The Execution of Ballard, &c.
The history of the plot in which Ballard, Babbington, Tichbourne, and others, were engaged in 1586, is well known. The subsequent ballad, by the celebrated Thomas Deloney, (his initials T.D. being at the conclusion of it) was no doubt printed immediately after the execution of the “fourteen most wicked traitors,” on the 20th and 21st September. At the top of the broadside are woodcuts of fourteen heads, but they are not likenesses, but merely engravings which the printer happened to have in his possession, and which had been already used for Hill’s work on Physiognomy, and perhaps for other publications requiring illustrations.——1
A proper new Ballad, breefely declaring the Death and Execution of 14 most wicked Traitors, who suffered death in Lincolnes Inne Fielde, neere London: the 20 and 21 of September, 1586.
TO THE TUNE OF “WEEP, WEEP.”
Rejoyce in hart, good people all,
Sing praise to God on hye,
Which hath preserved us by his power
From traitors tiranny;
Which now have had their due desarts,
In London lately seen;
And Ballard was the first that died,
For treason to our Queene.
O praise the Lord with hart and minde,
Sing praise with voices cleare;
Seth traitorous crue, have had their due
To quaile their partener’s cheere.
Next Babington, that caitife vilde,
Was hanged for his hier;
His carcasse likewise quartered,
And hart cast in the fier.
Was ever seen such wicked troopes
Of traytors in this land,
Against the pretious woord of truthe,
And their good Queene to stand?
Oh praise, &c.
But heer beholde the rage of Rome,
The fruits of Popish plants;
Beholde and see their wicked woorks,
Which all good meaning wants:
For Savage also did receave
Like death for his desert,
Which in that wicked enterprise
Should then have doon his part.
O praise, &c.
O cursed catifes, void of grace,
Will nothing serve your turne,
But to behold your cuntries wrack,
In malice while you burne?
And Barnwell thou, which went to view
Her grace in each degree,
And how her life might be dispatcht,
Thy death we all did see.
O praise, &c.
Confounding shame fall to their share,
And hellish torments sting,
That to the Lords annointed shall
Devise so vile a thing.
O Techburne, what bewitched thee
To have such hate in store,
Against our good and gratious Queene,
That thou must dye therefore?
O praise, &c.
What gaine for traitors can returne,
If they their wish did win?
Or what preferment should they get,
By this their trecherous sinne?
Though forraine power love treason well,
The traitors they dispise,
And they the first that should sustaine
The smart of their devise
O praise, &c.
What cause had Tilney, traitor stout,
Or Abbington likewise,
Against the Lords annointed thus
Such mischeef to devise?
But that the Devill inticed them
Such wicked woorks to render;
For which these seven did suffer death,
The twentith of September.
O praise, &c.
Seven more the next day following
Were drawen from the Tower,
Which were of their confederates
To dye that instant hower:
The first of them was Salsburie,
And next to him was Dun,
Who did complaine most earnestly
Of proud young Babington.
O praise, &c.
Both lords and knights of hye renowne
He ment for to displace,
And likewise all the towers and townes
And cities for to race;
So likewise Jones did much complaine
Of his detested pride,
And shewed how lewdly he did live
Before the time he died.
O praise, &c.
Then Charnock was the next in place
To taste of bitter death;
And praying unto holy saints,
He left his vitall breath.
And in like maner Travers then
Did suffer in that place,
And fearfully he left his life,
With crossing brest and face.
O praise, &c.
Then Gage was stripped in his shirt,
Who up the lather went,
And sought for to excuse him selfe
Of treasons falce intent.
And Bellamie the last of all
Did suffer death that daye;
Unto which end God bring all such
As wish our Queenes decay.
O praise, &c.
O faulce, and foule disloyall men,
What person would suppose
That clothes of velvet and of silke
Should hide such mortall foes?
Or who would think such hidden hate
In men so fair in sight,
But that the Devill can turne him selfe
Into an angell bright.
O praise, &c.
But soveraigne Queene, have thou no care,
For God, which knoweth all,
Will still maintaine thy royall state,
And give thy foes a fall.
And for thy Grace thy subjects all
Will make their praiers still,
That never traitor in this land
May have his wicked will.
O praise, &c.
Whose glorious daies in England heere
The mighty God maintaine,
That long unto thy subjects joye
Thy Grace may rule and raigne.
And, Lord, we pray, for Christes sake,
That all thy secret foes
May come to naught, which seeke thy life
And Englands lasting woes.
O praise the Lord with hart & minde, &c.
John Ballard Preest.
Anthony Babington.
John Savage.
Robert Barnwell.
Chodicus Techburne.
Charles Tilney.
Edward Abbington.
Thomas Salsbury.
Henry Dun.
Edward Jhones.
John Travers.
John Charnock.
Robert Gage.
Harman Bellamy.
Finis. T.D.
Imprinted at London at the Long Shop adjoyning unto Saint Mildreds Churche in the Pultrie by Edward Allde.
Notes
1 Old Ballads, Edited by J. Payne Collier, Esq., F.S.A.—The Percy Society.