Naval Songs and Ballads

PUBLICATIONS, OF THE '"" C NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY t Vol. XXXIII. ""*) 3^ r Naval Songs Ballads and HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY JAM 0 8 199; This volume NA I'AL SONGS AND " HA I.L.I PS announced for last lias been year, nuaioidab/y delayed but issued the is now on ic;""7 % subscription. it hoped that the vwws or tin: is RATILliS OF TUT THIRD DUTCH WAR. /so due the subscript ion will be a ov J907 % ready May next. m March KjoS. ftatoal "ongs anb Battalia SELECTED AND EDITED BY C. H. FIRTH, MA. RfGim rmowwmom or modern history, oxroao PRINTED FOR THE ^AVY RFCORDS SCK"II IV MDCCCCVIII \ w^ : i'^y HARVARD UNI VERSOY LIBRARY " Aue 7 m THE COUNCIL OP THE NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY I 907- I 908 PATRON H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES, K.G., K.T., K.P. PRESIDENT EARL SPENCER, ICG. VICE PRESIDENTS Budge, Admiral Sir Cyprian Desart, The Earl op A. C, G.C.B. K.C.R Clarke, Col. Sir George S., Firth, Professor C. H., LL.D. G.C.M.G..F.R.S. COUNCILLORS Atkinson, C. T. May, Vice-Admiral Sir William, K.C.B. Cot ritt, Julian S. Mow Sir Francis, G.C.B. Dartmouth, The Earl op. att, Fanshawe, Admiral Sir Newbolt, Henry. Arthur, K.C.B. Prothero, G. W., LittD., Field, Captain A M., R.N., LL.D. F.R.S. Seymour, Admiral op the Lieut. -General Sir Geary, Fleet Sir Edward H., G.C.B. Henry, K.C.B. Tarleton, Lieutenant A H., Ginsburg, B. W., LL.D. R.N., M.V.O. Godlky, Sir Arthur, K.C.B. Thursfirld, J. R. Gordon, The Hon. George. Watts, Sir Philip, D.Sc, Gray, Alrert, K.C. K.C.B., F.R.S. Hordern, Lieutenant Lionkl, White, Commander J. Bell, R.N. R.N.R. Loraine, Rear-Admiral Sir White, Sir William H., D.Sc, Lambton, Bart. K.C.B., F.R.S. Markham, Admiral Sir Alrert H., KX.B. Yorkr, Sir Henry, K.C.B. SECRETARY Sir J. Knox Laughton, D.Liu., King's College, London, W.C. TREASURER W. Graham Greene, C.B., Admiralty, S.W. The Council of the Navy Records Society wish it be distinctly understood that they to not are answer-able for opinions observations that any or may appear in the Society's publications. For these the responsi-bility entirely with the Editors of the several works. rests INTRODUCTION The of this volume is bring together col-lection object to a of ballads illustrating the history of the British from the sixteenth the middle of the nine-teenth navy to At period since the invention century. every of the exploits of English sailors found printing some-one celebrate them in They wanted to verse. never kind from the va/ts of another, a uuer some or poet who them in elaborate preferred to give immortality the ballad-writer whose rough-hewn lines verses, to merely intended the people the were to convey to of the day, what the people news or to represent felt the It is the last class of at moment. to com- ?"sition that the pieces here reprinted belong, hey have certain limited historical value. a Though the details which they have preserved be implicitly trusted, they often contain cannot an element of truth, and it is of the business of part the historian sift this Their evidence to out may be evidence of the highest value, but should not be neglected. They tell historians not entirely what felt and what believed by those who was was the ballads and those who bought them, show wrote bow public opinion formed, and help explain was to the growth of popular traditions. Besides this, the ballads describe with singular vividness and realism certain of maritime aspects life, and supply life and colour which is lacking a in formal records of administration and official viii SONGS AND BALLADS letters. They enable the historian to complete his picture and vivify his narrative, and the ordinary reader realise the life of the to past Of the ballads here number reprinted a great the of professional of were production composers ballads who had direct connection with the no and in the they described. navy, no part events In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the ballad filled the which the place cheap newspaper fills and writers the now, professional put stirring incidents of the into for the information day verse of the the modern people as naturally as journalist them into Most of the older narrative puts prose. ballads of this class for are : instance, Deloney's the of the Great Galeazzo and verses on capture the of Cadiz. Often the ballad taking was simply adaptation of the an a prose pamphlet on same subject. In the registers of the Stationers' for the late sixteenth and Company