A new Ballad of the Protestant Joyner

A new Ballad of the Prote¥ant Joyner.
Or of Colledges Lamentation,
ƒince his Condemnation.
Tune of Tony, Or, How unhappy in love is Philander.

[1]

He Prote¥ant Joyner is carried
To Oxford to take his degree
And there it is ƒaid will be married
All under the Willow-green Tree.
For ƒince his ,
Jack Ketch has provided a Halter
For thoƒe that did blame us;
And went for to ¬am us:
Will find that the Bill was not Ignoramus.

                       [2]
He's ƒwell'd up with Treacherous Sedition,
And now of Rebellion is ƒick,
He wants the Fore-man his Phyƒitian
To find out ƒome Pollitick trick,
For he Good-man's in the Tower,
And now lies beyond the power
      Of Whig or of Shrieve,
      To give him Reprieve,
Or Counƒel him how himƒelf to Retrieve.

                       [3]
May now all the Preƒbiter Fa¢ion
Look ƒad at this Colledges fate,
Who was Ma¥er of Arts in Tranƒa¢ion,
To make Tony Head of the State:
Since Libell's accounted witty,
He publi¬ed throughout the City,
      To blow up the fire
      Of Ambitious deƒire
For which in a Halter he's now like t' expire.

                       [4]
The Judges were kind to the Priƒoner,
And granted what e're he deƒired,
He had Preƒbiter, Prie¥ and Tap¥er
To ƒpeak what e're he Required:
He had what e're he propounded,
Yet was by the witneƒs confounded,
      For the Prie¥ diƒappears,
      Through ƒco·, and through jeares,
& ¬runk out of the Court like a Rat without ears.

                       [5]
Twelve men of the be¥ of the County
Were choƒen to bring in the Fa¢,
They ƒcorn'd a Reward or a Bounty,
Since for God and King Charles they did A¢,
They brought him in guilty of Treaƒon,
For which all the Judges ¬ew'd reaƒon,
      Then after being Ca¥,
      His Sentence was pa¥,
For the Halter's the fir¥, & the Fire the la¥.

                       [6]
He now does begin to repent him,
And wi¬es he'd ne'r been a Fool,
But made uƒe of the Talent was lent him,
Not work'd with ƒo dangerous a tool:
So wretched a Sott ne'r man ƒaw,
He's cut to Death with his Hand-Saw,
      This, this is the fate,
      When fools to be great,
will venture their lives to be Members of State.

                       [7]
This Raƒcal who lived well in London
And could not be Planeing at home,
But is by his foolery undone,
And to Execution mu¥ come:
He thought to have been Head of the Colledg,
But that was beyond his knowledge,
      Thus fools who aƒpire,
      Will fall in the Mire,
And ¥ill do come ¬ort of what they deƒire.

                       [8]
God preƒerve Great Charles and his Councill,
And ƒee that to Sentence they bring,
All Traytors that do pronounce ill,
Or talk of ƒo Gracious a King:
May they all by their Plots be confounded,
Both Papi¥, Whigg, and Round-head,
      And bring them to ¬ame,
      Who ƒpeak ill of his name,
for he's our King that the world does proclaim.

Printed for J. Clark at the Golden Lyon in We¥ Smithfield.

According to C.M. Simpson, The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music, the tune
"Tony" is from a song by Thomas D'Urfey, "How unhappy is Phillis in love / Let
Oliver now be forgotten" (Simpson B202). The tune starts automatically
if your browser plays midi files (see configuration hints).

The page has been set with a modern reconstruction of late 17th-century typefaces.
To display these correctly, see the instructions on the main page,
Restoration Print Culture.

Textual Notes

"A New Ballad of the Protestant Joyner" is undated, but the narrative moment indicates it was
published in London on the occasion of the execution of Stephen College, which took place
at Oxford on 31 August 1681. The King's dissolution of the last of the Exclusion Parliaments
at Oxford in March was followed by a relentless persecution of the Whigs. Their political
leader Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury (the ballad's 'Tony'), had been
imprisoned in the Tower since July 2; not until November 24 was he freed, the
jury returning a verdict of ignoramus or insufficient evidence to convict.

College himself was freed by the London jury on an ignoramus verdict, but since he
was charged with sedition during the Oxford Parliament he could be tried again at Oxford,
where a royalist jury convicted him. In his gallows speech he voices not guilt and regret
but inflammatory suspicions of a Catholic conspiracy: "I do in that believe I am of
certainty murdered by the hands of the Papists as Sir Edm. Bury Godfrey himself
was, though the thing is not seen: These Witnesses certainly are mercenary men."

The original is at the Harvard University Library; a reproduction is available
on microfilm in Early English Books, 1641-1700, 1640: 4.
Indexed by Wing N568A and ESTC R39769.
For layout, see the facsimile.

References

"accomplishes faulter": presumably "accomplices falter," a suggestion that
his fellow Whigs were making fatal hesitations and failing in their projects, an
accurate enough description of the period.

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"Jack Ketch": the public hangman, responsible for executing the
convicted subversives and proverbial already in his time.

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"Ignoramus": juries returned this verdict to indicate insufficient evidence to convict.
London juries in this period often refused to give the government the
conviction they wanted. Cf. note on juries below.

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"he [i.e., his] Good-man's in the Tower": the Earl of Shaftesbury, political leader of
the Whigs, had been arrested and placed in the Tower of London on 2 July 1681.

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"Twelve men of the best of the County": Because of the political divisions in society,
jury selection was a highly contested process. At this period, the Whigs could still count on
London jurors to be favorable to their cause; they freed Shaftesbury at his trial in November.
Colledge was retried at Oxford, a royalist stronghold, after being acquitted in London. After
the failure to convict Shaftesbury, Charles II and his supporters gained control of the
London sheriffs through a manipulated election and thus gained the power
to pack the juries with their supporters.

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