[Bagford Collection, II. 74.] The Golden Farmer's Last Farewell: Who was arraigned and found Guilty of wilfull Murther, and likewise many notorious Robberies; for which he received a due Sentence of Death, and was accordingly Executed on the 22nd of December, 1690, in Fleet-street. TO THE TUNE OF The Rich Merchant-man. UNto you all this day, my Faults I do declare; Alas! I have not long to stay, A most notorious Wretch, I many years have been, For which I now at length must stretch, A just Reward for Sin: No Tongue, nor Pen can tell what Sorrows I conceive; Your Golden Farmer's last Farewell unto the World I leave. 4 8 122 1 For a short account of "Old Mobb," or "Mobbs" (Thomas Sympson), see our p. 242. This bidding farewell to him (as being still alive) disposes of an assertion that he had betrayed his comrade; and also shows that Alex. Smith's assignment of the date 1689 is erroneous. Davis's execution seems to have preceded that of "Old Mobbs," not followed it, by nearly six months. Cp. 1. 32. BAGFORD. S The thoughts of Death I fear, although a just Reward, As knowing that I must appear, No Tongue nor Pen can tell, &c. I solemnly declare, who am to Justice brought, All kinds of wicked Sins that are, No Villains are more rife, than those which I have bred; Long have I liv'd you see, by this unlawful Trade, And at the length am brought to be Good God, my Sins forgive, whose Laws I did offend, For here I may no longer live, my Life is at an end: No Tongue nor Pen can tell 80 what Sorrows I conceive; Your Golden Farmer's last Farewell unto the World I leave. 84 Printed for P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, and J. Back. [In Black-letter. Date, 1690-1.] The Mariner's Misfortune. Sing the dangers of the Sea."-The Storm: by G. A. Stevens. 1754. WITH this tale of a shipwrecked sailor and his love, we begin a valuable group of sea-songs, naval victories, and disasters. We lose a certain amount of congruity, in the grouping of ballads according to their class of subject, owing to the necessary omission of such as are common to our own Bagford Collection and to the Roxburghe. In the first volume of Bagford, it is true, there had evidently been little or no attempt made at arrangement. Ballads and fragmentary pages of books (more or less poetical) were inserted at hap-hazard. But in the second volume (with which our Part II. and the greater portion of Part III. correspond), there had evidently been essayed a classification, although not carried out elaborately, or consistently. This will be made more clear by perusal of our complete list of the Bagford Collection, first lines, at beginning of this volume, following the Introduction. Early comes a group of Scriptural subjects, commencing with David and Bathsheba (before which is the Swimming Lady, or Bathing Nymph: suggested by association of ideas with Bathsheba !), two on Solomon, his sentences and his sacrifice, the Constancy of Susanna, and the apocryphal fisherman Tobias or Tobit. This brings us naturally to the Wandering Jew, and he leads in Ulysses as "The Wandering Prince of Troy." Titus Andronicus, the Wife of Bath, King Arthur, St. George and the Dragon, Sir Eglamour, Robin Hood, Patient Griselda, the Prince of England who wooed a King of France's daughter, King Henry II. and the Miller of Mansfield, Queen Eleanor, King John and the Abbot of Canterbury, the fair Maid of Dunsmore, Jane Shore, the Lady Arabella Stuart and Seymour, the Cripple of Cornwall, the Earl of Essex, the Rich English Merchant born at Chichester, Maudlin of Bristol, the Spanish Lady with her love, Percy and Douglas at Chevy Chase, and Thomas Stukely: all worthies, come in immediate sequence, and precede our "Beautie's Warning Piece," of p. 148 (Bagford Coll., ii. 38, verso). By this time Bagford had evidently got himself immersed in a bundle of "Lamentable" and moralizing ditties. For there follow next, Armstrong and Musgrave's Duel, Pride's Fall, An Hundred Godly Lessons, the Sorrowful Complaint of Mrs. Page, a Warning for Maidens, or, Young Bateman, the Children in the Wood, the Dead Man's Song, and (this we give on p. 154) The True Lovers' Lamentable Overthrow. But the doleful list is not ended. William Gismond gives his murder-tale of 1650, and a Godly Song precedes "Hubert's Ghost," and "A True Sense of Sorrow" (our pp. 160, 167). England's New Bellman then sounds his awakening alarum, and a Warning to all Lewd Livers is given on the other side of our "Chamberlain's Tragedy' (p. 174), and probably by the same author (? Laurence Price). The Unnatural Son, and Strange and True News from Westmoreland intervene before "The Weeping Lady" (our p. 181). As in Roman-Catholic countries there is a merry pause at Mi-Carême, so Bagford seems to have thought it necessary to interpose the fun of "The Country Man's Calendar" (our p. 186), John Wade's "Heavy Heart and Light Purse," "The Jovial Crew" (our p. 195), and "Jack Hadland's Lamentation," before drawing any cheque on our banked-up capital of tears. We suspect the "Answer to the Cookmaid's Tragedy (our p. 200) need not be considered very grievous. It is followed by "The Ranting Rambler," and "The Beggars' Chorus" (pp. 205, and 216); both of which are rollicking and noisy enough to suit the Carnival proper, let alone " the Little Carnival" of Mid-Lent: 'Tis known, at least it should be, that throughout And buy repentance, ere they grow devout, However high their rank, or low their station, This feast is named the Carnival, which being (Beppo, 1817-8.) We get back to the doleful ditties in "The West-Country Miser," and "The Sinner's Care to Repent" (our pp. 221, and 227). These are followed by the Distressed Virgin, the lamentable ballad of Little Musgrave and the Lady Barnet (or Barnard: which suggested his Douglas" to John Home, whereupon a storm of bigotry and persecution arose against him in the Scottish Presbyteries, for having dared to write a stage play, so that he was excommunicated, ostracised, and deposed). Other tragedies and laments follow: The Lady Isabella, The godly Maid of Leicester, A Mournful Carol on Franklin and Cordelius, William Gismond's |