early seven-teenth there of this. century are many examples For instance, Andrew White, on May 15, 1579, bookseller, entered his a as copyright a prose pamphlet relating The Wonderful Victory obtained by the Centurion of London against Five Spanish GallieSy and the ' ballad of on same day registers a the Stationer sy same victory.1 (Arber, Registers, ii. b.) Often bookseller 274 a entering a prose narrative of this kind the provided, at same time, for the of ballad version which securing copyright a had been written, modern author not yet just as a the of novel. If reserves right dramatising a new this done rival bookseller was not some publisher or seized the ballad the opportunity, produced a on incident and of the moment, spoilt the sale of the original narrative (ib. ii. 162-3, 261-2). Not only incidents in naval history, but stories and items of of kind treated in the news every were same INTRODUCTION ix fashion, and this number of to practice we owe a prosaic ballads possible subject. The on every best limit of the professional ballad-writers did not themselves the actual but to versification of events, further and embodied in their went verse conception of the dangers and pleasures of sailors and of typical incidents of seafaring life. Martin Parker's is example Sayfars far my Money a typical of this, and such compositions form the staple of collections because most of naval ballads, probably their character and their merit more general greater them wider and life. gave popularity a longer written Another class of ballads consists of those sailors themselves describe actions in which by to they had taken A ballad difficult part was not a the the thing to write; metre was usually simple, rules about and the traditional rhyme not exacting, formulas and be familiar. phrases to employed were Hence it is that and occasion-ally not surprising sailors, undertook celebrate the officers, sometimes to exploits of the ships in which they served. Such ballads in considerable in were produced frequency the eighteenth and in the nine-teenth, century, even early and in this some specimens are reprinted volume. One written board the by a seaman on Burford, Vernon's the of flagship, describes capture Portobello second, written board the flagship ; a on of Admiral Mathews, relates his battle off Toulon ; third, lieutenant of the celebrates a by a Bellerophon, Howe's the first of and is said victory on June, to have been actually in the of the sung gun-room Bellerophon 186, In the (pp. 177, 271). some cases author reveals himself in the last lines of the ballad. " I foremast and the Arrow do am a saucy Jack, to belong/ the writer of sloop of that says one upon a name. SONGS AND BALLADS x Another the Robin Hood concludes on privateer defiantly : 1 is the author of My name George Cook, this, And he be that will take it amiss.* may hang'd A third, which the of the narrates escape Princess from wrecked the Good-win Royal being on ends that the should Sands, by suggesting poet be rewarded for his pains : 1 It brisk sailor that these lines did make, was a young And of ache.' over a can flip his heart would never (Pp. 290, 267, 191.) There other ballads in which it is are many obvious that the writer concerned was personally in the incidents which form the of his subject verses, avowal is made. although no explicit actually there is third class of ballads, Finally yet a neither written by professional ballad-writers, nor by sailors of themselves, but by professional men letters. The popularity of the ballad induced writers to adopt that form of composition in order catch the of the multitude. Hence to ear a con-siderable that number of satirical compositions cast in such the and mould, as verses against Torrington Byng, 206 of this volume, and given on pp. no, other written with direct pieces a political purpose. The typical specimen of this class of ballad is /fosters Richard Ghost, by Glover, a professional who had blank poet already published a verse epic, and treated this subject in the fashion most likely multitude in order their to appeal to the to secure for the attack policy. support on Walpole's foreign Other authors, without professional too, any political the form because they object to serve, adopted same that the sailor and perceived was a popular topic, that his perils, his loves and his diversions, afforded INTRODUCTION xi material for if treated the good verse, they were on traditional lines. Dibdin was anticipated by Gay and Stevens, and others whom the world many has forgotten.

Load more