Written and published in 1659; as we see by the references to “_Dick_ (_Oliver’s_ Heir) that pitiful slow-thing, Who was once invested with purple clothing,”—his retirement being in April, 1659. Bradshaw, the bitter Regicide (whose harsh vindictiveness to Charles I. during the trial has left his memory exceptionally hateful), died 22nd November, 1659. Hewson the Cobbler was one of Oliver’s new peers, summoned in January, 1658.
Pages 69, 368. _Be not thou so foolish nice._
The music to this, by Dr. John Wilson, is in his _Chearfull Ayres_, 1659-60, p. 126.
Gule is misprint for “Goal,” and refers to the Bishops who, having been molested and hindered from attending to vote among the peers, were, on 30th December, 1642, committed to the Tower for publishing their protest against Acts passed during their unwilling absence. Finch, Lord Keeper; who, to save his life, fled beyond sea, and did not return until after the Restoration.
Pages 72, 369. _A Sessions was held, &c._
To avoid a too-long interruption, our Additional Note to the “Sessions of the Poets” is slightly displaced from here, and follows later as Section Third.
Pages 87, 369. _Some Christian people all, &c._
We have traced this burlesque narrative of the Fire on London Bridge ten years earlier than _Merry Drollery_, 1661, p. 81. It appeared (probably for the first time in print) on April 28th, 1651, at the end of a volume of _facetiæ_, entitled _The Loves of Hero and Leander_ (in the 1677 edition, following _Ovid de Arte Amandi_, it is on p. 142). The event referred to, we suspect, was a destructive fire which broke out on London Bridge, 13th Feb. 1632-3. It is thus described:—“At the latter end of the year 1632, viz., on the 13th Feb., between eleven and twelve at night, there happened in the house of one Briggs, a needle-maker, near St. Magnus Church, at the north end of the bridge, by the carelessness of a maid-servant, setting a tub of hot sea-coal ashes under a pair of stairs, a sad and lamentable fire, which consumed all the buildings before eight of the clock the next morning, from the north end of the bridge, to the first vacancy on both sides, containing forty-two houses; _water being then very scarce, the Thames being almost frozen over_. Beneath, in the vaults and cellars, the fire remained burning and glowing a whole week after. After which fire, the north end of the bridge lay unbuilt for many years; only deal boards were set up on both sides, to prevent people’s falling into the Thames, many of which deals were, by high winds, blown down, which made it very dangerous in the nights, although there were lanthorns and candles hung upon all the cross-beams that held the pales together.” (Tho. Allen’s _Hist. and Antiq. of London_, vol. ii. p. 468, 1828.) Details and list of houses burnt are given (as in _Gent. Mag._ Nov. 1824), from the MS. _Record of the Mercies of God; or, a Thankfull Remembrance_, 1618-1635 (since printed), kept by the Puritan Nehemiah Wallington, citizen and turner, of London, a friend of Prynn and Bastwick. He gives the date as Monday, 11th February, 1633. Our ballad mentions the river being frozen over, and “all on the tenth of January;” but nothing is more common than a traditional blunder of the month, so long as the rhythm is kept. (Compare _Choyce Drollery_, p. 78, and Appendix p. 297).
