The wonderful example was evidently successful throughout the seventeenth century, though its popularity was not sustained after 1700. It told the story of a gentleman who was providentially incinerated for denying God’s existence while trying to seduce his own sister. Although it was presented as a news-item from Scotland, all attempts to connect the ballad with a ‘real’ case have so far come to nothing. Amy Blakeway may therefore be right to describe it as a work of fiction. The earliest known edition was published in 1593-1603, and the setting of the action in Scotland may reflect increasing English interest in the northern kingdom during the years immediately before the Scottish king, James VI, acceded to the English throne as James I in 1603.
The ballad-makers do not use the term ‘atheist’, preferring to concentrate on Jasper Coningham’s ‘blasphemy’. Such terms were used very loosely in the early-modern period, and ‘atheist’ could denote anybody from a person of loose morals to a philosophical denier of God’s existence. Often, as in Coningham’s case, the two extremes were understood as intimately connected because individuals who denied the reality of God had no reason to resist a range of sinful pleasures.
Coningham is presented as a fairly typical example of the principled atheist, despite the surprising absence of this label. The ballad opens with his declaration of lust for his sister but it soon becomes clear that his conduct is driven or at least enabled by an intellectual rejection of religious orthodoxy. His main arguments are all regularly associated with atheists by the outraged authors who wrote books against them: Judgement Day is ‘a tale of Robin Hood’; heaven and hell are fables made up by scholars ‘to keepe poore fooles in feare’; God and the Devil are also fictions; and the earth was created by nature, not by God.
Coningham’s scoffing attitude, his sinful behaviour and his high social status were also identified regularly as characteristics of the ‘atheist in judgement’ (Anon, A brief Relation). A pronounced if misguided intellectual energy was felt to characterise principled atheists, while those of lower status might behave as if there were no God but were unlikely to justify their conduct in philosophical terms. Scholars with a taste for church court records do occasionally come across individuals of much lower social rank with beliefs that might have reflected intellectual atheism but the experience is certainly not common.
In 1608, the writer Jeremy Corderoy warned that atheists of all sorts had reached ‘so great a number’ that disaster loomed but he could only sustain the argument by suggesting that all who committed ‘haynous offences’ were technically atheists because they denied God in their deeds, even if they did not do so ‘in words’. Corderoy’s book was one of many publications in an intense early-modern debate about the dangers of atheism, and The wonderfull example needs to be heard and read within this context. Printed assaults upon atheism perhaps reflected Protestant anxiety over the manner in which the Reformation had divided Christianity, opening up the possibility of all sorts of unintended and profoundly undesirable consequences.
There was particular concern in 1593 – when reports about the alleged atheism of the playwright Christopher Marlowe were prepared – and it seems possible that this phase in the debate helps to explain the earliest known publication of the ballad in c. 1600. Before and after this date, many other early-modern texts addressed the danger, including heavyweight tomes by scholars (Beard, Fotherby and Wingfield) and more pithy representations of atheists in the ‘character’ literature of the period (Garden and Stephens). It is interesting that this extensive literature apparently pays no attention to the ballad, despite its clear success. Scholarly writers were perhaps reluctant to acknowledge so ‘low’ a form, even though it provided a powerful example and pursued an agenda that was very much in keeping with their own.
The success of the ballad suggests not only that a fascination with atheism ran right through society but also that many consumers appreciated a little ‘fire and brimstone’ in their cultural lives. The events of the ballad were the work of a harsh God: Coningham was burned alive, despite recanting his atheism in the flames, and a Christian burial was denied him. The graphic details of his sensational demise included a blue fire, the popping out of his eyes on strings, and the unbearable stench of his corpse. These were clearly details that could pull and please a crowd in a bustling market place.
Another striking feature is the absolute contrast between Coningham and his sister. This is established from the start and it sets the song up as an elemental clash between good and evil. Coningham’s saintly sister blurs the battle-lines only slightly by trying to rescue him from the obviously providential flames. In the ballad-makers’ words, she is bright, godly, wise, virtuous, fair, comely, sweet, mild, gentle, modest and Christian, while he is lewd, wicked, blasphemous, shameless, foul, damned, wretched, unworthy and cursed. One wonders what their parents made of it all.
