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Further Additions to Bond's Register
of Burlesque Poems
by
A. B. England
The following poems are not listed in the 'Register of Burlesque Poems' at the end of Richmond P. Bond's English Burlesque Poetry 1700-1750, New York, 1932, reissued 1964, or in A. J. Sambrook's 'Additions to Bond's Register of Burlesque Poems,' SB, 23 (1970), 176-9. The first two poems in my additional list are also cited by Edward Ames Richards in Hudibras in the Burlesque Tradition, New York, 1937, who also cites the one Hudibrastic poem given by Sambrook. Richards lists several poems not mentioned by Bond, but not all of them are burlesque by Bond's definitions. The poem by Ward which is given below is also listed in Howard W. Troyer's Ned Ward of Grubstreet, Cambridge, Mass., 1946. The data for all six poems are given in Bond's pattern.
1702
The Visions of Dom Francisco de Quevedo. Villegas. Knight of the Order of St. James. Made English by Sir R. Lestrange, And Burlesqu'd by a Person of Quality. London, Printed and Sold by B. Harris, at the Golden Boar's-head in Grace-church-street. 1702.
pp. 1-284. o.c.
Hudibrastic.
Together by the Ears they all
In a most bloody Fray did fall:
But those engaged, I did see,
Were Persons of great Quality,
As Emp'rors, Gen'rals, Magistrates,
And other topping Blades of States.
Lucifer to prevent the Quarrel,
Commanding Peace and Silence there;
But to be stopt in the Career
Of Fury in the dreadful Fight,
Their Lips they all did gnaw and bite;
Then an old prating martyr'd Fellow,
Who was with drinking somewhat mellow,
With a long story did delight us,
His Name (as Quintus told) is Clitus. [p. 223]
1706
A Trip to Leverpoole, By Two of Fate's Children, In Search of Fortunatus's Purse. A Saytre [sic]. Address'd to the Honourable the Commissioners of Her Majesties Customs. [Motto] Hudibrass. By a Gentleman of Lincoln's-Inn. London: Printed for Richard Croskill Bookseller in Lincoln's-Inn. 1706. [B. M.]
pp. 1-21. o.c.
Hudibrastic.
So Wealthy grown, so full of Hurry,
That She eclipses Bristol's Glory:
Her Trade, as well as Sumptuous Houses,
Where the Chief Publican Carouses,
The Port's infallible Director,
In modern English call'd Collector,
Does manifestly Testify
Her Mightiness a Mystery;
A Riddle wants an Exposition,
Without the Purse's kind Permission;
A Treasure inexhaustible,
Constantly drain'd, yet always full:
A Hocus Pocus way of Thriving,
A sudden Tast of Splendid Living,
Which by the Merchants does appear,
By Chance, or Choice establisht here. [p. 3]
The narrator-hero successfully exploits this corruption for a time, mainly by seducing the wife and daughter of the "Chief Publican." But things go wrong when he marries another woman, and at the end of the poem he leaves for London in order to expose the practices by which he had temporarily profited. The publican is left describing an ominous dream in which he is visited by a former colleague who has committed suicide:
Then from His hollow Trunk a Sound,
Which did my shivering Conscience wound;
Prepare thou Miscreant to be
A Shameful Mark of Infamy.
Not Hartley, Peters, Crafty Pool
Can save thy Body, less thy Soul.
A Purgatory's here prepar'd,
And Hell hereafter's thy Reward:
Thy Wife's vampt off with all the Pelf,
In Limbo thou may'st hang thy self. [pp. 20-21]
1712
The Land-Leviathan; or, Modern Hydra: in Burlesque Verse, By way of Letter to a Friend. [Motto] Quae Genus. London: Printed for John Morphew near Stationers-Hall. 1712. Price 3d. [Bodl.]
pp. 3-24. o.c.
Hudibrastic.
These all conjoin'd, as if One Man,
Compose this vast Leviathan;
And wou'd with Gospel Texts dispense,
As Stumbling-Blocks of great Offence;
Because the Holy Pen-Men lay
No Shackles on the Word Obey;
(Word to two sorts of Folks abomin-Able,
to Whigs and Married-Women;)
But Part with Passive Levites take,
Who Suff'ring preach for Conscience-sake.
That Modern Saints will do or act
For Conscience-sake, is true in Fact;
Down Scruples, when the Zealot warm is,
He'll act for Conscience Vi et Armis,
Who-e'er forbids; but Suffering
For Conscience-sake's another thing,
A Case in which (their Due to render)
Their Consciences are truly tender: . . . [pp. 8-9]
1718
The Tower of Babel: An Anti-Heroic Poem. Humbly Dedicated to the B____p of B____r. [Motto]. London, Printed for J. Morphew, near Stationers-Hall MDCCXVIII. (Price, Six-pence.) [B. M.]
pp. 3-32 o.c.
Hudibrastic.
I own with you, that he's a Wigeon,
Who makes a Garb of his Religion,
Whose Worship turns on Bows and Cringes
Much like a Door upon the Hinges;
But yet since Man's a sort of Creature,
Or Sound of so complex a Nature,
That Flesh and Spirit joyn'd become
One physical Compositum:
'Tis fit the Offices and Duties,
Concerning which the great Dispute is,
Should be in some Proportion equal,
Or both will quarrel in the Sequel; . . . [p. 21]
1720
The Delights of the Bottle: or, the Compleat Vintner. With the Humours of [List of types]. A Merry Poem. To which is added, A South-Sea Song upon the late Bubbles. By the Author of the Cavalcade. [Motto]. London. Printed for Sam. Briscoe at the Bell-Savage on Ludgate-Hill. MDCCXX. [B. M.]
Edward Ward. pp. 3-54. o.c.
Hudibrastic.
No Lover sure can die for Beauty,
Or pine for Joys above the Shoe-tye;
No Hero hack or hew his Way
Thro' bloody Storms, for little Pay,
Nor any mortal Soul incline
To Love, or Brav'ry, but by Wine;
Without it, we should ne'er have heard
Of this wise Lord, that wond'rous Bard,
Or known the Names of Politician,
Priest, Poet, Lawyer, or Physician;
For, when we read of mighty Things
Perform'd by Heroes or by Kings,
Believe they quaff'd off briming Goblets,
Before they lac'd their Iron Doublets,
And, Dutchman like, would never fight
A stroke, until their Hearts were light; . . . [pp. 13-14]
The other three cantos are entitled "The Compleat Vintner," "The Description of a Tavern," and "The Tavern Tormentors."
1723
The Free Masons; An Hudibrastick Poem: Illustrating the Whole History of the Ancient Free Masons, from the Building the Tower of Babel to this Time. With their Laws, Ordinances, Signs, Marks, Messages, &c. so long kept secret, Faithfully discover'd and made known. And the Manner of their Installation Particularly Describ'd. By a Free Mason. [Motto]. London, Printed for A. Moore, near St. Paul's. 1723. (Price Sixpence.) [Bodl.]
pp. 3-24. o.c.
Hudibrastic.
Where when you're strip'd it is they tann ye;
They study well, but 'tis no matter,
The Secrets of their Mother Nature;
For if Philosophy they know,
It is of Nature's Charms below,
And in this ev'ry one agrees,
They know all Nature's Privities;
Each Lodge with Library is grac'd,
Fam'd Aristotle's Master-Piece,
Who was the Midwife of Old Greece,
And all the modern Grannies down
To Ch——bl——n, D——gl——s, and B——n: . . . [pp. 14-15]
Most of the poem is concerned with the indiscriminate sexual activities of the freemasons.
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