The Roxburghe ballads . ile to mutter a sad damn, Because, either way, Failure we found ?Nay, truly, though foot-sore and weary Both pilgrims may long for their rest,Sloth we conquerd, tivixt Goblin and Feri : Whether paid or un-paid, Work ivas best. —Laborare est Orare : Trowbesk MSS. KAMATIC IMPERSONATIONS have beenpopular since the earliest days of ballads andsongs. When a man begins to sing we neednot make him swear on the Koran or theTestament that he is not the character herepresents himself to be, and he may assumewhatever virtues or vices are in keeping withthe part. Descendants of the
The Roxburghe ballads . ile to mutter a sad damn, Because, either way, Failure we found ?Nay, truly, though foot-sore and weary Both pilgrims may long for their rest,Sloth we conquerd, tivixt Goblin and Feri : Whether paid or un-paid, Work ivas best. —Laborare est Orare : Trowbesk MSS. KAMATIC IMPERSONATIONS have beenpopular since the earliest days of ballads andsongs. When a man begins to sing we neednot make him swear on the Koran or theTestament that he is not the character herepresents himself to be, and he may assumewhatever virtues or vices are in keeping withthe part. Descendants of the earlier Civil-war fanatics, zealous congregations, showedmore favour to dreary sententiousness than torollicking fun or the tender sentiment of love-ditties : all the vendors of penny broadsides knew where to findsuch cattle, and how to profitably disperse their pedlar-wares. Thisthe multitude of extant Godly Warnings amply proves. _ Suchheavy articles, howsoever insincerely fabricated, found a rapid sale VOL. VII. K. 2 What the Trades have to offer here, of Ballads. among our unctuous hypocrites or acrid Puritans, and perhapsneither camp yet lacks followers. The singer assumed a doublemask. Sometimes he chose to be a repentant Prodigal; sometimesthe Prodigals aggrieved and pious father who rebuked his unre-pentant son, but displayed a close acquaintance with all his hauntsof vice, without the fellow-feeling making him wondrous favourite attitude appeared to be standing on the ladder of thegallows, making a last dying speech and confession of past wicked-ness. This gave grand opportunities for histrionic details andexhortation. He might be a Highwayman, an unfortunate apprenticelike George Barnwell who had gone wrong after the Dolly-mops,or even a German Princess like Mary Carleton: to all of whom weshall listen in these pages. At the very least, he could pretendto be an Expiring Christian, in the strong odour of sanctity; evena Clerk of Bodmin (as on p. 40) : Cornw
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Keywords: ., bookauthorchappell, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1879
