0
ENG 163
[Anónimo]
Gulp It Down, Johnny:
A New Song for the New Year. A Free Version of the Spanish Song Trágala
Perro, or, Gulp It Down Dog. [2]
1821
Cítese como: [Anónimo]. Gulp It Down, Johnny: A New Song for the New Year. A Free Version of the
Spanish Song Trágala Perro, or, Gulp It Down Dog. [2].1821. Edición Proyecto POETRY 15, 2017.Archivo Electrónico de Fuentes Primarias, Cód. ENG 163.
http://www.uniovi.es/proyectopoetry15/index.php
1
A new Song for the New Year
A FREE VERSION OF THE SPANISH SONG
TRÁGALA PERRO,
OR,
GULP IT DOWN DOG
T
UNE---“Gee ho, Dobbin.”
W
HENStar Chamber practice first came into vogue, J
OHNB
ULLthought his King little less than a rogue;
But Johnny, by speaking his mind it appears, Got the left-handed comfort of losing his ears.
** In 1633, Wm. PRYNNE, for an alleged libel of Charles I. Was sentenced by the Star Chamber to “stand on the pillory in two places, Westminster and Cheapside, to lose both his ears, one in each place, to pay £5000 to the King, and to be imprisoned during life”--- HUME.
Sir Simon D’Ewes,in his journal, says---“I heard a particular news which much ensadded my heart, touching William Prynne, Esq. that had been an utter barrister of Lincoln’s Inne, and a graduate in the Universitie of Oxford, who had lost one eare already, or a parte of it, in the pillorie, and was to lose a parte of the other to-morrow. He was most learned, religious, gentleman, &e.--- neither his Academical nor Barrister’s gown could free him from the infamous losse of his eares: yet all good men generally conceived it would have been remitted; and manie reported it was, ‘til the sadd and fatal execution of it this Midsummer terme. I went to visit him a while after inn the Fleet, and to confort him: and found in him the rare effects of an upright heart and good conscience, by his serenity of spirit and chearfull patience.”
Mr. PRYNNE was an indefatigable collector of facts relating to the rights and liberties of the people, and to the due administration of the laws, which he from time to time published in a great many tracts and volumes. Bet worst of all Mr.PRYNNE was a Radical advocating the People’s right freely to elect their members--- and proving that, both by law and practice, PARLIAMENTS OUGHT TO BE SESSIONAL.
In his “Fourth Part of a Brief Register and Calendar of Parliamentary Writs”, Mr. Prynne says, “My general design, in this publication, is to communicate the knowledge, revive, perpetuate the memory, discover the excellent uses of those unknown, forgotten old writs and records to the world; to REDUCE our modern over tedious long sessions---acts---debates---proceedings in Parliament---to their PRISTINE BREVITY, SITTING BUT A VERY FEW DAYS OR WEEKS; our old, overstrained, and new surmised privileges of Parliament, grown gracious to the people, and great obstruction to public justice; to their ancient, strict, inoffensive, LEGAL BOUNDS; all undue, disorderly, ebrious, corrupt, expensive elections of Parliament Members, to their pristine integrity, sobriety, freedom.—Without begging—WITHOUT BRIBING—WITHOUT FEASTING;-- all elected Knights, Citizens, Burgesses, Barons of Parliament, to THEIR OLD DAILY, DILIGENT, CONSTANT ATTENDANCE on, and prosecution of
2 Swallow that, J
OHNNY,
Round- headed J
OHNNY†Gulp it down, J
OHNNY--- high up gee ho!
Honest J
OHNNY, not liking such treatments at all, Brought his ear-clipping Monarch one day to Whitehall,
And there, by a trick which astonished beholders, He conjur’d his M
AJESTY’s head from his shoulders
‡O fie! J
OHNNY! Regicide J
OHNNY,
Jacobin J
OHNNY—high up, gee ho!
The with sanctified visage, and phrases so quaint, Come Cromwell, the hero, the sage, and the saint;
§Not a despot in Europe but felt his heart quake, At the mention of Cromwell and Admiral Blake.
the grand affairs of the King, Kingdom, church, for which they were summoned, from the beginning to the end of the session, without ONE DAY’S ABSENCE, neglect or protraction of their parliamentary work, (by intermeddling with private bills), as their predecessors did, whiles they sued forth writs of expenses and received wages from their electors, which obliged them to discharge their duties with all possible expedition, diligence, sincerity, for their own honour and their electors satisfaction.”
He suffered the mutilation of his person, the ruin of his property, and seven years imprisonment, when he has released by the Parliamentary army, and lived to see the downfall and decapitation of the “blessed Martyr”.
