, in December, 1646; as the price of their King, who had trusted himself to them. The Scotch Highlanders offered a noble contrast to this conduct, in 1745-6, when nothing could tempt them to betray Prince Charles Edward. Printed for J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passenger. [In Black-letter. Date, probably, the end of 1651.] 132 136 140 WE The Soldier's Return. "The Wars are all over, Our swords are but idle, The steed bites the bridle: But his armour is rusty, And the veteran grows crusty, As he yawns in the hall. He drinks-but what's drinking? A mere pause from thinking! No bugle awakes him with life-and-death call. But the wars are over, The spring is come; The bride and her lover Have sought their home; They are happy, and we rejoice; Let their hearts have an echo from every voice." The Deformed Transformed, v. 3, 1824. E know not another copy of this ballad. Such clue as the broadsheet gives inclines us to the opinion that its date is of 1690; or, at most, not more than three years later. Woodcuts seldom help materially to guide in such researches, having been in general inserted at hap-hazard, to increase the attractiveness of the wares. In our own days we find the most valueless music forced into sale by a brilliant frontispiece; but, on the principle that "Good wine needs no bush!" a publisher never needs to decorate the cover enshrining Beethoven, Mozart, or Mendelssohn. Still, these old ballad-publishers possessed a large stock of worn cuts, more or less mutilated and worm-holed; and occasionally some of these, selected, were appropriate. We fail to see what connexion "The Judgment of Paris" holds with The Soldier's Return. But we think it not unlikely that the melancholy head was intended for William of Orange. Perhaps the principal engraving (a later fragment of which met us already on p. 283) may be emblematical of the "Protestant Deliverer" asserting irresistible power outside of any beleaguered city, in the Green Isle or on the Continent; and the nondescript animal that is retreating before him may be regarded as the fancy-portrait of an Irish Rapparee: about as truthfully delineated as in the Bartholomew Fair play, "The Royal Voyage," acted in 1689 and 1690. But perhaps it was intended to symbolize Popery! 1 In his preface, the author states, "The end of this play is chiefly to expose |