Christopher Marsh
References
John Ashton, A century of ballads (1887), pp. 94-100.
Thomas Beard, The theatre of Gods judgements (1597).
Amy Blakeway, ‘”Newes from Scotland” in England, 1559-1602’, Huntington Library quarterly 79.4 (Winter, 2016), pp. 533-59.
Anon, A brief Relation of an Atheisticall creature, living at Lambert... To the tune of, Jesper Cunningame, or brave Lord Willoby (1649).
Broadside ballads from the Bodleian Library: http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/
Jeremy Corderoy, A warning for worldlings, or, A comfort to the godly, and a terror to the wicked (1608).
English Broadside Ballad Archive: https://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/
English Short Title Catalogue.
Martin Fotherby, Atheomastix (1622).
Alexander Garden, Characters and essayes (1625), pp. 36-37.
Michael Hunter, ‘The problem of “atheism” in early modern England’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, 35 (1985), pp. 135-57.
Martin Ingram, Church courts, sex and marriage in England, 1570-1640 (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 95-96.
Hyder E. Rollins, An analytical index to the ballad-entries (1557-1709) in the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London (1924; Hatboro, Pennsylvania, 1967), no. 1275.
Kenneth Sheppard, ‘Atheism, apostasy and the afterlives of Francis Spira in early modern England’, The seventeenth century 27.4 (2012), pp. 410-34.
John Stephens, Essayes and characters (1615), pp. 258-63.
Alexandra Walsham, Providence in early modern England (Oxford, 1999), p. 76.
John Wingfield, Atheisme close and open, anatomized (1634).
To the tune of ‘O neighbour Robert’ (standard name: Lord Willoughby)
The purpose of this section is to provide brief notes on the melody followed by detailed evidence relating to its career, paying particular attention to the ‘echoes’ (inter-song associations and connections) that may have been set up if it was nominated for the singing of more than one ballad. In the list presented in the ‘Songs and Summaries’ section below, we have endeavoured to include as many of the black-letter ballads that used the tune as possible, under any of its variant names. Titles from our chart of best-sellers are presented in bold type (these are also in colour when there is a link to the relevant ballad page on the website). It should be noted that it is extremely difficult to date many ballads precisely and the chronological order in which the songs are listed is therefore very approximate (we have drawn on previous attempts to date the ballads, making adjustments when additional evidence can be brought into play). In most cases, we list the earliest surviving edition of a ballad, though in many instances there may have been earlier versions, now lost.
Versions and variations
This tune apparently began life when it was used in an Elizabethan jig about the efforts of a man named Rowland to win back the love of a woman named Margaret. The title ‘O neighbour Robert’ came from its opening line, though ballad consumers subsequently knew the melody more frequently as ‘Lord Willoughby’, ‘Lord Willoughby’s march’ or ‘Jasper Coningham’. These new titles all derived from successful ballads, and the last came from the song under discussion here.
The tune was written down much more frequently than most ballad-melodies, attracting the attention of composers such as William Byrd and John Dowland, and we are therefore spoilt for choice. Our recording uses the lute setting by Dowland that appears in the manuscript associated with Thomas Bothby.
Very similar versions of the melody can be found in a wealth of other sources, both printed and manuscript, and the following are merely a selection (Simpson provides a fuller list): Thomas Robinson’s Schoole of Musicke (1603); Jane Pickering’s lute book; the Euing lute book; Richard Mynshall’s lute book; Will Forster’s virginals book; Robert Creighton’s virginals book; and the celebrated Fitzwilliam virginal book. The tune was clearly in vogue within educated English circles during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. It was equally fashionable on the continent, and Simpson identifies numerous versions from the Netherlands and Germany (an awareness of the tune can even be detected in Bach’s chorale, ‘Keinen hat Gott verlassen’, composed around 1731).
