MacLean, Gerald, editor. The Return of the King : An Anthology of English Poems Commemorating the Restoration
of Charles II / edited by Gerald MacLean
Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library
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Thomas Joy A Loyal Subjects Admonition 1 [undated: 16 March-25 April?]
Broadsides produced by Francis Grove were most often anonymous, but this one has been signed "T. J." and has been attributed to Thomas Joy by the Wing project.
Internal evidence suggests it belongs to the period immediately following the collapse of the Rump and before the Convention Parliament sat. These distinctly unmetrical verses encourage readers to be loyal to the king who is about to return now that Monk has rescued everyone from the tyrany of recent years. Mostly a catalogue of anti-Rump sentiments aimed at inciting the desire for just revenge, the accusations of property-grabbing by "Rebells" are especially interesting. I have been unable to establish whether Colonel Thomas Rainsborough (also Rainborow) did indeed profit from Higham Park as accused, but since he had died in 1648, the accusation itself is testimony to Joy's long memory and suggestive of a personal grudge.
[1] Wing: J39b. Bl brs. Copies: GU Euing 160.
A Loyal Subjects Admonition, or, a true Song of
Brittains Civil Wars.
Some with blind zeal, Religion did professe,
Murder'd their lawful King, oh wickednesse
Scripture nor Chronicle they could not bring,
To shew what subjects ever judged their King.
King Charls beheaded was wee understand,
Proud Rebels they did live upon his Land,
But now these Rebels are disperst and gone,
Few honest men I think for them make moan.
If any man be angry at this Song,
What e're he thinks hee'd best to hold his tongue.
To the Tune of General Moncks right march, that was sounded
before him from Scotland to London, or the Highlanders march.
GReat controversie hath been in England,
but of ye just cause there is few men do know,
Rebellion for certain, as I understand,
hath been the fore-runner of sorrow and woe,
For every Presbyter,
Struck at the Myter,
Till they had gotten the world in a sling,
but Monck hath confounded,
each prick-eard round-head,
10: Now let's be Loyal and true to our King,
The Scots did adventure at first to Rebel
And Englishmen quickly this lesson did learn,
But Lucifer tumbled from Heaven to Hell,
because his ambition be would not discern,
And therefore be wary,
lest he ensnare ye,
That count Rebellion a plausible thing,
but Monck hath confounded,
each prick-eard round-head,
20: Now let's be Loyal and true to our King.
The City of London was zealous and hot,
to mannage the cause of the Scots government
Forten thousand souldiers they raised I wot;
to go a King catching it was their intent;
rich they would make him,
if they could take him,
Such fair pretences through Britain did ring,
But Monck hath confounded,
each prick-eard round-head,
30: Now let's be Loyal and true to our King.
Much like a Partridge the King they did chase,
from mountain to mountain they did him pursue
They quickly dispersed all the Royall race,
with their Loyal subjects, these Verses are true,
then any Lay-man,
Brewer or Dray-man,2
Could make a Throne or a Pulpitt to ring,
but Monck hath confounded,
each prick-eard round-head,
40: Now let's be Loyal and true to our King.
[cut]
WHen with their base power they'd conquered his friends
they quickly surprised the Kings Majesty,
These zealots Religion, was for their own ends,
their Oath of Allegiance they then did defy
a Scaffold erected,
Murder effected;
Heathens ne'r acted so horrid a thing,
but Monck hath confounded,
each prick-eard round-head,
50: Now let's be Loyal and true to our King.
But while these Rebells did thus tyrannize,
a terrible Governour quickly arose,
Although Kingly government they did despise,
'Twas treason to meddle with Olivers Nose,
for he like a Hector,
was their Protector,
Rebells had Shelter under his wing:
but Monck hath confounded,
each prick-eard round-head,
60: Now let's be Loyal and true to our King.
This Tyrants government lasted too long,
for Rebels in England did dayly increase,
Yet none but poor Cavaleers suffer'd wrong,
while every Ass was made Justice of Peace,
and Cavys must stand sir,3
with Cap in hand sir,
At their command sir, in every thing:
but Monck hath confounded,
each prick-eard round-head
70: Now let's be Loyal and true to our King.
Worshipfull Walton got Sommersome Park,4
without any labor or taking of pains,
And Wagstaffe that Major was counted a Spark,5
although he did live upon other mens means,
and Rainsborough nimble
sleighted his Thimble,
When Higham Park such profit did bring,6
but Monck hath confounded,
each prick-eard round-head,
80: Now let's be Loyal and true to our King.
These pittiful fellows are all put to flight,
which thought that their pleasures would never ha'end
For they in ambition did take such delight,
there's many supposes they'l be hang'd ere they'l mend
for they in their bravery,
acted such knavery,
Curbing true subjects in every thing,
but Monck hath confounded,
each prick-eard round-head,
90: Now let us be loyal and true to our King.
I wish with my heart all the Kings enemys
both Rebels and Traitors on Tyborn may swing
That every moment do mischeef devise,
and can't be content with a Protestant King,
Esquire Dun3 take them,
never forsake them
Untill thou make them peep through a string,
now Monck hath confounded,
each prickeard roundhead,
100: Now let's be loyal and true to our King.
Composed by loyal T. J. FINIS. London, Printed for F. Grove on Snow-hill.
[2] On satires portraying Cromwell as a brewer, see Laura Knoppers, Constructing Cromwell.
[3] Presumably to "stand" or keep "cave" in the schoolboy sense, here suggesting that Justices were appointed merely to stand on guard over the tyrants in power and to give warning at the approach of legitimate authority.
[4] Presumably Colonel Valentine Walton (c. 1594-c.1661), a regicide who married Cromwell's sister Margaret. Dispossesed by Monk and Parliament of his army position on 21 February, he escaped abroad. See DNB, and Spalding, Contemporaries of Bulstrode Whitelocke. I have been unable to locate Sommersome Park; it may refer to either Somerton or Somersham in Suffolk.
[5] Presumably the same "Wagstaffe" whose imprisonment by the Committee of Safety, together with Colonel William Okey and "other faithfull Officers," was deplored by the radical dissenter, William Dell, in December 1659; see Spalding, Contemporaries, pp. 71-2. In the late summer of 1649, one Captain Richard Wagstaff assisted Lambert in putting down Leveller insurgency in Oxford. See H. N. Brailsford, The Levellers and the English Revolution, ed. Christopher Hill (1961; rpt. Notingham: Spokesman Press, 1983), p. 565, who cites the following newsbooks: A Modest Narrative of Intelligence (8-15 September, 1649), Mercurius Elencticus (17-24 September, 1649), and Mercurius Pragmaticus (18-25 September, 1649).
[6] This accusation is particularly intriguing since the Leveller Thomas Rainsborough (or Rainborow), one of Cromwell's junior officers in the early days of the New Model Army, had died in 1648; see Brailsford, The Levellers, DNB. The estate of Higham Park, near Canterbury, Kent, dates back to the 1320's, but I have yet to establish any links to Rainsborough (see http://www.Higham-Park.co.uk).
[7] Squire Dun, not OED: here, presuably the hangman, death, or the devil when he comes to demand his dues.