The ballads classified as “History, True and Fabulous” in the first volume of Samuel Pepys’ collection span from 1613 to 1635. They can be subdivided as follows: historical events seen as direct signs from God, a few fable-like tales, some classical or legendary stories, and patriotic ballads. Most of the patriotic ballads do in fact praise English prowess, but a few lament English misfortunes at enemy hands. “A battell of Birds” (1621), “The lamentable Burning of the Citty of Corke” (1622), and “News from Argeir” (1623) exhibit many of the elements typical of those Pepys ballads relegated to this “history” section.¹ That is, they serve to show how the celestial, the natural, and the political commingle as equally relevant educational exempla. The first of these ballads sees a natural phenomenon as a sign from God for people to repent, the second claims that a fire is the fulfillment of this prophesy, and the third illustrates how natural and human events can be interpreted as supernatural signs of political import.

In “A battell of Birds,” the fact that starlings violently turn against one another is read as a sign that the human dwellers nearby will do the same unless they atone for their sins:

But such a battle nere was fought,
by silly birds which have not thought:
In doing ill, nor any mind,
to worke contrary to their kind,
but yet as nature gave them life,
to here they strangly fell at strife.

What now for trueth is publisht forth
Esteeme it as a newes of worth:
And by the wonder of their dayes,
Learne to leave off all wicked wayes,
For sure it is that God it sent,
That of our sinnes we should repent. (Pepys 1.70-71)  

Such interpretive allusiveness is often more important than the veracity of dates or other considerations in establishing evocative connections and messages.

For example, the ballad about the burning of the city of Corke, which occurred in 1622, mentions a battle of starlings in May of 1621 as having “prognosticated” this horrific event. Significantly, the other ballad about the bird fight lists this event as having occurred in September of 1621. Either the balladeers were careless or inventive with the dates, or starlings fight more often than we are led to believe. It seems more likely that the ballad writer of the 1622 piece about the burned city wanted to include the bird fight, and he approximated the dates, for these details do not seem to have been as important as the timely exploitation of current public interest. The ballad about the burning of the city of Corke, which was struck by lighting, sermonizes and sensationalizes:

Reade this, and they shall have just cause to feare,
Gods heavy hand on sinne reported heere:
Twas lately heard that Birds all of a feather,
Did strangely m[i]ete, and strangely fought together.

At Corke in Ireland, where with might and maine,
They fought together till those of them were slaine:
Their fight began and ended with such hate,
Some strange event it did P[rog]nosticate. (1.68-69r) 

Birds “of a feather” turning on each other parallels the events described in the fire, wherein father and mother abandon one another and their children to save their own lives.

If the “Battell of Birds” serves as an omen for the “Burning of the Citty,” then “News from Argeir” ties celestial signs to particular human dealings and political events all at once. It describes the voyage of an English fleet to Algiers, where the eclipse of a blood-red moon, allusive of the Muslim crescent moon, denotes God’s disapproval of the “Turks.” In turn, these “enemies” lavish the English with gifts to appease God’s wrath. Much in line with the sort of descriptions ballads indulge, the gifts are exotic, including leopards, monkeys, and even a hog’s head filled with wine. The English, seeing that this omen is interpreted in their favor by the enemy, opportunistically secure the release of Christian prisoners held captive in Algeria. Some time later, they engage more “Turks” in battle and are victorious. After a stop in Spain, they return to England.(They restock their ships and rest in Alicante and Málaga, Spain, ports which were often used by the English for trading purposes, especially during the reign of the Stuarts.)

Like the three ballads discussed above, most of the ballads in Pepys’ “History” category marshal forth powerful images that allusively further their aims at teaching or implying moral lessons. These lessons are achieved through sensational renderings of events, even if some pieces deviate from the usual treatment or themes. For example, “A proper new Ballad, intituled, The wandring Prince of Troy” (1630) chastises Aeneas and emphasizes his punishment in the afterlife as a result of his mistreatment of Dido. In “Cheapside’s Triumphs and Chyrones Crosses Lamentation” (1630), a church is personified and given voice. It asks to be refurbished and apostrophizes London to beautify it once again, a clear use of the ballad as a way to garner moral (and financial) support for an expensive project. It is well to remember that nearly if not all of the ballads in Pepys’ collection, in addition to their ostensibly pedagogical purposes, were also written in an entertaining manner so they would sell swiftly. The narrator of “News from Holland’s Leager” (1623) makes this clear: “ Now if my newes in / this song may content you, / Buy it and try it / and never repent you, / for your recreation/ in love I have pend it” (1.98-99). Teaching some sort of lesson seemed to sell provided it was entertaining, and this provision almost always took precedence over attempts at historical accuracy.

~ William Gahan

Works Cited

Pepys, Samuel. The Pepys Ballads: Facsimile Volume. Ed. W.G. Day. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1987.

1. The full titles are: 1) “A battle of Birds Most strangly fought in Ireland, upon the eight day of September last, 1621, where neere unto the Citty of Corke, by the river Lee, weare gathered together such a mutytude of Stares, or Starlings, as the like for number, was never seene in any age” (Pepys 1.70-71),  2) “The lamentable Burning of the Citty of Corke (in the Province of Munster in Ireland) by Lightning: which happened the Last of May, 1622. After the prodigious Battell of the Stares, which Fought most strangely over and neere that Cityy, the 12. and 14. of May, 1621” (1.68-69r), and 3) “Newes from Argeir, of the proceddings of our Royall Fleete since their departure from England, and what happened betweene them, and the Turkish Callies upon Christmas day last” (1.94-95v).