Echoes (an overview)
This tune was nominated regularly on broadside ballads in the seventeenth century, though its use on new songs tailed off from around 1680. The original jig implies an early association with romantic farce but the mood of the tune soon shifted. Within black-letter balladry, it was connected with two rather different themes (perhaps its stately mood and movement carried it away from the levity associated with the jig).
First, it brought to life texts that concentrated on war and peace. These appear to have begun with the military heroism of Lord Willoughby in the late sixteenth century (see also A famous Sea-fight) but they also included Joyfull Newes for England, which celebrated a peace treaty in 1654.
A second series of ballads concentrated on sin and/or divine intervention (mostly punitive). These also began in the late sixteenth century with The wonderfull example of God shewed upon Jasper Coningham, the hit song under consideration here (see also A Looking-glasse, For Murtherers and Blasphemers). Within this group, there were also ballads about sinners whose demise is not actually documented but may nevertheless be raised as a possibility by the tune’s developing resonances. A wonder beyond mans expectation was rather different in that providence operated to save good men rather than destroy sinners, but it is clear that the capacity of God to intervene directly in human affairs was commonly associated with the melody.
Given that the two series of songs appeared across the same time period, it seems likely that their thematic associations interacted so that the power of God inhabited the war-related ballads more forcefully than the texts alone might suggest.
The list presented below contains one obvious and interesting outlier, namely The Courteous CARMAN And the Amorous Maid, a bawdy song about a young man and a maiden having sex in the fields. It does not seem particularly likely that this was intended to recall the original Elizabethan jig - it was published almost one hundred years later - and we might therefore consider the possibility that the now heavyweight tune – resonant of warfare and divine punishment – was part of the joke (or perhaps the choice of tune was merely clumsy).
The songs are connected not only by their melody but also by a number of textual cross-references, only a few of which can be mentioned here. The wonderfull example and A Looking-glasse include verses with comparable openings: ‘Let all blasphemers,/ take warning by this thing’; and ‘let all murtherers/ be warned by this tale’. Several songs present verses with sixth lines that clearly echo one another: ‘as I doe understand’, ‘as you shall understand’, ‘as you may understand’, and so on.
There may also be a relationship between the following lines: ‘Is not hell prepared,/ with quenchles flames of fire’ (The wonderfull example) and ‘But the Wicked shall be tormented,/ in hells hot burning flame’ (Joyfull Newes for England). Across the series, there are several recycled rhymes including understand/land and God/rod. And two songs feature verses in which God targets the tongues of blasphemers as an example to us all:
‘Then from his mouth,/ his foule blasphemous tongue:/ In uglie manner,/ most pitiously it hung:/ And there away it rotted,/ in all the peoples sight:/ By lice and filthy vermin,/ it was consumed quite’ [The wonderfull example of God shewed upon Jasper Coningham]
‘Also his wicked/ prophane blasphemous toung,/ Which with vile swearing/ had done his Maker wrong,/ Out of his mouth now hangeth/ that every one may view/ How God rewards Blasphemers/ and giveth them their due’ [A Looking-glasse, For Murtherers and Blasphemers].
It seems likely that some of these songs were composed and consumed under the influence of others in the series.
[See 'Postscript', below, for additional notes on this melody].
Songs and Summaries
Lord Willoughby. OR, A true Relation of a Famous and Bloody Battel... To the Tune of, Lord Willoughby (composed c. 1590; F. Coles, 1624-80). Roxburghe 3.62-63; EBBA 30406. Politics – war, foreign affairs, Royalist; Gender – masculinity; Employment – sailors/soldiers; Bodies – nourishment, injury; Disability – physical; Death – warfare; Violence – between states; Emotions – joy, patriotism, wonder; Religion – prayer, charity, saints; Royalty – praise; Places – European. This celebrates a heroic victory achieved by Lord Willoughby and his 1500 men against 40,000 Spaniards in Flanders.