One of the most inveterate enemies to the rights and liberties of the people; and one of the basest supporters of tyranny, who, like some of our modern priests, was not only forward to declare that the King ruled by divine right, but that he could do no moral wrong, was WILLIAM LAUD, Archbishop of Canterbury. This man was the chief instigator of the injustice and cruelty inflicted on Mr. Prynne, for which, as well as for his perversion of the law, Prynne promised he would someday bring him to justice, and the sturdy radical kept his word--- Laud was tried before The House of Lords, condemned, and executed. Those who maintained the popular cause were called Roundheads---- those who supported tyranny, Cavaliers.
† Those who maintained the popular cause were called Roundheads---- those who supported tyranny, Cavaliers.
‡ It is not known to this day who the person was that chopped off Charles’s head.
§ Hume, whose partiality to the Stuarts is notorious and undisguised, admits that the election of the first Parliament convened by Cromwell, after his accession to the Protectorship, “was conducted with perfect freedom; excepting that such of the Royalists as had borne arms against the Parliament, and all their sons, were excluded, a more fair representation of the people could not be desired or expected.”
It is curious to compare the energy and insolence of Cromwell (supported by a House of Commons thus chosen) in his foreign affairs, with the helplessness and complaisance of my Lord Castlereagh (backed by his House of Commons) towards the Holy Alliance.
3 Think of that, Johnny,
Crest-fallen Johnny,
Parga-stain’d Johnny—high up gee ho!
But Johnny grew tir’d of his terrible name, And long’d (as just now) to be loyal and tame,
So his gingerbread Moloch he set up again, And to feast the foul idol a Russell was slain!
**Long ear’d Johnny, Lick-spittle Johnny,
You’ll find it out, Johnny--- high up, gee ho!
And Johnny was soon in a pitiful case, His master’s vagaries they thicken’d apace;
And did Johnny but hint they were hard of digestion, A Manchester Bolus soon settled the question.
Joy to you, Johnny, Gulp it down, Johnny,
The right line for ever--- high up, gee ho!
Poor Johnny, thus caught like a mouse in a trap, Sat down for a time and bewailed his mishap;
Till finding it useless to snivel and groan,
He serv’d and EJECTMENT once more on the Throne.
††** “Lord WM. Russell was executed in 1684, not on Tower-hill, the common place of execution for men of rank, but in Lincoln’s Inn Fields; and as he passed along the multitude imagined they beheld virtue and liberty sitting by his side”. When his implacable enemy, the tyrant James II., was on the point of being ejected , he called and extraordinary council, one of the members of which was the Earl of Bedford, the father of the murdered Lord Russell; and to him in his extremity the tyrant made earnest application saying, “My Lord, you are a good man, and have great influence; you can do much for me at this time”. The Earl replied, “I am an old man, and can do but little; but once I had a son”. The King felt the force of the appeal, and was struck dumb.
†† After the flight of James II, a great difficulty occurred as to the name by which that act should be designated, at last it was agreed to call it an abdication, but our author has hit upon the right word. That precious piece of
4 O dear! Johnny,
Radical Johnny,
Sad precedent, Johnny--- high up, gee ho!
Jonny prosper’d so well by his changing and chopping, Let us hope he has done with the system of cropping,
Or should he still stick to a custom so sinister, God send the next’scape goat, may be but a Minister!
Old bags, Johnny, Or Green bags, Johnny,
Are none of them precious--- high up, gee ho!
For the present, dear John, you’re contented, I hope, Secure from that ravenous monster the Pope, And no longer by fears of old Boney distrest,
Tho’ you’ve spent your last shilling, you’ve sav’d all the rest.
Fortunate Johnny, Flourishing Johnny,
Glorified Johnny--- high up, gee ho!
legitimacy which Mr. Fox, in his history, was just able to decide was not quite a monster, was got rid of by ejectment.
The reign of this all but monster is thus summed up by Mr. Fox, in his introductory chapter to the reign of James II. “Minds once thoroughly imbued with the love of what Sidney in his last moments emphatically called the good all cause; will not easily relinquish their principles, nor was the manner in which absolute power was exercised such as to reconcile to it, in practice those who had always been averse to it in speculation. The hatred of tyranny must, in such persons, have been exasperated by the experience of its effects, and their attachment to liberty proportionally confirmed. To them the state of their country must have been intolerable: to reflect upon the efforts of their fathers, once their pride and glory, and whom they themselves had followed with no unequal steps , and to see the results of all in the scenes that now presented themselves, must have filled their minds with sensations of the deepest regret, and feeling bordering at least on despondency. To us who have the opportunity of combining in our view of his period, not only the preceding but the subsequent transactions, the consideration of it may suggest reflections far different and speculations more consolatory. Indeed I know not that history can furnish a more forcible lesson against despondency, than by recording, that within a short time of those dismal days in which men of the greatest constancy despaired, and had a reason to do so, within five years from the death of Sidney arose the brightest era of freedom known to the annals of the country”
