A web-based edition of early seventeenth-century political poetry from manuscript sources. It brings into the public domain over 350 poems, many of which have never before been published.
L5 Listen jolly gentlemen
Notes. We cannot yet establish an exact composition date for this song about King James I and his merry men. Anthony Weldon (84-85), writing in the 1640s, dates the beginning of the King’s fondness for court fooleries performed by some of the men mentioned in this libel—Finet, Zouche, Goring and Milliscent—to the period of Villiers’s first ascent at court (early 1615). Other details in the libel—particularly allusions to masquing—and the continued presence of these men both as participants in court entertainments and as members of the Buckingham circle, suggest a plausible composition date of some time around 1619 or 1620. Knowles (“To ‘scourge the arse’” 82-83) comments tellingly both on the poem’s depiction of the “court masque as a homosocial if not homoerotic form”, and on the possibility that the musical performance of the song might possibly “undermine the satiric potency”. See, too, McRae (Literature 45-46) and P. Hammond (140).
Listen jolly gentlemen
Listen and be merrie
A word, or two faine would I speake
To the praise of old king harry1
But hee would sware, and he would stare
5And lay hand on his dagger
And would swive2 while hee was a live
From the Queene unto the begger
Then lett him alone he’s dead and gone
And wee have in his place
10Our noble king of him letts sing
God save King James his grace
With hey derrie downe downe &c3
King James hath meat, king James hath men
King James loves to be merry
15King James too is angrie nowe and then
But it makes him quickely wearie
hee dwells at Court where hee hath good sport
Att Christmes hee hath danceing4
In the summer tyde abrode will hee ryde5
20With a guard about him pranceing
With a hey downe downe &c.
Att Royston and newmarkett6 hele hunt till he be leane
But hee hath merry boys that with masks, and toyes
Can make him fatt againe
25Nedd Zouch,7 Harrie Riche,8Tom Badger9
George Goring,10 and Jacke Finett11
Will dance a heate till they stincke of sweat
As if the devill weere in it.
With a hey downe &c.
30But Jacke Maynard12 Jacke Milliscent13
Two Joviall boyes of the Rout
For a maske or play beare the bell away14
If Jacke Millisent be not out
Alas poore Jacke money didst thou lacke
35When thou wert out at Saxum15
Thou wer’t wont to have boldnes
A pox on thy coldnes
Was cause that thou did’st lacke some
With a hey downe downe &c
40There are Lords too cann daintely doe
But they must have a wench by the hand
And then they will too’t, and lustily foot
As long as they cann stand
’Tis a lovely grace to dance with a lasse
45When a man may kisse, and court
But to dance with A man like a puritan16
Tis a drie and ugly sport
With a hey downe downe &c.
And nowe that you17 who the madd boyes bee
50That make King James soe merry
Why keeps his grace such a foole, or an asse
As Archie or Tom Derrie18
But fooles are things for the pastime of kings
Fooles still must be about them
55Soe must Knaves too, where ever the goe
They seldome goe without them
With a hey downe downe &c.
Of the graver sort, I will make noe report
Theire Noses abide noe Jeast
60With poore officers too, Ile have nothing to doe
Onely one among the rest
’Tis the brave Knight Marshall,19 hee is not partiall
In the place bestowed on him
For your whores and your knaves
65And your merry drunken slaves
Cry a plague, and a pox upon him
With a hey downe downe &c.
Before I have done, of the kings brave sonne20
I should sett forth the praise
70England never had a more likelyer ladd
To prolonge our happie daies.
But I made this songe
And it must not be longe
For good king James his sake
75God blesse King James his kingdome, and Realme
And soe an end Ile make
With a hey downe downe &c.
Source. Bodleian MS Malone 23, pp. 19-22
Other known sources. Bodleian MS Malone 19, p. 87; BL Add. MS 29879, fol. 26r
L5
1 old king harry: King Henry VIII. <back>
3 With hey derrie downe down: by the eighteenth century at least, this refrain was in common ballad usage. Simpson (172-76) prints and discusses the late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century tune “Derry Down” that probably accompanied ballads with this refrain. <back>
4 Att Christmes...danceing: alluding to the dancing and masquing held at court during the Christmas season. <back>
5 summer tyde...hee ryde: James and the court would usually progress out of London during the hotter summer months. <back>
6 Royston and newmarkett: James had hunting lodges at Royston and Newmarket. <back>
7 Nedd Zouch: Sir Edward Zouche, Knight Marshall. Weldon (84-85) alleges that Zouche used “to sing bawdy songs, and tell bawdy tales” to the King. Chamberlain (2.129) reports that Zouche performed in a play for James at Theobalds in January 1618. <back>
8 Harrie Riche: Sir Henry Rich, Viscount Kensington and later Earl of Holland, appointed Captain of the Guard in 1617. Chamberlain has reports of Rich’s masquing activities from February 1617 and January 1620 (2.56, 2.282). <back>
9 Tom Badger: Sir Thomas Badger. Chamberlain has reports of his masquing and other court theatrical performances in February 1617, January 1618, and January 1620 (2.56, 2.129, 2.282). <back>
10 George Goring: Sir George Goring, client of the favourite Buckingham. Chamberlain has reports of his masquing and other court theatrical performances in February 1617, January 1618, and January 1620 (2.56, 2.29, 2.282). Weldon (84-85) lists Goring with Zouche and Finet as one of the “chiefe and Master Fools” at James’s court; he was the “master of the game for Fooleries” who staged mock piggy-back tilts and “antick dances” for the King’s delectation. <back>
11 Jacke Finett: Sir John Finet, assistant Master of Ceremonies at James I’s court. Weldon (84-85) asserts that Finet, one of James’s “chiefe and Master Fools”, composed the “bawdy songs” that Edward Zouche would sing to the king. Chamberlain (2.131) reports in January 1618 that Finet had spoiled an interlude at James’s palace at Theobalds by singing “a certain song...of such scurrilous and base stuffe that it put the King out of his goode humor, and all the rest that heard it”. <back>
12 Jacke Maynard: John Maynard, who was noted for his dancing in the Twelfth Night masque for January 1619, performed in a masque for the French ambassador a year later, and actually composed at least two masques in 1623-24 (Chamberlain 2.200, 2.282, 2.527, 2.577). Chamberlain thought him “a very proper man but that he is extreme poreblind” (2.200). <back>
13 Jacke Milliscent: Sir John Milliscent. In his bitter assessment of James I’s taste for fooleries and the men who satisfied it, Anthony Weldon noted that “Sir John Milliscent (who was never known before) was commended for notable fooling, and so was he indeed the best extemporary foole of them all” (85). <back>
14 beare the bell away: to be the best. Chamberlain’s report on the 1619 Twelfth Night masque noted that John Maynard “beares away the bell for dauncing” (2.200). <back>
15 Saxum: probably an allusion to Sir John Crofts’ house at Saxham Parva, close to James’s hunting retreat at Newmarket, and a site of frequent court visits (see, e.g., Chamberlain 2.288, 2.417, 2.424). <back>
16 puritan: term for the “hotter sort of Protestant”, here used in its original pejorative sense. <back>
17 you: “you see” is a better reading. <back>
18 Archie or Tom Derrie: Archie Armstrong was a well-known court jester or fool; Tom Derry was presumably another “professional” fool.<back>
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