The wonderfull example of God shewed upon Jasper Coningham, a Gentleman borne in Scotland... To the tune of O neighbour Robert (Thomas Millington, 1593-1603). Euing 399, EBBA 32026. Religion – blasphemy, divine intervention, Christ/God, body/soul, heaven/hell; Family – siblings; Gender – sex, masculinity, femininity; Death – result of immorality; Emotions – fear, wonder; Environment – wonders, garden; Violence – divine; Bodies looks/physique, injury; Places – Scottish. An atheist attempts to seduce his godly sister and pays the ultimate price.
A Looking-glasse, For Murtherers and Blasphemers... To the Tune of Jasper Cunningh[am] (J. T., 1597-1626?). Pepys 1.232-33; EBBA 20106. Religion – blasphemy, divine intervention, sin/repentance; Crime – robbery/theft, murder; Death – unlawful killing, result of immorality; Violence – interpersonal. Emotions – wonder; Employment – crafts/trades; Environment – animals, weather; Bodies – looks/physique; Places – English. A gamekeeper takes the law into his own hands by killing a blasphemous poacher, so God freezes him in shooting position with his tongue hanging out (not surprisingly, we are all warned to take note and mend our lives).
A wonder beyond mans expectation, In the preservation of eight men in Greenland from one season to another... To the tune of Jasper Coningham (H. Gosson, c. 1632). Pepys 1.74-5; EBBA 20271. Employment – sailors/soldiers; Gender – masculinity; Nature – animals; Bodies – nourishment, clothing; Religion – divine intervention; News – sensational; Emotions – fear, wonder; Places – beyond Europe, travel; Gender – marriage. The tale of eight men who survived being stranded in Greenland and successfully found their way back to England.
A famous Sea-fight... To the Tune of Brave Lord Willoughby (Fr. Grove, 1639). Manchester Central Library Blackletter Ballads 2.36; EBBA 36210. Politics – foreign affairs, war; Death – warfare; Violence – at sea, between states; Employment – sailors/soldiers; Environment – sea; News – international; Places – European, English. This provides details of a fierce naval engagement between the Spanish and the Dutch (the surviving ballad is badly damaged).
A brief Relation of an Atheisticall creature, living at Lambert... To the tune of, Jesper Cunningame, or brave Lord Willoby (C. D., 1649). Manchester Central Library Blackletter Ballads 1.35; EBBA 36024. Religion – blasphemy, heaven/hell, Protestant nonconformity, Christ/God, Bible; Gender – marriage; Emotions – anxiety; Death – suicide; Economy – money; Bodies – injury; Politics – dometic; News – domestic; Places – English. A description of a vile atheist with some very peculiar plans, followed by a more general lament about the current proliferation of strange religious sects.
[Articles of agreement betwixt Prince Charles and the Parliament of Scotland... To the tune of, The Lord Willowbies March (A. B., c. 1650). Manchester Central Library Blackletter Ballads 2.18; EBBA 36090. A song with 13-line verses that cannot be sung to this tune].
Joyfull Newes for England, and all other Parts of Christendome... The Tune is, Lord Willoughby (F. Coles, J. Wright, Tho. Vere, and W. Gilbertson, 1655-58). British Library, Book of Fortune, C.20.f.14.(23.); EBBA 36947. News – international, political; Politics – celebration, foreign affairs,war; Economy – trade; Emotions – joy, patriotism; Employment – sailors/soldiers, professions; Religion – Christ/God, divine intervention, Judaism, Muslims; Society – friendship. This announces and celebrates the recent peace treaty between England , Holland and Denmark, also noting that God clearly favours the English nation with good food, brave soldiers and protection against all potential enemies.
The Wicked-mans Warning-peice, or, A looking-Glass for a lewd liver... Tune of, Jasper Conningham (F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clarke, 1675-80). Pepys 2.23; EBBA 20647. Religion – body/soul, Christ/God, divine intervention, heaven/hell, moral rules, sin/repentance, charity; Society – criticism, rich/poor; Death – general; Emotions – fear; Morality – general; Recreation - alcohol. A hard-hitting call to repentance, drawing attention to the many sins that prevail and the likelihood of divine vengeance.
