NEWGATE'S GARLAND:

Being a new Ballad, showing how Mr Jonathan Wild's throat was cut from ear to ear, with a penknife, by Mr Blake, alias Blueskin, the bold highwayman, as he stood at his trial in the Old Bailey, 1725.

TO THE TUNE OF THE CUTPURSE.*

[The history of Jonathan Wild, whose practices gave rise to the character of Peachum in the Beggar's Opera, is pretty well known. He was a thieftaker by profession, which he united with the seemingly inconsistent character of heading a band of thieves and robbers. He received their booty, paid them for it according to his own rates, and restored it to the proprietors when it benefited his purse or reputation to do so. He had even such influence over his banditti, that he could every now and then make a sacrifice to justice of any one who he suspected had run his race, or who had murmured against his authority. In such cases, Jonathan was both the person who apprehended, and whose evidence convicted his associate. But one Blake, or Blueskin, although he had been under Wild's tuition from a child, finding himself apprehended and condemned for house-breaking, and seeing his tutor in guilt the chief evidence against him, was filled at once with the feelings of indignation and despair, and clapping his hand suddenly under Jonathan's chin, in the presence of the Court, still sitting, cut a gash in his throat, with a folding-knife, which had nearly proved mortal. Jonathan Wild survived the wound, however, and being convicted under the statute for receiving money for recovery of stolen goods without apprehending the thieves, he, on 24th May 1725, suffered at the gallows, for which he had bred, and to which he had conducted so many victims.]

The well-known song in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, of which the burden runs :

Youth, youth, thou hadst better been starved by thy nurse,
Than live to be hanged for cutting a purse.

:

366

NEWGATE'S GARLAND.

I.

YE gallants of Newgate, whose fingers are nice
In diving in pockets, or cogging of dice;

Ye sharpers so rich, who can buy off the noose,
Ye honester poor rogues, who die in your shoes,
Attend and draw near,

Good news ye shall hear,

How Jonathan's throat was cut from ear to ear, How Blueskin's sharp penknife hath set you at ease, And ev'ry man round me may rob, if he please.

II.

When to the Old Bailey this Blueskin was led,
He held up his hand; his indictment was read;
Loud rattled his chains: near him Jonathan stood;
For full forty pounds was the price of his blood.
Then, hopeless of life,

He drew his penknife,

And made a sad widow of Jonathan's wife.
But forty pounds paid her, her grief shall appease,
And ev'ry man round me may rob, if he please.

Some say there are courtiers of highest renown, Who steal the king's gold, and leave him but a

Crown:

Some say there are peers and parliament men,
Who meet once a year to rob courtiers again.
Let them all take their swing,

To pillage the king,

And get a blue riband instead of a string.

Now Blueskin's sharp penknife hath set you at ease, And ev'ry man round me may rob, if he please.

IV.

Knaves, of old, to hide guilt by their cunning inventions,

Call'd briberies grants, and plain robberies pensions:
Physicians and lawyers (who take their degrees
To be learned rogues) call'd their pilfering fees.
Since this happy day

Now ev'ry man may

Rob (as safe as in office) upon the highway.
For Blueskin's sharp penknife hath set you at ease,
And ev'ry man round me may rob, if he please.

V.

Some cheat in the customs, some rob the excise:
But he who robs both is esteemed most wise.
Churchwardens too prudent to hazard the halter,
As yet only venture to steal from the altar.
But now, to get gold,

They may be more bold,

And rob on the highway since Jonathan's cold: For Blueskin's sharp penknife hath set you at ease, And ev'ry man round me may rob, if he please.

VI.

Some by public revenues, which pass'd thro' their hands,

Have purchas'd clean houses and bought dirty lands: Some to steal from a charity think it no sin,

Which at home (says the proverb) does always begin,

But if ever you be

Assign'd a trustee,

Treat not orphans like masters of the Chancery;

But take the highway, and more honestly seize; For ev'ry man round me may rob, if he please.

VII.

What a pother has here been with Wood and his brass,

Who would modestly make a few halfpennies pass !
The patent is good, and the precedent's old,
For Diomede changed his copper for gold:
But, if Ireland despise

The new halfpennies,

With more safety to rob on the road I advise :
For Blueskin's sharp penknife hath set you at ease,
And ev'ry man round me may rob, if he please.

STREPHON AND FLAVIA.

WITH ev'ry lady in the land
Soft Strephon kept a pother;
year he languish'd for one hand,
And next year for the other.

One

Yet, when his love the shepherd told
To Flavia fair and coy,
Reserv'd, demure, than snow more cold,
She scorn'd the gentle boy.

Late at a ball he own'd his pain,

She blush'd, and frown'd, and swore,

With all the marks of high disdain,
She'd never hear him more.

The swain persisted still to pray,
The nymph till to deny;

At last she vow'd she would not stay;
He swore she should not fly.

Enrag'd, she call'd her footmen straight,
And rush'd from out the room,
Drove to her lodging, lock'd the gate,
And lay with Ralph at home.

THE QUIDNUNCKIS:

A TALE OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF THE DUKE REGENT OF FRANCE.

How vain are mortal man's endeavours!
(Said, at Dame Elleot's, * Master Travers)
Good Orleans dead! in truth 'tis hard:

O!

may

all statesmen die prepar'd!

I do foresee (and for foreseeing
He equals any man in being)

The army

ne'er can be disbanded.
-I wish the king were safely landed.
Ah friends! great changes threat the land!
All France and England at a stand!

There's Meroweis-mark! strange work!
And there's the czar, and there's the Turk-
an Indian merchant by
Cut short the speech with this reply:

The pope

* Coffeehouse, near St James's.-H.

VOL. XIII.

A a