Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/98

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[2nd s. NO 5., FEB. 2. '50.

will be broken. The Great Charter and the praters who appeal to it will be hanged in one rope. The good Talbot will shower commissions on his countrymen, and will cut the throats of the English. These verses, which were in no respect above the ordinary standard of street poetry, had for burden some gibberish which was said to have been used as a watchword by the insurgents of Ulster in 1641. The verses and the tune caught the fancy of the nation. From one end of England to the other all classes were constantly singing this idle rhyme. It ws especially the delight of the English army. More than seventy years after the Revolution, a great writer delineated, with exquisite skill, a veteran who had fought at the Boyne and at Namur. One of the characteristics of the good old soldier is his trick of whistling LiUibullero.

" Wharton afterwards boasted that he had sung a king out of three kingdoms. But in truth the success of LiUi- bullero was the effect, and not the cause, of that excited state of public feeling which produced the Revolution."

The following version of this song (and there are several varieties) is printed from Revolution Politicks : Being a Compleat Collection of all the Reports, Lyes, and Stories which were the Fore- runners of the Great Revolution in 1688, London, 1733, Part m. p. 6. We have merely put the names in full, which in the original are printed with the first and last letters only.

THE SONG.

" O Brother Teague, doest hear de Decree,

Lilli Burlero, Sullen a-la, Dat we shall have a new Debitte, Lilli Burlero, Bidlen a-la.

Lero, Lero, Lero, Lero, Lilli Burlero Bullen a-la, Lero, Ifc.

" Ho, by my Shoul it is a Talbot,

Lilli, frc. And we will cut all de English Throat.

" Tho', by my Shoul, de English do prate,

Lilli, -c. De Law's on dare side, and de Christ knows what.

" But if Dispence dp come from de Pope,

Lilli, Sfc. We'll hang Magna Charta and demselves in a Rope.

" And the good Talbot is made a Lord,

Lilli, c. And he with brave lads is coming aboard.

" Who all in France have taken a swear,

Lilli, -c. Dat dey will have no Protestant here.

" 0, but why does he stay behind ?

Lilli, Sfc. Oh, be my Shoul dis a Protestant Wind.

" Xow Tyrconnel is come a Shore,

Lilli, -c. And we shall have Commission gillore.

" And he dat will not go to Mass,

Lilli, Sfc. Shall turn out and look like an Ass.

" Now, now de Heretick all go down,

Lilli, Sfc. By Christ and St. Patrick de Nation's our own.

" There was an old prophecy found in a Bog,

Lilli, $e. That Ireland shall be govern'd by an Ass and a Dog.

" And now the old Prophecy is come to pass,

Lilli Burlero, Bullen a-la, Talbot's a Dog, and Tyrconnel's an Ass, Lilli Burlero, Bullen a-la.

Lero, Lero, Lero, Lero, Lilli Burlero, Bullen a-la, Lero, Sfc."

The Second Part of LiUibullero, which is com- paratively very little known, was added after Wil- liam's landing. It is decidedly inferior to the first, but, to complete our notice, is here reprinted from the Poems on Affairs of State, vol. iii. p. 231.

" The Second Part.

" By Creish, my dear Morish, vat maukes de sho shad ?

Lilli, Sfc. De Hereticks jeer us, and mauke me mad.

" Pox tauke me, dear Teague, but I am in a Raage,

Lilli, Sfc. Poo-oo, what Impudence is in dia Aage !

" Dey shay dat Tyrconnel's a Friend to de Mash,

Lilli, fro. For which he's a Traytor, a Pimp, and an Ass.

" Ara ! Plague tauke ine now, I mauke a sware,

Lilli, -c. I to Shaint Tyburn will mauke a great Pray'r.

" O, I will pray to Shaint Patrick's Frock,

LUli, Sfc. Or to Loretto's Sacred Smock.

"Now, a Pox tauke me, what dost dow tink?

Lilli, Sfc. De English_Confusion to Popery drink.

" And, by my Shoul, de Mash-house pull down,

Lilli, &fc. While dey were a swaaring the Mayor of de Town.

" 0, Fait and be ! I'll make a Decree,

LUli, Sfc. And swaare by the Chancellor's Modesty.

" Dat I no longer in English will stay,

Lilli, 8fc. For, by Gode, dey will hang us out of the way.

" Vat if the dush should come as dey hope,

Lilli Burlero, Bullen a-la, To up hang us all for de Dispense of de Pope ? Lilli Burlero, Bullen a-la.

Lero, Lero, Lero, Lero, Lilli Burlero, Bullen a-la, Lero, Lero, -c."

Bishop Comptoris Letter to Archbishop San- croft.

[The following is a copy of what Macaulay (vol. iii. p. 91.) describes as " a very curious Letter from Comptou to Bancroft about the Toleration Bill and the Comprehen- sion Bill." It is preserved in the Bodleian Tanner MS. xxvii. f. 41. Macaulay has given the principal passage in it, as has also Dr. Cardwell, in his Conferences, 2nd edit, p. 406. Our readers will doubtless, however, be glad to see it in its original and perfect form.]

Thursday. My Lord,

I am sorry I was so far engaged before I re- ceived yo r cornands : tho I hope there will be some small encouragement left to promote that work you recoinend him to. We are now entring upon y e Bill of Comprehension, w h will be followed