The Courteous CARMAN And the Amorous Maid. OR, The Carman’s Whistle... To a New Tune, called, The Carman’s Whistle; or, Lord Willoughby’s March, &c. (F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger, 1680-81). Crawford 87; EBBA 32829. Gender – femininity, sex; Humour – bawdry; Environment – flowers/trees; Bodies – clothing, health/sickness; Emotions – longing, joy; Employment – crafts/trades; Recreation – music, walking. A young woman, moaning because she wants to lose her virginity, is overheard by a lusty carman, and with great enthusiasm he performs the necessary service.
Postscript
The Elizabethan jig for which the tune was used does not exist in an English original. It was, however, translated into German soon after its appearance, and an English re-translation of the text can be found in Charles Read Baskervill, The Elizabethan Jig And Related Song Drama. The tune does not appear to have been nominated regularly in songbooks nor on white-letter ballads. Duffin shows, however, that certain stage songs of the period may well have been intended for the melody.
Christopher Marsh
References
Charles Read Baskervill, The Elizabethan Jig And Related Song Drama (Chicago, 1929), pp. 220-22.
Thomas Bothby, lute book (c. 1590), Folger Library, Washington D. C., MS 1610.1, fo. 9v (transcription in Simpson).
Robert Creighton, virginal book, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, MS Conservatoire Rés. 1186, fo. 64v.
Ross W. Duffin, Some other note. The lost songs of English Renaissance comedy (Oxford, 2018), pp. 231-32 and 652-53.
Euing lute book (c. 1620-30), University of Glasgow Library, MS Euing 25, fo. 38.
The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, ed. J. A. Fuller Maitland and W. Barclay Squire, 2 vols (Leipzig, 1894-99), vol. 2, p. 190.
Will Forster, virginals book (c. 1624), British Library, R.M.24.d.3, fos. 13-14.
Richard Mynshall, lute book (c. 1597-99), fo. 1, private collection of Robert Spencer.
Jane Pickering, lute book (1616-50), British Library, MS Egerton 2046, fos. 25 and 33v.
Thomas Robinson, Schoole of Musicke (1603), K2v.
Claude Simpson, The British broadside ballads and its music (New Brunswick, 1966), pp. 467-71.
John M. Ward, ‘Apropos The British broadside ballad and its music’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 20.1 (Spring 1967), p. 57.
Back to contentsThe Punish’d Atheist, a ballad published some time after the Restoration (1660), was clearly a re-worked version of The wonderful example. The publisher was Josiah Blare, and we can probably assume that his intention was to capitalise on the success of the original by providing a closely-related alternative.
Blare was not one of the industry-dominating ‘ballad partners’ and he therefore did not have the right to publish The wonderful example. To solve this problem, he evidently commissioned a new song about an unnamed Scottish atheist who made a pass at his sister and then went up in flames. The venture was probably unsuccessful, for there is only one surviving copy of the ballad. The anonymous ballad-makers, working for Blare, used a different tune and different woodcuts but the similarities between the narratives are unmistakable. Recurring elements include: the wicked brother and the godly sister; the garden setting; the denial of heaven, hell, God and the Devil; the brimstone-blue fire; the attention paid to the fate of tongues and eyes; and the freakish stench of the corpse. The authors generally managed not to lift phrases directly from the earlier song, though the last verse follows its ancestor in opening with the words, ‘Let all Blasphemers’.
Christopher Marsh
Texts (in chronological order)
The wonderfull example of God shewed upon Jasper Coningham... To the tune of O neighbour Robert (c.1593-1603; multiple editions hereafter).
The Punish’d Atheist... Tune, Jealous Lover (J. Blare, 1682-1706). Pepys 2.51; EBBA 20675.
The wonderfull example of God shewed upon Jasper Coningham, a Gentleman borne in/ Scotland, who was of oppinion that there was neither God nor Divell, Heaven nor Hell.
To the tune of O neighbour Robert.
[Play each verse by clicking anywhere within its text]
a Scotchman lewd of life:
That long had lived,
unlawfull from his wife.
His name was Jasper Coningham,
as I doe understand:
whose dwelling was neer Aberdine,
a towne in faire Scotland.
which was both faire and bright:
Worshipfully wedded,
unto a wealthy knight.
Godly, wise and vertuous,
in every thing was she:
A fairer comely Lady,
in Scotland could not be.
such inward pangs did proove:
With his faire sister,
he greatly falles in love.
He watches time he woes her,
and shewes to her his minde:
And still he saith sweet sister:
be not to me unkinde.
in milde and gentle wise:
Unto her brother,
thus modestly replyes,
The Lord forbid deare brother,
I should consent at all,
To such a damned action,
to bring our soules in thrall.
prepar’d for hatefull sinne:
Is not God as righteous,
as he hath ever bin:
Is not hell prepared,
with quenchles flames of fire:
To give such wicked persons,
their due deserved hire.
her godly Christian talke:
Within the garden,
as they alone did walke,
Blasphemeously replied,
all shameles as he stood:
Saying she had declared,
a tale of Robin Hood.
faire sister then quoth he:
To talke of heavens glorie,
or of hels paine to me.
These are devised fables,
to keepe poore fooles in feare:
That were by wisemen written,
though no such things there were.
these things are nothing so:
No God nor divell is biding,
no heaven nor hell I know.
All things are wrought by Nature,
the earth, the aire, and skie:
There is no joy nor sorrow,
after that man dooth die.
while here I doe remaine:
I feare not Gods displeasure,
nor hels tormenting paine.
No sooner had he spoken,
this foule blasphemous thing:
But that a heavie judgement,
the Lord did on him bring.
whereas he did bide:
Sodainely a fire,
sprung up on every side.
Which round about enclosed,
this damned wretch that day:
Who roar’d and cri’d most greevously
but could not start away.
up to his knees did rise:
Burning blew like Brimstone,
in most outragious wise.
The Lady which beheld it,
ran crying in for ayde:
To plucke away her brother,
which in the fier staid.
nor hand that he could moove,
His armes hung dead beside him,
great paine that he did proove:
And now he bans and curses,
the day that he was borne:
And wishes that his carcase,
by divels might be torne.
quoth he there is a God:
That sore dooth plague me,
with his strong Iron rod.
O hide me from his presence,
his lookes are death to me:
Nothing but wrath and vengeance,
about him I doe see.
his eyes fell from his head,
And by the strings hung dangling,
below his chin starke dead.
See how the divels he said,
have pluckt my eyes out quite:
That alwayes were unworthy,
to view the heavens light.
his foule blasphemous tongue:
In uglie manner,
most pitiously it hung:
And there away it rotted,
in all the peoples sight:
By lice and filthy vermin,
it was consumed quite.
and shrikes that sounded hye:
two houres after,
this cursed man did lie:
And there at length he died,
and then the fire ceast:
His carcase stunk more filthilie,
then any carrion beast.
for to endure the smell:
Nor yet to come to burie hime,
as true report doth tell,
Untill he was consumed,
he lay above the ground:
the doores about the garden,
therefore was locked round.
take warning by this thing:
Least that Gods vengeance,
they do upon them bring:
And Lord grant all good Christians
his grace and godly feare,
they may thinke on the punishment,
that Coningham had here.
FINIS.
Imprinted at London for Thomas/ Millington, and are to be solde/ at his shop in Corne-/hill.
This ballad is included according to the criteria for List A (see Methodology). The evidence presented here is accurate, to the best of our knowledge, as of 1st January 2024.
Shirburn ballads: not included.
Appearances on Ballad Partners' lists: Pavier and partners, 1624 (as 'Jesper Coningham'); and Thackeray, 1689 ('Jasper Cunningham').
Other registrations with Stationers' Company: none.
No. of known editions c.1560-1711: 10
No. of extant copies: 10
New tune-titles generated: 'Jasper Coningham' (3 ballads).
Specially-commissioned woodcuts: none known.
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library databases: 6 references, with no evidence of later collection as a folk-song (Roud no. V3072).
POINTS: 0 + 20 + 0 + 20 + 10 + 6 + 0 + 0 = 56
This box will be used to highlight any new information on this song that might come to light after the launch of the website.
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